15612/The Second Floor Waterfall

The Second Floor Waterfall
Date of Scene:	14 August 2023
Location:	Faculty Lounge
Synopsis:	Lorna and Monet assist Scott with some wayward mutant pets in the plumbing of the mansion.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Summers, Monet St. Croix, Lorna Dane

---

Scott Summers has posed:
Despite first attempts to contain the situation ... it's not contained.

There's a leak from somewhere on the floor. A leak of water, that's running out in a low, distinct flow into the hallway of the second floor. Some of it has found its way to the stairs, now, in a dripping cascade of water in a very pleasant waterfall. However, it's exceptionally slippery, if anyone ventures away from the carpeted areas.

"Caution, please, the stairs are dangerous---" Mr. Summers says to a curious student, as he sets out a large yellow plastic 'WET FLOOR' sign at the top of the stairs. Yes, the flood needs to be dealt with: but priorities with students mean their safety is first. Even if Scott is harder to take seriously while also wearing rubber boots and gloves that don't match. Fashion is not important, solving the problem is important. Scott's expression is tense, focused, frowny - but that's a normal situation when dealing with something like this!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix takes a moment over to simply float a coule inches above the ground as she hears the alert. "Mister Summers, what is the etent of the damages, and which of the students has caused them?" Or the staff, at least. However, there's not the usual cascade effects of damage that come from some of the students. If the incident was caused over by the staff, then there probably wouldn't be much of a stairwell left. She makes sure to stay -well- away from the water.

She couldn't remotely put her outfit at risk for something that was -ugh- going to require manual labor to be fixed. "Is it Mister Drake's fault?" Even if he was nowhere in sight, or not even at the school, she was sure there was a solid risk it was Bobby's fault. Wasn't everything?

Lorna Dane has posed:
    "Hello?" Lorna asks as she lifts up her sandled foot, and looks down at the flowing water as she opens the front doors. "Um... hello?" Asks the queen that just this weekend declared all mutants are now citizens of Genosha. The water at Xavier's isn't exactly something she's capable of dealing with. Mentally. Maybe she could physically stop the water, but she's still learning there's a problem.

    A cream colored sundress with blue and yellow stitching and accents over the straps and hems, and a pair of now wet flip flops, Lorna walks in, and with a motion of her left hand, her bag starts to float up and behind her. "Yeah, this seems like a Bobby thing." Lorna says as she appears behind Monet, though still standing with her exposed feet in the River De Xavier's.

Scott Summers has posed:
"We're still learning the facts, Monet," Scott answers Monet simply. There's a 'tone' Scott often gets when he's in this sort of situation - direct and clear answers. He's answering Monet like he would anyone who asked for a Situation Report in the field. "At this time, appears to be a prank executed in the Staff Lounge. Something moving - possibly alive - in the water supply pipe. I've cut the water off to the floor, but there's a pressure shift." And here they all are now. A pause. Scott's aware of what is probably a concern: "It's not the drain or sewage."

Important distinction.

"I haven't addressed the security footage yet on the 'who'." Because instead he's here doing manual things with gloved hands, in the thick of the water problem. He doesn't directly name or blame Bobby-- but the tension in jaw when Lorna brings it up suggests he had a similar thought, at least at first. "Lorna, I know most of the pipe work here is PVC, but if you're able, please turn off any local metal valves, if you would?"

Scott is occupied now with towels from the linen closet, but there's a funny little scrabbling noise from the Faculty lounge, like a chittering ...creature.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would cock her head to the side and then give a nod, "Yes Mister Summers." Her tone is very polite and acknowledging. She appreciates the directness of his replies. Without prompting she goes to try and use her telepathy to focus if she can to figure out what's going on. It's likely something from the forest, so if so she should hopefully be able to pick it out mentally.

And get an idea of what it is, and if it's not hostile then hopefully calm it down so it can be extracted and removed.

She still hovers up in midair as she scans, making a point of showing the others what she's doing - not for the sake of showing off, but to coordinate with them. And isn't Lorna's powers everything electromagnetic? So she should be able to do it like telekinesis.

Lorna Dane has posed:
    Smirking with a hint of over-selfconfidence, the Queen shows a hint of teeth in that smile. She's feeling better about this than she was the situation on Friday. This is a cake walk. This is something she can do. This is something she KNOWS she can handle.

    "You got it." The ferrokinetic says as she keeps the luggage behind her floating but closes her eyes and extends her hands out, to FEEL the metal around and within the pipes, and she makes sure she knows it's the metal valves to the waterflow. "I think I got it." She says, and both her hands twist and slowly the sound water rushing begins to pitch up, as less and less pipe is open for it to flow through until ZZZZZZIP and the water is off.

