Andy and Glimpse went separate ways. Andy didn't know what all they need for this trip. However they did know that Gideon would need her primary sword back. She went looking for her girlfriend.

Gideon was in her second favorite place in the world - her first favorite place, of course, being where her sword currently was. She had had the Thirsting Blade for as long as she could remember and being parted from it was agony. So to take her mind off of things, she had gone to her next love - pumping iron. Her body was wet and glistening with sweat in the gym, as she exercised her straining muscles with the bench press, using three hundred pounds of weight. Her headphones were in, blasting music and her sunglasses were still on. The rapier was down at the ground within reach.

Andy had guessed right. Several of the times they had run into before dating had been here. So she wasn't surprised to see Gideon lifting. Andy slid into the spotter position and waited for Gideon to finish her reps.

With each rep, Gideon grunted - and she caught a glance of Andy, smirking up at her girlfriend. “Sup, my Princess of Darkness?”

Andy smiled at the nickname. “We have some free time. We should be getting ready to head out though. I can’t be sure but I’m gonna bet the others aren’t going to want to wait longer than a night. If we don’t leave tonight I’ll be honestly surprised. We need to get your sword back.” Andy wasn’t sure how they were supposed to do that but there was no way Gideon was going to go anywhere without it.

Gideon immediately dropped the weight and scooted back up to a seated position. She grabbed a nearby towel and wiped the sweat off her face. “What’s the play then to get Thirsty back?”

Andy kept her face surprisingly neutral at the sword’s name. It wasn’t the first time she heard it, she was getting better at it. “Well it is probably in Scarlet Witch’s office.” She remembered where Lady Nimue’s office had been, that was probably the best place to start. “It is probably locked down with a bunch of magic.” Andy’s magical skills did not extend into breaking and entering. Not many in the group had that sort of magic. Leah had her runes... but Andy doubted that would help.

Magic didn’t phase Gideon. She hadn’t met an enchantment yet that she couldn’t just punch her way through. It was just bullshit with extra steps. “Okay, so we smash in and grab it, easy,” Gideon stood up and shook her arms out, and took a swig of water from her water bottle. “Just need someone to keep the witch at bay.”

“Grab the first person we know?” Andy suggested. She had a feeling everyone was going to be running around like chickens.

“100%, we grab the first person we know and tell them they have to help us,” Gideon agreed. They just needed a warm body to distract Wanda. Someone who hadn’t been involved with them in the fight earlier, so that way the witch wouldn’t suspect anything was off. “But not Arthur or his bodyguard.”

“Sounds good.” There probably were people who would be better at distracting her adoptive sister over others. Ideally it would be someone with an interest in magic but not enough of an interest that Wanda needed to be in her office to talk with them. She led the way back out of the gym. Wondering who out of the group they’d run into, anyone that at least knew they were going to the Otherworld, the less the better.

“HEY, YOU!”

Gideon pointed across the quad, catching one of the girls from before dead in her sights. She’d been in that entire ominous montage, too.

“GET OVER HERE!”

That girl just happened to be one Marlena Evans, who was carrying three books under one arm.

She blinked.

”...Me?”

“Yeah... you’re friends with some of our friends right? Going with us and all,” Andy confirmed. “We’ve got to get something but we need help. You chill giving us a hand?”

”Hm… Why not?” Marlena stuffed the books into a messenger bag slung around her shoulders and walked towards them. ”What’s going on? I think some of the others are packing, a whole wing of the school smelled like fish for a while.”

“A witch stole my sword and I need it back, otherwise the world will end tomorrow,” Gideon said seriously. “How good are you at chattering away about nothing?”

Andy glanced at Gideon, trying to gauge how real the assertion that the world will end if she doesn’t have her sword. “It is the new magic teacher, Scarlet Witch, that we need you to distract. Just keep her out of her office for a bit.”

Scarlet Witch? The Scarlet Witch? Marlena’s eyebrows shot up. She didn’t know a lot about her, but the woman had a reputation for a reason. ”Not to brag, but I’d say I’m pretty good at chattering about nothing. I’ll talk her up, if you think you can slip in and out of a witch’s office before she catches you.”

Gideon didn’t joke when it came to her sword. The world would end if she didn’t get it back. She knew that innately, a truth carved into her bones. “Hell yeah!” She pumped her fist in the air. “Andy and I can be in and out super fast. You just need to buy us like five minutes tops.”

”Sounds good. Gonna have to show me where we’re going though, don’t know where her office is.”

“No problem.” Andy led the way to Wanda's office. She indicated which one for Marlena and then pulled Gideon with her to hide around the corner to give Marlena a chance to get Wanda out of the room and to some other place.

Marlena strode right up to the door and thought for just a moment. Legendary witch, a master of Chaos Magic… Oh, yeah. She reached into her bag and withdrew one of the books she swiped from the library, one she’d gotten almost three chapters into. It had a bookmark in it and everything. She tucked it under one arm, and locked the fuck in.

Knock, knock.

“Enter, Marlena.”

The door swung open of its own accord, a bit of enchanting pink mist swirling on out invitingly.

That was… Ominous.

She felt a chill go down her spine. But she was already roped into this, so Marlena took a step forward, and then another, until she was surrounded by all the bits and bobs, all the whatnots of a witch’s office. Marlena looked around and took everything in, careful not to knock anything over.

”I’ve never been in the lair of witch before. Spooky,” She observed.

While not too long ago Leah had entered a herbalistic paradise, the counters crowded with plants spilling out of jars, strange potions and concoctions bottled and ready for use, today the aesthetic of Wanda Maximoff’s office was far cozier. Lush red carpets were laid out on the floor, overlapping rugs with arcane sigils woven into each thread with care, gleaming, polished oak furniture and chairs with high quilted backs. A large picture window looked out onto a snowy mountain peak, and music played softly from a record player. On the circular table, books and scrolls were laid about, with the Scarlet Witch sipping her coffee as she perused through them. To her back was a glass cabinet, a padlock holding it shut - and visible within were a gigantic two-handed sword, a sword crafted from darkness, and a sentient shadow, straining against its bonds.

“A lair?” Wanda laughed. “I should hope it is more inviting than that.”

”I like it, it's very homey. Makes me think of a magician’s fortress against evil… Word around the campus is you’re the most qualified person available for supernatural situations. I’m new, and I only moved in around the time of the Contest of Champions, so I thought an expert would know more about a few things than me.”

Her fingers drummed the book under her arm. ”If you can spare the time?”

The Scarlet Witch tilted her head. She caught the flattery, but she didn’t know why Marlena was laying it on so thick. “You know how to compliment a tired old witch. What ails you, child?”

”A friend and I have noticed a pattern that keeps cropping up. We met this guy who sees the future. He saw visions of me and the team Excelsior, all caught up in images of tarot cards.” It was easier to just be straight with someone than flat out lie, and she could always omit a few details... ”We got Amnesia to help convey that vision more clearly, and a place called Otherworld came up in conversation a few times. Do you think it’s a coincidence for that many people to come up in visions that alike each other?”

Wanda opened her lips to speak, but suddenly faltered. A strange symbol flashed inside her eyes, pulsing pure white - nothing like any sigil Marlena might have ever seen before, but immediately memorable, burned into her memory. “I am afraid I must be going - there is a faculty meeting that I have forgotten about that I must be present for,” she commiserated, frowning sympathetically. “If you recall your question, I would be happy to answer it another time - but if not, then I must bid you farewell for now, Marlena.”

Marlena blinked. ”Oh- Are… Are you alright? That looked like it hurt,” She commented, stepping out of the way of the doorstep. What was that?

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Wanda asked, genuinely confused. But each time she glanced at Marlena, her eyes seemed to slide right past her, never properly focusing on her student as she walked down the hallway from her office and towards the faculty lounge.

”...Huh.” Marlena saw herself out of the room, equally perplexed. She watched the Scarlet Witch walk away, then looked back at the girls in the corner.

”Well.” She stuffed the book into her messenger bag and reached for a notepad. ”You needed her gone, there you go. Make it fast, ladies.”

“Damn, you are good,” Andy said. “What did you say to her?” Andy quickly went over to the office, slipping in the open door.

”I was gonna ask her about Otherworld. But I guess she had places to be.”

Gideon whistled approvingly. She’d stolen a fair number of things from professors in her day, but never had she seen someone be chased away so thoroughly. She leaned in and sniffed. “It’s not BO, at least,” she offered with a shrug. “Well, I’m not going to look a toy horse in the mouth, so let’s get Thirsty and get the fuck out of here - aaaand if we see anything shiny that we happen to also want, I think that’s for our pain and suffering.” She barged into the office and went straight for the cabinet at the back of the room, her eyes narrowing as she saw their next obstacle.

It was locked.

“I’m going to punch this and break the glass, unless either of you have a better idea?”

”Something less noisy, maybe something that doesn’t make it so obvious she was robbed?” Marlena suggested from the doorway. ”She’ll know anyway, but maybe you don’t want to rub salt in the wound, you know?”

Andy frowned, and then shrugged. That was weird, but alright. It worked in their favor. She looked at the cabinet. “Maybe the key is in the desk?” Andy turned and started to open drawers and search the desk for the key. She was careful to make sure anything she touched was moved back into the place she had found it in. Marlena was right. It would be so obvious that they had come in and grabbed the sword. Among the stuff Andy dug through to find the key she found a letter from her dad to Wanda, which made sense. She put it away, not opening. That wasn’t hers to read. No key though. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to pick locks? I only ever did pick pocketing, never learned how to pick a lock.”

Gideon looked at Marlena with confusion. “Why would you ever put salt in a wound? Do they do that in Missouri or wherever you’re from???” She didn’t know how to pick locks. Every lock before this she had broken with her sword. If Marlena didn’t know, she was going to just punch the glass. Wanda could know she was robbed. Gideon wasn’t scared of the witch.

Marlena put one hand up in fake surrender. ”That’s what we in the business call a metaphor, Shades. I got nothing. Unless your girlfriend over there can use lightning to melt a lock.”

Andy considered the lock. She’d have to hyperfocus the lightning. Andy concentrated what would normally come out of her whole fist to one finger, brushing slightly against the lock. The lock melted and deformed. Andy smiled and opened the cabinet, careful to avoid burning herself. She stepped aside once the weapon was free to grab so that Gideon could get it.

“Alright, Blinds,” Gideon snorted. But the minute Andy blasted the cabinet open, she jumped for joy, picked up her girlfriend, kissed her furiously, spun her around, set her down, and made a beeline for her sword. She tugged it free immediately, ignoring her shadow - she didn’t seem to really need one of those, anyway - and the tension relieved in her body was immediately visible, her shoulders relaxing and her muscles loosening up. “Oh Thirsty, I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” she murmured, before giving a sweet kiss to the hilt of the sword.

Marlena elected not to ask how such a huge and wicked-looking sword justified being named something as off as Thirsty. She chuckled and withdrew a pen from her bag, thinking about something. That symbol in the Scarlet Witch’s eyes. It was simple, albeit a little elegant.

It was easy to remember.

She drew it on a page of her notepad.

“Let’s bounce,” Andy said. She did not want to be found here. She was in enough trouble. Getting caught red handed was not something she wished to experience. Though, she did glance at the shadows and wondered if she could touch them. She reached out, and pulled the person shaped shadow. As soon as it was free it started dancing and flying around the room. Andy watched it for a moment and said, “Yeah, not dealing with that.” She grabbed the shadow sword. She’d find Chase and hand it over to him.

As Marlena inscribed the symbol into her notebook, something deep pulsed within her, as if a gate had swung wide open… There was the faintest sensation of breath on her neck, of spiders crawling up her arms… And then, the feeling that she had forgotten something very important.

“Who needs a shadow, anyway?” Gideon shrugged. She had the Thirsting Blade back and that’s all that mattered. She then eyed the other sword. “Can I have that one too? She needs a good home.”

”Woah, woah- Hey-”

Marlena scrabbled around, clearly caught off guard. Her hands roamed all over her upper body for a brief moment as she made sure the feeling of bugs all over her wasn’t actually real.

That spooked her.

”Ooookay.” She scribbled all over the symbol and mucked it up. ”Not doing that again… You two wanna get out of here soon?”

“Uh, I think it is Chase’s. I was going to give it back to him.” She nodded at the next question, and went for the door immediately. Time to scoot. She cracked the door and looked to see if the coast was clear. She spotted an older man, and closed the door back. “Well we have to wait Mr. Pym is heading this way.”

”Mr. Pym?” She asked, keeping her voice down. ”As in Hank Pym? the Antman guy?”

“Yeah, like I said, she needs a good home.” Gideon frowned. Ant Man. Hank Pym. He was someone who… she had no idea at all. “If he’s ant sized, can’t we just squish him?”

