Morose

What If?

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Jade Cornish

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Jade snorted slightly at Carolina's words. "You see but you do not observe. Point one being I'm not wearing a suit to keep the virus from my lungs, merely this gas mask. Point two being that I have no delusion that I'll leave this city alive. I died in Altsoba and came back from a devil's bargain. I killed Lucifer. I was there when the goddess of death burned. Magneto might fancy himself a god - and that happens to be my specialty when it comes to killing." She paused, hearing the concerns then raised by Cassandra. Goodness, these people were getting on Jade's nerves. She was seeing less and less of a point in engaging them beyond using them as cannon fodder later on. "Do you think we'd really come here without a means of communicating? As for pulling your SHIELD credentials, who do you think sent us here? We're part of a joint OMEN and SHIELD initiative, with a direct line to OMEN's director." Jade scoffed.

Lance's attempt at cutting Jade down didn't work either. In fact, he just added to her feelings of frustration with them. He admitted that they weren't all fighters. If their powers weren't useful, then Jade had no interest in them. They clearly were an ineffective means of stopping Magneto, and Jade had no interest in watching whatever poor excuse for hand-to-hand combat the no-fighting-powers members practiced. Neither did Mary attempting to chastise Jade for assumptions, only to then reveal she had been keeping this information from her own team - and providing details that once again, Jade was fairly certain Thalia could've gotten herself.

"I'll go update Jakobsen. I'll have him pull copies of the building plans, an audio description of the plans isn't ideal but can be made doable...." Jade then trailed off, not even realizing it was possible to roll her eyes so hard as Carolina revealed that she had the ideal recon power and apparently, hadn't been able to use it to learn anything. "The collective IQ of the planet would be improved if New York was wiped off the map, clearly," Jade muttered under her breath.

---

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Guinevere Stark

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---

Guin didn't like Jade - it felt like she was talking to some sort of irritating Sith lord, with the mask that concealed Jade's face. She half expected Jade to fall into the enraging quiet tones of Kreia, to explain the agonizing wound in the Force that one of them carried. Guin wanted to be the main character in this story - she wanted to be able to avenge her father, to put the world back to right, to save everyone. But with each day and each moment, she realized she wasn't the main character. She was Leia, not Luke - not a Jedi, barely even a mutant. "Such a goddamn mega bitch," Guin sniped, but she wasn't going to dwell on Jade that much longer.

She knew that hearing Mary had a surveillance system set up now should've made her hopeful - but if anything, it made her bitter. It confirmed what they had already more or less known - that Magneto and his chosen were living their best lives, while the rest of them hid in the sewers like rats. At least the man, Edus, was far more pleasant to listen to than Jade. "I can switch bodies with people, but only if I can make skin-to-skin contact first," Guin explained. She felt a little bit embarrassed over her mutant power. It wasn't really useful. She hadn't even been able to use it on Sabretooth earlier that day. The only thing it had done was keep her from dying when Magneto released the virus and sometimes, she wished that it hadn't.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 6:10 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - S.W.O.R.D. HQ, the Iron

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Stolen Ship

Amelia resisted the urge to audibly say awww as Niah reunited with Oliver - romance wasn't something Amelia was interested in for herself, but Oliver was one of her best mates. She liked seeing him and Niah together, they made a cute pair. However, her musings about cute romances was quickly turned into disappointment as Matt pointed out the downside of having Celestine ask an AI to fly the ship - Amelia didn't get to fly this thing. "No," Amelia admitted, clearly dismayed. "Some computer bloke named Phil gets to fly her," she sulked.

Raynor groaned slightly as Cass asked for him to say everything he knew - this reality was completely foreign and different, explaining everything he knew would take years. And speaking of years, it had been over two decades since he had last set foot on Earth-257. He didn't want to come back here for a reason. Evidently Genosha and the Iron and the Blue were still kicking, but he didn't know what the political climate was like - he didn't know if New Asgard had finally declared war on the United Kingdom or not. He didn't know if Atlantis and Wakanda had finally signed a peace treaty or if Australia, somehow caught in the crossfire, had been raised out of the ocean after Namor sunk the continent.

"Oww!" Raynor exclaimed, as Sparky dragged him off by the ear.

