2014.02.02 - Groundhog Play

Groundhog Day.

That remarkable, 'Who ever thought up a holiday specifically to harass an animal by pulling it out of its burrow' sort of moment that became a staple in North American tradition. To ask someone who may be more truthful and not beat around the bush, there's only one other holiday in February, and it's not for everyone. Who can resist a fat rodent being manhandled by a man in a tuxedo?

Cue Nathan Dayspring. In a tuxedo. In remarkably balmy weather outside, and on the rear grounds of Xavier's Institute. Seems the large man has only recently -learned- about Groundhog Day (his education of the 20th century came from Scotland, you see), and in true Nathan form, wants to give it a shot himself.

Ahem.

So, Cable is dressed to the nines, top hat, tuxedo, white gloves (yes, specifically tailored) and he's crouched down by a not-so-well-hidden hole in the ground. A burrow if one will.

"I know you're in there."

Domino's not playing along. First, she went inside to use the bathroom. -Then- she went to get herself some coffee. And some random food from the cafeteria, because there's always something cooking around this place. -Then- she goes in search of Cable, to make sure he hasn't accidentally blown up anything or put any new holes in the Institute's walls or anything while she's busy doing her thing.

She'd be facepalming if not for the cup of coffee in either hand. "Oh, Nate..."

Jean has seen weirder things in her life, but watching from the cafeteria as Cable, a huge, impossible strong solider-type with the telekinetic ability to rival and surpass her, crouches in a tux to drag a groundhog out of it's hole... if this was a dream, it would be so full of significance that Freud might come back from the grave eager to give it a shot.

Alas, it isn't a dream, and Jean is pretty sure of it. Slowly walking outside, hugging herself to shield her torso from the cold, the redhead brushes some scarlet locks of hair from her face as she smiles some. "... Are you really doing this?", her eyes squinting in eager curiosity at the scene, sparing Domino a far more reserved nod and smile, before she turns back to the soldier of the future.

Less fancy is Lorna, dressed for cold weather in gray scale colors that won't clash with her green hair. "What are you doing out here? What's in the hole?" She asks peering from Cable to the hole in the ground curious. "Did you drop a monocle or something?" Lorna asks again before looking up at Domino then Jean.

Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Cable's arm sinks in to the elbow within the burrow, and digging around with his other hand, extracts a rather fat, if not extremely pissed off groundhog. It wriggles around in his hands as it tries to work its way to bite its captor. Nate, however, doesn't seem to notice the rodent's ulterior motive, and looks up when he's 'greeted' by the others.

"What? This is the first time I've heard of this," Not that he's accusing Domino of not filling him in on random bits of tradition that probably has no equal in the future. "I saw it on the news last night. I want to see if it actually works..."

Jean comes out to join them, and Nate has the courtesy to look a little embarrassed. (After all, she IS 'mother', even if she isn't.. or will be and hasn't yet been.. or..) "Well, yes. And when I'm done, I'm going to have Ship run a search for the temperature averages for 2014 and the readings we get from him.." and the 'him' in question is gestured with. "No monocle..." Uh oh.

"I'm pretty sure his dignity is somewhere in there, along with what remained of his common-sense," Domino flatly replies as she finds a nearby tree to lean back against. (On the upside, I now have twice the coffee.)

One of those cups is raised in a goofy salute toward Jean, quickly followed up by a nod to Lorna. "Yes, kids, this is really happening. Come one, come all, for the most ridiculous feat this side of the Jersey border. Hey Nate, If you're gonna switch over to high explosives be sure to let me know about it first so I can clear the perimeter and insist that I get to push the button. Furry little bastard'll never see it comi--holy crap he actually caught one."

Jean's eyes go positively wide when Nathan actually manages to snag a pretty fat groundhog, and taking a step back the redhead cannot feel anything but pity for the oh-so-murderous furball the soldier has in his hands. Of course Jean is not going to go all 'You drop him right now, msiter!' on this man she is not all that aware it's her son yet, but she sure looks a bit distraught, looking around briefly to check if she is the only one.

"You are not hurting him, are you? It sounds pretty angry!", she says, feeling sorry for the thing, frowning slightly "I mean... right?". She looks very unsure, and pretty unwilling to be the softie in front of everyone, but... someone save the little animal!

"If he gets bit, he'll have earned the bite, and the shots that follow." Lorna adds crossing her arms and watching Cable with an amused grin. "Man, that sucker bulked up for winter. Nate you're lucky he could fit that opening." She says looking at the fat groundhog.

It's scrambling, and finally Nate gets a hold on it to the point where it's almost immobile. It appears to settle, as much as one can settle. "I did," is given towards Domino, though now he catches the fact that she's got -two- coffees and he's got dirty white gloves and a fat groundhog.

