Natsu

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:Oliver's Mother's room -> Niah's Room
Skills: N/A

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Oliver turned and nodded to his dad, "Some things are going to be different, some things are going to be the same, but one thing we know for sure is that this is better than her dying." Oliver said, before smiling down at her, and then back to his father, "I know you have a lot of questions right now, but I need to make sure you won't walk about this for the next few days. There are some big things about to happen, and secrecy is important. I'm sorry you had to hear all of that, but a conversation in here with you two was much safer than a conversation any of the staff or patients could hear."

Oliver looked down as his phone buzzed again and he grimaced. "I really hate to come and run but..." He exhaled, rubbing his temples, "I promise I'll come back and explain everything I can next week, I'm on a clock and people need me." He gave a sad look between his parents, and then back to Doctor Larson, quickly saying "Thank you again." and getting up, and heading out of the room. He had to get to Niah and find out what kind of state she's in, and if she'd be able to join them. Looking into rooms as he walked, he eventually found Niah's, and took a step in, looking between the nurses, "Sorry, I'm a friend of hers, I brought her in, is it alright if I come in? I'm going to need to talk to her."

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Argo III
Skills: N/A

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Arthur nodded at Kiera's hope. He needed this to be a bit more relaxed for a little while, or at least, he would heavily appreciate some downtime. The constant flood of encounters and fights just made everything so heated and stressful. It was a little hard to believe that this was the typical demigod life- there was so much risk for death and destruction that he had no idea how as many of them survived as they did. It felt like he'd been under a constant assault since he left the protection of the camp, and he couldn't imagine ever living outside of it for an extended period of time.

It was at this point, that Arthur had a question, that he asked to nobody in particular. "What... what happens to demigods who grow up? Do we have to leave the camp? How do will live with this kind of assault?" He hadn't seen any human adults at the camp, so he knew they couldn't be there. He really had to hope that the death rate among them wasn't so high that that just wasn't a thing that happened enough to warrant an actual plan for, but he had no idea. If they were all to die doing quests like this, it felt like they were just existing to be cannon fodder for godly disputes.

🌳 Hotel Valhalla: & the Gods of Asgard 🌳

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Elizabeth Flame

Location: Boston
Skills: Rune Magic

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Elizabeth grunted as things continued to worsen. Running away from something on a boat was hard, in a lot of ways, it was just a matter of speed on the open ocean, it wasn't like you could hide or try to lose somebody around a corner, you just had to be better, either through speed or might. Not confident in their ability to kill this thing, whatever it was, she drew another rune, Lagaz, and placed on the floor of the boat, gritting her teeth. She knew continued use like this would eventually take something out of her, and she didn't wanna risk getting exhausted before they even reached the castle.

The current beneath them began to pick up, increasing their speed, but not shaking the world serpent. Turning her ear towards Arnora, she called out, "What's your idea exactly? Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it." She kept her fire at bay for the moment, not wanting to step on her toes. If she had an idea she wanted to execute, she wasn't going to et in the way of it. She kept her writing materials out, ready to sketch out whatever was needed to get them out of this, if need be. She'd probably need to rest through the rest of their journey, but if that was how it was to be, so be it.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:Oliver's Mother's room
Skills: N/A

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Oli was amazed to see his mom's heart rate grow stronger, fully expecting them to be near the end. He smiled at his mom, drying his eyes,, but something prickled in the back of his head. He was practically sent here by skrulls, and now his mom, on her deathbed, was stable? Something wasn't adding up. His eyes turned to the doctor, before he cleared his throat and said, "I take it you're the one in charge of my mother's care?" His eyes catching the off tinge of the blood transfusion, before he continued, a bit on edge, "I must say, I'm impressed with how well you've taken care of her, what have you been doing, exactly?" He felt defensive, but whoever this was, they seemed to be keeping his mother alive, so he'd remain peaceful, for now.

"No, I'm not," Dr. Larson said. "I'm.... I'm here as a favor to Nick Fury. You might want to sit down," she then added, pointing to a chair.

At the name Nick Fury, Oliver turned his head a bit, surprised anybody had managed to maintain contact with him. He wouldn't normally be so quick to believe somebody with a claim like that, and he didn't completely, but he played along and sat down, "So, what's Foxtrot want?" he asked, resting a hand on his mother's as they spoke.

