9235/Happy Harbor Christmas Drive

Happy Harbor Christmas Drive
Date of Scene:	22 December 2021
Location:	Library - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	The staff and students of Happy Harbor work to make Merry Christmas for families in need!
Cast of Characters:	Bando George, Morgan Finn, Freddy Freeman, Roland Livingston

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Bando George has posed:
    Pandemonium!

    It's time for the Christmas Drive. Bando, for all of the chaos that normally surrounds his disorganized behavior, does actually have some experience planning something like this. He wasn't able to do it solo, naturally, needing other students who would have some more detail skills to take the lead on portions of the Christmas Drive.

    And it's good, since the toy drive began, Bando...actually hasn't showed up. Kind of an important thing to be there in person for. The deliveries have begun, wrapping of presents, drop offs as cars start to file through the parking lot to be unloaded. But where's Bando? Not at the school, that's for sure.

Morgan Finn has posed:
With a shiver, Morgan comes walking in from outside with no coat. He is carrying a load of the new line of Avengers Mr. Potato Head and Avengers Mrs. Potato Head toys. He grabbed too many and the stack of toys is teetering wildly as he attempts to keep them all balanced.

"The Scarlet Witch Mrs. Potato Head is kinda hot," he jokes, and several students laugh. Fortune is with the fledgeling demigod as he makes it to a table without spilling the stacks of tater toys, and sets them down.

"Never doubted it for a second," Morgan quips. He looks around curiously. "Where's Bando? Is this, like, his gig?"

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Freddy managed to convince people that a holiday drive definitely needed music and a disabled DJ. His booth? A folding table with a cloth covered in candy canes draped over it. And a laptop.
    There's a stereo next to him, and right now, he has 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' playing. Definitely hard at work here.

Roland Livingston has posed:
Helping to direct the handoff of toys, Roland Livingston is showing off his organizational skills, "Please stack the toys neatly over there." He points to the point where the toys belong. There's even a sign on the tables there that says, 'Toys go here'. The Englishman, his difficult job of pointing handled, wanders over to the table to start sorting through toys. "Little kid toy, medium kid toy, big kid toy, little kid toy, book, little kid toy," he speaks out loud softly as he sorts stuff into piles to make it a little easier for the next people in the assembly line, the wrappers.

Livingston looks around for a moment, "Where's the person running this show? I'm not even sure where this stuff is going to once we get it all wrapped."

Bando George has posed:
    Ambitious would be a good word for it. Not only was there toys to be delivered, but without actually communicating to anyone else on the organization team, Bando took it upon himself to approach local grocery stores to donate Christmas dinners for the needy families in the area. He succeeded, which means that this is now not just a toy drive, it's a toy /and/ food drive. Yay! A large box truck pulls into the parking lot. Bando gets out of the passenger side of the truck.
    "So glad you got a CDL, Greg," he says to the giant shark that drives the truck.
    "No problem," the massive mutant gets out of the truck, also someone nobody has probably met. "Uh, but I'm not supposed to be at schools. Criminal record and all."
    Bando winces. "Um, but school isn't in session, so it's okay, right?" The worried look from the mutant shark says...probably not.
    "Okay wait here," he says, running up to the school.

     Bando bursts into the building, and subsequentially into the library. "Okay guys!" he yells out the bright green sweater that he wears is patterned to look like the Hulk's chest. Apparently this also calls for an ugly sweater in his mind. "The Christmas dinners are here, we will need some people to help put the baskets together!" It would have probably helped if he had given anyone a heads up about this. "Sweet, you set up a DJ booth?" he says, distracting almost immediately to see Freddy's set up.

Morgan Finn has posed:
Oh no! Morgan got that huge stack of Avengers Mr. Potato Heads and Avengers Mrs. Potato Heads all the way inside and to a table without spilling a one. Now Roland points out the clearly-hidden-in-plain-sight sign saying where the toys go. He does /not/ want to move them again.

