Owner	Pose
Remy LeBeau	A six-pack of La Croix. Cran-Raspberry. A six-pack of condoms. Ribbed. One tube of chapstick. Cherry. One pack of sugar-free gum. Spearmint. "And uh... lemme get a pack of... damn! You don't sell Gauloises?" The cashier looks at the customer, a bored expression on his face. "Nah man, what is that, French?" A proud smile spreads across the stubbly face of the customer, and he points to the six-pack of non-alcoholic beverages he's purchasing. "Damn straight, Beau! You can't tell I'm French? Look here at this fancy French sippin' water I got." Although the man is in a hurry, he apparently has time to make small-talk with the cashier of a convenience store. But then he was always an amiable sort of man. A talkative people person who never really met a 'stranger.' The cashier is unimpressed though, and just stares at the customer blankly. "What, La Croix? Isn't that shit made in like... Michigan or something?" The smile on the customer's face evaporates as he hands over two grubby (stolen) twenty dollar bills. "I guess I'll take a pack of Parliaments instead..." Paper bag full of convenience store goodies tucked under one arm, the customer leaves the store and heads up the block. New York hasn't changed much in the... two weeks or so that he's been gone, but he looks at things as if seeing them for the first time. Most of the passersby probably just assume that he's a recent transplant to the Big Apple, none of them really pay him much attention. In truth, the man isn't all that remarkable at present. Stubbly, with his hair only partially combed, he's wearing the type of suit that one would probably wear to ones own funeral. It's a bit wrinkled, as if he's been wearing it for several days now. But any 'lived-in' odors are carefully concealed with a massive spritz of L'Air de Panache. There's a slight smell of embalming fluid that somehow overpowers even the liberal drenching of cologne, however. Moving down the sidewalk, the man mingles with the crowd, virtually disappearing in the throng. Only when he gets close to the stairs that lead down to the subway tunnel does he start to slow down, as if he's... nervous? "Come on, Remy. She's probly already offa the train, maybe even walkin' up the stairs. Alls you gotta do is just talk to her, everything else'll work itself out." A woman passes him, looking backward briefly at the shabby-looking man who's talking to himself. But by the time she looks, he's already moving away from the entrance as fast as he can without running. Only when he's sure that he can't be seen does he finally stop and turn around, looking back at the tunnel as if expecting a monster to spring from inside at any moment.
Rogue	Rogue had gone uptown today for a lecture at a museum on the east side of Central Park, she was trying hard to keep up with her studies and being the best possible college student she could be... and with those extra voices out of her mind... it was actually going really well. Rogue had spent the bulk of her subway ride just sitting beside her black backpack with her portable Nintendo device in her hands, she was playing a Mario Kart game as the train rolled down the tracks (she wasn't any good at video games, but it was better than staring at people, which often lead to them trying to talk to her... ugh). When her stop was announced, Rogue's green eyes looked up and she sent a full look from the front of the train to the back. A few others were standing up and making for the doors, so she stuffed her gaming device into her backpack and then rose up as well. A nod and a wave was given to a couple of her fellow students were were sitting a few places down from her, they were going further south than she was. "See ya tomorrow!" She shouted down to them. When the train arrived, Rogue waited her turn and then stepped off... the man beside her was eyeballing her a bit, his eyes scoped her up and down and Marie just kind of glared at him... he caught the glare and looked away. Rogue stepped off of the train and bumped right into a man with sunglasses on and a seeing eyedog! Her own eyes shot wide as she lunged out to catch him before he'd fall! "Ah'm sorry!" The southern girl said. "Are you okay?" This is where she was now, tending to the man she'd just nearly bulled over... she was kind of an immovable object to most people who ran into her.