“He is currently human sized. Now shhh.” Andy pressed her ear against the door. Trying to listen. If Mr. Pym's footsteps were fading. She didn't hear him, so again slowly opened the door to see if the coast was clear.

”If he is still out there… Let me do the talking,” Marlena suggested with a whisper.

Hank Pym was standing right outside the office, with a giant caterpillar on a leash. “You… are not Wanda Maximoff.”

Gideon raised her sword. “Nope.”

Marlena’s eyes widened. ”Uhh. What is- Is that real, or am I hallucinating things still?” She’d never seen a giant bug before. ”You’re Antman, right? Is that a bug from the Quantum Realm?”

Andy nodded at Pym. She hoped since he was new he wouldn't recognize her. She had left her Excelsior jacket in her room so that helped. Maybe. She didn't say anything letting Marlena who was apparently a wizard at getting adults to leave do the talking.

Hank Pym stared at Marlena for a moment. Then Andy. Then Gideon. His eyes lingered on her sword and slowly, slowly Gideon lowered it.

His eyes flickered back to Marlena.

“Believe it or not, you aren’t hallucinating. I am Ant-Man,” Pym grinned, looking down at his giant bug with pride. “This is Arthur. You can say hi, if you want. He’s a little shy, but let him smell you for a moment - he’s a monarch larva, so you can give him a pet, there’s no danger of stinging. I was hoping Wanda was in, I’m low on milkweed and that’s what he eats exclusively. And to answer your earlier question - he’s not from the quantum realm. He’s from somewhere almost as exotic - Alberta.”

Marlena chuckled and held a hand out, as if she were greeting a stray dog. ”Hi, Arthur. She was here, just a minute ago. I came to ask her something, she stormed off suddenly before we could talk.”

Andy stayed quiet. She did not want to draw attention to herself. She let Marlena do the talking. She took Gideon’s free hand and slowly started to try to pull away from Pym, Malrena and... Arthur.

Gideon held her breath, slowly backing away along with Andy. Pym and Marlena were standing in the hallway, and with the angle just right… Her and Andy managed to sidestep around Pym, before slowly continuing to creep backward, giant buster swords in hand. If Pym noticed, he didn’t bat an eye.

Arthur sniffed at Marlena’s hand for a moment, before butting his head up against it happily. He didn’t make any audible noises, no squeaks or whimpers or whines, but even then it was clear that he immediately was taken with her. Pym beamed down at him with pride.

“I think he likes you. You said she stormed off - did you happen to catch which way?” He then looked at Arthur again for a moment, an idea occurring to him. “How would you like to help me out some this semester as my TA? I need someone who’s good with Arthur and the others - help me clean them, feed them, care for them - you’d get credit for it.”

That sounded like fun. Would she have to occasionally teach someone how to shrink down? Did that mean being more A than T? Marlena didn’t think of herself as much of a bug person. But then again, giant bugs were pretty damn cool. She nuzzled Arthur’s buggy little head… Maybe she’d get out of some other classes by saying she was too busy herding giant caterpillars to fight people.

”She went that way-” Marlena pointed down the hall. ”And… Sure, why not? Not much of an entomologist, but he seems nice.”

With Pym distracted by Marlena, Andy gently pulled Gideon with her out of the hall and out of sight of the teacher. She sighed relieved once they were around the corner. She'd need to find Chase, or text him since he was in a group chat now, and let him know she had his shadow sword.

“We'll call it a success. Smart grab getting Marlena. She is great at this.”

“Everything is proceeding according to plan,” Gideon agreed, pushing her shades back up. She hadn’t had a plan at all.

Meanwhile, Pym glanced back in the direction Marlena pointed, before nodding. “Excellent. Send an email to my faculty address and I’ll get it all set up - thank you, Ms…?”

”Marlena Evans. I’ll get on that as soon as I have a spare moment.” She flashed the old guy a smile and then looked behind her. ”...Did they just teleport away or something?”

Pym chuckled. “You can’t throw a rock without hitting a kid who can teleport these days. I’ll be seeing you around, Ms. Evans. Come along, Arthur.” He tugged slightly on the leash before going off in the direction Marlena had indicated, hoping that the Scarlet Witch would be able to help him out with the food sourcing issue.
She waved him off, then shut the door to Wanda’s office. She had places to be herself.

Marlena looked down at the strange symbol she wrote. Something seemed different after she scribbled it out. Not about the symbol itself, but about her.

What was she supposed to do again, after reading about Otherworld?

The events of the day had taken their toll on him, but Percy was not ready to rest - not yet. He had teleported Dorian and himself back to Stark Hall so that way he could change into fresh, dry socks before tackling their next task - investigating Ser Nemo’s office. He didn’t know what he expected to find there, it could easily be a futile exercise and a waste of time… but if Nemo really was his future self, there would be clues there to find. Percy liked spy novels and movies, he enjoyed puzzles and mysteries - if he was organizing some great plan to change the timeline and spite the TVA, he would have left behind something in the event of his capture. And even if unintentional, there might be evidence as to what had happened, as to what set in motion the events of Nemo’s timeline and Dorian’s suicide.

Percy sat on the edge of Dorian’s bed, lacing up his shoes. He’d run a quick comb through his hair, taming it into a respectable neat and tidy state. The cat ears beanie was on the bed next to him. He pulled out his phone and opened the text chat with Dorian’s siblings. The others were busy with their own preparations. And stressed as he felt, he didn’t want the entire group there when they poked through the small office. It would be crowded enough in there with just Danni.



He then stared at his phone for a moment and sighed. Danni had specifically asked for him to send emojis as tone indicators.



“Okay, I texted your siblings that we are ready,” he informed Dorian, as he stood up off the bed. He held out his hand to him.





Danni screeched excitedly as he fired back a text. The fearsome foursome had found their way back to campus and scattered to the winds, Danni escorting Ben back to his dorm to chill until his boyf got back from whatever adventure with Leah he'd found himself on. But this? This was perfect. He snatched up Ben and shook him excitedly.

“Omg, omg, omg, we gotta do t'is!” Danni shoved the phone directly into Ben's face, barely centimeters away from his eyes. “Wanna ‘ave some fun B&Ein’ it up tonight wit’ me? Please, please, please, please, please. Danni begged, hitting his knees and wrapping his arms around Ben's waist as he pleaded.

Ben blinked and pulled the phone and Danni’s hand away from his face so he could actually read the conversation. He had zero clue what Danni had responded with, but he got enough of the gist to know he had already said yes for them. Ben hoped Percy would be alright with him joining, at least it wasn’t Chase he supposed. “Uh, sure. I don’t know when Chase was going to get back and I don’t want to wait in his room, I don’t know who his roomie is.” Ben didn’t add that he didn’t want to go sit in his room alone to wait for Percy to come back or just hope that Chase came back. The pot of tea at the cafe had helped Ben a lot. He didn’t have the headache anymore.

“Yeeeeeees! T'is is gunna be so great! I can't wait ta get a crack at t'e old man's secries, ya know? ‘speeeecially now we know ‘he's Spicy? I got comments ‘bout t'at mustache.” Danni picked Ben up at the waist and twirled him around excitedly, before letting him down and dragging him down towards Poisson-Pas’ office. “Not t'at loungin’ ‘round t'e dorm wit’ ya wouldn't ‘ave been fun, but ‘ow often can ya pop inta a prof's office and snoop wit’ no chance o’ gettin’ in trouble?”



Dorian watched as his phone buzzed several times on the wireless charger, having decided to get a bit more power into it before they went off to Nemo's office and then who knows where. Dorian's eyes slowly moved up, following the path he would like his phone to take as it gingerly began to hover in the air before snapping back towards him and in his hand. ”Interestin’ mon amour. Anot'er pictograph t'at most certainly isn't a language or even decipherable from you.” Dorian grinned, turning the phone towards Percy as he showed him Danni's response. ”En tout cas, it seems t'ey are ready and willin’ to go. Allons-y” He took Percy's hand in his before slyly using his telekinesis to replace the cat ears hat onto Percys head.

Percy had already been struggling to decipher Danni’s response on his own phone and the additional screen hardly helped. He felt like he had a concussion the longer he looked at it. A princess? Pointing in different directions? Clocks? He had no idea what any of that meant. Danni could have been telling him they were at the mall shopping, he could have been explaining they were playing Mario Kart, he could have been whining about losing his favorite watch. There was absolutely no way of telling. His face was scrunched up into a deep scowl, his eyes narrowed.

“Does Danni even know what he’s typing?” Percy muttered.

It took considerable effort for him to pull his attention away from the screen. Studying Danni’s use of language was a futile but addicting exercise, one he had already put many hours into. It wasn’t the priority for the moment. But if he could ever crack that code, it might just be his greatest achievement yet.

He gave Dorian’s hand a gentle squeeze, infuriation still clear across his face, and with a pop the world around them swirled and distorted, until they found themselves in the hallway outside of Ser Nemo’s office. They were entirely alone - no other students, no members of faculty wandering about. Just the empty silence broken up with the soft ticking of a hallway clock. The hallway was brightly lit, the dark oak of the door with a simple placard reading Ser Nemo, Time Travel Studies in golden lettering shining from the reflected light. There was a simple notice taped in the center, explaining to the Margaret Carter community that Ser Nemo had passed away, with resources for grief and counseling detailed. At the base of the door, several bouquets of flowers had been set, with cards and notes and drawings left behind.

Percy’s stomach lurched. It was a memorial. To him.

“I’ll unlock the door,” he offered quickly. He vanished from Dorian’s sight and a moment later, the office door swung inwards, allowing Dorian in without disturbing the memorial.

The silence shattered as Danni bounced into the hallway with Ben's hand firmly in his, chatting at a mile a minute. “Okay, so listen. Sometimes ya just gotta stick wit’ t'e chiller sauce. I'm a fan of t'e spiciest t'in's I can get my ‘and's on, t'at's why Spicy's mu bestie, but sometimes t'ese newer ‘ot sauces just drown out t'e flavor ‘cause t'ey just want pain. T'at's not ‘ow ya do it. Makin’ a good ‘ot sauce is all ‘bout balancin’ t'e ‘eat and t'e taste. If ya got a lotta ‘eat, ya need a real complex flavor ta make it a good Experience. I t'ink we outta do a ‘ot sauce tastin’. Got out ta a sauce shop and get like… 30 different ones. It'll be sups fun! And if we all end up cryin’ our eyes out, t'en t'at means we did it right.” Danni laughed, catching sight of Dorian in the hallway and Percy in the door way.

“T'e party is ‘ere!” Danni declared, plucking a flower from the memorial and taking a whiff of it. “These are super nice! So pretty, smell great - man, I wonder ‘ow many peeps are gunna be upsetti when t'ey find out t'e school lied ta t'em when we bring Poisson-Pas back? Oh, hm, I guess t'ese are your flowers t'ough Spicy. You wanna wear t'is one?” Danni asked, hand already halfway to tucking it behind his ear, pausing to level Dorian with a serious look.

“Dee, my fav brot'er, my bestie for life, my partner in crime - we ‘afta stop the mustache at all costs.”

Ben listened to Danni horrified. He was going to die. Danni was going to kill him with hot sauce. How could he escape this potential torture? They arrived at Nemo’s office, Ben took in the scene. He didn’t know the professor, he barely knew Percy. He nodded at Dorian and Percy, then looked down the hallway to make sure it was still clear. “Maybe we should go inside the office before someone comes,” he encouraged. He was not going to have the conversation of how he definitely wasn’t going to eat one hot sauce, let alone 30 different sauces.

Dorian took Danni's hand in his, daisychaining his powers down past Danni and into Ben as well as each of them began to turn incorporeal as he pulled them past the memorial at the doorway and into the small office of the late but still living Poissan-pas. As soon as Ben made it in, Dorian dropped the power so that each person was once again touching ground. ”Pas de chance qu'il grow it out. Its one of my contingencies now. No facial ‘air means new future, new future means no Poisson-Pas past. Oui?” He looked towards Ben, he didn't dislike the kid but he also didn't care for the misguided boyfriend of Percy's bully. ”Désolé. I didn't want to disturb the memorial of my late boyfriend.”

“What? No,” Percy shook his head sharply, refusing the flower. He ignored all the comments about the mustache, although he privately agreed. Whatever they could do that was different than Nemo would help to ensure a new timeline. Albeit with the added challenge of the TVA coming after them…

He stared at Ben for a moment. He hadn’t realized he was coming, too. Percy did not mind. But his face was still contorted into a glaring scowl. It wasn’t directed at his roommate. He moved past the others and shut the door. They didn’t need people finding them in here.

