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Nervousness ran through him as he stood inside the comfort of his house. The chill April air was blowing through a nearby window that was open. Max gripped the dark wood windowsill, taking one last look at the Louisiana view he'd learned to call home. The sounds of New Orleans filtered in from afar as people went about their day. He closed his eyes and took them in, holding them for the days he felt homesick back at the mansion. When he finally opened them again, there was a long sigh. Wood creaked behind him as Ben made his way up the stairs, standing just beyond the door frame of their bedroom. Max didn't look back just yet, not wanting to say goodbye. He knew he would have to one day, but this felt too soon.

"Just taking in one last view before I go. I know I'll be back, and I'll try and visit as often as possible, but…" Max's voice trailed off, knowing full well how Ben felt about all of this. He and Casper, and Max figured James as well, despised the X-men. Quite frankly Max couldn't blame them. They seemed to fight for humans more than they did mutant rights. Xaviers poster children of the world and yet where were they when the X-cutioner hit? Where did they stand when Genosha, a mutant island, was being destroyed by the Children of the Vault or Selene's hunger for power? But Max believed he could change them. Fix it from the inside out. Mutants standing for mutants. Not this charade Xavier put on.

“You don’t have to do this to make a difference,” Ben said quietly. He didn’t turn around to look at Max. “You make a difference here with… with Dorian. And with me. Is Xavier’s dream really worth it?” Silence clung to the air for a moment as Max's shoulders slumped. He turned around, making his way toward Ben before taking him in his hands. "This isn't about Xavier's dream. It's about making a brighter future for mutants. For Dorian. The X-Men, whether we like it or not, are the face of mutant kind. If I can change it so that they actually fight for mutants...Dorian could have a brighter future. Brighter than we were given the chance to have." Max looked at his boyfriend with pleading eyes. He needed to do this.

“When I look at you now… I see myself… Before I died,” Ben whispered. “Just promise me… promise me you’ll come back. Promise me you won’t die a martyr. We’ve had enough funerals.” Max pulled Ben in for a hug, holding him there for a moment before pulling back and giving him a kiss. "I promise. I won't die a martyr, I've got a family that I love, and take care of to come back to." He gave his boyfriend a soft smile, pulling his hands away slowly and making a circular motion behind him. A swirl of cosmic energy, black with hints of pinks, blues, and purples, freckled with white, opened up and surrounded a portal behind him now. Xavier's mansion could be seen through it behind him, while those within Xavier's walls would see the inside of Max and Ben's bedroom.

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Max stepped in backwards through the portal, closing it as soon as he was on the other side. Alright Gray, pull yourself together he mentally chastised himself before adjusting his grey wool coat. He chuckled silently to himself, rolling his eyes at his boyfriend's charming way of showing affection. The cold was even more prominent here in New York. Luckily he'd planned for this, wearing more than enough layers for the day. Still, he pulled his coat a bit closer together as he waited for the mansion to help warm him up. He inspected the grounds, trying to catch his bearing as to where in the mansions he'd managed to go, while also looking out for any hints at what Dorian's future might be like here.

Growing up Max had always admired the X-men. Regardless of what his family thought, he had seen them as a symbol of good, a way towards peace that he believed was an option between mutants and humans. He wanted nothing more than to be a superhero, a child growing up within the walls of Xavier’s Mansion while gaining some outworldly powers and helping become that bridge that mankind needed. But his time in the Underground showed him the cracks within this foundation. They needed repair, a new set of eyes to see the problem and help fix it. Max wanted his son to have the opportunities he never had. If his son was a mutant, he didn't need him having to live in a world where people hated him simply because of genetics.

He could see a ghostly silhouette of what he imagined his son would look like running through these halls when he was all grown. Max wanted to give him a better life than his parents gave him. To be raised surrounded by love and not hate. His eyes trailed over until he saw the back of another person nearby. Moving a step closer before calling out to them. "Oh, uh, excuse me. I just got here and I'm a bit lost. Would you happen to know where in the mansion I currently am?"

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It was a bit strange to be back in the normal routine of life. It took Antoinette some time to come down from her experience in an alternate reality. Space jail seemed like a lifetime away compared to that moment. But Carolina was back! And Guin had been a real help with training. Guin was rather tight-lipped about alternate Antoinette but was very encouraging and helpful when it came to Annie wanting to beef up her offensive skills. She was tired of feeling weak and useless.

Antoinette walked through the mall, arm in arm, with her best friend of all time. Little Arnold, the Tribble, sat on her shoulder, curled up under her hair and quite content. Antoinette was on a bit of a mission. She wanted to browse the vintage shops before taking a peek into the few art stores that the mall had. Of course, she gave Carolina full permission to pull her from the stores if she started to get too carried away. At the moment, they were in one of the vintage shops.
Antoinette was flipping through jackets, trying to find something to fit the new look she had in her head. She already had the high stockings and combat boots at home, and she bought the shorts and a few t-shirts from another store. The jacket she had in her mind's eye was specific. She would know it when she found it.

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Carolina was glad to be back with the X-Men, she did miss everyone that was there and she was also glad that everyone was back safely after their space adventures. She had decided to go to the mall, and do a little bit of shopping she wanted to get some new clothes and maybe a few art supplies as well to. Of course she wanted to visit the food court she was getting pretty hungry at the moment, but she stuck with Annie in the vintage store. "So what are you going to get?" Carolina asked Annie, as she took a moment to look around the store herself, there wasnt really anything that interested her yet really.

