CIVILIAN
Scars left on my heart formed weapons in my mind
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Post by Charlie Brooke on May 19, 2014 15:31:02 GMT -5
All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to
keep your hopes up high and your heads down low! Keep your hopes up high and your head down low!
Everyone around me says my life is a ruin but what the hell do they think they know! My heads above the
water while they drown in the undertow! Lets leave leave no words unspoken, this is an address for the broken! There was quiet on the streets, it was an odd atmosphere in the city, no one really knew what was going on and Charlie really seemed to be content with the situation that they were in. It didn't matter to her, hell she lived in a perpetual state of emergency, she had other stuff to worry about. Like how she was going to pay her rent. Where the next meal was coming from. Where on earth they were going to stay when the land lord put up their rent. She could taste the tension on the air, the police were getting nervous, the schools were shut, offices had shut up shop unable to do business...
Not that it bothered Charlie as she smirked to herself looking up at the billboard on the side of the park. So what the world was cut off, she was going to keep going. Who knew maybe they'd make this city a little better before it got thrown back to the wolves? It actually wasn't that hard to climb up the side even with the paint cans in her messenger bag clinking. The billboard was for a pharmaceutical company, one well known for trying to develop mutant 'cures.' Wankers. They didn't need cured. There was nothing wrong with it. It was profit. Pure profit. Part of her wondered if these companies were responsible for the anti-mutant legislation, it wouldn't have surprised her. They'd do anything for a profit.
Sometimes she wondered how she ended up so cynical. Sometimes she wondered if it was better to burn it all down. Fuck it. Burn everything. Rip it down and start again, build the world from new. Then she thought that she was a rather bad person for saying that. Maybe there was something really wrong with her making her thing that? Still thesigns above her head were a sign to all, she was an underachiever but a true believer who never had a hope in hell. She was the damage that a dream did. Maybe the worst part of all was that she wasn't alone, she was one of many lost kids, mutant and human alike lost in a city trying to find some sense in a world that tried to split them up and divide them according to their genetics.
The only way things were ever going to chance was if they tried. Charlie had decided that enough was enough. This was about more than defacing a billboard. It was about something else entirely. It was about standing up for what was right against the people that rigged the game. It was a sad day when the adverts on the TV told more truth than the politicians and the fathers that were meant to guide them. The truth was the world was a factory that cheated and made substandard product, they killed off the angels that tried to pick a good fight. They would fuck over everyone, encourage everyone to fuck over everyone else until the reason was lost, pay you a dollar to stab your friends in the back.
The black lettering across the advert reading; 'first they take your liberties, then tie them around your hands.'
It was a statement alright.
When it's all set and done we don't mean anything to anyone!
So lets get back to when everything seemed perfect not a worry in the world.
Tell me was this all worth it? I do what I want so everyone's always judging me.
Who cares, I've got this whole world right here in front of me!
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 13:13:31 GMT -5
► MAGNETO  June 2nd
600 Sorry for the delay! | Everything was so quiet here. The city known for its hustle and bustle was silenced. People still roamed the streets, but it was with such a caution and even fear. Of all men trapped in this state, Erik was probably one of few who preferred it this way. Arrogance of mankind- inferiors was stricken with such a blow they didn’t quite know what to do now. This city could fall so easily, but despite what others thought, Erik didn’t want to burn cities to the ground, no, quite the contrary, he wanted them to thrive! Just under different control is all, with a severe lacking in those lacking an extra gene.
Getting a hold of some civilian clothing, Erik strolled through central park dressed in a charcoal grey suit with a black fedora a top his head and matching scarf around his neck. With hands tucked into his pockets, Erik strolled past empty benches and pathways, enjoying the tranquility in its silence. He needed to find a following here. The likeliness of returning to his home seemed grim, but there was no need to simply stop his work- the thought never even crossed his mind. He only immediately began to think of ways to take advantage of this world’s devastated view while they were still down.
