Material Desires

[Demi Smith]

Demi stopped, her body locking, as Roxana called her childish. Her eyes flashed and she turned to look at Roxana. "Childish?" Demi nearly snapped, taking a step forward. "It's how we're supposed to be, you big stupid idiot! We're not supposed to be tainted by stupid humans and their junk! It's---you wouldn't call a stupid," she gestured, trying to remember what she'd learned from studying and stuff, the bits about religion that they'd tried to teach her, "a Muslim person that they were being childish when they said they weren't going to eat pork."

Demi spat at Roxana's feet, glaring at her. "Bigot."

And she turned to walk out, not really caring that Roxana was following and that they were still going. Demi did want to hit Roxana until the other girl couldn't think straight, but she was being practical: she needed food and she didn't want to eat more crap. If Roxana was going to get her some, she'd put up with her being stupid and whatnot.

"I'm not an idiot," Demi snapped at Roxana's comment. "But you don't know, so unless there's a tag that says so, I'm not going to taint myself just because you want me to wear other clothes." She was practically vibrating by now, very tempted to just launch herself at Roxana, supply of dirt or no.

[Roxana Strix]

Demi then sort of snapped and at first Roxana didn’t really understand. She completely saw Demi as being childish for making a big deal out of something to wear. It was not like she was going to make the girl any style of clothing that she didn’t like, but to not wear something just because who it was made by. It was stupid. Then Demi was bringing up a Muslim person and how Roxana would not call them childish for not eating pork. Well Demi was right about Rox not calling them childish but if they only had pork to eat and a person would not eat it because of their religion, then she would call them stupid.

Roxana didn’t understand religion on certain aspects. She got the need to think there was something after you died and to have hope for things to get better in your life. Yet, she could not understand when it called for things like not wearing clothing made by another group, or eating a particular meat, or even not allowed to get a divorce. Still, Roxana did understand that she had offended Demi and that she should apologize. At least she gained a bit of knowledge about the girl out of it, but it still didn’t really help her understand. “I apologize to have offended you Demi. I was being ignorant.” Roxana said, and she did mean the apology.

The apology was not for because she agreed with anything Demi was saying, but because she had offended the girl. “I don’t know. That is correct. So why don’t you teach me a bit more, in order to avoid misunderstanding you.” Roxana said. It would greatly help with her job but more so it would help Rox at least try to understand the younger girl. If she understood her better, perhaps changing her views would be easier then. Not always, because Demi was obviously stubborn in her views but Rox was one that never stuck to impossibilities. She was just…practical, realistic.

“Would you be alright sitting in a car or do we have to walk?” Roxana asked, just to be sure. She figured Demi would be okay with it since that was likely how she was picked up by the school. She just wanted to be sure, so she would not have Demi picking up dirt when they were going to be going out in public. She had already picked up the keys from the front desk and then headed outside, but it was not too late to just hold onto them if they were going to walk instead.

[Demi Smith]

Demi actually paused as Roxana apologized, more or less. She looked up at the older girl. Sometimes people did do that: say they were sorry and meant it. It messed with Demi, especially with her preconception that everyone here thought that her cult was evil and that they were all tainted morons. But it was still somewhat surprising coming from Roxana, especially given what she'd just been talking about.

There was a continuation about cars that had Demi snorted. "The cars here are fine," she said, turning and looking away. "They get them from mutant suppliers so that my people aren't tainted. Just make sure to ask for the right one," and yes, Demi did know that her people checked. It was part of the agreement: the Inherited sent their children to official schools willingly, and in exchange, the schools adhered to the Inherited's core beliefs. It was also why Demi didn't have any issues wearing the school uniforms.

"And it's simple," Demi said as she kept walking, "we're Inherited, which means we're Chosen by the Divine Will to Inherit the Earth sometime in the future. Then we'll be the stewards of the world and rule benevolently over the lesser people, like the gods did in the past. And, like, humans are stupid and lesser and stuff," Demi shrugged. She did know the rules and the guidelines and could even quote from their sacred texts. Didn't mean that she remembered everything or really enjoyed doing so for people who obviously weren't going to pay attention or listen.

They'd left the dorms, and now Demi had to turn to Roxana. "Which way are the cars again?" It wasn't like Demi got to go on trips all that often, after all.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana did mean her apology. She didn't dislike Demi, even if the girl was a bit stubborn and made Rox wish that someone else was looking after her. Yet, at the same time Roxana enjoyed being around Demi...as odd as that sounded. There was just a fire in the younger girl, such potential, and it just made Roxana have high hopes for her. High hopes that SIGUARD probably shared for the younger girl as well, but her cult was still in the way. Roxana didn't really know how to change someone; it was not what she had gotten good at.

