1807/Heart of Glass

Heart of Glass
Date of Scene:	04 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Cypher, Cannonball

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Cypher has posed:
The sun has set, and after the tour of the Danger Grotto, Doug noticed Sam's bags. He took them up to the room, and set them inside, and then stroked his chin. "...Huh." And then he said to himself, "Uh-oh. Okay. If I were Sam Guthrie, and I wanted to reflect, where would I be." So first he checked the roof. "Nope."

Then he went out to the lake, Sam always liked swimming there better than the pool. "Nope."

Finally, he entered the stables, because he saw a light on. He knocks, gently, on the door, then pushes it open. "Hello? Who's there?"

Cannonball has posed:
    The sammitch is half-eaten, she cut it in half, like he likes it. Of course she did. The lights are on in the stable. He is in his boots, his shirt gone. Sam is shoveling horse muck. Brightwind is agitated, and Sam is grousing at the horse. "She's seeing someone! What the hell? Why? Why now? Years of being sinle, and she is seeing someone?!?! A -girl-, ah could spit!' And Sam does. Shocking.
    The houng man is sweating. Labor helps. He nver pitches a fit, but here he is. Pitching a damn fit. "Go away, doug!" Sam practically snarls.

Cypher has posed:
Doug holds up his hands. "Hey, I come in peace!" He comes inside anyway, because he can read what people are really saying, and what Sam is saying when he says 'Go away' is 'I am really hurting, mah manly heart is breaking'. So he edges inside. And he proceeds to calm Brightwind, stroking the winged horse's nose and nickering to him softly. Brightwind snorts, and noses at him, and Doug tilts his head, and says, "No, no sugar cubes right now, Brightwind..." Which gets an indignant snort. But he calms down. Doug speaks Old Horse. That's a viking joke.

Doug, to his credit, proceeds to shed his Xavier's School hoodie, leaving him in his Dazzler at the Mercury Lounge T-Shirt. He was wearing a pair of sneakers, not his good Chelsea Boots, so he's not afraid to grab a fork and join in, pitching the whatsit into a wheelbarrow. For a time, he works in silence. He'll wait for Sam to open up.

Cannonball has posed:
    "I am glad you are okay. But it is really hard to cry by myself when ah am not by myself." Sam is snarly. This is like some sort of emotional outburst not seen too often. "Ah love ya like one of my brothers, Doug. Ah mean that, but ah am upset, and ah am hurt, and ah am mad at myself. So.. please. Don't let me hurt you too?" He jams his shovel into a load of horse sh*t. "And the chore wheel is going back up on the fridge in the morning!' Sam declares with a vengeance. He spits again. Sam is displaying curiously bad manners. His body language is at odds with his words. It clearly says 'I hurt, please don't go'.

Cypher has posed:
"I've been dead, Sam," Doug says, "It tends to give you a little perspective on what hurts." He tosses a forkful of horse pucky into the wheelbarrow, and he doesn't leave. "You don't have to talk about what's bothering you at all." Doug says. "You don't have to TALK at all. Remember, I am the Mutant Master of Language, and I'm capable of reading what you're saying loud and clear, without words." Then Doug looks down, and says, "...Lot of crap in here. Looks like Logan hasn't been shoveling it out on the regular. I'm not gonna tell him."

Cannonball has posed:
    "It ain't his job. It's our job. I shouldn't a left." All Sam's fault. "We carry our weight, Doug." Sam says it with pride. "Dani and ah?" And there is the break. Sam just sort of sits down, thankfully in a clean spot. "Dani and Ah, we kept everyone together. We kept it together. We..." He cries! Sam just starts to cry. People have been betting on it for years. He breaks down and sobs. "She's seeing someone else." he says very softly. "She care for me too, but she is seeing someone else, and I was too -selfish- to take a silver medal."

Cypher has posed:
Doug leans his fork against the side of the stall, and sits next to Sam. "Aw. *Buddy*." And then Doug is putting his arms around Sam's shoulders. "Holy cats. You finally fessed up." He hugs Sam, and says, "Hey. Nobody can ever fault you for saying 'I'm not okay with dating you while you date someone else.' Nobody can expect that of someone, and nobody can reasonably ask for it, right?" He blinks his blue eyes, and then lets Sam go to lean into him. "I'm no shrink, but first of all... one thing that I learned in this house is that being *pissed* isn't the end of love. It's more like... an ocean, and love's the furthest shore. You may not see it, but it's there. It's contempt that kills love, linguistically speaking... not anger. And you don't feel contempt for her, do you?" He gives Sam a curious look.

Cannonball has posed:
    He is not a cute crier. yeesh. He gets all red and puffy. Tears run down his cheeks, and gives a seething, soft, wracking sob. "No. I adore her. She is the best." Sam lets Doug comfort him. "She and I we're the same coin. It's my fault. I should have had the guts years ago. She didn't say no. She just didn't want to right now." He wipes at his eyes, getting the tears gone. Oh. But he's been shoveling. Oh, oh, oh Sam. That is gross. He sniffles. "It's my fault."

