Madlaina hovered in the threshold of the room she had been given, glancing at the clock and furtively listening for people, while scanning the hall for people. She still wasn't quite comfortable here, it was like it was too big to feel safe… too much room for people to sneak up on her and too many ways someone might watch her without her knowing. She had already rearranged her room in a way that the teachers might not like, so she was trying to avoid anyone seeing.

With a heavy breath, she quickly closed the door behind her and moved quickly down the hall. She hadn't quite gotten a proper tour of the mansion and still got lost frequently, but one thing she knew was how to get to the kitchen. Maddy knew that at this early morning hour on a weekend most people were either in bed or vying for a shower, so she should have the kitchen to herself. She always felt like people were staring at her when she ate, so she preferred to do it alone.

When her bare feet hit the tile she paused, before heading to the refrigerator. With quick movements born of hunger, she pulled out and examined different containers of leftovers. Grabbing one she liked, she popped the top and put in the microwave, barely stopping to set the timer before opening a cupboard and grabbing a bowl and some cereal. Dumping the loops into the bowl, she closed the box with one hand, the other hand reaching for the fruit basket on the counter.

Her hand closed around a pear and for a moment she flirted with the idea of trying to get an apple in the same grab. Her hands were too small to manage it though, and she shoved the fruit in her mouth, biting down to hold it in place while she put the box back. Snatching a spoon from a drawer, she yanked open the microwave, stirred the leftover pasta, and put it back in.

Maddy froze, her head popping up to glance around when she heard a noise, but realizing it was someone upstairs moving around she began to move even faster. She really didn't like to have people watch her eat. She knew she was still a little feral about it, diving into her food and eating more than it seemed possible, and people tended to frown on that around here.

Stealing milk from the fridge she dumped it haphazardly over the cereal, put it back and took the pear from her mouth and put it in her pocket. Licking the spoon clean, she shoved it in the bowl, grabbed the apple she had eyed and put it in her other pocket. Taking a half full carton of grape juice from the fridge, she tucked it under her arm, something only possible thanks to the screw cap, picked up her bowl of cereal, and grabbed the pasta vegetable mix out of the microwave. In her rush she left cabinet doors, drawers, and the microwave open, possibly not even closing the fridge. Juggling the food, she headed for the patio as she heard people moving, possibly coming down the stairs.

Growling, she used her elbow to open the door that led outside, kicking it closed, and headed for a tree around the corner. She was moving fast but trying not to spill or drop anything, and looked rather like a thief instead of a resident. With a sigh of relief she turned the corner and put her back to the tree, sliding down to sit. She hadn't even checked to see if anyone was outside, because she was too worried about the people inside. Setting her burden down, she opened and lifted the juice to her mouth, drinking straight from the carton.

(Feel free to use your power on Koga. If you want to grab a post out of my past at random and relive it that’s cool or if you want me to walk you through something recent and unwritten I am game for that as well, or if you’d rather not that works too. Or feel free to make up something, I’m flexible.)


Koga padded sleepily down the path back toward the mansion, it had been a long night, and by long he meant long, three muggers, were zip tied, one would be sexual offender was in intensive care with a police escort outside his door, a burglar and a car thief were unconscious in their prospective backseats of cop cars. He saved a woman from a burning building and a cat from a tree, he wanted a shower and he wanted to sleep. But first he had to eat something. When he got to the kitchen door however his eyes went slightly wide as a young woman was raiding the kitchen like it was the last place on earth with food…or like it was the first place she had been that had free food. She kept glancing around like she was going to get in trouble. He didn’t want to embarrass her so he climbed up the wall and blended and waited for her to leave, to his surprise she came out side went around the building and set near a tree, how did he know? Because he was nosy and wanted to make sure she didn’t just make a run for it.

He snuck back into the kitchen, opening and closing the door quietly as possible. He grabbed six eggs out of the fridge a block of cheese and six slices of bacon and a few sausages a splash of milk, a can of biscuits, ten minutes and he was done. He cooked the breakfast to perfection, split it up on two plates and headed out side, Around the corner and to the tree.


