(no subject)

[vibes_r_us]

Tom: "And don't get me started on the danger Theresa's in with that bastard Cable."

Ric: "Hey. Fuck you, Tom. Cable's a right bastard, but he's kept us alive and doing the right thing. More than you could say if Terry had stayed with you."

Tom: "Oh, he did a positively magnificent job of keeping her safe, didn't he? What with putting her on a team that got her throat cut out and all. And didn't I tell you not to start me on this?"

Ric: "We stay alive, cabron. We keep doing what needs to be doing."

Tom: "BARELY. You've been lucky so far."

Ric: "Lucky? We've been trained. It has nothing to do with luck. Unless you're Dom, of course."

Tom: "All the training in the world can't save you every time. Some day, one of you will get killed, mark my words. You're not invulnerable."
*Domino enters*
 Tom: "Seems everybody in this room is related to trash of some form or another."

Dom: ". . ."

Ric: "Of course we'll get killed one day. But it won't be for a long time. And at least we won't have sat around on our ass doing nothing.  Terry's chosen to live this life. Maybe you should try and respect that."

Tom: "Perhaps. But it doesn't mean I can't point out that you're sending her on kamikaze missions with the excuse of 'but she's trained! She can't die!'."

Ric: "We never said she can't die. She fucking choses this. She's been trained to the point where she most likely won't die, which means she can do what she wants. Fucker."

Tom: "It doesn't make it safe, it doesn't make it right. And I'm free to point out that she's not safe there. See, i haven't attacked you to take her back, am I? That's as much respect as you'll get. And I'm doing the funding after your little safe group of powered mutants sent all those children away off into the streets. Don't you dare tell me I'm not doing something."

Ric: "My little safe group? I'm X-Factor. We've done our part. Don't lump me in with Xavier's little mind trip up at the castle.  We kept the streets of New York safe. We saved the lives of the depowered in Mutant Town. We stopped the riots and fed the homeless and buried the dead. Don't you dare lump us in with Ice Bitch and One-Eye."

Mystique: "Excuse me, Ric? Who's funding dozens of depowered kids while the X-Cultists are shutting them out of the building?"

Ric: "And that's supposed to make up for all the people you've killed because you were bored or angry or wanted something of theirs, Raven?"

Mystique: "I never said it did, and I don't regret what I've done. You people are supposed to be the good guys, though. I certainly hear it often enough in speeches."

Dom: *arches an eyebrow* "Good guys? She's lumping us in with Chuck again, isn;t she?"

Ric: "Fuck off. We've never claimed to be 'good guys'. We're not Xavier's children, we're Cable's."

Tom: "Xavier and Cable have no children. They're juts very corrupted teachers."

Dom: "Oh, now, hold on there a second..."  *mutters under her breath* "Nathan did a perfectly fine job raising his son, thanks."

Ric: "Like you fucking know, Tom. Cable and Dom are the closest things to parents any of us besides Sam have ever had."

Tom: "Don't you dare. Cable is no more her father than Xavier himself is."

Ric: "You're the one who always argues nuture, not nature. He raised us and trained us."

Tom: "I raised her, god damn it!"

Dom: "And such a fine job you did, Tom."

Ric: “Yeah. Until she was 12. Then you sent her away and drove her to drink. That was a good job of parenting.  We had her after that, and fuck you if you think we weren't a better family for her."

Tom: "That was a mistake, and how was I to know that she'd be in the few percentage of children who take badly to boarding schools? God's sake, I was trying to keep her safe, is that so hard to understand?"

Ric: "You were trying to keep her safe? Good job, considering it was you she needed keeping safe from. That doesn't stop us from being a better fucking family for her."

Tom: "Better me than the MLF and Sentinels and Feral and God knows who else. And don't you ever dare tell me you were a better family, don't even say that to me again."

Dom: "Don't like the truth, huh?"

Tom: "Domino, do us all a favor and keep your damned mouth shut."

Dom: "Oh, like that's going to happen. Really, I'd love to know what kind of wonderful and loving future you had planned for her."

Ric: "What are you going to do, shoot fire at us? We are her family, and a better one than you and that dysfunctional puppy of yours. You just don't like to admit your failures."

Tom: "I'll admit plenty of failures. And yes, I didn't do my best raising her. I'd change that in a heartbeat. But I am her family.  At least I wouldn't have sent her off to get killed!"

Ric: "She'll never go back on her duty to you. I hope that's enough. She's chosen us.  And involving her in your crimes wasn't sending her off to get killed? Are you fucking stupid???"

Tom: "She chose to stay with you, yes, but that doesn't make you more a family to her than I am."

Ric: "You have duty. We have love. I think I know what makes a family."

Tom: “I willingly gave her up. And I have her love, god damn it, I have her love and I love her back!"

Ric: "I'm so glad you can tell yourself that. Does it make it easier to get to sleep at night?"

Dom: "We never sent the kids off to get killed. When they left, it was their own choice."

Tom: "No, you just sent them against goddamned terrorist on a semi-daily basis. So much better when you sugarcoat it, really."

