6821/The Golden Girl

The Golden Girl
Date of Scene:	09 March 2019
Location:	Xavier's Mansion, New York City
Synopsis:	Scott puts Rogue through a Danger Room session focusing on stealth. Which is interrupted by Illyana arriving with an allegedly possessed doll.
Cast of Characters:	Cyclops, Rogue, Magik

---

Cyclops has posed:
    Rogue was told this is going to be a unique experience, one that she would have to complete in a timelimit, but also with an added obstacle of not getting spotted by her foes. This is something that will push her outside of her comfort zone, and will help her grow as an x-man and teammate. "Like I said in the briefing, this is stealth based work Rogue. I know you don't like to rely on Carol too much, that's fine, either you do and finish in one, or you learn and grow on your own and maybe complete this mission this month. That's up to you entirely, but you know what I hope for." Scott says through her ear piece, despite him being in tne room next door and there being a PA, but that defeats the purpose of stealth.

    Rogue was dropped into the the room and after a brief bootup sequence, the room fades to near black, it's a dark night, stormy, and Rogue tastes water in the air, salt water. Gobs of it. She's on the coast, a rocky hillside with a spinning light not too far a head on the driveway. There's a chain link fence blocking her path, and on the driveway is a large complex entrance with a security check point stopping all vehicles on their way up to the light house. There's one guard visible in the check out, with seven more patrolling the exterior and interior of the light house. There's a man inside who is being used in order to brokerage some sort of illegal and dark deal with foreign powers, but the call isn't going well and the man's handlers are not enthused with this.

    "Rogue, you need to get inside without alerting anyone off, they do quarter hour check ins with each other. The lighthouse is being used to broadcast the signals through the storm. We're not sure how." It's a mutant that's been captured and is being forced to act as a living antenea, something Scott knows as he programmed this mission, but Rogue wouldn't be aware "The negotiations will break down in about thirty five minutes, you have that long to get any and all intel that you can Rogue."

Rogue has posed:
In the darkness, Rogue has just been listening. She's wearing that tactical bodysuit that is mostly dark green with black trim here and there across her body, its her 'stealth suit' and it has a nice hood that goes up and over her head, with a half mask that covers the lower half of her face while a pair of red tinted goggles cover her eyes.

"Copy." Rogue's voice softly whispers, as she stands there in the dark away from the base that she is to infiltrate.

She crouches down, her body going low to the ground and she starts to progress forward toward the base, but as she does this she lowers down onto her stomach... but she's still moving, at a moderate pace through the grass, using her flight power to make her silently glide across the ground like a dark snake in the night.

When she comes up to the fence around the facility she pauses to look around, waiting for there to be no sign of anyone watching this shadowy corner, and thats when she launches up into the air, and immediately comes right back down on the other side, but doesn't touch the ground, she just goes back into the horizontal position with the grass around her... and she starts flowing through the air just barely above the earth.

Cyclops has posed:
    Scott nods his approval though he does chime into Rogue's headset. "Careful with that low flying, you could still make plenty of sounds, but at least you wont step on any twigs." Scott says, suddenly very impressed with Rogue's abilities.

    The light from the light house swings around in a slow arch, passing over head and slowly making its way back out towards the ocean. Inside the light house, the contact with the foreign official isn't going so well, but the negotiations haven't broken down just yet. Rogue has another thirty one minutes left before the mission will fail itself.

    Outside near the young mutant is a guard, doing his rounds, apparently he's taking a moment to sneak off to the perimeter and unzipping in order to take a leak. Such a professional he is.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue takes into account Scott's words, but she doesn't verbally reply to them. She remains in her low to the earth position with her arms at her sides, her black gloved hand pressing against the outsides of her thighs as she continues to just glide across the grass like a shadowy ghost.

She aims herself specifically for the guard who's unzipping and going to take a wee-wee. He's marked himself as vulnerable in this position, which is advantageous for her... she lifts up a little higher as she angles around behimd him, so that she doesn't drag herself across the grass and instead just floats through the air, a spectre headed toward its prey.

