“Andrea, hunny, You soul…it doesn’t have anything to do with your mutation. I don’t believe God punishes people with certain abilities. Sometimes… Sometimes the hardest thing we ever have to do in this life in learning to live with ourselves. You have it rough, I can see that, but believing you’re cursed, believing that you are being punished for an unknown crime you committed as child…it’s just not true.”

His hand on her shoulder sent a jolt of conflicted emotions through her body. She could feel angry, frustrated tears building up behind her eyes... and fought to hold them back. "Jorge... It is. It is true." Taking a shuddering breath in, she shook her head at his words and bit down painfully on the inside of her lip. She needed to calm down... deep breaths. Breath in, breath out...

“Honey, it’s easier said than done, but sometimes you just need to live life with the cards you’re dealt. It’s crappy, and extremely unfair, but that does not mean you cannot allow yourself to be happy every now and then.”

She couldn't take it anymore. She flinched away from his hand and Avarice hissed, baring his fangs at Jorge. Her gloved hand was around his neck in an instant, yanking the snake back to her. Angry as she was, she was not going to allow harm to come to Jorge when he was simply trying to help. "I do not wish to simply live with the cards I am dealt! I want to live, actually live... for once in my life." She muttered, standing quickly to put some much needed distance between herself and the officer. "..I was happy... I really was... "

But then she had gone and screwed it all up.

"... I deserved this... I know it, even though I cannot pinpoint why." Turning her chin with her back to him, she stared though her glasses at the cop while her snakes curled up defensively in her hair. "I did not always have these animals, Jorge... As I told you before. I sinned, and in a matter of months I was struck with another curse." Sin, and you shall be punished. It never failed. Her fingers hooked together nervously before her and she paced in a short line back and forth. "I hurt someone... I do not know how badly... but I did it intentionally." It was suddenly a little harder to swallow. She stopped pacing like a caged animal and turned to face Jorge fully, with her back straight and her shoulders squared. If she was going to confess her sin, she wouldn't look like a coward while doing it.

"I was at the park... people started shooting, and there were kids around. I tried to defend them... I really did, but I am useless in a fight. One of the men turned on me... chased me... and when I had the chance to-" She stopped abruptly, her words catching in her throat. She could feel the pressure of his face under her hands again. Squirming. Struggling. "...I put my hands on him." She remembered watching as his skin shifted in color and texture, and could easily recall what his screaming sounded like. "I would have killed him, to put a murderer away... but someone stopped me." Shaking herself, she dropped her eyes to her feet and frown bitterly at the ground.

"Murder is still murder... no matter if you have good intentions... I sinned by attempting to take his life." And because of her actions, she had to live with serpents. It made sense to her, why did no one else see it? She didn't want to think about the alternative... A god who would allow the just to suffer so... or the possibility of there being no god at all.

He was close to helping, he could feel it. Andrea she could not beat herself up forever and hopefully with his logic she would start to calm down. An angry youth was always difficult to talk with and he did not want her to suddenly see him as the enemy. That would not due at all. To help her, she needed to trust that he was right, to actually listen to his opinion than to let her view on life truly scar her forever. The worst thing that a person in her position could do was not listen to someone else.

God, please just listen Andrea. Even if you don’t believe me, just listen… he thought to himself. He figured that if he could speak truthfully enough, if he could just talk soothingly that she could calm down. Then maybe he’d had a chance to repair the wrong turn their talk went down.

Then…the sheep hit the fan…

>> "I do not wish to simply live with the cards I am dealt! I want to live, actually live... for once in my life..I was happy... I really was... "

“Whoa!” He leaned back, luckily just as Andrea caught one of her snakes attempting to bite him.

Rage, frustration, it was all there. It was all exactly what the detective had been expecting from the young lady who had spent her life in solitude and fear of her what her abilities could accomplish. All of it was bubbling to the top right now and nothing he could do would really calm her. She needed to get this out and for the moment, he would have to be shoulder and the punching bag.

>> "... I deserved this... I know it, even though I cannot pinpoint why…I did not always have these animals, Jorge... As I told you before. I sinned, and in a matter of months I was struck with another curse…I hurt someone... I do not know how badly... but I did it intentionally…I was at the park... people started shooting, and there were kids around. I tried to defend them... I really did, but I am useless in a fight. One of the men turned on me... chased me... and when I had the chance to-…I put my hands on him…I would have killed him, to put a murderer away... but someone stopped me…Murder is still murder... no matter if you have good intentions... I sinned by attempting to take his life."

