1265/Lurking Lanterns

Lurking Lanterns
Date of Scene:	20 April 2020
Location:	Horse Stables
Synopsis:	Danielle finds one of Illyana's little gifts hiding in the stables. Bobby and Gabby feed the horses, and nobody gets sucked into Limbo.
Cast of Characters:	Danielle Moonstar, Bobby Drake, Gabby Kinney

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Danielle Moonstar has posed:
Dani's daily schedule is, outside of the few college courses she takes while trying to figure out her exact place in the world in these post-school years, a fairly ephemeral thing. She trains with the X-Men. She spends long hours (sometimes days) in the forests of Upstate New York. She tends to things around the school and sometimes assists the class who came before her with teaching if a student should have powers she can help with. Horseback riding is, however, a near-daily thing.

Fresh back from a ride, her braided hair wind-blown just enough for a few wisps to be free and lost around her face, the horse she'd taken out (a lovely dappled mare) is brushed down and enjoying some treats as Danielle herself puts up the tack. She's starting back towards the garage towards the mansion when she stops and cycles back, standing before a lantern hung on a hook and is just staring at it, lips pulled in a slight line.

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake is in his last semester at Empire State and will be graduating soon, so he spends his time divided between teaching and tutoring here and taking classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays in NYC. So, he happens to be around today. Bobby tends to turn up everywhere at some point or another, and in the stables is no more unusual than anywhere else. He sometimes comes down just to brush the horses, feed them, spend time with them, or maybe go for a ride, though he doesn't seem dressed for riding today, so probably just visiting with the animals. He comes in to the stables to find Dani standing there staring at the lantern. He glances at her, then the lantern, then back at her again. "What's that?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Horses. Hoooorsseeeesses. Gabby had made a point to try and visit them every time she was here. Today she comes with a bag of carrots clutched in hand. A jumbo bag. She was going to go for apples, or sugar cubes, or pixie stix but someone recommended carrots as healthier for them. She bounds through the garage area with a gleeful step only to pause at the sight of Dani nearby.

"Oh hey! You going to go pet the horses too?" She asks cheerily with a bright toothy grin. "I've got plenty of carrots for them! ... I hope. I mean, how much does a horse eat? I've heard of 'hungry enough to eat a horse' but how hungry is the horse?" Ah, the great mysteries of life.

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
"It's-" Dani reaches towards the lantern, then draws her hand back. She crosses one arm over her midsection so her palm can support her opposite elbow, upraised fist propping up cheek. "Hrm." She looks over to Bobby before finally reaching out to pick up the delicate lantern. "It's Illyana's. I think it... got loose as it were." She's holding it carefully, like it might bite at any moment.

And let's be honest: it might.

"I should take it back to her."

Then there's a Gabby and Dani is turning to look at the girl and the bag of carrots. There's a broad grin and the dark-haired, dark-eyed woman is turning to survey the horses in their stalls. She points at one, then another, then a third. "Those. They want carrots the most. Don't let the spotted one be greedy because he will."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake glances over as Gabby comes in with her bag of carrots and grins. "Yeah, I was just going to spend a little time with them. Got some work done one my papers and then decided I needed a break." He then turns back to watch Danielle with the lantern and raises a brow. "If it's Illyana's.. be careful with it. Never know what might come out of it. Or, if you might get sucked into it." Either or seem like plausible scenarios to him.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The explanation from both about the horses earns a quick glance to the ones Dani points out with a quick nod of understanding. "Understood. No piggy horsies," she agrees with a laugh. "You can have some of the carrots too then, Bobby." Though, for now, she steps closer to the pair to look at the lantern they were talking about. A little crinkle of her nose comes as she regards it.

"Just looks like a lamp to me. I mean, a weird one, but what's the big deal?" Someone had clearly not yet been informed of all there is to know and be wary of in regards to Illyana. "Or is it magic somehow? She did some magic on me once to make me look older so I could go play cards with her at Harry's."

