Framing A Moose

The Gifted - Concluded

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Waverley Watts - Feedback

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Location: On the Road
Skills: N/A

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Waverley’s eyes remained inquisitively on the shivering, distraught Casper, waiting for an answer or any sort of response to indicate that he’d heard her, but none came. Instead, a shouting came from the from the front at a level that caused Waverley to wince. Sapphire didn’t seem happy with everything that was going on in the back, which, with what little Waverley knew about the woman, wasn’t a good thing. Waverley immediately shut her lips tight, not wanting to further upset her superior. But when James spoke, she felt the need to push the issue rise up her throat.

“But-“ she began, but stopped when she felt Cayden’s hand fall on her shoulder. She didn’t realize until then how tense her body was, her shoulders stiff and shrugged up around her neck. She looked to Cayden as he repeated James’ sentiment, before glancing back at Casper with hesitation in her eyes. After a few moments, she let out a deep breath, her shoulders dropping in a more relaxed position. As the van came to a stop, Waverley gave a small nod.

As she prepared to exit the vehicle, however, her eyes met those of Colossus’ sister, and she could feel the girl’s challenging glare bore into her mind, causing a shiver to go down her spine. It caused her to instinctively sheath the syringe back into her pocket. But once she no longer had it in her hand, she only felt more vulnerable under the girl’s intimidating stare. Only a few seconds after putting the syringe away, she bent down to grab her rebar off the ground of the van, holding it flustered to her chest as if it could protect her from the magic girl, before quickly vamoosing out the van door. She got out just in time for her to hear Sapphire’s comment criticizing her and her seat-mates. It made her flinch. Even after all the chaos, all the fighting and lasers and magic swords, it still hurt to hear disapproval of her coming from her higher up. She felt he need to make up for it, and when Blink mentioned the absence of the others, Waverley felt as though she’d been given a chance to do so.

“If someone has any of their phone numbers, I can get in contact with them!” She piped in, her voice quick and eager to please. In her desire to impress, it took her a few moments to realize the flaw in her statement. When she did, her lips curved into a frown. “Or...I guess at that point you could just...call them...” she spoke, her voice slowing down and filled with embarrassment, every few words separated by an awkward silence.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Stark Tower
Skills: N/A

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Iris’ lips turned into a small frown when she heard the scientist’s response to her suggestion. Since emerging from the forests of Oregon, she’d seen and heard about so much new technology doing so many things that she would have thought impossible, it was easy to forget that technology wasn’t magic. It had its limits. She gave a single nod in reply.

Her attention was abruptly pulled away from Richards and back to Sara, who now stood there being cursed at by Marygold. Iris watched as the shorter girl spouted obscenities, drawing closer and closer to Sara until they were practically nose to nose. Iris felt the urge to step in, but she wasn’t completely sure whose side she’d be on. On the one hand, while their relationship was a bit tense, she was friends with Marygold, better friends with her than with Sara. On the other hand, Sara had just quoted Whitman, something that carried a lot of weight with Iris. Not to mention that, in this case, Iris felt that Marygold’s outburst was a bit of an overreaction. Unwanted snark and sarcasm, in her opinion, should be ignored rather than reacted to, especially in a role of leadership. Iris eventually decided she’d best stay out of it, but as soon as she made that decision, she saw the chlorokinetic react as though slapped, and it didn’t take much deduction to figure out it was likely Sara’s boy toy doing some of his hoodoo magic. Once things got physical, Iris straightened up, taking a few steps towards the trio.

”Woah, guys, there’s no need for that. Do y’all need to puff and make up? Because I can totally roll you guys up a joint,” she said, her voice calm in attempt to defuse the situation, immediately before the man with the goatee came back into the room, announcing that the suits were done. A small smirk appeared on Iris’ lips when Akane tugged her for a race. “It’s a standing offer, just so you know,” she said to the others, before turning away and beginning to leisurely make her way towards the other room, where a number of people had already begun to put their suits on. Iris cautiously approached one, looking around to see how the others were getting into it. After a few seconds, she followed suit, getting into the scifi armor with little trouble. Once she was in, she looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers in the metal gauntlets. It was...weird. It wasn’t as encumbering as she’d imagined, but it was still so foreign to her. She felt like some sort of insect inside a metal exoskeleton. Not to mention that she wasn’t sure how she’d get to her pockets. All in all, Iris wasn’t completely sure she liked the technology that wrapped itself around her.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Waverley Watts - Feedback

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Location: On the Road
Skills: N/A

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Seeing that the glow only seemed to grow more intense under her hands, Waverley pressed down harder on it, as if she were trying to fight against the increasing magical light that she knew nothing about. Colossus' call for her to stop made her lessen her push, and almost pull her hands away, but before she could, her eyes made contact with the now very open, very red, very awake eyes of the girl she loomed over. She instinctively lurched backwards, pulling her hands off Magik's chest, a sharp gasp emitting out her mouth.

