So . . . huh.

[x_multipleman]

I actually finished backreading this system yesterday, but it took me a while to figure out if I had anything to say about it.

I mean, it's not every day you find out that the place your parents sent you so you'd be safe had just been attacked the week before by the U.S. government.

But, I mean . . . now that I know that, it does answer a lot of questions, like, why people have been so edgy, and--

Damn, though, if I hadn't backread like that I dunno if I would've known much was wrong, I mean, I thought you guys were just sort of quiet, and maybe having some trouble with your powers. A week ago today you guys were hiding out, or captured, or on the run, and . . . now you're going to class and planning barbecues. I don't want to say it's like nothing ever happened, because I can see that stuff happened.

But I guess what I want to say is, I think I'd still be a complete wreck if I'd been here last week. And you guys aren't, and I really admire that.

And if there's anything I can do to help, I don't know what, but if you guys think of anything I can do, there's pretty much always a spare me around to do it.

I think I still have a lot of thinking to do about this stuff, so this may not make a lot of sense. But I just thought I should say something.

Comments

[x_multipleman]

x_cannonball
May 22 2003, 17:28:27 UTC
Hey, we're resilient. That's part of what being here's all about. That's part of what being what we are's all about.

And I'm pretty sure not everyone's taking it as well as ya think. They just don't show it. I worry for them, 'cause. I dunno. I'm kinda not prone to being depressed and stuff, and when other people are, I want to help 'em. But they don't usually WANT help, or to talk to me about whatever, and...

I'm rambling in your journal. Sure you don't care. Sorry. ;)


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 20:03:12 UTC
Nah, I don't mind rambling. I'm feeling kinda rambly myself.

And if you want help, uh, with the helping, hey, us farmboys from K-states gotta stick together. :)

For one thing, I'm gonna pull out all the stops on the grill this weekend. Man, no wonder everybody jumped so hard for the barbecue. Well, any reason to show off my no-look inter-dupe burger flip. ;)


x_cannonball
May 23 2003, 19:45:31 UTC
us farmboys from K-states gotta stick together

I seem to remember hearing that somewhere before...;)

And man, I hear ya with the grilling thing. :) I'll do a few Rocket Burgers, a la the Human Cannonball, just for fun. Yeeha!

[x_multipleman]

x_beast
May 22 2003, 17:34:49 UTC
I think you'll find that your classmates are what one might call 'survivors,' and against all odds, they do a tremendous job of it. You're right to be impressed.

The problem with a traumatic event like that, something so horrible and over so quickly, is that it's something akin to if a person in a thick crowd were to punch you in the nose, then promptly disappear. You're left with the dilemma that there's nothing to be done immediately in the way of retaliation, you don't know if it might happen again, your nose stings like mad, and the crowd around you is insisting that you keep walking. So, first and foremost, you keep walking.

We're doing our best to make this place as safe as we possibly can for all of you. That is, in fact, our number one priority. Obviously, a week ago, we were unprepared; now, forewarned is forearmed. I can only pray that we will not be unprepared ever again.

If you'd like to talk, you can come find me later. Any one of you, in fact.


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 20:13:26 UTC
Guess I know why Mr. Summers recommended I sign up for that self-defense class.

Thanks, Dr. McCoy. I may just take you up on that. Still got a couple things I'm confused about.

[x_multipleman]

x_piotr
May 22 2003, 17:41:40 UTC
I agree with what Sam and Hank said.. what I did understand.. and I think not everybody writes everything in the journals. But what is wonderful about being here is that we are all friends and like family so there is always someone to talk to or hug.


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 17:50:10 UTC
we are all friends and like family so there is always someone to talk to or hug.

Just kill me now.


x_piotr
May 22 2003, 17:54:32 UTC
Well.. I like you Jono. :)


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 18:11:18 UTC
I have an idea. Do that metal thing of yours and stick your hand into my chest.


x_rogue
May 22 2003, 18:22:04 UTC
You know, we get the point. You're unhappy. You don't like it here. You don't like us.

It's not that we don't get the point, it's just that we've seen meaner, uglier, and angrier than you, kicked its ass, and sent it home. We're all fucked up and wounded here. You're not the only one. The display isn't in the least bit impressive.

