Nowhere else to go, Open

[Paige Guthrie]

Paige had finally arrived in Westchester, New York. It had taken some asking around to get the locals to tell her where Xavier's School was; she wasn't sure if that was due to anti-mutant(if they knew what was going on) or they were protective of the school when it came to outsiders. Her thick Kentucky accent had definitely made her an outsider. She was standing outside the gates, which were open, looking down the long driveway to the mansion itself. She wondered if her brother Sam would think about this. In a gesture akin to Caesar crossing the Rubicon, she made her decision, and walked onto the mansion grounds. She would never look back, and wanted to be...she didn't know, but she wanted to be the best.

[Patience Styra]

Pat had been hanging on the top of the gate. She liked being here. No one ever really bothered her when she wanted to be alone, and it was high and difficult to climb up. Most students couldn't climb up solid stone like she could, and those that could, generally had better places to be anyways. She also enjoyed watching who came and who went, usually without being notice, as almost no one ever looks up.

At first Patience didn't really notice the new girl. People came and went all the time, and Pat didn't know most of them anyways. So Pat's grey eyes just glanced over her, without really noticing her, and kept scanning around absently. However, as Pat's eyes swept back, she realized the girl was still here. Cocking her head sideways she kept watching the girl for a moment, and then decided to say hi.

Leaping off the top of the gate and fell towards the ground. It was low enough she didn't have to roll when she hit, but she was forced down into a crouch. Her spikes glittered slightly in the light; those on her arms, her legs, and the three rows down her back. Turning, she swept around to look at the other girl, an interested smile on her lips.

"Hello," She greeted exhuberantly, "You new here?"

{OOC: Click my sig if you need to read about her spikes.}

[Paige Guthrie]

Paige was startled by the voice, and even more so by its owner. In what looked like body modification gone all wrong, her arms and legs were covered in diamonds. That can't be right, Paige thought. Must be something else. "I-I'm new, yes. My name is Paige Guthrie." Her accent made her feel more like a country bumpkin compared to the other young woman. "I'm not a student yet. I ran away, heard about this place on the internet. They said gifted students meant mutants."

[Patience Styra]

"Ahh, yeah, you've come to the right place then," Pat smiled reassuringly to the girl, "Come along, we'll see about getting you a room. My name's Patience."

Patience motioned for Paige to follow, and began walking down the drive. Pat enjoyed meeting new people, and this was the first person Pat had been able to introduce to the Mansion. She'd wanted to try doing this ever since Frost did it to her. After all, a student had to give a more fun version of a tour than any teacher did. Particularly that stick-in-the-mud Frost had. Hinting at a fun place like the Danger Room and not even showing it.

"If they can't get you a room right away, you can stay with me until they do," Pat offered, genuinely kind, "I don't see why they should have a problem though. They seem to have a lot of empty rooms here. Do you like goldfish?"

Random question? Yes. To Patience there was a perfect pathway. She had a goldfish in her room. She was talking to the other girl about bedrooms. If the girl didn't like goldfish, Patience would have to put it back in the pond or something. Assuming the girl actually did have to, or decided to, stay in Patience's room.

[Paige Guthrie]

She picked up her dirty bookbag, that held all her worldly possessions, and put it on her shoulder, and followed the other girl. "Goldfish are OK. My little brother has one. Not responsible enough for a dog, so my parents got him the goldfish to see if he could take care of it." She walked at Patience's pace. She felt terribly nervous, and looked at the diamond things again. "So, um, whats it like living in a mansion?" She knew she shouldn't want stuff, but growing up poor in a big family could do that to a girl. She wondered if most of the kids at the school were rich; she guessed they'd have to be, to pay for all that.

[Patience Styra]

"Eh, not as exciting as you'd think. We each have our rooms, which are seperated and we can decorate however we want. Mine's fairly spartan, but I don't really spend time there," Pat told the girl, seeming happy about explaining things to her, "There's a kitchen that you can always get food from, though there's often a served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There's a living room where you can watch TV on a big couch, or play video games. I'll show you all that when we get there. But really, living at the Mansion is basically like I always pictured boarding school being like. Only minus all the preps since most kids here aren't all that rich, myself included."

