4704/Woodsmoke

Woodsmoke
Date of Scene:	20 June 2018
Location:	Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Several New Mutants chat around the campfire. Rift visits. Tyler unloads a secret that may get him in trouble.
Cast of Characters:	Elixir, Twitch, Erddrache, Rage, Speed, Rift

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Elixir has posed:
Evening is starting to fall on Xavier's School. Josh is on the beach by the lake with a couple blankets laid out. There is a large basket nearby, and he is piling wood and kindling in something approximating a campfire. It'll burn. Probably. Probably about as quickly as his time at Xavier's. He had not seen Ms. Grey since getting back to the school but he knew it was just a matter of time. Still, he had gone to the Dining Hall to gather up food and let the others know he was going to be at the beach if they wanted to join him. Might as well make the best of the evening.

Twitch has posed:
Josh isn't the only one waiting to get in trouble. Tyler's in the same boat, but since he hasn't seen Jean since getting back to the school he's responded to Josh's invitation to come and hang out by heading over to the lake. When he gets close and sees the fire going he greets Josh with a friendly, "Hey man. Thanks for the invitation." His hands slide into his pants pockets and he looks around.

Erddrache has posed:
Having not seen Josh since the incident and wanting to get to know folks...Boris was more than happy to join in. The ground rumbles and shakes gently before a pair of bone spikes rise up from the ground like a shark. And than boris crawls out, shaking himself off. "Hello friendz!" he exclaims happily.

Rage has posed:
Heading to the beach is Andrea who caught sight of her friends in the distance from a walk around the grounds for a bit of brief exercise. "Hey, guys!" She calls over to them as she lifts a hand to wave in their direction. "What's up with the look on your faces?" Mostly to Tyler and Josh.

Speed has posed:
Tommy sits on a rock by the lake but as others appear, he moves back to the camp site. "Need help with that, Josh?" he asks of the camp fire. The others get a lift of his chin.

"Saved some kid's life, so apparently we're in trouble now," Tommy answers Andrea.

Elixir has posed:
Josh greets each of the others as they come along. "There's hot dogs, and stuff for s'mores, and all kinds of stuff in the basket," he gestures. "I raided the Dining Hall... I swear they have everything," he says with a half-smile.

"Sure," he says to Tommy. "Never done this before. Think it'll light?"

"Yeah, we got caught outside the school today," he adds to Tommy's explanation. "Ms. Grey isn't too happy about it."

Erddrache has posed:
"Ms. Proffessor Grey....somehow seems scarieh ven Ms.Proffessor Frost" Boris notes. he waves to the others "Hello Andrea, Tommy, Tyler" he says the names quite deliveratly as if trying to commit them to memory "Bit...whit happened if yer saved someone? Tell vee whole story" he exclaims

Twitch has posed:
"Yo Boris! How's it going, man?" Tyler greets the dwarf with a friendly tone of voice and a smile. "Hey Andrea. It was my fault," he explains to her with a frown. "I thought we were good to go into West Chester. Apparently the rules against the city meant anywhere outside the school." He sighs, then shrugs his shoulders, "She should have specified we had to stay on school grounds in the memo." Looking towards Boris and says, "We went to Apple Park to see one of those space mushrooms. It had little babies that grabbed a kid and were going to eat him until Tommy and Josh got him out of there."

Rage has posed:
"Oh. That sucks." Andrea says with a furrow of her brows. "I took it as we had to stay in the school which is why I've been abusing my Amazon account." Taking a seat on the blankets with them, she flips her phone out to toss Mason a text to let him know where they're at. "You guys went out to purposely look at one of those space thingies from the news? I thought they're super dangerous."

Speed has posed:
"Seemed like a good idea at the time?" Tommy offers to Andrea's question. "And yeah, memo should have been more clear about what the rules were, I thought we just couldn't go to NYC."

As for the fire, Tommy grins at Josh, "Yeah, think it'll get going."

Tommy grabs a stick with a pointed enough end and turns it at super-speed, point down into another piece of wood, until there's smoke and just a bit of flame. He kneels and fans it with his hand trying to get it to catch. "Got kicked out of Cubs pretty quick, but not before I learned how to set stuff on fire."

Elixir has posed:
Josh laughs and sits down as Tommy gets the fire going. "You were in Cubs?" he snerks.