Dr. Larson stepped the rest of the way into the room, closing the door. Oliver's father looked incredibly bewildered, alternating between looking at his wife, his son, and the doctor. Oliver's mother gave his hand a squeeze and while she was doing better, she was still rather frail and not up for much of a conversation. "He wants to stop the skrull invasion. I've been helping him, as my people have been at war with the skrulls for generations - I should stop and explain that I'm a kree... It's my blood that healed your mother. And my people eons ago were the ones to create the first inhumans here on Earth."

Oliver looked over at the blood, and then back to her, then over to his dad, "Sorry dad, work stuff." He then returned a look to Dr. Larson, before saying, "So what do you want from me? The best I know is that somewhere along the line, the Illuminati probably were the vector the Skrulls came in through. I take it that's what the blood is for? I give you what you need, and you save my mother?" Oliver wasn't much of an optimist for his relationships with strangers at this point, and he figured that, all things being equal, nothing in this world was free.

"Work stuff?" Oliver's father mouthed to his mother, who just sort of shrugged in response. Dr. Larson looked a bit sad at Oliver's cynical and jaded worldview. "I don't want anything in return. Fury didn't ask me to save your mother - I did it because I wanted to, no strings attached. I don't need anything from you, Oliver.... It's more the other way around. I'm here to help you reclaim your planet, before it's too late - before the skrulls or the kree take it."

Oliver's eyes widened a bit, this would be the first purely good news he had in a long time, "Well, in that case, I have nothing to say but thank you." He responded earnestly, before continuing, "So you're not batting for the Kree's side? Alright, team human needs some help, if I understand the situation correctly. What'd you have for me?"

Dr. Larson nodded. "I've lived among humanity for a while now - I'd fight for your species any day," she explained. "The situation is complicated, to say the least. Fury believes that the skrulls are going to replace world leaders at the UN Summit in Geneva this week. If that happens, then your world will be lost and it will be ruled by the skrulls. You could call the kree for help, but then you would be ruled by them and be a part of the kree empire. And if you beat the skrulls too decisively, the kree may become afraid of the threat Earth poses and decide to attack your planet anyways... I believe the expression being caught between a rock and a hard place is a good descriptor of the situation."

Oliver rubbed his temples, processing what he was told. Playing politics while fighting for the Earth just made things harder. This also meant that they couldn't just strike early and beat the Skrulls before any damage was done, they needed losses in some way, or at least make it come very close. "So, I tell the team I have it on good authority that the Skrulls are aiming for Geneva to be their checkmate, suggest we move on them then. Use the coming days to prepare, beat them back at the last moment. The Kree don't become scared, the Skrulls are defeated, and humans remain free. Am I missing anything?" He asked. This was stressful, but this at least gave him time to come up with a game plan. "You're doing humanity a big favor here, I can't tell you how much this means to all of us." He added, giving her a mile. He didn't want to seem cold, or jaded, but it'd been a rough few months, and he was walking the tightrope of hope and despair.

“Yes, exactly - you’re a quick study,” Larson said with a soft smile. “I’ll assist any way that I can. There’s unfortunately no way we kree have found to prove someone’s a skrull or not, I’m sorry to say.”

Oliver smiled at the complement, "Well, I expected as much to be honest, if people could identify skrulls, they wouldn't be an interplanetary threat." He agreed, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone, "Look, I really appreciate what you're doing here; not just for humanity, but for my mom. If you need anything, please reach out, I owe you one here." He said, before typing out his number and showing it to her.

"Please, the pleasure's all mine. I should warn you - your mother may want to go to hospitals used to dealing with the superhero community, as she's now genetically half-kree. Her blood will be blue like mine. Might raise a few eyebrows."

Oliver nodded, "I'll be sure to fill her in on what that means." He said, before looking between his two parents, and giving a smile, "You both probably have a lot of questions, and I'll explain what I can, but... hold on." He said, before his phone buzzed, and he got a text from Cass. Responding quickly, he wrote

"Things went tits up over here, Niah's leg got banged up pretty badly, and I got some intel in the Skrulls. I'll tell more when we can meet up in person, can you guys make it over here? I need to check on Niah's condition before I can tell you when we'll be able to move."

