She went ahead and defined necromancy which actually made Miles uncomfortable to know that that's exactly what he did. The term was used in a sort of esoteric or fantastic way, but in reality, he couldn't think of a better term that defined him. There was so much mumbo jumbo behind it that he still felt it didn't do him justice or fit him in any way. Were necromancers supposed to be fifteen year old, gum chewing teenagers who knew absolutely nothing of the dark arts?

The boy expected his moonwalking dog to at least provide a chuckle, but the woman was so into facts and reasonable things that she found fault in him actually knowing what moonwalking was. She was definitely out of her element here and Miles found it very difficult to make her feel comfortable. Well, she DID want to know what he could do and he had warned her it was 'borderline creepy', so this wasn't really his fault.

Regarding moonwalking, he was pretty straightforward about it: "Well, duh! There's this thing called the internet? And parents who do it at a wedding reception and stuff just to embarrass you with their moves? And when the guy died, they kept showing who he was and what he did on TV on and on? It's not exactly a secret. I thought you'd find it funny. I bet if I had him try his paws at Gangnam style you'd think he was having a seizure, so I went for something I thought you'd know" he said, trying to defend his approach, then slumping his shoulders a little.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not exactly proud of what I did or of my mutation in the least. Raising the dead is not the sort of thing I'm interested in mastering but apparently I must at some point in order to control it. I wish I just had a cool mutation like yours instead of something... macabre like I do."

Well that was different, very different, but it was something Sophia didn't understand. Granted, Sophia knew about the internet, but was not up to date with the lingo or happenings of it. If someone ever mentioned something from the internet, it would have had to be pretty popular for it to have crossed Sophia, but even more, she wouldn't have known about it right away either, probably a month later. Granted, Sophia could use a computer, but her exploits on it were limited to fashion, shopping, and only a few websites that featured serious discussion on physics and the likes. She normally wouldn't have bothered with anything else, so when Miles mentioned something called Gangnam something or other, only thing Sophia could do try to mouth out the word herself, seeing if she could even pronounce it, much less understand the meaning of it. What is some sort of way to eat rice perhaps?

But Miles concern regarding the mutant power of his being rather demonic and evil was not what he wanted. It was the type of person that hated being tall but regardless lived with it, though Sophia thought tall people had it better in life, while she was just average at five foot, six inches. Still, part of hearing Miles talk about how he didn't like it made Sophia a bit unnerved. Granted she didn't think all mutant abilities were great, certainly this being one of them, but she didn't have to live with it Miles did, and if he hated it now, no telling what he'd dislike later, or if he'd take it out on someone else. Plus she didn't want to be on the opposite side of such a creature, and if she were a teacher, perhaps she needed to be the one to express her acceptance of it.

Remarkably, Sophia inched slowly away from the wall and more toward the desk. She didn't seemed courageous at all, rather she looked almost petrified, as though she were about to do something she felt she'd regret. But rather than let Miles know she was terrified in his gift, Sophia slowly approached the massive black beast and slowly reached her hand out, as though trying to touch the dog with just the tips of her fingers. She half expected to the dog's fur and be shocked with electricity, though she was certain in the back of her mind that nothing would happen. But as Sophia reached out to the black, undead creature, she touched the head of the dog, and nothing happened. She might have looked like she was squishing her face away, as though she had resigned herself to loosing this hand just to prove a point to Miles, "Mutation... aren't what we want them to be. Yours… it gives you a much better outlook on something we all have… fears. It's an interesting conversation, I assure you… on that people have been asking for a millennia…. okay I done! "

Backing up a bit, the beast was too much for Sophia. She didn't want to be afraid of it, but surely it wasn't like she could continue to touch it without the belief and hint that sooner or later, she'd be missing that favorite right hand of her, especially the ring just along her middle finger. Still, she did her best, probably ten, maybe fifteen, seconds of touching the dog, that was enough right? She turned to Miles, now a safe distance between herself and the dog, "As I was saying, everyone fears losing something close to them. In this case, you got to keep what you lost, in some form or another. I wouldn't look it as being wicked or vile, just have to accept that this is who you are. I told when I was a child, 'Accept what you cannot change, and change what you cannot accept."

Now, this was surprising.

After seeing his dog and reacting the way she did, Miles thought his teacher wouldn't want anything to do with the animal, but then she went ahead, conquered her fears and actually touched Astor on the head. She was completely safe, the dogs had been instructed since his first days on the school never to attack anyone in the mansion, but she didn't know that, and for someone who seemed to be very into science and a bit on the brainy side, it was a display of courage he didn't expect.