"The Blue is... well, the Blue," Folly explained, looking at Cass with a degree of confusion. "It's a country to the west of the Iron, it stretches all the way to the Pacific Ocean."

Darcy glanced at Folly, pointing at her, before pointing at herself, realizing Folly wasn't going to elaborate, and sighing slightly. "Okay, history was never my strong suit but everyone knows about Civil War II. So it started with the Squadron Supreme, do you know who those are? They're, like, like the Beatles of superheroes. Really cool but really old. The United States President at the time was the original Iron Man and he issued a bunch of executive orders to register and protect mutants, as people were kinda losing their fucking minds. Captain America led a rebel faction of the Squadron against Iron Man and his side, they fought it out, lots of punching and kicking, at one point I think there were a ton of bombings, no more United States. The place was split down the middle - literally - and everything to the west is the Blue, kinda the wild west on steroids from what I've heard. And the east is the Iron, where you've been already."

Bonnie bit her lip slightly. That sounded right, from the false memories implanted in her mind. She understood the desperate urge for information - she had it herself - but they needed to ask more specific questions. This was a foreign land to them, they needed to know who the key players were - who were the threats and who were the allies. They needed to know what sort of technology or magic the world had, in order to both find Luminous and Doom, as well as make a safe trip home. And lastly, more knowledge of their doubles would be helpful. Bonnie had a bad feeling about the idea of running into more of them. "Can you tell us who the global powers are in this world?" Bonnie asked.

"Um, well, the Blue doesn't really have anyone in charge - except maybe the Avengers? But they're more like cowboys than, like, authority figures. The Iron is run by President Stark, the young one, not the old one. The Genoshans have two leaders, Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. Atlantis is run by this twink, Namor. New Asgard is currently ruled by Mad Queen Freya. Wakanda has King T'Chaka. Umm... I guess the UK, they still have Queen Betsy, that isn't changing..."

Bonnie's eyes widened slightly at the information that Atlantis existed here - and New Asgard, which she was guessing had to be where Raynor was from.

"I don't know if I could name that many world leaders from where we're from," Amelia joked. She was still slightly contemplating bugging Celestine to let her take over and fly, even if "Phil" seemed to be doing a good job. They were pretty steady, no turbulence or anything yet. But it was boring and that made Amelia die a little bit on the inside.

---

In the supply closet, Raynor's ear was throbbing and he cradled it with one hand. Even though he was an Asgardian, being dragged by the ear hurt. He didn't want to look Sparky in the eye. He opened his mouth, about to reply with what do you mean what the hell? before thinking better of it. He had hidden this for so long and unbeknownst to him, the universe had apparently been conspiring to aid him in this matter, as no one else had broken the news to Sparky. "Fine, fine!" Raynor exclaimed, sounding a bit harsher than he meant.

"You were adopted. Your dad, Bob Banner, sent you through a dimensional rift and you landed here... And I followed you on through," Raynor paused, very aware that this next part was going to sound creepy and insane. "I followed you because my cousin, the goddess of love, told me you were my soulmate... And because the Norns told me I had no future left for me here, that if I didn't go, I would never make it to Valhalla."

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 9:40 AM

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Veil

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Location: The Grove
Skills: N/A

---

Esme opened her mouth, about to harshly rebuke Spark Plug that she didn't need her aid, before it dawned on the telepath again - while she had her sisters and mother's consciousness alive inside of her mind, mentally keeping them from death, they couldn't aid her in the physical work of putting on a gala. "That would be... nice," Esme said, tasting the last word like it was foreign on her tongue. Her eyes flickered over to Mister Sinister. He had promises to her family that needed to be kept. "I have business to attend to, but I'll send for you when I'm ready to begin," Esme explained. She also needed to check in on the telepathic grief support team.

Veil nodded as James explained he was going to go off, find Casper, and adopt a child. She hoped James was ready to be a parent of two, rather than just one (namely, of his boyfriend). It was sweet though, watching them create a small little family. It brought a slight smile to her face. She then turned, seeing that Magneto and Polaris were in deep conversation, whereas Sinister and Selene seemed to be bickering over fashion choices. It was such a surreal feeling, seeing all of these mutants working together - people from different backgrounds and experiences, some cast as villains and others heroes, all just working to create something together.

