Kendra had settled into the mansion. It was odd feeling welcomed, accepted. No one batted an eye at her for her differences.  They all just accepted her. Everyone she had met so far was kind and polite, though she hadn't met everyone. This was still just her first day here. Kendra closed the door to her room and sat down on the bed. The window was cracked and a light breezed blew through the billowy curtains. Kendra was exhausted. She was always exhausted. She never slept and felt well rested, but when she didn't sleep she felt as if she was on the brink of death.

"You're safe here."  Kendra said to herself as she pulled her feet up into the bed and slipped beneath the covers.  She always had trouble sleeping in new places.  She assumed this place would be no different.  Only, Kendra was fast asleep moments after she laid down.  Her body had settled into the softness of the comforter and all of her anxiety had just slipped away. 

Kendra drew in a sharp breathe.  Looking down she could see herself sleeping.  She looked sad, lonely.  Kendra was surrounded by her own kind and yet she still felt alone.  A frown tugged at her lips as she sighed and moved over to the open window.  Kendra closed the window and slipped out into the hall.  Her body was slightly transparent.  A light pink glow enveloped her body as she moved through the hall.  She moved past a few people who were laughing and talking.  None of them even knew she was there.

Kendra had turned Ghost down for a tour earlier.  She knew that she would be dream walking tonight.  She hadn't figured out how to not dream walk when she slept.  She knew she'd spent the night wandering aimlessly through the halls of this place.  Who needs a tour when you're going to be exploring later anyways?  Kendra saw the living room and started to look around.  She looked at pictures on the walls of faces she hadn't come to know.  Her fingertips gliding over the edges of the table as she absentmindedly looked at this or that.  She sighed again.  Picking up a picture and studying it closely. 

Kendra didn't hear someone come in.  She didn't hear that someone else was in the room. She was so wrapped up in the picture of a youngish looking man.  Kendra wondered who he was.  HE was smiling in the photo, but for some reason to her he also looked a bit sad. 

"And who is this handsome fella?"  Kendra said quietly to herself.  Her voice travelled through the room.  Though it was quiet as her voice was soft and filled with quiet curiousity.  She was exploring after all.  She set the picture down.  The picture would have seemed as if it was floating in mid air all on it's own for a moment before she set it down. Kendra sometimes forgot that she couldn't be physically seen in this world even though she took up space and could easily bump into someone.  Kendra was about to meet some new in the mansion.  Whoever it was who entered the room.

Gemma was doing her usual rounds in the Mansion. She was not holding office hours, but there was always something going on in the building, and she liked to be visible and available, in case anyone wanted a word - or, more often, in case someone was getting into trouble.

For once, the living room seemed empty. There were some pizza boxes and books scattered around. Gemma sighed, rolling her eyes as she walked in, intent on picking up the trash. It was not her job, per se, but she hoped she would get a clue about who left it there in the first place, so that she could lecture them.

And then she saw the floating picture, and stopped in her tracks just inside the doorway.

Gemma did not believe in ghosts... but there were quite a few people on and off in the Mansion who could make such things happen.

>>"And who is this handsome fella?"

The voice seemingly came out of nowhere, and sounded like someone - a girl - was musing to herself. Gemma arched an eyebrow, glancing around. Not a soul. Whoever was talking had to be invisible.

"Hello" she said finally "Having a pizza party?..."

Kendra heard the voice behind her and she spun around and dropped the picture. The picture hit the edge of the table and then flipped down to the floor falling face down in the plush carpet. Kendra had been startled.  She was standing on the other side of the room from this new person in the room.  She saw the picture floating.  Way to go you can't even stay stealth when invisible.  Kendra said nothing.  She was going to play dumb . She didn't know who this woman was, but she seemed harmless.  Then again,  She couldn't see Kendra. 

Kendra took a step back.  She was on the other side of the rather large room.  It was a mansion all of the rooms were large, but this one, there was a good bit of distance between them.  Kendra noticed finally, the pizza boxes and messes strewn about the living room.  She hadn't been invited to a pizza party.  Finally Kendra finally spoke.  Her voice projected across the room and seemed to be coming from the back corner.  The back corner of the room was dark, but it was light enough to illuminate the fact that there was no one standing there. "Sorry I was just looking around the place, I'm  new here." 

Kendra didn't answer her question about the pizza party.  She figured it was a rhetorical question by one of the teachers here and she was in trouble for being out of her room to late.  She didn't know what the rules about curfew were here and honestly there should be some rules.  You couldn't just have mutants with potentially dangerous powers wandering around all hours of the night getting into mischief, yet here she was.  And sadly she had no way to shut her power down.  Rather than freak the poor woman out Kendra explained.  "I'm a dream walker.  I'm not really here, only kind of...."  Kendra didn't know how else to say it. She didn't even know if that would make sense to the woman.