"Sorry, Mr. Livingston, gotta go help unload the food!" he calls as he dashes for the door, abandoning all the potato heads on the wrong table. On his way past the DJ booth he gives a playful wink to his friend, Freddy. "That's the lord's work yer doin' there, man," he says in a warm, friendly tone. And just like that, back out into the cold with no jacket on to help the weird shark dude unload the truck. He seems utterly unfazed by the creature. "Sup, man?" he says to Greg when gets outside.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "I thought we were just doing toys," Freddy says, head lifting as Bando barges in. "A DJ booth is generous but yeah. I figured it'd be good for the festive spirit," The song transitions to 'All I want for Christmas is You'. "And who doesn't like Mariah Carey? I have my holiday playlist, but if you have any song recs, let me know and I'll add it to the queue."
    He glances to the exit. "How many boxes do we still have to bring in?"

Roland Livingston has posed:
As Bando shows up Roland nods to him, "What's this about Christmas dinners? Did I miss something in the memo?" His upper crust English accent is a little more pronounced than usual today.

"No problem, Morgan," Roland tells the youth before he heads over to just grab the toys himself. His good balance, combined with his strength, allow him to carry the presents without dumping them on the floor. As he sets them on the table he looks them over, "Little kid toys, I would say."

The young teacher looks over the room once more before preparing to head outside to see what else might be arriving.

Bando George has posed:
    "I think I told people," Bando says to Roland with a smile that says he's not entirely sure if that's true. The bewildered stares from the other students helping says that he didn't. "Well, um, we're doing Christmas dinners! Horray!" he keeps his upbeat declaration. "Um, Freddy, can you help grab the stu-" oh yeah, the crutch. "Could you get some people and organize another room for the food, we have a hundred forty-four meals to put together." Oh, is that all?

    Outside, Greg gives a toothy shark grin. "Hey there buddy," he says, hopping out of the truck and walking to the back. He throws up the door, revealing frozen turkeys in a couple of large crates. Boxes of stuffing, boxes of instant mashed potatoes, canned veggies, and pumpkin and pecan pies. He grabs one of the flats of the turkeys, dragging it over with one hand. "So uh, did we find out if it's okay for me to go inside?" he asks Morgan, as if he should already know why that would be a question.

Morgan Finn has posed:
Morgan's best friend at the Themysciran Embassy is a minotaur, so a shark dude is nothing to him. He shrugs once. "I dunno. You have my permission to go in, if that means anything." He narrows his eyes playfully at Greg. "Wait...you're not a vampire are you? If so, I retract the invitation." That followed by a playful grin.

What this kid lacks in academic performance (which is vast) he makes up for with his athleticism. He easily grabs two cartons of frozen turkeys off the truck and starts heading quickly for the front door. Seems he's happiest when he's moving. Actually, the two boxes are so tall he can't even /see/ the front door. Instead he calls out, "CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE GET THE DOOR? AM I CLOSE TO THE DOOR?" Freight Train Morgan-Plus-Frozen-Turkeys is heading quickly in the direction of glass.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "Riiiight," Freddy says with a dubious look. Unfortunately, this means he actually has to do work. "Do I have your permission to yell at people? I feel like that's a necessary part of organizing, well, anything." The foster kid grabs his crutch, circling around his faux DJ booth. "Hold on, I'm gonna go help this doof."
    "Morgan! Follow the sound of my voice!" He opens the door with a playful grin on his face, waiting for Morgan + turkeys to find their way back into the building. "Dude, aren't you cold? You can borrow my jacket." Hazel eyes flicker to the shark mutant. "Oh nice, you made a friend."

Roland Livingston has posed:
"Well, you're running the show," Roland says to Bando with a nod. "Just let me know what you need from me." Then he slips through the door and makes his way outside. He sees the truck, the sharkman and Morgan... He moves to pull the door open but he sees Freddy headed in that direction and lets the youth handle it.

Then he looks at the sharkman again and waves, "Hello there, chap." There's a hint of apprehension in his face, but for the most part he doesn't seem too bothered by the guy's strange appearance. "I'm Roland Livingston, one of the teachers here. Can't tell you how much we appreciate you dropping off all this food. How long have you got the truck for? We might need it again once we've got everything packaged up so we can drop it off... Wherever Bando says its supposed to go."

Bando George has posed:
    "Rented for 8 hours," Greg answers Roland, glancing as Morgan takes a few of the turkeys from the flat. He glances up after the entrance. "I'm Greg. Good to meet ya. I'm not tryin' to break any rules, just to be up front. Bando asked me to help, but I'm not really supposed to be at schools, due to some past felony stuff. Is it okay if school is out of session?" he asks. For all of his size, the large mutant seems a little concerned about Bando's understanding of legal rules surrounding such matters.

