Framing A Moose

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: Somewhere Alone in the Forest with Jinxing
Skills: Creativity, Musical Mystiokinesis, Combative Magic, Singing

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It's not a pleasant experience, being in desperate need of breath and not being able to obtain it, no matter how much you scramble and grasp for it. Waverley had done it before, and her review of it remained the same as it always had: big, whopping zero star rating. Though in the past, she'd never had to worry about it making her a sitting duck. So when the soft sounds of crunching twigs wrung out beside her, she flung her head up, turning to face the noise. But her body relaxed a little when she saw it was only Emily. The false alarm actually seemed to help, for as Emily began to speak, Waverley managed to get her lungs to start taking deep breaths. When the other girl went silent, Waverley nodded, holding a shaky finger up as she struggled to regain enough air to speak. Eventually, the tremor softened, and she raised her head, her watery eyes looking up at Emily as she shifted positions, her knees tucking under her chin.

"S-sorry for running away...I just needed to get away from all the eyes...A-and it's okay, you don't have to apologize. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, especially not a friend, but I guess that's what happened in the end..." Waverley sighed, lowering her eyes back to the ground for a moment. Her breathing had reached a relatively normal pace, so, after rubbing the tears out of her eyes, she crawled up to her feet, croaking out a half laugh, the kind people make when they're starting to move past sorrow. "Sorry for the dramatics. Anxiety attacks fucking suck. But the worst is over, much to our - FUCK!" Waverley was cut off as she felt her body be swept up in an enormous and rough claw. A new panic arose as she stared at the massive creature who'd just snatched up her and her friend and began pulling them deeper into the forest.

She belted out two loud screeches separated by a whimper. The screams rhymed, funny enough, and if she weren't in the claw of a massive scorpion, she'd have wondered how exactly that worked. Instead, though, she put her hands on the cold, hard pincers of the creature, trying to pull herself out, but it was no use. The monster's grip on her was too strong. Then, as she looked down at the guitar pushed tight against her front, she got an idea. She never really used her guitar's magical abilities, since guitar was the only instrument she knew how to play. But it seemed that its enchantment could have more...combative uses. She grabbed onto the neck of the instrument, commanding it to shift. In a sparkling dark purple flash, almost reminiscent of the starry sky on a clear night, the instrument changed shape. It grew, and grew, and grew, taking the form of a full-sized piano that Waverley was sure would disable its claw. Unfortunately, it did not. It continued to race through the woods, unimpeded by the weight of the piano.

Alright, too small. So she tried again. This time, she closed her eyes, bringing to mind the immense instruments she used to see at church, much greater in size than its current form. It began to change again, growing even more. As it changed its form, it shoved Waverley out of the creatures claw, causing her to hit the ground with a hard tumble. When she raised her head, she found that her plan hadn't just worked: her guitar, now a massive organ, crushed the creatures claw under its weight. She only allowed herself a heartbeat's worth of time to feel victorious, as Em remained in the creature's claw. Waverley reached out her hand, and she begun to belt a melody, one that she didn't recognize. Likely something she heard on the radio once or at a coffee shop open mic night and had long forgotten. She wasn't sure what she was trying to do, or how she would do it. All she wanted to do was save Em. And the universe listened. As Waverley sang, dirt rose up from underneath Emily's feet, forming around her shoes. It grabbed hold of her and pull, resulting in a tug-o-war of sorts between the strange animated dirt and the scorpion. Eventually, the dirt one out, pulling Emily away from the claw. As soon as the girl was free of the monster's grasp, Waverley stopped singing, and the dirt crumbled back to the ground.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar
Skills: Pyrokinesis, Percussion

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As Iris defended Annie, Ed, and Runa, a literal deity, she was surprised when she felt a hand grasp tightly to her wrist. When she turned to find Mira there, her mouth open and prepared for a scream, she instinctively flinched, her eyes squeezing tightly closed and her face contorting into a fearful grimace. But when she heard the scream without the pain, she cautiously peeled open her eyes, finding Mira facing a number of downed monkeys. When Mira spoke to her without a single insult or her normal malice, it caused Iris to smile. She gave a quick, small nod, not saying anything out of fear that it would hurt the small sliver of healing they'd managed to get between them.

