16102/Xaviers: Haunted House Night

Xaviers: Haunted House Night
Date of Scene:	28 October 2023
Location:	The Haunted Halsey Mansion
Synopsis:	An Xaviers Haunted House extravaganza!
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Monet St. Croix, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Hope Summers, Noriko Ashida, Henry McCoy

---

Rogue has posed:
To say that the Faculty of Xaviers School for Gifteded Youngsters was one of the hardest working group of young adults in their line of work, would be a vast understatement. The level of times the team puts their lives on the line can barely even be put to reasonable numbers at the end of every year. Because of this, it has become an increasingly developing push for the faculty to not 'party' with the students of their school, but instead get times to enjoy being away from it. This was challenging, of course, since there were so many factors involved, but tonight... a trip away from the school had been setup for a handful of the faculty and residents who work hard to keep the school safe.

A trip to Mutant Town. Everyone loves Mutant Town. Especially this time of year! It had been tracked down online that there was an 'all the rage' Haunted House that could be booked and enjoyed leading up to Halloween, and the arrangements were made.

Prior to the big night, Rogue had been putting so much effort in to coming up with a costume that she ended up just raiding some boxes in the attic after getting tipped off that one of her top costume choices was already on-site, and just sitting in a box in some dark corner of the mansion. Eureka!

Here and now.. Rogue's white tennis shoes bounce up the stairs outside, the long front walk up to the Haunted House had been an experience of being told all about the place, and that the group needed to get inside to save the family of the mentally deranged 'Doctor 'Horace Halsey'.

"Doctor Horace Halsey was a mad scientist who had been performing evil experiments on his guests, and even his own family. The Halsey House is rife with the ghosts of the tortured souls of those experiments, and the specters are causing a ruckuss throughout Mutant Town this Halloween! Can you save the day? Free the spirits and put the Halsey Mansion to a peaceful slumber?"

Rogue read all of that on the cell phone app screen she'd had pulled up while standing at the top of the mansion's steps. She glances around the dark front porch, and then back at everyone else. "I guess we just go inside and ... save the day? Free the SPIRITS!" She says, the last word getting her to widen her eyes to emphasize the magnitude of it all!

Rogue is wearing a blue and gold Xaviers School cheerleader outfit. Apparently the school had 'concept outfits' made about 6 years ago, and they'd been sitting in a box in the attic this whole time. a VERY tight sweater hugs Rogue's upper body, while a blue and gold skirt hangs around her upper thighs. She has a pair of pom-poms dangling from a string on the right side of her skirt and a pair of dark blue gloves on to match the attire.

It's about 8pm outside, 45 degrees giving a nice cool and crisp tingle to the air...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would glance over then and in the distance, in the west end of mutant town where the Golem had been known to frequent in the past, and then go to let out a sigh. Her expression was generally flat with the M-facial-expression-to-English affectation of 'couldn't we have sprung for real ghosts'? And with the way Rogue is looking.. Monet goes to let out an internal sigh, and goes to smooth it awya and suppress it.

Wearing an ensemble over matching Rogue's and otherwise playing it extremely flat. She goes to repeat the maneuver without the enthusiasm, and it looks more like she's pantomiming as some sort of animatronic. Her posture is so stiff and otherwise flat that it actually does a rather good job as a costume and showoff!

... not that she's intending it to be, but at least there's some sort of thing she can justify getting away with!

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean and Rogue often do group costumes. Sometimes, that requires some fun coordination of varied and interesting choices, like doing all the members of the Scooby Gang or the time they were Game of Thrones princesses together and Rogue had no idea what was happening because she's not a nerd.

This time? Well, it requires none of that! This is a statement of ultimate laziness: she's wearing the same thing as Rogue. Who do you think told her about those boxes up in the attic, anyway?

There are some nods to individuality, of course. Jean has gone for variation in hairstyle, putting hers up in a high ponytail like one might use for the actual sport, with an obversized blue ribbon tying it off. It's very Wholesome Americana, like the small town where she grew up!

Is Monet one too? Is EVERYONE? Well, it makes it easy to tell the group appart.

Arriving at the Haunted House, she stands outside as whatever preparations are made and their group waits for their own turn. Aside from her costume, she has a milkshake. You don't go to Mutant Town and not get a milkshake, although it's anyone's guess when she snuck away to get it. "There's usually some kind of storyline, yeah," she answers the other woman as she reads the plot synopsis off her phone. "I actually was on a cast for one of these once, when I lived in the city. They're popular part time jobs for all the young struggling actors, NYU drama students, models. Or even people learning makeup or costuming. Can be a lot of work that goes into putting it all together." She looks up and around. "May as well just barge on in, right?"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
A bombshell of a blond walks up beside Rogue, Jean and Monet. Wearing all white with white open-toed high heels, she has a noticeable beauty mark to the left of her mouth. She's wearing a white dress that shows deep cleavage. And the skirt of the white dress is being held up by wires inside the fabric, as if she were permanently standing on something like a subway grate blowing air up from beneath her.

Is it Emma? No no, this blond has some enhancements going on inside the dress, and a blond wig that completes the transformation of Kitty Pryde into Marilyn Monroe.

She flashes a glamorous smile at the others and asks loudly, "Come on girls. Who said nights were for sleep?" Kitty begins giggling and pretending to try to push down the white skirt that is revealing the white underwear beneath when one is at the right angle.

Hope Summers has posed:
Hope isn't faculty by any stretch of the imagination, and though she's taking remedial classes to try and get her high school equivalency (being raised in the apocalyptic future left her bereft of some things) she's not really a student in the same way many of the others are. It's also probably better to get her out of the Mansion and away from the stack of weapons she's been ominously accruing.

Her costume is a simple one. A leather jacket over a dark t-shirt. Silver paint on one side of her face. A black glove with a metallic, skeletal hand printed on it. A pair of black sunglasses with a jury-rigged red diode behind the right eye.

"I'll be back," she'd said, before she ducked away from the rest of the group for a bathroom break. Back now, she has an icee in one hand - completely uncaring of the cold weather. She sips it with a noisy slurp.

"Spooky."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko must have not gotten the memo about wearing a costume this time around, despite having been rather festive at past Haloweeny events.  She shows up wearing nothing special, just normal street clothes, cargo pants, old beat up black leather hoodie, her blue kicks she never seems to leave home without, and some sunglasses, which remain on.

At least she's here.  Maybe she thought it was mandatory.  When Noriko sees Hope's icee her stomach actually growls in jealous protest as if on cue.  "Where?" she demands of Hope in a quiet but determined voice.

