Tasean walked slowly on the path of Central Park, reflecting on everything. He had been gone from the City for a little while, having to go back home to North Carolina to take care of some things, and check on the family estate. Going back home had been a thrill for him, seeing familiar faces and places, but it was quite bittersweet, as it was his first time home since he moved away after his parent's deaths. Things really hadn't changed that much back home, and they really hadn't changed much in New York either. The Mutant Social Services agency that Tasean was sure would've been such a big hit, was barely getting a trickle of clientele or support. The money that he had gotten from those Order people had helped, but he hadn't seen or heard from them, lately, partially due to his own seclusion. He hadn't spoken to Andrew since that night, and that was something he regretted as well. Not that night, that part was great, but not having seen his first, and really only friend in New York.

"Well, you put yourself in this situation. Shoulda just stayed home. New York life may not be for you, and Yankees are crazy anyway" Tasean said to himself as he kicked at some fallen leaves and continued walking deep in thought.

Ooc: Hope it's okay if I hop in I see this thread hasn't had anyone in for a while. I thought it would be cool for the 2 light manipulators to meet!
IC:

Today Lumen wasn't running. No today, in this curiously warmer than usual December weather Lumen was trying Yoga. Or maybe Yoga was trying Lumen? Either way, yoga seemed to like her about as much as running. At least it was unseasonably warm and she was managing to pull off a downward dog without too much trouble.

After a few more poses she decided to stop for a break. She had found herself a piece of unattended concrete for the poses (dryer than the grass) but she wasn't about to sit there for long. She had her sites set on a nice, dry, vacant park bench just across the park. She popped her ipod earbuds in.

Scooping up her belongings and putting them in her backpack Lumen broke into a steady even jog in the general direction of the bench. She wasn't in a hurry to get there. Despite her hate of this new yoga routine it was certainly a much better warm up than her usual stretching. None of her joints ached.

Deep in reflection Lumen was caught off guard when her phone buzzed. She took her eyes off the prize for just a second to check it and by the time she looked up again the bench was occupied. "Ah damn". She turned on her heels to try and head back to the concrete spot when she smacked into someone. That's what she got for keeping her earbuds in when she should have been paying attention. "I'm so sorry." she said backing up to see a man about her height and maybe just a few years younger. He looked deep in thought too, and not very happy. "Ya'll right mate?" she asked giving him a grab on the shoulder.

It wasn't like her to be so friendly with a stranger but she felt like a jerk for ramming into him. Politeness won over caution. Just for now.

The initial shock of being bumped into didn't immediately bring Tasean out of his walking meditation. Instead it was that voice. Secretly Tasean loved all things foreign, and loved accents more than anything, Irish being one of his top three. His eyes focused on the here and now, as he looked at the woman who had just asked him was he okay. She was nice looking, even though he wasn't attracted to women, he could still appreciate the female form, and hers was nice. Her hair is what really drew his attention, it gave her an almost otherworldly look. "How these city boys must go crazy for that hair" he thought to himself.

"I'm ok, contemplating the reason for the cosmos and what not." he said, a small grin trying to take over his sullen look. "Sorry for bumping into you, shoulda been paying attention" Tasean added, not really sure whose fault it was, but not caring enough to press the issue either.

He had a nice voice, a soft, kind voice. He looked like a sincere person too. Lumen prided herself on being able to make quick observations and judgement of people. Her first impressions were usually always on dead on. They had to be in her field. So maybe stopping to talk a little wouldn't hurt. "Nah it's alright." she smiled. "Pretty sure It was my fault. New to the city. still trying to get the lay of the land" she spread her hands out for emphasis.

"It's much greener than I was expecting." she grinned. "I thought you New Yorkers were suppose to have a whole bunch of snow by now. Are you from here?" she asked.

Even though Lumen was more of a keep to herself person she knew she wouldn't survive in her field or this new place if she didn't start meeting people and making connections. Better to start with the guy who didn't give her any bad vibes right?

Tasean smiled, a mock look of surprise on his face. "Me a Yankee! God no! I'm a southern boy from North Carolina, and proud of it" Tasean exclaimed. His parents were probably turning in their graves now, because someone mistook their son for a northerner.

"This is my first winter here, so I'm in the same boat as you. I will admit, most of us southerners thank that as soon as November comes, everything up north is buried in eight feet of snow." he admitted. North Carolina got snow from time to time, but nothing like what the northern states got. "Speaking of being from the South, let me introduce myself to you, as a proper southern gentlemen should. My name is Tasean." he informed her, before giving her a flourishing bow.

