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Madalyne looked at April as she started to apologize to her and walked up to her friend and gave her a quick hug and smiled towards her. "It's fine, but now you have to owe me some free dinner or a movie since you hurt my feelings. Unless you want to do some shopping together for Dorian's birthday or whatever." Madalyne said teasingly towards April, though she was still hurt slightly she knew that April didn't mean it really, some witches were pretty evil anyway though she knew Agatha wasn't bad. Madalyne did learn from her after all anyway. She watched as some of them decided to go off and check out the Kree ship that was there. "I'll stay here, Dorian just let me know if you want me there or not." Madalyne called out to Dorian as the others headed off the group was a little bit to much for her at the moment, and if Dorian wanted her at his party then she'd be with them a little bit longer.

Madalyne's attention turned towards Percy and Zarina as the two of them continued to talk to one another they seemed to already know one another in some way. "I'm really sorry for my friends I know that they can be a little bit much at times." Madalyne said quietly to Percy, she did enjoy her roommate April quiet a lot and she enjoyed her as a roomie, and her friends but Dorian and Danny did tend to be a little bit to much at times even she needed some space by herself from time to time, which was probably why she spent more of her free time in the occult section of the Academy's library. "So how do you two know each other anyway?" Madalyne asked looking between Percy and Zarina.

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Diana turned to Vision asking how both her mothers were and smiled. "They are both doing really good I think they are planning on some vacation with my aunt Kristina pretty soon while Percy and I are here at school." Diana answered Vision, she knew that Vision had changed completely at one point and said something very hurtful to Wanda which resulted in the divorce. But Diana didn't really know to much on the details of all that really other than it ended up being a pretty nasty divorce that was on just about every news network and SuperLink as well to. "So how have things been with you Vision, have you and Wanda worked things out?" Diana asked she was curious how he was anyway and how he was handling things with the divorce to.

her attention quickly turned to Zelda, Mary Sue, Teddy, Adere and Vicky. "Oh yeah why I know Mary Sue, and Zelda all our parents were apart of a SHIELD team but they aren't really a thing anymore and went onto other things." Diana told them she knew Zelda a bit more than Mary since she was friends with Zelda's older sister April. Diana then turned to see Leah coming over to them and she gave a friendly nod towards Leah. "Hey there Leah." Diana said to her, she then snapped her fingers looking at Teddy. "Oh yeah after this i'm gonna go to Agatha's want to come with?" She asked her friend.

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Sabine allowed Dorian his moment. It was the least she could do after seeing him stick it to the flaming freshman. Everyone appeared to be heading to the ship. Sabine did not want to go to the ship. Thankfully, as if God herself was looking down on her and said 'girl same', Sabine got a ping to her email. After checking it, she saw that a package arrived for her. It was probably her father sending her something after today's breakfast spectacle.

She took this moment to get out of seeing some dumb spaceship. "Hey, I just got a package sent to me. Any of you want to come check it out with me?" She directed this mainly to the peeps whose opinions she actually gave a fuck about. If any of the losers wanted to come, she'd let them, she supposed, but maybe she could also run and lose them in the crowd.

"We out here checking packages?" Chi Mai mused tilting her head towards Sabine. "Shit, I'm down, bebe." she continued, lacing her hands behind her head and gravitating over towards Sabine's orbit. To say that she was thankful for the out would be putting it mildly. She had love for D&D (fuck, she had love for everyone in her little way), but she was not remotely high enough to go check out a hunk of space junk and call it fun. Yet.

Besides...it gave her a reason to dodge the selection. Danni had brought up that they only had room for about four people at the birthday dinner, and like a sleeper who had just heard the codewords, she was activated - Operation Ghost was a go. She'd take herself out of sight, and hopefully, out of mind. It's a lot easier to cut somebody when they're not there. For as much as she loved to be around people, she loathed that aspect of social gatherings. It was simple logic that there wouldn't always be room for everybody, that some people wouldn't make the cut, but that didn't mean that she was happy about it. No matter how kindly it was put, somebody would get hurt. Somebody would be excluded. Somebody would be alone. If she didn't participate, then she didn't have to deal with the guilt of taking somebody else's spot - or even worse, not being selected for one in the first place.

She'd be fine. If anybody could find some sort of shit to get up to alone, it was Chi Mai. She had her weed, she had her guitar, she'd be fine. She'd be fine...

"What'd you order?" she asked as she approached.

As the two of them ventured away from the ship, Sabine merely shrugged. "Beats me. Probably from my father as a means of apologizing for how horrendous his new wife is or how annoying his new children are. He usually does buy me something whenever my horror of a step-mom does or says anything that pisses me off."

Though it was odd that he would send it to the mail room. Usually she got it the next time she saw them. Still, maybe he felt really bad at this moment in time.

They would arrive at the mail room relatively quickly. It was open. Sabine stepped inside, allowing the coolness of the building to wash over her. She hated the heat, even if it was mild. The kind-looking clerk glanced up at them as they approached. "Sabine Bassard. I believe I have a package." The clerk nodded and went to go retrieve it, leave them there for the moment.

"I am really sorry about your fortune Mai. Want me to alter her memory to make her think she's a chicken? That's always fun." Though she doubt she could. Agatha was powerful, to be sure. But if it put a smile on her friend's face, she would damn well try.

Mai chuckled at the offer, but didn't answer one way or the other, not at first. She threw her head back, basking in the cool, refreshing bliss that was air conditioning. "Fuuuuucccckkkk..." she groaned, seemingly at the relief of the temperature. In truth, she didn't want to think about Agatha and her fucking readings anymore but the old hag's words were playing on loop in her head and Sabine's reassurance had made her aware of it again.

The deceptions must cease to be - or you will.

She didn't want to worry Sabine - to worry anyone - but didn't the fact that her first instinct was to hide the fucking doom prophecy sort of prove the witch bitch's point? It was agonizing but...

"So...uhh..." she started before she was even aware that she had decided to confide. "Apparently I'm uhm...making promises I can't keep or whatever the fuck that means, because I'm going to die." Chi Mai confessed nervously with a chuckle. "She said 'your current path will lead to your untimely death.' and I uh...I mean, she's like...she's just fucking with me, I know, but..." she trailed off, looking away, focusing on a poster taped to the wall. Her words had escaped her. Whatever else she had wanted to say was lost as she fought against tears. She was not about to cry in front of Beanie. That wasn't fucking happening. She could hold it together. Barely, but as long as a tear didn't escape, that was a win.

Agatha had to be mental to tell a teenager that. Sabine knew (from movies and tv and the internet) that the Death tarot card did not mean actual death, but a symbolic death.

Sabine got the sense Mai wanted to unleash all the emotions she was feeling, but was hold it back. For both of their sakes. so Sabine decided, she would tell hers. "I'm basically going to have to face my past and change or my future looks bleak. I think she's off her rocker. No wonder she's retiring." She looked at Mai who was looking everywhere else but at her. "You are not going to die Mai. I'll burn the entire world before I let that happen."

Thankfully, the clerk returned, holding a rod-shaped package. Questionable look aside, the clerk glanced at them, one on the verge of tears and one looking pissed all-the-way-the-fuck-off, and left to the back room to give them space.

Sabine glanced at the package. A note was attached to it. Another oddity. Her father never added notes or wrote cards. He didn't need to. Sabine picked up the note and opened it. There was nothing written on it. Though she got the sense someone had tried. There were little indents on it. she turned it over and back again. "The hell? Who would send me a package and not sign it. There's noth-.."

Sabine saw something at the bottom. She read it. Read it again.

No, there was no fucking way. At the bottom of the note was one word, but the word sent a cold shiver up her spine. It had to be a cruel joke. If it was her father, he was fucked up. If it was her step-mother, she was dead.

Maman

Mom.

