2014.02.16 - Rough Cuts - Part 5: Subterranean Homesick Alien

It's not often Rain pops by the manor. Not with the crappy weather and the basement with its conduit, drunken Shifts and what have you. But Rain is concerned. She's stopped by, folded her math equation patterned umbrella and set it into a basket, hung her jacket up and made a beeline to start some tea. She's wondering if this group has had an influence on her habits or what. It's a bit puzzling. But she looks around the parlour, and shifts her backpack off her shoulders before taking a seat. Water takes time, it seems.

"Well. at least no one's naked and/or drunk and/or going to puke on my furniture. It's nice here..." Yes it is. Even if she seems surprised by the lack of critters.

"Rain, hello." Booster Gold greets the witch, telling her, "You got here just after me. I was stopping by to see if Doctor Strange was around, I had some news that he might want to know." He looks thoughtful, then. "Although he probably already knows, due to basically knowing everything already through magical means." Booster does not look damp at all, not even his hair. A forcefield is a great umbrella. He waves his hand vaguely, then, and says, "I think we've avoided the whole situation of the Avengers needing to fight Asgard. Except now I don't know what Loki's situation is--wait," Now he focuses more intensely on Rain. "I remember you mentioning that you've worked with Loki. Has he said anything?"

Kwabena is here. There were reasons, chief among them not being quite ready to return to the Xavier Institute. After what happened in Hell's Kitchen, he needed... more time. He's being uncharacteristically quiet, only looking up from a book he is reading to acknowledge Booster's arrival with a quiet nod of his is head.

And the door opens again, snow blowing in and melting quickly; whoever's in the hall's stomping their boots off -- as in sock feet, not as in leaving snow behind, apparently, because Pete's frozen at the parlour door like a deer in headlights.

He, of course, is soaked through, but he'll be dry soon enough. At least he left his sodden coat in the hall. "Oh," he says after a second, "hi."

This after all the 'fuck offs' he slung around to anyone who came asking after him? That's it. That's all he has to say? Possibly not, since he's still standing one (sock) foot in, and looks more uncertain than he's ever let himself look.

Rain smiles to Booster. "Hi there! And really?" Headtilts. "Yeah, he's good at that." She nods. Then a pause. "Not - really to me. I haven't seen him in awhile. He did ask me some stuff about life on Midgard," She considers. She rubs the back of her head. "But nothing about fighting Avengers. Though I haven't seen Sif or Thor in awhile. I was pretty worried," She admits. Rain peers over. "Hi Shift!" She does pay attention!

... good to see he's doing better. And then suddenly, a Wild Pete Appears! Level 90, too! Rain blinks, her eyes widening a bit. The tea kettle whistles. "Pete! Hey!" She seems genuinely happy to see him. "... um. Want some tea?" She is clearly restraining herself, apparently wisening up a little. "I'd ask how you are, but that might be rude. Still." She's happy just to see him around and in one piece and still alarmingly British.

Booster nods to Kwabena in return, and he says, "There was a... a situation and we thought we'd have to fight Thor and Sif as well as Loki, but that's no longer the case." Which is clearly a relief, judging by the tall man's expression. "I was just worried that--" but what this worry is goes unsaid, because Pete is there, and Booster falls quiet. He tilts his head to one side, giving Wisdom a look of curiosity, and then he says, "Hi, Pete. How are you feeling?"

"Tea," repeats Pete, not really comprehending, "no." A pause. "Yes. Sorry? I'm-- Strange said. It's all right. For me to be here." It's offered like a defense, almost. "Um. Carter I meant to ask you. If you'd been recording. I want to see, if you had been. So I can get a clearer picture of the details. I--"

The foot inside the parlour, over the threshold, retreats-- and then he makes himself step in the rest of the way, damp hair drying even now. "I'm fine. No, no tea, ta. Has Pryde been by yet? Or Blaire?"

