she had never really been SAFE in the knowledge of another’s softness, before. the only people victoria knew - and knew well - were made up of sharp edges and bite. they didn’t do things out of the GOODNESS of their heart, because that goodness did not exist. everyone was hiding a side darker than night, and no man did ANYTHING for the sake of doing it.
and here was conrad. good, soft conrad, who practically radiated ‘safeness’. she didn’t need to WORRY about being in his company. she didn’t need to - though she still did, because a habit of a lifetime was hard enough to break - watch what she said, or did. he wouldn’t snap and accentuate that with a fight. he was simply being nice. teaching her. telling her things that she should have known, or at least, that the school had told her she SHOULD have.
“you’re special,” she replied, quite simply, the expression on her face - eyes wide and continuously curious, lips tilting upwards - so wholly unfamiliar. she didn’t just mean because of the evolution comment. he was, honestly, the FIRST person to treat victoria as if she were a human. that really meant something.
she listened, with keen interest, and when he began to gesture wildly with his hands, she sat back a little bit - not out of worry, like such a movement might have caused if it were anyone but him, but out of even more curiosity. she had never met anyone who punctuated words leaving their mouth with such inoffensive signs. it was almost something she thought would be wise to ADOPT, in day to day life - though how freely it all came to conrad made her think that it wasn’t something he was completely in control of. “inhumans-” she repeated, the word new, “are ALIEN experiments. which we are not. they’re stronger even without the terrigenesis-” another unfamiliar word that she entirely butchered, despite having heard it said correctly not two seconds before, “and develop POWERS through that. i get it.” she thought. maybe. it was hard to say if she was totally grasping it or simply parroting back, but she certainly seemed like she was understanding. “half right is another way of saying wrong,” it was a lesson she had learnt from victor. one of many, in fact. but at least with current company, she could parrot it back without the deeper issues being important. “you’re GOOD to me, conrad, but feel free to call it as it is. you’re a very good teacher, and very good teachers don’t tend to give half marks.”
Conrad, for certain, was not special. He didn’t consider himself to be. Nicer than most, maybe. More willing to help out than most, yeah. He’d always been the first to volunteer to do the dishes. Or watch the kids back at the institute when he was a teen. Or stay after class to help someone else with their homework, although it was mostly just emotional support. Conrad himself was a slightly below average student. So it was mostly emotional support. He tried though. Trying, in his opinion, wasn’t anything special.
“Sure,” he nodded in response. She was not the first to tell him, that did not mean that he had to believe it.
“No, we’re not alien experiments. We are-,” he paused, a large, dumb smile formed on his lips. “every few hundred millennia, evolution. leaps. forward.“ He punctuated the last few words for the dramatics. A speech he had heard when he was younger, and had stuck with him. He immediately felt bad, an inside joke with himself went over everyone else’s head. “sorry, it’s uh- we’re not alien experiments. Maybe the next step in evolution. Maybe not, there’s plenty of scientists out there trying to figure that out.”
“Half right is the way of saying, half-right.” He replied. “I’m the best teacher. Half- of the kindergarten class I assist with says so. And, mutant history is complicated. Not many players to keep track of, but they’re always changin’ sides and formin’ new teams and all that. At least your trying. I commend you for trying.”