Then he looks over his shoulder towards Tyler. "Hey, you left out you kicking the space squid!" he says with a smile. "So look," he says to Boris and Andrea. "We went to just see the space mushroom. It was so creepy, all white and weird-looking, and the ground under it was just gone. Instead it was this like... Boiling... white stuff with little tentacled monsters in it. Serious. And I guess this kid's dog got into the fenced area, and the monsters rushed out and grabbed it. And the kid was right there, so he got grabbed, too. It was the.... Second freakiest thing I've ever seen."

Erddrache has posed:
Boris shivers a bit, the ground lurching somewhat. "Wait, if vat be vee second, ven whit is vee first?" he now wonders.
    "Still...while et was good yer saved vat kid...it was absolutely dumb ta git near vat stuff! Et burns when et gets on yer skin" he rubs his arms uncomfortably "Und fire makes et worse...jist hope vere nit be any aroon here" he eyes the fire.

Twitch has posed:
"It's whatever. I'll probably get kicked out after I talk to Ms Grey about that other thing, so I figure I might as well get in hang out time while I'm still here," Tyler says to Andrea. He pulls his hands from his pockets and takes a seat on one of the blankets, leaning back and resting on his hands. "Handy skill, Tommy. I've got no wilderness skills at all." When Josh brings up him kicking the monster Tyler shrugs, "I was just trying to keep them penned in so they wouldn't get to anybody." Looking at Boris Tyler says, "We didn't intend to get close to the thing. We were behind the fence until the little kid went in."

Rage has posed:
"So those things eat at the ground and melt them? Why would you guys try and fight it instead of .. getting help? You guys gotta be careful. Alien mushrooms is different than a dumb carjacker." Andrea says as she rubs the back of her neck. "But the kid is okay, right? That's all that matters. Jean can't really be that mad for long. Maybe I can talk to her."

Speed has posed:
"Shut up," Tommy laughs lobbing some of the spare kindling at Josh. "And yeah, for like two weeks until I punched some kid in the mouth for smack talking me," he says before nodding to Tyler. "Yeah it comes in handy from time to time. Plus, super-speed makes it super easy."

A shrug, then as the fire gets going he falls back onto a blanket, butt and hands, leaning back. "And yeah, kid's okay, right Josh?"

Elixir has posed:
"You don't even wanna know," Josh says to Boris. His eyes dart to Andrea and back. "It's a whole other story."

Josh laughs when Tommy chucks the kindling. "Tough guy Boy Scout Tommy," he chuckles.

"See, Tyler's being modest," he keeps on to Boris and Andrea. "So like, the monsters grabbed the dog and the kid, and like Tommy's there before you can even blink, standing on the tentacle that's got the kid. Then fucking Tyler ninja kicks the thing, and kicks another monster. Tommy does... What the hell did you do, Tommy?" He asks as an aside. "Something, and the monster lets go of the kid after like breaking his leg. Tommy's like, here, take the kid while I go get six million knives, and then Tommy and Tyler started cutting off tentacles. I ran the boy back to his mom, and he's like all fine, all healed up, right? And you won't /believe/ what happened next."

Erddrache has posed:
"Yer punched a boy in vee cubs! Jist...jist WHY!?" he exclaims. He tsk in dissapproval, but there was a certain grin there. But none the less as the story unfolds more he seem entrapped by it. The ground vibrates a bit more with his excitment and what is to him an exciting story!

Twitch has posed:
"I didn't want to try ground fighting something with tentacles," Tyler says to Josh with a nod. "So I kicked and slashed and jumped around a bunch." Then he gets quiet and lowers himself to the ground to lay on his back, staring up at the sky with his hands folded behind his head. "I'm glad we were there." There's a frown on his face again.

Rage has posed:
"You guys just gotta be careful." Andrea sighs softly. "If those things can eat the ground and melt it, they can probably do the same to you." She shifts her jaw in thought as she scoots to her back, tucking her arms under her head to stare up at the sky. "One of you coulda got me also you know.. I'm the team's tank. Even if I'm not really good at it.. it's my job to frontline."

Speed has posed:
"Yep, that's me," Tommy grins to Josh. "And I punched him because he was talking smack, it was totally justified," he adds with a grin to Boris.

