Originally posted by Siona
Ooh, do you take psychiatry, Maelstrom, 'cause that's REAL good evidence going there. Very interesting, I'll have to print that...
I've studied some of it, but I don't have any kind of degree. I just absorb any information I can find to make my writing more realistic. For instance, I found out about the "20% firing rate", and various other fascinating battle bits, from a book called
On Killing. The author is a retired General, who specialized in combat efficiency and psychology. I can get you more information if you're interested in reading it. It might not be easily available at the local library, but it's indispensable knwoledge and background material for anyone who wants to
understand how and why we kill.
(It also has a controversial, but
very compelling argument about why our crime rate is rising that has to deal with uncontrolled paramilitary "desensitation" training we're getting through our mass-media.)
Among other things, humans, believe it or not, are not cut out for warfare. Yes, we're always at war one way or another, it seems, but when you get right down to it, we just don't want to kill each other without "help", whether that's stimulus-response training, propaganda, or threats. A staggering 98% of the population will break after 70 days of continuous, stressful warfare, becoming useless, almost vegetative, in battle. The remaining 2% are "aggressive personality types", whether they're professional policemen, born warriors, or vicious psychopaths. This is also why comic book heroes are so reluctant to kill. For 98% of them, if you have to think about it, you just can't do it.
Guess where Wolverine belongs...?
Also, on the subject, Kitty ran through a guy and sort of electrocuted him trough his nervous system, kinda like she does to machines and such.
But then again, she was running and seemed to be in a real panic, SO....
~Siona
Notice that the only people who were able to stop and think during the chaos (besides Wolverine) were the older "X-men-in-Training", who had already recieved a lot of battle instruction: Colossus, Kitty, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro. Kitty reacted instinctively to danger, just as her training insisted: she phased through her bed and ran for the safe spots. In the book, there was a plausible explanation for how she "zapped" the guy she ran through. The human body has an "electrical system" of sorts, just not as pervasive or sensitive as a computer. If you get a really strong magnetic or electronic disruption, you're going to feel it. It's one of the reasons no one works around an electrical switching station for long periods of time, and why no one is allowed to live directly under power lines. The migranes are not to be believed.
Her running through the guy felt something like being shocked with the amperage of an average electrical outlet: startling and painful, but not enough to kill a full-grown man.
Then eventually go on the X plane to meet up with Logan and the others. I would have magical powers like Dr. Strange. Open portals to other dimensions etc.... I just think that is sooo cool.
Abyss's Number Two Fan! I Love Nils!!! 
*holds up the famed PFOD* BACK! BACK! *proceeds to drag 
away) 
