---

---

Once Mary Sue had left the tent, it was now Ardere's turn to enter. The tent was far bigger and more expansive on the inside than it was on the outside. A crystal ball, numerous lit candles, crystals, and cards floated through the space, seemingly all at random. Agatha Harkness, the elderly witch herself, was sat at a small circular table, sipping a cup of tea. In her lap, a small black cat was taking a nap, purring every now and then contentedly. "Miss Ardere, welcome to my humble little tent," Agatha Harkness said, her voice old and frail. "I must warn you, these objects are rather flammable, so do be conscious of your gifts... Now, what question burdens your soul?"

Ardere bit her lip. Of course, the fortune teller would ask questions! What was she even expecting upon entering? The only assurance in this place was that the witch indeed looked everything she would expect a fortune teller witch to be. Complete with a black cat too! A cute thing, the cat was. Ardere couldn't stop her eyes from flicking away to steal a quick peek. She felt her cheeks hot in embarrassment when the witch told her to restrain herself.

"I...am not sure why I am...here. My biggest worry before was doing a test that I didn't study for but now! Now, I'm becoming a superhero. How did it come to this?"

Agatha arched an eyebrow. "Most come to me looking for answers on their futures, not their past," Agatha said. "But no matter, the cards see all. They are not limited to linear time like you and I." She decided on a simple past, present, and future spread for young Ardere. It would give her information about how things came to be, what they are, and what they might be, should Ardere not deviate her course. The cards swirled and danced in the air, until three settled, hovering in front of Ardere so she could read them - the Page of Pentacles, the Seven of Cups Reversed, and the Star.

The elderly witch had the sense that something was blocked, something obscuring her sight. It did not happen very often, but from time to time, the cards were murkier to her than she would have liked. "In the past, I see opportunity - a chance at a new beginning, a fresh start - a brand new manifestation. Your acceptance here, at the Margaret Carter Institute, perhaps? Now as for your present, the Seven of Cups is all about opportunities being presented, choices that you must make, good luck and perhaps bad luck. But here, it is reversed. This card should serve as a warning to you, my dear. Chances are here, but you are limiting yourself from them. You are not taking advantage of what is in front of you."

She paused, before continuing. "As to your future, you have pulled the Star - a part of the major arcana, this card speaks of a major force in your life. Whether you pursue it or not, go willingly or kicking and screaming, the Universe has a great purpose for you. You are here learning to be a hero for a reason - a reason that is perhaps unknowable, but a reason all the same." Agatha studied Ardere's face for a moment. "... I am going to tell you a secret, Ardere, to the cards. They can only tell you what you already know to be true."

The more the witch spoke, the more prickled Ardere has felt. She had never done tarot before, much less fortune telling. She could see why her older brother is a skeptic to this activity. This all feels...coincidental.

"Which card says I burned my house down? Made my family homeless for awhile." The redhead didn't mean to feel so incensed but these revelations seemed to have an effect on her. "Not taking advantage? The Universe?! What? Why these cards?"

Agatha Harkness was no stranger to an angry student. As an educator though, she felt it was her duty to help Ardere understand - despite the hostility of her words. She had fond memories of the Scarlet Witch speaking to her in such a tone early on in their time together as well. "No card will say that you burned your house down, tarot is not so rigid - it is a fluid magic based on self-reflection," Agatha instructed. "Tarot is a mirror into the soul, not a diary entry. No card will give you concrete black and white meaning. There is no card here for homelessness, just as there is no one card that says you would be in my tent on this day," Agatha explained.

"These cards are elements of your story, themes - it is up to you to decide their meaning. I cannot do that for you. I cannot say why these cards in particular. There's no trick here, I do not size you up when you enter my space and decide which cards will stop in front of you."

Like a lit candle pressed between wet fingers, Ardere's outburst was quickly defused, her attitude replaced by thoughtful meekness. Her silence was all that remained as the redhead looked dejectedly onto the tarot cards, processing all that she saw and heard. Her own mind a battlefield, raging whether or not to take the witch's words seriously.

"I think I understand...is there anything else the cards say?"

The Eight of Cups floated down next to the other three cards. Agatha had already shifted into a teaching mindset, so she decided to offer some insight as to what had happened there, mechanistically speaking at least. "This card we've just pulled is an advice card - meant to illuminate a reading. It is usually done if some aspect of it is not clear to you. A word of caution, though - the more advice cards you draw, the more they can actually begin to obscure what you wish to make clear."

"This card, the Eight of Cups, is a melancholic one. Do you see the hiker, wandering off into the unknown late at night? She is leaving behind her cups - her relationships, essentially - and heading towards sharp rocks. Something painful awaits her. She does not look back. She is confident in her steps. Sometimes, the things that hurt us are exactly what we need in order to move forward," Agatha explained. "What does this card say to you, Ardere? What advice is being given here?"

"That I'm alone?" Ardere said with a heavy sigh, her mind drifting back to her parents, her brother, and the friends she left behind. "I need to let go?"

"Are you truly alone - here, at a brand new school? Are there not dozens of students outside, all of them scared and anxious, looking for connection - perhaps friendship?" Agatha offered. "Let go of your pain, Ardere. Engage with what is in front of you. Let go and blossom into the person you were always meant to be."

"Let go?" The student spoke as if the words were foreign to her. "Is it possible to do just that? After everything I have done?"

Agatha chuckled lightly. "My dear, you are only human - a mutant, yes, but still human. Almost every Avenger has a dark past that they have struggled to overcome. But you are also a child - a child who is still learning and growing. There is nothing you can break that we cannot fix. And nothing already broken could mar you forever."

"Oh." Ardere could only say. She simply stared dumbfounded at the cards, the table, the cat, and back to the fortune teller. Her mind becoming a daze from the weight of her answers. The redhead finally understanding the options before her and though her brother would ridicule her until the End Times, she opted to listen to the tarot cards.

"Thank you...for telling me this." Ardere bowed before the witch before awkwardly leaving her seat.

"I can only tell you what you already know," Agatha said with a slight smile. "Before you go, I have something for you. I have been giving little items to each person who has come to see me, hopefully to aid you on your way. It is the least I can do as a former teacher at this school." She paused for a moment, thinking over what would help Ardere to let go of her fear and self hatred, to help her blossom and grow.

An unusual choice then crossed her mind. She rose and opened up her drawer, before pulling out a glass jar. Inside, there was a flickering ball of light. "This is a will-o'-the-wisp," Agatha said. "Mortals have often mistaken them for bad omens, leading travelers to their dooms... But that is not their purpose. A will-o'-the-wisp will lead you to what you need most. When your need is great, release the wisp from the jar and follow her." Agatha then handed the jar to Ardere. "Please, take it."

Both entralled and intimidated, Ardere held her hands the jar. She could only gaze in awe at the sight of the will o wisp. A mythical entity now manifest in physicsl form. A gift without measure.

"Is it really right for me to have this?" She asked, her doubts still buried in her mind.

"Why would it not be?" Agatha countered.

Ardere couldn't come up with an answer. Her eyes simply returned to staring back at the jar as her finger traced over the glass barrier and cap. A million other thoughts ran through her mind, all imagining the kind of scenarios that would warrant the will o wisp.

"Will it come back to me?" the student asked, looking up at the fortune teller again.

"No, child - the wisp is meant to be free," Agatha explained. "Once it has helped you, you will never see it again."

"Oh, alright then." Ardere sighed, almost sorrowful that she'll never experience something so special again. The thought of her parents losing their minds trying to comprehend this creature did bring some joy to her mind. "But thank you still."