As she comes up behind him, she can hear him wetting the ground, and it takes every amount of restraint to keep 'natural Anna-Marie' quips from being spoken to the man as she suddenly wraps herself around his body, her hand going over his mouth and nose while her legs wrap around his waist... her tremendous strength could crush him, but all she's really attempting to do here is put him in a sleeper and drag him backward in mid-air to an alcove... to deposite his unconscious body!

Magik has posed:
Magic was a funny thing. Usually when Illyana needed to perform at her best, she did so in Limbo. However, sometimes a spelled item that came from this realm didn't work the same way in her 'home' realm as it did in this one. Thus, Illyana needed to play with it in a controlled environment. What better place than the Danger Room itself?

Upon arriving, she found the 'in use' light on at the control room. She frowned, glancing down at the Raggedy Ann doll she was carrying then back at the door. Then she did what any 3/5ths demonic entity would do. She ignored the light and walked into the control room anyway.

Cyclops has posed:
    "Nice work Rogue. But you now have at best, fifteen minutes until the next check in. At worst, you have a few seconds until they know Michael D isn't at his post." Scott says in the girl's ear, curious how she will handle the rest of the situation. Scott leans back in his chair and lifts up his cup of meal replacement and takes a sourful sip. He'll never get used to it. Ever.

    Lucky Rogue she has ten more minutes until the next check in, but Scott, nor the southerner would know that, it's set up in the computer simulation to be random. The light house isn't too far from Rogue, with grass between her and the front and only entrance, with a pair of suvs parked out front. Then stationed at the main door, there are a pair of guards, just standing there, though one is trying to make light and crack wise with his co worker who looks beyond tired of the whole thing.

    Scott jumps and almost falls out of his chair, with a few drops of shake spilling on his shirt and sling, Scott looks to Illyana with a start. "Hello Illyana, how are --- What is that thing?" When the part demonic magic user of the house brings in a creepy doll, you take note of it quickly. Or at least Scott does.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue still doesn't reply to the update from Scott, its a necessary risk to get past the guards. She re-emerges from the dark alcove and continues to float very close to the ground. She can see the SUVs and the guards at the front door, but she doesn't need to use the front door to get into a light house, she just needs to get around it and scale it to get inside the door that is inevitably at the top of it.

And this is precisely what she does. She makes a curving arch around the darker parts of the light house property and then proceeds to come at it from the south side away from the main entrance.

She'll come up to the wall and her covered hands will reach out to touch it, she'll look right to left and then upward... seeing the big beam of light being shot out into the night, she starts to glide up the side of the tall tower, internally battling with all the jokes she has inside her head about asking Scott if this tower is a representation of a man's obsession with--nevermind. She keeps all of this to herself and means to reach the top of it said light house, to peer over it to see if she can spy more guards, and the way inside.

Magik has posed:
"It's a doll, Scott," Illyana says flatly, as though he maybe hurt his brain instead of getting stabbed, thus having his lapse of normal intelligence. She holds up the soft doll, wiggling it in the air so he can see it more clearly. Made of cloth and stuffed, red yarn hair and permanent smile on its face. Kind of like a nice Jack-o-Lantern smile. Okay, maybe it would be a little creepy to some people.

"One of the students had this from home but they say it's possessed. I think they just snuck in a viewing of Annabelle then went online and learned it was a doll of this type so have freaked themselves out. It hasn't done a thing in Limbo so I brought it here to see what it might do." With that, she sets the doll on a chair in the back corner of the room then moves over to the control panel, looking out at the room and Rogue's stealth approach.

A bit of a smirk curves her lips up but she keeps her fingers off the buttons.

Cyclops has posed:
    "Why are the kids watching movies that old?" Scott asks with a shake of his head before he turns away from the doll in the corner. He doesn't like it, but he can't say that outloud. Not to Illyana. She'd never let him live it down. She already doesn't.

    "Good choice." Scott says to Rogue, sounding like he's talking to someone else in the room also. Something about a creepy doll. Oh well, At the railing around the lighthouse, there aren't any guards, but inside Rogue would fine a young girl, her hair a vibrant light blue, white and dark blue coloration from white roots to dark blue ends. She is tied up to the light itself and there is a smell of burnt clothes. A close look will reveal to Rogue that the light is in fact that hot that it has singed all the girl's clothes as she's tied to the rotating surface.