Cypher has posed:
Doug says, "Eh--" He shakes his head, and says, "Sam, don't do that, we're covered in horses--t." He looks around, and then grabs Sam's arm. "Come on." He says. He drags him out of the stable, towards the lake. "Listen. You told her the truth, she knows how you feel. You tossed her the football, and now she has to decide what to do with it, right?" Then he says, "You probably spent weeks working up the guts to tell her the truth, didn't you." It's not a question, it's more of an inference. Then he says, "Sometimes things don't work, or they don't work the way you want. That's not a mistake, that's just life." He heads for the water, shedding his shirt. ...Whoa. Dougie got jacked. He's all... stocky. He has *abs*. Like, real ones, not skinny teenager abs. "Let's try this. I want you to shoot up into the air, and straight down into the lake. Dive-bomb it, as hard as you can. Just... stop before you hit the bottom and get stuck in the mud, I don't think I could get Piotr to come pull you out before you drown."

Cannonball has posed:
    "Ah have work to do." Doug isjacked. Sam will want to talk about that later. The tone though, the legs setting. He tugs back. 'Ah have to finish. Brigthtwind needs to be okay." And he needs to do it for her. He has to show her that it is okay. Doug is jacked enough that he can bully Sam a little right now, certainly. "Ah have to finish." Sam says in a more controlled way. "Its important."

Cypher has posed:
"I see. You're showing her you still care by cleaning up after Brightwind." Doug looks at Sam, and then relents. He grabs his fork again. "Okay. We finish. We won't quit till these stables are so clean you could eat out of them." He pauses. "Which is gross." But he sets back to it, his back flexing. "I'm actually a little mad at her myself. It's been radiating off her in waves that she's mad that I dunked Rahne and made her lose her temper..." He grunts, "Which *I* can take care of, thank you very much--but then she tries to have her Kentucky Beefcake and eat it too. Real *mature*, Dani Moonstar..." He huffs. But he also maybe distracts Sam by laying his own indiscretion out there for Sam to needle him about.

Cannonball has posed:
    "Don't. Bad. Mouth. Dani." Sam says it low and slow. "Ah messed up. She is seeing someone. She was being nice. Ah messed everything up. Dani Moonstar did nothing wrong. She even made me a delicious sandwich." He starts as if to reach for it, sees his hand. "It'll keep." He deadpans. "But don't. She's in a place. I could have said something years ago. She ain't done a damn thing wrong." he said damn. Sam's frown cuts a crevice in his face. "Don't be mad at her for trying to be nice to me."

Cypher has posed:
Doug looks at Sam sidelong. "I can't be annoyed about people treating me like I'm still fifteen and made of spun glass, Bandit? Dani and Rahne *both*. Can't tell Cypher the truth, can't expect him to fix his own mistakes..." He smirks, a little bit, but he relents again. "No. That's the thing, isn't it? Neither of you have done anything wrong, and yet here you are, hurting. And I imagine she's in the house, hurting because she hurt you. So, you have to make a choice, right?" He goes back to work. "You can go out with her, and accept she's going to see someone else, at least for the time being. Or you can accept that for the time being, you're just friends... and then when you see an opportunity to woo her for yourself, you #!$*ing take it, Sam Guthrie."

Cannonball has posed:
    "She kissed me Doug. Well, i kissed her." Sam says it quietly. "It felt right. And instead of sticking it out. I just folded. Ah cannot make her pick. She'd have to pick me. For the sake of the team. For my sake. She deserves to make her own choice. now... you want to be pissed about being treated like spun glass/" Sam straightens his shoulders. 'Quit being a selfish ass." Another swear. "We -lost- you, Doug. We -lost- you, and it hurt. So the fact you are here? That you are standing here? it's a miracle. We missed you. It hurt our heart. Never been the same again. you dying? That was the death of our innocence." His sigh is soft. "So suck that up, little brother. Your death ripped out our guts."

Cypher has posed:
Doug tilts his head at Sam, and he says, "Really, because you're making her decision all about you instead of her own feelings. She'd have to pick you for your sake? No, she wouldn't. She'd pick you because she's known you for longer, because she's had the hots for you since your 'knees and elbows' phase, when she was all Native Pride and couldn't admit she was swooning over a gawpy, buck-toothed, blonde, blue-eyed farmboy who just fell off the turnip truck from Mud Lick, Kentucky." He leans on his fork. "And as for me, I have no intention of dying again anytime soon. But how people *engage* with me? How they talk to me? That I have a say in. Dani is treating me like a kid who might shatter if someone sneezes too loud, and yet who somehow needs to be kept on a leash. Rahne is trying to shrink back down into the girl that I used to know instead of the woman she's become, and that's the *last* thing I want her to do." He pushes Sam, gently. "I want to show you something. Take a swing at me. I want you to mean it. I know you can fight, give me your best haymaker. Don't telegraph it or anything." He just stands there, waiting for it.

