6084/Reflections for The New Year

Reflections for The New Year
Date of Scene:	01 January 2019
Location:	Xavier's School, Westchester, New York
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, Emma Frost

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Phoenix has posed:
While many are out on the town for the dropping of the ball, and the countless others partying opportunities provided by New York City, Jean Grey has elected to stay behind at the Mansion. On her lonesome, for the most part, she's actually sitting in an empty classroom. Not at the teacher's desk, but at a student's desk, one that someone who knows her very well like Scott, Warren or Hank might recognize. But otherwise, it seems like she's gone out of her mind to be sitting in an empty classroom on New Year's Eve.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost turned down multiple party invitations for the evening. Mostly because after the fiasco of the Shadow King, and her fleeting splash onto the social pages as something of a partier, Emma wasn't prepared to step foot back onto that scene quite yet - even if she were pondering a lavish bit of a soiree of her own in the near future. But that was then, and this was now.

And since Emma has been on self-imposed holiday duty at the school, making up part of the skeleton staff while others were off with their families, it's Emma who finds Jean just sitting in the classroom by virtue of the lights that are on.

Emma pauses in the doorway, regarding the Headmistress silently before murmuring, "I remember when those desks were our size. It seems impossibly long ago now. Dare I ask why you're here and not somewhere else?"

Phoenix has posed:
Jean turns her head towards Emma, a pallid smile on her lips, "not as long ago as we'd like to believe," she muses, before her gaze turns from Emma towards the blackboard. "It's New Year's Eve, I needed to reflect, it's what you're supposed to do, right?" She states the obvious before pointing at the empty seat next to her, "you can join me if you like..."

Emma Frost has posed:
"New Year's Eve," Emma says carefully, entering the room proper. "It seems like ages ago to me. I remember being young and idealistic. You wouldn't have recognized me."

Emma gives a soft laugh, lips bowing over a smile as she slips into the desk next to Jean. "I feel like we should be passing notes to one another, preparing for detention as a result."

Emma's gaze falls upon the blackboard with it's green slate colouring smudged with the remains of chalk white. "Traditionally, yes. I suppose it's a time of reflection. I could still ask why here."

Phoenix has posed:
"Were you...?" Jean asks for the sake of asking, it was after all a tidbit freely offered by Emma. There was nothing to manipulate towards in this setting. "What happened to that, Emma?" Jean muses, as her gaze remains trained on the blackboard, as if a phantom teacher was lecturing at this very moment. "A note? I'll have you know I was quite the teacher's pet..." Jean chuckles, "wasn't quite passing notes when I was a student here...Bobby was though, all the time."

"Care to venture a guess?" Jean offers to Emma, peeking at her from the corner of her green eyes. It almost sounds like an invitation.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma is quiet for a time before answering. "I'd like to say I didn't know what happened. The truth is, I changed. My mutation showed. My family was horrified. Tried to hide it - very well as a matter of fact. But I wasn't welcome at home anymore. I ran off with the first young man I thought I loved and the story becomes rather trite after that. Suffice to say I learned that innocence is a liability."

She shrugs, and casts her glance Jean's way. "Well, perhaps not. I still believe the children here should be allowed to keep that as long as they can. The world will be hard enough for them withoutour adding to it. It does leave me in a bit of a quandry."

Then she smiles, a thing that touches the blue of her eyes, "Teacher's pet? I'm not sure I believe that. As to why here? I've no clue, Jean. If I had to venture, I suppose I'd go with the romanticism of youth having their lives fully ahead of them. Picturing them in these very seats facing the future. I imagine I'd be wrong, though."

Phoenix has posed:
"Oh...so you've experienced childhood," Jean notes in some kind of feigned twisted bravado, "sounds pretty good. I take it separation from home forced you to see the world differently, didn't it? Too bad you didn't have a place like Xavier's to teach you how to cope..."

Jean looks a bit surprised as doubt is cast at her self proclaimed status as teacher's pet from her time as a student, "you honestly don't believe it, why's that?" Jean is rather curious, she actually takes it as a compliment. "You would be...the reflection is on myself," she then taps at a faint engraving of 'Jean' at the very corner of the desk, "this used to be my seat in the Professor's lectures," she then winks at Emma and quips, "you're sitting in Scott's old seat." No engraving there, Scott was following all the rules.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma quirks a brow at Jean. "You say that like you believe I shouldn't have let it affect me. That or you highly doubt I had a childhood." Emma looks back to the blackboard. "I don't believe Xavier's was even a thought then. I stumbled through it all alone. It's actually quite surprising things didn't go worse than they did."

The way she says it suggests things didn't go very well at all, despite the seeming outcome.

"You strike me as too independant to be a teacher's pet, Jean. Someone who could care less about the opinions others hold of her. I don't see you fawning, even as an impressionable youth." She almost smiles as she looks back at the other woman. "Ah. So, sentiment. And Scott's desk? How interesting. I missed much of my formative years. On the run. Though I did attend university. I suppose it's really the same old story. Nothing the rest of us couldn't say."