"...what's up, Beanie-baby?" Chi Mai asked, rubbing a totally dry eye because there was dust - definitely not tears - in it. In the silence that had fallen upon the two while they waited for the package, Chi Mai covered her face and totally did not cry. That would be their story. Even if Chi Mai had - which she fucking didn't - after Sabine's proclamation, who could have blamed her? Chi Mai didn't do this. She didn't open to up to people. Not really. It was fucking terrifying. Every insecurity in her had protested the act and yet she had done it anyway. And in her most raw, vulnerable state, there was reassurance. Though Sabine might not have thought much of it at the time, it had rocked Chi Mai's world. She had been expecting to be told that she was overreacting, that she was being too much again, that perhaps Sabine would need a 'break' from her, any number of things she had heard from friends in the past, but this was...new. Even with her own family, although loving in their own way, there was very much an expectation to be strong, to not be a burden to others. To cry - which she still wasn't, fuck off - in front of them was to be told to get one's shit together, although in more polite terms. It was weakness and that would not be accepted.

Was this what actual friends were like? What the fuck...?

Finally turning her red, puffy eyes to Sabine, she noticed the expression on the other girl's face and it sunk her own heart. "Beanie...?" she called, unsure how to reassure her obviously distressed acquaintance- no, friend?

Sabine wanted to scream. But she bit her tongue. Now was not the time and place to freak out. Mai was in a delicate state. This would only add to the pressure.

But seriously, what the fuck.

Sabine took the note and crumpled it and put it in her pocket. "Sorry, just rocked me for a moment. Seems I was right. It was sent by my family." Technically, not a lie. Though the reality was.....what was reality anymore? Her mom was dead. She went to her funeral. She watched them bury her.

Sabine shook it off. She would freak out later. She grabbed the package and started ripping it open. She didn't know what to expect from someone from beyond the grave. She got it free and looked inside.

This had to be a joke, right?

Sabine looked at Mai and then back at the gift before reaching in. Mai would see, being pulled out as if it were the story of King Arthur, a sword. It felt like a real sword. It looked like a real sword. But surely she wouldn't have been gifted a real sword? Who did that? And how did it get past security?

Even at a school for superheroes, this had to cross a line right? "I just got a fucking sword..."

Teddy offered Zelda a nod in response to her rather terse introduction. She didn’t want to talk and he didn’t want to pry. They could coexist in quiet peace. The other one however…

“Oh, no, no, I completely get it, haha.” Teddy chuckled at Victoria awkwardly, patting the air between them with two oversized mitts. “I don’t uhh… really get out much either so…uh…” he trailed, having lost the plot, unsure of how to approach her ‘offer’ to spar. To tell the truth, despite being as well-equipped for it as he might seem, Teddy utterly loathed violence. It was something he struggled with, because it often felt like the simplest, most reliable solution was just…violence. And if that was really the case, then what was the real distinction between a hero and an enforcer? The outfit? No, there had to be something else, and to Teddy, that difference was the willingness to exhaust every other avenue of resolving a conflict first.

“But uh…maybe. We’ll have to see,” he answered, shrugging. She was hardly the first person to want to fight the Big Bad Bear just to see if they could, but at least in the case of someone like Leah, for example, Teddy knew her heart was in the right place - even if he disagreed fundamentally on her overreliance on violence. But Vicky? Teddy didn’t know her from Adam, so for her to just immediately jump to wanting to fight, well, it rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was too harsh to draw conclusions about Victoria’s character from a harmless little throwaway comment…but Teddy would be lying if he claimed it didn’t make him think just a little less of her.

Teddy turned back towards Diana as she began to explain her connection to the freshmen. “Ah…right. SHIELD. Of course.” he hummed, nodding as if that were the most mundane profession she could have listed. Though, to be honest, after three full years of this sort of madness, he’d probably have been more surprised if she had said their parents had been just dentists. Obviously the answer was going to be secret agents. When his friend continued by nodding towards Leah, Teddy nearly did a double take. Had he just summoned her? Maybe his real mutant power was manifesting unstable lesbians? He gave the grounds a subtle scan for Chi Mai just in case. Satisfied that he wasn’t about to have a sentient backpack - again - his gaze snapped back to Diana when she snapped.

“Uh, yeah, that works. I actually wanted to stop by and wish her well before she left anyway.” he nodded, thrilled to have somebody else to go with. Having Diana tagging along would make approaching Agatha a bit easier. She could be a bit…intense. He wasn’t entirely sure if she actually knew who he was, but overall, he liked her and he was a bit bummed to hear she was leaving, so it only seemed fitting to send her off.

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She wasn't too sure about being around this kind of large group of people, since she didn't really know any of them. Zelda barely even knew really Diana, and that was mainly more or less through her sister more then anything. Though the fact that Diana decided to just full on talk about the whole SHIELD thing did annoy her a bit, since to her it was dumb to just bring that sort of thing up when literally no one asked about it.

"Why bring up the SHIELD thing? No one asked and it is really dumb to do that," she ended up saying, looking over at Diana. That was not the way to get people to potentially sit there talking with you, by basically telling all about them to random strangers who they don't know. "No one asked, and honestly not exactly nice since the rest of us don't know everyone else and aren't exactly comfortable with you starting to share life stories or anything like that..." she kept her voice kind of low and quiet, not entirely sure what else to say about it. But it was annoying to her that Diana decided to just start saying all of that without thinking of how anyone else would feel about that.

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Zari giggled a little bit, since her attempt to distract Percy from the stupidity that was going on seemed to be successful at this point. When Percy asked her about whether or not she had a girlfriend with regards to Andy, her face did go a little red, "Maaaaaaaaaybe. I'll explain the story laaaaaater after fortunes. Though any stories you could tell about me eh, honestly you don't even know half of the really ridiculous ones from when I wasn't hanging around yooooou." she said with a bit of a smile.

"01001000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101100 01100100 01101000 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01100100 00100000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01110101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100101 01101101 01100010 01100001 01110010 01110010 01100001 01110011 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00101110 00100000 01001100 01100101 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00101110"

"I mean kind of true," she responded to the robot, before she spotted Andy leaving the tent, and she promptly walked over and dragged her over to where Percy was. "Andy, this is Percy, our moms are fairly close, so I spent a lot of time hanging around with him and his sister growing up. So I guess you could call him almost a cousin really. Percy, this is Andy, and as stated I'll explain the story of how I met her later, but first we need to get fortunes toooooooold." Yup, she was back to rambling a bit now, not seemingly caring that she was basically running around like the Energizer Bunny or something at this point.

"01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01111001 00100001"

"Meanie! Aaaanway, I'll talk to you guys more in a moment, I'm gonna go take my turn!" Zari said happily, before she marched over and into the tent to see about hearing her fortune.

"01010011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100001" the robot beeped, before zipping into the tent after Zari.

"Bye y'all! Make sure you brin' whatever it is over if it's cool and we can do photos!" Danni blew kisses as Mai and Beanie wandered away.

As the group lost people two by two, Danni reached out and snagged April’s hand again now that he had two free hands and what was better than being in a hand holding chain with his favorite people in the world! “Since birt'day boy wants two more people, guess I'll need enough for five t'en! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!" It didn't even cross his mind that Dee might want to hang out with other people than them for his birthday, so he assumed Dee wanted to invite two more. At least that meant they could fit in a dorm room! The amount of people who were invited before would have had to practically lay on each other!

"Geez, w'at a day so far! I missed us all together and all t'e craziness t'at follows us around." Danni giggled as he swung April and Dee's arms, uncaring of how close he brought them to hitting other students. "Summer was fun, but I missed t'is. Being together is my favorite t'ing, you know? We didn't 'ang out enough over t'e summer, cause phone calls and video calls never seem like enough and t'en school starts and I just wanna chill wit' everyone but teachers are all over us if we "slack off" because "t'e future will be 'ere before you know it" and all t'at dumb…"

Something tickled the back of his mind, something about the future. It was there on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't put his finger on where it was in his brain. "Gah! T'at reminded me of somet'in', somet'in' t'at I needed ta ask and now it's gone! It was t'ere, right t'ere, and I just can't…" Danni grumbled. It was going to bother him all day now, and he'd remember it as he went to bed or something and then he'd wake Dee up and then Dee would be grumpy and probably tell him to go back to bed and then he'd be tossing and turning until the sun came up. Danni made a mental note to wait until after midnight of his hypothetical situation so Dee couldn't be extra grumpy about his birthday and sleep and stuff. "Well, shit. We all know it's comin' back at t'e worst time so brace yourselves!" Danni laughed, and then his attention finally turned to the Kree ship.

