Micah smiled. Kealey may have laughed at his power, but that was sort of to be expected. It was a sort of strange power. And besides, she’s way too cute to be mad at.

Raven on the other hand seemed to take the power in stride, which gave him another reason to like her. Not much seems to phase her, and she just takes things as they come without missing a single beat. She doesn’t have any sort of presumptions about her. I guess that comes with having a psychic link to a raven. Animals don’t have presumptions or prejudices, so why should she?

“No, it’s really cool that you want to share your powers with me Kealey. I’m… kinda new to this mutant thing, so sure, share as much as you want. And Raven, I just… remember things now. I don’t quite understand it myself yet, but it seems like I have access to anything I’ve ever known.”

But what was this about not being able to read my emotions? I just keep learning more and more about this power. First I shoot glowing marbles out of my ear, then my brain is actually filled with marbles, then I find out I have some sort of super-memory, and now the resident Empath at the X-Mansion can’t read my emotions. What is going on with me right now?

Micah looked at Kealey. I hope she can help me figure this all out.

>>”Now, are you just wanting a tour of the school or are we going to be needing to set you up with a room and enrollment papers?”

“Honestly, I don’t know right now. If you’re willing to have me, I guess I’d like to enroll. Especially while I’m still figuring this all out. You guys are the best in the world when it comes to mutants. But, do you even let twenty year olds in here?

Well weren’t they just at happy, smiley group. Kealey grinned, Micah grinned, Raven…deadpanned? The woman was friendly enough, and her emotions were fairly neutral, but there was something strange there. Kealey shrugged it off, each person was different, mutants doubly so sometimes. She nodded when Raven said that she’d only been at the mansion a few days, ”Ah, that makes sense. I’ve had a rather busy week.” And wasn’t that the truth…X-Men try-outs took a lot out of a person.

Micah pointed out that he was new to his mutation and the blond nodded her head, sympathy evident in her facial features. ”Oh you poor thing. I remember how hard it was for me when it happened. Don’t worry though, if you’re struggling, you’ll get a handle on things soon enough. That’s what we’re here for!”

The enrollment question turned out to be a moot point when Micah pointed out that he was twenty. ”Oh my, I completely misjudged you. I thought you’d be a student…” she said apologetically. I’ll bet Shin doesn’t make these kinds of mistakes… she scolded herself.

”If you’ve already graduated from high school…there’s not much we can enroll you in here. The Mansion has some great liaisons with local colleges and such though. Once you’re settled there’s loads of people who can help you out. If you want to follow me…” she said and turned, making her way back towards Shin’s office, ”We can get you set up with a room, and then I’ll give you a tour. Trust me. You’ll want to know where the kitchens are.”

There were very few things in the world that really bothered Raven to any significant degree. She was a scavenger by nature and that nature meant adapting to anything that life happened to throw at her. While she had never been rich, she had lived a life of relative luxury in a few brief instances and gone all the way down to being homeless and barely finding enough to eat. Even when it came to mutants with their many powers, Raven didn't bat an eye very often. Granted she hadn't had a great deal of experience with other mutants, but still. Only those things that were a threat, either directly or indirectly, were worthy of any sort of great reaction or shock. Anything else was a potential detriment to survival.

"Sometimes I wish I could remember things," Raven replied to Micah with a frown. "I think I could a long time ago when I was a kid. But now I have to write everything own." She took out her ever present notebook that was covered in scrawled bits of writing. Which reminded her, how long had it been since she had last called her mom? She really should do that soon otherwise her mom had a tendency to worry about her.

"So, I guess I'll be leaving you two alone now?" Raven asked. She was all ready all settled in the Mansion and didn't really need a tour. Plus, the two of them probably had some talking to do.

“Bye Raven! Hey, thanks again for leading me in here. That was really nice of you.” I’ll have to find her again later. She seems like she’d be a good person to befriend. I mean, her demanding payment for showing me to the foyer was a little much, but at least she’s really honest. She seems like one of those people who you can trust to be up front with you.

Micah breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, if Kealey says we can figure this out together, maybe I can do this. Besides, I’m sure they’ve dealt with stranger and more dangerous mutations than a guy with marbles for a brain.

“A room? Wow, that would kind of awesome. I’ve been commuting to NYU from Hicksville, so I’ve never really had the ‘dorm room’ experience. Or the sharing a bathroom with floor full of guys experience.” Micah tilted his head to the side, his newfound supermemory bombarding him with every image of filthy men’s showers he had ever seen. He shuddered. “Yeah, not looking forward to that one as much, but, as usual, I digress.” Micah laughed. “I’d love to take you up on the offer for a tour.”

