7620/So, While You Were Away...

So, While You Were Away...
Date of Scene:	31 August 2021
Location:	Cafeteria and Bar
Synopsis:	Mister Creed returns to the Asteroid - and discovers his pup's all grown up. And that he's suddenly... an Uncle?
Cast of Characters:	Clarice Ferguson, Rahne Sinclair, Raven Darkholme, Victor Creed

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Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    The dining room in the cafeteria is pretty busy tonight - and at the moment, Clarice is seated between Cynthia and Rahne, with another dish of curry in front of her. This time it's an India curry instead of an African curry - with dal, and cream, and hard boiled eggs in it. She's happily eating it with flatbreads - while trying not to turn too deep of a magenta hue at Rahne's choice of meal-time reading. "So - do you think we should get the paperwork started for Happy Harbor?" she asks. "Maybe see if we can get you enrolled for next week? So you don't fall too far behind the other students... I mean, since the school year's already started?"
    The majority of her attention is focused on the teen beside her (a teen with pointed ears, and electrically green eyes like Clarice - but deep brown skin splashed with purple, and hair a mix of purple and black), but perdiocially she glances towards Rahne's Playboy magazine, curious about some of the images herself.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
"Sorry, et be mine now," Rahne repeats. "Yer lucky ah didnae toss et out th' window. O' th' space station. Ah jus' realized how stupid tha' sounded, but ah still stick t' m' statement!" She has a magazine open, and is not giving it up, even though she may be under attack.

She's doing a fair job of keeping it, until she scents something in the air. Her entire body goes still, making it very easy for someone to nab the Playboy from her suddenly lax hands, but when there's a predator's scent...you take that seriously.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia has chosen a large salad with all kinds of extras, including ham, chicken and bacon. The dressing was Thousand Island with croutons. Sitting there with a forkful of salad she stares at Rahne.

"You're stealing my Playboy?" She asks, actually sounding upset about that. Then she seizes the chance, while Rahne is distracted, and touches the magazine. In a small purple puff, it disappears, "I don't think so."

Looking back to Clarice like none of that happened, "I'd like that. I don't want to miss too much of the new year."

Victor Creed has posed:
    Making his way into the cafeteria, Victor is dressed in his typical uniform.. black t-shirt, camo pants and boots. Something that big shouldn't move as quietly as he does, yet he somehow manages it. The fact that most people make a point of not being in his way as he walks probably doesn't hurt. Slit-pupiled eyes scan over the crowd, coming to a stop when he sees Blink. His path changes at that point, heading over to the table she is sitting at.

    As he comes close to the table, he rumbles a small greeting of "Heya kiddo. Who's your friends?" He snags an empty chair to sit at the table. Looking at Rahne, he asks "Ain't you one of baldy's students? Finally realize you were on the wrong side?"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice settles on a firm policy of 'no comment' when it comes to the magazine shenanigans, and instead, scoops up a healthy amount of curry to eat. She washes it down with a sip of cider, before turning her attention to the safer topic. "Alright. I'll call the school up, and see what we have to do to get everything started. I think they said you have to //pick// your classes... Right? And something about a math placement exam..."
    She notices Victor's approach a short time before he reaches for that chair - and for a moment she debates between jumping from her seat, or possibly even blinking from her seat to greet him with a hug. In the end, though, she opts for a broad grin of welcome. "Umm... well. Things changed a little while you were away. This is Rahne... my girlfriend, and this is Cynthia. Cynthia Ferguson. My //sister,//" she explains. "We're, uh - sharing sharing quarters now." She hastens to add, "Cynthia and I. So, my quarters have moved."

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Rahne, however, barely opens her mouth to almost make a noise when the magazine vanishes. She glances at Cynthia, then back to tracking the scent. It doesn't take long. Sabertooth.

"Gak," Rahne says, taking a moment to rearrange her brain into some kind of order that works. Scents tell her danger, but also that there's no -threat-. Her heart is racing, but she takes a breath, and lets it out.

"She looked lahk me," Rahne says up at Sabertooth's face. NO WRONG TOPIC! Blinking away the stupid, she tries again. "Thaur be no sides, we all be tryin' ta do th' same thing. Not die."

Wow. Recovery.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
"I can take whatever tests they want," Cynthia says to Clarice, then goes silent. Oh that's large, that's very large, and it's coming this way!

Cynthia's eyes go slightly wider as Victor enters the cafeteria, you really cannot miss something that large entering, and her chair happens to be the one aimed toward the door. She was holding that surprise in right up until he started to walk her way.

When he settles into the chair and speaks, she realizes then who it is, but that doesn't make her eyes return to a normal size. He was impressive in every sense of the word, Clarice wasn't exaggerating there. Taking a slow breath in, she lets it out just as slow and cheerfully blurts out, "You must be Uncle Creed!" and extends her hand toward him to shake. "Hello there, I'm Thia! I've been waiting to meet you." Cheerful overload.

