Ghost remembered pink to be a lovely color. It wasn't that long since she'd completely lost her sense of light and physical sight. She easily remembered the delicate whisper of sunrise to be pink, blush roses, and lipstick for people more fashionable than herself.

> "You take a great photograph."

Huh? Maya tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and approached Kendra while she mentally retraced what had just happened. A photo of her? Maya peeked at the back of the camera and, while she could make out the shape of the camera, she couldn't see any photo.

"I- I guess I don't mind. I'm sure it's lovely." She'd spent the first 20 some odd years of her life being able to see things and though it'd been about 6 months without seeing light, Maya still wasn't totally used to it. Or maybe it was more fair to say that Maya didn't want to get used to it.

"One tour. Coming right up." Kendra gave her an out and Ghost gladly took it. It wasn't that she minded explaining, exactly... it was just... she was trying to fix it.

And it was easy to fall into step with Kendra. Ghost already did know the Mansion like the back of her hand. They chatted about the past, sure, but also the future. By the time Kendra'd mustered the courage to ask about the team, they were out in the back garden checking on the tulips that were just now starting to blossom.

"Joining the team takes some time. A lot of training. I think to start the process, you will probably want to interview with Sam and see if... see if you fit, you know? It's life and death out there. You could do it if you really want to."

Kendra watched as Ghost looked at the photo and simply shrugged it off as if she couldn't even see it. Kendra was starting to grasp that Ghost couldn't see very well and she felt kind of dumb for not really noticing until now.

So moving on. Kendra thought in her head. How many times are you going to embarrass yourself today? Kendra smiled and placed her hand on the wall.  She allowed the tips of her fingers to graze over the wainscoting as she walked.  In a few days she'd be able to do this tour herself to the new students arriving at the mansion.  She would walk these halls a thousand times in a week. 

"So you don't see very well do ya?"  Kendra said rather awkwardly.  She didn't always take the most tactful, polite approach.  She wasn't trying to be rude or abrasive she just accidentally blurted it out. 

Kendra walked and talked with Ghost about the past and even the future.  Not much about her own future.  She just listened mostly.  She wasn't sure what her own future held for her.  Her ears perked when Ghost brought up training.  She would love the chance to train her ability.  Learn more about it, She imaged if Ghost could do something as impressive as materialize like she did at the gate and that took practice, patience, understanding of her powers.  Kendra didn't know how to use her owns she had never  sat down and tried to train it.  She didn't even know where to begin, but she was down to train if that's what it took to join the team.

Kendra didn't mind the danger.  The X-Men missions were dangerous.  She figured that much, but how much danger could someone be in if they were invisible?  Kendra tapped her fingers along the wall as she moved along.  "I'm eager to learn."

Kendra's straightforwardness was endearing. It left no question to what the girl was thinking about and that eased Maya's mind somewhat. She wanted to, no, Maya strived to trust everyone. But this was a school. And she was new. They were still building trust.

"No. I do not see very well. My ability allows me to cheat somewhat so I'm not entirely blind, but I can't see colors or light. Things like TV or phone screens or even paper, which is a real tragedy once you know that I used to help run a bookstore in the city." It was what it was. There was no point in belaboring her disability.

"For every power I think the benefits keep tally with the drawbacks."

> "I'm eager to learn."

"How much do you know about what you can do? The benefits and the drawbacks, I mean."

Kendra thought about Ghost's question. How much do I know about it? She thought. She really had to give it some thought. She had never really thought about it in the conditions of "pros' and "cons" before. Pro, I can walk around invisible without being bothered. Con. I have to walk around all night and I'm always tired as hell! Pro.   I get to see people.  Really see people.  When they think no one's watching they don't act differently.  Con.  Sometimes you learn things about people you don't want to know. 

Kendra shrugged at the question.  "There's a lot of pros and cons I guess.  I never really tried to .... Umm.. Test it."  Kendra found herself wondering how she would even go about that.  She didn't know it yet, but there were things she could do that she didn't even realize, but just had never spent time understanding her ability or what it's limits were. 