Kendra had no idea if there were more dream walkers like her.  But when she filled out the paperwork that allowed her to stay in the mansion; she remembered someone saying "Ahhh so you're a dream walker"  As if they had seen one before.  Kendra stayed in the back corner of the room. 

Kendra wasn't a kid or a student.  She had long stopped fearing the teacher as a authoritative figure, but something still made her feel like she was about to get sent to the principals office for breaking curfew.  She didn't want to get the boot from the mansion when she had only just got here.  Even her luck wasn't that fantastically bad, and cataclysmically awful.

The picture dropped to the floor; it had not been floating then, as much as someone invisible had been holding it. Gemma noted that it became one more thing to pick up. But first things first: If she had startled the invisible person, she needed to make sure they did not bolt...

>> "Sorry I was just looking around the place, I'm new here."

"That's okay." Gemma nodded, stepping one step closer as she looked around. She could not see anything that could have been a person, not even in the darker corners of the room.

>>"I'm a dream walker. I'm not really here, only kind of...."

"Oh." Gemma nodded, recognizing the term. She was not the first dreamwalker to come to the Mansion... not even the second. Gemma remembered seeing something in the recent records about one. That meant she had to be... astral projecting?... into the room...

"Well... welcome to the Mansion, then" she smiled, trying to find a point to look at and talk to "My name is Gemma, I'm the school's guidance counselor. I'm also an adapted human... do you know what that is?"

"Kendra"  Said quietly.  She was nervously tugging at the hem of her shirt.  Kendra started to take a step further but stopped when she noticed the picture had fallen on the floor.  She stopped and picked it up and placed it back on the shelf where she had found it.

"My name is Gemma, I'm the school's guidance counselor. I'm also an adapted human... do you know what that is?"

Kendra shook her head no only to remember that she couldn't be seen by this woman.  She said it out loud and watched as the woman herself took a step forward.  She had never encountered an adapted human.  Truth be told her knowledge of the mutant world was pretty limited.  Some might think she had been living under a rock this whole time, but she honestly shied away from learning more about her mutation.  For the longest time she thought she was just having incredibly lucid vivid dreams, and chocked it up to being stressed or some other mundane factor.  It wasn't until she realized that she could pull objects back from her dreams with her that she realized something was going on in her body.  She couldn't explain it and she didn't look for answers.

It scared her.  To think that she was one of the mutants that everyone hated so much.  She hadn't been exposed to the culture of mutants having rights, or being treated with kindness.  Not in her down south backwards city in Georgia.  People weren't progressive there.  She only saw the violence and the mistreatment of mutants there.  She was terrified to get discovered.  It was one of the reasons she left.  She had heard rumors of a place in New York.  A mansion.  It was crazy to think the place existed, but here she was.  "My'n trouble? For break'n curfew or something?"  Kendra asked.  The nervousness bringing out the Georgia twang in her accent she normally tried to keep concealed. 

Kendra didn't move from the back corner,  She knew it disoriented people when she moved around them this way when she dream walked.  She could think about a fixed point and find herself there as if she had teleported in her dreams.  Blinking around the room and making it hard to know where she was.  She didn't do that.  She didn't 'Blink', she didn't budge.  Kendra just  leaned against the back wall and watched Gemma.  She said she was an adapted human.  She would be the first human she had ever met that DIDN'T have a problem with mutants.  That was a first for her.

 

>>"No...My'n trouble? For break'n curfew or something?"

Gemma could hear the hesitation in the girl's voice, even though she could not see her face. Some kids were hesitant about adapteds because of their powers; others had gotten false ideas from the Internet about how mutants and adapteds were sworn enemies. Add being an authority figure on top of that, and it made sense that most new students were not exactly comfortable around Gemma on their first meeting.

"You are not in trouble" Gemma assured her with a smile "I tell new residents that I am an adapted, because it affects your powers. If you get closer than seven feet to me, you powers will stop working completely, as long as you are in my aura."

It was a fair warning. Gemma did not use her aura on people who did not want to be affected by it; sometimes it happened on accident, but she took a lot of precautions to minimize the risks.