It occurred to Veil that that was the failure of Xavier's dream - that his dream of assimilation into human society prevented the rise of mutant cultures, that it isolated mutants from one another, rather than allowing them to come together and see what they might create. "Do you... Do you ever feel like you woke up in a different era?" Veil asked Spark Plug, referring to their missing time. "When we went to fight the X-Cutioner, we were in a world that hated and feared us, one that kept us divided... But now... Mutants have a place to call home. One for all mutants." It wasn't lost on her that the X-Men had never once visited Genosha, that the team supposedly fighting for mutant rights had seemingly shunned the mutant nation. She wondered if they had made that choice themselves - or if Professor X had made it for them.

---

Mystique and Destiny had left the Grove, going to a hidden place on the island where they could not be seen or observed.

"Before, what did you see?" Mystique asked. She knew her wife had had a vision of some sorts, as she had voted against the Hellfire Gala, cryptically claiming that it would not heal the broken land. Mystique didn't particularly care about the survival of mutants at large - she mostly enjoyed Genosha because of the amnesty offered to her. Most other countries in the world wanted to put the shapeshifter in prison.

"The birth of a goddess," Destiny replied cryptically, "a goddess of death."

"Do we survive?" Mystique asked.

"No one does."

---

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Casper & Sunshine

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Location: the Green Lagoon
Skills: Mediumship

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Casper snorted when he saw the first card was Death. People usually thought the Death card would follow him around, but it was usually the Hanged Man that chased Casper through readings, signifying being stuck in time, an uncertainty, never moving forward nor moving backwards, just frozen. He guessed that had been quite literal with his entire experience as a popsicle (did that make him a runner up Captain America? He'd love to wear a slutty outfit and toss a shield around. It seemed like fun). He didn't know much about the middle card, which he thought was the Magician, and he knew even less about the final card, Justice?

Max's intepretation was interesting. Casper leaned forward, his elbows on the table and his hands clasped together as if in prayer. "What if all I want is to be near our family and see James smile?" Casper asked Max. He didn't care where in the world he lived (well, as long as it wasn't Westchester New York), as long as the people who mattered to them were there. He liked Genosha, but he would've been equally happy anywhere, it was the people who mattered, not the place. And James was the person who mattered most of all.

"And you sure you don't want a reading Jackie?"

Marrow smirked when Echo asked if Sunshine had been this open about her feelings. "We U-hauled it," Marrow explained, little hints of mischief and remembrance sparking in her eyes. She had first met Sunshine at a fight club the younger crowd on the island had set up, where mutants could blow off some steam and a healer or two stood on by, meaning things could get ugly without anyone dying. Sunshine and Marrow's passionate fight led to a passionate night and the beginning of a relationship, one that Sunshine didn't inform her 'goody two shoes' friends about.

"You started it," Sunshine said, rolling her eyes and punching her wife playfully in the arm, careful to avoid one of the shoulder spikes. She snickered though at Zarina's explanation that she was friends with lots of people... and things! At Andy's suggestion though that Zarina was asexual, Sunshine pouted slightly, but that didn't deter her - people could still be in relationships and be ace, but she wasn't going to press on the Zari of it all too much. Maybe Andy would vibe with that one girl, Pixie. "If you are ace, that's cool - and if you want us to set you up with a girlfriend, Andy, just let me know. Playing matchmaker sounds fun."

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Runa Baldurdattir

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Location: the Woods
Skills: Asgardian Magic, Asgardian Magic Attacks

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Runa was not going to drop the invisibility. Yes, Prince Flynn could see where they were at the moment, but it didn't mean that it had to be that way. The invisibility also gave them the added benefit that their moves could not be telegraphed - Flynn had no idea what they were going to try next, whether that was throwing a dagger or casting a spell. "Just because he knows our location does not mean this spell should be broken," Runa informed her cousin sharply, although she was thankful for the mist's protection from the flames. Although, she was somewhat mystified (no pun intended) as to why Klara hadn't done more against the flames.

