2013.07.20 - Never Trust A Purple Dragon

It's early afternoon and the Mansion is soon to be besieged by guests!
Well, all right, only one guest. That guest is one Harper Row and she arrives via a very traditional means; a beat-up little yellow cab. The cabbie takes her to the requested address and as the little dinged car pulls up to the gates, Harper can't help but whistle silently to herself. "Swanky."
Once the car is cleared through the gates and at the front of the Mansion, Harper will quickly pay the cabbie (with a bit of a tip as well!) and pad up the steps. She's dressed in her usual clothes, ratty punk, and has her beat up black bookbag over one shoulder. And while most people might feel uneasy at entering such a fine establishment dressed and looking as she is, Harper doesn't seem to care. Instead she just pounces through the door and into the Foyer. She won't go beyond the Foyer (her presence having been announced at the gate and also with whom she was visiting), so instead she'll simply inspect her surroundings, as she idly waits for someone to come find her.
Waiting near the door was Doug Ramsey, already hauling his wallet out. "Tink," Doug calls out, choosing not to acknowledge Harper by name, but by an abbreviation of her online name. Fishing out a few bills, Doug grumps, as he hands over the cash. "There, that should pay for the ride. Your bike better be fixed soon," he grimaces. 
Tucking his wallet back in his pocket, Doug motions broadly. "Welcome to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Students. Want a tour, or get right down to business?" he asks. As much as he was being extorted, at least he would stick to his manners, being who he was. 
Rachel's descending the main staircase, one hand trailing along the rail lightly as she's not really looking where she's going, her attention instead absorbed by what looks like an iPad. The observant might notice that she's not wearing the same outfit she was wearing that morning - in deference to the fact that the weather's hot, the skin-tight jeans have been ditched for a long, tank-style and very, very red dress in rather clinging fabric. Having recently acquired several new outfits, she's clearly determined to make good use of them!
So distracted is she that it's only Doug's call of greeting - which presumably isn't to her - that makes her look up and realise that they have guests. Or at least, a guest. Rachel's brow furrows lightly as he watches Doug fork over some cash with bad grace, and her steps momentarily slow, before she decides she might as well be nosy and find out what's going on. Bouncing quickly down the rest of the stairs, Rachel comes up behind Doug. She's not trying to be stealthy, but her sneakers are pretty quiet on the stairs. "Hey, you never offered me the tour." She tells him pointedly, though her tone doesn't sound serious, and she offers a quick smirk past Doug toward the new arrival.
"I can't help that the tire blew. It's going to take a few paychecks before I can fix it." Responds 'Tink' as she eyes the cash that Doug is presenting to her. There's a slight frown that mars her features now, as she reaches out to shove his hand and the wad of cash back towards the boy - she doesn't take charity, that's clear from her expression and her brisk movements as well. "Hey, I had enough for cab fare, it wasn't that terrible."
And with that said and to make certain he doesn't try to give her the money again, Harper takes another two or three steps into the Foyer. "Soooooo - if I had known you lived in the swankiest of swank Schools, I'd have so inflated your prices more." But now that she knows - well - Doug is in trouble, that's safe to say.
"How about business first and then a tour, Glyphster." If he can abbreviate her online screen name, then she too can modify his. Already her bookbag is being unslung from her shoulder and swung around, so she has access to the many zippers of the beat up bag.
Focused as Harper was on her bookbag she wasn't aware of the red head descending the stairs, and so, when the new voice pipes up, Harper can't help but glance sharply upward. Seeing Rachel in her dress once again shoves home that Harper isn't exactly a shining example of femininity or even for that matter, fashion sense. Not that it stops her. Internally she can't help but grimace at what her brother would say. He would have berated her to dress nicer, but since he isn't here, she simply shrugs away that small disquieting thought. "Hey." She offers in the way of a greeting.
From the direction of the hallway - there's a distinct *CRASH*. The sound reverberates through the mansion's walls, like a dish being crashed upon the floor and shattering into a million pieces. The sound silences after a moment, before there's a roar of sound coming from that same direction. The roar..? Almost might be considered that of a dragon's... though surely not, as its soon followed by a distinct. Heh. Heh. Heh. And then.. from that same direction, a streaking purple creature comes -zooming- through going as fast as his wings will beat. He doesn't even pause a MOMENT as he appears, within his hands are two halves of a sandwich, or at least the remains of such, half of one is still stuffed into the dragon's maw. The small purple monster continues to zoom on past, waving his ill-gotten gains as a cheeky greeting of hello, before zooming off with an almost distinct, 'uh-oh', as the dragon flies past Harper, Rachel and Doug to make a hasty retreat towards the back.