As Erik walked on, he came across a set of chess tables, causing him to pause and analyze the checkered pattern printed on the cement top. A hand slowly lifted from his pocket, gently running his hand over the table with a small smirk crossing his face. It reminded him of the countless times he had played against Charles Xavier, not only in Xavier’s mansion or when encased in a plastic prison, but also out in the world. Xavier was always placing knights to stand their ground before Magneto’s forces, stopping him at every turn. Charles always needing to protect his pawns at all cost as if they were kings themselves, while Erik used his own as expenses to grown closer and closer to the crown.
Letting out a fond sigh, Erik’s hand slipped off the table and back into his pocket. A he lifted his head, a disheveled billboard caught his attention, surely it was the word “cure” that was so blaring. It was perhaps the only artifact left there that showed any struggle between inferior man and homosuperiors. Erik’s eyes scanned the billboard over and over, taking in each letter. He could find a following here, he reassured himself, and this city would know justice in their attempt to shackle his brothers and sisters.
It was then that Erik watched a bright haired girl climb up to the billboard and begin writing on it, a statement Erik had just been thinking. His smile grew as he approached the woman with a calm step. “You know, it would probably be better to simply remove the lies for now…” Speaking up, Erik’s hand lifted toward the billboard. As his fingers slowly curled into a fist, the metallic board frame folded over on itself, curling like it was nothing more than paper with a screech that scattered birds nesting in nearby trees.
His hand fell back to his side, head turning toward the woman, “-Though I do admire any attempt at fighting back.” He finished as he continued to eye her. “I take it their attempts here were unsuccessful then? A so called cure was unwelcomed?” Erik assumed this woman knew a little more than him having just entered the trapped New York, or so he hoped. “These are rather confusing times, aren’t they?”
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Made by Siren of GS and THQ |
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CIVILIAN
Scars left on my heart formed weapons in my mind
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Post by Charlie Brooke on May 23, 2014 18:57:48 GMT -5
All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to
keep your hopes up high and your heads down low! Keep your hopes up high and your head down low!
Everyone around me says my life is a ruin but what the hell do they think they know! My heads above the
water while they drown in the undertow! Lets leave leave no words unspoken, this is an address for the broken!
Things were changing, everything was changing really...but that was the only thing that was constant. In the time it had taken her to spray her protest statement the world had turned a touch on it's axis and everything had changed yet again. This city had changed so much in the space of a few years, the neighbourhood that she had grown up with had gentrified, she could no longer afford the rent in her own home. The venues and bars that she had played in, earned her stripes, were closing down and instead they were building rustic cafes so the students feigning poverty could sit in their mockhomeless attire talking about how their vegan lifestyles were sustainable. Not realising their middleclass suburban lives had thrown out the most vulnerable families and shoved up the cost of living so most people couldn't survive. It was strange how that kinda stuff worked out wasn't it?
Charlie didn't have the kinda life that people were jealous of, people weren't envious of their zip codes, people didn't sit and look at them and wish to be them. They were the kids that everyone was terrified of and part of Charlie thought that they should be...and part of her was just disappointed by it. The really heart breaking part of it was most of them had spent most of their lives being told nothing but negativity. That they were too stupid, that they were too poor, that they weren't good enough, that they had the wrong genes, that they had no chance, no hopes. Nothing. They were second class. Actually Charlie would argue they were the underclass. Pushed out of the chance of even earning a living wave like most people, after all...with the stigma attached who would want a mutant working for them.
Being disturbed though her some what petty act of rebellion however was unusual. For a moment Charlie just looked at him a little confused and then the show started. He crumpled it like paper, as if it was just nothing and for a moment she was honestly gobsmacked. She said nothing. Just stared in a mixture of surprise and absolute wonder before his words dragged her out of her little daydream. She almost snort laughed at his words. No the cure went down great that was the problem. People wanted it, people supported it. Hell even some mutants wanted it because it would make life easier...but that was the thing. It might make your life easier but did it change who you were? Charlie had often asked herself the question...but she kinda liked who she was. She wasn't broken. She wasn't ill. Screwed up a little maybe but her validity as a person wasn't ruined because of her genes. Right? "I'm not ill, I don't need a cure. They keep trying to twist it so they don't use the word cure anymore but you know...people arn't so stupid they can't see through their propaganda."