Kendra said as they walked.  She bumped into a little table holding a vase.  The vase rocked on the table and Kendra managed to grab it before it toppled over the edge.  Good grief!  She thought and turned back to Ghost who thankfully didn't seem to take notice of her continued demonstration of her uncoordinated nature.  Kendra cleared her throat.  " I can move around unnoticed being invisible..... But, it gets lonely."  Her power was one of isolation. 

Kendra took time to notice just how beautiful the grounds here were.  They were out in a garden now.  The tulips were in bloom and the smell of the grass and the fresh air filled Kendra's lungs.  She loved the outdoors, she snapped a few photos as they talked.  In particular she took a photo of a butterfly that landed on a stone bench. 

Kendra lowered her camera.  She decided that she was just going to ask out right.  Ghost couldn't answer the questions she had if she kept beating around the bush about them.  "So is there anyway I can learn to control them?  Learn what I can really do?"  Kendra said with her back to Ghost.  She was staring at the butterfly.  Kendra sat down on the stone bench and smiled as the butterfly flew away.  She watched it as it drifted away and she looked back at Ghost.  It was a shame she couldn't see all these bright vibrant beautiful colors.  She really seemed like the type of person who would find it beautiful too.

Kendra knew she was going to find herself wandering the grounds of the mansion taking pictures of this or that.  This place was so beautiful that she could find inspiration around every corner.  She wouldn't submit any of them to her job though.  It seemed wrong.  Like this place was a private garden of Eden and it had to be kept secret.  These pictures were only for her.

How had she never tested herself? It boggled Maya's mind that Kendra had never found the limits of her abilities. Maybe that was the difference in growing up with an ability that was easier to hide? Ghost had to work on her power until she'd been able to control and hide it. The culture she had been visiting was not tolerant of outsiders.

"Well, we have a "safe place" for running simulations which a lot of people use to train the more out-there parts of their powers. You know, the stuff that could really hurt to even try." The words 'safe' and 'place' were, of course, surrounded by air quotes. Not even Ghost could really call the Danger Room "safe."

Maya nodded along as Kendra elaborated a little about her power. It really was lovely outside this time of year. "From the little you've told me, it sounds like you could try your abilities any time." Maya didn't know what to do about the loneliness, though. "Sounds like you'll just have to keep trying until you can figure out how to communicate."

> "So is there anyway I can learn to control them? Learn what I can really do?"

"Uhm. Take a nap?" Maya shrugged apologetically. "I could show you the Danger Room, but it's often booked solid. We let kids 16 and up sign up for time slots. You gotta write your name in or share a slot to get in." Cafas was often in there, so she just mooched off of his training sessions.

"So. Uh. Are you feeling tired or how does that work?" Abilities were fun things to explore.

Kendra wanted to face palm.  She knew some limits of what she could do.  She knew for example, just because she was dreaming didn't mean she could morph into a dragon  or lift a train over her head.  She couldn't run on walls of fly.  She was basically trapped in her dream until her body awoke.  As for the loneliness.  It probably wouldn't be as much of a problem here in the mansion.  She would be invisible but she could talk to people.  She would just come off as a disembodied voice.  Humans don't like talking to Ghosts or seemingly talking to apparitions.  Kendra figured Ghost could be especially empathetic on that front. 

"Well.  Actually, this is going to sound stupid, but I never tried!  I mean, I dream walk every night, but I never tried to see what I could do in my dreams I just kind of wander around exploring."  Kendra felt a bit foolish, but being a mutant was never something she asked for.

Kendra stood up from her seat and moved around the garden.  There were so many different types of flowers.  This place was filled with a lot of love.  The ground were superb, the mutants here were all kind and friendly so far.  She normally felt self conscious, but not here. 

Ghost asked her if she was tired and how it all worked. 