Iris' lips jutted out into a pout when she heard Bethany respond to Runa's lie, though the pout didn't last long. She had hoped to be the one to help Runa complete her fun lying trick, but she'd settle for being the idea girl. Sometimes it was nice to break the illusion that she was the 'dumb' X-Person in some way other than an literary reference...and then immediately reaffirm that illusion as soon as their resident bajillionaire made a bribe.

"OOOOH, I could totally buy the New York Botanical Garden with that kind of money! Then they'd have to let me stay there overnight! Oh, and I could use the leftover money to put up plaques of what I think all the plants' names are!" she excitedly cheered, dancing through the chaos of battle towards one of the Blackbirds. The young hippie had no actual grasp on the value of money, so she had no way to know that $10,000 would not have the buying power to purchase a 250-acre property owned by the city itself. But the thought of it was enough to get her ass in gear, grabbing a hunk of roof rubble as she got to the Blackbird.

"Upsilon, you get the lights, I'll get the sound. And don't hurt any of them!" Iris called out, before beginning to loudly bang on the Blackbird's metal with her hunk of rubble, the rhythm in time with the music blaring through the hangar. A long, almost serpentine string of fire began to form in the air, seemingly dancing along with the music that filled the room. It slithered through the monkey horde, getting just close enough to freak a good number of them out. The direction which it moved guided those monkeys out of the hangar, guiding seven of them to scamper safely out of sight, and therefore out of mind.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: In the Van
Skills: (RR: Perception, Hiding)

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"You'd rock a pixie cut. Maybe you could even dye a strand of it, like, bright blue or something to match your powers," Waverley chimed in from the back, though most of her attention was still on watching Jack. Her agonizing headache might've been gone, but her suspicions hung potent in her mind. She figured that engaging in the conversation would be the best way to avoid any suspicion herself, not to mention she actually did think Callie would look good with a pixie cut. She absent-mindedly combed her fingers through her own purple locks, though she didn't tear her eyes away from the front. "I can't imagine cutting mine. Without my hair, what would I talk about at parties?...Well, I guess the fact that I have superpowers, but that might get me hatecrimed..." she pondered, too consumed with her task of watching Jack to contribute to the conversation in any worthwhile way. But when Spark Plug asked about their plans, she got Waverley's full attention for a moment.

"Well, we've gotta find out why Frost wants Sunshine, and if she still wants her, and if she does, we need to - Oh, wait, that was probably more a question for Veil, wasn't it?" Waverley slumped sheepishly back into her seat, shooting a glance to Veil to see what her answer to the question would be. The glance only lasted for a second, though, with her instead shifting to look back at Jack.

Roll Request

Waverley's wants to use her perception to keep an eye on Jack, but she also wants to use her hiding skill to do so stealthily, anyone noticing.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: In the Hunters' Camp -> Somewhere Alone in the Forest
Skills:

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Waverley's playful smirk melted from her face like a plastic bottle set ablaze, the corners curling down into a frown. Her eyebrows knit together as Emily laid into her, her eyes getting wide and confused. All her past interactions with the girl had been good, so the sudden ferocity dug into her like a knife. She'd triggered Nancy's frustration before (it felt like something everyone did at some point), but never Em. The girl felt like her personal guide and supporter, so her harsh words were hard to deal with. The confusion left her eyes, replaced by a glossy, upset sheen.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to offend...it's easy to forget Nance isn't an old friend," she said, eyes flicking back and forth between Emily and Nancy. It was a mistake she made often; all someone had to do was like her and she'd treat them like they'd been best friends since birth. And some things you can get away with saying about an old friend that you can't say about someone you've known for roughly 10 months. Then Nancy began to threaten her, lacking any sort of jubilance or joy in her eyes. It caused Waverley to shuffle backwards, her feet crunching against the sticks and dried leaves of the forest floor. She could feel her heartbeat accelerating, thundering against her chest. God, she hated percussion. The loud banging inside her chest. She knew it was a precursor to something more, something she hadn't had to deal with for so long.

