I12DT - She can keep the hat

[Samantha McManus]

"Is it? Are you still going to do this to your coven members?"

[Trini Thompson]

"You don't even know what was happening there. I'll take any punishment you want to give me, but don't speak like you know what happened there."

[Samantha McManus]

"Do they know?"

[Trini Thompson]

"Of course they do. What do you take me for?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Do they know you could make them see anything you wanted?"

[Trini Thompson]

"That's not what was happening, at all."

[Samantha McManus]

"It's different, then, from what you did to Professor Weaver?"

[Trini Thompson]

"Yes. Absolutely. Well, mostly.

I was helping them tap into something they couldn't tap into on their own. I was trying to help her see something she was unwilling to see."

[Samantha McManus]

"But you made dolls for all of them."

[Trini Thompson]

"They made the dolls. Some of them are quite nice, actually."

[Samantha McManus]

"Regardless, it's still your power doing this."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm... not so sure about that anymore, Sam." Nailah says from the door.

[Trini Thompson]

Raven clammed up as soon as Nailah entered the room.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Raven, I apologize for hurting you. I'm not exactly happy with what you did but you didn't know what buttons you were pushing."

[Trini Thompson]

"I think it's best if you left."

[Samantha McManus]

"You can't avoid each other forever."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Raven, I don't know what you were trying to show me, but I realize that something was going on there. I don't think we'll ever see eye to eye on what the right way to do things is but I'm willing to listen to you if I can do so under my own free will."

[Trini Thompson]

"I don't believe you will. Now, I asked you to leave."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm really trying to be a better person here than what my gut is telling me but you're not making this very easy, Raven."

[Trini Thompson]

"Sitting and listening was so abhorrent to you that you literally threw me up against a tree, and threatened to harm my friends not even three hours ago, and you expect me to believe you've had a change of heart? Get out before I call the nurses."

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah throws her hands up and walks out. From the sound of it she punches the wall in the hallway.

[Samantha McManus]

The headmistress sighed.

"Were you just saying those things to placate me, earlier?"

[Trini Thompson]

"Of course not. I told you, it's over. All of it."

[Samantha McManus]

"That didn't look like over. She tried to apologize for a situation she has no real obligation to do so for. You harangued her for something in which you didn't allow her to move, and where you let your coven shove her around. You blamed her for a reaction in which you pushed her into the corner so much she was in a blind panic, and you still act like you're the victim here."

"Do you even listen to yourself?"

[Trini Thompson]

"She apologized because I happened to get hurt.

You don't understand -- she ruined something sacred and special. I don't know how the girls are going to recover from this. I should never have brought her there, I should have just...accepted her intolerance and moved on. But no, I had to try to fix everything. I had to try to help her understand...

Well, it's over. It's all over. Everything. I can't change what happened, but I can change things from this point forward. I'm out."

[Samantha McManus]

"Did she ruin it? I rather think you ruined any sacredness possible once you removed consent from the equation."

"What do the books you read say about that?"

[Trini Thompson]

"Desperate times called for desperate measures.

You don't wait for an addict to give consent before taking them to get help, either.

I've said I'm sorry for hurting her, I've said I won't do it again, I'm not sure what else you want here."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm offended by the comparisons you're making to justify your actions, Miss Bludwynd. I think for all your talk of respect and understanding of others, you show shockingly low amounts of them yourself."

[Trini Thompson]

"I understand and accept your offense. I apologize for upsetting you."

[Samantha McManus]

"And therein lies the problem, doesn't it? You're trying to placate me. The moment the person you actually harmed entered the room, a phenomenally ugly side of you came rushing back."

[Trini Thompson]

"I asked her to leave. Twice. I din't control her to make her leave, I didn't threaten her. I asked her to leave my room."

[Samantha McManus]

"And you again blamed her for this entire incident, while she was in the midst of apologizing."

"Let me be frank here, are you aware of what would happen if you tried this at any, and I do mean any university but this one?"

[Trini Thompson]

"If we're being frank, I don't believe any university other than this one would employ a high priestess of Sekhmet, nor have a goddess herself watching over the students. The situations are too distinct to have any comparison."

[Samantha McManus]

"That's immaterial to what you did."

"If you had done this to a professor at any other university, you would be dealing with law enforcement or a mental health institution. You would be charged with a crime, and the only question would be whether you have the faculties to fully realize what you've done. What's more? Not a one of them would spare even a second thought to respecting the name you've chosen for yourself."

"That is the real world. That would be the full consequences of your actions. They would lock you up and try to wring every last ounce of whimsy and magic out of you until you showed signs you could deal with people on a human level."

"That is the system I am dearly, dearly trying to find reasons not to send you back into."

[Trini Thompson]

"There is no more whimsy, no more magic. I am not a witch, and I hereby relinquish any and all claims to said title.

I will take whatever punishment you deem necessary, headmistress, but you will not convince me that what I did was not in the best interests of everyone involved.

My name is Trini Thompson, and I think I'd like to get some sleep now."

[Samantha McManus]

She sighed.

"I'd no intention of forcing that."

[Trini Thompson]

"I told you, it's over. All of it. I played every card I could, and I failed. It's done, headmistress. You don't need to worry about me any more."

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't mind if you call yourself Raven Bludwynd. I may not agree with it, but it harms no one. I don't mind if you call yourself a witch, by the same token. If it makes you happy, it's not my place in the least to tell you that you shouldn't. The only situation in which I take issue at all, and this is something I strenuously conveyed to Professor Weaver, is if you take it too far and either place yourself in danger, or harm someone else. Even with the best of intentions."

"There's room for Raven Bludwynd at this school, if that's who you want to be."

[Trini Thompson]

"I think I got quite the reprimand, don't you? Any...delusion I would have continued would have been just that -- a delusion. There is no room for Raven Bludwynd, and wishing doesn't make it so."

This obviously pained Raven Trini to say, but say it she did.

[Samantha McManus]

"Professor Xavier always emphasized being happy with ourselves on our own terms."

"You hung your happiness on other people. It didn't go well. I can't help you go back to that, as it wasn't healthy at all. I can help you find a way forward, though."