"And what I did was phase the kid, first time I've done it from a standstill, usually I need to be running to do it. But yeah, that's what that was," he says before looking to Andrea. "Tyler was pretty awesome, like he said, best not to be on the ground with those things. And we would have called but we were right into it, then that guy with the bow was there and Tony Stark and it was over."

Elixir has posed:
Josh shakes his head. "You phased him? Like, Star Trek? That's crazy, man," he says and then nods. "That was the best part! Green Arrow /and/ Iron Man showed up! And they totally kicked ass. I was all like, what the fuck is going on, so I didn't even recognize Green Arrow at first, but he had these crazy arrows that froze the monsters. And Iron Man used some crazy machines that made the space mushroom disappears. Just, poof. It was seriously fucking cool," he says.

He gets up and rummages through the basket, pulling out a Coke. He offers drinks to the others.

Twitch has posed:
"Damn it. The kitchen's going to be out of knives, probably. I stuck that whole box full in those monsters," Tyler says, looking even unhappier, if that's possible. "I'm so getting kicked out of here." When Josh offers sodas Tyler turns his head to look at his friend, then says, "No thanks." The young man sighs again. "I need to learn to just not care about stuff."

Erddrache has posed:
"Ah be calling the cans!" he exclaims! Boris laughs "But still vat be amazink! Tony Stark is quite the feller...though nevar heard of vis Green Arrow mahself" he admits.
    He looks to Andrea "Well if yer the tank...than whit be the rest of us? Und trust me, that stuff does nit melt vee ground, et melts skin" he rubs his arm and shivers.

Rage has posed:
"I don't know. I'm not a super nerd so I don't know enough about D&D except that Rogues do it from behind." Andrea says with a straight face. "I guess Tyler is the .. fighter? Um.. Tommy is the Rogue. I'm the tank. Josh is the healer. You're ... " She pauses for a moment in thought. "I don't know... the black mage?"

Speed has posed:
Tommy nod, "Yeah, it's a thing I do," he says about the phasing. "And yeah, exactly like Star Trek," he adds clearly pleased with himself.

"And don't worry those weren't from the school's kitchen, I just boosted them from Wal-Mart," Tommy explains. "I mean it was an emergency right?"

"And heh, guess that means the rogue thing fits."

Rift has posed:
A bright red light appears ten feet in the air above the lake, tearing open into an oval portal. A glowing red female figure emerges from the portal, hovering over the lake. At night, her glow is even more eerie, her entire body, clothing and all, engulfed in a dull red glow, with brighter red glows visible in her arms, legs, chest, and head. She floats over. "I heard about a party over here... oh, hey Boris." She slowly lands outside the perimeter of the group. "Mind if I join you? Oh, in case you don't know me, I'm Rift."

The portal is slowly closing, eventually winking out.

Twitch has posed:
"Walmart's got plenty of crap, I'm sure it'll be fine," Tyler says to Tommy, shrugging from his spot on the ground. It's a good position to see the portal open from. Tyler blinks his eyes several times to make sure he's actually seeing what he thinks he is. Then the young woman that emerges from it introduces herself and Tyler rolls onto his side to get a better look, "Hey Rift. I'm Tyler."

Erddrache has posed:
Boris waves "Hello Rift, und sure, come Join!" a pause and he says to Andrea "Rift here be a mage." he grins "Ah be more of a Tank with some earth based affinity" he claims.
    He looks to Speed "...we should probably pay vis Wal-Mart back" he claims. "Jist cause yer a rogue, doesnea mean yer need to speaclize inta theif" he winks.

Rage has posed:
When the girl arrives from the portal, Andrea lets out a 'woah'. "Everyone has a cooler power than me." She says as she plants her hands behind her on the blanket. "Hey Rift. I'm Andrea." Though she may know that. The world knows that. "It's super cool to meet you. I've seen you once before but we didn't get a chance to really talk."

Rift has posed:
Kitora Alua just blinks. "What, everyone's just wnadering off already?" she asks, blinkblinking, scritching her head as she sits down by the fire. "I heard about a group called the New Mutants - any of you know about them?"

Elixir has posed:
Josh holds out a hand to Rift when he recovers from the surprise. "I'm Josh. And... You've pretty much found us," he says. "We're the New Mutants. Though I'm not exactly sure what that means yet," he says with smile in Andrea's direction. "Ms. Frost hasn't made it exactly clear what we are. Drink?" he offers a selection from the basket.