Rogue has posed:
"Check in when you arrive..." rogue mutters as she stares at her phone while the others join her on the top step of the front porch of the old mansion. She glances over at her fellow Cheerers, then at Kitty Munroe. She smirks softly at her, and shakes her head gently before her eyes go back to her phone. She taps on the Check In button beside the app, and a message pops up telling them to head on inside. "Guess so..." Rogue mutters back to Jean then before she turns toward the doorway and steps over to the brass handle. The knocker on the front door is one of those delightful old fashioned styles, where the brass ring is being clutched in the teeth of what looks like something between a cross of a devil and a pig monster.

"Wicked." Rogue mutters before pushing the door open, and striding on inside the foyer. She steps off to the side then to let the rest of the group come inside as well, now noticing that Hope got a drink too. "Why did everyone get drinks without me?" She asks, since Jean snuck off and got a Mootant Milkshake...

Once everyone is inside, Rogue pushes the big front door shut again, leaving them in the main foyer, with a dimly lit chandelier hanging from the high ceiling far above.

It's quiet, and it smells like dust and furniture polish...

"Nice place. I don't see what all the hub-bub is about." Rogue notes, as she steps further in to the foyer, looking toward the right where there is an archway in to some kind of a drafting room, filled with strange old world tools for an engineer to create with. While to the left seems to be an entry way in to a ballroom that sits further ahead. "Damn, we should get the Professah to buy this place and make this a second branch of the School." Rogue quips, as she looks forward down a dark hallway then.

"Welcome." A deep voice suddenly booms from the stairs. A man stands there on the mid level step, dressed in early 20th century attire, a butler? His voice is deep, and the dude just came out of literally no where. He starts moving down the steps, his gloved hand gliding down the railing. "I am pleased that you've made it..." He says in a monotone voice. "We have an issue, and we need your help to resolve it. We need you to make your way to the basement, and convince the Master of the House to finish his experiments, and come meet his guests." The Butler says, as he reaches the main floor, his right hand leaving the railing to motion toward the dark hallway ahead. "Please, make your way toward the basement... But, first, you will have to retrieve the four keys to open its external locks. You will find the keys just down that hallway, each kept in their own room." The butler places his hands on the lapel of his jacket. "Now, do hurry, the gala will be beginning soon. I must attend to the other guests..." He turns sharply to the west and starts walking toward the ballroom entryway, turning to pull the sliding wooden doors shut behind him, leaving the dark hallway ahead for the costumed heroes (and Nori) to venture down!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would glance over at the man for just a moment, narrowing her eyes up at him and just harrumphing. "You're supposed to go 'you rang'." Apparently someone had some sort of taste for the classics. Or just Raul Julia. Then again, who didn't? She would keep her expression flat and go to look around the place.

"Come, let's go and get this done wtih." The crowd from Xavier's may or may not be winning enthusiasm points but they were here, together! The suffering at least could be communal. Given the way her last week had been, having a nightw ithout something emotionally crippling her would probably do wonders for her continuously spiking anxiety - not that she would let anyone know that about her current state emotionally.

"Just how shady is this business supposed to be?" It didn't seem like it was a repurposed Murderworld facility, so it had that going for it.

Jean Grey has posed:
(... does that imply Emma NOT having enhancements going on inside the dress? Thought that was pretty well established!)

Regardless, Jean turns her head as Kitty Monroe passes them on her own bold approach, and gives a whistle. "Right you are! Let's go!"

Rogue gets the honor of the fancy door knocker, ushering the group inside in all it's glory. And because she likes to tease: "It's so sweet Hope dressed up as her dad. Though I feel like Noriko is phoning it in here." She taps her foot, gives a melodramatic sigh. "If only there were a Spirit Halloween every few blocks, she could probably find a costume and make it back before we even knew she was gone..."

Also, silently, she reaches over to hold her milkshake out tower Rogue. She got a big one, possibly because someone doesn't think ahead on this kind of thing. "You want some?" Shake shake that milkshake, baby! She also has commentary on the Haunted House: "I'm sure just the atmosphere is pretty spooky for the large percentage of people who DONT already live in giant gothic mansions. It really does kind of have a similar vibe to Xavier's, if we forgot to dust for cobwebs. Wonder if we're just supposed to explore, or..."

Nope! There's a dude!

"Ooh, we got a scavenger hunt first. How about we split up to cover all the rooms?" A cheerleader suggesting that she and her friends split up in the face of a spooky scenario? Surely she's being a bit genre-aware, here! "I'll try... this one!" and she runs for a door on the far end of the hall.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde follows Rogue up to the door. But as the cheerleader takes hold of the knocker, Kitty Monroe gives a little sniff. "Normally I get called on to handle the 'knockers'," she says in a breathy voice, and giving a little shimmy of her body as if people needed the extra bit to pick up on the obvious double entendre.

She follows inside, looking up towards the Butler as he comes down the stairs. "Oh my, I do hope that my key is in the bedroom," she says, giving a little wiggle of her eyebrows before making another faux attempt to push the hem of her dress down. Kitty follows along behind Jean. "Yes Jean, you go first. We'll learn from Custer's mistake, and send a scout..."

Hope Summers has posed:
"Pfft," Hope says with a shake of her head, "He wishes he was the Terminator. Also, the costume kind of loses something without the shotgun but I was told they wouldn't want me carrying one around."

The redhead blinks a little bit at the butler, wrinkling her nose in response to him. She glances sideways at Kitty's shimmy, shaking her head just a little.

"I think you need adult supervision here."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
As a speedster, Noriko always seems to have one more second to spare, so she spares one to get herself a monster sized drink, and a bunch of bananas from somewhere, and a sub, and a sack to hold it all.  Does she bother to get a costume?  Nope.

"Let's free some spirits wooo," the last bit is obviously a sarcastic play on the cheerleading theme before her.  "Attend to other guests?  What is he doing?  Basting them?"  She feels a fleeting self satisfaction at using the word.  She learned it watching the cooking channel since she's been doing nothing with herself the last month (besides the bare minimum; gotta earn that food!).

"This guy wants us to do all the work."  Noriko simply follows along behind Jean at a blurry stroll and keeps looking at the doors as if she's window shopping.  A banana peel gets tossed behind them off to the side.  Finally she finds herself just stopping in front of one of the doors.  She hadn't intended to go through one, but here she is, and here it is.

"Hello," Noriko says faster than anyone but the door could possibly understand.  Shifting her weight to one leg, she takes a sip of her drink that decimates a quarter of it.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue accepts the offered milkshake from Jean with a smirk. She sips from it while the others begin to move toward the dark hallway. Rogue simply stands there with her right hand on her hip above her dangling pomp-pomps as everyone ventures in to the hallway. She finally turns to follow after them. "We splittin up?" She asks, as she sees people just picking a room and going for it. "Guess so..." She says with a shrug of her shoulders inside of her cheer sweater that was not the right size for her at all.

