2559/Creed and Dads - Who needs them

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Creed and Dads - Who needs them
Date of Scene: 22 July 2020
Location: Wilderness Campsites
Synopsis: Logan and Lorna patrol the woods in search of signs for Creed and come across Julio. After a brief on Sabretooth, they part ways, with some passing conversation between Lorna and Julio about the Brotherhood and fathers.
Cast of Characters: Logan Howlett, Lorna Dane, Julio Richter




Logan Howlett has posed:
The recent prowling by Victor Creed in the wilderness surrounding the mansion and the subsequent encounter with the maniac have left Logan more on edge than usual. The groundskeeper had been opening up more recently, offering training and sage advice. The brief skirmish with Sabretooth reminded Wolverine of the dangers facing those he's near. The long list of enemies forgotten and remembered who might now plague at the man's thoughts.

Logan sits on a log which he carved into a bench the previous night. The sun is low on the horizon casting the sky in ever-deepening blues with the occasional trace of orange. It's a switching of the guard between the diurnal and the nocturnal as some critters begin to roam and others bed down for the night.

His clothes and hair are dirty, full of twigs and other forest debris. He has been patrolling aggressively. With no new scents revealed, he has decided to climb into a bottle of bourbon for the evening. His stogie's ember glows in the looming darkness, illuminating his face between interchanging puffs of cigar and pulls from the bottle.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna floated down from above, her sandals barely a whisper on the ground beneath her as she landed. Her eyes were faintly glowing with the electromagnetic energy that colored her hands and frame. Particularly visible in the low light as the sun dipped lower on the horizon. It had been a hot day, but it was beginning to cool off from the Summer sun, and the insects around the woods were creeping out as a result.

"I did another sweep from above, but I didn't see anything. None of the alarms have gone off either. I checked the comms and there's been no signs of Creed since Clarice portaled out with him." She kept her voice hushed, and bit back a sigh as she turned her gaze back to Logan. Her eyesight might not be superhuman and in the dusk she was the same as a standard human.. minus her electromagnetic senses.. To which Logan was lit up as brilliantly as a search light.

The young magnokinetic shifted, folding her arms over the band T-shirt she wore. "I dunno if that's good news or not at this point.."

Julio Richter has posed:
It was a beautiful afternoon for a visit to the lake, but every afternoon shades into dusk eventually. As the sun goes down, Julio reluctantly makes his way back toward the school, wearing his green swimming trunks, a pink tank top, and no shoes. There's a red and blue towel over one shoulder -- Chivas, his home team -- and a noticeable, uncharacteristic spring in his step.

He's not literally whistling as though he hasn't got a care in the world, but with that gait, he might as well be. He is humming: an improvised tune with a simple underlying chord progression. He obviously has no idea that there is anything in the woods that he ought to be worried about; that alone might be cause for concern, given the alarm that likely followed the Sabretooth attack.

He doesn't exactly stumble upon the pair; against the gloaming sky, Lorna is quite a beacon, and he strays from the path to intercept her at her landing point, curious where she's headed. Logan, on the other hand, he can barely see in the half-light, but the ember makes it pretty obvious where the man must be. "¿Hola?" he calls out, curiously. "Everything OK out here?"

Logan Howlett has posed:
"It's good. No sight or scent. Whatever deal Clarice struck with him, it's taking for now." He inhales deeply and puffs out a cloud of smoke away from Lorna then takes another big drink. A low growl rattles in his chest followed by a huff.

He sniffs and gazes in the direction Julio arrives from. "We should consider a curfew for the woods, at least until we are certain Victor isn't playing games."

He sighs and looks to Lorna, "He usually at least waits for my birthday... That gives me enough warnin' to get away from the mansion." He looks to Julio and takes another long puff then offers in Spanish, "A crazy bastard from my past was roaming the grounds yesterday. Keep your head on a swivel, boy."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna plopped down on the ground with a sigh that left her hair fluttering in her breath. She crossed her legs, eyeing Logan as he got into his bottle and she held out a hand with a wiggling of her fingers. "C'mon give me a sip. It'll at least stick with me." She half teased as she spoke. Her gaze shifted toward Julio as he approached, and she shot the younger mutant a studious look.

"Like Logan said, we should implement a curfew out here.." She muttered, "I'll talk to Scott." She added, and pursed her lips together.

