xp_logs | Hope & Bas

Hope encounters one of the newer residents in the mansion.

"Whoa?! What is that?!?!?!?" Hope dove as suddenly something soared pretty close over her head. The cab had only dropped her off at the mansion gates after a long day in NY city and she looking forward to being able to sit and put her feet up for a moment. And see if there was something tasty to be had in the kitchen.

Rolling back to her feet, she scanned the sky, trying to figure out what had been so close.

Uh oh. In dragon form, Bas flipped over in midair onto his back, also trying to figure out what he'd been so close to. He'd nearly strafed someone, lost in the joy of winging around the enormous mansion grounds. Ah, there. A woman was looking up at the sky, probably trying to locate him. He flew into the field of vision where she was looking and flapped towards her. "Sorry," he called out apologetically. "Didn't see you." He flapped a few feet away from her and a few feet above, looking sheepish.

Hope turned around when she heard the voice around her and her eyes widened a little as she took in the sight before her. A dragon... that was something new... "It is alright. I was just a little startled." Tilting her head a little, she continued: "Is this your first flight around here?"

"Yeah," Bas answered with a nod. He landed in front of the woman so she wouldn't have to strain her neck to talk to him. "I just moved in."

Finally noticing his accent, she smiled. "Oh, you came from Europe? England? I saw someone post on the journal... Clea, I think her name was. I am Hope Abbott."

"Bas," he nodded again. "Are you in school here?"

"I was." Hope confirmed with a nod. "I graduated in June and now I work as a PA for Julian Keller. You might have seen him during Gen X training?"

"Oh. Right. Gen X." Bas was happy he was in dragon form because the dragon face wasn't very emotional. It didn't really do disapproving looks. "Yeah, I guess I've seen that guy around. What's a PA?"

"Personal assistant. It something of a mix of administrative assistant, running errands and in my case quite a bit of event planning." Hope easily explained. "I just came back from the city. You enjoying Bayville High so far? I imagine it must be quite different from school in England."

"Yeah. Quite different," Bas answered. That was the only polite thing he could think of to say about the school.

"You can say so if school sucks, Bas. I promise I will not tell anyone." Hope titled her head with a smile. A dragon's face was hard to read, but somehow he radiated distaste.

Bas shrugged his dragon form's shoulders. "At least it has girls," he commented. "So what do you do that landed you here?"

"I manifested and my parents found it best I went to a 'fitting school'. I can do astral projection." Hope looked around for a place she could sit down, then shrugged when nothing jumped into view. "My spirit leaves my body and resembles a ghost very much when it floats around."

"Like The Last Airbender?" Bas asked curiously, sounding intrigued. "Where your body goes all limp and vacant like a doll?"

"Oh, you mean like Jinora?" Hope asked, her eyes twinkling a little. "Yes, my abilities are quite similar to hers. Part of my training here was learning to do things like she does to find Kai. How to conduct a search effectively and things like that."

"Cool," Bas said with genuine feeling. "Can other people see your spirit when you do it? Can you communicate with people?"

"They can and I can project my thoughts when I am ghosted out. Somehow I can just hear normal people talking back luckily." Hope explained. "If we find a place where I can sit down, I would be happy to show you."

Nodding, Bas waddled after her as she sought a place to sit down. "So did someone here help you learn how to do that? Or did you figure it out on your own?" he asked her curiously.

"What they most taught me was control. When I came here, I could not control when I slipped out of my body and I had some issues getting back when that happened. But now..." Hope had found a bench to sit on and making sure her things were safely next to her, she closed her eyes, imagined the flower unfolding in her mind and slipped out of her body.

'But now it's easy...' She projected, her pearly form hovering next to the bench.

"How long did it take you to learn?" Bas questioned, staring down at Hope's body on the bench and then at the astral form.

'Honestly, that took me a few months. After that, it was more how I could use my abilities.' Hope explained, sinking next to her body on the bench. 'Like how to do Search and Rescue.' And some other things, but this was the most public acceptable one.
"Oh yeah? You do Search and Rescue? Like, with the Coast Guard?" Bas inquired, following the ghostly form to the bench. He seemed particularly intrigued by the thought of her working with the military.

'No, I did it as a part of my Generation X training. I have helped quietly with a few things in the past, but never worked officially with any groups.' Hope shook her head sadly. 'And they will not accept it now. Which is too bad.'

"Yeah," Bas agreed. "So now you run errands." This conversation was definitely not cheering him up about leaving his life in England behind to come here.

Hope took a moment to envision the flower in her mind closing, enveloping her as she snapped back into her body. Sitting up, she opened her eyes and regarded the boy. "That is one way of putting it. Let's just say you can learn a lot while running errands."