Nate had to admit, the odds of Agnes and Gina being roommates was pretty slim, but sometimes a guy could be surprised. "Wow, small world! Be sure to tell her I said hi; I meant to tell her when I was going to visit, but this was sort of a spur of the moment thing." It certainly would have been nice to have a chance to meet Agnes's special someone, but that would just have to happen another day.

So Drew was not at liberty to discuss his mutation. That was more than his right, with mutation being such a private topic for some, but it did not help Nate either. What if Drew was actually a telepath? Nate had no training in defending his mind; who would have assumed this would even come up? If you read my mind, I will find out, and it will not end well. Nate watched Drew, who showed no signs of hearing his thought comment. He calmed down, but kept his guard up. "Of course."

Nate took a peek into one of the classrooms. Despite the uniqueness of the school's mission statement, the rooms seemed standard of what he would expect in a human school. "So does working as a teacher or staff come with room and board as well or is that just for the kids?"

It was indeed a small world. This one was already familiar with a number of the people that lived at the mansion. He'd mentioned work too so presumably he'd met some of the staff. If he ever chose to move in Nate would probably have a pretty easy time of it. Drew let himself smile a bit.

"Well if you drop by often enough sooner or later I'm sure you'll catch her while she's around."

Nate didn't seem all that disappointed about his refusal to give out his mutation. While he was undeniably proud to be a mutant Drew was also aware that his particular mutation put him in a very vulnerable spot no matter how much he'd improved his physique and fighting ability over time. Though Martin didn't seem like the type that liked to share his toys without his express consent so maybe there was hope in that if he ever ended up under the thumb of another master as well as Martin. Nate probably wasn't like that but...better safe than sorry. Acutely aware of the strips of black that stood exposed on his left arm Drew eyed Nate. He was tempted for a moment to explain that his mutation left him vulnerable. Very tempted. But caution, or paranoia, held his tongue.

"Yeah, staff members can live here if they choose. I do. It's not a requirement but the option is there."

>> "Wow, small world! Be sure to tell her I said hi; I meant to tell her when I was going to visit, but this was sort of a spur of the moment thing."

"I will," Gina beamed, humming as she followed the two boys, and let the conversation lend itself to more businesslike questions. Questions such as, did the staff get to live on campus? Of course. Who would keep the students under control at night if all the staff left each night?

Gina hadn't really anything to add, so she just tagged along, and listened.

"This place is impressive. Any chance y'all might be looking for an art teacher? I mean, possibly. S'not like I'm 'looking' for the job, but I gotta admit, there aren't a whole lotta career options in this city quite like this..." His voice trailed slightly at the end of his sentence as he looked up at the vaulted ceilings.

So a teacher could live there, but it was optional. That was a better sign if he was truly interested in a job at the school. He had the sneaking suspicion Quin would all but refuse to visit him if he lived at a school that was connected so closely to the bane of her existence, the X-Men.

Speaking of them, it would not hurt to know a bit more about what the extent of those rumors were. "Hey Gina, Thanksgiving, the guy who was keeping an eye on you, Silver Streak," it was easy to pull a code name so obvious out of his memory, "he was an X-Man, right? Does that mean there's some truth to the rumors about this Mansion having something to do with the X-Men Team?"

He realized a moment after his question had left his lips that a question like that could seem suspicious coming from a stranger. "I mean, I'm just thinking logically here; I've just been curious. I promise I would never try to hurt the X-Men."

Gina turned quiet and Drew shot her a small smile. She was tagging along though Drew had no clue why. He led them all over the first floor, showing off each room in turn. All the while he spoke with Nate and answered his questions.

"As far as I know it the art teacher position is open. You'd have to ask the boss. I really just handle paper work and give tours."

He gave a sheepish smile to Nate. Yeah he worked here but Drew tried to avoid the kids and the schooling side of things. It just wasn't his thing. He had nothing worthwhile to teach the kids and had no interest in it besides. The questions about the X-Men took him by surprise but he rolled with it.

"Well we don't advertise it but we aren't hiding it either. Yeah, the X-Men have connections here."

And the fact that he was a stranger kept Drew from giving much information beyond that. Kealey hadn't told him about it when he'd first showed up and following that example there was no way he'd be telling Nate, an unproven stranger, much about it either. Drew wasn't given much time to think about it though. As he was finishing his response to Nate's question the man rambled out a sentence that made Drew's breath catch. He felt the connection. The promise was a valid one and Drew looked down to see the sign of the promise sweeping across his wrist. He swore under his breath.

