A while back Andrew had met a mutant named Ahorta. He'd been a lot more nervous back then but they'd related to each other. He'd even saved her, sort of. Andrew still remembered how proud he'd been that he'd helped someone all on his own. In hindsight it was just stupid. That wasn't what mattered though. No what mattered was that he'd made a promise to her that he'd come visit the Sanctuary. It wasn't one of those promises. Andrew's own mind wasn't betraying him and warping his thoughts to induce him to come here. No, this was just because he wanted to live up to a promise without being forced to by his mutation.

He'd stood at the golden doors in awe. It was one thing for the various internet sites to mention them. It was quite another to see them in person. It made him feel privileged almost. It was, for the briefest of moments, as though he was a member of an elite community. Like his status as a mutant was a badge of honor and not something to be hidden out of fear. The sentiment passed as quickly as it came and left Andrew standing in the foyer in something approximating a daze.

He hadn't been sure what to expect but it was definitely different from his home at the mansion. Andrew had wondered at how swiftly he'd come to think of the mansion as home before. The thought passed quickly this time. Lexington and Kevin and Lily seemed like a distant memory now. They hadn't tried to get in touch since he'd left for New York. Andrew wasn't saddened by it. They'd brought him into the world and given him a relatively safe place in which to grow. He wasn't really thankful to them for much beyond that. Andrew began to slowly wander the foyer and wondered just what to do now that he was here. He'd promised Ahorta that he'd visit and here he was. Beyond that he had no clue.

"Ugh! This is the third time!" Lori had walked in on yet another holly, jolly gruesome sight. Santa was swinging some noosed christmas lights that were cleverly attached to a slowly rotating ceiling fan so that the lights were still on and Santa's electric voice still cried "Merry Christmas!" as he hung by his neck and rotated around the room.

It didn't take her but a second to yank this Santa off the fan blade. The cord, she jerked free of it's socket and she dragged the entire mess out to the lobby area.

"Who do I have to kill to get some Christmas spirit around here?!" Lori raised the hung Clause by its cord and waggled it so that all in the foyer could see. Lisa, Lori's intended conversationalist, was not behind her desk. Instead, there was an unfamiliar face. Once that looked a little lost.

"Welcome to the Sanctuary." She waggled Santa at him. Most of the Christmas decorations in the lobby were sliiiiightly off. For example, there was evidence of fake blood on some of the garlands, but she could hardly complain there. At least it was red. That was better than the fanged bunny complete with ransom style note (Easter is coming, b****es!) or the freshly carved reindeer meat sitting by the door. (At least... it was labeled as reindeer meat.) "Are you feeling festive?"

All those "inventive" decorations meant the Sanctuary residents were kind of getting in the mood... right?

Andrew whirled around as he heard the woman's frustrations. Apparently the residents of the Sanctuary were creative in their festive decor choices. In this case creative meant gruesome as the blonde woman held a string of lights fashioned into a noose around Santa's neck. Her demand of who she would have to kill to get some Christmas spirit around the place drew a raised eyebrow from the young man and he said the first thing he could think of.

"You could trying killing the Grinch. That might help."

He smiled at her welcome and the waggling of the poor condemned Santa. Whoever she was she seemed like a nice sort. Though perhaps the only sane one in the asylum so to speak if her annoyance at the residents' choice in Christmas decor and Ahorta were any indication. Then again Andrew had thought Ahorta was perfectly sane, merely a little over cautious once upon a time.

"Thank you."

Was he feeling festive? Perhaps not in the same way as those she was complaining about. Andrew was somewhat fond of Christmas. He wasn't overzealous about it but he had been smiling more often because of it's approach.

"Sure."

It seemed like a level headed response to such an off the cuff question from a woman he didn't know.

Killing the Grinch? But surely Hull would beat her to the punch... "What'd he ever do to you? His heart's all big now and he gave all his presents back."Even though he had rightfully stolen them. Yeesh. This guy was a real meany-face. Wanting to just up and kill the poor old Grinch because of some silly past transgressions...

And thank you? Who said thank you to a generic welcome? It was like thanking a lamp post for giving light. It was just preposterous.

"You... must be from the Mansion." If that was the case then she had some serious corrupting to do here. That or he had come to convert her to the light? "Look, whatever you came here to convince me not to do, I'm gonna just do it anyway so you can just turn around and march yer lil butt back to Sammy and tell him to bug off."

