As Arisa approached the door she noticed it swing open on its own, then her eyes landed on the boy standing next to it. The first thing that caught her attention were his eyes, glowing green, almost like green fire. He was dressed all in black which also caught he attention, darker people often did. She smiled as she approached the door then stopped at the stairs. “Did you open the door for me? Thank you so much.” Arisa was dressed equally as dark if not a bit more high end. Everything she wore was brand name from her Merlot colored lipstick to her Jimmy Chu black stiletto boots. “My, name is Arisa DeVeaux, I’m new to the school.” she looked over at Voltaire, “and this is Voltaire who was kind enough to keep me company during the walk up here.” She looked back up at the young man her honey golf eyes catching the sunlight and shimmering bright against her darkness.

Specter nodded to Arisa and Voltaire in turn. Well atlest he wasn't going to be the only new student starting here. "I am called Specter. This is actually my first week at the school. It is good to know that I will not be the only new student starting this term." Specter quickly appraised his fellow schoolmates. Arisa appeared to be the well off sort. Though she seemed to dress rather gothic he figured it was just a ploy to upset mommy and daddy. Voltaire looked like your average punk. He probably taped his hands up to look cool. So these where the sort of people Specter would be training with. Well if ether of them knew how to fight maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "I was just heading to the gmy for a work out. If you would like I could use a sparing partner."

Arisa smiled at the offer but it faded, “I'm sorry Specter, I would love to spar with you, however because of my mutation I am physically weak most of the time. But I would love to talk to you more sometime if your not busy. Yah know like about our powers and such, and anything else.” She felt bad for turning down his offer, she was already feeling tired just from walking up to the school. Granted she was out of breath and about to drop, but it wasn’t easy being weak all the time. She looked up at him again “perhaps Voltaire, you, and I could all get together later and get to know each other. I mean since we are all new here and everything.” She felt like she was struggling to make conversation, she hadn’t really had to deal with people since her parents death. She was so afraid of hurting someone but she had to move beyond fear if she was going to be able to grow and move on.

(OOC: Hope I'm okay intruding at this point. If y'all would like me to wait, just let me know. Otherwise, feel free to stick something in between when Neena appears and returns.)

"Whoops! 'scuse me! Whoa!"

Neena appeared from the living room with a huge box, headed for the front door. A number of branches and other pieces of wood stuck out of the container, effectively hiding the older woman's top half from view. However, her path to the door didn't waver, nor did her stride, though at times her burden threatened to tumble over.

"Hi Malik, Marcus, and friend. 'scuse me friends."

She headed out the door with her bundle, and down the driveway toward the dumpster.

-------------------------------------------------

Several minutes later she returned the way she'd come, finding the trio still in the front room.

"Hiya ki-friends." She corrected herself, remembering what Marcus had mentioned about calling everyone kiddo. It was a habit, and probably one she would never break herself of completely, but that didn't bother a bit.

She smiled and bowed slightly and waved to the young lady, then the boys. She didn't offer her hand to any of them out of respect for Voltaire, though she wasn't sure if the other two would notice.

"I don't believe I'm met you yet, m'friend." She addressed the girl. "Name's Neena."

Behind the mirrored sunglasses, the dark-skinned teacher did her usual scan, looking for weaponry and the like.

She paused, then looked at them each in turn.

"My you three are certainly dark today. Is it cold out or something?" Considering Neena herself was dressed all in black herself, with the exception of a giant snowy owl flying across her shirt, that may have seemed an odd question. Then again, only her dress was dour. Her bright and bubbly attitude seemed to cancel out the darkness.

(OOC: Don't mind if i do =p)

As they walked up the door was "magicly" opening. There was a darkly dressed person leaning on the stair. Arisa took the liberty of introducing herself and Voltaire to the person.

"I am called Specter. This is actually my first week at the school. It is good to know that I will not be the only new student starting this term."

"Nice to meet you, specter" He replied. "I actually arrived about a week ago too." He felt out of order seeing as everyone around him was fully dressed in black.

“perhaps Voltaire, you, and I could all get together later and get to know each other. I mean since we are all new here and everything.”

"Sure why not." He replied. And then suddenly Neena walked by with some trash in her hand. She greeted everybody and walked to the dumpster. As she returned she greeted everybody again. Voltaire was a bit starled by the display but i guess Neena was that kind of person. She always seemed friendly enough.

"My you three are certainly dark today. Is it cold out or something?"

