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theatrical_muse] 334 - Vote
May. 12th, 2010 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoicslim334 - Vote
I find myself thinking about that meeting a lot these days.
There really is no more important decision to be made than determining what's to be done with another person's life. In a lot of ways, it's a lot more difficult to pass judgment on the existence of one other person than it is to send a hundred soldiers into battle or to decide policies that can affect the health or livelihood of thousands. When it's one person, it might be someone you'll have to look right in the eyes as you tell them you've made the decision whether or not they get to keep on living.
And yes, it's a different situation when you're facing a kill-or-be-killed decision. In the middle of a fight for your life, snap decisions are the only kind you can afford to make. Human nature is to choose continuance, to choose existence. It's hard to blame a person for making that choice.
Sitting in a meeting room at the top of Stark Towers, we were faced with all those kinds of decisions, rolled into one.
The facts were as devastatingly simple as I'd ever heard. Wanda Maximoff, daughter of the man I grew up knowing as Magneto, reality-bending mutant and long-standing Avenger, had become so mentally unstable that she had caused the death of three of her teammates and the dissolution of that incarnation of the Avengers. Wanda was still at large, still unstable and possibly a clear and present danger on a frightening scale.
Gathered in the room were the people most eligible to speak on the question: a large representation of Wanda's Avenger teammates, both past and present, as well as a contingent from the X-Men. We were there, ostensibly, to speak on behalf of the entire mutant community.
There were voices that called out, quickly and decisively, that there was no other choice but to end Wanda's life. Her ability to reshape the fabric of reality to her will was an ability unmatched by anyone else in the room, and it was now subject to the whims of a woman who would be declared legally insane by any authority in the country. Neither Professor Xavier or Dr. Strange could say with any authority that there was a chance for Wanda to be cured or rehabilitated, and no one was certain that anything would be able to contain her.
On top of that, mutant relations with the rest of the world were strained enough at the time, and if it were to become public knowledge that a mutant had murdered Avengers, arguably the country's best-loved group of heroes, it would damage the mutant community's standing irreversibly.
Others were vehemently against the idea. Wanda was a person, not a rabid dog, argued Spider-Man. We were supposed to be above the idea that the solution to a problem was the death of a human being. We were supposed to believe that there was always, always hope that any person could be reformed.
It wasn't a surprise that most of the people standing for Wanda to live were her teammates from the Avengers, but there were the same points being raised by some of the X-Men as well. For myself, the one thing that caught me off guard was the fact that Professor Xavier was staying so silent. I couldn't believe that with his personal beliefs, he would even have allowed this conversation to happen. Even more than the incident with Danger that was still fresh in my mind, Charles' admission that he did not know what the right decision would be shook me to the core. I'm certain now that it was one of the incidents that has pushed me into standing more strongly on my own decisions.
In the end, the decision was taken out of our hands. From hiding, Wanda Maximoff reconfigured the world into something that should have been all of our dreams come true. But as pleasant as the lie was for most of us, it was still a fabrication and it was ended. With three words, Wanda decimated the mutant population of the world, removing the powers of all but a few hundred of us, setting us on the path to the situation we find ourselves in now: again a persecuted, oppressed minority, struggling to stay together and thrive in the face of fear and hatred.
I've made a lot of decisions since that meeting, made a lot of choices in the name of those few hundred remaining mutants, always hoping that I've been doing the right thing or that at least I might be doing the wrong things for the right reasons. I've chosen to secure at least the hope for a future, be almost any means necessary.
Yeah, I think about that meeting a lot these days.
(802)
OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.
I find myself thinking about that meeting a lot these days.
There really is no more important decision to be made than determining what's to be done with another person's life. In a lot of ways, it's a lot more difficult to pass judgment on the existence of one other person than it is to send a hundred soldiers into battle or to decide policies that can affect the health or livelihood of thousands. When it's one person, it might be someone you'll have to look right in the eyes as you tell them you've made the decision whether or not they get to keep on living.