With that said, the redhead turned around to leave the tent. She'll be sure to remember to label the cap with her name on it.

"Take care, child."

- Cowrite with the GM

Stepping out of the tent, Mary Sue felt more comfortable with herself. She still had all the nervous jitters a kid might have with her first day of school, but besides that, she didn't feel fear about being incompetent, or a failure, she just felt like her. Cracking her knuckles in her hands, she breathed a sigh of relief, and looked back at the tent, only to realize a boy had started talking to her. Quickly realizing this was an oppurtunity to get to know somebody and have them *not* be instantly scared of her, her brain instantly started formulating a response.

Smiling at him, she looked down at the compact and said, "I know, right? I love it so much." Affirming observations and mimicing social behaviors was a way that she knew tended to build bonds. Maybe it was dorky or weird to think of it like that, but it was the sort of thinking she felt like she could handle. Looking the boy up and down, she said, "My name is Mary Sue, what's yours? And... what's been going wrong? Today's been rough over here too." She gave him a smile, and hoped that she could start forging some real connections here. She... didn't wanna be alone? Getting to know people would help with that a lot.

As Mai and Danny joined forces to perform their best interpretation of a L.A. earthquake for Sabine, no one was available to stop April from sinking Mai’s precious ship. The girl began to talk, first in compliment, then…the joke. Mai knew April well enough to know it was just a joke and not an actual accusation, but it was too late. April had hit upon one of Sabine’s insecurities, whether she’d openly admit to it or not. Small jokes were fine, but she was touchy about the clique. It would seem that even April realized her fuckup as she began to devolve into aimless chatter, but it was too late by then. Mai was about ready to cringe out of existence, but April had mercifully peeled away to toss some trash.

When Sabine took her leave to follow April, Mai didn’t comment. It was over. The Titanic was going down. A fucking shame - they could have been powerful.

Danny's enthusiastic arm slapping brought Mai back to reality. “You think? I dunno, Beanie don’t fuck with being called out like that…” she muttered in a rare moment of sincerity before slipping back into things as Danny pushed her towards the dunk tank. He was right - what the fuck was she on about when her prey, her arch-nemesis even, was right there? Defenseless. Does the tiger concern herself with her sisters while the boar sits unaware, begging to be pounced upon?

As she was pushed forward, the attendant dropped a ball in her hand. She weighed the ball for a moment, getting used to the feel before her eyes flashed up towards the target of her irrational ire. She moved to the designated spot, tossed the ball once into the air before settling into a stance. She wound up, fingers digging into the ball, before channeling her inner Eri Yoshida, her arm whipping around her side and releasing a knuckleball so beautiful that twenty-six hundred miles away, in a house in Satellite Beach, Florida, one Mr. Timothy Wakefield would be sitting in his study when a single, warm tear would fall from his eyes and he would know. He would know in his heart of hearts that the world had just been blessed with one more natural-born knuckler.

The ball sailed high, seeming as if it might miss the target completely, but as it approached, it harshly broke at the last moment, diving down and striking the target true. Dead center. Before anyone had a chance to register it, Coulson was once more plunging toward the murky depths.

It took a moment to register with Mai what she had just done, but when it had, she had thrown her arms into the air, tossing away her pent-up animosity and was just about to unleash a victory screech when Danni beat her to it, his scream more of fear than celebration. Mai didn’t hesitate, spinning on her heels and bounding towards Danny as quick as her little legs would allow. “What’s wrong, Danny-bebe?” she asked, first scanning him to look for injury, then scanning their surroundings looking for an ass to kick. A false alarm, it would seem, as Danny wasted no time in locking his arm with hers then dragging her off on yet another adventure. She relented, her aforementioned little legs pounding away at the ground to keep up so as to not be literally dragged behind Danny in his excitement. She didn’t even have time to tease Beanie and April before they were gone.

And that was the story of how one Phan Le Chi Mai was kidnapped on her very first day of her Junior year of high school. As they ran off towards Agatha’s tent, Chi Mai wondered if she might receive her very own Amber Alert. If Aggie turned her into a frog, she was going to be pissed. There was a certain level of stoned that Mai had to reach before she was comfortable heading into creepy spooky land and she just wasn’t there yet. No where close.

If Aggie turned her into a frog, she would piss on Danny. Give the fucker some warts outta spite or something, or whatever frogs do.

---

As the door to the dorm room opened again, a dejected Teddy moved inside. He was clean now, having freshly showered and switched to a plain black t-shirt with a pair of jeans, but…he had almost lost it. In the bathroom. He had panicked when he saw the fur and it took everything he could muster to hold himself together. If it was going to happen, he’d rather it not be during a carnival. The last thing he needed was for people to think there was a goddamn petting zoo going on too.

Teddy approached his dresser, opening it to remove a long-sleeved black and red flannel shirt that he quickly slid on. Would he look silly dressed like that in this weather? Probably. But what other choice did he have? He knew he obsessed over it too much, it wasn’t anything he could change so why let it control him? His eyes floated to the open book on his desk. He was aware that there were others who were far worse off than he, who had no means of getting even a little respite, but…that knowledge hadn’t made it any easier to live with his situation. Dr. McCoy’s book warned against resenting other mutants who were more human-passing, and damn it he tried - he really did - but…he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t just a little jealous.

Teddy moved to his window, watching the people move from attraction to attraction below like ants, setting his jaw as he tried to steady his breathing. He was getting too worked up and desperately needed to calm himself. Used to be he could just go to Jimmy who’d help him find perspective or Dorothy who’d kick him out of his funk. For the first time, it really hit home how much he really missed his upperclassmen. Since their graduation, he didn’t really have too many friends left at the school. Diana, sure, but it wouldn’t be fair to her for him to just latch onto her because everyone else was gone. Mai was well…Mai. And Leah wasn’t exactly the talky-feely type. There was Altman, if he counted. Teddy shook his head. He couldn’t talk to Altman. Not about real things. Altman treated him like an equal. The thought of looking weak in front of Hulkling, of having him look down upon Teddy, well it churned the guy's stomach.

Speaking of which, a rumbling growl rose up from Teddy’s tummy, pulling him from his thoughts. He had forgotten that he was hungry. Again. He shook his head, turning away from the window, noticing that the burning feeling in his arms and legs had passed. He no longer felt like he was about to burst into flames. Thankfully, the moment was over. He left his room, heading for the elevator before popping back in to retrieve his hat and make sure the door was properly closed and locked. Once done, he made his way to the elevator just as the doors were sliding closed. He moved to stop the doors, but the panicked expressions of the people onboard caused him to halt, allowing the doors to shut completely as the car descended. Teddy stood in silence for a moment, a bit embarrassed, before making his way to the stairs. Peering over the edge of the railing and dreading the descent, Teddy sighed.

He hated stairs.

---

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Dorian was glad that this new girl seemed to be much friendlier than the other people he'd met so far today. He wanted to ask if the compact did something, or if maybe her powers came from advanced tech that allowed her to use that compact as a magical girl transformation that gave her 'powers' she could use. Her own Ironman suit, or Thor's hammer situation so to speak. But before he could speak she asked about why his day had been going so downhill before adding that hers hadn't exactly been going well either. "Oh…it's…kind of a long story, which is crazy to even think about given the carnivals barely just begun." He looked towards the tent, wondering what was going on inside before focusing his attention back towards Mary Sue.

