With all due respect (open)

Birdia watcheriouis: a sub species of the genus homo, these rare creatures are often spotted in areas with a high concentration of trees. The are easily identifiable by the binoculars with which they look at birds and their long attention spans. They often remain in one location looking through their binoculars for hours, even returning to the same location again and again in hopes of sighting rare avian specimens.
This particular specimen was acting a little strangely. Usually this particular type of creature wasn't seen in this neighborhood. If he wanted to see scarlet tanagers, he should know that they don't stray this far from the park. If he wanted to watch pigeons, well, then this place was as good as any in the city. There were even a few of them sharing a perch with a young illusionist on top of the wall surrounding the mansion.

Little known fact: the oak tree next to the wall that surrounded the mansion was very easy to climb, providing easy access to the top of the wall.

Katrina was lying on her stomach on top of the wall, enjoying the summer weather and watching the people on both sides of the wide brick barrier. She had a book with her, a vampire romance novel of some sort- the latest one that all the girls her age were drooling over, but she wasn't reading it. She had gotten bored with it and was spending some time people watching instead. On the inside of the wall there was a basketball game going on. One of the new British students was playing with his shirt off, not that Katrina was noticing, or anything. Outside the wall, a bird watcher caught her attention.

Well known fact: bird watchers were supposed to watch birds.

This one was watching the mansion. And unless the cute British boy without a shirt on was about to sprout wings and fly away, there really wasn't much reason for him to be training his binoculars over there. Not when there were perfectly good pigeons to be looking at up here on the wall.

After a few minutes, the bird watcher made his way to the gate, paused, then pressed the buzzer and spoke into the intercom.

>>>”Uhmmm. Hello.”

“Hello,” Katrina called from her perch up on the wall.

He looked to be just a little older than Calley and Ghost, so if he was a student he would be one of the college aged ones. He had fairly nondescript brown hair and light colored eyes that looked a little greenish from Katrina's angle. Because Katrina also had grey eyes, she recognized that the color sometimes looked different depending on what colors were nearby. The green tones of his clothing probably made the grey in his eyes reflect just a hint of green. Al in all he seemed to be pretty normal looking to her. He was a bit pale, maybe, but so was she and many others of northern European descent.

Katrina was wearing a blue tshirt today with a white skirt so her eyes probably were looking a little blue. She waved back when he waved at her and gave a quizzical little smile when he quickly moved to cover his pale arm with his long sleeve. That was an odd gesture. Perhaps he got burnt by the sun easily. He took out gloves and put them on, too, even though it was warm. Was his a mutation that caused trouble when his skin made contact with something? It would explain the long sleeves.

>>>“Hey up there!”

His voice carried an accent, but that was nothing unusual at the mansion, which apparently had a world wide reputation for being a safe place fr mutants. Not even a week ago three new students had arrived from Great Britain. Now, here was another one that seemed to have decided to check out the place, first with binoculars and then up close after he had deemed it – worthy? Safe?

“Come on up, if you can climb that well,” Katrina invited him. “Though, it is easier on this side where there are trees growing next to the wall. The gate is unlocked at this time of day, too.” A few moments later her company changed as the pigeons flew off as the young man who called himself Martin made his way up to join her on the top of the great brick barrier. She changed positions so she was sitting cross legged, facing him with a friendly smile on her face.

“Welcome to Xavier's Martin. I'm Katrina. What brings you here?”

His hands and feet found little spaces in between the bricks of the wall and with all agility and dexterity that a late teenager like him could muster climbing the wall presented some, but not innumerate problems, so after a few more seconds he was able to draw his feet under his body while facing the younger woman sitting on the wall. She was smiling quite nicely and seemed not taken aback by his sudden appearance. Quite a peculiar mansion this was, where even the small girls were not afraid of strangers. On the other hand she probably would not have to be. Which sane stranger would dare attack someone at a place like this? None if he knew the reputation of the place.

The sun had warmed the stone beneath him and the wind was blowing nicely. All seemed intent on making this place show its ideal sides. “Thank you.” The stranger flashed another one of his quick and fleeting smiles at her. “I came here...” He trailed off as his eyes focused on a spot over her shoulder. A dog came running in their direction from the main area. A big dog from the looks of it. A big and dangerous dog that was apparently quite watchful of these premises. A quick “Don't be surprised.” was the only thing he could mutter in the direction of his companion, before a horridly loud and angered BARK! Was echoing through the grounds. This was not good at all, but luckily they were sitting on a brick wall. Dogs this size did not climb, did they?

