Let me make one thing clear...

[ororo_munroe]

...since one may have forgotten this lesson and  another may need help learning it.

I will not be violated.

In mind.  In body.  I belong to myself.  My thoughts are not yours to modify or manipulate as you see fit.  Nor will you force my consent.

Try to break me, enslave me - you will fail.

All would do best to remember this.

Comments

[the_new_shaman]

You know, spare us the damn speech. Hell, that whole thing was probably harder on her than it was on you.

[ororo_munroe]

Then hopefully she will heed this warning.

[the_new_shaman]

That it's impossible to reason with one of the X-Men? Yeah, she probably figured that out by now.

[ororo_munroe]

If you find it unreasonable to demand autonomy over one's self, then your world view is quite skewed to me indeed.

[the_new_shaman]

Given that you retained your autonomy throughout the entire ordeal, then rant about being "violated", I'm hardly the one with the skewed view.

[ororo_munroe]

Then let me simplify my logic for you:

1. I never gave her permission nor encouragement to enter my mind. I would not have to a telepath whom I have never encountered before.

2. I never gave her permission to make me see Cassidy's memories of being tortured. Not only view them, but live them, no matter how brief it was. I am also now convinced that he never gave her permission to share what he has deemed absolutely private. She did this simply to advance her own opinion.

3. I asked her to stop. She did not until the feedback became too painful for her.

To summate: At some point in her reasoning -or perhaps there was a lack of it- she decide that using force was acceptable. It is not.

[the_new_shaman]

Big deal. So she made you see the world through the eyes of someone else. But there wasn't a single time that you weren't in control of your own thoughts of and feelings, and nothing was taken from you. But rather than learn from what you experienced, you stand there and you whine and moan.

[ororo_munroe]

'Big deal'?

This... maybe this is pointless then, Grey. You have no foundation for telepathic ethics and you seem to steadfastly refuse to build one. I will ask you something though, if you care to answer.

What is power to you? What are people to you?

[the_new_shaman]

"Telepathic Ethics"? What would you even know about that, that Chuckie hasn't shoved into your head himself? Quite frankly, I pity you, restricted and trapped in your own damn skull.

Power is something I have that other people covet. People are people, strange and wonderful creatures. What else would they be?

[ororo_munroe]

My life did not begin with Charles Xavier, ignorant boy, nor my experience with him regarding telepathy. Your pity means nothing to me, just as your power is nothing. Merely an object, a tool. Others covet it and you waste it, because rarely would you bother in earning the right to use your gift in beneficial fashion.

In the end, power is nothing. People are what matter. And all of that balances upon trust.

[the_new_shaman]

You experience means all of squat. You're not a telepath, you don't live with it day in and day out. Frankly, if jump and shudder at such a bit of telepathic contact, your miserable little mind would shatter if you were a telepath for a day.

To spend the rest of my days using my powers to fight Xavier's war for him, a war that I don't believe in, so I can make the world a world that isn't my own "safer" for our kind by locking myself in Xavier's flatscan-free fantasy camp? That's a waste of a life and a waste of power. I actually take the time to see who benefits and how. I'm not one of Chuck the moron's blindly devoted little acolytes, and I never will be. None of you X-Men have earned that kind of trust.

[ororo_munroe]

Try setting aside your arrogance a moment. No one has asked you to dedicate your life to Charles Xavier or his dream, and not all who choose to do so are blind to the faults of either. You are correct in only two things. I am not a telepath. I do not know what it is like to have to filter out everyone's thoughts constantly in order to hear your own. Also, that trust must be earned. But earned trust does not come from mere will or power, but by gained experience and knowledge. Most importantly, it requires compassion, else you are doomed to fail at maintaining any relationship with any of those you seek to help.

Do you know what it is like to have your thoughts not only perceived by strangers, but invaded upon? Do you know how it feels to have your essence locked away and still sense your body move -coming to heel like a dog- at a stranger's command? Do you understand what it is to have your mind, your body, and the priceless control you try to keep on both casually violated, because another person declares himself a fit