"Names Dorian Gray by the way. Though I go by Ghost under MojoTV for streaming. Uh, please don't Dox me." he replied with a bit of a chuckle. "We uh…we had a freshie run into us, literally, and caused a few power flare ups. Some fire and accidental possessions later and well…let's just say it was a bad start to the school year and my birthday. Aside from that just a lot of other little things happening here and there that piled onto it all. What about you?" As Dorian asked, the tent flaps opened up and the monotonous ginger from before came out. "Oh that's my cue. Wish me luck! Oh and if you want my Filt account is GhostHost send me a message there and we can link up…or wait here and join my friends. They should be heading here soon." Dorian said to her as he began to make his way inside of the tent.

---

---

Well, that was a bunch to unload. Victoria was initially taken a bit aback by the outburst, but it was a blessing in disguise, as she could learn so much more about people when they were out of their comfort zone than when everything was hunky-dory. Also, her choice of pretend-nationality could not be more handy right now, although she made a note to only react to what Zari said, and not to her robot companion. As Zari retook her stance, Victoria did the opposite, standing down.

"First of all, I am sorry. I was berating myself for that spectacular failure. I was not trying to insinuate that I failed because you held some unfair advantage, but because regardless of what advantage you hold, I should not have let that happen. If I worded it poorly and made it sound like I was a sore loser, I apologize." she started.

"However-" she took a breath, pointing to the sign at the stall, "-the sign says 'sword fighting', not 'olympic fencing' or what have you. The way they taught me here, fighting with a sword involves more than just wielding a blade, but also grappling, and footwork, and scaring the opponent among others. It's not that I don't care, or disrespect you, but I never fought or even sparred in any other manner than full on, so how was I supposed to know you've had a different rule set in mind?"

"Look, we're going to have to live with each other for at least a year, so I'd rather clear any issuess that come up between us. So I'll admit: I don't understand the point of it. I have dedicated myself to one thing only: To protect mankind from those they can't protect themselves from, and everything I do is to serve me on that path. To you, this may be a sport. But to me, this is my purpose in life. If someone who is stronger than me comes up later, what good would training with some limitations my opponent won't abide by do me then? They would turn me into a pretzel, and then stomp on a couple dozen civilians on their way to breaking the bank, because I was concerned with honor, and proper form, rather than... well... neutralizing the threat."

She took the weapon off off her forearm and offered it to Zari, "If that's not what you want to do, I understand, and I'll get out of your way so you can go have fun doing what you like to do. And, believe it or not, I may be smart, but that does not translate into people skills, quite the opposite, I'd say. So please, if you have any other bone to pick with me, now or later, talk to me? Chances are I don't even realize that what I say or do is grinding your gears." she sighed, as that seemed to be happening quite frequently.

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@Ever Faithful@Natsu@TrainerBlue192: Once Ardere has left the tent, with her new shiny magic item courtesy of the witch Agatha Harkness, it's Dorian's turn to go inside and get his fortune told. Mary Sue is of course welcome to wait outside if she'd like to continue chatting with him afterwards, or perhaps Ardere is the next candidate for her to try to make friends with? If not, there's always other activities going on at the carnival - maybe one or both of them wants to try out sword fighting? Or dunking the Headmaster Coulson?

@BlueSky44@Forsythe@Nallore@Kirah@Blizz:

"My goodness! In agreeance with the oracles and the prophecies and the fair maidens of the east, ye haft doneth it!" the King exclaimed, their words getting even more incomprehensible and confusing, as they saw the foam sword shatter against Leah's hair. "A winner of this round of the tourney, we doth have! You shall advance to cross swords with more, yes? What is your name, brave ser knight? So that the bards and the sweet small children might singeth it in agreeance with what is right and just!"

The King wasn't touching the conflict between Zari and Vicky with a ten foot pole - they really did not want to deal with it. So they did what they did with everything they didn't want to deal with, they ignored it. Besides, given that they were also annoyed with Ser Megan, it was much more fun for them to focus on the girls failing to sword fight and instead doing what looked like a sword boxing match from an SNL skit?

"Do you know what we do to witches in Otherworld?" Ser Megan asked Madalyne plainly. She feinted forward, managing to catch Mads off guard, and Megan held her foam sword at Madalyne's throat. "Yield or die, witchbreed," Ser Megan warned. Not that she was ACTUALLY going to kill her, right? Plus, the sword was made out of foam - foam couldn't hurt people, right? No one from the club seemed to be concerned about Ser Megan threatening death, and the King had even said these fights were to the death, so it all had to be pretend.... right??? RIGHT??? RIGHT???!?!?!??!?!?

@Ogobrogo: With his roommate out, there's no one around in the room to bother Teddy - or perhaps tell him about the problematic history of Dr. McCoy and suggest perhaps a better author with fewer war crimes to read from. The carnival being hard for him was unfortunately not surprising - that was the danger about being friends mostly with upperclassmen. Hopefully though, once school got underway properly, the loneliness would get a little bit easier. But the universe seemed to have something else in mind for him. There was a rap-rap-rap at the door. "Mr. Thompson? I was hoping if I could have your assistance," an elderly voice, with a faux British-ish accent, called out.

---

---

"You weren't there, Diana - you showed up after the fact. They're a pack of vicious, cruel assholes," Percy swore. Was he exaggerating? Maybe just a little bit. But again, he wouldn't fess up to it. He was purposefully leaving out that he had lost control of his own powers, triggering the entire situation as he had bumped into Dorian. As much as Percy prided himself on being right and being logical, he was also incredibly emotional. He was angry and pissed, so sure, maybe he'd exaggerate things a little bit to save face.

He listened to Zelda recounting her story - and if he were being honest, he had no idea what her powers were. Some sort of image projection, it sounded like? He was sure that whatever she had shown this girl couldn't have been that bad. Maybe she had projected a picture of some fanart she had seen of She-Hulk and Daredevil kissing, and the girl had run away in fright? Zelda struck him as the geeky type, purely based on the bear she had been holding. He didn't have much else to go off of. Oh, and the name - he figured it was hard not to be a geek when you were named Zelda.

"People are idiots anyways," Percy said, attempting to be somewhat reassuring to her. "I wouldn't bother with too many of them." A few were fine. Percy would rather go for quality over quantity when it came to friends. He also just had issues in general when it came to trusting other people - he'd much rather rely on himself. Why introduce new variables that he couldn't control?

"We were going to head to fortune telling, I'm sure that girl must be gone by now. Can't imagine why she'd hang around outside the tent all day."

If they ran into Dorian and the other assholes though, Percy might just lose his mind...

---

---

To say April was flustered and emotionally knocked on her ass when Sabine came on over was an understatement.

She wished that the ground would swallow her hole - or that she would be able to just open her eyes and find herself in bed, and this had all been a bad dream. Maybe one of the kids with magic or reality warping powers had done a not-so-funny prank on everyone at school, making them live out their worst nightmare versions of a first day of school. She wanted oh so desperately to be able to just have nothing have happened, for this to be a distressing dream she could recount to her friends later and get a mixture of shocked gasps and stifled chuckles.

More than anything, April didn't want to take responsibility for the words that had flooded out of her mouth like an oil spill.

There were a lot of days - more than April would admit - where she wanted to run away from herself and just be anyone else. With the gorgeous girl in front of her, the light perfectly playing with tones of Sabine's hair, April wished a meteorite would crash into Earth's atmosphere and nail her perfectly in the face. Nice and quick, a real blink and you miss it moment, and sure people would be sad, but at least April wouldn't have to feel the things she was feeling.

