Fallenreaper

Chrono Asylum: Prelude to Madness

Is there still spots open? I know it was asked nine days ago, but this seems interesting.

Also, the discord link is expired by the way.

@Kiki is Anxious

Yeah, the rp is still running and has open spots I beelive despite it being a slower pace. If you got a character conception, by all means go for it.

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{9 am | Danger Room}

Ronnie’s expression hardened when she spotted the weakness of Heidi’s panic. A sudden anger and fear reared up in her mind, but she crushed it down. She was taught better than to lower herself to that level.

Once taser and numbers rushed in, Ronnie slid the chain around Heidi's tv cord. She pressed in what she hoped to be the right combination into the pad lock. When the creature slammed against the door, Ronnie jumped and stepped back. Her eyes lingered on it before she realized she had been holding her breath in her chest.

With a forced push from her lungs, Ronnie exhaled into the darkness. Her nerves became ice-cold once more, and she caught the others speak. Her arms crossed over her chest when Matt mention her paper notebook had ruffled. He appeared to have blocked the exit door with a table.

"Yeah, well Budha or whoever that is, never lived my life. Fear is weakness, weakness means you're prey, and prey means you'll be eaten alive. I'm no one's prey."

She paused for a moment to glance about. Everything became dimly lit in the faint red light from the exit. The darkness provided little help in their goals to find the flag and win this bullshit game. Ronnie missed the exchange between Jasper and Heidi until she heard the part directed to her. Dark eyes narrowed on the student as Ronnie returned a retort.

"Yes, brilliant. One flaw, it won't be T.W. that gets damaged. I doubt everyone wants to take cover under tables when we're supposed to find the flag." Sass edged squarely into her voice.

Before she could say anything else, Heidi followed with her plan. Ronnie held no confidence in the odds of its success.

"HEY! Take him," she gestured to Matt with her thumb, "with you. He's useless down here, but he can save you time in your search. If Sparks can avoid shocking me, we can likely hold-"

A heavy thump on the level above them silenced Ronnie. Her eyes jerked up and her teeth gritted tightly for several moments. By the time she turned to the others, Heidi and her ally appeared to have hightailed it up the stairs.

"Fuck... now what do we have to deal with?" She glanced at whoever remained in the dark room.

"I don't suppose you have seen Home Alone?"

Chrono Asylum: Prelude to Madness

---

Elsa focused on Bella, her ears deafened to Zane’s counterpoints. The man’s tone and attitude made it clear he held little value in foresight. She wondered if the pair never had a preventable encounter or just had straight forward goals in missions. As she shrugged off the thought, her eyes shifted from Bella to Samad. In an expected fashion, her partner went into his stalking mode. He kept his hands closer to his hip and strolled toward the front. Every few steps, his head casually swept the location.

Well, remind me not to call Zane for help. Samad’s thick accent rippled across her attention.

She inhaled and considered what to say. However, her partner knew her well. He snipped in another comment before she could.

Don’t pretend you didn’t notice the aloof and lazy attitude. If it wasn’t for your friend, he wouldn’t have bothered. Not my first choice for dependable back up.

Elsa mentally sighed.

He’s still capable within a fight. You saw well they worked together. Not all linked pairs are identical in work ethics. We’ve worked with some oddball pairs and their first impressions were far worse.

Maybe, but he will not be my first choice.

She rolled her eyes gently at his decision, but he hoped his opinion would change. Samad took first impressions far too seriously, and she knew it wasn’t a good trait. Judgment was best done over a series of interactions, not dominated by a single one.

When they finally reached their destination, Elsa had memorized the signs Bella showed her. Both her partner and herself watched the bot dip then struggle to rise. A clear indication of the alchemy absence location according to Bella.

“Yeah, it does. Why would an area effect to negate alchemy be out in the open and where anyone could stumble across it?” Elsa thought out loud.

Aside from the distant students locked in an extreme physical education class, she saw no one around. She expected a guard or someone babysitting the location. Especially in an area filled with troublesome students.

Samad took charge next. “All right, this is where you two stay. Elsa and I will be right back. We’re only looking around for an hour.”

He gestured for Elsa to follow them as the two parted from the group.

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{9 am | Danger Room}

Listening to nerd girl reveal the two exits, Ronnie made a note of them. It would prove useful if the group had to split up or distract the wolf. She hoped the doors could hold it off, but her confidence in that started to waver. Especially with Heidi’s follow-up observation.

“Have you really looked at that thing? Its face is nearly melted off and it is still ticking. I don’t think we’re supposed to beat it, but avoid it.” Ronnie decided to point out that their current efforts weren’t doing much to beat the creature.

