Hrm. I'm curious.
Feb. 5th, 2004 10:31 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_journalSo.
Who promised you the world on a platter while you were here, that's what I want to know. Who promised you the rose garden and the happy ever after with lace and sugar and a ribbon on top without oh, I don't know... you not having to actually work for it at all? Which "they" walked up to you and said you had to trust them and they expected it from you? Mmm? Hell, I haven't even told Miles anything of the sort.
So some of you keep saying "they" lied to you. Some keep saying "they" as though it were some sort of curse word, but fact is, I don't know anyone called "They" here. And some of you keep acting as though you're being kept in jail.
I'm wondering here. Who?
Who promised you the world on a platter while you were here, that's what I want to know. Who promised you the rose garden and the happy ever after with lace and sugar and a ribbon on top without oh, I don't know... you not having to actually work for it at all? Which "they" walked up to you and said you had to trust them and they expected it from you? Mmm? Hell, I haven't even told Miles anything of the sort.
So some of you keep saying "they" lied to you. Some keep saying "they" as though it were some sort of curse word, but fact is, I don't know anyone called "They" here. And some of you keep acting as though you're being kept in jail.
I'm wondering here. Who?
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Re: A suggestion.
Date: 2004-02-06 05:10 am (UTC)Put up or shut up.
Fact Is, Chere
Date: 2004-02-06 06:17 am (UTC)Remy did not come here to join a war. Said that the first day, been saying that ever since. I think I've got a right to know if there are going to be soldiers coming in on a daily basis, and what people are doing about it. I also think I've got a right to know when someone is actively trying to kill us, without having to interrogate it out of a femme no older then me.
You don't want to say what's happening? You don't think we need to know what is being decided to make sure Remy don't have to trip over some femme with her face smashed in and a gun to her head in the middle of the night, you tell me right now, and I'll happily take the next bus into the city.
Hell, least that Kraut was an honest madman in front of Remy.
Here's another fact...
Date: 2004-02-06 06:39 am (UTC)And this is a place where mutants come to learn about their powers. Pro-active works too. We can't stuff "wanting to learn" and "getting up and doing so" down everyone's throat. Heck, if we tried, they'd just dig down and refuse to do so. :p
Did you ever think of the oh so very slim possibility that we don't know this kind of stuff in advance? It's not exactly a "oh, we're having tea on Sunday, bring the guns over and take a few potshots at us why not, let's have fun" scenario here.
Omnipotence hasn't been reached yet by any mutant in the house, sorry.
It's a place to live in. It's a place to learn about what you can do, as much and as well as we can manage it. Because we don't know it all. We can't anticipate it all. We can just work at it. Hard. Every day. We can increase our security precautions. We can try and look harder to anticipate things like the attacks, and try to prevent them in the future. But in the end, like it or not, we're only human.
Kind of like everyone else does in the rest of the world, huh?
It's not exactly a rose garden but...
Date: 2004-02-06 06:55 am (UTC)When I enrolled, this was a place that the world didn't know about. Most of our parents knew what we were. Some of them didn't. This was a school. It was a school with a slightly odd curiculum, yes but hey, we're "gifted youngsters" so that's to be expected. We were learning to control powers that would have been dangerous without it.
Now everyone knows who we are. We did a big flashy news story and being mutants, we make for great press. So does that make it harder for us? Yeah. Does it make it so hard that we're better off alone in a world that still doesn't like us and might never? I don't think so which is why I'm still around.
Can we make things better around here? Probably. Most systems can use improvement. We've got lots of new people with new talents here. If they would like to see this place be safer, let them volunteer. We don't need more people able to kill. We need more people able to protect. They're not the same thing.
Re: Here's another fact...
Date: 2004-02-06 06:58 am (UTC)Got Mafia and Yakuza attacking people who live here? How come it took an effort to have to find that out after things had happened? Slip your mind that we all might be marked for death? How about mentioning that the US Army once came through the doors and tried to capture everyone? Guess that make the pitch from that Psylocke a little less appealing. How about telling us what you're planning to do to make this place safe, rather then asking us to just trust that you're working on it? You proved twice that you can't handle that job. Got an explanation why the third time will be any different?
There are a lot of places and pretty femmes that Remy not experienced yet. I don't like the idea of dying before that happens. I really don't like the idea of dying because the people who asked me to come here decided they don't want to be honest with me about what's really going on.