The office itself was a quiet affair - cool tone walls with dark wood furniture. In the center of the room, a comfortable desk sat with a well loved leather back chair, two bookshelves flanking a wooden frame painting of an overgrown library with a staircase curling up gently along a shattered wall. A globe, a tidy pile of books, and a lamp sat on the desk and a pair of black lacquered, gold coated ballpoint pens sat neatly next to a notepad.

Along one wall was a small table where an electric kettle and a glass tea display, along with two mugs, sat quietly and a suit of armor with a sword in hand watched over the room. A comfortable rug spread across the faded hardwood floors, one corner mussed as if someone had tripped and never bothered smoothing it out. Two chairs faced the desk, comfortable but smaller than Nemo's.

A thin layer of dust covered the room.

Danni rerouted the flower to behind his own ear and hummed as they settled into the room. He looked around, humming for a moment to himself. It wasn't terribly large but there was still enough space to walk around. “Deee, why are you talkin’ timey-whimey to me? I don't get t'at atuff, ya know t'at!” Danni whined, beelining it for the suit of armor and the sword. He rapped his knuckles against it and stared when it echoed inside. “Ooooh, t'is is like real armor! I wonder if t'e sword is real too “ Danni reached out and poked the blade, hissing as he caught the edge of the sword. A bit of blood welled up out of the cut and he stuck his finger in his mouth to keep the blood from dripping everywhere.

Ben saw the scowl and withered a little under the intensity of it. He didn't know where to start searching the room. He froze a little when Percy shut the door. The room was small. He knew he could open the door and leave at any moment. But it still...itched. Sighing, he started to search the desk. If anything was going to be written down it was likely to be there.

Most of what he found seemed to just be lesson plans and homework. Of note was a flyer for a different school, and notes about the Excelsior team. Though there were names he didn't recognize. There were training notes. He didn't think that is what they were looking for though.

“Hey... so what are we looking for?” Ben flipped through the notes.

Dorian telekinetically smacked Percy behind his head and gave him a look tellin him to fix his face as he saw Ben's demeanor change slightly before he began to search the office. Rolling his eyes, he began to make his way around the office to search for…well anything he guessed. ”Weird writin’ t'at might give you a ‘eadache if you look too long, somet'in t'at may seem outta place, I dunno, Perce its your future office, ‘ow would you ‘ide clues?” He asked jist moments before he felt his foot snag on the armors greatest, panicked, Dorian tried to phase through it as it began to fall over but instead ended up inside the armor and taking Danni down with him.

Percy flinched as something struck him in the back of his head, turning around on his heel only to see his boyfriend nonverbally scolding him. His nerves were shot already from having Chase around and for a brief second, his eyes looked pained before the mask slid back over his features, a little more neutral than before but still intense and focused.

“How am I supposed to know what’s going through Nemo’s thick skull?” He hated how much he recognized himself in everything here - in the neatness and the organization, in the heavy dark furniture, in the piece of art on the wall. He hated how much he still felt that irritation and rage when he thought of Nemo, even knowing the truth. He hated how suffocating this room felt, like a coffin ready to snap shut.

“I wouldn’t leave anything in obvious locations - so the desk is a waste of time. And I…” there was a clatter as Dorian knocked over the suit of armor, crashing to the ground with it and Danni. “… I might put something in there.”

The clatter of armor caught Danni off guard as he nursed his wound. He lunged to grab Dorian, only for him to phase and vanish, and screamed as the entire suit came crashing down on him. He managed to cover his head, but the heavy metal knocked the air from his lungs and left deep, pulsing bruises on his arms and sides. As the helmet rolled away and clanked against the door, Danni peeked his eyes open and gasped at the blade that hard buried itself inches from his nose. “OMG, Dee's! You almost-” Danni winced, his complaining cut short as he tried to wiggle out from under the armor but felt something dull and intense radiate out from his side. “Ow, ow, ow, ow! Dee, we're ‘bout ta go on an adventure and I can't call Pops ta ‘eal me or we'll get in trouble! You're so meaaaaan!” Danni complained as he gingerly scooted out from under the heavy metal, groaning dramatically the entire time.

Danni did stare at the blade. It was double edged and leaf shaped, a leather wrap around the hilt. Danni poked the pummel. “So, uh, Spicy, I t'ink t'is means you're learnin’ ‘ow ta swin’ a sword, ya know?”

Ben sighed, unsurprised that the desk was a dead end, according to Percy. He tried to put the file back exactly as he had found it when there was a massive clattering. He looked up seeing the armor now on the floor crushing Danni.

“You okay?” he asked? Ben watched the door for a moment hoping no one heard them and came to investigate. He didn't need a second detention. The room was cramped enough that he stayed on the other side of the desk to not crowd the armor. If Danni needed help he would help. But he would rather stay out of the way first.

Dorian groaned lightly, rolling off of Danni as he splayed himself on the floor. ”I'm good. Danni you ok?” His eyes stayed closed for a moment as his head rang from the helmets thud before rolling off. The sound resonating within his own head. He stood up slowly, standing back to where the armor had been and phased back out of it, holding his hand out to help Danni up.

Percy let out a small sigh of relief as he saw that Dorian and Danni were unharmed. “Maybe we should avoid using powers in here.” He said this mostly for Danni. He didn’t want to see his friend burn them all alive - and destroy what evidence they could find. He approached the two slowly and carefully, before evaluating the sword. He pulled on the grip, expecting it to come free, but it remained lodged into the boards. He gritted his teeth and pulled harder, the scowl returning to his face, but it still wouldn’t budge. His temper flared. “Дурацкий древний меч, почему ты, блядь, не вытаскиваешься?” he swore in Russian. “It’s Ancient Greek - a xiphos. It makes no sense for Nemo to have paired it with medieval armor, it’s a complete anachronism.”

Danni accepted Dorian's hand. “Ot'er t'an feelin’ like a rock in a rock roller? Yeah, I'm chill!” Danni pouted at Percy's suggestion. “But like… what if Poisson-Pas ‘id stuff wit’ like invisible ink? And we need ‘eat ta read it? Or like… idk, lemon and ‘eat? Poisson-Pas should ‘ave some, ‘e ‘as it wit’ ‘is tea sometimes, yeah?” Danni watched as Percy struggled wit’ t'e sword and bounced over to help.

“‘I can ‘elp and it doesn't take powers!” Danni carefully grabbed both sides of the hilt, keeping his fingers away from the edge so he didn't get cut again. “Okay, okay, okay on three. One… two… t'ree!” Danni counted down and pushed up while Percy pulled and it slid out of the floor boards with ease.

“Aye! Look at us! Just like if we lat'ered t'is baby up wit’ a little bacon grease and butter.

Danni and Dorian were both okay. Good. Ben sat down on the chair. He thought for a moment, before leaning so he could see under the drawer. Sometimes in spy movies they'd hide things under the drawer, maybe there would be something there. He didn’t expect it, but it would be a bad search job if he didn't look.

There was a cockroach. He blinked. “Hey there buddy. How long have you been here? Are there others?” Maybe the cockroach could help. He held out his hand for the bug to climb onto.

” I've ‘eard of t'e Sword in t'e Stone but not t'e one in t'e board.” Dorian joked as Percy and Danni struggled to pull it out until they finally managed it. ”So why would you put somet'in’ anachronastic wit'in your office? Does t'at make t'e armor t'e clue or t'e sword? T'en again given ‘ow many swords were in t'at vision I t'ink it may be t'e sword.” Dorian moved away from the two however, not wanting to get stabbed by anything in the office. ”Future you better put t'at t'in’ in a sheathe. Students can ‘urt t'emselves wit’ t'at you know? Even mine stays sheat'ed.”

Dorian began to look over the books that littered the shelves, after all his boyfriend loved to read, and so perhaps a clue would be hidden amongst the literature. Beyond that maybe a secret door. He stopped when he noticed a book he hadn't heard of, Greek in nature but nothing he could tie back to Homer's Canon that it was placed by. ”Perce. What's t'is?”

“Yours isn’t always sheathed,” Percy cast a somewhat heated look over at Dorian, before returning his attention to the sword. He held up the sword for closer inspection, offering a grateful nod to Danni for his aid. It was expertly maintained, the xiphos - it was a secondary weapon used by the Greeks, a supplement to a javelin or a spear. They were typically about two feet in length but could be as short as a foot. This one he’d guess was about two feet but…

Percy frowned. Again.

“It’s… shrinking…”

The blade rapidly lost about six inches of length, without any shimmering lights or other signs of magical activity. It simply became smaller. And once it ceased shrinking, it felt perfect in Percy’s hand, as if it had been made for him. It very well may have been. It was Nemo’s sword. He hated how right it felt.

He looked up at Dorian and somehow managed to frown even deeper. “What? That’s nonsense. There’s no γοητεία.” His brain stalled out for a moment as he searched for the meaning of the word.

Danni watched the sword shrink in awe. “Wow! Look at Poisson-Pas, givin’ ya a sword t'at can change ta be perfectly cute just like you! So adorable!” Danni marveled, but frowned at Percy's comment. “Deeeee, you gotta remember ta sheat’ your sword! What if ya trip and fall like t'at and ‘urt yourself? Or like, Spicy ‘as a rough ‘port so ‘e just like, pops in and sits right on it by accidnet?” Danni chastised his brother, bouncing over to see what Dee found.

Danni looked at the book with an empty, blank stare and shook his head. “Imma let t'e nerds ‘ere ‘andle t'is cause Imma be ‘onest, t'is looks like a buncha gobbledygook tbh so ‘ave fuuuun.” Danni scooted across the room to see what Ben was looking at.

The cockroach skittered around a little, the sudden movement, light, and sound startling it. It tentatively scooched closer to Ben's hand and its antenna tested his fingers apprehensive. It did not understand time so could offer no answers; only expressed hunger and loneliness and confusion. It wished for food or to be returned to where it came in. Ben would get a gist of where it scampered through: a crack in the wall near hidden hinges behind a painting.

Ben looked up and around, looking for the painting from the little bit he had gotten from the bug. “Hey, I think there is something behind the painting there.” Ben gestured with his free hand. Then reached into his pocket and pulled out some tea crackers from his pocket. He put a few of the crumbs on the palm of his hand for the cockroach. “This little one came from behind the painting,” he explained.

Dorian scoffed. ”I only unsheath it when in a fight. Even t'en I rarely pull it out. Appa says you should never remove your sword from its sheath unless you are ready to take a life. I mostly use mine as a focus in battle to visualize psionic cuts.” He couldn't help but hold back a laugh as Percy exclaimed his sword was shrinking. ”Maybe it's cold. “ He joked as he made his way towards Ben to help with the painting. Tugging at it from one side as it swung open and revealed a safe with a number combination lock on it.

Percy coughed. “Yes, I wouldn’t want to accidentally sit on your blade.” He set the sword down on the desk somewhat awkwardly. He hadn’t seen a sheath for it, and he hoped by putting it there, it would minimize the chances of someone else getting hurt on it. He made a mental note to ask Dorian later about his training with his father - was his appa a swordsman, too? A swordsman devoted to his mage?

Instead, he turned his attention to the shelves and pulled out the book Dorian had found. His eyes slipped as the letters on the title rearranged themselves, from γοητεία to witchery. And as he opened it, familiar symbols filled the page, symbols he knew he had seen before but he couldn’t place. They accompanied the occasional drawing, circles and wheels and rough sketches of terrains. But the symbols, they covered the pages, all written in a penmanship he could not help but recognize as his own. He couldn’t read them, though. No matter how many times he tilted the page, no matter what symbol he stared at, it was all nonsense to him, as decipherable as Danni’s text messages.

“Can you read this?” he asked, turning to show the book to Dorian, only to spy a safe with a combination lock.

His face flushed. “Try 10-10-2038.”

“Oooh, t'e bug is tell ya secrets of t'e room, eh? Nifty! Oooooh, t'at should be t'e buggies nickname!” Danni clapped excitedly, proud he came up with such a good nickname. He gasped at the safe in the wall and rushed over to it, wiggling in next to Dorian obnoxiously to start playing with the combination dial. “Leavin’ Spicy ta do all t'e work wit’ t'e books I see. I'll get t'e safe, t'ough why would t'at be t'e combo? Seems ‘eckin’ specific. Kinda like a date, ya know?”

Danni twirled the dial, tongue sticking out as he listened for the satisfying little clicks. On the final one, he gave a little shout of excitement as the safe unlocked but he paused for a moment. He checked it just like Poisson-Pas explained it to them: looking for wires, testing for tension, tapping for anything hollow but after a few minutes, Danni was satisfied and threw it open.

