[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/SR52k84p/54b4e63d635603b22d80f72a4ba2be54.png[/img][hr][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019c02b1-4686-759e-93a8-ec58d0ea6ae8.webp[/img][hr][@Achronum][@Blizz][@Forsythe][@Kirah][@PatientBean][@Trainerblue192][hr][h3][color=AC3EFF][b]Morning - Sat. January 15th, 2039 - Los Angeles, California[/b][/color][/h3][/center][hr] [@Forsythe][@Kirah]: While in her mind’s eye, Vicky valiantly sent off her onslaught, defeating the time traveling menace… in the real world, she was just walking forward, heading towards Xenia without an ounce of awareness. She had not broken free of the song, and it would be a poor siren to allow their prey to attack them once in their clutches. Instead, Xenia’s allies took advantage of the android’s distraction, pelting her with a small hail of snowballs - and perhaps it was this physical reminder of the real world that was enough to snap Vicky out of it, for real this time, as she found herself halfway to becoming a snowman. Gideon, too, found her thoughts clearing, with disappointment. She had really liked that fantasy. She’d been so cool and strong and tough in it - and as much as she liked challenging people to fights here, the idea of fighting people from all over the universe was enticing. However, she managed to hear her girlfriend scream about kicking Xenia’s ass, and Gideon was more than happy to join in. She started scooping up snowballs, and had the [i]brilliant[/i] idea to use her nearly six foot tall, two-handed sword as a baseball bat. She took it off her shoulder, removing it from its sheath, and grabbed the first few balls - she tossed them up into the air, and swung as fast as she could once she got a good grip… And by a stroke of luck, she hit them. Unfortunately, she hit them with the sharp end. Cutting them in half. The Unity Squad cackled. “Nice going, ya bimbo!” [hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=ed1c24]Percy Novikov[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b29ec-87e6-745e-afed-c64ed081c458.webp[/img] [hr][b][color=ed1c24]Location:[/color][/b] Margaret Carter - Winter Festival [b][color=ed1c24]Magic Items:[/color][/b] Mystery watch from Agatha Harkness, Dorian sex bracelet [b][color=ed1c24]First Day Fit:[/color][/b] [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019c0287-4435-7608-82b5-0b29272f9040.webp]Black Hoodie, Jeans, and Vans[/url] [hr][/center] Percy was quiet, listening to Danni as he requested. When distressed, his instincts turned to fight or flight. He could stand his ground, yell and shout, pick up the nearest blunt implement and charge, turning an emotional conflict into a physical one. Or he could run away, remove himself from the situation, avoid the problem by teleporting anywhere else - even across the country, now, or just skip an hour into the future, preventing even another teleporter from immediately finding him. He remembered reading a paper once that suggested mutant powers manifested based on personality types - if so, then his teleportation was his avoidance. He didn’t want to yell at Danni - he didn’t want to fight him. He was terrified that it had happened [i]again[/i] - that he had let himself be vulnerable with someone and they had taken advantage of it, intentionally or not. He wanted to put his defenses back up, to shut him out, to tell himself that he didn’t need the friendship, that he was fine, that closeness with other people was a want and not a need. It would have been easier that way. [i]My little treasure, they are your friends, right?[/i] [i][color=ed1c24]They aren’t mean to me. Andy stood up for me yesterday. I think the others only care about me as an extension of Dorian, though.[/color][/i] He didn’t want to go back to that. Percy held onto Dorian a little tighter, his tears obscuring his vision - he could just vaguely see the outline of where Danni was, clothed all in black, as his best friend explained it all to him, how he had run repeatedly into Ben, how he had started talking to Chase, how he’d realized Ben’s boyfriend was the same person who had tormented him. He didn’t know how to feel about Danni’s description that he and Ben were the same person - but he cried a little harder at the reasoning as to why. [color=E948FC][i]T'ey're bot’ a smol and a cute and kinda lonely and t'at makes ya immediately wanna protect.