Location: Gym - Training Room C Skills: Enhanced Reflexes (Passive), Energy Vampire Wearing: rubber suit under uniform
"I did not want to do this." Andy says, pulling the glove off of her right hand. She holds it out, not quite touching Michaela, she doesn't need to, not for what she is drinking. The Eldritch Energy that was pouring off of Michaela was rich, and Andy drank deeply.
She was always thirsty. Always hungry. It had happened slowly that food hadn't quite satiate her the same anymore. She was so careful all the time after what had happened that first training day with Mads. Andy couldn't trust herself. But this was life. This was warmth. If asked to describe the sensation she'd say it was like climbing out of a cool lake on a hot summer day and letting the sun bake you dry. She wanted more and could feel herself tilting ever so closer to touching Michaela.
Dorian looked over at Danni from where he lay on the ground, a stupid grin on his face as he tried hard not to laugh. "First time?" He said jokingly before finally sitting up. He watched as the fight pressed on without him, Danni having scorched one of the members while Zelds knocked another out, Salah sat in a corner and Arsène simply gave up. "We won?" Dorian whispered to himself, shock taking over for a second as he tried to process what just happened. "We won!" He shrieked, a second wind coming on as he jumped up from where he sat and ran straight for Danni. He picked him up from the ground and spun him in a circle before pulling him into a tight hug. Several bones could be heard cracking before Dorian let go, hands on his best friend's shoulders as he stared him in the eyes with a massive smile. "We beat 'em! We won! On a judges team no less!!"
Danni laughed as Dee spun him, bouncing up and down as soon as his feet touched the ground. "OMFG we won! It was so much fun! And it was so cool ta see everyone in t'e fight!" Danni kissed Dee's cheek and the dragged him to Beanie. "T'e mind fuckery? T'e Dome shit? I'm living for it. You're t'e bomb!"
Dorian giggled before getting close to Sabine and whispered something under his breath. "You did such an amazin' job wit' Arsène too. Sure 'e didn't juice me back up, but 'e was so torn between doin' so or not t'at it gave us all t'e edge we needed. Poggers move." He said with a toothy smile.
Danni nodded at Dorian, seconding his comments. Then Danni set his eyes on Percy and off he dragged Dee. "T'at first kick was so cool, and stealin' t'e spear from Paul was 10/10, would recommend. 5 stars, Spicy, 5 stars! Danni gushed, swinging Dee around so they were hugging Percy from either side.
Dorian yelped as he was pulled away from Sabine, getting closer towards Percy. His heart raced faster than before, and he desperately wanted to give his boyfriend a kiss out of the excitement. But he didn't think Perce would be too happy about it, not so publicly at least. His body flew around as Danni whipped him to one side of Percy, and they were now both hugging him tightly. "Oh oh! And t'e catch as t'ey tried to make it for t'e captive when everyone else was distracted? Brilliant! T'at alone gave t'e rest of us time to set up and defend. T'en again your strategic little mind already knew all t'at."
"Aw, who 'as a fast lil noggin'? Spicy for t'e win!" Danni hugged hin one more time and then whirled them around to wave at Zelds. "T'e Golem is so cool! You gotta let me t'row fire at it at some point, fins how much 'eat it can 'andle! You know, stress test and all t'at! And knives, and t'e sneaky knives, I loved it all!"
Dorian hadn't actually seen Zelda all match. But he'd certainly felt her presence. While he couldn't exactly feel the pain of those he possessed, he could only imagine the amount of strength each hit had. Between the Daggers being thrown and a blow hard enough to cause a knock out, Dorian subconsciously began to rub his chest where his placeholder body had been hit. "I feel like it can 'andle quite a bit. At least we know it's punch 'as enough force to knock out a full man…or well teen. Haha"
"All t'e better ta test it, right? We get ta 'ave some fun wit' it! And no danger ta settin' anyone on fire." Danni replied excitedly, his attention on his last team member. "And t'anks for savin' me from the psychedelic song lady. You've been in me long enough for me ta see it if I t'ink about it long enough. Slidin' around phantom style like my life depends on it, and it tots did, I couldn't ask for a more kick ass partner."
Dorian blushed and looked away from Danni and the others. "It was not'in' really. I feel like I didn't contribute as much. No maimin' meant no swordplay and no swordplay left me at a severe disadvantage. So ya know, possessin' was all I could do at least." He said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"And did you do it? Yes you did, my lil Hauntling." Danni pinched Dee's cheeks. "Kickin' ass and takin' names, and we did bot'! Onwards to the CO test for real!"
It took her a minute to collect herself, she had entered multiple people's minds in a short amount of time, but once she did she saw that they had won. She had won. She looked around to be sure, but they had managed to hold off the team. Sabine grinned, running to the others, mainly Danni and Dorian, who had met her halfway. Big smiles on their faces as they complimented her work. "Thank you both! We really did it! And I learned more about myself too."
Her smile faltered a bit as Dorian spoke negatively about his abilities. "Nope. Nuh uh. I will not be hearing any negative talk from anyone. You killed it. We all did. You helped ward off the siren and broke me out of that spell. Without that, I might still be hypnotized or worse. You also helped with Arsene. It was a group effort, Dorian. Accept the compliment and the win!"
And she had to admit Percy and Zelda both proved themselves to be formidable allies. She knew Percy's powers were great, but Zelda came in clutch with the golem. "Everyone did well and you should all be proud of yourselves. This calls for a team selfie, and no I will not take no for an answer!" Sabine got her phone and pulled up her camera, corraling everyone into frame.