Ah. So that was where the slight southern drawl in his voice came from. She should have deduced as much but there were so many different people here you never knew who was born and raised. She grinned as he bowed then stuck out her hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you Tasean. My name is Lumen." she giggled glad to see him being so friendly. Maybe she could pick up his day a little. It would be nice to have a friend in this city anyway and even better if they were coming into it like her too. He'd be able to relate to some of the culture shock she was experiencing. "Im from Ireland, we get snow but I guess I thought there'd be 8 feet here or something too." she grinned. "Moved here for..." she tumbled for a second. She didn't want to lie, but she didn't want to give too much away either. "work." she finished. True enough. "What about you?"

Tasean took the offered hand and shook it. "I moved here not too long after my parents died. Couldn't stay home with no one there but me. So now I'm here in the big City, going to school and running the Mutant Social Services Agency." he told Lumen.

He didn't know if she had even heard of the agency, or the riot that had happened at it's opening, but he wanted to at least let her know who he was. Some people had stopped associating with him when they found it he was a mutant, many more had stopped when he started the agency, and basically the rest disappeared after the riot. Right now Tasean had about as many friends as he had when he first moved here, and he hadn't talked to them since he had come back. Being social by nature, it was killing Tasean to be alone so often, but he wanted to make sure Lumen knew exactly who and what he was. If she decided to end the conversation and walk away, so be it.

Now that was interesting "...a mutant social services agency?" she thought on it for a moment. "I suppose you're a mutant then." she said it with no emotion here or there. Just a statement. Many people wouldn't be so bold as to give away information like that but if he was running an agency his mutation was probably no secret. "Oh hey, the bench opened up!" she waved him over inviting him to sit with her a while now that it was free.

"Here." she took a Thermos of hot chocolate out of her bag and unscrewed the top, she poured some for herself but passed him the thermos. "Keep yourself warm." she smiled. Lumen was a fan of hot chocolate. "So tell me Tasean, what sort of services does your agency provide. I happen to be a mutant myself."

Tasean looked at Lumen with genuine surprise on his face as he sat down on the bench. This was the second time he had randomly met someone in this park, and both times both people turned out to be mutants. First Andrew and now Lumen. Of course the kind of things that Tasean did with Andrew he couldn't do with Lumen, but she seemed nice enough, so maybe a new friendship could develop.

"Well, I do everything a normal social and human services department would do, just specifically for mutants" he informed her. "We help with housing, job placement, counseling, food, education, health, anything you can think of, we find people who are willing to help out mutants, and link them up with mutants in need."

Since coming to the City, Tasean had discovered that his services were desperately needed, if only he could get the word out more, he was sure more mutant clients would come.

"I've always wanted to be a social worker, it's in my nature. But when I came up here to the City and really started embracing who I am, and meeting others like me, I found that there is a need for my type of service." Tasean said, looking into the distance, thinking about how many mutants he had met who were homeless and in bad situations. Simply because they couldn't, or wouldn't, hide their mutation.

Lumen listened as he explained his work, blowing the steam from the very hot hot chocolate. "I suppose it would be a growing field." she commented rooting around in her bag for one of her cards. "Why don't you give me your card and I'll give you mine." she passed hers to him. "Im a private investigator, moved over on a Visa from Ireland for a bit. Im investigating all the missing children." she took a sip.

"I think you'd be a good contact to have. I'm good at finding people and no doubt while trying to find these kids I'll find some others. It's good to let them know their are choices and opportunity out there. So many teens take to the streets instead of learning more about their powers and integrating into society." she was saying the words but not entirely sure of herself that she felt them. On the outside Lumen played the role of the balanced critical thinker but on the inside she was always full of turmoil over her feelings of mutants. "Maybe you can give me a ring if you hear anything about missing mutant kids" Despite being a mutant herself she was quite afraid of others and mutations freaked her out in general. It was just too hard not to think about the mutants who took her brother. But with that in mind she knew she'd feel much better around Tasean if she knew what his mutation was his mutation was.

"So, Tasean, you're not blue, there's no horn coming out of your head. Don't tell me your mutation is being ridiculously polite and southern?" she grinned.

Tasean took Lumen's card and placed it on the inside of his coat pocket, before he grabbed one of his own business cards from his wallet. "I met a guy, Jorge, he's a police officer with the Mutant Division. I helped him out with a case a while back, so I'll see if he's heard anything. I'm just getting back to the city myself, so I haven't heard anything about missing mutant kids, but I'll definitely keep my ears open now." he told her as he handing over the business card.

