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When Wanda left, Andy relaxed. She let out a small sigh. This was going to be a rough semester. Though she hoped today would be the worst day of it. She had fully messed up and knew it. If it had just been the single punch, this might be easier to deal with. So while she appreciated Gideon backing her up so easily, Andy wished she hadn't kicked Chase while he was down. That wasn't a great look. Andy didn't care that it wasn't 'honorable' because in a real fight, being honorable didn't really matter. You did what you had to do to survive.

Andy nodded at Gideon’s question. “Yeah, we can do that.” After that, she figured they could just go skate. There shouldn’t be any drama there. She needed to know if Ben was going to forgive her. It was a little weird that Chase called Ben his liege. She could tell Ben was reluctant.

“You don’t have to say anything right now. We can talk tomorrow, during detention.” She figured giving Ben some time to think about it might help. It would give them all the time to cool down.

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Ben relaxed, leaning into Chase. He held Chase’s hand, and it felt like everything would be okay. His head still hurt from all the crying. He closed his eyes. The apology sucked. He didn’t want to accept it. He wanted a cup of tea. He also knew that Andy and Danni were friends. If he didn’t accept the apology, it might strain friendships. He hated that he had to consider that. If he weren't friends with Danni, he probably would snap right off that he didn't want her apology, but he knew that Danni would want them to be friends.

“I’m fine. I didn’t get hurt,” he told Chase. He was still trying to decide if he was willing to accept the apology. Andy gave him a bit of an out. He gave a slight nod.

“Chase, can we go to my room too? I need a cup of tea.” He really couldn’t deal with anything else at this point. He’d text Danni and let him know what happened. He would also find out if Chase had been hurt, because if he had, Ben was not as willing to accept the apology.

“Ewwwwwwwwwww, more ice.” Danni wrinkled his nose at the thought. Amélie huffed out in agreement, a displeased little snort followed with a puff of smoke. Danni nodded seriously at her input. “Yes, t’at makes a lotta sense, baby girl, agreed. We’ll avoid t’e ice no worries. Lemme just send a text real quick and ye, I’ll fly us right over!” Danni fished out his phone and shot the Roundtable chat a quick message.



“Okay, okay, okay ‘ow fast do ya t’ink we can get? I wanna ‘it like… 100 mphs! Maybe we can get faster! Ooooh, okay so you gotta go in front so I can boost us! OMG, do you t’ink t’ey’ll let us make a little ramp at t’e end?! We can go flyin’ waaay across t’e carnival t’at way and if it looks like a bad time, I can just fly us outta it! Do you t’ink t’ey’ve ‘ad ot’er people do t’at? Is t’ere a scoreboard wit’ like.. ‘ow far someone ‘as gotten one of t’ose tubes? T’at’d be so fun!” Danni bounced up and down excitedly, immediately scooping April up in his arms and taking off. Amélie settled on April’s stomach as they flew, huffing and screeching excitedly as they flew across the campus.

The tubing set up was a huge affair, 21 different sized lanes with 400ft of slope. A long walkway on the left gave people a way to drag their tubes up to the top, with single, tandem, and 10 person tubes available to hit the slopes. Music played from speakers at the top and bottom of the slope and shouts of excitement, fear, and laughter echoed out from it. Danni set them down at the edge of the pool of tubes, snatching up a blue tube with red stripes, and started pulling at April to go up quickly. Amélie huddled into their shawl further as the chill from the slopes settled over them.

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Skating along the rink allowed Sabine to cool her racing thoughts. No more worry over bullies, no sweating details of social media posts to help combat the rumors spiraling her and her team, no concern over her family and how they insert themselves into her dreams. Instead, she was able to turn it all off and skate with her girlfriend. It had reminded her of moments, fleeting though they were, in her past with her mother and father, a time when she wasn't constantly anxious or, if she was, she had the comfort of two loving parents to console her.

She shook off the memory. She wanted to be present. If not for herself, for Leah, who was a constant source of comfort. Sabine was immensely proud of Leah. From the girl constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering when and if her father would come to kill her and those she loved to this strong woman talking about going back to the place she was born to ice skate on it. Fucking ice skating!

In truth, the team had grown in all directions. Herself included. It would be interesting to see the new dynamics with new people joining them as well as how they would be after their win.

"As long as I get some hot chocolate afterwards. Do they even have hot chocolate on Jotunheim? If not, we'll have to introduce it to them. That could be my contribution to your home planet. But either way, as long as I am with you it'll be the best fucking date ever." She leaned her head on Leah's shoulder as they skated, allowing the blur of the scenery around them melt into one.

Until that was broken up by Dorian. Sabine fought an eye roll at having their peaceful date broken up, but Sabine listened. Percy was missing? Sabine stopped skating and made her way closer to Dorian. "Percy is missing? No, I haven't seen him since we left the ice box April made. I assumed he would be with you. Do you need help finding him?"

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Millicent figured things weren't 100% on the up-and-up at this school. It stood to reason that a school whose main demographic was teenagers with superpowers would have moments of uncertainty and danger. But flaming bees? That was not something she figured could happen. She needed to broaden her scope. "Fascinating. I'd ask for more information, but I have an inkling I will be filled in quickly. As for the drama, it had something to do with Percy and the new guy I am roomies with. Some past drama that spiraled into something more. April formed some ice walls made out of hot chocolate to keep the bystanders from getting involved, but I don't know how much that helped."

Before she could explain more, she heard the cries of oncoming foot traffic. She knew the sound all too well. She knew she would not remain unknown or anonymous here, but a part of her hoped it would not happen frequently. She turned to face the voices of the girls who thrust their markers in her face. She took a step back and held out her hands. "Whoa whoa, one at a time! I can sign whatever you want, but maybe not the face? That's prime real estate for your own cool looks. But I can sign a piece of clothing or paper or something else." She glanced at Marlena and Vicky, innocent bystanders in this who were also being harassed. Taylor Swift and Katy Perry? As if!

"And my friends here are not who you say they are! Just normal students signing up for clubs and sports and the like. Speaking of which, if you ladies are interested, there's the makings of a female superpowered hockey team that sounds awesome! After I sign some sutff, you should check it out and support it!"

---

It seemed like her advice was somewhat received, which Vicky supposed was the best she could hope for coming in from the position of a more or less a complete stranger to these two. Hopefully the rest of this school year would be less dramatic and these two would not have to deal with the same level of drama and just weird shit. Time would tell.

From what Millicent said though, if the future of the school year could be correlated to the festival levels of drama, then hot chocolate ice walls seemed a lot more chill than flaming bees, so maybe that was a good sign. Aaaaand jinx. I will eat my thoughts later, I bet... Vicky winced at that thought.