The dog remained unfazed before and after her petting gesture. She then said his mutation peered into mysteries and questions humanity had had for millenia, that he recovered something he had lost and that it wasn't evil per se. Aceptance was key.

"The problem is, just because I'm forced to accept it, doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't have the same level of control that you do" he said, remebering how she shaped that glass sphere into a cube. "When it happens, I don't act like myself and can't even stop it from happening. The only thing I'm glad about is that I turned dogs. I could have turned people and that would have been really hard for me to accept. It would have been vile and wicked if I did and I would prefer to lose someone I care about than bring him back as an unfeeling slave."

And in her last sentence was the answer to his problem. 'Accept what you cannot change, and change what you cannot accept.' He needed to accept his mutation, since he couldn't change it, and train himself to control it, so he wouldn't do anything unacceptable. It was a decent motto to live by. Miles wondered if she lived by it.

"Have you ever done anything bad with your powers? Have they ever gotten out of control?"

"Out of control…?" while this had been a long time ago, Sophia had fits of uncontrollability when she was much younger, a trait she attempted to ensure she didn't follow. But she was a bit embarrassed to do anything about it. Though it would make a rather interesting story perhaps, "I did have times where I couldn't control my powers, even now there are times when I can't always control it because of one issue or another. Sit down."

Instructing him in to closest chair he could find, this could have been long, so Sophia didn't want him to be too uncomfortable. While Miles found a suitable chair to sit down in, Sophia called to her cube of class and brought to her hand, levitating it until rested in her hands. Looking at it, a hairline fracture along it's sides, rather disappointing of a example, so Sophia felt it necessary to start shaping it in to something else. But Sophia started in, "When I was probably your age, my powers started manifesting. Generally, it was anytime I passed a window, I'd notice a crack and then not notice it a moment later. Or if I stared at any window for too long, and saw myself in it, it would crack. Mirrors were the worst, as you can imagine, I do enjoy staring at them for prolonged periods of time, but I wasn't a big fan of them as a teen."

"One day, I found myself in the girl's restroom at school, and I was trying to just leave, and the mirror I happened to look at cracked. I didn't want anyone to know I was a mutant, so I terrified what someone might think if they came in after me. They'd though I did it. So I was trying to find a way to fix it, because I knew I could, I just didn't know how to. And then, my glance went to another mirror and it shattered too," the story was not very well suited for Sophia, where she normally came off as cool and collected with her mutant power, and the fact that she hadn't, it was very distracting for her. But while she spoke, she had the glass in her hand, melting almost and beginning to take shape in to something else, but it was far more elaborate than perhaps what Miles had seen before.

"Then another girl came in, and I panicked. That only cause all the other mirrors to shatter and the windows outside to begin to vibrate and smaller cracks on them to start to form. Granted, I didn't have very good control back then, but if it hadn't been for that girl that came in, I wouldn't have any. She ended up being my best friend, Caroline. She calmed down and thought my powers were 'cool' as she said. She made me clam down and eventually helped me develop my power, though she was kind of blackmailing me to do it. That little…" her anger slowly rising when thinking back to that time. She was forced in the astronomy club, and while there Caroline felt it necessary to tease and torture Sophia with threats of telling other people, until Sophia did what she wanted. It might have been cruel, but a good friend came out of it and even someone who generally had Sophia's best interest in mind.

"Any regard, my power going out of control for a bit was because I panicked and didn't keep my emotions in check. Even now, if I'm startled or have any powerful emotions over take me, my powers can cause all the windows in an area to waver or burst depending on how strong they are, or how strong the emotion was. But all that being said, eventually, when you can control something, you don't really fear it anymore, you learn to live with it, and for myself, take advantage of it whenever possible. I imagine there's a way for you to do it with yours one day," Sophia spoke in gross generalization. She had no clue what Miles could or couldn't do at all, but there was likely some purpose to his power. And if their wasn't, so long as he kept it under control, there was no need to worry. Meanwhile, Sophia's little sculpture of glass was finally finished, floating it back on to the desk, it was a small representation of Astor, created in rather fine details, even with the once transparent glass taking on a smoky like quality. Though of course now, she was merely showing off.

Professor Stratford confessed she was human... well, not HUMAN human, but that sometimes she had trouble controlling her mutation and she wasn't perfect. She asked Miles to take a seat while she started to tell him a story of her youth.

