4668/An Unexpected Visitor

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An Unexpected Visitor
Date of Scene: 09 January 2021
Location: Recreation Room
Synopsis: With a large group present in the Rec Room, Kitty's father, believed dead for the past year, shows up unexpectedly.
Cast of Characters: Kitty Pryde, Jubilation Lee, Quentin Quire, Noriko Ashida, Warren Worthington, Simon Lasker, Rogue, Kevin Sydney, Clarice Ferguson, Douglas Ramsey, Tabitha Smith, Lorna Dane




Kitty Pryde has posed:
Saturday finds nice weather at Xavier's School. Nice weather for New York in January anyway. There was snow overnight but the clouds have moved on, with warm sun shining down, lighting up everything and causing some of the snow to melt, which will give birth to icicles by tonight.

Kitty Pryde is in the Recreation Room, looking at the manual to a karaoke machine that has been pulled out of the boxes that Warren Worthington brought the night before. But never did get through the setup thanks to a bit of an electrical discharge.

"Ok, this controller isn't bad, but when we rewrite the software for it we'll tap it into a UI on the school's site," Kitty comment as she manipulates the controller while getting the karaoke hooked up to the school wireless that contains a server with all sorts of music the karaoke machine can work with. "It'll download lyrics for the songs, may not have everything, but there's a lot," she says as she looks over the manual.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Help is on the way!"

    No, it's not Mrs. Doubtfire. It's JUBILATION LEE. She's barreling into the recreation room, hopping from chair to chair to table to couch -- anything but the floor -- and getting closer and closer to Kitty and her karaoke machine. In one hand, she holds her trusty ukulele like a sword. She's a warrior going into battle.

    "Watch out.... Hot soup.... Floor is hot lava...." she announces with each leap, apparently for the benefit for whoever is inconvenienced by her travels. Finally, she finds a spot to perch, just a foot or two from Kitty's attempts to breath life into the machine. Jubes slides down to sit on the edge of the table, her feet dangling.

    "I heard there's a karaoke emergency!" she exclaims, bringing her Uke to the forefront. She strums a few chords. "I got this."

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin Quire steps into the doorway and overhears the last, "Please, please, make sure that some of the music is actually tolerable? Maybe even something from this century? Pretty please with suspicious white powder on top?" he asks. He's got his eyes currently unseen behind a pair of reflective pink wraparound sunglasses, his mowawked hair rainbow colored today with a tail dangling down the back of his neck. He flops onto the nearest welcoming piece of furniture and kicks up his feet.

"Jubes! Please, by the corpse of god, help me curate a decent playlist for this thing."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is here for snacks.  This is always evident by how much she leaves behind for others.  It's not always decimation in one go, but when her stomach is gnawing at them and the save point is always just over that hill or around the corner or after that dungeon boss, eating takes on a life of its own.

There's always a chance Noriko might ruin the fun for everyone with her powers, but she isn't the only person at the school who plays video games and could screw things up like that.  Hence why there's a carton of old controllers readily available for the minor accidents, given electronics are so sensitive.

Noriko pauses the game and looks over her shoulder sharply for Jubilee's entrance, always watching to see if she needs to save the girl from herself, but only in the case of impending major injury.  "Hey."  She offers a grin, but then turns back to her game.  It's one of those packaged classics deals that run on games which require quick reflexes.

Warren Worthington has posed:
"Kat, it is just a karaoke machine," laughs Warren as he sits in front of the actual electronics themselves trying to figure out how to wire the boxes together, then to the monitors, and the microphone. Of the many things Warren is, he is not the technical wiz that someone like Kitty is. "It isn't like we are wiring up something dangerous to the security system of anything. I don't think we need 17 layers of protection here."

Warren is dressed much like he was dressed yesterday, eluding to the fact he may not have made it home after being zapped yesterday. If one looks close enough, some of the feathers on his wings have a little blackened char to the edges, and some of that blonde hair looks a bit crispy at the tips. There seems to also be a slight lingering odor of ozone.

"I bought this off the rack, Kat. I can promise you that the BHOEM or anyone else for that matter, didn't bug it or add any malicious soft..." and then, there is Jubilee bounding in like a rabbit which invokes a laugh from the Angel. "Are you always so animated, Jubilee?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"What do lyrics have to do with security?  I think the idea is cool."  Noriko has popped over to look what is going on since Kitty peaked her interest.  A karaoke machine is a karaoke machine.  Pacman is Pacman.  She plays it without memorizing patterns, but by now, she has anyways just through repetition.  "Could we also pump in a streaming service and then do lookups on youtube too to overlay the lyrics on the videos?"  She is obviously assuming they would mute those videos.

Noriko knows nothing about software programming, but who doesn't love features!  Also, this is what fast thinking gets you from a bored teen.

Simon Lasker has posed:
Simon shows up to the rec room out of morbid curiosity more than anything else. Not only does he fully expect to be volunteered to sing some embarassing pop song, but most other people don't like mid 2000s rap metal, so he feels like if he ever actually did sing a song he liked, everyone would be laughing at him anyway.

He secretly hopes that Nori zaps the thing as soon as they try to use it. (For maximum downtime you see.) He can't directly sabotage the project, because he would get in trouble, but he can be minimally helpful.