That was the thing though, the propaganda had screwed them all over. Sometimes when she looked in the mirror she should see the bosses that had sacked her for being a mutant, she could see the people that had heckled her band. Called her some of the most digesting names she could think have. Looking back at her was this thing that had their sewage had drowned the spark of her teens. "The sad part is people are taking it, because society doesn't care what your power is...you're still a mutant...you're still dangerous. You're still second class citizens and people like the X-Men...the mutants...they don't care unless your power is useful. The rest of us are nothing to either of them. None of them care." That was the truth. The mutant campaign cared if you were big and powerful, but that was still a tiny proportion of the mutant population. Why did they all get a place and the rest of them had nothing?
Was it really that confusing? No. No it wasn't. "No. Not really." Her answer was curt, blunt and to the point. "It's really simple actually...oppression does not exist because of mutants, race, religion, gender or sexuality...it exists because some people have power and they will do anything to keep it. To keep someone...from being something for being something is nothing more than an excuse." For Charlie and her friends who fought and campaigned...all of this was to try and give a chance to find a home that didn't feel like a prison.
When it's all set and done we don't mean anything to anyone!
So lets get back to when everything seemed perfect not a worry in the world.
Tell me was this all worth it? I do what I want so everyone's always judging me.
Who cares, I've got this whole world right here in front of me!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 15:46:51 GMT -5
► MAGNETO June 2nd
450 Enlist today! | Erik could only grin smugly at the spite hissing past her lips, she clearly had felt the inequality that appeared to take place in any universe. Mutants were always considered a threat, a lower class indeed, but evolution was taking its toll- and survival of the fittest always conquered. Erik just needed to rekindle the fire, direct a new chariot, and set himself back on the path he had started in his own home. It was good to know there wouldn’t be much issue in herding out the sheep to find the wolves hiding amongst them all along. They were fed up and ready to riot.
He continued to step forward, planting himself at the base of the billboard and even offering a hand to the woman to help her down to the ground with him. She could see past the words and see them for their true meaning, even see past the actual intentions of what X-Men remained here now. Erik chuckled, “Every power could be considered useful, when utilized properly. Every mutant could be helpful, if allowed to.” As always, Erik spoke so smoothly, his tone calm as he imagined creating his own perfect society- no more hiding for his brothers and sisters. “We just need to open their eyes- or shut them permanently.” His words changed to cold and flat with his final words, she wanted blunt? Magneto could certainly deliver. “The choice is theirs.” Tired eyes shifted to look at the crippled billboard, frozen in its broken form.
Hearing the woman speak of oppression made Erik’s face turn to a scowl. The people of this generation didn’t know the meaning of the word to throw it about so casually. Surely, it was a great displeasure to have been considered an illness, but that was only the beginning. Erik lived through it once, but it escalated to blatant labeling- a star on his sleeve, and from there it was being moved into ghettos where families perished from diseases that spread. Then, finally, it evolved into death camps. That was oppression- that was genocide. They were fortunate to not be at the stage yet, but it was come eventually.
Glancing back to the young girl, Erik shook the thoughts away, a conversation dedicated to another person. Looking her up and down, she didn’t appear to carrying any blatant form of mutation, but neither did the Master of Magnetism himself. “However, some of us have power and want nothing more than to…even- the playing field.” Smiling, his words slowed, “Someone will stand up for all of us, not just the alphas, if you will. A new day is dawning my dear, a new brotherhood.”
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Made by Siren of GS and THQ |
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CIVILIAN
Scars left on my heart formed weapons in my mind
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Post by Charlie Brooke on Jun 4, 2014 9:22:46 GMT -5
All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to
keep your hopes up high and your heads down low! Keep your hopes up high and your head down low!
Everyone around me says my life is a ruin but what the hell do they think they know! My heads above the
water while they drown in the undertow! Lets leave leave no words unspoken, this is an address for the broken!
The trouble was people only ever cared when it affected them, the general public didn’t care about mutant rights because it didn’t affect them. All Charlie really wanted was to change that, she wanted to make something happen. Was that so terrible? All these people would run away, they would run from any sign of conflict but when the storm came knocking on their front door she knew what was going to happen. They were going to run away. It was simple. Except soon enough they weren’t going to have anywhere to hide from it all were they?