She used to crack windows and mirrors accidentally when she was around his age. That must have been a bummer, growing up into your teenage years as a pretty girl, starting to... you know... REALLY grow up, and when she caught sight of a mirror, then CRACK!. It must have been demoralizing. She admitted liking looking into mirrors now, but maybe she was compensating for her younger years, now that she could control her mutation.

When she came to the part where she was terrified in the bathroom and the mirrors shattered, he couldn't help but empathize. His mutation was emotionally based and strong, shocking emotions like anguish and sorrow were his triggers. He'd met friends already who weren't blackmailing him since they were mutants themselves, but who had offered to help him control his mutation, but his fear always pushed him to leave things for later. If he had managed to keep his emotions in check this far, maybe he could always do it and never even bother trying to control his dark mode.

She then explained what happened when she lost her cool and it wasn't pretty. Miles eyes wandered as she was about to finish her story. There were windows in the class room, with large panes of glass on the walls letting lots of sunshine through during summer. There were lamps over their very heads when they were studying in class and some kids even wore glasses. Miles felt the need to warn his fellow students as soon as he was done talking to his teacher: Never. Ever. Piss off. Professor Stratford. Unless they were interested in enjoying a rain of broken glass.

She finished with a remark on how you stop fearing something when you learn to control it, just like she managed to control herself when she patted Astor on the head, and speaking of whom, the ball of glass she had been moving around had grown legs, head, ears, muscles and had even darkened, turning into a small glass replica of his dog. This made the boy beam in awe and it was truly inspiring.

"I've tried practicing with my mutation, but... it's almost like cheating" he confessed to her teacher. "I go about giving the dogs commands, and just so you know, I have two dogs, I just didn't bring the smaller one... so my teachers go 'Yay! You're learning!' and I nod and I pretend that's all there is to it, but that's only a side effect. Controlling my thralls is a perk, my real mutation is making them and I can't help but feel dead scared of it. First of all, I'd need a dead body and second I'd need to push myself to tears and third... I'd need to be able to restrain myself and the lure to turn the dead is sooo powerful" he admitted, eyebrows raised as he felt his situation was insurmountable.

This was not the first time the 'control your mutation' talk had popped up in his life, but he still kept avoiding turning into his dark mode on purpose. He was unpredictable in that state and feared the consequences.

"If I do take the plunge" he said, almost in a pleading tone. "If I do end up deciding I must do this... would you help me? Would you be there for me, even if it meant... I don't know, locking me in a cage of glass? Because the last thing I want is to hurt anyone, but if I use my mutation, then something must be already dead and the 'not hurting anyone' bit becomes a moot point."

This was a suddenly strange confession, though ofcourse it was one Miles started when he spoke to Sophia her mutation and when he had let go of her emotions and let the glass break around her. Perhaps her chatty mood was rubbing off. From just an example of being unable to control her powers, to now being asked to assist, and much worse by asking to keep him cages up. There were a few different issues with that, but she felt it necessary to try and offer some assurances.

"I would imagine that other, more senior, professors of this school would disagree with myself teaching others to use their powers just yet. I am still new, as evident by the class you attempted to take earlier, but their lies a much more critical problem when it comes to trying to cage you, or anyone else," which was something Sophia didn't really like the idea of doing. Granted, she could very well do it, but there was a rather obvious answer. With that, Sophia dropped the glass dog in her hand, letting it fall to the floor, and while it fell without her control, it shattered more or less without it as well. When attacked the wood floor beneath Sophia's feet, the glass had little chance of landing any successful damage, instead simply shattering on impact, the legs going in different ways, breaking at the joints, the main body cracking and shattering as well, and even the finer details falling along the ground.

"Glass is not a strong material to cage a person. It's a strong material in mass quantities, and with a proper amount, I could very well make a cage suitable to protect others from you, but it would not be a very strong cage. And in order to make it such would take an extended period of time and even more glass than I think is readily available here in the mansion. Assuming people don't mind going without windows for a day or two, it might be possible, but I'm told there are better facilities for this kind of training," Sophia was aware that there were other parts of the mansion that might have better qualified for this training. Perhaps a bunker room, or some underground war room meant for practice of such abilities. While this eager student was reaching out for help, there was little recourse that Sophia could honestly offer immediately. It was a bit of a problem, but something Sophia might have a direction to take it.

