video; un: SPEED (i'm two quarters and a heart down)

[expeditiousness]

['sup quarantine, today y'all get +1 very bored teen speedster sighing and rolling his eyes in a highly dramatic fashion, phone balanced on his knee to film as he's lounging on the couch in his apartment.]

Please tell me I'm not the only one here who feels like puking over this holiday thing. It's like Valentine's Day on steroids! Ugh! [he shudders to highlight his disgust.] I mean, why do we need a whole big thing for romaaaantic loooove anyway? And soulmates? Psh! I mean, if that's your thing, go for it, but those of us who're a little more sane oughta stick together, right? Maybe have our own anti-holiday or something. Who's with me?

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Video; un: ilikehorses

[shoplifter]

... I will help your cause.

People get weird during these holidays.

[Look you have someone on your side.]

[expeditiousness]

Heck yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.

[FINALLY someone with some sense!!]

Nothing says we can’t have our own little shindig, right?

[shoplifter]

Sí. I don't know what a shindig is, but it sounds more enjoyable than whatever the others do.

There are way better things to do than make funny eyes at each other.

Like eating. And sleeping. And fighting monsters.

[expeditiousness]

[y'know, tommy was right with you up until - ]

- Fighting monsters?! What the heck, you're just a kid - what sort of place are you from?!

[shoplifter]

[She stares for a moment, unfazed.]

Transigen’s pediatric center in Mexico City.

Fighting monsters is not such a big deal. And killing them help the people here, yes?

[expeditiousness]

[wtf mexico]

Well, yeah, if you’re an adult. Kids should be off doing - you know, kid stuff.

[shoplifter]

[She shrugs.]

I have not done 'kid stuff' until recently.

[Such a professional use of finger-quotes, here.]

Why can't I do both, though?

[expeditiousness]

[... well, ok, fair.]

I guess you’ve got a point. How come you’ve never done kid stuff before though?

[shoplifter]

I lived in a training and testing facility until just recently.

[It's rather blunt, but she's just given up trying to seem 'normal' at this point.

... If she's honest with herself, people get an inkling anyway in a short time.]

[expeditiousness]

[something dark flits through tommy's expression at those words. testing. he doesn't have a good feeling about the sorts of tests a little girl who's used to fighting monsters would've been put through.]

What kinds of tests did you have to take there?

[shoplifter]

Just about any you can imagine.

[She wonders about that expression; it's certainly a familiar one.

She shrugs, rather casual about the whole thing.]

I was born there. For most of my life, I thought it was how everyone grew up.

[expeditiousness]

No one should grow up like that.

[and while it’s unlikely they’re from the same world, tommy’s intensely curious about why she grew up like that.]

Hey, can I ask you a question? Like - don’t take this the wrong way, but are you different from other people? Like, can you do stuff other people can’t do? [hmm, maybe a demonstration. tommy holds up his free hand to the camera and starts moving it at super-speed, so it just becomes a blur.] Sorta like this?

[shoplifter]

[........... Hey, man, that was fast. You're pretty good (tm).

She stares for a moment — then, rather straightforward and blunt about it, she says:]

Are you asking if I am a mutant?

Sí, Sí, soy yo.

[expeditiousness]

Yeah, me too. [damn. sometimes he hates being right.] Hey, did anyone ever tell you what the point was of all those tests you were taking?

[shoplifter]

[She nods, because this? This is a conversation she's mastered.]

They were developing us as weapons; the tests and training sessions were to improve our abilities so that they could sell us to whoever needed us. We were considered a failed project, though.

[expeditiousness]

[ooh. ok, that’s not surprising, but it still hits awfully close to home for tommy. he frowns deeply.]

You know that’s not OK, right? What they did to you?

[shoplifter]

[She nods.]

It took eleven years to really understand... Even then, the only reason I am not dead is thanks to the nurses who realized we were in danger of being euthanized as failures.

[She owes a great deal to nurses like Gabriela. Even if they were part of the problem, they had always treated them with a secret humanity that could have cost them — and ultimately did.]

... I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw the way people should have been treated.

[expeditiousness]

[god, she’s just a kid. she shouldn’t be dealing with bullshit on this high of a level, threats of being euthanized like a sick animal. what the hell.]

If you ever see any of those people show up here, I wanna know. Same for if anyone here starts giving you crap about being different or treating you bad. OK? Us mutants gotta stick together.

[congrats, you’ve been adopted.]

[shoplifter]

[She nods.]

... I am not afraid to kill them, if they come here; I've killed those people before.

[Maybe hard to parse that, to conflate the image of her and a blood-soaked mutant with claws through a man's throat. But it's reality. She's learned to better herself, but not believe in silly fantasies of being something other than what she is.]

[expeditiousness]

[it’s not that hard to imagine, for tommy; he’s been there. if the young avengers hadn’t stopped him, he likely would’ve killed the doctors and staff at the facility where he’d been kept, after he was freed and no longer under the effect of the power suppressants. furious, threatened people are capable of anything, no matter their age, whether mutant or regular human.]

Uh ... maybe don’t kill them if you don’t have to, ‘cause that’s not really a great solution. Don’t get me wrong, I know how that feels, when you wanna kill people for being terrible to you, just ... you have a choice, y’know? To be better than them.

[that was the choice tommy was given, and the choice he took - to become a hero instead of a villain.]

But I don’t think anyone’d fault you if you just maimed ‘em a little.

[well. mostly a hero.]

[shoplifter]

Before I came here... killing them was the only solution.

[She looks away quietly.]

Logan told me I do not have to kill. I've been trying to listen — to remember that I am not a weapon, but some times it's harder to believe than others.

[expeditiousness]

[it's definitely hard to break out of thought patterns, and she's just a kid, so that's extra hard.]

Well ... I believe in you. So if you think it's hard to believe you're not a weapon, you can let me do the believing for you until you can do it yourself. Deal?

[shoplifter]

... Deal.

Is there something you would like me to believe for you, in return?

[expeditiousness]

Nah, it's cool. I believe in myself plenty.

[shoplifter]

And where did you learn to do that?