“Hi, I’m Ryuichi Koga. I made usss sssome breakfassst.” Hot food was too awesome to not eat when you were starved, sure micro waved grub, cereal and fruit were all nice choices but nothing beat a bacon omelet with sausage links and biscuits were the best.

“Mind if I sssit?” The sixteen year old teen was a bright shade of yellow this morning, his feet were grass green and his hair was sky blue with poofs of white. He was using his spring day coloring as a prop to keep the more than likely shy girl off her guard. His scaley skin was still coming in but it was getting more noticeable by the week, his fangs had come all the way in the spikes on his head would peak out as the wind moved his hair around.

((OOC: hey Welcome back! *hugs* I'll proper welcome you in that other thread too most likely. And I'll let you know what I'm up to if/when I use my powers. ))

Maddy had moved on to the warm pasta, the juice sitting next to her, and was moving the spoon back and forth between her mouth and the container in a measured rhythm that was just a breath away from desperate. Though she had eaten dinner last night, some habits died hard, and her eating was one of them. So when the boy came around the corner, she was in the midst of shoveling the noodle mix into her mouth. Startled, she stared at him, wide eyed with her mouth full and her cheeks puffed enough to show it.

And he was something to stare at… Yellow and green and blue as he was, it was obvious he was a mutant, so instead of bolting she watched him with a mix of suspicion and curiosity. She had seen mutants like him before, ones with obvious physical mutations, and it didn't frighten her, but she hadn't seen anything like this. He was male and looked to be about her own age, with spikes and scales and weird eyes, and he spoke with a lisp of rolling S's. Looking round, her head popping up in an almost meerkat way, she checked to see if anyone else was around. She didn't see anyone, but that didn't mean no one was there.

It took her a moment to process what he said… the S's were throwing her English vocabulary off. But when she did she looked at the plates he was carrying, her nose questing slightly to see if there really was food on them. Despite not having heightened senses, she could tell there was something there. Chewing quickly and swallowing in a gulp, she still kept her food close.

Not willing to give it up yet, he was a mutant and that made him more trustworthy than a human but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and take her food away, she shifted to the side. Motioning to a spot a few feet away, she moved her food to the opposite side of her body, away from him.

"Madlaina…" Maddy watched him intently, he had given her what sounded like a name but she had never heard a name like it before so she wanted to check. Her voice was accented, though only saying her name didn't give it away much. But when she spoke next it was clear that she wasn't a native English speaker. "Ree-oo-ee-chi?" Her tone was questioning, making sure that what she said was his name and not some English idiom or slang, her own Romanian tongue stumbling over the unfamiliar string of sounds.

ooc: feel free to use powers on me too!

Ic:

Raina stumbled down the stairs from her bedroom. She'd just made the mistake of staying up late to watch the recent documentary "The Cove" detailing the slaughtering of whales and dolphins in Japan. Her mind was completely abuzz with wanting to just show up and kick some ass but she knew there were more productive ways of being an activist- she'd learned that the hard way with shark fining.

Naturally after about an hour of tossing and turning she felt exhausted but couldn't sleep thanks to the images in her head. So she was wandering down to the kitchen expecting it to be empty. She saw the state the kitchen was in, and heard a few voices coming from outside and stuck her head out the kitchen window.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed?" she grumbled rubbing her eyes peering at the two teens through the dark with a teasing smile. "Or is this a romantical midnight meeting?" she yawned and stretched. She was a teacher after all, and two teens alone in the night was a little suspicious but one look at all of the food and open cupboards told her these two teens were just enduring a bad case of the munchies.

She propped her head up on her shoulder and gave a wave "Hey Koga," she hadn't seen Koga in a long time. A very long time. She tried not to express her surprise at his mutation development. She turned her attention to the girl "I'm Raina, resident teacher, counselor, and admin." she stretched "also owner of awesome octopi pajamas." she was indeed wearing pj's with little purple octopi and stuck her arm out long enough to show them.

