The X-Project

To: {HeliX}
From: Moore, Bethany
Subject: Re: Saturday

Horrified would be accurate. I'm supposed to be going to Columbia in a year or two, but the place was on fire, and the people there --

Right. Not now. Sorry. Just shaken up.

First off, I'm still in. Totally. Wild pyrokinetics couldn't keep me away. I think I'm finally making some headway with that logo thing you wanted, Jamie - I'll bring my notebook so you can riffle through 'em the next time we meet up. I'm not so good at drawing people, but typography? Way easier for me. Just tell me when and where.

As for stuff to do.. that registration stuff is insane. Definitely up for picketing or whatever, if the time comes (hoping it doesn't). Whatever we do will probably be a little more dangerous, if we do it very visually and very soon, but somebody needs to say something other than what the idiots on CNN are saying. I can ask dad about getting a few NYPD guys to keep an eye on us at whatever we do for a while - he's a cool guy, and the Captain likes him (and me), so we might be able to swing it if we give enough notice.

I'll see if I can think of anything to do. Planning's not usually my thing, but mom tells me she did a few protests back in the day, so I'll pick her brain.

I hope everybody there is okay. That would be pretty small-world-y, but with you Xavier's kids, I always worry. But, I'm sure you're all fine. Don't mind the babbling New Yorker.

-B.

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Thanks, Bethany. You rock, if I haven't said that lately.

CNN actually gives me an idea . . . sort of, maybe, at least the beginnings of one. I'd have to ask the Professor about it, but Trish Tilby likes the school, maybe she'll give us some good coverage if we can sell it as a human interest story, or something. She's a contact, or a contact of a contact, anyway, if we do end up protesting anything.

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You have, but say it again anyway. :)

Tilby did that thing on the school a while back, didn't she? She did seem pretty cool with the place.. that'd explain why. Neat.

I think it'd definitely count as a human interest story. Maybe we should set up a meeting for sometime school, get your Professor to sit in and help us figure out what to do? If he's willing, I mean. But if we do wind up calling in the big guns like Trish Tilby, we wanna say our piece well, so's it doesn't backfire on us.

(I hope I'm not the only one who hears about the registration act and has flashbacks to WWII week in History class. Jesus. I am so moving to Canada if that shit goes down, I swear.)

-B.

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See, now you're just begging, and that never looks good.

He probably would be willing to help, as long as we have a plan, so yeah, plan would be good. Once we find out if there's anything to plan for.

And no, you're not. I don't think it'd happen on a national level during this administration (let's hope McKenna gets re-elected, though . . .) but states are a whole other thing, and even if it gets overturned eventually there's a lot of damage can be done while they're fighting it out in the courts, you know? Better it never gets on the books in the first place.

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Begging can so look good, but not so much over text, granted.

There's nothing to protest right now, but people are still talking, and the majority are all voicing the same opinion. We need to get another one out there where people can hear it, right? There's gotta be something we can do - we shouldn't always have to react. (This may just be me feeling a need to do something, though - can talk about that once my head stops throbbing.)

I mean, there are women's rights activists, and gay rights activists - we need more outspoken mutant rights activists, like.. that.. guy, whose name I completely can't remember. Really cute? Canadian, or something? Yeah, him. We need more of him.

-B.

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It's just hard to be proactive when there's not that many of us, you know? And we're pretty stuck in react mode right now--I mean, this, what happened, this is what everybody's reacting to, we're just doing it in different ways.

And um . . . you wouldn't be talking about that skiier guy, Jean-Paul Beaubier, would you? Because you are killing me with the small world.

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True enough. I'm just impatient. Don't like feeling like I'm not doing anything when I know there's things that could be done, you know? Makes me fidgetty.

That's the guy! Names with that many vowels always mess me up. It's a thing. ...why am I killing you with the small world by bringing him up, Jamie?

-B.

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You're talking to the guy for whom ADD isn't just a mental illness, it's a lifestyle choice. I get fidgety if I'm not doing three things at once.

See, here's the thing. I didn't know he was that famous, because his Olympic stuff was kinda before my time and I like the Summer Games better anyway, and I didn't actually start following mutant activism until I started HeliX and I haven't done much reading about outside the US yet. So when this guy showed up with his cat who's something like the fussiest eater ever to have fur and a tail, I didn't make the connection until everybody else started going "wow."

But yeah. Apparently he's gonna be a teacher here in the fall.

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I'm just lucky I can't make more of me. Then there'd be lots of bored me's, and nobody would like that. At all.

Just call me Research Girl - when bored and getting into a new project (like, say, HeliX), I go reading. Which frustrates my dad, who is much with the "Why don't you put as much effort into studying for school, blah blah blah, algebra is too useful, blah!", though with less blah-ing. You want I should forward you some links to articles I bookmarked for one reason or another?

He is? Well, there's someone we need to drag in on that meeting, then! I'm sure we can bribe him into helping, with puppy dog eyes or cookies or something.

-B.

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To: (Jamie)
From: (Angie)

At the risk of sounding far more irate than I am, you may want to remember certain comments from earlier in the month.

If we are going to actually protest, then ...