There was a long beat of silence.

“Oh.” Danni said softly and then slowly closed the safe again. It stayed barely cracked but Danni didn't look away from the safe door. “T'at won't ‘elp us. We can just look for somet'in’ else.”

Ben felt happy that he could help. That Dorian had listened to him. He smiled. “Yeah, I guess so,” Ben responded to Danni. Ben came over to the painting, looking for the crack and offering it to the cockroach so it could go back home. It had hopefully gotten enough crackers for now.

It was lost on Dorian as well as to why that combination would work. He figured it was some significant date to Poisson-Perce but at the moment hadn't thought beyond that. What he was focused on was how weird Danni was acting towards whatever was inside of the safe. Dorian pulled on the door with his powers, gently, but with enough force to swing it open and see what Danni was trying to hide. Anger flashed across his eyes as he spotted the bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle Bourbon, sat within a glass dome case not too dissimilar to the rose from Disney's tale. Etched onto the glass was a note ‘Break in Case of Failure.’

” Absolument non!” Dorian exclaimed as he made his way past Danni, phasing his hand into the glass casing and grabbing the bottle before vanishing down into the floor with it.

“It’s our anniversary,” Percy explained, his face turning even redder. It felt like a lifetime ago that Dorian had invaded his room for a study session, complaining about being unable to parse the Iliad without even making an honest attempt at it. He noted that he’d been entirely ignored about the book and he sighed, closing it and deciding to figure out what all the fuss was about a safe…

… only to see that Ben was apparently taking advantage of the prime real estate and making it into a home for a cockroach.

Why had Danni brought this person?

He furrowed his eyebrows, staring daggers into Ben’s back - this time intended at him - and completely missed what Dorian was doing. Danni seemed a little quieter than normal, but he didn’t think much of it. He might have also just been confused about the bug. Danni was often confused.

“Ooookay, whelp, t'at's t'at!” Danni clapped his hands loudly and slammed the safe shut, letting it click close and spun the dial like a game show. Danni did not want to think about what that meant so he didn't! Instead, he let the cockroach scuttle into a crack near the painting's hinges and gently moved it out of the way before shutting it. He spun around, propped his hands on his hips. “Whelp, t'e safe was a bust soooooooo maybe t'ere's somet'in’ else ‘ere, ‘u’? Idk, Spicy where else would ya ‘ide stuff? So far, we got a sword and a book we can't read!” Danni laughed, a little too loudly even for him.

Since Percy was glaring at the back of his head, Ben didn't notice this time. He was distracted by letting the bug go. He dusted his hands of cracker crumbs. He looked around the room to see if there were other hiding places for things. He went over to the globe. Trying to think if there were trick globes that had secret hiding spots in them. That seemed like something that would exist. Though it made him think of James Bond and hidden drink sets. The globe didn't seem to have hinges or anything else strange about it. However, it did look like it hadn't been moved in a long time.

Dorian flew off towards his dorm, placing the bottle into his bag that he was going to pack for Otherworld. He'd have words with Poisson-Pas about his future choices and how he needed to think better of them. He'd gathered shards of the broken teacup, only two decently large pieces that he'd originally needed to identify and find the replacement he had for Nemo what felt like ages ago. Dorian took those two and quickly scribbled down a note ‘A Reminder that you can always fix what has been broken’ He gathered the items and went back towards Nemo's office, phasing back to the safe only to notice it was once again locked and closed.

Annoyance joined the anger within him. Using his powers to flip open the painting, turn the dial back to its open code, and fling the door open before he phased the two items into the glass case, snagging one of the teacups he'd gotten Nemo and putting it alongside them before closing it all back up and phasing back into space as he dusted his hands. ”Perce you ‘ad a book or somet'in’ for me to read? And why is your face like t'at? I t'ought I told you to fix it “

Percy tore his attention away from the bug at Danni’s question. He didn’t notice anything off about Danni’s laughter. As for where else he would hide something… his eyes darted towards the carpet on the floor, noting the way the corner of it was bunched up. He frowned and set the book down next to the sword, and knelt down on the floor, pulling the rug back. He tilted his head to the side. The floor board underneath was loose. “I read too many spy books,” he huffed, as he pried the board loose to reveal a tattered old suitcase, with S. Nemo embroidered on top.

“The book’s on the table - and my face is just like this. I’m not doing anything.”

At the sound of the floorboard being pulled out, Danni scampered away to get his hands on whatever he could. He cheered at the sight of the suitcase, kneeling down beside Percy. “Yeeeees, let's see what secrets Poisson-Pas kept from us.” Danni eagerly dragged the suitcase up out of the floor and popped it open. He was expecting secret letters, piles of cash, maybe some weapons, but what he found inside instead… Danni couldn't stop the sniffles as his eyes teared up.

He held up the monster mash photo of everyone in She-Ra outfits first. He'd been a little lonely during that, the rest of his siblings pairing up and only him left out, but it was still a great night (and even great shots. Damn, he could work a camera.) that ended pretty rough but the energy they all had before that? Amazing. He wasn't certain what the ring was, but no doubt it was important. A photo of a pair of kids that Danni couldn't recognize but they looked like they were having fun. Maybe he was going to be an uncle one day and these were Dee and Spicy’s kids.

“Aw, look at my nephews." Danni cooed, still trying to hold back tears. It was all for naught as he picked up the slightly melted bracelet that he could recognize as the friendship bracelet he'd made Percy. He turned to look at Percy with big watery eyes and blubbered out “You kept our friendship bracelet t'is long?”

Ben gave up on the globe and moved so he was standing behind Danni as he rummaged through the suitcase. It was mementos. Ben was about to step back and let them look through it alone, when Danni claimed one photo was of his nephews. Ben looked at it and recognized a younger Chase. He wanted to show the picture to Chase, but part of him worried that if Chase saw it he'd fall into a spiral of self pity. He had lost so much of his color during the experiments. Chase looked endlessly tired. Ben didn't care. He still thought Chase was attractive, but this childhood photo was adorable. He stepped back away. Unsure of where to look still. They hadn't seemed to have found whatever they were looking for. Unless the book that Percy had found was it.

Ben sighed and sort of gave up. He just started picking up books at random hoping one would stand out.

”Right.” Dorian replied curtly as he made his way over towards the book. He began flipping over the pages, trying the trick that Nemo had taught him to read the Journal given to him. His let his vision unfocus, let the words begin to blur and mix, but each time it felt as if he had it, the words slipped away. Twisting and turning in his mind in a way that made him feel incomplete, like he was missing someone for this equation. His eyes glanced at Percy, over by Danni and the pulled up floorboard, and he wondered if this was enchanted so that only they as one could read it. After all it is Poisson-Perce's book, and if he felt he was missing someone…

Dorian made his way over, quick strides of determination as he grabbed Percy's hand. ”I t'ink we need to be one to read t'is book.” He pulled Percy in close, as if they were about to dance, chest to chest, when suddenly their bodies began to form into one. It wasn't like his possessions, it felt closer to what he'd done with Billy and Danni yet even more so different. Did they just physically entangle? The new form stood there, book in hand, with icy blue eyes, pale skin and rosy cheeks, mop top dark brown hair, and taller than Percy has ever been. A swirl of emotions as the two collided, anger, annoyance, and an internal conflict Dorian didn't understand.” Perce wha– you ok?” More annoyance ran across their now shared emotions, but a clear cut concern followed right after.

Percy hadn’t had a chance to say yes to this, hadn’t even gotten a moment to consider what Dorian had asked of him. Just one moment he was staring at the tiny mementos of a sad, weary life that awaited him and the next, he was somewhere dark, restrained and unable to move, as something - as someone - as Dorian forcibly took control. Annoyance and anger that were not his bled into the rage and turmoil that was, and he felt himself speak, could see the book in his hands and the room around him, even as he was a prisoner in this body.

I’m fine! Percy strained against what bonds held him, trying to find the place where he started and this other - and Dorian ended.

Dorian snatched Percy up without so much as a hello to Danni, suddenly whirling into one person as Ben wandered around aimlessly. Dorian and Percy seemed to change and shift and then suddenly, poof! new person. Danni gaped in astonishment, bracelet still outstretched where he was showing Percy. Danni was a little overwhelmed at this revelation, that these two could become one beyond the whole tied together thing. “Wha- Who? ‘ow-” Danni stammered, for once struggling to reach for words. “Omg, anot'er circuit? Please be careful! Do not change t'e reality, do not mess wit’ time, do not not do anyt'in’ crazy now. Gotta start slow - I know we did. Ig, scary stuff last time but t'at took a lot outta us and we gotta be leavin’ pretty soon. Ain't got a buncha time ta recover!” Danni warned shrilly. Danni shook his hands wildly as he tried, for once, to think and he landed on Ben.

Ben!

“Wait, no Bennie, Ben, Bennie Ben can you like, make a cup o’ tea? Poissan-Pas ‘as a whole selection t'ere. T'e last time Dee circuited, we stripped a whole island of a curse and t'en built a whole buildin’ and gave everyone we loved a ‘ug and it was rouuugh and Spicy was already on like scotch bonnet going on chocolate habanero. Idk why but it was def t'ere if ‘e was snappin’ at Dee like t'at so maybe a cup o’ tea will chill t'is circuit out before t'ey do timey-whimey, ghostie stuff.” Danni pointed at the tea set up. The makeshift bar hosted a variety of bagged and loose leaf teas, an electric kettle, a tea pot, mugs, and a sink. The container that sat out off the display was Russian Caravan tea and was the least filled, clearly much loved. All the teas were used to some extent, except the one container labelled Kukicha. It seemed pristine and untouched compared to those around it..

Ben was poking at books uselessly when Percy fully went away. So did Dorian. They both just disappeared and a new person was standing where they had been. He blinked at them confused. Danni made it make some sense though. Reminding him of what happened during the Contest.

“Oh, yeah sure,” he went over to the tea set up. First checking the water, it had clearly been sitting for a while so he dumped it. He refilled the pot a little bit and then shook it to clear out any residual dust or other grossness. He might like his tea cup build up, but the water should be clean and good. After refilling the pot and starting the kettle he grabbed two cups, paused and grabbed a third. He read the side of the container to see how hot the water should be for this type since it wasn’t his usual black tea he couldn’t be fully sure. He continued to work on that while Dorian and Percy... did whatever it was that they were doing.

”Fine? Perce I can feel what you're feeling. What we're feeling.” He crossed his arms, leaning against the desk ”You wanted to go poking around for information and now that we have a few leads you're being all…you!”

Percy flinched inside the entanglement and his vision went red, as he violently came into better awareness of the body. He kept his arms crossed but his trademark glare was plain across his face, contrasted only with the cat ears that remained on. “Oh, my apologies for being me. I’ll work on that. I’ll be someone you prefer better next time - how about Billy, hmm? Would that be better?” The books in the office began to rattle, threatening to fall off of the shelf. The tea cups in the safe clattered against the glass display, the album in the suitcase opened up and the pages began to fall rapidly, and the handle on the door shook.

Danni laughed nervously. “Okay, okay. ‘member we can get in lots of trouble if anyone finds out we're ‘ere.” Danni reminded them from his spot on the floor, gingerly putting the bracelet back into the suitcase and shutting the album, putting all his weight on it. Danni never thought he'd be here but Beanie wasn't and neither were t'e ‘rents and Danni was really, really good at talking so maybe this wouldn't be horrible. “Dee, maybe give us some specifics rather t'an makin’ it sound like ya don't like your boyf? And Spicy, can we avoid t'e low blows and t'rownin’ old crushes back in someone's face? Can you ask for some more words or like, verbalize t'at t'at was ‘urtful and t'en maybe say whats upsettin’ ya, ‘cause clearly ya aren't ‘appy? I t'ought we was ‘avin’ fun but I'm startin’ ta t'ink ya aren't ‘avin’ fun.” Danni paused, but his curiosity got the better of his common sense and his question spilled out despite every attempt to hold it back.

“Also, are y'all like… one person? Two person? Or are y'all t'ere plus one more person t'at is bot’ y'all?”

Ben tried to ignore what was happening. The cups shaking did not help. It sort of freaked him out. He put all of his focus into making the tea. Carefully cutting the water off at exactly the right time. He poured the hot water over the leaves. Watching the time on his watch to make sure it brewed for the exact right amount of time. His hands were shaking, but he was trying. He didn’t know if the others wanted sugar or cream. He grabbed a fourth cup. He hadn’t planned on drinking this tea since it wasn’t his usual but he needed it now.

“How do you like your tea? Sugar or no? I wouldn’t trust the cream.”