She was going to stick around long enough to make sure no funny business was going on, get some food and possibly clean up the the kitchen, then head back to bed.

Maddy was startled by the appearance of another person, older, female, and… a teacher if she understood correctly. Immediately more uncomfortable than before, she tucked her legs under her in a way that would allow her to get up quickly and braced her hands behind her against the tree. The other female didn’t have a visible mutation, was a teacher, and had appeared rather suddenly for Maddy, especially after the younger male’s unexpected presence. Added to an already nervous disposition, the combination made it all the more likely that Madlaina would bolt.

Her mind was racing, wondering if she could escape with food, her heart pounding while her body tensed with adrenaline for the flight. Slowly, so not to attract attention, she pushed off the ground, her back sliding up the tree while her shirt snagged and caught on the rough bark before sliding with her. In Maddy’s head, everything told her she was safe. She had been assured by Miss Alex and the few people she had met since her arrival that no one here would try to hurt her.

But that didn’t stop the immediate response. Madlaina wanted away from here. The question was whether she actually would run away. Unfortunately, that depended on how threatened she felt, and that relied on the female and the young male. Maybe that was why Maddy liked to be alone; it put her in charge, and she didn’t have to worry about other people making her do things she didn’t want to. For now she pushed through it, her back pressed to the tree, her eyes skittish, and her muscles twitching under her skin hidden by her clothes.

(I could’ve swore I posted here the other night….)

Koga smiled, Nice to meet you Madlaina, Ri-yu-ee-chee, but You can call me Koga. He then looked up to the window to see Raina leaning over. For a split second he heard her wrong and was almost dumb founded but his brain caught up with him. Raina did not mean they should be in one bed, but their own beds perspectively. With a nervous sigh he shook his head, “um, no. no romance here Misssss Raina, just an early picnic, we are beating the rest of the residents to the kitchen, don’t worry about the mess I’ll clean it up. He knew Raina well enough that she would try to set his mess to rights if given the chance..

Madlaina was nervously standing and Koga held out the plate of break fast food sitting it on a paper towel and close to where Madlaina was standing. He sat Calmly where he was, well if nothing else, if she ran He could offer the meal to Raina. Though truly there was little worry that it would go to waste, soon there would be plenty of people awake.

Nice Octopi Missss Raina!

Madlaina, You have to try the omelet, its delisssh. he sat on the grass and popped some of the fluffy cheese covered eggs into his mouth.

"Koga..." Madlaina much preferred the name Koga to the one she couldn’t pronounce, and after an awkward moment of just standing there, she dropped to the ground. Trying to look casual in a crouched position that would let her get up quickly, she picked up the food the other teen had brought out. She ate while watching the two other people, her mind following the conversation a bit sluggishly.

Romance? The woman clearly had the wrong idea, but Maddy let it go. They seemed to know each other so it might be best to affiliate herself with the boy to avoid trouble with the woman. Not romantically but, as a friend or acquaintance. He seemed to know how to handle the situation so Maddy didn’t do much more than listen and eat. She nodded a bit at Koga’s words about beating others to the food, but stayed quiet.

It was good food. Not that hers had been bad, but it had been a long time since anyone had cooked something for her. Glancing at the boy as she scarfed down the last of the food on the plate, she swallowed and spoke in a low almost whispering voice. ”Thanks you…”

"My Pleasssure." He grinned. "everyone isss new here sssometime, hang in there, and before you know it, you won't be able to imagine anywhere elssse as a better home." He smiles lightly and lets the girl eat in relative piece particularly as he is digging into his own food as well.

Koga sets his emptied plate down on the grass and scoots over so his back can lean on the mansion wall and simply sits there being company. He will wait for her to initiate some sort of conversation and if she doesn't well thats ok too. the only thing that distracts him from his reverie is something worth pointing out.

" The sssunrissse isss great from right here." He smiles and nods to the tree line and the colors over them. vivid colors fighting against becoming a tranquil shade of blue.