Part of her disagreed with him, really was every power special? Was it useful? She didn’t know, Charlie shrugged her shoulders and smiled, “not everyone has a place in this world, not everyone gets to be useful, nobody is special. When you realise the truth it makes life a hell of a lot easier.” She wasn’t going to do anything massive and Charlie knew that, she was a kid in a band….but this was her little fuck you. It was her way of telling the world that she could see through all the lies they told themselves and when it came to doing something about it she honestly didn’t think that she could.
Yet she tried, she did everything she could think of, she wrote about it, vandalised billboards, went to protests, shouted it from the top of stages and yet it didn’t matter. No one was listening to the underclass. Slowly as they went pockets full of dreams were falling apart at the seams, replaced by plastic happiness and mutants hiding their identity to climb the social ladder. Charlie saw no point in it, you couldn’t take them with you when you died, all the white high thread cotton sheets in the world weren’t going to save you when you were in your grave.
He had power, she knew what he was trying to tell her, she was smart enough to read between the lines and yet she doubted his intentions, because in her experience no one ever did anything selfless. They did it to appear selfless but really it was to make themselves look good. The intentions were never true. “No one stood up for us when they wanted us to register, the pro and anti-registration sides spent forever beating the crap out of each other. Sure it started with the heroes and then everyone who had a power had to register, even the ones that weren’t involved, the ones who were normal with a normal life with a job and paid taxes and had student loans to pay off…the ones that wouldn’t they rounded them up and put them in prison.” If anyone was going to stand up for them you think it had been then. Right?
There was a sad smile on her face as she looked up at him, “everyone says that, whatever mutant champion comes along, they always said that, that it will be different, that things are going to chance. They won’t.” They always promised it, always, no one had ever delivered. You couldn’t blame the kid for being jaded about the whole idea. The only way she could see anything changing was through a cultural shift, was through grass roots movements and that wouldn’t be for a generation. She didn’t believe that she would see any form of mutant equality within her lifetime…but maybe her and her friends children would get a better deal? Still Charlie would fight for that change, she’d put the hours in on the ground with people…it wasn’t going to change with a revolution.
When it's all set and done we don't mean anything to anyone!
So lets get back to when everything seemed perfect not a worry in the world.
Tell me was this all worth it? I do what I want so everyone's always judging me.
Who cares, I've got this whole world right here in front of me!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2014 17:11:24 GMT -5
► MAGNETO June 2nd
450 Enlist today! | Dealing with youth was tiring to say the least. They always thought they knew the most from their short life experiences, like they had seen it all. The way this girl talked it was as if she had witness death in the streets. She wasn’t even old enough to have lived through the Civil Rights movement. To put it simply, Erik’s patience was short with most, but more specifically with the younger generation. Still, his mildly amused expression didn’t waver, in an odd way her ignorance was entertaining.
“Everyone is capable of being useful,” Erik stated flatly, “Everyone has a skill, be that power or mentality, it’s just a matter if they choose to utilize it.” Letting out a thin wisp of breath in to the chilled air, Erik stared down to the brightly haired woman, “The only thing you need to do to be useful, is say ‘enough’.” His eyes shifted to the billboard, where the black lettering could still barely be seen beneath its folds and dents. “It only took a failed artist to say that word did he conquer. He struck fear and hope in the exact same moment.” Erik was of course referencing to Adolf Hitler, who in his youth, couldn’t have seemed like a more useless human being. Sure enough, he proved differently. “You’re not making your life easier, dear, you’re allowing it all to be worse.”
For someone who said it was easier to be useless, she only demonstrated her desire to be useful. Really, what was the point in spray painting a board when no one was around? When a groundskeeper would probably stroll by and remove it before the next day? Maybe she just didn’t know what to do with herself or maybe she was on the line of hiding as well.
