fandomhigh | Oppression, Resistance & Revolution: Friday

"I'm sure most of you are keen on leaving this class early," Magneto announced as he walked into the danger shop precisely as the bell rang. "Rest assured your homecoming activities can wait. Fun and frivolity has it's place. So does knowledge."

"Before the fall break we watch a movie," he continued as he began his regular circuit around the room. "About a man and his desire for a free country for his people. You may ask: what made that man different from others? For that I can give you a simple answer: conviction. As I mentioned before, just because you may take the option of non-violence does not mean it's going to be easy."

He gave his students a sinister grin and snapped his fingers. The danger shop swift changed from blank walls to what appeared to be a modern day protest. The only switch to this that there were counter protesters on the other side.

"Today, we're going to test your conviction," Magneto said with a malevolent look of glee. "And just see how well you can do. If you wish to bow out... you may. However that may tell me more about you than any other class you have taken with me so far."

He pointed at the protest going on and gestured for the class to join in. "Begin."

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On one of Karla's rounds through the van, Evan glanced up at her, little crackles of frustrated power occasionally skipping in violet arcs across his skin.

"If you can keep doing that, why do they keep arresting you?"

"Because it frustrates them that they can't figure out how I keep doing it," Karla retorted, pausing with half of her body passed through the van wall.

Evan's last headmistress had been Kitty Pryde. He wouldn't be phased by that, right?

"And I keep letting them because it amuses me and it keeps them occupied trying to manhandle me instead of people who can't hold their own."

Evan took that into consideration, both the way she'd stopped mid-phase (he hadn't known she could do that, too!) and her distraction strategy.

"They're not going to mistake you for a mutant if you do that and just take it out on you even harder, are they?"

Look, it was a totally legitimate question.

It was legitimate. Which was why it had Karla scowling a little as she answered.

"They can try," Karla said darkly. "But they won't succeed. And it will let everyone else in the crowd see what kind of tactics they are willing to use."

"If they think you're a mutant, I don't think there are many people in the crowd who will care all that much," Evan murmured. "It'll just make more people afraid of you, and it'll hurt the cause the rest of us are trying to stand for."

Yeah, this was somehow the kid who hero-worshipped Magneto.

It hadn't made much sense to Uncle Cluster, either.

"There are on this side of the divide," Karla pointed out. And trying to follow Evan's logic while matching that up to his adulation of a terrorist. "And would you rather have the police roughing them up for being mutants or trying to hurt me?"

"Neither," Evan replied immediately, and then fidgeted, looking down at his handcuffs. "But... I mean, it isn't like it's just the police who would turn against anyone they suspected of being a mutant. You can agree with someone because of a sign they're holding while hating them for a completely different reason, even if they are standing up for you. Plenty of people back home do."

"Yes, yes they can," Karla said softly. "But if they are confronted with those prejudices while they're agreeing with you, they might just stop and think for a moment about how legitimate their hate is. Might think that possibly, possibly there's more to someone than just being a mutant. Might be willing to talk to someone instead of brushing them off. Might find a common humanity with them. I think that risk is worth it, don't you?"

Evan considered that for a long, quiet moment, eyes staying on his cuffed hands.

"Do you suppose it's really just that easy?"

They hadn't built giant extermination-bots for the sole purpose of destroying all of the world's rich people, after all.

"That sounded easy to you?" Karla asked, eyebrow raised. "There were a Hell of a lot of 'maybes' and 'possiblies' in there, Evan. But it doesn't mean it's out of the realm of possibility, either."

She pointed at the people on the other side of the divide. "Many of those people hate the people on this one without even knowing why. Some of it id ideology. Some of it is fear. A lot of it is ignorance--most of them don't know anyone on this side. Can't relate to them. Have no reason to try. Same thing for the hate on this side, too. And for most people on either side, having those things still won't be enough to get them to change their minds. But we're not talking to them. They'll hate because they like to hate. We're trying to reach the people who can be reached."

"How do you know if you're doing the right thing, though?" Evan chewed on his lip, setting his hands down on his knees. "How do you know you're not going to just... just scare the people who are on our side over to the other one?"

"I'm not willing to compromise who I am, just because someone else might--will--get spooked," Karla said softly. "Should the people who can't so easily blend with the crowd then stay home, too? Be unwilling to stand up for what they believe in, because their very appearance might scare someone away."

She was giving Evan a very pointed look, now, yes. He wasn't mainstream human looking. Was he going to hide away his whole life? Should he be forced to?

But that was exactly what he was doing by being here at this school in the first place. He ducked his head a little lower, the violent crackle of angry power on his body simmering down to something more reminiscent of a frustrated sizzle.

"Maybe we should."

"You won't find peace that way, Evan," Karla said, a little sadly. "That kind of peace won't shelter any mutants who can't hide. Or ones that come into their powers after you've all gone away. It won't force people to move beyond their hates and fears."

She shook her head and sighed. "It's not like I can't see the appeal. If they don't know where to find you, they won't be able to create another Genosha. But the problem is, Evan, that someone will always, always find you. And the types that go looking are the ones who are only too happy to do that again."

Evan... really didn't want to point out that the number of mutants who had come into their powers since M-Day was distressingly small. A few new lights, in a world where millions had blinked out in an instant.

"I was running from it when I came here, you know. I mean, not just from the whole world. From people who are just like me."

M-Day had been caused by a mutant anyway, so hiding still wouldn't have helped. Of course, Karla didn't know most of those details anyway, including the ones about birth and manifestation rates.

"I'm running, too," Karla admitted softly. "Not from the same things you are, but running all the same. Sometimes you have to run. But what is right for you isn't the same as what is right for all."

"No," Evan murmured, "I guess that's true."

He didn't sound entirely convinced, really. But then, his father hadn't raised him to run away like a coward, either.

"I don't actually like running, you know."

"Wouldn't think you did," Karla said. By this time, she'd pulled herself back into the wagon and sat back down beside Evan. "But sometimes you have to. I abandoned my people--over a million souls to save myself. It took me a long time to accept that if I hadn't run, I wouldn't have survived and then no one would be able to protect them. When you're raised to think of others first, you have trouble doing things that are just for you. But that doesn't mean those things aren't important.

Oppression, Resistance & Revolution: Friday

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