Morose

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

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Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 12:40 PM

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Veil & Casper & Sunshine

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Location: Various
Skills: Mediumship

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Outside the Hospital...

Casper made a horrified face - there was a name for when people's feet got moldy?! He had the sudden urge to take off his shoes and check each of his toes individually, just to be safe. He made a silent vow that he would never go swimming again - well, unless there was a pool party, he had to have realistic expectations for himself. He LOVED pool parties. "Oh my god that's terrible. If I ever get that, I'm cutting my feet off. That's so gross!" Casper then winced, realizing he might have been a bit too loud for the baby, so he then whispered, "sorry, I mean - that's so gross."

Casper then titled his head, confused as Ben mentioned they might not supply bottles. "But... what's the formula in, then? Doesn't it come in a bottle? Or is there like a synthetic boob?" He was still confused when they made it back to Bee, and Bee glanced up from her desk.

"Oh! I started making little kits for parents with babies on the island, I think they should all be fine in storage, that room made it out okay..." Bee said, before getting up and leading them through a small maze of hallways, before opening the door to a storage room. "One second," she said, entering and coming out a few minutes later, holding out an orange backpack. "Last one we had, should be enough to get you boys started. Some formula in there for you too, pulled it from the freezer, so it'll need to thaw."

The Rebuilt House of M...

Magneto didn't intend to have Thundering Champion leave - he still considered her to be one of his children. Valkyrie he had let go of that tie to purely based on her attitude - the way she brushed off the mass death event on Genosha, and then acted as if the halls of Valhalla made her faith the one true faith... It was too much for the old Holocaust survivor. His temper got the best of him. "If that is what you think happened here, then you are truly lost, child," Magneto scolded Zarina. "Andy, you are always welcome here, but I will not force you to stay if you wish to leave - although I will miss you dearly if you do go."

"Oookay then..." Polaris said, after Valkyrie finished her unhinged rant and finally left. Polaris felt like she had been dropped into an episode of the Real Housewives of Genosha - and she definitely was extremely uncomfortable with this entire plot line. "That prophecy sounds terrible, but I think it's time we go and get coffee, okay Dad?" she said, locking eyes with Magneto.

The token on the floor Zari had dropped crumbled, as Magneto closed his trembling fist. "I'm fine," he snarled at Polaris. "I don't need you to babysit me and wait in terror that the villain inside of me will reemerge."

"Oh yeah? Then prove it, by taking a deep breath, counting to fucking ten, and coming with me to get a goddamn coffee!" Polaris insisted.

Blackstone...

"Unless you need to be fitted for a corset too, then no," Selene told Jack. "I'll summon you at some point before the Gala. Don't go out of town - or leave the island or whatever. I wouldn't want you to miss the fireworks." She waved him off with the back of her hand, leaving the witch's lair and going back into the house proper, presumably to resume her fitting session with Jumbo Carnation.

Hellfire Bay...

It was a moment before Renegade had caught her breath, the coughing subsiding. "Just peachy, mon amie," Renegade said, her voice sounding hoarse. She forced a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Despite being roughly the same age, Renegade looked older than Moneta - she had aged rougher, mostly due to the activities she had started in her youth and continued throughout the years. Her body had been through hell. "An entire island of mutants and not one of them can say what's wrong with me - or fix what's broken," Renegade admitted. "Doc says I have months."

Star Crossed: a Star Wars Story (BlueSky44 & Morose)

"Well, not all species have the same number of appendages - or any at all, really," Raynor explained. "It would be good if a pilot from any species could fly one of these readily, without having to rely on the Force to move all of the controls." Of course any Jedi worth their salt ought to be able to do that, but Raynor could envision scenarios where there were much more important tasks to focus on with the Force than simply piloting the craft.

"What sort of astromechs are compatible?" Raynor asked next. These were all details that the Republic would really be interested in, and he wasn't going to come out and ask Shocky straight up if she was being held against her will and if Jarothe was corrupt. No, for now he had to play the part of the Jedi rep, not the investigator.

What If?

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Jade Cornish

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Jade raised an eyebrow at the near forest of plant life formed in the tunnels - and she didn't need to be a genius to figure out who had been responsible for it. She didn't know very many mutants who were attuned to plant life and lived in the sewers beneath New York City - just one rather annoying ginger met the description. And speak of the devil, that one ginger then appeared, coming from the opposite direction. "Creative," Jade said simply, looking at the plants as Mary explained their purpose.