Kendra thought about what she said for a moment. She had the power to stop other people's powers ? How would that work? IF I get to close would I just wake up? Would I disappear? Kendra didn't know the logistics of what would happen to her if she got to close. She did know however that she was an incredibly light sleeper and her room was probably somewhere above this room. Kendra didn't know how far sound would travel in a mansion, but she briefly considered screaming to wake herself up. Just one loud piercing scream, a blood curdling shriek that would be sure to wake her up. That however would wake everyone else up as well and Kendra wasn't about to be the cause of all that.

Kendra then saw the phone on the table. It seemed to be just outside the affected radius. "I am not sure if that's going to hurt me or not, having my power cancelled." Kendra didn't mean to sound scared, but honestly she kind of was. What if having her dream walking self canceled out put her in a coma or something. A never ending slumber with no end? That would be terrible. 

"I'm going to make a call and then I'll be right down ok?" Kendra said as if that was something totally normal to say. Kendra knew it wasn't normal. And she was probably one of the only people in the world who could call herself on the phone to wake themselves up, but she picked up the phone and dialed her cell phone number. Back in her room the phone rang and Kendra was gone. The phone that was floating in the air moments before fell to the carpet and received a dial tone as the dream walker Kendra disappeared from this plain when she woke herself up in the waking world. 

Kendra awoke in her bed.  She remembered everything that transpired in her dream.  That was one good thing about her power, she could always remember what she dreamed because it wasn't just a dream it was something she actually lived through.  Kendra swung her feet out of bed and pulled on a warm wool sweater who's sleeves were just a tad to big, and she pulled on a pair of shoes.  Kendra moved quickly down the hall and down the stairs and headed back to the living room.  She walked in behind Gemma and cleared her throat.

"Hi.  I'm Kendra.  Nice to meet you."  She said crossing the room to shake her hand.  She wasn't afraid of her now, not that Kendra thought that Gemma was going to intentionally hurt her, but the idea of being stuck in an endless dream unable to wake up terrified her and she didn't want to take any chances.  Kendra moved quickly across the room and picked up the phone hanging it up.  All the while she had her hand out for a handshake to shake with Ms. Taylor. 

>>"I am not sure if that's going to hurt me or not, having my power cancelled... I'm going to make a call and then I'll be right down ok?"

Gemma nodded. She was a little confused about the invisible girl, but trusted her to know whether or not she wanted to get into her aura, so she stayed where she was in the doorway, curious to see what would happen next. Phone call? Was she going to ask for advice from someone?...
The phone rang, and then fell to the ground. Gemma blinked.

"Are you still here?..."

She paused, waiting for a response, but did not get any. Where did the girl go?... Silence stretched into minutes, and Gemma did not dare move from where she was standing. Finally, the voice spoke behind her.

>>"Hi. I'm Kendra. Nice to meet you."

Gemma turned, half expecting to not see anyone - but there she was, same voice, but this time very much visible. Gemma smiled and shook Kendra's hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Kendra. That was... you have very interesting powers. Are you okay with being inside my aura now?"

Kendra's nodded to Gemma's question. She didn't mind being inside her aura now.  The truth was. She had been scared though. What if the dream walker version of herself was negated but she didn't wake up. She didn't want to be trapped in a coma or something. Kendra shuddered a bit at the thought and stuck her hand out to shake.

Kendra normally carried a cell phone with her into her dreams.  It was easier that way.  If she got hurt, or in trouble.  If for some reason she needed to wake up immediately she could call herself on the phone and her body would respond.  She would hear the ring and force herself from the dream.  It was handy.  IF she got trapped in a fire, or if someone dangerous was chasing her.  She could just call herself and quickly get out of danger. 

Kendra took a step forward towards Gemma.  She was definitely within this radius now, though she didn't feel any different.  When Kendra was awake she was basically powerless.  She didn't have any mutant powers when she was awake that she was aware of, she'd be wrong.  But, as far as she knew when she was awake; she wasn't special in any way. 

"Figured, if'n we're gone meet'n be friends, you should see who you're talkin to."  Kendra said.  Her voice dripping with southern charm.  Kendra smiled.  It was late-ish, and she had woken herself up.  She didn't think she'd be able to fall back asleep tonight.  Falling asleep after waking up in the middle of the night had never really been her strong suite.  It didn't really matter though, she always woke up exhausted even if she slept eight hours.  "Are you a counselor here for the students? Or the adults as well?"  Kendra asked.

God knows she had her demons.  She felt instantly warm towards this woman.  Usually she was a bit apprehensive when meeting new people, but oddly enough she was warm to her.  She felt as if she was an old friend or an aunt.  Kendra never had a aunt, her only family was a mutant hating drunk who used to come in her room to slap her around.  Kendra didn't have exactly the happiest childhood memories.  It'd be nice to have someone to talk to, to confide in.