She ventures up toward the first room to join her fellow blue and gold skirted Cheerleader, and together they step in to an office. It's a opulent office, with book shelves on all the walls, a study area in the middle and a office desk on the far side. "Damn." Rogue quietly says. "This place is like a house fire's wet dream..." She quietly utters as she walks past Jean, handing her the drink back. "Guess I'll check the desk. Seems like the obvious place for a key."

Hope and Kitty both swing right through a set of double doors, and a small entryway before they end up in the grand ballroom. It's huge. It's polished wooden floors gleam with the light from the four small chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and the one massive grand chandelier at its center. As soon as the pair stride in to the room too, a eerie old music begins to eminate from seemingly no-where. It is an old fashioned tune, the kind that clearly is played on a record with the hissing scratches in the background of the old world lyrics. Melodic. Enchanting. Romantic.

Monet steps forward in to a room all her own, completely alone, she finds herself staring at walls covered in children's cartoons from 100 years ago. There are children's beds lining the walls, perfectly done up with linens and old dolls that lay peacefully on the pillows waiting for their child to come back to them. On the far side of the room is a large white wooden baby crib with a little dangling carousel of charming old toys hanging from it as it slowly spins, with a music box song quietly singing in the background.

Noriko steps through her doorway, and finds herself in a room filled with white sheets covering unknown pieces of furniture. They don't look like normal furniture either, but more like the type you'd find in a... laboratory. There's four of them on either sides of the room with one large covering on the far wall, that gently billows from the cold wind coming in from a partially open window....

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rogue goes into Door Number Three over and goes to glance about and moves to glance about in her room. As she comesd to the facade she visibly winces - no one is in there to notice it after all, sos he feels safe! She goes to take a moment to compose herself while going to glare. All right, she has to find a key. She can do this. She's super intelligent! The faster she finds the key, the faster she can get out of this public domain realm.

Then staring over at the wall for just a moment she blinks - is that a strip with the Katzenjammer Kids? No, probably best not to ask or get brought up over into the theatrics. Oh well, this is all aimed over at a child.

So the key is hopefully juts sitting over in the crib and making it simple. Monet would go to quickly scan it for anything (actually not just shoving her hand in, making a show of being restrained) and then if it's not there she would go to look at the music box. Failing there she would scan along the carousel for something that might be a key.

This was simply some barely vaudeville level locale trying to appeal to the broad, unwashed masses. It couldn't have any sort of logical puzzles to it could it? She would sigh while looking about for anything else. Her body language not asstiff for just a moment.

Jean Grey has posed:
Rogue seems the office full of books and thinks fire. Jean sees it, and? "Reminds me of the Professor's." She'll always be a bit of a Mentor's Girl.

Taking back the yummy milkshake, she lifts it for a long and somewhat noisy slurp, watching as Rogue heads for the desk while her own eyes scan the shelves. "It's either gotta be in there, or maybe in like a hollowed out book, or a false set of them, or something. Everyone knows you always use bookshelves for hiding secret stuff! Maybe there's even a secret passage." Maybe not. But! Between them, they can cover those obvious hiding places. Walking up to one of the shelves, she glances across at eye level first, running her finger along the spines skimming the spines as she skims them for titles (or to figure out if they're even real books! they're a common thing to fake for movie sets). "Hmmm..."

There's a lot of books, so if Rogue doesn't find it first, she might be at this a while, or even need some help.

Eventually, she finds a particular item of interest. Maybe it's because it's a bit loose on the shelf, maybe the title grabs her. Who knows. But she tilts it out with her finger, and then grabs it to pull from the shelf. Yet before Jean can actually open it to check inside and see if she's found her prize, she gives a sudden shriek of terror! "Eeeee! Oh shit, something just..."

She looks down, where apparently a 'ghostly' hand is grabbing at her foot, before creeping its way further up her leg. However, after the initial surprise, she doesn't seem quite so frightened. "Um... ok actually it's kind of... gentle." Friendly ghost? GROPEY GHOST? "Um... hi," she says, looking down. "Do you know where the key is?"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde sweeps into the room, twirling about once as she hears the music playing in the ballroom. "Why, clearly this movie has a dance number in it," Kitty Monroe, says, turning towards Hope. Who might have no clue at all who Kitty is dressed as.

Offering her hand to Hope, Kitty says, "Shall we dance my dear?" As Hope decides, Kitty glances up towards the shining faux jewels hanging from the chandeliers. "Diamonds are a girl's best friend," she confides confidentially to Hope. "So if a dance doesn't work, maybe that's the next place to check. If it's possible for normal folks to get up there safely. And also look for the phonograph."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko steps inside nonchalantly, setting her sack aside as she blur-strolls around all of the objects, watching the billowing sheets.  Some top billing billowing there, she thinks to herself before actually realizing she might be supposed to be scared by this whole thing.  She hardly noticed the laboratory vibe till she sits back with a banana over the near still scene as if contemplating a puzzle.

Another peel is left behind, and as it falls, she seeks to uncover every sheet there.  Noriko cannot resist the mysteries.  She possesses a gift that allows her to snoop more than most, where the world is her fully hands on science museum...so every sheet is thrown up into the air, seemingly at once.  It's just easier that way.  Speedsters don't wait around for gravity, though Noriko does have to keep adjusting those sunglasses.  She seems committed.

Hope Summers has posed:
"I don't know who you're meant to be," Hope says flatly, blinking at Kitty. The music that's playing also flies right over her head, though she does look up at the ceiling and mutter something about this being even older than Cable.

When Kitty asks to dance, the future girl simply stares at her impassively. One of many things she never learned how to do. But then again, she has seen videos online ...

Hope reaches out, slapping Kitty's hand in the air with a sort of low-down version of a high-five before she drops to the floor and starts to do the worm.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is at that desk just looking over it as Jean moves to one of the shelves. She starts pushing aside items upon the desk, before reaching for one of the drawers. Empty. Empty... Empty. Rogue huffs. "All of these things are empty!" She exclaims a second before she reaches across the desk toward a box on the far side.. This is right when Jean gets her hands-on-experience, and as Jean reacts to it, Rogue suddenly yelps while reaching over the desk! She jumps backward about five feet, her hands going back behind her hips, as she glances at the floor. "That was NOT my leg." She says, now noticing Jean talking toward the barely visible ghostly hand reaching up out of the floor. "What the Hell." Rogue quietly says before four hands creep up out of the floorboards toward her legs, causing the southern girl to start quickly shimmying toward Jean, with more hands reaching up out of the ground in her wake!