Well, to be honest, I would rather like HeLiX to be more than you at the helm.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Here's the thing. HeliX was only supposed to be a test balloon. I didn't--I still don't--know what to expect, and I'm basically playing it by ear. I don't know if I should be flattered or what that you think it's more than that, but plain and simple, up to now it's only been an experiment, I've never thought we were actually going to do anything large-scale, or affect the world, or . . . I'm just trying to see if we can do anything.

And you know what? It hasn't been all that successful an experiment so far. I dunno if you've noticed, but aside from the people from here, who have more of a personal stake in it, and Bethany, who I like a lot but if she kicks me one more time by mistake when she and Amanda start playing footsie, and a couple other people . . . we get a lot of turnover. I have spreadsheets, and we're averaging about a 22% turnover rate overall--closer to 56% once you only start counting the non-mutants. Some of them, they find out the idea of hanging out with mutants sounds a lot cooler on paper. Some of them, their parents yank them. Some of them just plain don't get along with the people we do have as regulars.

We lost five people after Skippy, and I'm surprised it wasn't more. I don't even want to think about how many people we'll lose now.

So no, I'm not all that enthused about tossing Manuel into the mix right now. And part of that, believe it or not, is out of concern for him. He's demonstrated over and over again that he doesn't deal very well at all with chaotic emotional situations, and HeliX meetings count. Especially when you consider that some of the new people we get at every meeting are scared of mutants right at first.

I'm not gonna pretend that's my only reason. I think he's an egotistical asshole, I don't like him, and he hurt a very good friend of mine very badly, and I'm not looking forward to anything that means I'm spending more time with the guy. That said, I did say, when he asked, that I wasn't thrilled about him joining now but we could talk about it in the future, and I know he doesn't believe me but you ought to know by now that I try not to say things I don't mean. If we manage to do something, get some exposure, in the aftermath of all this, and the group expands some, and actually turns into this big activist lobby group you and Manny both seem to think it is already, then yes, I really do mean that I really will be willing to talk about him signing up.

. . . Has Doug told you, or have you ever heard of for yourself, about the idea of restricted beta testing for computer games? Because that says it right there, a lot shorter than all that stuff I just said. HeliX is still in restricted beta, and I want to make sure it works as an idea with people I can stand before I open it up to people I can't. And if that isn't good enough for you, then . . . damn if I know, maybe that's a sign I should try a different idea.

Incidentally, though? I don't hate Manuel. There are, so far, only three people in the world I can honestly say I hate. Manny doesn't even come close to making that list.

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to: (Jamie)
From: (angie)

I did say I was not in the best state of mind.

I think HeliX can do something. I think it can be important and that we could make something of it. I think it is an excellent start.

I just think that one person should not be doing everything. Not just because it makes the group vunerable to that person's bias - not even that for a -first- reason.

I think it because it limits our ability to do things if that person is ill, injured or on vacation. It forces that one person to take on more than his fair share. To try to be everything at once - and Jamie, I know you can be -everywhere- at once, but I do not think ...

I just had a very, very painful lesson in doing too much on my own. I am possibly just projecting that onto you - but nonetheless.

...

Merde. I am too tired to make sense. I am going back to the method that worked with Doug.

---

I want to help. I want to talk to you, to provide ideas. I want to sit down and try to work out a way to make HeLix more than it is if you will let me help. I have a gut feeling about it. It feels right.

and yes, if I should decide to try to use the precognition to do anything, I will let someone know. The Professor or Doug or you or someone.

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Okay, those are good points. I hadn't thought about it like that, I was just . . . you saying you maybe didn't want to be involved anymore just because I didn't welcome Manny with open arms despite all his problems and all my problems with him, that hurt.

It's not . . . I don't really think of myself as in charge, exactly. I mean, it's my idea, yeah, and I'm the one who calls the meetings, but it's not--I don't try to tell people what to think, I don't--hell, I don't even know who all is showing up every time until, for the people here, I ask, and for the townies, we actually get there. I want to hear what people think. That's the whole point, is finding out what people think. I want to have a meeting sometime this week, once we get a better idea about how the aftermath of Saturday is shaking down, and I hope you'll come, because I really would like to try and do something more, and I'm having trouble coming up with how, and that's exactly why I'm glad we have a bunch of smart people in the group.

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I was not saying I did not want to be involved because of you not wanting Manuel there. I was upset because it seemed like you were putting yourself in a position where -you- got to decide who could and could not attend. I think we have to be careful of that, maybe not now, but in the future. It could .. blow up in our faces, I think is the phrase.

I am too tired to think much more tonight. I need to get at least one more good night's sleep in my bed before I try to be anything like intelligent again.

I think we need to go public. I think we need to make flyers and make a statement and I am not sure what else. More perhaps in the morning, when I make more sense.

Could you possibly do me a favor and if Doug is being his usual worrying-about-everything-self, sit on him for me? I worry about him - but I am not ... in so much of a position to scold him at the moment. I am trying to avoid being a gigantic hypocrite.

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You're right, we should be careful of that. And I think maybe I was, a little--but I also think we should be careful of who we invite right now. There's probably a balance, but you're not the only one who's tired. :)

I think going public would be a really good idea, so I hope Bethany has good logo ideas, because we could use one.

And yeah, consider my butt deputized.

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