[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/SR52k84p/54b4e63d635603b22d80f72a4ba2be54.png[/img][hr][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/aae8ce35e39c7a9c46daf8f3c2fc4c93/tumblr_inline_ph6yor0IB51qh6lt4_640.gif[/img][hr][@BlueSky44][@Nallore][@Trainerblue192][@Achronum][@PatientBean][@Forsythe][@Blizz][@Kirah][@Natsu][hr][h3][color=AC3EFF][b]8:20 AM - Mon. November 29th, 2038 - Margaret Carter Institute[/b][/color][/h3][/center][hr] 

[hider=Trick or Treat 2024][b]These tricks/treats go into effect when your character returns from Thanksgiving break[/b]

Leah - Treat - While everyone else had a parent or guardian that could be contacted, there was no one there to speak for Leah - something that the school, shockingly enough, hadn't even realized. In order to both tie up the legal loose end [i]and[/i] ensure the safety of a young child, She-Hulk stepped up and filed the documentation necessary, with Leah's okay, to become her legal guardian. Leah has now been given access to She-Hulk's Los Angeles apartment, where a room has been set up for her, as well as a card giving her access to the West Coast Avengers' mansion. Jen has also gotten a trust fund set up for Leah, where she will now be making regular deposits - being an Avenger doesn't pay well, but being a lawyer as well certainly doesn't hurt. 

Mary Sue - Trick - Mary Sue headed back to Cardiff over break, most likely hoping for something relaxing and uneventful. Instead, her grandfather sent his heralds to retrieve her father. The resulting fight was intense and bloody, Oliver ended up in the hospital in critical condition, and a scar across Mary Sue's left eye that rendered her partially blind. Her mother lost an arm, which will soon be replaced with a prosthetic. At least they won the battle. But Thanos is still out there, lurking. 

[b]Andy [/b]- Trick - Over Thanksgiving break, Andy will have had a hard time sleeping, bouts of insomnia that no medicine or magic seems to be able to dispel. The day before she is due to return to the Margaret Carter Institute, she'll finally get some much needed rest. However, when she wakes up, she finds herself in an abandoned building, a desiccated corpse at her feet, and wounds on her arms - as if someone had tried to fight her off. 

[b]Mads[/b] - Treat - Over the break, Mads went through a bit of a growth spurt! Her more demonic features came in and settled. She now has fanged teeth, a forked tongue, horns, a tail, and wings like those of a bat. With these wings, she now has the innate ability of flight. Her teeth are able to destroy most materials, save things like vibranium. Her tail is prehensile, so can be used to grab other objects and manipulate them. And her more monstrous form will give her advantage on intimidation checks.  

[b]Sabine [/b]- Treat - During the break, Sabine was plagued with strange, almost lucid dreams. In these dreams, she watched her mother as a young woman, striding confidently down the halls of a castle on the moon, a sword strapped to her side. She stood a few paces behind a tall man, with dark hair and a dramatic cloak, a crown on his head that indicated his station. Her mother seemed to be his bodyguard, following him wherever he went - from the scene of courtroom dramas to ghastly murders. No matter what Sabine did, no one noticed her in the dream. 

Until the last night, right before students were due to return to the Academy, when her mother would look directly at Sabine, and say: [i]"You are not your father's child, Sabine. You're his."[/i]

Zari - Trick - Zari and Andy have a great break, catching up with her parents in the alternate universe of Earth-667. Aside from Andy's issues, no trouble rears its head - until they get back to Earth-666, and Zari sees her time traveling device short out, reading a bunch of error messages that more or less amount to one thing... Earth-666, the universe our RP takes place in, is now cordoned off from the rest of the multiverse. No one can leave. No one can enter. 

Zelda - Trick - Even before the business with Arcade, Zelda has often felt herself to be invisible, blending in with the surroundings and never truly being noticed. Perhaps that is more true now than ever before, as over the break, she fell ill with a horrible fever. The fever nearly required hospitalization, and when it broke, her body seemed to be fading out of existence. Within a matter of hours, she had become completely invisible - and so far, she hasn't figured out a way to control this power and reappear. 