In that moment, their glares felt infectious. Her focus was on Emily and Nancy's eyes digging into her core, but within seconds, she felt Marco and Madalyne's eyes join in with equal hate. Then it continued to spread, until it felt like the Hunters joined in, gazing at her with disgust. But it didn't stop there. Within seconds, it felt like every being on the world took a moment to stare her way in contempt. And the beating, the beating got louder and louder inside of her. She fucking hated percussion. Her heart felt like it was punching her lungs, because every time it picked up pace, it got harder to breathe. Everyone hated her. 7.8 billion people in the world and not a single one wanted her alive. Only when she felt her back bump against the rough bark of a tree did she realize she never stopped backing up. She felt buried in their stares, like they were suffocating her. Even when their faces were blurred by the tears that began to pool in her eyes, she could feel their eyes burrowing holes in her.

So, after stuttering out something unintelligible, yet still in a rhyme, she turned and ran. She ran deep into the forest, away from the Legion, away from the Hunters, away from the stares, the burning stares. She ran for what felt like an eternity, until the running came together with her panic to render her completely devoid of breath. She slumped to the ground on her hands and knees, desperately grasping for breath, with only her soft, wordless whimpering to keep her company. Her whimpering and that goddamned percussion.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar
Skills: Pyrokinesis, (RR: Tai Chi)

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"I think you'll find that I'm quite the multitasker," Iris replied to Beth as she watched the goth girl's shadowy tendrils wrap around the monkeys on top of her, forcefully yanking them off. As soon as her hands were free from the monkeys, she began patting the floor next to her, until she eventually found the half-smoked joint that had been knocked away from her. As she shuffled back up onto her feet, she took another huff and looked towards Beth, giving her a thankful nod. "Thanks for-" she began as she got back up on her feet, only to be interrupted by another small group of monkeys yanking her to the ground. There was something different about these ones, though, something Iris only noticed as she saw light glinting off something in their hands.

"They have fucking knives now?!" she exclaimed, doing her best to avoid getting stabbed. Her efforts weren't entirely successful, and she let out a shrill screech as she watched a knife slice into her shoulder like a birthday cake, followed by a sharp pain sliding into her leg. "God, what kind of maniac would give monkeys knives?!...Right, a trickster god would." Then, out of nowhere, she felt the monkeys get roughly pulled from on top of her, causing her to blink in confusion. She quickly scrambled up to her feet, grimacing as she put weight on her injured limb. When she was upright, she caught sight of Mary just as a monkey plunged a knife into her chest. It caused Iris to gasp. She quickly scanned the area, looking for anyone she could help. The X-Men seemed to be worse for ware, with many having grievous wounds.

Gods, she wished that she had an ability that could help them instead of the inherently destructive fire she was cursed with. She wished she could heal people like Ed and Klara, or at least do something she could control. Her eyes finally fell upon Mira, covered in monkeys. Guin's words from minutes before filled her head once more, this time in memory. She wished she could say that saving the girl was an act of pure altruism, that saving the woman who had hurt her was the truest form of good. But in actuality, she felt like she somehow had to make it up to Mira, that saving her would mend their friendship, the friendship that Iris had somehow ruined. Her eyes flicked over to Upsilon, standing unshaken amid the crowd of monkeys.

"Upsilon, get the knives out of their hands!" Iris commanded. Even from how far away he was from her, she could see him furrow his bare, burned-up brow. He looked confused. "Please?" she added. With that, he disappeared and reappeared next to Mira, holding out his hand and causing the knives being held by the monkeys to burn bright blue. Within seconds, the knives clattered to the floor. Upsilon seemed eager to help Mira, likely for the sake of how capable she was at bringing out the negative emotions that Iris so often hid behind a mischievous grin and a joint. Iris stumbled backwards, trying to avoid the monkeys as best she could. Hearing the Goddess of Lies sounding as though she had a plan, Iris stumbled passed her, taking up a position in front of Annie and Ed, tossing the stub of her doobie to the ground and raising her arms to defend the pair.

