20384/Rainy Day Rhona

Rainy Day Rhona
Date of Scene:	06 April 2025
Location:	Commons Cafe - College House
Synopsis:	It's a rainy day in Westchester, and the perfect time for two passing ships in the night to finally meet. Drake meets Rhona, and Rhona gets her phone battery topped off.
Cast of Characters:	Drake Riley, Rhona Lauren

---

Drake Riley has posed:
It's raining today. Rain isn't Drake's favorite thing in the world, but the mild amount that falling right now isn't too big of an issue for his powers. But he never fully trusts it. So despite the cooling rain on an increasingly warm, humid day, Drake's opted to stay inside this Sunday evening.

Sitting at a cushioned seat with a laptop open on his lap (like God intended), typing away at an exercise - complicated code scrolling by. Black background, neon green font. Hacking noises. You know how it is.

The young man is dressed for the casual atmosphere, white form-fitting t-shirt worn beneath a loose-fit black button-up worn open. Slacks and sneakers, similarly black, finish off the look.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
In walked a brunette girl, somewhere around 19 or 20 years of age. With her hair tied up in a bun on the nape of her neck, and two loose strands of dark brown hair framing her face, she seemed to be straddling the line between a goth girl, and a standard youth of her age. In dark blue jeans, artfully torn out knees, a black belt cinched around her waist with shining metal adornments along it, the young woman wore a maroon hued t-shirt, a black Pistol image upon her chest. She brushed one of the strands of hair back behind an ear, as she glanced at her smart watch, and approached the girl behind the counter who was paid to work the cafe for the other students. "Hey, Claire..." Rhona said, her voice laced with a posh London accent. Apparently the two girls knew each other, but that was not a shocking thing... this college had only a handful of students in each class.

Rhona placed an order, while clutching the strap of a backpack that hung from her left shoulder, shifting her weight from one athletic shoe to the other, waiting for her drink. She glanced in the direction of Drake, but he looked busy, thus she looked back toward the barista instead.

Drake Riley has posed:
The assignment was to conduct penetrative testing on a dummy corporation - that is, not a real corporation, just something the professor put together for cybersecurity lessons - and finagle its security to gain access to a series of pictures. If he can get the pictures, he's succeeded with the assignment. Well, the pictures were already found and copied. At this point, he's just poking around for fun, to see what else might have been stuck into the databanks for easter eggs.

He pauses! An accent!

Drake is something of a sucker for accented voices; the more exotic, the more fascinating. New York by itself didn't count as unusual enough, but a British dialect? Now that's fun. His head tilts back, craning his neck to get a look at the sort'a-goth girl at the counter, watching without fully realizing he's doing it.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
When the drink was finished, and handed over to her, rhona accepted it... shared a light laugh with the girl behind the counter, and then went over toward the line of seats that sat close to the windows. She took a spot that would yield her maximum viewing of the lovely Xavier's school yard, and its well cultivated hedges, flower beds, and otherwise.

But as she settled her bag on the ground beside her, she took sight of Drake noticing her, and with a glance to her right, she cast him a small smile, and a nod, before her watch chimed, and she glanced down at it. A drink was taken from her new cup, and with it set aside, the British girl started swiping the screen of her wrist adornment.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley quickly glances away once he's been caught looking, diverting his focus back to the screen of his laptop. And after a few seconds, he winds up looking in her direction again, tossing an arm over the backrest of the chair.

"Yo," he greets, voice raised just enough to be heard. "Don't think I've noticed you around before. New here, or have I just not been payin' attention?"

The chime and the attention to her watch was noted, but didn't really register much for him! He's never had a smartwatch!

Rhona Lauren has posed:
For her part, Rhona hadn't really expected him to greet her. She thought he was some older classman, busy at his assignments. She knew OF him, but they'd never spoken. When he did greet her, she looked up against from her watch, and over toward him, the loose bangs freed from behind her ear where she had tucked it moments earlier. She considered the question, let it glide through her mind, and a second later, she shook her head. "I've been here for almost three years now..." She said in her smooth voice, her accent dancing artfully through each spoken syllable, like a ballerina of practiced poise.

