7592/It Yearns to Burn!

It Yearns to Burn!
Date of Scene:	29 August 2021
Location:	On A boat: Breakstone Lake
Synopsis:	There's a lake celebraiton for the new school year at Xavier's. STuff explodes, smores are had, its good innocent fun!
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Rahne Sinclair, Laxmi Mallick, Jean Grey, Remy LeBeau

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Rogue has posed:
Its evening at Xavier's School grounds, and there's a number of students gathered up around the lake shore with food and drinks. While out o nthe water Rogue has setup a show of sorts. She has a metal bouyant raft filled with different burnable things upon it and floating not too far from that is the Belle on a boat. She's standing up on the boat, wearing denim shorts, a camo tanktop, a camo bandana, her aviators, and some tied off gloves worn on her hands and forearms.

Some of the kids are shouting form the shore various things from 'Burn stuff already!" to much less kind words to the Belle, she waves them off or just outright ignores them as she makes final preparations....

She crouches, pours some 'fuel' in to something, and then stands up with a giant black and gold flame thrower....

Some of the kids from the shore are now clapping and cheering. One shouts 'take it off!' though, because, Seniors...

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
One of those kids is unexpected, but then they're all a bit unique. Rahne's hair is visible in any crowd though and she stands on the edge of the water, not yelling or waving. Almost like a ghost haunting the riverbank.

She looks slightly sad, definitely confused, and maybe just a little bit hopeful. That it'll not happen? That it will?

She's always been a softie. Probably the one that doesn't include flamethrowers.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    Laxmi just happened to be near enough to a group of students when one started excitedly talking about the lake, and a flame thrower, and gasoline, that she is inevitably drawn down towards the shore - drawn towards the shore at a slightly alarmed jog. She stops at the edge of the water, looking out towards Rogue with bafflement as the children cheer her and her preparations on.
    Well... Rogue was, after all, an adult - and none of the children were near enough to be in serious danger. At least - she didn't think so. So... Perhaps this is fine?
    "What exactly is the plan here, Rogue?" she calls out across the water. Her voice carries easily across the water - even wth the children shouting. She has years of training at projecting her voice after all.

Rogue has posed:
On the docks around the boat house there's been a selection of cookout food prepared by other members of the school and students of the Senior Class persuasion. There's music playing around there too, so there's a nice night out on the water feeling for the place, with Rogue providing the entertainment... or so everyone hopes.

She takes a moment to look over her flame thrower that ... well who knows where the hell she got it from, but at least its not a Shi'ar pulse rifle right?

"Burn shit!" Rogue shouts back to Lax, while raising a zippo up to the nozzle of her weapon. She gives it a few flicks before the zippo ignites and then a PUFF of fire comes out of the nose of her flame thrower. She gets a few reactions for that before she gives it a once over and turns around to face the audience.

"Okay, looks like we're ready here! Ya'll ready for some fun!" She shouts and raises the flame thrower up before giving the trigger a testing squeeze sending a 10 foot long burst of fire up in to the air above the lake and her boat, reflecting off of the water in the evening sky too!

Jean Grey has posed:
'Rogue is out back burning things with a flamethrower.'

This is one of those phrases that, in less interesting times, might cause Jean a little bit of concern! Rogue's enthusiasm is one of those things that makes the school a wonderful, but also occasionally a crazy and out of control kind of place. But given the last few weeks, tsk-tsking Marie is the last thing on her mind. Mostly. There's always the mild concern of her blowing something up and burning down the school.

With the crowd fixated on the spectacle on the lake, it's unlikely that anyone sees her as she makes her way down from the mansion, which is just as well. Still, her timing is pretty good. She ends up standing beside a certain senior casting him a very meaningful sidelong look. "Ahem. What was that?" Suffice it to say, that bunch looks a bit terrified. But Jean doesn't harp on them longer than that, and ambles forward through the group to get a better view, ending up down near another recent return. "Rahne, it's nice to see you here."

Them the plume of flame goes up, and her eyes follow, fixated a moment.

Remy LeBeau has posed:
     Not one to miss any kind of an outrageous show, the Cajun not only showed up to the burn party, but he showed up with his own goodies.

    Wearing an apron that says nothing across the front, Remy has rolled a pitifully small charcoal grill to the shore and with his silly chef's hat on, he's cooking at most four hamburgers and two hot dogs at a time. "Come and split it!" He's taken to shouting towards the heard of children requesting food from him. when he obviously expected him and Rogue, not this debacle.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Burn shit. So was not ready for that.