Runa grasped the laguz rune (water, lake) and conjured up a small puddle of water, not nearly the quantity she was looking for. She cast again and this time managed to douse some, but not all, of the flames. The steam from the sudden extinguishing was a natural camouflage for the invisible fighter and Runa now turned her attention onto Prince Flynn himself, sending a dramatic jet of water crashing into him, dampening the flames raging around his body somewhat. Runa then deftly changed her position, still keeping her aura of invisibility up around herself and Klara.

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Guin Stark

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Location: New York City Motel
Skills: Telepathy

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Lance was really starting to get on Guin's nerves. "Are you done mansplaining the situation?" Guin asked him pointedly. Sure, sometimes Annie was a bit naive and whatnot, but Guin didn't get the impression that Annie wasn't aware of any of those factors. Annie, like Guin, instantly knew that this sort of environment was predatory. Lance had the male privilege of being relatively clueless and unaware of the sorts of things that went on in places like this. It wasn't an ideal place for them to have brought Lana to, but it was better than leaving her on the street - just barely. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and figured she'd try one of the simplest options they had - see if she could get a signal. She could connect with Pietro telepathically and knew that he wasn't alone, but for the others, it might be easiest to just try calling them.

Her phone seemed to be able to connect to nearby wifi hotspots just fine, but she had 0 bars when it came to cell service. Not to be deterred, Guin quickly went and messed somewhat with a few of the settings, editing in a bit of the code and whatnot (her phone was a Stark original, of course) and voila, she had cell signal. Guin scrolled through her apps and opened up Uber - thankfully, it looked like this apocalyptic hell hole still had ride sharing apps. She booked a ride for 4 people to a nice upscale hotel, but there weren't a lot of drivers around, so it would be about half an hour or so. Guin then opened up another app on her phone and booked two hotel rooms for them. "Okay, our ride will be here in 30 min, we'll be going to my favorite hotel downtown and we have two rooms. One is for her, the other for us. Don't ask where the money came from. Annie, can you make convincing illusions to disguise us two for the trip there?"

Hey, I booked us a hotel room downtown. I kinda kidnapped someone by accident. When will you be in the city?

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 6:00 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - S.W.O.R.D. HQ, the Iron

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Stolen Ship

"Wait, wh'd'ya mean the console's alive?!" Amelia exclaimed. She looked at Celestine, before looking again at Oliver, and realizing she seemed to be the only one troubled by this information. Was she overreacting? Amelia knew that she had a tendency to emote more than other people, but still, hearing that a machine was alive wasn't great news. It was lucky Amelia hadn't been involved in the entire Ultron business, otherwise it probably would've been somewhat triggering as well.

"Yes, alive," Celestine repeated again, before rolling her eyes. "In my country..." she muttered under her breath, stopping herself before going into a cliché in Soviet Russia... moment. Her eyelids fluttered slightly and the next thing the trio would know, their ship was up in the air, moving towards the other side of the complex. The other ships began firing at the ground, as if they had seen something down there - like they were completely oblivious to the fact that they were inside the ship.

"How'd'ya do that?" Amelia exclaimed. "Without them going obviously they knicked the ship, blast it and all?"

"P.H.I.L. did it for us. I asked him nicely to take us to the others and to make sure no one followed," Celestine answered.

Compound Exit - Basically everyone now -

"Hey, um, I think... I think someone is waiting out there?" Darcy said, gesturing out the exit to where an aircraft was hovering with its boarding ramp lowered, as if waiting for the group to head on out and get inside. It very much had the vibe of an Uber just chilling, waiting for their passenger to realize they had arrived and scramble on outside for the ride.

Folly narrowed her eyes with suspicion, very much enjoying the Muramasa blades she had taken. She felt 500% cooler with them. "Are those your people?" she asked no one in particular. She had been hired to escort Raynor to safety and no one else - the Genoshan government had given her very strict instructions on that account. However, Raynor was a god. She figured he was good for the additional fees rescuing this large group would incur. She just hoped her contact in the Blue didn't mind a few extra mouths to feed for the brief layover in that wild, lawless country. She was, of course, amused with all of this talk of another her that was unhinged and violent.