She also desperately wanted to see April and Leah. She needed to celebrate with them too.
She was actually a bit surprised that they had managed to win without too much more of an effort. Paul went down for the count from the last attack she had done, and she was slightly sad that she didn't get the chance to summon up the next thing in her mind. To say that summoning up a construct version of her second favorite "cat" Goose (first favorite was obviously Poppy, plus Goose kind of didn't count as a cat) to throw people around would have been fun. Oh well, she was kind of glad that the fighting was over with to say the least.
Then Dorian and Danni were starting to rattle off random things, and at one point she heard Danni seemingly talk to her about the whole golem and the sneaking around thing. "Um... I prefer to stick to the shadows in general being out of sight and stealth... As for the golem well... That depends on my emotional state since that's the type of energy it is created with. Whatever emotion I channel to summon it also determines the color of the construct... It broke because their telepath messed with my head a little bit... Well, kind of anyway..." she ended up saying, not sure what else to really say with regards to it.
Zarina Raynordattir
Location: Training Room B Skills: N/A
Wait why was Vicki deciding to yell at the judges? Zari was incredibly confused as to what was going through Vicki's brain at times, actually it was for most of this entire exercise that she wasn't exactly thinking well. They weren't military, and that was probably the worst way you could do in the sort of situations they were supposed to be working in. Especially with how they were doing. Besides, they were doing pretty dang well without Vicki attempting to micromanage everything.
Of course the alarms were going off on Vicki's suit when she had decided to yell at them, and Zari sort of just shrugged a bit. If it kept going and the whole situation didn't end, then she'd do something to help Vicki. But it wasn't too that point yet as far as she could tell. "You really should lighten up. This amount of damage and all is nothing compared to back home and what can happen there, so calm down and maybe stop yelling." she ended up saying towards Vicki.
7:00 PM - Sun. October 31st, 2038 - Margaret Carter Institute
It was the day of the school's Halloween dance - the Monster Mash. The cafeteria had been converted into a spooky wonderland, with a series of side rooms serving as the location for a Haunted House, graciously run by Lady Nimue. There were dancing and food and drinks (all non-alcoholic of course) and a DJ creating an intricate vibe. Halloween music, new and old, filled the cafeteria. Towards the end of the night, the costume contest would determine which two students would be crowned the Saviors of Avengers Academy, the school's version of Homecoming Royalty.
But more importantly, Headmaster Coulson would be announcing what four teams had qualified for the Contest of Champions. Everyone already knew that the Young Avengers were a shoe in - but the other three teams who had competed last year had all graduated. No one really knew who else would be tapped to compete in the Contest of Champions - and almost everyone at the school wanted it to be them. They were at a school to teach them to be heroes. Competing in the Contest was the easiest way to get recruited for a real superhero team, like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. It was their ticket to fame and success.
The dance was at seven o'clock, so naturally, April had started getting ready for it hours in advance. She was part of a group costume with her friends and her girlfriends, as they were going as She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She'd re-watched most of She-Ra in anticipation, particularly as she kept going back and forth on which princess she'd want to be. Sabine was going as She-Ra for obvious reasons. Leah was Scorpia. Gods, both of her girlfriends were so hot. April had waffled back and forth for a while - at one point she had been thinking Catra, as the Adora/Catra/Scorpia polycule was really interesting and endearing to her, but she wasn't sure she could pull off Catra. Mermista was an obvious choice, in terms of powers, but she found herself gravitating more and more towards Perfuma.
Besides, Perfuma didn't need a wig. She didn't super love wearing wigs, as they were scratchy and always getting out of place, and if they weren't high quality they tended to look terrible. So, Perfuma it was. Her sister had been gracious enough to make the costume for her. As much as Zelda was annoying and emo all the time, she was very talented when it came to costume construction. The costume was amazing. She had on a long pink dress and a light green cape/shawl. Flower petals had been clipped into her hair, along with Perfuma's crown. She had wrapped bands of pink on her wrists and ankles, and pink sandals.
All in all, April really felt like royalty. She beamed, checking herself out in the mirror in Danni and Dorian's room, where the group had gotten together to get ready. She did a little bit of a twirl, admiring the way the fabric moved. Her makeup was nearly flawless as well, pink shimmers that brought out the dominant color of her outfit in a way that would do Elle Woods proud. "Is everyone ready? We're going to be late and then we're going to miss out on all the cool stuff and the good gossip and what if we miss the announcement for the Contest? What if we get picked to go and we don't even know about it? What if we miss the costume contest, when we are all completely SLAYING right now???"
Of course, only two people could win the costume contest, but it had to be people from their group, right? No one else could look so fly! Zelda was a threat, but she tended to be pretty shy, so April was privately hoping her sister wouldn't enter.
His boyfriend had offered to include him on his group's She-Ra cosplay, but Percy had almost negative interest in that. He knew that it was important to Dorian, so he had held his tongue, but he did not derive the same sort of joy from children's cartoons, even if they were queer. He didn't particularly want to attend the Monster Mash either, but Dorian had been so excited to go, and Percy hadn't wanted to break his heart. So, after creating a list of suitable costumes and narrowing them down by his ability to acquire the items, Percy had settled on the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who.
He was dressed in a smart blue suit and red tie, with a brand new pair of red converse shoes - shoes that Percy ordinarily would not be caught dead wearing. In his pocket, he had a prop sonic screwdriver that Zelda had been kind enough to make for him. She probably would've made his entire costume if he had let her, but he had had some fun going and ordering the suit. He could wear it in other contexts as well, which was nice. And he had a feeling Dorian was going to be more than appreciative of the tie.