"I imagine the others should return shortly," she added. "We should plan to move quickly once they have come back, before any major changes occur to Magneto's defenses - that weak point may not always be there," Jade said. It was possible that it was a temporary opening, one that could be eliminated at any moment - be it that same day or later that week or months from now, it was hard to say.

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Guinevere Stark

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"I know, hence the failing rather spectacularly," Guin pointed out to Edus. She squinted, watching as a gigantic wall of orange light appeared and then solidified, forming a barrier between them and their attackers. Thalia confirmed that the coast was clear, concurring with Edus that the best course of action was to run. "Feel a bit like a Doctor Who character now, but yes, running sounds good," Guin said, before taking off at a run with Edus and Thalia. As they ran, her thoughts drifted briefly towards Pietro - running was kinda his thing, after all - had he made it out okay? Had Lance and Carolina? It felt like ages since they had split up into their separate missions.

"This way, quick!" Guin urged. There was a sewer access point a few blocks away that they should be able to go through. She managed to lead the others to it, sliding the grate open and then hopping down the service ladder, motioning for them to follow her. "Close up behind you," she said to the last person. "We aren't too far from the main area, c'mon," she added, her heart pounding from the adrenaline of the run - and the stinging pain of the deep cuts Sabretooth had given her, as she guided them through the tunnel network and back to the main headquarters.

Star Crossed: a Star Wars Story (BlueSky44 & Morose)

Thank the Force, Raynor thought to himself, as it seemed Jarothe really did have something else to attend to. He knew that it was unlikely Jarothe would leave the pair of them entirely unattended in the hangar, but perhaps he could still coax some information out of Shocky - if she really accompanied Jarothe more or less everywhere as Raynor suspected, she likely would know about Jarothe selling ships to the Separatists. "Of course," Raynor said, bowing his head to Jarothe as Jarothe made his excuses and left.

Raynor followed Shocky in the direction of the Delta-7. He wasn't lying when it came to his interest in this ship - if this was was going to last as long as Raynor's old master suspected, then he'd rather be piloting a ship in combat that was suited for a Jedi, rather than some standard issue operation that Jedi and Clones alike could use. "Can I look inside?" Raynor asked, when they reached the ship. "I'm curious how the controls are set up - not all Jedi are humanoid, so having something more accessible for all sentient species would be nice."

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

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EARTH 257 - 9:10 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - the Blue

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Angel's Aerie

Wolverine's claws shot out - two for each hand, rather than three - in warning. "What's your problem with clones?" she asked, looking directly at Niah. To those paying attention, something would then click into place - Raynor had mentioned that Wolverine had been on the team back when he ran things, and he hadn't recognized this girl as Wolverine, despite her using the mantle. From her reaction, it wouldn't be hard to guess that she was a female clone of the original Wolverine. Wolverine's eyes narrowed at Niah's comment of her gender being strange. "So what if I'm a girl?" she then added. She did not like Niah - not one bit.

"A - a mutant psychic might be able to help, perhaps by putting up some sort of mental partitions," Bonnie said, even as her stomach filled with a strange mixture of fear and hatred at the thought of a mutant messing around with her mind. She knew that those feelings weren't really hers - that they belonged to the Bonnie of this world - but it didn't make them feel any less real. For a brief second, she wished she could hear that strange ethereal voice in her head - surely a goddess would have the power to do what a god (i.e., Raynor) could not. "But until we figure out the mechanism that this is happening by, I don't know what can be done..."

Bonnie trailed off, frowning for a moment as she thought. It would have been easier with a whiteboard to write everything down on. Cass hadn't been replaced by her counterpart despite going face to face with her earlier. Amelia and Flynn had been overwritten upon meeting theirs. Everyone in the group except for Sparky and Raynor were experiencing memory bleed and replacement. They were the only two without counterparts, the ones native to this world - the why had to be that for whatever reason, those not native to this reality were being overwritten. The how still eluded her; and she didn't know why nothing like this had happened to Raynor and Sparky back on Earth-666.

"You're not taking us to Genosha," Amelia said. "We're staying here, in the Blue." "Only bad guys would drag us back against our will," "so if you do that, then you're just proving yourself as the villains we thought you were." "Plus we aren't nearly dumb enough to go to Genosha with a group of strangers to have someone mess with our heads," "Not that we're dumb," "Not at all. And if one of us is from another world," "it's her," "no, it's her!"

"That one's our Amelia," Raynor said, pointing at their Amelia. "No one change their clothes, please," he then added. The more counterparts they ran into, the harder it was going to be to tell people apart. Hopefully the next counterpart they met would look clearly different - like an entirely different person or at least a drastically different haircut or something.