"Well you wanted to know what my mutation is? Congratulations, you just found out."

Gina listened, catching Drew's gaze as he looked back and tossed a smile her way. She smiled back. It was all good, she was just listening and enjoying their company. Nothing to fret about. Nate inquired as to becoming an art teacher, before getting sidetracked by the cielings. Drew answered that the position was open, but he'd have to speak with "the boss". Gina followed Nate's gaze, expecting perhaps a wallcrawling student to be up there, but all she saw was cielings. She let her attention linger on the cielings a moment longer, as if staring them into showing her something that she hadn't seen, yet Nate had, before Nate saying her name snagged her attention.

>> "Hey Gina, Thanksgiving, the guy who was keeping an eye on you, Silver Streak. He was an X-Man, right? Does that mean there's some truth to the rumors about this Mansion having something to do with the X-Men Team?"

Drew added on with a more subtle explanation that, yes, there were "connections" to the X-Men at Xavier's. It was very diplomatic, and emphasized being as undetailed as possible. Gina glanced towards Drew with a quirked eyebrow, and attempted to follow suit.

"Silver... Streak..." Gina echoed, repeating the name in her head, "Oh, you mean Shawn! Psh, people and their nicknames, I swear-" Gina paused, searching for an answer to Nate's question. She wasn't really "in" on which staff members were X-Men, and which were just staff. It was hard to answer honestly, so Gina shrugged and said, "Beats me. All I know is that he works security on the grounds. Caught me trying to get pizza late one night."

Gina hummed faintly. It was the best that she could do, and the most honest answer that she could give. Unlike Drew, she didn't know what was strictly off-limits when it came to talking to people who weren't involved with Xavier's, and she didn't not trust Nate. She didn't have a reason to not trust him. Gina was the wrong person to ask these sorts of questions, though. She redirected her attention towards Drew.

>> "I mean, I'm just thinking logically here; I've just been curious. I promise I would never try to hurt the X-Men."

>> "Well you wanted to know what my mutation is? Congratulations, you just found out."

Gina looked over to Drew as his breath hitched, a frown puckering upon her face. She recalled Drew's power quite clearly. He made promises that he had to keep, but...

"But, you didn't... say... anything," Gina observed lamely, her tail curling inquisitively as she surveyed Drew. He didn't say the right words, so how could he have ever... but... she looked at Nate, then back at Drew, then at the cieling, as if expecting an answer to rain down from the heavens. She even made the appeal of, "Dear God, I'm confused."

Recalling the Silver Streak, whose real name was apparently Shawn, (a fact he was sure a vigilante would not want getting out so freely,) it made sense for a fit, younger man like him to have a security job. In a place where students are known to include mutants, it would be an important job when keeping in mind anti-mutant movements and other, less friendly mutants. He laughed at the idea of Gina breaking curfew and getting caught; the girl seemed far too innocent to be a rule-breaker. "Bah, curfews are silly rules anyway. Well, unless I'm ever yer teacher. Then forget I said that."

It was at the end of his sentence that he felt a tingling on his wrist. He looked down at his wrist, where what appeared to be a green tattoo wrapping around his hand, looking like a thorny stem.

>> "Well you wanted to know what my mutation is? Congratulations, you just found out."

"You're not the only confused one, Gina." He touched the mark with his fingers. There was no wet ink or sensitivity in the area. "So what is this? You create tattoos? Because I've met an ink controller before, and you certainly aren't her." You're far too normal. Now that he knew the boy was not a telepath, he was glad to think freely again.

Drew ignored the rest of the conversation in favor of sagging against one of the walls in the hallway they stood in for the moment. For a minute he smirked as Nate mentioned meeting an ink controller.

"If you mean Allison...I know her. But no, I don't control ink."

He sighed audibly. Drew hated this part of meeting people. Explaining his mutation, and the now the twist it had taken, was difficult.

"My mutation enforces promises. Used to be just my own. But the thing I haven't got 'round to tellin' most folk is that now it works on other people too."

He glanced at Gina.

"Remember when ya found me out in the gardens acting crazy as ya please? It wasn't long after that that it started doing this. I was hearing every promise made in my vicinity and feelin' my mutation react a bit. That's why I was so gone. It still happens but I've gotten used to it mostly."