He was done and ready to go. His roommate was out of town that day, off training with the Beast. Percy was seeing less and less of him. Usagi had been irritated lately in their Combat 101 course, as her assistant was hardly ever there. Kate Bishop was filling in more and more for Teddy.
He grabbed the bouquet of flowers from his desk - red roses, a classic - and strode out of the room, locking the door behind him. He did not have to go far to reach the door to Dorian's room, and Percy knocked three times, before rocking back on his heels and waiting.
Location: Avenger's Academy, Stark Hall Floor Three, Room 310 -> Cafeteria Costume: Annabeth Chase Skills: N/A
Diana spent sometime thinking about what she wanted to dress up as for the Monster Mash dance, she wasn't really interested in applying for the costume contest unless her brother or one of her friends convinced her to. She ultimately decided to go with Annabeth from Percy Jackson, her hair was naturally blonde and curly like her's was. She had ordered a Camp Half-Blood shirt and camp beads from an Etsy store that would fit with her costume, and ordered a New York Yankee's cap to top it off. Diana already had some jean shorts in her wardrobe to wear when she didn't have anything school wise as well as a pair of hiking boots that matched.
Diana decided to go as her since Annabeth was one of her favorite characters in the books to she was very smart as well to something that she liked about the character to. Once Diana was satisfied with her look Diana quickly grabbed her room keys and headed out of the room, and started to make her way down to the cafeteria where the dance was being held. Diana always did love the dance it was always a lot of fun going to and seeing everyone dressing up was really cool as well to. Diana already knew that April and all of her friends were going as She-Ra characters which would be interesting to see, she wondered what her brother was dressing up as this year being his first dance at the school after all.
Madalyne Crane
Location: Avenger's Academy, Stark Hall Floor Six Room 603 -> Room 602 Costume: Castaspella Skills: N/A Grimoire: N/A
Madalyne sat in her and April's room April had decided to go to Danni and Dorian's room to get herself changed, which left to have the entire room to herself to get changed. April had convinced her to join with Danni and Dorian to do a She-Ra group, Madalyne spent some nights binge watching She-Ra with April. Mads knew that April was going as Perfuma that was about all she knew she wasn't sure who Danni and Dorian were going as. It took her awhile to think about who she wanted to go as but decided to go with Castaspella from the show, she felt closer to that character anyway. Or Catra was also a character that she liked in the show as well to, she however hated wearing contacts.
It took Madalyne awhile to find a dress that would fit well but eventually found one, the metal neck and shoulder plates were a bit harder to find but managed to order one as well to along with the headpiece the cloak was pretty easy to find. Once she was satisfied with her costume Madalyne did her hair herself along with the makeup. She left her room and started to head down the hallway to Danni and Dorian's room which was right next door. She smiled and waved at Percy who stood outside of Danni and Dorian's room, she knew that he was Diana's little brother and he was dating Dorian but thats about it really. "Hey there Percy how are you doing?" Madalyne said as she stood next to him.
Location: Training Room B Gear: A hot ass dress Skills: The insurmountable will to not lose her cool under any circumstances Oh god oh fuck
Leah had been dreading this day for a while now.
This "costume" felt absolutely, unequivocally wrong to Leah. Standing in this dress and looking at herself in a mirror, Leah felt like she was underdressed, but then again, anything would feel like underdressed compared to the usual outfit she wore to basically everything. Did it look nice? Absolutely. Did it look nice on her? In Leah's opinion, that was a hard no. Sabine would've rocked this, April would slay in this, but it didn't feel like Leah. She didn't even have a god damn clue who this "Scorpia" character was, since she never watched those glittery cartoons that everyone and their parents did- Back home, she didn't even have a tv. Leah couldn't help but feel like she'd walk out where the others were, and everyone would be giving her the side eye, thinking to themselves, "Oh, that doesn't fit your vibe, why'd you even put it on?" And then Sabine would turn around and tell her to ignore them, but then April would too, and it would just be a whole thing... She couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror, worrying about how little skin she had covered up. It was such a stupid thing to fixate on, especially when at least one of her girlfriends had seen every inch of her skin. Would they ask about all the scars she had? All the ones people didn't normally notice? No, why would they? But what if they did, and paid attention to her?
She could just tear the whole thing off and put something less flashy on. It was a fucking dance she was going to, not some damn fancy Avengers party. This was just stuff normal kids did, kids who could stand to think about it because they had the normalcy in their lives that allowed this to be the most stressful thing of their weeks, and she never could relate to that. Leah wasn't one of those kids, she didn't do costumes, or parties, or fucking prom dances. The only reason this meant anything to her was because it meant a lot to April and Sabine, and they meant a lot to her. This made them happy- She didn't understand just how in the fucking world they could get happiness out of something this silly, but Leah wanted them to be as happy as they could. But it didn't change how wrong this felt to her. Leah Jordan was staring into a mirror, but someone different was staring back. Was is the kind of thing ordinary people fixated on?
Maybe after this was done, Leah would tell herself it was dumb to be so nervous. The girls would certainly tell her she looked hot, which would be nice. She was doing this for them. ”Let them have fun,” She told herself.
And so, the rock throwing badass left and roamed down the halls until she found the right room. She opened the door, seeing everyone in their outfits. April looked… Wow. God, Leah was a lucky motherfucker. And the donuts were dressed pretty okay too, even if she had no idea who the fuck any of them were actually impersonating. She seemed to be holding them all up, but she was here now. This was her first dance since coming to AA three years ago, and already she was clueless.
