Filling Holes With Comfort Food

May 02, 2015:

After Stormwatches attempt to take back what is "theirs" a few awaken to fix damage done.

Xavier's Grounds

Xavier's Institute grounds are located on 1407 Graymalkin Lane in
Westchester County between Graymalkin Lane itself and Breakstone Lake (30
miles outside of NYC itself). A large portion of this is acres upon acres of
woodland forest. To the farthest eastern portion of the Institute's grounds
there is a stretch of low foothils.
Upon entering the Institute grounds immediately past the heavy gated
entrance one finds themselves on a carefully paved road that splices in two
directions, west and east.

The west leads to the School for Higher Learning where gifted youngsters are
educated and taught to use their unique talents. Here almost year around
children and teachers are housed.

To the east miles away lies Xavier's Mansion where Professor Xavier himself
and some faculty members of the school live. These "special" individuals are
those aware of Xavier's more clandestine operations, the adminstration and
training of the X-Men.
Beyond the neatly walled mansion's yard in those foothills is an obscure
landing strip that leads to a hangar complex and a subtly hidden facility. A
facility that houses underground sublevels, a danger room, Cerebro and the
training halls of one of the most advanced mutant fighting teams in the
world.

An underground monorail connects the School for Higher Learning with the
Charles Xavier's Mansion and the X-Men's Hidden Complex. Security is tight
in this region, by means of limited magical warding, advanced future tech
security systems and telepathic sweeps. Tread carefully.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Stormwatch's attack left the Xavier compound with a lot of holes. Damage could have been much worse if they have gotten into the mansion of the school (which they had problems seeing, thanks to Xavier) but it could have been much better if Scott had not lost his cool and blasted so much.

Scott losing it was not pretty. Nate remembers him being a rock, and the man here is too easy to rile, to willing to kill. It is a bit strange to find strange the Scott is… more like himself than he expected. Parallel worlds will do that to you.

Nate was careless too, he shot down a helicopter full of troops and when it crashed most of those onboard died. Maybe they were all evil bastards that deserved to die, but he doubts it. He has no problems killing evil bastards, but he when he is not sure, his conscience doesn't let him sleep.

So he didn't sleep. Instead he spent most of the night trying to fix the mess that is the front entrance to the compound. He can rebuild matter to molecular level, but those were a lot of bricks pulverized. It is dawning now and he is hardly done.

The botany club is so tired of the lawn being annihilated. Really. Actually, they aren't. Lunair is going to help repair the lawn. Having holes in the ground could prove tricky, after all. Lunair was a bit startled, to see what Scott could do first hand. And maybe it felt a bit sad. He repressed so much. Lunair might feel a little bad because she shot fire works and terrible jokes at the guys, but not too much.

She is up early in the morning, carrying breakfast out to the front so she can eat and start replanting things. And then she spots Nate. "Whoa. You're up early. Hi!"

Unlike Nate, Rose slept well. Too well. When the adrenaline injection wears off the slippery slope is more like a jet just nose diving at high speeds. Right into fucking bed, or the hall, or… wherever it is she is at that point in time.

Rose was half-in half-out of her suit, boots were off, and one sock managed to get tugged to dangle off toes and there it hung, her grip upon it and she… Was unceremoniously drooling on herself in a chair beside her bed with her swords across her lap.

Yeah. The morning had her showering blood out of her hair, scraping it out from under her nails and her suit as well as boots both will get a thorough scrub… Post coffee.

Heading to the kitchen, white hair hangs in long damp strands, sticking to her face, a form fitting tank top bearing a sub-machine gun in white silhouette across it has writing just beneath: The worst Part of the Zombie Apocalypse Will Be Pretending I'm Not Excited.

Jean shorts bear threads hanging over thighs, the denim fabric tattered and worn enough to see the finely detailed pocket printed design and studs lined just over the top. Barefoot she prepairs a carafe of coffee and carried mugs with hooked into fingers for easy carriage.

Stepping outside her head snaps back at the sunlight and she squints and tries to unhook her sunglasses from hanging at the low neck of her t-shirt with her teeth. Hands are full!

"Hate mornings, hatehatehatehate…" Rose is muttering as she leers her way towards Luna and Nate.

Hate.

"I didn't go to bed yet," comments Nate, giving Lunair a glance and a thin grin. "But I got all the dirt back to where it belongs. The wall is going to need some real repairs and several tones of new bricks. I can't find the old ones; some of them might be in orbit right now." And the dirt is back, but the trees and the grass is not. So there is not a crater, but there are hundreds of hours of work for the volunteer groundskeepers. Or are they called the 'botany club' lately?

And there is Rose. Early. Rose and 'early' don't get along. But she went to sleep too soon. "Rosie," long glance, "you look like you need coffee. Is the cafeteria open already?"

Lunair frowns faintly. She looks concerned. Well, some of them are bound to be fans of botany! "That's awesome of you. And really?" A squint upwards. "Well. I was gonna help replant the lawn a bit." She yawns. "I was going to run for coffee once we figure out what saplings we want. Then I can get plants AND coffee." Sagenod. Lunair is a master of multitasking. Lunair doesn't really seem to keep a certain set of hours.

