He had been standing there for a good thirty minutes, now. From the view point of, say, a security camera, he would seem like an ominous figure, staring with an almost measured fixation at the mansion on the other side of the gate. A closer glance, perhaps one from inside the head of the man that stood there, would show a myriad of thoughts ranging from 'What the hell am i doing here?' to 'I wonder if my breath smells... Don't wanna make a bad impression...". He hadn't tried to approach as of yet due nervousness, more than anything else. What if this was the wrong place? What if they didn't want him there, and booted him at the door? To be honest... The place looked way too... Nice for him. He stared longingly through the bars of the large metal gate to the extravagant mansion that presented itself in an almost too-perfect fashion, even at this late hour. his first thought upon seeing it had been somewhere along the lines of, 'My god, the loot that box must have in it! I could steal my way to a fortune!' But he quickly knocked that thought down... He was a changed man, damn it! No more stealin and robbin for old Saph anymore! He had read a long time ago that the only way you could change your life for good is if you really wanted it. After years of being a homeless hoodlum... He wanted it.

He took one last deep breath, and clenched his fists, nodding to himself as he stepped toward the gate. That was when he realized that it was 3AM, and there probably wasn't anyone working the intercom-thingy. "Hmm... Well, don't see any harm in just... Lettin my self in. Everyone says their really nice'n all..." He thought aloud as he nodded slowly to himself again. They wouldn't mind, would they? The 27 year old mutant smiled as he cracked his knuckles and stepped back from the gate a bit... First things first, he had to get over this gate... He didn't want to risk breaking it if it wasn't as solid as it looked; That meant he was gonna have to go right on over it! He began slamming his left hand into the open palm of his right, transferring the force of the blow into the right side of his body, amplifying it, and then using the amped force to hit his right hand again. He repeated the process several times until he had stored enough energy for the task at hand. After he was done, he looked at the gate again, gaging the height... One more step back, and he was the perfect distance away. The ragged mutant lifted up his left foot, and then stomped it into the ground, pushing hard, and sending the kinetic energy he had collected downward into the ground, causing him to sail right over the fence, and to the ground below, where he was careful to land on his right side, even if it was rather ungracefully on his bottom.

"OOF! Well... That's taken care of..."

He got up slowly, and dusted off his butt, strolling toward the front porch of the mansion; all the while unaware that he was barely missing sensors and traps left and right... His luck ran out when he tripped upon a wire, and found himself falling way too far toward the ground, "What the- AHH!" He fell a good ten feet, bouncing off of his right foot, and then landing solidly on his left hip, which caused him to curse in pain. Looking up, he realized what had happened... He had fallen into a freaking PIT! It hadn't been there a second ago! What kinda people lived here, if they kept death pits just laying about everywhere! He looked about in a panic, "I gotta get out of here!" he had gathered a good amount of energy from the fall, and the earlier landing when he leaped over the gate... He used all of it to launch himself out of the pit, fearing it would close over him if he didn't get out quickly. "jesus... I knew this was a bad idea!" he turned to head for the exit, and immediately tripped over a sensor, causing a bunch of flood lights to snap on, illuminating his back... "Aw crap..." his hands slowly lifted up into the air, as if he were at gun point. He wondered if they were gonna cook him alive or something... Maybe the whole X-men thing was a scam, meant to lour in unsuspecting idiots like himself to feed a cannibalistic cult... Wow, he had one helluv an imagination.

Jewel woke up to the sound of the security system being activated. Soon after she arrived at the Mansion she realized her room was not the best in the school - her second-floor window opened to the front lawn, right next to the main entrance, and every time someone activated one of the traps she could hear it. She stumbled out of bed, and looked at the clock on the wall - 3AM. She moaned and ran her fingers through her messy hair. Just great. Who the heck comes in in the middle of the night? Not an X kid, that's for sure. They knew better than to walk across the lawn without turning the security off first. Unless they were drunk, of course. There's always that.
Juka? Nah, he'd just float gracefully above the whole thing.
A visitor?...
Curiosity taking the better of her, she walked over to the window, pulling the curtains aside, and looked out. The lights were on too, shining their blinding rays onto a figure she couldn't quite see. She blinked away a few tears and rubber her eyes till her vision cleared up. A young guy was standing under her window with his hands held up, apparently frightened.
Well, I would be frightened too. Some way to greet newcomers.
Lily sighed and shook her head. Where were all the 'official Mansion greeters' when you needed them? She should go wake someone up. But that takes time. And the guy down there looked like he was about to bolt. Or faint. She couldn't really tell which one.
Turning on the lamp on her desk, she opened the window and leaned out. Cold night air hit her skin and shook her wide awake. She was wearing her usual sleepwear - short pants and tank top - which was definitely not designed for going outside. Or leaning outside. Whatever.
"Hey!" she called out to the guy, trying to sound friendly and reassuring "Don't worry, you're safe. I'll be right there. Just... don't move, okay?"

