Morose

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Beach
Skills: N/A

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Niah witnessed her oath - and guilt flooded Nancy for a moment. She had made an oath on the River Styx impulsively, forgetting that her friend would need to seal it - that Niah couldn't help but seal it - another curse masquerading as a gift from the gods. Nancy had sworn on the River Styx as in that moment, she couldn't deal with the thought of living in a world where they lost - if that were to happen, she would gladly face the wrath of the Styx, as it would be nothing compared to the wrath Nancy would inflict upon herself. She felt the pressure of Niah's forehead up against her back. Nancy hoped that Niah understood.

Mads echoed her sentiments, in a less dramatic way, and then said that they needed to get back - that the others would be waiting for them. Nancy didn't want to move. She didn't want to leave this beach, this moment where she had her two best friends. She didn't want to face other people. She didn't want to think about the horrific prophecy she had witnessed - she didn't want to tell others what it had involved. She didn't want to send people to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. But... There was one person that Nancy could somewhat stomach the idea of relaying the prophecy to.

"I'll stay here for a little longer," Nancy finally said. "You two go back. And when you do... Have someone send Zeke Kel here. Tell him I have a prophecy for him."

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🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Dining Pavilion -> the Arena
Skills: Superspeed

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After Kiera's goodbye-for-now kiss, Leda was surprised to hear someone coming up to her. It was someone she didn't immediately recognize, before it clicked into place in her mind - this was one of Mr. D's kids. "Yeah, that's me, luv," Leda answered. She was blanking on the boy's name. The more she looked at his curly hair, the more she pictured Mr. D as a stylized cherub - which meant that the familial resemblance was more or less there, as expected. She tilted her head for a moment, considering his offer for a sparring session. Ordinarily, she would've said no - the quest was bound to start any minute, after all...

... But she wasn't exactly inspired by the speed at which the counselors' meeting would go. "Eh, why not, could use a bout," Leda answered. She then scooped up Cassian and ran with him over to the arena, but he must have been heavier than she was expecting or something, as she was feeling winded when they got there and she typically didn't after speeding someone off from point A to point B. She set him down at the arena. "Give me a mo'," she requested, catching her breath. She then tugged on her necklace, pulling it off, and it transformed into her celestial bronze sword that glowed with colors to match her mood - right now it was a nice, bored shade of white - Ultraviolet. "Alrighty then, when you're ready, mate."

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Runa Baldurdattir & Guin Stark

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Location: New York City Defenders HQ
Skills: Darkness Manipulation

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Guin was very much thankful for Pietro's speed, as Banner came into the room, saw the pair of them, and instantly transformed into the rampaging Hulk. What she would have given for a convenient set of Hulkbuster armor at the moment, however... Pietro could dodge, but offensive tactics weren't going to be very effective against the green rage monster. She did remember, however, that the Hulk was weak to magic. "Would one of the wizards PLEASE stop him from killing us? Thank you!" Guin shouted. The Hulk was basically immune to telepathy, meaning that she couldn't hop inside of his head and take him down, or force him to see sense.

Runa pulled herself away from the small Asgardian reunion. She was one of the wizards after all - and a goddess, making her more than qualified to deal with the Hulk. She could survive a blow from him when others could not. "Banner, whatever quarrel you have with these two, they are not your enemies. We come from a different world. They are not the people you think they are," Runa cautioned.

The Hulk didn't seem very convinced and Runa sighed. She didn't want to fight the Hulk. But she would, if that was what was needed to protect her friends - they were from her world, and this Hulk was not. Lance had crafted a wall of light to protect Guinevere and Pietro from the Hulk, so Runa concentrated her magics and crafted a wall of darkness to reinforce Lance's barrier, the two opposing forces standing ready to fight the Hulk.

"... I guess that works, but now we can't see out, hooray," Guin grumbled. The darkness layer that she assumed Runa had put up against Lance's light wall, was, well, dark. And kept her from getting a clean view of the Hulk. She could try to use telepathy to see through the eyes of others, but she wasn't very practiced at that. Whenever she had tried in the past, she ended up being severely motion sick.