Cannonball has posed:
    "IAh can't Doug." Sam answers. His shovel gets back to work. "Ah will take you with me into the field. Ah will train with you. Ah will be your friend. Ah will stand for you at your wedding, if you want. Ah won't hit you. Not ever. Ah can't. It ain't about you. Its about me. It's about putting you in the ground." His voice is soft by the end.

Cypher has posed:
"I'm the one who jumped in front of that Smile-Face, Sam." Doug says, before he joins Sam in the work. "And I'd do it again if I had to. Rahne was worth my life. You would be, Dani would be, Bobby would be, Xi'an would be, some random kid on the street would be worth my life. It was a roll of the dice, and I got snake eyes." Then he says, "Well, since you won't let me show you, I'll just tell you. My powers have grown. I'm still figuring out what they've become. I think maybe they would've started evolving eventually anyway, but the Transmode sped up the process. It... perfected me." Thus all the muscle. "I can read body language. I know what people are going to do before they're conscious of it. And more than that, I can react. I can *fight*, Sam. I've tested myself out in the Danger Grotto... it's like I'm on autopilot. It kind of frightens me a little bit. But I'm working on it." He murmurs, "I programmed Dani in based on her recorded Danger Room sessions. I took her, Sam. One on one, I beat her clean. It's not the real thing, but it made me feel more sick than happy. Because I should not have a prayer against Dani Moonstar." Then he realizes something, and he snorts. "Wedding? I went out to dinner with Illyana. And there's this guy who flirts with me hardcore, not my type, though he really digs me, but... I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of a mess upstairs. I don't... I'm actually kind of scared about Rahne. Because I loved her enough to die for her. But she's not the Rahne Sinclair I knew, and I'm not the Doug Ramasey she knew. And to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure I really AM Doug Ramsey. I have his memories, I have his body... but it's an existential question that's been haunting me. So I don't know what she's going to do, or what I should do, when I might just be a lie."

He gets back to work. "As for you and Dani," Doug says, "There's a difference between love and lust, right? Love doesn't demand recompense. It exists, and it's both selfish and selfless, because it's YOURS, and the other person can't just say 'stop loving me' and expect it to happen. Gratification helps it flourish... but it's a tough weed. It breaks right through the concrete. So you'll go right on loving that proud, stubborn woman, just like you always did... because you just do. There's no such thing as the friendzone. Just love."

Cannonball has posed:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Cannonball has posed:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Cannonball has posed:
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Cannonball has posed:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Cannonball has posed:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Cannonball has posed:
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
    Of course Sam can recite it. he does, there, from rote. Quietly. Softly. Sincerely. Bible school and a good memory.
    He looks at Doug. "You are Doug. Do not ever doubt that, Doug." He shovels a couple more loads of horse poop into the wheel barrow. "This will keep until tomorrow." He says gently.

Cypher has posed:
Doug looks up at Sam, and he says, "A friend loveth at all times; a brother is born for adversity. LDS, though my parents lapsed long before I met you guys." He taps his chest. "I remember." He looks down, and then says, "I'm sorry, if I seem selfish. I'm trying. I really am. It's like... I woke up, and all of you are just... you all grew up so much." He shakes his head, "I'm racing to play catch-up, Sam. And all I can think is 'Man, do I miss Warlock'. It's like I'm missing an arm."

He laughs, and tosses in his last forkful, "Come on, let's go rinse off and we'll figure out the room sitch. Don't give up hope on Dani. But, uh. Chivalrous as you are?" Doug shakes out his shoulders, and he says, "You're a *prize*, buddy. Remember, you were Firestar's first kiss. You bagged a rock star when you were sixteen. So play the field a little bit, when you're ready. I'll be your wingman. I'm no Bobby da Costa... but I do okay."

Cannonball has posed:
    He starts as if to clap him on the back. He pauses. Horse poop. He eyeballs the Dani sammitch. "She makes good sandwiches." As if sandwich making is that hard? "I don't want Bobby as a windman. You will do fine." Sam says it simply. "Let's figure this out We are running in the morning. I think I will be the one trying to keep up with you. After that. Gutters and stables." he shoves the shovel aside. "Let's call it. For now."

Cypher has posed:
Doug laughs, at that, and then says, "There's a sink in the back. You can wash up enough to finish your sammy, Sammy." Then he pauses, and he's hugging Sam around the arms, pinning them to his sides. "Stay gold, Ponyboy." He lets him go and shoves him toward the little bathroom.

Cannonball has posed:
    "What does that even mean?" Sam asks shaking his head as he heads towards the back.

Cypher has posed:
"You never read the Outsiders?" Doug says, throwing up his arms. "We WERE the Outsiders..." Their voices trail off.