"I don't spend a lot of leisure time around the school though. I've been one to sink myself in to various work, since I came to the States. But... I know of you." she said, as her drink was raised toward her dusky painted lips. "Drake... Riley, right?" She asked, and then sipped her drink again, her hazzle eyes going back to the info on her watch screen.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley perks an eyebrow at the answer. Clearly he's been a bit /too/ engrossed in his studies, if he's not noticing people who've been around him for three entire years, yet they notice him. There's a pang of guilt, and he immediately follows with, "Hah, wow, I suck then!" A little self-deprication doesn't hurt, right? "Sorry! Yeah. That's me."

Drake closes the program and pulls the laptop shut. "Help me out. What's your name?" His gaze dips to the watch on her wrist, then back to her face. "Unless you're dealing with something important."

Rhona Lauren has posed:
the drink cup was set down again, and the young woman glanced back over toward him on her right. she cast him another soft smile, a sweet expression that hinted at her personality being one of kindness over anything else. "Well, that is quite alright, all things considered..." She trailed off, pausing for a beat. "Afterall, I believe you were primarily living over here in the college manor, while I didn't get an apartment here until just recently. I've been relgated to the girls dorm for the majority of the past two and a half years... Both homes are beautiful... but yeah, it is nice to merge on up in to the full college experience here at Xavier's campus..."

She showed him a quick smirk, and glanced at her watch. "Oh, no. I was just talking to my..." She regarded him again. "I am an intern at Channel six News in Manhattan. I work under April O'Neil. She's showing me the ins and outs of becoming a investigative journalist."

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley nods slightly. He was moved into this building basically as soon as it was finished, so that checks out at least. Still, he probably should be paying a little more attention to the people coming and going throughout the institute. The irony of him studying security and not keeping tabs of his surroundings is not lost on him.

Neither is the hitch in her wording. It earns the subtlest little tilts of his head.

"Your boss, then?," he supplies. "Is that what your studying? Journalism? Plannin' on being out in front of cameras?"

Rhona Lauren has posed:
The question caused the brunette to smile again, and shake her head. "No - well, not exactly. Not in the traditional sense, like a field reporter for some television news company, such as Ms O'Neil. I do have a few social media platforms that I upload videos to, of course, but it is more just me talking on the subjects that I'm investigating. Whatever those may be. Really, I am just looking to up my writing game, and up my ability to know where to best focus my time. I hope that Ms O'Neil's influence can help me know where the rocks are, that need most to be overturned... Where the shadows are, that need some sun rays shined within... If that makes any sense...."

She trailed off, and glanced at his computer. "Are you studying? Or playing Call of Duty?" She inquired, showing a sly grin then.

Drake Riley has posed:
"So.. the writing kind of journalist. More or less. I think." Drake's not actually sure. But he thinks that's what she means, based on what she's said. Go out, get information, dig around, and submit findings. "'N yeah, makes plenty of sense. In that idiomatic kind'a way." He flashes her a quick, playful smile at that.

At last, Drake ceases his recline and straightens his posture to set the laptop aside. Then, it's leaning forward, elbows coming to rest on knees. "Neither! More like a challenge assigned to the class. My major's cybersecurity, so we sometimes have to pen-test these dummy systems and find weaknesses. The final's gonna be kind'a like that, but a lot more intense with a lot less room for screw-ups," he explains.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
With him setting his laptop aside, Rhona smiled at him and what he said. She nodded her head two quick times, before she spoke up. "Rhona, is my name, by the way. Rhona Lauren." She drew in a breath, as she leaned back in her cafe chair, her cup raised to her lips for another sip, and her watch hand lowered down in to her lap. She took a sip, then set the cup down on the table's edge. "That sounds like a rather intense course. I would imagine - that with the tech geeks around here - that it has very high standards of performance, and ability."

She laughed a light and lyrical sound, as she reached her hand down to pull her phone out of her backpack. "Now I know who to ask, when I can't get in to my accounts. I'm absolutely sick of AI robot tests, and trying to remember which e-mail I associated with what..." She expressed, smirking at herself.

Drake Riley has posed:
"Eeyeah~," drawls Drake, bright green eyes drifting sidelong in thought before suddenly snapping back to the girl. "Y'know, I never really considered myself the egghead type. Didn't roll with computers much growing up. But this just felt like it made sense to me. Tried it out, I clicked with it, and now it's all about finding gaps in code, syntax, knowing how things are supposed to look... it's like playin' Where's Waldo, but with ASCII," he explains, which likely doesn't help at all.

"Anyway, sure! Gimme a shout. Gotta make the classes count for something, right?," he asks, shooting her another light, even whimsical smile. "And you happen to be the first Rhona I've met. Or heard of. English name? Like- obviously English, I mean British English."