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 10:50 AM

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Veil & Casper & Sunshine

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Location: Various
Skills: Mediumship

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The Green Lagoon...

"Oh," Sunshine said, when Echo explained the reasons for liking Harry better. "Well, flatscan names are still dumb... I guess yours is fine or whatever," she said with a shrug. It was pretty much the closest she would get to walking back what she had said. She didn't usually express positive feelings or emotions in words, but she did care about Echo - at least as much as she had cared about Fred the Rat, her long lost best friend.

"Yeah, imagine naming your kid Electra," Marrow teased.

"Hey!" Sunshine protested. "As flatscan names go, it's not as bad as, like, Bob or whatever... Or Sarah." she giggled. Marrow rolled her eyes at her wife, before kissing Sunshine on the forehead and downing her own drink, while Sunshine began to sip hers.

"I do? Oh! I do," Legion said with a laugh, looking at his clothes. "Is it concerning if I admit I have no idea how I ended up like this?" Legion then asked. "Did I look like this last time you saw me? The last thing I remember was.... what's today? It was a Tuesday last I remember."

Hellfire Manor...

"Well, duh," Mongoose told Moneta, giggling. "I'm the scariest sea witch alive! I have to be impressive or people won't love me." She then broke out into a huge grin, revealing some gaps in her teeth from where baby teeth had fallen out and new ones hadn't quite come in properly yet.

"Do you know how to handle a baby? Like... how do we feed it? We don't have boobs. Do we just... borrow milk from someone? Oh, duh, there has to be milk at the.... store? Wait, we don't have stores here really. Is there a baby milk line somewhere on the island?" Casper inquired. Food tended to be served at the Lagoon and then in other random locations on the island. James, as he was the type to pay attention to things when Casper didn't, would know that the hospital distributed formula and whatnot to parents who needed it for their babies for whatever reason.

Casper had wandered over with James to the cribs, and he peered down into them. There was a decent selection/assortment/whatever of babies there to choose from - a fact that made him actually tear up slightly. All of the trauma from the attack had been a lot on the island, but seeing these little babies, all alone because of it... It really struck him in a moment when he hadn't been expecting it. "Can we adopt all of them?" Casper asked James, sniffling a bit."It's so sad..."

Outside the Green Lagoon...

Internally, Magneto was a bit relieved when Andy came over and said Valkyrie would be joining them - he held nothing against Stretch, but Stretch wasn't saying anything particularly engaging. Magneto had expected more from him - after all, he was Renegade's son. And Renegade was anything but lukewarm when it came to an interaction. "Ah good. I'm glad you'll be coming with us, Valkyrie. Stretch, I am afraid we must be off - we have important business to attend to," Magneto said, before offering a hand to each Valkyrie and Andy if they wished to hold his hand, before sweeping out of the Green Lagoon and heading in the direction of the rebuilt House of M. The House of M didn't have any non-metallic furniture in it at the moment, but it was at least functional.

"I need a favor of you, my boy," a voice then whispered into Jack's head.

Max's Room...

Veil winced slightly as Max turned on the spirit box - it was essentially screeching what sounded like random static at them and she covered her ears. "I can see why Casper's mutant name is after this thing," Veil quipped. It reminded her of really bad, screech-y techno music. She couldn't help but wonder if it hurt the spirit's ears just as much as it hurt hers - or was it somehow softened in the afterlife? Was there some sort of audial distortion?

The pitch of the box changed for a brief moment, becoming a lower sound, before going back to its normal horrible screeches. "... Was that you, Ben?" Veil asked, uncovering her ears ever so slightly, before covering them up again. This thing was really getting on her nerves, but it sounded like something had tried to come through for a brief moment there - or maybe it had been her imagination entirely. It was too bad Casper wasn't there to communicate with Ben, but at the same time, Veil did wonder if Casper was always a reliable translator.