    Bando nods, "Yeah go for it," he tells Freddy, watching him take the lead. Bando looks at the truck. "Maybe we can speed this up a little," he says. He walks out onto the steps again, and takes a deep breath. He looks at the flat of turkeys, and then looks back into the foyer of the school. Back, forth, and he puts his hand out at the truck, and points at an empty space in the foyer. The entire flat suddenly pops to the foyer. A much shorter walk to lug the heaviest of the foodstuff. "Sweet, it worked!" "Okay, we got the list around here somewhere for the gifts, right?" he asks inspecifically to everyone around. Hopefully someone has the list. Somewhere. Not Bando, surely!

Morgan Finn has posed:
Morgan is about as good-natured a kid as you'll meet and he's always looking for an excuse to be at play. When he hears Freddy calling out, a wide grin crosses his features. "Freddy?? Freddy is that you?" the teen demigod calls out, shifting course to go in that direction. "I can't see you! Did you cross over to the other side? You didn't go into the light, did you?"

But, miracle of miracles, thanks to Freddy's help he glides through the open door with nary a piece of glass damaged. All is well...until his foot catches on something and he careens forward out of control. The two crates of frozen turkeys fly out of his arms. One lands on the ground, breaking open as frozen turkeys roll like weird bowling balls all around the floor. The second box doesn't break open but it glides across the floor and takes out two legs of Freddy's DJ station. Morgan lands roughly on his chest, bangs his chin on the ground. There's a crunchy sound that has to be a tooth breaking, and blood trickles from his lower lip. "Oh sit," he says through a wounded mouth. "Freddy I sink I broke your DJ sing."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Holding the door open for Morgan, Freddy overhears the conversation between Mr. Livingston and Greg, including the unfortunate details about the latter's presence at a school. "Oh, wow," He looks at Morgan as the taller boy passes through the threshold, brows waggling. "Pedo-shark?!" before bursting into a fit of giggles. Then, to Roland, he deadpans, "Mr. Livingston, aren't the holidays a time for second chances? Who would we b-" CRASH! Frank Sintra's 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' abruptly cuts, and Freddy turns to see his stand ruined and turkeys scattered across the floor.
    He stands by the door, arms outstretched despite there being no hope of him catching anything. A sigh, then he walks towards the culprit. "Fucking hell, Morgan," He takes the boy's face in his hands, gently turning it this way and that to assess the damage. "You're bleeding."

Roland Livingston has posed:
"Pleased to meet you, Greg," Roland tells the guy with a smile. Then he has to pause to think about the question he'd just been asked, "I don't recall having heard about any sort of rules prohibiting an ex-con from entering the school." There's yet another pause before he brings out his phone and starts swiping on it, "Just a moment..." After less than a minute he smiles, "Unless you're specifically prohibited by the rules of your parole then you're fine to go in and help out. I'll text my lawyer just to double check, but get to work in the meanwhile."

Freddie is given a grin and a thumbs up."

Seconds later Roland spots Bando teleporting the turkeys and frowns, "Excuse me, Greg."

"Well done, Bando. Excellent use of your abilities," the teacher tells the student with a nod. "We should probably limit most people to carrying just one turkey crate at a time so that there are no accidents..." Oh shit. There was just an accident. Is that student bleeding out of his face? The Englishman sighs and starts walking towards Morgan, "How bad is it? I've got a medical kit in my Bentley, the SUV parked out front near where the truck is." Then he glances at Freddie, "See what's broken. We'll get someone with a driver's license to run to the store and replace it."

Bando George has posed:
    Bando grins. "Okay, onward!" he declares. "I'm gonna pull up the list on my email. It's here somewhere." He hears the crash inside with the sudden stopping of the tunes, and wanders back in, tilting his head forward as he turns the corner to the hallway, and the next to the library to see the crash. "Oh man, that's spectacular," he declares. "You did it up good." Since the teacher has things in hand, he moves to the presents. "Okay, lets get things separated to families. Each of these families will get a dinner, too, so we can just put a box by each set of presents.

    Greg nods, "Okay," he says, and goes back to pick up a stack of the food. Given his size and strength, he can carry quite a bit more than most people can. He sets them down next to the turkey flat, and looks at the work being done. "Maybe I'll go tape off places in the truck to make it like, uh, organized for the drop offs," he suggests.