The Christmas lights in her hands flared ever so slightly near her hand as she spoke. She did not need to be lectured today. No thank you.

She plopped herself down on the couch usually used for waiting visitors and went to work untangling the now dark lights from Santa with testy movements.

Andrew wasn't entirely sure what to make of this woman. So maybe she wasn't the only sane person here. One second she's asking what the Grinch had ever done to him and the next she's accusing him of being there on some sort of mission from Sam or something. He took a couple of steps backward.

"I don't know how Sam got involved in this but he doesn't even know I'm here. I just promised Ahorta that I'd visit is all."

Really, how on Earth had Sam gotten mixed up in this. Yeah he was living at the mansion but he hadn't even mentioned it? Whoever she was she'd guessed his place of residence based on some cue he wasn't aware he'd given. Had those lights flashed on when she told him to get lost? That meant she was a mutant and one that fell into the far too large category of 'mutants that are much stronger than Andrew Leroy can handle'. Well that is unless her electrical power or whatever it was was only enough to light a string of Christmas lights. Andrew doubted that.

Andrew backed up another couple of steps just to be on the safe side and found himself bumping into a wall. That would work. He leaned against it as casually as he could manage when faced down with a strange woman he didn't know that could probably turn him into something similar to original recipe fried chicken in no time flat. He'd introduce himself but she suddenly seemed more likely to hurt him for wasting her time if he did. First rule for dealing with this particular unknown woman: Don't speak until spoken to.

Ahorta? Ahorta was out in the world... making friends? Only a Mansionite would be so kind. Lori shook her head as she plucked at the strings.

"Well I'm glad Ahorta is getting along with someone anyway. Did you want to see her? I'm not sure if she's in." Her tone was distinctly maternal. Ahorta was, after all, one of hers and part of her responsibility. But if Ahorta wasn't home, Lori wasn't going to touch her stuff. Not even with a 39 and 1/2 foot pole.

"Careful of the Reindeer." He was leaning quite close to the lump of flesh that was labeled Rudolph. Lori, after so many years of purposefully neglecting her own introduction, now had lost the knack of them. They were so much less interesting when you told the truth.

She loosened the lights enough for dear old Saint Nick to slide out of her lap and down onto the floor.

Andrew gave a careful shrug at the woman's question of whether he wanted to go see Ahorta. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Plus the tone in her voice was an abrupt change from the harshness of a few mere moments earlier.

"I don't know. It's been a while since we saw each other and, well, I'm sort of curious about this place."

After all, Ahorta wasn't the only person who'd mentioned the Sanctuary to him. Amber had talked about it too. Amber had called it a place for homeless mutants. Ahorta had said it was like a family. The woman didn't seem likely to introduce herself. She merely warned him about the reindeer and he moved a few steps to one side to avoid the...pile of meat? Ok this place was getting stranger by the moment.

"My name's Andrew."

He almost volunteered that he worked for Sam but maybe that wasn't such a good idea. She hadn't said his name like it was one that she particularly liked hearing. It would probably be better if she thought he simply lived at the Mansion and knew Sam in passing. He didn't know much about his boss anyway so it wasn't like it would be lying per say.

A Mansionite curious about the Order? Excellent. She like corrupting them far better than she liked listening to them and they had a rather good conversion rate. Every kid went through a rebellious stage and Lori aimed to make a profit with each and every one that wandered into her clutches.

Lori fiddled with the clump of lights without much success. Her fingers were arthritic and stiff. She just didn't have the manual dexterity to complete the task, but that wasn't stopping her from trying.

"Well, I can show you around if you want. It's only a nickel tour, but there isn't a whole lot to see. Not as glamorous as your Mansion, but what we lack in finances we make up for in heart and tooth and nail."

She flicked a bulb frustratedly and shoved the pile aside to stand and return Andrew's greeting properly. No point in being rude. "Lori. Still interested in a tour? I can't promise there won't be more of the same." She motioned to the flat Santa and mess of lights, raw meat and bloody garland with a sweeping gesture. "But the tour's free at least." And really, what was better than free?

Well he had been curious about the place ever since Amber and then Ahorta had mentioned it. He might as well take her up on the offer of the tour. As much as he loved the Mansion he knew that some people just weren't cut out for it. The Mansion was structured and had rules, to say nothing of the X-Men. Since he was working as a greeter as well as being Sam's assistant Andrew felt that it would be a good idea to be able to recommend other places that were safe if someone didn't fit in at the Mansion.