Then her stomach started to grumble a little bit louder as she looked over at Annie. "After this want to stop by the food court?" Carolina asked Annie, she wondered where all of the others were at the moment who decided to go to the mall. Carolina was kind of craving some asian food at the food court as well. "So how have you been anyway what was space prison like?" Carolina decided to ask Annie looking over at her friend.

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Bethany spent some of the time in her room, she was glad to actually be back home, as she leaned back in her bed she woke up from a nap as Bethany stretched out a bit and grabbed her jacket. She was hungry and wanted to get something to eat as Beth decided to leave her room and headed down the hallway towards the main staircase, when she heard something behind her and turned around to see some new person in the mansion she hadn't seen before. Bethany eyed Max up and down for a moment, he didn't use the front door which was weird to her in her opinion.

"You are in the hallway where the dorms are." Bethany said to him. "Are you looking for someone specifically?" Bethany asked the new person. "If you are looking for Mary, she's in the gardens I can take you if you want, or if you want a tour around the place just let me know. I'm Bethany by the way." Bethany offered to Max.

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Adorned in a dull-gold shirt with sleeves that got wider closer to the wrists, jeans with a beaded cirrus cloud on one back pocket and a cumulus on the other, black loafers, and for accessory, earrings of short yet varying lengths of blue, white and cyan beads bringing rain to mind -and of course her messenger bag slung around herself- Jaclyn stepped out of a dorm. Literally a little lighter than when she had come in today to visit her younger sister, Imogene, as part of the visit included returning one of the rocks from Imogene's growing collection to her. Her little sister had taken to collecting rocks that reminded her of the X-Men (both OG and current), ever since the first one she saw which was the one Jaclyn had been holding onto - her Cyclops rock.
It was a pretty basic rock except for a fissure perfectly down the middle which gave an appearance remarkably like the OG leader's visor.

It was Imogene's first though anyone else who knew of her collection now wouldn't know that - she had her reasons for entrusting the rock to her big sister.
Until now that is, after she had finally happened upon a Beast rock and needed the Cyclops to complete the OG team - it would've stood out to not have it there!

Anyway, Jaclyn understood the whole situation.
There was more to their visit than just rock return -Imogene wasn't the type to ask Jaclyn if she could come just for that kind of thing- but with her sister needing to get on something for school, the visit wasn't too long and Jaclyn's time was now back to being her own.
She walked away from her sister's room heading further down the dorm hallways, when she paused to check something in her bag - she had taken a picture of Imogene's newly completed OG collection and thought she had left her camera, but there it was.

Now where would Jaclyn go?
Aware some of the group had gone to the mall, she was just considering heading off to join them when she heard somebody asking where in the Mansion they were.

Jaclyn turned, but as it happened the voice was directed at somebody else.
She knew Bethany more or less in passing, but -obviously- the new-to-the-mansion young man was new to her.

Jaclyn was further down the hallway than them, not close enough to be auto-in the conversation, just observing it.
A welcoming smile appeared on her face as she was now facing the young man's way; if he shifted his gaze he'd see her.

However something Bethany said in her answer shifted Jaclyn's attention, and her head turned in the direction she'd have to travel to head out to the garden.
There was "something about Mary", lately. Jaclyn could tell. She didn't know her in any way well enough to pry, but wondered if she needed a neutral ear....Then again, any time Jaclyn had seen Mary out in the gardens, well..Jaclyn understand the kind of solace nature could provide.

Jaclyn now looked down at the floor in thought, rather, in decision:
Head to the mall?
Join the welcoming committee?
Join Mary in the gardens? She could always just hang out, quietly, taking the flowers in herself. Be a parallel presence, see if Mary decided to speak to her.

It was a tactic she used on some of the youths at the Outreach Centre if they seemed reticent but needing; just be around, with an open disposition, and let them make the choice.

Jaclyn was still making hers.

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Guin found the little mall at Salem Center to be so cute. The places she typically shopped at were for rich people, filled with useless stores selling things for thousands of dollars, without a single Hot Topic in sight. Nordstroms could only dream of being featured in the sort of places that the Starks would shop - and here, at Salem Center, it was the crown jewel in a dying mall. She secretly hoped that the mall would actually go under within a few years, just because the thought of doing urban exploration of it in, like, a decade sounded so trippy to her.

She popped a pretzel bite into her mouth, having grabbed a little thing at the Annie's. She then offered one to Pietro. "Want one, babe?" she asked him. They had been more or less wandering through the mall. She knew that Mira was at the mall (telepaths always know), but she was avoiding her. And for good reason. Guin was the reason that Mira had killed a lot of people. And they hadn't really talked much since that had happened. They had been good friends once - and now, Guin couldn't help but feel like she was drowning in guilt whenever Mira was nearby. Not a great recipe for an enduring friendship.

"Where do you want to go next - we could go to GameStop, see if they've got anything fun? Or we could go get you some new shoes, those ones are looking kinda worn out already. Didn't we just get those though?" Guin added with a frown. Speedsters did tend to go through shoes pretty quickly - an occupational hazard. "Oooor we could look for one of those silly, like, photo booths - the ones that spit out the strip of pics?"