Saph's eyes widened in panic as he heard a voice call out to him, but he paused in his freak out when he realised that the voice was surprisingly unthreatening... Sounded like a young woman. She told him not to move, a command that he took in the litteral sense. He stood perfectly still, his arms hanging in the air... Oh god, he thought to himself, should i make a break for it? If I run now I can probably make it... Then again, I might fall into another one of those pits... His arms were getting tired, and that woman did sound like she wasn't gonna eat him, or anything. He bit his lip in frustration as he stood statue still... Why did he have to be so stupid?! He was freakin tresspassing right now! He had to get out of there, but for all he knew, this lady had a gun pointed at his back... Saph smiled just a bit as he set his 'brilliant' plan to action. "Hey lady, look out behind you!"

He then moved to bolt as quickly as he could, but only got a few steps before he felt the sinking of a pressure plate below his feet. He didn't even have time to curse before a current of electricity ran through his body, causing him to jerk about a few seconds, and then fall to the ground mumbling "oh gawd... they dont even gotta cook me any more... Ima be cannibal food..." He slipped in an out of conciousness as he lay there, wondering if there was a free buffet in heaven... Aww, who am i kiddin?! I'm goin straight to hell, he thought before the lights went out.

Of course he moved. Not just that, he actually tried to run. Jewel cursed under her breath as she tore the front door open, turning off the traps on the way. She wasn't authorized to turn off the full security system, but she knew enough to secure the area where the stranger came in. She was barefoot and shivering in the cold, but when she saw the guy go down from the electric shock - 'kind of cruel for a safe haven, huh' - she didn't really stop to think about it.
He was lying withing the circle of light, barely conscious. Lily knelt down beside him and listened as he muttered something incomprehensible about food. He looked older than she was, torn, and frightened.
"Shhh, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. No one will, okay? I promise." she put a hand on his forehead "Heck, I couldn't even hurt you if I wanted to." she muttered with a slight frown "Are you all right?"
The guy didn't answer.
"You gotta be kidding me." she rolled her eyes, shaking his shoulder just strong enough to try and wake him "Wake up, sugah. I'm freezin' out here."

He was dreaming... Right? He had to be... There was no way he was really being turned on a roasting spit with a bunch of mutants crowded around him, laughing about which part of him they were gonna eat first... The unconscious Saph twitched, and spoke in a low mumble "I don't got a wishbone, stupid... If your gonna eat me... Least be smart about it..." In his dream world, one of the grotesque mutant monsters reached up to touch his head "nuh... dun eat that... I need that..." he mumbled slowly, jerking his hand out in protest... The action was small, and pathetic, which made sense considering he wasn't all there. He heard one of them say, 'You're gonna taste alright.' and then another one spoke, saying in an oddly feminine voice 'You gotta be kidding me.' Eh? That was odd... Then again, they were all deranged canibals... Odd didn't seem too out of place. One moved up right to his face, and muttered "Wake up, Sugah. I'm freezin' out here."

"Whuh? eh... AHH!" He sat up quickly, and scooted away from the woman, whose face he couldn't quite make out, because of the bright light, which he held up his arm to stop it from blinding him "Don't eat me!" He paused for a second, taking in his surroundings... He wasn't on a spit... And it was kinda cold, so he wasn't cooked or anything... Oh thank god, it was a dream! He tried to slow his breathing, which was heavy and fast, as if he had just run, reaching up with his free hand to cover his jackhammering heart. "Eh... Um... Hi." That was all he had; the guy wasn't exactly a magician with words... He would leave the magic to the silver tongued politicians and lawyers. For now, he just stared up at the shadowed figure, hoping she didn't shoot him or something. He really needed to work on the whole 'making a good entrance' thing.