"Did any of the staff complain about anything missing from the garden?"

Though now, Cable steps away from the hole and can't help but laugh. "He is a rather -large- one, isn't.." Beat. "..she." Well, that should work too, right?

"Okay, I'm going to put you down..." and he's talking to the animal now? Turning to the side to look at Jean, he shakes his head, "She's not in pain. I'm going to put her down in a second. Then, try to remember-- Oh, thanks, Ship." Which is it again?

Shadow, still more winter? And what happens if the Master of Ceremonies can see the groundhog's shadow but the rodent in question is blind?

"Promise."

Beat.

"Uh oh." There's a moment when the large, tuxedo'ed man simply stands there, and he looks from the groundhog to something that is in the sky... and back down. "Hmmm."

Crouching now, Cable puts the animal down onto the ground, which then procedes to waddle back to its burrow post haste.

"Ah no, I'm sure he's fine. That's only what, thirteen..fifteen pounds hanging off of nothing more than his tail? He'll--okay, -she'll- be alright," Domino says with absolute sarcasm. And a smirk. "Twenty bucks says that hog's gonna kick Nate's ass before this is over."

Sip. (They do have good coffee around here. Can only imagine what the faculty has to put up with when dealing with these kinds of students.)

"I'll remind you that there's a strict groundhog catch and release program in effect here, Nate. Unless Hank wants to try and domesticate it. That's entirely possible."

And the hog waddles back into the burrow. "Well that's just disappointing." (Glad no one took me up on that bet.) "Feel better now? Got that all worked out of your system, or would you like to embarrass yourself some more so long as we're here? Because I can wait." (Got plenty of coffee, right here.)

Although Jean still looks worriedly at the groundhog, she seems more relaxed as Nathan speaks to her, even if Domino's teasing get to the redhead some, and to those around that are telekinetically inclined the groundhog will suddenly lose a lot of weight in Cable's grip as Jean supports it with two invisible hands aswell. No harm, no foul, nobody can see it anyway, although Cable will certainly sense it.

Phoenix does look at Domino for a little longer, the woman's behavior somewhat curious to the Original X-Woman, and after some curious glances thrown at her, the redhead focuses on Cable some more.

"Oh, so if it doesn't see the shadow, but goes in the hole, do we just re-do?" Lorna asks looking at Nate. She kneels too now, watching the fat animal return to it's home so sensibly. "I mean, it wasn't scared, except by Cable here maybe." She considers the options now interested in this Groundhog Day thing too.

Any eyes on the lake? If so they might spot that water icing over. This is followed by one Bobby Drake, dressed for much warmer weather save for the literal ice-skates on his feet, skating casually into view. He might have just kept going on his way but the sight of someone in a full tux and tophat means he has to pause and grin. Forming up a snowball in hand, he takes aim and lets it fly at Cable's hat. Surprise!

"She won't kick my ass IF Dr. McCoy doesn't get her." Experimental lab hog? "If he wants one, he can catch one himself. Once this one is in his hands, all bets are off."

And yes, Cable does catch the lightening of the load, and he looks at Jean for a moment, a flickered glance before the animal is set down and it begins its waddling scurry.

And down into its hole!

Nate continues to crouch, arms on his knees, and he looks consideringly at the hole. "Okay. I can't talk to animals... and I think that's a good thing right now. Any bets as to what it saw, other than my throat for lunch, on its way in?" Jean?

Lorna's response brings a smile to his face, and even a chuckle. "I don't know. But, let me check to see if he's worked out the average temperatures and I'll let you know that way? If we do this backwards, we can have the most accurate groundhog in the country." Cheating? Really?

Now Nate gains his feet completely and is about to respond to Dom again, and actually turns to do just that when--

THWAP! and a hat goes flying off his head. Spinning around to see who the 'assailant' is, he catches the form and figure of someone it -could- very well be.

"I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that he's good at catching rodents," Domino says under her breath. Apocalyptic futures have no pizza joints. But, now that it's proven the 'hog isn't about to go on a furry little rampage on everyone, the albino glances right on back over to Jean with a black-on-white brow rising slightly. "Don't have to be psychic to know something's on your mind, kiddo. Let's hear it."

If she does happen to notice the incoming snowball, she's not going to say a thing about it. Cable's definitely got it coming. Witnessing random karma checks is like poetry in motion.

(Pow! Nice throw, Ice.)

"A groundhog is not a standard unit of measure, pretty sure the ASPCA would flip out something major if it was." (God, why do I feel like playing Monopoly? It's gotta be the hat. I'll have to thank Bobby later.)

Jean does smile as she watches the poor little animal scurry back to it's lair beneath the ground, and she turns to Domino a bit surprised at the woman's words. It is not everyday you get called out for things you think, and most people have the social tact to avoid deep interactions with people around them! Seeing that Domino is not everyone else, Phoenix parts her lips to say something, and that's when Cable gets hit by the snowball.

