Template:Featured Articles/5-2025

Moment of Awesome - Sooraya Qadir/Dust: Following a mission, Sooraya talks to David Haller about her future within the X-Men. Jim nodded. "It was a challenge, and it gave you skills you could apply in areas beyond the obvious. But here's another question: is leading something you want to do?" Sooraya was quiet again, this time for a while longer. "Does it sound very weird if I say up to a point?" "No." The older man sat back in his chair. The fingers of one hand beat a single, soundless drum against the tabletop between them. "You can have the capacity to do something without being personally suited for it," he said, watching her closely. "Even if you understand the necessity. For you . . . if I had to guess, I'd say maybe you don't find it as easy to put aside the personal impact, like how a decision is going to affect individuals, and focus on the impersonal, like the big picture maneuvers that can't happen without someone inevitably losing something because of it. Something like that?" "Kinda..." Sooraya fell silent once more as she searched for the words. "With up to a point... I mean.. leading a team or a smaller mission, that I'd like to keep doing, keep learning about. There I don't lose that connection with the people involved so much. But the 'big picture stuff', somehow I do." The older man nodded again. "I think," he ventured, "that sometimes there's this idea that progression in any field is linear. But what people see as the next logical step isn't necessarily where you want to be, because it doesn't match your priorities. It's important to be able to look at what you actually want rather than what you think you should." Jim gave her another lopsided smile. "Basically, it seems like you enjoy positions that involve working with people more." "Dealing with a situation from a bird's eye view isn't really what I want, no." Sooraya acknowledged. "Sure, it's important to be able to do it in bits and pieces, but not as a primary role." "It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you want, then." Jim studied her. "Is something bothering you about that?" Sooraya's mouth quirked: "Not looking forward to telling Scott that I don't want to continue on this path? He has invested a lot of time." Shaking her head for sec, she added: "I can kinda see what the pieces are of what I want. Just not sure how to combine them yet." That got a snort. "Trust me, Scott will be nothing but happy you're not pushing yourself down a path you don't want to walk. Especially not this one." The telepath sat back in his chair and away from the gently cooling mug of coffee between them. "Besides, that time wasn't wasted. The sort of work you're drawn to, the smaller scale . . . that's also important. Knowing someone is making sure the human element doesn't get lost is part of what enables the big picture people to do what they have to do. The skills are complimentary." "In my work with the Underground and in DX I've noticed it's good to have a sense of the big picture... knowing how my smaller projects work 'to contribute to improving the welfare of the community' is important. I don't think that is anything different with the X-men... have a bit of sense of the larger picture while leading sub-teams or smaller missions sounds good, maybe try to find a way what I had with Del and the ferals we rescued to my role within in the X-men as well..." Sooraya tried to organize her thoughts out loud. "Maybe that is the human element you mention."