Drew eyed Nate. The promise he'd made wasn't a particularly harmful one and Drew planned on letting him out of it. But first he wanted to see how the guy responded to it. It was still so new to him to have other people be bound by their promises. Drew wanted, needed, to know how other people would react to what he dealt with all the time.

Gina couldn't contend with the "curfew" rule. Not after what had happened a few months back. Sure, she still got up late at night, but she didn't leave the grounds anymore, not on late night flights. Only during daylight hours, generally in the early morning or at dusk, when there still weren't too many people about to look skyward. Gina indulged in Nate a faint chuckle, as if they'd conspire to keep her late night escapades a secret once he was a teacher, though deep-down, Gina knew that such a thing wouldn't be a problem.

Gina watched as a green chain of thorns encircled Nate's wrist, her tail twitched faintly, and she looked at Drew as Drew's arm adopted an identical tattoo. As Nate rambled about also being confused, as Gina looked between the two of them, Gina slowly began to put things together. Something about the promise-keeping had changed. Drew's reply only solidified Gina's assumption.

>> "My mutation enforces promises. Used to be just my own. But the thing I haven't got 'round to tellin' most folk is that now it works on other people too."

Once he'd answered, Gina could only stare at Drew with a single, arched eyebrow, as if to demand, "REALLY?!" in nothing more than look. Drew looked at her, and Gina maintained her expression.

>> "Remember when ya found me out in the gardens acting crazy as ya please? It wasn't long after that that it started doing this. I was hearing every promise made in my vicinity and feelin' my mutation react a bit. That's why I was so gone. It still happens but I've gotten used to it mostly."

Gina couldn't help it. She let her head loll forward, and the gargoyle girl literally palm-faced, before shaking her head.

"Drew," she groaned. And he didn't see it necessary to tell Nate this? Or anyone at all? He didn't have to mention his promise-keeping, just that others had to keep their promises to him. Was that so difficult? And now, because he'd been all secretive and hush-hush about his mutation, a visitor had unwittingly made a promise to him. Stellar. Gina was too stupefied to say much more than, "Geez, Drew."

So the mutation bound people to promises. Right off the bat, Nate was just happy this power was activated during a friendly tour by Drew rather than someone he was trying to con. Apparently his mutation had evolved? This was one of the few examples Nate had heard of something like this occurring. (Would his mutation evolve eventually? To what? Now was not the time.)

Nate thought back to the things he said to identify his promise.

>> "I promise I would never try to hurt the X-Men."

Yeah, that was probably the one. It was harmless enough; he had no intention of attacking the X-Men; hell, despite what Quin said, he did not mind them. He looked at his wrist, following the band with the fingers of his right hand. "So I can't hurt the X-Men? That sounds fair; I mean, it'll suck if one of them picks a bar fight with me, but I can cross that bridge when I get to it." Ashton was not an X-Man, so he felt confident that he would be fine.

"So what are the rules here? Does it hurt me or something if I try to refuse?" Maybe the thorns pricked him? "How long does the promise last and do I really have to have the tattoo?" He pointed at his wrist. "I mean, it's not barbed wire, but it's still pretty lame."

Gina actually face palmed because of all of this. Her voice told Drew all he needed to know about what she thought. Namely that he'd been a grade A idiot in how he'd handled telling Nate about his mutation since it'd resulted in this. How she didn't know one of the little details about it. Drew kept the fact that he could be release from promises secret from just about everyone. Frankly he was just so used to withholding information about it that it was quite natural for him to do so. After Martin, well it made even more sense. If he had two masters then his loyalties would be divided wouldn't they?

Nate was taking it surprisingly well. He just rolled with it and wanted to know the details. Drew found himself respecting the other man for that and he nodded, mostly to himself, before answering. Oh he'd still let the guy out of the promise but might as well let him know the full brunt of it.

"Essentially yeah. You break that promise you'll get hurt. Might be just a headache. Could kill you. Depends on the circumstances really. If you killed an X-Man well...you'd probably die. If you just punched one? Probably just a headache, maybe a bruise."

Drew rolled forward on his feet until he was no longer leaning on the wall.

"That promise will last until the first time you hurt an X-Man. Then it'll go away and you'll be free and clear. As for the tattoo, you're stuck with it until the promise goes away. You think I have these for show?"

He raised his left arm to show off the five bands around it. Three were plain black. Then there was the one from when he'd taken his first promise with this new facet of his mutation and last but not least Nate's green thorny one.