The jab about Billy made Dorian shrink within themselves. He didn't understand why Percy was being so angry, so hurtful. They'd never had issues like this before with possessions post dating, but that sense of inner conflict and turmoil kept coming back and he didn't understand why. He tried to stay calm, to keep his cool so that they both weren't raging messes, but it felt as if Percy's emotions were swallowing him whole. He was drowning inside of themselves and he needed to breathe. So Dorian pushed, taking back control over their body as he sat down on the ground, back against the desk. ”Sugar please.” His voice sounded almost defeated. ”I'm not trying to shut you out Perce, but…look at what's happening. My powers go haywire every time I get too emotional, it's why I try not to. It's why I push so much stuff down and bury it. But I don't want you to do that. Danni’s right, we gotta talk this out. I don't want you to change or be someone else, or someone better because there is no one better. But you also can't be sending glares at people you don't even know. We talked about this before. So please…talk to me.” The shaking in the office had stopped, for now.

The feeling of smallness rippled across to Percy, hitting his chest like sharp, red shards of glass. Control slipped away from him as Dorian pushed, and his senses dulled again, as everything became further and further away, the vibrations in his chest as Dorian spoke simultaneously muted and distorted. Everything around him was a haze, the anger and the rage moving into him like gravity, like an enchantment he could not fight. Each time he tried to set it aside, a horrific, pervasive sense of sorrow filled him - a vacuum that could not stand. He didn’t know how to not be angry. He didn’t know how to set these feelings aside. It was the only defense he had against the emptiness, against his fear.

But he had to try. The anger was as much a poison as the alcohol.

I didn’t mean to glare at him!

He curled up into a ball inside the entanglement. There was a brief break in the red fog, a small parting of the storm clouds. I hate Ser Nemo. I hate being in this office. I hate his unreadable books. I hate his xiphos. I hate his tea set-up. I hate his concealed safe. I hate the suitcase under the floorboards. I hate the flowers outside. I hate his fancy pens. I hate his beautiful painting. I hate his mustache, I hate his clothes, I hate his obnoxious fake accent. I hate his stupid name. I hate that he failed to do the one thing that mattered.

Danni bit his tongue as his question went ignored and he felt a little proud of himself that he didn't whine, complain, or cry. The pair there seemed to have it under control, or at the very least Danni couldn't hear the other part of the conversation, so he instead turned his attention to the photo album he'd been keeping closed, back to Dorian and Percy to give them some semblance of privacy as he would absolutely hang onto every word. His eyes grew wide as he saw what was inside, morphing into a look of pure horror as he felt compelled to flip through it faster and faster and faster.

Ben poured the cups of tea and added a bit of sugar into each cup. He stirred them, then taking one at a time and handed them out. First, to...the Dorian Percy hybrid. He put it on the ground in front of them, and slid it closer. Then he took the second cup and offered it to Danni. He was flipping through a photo album looking distressed. “What’s wrong? What did you find?” Ben’s voice was quiet. “Oh, here I made enough tea for everyone. I actually pulled out four cups because I don’t know...how long they’re going to be like that.”

”Perce….” They sat there, quietly for a second as Ben slid them a saucer of tea like they were a wild animal he needed to keep his distance from. ”Thank you Ben.” They said as they picked up the cup and took a sip, letting the flavours wash over their tongue in an attempt to help soothe Percy more. ”You don't mean any of that.” He began to stand up, placing the tea onto the desk as he looked around the room. ”Look at all of this. This is everything you ever told me you wanted. Antique books line your shelves in amazing conditions, a Xiphos more likely than not plucked from its very own period of time, same goes for the suit of armor, that case the photos were in, this painting of a fantastical world. Perce, you said when you wanted to grow up you didn't want to be a hero. You wanted to be an adventurer who explored time. This is a testament that you succeeded in doing all of that. So why would you hate any of it? Look at how much you have accomplished, you invented a language even your powers can't solve! Think about how crazy that is! A language based puzzle that makes you have to think and not rely on powers. Only you could do that. And…I know what you're going to say, I know you won't believe any of it matters because in the end he failed. But he didn't, you didn't. He is alive, waiting, and he has given us all the clues we need within these four walls to ensure he finished enacting his plan. Because if I know Nemo, if I know you, he's going to see my message I left him, and he's going to remember that no matter what, what is broken can always be fixed. And you two would do anything needed to fix it.” Dorian held a metaphorical hand out for Percy to take, to help lift him up above the raging clouds of anger and self pity and to the heights of self acceptance from within their new body. Helping Percy see the office through Dorian's eyes with pride.

The tea tasted nice. The name always struck him as a bit on the nose, but it was the same tea his grandfather would bring when he’d come to visit from Moscow. It was a contrasting mixture of smoky and sweet, the flavor bold and strong just the way he liked it. Percy could feel the calming wave slowly enveloping him, Dorian’s emotions and the soothing tea bleeding into him. The shield of anger was collapsing on him like weight, threatening to crush him - and it was only Dorian’s hand, somehow tangible in this in-between space - that pulled him up and out of it.

Looking through Dorian’s eyes, hearing the pride and the praise - hearing that this was everything Percy ever wanted - it healed something in him just as something else broke, as a dam gave way, the sorrow gushing out of him. “I don’t want any of that stuff,” he mumbled, the new body’s shoulders slumping as their eyes watered. “I don’t care about any of that if it means I end up old and sad and miserable and alone,” they choked out, the tears now freely falling.

Danni flipped back to the first page, a photo of Nemo much younger than he was now. Dressed in the bold colors and synthetic fabrics of the era, Nemo stood in front of a fountain with an angelic figure on top and a beautiful lake behind it. He wore Percy's familiar awkward stoicism (how Danni didn't see it before, he didn't know but wow). Danni may have seen the deep sadness etched into his face or the loneliness in the slant of his shoulders or the awful responsibility that surviving placed on him, if it wasn't for the humongous, ginormous, huge…

Mustache.

“Bennie boy. Open your eyes, baby boi. Look at t'is monstreoty. It's a crime against fashion! It's a crime against life.” Danni whispered furiously back to Ben. His version of a whisper still… carried, as Danni would not be tempered by something as modesty. He stared flipping through the pages and pointing accusatorily at Nemo in each one. “And look. It. Just. Gets. Worse. T'is is ‘ow I know we weren't ‘round. If ‘e ever came ta me and said “Danni, my bestiest, deariest friend, ‘ow do ya feels ‘bout me mustache” or even showed up wit’ one, I'd burn t'at garbage right off. Buckle up, Spicy, ‘cause you're ‘bout ta ‘ave sweater 2.0 bb. Friends don't let each ot'er suffer t'ese kinds of cries for ‘elp.”

Ben looked at the mustache. It was objectively bad. He wasn't about to say that in earshot of Percy though. “Uh, I'm going to be honest I'm not sure what is going on. How is Percy this guy? How is this guy your missing professor?” Danni might not be the right person to ask this. But how had this happened? He understood that Dorian died and that hurt Percy. But what caused all of that?

You're not gonna end up sad and alone, Perce. The future isn't set in stone. Your own mother even knows that. She can peer into countless versions of us and yet still here we stand as our own unique selves. As a matter of fact… Dorian had gained glimpses of the future before from his astral projecting. Percy had the power of jumping around in time. Perhaps in this new form…

The entity phased out of view, as they slipped into the astral realm. A dazzling landscape of fantastical colors, swirls of pink and green and blue and gold bleeding into each other. There was no gravity here, as the body floated, the hair standing up straight, their form now one of warm, pink light - occasional bursts of red and purple poking through. White light rippled out from their hands, dispelling the fabric of the astral for a moment, allowing a glimpse into another reality, another life, another future…

Through the small crack in between worlds, they could see a quiet, unassuming street. The sort of town where everyone knew everyone, where leaves fell gently to the ground as the seasons changed, and pumpkins adorned each and every storefront, lively music floating through the town without any discernible source. Their view turned and moved, pushing up on a popular cafe - Bean Voyage: A mid twenties Dorian stood behind the counter, wand tucked behind his ear, as he expertly brewed drink after drink. The door jingled as an early twenties Percy entered the shop, a leather doctor’s bag at his side as he approached the counter, Dorian pulling him in by his tie to offer him a kiss. “My favorite customer.”

The fissure in reality closed and they fell forward, spiraling out of control only to come to a halt in front of another gap - this one old and dusty, a dark tomb lit only by torchlight. Each step sent dust spilling down from the ceiling, rocks tumbling at the disturbance that had not occurred in a thousand years. Dorian was dressed with rogueish charm, a cowboy hat on his head and a whip at his side, as he held his hand out in front of him, warily stepping across the tiles, Percy’s head furiously buried in a journal as he scribbled away, noting everything in sight. A gigantic sarcophagus dominated the space, flanked with statues of jackals and tablets promising rebirth and return. “The tomb of En Sabah Nur… The first mutant.” “Nerd.” In the distance, a rumbling sound came closer and closer.

They were flung forward once more, this time plunging them into a scene of a city suspended in the sky, filled with neon lights and bustling hovercraft. At the lowest levels, where smog filled the air and grime covered every surface, there was a small junkyard, filled with dismantled droids and broken ships. A Dorian in his mid thirties was covered in sweat and grease, his tank top almost thoroughly destroyed from the work, as he pulled broken component after broken component out of the droid. At the desk next to him sat Percy, mustache prominent on his face and well cared for, as he poured over datapads, editing programming on the fly as a maestro revised scores.

Dorian watched each future, each moment of time that they got to spend with one another, in absolute awe. A slight irk that in one universe he had a job, but it quickly faded away at the sight of them excavating the first mutant. The final vision he saw brought out a feeling of nostalgia for a time he hadn't experienced yet. It felt so domestic in a way that tugged at him to want to do more with his talents in mechanics and robotics. He'd been so busy sharpening his powers recently he'd fully put aside his love for tech. But above all else, he felt love, for the man he would be with and the life they would lead. A future unwritten.

A blush colored the body’s face, as Percy witnessed these different possibilities, these different lives they could have, the different people they could be. He knew Nemo’s future, knew the darkness and the sorrow that lingered, knew that the TVA had deemed that what was going to happen… But rather than feel despair, rather than mourn what could be, he felt hope, buoyant and life, felt the warmth of his boyfriend’s love wrapping around him. The storm clouds and the rage lifted, the sorrow banished for just one night - they could have their silly fanfiction coffee shop AU, they could be adventurers, they could be domestic. Together, they were unlimited. His walls and defenses fell away, the sharp edges that had defined where Percy was and where Dorian was in this shared form fading, leaving behind a harmonious, entangled being.

Percy-and-Dorian. Dorian-and-Percy.

Gemini.