Shit, was she supposed to wear the lipstick that the claw-hands girl had? Shit.
”…So… I’m here.” Good god, it already felt fucking awful being the only one she thought didn’t look okay. ”Cool dress, April… You all look cool. I’m not late, am I?”
Time: After qualifiers Location: Training room B > Locker room Skills: N/A Trick or treat: Detention for all of November
Finally, this thing was over. Now, she could get to what needed to be done. First things first, she flew up to the hostage cage, grabbed the first aid kit and administered what she could to the other team, leaving some prescription-free pain relievers with Rada once she was dug out. Then, she gathered her own flock: "Locker room. Now."
Once she shut the door behind them, all floodgates came open. Vicky turned on her heel, her gaze snapping to Zari "What the hell was that?! If you have a problem with me or how I conduct myself in this role, you can tell me when we're here or almost any time else. But not in the middle of the bloody fight! If you do that again, I'll take you down myself! I'd rather be a pair of hands down than to have an undisciplined maverick like you running amok! I wouldn't trust you to pick up my groceries, let alone to have my back! It'd a coinflip whether you would show up with what I needed, or two days later having bought something completely different!
I support proper initiative, when I tell you what needs doing, I won't micromanage you about how to get it done. Or like Ed and Leah have done, when I didn't actually have anything for them to do, they found how to use their skillset to help us achieve the objective. But so long as I am at the helm, this was the last time you told me me 'no' when I asked something of you, and then fucked off to do gods know what else!"
Her head snapped around, addressing the rest of them: "So let's hear it! Now, when it's actually supposed to happen and won't screw us over! All of you! Because I am done trying if you don't even want it, you can find someone else among you whom you'd feel more comfortable with." She lifted a bench and slammed it to the middle of the room, dividing it to two sides. "Statement: Victoria is a leader I care to follow. Aye's to my left, Nay's to my right!"
In the end, Diana and Leah stood in her corner, while Ed seemed to straddle the bench. Not enough of a unity to just tell Zari to fall in line or show herself out the door, but hopefully enough to make her at least think about whether she herself wanted to stay with the group. It wouldn't be the only change on a team this year after all.
It wasn't all victories though. Afterwards, both Diana and Leah dropped by to tell her they did not appreciate how she handled the situation. Victoria understood, and apologized for it. She did let her emotions slip, although she would be lying if she said she did not feel a bit relieved afterwards. She also appreciated that they actually voiced their concerns immediately rather than letting them ferment.
There was one other party though. Usagi did not exactly appreciate Vicky's efforts to make any changes to the team - composition or leadership wise - without her input, and gave Victoria a month of detention for her efforts. Victoria almost dug herself a deeper grave by asking what was the point of even appointing her as the head when she could make almost no decision, but caught herself at the last moment. Reasoning with the fuzzball was fighting windmills, and Victoria did not like expending any effort if it would only result in more detention. She would have to figure out how to approach this from another angle.
Time: Day of the Dance Location: Workshop > Cafeteria Skills: N/A Equipment: Frankenstein's monster costume
This event caused Vicky to have mixed feelings. One one hand, she could not care less about dancing. To her, not being asked to the dance by anyone was a sign that she made friends that knew her well. Dancing was an utter waste of motion, and it did not even look pretty! Once so many pairs were on the floor, one could barely see anything at all. And all of them sweated bullets after a while, stinking up the place.
The aspect she loved? The cosplay. There were some talented artists in this school, and Victoria set to out to join the ranks of those. She needed an idea though. She faffed with the idea of going as a vampire, but after a bit of introspection, she finally nailed the perfect costume for herself: Frankenstein's monster. She picked the one form the movie Van Helsing as a starting point, and crafted her own variant, calling the project 'Frankenstein's daughter'. The hidden design element were the iron braces around the ankles, which gave her a convenient out form any requests to dance. And those in the know oughta get a laugh out of this! she thought, putting in the final touches before heading out to the cafeteria.
While she did not intend to dance, she did intend to get any gossip she could, and perhaps update her intel board.
Location: Cafeteria Skills: N/A Costume: Avenger's Academy Student.
Oh god it felt like Mary Sue hadn't so much had thought about anything other than her team's performance. She'd done writeup after write up, critical analysis after critical analysis. She hated the feeling of not knowing whether or not she'd been good enough more than anything, and the stomach-turningly upsetting thing was that there was nothing in the world she could really do to know besides wait. It was a poison to her soul, and resulted in her neglecting to put any thought into a proper Halloween costume. That, paired with the fact that she never even been to a dance before left her unbearably nervous and socially anxious.
That left her costumeless and questioning why she even wanted to go the Monster Mash. The answer being, of course, that this, of all places, was where the results would be announced. She wished she could go as the invisible woman, so she didn't need to deal with the constant voices in her head saying that people would be judging her for showing up in her standard uniform and standing standoffishly in the corner of the cafeteria, punch in hand, and trying desperately to figure out the least intrusive way to get time to pass. Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd get to see Andy or Percy tonight, but everything in her was so nervous and anxious that she wasn't even sure that would make her feel good.
Location: Dorm Room -> Stark Hall: Room Six Costume: She-Ra Skills: N/A
After adjusting the last piece of her costume, Sabine stared at herself in the mirror. She was absolutely thrilled with how she looked. Her and her friends had all decided on a group costume this year. She didn't remember who suggested She-Ra, but she was glad for it. Not only did she love the show, but with her sword and blonde hair, she made the perfect She-Ra. And her costume only highlighted that.