Rahne looks around, giving Jean a confused smile, and then looks back at what the hell is going on. "Miss Grey, ah dinnae cuss easily, but what the crud be happenin?" She totally swore, you saw her.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Do be cautious!" Laxmi calls out towards Rogue - with a faint wince at the gout of flame flying up into the sky. What sort of example is this setting for the children? Do any of them have the ability to control fire - and might this prompt ill advised copy-cat performances?
    This hardly seems like a good idea.
    Any less than ideal language choices get ignored - they're really not the concern at the moment. Her concern remains on keeping a cautious eye on Rogue as she prepares to show off for the students. At least, with her on a boat, it kept the students back. She was grateful for that much, at least.

Rogue has posed:
The bouyant platform Rogue had setup has a bunch of stuff on it spaced out from each other. She's got a bunch of 2 liter soda bottles to even a old tube television.

Her aviators are mirror reflective and shining back at those on the shore that she's looking at. "Ya'll ready t'have some southern fun?!" She shouts before she turns around and takes her first shot!

She fires at a bag of something .... hanging above all the 2-liter soda bottles! It bursts in to flames and begins to sizzle and spark as the flame thrower reaches 10 feet across the water from where the Belle has one booted foot up on the edge of the boat she's on.

As some of the happier / more FUN AND CRAZY inclined students cheer her on, she pulls back on the fire, then gives it another HIT with another SPOUT of flame from the large rifle she's holding with both her hands.

The bag of 'something' she's holding continues to cook and melt until finally it breaks open and pours a bunch of white tablets or something down toward the bottles of soda.... then GOOOOSH!

gooooosh! Soda goes everywhere!

"Mentos! The Freshmaker!" Rogue shouts and shoots another spout of fire up in to the sky!

The bottles begin spraying everywhere, some of them falling over and spewing foamy soda in to the lake itself as two more just explode like they were shot with a sniper weapon of some kind!

Jean Grey has posed:
"Your guess is as good as mine," Jean tells Rahne, unable to keep from a smile at the the young woman's sudden and over the top 'profanity'! Very scandalizing. "I'm still playing catch-up on a lot of the school business." A brief vacation to the afterlife will do that. "But I really don't know. Rogue does a lot of upkeep work and small chores around the grounds, I guess maybe she's getting rid of some clutter? I heard they had work crews in after the attack, maybe there was some debris they needed to clear." All logical possibilities. Probably too logical for Rogue, admittedly. And there is one thing she cannot answer: "Don't ask me where she got the flamethrower."

All told, it's the sort of insanity one just eventually has to come to accept, apparently. Except that for all that she's normally the adult in the room, Jean seems awfully zen about the whole thing.

She wasn't really expecting the mentos soda volcano science experiment, though. Kind of shoots down her theory about this being constructive groundskeeping work. "Or.... she just wanted to put on a back yard show. We probably went through all the fireworks last month."

Remy LeBeau has posed:
     People wonder WHERE Rogue got the flame thrower, but Remy knows better than to speculate. That road leads down to madness and insanity. No, Remy leaves the questions unanswered.

     Except the question he can actually do something with the answer, "Who wants a burger o' a dog?" Remy says loud enough to be a vendor at a baseball game. without the reflective clothes or the cooler strapped to his waist.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue keeps her booted feet planted on the boat she's standing on, the boat going precisely where she wants it to go in the water... because she's likely cheating! She keeps a perimeter around the barge she'd setup a nice range for her flame thrower's reach!

As the soda bottles fizzle out and leave a foamy mess around the barge. She moves her boat around to the next target and lights up the sky again with another long blast of flame! It flows out of the weapon and smothers over a set of cinder blocks on the barge. She's bathing the blocks in fire for several seconds until she pulls the flame thrower back....

A second later a whole lot of different things go off at once. Fire works of all kinds begin to burst and explode out of the cinder blocks interiors. Some streak up in to the sky ando others just begin to fountain stream up in to the air, shooting sprays of multi-colors in to the sky about 7 or 8 feet. The ones that rocket up i nto the air go way high up and arch a bit before they burst in to plumes of crackling gleeful fiery displays!

Rogue whistles lightly and keeps guiding her boat onward to another target....

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "YEAH! DO IT AGAIN!" One of the younger students shouts, jumping excitedly - and inadvertantly bouncing right into Laxmi. "Oh - umm! Sorry Ms. Mallick!" he says hastily, backing away from the teacher hastily. Perhaps he expected far worse than the tolerant smile he got in response?
    "...so much for the notion that we're out of fireworks," Laxmi remarks as the next display goes off. She takes a step or two back as some of the fireworks arch towards the shore - but none of them reach that far, thankfully. Luck, or good planning?
    She worries it might be the former...