Patience didn't mind telling the girl everything, but she also knew some of it would just be better to show. She wondered about showing the other girl the Danger Room. She probably would, even if she hadn't figured out how to work it yet. She could at least warn her about going in it, or around it, when teachers were around. Didn't want the poor girl to get in trouble like she had.

"So where are you from?" Pat asked curiously, her gray eyes looking at the other girl curiously, "I recognize the accent as more Southern, but I can't place it beyond that."

[Paige Guthrie]

"Kentucky." When Paige said it, it came out 'Kain-tuck'. "Van Lear, near Paintsville. Like the song says, I was born a coal miner's daughter, first of seven. My parents couldn't understand what I was, and I got sick of it, and ran away." Now that she was telling someone, it was all sort of coming out in a rush. "And when I heard about this place," she gestured all around the two of them, "I hitchhiked about halfway across the country to get here." It felt better to have told someone else.

"So is this Xavier guy the principal or something? Do you have regular classes? What happens if we get bad grades? Do they kick us out?" She was wondering exactly how a mutant boarding school worked.

[Patience Styra]

"We have regular classes. Xavier's pretty much the headmaster. Makes sure everyone's getting along alright. I hear he helps people with their powers, or assigns them to someone else that may be able to help with powers," Patience explained, happy just to have someone to talk to, "I haven't heard of them kicking anyone out for bad grades. I doubt they do. While the school section is legit, it's only part of what happens here. How I understand it, is that this is a haven for mutants. There's even a large snake-mutant that lives out in the woods; who is neither staff nor student. But he's here under the protection of Xavier."

Patience could talk. Through that whole string of sentences she never seemed to take a breath, yet she kept talking. And she wasn't done talking either. No matter how you skewed it, Patience was fully of energy. And she made this quite evident by seemingly bouncing as she walked.

"If you want, sometime, you could come visit my parents with me. They said they may come visit sometime in the next few months, so they can get a feel of what it's like for me here. They're not mutants themselves, at least, not that I'm aware of. That'd be kind of cool if they were, though I'd have to wonder how they hid it from me. Not to mention why, when I'm so obviously a mutant," The girl's mind was a labyrinth, "So they said they'll come visit. You can meet them then if you'd like. My town's very different from most. I have non-mutant friends there who think it's so awesome that there's mutants. I'm certain they'd love to meet you too."

[Paige Guthrie]

"A snake mutant? Does it eat the students? Can it talk?" That was really freaky, the idea of a talking snake. Maybe the one in Genesis was a mutant too. "And I'd be happy to meet your parents. I don't think I'll be seeing mine anytime soon...

"But like, do I have to get a job while I'm here? I don't have any money, and even mutant havens don't just go handing money out." Money was one of the things that constantly worried her. She'd had a few crappy jobs back home, none had lasted long, usually when her powers made themselves known. She knelt down and touched the asphalt, studying it. "When we get someplace where I can change, I'll show you what my power is. What are those," Paige asked, pointing at Patience's arms, "anyway? Diamonds? They look really cool."

[Patience Styra]

"It speaks, though not as easily as the rest of us. It's a snake, so hisses a lot where we'd speak normally, and I think it's only recently been introduced to language at all. I don't know the whole story really. Dia does though," Patience smiled as she remembered the water fight from a few days back, "Apparently she and the snake, I think his name's Nathair, are very close. As in, intimate dating type close. I've heard rumors that he even sleeps in her room."

She chuckled softly as she thought about it. She'd met Nathair only once. He'd shown up during the water fight, and she saw him stick near Dia. He was a good aim, and she'd wondered then when he'd learned to throw so well. Him and Dia certainly seemed affectionate and familiar with each other. Of course, Page had more questions, and Patience was more than happy to answer them to the best of her ability.

"Not likely. They have food, and shelter, and even clothes. Hell, there's all kinds of things to do there on your off time to. Video games, foosball, TV," Patience shrugged, "Jobs aren't neccessary there. Some people get them, just to have the extra money and the ability to buy things, but most aren't needed. And you're partially right. They're fullerite, which is a type of ultrahard diamond. They seem to be virtually indestructable.

As they'd talked, they'd managed to make their way up the driveway and across the front yard. They were now standing at the entrance of the Mansion. Patience opened the door, pushing it in. Inside she could hear some of the students talking in the living room over the television. Patience grinned at Paige, and held a hand towards the door.

"Are you ready?" She asked, the cheeky grin remaining.

