10594/Who's the fool on April 1st

Who's the fool on April 1st
Date of Scene:	02 April 2022
Location:	Avengers Mansion - First Floor
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanoff, Cael Becker, Steve Rogers, Sara Pezzini

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Pepper Potts has posed:
April 1st. The day of practical jokes, gags and just a touch of wickedness, all in the name of fun. The history and origin of the 'holiday' is a little hazy at best, guesswork at least, but for today, it is properly ensconced as a day where the cry after a joke is played is, 'April Fools!'.

The Avengers' Mansion is a place of calmness, for the most part. It's a place where the team, in all its varied glory, can find safety and respite. Good meals, movies, the gym is downstairs so one doesn't have to go out to the local boxing gym (Steve, looking at you!) to get any training in. That's not to mention all of the other specialized areas in various states and stages of 'classified'.

For those that actually //live// in the mansion, all is well. Mostly. JARVIS' measured tones serve as alarm clocks, the weather is announced, and various schedules are set to each of the tablets, dependent upon the person.

There is food in the kitchen, a tray set of fresh muffins, bagels with a pot of coffee brewing. Pepper is within, at the door of the kitchen, setting everything right. She's dressed in a little more relaxed fare; knit shirt with a button down feminized oxford shirt over it with jeans, and flats. Red hair is down, and in hand, her phone. Fingers expertly scroll up, and she stops the run of data, narrows green eyes and frowns before scrolling again..

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha is coming in. There's a PDA in one hand that she's typing a few things over in to. As she would finish it up, she would go to click a button on it and the SHIELD emblem on it would flash, indicating her dispatching a message and it being encrypted, uploaded to the network, scrambled.. And then she would move to shut off the PDA, putting it back to a 'locked' state, and then going to put it over on her belt over.

As seh's heading towards the kitchen, she would glance over at Pepper, "Ms. Potts, I hope that your research is going well." She's not paying that much attention to whatever it is that Pepper is working on. It's probably something related to her job. Which isn't any of Natasha's business.

Cael Becker has posed:
    With plans later in the evening, Cael stops in at the Mansion briefly - carrying with her a large sack filled with take-away. The smell of stir-fried noodles, pan fried dumplings, and other typical asian foods fill the room as she enters, setting everything down on the counter. "Hey all. Who's up for a snack?" she announces casually. As ever, she's dressed in her usual jeans, topped with a t-shirt and her leather jacket. Her hair has been re-dyed - with hints of purples, blues, and greens peeking out from under her blonde hair. Around her neck, she wears only a single chain - one of plain silver that disappears under her shirt.
    She opens the bag of food, pulling out a package of noodles as she remarks, "Coffee smells good."

Steve Rogers has posed:
    Steve is standing in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee next to him, peering at his phone. Yes, he has a phone, a smartphone even. Look, who do you think went to the moon and invented the internet? Steve's generation, that's who. Even if he missed all of that, he can still do his best to adjust. Also, where else is he going to get his schedule and communicate with people? Nobody has day planners anymore.

    To be fair, he really prefers to use a stylus and one of those "read the input you write" apps, because typing with his thumbs is still a weird thing he's getting used to. Then he can just sort of pretend it's a really shiny pocket planner.

    The smell of food gets him up to look up and around from frowning at his scheduling app. Did he do something wrong? He must have done something wrong. "That smells great, Becker."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The Avengers were more than capable of getting their own coffee, Sara was well aware of that, but that didn't stop her from getting the really good stuff and bringing it by weekly. Nicaraguan, Ethiopian Harrar, and Sumatra Mandheling were some of the names that she delivered. Today was Hawaiian Kona and Tanzania Peaberry, both considered some of the best coffee in the world. Usually she would make her delivery on a Saturday or Sunday, but something strange with her phone related to JARVIS had made her decide to come by on Friday instead. She still wasn't used to JARVIS having access to anything, hell, she wasn't used to JARVIS in general.

Parking her bike outside, and putting the helmet on the seat, she grabbed the bag of coffee from her saddle bags and headed into the mansion. Someone in there had to know something about the strangeness on her phone, but either way new coffee!