And yes, it's a different situation when you're facing a kill-or-be-killed decision. In the middle of a fight for your life, snap decisions are the only kind you can afford to make. Human nature is to choose continuance, to choose existence. It's hard to blame a person for making that choice.
Sitting in a meeting room at the top of Stark Towers, we were faced with all those kinds of decisions, rolled into one.
The facts were as devastatingly simple as I'd ever heard. Wanda Maximoff, daughter of the man I grew up knowing as Magneto, reality-bending mutant and long-standing Avenger, had become so mentally unstable that she had caused the death of three of her teammates and the dissolution of that incarnation of the Avengers. Wanda was still at large, still unstable and possibly a clear and present danger on a frightening scale.
Gathered in the room were the people most eligible to speak on the question: a large representation of Wanda's Avenger teammates, both past and present, as well as a contingent from the X-Men. We were there, ostensibly, to speak on behalf of the entire mutant community.
There were voices that called out, quickly and decisively, that there was no other choice but to end Wanda's life. Her ability to reshape the fabric of reality to her will was an ability unmatched by anyone else in the room, and it was now subject to the whims of a woman who would be declared legally insane by any authority in the country. Neither Professor Xavier or Dr. Strange could say with any authority that there was a chance for Wanda to be cured or rehabilitated, and no one was certain that anything would be able to contain her.
On top of that, mutant relations with the rest of the world were strained enough at the time, and if it were to become public knowledge that a mutant had murdered Avengers, arguably the country's best-loved group of heroes, it would damage the mutant community's standing irreversibly.
Others were vehemently against the idea. Wanda was a person, not a rabid dog, argued Spider-Man. We were supposed to be above the idea that the solution to a problem was the death of a human being. We were supposed to believe that there was always, always hope that any person could be reformed.
It wasn't a surprise that most of the people standing for Wanda to live were her teammates from the Avengers, but there were the same points being raised by some of the X-Men as well. For myself, the one thing that caught me off guard was the fact that Professor Xavier was staying so silent. I couldn't believe that with his personal beliefs, he would even have allowed this conversation to happen. Even more than the incident with Danger that was still fresh in my mind, Charles' admission that he did not know what the right decision would be shook me to the core. I'm certain now that it was one of the incidents that has pushed me into standing more strongly on my own decisions.
In the end, the decision was taken out of our hands. From hiding, Wanda Maximoff reconfigured the world into something that should have been all of our dreams come true. But as pleasant as the lie was for most of us, it was still a fabrication and it was ended. With three words, Wanda decimated the mutant population of the world, removing the powers of all but a few hundred of us, setting us on the path to the situation we find ourselves in now: again a persecuted, oppressed minority, struggling to stay together and thrive in the face of fear and hatred.
I've made a lot of decisions since that meeting, made a lot of choices in the name of those few hundred remaining mutants, always hoping that I've been doing the right thing or that at least I might be doing the wrong things for the right reasons. I've chosen to secure at least the hope for a future, be almost any means necessary.
Yeah, I think about that meeting a lot these days.
(802)
OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:11 pm (UTC)Oh, and Tony has invited us both to the Stark Expo coming up.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:30 pm (UTC)Hmmm. Even with everything, it might not be a bad idea to look like not much is going on.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:43 pm (UTC)you're the only one who gives a damnyou love me, but I think I might need some space at times.So, you'll be my date? Even though I look horrid in all of these maternity clothes with a baby bump?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:53 pm (UTC)Of course I will, sweetheart. And I think you look gorgeous.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 08:57 pm (UTC)You're simply required to say that because you know I could have a bad mood swing at any given time.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:05 pm (UTC)So I shouldn't have your people confirm that design session with Mr. Galliano? I understand he's looking forward to it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:09 pm (UTC)Oh, now you're spoiling me. Very well. I'll need something to wear to the Expo.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:22 pm (UTC)I figured as much. And I promise to stay well away from the appointment if you like-- I get the weirdest looks from your designer friends.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 09:55 pm (UTC)