She gritted her teeth as the girl spoke loudly to numbers. Ronnie had managed to slip the chain about the handle and close half of the doors when something came into her peripheral vision. She promptly glanced up then jumped in place. Jasper’s figure stood just within the doorway and continued to focus on the terminator wolf. A soft, subtle growl emitted from Ronnie as she turned back to the padlock. She remembered the combination digits easily, but the order proved to be harder.

Ronnie paused when Heidi asked about her powers.

“Of course you would ask that question.” She snapped.

Her back pressed against the door and held it in place. Ronnie’s expression took on a painful one as she struggled not to choke. Every inner instinct screamed at her to shut up, but she knew lying wouldn’t help the situation. It would be obvious to everyone at some point.

“I’ve only used my powers once and that was before I came here. I haven’t figure out how to activate it, let alone how to control or aim it. So you better have a plan B.” Every word left a sour taste on her tongue after it was voiced.

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{9 am | Danger Room}

Before Ronnie made the first move, she spotted someone else step forward. Her attention twisted and viewed Matthew head to the door. He reached a hand out then hesitated. The girl scoffed under her breath at his weakness. Her arms curled into each other while she listened to his statement. The way everyone talked, this class would seriously hurt them. She found it difficult to believe a Professor had the authority to endanger her students to the point of physical injury.

From her observations, Ronnie noticed an unsettling pattern. All the students appeared to know their powers and controlled them to higher levels than herself. A spark of irritation rubbed her wrong. She swallowed down the anger and fear at her weakness.

The dark skinned girl gave Matthew an idle, sideways glance when he finally gathered the courage to touch the door.

Her jaw tightened so not to drop when a woman, someone she guessed to be Professor North, appeared. The Professor leaned over the pad lock as she spoke the combination out loud. Ronnie immediately memorized it with surprising ease.

She took a step forward to enter it, but spotted Matthew place his glove on and do it for her. Exhaustion took him down to the ground with both the pad lock and chain in his hand. A little annoyed by his recklessness, she knew the cautious route had been blown. The doors flew open. Her ears caught the sounds of whirling gears and machinery first. Followed by the heavy clicking of something rushing toward them. Two burning red eyes peered through the darkness of a hallway as a metallic wolf bolted forward.

Ronnie’s breath caught in her throat. This wasn’t real, her logic screamed over and over in her head. She stared at the beast barreling toward them. Any normal girl her age would’ve screamed and ran, but her mind already race past that reckless thought. She fought rather than run. A few pages of her notebook fluttered, but remained fixed to the spiral binding.

As she recover from her shock, things happened faster than she could react. Two students rushed into action. Electrical energy surged from taser-girl’s hands right at the metal wolf barreling down on her. Even if the girl managed to get the mechanical beast to stop, Ronnie doubted momentum would stop. If the girl wasn’t careful, it could crash her.

All the laws of nature seemed to ignore physics. When the lightning directly impacted, the wolf skidded back. The dull, blunt nails scrapped thin lines across the tiles. It twitched then continued its approach.

Meanwhile, nerd girl had gotten to Matthew and began to help him back. If it wasn’t for taser-girl in front, the wolf would’ve mauled them.

From the corner of her vision, green glowed across the last girl’s skin. Ones and zeroes appeared and reminding Ronnie of a computer screen, the type you saw in the movies. The girl rooted herself in place as she narrowed her attention onto the beast. Immediately, Ronnie knew that look. No way in hell she would get the girl to move unless binary wanted to. An action Ronnie thought was insane for obvious reasons.

Ronnie took a cleansing breath. On her release, she let it purge her of all stress and emotion. Don’t think, just do it. She wasn’t weak or helpless, so she needed to stop acting like it. Her hand tightened about her notebook like a shield, even if she didn’t know how to use it. She overheard someone puke then mention the metal doors.

The bot looked like a Terminator version of a wolf. She held doubts about the effectiveness of the doors keeping that thing out. Especially if it had no locks on the inside. With no better solution, Ronnie dashed for the door behind vomit boy and nerd girl.

She timed her run when taser girl zapped her target again. Her attention caught the wolf’s junky movements as it stuttered and twitched. It appeared to be struggling with some unseen force, but Ronnie couldn’t tell where it originated from. She put it out of her mind for now.

When she heard vomit boy state the obvious, she couldn’t help commenting. “No shit, Sherlock. The doors aren’t going to do us much good unless we can lock them.”

Leaving nerd girl to help him, Ronnie took matters in her own hands to reach the door first. She paused long enough to grab the chain from Matt's grasp and scoop up the padlock. Thank god vomit boy didn’t spill his breakfast all over either one. After entering the doorway, she tossed her notebook onto the floor. She struggled to jerk one door closed then wrapped the chain around the handle and prepared the padlock. Her mind scrambled for the numbers in her memory.

“Yo, get your ass in here while taser girl keeps it distracted. Now!” Ronnie didn’t have time to explain the orders she barked.