"Ed, this guy, he's a wizard! But he's also dealing with a stab wound. Quick, tell me that none of the X-Men are injured so I can tell you how wrong you are!" she called out to Runa, speaking quickly.

Roll Request

Iris would like to use her tai chi to protect Ed and Annie from any monkeys that might come their way.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: In the Van
Skills: Radio Wave Manipulation

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As Waverley sat in the back, eyes clenched tightly shut, whimpering with her head slumped against the plush car seat, she could feel the drilling in her head begin to lessen. After a few seconds, it seemed to fade entirely. She kept still for a few seconds after it had, before eventually letting her eyes groggily flutter back open. She blinked the bleariness out of her eyes, and repositioned herself, sitting up straight. But when she went to rub her eyes with her hand, she was unable to, finding it still tangled up in her boss' hair. She could feel heat rising to her cheeks, embarrassment flooding her face.

"Er, shit, sorry," she quickly apologized, reaching her other hand over, struggling for a few moments to untangle herself from Veil's chaotic hair. She eventually managed it, withdrawing her hands with a bashful look, folding them back onto her lap. Once most of the embarrassment had subsided, her eyes shifted away from Veil and instead to Jack. He was hard to read, at least on the surface. But maybe there was another way to get info. Her eyes narrowed, and she reached out her mind. Within a few seconds, even though her eyes were facing forward, she wasn't looking at Jack, or Callie, or anything, instead in a trance. Finding Jack's phone wasn't hard, not when she knew exactly where he was. Dissecting it for information did end up being a bit of difficult. She spent a minute or so on it, but finally broke her trance with a shake of her head. All she managed to get was a search for a donut place and a website for brain teasers. Brain teasers for geniuses, to be specific. Hardly incriminating evidence, though knowing he considered himself a 'genius' was enough to fuel her suspicions. She let out a quiet sigh, keeping her eyes glued to the pair up front. "Headache's gone. Must've been a passing thing."

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: Base of Mount Othrys
Skills: Sing, Musical Mystiokinesis, Creativity

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"The Hunters of-" Waverley began, putting two and two together. But before she could finish, she let out a sharp yelp as she felt the arrow glide across her cheek, tearing it open. Her body contorted in on herself, her arms lowering from their raised position and covering her cheek, putting pressure on the wound. Her eyes squeezed shut, before flicking them back up, wide and confused. As her eyes flitted across the group of women, looking for a reason, any palpable reason they had to shoot her. She'd been the only one to do as they asked. She'd done her best to be friendly. So why the fuck did they just shoot her? She was the only one who actually listened to them. She let out a cross between a hiss and a sigh, turning her gaze back to the praetors.

She knew what was coming: a fight. The archer ladies had attacked one of their own, which, if she knew anything, meant that her own friends would have to fight back. But when she made eye contact with Madalyne, she was surprised to hear the girl scold her. No fight broke out, which she found more disappointing than she cared to admit. So she wasn't worth fighting for. That's what her dear praetors decided. Her annoyance shifted to concern and anxiousness when she shifted her gaze over to Nancy. She knew the girl had a temper, but she also knew that she was loyal. Waverley did her best to decipher which one was going to win out behind her eyes. When she finally spoke, Waverley cocked up an eyebrow in surprise

"Meter? What do you mean by that? And why are you glaring at me like I'm a dirty sewer rat?" Waverley asked puzzled, her brow furrowed, before her eyes widened with surprise and her jaw dropped. She reached her hand to her mouth, thinking inward for a moment, finding that all the statements she felt could make it to the tip of her tongue happened to rhyme. She continued to look shocked for a good few seconds, before breaking out into a grin, the tension caused by the whole situation seemingly draining from her bloody face. "Oh man, this is totally rad. For a second there I thought you were actually mad!" As the group began to move on, Waverley reached down and picked her weapons back up, sliding them back into her belt. When she walked, she fell back in line with her fellow fivers.