    "It might take a while before we see it off here, but it should be off." Lorna reports with a smile to Monet too. "Fancy meeting you here." She teases.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Thank you, Lorna." Scott says, with some strangled relief in his tone. He would have, of course, attempted to handle this without any others, but always finds teamwork far preferable. That some willing hands showed up is much better. Even if none of that really /shows/ on his face, because Scott is Very Grumpy about needing to deal with this at all.

Still... patience. He can be grumpy after there's no longer a hazard.

To Monet's search, she finds two things -- two independant small creatures are active. Both are in the current vicinity of the sink in the Faculty lounge - one in the pipework exploring, the other sitting in the sink and playing in some dishes left there. They are furry and otter-like, but pretty small, able to slip in and out of the drain!

Scott, aware of Monet's powers, is welcome to her doing as she will, really - better suited to sort out the mystery than many. "Is it an animal?" Scott asks -- while making a barricade of towels on the stairs, to cut off the worst of what is still emptying. He'll be the one to bog around in it, he doesn't mind being the one that does that, of this team.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would frown for a moment, "They're playful and exploring. They're small enough to move in the pipes.. But something that has that personality shouldn't be able to make it so far.." She would frown, trying to glean a bit more. "Something from the lake couldn't have made it this far into the system.. And someone's hamster wouldn't have managed to get this deep." Lockheed would just have set the place on fire so it's not Katherine's keeper.

She goes to try and scan a little more.. "There." she tries to point out the general section of the pipes where she's picking up the two in. "That hopefully should let you isolate them." She's making sure now to float a few feet back just in case. Because it's likely some icky little animal from outside. That's -eww-.

Lorna Dane has posed:
    Out of everyone present, Scott is the most dressed for the situation, though Lorna with her already wet feet, follows up the stairs behind Scott without much of a complaint thought she does look down over her baby bump to examine her toes. "I'll have to get these re-painted, but I'm sure Raven wouldn't mind helping with that. Oh! Or Ororo since I'm already here." She giggles softly, playing up the girly mood for some reason. Stepping into the room over the towel dam, Lorna mindful of her dress doesn't squat down, but she does bend to look beneath the sink.

    "Want me to -" She motions with her hand, one a C shape, and the other a fist that she pushes through the C. One is supposed to be the pipe and the other is ... some sort of reverse plunger, to force them out of the sink. And she has no idea if Scott or Monet understood her hand motions so, "-Push the back out of the pipes? They could be little underwater Indiana Joneses."

Scott Summers has posed:
"In there? The Faculty lounge?" Scott asks Monet for confirmation. "They? How many?" He asks, while starting to move now.

"Excellent idea, Lorna. I think these pipes all tree across from the dorms, though, so I don't want them going that way. Perhaps send something through /from/ each of those ends, into the faculty lounge? Push them out. Monet, if you can keep track on where they are, I can get ready to grab them." Scott is pretty aware from Monet's body language that she won't be touching /anything/. And that's fine, really.

Scott grabs one of the extra towels, over his neck, and heads into the faculty lounge area -- thoughtfully holding the door for the women as well automatically, without thinking about it. He's already looking for solutions - such as the basket that houses the fancy ice bucket for wine being upended and brought towards the sink. Problem-solving!

One of the creatures is very shallow, barely in the sink of the lounge; the other is roving deeper, off on some mini critter adventure, which causes the water pressure to flip again, and some water geysers out of the lounge sink! Scott moves back, bodily shielding Monet and/or Lorna from the Dangerous Water. (Which is hardly dangerous, but habits.)

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix goes to float several steps away now- just in case whatever it is goes to jump at her. Yes, she went ahead and sensed some level of intrigue from the thing but she's definitely not going to risk it on her moderate level abilities. She's also ensuring that the most capable person in the room, namely Mister Summers, is in the line of whatever comes out just as she completely and totally respects his abilities to handle the situation.

So, a safe distance away she gives a frown as she insepcts the thing that would be taken out. And smiles very politel over at Scott as he shields her from the thing coming out /and/ the water, saving her very, very expensive outfit. "Thank you Mister Summers!" Her tone is fully sincere and appreciative as she thanks him for his service!

... Maybe not for the reasons that he would appreciate her priorities being in, but the sincere thanks is definitely there.

Lorna Dane has posed:
    "Thank you, Scott." Lorna says as she enters the faculty lounge and splashes her flip flops in the puddle of water on the floor. "Chuck's going to be quite upset about this." She says outloud, knowing that will probably get Scott to tense up, but someone had to say it, no?