Remy LeBeau	From his hidden vantage point, Gambit is able to catch just the merest glimpse of his former (current?) fiancée. He doesn't have time to think about whether or not a resurrection makes an engagement binding again, he's too busy feeling a sudden tightness chest that makes it hard for him to breathe. But... in a good way. What do you say to the woman whose arms you bled out in? Gambit belatedly thinks that he should have gotten something a bit stronger than flavored seltzer water to steady his nerves. But he's already done enough to encourage delinquent behavior in a high school student. The last thing he needs on his conscience is to get an underage girl drunk. Not that his conscience would be particularly bothered by it... Seeing her at the subway station is enough to trigger one of his first memories of the younger woman. The subterfuge, the sneaking around, all while thinking that nobody knew what they were up to. He remembers waiting for her in a subway station just like this one, a few miles up the line, trying to scam passengers to raise money for their first trip out of town as a 'couple'. ******************************************************************** "So the Queen o' Hearts is the lady. I put her down, nice and gentle, like this... and now we mix 'em up a l'il bit." Crouching in front of a cardboard box, his trademark coat dangling on the floor behind his feet, Gambit begins shuffling the three cards very very fast. As the cards move around the top of the cardboard box, Gambit never breaks eye contact with the person whose money he already has in his hand. Some blonde chick wearing a WVU sweatshirt. She's probably on break from college, seeing the city she's heard about all of her life, never suspecting that it's full of scumbags who want to steal her money. Scumbags like Gambit. "I can tell you got real sharp eyes. They're very pretty. You must eat all your carrots and shit, right Boo?" The girl blushes slightly, completely losing track of where Queen of Hearts is. Spoiler alert: It's in Gambit's pocket.
Rogue	One of the things that had attracted Rogue to the man, other than his rogueish good looks, was that yeah... he was a teacher, but that didn't mean he wasn't into doing 'shadey things'. Those kinds of things that Anna-Marie had been doing since she'd joined up with Mystique and the Brotherhood. Sure, Marie had run away from them 2 years ago, but that didn't mean she still didn't doing fun little shadey things here and there to entertain herself. "Professah wouldn't like seein' me doin' this." Was something that often entered Rogue's mind, after Xavier had so graciously accepted her and welcomed her into the school, even insisting to all the other X-Men that she was joining their 'super secret club' in said X-Men. Rogue had wanted to learn about Gambit, but he'd never told her much of anything about his past... so accepting to learn about his card tricks and his little scams on silly people on the street? It was just amusing to the 18 year old girl. Made her impressed by him, the sexy older man she'd spent a lot of time with since joining the school. Rogue would even ask to sometimes participate in the tricks, to play the 'customer' who outsmarted him, to make others believe they could too! But now? It was all over now. Gambit was gone to Rogue, she'd watched him die. He'd told her to absorb him, because he knew he was dying and he wanted to live on inside her head. She'd accepted it too, and done it... but once she'd done it, once she'd seen his true past? She wanted it OUT of her. And fortunately, the man that saved her that night at the Eifel Tower had been one of the few who could do it, and he did. So now, Rogue was just enjoying her youth again. After helping the blind man onto the subway train, and giving his golden retriever a headrub, Marie waved to them and stepped back from the train. She adjusted her backpack straps and went to turn toward the stairs... pulling her cell phone out to reply to Doctor Strange's text, asking where she was... Rogue started toward the stairs, her brown/white hair flowing about her shoulders from the atmosphere rushing down from the streets above.
Remy LeBeau	Although the memories are mostly pleasant, Gambit can't help but feel his cheeks redden slightly when he remembers what happened when they came BACK from their 'secret trip'. ****************************************************** Sitting in front of Professor Xavier's desk, Gambit tries to adjust his tie without looking too guilty. Usually, he's able to lie with a smile on his face, but none of that's likely to work on the guy who seems to always be able to break through Gambit's mental defenses. Professor Xavier's demeanor is stern, without a hint of warmth. "Thank you for coming to see me so promptly, Mister LeBeau. I'll get straight to the point... certain instances of student/teacher fraternization have been brought to my attention. Effective immediately, you are no longer an instructor at my school. Please vacate the premises by the end of the day, and have no further contact with any of my students." Bashfully, Gambit looks down at the tie, only to realize that he's somehow added an extra knot to it. "Don't that seem kinda... harsh?" **************************************************************** Even today, Gambit still thinks it was a little bit harsh. She was technically legal, after all. Barely. Watching his ex fiancée from his vantage point, Gambit is well aware that he is being a total creeper right now. But for the life of him, he can't think of the right way to break the news that he's still alive. More importantly, he's well aware that she knows more about him than he ever intended to tell her, and it's highly likely that the Rogue of today thinks much less highly of him than the Rogue from two months ago did. Keeping a safe distance, Gambit follows her, his bag of convenience store goodies still tucked under his arm. All except for the cigarettes, obviously, he's already clawing the plastic wrapper off of those like the nicotine fiend that he is.