Sliding his phone into his pocket, he sat back in his chair, and actually smiled. There was a task ahead of all of them for sure, but this meant his mom was going to live, a fact that hadn't totally settled with him yet. He grinned to himself, before taking a long look at his mom, unable to believe he wasn't going to lose her.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Argo III
Skills: N/A

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As the ship lurched, Arthur fell over, and rolled onto his back. Honestly, a few weeks ago he might have been terrified about that, but that well had just about bottomed out by this point, and instead he just found himself grinning. When he let go of fear, this was kind of fun; not thinking about the danger to his life made things a lot easier, even if that wasn't exactly an easy thing to do. Maybe that was why heroes were brace, not because the had some kind of special moral character about them, but because they just weren't capable of fear anymore. That seemed to be about where he was, anyway.

Righting himself, and standing up, he looked around, glad that that was finally over. Watching the automaton disappear, he had a kind of awe at the engineering capability of the God of The Forge. It was honestly impressive, and it gave him insight on how gods could do things that humans just couldn't. Even the best designers and engineers on the planet couldn't hope to build things like that, and he'd probably been making things like that since the dawn of time. They were outclassed for sure, but it was still nevertheless interesting to see firsthand how wide the gap was.

🌳 Hotel Valhalla: & the Gods of Asgard 🌳

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Elizabeth Flame

Location: Boston
Skills: Rune Magic, Pyrokinesis

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Getting onto the Boat, Elizabeth was uneasy. There were pluses and minuses to being on a boat; there were limited places you could be attacked from, sure, but once you were you couldn't run. That along with the fact that she was a lousy lookout made this less than ideal for her. A few moments after they had all boarded, she fell back as the ship shook. Whatever had come, she knew it wasn't something good, and she quickly got to thinking of how she was going to deal with it. She couldn't see it, but she was sued to that, so as soon as she fell down, she reached into her bag, and started sketching.

Rune magic was fickle, but she had a good idea for what she wanted to happen. Throwing off a Thurisaz rune into the water, she waited before following up with an Isa rune. The former was able to do its job, but the later couldn't follow through, and just kind of fizzled into ink and paper as it hit the water. Not hearing what she wanted, she rose and turned towards the general direction of the assault, and started throwing flames at it. She could hear another wave being tossed at them as she did though, and the flames fizzled in the air as they made contact.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:St. David's Hospital - Cardiff -> Oliver's Mother's room
Skills: N/A

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Watching the bear crumble to dust in front of him, Oliver was relieved to see that the immediate danger had passed. Turning back to smile at Niah, he said, "No, you did." Shortly before wincing at the sight of her leg. "You need a doctor, I'll go to my mom on my own..." He said, his heart beat still racing after after the last encounter. Honestly, the adrenaline he was running on made him feel like he could do anything right about now. He knew that was the chemicals talking, but if he wasn't going to maliciously abuse his biochemistry to talk to his mother on her death bed, he'd have been stupid.

Quickly flagging down a doctor for Niah, he gave her a finale look, before saying, "I'll come find you after I'm done." and starting to walk off. He didn't want to seem cold, but he knew if he didn't go do this now, he might not ever. He couldn't keep looking for excuses to hold off the inevitable. He didn't even know what he was going to happen, and he still had an inkling that the Skrulls expected him to be here, but he knew he'd have to put off the feelings to get done what had to be done. He resolved that, once he said his goodbyes, he'd have to call to check in on the team.

Entering his mother's room, he opened to door quietly. People didn't think a lot about endings, he thought. Most people considered their lives would end, but were unsure of what that would ultimately look like. For Oliver, he knew that the life he led had a certain degree of risk; there was a good chance he would die in battle after all. But he had to wonder what people like he mother thought. Statistically speaking, death in the modern era must look similar for most people; in a hospital bed, one way or another. The only comfort he could possibly add to the sterile walls and atmosphere was his own presence, the return of a prodigal son, who left his family for wanting to play hero.

