Koga was out on the town, and while he was prepared for trouble if he should come across it, He wasn't looking for it. not tonight. Tonight he was contemplating life. He was taking time for himself.

The mutant walked quietly and calmly in the after noon sun, The parks in the city were the closest he could come to communing with nature in the city, somehow conjuring up a forest or something in the dangerroom just didn't feel like it was right. he could convince his eyes and body, but never his mind. And thus he made his way about the green scape.

He started up a steady jog. in his concentration on nature and other distracting lines of thoughts like girls and kidnappings, he lost track of his ability to blend in with his surrounding and simply let himself change as he went.

Dahlia always went outside on the sunny days. There was just no way to avoid it. Being out in the sun just felt too good. So if she was all orange, yellow, and green it was totally understandable because the sun just made her happy! Parks were the best of course. Parks had trees and trees were great for climbing. Sure if there were enough holds Dahlia could scale a building easily but trees were more fun and felt much more natural. So if a few of the joggers were startled by a large lizard tail dangling from a branch or by catching a glimpse of her multifocal eyes then it was a small price to pay. Dahlia just thought of it as a wonderful prank and moved on.

As time slipped onward Dahlia's focus went here and there. So when a certain jogger came within sight of her tree she wasn't paying attention to the path below. In fact, she was lounging on a low hanging branch in the sunlight and staring at a butterfly that seemed as intrigued by her as she was it. Far too intrigued to pay attention to where any pesky extra appendages such as tails might be. So Dahlia really wasn't aware that said tail was once again hanging right in the middle of the path, curled in a loose spiral at the end.

When jogging in the park one really should watch where they are going, normally this pertains to the ground in front of you more than it would a low hanging branch or tail for that matter. Koga’s green and grey blended face smacked into an orange and yellow tail and sent him to the ground effective as a surprise clothesline might.

He looked up dazed and pain and disorientation slowly turned into wonder. The biggest chameleon he had ever seen was above him…briefly he wondered how hard he hit the ground, was he literally knocked silly. As his mind slowly but surely made its way to the logical conclusion he sat up. he dusted the dirt from his knees and ran his hands down his sides to sooth the ache of slapping the ground to save his rump.

“Ssorry about that, I wassn’t watching where I wass going.” He spoke calmly to the mutant above him, hopefully this wouldn't mean trouble.

It was a very pretty butterfly and Ouch! Dahlia's hands and feet swiftly found purchase on her tree branch to stop herself from tumbling off of it. Someone had run into her tail! Then again that was sorta her fault for not minding the tricky thing. Curling the appendage in question in front of her Dahlia poked at it to make sure nothing was out of place before dropping off her tree branch to look at the guy that had bumped into her tail.

And boy was he something!

Meeting another lizard type was amazing! Dahlia couldn't help it, she gaped a little. Some violet crept into her patterns as she did so.

"Oh no, it was my fault. I should have been minding my tail."

It was still an odd thing to have to say, even after more than a month as a chameleon.

"So, um, it's nice to meet you! I'm Dahlia!"

There was no way she'd let an opportunity to talk to another lizard person jog by! It was just too cool meeting another freak of her particular variety.

“I Guesss, we will both jusst have to be at fault.” He smiled up at his fellow reptile.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Ryuichi Koga, Mosst people jusst call me Koga.”

Koga pushed himself forward and rolled to his feet and leaned in a little bit to get a closer look at her pattern and then copied it onto his skin with a grin orange yellow green and violet.

“I don’t mean to be forward, but I know life in the city can be hard for younger mutants, are you holding up ok? ” He hurried along just to get it out. “I sstay at a place called Xavier’ss, if you ever need ssomewhere to go, I can give you the addresss.”Koga couldn’t help but make sure everyone had a fair shot the place had saved him and given him a family. It would be nice to have another color shifting reptile around.

Dahlia smiled. She could do both of them being to blame for it. It was hard to be angry when she was meeting such an cool mutant anyway! He had a funny name, Ryuichi Koga. It sounded Asian but Dahlia wasn't going to saying anything.

"So which do you prefer? Ryuichi or Koga?"

She blinked as one eye swiveled to check out the area around her. With her difficult hearing it was easier to keep one eye on things around her than it was to rely on her ears. The eye quickly snapped back to her new reptilian buddy as he copied her colors and she grinned widely. Of course he followed it up with a comment about that Xavier's place and wondering if she was ok. Her colors dulled and shifted more toward blue for a few moments before returning to the bright combination that he'd copied.

"I'm ok. I have a place to stay now."

Of course the Sanctuary wasn't quite what she'd pictured when Kaitlyn had brought her there but it was a safe place to sleep and eat at least.