"GAH!" She exclaimed, lifting her hands up, trying to get herself out of the way of any oncoming attack the girl might make upon waking up. No attack came, not at first anyway. Only a threat. One that Waverley didn't completely understand. She knew vaguely about Limbo, that in religion, it was something having to do with hell, that it appeared in Supernatural, and that there'd been a game of the same name, one that Waverley had told herself she'd eventually play, but had never gotten around to. None of that knowledge helped to sooth her after the threat. Her hand immediately slipped into her pocket, fumbling around as she grabbed another dose of sedative. "I-I-I don't-" she started, ready to try to convince the girl that she couldn't give her the drug even if she wanted to, but before she got too far into the fearful groveling, her hand pulled out a loaded needle, automatically squirting a little out.

Out of absolute, pure terror of the girl, Waverley launched back over the back of the seat, and tried to plunge the needle into Magik's neck. The attack proved unsuccessful, the newly conscious magic sword wielder batting the needle out of her hand. The syringe went flying towards the front of the vehicle, and without a second of hesitation, Waverley reached out her hand to snatch it from the air. As soon as she was in motion, however, she immediately realized it was a bad idea, the image of the needle stabbing the palm of her hand coming to mind. She braced herself for such an incident, but, to her surprise, nothing like that occurred. Instead, the unexpected happened: she actually caught it. Waverley's eyes were wide with surprise, but without a second of delay, she went in to stab Colossus' sister again. Just like the first, the second attack was to no avail, though Waverley managed to keep a hold of the syringe.

She bounced back, taking cover behind the seat, separating herself from the angry magic girl in the back, sitting back next to the quivering Casper and their healer who seemed to be doing his best to help comfort him. Waverley turned her head slightly towards the two in the front. "Things are getting worse back here, it's-" she began, before stopping herself, her brain only then processing the things Casper was saying, things her mind had previously labeled as gibberish. Her eyebrows furrowed, looking to Casper with confusion. "Ghosts? What do you...who's mom? What's going on with you?" she asked, something in her voice both worrisome and at the same time expectant.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Stark Tower
Skills: N/A

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Iris' lips pulled up into a small smirk when her friend gave her suggestion. She'd always been a big believer of the no-dumb-ideas philosophy, and, while far out, Akane's suggestion was the only attempt at plan B that had been made. It was better than nothing, which just so happened to be competition. The others in the room, however, didn't seem to agree with that sentiment. When Akane began to cower behind her, Iris flared her shoulders out slightly to more effectively cover the girl. Her eyes shot to the man with the goatee she'd been agreeing with earlier, who now attempted to use Akane's openness with her ideas against her.

"Hey, whoever you are, I don't see you coming up with a better idea. The way I see it, throwing peppers at it is better than just giving up." Iris said, not hesitating to come to her friend's defense. Her eyes then flipped to Marygold as she announced the teams. Despite her relief of being paired with Akane, Iris still felt a little wary of the team she'd been placed in. Best she could tell, the team seemed to lack structure, each either having a chaotic personality, or likely to conform to those with chaotic personalities. Not to mention that with Neil, Sara, and herself, there'd likely be a lot of fire, and no one with the ability to really stop them. But those thoughts were washed out of her mind when Sara went on her short, sarcastic rant, causing Iris to break into a grin, stifling a laugh, raising her eyebrows when the girl even capped it off by quoting Whitman. It might not have exactly been a logical team, but Iris had a feeling she was going to like it. She looked back to Marygold and gave a small nod.

