On the Patio

[The Man]

::The Professor nodded; he had taught history, English, biology, while Erik had taught physics, chemistry, and his own take on political science. They had divided the languages: he had taught the romance languages while Erik taught German. He had taken art; Erik had taken physical education. It had been simpler then.:: "Yes, I taught history for several years."

[Shade]

Shade wondered how long that lay back. Several years? Longer? She wondered how long this mansion served as a school already. She had never asked. "Back when there were fewer teachers here? And fewer students?" she asked, guessing out into the blue.

[The Man]

::The Professor nodded again, a faint smile touching his lips at the memory of those days long past.:: "That is quite correct."

[Shade]

Shade didn´t know anything of the Institute´s past and her question resulted from mere curiosity and a relaxed atmosphere when talking to someone she considered a friend even though he was a couple of decades older than she was. "How long have you been running this school?" she asked.

[The Man]

::The Professor considered the current date, and then subtracted the time the Institute had been closed due to tragedy.:: "Approximately twenty years at this point."

[Shade]

Shade smiled at the reply. "Wow," she said. "That´s quite a long time."

[The Man]

::The Professor nodded in agreement, reflecting on the years that had passed. It was a long time, in terms of a privately-funded school started and maintained by one individual.:: "And it has many years ahead of it."

[Shade]

"I guess so." Shade said, thinking for a moment. Her powers had developed at an early stage, when she had been 12. And it had been the same with Jimmy. However, from the conversations she had had with other mutants, many had their mutations kick in at a later stage, around 15 or 16. Or at least, it had been like that. "There are younger kids coming here now, aren´t there?" she asked, thinking of Iggy and Krista, a new girl in her history class. "More mutants at an early age or it´s just a coincidence thing." That, or evolution.

[The Man]

"Puberty is beginning at a younger age," ::The Professor replied. His own abilities had developed at the younger side of adolescence as well; each had his own timing.:: "Some blame the hormones we ingest or the flouride in the water."

[Shade]

"Hm.." Shade said. "Yes, but... I have the feelings that it´s not related in every case. Like there are more kids developing their mutations at an earlier stage now than there once were. Like me and Jimmy were early for example but that was no rule." She remembered that Gambit had once said that 12 was rather early and that it might be a genetic thing in her family for mutations to show at such an early stage - since she and Jimmy had been siblings.

[The Man]

"There tends to be a range. Certain individuals develop earlier than others; some develop later. I, too, developed early," ::The Professor was familiar with Iggy and Krista, and although their abilities had come to them at an early stage, relatively, it was not as though they were eight. And for each student who developed at an age closer to when he had, there was another who developed at sixteen or later.::

[Shade]

Shade guessed he was true. maybe it was just a matter of perception. "How old were you?" she asked. It was a subconscious thing but this conversation, apart from it being a nice conversation among friends, indirectly served for getting her usual need for small talk off her shoulders. She and Gambit would have long talks about this and that and she hadn´t seen him for some weeks so her amount of need to ramble had to go somewhere else. She wasn´t aware of that however.

[The Man]

::This was the first time that Shade had asked the Professor about his abilities or his childhood in this way. Perhaps it was genuine curiosity, or perhaps it was loneliness and a desire for conversation. Either way, he would easily indulge her.:: "I was twelve."

[Shade]

Shade smiled at that, her chin resting on her knees comfortably. She couldn´t avoid her thoughts trailing off a little, so she decided to give in to it, not forcing things back, because she had come to the conclusion that it didn´t do her any good. She had long ago admitted herseld to miss Gambit, much earlier than he had admitted her to even though that had never kept her from doing so, stubborn as she was in that respect. And after all, it weren´t any negative thoughts she was suppressing there, so where was the use of doing so? It gave her a nice and warm feeling inside even if it made her feel a little lonely.

"So you were pretty early as well." she said with a smal chuckle. "So, maybe my theory isn´t worth a cent at all then."

[The Man]

::The Professor smiled softly, not at her declaration of a worthless theory, but at her own chuckle. It was pleasant to see her happy.:: "It is a trap in thinking, to always believe times are changing in an immediate way."