Caitl- Hydra now, was people watching. Having squeezed themselves underneath a car and watching the occasional person pass by on the sidewalk... If not particularly stealthily, given that rubbery snake-adjacent heads occasionally poked out and upwards slightly like periscopes. As well as the occasional excited babbling from multiple voices as the others got too excited to remember to think, rather than speak.

It was kind of nice, in a way that would have horrified them the way they had been before the Split. Though conversation soon turned to if they should pick a new hiding spot or head back home and order take-out. It was starting to get dark.

7:33 PM.

As the sky begins to shift into cascading hues of orange and purple and pink, and the back-streets get less and less foot traffic, the mutant might spot the most curious sight- a woman, in simple camo cargo pants, black combat boots, white tank-top and sports bra, and a metal face contorted into an almost demonic visage- the immediate impression would be that it was a mask, but no, it's definitely melded into her skin. She has her long black hair tied into a ponytail.

She has her hands stuffed into her pockets as she casually strolls down the sidewalk, all the confidence in the world in each step. The few scatterings of people left on the streets in this neighborhood at this hour give her a wide berth as she marches.

''Cool mask, seven o' clock.'' One of Hydra whispers. ''We can see through your eyes too, dumbass.'' ''She has nice hair. I wish we still had hair.'' ''I wish you shut up for once.'' ''

Coming to a consensus that yes, cool weird mask lady was cool, they start to crawl from underside of the car to another. Dashing along the ground like they're imitating some sort of lizard. Using how the cape was drawing all the attention from what few people were still around to sneak after her. And when those ran out, dashing into an alley when they hoped people weren't looking.

Atlas turns around a corner, stepping into an alleyway, searching for- and finding- a fire escape ladder.

She drags a garbage bin underneath, and climbs on top. With a solid jump, she grabs onto the ladder, hauling herself up. She climbs up the staircase up to the roof, boots making heavy metallic thuds with each step of the way up, the entire skeletal structure of the fire escape shuddering slightly, but holding firm.

They watch her climb up. Five heads horizontally stacked as they hang halfway around the corner.

Seeing her near the top, they skitter over to the fire escape as well. Slowly starting to regain their proper humanoid-ish form Starting to climb up, then cringing as it creaks a bit under their weight. Panicking, then letting go to try and awkwardly squeeze themselves between the garbage bin and the wall. Ending up making more noise in the process.

A foot steps onto the rooftop, then Atlas pauses, head snapping over to glance over her shoulder.

Beneath her pants, metal climbs up her legs, ending just below the thighs. She steps off the roof, falling harder than a normal person would, and landing on the garbage bin, metal screeching as she crushes through the lid, completely unharmed, the metal in her legs absorbing the fall.

She clambers out of the garbage bin, feet back on asphalt. The tusked metal jaw of her mask-face-whatever twitches slightly, almost like a mouth. "What the fuck?" She rumbles, knowing something is off, but not having any ideas as to exactly who, what, or where she heard it.

Hydra tries veeery hard not to make a noise. Their little cry of surprise having been hidden by the screeching of metal. Then they're betrayed by the wheels on the garbage bin as Atlas gets out. Briefly being squished and turned into a stress toy before falling to the floor with a thud. And in a panic, lets their arms return to tentacles to try and pull it back using the suckers on them.

Metal crawls up the rest of her body, up from her fingertips, up her arms, spreading over her shoulders, and going up her neck to meet with the 'mask', and flowing down her torso.

She grabs the side of the garbage bin, clawed metal digits digging into the cheaper metal of the garbage bin, and shoving it away, letting out a grunt of effort, to get a better look at what exactly is making all these weird noises.

There's a series of cries of distress as the bin is shoved away... and the cape is dragged along with it. Letting go partway through and ending up rolling on the floor a bit before coming to a stop.

''Umm... Hi?'' One of the serpentine heads on the mutated cape offers awkwardly. Being dressed... very minimally over off-white skin that gradiented to purple as it went to their limbs. All of the five total heads on them looking very sheepish. Tentacle arms with suckers shifting to sloooowly form hands and the beginnings of fingers again.

"Hhhhhhuh. I was not expecting a freak," Atlas drawls, her voice rich with a Greek accent.

She reels her hand back, having left a sizeable hand-shaped dent in the bin, and casually scratching at the side of her neck, sharp metal screeching as it scrapes against other metal.

"What are you supposed to be? Calamari? Κορίτσι?"

''Rude!'' ''We're not a freak.'' ''We kind of are...'' ''Koriti?'' ''Shut your mouth!'' Come some immediate protests from various sources. All with the same voice. The mutated cape rising to their feet with an odd fluidity to their limbs. ''We.'' They pause for dramatic effect. ''Are a person. That's what we are.'' All five heads nod in agreement with the statement.

