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“Oh but I am better than other people, I know it. And you believe in it too, even if you don't want to admit it, and it's stupid to think otherwise. I can't imagine you've never avoid the homeless, bowed your head to a person in charge, or sacrificed yourself for some 'greater good'. In any of those, you judge yourself against the person and react accordingly. And therein lies the truth, the fact is: there is a pecking order in the world, an unfair one, but you choose where you find up on the ladder, and you take that spot on your own. A homeless person has no chance at catching up to me, even if they try all their life, they have neither the advantages nor the support to climb the ladder past a certain point. I was born lucky, I admit that, but even if I am lucky, I still climbed the ladder and got into a higher position in the world," smug to the core, arrogant even, but she was proud of it too. Sophia knew her place in the pecking order of the world, she sought to be near the top, if not at the top. The fact that she'd been denied that top step on the ladder only meant she had to work even harder get to it. But even Sophia knew she'd never get to the top, it was a pipe dream, but a dream none the less.

“You think everyone is equal, we all have an equal chance at life, but we don't. Take mutants for example, a horrible one, but still an example… Why are some given a gift of mutant powers, and others not? You'd say genetics, but then that assumes that one genetics are better than another, aren't they? And what about those mutants who have mutations which hamper their lives and make it more difficult to live? Are they worse off than normal human without mutations? You see, you look at students and thing, 'I don't want to be him.' or even, 'I wish I were him.' Don't be ashamed to admit it either, even I admire and despise people," it was then this look in Sophia eyes said 'check', as though her words were like a kind of chess game that she was playing. She didn't like chess, but understood the value in playing it appropriately, and she could be good at it, but she wasn't perfect, nor had she mastered it. There were other things more valuable.

"As to your project, you're hard work doesn't add up to anything yet. I can't respect things that don't exist, much in which I can't respect something without results. Would it have made you feel so much better if I said, 'Thata boy…?" now she was mocking him, talking like she would to an infant child. There was need for it, but it did reinforce her point, "No, it wouldn't have done any good. A response doesn't have to have tact, it doesn't have to have any sort of respect for what anyone does. Despite doing your best, if you still do something horribly flawed or fail to succeed, I should respect that? Not to say that your noble goal is flawed or anything, but honestly, I should pat you on the head if you get a person killed thanks to faulty equations? Even I know when you don't need a hydrodynamics formula in ballistic equations, not to mention you're using too many variables and not enough constants. What was right, the trajectory for which your bullet was coming out. How about it, you want a cookie for your success?"

"Well that awfully short sighted of you," not necessarily a surprise, but Sophia had hoped she had been paying attention earlier. It wasn't as though Sophia spoke just because she needed to, granted she loved the sound of her voice and could talk endlessly if given the chance, but Sophia rarely spoke without purpose or meaning, and unusually choose her words properly when speaking to someone. Even someone she was not to fond of had purpose in her eyes and eventuality in their desires, and if you thought yourself poor, you were destined to be such for all your life.

"Weren't you paying attention earlier? Those things you saw in the store were piano keyboards, they fairly inexpensive compared to something like this. It's technology catching up with society, you can get what was once bulky and expensive for relatively pennies on the dollar. And frankly, people buy and sell them all the time, you can probably find one fairly easily in a garage sale or maybe online for cheap. Probably get one for under a hundred dollars," with distinction and conviction in her voice, as though telling Tses it was certainly possible. Parents bought musical instruments all the time for children that only dismissed the skill and instrument a few months or years later. What's one day musician is next month's tennis star, so they were always getting sold to just recover some of the cost. Granted it wasn't like you could go anywhere to get one, you wanted a decent one, even used it was a hundred dollars, but it was reasonably possible.

"And if you want to learn, there no shortage of piano books out there to teach you. Hell, you probably just spend some time in a music store and get to play with a keyboard all you'd like, since they're usually selling about a dozen of them at a time," though informative, it was Sophia attempt to give Tses a quick kick to the rear for even considering that something was impossible. For someone that didn't believe in rules, then it should have been easy get what she wanted. A carefree attitude which believed she had a magnificent view of the world was maybe understanding that her view was only that of a spec, she was finally getting that she wasn't as worldly as she thought she might be. Bit Sophia was, and a little culture rubbing off on her might do her some good.

