askandanswer | (no subject)

Entry tags:

fandom: marvel comics

(no subject)

Sure, here's a question. Why does life suck so bad?

( kevin's allowed to be kinda emo. sixteen, skinny as a rail, under his clothes he's sweltering in some strange black bodysuit that looks like it's made of rubber or pvc, and he has on full-length black gloves as well. whenever anyone gets too close he jerks away violently. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The world hates you, specifically. You should maybe cry about it some more, I hear that's useful.

I dunno, seems like maybe it hated all those kids who died when terrorists bombed our school slightly more.

Oh wahh wahh, a whole bunch of dead kids. The whole world has been killing great numbers of people and children and the disenfranchised for literally as long as humanity as a concept has existed and people act like it's suddenly a big deal once it happens in their general vicinity. This kind of shit happens like twice a year where I'm from and it sucks but nobody seems to stop bombing innocent people ever so maybe the issue isn't that life sucks and more that fucking psychotic people who think it's cool to kill random people all the time do.

If you hate it so much, do something about it. Otherwise shut the fuck up, because whining about something that effects literally everyone else as if you're the first person that ever thought of complaining about it is fucking annoying.

[...I are so sorry you decided to ask Penelope for sympathy and understanding, kid. Maybe try someone else??]

Wow, you're kind of a tool, aren't you.

Probably, but at least I'm not a teenager.

Christ, and people wonder why I hate adults.

Too bad. Die now or become one of us. Your choice.

Do you think you're being funny?

No, I'm telling the truth. The fact that it makes you mad is what's funny.

Yeah, golly gee, how totally weird of me to be kind of pissed off when someone acts like a complete dickwad about the like, super traumatic mass murder at my school. You can go pat yourself on the back somewhere else now.

It's not about you.

Oh, fuck off.

Some people think it happened at the moment of creation. Basically, that existence is fundamentally flawed; that the particles set in motion by the big bang have been moving in a ruinous path from which there is no real deviation.

Does that work for you?

Is that really it? God, at least if it was just, like, people, you could change them or something.

It's one school of thought, anyway. Seems convenient for people who have given up trying to change other people, yeah.

I tried. We tried, I mean. You know, changing people's minds. I guess I wasn't really part of it. People just came and killed a bunch of us off.

I'm sorry.

Have the people who remain given up trying to change other people's minds?

I dunno. I left. Last I heard they were too busy fighting each other now.

So have you given up?

Nobody wants to hear what I have to say anyway.

Except the pigeons, and I can't get them to stop shitting indoors.

But you do have something to say? Even if it's to shitting pigeons.

Yeah, I guess. I mean, like, “stop being dicks and killing people for things they can't control” isn't exactly revolutionary.

It's the method people are usually after, yes. A way not to destroy things.

I guess they could start by maybe leaving the kids alone. I mean, we were at that school to learn to control it, right? They're all so scared of us because they think we're all like me, but most of us aren't. So these kids go to school to learn how to control it, and instead of these asshole bigots being all like, “Okay, thanks for being responsible,” they're like, “Cool, easy targets.”

( kevin's stopped fidgeting so much, and his expression's begun to change from anger to thoughtfulness. )

It sounds like that would discourage kids from going to the school, too, or discourage their parents from allowing them to go. Or like you, to leave.

I guess they left the whole ‘easy target for terrorist crazies’ thing off the brochure.

Then the first issue is really safety, isn't it? For the kids, but also in the minds of the attackers, who are afraid, even if it's baseless like you say it is.

Yeah.

And like, we've been telling them over and over and over that most of us aren't dangerous. But there's always one or two who are. And that's enough. Some kid manifests in Podunk New Jersey or whatever and sets his house on fire and everyone freaks out.

Less than that would be enough, too. So you've come to the problem at the heart of most sentient existence pretty early. That's probably also why life sucks so bad.

Yeah. I guess.

— Uh, thanks for listening to me complain or whatever.

Sure. It seemed more dignified because you stood at the podium.

Million different answers to that one. Punishment for original sin, people are inherently wicked, our conscious awareness of our wickedness is some mistake in evolution.

I used to think about it a lot, but then I decided knowing the answer would probably be worse. Fuck all you can do about it.

I don't want to believe there's nothing you can do. What's the point, then?

Because the world is kind of a really screwy place with really screwy people. And things. Really screwy things.

‘Screwy,’ huh.

Well, 'screwy' is definitely putting it lightly.

Well, the easy answer is "because we're mutants". [Her smile is wry, and tired.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only