Template:Featured Articles/7-2023

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Moment of Awesome - Sooraya Qadir/Dust: Dust talks to teammate Colossus about his failings in the field.


"So... what were you thinking about?" Sooraya studied him with sharp eyes.

"Errors." he said flatly after a moment. "Specifically, mine. I got so wrapped up in the struggle, in a stupid dominance display that I lost track of the objective. Of my partner." he said simply. "Thinking about what I am doing, here and now. In this time, in this place." he said. "I presume you have tracked me down to inform me of your displeasure?"

Sooraya let out a sigh and shook her head. "Do you think that is needed?" She asked him frankly, resting her chin on her first as she leaned forward. "I'd say you're already pretty aware. I'm willing if you think it's really necessary. Or if it's helpful. But if it's just to help you to beat yourself up..."

Pyotr blinked. "Not how I expected this to go. I was expecting for you to find the rougher side of your tongue, to castigate me for the errors that put your life in danger." he said. "Once I had time to stop and think about it, I saw where I made mistakes." he said. "Did not protect partner. Did not stay with partner. Let myself respond to taunts." he said. "Let bad guys separate us." he said, and then took another breath. "Was wondering if I was making mistake, trying to be X-Man. Am very new, maybe not ready for field deployment."

"You got some good points there... There are a couple of things I want you to think about though. First one, everyone makes mistakes in the field. We're human, we screw up sometimes. Sometimes big ones, sometimes small ones. You can't go into this thinking you'll never make a mistake again, never fail in any way again. So going on, don't try to strive for that..."

Pyotr listened attentively to her breakdown, nodding in agreement with the points she was making. "I have a lot of work to do." he said somewhat ruefully. "First time out, nobody there could hurt me. This latest time, I was tested and proved myself physically, but came up short mentally. Good part is, this is fixable with training." he said.

"Training will help. It can teach you how to overcome your weaknesses, good strategies... how to control yourself..." Sooraya threw him a sharp look at that. "... but training cannot overcome everything. Like I said... we still screw up sometimes or simply get overwhelmed. That is a big reason we work as a team... being an X-man, it's not a job you do alone. We have to have each other's back."