"Morning," she offers as she enters, surprised to see a collection of people already, and then she smells the noodles. "Cael, the noodle aroma always gives you away."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper eyes her phone for a few more moments before she presses her lips together, and with a couple good keystrokes, seems to reorganize something before she puts it away. Once that's taken care of, there is the wander into the kitchen proper for a danish.. no, it's cut in half, and she sets the other half of the cinnamon apple pastry aside for someone else. "Good morning.. and I.." The single syllable is lengthened before she lets it go. She shakes her head quickly, "It's nothing, I'm sure." There's that moment hesitation as she settles the 'not a good choice for breakfast' is into her hand, resting upon a napkin. "Everything else is going. At a snail's pace until signatures are gained." It may be a throwaway line, but it does have a little meaning. She hasn't yet seen a conscious Tony.

Cael and dumplings is greeted with a raised brow, and a slightly amused dubious sounding, "Good morning, and.. no thank you. Thank you for the offer, however. There's.."

Coffee. And coffee that Sara's bringing! "Good morning.." Still no bite of that danish, and she's almost ready to set it aside in favor of those new blends. "Here, Sara, let me help you. Or, I'll get the cups down." There. Better use of her time without the calories!

As the gathered come towards the kitchen, as coffee and food is gained, there is an alarm that goes off... the klaxon is one that suggests a possible intruder..

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Any sort of commentary that Natasha might make over to inquire on things is cut off as the alarm goes off. Natasha is going to quickly take out a gun that she clearly did -not- have on her right before as she would go to speak.. "JARVIS, narrow intruder alarm. Seal off area." Natasha goes to then pump a full clip into her pistol, and as soon as the alarm location would be confirmed, she's going to race along there at full speed, seeming to not really pay attention to the others. Duty calls, and they'll be responding in tehir own ways so Natasha sees no reason to give them any sort of instructions. They'll give her ones as need be.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "It's never too early for noodles," Cael answers Sara wirh a broad grin.
    Of course - there's also the fact that she was up at the crack of dawn - practicing and exercising with Sam, and getting more time in with his Wings. So it was practically lunch time as far as she was concerned. She opens her container, digging in with a fork as she adds, "Help yourself, Cap. There's also some rice porridge stuff in there if that's more 'breakfasty' to some of y-"
    Cael cuts off as the alarm goes off, glancing at her phone to see where the breach is - her expression going puzzled. "Did someone just breach a wall?" Wouldn't they have to use an explosion? Unless they had some sort of... phasing ability? Like Natasha, Cael draws a gun - a pistol she'd been wearing at her side as she starts jogging through the mansion towards the sight of the alarm. "JARVIS - how many intruders? Do we have any IDs on them?"

Steve Rogers has posed:
    Steve is reaching for a dumpling--and raising his eyebrows at 'rice porridge,' because that actually sounds kind of tasty--when the alarm goes off. He frowns and puts down his phone (forgetting to lock it, hopefully it'll lock on its own) and starts after the others, heading toward the source of the alarm.

    "A wall?" he asks Cael in confusion. "No, that's the door."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Into the kitchen Sara goes to set the containers of coffee beans down and toss the bag into recycling. She was just moving to put the containers away when the alarm sounds, which causes one brow to raise high on her head.

"Uh..." yep, she still starts with the same teen word, and will be working on not doing that any more. "I don't know about JARVIS, but there's no danger."

Turning to look at those present she gestures to the jeans and t-shirt she's wearing. If no one else in the room understands that, Cael would just by looking at her. She was still dressed. "At least Witchblade is saying no danger," she then adds, really confused on how to react to all this. Anything relating to JARVIS was new to her, and honestly she knew nothing about the AI other than it, no he... was created by Tony Stark.

She takes a step forward then back, indecision for a few moments, confusion obvious, then she decides it best to air on the side of caution and head toward the location given that the intruder was supposed to be. Witchblade was never wrong, in two years of being his wielder he had never once allowed her to be hurt, he had /always/ reacted to danger before it happened. No armor meant no danger, but something was up, that much was still very clear.

"This sort of thing common?" she asks as she moves with the others now.

Pepper Potts has posed:
<<Unable to be counted,>> comes the reply, a quiet, English accented voice returns, seemingly from everywhere. He's.. not lying. <<I do not have any identification.>>

Pepper hears the alarm go off, and the sound brings that rush to her face at the possibility of danger (once again) in the Avengers Mansion. There've been energy creatures within before, but JARVIS would mention it if it was detected; he knows about them now. He's programmed for their potential. But now?