"I'm down for this team," she said, before her eyes drifted back to look at the image of the Galactus-killer. The design was so simple, it gave Iris an idea. She looked back to Marygold, lips jutting out as she let the idea stew in her brain, until finally she had the phrasing worked out enough to suggest it. "Why don't we make, like, a fake one? A replica? We know what it looks like, and if we have the resources to make space suits, we can totally throw some hunks of metal together. We'll go up to try to get the real one, and if we take too long, or don't come back, wave the fake one around. Best case scenario, he falls for it and leaves, worst case, he has to check in with headquarters to see if they still have it, buying us a little more time," Iris suggested.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Waverley Watts - Feedback

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Location: On the Road
Skills: General Idiocy

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Waverley, still tense from the shots the police had been firing at her and her team, was startled by the scraggly man’s outburst. She flinched away from him, ducking behind the seats out of pure instinct. Her look of horror that had been constant since they began this chase with the authorities changed slightly, getting a smaller amount of confusion added to the mix as well. She looked at the man, eyebrows furrowed, unsure of what to say. She reached out a hand, placing it on his shoulder in an attempt to possibly comfort him. Another person freaking out wasn’t going to help anyone.

“Uh, are you, like, doing okay?” She asked, still in a general state of panic, which didn’t exactly improve her sympathizing skills. Though her manic state quickly led her away from Casper when she caught wind of Colossus’ comment. She turned around to look behind them, her hand slipping off Casper’s shoulder and onto the back of her seat. Colossus was right: it didn’t seem like the police had any intentions of backing off. Waverley, perhaps in effort to sooth her hyperactive emotions slightly, suggested to herself that maybe the police were simply following them because they were speeding. And perhaps it would have fulfilled its purpose if the thought had not been immediately followed by another shower of bullets, which caused Waverley to shriek and duck once again under cover. Unless there was a new law in place that Waverley had not heard of, police would definitely not open fire on someone for speeding.

Fantastic. The one thing she knew she and she alone could do didn’t appear to be working in the slightest. The familiar feeling of uselessness began to seep back into her mind, accompanied by inner words of self-hatred. God, how she hated being so utterly, completely useless. She rose back up when the gunfire momentarily stopped, her eyes turning back to the scraggily man who shook with even more fear than she felt within herself. And from what she could gather, it didn’t seem to be because of the cops. She turned to face Sapphire, in the driver’s seat.

“Hey, Sapphire, this guy-“ she began, pointing a thumb at Casper, before she stopped herself seeing the position Sapphire was in: window rolled down, one glowing hand hanging out. A series of images flashed in Waverley’s head, where police cars spun into deadly collisions with one another, where ice covered the vehicles, trapping the occupants inside to freeze to death, and even one including a massive nail made of ice crushing the cruisers. With wide eyes, Waverley reached an arm out towards Sapphire, yelling out, “Wait, don’t-“ but it was too late. Waverley watched with horror as the van left an icy road behind them. Her eyes followed the icy road back to where the police had been, to see the damage of the attack, but all she could see was a snowy white blizzard, covering their trail. Waverley could only hope that all the officers were alright.

With that thought, and the sound of a scream, her eyes suddenly shifted downward, landing on Colossus’ sister. Waverley’s eyes widened with shock as she saw the light that seemed to emerge from her chest. Waverley didn’t know anything about a lot of things, magic being one of them. She knew it, to some degree, existed, and that this girl, who had seemingly pulled the Sword of Godrick Gryffindor out of thin air, seemed to be, in some way, magical. And when something glowing starts to come out of an unconscious magical somebody, it, most likely, should be put back in. Waverley wasn’t sure what it could possibly be; whether it was her soul, her life essence, her magic power, or even her fancy glowing chest excrement. All she knew was that she couldn’t just sit there watching a girl suffer and possibly even lose part of herself. In a moment of panicked, half-assed logic mixed with the horrible feeling of uselessness that overtook her, Waverley unbuckled her seatbelt, reached her upper body over her seat, and pressed her hands down on Magik’s glowing light.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Stark Tower
Skills: N/A

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Iris felt a strange sort of gratification when Pietro, Guin's own fiance, seemed to agree with Iris, as was evident with his outburst. It could best be described as moral validation. If someone so close to Guin seemed to think it was as bad of an idea as Iris did, then she felt she must've been in the right. That seemed to melt away to confusion, however, when she was met by Pietro's glaring eyes. She was taken aback by the sudden shooting daggers, unsure of why he stared at her with such hatred after just agreeing with her. The question in her mind was quickly answered by Marygold, who made her realize the miscommunication.