She was genuinely happy here, just wandering the mall with her husband. It was nice to be back on Earth, too. After everything they had been through, Guin had started attending narcotics anonymous meetings again. It was helpful, just to have a place to go where she could talk about things - maybe not always how she had seen evil versions of her friends and witnessed the wreckage of a world where all hope had been lost, but hey, it was the little things in life that mattered. She had gone on a ski trip with her dad and Pepper as well when they had gotten back in the Swiss Alps. She was already ready for another vacation. Guin was always ready for a vacation.

"Oooh I wonder if we could rent motorcycles somewhere nearby and race them...." Guin then suggested, before eating the bit of pretzel she had offered Pietro.

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Neil wasn't too sure what time he had woken up - or what time it was currently. He had installed black out curtains, letting no helpful rays of sunlight on through. His phone was abandoned on the desk, out of charge. And since he had no roommate at the moment (for which Neil was eternally thankful, he was still getting reacquainted with... well, himself), nothing from the outside world had disturbed him. No, instead Neil had spent hours pacing back and forth around the room, flipping furiously through the Curse of Strahd campaign materials. His last D&D group had been put on pause (read: ended) due to his ex-girlfriend dumping him and fleeing the Mansion, his family imploding with a zombie attack, and most of the X-Men team going off to space, where even Roll20 wouldn't help them.

At some point, Neil had stopped pacing. He had briefly contemplated lying down on the floor while he read, but it hadn't felt natural. No, what had felt more and more natural to him over the past year... were his mutant gifts. He focused on the books and the papers he had been scribbling on, as well as himself, and he had tried to use his telekinesis to levitate all those things at once. It had taken him a few tries to get it down and stable, dropping himself and/or the books a fair amount, before he had managed to pull it off. He was floating about six feet off the ground, his legs crossed, and the books gently floating all around him, going further and nearer as needed.

He could've stayed in that zen like pose for hours.

And maybe he did.

His stomach growled. Neil sighed. He had really been in the zone. And while the drastic change to his appearance had been, well, drastic, it was almost more annoying how many people just no longer recognized him. People had gone up to him, assuming he was a brand new student, and not a member of the X-Men. He had been chastised by one of the teachers for not being in class, despite no longer needing to take any formal classes at the school. And one particularly weird kid had told him that she had loved him in the Phantom Menace, despite having almost zero resemblance to Hayden Christensen.

Neil lowered the books (and himself) down to the ground. Maybe some of the old D&D crew would be getting lunch around now - he could start talking to them about characters they might want to play. He was anticipating somewhat of an uphill battle to get people to switch over to 5e for Strahd, but he had his arguments ready. His stomach growled again. Neil rolled his eyes slightly, annoyed at his own body - it was still weird at times to think of his body as being his, he didn't recognize himself most times when he looked in the mirror. He threw on his jacket and left his room, locking it up behind him.

Not too far down the hall, he saw Bethany talking to someone he didn't recognize. "Don't tell me Lance got hit with a shapeshifting curse too," he joked, his voice somewhat quiet as he walked up to the two.

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Ed had gone for a drive early that morning. It was nice to be away from the mansion. He was, other than the teachers, one of the older people in it and sometimes that could get suffocating. It was one thing back home where everyone was family in one way or another. And he had thought way too much about home. He had to do something about the situation there. His grandfather, the eldest surviving member, wasn't doing great. He was going to turn over the family to Ed soon and that would be a whole different mess. So the morning had been quiet contemplation.

Back at the Mansion, he found himself in the kitchen. He wasn't a great cook, but there had to be something he could throw together for a meal. Most of the actual X-men seemed to be gone. He could hear voices in the hall talking. He recognized a few of them. He couldn't quite make out what was being discussed. Ed considered sticking his head out of the kitchen and finding the source of the talking. That or focus on the snack he was trying to make.

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@Morose "Guina my shoes don't look that bad!" Pietro protested when Guin commented they could see about finding him some new shoes. "Besides these ones are only a week old or so, it's not that bad... Also for the motorcycle thing they are too slooooooow for me, besides why would I ride in a car or on a motorcycle when I can just run? That's way more fun anyway. As for where we should go, up to you, I don't have a preference where."

@Kirah Ed would find out that he's not entirely alone, at least not for very long, as one of the doors to the kitchen burst in and a young girl with yellow fairy wings came zipping into the room, flying around and seemingly flying up to one of the cupboards, opening it up and pulling out what looked to be a jar or cookies or something like that. Her wings fluttering as she hovered in the air, opening the jar and pulling out a cookie before happily munching on it. It took a second for her to even notice that Ed was in the room, but when she did, she pulled another cookie out of the jar and offered it to him, "Want one?" she asked him.

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She wasn't entirely sure what to really think or do at this point, though that wasn't super surprising all things considering. The mall was a bit hectic and all, and people were moving about the food court, and she was just sipping on a soda and people watching for the most part. It was actually kind of relaxing and nice, as the group that had gone to the mall had split up, which meant that she for the most part was off by herself in general at the moment. Though she figured that people would eventually wander and find their way to the food court. That was more of an inevitability really.

The person she first noticed seemingly enter the area wandering around was one of the newcomers to the mansion. What was her name again? It took her a second, thinking on it as it was a bit of an uncommon name or something like that right? Oh, wait a minute, it was Peregrine or something like that right? Mira was pretty sure that was her name, and she figured that she might as well see what sort of person she was. Considering the last new person to the mansion was someone she very much figured out that she didn't like at all within moments of interacting her. Getting up from her spot, she waved slightly at Peregrine, and walked over to her. "Hey there, your name is Peregrine right?" she asked, not entirely sure if she got the name right.