Now, truth be told, Danni wasn't anymore of a space kid than your average guy, but he couldn't help imagine where they could go or what they could do if they jaded a ship like that. "We could do anyt'in' we wanted! Who'd be able ta catch us, except all t'e ot'er people in space but still! I'd bet it'd be fun flyin' t'rough an asteroid belt or seein' if Star Wars is real and if t'ere are space whales with t'at poof t'rough space! Wouldn't t'at be cool? We could be like space 'eroes or somet'in'!" The thought spilled out from thoughts to words, no context given for the sharp transition but Danni barely even noticed, entirely enamored by the day dream coming together in his head.

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Judging by the mood around the group when he approached, the Junior Ultron was not the only one creeped out by the Vision. At least they didn't have to deal with nonverbal communication that made even the ChatGPT from the twenty twenties look like an ancient greek master of rhetorics. Ironic, really, that even Ultron proper behaved more human than the synthezoid. Courtesy dictated she answered though.

Greetings. I would not call them friends just yet. Some of them I have only met for a few minutes for the first time today. The others... I did not talk to them much the past two years. I'm still evaluating whose company I prefer. Other than that? Overall a good day. Roommate may be a bit of trouble though, with her powers. So far though she seems unaware, or unwilling to bring it up.

Teddy seemed... less than enthusiastic about the prospect of sparring. "S'Okay to say no, you know..." she muttered a bit sadly. It was fine really, although Victoria was a bit saddened at the thought, as hardly anyone else she was even remotely familiar with had the strength and constitution to go toe to toe with her suit. Her eye wondered to Leah. Yeah. Throwing a horse is fine, but I can throw a bus. Somethimes the fighting class is more like walking around in a city made of cardboard. And I won't be caught dead asking Cas to set something up for me, she'd try to make a date out of it I bet.

Everyone was saying something, making small talk (And taking offense?), none of it the least bit interesting to Victoria. To top it all off, the herd of people that she ditched at Agatha's seemed to make its way here. Why are these guys everywhere? They're like a disease... At least she is not among them. the van Dyne frowned, "I'll go check with the space people, make sure that they got my application... and that they aren't Skrulls... or something. See you later." she waved at the group, heading towards the star-trek themed group. She hoped she would not have to wear a silly costume, that was not part of the plan when she applied.

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@Ever Faithful@Natsu@Ogobrogo@Nallore@Forsythe@BlueSky44: The synthezoid looked incredibly uncomfortable as Diana inquired about his relationship with his ex-wife. It had been some time since he and Wanda had gotten divorced, due to a minor mishap - he had lost the ability to have emotions and to maintain connections. Wanda had been awarded custody of the children and when Vision managed to have his emotional capacities restored, too much had changed. Wanda had moved on. They were friends now, co-parents... but nothing romantic. And he felt they would never be again.

"Wanda is... she is well," Vision answered Diana. He was very thankful that another student had walked on up - Leah - asking questions. "Ah, yes. This ship has been at this specific location for approximately five hours. I am here serving as the faculty member monitoring this ship, in case any accidents should arise."

"Are you all prepared for auditions tomorrow? I will be overseeing the seniors and sophomore groups, with Lady Nimue," Vision added, attempting to keep up the small talk - and to keep his thoughts away from his ex-wife.

Vicky would receive another secure, encrypted message: 14:40:37 34.052235, -118.243683. STATEMENT: You should attempt to initiate a friendship with your roommate. It is good for your emotional development and social standing. END OF STATEMENT.

Vision didn't comment on the tension that rapidly built up between Zelda and Diana - he knew that experiencing conflict like this was important for a young person's emotional development. He hoped that Vicky would find herself similarly in a place of conflict and tension soon. He sensed that perhaps that might develop with Teddy. One could only hope.

Not too far away, the people in the Star Trek like costumes - fellow students - greeted Vicky excitedly. "Hey!! Are you interested in joining the spacecraft and engineering club? We meet weekly on Thursday nights from 7 to 8 in the robotics lab. Vis always gets us pizza afterwards and sometimes we watch old sci-fi stuff, if you're into that!" a perky girl with her natural hair put up into space buns said. "I'm Mel, by the way - what's your name?"

@PatientBean@Ogobrogo: The person running the mailroom didn't return - and even if they had, a sword in Sabine's hands probably wouldn't have made them blink an eye. There were at least a handful of kids on campus running around with magical medieval weaponry - and if it wasn't the students, then it was the faculty. The sword Sabine received was elegant in its craftsmanship, and grasping its hilt, she would feel a bit of warmth spread through her body, as if this was just right. The sword would look familiar to Chi Mai - and not because it looks like She Ra's sword - no, she'll have a vague feeling that she had seen that sword somewhere long, long ago and that it had been important.

Probably just the weed hitting her a little hard, right?

The package did come with a sheath for the sword, as well as a strap/loop of sorts, so that way Sabine could choose to either have the sword dangle off her hip or be securely tucked against her back for ease of transportation.

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April had a feeling that - even as Dorian asked if no one would bring up Percy again today, so he could take his mind off of things - that this would not be the last they heard of him. They had already had horrible encounters with him twice in two hours - at this rate, they'd have at least five more horrible encounters before they had even lit the candles on Dorian's cake! And plus, the words that Dorian had said after his session with Agatha returned to her. There was some gay shit going on here.

"Huh. You know, we usually just call the tech from, like, aliens and all the Alien Tech. Like this is Kree tech and that's Skrull tech and here's some Shi'ar tech. But no one calls what we have human tech or Earth tech or whatever? Like what if you rolled up into some space bar, and showed off your cool human tech, and it was a spoon? That's technically human tech, right, but it's not like a StarkPad or anything cool - it's not a hovercraft. But maybe then spoons are what people start to think of when it comes to Earth tech. Like, what's the spoon of Kree tech - is this ship here a spoon???" April rambled, her mind tumbling over itself as she thought aloud.

In short, she had no idea what sort of technology the Kree ship would have, beyond of course Kree technology... which could just be a spoon.

And then suddenly, Danni was going on about how fun it would be to live a Star Wars space hero sort of lifestyle. As one of Danni's best friends and a rambling bitch herself, April was completely able to just jump into his train of thought. Mostly. It involved being heroes with a ship in space and zooming around an asteroid belt - what more of a prompt did she need to let her mind run wild? "Ooo, we'd need to have some sort of a cool and tough name! Something cute and sassy, but also that would strike fear into the hearts of villains! We could be the... honestly the Hex Girls would be really cute, but it wouldn't make sense for the theme. Or we could be the... wait, nope, can't say that one in polite company aka with the teachers around, I'll tell you all later," April finished, giggling. The name that she couldn't say? the Space Sluts. Stupid, but she loved it. Plus it had good alliteration!

The smaller group came into view of the Kree ship - and April gasped, not because the ship was cool or magnificent or anything (which it was!) but because HER SISTER was there. It had been inevitable that she would run into Zelda. The school wasn't very big. And while she had not been intentionally avoiding her sister, she had just spent all summer with Zelda, and she knew her sister was probably not going to be super popular or anything... and April didn't wanna deal with it. She wanted to have fun, not have her kid sister glom onto her.

"Mayday, my sister is over there - she's the sad dollar store emo looking one!" April stage whispered to Danni and Dorian.