Getting information out of someone, that she could do but not in the methods that Demi would like and nor would most approve of. Demi assured her that the cards were fine because of where the school got them from and that she had to just ask for the right one. Alright, that made things a lot easier and it was not that hard to ask for a car specifically for those a part of The Inherited. Roxana listened as Demi started to explain it, but she didn't stop. She did whisper to the person at the front desk for keys to a car that an Inherited could be in and was easily passed a set. He focus then returned back to Demi.

It was interesting how Demi spoke of her beliefs and her people, but then again Roxana expected as much. Roxana didn't say anything, despite how her opinion didn't really match up with the way Demi viewed the world. Then again they were raised differently so again there was not really a lot of surprise. "Is the Divine Will a person or an event?" Roxana asked then. She wanted to be sure because the way Demi spoke of it she could see it being either. She led the way, expecting Demi to follow her. The question came and Roxana pointed off in the general direction of where the cars were parked. "Right up ahead. You can run up ahead to the car if you like." Roxana said as she pushed a button on the keys she was given and one of the vehicle's lights flashed.

[Demi Smith]

Was the Divine will a... Demi gave Roxana look that indicated how many different flavors of stupid the other girl was being. "The Divine Will is kinda a force. Like, I don't know, it's the way the universe works or something," Demi seemed to vaguely recall there being discussions about the Divine Will and how it actually manifested itself or something. It was all kind of boring, so she zoned out of a lot of it.

Besides, they were at the motor pool. Demi waited till Roxana told her to run up, and she nearly did so. However, she took a few steps before realizing that this was Roxana treating her like a kid. So instead, Demi purposefully walked toward a car that either was the precise one that had picked her and Ceres up when she'd first gotten here or one that looked just like it.

"We'll use this one," Demi insisted, putting her hand on it and giving a Roxana that same challenging, "argue with me" look.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana could practically tell what Demi was thinking just by the look the girl was giving her alone. She didn't say anything and she didn't really take any offense to the look since she understood why Demi would give such a look. The younger girl already knew the information but Roxana was an outsider so Demi should have or would eventually understand that others on the outside would not just understand what she was telling them right away. Rox actually had little interest in the group still, but was interested in Demi's viewpoint on it and avoiding upsetting the girl as much as possible.

"I take it you didn't pay attention to all the details and just go with the majority of your people think?" Roxana asked. She had asked it in the particular for a reason, implying something but at the same time was actually asking. Demi didn't seem the type to just follow things blindly, but then again she was still just a child. Children tended to follow the masses around them and if her people were telling her this was how things were and she didn't care to think of it in her own way, then it was expected she would just follow along.

That just proved she had more potential to be a part of SIGUARD, but it also proved that if she didn't join then she likely be an issue later. All of her people were an issue, at least that was Rox was assuming. She didn't actually know all of the details of how SIGUARD viewed the little cult but now that she was learning about the group from Demi's own words, she was slightly curious what SIGUARD had planned for them. Demi looked like she was ready to run, but then started to walk again and Rox had a guess as to why she did that.

She just smiled a little but didn't say anything as she looked at the younger girl who spoke of what car they were going to take and gave her a challenging look. "I guess it is a good thing the keys they gave me go to that car. Do you want to sit up front with me?" Roxana asked as she unlocked the car, heading to the driver's side, and getting in. She would wait until Demi got into the car before she would start it up, her mind going thoughts a few thoughts before she would put the car in drive once Demi was all situated.

[Demi Smith]

"I paid attention to the important stuff," Demi said dismissively. She'd actually known quite a bit of this a while back. They drilled it into you, at least to the point that you could parrot it back to them. If Demi were facing some of her people, with their knowing looks, she could totally have recited chapter and verse from their religious texts. But now? Talking with an outsider? Yeah, Rox was lucky Demi gave her as much as she did.

The Inherited was soon glaring at Roxana at her comment, pointing with one almost shiny pink finger: "Stop treating me like a kid: I'm almost fifteen now," Demi nodded and pulled open the door to the front seat. She slid in there easily enough, though it was obvious that being in the car seemed to bug her. She smoothed the skirts of her uniform before twisting to pull the door shut, and then fumbled some with getting herself buckled in.

"Wouldn't it just be better to find a mutant who, like, flies or something?" she demanded, looking up at Rox. "Or getting, like, a rocket car or something. We were working on one of those back home," actually not a lie. One of the younger, but still adult, Inherited had been insisting that they'd need fast transportation, and it had become one of his pet projects.