Jean Grey has posed:
At this point, what's there to do but watch the show? Apparently, have a hotdog.

Hearing Remy go full stadium barker, Jean looks over with a grin, although she doesn't rush to try and grab some food. He's probably well and truly swamped by the students, as Rogue puts on her increasingly elaborate and somewhat off-season fireworks spectacular. "We ought to hire you for this full time," she jokes, grinning.

As Rogue assaults the next barge, Jean's attention turns back that way. This is definitely more impressive than some fizzy sodas! And it does prove there was some ammo left over. Or... Rogue went out and smuggled in more. Maybe her flamethrower guy sells them.

Also? She cheats a little to help out.

As the first gouts of flame blast from her weapon, they twists into more elaborate whorls before licking out over the barge. This, perhaps, one could blame on the wind, although it looks awfully pretty.

The secondary explosions and sprays of sparks that follow are affected as well: while there's no proving Rogue /isn't/ a pyrotechnics expert (what are the odds she hasn't drained some explosion happy badguy?), it would take all kinds of fancy equipment and elaborate setups to do a really coordinated show, as well as a more complicated triggering system than a /flamethrower/. And yet, as the fireworks whizz into the air and burst, trailing tails of sparkling light, the colors and timing of the explosions start to resolve into images. Simple ones, admittedly, basic emoji quality, like smiley faces, flags, baloons, other summer-themed stuff. There's a hotdog and a chef hat, too.

Remy LeBeau has posed:
    "One scorched weenie for the red head! Comin' right up!" Remy says with a deviant's grin before he holds up a paper plate with a hot dog on it and demands the crowd t of students to pass it along to Jeanie. "One on de way!" He hollers with gusto.

     Remy would join Rogue on the boat but the girl obviously needs to vent some rage and emotions. Better for him and everyone around them that she feels encouraged to give herself relief on a boat in the middle of the lake, safe. ideal. secure.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue watches the fire coming from the flame thrower get kinda wonky and it makes her look down at the weapon as if it was actually something happening with it. She raises her eyebrows then and just shrugs her shoulders. "Trick shooter!" She shouts then at the reactions that the wild fire gets.

She moves her boat around a bit more before she aims again at something in the center of the barge now. With the fireworks going off in the sky, and putting on an even more elaborate show than she'd expected, Rogue lights up a Pinata that begins to sizzle and burst open spilling out... chocolate and marshmallow down on to a giant platter of graham crackers.

But it doesn't end there, the Pinata catches a series of wires on fire above the barge that all come together at the top and form a flaming skull that creepily glares across the lake at all the students... because.... whyt he hell not!

Rogue sets the flame thrower down then and flies up in to the air before grabbing up the platter of roasted Marshmallow and Chocolate which she flies across the lake toward the largest gathering of students.

"Smorechos, Anyone?!" She shouts before setting the platter down and flying back toward her boat again!

Yes, she's relieving stress, and she's kinda crazy too. Its a two-for tonight!

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "That's... pretty impressive, actually," Laxmi murmurs quietly. Maybe she's not giving Rogue enough credit for her planning and abilities? Or maybe it's more illusion than reality? It's hard to judge. She begins to relax, however, smiling as she watches the show go on to the enthusiastic applause of the students.
    She wanders over towards Remy then, smiling as she offers, "Hello, I'm Laxmi. I don't suppose there's any vegetable kabobs for the grill? ...or one of those 'beyond meat' patties?" she suggests in a hopeful tone.
    Really, barbeques can be slim pickings for a vegetarian.

Remy LeBeau has posed:
    "Vegi burger?!" Remy asks lifting a brown eyebrow in confusion. "'Ro did warn me about dat. You're Lax yeah?" Remy then takes off his floppy chef's hat and puts it on one of the kids, before he takes a bun in one hand and opens it perfectly and takes a long moment before picking a specific patty and putting it on the bun. Handing it out towards Lax, Remy smiles his Han Solo smile and says, "One vegi burger!" Then once passed off, the Cajun tosses the spatula to the kid with the hat currently, "You're in charge now, Ah got work t'do."

Jean Grey has posed:
While a hotdog being passed along is a tempting target, apparently none of the students are quite brave enough to steal one bound for the headmistress! So, against all odds, it reaches her, and she beams Remy a smile for the special treatment before popping one end of the dog in her mouth for a quick bite. She's not fancy!