He very loudly thinks 'Screw you quentin!' when he hears him talking about a 'decent' playlist. Simon is all but certain that Quentin's definition of decent excludes pretty much all music that Simon likes.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty's tablet is sitting nearby so she can manipulate the network as needed to let the karaoke machine on. More than just a wifi password is needed, each device has to be authorized by one of the system administrators. The young woman looks over to Warren as he says it's just a karaoke machine. "Oh you beautiful man," she says in a warm tone, "that's so adorable!" and leaning over to press a kiss to the top of his head like one might give a kid who said the cutest of things." She's grinning at him warmly though, the comment clearly meant in a warm jest.

"We don't take too many chances. If it's got wireless and it's on our network, it's an avenue that can be attacked," she tells him. "Remind me to tell you about using a wifi-enabled fridge to break into... ah... somewhere," she says, glancing over at the students present as she goes mum on details.

"It's hooked into the school music server, so anything in there, that it can find the lyrics for, should be in it when we're done," Kitty tells Quentin. She nods to Nori. "Long as it has music and a lyrics file. It can connect to the various music services you'd expect for the music."

Kitty's tablet beeps and flashes. Those nearby can see it's an incoming message from Doug, but Kitty's in the midst of programming so doesn't answer it yet.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Noriko is given a lasting smile and then a double-tap eyebrow waggle. "Hi," she says. It's simple but lingering with payload. One word to say a lot more. Her head cocks back and tilts so she can give Warren a sass-look. "Jubilation is not just a name, it's an attitude," she explains with a smirk. "...So, be grateful my parents didn't name me Despondency." She strums off a few chords just to drive that point home to the core.

Jubes hops off the table and shrugs her shoulders at Quintin. "Sorry, Q, inspiration calls..." she explains, walking past him towards the video game area. It seems the floor is no longer hot lava. Her next spot is on the floor next to Noriko's gaming setup. "So, that would give us all the songs on the Internet to sing to?" she questions, smiling up at Nori. A good idea, to be sure. She sits criss-cross-applesauce style and starts strumming, staring at the screen.

    "Oh....Here in America, they're Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde...." she starts to sing softly. "...But when Pac pops a floor pill.... " She pauses, strums off some more chords. "...They all died...." She emphasizes 'died' to pair with Clyde.

Warren Worthington has posed:
Warren glowers at Kitty and grumbles, having the most adult reply of all which is sticking his tongue out at the young woman.

"Anything? I swear to god if Hank gets up here and tries to sing some aria in Latin, I am pulling the plug."

Warren turns to Jubilee and is about to reply when she bounds off to go sit with Nori, muttering a very audible aside to Kitty, "That one is like a squirrel on speed. Do we need to tie a bell on her?"

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin Quire hops up to sit on the edge of the loveseat, his legs folded underneath him. An awkward position, but he seems comfy enough, probably because he's cheating his balance by using a hint of TK. Quentin likes to cheat.

Simon's outburst makes him turn his head, "Oh, blow it out your ass, burnout! I'm not going to b subjected to any of these rhythmless goons squealing classic rock like a bunch of divorced dads."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue walks through the school from the direction of the garage, pulling a radio flyer red wagon by its handle. Wearing a light gray hoodie half-zipped up to her chest with a black tshirt on under that, blue jeans and brown leather boots that go up to her knees, Rogue looks around the rec room at everyone within it as she pulls her wagon toward the kitchenette area.

The wagon is filled with grocery bags, loaded with snack foods.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
When Noriko gets her answer and a new lesson on security, she nods brightly and zips back to her video game before someone next in line can claim it and blame it on her abandoning the game.  This puts her right in place after Jubilee passes Quentin to not cause the girl to divert...or maybe Jubilee just knows Noriko well enough that she'd be back.

"That's the idea.  Imagine all the youtube visuals and all the wrong visuals matching up to the songs because the search sucks!"  This seems to be a bonus for the girl, leaping ahead in her thinking.  Noriko mutes the TV so Jubes' playing isn't interrupted.

"I heard that," Noriko calls out over her shoulder to Warren.  She leans to Jubilee and kiiinda whispers, "Am I as annoying as that guy?" tilting her head toward Quentin.  Then she grumbles to herself, "Classic rock is awesome."

SQUIRREL!  Apparently Noriko is in a better mood today, so quickly after yesterday's mishap.  She spurts over to look through all of the grocery bags as Rogue is wheeling them in, but not impeding her progress.  Evidence appears when she returns to her seat that she totally yoinked quite a few snacks.  "Thanks!"  There's a little mount of them between her and Jubes now.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The Squirrel on Speed gives Warren a rueful look from across the room. She continues to strum some chords but her singing is paused. "Hey, you could try!" she challenges, grinning a bit at the suggestion that she get belled. With a shrug, Jubes continues singing. "You could try, you could try, you could try, just like poor Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde!" Strumstrumgstrum. "Locked in the maze with Pac-Man.... Seven minutes in heaven..." Strumstrum. "...With Pac-Man..." Strumstrum. "....Nothing rhymes with Pac-Man..." she sings, giggling a little as things start to go south.

    Jubes gives Nori a conspiratorial grin and tilts her head closer so she can not-quite-whisper a response. Is she as annoying as Quentin? "No," she stage-whispers back. "No one is." She looks up and gives Quentin a big toothy smile before 'ooohing' at the sudden snacks. "Don't mind if I do."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde begins snickering at the mention of Beast singing opera. "Oh. It'll happen," she tells Warren with a laugh. "It will definitely happen at some point." She gets the machine on the network. "Ok, hooked up to the server. And, hooked up to some online lyrics sites. Should be good to go. Warren promised he'd sing the first song," she says as she hands the microphone over.

