Boots crunched on gravel in that cliché purposeful sort of way, birds twittered in the background and flew low overhead, trees scattered in a thinly forest like sort of terrain and large gates loomed in front of him, wrought iron in appearance, and slightly ominous. Cafas was reminded of a movie he had seen once, or perhaps it had been a book read, then again, it could have been ten, of each. Ah yes cliché scenes, life's miracle of human fantasy, or rather, human mimicry. Regardless the gate posed an issue as he could not actually get through it. There was an intercom, but he didn't see any reason to use it in the bright of the day. Laying a finger against the metal C.J. channelled his power and bent the metal apart to form a gap large enough for him and his luggage. Passing the two rather travel worn bags through, with their grime, patches and triply repaired stitching, Cafas stepped between the now bent outward pieces of metal. In hindsight he could have just dropped the boiling point of the lock and completely vaporised it, but live and learn. Grabbing the two metal rods he used his gift to reform them the way they had been and picked up his things, reaching through the gate with one arm and pressing the buzzer on the intercom system.

However what he had thought to be an intercom turned out to be a plaque, well, that's what you get for glancing so briefly. He had an idea of that it might say however. 'Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters' He had been internally chanting the name since Australia. It hadn't taken long to find it on the internet, all he had to do was type in Xavier on Google, it was a name synonymous with mutants, and had proven reliable. Approaching the manor via its rather lengthy driveway Cafas parked himself on a nice patch of green turf and waited. He had no idea what would happen but he was absolutely certain that someone had noticed him, given the security threat this place would be under constantly.

Pulling the sleeves of his brown trench coat down over his wrists C.J. waited. He thought he must have looked like a detective given the coat and wondered if the look would be spoiled if he were to expose the graphic-splashed tee shirt he was wearing under it. It wasn't exactly a cool day after all. From his hip, at the left, hung a sword, leaf bladed, sheathed and about 75cm of blade, on his back, currently over the trench coat was a round shield, both were made of steel and within grabbing reach should he be attacked.

And so he sat and waited, black cap pulled low over reflective wrap-arounds, adequately excited, hair sticking out from under the hat, wondering what would happen to him and his rather tatty bags.

"Don't stop me now, don't need to catch my breath...I can go on and on and on
When the lights go down and there's no one left, I can go on and on and on..." Arielle sang as she sat at Sam's desk finishing up some paper work on the recent arrivals to the mansion. At least she was. At the moment, the water elemental had Madonna blasting from the stereo while holding her pen like a microphone and singing into the tip. Unfortunately her performance was cut short as she heard the buzzer on the intercom go off. Since Sam, Shawn and Shin were busy it was her duty to be on call to greet anyone who would come today. Wait...

"How is it I share an office with guys who's names all start with S?" she asked herself because she never really noticed until now. She shrugged it off and moved to press the button of the intercom. "Hello, I'll be right there" she said, her voice still accented with traces of her brazilian heritage. She got up out of Sam's chair...which she hated because it was so comfortable. Oh well, duty was duty and so she got up out of her chair and exited the office.

When she arrived at the door, Arielle opened it and found herself standing before some guy with...pink hair. Well...considering she lives in a house full of mutants, she shouldn't be really surprised by an unusual hair color...but it was just hilarious to see a well built guy with dark pink hair and it had hot pink streaks. He was tall...then again, so was pretty much everyone who lived at the mansion. Arielle herself only standing 5'3, the only people who didn't tower over her were the preteens.

"Hello, welcome to the mansion." Arielle smiled tucking her hair behind her ears. "My name is Arielle. I'm the greeter today. How are you and how can I help you?" she asked in a pleasant tone. Looking forward past the stranger, Arielle's jaw dropped when her eyes caught the bent condition of the gates. "Please...please tell me you were not the one who did that..." she pointed to the gates.

The mansion door opened and revealed a young woman, brown skin shining beautifully in the sun in that way only black skin could, straight caramel hair hanging down her back. Cafas, who had no concept of beauty and suffering from a broken heart still mending after two years, stood from his seated position, jogged up the stairs and onto the level with the girl then opened his mouth to respond, however he was cut short by the girl's disbelieving expression. "Please... please tell me you were not the one that did that..." The statement struck him as odd so he turned to follow the girl, Arielle's, eye line to the still rather bent looking gate. " Well, I'm C.J. and I regret to inform you that was me, I can fix it if you like." He wasn't quite sure why he opened his mouth, probably some sub conscious will to be accepted. It didn't matter, he had said it, and any possible harm that could be done had been walked right into, like a brick wall. He was kind of ticked that he hadn't completely repaired what he had done, but it didn't really bother him to have another go. "And I'd like to apply for residency here, I've got no where else to go, and I was rather violently chased from my home for reasons I'm sure you'd be able to guess, so I came here."

