Xaviers!

"It's been a long lesson, but I've learned that, mostly at the school."

"That's why I think it's going to be so great to be here, you know? A perfect place for people like us."

"It is nice to have," she says, "Definitely lets you unwind a bit more."

"And am I ever looking forward to it. A little place out of the spotlight, where you're not The Weird One Who Does The Thing, yeah?"

"I think everyone at the university is a bit of the 'weird one who does the thing', but I'm sure you'll find some people who share your experience."

"Well, there's the thing. When everyone's the weird one, than no one is."

"From a certain point of view, certainly. Still good to celebrate the uniqueness."

"Uniqueness is good. Celebration is good. It's when you're the 'outcast' that it's the issue."

"Well, to be fair, some people are going to feel like outcasts no matter what you do. It's like it's their thing."

"Well, we'll just have to work on changing their minds, won't we?"

"If they want to be the outcast, isn't it a bit presumptuous to try and change that?"

"Well, I mean, I suppose if they want to. But in my experience, no one wants to be gloomy. They just feel it's their only option in a gloomy world.

That's the point of art, though, isn't it? To add color and light?"

"I thought the point of art was to enlighten and provoke thought?"

"It can have two points!" Rose laughed. "It's a method of communicating lots of things, I suppose. I just use it to try to make life better."

"A noble calling. Everyone has to find some way to use their gifts for the good of the p... everyone else."

"Of the peveryone else?" Rose teased. "Interesting dialect, there.

How do you help peveryone else?"

"Well, I occasionally try to be one of the X-Men," she says, "With varying levels of success, of course."

"See, now that is super-cool. I bet ice powers come in really handy there. Like, hey evil doer! Ka-pow! Freeeeeeeze," she said, making appropriate hand gestures and arm swings to simulate Tereza stopping some sort of baddy in their tracks.

"You'd think that and sometimes it does work that way, but sometimes the bad guys insist on mixing it up."

"Well, that's why you have teammates, right? All working together. It's very cool.

Hey, do you think it'd be possible for me to paint a group portrait? Of the X-Teams, I mean. I think it'd go great for my portfolio project."

"I don't know why it would be a problem, but you should probably clear it with the Headmistress. She may know something I don't."

"If she's the headmistress, she probably knows a great many things we don't. Otherwise, she'd be the student, right?" Rose laughed. Again.


"I've got this whole plan worked out -- I'm hoping to do an entire series of portraits on the Mutant form. In formal settings, casual setting, intimate settings -- the whole lot. The idea is to show the entire rainbow of the Mutant experience, and celebrate all of it's aspects. I've already got a Genoshan praetor lined up for a portrait, so I figured the X-Teams would be a good counterbalance to that."

"Sounds like an interesting project. I'd certainly be up for it."

"Excellent!" she said, pulling out a small notepad and writing something down. "I do always hope for volunteers; posing results in much more detailed portraits than photo reference and sketches."

"I'll certainly do what I can to help. What do you think you'll want?"

"A variety, mostly. If it's all people sitting in chairs looking out windows, it gets visually boring after a bit."

"Well, when you decide what you want, pitch it to me and I'll see what I can do."

"You'd also know better than I would what everyone can do. With a cryokenetic, maybe something over the water might be an interesting power display, though I'm trying to get away from the pure 'rawr, here's my might' sort of thing. Everyone thinks that's all mutants do, anyway."

"There's plenty of snow around the school now, so maybe something with that? The cold doesn't bother me, so you could do something that plays on that and it's less of an overt display. You're the artist though."

"Are there any other cryokinetics on campus? A group shot may allow for some interesting possibilities."

Tereza ponders for a brief moment and then shakes her head, "No, none. I'm sort of a special snowflake in that regard."

"Ah well. I'll come up with some more interesting possibilities as I get to know everyone, I'm sure."