Morose

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 6:20 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - S.W.O.R.D. HQ, the Iron

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Stolen Ship

"The Fantastic Who?" Darcy asked, confused by what Niah was talking about. "Is that, like, a reality show or something? Or a girl group? I've always wanted to be in a girl group..." She thought about the rest of the questions. It felt very much like she was taking a test in high school on world politics. "I dunno why she's called the Mad Queen to be honest, she just is? And yeah, Tony is the last of that line, he got sterilized when... The Avengers are sorta the enforcers in the Blue, but they're kinda like cowboys basically rather than like cops, so no, Prez Stark isn't an Avenger."

Darcy looked at Folly when it came to the rest of the question and Folly sighed. She hadn't gotten paid for anything beyond rescue and retrieval. "Genosha is the home of the world's mutant population - aside for the ex-pats and race traitors. Three of you are members of the Dark X-Men. There won't be any trouble getting you across the Genoshan border. It's the Iron's border you need to worry about. And yeah, I'm sure X would do that, you throw a rock in Genosha and you hit at least five psychics," she finished, looking at Maria.

Celestine didn't respond to Cass, when Cass asked if she could have PHIL open up the files.

"Wait, what are you all talking about?" Amelia asked, incredibly confused. "I get that we're coming to the consensus of ~Raynor should talk about this~ but like... What the hell? This seems like it's come out of nowhere?" Although, now that Amelia was thinking about it, men with really strong ties to Norse things weren't always on the up-and-up. She had met more than a few racists who were in love with Odin in her day. "I thought we agreed that this place was, like, cop paradise and thus fundamentally bad?"

She didn't know if Matt was thinking about something actually bad - a good reason for him to be the most wanted man in the Iron - but she was feeling more or less like any criminal record in this could be taken with a grain of salt. It was one of the aspects of her job that she wasn't entirely comfortable with. Amelia was a black woman employed by SHIELD, arguably, an organization of cops. Most of her day-to-day involved flying planes - there were very few days like these, where she was sent out to bring back a prisoner. Those days, she could push aside her feelings in the moment, but they always came back to her in moments of stillness.

Bonnie frowned, wondering herself what exactly had gone on with Raynor, Matt, Maria, and Flynn - those four seemed to have been more or less paired off together, she deduced, figuring they must have been in the same interrogation room. Was she surprised to learn that Raynor was the most wanted criminal here? Not really. He was aggressive and violent and rude. She was apprehensive, however, to learn the extent of what he had done - to learn about the sort of person they had on the team with them. Whatever Raynor had done was a reflection on all of them, especially if they decided to tolerate it. She knew there were several heroes who had once been villains, but they had atoned and faced their past - had Raynor?

Had he faced justice for whatever it was he had done? Had he made amends? "We can wait for Raynor and Sparky to rejoin the group," Bonnie affirmed. "I'm assuming whatever he did was deadly serious. We should all be prepared to have a discussion about what we're going to do, once we all have the information." She was prepared to hand him over to the Iron to face justice if that was what was warranted. Unlike Amelia, Bonnie wasn't uncomfortable with recovering prisoners.

She then noticed something strange. "Celestine, are you alright?"

Celestine's head was shaking to the right abruptly over and over and over again, as if she were glitching.

"Agent?"

Celestine stopped. The power to the ship was cut and they began to go into freefall. "Celestine isn't here anymore," Celestine said in a strangely clipped tone. "There is only the Iron."

---

Raynor had never felt so horribly guilty in his entire life before. And yet, there was no one he could blame besides himself. He had been the one to make these choices, he had been the one to stay silent and not explain the truth to Sparky, the woman he loved. A part of him felt that he didn't deserve her anymore, as much as that made him fall into the trope of the wretched man who could only be redeemed by the love of a pure hearted woman. Maybe it would be better if he lied to her, if he convinced her to hate him. She could go back to their daughter and he could send child-support.

He was the God of Lies - deceit and falsehoods were in his nature. He had his uncle's silver serpent tongue. Sparky's demands of honesty from him... was he even capable of being entirely truthful? Was that within his nature?