As she was checking herself out, her phone buzzed. She ignored it, assuming it was one of her friends asking how long she would be. But then it buzzed again. And again. And again. Sabine sighed and picked it up, seeing messages from her socials. Only....the messages weren't about likes or views. But comments. And not her usual assortment of positive and complimentary comments, but mean ones. Vile ones. She quickly pulled up her page and saw where the comments were originating. She didn't recognize the post, but it was clearly a picture of her. And the message on it was....well she didn't want to repeat it, even in her head. It was a brimming cocktail of homophobia, transphobia, and some sexism thrown in.
Her followers had to know she wasn't like that. But the comments didn't seem to get that. She scrolled through it, reading some to herself. I hope you die xoxox. Always knu u were a hartless bitch. They went on.
She needed to do some damage control. She was clearly hacked. She quickly changed her password and re-set up the two-step authentication. She got on live and waited until she saw the viewer count go up before she started speaking. "Hey all. I wanted to clear something up with you. I know you all saw that post of mine and how absolutely horrendous it was. In a time of fake apologies I do not want to add one more into the mix. Those of you that have followed me know I have been transparent in my beliefs and who I am as a person. I was hacked and whoever did so wanted to ruin me and the community I have set up here. I intend to investigate this and find out who did it. But I wanted to share something that, hopefully, will be a show of good faith. I am in a relationship with two wonderful girls. Out of respect for their privacy, I will not share who they are unless they give me express permission. I have been with them for a while now and love them both. Whoever attempted to attack me wanted to ruin this and I will not let them win. And I hope you all won't either. I can't stop your opinions or feelings and I encourage you to explore them. But allow me to try to undo the damage done."
Sabine kept an eye on the comments as she spoke. Some were negative still, but a majority of them were supportive. She hoped she had done something to help mitigate this. Whoever hacked her had technological knowledge far surpassing the average person.
She shook it off. Now was not the time to dwell. She had a party to get to. She quickly grabbed her phone and sword, sheathing both, and made her way to Danni and Dorian's room. As she approached, she noticed Percy and Madalyn hanging outside, both dressed up nicely. "Nice costumes you two. Did we knock already or are we just chilling in the hallway?"
He had opted to go as his favorite character, SeaHawk. He'd tried convincing Percy to join him as Mermista, but it didn't seem to appeal to him. He pursed his lips as he thought on that, wondering if he should've pushed a little harder. But then again he didn't want to make Perce do anything he didn't want to do, especially if it would make him uncomfortable or miserable. Dorian looked towards April as she was still putting on her finishing touches, smiling as he saw how well it was coming together. All he needed to do was put on his boots but that could be down once everyone was ready. For now he was content to laze in bed for a minute more as he pulled his phone out to text his dad Happy Birthday.
It was then that he saw the notifications. One saying Sabine had posted something new, though when he saw what it was it made his stomach turn. Another was her going LIVE. He tapped on that, captions on and auto-generating as he kept the volume low so not to stress out April. Someone had hacked her account and tried to slander her name and he instantly wanted to get to the bottom of it. He typed several words of encouragement in her chat trying to fight off the hate. They knew three needs at least that could help, but could any be fully trusted? Was one of them the ones responsible for it all? Dorian didn't know, but just as he was about to throw his head back onto his pillow he heard three knocks. No one spoke, the only sound was April as she went on talking over the knocking sound asking if they were ready.
For a moment Dorian thought maybe he'd just imagined it. "I'm ready as I'll ever be! Once I get my shoes on." He said with a bit of laughter before their dorm door was opened and Leah stood at the crack. A loud scream came out of him as he looked at her from his bed. "Chère ever 'eard of knockin'? What if we were naked in 'ere huh?" Looking past Leah he saw a familiar impish shadow, his boyfriend. Dorian bolted out of bed and swung the door wide open, grinning from ear to ear. He grabbed Percy's tie and gently pulled on it to move him into the room. "And who are you supposed to be? T'ough I love t'e tie." Fully forgetting the growing crowd outside his dorm as well as those in it.
Location: Gym - Training Room A Skills: N/A Costume:Double Trouble
Costume party, costume party, costume party! Danni couldn't barely hold himself together the whole day, unable to maintain interest in anything for long with the looming event. He fiddled with his social media, his cooking equipment, even clothes, and tried to research more about his dragon but his head just kept drifting to the party. They really needed to add a group contest for people like them that coordinated and did all this work to look good together - hero work was all about working as a team and what better way to promote comrades than through fun and fashion - but he'd have to settled for winning Savior of Avenger's Academy with one of them!
It had been a difficult decision for some - Princess couldn't make up her mind, which was fair since she was perfect for so many characters, but Danni knew which role he'd play instantly. Double Trouble fit him like a second skin, literally in this case. The longest part of the costume was makeup primer and body paint application, covering the upper part of his arms, neck, and face since thankfully the costume covered everything else because between the full skincare routine, primer, and then the heavy duty water resistant body paint, more would have taken waaaaaay too long for him to get it looking good. His focus, excited for this or not, would have been hella shot and then he'd probably start crying when it looked crappy and it'd ruin the whole vibe and they weren't doing that tonight.
