Letters Home

Few people would have suspected that Havoc had a family. Families, after all, were unusual on Manta Carlos. A huge portion of the student population was missing at least one parent, if not both, and orphans were more common than those with whole families. It was simply the nature of the island, and the way that powers worked.

Havoc was not one of those people. He still had two parents alive and well. There was no estrangement, although someone with a bit more emotional intelligence might have recognized that Havoc's parents were disappointed at how things had turned out.

Havoc had picked a table in the cafeteria near the windows, read through his own letter, and then immediately started writing, It didn't take all that long, and he'd made the choice to eat once he was done, if only to get it out of the way.

Who knew how long it took for a letter to get past the censors, and his letters were already running behind.

Havoc didn't look up from his letter as Seiken approached. Seiken was... well, he was very obvious for a wide variety of reasons. Even to someone with completely ordinary human senses, Seiken's presence was obvious if he wasn't trying to be sneaky, and even then it was relatively obvious in a crowd. People parted around him, swayed by his size, and he was awfully hard to miss even in Havoc's peripheral vision.

"Yes," Havoc said simply. "All humans have some kind-"

Havoc cut himself off mid-sentence, registering that Seiken probably meant something more along the lines of I didn't realize your family was still alive as opposed to did you spawn from thin air.

"Yes," he said anyway. "My parents live in California. I write to them every month." Every month on the month, at that.

Havoc paused for a moment, then tipped his head ever so slightly.

"Is it that surprising?"

Havoc reacted to the question with a real, genuine emotion: Confusion. His eyebrows knitted together, his face an expression of focus as he tried to process the question. Or, technically speaking, not even the question--just the meaning behind it.

"Oh," Havoc said after a moment, his expression relaxing. "Did you assume that I have limited emotions because of childhood trauma?"

Havoc was, of course, well aware that his emotions were more limited than usual. No one had ever diagnosed him, but at least a few people in his life--including his parents--had explicitly acknowledged that he had the emotional depth of a teacup. He didn't really consider it an issue--it was just how he'd always been, and he didn't know anything else. He didn't pine for proper emotions, and as far as he was concerned he was likely better off without them.

"No," Havoc clarified. "As far as anyone can tell, I was born like this. My parents are still alive--they live in California on the farm. I write to them every month."

Neither had visited Havoc on the island, but that wasn't all that surprising. They weren't quite estranged, but Havoc had even less sentimentality than he had emotions, and going all the way to Manta Carlos was quite a lot of effort.

Maybe for Christmas.

Havoc really didn't mind questions about his past. They were common enough when he'd been in the military. People liked swapping stories from their childhood, and over time Havoc had learned which stories went over well, and which didn't.

"No, I was an only child," Havoc clarified. "My parents were already quite old when they had me. They might have tried for a younger sibling, but they never came to fruition."

It was all rather to the point, but it was also entirely truthful. The subject wasn't one he was terribly interested in though, so he didn't elaborate further.

On the other hand, Seiken's next question was something he cared about. His job was, in so many ways, his life, and he was perfectly happy to talk about it.

Or at least as happy as Havoc got.

"I was a soldier in the US army. A ranger in both senses of the word, although I doubt you'd be familiar with the significance. We were light infantry that focused on special operations. Effectively, using a small, well trained force to perform operations rather than a large ground force. Surgical strikes, rather than carpet bombing. Things like personnel recovery, airfield seizure, reconnaissance... things of that nature."

Havoc was well aware that Seiken probably had no idea what an army ranger was, so he opted to clarify as much as possible.

"I am under the impression that before you came here you were some kind of... wild man?"

Havoc was not terribly tactful in the best of situations, but when dealing with something of a sensitive nature he somehow seemed to get even worse.

Seiken's focus caught Havoc's interest. Even if he wasn't very good at reading emotions, he could certainly tell when someone was focused on things. It was a good combat skill, being able to tell where people's focus was, and Havoc himself became that much more focused as Seiken did.

Somehow, whatever Seiken was going to say next was going to be important.

"No," Havoc said simply. He guessed that was the 'wrong answer', but he doubted Seiken would hold it against him. "I was unaware of the existence of non-humans until my own powers manifested. If the US army has a task force to deal with supernaturals, I was not aware of it."

Havoc was completely unphased by Seiken's history, beyond giving a brief nod. Really, the only detail that he cared about was the one that everyone else would have skipped right over, and he simply asked directly.

"The US military? Or some other countries military?" West Africa was a large range, and it was hard to say what militaries would be active there. Hai sounded Chinese when put into context with Seiken's fluency, but he wasn't aware of China having a presence there.