Summary:
September 24, 2014: Scott Summers: pool shark.
Xavier's Institute - New York City
Xavier's Institute grounds are located on 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Westchester County between Graymalkin Lane itself and Breakstone Lake (30 miles outside of NYC itself). A large portion of this is acres upon acres of woodland forest. To the farthest eastern portion of the Institute's grounds there is a stretch of low foothils.
Upon entering the Institute grounds immediately past the heavy gated entrance one finds themselves on a carefully paved road that splices in two directions, west and east.
The west leads to the School for Higher Learning where gifted youngsters are educated and taught to use their unique talents. Here almost year around children and teachers are housed.
To the east miles away lies Xavier's Mansion where Professor Xavier himself and some faculty members of the school live. These "special" individuals are those aware of Xavier's more clandestine operations, the adminstration and training of the X-Men.
Beyond the neatly walled mansion's yard in those foothills is an obscure landing strip that leads to a hangar complex and a subtly hidden facility. A facility that houses underground sublevels, a danger room, Cerebro and the training halls of one of the most advanced mutant fighting teams in the world.
An underground monorail connects the School for Higher Learning with the Charles Xavier's Mansion and the X-Men's Hidden Complex. Security is tight in this region, by means of limited magical warding, advanced future tech security systems and telepathic sweeps. Tread carefully.
Characters
NPCs
- None
Mood Music:
[*<http://insert.video.or.music.link.here>]
Inside Charles Xavier's mansion is a lounge, and that lounge bears a particularly nice billiards table. Scott Summers is patrolling the table, looking for the most difficult shot he can find. He settles on banking the cue ball into a combo, striking the 2 of the 7 into the corner pocket.
He bends over the table. He lines up his shot, then carefully strikes. The cue ball bounces off the rim, rolls back, strikes the 7 at an angle, then graces the 2, which rolls carefully right into the pocket he'd called.
Qapla'.
-
Lorna Dane is… honestly? On her way to nowhere in particular when she hears the distinct CRACK of one billiard ball striking another. Despite Jean's threat to make her teach a class, she hasn't been put to work yet, so that sound is more than enough to distract her.
Opening the door to the lounge, Lorna steps quietly inside and walks around the billiard table, taking a good look at the positions of the balls as if she's trying to guess the shot that Scott just took. Finally she stops on the other side of the table, looks up, and finally greets him with, "Having fun?"
-
Lunair is doing Lunair things. She hasn't killed any non-Hydra people in weeks! It's totally some sort of new record, yes? Yes. Regardless, with her powers, video games are a terrific idea for new things. Although, she really doesn't get magic bikinis. But she can make them. Even if sometimes she thinks it's hilarious to have a metal bra on her head. Fortunately, she doesn't walk in with one. But she does have a book on materials and another on theoretical weapons under her arm. And what looks to be a small bag with a portable video game system. Maybe she was serious about learning to date from dating sims. From Japan. This cannot possibly end well.
Or maybe it will. Nevertheless, Lunair makes her way to and through the lounge, hearing someone hitting a ball with a stick. The end of the stick. Is it a metaphor? Maybe. She never got why pool sharks are pool sharks when they aren't in pools or devouring the other gamers. But whatever. She seems curious. there's a newcomer and Scott. "… that's uh, pool, right?" Hey, she's got this on lockdown.
-
"I am practicing." Scott's answer is rather to the point while he continues patrolling the table, looking for another impossibly difficult shot. "The ability to judge angles quickly and effectively." He glances up over his cue while taking position again, eyeing Lorna with an expression of humor. "In case I come across a room full of mirrors while hunting down bad guys."
The cue comes back, and strikes. This one sends the ball down, back, and down again in a z-pattern, eventually nailing the 3 ball and sinking it into the corner pocket.
"And yeah. I'm having fun."
Scott sets the cue up against the table, and walks around toward Lunair and Lorna. "Hey, you two." His glasses settle upon Lunair, and he smiles broadly. "Pool. Also called billiards, and one of the best American past times ever invented next to baseball." He jerks his chin toward the table, positively grinning. "Care for a lesson?"
-
A slow smile arrives on Lorna's features as she moves around the table, remaining on the other side of it from Scott. It's an expression that says 'Scott Summers? Practicing? Never!' She snickers quietly to herself at the reason he gives, though. "It wouldn't be the /weirdest/ situation you've been in…" Lorna plays along agreeably, then looks around as Lunair walks in. Someone she doesn't know, but that's hardly unusual around the mansion these days.
Lorna stops circling the table when Scott puts the cue aside, and leaves him to explain the game. She finds herself grinning, too, when he offers a lesson, and leans toward Lunair, as if she's imparting a secret, but she barely lowers her voice at all. "Don't let him play you for money. Trust me. He's a hustler." Stepping back, Lorna smirks at Scott - and then remembers something. "Oh, and I'm Lorna." She offers.
-
Hmhmhmhmhm. Lunair watches, listening. She inclines her head a little. She watches. Something seems off about the teenager. Her face doesn't show emotion unless she works at it a bit. She looks blank, neutral. She smiles back as Scott smiles to her. Conscious effort. "Hello to both of you," She nods. She looks a little amused by the two for a moment. Then, as Lorna leans in, she listens solemnly! Totally solemnly! "Okay!" Nod. Don't play for money. Noted!
"I am Lunair. It's a pleasure to meet you." She's well mannered for her oddities. "And sure, learning something new would be interesting." Even if it's simply a game of pool. "Pool. Right. It's popular, then?" She peers. "What are people even trying to do?" Peer. Peeeeer. Something about poking something into a hole?
-
Weird situations? Scott looks from Luna to Lorna, and one night just guess that the expression upon his face, for a moment or two, is shell shock. Just what do they know about himself and weird positions?
