Survival Instinct - OTA

[angelica_jinx]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was the truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughted and consumed by the horde of the living dead.

"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you

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[angelica_jinx]

"So you don't believe in soul mates? Kindered spirits? I can't help it. I do. There have definitely been people in my life I instantly connected with. There was no rhyme or reason to it. We barely had to say 3 words to each other and BAM! Friendship. I just have to agree with Elizabeth Gilbert on this one. Someone like a soul mate who knows you that well acts like a mirror showing you yourself in a way that maybe you never thought before. It can be painful but honest and it helps you grow as a person. But being with someone like that all the time would be impossible without growing to hate each other as much as you love them. It's funny. I know that to be true but even as I'm saying it, like every other girl on the planet, I still want someone who wants to know me that well. Someone who will let me know them, all of them. Mirror or not, painful or not, I want to believe there is someone out there who has loved me my whole life. They've just been waiting to meet me. Someone who wouldn't leave

[angelica_jinx]

"So was family and status. Leaving a legacy was everything. A lot of people married a lot of people that made sense but they didn't necessarily love. Considering the divorce rate now maybe they were on to something. And considering how in love I am with the concept of love, that's saying something." She conceded.

[codenamepyro]

"So, back then, if you'd been around. Would you marry a poor man that you loved, or a rich man that you liked?" It was straying into 'personal' and it could lead to another topic he wasn't comfortable with, but so far, it wasn't like Angel had trampled into those 'unsafe' territories.

Dare he say it, this was actually the first decent conversation he'd had since bloody Russia.

[angelica_jinx]

"I guess that would depend on a few things." She replied after a moment to think. "I know I'm pretty messed up in my head about love but at least I know why I am. I would still long for the kind of love I can get swept up in but considering women didn't have the same rights or resources back then. They were essentially property traded from father to husband, I'd probably be happy to just get someone that wasn't cruel. Someone who didn't treat me as property even if the law did. Hopefully, after a few children and time I wouldn't feel so unfulfilled because I just don't have it in me to take a lover on the side."

She was enjoying the conversation too. Books were a passion and to find someone in this motley crew who shared it was a treat. She didn't even mind that it edged around personal subjects.

"What about you? Same parents. Same money level and status. Would you marry up for either dowry or what doors a nice girl's family name could open? Or would you marry the poor girl you love, the one with nothing to offer but herself?"

[codenamepyro]

"The girl I love." He could answer that honestly, without thinking on it, without worrying about it. "I'm used to having nothing, so when you're marrying because you actually love someone, well, maybe it's for keeps."

He's not really sure where his view on the matter came from, statistically speaking, coming from a broken home, he probably should be wholly against marriage and all it's stipulations. But he's jaded, not emotionally dead.

"I don't know, if you find someone you love, and for whatever reason they love you, you'd be a total dipshit to pass that up. Even if it meant you were poor."

[angelica_jinx]

"I like your answer better." She admitted with a heavy sigh but oddly enough not a frown. "I would totally say the same thing if it weren't for my dad. He shipped me off to the Massachusetts Institute when I was 13. He couldn't hardly look at me let alone hug me. His eyes were full of a little bit of guilt and a whole lot of relief. He was just glad I wasn't his problem anymore and I didn't put up a fight. Kinda became a pattern for me. One I'm still trying to break. There isn't much I wouldn't have done for my father's approval. If I thought marriage would make him happy or make him love me again, I probably would have done it."

Angel shrugged and sighed, offering an apologetic smile. "I'm a work in progress."

[codenamepyro]

That was shockingly personal, that was way over his comfort zone, that was - that was fucking honest. He wasn't self-centred enough to believe he was the only person who had shit parents. He didn't even think he'd had it worse than everyone else -he was still breathing, he counted that as a plus in his case. But he didn't exactly know her, and the brutal honesty still sort of shocked him silent for a few moments.

"Parents are full of shit." Daddy issues, he recognised those as well as he recognised a blazing inferno. He wasn't about to offer his own issues, hell no was he opening that can of worms, but he could almost understand why she'd say and do what she figured she'd say and do.

"Ever thought that he's the one with the problem, not you?"

[angelica_jinx]

She wasn't always so forthcoming with information about her dad. It wasn't until she realized that her confidence issues were effecting her performance with the team that she decided she needed to come to terms with a few things. Namely, she couldn't exactly fight for the mutant cause when she was on a one woman pursuit for normality.

"Of course. Every time he'd cringe when I'd glow or get mad when one of my 'freak friends' would call the house. But it wasn't just him. Everyone hates us. I didn't know just how much until I was outted as a mutant. You think getting an apartment in New York is tough? Try doing it when you're on the mutant registry. They made me put up fliers informing my neighbors that I was moving into the building and neighborhood like a sex offender. They treated me worse than a pedophile. It's really hard to argue with hate like that."