>>"Figured, if'n we're gone meet'n be friends, you should see who you're talkin to."

"I appreciate that." Gemma nodded with a smile. It was better to see the girl than to be talking to thin air. Not that she was not used to all kinds of mutants... still, in this form Kendra had no problem being her aura, which was nicer than trying to constantly keep the seven foot distance.

>>"Are you a counselor here for the students? Or the adults as well?"

"Anyone and everyone" Gemma smiled, nodding towards the couch to invite the girl to sit, as she sat down herself. "I tend to help any Mansion resident that needs advice, or a talk, or help with their powers... or rather, a break from them" she chuckled. Even the best controlled mutations could get exhausting sometimes.

Kendra moved closer into the room. It wasn't on purpose but she still had a hesitation to her step. She moved into the room slowly and sat down in front of her. She felt an odd calm washing over her as she got closer. Like her body was reacting to her.  Her body reacted to her presence by becoming relaxed. It was kind of soothing. Kendra moved farther into the room and sat down on the couch. She seemed nice enough, though she was still a little nervous around her. 

Kendra's powers developed when she was in high school. Up until that one day, she thought herself to be on the other side of the mutant problem. Just a human who sympathized with them for what they went through. The hatred, the abuse, simply for being different. She could relate to it. Her father was abusive. He blamed her for killing her mother. And when he found out she was a mutant the abuse got worse. Thankfully he didn't find out until she was almost done with High School and she got out of that house as quickly as she could.

Kendra could feel Gemma's eyes on her. She watched Gemma carefully.  Not that she didn't trust her, she was just uneasy around adapted humans. This was her first encounter with one. She usually found her mutation to be a chore, something she just had to live with. She wouldn't even know what to do with herself if it suddenly went away forever. Would she even be the same person she was today without her mutation?

Kendra didn't know the answers to these questions, but she found herself wondering. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was her ability to dream walk and astral project that made her who she was. "I thank I know who you are." She finally said.

"When Ghost was giving me the tour'o the place, she mentioned you and your fiancé. Said you were about to get married? Ima photographer. She mentioned maybe I could take some pictures for ya." Kendra smiled. She didn't know this woman other than this limited interaction, but she wanted to make a good first impression. Kendra's photographs were beautiful. Some of her pictures had even been blown up and she was able to seem them as art installations, she was a sought after photographer in her world. She would be happy to do the wedding photos for the lovely young couple. She had done a few weddings in her day.

Weddings always were some of her favorites. There was a love hate relationship with weddings though. Always the bride's maid never the bride kind of thing. She loved the beauty and love that surrounding them, but she found herself wanting more out of life at the same time. Kendra's thought drifted over to a certain girl she had met at the mansion. Emily. She started to blush lightly and the possibilities sprang up in her mind. She cleared her throat; realizing that she was 'daydreaming' a bit. "Not sure how long'i'll be here, but happy to help while I'm around. When's the wedding?"

>>"I thank I know who you are. When Ghost was giving me the tour'o the place, she mentioned you and your fiancé. Said you were about to get married? Ima photographer. She mentioned maybe I could take some pictures for ya."

"Oh." Gemma was a little surprised that the girl knew who she was. Granted, Mansion greeters giving the tour to new students often mentioned the guidance counselor, but it seemed like Kendra was not a student. Also, even if she knew there was a counselor, her knowing about the wedding was unexpected. Ghost must have been in a chatty mood. Gemma did not mind, though; actually, she was quite grateful for the offer. "That sounds lovely, actually."

>>"Not sure how long'i'll be here, but happy to help while I'm around. When's the wedding?"

"Uh..." Gemma blinked "We have not really set a date yet... but we don't want to wait too long. It will likely be a small affair, just for friends and family here at the school... But some professional pictures would be very nice." she smiled "Is that what you do, then? Photography?... What brings you to the Mansion?"

Kendra nodded.  The adapted human wasn't nearly as scary when she wasn't asleep.  Kendra felt like she could allow herself to relax a little more.  So she did.  She sunk down a little deeper into the soft comfy couch.  "Yes. I am a photographer.  Freelance mostly."  She said softly.  With a half interested finger she lifted the lid on the pizza box.  She was hungry.  She always was hungry.  It was amazing she was so skinny with how much she ate, but the pizza was fairly unappetizing. 