"I'm always tired.  I could sleep for two days a feel like had a nap."  Kendra's brain was always in motion always turning the gears, she never had a lax period where it shut down and took a rest, instead when she dreamt it caused her brain to kick into high gear causing her to always feel tired.   "Suppose'n I should lie down for a few in a bit.  What'bout you?  I don't really know much about your umm... ability."  She didn't want to call her a mutant.  That word still had such a stigmatism attached to it for her it still seemed like an insult, even if it was truth.  Kendra looked at Ghost honestly interested in what she could do.

"Have you always had your ability?"

Every night she walked alone. And every night she'd never noticed that she'd been missing an opportunity.

"Your whole life's about to change." Maya grinned. "There's nothing like living with a whole bunch of people with abilities. They'll have ideas you never thought of before and you'll meet people at all hours. I'll bet the grounds will be safer with you here to help patrol." Not that the Mansion had been destroyed in the last few years, but they did have a history of intruders.

She did catch on the the language. That was good. Talking about a power as a tool instead of something that made them other was a big part of how they saw themselves, in Ghost's opinion. She probably hadn't called another person "mutant" in a long, long while.

"My abilities are pretty straightforward. I'll give you the highlight reel."

Maya spun in a quick circle which made her skirt floof out. Wind curled around her with an audible swoosh which sent her hair and clothes moving in ways that would make any shampoo commercial jealous. She directed that wind to tickle thought Kendra's hair and pluck at her clothes.

"I can control air and I can even become air." With a wink and a quick inhale, poof Maya was nothing but an indistinguishable haze of white cloud. She rolled about with no distinct shape or form.

"I can change one other person like this, but it takes time and trust. Maybe I'll show you some time. That'd be an easy way to explain my vision conundrum too since when I ghost people, they get to see like me."

Slowly the cloud condensed and reshaped itself into Ghost. It took considerably more time to pack herself together considering that her change from woman to cloud was nearly instantaneous.

"So... what do you think?"

Kendra was absolutely astonished. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. Ghost dematerialized into a pocket of air and world around her. Kendra watched as her clothes were playfully tugged at and her hair bounced lightly around as the air swarmed and danced around her. It was incredible, she could only imagine how freeing that must feel to be able to just soar away on the wind whenever you felt like it. 

"That was amazing!"  Kendra cried after Ghost materialized into something that closely resembled the shape of a human her feet settled back on the floor.  Kendra thought of how wild it must be to just turn into a gust of wind and take a ride through the air ducts of the old mansion, you could literally go anywhere you wanted.  Kendra smiled and without realizing it she fount herself clapping excitedly. 

That was much more impressive than just falling asleep.  Kendra would definitely like to see Ghost in a fight, she wondered how that would even work, but it mystified her and Kendra could use a healthy imagination to piece it together how something like that might go.  Ghost would be darn near uncatchable!  After all how do you catch the wind?  That was very cool.  Kendra Yawned.  She supposed she was getting a little bit sleepy.  It wasn't terribly late or anything, but she couldn't sleep on the train ride from Georgia to New York.  There was a guy sitting in the seat beside her and she couldn't very well start dream walking with no room for her dream body to go.  She wasn't sure what would happen in that situation, but she decided rather than have some stranger feel her fall in his lap she decided to flip through a magazine instead.

"I'm gone get settled in'n such, see you later?"  Kendra asked hopefully.  She liked Ghost.  She was a bundle of cheerful joy and a darn fascinating girl.  Kendra would finish the tour on her own as soon as she fell asleep.  She pulled the key to room 206 from her pocket and looked at it thoughtfully.  She wondered who her neighbors were in rooms 205 and 207.  "Thank you again for the warm welcome."

Kendra said to Ghost looking up and reaching out her hand to shake with Ghost.  She was hoping whoever was rooming in the rooms near hers they were just as friendly as Ghost.  She could use a few friendly faces in her life right now.