"You want the truth?" Raynor finally said, his voice deadly quiet. "I'm the God of Lies. The truth is like poison on my tongue. I've never said a true word to you before now, Lana Bannerdattir. I pretended to be a hero because I thought it would be funny. I wish I could take credit for all the misery and misfortune that's happened, but I can't. I was the one, though, who whispered to the Black Order of Thanos' bastard son, stranded on Midgard. I was the one who convinced the Skrulls that this pathetic blue rock was their promised land. I'm a monster. I've killed because I was bored. I'm the most bloodied warrior on this world, in this time. Does that scare you, Lana? No one will believe you if you say anything. That's my power. I can make you believe any lie, but I want you to know the truth because it's fun."

His heart was breaking. But this was for the best. He'd find enough magic to send her home, he'd make sure that she and Zarina were well cared for, and he would get what he deserved - nothing, nothing at all.

And to make matters worse, the engines in the plane suddenly stopped and they started to rapidly descend! Raynor reflexively pulled Sparky into his arms, using his body as a shield, doing what he could to protect her.

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 9:50 AM

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Veil

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Location: The Grove
Skills: N/A

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"I think we can go meet with the others, and then see if there's anything useful we can do," Veil suggested to Spark Plug. She imagined the others would be at least interested to know that James, Callie, and Veil had been made part of the Quiet Council, the ruling body of Genosha. Veil could've approached the opportunity with cynicism, but she had bought into the promise of Genosha - of a place where mutants could build each other up and work together to do great things. But at the same time, she had to try to push down and bury the fear that a massacre or a great tragedy could happen again - one that the island may not be able to survive.

She knew that the others would be at the Green Lagoon and Veil quickly realized that James was headed in that direction as well, but she didn't run to catch up to him. She figured Callie and her could go at a slower, more leisurely pace. She started walking to the Green Lagoon, going in sync with her friend. Her mind kept tossing and turning between ideas, almost all of them revolving around their new home. There was another subject she wanted to hear Spark Plug's thoughts on and she figured as they headed back, now was as good a time as any. "What're your thoughts on the X-Men having never come to Genosha?"

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Casper & Sunshine

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Location: the Green Lagoon
Skills: Mediumship

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Casper playfully tried to bite Max's finger after Max booped him on the nose. Ben rolled his eyes at Casper's antics, although the ghoul was having fun. He was getting to hear Dazzler sing and watch his friends be idiots - for a ghost, there wasn't much more that he could ask for. Well, aside from asking to be brought back to life, but he doubted that was going to happen anytime soon. Only the X-Men got to come back from the dead on the regular - and Jack, apparently. "No one else on the island can do tarot? Huh, I would've thought Selene might know how - she seems the type. It's a French thing and she's got that vague European appearance to her, with all the magicky type stuff. Do you think the Scarlet Witch can do tarot? She's European - Jackie, I know you hate tarot, but who else do you think could do it on the island?" Casper rambled.

He then stuck his head up, hearing Echo mention his name and something about boundaries. "What did I do this time?" Casper shouted. "If I was drunk, then I bet I was the life of the party, but tell me about these boundaries and... I'm assuming I broke them? I do tend to break things. You should ask my maman, I broke so many lamps growing up. And most of her heels. Those things snap sooo easily and you can't actually turn them into flats, fun fact..."

"Nothing, dumb-dumb," Sunshine answered Casper. She snorted a little bit at Echo's request for her to matchmake him. She knew that he had been with a woman at one point, but she couldn't see him with any of the women on the island. That left the men and others for her to work with. She drummed her fingers on the table, thinking for a bit. "Actually, you should hook up with Northstar. He's French-Canadian like you, might be a little boyfriend-twin but that's fine, and he's an asshole. He's also a twin."

"I thought he was dating Kyle?" Marrow raised.

Sunshine shrugged. "I heard they broke up, Kyle didn't want to move to Genosha. But whatever. His loss. Also, Northstar can do way better than a flatscan anyways."