Morgan Finn has posed:
Morgan flashes a bloody grin to Freddy who is examining him. He slowly starts standing up. With a wince, he thwoops something out of his mouth. A piece of bloody incisor hits the ground. THAT has to frickin' hurt. By the time he stands up, the laceration to Morgan's lip is already healed. The tooth itself is beginning the process of mending.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. It'll fixsh itshelf. I never grew back a toosh before sho I don't know how long it takesh," he replies, his words whistling through the broken tooth hole. A little embarrassed, he quickly bends over and grabs the piece of broken tooth and sticks it in his pocket. "Shorry about that." Then he looks at the broke DJ stand and peers sheepishly at Freddy. "Oh man, I'm really shorry about that. If anyshing is broken I bet Diana will replashe it."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "It, um, it looks like we're all good here, Mr. Livingston," Freddy calls out to the teacher, eyes narrowing on Morgan's face. "I knew you had to have something going on power-wise. Healing is a helpful one." Totally not speaking from experience. "Just like that, all pretty again."
    "Don't worry about it. The laptop belonged to the school...they won't miss one computer," Freddy shrugs and grins up at him. He won't tell anyone about it if Morgan won't. "Sucks about the music though. Guess I'll actually have to help you guys out, huh? Let's go see about getting these dinners prepared."
    He bends over and balances a single crate of turkeys on his arm. "Bando, where do you want us to prepare the food?"

Roland Livingston has posed:
"Make sure you clean up any blood, Morgan. Otherwise, get back to work," Roland tells the youth, pretending to be grim and serious. It doesn't last terribly long before he says, "One thing of turkeys at a time from here on out. They're in the lobby now so it should be easier to navigate." &R&RLooking over at Freddie, then at Morgan, the teacher shrugs, "Just drop off anything that looks busted to the IT people when you've got a chance."

Bando George has posed:
    "Well," Bando answers Freddy. "We got boxes to build and it should hold all the food for a meal. We can put one with each family's presents, and then just keep them together. That way a box of food can go with each present pack. We shoulda gotten trash bags or something to put the presents in so that they will transport easier.
    "Hey Mr. Livingston, can we grab trash bags from the custodial closet?" he asks, attempting to improvise.

    Greg goes back to the truck, and starts taping off sections to place each of the sets of deliveries to be made.

Morgan Finn has posed:
By now, half of the broken part of Morgan's tooth has already reformed. He keeps rubbing his tongue over it because it's strange having it missing. He picks up all of the frozen turkeys that rolled around on the floor and reboxes them and carries JUST THE ONE BOX over to where the food is being stacked. He continues ferrying back and forth bringing boxes of turkeys one at a time.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Freddy nods at Bando's instructions and sets the crate down on the table with the other food. "I think the toys and presents are already in the building. I'm guessing they're specific to each family?"
    "Did you find the email with the list? If you send that to me, I can start sorting those," He glances at the broken laptop and sends a rueful look to Morgan. "You can just text it to me, right?" He takes his phone out, ready with his number. "So was this whole thing your idea?"

Roland Livingston has posed:
"You certainly may grab some trashbags," Roland tells Bando with a nod. "Just make sure to leave a few for when school's back in session. I'd hate to leave whoever else may need them without."

Since the students are mostly running the show Livingston tries to stay out of the way by heading back out front to see how Greg is doing out there. As he arrives he heads around the back of the truck to see the shark man at work, "Let me know if you need a hand, Greg. I don't want to interfere with the students in charge of everything in there too much." With a bit of a chuckle he says, "I'm still not used to being the responsible adult, but I volunteered so I could stay busy for the holidays."

Bando George has posed:
    Bando nods as Freddy comments on the list. "Yeah yeah," he says, tapping away. Go for it, I'll send over the file," he says, creating the text with the spreadsheet attached.
    "I mean, I kinda came up with it with my dad, who was supposed to help me out with it, but he got called back into work this morning for somethin'," he says. "We used to do this down in Texas, and a place like New York, there's like, thousands of people we could help. We could were able to get almost a hundred 'n fifty," he says. "I'm just glad people could show up to help out."