And after that little bit of extra zest she adds to the light show, it doesn't seem like Rogue needs much more in the way of help. Rogue's got an awful elaborate setup there, complete with flaming pinata, doom skull, and s'mores. Nachos? Whatever. "Wow." Really, she's impressed! "She really did put a lot into that last bit."

Of course, the students mob the arriving food abomination, and Jean stands back to let them at it, while giving Rogue a grin for her effort as she lands. "This was a nice thing to put together. Although I /really/ feel like I ought to ask..."

DON't QUESTION THE FLAMETHROWER, JEAN!

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Rahne Sinclair, having been shocked silent for half an hour, calls out, "Next on th' thrower!"

Yep. Out loud. You know that what you're doing is cool when you've managed to overcome Rahne's reticence. Girl wants ta burn stuff now.

It's fun. Isn't it?

Rogue has posed:
After passing the S'morechos off to the students who rushed at them to get their grubby little hands on them, Rogue stepped off to the side to stand near to where Jean is. She flashes Remy a big smile, "He helped me set all this up, not that he'll ever take any credit for it." She idly comments before she looks to Laxmi and offers her a smile too. "You'll find that around here, we do a number'a odd things like this. Its just for helpin' keep the 'blood flow' of the place goin'. Stuff like this sticks in your head when ya grow up and are old and broken." She pats her chest lightly with one hand. "Trust me. I've absorbed enough old people's minds t'know what their nostalgia hits on most. The weird stuff... like Flamin' Skulls and sweet ass fireworks shows." She smiles to the new Teacher.



To Jean, Rogue offers a little upnod. "Mystique has been funnelin' me money for ages. I've never spent any of it, until... well, now. Got a friend t'put that thrower t'gether for me. He makes them down in Jersey outta his garage. I flew over it once and saw him usin' one in his backyard so I swooped down t'talk at'him about it. Only cost seven hundred bucks. Not too bad, for such a great flame thrower!" She smiles at the Headmistress.

At Rahne, Rogue grins. "You know you wanna shoot it too, Rahney baby."

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Laxmi, yes," she confirms for Remy, giving the man a grateful smile as the veggie burger is passed over. "Thank you for this," she says warmly, watching the man depart, before she joins Rogue and Jean. Puzzlement crosses her features at Rogue's words - as she's obviously not up to date on everyone's capabilities. "You can absorb people's minds?" she asks uncertainly. The ethical dilemmas were obvious - it was the benefits to doing so that elluded her. And what happened to the people whose minds she 'absorbed'? "That's... an unusual power," she offers in a carefully neutral tone, before taking a bite of her burger.
    She always tries to think the best of people, and to find the beauty in their gifts, but... this baffles her..
    "I think I'll pass on using the flamethrower, though, and leave that to others," she remarks, giving Rahne a nod.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Rahne Sinclair turns and looks at Laxmi. She grins. "We all be unique, miss," she offers. Then she pauses and stretches her back out, grumbling. She looks like she's stiff? It's possible, Henry has been testing her for some changes she's been going through.

"Rogue be one'a th' most interestin' though." She says it like one of the understatements of the year. Which it might be.

Jean Grey has posed:
There's a semi logical explanation for the flamethrower! A rather mundane one, in fact. She assumed there was going to be a story about how Rogue beat up some supervillain and took his stuff. But no. It's a glorified DYI project from some garage inventor with too much time on his hands. Sigh. New Jersey.

"Well, uh. Just make sure you keep it somewhere secure." She can't go the WHOLE night without playing the adult. Still! There might have been a time where Rogue got lectured over how ridiculously dangerous this was, or how bad an idea, and yet Jean really doesn't seem of any kind of mind to get her down about it. Even when Rahne wants to 'play' with it next. "Maybe we'll have to figure out some kind of testing range for that kind of stuff." Well, they DO sort of have a place for that.

As for how unusual Rogue's ability is, Jean chimes in after Laxmi, "What, can't everyone?" It's a joke, but it's funny because she can too!

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's gloved hands go to the back of her hips where she rests them palms against her denim shorts. She looks to Lax and gives the woman a grin. "Yeah... its complicated. Just shy away from touchin' my skin and you'll be all right."

She looks then to Rahne and moves her left hand out to pat Rahne on the shoulder softly, affectionately even. "You say the sweetest things, Sugah." She says back to the Scotswoman. "Remind me t'pay ya money to say 'You know nothin, Remy Snow' to the Chef over there some time." It's that accent, right?