"Oh, no, I wasn't-" She began, before being cut off as the discussion continue. Her eyes went back to Pietro, who remained staring at her, spite in his eyes. She felt a heat in her chest, an exasperation of sorts, though it wasn't quite anger. And it wasn't directed at Pietro, or anybody for that matter, more at her lack of opportunity to explain herself. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she saw Upsilon begin to move, leaving his place between the not-twins, and approaching Pietro. Iris' eyes began to flick between Pietro and Upsilon, as the disfigured specter got uncomfortably close to the speedster. Then, Iris felt a sensation on her hand. Instinctively, she flinched away from it, before consciously letting it limp so that Akane could grab hold of it. Iris closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath in through her nose, exhaling, and then opening her eyes. Upsilon had backed away from Pietro, lurking behind him, and she could feel her annoyance melt away, and turned her attention back to the conversation at hand.

The topic seemed to have turned to some sort of space suit. Given the fact that they were talking about going to space, Iris could only assume it was a space suit they were discussing. The image of a space suit entered Iris' mind: big and clunky, hard to move around in, the kind of thing that would hinder Iris' mobility and martial arts. That, paired with the lack of oxygen in space, which would effectively disable her fire-based abilities that were unreliable at the best of times anyhow, left her unsure of what she exactly she'd do up there besides be an extra pair of eyes. Though when she heard someone mention an 'Iron Man suit' she wasn't sure what to make of it. The image of the space suit in her mind changed somewhat, keeping the same general design, but with a layer of metal over it. It still didn't particularly float her boat.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Waverley Watts - Feedback

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Location: On the Road
Skills: Radio Wave Manipulation

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Waverley furrowed her eyebrows at the wiry man's explanation, which raised more questions than it ultimately answered. Who was Ben? She guessed it could be Colossus' real name, though it didn't sound particularly Russian. Not to mention that she hadn't heard Colossus say anything that would warrant being called dumb. Out of curiosity, she was about to prod further into questioning the young man, but was interrupted before she could even start by bullets shattering the back window and flying into the van. Waverley let out a scream, ducking her head in her hands and slouching in her seat in an instinctive attempt to make herself a smaller target.

After the sounds of gunshots stopped for the time being, she sat back up, looking around at her team. Everyone seemed to be fine thankfully, including the drug-addled sister of Colossus in the back. Waverley, having never actually been shot at, was shaken, light tremors taking over her hands. She stared back at the police cars behind her, and, after a few seconds of getting herself together, she closed her eyes, and reached out with her abilities. Despite the stress of the situation, or maybe in part because of it, she managed to grasp hold of the police radios rather quickly.

'Cease your fire on the civilians immediately! I repeat, cease your fire on the civilians IMMEDIATELY! The hostiles are still in the hospital!' Waverley pushed out, and she could feel the transmission successfully go through. She opened her eyes, shaking her head at the healer's and Colossus' ideas. "Don't do anything yet. I managed to get a transmission through telling them to stop shooting, so let's hope they fall for it," she commented, her eyes glued on the cop cars behind them, watching for any inclination they might stop firing and pull back.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Stark Tower
Skills: N/A

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When Guin brought up the point about being old enough to join the army, Iris raised a finger as her mind tried half-heartedly to find a counterpoint, only to realize that the girl had a point. Though in Iris' mind, that point was less in support of sending young people to find a giant space gun, and more in opposition to the American military system. The point, nonetheless, stopped Iris from arguing, though even if it hadn't, Akane bouncing into place beside her probably would have. Akane's question caused Iris to scan the room once again, taking another look at all the people in their various outfits.

"Yeah, probably," she replied though the question did arouse Iris' curiosity. Were all of them Avengers? She had sort of assumed they were a smaller group. She'd only ever really heard about the Iron Man guy, the Captain America dude, the Black Widow chick, and that rich Tony Stark person, who she assumed funded the team. But looking at all the people there, she realized just how many Avengers there must be. "Is everyone here-" she began, turning back to look at Akane, only to find that she was already on the other side of the room, poking at some shiny statuette. The sight made Iris let out a quiet laugh, despite the serious tone of the room.

As the conversation between everyone, young and old, progressed, Iris listened with interest, not chiming in. She didn't have too much of an opinion on anything, other than how qualified they actually were, which was largely disagreed with by the other members of her group. Her face lit up with surprise when one of the men mentioned the ship was the size of a solar system. Iris couldn't even conceive of something so massive. Though her face melted to disappointment when the image of the nullifier was brought up. She'd hoped the device would look less...boring. She'd hoped it'd have lights and bright colors decorating its entirety, but instead it was rather bland. Her eyes flicked over to Tony when he made his comment, giving a small nod.