    Greg nods, "I'm just glad to help out. Kinda different, not used to bein' the guy helping people. Feels good." He glances back in the direction of the school as he hands an end of the tape to Roland and stretches the strip across to the other side of the truck. "Though, I think Bando shoulda communicated to people a bit better, to be honest," he lets out a chuckle.

Morgan Finn has posed:
As though trying to atone for his mistake, Morgan is working double time ferrying cartons of food over to the meal prep station. Some dried blood his shirt is the only external indicator that he was ever injured. Inside his mouth, the tooth is still broken but is partially reformed and growing by the minute.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "That's pretty cool, dude," Freddy says, smiling down at his phone. "I still remember when I was one of those people that needed help. Not the case anymore, but my family likes to help whenever we can." He gestures to where Bando used that teleportation power. "A trick like that could also do a lotta good, you know."

Roland Livingston has posed:
Roland works alongside Greg, nodding to the shark man, "Helping out does feel good, doesn't it? I've been ferrying over food and whatnot to Hope House lately, putting my gas guzzling SUV to use." There's a chuckle, "Bando should have, shouldn't he? Still, the more stuff we bring people the better off they'll be. No sense in not gathering everything we can to help people out."

Bando George has posed:
    "Yeah, it's pretty cool," Bando agrees with Freddy. "There, you should have it. If I can get my power to where it doesn't sometimes screw stuff up when I teleport it, and if it wasn't so exhausting, I'd be teleporting pretty much everywhere. But for now, it helps me superhero it up," he says with a little pride.

    Bando rushes to grab some more of the goods from the foyer, which seems to have become the unofficial staging area defacto for the food stuffs as some of the other students bring it in. He grabs a few of the stacks of cardboard boxes, and begins folding them and placing them ahead of Morgan's food delivery so that there's a place to put the goods as they join the presents.

    Greg looks down at the tape. "That's..." he counts the rows and columns. "Looks like 44 we can fit per trip. Do you think he has the stuff organized according to neighborhoods?" he asks Roland. Fat chance of that.

Morgan Finn has posed:
The fledgeling demigod moves quickly, carrying boxes over to the food prep area. He probably does 30 or so before he starts to tire. "Oh man I need a little break," he says with a tired grin. That smile reveals a completely regrown tooth where the broken one was. Morgan goes over to a cooler where drinks and snacks are kept and fishes out a can of Mountain Dew. Then he sits up on a tabletop with his feet on a chair and cracks open the can. He drinks the entire thing down in one extended chug and then lets out a huge exhalation.

"That. Was. Magic." he says, wiping the still-cold, empty soda can across his sweaty forehead.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "You're a superhero?" A hint of surprise in Freddy's voice. He isn't disbelieving, though. He knows heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and that this school harbors more than a few powered kids. It's honestly not the best place to be laying low. "Nice."
    Freddy will start separating the presents by the families they belong to and instructing students to bring meals to them. He's not actually yelling at anyone despite receiving permission to do so.

Roland Livingston has posed:
Roland sucks in some air through gritted teeth before frowning at Greg, "Somehow, I doubt that. Let me run inside and see if they've taken that into account." He hops out of the back of the truck and heads back towards the library. As he gets there he asks, "Do we have the stuff separated by what neighborhood they go to? That would make things significantly easier when it comes time to deliver everything."

Bando George has posed:
    Bando grins, "Yeah man," he says. "Gotta use my powers for good, y'know?" he flexes...rather average arms. At least he has on a Hulk sweater for the impression of muscles. He continues to build the boxes, one after another to each group of presents so that they can be filled with presents. As Roland calls out the question, he stops, and looks at the rows of presents. "Uh..." he clearly hadn't thought of that. "Anybody from around here think they could start finding the closest neighborhood, and start loading those families into the truck? That's a really good idea, Mr. Livingston."

Morgan Finn has posed:
Morgan hops down off the table, his break finished. "Well I don't know anything about this entire state," he quips. "So I'll help package up the food boxes." He returns to the food prep area, gives the frozen turkeys a little bit of a playful stare-down just to show them who's boss, and smiles to Rashana, one of the students distributing food to boxes. "Put me to work, please," he tells the girl. She murmurs a comment about what she'd like to put him to work doing, which causes Morgan's ears to redden a bit and a wide grin to cross his features. "I was...I was talking about the food boxes." Within a couple of minutes, he's fast at work distributing the makings of a holiday meal into the various boxes that will end up in the homes of people in need.