Framing A Moose

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Hallway Outside Hangar -> Blackbird Hangar
Skills:

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Iris' head popped up from it's position lazily resting on her shoulder when a loud thud sounded from one of the hall's walls, the sound of something slamming into the other side of it. It caused Iris to let out a sigh. It sounded like the team was in another little fight, which meant her break was over, a fact only solidified when she heard a banging on the door in front of her, followed by Annie's voice. It caused a small smirk to creep onto her lips. Of course the X-Men's resident fluffball was the one coming to check on her. That girl couldn't do anything wrong if she tried, at least in Iris' book. It was enough to get Iris back onto her feet. She took a deep breath, the shakiness practically gone at this point, and she wiped her eyes one more time. They remained red, but with her weed cigarette held between her thumb and finger, she had plausible deniability. She looked to Upsilon, standing by the door, and she gave him a nod.

"Chin up, smile on, let's fucking go, my dude," she said, forcing her lips back into her trademark dopy grin. She opened the door just enough for her to slide through, and promptly shut it again when she was out. The last thing she needed was for anyone to see the charred hallway and start asking questions. She gave Annie a nod. "Yeah, I'm all good, just taking my vitamin C, if you know what I'm saying," she assured her fellow blonde, holding up her lit doobie so there was no doubt just what she was saying. She absentmindedly tugged at the charred ends of her sleeves as she turned her eyes to the scene in front of her, namely the new person, dressed all in black and wielding some sort of fancy antique stick with a little hula-hoop at the top. Waverley looked at her, lips pursed with confusion.

"Okay, sooo, two questions...who is she, and what does a hot goth chick have to do with the jungle?" she asked, using the end of her cigarette to point at Runa. Having come in late, she'd just missed the entire briefing, and had no clue what was going on.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Outside Jack's Office
Skills: Perception, Radio Wave Interpretation

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Waverley tensed up when Veil explained that Max had done as she asked. She was conflicted; none of her thought putting Sunshine's life in Max's hands was a good idea, but at the same time, Veil had more experience under her belt than she did. So she remained silent. Her eyes narrowed as Jack began to speak. She was largely a woman of mundane talents, but she had sharp eyes, eyes that took in every twitch that came with Jack's stuttering voice, capturing every which way his eyes shifted as he spoke. It was hard to trust the man who shoved a chloroform rag into her face, but at the same time...she was a naturally trusting person. Even after everything she'd been through, she always chose to look for the best in people, a trait that usually ended up being more of a weakness than a strength. She wanted to believe the man who slept in the room next to her wasn't a psychopath - so she did. She finally let out a deep sigh, dropping her gaze from Jack.

"But what fuck would Emma Frost want with Sunshine?" she mused, her eyes flitting down the sidewalk, eventually looking up to Veil, as if she might be able to answer it despite the fact that she'd just asked it herself. The revelation only caused her protectiveness over Sunshine to spike. As soon as they were reunited with the girl, Waverley wasn't going to let her out of her sight. Her attention was then pulled to Callie, and the woman's worries of purifiers and police were enough to remind Waverley of her job as the Mutant Underground alarm system. She stretched her mind outward, drawing in nearby radio waves in search of any signs of hostiles in the area. Instead, her mind was immediately swamped with a voice that sounded like it'd be most at home saying a slur. And it did, a few times; the man speaking was going on about the ungodly mutants, talking about them as though they were the shit under the heel of God. She recognized the voice: the evangelical Reverend Stryker, a title that the Christian girl felt he didn't deserve. She didn't like the feeling of hearing his voice in her skull, but she had a hard time shutting it out. She wildly shook her head, before hitting the side of her head, the way one would bonk a broken car radio. After a few slaps to her temple, the voice was replaced by static.

"That was...violating," Waverley mumbled, letting out an audible gag. She then took a deep breath, recollecting herself, and she tried again. Her mind scanned the invisible waves that filled the city, but she didn't find anything else of note. So she looked back to her two companions. "I don't hear any signs of anyone we should be scared of, other than Stryker polluting the airwaves with one of his sermons."

