[Gen's spine very visibly stiffens throughout Mike's rant, her back rigid and her shoulders squared but not for a fight - she's bracing herself against the onslaught, which means some of it is clearly getting through.

Her parents were shitty, there's no denying that, but not so much in the "harsh disciplinarian" direction. Rather, they hardly seemed to care that she existed beyond going through the bare minimum steps to keep her alive (and even those quickly waned once she could get around on her own two feet and reach something to shove in her mouth for sustenance). She's very used to her antics being ignored until there's a possibility that they could harm others, at which point the hammer comes down and she's reprimanded for daring to break her invisibility. It's almost like no one cares unless she's fucking up as big as possible.

And that really would make her a walking teen stereotype... if she hadn't been left homeless before she was even technically a teenager.]

I've been fighting for my life. [Quiet and tense, very defensive, but not outright angry.] Maybe I've gotten used to some bad shit along the way and I don't know how to let it go, but I never got many other options.

[At this point it feels like her options are to wear her identity with pride or to apologize for herself, and the latter is just too weak. There's no way. Still, she can't deny that staying with Mike has been way better than Xavier's in a lot of ways, and he's not trying to force her into some great moral shift or anything. He's just telling her to cut the shit.]

I'll try, alright?