North vs South (pt.1)

April 23, 2018:

A pleasant day of RR and are comes with canons, relationship drama, brauts and burgers.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

A clear and sunny Westchester day. The grill is even out on the patio. The pool not yet ready for use, give it another week and likely these sort of things will be going on there.

Scott is enjoying the new temperature, light clothes in the form of knee length yellow and grey shorts, a black 'tank top' and no shoes - shades, ever present. His recent meeting with the DEO in regards to several points went over quickly, fast questions that had no follow through on either end. There is some tense there. The X-Men will never fully be trusted by the authorities which is fair and likewise.

The sizzle of burgers is loud, flame wooshes up and more liquid is poured in. Calm before the storm, surely, times to relax are taken and right now is a momentary one. With few students around right now its not required to cook a lot, another plus, this is mostly for guests, residents and faculty before things get serious. Which they will.

Lorna came out from the side of the house, having been craving some way to release pent up energy, and being forbidden from using the Danger Room she'd gone out. A set of new, better fitting clothes followed, no more borrowed and loose fitting sweats. Now she wore a cold shoulder, black top, with a low neckline, studded through with bits of cheap metal. A pair of skinny jeans and boots. She wore no other jewelery besides that black choker necklace.

Not even an engagement ring.

A bag of other purchases hung from her grip, and a large cup something caffinated in her other hand. Green eyes scanned the backyard to land on Scott by the grill and she arched a brow upwards. "Burgers already?"

Burgers. A clever tactic to lure Nate out of his brooding hidehole, no doubt. And look, it works. He looks fairly tired, and still wears the prescription sunglasses, but otherwise he is fine. The bruises from fighting the Marauders are gone.

He pauses by the grill, grunting a hello to Scott. "Put a report up. Will add details later, you really would want to talk to Illyana." He looks around. "Has anyone seen that silly witch the last few days?" Obviously he hasn't. Likely because she is dodging him again for REASONS.

"Tradition. Do you know how many cook outs we used to have after a mission?" Scott says, holding up a spatula. "It keeps the edge off and technically I suppose what you all just went through counts. It will soften the blow when I toss everyone in to the ring again too." With a half-smile (if it can even be called that) Scott gives them both an acknowling look before hes staring at the laid out brauts and burger patties.

"No. I haven't seen her. "

Lorna snorted, tossing the bag of clothes and boots off to the side and sipped at her coffee. She rolled her eyes, sauntering over to peer at the cooked brauts and burgers already cooked and set out. She snagged one of the brauts, stabbing it with a fork and promptly munching on it as if it were meat on a stick. She arched a brow upwards, tilting her head to the side.

A frown then marred her expression.

"What? Mission? Pfft. And here I thought I was on probation. I feel the love." She wiggled her pinky finger in Nate's direction and grinned toothily.

As if on cue, a familiar silver-white disc appears at the edge of the patio, rapidly swelling until it's large enough for someone to walk through. And sure enough, someone does. A heavy, black boot caked in snow comes through first, swiftly followed by the rest of Illyana who's dressed in her interpretation of cold weather gear - almost all black, with a thick jacket zipped up to the neck, and a deep hood edged with charcoal grey fur.

The portal irises closed behind Illyana and she steams quietly in the sudden warmth for a second or two, snow sliding off her boots to melt into a puddle around her feet, before she pushes back the hood of her jacket and unzips it. Her expression is a bit sour, but it lifts somewhat when she sniffs at the air and homes in on Scott's barbecue.

"Looks like I came back just in time." She says to anyone who's listening, before taking a step out of her personal puddle in the direction of the grill. She pulls up short when she realises just how much warmer it is here than where she's just been. She begins to shrug out of her jacket, then gives up and just casts a spell, instead.

An Illyana Rasputin clad in a lightweight, short sleeved top, very short shorts and fishnets resumes walking over to the others. "You've taken my spot on Scott's naughty list?" Illyana asks Lorna, coming in on the end of the conversation. "Thanks, I owe you one."