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"No kidding," Percy said gruffly, in response to Mads' apology. "They set me on fire and possessed me without consent earlier. I thought they were assholes, but I'm realizing they're just a bunch of idiots." Even now, Percy's tone was somewhat sharp. He again did not mention that he had been the one to bump into Dorian in the first place, instead just listing off the wrongs that had been committed against him. "I thought the people at this academy were supposed to be at least somewhat competent," Percy added.

Zari filled in Madalyne rather quickly as to how the two of them knew each other. It was relatively straightforward. His mother, Dominika, was best friends with Zari's mother, Sparky. This friendship stretched across reality and space-time, defying the odds and almost causing the apocalypse at one point. It was very and they were roommates, except for the fact that his mother married his other mother, Maria, her actual true love.

Zari then made introductions with the person that Percy was now incredibly interested to meet - her GIRLFRIEND. He wanted the story behind all of that immediately. Up until the moment when Zari had blushed at his question, he had honestly assumed she was aroace. "It's good to meet you, Andy. I'm Percy Novikov," Percy said, as Zari ran off into the tent, her robotic eyeball trailing behind her. "So. You're dating Zarina. I want details. Start from the beginning, please."

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"Uh, nice to meet you." Andy smiled brightly. "I was getting worried if Zari had any other friends. I'm glad. I've met her parents; I didn't know they knew people here."

"But Zari might be better at telling the story." She didn't know if she should talk about it in front of Madalyne. So far, what she had said wasn't anything different than what Zari and Percy had said.

"Yeah, your friends are a bit intense." Andy nodded, shifting her attention to Madalyne. She couldn't remember if Madalyne was there for Andy's first interaction with the French-sounded guys and that group. "The first thing they basically said to me was to criticize my clothing. I like my clothing.

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Dorian laced his fingers into Danni’s as he felt the familiar tug of his hand on his. The touch was enough to start getting him out of the slump he had somehow landed himself in. Swinging his hand back and forth as his steps became lighter and shifted into a light skip the more they walked. He listened intently to his best friend as he began to speak, cocking his head in confusion as he mentioned making enough for five people now. Dorian held his free hand out, counting out the people before recounting once more and trying to figure out how an extra person had just been added without his knowing. His mind briefly flashed towards a possible contender before it instantly got pushed out and moved past it faster than Tommy’s hunger, concentrating back to what Danni was saying. ”T’at’s because someone’s dad ‘as a strict ‘no boys allowed’ policy. So lame.” Dorian huffed with a bit of a giggle. April’s father was many things, but most of all he was way too overprotective of his kids. Their house was like his ultimate nightmare, all boys and not a single girl in sight. So April was never allowed to come over, even if they were just one short teleport away. There was no sense in crying about it though, at the very least they got the school years to be together and with almost no parental supervision. Really what were they thinking? It’s like they wanted all the chaos that had built up over the summer to come spilling out onto the faculty instead of in the safety of their own homes.

As the Kree ship began to come into view (or what was left of it anyways), Danni began going off about how amazing it would be to go on space adventures in the Star Wars universe. If Multi-verses existed, surely there was one in which Star Wars was an actuality rather than fiction right? Either way Danni was right, they’d be able to do anything they wanted in that world and he’d definitely want to become a jedi, but like the Aniken/ObiWan kind not a lame one. April offered a few possible team names for them as they continued their trek towards the ship, stopping short at what could’ve been the most interesting one. ”What? Star-Whores?” Dorian said through chuckled words. He began to take the ship in in earnest as he listened to April's spoon analogy. ”It’s probably because Earth Tech isn’t nearly as exciting as Space tech. We have guns, t’ey ‘ave laser’s. If anyt’ing, aside from Stark-Tech and Pym-Tech, I t’ink t’e biggest boom in technological advancement t’at we had was back when t’at ‘uge invasion ‘appened back in New York. T’e leftover Alien tech paved new ways and studies. But t’is…” Dorian looked the ship up and down once more, free hand on his chin as he stuck his tongue out trying to think. ”I t’ink its more spork t’an spoon. It looks military, so ‘ard to tell. But if you ask me, anyt’ing military is just a step above generic.” He continued thinking about April's question though, now wanting to hyperfixate on the topic and spend his night deep diving the web to get as much information as he could about the differences in tech and how comparable Earth Tech was to other forms of Tech found across the galaxy and beyond.

Everyone before him was nothing more than a simple blur that was quickly being mentally removed from Dorian’s sight as he watched the ship from afar. Taking in the build and damage it must have sustained as he began to create his own story for how the ship got here. April’s voice rang through however as she pointed out her sister within the crowd. Zelda was the first to come into focus, then Dorian began to see all the others around the area. Leah and Vicky were both there after having just left them not too long ago, as was the tower of a guy he’d bumped into earlier and the rude freshie that he’d had encountered both at the food truck line as well as Agatha’s Tent briefly. This was certainly going to be an awkward affair. To make matters worse, his old crushes ex-dad was there manning the ship it seemed. Why couldn't anything ever just go easily? ”Yeah, so is ‘alf t’e peeps t’at ditched us back at Aggie’s tent. If you want, I can go ask Vis ‘ow long t’ey plan to keep t’is wreck ‘ere and if its for a while we can ditch and go do pics and hook a duck instead.” As much as Dorian wanted to explore the wreckage, he wanted to avoid any more awkward situations even more. He’d gladly come back to it later on in the school week when he had time and he almost always had time. He was a good student, bright even, but he wasn't against the random day of Hookey now and then.

---

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Despite the uncanny appearance of the Vision, even Ardere could discern how mildly uncomfortable he looked when answering the question. Whatever the context was, the redhead felt she was intruding on something personal. Looking away from her upperclassmen, she resumed looking around the various switches and buttons, if they could be called such. At the same time, Ardere noticed another group of older students walking toward Victoria. Judging by the oddly uniform attire that resembled a franchise she had seen on the internet, Ardere initially thought this was a fanboy club her older brother hung around with at his school.

But this was only slightly worse. Oh no, it's the Cult Mechanicus She cringed internally in her own mind before taking a few steps to hide behind Teddy's massive physique. She liked robots as much as the next person but if Vision was anything to go by, Ardere would just prefer to be stuck 10 years in the past.

"So, Teddy... Ardere mumbled, craning her neck to look up at him. "This is a cool spaceship and...uh...it makes you wonder what the face of the designer of Space Invaders would look like if he could see this.

---

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Sabine let the sword rest in her hand, unsure as to how to proceed. On the one hand, she was just given a gift by her mother, who was supposed to be dead, opening up all sorts of wounds and leaving lots of questions unanswered. Did her father know? Was her mother okay?

On the other hand, she just got a fricken cool sword!

Sabine moved the sword around, comfortable in the mail room alone with Mai. "Well, at least this isn't like a typical American high school where this would be immediately confiscated. Hell, half the student body walks around with weapons and some can blow things up with a wave of their hand. Though, how I got it leaves me..."

Before Sabine could finish that thought, she had been playing around with the sword when she felt, something. Almost like the sword was calling out to her to tell her 'hey dude, I got some awesome things to show you'. Sure enough, when Sabine unleashed what she felt, a force field appeared around her. The force field pushed some papers and other office supplies around them, but otherwise caused no other damage. Mai, who would have been within the realm, would also be protected by the force field.

"Holy crap! Okay, wow, that happened!" Sabine shut the field off before sheathing the sword along her hip. It looked more badass that way.

"Well, that's a thing I know have. Shall we head back to the birthday boy and the others and see what's next for the rest of the day?" Despite her approval of the sword, in the back of her mind, Agatha's fortune replayed itself. Dealing with the past. The gift from her mom. It had to be connected.

…what?

…no, seriously, what the actual fuck?

