A Lesson

[x_magik]

I should preface this by saying that I don't know anyone involved, I am not in any way affected by the outcome of this recent attempt at active suicide, and I think that in times of crisis most people ought to be forcibly incapacitated. Perhaps this will colour your perception of the comments that follow.

That said, the number of you who are appallingly poorly schooled in the mythical quality of "common sense" seems to grow at an exponential rate these days.

Allow me to explain: Going into a fight where you don't know the odds is a very, very stupid thing to do. Going into a fight where you don't know the odds and your backup consists of more alarmingly stupid people who live in a house with telepaths lives in the range of IQ commonly attributed to shellfish. Going into a fight when there are people who would do it for you, because they are nice philanthropists in leather (and some of them indestructible; see: my brother), is simply insane.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but what on Earth is wrong with you people? Your first reaction is to say, hey, let's go help out? You know, even for those of us who grew up fighting for our lives (and I am well aware the number includes more than just me), it's a bit like saying, "Well, I survived hell, but I think I'll give it another go just to see what happens."

In a display that shocked me almost beyond human comprehension, Clarice seems to have maintained the coolest head of all in this little predicament. My world is quite out of order. My world has fallen back into place. See below.

Comments

That's just a bit unfair.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Some of us kept our heads quite nicely, thank you very much!

Well...

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

I was going for the shock value, really.

Re: Well...

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Oh. Blast. I didn't meant to ruin that for you.

Re: Well...

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

I should probably practise the arcane concept of 'credit where it's due', anyway. I hear it's quite useful in daily life.

Re: Well...

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Sometimes. Dramatic effect and appropiate credit often feud.

Re: Well...

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Don't say "credit" too loudly, you'll draw the attention of the shopping goddesses. :)

Re: Well...

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

There are shopping goddesses in this dimension?

I'm really speechless.

Re: Well...

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're named Alison and Lorna. And apparently Marie-Ange.

Re: Well...

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

OOH! Shopping. Has anyone taken Yana to the mall yet?

[xp_daytripper]

Yeah, well, sometimes there are things that get in the way of self-interest. Like having a friend in trouble. And yeah, it was dumb to react that way, but nothing came of it since the X geezer put his telepathic foot down, and we're all sitting and waiting like good little girls and boys. Still, I'd rather be dumb and have emotional reactions than to be a cold bitch.

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

And I would much rather be alive and a cold bitch than a slave to my unnecessary emotions.

[xp_daytripper]

Because caring about a friend is so 'unnecesary'...

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

Not at all. Being so moved by their rampant stupidity that you react with according stupidity, on the other hand, strikes me as unnecessary.

Be careful...

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

about what is unnecessary and what is not.

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that all feelings are necessary. You might not know why, or how, but they are.

Manuel

[x-blink.livejournal.com]

while normally I'd be really please about having "maintained the coolest head"...that's not entirely accurate. I just didn't see the journal post until later and it was pointless to jump in.

Honestly? I wouldn't go help fight, I'd get killed. But I WOULD bring my medkit and anything else I thought might be good for patching people up afterwards. I'm still her friend and I'd help her the best way I can. And that's not by fighting.

If nothing else...I could get her back here to a GOOD medical place before she was hurt more...

Even so --

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

At least you have the ability to get out of the way if you're in it, and the sense to know what you can and can't do. The teleporting thing really works for you.

Re: Even so --

[x-blink.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing the point.

I'd still help my friend. period. she's my friend, and she'd do the same for me.

Re: Even so --

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

Ah. I rescind my comment on cooler heads, then.

Tell me, what happens when your "loyalty" gets somebody hurt because you are incapable of acting rationally? What happens when the 'friend' you wanted to help gets hurt, killed, or otherwise affected by your so-called "loyalty"?

That's not loyalty. It's not friendship. It's not love or anything even resembling care. It's arrogance.

Re: Even so --

[x-blink.livejournal.com]

sorry, I'm not a vulcan, I'm a mere human mutant who is a slave to their emotions.

and if someone gets hurt or worse? you grieve, you keep trying. but better to try and fail than not try at all. I'm not perfect. I don't WANT to be perfect.

you must be so scared of failure to never try.

Re: Even so --

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Clarice, I am so afraid of failure. It terrifies me. I am frozen in fear that I might fail.

Bloody elder gods, am I sitting here or not?

What none of you seem to realize is that this is not an abstract concept to me. It's not what I think. It's what I know, through a very many years of trial and error where error meant pain, humiliation, suffering, and, a good deal of the time, death. I know what loyalty is because I have lived it. I know how to fight because I have fought, and by that same virtue I know when to be emotional and when to be rational.

This isn't a game where you're a better person because you do something good-hearted but stupid. This is life, where if you are the cause of someone's death because you are too near-sighted and plainly stupid then you caused someone's death. You don't get absolved of responsibility on the virtue that you meant well, really you did. You get to live with blood on your hands and somebody who won't get to do something kind-hearted the next time you're in mortal danger, because you'll have killed them, directly or indirectly.

You don't get to forget about it because you think loyalty means always doing the same thing, and you are a very silly, very stupid little girl to think so.

Thanks

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Dude, you totally said what I was trying to say, only better.

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, 'Yana. I see the error of my ways now, and won't do it again.

Trouble is, if you'd bothered to read that far, I saw the error of my ways - and so did Amanda - well before you felt the need to write all this out. Yes, I made a few stupid comments, in the first panic, but it wore off fast and I thought better of it. You'll notice - or maybe you won't - that I didn't even try to actually go after Sarah.

Try judging me on what I did, not on what I said on first instinct.

[x-blink.livejournal.com]

none of us did, but that doesn't seem to matter to her. that we wanted to is enough to condemn us.

[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

Your first instinct is just as important as your second, third, fourth, and fifth instincts. It's not in every situation that you get to backpedal wildly, although I can see why this particular system breeds that particular attitude.

[x-rahne.livejournal.com]

I'll take having people want to do something on the first instant and then think better of it over having them do incomprehensibly stupid things long-term with reasoning they insist makes perfect sense, myself.