It was a selfish thought, in the moment, to make this about him, but it came none the less, and as he sat beside his mother's bed, he felt tears well up. He didn't want to apologize right now, that would solidify his feelings into something tangible. He knew that, ultimately, his mother wasn't thinking about that right now, she didn't want to see her son drowning in regret for living his life. After a moment, he decided to speak, quietly, even though he was sure his mother couldn't hear him, "When Cardiff came under siege, I was so sure I lost you, that I had lost everything. That day was hard for me, but the next? It was easily one of the best." Oliver, whispered, feeling his body begin to shake, "Because you weren't dead. You and dad lived, and that gave me what I needed to keep going. The universe is chaotic, and random, and fundamentally not fair, but you know what? The one thing I wanted when I lost you, was just one more day with you, but I got better than that. I got three whole months, 92 days of you still being on this Earth. I love you Mommy, and I just... I want you to know that I'm going to be okay. You can rest." Tears were rolling down Oliver's cheeks right now, but he did everything he could to keep his voice from breaking. That was all he had, he didn't know what more he could tell her, but he hoped that she would finally get some peace.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Argo III
Skills: N/A

Ferrokinesis

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Happy to see the swarming robots destroyed, he gave a satisfied smirk at Andy, happy to see that her idea worked, and that he himself was able to keep anybody from getting hurt. He'd never held something off that large before, so he was rather impressed by his ability to pull that off, flexing his powers that didn't involve disrupting the rest of the dead was much more his speed. Controlling metal was useful, and it didn't make him feel icky at all. From here, he'd try to use that more, rather than defend himself using his necromancy.

Following the other up to the ship, he looked out to the large creature approaching them. H figured he could ty to hold it off, but opted to wait to see if they could get away first. It looked like it would be hard to control something that large, and he didn't know if the god of the forge was going out be mad at them for destroying his creations in the first place, and didn't want to risk it by engaging any more than they strictly needed to. It still was a bit to marvel at though, how large thing slike this could be built, he'd never quite seen anything like that before in his life.

🌳 Hotel Valhalla: & the Gods of Asgard 🌳

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Elizabeth Flame

Location: Boston
Skills: N/A

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Not being able to see, Elizabeth was at least a bit more tuned in to what her other senses provided her, so when Lara stopped walking, she knew. Exhaling a tad, she didn't want to have to deal with another person being unable to drag themselves past their based human instincts, be it fear, hatred, or otherwise. She knew you couldn't yell somebody out of their emotional state though, and turned in what she assumed was her direction, and said, "What's going on? Are you alright?" She wasn't a sociopath by any means, but she her concern at the moment was not, in all honesty, with Lara's emotions, but rather how they might impact the situation at hand.

She didn't like seeming cold, but it just felt like there was a lot on the line here, and nobody was taking it as seriously as her. She normally wasn't monstrous, but that was the role it seemed she had to play today, mostly because she was worried that if she didn't keep pushing and trying to keep things together, one way or another, literally everything would end up falling apart. They were on a clock, and she wanted people to keep to it. She put on a smile though, and tried to make herself seem softer than she was, she wanted Lara to feel safe, not make her angry or feel worse.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Oliver Sullivan

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Location:St. David's Hospital - Cardiff
Skills:

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Oli watched as the bear continued to attack Niah, and he frowned. The bear was totally ignoring him, paying him no mind whatsoever. That made absolutely no sense to him. Then, his eyes widened, as he started to put things together. "Niah! What Fury said-" He began, speaking as the thoughts were forming, "This monster is playing with it's food, that's it! It wants us to be afraid, it wants us to fear it, or anything, I don't know why, but if it can't get that, it won't kill us." He tried to explain. He couldn't intervene here, he knew that this needed to end now, or Niah would die, but he could explain things best as he understood.

"That's why this thing is here, a hospital is a nexus of fear, it's where we come to say goodbye; it's where suffering is commonplace." He continued, before pausing. He couldn't do it this way. People weren't him, the arguments that would help him release fear weren't the ones that would help her. He exhaled, before saying, "I... I don't know what you're scared of Niah, but whatever it is, it isn't worth dying over. You deserve to live. You showed me a kindness coming with me here, you had no obligation, and you knew that this was going to be something I couldn't go through alone." He told her, not just because he wanted her to live, but because it was true, "Something is coming Niah, and the world is going to need people like you for it, not only to fight, but to heal after we win. Whatever's comes in the future, you and I, all the team, we can face it together, and we won't have to be scared because at the end of it all, we're here for each other. I'm here for you, and whatever you're fearing, I know it's nothing we can't face together." He told her, speaking quickly, before putting himself between the bear and Niah, doing his best to shield her and keep her safe in whatever way he could.