Speaking of the devil. Nate stares as Illyana ports-in, frowning faintly at the cold weather clothes. He kind of figures where she was, which deepens the frown. Silly witch is still silly witch. "Nice to see you, Illy," he manages.

He snatches a plate stabs a burger, "you hungry?" He offers.

Then to Scott. "So what has been going on? I am still catching up the news, but it looks bad. Well, not bad. It looks stupid. I am half-expecting the Purifiers making a comeback."

"You are." Scott confirms. "I'm politely talking around you in this."

A squint of one eye behind the rose-hued glasses and he turns to look at Illyana's arrival, "For good food and better company? Yes." He says.

"The Brotherhood is in a private war with Trask. It's being used to fuel propaganda and weight of the registration. I don't know what else to detail there. I have a source thats directing me upstate, we are going there soon to investigate. Lorna and Rogue where there once with me before. We had to pull out due to… pregnancy complications." At least thats all he hopes it was but from what hes been informed, maybe more than that has been going down.

Lorna shrugged, plopping down as she shot Illyana a grin and a mock salute of the braut. She munched on it, found a seat on a nearby bench, and crossed her legs. "Uh huh. Sounds great." She fell silent for a brief moment, seeming content to devour the food she'd snagged before tossing back the fork behind her without care. An brow shot upwards as she considered the topic of her 'pregnancy complications'. A snort. Then a laugh and she tossed her head back.

"C'mon. My powers are perfectly stable without the parasite. I could prove it in a Danger Room scenario if you wanted."

Illyana takes Nate's question as an invitation to relieve him of both the plate and the burger he just deposited on it, whether it was intended for her or not. "Starving." She confirms, then pauses and looks between Scott and Nate. Specifically, at the sunglasses they're both wearing. She frowns, as if she's about to say something, but then shakes her head and retreats to find somewhere upwind of the grill to eat her purloined burger.

"Need me to drop you off somewhere?" She asks Scott, around a mouthful of burger.

Up in the sky, its a bird, its a plane

No, its… a Civil War cannon on big wooden wagon wheels? And its flying toward the School! Don't worry though, its not aimed AT the school! its pointing off toward the east and tilted up toward the sky.

Beneath the cannon is a mess of jumbled up cloth, it looks to be the two flags of the opposing sides in the war? Balled up together and flapping around in the winds as the canon flies toward Xavier's Institute!

Within a few moments the giant metal tool of destruction archs down out of the sky and lands in the grass, then rolls a few feet down a slope on the ground before it comes to a halt and the mess of North / South flags goes rolling/tumbling across the grass beneath it!

Before a person emerges from inside of them… Yeah, its Rogue. She's wearing some short jeans shorts and a red/black checkered plaid shirt tied up over her stomach, some black gloves on her hands and tall cowboy boots, and her hair is all kinds of a mess of brown and white strands!

She's kicking the flags off of her feet now to untie herself!

"Sonsa bitches, all of'em!" Rogue is shouting while snatching the flags up into a ball!

It was an invitation; there are more plates and more burgers. A thanks would have been nice, but starving people get a pass. Sometimes.

"They finally did something useful, so good," comments the young man. That is, nuking a Trask facility, not the propaganda fuel. The propaganda fuel was already going on when they did stupid things like attacking charity galas and local politicians. Now, blowing up Trask stuff, that is legit in Nate's book.

Maybe he should say something else, but Lorna's parasite comment draws his attention and he directs the green-haired woman an odd look.

Rogue unusual, usual arrival does deserve a glance, but seriously. Lorna just called her kid a 'parasite'? Maybe she is still in shock.

"The parasite? Please tell me thats not what you're calling your kid." Scott inquires, "It is not your stability or capabilities that need to be proven." He adds while setting out food on plates, shuffling them to his right as he does so.

"And nooooo do I look ready for a drop off anywhere?" A wave at himself in shorts, shirt and shades only. "But yeah, near future. Maybe even tonight depending."

A stop at what he is saying as a portion of a Civil War battlefield is incoming, Scott double takes at it and the way it is soaring about ready to call out a command to the others but really its… just bizarre, the mystery solved as Rogue reveals herself, a loud crackle noise and he flips a few burgers quickly.