Now, this is purely normal and can be explained. Really. The trouble comes from a girl with wild, untamed, brown curly hair, stick figure, wearing cut-offs, a tank top, and is coated upon her legs and torso with what appears to be a white sauce, perhaps mayo..? She /phases/ like a ghost through the walls, oblivious to anyone she passes as she runs through -everything- in her past, a look of pure rage on her features. "LOCKHEED! You bring me back my sandwich you dragon thief you..!" And then proceeds to phase through Doug, and then Rachel, and disappears towards the back after the dragon. Yes. This house is perfectly normal Harper.
"Ohhh, fine," Doug says, tucking his money away. "And hey, I only work here, I don't -own- this place, so no fair trying to jack up the prices on me...."
The young man then steps forward before Rachel approaches too closely. One couldn't be a SHIELD agent without being unaware of his environment. "... I didn't because someone else gave you the tour already," Doug retorts. "Otherwise you wouldn't have been admitted into... whoa!" 
Moving out of the way of the dragon, Doug manages to blink just once, before Kitty ghosts her way through him, and onwards to the kitchen. 
There was a dramatic pause, as Doug looks onward towards the kitchen, then at Rachel, before palming his face as he turns back to Harper. 
"Okay. You were saying something about inflating the prices some more?" Doug says with resignation in his voice. Looks like he was going to have to pay for some silence. 
Rachel, despite the circumstances of her upbringing, at least has semi-decent manners, and quickly answers Harper with a quick, "Hi, I'm Rachel." Before continuing to banter with Doug. "Didn't mean you couldn't..." She starts, cheerfully argumentative, when the CRASH comes. Rachel spins around immediately, tensing up, hands starting to come up in a combat-ready stance - which looks a bit weird in her dress, all told - but then actually /relaxes/ when a purple dragon goes zooming by. "He's gonna get it..." She murmurs, waiting...
...and then, as Rachel expected, Kitty comes steaming through in hot pursuit, and before she can dodge, runs right THROUGH her. Fortunately her iPad-alike was held at arm's length and the display only flickers a bit as a result. Not that Rachel's paying attention, because she really hadn't expected the phasing! That makes her look sharply back over her shoulder at Harper, and then at Doug, but... she doesn't do anything. Except call, "Get him, Kitty!" After the running brunette, before turning back to face the others with a shrug. It's against her instant impulse, but she's not sure of the etiquette for mind-wiping invited guests quite yet.
"I'm Harper. Nice to meet you, Rachel." Harper says right back to Rachel. Much like Rachel's upbringing, Harper herself had a non-conventional childhood as well, but that doesn't stop her from being equally polite and well-mannered.
"As for you, Doug, too late, I feel a higher tax percentage coming on for you." Harper quips with a rather gleeful little smile upon her features. "Yes, instead of seven percent, I think ten percent is better. I suppose I shouldn't go fifteen per -" Her words trail off at the rather loud noises that seem to echo into the room. It did definitely sound like a roar and that 'heh heh heh' was just too loud to ignore.
Finally when Lockheed makes his grand entrance, Harper can't help but stop speaking all together. Sure, Gotham has it's share of mutants, mutates, vigilantes, heroes, whatever else you want to call them, but it's not every day a person sees a purple /dragon/. A /purple dragon/. "Huh." Begins the short-haired woman, before the owner of said dragon (Kitty) then runs through the room as well. Or is that phases through the room? Whatever it may be, Harper can't help but stare again at the whole crazy scene.
It's not every day that Harper Row is silenced in such a way, but today she is, as she watches the skinny curly-haired girl chase after the purple dragon.
Glancing back at Doug and Rachel, Harper says, "So, I apparently ate some bad chinese food the other night, or I've fallen down a rabbit's hole and I have yet to realize it."
"Not quite Wonderland, Tink," Doug scowls as he looks back towards where Kitty's gone. "That was Kitty Pryde. And her pet Lockheed. Like I said, it's an institute for Gifted People." 
Rachel's body language is just far-off and thoughtful enough that Doug brings an elbow to her side. Don't think about it, the blond mutant indicates with a -look-.
Due to distraction-by-Kitty, Rachel fails to register the fact that Harper's apparently gleefully extorting money from Doug, but does at least manage to pick up her name. As Harper indicates that she didn't, by some miracle, miss the Kitty and Lockheed show, Rachel's expression becomes even more thoughtful, a considering look in her eyes, and she's about to reply to Harper when Doug jabs her in her side. It makes her jump, which probably proves that it was necessary, but she turns her head and glowers at Doug anyway, shooting him an 'I wasn't going to do anything!' look - which is an utter lie. She'd just about convinced herself that protecting the mansion's secrets was worth a little telepathic intervention. But fine, it's /Doug's/ fault now, whether she agrees with his call or not.
