[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/SR52k84p/54b4e63d635603b22d80f72a4ba2be54.png[/img][hr][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b10d8-f60a-7779-a640-2ab9620bf297.webp[/img][hr][@Achronum][@Blizz][@Forsythe][@Kirah][@PatientBean][@Trainerblue192][hr][h3][color=AC3EFF][b]Evening - Thr. December 16th, 2038 - New Orleans, Louisiana[/b][/color][/h3][/center][hr]Gideon watched for a moment as Andy reappeared, deep in conversation with Eva Moore and a brunette she didn’t recognize. Had she seen Valerie with Eva just a few days ago? Yes. Was Gideon a himbo in every sense of the word, including when it came to recent memories? Abso-fucking-lutely. She had her gigantic buster sword strapped to her back, and she unbuckled the sheath from her back, laying it out across her lap. It made things easier for lounging. She usually took the sword off to shower, fuck, and laze around - she even tucked it into bed at night. 

“So,” Gideon said to Ben Gray. 

[color=silver]“So,”[/color] Ben repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. 

“What’s it like being dead?” she asked. 

He sighed slightly. This didn’t happen very often, not as much as it used to, but it still did from time to time. Gossip in the superhero community tended to be cyclical - today’s news would be buried tomorrow, only to be later unearthed and reexamined once nothing else interesting was going on. He tensed his jaw slightly at the realization that his kids - that all of these kids here - were about to learn that lesson the hard way. Their real names weren’t publicized for the contest, but the reporters had already figured out who each of them was earlier during the interviews. He didn’t want to think about what the trolls and sycophants online would be saying about his boys - public opinion was a battlefield he couldn’t protect them from as easily. 

[color=silver]“Why do you want to know?”[/color]

Gideon shrugged. “Curious. I can’t die. So.”

Ben tilted his head slightly. [color=silver]“Hmm.”[/color] He normally didn’t answer this question. It tended to just freak people out - knowing what happens after they die, or at least, what had happened to him. He hadn’t moved on, hadn’t gone fully to the other side, instead lingering on this world like a shade. [color=silver]“It’s like if you’re spectating a really dumb friend in a hero shooter game,”[/color] he explained. [color=silver]“And no matter what you do, they won’t let you help them. All you can do is watch.”[/color]

She nodded slightly, and picked at her fingernails with her teeth. “Sounds kinda lame.”

[color=silver]“Yeah,”[/color] Ben agreed. [color=silver]“It is kinda lame.”[/color]

And then, moments later, his son reappeared, sucking face with Percy. Both of them were clearly feeling better. At Dorian’s request for beignets, Ben blinked for a bit, before a tentacle snaked out and snatched one of the nearby plates, bringing it on over. [color=silver]“I’m… going to go over there, you two let me know if you need anything,”[/color] Ben said awkwardly. He stood up, ruffled Dorian’s hair, and walked back over to the adult’s area. 

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In the midst of the courtyard, equidistant to all the various groups assembled, Valerie shook her head. [color=935DB8]“You don’t have to apologize - I’m not upset about it,”[/color] Val reassured her. [color=935DB8]“If anyone would be upset about it, it’s my lovable oaf of a brother,”[/color] she motioned with her thumb over towards Harry, rolling her eyes slightly. [color=935DB8]“He always hated it. Like Echo’s any better.”[/color]

She then chuckled slightly. Time travel was one of the things she had yet to experience - and she was perfectly happy to keep it that way. She had too many regrets, too many [i]what ifs[/i] that she knew she would chase down. She’d go back to Genosha if she could, save them all - go back to the Mutant Underground, save Cayden and the others - go back and go back and go back… but she would never move forward. She’d never live. [color=935DB8]“I think we’re all better off without time travel.”[/color]

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America and Eli looked at each other for a second, with the practiced nonverbal communication of a long friendship. They shrugged at one another, before America spoke up, “what [i]is[/i] a She-Ra?” she asked. “It’s a show? What kind?” The shows they had in this world were really different from the ones back in the Utopian Parallel - she was still trying to catch up, and having ADHD meant that it was [i]incredibly[/i] difficult for her to get through the absolutely massive backlog. As for Eli, while he hadn’t grown up in an alien dimension, he hadn’t had streaming services growing up. His family hadn’t been able to afford it. Most of the cartoons he’d watched growing up were from local cable stations, ones they’d manage to steal when they aligned the antenna just so. 

Of course, Eli didn’t mind that Danni was sitting in his lap. He didn’t mind at all. Again, Billy had done this all the time before - and then Tommy had started to do it to mock his twin - and then Cassie had started doing it in earnest - and Kate did it to mock Cassie - and America did it because everyone else was doing it and she didn’t want to be left out. Teddy was the only one who didn’t crawl all over him like a cat. But as Danni was shifting and squirming around, and threw himself backwards trusting in Eli to keep him steady… Eli hadn’t been paying close enough attention. 

So rather than Danni and Eli staying firmly seated in the chair, the chair lurched backwards, Eli tried to hook his leg onto the table to keep them secure - his foot pressed up against the bottom of the table, he had to make a game time decision on whether to continue to hold Danni with his arms or flail to try to regain balance - he let go of Danni, but it was too late to stop the fall, to stop the momentum. The chair fully tipped over, spilling them onto the ground - and Eli’s foot shot upwards, kicking the table and flipping it - and the food on it slid to the ground, plates shattering, drinks splashing… onto everyone except for Danni. 

Danni, who currently had Eli pinned to the ground in a classic meet-cute pose. 

America gasped. “You just spilled on me! And Milli-illi-illi-illi-pede the famous popstar!! And yourself!!” she shrieked. She then took out her phone and started immediately taking photos. “This is going straight to SuperLink!!”

Eli groaned a little. “‘Merica, [i]please[/i].”

“Nope!” America giggled. “Milli-illi-illi-illi-pede, wanna dance? I bet you got some sick moves! I can teach you some too if you want - I spent a few months in this one universe where everyone communicated through dance and song, it was so so so cool. You’d probably have loved it - or gotten immediately very tired of it. Kinda a polarizing place.”

Over on the dance floor, Cassie spotted her sister and squealed. “Vicky!!! Come dance with us!!! Kate, my sis is [i]so[/i] good at the Robot, you have no idea.”

Kate raised an eyebrow. "That feels kinda offensive, Cass."