Kwabena turns the page of his book. He's watching with a quarter of his eyes, seemingly caught up in the text before him. "I'll take some team Rain," he offers. He does glance upward, eyebrows raising a bit when Booster mentions a possible altercation with the Asgardians. There is some relief in his eyes, a look that says 'sigh of relief' more than an actual sigh would. Then, he's back at his book, flipping another page. "Stay away from Moontree's liquor, Wisdom."

Rain looks to Booster. "I might talk about it later. I have sort of a weird feeling about something with regards to all of that," She admits quietly. "We can meet up sometime soonish. I do want to try this stuff called macarons or whatever." Rain is curious about cookies. She looks to Pete. "Of course it is! We're glad to see you. I'd even hug you all platonically if I were braver," Rain remarks wryly. She smiles, glad to see Pete. "I haven't seen either of them," She admits.

"Sure thing, one mug of tea. Anything in it?" She asks to Kwa. "And hey! I gave him some great booze. He - knew what was on the label and so did I," Rain admits, and goes to pour Kwabena and herself some tea. Booster is in the offer for tea, too, if he likes. "How are you?"

"Okay, Rain. Any input on that would be welcome. No thank you on the tea," Booster says, nodding to the young woman. He does not comment on macarons, mostly because he has no idea what those might be. Some sort of bird, possibly? His attention returns to Pete as he says, "No, or at least... no visual. I have audio, though, if that might help? I couldn't wear my visor with the getup I had on. It'll be good audio data, though, three-dimensional if you want to call it that, and very fine." Booster's head tilts to the other side, then, and he tells Pete frankly, "You look pretty rough."

"Just tea, thank you." Kwabena looks away from Rain when she mentions her booze. There's a dubious expression on his face. Pete might recognize it. It's the 'Do you smell BS? Because I smell BS' look. He promptly goes back to reading his book. It was good to see Pete and all, but... Pete's problems aren't his unless Pete makes them his problems.

"Rain's booze," Pete tells Kwabena, "has a secret. Only drink it if you can read the label." Pause for effect. "Ass."

Then he reaches up to knuckle at his eye-- he actually only looks about as miserable a fuck as he did back when Booster first met him. His socks, at least, aren't toxic; he can walk through the room and they're not killing anyone. "I'm fine, for fucksake, I'm fine. Audio'll take me longer to sort through, but I can do it. Three-D would help, yeah, I've more or less a map in my head already; it'll place people. Odame, I'll want your run of events, too, in a bit; you were at an excellent vantage point. I--"

All of a sudden, Wisdom runs out of steam, visibly -- but he continues, doggedly. "If there's fucking -anything- can be put together out of what else was going on in the background, it-- might help. If she lets us back. If any of you even wants to let me. After that."

Also, Pete totally had dibs on the Tamdhu that was found. Rain respects both friends and dibs! She stifles a giggle at the exchange. "No problem." A mug of fresh tea is brought out for Kwabena and herself. She looks to Booster. "Well. I am - concerned, but maybe it's a false trail." She shrugs.

"Did you want anything to eat or drink?" She offers to Pete. "I didn't bring anything from the basement, but." She doesn't push it as Pete mentions he's fine. Well, he did curse. That's pretty Petetastic. Rain smiles at that. Either way. She seems a little concerned as he runs out of steam. She nudges a chair over. "You can sit, then." The mug of tea is offered to Kwabena.

"Birds eye view," quips Kwabena. He suddenly puts the book down and accepts the tea from Rain. He takes a testing sip, then sets it down to cool. "Smoke," he offers for the good of the group, before heading off in search of a place where smoking is permitted. Inside, if possible.

"I'll get the data to you immediately, then, Pete. Although uh, I have found that most modern tech doesn't do the playback properly, but I can loan you something for that," Booster says, as he turns to walk towards Pete. This is done with care, as if Booster were approaching some kind of small, injured animal that might attack or flee if startled. "I haven't had any contact with Amy since then." Much quieter now, he adds, "I have suspicions about what you did what you did. But I don't want to make things up in my head when you're right here."