"So our dear Nancy wants to start a prank war? It's one she'll lose, that's for sure!" Waverley cheerfully exclaimed in a singsong voice to Emily and Marco. She tended to believe in the best in people, so rather than seeing Nancy's curse as a misguided attempt to squash her into submission, she saw it as something more playful: a joke, one she'd no doubt reciprocate. After speaking her rhyme with a soft rhythm, she felt the stinging of her cheek dull. She reached a thumb to it, wiping away some of the blood, feeling that the wound had turned to a scab. When they filed into the camp, Waverley took up a position awkwardly near the back of the group, only poking her head forward when Nancy referred to one of the archers as 'Lady Diana,' who she immediately looked towards.

"Lady Diana? I'm sorry, I've never seen your face before...Except on the heart-shaped poster Nancy hangs on her door. Believe me, I really meant no disrespect. I legit thought you were some all-female special units sect. I'm new, see, I don't know all there is to know, so forgive me if my divine etiquette is only so-so." A playful smirk flickered on the corner of her mouth as she apologized, mostly for Nancy's benefit. Her eyes scanned the group as she spoke, hoping her whimsical rhymes would impress the terrifying women. At first, she had no such luck, but by the time she ended, she saw a few of the huntresses break out into smiles.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Iris Rivers

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Location: Blackbird Hangar
Skills:

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"Uh, wasn't planning on it. Mainly because I do, in fact, understand nothing of what is happening here," she replied when Neil warned her against contradicting the goth girl. She watched, slowly nodding, as the others fought the woman, taking a more supervisor-like role as Runa and Lance fought amongst each other. She brought her cigarette to her lips, breathing in the smoke as she listened to Annie gave her the rundown on who the goth was and why they were fighting her. "Asgardian? Ah...so we just...we fight gods now, that's a thing we do." She nodded her head, though she seemed more tired than shocked or afraid. Her voice had a certain doneness to it, as if she were saying 'this is my life now.' After a second, as Runa crumbled to the ground, something behind Iris' eyes seemed to click, and she raised an eyebrow. ”Wait, did she just get into a fight with Beth about who was the gothier goth, and then proceed to call us children?” She followed behind Annie as she walked over to Edus, standing a few feet away from the two. She looked to Mary when she asked her question.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awesome, I'm cool. Never been better," Iris responded, widening her smile just a little too wide to be genuine. She broke off from Annie and Ed, beginning her way over to the board. But when she felt Mira's gaze burning into her, seeing the girl out the corner of her eye, she froze up. The way she stood there was unlike Iris. Almost child-like. Now admittedly, Iris was often childish, but not like this. She stood tense, shoulders shrugged up around her neck, looking stuck in a flinch. She didn't look at Mira, not even when she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Mir...for making you...do that to me," she mumbled out. She knew how this little dance was supposed to go, though she hadn't needed to do it for a long time. She'd done it with her dad all those years ago, before her mother swept her away to Oregan. All she had to do was apologize to Mira for making her hurt her, let that stew for a while, and eventually everything would be normal again. She stood still for a few seconds, before taking another huff of her cigarette and letting her body relax. She continued forward, scooping up the dice, and tossing them onto the board. She continued to medicate even as words began to appear on the bubble thing.

This will not be an easy mission,
monkeys slow the expedition.

Iris read the riddle aloud, before raising her head. This riddle was pretty clear, so she scanned the room for monkeys. At first, there were none, but after a few seconds, monkeys began to poor from the cracks and crevices of the room, spilling into the hangar. As they did, three dropped from somewhere above Iris, and knocked her to the ground, beginning to pull at her long blonde hair. She dropped her joint, beginning to try to knock the array of monkeys off of her. Oddly enough, though, it was just an absurd enough happenstance to cause the tension her body had been filled with upon seeing Mira to completely disappear.