Micah glanced down at his feet, images of bacteria and shower scum still echoing in his brain. Definitely will need shower shoes.

Raven commented on memory skills that were apparently long gone by this point, and Kealey nodded her head. ”I know what you mean. I’m a bit scatter-brained myself. With all the emotions rolling around in me, I’m never really sure how I’m going to feel or react to things.”

It was at that point the dark-haired woman decided it was time to take her leave. Kealey smiled and nodded her head, ”I’ve got it from here, I think.” she said, ”Thank you for helping Micah find his way in here.”

She took her leave and Kealey turned back to Micah just in time to hear him mention his commute to NYU. Kealey looked at him with her head tilted to the side, wondering what he was feeling about the whole situation. It was always so surreal when this happened, and more than a little foundation shaking that it wasn’t only adapteds who got immunity.

”Lots of our students commute to NYU for classes.”

Micah expressed the fact that he’d never had to deal with a scenario where he had to share showers, and Kealey laughed thoughtfully. She hadn’t asked Shin about this situation…where would she put Micah. Did everyone get rooms with their own bathroom if they weren’t a student? The blond thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders, ”Well, you’re in luck. Adults here get rooms that have a small ensuite. The rooms are plain, and dorm’ish looking, but really very nice.”

Micah said the tour would be excellent, and Kealey nodded her head, ”Excellent. Why don’t you follow me to Shin’s office, he’s the normal greeter. I’m just filling in because he has a tendency to overbook himself. Once we get you a room, I can take you on the tour and show you your room.”

OOC: Sorry about the delay! Busy week. Feel free to take them to Shin’s office. It’s going to be messy in an ‘organized chaos’ sort of way if I recall correctly. Other than that, your basic office.

Micah smiled. “So this isn’t your normal job then? Well, you’re doing a great job.” Micah couldn’t help but notice that every so often Kealey would cast him a strange look and tilt her head, as if trying to figure something out. Oh God, do I have something in my teeth? I hope I don’t have something in my teeth. Is it my breath? I’m pretty sure I brushed my teeth this morning. Or maybe there’s a bug in my hair? No, she’d probably tell me if there was a bug in my hair. But why does she keep giving me that look?

“Wow, my own room? And I can still continue with classes at NYU? And no awkward mass showering? That’s great! The new semester is starting in a few weeks, so I’ll be glad to get back. I’m working on a Bachelor’s in English Education.” Inwardly, Micah sighed. I’ve never been very good at small-talk. Did the order of words in that sentence even make sense? And why should I think she even cares what I'm majoring in? I mean, she seems nice, but should I really be dumping my life story on her right away?

As he followed her to Shin’s office, Micah admired the pleasant atmosphere of the Mansion. In a minor way, the atmosphere was created by its pleasing décor and strategically placed windows that accentuated the rays of afternoon sun. But there was something else, something more than mere furniture that made the mansion sparkle. It was the faces of the other students who Micah passed. Most were happy, some were anxious or maybe even a little sad, some were older, some looked really young, but all of them seemed one major thing; safe. Whether they were pretty and blond or glowing with fingers growing out of their heads, everyone Micah saw seemed to be at ease inside the mansion, a feeling Micah doubted they’d had at many other points in their lives.

Kealey led him to an office, which reminded Micah of his bedroom back at his moms’ house; cluttered, but in a way that suggested the piles weren’t chosen at random but were instead sorted in a way only the owner would understand. Clearing a small stack of papers off a chair while carefully making sure they didn’t get out of order, Micah took a seat. “You know, this place is amazing. I’ve never seen so many mutants feel so at ease. It must be quite the haven here. I think it’s great that you guys fight for that. I mean, no one should have to feel unsafe or hated just because of who they are, you know? I think it’s great that the X-Men fight for that.”

”Thank you!” Kealey said brightly when Micah told her she was doing a nice job with greeting him even if it wasn’t her normal job. Micah hadn’t had this experience before, and didn’t have much to go on beyond what Kealey had done so far, but the sentiment was still appreciated.

”My usual domain is the library or my sewing table. The Mansion was lacking a Librarian and I was already doing some work for Sam. It’s summer and I’m not in classes, so I figured staying here would be more simple.” she added as they made their way into Shin’s office and got comfortable so they could go about getting Micah a room. It had been an accurate description of her duties, even if she’d left out the part about avoiding stalkers, and the plus of being close to her boyfriend, and being a recent member of a paramilitary mutant organization. Micah didn’t need to know everything. They weren’t having a casual chat, after all, this was business.