Rogue	It had been messy, on that day that Gambit had been relieved from his position at the school. Xavier hadn't been happy about it when he'd first heard it, and once Rogue had found out she'd gone right to the headmaster to talk to him... to plead her case and beg him not to fire Remy at all. "Ya don't understand." She'd told Xavier. "He's the only person thats made me feel like I'm not some kinda unwanted monste'ah since... Mystique, but he ain't afte'ah what she was afte'ah. He cares about -me- and not my damn mutation!" She'd poured her heart out to Charles Xavier and at the end of it, Charles said that Remy couldn't work there after this, but that he would pay for the wedding if it would mean Marie would have a happier life. He even agreed to fly those faculty and students who wanted to go... TO Paris to have it, in Rogue's 'dream wedding' in that city she thought she loved more than any other place on Earth. But now it was the last place she ever wanted to go back to. Here and noow again though... Rogue didn't see Remy, she may have kind of seen him... but she was reading the screen of her phone and there were a lot of people on the stairs of the subway on this busy NY street side. She passed right by him, so close that he'd be able to smell her. Lavender and sweet honey. Rogue passed right on by him while replying to Doctor Strange's text, telling him that she was about thirty minutes away and would be practicing her magic stuff the rest of the night. He was teaching her basic stuff, like creating a ball of light... she wasn't very good at it... but she was trying! Marie reached the top of the steps and felt a little odd wave over her body, she looked around and glanced back over her shoulder.
Remy LeBeau	One might think it would be impossible for Gambit to smell anything over the pungent odor of the embalming fluid, the thick spray of men's cologne, the stench of the cigarette that he's just lit, and the multitude of unpleasant odors one encounters in New York during business hours. But the smell of the girl he loves somehow manages to cut through all of that as if everything else were nothing more than fog. It's all he can do to stop himself from wrapping his arms around her from behind the way that he used to. But then he remembers where he's spent the past few weeks, and the shame makes him quickly duck away, behind an obliging policeman who's more than large enough to completely obscure the relatively slender Gambit from sight. From then on, Gambit falls back to a safe following distance. He's not able to speak to her, but he can't quite bear to leave either. So he lurks like some sort of unwashed ghoul, following her all the way back to the new home she's found for herself, perpetually skittering just out of her sight like the cockroach that he's certain he is.
Rogue	Anna-Marie had a lot of powers that she retained from Carol Danvers, Doctor Strange had offered to remove them from her... but she'd declined. She wanted them because they let her help people... Her natural mutation only hurt people, she liked having these other powers that let her do the opposite of that. She felt thats why life lead her to them, like it was some kind of an apology for her mutation. Rogue didn't have mind powers though, or super hearing... she didn't possess anything that would let her know she was being followed by someone, not even Gambit... someone she'd had completely in her head about a month and a half ago. Rogue continued on her way, even making a few stops while headed 'home'. She paused to pick up magazine for Strange and she slipped it into her backpack... it was a magazine about modern magicians. She figured it annoy him a little, which made her happy. Then the young southern belle couldn't help but stop at the 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' to get one of their fruity flavored cups of soft serve. After about five minutes in line, Marie walked away with a styrofoam cup of bright green and yellow sherbet scoops, headed around the corner of the sidewalk with the Sanctum Santorum's front steps just a few buildings down.
Remy LeBeau	Cracking open one of his 'fancy French sippin' waters', Gambit leans against the guardrail on top of the building he scaled in record time. Apparently being dead for two weeks hasn't slowed him down much. Of course, if smoking three packs a day didn't slow him down it's unlikely that a brief stint in Hell is going to either. From several stories up there's significantly less risk of Gambit being noticed, which is apparently what he's decided that he wants. He sips his bland, fizzy water and watches the girl go about her day to day life. She's adjusting well, it seems. "Damn. Shoulda brought a telescope... way to chicken out Remy. Can't get within ten feet of that girl without my knees knockin' worse than when I perposed."
Rogue	Rogue had gone up the stone steps outside of the Sanctum and she'd opened the front door and stepped inside, shutting it gently behind her and disappearing inside of the rather wealthy looking home. As usual, once inside, she found the place to be completely empty of any visible presence of anyone else. Strange himself was rarely ever around. "Hey!" Rogue called out, having no idea that Gambit was outside and having followed her home all the way from her subway station. Rogue walked into the kitchen and she tossed her empty ice cream cup from the shop around the corner, she set her backpack down on the table and sighed. "Typical." She muttered. "Come home for practice, Anna... I'm not gonna be there though, Anna!" She mocked Stephen's voice.