"What was it like? Being a student here, under Charles."

Phoenix has posed:
"Am I...?" Jean muses, but only holding the gag for a moment before shaking her head, "not at all. I was merely reflecting on what I got..." but she drops it there, turning back to the blackboard, "you made it, Emma, you're a highly regarded business woman. You've got riches, you've got fame. Not many get it even without being a mutant..." she doesn't even suggest Emma might have used her powers to attain some of what she has.

Jean looks quite pleased with Emma's assessment, before offering, "than the Professor deserves a great deal of praise." She looks like she's about to add something to that, but her lips remain slightly parted as she reconsiders, "I'm sure it was different for each of us, so I can't quite give you a universal answer to that..."

Emma Frost has posed:
There's a direct look from Emma, sidelong, but held long enough to impart that Emma did no such thing as use her powers to get where she is. Then she looks away again.

"The one thing I never figure out was how to.. Well, look at you. Everyone here. Do you know what riches and competance in business can't buy you? What you're building here. What you have with all the rest of the staff. The students. The team."

She sighs. "I'm not quite sure where this maudlin attitude came from. Too much thinking, perhaps. Answer me this, truly, though, Jean, do I belong here? Was this a mistake?" Emma turns to regard the other, though she tries not to leave Jean pinned beneath her gaze. "I had all the right reasons. I just don't seem to be accomplishing what I came here for."

Phoenix has posed:
"Empathy and bonding comes from shared experience, generally something done together with and as part of a group...business is more or less a far lonelier world, even when you're surrounded by people."

"Every mutant belongs here, Emma," Jean answers without so much as a thought, now turning to set her green eyes entirely on Emma, "what is it that you thought to achieve by coming here, Emma?"

Emma Frost has posed:
"Not this," Emma says dryly. "And perhaps nothing at all. Julien needed training. Training I couldn't give him. You recall the deal we made. I'd teach in exchange for that."

Her blue eyes meet Jean's green with an easy placcidness. "Your answer wasn't helpful. We both know it prevaricates, Jean. I might be a mutant, but as for belonging here? I don't know how to."

Phoenix has posed:
"Julien is one of the students who didn't care for any instruction by my hand, so I don't know him as well, but what is it you feel you couldn't give him?" Jean asks in utter sinceirty, she's looking to help Emma, not poke fun at her. "If there is nothing at all you thought to achieve here, that might have something to do with your feeling of disconnect. Tough to belong when there's no investment..."

Emma Frost has posed:
"My forte is telepathy, Jean. I can't teach him his skill. As for failure, somewhere between caring for the students and expressing that, I fall short. I'm afraid I don't understand how it is the rest of you do what you do. And the students are afraid of me, even when I make overtures."

As Kaydin had so succinctly put it, it's hard to be comfortable around someone who could fry your brains without so much as a second thought.

Phoenix has posed:
Jean looks preplexed at Emma's explanation, "I would dare say that is precisely why you're best suited to teach just about anyone, regardles what their skill may be..." she motions at the students seats they are currently occupying at the other question, "simply this...we don't forget we were once where they are now. Maybe try to be less formal? Less condecending?" The suggestion are spoken flatly, without an aggressive tone looking to offend. Truth be told it's all conjecture based on what Emma revealed, Jean hasn't sat in one of her classes as of yet. "Do you want me to sit in a class and give you my input?"

Emma Frost has posed:
"I'm not you," Emma says simply, failing to find words that express when you let people in, they hurt you. That control is the only personal weapon she has. "I don't think they care, Jean. And to be honest, I don't know I'm the best person to reach them. What you do doesn't come naturally to me."

Indeed, when she'd made an effort, had expressed her deepest wishes for them, things had gone awry. Somewhere between desire and execution, Emma Frost met failure. She was profoundly efficient in the business world, but her forays into anything interpersonal were met with suspicion and worse.

"Why," she asks finally. "Why would you do that? When it would be simpler to agree and send me along my way. It wouldn't change my position on the team. All it would mean would be less antaagonism here. I find myself confused as to why you'd evven make such an offer. Especially as I've never received the impression that you actually cared for me here."

Phoenix has posed:
"Who am I, Emma?" Jean asks, looking at her intently, seems like everything is a lesson with Jean. Or at the very least, a push to look beyond the surface.

At being questioned for the help and support she's offering, Jean smirks, and turns to look at that blackboard, "if you reflect more on just why I might be in this classroom on New Year's Eve instead of out celebrating, you'd be closer to the answer yourself. Suffice to say, how you see me, is how the Professor shaped me..." and though she's not entirely aware of it, a lot of how the Phoenix shapes her too, but that's besides the point. "If he was able to do that for me, it would be high testament to his work, if I should manage to do the same for you, Emma. And I mean to do just that, if you'd allow it."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma sits quietly, then nods. "I believe we have things to discuss, Jean. And yes, I would be willing."