'Yup, way to make it all worse for yourself.'

After all day listening to the New York city accent the Arielle's voice was like music to his ears, although his accent, whilst not traditionally aussy, like the crocodile Dundee guy, was very apparent to him, despite Sydney being to the outback as New York was to Alabama accent-wise, but he wasn't here to discuss accents. On the flight over C.J. had celebrated his nineteenth birthday with true style, in a turbulent plane's cargo hold, amongst all the strapped down luggage and other odds and ends. Not a comfortable birthday party by any stretch of the imagination. He had completely forgotten his birthday at the time, but he liked to celebrate. Perhaps he would celebrate better here. Damned American drinking laws.

'I didn't drink anyway. New life new habits? No, bad, we'll stick as it was!

The institute seemed to be outside the range of the perpetual smog cloud of the city and for that C.J. was grateful. He was feeling rather good in fact, well, as good as he could after a rather tumultuous flight, no sleep and a day in New York. Yup, just that awesome. His arms ached, his legs were barely holding him up and he was having a lot of trouble keeping his eyes open but he refused to show weakness to this woman he had just met. Or maybe he would. Barely two seconds after he had spoken C.J. dropped to the ground again, face first onto what he was going to assume to be marble steps, he in reality had not idea, but they were nice and cool.

' Hmm legs do not like almost forty eight hours of activity, who would have guessed.

From his vantage point on the ground C.J. could see nothing but for the pool of red expanding from his now sufficiently grounded nose. It wasn't broken, just bleeding, however it was almost impossible for him to move under a bag of solid metal weaponry. Next to his eyes he caught sight of his suitcase but it swum in and out to much so he gave up on it before he vomited too. It had been a tough couple of days and C.J. was ready to go to sleep. He didn't, after all, he most likely had papers to fill out, but he was ready to. "Not to be a burden or anything Arielle, but could you grab the camping bag off my back, and the shield?" She seemed nice enough, but he wondered, could she lift the thirty kg the bag weighed?

'About to find out I guess'

Arielle's eyes narrowed as the new arrival confessed to the damaged that had been done to the front gates. "Well...you know we have an intercom out there right? Most people usually use that when they want entrance to the mansion. Just throwing that little piece of information out there to you. As for fixing it, someone else can handle it...." she said with a shrug. Perhaps this little event will prompt Streak to do another security upgrade or something. Arielle crossed her arms over her chest with the paper work in her right hand and looked back up to the man. He introduced himself as CJ and his desire to become a mansion resident.

"Not a problem at all sweetie. It's hard out there for people like us and that's why this school exists. You came to the right place. All we need to do is fill out some paper work and...Oh my god!" the water elemental screamed as she jumped back from CJ's collapse to the ground under the weight of his luggage.

"Not to be a burden or anything Ariell, but could you grab the camping bag off my back, and the shield?"

He didn't really have to ask and it wasn't a burden at all. She wasn't going to leave him there collapsed especially when he was bleeding. She walked behind the young man, removing the shield and then the bag...a rather heavy bag that she struggled to remove. She wasn't exactly all muscle after all. "Wow..what did you do? Pack your whole room in this thing? Jeez..." she said after managing to get the bag off of him. Kneeling down she helped to sit him back up and started to take a closer inspection at his bloody nose. "You...really know how to make a first impression...." she laughed jokingly. "Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see you need a break and probably a meal too. Come on so we can get you settled in and cleaned up.." she said walking over to his luggage and started to drag each bag one by one into the mansion and sitting them next to the wall on the inside. Once that was done, Arielle returned to CJ helping him back up to his feet and slipping herself under his arm for support as they made their way inside.

'Well, this is fun'

C.J. allowed himself to be pulled into a sitting position and watched his stuff get dragged inside. Aside from a blood-nose he also had a split knee, he could see his jeans soaking the blood into the fabric and sighed. He had about three pairs of pants total packed, and the jeans were so far the only pair not patched, restitched or crudely repaired in some other way. Realising he had been spoken to he waited for the girl, who had been struggling with his weapon supply a second ago, returned and replied. "I probably do at that, hell I don't remember a time in the past two years that I slept under a proper roof. Fair bit of an upgrade I suppose. So about these papers?" He enquired as she helped him to his feet and slipped under a shoulder for support. Pinching his nose he offered a smile. Even after all this time he found it hard not to be friendly to people who talked to him, so long as he didn't have to make the first move. Politely slipping out from her support he made his way in, walking slightly off balance, but he was sure that would pass, all he really needed was to get the bag off.

' Urgh damned back, even after all this time the effort of carrying that stuff all day hasn't reduced.'