A new message from Doug pops up. And then another. And a fourth, the icons for them lining up in a stack. Kitty is just about to reach for the tablet when she hears Quentin and Simon. "Wait until I start doing songs from Westside Story," the former dance student tells Quentin, delayed from checking Doug's messages. And then Rogue is entering and she gets a wave. "Heya AM, get some good stuff?" she asks. She's just about to reach for her tablet again when a male voice comes from the entrance to the room from the hallway.

"Kitty?"

Kitty turns and sees a man standing there, in his 40s. Black moustache and hair. Not particular fit, a dad bod if you will. Kitty's mouth drops open and she stares at him. "Kitty," he says again, starting to smile.

Tears start to run from Kitty's eyes down her cheeks. "D-d-dad?" she says, voice cracking. "DAD!" She drops the karaoke manual and sprints at him, nearly tackling the man with a hug that is returned.

On her tablet, the screen flashes a message: SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE!!! and then a message pops up in text:

> Kitty, your FATHER just came in the gate. - Doug

Rogue has posed:
Rogue smirks at Noriko already going through the bags as she's pulled up to the counter's edge. "Can't even let me put them away before ya start ransackin'em?" The girl with the southern flavored voice questions the girl. "Jean sends me out t'get supplies, and they're gone before I can even pretend t'fulfill her request." She mutters as she starts to set bags up on the counter. Lining them up on the counter she reaches in side one and pulls out a box that she pulls a three-pouch-packet out of. Turning around when she hears the voices that lead to Kitty's... dad showing up? Rogue's eyes just narrow as she watches this unfold, all whilst she opens the packet-pouches and pulls out a white chalky stick. She sloooowly dips the stick in to the cherry pouch, and then sloooowly puts the chalky stick in her mouth. Mmmmm, Fun Dip, and peering at people's parents randomly showing up to the shcool.

Simon Lasker has posed:
Simon smiles an evil grin. "Quentin, why so hostile? I didn't say anything." This is going to be good. Telepaths always made him uneasy. Having someone who always knew what you were thinking (especially things you had no intention of saying) always bothered him. "Besides, how do you even karioke to EDM?"

Simon wasn't the biggest fan of ukelele music, but if it was the cost of avoiding humiliation, he would gladly listen to what ever the Jube-box chose to plunk out.

The sight of Rogue bringing in more snack food had him eyeing Nori warily as he approached the fresh bounty of salt and sugar optimistic that there might still be something left for him to eat when he got there.

Ugh parents. It was bad enough that Kitty's parents didn't suck, but they also had to show up and rub everybody's noses in the fact that they were also involved and cared.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Van Damme," Noriko suggests in a timely manner.  "Well I'm hungry!"  Two granola bars disappear between Pacman moves.  "Normally I raid the kitchen but I'm on a roll," she explains, not even realizing she's prioritizing a game over Rogue's saintly compliance.  "Just blame it on me and give her the sack of empty wrappers.  She'll get the picture."  Between waiting to get killed, she spurts off to help Rogue unpack.  She pushes it too long and dies without having realized she was in danger!

Back to Jubes though.  "Damn."  When Kitty yells out DAD is when Noriko turns around, with a weird look on her face as her eyes flit around to everyone in the room.  "How...?"

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin Quire holds up a finger in the air, "First of all, I'm only annoying because I'm a revolutionary and making others uncomfortable is part of the work of undermining the pernicious rot at the central core of our social structure and also you're just a bunch of sensitive 10-ply baby butts. Second of all, I was referring to more of the common canon of modern pop artists who incorporate EDM into their ouevre along with some hip hop artists in part because watching some of the aspertame squad around here try to rap would be the absolute funniest thing that's ever happened here not counting that one time Cyclops smiled (which I don't actually believe and I want to see pictures or it's a total cryptid right up there with the Jersey Devil who is probably just a mutant who's mistreated by a bunch of greasy Jersey toolbags)."

Kitty running to her father, of course, distracts even him. He doesn't know anything about Kitty's father or how he died but he can tell it's a big surprise, "Oh. Joy. Familial love. How quaint."

Kevin Sydney has posed:
Freddie Mercury struts into the recreation room wearing a white tank-top, belt, jeans, and the infamous mustache. He calls out "He-da-de-de-de-deaaaa.." and offers a prestigious bow. Ah the glory of being a shapeshifter, his head slowly morphs into that of a headless albino with pupil-less eyes though he keeps the mustache and the clothes. Clearly someone heard that karaoke was going to be an option.

Continuing his strut, he traverses the recreation room to wander over to the pacman machine and eye the mountain of snacks. He raises an eyebrow at Noriko then gazes toward Kitty and the arrival of her father. He offers a little 'Awwww' and immediately misses his own.. and his thoughts turn toward his deceased mother and... NOPE. He forces a grin then looks between Noriko and the Pacman game, when she dies he mimics the death sound.

Warren Worthington has posed:
Warren chuckles at Jubilee and Nori's antics, "Don't worry Jubilee, I have friends that can help. Never said I would be the one doing it."

The microphone falling in his lap causes the winged mutant to turn his attention back to Kitty, opening his mouth to say something when he watches her face reacting to the gentlemen that just walked into the room. "Dad?" he mutters quietly, "But I thought..." He leaves that thought unfinished as he starts to untangle himself from the wires to stand.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
The door to the yard opens and Clarice comes walking in, a large back that says. "Taquiera El Rapido". She has not really taken in the entire scene of the room at this point, so despite the drama of Kitty running to her father she simply exclaims. "Who wants Tacos? Fresh from Guadalupe." She shakes the bag and starts to walk over to the small kitchen counter to set them down. "Senora Chavez...she makes the best tacos. Totally worth the trip." With the bag set down she turns aorund to finally take the scene in fully, now seeing Kitty and the man she is embracing more fully as her eyes fall to everyone in the room now. There is a soft muttered. "I should have got more tacos."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee gives Pac-Man an apologetic look. "Oops," she says before strumming the notes that announce the death. Jubes looks back to grin at Kevin -- they both had the same idea but only one had a ukulele. Bwa bwa bwa bwa-bwa. More strumming.

