"Miette!" Prince Harry shouted, barging into Miette's room.
Miette looked at him.
"Next time, please knock," Miette said. "I could have been getting dressed then."
"But you weren't. And besides, with your powers you could easily hide if you were."
"That's not the point. Surely, you of all people would know some etiquette?"
"Oh shush and quit trying to dampen my momentum."
Miette grinned.
"What is it that you're so excited about?"
"Well, you know how I told you that I got that letter from Dad about his wanting me to come up with some ideas for - and possibly be in charge of - improving Mutant relations?"
"Oh, the manufacturing of good press, huh? I take it you have an idea?"
"I have the best idea ever!"
"And you've come here because if you hold it in any longer you're going to explode?"
"Yes!"
"Well, by all means, divulge - I don't think the maid would like having to clean up bits of Prince Harry out of this room."
Prince Harry was too happy to respond to her jibe.
"Rolemodels."
"Rolemodels?"
"Rolemodels. We create people for the general public to look up to and admire. We need people - mutants - who can live up to what any good, law-abiding citisen wants to aspire to."
"That's a tough order. How are you going to do it?"
"Well, as much as I'd like to say sports, I think they'd get accused of cheating or something - even if their powers had nothing to do with how they play the game. No, I think the best bet is TV and movies. We get these mutants, create characters specially designed for them, get the show or movie, or whatever popular, and have the actual actor do interviews and stuff. Of course, they'll have a lot of responsibility to live up to, and we'll probably have to put certain clauses in their contract and stuff to avoid scandelous behaviour that the press might find. But... but what do you think?"
"It's an interesting idea. You might have a time keeping them clean, as it were, though. What genre?"
"Well... I was thinking maybe..."
"Yes?"
"Don't you think they'll fit perfectly into the comic book genre?"
Miette laughed.
"What? Comicbook genre is action or drama with comedy and powers. Or at least some collection of cool abilities. And I want to keep it lighthearted. So it works great."
"Sure, sure. Nevermind me. Okay, probably movie as opposed to TV series - live action comic book style TV serieses are so corny. You'll probably want to avoid that."
"Okay. But I think I would like something regular - movies do take awhile."
"Okay... how about a soap?"
"Oh trust you to say that," Prince Harry groaned.
"Hey, soaps are a very ingrained part of our entertainment culture. Besides, between that and the movies you'll cover more of the population. And that's what we want to do, isn't it? Talk to as much of the population as possible?"
Prince Harry sighed.
"I suppose," he said reluctantly.
"Besides, the soap will give us a chance to introduce everyone to as many mutants as possible - they can come and go as they please - or we please, if there's a problem. What kind of presmise for the movie did you have in mind? Anything?"
"I though crime fighting would be best."
"Typical, but probably true," Miette agreed. "Okay, and before we get accused of being biased or anything, you have to include humans in there as well. Mutants cannot always be the good guys, and humans cannot always be the bad guys."
Prince Harry looked like he was going to object.
"It's important that they get a balanced view," she insisted. "If you don't do it that way, you may alienate the very people you want to be accepting. Besides, humans will want to look at the human that's part of the team and be like 'that's so cool, I wanna be involved too'. Besides, what's the point of having mutant superheroes, if they don't have mutant supervillians to pit themselves against? You'll have interviews with the cast and stuff, so people will know they aren't really like that. And anyway, some people prefer the villian."'
"But what if... we have mutant supervillians and they do bad things with their powers - won't that just enforce what some people believe about us?"
"You can't please everyone. you can only hope that the good will outweigh the bad. Besides, some people have already made their minds up. It's everyone else - especially the young - that you need to appeal to. Oooh!"
"What?"
"Maybe - if this takes off - you might want to create a junior version of the movies - for the real little kids. Child actors would be best - although first generation mutants don't have powers..." Miette trailed off to muse about this idea.
"Well, we'll think about it - but that's an idea for later."
"It is."
"I'm going to talk to Dad and see what he thinks. I know we'll get the go ahead. I know we will!"