[/i][/color] Danni wanted to protect him. He took a shuddering breath, still quiet as Danni continued - as Danni talked about confronting Chase and how Chase had wanted to do better. Percy wished that was true. He’d wanted it to be true, that day back in New Orleans. It hadn’t been. His insides felt all twisted up, and before he could come to the painful conclusion that this had all been planned without him, that they were going to force him to confront Chase before he was ready, that his opinions didn’t matter, that he was just an accessory to the group and not a full member of it… Danni addressed that, too. They were supposed to talk to him about it - even give him the space and time to get upset. It was supposed to be his choice for any of this to happen. And that it wasn’t just the Kingston-Gray urge to redeem a villain, but Danni wanting to help him - Danni wanting to lessen this pain. Danni called him his best friend. Percy shut his eyes tightly for a moment, struggling to regain any bit of composure - to keep the tears as quiet as he could, before they could become agonizing wails. He opened them again, about to respond to Danni - to tell him that he wasn’t angry, that he was hurt but it was alright, he still wanted to be his friend - but another voice started speaking before he could, urging him to not hold any of this against Danni. Chase. Calling him Percival. Just like he used to. He was on the ground, still. Percy felt cold as he tore his gaze away from Danni to look at Chase, forcing himself to [i]really[/i] look at him. Or at least, he tried. But all he saw as he looked at Chase were memories he wished were gone, memories he didn’t dare to lose. A week after the confession, when Percy had thought Chase was going in for a hug, and instead found himself thrown against the wall. The day they’d gone to the pier and the fortune teller had told them they’d been friends for lifetimes, and Chase had believed her wholeheartedly. A punch directly to his eye, leaving him battered and bruised. Trips to the Griffith Observatory, Percy whispering the names of all the constellations in the star show to him and recounting the myths. Being tossed into lockers repeatedly, each one a size smaller than the last, to see when he would no longer fit. Playing with wooden swords in the park near Percy’s house, until the street lights went on and they were due home for dinner. Chase bullying him. Chase protecting him. Chase being his worst nightmare, the monster that stalked him through the halls of the school. Chase being the closest thing he had to a brother, spending more nights at Percy’s house than at his own. As Chase’s confession, his recollection turned to the events of Valentine’s Day, Percy’s grip on Dorian tightened, almost painfully so. [color=ed1c24]“Думаю, сегодня я рискую сорваться,”[/color] he mumbled. That had been part of his coping strategy, when emotions were too much, when things were overwhelming - when Chase was involved. He had drank for the first time that day, when he’d come home from school, crying and scared and guilty and afraid - when it had all been too much, when he didn’t understand how he could be so unlovable that his best friend would turn against him, when he didn’t understand why he deserved to be beaten and bruised for expressing how he felt. So he had drank until the feelings stopped - until the world was a hazy stupor - until his mothers found him, and he had been too ashamed to tell them the truth, to tell them that he had lost his only friend and he only had himself to blame. He didn’t want to hold eye contact with him. He didn’t want to see the broken shards of his friend looking back at him. He found eye contact unbearable in emotionally neutral situations. And now? It was like being forced to stare into the sun. Chase loved him. He still did, he said. He’d treated Percy the way his parents had taught him to treat people he loved. He was sorry. And unlike in New Orleans, it felt real this time, it felt genuine. Or maybe Percy was just deluding himself, maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see. Maybe this was all an elaborate game, a way for Chase to get him to let his guard down so that way he could wail on Percy once more, but this time with shadows at his beck and call. Chase was screaming into his knees, sobbing, begging for him to say something. Begging for Percy to hit him if he needed to, to do something, to do anything. A few weeks ago, he might have. That was the secret of fight or flight - the fight was still just another way to hide from the feelings, to use anger to avoid dealing with the actual issue. It was more of the behavior that had driven him to drink, more of the behavior that threatened to hurt him and everyone he cared about. [color=ed1c24][i]I don’t worry about you. That would require thinking about you.[/i][/color] That had been a lie. [color=ed1c24]“I-I…”[/color] he swallowed, changing his mind on what to say as soon as he had started. [color=ed1c24]“I don’t like talking about emotions in group settings. It’s too much. B-but… Danni, I’m hurt, but I’m not angry with you. You just wanted to help me.”[/color] He took another breath, his gaze at the disturbed snow on the ground. It was easier to talk to than any of the people. [color=ed1c24]“Chase…”[/color] A fresh wave of tears hit him, and he struggled through them, struggling until he managed to find his voice once more. [color=ed1c24]“I-I-I c-can’t talk about this in f-front of everyone. It’s - you - I… W-we c-can talk in private.”