Of the many, MANY things that Chi Mai had imagined may possibly have arrived for Sabine…bruh, this shit wasn't even in the top thousand. What the shit? Chi Mai watched Sabine shift the sword around with a dropped jaw. After the initial stun wore off, Mai couldn’t help but laugh. “Bruh.” she managed in-between hees and haws. “Why the fuck somebody gonna send you some goofy-ass sword?” she started, wiping the tears condensation from her eyes, not immediately picking up on Sabine’s apparent confusion.

Then the whooshening happened.

As the papers and whatnot were being kicked up and pushed aside, so too was Mai’s hair thrown about before falling back into its naturally messy state. In yet another mood swing (which were increasingly becoming uncomfortably commonplace for her), Chi Mai’s self-pity and fear had been replaced by pure awe. She glanced around at her surroundings, taking in the…what…force field? Murky air? Whatever the fuck it was, she was looking mighty hard at it. Then she shifted her eyes back to the sword. One might, should one listen with an eager and earnest intentness, hear the faint clinking and clanking as rusty gears begin to clunk together and turn in her head.

“Babes I think I…yeah, no, I uh…” she babbled, confused in response to Sabine’s suggestion. “Okay, but like, just hear me out for a second: all of uhh, well, THAT,” she started, waving her hands toward Sabine. “Yeah, that shit felt super fucking familiar. Like, I’m getting some real, like, I dunno, deja vu right now? Well, not deja vu but like..y’know what I mean? And I don’t know why?” she explained, glancing at her arm. “Yeah, dude, like check this shit out - I got goosebumps. Like actual goosebumps. What the shit? How am I gonna get goosebumps over some goofy-ass sword?” she exclaimed, more to herself than to Beanie.

“I am not even remotely high enough for this shit.” she resigned, shaking her head. “And that’s saying a lot because a bitch is pretty baja-blasted right now.” she added, nodding to herself. “Whatever. Yeah, let’s go find our dorks.” she said, shifting from bewildered conspiracy theorist Chi Mai back to Chill Mai and turning to leave the mailroom, heading back out into the heat and sunshine.

If she got her way, this would be all the heat and sunshine she got for the rest of the year. It was the sun’s fault that her head was funky today. She couldn’t quite prove it just yet, but just wait…

You’re on thin ice, Sol.

---

Hearing the sadness in Vicky’s voice, Teddy immediately broke and was about to attempt to apologize and explain himself when Zelda broke the introvert’s code and began to speak up. Teddy was first stunned by the sudden assertion, but that quickly shifted to defensiveness when he realized that she was aiming the blunted words towards his friend. When Vicky took her leave, he glanced at Zelda, now a bit unsettled by her, before turning back to Diana and relaxing back into a smile. “I was actually about to ask, so, I appreciates the heads up, Di.” he called over to Diana in an attempt to reassure her.

Turning back to Zelda, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the girl. It didn’t always feel the best to have somebody else explain you to somebody. But publicly lashing out at somebody over something as innocuous as an introduction? That wasn’t exactly…reasonable? Teddy began speaking before he even knew exactly what it was he was going to say.

“Uhm, hey, if you’re going to be upset at anybody, blame me. I’m uh…” he started looking around the little group before settling back on Zelda. “I’m pretty much the odd man out here and Di knows I’m nosy so she just sorta beat me to it this time.” he chuckled nervously. It wasn’t like him to speak this much at all, but he couldn’t just stand by and say nothing when something like this might not have even happened if he hadn’t been there. The guilt, deserved or not, was eating him up inside.

“If it helps, I still don’t really understand what SHIELD even is? Or…was? And I’m completely open to just forgetting that I ever heard that?” he babbled, digging the hole even deeper. “I think there’s actually a student around here that can make that a thing if we actually wanna…uhm…I’ll uh…I’ll shut up now.” he trailed off, suddenly feeling super self-conscious about how long he had been talking, the righteous fury he had felt for his friend gone as quickly as it had come. It had been replaced by the realization that he had just surgically inserted himself into a conflict that he quite frankly had no right to butt in on, even if his intentions were good, and he was now drowning in all of the embarrassment that deservedly came with the territory.

Fortunately, Teddy’s death-by-embarrassment was postponed when he was yet again stunned by an incoming freshman of the Margaret Carter Institute. The sheer ridiculousness of the incredibly earnest question caught him completely off guard, causing the large man to bellow a mighty belly laugh.The tension which had been suffocating felt as if it had been melted. Well, for him it had, anyway. He turned to look at Ardere and shrugged. “I mean…” he started, giving the ship a long, intense look. So far all he had managed to do was introduce Mary Sue to people she already knew and helped Ardere to become even more of a space cadet. So he had failed three different freshmen in the span of…what, less than an hour? Really just knocking it out of the park with this whole mentor thing. Though, in a way, if you have the worst possible day right off the bat, then it really could only go up from there, right? …right?

Tilting his head, he grunted. “Well…actually…I can sorta see it.” he said, amused and very much grateful for the rope that Ardere had thrown him. “I mean, if you squint a bit, it sorta looks kinda saucer-y.” he continued. “Maybe he actually saw one of these and just put it in the game?” he suggested.

In his defense, it was more likely than you might think.

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Bleh. More people? Teddy was a cool person. Dianna just rubbed Leah the wrong way, apparently she rubbed Vision the wrong way too. Who the fuck was that one girl beside him? She looked... Familiar. And there was another person. And- Jesus fuck, were they all coming this way? Fantastic. "Yeah. I'm ready for it. I've been preparing for tomorrow all summer- more than just about everyone here. Dunno who's overseeing mine though. I'm a junior." Almost every day, Leah was in the gym. After all, she didn't have a home waiting for her anywhere else, so what else would she spend that much time doing? Eating dinner with family members? She didn't know how to do that. Learn to ride a bike? She could ride a boulder like a pioneer. No, while everyone else was living their lives, Leah was hitting the mats, the bags, and the occasional plate of adamantium just to make the bones in her hands stronger. She... Didn't tell people about that last part. They'd ask where she got it from. Not important.

"I'll be ready for tomorrow. If the gym hasn't fallen apart by now, It might then." Was that a joke. Well... If it wasn't, she could always fix it with her powers. Leah glanced at Teddy and the small army of gremlins forming around him. She wasn't in the mindset for more group interactions right now. Leah looked up at the big ship in front of her and Vision and Dianna. Normally, Leah wasn't exactly a spacecraft engineer, but stuff like this involved numbers. Leah was pretty good with numbers and sciency stuff, enough that she could do algebra in her head. And this thing looked heavy for something that might've been falling apart. Maybe she could get in on this- It seemed cool. "I'm gonna go... See if I can get involved with this." She told Vision. She caught the way he reacted to the mention his wife. The rock she lived under wasn't that deep. "Hey- It'll work out. If you're still friends, you still mean something. To her- I mean." Then she trotted off. God... Why did she even bring it up again? If the motivation to fuck around with an alien ship wasn't pulling her away from Vision, the anxiety after saying that to a stranger would have.

Leah walked up to where the blonde chick was talking to a loud girl with hair buns. "Is that what it is? I saw the ship. I'm kind of good with numbers and other scientific things. Got room for another one?" She asked, inserting herself in their conversation with all the surgical precision of a sledgehammer.

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Madalyne looked between Percy and Andy for a moment, feeling bad that the two of them didn't have the best interactions with her friends that she hung out with. "I'm pretty sure that might have been an accident or something, but yeah sometimes they do get on my nerves to. Their fun to hangout with in short bursts." Madalyne said to Percy, she watched as Zari quickly headed into Agatha's tent leaving just the three of them there for now.

Her attention turned towards Andy, she was there when Dorian, Danni and Sabine basically made fun of Andy's clothes. "Just ignore them, wear whatever you want and whatever makes you comfortable and happy." She told her, Madalyne usually didn't let others get to her that much as she looked between Andy and Percy. "I'd like to hear how the two of you met, but you don't have to tell me unless you want to, thats completely up to you." She told Andy, she was curious how Zari's fortune was going. "So how did your fortune go anyway Andy?" She asked her.