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Well wandering around the mall was getting a bit boring, at least in his mind. Others had gone off various places around the area, and he figured at this point Guin was likely dragging Pietro around everywhere. He contemplated seeing about finding out where all the others were, but decided against it for the moment, though he was a little bit hungry at this point, so there was a chance that he might see about stopping by the food court or something later. Though he did poke his head into a few of the different stores as he walked along in general.

Mainly, he was keeping an eye out for anything that he figured Runa might like when she visited again or decided to come back to Earth or something. She was busy still in general with everything else going on there, so he figured she might enjoy something or whatever that he found. Course he also was not the best at picking anything out for anyone when it comes to gifts or something. Maybe he should see about asking someone else for ideas or something later? Oh well, it didn't matter too much now, he was still just wandering around figuring out what to do.

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She was enjoying being by herself, for the moment anyway. Waving her hand, a few of the flowers nearby burst into full bloom, though her attention was drawn away from that for a moment by something else, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Then the voice in the back of her mind said that a portal popped up within the entrance of the mansion. Well that could be any number of things, especially since the last portal they dealt with resulted in alternate reality traveling. Though those portals had all been more or less closed, leaving nothing to potentially pop up. Unless someone had gotten a hold of the reality stone again. That was not something she wanted to think about.

Getting up from where she had been sort of sitting, she headed back towards the entrance of the mansion. Mary had no idea who or what had decided to show up at this point, but considering there wasn't any commotion or chaos coming from inside of the building, she assumed it likely wasn't someone wanting to start a fight or anything. That was something at least, there wasn't any immediate threat to the mansion or anything like that. It took a second after she walked through the mansion doors to figure out who it was that had decided to appear through a portal, and it was definitely an interesting situation to be in.

"Well you are not someone I expected to easily run into again Max, then again last time I ran into you, was when Wanda decided to warp reality and you helped to change things back. Though we didn't get properly introduced then, after all, we had a few more pressing issues to deal with at that point now didn't we? If I remember correctly your Max right? My name is Marygold Isley. Mind telling me what brings you here to the mansion? I mean we are used to people teleporting in, but most tend to still use the front door if they've never been here before, and choose to teleport outside before walking in. Just saying for future reference." she ended up saying to him, wondering what he was doing there in general.

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As Peregrine roamed the lanes of the mall, on her way to show Detective Ed the pure joy of the corn dog, she was interrupted midthought by a voice she recognized and a figure she had seen before. Peregrine glanced over the girl in front of her (in a totally not creepy way!). Mira. She had met the girl earlier, but they hadn't spoken much. She got the sense that Mira was quiet. Still, her energy was just...chef's kiss. Peregrine could tell they would get along well.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! In my own little world here, literally! Ha ha, umm....yes, my name is Peregrine. You can call me Perry if you want. Or whatever. Call me anything you want. Not in a weird way though! I didn't mean it like that. Perry! Please, call me Perry." Detective Ed stifled a chuckle as Peregine made an idiot of herself. She took a calming deep breath before venturing onward into the unknown. "You're Mira right? It is nice to see you again. Sorry, we didn't get to talk much. Coming to the mansion was like a whirlwind of activity, I barely got to meet anyone."

Peregrine glanced around, wondering what to do next. She still wanted that corn dog. "Oh! You're probably wondering why I was talking to myself just then. I am not crazy I swear! I was talking to my ghost friend. I imagine that's not out of the realm of possibility for you considering the company you keep. He's right here. Name is Edward or Ed. I was just on my way to the food court to show him how American delicacies have advanced since he was alive. Would you like to join us? Me? I guess just me since you can't see him! Ha!"

Jesus Christ Peregine. Get a hold of yourself!

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Flashes of a life long gone ran behind Max's eyes at the mention of Mary. Images of the ginger mutant displayed in his minds eye as a shiver ran down his spine. He had hoped to avoid her for the time being. If his memory served him, she was 'the crazy one' who's very touch envenomed one of their own back in New Orleans. People were different back then, not all was as it seemed, and even the best of them had gone rogue at one point or another. Still, he wasn't quite sure about what to think of Mary at the moment. He realized he'd grown silent, tugging at the edge of his sleeve as he'd thought of how to respond to Bethany before finally rubbing the back of his neck embarrassed. A light chuckle following suit before he finally spoke. "Sorry it's a bit of a long commute from New Orleans to here, so I figured it'd be much easier to simply open a portal between places."

Max looked around the hallway, taking in the sights once more before continuing. "So this is the dorm hallway huh? Hope I didn't disturb anyone, I was jus-" Another person emerged from one of the dorm rooms. Max wondered if they were paired up or if each person got their own room. But something the man had said caught his attention, as if new people weren't interesting enough he brought up two enticing subjects. "I'm sorry a curse? Is it magical in nature? Who else has it? Think I could take a look at it? How'd it even come about? And wait…did you say Lance?" Max recalled the cute kid they'd rescued back in Australia, but quickly dismissed the thought. "Never mind the last question, I doubt its the same guy." he said as his nerves got the best of him and made him ramble.