[Roxana Strix]

"Noted." Roxana said as she gave a small nod. She only half believed that, going off of how Demi behaved. Then again, she kept in mind that she was an outsider and that Demi didn't really trust or like her all that much. Did she trust or like anyone at the school yet? Roxana figured she would look into that a little bit later. For now they had a car to get into and a town to go down into for the sake of shopping. Even if that shopping was going to be mainly for food since Demi was more than likely going to be set in her ways about not wearing things not made by mutants.

Demi was glaring at her, pointed, and stating that Rox needed to stop treating her like a kid. Roxana blinked a few times at the words, not having forgotten Demi's age or that she would be older soon. The younger girl was still a kid; neither fourteen nor fifteen would change that. Roxana was still considered a kid even if legally she was an adult. "I was not trying to do it on purpose. I figured you looked like you wanted to rush ahead so I said that you could. As for where you wanted to sit, I was not aware if you had a specific place you wanted to sit." Roxana pointed out.

She didn't meant for it to come out like Demi was a kid or anything like that, just with her being particular about what car they were in she didn't know if that also carried over into what seat she sat in. Once Demi was situated, she pulled the car out of the parking spot, pulling forward and driving towards town. Driving cars was so easy, nothing compared to driving big vehicles or in countries that didn't even have stop lights. "Why would we want such a flashy way to get around? Remember we are trying to blend in with the humans." Roxana said, fine with talking and driving.

[Demi Smith]

Did Demi trust or like people? Maybe a bit, if begrudgingly, in her own way. There were people here that Demi could certainly tolerate a bit better than others, that much was certain. Though it wasn't something that had been asked, so it was just something that would be between them. Just like the glares and everything else.

Boy, did Rox end up doing a lot of apologizing around Demi. That actually made her feel better: it meant that she was making Rox feel guilty. Her expression turned decidedly more smug as she settled in, getting herself arranged in the seat. They were moving now, and Demi was both a little relieved and a little disappointed that they weren't listening to any music. She'd grown to love the really loud stuff; it made her feel like she wasn't the only angry person in the world.

"See, that's the thing," Demi said, looking back, "Why do we have to keep pretending we're the same as them? We're all better. They can't make crystals or fling rocks with their mind. We're, like, objectively better than they are. It's so dumb."

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana didn't completely feel guilty, part of her did but most of it was that she didn't want to have Demi getting upset at every little thing she said. She was taking Demi down into town for part of a test to see if Demi could keep her power in check around normal people. That meant that Demi had to keep her emotions in check and not get upset and get ready to fling dirt around whenever she got upset. So Roxana had to at least make sure that she was not the cause of Demi getting upset just because she didn't understand Demi's beliefs or well any of The Inherited’s beliefs.

Rox glanced over in Demi's direction as the younger girl spoke up about not seeing the point in having to pretend that they were the same. She could not disagree with Demi that they were better than the normal human beings but at the same time there was a lot more to it than just being better than them. "The main reason is so those who are not mutants; which is most of the human population, don't ban together to wipe us all out. People fear what they don't understand and fear tends to lead to violence." Roxana explained as she pulled to a stop at the light and waited for it to turn green before proceeding.

"There are not a lot of mutants when you compare it to the whole population of the world. Yes, we might have abilities that could allow us to get rid of those who don't have abilities easily, but they could just as easily wipe all of us out. Research has proven that it is in the DNA, so just think what happens if they killed off every last mutant?" Roxana asked, trying to put it into prospective for Demi. She was not sure if she was explaining it the right way since she figured that it was just something people were smart enough to figure out; especially with how the shooting that occurred at BA because of SPECTRE.

[Demi Smith]

Demi rolled her eyes. "People always say that. But, like, you just get a few of us who are bulletproof and stuff. They used to worship us. We're better than them," Demi didn't understand how people weren't getting that part of it. They were. They just were. They could do stuff that other people couldn't. So why weren't they in charge? Why weren't they the ones making rules and doing whatever?

Just because there weren't that many? Demi snorted that time. She slouched down slightly, rubbing her arms, feeling naked without the dirt that usually covered her. At least she'd picked up a few bits of dust and stuff, ambient bits that were hovering in the car and the garage.

"Some mutants come from families without any sign of it," Demi said. She frowned, her brow crinkling as she tried to remember old lessons. "The Divine Will sometimes picks people who aren't of Inheriting families to prove something." She wrinkled her nose. "Or something. I don't know. It's all just stupid."