No one feels sorry for you and more of us understand than you want to think. No pity. Just understanding. That's all you're going to get and if you think someone's going to run out of patience with you and kick you out, don't count on it.

Feel free to get nasty on me but leave people who really are nice well enough alone.


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 18:45:14 UTC
I don't see a glowing hole in your chest.

Do you know what's it like to not breathe and not eat and not know if there's anything left inside you when this gargantuan bolt of energy leaps out of your chest and hurts the people you love. So just piss off.


x_piotr
May 22 2003, 18:59:10 UTC
Not all of our powers are all good with no bad.

Rogue has her own problems so do not talk to her like this.


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 19:04:23 UTC
I was serious about wanting you to stick your hand into my chest. I can't do it myself.


x_piotr
May 22 2003, 19:06:22 UTC
Why do you want me to? What do you think it will do?


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 19:11:30 UTC
I want you to do it because you said you can't be harmed.

Where are you now.


x_piotr
May 22 2003, 19:20:55 UTC
Okay...

I am in my bedroom, suite 200.


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 19:48:12 UTC
Um, Piotr . . . I think maybe you should ask Dr. McCoy or somebody about what it might do to Jono before you actually, you know, stick your hand in his chest. Even if he does already have a hole there.


x_rogue
May 22 2003, 19:53:27 UTC
Piotr, dear, I second what Jamie said. Emphatically. Could we save experimentation until there's some adult supervision?


x_rogue
May 22 2003, 19:32:44 UTC
Can't play that card with me, Jono.

I know what it's like to nearly kill the people I love. Been there, done that, watched them dying, seen how people look at me when they know what I did.

The touch of my skin steals life, soul, and power from any living thing, and then I get to keep the souls of those I touch inside me. Everything they knew and wanted and loved and hated, all their thoughts, like ghosts in my shell. I've already got a crowd in here. I've done it by accident to someone I loved. I've had it done to me by someone I hate. I've had it given to me as a gift by someone who loves me. They're all here. In me. You can't play that card with me because I'm fatal too.

I try not to let my mutation and the pain of it be my excuse for behaving badly. Maybe I've had longer to get over it than you have, so I'll give you some leeway, but no matter how shitty our lot in this life is, we still get to pick how we act. Don't use it as an excuse to treat people like crap. There's enough people out there that would like to turn the tables and use it as an excuse to treat all of us like pariahs. Don't do it for them.


x_cannonball
May 23 2003, 02:18:55 UTC
*hugs*


x_synch
May 22 2003, 19:02:36 UTC
He was just trying to be nice.


x_piotr
May 22 2003, 19:25:27 UTC
It is okay, Everett...


x_dazzler
May 22 2003, 17:56:42 UTC
*eg*

Doooooomed...

;)


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 18:16:39 UTC
Your smiley taunts me.


Re:
x_dazzler
May 22 2003, 18:22:32 UTC
Snarky thing, isn't it?

*shakes head at smiley*


x_cannonball
May 22 2003, 18:10:57 UTC
We'll kill you with kindess, man.

Kill with kindness.

;)


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 18:18:47 UTC
I suppose next you'll put on frocks and go about singing and rejoicing and being one with the earth.


x_cannonball
May 22 2003, 18:44:13 UTC
Or we'll put on aprons, sing, rejoice, and be one with the BBQ.

;)


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 18:51:39 UTC
That actually counts as the same thing.

Now your smiley is taunting me.


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 20:33:43 UTC
:) ;) :D >:=8)


x_sparky
May 22 2003, 21:11:13 UTC
:/


x_cannonball
May 23 2003, 02:17:18 UTC
Ahaha...That was the idea!

^_^

o_O

-.-

B-)

:P


x_sparky
May 23 2003, 07:19:10 UTC
=_=


x_siryn
May 23 2003, 05:10:38 UTC
Grumpy people click here.

;-)


x_sparky
May 23 2003, 07:18:25 UTC
I'm scarred for life.

[x_multipleman]

x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 20:32:53 UTC
Guess it's like one of my favorite books says, there's some things you can't share without ending up liking each other. Or turning into family, sorta the same thing.

You're a good guy, Piotr. :)


x_piotr
May 23 2003, 12:09:26 UTC
What book is it? I like to read.