Rhona Lauren has posed:
The young woman raises her chin up, and nods a pair of quick times again, when she catches what he is saying about his focused choice of study. "I imagine AI is rapidly changing that entire world too..." She softly responded, before his question about her name had her smiling faintly again. After another taste of her drink, she shrugged her shoulders within her deep red t-shirt. "My parents named me after a family friend. A celebrity, that they've known since before I was born. I've met her a few times, she's very nice. A lot nicer than my parents.." She laughed for a second or two. "Here in the States? I get asked if my name is Rhonda, just with a typo..." Her head shook side to side then. "To which I just have to explain, rhonda without the D. Which always leads to lovely comments, and joking rebukes."

She grinned at him, before a fluttering of bird wings outside drew her eyes back to the rainy weather that laid over this part of Westchester. She watched the birds hopping around the hedges, fluttering from flowers to low branches, before she looked back to Drake. "What are your plans post graduation?" She inquired.

Drake Riley has posed:
"Hey, you got it easy. My name means duck," Drake offers wryly. "But I mean, it's cool. I like it. Rhona. And the accent's not bad, either."

His smile takes on that playful tilt again, before he lets her focus on the window and its distracting birds. It draws his attention briefly, but only just. Thankfully, she follows up with another question!

And a heck of a question, at that.

"No idea," he replies honestly, taking a turn to bob his shoulders in shrug. "Gotta be a lot of places looking for software analysts'n stuff. And AI can bite me. It'll never be as intuitive as a person behind the screen, know what I mean?"

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Another pair of students passed in through the main door, and approached the counter's edge, a quiet conversation enusing with the girl manning the counter. Rhona spared a look in their direction, before returned her eyes toward Drake, and showed him another light smirk.

At his answer to her question, she nodded her head once, and tilted it gently to the side. "You're not getting yourself out there already? Letting the business world know that there is a killer new cyber security guru on the up and up?" She inquired, her accent playing nicely with her words, showcasing her soft and sweet personality a bit more.

"And everyone here has a accent that I rather enjoy myself. When I spoke to some friends back home, just the other day, they said I sound different. So perhaps all of you are rubbing off on me, or however that phrase goes." She smirked again, and raised her cup up for another taste, the napkin around it adjusted slightly.

"Maybe you're hoping to get hired on here though? I imagine this place is always being sniffed around, due to the nature of who attends this place..."

Drake Riley has posed:
"Yeeaah, I imagine /this/ place already has the very best," Drake muses to her. "Bein' hired on, though? Livin' here longterm? That could be pretty sweet. My old way of livin' way very... y'know... middleclass. Basic. Totally miss the beaches, though."

His right hand lifts, lightly waving away the idea, "'n nah, I've not been putting myself out there. Been more focused on absorbing as much as I can with what time I have here. Though I guess maybe I should? It'd suck to graduate, get kicked out, then be like... havin' nowhere to go. I mean, in the meantime, I'm already workin'."

His eyes squint, a mildly theatric tone entering his voice, "The cutthroat, bleeding edge industry of fashion retail."

His head cants in her direction, "What about you? Anything you miss about the ol' home? Workin' anywhere?"

Rhona Lauren has posed:
While he replied to her, her watched did another little melodic notification chirp, and she afforded it a second's glance, displaying a bit of considerate manners by not letting her device consume her when she was in a conversation with someone. Instead, she just dropped her hand back to her lap, and actually turned in her seat to face him more directly, to further up the politeness. "You're from Florida, I take it, then?" She guessed, before she smirked and shook her head. "I was kicked out of London. Well, the boarding school that my parents put me in there... It was said to be for Mutants, but really it was just a place to try and ... I dunno, it wasn't a good place. They labeled me a trouble maker, for pushing back, and well. Here I am. My parents pay me to stay away. They can't have a Mutant daughter at their socialite parties... So what better solution, than ship them across the ocean, and let Professor Xavier's school deal with her?"

She leaned against the back of her chair on her right arm, while her left was on the table, fingers around the base of her cup, and her legs came together to cross at the knees, left over right. "My first job was at the Salem Center hospital, working as a food service assistant... It was just taking patients their meals. But, I got the internship at Channel Six, and that has been taking up all my time. commuting to and from school. I don't get back until late, most nights. Which further explains why you've not seen me haunting the halls, I suppose."