He tried to create a glass bottle of sparkling water, something to keep his mouth occupied so that he didn't continuously ramble. There was a slight wave of his hand, the magic flowing just above the surface when a new voice cut into the conversation. Instantly the nebulous energy dispersed as Max was hit with an overwhelming presence. Something had entered into the room alongside Mary, it felt powerful and, if Max had to savor a guess based on the intensity of that power, ancient. When his eyes met hers, fire flashed across them, gone by the next moment that he'd blinked. This wasnt good. He cleared his throat, before giving her a smile and trying to play it off. "Ah yeah, Wandaworld. Not a lot of time to get to know everyone fully there, but I made some great connections I'd say. We met briefly at the…Lebeau Casino yeah? I'd shake your hand but…I distinctly recall that being a bad thing I think?" Max turned so that he was facing all three of them now.

"For those who don't know me already I'm Maximillian Gray, former member of the Mutant Underground. Sorry for the random portal I just needed a quick way to get here from New Orleans. You know how it is, trying to spend as much time as I can with the family before finally leaving for here. I guess you could say I'm the newest addition to Xavier's and…a bit thirsty. Any chance this tour will have sparkling water?" Max spied another figure down the hall, though she hadn't interacted with the group so far so he moved his attention back to those before him. "So Bethany, Mary, aaaand I don't think I caught your name?" The man was handsome, and had Max been single he would've easily attempted to slip in a flirtatious comment as well.

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”Mmm, something oversized. Maybe like a bomber-style jacket or… FOUND IT!” Antoinette pulled out a vintage, bomber styled jean jacket and quickly slipped it on to see how it felt and looked. Antoinette’s creative mind slipped into overdrive when she thought about how she could put her own unique spin on it. She loved the artwork or graffiti people would put on clothes and wanted to do something similar.
”Okay, let me pay for these, and then we can go eat.” She had found another shirt in her wanderings, and she found another jacket as she walked to the till. It looked like a couch pattern on a coat, but it was floral and Antoinette loved it. Everything paid for, Antoinette kept her new jean jacket on and walked out of the store with Carolina, heading for the food court.

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As often happened in Jaclyn's life, things transpired that negated her deciding.
In this case, Mary suddenly walked in.

Jaclyn's attention thus remained with the growing welcoming party - increasingly so with what she was hearing.
So this Max was capable of resetting a warped reality?
Apparently Jaclyn had missed some portalling he just did.

She had to smile as he suddenly started firing questions at Neil.
Her little sister was the full-of-questions type with things that lit her interest as well, though Imogene's style wasn't so rapid!

Jaclyn was learning a lot from the continuing conversation - a lot from Max and -save for that curious detail about it being a bad thing to touch Marygold's hand- mainly about him. He was from New Orleans, had a family, and had been a member of the Mutant Underground...Jaclyn wasn't initiated in what exactly that was, and she wondered if his "former" status was his decision or somebody else's.
She also learned he enjoyed sparking water.

Jaclyn had an unopened bottle of water in her bag, but it wasn't sparkling. I wonder if there are any mutants who have the ability to carbonate things, she wondered in her thoughts, only half seriously.

But hold on - speaking of abilities, preceding much of this aforementioned info seemed to be some power attempt. Jaclyn had distinctly noticed Max doing something with his hand but then it was like he'd been interrupted. Was it Mary he was looking at, then? Jaclyn wondered if Mary had telepathic powers and had just said something to only him.

By the time Max's attention reverted to Neil, Jaclyn was beginning to feel like a 5th wheel adjacent to the conversation, and got the idea to head into the kitchen. She knew sometimes things could fall be the wayside in conversations, even or especially in groups, and just in case the "tour" decided to proceed without acknowledging that thirsty detail, she thought she'd grab a bottle of sparking water for Max.

She would introduce herself when she brought it back for him.

Upon entering the kitchen, she was met by a scene of some fanciful delight: a young girl with charming yellow fairy wings sharing cookies with - oh, Edus Penior. For some reason Jaclyn felt...vaguely off kilter when he was around.

She reverted attention to the young girl, smiling: "Hello, Tatl. What have you been up to, lately? Besides the higher cupboards," she joked.

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Carolina followed alongside Annie throughout the store as she decided to pick out a jacket and some other clothes as well to, her stomach was growling a little bit louder now. "Some food sounds great to me, i'll pay what were you craving?" Carolina asked Annie once she had checked out, she then headed out of the store, the mall was pretty busy as she watched some of the people walking by. Carolina shoved her hands into her pockets when she saw someone familiar as she got a little bit closer it was Lance.

"Hey Lance, how are you doing?" Carolina called out to him as she managed to catch up to Lance, she hadn't really talked to him since the rest of the team had gone off to their space adventures. She kind of regretted not going with them all, it sounded pretty interesting, except for the space jail and reality warping stuff. [color=cyan["Annie and I were headed to the food court did you want to come with?"[/color] Carolina asked Lance.

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Bethany leaned herself slightly up against the wall as she looked at Max as he explained him opening up a portal from New Orleans to here, though she was wondering still why he didn't just go through the front door anyway, like anyone coming to the mansion would. She heard a door opening, and turned her head to see that it was Neil coming out. "Nope it's just a new person coming to the mansion." Bethany told Neil as she saw Jacyln coming out of her room to and gave her a slight wave. She didn't really know the girl all that well really other then seeing her around the mansion, when Mary finally came over as well to.

