[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/SR52k84p/54b4e63d635603b22d80f72a4ba2be54.png[/img][hr][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019dc2ca-2895-73c4-87bc-da221945dee6.webp[/img][hr][@Achronum][@Blizz][@Forsythe][@Kirah][@PatientBean][@Trainerblue192][@KazAlkemi][hr][h3][color=AC3EFF][b]Morning - Sat. January 15th, 2039 - Los Angeles, California[/b][/color][/h3][/center][hr] Carlos preened at Danni’s attention. [i]I’ll always love you, silly!! Cube bros for life!![/i] He did hang back, however, as everyone was processing what he had shown them. No one had asked him any questions about it yet, but he wanted to give them a moment to think it over before he went off to hang out with some of his other friends. He wasn’t going to hang out again with his siblings at any rate. Even Carlos had to admit that Carlie sucked - and Carl wasn’t much better. [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 - Near Fortune Telling Tent [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] For a brief, fleeting moment, April understood how overstimulated people felt around their friends and them. It was the first day of the semester, a fresh start after everything with Arcade and the Contest of Champions. They were supposed to just be kids today, to be worrying about whether or not Dorian’s boyfriend had the perfect birthday, but instead it had been nonstop. The Chase bubble had burst, leaving everyone drenched in what felt like decades old drama. Ser Nemo was confirmed to be alive, only not for long, as he was due to be executed in the fae realm. Glimpse was [i]also[/i] revealed to be alive, hopefully for longer, and hopefully [i]not[/i] due for execution. They were going to go rescue Nemo, there was a prophecy that just kept coming and coming despite April not managing to make any sense of it - were they going to turn into the moon?? Were they Princess Yue?? And [i]then[/i], there was the reveal that Nemo was Percy - and that Dorian was going to kill himself in a definitely very far off and distant future! Had April not been so sensitive about the topic of suicide, they might have complained that Dorian was trying to steal their schtick. So when they saw Percy collapsed on the ground, with Leah, Millie, Dorian - and Vicky whispering in Dorian’s ear - all around him, they winced in sympathy. It was a lot. Their friend group was a lot. It took a special type of person to be able to hang with Excelsior. Not everyone was cut out for it. In some ways, it reminded them of the nonstop chaos their dads described from their days of the Mutant Underground, only more focused on interpersonal drama rather than deadly robots and disease… [color=42A9FF]“I’m not charging straight in, btw!”[/color] April hanged back from joining the crowd around the fallen twink - the fallen diva. [color=42A9FF]“I need to steal some of my meds from the nurse’s office, first. [i]Then[/i] I can charge in and save Nemo and kick the TVA’s butts.”[/color] Their face fell towards Vicky, and as the android searched for reassurance, their irritation faded away. They didn’t agree with Vicky’s take here - didn’t agree that society had to be made up of laws, that if Vicky landed behind bars it meant she deserved to be there, any of that. But the genuine hesitation, the pause there moved them. April nodded. [color=42A9FF][sub]“We’re gucci.”[/sub][/color] [color=42A9FF]“Maybe we’re meant to ally with that witch?”[/color] they suggested, thinking towards the vision. They’d seen a lady dressed in white. Was that the equal power Vicky was talking about - someone who could oppose the TVA? How did you fight an organization that knew every move you were going to make? How did you fight time? Were there places outside of time they could go to - somewhere to fight on equal ground? And then Sabine left, and their drama seemed to get only worse… Dorian was breaking down, promising Percy that he’d do better… April swallowed painfully. They remembered making a lot of similar promises when they were hospitalized - having to look their friends and family in the eye and tell them that they’d never try to kill themself again, that it was a mistake they wouldn’t repeat, that it was… … That if Nemo had saved them, it was because he knew they were going to make the attempt… … because Nemo had lived through a world where they had been successful - or at least, a world where they had swallowed the pills… April felt sick to their stomach. Their face was pale. Water condensed around them in little, icy patches. Danni was screaming about how they needed water, that they needed to teach Dorian to not kill himself. [color=42A9FF]“Can we… stop talking… about suicide?”[/color] they asked, their voice shaking and low, almost hoarse, teetering onto the edge of a panic attack. [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 - Near Fortune Telling Tent [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 not unconscious for very long. Seconds after hitting the ground, he had already begun to stir - only to be psychically plunged into a prophetic dream. It was nothing like the prophecies in his favorite tales, no Oracle of Delphi breathing in ritualistic smoke to deliver a few cryptic lines. It was a vision in technicolor, a series of cutscenes that could not be skipped. The imagery was unfamiliar to him, but as a lover of literature, the importance of symbolism was not lost on him. He only wished that he had a better memory, that the images would not fade so he could study them again and again at his leisure… … the images where he had seen himself - both in this life and in his next as Ser Nemo. Even knowing the truth, his stomach curdled at the thought of the old man. He hadn’t even managed to do his task properly. He’d been sloppy and he’d been caught. Had he even fulfilled his objective - had he saved Dorian’s life? Or should Percy be counting down the seconds, treating every moment with his boyfriend as if it might be his last? If he lost Dorian, sobriety be damned. He’d rather drink himself to death than spend a single moment without him. A drink now sounded good, too. There was so much going on around him and so much going on within him. Chase’s reappearance had been enough to test him, to reduce him to a sobbing, shaking mess. This? This was beyond anything he had conceived of - beyond anything he knew how to respond to. So much so that he had barely noticed as the others crowded around him - as Leah fussed over him, as Dorian cried, as Danni screamed, as Millie asked if they needed to get help. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do. He had - he would - he [i]will[/i] fail to save the one person who mattered most. He was no Crystal Exarch. He was no fabled adventure, no hero. He wasn’t even Odysseus, as Odysseus had returned to Penelope in the end. Agatha was right. He was going to be alone and he would only have himself to blame. He wasn’t enough for Dorian to live for. The thought sank into him like a knife. Did he love someone again who didn’t love him back? Percy just shook his head. [color=ed1c24]“I will search Ser Nemo’s office,”[/color] he said quietly. He didn’t know who he was talking to. He felt numb to it all. [color=ed1c24]“I will let you all know if I find anything relevant.”[/color]