[hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=f26522]Avery Spellman[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/86cec6d38d47218f7dafbb840a74b7f1/2089eac01cae8eb6-05/s250x400/1e755ce4912f22c6e13fb41c2a3d9d26d767286b.gif[/img][hr][b][color=f26522]Location:[/color][/b] New Orleans
[b][color=f26522]Skills:[/color][/b] N/A [hr][hr][/center]	A series of portals appeared, fractured from a singular point, concentrated into one destination - into the Phoenix. Runa added to them with one of her own. Ben studied the control panel, looking at the buttons - they seemed roughly the same color to him, and he cursed under his breath. He had spent so long as a ghost - almost two decades - that he'd almost forgotten a fundamental fact about himself. [i]He was color blind[/i]. The buttons all looked the same, all varying shades of grey. He didn't know which one was The Big Red Button and which ones were green - and his Shi'Ar skills had atrophied since he was a kid. It wasn't like he had had much incentive to keep up with the language as a ghost. And he never worried too much about what he wore, as he tended to dress in black, and half of the time, his husband set out outfits for him anyways. 

	"Are you pressing anything?" Runa asked, peering her head over Ben's shoulder. "Why don't you press that one?"

	"That one isn't the right one!" Ben insisted. 

	[color=f26522]"Try the red one,"[/color] Avery offered. 

	"No, the green one - it's obviously the green one!"

	[color=f26522]"No, it's [i]never[/i] the red one!"[/color] Avery insisted. 

	Runa narrowed her eyes. "Boy-"

	[color=f26522]"-I'm not a boy."[/color]

	"Child - I have been alive since before even your ancestors breathed their first breath - Listen to me when I say it is the [i]green[/i] one."

	[color=f26522]"Well..."[/color] Avery faltered. They didn't know what to say to that. They wished that Max were here - that he knew of some sort of spell that could tell them how to operate this contraption. Or that the Shi'Ar had sent them with any sort of instruction as to its use. However, Runa wasn't the only immortal - surely Ben was just as ancient as his husband? Or maybe they were wrong - maybe Ben was tragically fated to die, while his husband never aged? [color=f26522]"Ben agrees with me, and if he's nearly as old as his husband, I think we should listen to his expertise."[/color]

	Ben narrowed his eyes. "I'm twice Max's age," he grumbled. "Only physically younger." 

	[i]Twice[/i] Max's age? Avery's eyes widened. Was Ben older than time itself? Max was ancient, for Ben to be his senior... He must have been alive before even the planets had formed. Was Ben some sort of spirit, some sort of fundamental force? Runa was a goddess. Was Max's husband a deity? 

	Ben, however, was tired of this arguing - and he slammed his fist down on one of the buttons, seeing the machine slowly begin to operate. His eyes widened though, as the laser didn't... didn't immediately fire. He had thought it was ready, that once they pressed the button, it would fire off. Instead, they were sitting ducks, the portals open right in front of them, exposing them. "Fuck!" Ben slammed his fist down on the button again, trying to get it to fire off faster.

	"Try pressing it [i]gently[/i]," Runa said.

	"I am pressing it gently!"

	[color=f26522]"Maybe there's a lever we can pull?"[/color]

	Runa shook her head. "We're running out of time. I can fix this." 

	And then the Asgardian kicked the extremely fragile laser, and Ben nearly had an aneurysm. 

	What the [i]hell[/i] was wrong with these people?