    "I swear, Warren, if you call Animal Control on me, I'm going to do something not at all lady-like!" she warns, grinning a little. She continues plucking at the ukulele but... a discordant note echos as Jubilee's fingers release the tension on the strings. She stares, Stares, STARES at Kitty and her father. A glance is exchanged with Noriko, lingering in Jubilee's case.

    Jubilee continues staring at Kitty and Mr. Kitty, her hand coming to rest against the four strings on her ukulele. She didn't dare risk ruining the moment by letting a string ring out.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty is crying hard and her father is hugging her and comforting her. Pretty much everything is going over her head at the moment with her emotions boiling over.

"Dad, how? I... Genosha, I saw you," Kitty says, words broken up by sobs. "I had Genoshan security hacked, all their cameras... saw you in the plaza... and... and after all the shrunken parts of Genosha were restored... I looked and looked..."

She what? Good thing Lorna isn't here.

Carmen Pryde gently rubs his daughter's shoulders as he hugs her. "I wasn't killed, Kitty. The plaza got shrunk," he tells her. "They told us other parts of the city were too, and were rescued from the alien responsible for it. But some robot soldier thing of his had us. We were just rescued finally, and they found some way to restore us. I got here as quickly as I could then," he tells her.

Kitty's shoulders shake, still crying as she hugs her father. Carmen finally looks around the room, seeing everyone there looking. He gives a little nod of his head, patting Kitty's shoulders and back. "It's ok, pumpkin. I'm back now," he tells her.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's glance kinda lingers, appears to, kinda..it blips in different positions as she constantly looks back and forth between Jubes and the spookiness.  Finally she settles on the scene when Jubilee does.  She focuses on Kitty's dad's expressions in hyperspeed.  She mouths to Jubilee after nudging her, 'Is this bullshit?'  Something about 'quickly as I could' sounds...unlikely to her.  She's an all or nothing girl when it comes to family, so she expects dads to be total assholes or unconditionally loving.  Especially nothing in between when it comes to fathers.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just leans there with the Fun Dip pouches in hand and the chalky stick in her mouth as she watches Kitty and Mr. Kitty drama unfold. It's... interesting! A glance is given to Noriko, who gets a grin around the stick in her mouth, but her eyes go soon back to Kitty and Mr. Kitty. She listens to them exchange words andslides the stick out of her mouth to put it back in to the cherry powder pouch in front of her. "This is pretty wild." She mutters under her breath.

A second later and another Fun Dip pouch flies across the room toward Jubilee's head!

Warren Worthington has posed:
Brushing off his hands on his jeans to 'clean' them as one without a sink available tends to do, Warren walks towards Kitty and Carmen outstretching one hand towards the older gentleman as the other lays down comfortingly on Kitty' shoulder.

"Mr. Pryde, it's...well it's a shock and a pleasure to see you alive sir! I'm surprised you didn't call! I would have made sure you were picked up at the airport, hell I would have flown you here myself."

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin Quire watches the family reunion with a kind of blank expression. Is he touched, moved? No. But, dick though he might be, even he's not THAT bad and isn't going to openly mock Kitty's reunion with her presumed dead father. He'll mock it behind her back with memes posted to private forums and social media, like a civilized person.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway," he says, rolling his eyes only a teensy bit. "The point is: The Eagles suck."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Noriko gets a silent shrug from Jubilee. She has no idea what's going on. The recreation room is quiet, save for the exchange between Kitty and Carmen and the occasional murmurs of those present. A moment like this, one between father and daughter, needed an appropriate amount of discretion and space. But...

    "OKAY WHO'S THE DEAD MAN WHO THREW A FUN-DIP AT ME?"

    Jubes turns to see Rogue there, just smugly dipping her fun dip chalk into cherry. Cherry! A bold move to start with the red side. A bold move. Jubes grins and shakes her head. But...

    Oh shit. Jubes suddenly faces forward, wide-eyed. She totally just yelled that. Mortified.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko catches Rogue looking her way out of the corner of her eye and her own eyes bulge in jealousy before narrowing abruptly, her moods changing quicker than a cat's.  It's easier, emotionally, to be distracted by trivial things like Fun Dip rivalries than witness a joyful and emotional reunion between the father and daughter, even if a large part of her is happy for Kitty.

When Rogue's attention moves on, Noriko pops up sort of behind her to whisper, "I could take them all," and then is back by Jubilee, pointedly ignoring Rogue and so missing the incoming Fun Dip.

Kevin Sydney has posed:
Kevin ceases any potential antics and simply listens to the exchange between father and daughter unfurl. While generally an optimistic person, he seems a little suspicious. As a shapeshifter, he knows there is room for potential tricks and deceit. Mimicking a departed loved one is a line he won't cross, but he knows not all others share his same sensibilities. Crossing his arms, he hums deeply in thought then stifles a laugh when Jube gets pegged by a fun-dip. He covers his mouth and kneels with a snicker.