"I was actually enoying the garden in the sun, until i came across a new student." He replied. Voltaire found himself a bit "Charged" after not doing his exercises yet. "Well i guess my work is here is done." He said with a bit of sarcasm. "I'm off to the gym for my excersises, bye everybody." He said and gave them a short goodbye wave as he walked down the hallway to find the gym.

Arisa had declined Specter's offer for a sparing match saying that he powers made her weak. Well that was one excuse that would help her from getting her hands dirty, but Specter doubted it would work if she ever ended up in a real fight. Then before Voltaire could answer Neena poped out of nowhere running one of her many errends. At lest this time she wasn't calling everbody kiddo left and right. Neena disappeared like a flash out the front door then returned a moment later to introduce herself to the new student. As she commented on everyones attire Specter gave Neena a look as if to say she knew that he always dressed like this. Finally Voltaire was able to get a word in mentioning that he was also a new student, and that he was thinking about hitting the gym. "I was just going for a work out myself Voltaire. Would you mind if I joined you? Arisa you are in good hands with Neena. She will be able to show you around this place far better than we would have. Maybe we will take a rain check on the talk?"

"I was just going for a work out myself Voltaire. Would you mind if I joined you?

Voltaire turned his head around and said:" Sure why not, if you can handle it." He then put his hands back into his pockets and walked of into the hallway on his way to the gym saying:"Goodbye Arisa and Neena, till next time."

Arisa had been a bit startled when a woman carrying a rather large box had come gliding through the door, greeted, and continued down the drive. Arisa was impressed however, the women never even stumbled. Upon her return she introduced herself as Neena, Arisa smile “My name is Arisa DeVeaux I can’t recall who I spoke to the other day on the phone but they told me just to come on in with my belongings and such.” Arisa absently flipped her hair over her shoulder as she spoke, she wasn’t sure why but she felt a bit intimidated by the woman. Though Neena was very pretty and had a sweet personality, something about the way she stood made Arisa a bit uneasy. When the boys left them Arisa felt something inside her sink a little, all three of the new people she had met left so quickly. Not that she was surprised. After all these people did have lives and things to do, Arisa was just the new kid on the block. But that did help her feel any less alone in all of this. After having spent a little more then a year in near isolation, save being around her grandmother, Arisa had pretty much cast off the idea of friends. So why was it that now she felt the need for companionship so badly. She shook her head and turned her attention back to Neena, “I’m sorry if I seem nervous Ms. Neena, being around people again isn’t easy for me. I was hoping to speak to someone about my powers and see if there is anything that can be done to help me control them better. I guess I’m just worried about being turned away because of what I can do.” Sorrow and frustration crept across her pretty face, it was plane to see that Arisa had suffered with something awful.

"I was actually enoying the garden in the sun, until i came across a new student," Voltaire remarked. Neena nodded.

"Sun's always nice, especially in the garden. Great for sleeping."

"Well i guess my work is here is done. I'm off to the gym for my excersises, bye everybody."

Mentally she made a note to drop in and see how he was doing. She could tell from his voice he wasn't the happiest camper on campus at the moment.

"I was just going for a work out myself Voltaire. Would you mind if I joined you? Arisa you are in good hands with Neena. She will be able to show you around this place far better than we would have. Maybe we will take a rain check on the talk?"

"Sure why not, if you can handle it."

As the two of them headed down the hall, Neena glanced and the young lady, a comical grimace on her face. "Is it my breath?" Her smile showed she was teasing.

“My name is Arisa DeVeaux I can’t recall who I spoke to the other day on the phone but they told me just to come on in with my belongings and such.” She seemed very uneasy, but Neena put it down to New Student Jitters. “I’m sorry if I seem nervous Ms. Neena, being around people again isn’t easy for me. I was hoping to speak to someone about my powers and see if there is anything that can be done to help me control them better. I guess I’m just worried about being turned away because of what I can do.”

Ah, that explained things. Taking a detour from her usual carefree manner, Neena adopted a more serious approach. Not overly so, and her smile never faded, but enough that Arisa wouldn't think she was laughing at her expense. She also didn't correct her for calling her 'Ms.'

"Arisa! Nice to meet you finally. I got the message you were coming." After plucking a New Resident Folder off of the foyer table, Neena motioned for her to follow her into the nearby living room.

"Don't worry, m'friend. If we turned away everyone with a dangerous power or no control, this place would be emptier than ping pong ball." She sat on one of the chairs, and patted the couch, indicating for Arisa to sit as well.