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Diana turned to look at Zelda for a moment as she basically told her off about her introducing her friend Teddy and how she knew Mary-Sue, at least from what she knew Diana only recognized her through their parents she didn't know her all that well though. "It's just an introduction is all, it's not like i'm spilling a major embarrassing secret or anything like that." Diana said to Zelda letting out a slight sigh as she watched both Vicky and Leah had headed off somewhere else inside of the massive Kree ship, it was still really interesting to see up close.

Diana's attention quickly turned towards Vision seeing that he looked rather uncomfortable with her question and quickly felt bad. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked that. But i'm sure that you two would find someway to work things out." Diana said to him as she listened to his question and nodded. "I've been practicing and training all summer." Diana told Vision as she turned her attention back towards Teddy. "We can talk about that stuff later if you want." Diana said, since she didn't want to make Zelda angrier at her than she already was right now, she turned her head slightly when she could hear Danny, Dorian and April's voices as they started to approach now.

Spoons? Sporks? Where did the cutlery come from? Danni felt that, despite being literally between them, a conversation had passed right over him because how in the heck did sporks and spoons fit into tech? Maybe they figured out how to communicate telepathically and hadn’t looped him into it yet. Maybe they didn’t even know they could do it and were switching between verbalizing and thoughtlizing accidentally! Should he say something? No,no, no they would definitely be embarrassed, after the day they’d had. With Beanie clocking something wrong with Princess and Dee already breaking down once today, Danni had to stay strong and resist the urge to pester them with questions about their new found telepathy, including when he would be allowed into the club because Danni did not appreciate being left out and he will cry to get his way. But being a good friend meant sacrifices must be made and so he graciously held his tongue on the subject.

Danni was half a second away from demanding April tell them anyways- the teachers didn’t care if they said some weird stuff because they’d probably heard worse- but Dee jumped in with Star Whores and Danni cackled at the name. “Could you imagine, a big bad ass alien ‘avin’ ta admit t’eir ass was kicked by t’e Space Whores.” Danni wheezed, tearing up a little as he laughed. “10/10, would recommend. T’at’s it, t’at’s t’e t’eme of t’e name. Horrible, terrible t’in’s our enemies would ‘ave ta admit w’en t’ey went ta prison.”

April’s panic brought him back to the situation at hand. “Whaaaaaa? I t’ought your sister was like a toddler or somet’in’, not a real, whole human bein’!” Danni exclaimed, obviously staring at the goth girl apparently related to Princess. Cold and off-putting, she was exactly the opposite of April. And even though the white streak in her hair was nice, how cliche could she get? Sticking with the black and white contrast that, while classic, was just too goth to really be good goth anymore. He really wanted to go meet her and he bounced on his toes as he tried to keep himself from going over. Especially with Teds and Diana and ooooh, even that meanie fresh meat who yelled at them earlier! What a fun little group!

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Birt’day boy, you wanna see t’e ship, you’re gonna see t’e ship!” Danni insisted. Dee’s birthday has been a little rough, filled with shitty people being shitty, and he wasn't going to let his best friend compromise on another thing. “If it makes y’all feel awkward talkin’ ta t’ese people, I’ll run interference. I like talkin’ ta people and everyone likes talkin’ ta me! And so many new faces ta bother! It’ll be fun!” Danni decreed, whirling away from the pair and sliding right up to Teddy to…

Danni stared at Teddy’s hulking figure. “You know, I had t’is whole t’in’ where I was gonna prop my arm on your shoulder and make a big scene ta enter your conversation, but I did not t’ink about t’e size difference.” Danni admitted as he considered how to change his approach. He shrugged,and just leaned on Teddy anyways. “Well, who's all t’is? I know Diana, t’e big boy ‘ere, and Viks over t’ere in passin’, and t’is feisty freshy,” he gestured at Ardere. “But t’ese two I don’t know. Let’s see… Gothie gal I also know! Hi Zelds, ‘ow’s it ‘angin’? I’m Danni, Princess’ favorite fashionista. Totally didn’t t’ink you were like 5, btws. And t’en t’is ot’er one…” Danni sized up Mary Sue, “I’m saying is a Susan. Anyways, nice ta meet y’all! I’m Danni, or HotShot if you’d like!” Danni waved his hand in greeting, trailing wisps of flames coming from his fingertips as he did.

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Zelda wasn't too sure about the chaos and the more people that seemed to be joining the group. There were quite a few people there, and now she was starting to panic a little bit with how many people were around. It wasn't typically a secret of any sort that she was more of a loner, that she wasn't great with any sort of social situations, preferring to kind of be by herself a bit. The group was starting to get to be a bit much as more and more people seemingly started to show up.

Including clearly her sister and her friends.

This was definitely not going to end well, as others were seemingly continuing to talk. Diana was trying to sort of explain what she had been saying, but at this point Zelda wasn't fully paying attention to that sort of thing. She actively was sort of starting to take a few steps back from the group, despite the fact that Danni was seemingly talking directly to her. April was the complete opposite of her, and Zelda personally preferred being away from large crowds. She hadn't expected this sort of thing, and was clearly starting to panic a bit at this point.

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As Zari barreled into the tent, she would find herself transported into a quintessentially witchy space. It was bigger on the inside than the outside, a cozy little area where Agatha might conduct her magical studies. Books and relics were littered about, and a small ebony cat was currently playing with what looked like a small statue of Frigga. Crystals and candles and tarot cards floated through the hair, one of the candles almost singing the ends of Zari's hair a bit as she came close.

But more importantly, Mr. Eyeball began to short circuit.

"Mm, technology does not work well in a space like this," Agatha mused. "Odin's granddaughter."

"I mean probably depends on the magic sort of space," Zari responded with a bit of a shrug, though she was a little bit annoyed with the fact that this might damage Mr. Eyeball with him just being here. Her attention then turned to the other comment that Agatha said about her relation to Odin. "I mean if you want to get technical I'm actually his great granddaughter. As my dad is the son of Baldur who is the son of Odin. Though doesn't matter much to me never actually met him anyway."

"When you get to be as old as I am, you stop worrying about how many 'greats' go in front of a title," Agatha mused. Mr. Eyeball then fell to the ground, hitting the rug with a soft thud. He didn't look like he had taken any damage, it just seemed all of the concentrated magic and whatnot here was causing him to cease functioning. "Now, you have journeyed to see a witch - what question burns in your heart, Zarina Raynordattir?"

She instantly walked over and picked up the robot, checking to ensure he didn't take any actual damage as she thought of what sort of question to ask Agatha. This sort of thing was something she really should have paid more attention to. Since after all, she knew that when someone was foretelling the future, it was best to listen. That's how her last adventure had occurred, and it was how she met Andy after all. "What's my next adventure going to be like? Or I guess what is it or something like that. I don't know, I'm not the best at wording things like that to make sense, usually people tend to get confused by the millions of questions I ask or something," and there she went sort of rambling again.

"I see, you're looking for a quest - or perhaps one is looking for you," Agatha mused. Ebony shifted into her panther form and began to paw curiously at Mr. Eyeball, thinking that he was some sort of a toy to play with. He was better than the last toy that had come into the tent - Ebony did not like that creepy doll. Agatha snapped her fingers and the cards began to dance through the air, as she concentrated on Zarina's question. Three cards then flew out and hit the table, one after the other, each with a heavy thud despite being simply made of paper... or something of its like.

Agatha raised an eyebrow, seeing that Zari had drawn two cards of the Major Arcana - two cards indicating major spiritual forces at work. When doing a reading for a demigod, Agatha assumed that these higher powers may be literal. Perhaps some of them were even Zarina's family from a certain point of view. "It begins with Judgment, Reversed. The universe is calling to you, and you do not answer. Perhaps you wish to run and hide from this grave duty, to ignore this call, but you will not be able to escape it for long."