Simon Lasker has posed:
"You know Q, there are several nice bridges in Manhattan for you to move under." You loathsome little troll. "We didn't need your whole manifesto, just an explanation for why you went off over nothing. Besides no one here cares about football"

Jeez. They were still finding people in Genosha? Maybe it would be up and running again soon and Simon could go visit. There was always the possibility that it could be a shapeshifter or a telepathic halucination, but he preferred to be optimistic in this case.

He didn't know what to say in these cases. He settled on "I am so happy for you." He felt awkward saying it, but he couldn't think of what you were supposed to say in this case.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue, of course, looks back to Jubilee and grins at her around the chalk stick that has been put back in her mouth. She raises a gloved hand up to finger-waggle at her, accepting the guilt of the thrown pouches of fun! A look is given back to Noriko then and Rogue laughs softly. "I'm puttin' this stuff away before its all consumed and I'm sent back out inta the damn cold." The Belle says before turning around and doing just-so. She's certainly glancing over at Kitty's soap opera life continuing to unfold here-in amongst the madness of the school's rec room.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
    "I'm sorry, but only a man who's never listened to their rendition of 'Witchy Woman' from the Summit during the Houston 1976 concert would ever say that. Much like Tina Turner's best rendition of 'Proud Mary' is from her live concert in 1982, and her best "Steel Claw" and "Rock and Roll Widow" were she did them live on the Tonight Show in 1984."

"It would be like saying 'Blondie Sucks' or Childish Gambino sucks-" Doug says, trotting up to the group. He's wearing a suit. "Sorry, I was in New York and had to find a teleporter--"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty wipes at her eyes, letting go of her dad as others start to respond to his presence. Carmen Pryde turns towards Warren, smiling to him. "Yes, very good to see you again, Warren," he says. His eyes go to Warren's wings. "Such beautiful, white wings," he comments. "It's great to see all of you again," he says, looking around the room.

Kitty turns towards Warren as he comes over and put his hand on her shoulder, arm going around him to hug him tight, back of her hand wiping at her eyes. Carmen meanwhile is looking around, saying, "Let's see, Simon isn't it? And..." he looks at Nori and smiles to her. "I'm sorry, I'm always so bad with names, but the face are familiar," he says. "Rogue, hello," he tells the Mississippian. He looks to Kevin next, but just smiles to him rather than try to come up with a name.

Kitty clears her throat, letting go of Warren from the hug and sliding her arm back around her father, his arm going about her shoulders. "Genosha... well, it's in bad shape. You can stay here at the school though," she assures him. "One of the guest rooms, and..." Kitty's lip quivers and she has to stop talking as her emotions threaten to overwhelm her again.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Noriko.  We met last year remember?  When you came to visit in the summer?"  Noriko wasn't here last summer, though she has no idea if Kitty's dad visited then and she's certainly never met him.  She's probably just being facetious.  Her smile is kind of too wide, if one knows Noriko.  Maybe he has memory loss?  Maybe he's just mistaking her for someone else.  Naturally though, Noriko doesn't give him the benefit of the doubt, as if looking for any reason to confirm how much of a crappy dad he is for somehow taking all this time to get back to his daughter.

Noriko looks over to Jubilee pointedly as she reaches for a snack.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin Quire gives a groan, "God, Simon, if I wanted your opinion, I would just...I would...nope, nope, can't think of any circumstance where I'd want your opinion."

"And Doug, you dear boy, you genius you, for as much intellectual rigor as you have, you are, nonetheless, a hopeless nerd. I sympathize. Part of me is a nerd, it's just that I happened to sprout and blossom into the gorgeous creature currently radiating upon you all, rather than staying inside a brittle and pasty shell of questionable complexion."

He overhears just a little of the familial conversation, "Genosha's in a perfectly good shape. It just happens that shape is a hole in the ground."

Warren Worthington has posed:
"If he doesn't want to stay here, I can put him in the The Lowell or someplace else," Warren says as he gives Kitty's shoulder another squeeze before letting her go, focusing more on Carmen at the moment before he gets distracted by the kids behind him, "Q? Zip it. The adults are talking."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation glares back at Rogue's fingerwave. She takes a deep breath and slides down in her seat, trying to get the top of her head lower than the bottom of the couch. She's still on the floor, but she wanted to be as small as possible. Maybe no one would know it was her. Maybe no one heard her scream at the top of her lungs. Impossible, right? Jubes stares up at Nori from her floor position, horrified.

    With a huff, she reaches up to the pile of snacks on the couch, looking up at Noriko, embarrassed. "I'm never talking again," she mouths.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug lets out a sigh. "Quentin, while I like your 'in your face attitude' and your New Wave and Punk-inspired aesthetics with a millenial twist, I'll have you know that A) I am *adorable*, this face is *money* and B) Now is not the time, I need to-" He stops, and looks between the others, and frowns. "Now hold on a second." He says, holding his hands up. "Maybe we should-"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith bops in with her headphones on, listening to trashy 90s music so loud that it can a little bit heard even with her headphones on. She stops in her tracks as she sees the rec room totally filled with all these people, "What the hell, party in the rec room..." she mutters mildly, smirking a bit.

She drops her earphones to her neck and looks over at Rogue, stopping her next sarcastic comment before she starts it. She looks at Jubilee on the floor and hmms.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Carmen Pryde hears Doug and looks over. "Douglas Ramsey, there you are. I was wondering if you were around," he says, perhaps giving his daughter a few moments to gather herself.