"I don't got a wishbone, stupid... If your gonna eat me... Least be smart about it... nuh... dun eat that... I need that..."
Lily blinked and raised her eyebrows in disbelief. Did he honestly think someone would eat him here? What, he was that afraid of mutants? They why the heck did he...
She was officially confused now. She shook his shoulder again as gently as possible. Better wake him up before he gets carried away about the cannibal thing.
"Don't eat me!"
He jerked awake so suddenly that Lily barely had time to get out of his way before their heads smashed together. It was a matter of inches that he missed. She fell back with a yelp and stared at him, silently cursing she didn't have any of her jewelry around, for self-defense. On seconds thought, she concluded she was better off not having them. He looked far more scared than she was.
"Eh... Um... Hi."
She took a deep breath, then let it out.
"Hi. Don't worry ah'm not gonna eat you. You're safe." As always when she was stressed out, the Southern drawl in her speech was much more audible now. She smiled a shy smile at the strange guy "Nobody's going to hurt you here. Unless you attack first, of course." she added, just to be on the safe side. One can never know.
She decided she can ponder about safety in someplace warm too. Standing up, she stepped closer, offering her hand to help him up.
"My name is Lily. C'mon, let's go inside before we both freeze to death."

Saph felt like a complete idiot... Not only had he gotten caught trespassing, and woken up some nice lady at three in the morning, he had also nearly head butted her, and accused her of being a cannibal, albeit in a very roundabout way. He sat for a moment, panting, and trying to get himself to stop shaking, which was hard because his whole body was sore from the shock trap, and it had to be a good 33 degrees outside... He took one deep breath to calm himself, watching as the visible mist it created drifted off into nothingness... He tried to get up on his own at first as the woman exclaimed that he was safe, and that she wasn't going to eat him... Why all the theatrics, then? He thought to himself silently. Death pits? Trip wires? Shock traps? This place was rigged for war!

He looked to his greeter again... He couldn't tell, but it looked like she was smiling... She didn't sounds like the kinda person that was primed for war; He reached out slowly, and just a bit hesitantly, to grasp her offered hand with his left, and pull himself up slowly. Now that he was up, he could finally distinguish more about her. She was, in fact, smiling, and she looked very kind... She couldn't have been older than 21, and had a certain level of innocence about her. He decided to return her smile.

He paused, however, when she invited him inside right off the bat. Hadn't he just tried to sneak in at 3 in the morning, and set off just about every trap on the way in? "I'm Saphirus... I don't really got another name... So eh... You're just gonna let me in? I could be a crazy man, or a mugger!" He wanted to smack himself in the face as soon as he said those words, " Hey! I'm not any of those, though, cross my heart!" He realized, then, that she wasn't exactly equipped for the cold like him, with his big wool trench coat. "Ah, yeah... Inside's prolly a good idea... Eh... Nice to meet you, by the way..." He gave a tired smile, managing to blush from embarrassment at his stupid words even in the cold weather. He decided it would be best to shut up, and waited for her to lead the way...

Jewel smirked as she helped him up.
"Well, let me put it this way, Saphirus - nice name, by the way - : you just tried to sneak into a building full of mutants. So you either are extremely strong and powerful - no offense, but I really doubt it, especiall after you fell for the traps - or you are one of us looking for help. Or you are just a human who has no idea what he's getting into. In that case I have to warn you that I'm a mutant too. And of course you're free to leave anytime you want."
She huffed a small white cloud of warm air, and hugged herself - her sleepwear suddenly didn't feel like it covered enough of her body's natural reactions to the cold temperature. Blushing a bit, she turned around and walked back to the mansion.
"Nice to meet you too, by the way." she chuckled as they walked inside. It was cozy and warm, although a bit dark in the hallway. She walked towards the living room. That seemed like a reasonable idea.

He listened to her explanation of why she was just letting him in with a nervous look on his face, throwing in a quick, "Thanks." At the compliment she gave, though she kept talking before he could give one back, which wasn't a bad thing.. he probably would have said something stupid like 'nice hair'... Then again, the silver and gold did work well for her; It made her look classy, nice... That aside, she had a point; this place had to be brimming with mutants like himself, and while he wasn't exactly chopped liver, he was sure that he couldn't take them all... or even two at a time for that matter. He nodded slowly to her, and headed toward the mansion after her.