Agatha then put a bony finger on the next card - the Five of Wands. "I see chaos and infighting, a pointless and futile struggle. Brother will slay brother. Violence will breed more and more violence. And it will all amount to nothing, in the end. Blood will be spilled as carelessly as a child knocks over a glass of milk."

"To end this threat, I see a grave cost you must pay - the Magician, Reversed. By manipulation or trickery, someone will gain power over you. A Faustian pact will be formed. And you, my dear Valkyrie, will never be the same again."

That was certainly an interesting thing to listen to. This whole reading was certainly a bit different from when she got her initial quest from the Norns. Zari wasn't entirely sure what to make of this whole thing. Since how things were worded, she had absolutely no idea what it meant. Her potentially ignoring some sort of calling or something and her not answering? That was not something she expected or something like that. "...I wonder what all of that could mean, and it doesn't sound like a good thing hmm..." she was clearly trying to figure out what it meant.

"Only you can truly know. The universe speaks through the Cards, and while I can offer guidance, only you can tell the tale."

"Sometimes prophecies and fortune telling can be hard to interpret. It took me forever to figure out the last one... The first thing I figured out was kind of the where and when I had to go, everything else was just kind of a blur... I probably should write this down though, since that helped last time, to keep a reminder to ensure I don't forget things, and help me keep an eye out for everything that might happen or something like that..." She then instantly reached into her usual bag and pulled out a notebook, before writing in it, basically writing down the words, though she was working a little slower since she was encrypting it. Sure, Percy would be able to read it, but she didn't really want to risk a whole bunch of other people to potentially read it without her saying anything about it.

Agatha chuckled slightly. "You are the first one to take notes today, child. I do not know if I should be impressed with you or disappointed with the others. Perhaps both." She studied Zari for a moment, before getting up and opening up one of the chests. She retrieved an intricate box, about the size of a basketball, and set it down in front of Zari. "I acquired this some time ago. Perhaps it is time that it returned to its people," Agatha said, before opening up the box to reveal a winged crown. Zari would recognize it as the headpiece of the Valkyrie.

"Well taking notes is helpful! Especially because of this sort of thing... I don't know about what others think, but I know that you should pay attention to what fortune tellers or those who can see the future say. Especially since it can help prepare you for what's to come... Plus I want to be able to understand it and all... It helped me out last time anyway..." she commented, after writing everything down and putting her notebook away as her attention shifted towards what Agatha pulled out a box. Zari leaned forward to look inside the box when she opened it, and she gasped a bit seeing the headpiece. She knew of them, but she never actually had one of her own, well, not a real one anyway. She's made replicas of the headpiece before just so she could try it on and imagine things, but she never thought she'd actually get one. Zari instantly picked it up out of the box, holding it in her hands with a smile. "Where did you get this? And are you sure it's okay to give it to me? I mean I never thought I'd ever get one or anything like that since I'm still learning and all..."

"Oh, it is a long story. Perhaps for another time. And it is perfectly alright to take it, Zarina," Agatha said. "To be completely candid, I have acquired thousands of magical items over the millennia... I need to downsize for my move to New Orleans." She chuckled slightly. She hadn't intended on telling any of the students that, but oh well. That was fine.

"Well thank you!" she said happily, before taking the crown and immediately putting it on her head, "Maybe we'll eventually talk again, but I hope you have fun in New Orleans," she added, before taking Mr. Eyeball with her and leaving the tent. It didn't take long for Mr. Eyeball to jump right back to being his old self. Well almost anyway, before he switches back to being completely normal his words are a bit jumbled in runes, so it's hard for her to fully understand him for a moment. Though her attention turns towards Percy and Andy now, "You won't believe what my fortune was! And also I got this crown which is the headpiece for the Valkyrie! It was so coooooooooooooool!" she said instantly to the pair. It seems she wasn't really paying attention to the fact that Madalyne was there.

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You're not telling me anything mom and James didn't already, Vis. All of you adults are rather sparse with information on how exactly am I supposed to do that, though. Last I tried a short while ago, I told her my primary reason for existing and how it affects what I do, and she ended up taking it as an insult. Somehow I don't think that's a good friendship prospect...

Vicky replied to Vision, keeping to herself the And I couldn't care less about my social standing with these guys, they are all just potential work if they ever lose their shit. part. Sometimes she felt like she would get better answers from r/AskReddit than from her elders.

Alas, one way to improve her number of friends, which right now included the sum of Tom and Mai, was presenting itself. After all, where should an introverted engineering nerd start looking for friends if not among extroverted engineering nerds? That's right, Tori. Baby steps! She smiled at the Starfleet Leia: "Oh, for sure! I actually sent you guys an application yesterday, although if you were organizing all this-" she pointed to the space hunk, "-It's no wonder I didn't get a reply. I'd be happy to show up, and I got my own place in the basement if you ever need more workspace! Oh, I'm Victoria." she briefly wondered if she should salute, make a V hand or something, before settling on offering a handshake.

Leah then walked by and asked to join herself, which Victoria loathed to admit surprised her a little - She had Leah pegged as a Jock type that spent all her time in the gym. She would have to update her notes in the evening, today was eye opening on many levels. "Oh, hi there. How'd whatever you went to do with Andy after the sword fight go?" she inquired off-hand to get more information.

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@PatientBean@Ogobrogo: Nothing else unusual seemed to be happening with the sword, and no memories were offering any clarity to Mai as to why it seemed so familiar. Last they had heard, the group was headed to go check out the Kree spaceship. It should be pretty easy to find at the carnival, as it was incredibly large, and well attended. They'd probably be able to find Danni and the others still there, though there was a chance of course that they could've moved on, but Sabine and Mai had been pretty quick at the mailroom and... let's face it... Danni and co weren't known for being efficient.

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---

April rolled her eyes slightly as Dorian pointed out her father's strict no-boy policy. She had pointed out to him before that she wasn't interested in men, and she was fairly confident no one at Danni and Dori's place were interested in girls, but it didn't matter. He was incredibly overprotective and stubborn. April also suspected at times that he didn't have the best opinion of Dorian's dad, and maybe that was the real reason she hadn't been allowed to go have a sleepover with the boys any of the times she had begged this summer or summers past.

"No!" April giggled, at Dorian's suggested name. "...That might be better than the one I was thinking of, honestly. I was thinking... _{Space Sluts}..." her eyes darted in the direction of the nearest faculty member, the synthezoid Vision, but if he had heard her, he didn't let on. He looked somewhat uncomfortable as he stood in the exposed guts of the military spork, but April didn't think it was because of her.

Unless, her anxiety whispered, maybe it was.... NOPE! Nope nope nope. April shoved that thought out of her brain as hard as she could. And for once, she was successful. Mostly because her sister, the dollar store emo herself, was shrinking away from Danni like he had just turned into a Hulk. But April agreed with Danni, there was no way they were leaving now, it was probably only going to get busier as the day went on anyways. "Zelds, come onnnnn," April groaned slightly. "They aren't gonna hurt you."

For other people, April would've been gracious, recognizing that they needed to step away from the situation. But Zelda was her sister. This made April simultaneously annoyed and empathetic for her. Sure, she got that her sister didn't like crowds, but she was always being ridiculous like this. April didn't understand how Zelda could run around conventions and deal with that, but one of her sibling's best friends talks to her and it's the end of the world??

"Your application..." Mel murmured, her nose scrunching up slightly as she thought, before her eyes widened in realization. "Oh! You mean the interest webform," she said, even though Vicky already knew that. "Sorry, no one's called it an application before - it's really just to get you on our list, so we can send you the newsletter and tell Vis how much pizza he needs to get. The club isn't competitive or anything, so if you're in, you're in!"

Mel's eyes lit up as Vicky mentioned that she had her own place in a basement. "Oh, I'd love to check that out! Are you free tonight? Maybe after the concert?" Before she could get an answer though, another girl had walked up, barging into the conversation. "Oh, hey! I'm Mel and yes, we def have room for another! We're the spaceship and engineering club, we meet Thursday from 7 to 8 in the Robotics lab, and afterwards Vis gets us pizza and we watch like old sci-fi shit!"

