16049/Dropping in.

Dropping in.
Date of Scene:	10 February 2024
Location:	Backyard - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Gabby drops in while Neena is eating a sandwich. They discuss food and some better codename ideas for Laura.
Cast of Characters:	Honey Badger, Domino

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Honey Badger has posed:
A typical February Saturday at Xavier's school. Some of the students have gone home to see family, some are out in the city shopping, and a bunch of them are goofing off around the mansion. Or in this case. On top of it. There's the sort of typical young people joking around noises coming from up above. The sort of noises most people would ignore unless they were highly trained or just very lucky.

Like 'I dare you to jump off the roof' and 'I'll totally do it for a pack of cupcakes'.

What follows is a 'wheeeeeeeeeeee' noise of exhilaration. Which is cut short by a sound that's a lot like someone breaking a bag of wet sticks and an OOF. As one Gabby Kinney proves that she might not know fear but that doesn't mean she's immune from gravity. Or the ground.

From up on the roof there's a lot of shrieking and the sounds of people running away before any teachers can turn up. "Hey! What about my cupcakes!?"

Domino has posed:
It's not too often that Neena Thurman finds herself loitering around Xavier's School for Kids Who Can't Read Or Do Other Things Good, because whenever she starts to get bored, her trigger finger starts to get itchy and someone's always willing to pay a generous amount for a bad person to go do bad things to a worse person.

Also to less worse people, but Neena doesn't take those jobs. She has scruples.

But the mansion's got a pool and a garage and she can work on her bike and raid the kitchen.

Which is what Neena's just finished doing, walking outside in a comfortable hoodie and jeans. Does the black and white hoodie kind of make her look like a panda? Maybe a bit.

Whatever profanity she shouts as Gabby comes flying down like a comet and proceeds to do her best human pancake impression is muffled by the sandwich she had in her mouth, eyes widening and crumbs flying as the lucky mutant earns that particular title by NOT being flattened by Gabby. Or even dropping her sandwich!

It does take her a solid twenty seconds to swallow, clear her throat, and wait for Gabby to... possibly literally... pull herself together.

"You know, there are easy ways to make a buck."

Honey Badger has posed:
You'd think a fall like that would hurt someone, even if they do heal, but Gabby just sort of lays there letting herself knit back together. Or at least she does until Domino speaks. Then she twists and tries to wave. It'd be much friendlier if her arm wasn't at an exceptionally unnatural angle...

"It's just a few broken bones," she says matter of factly. Even as said bones knit themselves back together again. "I'll be fine in no time at all. I'm Gabby by the way. You might have met my sister Laura? Anyway I wasn't doing it for the money I just wanted cupcakes.... Plus someone dared me." A beats pause. "And then someone else /double dared me/."

And the school pays for the laundry bills. So really there's no cost to her personally..

She sniffs the air. "So who're you? And what's in the sandwich?"

Domino has posed:
Neena takes the awkward noodle-arm waving in stride. Metaphorically, since she's not actually walking. But she's also not stopping from taking another bite of her turkey club. Chewing slowly and then swallowing. "Uh-huh. Just some broken bones."

Her gaze lingers for a moment, eyebrow above that black spot lifting, "So you're like... a wolverine? Half a wolverine? A third? Some amount of Wolverine."

She snorts softly, "Me and Laura have run into each other a couple times, but I don't hang out here much. I'm Neena. Domino. I'm lucky." She sighs and shakes her head slowly. "Turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato. Mayo. There's no bacon left though."

Neena's sure not going to admit there's no bacon left because she cooked the last three strips and put them in her sandwich. That bacon just... disappeared. Of its own volition.

And then she's eying Gabby again, slowly, "You /do/ look an awful lot like Laura. Also, did you know you can get cupcakes /with/ money? Like, most bakeries don't even expect you to jump off a roof for 'em."

Honey Badger has posed:
"Oh there's probably some internal injuries too," Gabby says like this is no big deal either. "Normally I'd roll with the landing, make it a lot better, but there was something slippery on the edge of the roof..." She shrugs. Or is she popping her shoulder back into the socket. Slipping on a roof could happen to anyone. Just a spot of bad luck. "I'm a clone of Laura so I'm exactly as much of a Wolverine as she is? But /my/ codename is Honey Badger. They're like Wolverines only from Africa."

She grins.

"Nice to meet you Neena, Domino, Lucky." Gabby doesn't ask for some of the sandwich, but she sniffs and looks up at it with hungry eyes. "I should look almost identical to her. Just a bit younger."

The more she gets put back together the more she does indeed look like a younger, happier, Laura Kinney. Except for the scars on her face. Those don't seem to be healing up at all.

"Yeah but money means working a job and that means having papers. Plus there's a bunch of evil corporate booger brains who... I guess they want to take me back to a lab? Or maybe they need to get rid of me so no-one knows they're doing illegal stuff? Besides. There isn't a bakery in the school grounds now is there?"

Domino has posed:
Neena sighs like she's just... /used/ to that. Then again, she knows Deadpool so yeah, 'Internal injuries are no biggie' could be said to be a common viewpoint amongst her acquaintances. She sighs out and tilts her head thoughtfully. "Honey Badger. Well, that's definitely a cooler codename than Laura."

She gives a flash of a grin and a solemn little nod.