Before both of them had a chance to react the dogs master called it to order thankfully as he came strolling toward them over the grass and it retreated like... well a dog called to order. He raised his eyebrow. It was a well trained dog then. His eyes shifted away from the now harmless would be foe to the man walking their way. He looked dangerous. Maybe it was just his size, but he surely would be someone thank could take him out. Or could try and see that there was more to him then met the eye. Both were options he would not enjoy exploring. For now he simply waved at the man. That was until he heard him call out his name. His wave faultered and died, hands clenching to fists in his lap.

“How do you know my name?” He was confused.

As the sun continued to shine Sam winched slightly and raised a hand over his eyes as he continued to gaze up at the figures of Katrina and Martin, both of which he had met before, Katrina more than a dozen times before while as Martin was once before although quite recently. The meeting defiantly took place of this he was sure. ”Think I can stick around for a bit…” he said calmly as he walked closer to the wall now confident that Bruno would stay put seeing as Cammie was now curled up on his back.

Blinking was all he could do; he had met Martin before right? So why was the man so unsure of their meeting. Shaking his head slightly as he quirked an eyebrow to Katrina and speaking clearly Sam said, ”Kat I think I met him before… it was at Ghost’s book store re-opening… I was working register and you were looking for a German edition of a book…” pausing and thinking hard to try and remember the title Martin was searching for at the time Sam shrugged slightly and said, “I want to say something written by a Faust, but I could be mistaken,” pausing again he continued to recall the events of that day, ”Then my brother hit a protester and then we had a rather nice discussion about peace and how power corrupts.”

Shrugging slightly as Sam walked over to the wall he activated his powers creating small stairs wide enough and stable enough to hold his body weight as he began his ascension to the wall where both Katrina and Martin sat. ”I can’t remember the exact date but unless you have a look-a-like we defiantly met.” As he approached the wall level he walked onto it and extended a hand to Martin, ”But if you forgot me I suppose proper introductions are in order again?” extending his hand to Martin he smiled and said, ”My name is Sam.”

After the handshake or would be shake he sat down on the wall in between Martin and Katrina and turned his attention to the young woman next to him, ”So what kind of people would you be watching?” he asked as a simple wave of his hand caused the small pillars of ice to shatter into tiny frozen specks of water on the ground, which would soon melt due to the sun beating upon them.

Sam possessed not super-hearing, but super-memory. Well, not really. He showed off his actual mutation by creating an ice stair that let him climb up to the top of the wall with them. The good memory was something that came in different measures in each person, whether they were mutants or not. Perhaps his super-memory explanation would quell Martin's discomfort that Sam had been spying on them or reading their minds or something.

Katrina could see that three people sitting on a wall might make things a little more difficult. Not the sitting part, so much as the conversing. It was just a little bit harder to look at the person who was talking when someone would be sitting in the middle blocking the view. As it turned out, the monkey in the middle was Sam. Sam's ice staircase brought him up right between them. Katrina twisted around so her legs were dangling off the edge as she faced the mansion. If she leaned forward, she could still see Martin around Sam when he was talking. There, she thought, That'll probably work. It was a little awkward, but they'd survive. Hardly any introductions were ever managed without at least a small dose of awkwardness. It was almost unnatural not to have at least a little. They'd get over that part soon enough, most likely.

She looked down at the ice staircase, missing Martin's flourishing hand gestures. Already the surface was wet, once Sam stopped controlling the ice, the sun quickly converted the ice back into water once again. She felt a small pang of jealousy as she watched the ice begin to melt. Sam was so confident in himself and in his powers and using his ability was just a part of everyday life for him. He could even have fun with it. He never seemed to worry that others might be spying on him, trying to find out his weaknesses or figure out what he could do. Perhaps he was just confident that he could handle anything, good or bad, that came from people knowing what he could do. His abilities were a part of him that he seemed proud of, and he didn't mind sharing that information with anyone even those he had just met. Was confidence and pride something you got once you were older, or was it something you had to have from the very beginning?

>>>“So what kind of people would you be watching?”

With a wave of his hand, Sam let the ice staircase shatter and fall, expediting the melting process.

>>>“Oh we are watching all kinds of people. Ordinary people mostly. As they are interesting, right Katrina?”

“Oh, yeah. There were all kinds of interesting, normal people outside the wall today,” she gave raised eyebrow look at Martin, returning his conspiratorial look, “and inside there's a basketball game.” A tilt of her chin toward the court across the lawn pointed out which basketball game she meant, though there was only one happening at the moment. As she spoke, the new British boy executed a perfect layup to score two points. Very nice.

“So, Sam is one of our official tour guide type people. He knows pretty much all there is to know about the mansion.” He even had access to the restricted areas. Holograms of him even guarded some of the restricted areas. “If you have any questions or anything, he'd be the person to ask.” She glanced around the greeter at the newcomer again. Did he remember that he hadn't answered her “what brings you here” question yet? Maybe so, maybe not. If he was going to be moving in, there was a whole questionnaire to fill out. Mostly just personal information and mutation description, including the all important question about whether the person's mutation was a danger to themselves or others, and the corresponding question about what, if anything was known, could be done to neutralize that harm. It would only take him ten minutes to fill out the form, and he could have his own bedroom in no time, if that was why he was here.