Vision was not having as much fun as Mel was. "It is fine - you did not know," Vision tried to reassure Diana. "Sometimes, people grow apart. Love does not always last forever." He then paused, realizing that was somewhat melancholic. "If you will excuse me, my sensors are indicating someone is trying to steal a component of the ship," Vision said, before heading down one of the hallways and disappearing from sight.

---

---

"They commute here, from time to time - our parents worked together as part of SHIELD. Before they all got old and gross, that is," Percy mused to Andy. His mothers were exiting their late 30s, but he considered them old all the same. He kept on sending his mothers links to retinol, as well as articles about how it was never too late to start, and he was hopeful that he was making progress on their skincare routines. At the very least, he kept buying them sunscreen as part of their birthday gifts - not the entire gift, but definitely some of it. There was a Korean sunscreen brand he was rather fond of, it didn't clog up his pores or drip into his eyes throughout the day. In fact, it was probably time to apply another coat... but stupidly, Percy had left it in his dorm room.

"For being very 2000s?" Percy raised an eyebrow. "Y2K nostalgia is due for a renaissance any day now. It's like how when our parents were our age and everyone was obsessed with the 80s." He didn't comment on how her outfit was somewhat plain and could be elevated, deciding to keep that to himself. Had she not been Zarina's girlfriend, he would have said something. Percy cared a lot about his personal appearance. Andy, in his opinion, seemed to prioritize more being comfortable - which was fine. There was nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

Mads was asking Andy about how her fortune had gone - something that Percy was intrigued by. As someone who loved Greek Mythology, Percy couldn't help but adore an oracle. Zari came zooming out of the tent, cutting off his train of thought, screaming about the Valkyrie crown she had on her head. "You'll have to accessorize it," Percy suggested to Zari. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a seer to consult," he said, nodding at each person, before bowing his head slightly as he entered Agatha's tent.

---

---

---

As weird as it was having a sword, Mai was on some weird bullshit now too where she deja vu'd regarding her sword. How was that possible? She had only just gotten it and from her mother of all people. "The day keeps getting weirder and it was already batshit to begin with. Maybe the others will know? But even then, I'll be coming with a fucking sword on my hip. That'll get their attention."

Sabine left the mailroom, making sure Mai followed, as they went back to the ship. Hopefully, the others had gotten their fill of the thing and were ready to move on elsewhere. "Obviously I am not joining some nerd science club, but I wonder what other options there are. Any clubs you are interested in?" Debate? Drama? Mock Trial? Yearbook? She would have to be in a leadership position, of course. She relished the opportunities. After all, despite this being a weird school, it was still a school. And whatever happened after, anything that gave her a leg up was necessary.

Soon, they reached the ship and saw the others. Well, their group at least. There were some more people here that she was, more or less, not excited by. Some familiar, some not. "Hey losers, miss us? Notice anything new?" Sabine asked, making sure her sword was out and displayed. She directed this to mainly Danni, Dorian, and April.

“Hm?” Teddy grunted, having caught Leah’s gaze from the corner of his eye. He turned his head in her direction, but she had already moved on. His brow rose. What was that all about? He pondered it, tilting his head until he glanced around at…oh, yeah, Diana. And…two- err, three freshmen. Mm, yeah, okay, never mind. That would just be classic Leah. He wanted to check in on her since, well…okay, she didn’t have the largest group of friends. But Leah was great. People just didn’t give her enough of a chance. Sure, she was uhm…well, okay, she could be pretty rough on the outside, but Leah had a good heart. A damn good heart. And Teddy respected the hell out of that. You had to. Unfortunately, that good heart didn’t exactly lead to an easy time making friends. He had hoped that she and Diana could get along, but that uhh…didn’t quite pan out. So, when he realized that she was heading over to the engineering club people, he felt a little relieved. Girl was a nerd. Maybe she could find her people there.

Swelling with proud dad energy, Teddy was wholly unprepared for the unexpected voice that sprang up dangerously close. It took him a moment to place the voice, and by then…it was too late. He felt the weight of somebody leaning against him. Turning his head, still stunned at the sudden invasion of personal space to see…

…

…

…



While internally Teddy was having, well let’s just say a mild crisis, he had thankfully not vibrated into the Quantum Realm, scattered into atoms, or fainted, so…good start. He had, however, completely detached himself from the world around him, escaping into himself to survive this...this…

He had heard a voice surprisingly similar to his own saying “Oh, hey.” to D-D-D…ahem, Him. And he had heard that same voice meekly answer the question with, “She’s Ardere and that’s Mary Sue.” It was eerie how familiar that voice was. Teddy watched from afar as the familiar large man attempted to remain was still as possible - as if he had finally successfully lured the cat at the family gathering to to his lap where it had fallen asleep and he was fully aware that even the slightest disturbance would stir the slumbering feline and cause to awaken and go on the prowl again for a more stable place to rest.

The rest of the conversation unfurling around him was lost to Teddy, sounding little more than muffled voices from the next room down. Sure, he managed to pick up a word every now and then, but there would be no context. He was fully engrossed in staring at some exciting spot on the ground, seemingly enthralled by grass or something.

Teddy had finally shut down.

Good night.

---

“Okay, but like, honestly? The sword’s kind of a hot look on you, dude. It’s kinda growing on me.” Mai shrugged, trailing behind Sabine at first as she took in the sight of her friend fully strapped and ready to fight for a bunch of bejeweled inbred rich dudes. She then sped up to match Sabine’s strides, cursing her itty bitty legs silently. Theoretically, she could always just make herself taller if she really wanted to…but that was a slippery slope. And dangerous. If she fucked up putting herself back together - a headliner in the ol’ anxiety lineup - well…we’ve already got so many other things to neurotically obsess over already, so let’s just save that particular hangup for a sunny day that needs to be a lil more shitty.

“Clubs? Ugh…” Chi Mai groaned, rolling her head. She hadn’t joined any up to now. Not because she didn’t want to, mind you, but because she just couldn’t decide. She’d spend the whole year debating which one/s to join then…not actually decide on anything. Choice paralysis was real, folks. “Dude, I don’t know and it’s killing me.” she admitted, her mind finally moving away from the Bad Places and finding its nice, comfy home back in the land of shallow, meaningless chatter with the peeps. “I might just start a shitty acoustic cover band.” she sighed, resigning to a life of ukulele and breathy croning. Whatever life’s left, anyway.

“I dunno. If you find something fun, lemme know.” she said as they approached the crew at the nerd ship. Chi Mai, not knowing a stranger, immediately spotted three strangers. A challen-

Oh. One of them was that impatient freshy girl. She had been standing next to Teddy who-

Bruh, what the fuck broke Teddy? Dude had gone full deactivated animatronic murder bear. Huh. Vibes were fucked today. Whatever. She then noticed Danni leaning against him. And the wires in her head connected, sparking a little. Was that smoke…? Maybe a little smoke out of her ears.

There was no fucking shot… Teddy? Really? No fucking shot.

“What’s up, sluts?” Chi Mai called alongside Sabine as they approached the nerds around their nerd shrine. When her friend started strutting the sword, Chi Mai laced her hands behind her head and grinned, letting Sabine work her shit while she cooked her roast to perfection. She'd let it slow cook, maybe hit him with it later after he's stopped thinking about it and come back down to earth just to send him on a trip again.

A little treat from Chi Mai to Chi Mai.

In the meanwhile, Chi Mai spotted Diana and knew what she must do - slinking over towards her and making a dramatic show of obviously checking her out. "God daaayyyymn, girl." she said slowly, putting heavy emphasis on the 'ay' as she dropped into a squat and covered her mouth with one hand. Shaking her head as she lingered, Chi Mai eventually popped back up, grinning at Diana. "Missed youuuu~" she lilted innocently.

Diana was fun to tease.