It was nice to suddenly feel appreciated instead of being annoyed by a person she'd been chaperoning. Granted, this was a slower song, but the finger work was delicate and complex, and for a person who hadn't played in probably a year or two, it was tricky just to remember the right keys, muchless press them in the right fashion that produced the sweet melodies and chimes from the piano. So tricky that even as Sophia could clearly hear Tses talking and impressed by her skills, it wasn't like she could reply. This wasn't easy, it was still hard, despite Sophia making it look easy, and Sophia wasn't so skilled that she could have easily replied to it while in the middle of the song, without messing it up. It would have to wait until she was finished, and once she finished her song, her foot lifting off the pedals as the song's final notes faded away and her fingers gentle pulling back some, did she turn to address Tses.

“It's never a good idea to talk to someone when they're playing music. Depending on the song, it's a lot of work just to remember what to press and when to press it. But I'm glad you enjoyed it," trying to teach Tses once again, it seemed necessary to do so constantly, which was unfortunate, but happening with frequent continuation that Sophia just gave up worrying about it. Still, she was happy to see her enjoying something that Sophia was doing, “I learned to play when I was four. I was attached to a piano probably four or five times a week for an hour, learning how to play, I only quit when I was in a teenage because I had to move out of the mansion I lived in before. After that, I played occasionally, but I didn't practice regularly or put a great deal of effort in to it."

“But pianos like this have rich sound because they were built to carry over rooms this large with hundreds of people talking over it. If you want to reach people, you better make it loud enough so that even the person in the back can hear it just as well as the people in front. People back in the days used to build stuff to last, you'd probably spend a lot of money and pass it down through the generation. I imagine this piano is no different, probably half a dozen different owner over the last few centuries. Still, it's in amazing condition," considering she was a not a musician, she knew how to play. But what she more concerned with was the quality of the instrument. Such quality was hard to mimic, and even harder to recreate. So the fact that Sophia understood this and respected it only leant more credence to her refinement and considerable heritage. It wasn't like Tses would know or understand, frankly, Sophia didn't expect much from a girl who though rules were not meant to be followed or were non-existent.

"Hobbies…?" lifted a finger to her finger to her lips, staring upward to the ceiling in an effort to decide which hobbies to list, but granted, this was the strangest interview she'd ever gotten before now. It was a lot to consider, what did Sophia enjoy doing beyond studying. But more or less, what was it of anyone else's concerns? Surely it had no bearing on residency, so what purpose did it serve? Better of course to answer it, thinking that this person might have very well owned the keys to Sophia's future in the mansion, so best to just answer relatively honestly, no need to go in to greater details, "I assure you that any hobbies of mine wouldn't be destructive or distracting to the mansion itself or any of its current residences. I enjoy reading, studying, occasionally listening to music, shopping, but what girl doesn't, and practicing with my powers."

"Of which are exemplary, "having believed herself superior in many respects when it came to things like this. She reached for her purse and pulled out a ball of glass and rested it on the desk temporarily. But then stared at it for a moment, causing the glass to warp and shift around subtly. Soon the small ball of glass was a square, then it morphed in to a cone, and then started trying to change in to new shape that seemed complex, all while still keeping the characteristics of glass, "I can control glass: I can shape it, bend it, make it harder, and even make it make it float in the air. I've been developing my powers since I was a teen and have a great deal of control over it."

"And if it comes to room selection, I do require a fair amount of space, I have quite a few needs for it. Something that faces North or West preferably, when the sunlight hits me in the morning hours, I have been known to break quite a few windows. And my mutation can take up a lot of room sometimes when I practice with it, so I generally do so in private, but that can easily be solved with a larger closet perhaps," if there were possible to use this chance to get a bigger room, then why not. Granted Sophia had a great deal of clothes and if possible, she'd gladly take the biggest closet and room possible, since it only made sense. And if she could avoid the sun in the early morning, all the better, since it meant studying until late and waking up on her own time, and not that of the sun's. Though even as Sophia was listing these so called requirements of her new room, part of her felt a bit timid about saying such. To deprive another person of the room they might otherwise need was wrong, but then again, Sophia was definitely worth it.

