10478/Liar's Bowls

Liar's Bowls
Date of Scene:	19 December 2019
Location:	Cosmic Bowling, Salem Center
Synopsis:	Stephen goes to Rogue, his closest friend, to ask her a heavy question
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Doctor Strange

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Rogue has posed:
Its a weeknight, but Rogue has no school work to do because of the holidays so she's come to Salem Center to hang out with her friends. Friends that aren't mutants, aren't super heroes, aren't orphans with mysterious pasts, or genius robotic technicians creating some kind of wild future technology to save or destroy the world someday.

They're just people, young people, who like the same music as her, like the same crappy bar food, and like to laugh, and play. Young people. At a young people place.

The restaurant/food area of the bowling alley tonight. Not far from the Music Center where Rogue has taken one of the apartments up above it and converted it into a home away from... home. Aways from all that stuff that comes with the Xavier's School and its secret paramilitary, the side of Rogue that just wants to be human still.

A few of their friends have rented a couple lanes, and are traveling to and from the table, while a couple more are at the table with Anna-Marie. She's leaning back in a chair with her booted feet up on another, her hair is loose about her shoulders, white contrasting bright against the dark browns. Wearing a baggy green sweater, black gloves, blue jeans and heeled boots of brown leather that come up to her knees, she's got a cup of soda in ehr right hand is sipping it now and then while listening to her friends talk.

Its a bowling alley so the music is loud in the background and the sounds of balls rolling down lanes is prominent.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    The front doors open and in walks a man wearing a black overcoat over his, coat, and a fedora on his head, with grey hair peeking out in front and just above his ears, seems the man isn't as young as the goatee would have one believing.

    The man dusts the cold and frigid from his shoulders by flumping his shoulders up and down and then reaching up with a leather gloved hand to brush at the cool as he finds his way towards the counter to pay.

    "Just one... I have my own shoes." Stephen says, holding up a pair of what appear to be aincent bowling shoes before the man and then slipping the kid a twenty and then walking away towards his own lane.

    Stephen takes a moment to stop at the cafe and orders a plate of nachos, easily the worst thing in the bar-alley and the best thing he can eat here, for sure. The wizard tells them he'll be over getting his shoes on while they make it and he's at a lane next to Rogue and friends setting his over coat and coat down on a table revealing he's wearing slacks and a nice deep green with white and red stripes at the shoulders and the 'v'-neck collar, sweater vest.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is bound to notice him, that hair and the gray streaks in it. But, she doesn't notice him until he settles into the lane across from the one her friends are at. She's drawn to his hat, at first, as its not a kind of hat one sees that often and she'd just had a conversation with her father last night where she'd asked him what he wants for Christmas and he said... well first he'd said he has everything he could ask for... which was sweet, but she knew that was true. So she pressed further, and he said 'a fedora', which had made her laugh.

She recognizes Stephen pretty darn fast though, hard not to, she knows him well... at least she thinks she does. So she stands and sets her drink down, then glances at the two friends at the table with her, excuses herself and walks over toward him.

One of them grins and calls out a joke 'Marie, always chasin' the old men!'.

Rogue smirks back at them then keeps on walking.

She flops down into the chair beside Stephen and then looks out at the lane he'd picked. Her eyes are that same pale bright green, with dar eyeliner surrounding them tonight, black in fact, almost goth-like makeup in that regard, but she likes it that way. "Didn't figure you were a bowlin' type." She states, now turning to look at him with a smile.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I'm not." Stephen responds super casually towards Rogue with a serious look on his face, the same face she saw countless times when he was teasing her or being completely serious. So somehow Stephen's hard to read based on his facial expressions his humor is that dry.

    Setting his coats down carefully, he turns to sit on the chair next to Rogue, unafraid of touching the woman as he bends at the waist and lifts his foot up to slip the shoe off his foot so he can put on the custom black and red bowling shoe he brought with him.

    As Stephen does this, the cook calls out for "Doctah!!! Doctah in deh house!" And Stephen smiles towards Rogue and asks politely, "Be a dear?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue lets her gaze wander around at the other bowlers, her friends aren't that far away, but they're preoccupied with beer and their banter so she looks back at him just as the Doctah is called out. With a smirk she rises up to go get his nachos.

When she returns she slides them onto the table with a stack of napkins and then turns to face him again.

"So are things okay?" She asks him then, unable not to ask any longer. "I'm not used t'ya make casual check-ins. Just seein' ya makes me think somethin' must be up. But... what could ya need my help with that ya couldn't possibly fix on your own?" She crosses her arms over her stomach, rumpling the fabric of her dark green sweater there.

"Not that i'm not perfectly fine with a casual checkin-in... less this completely random and you're just tryin' t'get out and do something new in life." She settles into her seat again then.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I thank you Rogue." Stephen smirks, already with both of his shoes on and his sweater vest looking quite sharp as he looks towards the rack of balls behind the alleys and shakes his head at the miserable wednesday selections. No these will not do. Stephen then reaches under his chair and pulls out a ball that must have been hidden and yet it's custom, it's clear with black paint on it, or black with clear paint on it, either way it looks like a contained star cluster with specks of light flickering in and out within the bowling ball the wizard holds.