Victor Creed has posed:
    Victor raises an eyebrow at the 'Uncle Creed', but lets it go for now. With a smile that displays his fangs but is actually meant to be friendly, he reaches over and gently shakes Cynthia's hand. "Hey there, where'd you pop up from? Blink never really talked about family before."

    Glancing at Rahne, he shrugs a little and replies "Well, considering how often the X-Men have disrupted the bosses business, I'd say there's sides. But they're more about how we do the job rather than what the job is. We're just more direct about it all." He sits back a little, settling in comfortably.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Oh, God. She did say it. Clarice's gaze flicks between the two, but Victor takes it in stride, so she celebrates that little victory with a sip of her cider.
    "Well - I didn't know," she explains. "Mystique found her. And I mean... hard to deny the resemblence." Or the DNA results.
    She looks between Rahne and Creed as she adds, "I think our methods are a little more conveniently aligned these days. For the most part. And Rahne's... well..." She shrugs her shoulders helplessly. "I don't know. Somehow we grew very fond of each other. I love her."

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Belatedly Rahne realizes what Clarice just called her. She isn't sure what to say, and it's actually more emotionaly charged than Creed's own comments. She leans toward Clarice, and whispers, "Girlfriend?" as if she needs to be reminded what the word means. Or something like that.

Then she catches the rest of what the girl says, and kinda sorta forgets that there's a predator in the room.

I'd guess that Creed would notice, given that it's like, RIGHT THERE.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia grins from ear to ear, a sparkle to her bright green eyes. She told her sister she'd call him that, and she did.

"Well yeah," she says to Victor. "You helped my sister, sort like a dad but not really, but I had a dad so you're like that one Uncle no one wants around, but your family so we love you anyway." She takes a drink of her soda, then blinks a few times before adding hastily, "I don't mean /we/ don't want you around, I mean... family dynamic, explanation, totally wrong words... Sorry."

Her cheeks flush a darker shade, then thankfully she thinks about the other part of the conversation. "Everyone does it their own way, so long as it gets done and we aren't at each other's throats, isn't that the part that matters?"

Victor Creed has posed:
    With another shrug, he answers Cynthia's question by saying "Well, you'd have to check in with baldy's bunch, they usually are the ones showing up to stop whatever we're daing." Can't think of a time when we went after something they were daing." I'd be just as happy if they'd let us do what needs daing." He lets Cynthia's depiction of him go, she's obviously a little out of her element.

    Glancing over to Clarice and Rahne, he chuckles a little and remarks, "So I'm thinking that may be the first time you've said that, by her reaction. I'm glad, kiddo. Take whatever good thing you can get, the world's got tons of crap to drop on us every day. Having something good helps ya keep your balance when something hits the fan."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Uh... apparently," Clarice replies a bit sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders, before looking at Rahne. "I mean, we already said we loved each other, and- I mean-" She reaches under the table to try to twine her fingers in with Rahne's, without ellucidating any further reasons to use the term.
    "That's alright, isn't it?" she asks. She studies Rahne's features for her reaction, before turning her attention back to Creed.
    "I've had plenty of good lately. But I've missed you, anyways."

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
She snorts gently, then says, "Well, duh." But she raises her fingers to squeeze Clarice's, apparently finally remembering Creed and Cynthia. She blinks, then looks at THEM a moment.

"Ah wasnae actually gonnae steal it," she says, which probably confused the f*** out of one of them. Not the other though.

Then she blushes, lifting her free hand to run over her short hair. "Ah came up one day tae see for m'self wha' th' brotherhood was like. Ah'm graduated at th' school. So, makin' m' own choices an mistakes."

Then she looks at Clarice, and hastily adds, "Not all mistakes! Not all!"

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia was actually curious about what Rahne would say, so while she shovels some salad into her mouth, instead of her foot, she waits to her what is said. To the teenager, they were 'dating', which made them girlfriends, but some people were really strange about labels.

"Finally," she says with only part of the bite in her mouth, then takes a sip of her soda. "You too are /meant/ to call each other girlfriends... seems like it took forever to get there, when you were there and didn't even realize it."

Looking over to Rahne, she holds out her hand and the October 2000 Playboy appears in a small purple puff, offers over freely, "You can have it if you really want it, Rahne. I can understand why you'd want it."

Victor Creed has posed:
    Creed chuckles a little, "Nothing wrong with that. It's way better than going through life alone. Just remember, it's nice, but people can also use it against you, so be a little careful. I've seen people forced to do stuff cause the person they love was being threatened."