Drake Riley has posed:
The humor in Drake's expression dims considerably with her story, until it's rendered simply a polite smile. A bit of pageantry for her sake, really. "Yeah, that's... that's below average, huh?," he offers rhetorically. "Hard to imagine /you/ being a problem, though. I mean, you dress kind'a.. counter-culture, a little bit," he says, letting a hint of the humor ease back in, "but you seem nice. Harmless, even."

Sitting upright, Drake's brows raise. "Ah, heck. You're one of those explosive types, aren't'cha? All nice until something happens, then bam. Nuclear. Like that playground scene in the Terminator." He nods sagely, fully facetious at this point. "Totally get it now. I'm onto you."

Leaning onto his knees again, finally with his relaxed, nigh automatic boyish grin, he continues: "Nah. California. West coast. Nice weather, surf, warm sand. You'd love it. Unless you're more into fog'n rain."

Rhona Lauren has posed:
When he spoke of her attire, she glanced down at herself, her free hand pinching the fabric of her t-shirt, and releasing it against her stomach. "My brother got me this shirt, a few months before he passed away. It's getting kind of old, sadly. but... That is sentimental value, I suppose. It makes you keep something, when you should probably throw it out." She smirked up at him, and raised her chin, making her throat flex a bit beneath the black leather choker that she wore around her neck, peaking out above the collar of her shirt. "The rest? I dunno... I listen to a lot of 90s alternative music. I think it is the best era of music, but again... that was my older brother's influence." She smirked at him yet again, and shook her head.

"I don't mind the sun. We all need to get our Vitamin d, don't we?" She asked, with a airy short laugh. "California sounds nice, though. Parts of it anyway. I'd like to visit it some time. I've been here in the States since I was just turned 17... Now I'm on the verge of turning 20, and I've yet to leave New York for longer than a week. I went to Disney World with some other classmates last summer. Got to see quite a lot then, down in Floridaland."

She reached for her drink cup, and paused. "That was Terminator 2, by the way." She corrected him, flexing her 90s knowledge, and giving him a playful grin.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley looks absolutely deflated when she had to drop the bombshell about her brother. "You don't saayy...," he drawls, practically wilting like Pac-Man ramming into a ghost.

Clearing his throat, he chooses to firmly put the focus on the other topic. "Never been to any Disneys," he admits. "Not even once. And it's good to know the lady's got taste." He bobs his head towards her again; if she's going to be playfully pedantic, he'll reward the behavior. Because the first two Terminators were good. The rest...

...well, we don't need to think about that.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Rhona kept her smirk, as she raised her drink up for another sip, the hot tea keeping her feeling warm on this rainy day. When she lowered it again, she tilted her head toward him. "Really? You never even went to Disneyland?" She inquired. "I mean... I heard it was not quite as good as Disney World, but... still, I would think that would be a staple amongst all Californian residents..."

She raised her right arm up on to the back of the chair, and pressed the flat of her palm against the side of her forehead, her legs still crossed at the knees. The other students had gotten their coffee, and pastries, and moved over to some of the sofas in the corner, behind Rhona's shoulders and a few tables past her.

"I dunno. I rather liked the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I watched it on Amazon Prime the other night..." She drifted her eyes toward the windows, and considered something, her fingers rubbing dark red painted nails through her hair. "God, that was more like a month ago, I think..."

When she looked back at him, she upnodded in his direction. "Which clothing store are you working at? One in the Salem shopping mall? I rather like that place... Surprised to see a mall still alive in 2025. But it's quite classy, I suppose, so that must help keep people coming in its doors."

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley shakes his head quickly, freely. "Nope! I mean, maybe for the /good/ kids. But me? I made my parents mad plenty'a times. They didn't like me bein' out late, they didn't like my friends, and they /definitely/ didn't like finding out I'm a mutant." He scrunches up his expression at the word, then chases the thought with a shrug. "I think it might've scared'em. I was already ruining their social life. This would've been.. like.. actually frightening for'em."

His right hand raises slightly, despite not producing any noticeable special effects. "I'm an electrokinetic. Shocking, I know."

Drake bobs his eyebrows at her. He is very aware of how awful that was.

And yeah, I work at the mall. Still sees lots'a foot traffic. I like to think it's my winning smile."

Rhona Lauren has posed:
The British girl just stared at him as he spoke, her chin up a little, and her face attentively studying his features as he spoke. She slowly nodded her head at his confiding a bit of personal information in her, with regard to his parents. She had a lot to say on that same subject, but she didn't want to come off as a psychopath in the moment. She just shook her head at it a little, and tried to show a sympathetic expression.