She looked between Mary and Max, the two seemed to know each other already apparently from when Wanda rewrote reality, which was something she had missed out on sadly. "Thats Neil." Bethany told Max when he asked who Neil was, she wasn't really sure what happened really when Neil ended up getting a full makeover. Bethany then gestured towards the other end of the hallway to where Jaclyn had gone down as Max asked for some sparkling water. "We can head to the kitchen if you want and we can start there if you want." Bethany told Max.

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Guin rolled her eyes at Pietro's complaints about motorcycles being too slow. "Maybe I'll have to go race them with Lance, then," she suggested, sticking her tongue out slightly. It was rough being married to Pietro Maximoff at times, particularly as while Guin's mind could more or less keep up with him, her body could not. She ate another bit of pretzel bites, thinking for a moment as to where she wanted to go next, as Pietro seemed to have zero ideas. She was mildly suspicious that he had already zipped around this entire mall.

She pulled out her phone, and shot off a text to Mary -


"Leeet's go to GameStop, then. Maybe they'll have something fun that I can rip apart and rebuild," Guin proposed. Refurbishing an old Wii or GameCube sounded like a fun project. It'd be a nice thing to do in her spare time. There were moments when it was almost awkward, being into machines and robotics, when part of the X-Men - as famously, robots and mutants didn't tend to mix. Guin was pretty sure her X-gene was somewhat of a cosmic joke at this point. She then turned on the ball of her foot, and started walking off to the GameStop. After that, she had nooo idea what she was going to do. It'd come to her in the moment. Provided they didn't get attacked spontaneously. That did tend to happen. Ruined the vibe sometimes.

She shot off a text to Lance as they walked -

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Neil felt somewhat flustered by the newcomer's rapid fire questions - and immediately regretted making the slight joke he had to Bethany. It was one thing to joke about that around people who weren't versed in magic, and either this man was really into LARPing, or he was magical himself. Neil sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. "... I'd rather you didn't, to be honest," Neil told Max. He didn't know the man at all. He'd never met him before. The best of the best of Neil's family hadn't been able to remove the curse, and having this stranger examine him... it made Neil feel vulnerable and afraid.

Thankfully, he was saved by the bell - or rather, the Phoenix. Neil relaxed ever so slightly when Mary showed up. She was the leader of the team, dealing with magical newcomers was quite literally her job description. Neil tried to silently communicate to Bethany that the two of them could leave - he did still want to pick her brain some about D&D - but instead she invited Max to go along with them to the kitchen - the exact place Neil needed to go, as his grumbling tummy kept reminding him. He kept trying to read the body language of the people talking, to figure out what sort of person this Max was - and wait, did he say he had a family? Neil was trying not to judge, but he looked a little young for that. But maybe he was actually, like, 500 years old - magic people tended to age weirdly. Neil had a baby cousin who had been born in the Stone Age and was still, by all intents and purposes, a baby. They still had to use a pacifier.

He cleared his throat slightly, as Bethany spoke for him. "Neil Spellman - Solstice, if you want my mutant name," Neil offered, before holding out a hand for Max to shake. If he knew about Neil's family and had a problem with it, it would be better for them to figure it out now and get it out of the way. His reaction - ideally lack thereof - to that name would be the deciding factor. He was curious about this Mutant Underground stuff as well - the name was vaguely familiar.

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"Hello, Tatl. Yes, I would like a cookie, thank you." Ed smiled at the young girl and took the offered cookie. He bit it into munching while proceeding to work on the charcuterie board. It seemed it might be used by more than just him as Jaclyn entered the room. He hadn't had much chance to speak with the new member of the X-men, but he was aware she had a younger sibling that went to the school.

"Hello, Jaclyn." He nodded and put the finishing touches on the charcuterie board. "Were you looking for something to eat? If so please feel free to have some from this."

"I heard voices coming from the hall, is everything alright?" Ed assumed it all probably was okay if Jaclyn was in here, or whatever was happening was outside her prevue. That happened at the mansion often enough. He didn't get involved with any of the school's things. He wasn't a teacher. But it was nice to have kids around. It reminded him of home when it was busy. Those were always interesting times.

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@Morose "So mean. Not my fault there isn't anything that can actually keep up speed with me when it comes to cars and all. Pretty sure me running across the ocean is faster then flying in the jet or something like that, at least when it comes to travel. Though sometimes it does get tiring so I'm fine taking a backseat... Anyway, sure, let's go to Gamestop."

@Kirah@Master EffeX "Hi!" Tatl said with a bit of a wave, before she started munching on another cookie from the jar. "Don't tell my brother I was here or something though. He raided the cookies last time before I could get to them! It was so mean and ruuuude! And I've just been flying around bored out of my mind. Hence raiding the cookie jar. It is so boring sometimes, and people get mad if I go outside and fly up too high since they think my wings will give out and I'll fall, but I know what I'm doing!"

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Well Mira wasn't expecting the whole rambling bit of word vomit that was coming out of Peregrine's mouth. The first thing that crossed her mind was hoping that the girl wasn't like Iris, because that girl got on her nerves and did not understand what boundaries were despite her trying to get her to see them. Yeah, that was what mainly led her to not liking Iris and basically in the end outright hating her. She wasn't too thrilled over how things seemed to have ended for Iris (actually she felt bad for Pietro for what he ended up doing because of it) but she wasn't super upset that she wasn't at the mansion anymore.