Micah was excited about the individual rooms, and Kealey couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. Even if she couldn’t feel it in her normal way, it was contagious and she nodded her head. ”Like I said, they’re not all that fancy, but it’s not hard to make yourself at home.”

The prospective resident looked around and Kealey found herself wondering what he was feeling. She chuckled softly as she sat in the desk chair and pushed her curly hair back off her shoulders, ”It’s always so strange. Most of the time I’d give anything to be able to not feel everything around me. But whenever I run across someone whose emotions I can’t feel, I want to more than anything. Funny how dependent you become on your abilities.” she mused, sifting around in pile after pile, trying to find the one that contained residency forms. ”You’re still relatively new to yours though. It’ll take you a while to get used to it.”

Finally, after much sifting, Kealey found the paper she was looking for and held it out across the table for Micah to take. While she’d been looking, he commented on how happy and relaxed everyone looked at the Mansion and Kealey nodded her head again. ”People are always happy in places where they can be themselves. We’ve got our share of normal school problems, and plenty of problems that other schools don’t have…but I think we do a pretty good job of creating our own standards for normalcy.” As for his comment about the X-Men. Kealey smiled with pride at the compliment, ”It would be best if we could avoid the fighting all together. I think there are much more effective ways to bring about change.”

While Micah filled, Kealey went about finding him a room. The diagram was clearly marked with the names of all the residents and Kealey took a minute to grin at her own name where Shin had penciled it in the day after he’d saved her from Roland. It seemed like so long ago now…

Into the proper spot went Micah’s name, and Kealey snagged the proper set of keys from where Shin had showed her they were stowed. ”Just let me know when you’re done with the paperwork and we’ll start the tour.”

Micah smiled. “Well, don’t worry Kealey. If you want to know my feelings, you can always just go about the old fashioned way and ask.”

Selecting a blue pen from a nearby pencil holder, Micah scanned the paperwork to see what sort of information he was going to have to supply. Let’s see, date of birth, place of birth, social security number, parents’ names, parents’ dates of birth, parents’ social security numbers, parents’ place of birth, names of people who lived with you for the past seven years, known relatives you have not lived with, residences in the past seven years, name of your Doctor/Medical Provider…

Micah gaped as the list went on and on. Am I really supposed to know all this? I barely know my own Social Security Number, let alone Cheryl’s or Nancy’s. But even as that thought was passing through his brain it was interrupted with the answers. Don’t you remember Micah? In 7th Grade you went through Nancy’s wallet after finding it under the couch, and in 10th Cheryl made you watch as she filled out her taxes. You saw the numbers then. You know them now.

Micah shuddered as he wrote the numbers down. Is it really going to be like this from now on? Remembering everything, even the tiniest detail? What if there are some things I’d rather forget? Like the time that fourth grader glued my…

Micah shook his head. No, no time for the ghosts of kindergartens past. Let’s just get through this paperwork. Micah breezed through the pages in record time, his pen barely having time to keep up with his mind. Page after page flew by. Micah tried to ignore the weird feelings brought on by having a glowing mind that kept granting him information he really shouldn’t have remembered, let alone remembered so easily, but one thought couldn’t be kept at bay. God, am I really even human anymore?

Hand slightly shaking at once again being forced to face how radically both his life and his body was changing, Micah handed Kealey the completed forms and forced a smile. “Well, that didn’t take long. Could we stop by the kitchen first though? I’m, um, not feeling very well. Do you guys have Coke or Pepsi?”

Heh. Kealey chuckled when Micah pointed out that she could simply ask if she wanted to know about his powers. ”Not something I’m used to doing.” she said, watching carefully as he quickly filled in the paperwork. Man, the guy was sure a whiz at paperwork. Kealey was jealous, she had to carry a notebook around with all her relevant information, or run the risk of not knowing any of it.

The more he wrote, the more Micah seemed uncomfortable, and Kealey found herself leaning slightly forward in her seat. Why weren’t her powers working on this new resident? Why couldn’t she do something slightly more helpful than sit there and gape at him like she was a half-wit? It was frustrating, and the blond had absolutely no problem sorting that feeling out from the others in her head.

Micah handed the forms back, and Kealey took them, frowning slightly at the pale overcast his face had taken. He didn’t feel well, and he wondered if they had soda. Kealey nodded her head, ”Of course we do. We can start our tour at the kitchens.”

Kealey filed the forms where Shin had showed her, then rose and came around the desk to stop by Micah, in his line of sight, but not close enough to make either of them uncomfortable.