[Roxana Strix]

“It’s not just that simple.” Roxana responded back to Demi’s words on how they could just defeat them and be worshiped by those without powers. “They could still defeat us with numbers alone or perhaps technology. They could even know how to combat some of our weakness.” Roxana went on to add, still mostly paying attention to the driving but she could do both. Yes, it was possible for them to beat the humans but at the same time there were a lot of ways they could lose to them. Rox understood that there would be a time when everyone in the world would know of mutants but when that happened a lot of things were going to change.

Not that she was worried about herself when that day would come, because she worked for SIGUARD and they had both mutants and humans working for them. The vast majority of the group was actually humans who did use technology and their knowledge on mutants to keep even their more rebellious mutants in line. Just as they did with Roxana; they used a mutant with an ability that went against hers and well it was very effective to say the least. “Did your people teach you about Hitler yet? Or are you at that stage in your education now?” Roxana asked, figuring that could be something she could compare to what bad came from viewing one race as superior over another.

“Maybe perhaps your people have misunderstood what The Divine Will wants from you all?” Roxana posed the question as she glanced over to Demi. “Having a mutant appear in a family with non-mutants could be its way of showing you all that we are still the same on some levels to the non-mutants.” Roxana suggested it, but she didn’t go any further with it. She was already preparing for the possible anger that was going to come for Demi but she merely said it to get the girl thinking. Those who had started this belief had to be one some kind of power trip with bad experiences with non-mutants.

[Demi Smith]

Demi rolled her eyes. She'd heard all this sort of thing before, how the humans could overwhelm them with numbers. Numbers didn't matter when mutants were so much better. That had been shown time and time again: the people who were strong and had the skills beat the ones who didn't. That simple. Demi didn't even want to bother arguing it with someone like Rox, who'd proven that she wasn't going to listen no matter what Demi said.

"I know about Hitler," Demi replied, not sure what that had to do with anything. Her people hadn't taught her about that: it had been part of her learning after the fact. "The history channel really likes to talk about him,' she pointed out. That had also been part of her training, before coming here. And part of what she did on her own. Demi didn't like not knowing as much as everyone else, though she hated attempting to figure it out even more.

Ugh, more talk from Rox. Demi snorted and turned. she propped an arm up and leaned on it, staring out the window. "You sound like the idiots back home," she said, almost talking to the window. "That doesn't make any sense to me. We're just better. It's that simple," she leaned forward, feeling the glass press against her skin, wishing that everyone would just stop making this so hard for her.

[Roxana Strix]

"Then you should know the...danger that comes with thinking of one race or...branch of the human kind is better than another." Roxana pointed out. Demi said she knew of Hitler then she should have known or at least started to learn about what he wanted for the Master Race and what he did to those that were 'lesser' then the rest. The way Demi talked about what they should do with the non-mutants sort of reminded her of Hitler. Him and the Egyptians, in fact that was a lot of history one could pull from over the years that showed what happened when someone viewed themselves higher the rest of the people around them.

Roxana was not going to tell Demi she was wrong for the way she was thinking, it was not her fault that she was raised thinking one way. Rox just hoped that with time Demi's eyes opened a little more past what she had been raised to think. It was always important that a person developed their own sense of morality of what was right and wrong. Even Roxana had it, even if it did make her job a little difficult. Part of her wished she could just be a mindless being who followed her orders without hesitation but then another part knew that if that was the case then she would be less than human.

Demi seemed down with the matter so Roxana dropped it and focused on finding them parking once they arrived at the mall after a bit of a drive. "I'm sure you will get it someday. You are still young." Rox said as she pulled into a parking spot, parking the car, and then turning it off. She sat there for a moment, looking over to Demi for a moment. She felt like she should say something but she didn't know the right way to put it the moment. "Ready?" Roxana asked, mainly just wanting to make sure that Demi was not going to use her power in public before they would get out of the car.

[Demi Smith]

Demi just snorted again as Roxana insisted that Hitler was proof of the danger of thinking a race was better than the others. She had learned about him, sure, and she'd learned that he'd been wrong about who was the better race. It clearly didn't matter what your hair color was or anything; it mattered what you could do. Plus, even Demi didn't want to, like, round up all the non-mutants and kill them or anything. Yeah, they were stupid and all, but that didn't mean they should be murdering them or doing anything that harsh.

So instead Demi just sat and waited, barely giving Roxana any more attention, certainly not commenting any further. She kept her attention on outside the car, noticing that they'd pulled into something like a mall. Demi sat up then, leaning forward and looking up.

Demi had never been to a mall before.

She looked over at Roxana at the question, nodded, and then turned, unbuckling and getting her door open, ready to pop out and start heading in, to see what this mall thing was really like.