10458/Dinner for Two

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Dinner for Two
Date of Scene: 13 March 2022
Location: The Well
Synopsis: Emma and Xi'an have a first date at a nice restaurant and discuss their lives.
Cast of Characters: Xi'An Coy Manh, Emma Frost




Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh arrives first for dinner. She picked the restaurant, the gothic and stylish atmosphere of the place suiting Xi'an's personal aesthetics nicely. She always was the kind of girl who liked the Addams Family a little too much, although goth isn't precisely the right word for what she is. Vintage, classic, romantic, a little Victorian.

She wears a sleek pantsuit in black over a cream colored blouse, the buttons undone to show a hint of her modest cleavage, a dangling gold chain hanging from her throat. Her nails are manicured, her shoes low heels that are both stylish and practical. She takes her seat and thanks the waitress, indicating she's waiting for her date and takes the liberty of ordering a fine bottle of white wine while she waits.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost is dressed to kill. Metaphorically. Her hair is carefully combed over the right side of her face, slightly overhanging her right eye. On her back is a long mink cloak having an array of high arching blades put to it to give it a semblance like a winter storm with ice on the back. Her dress is made up of interlocking small flexible plates with inlaid jewelry in it to make ehr look like a literal ice queen with a long flowing dress going to her ankles.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/best-art-ever-this-week-082214--43769427603879884/

Emma would enter in and fold her hands together, "Ah, Xi'an. Thank you for taking care of the reservations in advance."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh rises from her seat at Emma's approach, coming around and pulling out the White Queen's chair for her before resuming her own. "I'm always impressed by the daring of your choices. You're positively demonic in that and I mean that absolutely as a compliment. And quite well suited to our environs," she says, gesturing to the supposedly haunted location.

"And it was no problem at all. I took it as a compliment that you would trust me to choose our venue," she says. "I'm glad you could come.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Thank you. This seemed an appropriate thing to wear. I saw some artists with some intriguing snippets of creativity expressed in ways akin to this with a horrible sense of what their work was worth and how it should be evaluated so I was able to appropriate a few things for inspiration. And as always a pleasure to spend time with you, Xi'an. The Library has not been burn tdown since I was last there?"

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh shakes her head, "Oh no, I don't even allow candles in the place, even if they would add a lovely bit of atmosphere now and then. I have no ideas how librarians in times past were able to manage it, I would've had a case of nerves every time I lit a lantern," she says.

"And the artists efforts are, indeed, impressive, although they did have a gorgeous canvas to start with. There aren't many women with cheekbones as flawless as yours buying custom gowns anywhere," she says.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would click her tongue, "Good, I've seen that students can sometimes take.. Liberties when it comes with restrictions." She would go to sit on down. "And I believe that librarians developed a reputation for sternness for quite a good reason."

She would smiel, "Why thank you Xi'an. You know just the best things to say to flatter my vanity and my ego."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh smiles, "I can be quite stern when required. Frankly, it also helps that my powers are a little intimidating. The idea that I can take over their minds and walk them right back out the door is a potent threat, I've found."

She takes a sip of the wine before she answers the last, "I won't pretend I don't want to flatter you, but that doesn't make the things I say untrue. And I know you're fully aware that you're a remarkable woman and not only in your beauty."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Yes, that does you plenty of favors amongst the student body when they behave inappropriately I'm quite sure. The library is your area of control and those within it must pay proper respects or face consequences." Why, Emma had a bit of a focus, didn't she?

"It's not flattery if it's true, darling. And thank you. It's nice to be appreciated for what I am." Vanity, thine name is Frost.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh doesn't mind the vanity. She has a rather healthy assessment of her own value. She went through a period of intense self-hatred and managed to come out the other side restored. "Some of the faculty have the luxury of being friends with the students, of being their buddy. I was never very good at that even when I was a student - I made friends, yes, but it came more slowly for me and those bonds were built more through strife than through cameraderie," she says.

"And you could alwyas return the compliments, should the urge overtake you," she says with a sly grin.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile over, "But, Ms. Coy Manh, I'm here, am I not?" She would speak playfully as if that was intended to be a compliment in and of itself. "I've decided that you're wroth spending some time with and cultivating." She's teasing. Mostly.

"Too many at the Institute have suffered too much."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh smiles, "That's true. Your attention is reward enough for me, I think. Much as I tease, I am not in constant need of validation or assurance. I used to be, I think, and it made me unhappy. I didn't like being unhappy. So I learned to be different," she says.

"And I agree. I have pain in my past, but so do most of us. The world is a hard place for mutants and we are doing our best to make it better. And sometimes we have to be hard in order to accomplish that."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would take her hand up to the table to lightly tap it, "Of course. We all have needs for validation. Narcissistic or otherwise." Was she including herself there? "Most living things need some level of reinforcement for their existence. It's just part of society. We all have our pains and our sufferings. It is not a game of one upping what someone else has had inflicted to them."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods, "Too many see it as such," she says. "They make a ritual of confession and self-flagellation. Wallowing in their own misery, wearing it as a badge," she sighs. "I should not judge so harshly. Yet I cannot always help myself. I was raised to have a certain amount of dignity and poise."

