headcanon infodump (aka: how I play Pyro)
Before his Mutation Manifested:
John grew up in a trailer park. (Come on, that hair? That jacket? That attitude? Really, John?) It wasn't terrible, but it sure as hell wasn't great. He was a rebellious kid who never got above average grades, and probably never would have gone anywhere in life.
His mother was apathetic at best, listless otherwise, and his Father was frequently drunk and out of work. He never outright hit John, but John - being John - would start fights with him as soon as he was old enough and cocky enough to think he could win them. He was in a shouting match with his father when his power first manifested, setting half the kitchenette on fire from the running burner on the stove.
He went to school the next morning with a black eye and no idea how to feel.
When he came home, the patch of grass their trailer had been sitting on for 12 years straight was empty, and the mobile home was nowhere in sight. John figured out pretty quickly how to feel, then: angry. He set the whole trailer park on fire with a little help from his ability, but while all of his neighbors were screaming and running for their lives, a giant, high tech jet landed right on his front lawn.
While the X-Men put out the fires, Professor Charles Xavier invited him to the institute, and promised to teach him how to control and use his amazing abilities for good.
Time at the Institute:
For a few years, John really did alright. He and his roommate Bobby became best friends, and even Rogue eventually learned to put up with him, but he was still largely dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed upon his abilities. He began to act out in little ways, but never really did anything that couldn't ultimately be chalked up to the fact that he was an obnoxious teenager. He felt ostracized from humanity, but his anger was more general and he never experienced much outright cruelty, due to his lack of physical mutation. He thought all humans were assholes, but he didn't think they should all die.
Turn to The Dark Side:
Then everything changed.
Stryker's attack on the mansion really traumatized him, even if he was determined not to show it. He was always an angry kid, with a short temper and a violent disposition, but he never honest to god feared humans until he saw little mutant children being chased out of their beds in the middle of the night and shot at by grown men with government uniforms. They'd never hurt anybody. In fact, Xavier went out of his way to make sure they helped humans, and bent over backwards to stay on their good side. In the end, it clearly didn't matter. Pyro perceived it as an act of war; it proved to him that the actions and intentions of mutants meant nothing to humans, and that the only way he would ever find a safe place to sleep again would be to wipe every last one of them off the face of the planet.
Seeing the police put a bullet in Wolverine's skull without any provocation the very next day was the last straw, and really, how many people were actually surprised when Pyro snapped and blew up a few cop cars? He decided then and there that didn't want to be afraid anymore; he'd much, much rather just be angry. From then on, that's all he ever let himself be.
What he needed after that night was a lot of therapy, but what he got from Magneto was a chance to do what he'd wanted to do since he first mastered his ability: use it. He more than gladly took that, instead.
John grew up in a trailer park. (Come on, that hair? That jacket? That attitude? Really, John?) It wasn't terrible, but it sure as hell wasn't great. He was a rebellious kid who never got above average grades, and probably never would have gone anywhere in life.
His mother was apathetic at best, listless otherwise, and his Father was frequently drunk and out of work. He never outright hit John, but John - being John - would start fights with him as soon as he was old enough and cocky enough to think he could win them. He was in a shouting match with his father when his power first manifested, setting half the kitchenette on fire from the running burner on the stove.
He went to school the next morning with a black eye and no idea how to feel.
When he came home, the patch of grass their trailer had been sitting on for 12 years straight was empty, and the mobile home was nowhere in sight. John figured out pretty quickly how to feel, then: angry. He set the whole trailer park on fire with a little help from his ability, but while all of his neighbors were screaming and running for their lives, a giant, high tech jet landed right on his front lawn.
While the X-Men put out the fires, Professor Charles Xavier invited him to the institute, and promised to teach him how to control and use his amazing abilities for good.
Time at the Institute:
For a few years, John really did alright. He and his roommate Bobby became best friends, and even Rogue eventually learned to put up with him, but he was still largely dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed upon his abilities. He began to act out in little ways, but never really did anything that couldn't ultimately be chalked up to the fact that he was an obnoxious teenager. He felt ostracized from humanity, but his anger was more general and he never experienced much outright cruelty, due to his lack of physical mutation. He thought all humans were assholes, but he didn't think they should all die.
Turn to The Dark Side:
Then everything changed.
Stryker's attack on the mansion really traumatized him, even if he was determined not to show it. He was always an angry kid, with a short temper and a violent disposition, but he never honest to god feared humans until he saw little mutant children being chased out of their beds in the middle of the night and shot at by grown men with government uniforms. They'd never hurt anybody. In fact, Xavier went out of his way to make sure they helped humans, and bent over backwards to stay on their good side. In the end, it clearly didn't matter. Pyro perceived it as an act of war; it proved to him that the actions and intentions of mutants meant nothing to humans, and that the only way he would ever find a safe place to sleep again would be to wipe every last one of them off the face of the planet.
Seeing the police put a bullet in Wolverine's skull without any provocation the very next day was the last straw, and really, how many people were actually surprised when Pyro snapped and blew up a few cop cars? He decided then and there that didn't want to be afraid anymore; he'd much, much rather just be angry. From then on, that's all he ever let himself be.
What he needed after that night was a lot of therapy, but what he got from Magneto was a chance to do what he'd wanted to do since he first mastered his ability: use it. He more than gladly took that, instead.