    "Okay, another moment." Lorna starts to reach back out with her senses, and powers, making a small metal 'wall' or ball bearing the size of the pipes down stream from the creatures, and begins to roll them back up, pushing with her mind and senses to get the tribble or whatever it is to move in this direc- NO not that way. THIS WAY. It's like moving a ball bearing in one of those hand mazes, but it's a pipe in a wall and she can move the ball bearing as well as reshape it however she chooses, but blind. "This isn't-- THERE!"

Scott Summers has posed:
Of course Scott tenses a little at Lorna's comment. She knows him well, and she absolutely gets the result expected. He absolutely hates being part of anything that makes Xavier disappointed. Even if it's not his fault. It's still SOMEHOW his fault that he didn't oversee the students better or contain the creatures through some sort of preventative measure ---

"Maybe, but it is just 'things'. So long as the students are safe, and we handle this, it'll work out," is what Scott answers. It's the truth, absolutely Scott does KNOW it to be true - but will still question if he could have Done Better.

But that's for later.

"Watch out, this is the splash zone, Monet," Scott deadpans to Monet when she thanks him. There's perhaps even some lightened undertone there -- DID HE MAKE A JOKE?...

But the mission at hand is more important. One of the 'tribbles' suddenly peeks out, and Scott's pouncing on it. Fearlessly - he's gloved and is using a towel to wrap the critter. He puts the whole thing into the wire mesh bucket: a lumpy captured towel blob.

The second critter is nearly forced out, but is squalling and crying inside the pipe, in a panic, trying to dodge or evade Lorna's Doom Rock. But it can't, so suddenly it's in the sink! It has giant dark eyes, a flat little face full of fluffy whiskers. The color is tan and black spotty. It's like a mutant, stretched hamster.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would float a bit more over as she would look over at the thing, "What is that.." It looks like someone took bits of one animals, stuck them on another.. "It looks like something that was dumped in the sewers and that someone them dropped ooze on." She's got to be completely wrong there - the thing hasn't grown to a full size monster or anything! It's just someone's weird pet that they got from Bushwick or something.

Or likelier weird PETS. "Whomever has such a thing..?" She then rapidly decides that she doesn't want to know, and goes to float back several more inches just to be on the safe side. Apparently someone does not particularly like animals..

Lorna Dane has posed:
    "WHAT THE F**K IS THAT?!" Lorna sputters and recoils as the second one comes out. Determined to get a look at it as she missed the first with Scott being TOO on the ball, she takes a step back, and slips on the wet tile and splashes as she lands on her bottom with water going EVERYWHERE! "I doubt that's a Bobby think and is definitely a Hank thing." Lorna says with a frown and her hair falling down around her face, wet from the large splash.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Lorna!" Scott reacts, immediately -- not to the swearing, but to the recoil and slipping. He jumped for her instead of minding the creature, trying to help catch the pregnant woman from falling on the /floor/!

"Are you all right? Here--" Scott is extremely concerned about Lorna's safety. He was trying so hard to keep people safe. And here we are!

While Scott does that, the creature in the sink climbs to an edge in a darting motion -- and is suddenly airborne, towards Monet! It's panicked, confused by being shoved out of a sink pipe, and seems to have mistaken her for an escape route!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
AHHHH! Monet goes to make a face like someone seeing a chestburster for the first time. AUGGHHH! The -thing- goes to land over on her with a wet -splortch- as it gets pipeline water all over her very expensive outfit! IT goes to land over on top of her head, with all the gunk that's at the bottom of the sink spritzing all over her face and her hair as she goes to start to flail about, trying to find the thing to fling it off!

Someone save it!

Lorna Dane has posed:
    "I'm alright." Lorna says, as she winces at her bottom being dropped on and then smirks back to Scott. "Help her first." The queen says. She's okay, the fall wasn't that big of a deal in Lorna's eyes. "Hey, Monet! Be still!" Lorna says, as she splashes her way with a wet dress sticking to her frame as she stands up and gives a deep nod to Scott for helping her back up to her feet.

Scott Summers has posed:
Once it's clear that Lorna wasn't injured or pummeled, that the shallow water and towels seemed to have left her just fine -- Scott does pivot quickly to the creature on Monet.

"I don't think still is happening. Monet: focus! Throw it this way," Scott instructs, instead. His tone is hard, direct -- a little too harsh, maybe, but he's trying to cut through her 'UGHHHH!' reaction to get her to direct herself out of flail and into aiming. He's got a (wet) towel ready to catch it.

And a trusting, firm, 'you can do this, of course' expression.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's only Scott's voice that prevents M from grabbing the thing, crushing it in her fist an dthen flinging the remnants of it through the wall, out through the corridor,and probably forming a messy spectacle like Frank Castle at an AARP meeting of retired Maggia bosses. Lorna is probably trying to resist breaking into laughter/not resisting at all as Monet goes to grab it and /close/ to crushing it but not while flinging it.. Not hard enough to put ti through the wall but Scott will have to adjust to make a catch that won't crush the poor pet.