Seemingly alone with the boy again, Maddy relaxed enough to contemplate sitting next to him when he offered. She was very much new; to the country, language, and trusting natures that seemed to abound here. And with Miss Alex busy getting back to her regular life, Maddy felt very much alone. She squared her shoulders and reminded herself that she liked it that way. Relying on people, trusting people, those were things she didn’t need or do.

But she was just lying to herself whenever she tried to convince herself of that. Madlaina had grown up in a large family, and even when outcast from them, she had found a surrogate family in the mutants she joined with. She wasn’t used to being alone even if she sometimes felt her powers forced her to be. Not being able to touch without the worry of memories flooding into her was the most upsetting. Touch was soothing, and Maddy had been going without for a long time now.

So, though not brave enough to touch yet, she found herself moving closer. Still not willing to get too close, she moved to sit with her back against the building as well, with around 2 feet between them. “You is new… not as much new, like me?” She knew that wasn’t quite right, but English was hard and she was still working out her vocabulary.

For a moment she glanced between the sun and Koga, her fingers fidgeting restlessly along the grass beneath her. “Great is like good looking?”

Koga noddedI've been here about...a year and a half. but really everyone is new here,we're all family once you come here."...that sounded a bit cultish. He smiled as she moved closer "Yes good looking." he nodded amiably again. " what all languages do you speak?" He personally had two mastered and another two that he could make conversation in. Japanese and English were the pair he was fluent in. and french and German were the other, his parents had him learning french before he abandoned ship, he was planned to learn Chinese later, but due to some odd circumstances last summer he learned and took to German with a real tenacity and thus felt much at home speaking the language. he still never told anyone about the things he learned and the infinite time he spent in Martin the gardeners brain. his brain was wired in German and at times he caught he self thinking in it.

"parlez-vousss françaisss ? or sprechen Sie Deutsches? " maybe either of those would help the pair speak, even if they weren't her native tongue perhaps she would be more familiar with one of them.

((OOC: Okay, because I think it will get confusing if I try to tell you what language each word is from, I’ll just put a translation at the bottom. Sound good?))

A year and a half? That seemed like so long and Madlaina couldn’t picture what things would be like for her a year and a half from now. Family, that was good. Madlaina missed having a family, but she wasn’t sure how things went from her awkward newness to a familial comfort and trust. Making a mental note that ‘great’ meant good looking, she pulled up her knees, crossed her arms on top, and rested her chin on her arms.

Languages? Madlaina took a moment, and when he started speaking in something other than English, she realized what he was after. She wasn’t very good in English and he probably wasn’t very good in Romanian, so he wanted to find something in the middle that they both could use. Maybe they could cobble omething together that was a mix of a few languages. “Good Romanian, bad English… not bad Hungary, Ukraine. Small Russian with German…” She meant a bit of Russian and German, but that was how it translated for her so that was how it came out.

Madlaina could cobble together basic sentences in most of Romania’s minority languages, except for the rarer ones, and she was nearly fluent in Romani thanks to her family which was similar but different from Romanian. So it seemed like between the two of them, they might be able to make conversation if they mixed their common English and German. And because many of the languages had similar bases, if she couldn’t say something in German or English he might still understand from one of the others.

Deciding to try this mix-mashed language soup, Madlaina settled on asking a few questions. “ I try this… Wie ist es hier? A város people szép? Do we… Uns Kinder, erhalten Sie in Schwierigkeiten sehr viel?”^1 After that strange mix of languages she turned her head, looking to see if he recognized much of it.

^1 “How is it here? Are the city people nice? Do we… us kids, get in trouble very much?” German, Hungarian, German.

(we'll assume that they are speaking in their mixxed hybrid language and get through it to a point of understanding. for thread purposes though lets stick to english and just assume there is alot more translation going on.)

