102/Recruiting A New Student

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Recruiting A New Student
Date of Scene: 21 April 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Summary needed.
Cast of Characters: 139, Raven, Emma Frost




Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
There has been a wide spectrum of strange and unusual occurences out in the general direction of the Connecticut/Massachusetts border, the kind of things that used to be in hometown newspapers and are now just the occasional strange picture. Weird rotted handprints on things. A bridge in heavy traffic suffering a small but critical structural failure. Things like that.

There's a pattern there. If you care to look for it. But that pattern doesn't make anyone money and doesn't have any terries in the center of it, so who cares?

Someone may care.

At the moment that pattern's latest instance is in the back booth at a middling diner at a rest stop nearer to Vermont than New York. Irene van Dalen parked her car, nearly out of gas, and went inside. She's considering silently if she's hungry enough to try to dine-and-dash, occasionally glancing up to see how intense the attention from the diner staff is to that little ATM up near the cash register.

Outside it's getting dark and it's kind of clammy weather.

Raven has posed:
    Emma's self-driving car does the thing it's advertised, and Rachel (she's Rachel today) sits in the back seat with the car's owner. The pale, dark-haired teen couldn't look more out of place next to the CEO millionaire, in her ripped black jeans, army boots, hoodie, and studded dog collar, but there is a resemblance there: the calm confidence that comes of just not giving a damn. Rachel's hands are in her lap and the stone on her forehead gleams mellowly in the afternoon light as she asks Emma, "This person you're looking for. Am I here to watch you and learn, or am I here to defend you?"

Emma Frost has posed:
"You're here to help get her to be a student like yourself Rachel." Emma says calmly as the car pulls into one of the open spots and with a simple thought, Irene would hear a simple alien thought in her head. <<They have had that happen recently, you'd certainly get caught if you tried.>>

Emma stays in the car for a few moments as she takes in a few breaths, gets used to the cool air and is curious about how Raven would approach and how Irene will react to this sudden development.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene is visible in a window, though you wouldn't have much reason to look closely given her uniform of the disaffected youth of the day, i.e. a hooded sweatshirt.

She stiffens up like someone jabbed her in the ass with a cattleprod when she hears that voice, head whirling around. It may be mildly amusing to Emma - but maybe not, as she looks around behind her, ahead of her, finally and with less conviction at the sugar/napkin/hot sauce carrier on her table. She settles down afterwards. Slowly.

The diner is not heavily peopled at the moment and it would be easy enough to get everyone looking in the other direction for a while with only a little mental nudging. There are free little minty things on the cashier's counter.

Raven has posed:
    Training a teenager is like training a bad-tempered dog, in a lot of ways: while you're testing her, she's testing you too. The first thought to occur to Rachel is to simply take Emma's purse, go inside, and pay for the girl's meal--she doesn't know which girl yet, but her empathy picked up a spike of panic at Emma's telepathy, and she's pretty sure she can figure it out--but that won't work: she already knows Emma doesn't carry cash. "Let's go save the day, then," she says instead in her creaky voice. This suggestion is emphasized by the doorhandle on Emma's side being outlined in black anti-light and pulled, opening of its own accord just ahead of Rachel's own door opening by the rather more mundane approach of her hand on it. She stuffs her hands deep in the hoodie's pockets and walks into the diner, attracting some attention she doesn't care enough to acknowledge from her dress, her stone, and the nearly ashy color of her skin. Her violet eyes sweep the diner slowly and methodically, homing in...oh. There. The girl who looks like a stray.
    One stray to another, Rachel raises her hand and waves to Irene, her emotionless face making the gesture seem rather mechanical. Based on the purposeful trajectory of her stride, it looks like she means to sit with Irene.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma hears these ideas and thoughts of Rachel's and smirks as she climbs out of the car, smiling that it's nice to have everything on automatic. Smoothing her dress shirt and blazer, making sure the seam of her pants is just perfect before following Rachel, Emma catches up just as Raven is sitting down and takes her own seat, seated across from Rachel and next to Irene, keeping the girl in the booth with her body.

"Good evening." Emma says, noding gently to Irene as she picks up a menu and starts to look it over. "What are you hungry for? It's on me." With a kind smile of her red painted lips.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene looks up as Rachel waves at her. She doesn't really move from her position wedged up, as if for safety, inside of the booth, so Rachel has abundant opportunity to sit next to her. At least she doesn't smell particularly bad.

She looks at Emma as she strides up then. Emma is more magnetic even if Rachel came in first. The menu has a huge range of dishes, as befits a family diner.

"I," she says, faltering. Her stomach tightens, the sound faintly audible.