"Uh..." Raynor was surprised that Sparky just... agreed with him? She never agreed with him. She was clinically unable to agree with him. If he told her the sky was blue, she would scream until her lungs bled that it was actually only an illusion and it was really brown or something. If he said that she looked pretty, she would stab him in the eyes. (Okay, maybe some of that was him thinking about some pregnancy hormone induced moments, but still... ) His wife was stubborn. Well, his almost-wife. They weren't actually married yet, as much as Raynor often thought of them as already being married.

"Anyways, we'll be traveling to the Blue. There's a pair of Genoshan ex-pats there who will provide you all with lodging until the extraction team comes to take you the rest of the way. I will expect all fees to be settled by then," Folly then said pointedly.

That got Raynor out of his own head. "Right, well... The Genoshan government will pay for everyone's passage, okay? X and Magneto can afford it." He didn't want to have to direct Folly to New Asgard to collect the funds for this. He didn't want his family knowing that he was back on Earth-257, after all of the shame he had brought to the house of Odin. At least the Genoshans owed him. And they knew what sort of monster he was. If they wanted to pay for him, then they could pay for his friends too.

Bonnie had hesitantly walked to the exit, peering her head out through the small window in the door. She could just barely make out what looked like Amelia, waving at them from the boarding ramp. She sighed in relief. Oliver and Amelia and Celestine had pulled through then - they had a way to get out of here. And a ship meant resources they could use to figure out what was going on with everyone's memories. And probably a place where they could send Sparky and Raynor off to kill each other.

"That's our ride," Bonnie confirmed, opening up the door and jogging out into the blisteringly cold morning air, climbing up the boarding ramp and into the 'borrowed' aircraft.

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 9:30 AM

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Veil

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Location: The Grove
Skills: N/A

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Quiet Council

Autumn Table:
- Magneto
- Reeva Payge
- Selene

Summer Table:
- Veil
- Caduceus
- Spark Plug

Spring Table:
- Esme Frost
- Polaris
- Moneta

Winter Table:
- Mr. Sinister*
- Mystique
- Destiny

* not actually a mutant

Votes

In Favor:
-Veil
-Spark Plug
-Selene
-Mister Sinister
-Reeva Payge
-Esme Frost
-Moneta

Opposed:
-Magneto
-Polaris
-Mystique
-Destiny

No Vote Cast:
-Caduceus

Everyone, with the exception of James, had cast their vote on the matter. No single table was united, with the votes tallying 7-4 in favor of the Hellfire Gala:

In favor...

• Selene: "Oh, this party will be to die for!"
• Mister Sinister: "I can't wait to wear my new cape and I may have a prior commitment for a date, hehehe~!"
• Reeva Payge: "Our people need hope - something to lift their spirits."
• Esme Frost: "Mum always adored the Hellfire Galas..."
• Veil
• Moneta
• Spark Plug

Opposed...

• Magneto: "Our people survived a holocaust. Dancing won't heal their bloody wounds. It is a time for strength and unity, not frivolity."
• Polaris: "A party right now feels fucked up."
• Destiny: "The gala will not heal this broken land."
• Mystique: "What can I say? Happy wife, happy life."

James' proposal was intriguing to Reeva, although Selene seemed to be captivated by thoughts of what she could wear to the event. "Caduceus, would you be willing to take the lead on coordinating the festival?" Reeva suggested. The vote on the gala would pass no matter what James voted in favor of and Reeva considered his proposal to be more or less looped into that entire event. "And Esme, would you attend to the gala itself? Plan it for a few weeks out, we want to give our people hope, not cruelty."

"How about the 22nd? The moon will be full, it'll be gorgeous out," Selene suggested. Destiny shook her head ever so slightly, the movement so subtle it was easy to miss.

"Whatever date you choose won't change how wretched an idea this is," Magneto grumbled, glaring at no one in particular.

The room, Veil had noticed, had more or less assembled into to camps - a) everyone is going through it right now, so something hopeful might be nice and b) everyone is going through it right now, so people need to feel their feelings for a while. She did like James' suggestion, finding a way to give everyone something physical to do, something to create, as its own form of therapy. The entire island was definitely doing a lot of grief counseling at the moment, as people struggled to really come to terms with such a gigantic loss. Veil didn't know whether there was really anything right for them to do - maybe some people would be helped with a gala and a festival, whereas others wouldn't.

