xp_logs | Hope meets Matt: arrival at the mansion

Hope arrives at the mansion and meets one of the students.

Hope swallowed... It wasn't enough that she had to go to what amounted to a medical facility, where they could help her, but though her mother had brought her to Salem, she had to leave suddenly because her father was doing worse somehow. The cab driver had been friendly though, helping her to unload her suitcases and waving as he drove away, his fare and a good tip safely in hand.

With a quick glance at a nearby window, she gave her appearance a quick check over. Her mother had laid out the outfit this morning... Black pantyhose (a lady always wears pantyhose), ballet slippers and flared skirt to just above knees when she sat with a silky pale pink shell and cardigan and and her pearls to finish it. As soon as her mother had left, she had changed the childish pink for a more mature emerald green short sleeved silk blouse with her emerald earrings and pendant she had gotten for her birthday last May. A lady has to make a good impression and Hope felt much more confident in this outfit.

With a last deep breath, she reached out and rung the bell.

Matt wandered by, munching on an apple. Apples were loud fruits, but tasty and refreshing. He was done with summer school for the day and had been outside by the pool doing some homework when he had decided to get a snack. Hearing the doorbell had diverted him though and he went to answer the door clad only in his jeans. His sneakers were outside by the pool and his t-shirt was tucked into the back waistband of his pants, hanging down behind him. Otherwise, he wore his sunglasses, his cane too was out by the pool.

"Yo," he greeted, his powers giving him an idea of the person in front of him. Young woman, good health, and wearing some fancy perfume in a moderate amount. Or at least, he assumed it was moderate, it was strong to him, but at least it helped so he knew where she was. Most likely, it was reasonably to people without enhanced senses. He did not inform her that she stunk.

Blink...blink... Hope had to blink several times at the picture in front of her. This was not what she expected from a medical facility at all... A young man maybe a little older then her stood before her. His only clothing was a pair of jeans and a shirt dragging behind him and he did not even have the courtesy to remove his sunglasses!

She swallowed and scraped together her courage. "Excuse me, my name is Hope Abbott. I have an appointment with Dr. Xavier?" She held out her hand hesitantly.

"I'm Matt," he introduced himself with a smile, offering his hand, but not taking hers. Yes, he knew she was holding her hand out, he could find it, but why bother when she clearly was unimpressed? He was blind, not dumb. "And the Professor know you're coming?" better to check these things than to just let some girl come barging in, though he suspected that she was a new student or something similar given the suitcase with her.

Hope frowned slightly and moved her hand to grab his, giving it a shake just long enough to be polite. "My mother made the appointment, but I don't know the details since she was unable to accompany me. I would assume so though." This was becoming stranger and stranger. Should she not have been received by a nurse or an assistant?

"Appointment?" Whatever. Matt had no idea what the professor did anyways. He did his best to avoid the man, he was intimidating and more than a little scary. "Okay, well, I can show you where his office is, if you want," he assumed she didn't know where to go from what she was saying.

"Thank you, Matt. I would appreciate that." She lifted the heavy suitcase and followed the young man through the mansion that stretched out before her. She eyed the wooden paneling, the slender, porcelain vases on the tables and the heavy paintings on the wall and shook her head almost imperceptibly. "This doesn't look like a medical facility at all... What is this place?" She muttered softly.

"Medical?" Matt asked, confused. Well, there was the med labs in the basement, but somehow, he didn't think she was talking about that. "This is a school," the 'duh' was implied. "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Boarding school, actually. What grade are you in?" he asked, curious. New people were always interesting and it beat doing homework.

Hope stopped in her tracks before very quickly resuming her way. "This is a school? A boarding school? I was not told that." For the first time emotion was audible for everyone in her voice... Pure shock... She had trusted her mother that she would find the right place to help her deal with her... problem. Automatically she disguised the shock in her voice though and answered the question. "I will be a sophomore in after the summer though."

"Welcome to Mutant High," Matt quipped, though he did feel a little bad about destroying her world, even if it was unintentionally. "It's not so bad here. Really. It could be a lot worse. What do you do?"

Her feet moved automatically and she was feeling vaguely floaty... No, I going to that. I am not! Slowly the feeling dissipated and she felt clear enough to answer the question. "I am not sure what it is called. My parents described it as me leaving my body as ghost?"

And now that she had answered a few questions she hesitantly ventured forward with one of her own. "May I ask you something? You said this was a school. But what kind of school? Can every student do... something?" She finished rather awkwardly.

"Huh," Matt had no idea what it was she was talking about with her powers. That was okay though, he would figure it out as time went on and she did too. "Yeah. Everyone here's a mutant," Matt confirmed. He turned to face her, slipping his sunglasses off and letting her see the milky film that covered his blue eyes. "I can tell you your heart rate, your perfume which is probably expensive and smells like butt since you're wearing too much and a a bunch of other stuff. But I can't tell you your hair color."

"Oh my, I never even realized you're..." Hope paused a minute to fully process what he had said. Apparently his powers were some form of superior senses. "Excuse me, did you say my perfume stinks?"

"Blind, yeah," Matt replied, pushing his sunglasses back up and leading the way down the hall, "I left my cane with my books outside since I just came in to get a snack," he indicated his partially eaten apple. "And yes. Stinks."

She didn't quite know what to say and even felt quite offended... A little voice piped up in her head though: Courtesy is a lady's armor. "My apologies. I had no idea strong perfumes could affect someone with superior senses so much." She tried to ignore his comments on her perfume, which was her favorite one and just focused on the idea that it might affect him negatively.

Was this girl for real?! "Course you didn't," Matt agreed, not being sarcastic at all, and accepting the needless apology, "No reason to apologize then, since you had no idea. There're a few of us here who got heightened senses, but I'm the only one with all of them heightened, 'cept the obvious. And mine are more sensitive than anyone else," but unlike Dori or Kyle, he didn't have a feral mutation with claws or anything either. Like everything else, it was a give-take. "So where're you from?"

Hope still had her armor up though and replied only with the absolute minimum of the information that was required. "I am from Bloomfield Hill in Michigan." She explained briefly, her tone a little more frosty then it had been.

"Never heard of it," then again, there were lots of places he had probably never heard of, "What's it like?

"It is a good place to live. The people are quite friendly and the surroundings are quite nice." Hope switched her suitcase to her other hand, shaking out her hand delicately.

"Ah, so not like here," Matt stopped in front of a large, imposing oak door. "I'm from Hell's Kitchen, in the city. Ain't the same. This is Prof's office."

"I am sorry... I not really familiar with New York yet. From the name though... It sounds very different then where I am from." Hope gratefully set down her suitcase. "And thank you for escorting me, Matt." She would have held out her hand, but she didn't quite know if he would be able to find it or not.

"Yeah, sure. This place is confusing, make sure you get a map," he had one actually. It was in braille. "That's what the locals call it. Developers call it Clinton. They're trying to make it all nice and shi- stuff," why did she make him feel the need to watch his language? "Anyways, you got any questions or whatever, I'll give you the answers. Have fun! Come out to the pool later, if you want."

"Thank you and I will keep your offer in mind." She gave him a smile, even though she knew he couldn't really see it, but maybe he could hear it in her voice somehow...