Manifold shrugged - he didn't really care what these people wanted, it all seemed confusing and honestly not something he wanted to worry about. Someone else could sort out what was going on here - he wasn't interested in figuring it out himself. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, speaking to the universe and asking it for a favor -

And suddenly, space-time distorted and everyone vanished.

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EARTH 257 - 7:10 PM Nov. 14th, 2021 - Genosha

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The Healing Gardens -

Raynor recognized where they were instantly. It was a secluded garden of sorts, with mossy platforms like operating tables dotted around in various locations. He didn't recognize the woman with dreadlocks in a blue jumpsuit who stood at what looked like a holographic console, similar to what would be found in Star Wars, but made out of plants rather than metal. Back in his day, the Healing Gardens had been run by Miss Sinister.

"Doctor Reyes, do you mind?" Nightcrawler asked, BAMF-ing to appear on a tree branch, his tail curled around it to keep him hanging there. "Our new friends are a bit roughed up."

Cecilia raised an eyebrow, seeing a few duplicates in the group. "I'm on it," she said, before looking at Cerebella. "Can you fetch Sage and Prodigy for me? I'll need some extra pairs of hands," she requested. "The rest of you, get them onto tables for me, please." She then instantly went up to Flynn, as he was one of the most visibly injured with his broken legs.

"Anyone who isn't wounded needs to leave," Reyes then added. "Now."

The X-Men of Earth-257

• Firestorm
• Syphon
• Eye-Boy
• Wolverine
• Colossus
• Nightcrawler
• Cerebella
• Manifold

Star Crossed: a Star Wars Story (BlueSky44 & Morose)

Raynor wished for a moment that he hadn't referred to Shocky as Jarothe's assistant - it would have been nice now to ask Jarothe to define the nature of her employment specifically, just to force him to admit what he had done. But pressing this further could jeopardize the investigation. Raynor knew that he would see Shocky freed, but he had to be careful as well. If Jarothe knew his intentions, it was possible he would send the Twi'lek far away from the Republic Core, making it all the more difficult to help her and dooming her to a lifetime of slavery.

"I see. You must be very pleased then that she's such a quick learner - perhaps enough to even consider one day promoting her. You are very lucky to have such talented staff," Raynor said graciously. "I understand you're a very busy man, so if it would be helpful, I would not mind if she shows me the ships - the Delta 7 in particular - as to allow you to handle any other business before we dine tonight."

Ride or Die for the Republic (Morose & Kirah & Nallore)

"It's definitely alive, you must have a screw loose or something!" Raynor shouted back, perhaps a bit more angrily than he should have. He knew what the Force was telling him - whatever thing he was fighting, it wasn't a machine - not in the way that droids like Emzie were or 110 units were. It wasn't an ordinary form of sentient life either, but it was alive nonetheless, and Raynor couldn't explain it.

He continued to fight, blade hitting blade. He pressed forward, attempting to back the creature into a corner - he swung, going for decapitating blows, but there was no gap in its defenses. Raynor's frustration was mounting, especially with Emzie explaining that they weren't capable of taking out the Destroyers (Raynor knew it wasn't reasonable to expect them to do that, but still, he would've liked some help, rather than everything falling on him). But his frustration worked to enhance his power, allowing Raynor to thrust his lightsaber blade forward, skewering the odd creature and sending it limp - just a brief opening in their defenses had allowed his victory.

Raynor was panting, dripping with sweat. He stabbed his lightsaber into one of the shields of the Destroyer's, breaking the shield with just one blow in a stroke of luck. "There, now you can handle one."

Star Crossed: a Star Wars Story (BlueSky44 & Morose)

Alright, as much as Raynor claimed to be annoyed by this entire assignment, he did love ships - especially hearing about ones that were practically ideal for Jedi. The description reminded him of his dream ship, the Vector (as mentioned previously). He wished there was a real opportunity to try some of these ships out, take them out for a spin, but he needed to keep a close eye on Jarothe - and dining with him that evening was going to be one of his main chances to get a feel for his character. Plus, Raynor needed to focus in general on the mission - he needed to find proof of Colbol Corp breaking their contract (and his unofficial secondary mission - finding a way to get Shocky her freedom).