"Sure. A tour sounds good."

It was a free tour after all. Free was good. And it was just a tour. There weren't many places mutants could go and be protected from the rest of the world that could and likely would try to hurt them. If he could add one more place to that list then Andrew and anyone else he saw that wouldn't exactly do well at the Mansion could benefit. You could never know exactly what would happen. Unless you were a clairvoyant.

Andrew leaned away from the wall to stand up straight again. Normally he'd be chatting away and probably telling her how he'd ended up at the mansion or why exactly he'd come, aside from his promise to Ahorta. Sharing that sort of thing with her didn't feel like a good idea. That brief flash of anger when she'd thought that Sam had sent him to give her a message or something like that had Andrew on his guard. If she thought of his boss in that sort of manner then chances were good that she wasn't all that safe to divulge things to. The Mansion was his home and had done him no wrong. He at least owed them enough to keep his trap shut.

Then again it could be entirely safe to speak. What did he know? Andrew knew he could be paranoid at times and blow things way out of proportion. But if the world really was out to get you then paranoia was a reasonable reaction. Andrew gave a mental shrug and wandered closer to the middle of the room.

Yup. Tour time it was. The Order leader picked up the ball of lights and dropped it on Lisa's desk. She could sort it out. Santa, she fished out from under the coffee table and then they were off.

After the main lobby there was an almost immediate fork. "To the right are the majority of the rooms, a door to the garage, mostly hallways and boring stuff. To the left is most of the community rooms and facilities. But we'll start in the dining room."

There were double doors set in west wall of the lobby that Lori pushed open to reveal a rather normal looking mass feeding room. Tile floor, one long, wooden bench table and a few satellite tables... "For the kids, you know?" She explained.

There were vandalized Christmas displays in here as well, most notably an angel someone had redecorated with a sharpie to look more punk-rock and a Christmas tree that looked as if it had been snapped in half. "It's not a requirement, but we prefer that residents show up for meals around the same time. Keeps us close." From the deserted state of the place, it was obviously not a major meal time.

Now that they were walking not too far from each other, Lori noticed how very tall Andrew was. Most mutants boys seemed to grow up like weeds and here was another one that was maybe even a full foot taller than herself. Not that it bothered her. She remained as casual and comfortable as she had when they had first met. Despite her minor tiff over Sam, she seemed pretty grounded.

The first thing Andrew noticed about Lori was that she was short. Well maybe not short but noticeably shorter than him. Of course he was pretty tall. It was normal for him to have to look down to look someone in the face. That aside, now that they were walking and talking, Lori giving him the tour and him listening, she seemed a lot more normal. So had he been wrong to suspect her? She pushed open the doors to what appeared to be a massive lunch room, akin to what you'd see at a school. There were even a few tables just like you'd expect to see at a school.

Lori explained that they tried to have everyone show up for meals at around the same time. She said that it kept them close.

"So are there a lot of mutants here?"

Just imagining a room that large full at breakfast, lunch, and dinner was amazing. Ahorta had said it was like a family. That was an awfully large family. The Mansion had a fair amount of people too but a good portion of it was the students, the kids that came to the Mansion to learn. Andrew didn't like to think that someplace like the Sanctuary, that from what he'd heard served as a shelter, would be too full. Lori had mentioned kids as well. Bad situations abounded where mutants were concerned but hopefully there weren't too many kids that had to come here just to be safe and sheltered.

Small talk still didn't seem likely. Andrew was still suspicious of the woman, despite the fact that she hadn't done anything else to warrant it. Heck for all he knew Sam could have done something horrible to her. It wasn't as though he knew his boss well. He barely knew the man at all. More importantly, why was he bothering to think so much about this in the first place? This was an innocent visit spurred by a promise and curiosity. It wasn't like he was going to betray everything he knew, precious little, to them and offer to be a spy or something. As far as he knew the Mansion and the Sanctuary weren't even antagonistic toward each other at all.

She righted a toppled chair as they walked through the mess hall. Lori's actions were of a mother tidying up the house as she walked through.

> "So are there a lot of mutants here?"

"It's impossible to keep a perfect count since we're a shelter. Some are just passing through. Only a few actually live here. Mostly mutants with obvious physical mutations or debilitating abilities."