Odd. She waves to Rose. There's a sympathetic look. "Need any help?" She offers.

Rose is handling the coffee like a pro. Mugs hooked to each finger except for the three clutching the handle of the carafe precariously, like the nectar of life was inside and spilling a drop…. eh, whose she kidding? Coffee -is- the nectar of life and a food group.

"Nope, not open. I helped myself and got this." She said holding out, her mug riddled hand extending it to Lunair. Wiggling her fingers the mugs clacked together, thouggh she looked like she was showing off bling. Life. iving. Bling.

"Can grab these mugs and flip them so we can enjoy…" Rose looks up and around at the destruction as well as the underway repairs.

"Ya know, this place would look awesome with a moat, can start it right there." Tilting her head towards the Scott-made crater.
Nate snorts, grabbing the coffee and looking for the sugar. The crater if filled already, and that was the easy part. "I am not sure if Xavier would appreciate it, but given the school cover is blown, maybe a moat is going to be practical." They can fill it with mutant sharks, and attach laser cannons to the sharks. Did he say practical? Nope.

This is why Nate needs the coffee. But he is going to search Rose for the sugar. It also looks as if he is hugging her and it might not be an accident.

"Eh bien, this is quite the mess." Remy remarks striding towards the trio out on the Xavier's grounds. "Smell o' coffee caught me." As if that explains his presence. The Gumbo is covered in grease, grass and what could be mud. A tanktop, torn up jeans and black bandana with little skulls on it consisting of his ensemble this sunny day.
"Tryin' to fix the riding mower, blue fur all up in it's guts."

Lunair look quietly amused. Then a soft laugh. "A moat? Can I put goldfish in? Um. Goldfish with glocks?" Armed goldfish! Totally legal! "Sure," Lunair will help right the cups. She is helping! She doesn't seem bothered in the slightest that someone helped themselves to stuff in the cafeteria. It's just being proactive, right? Right.

Lunair looks over her shoulder. An amused look. "Hiya!" She greets Remy. "Yeah… I was gonna see where the plant people are so I can help with the lawn. Maybe I'll get to pick some of the trees?" That might be fun, oh yes.

Nate's hugg/frisk for sugar has Rose flailing and in turn pulling it out of her back pocket and shoving a couple of the packets in his mouth. The carafe is now freed up to be opened and each mug held is filled up, even one of the extras as Remy saunters on up. Because that's what Remy's do, they dont walk, they got swagger.

Holding it out for him she fills her own and unloads the fistfuls of packets of creamer and sugar she stuffed in her pockets. "Ah so that is where he wen—-." Rose just stops herself, bad joke and some may get tender about it right now. Biting her lower lip she just shoots a glance to Lunair and winks over that milky eye.

"My vote was piranha. At this rate they'll even become nuked in that moat." Pause and she's looking at Remy again. "You wont have much left to mow up here…"

"Robot sharks," is Nate's vote. Maybe they can eat Sentinels. "Stormwatch is part of the government, right? How long before they add up what they got and realize this is a school of mutants run by mutants? They must have a file of Cyclops somewhere." Or maybe Nate is being pessimistic. "And they put bombs in the heads of people they recruit." He notes, sipping from the coffee. "We could add some mutant trees, to the lawn, armed mutant trees."

"I was gon' up and help somewhere else but then seen the condition othe mowers. Got distracted… " Plus Remy really didn't want to stare at more destruction and mayhem - even if it's just landscape, the garage is pretty untouched. Very untouched if with the lack of bodies working out of it. What did happen to the groundskeepers? Nope, doesn't want to know. Hopefully they quit. No harm in the Cajun doing some of that work when he is feeling bored.
"All men in black to me. They're government they're always bad sorts when it comes to the likes of us. No escapin' that one though. Robot ostriches with laser eyes and super kick legs is my suggestion. Sharks gimme t'heebees."

"Goldfish with glocks would still be kind of cute," Lunair considered. "Or octopi with guns and swords." Yeah, there you go. Lunair smiles a little at Nate and Rose. They are so adorable, they are. At the wink, Lunair nods and keeps her smile. "We have so much sod and stuff to buy," She sighs. "I am just glad we didn't have a lot of folks getting hurt," She considers. "And put drop bears in the mutant trees," She remarks.

Vicious! Lunair looks to Remy, nodding. "I don't know much about that stuff, but bombs in heads is pretty ominous to start with." The idea of Rose with one is distinctly horrifying!

"They're all good ideas. Once they pass the moat of armored fish and mammalia they can deal with mother nature ostriches telling them to slow down with a fuck you kick from energy legs…. Then their broken bodies being mauled by dropbears…" If they lost grounds keepers over last night, they will once this gets to rolling. Because they will it… There's a way!

When Nate starts talking more about Stormwatch Rose just takes to slowly sipping and indulging in her coffee, mismatched eyes skimming over each of them and her shoulder rises and falls in a shrug once the mug comes away. "Let them come. After this episode I doubt they will bring it close to home again. Wall is smart. A bitch, but brilliant."
To change the subject. "Gumbo sounds amazing, you do authentic, Gambit?"