Jean will experience a second hand coming up to join the first, followed by three more moving up to stroke up and down her opposite leg, as Rogue moves in to stand beside her, looking concerned. "I thought this was gonna be ... actors." Rogue states, as her own legs start getting gracefully swept across by ghostly hands coming up out of the ground below.

"Join us... Join us in the Wilds." A voice whispers before it is joined by a chorus of whispery ethereal voices repeating. "Wilds. Join us in the Wilds..."

Rogue is left stepping this way and that way, unable to avoid the hands groping her bare legs up toward her skirt, as Jean experiences much the same, all while those voices continue to repeat themselves.

When Monet approaches the crib, and begins to inspect it, she finds no key within it or the carousel above it. The room is utterly quiet save for the music box, until a small child's voice speaks behind Monet.

"He's hurting us."

When she turns around, she'll see a young blonde girl standing there in her draping pajamas, clutching a ghostly bear to her spectral form. Her eyes are sunken-in and staring up at Monet. "He's hurting us." She repeats, her visage desperate for Monet's help. "Are you here to stop him?" She asks, her voice raising and lowering in pitch and volume like it is coming barely through the barrier of life and death. She moves her teddy bear from one arm to the other, as she glances behind her. On the beds, more children begin to appear, each one sleeping in their bed, each one starting to wake up, and sit up to stare over at Monet beside the crib.

"That is Baby Michael's crib." The ghostly blonde girl says. "He got sick. We don't know where he is now."

In the ballroom, as Hope begins her wicked dance, and Kitty Munroe begins to enjoy the atmosphere of the place, a number of spectral dancers fade in to view, only their upper bodies visible as a fog settles in around the dance floor. The couples move together in elegant displays of classical ballroom dancing, their vintage clothing making them look both regal and truly from a lost era of society, all while that haunting music continues in the background.

Kitty will see something though when she stares upward at the grand main chandelier. There it is. She was right. There's a god damn old style brass key hanging from its center!

In the lab...

Sheets fly as Speedy GonNori throws blankets this way and that way, uncovering strange feats of engineering marvel. Medical equipment from a time long before Mankind ever knew what it was truly doing inside of a medical hospital. Ghastly devices that look more like they were designed specifically to HARM people, rather than help them. Brass, steel, devices that would make even the most hardcore Steampunk fan foam at the mouth to get their hands on.

But it is that last sheet that exposes the main attraction. For when it is pulled, a metal beak slams against the cage, smashing hard metal against metal!

A giant metal raven sits inside of a huge iron cage! It's wings spread out, grinding metal against metal, as it stares wit

Rogue has posed:
In the lab...

Sheets fly as Speedy GonNori throws blankets this way and that way, uncovering strange feats of engineering marvel. Medical equipment from a time long before Mankind ever knew what it was truly doing inside of a medical hospital. Ghastly devices that look more like they were designed specifically to HARM people, rather than help them. Brass, steel, devices that would make even the most hardcore Steampunk fan foam at the mouth to get their hands on.

But it is that last sheet that exposes the main attraction. For when it is pulled, a metal beak slams against the cage, smashing hard metal against metal!

A giant metal raven sits inside of a huge iron cage! It's wings spread out, grinding metal against metal, as it stares with red eyes toward Noriko! It cries out, its beak spreading open as it screams right at the super speed girl!

And sitting at the bottom of its cage is another brass key...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Well, this is unsettling over. And very,v ery disturbing. Monet St. Croix's eyes widen in surprise - she goes to quickly check that this isn't some sort of auditory or visual illusion. Possibly so or not - but very surprising for the setting and the seeming lacsadasical front end of it. So perhaps there was a manner of quality to it. Or the stories were real and something twisted was manifesting.

"... Yes, I'm here." Suddenly coming here in her from the mothballs in the attic Xavier Cheer Prep uniform didn't seem like the best idea. "Tell me what he's done." Her voice is calm as she goes to rack her brain to try and trace whether this is some sort of recording or spook, spectre, or ghost. And if it is a manifesting one what are the best ways to engage in dialogue.

The irrascible Monet goes tog aze over on the crib, watching amongst the group of children. "You have to tell me as quickly as possible so that I can help." If this is real, and this all happened a long time ago.. Then perhaps they can help give these things peace and help them pass on. She's not bothering to try and contact anyone else.

Becasue her pride won't permit her in the event this is all a very well done charade to admit that she was taken up by it.

"HOw many of you are there here?"

Jean Grey has posed:
One overly friendly hand is one thing, a whole bunch of them is a different genre of movie! "Um, OK guys... take it easy..." Jean may tolerate the first one, but as more and more join in, she likewise starts backpedaling a bit, until she meets Rogue somewhere in the middle of the room, accidentally backing into her with a bump! "...well I'm sure they're some kind of actors. What kind of thing did you sign us up for, anyway?"

She plays a bit of a dancing toe-to-toe routine, avoiding one hand before another reaches out, trying to hop and skip and dodge about, although hardly able to escape them all. But at least they do answer her! Or, perhaps not answer, but say something all the same. "The wilds?"

She's still holding the book in one hand (and the milkshake in the other! there's danger of spillage, here!), glances at the cover first, and then returns to looking around the shelves a bit, and the room as a whole. "Do you see anything that has something like that as a title? Anything about nature, maybe? Heck it could even be Oscar Wilde..." Puzzles and riddles don't always play fair."

It's really hard to think straight with all the hands reaching up for regions unknown, though. "Ah, hey! That was a little close!"

She could fly out reach, but that would really be cheating...

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Monroe looks about, interested in the phantom dancers. Special effects? That's her kind of geeking out! She imitates their steps a bit without a partner, motioning to them and telling Hope, "This is more the kind of dancing I had in mind."

She looks back about the room though, and spots something up on the chandelier. "I think that's the key," she says, pointing to it and offering a hand to help Hope to her feet. "Ok, there has to be a way to get it down," she says. Pointing with a finger as she traces the cable that is holding it up. "Looks like there's a crank here. Might be heavy, let's do it together," she offers, moving over to the crank.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Ooooooh, ahhhhh.  "Wish I didn't have to find that key," Noriko mutters as she strolls around the high flung exhibition of 'medical' devices.  Maybe she'll have time to tinker around with them, she thinks brightly after getting a passing glance at all of the marvels.