He does look back to Kitty though, saying, "That would be perfect. I'm afraid I don't have much of anything. My home on Genosha is destroyed-"

Kitty cuts in, nodding her head. "I went. We went. I looked for you, went through everything, underground and above. There really wasn't much of anything that could be recovered," she says.

Carman pats her shoulder. "I'm here, you're here, that's all that matters," he says. Kitty gives a fast nod of her head and hugs her father tightly. "Dad, I gave up so long ago." He hugs her back. "I don't blame you. I'm just glad they were finally able to free us," Carmen Pryde says.

He looks back to Warren. "I'll stay here at the school for a few days, be near to Kitty. But maybe later, if you could help..." he says, trailing off like he's embarrassed to ask for the assistance.

Warren Worthington has posed:
Warren nods, "Of course," he answers Carmen. "Whatever you need, I'll make sure you have it. Just let me know."

Slipping his arm around Kitty, he gives the young woman another squeeze and lowers his lips to the top of her head. "I'm going to go, let you catch up with your dad. Give me a call when you get him settled in and we can all have dinner. I'd love to hear what happened!"

With that, Warren makes his way towards the foyer, glancing back to take a last look at Kitty and her Dad as he leaves the room, a grin on his face seeing her happiness.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug closes his mouth, and lowers his hands. He lets out a sigh, and then rubs the back of his neck. "...Long time, Mr. Pryde." He says, though his eyes never leave the man.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Peeking in, Lorna's brows loft as she turns into the rec room and looks over the crowd. "I thought I heard voices." She remarks and lets her words trail off as she takes in every face. "Oh..." There's a small flutter at the possibility of other survivors when she sees Kitty's father.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation looks up at Tabitha and shrugs. She's on the floor, using the couch as a barrier between her body and her outburst a moment ago, her ukulele sitting neatly in her lap. The snack in her hands turns out to be... a handisnack. "...They still make these?" she murmurs at the tight little container of crackers, suspicious cheese paste, and a lovable red stick. Jubes peels back the wrapper and starts stick-spreading the cheese goop on the top cracker.

    Jubes didn't know Kitty's dad -- she arrived at the school too late for that -- and it really seems like the kind of thing best left alone. After spreading the cheese slime, Jubilee sticks her hand up and offers the cheesed cracker in front of Noriko's face. She jiggles it salaciously in the air.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde smiles to Warren at the kiss to the top of her head, eyes going to his for a moment before he leaves. She is indeed in a good mood, now she's gotten past the immediate surprise of her 11-month gone father suddenly showing up in the room.

She turns that smile over to Doug as she presses in against her father's side, arm around his back like she never plans to let go of him now that she has him again. "I stopped praying for this, I'd given up," she tells Doug.

As Lorna comes in, Kitty waves to her excitedly. "My dad. He's alive. They shrunk the plaza he was in. And a drone had it when the fight at Brainiac's ship happened, wasn't recovered until a little bit ago," she says in quick explanation.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith scratches her head as she looks over at the mysterious survivor Carmen the Kitty Pryde. She seems confused and looks between Kitty and Carmen, as if trying to jog her memory to figure out what the fudge is going on. She follows the conversation for a sec then something jogs in her memory. "Uhh hey, that's really Kitty's Dad? I seem to remember him being dead right...?" she asks her, "Oh and where's the damn goldfish crackers...?" she wonders.

Lorna Dane has posed:
"I see that, Kitty. What a fantastic relief." Lorna notes and gives the father and daughter a broad smile. "I won't pester too much for details now-with you both." But Lorna is already drawing out her phone to start working on some emails regarding looking into more survivors from this plaza with other officials of Genosha. "A whole plaza. Imagine that." She murmurs and before looking for an open seat and leaning against the pool table instead as she types quickly. "Have we secured lodgings for Mr. Pryde yet, out of curiosity?"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Heads up Tabby," Noriko tosses her one of the packages of goldfishies in between yawns and Pacman ghost attacks.  Her search leaves a single dent in the mini mountain of snacks on the floor.  "Anyone else want to play?"  Booooored of that.

Oh!  SNACK!  CHOMP.  It'd be unclear to Jubilee and anyone else how Noriko procured the cracker Jubilee is tempting her with, but it is in her mouth now.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug looks over at Kitty and says, "...It's incredible." He's choosing his words carefully at this point. He rubs the back of his neck, and then says, "...We can talk later. Good to see you again, Mr. Pryde."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty nods back to Lorna. "I'll get him one of the guest rooms at the school for now. Warren offered to get him somewhere in the city later. His place on Genosha is gone, so... well, we'll manage it. I've got a job now, Dad. Two of them. Well, one is about done, at Fisk Enterprises. But I'm working a contract with JVD Fashion. Janet van Dyne's company," she tells him, getting an approving smile from her father. "Excellent Kitty, I knew you would find yourself something you enjoyed," he says.

If there is anything Doug's comment to be picked up, Kitty misses it completely. Her dad is alive! Not much else gets through to her right now. She sees Tabitha and waves to her, with a huge smile on her face.

"Dad, let's go somewhere quiet and we can catch up and... and..." she says, and then just hugs him because she's a bit overcome again. He hugs her back and kisses her head. "Sure thing pumpkin'. Let's go talk," he agrees. He looks back to the room. "Thank you everyone. For helping Kitty through what I know had to be a tough time," he says. And the two of them then turn to head out of the room, looking for somewhere quiet to talk.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    POOF. The cheese-crudded cracker is suddenly just a couple of crumbs blowing in the air. Jubes snickers quietly and reaches down to start cheesing another one. "The goldfish?" Jubilee questions, looking up at Tabby. A hand is brought up to jab her thumb in the direction of the mountain of snacks on the couch and Noriko who watches over them.