"Oh my gosh, I am SO SO SO SO sorry!!" April apologized frantically. "I regretted saying it the minute I said it, my mouth tends to just have a mind of its own and then I just can't stop saying things but that is 1000% on me, I don't know you super well - but you're besties with my bestie so you have to be pretty cool and you have amazing hair, by the way, if you want to share your hair care routine? Wait, shit, sorry, here I go, rambling again. I am really sorry about that. You had made the joke when we were heading over here about mind wiping the teachers so I, like, assumed that it was fair game but that was wrong of me and I promise I'll never do it again."

"Again, so very very very sorry. But there's nothing eating at me - I'm completely fine - thanks for asking though!! Like, I appreciate it because again as we've just established we don't know each other very well so I guess maybe I seem like I'm not fine, but I am fine - not that I'm like fine fine because I think that's kinda obnoxious when people say that about themselves, but I'm like oh she's doing well, she's vibing, she out here - that sorta fine if that makes sense?" April's face was bright red. She was trying very much not to think about that, and instead to try to slow down her own tongue, but she already tended to word vomit when she wasn't nervous and stressed - and being confronted by her crush on the first day of school for a poorly chosen joke, right after her besties had a nightmare of an interaction with a freshie? April had never been this stressed out before in her life.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Danny shouted at her and Sabine that it was time to go meet up with Dorian. Once her heart rate had calmed down a little bit, she glanced down at her phone, seeing that there was a text from Dorian. Clicking on it, she opened up the image and... April's jaw dropped. "Oh my god, I need to go find Dorian right now!!"

Behind them, at the dunk tanks, Coulson had just managed to hoist himself back up onto his seat. There was then a loud CRACK! as the tank suddenly exploded, the water exerting high levels of pressure up against the glass. Luckily, none of the glass hit anyone or anything, but it did mean that the dunk tanks were out of commission - something Headmaster Coulson honestly probably did not mind very much...

April turned her head, her eyes wide as she took in the scene. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit... was that me??? Did I do that? Oh gods, I hope he isn't hurt, please please please be okay..."

As Dorian entered the purple tent and its flaps closed behind him, he would find himself transported into what looked like a magical emporium. Candles, tarot cards, runes, and crystals floated idly through the air, suspended by some invisible force. Old tomes were piled up in stacks and spilling off of shelves, trunks were chained (some of them bucking, as if something ancient and dreadful inside were attempting to escape), and a small black cat stared at him with an unnerving gaze. In the middle of the tent was a small circular table, sat at which was the old crone herself, the famous witch (and sometimes babysitter), Agatha Harkness. A pair of beautiful cherry chopsticks were held by her frail old hands, as she ate what looked like some Chinese takeout.

"You will forgive me, Mr. Gray, but when you live to be my age, you will find it is harder to delay sustenance than it once was," Agatha commented. "Now, sit, and tell me what it is that Agatha Harkness can do for you, young man?"

Dorian marveled at the inside as he wandered in, every step careful and slow as he inspected the decor of Agathas tent. His mouth agape in awe at all the mystical items that surrounded him. He'd spent enough time in the Sanctum Sanctorum, but this...this was a different kind of magic all together. He managed to whisper out a single sentence before he realized he was being rude. "Woah...it's bigger on the inside." He took a seat before him, shuffling it forward so that he was closet towards the table before looking down. "You're chill Agatha. I don't mind if you eat, we all gotta do it at some point." He was delaying the inevitable, he'd come for readings, but now that it was happening suddenly he was afraid. Sometimes ignorance was bliss...but was this one of those times? Dorian pulled out the note that was on his door and placed it on the table for her to see. "I had other questions originally but...I found this a few minutes ago on my dorm room door. Someone's been leaving notes for a while now but this...it's escalating."

The witch peered at the note, reading it over several times as her eyes widened somewhat in shock or horror. "This is disgusting," Agatha murmured. It had to have been done by someone at the Margaret Carter Institute - no one else had access to Stark Hall, although she supposed perhaps someone might've slipped on in during move-in... "I will see if I can determine who is behind this. Whoever it is, rest assured they will face severe consequences," Agatha swore, even though she did not work at the school anymore. Perhaps she meant she would curse the person.

At first, it looked like the Eight of Cups, Reversed had been pulled - but then, like a glitch, the card hopped into the deck and was quickly replaced with the High Priestess. Agatha's eyes widened in alarm. She hadn't sensed any magic on the note, but in a read for who was responsible and the High Priestess was the card that forced itself to the front? This situation could not be taken lightly. This was not some childish prank, it was...

Agatha's mind flashed back to a day many years ago, one where she had been afflicted with psychic pain. She studied Dorian again for a moment, her eyes narrowing. "The Dark Priestess has returned, then," Agatha murmured. If she had had doubts before about leaving for Strange Academy, they were multiplied a thousand times. It had been over a decade since anyone had sensed the immortal sorceress Selene.

Dorian hoped that 'severe consequences' meant cursed, or worse expelled. He watched closely as she went to pull a card our, but before she could give the read it seemingly left them by magic and another came out. That was so cool! No wonder everyone was trying to come into Agathas tent, if she pulled tricks like this the word of mouth would spread like wildfire. Her eyes though...they made him worried. His father did Tarot, but Dorian couldn't recall what the card meant. He guessed it was bad, but what she said next just served to confuse him more. "The Dark Priestess? Who's that? Like an old student of yours or something?" He'd heard Selene called many things, but that title wasn't one of them, or at the very least not one Max was ever willing to share. What's more Dorian had yet to meet the accursed doll who so often referred to herself in that manner. He leaned forward, waiting to see if the cards would do more, another trick of magic to help illuminate this new question.

If Agatha heard his question, she pretended not to have. "The Eight of Cups, Reversed - one of those leaving you notes will make one final attempt and cease. I do not see any escalation into violence in your future," Agatha said. "As the content has been harmless until now, there is nothing that you need to worry about, Dorian. Now, what else is there you wished to ask me?" She didn't breathe another word about the Priestess.

Dorian blinked slowly, looking around the tent once more before looking back towards Agatha. Had he just imagined it all? Was the card still just the eight of cups reversed? It felt like a strange sense of deja vu, as if he'd just awoken from a nearby future back only moments into the past. Dorian took the note back and placed it in his pocket. "Well that's crash. Thanks. Erm." He looked a little embarrassed for a moment, cheeks flushing pink as she asked what other questions he had. "There's this boy, Diana Novikovas brother, we kinda gave him a rough start to the year...powers went haywire and well...he's really upset. What can I do to mend things? I'd hate for my friends brother to hate me...Dannis working on getting him back the clothes we ruined but..." Dorian leaned back in his chair before running his hand through his hair from front to back. "I'm sorry I don't even know if the cards can tell things like that."

Agatha was silent and still for a moment, as if lost deep in thought. But then, she shook herself slightly, popped another bit of takeout in her mouth, and the cards began to flow through the air. "The cards tell us what we need to know, but most importantly, they are a mirror into your soul. The cards know what you know, Dorian Gray." They flew and flew and flew before three of them stopped, a simple Past ~ Present ~ Future spread. Agatha's nerves settled somewhat, as she was back in a territory that felt safer. "The Knight of Cups - your past. I have a feeling that this card is you, Dorian. A romantic. Leading forward, hoping to find a kindred soul to share his cup with. I sense that when you first met Mr. Novikov, you were... somewhat swept away, perhaps?"

"Now for your present, you drew Temperance. I assume your father taught you the basics, Dorian? Temperance is a card of clarity and balance, as well as hope. As it is from the major arcana, it denotes a major spiritual force in your life. There is something deep between you and Mr. Novikov. The guilt and regret you feel now, your urge to make things right, to make amends... You are on the right path already."