Once inside the doors Cafas straightened out, hearing the telltale cracks in his vertebrae, those ones that said 'it's been a while since I didn't have to carry thirty kilos' Walking now at the full six foot two he was, without straining his back with a soldier's posture, no he stood pretty easy, not slouching but not rigid. He unclipped his sword from his belt and placed it on the pile of, now that he looked at them, rather destroyed bags. Walking over to a desk, still with unfinished papers on it, C.J. waited. Turning to Arielle he spoke again, another question. " If you don't mind me asking, who's in charge around here?" C.J. picked up the nearest pen and hoped there wasn't too much stuff to write, he was tired, hungry and truth be told sick of having to fight to survive. Perhaps he could get a job at the mansion? Nah that sounded way too boring, maybe he could get one in New York City. Way too much hassle. Possibly he would go the mansion, heck it had a pool, what more could he ask than safe haven, somewhere to float and read and food? A library, but he was sure they'd have one.

'Oh man, I could really go some real food, none of this fast food junk. Potato bake sounds nice, like... like mum used to make'

A tear wanderd its way down C.J.'s face, through the grime to disapear in his stubble. followed by a few more, and two years of pent up emotion poured itself out.

'Note to self, shave, and stop making a scene, mummy doesn't love you any more. That was supposed to stop the tears not make you cry harder!'

"Two years?" Arielle raised an eyebrow at CJ as he explained his situation. She couldn't really say that she could relate because to be honest, Arielle was rather spoiled. Born in one of the most popular vacation spots in the world, her parents had an upper middle class income and her boyfriend was banking too. This guy didn't have it as easy. She showed him back to Sam's/Shawn's/Shin's office and offered him a seat while she took Sam's chair once more.

"Well, we have a head mistress, Tricity, but there are also several other instructors here at the institute. It doubles as a safe haven for mutants and as a school, so I mean if you want to take some courses or anything, you're more than welcome to... " she spoke opening a drawer and taking out a first aid kit so that she would be able to clean his nose. Looking back up, she noticed the tear that leaked from his eye and then another...another...and it just seemed to all pour out. She didn't know him on a personal level, but she could tell by his exhaustion and the small tidbits of his life he did tell to her that he was very much troubled. Ari may have been sassy and harbored a bit of an attitude, but even she knew how to comfort someone. The brazilian got up out of her chair and strolled around the desk. Stopping in front of the pink haired man, she enveloped him into a light hug and patted him on the back soothingly as a mother would do a child. "It's obvious you've been through some hard times, but I promise you made a good decision by coming here. Just think of it as a new start. You'll be alright. I'll make sure on that personally. And don't be embarrassed about crying. It shows that you have a soul..."

"It's obvious you've been through some hard times, but I promise you made a good decision by coming here. Just think of it as a new start. You'll be alright. I'll make sure on that personally. And don't be embarrassed about crying. It shows that you have a soul..."

'Just a few you know...

"It's been so long since I've been anywhere safe," he said, wiping away a mixture of snot and now congealing blood, "I haven't thought about my life before this in quite a while, my mum and dad always seemed liked they loved me to the ends of the earth... I guess I was wrong." He stemmed the flow of tears and breathed deeply. He didn't come here to sob all day, perhaps later he could let it out a bit better, but he had to get through all the official stuff first.

'I really need a place to stay, and be safe, perhaps I can help, at the moment I have no other real choice, although that metal woman seemed to have somewhere good enough to live. Never mind, here is where I stay.'

Arielle’s kindness only served to further his determination to stay at the mansion, after all, if everybody was that nice it would be more comfortable here than he had thought. A veritable oasis of acceptance in the desert of alienation he had come to expect. Running a finger over the wood of the desk he marvelled at the grandeur of the mansion itself, and decided if he was going to stay anywhere it would be here, until he had good reason not to.

'Although I must stop that whole falling over on the stairs business'

"Do you guys have a specific administration office? Or can I fill in al the papers here? Also, is there anything I can do around here to help, I've become quite adept in my time as a blacksmith if there's any call for one. I don't know really. Also, how much do I have to pay around here to keep myself housed?" The room smelled faintly like all upper-class places do, that almost corky smell, it hung in the air like some status banner, but C.J. highly doubted everyone in the mansion to be of high breeding, in fact, he doubted anyone in the mansion was, although, that was only due to the fact that he never could quite picture an upper-class person needing a safe haven.

'Never know, the upper class may be more strict on mutants within the family than the lower.'

Although she didn't blatantly say say ewww, thats what went through her mind when she saw CJ wipe away the snot and the blood. Definitely not a sight she wanted to see. She realized him and walked back over to the kit she pulled out, taking out some sterilized wet naps and taking one out before returning to clean his nose. "Well like I said...you have somewhere safe to stay now..." she said applying the wet nap to his nose to clean it. "As for your parents...well, I can tell you that you're not the only one here who doesn't have their family anymore...so we welcome them into ours and you are more than welcome to accept the invitation." she smiled.