    Jubes perks her head up to see Kitty and family start heading out. She releases a little bit of tension held in her shoulders. After her outburst, she was trying to go unnoticed and be on her best behavior. But now? With the red handisnack stick sticking out of her mouth, Jubes springs to her feet. "That. Was. Awesome!" she declares. She starts strumming the ukulele again.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Watching the father and daughter quit the room, Lorna decidedly sits on the pool table directly before looking towards the younger residents. "Agreed." She murmurs and starts fishing through her phone for news of the returned plaza. "I don't know how I missed the news earlier." She murmurs and crosses her feet at the ankle. Hearing Jubilee strum away on her uke she gives the girl a small, crooked grin.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith catches the crackers from Noriko and says, "Thanks Nori, you're a peach," she says idly. She watches Kitty and the Dad leave the room then glances at nobody in particular because she really doesn't have anybody, "Dang, I wish my Dad would hug me," she says depressingly. She pops open the little bag of goldfish crackers and tosses one in her mouth. She idly tosses one at Jubilee too.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"That dude is shady as fuck," Nori announces with narrowed eyes and not a care for her volume once she believes Kitty and her dad are out of earshot.  She slumps back into the couch.  "No prob," Norik offers to Tabby with a nod.  Then she starts passing her gauntletted hand over Jubilee's head to get some crazy almost undulating static going...however she does that.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee returns Lorna's grin, waggling her eyebrows as she continues strumming. "Here we are again...." she sings. "...Someone's dad has come... To pick them up from school, but...." Strumstrumstrum. "...Some of us take the bus.... Things can be so...Cruel." She shrugs, apparently satisfied with the freestyle rhyme. When Noriko announces that Carmen is shady, Jubilee intensifies her strumming pattern and continues her song in a new direction.

    "No-ri doesn't buy it, no, no, No-ri doesn't buy it," Jubilee sings as she strums her ukulele, her lyrics turning into a mixture of singing and giggling as the hair on her head starts to stand on end thanks to Noriko's gift of static attraction. The strumming suddenly stops as a goldfish lands in the ukulele's noise hole. "Tabby!" she whines. Jubes gives the instrument a shake -- the poor little goldfish rattling around like its the ball bearing in a can of spray paint. "I'll rescue you, little fella!"

    Jubes drops to the ground, on her back, and starts to jiggle the ukulele in the air, the noise hole lined up perfectly with her waiting mouth. "...Cuh'on!" she tries. It's 'come on' but with her mouth open the whole time, tongue slack-jawed in anticipation.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith snickers and laughs loudly as the goldfish cracker lands perfectly in Jubilee's ukelelele, "It's in the dah hole!" she lets out amusedly, raising her hands as if signaling Touchdown.

Jubilee's antics make her keep laughing, "Oh shit, stop drinking pop after 8pm Jubes, dang," she comments idly. She idly glances up at Noriko, as if contemplating the same evil she's contemplating, "Maybe it's Magneto in disguise. That shithead hasn't done much lately."

Lorna Dane has posed:
"No. I'd know if it was Magneto." Lorna weighs in and tosses her phone aside on the pool table with a sigh. "Zip. I'm going to have to arrange some conference calls." Looking at Jubilee, Lorna chuckles and gives her head a shake. "That is going to be the dustiest goldfish." She shudders and looks to Noriko. "Why are you so quick to imply there's something off? Kitty would be the first to know if that wasn't her father-I would think."

Simon Lasker has posed:
Well the Karioke armageddon is temporarily averted. He feels bad that that is still on his mind, but he still hasn't figured out how he feels about Kitty's dad comming back from the dead. He is glad-- kind of-- but it still doesn't feel real.

"Look, Nori all parents are automatically shady. You gotta have more to go on." Now that it no longer symbolizes the time before karioke, the ukelele is no longer charming.

Well Lorna Dane is here. Now was as good a time as any to say something. "Hey Lorna. I never got to go to Genosha before the whole thing happened to it. What can I do to help?" Maybe if this whole heroing thing didn't work out, he could go get a normal job in a country that didn't think of him as mutie scum.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug mumbles, "The best disguise he's ever been able to muster is a trench coat and sunglasses, like he's trying to go incognito in a video store in the 80s..." He still has a distracted air about him. "...Let me know how the Karaoke machine works, I still have some debugging to do," He says, watching the door.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is suddenly leaning over the back of the couch to reply to Lorna, missing the ukulele goldfish eating.  "Because he said he knew me and I said we met last summer when I wasn't even here...if he mistook it for /this/ last summer he was indisposed like he said to Kitty.  I've never met him before in my life."

"Dude, give me a moment to answer," Noriko snaps at Simon in retrospect as if her mind processed the conversation in a different order.  She looks back to Tabby and then Jubes, and then makes a D: face.