"What the hell, Rogue? Where the hell… no, what the hell? One of those works."

Jean Grey says, "page lol 'video' 'killed the radio star?' 'yes' 'voice?' 'activated'.. lol 'video chat plz' 'credit card plz'"

Lorna's eyebrows shot upwards. "What else would you call it? I mean seriously, an unwanted growth that takes nutrients from me, and puts my life at risk? That's like a textbook description." Her voice was deadpanned even, and after a moment, she blinked.

"It's a joke?"

Of course then there was SOMETHING flying in the sky, it earned a glance and a tilt of her head as it cam rocketing down and …it was Rogue? Huh. A slow clap followed and then her attention shifted back toward Scott.

"If it's not my stability or capabilities then it's my judgement, that you are looking at proving. Or disproving. Right?"

Illyana favours Scott with a small, but evil grin when he declines her generous offer. He's learning, more's the pity. Ah well. "Let me know." She tells him. "I'll be around." She wrinkles her nose when she says that, an edge of irritation entering her voice. Wherever she's been and whatever she's been doing, apparently it hasn't been very successful.

Lorna's parasite comment gets neither a word nor a look from Illyana. Kids are really not her thing.

Besides, something's going on in the sky above. Tilting her head back, Illyana raises her free hand to shield her eyes from the sun, squints a bit, and then just shrugs and goes back to eating her burger. Once Rogue's at least vaguely upright and cursing, Illyana asks with deceptive innocence. "Did the South lose again?"

Nate gives Lorna a long, thoughtful look. That child might have been unexpected, but he knows she wasn't unwanted just two weeks ago. In fact Lorna was ready to completely change her life style and move to Genosha for her. Something strange is going on.

Not that he thinks moving for Genosha is the best idea.

Definitely food for the thought. But he moves closer to Illyana, with a new plate, and a new burger he has drowned in ketchup and mustard. "You went looking for Sinister, didn't you?" He asks quietly.

Rogue wads the two flags up in a ball and just jams them down into the hole of the cannon! She then takes a heavy sighing exhale before her hands swipe at her wild hair back out of her face and then go down to her hips.

Thats when she realizes there were others near-by and at least one of them was speaking to her. She turns and grins. "Heya there, barb-e-cuers." She says in her fluid southern dialect. Rogue glances back to the cannon and then reaches out to gently pat it with a gloved hand. "This here is my new souvenir from the reenactment thats goin' on up in Hudson Valley. I'm gonna name'er Bella, I do believe." A grin is given to the cannon as though it were a new pet and then she looks back to the others.

"Who woulda guessed that a buncha hicks doin' a Civil War show would turn out t'be mutant hatin' pricks? I mean really! What. -are-. the odds'a that?"

"Aurora. I would call her Aurora." Scott snaps and anything else Lorna says is ignored for the moment. That spatula he has been holding flung after those hastely flipped burgers are safe and Scott is in a fast pace walk towards Rogue. Things to address all in order, Illyana's secret mission(s?) and Lorna's attitude but one of those is a repeat. It can always wait and likely will always be.

"It is about to lose again." He says upon hearing Rogue's explanation to it's presence.

"You stole it and flew them here? This was a reenactment being done in public?"

A frown and his hands meet his hips as he looks at the woman, "It goes back. Mutant haters or not, we can't have that here. They're expensive and likely we're going to piss some fanatical country bumpkins off more than being who we are already does." Realizing hes default moding his frown deepens then lifts, "Though, after you eat and we maybe fire something out of it once… "

Having largely recovered from the most recent abduction and subsequent escape, Alex only looks to be slightly more haggard than usual. He's even managed to scrub the sharpie squiggle hearts off the unscarred side of his face. ( The other side keeps a few heart-shaped shadows as proof of slightly more delicate scrubbing. )

Though preliminary sniffs tell him burgers, he approaches the proceedings with hopeful inquiry: "Shrimp? This is the shrimp 'n mahi broil, right?" Or maybe a clam bake. Can we get a good clam bake up in here?