"It's there to mark that you made a promise. You get no say in what it looks like."

He paused. He was going to be far too dramatic with this but Drew couldn't find it in him to care. In a twisted way he was having fun.

"Oh, and by the way. There's a bit of a compulsion involved. Just to make sure you don't break the promise too easily. It'll get stronger the longer the promise is in effect. Why after a while I bet an X-Man could attack you and you wouldn't even want to defend yourself."

Yup, too dramatic.

At least Nate was handling this well. Gina was just bothered on his behalf. He was here for a simple tour, and because Drew was so dang secretive, he was now bound into a promise involuntarily. Nice. Well, at least Gina was aware of this for future reference. Nate began to barage Drew with some technical questions, to which Gina also listened.

Breaking a promise that you made to Drew could result in anything from a minor headache to death. It sounded like those disclaimers of potential side-effects that medicine had. It could dause a laundry-list of problems, from a headache to a bruise... oh, and it could kill you, too, by the way. It didn't help that Drew seemed to be reciting the repercussions so casually, either. Gina listened, her lips pursed faintly as she listened.

Her eyes went to Drew's arm as he displayed the tattoos that originated from all of his promises. Who had he made those promises to, Drew wondered, and what had he promised them? Gina didn't have much time to wonder, for Drew continued speaking. When he was finally finished, Gina sighed faintly.

"At least you didn't promise something silly," Gina made an attempt at looking at the positive, shifting her gaze towards Nate, "Or a promise you could never keep... Right?"

So very high on his checklist of things not to do: try to kill an X-Man. Fair enough. The rules made a decent amount of sense, barring the last one he mentioned. Personally, having his will to defend himself taken away seemed uncomfortable, but at the same time, he could think of no reason an X-Man would attack him. His eyes stayed down on his wrist, almost admiring the pattern. When he looked up to see Drew's wrist marred with several bands, mostly of the solid black variety, he realized the boy had made a few promises for himself as well. "Then I guess I can deal with thorns. It'll be a pain to explain to my girlfriend, though." And it would.

He looked down upon Gina because of the height differential as she made her comment in the form of a question. "Of course. I'm a notoriously non-violent person, so as long as I don't accidentally challenge an X-Man to a fencing duel, I should be fine. No worries, darlin." For a career criminal, he had always been a non-violent one. Violence would mean stealth and cunning had failed, and that was never a problem for him.

Drew stayed quiet while Gina and Nate talked. He wanted to draw out the time until he had to tell Nate about the loophole for as long as possible. But they didn't say much and so all too soon it was time for him speak again.

"There is a way out of it you know." he stretched, mostly to draw things out, and continued, "I release you from your promise."

There was a tug at the bond between them. The tether crafted by Nate's promise snapped and the ink around their wrists began to fade as quickly as it had come.

"There, no more pesky promises and you're free to fight or harm the X-Men as you see fit."

Of course Drew still had three of his own and one of another person's but there wasn't much to be done about that. He really couldn't remember who the first promise was to or what it was. The two to Martin would be there until his master let him go from them and Drew didn't think that he'd told the man that such a thing was possible. Not that he really wanted it to happen. Drew was content in his servitude, less pleasant aspects and all.

"Well I think we've had enough fun on this floor. How about we hit the library and then head up to the second floor? It's offices and dorms up there."

>> "Of course. I'm a notoriously non-violent person, so as long as I don't accidentally challenge an X-Man to a fencing duel, I should be fine. No worries, darlin."

Gina smiled at the reassurance, and the "darlin'", and simply nodded her head. Although, this comment did raise more questions... such as, what if you didn't know someone was an X-Man, and attacked them unknowingly. Would the same repercussions still apply? Drew spoke up after Nate made the reassurance, and released him from the promise. Gina watched as the tattoo vanished, and rolled her eyes. Well, that was convenient-- now she'd gotten all worked-up over nothing. Drew could just let people back-out of promises. Figured.

"Dear lord," Gina sighed.

>> "There, no more pesky promises and you're free to fight or harm the X-Men as you see fit... Well I think we've had enough fun on this floor. How about we hit the library and then head up to the second floor? It's offices and dorms up there."

Gina nodded, and shifted her weight, to show that she was ready to move-on. She grinned at Nate, and informed him, "Ah, I love the library. Are you a reader? Because if you are, you'll love it. It's amazing."