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
"I'm putting off a paper," Dani admits sidelong to Bobby. She hasn't even chosen a major. But then, she's going to college part-time and slowly completing her general courses. Avoiding getting a job and joining the 'real world.' Just like a good little mutant who doesn't feel a part of society, right? She dangles the lantern off two fingers, watching the light it casts around her. "You're right," she admits to his hypothosis. "But it's more of a risk if one of the new students comes along and the same thing happens." Illyana is, at least, one of her teammates. She has more experience.

Then Gabby is talking about Illyana making her look older and Dani blinks once. Looks to Bobby and blinks again. Not gonna touch that one, nope. She clears her throat and looks back to Gabby. "Sometimes things with Illyana's magic on them get loose and we don't know what they do. Maybe nothing, but maybe something... dangerous. So it's best to take it back to her so she can put it somewhere safe."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake grins over at Gabby and nods, "Thanks. I'll be sure not to make any of them fat, either." He gives her a little salute regarding the horses and the carrots. Then his attention shifts back over toward Danielle. He laughs and gives her a thumbs-up. "Well, I also encourage delinquency in students that are not mine." Something he may want to rethink once he actually starts teaching full time, but let's face it -- it's Bobby. He tries to ignore what he just heard about Illyana, by pretending he didn't hear anything at all. "She is kind of the Queen of Limbo and all, and there's a lotta weird in Limbo." He tilts his head and looks a little more closely at the lantern. "It looks cool, though, whatever it is, so long as it doesn't eat our souls."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney peels open the plastic wrap to the top of the carrot bag completely ignoring the fact that there was a twist tie right there she could have just taken off to open it far more easily. Her attention wasn't fixed on the bag at the moment, but on the lantern that Danielle was holding with a thoughtful look. "If it's dangerous then yeah we should probably get Illyana here somehow." A few of the carrots are wiggled out of the bag, and offered out to Bobby idly. "What kind of magic could a lantern hold though?" Here she has to pause to consider.

Impulsively she reaches out to prod the lantern with a carrot just to see if it tries to eat it. Never know. Much to her surprise the darn thing speaks.

"Too young," chirps a high pitched, very squeaky voice. It sounds like grinding stones. "Too dangerous for you."

"Hey! ... I'm not sure if I should be offended or worried."

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
"I'm not sure you could make me listen to you even if you wanted to," Dani points out to Bobby, sticking her tongue out in an -incredibly- mature way. Considering he's only a year older than she is and she's graduated from the Xavier program proper... it's probably true. She just has that lazy (directionless) college student thing going on.

The moment of distraction means she's not able to catch Gabby's prodding until it's too late and the... lantern handles the matter itself. In a rather off-putting way. Dani blinks and lifts the lantern to get a closer look at it. She clears her throat. "Yeah. I think I should get this to Illy as soon as possible." A look to Bobby. "On the upside, I think this means none of the kids will be sucked into Limbo."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake takes the offered carrots from Gabby with a grin and a "Thanks," before he makes his way over toward the horses, still close enough for conversation as he pets the creature's forehead and nose gently before offering up one of the carrots for the nibbling. He raises a brow just a little bit with amusement when the lantern actually squeaks in response to being poked by the carrot by Gabby, then laughs. "Well, it told you."

"Good thing I don't want to, then," Bobby says with a grin over at Danielle, sticking his tongue back out at her in a shocking display of maturity for who will soon be a full time instructor at the Xavier school. Great example to be setting in front of Gabby. He doesn't appear to be concerned. "Well, none of the kids will be sucked into limbo by /that/ in particular. I wouldn't count it out entirely otherwise."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney squints at the lantern giving it a wag of her carrot. "Just for that, no carrot for you," she decides. A glance up to Danielle earns a shrug along with a grin. "Well, good luck with it. If you need help I'm nearby... but yeah I'm gonna go feed the horses," she decides with a firm nod as she heads off in that direction to do so. The horse Bobby is feeding gets a scritch in passing too.