"Who are you people?" she asks then, pressing back against the corner and sinking back, eyes resting mostly on Rachel now. Probably, she seems more unusual.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel sits in the booth across from Irene, scooting all the way in to make room for Emma to join her. Her face remains glacially impassive, and her hands rest palms down on the table's top. "I'm Rachel. This is Emma. We're here to buy your dinner, and talk." Her voice creaks the like floorboards behind the heroine in a horror movie.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma looks down the menu and cautiously scoffs to herself as she glances down the menu and turns to the wait staff on the other side of the counter, "Do you serve breakfast all day?" Emma inquries, not quite ready to give her full attention to the woman she's sat beside just yet. She lifts her eyebrows at Rachel's comments and smirks slightly and nods along. "Anything you want. It's on me." The white queen says calmly.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
The waitress, somewhat harried, looks at Emma nonetheless. "Sure do," she answers Emma, attempting a smile. Emma stands out in this situation.

"Yeah, but... why? Did my parents send you?" Irene says, staying kind of shrunk back - though her attention is now flipped back to Emma. And to a menu, which, gradually, she picks up.

"But if you mean it," she states.

She also didn't introduce herself to Rachel. /rude/

Raven has posed:
"I don't know your parents," Rachel explains. Her eyes are focused on Irene's face, not to the point of staring but enough to be a little weird. Girl is intense. "This is Emma's show, so she might, but I doubt it. We're not guns for hire."

Emma Frost has posed:
"I'm a teacher at a school nearby." Emma says, beginning her speach, "Or, better yet, the headmistress." Emma begins, still looking over the menu when a waitress comes up to the table.

"What would you three ladies like? Y'all on a road trip. Pretty far from the big city y'know?"

Emma remains silent, looking to Raven and then Irene to let them order before she does.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
"I want the meat loaf and a big slice of cherry pie for dessert," Irene says immediately. "And coffee." She looks at Emma as if to challenge her on the topic of coffee, but it's a weak and muted kind of thing.

After the waitress accepts orders, Irene says, still sullen, "Do you find all your students in diners?"

Raven has posed:
    Rachel orders hot, unsweetened tea with lemon and honey. She looks at the waitress as she does so; perhaps it's nice to have her gaze off you. But it comes back as she interjects, almost painfully literal, "No. She found me in a park. It worked out for both of us."

Emma Frost has posed:
"I go to where the people are. I seek people out where they are comfortable, or generally where I can find them." Emma says with a smirk before ordering some poached eggs and a side of hashbrowns and some bacon. "Rachel here is my newest student until you agree to join and learn how to be the best you you can be." Emma's icey eyes linger over towards Irene, teasing with her promise.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene looks at Rachel as she says she was found in a park. She looks skeptical, her brow furrowing as she shifts around. The tension in her shoulders, that reflexive hunching, is softening a little, even as she says, "... This is pretty much the best I can be." She reaches over, toying with the brass point at the edge of the menu sleeve.

Raven has posed:
    "You sound like you've given up on yourself," Rachel says, her voice and affect flat. She might not even realize how cruel a thing to say that could be. "You shouldn't. You have room to grow, and the strength to choose what you grow to be."

Emma Frost has posed:
"I have a school you are more than welcome to attend. We can teach you how to best control and use your abilities to help yourself and others, and how to grow into the woman you want to be and we can teach you how to obtain your goals and desires." Emma says, glancing back over to Raven but keeping her face turned towards Irene. "We also offer room and board, you'd have your own bed and bathroom." The white queen smirks softly at that line.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene gives Rachel a stony sort of look as she tries to speak. Maybe. Irene can't tell. Either way her heart doesn't seem moved.

Looking back at Emma, though, she says, with a slow and grudging look, "This isn't... some kind of government thing, is it?" She curls her fingers loosely, shifting the menu. "It sounds like you... ...know." That was not a conversational stutter, she meant something. Possibly why there's flakes of eroded metal from the corner of that menu left on the tabletop.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel looks down at those flakes. Suddenly, a lot is clear: there's an insight to being one of the damned, and her voice softens just a little (it doesn't lose the creak, that seems to just be her) as she asks Irene, "It's hard, knowing how things turn out, isn't it? Knowing the end. Knowing the end can make you forget the journey to get there."

Emma Frost has posed:
"No, most government agents don't drive a Bently Irene." Emma notes with a wink letting Raven speak now about the future for the two women. So she falls silent to let Raven have a try at trying to be a recruiter for the team they both have a chance at ending up on and working together to save lives and grow as people, maybe even friends.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene glances at Emma again. Then out the window. She leans back a little as if to confirm - yes - huh, she thinks, pretty visibly.

Then she looks at Rachel. She sniffs once, before saying, more guardedly, "I don't know what you mean. But, like, this isn't some kind of nice trick or whatever. It's ruined my /life/."

Raven has posed:
    "I mean, you watch things around you break down, and you learn from what you see. You learn everything rots and dies, and you start to think you can't have family or friends because that will rot and die too. I was the same way. Everything rots, so what was the point of anything?"

Emma Frost has posed:
"To quote an old tv show, everyone dies. No one has a purprose. Come watch tv." Emma says with a kind smile on her face even though she might be the only one to get the referrence. Clearing her throat, the telepath looks over to Irene. "We have a team of many people like you, and some that could teach you how to master yourself and powers Irene." The blonde says kindly, offering a happier future.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene looks to Emma for a moment, when she mentions team.