More and more, Remy get the feeling that I got asked to come here cause if someone attacks while I'm sleeping upstairs, that you got another soldier to fight in the shoot out. Nobody's said anything to me yet to make me doubt that. If you got an honest answer for that, chere, maybe you come find and tell me.
Re: A suggestion.
Date: 2004-02-06 06:59 am (UTC)Hello much? Last I checked, no guards in the hallway with stun guns, no bars on the windows to keep them from going out, no tags around their next to be able to trace their every movement. No being kept in a cage and fed grubs either, no being beaten up. Very freakingly expensive inducers being lent out whenever they're asked for, for those who want to go out and need to hide their mutations or can't be seen out and about for other reasons.
To hear them go on, this is the worst place in the world.
Hel-fucking-lo much
Oh yeah, I'm a bitter old hag. :p
no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 10:44 am (UTC)I don't expect things to be easy. They haven't been yet, an I don't expect them to change. But I was told that this was a better place than the streets, an I believed Romany an Pete an the X geezer when they told me that. An I don't see this place as a prison - if I did you wouldn't see the dust for me leaving. I'm willing to give this place a shot, since its willing to give me a shot. But its hard to live the normal life I'm expected, of classes an homework an all the rest of it, when I don't know whose coming after us next. I wasn't told by anyone that there had been previous raids, that there was a possibility of others, an that there were people here with connections to groups that might have a problem with those people being here. This is stuff I need to know, at least so I have a hiding place scoped out next time armed bastards come through the wide-open front door. Which I've done, by the way.
I'm working to learn how to protect meself. I'm working at getting better at me schoolwork so I can do something other than stand on street corners offering meself for a tenner. I'm working at learning to control me magic, an me mutation. I'm working to learn how to trust people, when I've never had cause to before. I'm not expecting any of it to come easy, believe me. This ain't a jail - bed's are more comfy, for a start. An if you want me gone, I'm gone. But don't sit there an say I expect everything on a silver platter, because I'm working harder than I ever have because Pete seems to think this place can do something for me, an him I trust. Least until I find out he's forgotten any more secret memos. *grins*
In return, all I expect is to be able to walk down the fucking hall without some bastard leaping out at me an deciding I'd look better with a major gunshot wound to the head. Not entirely unreasonable, I'd say.
Well, actually...
Date: 2004-02-06 01:55 pm (UTC)~translated from the Castillian~
Ms Frost said that to me. And I believed her, and am thus alive to talk about it now.
And I know all about trust. It's a nice sparkly golden color - when it's honest. When it isn't, it's still yellow, but a duller, flatter shade.
I cannot explain it properly. I can sense when people lie to me. Everyone lies, so I've become quite accustomed to it. I lie, you lie, everyone lies.
The trick is knowing what lies are sincere, and which are not.
~translated from the Castillian~
MdlR
no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 02:07 pm (UTC)The students will calm down, I'm sure of it. I'm kind of counting on this being part of a natural process that will settle out. Dr Samson will probably help a lot with that, too.
Re: Here's another fact...
Date: 2004-02-06 02:17 pm (UTC)You know, all it took me was scrolling back four to six pages on the main journal (which everyone can read by the way) to dig up these.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/25179.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/22974.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/17282.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/36321.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/19387.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/29141.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/x_cyclops/3509.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/27136.html
http://www.livejournal.com/community/x_journal/2003/05/ (Look at the 14th, mmm?)
Not quite in order, but nonetheless… It's ALL. THERE. Anyone even bothering to sit down for five minutes to look will see it. Nothing is hidden. No one is going around saying "Us? Attacked? Why never, must be your imagination." I don't see any lying or concealing or "don't talk to me and heaven forbid you ask me what's going on" posts here. Why no, I see communication, resumes of events and updates to what's going on. Even concern and the desire to help. For everyone.
Oh yes. By the way? It's not like only staff were aware of the first attacks. Every single student here at the time was fully aware of them too. So, that would be every single person in the house at the time. All of it discussed openly in journals. I don't see any one of us setting out to conceal information from anyone. Or lie, as both staff and students, in effect, have been accused of doing.