Danni popped his head over Dee's shoulder when he popped open Beanie's live and even though it took him a minute to get caught up to speed, Danni let out a scandalized gasp. "Princess got 'acked?! Daaaaamn, good for t'at bitch! Means she's slayin' 'ard enough ta get noticed by t'e 'aters, ya know? Still, we gotta support our Beanie!" Danni announced, immediately firing off a supportive update on his own channels and tagging Beanie in them. "'aters gunna 'ate, but it's good Beanie caught it so quick. T'is could have been a hell of a fight if it 'appened at t'e party or somet'in', you know? Now say She-Ra everyone!" Danni positioned himself so he could snap a selfie with the pair of them in the background as they were getting ready.
He'd just finished putting his heels on when the door was opened, so he twirled with a bow as Princess, Dee, and he were revealed to their audience: Spicy, Mads, Beanie, and… Leah. Danni still had mixed feelings on that particular addition but he'd move on, he'd move on. Everything was great and awesome tonight. "Everyt'in' is goin' be great and awesome tonight! Danni shouted, affirming his defective thoughts. "Yeah, we're all ready Princess! If we hurry, we won't miss a t'in' but we gotta do a group selfie first and post it to support Beanie! Fuck t'ese 'ackin' 'aters! Now come on, come! Photo, photo, photo!"
Zelda had done some work on her costume, though it probably would be the first time in a long time that she wasn't wearing a costume that covered her face. Well, mostly covered her face anyway, she still at least had a hood that she had pulled up and over her head. She had decided to go as Rogue, specifically wearing one of the outfits she had worn during her days with the Avengers as opposed to with the X-Men. She already naturally had the white streaks in her hair too so it made sense. It was a simple outfit, she'd leave the drawing attention thing to her sister whose outfit was definitely bright and colorful.
Having spent most of the month working on her own costume and that of her sister had kept her kind of busy, but it always was fun to her. It was relaxing and calming to work with. However right now she probably should eventually see about leaving the dorm room and head to the dance. She wasn't entirely sure if she'd enter the costume contest or anything like that still, or even what she'd do while there, dances weren't exactly her sort of thing anyway, but she did head out eventually heading towards the cafeteria.
Zari hadn't been entirely sure what sort of costume to get for the dance. This sort of thing was fairly new for her, as was celebrating Halloween in general, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. For her costume, she eventually settled on a viking costume, however she had immediately switched out the boots the costume came with for a more functional pair, since they made absolutely no sense to go with the costume. Neither did the weird hat that people seemed to insist on them wearing. There was no practicality in that sort of thing!
The costume also came with a fake axe and she basically was debating whether to take that or to just sheath her sword and bring her sword with her. That decision was a rather quick one as she tossed the fake weapon aside and hooked her sheath on instead, before stepping out of her dorm. Next on her todo list was to try and find where Andy was, but she figured she likely was in her dorm or something, so she headed that way in order to see if she could find her.
Andy had debated what to go as for the dance. Part of her didn't want to even bother, but when Zari had said she had gotten a costume Andy figured she would too. She ended up going for the obvious costume, a vampire. She wore black elbow-length gloves and a dress her mom thought wasn't revealing enough. That wasn't a surprise. She did her make-up to look as pale as she could, without looking like a mime.
When she was done getting ready, she stepped out of her dorm to look for Zari. There was no way she was going to the dance without her. So she headed toward Zari's room. Andy might not have even gone if it weren't for the fact that the winners would be announced there. She didn't even care if her team won. She did know that April was super into it, and for her sake, Andy had tried her best.
Since then she hadn't given it much thought. Andy had been too focused on other aspects of school, like essays and readings. Her head ached from the readings. It felt like it took her ten times longer than anyone else to get through reading, part of that was just not knowing a bunch of background information or what words meant and having to look them up. The other part was reading itself was tiring. She couldn't figure out why.
Andy turned a corner and saw Zari heading her way. Thoughts of school left and she smiled and waved at her girlfriend, before hurrying to meet up with her.
"Nice, love that we both went with the most obvious costumes." She offered her arm, thankful that her type of vampirism didn't seem to affect Zari, though the gloves and sleeves should still protect her just in case.
7:10 PM - Sun. October 31st, 2038 - Margaret Carter Institute
Mary Sue - Trick - Her backpack was stolen in the library! She'll have to replace her laptop/books/etc.
Vicky - Trick - Through a misunderstanding with a teacher (Usagi) Vicky has detention for the entire month of November
Sabine - Trick - someone hacked Sabine’s socials and put up some disgusting, bigoted content pretending to be her
Andy - Treat - Magneto sends her a gift, it’s a pair of vambraces that fit her perfectly, they’re made out of an unknown material and can deflect bullets and the like
Zari - Treat - On Halloween morning, Zari also gets a present from her family. It’s an enchanted tool belt. Whatever tool she needs if she reaches for it, it’s there
Leah - Trick - After the Monster Mash when Leah returns to her room, there is a postcard on the wall from Oslo. Written on it is her birth name. Nothing else.
Dorian - Treat - On Halloween day, Dorian’s father sends him a ~spooky~ gift. It’s a mini dinosaur! And by mini I mean like 6 inches tall. But it’s alive!
@Natsu In the cafeteria, the dance was underway as the students began to arrive, trickling in and mingling. Refreshments were grabbed, laughs were had, and inevitably, misunderstandings caused a few couples to have a bad start to their Halloween night. There were a few wall flowers like Mary Sue, standing off to themselves. However unlike them, Mary Sue was approached by one of the dance chaperones - a man she had never seen before.
He had dark skin and strangely liquid-like, flowing purple hair. His ears were pointed like an elf's and he had on a dramatic purple cape. On his left hand, he wore a wedding ring. "No costume?" he asked Mary Sue, raising an eyebrow.