"Good to meet you too. Even if it was... kind of dramatic. Seriously, like, there's gotta be an easier way to get cupcakes. Plus now that those kids cheated you out of cupcakes you need to get revenge on them. It's going to be an entire /thing/. You can't let people get one up on you or sooner or later all your clients start thinking they can skip out on the bill. Then you need to get a car bomb and pick someone to make an example of and..."

She heaves out a sigh and pinches the bridge of her nose, rubbing it soothingly. "I mean, working a /nine to five/ job involves paperwork and tax forms and stuff. But there are a lot of jobs out there that pay strictly in duffel bags of unmarked small bills, or a briefcase of precious stones or... I mean, finding a good fence is a pain in the ass, but..."

She frowns thoughtfully, "I don't /think/ there's one on school grounds but I'm like ninety percent sure there's this mutant friendly donut place in Westchester. I mean, donuts aren't cupcakes, but they're donuts."

Honey Badger has posed:
"Laura could have a cooler codename if she wanted I'm sure.... Like uh... Wolver... ina? No that sucks... Snikterdoodle?" Gabby frowns. "Okay codenames are hard." She blinks. "Clawdette! No wait that's just a name name but with a weird spelling..."

She begins getting up, patting herself down to make sure everything is in the right place, rolling her shoulders. Joints making clicking and popping noises.

"They didn't cheat me /yet/," she assures. "Until the cupcakes are eaten they can still be mine! They are just having some perfectly normal second thoughts about daring people to jump off things and even if they do run I can track them down." Gabby taps her nose then sniffs the air and looks up. "They might even have left my prize on the roof."

Her attention snaps back to Domino. "Why do you need a good fence? Oh! To keep animals in? Do you have a farm of something?" She rubs a little blood off her hands onto her pants. "Donuts are pretty great. I wonder why no-one has thought of putting a big swirl of cupcake frosting on a donut? They could call them... Cupnuts."

Domino has posed:
Neena just stares. Eyes slowly widening, until they're like saucers. "OH MY GOD. Yes. YES! ...I mean, my luck'll totally... like... there's no way she's going to /kill me/ if I call her Snikterdoodle... everyone likes cookies..." and it's so very clear gears are turning, wheels are spinning and Neena's plotting. Planning.

Working out an exfiltration route for a swift escape when she calls Laura Snikterdoodle. Proper planning is key.

She sighs and once more that nose is being pinched, "I... yeah. They /should/ be having second thoughts. I mean, I'm no teacher or whatever, but I don't think baldy would appreciate kids learning to jump off the godda- ... dang... roof to get prizes. I mean, okay, maybe we can convince Rogue to leap off the roof to do a cannonball into the pool, that'd be kinda cool, but like... she's an adult."

And then her head is reeling as she just groans softly, "I... it's... not that kind of fence. Don't worry about it. Really. Just uhh... worry about the cupcakes and..."

Neena's shoulders slump. "...That's definitely an idea."

Honey Badger has posed:
Domino might have a lucky escape if she uses that name. But Gabby? She'll be in for some pretty awful training if Laura finds out it was her idea....

"I'm eighteen you know! I'm basically a grown up too," she points out. "It's just I grew up in a lab so I don't really get all the normal people stuff. Plus I bet they dare each other to jump off the roof /all the time/ here." Admittedly usually it's kids who can fly or negate gravity. "If they didn't want people doing it the roof wouldn't be so easy to access." She frowns. "Speaking of which I should probably climb up there and see if they left the cupcakes behind. Once you finish that sandwich can I get a boost? It'll be quicker to climb up the building than go all the way indoors and take the stairs..."

Honey Badger takes a few steps back like she's about to run right at the wall. "Okay so maybe food names are tough like codenames. But think about it. You put cream cheese on a bagel. Donuts are basically sweet bagels. You cut the donut in half and put cream cheese frosting inside. Add some sprinkles. Then you've got the hottest bakery product since the cronut."

Domino has posed:
Neena's not going to discourage Gabby from climbing back up the mansion. Hell, those bricks aren't hers. In fact, she's going to watch the spunky young mutant ascend to cupcake victory! Hopefully. Or to find out who she has to hunt down for her cupcakes. Good luck, kiddo!

Neena braces her back against the wall and cups her hands into a stirrup with the sandwich hanging from her mouth. Why wait to finish it? There's only like two bites left!

Plus, it saves her from having to remark about Gabby's idea of the world's new dessert craze. ...Honestly, she might wind up trying that. People cut donuts in half to griddle them to be burger buns, why NOT cut it in half to fill it with delicious sweets? Hm. Hmmmmm.

Honey Badger has posed:
"They've already done cupcakes filled with fruit fillings. Like lemon or raspberry injected into the cake. Which is basically taking the donut inspiration the other way..." Gabby explains like this is ground breaking news that is vitally important to share. Heedless of the fact there is a not insubstantial amount of blood marking where she landed. "Anyway it was great meeting you Neena Domino Lucky."

There may have been some miscommunication about where the name stopped and the codename & powersets began there.

And before anyone can clear the situation up? She's charging forward. Remarkably fast for someone under five foot tall.

Her foot planted on the cupped hands she launches herself skywards. Thankfully climbing the outside of a perfectly normal school building isn't exactly hard for someone trained as an assassin. And she scrambles her way up like it's no big deal.

"And you better not steal my cupnut idea and become famous!" she calls back over her shoulder. "Or I'll have to track you down to demand my share of the profits!"