"Sabertooth is about. He's an old associate of my father's..." She paused, unsure how much Julio knew about her family or not. "Brotherhood ties and not the nice type like Blink. Though apparently there's more there than I knew about.." She added the last part with a grumble and twist of her lips.

"You see that guy, you go the other way, okay?"

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio's brows lower, and he answers Logan rapidly in the same language, a touch put out.

Then, when Lorna starts in on him, too, he translates: "I'm not a child. I don't need a curfew." It's a perennial sticking point for him: being a couple of years too old for high school but enrolled as a senior for academic purposes.

Still, anything that's rattling the staff here -- and badly enough to bring in Genoshan backup, no less -- is worth being on alert for, so he grudgingly lets go of his annoyance as he continues, "Sabretooth? What's his deal?" He does know a bit about Genosha's royal family -- he tried to apply for asylum there, once -- and is well aware that if someone's on the bad end of Magneto's associates, that person could be very bad, indeed.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan eyes Lorna for a moment then looks at the bottle. He shrugs and then hands over the bourbon. "Just go easy on it, and if you give Julio any, I didn't see it."

He starts combing twigs from his facial hair and plucking them from his shirt, the stogie clutched between his lips. He glances toward Julio and murmurs around the cigar, "Whatever."

As for the questions regarding Sabretooth, he takes out his cigar and puts it out on the ground, before setting it on the log. He clasps his hands together and eyes Julio in the darkness. "Let me put it into perspective.. Imagine me on a bad day and double it.. That's Victor's good day. He lacks these..." He snikts his claws into view. "But he doesn' need 'em.. I've seen him rip through a humvee door with his normal claws, and the bastard can bite through a femur. Worse, he heals even better than me."

He pauses then continues, "If you see him, bury him and run."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna took the bottle in her grip with ease, and smirked faintly. "I'm legal in all fifty States." She drawled, and took a swig, glancing from Logan back to Julio before she pointedly passed the bottle back to Logan rather than Julio. Sure, she wasn't as uptight about things like 'legality' as Scott was, but she needed some plausible deniability and didn't really wanted to give Scott another aneurysm.

"Did I say you were a child?" She shot back, lofting a green eyebrow upward. "Regardless, you're a powerful mutant. Own it. And also acknowledge when someone is a threat to you. Sabertooth is nasty. In the last few years he's worked for my father, an enforcer if you will. Bad enough that my father went to some lengths to keep him away from me and Genosha's public eye. I read the reports on the guy, and they're not pretty Julio. I'm not even sure if you giving him a shake up would be enough to stop him for long." She muttered, and bit back a sigh.

"I know my own limits, and I know if I ran into him out here alone, I'd have a hard time of it."

Julio Richter has posed:
Lorna's rebuke takes Julio aback for a second, and he blanches as he realizes how off he was in his reading of the situation. His own touchiness made him take it as a 'go to bed, kid' thing, when what they were actually suggesting was a safety precaution like the travel limits during the Sinister abductions. And he reflects, with a wince, that there's nothing quite as convincingly mature as arguing that you're a big boy who doesn't need a bedtime anymore.

Suitably cowed, Julio listens to what the others have to say, wincing especially at Logan's examples of Victor's savagery. "Bury him and run," he echoes gravely. "I can do that. How do I recognize him?"

Logan Howlett has posed:
"Good to know." Logan comments to Lorna regarding her drinking legality in the United States. He holds up a hand and admits, "I called him 'Boy' but yea.. we aren't sayin' you can't handle yourself."

He accepts the bottle back and takes another long swig, polishing away much of the bottle. It was an obscene amount for the mild buzz it garnered. He sets the bottle on the ground between himself and Lorna. "Victor.. Sabretooth..  Six and half feet tall. Blonde hair. Pronounced canines, claws on his fingertips.. and usually covered in someone's blood. You'll recognize him as soon as you see him."

He points, "He tracks just as well as I do, so when you start runnin' keep runnin' until you are surrounded by friends. If he thinks you are fun, he'll track you for days." Able to see Julio's expression with his keener vision, he lightens up a little. "If you fight smart, you can disable 'em. Got faith in that. Even if you've got the upper hand, its more important y'warn everyone else. He's got a knack for gettin' away."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna bit back a sigh as she watched, the deepening gloom in the shade of the trees made it harder for her to read Julio's expression and she rolled her eyes toward the sky as she at least picked up the wince. A glance was spared for the bottle, and as it was set down between her and Logan, she reached to take another swig. "You call everyone 'boy' or 'kid'." She shot back, tilting her head toward Logan and then glanced back to Julio.