@Nallore@Forsythe@BlueSky44: The three of you would end up running into each other, as you made your way from the dorms to the cafeteria. Whether or not you acknowledge each other is of course up to you - Zelda was dressed as Rogue, Vicky as a robotic Frankenstein, and Diana as a Greek demigod. A few other students are passing by you in the halls, as things get more and more crowded the closer you get to the cafeteria. Not too far up ahead, you'll spot some of the Young Avengers gang - namely Cassie Lang and America Chavez and Kate Bishop, dressed as the Powerpuff Girls.
April hadn't paid much attention at first when Dorian took out his phone and started scrolling - not until Danni screamed Princess got hacked. "What?!" Her eyes widened and she frantically pulled out her phone, about to check her accounts - Princess was the nickname Danni used routinely to refer to her, after all - but then, as Danni continued to ramble, he mentioned Beanie. And her blood went cold. Sabine had been the one to be hacked. She frantically went to her girlfriend's socials, looking in shock at the nasty comments flooding it.
In Danni's quick selfie, April's face was contorted into horror.
She then sprung into action, quickly typing out some (somewhat emotional) posts in defense of Sabine and posting them to her own socials. She didn't have nearly as many followers, but she wanted to do what she could. She then switched to the polycule group chat, firing off a message - OMG I AM SO SORRY ARE YOU OKAY??? Her hands were shaking and she started pacing back and forth, already coming up with worst case scenarios. Maybe she could ask her parents to use some S.H.I.E.L.D. resources to figure out who did the hack. Would her father be willing to send in a drone strike, maybe? Or would that be overkill?
Her pacing stopped though as Leah opened the door and stepped inside, an absolute vision in her Scorpia costume. She took April's breath away - she always did, of course, but now especially. She was mesmerized enough that her panic over what was happening to Sabine temporarily melted away, and April blushed deeply as Leah told her that she looked cool. "You look AMAZING!" April gushed. April stood on her toes and gave Leah a quick kiss on the lips, before flattening her feet back out. She left a hand lingering on Leah's arm, grinning at her.
But Leah wasn't the only one who had showed up. Dorian had run out the door to see his boyfriend - and Mads and Sabine were both in the hallway! April was relieved to see that Sabine was alright, as she took Leah by the hand and dragged her on into the hallway. She let go of Leah's hand and threw herself around Sabine in a huge hug, and then kissed her on the lips as well. "Whatever you need, I'll do it. I'll see if my dad can nuke that asshole, wherever they are," April vowed seriously.
"Oh, yes, picture picture!" April agreed. "Mads, you look absolutely wicked," she then giggled, her emotions all over the place. But that was normal for her.
Percy gave Mads a curt nod. "I'm doing well, thank you," he said. He didn't know her very well, but he ran into her from time to time, given that they lived on the same floor. He didn't recognize what her costume was from, but it looked rather nice - she was definitely serving celestial witch realness. "You look nice," he then added, as two others came down the hallway - Leah and Sabine. He offered Sabine a slight wave, as Leah then just... opened up the door.
Percy frowned slightly. Wasn't that not acceptable?
His frown vanished as he spotted Dorian, looking incredibly dashing in his ascot - that did something to Percy, as he blushed furiously. And when Dorian rushed out and pulled him by his tie - well, he was doing his very best to remember that others were present. As it was, all he managed to get out at first was a strangled "ngk."
He swallowed thickly, doing his best to recover. His brain was very frazzled, and he had to replay the words Dorian had said to him in his brain quickly - roleplaying. That's what Dorian was doing right now. Otherwise, he'd know who he was. So, putting on his best imitation of the Tenth Doctor, Percy spoke in a somewhat botched British accent: "I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you. And who might you be?"
Percy vaguely heard people shouting about pictures, but he was too lost in Dorian's eyes to notice or care.
Location: Training Room B Gear: A hot ass dress Skills: The insurmountable will to not lose her cool under any circumstances Oh god oh fuck
Putting aside the fact that April panicking was a regular occurrence, Leah was a tad concerned as to why she appeared to be freaking the fuck out. Unsurprisingly, though, that panic stopped the nanosecond she laid eyes on Leah. And suddenly, Leah was getting kissed, and she began to feel okay with wearing a paper-thin dress that showed off her muscles. Leah grinned, ignoring the ghost boy just zooming past her... And the fact that she should've knocked first. But in her nervousness, she forgot that manners were a thing. "So do you. Wait- I just said that. Okay, so what are we- Fucking- Woah- Watch the-" She wanted to say watch the door since Leah was getting dragged through it, and was several inches taller than April, who was dragging her through it like some sort of super-strength having motherfucker. Holy shit, she was a lot stronger than she appeared to be, being able to tow Leah around, when Leah was built like a damn horse. She was so caught of guard that she almost fell over, and noticed that April was now running up to hug and kiss Sabine. And-
Wow. Sabine. The sword, the hair, the funny-looking armor? Wow.
"Hm, I- Damn. Okay. Nice armor- April, what the hell are you talking about? Who are we nuking here? Is it Usagi? Because I can just do that myself- Kick the fucker for a field goal all the way to New York. Who fucked up?" Was it obvious she was staring at Sabine? Of course it was, but who could blame her? Hell, April probably was too- Actually, no, she was definitely staring, knowing her. Fuck, they were hot, fuck, damn.