"I'm here," the spirit box said. It was hard to say if the voice sounded like Ben's or not. The screeching static then resumed, before the tail end of a sentence came through, "Sinister."

"...Is there any way you can make this easier on him? Clearer, maybe?" Veil asked Max.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 7:20 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - the Iron

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Stolen Ship

"I mean, yeah fires are generally a no-no inside a ship like this, buuut I think I'll make an exception for stopping us from all being turned into the Borg, as that would ruin the vibes," Amelia said. She liked having free will and autonomy. She didn't know how this sort of thing spread - if it was just limited to computer people and things - but she didn't wanna risk it. The thought that her will and thoughts would be taken away from her was just too much. Every fiber of her being wanted to be free at all times, to soar higher and higher.

"I don't think it can spread through anything beyond, like, signals - so if none of you have a computer brain, then you should be fine," Darcy said, thought she seemed uncertain even as she said it.

"Tell that to Candy Southern," Folly snorted darkly. "All she ever did was love a mutant, she didn't have powers or anything, and it took her."

"I'm not the one who did this!" Darcy protested. "Don't shoot the messenger, geez..." She paused, before nodding hopefully at what Matt said. "I think so? Maybe. It probably depends on whether machines are considered alive."

"We should still destroy it to be safe," Bonnie argued. She couldn't afford to think of Celestine as a person right now - whatever the thing was, whatever the Phalanx was, it wasn't human. The talk of machine gods did intrigue her, mostly as Bonnie had realized she had been given the powers of an avatar of Athena, an ancient Greek god. They already knew that the Norse gods were real, but what else? It seemed like each day, more and more insane things were turning out to be true - the impossible was possible all along. If there were machine gods out there, what else was waiting around the corner that even human consciousness couldn't comprehend?

Thankfully, Flynn did just that and Bonnie relaxed slightly. If she was being honest, they didn't really have the time to worry about machine gods and everything going on in the Iron. This wasn't their world - these weren't their people. They needed to find a way to get back home, back to where they belonged. She hoped that everything here would just live on as a chilling nightmare, a cautionary tale as to what certain people they knew could be pushed to do if things went too far. And of course, their time here had illuminated who Raynor really was - that he couldn't be trusted - that he didn't deserve to be an agent of SHIELD.

"Are you all done interrogating me?" Raynor asked, breaking the momentary silence. Flynn had asked what they were going to do with the rest of the time they were in flight - and it seemed like they still had a little ways to go. To be honest, he was hoping they'd touch down sooner rather than later. At least some Genoshan ex-pats probably wouldn't treat him like he was the devil. He hadn't missed the way Sparky had said that they weren't married, with what felt like venom in her words - but it was good. The further away from him she was here, the better...

"Who exactly are we meeting, Folly?" Raynor then asked. Most of the people he had known and worked with back in the day were a little older now, so it was entirely possible that he didn't know their contacts.

"They're old friends of yours, Ragnarok... Destiny and Mystique," Folly answered.

🌠 Once Upon A Time 🌠(Concluded)

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Megan Pendragon

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Location: Atlantica
Skills: N/A

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Now Arthur had said something that caught Megan's interest, professionally speaking - he and Guinevere had faked their deaths. How? Did they use some sort of sleeping draught that looked like poison, allowing their bodies to be tossed? Did they find corpses that looked close enough to them and dress them in their clothes? Did they supposedly die inside of a burning building, the flames removing any trace of them except for a left behind ring with the seal of Camelot upon it? Megan's mind hadn't been spinning over potential methods of faking one's death this much since BBC Sherlock had been on air.

Megan climbed into the carriage, the last one inside. She didn't want to be responsible for these people being enslaved by Hook and his men, so she didn't dawdle. However, that didn't mean her mind had moved on from the interesting question of how King Arthur would fake his death. How had excalibur ended up where it had? "How did you fake your death? Did you plan it out in advance or was it just blind luck? Is that how you lost excalibur?" Megan pressed. "Are your graves empty or are there corpses of someone else in there?"