Thank you Jamie so are you. :)


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 12:28:24 UTC
It's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And I bet they have a copy around here somewhere--if they don't you can borrow mine.

It's about a kid who discovers he has special powers, and then goes to a school full of other kids with special powers. They could use it for recruitment literature for here, actually. :)


x_kitten
May 23 2003, 13:59:29 UTC
It's a great book! I really can't wait for the next one to come out...

And hey, Piotr. I know it's available in Russian. I bet we could order it from amazon or some place and you could read it to Yana... I think she'd like it too...

:)


x_piotr
May 23 2003, 19:21:38 UTC
Thank you Kitty! I would like to read this in Russian and then maybe if I like it a lot I could try it in English.


Re:
x_kitten
May 24 2003, 01:05:34 UTC
Ok. Sometime this weekend we can go online and order it from amazon or someplace... I'll look into it. :)


x_piotr
May 23 2003, 19:20:38 UTC
I have never read that! I would like to.

[x_multipleman]

x_rogue
May 22 2003, 18:14:20 UTC
Thanks, Jamie. You're a real sweetheart. I think we should go to town during lunch tomorrow, if that's okay with Kitty. Let me know if it's good for you too.


x_kitten
May 22 2003, 19:24:00 UTC
I'd be all for that. :)


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 19:54:55 UTC
Hey, the cool thing about being me is, scheduling is my friend. :) Lunch is good. You'll have to gome get me and show me where the garage is, though, I don't think Piotr showed me that stop on the tour.

[x_multipleman]

x_synch
May 22 2003, 19:06:43 UTC
Some of those posts aren't really coherent, but you were right about it sounding like a war. Part of me is thinking that everyone here is a lot braver than I am. Of course, the other part of me wants to go hide in the library again. Or under my bed. Or, you know, back home in St. Louis.

Maybe they can sue or something like that? There has to be property damage at the very least.


x_rogue
May 22 2003, 19:52:33 UTC
It is scary... but if it happens here, it could happen anywhere. At least here, we learn to be strong. You know what? As much as you want to go home and hide right now, I have the utmost faith that if it happened again, you would be right in there with the rest of us. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, always.


x_synch
May 23 2003, 12:54:20 UTC
I guess you're right. Even though I think I would be hiding under a sofa or something.


x_crowdofone
May 22 2003, 20:34:28 UTC
It was probably one of those top secret plausible deniability Tom Clancy things, so I dunno if there's much to sue with.

I think I'm gonna really pay attention in that self-defense seminar even if I think I'm probably going to suck at it.


Re:
x_synch
May 23 2003, 12:53:32 UTC
See, that's why I want to be a lawyer or something. Then I could go all Tom Clancy on people like that and when they deny top-secret stuff, I can whip out evidence and go "a-HA!" Stuff like this just shouldn't happen.

I bet I'll suck more.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 13:17:59 UTC
That's cool. Wish I knew what I wanted to do.

And hey, man, you're not the one who dupes every time he gets hit, and then passes out after about eight or so. I don't think anybody's gonna suck more than me.


x_kitten
May 23 2003, 13:57:45 UTC
NEITHER OF YOU ARE GOING TO SUCK!!!


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 14:47:08 UTC
Maybe not at the end of the course, I dunno, it depends on how good a teacher the guy is. But I haven't been in a fight since I was in first grade and punched someone for stealing my lunchbox and got lectures and grounded for a week when I got home.

And my powers are really, really not going to help.

So right at first? Yeah, I'm pretty much going to suck at it. I mean, I'm sorry, Kitty, I'm going to try my best, and maybe this Logan guy'll figure out how to teach me without me duping myself unconscious, but if I'm going to learn how not to get hit, somebody eventually is going to have to take a swing at me, and until I get the hang of it there's going to be a lot of very short lessons that end with a bunch of Jamies conked out on the floor.

I mean, unless by "self-defense course" they mean "plug me into a computer, download kung-fu into my brain, and make me fight Lawrence Fishburne." Because I could handle that. :)


Re:
x_kitten
May 23 2003, 14:58:18 UTC
... *thinks*

You know... if you want to learn how to not be hit that wouldn't be so hard. I mean, I could swing at you phased, and if I go through you that's a "hit", but there'd be no kenetic energy so no dupe, right? You'd have an obvious attacker to dodge, but it wouldn't activate your powers.