    She spots Rogue while in the middle of a rotation and starts to scream for help. Down below a single guard hears the commotion and comes up to investigate.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue remains yet completely unaware of any creepy dolls in the control room, and thats likely for the best as she's no desire to interact with a haunted doll--Sure she's nearly invincible, but she still gets freaked out by stuff like that cause, well, she was raised on Scooby Doo! Ruh-Roh and all that.

Once at the top of the tower, Rogue spies the girl tied to the light. She steps up onto the walk away around the tower's perimeter and at first... steps to go help the girl, but seems to second guess that and when the girl starts to scream, Rogue quickly shuffles over to stand beside the doorway to the stairs inside...

When it opens and a man comes to step out, Rogue's right hand snaps over to grasp his bicep and pull him right to her fist. She punches him square in the face, using the carefully-measured experience of how to control her strength to... okay, well, she completely obliterates the man's nose, and then tosses him up against the wall to hold him there by his throat...

Rogue's covered face stares at the door to see if anyone else wants to join her up here. The girl? She's left where she is for now.

Magik has posed:
"And here I was thinking she should find Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel, to keep it more what you people like," Illyana murmurs as she watches the goings on with interest, giggling faintly. "I would've never had a woman tied to the spotlight. You have some sort of dark secrets you hide under that Boy Scout image?" she asks in a teasing tone.

She glances over her shoulder but the doll remains where it was placed.

Cyclops has posed:
    The girl quickly shuts up but she's obviously crying at the pain she's suffering and is struggling against the burning hot light against her back, but oddly she's not being burnt by it. Rogue hears no sound of anyone else coming up to invesigate why their amplifyer is yelling, the remaining two guards seem to be busy helping their friend stay calm and get through the phone call and get them the weapons they were promised. The timer is down to twenty eight minutes, Rogue seems to be going fairly quickly, but the check in time is when the shit will really hit the fan. "I do not have dark secrets." Rogue gets over her intercom as Scott argues with Illyana almost too adamantly. "Oh, what would you do instead?" Scott asks Illyana, forgetting his headset is live to Rogue also, the boyscout asks, still avoiding the doll, it's so ... icky, reminds him of his grandma's house. No bueno.

Rogue has posed:
The thing about letting 'Carol in' is that it kind of takes over Rogue's personality, especially the longer that she is controlled by Carol's emotions/thoughts/desires/training/experience.

This is why Scott's hot-mic'd words don't get a response from the southern belle, because she's in business mode and the business isn't done yet. Once she feels a sufficient amount of time has gone by she drapes the guard over a ledge along the light house roof and then turns to dart toward an archway that leads to the light itself where the girl is tied to.

The bindings on the girl are quickly broken, easily-so, and she helps her down to the ground. Rogue stares at her through the red tinted goggles over her eyes and she speaks through the mask to her.

"You're safe." She says, voice softly muffled. "I'm goin' inside t'clear the rest've'em out. Wait here, I'll be back once its done and... clear."

With that said, she turns around and starts toward the open doorway to the stairs inside. She passes through it and starts down the spiral staircase, listening for any signs of further action going on within the tower itself.

Magik has posed:
"Oh no, don't want to ruin your fun. This is your show, Boss Man," Illyana says with another smirk as she holds up her hands in a placating manner. The quickness of his defense lets her know that he certainly does have some dark secrets behind those ruby quart glasses. What is a half demonic girl to do with that sort of knowledge?

"I'm going to grab a drink. You want something?" she asks as she reaches out mentally for a stepping disc to whisk her to the kitchen.

Cyclops has posed:
    The girl clings to Rogue, shaking and twitching, her back bare from the burned clothes, but she's unharmed, and perfectly okay other than the lingering smell. Then as Rogue starts to walk away, the girl nods and stands back up slowly behind Rogue and - POW! The gunshot rings out and strikes Rogue in the back of the head, the tiny metal slug hitting Rogue, and clearly killing anyone else should it have hit. The girl with the azure rainbow hair lowers a gun and frowns back at Rogue. "No more secrets." She says and lifts the gun towards her own head.