She didn't particularly feel like dancing herself. She couldn't recall the last time she had just danced, without any worries or concerns. Ever since she had been attacked and gone to Xavier looking for new purpose, Veil had been part of the Mutant Underground, smuggling mutants towards... what? Another place where they were hated and feared? She had espoused Xavier's teachings, attempting to bring out his dream of mutants and humans living together in peace... of mutants assimilating into human culture. But they didn't need to assimilate. They didn't need to lose their identities to be peaceful.

"The 22nd I think sounds reasonable - should give everyone plenty of time to prepare and hopefully by then... well, hopefully things may not seem so grim," Reeva said. "The island's telepaths are continuing to provide private grief therapy sessions, kindly overseen by Esme. In the meantime, please do what you can for Genosha... and should you need anything, I am here for all of you."

"Lastly, Stacy X has volunteered to take care of the children orphaned in the attack. I am working closely with her to attempt to find permanent mutant families for them on the island, but if any of you wish to take a little one in, she's set up at the Hellfire Mansion."

"No thanks, Rogue was a handful," Mystique quipped.

"Caduceus," Destiny said, turning to look at him, although she was blind and he could not see her behind the mask. "Your son is waiting for you with Stacy X."

---

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Casper & Sunshine

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Location: the Green Lagoon
Skills: Mediumship

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"Well, yeah, of course I got readings all the time! Roberto and I had a deal. I would get a reading, and he would get a blowjob," Casper explained. To him, it was completely logical. Roberto had been INCREDIBLY attractive and extremely insightful. Roberto didn't even need to look at the cards in order to deduce that Casper had daddy issues and Casper couldn't fathom how he had come to that conclusion without genuine psychic powers! (Not the bad kind of psychic powers of course, like telepathy - the fun, sexy kind like being able to see the future).

"That girl, Nancy, she was better at it," Ben chimed in.

"She told you that you were going to die, Ben!"

"... Well, I did. So she wasn't wrong."

"... I guess that's fair. Huh," Casper paused for a moment, before suddenly lurching for Max's cards and beginning to shuffle them wildly. He wasn't amazing at shuffling, but he was careful not to bend any of Max's cards. "I... want... to know... if..." Casper paused, still shuffling as he struggled to come up with a question on the spot, "... James and I will live on this island forever," Casper then finished, before thinking about James and sand as hard as he could.

Casper then stopped shuffling and looked up at Jack. "Suuuure - after I get my tarot read, and then we need to ask Max to ask the cards when you're going to finally get a boyfriend!"

Meanwhile, Sunshine was bored with Zari's response - or lack thereof. However, with Andy, it seemed like her suspicions were proven correct. It was very rare for Sunshine to feel like the mature, older role model - but she saw an opportunity here to help this little queer mutant out. After all, Sunshine and Marrow considered themselves to be one of the queer power couples of Genosha. She had to assume that others saw them similarly. And with all of the horrific deaths, Sunshine was very much in the mood to focus on something silly and cute as Andy's crush. "You know, if Zari already has parents, then you're right, it doesn't count. You aren't sisters. You're friends... who could maybe make out sometimes and it wouldn't be weird or wrong or anything. It's an option."

Marrow rolled her eyes. "Leave them alone, babe."

"What? I'm just pointing out that you two have a lot of room for different relationships here since you aren't actually adopted siblings, so you could go for just friends... or spice it up a little bit and do something more. It's Genosha, you don't need to worry about people being homophobic here, and if they are, I'll kick their ass," Sunshine vowed. She had been about to threaten something much more serious, but she didn't want to think about death. She didn't want to think about Feedback and Kristina in the ground.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Praetor Tent
Skills: N/A

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---

Normally, Nancy wasn't a fan of physical contact or touch - the only physical contact she enjoyed was in a fight, and ideally, it was her knocking someone out with a good punch. But as Madalyne pulled her into a tight embrace, Nancy hugged her back like her life depended on it. She couldn't hold back the tears, crying into Madalyne's shoulder, weeping like a soldier's wife seeing her sweetheart off to war. Nancy was asexual and aromantic - but that didn't mean she couldn't love Niah and Mads as deeply as she did. She nodded, blinking rapidly in an effort to stop the tears as Mads pulled away from the hug, Nancy clutching onto Mads' hand like she was afraid to let go. "Yeah, yeah that'd be rad," Nancy sniffed.