[/color] It took what focus and concentration he had for his language to not slip, for him to remain in English and not flee to a thousand different ones. He took another breath, before switching into French. Half the kids here would be able to understand. But more importantly, Chase - and if he had to guess, this new boy - would not. [color=ed1c24]“S’il est d’accord avec moi, je vais aller tout seul. Je ne le fais pas confiance. Si je ne texte pas en cinq minutes, c’est un truc, et je vais avoir besoin de vous.”[/color] [hider=Translations][u]Russian[/u] 1 = Думаю, сегодня я рискую сорваться = I think I am in danger of relapsing today. [u]French[/u] 2 = S’il est d’accord avec moi, je vais aller tout seul. Je ne le fais pas confiance. Si je ne texte pas en cinq minutes, c’est un truc, et je vais avoir besoin de vous. = If he’s in agreement with me, I will go alone. I don’t trust him. If I don’t text in 5 minutes, it’s a trick, and I will need your [plural] help. [/hider] [hr][hr][center][h3][b][color=42A9FF]April Kingston-Gray[/color][/b][/h3][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b2a42-176d-736d-87cd-e80ef331aa59.webp[/img] [hr][b][color=42A9FF]Location:[/color][/b] Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival [b][color=42A9FF]Magic Items:[/color][/b] Kingston-Gray Bracelet, River Styx Water, Hair Dying Comb [b][color=42A9FF]First Day Fit:[/color][/b] [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019c0288-fffb-75e9-a893-c52428fffbb6.webp]Denim jumpsuit and shorts[/url], [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019c0289-6076-72bb-aa81-e8cae051d70b.webp]pink streaked hair and orange tinted sunglasses[/url][hr][/center] Everything was spiraling out of control - as it so often did. Percy was crying, looking at Danni like a puppy rehabilitated from an abusive home, only to be kicked again by their new family. Dorian was understandably furious and protective, the new kid seemed hurt and confused, and Marlena and Millie were both clearly [i]way[/i] out of their comfort zone. They still had Amelie cradled in their arms, as they watched a scene that was all too familiar. They had ended up crying and crashing out at almost every group gathering last semester, drowning underneath a tidal wave of emotions. They’d been in Percy’s place, losing control in front of a public audience, without even the dignity of a quiet, judgment free place. Out of the corner of their eye, they saw camera flashes - some of their fellow students had pulled out their phones, video taping the drama as it went down. The story coming out wasn’t pretty, either. Danni had poured his heart out, explaining everything to Percy - to the tiny little freshman who seemed cursed to always have a terrible day at the carnival. But it didn’t stop with Danni. Chase spoke too, confessing all of it - explaining the greater context, just exactly who he was to Percy. April’s heart broke hearing the story. If something like that had happened between Danni, Dorian, and them - if they’d lost their brothers… They didn’t want to think about what they might have done to express that pain. Not that any of these actions were justified. But it was the first step. Acknowledging how you had hurt other people, admitting where you were wrong. And either Chase or Percy deserved to be turned into a sideshow during this process. [color=42A9FF]“Beanie, people were filming,”[/color] April said softly, not wanting to pull attention away from the boys as they worked through this, but they didn’t think Danni or Dori were equipped to do damage control right now. They did a quick glance of the layout, noting where the tent was staked into the ground for the hot cocoa stand, where other kids were standing, and once they had a good sense for the dimensions they needed, April pulled as much water from around them as they could. The entire tank for hot chocolate, at least twenty personalized water bottles, a good three inches of compacted snow on the ground - all of it came together, freezing rapidly as April constructed six walls around them. On three sides, it was an enclosed, rectangular space. But the fourth side was fractured and overlapping, allowing them to come and leave as they pleased, without anyone being able to see inside. Making flash barriers with Danni over break in training sessions was already starting to pay off. Pops was going to be so proud! [color=42A9FF]“Okay, anyone who isn’t ready to go outside and see people, you can stay in here… probably. Idk if they’ll take this down. They might not love this. So maybe don’t linger too too long?? But let’s give the people who need a calm place some space. Everyone who doesn’t need to be here right now, there is ice skating, it will be very fun, so we’re going to go and do that.”[/color] It was the least they could do. They owed Percy still for the Monster Mash - for getting them out of view when they were panicking, terrified of the vision they had in Nimue’s haunted house of a future where they’d become a cold, cruel, and heartless villain. If he and Chase wanted to talk somewhere private, this was an option - and if not here, at least no one would be able to continue to get images for their Greek Fire fan edits.