    "I have my protien and meal replacement, shake... I'm fine." Scott says, sounding incredibly not fine, though he does give Illyana a fake smile to appreciate the kindness.

Rogue has posed:
The bullet doesn't do anything to Rogue, or her hood, the synthfiber garment remains undamaged since the bullet ran into an unbreakable surface beneath it. It does make Rogue 'startle' slightly out of surprise, because she entirely hadn't expected that attack from behind.

So she does indeed spin around to regard the girl, just in time to see her raise the gun up to her own head which makes Rogue react as quickly as she can, not letting a second tick past that might give the girl leverage or comfort. She reaches for the gun holding hand as quickly as she can move to disable her, intending to snap the girl's wrist completely if able to.

Magik has posed:
The disc rises and Illyana is gone. She appears in the kitchen, giving a nod to the small group of students there grumbling about the curfew. The talk dies quickly with her arrival. She grabs a cola out of the fridge then the stepping disc appears again and whisks her back to the control room.

Upon her arrival, she frowns. "Well, maybe the kid was right," she murmurs, looking at the doll which is now in sitting on top of a table in the opposite corner.

Cyclops has posed:
    The girl's wrist is snaped easily for Rogue and the semi-automatic pistol clatters heavily to the ground. She screams out in pain once more, and the rest of the guards hear the situation, and recognize what's going on. The call is hung up rather quickly and the contact frowns as he lowers the phone down and shakes his head before the butt of a gun finds his face. It's not a pleasant feeling. The knowledge of defeat and looming death.

    Up top, Rogue hears the sounds of footsteps rushing up towards her to get to her and to the girl that was being their amplifyer. "Kill me now, there is no happy ending." The girl doesn't plead, she simply informs Rogue.

     "Ha ha, not falling for it Illy." Scott declares more to himself than to Illyana, she knows he's quite uncomfortable with the doll in the room by the way the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and how he's afraid to actually look over his shoulder, some weird fight or flight going on with the X-leader.

Magik has posed:
"I'm going to test something. Give me a moment," Illyana says.

There is a bright flash of light in the room and she's gone again.

Leaving Scott.

Alone.

With Raggedy Ann.

Rogue has posed:
With the girl's wrist snapped, and the men coming up the stairs, Rogue doesn't really care what the kid has to say to her at this point. Plus she just tried to kill her, that doesn't make Marie happy one bit. Rogue punches her square in the nose much like she did to that first guard who came up the staircase, because now she's just getting mad.

The southern girl in the stealth suit turns and darts toward the light house entrance just in time as the other newly arriving guard steps out onto the deck. She takes hold of him and turns around to throw him through a window and against the light itself!

Then she turns toward the staircase itself and sweeps through the doorway to grab anyone else who's inside/coming up the stairs, intending to choke them out in her arms, one at a time if she has to.

Its possible she's reverting back to her less than stealthly ways the more angry she gets.

Cyclops has posed:
    "What--- okay." Scott says with a frown before he leans in just a touch closer to the moniter of the danger room, trying so hard to not think about that stupid doll. It's just a doll. Right?

    Rogue's back to her old self in no time. Something Scott was expecting, and frankly, hoping for. He didn't want her to rely on Carol, he wanted her to do this herself, and if she doesn't succeed on her first try, that's perfectly okay. He'll be able to go back over the scenario with her and tell her what she did right and wrong, how to improve and move onto the next one.

    The last guard rushes in and finds he's met with the forearm of rage and anger as Rogue chokes him out like he's a middle schooler and she's some MMA fighter. This is embarrassing for the man, or it would be if he was really a man but he goes down like one and suddenly the whole simulation ends and Scott's voice is over the PA once again. "Interesting work Rogue... Do you have any thoughts on what you just did?"

Magik has posed:
A flash of light and Illyana is back. She walks over toward Scott then bends over, picking up the doll where it is resting on the floor against the base of his chair. Just out of his sight.