"What's your ability?" Lori held the door for the newcomer. If he seemed surprised, she had an explanation already on hand. "As much as the X's preach about equality and stuff, I've never met a human there."

The hallway was long and labels were clearly affixed next to doorways. Next up was the library.

Six computers sat in the center of several rows of stacks of books. It was no where near as sterile or impressive as the mansion's facilities, but pretty adequate. Not outmoded, but not new either. Several Sanctuary residents were sprinkled around, reading or surfing the internet. Most were, as she said, immediately identifiable as mutants. Unique or changing colors of skin, hair, eyes, extra or missing appendages.

"You guys have a training room, right?" She whispered. They were in a library. "We have one too. Wanna see?"

That was somewhat reassuring. He was glad to hear that there were only a few mutants that stayed full time. If things were better there wouldn't need to be a place like the Sanctuary at all but day dreaming didn't get things done. Lori didn't seem all that bad now. He still had misgivings but Andrew just chalked them up to living in fear of others too long and ignored them. So when she asked about his ability he only hesitated for a moment or two before drawing off his left hand glove and pulling up the sleeve of his shirt so she could easily see the black band that decorated his wrist.

"Long explanation short: I have to keep promises that I make. Failure to do so results in pain, injury, maybe death. I obviously haven't experimented with that particular part too much. Each promise is denoted by one of these black marks."

Andrew tugged the glove back on and lowered his sleeve. That was it in a nutshell. Of course he left out the bit about how his promises affected him. He generally tended to conveniently leave out that part. It was bad enough without people knowing that it changed how he thought and acted as well. He couldn't really remember the woman he'd made the promise he currently had anymore. If he thought hard he'd get snippets of conversation, blonde hair, and some foreign language. Beyond that his memories of her were too hard to recall. He knew the promise. Whoever she was he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about her mutation without her permission. His mutation had apparently thought that the best way to make him keep that promise was to make her mutation and her as difficult to remember as possible.

Their library wasn't as large or impressive as the one Kealey lorded over at the Mansion but it served it's purposes. At the very least it seemed well used. Those he saw within it were mutants of the sort that could never blend with a crowd. Andrew was lucky in that respect. He could easily pass as human. As long as he avoided making too many promises or breaking promises in public he was generally fine. She asked if he wanted to see their training room.

"Sure. We have one but I've only been inside it once."

Any training Andrew did was outside the Mansion with Jorge. As far as the Mansion dwellers knew he was perfectly content to sit on the sidelines.

A mutation that gave him tattoos? She'd definitely seen worse. Though the idea of a promise keeper was... interesting. The cogs churned in her head for his many uses. First and foremost being that he was someone that should be considered reliable, given that a tattoo promise was made. It was also good to know that he was virtually harmless. She could probably arm wrestle him to the ground too from the looks of his arms.

That made her already cheery mood even brighter.

Lori next lead him across the hall to a large room split in two by a wall with some doors in it. Past the doors was their own homemade version of the Danger Room. Like everything else they had it was useable, but not state-of-the-art. The other side had a normal looking gym with various work-out machines, free weights and mirrors.

"I only use the normal side. I can't risk ruining the high-tech stuff. Electricity for me and... it's tricky to keep a hold of." She gave Andrew a little salute as if reporting for duty.

A normal gym combined with something that was probably a version of the Danger Room. Andrew looked suspiciously at the doors to that side. His only experience with the Danger Room so far had been less than thrilling. If the high tech side of the Sanctuary's gym was anything like the Danger Room at all he'd steer clear of it until he was actually strong enough to manage a darn thing. Lori said she steered clear of that side due to her electrical mutation and it being a little too wild to fully control. Made sense to him.

"I just go to a gym. Not like my mutation's worth bothering with high tech training for."

Oh he was well aware that as far as mutations stood he was in the 'pretty much useless' category. It irked him no end. All it did was provide an endless stream of worries and no benefits whatsoever. People like Lori, Sam, Jorge, Kate, Shin, and heck even Kealey made him feel that uselessness keenly. They could at least do something with their mutations. Oh well, this wasn't the time to be indulging in self-pity. That could wait until he got back to the Mansion and found a place to hide where he wouldn't screw up anyone else's day like he'd managed with Verdy, Kate, and Kealey so recently. Maybe he'd bury himself in books or something. Preferably in a remote corner of the Mansion where Kealey and her librarian duties wouldn't find him.