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: On the Trail
Skills:

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"Right...Training..." Waverley mumbled, followed by a nervous chuckle. While she was better trained in fighting than the average civilian, she was nowhere near as combatively skilled as the others in their little posse, or even most Camp Jupiter campers. She didn't consider herself a pacifist, but she never really liked fighting, which might come as a surprise for a girl whose head had been crammed full of fantasy stories growing up. It was why a baton swung from her hip in place of a sword. So, needless to say, she visibly cringed when Nancy painted the visceral image in her mind of blowing up the Pit Scorpion.

"Yeah, let's just hope it doesn't come down to that," she said, her face still twisted up in light disgust. The screwed up eyebrows popped up in surprise, however, when Niah suddenly took to the skies from beside her, and she flinched away a little. Despite being ten months into her stay at Camp Jupiter, she still hadn't quite adjusted to all the weird supernatural stuff her fellow campers could do. She squinted up at the sky, watching the oathbinder sail up the mountain through the air. As soon as she got back, Waverley beamed up at her. "Dude, you've gotta let me try that armor sometime! I've always wanted to know what flying would feel like," she exclaimed, though her excitement was dampened by Niah's explanation of what she saw. "Smoke? How much? Like, campfire smoke, or forest fire smoke?"

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar -> Hallway Outside Hangar
Skills:

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After her conflagratory breakdown, Iris let herself fall backwards, taking a seat on the floor, leaning back against the wall. The metal of both was still warm, but it didn't burn her; she'd come to learn that the heat from her fire didn't cause her pain, even it went through something else first. A hand dug into her pocket, and she pulled out a small rectangle of paper and her tiny plastic bag of weed. She sprinkled it across the paper in a line, before rolling it up into a cigarette. She'd done it so many times that it came automatically, without a single thought put into it. She took the cigarette and held it up, looking at Upsilon expectantly. He'd never lit any for her before. They calmed her down, and he preferred her riled up. But she thought perhaps that allowing herself to release the blaze she always worked so hard to keep in would be a good bonding experience for them. She thought wrong.

"Yeah, I suppose I should've seen that coming," Iris said with a sigh, instead pulling her own lighter and lighting the tip. She brought it to her lips and took a deep breath in, keeping it in her lungs for a few seconds, before letting it out. It blended with the small streams of her own smoke that continued to trickle out her nostrils. "Why am I still here? No one wants me here. Not Mira, not Pietro, not Beth. Not a fucking soul. So why am I sticking around?" Iris asked Upsilon, despite knowing that the creature wouldn't be capable of giving a comforting or even audible response. As she expected, Upsilon only turned his head down the hall. Iris followed his gaze, getting an eyeful of the long hallway scorched by her temper tantrum. She let out a dry laugh, amused, but lacking the cheerful, mischievous quality it usually held. "Right. It's fireproof."

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Outside Jack's Office
Skills:

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"Is that what he told you?" Waverley scoffed when Sunshine told them of Jack's excuse, though her eyes were still staring daggers at the private detective. She continued to glare at him for a few more seconds, before shifting her gaze to Sunshine. She opened her mouth to explain her recollection of events, where Jack came in, drugged the both of them, and kidnapped the younger girl, but before she could, a half-conscious Max popped into being above the pair, collapsing down on them. Waverley's eyebrows knitted together into a look of equal parts disdain and confusion, before watching her roommate be pulled through a portal by the man that killed her mother. Her rage seemed to be replaced by annoyance as she brought her hand which had been stretched out defensively to her head, burying her face in her palm.

"Fucking moron. He better have gotten her to the Underground, because otherwise we're gonna have to find her all over again, and we'll have to get rid of Max's corpse without catching whatever disease she ends up using to kill him." She let out a frustrated sigh, completely dropping her battle-ready stance in favor of her normal awkward slouch. She shifted her body back towards the car, ready to leave to go make sure Sunshine made it safely back home, but she stopped when she realized that Jack could still be a threat to the girl's safety. As Veil gave the man one last chance, Waverley's eyes flitted nervously to the eyes staring worried out windows, but eventually they landed on Jack, narrowed, filled with anger rather than concern.