Talking about weaponizing the yard is fun, yes. It might be too early to talk of serious matters like Stormwatch and its dread director. It is unlikely Xavier will go for anything extreme, but maybe he will agree to implement some kind of additional security so next time they have some automated backup when defending the place. Because it is going to happen again.

"Well… anyway, I can't do much more here," and Nate has finished his coffee already. "Unless you need help with the trees, Luna?"

"Goldfish with glocks sounds like a bad indie band." Remy comments while Nate speaks, a grin is offered to Loon, "Serious stuff yes, bombs in the head is some Demoliton Man Sci-Fi bizz. Yanno I woke up with this outfit once, I swear they put somethin' in my head then realized wasn't de case at all, they were just a cult and wa… nah, save that story for 'nother time. When this Cajun ain't sober-like. Stories always better dat way."
A finger wave in the air like he cast a spell on his coffee and Remy takes a drink, "Everyting I cook is authentic, ma cherie. Why you havin' a craving for somethin'… spicy?" A grin, too sly a grin and he glances from Rose to the others. Hard to tell if he is joking half the time. He is though. Telepaths get this sort of thing and know he's just sometimes one to poke where he thinks he can get a rise.

Lunair listens and laughs softly. Arming the lawn, huh? "What about those exploding Australian spike trees? Everything tries to kill you there." Everything. EVERYTHING. Lunair is aware that it's likely things are still too soon to really talk about. "What's gumbo?" Lunair asks. She looks puzzled. Cajun food, huh? Life in a lab and hospital has downsides. And one of those downsides is a distinct lack of cajun cuisine.

"You can help with the trees if you like. I was going to ask if they wanted the same ones or to try a new look." Then she beams at Remy as he grins. She nods. "Really…? How odd. Well…" She won't pry.

"Australia, where every second of every day is a game of survival. Vacation there sounds lovely, just not this time of year. Too hot. I can't handle the sun trying to kill me by cooking me from the outside-in." Hello! Almost albino! Rose cooks, peels and repeats.

"I think we are safe, though precautions and reinforcements need to be proposed and enacted. For now, we fix what the children do see, and keep what they don't - That way." Rose states to Nate with a small smile, leaning to take his coffee cup from him as he goes to speak more on the trees. "Do less that will effect you." Rose states tapping her temple and then scowling at Nate. Hint hint. Stop using your powers or she's going to rub -that- reality in in front of them all! She's a woman, it's what she does. Airs your dirty ass laundry in front of your friends so she doesn't have to do -all- the nagging.

Remy's comment gets a rise of platinum brow and a small smirk. Oh there is a comment: Right. There. Instead she purses her lips and heads back towards the mansion with the empty carafe and mugs in hand. "I say we have a gumbo night with some Bayou booze and tales of that voodoun you keep biting back." Until then, cafe and coffee refills this time with bagels. The adrenaline might be gone but she has a voracious appetite after.

Nate hrmphs. "I am fine," hey, he is fine today. Because he took painkillers for the headache after the battle and during the night he has not been hauling stressful weights. That doesn't mean he has not been feeding the technovirus, because he did. He will pay it later. Just not yet.

"You can't be the one to ask me to slow down, Rosie," he points out. "I will do when you do it," which is never. So hah!

Rose pivots on bare heel, slowly unforls her middle digit while the others neatly tuck into a fist, kisses it and bloows it to Nate. "Slow down… When I'm de—- Fucker."

"You like shellfish, Loon?" Gambit asks, quickly switching beats. The bandana taken off his head and used to wipe down his brow before it's tucked in a back pocket, "Be my treat an' I'm not so sure it be safe share all them stories with you, least not yet. Mebbe." The rogue sports another of those smiles that make the red eyes gleam.
"This school been reinforced several times over, it got magic wards, future funk, all kindsa precautions been done. Still, same thing happen 'gain and again. It jus' the way of this hero gig. Stayin' with the times is the trick…"
"French Quarter Metropolis has some authentic we can hit up. I normally all for cookin' but I say we go get some of the real deal made by betters hands than these." As hard as that is to imagine, the better hands part. Gambit is rather proud of his fast and very skillful hands. "Later Summers Numba Seven Hundred… no worries, I keep real close eye on de girls."

Lunair grins at Rose's comment on Australia. She nods. Then an amused look as Nate and Rose go back and forth. Lunair looks to Gambit. "I haven't tried it," She admits. "That would be great." Beam. And ooh, gleaming red eyes. So cool. "Wait, there's 700 of them? That's gotta be a nightmare on birthdays and holidays," Lunair ponders this. She looks concerned between the two. But she goes with it. "I'll go find out what trees they want for now. I look forward to it all. I'll see you guys." Wavewave.

Nate laughs at Rose's reaction, then glances at Remy and Lunair. "I am game for trying those restaurants, Remy. Sign me up. And Luna, I will be back to help with the trees in a bit. But I am going to take a break." Right now, he goes after Rose, "hey, Rosie…"

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