"I bet there's a stretching machine in here," Noriko says to absolutely no one.  She's used to living in her own little world, which seems to be springing back with exponential growth now that Jubilation is not around.  She just keeps talking to herself...and this giant metal raven.  Ravens.  They only remind her of a certain vampire.

"I bet this thing hasn't been fed and it's just going to chomp my-"  Noriko stops moving and then turns her head slightly as the idea comes to her and maybe also because that thing SCREAMS, cutting her off.  "You're just really hungry aren't you."  She has no idea what she's doing, but that's not what she thinks.  Noriko walks over to grab her sack and walks back to set it down in front of the cage where she bends down.  The smell of bananas wafts up from the sack.  "You aren't getting my sub.  Sorry."  She peels three bananas and lays them out in a row as if they were three grenades she was going to ceremonially take into battle.

Noriko is, somehow, not wearing her gauntlets tonight, and hasn't been lately.  It has certainly made wearing her jacket easier and it makes it frightfully easier for her to stick her hands /in the cage/...with the bananas of course.  She quickly flings one banana in the side of the cage, then pelts the metal bird in the face with a flick of her wrist with the second one.  She wasn't aiming at its face, but it just sort of happened that way.  The third is backup and remains close to her throwing hand after her dormant one darts for the key during this mad shuffle of a growing multitude of bananas.  She keeps throwing new ones (peeled of course) to try and keep up the distraction, not even knowing if its working as she's pulling it off.  She only swiped three bunches of bananas so she's going to run out.

Rogue has posed:
In the library, Jean and Rogue continue to experience the 'premium guest' level of treatment. "I just signed up for what they said was their premium level!" Rogue explains in a huff of a voice as she is dancing around the hands reaching up out of the ground. "I didn't know it would be like this!" She says, actually letting out another yelp and another laugh as the hands come racing through the floor toward her, following her around as she tries to dodge them. The same is happening to Jean, the long ghostly arms jutting up out of the library floor to grab at the Cheerleaders. Jean seems to have a plan though, and Rogue starts darting across the room toward a shelf of books. She starts trying to frantically search them, as hands continue to chase and explore her legs. She kicks at them, but her white shoed feet just go through the ghostly appendages. "I don't see any! I don't see any!" Rogue says, leaning down to look low, then regretting that quite quickly she jumps back up and keeps rushing down the shelves!

Jean will see a stack of books in the center of the study area, with one draped over in red silken cloth... all while more hands seemingly are trying to grab hold of her, and not just grope, but pull her downward should they linger a touch for long!

In the medical laboratory, Noriko is being watched by that giant metal raven. Its red eyes are intricately designed with multi-layered lids that snap shut and slide open, its entire body made of different hued metals. It's a sight to behold, both wicked and wonderfully beautiful. It moves with such a fluid grace to, like a metallic dinosaur straight out of Jurassic Park. It watches Nori as she fiddles with the bananas and talks to herself, any time it gets the sense she is too close though it pecks at the cage again! Metal against metal noises sound off, even a little spark of light from the connection of beak to bars.

But when pieces of banana start getting enticingly delivered in to the cage, the bionic bird begins snapping at them instead! What follows is a distraction of creativity and banana ravaging madness! Its metal wings slap against the bars of the cage, as its sharp and nasty beak of brass smashes banana bits between each dangerously spikey layer of birdy mouth bits! Pieces of banana fly in all directions as it tries to devour them!

But with as fast as Nori is, this distraction is yielding her more than enough time to grab the elaborately ornate brass key off the ground of the metal raven's cage!

In the ballroom, Kitty and Hope find the lever to the chandelier crank, and within moments they're twirling it. The crystaline chandelier begins to jingle as reverberations rock through it. It begins to descend...

The dancers all stop. Their upper bodies all shifting over the dance floor as they turn to look toward Kitty and Hope. The ghostly specters begin to float toward the duo, their beautifuly haunting faces beginning to transform. Their skin starts to melt away, as their skeletal faces start to become exposed. Their clothing begins to rot off of their bodies, as their arms come up to reach hands out toward the pair, each one dripping flesh and blood as their hands start reaching for them as they lower the chandelier closer and closer toward the floor!

In the nursery, Monet is standing face to face with the ghostly blonde girl who clutches the large teddy bear. "There was six of us, with Baby Michael. Now... there is only five." Her haunting voice explains. The other four children start slipping out of bed as they reach for their stuffed animals too, clutching them against their own chests as they start moving to join their spectral sister. They say nothing as they all stare up at Monet now, begging her with sad expressions upon their mal-nurished faces. "He's hurting us." All five of the children say in unison then. "He took Baby Michael... He took him to the basement."

Monet might notice in Baby Michael's crib that the infant's own teddy bear is resting in the corner of the crib.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet keeps her expression rather flag, listening over to the children. She's going along with it - at this point she's not sure whether this is real or it's just fantasy. An illusionw ell enough crafted or macabre reality. She's not going to try and contact the others - she presumes that they're having their own time figuring this out, and she's not going to be the one that has to call for help or thinks it's real!

She glances at the girls, and bows her head in a 'thank you' expression. The fact they're indicating her towards the bear is a sign that likely there's something inside it. So she goes down to carefully inspect it for the key - or whatever is within the interior to remove. And she goes to do so carefully - no sense destroying it for the enxt customer. This place is if it's real very well done and deserves more credit than she was giving it from the outset. This level of theatre shows a great deal of worksmanship and craft, all the more to be appreciated. she goes to bow her head once more to the others, remembering 'basement' before presuming if she has the key in hand, she can leave.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Late, and a bit self-concious of being so, Henry makes his way towards the haunted locale to join his friends! He's able to follow at least one trail of the other mutants, finding his way into the ballroom to spot Kitty and Hope. "Heyo, I'm here... sorry I'm late!" Oddly enough, the Beast is dressed as the Butler from Clue - go Tim Curry!

A look to the two women near the crank, his head canting to the side. "Is this more an escape room with a horror twist?" The very idea has him looking a bit excited - he does love a good puzzle!

As the demeanor of the ghostly dancers changes - the big man moves to position himself between the other X-folk and the monsters. "I think you've interrupted the gala."

Jean Grey has posed:
Still, with nothing coming of the bookshelves themselves, Jean scans around for whatever might be left. Truly, there's a lot of books, and probably searching every single one would be impractical, so there has to be some other kind of hint...

Gee! How did she not notice that BIG OBVIOUS RED CLOTH BEFORE?! Well, dramatic timing being what it is, when Jean DOES see it, she dances her that way, giving the occasional squeak, gasp, yelp, and giggle from assorted handsy ghosts. "Premium, huh? Feels like they're the ones getting extra service here..." Still, she eventually reaches the table, and dramatically whips the cloth free of the book it conceals. The cover, once revealed, reads:

'The Wilds, by Doctor H. Halsey.'