Some things never change, and Bobby is one of the best in the art of not growing up. And that is perfect, because Phoenix herself has been trying to avoid getting too old, too fast aswell. With a grin she prances back a bit, giving both space, shaking her head with a wide smile.

Watching the hat tumble off Nate's head, Lorna is careful not to stand. She looks over to the water, following Nate's lead and smirks a little. "I'm not sure doing things in the opposite order is how it works..." She adds and watches the hole the groundhog is hopefully huddled into and nice and warm. "Well, I'm glad not to be a groundhog. I think that's a life lesson learned." Lorna points out settling a little closer to the gound, to be safe.

"Woo!" Bobby exclaims, grinning when his snowball finds it's target. Letting his skates fall off his shoes and swapping onto one of his ice slides, Bobby grins and moves to try to snatch the hat off the ground for himself. "Hey people. What's got you all out here and what's with the fancy duds?" he asks. Of course if he's able to get the hat it'll get put right on.

~ I do keep finding you, after all, ~ comes as a mental, gentle tease in Domino's direction. Cable doesn't -look- as if he's singling anyone out, mind. He's twisted around, looking for the culprit-- and there he is.

Who needs snowballs to retaliate? The moment Bobby gets the chance to grab the hat, Cable's got snow that will be coming up with it... but it's winding around and around like a shield around the thing. Like little snow flies.

"Life lesson learned?" Now, Nate is curious and he moves to where Lorna is, that is, beside the hole. At the same time, perhaps Domino can feel pressure against the fingers of one hand as an unseen force tries to pry her fingers from a coffee cup. "Is she digging deeper?"

"For that matter, Jean.. do you know something I don't---" Is she getting out of the line of fire? Dammit, Nate knows better than to stop his usual surface scans! After all, it's how he'd gotten hit in the first place!

That mental thought earns Nate an extended middle finger as Dom nonchalantly rubs an 'itch' on her cheek around one of the coffee cups.

"Huh. Who'd have thought there would be some educational value out of all of this," Domino quietly thinks aloud to Lorna's remark. "If any of the teachers throw a fuss we've got ourselves a legit excuse now."

Suddenly: Iceman. "It's Cable," she says by way of explanation as though the name is all that's needed to cover for everything and then some. "He decided to go fishing for groundhogs. Fortunately he didn't use the lures this time."

Then there's an invisible force..prying at her fingers... It's first met with a frown and a glance, quickly following up with a tensing of her jaw. "No, this is mine now. Go back to your hog. Nate--dammit--!"

You know what, she'll lose this battle. It'd be just like him to suddenly let go and leave Dom crushing the cup with the sudden rebound, dumping coffee all over her hand. Besides, that frees up one of her hands. She quickly looks back to Bobby and gives a heads-up whistle. He -did- tell her many months ago to let him know whenever she needed something to throw!

"Yeah, life lesson: Groundhogs really don't care about shadows. Not trying it again next year, that's for sure." Lorna says, standing now that Cable's moved towards her. She scoops now into a hand and lobs it at Bobby. "Hey you! Don't you know it's sweater weather?" She asks with mock seriousness.

Bobby frowns at the snowy shield. "Hey," he shoots Cable a look. "Bad form, man. Get your own gig," he says. And then Dom is asking for ammo. Bobby smirks and quickly forms up some snowballs for her. He catches the snowball Lorna throws his way and then grins. "But I thought you like the way I look in tighter clothes," he teases.

"What?" Cable looks to Bobby. Bad form? "I could use rocks?" In the next second, the particles of snow drop, and random bits of rocks wriggle, but they don't move from the ground. Mustn't throw rocks, after all.

Besides, he's got his TK in better use; getting that cup of coffee that Domino wasn't going to share! As he finds that he'll certainly be successful at liberating the still warm drink, he's got it floating in the air towards him. He spares a grin towards the albino, particularly when he is victorious before looking to the rest gathered.

"I should probably change out of this.." and with a tug on the tophat with his TK as well to take it from Bobby's grasp, he looks expectantly at his girlfriend. "Meet you back, or want a ride?" It'll only mean how many people he has Ship bodyslide with him.

"What? Oh, might be a good idea to let the groundhog rest." Lorna decides with a smirk at Bobby. "So you gonna wear less in summer? That'll be fun." She muses, teasing him a little. But Cable and Domino are taking off so she waves at them. "I could use the walk. Later guys!"

Hopping off his slide and moving towards Lorna, Bobby smirks. "YOu know it, babe," he offers with a cheesy grin. He waves as Cable and Domino go too and offers a hand to Lorna. "Why walk when we can skate?"