8396/Saved: What is the Right Call

Saved: What is the Right Call
Date of Scene:	18 July 2019
Location:	Medical Lab, X-Men Base
Synopsis:	Cypher and Elixir talk about the ramifications of healing powers becoming known. They settle on sandwiches, but no answers.
Thanks to:	Cypher
Cast of Characters:	Elixir, Cypher
Tinyplot:	Saved

---

Elixir has posed:
Josh is in the medical lab and for once it is quiet. Unusually, their guests were /all/ asleep. From the occasional writhing, groans and profuse sweating it is not a restful sleep. Three are on IVs and the readings on all of their monitors suggest minor distress.

Josh is paying no attention to them at the moment. Something dubstep plays while he bends over a petri dish with a single roundworm in a light green solution. One of beast's scanners is set a bit above the dish. Josh reaches in, holds a finger near the roundworm and his hand glows. The roundworm curls up. He makes the same gesture and the roundworm straightens out and wriggles listlessly. He repeats this several times, checking a neural map on one of the computer screens each time. He has a half-empty coffee mug beside him. His hair is a mess but he is at least in a fresh pair of jeans and t-shirt. His flip-flops are on the floor as he sits cross-legged on his chair.

Cypher has posed:
Doug has been making the rounds after the end of the workday at Evolution, and he looks pretty haggard himself. Sweaty and tired. He enters the lab, and then looks at the kids going through detox, before he looks at Josh, and rubs the back of his neck. "I promised myself I wouldn't be up in your business after our fight." He rubs the back of his neck, the 'but' hanging there in the air.

"Carlos isn't going to keep quiet. He's a nice guy, but it's going to slip out. I can tell. More to the point... how many other people have you done this for?"

Elixir has posed:
Josh leaves his roundworm wriggling slowly and looks up. He leaves back and swivels his chair so he faces Doug and runs his hand through his hair in a vague, unconscious mirror of his friend's gesture.

"Ah... A few," Josh admits. He looks abashed and conflicted.

"The kid with leukemia across the hall in my old place. And his little sister's bronchitis. A couple people that got trampled in the church Sentinel attack... Some Russian guy that got shot. That one's already bit me in the ass. That girl from the third floor who keeps getting beat by her boyfriend. Forget her name... Carlos. I'm sorry Carlos was harassing you, man, that's not cool."

Cypher has posed:
"He wasn't harassing me. He was desperate, and he was scared." Doug says, sitting down, with a sigh.

Then he looks up at Josh, and says, "Here's the thing. You offer people what is, essentially, a miracle. When people are desperate, when they're scared, they stop thinking. They think only of the miracle, and not of the person delivering it. You are standing at the edge of a bottomless rabbit-hole that has to do with everything from human rights to religion." He sighs, and says, "...They're going to talk. Word's going to get out, and more and more people are going to start showing up. More people than you can help without hurting yourself. And when you start turning them away... things are going to get ugly. Don't-- mistake me for a pessimist. I'm a realist. I can see patterns as they unfold and I can see what's coming. Maybe not exactly how..."

Elixir has posed:
"Shit... I know, I just," Josh sighs and squirms. He looks down at his hands. "I can heal them. Like, actually, really. I feel like I'm /supposed/ to... It's one of the only times I don't feel like a piece of shit."

"I don't know how I can say no to people, Doug," Josh admits. "It'd be like killing them."

Cypher has posed:
Doug sighs. "You think I don't know that? You think *I*, of all people, could look Carlos in the eyes and say 'I'm sorry Carlos, everybody dies'?" He clenches his jaw.

Then he says, "...I don't talk about it much, but I was raised Mormon. Then, when I was a teenager, I decided I was an atheist. ...Then I joined the school, and saw my first demon, and now I don't know what the hell I am. I will say, some of those beliefs did stick with me... and I guess the one that's kind of universal is 'to he whom much is given, much is expected'."

Then he sighs. "What's stopping you from selling your services and making a bundle. Or from starting a religion around yourself?"

Elixir has posed:
"I know you know, you texted me, right? I mean, Jubilee said I should just keep it secret, but she hasn't had that happen to her. But they're stoked when I fix a cut on Lorna's hand, or a hole in Andrea's head, or wake Illyana. But help someone out there who doesn't have all this, and whoa, hang on," Josh says, frustrated and looks Doug in the face. "I'm glad someone gets it."

He picks up his coffee mug and just hangs on to it in both hands.

"I was Church of Human Potential," Josh shares, referring to the extreme anti-mutant Christian sect. "I get feeling like everything you believe is kind of turned around."

When Doug mentions selling his services or starting a religion, he frowns, confused. "What? I wouldn't... I never thought about any of that. I don't wanna like, exploit people. Seems so wrong, you know? Dick move."

"I guess I could get rich people to pay so I can like, focus on improving and helping people, you know?" he admits. Josh scratches his head. "Never felt like asking anyone for it. It's not like I earned this ability."

Cypher has posed:
"My point is," Doug says, "That's what a *bad person* would do. That you instinctively recoil from that ideat testifies to your character, not against it."

"People get duped, they get deceived. Sam worked for Donald Pierce for a hot minute as a teenager before he saw what was really going on and joined the school. He doesn't like to talk about it even though he didn't really do anything too terrible before he figured out what Pierce was really after."

He huffs out a sigh, and says, "When you have the ability to help, it can be hard turning people away... I can't even begin to suggest where you should draw the line. But desperate people don't think, and you only have so much of yourself to give. Now, you have a couple of choices. One, you can start turning people down flat, two, you can go off the radar and lie low here at the school for awhile, or three, you keep helping whoever asks for it and damn the consequences to yourself."

"...I don't know what the best choice is. If anybody else approaches me I'll do my best to divert them to Cecilia Reyes's clinic, but I don't think people are going to take 'no' for an answer from you."

Elixir has posed:
Josh looks really surprised that Sam ever had anything to do with Pierce, but he slumps down again and chews on his lip as Doug continues. This is far from Josh's usual posture or presentation. Doug can easily tell this question eats at him.

"I don't know where to draw it either, all those choices seem shitty. It sucks, I mean, Superman can go out and use his abilities, and you can use yours, Rachel... But I've got this and the 'smart' thing seems like I should just like, hide it. But I don't wanna answer for all the people I should have helped..."

"I really don't know what to do, Doug."

Cypher has posed:
"I can't lie to you. I don't see a happy ending to this." Doug says, before he heaves out a sigh. "You have to decide where the line is."

"I will say this--I do think sometimes the X-Men treat your powers too cavalierly, when they're available. You have to assert yourself there, too. We have the best medical facilities in the world, and *those* don't wind up in a coma if we push them to their limit."

Then he sighs. "...Right now?" He shrugs, "...Right now you have a sandwich, I guess. And then start figuring out how to disappoint some extremely scared, desperate people."

Elixir has posed:
Josh nods as he listens to Doug. He sighs as well and slips his feet back into his flip-flops.

"Scott did says the X-Men carry the weight of the world, right?" he says ruefully and gets up. "Sandwich sounds good. Join me?"

Cypher has posed:
Doug mutters, "If the wrong people understood what I could do, I'd wind up enslaved to the CIA or SHIELD or MI-13 or the KGB or the Mossad or somewhere I don't care to be. And it wouldn't matter what I wanted. If they couldn't own me, then they'd have to kill me. But I don't *want* to be a spy. Your powers are a part of you. You decide how they're used, or not used. Nobody else. You want to help people, that's good. But you have to figure out how to use your gifts to help them *sustainably*."

He puts his arm around Josh's shoulders, as they walk out. "We'll work our way through this."