Dorian - Treat - For a living boy, Dorian shares a great deal in common with the dead - a fact that may endear him more to his Uncle Casper, or even his formerly dead father, Ben. Over the break, Dorian will discover another thing he has in common with ghosts - the ability to manipulate electromagnetism. He gains the ability to perform applications at the basic level per https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Electromagnetism_Manipulation 

Danni - During the break, Danni ended up wearing himself out one day, so incredibly tired as he went to sleep. So tired, in fact, that the scent of smoke didn't wake him. In the midst of a nightmare, his powers activated... and burned his house to the ground. No one was injured, thankfully, the adults had been out seeing a show - and while Max would be able to fix the house pretty quickly with magic, the memories don't fade, and the smell lingers. [/hider]


[hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=ed1c24]Percy Novikov[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/c5fd185b1383ac276645e96aee6a1e2b/tumblr_ppyt6xJngk1y7ovxuo1_400.gif[/img][hr][b][color=ed1c24]Location:[/color][/b] Dorian's Room 
[b][color=ed1c24]Skills:[/color][/b] N/A
[b][color=ed1c24]Fit:[/color][/b] [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8b/42/b6/8b42b68627e5e413e1c590fc41150b03.jpg]Yes he's in the school uniform[/url]
[hr][hr][/center]	Percy's phone vibrated as a text from his sister came in - most likely asking where he was. It wasn't like him to be late to things - he was punctual to a fault. However, it also wasn't like him to be overly respectful of authority figures. He had chased Ser Nemo with an axe during his audition for the Contest of Champions, and he had willingly went against school rules and guidelines to use the Framework after hours with Arcade. So while Percy tended to be punctual, it wasn't necessarily out of respect for the time of others - but rather, out of respect for his [i]own[/i] time. There was the additional factor that it was an accepted social convention, more or less a rule of operation, and Percy tended to adhere to such things rather seriously - hence his insistence on not making modifications to the school uniform. 

	So as Dorian pulled him into his room by the wrist, shutting the door behind them, there was something else that concerned Percy more than the matter of timeliness - and this, of course, was the sight of his boyfriend halfway dressed, his hair beautifully fluffed. The air caught in his lungs and his chest tightened, and it was like everything slowed down around them, as Percy stared at the veritable demigod that was Dorian. Even Aphrodite must have been jealous of his physique, Percy decided without a single hint of irony. His face was blushing a deep crimson, and Percy froze, gripped with uncertainty and hesitation. 

	He never understood physical interactions very well - he wasn't one that was prone to touch, preferring to keep to himself, to have his own little bubble. But right now, the idea of closeness with Dorian wasn't repulsive, it was... strangely invigorating. [color=ed1c24]"Dorian..."[/color] he began, not really sure where the sentence would end, his heart pounding. 

	What [i]was[/i] he doing?

	[color=ed1c24]"What if you... didn't?"[/color] Percy ventured, his tongue feeling like lead and swollen cotton. [color=ed1c24]"What if you...."[/color]

	He couldn't finish the sentence, though. He could understand just about every language intuitively as it was spoken to him, but this? He couldn't form a coherent thought, couldn't find a framework to express this. He could only hope that Dorian could find one for him. [hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=42A9FF]April Flynn[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/d1723ee57b9df2da0b9489e9cee7a408/90f917e93b713a17-04/s400x600/d38c484659a7a81a4da2f137683399e7922fc1ea.gif[/img][hr][b][color=42A9FF]Location:[/color][/b] Avengers' Academy - the Headmaster's Office
[b][color=42A9FF]Skills:[/color][/b] N/A
[b][color=42A9FF]Fit:[/color][/b] ~School Uniform, Skirt + Sweater Variant~
[hr][hr][/center][hider=Teams - if you need a refresh!]
Lady Nimue: April, Mads, Mary Sue, Andy, Gideon
Ser Nemo: Percy, Dorian, Danni, Sabine, Zelda
Usagi: Vicky, Leah, Diana, Zari[/hider]

	Almost immediately, the atmosphere in the room became hostile. April's eyes widened as people started to lay into Coulson, beginning with Vicky. She'd never even considered blaming Headmaster Coulson for any of this, or the school - [i]they'd[/i] been the ones using the Framework after hours without supervision, sneaking around with Arcade. She'd been prepared to beg to not be expelled, and not only did Coulson seem [i]proud[/i] of them, he was letting them automatically ace all of their courses and continue to compete? His apologies seemed genuine to her, but... Well, it seemed like most people in the room agreed with him - she desperately scanned the faces of the crowd, hoping that others beyond Diana would speak up and give a contrary opinion, but instead Leah added to it - and charged out of the room, slamming the door behind her. April flinched as it whipped against the door frame. 