She didn't want to sit in a room with the Greeks right now anyways. The sooner New Rome was independent and home again, the better. She bit her lip slightly, before drying her eyes on the back of her sleeve, taking breaths to try to keep the tears from coming again. She knew that Mads and Niah would both come home alright - but she was still terrified that they might not, that they would end up in a situation where they needed her and Nancy would be stuck at Camp Half-blood, helpless to save her friends.

---

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🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Iris Cabin
Skills: N/A

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---

Leda knew that logically, she had just barely made it back to the Iris Cabin in time to avoid getting caught by Coach Hedge, but that didn't stop her from having a self confident smirk on her face. Her siblings moved too quickly for Hedge to see more than a rainbow blur anyways. And even if he had gotten there before her, he didn't have any proof that she had spent the night in the Poseidon Cabin. The morning cabin check was a ridiculous and futile effort, especially when it came to a cabin full of speedsters. Leda came to a stop with her siblings, staring at Coach Hedge and mentally daring him to say anything. He left and Leda started cackling ever so slightly.

"Nah, the old sod can't get me that easy," Leda reassured her sibling. She then smiled like the Cheshire Cat as Tammy asked her how her evening was. "Do I look like the sort of slut who kisses and tells? Or..." Leda paused for dramatic effect, knowing that her sibling were dying to know what happened, "does other scandalous things that would make Aphrodite blush and tell?" she offered, hardly able to contain the glee in her eyes. "What about your evening, sis?" she asked Tammy.

What If?

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin listened to everything everyone was saying, trying not to give into the pessimistic tinge of her thoughts. They could kill Magneto and end all of this, but they had been trying to do so for ages and hadn't managed to do it. Then, if they managed to somehow stop the nuke, that didn't stop the governments of the world from sending more. Thor could potentially divert some of them into space, but every time? And even if they did kill Magneto, what stopped the government from deciding to nuke New York's mutant population anyways? She wished that she had some brilliant solution that would fix everything. As much as she claimed that she didn't care if she lived or died... Guin wanted to live. She wanted her life to go back to normal. She glanced at Pietro, contemplating something.

"We should have a contingency plan for if we don't succeed - if you all can get into the city, it stands to reason we could get Thor out. If Thor can intercept the nuke and redirect it up into space, it'll buy us some time before the next one is sent," Guin suggested. As for Edus' question, "Magneto holes up near Madison Square Garden, he controls several blocks around the place, his group is always there." They unfortunately didn't know much. Knowing more would've improved their odds of success - and everyone in the city, and the world, was counting on them to defuse this situation.

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Jade Cornish

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Jade was intrigued by the changes she saw in front of her. The Thing, Hulk, and Thor surviving wasn't the interesting factor - it was more that the Hulk seemed to have become tamed, almost civilized. She had to wonder if he had been capable of doing that all along and if the virus had simply given him the push needed to survive. Thor made a comment about the stench of death on her and Thalia and Jade opened her mouth to make a snarky comment, only for Thalia to run her mouth like she was medically incapable of not speaking. And by the time there was an opening for Jade to reply, the moment had passed. Of course, no one could see her rolling her eyes or how she had been about to speak thanks to the gas mask.

"So all you have is a location, something that could be easily ascertained from a satellite feed or a few hours of reconnaissance work?" Jade summarized, less than impressed with this group's abilities. Thalia had already managed to get them almost identical information with her quick aerial scouting earlier. No wonder these people had been so inefficient when it came to fighting Magneto. They were idiots. "I see. Then we should avoid giving your group any too complex a task, just in case it's too hard for your minds to comprehend. In fact, I think you all would be excellently suited to engage Magneto's forces, creating a diversion so Edus, Thalia, and I can sneak inside to slay Magneto. I trust you all have combative powers? If you don't, then you should stay behind and not waste our time - or your life."