The red-head is puzzled. She knows the Mansion. She's known it since //before// the Avengers moved in, and had overseen at least a little bit of the contractor work. (She'd even glanced at the blue prints. Shhh.. she's no security risk!)

There's no door.

Pepper takes the steps towards the location, grabbing a candlestick set on one of the sideboards as she goes. She's armed!

"No, no it's not.." Pepper is in that determined quick walk now, her 'weapon of choice' in hand. "I thought it was a wall.." She's moving too quickly, however, to bring up her phone and ask for the blueprints so she has it in front of her. "There shouldn't be, unless someone put one in later?"

Upon arrival of the first Avenger, that is exactly what is there. A wall in one of the many sitting rooms that sees very little traffic. (It is a Mansion, after all.. many, many sitting rooms!) At the base of the wall, however, is a little Roomba-shaped cleaner droid that stares up at the newly arrived and *brrrrrrrrps* a along, whistled note. Behind him, lined up, are shoes from each closet. Natasha's, Steve's.. anyone who lives there, who possibly left anything behind.. it's there. The little 'bot swings around, looking pleased with himself, whistling in soft tones.

As each arrive, and are greeted by the little cleaner robot, another announcement comes from everywhere,

<<I believe the phrase is, 'April Fools'.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would keep her weapon in front of herself over and going to swing it about and then go to slowly lower her pistol voer as she would sweep about the room. Slowly lowering it as she would see everything that had been put uot. "I think we all have some surprise renovations going on. And I think we've all had a few things turn up missing. And Jarvis, you're aware what Janet's going to do if she finds out that you've taken shoes from her room, don't you?" SHe would quip.

"And a rather good one. April Fools to you as well. This must have taken some time to arrange. You've been preparing for this in advance. Well done. Particularly with none of us noticing anything that as amiss." She would dip her head at the roomba with a sign of approval.

"And it's ar eminder to check my closet a litlte more carefully from now on as well."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael does take in Sara's unarmored form - but that doesn't stop her from continuing to explore the alarm. She's not one to leave possible threats unexplored. The arrangement of shoes, however, has her holstering her gun again with a faint front on her lips. "Great. I'm letting my noodles go cold for this? Seriously, JARVIS?" she asks.
    "...I've been five year olds come up with more mature pranks," she mutters, as she turns to start back towards the kitchen.

Steve Rogers has posed:
    Steve sighs and puts his hands on his hips as he peers down at the shoes. "Very funny," he says, in that tone that says he doesn't think it's funny at all. "Well, okay, the shoes are a nice touch, and 'clean the invisible jet' on my schedule, haha, but false intruder alarms?" He shakes his head.

    "Janet /is/ going to be upset if any of her stuff's missing," he notes as he leans down to swipe his own shoes and starts for his room to put them back. "You might want to put it back before she notices."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
There were many possibilities that had been playing through Sara's head, the AI playing April Fools pranks had not been one of them. Her eyes look over the lined up shoes, then over to the little roomba, then back to the shoes.

"Cael, I would like to thank you right here, right now, with witnesses, for being a fantastic roommate and never once having touched my shoes," she offers with a laugh, then, since she's not sure where JARVIS really is, looks around to add, "It was a good prank JARVIS, and totally explains the 'emergency run to Dunkin Donuts' I have in about five minutes."

She holds her phone out to everyone can see the emergency red status on collecting two dozen donuts. "Cop, donuts, I get it... I didn't know an AI could have a sense of humor."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper has her candlestick in hand, and as she arrives, she sees exactly, at least somewhat, what she'd expected. A. Wall. Natasha and the gang had made it there before her, obviously, and with an exhaled, puffed sigh, she looks around quickly for a place to put her 'weapon' down.

"JARVIS.." she can't help but offer a brief, chuffed, almost relieved laugh. "I didn't think you would." Could? Absolutely. She knows the AI has a sense of humor. Just have to listen to him in the middle of his answers to questions. Or, it could be that she's one of the few that doesn't think of him as 'a computer' but rather, a companion.

"Okay," and now Pepper is turning her attention to the little robot, "put them back where you got them. In their correct rooms," she adds. "Now."