He eyeballs the foods available with a shrug, meats work too. "What're we yellin' about, today?" The usual family BBQ environment is assumed.

Lorna snorted, and then leaned over to snag another cooked braut, happily eating it without even a bun. The monster. Amusement twinkled in her eyes as Scott chided her and moved onwards to Rogue. Her snickers turned into full blown laughter as the story unfurled and at Scott's reaction. She propped up her chin with a hand, crossed her legs and watched with rapt attention.

For the moment the comments about Illyana going after Sinister were missed entirely.

Nope. This was entertainment right here. Stealing a cannon and being told to return it.

Illyana pops the last piece of her burger into her mouth and casts a sidelong glance at Nate's plate as he approaches her, but she decides not to steal his food this time. She affects a look of surprise at his question. "What makes you think that?" She asks him, keeping her tone equally quiet, but adding a little mock-surprise, before rolling her eyes and smirking at him. "Was it the snow I tracked all over the patio?"

Illyana glances over at Rogue and her cannon. She was going to make a comment about those odds, but Scott is already marching across to make sure that too much fun is not happening, so Illyana just snorts quietly to herself and shakes her head.

"Theft of oversized firearms from people who don't deserve them." Illyana helpfully fills in Alex as he approaches, casually, before looking back at Nate and picking up the thread of their conversation. "If you're going to tell me I should have taken you with me, don't. I know you're not trying out your father's sense of style." She's resisted commenting on the sunglasses until now, which was admirable restraint, really.

Rogue is just all grins as she sees Scott marching his way out into the yard to inspect her new cannon that she's still leaning back against with her right gloved hand resting ontop of it.

"Awww, come'on, General… Bella just got here and you wanna send'er home already? After only one shot?" Rogue says in that overly flirtatious way of hers. She looks back over to her right and down to the cannon beneath her hand and against her hip. "There there, girl." She comforts the poor thing. "I saved ya from the bad men and now the grumpy General wants t'send ya back…"

Rogue's eyes go back to Scott's glasses-covered-own. "Fair'a nuff, I suppose." She says at him. "But. I wanna sit ontop'a it when ya fire it." And she flashes him a big ol' grin then before crossing her arms against her stomach and leaning back against the metal ball-launching monster.

Rogue looks over to th eothers then and speaks up. "Hows the food, ya'll? I've worked up a beast of'a a hungah t'day. What with all my stickin' up for mutant repsect'n'all."

As amusing it is that Rogue stole a cannon from a bunch of bigots, Nate's sense of humor is not at its best moment. In fact he is trying to keep track to all that is going on. Rogue's cannon-theft, Lorna's child hating, Alex' arrival with… whatever happened to his face.

And Illyana being silly. "What did you said to me last time I went without backup into something like that? Something about being an idiot, maybe? I can't seem to remember. So I do call *you* for backup nowadays, don't I?" Pause, chew some burger. "Have you been an idiot today, Yana?"

A green eyed glance flickered toward Nate and Illyana briefly, her gaze narrowing faintly as she watched over the edge of her braut. Then her attention returned to Rogue. "Careful, if you keep breaking the rules Scott will call you a terrorist and put you on probation." She called, and then laughed again, pushing off the picnic bench to come over to the cannon.

"If it's not a canon anymore, then she doesn't have to return it, right?" She held up a hand, and wiggled it offeringly.

"We could make her a pretty statue. Or a bench. Or a bird bath."

Scott hadn't noticed the snow surprisingly but then he also doesn't try to overthink Illyana for what she is or where she goes, asking just leads to more confusion often. The laughter of Lorna and Alex's questions about shrimp go heard, as do Nate's concerns.

A long sigh exudes from Scott as he walks around the canon, admiring it. "Pretty cool though and… on it wh… yeah I suppose. Why not." He wets his lips at the idea of actually using this thing and considers if they have the right stuff to do such, gunpowder? Thankfully they have geniuses, mutants, Google and YouTube. People will tube up anything with a manual and walk through.