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Beach
Skills: N/A

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Nancy shook her head. She didn't want to drag Niah down with her. Niah needed to go and live her life, she didn't need to experience the wrath of some asshole gods. The same was true for Mads - Nancy was still holding out hope that Apollo would return with a cure for Mads. Mads giving the middle finger to the god of prophecy probably wasn't a recipe for success. As Mads pulled her into a tight hug and reminded Nancy of her curse, Nancy's mind only became more determined. She couldn't let her friends sacrifice their lives for her. But she also couldn't go to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Both options were impossible - they couldn't go and she couldn't go, but someone had to... And unfortunately, the prophecy hadn't shown Niah or Mads there. Nancy had witnessed things through her own eyes and assumed that the prophecy meant that she would have to go.

"No," Nancy sniffled, even as her body was shaking. "You're both going to go do your quests. You're going to survive and bring glory to New Rome. And we're going to save you, Mads," Nancy said. "I swear it on the River Styx, we're going to win." She paused. Even as she held onto Mads like a lifeline, Nancy could feel the distance space and time would impose on them, one way or another. "I'll find another way for myself. I'll... I won't go back there. They can't make me. But you both have to go on these quests. There isn't a choice to be made there except for you to go."

"Maybe I can appeal to Lady Diana... If it means leaving New Rome for the Hunt now, then so be it." Even as she said that though, Nancy was filled with guilt. She didn't want to abandon her people - or see her friends go into that horrible, monstrous Hotel on her behalf.

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🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Dining Pavilion
Skills: N/A

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Leda groaned slightly, realizing that Kiera had to go that meeting. She really wanted to get going on their quest, but Arthur had to participate in it as well. She couldn't help but be a little impatient and fidgety - it was the pre-quest excitement and nerves. "Fiiiiine," Leda sulked. "I s'pose you're right and you have to go natter away about what poor sap has to hang with the Romans," Leda admitted. She wasn't the head counselor for the Iris Cabin, so Leda didn't share that responsibility. And as they had already gone to the camp store, Leda didn't have any supplies that she needed to grab. She was already to go and she was dreading how long Kiera and Arthur's meeting might take.

"I'll walk over there with ya, and then find something to do. Maybe I'll throw some rocks at the water or something, dunno." Maybe she could read? But she didn't want to get too into a book at the moment - she tended to binge read rather than slowly pace herself, so starting just to stop less than an hour or so later would be irritating. Maybe she could bother her siblings? But she didn't really feel like that either - she talked to them all the time.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Runa Baldurdattir & Guin Stark

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Location: New York City Defenders HQ
Skills: N/A

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"Kinda fatphobic of you," Guin commented, not exactly happy with Pietro saying that Thor looked dead. He seemed alive to her - just not the same Thor that they had known before. But she didn't go further than that with the gentle um, maybe rephrase she had more or less given her husband. Her mind was still swimming slightly with information she had learned about this world - and it stung in particular when Annie wondered what their counterparts were like, with a whimsical manner to it. Everything here seemed horrible. She didn't even know what to make of Lance having a twin sister - and one of them had apparently died and the other been abducted into a cult. Guin knew which one had died though. She knew it as if she had been the one to experience it.

Strange had left the room though. She knew this was information that Annie and the others would want to hear. Guin sighed a bit. "So, our counterparts - at least, our meaning me and Pietro, they're kinda fucked up. Like not great people, nightmare scenario, the works. I think... I think I'm the reason Lance is dead in this world. Or was dead," Guin said. "For your sake, Ann, I hope that your counterpart is better... But ours don't even qualify for a classic become-an-Avenger-and-leave-your-criminal-past-behind redemption arc."