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
Watching Gabby go off to feed the horses, Danielle draws the lantern in closer to her person but not //too// close. She holds it like one might a creature that you're only about ninety-percent sure isn't feral. "Point," she admits to Bobby with a slight wrinkle of her nose. "Hopefully they all, uh, reject the kids. And hopefully whatever they are or do is... mildly harmless on the scale of Illyana's magic." But it's always hard to tell.

Lifting the lantern for another look, she shakes her head slightly. "I'll get it back to her soon." She makes her way over to Bobby and reaches out with her free hand to pat the horse he's feeding. "How have you been?" To him, not the horse. She knows how the horse has been.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Well right now all it seems to be doing is making light so that's.. something?" Bobby offers hesitantly, because really, who knows what else it can do. Or it could just be Hell's NightLight. One never knows with these things. But that's what keeps life interesting, isn't it? The horse he was feeding nudges him for another carrot and he chuckles. "Yes, yes," he says to the horse. "I haven't forgotten about you." He pats the big bay's neck gently with one hand and then offers up another carrot carefully.

"Oh, you know, livin' the dream." He flashes her a grin. "School work. Getting ready to graduate. Getting ready to teach full time. Trying to help out with the situation in Genosha. Trying to keep things here sane with dinosaurs running around the school. Making fish tacos. And uh, feeding horses. How about you?"

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
"I couldn't imagine teaching here," Dani admits. Even if she gladly steps in when there's someone who has similar powers or similar-enough and they need her to weigh in. "When I think of teachers, I think of someone... well, like the Professor's age. Not our age. I understand why you're doing it. Why the others have. But I'm not sure I could."

She rubs at the horse's neck some more before giving a bit of a grin. "Every day I get to walk out and talk with people who aren't dinos, I count myself lucky. Seems so far we've been doing all right."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"This place gave me a home when I needed it, and helped me to become who I am, you know? I see all these kids who are going through the same sorts of thing and I want to be there to help teach them what I can teach," Bobby says with a grin and then shrugs his shoulders. "I mean, there are teachers our age out there." He nods in the general direction of the world outside of Xavier's. "Doesn't mean I'm going to stop being an X-Man or doing stuff outside of the school but I want to give back, too."

"Yeah, seems like it. I've heard there are people turning into gorillas, too, though I haven't seen any. Watching Laura and Jean turn in the kitchen in the middle of cooking was, uh.. a thing."

Danielle Moonstar has posed:
Dani grinds a boot into the ground briefly, staring down at it. She was -not- the easiest to deal with when she first arrived. For a while. And it wasn't just because of her powers. She had a lot of resentment for the world outside the reservation and she put a lot of that on the Institute and especially on Xavier. But, it's clear what Bobby says strikes a chord with her to an extent and she lets out a breath. "No, I get it. I do."

She does give a brief snort, quiet. "Hank told me Laura bit him. Crazy. I didn't know Jean turned into one, too. I uh... guess I should see if I can help any of them out, but that means finding them." She tilts her head, glancing down at her watch. There's a grimace. "I need to get going. Danger Room time." The lantern is hefted. "I'll see that this gets back to Illy. Hopefully the others do soon, too."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake leans over and gives Dani a little bit of a nudge with one shoulder and grins, "We all walk our own path. Some of us teach, some of us do other awesome stuff. There's nothing /wrong/ with /not/ wanting to try to wrangle a bunch of teenaged miscreants with powers." He flashes her a grin. "Hell, most folks keep asking me if I've maybe frozen something solid in my brain."

"Yeah, she did. She was mid transformation and he was trying to help since we couldn't tell if she was having a seizure or what was going on. It was.. kinda scary, not gonna lie. Just because we couldn't tell what was happening to her and if she was going to be okay." He gives her a thumbs-up when she mentions danger room time and says "Have a good one. Take care, huh? Don't get sucked into Limbo!"