They either listened or become dog food thanks to their stupidity. As each person came through the door, she assigned more tasks.

“Get the other door ready to shut it. Someone look for all the exits out of this room and find the best one.”

Chrono Asylum: Prelude to Madness

---

It appeared Elsa's prediction had been dead on. Zane, unlike Bella, wanted nothing to do with the abnormality in their backyard. This brought a concern to her attention about his reliability. Her eyes shifted to Samad who shrugged, indifferent by the disagreement in the pair. His head turned to the direction of the empty zone as if failing to piece together a puzzle.

His alertness rippled through their bond and caused her to shudder. Elsa never liked it when he became wary. She took a breath to clear her mind.

At Zane's words, Elsa would've agreed if not for one thing. It went under their own radar until the prisoner mentioned it. That was the only reason they found it at all. She decided to point this out.

"I think the reason no one noticed is that they don't know what to look for. If I remember right, it's too far from any of the labs to be one of their experiments." She paused to continue.

"It's worth checking out. Besides, any ambushing students might be gone by the time we're done. I rather do a pointless investigation than fight more students. Wastes less energy." Elsa pointed out.

She hoped the logic might ease Zane's resistance, but it appeared Bella won the argument. Elsa watched Bella switch out her bot for one running on alchemy. Her idea made sense as an early detection system.

With a small smile, Elsa nodded then began to head out with the group.

"Bella, you and your partner stay just outside the emptiness. We'll need you to be able to cover us if we need to rush out. Think you can do that? Also can one of your bots monitor or act like a communication line?"

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{9 am | Danger Room}

Ronnie's peripheral vision caught movement.

Her attention tracked it as she turned her head to the source. She spotted 'Tazer-girl' displaying her phone to another student, the brown-haired troublemaker. Ronnie found that odd, but she only made a note of it. The girl must’ve had an issue hearing or a mental condition. Thankfully, at least one student had the ability to relay information. Else it would’ve slowed them down much more than Ronnie liked. It took the teacher long enough to realize the issue as subtitles then appeared in thin air.

She found herself more unnerved by each new rule of reality the room broke. It was like they were in a cheap netflix movie with lame subtitles. Fiction only belonged in the imagination, not in the real world. Her fingers tightened about the spiral edge of her notebook. It rested against her hips as she debated on if she should ask more questions or let the matter rest. Upon the teacher’s bubbly voice, she held her tongue. She doubted she would get useful information.

When Ronnie watched the others converse, pain stabbed into her heart. It just reminded her of what she missed. Her allies, routine, and normalcy to the point her whole future was planned out. It all cracked when her mutant ability happened. She couldn’t salvage anything from her old life.

It is my fault for being a mutant.

Ronnie caught the run down of what Heidi gave, but didn’t take the lead. She found it suspicious how Heidi knew everyone’s ability when she just arrived a few days ago and never demonstrated it. For now, she just pushed past the discomfort. She didn’t know enough about everyone to trust them. Trust given freely just lead to disappointment. It meant she had to take things into her own hands. It was hard to wait around and do nothing when their issue stood before them.

Chrono Asylum: Prelude to Madness

---

Samad monitored the prisoners statements and words. Each one a blatant hint that brought them closer to the answers. When the guard entered, he turned his head to acknowledge the man and nodded. His partner gave the guard a grateful smile.

She gave Bella and her partner a gesture to follow them outside where there would be fewer ears. The lack of Alchemy bothered both Samad and her. Until they investigated it, neither could settle into bed for the night.

Elsa watched her partner slip into the lead while she took the task to explain. He already knew where to go because she shared her intelligence with him. She fought the urge to use more alchemy since overuse would drive them insane over time. The less they used over the course of their lifetime, the smaller the wear and tear on their bodies would be.

"So... it turns our prisoner was right. There's a no alchemy zone that direction." She pointed to the direction, her words pronounced enough for Bella to catch.

It had been a while since they interacted and it took a bit for Elsa to recall Bella had been deaf. At least she could correct it now.

"Samad and I are going to check it out, where are you two heading?" Elsa hoped the two would follow them, but Zane's behavior made her decide against asking.

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{9 am | Danger Room}

Seeing the new arrivals ignore her, Ronnie shrugged it off and rolled her eyes. She had been about dive into her tote for something else when a voice came on. Instantly she paused then listened. The student frowned. She expected something more than a gym class and physical activity. Especially with the odd format of the room.

All her disappointment faded when the danger room scene began to melt away. Generic, public school lockers materialized near the door. Ronnie's head tilted, her jaw open and eyes widened in shock.

"This can't be real..." She muttered to herself as she rose onto her feet.

Her tote stayed fastened to her shoulder as she approached. Her hand reached out slowly then touched the smooth, real metal. It felt like something out of a sci-fi movie. For a small test, she smacked the surface to catch the hollow thump. Ronnie's surprise gradually faded as she hoisted her tote inside with her purse. She paused before she closed the door then glanced at her bag.