    Stephen asks, and in what could only be called clarvoyance, he takes the nacho in the rectangular paper bowl contraption and extends it towards Rogue, offering her at least a chip if not the whole thing.

    "I'm more just checking in with you and I've come to ask you a huge favor Anna Marie." Stephen says with a faint sigh as he looks down towards the heavy ball in his lap. "I'm to be wed soon and ... I am not sure how to ask about this, but, would you be my best man?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue starts to pull her gloves off of her hands, one by one, then she sets them aside on another empty seat. She turns and takes one of the chips from the basket, and is in the process of consuming said cheesey drippy chippy when the Doctor asks that huge favor of her.

Choking, spitting, chip-take ensues.

Rogue sputters and tries to contain herself, in mid-chip eating she has to grab a napkin and raise it up to her lips to recover.

Once recovered, her eyes look over to the Doctor and she has to... laugh, softly, easily. "What about Wong?" She asks. "I thought you two were like, BFFs'n'shit. I always pictured ya there in the Sanctum playin' XBox together'n watchin' Dark side of the Moon Wizard of Oz. Ya know, all tripped out while the song lines up with the movie."

Rogue has to pause then and she narrows her eyes at Stephen. "Wait, who are you marrying?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Wong's missing and I fear it's by his own choice as I do not exactly know a way to find him as he's been gone since Loki took the position... It's been a long time since we talked Anna Marie." Stephen says and sighs softly, "You're likely the person I know the best since Wong did leave."

    Stephen smirks as he reaches a hand back to pat on Rogue's back to help her clear her lungs of stale chip and melted cheese.

    "Felicia Hardy. I'm not sure if you've ever actually met. She's..." Stephen pauses to try and explain Felicia in a few words and yet only one comes to mind. "Special."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue does the 'ahhh' thing when she hears about Wong. "Thats sad." She adds. "I love Wong. I hope he's... happy wherever he is." There's a moment to take a breath and re-evaluate. She nods about Felicia. "I remember her now, she was there that time Kitty's old boyfriend launched himself out of the hot tub in the Magic Bedroom. All naked'n stuff, ran out of the house. She's hot, I see why ya like her."

Rogue shows the doctor a grin then as her eyes go to that bowling ball he conjured up out of thin-air for himself. She knows him well enough to know that that ball wasn't just under the seat when he'd grabbed for it. "Far out ball." She idly comments before looking back up to his eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm happy t'do it. T'be honest, I didn't think you'd ever get married, but t'be even more honest, if ya did, I wouldn't even take ya t'be the kinda guy t'have a traditional type setup, with Bridesmaids and Groomsmen. I'm guessin' this is her request." Rogue shows another hint of a grin.

"Do I have t'wear a tux? I'll do it if I gotta."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Honestly, I'm not sure about any of this, we're both so busy and I'm not sure how great we really are, we just seem to get each other and understand we both are busy with our own seperate jobs." Stephen says with a smirk as she does admit his fiance is hot. "I'll be sure to tell her you said that." Stephen says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't let me keep you, I know you're hanging out with your friends over there. They're much more your speed than I am." Stephen smirks, almost teasing Rogue, about what is up for her to interperate.

    Stephen stands and shows off the bowling ball to Rogue who might be able to spy, the injured surgeon is of course using a special ball to accomodate his injury, there's no holes to stick his fingers into yet it grips his hand at the touch points perfectly.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue leans on the table beside her with her right elbow and stares at Stephen after he speaks all of that. She just lets a grin slide across her lips as she slow nods once at him. "Well, give her my phone number, tell her to call me and let me know whatever I gotta do t'help out with all of it. I'm happy t'help set stuff up or get it goin' so its easier on ya both. Not like I'm gonna be married any time soon, I may as well help others get their groove on." She now grins lightly at him.

Her eyes drift back over to her friends, five of them at that table she'd been at now with just two at the bowling lane still. "Ya wanna hang out with us?" She asks, now looking back at him. "They're young, yeah, ya might hate'em, or ya might have some fun. They'll give ya a hard time at first, but if ya do even just a simple lil magic trick they'll warm up t'ya like instantly. Give ya someone t'bowl off'a too, rather than just here by yourself."

A glance is paid to the alley he'd picked, then she looks back at him. "Come on, I'll introduce ya. Heck, some'a them may already ahve heard of ya."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen stands up and looks down the alley he's sat at and then over his shoulder towards Rogue's friends. "Mind if I get a rain check on that? I'll be pleased to meet them, but I have a lot on my plate. With the wedding, and the whole, sorcerer thing." Stephen whispers and then looks down at the ball he's holding and holds it out towards Rogue, "Take care of this for me, and you all enjoy those nachos." The wizard remarks before he takes his coats, one in each hand and then seems to disolve away into nothingness before Rogue, as if he was being beamed up like on Star trek.