[Paige Guthrie]

"To go in? Yeah, I guess so." Truth was, Paige was very nervous. Worse than any other time. Even worse than when Billy Joe Flanagan had asked her out. "I, um, kinda end up naked when I use my powers, so I need a private place for that. At least when I turn back." She reddened a bit at that, a horrible fear she'd had in school, her powers out of control, and then failing, leaving her naked in front of her classmates. "Hi everybody." She waved at the people in the room.

[Patience Styra]

Patience's eyebrow rose slightly in suprise. What kind of power left you naked? It would be interesting to find out. For now her own room would work fine, after all, she had said she'd share it with the other girl. Pat had never been one to be shy about or around nudity. Due to her own mutation her back, arms, and legs almost always had to be open to viewers. On more than one occasion she'd lost a shirt because the straps had gotten sliced apart by her spikes. She'd been at a birthday party once when she was fourteen and her shirt had literally fallen off when she was surrounded by boys. She was used to it.

"Come on then," Pat stated cheerfully, "Like I said, you can use my room until we figure out where you're staying. And if you like it there, I don't think I'd mind the company."

Some of the students raised their hands in greeting, a few just said hi. All of them went back to what they were doing. Patience shook her head in bemusement, and took Paige's hand, leading her onward. She lead the other girl up the stairs, and to the dorm rooms. She stopped a door, and pushed it open.

"Here ya go," Pat smiled as she walked in, "It's not the Palace, but it works for me. Make yourself at home."

The room was fairly spartan, since Patience didn't own much. There was a bed with bright red sheets and pillowcase. There didn't seem to be any blankets. There was a small desk next to the bed that seemed to have a few small knicknacks. There was also a desk with a closed laptop, and next to that a fishbowl with a single goldfish. There was also a dresser, where the legs of some shorts seemed to be closed in the doors. On the floor were a few other sets of clothes, and an extra pair of sneakers. Patience moved in and began moving things to make sure Paige didn't trip, even though there was more than enough space for another person to walk through.

[Paige Guthrie]

"I'll get my own bed, right?" She had gotten tired of having to share a bed with her younger sisters years ago. "But we can worry about that later on." Turning her back, Paige took off her shirt, and unzipped her jeans. She lowered them quickly as she crouched down, very aware of her nudity in front of a complete stranger. She made the mental 'flex' that activated her power, and felt heavier, more dense. As she started moving, her outermost layer of skin tore, and the black asphalt of the next layer was revealed to her new roommate. "I can turn my skin into things. Steel or rock are really easy. Other stuff doesn't work just yet. But when I turn back, I'm naked. I mean, I'm naked right now, its just harder to recognize that. I can stay this way a little while so far, but its longer almost every time."

[Patience Styra]

Patience wasn't one to consciously turn around when someone disrobed. She was so used to losing clothes, she didn't expect it anymore. She was quite certain some of her friends, male and female, knew almost every detail of her torso. So it was that she got a good glimpse of the back of Paige's body before the other girl turned into a walking rock.

"Now that's cool," Patience stated with a huge grin, and wide, gray eyes that seemed to sparkle with enjoyment, "Though I'm curious. If you don't like other people seeing you naked, how do you feel comfortable going around like that? I know it's rock and all, but it's still your skin."

Patience shifted slightly. For some reason her mind was still locked on the back of Paige's bare body, before it turned to stone. She could feel a strange tingling almost everywhere on her body. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but the young girl had never felt this sensation. She had no idea what it meant. Let alone that it was foreboding to something beginning to grow just under the skin.

[Paige Guthrie]

"Well, yeah, I'm naked, but not naked naked. Its my skin, but its asphalt, not my skin." She went over to her new roommate, and held out her hand. Paige didn't notice how Patience's eyes traced over her. "See? Feel it. Asphalt, just like the driveway. But that's kinda the problem too. On a really hot day, asphalt can melt, and that can happen to me too. Or if I turn into steel, I'm magnetic. Stuff like that." Feeling much of her nervousness of the last 20 minutes disappearing, Paige didn't notice the involuntary shift she made back into her human form. Her asphalt skin shedding as she moved, she took a step back from Patience. "This is the other problem too. I keep turning back into myself at weird times. Naked." She covered herself with her hands as best she could, while backing away to put on her clothes again. "I'll clean up my husks when I'm dressed again."