The light riding mutant laughed as the platinum haired Lumen asked him about his mutation. "The way some of these city folks act, you'd think that class was a mutation, but no, that's just a good southern upbringing" he said. "No, my mutation, well it's kind of hard to explain, I'm no scientist so I don't know all the big words for it. Basically, it has something to do with my brain waves and light waves. Somehow I can sync up my brain waves with light waves to expand my sight." Tasean informed her, struggling to find the words to explain his mutation. "Not just my sight, like my mind really. It's like I can be sitting here, and I can see stuff, perfectly, that's far off. Not like having good eyesight, or looking through binoculars, but as if I'm right there. I actually see better that way, because it's just my mind and the light, no eyes to get in the way. Everything is brighter and more vivid. Anywhere there is enough light, I can send my mind, and get a clear image of whatever it is I'm looking at."

Tasean turned to look at Lumen, grinning sheepishly. "And I probably just confused you ten ways from Sunday huh?"

"Ah Detective Jorge, I've met him too. He's kinda like the *cough* handsome *cough* face of the mutant division eh?" she laughed. "He's really into this case." she agreed. "it's good then that we all know each other."

She listened to him explain his mutation and couldn't help it when a smile started to form. No, he wasn't dangerous physically but Tasean had the mutation makings of an excellent PI from his description. "Well that's something." she commented. "The science of it all is quite confusing, for any mutation. For myself I went years thinking I was telepathic." she pointed to her eyes that glowed for half a second while she focused on the energy. "...you know, telepathic with strange glowy eyes" she chimed. "But... one day my mom was helping me try to focus on that energy and relax a little with it so I'd stop getting headaches... and suddenly you get..." she closed her eyes for a moment, took a breath, then felt the heat move throughout her body. "a walking light house!" her skin was now glowing. Just a little. Just enough to make her point and hopefully not enough to make anyone notice.

"So it was light manipulation all along and it doesn't surprise me one bit that you're manipulating it on a wave level. I've spent countless hours researching it. Scientists believe light works on more than one plane and in more than one way. Like a substance as opposed to the result of an energy I guess. They're having trouble proving the theory but really I think you and I are walking proof. Just excuse me though if I don't go flagging down a scientist for experiments." she winked at him.

Tasean's eyes widened only slightly in surprise when Lumen's eyes and then her entire body began to briefly glow. After meeting Gina, the gargoyle-esque girl, Aura the warrior princess with the pink energy stuff, and the other mutants he had seen in passing at Xaviers and the Sanctuary, nothing really caught Tasean off guard anymore. Still it was a nice mutation. How many kids in their younger years didn't imagine being able to glow in the dark.

He listened as Lumen described what some scientist were theorizing about light, and nodded saying. "Makes sense to me, but you are definitely right. I won't be volunteering to be a mutant lab rat anytime soon"he smiled. "What a coincidence though, that we both manipulate light, in one way or another." Ever the jokester Tasean's eyes got wide, as he turned slowly to look at Lumen, a look of mock wonder on his face.

"O M G!" he exclaimed. "You're my mutant twin!"

Lumen gave a big grin. "I dont usually tell people much about my mutation," she admitted. "But it is kinda nice to know there's someone else out there who's dealing with the same thing. I'm glad to have met you Tasean. I think we'll cross paths again, I can only hope it's not for anything sad." she wasn't trying to be a downer, just realistic. If she was finding missing kids sooner or later they'd end up with Tasean trying to get them back into the system. Getting jobs, rehab, maybe foster homes. Who knew?

She passed him one of her business cards it just has her name, phone number, and email on it. "Here. Give me a call if you think you ever need my help." she stood up and started to stretch. "Ive got a whole big day ahead of me, but it's really nice to meet you"

Tasean stood up as well, taking his cellphone out of pants pocket and checking the time. Lumen mentioning missing mutant kids had gotten his gears to turning, and he wanted to get to the agency office to check the system, see exactly what information was out there, and how he could help.

"Yes it was definitely nice to meet you as well Lumen" he said as he gave her yet another bow.

Tasean stood straight up again and started to dial some numbers, preparing to call the security of the building the agency was housed in, once he was a respectable distance from Lumen. He had been gone for a little while, and he had no idea what the state of affairs was in that office, and he wanted no surprises. "I will definitely give you a ring if I get any info that I think you might find interesting."