Human interaction was something Shula Nasser was more than happy to avoid. Hell, mutant interaction made her unhappy at the best of times, although that did depend largely on the mutant. Thus she spent most of her time alone, or at work, preferably both. It would seem very odd indeed then, to find her at a mall. However that was where she was that lovely spring day. Lovely being a very subjective term, however the weatherman had insisted. The reason for this little excursion was the lack of internet she was currently experiencing, which would turn into a fatal lack of internet if the team the company had sent to fix the issue weren't done by the time she got home. Shula certainly did not enjoy shopping in person, nor did she enjoy shopping in these crappy low end retailers. It was, however, necessary, for the time being. Not to mention the impressive price difference on the exact same products. It struck her momentarily that perhaps it was a better way to get some things, before realising that she made several million dollars a year and it really, REALLY didn't matter.

Such a dreadful place, full of humans, and mutants who see fit to tolerate that sort of scum.

It was certainly crowded in the mall, but Shula knew where to go, if she could only find it. An electronics store. She wished to upgrade her home computer system. More accurately, her monitors, although she recognised her system had been outdated the moment she had bought the parts, but as of a month ago they were the top tier in computer technology. She hardly used the power it offered however, with so little time to spare. There had been a huge surge in contracts lately which was making her job just that much harder, and video games paled in comparison to real life. Shula was thinking for this particular upgrade to finally have a multi screen system. She though three fifty inch screens would suffice. Shula had considered 3D but she disliked the glasses, not to mention how little use someone like her had for 3D. Perhaps she would pick up a computer game to see what the fuss was about while she was doing all this computer experimentation.

Ah, that appears to be an electronics store.

The mall was pretty much the last place that Amber expected to find herself or, for that matter, the last place she particularly wanted to be. There were simply too many people around in too tight quarters. People everywhere, people starting, people potentially judging her for her strange garb and her even stranger eyes. People that could potentially gang up, get angry and try to come after her and it took a significant effort of will not to simply turn into a flying lizard an hide in a dark corner until closing and then find some way to escape the horrible place. Only the repeated mantra in her head of 'I will no longer be the victim' allowed her to hold her ground.

So how had Amber come to be in such a distressing place to begin with? She really had no one to blame except for herself. Maybe after the day spent walking in the sunlight (image that, her walking in sunlight) with Mama not so long ago had caused her to get careless, but she had left the Sanctuary only a couple hours ago when the sky was still overcast. Overcast sky meant at least a good two or three hours before she really had to worry about her skin condition acting up and she wanted to take advantage of those few hours. Unfortunately, as the weather was sometimes want to do, it happened to change while she was far from Sanctuary, forcing her to flee somewhere inside. That inside place, unfortunately, happened to be the mall.

Things were not all bad for Amber, however. The good thing was that she had money, a fair bit of it in fact. She had left with the intent of shopping, after all, just not shopping in a mall. She always felt more comfortable going to all the little outdoor stores around, rather than in some giant metal and steel contraption. Clothing is what she had the intent of getting, however now that she was stuck in the mall she had an even better idea. Computers. In particular, upgrading her current computer. It wasn't a bad machine really, but she had had it for more than a year and what was the use of having a rich mutant father if she didn't get to indulge a little in his wealth now and then? With that thought in mind, she entered the electronics shop, black eyes roving the shelves searching for what she wanted.

Shula, upon entering the store, was engulfed by the smell of what had to be burning plastic. Having never entered an electronics store she assumed this smell to be normal, given the amount of electronic devices in use. Seeing no smoke also helped to indicate it was not in fact on fire. Given the quality of most of the premade machines however, she would not have been surprised to find the whole place aflame.

This is why I do not come to these places.

Spotting the television section (because using actual monitors was for chumps) Shula strode briskly towards it before a man wearing the most horrendously coloured shirt cut her off. "Can I help you miss?" Oh, he clearly was an employee, so the crime against good taste he was wearing was clearly a uniform. Shula decided to let him live given the location. If she was hones with herself she really had no choice, but she had to feel in control.

"I'm looking to buy three fifty inch LED Televisions, I would request that you show me only your finest quality items, as I am not a fool a will not be treated as such." Shula was not happyface at the man, whose own smile seemed to falter momentarily. "Of course Ma'am, right this way."

As he walked away, Shula feeling rather unhappy about being led away like a dog, she noticed the man give a suspicious glance toward a series of shelves. Following his gaze her eyes fell upon a woman in what looked to be Muslim garb. This made her anger with the insignificant man she was being served by at least double. Intolerant fool. Closer inspection however revealed that perhaps his intolerance was not of fait, but of genes, the woman appeared to have completely black eyes.

This scumbag should be put to death.

Positively seething with rage Shula suppressed the urge to kill the man then and there once more as he very obviously attempted to avoid the woman as much as possible in his route, however Shula kept walking along the same path they had initially started upon, as she could already see where the intolerant shop clerk was taking her. She passed within a metre of the other mutant, who appeared to be browsing the shelves, as if to make a very clear point to the rat bag attending to her.

Arriving at the audio visual section a good five seconds ahead of the man serving her Shula waited for him to turn up. When he did, he indicated to the television not three from where she stood. "That is our highest quality set with the specifications you gave Ma'am" Shula fixed the man with her best feigned smile, letting the rage show in her eyes (which she was well practised at) "Thank you, that will be all the assistance I require from you."

Amber was no computer expert by any stretch, but she knew enough to know what she wanted in a computer, or at least enough to know which questions she should ask in order to get what she wanted. There was quite a selection of computer related things in the store, which was a good thing. There was a distinct lack of actual help in choosing what she wanted to purchase, which was not such a good thing.

Amber didn't initially realize that she was being shunned by the sales representatives. After all, the store was pretty busy and there were other customers that were there before hand. As the minutes ticked by, however, the intuition began to form that that was exactly what was happening. No one was coming into her general area of the store, no one was even looking in her direction.

In a moment of frustration, Amber finally had enough and tried to flag one of the sales people down, waving her hand and trying to get the nearest one's attention. Far from coming to assist her, however, he pointedly turned his back, pretending not to notice. By now she realized she was starting to attract the attention of some of the other patrons of the establishment so she put her hand down in embarrassment, wanting to curl into a little ball and disappear.

Why should it be that simply because she was a mutant that people would refuse to help her? Why should her black eyes be the difference between being treated fairly and being treated like some diseased plague victim? For a moment, all Amber wanted to do was shift and tear into someone, show to all the world just how much of a bad idea it truly was to treat her like a thing rather than a person. She didn't however, because in her heart she was still a coward running away from confrontation.