Not as hard as she would wince at being called Taylor swift though, not to mention the insane pitch of voice that assaulted her audio receptors. Her first thought was to simply sign the faces with the signature the flock of sheep desired, however Millie had to go and tell the truth. With her prospect of amusement lost, she wanted to be anywhere but inside of a group of popstar fans. "Right, I promised someone I'll join them at the tubing thing, so... see ya later!" she excused herself and fled towards the slides.

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@Trainerblue192@Kirah: Gideon’s jaw dropped, distracted momentarily from the loss of her sword. She thought these kids were just dorky losers, the type who would sit in the stands and mock the jocks on the field out of jealousy, as they doodled in their notebooks about yaoi and anime. And yeah, one of them was from Denmark (note: Gideon believes that Denmark is next to Hawaii), but that wasn’t too weird - people were from places, it was how the world worked. What she didn’t realize though was the dynamic here. This was a liege - what rank was that, a prince? - and his bodyguard.

“Oh my god, it’s like Princess Diaries. You’re Mia. And he’s…” Gideon frowned, trying to recall, “Chris Pine, I think? Fucking hell, govna, what are you doing here? Does Denmark not have a good school for you? Too many beaches for them to build one?” She shook her head. She wasn’t going to understand royals. “Also, it’s not Mount Wonderbar, you’d know that if you listened. It’s Mount Wonka. Like the chocolate factory. Duh.”

She didn’t address the entire stuff about whether Little Ben was hurt or not. Maybe people were weaker in Denmark. He looked like a good shove would break his bones - he looked like the sort of person who would keep bread in a nightstand.

@PatientBean@Blizz: On closer inspection, Marlena and Millie would realize that the groupies really were groupies. All of them were identical, from their moles to their clothes to their voices - and almost impossible to count, as if new ones were continuously popping up. It would take the two of them a moment before they would realize that they were dealing effectively with a self replicating hive mind - a singular entity who could spawn more bodies at all, all of whom shared a singular task and dedication. “Okay!! Can you make them all out to Jessie?” they asked, tugging on their shirts and staring at Millicent with expectation, Marlena already forgotten.

“A hockey team?” the Jessie gestalt asked, all tilting their heads in unison. “Like, working with other people?” Their heads tilted the other direction, before a round of giggles sounded off. “You’re so funny! Why would we ever do that? We’re all we need - unless… you wanna join up? Being part of a collective has its privileges, and we’d love to have you - even fake Katy Perry can join,” they offered.

@Forsythe: see Danni’s last post for a description of the tubing set up!

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The timer on Percy’s phone rang, alerting him that his time sitting on the bench, his knees tucked into his chest, was over. He hit the button to silence it, before checking to see if he had any messages. He expected at least one from his boyfriend, but… there weren’t any beside the one from Chase that he had ignored. He opened that conversation thread up again, his stomach clenching as he skipped the most recent message, scrolling up. The next messages were from almost a year ago - he bit down on the inside of his cheek as he read the last one he’d ever sent to Chase.


That hadn’t been the message he’d wanted to send then. He scrolled up a little more, finding others - a series of them, all unanswered.



















He remembered a year ago, he’d wanted nothing more than to see his best friend write a reply. And now that he had one, he didn’t know what to do with it. He was torn between moving forward with Chase and pretending nothing had ever happened, that he had never loved so much and been hurt so deeply. For each part of him that wanted to try, another part was terrified to do so. He didn’t even know why he wanted to try - if it was a genuine urge to repair the friendship, if it was the pressure to redeem a villain, if it was the expectations of the others who had already accepted Chase and decided they liked him to smooth it all over. He swiped back down to the most recent message, his fingers almost frozen as he wrote a reply, agonizingly slowly. He had to retype it half a dozen times, as each time, a different language bubbled to the surface.


He hit send on the message, and then he muted the conversation. He didn’t want to see if Chase replied - or worse, if he didn’t say anything at all. He put the phone back in his pocket and stood from the bench, drying his puffy eyes on the back of his sleeve. There were a variety of activities he could try to do, but truthfully he had no interest in any of them. He felt numb having sent that, having read through the past.

They were supposed to have gone ice skating, and the rink was visible from his vantage point, so he shuffled off towards it.

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April was quiet for a moment, chewing on their thumbnail as they considered Danni’s question with all the seriousness afforded to it. They didn’t talk about it as much as they did the superhero curricula, but they were in a heavy amount of science classes, due to their interest in environmental preservation. These required a good deal of math and one of their teachers was fond of starting class each day with Fermi problems, asking absurd questions and expecting their students to be able to produce an estimate based on what they knew about the world. They had gone snow tubing before, and remembered the rush going down the slope, unaided with any powers - a rush that was beyond fun, and if they had to compare the speed to anything… it would be Space Mountain. And thanks to their Pops and Papa’s obsessions with theme parks, a fact suddenly hit them - that Space Mountain’s top speed was 28 mph. So if ordinary tubing could get up to Space Mountain, and Danni wanted to hit 100 mphs… That was about three Space Mountains of speed.

And of course, since normal tubing wasn’t aided by powers, reaching three times its usual rate seemed more than achievable. “That’s three Space Mountains - I think we can do better!” April affirmed. “People without powers can get one Space Mountain, so with you boosting us with the flames and me making sure we don’t catch on any uneven terrain, I think we could get to like… like 200 mphs!”

Bubbly energy started filling them, too, as they pictured making a ramp at the end - and flying all the way across the carnival, catapulted into the sky. It was a really good thing they weren’t afraid of heights. But with Danni there, what could go wrong? He could fly them out of any trouble. And it wasn’t like the teachers would get mad, right? If anything, they’d just be impressed by the creative use of powers. “Ooo, we are def making a ramp - I can make the ice come up real fast for it, too! I don’t see a scoreboard, but what if you stream us and put us on your socials, so we can document the attempt?” they suggested, bounding up the slope with their brother excitedly. “Amelie is gonna looove this!!”

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Ben was genuinely confused by the buff girl. He had no clue what The Princess Diaries were, or who Mia was. The name Chris Pine at least made some sense. He was an actor, so she must be talking about a movie. But what the hell did the Danes have to do with anything? He wasn’t Danish. What did Willy Wonka have to do with anything that was going on? He didn’t even know where to start with any of that.

Ben’s phone buzzed, a text from Danni. Had he not seen his previous text? At least it was telling him where Danni was going. He sighed. He did not feel up to going tubing. He really just wanted to go to his room, rest, drink some tea, and get his emotions in order.

“Danni and Rillie are going to the tubing area,” he told Chase. It was unnecessary since Chase was in the same group chat, but it might be a good enough excuse to just leave this conversation.

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“Mount Wundagore,” Andy said, correcting both Chase and Gideon. As she said it, she realized it did not sound like a delightful place to go. She’d much rather deal with Willy Wonka and his factory of nightmares.

“You’ve seen The Princess Diaries?” She asked Gideon. That was an older movie. It had come out before she was born, and most of the people who attended this school were born after she time-traveled. Gideon was not among that number, but she had been a toddler, and that was still almost twenty years after the movie had come out. Andy didn’t care to do the math or try to remember the exact year The Princess Diaries came out; she knew it was from the early 2000’s.