Rogue is about to look to Jean when she hears someone on the S'morechos plate ask about the tv on the barge.

"Oh!" Rogue jumps and reaches for her back pocket. She pulls out a little makeshift remote with a button or twelve on it. "I almost forgot..." She pushes one of the buttons and a moment later the tv flips on out over the water. Its showing... Max Hedrum from the 80s on it, he's staring at everyone before he starts to laugh and shouts 'Enjoy your new school year, you crazy, party animals!' and then starts laughing more before the tv suddenly catches fire and explodes!

Yep....

Rogue grins, proud of herself. "That friend in Jersey can make literally anythin'." She quips then with a soft sigh of pure enjoyment.

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Well - that'll be easy enough," Laxmi responds. "My cultural beliefs proclude me from touching others, actually," she explains with a wry smile. Normally, she'd offer her usual greeting - but it's hard with a paper plate and a burger in her hands.
    She looks to Rahne as she adds, "I hope I didn't give the impression that I don't value everyone's gifts. It's amazing the wonderous abilities we've all been granted, even if some are a little harder to understand than others."
    She watches the TV launch - shaking her head in amusement, then glances back to Jean to add, "I think it would be remarkably dull if we all had the same gifts."

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Rahne salutes, nodding importantly. "Yes'm," she says in her best awful military impersonation. She likes money. She liked Remy too, it's too bad he has to die.

She pauses as Laxmi speaks to her, then blinks a whole bunch of times really rapidly. "Oh! Tha' kind o' gifts! I thought ye were given presents or some'at. This makes so much more sense now."

She hasn't entirely been keeping up.

Jean Grey has posed:
"No, of course you're right. That's the interesting thing about life, the infinite variations. It's what makes it so tenacious." Saying this, there is something mildly distant in Jean's manner, and after a moment, she visibly has to shake it off, as if putting some stray thought aside. In retrospect, she realizes she's speaking for two.

Rogue is a good distraction, however, with her endless stories of weirdos from New Jersey and all the crazy gadgets they've supplied her. Including an exploding TV. "I have... so many questions," she says, watching the bizarre spectacle in mild disbelief. But none of them prove so important to be pressing. "Alright, well, if you're not planning on setting anything else on fire, I think I might head back in. Rahne, don't let her put you in any weird cosplay unless she /really/ pays up, yeah?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue puts the switch box back in to her back pocket. She sighs happily and reaches up to put her sunglasses on top of her hairline to hold the white bangs back off her face a bit like that. She looks to Lax then and smirks at her softly. "Lotta mutants out there got the shaft on their mutations. I... well back when I was on my own, I was wanderin' up the California coastline and I ended up stayin' with this guy in his RV on the beach--- nothin risque, mind ya. He was a mutant and he took pitty on me. But he was like... part man, part fish? And he had two heads. Two fish heads. Said he could swim as long as he wanted under water, but could walk and live on land too. But damn.... I dunno if I'd call that a 'gift'. Fish heads, ya know? Two of'em...."

The Belle's eyes go to Jean then who's starting her retreat. "I'll bring ya some food and drink if ya want later, so just hollar." She's been a bit more 'help Jean out with whatever' since they got back. Makes sense though, doesn't it?

"Okay!" Rogue slaps her hands together and starts to walk out over the water, her boots lightly splishing on the surface of the lake as she walks across it toward the burning barge. "Time t'clean up!" She shouts on her way.

Remy of course, has the music volume dialing up too becuase its a lake party!

Laxmi Mallick has posed:
    "Yeah," Laxmi agrees quietly, and with some regret in her tone. "With the current degree of bigotry towards mutants - there are certainly some who have a much harder time of things," she admits. "But I believe things won't always be that way. It will get better... with time." It just might take generations of social progess, unfortunately.
    She nods towards Jean as the woman departs, and turns an amused smile on Rahne. "Yes, Ms. Sinclair - those sorts of gifts," she confirms. "Would you like me to see about getting you one of the burgers, from the grill?" she offers, before taking another bite of her veggie burger. It felt odd to her to stand there eating - while Rahne didn't.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
"Wot be Cosplay?" Rahne calls after Jean with. She doubts she'll get an actual answer, but that's fine. It's out there now, an the universe always teaches you eventually.

She watches Rogue walk on water, and frowns. I'm not jealous. Grr. So jealous. "If ye need a hand on cleanup?"

Oh. "Sorry, miss Laxmi. Thank ye, please." She doesn't mind being fed up. Especially meat. She's so not a vegetablearian.