And sorry, but we're not in the Matrix. At least, I *really* hope not.


Re:
x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 15:29:07 UTC
Y'know, that would probably work. Cool. Thanks. :)

And yeah, that's all I was thinking about learning. I mean, maybe the teacher'll have other ideas, but I figure if I dupe when I get hit, I'll probably dupe if I hit somebody else, too--either way a fight'd be pretty short unless I get better at handling large numbers of dupes.

I'm just geek enough to know humans make very bad batteries, so we probably aren't in the Matrix. But wouldn't that make homework a lot easier? :)


x_siryn
May 23 2003, 15:19:38 UTC
... but at first, directly after you've taken a hit, you have a huge advantage, haven't you? Maybe you just have to use that and kick ass before you pass out.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 16:27:11 UTC
I'd better be very good at one-punch knockouts and never fight groups larger than six, then.

It's a nice thought, Terry, but I'm gonna have to get a lot better with my powers before I'm much good in a fight.


x_synch
May 23 2003, 15:53:25 UTC
Wait wait wait wait. Is Logan that guy with the claws? I don't want to be taught by the guy with the claws. I might get claws too and that would be OW all over again.


Re:
x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 16:19:05 UTC
I dunno, I've never actually met him. It's just his name was down as the instructor on the signup sheet.

Huh. I think he might be, though.

Well, at least claws are useful in a fight.


Re:
x_synch
May 23 2003, 15:50:27 UTC
I might dupe if I'm close enough to you and do the strobe light thing. And I still think I'm going to suck more.

If you suck more you can drive the Faxmobile. I just have to find a Faxmobile. Maybe I can steal a golf cart and paint it.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 16:28:53 UTC
See, now you're just encouraging me to fail spectacularly. ;)

Golf carts, huh? Anywhere there's mansions like this, there's probably golf courses nearby . . .


x_synch
May 23 2003, 16:34:38 UTC
You know, there probably are golf courses around here. Which means golf carts. Completely hypothetically, if someone wanted to borrow one, I don't think it would be missed. Not for a weekend.

Not that anyone would do that, of course. It would be wrong.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 16:49:53 UTC
It would be very wrong, of course.

Speaking purely hypothetically, local golf courses would be in the phone book, complete with addresses.


Re:
x_synch
May 23 2003, 17:27:00 UTC
I think I'm going to go do a book report in the library now. I think I'm going to do it on the phone book. It gets really interesting around the letter G.

I hope you suck more than I do. Because just hypothetically, I don't know how to drive a golf cart.


Re:
x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 17:39:12 UTC
Perhaps I'll join you. After all, it's always good to get an independent perspective on things like book reports.

Hypothetically, figuring out how to drive the golf cart would be part of the fun. How hard can it be?


!!!
x_rahne
May 23 2003, 17:45:56 UTC
You two behave!


Re: !!!
x_synch
May 23 2003, 17:58:32 UTC
We are behaving. It's all theory. Borrowing a golf cart would be very very wrong.

Hypothetically, want to help?


Re: !!!
x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 18:00:38 UTC
Why, Miss Rahne, whatever do you mean?

*grin* Seriously, though, we've got at least two people around here who can read minds, I'm not gonna actually go do something that could get me in that much trouble. It's just fun to pretend.


Re:
x_synch
May 23 2003, 17:57:32 UTC
Theoretically, really hard. My little sister and I tried to drive one when we were visiting Uncle Morris at the country club, and we kind of ran over some stuff.

Okay, a lot of stuff. But we only hit that one guy a little bit, and he wasn't hurt, and Kim was aiming for his tee.

Also theoretically, it wouldn't be much fun at all if we got caught. I don't need that guy with the claws mad at me.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 18:15:12 UTC
Heh. Your sister sounds fun.

And you have a very good, completely academic point there. I may have a few more theoretical situations a bit closer to home that wouldn't be quite so much trouble, though, in a week or so.

[x_multipleman]

x_rahne
May 23 2003, 10:39:51 UTC
It really is scary to read.

I think I might have bit somebody, if I'd been here. One of the soldiers.

If I'd had the chance.

And I'm not sure I would have felt very bad about it at all.


x_crowdofone
May 23 2003, 11:48:43 UTC
Well, they would've deserved it.