Ahem.
Back to Lorna he goes, reaching again for the pool cue. However, as he walks around the table, he's paying careful attention to Lunair's mannerisms. They are certainly odd, but that's not what has the man so curious. He's wondering… he's wondering why. Fortunately, he's not so rude as to just ask. "You see," he explains, "there are solid colored balls, and balls with stripes on them. This determines what team you are on; solids, or stripes. Your goal is to put all of your team's balls into the pockets, but every team leaves the black 8-ball until last. Whoever sinks that 8-ball? Wins."
Lorna receives a dubious look. Scott hasn't hustled since he was 22…
-
Lorna chalks Scott's shocked expression up next to 'daughter who's WAY to old to be his, biologically' on her mental list of 'things to talk to Scott Summers about in the near future', but doesn't pursue either topic right now. After all, Lunair's present! …and Lorna has the feeling that she took her injunction not to play Scott for money rather more to heart than Lorna was intending. Never mind, it's good advice anyway!
As Lunair reveals that, no, she really hasn't encountered pool before, Lorna frowns very faintly, but quickly clears the expression from her features. Lunair might come across as a little strange to her, but hey, she's the one standing here with bright green hair, so she probably has no room to talk. "Definitely popular. Fun game, easy to learn." Lorna puts that in cheerfully, then cedes the floor to the master.
But not before giving him an innocent look and a shrug, in response to that look he shoots her.
-
Weird situations. Sort of like the day Lunair shot a guy who gave people shockers in the electrical sense with a dubstep gun. Well, this is pretty normal by comparison. And who is Lunair to judge strange positions? Tumblr said something about no kinkshaming, and she'll stick to that.
Regardless, she watches the two a moment. Lunair seems pretty literal at times. "I'd mostly seen it on TV," She admits. "And I see. Would you want to play too, then?" A headtilt to Lorna. Lunair seems oddly accepting of green hair. And things in general. Perhaps her 'oddness' filter is off or skewed. It likely got rocket launched into another county at some point. Why is Lunair odd? There's probably a few answers to that, some of them evoking different responses. Nevertheless, for someone as alarmingly lethal as she is, she seems pretty friendly. "Got cha." Is this a metaphor for something? "That makes sense, I guess." Ponder. "Do they have to be in any order besides 8-ball last?"
-
'Later.' That's the expression upon Scott's face. He hasn't had that conversation with anyone, and the other conversation due was barely dodged in spite of Hank's best efforts to get it out of him. Then there's the real conversation, which of course brings about the other real conversation… it's enough to drive a man to drink.
Which Scott doesn't do. Ever.
"Sometimes," notes Scott. "This is traditional 8-ball. Amateurs don't play in any specific order, but the real sharks will put them through in chronological order, which makes calling your shots incredibly difficult. Let's not even talk about the game, '9-ball'."
He lines up another shot, taking careful aim. The stick goes back, then forward, back and forward, as he works his patience. "First rule in billiards," he mutters. "Don't… rush."
The cue strikes, and the white ball literally leaps over a striped ball standing in his way, only to land with a twist that carries it over toward his target 3-ball. Into the side pocket it goes, and he rises with an all too cocky smirk.
-
Lorna hasn't been gone so long that she can't read that particular expression on Scott's face, even if she can't see his eyes. And she'll lay off. But one thing she's learned since she dropped back into the life of the Xavier Institute is that things seem to have gotten a lot more complicated while she was gone. If she's ever going to stop feeling like she's running to catch up, she needs to… well, catch up.
"I'm not that good." Lorna confesses to Lunair. "But I'll play, if you like." Lorna looks around, locating the cue rack, and smiles as she sees one that screws together in the middle. More than enough metal… she reaches out a hand and floats the cue over to her. "Better let Scott finish his lesson first." She says, nodding in his direction.
Lorna leans against the edge of the billiard table, idly chalking the head of the cue, as Scott continues that lesson. Again, she finds herself smiling faintly. He really is a good instructor. As he lines up his shot, Lorna stands up properly again before he can accuse her of being in the way. The shot is, of course, impressive, and Lorna has to give him his due. "Nice." She says, before leaning toward Lunair conspiratorially again. "And /that/ is why you don't play this man for money." She explains.
-
Lunair listens. She tilts her head. She seems unaware of a lot of the context. But she nods. "I see. 9-ball?" Hm. She watches Scott as he lines up another shot. Patience. "Don't rush… Okay," Nod. That makes sense. She watches the cue strike, peering. Her eyebrows lift. "Okay, that was pretty neat." Nodnod. She was taking it in, and Lunair seems to be a pretty good listener. She doesn't really seem to know why this might be popular, but maybe it's just as much the people and competition as the ball poking? Yes.
Lunair looks to Lorna. "It's okay. It'd be my first game," She offers. She watches Lorna get the cue rank. Huh. Lunair will head over to it and pick one up herself. Sadly, she lacks cool metal floating powers. But you work with the powers you have, not with the powers you wish you had. That probably goes for social skills and boobs, too. There's so much life wisdom here. She nods at Lorna. "That's true." No particular order… 8 ball last. She smiles faintly. Then a giggle at the explanation on why one doesn't play for money. "Fair enough." Pause. "Are you new here?" She's perpetually curious.
-
Scott immediately sets down his stick and begins gathering up all of the balls so that they might be racked up again. "We'll start over. Girls versus me." No, he's not cocky. Not one bit.
While racking, Scott looks up at Lorna. He'd recognized that look. "Lorna, we ought to go over the recent mission parameters before putting together a team for Antarctica. Think you could spare a few minutes tomorrow?" A few extra minutes might be useful to help her become reacquainted with the finer aspects of life at Xavier's.
Without further adieu, he grabs his stick and commences with the chalking. "Who's breaking?"
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