Wow. It was all he could think as he attempted to absorb anything that she had told him. She was angry, hurt, and felt the unfairness of the world…all because she nearly killed someone. Or, at least that was how she rationalized it. Because she ran to the defense of others, because she was attacked and defended herself…that is why she was being punished with this mutation. It really…it was twisted and wrong. She made herself both the villain and the victim in the scenario.

It was a horrible thing to think of, that she could possibly blame herself for this misdeed. That it was because she attempted to do the right thing that God was punishing her. When it came to God, Jorge really did not give it much thought. He really did not know what he believed. He just knew that sometimes, something saved his butt from the fire at the last second when he should have died. But would that same force punish a girl?

No, he thought resolutely. He doubted that very much.

Staring at her angry eyes, Jorge stood, and watched her. The twisted anger and frustration she had…wow how he wished he could ease it. Do something to show her that she was not some cursed monster.

Finally though, he simply shook his head.

“So…you said I was the nicest person you’ve ever met and a mutant. And yet…you call mutations a curse. Then tell me this,” he said heavy heartedly. “I actually killed someone before. No just a stranger or a perp, but my best friend on the force.” he sighed as he thought about it but did not linger. “I killed my best friend, my partner, shot him dead because he was a dirty cop that got a lot of people killed and wanted me either to join him or die. Not a day goes by that I don’t question if what I did was ethical or ordained by god, but there’s not a doubt in my mind that I didn’t do the right thing.” Jorge’s shoulders slumped a little as he stood there, staring directly back at the young, angsty mutant. He doubted she cared about a damn thing he said right now but…

Please Andrea…just listen. Just listen…and remember…

He outstretched his arms, almost in a giving up gesture before they once more fell to his sides. His sympathetic eyes watched her closely, almost begging, but he knew it would not be much longer before she did the only thing she could. Run.

“My hands are bloodier than yours, Andrea,” he said with a shrug. “And I don’t believe I am cursed. Neither…are you.”

She listened. Took in his words, and when she had heard what he had to say... she felt like an ass. Sucking in a breath, she held it and reached back to draw her hood up over her hair, angry snakes and all. In confessing.. in admitting... she had pinned him to the spot. She was stupid... So. Horribly. Stupid. Jorge was a cop, an upholder of the law. He had probably been forced to take down a lot of people, bad people, but people all the same. "..I..."

What was she supposed to say now? Nothing in what she believed gave her any answers, and anything she had to say would only make the situation work. Her anger dipped, but her frustration over the situation grew. "I am sorry." She stated, noticing that her voice was flat and hollow. She had nothing left to give but anger, and she wasn't going to repay his kindness with it. "...I should not have spoken, my burdens are not yours."

She tried to smile, she really did. Her backup method of diffusing a situation. But her lips would have none of it. She felt the corners of her mouth twitch, and simply tugged her hood up further until it shadowed her eyes and nose. She couldn't think of anything to say. Everything was tinted with anger, or sorrow... and she could feel a headache building up behind her eyes.

"I do not believe you, Jorge... but I will think upon what you have said." She needed to write her mother... her mother always had answers. Maybe she would stop by a chapel and devote a few hours to soul searching... which she had been neglecting lately. Nearly turning, she paused, a thought coming to mind.

"I know... that a lot of what I say seems wrong. I do... Part of me will always doubt. It is... human nature, as you would say." A mind in doubt often leads to trouble. As her mother used to say. "... and perhaps I have a habit of giving off the wrong impression. God is not unforgiving... but you must earn it. We are cursed Jorge... but that does not mean we cannot be forgiven. You... you fight for what is right. You are a good person... " Ah, she could feel herself starting to get aggravated again. "I will always strive to be a better person, so that one day I might be forgiven to. If that means I must fight for my beliefs, or leave those I love behind to protect them... then I must do so."

With her mouth set in a tight line, she nodded her head slightly, a silent goodbye, and turned from him. She didn't know how to say goodbye in such a situation... so she didn't. Thank you for listening, Jorge... Andrea left him, heading off from the mall to finish her tasks for the day, before she headed him to think about all that had happened... Jorge had said much, and as much as she didn't want to think about it, his words had left her doubting herself even more than before.