The rest of what Gideon said was nonsense. Ben was definitely not Danish. He sounded British, but considering she had tried to explain Paris, France, to Gideon previously and had had little headway with that, she decided to let that one go unless Ben thought he needed to address it.

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Leah came to a stop along with Sabine, blades throwing up a cloud of snow as she leaned against the rails. Percy was missing? That wasn't good, but he was a teleporter. And he usually had a stick up his ass about something (usually Dorian's), so maybe he just needed space. There were a lot of things happening right now, and he did happen to be pretty shit when it came to people and social things. Just like her. Maybe he just teleported indoors, back home to grab something, or maybe he just left the country for a few minutes. He had gotten pretty good at those huge jumps lately. But still, wouldn't he get in trouble for that? It was a school day.

Leah squinted at Dorian. "Have you tried calling him? Or texting him? Figured you two sort of always knew where the other was all the time, after..." She glanced down at Sabine, then back at him. "You know. Aren't you two basically always in the same place as each other?" Then she pulled out her phone to spam a bunch of messages at the Murdertwink.







"Knowing him, he's probably just busy cooling off somewhere. If Percy wants to be found, he'll find us before we can find him. I left, so I didn't really catch whatever happened in that ice wall thing. Did anybody get hurt?"

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Holy hell, this was a lot.

Marlena stared at the girls. Or girl. Or girls... They were all clones of each other, identical in every form. That was kind of cool, she wondered if it was a duplication power or some kind of mutant fusion thing. Or maybe they were holograms? Or something weirder? Either way, They seemed to ignore her pretty quick, so Marlena was content to let Millie and Vicky handle the- Aaaaand there goes Shieldmaiden, exit stage left. So much for that. Alas, Millicent was more comfortable with fame and crowds. Marlena considered herself a people person, but the spotlight wasn't where she belonged.

Marlena took a step back, thinking Millicent had this. Then the hockey team came up again, and Jessie- Or the Jessies?- All turned back to her, offering to assimilate her. Marlena felt an unexplainable twinge of discomfort all of a sudden. She put her hands up in fake surrender, turned around and hit feet. A pretty face or faces could do a lot to Marlena, but she liked having her sense of individuality, thank you very much.

_{"Nope. Nope. Nope."} She stuck her hands in her pockets and started walking. There was that uneasy feeling again. Marlena really was out of her depth here. Who the hell just went around offering to stick someone in a hive mind?

Marlena arrived at a huge mound of snow, which people were sliding down on donut-shaped rafts. She’d never gone tubing before. Honestly, Marlena never knew that was even a thing. Didn’t people use skis for that? Whatever, she needed a distraction. So she got in line and snatched a solid red donut raft thing, and began ascending. And as luck would have it, she was right behind April and their brother.

She smirked.

”Come here often?” She joked, hoisting the tube over her shoulder.

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Dorian shook his head, sighing. The truth was he wanted help finding him, but he also didn’t want to inconvenience the others while they were trying to have some fun. They all deserved to after everything they’d been through. ”T’anks for t’e offer Beanie, but you two keep skatin’. I’ll keep checkin’ around t’e ot’er spots, we said we’d meet up ‘ere and t’ought maybe ‘e’d already come by but…” His shoulders slumped, looking down at the icy floor where the two stood. Shock and embarrassment ran through him as he looked up at Leah with a befuddled appearance to his eyes. Did Leah just offer something…sensible? Merde, he really was panicking over this. Between the threat to ruin his sobriety and his old bully appearing from thin air and befriending his brother, it was a lot to wrap his mind around let alone the dreams he had that very same morning. ”I uh…I forgot about textin’ ‘im or callin’ I’m so sorry guys I shouldn’t ‘ave bot’ered you at all. I’ll shoot ‘im a -”

Across from the rink, behind Sabine and Leah, there stood his boyfriend, his lover, his Perce. Dorian’s face was somewhere betwixt the want to smile from joy and the urge to cry from relief to see that Percy was ok. ”’e’s ‘ere! ‘e’s alright, ‘e’s ‘ere! T’ank you two so much I’m so sorry to bot’er you two!” He rushed forward past them, running onto the ice rink without a single thought in his mind beyond going to see his boyfriend to both hug him and scold the ever loving shit out of him as well. Midway down the rink his shoes began to slip, with no skates on his feet it was hard to stay up, sliding with more speed than he cared to until he finally careened into the wall at the edge where Percy was at. ”Percy Novikov! Do you ‘ave any idea ‘ow worried I was about you? Why would you just leave like t’at?” Dorian flopped over the guard and into the snowbank behind it, getting up from the ground before making his way over towards his boyfriend and hugging him tightly. His voice softer now, kinder. ”Don’t you ever do t’at again you ‘ear?”

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Chase noticed the way Ben had decided to avoid the question. Oh great, more drama with the school’s reigning champions. He was certain that wasn’t going to become an issue anywhere down the road. He was happy to hear that Ben wasn’t hurt however, tussling his hair as he asked for them to head back towards the room. At this point he wondered if he would ever get the chance to actually enjoy the campus’s festival or be cursed to be the punching bag of Excelsior’s finest while dodging hits within the confines of their dorms. His phone had gone off twice already, it felt rude, but he ended up pulling it out, putting one finger up in the air as he checked his messages to see who was pestering him at this moment. The first one was from Danni. It was short, sweet, and to the point. Very unlike him, and had he not seen Ben message him back he would’ve asked him if he was being held hostage somehow. The second message was from Percival. He hadn’t expected that. Hell he half expected his number to have been blocked all this time or even for him to have changed his own after a while. Yet here he was, old logs finally read and a new message in the inbox after what felt like an eternity. The message felt cold. Too formal, too long. It wasn’t the friendly chatter he was used to from him and that made it feel as if Percival was truly attempting to distance himself from him and not even care to try. Then again he couldn’t blame him if that was the truth of it all.



”Bless you.” Chase said to Andy without looking up from his phone as he was typing. Finally finishing off the message before locking his phone and placing it into his pocket. ”Sorry, that was Em - I mean Perci -” He sighed, shaking his head in annoyance at the whole situation. A privilege that wasn’t wasted on his notice that it was easier for him to wish to repair something he broke vs the person whom he broke. If anything it felt selfish to wish for that. ”Your roommate was texting me back about what I asked earlier, its a no go but we can go to my room and respect his boundaries. Got your cup and kettle there anyways already so no use having to enter your place k?” Chase shot Gideon a glare, having absolutely no idea where she was getting any of this from but deciding he didn’t need to correct her in the slightest. ”It’s ‘Your Royal Highness, The Prince of Avalon, Arthur the First, The Once and Future King.’ That’s his full title by the way. But I suppose if he ever decides to forgive you two and be friends then you can earn the privilege of calling him Ben. Until then, I shall see you two at the chocolate peaks frosted with powdered sugar when the Comrade Caster deems us climb Mt. Wonka to fetch the candied flowers. I wonder what they’ll taste like? You think that their stems are made of licorice?” Chase placed his hand on the lower back of Ben as he began to coral him back towards the dorms. ”Toodles.” He looked over his shoulder at Andy, giving her a wink before making a smug kissy face as shadows enveloped the pair of them and they vanished out of sight.