Meanwhile, Runa was focused more on what had once been the Prince of Asgard, the Mighty Thor. Strange had told them that Thor had more or less been exiled from Asgard, likely due to one of Loki's tricks. Runa's heart ached for him. She knew how much he adored his family and his people, even if he did spend much of his time on Midgard. The Bifrost made it so the distance between the two realms was really not that great. "We come from another universe on Yggdrasil's branches. We are not the Klara and Runa that you know, but... We are family all the same," Runa said.

She wanted to reassure this Thor and ensure that he was on their side. She didn't want him thinking of them as strangers or threats or foes - but instead, as family that he needed to help and protect. Clearly the years had not been kind to him, she had never seen the Mighty Prince of Asgard like this before, and she felt an urge to protect him. She saw much of her own sadness and grief that she used to wear like shackles in him.

What If?

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Jade Cornish

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Jade nodded, listening to the plan that Thalia had relayed to them. It wasn't too horrible - perhaps even passable. The main concern she had was these people didn't seem to know what they were doing, and prematurely alerting Magneto to their intentions could be catastrophic. They couldn't sit around and do nothing though. Jade just had to hope that these people could be quiet and do recon properly. The not-so-subtle speedster at least wouldn't be probing Magneto's lines with them, so that gave them a bit of a chance, and the loudmouth ginger also wouldn't be joining them. Maybe this would work. "Lovely," Jade said, her words relatively clipped. "Perhaps this won't be a complete disaster."

Jade went with the small group that was doing recon, heading out of the tunnels. Cassandra, one of the older members, volunteered to go with her. Jade sized her up for a moment. It was better than taking the actual child with her. "Fine, suppose us ex-pats ought to stick together," Jade said, joking ever so slightly at the end - as she knew that Cassandra was also British, just on the basis of Cass' accent alone. "I'd advise against shouting. We can communicate using the devices Jakobsen sent us in with. Shouting might ruin any element of surprise we'd hope to keep."

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin nodded slightly, knowing that Pietro was trying to cheer her up and stay positive - and she appreciated it, she really did - but sometimes everything that had happened would just weigh on her, feeling like all of the trauma and tragedy was going to just bury her alive. She didn't even think about what she would do when all of this was over - she didn't plan to have a future as she was suffocating over her past. She didn't really get to open up about that though, as the silver lady broke up the conversation. Pietro said that he would see her later and he gave her a kiss, before rushing off. "... Bye, babe," Guin said quietly. He was gone now and Guin tried to mentally give herself a little shake, just to get out of this bad headspace, so she could have her head back in the game.

Her group was heading out of the tunnels now and Guin went with them. It was a little easier to shake her depressive mood, mostly as Jade had come back and the British woman's every word made Guin want to gag. It was like watching BBC Sherlock all over again, fully aware of all the horrible queer-baiting and that the show would only get a little worse each year. "So many fucking Brits here," Guin said, shaking her head slightly. "Guess we should get started then. Pip pip cheerio god save the queen and all that nonsense."

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 10:40 AM

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Veil & Casper & Sunshine

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Location: Various
Skills: Mediumship

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The Green Lagoon...

Sunshine sniffled slightly, but nodded at Echo's advice. "I guess," she said noncommittally. "Maybe you don't completely suck at giving advice," she then added, a genuine Sunshine sort-of-compliment. She rubbed her eyes dry on the back of her sleeve, having teared up a bit throughout the conversation. She just wanted to live in a world where they didn't have to hurt all of the time - something she thought was possible on Genosha. But it seemed like no matter where they went, mutants would always be hunted - they would always be struggling to survive in a world where they were hated and feared.

Marrow returned with the drinks, but she wasn't the only one to come on over. Legion had popped up as well. Legion slid into a seat next to Echo and grinned at him. "Hey Harry." Legion's shirt was torn up and covered in dirt, looking like he had crawled through a bunch of blackberry bushes on the way over. His jeans were distressed (hard to tell if they had been when he bought them or if he had ripped them up recently) and also had a fine coating of dirt on them.

