Nell took a deep breath, the familiar enough sounds of cooking managing to keep her calm. She nodded silently at Sonnet's advice, hypocritical though it may be given the situation, she understood the basic intent. There certainly were places in the world metas had it harder than here, but life in New York was hard enough that it was safer to not trust people in general. Even before the event she'd needed a shell to hide in and shield her from others, a way out of the confines of her own skin, now she had those but it hadn't made anything a bit better.

Shaking her head at Sonnet's question Nell said "No, I didn't really have any before Central, even before the event, but it's gotten worse since then. My appearance earns the ire of a good half of society, my name the rest" she shrugs. Trying to be conversational and trying to keep from breaking down right there and then, Nell asked "And you? Are you close to anybody?"

Nell sat down in one of the chairs closer to the kitchen slowly, eyes still darting about out of habit, soaking in the room as if she were worried it might have contained a bear hidden somewhere. There of course were no bears nor other immediate dangers to be found, so she managed to get ahold of herself enough to slightly relax. Sonnet might have removed it from view but Nell had noticed the identical second duffel bag earlier, so it did seem the woman had a close connection to the men's behavior, but really it wasn't of concern to her- if she hadn't been there they almost certainly would have found some other carrier of a plain black duffel bag to harass. Also, an obvious meta in New York had to be used to death threats and it was only a matter of time before somebody followed up, so her getting caught up in this or not, somebody would have been targeted by those men and she'd almost certainly be target of violence eventually.

Calmed down just a bit, Nell watched Sonnet cooking, biting her lip at the question. "I'm from here, well I lived my first nine years in Rochester, but I've lived here since then. I go to a boarding school pretty far away though, and my parents are supposed to have me back for the holidays" she said in a tone that had something of an undercurrent of 'they'd rather I stayed out, it's just not allowed'. Her nervousness about the subject also could be made clear in the length of the sentence, as most of what Nell said was very short and to-the-point. Nell was after all still the same girl that hadn't even been able to talk much to the two other metahumans in her previous overcrowded public school because of her surname, mentioning her family frightened her. Abraham Omix was not especially widely known, but among New York metahumans many recognized the name as one of the more ardent opposers of them in the city, and a prolific event organizer and poster of long rambling posts on any website he could find to post on.

Nell quickly sat back down, she had forgotten she was in danger of getting blood all over the place and was a bit embarrassed to have not realized she would have had she continued stepping out of the bathroom. The apartment's owner might have quite an edge to her but it felt like she was somewhat safer here than she had been anywhere in the city for a long time, and she wasn't going to jeopardize this rare moment of peace, even if she had gotten into it through harrowing circumstances.

Fortunately the woman seemed to know a thing or two about treating wound like this, or at least a lot more than Nell did, and had the proper stuff to deal with it. Somebody not working in medicine or law enforcement having such familiarity with bullet wounds would generally be cause for concern, but really Nell was sure she could at least trust the mystery lady to help her here, if she'd wanted her hurt she could have done so long before now. It seemed the experienced opinion concurred with her own intuition on the shot; it wasn't especially bad as gunshot injuries went, not that she'd be anxious to repeat the process ever again.

She nodded at Sonnet's introduction "I'm Nell. It...It's alright, not your fault it happened, you got me out of it" she winced and went silent as the needle entered her skin, but kept her arm still. It hurt a lot, but less than the injury itself did, an as uncomfortable as it is pain was a sensation she was perfectly familiar with, she knew how to sit and let something hurt without reacting very well after all. 

Nell kept up her usual expression of being frightened of everything around her, uselessly pulling her sleeve to try and hide the cut. It didn't hurt all that much, she'd had worse injuries from a bike accident six years ago, but nothing this bad since her powers, so the clear sticky blood was disconcerting, especially since it turned to normal blood after leaving her body. It also was disquieting precisely because it was a relatively mild injury, she had read that people could get killed by ricochet fire like that... ok well probably not killed from a shot in the arm, but while she hadn't exactly shrugged the bullet off it hurt her less then it ought to have.

Of course, this being New York, people came to gawk as soon as it was clear the area wasn't immediately dangerous to be in. Hell, it wouldn't even be that surprising of some people decided to show up even if there was clear danger. Nell's restlessly moving nervous stare went over the crowd as it's hostility predictably increased, and with her torn sleeve the already nearly impossible to hide shifting bark across her skin was made even more obvious. She tried to will it off the arm in question, and it receded but more bark appeared in swirls on her neck, just visible behind her shirt collar, and the blood from the fresh red gash across her arm was red again, and she had no clue how she'd explain the stain it would leave away. 