Not necessarily physical steam: just conviction. Steamroller ran out of rhetoric, like. Pete glances down at the nudged chair, down at Rain and her offers and her concern, and he thinks about what he told her to do when she saw him last. And he looks up at carefully approaching Booster, and leaving-the-room Shift, and Booster's quiet statement--

--and man if he's going to have this conversation he wants a smokescreen, but it's inside the Sanctum Sanctorum, and good luck finding an inside place Shift, and besides there's all this friendship and benefit of the doubt and--

--and Strange said everyone has a place. Pete closes his eyes, flexing his still-gloved hands over the back of the chair that Rain nudged his way, and he sort of leans on it, in front of him. Between him and the others. "I thought it was Eclipso. I was wrong. I think."

"... do you need me to go?" Rain looks uncertain. Also, Rain opted not to fornicate off. She's currently single and all that. There's a dreadfully dirty joke somewhere. "I can't say who it was or wasn't. I was protecting the refreshments from spies and terrorists. I didn't hear much interesting." Though, she did meet a nice princess and devoured the mini quiches of TERROR. "Also I wasn't really close enough to see all of it. But the dude was acting pretty strangely." Hmm, no. Rain does seem to make some judgments. She just has an annoyingly true neutral outlook on life. And she does care about Pete.

Still, she's not going to smother the guy and decides to wait to see if she should wander or stay.

"I thought that too. It's why I moved to confront him," Booster admits, still quiet and careful, not wanting to trigger Pete into fight or flight. He turns his head so he can look back at Rain, saying, "This is all stuff that needs to be talked about. You're not an intruder here, Rain." He looks back to Wisdom as he says, "Look. Pete... I know what it's like to do something that seems like it might be the biggest mess-up in the universe. I'm not gonna downplay what happened because I know this whole thing is pretty bad. But we're not turning against you, okay?" Booster lifts his hand and puts it on Pete's shoulder, at least if he allows it to land there. "C'mon and sit down, we'll figure this out."

Wisdom glances at Rain in a complete lack of comprehension. Go? Does not compute. Her news that she didn't see much at least relieves him of the burden that Rain might've had invisible magic anti-flare goggles on and've ended up seeing what he'd done as it'd happened. There's the flicker of a smile at protecting the refreshments.

And then Booster--

There's this look on Pete's face that's the result of a constant running background analysis on bodylanguage, where he's got an impulse to laugh. But there're Booster's words, and the contact-- the same that Strange'd given him-- and that's got Wisdom right back in the place where he keeps breaking. And he wants to say something /awful/, and he wants to be horrible and unlikeable, and that's in his face too, but...

The hand's not shrugged off. There's just that screwed-up expression on the pale, thin man's features, his gloved hands gripping the back of the chair. "Just tell me how you can trust I won't just fucking pull something like this again? That kind of situation-- that kind of danger, and that kind of extreme-- that's my life. That's been my life since I were seventeen. Tell me how you can trust I'm not lying, making a show. Tell me what anyone else's opinions will even matter if she doesn't let me help fix it because she can't trust me again.

"What I'm doing, the picture I'm trying to make, plus whatever Strange is getting of the situation as it progresses there, it-- it should give the lot of you--" He's closed his eyes and he's centering his breathing. Stick to business. It's not even that he killed someone, it's that he used them as unknowing accomplices, and more, that he did /that/ to her-- "It should give you enough leads if it's not obvious enough already. To know where to deploy when she lets you back in, who can get the most done where, what needs doing specifically and who best to do it-- as a contingency. A backup plan, in case hers falters. Which it shouldn't. Whatever it is."

That is, she didn't know if it was a personal conversation. Rain looks confused, too. "I didn't want to put my magic sight up, and I was talking to someone," Rain admits. "I figured having sight up might be seen as a faux pas. I dunno." But from the sound of it, Rain really didn't see what happened exactly. She returns the flicker of a smile with a smile. Briefly. But then, Booster. "I can't honestly comment much. I'm very inexperienced at this sort of stuff," She admits. "But I trust that you've made like, 95 percent good decisions and only a few bad ones. I admit I was terrible at statistics sometimes. You aren't perfect," Pause. "Er. That is - in a non offensive way. I think you're great, but I digress." Rain: Not so eloquent and we're glad she's not a therapist.