Then to Rachel again, she says, "... It all happened so fast. They... They were horrified, you know? Just all out of a sudden." Her attention hits the table now.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel nods. "My parental situation was a little different from yours. My mom gave me up to some monks to teach me self-control. She joined the order too, but we were separated all the same. My father kept trying to be part of my life, but only so he could use me. That gave me some issues." Is there a wry twist to that last sentence? Well, maybe... "When your family abandons you, you learn that it's better to abandon people before they abandon you first. Emma's helping me work on that," she adds.

Emma Frost has posed:
"I am here to help everyone. All of us." Emma says casually as she picks up her fork as her late breakfast appears before her and the rest of the food is dropped before the two other women. She glances over to Raven and is awfully proud of the young woman, doing a great job, Emma feels, of convincing Irene to at least be a student at the school.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Something Rachel says shifts something in Irene, and Emma can no doubt tell that the sale has been made, even if Irene doesn't know it yet. "... A /monastery/?" she asks, with a ghost of something like a laugh. "That's kind of hard core..."

Food appears. Irene picks up a fork and hesitates. Her eyes stay on the plate even so. "So what's in it for you? Emma."

Raven has posed:
    Rachel accepts her tea and fiddles with it, squeezing the lemon and spooning the honey, as she nods at Irene. "There wasn't a school for people like us where we were," she just says, but quietly, as not to draw focus from Emma. It's her show now.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma is certain this is a question Raven wants answered as well. "I crave to teach the next generation how to do things. How to care for themselves and everyone. I want you to be the best. I don't want the best in this world to be poorly trained and inexperienced in life and action." Emma says looking at both of them while she speaks before taking a biteful of egg.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene keeps lingering. She looks to Emma again. "... But, like, why do you care?" she asks when Emma is eating, but it seems that this gives her permission. She hunches over and QUITE SWIFTLY half the meatloaf is gone.

Then she says, pausing, "I stole the car out there. Like, from my family. But I still stole it." Perhaps she's testing the waters.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel doesn't look shocked, but then, she hasn't had an actual facial expression this entire conversation. She just asks, "Did you need it?" and sips her tea without blowing on it.

Emma Frost has posed:
"I care because I was like that once and now look at me." Emma says, around more bites of her egg. She's constantly prim, propper and polite as she smiles to Irene. "We'll call the authorities, tell them where the car is and we'll be long gone by the time they come and get it." Emma says a bit more quietly, she doesn't want to get in any trouble this far out of town, or really ever. The press would have a field day with that one.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
They are, at least, still in Connecticut.

"... Do I?" she asks Rachel, but actually probably Emma.

"My parents will think I got murdered," she then mutters, looking back to her plate.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel sips more tea. "It's okay that you care about that, but if you can't live with them, then you can't. Pointless beating yourself up over what you can't fix."

Emma Frost has posed:
"We can keep you safe, as appart or as close as you'd like or need to be from your folks." Emma offers. Smiling softly at the young woman to her left and always giving her an option to decline to be part of something greater than herself, to be a part of a team and a community that wants her around.

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
Irene gives Rachel a strange, but not negative, look.

"Yeah, fuck 'em," Irene says, spearing a brussel sprout with her fork. "If they're going to ditch me and act like I'm cooking meth because of two pop bottles I don't care if they cry a lot." Her head swivels to look at Emma. "So what is this, like, for? Is it," voice drops three volume notches, "terrorism?"

She also eats the sprout.

Raven has posed:
    <Not quite what I meant,> Rachel psychically mutters, but drops it. Everyone has to start somewhere. She just shakes her head at Irene's second question. "No. It's about learning to improve yourself by being in a safe place to explore the unique abilities and needs you have."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma point at Raven as she as the right idea. "This girl is smart. You both are. I am excited to see where the future takes the both of you." Emma says, reaching into her pocket to pull out a single bill knowing she doesn't want to leave a paper trail with her credit card here so she leaves the hundred on the table as she starts to climb up out of the booth. "Will you come with use Irene?"

Irene van Dalen (139) has posed:
"Oh, I, ha, well, I just," Irene begins as Rachel tells her otherwise. Her voice cracks.

"I guess you think I'm crazy now, huh, but I - This is just the most I've talked to like, anyone in..." Her neck relaxes; her head tilts down. "Weeks, so I - U - Uuh -" She squeezes her eyes shut and presses the heels of her palms up against her eyes. Her teeth grit; her lips pull back...

But! The tears stop. "Y... yeah. Lemme just get my stuff out of the trunk."

Her 'stuff' will turn out to be an armful of casual clothes which have been getting laundered in rest stop bathrooms.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel nods impassively at Irene: 'Sure,' the nod says. She has no comment on Irene's tears. Irene is the one who has to deal with them, after all. But when she offers to get her stuff, Rachel slugs down the rest of her tea (still steaming; the child must have a tongue lined with granite) and rises. "We have a car. You can come with us now, if you want."