“Oh! You needs t’e deep lore! Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, buckle up Bennie boi. It’s a lot.” Danni turned away from the photobook and launched into his explanation, the disappearance of the other entity missed as his focus was fully on Ben and his story. “Okay, so t’is is Spicy, also known as Perc, Percy, the P-Man, all t’at fun stuff. We met last semmy and it was a scorcher. Spicy boops ‘is way inta our way and ‘e gones boom ta t’e ground, right? Dee was super duper upsetti ‘cause like, rude, but t’en it was all ‘eart eyes and rainbow vommy ‘cause ‘e was in love or somet’in’, right? Well, Spicy was as ‘is name suggests, spicy AF. Like, makes me look like a candle kinda ‘eated, yeah? So I try ta do t’e whole light t’in’, ya know, where ya got t’e flashlight or whatevs and get t’e eyes ta do t’e t’in, yeah? Aaaaaaaand I was just tooooo good at what I do so I maaaaay ‘ave, possibly, kinda, sorta set ‘is jacket on fire. Now, in my defense, who in t’e world wears veltet in t’e summer in Cali? It’s waaaaay outta season, not ta mention function? Yeeeesh, velvet gets even a speckle o’ dirt and it’s over. Just trash t’e whole t;in’. So anyways, ‘e gets even spicer, like cali reaper spicy yeah? And I’m chill ‘bout it. It was ‘is fault for runnin’ inta us, but I don’t say t’at or it’ll be a whole debacle and I’ll cry and ‘e’ll wanna fight and not wort’ it, trust me. So of course, t’is is all on Dee’s birt’day, so I be t’e better person and I ‘ave Pa make me a new jacket on t’e fly ‘cause ‘member, Dee’s all ‘ead over ‘eels so I wanna be t’e better person on Dee’s bit’day and give ‘im t’e jacket as a pressi ta make up wit’ lover boy all t’at. And t’en we all try out for t’e Contest, Dee and I get on t’e same team but Rillie get’s separated which I only cried ‘bout for like…. Three or four days. Nah def like a week, but Spicy is on our team, right? T’at’s when we meet Posson-Pas, our Prof. We don’t know t’ey’re double trouble - well, not t’e Double Trouble, but like t’e same person, ya know? - and so, fyi I will keep callin’ Poisson-Pas Poisson-PAs so ya know I’m talkin’ ‘bout Spicy and not Poisson-Pas. Wait, no ot’er wya ‘round! - So, Poisson-Pas tries ta blow us up, first day trainin’ was an obsti course and t’en a bomb. Idk if ya know t’is but I may seem real confident ‘round explosives, Idk ‘ow ta disarm one. So t’at was stressful, especially since Poisson-Pas was teleportin’ Beanie and ‘im ‘cross stuff t’at I coil- no, Spicy was teleportin’ t’em, not Poissan-Pas, sorry - couldn’t fly ‘cross yet and it was whole t’in’, yeeesh. I was t’e Spicy one durin’ t’at. Who t’e ‘eck make a canoe a cross walk? Poisson-PAs is gunna get a talkin’ ta after all t’is. Anyways, so now we got two Spicy’s, two Poisson-Pases ‘cause Spicy can pop t’rough space and[ time sp Poisson-PAs is Spicy who is retired after all t’e bad stuff ‘appens. But, Spicy starts ta date Dee, is like a whole little puppy trailin’ ‘round behind Dee all t’e time, yeah? Spicy stiiiiiiiiiiiiiill doesn’t wanna say we’re friends, even t’ough we totes my goats are. Fast forward ta ‘alloween and t’en we ‘ave t’is real spooky ‘aunted ‘ouse. I reaaaaaaaally didn’t wanna go get t’e ‘ouse but I get everyone dressed up in She-Ra stuff and do photos and it’s super awesome, but also like kinda not ‘cause Rillie and Dee get in wit’ t’eir peeps and so it’s just me and my little lonesome all over ‘ere ‘cause Rillie like, ‘ooked up wit’ our group friends so t’e group just kinda pops me out, but t’at all got fixed up so its good, I def don’t think ‘bout t’at anymore! So t’en t’e ‘aunted ‘ouse rocks Rillie’s world. Unconscious. Down for t’e count. All t’ese t;in’s and so Beanie and me, or was it Leah and me idr, get inta it ‘cause like I’m chillin’ out Rillie and t’ey come in tellin’ me I’m wrong so Spicy is nice enough ta pop t’em all t’e way over ta t’e dorms and plops t’em in a ‘allway ‘cause like, Spicy did not ‘ave t’e range, but did it anyway and t’at was real nice o’ ‘im!”

Danni paused for a half a second to grab air. “So t’en, we all nearly get murdered by ‘Cadie. We wanna do t’e trainin, we wanna do t’e cool stuff, we wanna rock and roll, but ‘Cadie ain’t ‘avin’ it, yeah? We’ll, some timey-whimey stuff ‘appens and t’en one version of us is dead and t’e ot’er version of us, t’is version of us, is not which I’m down for. Dee and Beanie convince ‘Cadie ‘e should go ta jail and t’en we all go on break - a little break wit’ a loooooooooooot goin’ on, no need ta go t’rough all t’at - but we come back and we ‘ave a little meetin’ wit’ Couli-poo and we all get As in all our classes! Which like, t’ank goodness ‘cause I was def gunna fail somet’in. What, idr but I feel like one teach ‘ad it out for me. Ya didn’t turn in your ‘omework on time, t’at’s not ‘ow ya spell t’at, t’at’s made up, no your brot’er can’t take t’e test in your body ‘cause it’s still cheatin’ yadda yadda, always somet’in’, you feel? Kinda rude, but whateves. I got a A ‘cause t’ey almost let me die so who won? Me!” Danni stated smugly, looking like the cat who got the cream. “Oh wait, t’is is ‘bout Poisson-Pas and Spicy. Aaaanyways, do ya know who doesn’t show up? Dee and Spicy! Do you know why? I wish I didn’t. ‘Cause t’ey did, ya know, butt stuff for t’e first time. And do ya know ‘ow Dee tells me? I’m walkin’ up ta t’e dorm after t’e meetin’, Spicy and Dee are outside t’e door, Beanie and Leah and Rillie are all t’ere already and t’en guess what, guess ‘ow ‘e tells me, when I’m fully plannin’ on tearin inta ‘im for leavin’ me ta fend for myself? Text! No gentle let down, no winin’ and dinin’, nope. Just lay it aaaaaaaall out t’ere. And ya know me, I’m a little… reactive so I promptly set ‘alf t’e dorm on fire, especially since I mad everyone friendship bracelets! Buuuuut t’is is ‘ow t;is cute was finally born! Shock induced inferno!” Danni poked at the snoozing dragon in her harness.

“So of course, I’m a little jelly ‘cause like, someone is stealin’ my best friend and brot’er away from me, yeah? ‘Course, tbh, reaaaal ‘ard ta be angy when ya got a newborn dragon in your ‘ands. So t’at kinda, sorta fades away right? So fast forward ta t’e Contest and we’re all ‘ittin’ t;e field. Lotsa weird stuff ‘appens wit’ t’e ot’er team and we all get slammed inta t’e same one. Spicy is ‘bout ta give up ‘is spot - which was super lame. If we ‘ad too many peeps and someone tried ta tell me t’at I wasn’t gunna be on t’e field, it would been a whole lotta more t’at ‘alf a dorm - but Vicky doens’t wanna fight so ‘e slips and slide right inta t’e open slot and ‘its t’e field. Ya saw t’e whole t’in’ of course, eeespecially when I almost smacked inta ya.” Danni booped Ben on t’e nose and laughed. “And t’en t’e whole Entity t;in’ and I give t’e whole team a ‘ug because t’ey all deserved it after goin’ t’rough all t’is stuff and also, ‘ow often can ya do a mass team ‘ug of everyone and each o’ t’em at t’e same time? Def t’e first time I ever did t’at much magic and will def be t’e last time. Dee can keep ‘is mambo jambo, no t’ank you. I was so sick after t’at I could like see t’e inside of me ‘ead,. Did not like t’at one bit. So, t’en we ‘ave t;’is whoooooole adventure durin’ winter break, yeah? Spicy needs ‘elp removin’ Fred so ‘e kidnaps me from my ‘ouse and plaps me in ‘is. And we get real close durin’ it! Like, Spicy tells me ‘bout ‘is whole touchy, feely t’in’, but after I sit in ‘is lap ta ‘elp deal wit’ Fred and ‘e watches me shower, even t’ough I almost burned down ‘is ‘ouse and ‘e popped us inta a bay and ‘e almost drowned if I didn’t get ‘im and almost do CPR, I finally get ‘im ta France right? ‘Is whole closet, btw, suits. Formal wear, which like get it but also color? Hello? So I get ‘im ta our usual place and we do a whole photoshoot for Dee for Christmas. Was it for Christmas or just ‘cause? Idk, but I can show ya one day once Spicy is a little chiller wit’ t’e new peeps. I do good work! We should do a photoshoot for you and Sauna Boi sometime too. He seems like t;e kinda guy who wants his boyf as cute as button. And like, you already fit tat but a little clothin’ and phot magic? Take t’at ta t’e whole next level ya know? Danni framed Ben with his fingers, humming to himself as he thought but he jolted back to what he was doing.

“Oh, but Spicy at t’is point is tots dead. Like, ‘eart attack durin’ t’e tourney, it was very upsetti spagetti. We was eatin’ t;at like nobody’s business. So we t’row a ghost meetin’, idr what is called, so Papa take us ta t’e room and tries ta call Spicy. Shoot, no Poisson-Pas, I’m talkin’ ‘bout Poisson-Pas, not Spicy. Tries ta call Poisson-Pas, which duh doesn’t work ‘cause ‘e ain’t dead, but ‘fore we could talk ‘bout t;at, Beanie gets inta Papa’s ‘ead and drags us in wit’ ‘er and t’at’s a biiiiiiig no no in our ‘ouse. Pops is deat’ly terrified o’ telepat’s ‘cause when ‘e was in the MU, ‘e got ‘is brain rocked a lot and always ‘ad ta try ta kill t’e peeps ‘e loved. So t’at’s a whole problem t’at kinda makes us forget ‘bout Poisson-Pas not showin’ up when we called. But now, fast-froward, Dee has t’is journal t’in’ from Poisson-Pas back when Poisson-Pas wanted ta talk wit’ ‘im after t;e first disaster wit’ Spicy, which ‘e knew would ‘appen ‘cause it already ‘appened ya know. Dee ‘as a vision of… ‘onestly, idr but it showed a buncha dead people, ‘cludin’ ‘im and us!, and t’en ‘e reads t’is journal and we learn t’at Poisson-Pas is Spicy after we all get got and ‘e goes full on alcoholic bender, but wit’out t’e alcohol I t’ink if t’at makes sense, and t’ats what all t’ese photos are but t’en ‘e settles ‘ere ta try ta change t’e whole timeline ta stop us from gettin’ got and Dee from takin’ t’e silly slide in ta t’e next realm but someone found out and now Poisson-PAs got got and we are gunna ungot got ‘im!”

Ben listened attentively to Danni’s explanation. He had questions, but for the first time in a while he felt like he had a grasp on what the last few months had been like for Danni and his friends. He also understood Percy a lot more now. He sipped his cup of tea, sliding Danni’s over to him. There was a small weight lifted while Percy and Dorian were gone. Though, he was unsure of where they had gone. It did give him some time to think though. Ben didn’t consider himself smart. He was decent enough at science, which he attributed to his parents' love of the subject. With Danni’s explanation, as convoluted as it got, he was able to put the pieces together, finally. Ben nodded along.

“Thank you. Okay, so, something terrible happens. Percy time travels and becomes your teacher under the pseudonym Nemo. Puts you guys through the wringer trying to impart the skills you will need for this future terrible thing. Got in trouble for this and was falsified as dead. You guys figured out he wasn’t dead. Dorian has the book with clues. We are trying to find more information before we go and rescue Nemo.” Ben nodded again. That made enough sense. He was obviously going to keep helping. There was no reason not to, actually there were a plethora of reasons to help.

“Unless that book with the strange writing is what we were looking for... we should get back to searching. We don’t know how long it will be until a teacher happens to be passing by and hears us.” Ben made a mental note to clean up the tea set too.



Gemini closed the tear in which they were able to see the future events of their lives. Turning towards a fountain Dorian had seen many times when entering the realm, and seeing his new form within the reflection of the water that flowed. A soft, quiet, exclamation as he realized they did more than simple possession, more than what had happened with the DemiUrge. They'd become one being. He did, however, still have a job to do, and as his hand stretched out towards the open space before him, a simple appeared, the symbol of Gemini ♊️ with its left half was a deep red, the right a soft purple, and the center of it all began to glow a soft pink hue before opening up and showing the office where Danni and Ben were sat. Gemini stepped through the doorway, sitting on Nemo's desk as he picked up the book that was meant to be translated, and looked towards Danni and Ben. ”Sorry about that guys…we worked it all out.”

He opened up the book, his legs crossed beneath him, one hand curled and tapping against his chin. The symbols and letters seemed to shift and move before his eyes, as the meaning that previously had been undecipherable became obvious. He craned his neck, absorbing the information as he quickly turned through the pages, not reading in depth but understanding the general content of Nemo’s journal. He made a pleased noise, before snapping the book shut. “This is Poisson-Pas’ notes on the structure of Otherworld and its politics. We should bring this with us. It’ll take us a while to read it all.” He then picked up the tea he had left behind, before tossing it back and draining it in a single gulp. ”Thanks again for that, Ben.”

“Oh yeah, Poisson-Pas def ‘as a lot more-” Danni did a double take. “Wait, ya got t'at? Like, all o’ it? Like, no more questions, no need ta repeat myself, not'in’ ‘bout ‘ow ‘ot'in’ I said made no sense or was too much or my accent was too ‘ard ta listen ta?” Danni blinked a few times, stunned at that. Sometimes, Danni didn't even know what he was saying and he was the one who said the things. He really didn't fault anyone for it; Danni also forgot half the things that came out of his mouth because there was a lot.

“Cool, cool, cool, cool.” Danni swallowed the knot that was forming in his throat and instead sipped at his tea, wrinkling his nose at the taste. It was better than nothing but Danni heavily preferred coffee. He took a few more sips before a new voice suddenly appear and Danni yelped, his cup tumbling from his hands and hitting the ground. It shattered, tea and ceramic scattered across the ground, and Danni whirled around to face whoever was there.