"I'm not sure if theres anything around here for you to do, but if you really want to, I'm sure we can find something, but you don't have to do anything. Living here won't cost you a dime or any labor. Room and board and food is all free. And you're in the right place for the paper work. You can fill them out here and I'll take care of the rest."" she said tossing the bloodied cloth into the garbage and squirting some hand sanitizer into her hands and rubbing it in as she took a seat back in Sam's chair.

"You have two options. Option A, we can get the paperwork done right here and out of the way now. Option B, we can get to it later because you really should take a rest. And perhaps bathe...I mean not to offend you but I'm not letting you walk around like that. You have a place to stay now, you have no excuse for being all grimy and stinky. " she chuckled. "We can get you something to eat if you'd like also. I'm not letting you walk around funky and not on an empty stomach either. .." she smirked. Even with new comers, Arielle kept it sharp to the point. While Shin or Sam might have not said anything about CJ's appearance and odor, aloud anyways, Arielle didn't have a problem stating it. Besides, she had his best interest in mind...as well as the other residents. No need to be wreaking up the halls.

ooc. Sorry this took so long, my PC took a bit of a holiday from functioning land...

IC.

Cafas felt her let go and thought it may have been his rather ungraceful nose wipe, but it could have been something else, heard the first aid kit being searched and things taken out and felt a wipe of some description against his blood and snot covered face. He wouldn't have been surprised if it left a white patch like people get in movies, after explosions, under their goggles.

"As for your parents...well, I can tell you that you're not the only one here who doesn't have their family anymore...so we welcome them into ours and you are more than welcome to accept the invitation."

'I might take her up on that offer.'

"Thanks, I'll do that, I need people to trust, it's been a while for me." Cafas Said, as Arielle wiped the blood away. Good thing too, he looked bad enough as it was, unshaven, grime smeared and, less detectably under his many layers, all two of them, he was almost imperceptibly bruised. He found that fact annoying in some ways, despite being pummeled by baggage on the plane he didn't even have a decent mark.

"I'm not sure if theres anything around here for you to do, but if you really want to, I'm sure we can find something, but you don't have to do anything. Living here won't cost you a dime or any labor. Room and board and food is all free. And you're in the right place for the paper work. You can fill them out here and I'll take care of the rest."

'free board? I like the sounds of that.

"Well then I might just rest for a little while, I must have pure jet lag in my veins at the moment, so I'll have odd sleeping patterns but I'm sure I'll get over it." As he watched the girl rub sanitizing fluid onto her hands he pondered his own lack of a decent shower in recent days, and wondered if perhaps he would come out of the shower a few kilograms lighter, or just completely was away in the flow. It didn't seem so far fetched to him as a concept.

'For all I know I may rust as a mutation side effect.

"You have two options. Option A, we can get the paperwork done right here and out of the way now. Option B, we can get to it later because you really should take a rest. And perhaps bathe...I mean not to offend you but I'm not letting you walk around like that. You have a place to stay now, you have no excuse for being all grimy and stinky. We can get you something to eat if you'd like also. I'm not letting you walk around funky and not on an empty stomach either..."

'Paperwork now or shower now... Well I'm not getting any less dirty and as for food, I don't feel terribly hungry right now, paperwork now it is then. Wait did she just say I stink? Probably the truth.'

"I'll take paperwork now, that way I at least have somewhere to drop all that junk. Then shower and food. On a side note, do you know anywhere I could earn a few bucks to buy some new stuff, my clothes are all rather tatty looking and I've had to sew about an extra three or four inches onto the bottom of everything but these jeans, which I just let the cuff out of." C.J. smiled, scanning the desk for the correct forms. However he couldn't read upside down very well and thought it best to let Arielle hand it to him. Outside a bird took off with a rather loud flutter of wings and Cafas' hand shot to his left side, purely out of habit, but no sword. He even remembered having taken the weapon off.

'Damned bird. Really need to lay off the jumpy juice though...'

Realising there was in fcat a whole pile of the forms on the corner of the desk C.J. smacked himself on the forehead in a typical sign of failure and proceeded to fill it out with the provided pen. He thought he must have looked a bit dense having not noticed. With a small chuckle he filled out the necessary information, giving an apprehensive look to some parts but finishing none the less. "Hey, I'm going to take this to the office. Thanks for the help before." alchemist had just spied a sign and stairwell directing toward said office and thought it perhaps best to not cause the desk to be unmanned. Standing and grabbing his supplies C.J. made a beeline for the offices.