"How about you slow down a little bit okay?" she said, trying to calm her down a little bit before she kept rambling or something like that a bit. Her attention shifted to what she mentioned with regards to the ghost that was surprisingly following her around and all that she was talking to. "Just be a bit careful when talking to him in front of the others, especially since one member of the team is named Ed, so you don't want to potentially cause some confusion with that. As for food, I already munched on something, but I can tag along or whatever still if you want," she said, taking a sip from her soda cup and all.

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He was starting to get a little bored at this point wandering around a bit still by himself, though he was making his way around, not fully wanting to sit still and do nothing. He wasn't really hungry, so getting a snack or something didn't make any sense, but also the stores weren't really seemingly having anything interesting in them that he might want to stop by and look at for whatever reason. Yeah, he was maybe going to go try and find the others somewhere or something like that.

Lance was interrupted from his own thoughts though by the sound of his phone going off, and he pulled it out to see what it was. The message from Guin made him laugh a little bit out loud, and he thought for a moment on how best to really respond to it.



He hit send on the message, before now he started wandering around trying to see if he could find Guin and Pietro. Well at this point it was partially him keeping an eye out for the speedster, since the guy was tall and with his natural hair color he tended to stick out like a sore thumb. It was just overall easier to try and find him and all.

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Well it seemed like Max did remember who she was in general. Though it sounded like he was confusing her more or less a bit with well, technically the person who was the voice in her head, that being Chrysi. "I don't typically do that plus way more control over it then originally when it first popped up. Pretty sure you're confusing me for the other redhead who was running around, I was typically the person undoing it, she almost killed me there too so yeah," she ended up saying. Something about Max was bugging her a little bit with the way he worded things, but she couldn't entirely figuring out what it was.

"Not sure he fully trusts you or anything due to what he perceives about the alternate reality." the voice in her head spoke up.

"Also maybe try being a bit more trusting of people and don't seemingly expect the worse, especially if you want to be on the team. Too much distrust and arguing can cause things to kind of capsize like a boat. Trust me on that one. Now if you want to go over to the kitchen it isn't that far from here... The others that you met from the reality that Wanda had made aren't here ironically, just me. Lance, Guin, Pietro, Annie and Carolina are off with a few other members of the team actually at the nearby mall wandering around. They should be back later though." Her attention was drawn away for a brief moment by her phone as a message from Guin popped up in it.



She sent her reply before looking at the others, before motioning for Max to follow along, "As mentioned, kitchen is this way, so let's go then. And we can talk a bit more about what made you decide to hang around here at the mansion with us."

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Whoever the girl was towards the end of the hall, had disappeared into another room. Max figured he'd get to meet the rest in time, though he wouldn't have minded if she had decided to join them in on the conversation. There was a mental shrug within his mind as he moved his attention back towards those at hand. It didn't take a telepath to see that Max had already made Neil some form of nervous, as the guy politely declined his offer to investigate his magical curse further. Max took a step back, a tinge of pink barely hitting his cheeks as embarrassment washed over him. His interest in magic had caused him to forget this man was a complete stranger to him. "Right. Sorry…" he replied sheepishly towards Neil.

Bethany was kind enough to interject into the conversation, both answering his question about what this man's name was, as well as offering to take them towards the Kitchen for the first leg of their tour. He gave her a polite smile as he nodded in agreeance before Neil added towards his name. "Spellman, Spellman? Spellman!" Max said with a snap of his fingers as the name finally clicked into place. "That's soooo cool! Oh, that kinda changes things huh? Are there Halliwells? Cromwells? Sandersons? Or…it could just be a common family last name where you're from too I guess." the end coming off with a chuckle as his nerves hit again. The Mutant name hit home as well, it marked an important time for witches and magical practitioners, but Max didn't want to dig his hole too deep so he kept quiet on that front. Full glad when Mary decided to take point on finally getting this tour moving along.

"No worries Mary, I'm not naturally the distrusting type. I mean some of the people I've worked alongside…well…let's just say it required a lot of trust." Max wasn't about to mention how he willingly followed Emma Frost, or paired up with Magneto, or that the entirety of WandaWorld required him to do nothing but trust, mostly because two out of three of those were about old known enemies of the X-men and he didn't need to create bad blood this early. As Mary listed the names of those who were at the mall that he might know, his smile quivered for a second at the mention of Guin and Pietro. One of them had threatened his life several times, the other…well she felt slighted back then and he'd hoped she'd have gotten over it by now. He didn't recognize Carolina's name, nor Annie's; perhaps she was one of the ones on the other two teams. But Lance had to have been the cute Australian, except what was he doing all the way out here?

Max tried to make small talk as they walked down the hall, starting with Mary before moving on towards the others. "Should be nice seeing them all again. I kept trying to do a reunion back when I was with the Underground but…well a lot happened between then and now so there was never really a good time. Though I did meet up with Novikova at one point. Big Help. Oh but enough about me, what about you guys? Mary I know a little bit about but Bethany and Neil what're your powers? If…that's ok asking that is." as they stopped by the door to the kitchen, Max began to open it when he saw the girl earlier, a child, and…Ed?! His heart beat so fast as if he was running in a nightmare, his chest felt tight, taking one step towards him slowly before - "Ed?" His voice cracked slightly as he fought back the lump in his throat. He was dead. How could he be alive if he was dead? It didn't matter. Max rushed towards his fellow purveyor of the mystic arts and gave him a tight hug. "Ed I didn't think I'd see you again. How? When?" It had been 8 months since Max last saw Ed, 8 months since his death on Max's birthday.

