Why is the plane gone?

[xp_wallflower]

So, we've been delayed by about eight hours so far. I can actually see the vein throbbing in the temple of the father sitting across from us in the aisle while his kid is doing her best to not fall asleep on his shoulder.

You'd think they'd take better care of their planes so they didn't have engine problems. But I suppose that would be logical. I'm trying to decide whether it's ethical for me to give the people at the gate a break and start giving people a little 'chemical happiness' so to speak.

Comments

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Use it on Ea. He's "offered" to "break" several people for staring at my ass for too long. (Though he might try to convince you to use it on me.)

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I saw that look you gave the muscly guy who was trying to intimidate the poor gate staff into giving him an upgrade because of the delay. You're not allowed to shoot anyone for being a dick.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

This face isn't even capable of giving that look! And I don't even have any weapons on me, thank you very much. But I am going to sit here in this crap cafe and drink my cold coffee until they kick me out because they're closing. What are we supposed to do in an airport all night while everything is closed?

Eamon votes for target practice. I don't want to know what he wants to use for ammunition.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

He could try throwing small children? There's one crying here beside me. I may have given up on my moral high ground and given the little tyke a bit of a help toward sleep. The mother is looking just a little less suicidal now that her darling offspring has stopped screaming like he's had his jugular cut.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

If his jugular had been cut he'd have stopped making noise long ago, love.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Well...yes, I would suppose so. Like he'd been, what's that one when you cut into the little muscle behind the foot again? (Yeah, I know it has a scientific name but I'm tired and I want to be a girl today rather then a medical student. Nyah! )

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Hamstrung! That's the one. Like he'd been hamstrung then.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

I could have shoved Eamon over there to glare at the kid. It's a somewhat terrifying glare, too. Years of practice. But he keeps doing this hovering thing. I'm going to throw something at his head soon.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

No hitting around the head! I like my guys intelligent, so he needs to keep his braincells intact.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

So I give him one good in the bollocks instead?

He qualifies as yours now, eh?

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Not really...He's his, even if we were dating, dating. Oh God. I'm going to go hide now. Don't tell him why I'm blushing!

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

I won't tell him until you're unconscious.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

That is the Achilles' tendon, if you refer to the one behind the heel of the foot. If you cut them, it tends to stop people from being able to do such essential things as running or walking, and it takes a very very long time to heal.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

If I didn't know who you work for, I might be scared that you know these things. Is it wrong to boss people about for their own good? I'm watching someone getting rather upset at the moment and I feel like telling them to sit down and shut up and stop making it difficult for those of us who are in the same barrel.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Most of the time it does you no good and yelling at them just makes them angrier and more prone to doing something rash.

I suggest either putting them to sleep, or making them have to use the bathroom a great deal. Or both if you are feeling creative.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

I do like the idea of making the want to go to the bathroom. It's for the greater good! That makes it totally acceptable.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

You should quit putting yourself on and just admit that you enjoy making the people who make everyone else miserable go away.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. But shouldn't I feel bad about that?

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

I do not know, should you?

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Ethically speaking, yes. If I were following it to the letter of the law. I've been told recently that I should stop worrying on it and simply do what I'm designed to do. So taken from that point of view, anything I do is simply what I've evolved to do, and I shouldn't worry about it.

I think somewhere in between is a better goal. Be as honest as I can, but have fun with it.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

You are thinking about this far too much. If the person is annoying you, deal with him. As long as you break no laws and neither he, nor you, nor the people around all of you are harmed, what is the trouble?

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

You're right.

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

She's not.

Using your powers on folks to make them do what you want is only different from using a gun because they're unaware. We don't have any more right to make people do what we want than anyone else, evolution arguments or not.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

No, a gun will kill someone, Laurie's power just makes them go away and stop annoying everyone in the room. It hurts no one, and it benefits everyone.

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

I gun can kill someone and, actually, so can Laurie. It's not really a fine line between what you're suggesting (which, as you say, benefits the group, although we could argue whether or not it really hurts no one and the value of free will) and using manipulative powers to "better" any situation the controller likes in whatever fashion they chose, but the two ideas are very definitely connected. I would disagree that there is ever a point when those of us who can, with a thought, remove the free will of another human are ever "thinking about it too much".

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

Is she? Would you prefer it if there were laws against using your powers, even when they do not involve physical injury or death?

Also, would you wish for someone to do something like this to you?

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Isn't the justification you gave Laurie exactly the justification that everyone holds against Manuel for having used? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with whether or not it's "right," but I just find it interesting that Laurie's being encouraged to look at things and use her powers in a way that earned Manuel the villain's role in the mansion.

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

She is? I believe that most people who have replied on this journal do not agree with this.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Most people, maybe, but obviously someone does agree with it.

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

People having different thoughts and opinions does seem to be the way the world works, yes.

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

My point is more about having one standard. Either something that makes one person a monster makes everyone a monster or it doesn't. Just found it interesting that it would be encouraged in one person publicly when it is rather publicly discouraged in another. Obviously the people who don't agree would say so and that just makes it pretty pointless to get on the "it doesn't hurt anyone" train when those people can see you say it.

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

Again, different people will have different viewpoints on the matter. Is there actually anyone on this journal system who has both encouraged something in one person and discouraged it in another? In other words, has one specific person voiced a negative opinion of Manuel's past actions while also telling Laurie that it would be perfectly permissible for her to use her mutant abilities in the way mentioned on this journal?

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to decide whether it's ethical for me to give the people at the gate a break and start giving people a little 'chemical happiness' so to speak.

You know why I like what you're saying here, sweetie? It's that "trying to decide" bit. That's at the heart of the training we've been giving you all - teach you the arguments on both sides and the tools to make your own decisions about situations. Because there's a point where we have to have faith in each other to do, at the very least, what we ourselves think is right.

Not going to say do or don't do it. I trust you to make those decisions for yourself now.