"Electric manipulation?" She asked, smirking at his joke. "Have you fine tuned that enough to... charge a smart phone?" She asked, as any good teenager should first react, by connecting it to a damn phone question. "That's pretty cool, though. No wonder you're inside on a rainy day." She joked back at him, showing a sweet smile, before she glanced at the windows once more, the sound of the cafe's quiet jazz music making the comfortable space feel nicely separated from the cool rainy day outside.

Drake Riley has posed:
"Gimme." Drake reaches a hand towards her, palm upturned invitingly. He's evidently willing to prove he's capable of that very thing. But she'll have to come to him to give it over, if she intends to get her phone topped off!

"Rain can be bad, but only if there's a /lot/ of it. More than this. If I use my powers during a shower like this, I'm likely to spark in a few random directions, but nothing too bad if people keep a little distance. But if it's a total, like, Vietnam jungle downpour? That's bad. And even worse if I'm actually /in/ water. But it doesn't happen unless I use my powers while, like, in those conditions."

Rhona Lauren has posed:
At his revelation of being able to charge her phone, she had a warm expression touch her features, those features dusted with a light layer of gothy makeup, such as dark eyeliner and dusky painted lips. She gathered up her phone, and stood up to walk over toward him. He was only a few feet away, and as she turned to sit down in the seat to his left, she offered him her iphone, the screen saying it was at 50 percent charged. "I was going to charge it in my car, when I headed out to get some shopping done." She explained, as she sat with her hands between her knees, and her eyes to the right on him.

"That is a pretty neat trick... I mean, if you can do it. If you fry my phone though... You're going to have to scrounge up a thousand dollars." She chided him, though for whatever reason she believed in him. Maybe it was his cocky swagger with how he just boldly claimed he could do it, without any hesitation.

She watched, and tucked her brown strands of hair back behind her left ear, leaving the right one still hanging down that side of her face.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley takes the phone, and immediately doubletakes at her, eyes widened. "A thousand bucks? Geeze.." Refocusing on the small, innocuous device, he clears his mind. What he's about to do isn't anything new to him; he's been doing it for years. But with a pricetag like that attached to it, it puts him just a little more on edge.

It's nothing but silence from him. No outward indication of anything happening, just those green eyes leveled on the device resting in his hand. No sparks, no ethereal hair-raising, nada. The only telltale sign is the steady increase in the phone's battery percentage. His control over the electrical currents he generates and directs is fine - to a granular level. Feeding bit by bit into the device, directing it to what he can instinctively connect with as the power source, the internal rechargeable battery.

He brings it up to a clean 99, then stops. The entire process takes a few seconds, but it's for that very reason that he stops shy of 100. And then, it's simply offered back to her.

"Gotcha covered. I know they have protectors to keep'em from overloading, but those are meant to work with another device. Not a constant influx."

And no sooner has he handed her her phone back than a chime sounds off in his pocket. He fishes out his own phone, an older yesteryear model, and thumbs at the screen. "..well, that's me," he says, immediately shifting to his feet.

The phone is pocketed again, and he hurries about stuffing the laptop on his opposite side into a safe, snug backpack. "Maybe we'll run into each other again, huh?"

Rhona Lauren has posed:
In truth, even if he had damaged it, she was joking about the money. She had more money than she knew what to do with, as she'd indicated earlier - her parents paying her to stay away. When she saw the battery life charge up so quickly, it made her eyes widen, and a second later she laughed; a laugh that was her most bolsterous emotive expression yet, honest and unfiltered. "That is amazing..." She quietly said, nodding her head a few times, as she accepted the device back.

When his phone went off, and he stood up, she sat up straight again, and watched him rise. "Sounds good." She told him, showing him a smile. "Don't forget you met me, now. It might ruin me, if you ask who I am, the next time we run in to one another." She teased, before she stood up to saunter back to her stuff.

"Good luck, Mister Drake." She said, before taking her original seat back, and setting her phone down beside her drink.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley shoulders the backpack and turns to look at her, eyebrow raised with wry half-smile tugging the corner of his lips. "Me? Forget you? After hearin' that accent and seein' that smile? Not a chance." He shoots her a quick wink, and he starts to backpedal towards the steps. "Besides! I still dunno what your powers are!," he calls. "Can't not find out, can I?"