"Here you go, babes. And yours," Marrow said, sliding a drink to Sunshine and then Echo's drink on over to him. Marrow then took a seat next to her wife, putting an arm around Sunshine and pulling her in closely. Even though they hadn't known each other very long, she could tell when Sunshine was hurting.

"I forgot your name was Harry," Sunshine said, wrinkling her nose. "Flatscan names are so fucking ugly."

Hellfire Manor...

Mongoose started counting her fingers, before triumphantly coming up with her age to tell Moneta. "I'm one thousand!" she cried out. She then help up her fingers, showing what her actual age was (@Blue, you get to decide how many fingers she's holding up). "I'm an old sea witch and I'm going to rule this world!"

Stacy X chuckled a little bit at James asking about paperwork and forms. "Honestly, as long as you aren't a creep and the kid seems to like you, you can just take them and go. I'll jot down your name next to theirs in this," Stacy then paused, holding up a spiral bound notebook with a suspicious stain on the cover, "aaand that's pretty much it. There aren't any Genoshan laws on adoption."

"Is that... blood? Or really weird looking coffee?" Casper couldn't help but ask, before shaking his head slightly. "Wait, no, I know! That's liquid cotton candy. Classic. That stuff is surprisingly good at stains, I had a friend once who used it to dye their hair on the regular, ooo, James, we should dye my hair! That'd be cute right? Maybe pink tips? Or stripes? Can you do stripes in hair? Wait, sorry, focus Casper, we're here to get a baby - or a kid - is there one you were leaning towards?" Casper rambled, in classic Casper fashion.

"Just take a look around, meet-and-greet with the kids, though if I'd had to bet, it looks like Moneta is going to take Mongoose home, so she's spoken for - the rest... sadly, aren't."

Casper then looked at James. There were kids in cribs - the babies. And then some little kids playing with toys and whatnot. It looked like the oldest kid present there was about 12 years old, maybe 13. The older kids probably were just a little too old for this sort of makeshift orphanage set-up - teens tended to be pretty free-range on Genosha, allowed to do as they liked and pleased. "Soooo which ones speak to you, James-y?" Casper asked.

Outside the Green Lagoon...

Magneto raised an eyebrow. He hadn't anticipating for Jack to be a man of so few words. "How have you been taking to Genosha?" Magneto asked. "The recent tragedy I hope has not shaken your faith in this great work." Magneto was privately hoping that Andy would come back shortly. His mind was fixated largely on the idea of reforming the Brotherhood of Mutants here on Genosha. The more he thought about it, the more intoxicating it became. Strength was what they needed to survive - and Magneto would cultivate it however he could.

Max's Room...

Veil pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment, thinking on everything Max had said. For the most part, she was in total agreement with him. "If Sinister is using Jack as a pawn... then a pawn for what?" Veil posed. Max had floated the idea that it was to get close to Sunshine, but that line of thought didn't ring true to her. It didn't seem right. She had no idea why Sinister would want to go after her, especially given that he now was in a position of power on Genosha, unfortunately. "He's on the Quiet Council now as well - he's at his most powerful. Maybe... Maybe he resurrected Jack to get leverage on someone. Jack's mother? She's got ties to powerful mutants."

"You could try talking to Renegade, she actually might know something," Ben voiced, before sighing. "What's the fucking point of me actually saying anything right now? This is EXACTLY what it's like when Casper's done so many stupid drugs that his powers won't work. I'm stuck, in this in-between, and no one can hear me! Gah!" Ben punched the wall behind him for dramatic effect, but of course, his hand just harmlessly passed through.

"I agree on it being risky for Ben though - we were lucky we weren't caught when we went to Bar Sinister and did some investigating," Veil said. She nodded a bit. Pixie seemed like someone they could probably trust, even if her pure black eyes were mildly unnerving at times. Selene rubbing Max the wrong way - that also made sense. Selene seemed pretty dramatic. "As for visiting his grave... I think you'd need to ask Ben that... Is Ben here with us right now?"