"But… what it sounds like instead of an issue with controlling your power, you fear what you become. You fear what you might become or what you might do, so perhaps the trick is to rather to become more focused or calm in your thoughts so that you aren't so stimulated in this… 'Dark form' of yours. Granted, this might be the place for a telepath, and certainly one here in the mansion could assist you in it," though which one Sophia was unaware, since she didn't know any. This whole new thing was quite annoying, and Sophia hated this idea of being here and not knowing everything yet. There was time to learn still. Meanwhile, as Sophia spoke, she began gathering the glass along the floor and recollecting them in to a glass sphere once more, returning her minor creation to its original state, as though symbolically telling him that even if you break, things can always come together in the end, "But you also seem like the kind of kid that will figure it out sooner than later."

W-wait, what was she doing? The doggie!!

Obviously, it took a physics professor to determine the physical impossibilities of his impromptu plan for how to hold him back. While for him, it seemed so easy to simply 'make up a glass cage' she was quick to point out the quantities of glass needed for such a feat would be too much and if she made it too thin, it would break just like her statuette did and he would likely hurt himself.

She mentioned facilities in the school better equipped for this sort of thing, where he could go full dark mode safely. Kealey had mentioned it as well a long time back, but he chickened out eventually, since he was new to the school and he had this awful dread of feeling like a lab rat. Also, getting to that point of anguish and sorrow was not something he nor anyone would look forward to, so once he noticed he didn't get to that level of emotional turmoil often, he kept pushing it and pushing it back until it didn't feel necessary to even try it.

She then hit the nail right on the head. That's exactly what he had been doing all along. Not controlling his dark mode but trying to keep his emotions in control. That was likely one of the reasons he liked to joke and prank (well, that and being fifteen) and be evasive, since that sort of attitude was excellent for defusing confrontations that could lead to an emotional backlash. Miles very rarely got angry or upset, always keeping in mind that giving in to those feelings could possibly lead to grave circumstances.

Then again, he had no certainties he could stay that way forever. What would happen the day someone from his family died? What would happen if a friend died? He felt upset when he saw the Gina video, but that was on a TV screen among a whole bunch of people and he kept his cool. Could he 'keep his cool' if something similar happened to him?

The broken glass that had splattered all over the floor dragged itself back together into a sphere. She really was good at this and she hinted he might figure out his own mutation in time, just like she had hers.

"I guess you're right" he conceded. "I am afraid of what I become and I hope to control it someday, even if it means... NOT using what I can actually do with it, which is pretty much the whole point of controlling it" he said. She might find herself unsuitable to help him in this, but her words had been quite informative.

He gave her a reassuring smile as he pondered on something.

"You're a good teacher, professor Stratford. I'm sure as I learn my way into my mutation, you'll learn your way into making us understand you. It's not that complicated and if it worked with me, it'll work with them" he said, gesturing towards the empty chairs in the classroom.

"It's not a question of assuming I will learn to teach a class, nor is it an assumption you'll learn to control your power," a rather high and mighty tone from this the person who thought herself a queen bee among all others. But it was a rather decisive sounding tone, as those Miles was completely wrong on the matter.

"It's a matter of time, and in some cases patience, for which I have little of. Hopefully this weekend, I will complete an appropriate plan on how to teach this class accordingly. When you learn to control your power is up to you, and for which, I believe you will succeed. If not, then atleast I know who to go to get a pet back," she hinted at the strange necromancy like powers raising one of her pets up from the ground, but that was a lie. She neither had an interest, patience, or time for a pet, though if it could assist her and was unique enough, then perhaps, but it seemed drastically unlikely of a course of events to happen.

"But for now, you likely have studies or friends to get to, as where I have a lesson plan and my own studying to take care of," it was a lukewarm dismissal of Miles at this point, but she had a fair amount of work ahead of her, and when such a time came, her focus could be unusually such, and almost the point of ignoring or even angering others by such focus. Granted, it was never a cruel or mean thing, just the casually determinative nature of Sophia. Hopefully Miles would not object, but surely there were other matters for him to look in to.

He snorted at the 'get a pet back' comment and while he didn't really have anything else to do except goof off, play video games and listen to music, he considered those very important and priority number one over homework.

She was very sure of herself but at least she tried to share that determination and made him feel like it was only a matter of time before his fears were conquered. She had been through something similar as well, as probably most every mutant adult had and not controlling his powers were pretty much part of growing up.

"You're right again, but it's been nice talking to you, professor. Thank you for your time" he said, showing his polite side, which was the side of him his mother was most proud of. He then got up from the chair and left the room.

Physics was going to be interesting this year, no doubt about it, and even though he felt he had bonded with his teacher at least a little, judging by the way she behaved and everything... he was damn sure he wasn't going to get cut any slack.