“I ‘ain't even realized you disappeared! I told you ta stay put ‘cause ya don't know what kinda stuff ya could do! And ya missed my amazin’ recap of t'e Spicy-Poisson-Pas pipelines, which Ben ‘patently understood 100% ‘cause tbh, I ‘ad no idea what was comin’ outta my nout’ for like… 60% of t'at. It was all let t'e brain take t'e wheel and ‘ope it makes sense.” Danni bounced back over to Ben and squished his cheeks. “Aren'tcha just t'e bestest Benni boi? Oh shoot, I gotta clearly t'at up or t'ey're gunna know we were ‘ere!” Danni gasped as he spotted his own mess, hastily pulling open cabinets to try and find cleaning supplies.

“Uh, welcome back, and you’re welcome. Is that book what we were looking for then?” Ben smiled at Danni after he wiggled out of Danni squishing his cheeks. “And I don’t know if I understood 100% of it, but I understood enough to make the pieces make sense. Your accent isn’t that complicated. I’ve heard harder to understand ones. It did take me a bit to understand it, but I get it now. Honestly, once you get going on a subject and you mostly stay linear with what you’re saying it isn’t that hard. It is only when you bounce around between a bunch of subjects that I get a bit lost.”

Gemini scooted off of the desk, removing his legs from underneath himself as he stood on the floor, one hand on his hip holding the book the other pointing out towards the mess that Danni had made. ”Missed it? D I lived it. Any roads, I know exactly what I can do thank you very much.” He stuck his tongue out at Danni. Soft pink energy began to glow around the mess and shattered porcelain before it moved backwards in time fixing itself and returning to how it was before Danni had shattered it. ”See? But yeah, seems like this was the secret we expected him to be keeping. Not sure we'd find much else of use in here beyond memories of a time that hasn't happened.”

He paused for a moment, before picking up Danni’s teacup, and knocking that one back as well. ”I know you hate tea.”

“Poissan-Pas and Spicy are bot’ super picky ‘bout cleanliness, ‘ow does ‘e not ‘ave-” Danni heard the porcelain clatter as it fixed itself and Danni glanced over, gaped, and then a mischievous smile crawled over his face. He sauntered over to Gemini and threw his arm over his shoulders. “Well, well, well, t'at's a real inchrestin’ power ya got t'ere. Ya know, I gotta few pranks t'at we could pull ta start t'e year wit’ t'at kinda stuff. ‘ow long ya gunna be stickin’ ‘round? We gotta a few ‘ours still ‘fore we gotta pass out.” He blew a kiss at Ben.

“You are like t'e only one who t'inks t'at, Bennie boi. But I love t'at ‘boutchu.”

Ben felt his face warm up when Danni blew the kiss at him. “So, uh, what now?” He had been heading back to his room when they had been pulled into this distraction. Ben wasn’t sure what to make of... whatever it was that Dorian and Percy had become. Their power was interesting and he had a sort of an inkling of how they could do it considering Percy’s power set. He knew that when Dorian did the merging thing it would create powerful beings. Part of him wondered what his power combined like that would be. He let it pass by though and looked at the tea cabinet, he needed to clean all of that up before they left. So he set to washing the tea cups and dumping the leftover tea and water.

Gemini didn’t stiffen or appear the slightest bit unnerved as Danni threw an arm around his shoulders. “What did you have in mind?” he asked with a devilish grin. A few options immediately populated in his head. There were some members of the group who could be fun to mess with, yes, but he had far greater ambitions. There were some people at this school who had gone unpranked far too long, people who were thought to be untouchable. Headmaster Coulson. The Scarlet Witch. Firestar. They could prank them all. And he would. He was about to get into his scheme when his stomach growled loudly, and his gaze drifted to the bowl of (doubtlessly expired) candy on Nemo’s desk.

He attacked it like a starving piranha. Gemini turned to face Ben as he asked his question, mouth full of candy, some that contained the plastic wrapper still as his tongue stopped midway from unwrapping it. A Werthers fell out and onto the floor, rolling loudly in the silence as he contemplated Ben's question. ”Food. Oooooo and a movie! You guys wanna watch a movie? Pleeease!”

“OMG, yaaaaas. T'e carnival is still goin’ on so we can t'ose t'at terrible, pore cloggin’ delicious corn dogs, fried ice cream, churros- pretty much everyt'in’ terrible for ya before t'ey start slammin’ t'e reality ‘healthy stuff at ‘cha.” Danni bounced up and down excitedly, his own stomach growling at the idea. “Ben, whatcha wanna get? ‘ave ya ever ‘ad fried ice cream? Omg, we can share one of t'ose giant hot dogs! Can we, please, please, please? It'll be fuuun!” Danni bounded over to Ben while Gemini snatched up the candies and stuffed his face to help put the dishes away. He hip checked Ben gently as he slid in next to him.

“What movie we wanna watch? Technically, its Spicy's b-day bit I guess it's Gemini's too ‘cause it's ‘is first day ‘ere so bday boy's pick!”

“Americans,” Ben sighed. “How the heck do you fry Ice Cream? Wouldn’t it just melt? But yes I guess I’ll share a hot dog. But no mustard on my half, or hot sauce.” There was probably something else that Danni could add to his hot dog to make Ben suffer from the spicyness, but he hoped his point would be caught at least.

“I’m down to watch a movie. I don’t really care what. I’m not super picky. My parents had very different tastes so we’d always watch something different when we watched movies together. They’d switch who was picking.”

Gemini snorted, wiggling his eyes at Danni and Ben. ”Try not to smooch when you get to the middle of the dog you two.” He vanished from where he stood, appearing against the wall, leaning against it as he looked at the pair before him. ”Get me a chili dog, four churros, two bags of cotton candy, aaaaand…like five fried ice creams. I can get the movie room all set up for us. I'm thinking …Pirates! Jack Sparrow! Will Turner, the whole Shebang!” He mocked swordplay as he spoke, snatching up Nemo’s sword. The sword shifted once more, elongating to match Gemini’s frame, and he pointed the blade at the pair in a challenge.

“You best start believing in ghost stories, Danni, Ben. You’re in one!” he cackled. Gemini giggled, but it echoed around the room like a phantom child running amuck in a haunted house.

“Oh, it's so good Bennie Boi! Ya gotta wrap it in cornflakes and sugar and cimimmin and pop t'at yumminess in t'e fryer! So gooooooood.” Danni explained excitedly, helping dry things as Ben rinsed. “No mustard? Wiiild choice, Bennie, but we can work wit’ it, we can work wit’ it. Just ketchup t'en, or ya a relish kinda kind too?” Danni scoffed at Gemeni's teasing and flicked water at him.

“Listen, I ain't no ‘omecter. If either o’ t'em wanna kiss me, t'en t'ey need ta talk ta each ot'er first.” Danni stuck his tongue out at Gemini. “Plus, I t'ink ‘is boyf would be reaaaaaal comfy spookin’ me for t'e rest of my life.”

Danni laughed at Gemini's playfulness. “Okay, perf! You know ‘ow ta set up t'e movie nest. T'e extra stuff is in my bag - I get ta be in t'e middle!” Danni wiggled his finger in Gemini's face. “And I take my movie viewing very seriously. I will cry if it's not perfect.”

“I like relish.” Ben liked pickles in general. He froze for a few seconds when Danni insinuated that he or Chase could kiss him if they talked about it and wanted to. Then went back to finishing cleaning up the rest of the mess from making tea. If Dorian/Percy combo wasn’t there he would have told Danni right then and there that Chase and him had talked about it, and that Ben did want to try kissing Danni. He had become more certain he had similar feelings for Danni that he had had for Chase. His feelings for Chase were deeper now. “Pirates is a good movie. I’m down,” Ben agreed to the movie choice.

Gemini quickly bit Danni’s finger, before popping again and reappearing on Nemo’s chair. He put one leg on each arm rest, roughly balancing, before he snagged the chair with his telekinesis and slowly began to spin it. Evidently one of the people who made him up had undiagnosed ADHD. “Yes, yes, I know how to build a nest, I’ve spent enough time on AO3.”

Danni screeched as his finger was chopped on. He pouted at the faint teeth impression. “What is AO3 and ‘ow does it ‘elp you make a movie nest? T'at's a very specific kind o’ nest.” Danni shook his hand out and then slipped his arm through Ben's. “Okay, let's get rollin’! T'e night ain't gettin’ any younger and we got a ‘uge order ta fetch! Ready, Bennie boi?”

Ben nodded. He looked at the door. They had been phased through it previously and he had not forgotten the piles of flowers and other things outside it.

“Are we just barging out, or...” he trailed off leaving the question hanging.

Gemini had a mischievous grin upon his face. Giggling once more as the haunting echoed through the space and he wrapped his arms around Ben and Danni's shoulders. ”Oh don't you worry about that Ben. We've got you two covered.” Soft pink energy enveloped them all, time seemed to halt as all sounds died around them, and in a bright flash of pink, they all warped out of the space. Ben and Danni would appear out into the fair grounds, time frozen until the pink dissipated and sounds and motion came crashing back into life, while Gemini appeared within the trios room and began to set up the movie nest.

A little less than thirty minutes later, the three boys were reunited, Danni and Ben struggling under the weight of the food - and Amelie sniffing a little too curiously at the fried ice cream. Gemini had already plopped down on the right side of the nest - a tangled mess of blankets and pillows, the couches in the school’s movie room rearranged and shocked together to create a makeshift conversation pit - and the moment the other two settled down, the movie began to play, brought to dazzling reality with the Future Foundation’s proprietary liquid crystal display. It was probably for the best that Ben had already seen Pirates - while Danni talked nonstop throughout it, Gemini delivered every line of Keira Knightley, descending into a fit of giggles when Elizabeth tried on the corset, choking out “difficult to say!”, and jumping up to his feet to scream “parley!!!”

Despite shoving his face with enough food to feed a small army, Gemini slowly crashed - the quotes coming less often, pillows barely being randomly thrown at Danni and Ben, and the last fried ice cream only half heartedly eaten. Like a child, he curled up next to Danni, one hand loosely on Danni’s arm as his eyes fluttered closed. He was snoring softly soon after, completely missing Elizabeth and Jack’s rum consumption.

And then, suddenly, there were two sleeping boys where there had been one, Percy held securely in Dorian’s lap, his head tucked into his neck, Dorian’s free arm entangled around Danni, and Percy’s hand lightly holding onto Danni’s.

Ben had been quiet while they got food. He had tried a fried ice cream before placing his own order of a couple. He did like it. Though it was decadent in a way he wasn’t quite used to. He spent most of that time thinking about what Danni had said. During the movie he happily said quotes along with the others, he was a bit less exuberant than the other two. Overall it was fun and he was glad he had seen the movie before. If he hadn’t this would have been stressful. He made a mental note to never watch an old movie with them without watching it first.

Finally Gemini fell asleep and popped into two different people again. Ben blinked at the pair of them sleeping on Danni’s leg. He sat there quietly for a moment, making sure they weren’t going to wake up suddenly. Then spoke quietly to Danni, “Hey, you know how you said that you wouldn’t kiss me unless Chase and I discussed it first?” He took a deep breath. “We actually have. Chase was a bit jealous of you. I met you on the same day, but you were my friend first. And when we were on the trip I was texting you a bunch that Chase wasn’t sure if we were an item. We talked about it, and he said that if I like you too that’d be okay with him. He wouldn’t be mad if we kissed... If you wanted to kiss.”

Danni stared at Ben blankly. He'd been about to comment how relieved he was they were two people again, he was about to suggest they get them into bed, he was about to start brainstorming all the silly little pranks they could play on the two (shaving cream mustaches were permanently banned after seeing Poissan-Pas's trauma revolving around them) but everything in his head hit a hard wall as Ben informed him with no warning Ben and Chase discussed kissing him. Danni opened his mouth once, twice, and shut it each time as nothing came tumbling out. Anxiety bubbled in his stomach.

Kissing was nice, Danni liked kissing. He liked cuddling and kissing and hand holding and casual affection. And he envisioned having Ben wrapped up in his lap or popping his head on Ben's shoulder when training was real rough, of having him sit on the sink counter while Danni did his facial routine and listened to his day, or of getting into pillow fights at the strangest hours of the day just because they'd been coupled up for too long while it was raining and it sounded real nice. He didn't dare imagine Chase - pressed up against his back while they laid in bed as the morning broke and an alarm was blaring, racing to the top of stairs to see who got to give the other a piggyback ride, sparring with powers and without simply because they were a tough match up for each other. And he certainly couldn't bring himself to imagine all of them - playing footsie under a table while they picked food off each other's plates, board games nights at the Kingston-Grey's where the three of them sat on one sofa, limbs entangled, and argued about the best way to take down their parents, swapping lazy kisses and words of affection as they stared at the stars from the patio of a cabin far away from everyone else.

He didn't want to think about what came after that.