”I know how hard this can all be.” Kealey said, face and eyes serious, ”I also know that you might get tired of everyone telling you how special you are. They don’t feel like super-powers right off the bat, do they?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

”Eventually, though, you’ll end up like me, completely tongue tied with a stranger because you’re without your abilities.”

She patted him on the shoulder in the most comforting way possible, then headed for the door, ”We’ve got Pepsi and Coke…and a lot of other types of soda. Which one do you prefer? ”

Micah forced what he hoped was a smile but knew it probably came out as some sort of half-hearted grimace. “Haha, of course. It’s not like this is a McGrease King or something. I guess I’ll have a Pepsi.”

Shakily getting to his feet despite the vague lightheadedness, Micah rose and followed Kealey to the kitchen. “You know, I doubt you’re as reliant on your power as you claim to be though. I mean, you have a natural way of responding to those around you in a way that makes them feel like comforted and safe. Like that Raven girl, she doesn’t seem like one to open up to a lot of people, but she really seemed to get along well with you. If you ask me, that doesn’t have anything to do with your powers, but instead it’s just your natural talent at being able to connect with those around you and know what they need to feel better. Besides, if you were as dependent on your power as you say you are, you wouldn’t be making me feel so safe and welcomed. The only explanation is that you must possess both the power of empathy and the trait as well. Empathy doesn’t just seem to be something you do, it seems like something you are as well, if that makes any sense.” Micah laughed. “Of course, if I were using it as an adjective it’d be ‘empathetic’, but I digress.”

Micah shrugged. “I just don’t know about my gift ever being a ‘super-power’ though. I mean, a brain made of marbles? Being able to remember stuff? That doesn’t really sound like anything useful I could use to be a ‘superhero’. Super-nerdy, super-smart, maybe even super-lame, yes. Hero? I doubt it.”

The smile on Micah’s face looked strained, and Kealey smiled at him reassuringly as he expressed interest in a Pepsi, then laughed at his comment. ”Actually…it kind of is.” she said, ”The kitchen is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. You can come in at any time and get what you want. If something is in the cabinets it’s up for grabs. If you want to put something in the fridge, I’d put my name on it. It cuts down on other people using it. There’s also more fridges scattered around on the floors.”

Micah was more than complimentary about the job she was doing, and Kealey smiled and shook her head slightly at the praise. ”Well, thank you. I’m glad I’m doing something right. Shin will probably end up getting in contact with you because of something or other that I messed up with your registration.”

She felt like she needed to say something more. Micah was being so gracious… ”And I wouldn’t have empathy if I wasn’t an empath. I learned body language and tone of voice, all those things connect. So..it’s all kind of tied together.”

The younger man didn’t seem very confident in the fact that his powers could be good things, and Kealey shook her head as she walked. ”Trust me. Everyone can find something amazing, and good to do with their powers. You would be surprised what a person can do.” It was true…people did amazing things with their powers…even if they seemed innocuous at first.

They were walking as they talked, and soon Kealey had led Micah to the kitchen. There were a couple students there and the empath waved at them as she and Micah took a quick look around. ”There really isn’t anything exciting there…just good to know where it is.” she said, making her way to the fridge to grab Micah the soda he’d requested. Once she’d handed him the cold can, she looked back and forth. ”Let’s go up to the second floor next. I’ll show you the adults wing, the living room, and the other stuff up there. Then we can round the tour out with the library.” To Kealey, it was the best part…but if asked, she definitely would have admitted bias.

Micah accepted the drink and took a big swallow. The soda swirled down his throat, and reaching his stomach it helped calm his nerves. It’d been a rough couple of hours. Mutating, leaving his home, arriving in a strange mansion with strange but fascinating people… at least there’s always Pepsi to make me feel better.

Brushing his hair from his eyes, Micah could see the kitchen was beautiful, but it had the look of definitely being raided from time to time. Even if they were mutants, they will still teenagers first, so Micah could only assume the kitchen was a hotspot of activity in the mansion for students who needed a late night snack or a bowl of ice cream to comfort themselves after a break-up.

At least she seems confident my power can be useful, Micah thought. I mean, what use am I anyway? Sure, I might be able to recall facts and information, but anyone with a cell phone can just pull up the internet and get the same results. What could make me so special?

Micah’s ears perked up. “A library? Can we do that first? I mean, if I’m going to be the resident genius with a supermemory, I might as well get started right away and get as much information as I can. Besides, a mutant library? I bet you guys have tons of interesting stuff.”