Koga grins and speaks in the same cobbled together tones." Itsss amazing, I couldn't imagine a better place to live than the mansssion itsss, the mossst underssstanding place I have ever ssseen or known in this world. mossst if not all of the people are nice, and want the bessst for you here. even if they don't know you. the city can be rough but you'll blend in a little bit better than I do, so you shouldn't have trouble. Koga will change to his human look, and even blend his spikes so that they look more flesh like. I'd recommend taking someone along with you for awhile until you get your direction sense down. the last part causes an undeniable mischief to light up the young man's face. its the same as anywhere, you get in as much trouble as you get caught committing. the mansion is always looking out for you though, you don't get in trouble unless you deserve it, if its not your fault you won't be in much trouble, or if you have a good reason.

((Sounds good to me!))

Listening carefully to Koga and speaking clearly herself, somehow they managed to communicate quite well. From what she had seen and heard previously, Koga’s words were true. The mansion did seem to be a rock of stability and safety for the mutants that lived here. She hadn’t even run into much more than mild teasing from a few other kids, and she had surely had worse than that. As for blending in… “I like you better than all the other people. I don’t like people.”

Just because she looked human, didn’t mean she felt human. And she was still new here, unsure if she trusted the people here to not try what they did in Romania. His suggestion of taking someone with her when she went into the city would be thought about. Maddy might not ask someone to go with her somewhere, but she wasn’t against joining a group that was already planning to go out. She didn’t want to put anyone out their way just to help her. She had to learn.

And it seemed the Mansion was fair at punishing people, much like a real home. You only got in trouble if you got caught, judging by Koga’s words. Madlaina chuckled. “Good, I worried I might get in trouble on accident, but it doesn’t sound like it.”

Koga grinned. “that jussst meansss you need to meet more people, if you like me then you like mossst of the people here, you jussst don’t know it yet. Ssserioussly, the mossst Genuine bunch I have ever met

“nah, if you get into trouble, essspecially for sssomething power wissse, just tell them the truth, One thing that we do a lot here isss work on controlling our abilitiesss. There are kidsss that come in that have no idea whatsss happening to them when they become mutantssss and with in a couple of weeksss are able to at leassst limit the damage to themssselvesss and their sssuroundingssss.”

The grin comes back to his face as he makes his next statement. “If it is jussst good old fassshioned trouble though, try either to resssissst or not get caught. Still though they are reasssonable even if you are up to missscheif.[/b]

Koga finished the last of his food subconsciously and looks down at his plate with surprise when his fork has nothing to plunge into. When did he finish his food? Last night must have been more of a work out then he thought.


(ooc: if you do touch something on him and you are looking into tonight, you will most likely see him doing parts of these three things, chasing a mugger, fighting an adult mugger in a pretty even fight and eventually winning, and then returning the hand bag to an old woman. that pinches his cheek at the end and gives him a piece of hard candy. Though, climbing buildings and riding on top of a city bus are also fair game.)

“Yes the mutants here are nice, but the people out of here… I am afraid of them.” So far Maddy had been afraid to leave the mansion grounds. She shrugged, the people she had met so far had been nice, but they had all been here… and she hadn’t met that many people.

“And.. my powers don’t damage anything.” Anything but myself. Madlaina didn’t get into any trouble, nothing more than the average teen, at least not before she got her powers. She didn’t really know how she would act now; she hadn’t had an opportunity to be a teen with a mutation until now. She had been an outlaw mutant.

Suddenly uncomfortable, she started to get up, to get away from the situation and the memories and everything else. Only to have her feet get tangled up together, in her typical clumsy way, one of her palms landing on his ankle the other in the grass. Startled and unaware, without her consent, a memory started flowing into her.

She was up high, it was night, and she was… stuck to a wall? What?! Madlaina attempted to look around, but since she was now looking through Koga’s eyes, she would only see what he saw. And right now he was looking at the wall he was climbing.

Meanwhile, Madlaina’s eyes were locked open, dark with swirling mutant power, and her hand locked around his ankle, and it would stay that way unless it was pried off or the memory ended.

Feeling like someone was controlling her movements, she felt her neck turn, and her eyes scanned over a dark city lit with millions of lights. Madlaina’s first thought was to wonder what he was doing up there.