"Well that's pretty spot on." Jean cracks it open, and then gives a triumphant hoot, followed by another squeal. As she initially suspected, there's a cutout made into the pages in the shape of a key, with another of the large brass keys inside it. She gives the thing a quick shake to get it out, and catches the key. "I got it! Let's run!"

She won't abandon Rogue to the hands, but as soon as she's caught up, she makes a jogging rush for the hallway, holding the key aloft. "We got ours," she shouts, to catch the attention of any of the others in the hall. Then she starts backtracking toward the basement entrance they're supposed to unlock.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
As the chandelier comes down, Kitty grins. "Uh on, they are coming after us," she says to Hope. "Remember this is just an entertainment, nothing in here is a real concern," she adds more quietly, wanting to make sure that Hope doesn't go Rachel on the monsters!

Kitty, who has a blond wig and some inserts in the bosom of her white dress, is dressed like Marilyn Monroe on the subway grate, with wire in the hem of the dress keeping it 'blown up in the air' permanently. She calls to Beast, "That's exactly what it is. We've got the key from this room! Just need to get out 'alive' now!"

"Get to the door!" Kitty suggests to Hope while the ninja goes for the key in the chandelier. Kitty dodges about one specter after another, until she reaches it. She tosses the key towards Hope at the door and then runs that way. Marilyn Monroe showing some true moves. Maybe the New York Giants should considering signing her, as she rejoins Hope and Beast. "We got ours too!"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko seems happy to leave a whole pile of bananas by the end of the ordeal, for all the trouble she's caused the raven.  She snatches up the key somewhere in the flurry as if the bird has nothing to worry about.  Everything is still totally normal.  This nice young lady is giving the bird all the bananas.  This is totally normal.

Noriko leaves a small pile of peels in her wake as she twirls the key round her finger, snatching up her sack along the way.  "Hey I got my key!" she announces to the hall before sitting down to enjoy her sub.  She's used to getting done early, but then realizes she's right on time.  Still, she keeps eating, enjoying how easy it is without those damn gauntlets.  Sure there are little trickles of electricity burning fractal patterns into her bread, but at least it smells good.

Rogue has posed:
In the library, while Jean moved toward that central table toward the cloth covered tome, Rogue was dancing around in the background, swinging a book at the hands trying to grab hold of her legs! "They're getting more anxious!" She declares as she jumps over one of the red cushioned sofas all parkour-style to join Jean at that central study area, and to be somewhat fair the red silken book had been hard to see in the middle of the stacks without being directly beside the table it sat upon. But, never the less, it had been claimed and the key with it!

Butt squeeze. Rogue yelps and jumps, breaking her eyes off the key that Jean produced from the book. "Lets go then!" The Belle says with another swipe of the book at the hand that grabbed her from behind. The two make their way out of the library and the Mississippi Belle hurls her swatting book back in her wake before slamming the library door shut behind her!

"God damn..." She says breathlessly while backing up to join Jean at the basement entrance. "That was messed up..." She huffs.

In the ballroom, Kitty and Hope just need that time to get the chandelier down, and Beast's timely arrival helps aid them. For it is Beast who begins to get the bulk of the spectral skeletal dancers ire now! In fact, as he puts himself between Kitty and Hope, the skeletal dancers surround him, with their ghostly hands of bones and shredded clothing reaching all over his shoulders and the fur along his face. One skeletal finger even pokes up in to Beast's left nostril! How rude!

In the nursery, Monet does indeed pull the head of Baby Michael's teddy bear open, and inside its stomach is another brass key. "Help us." One of the children quietly says up to her as she fishes it out from inside the stuffed animal's inerds. "Help us before he comes up to say goodnight..." The children all say in unison as Monet begins to flee the nursey room, with the children trailing after her, but vanishing in the mist as they reach the front door of the nursery, leaving it vacant save for the quiet melody of the music box.

In the medical laboratory the mechanical Raven just feeds upon those bananas, with bits of the yellow fruit just dribbling off of its wings, and down its body to create a lumpy mess upon the bottom of its cage. As Nori flees with its key, the bulky bird flares its metal wings, with a wretched cry of distress coming from it upon seeing its visitor leaving it alone within its cage!

In the hallway, everyone begins to gather up. Rogue reaches for the milkshake from Jean's hand, taking another sip from it as she stands beside the basement door. She nods to the others as they join up. "Ya'll missed quite a experience in there. Probably gonna have dreams about it for a year or more." She states with a heavy laugh/exhale.

The locks are all ready for their keys, and as each one is turned, the entire house rumbles with a surprising level of reverberation, and eerie groans that resonate through the very foundations themselves.

When the door opens, there is but a pitch black staircase ready for them to descend, and as they go, the house continues to make strange noises, almost like it's soul is trying to voice its displeasure for them getting this far, this close to the heart of the haunting within it.

At the bottom of the stairs, there is a long hallway, with a single open door, and a flickering light at the end of it. The sound of chopping can be heard at the far end of the hallway. A heavy, powerful blunt, sound. Wet and grizly in nature...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Going to join up with the others, Monet goes to speak after a few moments, "We've all gathered our artifacts, and whatever we're pursuing is in the basement. I have to give you a great deal of credit, Anna-Marie. This is quite a satisfying experience and a very good spectacle. I am very impressed with your initiative in finding here and arranging it." Otherwise, she's playing very much down the sheer -creepiness- of things on. THis is all just an exhibiiton, a very high quality establishment inw hat she was expecting to be run by a very low end huckster.

So, now they can go on down and see whatever the next catastrophe will come in the catacombs. And otherwise keeping her own worries that this might be rather real to herself. If the others weren't acting like it was something to be immediately investigated and verified, then she would not. The denial was strong in this one.

Jean Grey has posed:
Letting Rogue handle the extra large milkshake and free her up, Jean promptly sticks her key in the lock, looking toward the other bearers with a triumphant grin. "And turn!"

They turn! And a door opens, exposing a great dark void beyond...

"Great. Just great." Does anyone really enjoy the dark? It's one of the more primal of fears. "We better stick close for this, dont want to risk any chance of getting lost in all of this, separated and not able to find each other." Didn't she make them split up before? Make up your mind, Grey!

Or it's just more tropes. Either way, she begins the descent with caution.