"The key point is this, around here, we have actual kids and many aren't well trained in their powers. Much less prepared to stand up to a powerhouse like him. He's a predator first and foremost. Like a cat. He doesn't necessarily hunt for food, but for the fun of it. Ever seen a housecat take apart a mouse or a bird, Julio?" It was in the reports. She'd seen the pictures. It wasn't pleasant.

"You and are I glass canons. We're dangerous, but if someone gets a direct hit on either of us.. we're not getting up so easily."

Julio Richter has posed:
"Lo entiendo," Julio answers Lorna, his tone of voice straightforward and noncombative, perhaps bringing across the acquiescence that his expression failed to in the dim light.

"If I see someone who looks like Rahne's evil blond uncle, hit him as hard as I can, get everyone else away, and run." Julio summarizes. "How is he underground? It might be faster to bury /myself/ and run."

He doesn't answer the question about housecats. He's seen ugly.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan shrugs in regards to him calling everyone 'kid' or 'boy'. He rolls his shoulders and then leans back, hands planted on the log offering a semi-pleased sigh as the buzz mutes a little bit of his edge.

"And unfortunately, Victor's not an idiot. He's a trained assassin and soldier.. decent shot too. So yea. Hate for you kids to lose sleep, but he's worth a bogeyman yarn." He gazes toward Lorna with some approval as she admits her vulnerability. "If he ever asks either of you about me, just tell him. Rather him huntin' me than some other poor idiot."

Logan guffaws, "Eh, there you go, kid. Already out thinkin' him. Yea, you go to ground and run that way." He laughs harder, "Oooh, that'd piss him off. Couldn't even track you by scent that way. Though he'd remember, and next time he saw you, he'd go for surprise. So, head on a swivel."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna waved a hand as Julio spoke, setting the little dregs of the bottle down on the ground and enjoying the slight buzz generated from having two shots back to back. Not having a healing factor was nice sometimes. "Honestly, like Logan said. That sounds like a good idea. You know what you can do better than anyone Julio. Just keep an eye out." She sighed heavily, and reached up to drag her hands through her green curls.

"Here I just wanted to practice my hand to hand combat, and I have to rely on my powers before I even get five minutes in." She muttered and shook her head as she glanced back to Logan.

"You seriously think I'd entertain a conversation with the guy rather than just taking off immediately? C'mon. I know better than to deal with him on my own. And I can fly. Some of the Brotherhood members like me because of my father.. he's not one of them. I'm not up for tempting fate anymore than I already have." She drawled, folding her arm over her knees as she leaned back and heaved a sigh.

"Just great that he's wandering around here now that.." She paused, and sat up, looking to Logan. "Do you think the news that my father is alive might have caused him to poke around here?"

Julio Richter has posed:
When Logan describes Sabretooth's frustration trying to hunt him underground, Julio laughs, the sound still a little on the nervous side, but definitely growing in determination. Having a plan will do that for you. "Sounds good. And I'll make sure people know," he says. His bogeyman stories might not be as vivid as the others', but a warning is a warning.

Lorna's comment about the complexities of Brotherhood allegiance catches him by surprise, and he gives her a quizzical glance in the darkness. "I thought the Brotherhood were loyalists?" he asks. "I mean, they were always shown on the news as these" -- he searches for the right word -- "fanatics? almost a religion?" He sucks air in through his teeth, knowing even outside his native language that these terms sound more pejorative than he wants them to. "Like, there wasn't a lot of disagreement in the group. They thought and believed in the same thing very strongly."

Logan Howlett has posed:
Logan rises and brushes his pants off. "We'll get back to it, Lorna. Let's try again tomorrow after I run a patrol in the mornin'."

He hums at the question regarding Magneto, "No idea. I'm guessin' multiple motives. Talkin' to Blink, maybe peekin' at you, but absolutely wantin' to screw around with my head. No other reason for him to lift a leg in our woods and take a piss. Practically wrote 'Hi Logan' in his own piss."