[codenamepyro]

He'd never had that problem, so to speak. His father barely paid attention to him, and when he did, it wasn't anything to do with a mutation anyway. He wasn't part of a neighbourhood, and while even homeless people had their discriminations, Pyro had always managed just fine. He'd hated non-mutants for a long time, it wasn't anything new.

"They're not much nicer in prison." It wasn't really that hard to mutter it. He couldn't really draw up a comparison to how she felt, ostracised from a community just because she was a mutant, he'd never been part of a community to begin with. None of his digs had been acquired through legal channels and his one landlord in Providence just wanted the rent.

"And they think we're the problem." St John liked history, he'd done a whole of lot research on oppression and genocide way back when the Friends of Humanity started their hate campaign. He could see exactly where all this was going.

[angelica_jinx]

"You've been in prison?" She asked softly, utterly surprised. This guy, who was quoting Shakespeare and discussing Emma was a criminal?

Uh, hello? Earth to Angel. So are you.

The whole reason she was on the registry was because it was a term of her probation. In the eyes of the law, she was an arsonist. Albeit an accidental one. They recognized that she didn't mean to set fire to her apartment building, hence no jail time, but that she still needed to be held responsible. Plus, the more mutants they could keep tabs on the better they liked it.

She would still be serving out her time if it hadn't been for Stryker pulling his strings to get her transferred.

[codenamepyro]

"Um, yeah." He really hadn't thought this through. "Before here? Or, before the team anyway. Riot in New York." It wasn't like he'd killed anyone, or stole anything or actually engaged in criminal acts -mostly. No, it had been one riot and he'd gotten caught this time. That was the extent of it.

"Charge with arson and terrorism." It wasn't like he hadn't spent a few nights in a cell before, but precinct cells weren't the same was full blown prison. Although Stryker and his little lackeys had made the deal for Pyro without even consulting him and St John had spent nineteen days in prison before he was due to appear for sentencing anyway.

"Kind of figured most people around here were in the same boat." But then, it wasn't like Angel gave off vibes of being some out of control mutant.

[angelica_jinx]

As he spoke her eyes grew wide. She'd heard about all that. How could she not? It was blocks from where she used to work and an old coworker ended up in the emergency room. Superficial cuts and a sprained wrist but she heard it was all over the news back home.

"That was you? Do you know how many people got hurt?" She scolded, disappointed that her new friend was really capable of intentionally doing that.

[codenamepyro]

The awkwardness faded under the scolding, because it was a tone he was more than used to, "Do have any idea what the fuck they were doing? The kid was nine, but he had scales. So they beat the shit out of him? I'm meant to care about a few people you got a little bashed up in running away? Sure, but they could flock around like fucking vultures to watch a mutant kid get his licks?"

He wasn't in the least bit remorseful. He'd heard the casualty report, nineteen minor injuries, two serious casualties and of them, only five people have burn wounds, they were the only people he'd been responsible for.

"If they hadn't been there, they wouldn't have gotten hurt. That ain't my problem." Crossing his arms over his chest, Pyro's face was drawn in a glare.

[angelica_jinx]

Her brown eyes grew almost impossibly wide. They never said any of that on the news. "W..what? Was he okay? How... how bad was it?" Angel asked, her voice getting progressively softer.

He could have been lying but she didn't think he was. Something about the way he said it. There was truth in his anger, honesty in his glare. She could feel the shame slip in. Hadn't she done worse in Japan just to protect herself. He did it for a child. What right did she have to judge. "I'm sorry."

[codenamepyro]

Scrubbing a hand over his face he shrugged slightly, sighing. "He got away." It was one of the kids he'd seen around the streets, one of the ones that kept to the shadows, living there out of sheer necessity because he'd been kicked out of everywhere else. St John didn't even know the kids name. "Could've been worse I guess."

He hadn't exactly been told, when he'd been tossed in the police car and then in the cell. They weren't big on sharing information about the mutie's.

Her reaction told him that there hadn't likely been any report about the kid, that people just focused on the mutant that caused the riot -and that would be him, instead of the one that had drawn them all out. He just shrugged at her apology, not exactly used to those. "S'okay."

[angelica_jinx]

"Thank goodness." The relief in her face was genuine. She didn't even know this kid but for a moment his well being meant everything. She also cooed at babies and teared up watching commercials with bony little African children with flies in their eyes. It was just the kind of girl she was.

Angel chewed her lip and shook her head. "It's really not. I don't have the best record either and I was so quick to reprimand you for yours. Why would you ever want to tell me anything if I'm so quick to judge?"