"Also, I think I'd trust you less if you NEVER EVER made bad decisions because even gods do that. "I did see one lady grab her sword and some others start kinda making grabby motions." In other words, if not Pete - probably someone else. "... mostly, I don't want to make this worse. So - tea time." Siiiiiiiip.

Conveniently, that book Kwabena was reading wasn't just a book. Folded into its pages was a small microphone, very tiny, feeding audio of what's taking place into an earcomm that he promptly put in when he left the room. See, he and Pete have what Shift might call a 'working relationship'. There tend to be ops and explosions going on when they are around each other. He'd stepped out, not wanting to push things into limbo by simply being there. Now that he's done with his smoke... the earcomm comes back out, gets stuffed into a pocket, and he's back inside in moments, going for his tea.

Odame doesn't say anything about the static he'd gotten from his earcomm. He was surprised, but then again... should he have? As far as that microphone goes, it remains concealed when he opens the book and turns it to the -next- page. Maybe next time he just... shouldn't try to be so... damned indirect.

"Good," he comes in on the tail of Rain's last and the start of her sipping. "Let me have a moment to see if she starts belching rainbows." He reaches for his tea after plopping back down onto his seat, and just watches Rain for a few seconds before lifting the cup to take a drink.

Booster gives Pete's shoulder a reassuring pat, not too hard, and then removes his hand. His attitude is less cautious now that it seems that Pete is willing to discuss things. "Trust is one of those funny things, people treat it like it's binary, but it's not." He moves now to sit down, and pulls off his cowl and goggles. "I wouldn't have dealt with that situation the way you did, Pete, but I'm not you. I think I'm starting to understand why you did it, though. It's all complicated." Dropping his cowl on the armrest of the sofa where he is sitting, he adds, "Amy -might- let us help her, but I think you're right, I think for... at least now... she isn't going to let you help, Pete. I hate to say it like this, but the trust stuff... at least with Amy... is going to have to wait until the Eclipso thing is dealt with."

Booster sits back with his hands folded over his stomach, looking at the ceiling as if he were mulling things over in his mind. Finally, he says, "If you had done something, backstabbed us so we were sacrificed or whatever... that'd be different. To me, anyway. You did something I don't agree with, but I can see -why- you chose to do that. You weren't doing it to hurt -us-. I think your intentions were protective."

"It's-- it's fine, Rain. That you weren't looking for any of it. Hell, I told you to get Princess Emerald out of there. I'm just glad--" He shakes his head, Pete does. And he still doesn't sit down, but he leans against the back of the chair he'd been gripping, arms crossed and elbows propping him. "I'm made a fuckton of bad decisions in my life, Rainy-day. I must be divine."

One hand lifts briefly to rub at his face, and Pete watches Shift come back in, absently. Then he looks at Booster, sitting and taking off his headgear; he gives the blond a smile that doesn't go anywhere near his eyes. "Of course it was protective. And-- trust-- and Amy-- I know that. I'm not figuring I'm going to be forgiven, or that I can go back there."

He finally spins the chair around and straddles it, crossing his arms over the top again. He's looking at those epic goggles. Because epic. And also nobody's eyes. "I've been thinking about how I can give you as much of a bootstrap as I can, yeah. And I got someone who'll come help you -there- instead of me; Strange knows about her. Pryde. She knows what I look for, but she's a better team player. And next time you'll need some kind of communication, realtime. Whether that's Strange or somehow technological, it'd-- really help."

Rain looks to Booster. He does have cool goggles! She takes a sip of her tea. It's normal tea. But Rain does not at Booster, seeming to agree. "I think he's probably right," She admits. "And yeah..." Rain tilts her head. "She was nice," Rain offers. Then another pause. "I don't know if you're quite fabulous enough to be divine, but." She looks over. "We all make those kinds of decisions." Really. Either way, she doesn't protest. She trusts Pete and respects her old friend enough not to push too hard. She listens for now.