She continued on about how no one stood up for the lower mutants when the registration act came around. It made Erik question if he had ever been in this world at all, for he even went into the depths of the Morlocks for assistance. He had learned too many times the underrated could prove themselves as the greatest of assets. Or perhaps this girl didn’t really know what occurred in secrecy, seeing how Erik didn’t necessarily have a publicist to announce his actions.
“You can’t change the past, but in case you haven’t noticed, things are already different. An entirely new path has formed right in front of us. This place is cut off from the rest of the world, isolated from outside forces to oppose. Newer, more powerful people appearing in the city on a daily basis, lost and confused. What else do they have than to pick side? This is a new territory….and like all territories…they must be fought over.” His words were slow to draw out but with each word needed emphasis on how it was all so possible.
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Made by Siren of GS and THQ |
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CIVILIAN
Scars left on my heart formed weapons in my mind
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Post by Charlie Brooke on Jun 14, 2014 16:18:07 GMT -5
All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to
keep your hopes up high and your heads down low! Keep your hopes up high and your head down low!
Everyone around me says my life is a ruin but what the hell do they think they know! My heads above the
water while they drown in the undertow! Lets leave leave no words unspoken, this is an address for the broken!
It was hard to undo a life of lies. Hard to unbelieve something. Charlie had lost track of the number of time she had been called useless, worthless, stupid, good for nothing or some combination of those. Charlie remembered how her step father used to scream it at them...how he'd throw things at her mothers head and how he'd rant and rave about how the thing, the freak, the inhuman lump that was Charlie should be locked up with the rest of the 'second rate things.' The idea that she had something that could be useful to anyone was just....new? If that made sense. It was a very new idea to her.
Charlie watched, she looked up at him, slightly wide eyed like she was hearing all of this for the first time...and she was. Ignoring the Hitler reference she raised an eyebrow....how was she making her life worse? That part she didn't understand. "Making things harder for myself? That's what everyone says, they keep telling me I would have had a future if I had kept my mouth shut, kept my hopes up high but my head down low. I'm proud to be a mutant...it's who I am. Except it doesn't define me. I define me. The things I do with my life and the things I believe in define me. Not my genetics....except I was never too good at keeping shut." No she wasn't.
She did things like this. Stupid things...but because she wanted to scream from the roof tops the truth. "That company, they don't want a cure because they believe that we're dangerous, or because they think we need to be cured....they created the illusion that were sick to make money. All of this is profiteering off us and in the process risking the lives of thousands of mutants. I want my children to be able to go to college without wearing a collar, or being able to apply for a job without having to declare I'm a registered mutant like I'm a criminal..." She sighed, ran a hand through her hair. She was young, frustrated, angry and lost...there was all of this passion and Charlie didn't exactly know how to get it out.
He was right though, this city had a fresh start, cut off from the world it was the chance to put broken things right, to clear the slate and start all of this bullshit over again...or they could fight and change it a ll. "Do you really think we actually have a chance?" because they had been saying that for years and nothing had ever changed. Every so often someone came along and promised a new start. It never happened. There was never a new start. The phoenix never rose up again. "Who are you?" There was genuine interest in her voice....who was this insane old man that seemingly just walked into her life in the middle of a park at night...
When it's all set and done we don't mean anything to anyone!
So lets get back to when everything seemed perfect not a worry in the world.
Tell me was this all worth it? I do what I want so everyone's always judging me.
Who cares, I've got this whole world right here in front of me!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 1:40:03 GMT -5
► MAGNETO June 2nd
564 CHANGE+HOPE+STUFF | Everyone had their hardships, Erik did well to remember that as well as utilize it for his own cause. He could promise the world to these people, a new, pure, free world. Most of their struggles were purely from their shunned livelihood, if they were offered liberation they would know the life they had been missing all along. There was plenty for him to offer and all of it could be in reach.
Not everyone could simply follow him blindly, at times it was what he preferred. Those who could be sheep were useful, but not for building a society. Those who could question, even Magneto himself, were the ones who could rebuild. This child couldn't simply believe that soon this trapped city could be changed entirely by one cause, but she wanted to. She wanted to believe the odds were against her, but she did nothing to truly fight back. She wanted a lot from this world, but it offered her nothing. "Don't ever hide who you are, I never have. Many have tried to stop me, but I've never allowed them to take away who I am." Sure, by pure force, but that was a minor detail.