"Persons don't have multiple heads. Or tentacles," she grunts. The metal falls down her body, crawling back in reverse to turn her back to flesh, leaving only her metal face. "Then what are you doing stalking me, freak."

''We're still a person.'' They huff, a bit annoyed. ''And you looked interesting, that's all. You have a really cool mask. You know that?'' They ask, poking Atlas' mask with said now half-tentacle, half-hand. ''So we wanted to know what you were doing!''

Atlas tightly grabs Hydra's 'wrist' before she can reel her hand away. "It's not a mask," she grumbles. "No touchy." She lets go.

"I don't owe you what I was doing. But luckily for you, I'm the most damn interesting person in the city, now that I'm settled in."

The cape's wrist feels squishy. More like rubber than a normal ass hand.

''Aww... But it's so cool...'' One of the heads mutters in disappointment, before bouncing back. ''And really now? What do you like, do then, miss tall, cool and metal?'' They tilt their head in curiousity like a bird would. ''Besides be rude to people who don't look like people.'' Another head adds.

"Apparently find weirdo octopus-girls hiding behind dumpsters," she snorts.

"What's your name, then, freaky."

They chuckle a bit. ''Guess so.'' ''And we've been thinking of Hydra because well...'' A gesture at the five heads staring at her. ''Probably will go with that. So you can call my Hydra instead of variations of 'freak'. Alright? And in our defense, you were kind of spooky, and the fire escape made too much noise, so we had to hide somewhere...''

"You name yourself after a monster and ask not to be called a freak?" She muses. "I mean your real name. Unless you don't have one of those. I guess. What, are you a sad orphan or something?"

''Names are hard, okay? And apparantly tons of capes do it.'' They huff, annoyed that they were back with the 'freak' moniker. ''How about I start calling you 'tin can' or something dumb like that, huh? I bet you'd love it, going by how easily you toss out insults.''

Atlas chortles. "You're real cute, φρικιαστικό," she drawls.

The metal in her face begins to recede, the demonic visage 'melting' back into a normal-looking face, until the makeshift mask is gone entirely. She's smirking. "If you're going to insult me at least use one that makes sense. Tin can just sucks."

They groan. Shaking their heads. ''That was the point, and-'' A sigh. ''Nevermind. If you want our name from before... all this, we want yours first. Deal?''

"Alex. If you want what I was doing, you got to pay me for it. I accept cigarettes and booze for payment."

''We were Caitlyn before the Split.'' They admit after a moment. Caught up in a memory, then collectively shaking their heads to dispel it.

They hold up a hand to ask for a moment, then turn around. ''Did we bring our wallets?'' ''It was on the dresser last I remember.'' ''You know that we can check our pockets, right?'' ''Oh.'' The pockets of their not so covering outfit are checked, and come up empty sans phone. Their whole body quite literally sagging in disappointment as they let out a sigh.

''Well uhh... We're sorry, but we didn't bring our wallet to buy you some.'' The mutated cape admits as they turn back to her. ''We don't always bring it since it can feel really bulky and uncomfortable in some positions...''

"You'd think five heads would equate to five brains, huh," she snorts.

"That's fine. You're dressed like a stripper so I'd imagine you could figure out another way to get easy money... or shoplift. I don't care, do what you want, but my motto in life is to never do anything unless there's a fat wad of cash involved," she coos, lips curling to reveal a bit of a shark-like grin.

They cover their nonexistent chest with their arms. Feeling self conscious. ''We aren't strippers! Clothes get really restrictive for us, but people stare and complain if we aren't wearing anything. And it's not like people like the way we look anyway.'' Caitlyn complains. Getting muttered agreements from the other heads.

They did have a job that was earning them money, but the whole 'did not bring their wallet' issue was making that hard to use here. Not without opening them up to a whole new round of teasing by inviting Alex home with them, anyway.

"Cool story. Still dressed like a stripper, though, so..." Alex coos.

"Shit, for real, though?" She mutters something in Greek to herself. "Cute girl in a skimpy dress? People pay good money for that shit all the time." She scratches the side of her neck. "Maybe you just haven't found the right strip-club or something..."

Their cheeks light up with a vibrant purple hue. Averting their gazes from Alex in embarassment. Their voices coming out soft. ''None of our old shirts still fit, okay? We need pretty much the whole back open just to make it work without tearing. And... And we can't deal with lots of people staring anyway. Even if people were okay with how we look. Especially if they would make 'requests' for our looks.''

She shifts her weight a little between her feet. She stuffs a hand in a pocket, fishing out a small steel marble, holding it between her fingers. "I dunno, then. Put on a poncho or something. Wear a bedsheet like a ghost on Halloween. Lot of options."