Doctor Strange	His voice is often mocked behind his back, even before he became the Sorcerer Supreme, but that was never a concern in Stephen Strange's mind. He always had more important things to worry about, especially since becoming the Sorcerer Supreme.     Today his worry is something much more mundane, but still not a trivial matter. The sorcerer opens the door at the very top of the stair case and steps out onto the roof of his mystical sanctum. One he has placed several mystical traps, barriers and wards over and across to warn him of such an intruder. Stephen wears a black gi with the white cuffs and buttons as though he were the laughable white boy in a kung fu film, as it does look very out of place on him. But it's comfrotable and that's what he worries about when it's near bed time.     The mage stands with his hands behind his back and his chest out like the lone guard in front of an ancient castle and speaks from the shadows cast by the doorway.     "Who are you to climb onto this roof and spy on the residences?"
Remy LeBeau	"Wait... what the hell is this?" Watching from his creepy hidden vantage point, Gambit suddenly realizes that the place Rogue is going isn't the X-Mansion, or a dorm room, or even an apartment building. He's been gone for a few weeks, sure, but unless she won the lottery while he was gone there's no way she can afford a Brownstone downtown. "The hell's she doin' in here?" It's enough to make a fellow crunch up his (mostly) empty can of La Croix, which is exactly what Gambit does in a paroxysm of surprisingly vigorous anger. He steps back from the guard rail, pacing and scratching the back of his head so hard one might think he had contracted lice in the past few seconds. "Fine thing. I'm only dead a few weeks, and this girl runs right off and finds some rich dentist or somethin'. Guess you don't gotta grieve when you can just upgrade." Leaning back over the guardrail, Gambit absentmindedly puts a cigarette in his mouth, but forgets to light it. "What kinda Hugh Hefner... Gomez Addams... John Waters... sumbitch lives in a place like that anyway? Probably has heated floors in all the baffrooms, granite countertops, a friggin' bidet!" Gambit puts another cigarette in his mouth, still forgets to light it. "She always said we should get a bidet..." He turns away from the railing again, pacing like someone in the grip of monomania. A person in the grip of monomania with two cigarettes in his mouth. It's at this very moment, when he's as confused as he is angry, that he suddenly sees his worst fear made flesh. It's exactly the type of man he pictured living in a place like this. Hugh Hefner, Gomez Addams, and John Waters all somehow combined. "Whoa! Easy there, Caine. Nobody's here to spy on your yoga lesson."
Rogue	Rogue was blissfully unaware of the misunderstanding unfolding on the roof of the large home she was within. Infact, she was so blissfully unaware of it that she was both starting dinner and practicing her incantation phrases by way of having her phone repeat them. It was like learning another language and that is how she was tackling it. The phone would say a phrase and she'd quietly mutter it while preparing her food... luckily she wasn't learning anything dangerous! Rogue was preparing some spaghetti for dinner, she'd bought the ingredients the previous night and was setting it all out and getting it ready to go while muttering the words, her phone resting on the edge of the counter.
Doctor Strange	"Easy there?" Stephen repeats, almost in a state of zen as he looks out to Remy, his eyes glowing grey in the shadows before the light in the stair case behind him lights up slightly as the door opens once more and then closes a few moments later.     Anna gets interrupted by Wong, the kindly and surly Asian man that stays and seems to provide Strange with guidance and help whenever he's needed. "Anna Marie! There is a strange man on the roof. Stephen said you should probably go up. Quickly!" Wong says hurridly and moves behind Rogue to usher her into the moment and make haste to get her up stairs.     "No body is going to be climbing my house and stalking my pupils either." Stephen counters the Cajun's words with a calm voiced, statuesque threat.
