xp_logs | Doug and Alison

After Scott, Alison is the next visitor, and she's not very happy with Doug, either, especially considering his little emails. But she doesn't yell at him. Not verbally, anyway. She gives him a load of her body language and all of the tension and stress that's been on her. Doug is very contrite. She gives him the same sort of thwap that Scott does about training that idiot hero complex out of him.

There wasn't much to do but nap when you were stuck in a Medlab bed, it hurt to move, and your doctors were still a little too angry over your blatant stupidity to think about letting you have your laptop. So Doug had been dozing between lectures, propped up against a collection of pillows.

She was leaning on the wall facing the bed, arms crossed and staring at him. She had been this way since she'd entered the room, apparently willing to wait as long as it took for him to wake up on his own. The creak of leather broke the silence occasionally, the only sound indicating her presence.

A gasp signalled Doug's awakening. He'd been dozing just a bit, but nightmares had kept waking him up at fairly regular intervals. He imagine he wasn't going to be sleeping very well for several days, between the lectures and the nightmares. Opening his eyes, he got another shock in seeing Alison...no, the focused stare and body language told Doug that this was Dazzler. Some members of the X-Men looked almost different in terms of body language when they were in their leathers. Alison and Dazzler were almost two different people, honestly. He sank back into his pillows, looking very small, tired, and defeated.

Not a word was said - she was breathing evenly and slowly, staring at him with an eerie calm about her. The slightest of shifts, her shoulders relaxing every so slightly and she pushed away from the wall, walking slowly towards him until she was standing at the end of the bed.

The calm that surrounded her was almost unnatural, and it was certainly unnerving. Doug shifted back as best he could in the pillows, feeling and looking totally defenseless. It was almost impossible for him to read anything in her body language under that calm. He couldn't tell if she was going to suddenly start screaming, or crying, or what.

She did none of that. Instead she let the calm façade fall, at that moment where only he could see it. Everything that had crossed her mind for the past days reflecting itself in her face and her posture. She placed her hands on the edge of the bed and leaned forward just a bit, tension ratcheting so suddenly she was as taunt as a wire, eyes blazing with emotions.

It was like she was screaming at him without saying a word, and it was all the more effective for it. She obviously knew how hyper-aware he was of peoples' body language right then, and he flinched back even farther into his pillows, a contrite, sad look on his face.

She didn't let up. Her face gradually shifted to a more solid blend of emotions only he could decipher. The meaning and intent sharpened, the bleakness behind it all never quite fading - despite clear attempts to muffle it this time. Pulling back she remained as quiet as she'd ever had. Clearly waiting some sort of answer.

With the intensity of this nonverbal communication, Doug didn't think he could say a word if he tried at the moment. Tears streaming down his face and a look of utter pain, anguish, and sorrow were the only answer Alison received.

That wasn't good enough. Keeping her eyes locked on his she narrowed her eyes, spine stiffening, her entire bearing changing even further. The flatness of earlier returned, a single question being asked and only one answer expected.

Now, to be honest, she looked more than a bit like Cyclops, and the message was just as clear as when Scott had given it. -If you're going to do this, you do it right, and we're going to train that stupid hero complex right out of you.- Doug nodded hastily, tears still streaming down his face.

A short nod and she took a step back, looking at him for a moment longer before turning on her heel to leave, closing the door silently behind her.

Doug sniffled at the abrupt exit, wishing that Alison would have stayed longer. But at least, at the end, there'd been an undertone of 'love you, you stupid boy' in there, so it didn't hurt _quite_ so much. Doug snatched at a tissue and blew his nose before laying back against the pillows again and staring sadly at the far wall.