[Open Log]

[notinthecards]

What: A Cajun cookout.
Who: Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, X-23, and anyone who smells Cajun food and comes to check it out?
Where: The roof of the East apartment building.
When: Shortly before sunset on Thursday the 18th.

Earlier in the day, Remy had spent a great deal of time moving outdoor cooking equipment to the roof and getting it plugged in.

Some of it even belonged to him.

Cajun hush puppies, potato salad, seafood gumbo, chicken fricassee, dirty rice, scallop etouffee, stuffed jalapenos, and a wide arrangement of grilled meats wrapped in pepper bacon were arranged in a half-circle around him, kept in warming dishes or heated occasionally by the brush of a finger. This was going to be a perfect meal. A nice relaxing get-together. He'd make sure of it.

Comments

[notinthecards]

"'Like everybody else' always seem to be the sticking point," he commented, assembling a plate overbalanced with a full assortment of everything he'd put together and passing it to her. There. Now she have to sit down, just to make sure not to spill.

[dontmesswith]

"Seems to be, always the 'us' verses 'them' attitude," she muttered, looking over the plate he handed her. Oh, she can see what he was trying to do, but since there were other people coming around...she could easily say it's for one of the others and not her. That he's preparing plates a head of time for everyone else.

"I'll set this down." She won't sit down though.

[notinthecards]

He sighs a little, but does his best to keep it to himself. This girl, she always have to be as difficult as he can?

Probably. She has reason, too, no? He supposes she does.

"Without them, how we know who 'us' is? ... But then, without 'them,' why we need to know?" He shrugged, a broad loose shrug, almost a stretch.

[dontmesswith]

Being in a new area with people who she doesn't know to much about would set anyone on edge. She was never much of a social butterfly to boot. She was the one who was always off in a corner of a party, talking to one or two people.

"Dunno, but it's that whole mentality of 'either you're with us or against them.' No room to use their brains to think for themselves..."

She looks over Gambit as he stretches wondering how long he's been cooking.

"Shouldn't you be taking a break?"

[notinthecards]

"Kind of you to think of me, cherie. Don't mind if I do."

Making up another plate of himself and kicking back in the chair nearest to her is a matter of moments, and he heaves a gusty, satisfied sigh.

"Everything else can look after itself a moment, I think."

[dontmesswith]

Rogue will step to the side, letting him grab a plate of food before he sits. It feels more awkward to stand and talk to someone sitting down. Damnit, she'll actually take a seat near him.

"You kiddin'? Everyone can serve themselves, unless ya run out of plates and utensils."

[notinthecards]

"A good host keeps the plates spinning. So to speak. But maybe I just be a so-so host and everything work out anyway."

Not smiling at her sitting down. Very carefully not smiling.

"So, how you like it?"

[dontmesswith]

Rogue rolled her eyes at the Cajun, resisting the urge to smack him on the arm or upside the head. He cooked a lot of food and made sure his guests were okay. He was better than a so-so host.

"Everything worked out well because of you. Not the other way around." A compliment as far as Rogue could give without hinting she was actually enjoying his company.

And he's smiling, she'll pretend not to notice it for her own sake.

She shrugs her shoulders a little, looking over the group of people who came.

"It's alright. Like I said, not much of a party person." Or a people person, but she had yet to leave the room or glare at anyone.

[notinthecards]

"In my experience, that just means you haven't found the right party yet. But I meant the food, cherie."

[dontmesswith]

More eye rolling. Why do they keep bringing up parties? Oh, right because they're at one. As for the food, it looks good, smells good and more than likely will taste good too. But, she has yet to take a bite out of anything. Not yet anyway.

"I'd say good by the way some of your guests are eating."

[notinthecards]

No response except a long-suffering sigh, slightly exaggerated for her benefit.

[dontmesswith]

Is he trying to annoy her? She wasn't hungry yet, geesh!

"Somethin' wrong?"

[notinthecards]

"Wrong would be putting it too strongly. Never mind. If there's a life to the party, I never want to be the one damping it. People start to think I was replaced by an evil twin."

[dontmesswith]

That earns Gambit a light chuckle from her. If anyone would be the life of the party it would be him, but dampening it? That was usually her, Scott or Jean's job.

"So then how are ya feelin'?"

[notinthecards]

"How you think, chere? Beautiful weather, perfect food, good company, and the promise of fireworks later... I feel the way anyone does on a holiday. You?"

[dontmesswith]

Then why did he sigh or look perturbed? Maybe she was reading too much into something that's not even there.