"You keep rubbing that arm, Boris. You have a close call with one of those space mushrooms or something?"

Erddrache has posed:
Boris nods "Aye. Ah did and et was nit pleasant. Jist thinkin bout et make mah skin crawl" he says apologetically.
    "But aye, Josh here has vee rioght of et. yer looking at vee new Mutants. Ms.Proffesor Frost be in charge of et" he says "Something about expanding und seeing vee big picture" he looks to Tyler and Speed to confirm this

Twitch has posed:
"Yeah, it's a thing Ms Frost is doing," Tyler tells Rift with a shrug. "I'm not really sure of the details either, but we're supposed to be some kind of team." He rolls onto his back and nods his head, "Yeah, that's right, Boris. No idea what it means." He pulls his hands from under his head so that he can strike the ground with one of them, "Ugh! I can't believe we did the right thing and we're getting in trouble. Maybe the school just isn't for me."

Elixir has posed:
Josh smiles at Boris conspiratorially. "So we're not the only ones who've been breaking curfew, eh, Boris? When did you go sneak a peak at the space mushrooms?"

He frowns when Tyler speaks. "Whoa, Tyler, chill man. I mean, we don't even know what Ms. Grey is going to say. Maybe it'll just be like, detention for a week or something stupid like that, you know?" Josh says, concerned. "It'll be okay, and besides, where else would you go?"

Erddrache has posed:
"Ye would hauf gotten in trouble at any other school too." Boris says "Unless yer being homeschooled, in which case yer being grounded." finding Tylers reaction odd "Yer acting like yer getting in trouble fer helpin someone, when that is nit the case. Jist take the punnishment like a man, accept tha even vough the rule was unclear, und simply point oot ta Ms. Proffesor Grey that vee rule should hauf been made moar clear for future cases. It be win win win. Yer helped someone, yer shown yer can accept consequences and thus are depenedable, as well as show other were they may hauf bettered themselves"

He looks to Josh "Ironicaly, ah did not break curfew. Ah go home dureing vee weekends. This occure on mah way back ta school...so ah be in vee clear" he grins "Vough, ah did get ta meet Johnny Storm, and even helped clean up some of vee fungus. Bit vis was before the mushrooms appeared"

Twitch has posed:
"It's more than just that. I screwed up before and I still haven't had a chance to talk to her about that and she doesn't even know yet. I was going to come clean about it but I don't think it's worth it any more," Tyler says softly. "I mean, if she's going to get us in trouble because she put the wrong thing on the memo it's probably best not to ever deal with her if I can avoid it. She can read my damn mind if she wants to know what I think." He sighs, "It was a lot easier when I went to a regular school."

Rift has posed:
Kitora Alua just frowns. "I don't know what's going on..." she mutters softly as she is just gazing into the fire, letting her aura fade, and shivering as she now feels the chill of the evening air. "Hmmmmm. Got a bit nippy." She clicks her tongue as she gazes between Tyler and Boris.

Elixir has posed:
"Ah, that explains it," Josh says to Boris' explanation, then nods in agreement with Boris' comments. After Tyler speaks, Josh says. "Does this have something to do with you getting hurt the other day?" he asks.

"Sorry," Josh says, realizing they had been talking around Kitora. He explains to Kitora abou Josh, Tommy and Tyler going out and ending up fighting space mushroom monsters to save a kid, and the Green Arrow and Iron Man showing up. All ending with them getting caught by Jean Grey being out despite the curfew. "So, we're sort of in shit now, and are waiting to hear from Ms. Grey," he says with a wry smile. "Kind of a rough day for the New Mutants. Why'd you ask about us, anyway?" he asks Kitora.

Erddrache has posed:
Boris grunts "What does it matter if she can read yer mind? If she has not brought it up than either it does not matter, or she is waiting for ye ta be ready. And if she hasn't that she is being a responsible woman frankly. Sounds like yer making a mountan oot of a mole hill...think that is american expression"
    Boris grumps "Eh, Wouldnea say fer vee new mutants, moar fer yerselves" he shrugs. He looks to Kitora "Lemme guess, yer lookin ta join eh?"