	And Mary Sue, poor Mary Sue! April didn't want to ask what happened to her over the break, but she couldn't help but be curious as well. She bit her lip, feeling almost nauseous with how uncomfortable she was as Mary Sue added more accusations to the pile, telling Coulson that they all had died, that everyone here was essentially little more than a variant. But April didn't [i]feel[/i] like a variant - she felt like herself, didn't she? The thought that she wasn't real, that the real April had died that night... It was one that April desperately wanted to avoid. She gripped her right hand with her left and dug her nails in, a desperate attempt for control, for stability. 

	Even Sabine, cool and collected Sabine, didn't seem to be taking things well - April had noticed the way her girlfriend tensed when Coulson mentioned the mandated therapy. She had a strange double think about it all - that April wanted her friends to get therapy and get better, but loathed the idea of doing it for herself - loathed the idea of acknowledging that there was something wrong with her, that maybe there was a genetic sin lurking within, just waiting for an opportunity to bloom... 

	[color=42A9FF]"G-guys, let's all just take a step back here, okay? This is...this is a lot of energy and things are super scary but we're real, we aren't dead, we survived, and we got to be heroes - what we all came to do this school to do! A-and real heroes can't wait around for the Avengers to save them, otherwise they wouldn't be heroes, a-a-and I'm sure the adults are meeting to talk about how to improve everything so let's... let's just talk about anything else, okay? N-no need to talk about death because we're fine!"[/color] April's face had taken on a slight green tinge. She really wanted to STOP talking about this... 

	"No, this is a discussion we need to have," Headmaster Coulson corrected gently, holding up a hand to April. "The school's board has been having regular meetings to discuss what we can do to change our security protocols - no decisions have been finalized yet, so I can't speak as to what will be happening, but there will be changes made here at the institute. Your safety is out topmost priority. As for the time travel... Ser Nemo, would you care to shed some insight?"

	"Hm?" Ser Nemo spoke up, suddenly shaking himself out of what seemed to be deep thought. "Ah, yes. I am afraid Ms. Sullivan is mostly correct. All of the students from this gathering who did not use Ms. Raynordattir's expertise to time travel did perish, shortly followed by the rest of that reality's branch after it was pruned by the TVA. The duplicate Ms. Sullivan, Ms. Raynordattir, and Ms. Lensherr were similarly then pruned."

	[color=42A9FF]"....Pruned?"[/color] April squeaked. 

	"Yes, pruned. A kinder turn of phrase. As I teach in my advanced time travel course, the TVA oversees the proper flow of the timeline for each universe. Everything that has happened, it has happened according to what the TVA determines to be the allowed flow of time for our universe. I understand that it is upsetting, Ms. Sullivan, to think about the variants of your friends perishing - but had they survived without your use of time travel, they would have been pruned nonetheless. Had you decided to not use the Framework after hours, the TVA still would have intervened. What has happened is, for lack of a better term, correct."

	April didn't know what to say to that, instead just speechless as Nemo talked so... so coldly about what sounded like death - like the destruction of innocent people just because they didn't follow some predestined script... Was there even free will? She shut her eyes for a moment, willing herself to wake up and discover this was just some sort of horrible stress dream. 

	Lady Nimue, her watery form glistening in the light, took the opportunity to speak next. "There is nothing to fix, children. Heroes are forged in tragedy. No story can achieve great highs without also facing desperate lows and dire odds. If this is unacceptable to you, then perhaps this is not the place for you - perhaps you are not meant for an exceptional life."

	Coulson grimaced, as if less than pleased by his colleague's phrasing. "You are all free to go as you'd like - and you can let me know your decisions by the end of the day, both on your participation in the contest, and should anyone wish to withdraw from the school. But, uh, Ms. Van Dyne - if you would stay back a moment once the others file out, I have something else to speak to you about."