The talk on the wall began to require some considerable acrobatic effort from all parties involved to allow for continuation. It was rather strange how both of his two companions were trying to accommodate each other and him due to the rather uncommon location of their little chat, while he had finally secured the diary and began flipping the pages, occasionally shooting glances upwards at them to make sure they were still involved in the process of deciding who was going to provide room to whom. It was a relief to see that he was not the only one capable off odd actions as the resumed oddness made his mouth twitch. Distaste? Unlikely. Twisting round each other they were almost woven into a dance, and a quite modern one at that, with Sam -As was befitting- finally deciding on taking the lead and bending backwards to allow for clear vision between Katrina and himself. As for himself: He felt no need to show them that he was quite capable of walking on thin lines right now and remained in his position. By the time the process was finished, the timemancer had returned the book to his pockets and was now trying to make sense of the information that was written in it in his own hand, nothing of which had been retained by his momentary memory. He obviously did know this person named Sam. And it appeared that he either had a decent memorization ability or he was rather notable. He did not want to decide on which option was the more favorable, since both carried obvious disadvantages. And he did not want to participate in their little game any more then was necessary, therefore his reaction to the display was a folding of gloves in his laps. Hands included of course.

Both of them seemed to be distracted by the events on the nearby basketball court, where some form of competitive match was taking place between the students of the school. Their abilities were befitting their age as far as he could tell, but some signs of mutations -at work or not- were hard to overlook. One of the boys was quite... furry after all, his body boing covered in something that looked like felt? He even had the black wet glistening nose of an animal. Care for some fried Otters noses? He felt a sudden urge to preserve this picture in some way, because as far as he could forethink they would encounter much more difficult times in their lives then this. It was just carefree. Beautiful and quite unlike war.

“Thank you.”.... enter empty space of waiting between the vocalization comments.... “Quite beautiful.” It really was. Then his attention returned to Sam, who, after having been named one of the people in charge of this building, now proposed notions of modesty towards Katrina. “I am quite sure of that.” He therefore voiced his support on the matter of little girls abilities at retrieving and holding on to intelligence. His answer to the question was quite simple though. “Neither.” He had after all surveyed the Mansion to some extent now. Just to make the statement sound less.... absolute, he added another comment belatedly. “But if you would show me around Id appreciate it.” Another pause was left, while he let his gaze fall on the garden again. “I came here looking for work. I am a gardener.” The fact that he was looking for paid work in particular was left unsaid, naturally.

And just maybe, maybe sometime in the future he could be moved to move here, but a few pretty scenes and some nice looking grounds did not entirely dissipate the practiced distrust of 10 years of living in an underground society that was hunted with public approval.

Looking from Martin to Katrina he could tell that the young woman was getting bored with the conversation seeing as she could no longer keep focus with them but rather kept her gaze to the basketball courts. ”Gardener huh?” Sam asked curiously as he looked back to Martin and then looked to the grounds, ”I think we could use a gardener,” Sam scanned the grounds as his eyes fixed on the side of the mansion where a few different sets of flowers bloomed around the side of the mansion. He liked flowers, loved how they looked but was never to big on how temperamental they were whenever he activated his powers. It was always like the flowers themselves rejected part of Sam.

Sighing slightly Sam leaned back some more and ended up flipping off of the side of the wall making an attempt to upright himself before he landed on the grounds, unfortunately for Sam he wasn’t fast enough and ended up landing on his rear. ”Ouch!” Sam yelped as he scooted around on his but the way a dog who has worms does in attempts to relieve the pain. After a few moments Sam spotted the large figure of Bruno rushing over to him as the smaller figure of the tabby cat slinked off towards them at her own pace slightly upset that the dog moved.

Looking up the wall Sam called out to the two, ”How about Katrina and I show you around and then get you the paper work, I think we could use a gardener!” Sam said with a smile as he looked from Martin to Katrina, they may be fine without a gardener but part of his job was to welcome all mutants and if the mansion wouldn’t pay him Sam would be happy to pay the man out of his own pocket. But then again odds were they weren’t going to say no to him after all he handled most of the paperwork around the mansion anyways.

Sam looked up to Martin hoping that he would take him up on his offer, the mansion could always use more staff and if Martin wanted Sam would have no problem setting up a room for the man if he should want it. His attention was brought from the wall to the large dog that was now slobbering the side of his face as the cat calmly walked over her tail twitching as she started to purr, ”Yeah I get it Bruno you love me.”