"Divine was totally fabulous, and he wasn't divine in the classical sense at allll," Alison announces, having just arrived but heard snippets of the conversation and interjecting herself ANYWAY. Because Hello! Dazzler!

"So, why are we all gathered? Is there a will being read? Has the murderer been identified? Is there a fat, mustachioed Beligan in the other room waiting for his cue?"

"I mean, Pete, that the reason I'm willing to trust you and talk to you is because your actions weren't about disregarding us." Booster sits up properly again, just hooking his arms over the backrest of the couch as he lounges. He nods to Kwabena as the man returns, then arches a brow when he hears Alison's voice. "Hello, Ali. We were just talking about stuff with Pete." He steadfastly makes no comment on the 'murderer' joke. "With tech-based communicators I can tap into most of them and even act as a relay. It's easier if Skeets is with me, that 'droid is great at cracking through even protected channels. Not that we make a habit of that. I don't think I know the person you're talking about, Pete... Pryde, I mean."

When Alison comes in, Kwabena immediately thinks of a viral video he saw. I mean, who hasn't? "D-Rex." He's looking right at her as he greets her with that nickname.

He glances over toward Pete and Booster when Pryde is brought up. "Her name's Katherine, but she goes by 'Kitty'," he offers. And then he sips his tea, eyes drifting back down to that book he's been reading. He hasn't committed anything to the conversation regarding Pete yet. The man is carrying himself as one who has more than a few things on his own mind, after all.

"When you're in de field, you gotta make a call, and sometimes there's not enough time to weigh all de options. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes it backfires."

Only then does he look up, glancing from one face to the other.

There's only a faintly dubious expression from Pete at the 'we all make those kinds of decisions' from Rain, but he rests his chin on his forearms and just eyes Alison as she prances in. And then he glances at his watch. Still an hour and twenty minutes.

"Beyonce called, she wants to do a video with you," he tells her, straightfaced. Like long-sufferingly delivering a message straightfaced.

But then his attention returns to Booster, "That's probably a good redundancy. I can get SHIELD comms for you to use. Or tertiary, anyway-- you may have access to better devices. Primary I think Strange may handle; he has a Vishanti spell he uses for false telepathy, whilst Amethyst's is based in Nilaian craft, and that's the one she was worried would be tapped."

Then he gestures toward Shift as the other man speaks up. "As he said. Friend of mine from the team I worked with in the UK, with Meggan and the others." The philosophy he doesn't address. He's trying pretty hard to stay away from it, actually. Which is probably obvious by the way he keeps focusing on details.

At Pete's dubious expression, Rain kinda pouts a little. "Well, believe me or don't. I still think -" Pause. "Nevermind, I'm bad at speeching." She really is. But she does do her best to convey caring without smothering in her own, quiet way. For now then, Rain will let herself go quiet. After smiling and waving to Ali. "Allo! And hee." Rain shakes her head. "There's still some warm tea if you get thirsty. I can pick something up." She seems content to let herself go quiet

The look Ali gives Pete telegraphs her, "Duh. Of *course* she does. Who wouldn't? I am *all over* the internet right now and it is *amazing*," hands extended. Because duh! "Thanks Rain, you're a peach."

Shift gets a smirk, but Ali notices the watch checking -- she opens her mouth to say something that is CLEARLY snark, but for once in her life actually manages to think before it leaves her lips and bites it right back. Too soon.

"So, did Kitty come and go? Did she have my ten bucks?" Ali asks instead.

Booster lifts his hands in a subtle shrug to Rain, a bit of sympathy. This is a difficult discussion. He nods to Kwabena and says, "Well, you guys know her and think she's good... Kitty Pryde, I mean... I'd be pleased to meet her." Booster rubs his chin, looking thoughtful again. "Has Amy returned here? I mean, is she still in that dimension? From what she's said in the past, it's kind of difficult to travel there. I think just... going there and showing up would be a really bad idea, but this is all going to be super difficult if we have no way of contacting her."