"Does it even matter if I'm here?" Ben sulked.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 7:10 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - the Iron

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Stolen Ship

Bonnie's stomach had gradually begun to calm down, allowing her to focus on Raynor's admission of what he had done in this world. She noted that he left out concrete details, leaving it up to them to imagine the extent of what he had done there. Because of this, it wasn't surprising to her that no one voiced opposition to continuing to work with him - that everyone seemed fine with it, willing to forgive and forget. But despite being a good Catholic girl, Bonnie didn't necessarily believe in redemption. Or at least, not in Raynor's redemption.

But they needed him. They were in a strange world they couldn't navigate. For now, Bonnie decided to go along with things - to work with the God of Lies. But once they had a way to get home, that was when she'd voice her objections to him continuing to be a part of their team. Besides, they had more pressing concerns - that being that everyone seemed convince that Celestine had been assimilated or something along those lines. Niah (and Niah's leg) seemed terrified. "Flynn, could you destroy the body?" Bonnie asked. Fire ought to do the trick.

Amelia didn't know what to focus on - two incredibly interesting but disturbing things were happening at once. One, Raynor had confessed to having a dark and mysterious past, one that seemed to have involved probably killing a lot of innocent people. She didn't know what Ragnarok really involved or whatever, but it sounded like Norse god stuff, and not really something that the Iron was responsible for. But on the other hand, apparently Celestine was going to be guest starring in Star Trek, as she turned into some sort of creepy cyborg thing? Or would have continued turning into it, if she hadn't been killed by Folly's blade.

"Oh boy, there's a lot to unpack here. Ray-Ray, we obviously can't forgive you for what you did, but the past is the past and I'm sure you're a smashing dad and husband and you've saved the world, so you're all good by me - just maybe try not to relapse and go evil again? We love a redemption arc, but we don't gotta see it again," Amelia rambled. "And the Borg? How the hell did that happen to Celestine? She was, like, totally normal when we got here - or do you think she maybe got infected a while ago? How long does the infection take to spread? Days, hours, minutes?"

"I don't need your approval or forgiveness," Raynor muttered, deeply unhappy with everything going on. At least it seemed like people thought that the Iron had been the ones to kill his parents - that probably made him look a little better in their eyes than the truth would have (not that he had lied, people had just made an assumption).

Of course, Folly wasn't interested in Raynor's brooding - even if she had giggled ever so slightly at him being called Ray-Ray, something he had clearly not enjoyed. "Are you going to tell them all about the Phalanx or should I?" Folly asked Darcy.

Darcy was looking incredibly pale. "The what? I-I've never heard of that," she lied.

Folly rolled her eyes. "Typical flatscan behavior. Ugh. Your friend was being transformed into a part of the Phalanx, an extra-dimensional hive-mind made out of techno-organic machinery. The machine gods that Stark worships, that hunt mutants for sport."

"What?" Raynor asked, lifting his head up, clearly surprised. That wasn't right. There hadn't been any machine gods back when he had been here - the Iron had been advanced for a Midgardian society, but nothing too crazy. Raynor hadn't even heard the word Phalanx before, it wasn't something that even Asgardians knew about. "What do you mean? How.... Just what the hell?"

"Go on, tell them," Folly said to Darcy.

Darcy grumbled. She really didn't want to. She didn't want to talk about this. "I don't officially know any of this, but I saw a file that I was definitely not cleared to have access for once, explaining that the cloning facilities weren't a viable solution to the sterilization problem in the Iron - thanks again for that, Raynor. Buuut Stark was inspired by old myths of gods and humans having kids, so... He made a kid with the Phalanx. A living artificial intelligence - a Generative Uniform Intelligent Network. Buuuut problem was, some of the Phalanx got into all of Stark's AIs, and it seems like it spreads... like through your friend, who had a computer mind...."

"Jesus," Bonnie cursed.