Erik kept his answers relatively simple, he could speak for hours on end as to why and how and every answer in between, but those who wanted to understand would take in what he offered and develop their own insight. A wise man doesn't simply hand over knowledge, but offers them the steps to earn it. When it came to the billboard, re-approaching the topic of the "cure", she became angry again, clearly passionate about the topic- for all the right reasons. "I'm the last one you need to tell that to, my dear. I've seen what they do behind closed doors, I've seen what it does to even the most beautiful creatures, but their time is ending. This city has more concerning matters to focus on. Their attention will turn, at the very least." The master of magnetism knew it wasn't required of him to solve everything, at times they simply handled themselves.
Her nerves calmed, hands running through her own bright streaks of orange locks. She wanted to believe. "I do, but I know it wont happen over night, but it will be well worth the wait." Erik's hand lifted from his pockets, delicately resting atop her shoulder with a small smile creeping along his lips. He was old and tired, but it never slowed him down, age was but a number and Magneto was stronger than ever. A few days ago, a woman name Lorna Dane asked if he thought it was even possible to believe that she didn't know who he was and now he stood beside a girl who had indeed made that so, "Magneto, and what is it you go by?"
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Made by Siren of GS and THQ |
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CIVILIAN
Scars left on my heart formed weapons in my mind
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Post by Charlie Brooke on Jul 2, 2014 18:47:45 GMT -5
All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to
keep your hopes up high and your heads down low! Keep your hopes up high and your head down low!
Everyone around me says my life is a ruin but what the hell do they think they know! My heads above the
water while they drown in the undertow! Lets leave leave no words unspoken, this is an address for the broken!
'Don't ever hid who you are'
For a moment that stuck with her. Charlie mused over it. All she had ever been told was that she had to hide who she was. She kept quiet and just looked at him, the pain and suffering was etched on to her features. Many people had come and gone in her life, many faces had become long lost, many friends that had turned their backs as soon as they found out what she was. Charlie kept herself going by promising that she would never stop fighting for what she believed in. She was going down in flames with this fight if that was what it took because she had nothing to lose. There were no roots keeping her held down...she just wandered. Wandered while wondering and you know what scared her the most? She had no idea what she was looking for on her wanders.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, something he's said had touched a nerve and she was trying so hard not to show it...that didn't really work though. Charlie could have sworn she felt all the little heart breaks compounding. She thought about all the things that had gone on behind closed doors in her family that people never knew about...her step father had smirked once and told her people didn't care what went on behind those doors, that's how they got away with it. It had been the same day a teacher had asked them to write an essay on 'what makes your parents proud about you' for some bullshit social class...and Charlie had laid awake that night wishing she had normality. She had never wanted anything in life except a normal life. She wanted to be free like the normal kids in her class, free from being terrified for being her. Was that really far too much to ask?
Then she laughed, "you know what the weird thing is....my step dad always said he got away with it because...because people know what does on...they actually just don't care, they can't be bothered with the trouble the truth brings...I always thought that was kinda funny..." what else was she going to do? Cry about it? It was a horrible mantra she had got used to. It wasn't like they had even wanted children, she'd been an accident and even then she hadn't come out the way her family had expected. She was a failure before she had been conceived.
She hadn't expected the hands on her shoulder, for a moment surprise at the gesture washed over her before she covered it up. Most people ran away screaming if you told them you were a mutant. Hell even other mutants did it. They were terrified you'd out them, or worse, that if you were a target they would become one too. Everyone was scared, because for every mutant there was an army of humans out there and the chances were you didn't have someone to have your back. The name rang a bell with her, but Charlie didn't really know enough about what the big wigs of the mutant community were up to, or who they really were. No. There were a lot more out there than the ones who could blow things up.
"Charlie, my names Charlie."
When it's all set and done we don't mean anything to anyone!
So lets get back to when everything seemed perfect not a worry in the world.
Tell me was this all worth it? I do what I want so everyone's always judging me.
Who cares, I've got this whole world right here in front of me!
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