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Dorian, it seemed, hadn't done the most basic thing when concerned about a loved one, and it took Leah, of all people, to point it out. Sabine bit her tongue as it looked like Dorian was, understandably, upset. Thankfully, Percy had appeared and Dorian ran over (or as much as he could over some ice) to go see him. Sabine let out a breath of relief. It seemed she wasn't quite over all of the trouble they had dealt with over the past couple of months of her mind immediately went to somewhere bad upon hearing Percy was missing.

"Seems all is well, at the moment. Just..." She had to admit that, so far, today was proving to be an ordeal. As much as she wanted to relax (and she did enjoy the brief moment of respite with Leah), she knew she would need to step up at some point further. Percy and Chase were dealing with things, which meant their respective partners were, which meant that their friends and loved ones were, in a vicious cycle of stress and high emotional intensity.

Sabine felt the beginning of a panic attack and took some deep breaths and focused herself. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, a tool Dr. Whitehall had taught her when she noticed herself feeling stress and pressure. "I need a moment, Leah. Sorry." Sabine skated away to the side. Not far away from Leah, but she needed some space. She took a seat on one of the benches and ook some more deep breaths.

She needed to get it together. People were counting on her.

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Millicent was used to crowds, though this was the first time the crowd consisted of clones of the same person. Millicent signed articles of clothing as much as she could, but it was getting a bit overwhelming. And the only allies she had in this moment had fucked off. "Mental note: Marlena is not good in a crisis and cannot be relied on.

Jessie, or Jessies, were proving to be a hassle. Millicent needed to get out of there quickly. "I am glad you all have each other, and I appreciate the offer, but I am good at the moment. I only just started here, so I am still getting my feet wet. But I encourage you all to consider joining, or at least supporting. You can all be in the audience cheering the hockey team on! But being a part of something else outside of....this collective thing you got going on could be a lot of fun. At least consider it, but the team could use some signatures on their petition. Though I guess that calls into question if all of you signing would be considered one or multiple people? Ah well, worth a try."

She stared to back-up, hoping she could ease herself out and go somewhere, anywhere, else.

Danni bounced up and down excitedly as Rillie pointed out how fast they could go. “200 miles per ‘our?! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!! Danni screamed excitedly, uncaring of the people around them. “Dats gotta be a record of some sort! Do ya t’ink we could break one? Oh, I wonder if peeps ‘ave broken t’e sound barrier on a tube? Do you t’ink we could try? It’s like… close ta 200 miles per ‘our right? Like 201 or somt’in’ yeah? Idk, t’at feels right. I wonder if t’ere are any of t’oise record refs or whatever t’ey’re called. Maybe we could just like suck t’em inta t’is ‘cause we’re definately more important t’an whatever t’ey’re ‘ere ta watch. And t’en like if we gotta bail, I can just fly us outta it and like, what is t’is little tube gunna do? Not’in. It’s so light, anyt’in’ t’at gets ‘it will just feel like a little breeze ya know? So like, even if t’is isn’t exactly ‘ow we’re supposed ta do it, Collusion can’t get spicy ‘cause everyone stayed safe!”

Danni’s eyes widened at the thought of filming this and putting it on his socials. “ ‘ow are we gunna film it t’ough? We gotta ‘old onta t’e tube, I need my ‘ands for resistance, I need my feet ta brace. Do you ‘ave tape? I could tape it ta my ‘ead, just ‘ave it filmin’. OMG should we go live? Maybe you could ‘old it? But ya need your ‘ands ta ‘old on. Hm, hm, hm. “ As Danni pondered their options, steam seemingly poured from his ears, his phone pulled him away from the problem and Ben’s message popped up. Danni pouted. Danni shoved the message in front of April’s face. “But they promised ta ‘an’out wit’ me at t’e event and now t’ey’re bailin’! Ugh, why is it so ‘ard ta get all my friends ta ‘angout in one place? T’ere’s always a t’in’ ya know? I just wanna ‘angout and ‘ave fun. Bah. One of t’ese days. None of t’ese people will be able ta get away from me and t’e friends will be mine for t’e takin’, muwahahaha!” Danni typed a quick message back and pocketed it.



“OMG, did ya see t’ough? Sauna Boi got decked by Andy! I told ‘im, I told ‘im Andy’s fists are rated E for Everyone and only ta approach if t’em fists aren’t feelin’ feisty and look what ‘appened? T’em fists were feelin’ feisty. I don’t know why people don’t listen ta me, ya know? Like, I’m not the shparest tool in t’e shed, but I know ‘ow not ta get my face smashed in. OMg, could you imagine? If my face got smashed in? T’e world might as well end ‘cause mine did for sure. I t’ink I’d ‘ave ta go ta counselin’, maybe Kingston-Grey grippy sock vaca round two: electric boogaloo. I’d be a mess. I mean, I’d be a mess til Pops fixed it right up, but like I would make it everyone’s problem until t’at moment.” Danni nodded as his imaginary situation played out exactly like he thought it would. Danni peered over his shoulder at a familiar voice, eyes darting between his sister and Marlena.

“Only when I know someone as cute as you is around.” Danni threw Marlena a wink as they trudged up to the top, finally. Danni slapped down the tube on lane 13 and gestured for April to get in the front. “Might wanna give us some space t’ough. We’re gunna break every snow tubin’ record we can!” Amelie huffed excitedly, stomping a little where she was clinging to his shoulder.

---

The tubing setup was... impressive. Both in scale and in the energy its creation probably took. Granted, it did pale in comparison to all of the artificial snowing in skiing areas, but still...

Scanning over the thing for familiar faces, Vicky briefly wondered how to spice things up. Not that long go, she flew to one of Jupiter's moons and back. After experiencing reentry to Earth's atmosphere, she realized that not many activities would tingle whatever faked excitement in her emotion subsystem. She overheard the conversation between Danni and April, and granted, making everyone deaf by subjecting them to a sonic boom while probably skinning their backsides something fierce as the tube would most likely disintegrate from the friction regardless of how smooth of a slide April could create may have sounded fun once... It didn't stand up to a pocket of air ionizing around a repelling repulsor field as one plunged down form orbit.

After that, adrenaline code equivalent lost its appeal in most things, so she switched to her other go to. What could she do here to advance her abilities? Sure, she could probably boost gravity to have everyone go faster, or get a linear repulsor field to push everyone back up without effort. But other than seeing how well her new generator set could affect a large area, it would not give her any knowledge she didn't gain in the snowball fight earlier.