"Good, I guess. Tryin' ta get my mind off things." Like figuring out how to get home or get used to being in a room with X-Men that she's never met before.

[notinthecards]

More likely, Remy LeBeau is mercurial, and not the most reliable reporter about his own thoughts and actions. Or alternately, just that changeable in mood.

"Then you come to the right place. Laura, she's slow to make friends, but you never find a better one, Jubilee's a handful, but the friendliest girl I know. The woman's Cpatain Marvel, she leads the Avengers here in town. And the man with the white hair is Dante. He's a no-account rogue. You'd like him.

Or, you don't feel like talking so much, maybe I just break out a deck of cards. Remy ever teach you to play? Tell your fortune for you?"

[dontmesswith]

Rogue takes a mental note of each name, committing it to memory. Though the woman, Captain Marvel, she knows her name is Carol. They had an interesting conversation earlier. As for Remy...

"No, didn't teach me anything..." But he did leave her with his Queen of hearts card. Something she has tucked away in her wallet, but no one needs to know that.

"But fortune telling? You're supposed to use a different set of cards for that."

[notinthecards]

"You mean Tarot. Only if you want to get fancy, chere. The decks were all the same in the beginning. Look."

Lacking a pen and paper, he slides an empty plate forward on the table and pours a measure of hot sauce on it, then draws in it with his finger, demonstrating.

"Four suits in both decks. In Tarot, you have Swords, Cups, Pentacles, and Wands. In playing cards, that's Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. A Club and a Wand, they the same. A Diamond or a Pentacle, they're both money. Look at the shape of the Cup... and Spade, that comes from the spanish word for Sword. You can see the shape of the blade.

"There are other cards in Tarot, Major Arcana. Special cards. But they about things that are bigger than us. Fate. The forces of the world. Not things you want to fool around with, and not anything it does you any good to know."

He licks his finger clean.

"These cards, they got everything in them ordinary people need. They tell you about your troubles, about your heart, about your money, and about your mind. That's all there is to it. You fancy a look, chere?"

[dontmesswith]

Rogue had heard of Tarot before, she had seen some of the psychic booths back in her home town and in New Orleans when Remy took her there. While she never had a reading done before or even had a closer look at the cards herself, she thought each set was different. She stays quiet as Gambit explains the differences, internally smirking at his use of a paper plate and hot sauce to get his point across.

Part of her wants to say no, she doesn't want a reading. She knows she has troubles, who doesn't? Money wasn't an issue for the moment and her mind was focused on trying to get out. Her heart? Considering she was talking to a man to is a version of Remy that she knows, but never really got to know. the logical side of her is telling her no, but what the hell, it can't do much harm, can it?

"Sure, why not. It would be nice to see what you can do aside from playin' solitaire or throwing cards."

[notinthecards]

"Or cooking. Or thieving. Cards may not help with that, but you shouldn't forget it."

There's a deck in his hands at the word thieving, and he shuffles it briefly, cards all but flying between his hands.

"We keep it simple to begin with. Three cards. Past, present, future. If that's interesting, we keep going, if not, then only a moment wasted. Cut the deck."

He waits for her to do so, and then plays one-two-three cards off the top with a flourish. Eight of Spades, Six of Diamonds, Jack of Clubs. Looking down at them, he laughs.

[dontmesswith]

His comments make her let out a soft chuckle. How could she ever forget that he's good a thieving? Though cooking...she had yet to see, but maybe after a few more minutes she'll get up to grab a plate herself and try it out.

She watches him suddenly has a deck in his hands, shuffling the cards like they were nothing and cuts the deck. After that she picks three cards; Queen of Spades, Six of Clubs and King of Hearts. She reveals one of them at a time before looking at his cards.

"What's so funny?" What? Does he have an entertaining future ahead of him?

[notinthecards]

"The cards try to get me in trouble, I think. I tell you what I see here, you be angry at me."

[dontmesswith]

Rogue raised an eyebrow at him, leaning forward to proper her elbow on the table and place her chin in her hand.

"According to some of the X-Men I'm angry all the time, it wouldn't change anythin'." She's not angry just very off putting. Her bark is worse than her bite.

[notinthecards]

"Well, we give it a try, then. I must have been distracted, because both our cards are talking about you."

He slid his trio across the table next to hers and tapped the first two.

"The past, I think we both know. The Eight of Spades, that's troubles on all sides. Feeling trapped. You know you've got to move, but any direction you go, people be hurt. And one of them is always you.

Queen of Spades. La Femme Noire, the Dark Woman, source of all troubles. Her, I don't need to say much more about."