video UN: Polaris

[ferrokinetically]

[ Tired. That's the best way to describe how Lorna currently looks. Tired and out of it. The video feed comes on to show her sitting with her legs dangling off the edge of her bed. For a few seconds she doesn't say anything, she just kicks her boots against the back of the bed as she tries to resist the compulsion. After the seconds drag on to a frustrating degree she pulls out one of the military knives she's so keen to play with and starts to toss it up. Green mist swirls around her hands as she causes it to stop just before it'd have landed into her own thigh. It's a game. Toss it up, let it fall down, stop it with her powers just before it's too late.

Or maybe don't.

She really doesn't want to say what this compulsion is pushing her towards. Not at all. ]

I brought down a plane with innocent people on it just to kill one person. I ripped it apart while it was in the sky and I bet nobody on board even knew what was happening. [ She looks at the camera directly. ] The entire world caught on fire after that. It all went to hell but I don't know if I'd take that back if I could. That's the messed up part. He needed to die and there wasn't another way. Nobody else was going to step up and do it. [ Is that a hint of bitterness in her tone? You bet it is. There's a lot of feelings about that she's never discussed or even brought up and that builds up. ]

He had to be taken out for my people to be safe. [ And she cuts the feed off there just as her knife comes back down to her thigh. ]

Comments

[ferrokinetically]

Basically the universes scapegoats.

[ferrokinetically]

She was going to demand that they give us a mutant homeland. [ A beat ] Where I'm from it's illegal to use our powers in public. Mutants that can't just blend in have to hide in the sewers or worse. A mutant homeland would let us be free to be ourselves.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, that's... that's fucking accurate. People don't care about our mistakes. They see all of them as malicious.

[ferrokinetically]

Even if it's in self-defense, it's still malicious to them.

[doubled_speed]

That's because they're racist cowards who don't like that we are born like this because they weren't born like this.

video; private

[brightboy]

No, Lorna. I don't know that, because you didn't just- [He shook his head, calming his voice before continuing.] It wasn't just one man who died. We were all labeled terrorists.

[11calls]

What happened? Was it used as like... 9/11 as justification to attack mutants all that much more?

[ferrokinetically]

Yeah. 7/15. A peaceful mutant protest for rights turned into an all out riot. A mutant was attacked and lost control of their powers, caused an explosion that killed hundreds of humans. The whole world blamed all of us for that. Even though the protests were peaceful until humans attacked them.

video; private

[ferrokinetically]

[ She doesn't look up. ] If you all didn't want it to happen, you could have stopped it. None of you did though, did you? We were labeled terrorists before that. Maybe I regret following Reeva as far as I did, but I don't regret taking that plane down.

[11calls]

Okay, so I really don't use this comment at all flippantly or like ironically or anything. But it really sounds almost like how Nazis treated Jewish people.

Or the KKK with Civil Rights Activists.

[ferrokinetically]

Sometimes you sound exactly like Andy.

[doubled_speed]

I don't know who Andy is, but if they sound like me then they have some SERIOUS problems.

video; private

[brightboy]

And how would you have had me stop you, huh? Blast you? You were carrying our daughter Lorna.

[ferrokinetically]

The new KKK call themselves the Purifiers. Backwards hicks that take mutant hunting into their own hands. And then there's the Hound program. [ A beat ] The Hound program is why I had to bring it down.

[ferrokinetically]

He's a friend. About your age actually. I think you'd get along.

[doubled_speed]

Well, I really dno't mind having more friends, you know? Tell me about the kid.

[11calls]

But it didn't work? Did they just accelerate the program because of it or something?

[ferrokinetically]

The men I was trying to kill wanted to take the Hound program wanted to make the Hound program an official government sanctioned program. They were going to the Senate with their proposal and it was going to pass. They'd have started operating the program across the United States.

[ She pauses. ] It worked. It stopped the program. I just should have stopped things there.

[ferrokinetically]

His powers manifested while he was at a school dance while some kids were bullying him. Lost control and it didn't take long for Sentinel Services to come after them. Sentinel Services came after them and they came to the Underground for help.

He's a good kid. Proud of who is and really protective of his family. He came with me when I left the Underground. [ There's a hint of guilt in her voice there. ] He was with me when my daughter was born.

[doubled_speed]

[Sentinels. Tommy shudders at the thought. Sentinels were NEVER good.]

Was... him coming with you a bad thing? I mean, he would have been there to support you.

[11calls]

What happened next?

[ferrokinetically]

Everything went to shit. [ She lets out a tiny sigh. ] I thought...I thought we needed to do more than just hide and run. I wanted a world for my people, for my daughter. [ Her voice waivers for a second before she gets control back. ] Reeva and the Hellfire Club had ideas on how to make a safe mutant homeland a reality. I left the Underground to join up with them but the reality wasn't what I thought it would be. [ Is it ever? ] What Reeva really wanted was all out war and she was willing to do anything at all to get that. [ She pauses and her voice lowers. ]

She was allied with the Purifiers the entire time. Pushing both sides to war because she felt like that would be the only way we'd be given a safe homeland. Our actions made the world hate mutants even more. But worst of all she ordered the slaughter of our own people and I played a part in that. They wouldn't join with her so she just took them out. There was nothing she wouldn't do.

[ferrokinetically]

I can't lie, I was glad to have someone there with me. But it meant he chose me and the Inner Circle over his own family [ so did she ] and that was hard on him. He also...a lot of shit went wrong and he had to do something he never should have had to do.

video; private

[ferrokinetically]

[ Her expression is a whirlwind and it's clear she's wrestling to keep something to herself, something she's trying to push back down inside of her. A feeling even she can't voice or articulate. Whatever it is she's feeling she pushes it back down and when she speaks again her voice is small. ]

I was left to feel like I was the only one that could do anything. [ And then there was just no going back. ]

[11calls]

[Alex isn't surprised. While she'd not experienced it personally, it's how she's heard stories of this kind of things go. But she does feel for her friend, which is why she lets out a soft and concerned:]

Jesus.

What happened to her?