The last card gave Agatha some hesitation. She flicked her fingers, drawing one more card to offer clarification as to its meaning. She drew the Six of Cups. She tilted her head somewhat, mulling this over. "For your future, I drew the Tower, Reversed. Another card from the major arcana, another spiritual force. I see a great change between the two of you, a cosmic destiny... For clarification, I drew the Six of Cups - a card of childhood sweethearts and joy."

"To mend things with this boy, follow your instincts. Do what you feel is right. Your heart will not fail you," Agatha concluded.

Those cards Dorian knew. But the words coming out of Agathas mouth felt so foreign. She wasn't wrong to say he was swept away at their first meeting, even if she did get his last name wrong. But Dorian just wanted to know how to make amends, and now there's a cosmic destiny as well as love and joy? He had planned on asking for a reading about if he'd get a boyfriend, but somehow the cards gave him a two for one special. He stared blankly at the cards, reaching forward and touching the six of cups gently as he whispered to himself. "Childhood sweethearts." He looked at Agatha with a big smile, blush coloring his cheeks as the previous question had already escaped his mind. He had a cosmic destiny with a cute boy! "Wasn't expecting that reading to be so Aster, heck I usually never see the tower in its Reversed form so that's a huuuge relief. Man Captain Nemo was right, there really was still time to turn this birthday around...Oh...uh, do you think he'll be upset that I broke his teacup? It was am accident i swear!"

Agatha chuckled slightly. She remembered her first love. Well, actually, she didn't - but she liked to think that she had been like this too, way back then. "Captain...? Ah, you mean Ser Nemo. I am sure he will understand. Any of my students should be able to assist you with a mending spell, if needed," Agatha added. "Now it is your birthday, so I am sure that you are very much accustomed to receiving gifts - yet I will not pretend otherwise, I have been giving trinkets to all who came to see me today, now for you..."

"Ah, I have just the thing," Agatha said, before pulling out of thin air a pendant in the shape of a star. The metal had a strange shimmer of sorts to it, and as someone who had grown up around magic, Dorian would recognize immediately it had been enchanted. "When things are dark, use this to find your way," she said, offering no further explanation, before passing the necklace over to Dorian.

Dorian marveled at the gift. Not only because it was incredibly beautiful, but also because it was quite literally plucked out of thin air. He held the necklace carefully in his hands, feeling the cool metal against his skin as he listened to what she had to say. Clearly the jewelry was enchanted, and based on Agathas description he knew exactly what it was. "So cool! Thank you Agatha!" He placed the necklace on, the silver chord shimmering in the candle light like elven mythril before he tucked it in underneath his shirt and collar. "Now I don't need a flashlight around for those dark training exercises!" Dorian began to make his way out of the tent before stopping just at the flaps "Oh and it's Novikova, though I guess it's hard to hear the a sometimes." he said before skipping out of her tent.

Agatha shook her head slightly. "Children..." she murmured, before her thoughts returned again to the card she had pulled - or rather, the cards - that had revealed that Dorian Gray had two stalkers. One a student at the Margaret Carter Institute, and the other, the one who had left this vicious, violent note today... the Dark Priestess SELENE!

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Sabine honestly didn't expect that reaction.

She essentially called out April for being a weirdo and hiding her true feelings while also insulting Sabine and yet, the girl was falling over herself, apologizing profusely and denying that anything was wrong. It threw Sabine for a loop. Typically, this is the point where the other girl would fight back, call Sabine a bitch, or the usual mean girl fanfare. This was unexpected.

It intrigued Sabine.

Sabine did not know April well enough to know if the girl was telling the truth or not, but Sabine prided herself on her ability to read social cues and make her own estimated deductions. And she knew April was not "all right". Far from it. There was pressure underneath, but if April wasn't ready to talk about that with an almost total stranger, Sabine could not blame her.

After the girl rambled on for a bit, which was amusing and cute, Sabine decided to put her out of her misery. "It's okay. I was mad, but I am not anymore. Just...be more mindful later on. It's a touchy subject very few people are allowed to comment on, let alone joke about."

April checked her phone as Danny called out to them, attempting to put more stock into what this conversation was than needed (she would see Danny paid for that later), but April seemed panicked. Dorian, the birthday boy himself, was ready for them and if April's reaction was anything to go by, in trouble. It wouldn't surprise Sabine if Dorian possessed another person in an attempt to fix silly mistakes.

Sabine was prepared to follow when she heard a crackling sound, followed by a shark CRACK as the Dunk Tank exploded, sending water and shards out. Sabine instinctively held her arms up before it was deemed safe. "Holy...." was all she said as she looked at April, who was even more panicked. Coulson, though, appeared unharmed.

Taking matters into her own hands, literally, Sabine ran up to April. "He's fine, you're fine, everything is fine. Take some deep breaths and let's go see Dorian." Sabine grabbed April's hands, squeezing before leading the girl away from the dunk tanks and following Danny and Mai to Agatha's Tent.

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Swords were cool and all, but at the end of the day, there was no greater weapon than a person's own two fists. Leah preferred to just beat her opponents senseless than use fancy swords or magic hammers. Andy seemed to like punching people too, so the two of them were on their way to the gym for a boxing match. Leah went off to change, and when she came back, she was in a black tank top and sweatpants rather than a large winter jacket. To call Leah shredded would be an understatement. The girl had a superhuman amount of muscle to spare. Her arms looked firm enough to be hiding solid rock under her skin. And given her powers... She probably was. She also had boxing gloves on.

And to make sure Andy didn't disintegrate her hands completely upon getting a swing on Leah, she managed to tie that sandpaper she called hair into something shorter. It was the messiest bun anyone had ever put their hair up unto, and no one could easily tell that it was actually three loose buns because of just how much hair she had, but Leah's hair wouldn't put Andy's skin and flesh in harm's way anymore. Normally, Leah liked to let her hair grow as long as possible because proved useful in a fight given the way it ate up whatever touched it. But right now, she wasn't Jotunn, she was just Leah, so there was no need to delete someone's hand from the universe.

"I mostly just do MMA, but I'm cool with whatever you feel like. I'm ready whenever you are."

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Andy did in fact want to box. She didn't expect Leah would right at that moment run off to the school gym to do it. Leah had won technically she could fight again in the sword thing. But Leah apparently was a lot like Andy and didn't care too much for the sword fighting. Andy wanted to learn because Zari knows how to do it and it would be nice to be able to spar.

"Uh..." She looked at what was going on with Zari and Victoria. The two seemed to be doing more talking than fighting. Andy went over and picked up her backpack and jacket. Neither would she dare leave behind. She shifted from foot to foot trying to decide if she should interrupt the conversation or just send Zari a text. She certainly didn't trust the king to tell her. And Madalyn was busy being badass in her fight with the girl that Andy still wanted to punch in the face. Why was she so punchable?

Finally deciding Andy went for the "both approach". "Zari, I'm going to meet Leah in the gym. We're gonna box." She said it loud enough that Mr. Eyeball probably heard her and might relay it. She also texted the same thing. She backed away keeping an eye on Zari until Zari gave her a nod. Andy didn't feel bad about ditching her now. Well, she still did. But at least Zari knew where to find her.

Andy made her way to the gym. She didn't super know her way around the campus yet. But she found the gym and Leah inside. She smiled seeing that Leah's hair had been pulled up and out of the danger zone.

"I know MMA too. So let's just stick with it. In real fighting situations, I tend to mix it up. But this is just for fun." Andy put her backpack on the bench, her jacket next to it. She took her starting stance and nodded. This time she'd let Leah go first since she had been a bit unfair with the sword fight.