"How 'bout we start with a simple power rundown, m'friend. And I can guarantee no one is withing hearing distance right now." She smiled kindly, and took off her glasses, revealing her near-white gaze.

"Arisa! Nice to meet you finally. I got the message you were coming." After plucking a New Resident Folder off of the foyer table, Neena motioned for her to follow her into the nearby living room.

Arisa was pleasantly surprised by the upbeat manner Neena surrounded herself with, it was comforting. As she followed Neena into the near by living room the woman spoke again.

"Don't worry, m'friend. If we turned away everyone with a dangerous power or no control, this place would be emptier than ping pong ball." She sat on one of the chairs, and patted the couch, indicating for Arisa to sit as well.

Arisa smiled when she heard this, it made her feel infinitely better to know she wasn’t alone in the dangerous power department. She sat gracefully on the couch and crossed her legs, she placed her hands in her lap and waited for Neena to speak again.

"How 'bout we start with a simple power rundown, m'friend. And I can guarantee no one is withing hearing distance right now." She smiled kindly, and took off her glasses, revealing her near-white gaze.

She became nervous after simply hearing the question, she felt like she wanted to run and hide. Then Neena removed her sunglasses and exposed her shimmering white eyes. They reminded Arisa of the full moon and she wished for a moment that her mutation could be half as beautiful. She the to a deep breath and began to explain her ability, at least as far as she understood it.

”From what I can guess my powers have something to do with sickness, disease. They were triggered when…when a very bad person tried to hurt me. I got so afraid that I kind of, I dunno, black out? And when I came too there was this black mist coming off of me…and the man and my parents were…”

She stopped and looked as though she might break down into tears…

”From what I can guess my powers have something to do with sickness, disease. They were triggered when…when a very bad person tried to hurt me. I got so afraid that I kind of, I dunno, black out? And when I came too there was this black mist coming off of me…and the man and my parents were…”

Arisa stopped, and Neena saw her eyes shining. She went with her first reaction, which was to get up and sit beside the girl, and put one arm around her shoulders. She squeezed gently.

"Take your time, m'friend. Let's just focus on the mutation right now, not the memories that go with it."

She waited until Arisa was ready to continue before asking anything else.

"Now then, this mist. Have you found out what it does? Like, maybe, suck away oxygen? Or decay matter? Or maybe something else, say having to do with shadows or draining life energy?"

While all of those possibilities could be frighteningly deadly, the tone of voice Neena used made them all sound as normal as breathing oxygen. And the arm on Arisa's should never wavered either, not giving any hint of unease or fear that such proximity might not be healthy for Neena.

When Neena moved closer Arisa’s gut reaction was to move as far away as possible. Though she had just met her she was already quite fond of the woman. But she didn’t move, she couldn’t at the moment. She was to afraid that if she moved her nerves would snap and her powers would go wild. So instead she sat there, and when Neena hugged her she was frighted, but for only a moment. The moment Neena squeezed her shoulder and told her everything was alright she instantly calmed. Perhaps Neena had some kind of calming ability.

Arisa took a deep breath to clear her head and then began to explain all she knew about her powers. ”As I said before it has something to do with diease, when it makes contact with organic matter it causes different things to happen. Most of the things that occur are similar to certain illnesses. The man who attacked me fell into a seizure. My…my parents became violently ill, vomiting and what not. Um…the man who attacked me also developed odd lesions in his skin. When I looked it up on the internet later I discovered it’s something called necrosis. If the mist comes into contact with plant life they simply die and wither and turn black. The only thing I was able to find about black mist that has effects like this is something called…uh…me-asthma or something. (OOC: I did intend to spell that wrong lol)

Arisa looked very unsure of what she was talking about and shook her head. ”I’m sorry Neena…I wish I knew more, but I don’t…I don’t know what I am…other then a monster…”

Neena felt Arisa tense under her grip, and she wonder idly if her power would activate from the stress. That could end up a bit of a problem....

But nothing happened, and after a few moments, the girl continued on. She listened the explanation carefully, and with her free hand she flipped open the folder. She wrote down a shortened version under the mutation question. For the question asking if it was a danger to other or herself, she checked 'Yes', then closed the folder and handed it to Arisa.

" 'My-asthma'?" she parroted. She muttered the word under her breath a few times, searching for the correct definition and pronunciation. Abruptly her eyes lit up. "Oh! 'Miasma'. Got it, got it." She smiled and nodded.