But it didn't have another color shifting lizard person either. Or a really nice gargoyle girl.

Ryuichi looked sincerely puzzled. Which did he prefer…did he have a preference about which he liked better. He typically knew his views on most things ahead of time, predetermined the order of his favorites on most topics…but his own name had not considered.

‘I ssupposse,” He hesitated as his mind bounced the names back and forth, Koga was his family name, passed down from his grandfather to his father. But Ryuichi was translated literally from Son of the Dragon. Both were pretty significant. But after a moment’s consideration he nodded to himself and spoke. “I prefer Koga.”

“Ok, Cool. I jusst had to make ssure.” He paused and looked up at the tree. “ There are some great boulders a bit further up the path that are amazing for sunbathing.’ He never could make himself admit the more appropriate term was basking.

He wasn't sure she would even want to hang out, but it wasn't all the time that you had an opportunity to hang out with someone with as close of a skill set as you.

Dahlia smiled as best she could without seeming creepy, yet again. Koga was a good name. It was short and easy to say, even for her.

"Koga it is then!"

It was really nice of him to try and make sure she had a place to stay. Maybe he liked helping out his fellow freaks? Some of her scales took on a rosy hue for a moment or two no matter what his reason. It was just plain nice of him after all.

"Thanks. It is nice being off the street!"

However the most exciting thing he'd said in that whole last sentence had her perking up visibly and turning bright orange. A good place to lounge in the sun was a great find and he was sharing that with her?! That was awesome.

"Yay! You wanna go?!"

The chance to spend more time with a fellow lizard freak and get in some quality sun time? Yes please!

Koga grinned broadly as he realized that he needed to know more people that knew how to appreciate a hot piece of rock.

"Of course, I've been there." Breifly but he had gone through some very rough situaitons in that small window of his life.


"Yeah I do! Come on!' he Took off in the general direction of the boulder, they would be there in moments.

Kog was going to make sure she could keep up but running with four legs could out pace him relatively easily he suspected. the path meandered in curvy lines that normally would annoy him in their lack of function. but for the moment amused him more than he realized they could.

And there it was, a huge rounded boulder, it was perfect because for most others it would be hard to scale as the sides were smooth and vertical, the two of them however would make short work and call king of the mountain momentarily.

"there it iss!" he pointed excitedly. And proceeded to climb the closest side.

He'd been there? Wow, another lizard that knew what surviving alone was like! What were the odds?! Regardless of that though Koga was going to lead the way to the rock! Dahlia was thrilled at the prospect of a good sun bath. She always felt best when she had plenty of sunlight. It didn't take them long to reach the sunlit boulder. Koga had been right. It was the perfect place to sun. The rock would be nice and warm and it looked like the sun would shine on that particular rock for most of the day. She grinned happily before remembering the dislike of that facial expression and proceeded to scramble up the rock right beside Koga. Once she reached the top she found a good place to sprawl and started soaking up rays.

"Oh this is nice! Thank you for showing it to me Koga!"

Now Dahlia knew just the place to go in this part of town for some good sun. That was priceless to her. The sun and her happiness made it difficult to censor her speech for things she normally wouldn't tell people. So her next words were maybe not what she would have normally said.

"It's hard to find any place this nice to sun near the Sanctuary. Then again maybe I just haven't found the right spots yet."

Dahlia stretched and yawned, thinking nothing of the fact that she'd just told her fellow lizard freak where she was living. Her colors brightened considerably into swirls of bright yellow, green, and blue as the sun just made her feel good.

~~~"Oh this is nice! Thank you for showing it to me Koga!"

“Abssolutely. Like I ssaid, I’m happy to have ssomeone to sshare it with.” He slide his hoody off and laid on the rock in his tank top. His stomach soaked up the heat that had already been pouring into the rock as his back drank the rays that were meant for the boulder.

~~~"It's hard to find any place this nice to sun near the Sanctuary. Then again maybe I just haven't found the right spots yet."

He lifted himself to his elbows to observe her. She didn’t strike him as overtly evil….perhaps she was just a lost soul that was hiding out where those that could and would take extreme measures to protect her. he couldn’t respect it, but he could understand it. but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about it.
“Watch your back at the ssanctuary, I know they take in mutantss the ssame way Xavier’ss doess. But there are some major criminals staying there too.” He paused. “Ssorry, I don’t mean to jusst lay it out there like that, but I can’t , not ssay it, in casse you are unaware.” And where he might have notmally kept preaching the way of lawful good citizens. He simply yawned and stretched. The sun was just soooo soothing. Too soothing to gripe, She heard the important part if she a wanted out she knew he could find her a place, so that was that.