You want to know even more? Ask. That's how communicating start, and while a lot of the communicating here seems to be one way paranoia and fear-inducing ranting, anyone actually wanting to talk can come and find me. Or Pete and Jake. Or anyone else on staff for that matter. Means getting up on your feet and actually doing the work, but you know what Remy? I don't know about some of the others, but for some reason, you don't strike me as the "sit on his ass and wait for things to come to him" type.
Am I wrong?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 02:31 pm (UTC)See my answer to Remy about the previous raids. We're not hiding anything. No one is lying to anyone about what happened. And no, we don't go telling everyone who walks off from the street (whether they lived there or not, oi) that we invaded by the US Army. We don't keep posters up on the walls informing every passer-by of this. Might be part of the healing process for those who were in the first attack, on a really random thought, mmm? But - as mentioned before... This isn't just staff. Every person in this house at the time is aware of what happened. You want to start throwing about accusations of lies and witholding of information, make sure that's what people are doing first? Because otherwise, you're heading for the extremely insulting towards people who have lived earlier events zone.
No one wants anyone gone. Well, I don't want anyone gone - better to speak for myself here. However, constantly lashing out and attacking people for things they can't control or predict isn't going to get you anywhere either. Treating people who are trying and genuinely want to help you like the ennemy sure ain't going to help either. Might wear them down eventually though. Which would suck donkey balls though a big bendy straw. (Who, I ask, said this near Miles??!) And common sense - if you're here because you're in trouble, how far a reach is it to consider that you might not be the only one? Just think about it.
Wanting to be safe? Not unreasonnable. The same those who walk down the street everyday expecting not to be mugged, run over by a car, or have a building fall on them expects this as well. No one expect being shot at by someone off in the distance with a high powered sniper rifle either. Look at the news. On varying levels, life happens to everyone every day. People get into car accidents. People get murdered in the safety of their homes. People get mugged.
Wanting to be safe is normal.
Not being safe and life throwing stuff at you regardless of what you want?
Yeah, normal too. Methinks you'd know all about that one, actually. *wry*
So, how we deal with this and how we regroup from it and how we make sure it doesn't happen again?
Well, that's up to each and every single one of us. Attitude in the doing, will be telling. Very much so.
May I suggest you simply post to the
Because if no one starts asking and initiating talk that's not about telling everyone here how much they suck, it's hard to just sit there and spew the entire contents of our lives and schedules, just in the off chance that someone might want to know something about it. It's already been said, several times by several people, that if you ask about something, we will try out best to answer. With what we know.
But if you don't ask, we can't answer. Can we.
So. Sounds fair?
Re: Well, actually...
Date: 2004-02-06 02:35 pm (UTC)Indeed it is. Come find me when you've time. I'd like to talk to you. :)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 03:04 pm (UTC)*wry*
Yeah, but for how long will they calm down? That's what's getting to me. Being treated like the ennemy all the time gets so damn exhausting - even if there's a lack of realisation at the effect of actions and words on their parts.
Dr Samsom. You know, might not be a bad idea for me to have a few chats with him, at this point.
*shakes head*
I'm tired of this fighting on every front.
Re: It's not exactly a rose garden but...
Date: 2004-02-06 03:11 pm (UTC)You said something very important there Lorna. Thank you for reminding me.
Yes. This is a school.
Food for thought, that.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 03:19 pm (UTC)With as many of them who've bragged about being tough because the big bad world's picked on them, and the shit they've gone through, and how they're such badasses because they're not scared of anything - I'm wondering how many of them would rather be back where they came from instead of appreciating the gift they're being given here.
An education (such as it is) when regular schools would kick them out.
A place to sleep when their own family would look at them with suspicion and fear.
Somewhere to be with people who they should be able to relate to, when the rest of the world's going to look at them like a freak.
I've heard more than one kid say "Out there, this wouldn't have happened." Right. Because out there, they'd be dead. Plain and simple.
The Professor opened up his HOME to these kids, and all I'm hearing from a good number of them is how he's not doing a good enough job. You look a gift horse in the mouth too many times, he's eventually bound to buck you over that fence right back into the "real world".
Re: Well, actually...
Date: 2004-02-06 03:41 pm (UTC)Heh. Y'know, between Manuel and myself, we'd probably make a pretty effective lie-detector. Who needs a polygraph? :)
Re: Here's another fact...