Jaclyn was of a few minds when it can to that charcuterie board:

• She had already had an early lunch with her sister. However, one could always find room for something from such a spread.
  The seemingly honeyed fruits and macarons were most drawing her eye - plus that attractive purple something between what looked to her like pepperoni and mozzerella cheese; she's sure she'd never seen that in the fridge before.
• Could she get away with stashing just a bit in a container for later, without seeming rude?
  Her years on the streets still hung with her: when there was food around, you stocked up in some way or another, just in case. Plus, Imogene would love this.
• Helping oneself to something that somebody else prepared not necessarily with you in mind -did Edus commonly assemble this for his + other's enjoyment?- well, there were just things. Social things about that.

In the end, she was given an "out" so to speak, as Edus followed up with a question. Which she answered with a casualness that belied any overthinking just a minute ago. "Oh, yeah. Somebody new came in. Just apparently the way they did caused a bit of a stir."

Jaclyn was about to explain how she'd actually come to grab a sparkling water for the new arrival when Tatl spoke up about not telling her brother, who had apparently made a gluttonous raid of the cookie jar some other time. Jaclyn made an appropriate face: The audacity!
"I bet you do," she said in response to Tatl insisting she knew what she was doing when it came to flying.

In Jaclyn's experience, the one who knew a mutant's limitations the best -excepting Professor Xavier- was the individual mutant themself. Though, there were two kinds of limits; the limit of power, and the limit of personal ability a.k.a. comfort zone.

In any case, Tatl was still very young, and Jaclyn wasn't one to be irresponsible, so she added: "But you know what? Most of the others here have never gone up high. Not on their own steam, anyway. That makes it scary. And since they care about you, well, it just gives them near heart attacks to see you flying high! So it's a good thing you're so respectful listening." She smiled. Then, getting an idea started to suggest: "Maybe sometime-" but she wouldn't finish.

Just then the others came in - with Max responding to Edus as though he'd seen a ghost --and then, Jaclyn got it.
Well, she got that something had happened, anyway.

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Perry took two, no wait, three calming breaths before opening her trap again. "Sorry! Little nervous getting to know people. Trying to make friends has always been an issue, as I am sure you can imagine, so I tend to jump headfirst and overexplain myself. Ok, trying this again," Perry centered herself and smiled, "Hello, yes I am Peregrine. Please call me Perry. I am looking forward to getting to know you better and working with the team!"

At the mention of the other Ed, Perry glanced at the detective. He seemed unbothered by the conversation. "Well I can see how that may be confusing. I guess I'll just have to call the detective Edward. Oh! Or I can call the other Ed by a nickname. I'll have to get to know him first, of course."

Perry glanced around. She still wanted to get something, but if Mira already ate, was it rude to stuff her face as she watched? "We could do something else, if you want. I can eat later. Or maybe we can head over there and run into the others that came here? No. You know what? Let's head to the food court. I need that corn dog in my life." Perry turned and headed in the direction of the food court, hoping Mira followed. "So, what brought you to the team? Any cool mission stories to share?"

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Antoinette bounced along beside Carolina as they walked. She nuzzled Arnold with her cheek when they spotted Lance. She waved cheerfully to him when Carolina addressed him, but he seemed a little lost in thought. Then he turned and walked away from them. Antoinette’s smile fell a little before quickly picking it up again. She squeezed Carolina’s arm.
”He’s been a little off since space… Plus, I think he misses Runa. Come on, let’s go get some food,” she said and dragged Carolina to the food court. Part of Antoinette wanted to pursue Lance to ensure he was okay, but he probably needed space.
In the food court, Antoinette spotted Mira talking to someone with long hair at a table. ”Oh, look! There’s Mira. Maybe we can join her after we find something to eat. I’m not really sure what I am in the mood for…" She scanned the various food establishments, trying to glean some inspiration. "Maybe a noodle bowl of some kind… What are you thinking?” She asked Carolina.

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Carolina watched Lance a little bit longer as she felt Annie practically dragging her along and giggled slightly as she continued to walk alongside Annie. She nodded slightly it was probably weird meeting your counterpart and whatnot from an alternate reality, reality she did meet her future self briefly and managed to stop that future from happening awhile back. "Yeah I can understand if Lance wanted some space or something." Carolina said as she made her way into the food court.

Carolina started to think a little bit what she wanted to actually eat. "I'm thinking Chinese maybe." Carolina said as she started to dig through her purse and pulled out her wallet. She looked over to see Mira and the new girl Peregrine were talking and waved to the two of them. "Lets go talk to them first." Carolina said as she made her way over to Mira and Peregrine. "Hey whats up you guys?" Carolina said giving the two of them a smile.

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Bethany looked over at Neil for a moment, feeling a little bit bad that she just invited Max she had a feeling that he wanted to talk to her privately or something. She listened to the conversation between Mary and Max she didn't know anything about Wanda remaking reality other than the stories that the others had experienced with it. Mary then started to lead Max towards the kitchen she looked at Neil for a moment and gave a slight shrug and started to follow them as well to but stayed alongside Neil. "Want to DoorDash something and talk about DnD later today?" Bethany asked him.

Her attention quickly turned towards Max asking what she could do with her abilities and gave a slight shrug. "I can basically manipulate darkness and the shadows around us, and make them solid, and small teleportation if you want to call it that with it as well." Bethany told Max as they entered the kitchen, her attention turned to Ed as Max went over to hug Ed giving him a slightly confused look.