At the bottom, they see a light ahead, which at least gives them something to navigate by. Forward! Although somewhere along the way, she's linked her arm with Rogue's as if to make sure she doesn't lose her in the dark. Taking that stick together thing seriously! "Great... that sure sounds nice."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Monroe makes it out of the ballroom with Hope and Henry McCoy. The blond bombshell stops to run her hand playfully over Beast's chest. "Oh my but you're a big one. You wouldn't be Mr. DiMaggio would you?" she asks in her breathy Marilyn voice.

And she's following along down the stairs with the others. "I am going to need to speak to my agent," she says as she hears the chopping noises downstairs. "From now on I definitely need script approval!" she exclaims, wrinkling her noise at the wet squishy sounds.

Henry McCoy has posed:
How rude indeed! Henry sneezes, extricating himself once Kitty is clear - backflipping and handspringing away towards the door. "Dear heavens - they certainly are a grabby sort!" He huffs, letting Hope and Kitty exit before following them out to the hall. There's a pause as Marilyn turns on the charm, the blue-furred man chuckling. "Neux." He says, in his best Tim Curry-Wadsworth impersonation.

He hears the gorey sounds as well, nose wrinkling instinctively. "I do hope that is a sign of excellent special effects."

Rogue has posed:
The group ventures down the dark corridor with the grim sounds heralding something unpleasant ahead. When they reach it, it quickly becomes reality. There is a wide open room, a medical facility of some design, built in to the basement of this old mansion. Many medical tables reside side by side, each one with a covered cadaver resting atop it, white sheets clearly covering bodies.

All save for the central table, where a bright light shines down upon a single body uncovered. It is a man in a finely dressed outfit, in fact it is the same outfit that the butler had been wearing back in the foyer... Standing beside the central table is a massive man in medical clothing, with a black apron on over his lab coat. He's covered in blood. His right arm is slamming a giant butcher's knife down upon the neck of the butler, repeatedly smashing it against the table. Finally the head rolls off the table, falling with a 'glooping' slurp in to a bucket of blood on a floor already covered in the thick crimson liquid.

The doctor pauses to raise his arm up and swipe it over his forehead beneath the light, as he smears blood across his mask covered face.

He snaps his eyes up, and motions toward Jean, toward Beast, toward Kitty, and everyone else. "You there! What took you so long!" He shouts. "Bring me the next body! I have much work to do!"

His left hand reaches down to the Butler's chest, and he speaks quickly, deeply and with rhythm. "Az fu rath mu. Az fu rath mu. Moe belog danu!" He rips his black gloved hand upward toward his shoulder, and with it a glowing spectral form is pulled out of the Butler's chest! A spectral form of the Butler himself!

The Butler wials as his ghostly throat is grabbed by the doctor's hand, who carries it toward a shelf on the far side of the room. He slams the soul of the screaming Butler in to a large black jar, on a series of shelves covered in them that span all around the corner to where the Xaviers group is standing.

"On the double. I haven't the time for delay! I have a party to get to!" The Doctor shouts over his shoulder as he stuffs the Butler's ghost literally down in to a jar, smashing, stuffing, wadding, cramming, until the ghostly form of the former home's caretaker is pushed in to the black glass container.

"Wait." A little girl's voice says from the hallway behind the Xaviers group. "Wait. Listen to me.." She pleads. It is the little blonde girl from the nursery. "You mustn't listen to him! You must save us!" She begs, clutching her bear against her chest. "Find his amulet. He keeps it in his jacket! Smash it, and free our souls!" She says in a voice laced with sadness and desperation.

Any eagle eyed members of the Xaviers group will see the suit jacket of the Doctor just inside the lab near a desk covered in old papers and medical trinkets....

Jean Grey has posed:
There is a point, as they walk in upon the maccabre scene of bloody decapitation and soul-rending that Jean reflexively hunches into a fighting stance, raising up one hand to her head. It looks a little silly in the cheerleader outfit, and of course... uh, this isn't an X-Mission. Habbits like that die hard! "Oh, right. Uh..." She glances aside at Hank, who seems to share a thought "... they're really impressive, aren't they?"

Once she quells that initial instinct, instead of rushing to action, Jean stands to let more of the story play out. Because as she was explaining to Rogue at the beginning, they always have a storyline! You have to play along if you're going to enjoy it. She isn't entirely sure where this one is going, until the little girl appears. Well, no, she still isn't sure even then, because the little girl was in a different room!

But they've got marching orders, which is close enough.

"Cam one of you grab it?" she wonders, looking between some of the others - to Nori (who obviously COULD grab it, but that's probably not what Jean meant!), Monet, or even agile Hank.

Kitty she has a special idea for, perhaps shared with her and Rogue. "We should try and distract him!"

And with that, she turns, sauntering forward and reaching up to grab the end of her ponytail, twirling it around her finger. "Are you goin' to a party mister? I love parties!" Now she's doing the acting too! The character is a bit more broad, though... horny horror movie cheerleader doomed to die for sure?!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is eating her sub to the cries of the bird, and something about it...maybe the cage, maybe the fact that those bananas aren't going to last.  Maybe because she knows what it feels like (like so many mutants) what it feels like to be locked in a cage, quite literally.  Maybe it's because she's thinking of how she left her brother behind in Japan, in that house.

Before everyone makes their way down (she has a lot of time on her hands), Noriko finally gives in, stuffing the last of her sub into her mouth inelegantly as she swipes at some tears.  Suddenly, the speedster appears back in front of the bird's cage.

"You're coming with me...or, at least, you're getting out of here."  Noriko actually sees if she can take the entire cage with her.  She doesn't want to let the bird remain stuck to wander this stupid house or whatever it is.  Seems like a good way to get trapped again!  "To a land where the bananas are plentiful and you can have all my keys okay?  We're busting out of this joint..."

But as Noriko pulls the cage, it doesn't budge.  Her eyes swivel down to the bottom, locating the bolts that keep the bird's home securely in place.  She puts her back into it, literally turning around to strain the bolts, groaning against the stress as she hears everyone pass her door and move on.  "WHY?!" she growls, exasperated when she realizes she'll probably take out some of whatever the whole thing is bolted to just to get it out of there.  She didn't plan on property damage.  Only theft and tons of bananas for victory.  Thoughts are simplified at such velocities.  Finally though, after a little sob wholly disproportionate to the entire endeavor of stealing a giant mechanical bird from a haunted house, Noriko ends up suddenly there, again, at the back of the group, clutching her sack, though it looks awfully lighter than before.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Monroe saunters her way over to the good - ok, really not good - Doctor, moving over beside Jean. She gives a titillating giggle as she pushes down at the hem of her dress, turning his way and that to show off her legs.

"I'm sorry, Red," Kitty Monroe tells Jean as she reaches out to give Jean's ponytail a little tug. "Didn't you ever hear? Gentlemen Prefer Blonds," she says, batting her eyes towards the doctor.