"Ramp?" she grunted under her breath, an eyebrow shot up, head snapping towards the K-G siblings. Forget the generators. It looked like she might get to practice her first aid. She paused and settled to watch however this would end, preparing her generators to arrest the momentum of these reckless fools should the situation call for it.

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@Kirah@Trainerblue192: Gideon had no idea why Andy was bringing up Mount Wundagore right now, when they were busy talking about Mount Wonka for Wanda’s stupid detention errand. Maybe she wanted to go hiking? She’d talk about it with her later, she could plan a date in nature if she wanted - maybe they could sword fight at the top of a mountain and then enjoy some time together away from prying eyes. Gideon could eat.

“Yeah, the sisters loved those movies,” she said with a shrug.

Chase had said something really long, and to be honest, she had completely tuned out after the first sentence. That name was far too long. “Imma just call him Artie, okay? No one has the time to be saying all of that. I think I got gray hairs just listening to you rattle that all off.” And then, they left as quickly as they’d shown up anyway, and Gideon was itching for a sword in her hand and an opponent to beat the shit out of. She had no idea what it meant to not have a shadow but she didn’t care. Without her sword, her skin felt like it was crawling.

Back at Chase’s room, nothing had really changed since the last time Ben and he had retreated here. Chase’s roommate had yet to return to the room, so they had it to themselves for a bit of privacy for the moment.

@PatientBean: The Jessies waved at Millie in unison as she left, her eyes darting from side to side in search of an escape. They didn’t seem to pursue her, instead going back to talking amongst themselves, as if they were any ordinary friend group of teenage girls. And as she backed away, one tent in particular would stand out to her. It was small, large enough for maybe three people at a time. The fabric was red, with purple and gold trim, and there was a small sign pinned to it that read “Sorry, Magical Disturbance - Tarot Readings Postponed until Further Notice.”

Of course, what caught her attention was not the sign, but instead the glowing light coming from underneath the entrance flap, and the sudden wind that seemed to have picked up only in its immediate vicinity.

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Percy’s phone buzzed four times in succession - he pulled it from his pocket, hopeful to see a text from Dorian, but his spirits sank. There were three from Leah, shockingly legible for her, and then one… one from Chase. He stared at that message for what felt like a small eternity, completely lost as to what to say or do… So he panicked, intending to swipe away from Chase’s message to answer Leah’s, only to accidentally hit the emoji keyboard and hit send on his most frequently used emoji in a message to Chase -



He didn’t notice the message that had sent, already drafting a reply to Leah - and he had it halfway sent, about to inform her that he was physically uninjured, only to hear his name called out. His head snapped up - it was his actual name, too, Novikov instead of Novikova. His boyfriend had flailed his way over the edge of the rink, landing in the snow and then scrambling up from the ground, rushing over towards him. He froze where he was standing, guilt and shame suddenly drowning him. Dorian was worried? Of course he was worried. He was his boyfriend. They loved each other. And he wanted an explanation, he wanted to know why… why Percy had been the one to abandon him, to run away and not say a word. He’d been so fixated on the lack of message from Dorian, from his boyfriend not rushing off after him, on what he was going to do about Chase that he hadn’t considered how his actions would make Dorian feel.

So as Dorian hugged him, he crumbled into him, somehow managing to produce fresh tears. He held onto him like he was afraid he’d disappear if he let go. “Je suis desolé,” he mumbled into him, sniffling. He hated how much he’d been crying lately. He hated feeling like he was liable to shatter and break at the slightest inconvenience. “I-I saw him… saw him in a fight and… I freaked out. I couldn’t control my powers, I appeared on a bench over there,” he gestured in the general direction with a nod of his head, before burying his face back in Dorian’s chest, “and I just… Я сидела там и плакала.”

He was suddenly very scared that Dorian would still be upset with him - that this was going to be too much, that he had asked too much of him, and his body shook. He wished that he could just offer to wear the power dampener bracelet without Dorian needing to wear his, that he could shut off the teleportation so he wasn’t so much of a flight risk. And he wished that he had the courage to go to Sabine and ask her to erase all memories of Chase from his mind, so he could be the happy boyfriend Dorian deserved right now, and not… not this mess.

“D-did you still want to go ice skating?”

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April frowned as they considered the problem they had with live streaming everything. Danni needed his hands to hold onto them and Amelie, Amelie didn’t have opposable thumbs, and April would need their hands both to hold onto Danni and to create the ice ramp, as they weren’t very good yet at using their powers without a physical component. If they had some extra appendages like Appa, then this problem would be easy! “D’you think this is part of why Pa got with Appa - since he can always hold up the phone to film and has extra hands?” April then shook their head. “We need a way to, like, strap it to our heads or something… But I will get brain freeze if I glue it to my head with ice and you def would suffer and your flames can’t hold it and Amelie is too baby to hold it but…”

They stopped considering logistics, though, as Danni put his phone in their face, showing some messages in a group chat called the Round Table. Their jaw dropped as they read the texts quickly - as they saw that Andy had already punched someone and school had barely even started yet. But not just someone, someone Danni was friends with - who was now (understandably) upset and bailing on hanging out… “Shit, already? Maybe we should take Andy to one of those rooms where you can go wild and break stuff, let out some of that anger.”

However, it was what Danni said next that made them uncomfortable - as he talked about what he would do if his face had been punched in, how he’d lose his mind and end up on a Kingston-Grey grippy sock vaca round two: electric boogaloo. They forced themself to laugh, but it didn’t meet their eyes, and a thin layer of ice condensed on their fingers like gloves. So when Marlena came up behind them with a pick up line, April practically yelped, jumping in surprise.

“Uh, y-yeah! What… what Danni said!” April felt absolutely tongue tied. They didn’t want to date Marlena, but that didn’t stop their heart from beating quickly every time she was around, and their brain from short circuiting. She was so incredibly hot - easily the hottest person April had ever seen. “You might want to be careful around the snow since… since you’re so hot!”

Their face was bright red, as they practically threw themself into the inner tube Danni had gotten for them. Maybe crashing at 200 mph wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

---

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Ben stared at Chase as he blatantly lied to Andy and the other girl. There was no way that wouldn’t backfire. Andy looked confused, before Ben could explain that Chase was yanking their chains, he had shadow stepped them from the hot chocolate stand back into Chase’s room. He had expected to go to his room, but Chase had a point. The teapot and the new tea cup were in this room.

Ben flopped back onto Chase’s unmade bed. He rubbed his hands over his face, taking a moment to compose himself. He had gotten another text, he assumed from Danni, but he didn’t look right away.

“That was insane. Is it always going to be like this? What sort of school is this? Absolutely unhinged behavior. I thought my friends back in London were crazy. Though they didn’t have superpowers, so I suppose there is only so much insanity they could get into. Even though we all knew someday we’d get powers. I suppose. That’s just not the same as actively having powers and using them like that. Who just punches people like that? Unprovoked? Then, when the person they are attacking is already on the ground, just kicking him? What the hell?” Ben stood up and hugged Chase.