Pete just rests his forehead on his forearms for a moment. Then he picks himself up and dusts himself off; he's finally dry. Quicker than anyone ought to be, but that's Pete. "Doc's watching her. She's not come back. But he said we'll have a chance to fix this, and I believe him." Glance up at Ali. "Pryde's not been, yet, no." Then he takes his gloves off, watching his hands as he moves them. "But she's good, yeah. As far as Nilaa goes-- I can think of a couple of really horrible ideas in the way of ways to get there, but they're horrible ideas. So yeah: we wait. And we get as much as we can get, information-wise. Booster, you said you had a tech thing I could borrow for playback?"

For the while, Kwabena seems engrossed in the book he is reading. The conversations are noted, he simply isn't contributing.

"Kitty's easy to get in touch with. Shift and I can use comms, I also have her phone number; she'll be around. She wants to ask questions and generally she's one of the most helpful people in several universes," Ali tells Booster, waving her hand almost dismissively. "Kitty was also mostly worried about Meggan - I told her that as far as -I- knew Meggan was fine."

It occurs to Ali to actually look at Pete and Booster for this one. "She -is- fine, right? Because if she's actually not fine I'm going to feel like a shit."

"Meggan is pretty sensible. I mean, I'm sure she's curious and worried, but I think that's expected. But she hasn't said anything to me if she's... not fine." Booster resumes his posture where he leans back, hands on his stomach, gazing at the ceiling. It's easier to think this way. "I agree that we should wait until Amy is ready to contact us. Even if she's upset, she's not stupid and she's not helpless. And I'll get you the device, Pete... if you can give me the coordinates of where you're staying, Skeets can get it over to you as soon as possible." Just like a little delivery drone.

"I just felt a little... rude? When Kitty asked, is all. I mean, I'm a pretty good judge of character except when it comes to dating, but I don't really *know* Meggan. Just didn't know how to answer." Alison comes to realize she's explaining herself out loud andshe's not real sure why. Ew. Stop that.

Speaking of things that should be stopped... Ali's attention turns to Shift again. Who's reading. In the middle of some sort of possibly important discussion of team-like things (she doesn't know.)

"Hey, War and Peace isn't going anywhere you know," she tells him, nudging at the back cover of the book with her fingertip.

"Haven't seen her," Pete says, stuffing his gloves in his suit jacket pockets, then straightening his socks by inching his feet on the parlour rug. He glances at the clock.

The gonging of the grandfather clock in the hall sounds out: twelve strokes, it's February the 16th. "I'll be back here before morning. I need to talk to my sister, I think."

"Pete, here..." Booster sits up properly and reaches for his right wrist bracer, lightly touching something on its apparently featureless surface. After a few taps, a tiny aperture opens and a slip of what looks like blue and gold cardstock emerges. It seems to be a slim-format business card with some text, and branded with a shiny metallic blue star. This is offered to Wisdom. "So I can get the data and player to you quickly, this way you don't have to be home. In about an hour or more, just rip it across the star and Skeets will be able to track you to give you the stuff."

Kwabena looks up at Alison with a deadpan expression that, after a few seconds, turns rueful. "It's 'The View From De Fortieth Floor' in fact, but you're right, dere will always be war and peace. Like two idiots armwrestling ovah de girl who's not interested in either."

He does, finally, set the book down, cover closed. When Pete seems ready to go, he shoots a look Wisdom's way. "Got your back, Wisdom. Take it easy, and beware of hookahs and blow dat come knocking aftah midnight."

He finally looks over toward Booster with a thoughtful look. "I can vouch for Kitty. She's solid. Got a good head on her shoulders. Just don't piss her off, which, I can't imagine you doing."

Pete takes the card, staring at it for a second with an expression that wars between gratitude and amusement. He will, after all, always be Pete. "Thank you," he says, putting it in his shirt pocket, voice as low as Booster's was at the very first. He looks like he could say something else, but doesn't. Then he smirks at Shift, pulls his gloves back on, heads back to the hall. "I know, mate. Will do." As he's pulling his coat and boots on, he calls around the doorframe, "Tell her not to bring that fucking dragon though. Night you lot."