"Okay, that gives me a good description to start with. So then, from what you're saying, I gather this mist kicks in when you're stressed, right? Can you remember anything afterward, or do you just kind of black out? And how about warnings before the mist starts to appear?"

Abruptly she stopped, realizing she was bombarding the young lady with questions likely to make her just the much more uncomfortable.

"Oh, I'm sorry, m'friend. I guess I get a bit carried away when I meet new people. Mutations fascinate me, ya know?" She smiled to try and ease the tension.

”I’m sorry Neena…I wish I knew more, but I don’t…I don’t know what I am…other then a monster…”

Neena squeezed her shoulder again. "You're not a monster until you allow yourself to stop caring. So far, all I see is a teenage girl who has a bit more than dating to worry about on a daily basis."

She truly sympathized with Arisa on the guilt associated with her parents. Neena still felt the weight of guilt over her own mother's death, nearly thirty years past. It was a feeling likely to never disipate.

Arisa took a deep breath again, now was not the time to get Emo on the woman who was trying to help her. She looked over at Neena and smiled. “It’s ok, I know you need to ask questions if you’re going to help me with control. Ask me anything you like.” Arisa paused and thought for a moment, “I am able to direct my powers, I worked with them a little bit. I used meditation and yoga to keep me centered. If I focus I can direct the mist using my hands, it helps even more if I blow into my palm like I’m blowing powder or something. I’ve also noticed a hissing sound, kind of like a snake but…scarier I suppose. It starts just before the mist appears. I only lose control of my power when under extreme stress, like fear.”

Arisa reaches up and tucks her hair behind her ears, she tries to think if there is anything else. And then her eyes darken, “also I think my saliva is toxic. Once when I had given my grandmother a kiss on the cheek these black veins spread from where I had kissed her. She had to go to the hospital for about a week. The gave her some really strong antibiotics and she got better. I don’t know if anything else inside me is toxic but it’s possible. Also, I think my powers weaken me in a way. Ever since the appeared I have been physically weak. Just walking up the drive to the Mansion made me tired if that gives you any indication.” Arisa looked over at Neena again, “I hope that helps, and feel free to take like…DNA samples or something if you need to.”

“I am able to direct my powers, I worked with them a little bit. I used meditation and yoga to keep me centered. If I focus I can direct the mist using my hands, it helps even more if I blow into my palm like I’m blowing powder or something. I’ve also noticed a hissing sound, kind of like a snake but…scarier I suppose. It starts just before the mist appears. I only lose control of my power when under extreme stress, like fear.”

Neena nodded, making mental notes for later. But she refrained from asking anymore questions for the moment, allowing Arisa to finish this time.

“also I think my saliva is toxic. Once when I had given my grandmother a kiss on the cheek these black veins spread from where I had kissed her. She had to go to the hospital for about a week."

Neena wrinkled her nose a bit. She hated doctors and hospitals.

"The gave her some really strong antibiotics and she got better. I don’t know if anything else inside me is toxic but it’s possible. Also, I think my powers weaken me in a way. Ever since the appeared I have been physically weak. Just walking up the drive to the Mansion made me tired if that gives you any indication.”

"Mmkay," she murmured absently.

“I hope that helps, and feel free to take like…DNA samples or something if you need to.”

That made Neena laugh softly. "What? You were expecting us to be mad scientists, looking for a new experiment?" she teased. "I think we can use a few more conventional means to help you out." She began ticking off points on her fingers. "You mentioned meditation and yoga? Those are an excellent start to gaining focus. If you can find a way to keep yourself calm, even under stress, there's half your battle right there."

"For the mist, we'll see what we can do about creating an environment where you can safely practice with it, without fear of hurting anyone." Neena was a firm believer in embracing mutation, rather than fighting it, but she realized that was easier said than done for those with dangerous abilities, like Arisa.

"Physical weakness can be lessened with some basic endurance lessons. Likely that will take longer, and be something you'll need to practice for life, since it's tied in with your mutation. But in the long run, if nothing else, it's simply good, old-fashioned healthy for ya."

"As for checking out your saliva, yeah, that'll probably take a DNA test to figure out. But we can worry about that later, m'friend. For now, let's worry about the immediate problem right now. And that's finding you a room, and showing you around."

Did Marcus and Malik start a tour with you already, or should we start from scratch?"

Neena smiled brightly at Arisa, trying to lighten the girl's mood a bit.