🌠 Once Upon A Time 🌠(Concluded)

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Megan Pendragon

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Location: Atlantica
Skills: N/A

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Megan was a bit surprised to hear that Arthur knew what being gay was - but maybe this society wasn't completely backwards. That or he may have been merely pretending to know. He seemed to really want to do and say all the right things - something that made Megan uncomfortable. He seemed too perfect. She wanted to see his flaws, to see that he was a real person. Her paranoid mind kept wondering if there was something horrible he was hiding behind all of that perfection. But at the same time, most of her paranoia came from the fact that he was a complete stranger for her, someone she had never particularly been dying to meet. Maybe she needed a therapist to talk through all of this with.

Voices then sounded from outside of the cabin and Megan tensed. She didn't un-tense or relax either when Arthur explained that it was his wife - who Megan assumed have to the Lady Guinevere. Megan hesitated as Arthur went outside. Did she want to follow him? Or did she want a few seconds to process everything before meeting her birth mother? Did she want her birth mother to think she looked weak and overwhelmed? If anything, the most appealing option to Megan at the moment would be to run away from all of this, find Merlin, tell him he had made a mistake, and go back to her life in Kansas. Tears threatened to well up in her eyes but Megan blinked them away. She hadn't been ready for this. But she didn't want to look like a coward. She stood up and followed Arthur outside of the cabin to meet her maker.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Runa Baldurdattir

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Location: the Woods
Skills: Asgardian Magic, Asgardian Magic Attacks

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Runa had to resist the urge to kick Klara ever so slightly in the shins for sneezing. A small part of her wondered if Klara had thought it would be a funny prank, got the idea, tried not to do it, but ended up doing it anyways - her cousin did tend to have an odd sense of humor at times. Runa herself had never really been a fan of the entire trickster label, but it was something Klara very much identified with. Unfortunately, the fake Prince surrounded the trio in flames, despite Runa's efforts at concealing them. Pietro used his powers to dispel the flames, only causing the other Quicksilver to speed on over out of curiosity, and Runa's spell concealing Pietro failed.

Runa knew she had to act quickly - he was a murderous speedster after all. Runa pulled the īsaz rune and concentrated on the false Prince, encasing his lower half of his body in ice. She had wanted to turn him entirely to ice, but she figured that was close enough. The next rune that her fingers felt was wunjō, meaning joy. She attempted to cast an illusion spell using it, designed to show Quicksilver the thing he loved most in the world, in order to distract him - but it didn't work. Her fingers then grabbed the ice rune again and Runa managed to freeze one of his legs, handicapping him for the moment.

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Guin Stark

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Location: New York City Motel
Skills: Telepathy

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Guin rolled her eyes at Lance's comment about the hotel not looking great. "I know, I'm not fucking stupid," she snapped slightly. "But we can't leave her out in the street and dropping her off at home isn't an option as I'm pretty sure her friends would also try to kill Annie and I, so sketchy hotel it is." She was feeling slightly irritated, mostly as that was an easy emotion to process and understand after the images she had seen. They were in a completely different world and from what Guin was able to tell, this place was a nightmare. The sooner they got out of there, the better. She didn't want to stick around and learn more horrible things. She felt like they were stuck inside some emo kid's fanfiction AU.

Guin and Annie managed to carry Lana between the two of them, with Lance keeping them invisible with his powers. She hadn't heard anything from Pietro in a little while either and it was worrying - he was a speedster, he was usually impatient and hyper, not unresponsive and silent. The hotel itself wasn't an all too unfamiliar environment to Guin. She had stayed in places like this as a teenager, particularly when she was doing one of her many dramatic moments of running away, ditching her school and attempting to live life as someone else. She had also been battling drug addiction. The guy working the counter was... Well, Guin tried not to judge other people fighting addiction, but she was a judgmental person by nature. She raised an eyebrow, biting back some snarky comment, and instead doing a quick telepathic sweep of the hotel - nothing out of the ordinary.

"That's... not usually how these things work," Guin then said, glancing at the pills Lance had been handed. She didn't recognize them. She supposed that was a sign of progress. "I'd flush those, if I were you," she then added, before moving Lana into room 207 and getting the sleeping beauty into the bed.