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With renewed vigor she didn't know she had, Ardere left the tent in a hurry, excitement and wonder growing in her stomach, and almost crashing into the next person in line. Quite embarrassing, really. Ardere quickly readjusted herself to quit the hurry back to her dorm. The redhead may not know it yet, but the young girl waiting in line was her roommate, Mary Sue.

"Sorry." Ardere sputtered, feeling red around the cheeks while her arms clutched tightly around the jar. "I need to take this back to my dorm." Laughing awkwardly, Ardere slipped through the crowd and into the dormitory itself. Pulling out the note in her pocket of the location of her room, she began her hunt for the room number to safely store away her new gift. It would be a terrible shame if she had lost in at the carnival. Most importantly, Ardere wanted her brother to see it in person.

I wonder if you can talk. The redhead looked into the jar, wondering what its thoughts were.

The loud cracking caught Danni's attention for a moment, but he shrugged it off in the same thought. "If 'e 'ated it so much, why'd 'e bother volunteering? I wanted to go back and dunk 'iiiiim. Ugh, so not fair! Rigging it to explode or whatever maniacal t'ing Sinster clones do, you know? Maybe we don't cause Sinister seems like the kind of guy who doesn't advertise all his plans Danny rambled as he dragged Mai along.

""So, names. Sabril? No, too fishy. Water theme is fine, but like it feels gross, you know? 'ow about Amcade? Eh, sounds like a toddler learning about arcades." Danni mused, entirely onboard with his two besties swapping spit and deciding it must be true. ""Maybe something more like… Saberil? Hm, what were those things from Pop's time as a kid, Pokémon? Yeah feels kinda Pokémon-ie, you're right. Sabril? Sabeal? Sabeil?"

So focused on finding the perfect ship names for the new twosome, Danny didn't notice he'd just been wandering aimlessly, wherever the tent supposedly was. Were they on the opposite side of the Carnival from the tent? Were they standing right in front of it? Who knew? Not Danny and he realized it as he came to an abrupt halt, looked around blankly, and turned to Mai, confused.

"Uh… where's Aggie's tent again?"

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Madalyne listened to the conversation between Zari and Victoria, Zari seemed a little bit heated from Victoria as she seemed to argue with her while Victoria gave her reasoning. She did agree with Victoria, if your opponent didn't have a sense of honor in a fight then they shouldn't either. But it was a sparing match anyway Leah seemed to win her duel with Andy and the two of them headed off to do some boxing by the sounds of it.

Her attention quickly turned back to Megan as the woman charged at her again, she fell for the feint and the foam sword was aimed directly at her neck. She was still extremely angry at Megan for some reason still she wasn't sure why, but she was mad right now at herself for the feint. She was also getting a bit annoyed being called a Witchbreed as she glared at Megan as she tried to channel some of her magic to create a shield around herself. "If I had to guess nothing pretty." Madalyne said to Ser Megan as she tried to swing her sword at Megan.

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"Do you need a Snickers Bar or something Percy? Cuz you aren't you when you are hungry." Diana said teasingly to her brother, maybe the three of them could get something to eat along the way to Agatha's tent, her attention turned to Zelda as she explained what had happened. Everyone's powers seemed to be going haywire today, maybe they were nervous or excited about starting school again and might have caused the problem to happen with Dorian and Danny.

"Lets get some food and then head over to Agatha's. And we could get to know each other a little bit more." Diana suggested as she started to leave Stark Hall's lobby and started to make her way over back to the food stands. Even though she did steal some of Dorian's food when he brought them she wanted to have something a little bit bigger than a funnel cake.

Mary Sue barely has a moment to get a word out before Dorian had run off inside the tent. She supposed, in retrospect, that was a bit obvious given she was waiting in line, that this might not be the best place to try to make friends. She just nodded as he walked off, quietly muttering something along the lines of being happy to have met him. At this moment, she was still feeling overwhelmed, and didn't know if she wanted to keep pushing herself. She was actually thinking that getting herself some time to see her dorm and be away from other people might be useful, or at least let her process what Agatha had told her.

Seeing the girl who'd just left the tent was on her way back to the dorms, she made a compromise with herself and said, "Oh, I was actually going to head there myself, mind if I join you?" She really didn't want to impose, but if she was looking for time to herself, she'd have plenty of that once she was actually in her room. Keeping pace quietly behind her, she didn't say much, instead giving her space to talk to her if she wanted. She'd been introducing herself first a lot today, and giving other people a chance to do it might make things easier for herself.

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"I mean it does seem to not be the greatest first day of school at this point, but maybe it'll get better. My sister sort of just left me alone and basically ran off to be with her friends, so betting her day is going better..." Zelda commented with a shrug. There was a little glimmer of hope that the day would get better, but knowing her luck, it probably wouldn't. Things were going downhill a bit, and if this was an indicator of the rest of her time at this school, then this was definitely going to be fun.

She looked over at Diana as she suggested getting some food or something before heading over towards Agatha's fortune telling tent of sorts, and she just nodded her head at that. It was something that they could do, and also give a little bit more time for there to potentially not be that same girl as earlier over there or something. It was not an experience she wanted to revisit or anything quite yet. So she was fine getting something to eat, she was a bit hungry at this point anyway, so why not?

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"You clearly weren't listening if you decided to straight up say this isn't fencing. I never said that it was. I said that the rules of sport of sorts usually follow similar rules, though in an actual fight obviously you do more. Trust me on that one, learning to use everything to your abilities to try and gain an upper hand is crucial in an actual life or death situation. Mr. Eyeball tends to get used as a distraction, so does Mr. Jaws, that being if I actually use my powers in an actual fight, of which I do. Plus I have a flying horse, being in a true fight stuff like that flies out the window. However you do not need to be patronizing since you clearly misunderstood what was actually said more then anything else."

"01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01101101 01101001 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100"

"Yeah yeah yeah I know, it's on my to do list. I still haven't finished Mr. Jaws fully do you really trust me to give you laser that you can shoot on a whim?"

"01000110 01100001 01101001 01110010 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100"

"That's what I thought. Now where was I... Oh right. Sport fighting or "for fun" fighting tends to follow a very different ruleset in order to ensure that everyone is on an even playing field. It doesn't matter if you are big or small, whose faster and whose stronger. That's why I enjoy it. It's how I can win sparring matches against Asgardians who do have the super strength that I don't have. Because you use your brain to figure out the best ways to swing, to fight, but you sitting there kind of being a bit patronizing with how you were wording things is not exactly going to help. I don't have a problem with you, actually I don't ever really have any problems with anyone, but when someone basically treats something I care about like trash or something like that, or even maybe as a joke or something, then I'm going to fight back and defend it."

"01001100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 01100011 01101001 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01000111 01100101 01101110 01101111 01110011 01101000 01100001"

"Oh you shush it wasn't that bad!" Zari protested, though it seemed like she was a lot calmer then she had been moments ago. Meaning the odds of her killing anything electrical was going down, which was always a plus side.

"01011001 01100101 01100001 01101000 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011"

"Aaaaanyway," she said, turning to keep her full attention on Victoria now, "Are you going to raise your sword and we'll continue this duel again or no? It's no fun sitting around here doing nothing." Yup, she definitely seemed to be calming down a little bit now.

