Xaviers!

Still stinging from her embarrassing trip into town, Katarina stomped her way into the cafeteria, generally being all frowney and annoyed.

She huffed at the line for food, and stood, cross-armed, in the back of the queue.

((open))

Jezabelle was standing in line when she heard the sound of a student being grumpy, a familiar sound on any university campus though usually more so during midterms or final exams. She turned to see the, to her, unfamiliar face of the redheaded royalty.

"You can go ahead of me, if you'd like." She offered with a somewhat sympathetic smile. She didn't know what the woman's troubles were, but it couldn't hurt to offer a token gesture of kindness, right? It's not like the glasses-wearing girl couldn't spare an additional 30 seconds for her food.

Katarina peered down the long line.

"I thank you, but unless you can convince the rest of the line to do the same, I don't think that would help very much, no?"

"Well I mean I could try, but in my time here I've learned one thing about the British; they do not like people jumping the queue."

"I suppose there's nothing for it, then," Katarina sighed. "There are many things the British do which confuse me."

"Well when you realize that everything they do is behind a mask of politeness, things make a little more sense.

"I'm Jez, bytheway."

"Oh! I apologize. I'm still not..." she trailed off, catching herself.

"I'm Katarina. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise!" Jez moved forward the the line, a bit closer to getting her food. "Are you new to the campus? I don't think I've seen you around here before."

"Fairly new -- a week or two, now. Still getting used to...well, everything. And you?"

"This is my second semester. So you're still in the whole 'I've never seen so many metahumans in one place' stage. Don't worry, pretty soon you won't even bat an eye at the kid with antlers, midterms'll help with that."

She squinted slightly. "Hmm, redhead... so there's a fifty-fifty chance you're a telepath...."

"People keep saying that. You'd think that red hair was tied to the X-Gene or something.

No, I'm not a telepath."

Jez snapped her fingers in mock disappointment. "Darn, well we can scratch x-gene vision off my trading card, 'cause I clearly don't have it. I'm sure you're sick of that already though. On this campus it's not 'what classes are you taking?' that's used as an icebreaker, it's all about the super powers."

"Then let us...break the ice, yes? What is it that you do?" she said, breaking a small smile despite herself.

"Self-duplication. So basically I'm the best person to know if you want someone to save you a seat." Jez bit her bottom lip as she looked at the day's menu, trying to decide if she wanted to get the soup or a tabbouleh salad with her meal.

"And yourself?"

"I turn gold, so I suppose I'm the best person to know if you've left your wallet at home," Katarina joked.

"Oh really? So you could be paying your tuition with your nail clippings, nice!" Jez appeared to be impressed. "I met one or two people in the past who could turn themselves into metal, but it was always like titanium or liquid mercury or something. That's really cool!"

"It has it's uses, I suppose -- though I suppose whether it is 'cool' or not is in the eye of the beholder. It would be much more...handy?...to do what you can do."

"Ah, we all see the best in others' powers and the worst of our own. Have you ever tried to juggle? Or do that thing where you pat your head with one hand and rub your belly with the other? Yeah, it's like that, but waaaaaaay more complicated. There's been more than I've realized one of me is just staring into space with her mouth agape." Jez grabbed a plastic serving tray from the rack and offered a second one to Katarina.

"Love the accent, bytheway."

Katarina giggled at the thought of Jez just staring off into space.

"Thank you! Most people seem to spend most of their time trying to guess where it's from. I suppose Symkarian pop stars don't get much play in England."

"Symkaria? Isn't that the guy who does comic book reviews?" She realized that this was a reference likely only she would get. "Sorry, my sense of geography is a product of the US education system."

"Eastern Europe.

Oh, sorry, you said American education system. The 'right' of Europe. Next to Latveria."

"Ooh, right next to Latveria?" Jez winced a little bit. "That must be... interesting. You'd probably get along well with the Canadian students."

"I get what you're saying, but at least they can hope their neighbors will change every few years. Dealing with Doom is a...delicate situation."

"I think you're putting it quite diplomatically. Still, best wishes with that. At least here you don't have to worry about such things. Hopefully."

Jez opted for the soup this time, grabbing a little packet of dry salty crackers to go with it.

"Well, one would hope, though with the current climate here..." she trailed off.

"It could definitely be worse, however. You're quite right."

"Eh, things'll get better. If not, we'll just have to make them get better, right?"

"I like that attitude. You're one of the good ones, I can tell," Katarina smiled.

Was that a little blush to Jez's cheeks? It might've been, it was a very flattering comment for an aspiring social activist. "Thank you very much, you're too kind."

"I try to be, and you're very welcome.

...I don't suppose you have a way to make this line go any faster?"

"You could always bribe them with locks of your golden hair." Jez teased.

"Heaven forbid.

And hard to remove, at that -- it's not exactly something most scissors are meant to deal with."

"Oh, so it's not soft and malleable like real gold? Oh, sorry, like jewelry gold I mean. So you're more like a titanium nitride maybe?"

"I've....never thought to have that checked," Katarina said, somewhat taken aback. "Everyone has always just called it gold, so I assumed..."

"Oh no, I'm sorry, it's very rude of me to question your abilities! I mean... no one has ever questioned what I'm made out of, it's rude for me to do the same."

"It's more than alright," Katarina said, trying to reassure Jez. "It's preferable to the normal reaction one gets outside these walls, I suppose."

"That's true! I guess it's a bit like how artists talk shop or something, we all wanna figure out each other's schtick."

"That's very true!

How many...well, yous, can you turn into?"

"Oh I usually stick with one or two, that's when I'm at my best." Jezabelle finally reached an actual food part of the line. Shepherd's pie wasn't the fanciest of meals, but it had just about everything one could want; it was like if an Irishman tried to make lasagna.

"Maximum? Um, around twenty maybe? Though really I try to keep it around five or six at the most. Anything more than that and they start to shuffle around like zombies. My multi-tasking skills are not THAT good."

"I can imagine keeping that much focus is...difficult."

"Well just like everything else, it comes with practice, you know? Walking is a pretty complex thing, it's basically controlled falling. But it's second nature to you now, right? I'll bet you that little things that were difficult when your gift first manifested , you do without even thinking about 'em."