"Chinese food. Can't trust it." Rachel deadpans as she looks back toward Harper, tempted to rub her side pointedly but sure that Doug's got the message. Leaning against the side of the stairs, Rachel taps on her iPad again. "Don't mind me, I'll just tag along on the tour if no-one minds."
"Hm." Is Harper's response to Doug's comment about the Institute for 'Gifted People', but for now she's distracted as she catches the subtle elbow nudge from Doug to Rachel.
Quirking an eyebrow at the two, Harper lets it slide before she offers a lopsided grin at Rachel's remark, "Right, but it's cheap and tasty, so I usually eat it once or twice a week." Thankfully her brother typically finishes the leftovers, because leftovers are so much more dangerous. Seriously.
"Right. So, business then tour." Harper remarks, as Rachel reminds her what she came here for. A few boxes are pulled from the battered bookbag and with a flourish, she offers them to Doug, "Here you go, Dougster. Why don't you take a look at 'em and let me know what you think." And as soon as Doug takes the boxes from her, Harper will sidle a step closer to try an unobtrusively stare at Rachel's iPad-thing-a-ma-bob. "Nice tablet." Harper remarks casually, "What generation is that?"
"I don't mind," Doug says in response to Rachel's invitation, although not before rolling his eyes up at her 'not doing anything' look. "Although Tink here wanted to look at the setup for what Kitty and I were working on, so we were about to head to the computer lab..." 
Doug pauses to see if Rachel was going to -react- to that, before he takes the boxes. "Come on, the lab's this way..." he begins, before blinking. "Huh. I haven't seen that one before," Doug comments, moving over to join Harper to look at the tablet. 
Just as if she hadn't just been planning to give her some selective amnesia, Rachel returns Harper's grin in kind. "Living dangerously." She says, so clearly not serious, then glances over at Doug and smirks at him. "I've not got anywhere better to be!". Then she lets the two of them get on with their intriguing 'business', apparently content to fade into the background - and not expecting Harper to sneak a peek at her tablet. Which, despite a couple of nicks on the case, is clearly very swish, with an extremely high-resolution - is that 3D? - display (even if it's showing several clothing websites), and absolutely no input lag whatsoever. Rachel looks back up at Harper's question, her expression slightly startled, but as Doug moves in she assumes he's going to field that question. When he just makes the situation that much more awkward, Rachel has no choice but to quickly skim the answer from his mind, and then realise that she really can't give it. "I wish." She says instead. "It's just a cheap knockoff." And the case does appear that much more battered than before, and the display is rather ordinary. And Rachel's inwardly cursing the lack of pockets in her outfit that make camouflaging it with her brain a necessity. "It could probably do with a tune up, Doug. If you don't mind, I'll bring it along later?" The last is added half over her shoulder, as she starts for the lab.
Harper has itchy fingers as soon as she sees the tablet, at least in those first few seconds she sees the tablet unaltered. It's only with a second look, that Harper sees the case and the display as Rachel wishes her to see it, then those itchy fingers of hers begin to subside somewhat. Still - "Hey, I wouldn't mind a cheap knockoff." Responds the girl promptly, even as she gives the tablet another looking over. "It seems to have a nice strong connection with your wifi, though. That's always a bonus. The cosmetic issues of the case and screen can be dealt with pretty easily."
"And hey, if Doug can't help you with the tune up, let me know. He's not calling me Tink for nothing. I'm really good at tinkering with things and making them better, not to toot my own horn too much. I could even make the case match a favored outfit, if you like." Yes, Harper is going on the assumption that Rachel is a clothes horse, what with the webpage she has open being one for clothing.
And when Ray begins to make her way to the lab, Harper quickly shoulders her bag, intent on going that way herself. Doug did promise a tour after all, all he needs to do now is pay Harper for the parts she brought him.
The quick and furtive reaction Rachel had? Well, that was enough to tell Doug that something was wrong, perhaps that it wasn't the best thing to show Harper. "Oh... yeah," Doug replies, his expression shifting from curiousity to -that- look again at Rachel. Although it really wasn't fair, since Rachel didn't -expect- to have a guest the way Doug did. "I remember now. You still have -that- old thing, Rachel? Just give it to Kitty already, you know how much she wanted to take it apart. Get yourself something new... oh hey, Harper, sell her one of yours if you got one. Anyway, the computer lab is this way..."
And at some point, Doug does eventually cough up the money for the parts, along with a -fifteen percent- markup, which, it was implictly implied in the negotiation, would be for Harper's silence, and future advances on getting Rachel a 'new' tablet BECAUSE SHE WAS A CARELESS WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T DO THE CLOSING... er... ahem... because it was the easiest way to cover up that part _WITHOUT_ mindwiping Harper, no matter how many 'please can I' looks the telepath was flashing at Doug...
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