The cleaner robot whistles, the tones rising as if in argument before the redhead clears her throat, "Now," is repeated.

Slowly, the Avengers' little Roomba begins to pick up possessions and start to bring them back to their rooms, trailing bits of shoe-laces and possibly clothing behind.

Sara's addition, the schedule for donuts? Pepper can't help but laugh, "That makes sense, then, for my supposed ski vacation in the Alps later tonight. I //know// that isn't a thing." She pauses a moment before,

"Good try, JARVIS. Happy April Fool's Day. But, that's it, right?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael has not stuck around to see the shoes cleaned up - and by the time the others return to the kitchen, she's pulled up a stool, and poured herself a cup of coffee. And from the scent coming off it - yes, she's added a dash of whiskey. Coffee and spicy, stir-fried noodles might not be everyone's idea of an ideal pairing, but Cael seems completely happy as she digs in - content to ignore the childish shenanigans of the artificial intelligence.
    "You know - odds are Alis has done //something// to both of us," she remarks as Sara returns to the kitchen. "I'd be shocked if she didn't."

Steve Rogers has posed:
    Steve comes back to the kitchen, shoes replaced--he doesn't really trust the Roomba--and grabs himself a dumpling or two along with a muffin. Coffee, muffin, Chinese dumplings; a true all-American breakfast.

    "I guess if that's the worst of it today we should be grateful," he says with a smirk as he grabs his phone and turns off the screen, putting it away while he eats. In that, he's definitely old-fashioned; no devices at the table. He settles himself down and starts in on a muffin.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Even as the roomba is being ordered to put things back, Sara makes her way back to the kitchen... only one wrong turn, the mansion is huge! Coffee is poured, a hint of sugar and cream added, and she pulls up a stool by Cael.

"You know Alis has moved several of your things to the house, right?" She comments, reaching for some noodles. She doesn't care what kind, nor had she been hungry for them until she smelled them. "I think there's a couple of Jon's things in the box as well. I just look and go, 'That's not mine or Johnny's.' and put it in the box."

Noodles collected, along with some dumplings, she steals a bite before looking around the kitchen. She'd now seen two rooms in the mansion, and been a quick tour thanks to JARVIS, but over all she'd still get lost trying to find anything in this place. "That might not be the worst of it," she offers to Steve with a grin. "I just got here after all, maybe I plan to shaving cream your bed."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper makes sure that the candlestick that she'd brought in is returned to its place in the front hallway, following the robot out as she does to be absolutely certain that he carries out what she'd instructed him to do. She really doesn't doubt it, but there are always little holes in programming. It simply happens.

Once complete, the redhead returns to the kitchen, catching the last bit regarding a prank to Steve. She dips her head, a ghost of a smile appearing on her face as she makes her way towards the coffee pot. One for the road.

"If you'll excuse me. I don't think he'll do anything more, but to be on the safe side, just keep an eye out for anything strange." Not dangerous, mind. Just.. strange. "If anything comes up that I find, I'll let you know."

Shaking her head, she sets up a little travel cup, pours and creates her drink before turning on a heel and offering a, "Have a good day. I hope everything else is clear," as she lets herself out.

Down the corridor, Pepper might be heard, "JARVIS, I really hope you didn't give HOMER any ideas."

<<No, Ms Potts. It isn't sufficiently advanced to create the subroutine.>>

Right. Not smart enough. "Thank you."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "...is that why Jon's toothbrush disappeared?" Cael asks in an amused tone. "I mean, honestly - we'd assumed Alis." Because where else would a TOOTHBRUSH go? "I've moved everything back out of the temporary quarters in the Triskelion you know - and back into the apartment. Don't see how keeping three homes between the two of us makes any sort of sense at this point." She takes another bite of her noodles, then looks towards Steve.
    "If I were you - I'd keep an eye on the toilets. I think Alis made off with the saran wrap earlier - she's probably doing all the toilet seats in the mansion as we speak."

Steve Rogers has posed:
    Steve stares between Sara and Cael for a moment. He's heard the name. Cael's sister. Isn't she dead? Should he ask? Would it be rude to ask about probably-dead sisters?

    He finally decides to go with, "Well, I'm very much taken, but I'd be glad to give her an autograph or something."

    There. That's safe. He knew he should've grabbed a newspaper to read over his coffee.