"Just uh someone make sure Bobby or Ororo are awake and coherent when we start setting things on fire."

Lorna's inquiry gets a thoughtful grunt, "Maybe. Depends on exactly who she stole it from. Conscience demands more information… "

"No, what am I saying, yes it is still stealing and we likely have to return it." The boyscout in him snaps to the surface. Scott firmly starts to believe the school would descend in to National Lampoon's Animal House if he wasn't present.

Marcos Diaz arrives on the grounds wearing simply a plad T-shirt and blue jeans, combat boots on his feet. A jacket is around his shoulders as he looks around.

Wait….is that Rogue…with a Canon? Besides the point, Marcos decides to go and investigate this strange phenomenon.

"…where did you go and get a canon?" he asks Rogue directly. Though he does notice 'Lorna', and he narrows his eyes at her before he returns his attention to those around him.

Illyana's expression closes down when Nate makes his disapproval plain, her eyes going even colder than usual. "Sarcasm doesn't look good on you, Nate." She tells him. "I'm here, I'm in one piece, and if I had found what I was looking for, I had a way out." She almost leaves it there, but can't resist adding, "So no, I haven't been an idiot today, Nate." She looks him in the eye for a second more, then just says, "Thanks for the burger, though." Illyana looks over at the group that's formed around the cannon, and decides she's been sociable enough for the day. Deciding that if Scott wants dropping somewhere later he'll come and find her, the blonde sorceress makes her way into the mansion.

Rogue is grinning at Lorna as she approaches. "I been breakin' rules around here since I got here, like eight ago now. Ain't been labeled a terrorist yet, sugh." She says back to the green haired gal. She then looks between both Scott and Lorna. "See, now ya both wanna fire Bella, don'tcha?"

Taking a step to the side, Rogue points out to the lake waters beyond the trees. "Lets just aim it out that way and shoot it out inta the lake. It ain't gonna clear that kinda distance anyhow."

Rogue then shifts her gaze over to Marcos and she gives him a big grin. "Well hey there, tall dark and delicious." She says to (who she believes to be!) Lorna's boyfriend/fiance/husband? She doesn't really know.

A glance to the cannon and then back to him. "I took some students to a Civil Ward Nerdshow north'a here. Some'a the folks fingered us t'be mutants and some…" Her throat is cleared. "Words were exchanged. The kids are on their way back, drivin' home. After they left, I pilfered me this here beauty. As an example of not t'mess with us." She seems VERY proud of herself.

Yup. Illy has been an idiot.

Somehow Nate fails to be smug about it. His relationship with Illyana was somewhat complicated before, and the recent misadventure has turned the complication to the eleventh in his mind. And he is not even sure if the woman remembers anything of the House of M.

Sooner or later he has to talk with her. And when has he been a patient guy? Not ever.

So he chomps down the rest of his burger and follows the blonde into the school.

Illyana goes home.

Lorna glanced at Scott as he continued to ask where/when/how/what/why. You know, the improtant details. She arched a brow upwards, and then glanced back to the canon. "We can return her as a trap then, yeah? So that way the next asshole that tries to fire it gets a surprise." She glanced at Rogue, grinning maliciously. She wore hardly any of her usual punk-rocker type outfit. No jewlery save a black choker with a cameo pendant. A pair of jeans and a low plunging black shirt.

Still, she leaned against the cannon, arching a brow as she ran a hand over it.

"It's mostly iron. Really easy to rig it, if you wanted Rogue." She offered, glancing side long at Marcos and shooting him a dark look.

This is roughly the time when Remy LeBeau shows up at the scene, the man wearing what looks like a christmas oriented, Xavier's school themed sweater-vest over his bright pink button up shirt, and a deep purple tie done up expertly beneath his stubbly chin. The man spins around the exiting teens and calls over inside, "Don't'cha be doin' anythin … uh… Any of us would be doin'!" The cajun chides, picking some fun at the awful dastardly nature of the X-ers at the school.