Kitty pats a stool near the Doctor's table. "Sit down right there," she tells him. And then she starts singing in a sultry voice. "Happy Halloween, to you. Happy Halloween... to you. Happy Halloween, Mr... not the President but some kind of creepy Doc-tooooor. Happy Halloween... to... you..."

Henry McCoy has posed:
And with the "Doctor" being distracted by the Cheerleader and Miss Monroe, Henry moves into action. Once he's certain the butcher of a medicine man is focused on the two wonderfully dressed dames, he bolts for the jacket and the narrowly spied amulet. The sound of torn stitching can be heard - whether from the doctor's coat, or from Henry's costume, it is undcertain.

"Here goes the authorized property damage." He chuckles, amused at the depth and intricacies of this haunt. Looking over the amulet for the briefest of moments, he then smashes it against the floor.

Rogue has posed:
The sight of the head falling in to the bucket of blood has Rogue curl her lip up in disgust. She then takes another sip from the milkshake cup before her green eyes dart over to the ghostly girl speaking to them. "God damn, how they makin' these ghosts look like this?" She asks in a quiet mutter. Her stare darts to the jacket hanging from the doctor's desk here in the big basement, then over to Jean and Kitty as they move in toward the central medical table. "Oh lord..." Rogue says in an exasperated fashion. She watches the two of them start their distraction, as she starts walking over toward the doctor's jacket.

The doctor does take a seat, he does watch the two lovely ladies performing their little shows for him, with his eyes on Jean at first, and then on Kitty. He's still wearing a bloody mask, but he's still got two eyes and they're roaming up and down the lovely ladies. He's definitely a man who knows what he likes!

But as Rogue starts fishing around in his jacket, his right hand snaps up, the blood covered rubber glove snaps fingers open, and he begins to chant again from behind his mask.

"Stop what you're doing." A voice says beside Rogue, causing her to look up to see a spectral version of herself staring back! She jumps back, holding the doctor's jacket in her gloved hands. "Aw, come on. Not my soul too." The Belle says, her left hand snaking down in to the jacket pocket before she draws out a black amulet on a simple silver chain. She clutches it, then smiles at her own spirit before she squeezes the amulet, and it smashes in to pieces that she lets sprinkle on to the ground at the feet of her pretty white cheer shoes.

"Oops. Buttah fingahs." She says at her own mirror spirit.

All around the basement, the black jars that the doctor was stuffing souls in to flash brightly, lighting up enough to brighten the entire basement. Each jar has the face of a spirit imprint itself upon the glass, before they emerge from within their containers and begin flying toward the doctor, converging on him as he sits on that stool watching the two X-Women as they'd entertained him!

The spirits begin to ravage the doctor, smashing their hands in to his body and ripping at his spirit until they pull it from his physical form, causing him to fall on to the bloody floor below.

The spectral mass of clawing hands rip at the doctor's soul, as he shrieks in terror, each spirit he'd contained ripping a piece of his soul apart before he's torn to ghostly shreds.

All of the phantom forms begin swirling around the basement medical lab then, each of them staring at the Xaviers faculty members, as they begin to ascend up toward the ceiling, passing through it, one by one, they vanish through the ceiling.

On the far side of the room, a door snaps open, and a light comes on, leading to a stone staircase that ascends up in to the mansion's backyard...

Music can be heard filtering in from the backyard, something soft and pleasant sounding. Laughter echoes down in to the basement as well.

Children's laughter.

Rogue tosses the doctor's jacket down on the chair, and moves toward where the others are. She grins at Kitty, then offers her arm to Jean. "Lets go check out whatever that is?" She asks everyone, giving a look back to Noriko. "you okay?" She asks, seeing tears on the corners of the young woman's eyes.

Jean Grey has posed:
"Ow! Hey..." Jean makes a probably exaggerated face at Kitty, and then rubs the back of her head.

But when it comes to the show she puts on for the Doctor, there's no topping that. Instead, she stands back, watching this very strange (and yet strangely appealing?!) rendition of 'Happy Birthday' while the others come bounding in for the amulet. Somehow, the plan all comes together...

---

A bit later, they've all escaped the house. Out back, there's a party for those who've completed it, with the cast of the Haunted House all there as well. Punch and cookies. A general good time. Evidently, this being Mutant Town, the Impresario of the whole place was doing those fancy special effects with their minor mutant power. Pretty neat!

With punch replacing the milkshake, Jean is standing enjoying the after party with Rogue. "This was a fun place, definitely worth the visit..." She's looking around among the cast, before finally turning back.

"You remember Halloween three years ago... that's the first time we did a costume together." Mentioning that one causes a reflexive glance downward at her current cheer garb. "It's a fun tradition." She looks down for some reason, suddenly awkward, despite the topic.

After a moment, she holds out her hand, closed. But there's a little light leaking through her fingers. They're among mutantkind, so she really doesn't have to hide it. Opening them reveals a strange bit of crystal, sitting in the palm of her hand. The motes of light dance around it, circling, growing more solid...

...until they make a ring, topped with that crystal piece.

"So, um... you want to get married?"

Rogue has posed:
Once everyone got outside to the backyard of the mansion grounds, they did find themselves in a lovely party atmosphere. The back yard was an extensive location, with a lot of Halloween decorations done up. The ballroom dancers were present in their fancy clothing. The Butler was hanging out with the Doctor and the kid actors were running around chasing each other with spooky costume masks on.

The mansion itself has spectral ghosts flying around it, as the Mutant who was responsible for the special effects is making his rounds to shake hands, and enjoy the festivities himself. This was a pricey haunted house, and the reason why was likely more understandable at this point.

Once Rogue had greeted the cast, and given a fair amount of shade to the ones who had been responsible for the hands in the library, she'd shared in some laughs and settled in at a bench beside the backyard fountain.

Naturally when Jean joined her, and made that question, Rogue was taken aback. She'd lowered her punch cup, and kept eye contact with the redhead before looking to the offered ring. She stammered, she smiled and moved her eyebrows in all manner of ways to suggest she was trying to pull her mind out of the clouds.

What the others at the party would see though, would be Rogue accepting the ring, and reaching over to hug her closest friend in the past three years, and the romantic partner who'd actually stuck with her, and devoted herself to her. Rogue wrapped an arm around Jean, not wanting to spill punch upon her mirrored cheerleader partner. She embraced her, she pulled back from it and leaned in to plant a kiss upon her lips.

It might take Jean a moment to realize Rogue had indeed said 'Yes' in a whispery voice in to her ear prior to the big smooch being delivered now.