Ryder watched the kids use their powers to toss the ball around, momentarily zoning out to look around at everything else. These kids were just playing without a care in the world out here, and it felt almost weird to witness. No one was looking over their shoulders, staring holes through the back of someone else’s heads, or looking suspicious in the corner of her vision. 

It was not the sort of environment she was accustomed to.

So maybe that was why she didn’t appreciate Jean walking up to her and apologizing. And the first thing she jumped to after that was Umbra. Umbra this, Umbra that. 

Jean saw the hole she lived in, the glorified prison cell that was her entire existence.

The mere [i]mention[/i] of that dig into her like toothpicks under her fingernails.

[color=00ffff]”Of course I didn’t [i]invite you in.[/i] Why in the hell would I do something like that? You’re lucky I didn’t put you in a catatonic state after that. Or for picking at me like a thresh corpse for the last three weeks.”[/color] Venom, vitriol and everything between. It was always that and nothing more with her. The first words she properly spoke to Jean, the first impression, was that Ryder was not a kind individual. 

She didn’t care if the other kids were looking at her funny for that. If they were intimidated, [i]good.[/i] If not, oh well.

[color=00ffff]”You seem pretty shortsighted for someone who’s supposed to be some sort of scientist.”[/color]