"Yeah, and give us a reason to believe you won't do this kind of shit to her again. Then we can go our separate ways before shit goes sideways." Waverley made sure not to include an invitation back to the Mutant Underground, even though she knew it wasn't her place to decide.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: In the Uber -> On the Trail
Skills: Guitar, Singing, Musical Empathy (failed)

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Waverley winced when Nancy snapped at her, shrinking into herself as the sharply spoken words dug into her gut. It admittedly hurt the sensitive girl. Emotionally, of course, an important distinction to make when talking about someone who could make words physically hurt. The argument hadn't convinced Waverley that Camp Jupiter wasn't a cult, but it had convinced her that it was a subject she wanted to drop, especially when she sensed it put Emily on edge. She let Nancy have the last word, getting the feeling that the strong-willed girl was the type who preferred it that way. She didn't mind; she just wanted to move onto something else before anyone else yelled at her. Her shoulders were still shrugged up uncomfortably around her neck when Niah spoke, though whether that was from the argument or Niah's suggestion was hard to tell.

"Uh, yeah, I don't know much about all the lore and stuff, but it seems to me that maybe purposely poking the buttons of the primordial being that holds up the world isn't such a stellar idea," she nervously suggested. When the vehicle came to a stop and her teammates began to file out, she grabbed her luggage and followed, stopping for a moment to give the driver a wave. "Thanks so much for the ride," she thanked, before hopping out. She set her suitcase down as soon as she was out, waiting for Niah beside Marco and Emily as the praetors began to walk. As they waited, Waverley absentmindedly plucked her strings, an unintentional habit that within seconds became a melody. With the luggage, she wouldn't be able to play on the walk, so she figured she'd do her best to raise the group's spirits before they started.

"There's a road calling you to stray
Step by step, pulling you away
Under moon and star
Take the road, no matter how far
Where it leads no one ever knows
Don't look back, follow where it goes
Far beyond the sun
Take the road, wherever it runs
The road goes on, ever ever on
Hill by hill, mile by mile
Field by field, stile by stile
The road goes on, ever ever on"

As Waverley sang the verse, she attempted to pour joy into it using the divine influence her music so often had on her listeners' emotions. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to take this time, with the song coming out instead as a normal (albeit well-played) rendition. It had been the first ability she'd discovered, one that she'd never really paid much mind to. After all, every song was capable of manipulating emotions. Hers were just capable of taking it to the extreme. It wasn't until she'd gotten trained by Lupa that she realized it was a supernatural ability. Even then it seemed odd. What did such an ability have to do with Trivia, the goddess of magic that Madalyne had convinced her was her mother? She was pulled out of her thoughts by Marco.

"Uh...I guess we're supposed to be following them," Waverley answered, using the neck of her guitar to point at Nancy and Madalyne, who'd already started walking. With that, she hoisted up her suitcase, and began to follow.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar -> Hallway Outside Hangar
Skills: Pyrokinesis

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Iris' eyes was pulled away from her sinking friends by her partner's voice, going off once more on the jubilant blonde girl. Iris simply watched with an amused half-grin, opening her mouth to give a witty retort when Mira stopped talking. She never got it out, though, because as soon as Mira quit ranting, a loud scream filled Iris' ears, causing her to stumble backwards, tripping over her heel and falling to the ground. With her eyes clenched tight, Iris couldn't tell exactly when the screech stopped, as halfway through it was replaced by a high-pitched ringing that overtook her sense of sound.