"Hmm, you're right - he'd be much better on the Real Housewives of Genosha if he's single," Marrow agreed. A bunch of the queer mutants had been campaigning to get the Quiet Council to approve a Bravo show. So far, it was all just fan-casting at the moment as to who would be on it, but Northstar was a popular pick.

When Zari asked what it meant to be ace, Sunshine had to stifle some giggles. She had only learned about asexuality a few months ago herself, but she certainly wasn't going to let anyone here realize that. Andy gave a far more thorough explanation that Sunshine herself would have, and she watched Zari with interest, wondering if the baby-queer was about to hatch from her egg.

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Hellfire Manor...

Stacy X was one of the many non human passing mutants on Genosha. Prior to relocating to the island, she had been a sex worker in a mutant brothel called X-Ranch, where she used her pheromone powers to service her clients. Now, in the Hellfire Manor and currently trying to take care of all these children, Stacy X was using her pheromone control to get some goddamn peace and quiet, putting the babies down for a nap.

"No, I have everything entirely under control," Stacy X replied, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I could use a fucking extra set of hands - or twenty. Find it real hard to believe I'm the only one on this island who gives a shit about these kids - and you, I guess, unless you're here to look and have a laugh?" Stacy X asked, crossing her arms. Her body had portions that seemed to be more like snake-skin than human skin. "If that's the case, then you can go fuck yourself. But if you're actually here to help, then it smells like it's diaper duty time."

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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Nancy walked with her best friends to the dining pavilion, as much as she didn't want to show her face to other people. She was feeling so vulnerable and afraid, and she couldn't afford for anyone aside from Niah and Mads to see her like that. The only other person she'd consider let seeing the cracks in her facade was her half-brother, Zeke, but she hadn't spoken to him since the explosion last night at the arena. Her pride was preventing her from wanting to see him, just as it was influencing her decision to want to withdraw the Legion from Camp Half-blood. She didn't want to be around these Greeks anymore, she wanted to fix New Rome and save her friends. She had almost forgotten about how Chiron wanted a Greek representative to stay with the Roman Senate and she groaned internally. She'd rather gag herself with a spoon.

She didn't feel much like eating either when they reached the pavilion, but Nancy piled up her plate - she figured Joanie would eat the food if she didn't. She noticed Niah take a seat down and Nancy kept her face guarded, but on the inside she just felt embarrassed. She thought they were going to eat together in private, but maybe that was just what Nancy wanted, and not what Niah wanted? Nancy's emotions were all over the place. Thankfully, Mads communicated that it was time to go back, and Nancy felt relieved and guilty. "Yeah, if that's what you two want to do," Nancy said, doing her best to sound nonchalant and casual about it all.

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🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Iris Cabin -> Dining Pavilion
Skills: Superspeed

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"Hmm, not sure if meeting Aphrodite would be a good thing - she's a heartbreaker," Leda mused. It wasn't that she didn't respect the goddess of love and beauty and laughter - she did, in the same way Leda respected all of the gods as she enjoyed not being smited. It was more that whenever Aphrodite showed up, it didn't tend to mean ~yay, this is a stable and secure relationship!~ She was an omen of relationship drama. And while Leda's feelings for Kiera had started out as just a crush at first, their relationship had really blossomed into something sweet and precious, and Leda didn't want to risk messing it up. Especially not now when they were going to get their first trip together (with the caveat that they'd have to watch out for Arthur too).

"Alright, mate, you're on!" Leda grinned, excited for the brief chance to stretch her legs, although from here it would only take a few seconds to get to the dining pavilion. One of these days they ought to have a proper Iris/Hermes Cabin race, with a track that would take them all at least a few minutes to cover. Leda then went off at a sprint, running in all of her rainbow power glory from the cabin all the way into the dining pavilion, speeding on through and only stopping to grab herself a plate and begin to pile it high with food.