The waiter arrives and Xi'an smiles politely, ordering a blackened fish filet with intense seasoning, lightly oiled vegetables and a cup of broth.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would shake ehr head, "We forget sometimes that we are not alone. That we are not enemies. And that we need to restrain ourselves from lashing out. The only ones we drive away that way are one another." She would go to tap her finger over while letting Xi'an order for her as well.

"None of us are perfect." She includes herself in that. Her vanity only went so far after all.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods softly, "You are right, of course. And I tend to keep such observations to myself. I understand that it is, in some ways, my deficiency. Perhaps I am envious of these younger kids, with their strong connections to their feelings, so willing to open themselves up to others, to bond with one another so deeply," she says. "That does not come easily to me. But I am working on it. Doing things like...asking beautiful women out on dates," she says.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would shrug lightly and laugh, "Don't undersell yourself, Xi'an. You are a charming conversation partner. You need mroe confidence in yourself or at least the presentation of it." Confidence and seeming that way to others could be two entirely different things. "It means doing things on your own terms and having the surety of it."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh smiles, "I am excellent at many things, yes. I do not doubt my abilities," she says. "My own terms has been an important thing for me to achieve. Now, finally, I have my position, my education. I have a life of my own. But I have been cloistered along the way, as another friend of mine has reminded me. She thinks me a little repressed, I think. Or at least, that I have been. That maybe I need to let more of my...wild side out."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would fold her fingers together, "Then you can expand it on your own terms, Xi'an. As you feel comfortable with. The Mansion has access to a great many things and facilities. You can use those connections. Or you can simply ask some of your.. Associates to take you out. I'm sure that everyone would enjoy your accompanying them on the enxt shopping trip."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods, "I am trying to expand my circle, yes. Open myself up to others. Enjoy myself," she says as the food begins to be delivered, taking her broth and sipping upon it at its arrival. "What about you, Emma? Do you have any wishes to where you want to take your life? Or are you already achieving what you want?"

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Oh, I have a great many wishes, darling. But one does not wish for something and have it magiclaly happen. wishing means one gives up all impulse and merely -waits-. Things must be attained and acehived. One does not simply do nothing and get whatever they desire." She would think back on her family's lineage. "Well.. Mostly."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh shakes her head, "I didn't mean to imply you would. I know you work for what you achieve, even if you did have certain advantages," she says. "I think perhaps there was a time when I did wait more for the world to happen to me. I don't think that way anymore," she says. "Now I will go after what I want."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Good. A lesson one has to learn for oneself, unfortunately. Passivity breeds litlte more than surrender. An unforunate thing of the world. But one needs to have drive. No matter their station. Particularly in this world we live in today."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh eats carefully of her food, her knife and fork working efficiently, "I was a victim for much of my childhood," she says simply. "I will not be a victim anymore. Not of anyone. Making myself capable enough to prevent that was a good start. Now I'm ready to move beyond self protection and into self-realization," she says.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod at Xi'an, "An important realization to have. To expand your horizons beyond what they were and to understand your limitations. In this world, both can be difficult things. you show a great deal of awareness." Emma working on her own food.

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods, "I wonder if the nature of psionic abilities is that we become more self-aware. We have to explore the nature of our own minds in order to use our abilities well. I've spent enough time in my own mental space, learning my capabilities, that now I have a better sense of who I am than maybe a person without such powers."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would shake ehr head, "It's not that. It's the confrontation. The first thing any teleapth learns is to how to block out -everything-. All thoughts. All sensations. All things from the outside world. That is the first skill that anyone with psionica bilities masters."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh sighs, "It took me, I think, longer than most. But then I had someone trying to batter those walls down deliberately. Trying to keep me open to their manipulation. I had someone to teach me those abilities who was as corrupt and horrifying as a living being can be. He has left marks in me that will never be clean," she says, her eyes turning down for a while. "And that's how I learned control. To keep him out. Forever."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod at Xi'an, "I'm sorry. And that's as effective a teaching aide as anything else. To see what you have lost and to make sure that it will never happen again. I'm sorry you had to learn that life experience that way, Xi'an."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods softly, "Thank you, Emma. I appreciate your sympathy," she says.

She wipes her mouth carefully, "But I don't want to linger on such things. That's more than they deserve. I am much more focused on the here and now. And now that we're starting to finish our meal, I wonder if you might like to continue on to drinks somewhere. Or do you have other business to which you must attend?"

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would smile, "Dinner first, Ms. Coy Manh. We'll see from there. And life is about these small moments that make us. Pain particularly." She would muse. "But yes, you're right, this isn't the time for such reminiscing. And I have the time set aside for dinner and enjoying your company. And Iw ould enjoy staying longer for drinks, perhaps after we've finished.. But another time."

Xi'An Coy Manh has posed:
Xi'an Coy Manh nods, "I can be patient, Emma," she says with a hint of a smile, sitting back in her seat as she takes another long drink of her wine, the plates being cleared by the waitress. "It is good to be away from the school for a time, out in the world of adults."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would take a sip of her own wine, "Good. I would say that good things come to those who wait.. But tha twould imply passivity, would it not?" She would grin. "So I shall have toa djust my phrasing."