The masked woman's words made Nell realize she was still there, and she turned to face the woman, eyes wide with fright. She had no clue who this person was, she couldn't trust them. On the other hand, she knew exactly what sort of people the crowd coming in consisted of, and she had enough trouble with people like them when she was being discrete, much less now. She rolled her left sleeve up enough to expose her hand; the tiny flecks of bark here and there on it were smooth and flexible enough to be indistinguishable from skin by feel, but they stood out wildly by sight. Nell gulped, nodding and very softly "Ok" as she grabbed the hand being held out to her.

For better or for worse, Nell was home again. The icy air seemed to filter out color from the city, leaving everything very gray, but even in a storm she'd recognize the area she'd lived in since she was nine with little issue. Better drop things off at her house at least, her parents might have preferred she wasn't there but the fact was she didn't have anybody else and, though she might not realize it, their disapproval made her feel sure they must be right- that there was something wrong with her.

Nell reached a crossing she was going to turn at, her eyes flicked around nervously, a common tick of hers and it caught something she was familiar enough with, people staring at her. Nell had quite literally not worn shorts or short-sleeved shirts in years to slightly mitigate how noticeable she is, but it barely helped. Random people on the street shouting various insults at her was a fact of life, and at first that's all she suspected about why they were staring so intensely. Suddenly, the men stepped directly in front of her as she waited for the light, Nell's eyes widening as they kept moving slowly and methodically in her direction, so she kept backing up the only direction she could until she slammed into a wall from not looking in front of her. Damn it. She knew crime had gotten pretty bad in the city lately but she'd never been the target of anything unless you counted one time that one of her dad's friends threw a rock at her, after which her parents had insisted she leave the house if they had guests.

She collapsed to the ground, her bag cushioning the fall a little as the men blocked off the way she had come in to what she could see, now she was no longer backing into it blindly, was a narrow alley, dusty ground making it clear it had been a while since anyone actually came here. Terrified, Nell squeaked out "I.. I don't have any money or anything..." to which one of the guys smirked like she'd made a rather good joke. Her breathing was speeding up, bark and vines wrapping around her arms from the fingertips going up beneath her coat and gloves, thorns stretching at but not yet quite breaking their fabric, when she saw something. Nell had good eyesight and a tendency to notice things, so while she had been focusing on the men now standing over her she saw another figure move at the entrance to the alley.

Nell went to her Violin, removing it from the spot she had put it, checking she hadn't damaged it in her haste to escape the situation. She smoothed down her now quite ratty looking sweater, bark receding until it was back to it's usual amount- no more than slowly shifting wispy patches compared to earlier. The feeling of heat in the room had seemed to fade a little and it released a little of the tension she had felt since first entering the room. "Alright, I'm calmed I think" she said smiling nervously, letting out a long breath as she did.

Nodding at the comment about going slower next time, Nell inadvertently caught Melody's gaze for a moment before breaking eye contact. Hadn't her eyes both been the same color before? It wouldn't be the first time she'd failed to notice something about a person by being nervous of directly looking at them if she had missed it. Nell's throat caught for a moment when Melody mentioned her dad. It was something she could understand, there's absolutely no way she'd want anybody from this school meeting her own father. She didn't consciously recognize it, and would have denied it if asked but some part of her knew, Abraham Omix could barely stand to be around his own daughter for being so different than him, even before becoming metahuman but certainly multiplied by it. It would be absurd to imagine he'd be anything other than even less cordial to other metahumans. "I get that, it... really would be a bad idea for you to meet mine either" she said solemnly

"I mean, it wasn't the best idea for sure. I still don't think I could have done it if I had wanted to." Nell said awkwardly, hoping she wasn't overstepping any boundaries. Truthfully she was terrified of being here, she had never had much chance to be alone, advocate for herself, or even learn a lot of the nuances of social skills, initially solely due to her parents being restrictive and then due to that and her changing isolating her from the few people she did know. She was uncomfortable in her skin in more ways than one.

Grabbing her half of the sheets, Nell went and got a music stand and set it up, giving it a quick look-over before getting her  violin and bringing it under her chin. "Yeah it is, means 'Do what you do', I was just talking to myself." With a deep breath Nell rolled her sleeves (which were a bit too long and thus rather in the way) and held her bow at the ready. Nodding to Melody, she started to play. It was very familiar, simple to lose herself in. For these glorious moments it didn't matter that she felt lost, alone, uncertain, it didn't matter what she looked like, what categories she belonged to, or that she felt like she was falling apart every day. The music was all that really mattered right now, she could simply be without worry about what she ought to be.