Ric: "It was our fucking choice, asshole."

Tom: "Your choice influenced by them and their mercenary ways!"

Dom: "No one got killed on our watch. No one was ever seriously injured on our watch. We were hadly throwing them to the wolves."

Tom: "Until you set them out on their own without any idea how to do anything but fight, no."

Dom: "That was their choice."

Ric: "Ooooooooh, influence, then? That's something you can pin on people easy enough. After all, it doesn't require evidence. We fucking chose X-Force, we chose Nate and Dom's influence, we chose to stay and goddamn it, if it wasn't better than anything else we could have done."

Tom: "You could have gone out and done something that didn't get her throat cut out!"

Dom: "When we were in New York, we were more than ready to set them up with regular jobs and regular schooling. You can blame Xavier for interupting those plans."

Tom: "Don't think I don't. But it gets shared.'

Ric: "SHE FUCKING CHOSE THE FUCKING MISSION, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! SHE CHOSE THE LIFE! SHE KNEW THE RISKS! SHE WANTED TO DO IT!"

Tom: "AND I DIDN'T STOP HER! BUT THAT DOESN'T EXCUSE WHAT HAPPENED!'

Ric: "How does it not? It's our life. It's what we do. You can't blame us for her choosing it."

Tom: “You set up the entire damn scenario! How could she have chosen anything else, with what she learned with you?"

Ric: "What she chose to learn with us?"

Dom: "We did what we could. Frankly, by the time they were in our care, they'd been fucked over by so many different people that leaving them to their own devices would have been reprehensible. It was about the kids first."

Tom: "Are choices always the right ones? You made one she couldn't back out of."

Ric: "You should maybe ask yourself why she chose to be with the most fucked-up group in the history of the X-teams, first."

Dom: "The hell she couldn't. We didn't force anyone to stay."

Ric: "She could always back out. Always. We could leave X-Force any time we wanted. I did plenty of times."

Tom: "I never said 'leave them to their own devices'. Maybe just not making them their miniature soldiers.  She wouldn't have [left] and you knew it."

Dom: "Oh, bullshit."

Ric: "Oh, she wouldn't have? Maybe because she belonged there. More than she belonged anywhere else. Maybe because we were her family."

Dom: "I don't think she'd appreciate you implying she had no will of her own."

Ric: "He always does, Dom. Anything that he doesn't approve of could ever possibly be Terry's idea."

Dom: "So I've noticed."

Tom: "I'm not implying that. I'm saying you couldn't have put her in a more pressuring situation. You asked her to be a goddamned hero. That isn't something someone can back out of quickly."

Ric: "She wanted to be a hero, Tom! She wanted to do some good in the world. You know why she joined X-Force in the first place? She wanted to make up for your crimes. She wanted people to know that Sean wasn't the only Cassidy who could be a hero."

Tom: "And do you how many other ways there are to do good in the goddamned world besides going out and getting shot at?"

Dom: "We gave them whatever they wanted, Tom. If ANY of the kids had ever come forward and said "I don't want to do this" that would have been the end of it.  We would have found out what they DID want, and we would have made sure they had the means to achieve it. We never glossed over what we were doing."

Ric: "We did a job that needed to be done. And we chose to do it. We could have left any time. Done anything else we wanted. We didn't. Terry didn't. We wanted to do what we did. Still do."

Tom: "You never made any other options clear to them. You don't send minors out to get shot at. There's a reason for that."

Ric: "Bullshit, Tom. You don't know what you're fucking talking about. Nate and Dom always made other options clear. Always. Don't pull shit out of your ass when you don't know what you're doing."

Tom: "They were willing to turn her into a soldier for their little crusade! That's enough of a problem to start with! They gave her the resources and the inspiration!"

Dom: "We never SENT them. We asked. And given everything they'd already had to face in their lives, I think deciding they were incapable of the decisions based on chronological age is bullshit.  I wish I'd had half the opportunities they had when I was that age."

Tom: "Right, so you gave them guns and costumes and asked them politely to go out into danger."

Ric: "Oh, fuck off, Tom. You've fucking lost it. You can't deny Terry chose to do what she did, so you're blaming others for "inspiration". You don't even have an argument any more, you're just wanting someone to blame.  Get over yourself."

Tom: "Rictor, please go off and jump off a building, why don't you?"

Ric: "Only once you've shoved that damn boomstick up your ass and lit it on fire, Tom."

Dom: "We never gave them guns. Hell, we didn't even INTRODUCE them to the life. We just picked up the pieces after everyone ELSE had tossed them aside!"

Tom: "I gave her to Sean! He was supposed to take care of her when I couldn't! I have no idea where the hell he was for all this, but it wasn't my choice that she wasn't with someone at the time."

Ric: "You're the one responsible for fucking her up enough she fit right in at X-Force, Tom. Don't blame that on anyone else."
Tom: "I tried the best I could to keep her happy. It's more than you can say." *slams down the shot glass and leaves*