Saphirus suddenly felt a bit guilty as he followed the woman into the mansion... She had obviously been cold outside with way too little on... He would have given her his coat, but to be honest... It was probably a bit stinky... He was homeless, after all; he didn't get many chances to go to the dry cleaners. "So..." He said as he walked into the hallway, looking around in the darkness... It had a warm, welcoming feeling about it, though it could have just been that it was toasty in comparison to the outside. "What now?" He wandered after her into the living room. He had to give it to them... They knew how to live comfortable, the Xavier people... Just the atmosphere made him wonder if he was even worthy of asking them for help.

"So... what now?"
Lily smiled at him.
"Make yourself at home. It's gonna be a couple of hours before anyone wakes up, so looks like I'm the one who has to keep an eye on you, since you're not officially accepted to the school. That reminds me, how did you get in anyway?... wait. First things first."
She turned around, leaving him alone for a couple of minutes, before she returned with two mugs of coffee.
"I don't know about you, but I kinda need this at 3 in the morning."
Setting the two cups down on the table, she picked up a blanket and wrapped herself in it, then settled down onto the couch, and looked at him, tilting her head curiously.
"So. What's your story, Saphirus?"

Saphirus sat there nervously as she walked off, hesitantly looking about the living room... My god, it was like being a kid in a candy store, who just happened to be allergic to sugar. There were so many shiny things... Silver candle sticks, a DVD player... Someone had even left one of those Nintendo- handheld dealeys out on a table... Those things could be hawked for a very pretty penny! His hands started shaking a bit, and he responded by sitting on them, so they didn't magically act on their own... Because as much as he wanted to stuff his pockets like a hamster stuffs its cheeks, he was trying to make a new life for himself. He took a deep breath, heard her coming back in, and pulled his hands from under his bottom. He was happy that she had returned with both the coffee, and the company to distract him from his urge to pilfer.

He smiled a bit, and took the coffee in both hands, "Thanks." He said as he sipped silently... Wow... these people really were as nice as everyone said they were. If someone woke him up at 3, he would probably be pretty damn grumpy.

"Well, to answer your first question... I guess you could say i got over the gate by... well... jumping, i suppose you could call it. After that i walked over here, fell in a death pit-oh,eh, i mean... Fell in a pit-trap, jumped out of it, and then got caught by the lights." He looked up in thought the whole time as he recounted the story, looking down to her after he was done, "I'm a mutant... you prolly guessed. I would show you, but its pretty hard to demonstrate without breaking something... Sorry." he took another sip of his coffee, suddenly getting the urge to demonstrate it anyways... He wouldn't do it without her permission, though... Besides, it might distract from him having to explain that he was kinda a hobo, and a former thief and he had accidentally kidnapped a baby just weeks ago, and in the resulting struggle, he had socked a cop in the face and fled the scene. It was a combination of these things that made him decide that the thug life wasn't working anymore... He smiled at her innocently behind the distressing thoughts... This was his chance to change... Maybe he could just tell her that he got laid off at his job. Yeah, that's what he'd say.

Jewel whistled and grinned at him over her mug of coffee.
"You jumped, huh? Neat. Yeah, I kinda guessed you are a mutant... most of us find our way here sooner or later."
To tell the truth, she was curious. There was a lot about this guy to make one like her curious - he definitely came from a much different background from hers, he had cool abilities, and the nerve to sneak into the Mansion in the middle of the night instead of walking up to the front door and knocking. Jewel was fairly new to the school herself, so she remembered how it felt to be in this strange and safe place, and treated like a normal person. When Saphirus mentioned his powers, she chuckled.
"Breaking something probably is not the best idea right now. You don't wanna meet the guys when someone interrupts their beauty sleep. You can show us later though, and I'm sure we'll find something for you to break. You have some kind of super strength?..."
Sipping her coffee, she was silent for a while, waiting for his answer. A thought was forming in her head - she was a people person, and as such she knew sometimes you have to share something about yourself to get others open up to you. Maybe she should show him her powers... later on. She decided to keep the rest to herself until Saphirus asked about it.