"What are you up to?" she murmurs to the doll, her eyes going yellow as she walks back toward the corner of the room. She begins to murmur harsh foreign words as she checks something about the doll, leaving Scott to deal with Rogue without interruptions.

Rogue has posed:
It takes Rogue some passing seconds to come down from the adrenaline inside of her... the Danger Room could get so real sometimes, especially when she was in it by herself. It was far more immersive then, and when her emotions started to flare up? Well... she lands down on the ground with a quiet thud and she raises her hands up to push her hood back off of her face, and lower her half-mask down around her throat. She turns and stares at the control room, then raises those goggles up over her forehead.

"That girl on the light was a total bitch." The 20 year old southern tank says then, her right hand going down to rest on her flared up. "I gotta do it all again, don't I?" She says then with a slight sigh. "Who're you talkin' to in there any how? That was super distractin' ya know?"

Cyclops has posed:
    "Illy, she has some -AH!" Scott yelps as he turns to see what she was doing and he's actually fallen from his chair this time. "Okay, no, get that thing out of here, call Strange or anyone, uncurse that and get it out of this school." Scott says as he tries to stand back up with some difficulty. Eventually he gets off the floor and tells Rogue, "Come talk some sense into this girl. I have to go change my underwear." Scotty says into the headset before he rips it off and gives Illy a sour look before he leaves the room, likely to go change his underwear.

Magik has posed:
The spell has Illyana fully absorbed so she doesn't even notice Scott's flailing about and tantrum. Probably for the best.

She holds her hands out to either side of the doll, the cloth toy floating in the air peacefully as she continues to discern what she was after.

Not even realizing she's speaking to thin air, she smiles and says in a cheerful voice. "The good news is it's not possessed!"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue narrows her eyes at the response she gets and then reaches up to remove the goggles from her head all together, whipping her hair out from the strap and then walking her way on up to the doorway in the wall that laeds up into the control room.

"What in the heck are you goin' on about?" She asks, Scott, but he's already gone away by the time she enters.

Rogue spots Illyana and she opens her eyes a little wider, then spies the doll and her eyes go even wider open. "Whaaaat. The hell is that?" She asks then, pointing with her goggle-holding hands toward the Anne-doll. She knows full-well what it is, kids in school used to tease her because she'd wear her favorite clothes to school... which happened to be a bit worn-in and worn-out, so she got CALLED 'Raggady Anna'.

The 'not possessed' part is what Rogue does hear though and it makes her smile big and bright. "Great, that means we can safely burn it, right?"

Magik has posed:
The yellow glow fades from Illyana's eyes as she plucks the doll from midair, turning around to frown at the room. Scott is gone and Rogue is there, wanting to burn the poor thing.

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I just removed the spell that was on it. Really rather ingenious. I like to call it Elf-On-The-Shelf-Made-Easy. It allows for the toy to move from place to place, so you don't have to do it yourself during the holidays. Someone put it on this instead of an Elf though. Guess they thought it would be a fun joke. Now that the spell is removed, it can be given back to its rightful owner--one of the students." Yes, it will still be in the building. But safe!

Rogue has posed:
Once Rogue gets the jist of that doll and the spell that was on it, a slow--but decisive grin--appears on her lips. "Hold up." She says then, raising a hand up to point at the doll she's holding again.

"Do... uh... the thingy." She wiggles a finger around aimed at the doll. "Put the spell, back on it." She says. "If thats all it is, then totally do it again and lemme have it... I'm gonna totally take it out t'the boat house t'stash it in the Cajun's room."

Clearly she has the best of intentions here, wanting to scare the ever living bejeezus out of Gambit now, since there's still a Scott-shaped cloud lingering in the air of this room where he used to be prior to him being scared silly by it.

Magik has posed:
That gets a tilt of the head from Illyana as she eyes Rogue curiously. Not that she minds putting the spell back on it but a moment ago, the woman had ill intentions toward it. "Well, this one belongs to a student. But I can get you another one and cast the spell on it?" That way if Rogue intends to burn it, at least some poor kid won't be crying their eyes out. It was hard enough when they thoght it was possessed!

