xp_communication | Email to Laurie

To: Laurie Collins
From: Rahne Sinclair
Subject: Jokes and Unexpected Transformations

Laurie,

I'm emailing you partly because I've made a few public confrontations that weren't the best idea, and partly because -- unlike some of the people I was confronting on those occasions -- you're someone reasonable whom I generally like and respect, so I do not really want to call you out in public and I think it'll probably be more productive to talk to you in private than to just object to something for other people to see.

I know you're not being malicious toward Jennie, but you were coming across as... well, thoughtless, maybe. I know she's handling it pretty well and that she had made some jokes of her own. But the thing is... even if it's not the end of the world, even if you can see the funny side of it, having your body changed against your will is not fun. Sometimes it's terrifying. I don't know whether having been involuntarily changed before is making it harder or easier for Jennie, or both at once. Sometimes it's terrifying even if it's in a relatively small way or an accident -- suddenly discovering that aspirin now makes your heart race, say.

I'm the last person here who'd deny the advantages of being canine for a while, but when I first transformed, I was frightened and miserable.

Partly because I couldn't change back. I figured it out eventually, but until I did, I had no way of knowing if I'd ever be able to reverse it. Not every mutant power is reversible. Not every mutant power that is reversible, is easy to reverse. Judging from what Jennie's said where I can see it, the "massive cope failure" suggests that the person responsible for this is newly manifested and does not have good control yet, so unless you have substantially different information (which I realize is possible), it might not be as simple as just finding somebody and everything's okay.

Optimism is good. Being able to joke about something is often good. I was tempted to invite her to come outside and chase something, but hesitated because I wasn't sure she'd be comfortable with that at this point. The thing is... you need to be careful about jokes when someone else has real reason to be stressed, and especially about ones that could come across as treating somebody as... less than you or less than they already are, even if you don't mean it that way. And if the person you're joking about objects, as Kyle said, it really is a good idea to stop.

Rahne