"Dude, I totally get you, but I have a feeling we're not gonna win this argument," Iris said, before turning her attention to Guin again. Her eyebrows furrowed together as the girl suggested using mind control to get a criminal to kill Galactus. She gave a small shake of her head. "We could do that, but it'd be fucking evil. I mean, we could maybe try to work out a deal with someone on death row, pay for their kids' education or something."

The Gifted - Concluded

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Waverley Watts - Feedback

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Location: JFK Memorial Hospital
Skills: N/A

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Waverley gave a nod of interest and understanding at Sapphire's needle fact. She'd always assumed that the whole pushing a bit out of the needle was for style, but apparently not. As Waverley walked backwards to the exit, she saw Sapphire reach out a hand and freeze an icy path over the floor and outside. It made it a little harder for the girl, who'd never actually been on solid ice before, to get out, but she managed. As she attempted to step over the ice and out the door, her foot fell on the slippery path, causing her to slide forward outside. She was only on the ice for a few seconds, stumbling off as soon as she could. As Sapphire passed her, Waverley dug into her pocket and grabbed the keys, passing them off to the leader. She then quickly walked along with the others back to the van, climbing into the vehicle and getting into one of the seat directly behind the driver seat. Once she was in with her seat belt on, her attention was caught by the scraggly young man talking to himself, an activity that, now that she looked back on it, he seemed to do all the time.

"Call who?" she asked, absentmindedly looking from Casper to the back window, out of which Waverley could see a number of cop cars. "Uh, Sapphire, as soon as Cayden and the healer guy are in, we need to bolt. The cops are right behind us." she said, before her eyes fell down to Colossus' sister, passed out in the back. To say that she did not look good would be an understatement. The girl was a wreck. Waverley could only hope that the others found what they needed.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Stark Tower
Skills: N/A

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Iris knew she'd never get used to flying. It wasn't exactly that flying scared her, though there was something unsettling about hanging in the air with no support from anything other than the fickle mistress of physics, which, if her time with the X-Men had taught her anything, was not constant. But mainly, it just felt, to her, extremely unnatural. Iris would never claim to be one of those people who get so obsessed with separating from society that they abhor all forms of technology. Quite the contrary, actually; Iris had loved learning about all the new toys and tidbits she'd missed out on while she was in Oregon. But flying just didn't sit well with her. People are constantly scared of falling off rooftops or driving off cliffs, but as soon as they get into an iron burrito decorated with flimsy slabs of sheet metal, those fears drift away. It always seemed odd to Iris.

Once the Blackbird had landed, Iris followed the others into Stark Tower. She purposely fell towards the back of the group as they walked. Being relatively new to the group, she'd only heard of the heroes they'd be meeting in passing. She had no clue what to expect. What she definitely wasn't expecting, however, was what she got: a room full of people who looked like they were coming from a costume party. It caused Iris' lips to curl into an involuntary grin, despite the somber feeling throughout the room. Best of all, everyone looked so serious. It was so brilliantly absurd that Iris couldn't help but stifle a small laugh. For once, Upsilon, who took up residence eerily lingering behind a couch where a man and a pregnant woman sat, was among the more normal-looking in the room, at very least in terms of apparel.

Iris drifted towards the outer edges of the room, standing in front of a window as everyone sauntered to different parts of the room. She listened as the group discussed, though her eyes often drifted from the costumed heroes to the massive purple clouds outside. Not too long after the discussion started, Iris could see a pair of sharp, glowing piercing through the clouds, before they began to separate, revealing the head of something bigger than anything she had ever seen. Her jaw dropped, and let out a quiet gasp.

"Holy flaming fuckballs..." she mumbled to herself as she stared up at the thing, before turning back to the others. As the others began to ask questions, and one, Bethany, Iris remembered her name was, tried to argue for them being capable adults, Iris stepped up. "I think the guy with the goatee has a point," she said to her peers, pointing a thumb at one of the more casually dressed people, the only odd thing about him being his seemingly glowing chest. "As totally dope as I think it would be to go to space, are we really the best ones for the job? I mean, a decent amount of us can't even legally drink."