Lorna Dane has posed:
"Hey, hey, can we leave off idly bashing my father for the moment? I know it's a wide barn to make a target of but-" Lorna looks at Noriko and lifts her brows. "That...is actually something interesting to go on." She observes before hoping off the pool table and looking from Doug to Simon. "There's a lot. What are you interested in? Clean up? Construction? Refugee outreach? Something different? You'd be surprised how many moving parts there are." She notes, talking over her shoulder and heading behind the bar where the refrigerator is.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "It's one of the flavor blasted ones!" Jubes calls out, apparently to get Lorna to understand why saving the goldfish was worth any dustiness. But...The goldfish is not destined to be eaten on this day. "Holy shit!" Jubes cries, sitting up suddenly. The goldfish bounces harmlessly off of her chin. She stares at Noriko. "Are you serious?" Jubes asks, looking suddenly a lot more interested. "Did you do that on purpose?" It was either a mistake or Nori had set a clever trap.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha Smith thumbs toward the door, "Hey, check it out, I'm going dancing---don't tell older people," she tells Jubilee, "Totally text me if you need something bombed," she explains. She turns to leave.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Well yeah.  Why else would I say that?  I thought it was weird at first when he said it took him all this time to get here, and he seemed so loving?  Why wouldn't a dad who cares like about his daughter do everything to get back to her as soon as possible?  And it took this long?  To find a drone?  When they knew parts of it were shrunken?  I bet we could confirm when or if the plaza got unshrunken," Noriko prattles off as she kicks up her feet on the couch, laying back with her gauntlets folded over her stomach.

Noriko nods to Lorna, "Yeah, something to investigate at least.  Feels like we should.  For Kitty."  She lifts a gauntlet to wave to Tabitha, but the girl is already on her way out.

Simon Lasker has posed:
"To be completely fair if I came back from being missing for a long time, my memory of home would be kind of sketchy, and sometimes people wont take you back if you seem off. Maybe he assumed he missremembered or something. He doesn't live here after all." Despite his protestations, what nori said is building up a gnawing doubt in his mind. Shady as hell indeed.

"Oh, I had that job as a welder several years ago. I could do construction. Hit me up later, I would love to go help."

Lorna Dane has posed:
"Am I not an adult?" Lorna asks, looking after Tabitha but letting it drop as she hears Noriko out. Opening the fridge she looks for some iced tea. "Welder? Oh yeah. Like to join metal. I forget sometimes that it's not like-" She makes a slurping sort of noise. "For other people." She closes the fridge and looks to Noriko. "You make a solid point, it's worth at least looking at. I wasn't able to find record of the plaza or other refugees-but that could be an error." Her phone is so far away too. Flicking the lid off her tea, she watches the metal disc flip neatly onto the counter and takes a sip. "Maybe a field trip to the island is due soon."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "That is /brilliant/!" Jubes enthuses, grinning at Noriko from ear to ear. Her smile lingers for a moment before it suddenly sours. "What makes you some expert on parents?" Jubes fires off in Simon's direction, apparently a chord has been struck. Parents. It would be nice to have some.

    She takes a breath and reaches down to grab a go-gurt from the pile of snacks. Jubes brings the end into her mouth and rips off the corner with her teeth. She sucks the plastic tube dry, all in one go.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Nori's tone with Simon has de-escalated in a beat.  "Look, I get it," she does, /but/ there's an implied 'but' she leaves hanging in the air.  She never wanted to think her own father was...well shady doesn't do him justice.  Well, she can't call him her father anymore.  Perhaps Nori has trust issues, but haven't most people at this school been screwed over by a parent or two, tricked, kidnapped, brainwashed, experimented on, etc?

The blue-haired girl smirks at Lorna's question to the leaving Tabitha and quips, "Do you want to be?" an adult that is.  She perks up into a seated position, some of the couch snacks go flying off.  "Field trip?"

Sadly, Noriko misses the go-gurt guzzling.  She will definitely see the evidence...if it isn't buried among the snack corpses.

Simon Lasker has posed:
"What? I just know what it is like to have people you know reject you after you have been away for a while. That said I don't know nothing about what ever sort of wierd creatures the pryde parents were. They were always super fishy. Too nice."

"Well if there is a field trip, sign me up." He had heard so much about Genosha and how bad it had gotten that the only way he would be disapointed is if it was empty.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "That's a good idea!" Jubes agrees, momentarily distracted from Simon. She nods at Lorna, waggling the business end of her ukulele in her direction. "A field trip! Count me in." Sure Jubes, as if they would need fireworks and gymnastics on the island. Keep dreaming. "I'm heading back to the room," Jubilee announces before swiping her hand down to take another go-gurt.

    "For the road," she adds before tearing off the top with her teeth. With the go-gurt dangling precariously from her mouth, Jubes manages a hidden smile for everyone before engaging the wheels on her heely skates and zipping off!

Lorna Dane has posed:
"Wha-whoa, not tonight. I do have to clear things with say-the actual adults around here. And then there's the plane." She takes her tea and heads towards the pool table to collect her phone. "I'll start working on an action plan. If we're going to snoop, might as well squeeze in some useful business too." She finger guns around her bottle of tea. "Well, this needs booze and drinking downstairs is frowned upon. If anyone comes looking I'll be-" She gestures towards the balcony for residents. "Night, kiddos."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's head tilts when Jubilation announces her departure and destination.  "See you later Jubes."  They are roommates after all.  It's bound to happen sometime.  Nori takes a second to clean up all of their wrappers and stuff the rest of the snacks into the pockets of her light hoodie and cargo pants.  It's obvious where they went if anyone was to look.

"Cool.  Seeya," Noriko nods to Lorna, not sweating anything.  Eager?  Yes.  But she was never expecting they'd take off right now anyways even if she's chomping at the bit.  No disappointment.

It doesn't take her long to lose patience with waiting after Jubilee leaves, so despite any appearances that might indicate something to Simon, she bolts out, forgetting to say goodbye and leaving him all alone.

Poor Simon.  But wait!  He gets all of the snacks!