The red eyed man spins around fully, with his dark grey pants fitting just perfectly as he makes his way over to the grill and grabs a paper plate. "Oh look, fixins!" He says to no one with a cautious eye looking around and spotting two people he'd like to talk to, one he has to eventually and another that could make things uncomfortable. Hell they could ALL make things uncomfortable but Remy chooses to not focus on that.

"You have the terror part down." Scott corrects Rogue, a hand comes out and pats the rear hatch of the canon, before fumbling around and finding an opening, he pulls the crank which opens the object up.

"Damn. You grabbed an empty one." THey'll make due. A peer up from where he is admiring the historical oversized weapon as Illyana and Nate depart, the tension there palpable, Marcos and Remy's dual arrivals a replacement in number loss.

Scott ducks back down behind the canon while also opening his phone and looking up exactly how they can work this thing. Yeah, a new toy.

"Not necessary to make it a trap. We'll return it as is. Being bigots isn't enough reason to harm them or steal. We're better than that."

Marcos notices Lorna, though he offers her a grin, and he -hones- in on that Choker, as if testing a theory. Light seems to reflect off of it as if to want to see her reaction. She's never worn that choker in her life before they got back from Sinister's labs. Very curious. Either way, he turns his head back to Rogue with a small smile. "Hey Rogue." he does blush a little bit, because Rogue is very bold.

"ahhh…yeah, that makes sense. So ya stole it?" he grins at her then as he crosses his arms, looking apparently extremely amused. "Not bad Rogue, not bad at all."

"Yeah, I stole it." Rogue responds to Marcos and the points past them all toward the fancy patio area and she singles out the man in the purple and pink. "He's a bad influence, ya see. I thought t'myself… If Remy were strong, what would he take from these guys that othe'ahs couldn't?" She grins and pats the cannon that Scoatt is inspecting down in front of her knees.

She grins at Lorna. "I'm all for that, myself, but I don't figure Scott's gonna be keen on us riggin' this thing t'blow up in some folks faces. Would serve'em right though, huh?"

Speaking of Scott, Rogue looks down at him as he's investigating Bella.

"Ain't like they're gonna load the thing at a reenactment, is it?" She says at him, still grinning. "I mean, ya ever been t'one'a those things. They all shoot like blanks, then scream 'nd fake die. Its stupid fun t'watch."

Lorna grinned at Remy as the man approached and she offered a wave of her hand with a braut in her grip still, half eaten. She glanced back to the cannon, and then to the flatware still spread out on the picnic table. "Oh, I can make a cannon ball. Really, that's very easy. That could be our little gift" She offered, violence rampant in those green eyes of her's and pouted in mock irritation at Scott's comments about not killing bigots. So unfair.

Of course then was Marcos' light show against her choker, her hand rising to cover it with a glare in his direction.

"Shove off Diaz."

Remy has this uncanny ability to hear his name across vast distances, but the cajun doesn't react, not just yet as he's near a certain green haired gal and she is between him and the grill. "Lorna, makin' a cannon ball for Rogue would be a dangerous and deadly t'in' t'do. Ya absolutely should!" The thief says with a smirk as he slips past and grabs a pair of brautwursts to shove onto his paper plate.

Drizzling his weiners with ketchup, Remy then marches slowly towards Rogue, that boyish grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes, his head turns towards Marcos, "Playin' a dangerous game lovah-boy." He warns before stopping in front of Rogue. "We're certainly gonna do somet'in' t'it Scotty. One way o' anot'ah."

"No I actually only witnessed them on television." Scott admits, "I hear my grandfather was a huge Civil War buff. You realize though, I'm from Alaska? North South.. " He doesn't go in to it. "Ours won't be blanks and why not, lets make some. We'll fire them at the north eastern side of the grounds, out there where that old field is." Hopefully someone knows how to properly aim this thing. Can't be too hard. Up down, trajectory… worst case scenario they shoot down a tree or an old N'Garai cairn.

Scott grins at Remy's agreement, at least they're all in accordance there.

Though hearing Lorna snap at Marcos is a new sound, he actually has to look up again at that.

"Do I have to pull this canon over?" Cheesy Slim humor.

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