"There's nothing wrong with you, I promise." Hey.
If there was nothing wrong with them, then why did people look at them like that? Other mutants had powers that made them strong, that made them helpful, that made them heroes. So why didn't Vale? Why were they the one who...was weird? Everyone was wearing spandex these days, everyone who was anyone was putting a costume on and hitting the streets and causing a real change in their community. So why didn't Vale?
Well, emotions were a beast. Most people, when they got upset, usually they just said things they didn't mean to say. Maybe did things they didn't mean to do. But they don't have that luxury, they don't have the luxury to hide, they can't hide. Their body won't let them. Every stressor, every sting of pain, it just pokes something that lives underneath their skin. It's something they don't know, something they have never met, but it knows what it is. It knows how it needs to protect, how it needs to defend the reckless body it lives in.
Last time they were getting chased by some dicks calling them a monster, they could only feel their heart pound in their chest until suddenly each giant stride they took got them meters away from their pursuers.
And the last time they got in a fight? The last thing they saw was blue and red scales and then they heard a scream. And who would've guessed, when they woke up in their bed and turned the TV on, their local news was reporting on the appearance of a "behemoth".
"It's not that...simple." Their fingers pried at the hem of their shirt, fiddling with the thread on the flannel. Vale seems to shrink down in their chair, eyebrows furrowed as they stared down at their hands and then back up to Erik. "If there isn't something wrong with me, why do I..."
It grips at their voice, paralyzing their sentence where it stood. "Why do I hurt people?"