Wolverine offers a bitter laugh at Julio's description of the Brotherhood. "I can't speak to all of 'em, but Victor is only loyal to himself. Magneto kept him paid and entertained. Only reason he got anythin' resemblin' loyalty, and he knows it."

Logan starts to walk in the direction of his cabin, looking over his shoulder toward Lorna. "If things go better with your father then we hope, maybe he can come by and collect his old maniac. Genosha can have him."

The grumpy man then continues on, leaving the bottle behind.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna shifted to push herself up to a standing position, clapping off her pants from the various forest debris as she did so. Her green eyed gaze swinging over Julio in the encroaching dark. "The Brotherhood has more factions than anyone realizes. Few are loyal to my father outright to that level. Those are more the Acolytes, and even then, many of those have their own reasons. They're hardly one centralized unit either. Mystique for example, does whatever she damn well pleases. She's opportunistic in the extreme. But my father trusted she wouldn't try to kill me outright enough to allow her into the palace. Creed was never given that trust." Her lips pursed together.

"My father is a man that is paranoid in the extreme and doesn't trust anyone fully. He uses people, and he saw Sabertooth, and others like him as pieces on a chess board. Doesn't mean they all follow him for love." She glanced back to Logan as he spoke of meeting up later and she nodded.

"Sure, sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow."

Julio Richter has posed:
"There's a lot I have to learn," Julio says, his tone resigned. "Like a whole world I only saw the top layer of. Before I came here, I thought it was humans against mutants, then Sinister attacked and it was one group of mutants against another. Now even inside the group people are trying to kill each other." There's a short, sharp exhalation in the darkness. "I almost liked not understanding better."

As Logan leaves, Julio suddenly snaps his fingers. "Oh! I forgot, I can do this, now," he says. In a couple of seconds, he has pulled some seismic energy into himself -- a process Lorna is familiar with -- and then somehow distilled the visual effect, making the green glow tinier and brighter, concentrated into a tiny cluster of moving objects, like leaves or a small flame. It hovers over his head, looking a little bit silly, but casting a small pool of green light. "Magic," he explains, rolling his eyes.

With his face much better lit, he turns back to Lorna, looking sympathetic. "Everyone thinks your father hates humans and loves mutants, but you know him better, and know that it's more complicated. I get how that feels."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna smiled as Julio spoke, carefully lifting her frame into the magnetic fields so she didn't trip over a root. The woods was not kind to her electromagnetic senses and it left her mostly blind to tripping hazards. It was better to simply float about than risk it. "That's life, isn't it though?" She mused, and she shook her head. "I was like that a few years ago... I hated my father. For leaving me. For choosing his war over me." Her expression softened, "All I heard before was how people //hated// him for the things he'd done. And I'd watch it on the news.. thinking... no, I hated him even more." She sighed softly as she trailed off. Julio's excited 'look what I can do!' essentially broke off that train of thought and she approached him with interest. As light flooded into being, she grinned.

"That's fantastic!" She lifted her hand, and a haze of electromagnetic energy lit it up, it was duller though, muted in comparison. It wasn't so much light as a distortion of energy and charged particles. "Yous is brighter." She joked.

And started to head back toward the Mansion. "It took me a long time to get over the feelings I had for my father. It doesn't mean I always agree with him or what he does.. but it does mean I've forgiven him... and come to understand him better than I did before. And his followers are just as different as the X-men here. They follow him out of fear, out of love, opportunity, a chance for power.. or entertainment. They're all different. And as I discovered after Genosha fell.. Not all of them will follow me just because he named me his heir." She paused thoughtfully, "He's likely going to be pissed when he finds that out."

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio laughs when Lorna compares their flashy lighting effects. "It's not even doing anything right now, it's just shiny," he says with a self-deprecating quirk to his eyebrows. "Yours is making you /fly/. Flying is undeniably cooler than walking."

He goes alongside her down the path toward the mansion, listening, thinking, and nodding as she walks him through the development of her relationship with her father. At the end, he comments, "He was shrunk to ant size and kept in a bottle for a few months, so he's going to be pretty pissed no matter what's going on" With a sympathetic laugh, he admits, "I know I would be."

Along the way back to the school, he relates to her feelings by talking a little bit about how he feels about his own father -- early resentment, later a sort of resignation, never really love, and then loss. It's not the same, obviously, but he hopes it might make her feel a little less alone.