    Watching Cynthia's trick, he smirks and then says "Huh, that's a new one. Mutant porn dispenser may not be a combat kind of power, but you can at least keep morale up."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice beams at Rahne, and gives Cynthia a wry smile - before turning a far more grim expression on Creed. "I know," she answers. "But anyone who pulled something like that... once we had our people clear? We'd make them //pay,//" she says with a level of vicious determination she usually didn't display in front of Rahne. Sure, Rahne would hate to think of anyone being killed 'on her behalf' - but you didn't let people get away with trying to manipulate members of the Brotherhood like that.
    Her expression brightens back into a smile at Creed's summation of Cynthia's powers, and she lets out a quiet snort, before returning to her food. She'd let Cynthia explain her abilities to Creed.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
"We'll share et," Rahne says, as she's offered the ...wait. Wait, no, that came out wrong. "Ah mean...oh, Lord," she says, as she leans back in her chair. The chair leans back too far, and she goes down to the ground, but she doesn't seem to matter.

"Dying," she says from the floor of the cafeteria.

"Of embarrasment, if anyone cares."

Nope. That one was my fault.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia grins over at Creed and says, perhaps too proudly, "I have over two hundred Playboy magazines in the pocket. Going back to the 1980s even. I'm more than willing to share, so long as they come back at some point."

And then she dies laughing, almost dropping the magazine. Rahne's slip of words, even though she knew what the woman meant. With Rahne now on the floor, she leans over to lay the Playboy on her stomach, so that in her death by embarrassment, she has some company.

"Sorry Rahne," she then offers as she sits back up. "You belong to my sister, but thanks for the offer."

Victor Creed has posed:
    Victor starts laughing as Rahne takes her trip to the floor, but it's genuine laughter, not mocking or anything. "Don't worry about it. Think about everyone has used the wrong phrasing now and then. Lord knows I have." He offers her a hand getting back up again.

    "What's the pocket? And that's a pretty impressive collection for someone your age." he says to Cynthia. "It's a kind of strange collection for a teenage girl."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Rahne?" There's concern in Clarice's voice as the woman tumbles over, and she's quick to check that the other girl wasn't hurt. She looks relieved that that's not the case. "Damn straight she's mine," Clarice agrees immediately. She lets Creed help Rahne up - but she gets up to right the other woman's chair for her, murmuring against her ear and her neck as she does so, "We could always share it."
    Once she settles back into her seat she adds, "There's plenty of things in Cynthia's pocket - it can be a big boggling. But, umm... Cynthia prefers girls, so... Maybe not so odd, yeah?"

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
Before she actually gets up, Rahne says to Creed's face as he looks down at her, "Ah'm sorry." She looks at him, like she's saying something actually important. But then she takes his hand, and gets up into Clarice's arms and neck murmurings and softness.

"Seriously, Clary, y' got tae stop makin me blush en public. Ah'm a friggin nun." A nun holding porn of a woman who could be her own doppleganger.

Shut up.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia stares at Clarice, the set up was perfect. We can share it... did Clarice even realize? Probably not, and Cynthia couldn't let it go.

"You shouldn't call Rahne an it, Clare... it's not nice." And then she looks right at Creed. "I have all my dad's old magazines, and well... I've collected the others since I was like thirteen. Just touch..." she gestures to the air like she's touching something. "... and it's mine. See, that's my power. I have a pocket that I can store things in that no one can get to. No idea where it is, but I have put a semi truck in there once just to see if I could."

Victor Creed has posed:
    Victor huhs, "That could actually be pretty useful. Would make it easy to smuggle weapons into somewhere that screens for them." Trust Sabretooth to immediately go to the most disruptive use of the power. "And you can put pretty big things in there... yeah, I can think of a buncha uses for that." He stops and looks over to her, "You know, if you want to help, that is. But yeah, that could be a pretty cool ability."

    He looks over to Clarice and Rahne, then shakes his head. "Ok, that's way too cute for me. I'm gonna go grab some food." He stands from the table and heads for the buffet.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Never going to happen," Clarice answers Rahne mischevously, before planting a kiss on the scot's neck, and nuzzling her cheek against Rahne's.
    Yup. The pair were much too cute for poor Victor.
    She sticks out her tongue at Cynthia, then looks amused at the man's comments to her sister, rolling her eyes slightly. She could literally teleport weapons past any potential check points but - yes. Cynthia could definitely achieve the same. "It'll certainly have its uses. No matter what cynthia decides to do with her future," Clarice agrees.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Cynthia returns to munching her salad as Rahne sort of disappears, and Creed leave to get food. All in all, good dinner talk, if you consider trying to convince a teenager to do illegal stuff good... Thia did.

"I'm willing to help," she offers to no one in particular. "In between classes."

After all, if she's going to steal Playboys, it's really just a lead up to transporting weapons, right?

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice looks like she can't decide if she's pleased, or regretful, that she managed to embarrass Rahne so badly that the little scot retreats for a spell. She clings to the woman's fingers for a moment as she departs - then rearranges the dishes so she's sitting across from Cynthia, and will therefore be beside Creed when he returns with his food. She digs back into her food, looking across at her sister as she chews. "...let's wait another year or so before we let Mister Creed get you involved in weapons smuggling, huh?" she suggests in a wry tone.