As darling Danni dragged Mai away from the Dunk Tank, she heard the crack and felt the panic. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Was that her fault? She could only spare a glance back toward the tanks before being urged forward by Danny, and Mai, seizing the opportunity, quickened her pace to get the fuck out of dodge before people realized that she just fucking merc’d the headmaster with her badass throw. Danny, lost in the Sinister-brand sauce, was uhm…fanboying? Nerding out? Like, she knew that he was on about something she could clown, but for fuck’s sake she was lost. Clones? Was Coulson a sheep?

When the topic moved over to pet names for Margaret Carter Institute’s hottest new icons, Mai perked up though. “Mm…yeah, no, Sabril’s out. It makes me think of gills and that makes me feel violently ill. I don’t hate Amcade, but I’m pretty sure I only like it because I know Beanie would hate it.” Mai added to Danny’s ramblings, working out her own grey matter to come up with SOMETHING cute. “A…bean? Abean? Apribean. Sapril…bruh, what the fuck, how the fuck are they supposed to work out if they’re names don’t even go together cute?”

“Aggie’s…bruh.” Mai said, shaking her head. “It’s over there.” Mai said confidently, pointing off towards her right before squinting, thinking it over, then turning around, shifting her finger and adding, “No, wait, fuck, it’s over uhm…”

Looking around at the crowd of people moving past them, Mai realized that she also had no idea where the fuck they had been going, nor did she have any idea what Aggie’s tent even looked like, having never visited it in either of her other carnival days.

“Dude, how the fuck are we actually getting lost in a field?” Mai laughed, giving up. She wasn’t tall enough to see over the people, let alone the booths. How was she supposed to find the witch’s hut?

---

Resigning himself to make the big descent, Teddy stopped when he heard something down the hall. The door between the stairwell and hallway hadn’t yet closed all the way when the sound of knocking bounced across the walls. Teddy peered through the window at the person standing outside one of th- wait…that was his and Percy’s room. Was it somebody looking for the younger Novikov? It would just be rude to leave them knocking on a door that wouldn’t be answered. Teddy reached out to grab the door, opening it once more when the voice called out his name.

“I’m sorry, did I hear you calling for me?” Teddy asked from the doorway, softly so as to avoid startling his solicitor. “How can I help?” he added as he searched the person’s face, trying to pull a name from the void that was his memory. Some people were good with faces, others good with names. Teddy was equally terrible at both. It’s why he kept the journal. It helped him organize his thoughts, so that he wouldn’t be caught flat-footed when confronted with somebody he ought to already know. A situation, for example, exactly like the one unfolding before him. Teddy silently vowed to expand his notes as he awaited the pitch.

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@Kirah@Blizz: The two of them had left the carnival behind, and were currently in the school gym. The gym facilities here were rather remarkable. The first floor of the gym was the sort of standard gym you'd find at any university - a weight room, cardio room, pool, climbing wall, basketball courts, etc etc. There was a room with padded floors where people practiced martial arts and other fighting techniques, filled with punching bags and whatnot. And of course, a big open space was used as the dedicated room for combat training, with reinforced walls that could take small nuclear blasts if needed. The second floor of the gym had a track, a roller skating rink, and a room filled with what looked like Bacta tanks that contained the school's virtual reality training software - the Framework. It was based off of some old SHIELD tech, allowing students to simulate dangerous combat scenarios without physical danger.

@Ever Faithful@Natsu: The will-o-the-wisp in the jar didn't respond to Ardere. If it were able to talk, it seemed to have chosen silence for the moment. The two girls, unaware that they were roommates, were both headed to the fourth floor of Stark Hall, room 401. Little playing cards with their names written on them in purple sharpie - Ardere and Mary Sue - were attached to the door. Room 402 had the names Sabine and Leah written on playing cards fixed to its door. In fact, if they looked up and down the hallway, they'd see tons of little playing card decorations - it was an entire theme.

@BlueSky44@Forsythe@Nallore:

Mads conjured up a shield of eldritch power to protect herself, knocking Ser Megan's sword away from her neck. With her other hand, Mads swung her blade at Ser Megan, hitting the other girl lightly in the side. "That's a rude assumption," Ser Megan said plainly. She swung her sword and it collided with Mads' magical shield, and the shield shattered. Megan swung again and her sword hit Mads' neck lightly. "You're dead," Ser Megan said calmly. "I'll die within hours of the wound you inflicted on me - if I'm lucky. Otherwise, infection will strike me down within the week."

The King was playing on their phone at the moment, updating their SuperLink profile, and very much going out of their way to not deal with any of the fights going on. One of the club members though looked REALLY engaged in the drama between Zari and Vicky. "GUT HER!!!" they screamed, but it wasn't clear whose side they were on.

@Ogobrogo: Standing at the door was an older gentlemen, wearing a smart, classic suit. He had intelligent piercing eyes and a balding head of white hair. Teddy wouldn't recognize him, not because he should have, but rather because the person at the door was new to the Margaret Carter Institute. "Yes, thank you," the man said. "I am Ser Nemo - the new, or rather, old Time Travel Studies professor. I was wondering if you might help me with some things in my office? They're rather heavy and my strength just isn't what it used to be," Ser Nemo admitted.

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Percy rolled his eyes at his sister's joke. "Ha ha ha, very funny," he deadpanned. Diana could be so incredibly corny at times. If either of them had been born to be a dad, it was her. She had the exact sense of humor of a father of two in his early 40s. Percy only needed to get her a collection of graphic tees so that way she could look the part as well. She'd need to start throwing a yearly SuperBowl party too. But Percy was sure she could find her own way into doing that without his help. "As you can see, Zelda, my sister is a comedic genius. It's a shame she doesn't have her own stand-up special."

As mean and rude as he was, Percy did love his sister though. Part of this was just how he had learned to show affection. His family tended to tease each other - that's just how they were. "Yeah, your sister's friends suck," Percy informed Zelda. "Those assholes probably get a kick out of tormenting freshmen. You're better off without her."

Zelda struck him as being pretty different from her sister anyways - he wasn't sure how they were related, just in brief encounters he could already see how they were almost alien to each other. Zelda's sister was loud and annoying and fashionable, whereas Zelda was quiet and shy and hidden and insecure. As they headed out of Stark Hall and towards the food trucks, they'd end up passing by Ardere and Mary Sue - not that Percy noticed those two or thought much of them, but Zelda would likely notice Mary Sue. And Mary Sue might notice Zelda in turn.

"The line's shorter now, at least - I was going to jump in front of a car if it hadn't moved," Percy observed. The lunchtime rush was over, so now it was a pretty short line to get carnival food. And he was somewhat hungry. The snack Diana had given him after the ordeal hadn't been very much.

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Just about every emotion known to humankind had to be swirling inside of April, as Sabine took her hands in her own. She had not fathomed that she'd be holding hands with Sabine fucking Bassard, the hottest girl to ever grace the halls of AA, when April had gotten up that morning. Being called gorgeous earlier by Sabine had already made April's heart flutter like a swarm of butterflies, desperate to escape the enclosure the kindergarten class was keeping them inside of for a science fair project. But now, with her hands in Sabine's soft, smooth, and delicate ones, April was in the eye of the storm of the hurricane of emotions.

She hadn't noticed before, but Sabine's eyes were a gorgeous hazel - flecks of green and brown intermingling together. April's own eyes dwelled on Sabine's face, and she couldn't help but take a small peak at Sabine's perfect lips. She dared to fantasize for a moment about what it would be like to kiss Sabine - what would her lips taste like? What would it feel like to cup Sabine's rosy cheeks in her hands, to hold that perfect girl? April decided kissing Sabine must have been like kissing Aphrodite - that the girl in front of her had to be the goddess of love in disguise, walking with the mortals just for fun.