“Are you really okay? I was really worried you were going to have a broken rib or something. Also, why did you tell them I was King Arthur? I’m pretty certain they believed you.” He looked over Chase to see if he saw any bruises forming on his face. He didn’t want to start poking Chase to check for broken ribs, mostly because he had zero clue how to look for those.

Ben sighed and got up to start the kettle. He absolutely needed a cup of tea. He had put it off so they could meet with Danni. Right, Danni, he glanced at his phone to read the text. Oh no. He turned on Danni’s livestream to watch whatever insane nonsense he was up to.

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Andy had zero clue what the hell Chase was talking about. Somehow, she had missed anything her entire life to do with Arthurian legends, and so she did not catch that he was lying. Was Ben really royalty? If so, where was he actually from? He wasn’t Danish. He sounded British. She supposed she’d have to call him Arthur. She was not calling him prince or whatever that full title was. She was American. She did not have any sort of worship for royalty. It was honestly kind of weird.

They were gone, though. Shadows rippled around them, and poof. Gone. Her attention went back to Gideon. Sisters. Not my sisters, just sisters. That sounded religious. She wanted to pick at it. Wanted to learn more. But let it go. She had done that enough already today.

“Come on, let's go to the room and get your backup sword and then go ice skating.” She headed to the room. “Your eyes okay? I was worried when he knocked off your glasses.”

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Dorian held Percy even tighter as he had begun to spoke. He let go enough to be able to look down at his face as he thought on what to say about why Percy had left. ”Of course ‘e was in a fight. Why would I t’ink t’at -” Dorian cut himself off from what he was about to say. It went against everything he was taught, everything he grew up believing. He wanted to say how could he expect anything more from someone who was a heartless bully. That that kid could never change and would never change and that by fighting right after what just happened only showed to highlight his true colors. But that wasn’t right, right? Unless ofcourse Chase was to be the SELENE of this generation. The one darkness that cannot be brought to the light. His powers certainly felt like it, and Selene was a Titan Goddess of the Moon, one who controlled night and time and shadows. Maybe his powers were a hint for what was to come, for the true evil lurking beneath the sheep's wool. Chase very well could be the reason his vision comes true in the end. He’d have to ask Nemo next time he saw him, after…he tells everyone about the dream he had this morning. Merde.

”Lets try and forget about ‘im for now ok? You and I can still ‘ave a wonderful time ice skatin’ and tryin’ out all the winter festivities. Besides, if we do run into ‘im at any point I can always win out in t’e fight. ‘E wont be able to touch a ‘air on yours or anyones ‘ead while I’m around.” Dorian looked over back towards the entrance of the Ice Rink, back towards where the skate rentals were and the large sheet of ice between them and there. He’d made it semi safely over once, he wasn’t ready to push his luck a second time. Especially if Leah and her massive skates would be around to potentially chop his hands off. ”But maybe you can take up over to the skate rental first? We need blades to skate.”

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Chase felt his phone go off in his pocket as he watched his boyfriend flop down onto his bed and begin to emotionally unpack the events of todays morning. Which was an insane thought to him that so much had happened already in such a little amount of time. A part of him wondered if every day was going to be like this. Action packed non stop moments where one could hardly breathe let alone take a step without walking into some sort of super shit. It seemed that Ben was echoing his sentiments as well, watching as he paced back and forth within the space, rambling on about everything and comparing to what life was like back home. A hand went up against his jaw, the sting of the punch still there as he quietly moved his lower jaw to evaluate how bad the pain and damage was. Home. That’s what it felt like. He jolted slightly, out of his thoughts and back into the present as Ben wrapped his arms around him before making sure he was ok. ”Yeah…that was a little crazy for what isn’t even technically a first day of school. Danni did warn me that her fists were primed for fighting at almost every hour of the day. Can’t fully blame her, I mean…look at her, she’s one more Hot Topic trip away from becoming a mall rat herself to escape a bad home life. She’s a tough shell, which means she’s a softie at heart who doesn’t know how to express it. Don’t be too harsh on her ok? Besides, I’m fine. They didn’t do any real damage, I mean…did you know that when a bone breaks it comes back stronger than before? Which means that my ribs are pretty near indestructible at this point, courtesy of my dad of course, it’s practically a super power on its own. No discount Shadow the Hedgehog is gonna go breaking them any time soon.” With Ben off the bed, Chase felt as if he could focus on whoever messaged him, noticing that Ben had done the same.

The stream had started, the sounds of Danni and April’s voice coming over the speakers as they tried to figure out how they were meant to stream and go at the same time. Too many moving parts and not enough hands. Chase couldn’t help but laugh and roll his eyes as the antics before typing into the chat for Danni to see. Hey it’s not boyf stuff, but we’re here in spirit watching your stream. Let me give you a hand with that. Chase looked around the visuals from Danni’s stream to find a workable shadow, feeling out for it before he felt the snag as he pulled on the shadow cast by Danni’s arm and solidified it into another pair of arms to hold the phone out ahead of them. Guess I’ll play the part of bf in the stands again. Lets see you break that world record. A notification banner ran across the top of Chase’s phone, a new message from Percival that simply had a red heart in it. Seems he took his message well, good. Chase tapped on the notification, shrinking Danni’s video into PIP mode as he typed back to Percival.

Beyond that he wasn’t sure what to say, what to type. The cursor sat there for a moment, his thumb scrolling back up to past messages to see the way they used to be, to see the way they used to speak before all of this. There was nothing more he could say, he hit send and maximized the video of Danni to try and push all that away. ”Mind making me a cup too Ben? I think I could use one right about now.”

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It was tempting for Leah to slide over and hold her girl close, but she preferred being left alone when she wasn't doing alright either, so she didn't. Instead, she scooted back out of the way and leaned against the walls of the rink. Today was already fucked up so far, but it wasn't the end of anything. Not yet, at least. They had only gotten here, what, an hour ago at most? They had other stuff to do, probably team-related things, and then there was the kid that Percy seemed to get into a scrap with, and whatever the fuck else was going on there that Leah wasn't sure she wanted to pry into. She took a moment to think.

Excelsior had a spotlight on them, and as much as Leah was comfortable hiding weakness, not everyone was. That was a stress point.

Percy just ran into some nonsense, ran off, and came back looking rattled... He was a recovering alcoholic, and Leah didn't need to understand people to know that was something to watch out for, for his sake.

Sabine was stressed the fuck out over being the one most responsible for the team's image. Half of them were walking image disasters for one reason or another.

Leah expected to be dedicating a lot of time to studying magic, leaving less time to check on the others.

Okay.