Kendra didn't want to bore Gemma with the specifics of it all, but that was how she kept a little cash in her pocket and until she lived here, a roof over her head.  Kendra was technically homeless.  Her landlord had found out she was a mutant and promptly evicted her.  The question of legality was shady at best, but she didn't want to stay where she felt discriminated against so she left without a fight. 

It wasn't but by chance that someone had told her about this place and she bought a bus ticket here.  One could say that she had been living under a rock, because she didn't even really know about the X-men's celebrity status in pop culture.  She was just a country girl from the south who wasn't exposed to many others like her until now.  Gemma was an adapted human she said.  Did that mean she was technically a mutant?  She wasn't sure how that worked.  She quietly wondered if Gemma had ever faced that kind of discrimination for her abilities. 

Kendra's own father was disgusted with the fact that she was a mutant.  Her own flesh and blood, though she could care less what he thought.  He was a degenerate drunk who didn't even deserve a daughter.  Kendra smiled lightly as she allowed the lid of the pizza box to fall.  Her eyes moved back up to meet Gemma's.  "I mean to say that'I.... Well.... I may be finding a place in the city at some point. I just heard this was a safe place for mutants to learn to understand'n control their powers." 

Controlling her powers was one of the main things that drew her here.  She'd love to have control over her dreams, to be able to shut off her dream walking and astral projection and just have a restful sleep for once.  She wasn't even sure if that was physiologically possible for her, but she was sort of desperate.  She shifted in her seat a little, wondering how Gemma would respond.  It wasn't like she was young enough to take the classes here.  How could she really help her?  "I guess I'm just tired of hiding that Ima mutant."

>>"I mean to say that'I.... Well.... I may be finding a place in the city at some point. I just heard this was a safe place for mutants to learn to understand'n control their powers... I guess I'm just tired of hiding that Ima mutant."

Gemma nodded with a smile. People came to the Mansion for many reasons... but the obvious one was definitely also the most common of them. It was still heartbreaking every time someone was cast out by family and friends because of their genetics. It did not get easier the more she encountered it.

"You have come to the best place for that" she told Kendra with a kind smile "And you can stay as long as you need. That is exactly what this playce was created for."

She tilted her head, wondering exactly how Kendra's powers worked. Part of her job was helping residents get the proper training for that they needed to learn to control their abilities.

"So... what part of your powers do you need to control? It looked to me like you do some kind of... astral projection?"

Kendra thought about it for moment. She had always had a hard time explaining how her powers worked, but she wanted to explain them as fully and as thoroughly as possible.  Kendra's hands were ringing nervously in her lap as she began to speak. "Well.. When I go'ta sleep. My'body makes a copy of itself. My mind is transferred over to this copy, like I Xeroxed myself. I can move thangs, and pick up thangs, If Ima dream'n and I wake up holding somethang, I'll have it in my hand lying in my bed when I wake up... It's all very strange."  She admitted. 

Kendra didn't know how to loosely define her power.  It had a lot of odds and ends.  "If I hurt myself while asleep, my body has injuries when I wake up, I can teleport around and I have'a higher tolerance for pain.  Thangs feel muted in the dream world.  They don't hurt as much.  I can never get a full night's sleep. I always go to bed exhausted and wake up the same way.  And...."  Kendra paused.

She wanted to find out more about something that had happened to her the other night, though she had no idea how she was going to explain that.  " The other night, I was wand'rin round the hedge maze, and I got lost.  I tried to concentrate on how to get outta it, but the harder I concentrated the more somethang weird happened.  It was like the edges of the maze began to ripple and break apart, like someone dropped a stone in'a pond and the ripple slowly started getting bigger and bigger."  Honestly, Kendra didn't know what it was that happened in the maze.   In actuality it was her pushing through the concepts of reality and crafting a dream.  She was a sleep, but she didn't realize that she could control what she dreamt.  She could set the stage like a play and make her dream world her own playground.  Those ripples at the edges of the maze was Kendra changing her surroundings within the dream.

Kendra concentrated so hard on getting out she accidentally caused the ripples and dream crafting she didn't even know she could do.  Though it gave her a massive migraine and a nose bleed.  She was scared to try it again.  She wouldn't try it again.  Anything that effected her mind terrified her.  She was constantly in the fear that she would get trapped inside a dream and her body would fall into a coma.  The thought of being invisible forever..... She didn't even want to think about it. 

"It was pretty scary."  She finally said after a long pause.  She was staring at the carpet as she told this story.  As if she were daydreaming and trying to recall all the details.  Kendra looked up at Gemma.  She wasn't sure if they could teach her how to control it, but being able to turn off the dream walking and just sleep through the night would be amazing.