The moment passed though, as did April's brief fantasy, as Sabine led her away from the dunk tanks - away from the Headmaster who was definitely going to be pissed if he realized April had been the one to shatter the tanks - and off after Danny and Mai. As worried and freaked and stressed as April was about Dorian and that horrific stalker, the butterfly storm swirling inside of her was an odd counterbalance, making everything feel somewhat surreal.

"Sorry, sorry, I kinda tend to ramble and then like can't really stop talking? Like, if you know that old meme where it's like do this or draw a million Uno cards it's like that, only it's shut up or draw a million Uno cards and I have like five gazillion cards in my hand at the end. I don't know if Danny's mentioned that - well I don't really know if he's said much of anything about me to you? He says all amazing things about you, btw, of course. Like, who wouldn't have only good things to say about you? Right? Um anyways so like also, I just got this nightmarish text from Dorian, so we do need to go find him really quickly - or I mean I need to, not that you need to, I'm not telling you what to do or anything, you can decide if you want to or if you don't want to and everything is chill and... Right, deep breaths, I'm going to stop right now and take a breath and..." April paused. Her fingers felt icy in Sabine's warm hands. As emotionally confusing and up and down as this moment was, she wished it would last forever - that she could just stay with her hands in Sabine's. April took a deep breath. "Sorry again - and um, thank you. For being so cool. And understanding. And like doing this - because you obvi don't have to, like, do this for a practical stranger. It's really cool of you. I mean, you're really cool. Sorry, I'll stop talking," April finished, laughing a bit nervously.

Eventually, they managed to catch up with Danny and Chi Mai, both of who looked a little lost. Ironically though, Agatha's tent was just around the corner, just out of sight. April didn't know that of course, having declined the map offered to her when she had first entered the carnival earlier - something she regretted. "Um this doesn't look like fortune telling... Unless Dorian wanted us to meet him at facepainting instead and I missed that?"

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Dorian opened the flaps to Agatha's tent, leaving the occult enclosed space to once again join in the rest of the Carnival activities. His face dropped slightly as he noticed Mary Sue wasn't there. Looking back over his shoulder he thought to himself Surely I wasn't in there for that long…right? He didn't know what he'd expected, maybe a new friend? Or perhaps at least an acquaintance. He let out a small sigh, as he stood there alone. Danni was always better at making friends than he was, hell Dorian was fairly certain most of his friends were ones Danni had brought along that ended up liking him as well. He pulled his phone out, seeing that both messages had been read by April and Danni and yet…

Dorian tried not to dwell on it. After all he just had a totally crash tarot reading that told him he had a love life to look forward to. Not only that but a cosmically important one at that! He was definitely feeling the aster right about now and no amount of Mary Sue's or other freshies would get him down. Besides maybe she had to use the restroom? He didn't exactly want to move away from his spot, he'd already told all of his friends to meet him here, but he also didn't want to look like the sad guy that's all alone at a Carnival. So instead he opted for the 'shy nerdy guy that's all alone' approach. Setting himself down on the same bench he'd spoken to the ginger freshman at before, straddling the seat as he reached into his bag and pulled out his steam deck.

He was about to power it on to load up his last save file when he noticed a familiar figure off in the distance. One Percy Novikova, grade A asshole and apparent childhood sweetheart as told by the cards. Dorian had read many enemies to lovers tropes, but he didn't think that was something that actually happened. Still.
He felt a sort of unease, a mixture of annoyance, sadness, and a strange fluttering inside his stomach. Oh gods was the Carnival food fighting against him? One hand fell towards his stomach instinctively, feeling to see if there was anything wrong. When he didn't feel anything he simply opted to ignore it and go back to his game, the black screen revealing to himself a slight smile on his face.

Dorian rolled his eyes at the image. Clearly gaming wasn't what he needed at the moment. He stuffed the device back into his bag, frustrated as he wondered why he felt the need to go up to Percy and attempt to talk to him. But he knew now wasn't the time, what's more he seemed to have a small entourage now. If Dorian was going to approach the subject it would be more private. Instinctively he reached his hand down the collar of his shirt, pulling out the new token given to him by Agatha. Fiddling with it in his hands until a stray beam of light reflected off the surface and into his eye. "Fuck." Dorian grunted as he dropped the pendant as he looked away and saw that his friends were at the wrong tent. "Well shit Aggie, t'at pendant has more use t'an I t'ought." he chuckled to himself as he stood up.

Dorian began to wave at his friends as he called out to them, something he was certain no one could ignore. While normally soft spoken to a degree, when it came to screaming matches he was top of the line. His parents used to joke they thought his real mutant ability was the power of his voice. " 'ey! Who let Danni be in charge of findin' me? We all know 'e 'as no sense of direction." he teased as he broke into a light jog towards the groups. He noticed April and Sabine holding hands, and simply smiled while choosing not to say anything about it. "Crisis averted! Good ol Aggie put some gris gris on the stalker and now t'ey won't be botherin me anymore!"

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"Okay, that works." Based on their fight a few minutes ago, Leah picked up on the fact that Andy had some decent footwork and knew how to stay light on her feet. There were typically two ways of dealing with the featherweights who mostly moved around their opponents: Option one was to be a rock that stayed still, only responding when they attack. It put them in an awkward spot where they had to be the aggressor and risk getting grappled by someone who could pummel them. Option two was to back them into a corner somehow, and cut off their escape so that they couldn't dodge. By making the only way out be through, they ran into the same problem as option two, except their opponent was the aggressor. By the looks of the way Andy was stood, Leah got the feeling that she wouldn't fall for option one.

Leah put her fists up to square and started closing in on Andy, moving in a swaying pattern. Left, right, left right. She was calculating just how she would immobilize her. And then she knew exactly what she'd do...

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Madalyne watched as Megan's sword smacked against her shield, she was glad that she knew the spell to do it and figured that it would be useful in the future in a fight as well to. She managed to get another hit on Megan but that ended up leaving her open as well to as Megan managed to break through her shield and felt the light tap on her neck. "That was a really good duel that was a lot of fun actually." Madalyne said as she looked over at The King who seemed to be on his phone, and the others seemed to be more interested in the fight between Zarina and Victoria. She was still really angry at Megan and really wanted to attack her again but choose not to.

"It was a lot of fun, i'll be around if you guys want to meet up or something later." Madalyne said to Zari, Victoria and Megan if she decided to join her as well, she decided to take out her phone that she had in her pocket to text April. She hadn't seen her roomie all day and wanted to see where she was and wanted to hangout with her bestie as she started to walk and text at the same time.

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Diana looked at her brother and sarcastically gave him a bow while smirking. "You are welcome I have a whole list of jokes back in my dorm." Diana said teasingly to her little brother, she looked at Zelda and gave her a friendly smile her brother was always a bit of an asshole but she learned that it was his own way to show affection to her at least she knew when he was actually being one and not. "You'll get used to our banter, Percy is always a grumpy little gremlin." Diana told her she started to make her way towards the food trucks and noticed that the lines were considerably a lot shorter now which was a good thing.

Her eyes started to scan the food trucks that were there, her eyes then focused on the one that was selling wings a few students had gotten from. It reminded her of a wing place that she'd visit whenever she visited their grandparents they had a lot of wing flavors and they were her favorite food as well to. When it was her turn Diana looked at the menu seeing that they had some cheese fries as well to and ordered that as well to along with a soda. "I'll be at one of the benches." Diana told Percy and Zelda as she found a nearby bench that was empty and sat down quickly digging in.