"Why wouldn't she have prior knowledge?" Raynor asked Jarothe, playing dumb. "Surely you hired your assistant for her skills and knowledge of this field, no?" he suggested. He was curious to see how Jarothe would play this off - if he would admit to breaking the laws of the Republic and enslaving an innocent person, or if he would lie to a Jedi.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Camp Half-blood: Big House
Skills: N/A

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Nancy's stomach flip-flopped as Mads told her she was going to do great on the quest - she didn't intend on actually participating. She was going to answer questions as best as she could, point them to the door of the Lotus Hotel and Casino, and she would then wait for them to emerge from the hotel when they finished the quest. That was going to be the extent of her involvement - it would take an act of the gods to force her to walk through those doors again, to breathe that air. She knew the ghosts there were emotional, not literal, but it was still a haunted place to her all the same.

She nodded as Niah said her farewells and left. "I'll see you two again," Nancy promised, before letting them both go. She stared at Niah's back for a moment, committing her friend's image to memory, just as she memorized Mads'. And then, Nancy took a deep breath and headed inside the Big House. She came across the people she had seen in her vision in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, along with the Greek Oracle and Chiron. If this had been any other subject, Nancy would have made her presence known as she came into the room - she would have taken charge, taken leadership over this situation, and laid out a battle plan for accomplishing this quest.

Instead, Nancy hovered slightly on the outside of the group. She didn't say anything. If it turned out they didn't need anything from her, all the better. She didn't want to talk about this. She was already feeling drained from the small meltdown she had had not too long ago.

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🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

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Location: Camp Half-blood: the Van
Skills: N/A

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Leda laughed, shaking her head. "If I make it to my forties, I'll be impressed - I always figured I'd end up dying young, hot, and sexy," Leda teased. She honestly couldn't imagine being forty years old - she never really considered what her life might look like after all of this. Her entire world was myths and quests, gods and goddesses - the idea of getting old and slowing down just never occurred to her. And why would it? Leda adored her life as it was, she felt fulfilled, she was living her best life here. She didn't care that it could be cut short - the inevitability of death just made her appreciate each moment of life even more. She lived intensely and passionately for a reason.

Leda got into the back of the van, sitting down next to Kiera and then throwing an arm around Kiera's shoulders, hugging her close. "Also, don't forget, I won the bet - so now you have to do whatever I say," Leda said with a smirk. "And I'm going to save that little victory for an opportune moment, so be on your toes - I'll let you know when I'm cashing in." She did tilt her head slightly at Arthur - he seemed like he was having a rough go of it, and Leda understood. The first quest could always be really scary - going out into the world, knowing monsters were going to try to kill you at every turn, not everyone found it as exciting as Leda did.

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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You'd be upset too if it was something of yours going missing, Guin pointed out to Pietro - Imagine if it had been your walkman, you'd have lost it. She did know she was being a little dramatic - but that was part of the humor of it, right? And she was bummed about her suit not showing up so far, as she had worked really hard on it. Someone else might've found it and took it for themselves, making it into their origin story as the world's next superhero/villain - she cringed at the thought of someone else flying around in her baby. At least she could be comforted by the fact that they'd have to be fairly short to wear it, as it wasn't height adjustable (yet). "Damn, everyone is running into the other!Pietro but me, huh?"

Guin wasn't mad about that - from what she knew of this reality, the other!Pietro was a twisted Darth Vader sort of character, not the lovable Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker version she adored. She didn't know if her safety would be guaranteed with the other!Pietro - or if he would attack her just like everyone else. Her thoughts drifted towards Muscles for a moment, the once-and-future version of Pietro - his death still pained her, but of the alternate counterparts of her husband, Muscles had to be the better one. I'm fine with the wizard doing things, but we might also want another plan, because I am giving him 0 stars on Yelp so far.

Runa tilted her head slightly. "What danger is there at the mansion?" she asked, unfamiliar with the sentient A.I. "Surely it's nothing that we could not handle as a group?" Runa posed. She thought for a bit though. They did need somewhere to stay - preferably on Midgard, as they were receiving Strange's help, and they just weren't familiar with the situation on Asgard.

"Wait, danger danger or Danger Danger?" Guin asked. "If you meant Danger, then she should be able to help us - unless she's seriously damaged here, which would suck but also... would be par for the course." Guin sighed slightly.

A thought then occurred to Runa. "If Stark isn't alive here, who occupies Stark Tower? If it's unattended, perhaps that might be good place for us to stay and strategize - familiar grounds, centrally located, and plenty of technology around for us to look at avenues other than the mystical for a return trip to our Midgard," Runa suggested. She didn't know if technology would find the answer to their problems, but she figured Lance and Guinevere would be inclined to look towards science for an answer. Really, the main benefit of Stark Tower was that it had a lot of space and a good location - and she doubted anyone would trespass there. She imagined Stark had to have advanced security systems set up in his passing, ones that his only child could pass through when others could not.