If it wasn't self evident already that this girl wasn't cultured in the slightest, unable to even decipher a standard piano from a keyboard piano was horrible enough, but her child like nativity only hurt her further in Sophia's eyes. How had she not seen one before, these were rather common in restaurants, various homes, and parlors even. Hell, her elementary school had dozens of them, didn't Tses's? But it wouldn't have been a surprise to Sophia if she hadn't gone to school before, maybe Sophia to have tested her by reading something, only to watch her stumble hard and fast to the ground.

“Those would be keyboards…"a bit of 'DUH' mixed in with her reply, those weren't pianos, they were imitations produced for the common man. But this was basic for Sophia, “Back in the days before modern electronics, if you had a piano, you had something like this, and they were expensive to own and keep. They cost a couple thousand dollars today brand new, but the older ones are even more expensive, just because of the craftsmanship and materials. Keyboards are more modern Pianos that don't take up a great deal of space and just about anyone can own one."

“But nothing beats playing an actual piano, keyboards don't have quite the same sound or resonance that pianos like this do," leaning in closer toward the piano, granted Tses had taken to trying to touch it and attempting to hit the keys, much like an idle cat might walk across them to get from one place to another. Looking more at the piano, it was instantly her favorite part of the mansion now. This piano was a classic, old, and if it was properly tuned, it was a new place to relax and think, "Ohhh… A Steinway and Sons, very nice brand… ivory keys, you don't see that very often… the mansion clearly love to take care of their piano, I bet it's even tuned properly."

And it was, as Sophia's finger hit a few different keys, she was almost instantly transported back to her youth, remembering that she was once forced to labor on these infernal machines as a child, instead of getting to play dress up or play with her toys. When her mother and her moved out of the mansion, the lack of a piano was different, and without it, it felt quieter and her idle finger needed something else to do. Granted someone filled that void with the piano, but Sophia figured she might still have something inside her, “Yeah, move over a bit."

Pulling the piano bench out from under this grand piano, Sophia scooped her palms under her skirt as she rested on the rock hard piano bench and set about preparing to press the keys. While Sophia hadn't played in a while, much like anything, it usually came back to you right away once you tried it again. But rather than start on something face paced that would have shown Sophia's rustiness, she opted instead for something a bit slower and more methodical, something that showed a great deal of skill, but patience as well. Sophia grasped the keys and decided Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata would work well. And surely Tses would be impressed with that, as she began playing the slow and methodical piece that was usually a quiet and soft piece. Sophia's big concern was that she just remembered all the notes and hoped her fingers would naturally remember all the proper movement and placements for her to play the entire song correctly.

“By the size of the room, I would wager this was the banquet hall, or a ball room in laymen's terms," figuring this girl probably never even walked in to before, but to Sophia, while huge, it was smaller than some she'd been in before. But much like those ball rooms, she was hardly the center of attention, even now, being one of the few people in there, the attention was hardly upon herself. Instead, it was pair of ladies focus, looking at the walls and various cloth covered furniture, as though highly impressed.

“I imagine this is room isn't used very often, only during certain events or ceremonies. Probably fit about two hundred people in here fairly easily, including tables. They might hold a birthday party or even a formal dance here perhaps, judging from the large paintings, this must have been the house's original owners," considering they all looked rather old, tall painting depicting some of the mansion more notable owners and inhabitants over the years. They were well done, for someone like Sophia who wasn't a art buff, this was all very impressive and in very good taste. Sophia couldn't help but look out across the room, it was very nice: marble floor, well done wood archways and velvet red walls gave this room quite the class and charm that you might have found in an older estate like this. But there were obvious elements of modernization, including the apparent notice of the disco ball hanging from the middle of the ceiling.

“Hmm… they even have a piano…" noticing in the far corner, the grand piano seemed like it was a relic of the room, relegated to the few bands that might have played in this room, or complements of a ready-made table for resting drinks upon. Still in any case, the black beauty sat in the corner and did nothing but attract Sophia's attention.