She made a decision that she'd make it work one way or another. The most important thing to dealing with each of those problems, as she assessed, was the emotional stability of her friends. If they didn't have a mental breakdown, or find themselves edging towards one, they could push through with help. Which meant it wouldn't do good to let them run off on their own and do who-knows-what and get into situations without support. Which was a fancy and unnecessarily strategic way of saying Leah needed to step up and be a rock for her whole fucking friend group.

So she pulled her phone out and shot Andy a text...

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Marlena wasn't expecting two Kingston-Grays to return the energy. She cackled when April stammered through a response. God, they were cute, fun and dorky as hell. They had a very golden retriever kind of vibe, a yappy dog whose very energy made everyone want to smile and spoiler them. It certainly helped that they were fun to look at... Until they just fucking dove down the massive foot hill.

That was bravery. It was a damn tall hill, easily one of the tallest things she ever stood on, and Marlena was used to riding a board with four wheels. An inflatable donut with no discernible method of steering was out of her expertise, but who cared? Maybe she could do a little trick with her telekinesis to carry the momentum upwards and land... Well, she wasn't sure where she'd land. Probably right on top of someone, who would probably be injured. Nah, maybe next time.

She grinned, and took up an adjacent lane. Marlena kicked her tube and them jumped onto it, riding all the way down, down, down, down. She didn't hear the sound of her own euphoric scream as the wind ripped past.

Danni looks at April confusedly as they threw themselves into the tube. “Rillie, what t'e ‘eck? I was tryin’ ta take t'e ‘eat for ya. Or were ya pullin’ my leg when ya told me ya weren't interested. Omg, did ya think I was trying ta steal ‘er from ya? Omg, Rilliiiiie I wouldn't do t'at! Do you wanna do a do-over, like I can tots my goats like trip or somet'in’ and ya can look sups cool savin’ me or somet'in’ or like, I can like ya know do somet'in’ else real dumb and like, try ta do a cartwheel down t'e slope and ya can be like She-’ulk and save me or like… do, somet'in’ but don'tcha worry I'm not gunna try ta steal yur gal!” Danni promised, crossing his heart and holding out his pinky to pinky promise.

“Omg!” Danni screamed as shadow hands appeared, nearly bumping the tube down the slope as he tumbled in. He thrashed around for a second, trying to reach his phone as it stayed in place, and he ended up halfway onto April with Amélie screaming with excitement at their roughhousing while she tried to bite at the pair of them. Danni squinted at the screen and beamed. “Aw Sauna Boi, you really do love me.” Danni blew a kiss at the screen and winked.

“Make sure Bennie Boi gets all bundled up in t'e blankets and give ‘im extra cuddles for me!” Danni instructed cheerfully before he wiggled his way off April and plopped down behind them, legs bracketing them. “Okay chat! It me, HotShot, and my favorite sis Cascade ‘ere ta try and do some crazy stuff! Today, we're gunna try out ‘hardest ta break t'e world record snow tubing speed! What's t'at record, you say? I don't know so we just gotta go fast and ‘ope we're doin' it right! And I think I spy a Vicky down at t'e bottom! Hiiiiiii Vicky!!!” Danni waved eagerly, shifting the tube forward a little further.

“Whelp, nothing else ta do but get goin’ now and no where else ta go but down!” Danni conjured fire in his hands, stuck his arms out behind him, and let as much fire loose as he could. The wind whipped around them and they shot past the other tubes like a rocket, Danni cackling wildly as Amélie balanced on his shoulder and spread her wings and caught him in the mouth.

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Sabine was incredibly thankful Leah didn't rush over to help or check in on her. As odd as it was, sometimes a person just needed a moment alone, but knowing Leah was there just in case was enough. She had managed to calm herself down. In doing so, her mind raced around, back to where it usually went when she needed to bring her back up to speed.

Back to her mother.

---

One benefit to Sabine's powers was that her own memories were often pretty easy to recall. One such memory had her sitting on her bed as he mother brushed her hair. She was very young at the time, but Sabine could almost pinpoint all the details. Her tear-stained face, her mother singing a song in French softly as she stroked her hair with her favorite red hairbrush, the gentle rain hitting her bedroom window.

"Maman, c'est quoi cette chanson?"

"It is a song sung to little girls to make them smile."

"Ça ne marche pas..."

"English, my darling, you need the practice."

"I'm sorry about..."

Her mother gently shushed her, all pain of recent memories long since forgiven. "It is all right."

Sabine didn't know it then, but she could tell now how distracted her mother seemed. Present in the moment, but her mind elsewhere. Sabine felt her anxiety well up in the moment, recalling what had caused her so much sadness. A tense moment in school.

Sabine could feel her mother lean forward, putting her lips on Sabine's head and kissing her softly. "You are my little fairy. Soon, you may need to fly on your own."

Sabine's mother had said that to her before, but Sabine never understood why.

Not until her mother was gone shortly after.

---

Sabine shook it off, wiping the tear that fell as she stood up and made her way back over to Leah. "Hey, all good now. Should we check on the others? If Dorian's any indication, they may still be reeling from before."

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Millicent was able to step swiftly away from the girls, leaving them to their own devices. Hopefully, they would listen and support the hockey team, but she would not hold her breath. She turned and made her way past some more booths. As she did so, a glint caught her eye. She turned to see the fortune-telling tent. Inside, something was glowing. And Millicent loved shiny things.

She walked forward, noting the sign in front of it. "That sign won't stop me because I can't read!" she said jokingly. She looked to see if anyone was watching her before she opened up the tent and stepped through.

If you gave Millicent 20 guesses, she would never have landed on what she saw. Instead of felt or tarp or anything tent-like on the ground, it was a sheet of ice. What further caught her attention was not her own reflection off the surface, but rather another young woman with short blonde hair. The ice itself was seemingly cracking open, and the light she saw was coming from the fractures.

Millicent remembered the warning of the weird shit that happened at this school and pulled out her phone, bringing up Danni and Dorian in a group text.

---

As miliseconds ticked to what promised to be a slide down a hill to remember - one way or the other - Victoria thought about her day so far. The swarm of the same kid have been just weird enough to make her recount how many faces she met recently that she knew next to nothing about. It was some time since she hung up her intel gathering operation, since even with it she couldn't identify the villain on her own team, so what was the point? However, that was her emotional core talking. Logically speaking, some information was better than no information. Maybe she should restart that effort.

That thought had to wait though as a decision has been made at the top of the hill and Vicky could see Danni's hands beginning to ignite to jet them down. It wasn't so much of question of it, or even when, but how the tube would fail catastrophically. Whether it would sooner erode due to abrasion, melt from the friction heat or just disintegrate due to mechanical shear. Whatever the failure mode, a song popped to Vicky's head that seemed to fit the situation perfectly. As the phones pointed in the duo's way, the lyrics made their way out of her mouth.


Vicky started saving the footage form her eyes as well, overlaying thermal onto the visible light and powering up her generators for what seemed like an inevitable high speed accident.