Something that associated to her powers.

Her eyes hardened as she reached into her bag and took out a notebook filled with about eighty pages. She shut the locker door then turned to observe the scenery. From the uploaded video, Ronnie knew her power did something with paper. What it was called, she didn't know or even how it worked. She could guess, aside from the new arrival yesterday, she held the disadvantage.

What point would questions be if you don't know the answers? Ronnie thought, but didn't utter them out loud.

Instead, she kept her expression neutral and asked a few.

"Does that mean there's no specific requirements we have to meet in order to capture the flag? And it doesn't have to be captured by only one person, but by one or more here?" She decided to make completely sure the new teacher wouldn't tack on new requirements.

X-Men: The New Era - Avalon Rising

ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ "ʀᴏɴɴɪᴇ" ᴍᴀʟᴄᴏʟᴍ

---

_{7:45 am | Ronnie's Room}

Saturday came then went in the blink of an eye. A sourness from that day lingered on her mind, but she didn't dwell on it. It was best forgotten in her opinion.

Within the following days, Ronnie's life fell into a dull routine. One that focused on school work and socialization. She hated being the new kid as it made dominating the social structure difficult. At this point, all she could do was bide her time and research the key players. She kept her notes on her laptop which she hid in her room. Only Oriana had a clue about its location, but the girl wasn't stupid enough to steal it.

The thought of her roommate caused Ronnie's lips to curl up into a smile. Out of everyone she met in the danger room, she vibed with Oriana the best. The girl took her attitude with surprising ease. She respected that, but it didn't make them friends.

Not yet.

She rose from her bed then strolled to her dresser drawers. Her hand snatched a graphic tee and a pair of gray cameo shorts. With a loud thump, she snapped the drawer shut then began to put on her outfit. On the front of her tee, the words spelled out her mood clearly in black lettering. I'd like to confirm that I do not care.

A bold statement for the world without saying it out loud. She bunched the loose material's ends into her waistband. Ronnie paused at the table mirror. She used hair ties to band her curls together, wet them down then fluffed them out. For a moment, she considered the idea of letting her hair grow out but discarded it. A higher maintenance hair routine wasn't appealing to her. Not when she looked perfect without it.

Ronnie collected her schedule as she walked toward the door. She paused long enough to collect her purse and her tote, her eyes fixed to her classes today.

First up, AP Calculus. Whatever sadistic teacher scheduled this, appeared to enjoy their mornings a little too well.

Ronnie thanked her foresight as she beelined for the cafeteria for some caffeine. Her own personal aid for the mental tasks ahead.

---

_{8:00-8:50 am | AP Calculus}

Ronnie softly thumped her pencil end against the paper in a dull, rhythmic pattern. She listened to Professor Santos with more attention than she appeared to have. Not to say it wasn't a challenge. While she excelled at mathematics, she caught on quickly and had to wait for others to get on the same page.

A knock at the door caused everything to cease. In the seat next to her, Aya jumped. Ronnie's eyes immediately bounced to her direction. Before she could mouth 'what's your problem?', she caught Professor Everose request Aya.

As the girl got up, Ronnie watched them leave. Any gossip faded when another student entered the classroom shortly after. All eyes shifted to the new student. Ronnie said nothing as Professor Santos handled the new arrival and class once more resumed. This time, she started to scribble the notes into her notebook. Most of the time there, she didn't say much. When class ended, she collected her things then walked out. She didn’t have time to waste for chit-chat at this point.

---

_{8:57-9:00 am | Danger Room}

Ronnie impatient stomach caused her to pause at the first snack machine she spotted. She eyed the green tea drink's code then pressed it into the pad. After a short beep, the metal spiral swiveled and the bottle thumped into the bottom. Her hand reached into the take out port and snagged it. As she continued her walk to the Danger Room, she twisted the cap open for a quick gulp. It pacified her stomach for now.

She adjusted her tote across her shoulder before she headed into the room. It appeared empty. Her eyes shifted across the familiar and bizarre wall design. Ronnie immediately recalled the scene that happened and she pulled her phone out. A quick check told her that she was three minutes early.

This suited her fine.

Wasting no time, she strolled to the face the door and lowered to the floor. She curled her legs to the side while she got comfortable. Her eyes glued to her phone while she skimmed through her social media.

She spotted her clique's social pages had new pictures. Images of field trips, new achievements, and more. A mixture of pain and pride swelled in her, but she didn't let it show. She flipped off the phone then placed it in her purse when she heard someone enter.

Her eyes looked up to spot taser girl -the moniker stolen from crazy Cleo- come in. Ronnie thanked her luck it hadn't been the redhead witch or her friend. As long as neither of them showed up, the day would remain good.