"You made me drop my weed, you adorable sacks of shit!" she explained, cackling with a much more real grin as she continued to try to knock the monkeys off.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Outside Jack's Office
Skills: Perception

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When Waverley's mind shifted back from the semi-meditative daze that allowed her to surf the airwaves more effectively, it took a second to adjust to the physical world. But as she did, like someone running backwards into a sword, she felt a sharp pain pierce her brain. It caused a surprised gasp to slip between her teeth as she slumped down to her knees. After squeezing shut for a second, her eyes flickered about, trying to see any obvious foes that might be the culprit. When she saw none, her eyes landed back on Jack. At first, it was simply because he was right in front of her, and her eyes needed somewhere to go. But as she gazed up at his face, her eyebrows pulled together.

Something was off. She wasn't sure if it was the way his surprised expression took over his face just a second earlier than the others, or perhaps the way his mouth hung just a little too open in shock. Perhaps it was an amalgam of barely noticeable tells and twitches that cultivated in her mind as a general feeling of suspicion. His surprise was fake, that's all she knew. Somehow, she wasn't sure how, but somehow he knew the cause of the pulsing pain rippling through her brain. Her mind was so clouded by both pain and wariness that she didn't register Spark Plug's question until it was punctuated by Veil scooping her up off the ground.

"Huh?...Oh, I'm...I'm fine," she mumbled, though the words sounded far away as they passed her lips. She was a motionless lump as Veil held her, slumping like an old rope bridge between her arms. The only movement her body made by itself was in her arm, reaching up and grabbing onto Veil's shoulder. Or, at least, she'd tried to grab Veil's shoulder, but instead her fingers got tangled up mostly in her unkempt hair. It helped; gripping onto something, anything, helped keep her mind off the pain a little, and she kept it there even as Veil buckled her in. Her head at first rested back against the headrest, her eyes clenched shut, her face painted with an agonized expression. But after she heard Veil tell Jack to sit shotgun, her eyes flicked open. She flopped to the side, leaning against Veil, and she began to lightly tug Veil's hair downward, trying to pull her head closer so she could talk quietly to her without having to worry about being overheard. "V-Veil, th-there's still something wrong with Jack. Y-you have to keep an eye on him. He's...he's hiding something, I just know it," she whispered, her voice raspy, scared.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: On the Trail
Skills: Being Adorably and Affably Awkward

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Waverley flinched at the way Nancy said 'mortal', as if she were scraping dog shit off her heel. It still confused Waverley; they could die, right? So weren't they mortals too? And even if she was just talking about humans, that was still condemning half their genetic makeup. But she stayed silent, simply following Madalyne, taking up the rear in their little lineup. She squinted as the strange camp came into view, cautiously picking up her pace, making her way up through the group, thinking that there was a good chance it was just some forest-dwelling vagabonds. As the group's resident hobo musician, she figured that, if it were a such a camp of vagabond campers, it might be useful to have her on hand. She stopped dead in her tracks a few feet behind Nancy as women wielding bows immerged from the brush, arrows pointed at the group. Waverley immediately shot her hands into the air as one of the women spoke. When Nancy replied, Waverley worriedly furrowed her eyebrows.

"Nancy, just do what they say. You do not wanna go up against an armed lesbian. Trust me, I rode with Dykes on Bikes for a month. I know what I'm talking about," Waverley whispered, though she seemed to immediately contradict her claim by pulling her baton from her belt and her emergency gun from its holster, tossing them both to the ground. For a second she just looked at Nancy confused, unsure why this feminist special units team would know anything about the Twelfth Legion, but she shook her head, figuring it wasn't an important question to ask. So she cautiously stepped forward, arms still up. It admittedly helped her confidence as she stepped up that she had a seemingly indestructible guitar covering most of her abdomen

"Uh...hello ladies," Waverley awkwardly began, mentally cursing Marco for getting the word 'ladies' stuck on the surface of her head. "Sorry about my friend, she's, uh, a little proud. Can we, like, start over? Maybe without the weapons pointed at us?...I'm Waverley Watts, and...uh...a fun fact about me is that I'm very bad at coming up with icebreaker fun facts while my life is being threatened...now this is the part where you introduce yourselves and give us a fun fact about you..."