Eventually Iris opened her eyes to see Mira glaring down at her, mouth closed. At first she looked surprised and confused, shifting her gaze over to look at the love goddess. She must've gone bad again, turning Mira against her. That was the only explanation. But when Iris' eyes landed on her, she saw no black glow around her hands, and she didn't look hostile. So Iris' eyes flipped back to Mira, now looking up filled with only a look of betrayal as they began to water. She didn't really know much about friends. She didn't really have any growing up. The first half of her life, her more feminine nature made her subject to teasing and pushed away any potential friends, and her second half of her life, she lived alone with her mother. Even so, she knew friends bantered, right? That was one of the things she was most excited for: exchanging witticisms with someone who wasn't exactly like her like her mom was. But friends didn't attack each other. She knew that. So she continued to stare at Mira as she pushed herself back onto her feet, a look of anguish on her face. Anguish and rising anger. Her hearing came back, albeit muffled, just in time to hear Bloom.

"Yeah, well, turns out people who don't like me are just my favorite type of people," Iris tried to joke with a forced smile, her voice choking up as she did. She was so caught up in Mira's attack that she didn't have any irritation left inside her to be annoyed that Mary was chastising her, almost saying she was asking for it. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, feeling a pair of tears drop down her face, sizzling into steam not long after rolling onto her bright red cheek. She reached up and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. When she pulled her arm away, her eyes went wide at what she saw: Upsilon standing threateningly behind Mira, dangerously close. "No, don't-" Iris said, raising her hand to command him to step back, only to see ribbons of smoke rising from between her fingers and a dull blue glow beneath the skin of her knuckles.

"I-I have to use the lady's room," Iris mumbled out, unable to even make out what she was saying. She quickly walked towards the closest door she saw, only pausing when Elizabeth reappeared, her leg injured. Iris opened her mouth to offer her aid, but her smoking hands were a clear reminder for her to get away from the others as soon as she could, so she continued towards the door. She slammed it shut behind her, leaning against the opposite wall as she closed her eyes, trying to get ahold of herself, breathing in and out. Usually, her breath would steady as she calmed, but this time it didn't, remaining shaky no matter how much she breathed in and out. She tried to meditate, but the high pitched ringing kept her mind from descending into a state of calm. When she opened her eyes back up, Upsilon stood mere inches from her face. She stared at him for a few seconds, continuing her shaky, inefficient breathing exercise.

"Fuck it. Fine," she finally said. As soon as she said the words, the emotional walls she used to suppress her negative emotions came crumbling down, the very same walls that kept the fire in. Her hands, clenched tight in fists, were set alight. They let out torrents of flames, filling up the hallway with a blue conflagration, which was soon the only thing that filled her vision. She could feel the exhilarating sensation of heat exiting her pores, as though her skin was covered in tiny thermal exhaust ports. She could feel something burning in her mouth, but it didn't hurt; it was refreshing. Small flames rose from the corners of her lips, but it was mostly smoke, rising and obscuring her sight, which was already blurred by the unshed tears that filled them. After what felt like minutes of this, but was really only around seven seconds, the flames died down, leaving only a metal hallway, black and scorched, with Iris in the middle breathing shakily, her light pink sleeves scorched around the wrists, smoke rising from her fists, lips, and nostrils.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: On the Road Again -> Outside Jack's Office
Skills:

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Max's follow up description of the missing pair's location set Waverley's teeth on edge. Not only was it somehow even more useless than his last scrying attempt which had gotten him file cabinets and stale pastry smell, but the admission that he hadn't meant to scry at all caused her lips to twitch into a frown. Sure, scrying was relatively harmless, but what if next time it was something worse? What if next time he set the Underground on fire, or summoned a giant nail to crush them all. The thought caused Waverley to shudder, and she did her best to shake it out of her head as she climbed into the van. Rather than her usual spot in the back, she instead took the one closest to the door.

Most of the ride there, she stared out the window, only facing forward to give a nod to Veil's plan. She hoped that they'd find Sunshine there at the office. But that wasn't what she expected. That felt too easy. She expected that they'd find the room empty, save for some sort of clue or set of footprints to follow. Perhaps for the first time in her life, though, it appeared that her hopes won out against her expectations, for standing there outside a shaggy building stood Jack and, more importantly, Sunshine. Waverley wasted no time in unbuckling her seatbelt and hopping out of the car, leaving the van door open behind her. She stood next to Callie, looking even more tense than usual. Part of her wanted to subdue the man who'd drugged her and kidnapped her friend, but she didn't, primarily out of respect for Veil's 'talk first, attack second' rule. Her eyes immediately went to Sunshine.

"Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?" Waverley called out, the worry evident in her voice. Her gaze immediately shifted to Jack and sharpened to a glare. "You better start explaining yourself before I decide to bend your arm in a way that even your bones aren't supposed to bend, got it?" She bent her knees a little and raised her open hands up in front of her, readying herself for any attack Jack might throw. She wasn't going to attack first, but she was perfectly prepared to respond in kind if he made a move.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: In the Uber
Skills:

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"That's such a weirdly specific superpower," Waverley muttered as she saw fog spill onto the highway, obscuring the view of the car behind them. She didn't entirely understand the Mist, just that sometimes it was some unfathomable magical metaphysical force, and sometimes it was straight up just fog. She watched out the rear window for a couple of seconds after the mist swallowed up everything in sight, hoping that the car that had been following them wasn't going to be a problem anymore. Part of her felt guilty, worrying that they'd just inconvenienced a random civilian, but she was soothed by the fact that they probably hadn't caused the stranger any harm. When she turned back to face the front of the car, she was surprised to find that they were still discussing whether or not the Camp was a cult.

"Oh, are we still talking about this?" she asked, sounding a little embarrassed that her throw away comment was now the main topic of discussion. "I'm not saying it's Jonestown, I'm just saying that it's got a lot of the qualities often associated with cults. Everyone lives together in a commune separate from society, everyone has a job to help sustain said commune, most everyone holds the same religious beliefs, and we have to keep certain aspects of the Camp secret from friends and family." As she started to list off examples, she began counting them on her fingers. Once she got to four, she tensed up, realizing she got carried away. She lowered her hand, an apologetic frown making its way onto her face. "I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to shit on your guys' religion. If you want me to drop it, I can. I was just making conversation."

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar
Skills: Survival Skills

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"I hear you loud and clear, I'll go ahead and stick to darling," Iris replied to Mira, giving the girl a cheery thumbs up. Mischief danced on the corner of her lip, pulling it up into a half-smile. Her attention was pulled off her best frenemy when the previously hostile swordswoman pulled herself out of the rubble. She glanced over to Bethany to see if she was prepared to try their plan now that she had a clear line of sight, but relaxed when it appeared that the girl was no longer out to kill them. Before they could have much of a chat, the hippos charged their little group. Iris tried to dodge out of the way of the one heading towards her, but failed, causing it to toss her a few feet through the air, crumpling to the ground.

"Ugh, why does everything hate me?" she quietly whined, once again pushing her tall frame off the ground into a standing position. Seeing Klara snuggling up to a hippo, Iris' shoulders slumped down and her lips jutted out in an exaggerated pout. "Aw man, why can't I have a cool power like that?" She was so enamored by the girl's charm ability, she almost didn't get her hands over her ears in time. When she pulled them away, she found that a number of the hippos were dealt with. When Klara asked about her eye, Iris cast a sympathetic glance over to Neil.

"Uh, yeah, my bad, I'm really sorry about that. I kinda got carried away in the heat of battle, y'know? I'm sure we'll be able to get you a robot eye once this is all over though!" Iris piped up, willing to take one for the team. With everything that happened with Sara, she figured Neil was already super unlucky in love, so being on the love young love goddess' hitlist is probably the last thing he needed. Whereas Iris believed that she could be despised by all the romance deities in the universe and she'd still have game. Speaking of game, Iris went still as soon as she heard the riddle. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was to come. Sure enough, she felt her feet begin to sink into the floor. She immediately began to scour her index of nature facts bestowed by her mother, and was happy to find a rather large number dedicated to quicksand.

"Nobody panic! The worst thing you can do in this situation is panic. Now..." she looked over to Klara. "Quicksand is usually caused by water underneath the sand making it too unstable to hold weight. Love goddess, you did that stylish little water flourish a few minutes ago. Assuming this works like quicksand, if you could, like, removed the water underneath, it should go back to normal. You get me?"