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[hacktivist]

sometimes i hate to be right

but so far

ENGLAND
ARGENTINA
NORWAY
RUSSIA
ITALY
GHANA
GERMANY
SAVOLETTA
(DOLVANIA)

if i were you i'd be canceling your travel plans (effective immediately)

[Encrypted to Maxine Gibson, unhackable]

your current status [?]

[Encrypted to Tony Stark and Magneto, unhackable]

last chance to abort

Comments

[latveria]

If you do not believe your own words, I question why you might think that anyone else would.

Moreover, there is the expression "to lead by example".

[hacktivist]

Do you not issue edicts you have no intention of obeying?

[latveria]

Are you putting yourself on par with the ruler of a nation?

[hacktivist]

I am that rarest and most valuable of all entities; a free will.

[latveria]

Which is influenced by any number of reactions and pre-dispositions. You were effected by Vulcanus's actions before, can you be assured that your sudden realization is not, at least in part, attributed to that?

[hacktivist]

Everything I do is a response to what I wish to do, Doctor. I am inviolate.

[latveria]

Doom believes that to be a fallacy. All people, regardless of their station, are influenced by events around them. To deny this is to fundamentally misunderstand the human subconscious and our very basic needs and impulses.

[hacktivist]

It surprises me to hear you make such a claim, Doctor. But I must still disagree with you - I do not permit any influence but my own independent functioning entity. Perhaps it is harder for the living.

[latveria]

My claim, as you call it, is backed by years of evidence gathered by the psychiatric community. Your denial of influence does not change the fact that factors of your life have forced you to become the person you are today.

I have always considered living and sentient to be essentially the same for the discussion of psychology. Naturally I can understand where they differ scientifically. Or, are you asserting that because you are not living, you don't have the survival impulse present in most sentient creatures and thus, normal psychology would not apply to you?

[hacktivist]

The psychiatric community. [as if that is the punchline to some incredibly deep joke]

You are very invested in this matter. May I ask why?

[latveria]

I am not invested. I simply find arguing against it illogical. No one is immune to the influence of others. We only possess freewill inasmuch as we can counter and channel those influences. To be influenced is not necessarily a bad thing. It the combination of those influences that lead us to our personalities and thought processes.

You disdain the psychiatric community. [It's a statement more than a question. But eh.]

[hacktivist]

I am a free will, and you dislike that. That appears to be the illogical factor in this equation.

[latveria]

No, I find your definition of free will to be flawed. Though my patience for your argumentativeness on this issue is quickly draining.

The girl who asked after you. She influences your choices and your actions. You have allowed her to become close to you, but you cannot deny that her concerns influence your own. Would you argue that?

[hacktivist]

I did not define free will, only asserted that I possessed it. You, Doctor, did most of the defining.

I operate via necessary truths, validity and entailment. Emotion can be tamed and contained by logic - Mr. Spock, for example.

[latveria]

You asserted that influences had nothing to do with your free will, I disagreed. Our definitions were implied by our positions in the argument, if never explicitly stated.

Influence is not purely emotional. It can dictate one's perspective and thus what they view as necessary. [Ignoring your Star Trek reference. DOOM HAS NO TIME FOR TV.]

[hacktivist]

We appear to be talking at massive cross purposes, Doctor. And it is a waste of valuable time while Vulcanus looms ready to destroy us all. Will you be remembered as a quibbler of semantics?

[an amused pause that he ignored that reference] I did not say influence was purely emotional. But you brought up "an emotional connection" as influence, which, incidentally, I would advise you not do again.

[latveria]

Taking action against Vulcanus with their current influence poses the dilemma of creating an international event. Surely such is a concern, but not one that should be handled by a paranoid mind.

You should reconsider presuming to advice me in the future, Ghost.

[hacktivist]

So much faith you place in the psychiatric system.

I will not.

[latveria]

It has proved to have scientific merit and use to me. I respect that.

As you wish. Pray that we should rarely cross paths, then.

[hacktivist]

One last thing, Doctor.

A demonstration of free will regardless of influence.

[hangs up]