Date: 2004-02-06 03:48 pm (UTC)And that was available to me before I walked in the door and likely ended up on every database and hit list you people got monitoring you?
Fact is that the responsibility is on you to make these things known. You're the staff, after all. Saying 'figure it out for yourself' is an excuse. The honest thing to do would be to advise those who you want to bring in of the risks before they end up caught up on what you got going.
But hey, guess that not how things go here. Remy's own fault for not leaving the first time he was lied to, I guess. Don't worry yourself no more, chere. This the last you hear from Remy about it.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 03:50 pm (UTC)I can't speak to all that. My guardian does know I'm here. I could go back home -- I think -- though since I don't know what to do on my own and home is in Scotland, I would be in trouble if I were just thrown out, but I don't think the professor would quite do that. "Mutant" was a relief compared to "werewolf"; they'd let me out of the cage before Reverend Craig decided to send me off here. I stopped in during the visit to Muir, and 'twas a little uncomfortable, but not so bad. When I found out about the U.S. Army attacking a little before I arrived, I did think about asking to.
Likely I was mostly homesick then. I haven't asked yet. Maybe I ought to, if I'm just being troublesome here.
But Ms. Blaire, yes, you've pointed to all those journal entries about attacks. No, we maybe don't spend a lot of time talking about them now. It still does come as a shock to find out that sort of thing after getting here. It did to me, and that was before there'd been a second one -- much less a second one in the school, when I found out what a man's breaking bone felt like between my teeth. (I know. I know. So many of the rest of you have killed, and you'll only think me a silly child about that. But it was memorable, anyway.) You can't read the journal systems without finding out about them first, and for most people that's after they get here. Nor's it quite something everybody necessarily thinks to do.
The professor's been very kind. So have quite a lot of the other people here. I know that some didn't have other places they could go, even though I can't say I know what it's like.
It still seems to me 'twould be right to mention some of the kind of things that've happened before someone comes here.
But I know what I think doesn't really matter.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 03:59 pm (UTC)There are a lot of hard facts that you kids are going to have to come to terms with, and one of them's that there isn't anywhere that's going to be "safe". Not unless you go underground, hide, and pretend you're not what you are.
Here at least, there's other folks in the same boat as you. That's got to be worth something.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 03:59 pm (UTC)Some people were told that this place was safe. I can understand why they are upset. We got attacked by people with guns. More than once. I do not know if I feel safe here all the time.
It is better than not having anywhere I can go to get someone to help me with my powers.
I do not understand why anyone thinks guns are a good idea, but that is a matter for the teachers, not me.
One person complaining about having to ask permission to use an image inducer, and a few people deciding to learn to fight is not being treated like an enemy though. It is certainly not fair to act like all of us are treating you that way and say things like "Being treated like the ennemy all the time" and I'm tired of this fighting on every front.
Is Doug treating you like an enemy? Are you fighting this with Miles? Did Rahne demand that you keep her safe at all times?
I think not.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 04:03 pm (UTC)*dies*
Date: 2004-02-06 04:11 pm (UTC)I think talking about if we are not safe or if we are safe is good. It does not hurt anyone to talk.
I will be honest, I do not feel safe. I had a gun at my head and then someone's brains in my hair. I do what I can, because I have a power that might let me help. I saw that attack a month before it happened.
But I am fifteen. I still have to look to adults, and people who know more than me to make me feel safe. If talking helps make us safer, then talk. I feel better knowing someone is pointing out that we could improve security to keep people out. I saw one offer. No, two, but the other was yelled at for being paranoid and stupid.
I will not stop talking because I am not an adult. If I see something, I will say so. To anyone and everyone until I get an answer.
Re: *dies*
Date: 2004-02-06 04:15 pm (UTC)There ain't a thing wrong with speaking your mind. The problem's with those who think they know better, and start going against the grain and screwing it up for everyone.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 04:18 pm (UTC)I tried that. It didn't work.
Re: *dies*
Date: 2004-02-06 04:20 pm (UTC)Maybe my English is worse than I thought, but safe to me means not having guns to your head!
I see a lot of things. Dr. MacTaggart knows almost all of it, because she has a copy of every drawing, every dream I write down. I do not think if I asked people directly about something I saw that they would be entirely honest with me, not when they are not honest with Professor Xavier, or any of the other adults.