🌠 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 did not like hugs. On the list of things she loved were skulls and spiders and arsenic and coffee and scream queens. At the top of things she disliked? Hugs and ordinary non-creepy children. Hugs felt like someone was trying to smoother her in a blanket made out of rainbows, sunshine, and sugar. She would have appreciated the attempted murder in any other context, but here? It made Megan tense up, her entire body screaming against this violation of her nature. She was dark and mysterious and creepy and odd and funny - she wasn't touchy-feely by any means. By the time Guinevere stepped away and made a comment about how big Megan had gotten, Megan felt like she had just survived a near death experience. Two unsolicited hugs from strangers in one day.

"I... Yes. The alternative would be being dead," Megan replied to Guinevere. "Child burial options can be strange. During my residency, I heard about a family who bought a custom Spongebob urn for their child. It was horrific. Imagine spending your afterlife with that... that thing." Megan didn't know why she was saying this. All she knew was that she couldn't stand the silence and she didn't know what to say to Guinevere, so speaking about burial urns for children was apparently what her mind had settled on. Her eyes darted around the scenery, as if daring another biological relative of hers to appear and hug her.

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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"A touch," Runa answered Klara, glad to see her cousin contributing towards them winning this fight. The fiery one had been more or less handled, so now they had a new problem presenting itself - the Quicksilvers were practically identical. Runa sighed. If Pietro had been more adventuresome in his outfits, then they wouldn't have this sort of problem. She made a mental note to drag him shopping with her once they had a chance, perhaps in Shi'Ar space - the Shi'Ar always had the best looks. "Hold on, I've got this."

Runa concentrated, divining the identities of the Quicksilvers through her mannaz (man) rune. The answer then came to her in a moment - the one with the lighter shirt. She then decided the best thing to do would be to color code them. Using the gebō (gift) rune, Runa transformed the outfit of the other Quicksilver into traditional Midgardian superhero garb - a blue outfit with a white lightning streak across the chest, with matching white gloves and boots. "There, the one in blue is the wrong Pietro," Runa exclaimed to Klara, before casting a spell that she heard was quite popular on Midgard and seemed quite appropriate for the situation - fireball.

She scorched the false Quicksilver, knocking him to the ground. He (and his new outfit) had a decent amount of burns.

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Guin Stark

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Location: New York City Motel
Skills: Telepathy, Telepathic Battle Meditation

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Guin was happy to see that Annie was pretty capable and confident in her skills when it came to casting illusions. She was used to working with Lance on things, but honestly, Guin was vibing pretty well with Annie at the moment. It was probably mostly because Annie didn't have her head up her ass. She had half a mind to use her powers on Lance to knock him out as well, he was acting like a brat. She watched as he walked over to one of the vents and pulled out a baggie of pills. For a brief moment, she was tempted to go take the bag from him and take a few of the pills for herself. But the moment passed.

Blue and red lights flooded the room, as sirens sounded off from nearby. The cops had arrived. Guin didn't know if the cops were there for them specifically or if this was some sort of raid on the motel - which, given the character of the receptionist, wouldn't have been all too surprising to her. They couldn't leave Lana though to the mercy of the cops - Guin didn't trust the police, especially not with an unconscious mutant girl. Annie gave a plan, whereas Lance decided to double down on being an absolute dick. Guin was really tempted now to knock him out too. "I'll assist you, Annie," Guin said, not acknowledging anything Lance had said, knowing that he was likely just looking for a fight. She used her powers two-fold with great success: 1) using her telepathic battle meditation technique, she boosted her allies' powers and 2) using her own telepathy, she added telepathic layers to Annie's illusions, reaching directly into people's minds.

I'm going to kill Lance. Your situation sounds frustrating. Hopefully the cops don't kill us before you get here.

....One, why do you want to kill Lance? And two, that didn't really answer my question of is it annoying to fight me or whatever? Cause I really want to know the answer to that.

I mean, yes? But it was also really hot.

Ok then... Now back to why do you want to kill Lance?

He's being a major dick. And keeps picking up drugs like they're candy.

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.

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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

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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.

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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.