"Nah... S'nuthin like that... I ain't any stronger than your average normie... I guess its kinda hard to explain... You could hit me all day with a ten pound weight in your hand, and as long as you hit me somewhere on this side of my body "He lifted his right arm and waved it a little bit while leaning in and sipping his coffee, which he held in his left hand, a hint that he was a lefty, not that it was relevant at all to the current subject. "It wouldn't hurt a bit..." He set his coffee on the table in front of them, and leaned back slowly, relaxing just a bit "And when I'm hit... I sorta.. collect the force from it... Almost like I can feel it inside of me... and I take that force, and make it bigger... After I do that, i push it inta somethin else, and...Well, send them flying, a lot of the time...Depends on how I release it." He had a beat, and resisted slapping himself in the forehead when he realized that he had just spilled most of the details about his power to a complete stranger, feeling a bit careless for some reason... You never really told your ability right off the bat to another mutie on the streets... they might use that information to beat you up and steal your coat... He missed that coat.. "Eh... What about you? What do you do?" He wouldn't feel so bad if she shared as well, and it got them off of the topic of where he came from exactly. He looked at her closely as he waited for her response... He imagined that she might have a rather delicate power; he had noticeed from all of the mutants he had met in his life, that they tended to have a power that matched their personality rather well. He knew that the guy out there that had his freakin coat had the ability to make things fly towards people at dangerous speeds, a destructive ability for a very disturbed person... He still missed that coat.

Jewel listened to his explanation with as much curiosity as a person can muster at quarter past three in the morning, which, in her case, was a lot. Saphirus had an intriguing power - well, all mutant powers were intriguing in their own way of course - and in addition the two sides of his body seemed to be taking two different roles in using it. Interesting.
"You use kinetic energy." she murmured, half to herself. In the past weeks she had a lot of time to make use of the school's library, and since mutant life was her life now, she decided to know as much as she could find out. Her hard work resulted in all kinds of weird terms and phrases popping up in her mind when the topic wandered to mutant powers.
"Eh... What about you? What do you do?"
Oh, he was curious after all. Jewel smiled at him, more than willing to share something in return for his detailed explanation.
"My powers manipulate precious metals and gemstones." she summarized in a well-practiced sentence, as she flicked a finger towards one of the silver candlesticks and levitated it across the room; when it was hanging in mid-air in front of her, she started moving the decorations around. "I also sense them from quite a good distance." she smiled at him and set the candlestick down onto the table carefully. "You'll hear most people around here calling me Jewel. That's my... um, I'm not sure. Nickname, I guess."
She picked up her cup of coffee again and decided to share some more details; she could sense that it was making Saphirus feel more comfortable.
"I've been here for a couple of months now, but I'm still a newbie. Came all the way from Louisiana to find a place like that."
She didn't ask the question, but it was lingering in the air; still, if he didn't want to talk about himself, he could just... not answer anything. Either way is fine. She smiled at him. Arriving to the school could be really stressful, even without death traps and electric shock.

Saph found himself tilting his head like a lost puppy before he could stop. Kinetics... Sounded interesting, honestly... The word had a nice ring to it... He would have to look it up later; he was sure they had dictionaries here. He had spent a lot of time exploring his power: finding out what he could do, to what extent he could do it all... But he realized just that second that while he had prodded at it a bunch, he had never really tried to find out anything about it fact wise. He smiled widely as she explained her power, and then found himself jumping a bit as the candlestick floated past him, watching it with an almost slack-jawed expression as she toyed with it... He was right though, it really did fit her personality... "Man that really would have come in handy back in the da- yyyy, eh... I mean... eh. Yeah... Jewel... That's a really nice name... I like it" He changed the subject as quickly as he could, mentally kneeing himself in the face... It was the truth, though... The name Jewel seemed to fit her just as well as her ability did. He smiled innocently as he spoke again "Y'know, I had the feeling that you were from down south... Though I guess the accent was a dead giveaway... I've never left the state, myself... The change in temperature must have been pretty bad... Makes me even more sorry that I stumbled on in and made you come outside...Sorry, by the way." he reached over to his coffee again, sipping it to test the warmth... It had cooled a good bit, allowing him to take a longer drink from it.