Remy LeBeau	"Man... you're probably right." The anger subsides pretty quickly as Gambit comes to the quick realization that whatever he's mad about, it's probably not this guy's fault. Whatever feelings Gambit is having right now are the logical end products of the choices that he made, and on some level Gambit is well aware of this. He probably wouldn't explain it in quite so coherent a fashion right now though. "Looks like I'm at the wrong address." Taking a few steps backward, Gambit suddenly turns and hops over the rail, disappearing quickly beneath the roofline as he plummets to his certain death. Or at least that's probably how it would appear to anyone who didn't know that was the way Gambit pretty much ALWAYS leaves places, off the rooftop or out the window. Anyone who were to look over the rooftop would perhaps be surprised to see that not only is there not a Gambit Sidewalk Pizza lying on the ground below, but there's no trace of the man at all. Aside from a crushed can of Cran-Raspberry La Croix, and two unlit cigarettes, left behind on the rooftop.
Rogue	And about that time is when Rogue appeared out the doorway and onto the roof with Wong behind her, she'd been cracking jokes at the man the whole way up since she was in a good spirit today, she'd had a very fun day. "Ooooo, hello there." She said when she saw Stephen's back where he was standing outside. "Wong Turn said someone was up here?" She asked Stephen, her green eyes being sent to look around the roof, but she didn't see nobody. Rogue walked out a bit further, inspecting the top of the house. "God, even the roof'a this place looks more expensive than anything I could eve'ah afford..." And a heavy sigh was released before the young college student spun around again to look at Stephen and Wong. "I'm making spaghetti!" She said, tossing her gloved hands up into the air and doing a little jazz-hands display for the both of them. "Who wants som--" Rogue cut herself off when she caught sight of that crushed can and the cigarettes. She knew that drink... Rogue walked toward it and crouched down to pick it up with her left gloved hand. Marie would turn around and look to Stephen. "This yours?" She asked, her other hand picking up the two cigarettes... Strange didn't smoke...
Doctor Strange	Stephen stood and watched Remy go, (So as to not break continuity for Rogue's arrival) and only stepped aside when then young mutant woman got up to the door way. Stephen knew exactly who was here, who drank the liquor and left the two cigarettes. He knew Rogue knew and he simply shook his head.     Turning softly to Wong who was getting a little giggle out of Rogue's joke- Okay it wasn't a giggle, the man was in stitches and doubled over with his hand braced agaisnt the door frame. Stephen clears his throat to get Wong's attention. "Would you go help Anna with her spaghetti." To which Wong waved his hand dismissively before marching down stairs his laughter echoing through the door he shut behind him.     Strange turns towards Rogue and takes a step closer, not saying any words in this moment. Not yet.
Rogue	Rogue just kept her eyes locked on Stephen as he didn't reply to her question. So she just walked at him and held the 'evidence' up at him. "Seriously." She told him, her hair blowing gently in the winds atop the roof of Stephen's home. "Who's are these?" She asked then, knowing the answer already though. Rogue crushed the can in her hand until it was little more than a marble in size and then walked over to the ledge of the building to glance over it... nothing was there of course, aside from a woman walking six dogs on one of those silly leashes for lots of doggies. Rogue would look back to Stephen then. "Spiral was here, wasn't she?" She asked. "Or was it that asshole I met in Paris who gave me the damn bone claws, like Logan's?" She'd wad the cigarettes up then and start to move angrily toward the roof entrance to go back down the stairs. "I'm sick of these shit heads stalkin' me!" She shouted as she passed by Stephen on his right.
Doctor Strange	Stephen remained quiet, knowing any words he said would be more detrimental to her recovery than no words at all.     Stephen stands still when she turns around and he doesn't budge when she storms past him. The wizard was never the best in social situations anyways and yet she deserves the truth, his bedside manner was always the worst.     "Anna. It was him."     Stephen turns towards the door and continues, "It was Remy. He was here. Also stalking you."
Rogue	Rogue spun around in the doorway to the stairwell. "No!" She shouted back at him. "He's dead!" She added, her voice laced with thick negative emotion, quite clearly! "He died... IN... my arms. I watched the life drain out of his body and the blood.... spill all over the ground!" Rogue's right hand shot up and she held the little balled-up can. "Whoeve'ah it is that left THIS here? Wasn't him. It was anothe'ah one'a Spiral's tricks! Like the shit show that showed up out at the school! Don't ya see, Doc? She's obsessed, she's... feedin' off'a my misery 'nd I don't even have the slightest god damn reason as to WHY!" With that said, the teenager would angrily storm into the house and start back down the stairs two at a time.
Doctor Strange	Stephen starts to say something, but he catches his tongue and holds it. No need to add fuel to the fire. Stephen will simply watch the night from the roof until Wong or somebody says something about spaghetti.