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@Kirah: “Oh, I think they’re kinda fucked,” Gideon shrugged her shoulders, and tapped on the side of her sunglasses. “Y’know when you see that little floating spot that you know isn’t real and it usually goes away? I see, like twenty of those floaters right now. Buuuut it’s probably going to be fine… I dunno. Nurse Annie gives me the creeps so I’m just going to hope it fixes itself out. Eyes can do that, right? Just gotta eat more carrots or something.” She was trying not to worry about it. Her eyes hadn’t always been like this - so sensitive to light. And while she’d hurt her eyes before, it usually had been her choice to peek out from underneath the shades, she’d never had them knocked off of her in a fight before like that.

Once they got to the room, Gideon immediately went through her things, pulling out a thin rapier with an ornate handle. She swapped out her sword frog for one of the appropriate size and then placed it on her hip, and strapped her rapier in. “Should I bring the knuckle blades, too? Or is that too much? I have an off-hand now…”

@PatientBean@KazAlkemi: Within the purple and red tent of the Scarlet Witch, its usual eccentricities were gone - no shelves, no arcane artifacts, no candles burning, dripping with wax. It was empty, void of almost anything interesting, save the strange crystalline substance covering the ground, as reflective as a mirror and as cold as ice. On the other side, a teenage girl with short, cropped blonde hair rested as if in sleep, her clothing dated. Fissures extended throughout the surface, blinding light pouring out from the cracks - and as Millicent entered, they grew more and more, loud and frightening until a web of them had formed.

And you, Luna Braddock, open your eyes not in your home, your beloved Otherworld, but somewhere new - somewhere familiar. Your surroundings offer little clues as to your time and place, little help to orient you as to what has happened. Your memories are blurry and unclear, brief flashes coming back to you - of a faceless army marching to the Starlight Citadel - of your lady, Saturnyne stripping you of your title, your powers in disappointment for your failure. Your body feels unfamiliar, yours but not quite. And the best clue as to where you are, of course, is the humanoid girl gawking at you, playing with what looks to be a smartphone. It could be your home reality, yes… but there are hundreds of realities with phones, and even more with humanoid inhabitants - hopefully she shares a language in common with you.

Hopefully she isn’t hostile, either.

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Percy took a deep breath, inhaling Dorian’s scent before slowly lifting his head off his boyfriend’s chest. He trusted him, trusted Dorian to protect him and keep him safe. He hadn’t noticed his phone vibrate again in his pocket, but with how he was pressed up against Dorian, Dorian would feel the vibration against his leg. He sniffled, blinking his eyes rapidly to try to get rid of the sticky, tear-filled feeling. “I’m sorry I’ve been… so broken lately,” he said quietly. He hated it - hated how ever since the Contest of Champions, he’d been needing to lean on Dorian more and more, as everything in his life had spiraled out of control, skeletons reanimating and waltzing out of his closet to cause havoc. “It’s not fair to you.”

He was tempted for a moment to ask if they could stop by Percy’s room so he could change into the hoodie Dorian had given him - it always helped him to feel safe and secure - but he had already delayed his boyfriend from experiencing so much of the carnival. So instead, he focused on the opposite end of the ice rank, where skates were available to bother, and the two of them disappeared with a shimmer of blue light, reappearing there and still embraced.

He shifted so that way his arm was around Dorian’s waist and Dorian’s arm around his shoulder, and he quickly chatted with the staff member working the booth, getting skates in both of their sizes - with Percy’s being several sizes smaller. “Is there a trick to this?” he asked, as they went over to a bench and Percy sat down, lacing up his skates. He grimaced slightly. He had actual blades strapped to his feet. But if Leah could do this, then anyone could. “Or are we doing the boyfriend thing where you spin me around helplessly and laugh?”

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April’s face was burning as they were called out on their behavior. It wasn’t something they had super talked with their siblings about - mostly with Pops, really. While they were feeling loads better than last semester, as the thoughts of ending it all had largely gone away, they weren’t doing completely fine. They were bipolar - and instead of being depressed, well… they’d been pretty manic, lately. It was a big part of why they’d been grounded over winter break, to keep them close to home in case they got a wild idea in their head.

At any rate, their impulse control was at an all time low - and it showed. “Um, can you keep this a secret?” they asked, forgetting that Danni had already started streaming. “It’s, like, not a big deal because it’s pretty minor and I’m not like - like thinking that I’m starting a new movement or that I’m secretly the chosen one or anything like that, like I’m still sleeping and everything okay but like… lately when I get an idea in my head, I kinda, just, like… just go and do it?” they bit their lip. “So like… I don’t wanna date Marlena, because I don’t think we’re compatible but… every time I see her, my first thought is wow I wanna kiss the shit out of her and then that’s what my brain acts on and then I’m like fuck, why did I do that and it might be mania on a small level so… I don’t want people to think that I’m crazy or anything - or crazier than they already think I am, ‘cause those reporters dug up how I tried to off myself and got locked up and all but… yeah. Please don’t tell anyone.”

Fortunately, though, their streaming issues seemed to be solved - as a shadowy hand spawned out of nowhere, grabbing onto the phone. Danni screamed, though, which meant that April also screamed - as did Amelie. But finally, they were all set up and ready to go!! The stream had started (just then, to April’s knowledge) and Danni had set up everything for their viewers. At their introduction, April grinned and waved at the camera. “Hi guys!!” They knew it was important to interact with the chat - and that it was incredibly awkward when people didn’t.

And then they were off!! It was exhilarating, as April screeched, their eyes spared from the wind by their glasses - and as they threw their hands out, a gigantic ramp of ice suddenly extended out for them, and they shot up it in a flash. For a moment, there was a feeling of weightlessness as they soared through the air, reaching the apex of their trajectory. They’d cleared most of the carnival, flying over the rink, the hot chocolate stand, the tarot reading tent, and more. “Woohoo!!!!”

How were they going to land, though? April had no idea at all. That was a Danni problem.

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Falling. When was the last time Luna felt like she was in free fall and couldn’t stop? When she drowned? Or when she almost died in the Underground? No. Never. This feeling was entirely new and entirely wrong.

Luna jolted awake and sighed heavily. Dreaming. It was only a dream. Luna rubbed her eyes and looked up at the canvas. She rolled over and reached out for the warm body that should be next to her. Wait. Canvas? Luna opened her eyes back up and saw someone else in the room. Someone she didn’t know.

”Who the bloody hell are you?” Luna reached for her sword and came up empty. Wait, what? As the panic started to set in, memories slowly returned to Luna.

An army, Saturnyne yelling at her before stripping Luna of her birthright. The fear on her daughters’ faces, the determination on her wife’s, even though she was crying. And then falling. Endless falling.

”Fucking hell.” Luna groaned, head in her hands, before she pushed herself off the cot and stumbled forward. She felt weak, disoriented, and nauseous.