This hallway was starting to get a bit crowded. And Leah did not recognize a single costume here. Of course, she wasn't about to say that, since it would be a whole thing. Was Percy even wearing a costume? Honestly, he just looked like that normally. [color=ff9a4f]"Okay. So, uh... I don't really do this whole dancing thing you guys usually do every year. Are we supposed to get there at a certain time or something?"[/c
As Diana got closer to the cafeteria she looked around as she watched some of the various other students were all dressed up in different costumes. They were all pretty cool looking as Diana noticed Zelda coming up dressed up as Rogue and Victoria dressed up as some sort of monster, she approached her roommate and team leader giving them a friendly smile and wave. "Hey how are you two doing?" Diana asked as she stood by the entrance to the cafeteria where everyone was entering. "Love the costumes by the way to."
She also noticed Kate, Cassie as well as America all dressed up as the Powerpuff Girls, she remembered watching it growing up it was a show that her mother Maria had grown up watching as well to. "Nice costume you three, are you ready to have fun tonight?" Diana asked making some small talk, she did get along with Kate and had a friendly rivalry with her on who was the best archer in the school.
Madalyne Crane
Location: Avenger's Academy, Stark Hall Floor Six Room 602 Costume: Castaspella Skills: N/A Grimoire: N/A
Madalyne gave Percy a friendly smile. "Thank you, love the Tenth Doctor costume you got there." She said, Madalyne had watched Doctor Who a few times before her mother really loved the show and watched just about ever episode. She then stared at Leah as she just rudely barged into Danni and Dorian's room without even saying hi to her or Percy. But she didn't say anything when Sabine came up and waved at her and smiled. "Thats an awesome She-Ra costume Sabine, and we were waiting for the others to finish but I guess we can go inside now." Madalyne said when Dorian came out and practically dragged Percy into his room and followed shortly after.
She smiled at April when she complimented on her costume and did a little twirl for her. "You look really great April." She said to her best friend as she went to kiss both Leah and Sabine, she was happy for the three of them they did look really cute together. Her attention turned to Dorian and Danni their costumes looked pretty amazing as well to. "I'm ready for a group photo." Madalyne said as she looked at Leah. "We can head down there now people are probably at the cafeteria right now. Also whats going on?" Madalyne asked looking at April wondering what was going on exactly all she heard was her mentioning her dad nuking someone.
Location: Cafeteria Skills: N/A Equipment: Frank costume
The area was relatively empty, although Vicky figured that was about to change quickly. Looking around she spotted the self appointed queens of the school dressed up as powerpuff girls. Wow. Dressing up as sisters with someone else after ghosting me? That one... Actually hurts. What the hell did I do to you, Cas?! she thought bitterly.
The reasonable, adult thing to do would be to use this time to talk to her about it. The unreasonable thing to do would be to confront her about it. But the side that won at the moment was the petulent child, who screamed from inside of Vicky's mind to ignore Cassandra in return. Leave those hens to their blather. You'll lose less synapses this way! If she suddenly wants to talk, she can start by explaining herself.
Instead she put her attention to the rest of the room. "Diana, miss Flynn, good evening. I like the costume Diana, but that blows us both out of the water. The resemblence is uncanny." she credited Zelda's effort.
Location: Cafeteria Skills: N/A Costume: Avenger's Academy Student.
Mary Sue was surprised by the fact that a Chaperone had decided to take an interest in her lack of a costume. Attention from adults quite frankly wasn't something she was used to getting, especially any that might be even vaguely negative. It was the natural consequence of her perfectionism and limited engagement, there just wasn't anything to remark on if she was doing her job correctly. She shrank back a bit looking away from him for a moment, clearly flustered at what had transpired. She gave a quiet, meek nod, and wasn't sure what to say in response, how bad was this?
She looked back at him and said, "Yeah, I just... didn't really have the time to put one together." She said, not being entirely dishonest. Could she have put together a costume if she put her mind to it? Yeah, of course, but what would the point of that have been? "More important things to focus on, you know?" It felt almost embarrassing to say that for some reason, something about it all hurt. She knew how to be a good student, it seemed, but personhood outside of that felt... unreachable. She had friends and connections, sure, but how did she get more than that? What was it everyone else understood that she didn't?
Dorian pressed himself against Percy, hand still on his tie as he got lost in his boyfriend's eyes. The blush tinting his skin only served to make Percy that much cuter up close. He wondered if being this close around others made him nervous, then he felt something press against his leg. It was rather large and hard, and it made Dorian's heart race. His face now blushing in equal measure as Percy's as he took a slight step back to give them both a small bit of room. Of course Dorian didn't know it was simply his Sonic Screwdriver that was left in his pocket for the costume. He cleared his throat, finding it hard to swallow as he nervously looked down to where he'd felt it and then met Percy's eyes once more. ”’appy to see me I see” He'd forgotten that Percy had even asked him a question, his brain frazzled as it usually was when they were alone in a room.
”Uh oh uh I'm Sea'awk! T'e greatest adventurer ever!” Dorian said trying to get himself back into the swing of things. His mouth felt dry, and suddenly he felt more anxious than he'd previously thought possible. Dorian had heard that people used dances to later go off and do the Devils tango, but he hadn't expected anything like that from Percy. He was in his own head, thinking of what was possibly running through Percy's mind when he'd heard Danni and the others talking about a group photo. ”Oh! We should go and join t’at…and t’e dance! Don't want to be late for t’e announcements.” He said as he grabbed his boyfriend's hand and dragged him towards the photo op, placing himself behind Percy and wrapping his arms around his waist before plopping his head onto his shoulder.