Lorna Dane has posed:
    There's some snorting and gasps from Lorna as she is firmly on her wet two feet watching Monet have a small crisis, and then the thing tumbling through the air, likely getting dizzy or having a heart attack from the assult the X-men just did on this poor, freaky ass creature.

    The queen doubles over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath as she starts to laugh. "Oh my god. Stop. STAHP." She wheezes as she is about to fall back onto the floor at the show.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott's good at sports like football, lots of good hand-eye coordination, tactics -- things get flung at him ALL THE TIME in training with young recruits -- but this is pretty bizarre as a situation. Still, he's planted his feet well in the slippery water, and just has to reach up and out with the towel to -- partially get it!

There's a scrabble as he has to try to adjust to get it, and it jumps at HIS face. As if that could even possibly ever be safer.

Still, there's no real danger here -- even if he hadn't had glasses on, he shut his eyes anyway, before pulling it uncerimoniously off of his hair and balling it into the towel-- and into the bucket where the other is trying to escape.

With a deep breath, a big serving plate is set on top of the bucket. THERE.

Scott gives himself a moment now to breathe more, and nod firmly at Monet, as if she did everything perfectly. A+.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
NOrmally Scott is probably just trying to catch the thrown thing. Not save the thrown thing. But still, a catch is a catch. Monet's not a good pitcher, so if this were a flung ball it would be outside. But still, the day is saved! Even as M's outfit..

Is not.

Goo is dripping dwon her face, her hair, and her expensive, expensive designer dress! Then she goes to take as tep forwards.. And slips on the goo, falling flat on her ass!

Lorna Dane has posed:
    "Nice catch Piazza." Lorna says as she watches Scott shove the fuzzball under the bucket and serving plate. "Good work tea-" Lorna stops, and faces Monet as she has that awful clapping crack sound as she falls and Lorna steps up, flip flops flapping and being generally wet.

    Bending at the knees as she doesn't care about getting MORE wet, Lorna reaches out a hand to try and pinch that clump of sink-ick off of Monet's face. "Come her honey, you okay? That was a hell of a spill. Here. Let me help you up." She says, being matronly more than anything as she tries to help, even if Monet's not having it.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott's route, instead, is to pretend that he isn't aware of Monet falling or looking poorly at all. There's an ego Scott's aware of on that girl -- and much like a cat, he suspects she'd rather he not have seen.

So it's easier to be busy containing the creatures, absorbed in that, and let Lorna handle Monet's spill. ...Teamwork, again. Know and trust your team, and their strengths.

Such as it is, when covered in sink goo...

"Lorna, it seems you ... snaked out the drain as well. I'm sure we can all appreciate that later when the tap runs smoother." Win-win?

"I'll turn the water back on after I've got the rest of this under control. But I think I can take it all from here if you'd like hot showers." If the ladies want an out from mucking in the flood, they now have it!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
ARGGHHH! Monet goes to just glare over at Lorna wiht a look of pure fury.. That is quickly repressed over when she realizes she's glaring at the Queen of Genosha, dauhgter of Magneto, sister of the Scarlett Witch, sister of Pietro Maximoff. And everyone else in thier european nobility inter-related family. She grumbles over at Lorna but goes to suppress any outward signs she has of agitation, "Yes Ms. Dane." While at the same time going to swear by the expression on her face that she will find those kids and slowly rend them limb from limb.

Lorna Dane has posed:
    There's so much ego can do in the literal face of royalty attempting to do a kindness. "I wont tell a soul." She promises in a whisper between women. She doesn't even threaten Scott for Monet, no, instead Lorna simply help Monet up, and dabs the hem of her wet dress against the woman's face. "All better-ish. I think that a shower is a perfect idea." Lorna says before anything else can be brought up. "I'll go do that now. You two... yeah." And with that Lorna is slipping-splashing out of the room and down the hall.

Scott Summers has posed:
"I'll be looking at the footage later of this area," Scott comments, primarily for Monet. "If punishments are justified... they'll be given." The tone is HARD, and very much suggestive that Scott will NOT simply let the flooding of the upstairs slide. Nor unregistered weird mutant pets!

"Stay to the carpet, it has better traction," Scott warns, mainly at Lorna, aware of her slipperiness, and trying not to flinch. Scott himself stands up fully, hands at his belt loosely-- and realizes he's gotten the crud on his gloves on his pants, now. He drops his hands with a sound through his nose, and surveys the damage.

Sometimes it sucks to be the dad in the room, to have to clean up. But he gets started doing just that.