Twitch has posed:
"Yeah," Tyler tells Josh, lifting himself up to sit cross legged on the ground. "Andrea told me I could trust Ms Grey, but now I know I can't." Then he looks over at Kitora and says, "You know how the memo Ms Grey put out about not going into New York without a friend and staff permission? Turns out she meant off of school grounds altogether. I don't know if she knows this, but not everyone here reads minds." He shrugs, "It's whatever, I guess. I'll take the punishment she dishes out, but I'm going to write a letter to the school board, if this place has one." Then he looks to Boris, "I was told to tell her about something I did. She doesn't know about it."

Erddrache has posed:
Boris grunts in clear dissapproval. "And you know vat how? Nevermind" he shakes his head not understanding Tyler clearly and decides to let it be. "Like ah said, mountain oot of mole hills"

Elixir has posed:
Josh eyes Tyler curiously wondering just what is going on. "Yeah, whatever happened can't be that bad. And like, don't write Ms. Grey off just like that. Everyone here really seems to respect her."

Twitch has posed:
"It doesn't matter," Tyler says to Boris. "Maybe I can trust her. Whatever. It doesn't matter right now. I've got stuff going on in my life a lot more important than school." A deep sigh escapes from him, "I think it is that bad. Like, I might get expelled anyway bad." He rolls smoothly to his feet and walks a little ways away, not leaving, just pacing. "At this point it's better that I get kicked out, probably."

Erddrache has posed:
"Ah do nit have patience for crytpnotics. Jist spill vee beans ta us already." he says "Talkin ta us with us being in vee dark is not goin ta help us or yerself." he crosses his arms "Und wif vee way yer actin, et be hauf surprising thar yer havenea walked oot yet...just sayink"

Elixir has posed:
"Straight Shooter, that's what we'll call you,," he says with a wry smile to Boris. Josh pushes himself up, grabs one of the roasting pokers and hands it to Boris, then breaks open a bag of marshmallows and offers him some. "S'mores time. C'mon Ty, sit down and make a s'more and spill it," he urges.

Twitch has posed:
Tyler heads back over to the blankets to do as Josh suggests and start making a s'more. He grabs a poker, flips it in his hand, impales a marshmallow by tossing it up into the air and catching it with the tip of the poker, then turns towards the fire to begin roasting.

"I found out a friend of mine that goes here was being blackmailed. So I put on a mask, beat up the guy's guards and then the guy, well the two of us got in a fight," Tyler starts explaining. "Dude was a martial arts master, it turns out. I barely beat him, but when I did so he was convinced to give up the blackmail attempt. Apparently this student had already told Ms Grey and she was supposed to handle it." After his marshmallow catches on fire he quickly blows it out, then makes the sandwich with graham crackers and chocolate bar, blowing on it so it cools enough to eat.

Erddrache has posed:
Boris takes the poker and tosses it onto the fire. He nods as he listens to the story "And yer hauf doubts vat she did?" he asks Tyler curiousely. Though he accepts some marshmellow he refuses the chocolate and gramcrackers. "Sounds worrisome...bit whit did the fella do ta git mixed u in thar?" he reaches into the fire and picks up the red hot poker and begins chowing down on it.

Elixir has posed:
"You... Oh man, yeah, I guess I see why you're worried. That's not good, Ty. You seriously went out and beat up this guy and his guards? " he shakes his head. "Yeah... I guess I get it. I'd be shitting bricks, too."

Twitch has posed:
Taking a bite into his s'more, Tyler thinks about Boris' questions. "All I know is I got the originals of the video. The stuff on it just shows their powers manifesting and they're not ready to be open about being a mutant." He sighs, "I feel like if you try to extort someone you should get your legs broken. I didn't do that to any of them, didn't want to hurt anybody, but the guards started pulling guns and I didn't really have a choice at that point but to take them down. Then the boss guy decides to fight me hand to hand and we just beat the crap out of each other until he dropped." It takes him another bite to finish off his s'more, "I know I messed up, but I don't regret doing what I did. I'd do it again if I didn't know Ms Grey was involved."

Erddrache has posed:
"yeesh....that not easy. Ah nit be sure if yer did vee right ving...bit if yer helped someone, than so be it. Ah still vink yer should talk ta someone though, even if nit Ms. Proffesor Grey" Boris says