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just grins then and releases a light exhale, she'd just been through a lot in there in the danger room anyway, so she drops down into the seat Scott had been in and she releases a heavy sigh.

"Nah, its fine. I'll order a Chucky doll online and I'll bring it t'you t'spell it up. That'll have a bit more oomf behind the prank I bet, any way."

She turns around to look at the control board and the fancy display screens showing the program she just ran through, she starts to poke around in it for some cheats or hints on what else was going on.

"Please tell me the demon tongue flowers are gone though." She asks while she snoops around in Scott's program. "What kinda guys tie a girl to a light house light anyway..." She mutters under her breath. "Weirdo Scott."

Magik has posed:
"He has no dark secrets," Illyana says in a monowone voice, repeating the words he said to her. Then she giggles, which is always a bit weird coming from the demon sorceress. Not creepy weird, it just doesn't seem like she should giggle like a regular girl. "I think he's got something hidden under that Boy Scout image. Admittedly, I'm very curious what."

She walks over to look at what's being poked at, holding the safe doll in her left hand. "Actually, I may be able to get you something just as ccreepy but without the cost. Give me a moment." Her eyes go yellow as she murmurs soft syllables that seem to be nonsense. A glowing red orb appears and a moment later, there is a doll sitting on the control panel. This is what happens when she tries to do white magic. It comes out twisted, dark and ccreepy as hell. Literally. What may have been a Raggedy Ann is now some demonic monster toy from Limbo. Already spelled up. "Just be sure to specify that Remy owns it. That way it will only move when he is out of the room and comes back in.'

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is altering some of the guard placement inside the program by moving a finger to touch one of them in a 3d replication on a screen in front of her and dragging them to a different spot. She's grinning at what she hears Illyana saying, all of it really. "Boy scouts always got secrets, ya just gotta pry at them in the right ways t'get at them. They hide'em a lot more diligently than other... lesser moraled men do."

She places the guards in a 'better' lineup, with all of them out in front of the light houses front door now, just to mess with Scott for when he runs the program again and makes her do this... all over again. Then she saves it and closes it.

As she leans back and finally looks over at the new doll, its an instant "Oh for fucks sake!" She says, jumping in her seat in fear of the deadly evil thing. "My god, Illy, where do you find this stuff?!"

Magik has posed:
"I made it. That's what happens when I try to do white magic. If I try to make something pure or good, it comes out tainted. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not like the flowers." Illyana makes a little face. "Speaking of, I need to go find those. I forgot all about them. They are likely terrified if they are crawling around his room." She shakes her head again, focusing back on the doll.

"It's just a doll, albeit more creepy than cute. And it has the Elf On a Shelf spell ready to go. Just be sure to tell me about Remy's reaction, okay?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue has to laugh again when she hears of the flowers continued existence. "Oh my god... those things are nevah gonna go away! Poor Kurt, as religious as he is... he's probably locked himself up there and been praying for days on end now!"

With a heavy exhale, she reaches out for the terribly creepy doll and she picks it up and sets it in her lap, then stares down at it. "I'll let ya know all right..." Rogue says to the demon princess. She looks over at her. "I think I'll go put it in his locker in the locker rooms first." She says with a devilish grin. "Lets hope things don't horribly wrong and I end up completely regrettin' this."

Magik has posed:
"I'm going to go to Kurt's room." Now Illyana is worried he's ended up in another room or locked in a chapel somewhere praying for the poor plant to go away. She'll let him think his prayers came true.

"Hopefully he won't blow anything u up when he sees it. It can be destroyed, by the way. It's not alive like the plant." That explains why the one is still wandering around.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just grins as she stands up a second or so afterward, holding the doll by its left hand dangling at her side. "Good luuUUUuuuUuuck." She says in a teasing sort've way to Illyana on her way out. "Come on, Raggady Anna, time t'get the Cajun back for all of his teasin' me about touchin' times." She heads for the steps back down into the danger room to head for the locker rooms inevitably.