Instead, what Danni focused on was the jealousy. “Sauna Boi made you cancel on me and t'en claimed us talkin’ was a problem?! ‘ow rude!” Danni grumbled, unwilling to wake the sleeping pair. His hand tightened around Percy's. “Okay, uh, well, Bennie boi. I'mma be ‘onest ‘ere wit'cha. You are cute as a button and I t'ink anyone would be crazy ta turn ya down, so do I wanna smooch you til ya can't breat’? Yes. But I also know ya ‘ad a ‘ard connection when comin’ ‘ere so I don't wanna be like a thanks for bein’ my friend t'in’ kiss. I can get t'at kiss on the cheek or somet'in’ out and ‘bout but if ya t'ink you want more of us, t'en pop on up ‘ere and kiss me.” Danni patted his thigh.

“Also, cause I don't wanna wake t'ese two silly ducks.” Danni admitted sheepishly.

That was fair. It didn’t feel like a rejection either. He had opened up to Danni and didn’t feel like he was shutting him out. So Ben smiled and shook his head. “It isn't a thank you for being my friend kiss. I don't want to wake them either, but I do want to kiss you.”

Danni smiled back, a little shyly, but gingerly unwound Percy's hand from his and slid it into Dorian's. He carefully shifted Dorian down into the nest with Percy still in his lap and wiggled away from the slumbering pair so they wouldn't disturb them. He swung forward so he was kneeling instead and gently brought a hand to cradle Ben's face, a thumb caressing his cheek as he pressed their foreheads together and their noses brushed as Danni scanned the younger boy's face for any hint of changes.

“T'is okay so far?” Danni murmured into the silence of the room. Danni could feel the anticipation buzzing in him and he waited for confirmation, his eyes darting down to Ben's lips and back up again.

Ben could feel his heart pounding as Danni touched his face. He was a little surprised because he had thought Danni would want to wait. This quiet moment felt right though. He smiled and nodded. “Yes,” he said in a whisper, his voice soft, and breathy.

Danni hummed at the permission. With a feather light touch, he tilted Ben's head back and tilted his in time so he could glide down with barely any effort. Danni paused just a moment, once last glance to ensure he was comfortable, and then pressed his lips to Ben's, nibbling softly at his bottom lip. His lips were chapped, a little rough on his, but Danni let out an appreciative noise at the contact.

Ben closed his eyes as Danni’s lips met his. Warmth and a slight tingle spread from where Danni nibbled on his lip. Ben enjoyed it, he wanted more. He couldn’t help cataloging how he felt kissing Danni compared to Chase. His body’s reactions were similar. Danni was gentlier, soft and guiding. He liked both. Ben could tell that he would want to kiss Danni more, if he’d let him. He kissed back, pressing into Danni a little more. A small noise of enjoyment escaping between their lips.

Danni smiled into the kiss as Ben pressed closer and Danni deepened the kiss, his tongue running gently across Ben's lower lip in permission as he wound an arm around his shoulders. The rougher texture of Ben's lips on his was a pleasant sensation as Danni sighed contently, shifting forward until he could straddle Ben's lap and wrap both his arms around Ben's shoulder. One hand came up to play with the hair at the back of Ben's neck and the other dropped down his back, fingers tracing the knots of his spine.

Ben parted his lips at Danni's questing tongue, giving tacit permission. He wrapped his arms around Danni as he climbed onto his lap. A shudder went through him as Danni's hands started to explore him. He definitely liked this. There was no question in his mind about that, as his body reacted. Warmth spread from every spot Danni touched and he wanted more. Ben started to explore Danni with his own questing hands, one going up and pulling Danni in closer. Deeper into the kiss.

Danni hummed happily, his tongue dipping into Ben's mouth to glide along his tongue. He felt tingly and warm all at once and the space where their bodies pressed together was comforting. Danni had always been a tactile person and kissing let him experience so much more. He chased the taste of Ben, letting Ben draw him deeper into the kiss. Danni'd missed kissing and he drank Ben deeply, indulging shamelessly. He wanted to wrap himself around Ben and snuggle, swapping kisses all night (although Danni made a note in the back of his head to start putting chapstick on Ben anytime he applied it himself).

However, Danni had burning questions so he broke the kiss, eyes fluttering open slowly. He pressed a chaste kiss to Ben's lips, his nose, and his forehead before resting his head gently on Ben's. “So, ‘ow ya feelin’ t'ere starlight?”

Ben let out small sounds while kissing Danni. He tried to keep it from getting too loud considering the two sleeping boys next to him. Disturbing them would end the delightful kissing he was getting from Danni. When Danni pulled away he followed for a moment and then made a slightly unhappy sound at being separated from him. “I feel really good. You?” He liked the nickname, it was the first non-bug themed nickname someone called him since he had come here.

“I feel great. Kinda wanna keep kissin’ ya.” Danni whispered back, leaning in to do just that when his phone buzzed. He reached into the blankets and fished it out, tongue between his teeth as he propped his chin on Ben's head and scanned Chase's text. “Oh! Sauna boi is puttin’ on a party!!!! We gotta go!” Danni exclaimed loudly, clapping his hand over his mouth as he leaned back to check on the other two. When he realized that they weren't bothered, he sighed in relief. He leaned in to snatch one last peck from Ben and wiggled off his lap, turning to tuck the sleeping pair in a bit more and press a kiss on the top of each of their heads. He held his hand out for Ben to help him out of the ocean of blankets and pillows and stuffed animals.

“Come on! Let's go party and let t'ese two get t'eir bueaty rest!”

Ben had been about to agree that he would very much so like to keep kissing Danni when the text came through. The fact that Chase was putting on the party meant that even if Ben could convince Danni to stay put and keep making out to the siren song of the Pirates movie, he had to go. He was not skipping a party being put on by his boy friend, especially not to make out with... someone else. Hmm, he’d have to talk with Danni to see if there was a label and if so what they would use. For now kissing and cuddling buddy was fine with him.

He ignored his phone that had buzzed at the same time, assuming that it was the same text. “Alright, let’s go.” He took Danni’s hand and climbed out of the pile. He did look around and found a blanket to put over the sleeping Dorian and Percy. Danni and Ben left to go find the party.

Having no idea where the Otherworlder might be located, Victoria has followed the data that she had. She has recently arrived, so presumably had nowhere to crash. And she seemed to know Andy. Thus Victoria found herself knocking on the door of the room opposite hers.

Luna was stretched out on Andy's bed, staring at the ceiling when the knock on the door came. After their conversation, Luna had requested some supplies from Andy so she could shower. It was the only semblance of peace the girl had gotten after being plummeted through the realms and waking encased in ice.

The hot water had served to burn away most of the nightmare she found herself in and hide the tears she cried.

After her moment of self pity, Luna added some product to her hair to help keep her short cut from drying flat and returned to Andy's room. Where she now stood, still wrapped in a towel, and answered the door.

Luna frowned. ”Andy and Gideon aren't here.”

Unknown voice in Andy’s room. High probability of success then. Victoria raised her voice ever so slightly so it carried through the door. ”That’s fine. I’m looking for Glimpse, if that happens to be you.” she announced, before realizing she did not introduce herself yet. ”It’s Victoria, I dropped in for a moment on you and Andy back by the tent. And more so than the others I’m in need of an Otherworlder’s advice for this… adventure… the group seems to be dead set on, if I could please bend your ear for a few moments?”

Luna opened the door and looked Victoria up and down. ”Ya, go on then,” Luna said by way of invitation and stepped back into the room, leaving the door ajar. She sat back on Andy's bed, not at all concerned that she was still in a towel and talking to a stranger. At least it was one on one.

She poked through the toiletries Andy had offered for some lotion and popped open the fruity smelling bottle.

Interesting attire choice. Victoria thought briefly, before stepping in and leaning against the wall by the door.

”Well, in short-” she started, raising a hand. The nanites of her skin peeled off for a moment, displaying the mechanicals inside. ”I’m an android, and for some reason, as soon as I come near more powerful magic, it starts seeping into my code and eventually shuts me down. If that happens, my chassis can be turned back on, but it wouldn’t be me anymore, as some of my components need constant power supply to keep me being… me.”

“So, I’d really rather avoid that. Would you happen to know some way of preventing that?” Vicky asked, also gauging Glimpse for reaction. She had no idea where Otherworld stood on AI.

Luna's eyes shifted up, widening when she saw Victoria wasn't lying. She bolted from the bed, closing the distance between her and Victoria quickly.

”Where does your power supply come from? What is it about magic that negates your operating systems? Have you run diagnostics on it before? What system is your code written on? Can I see it?” Luna sent her questions off rapid fire as she examined the inner workings of Victoria's arm. She felt like a kid in a candy store.

”Who else assists you? Can you taste human food?” Luna's gaze shifted from Victoria's arm to stare into her eyes.

”Can Tish scan you? If I have your full workup, we can ensure your tech remains compatible with ours. Oh I can't believe this is happening!” Luna squealed, clasping her hands together.

Vicky came into this discussion expecting many outcomes. Being fangirled over wasn’t one of the likely outcomes. Being fangirled over by a gorgeous blonde wearing nothing but a towel wasn’t even on the list. Her verbal cadence also gave Danni a run for its money, so while Vicky’s core could certainly keep up, her personality emulation needed a few moments to catch up.

”I- ah- umm…” Focus woman! “In ascending order of importance? I can analyze food and how well it is made, though I don’t really have taste preferences. I’m Victoria van Dyne, so I’m not exactly starved for resources, as Hope van Dyne was my lead designer.” she started, grunting a ‘for better or for worse’ to herself after the last one.

”My system is- well…” she tugged on her collar nervously with her free hand, before sighing after failing to come up with a sugarcoat, ”The hardware’s Ultron, with some extra systems bolted on top. But I don’t run any actual Ultron code anymore!“ she hastened to add.

”As for power, well, any EM-field that can interact with the nanites in my skin. They’re quite efficient so sunlight will do most of the time, but the heat of a fire, a lightning strike, sticking my fingers into a powersocket, anything will do.”

She finally worked up through the list to the things she thought were relevant to her predicament. ”Well… it differs. Walking into a tent that was made to be bigger on the inside than the outside, that took all of a second and nearly finished me off. T’was only because of the witch that it belonged to doing something that I rebooted still being me. In a magic soaked quarter of New Orleans, the onset was a bit slower, but still only about a minute.”

“I always start seeing the magic first. Like, with my eyes, light that should not be there.” she fished out her phone and showed Luna the photo she edited in an attempt to explain to Dorian how weird his home looked to her. ”Then I lose motor control, and then it’s lights out. And every time, my code gets converted to runes.”

“I could show you more on those, but I got the stuff in the basement in my workshop, it’d be easier to show you there, if you’re interested. My dorm’s right across, you can rifle through my wardrobe if you need a spare change of clothes.” Tori pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

” In a nutshell, I tried to decode the language in them, and figure out a way to power magic with electric power, so that I can create an anti-magic field around myself, but I’m at my wit’s end. And while in the library I found out there is apparently a Fairy ring in England that can take you to Avalon, and that someone or something called ‘hero’s journey’ can be used to travel across the Otherworld, and a slew of notes on it’s realms and peoples, the best I could find about my issue is that some dwarves living in a mountain with legs may have the solution. So if you have some ideas on how I can make it at least long enough to find those dwarves? I’m all ears.” the android summed up, before one of her eyebrows shot up.

”A scan? That would depend: Who or what is Tish?”

Luna's eyes sparkled while Victoria talked. Her mind whirled in a hundred different directions, trying to diagnose in her head and figure out ways to shift Victoria's mechanics to withstand the differences in the Otherworld. She would have argued with Victoria that the food question was just as important, at least to her. But she had to remain on task. Like keeping Victoria stable. Which… Luna had no solution for.

The Otherworld resident frowned, taking a step back from Victoria. However, while Luna was mentally diagnosing Victoria, the humanoid was still talking.

”I don't know Hope, but Ultron… Isn't he a Transformer or something? From those movies or whatever?” Were the Transformers real? Well, she did have a motorcycle that was currently the shape of a rubik's cube in her jacket pocket.

The way her mainframe processed and interpreted magic was fascinating to Luna. The image Victoria showed was a mock-up, but it was still pretty cool. She needed to write this down.

”Yes, we'll need to find the dwarves. Unfortunately I've never converted human tech to Avalon approved tech. I am experienced with artifice work but the technology to adapt Earth tech is a dwarven secret. Luckily for you, one of my close friends is the daughter of the dwarf king, so we can work out a trade with her to help you. We'll have some time before the magic of the Otherworld takes you over, but we shouldn't dally. And, if you have a killswitch, you should tell me.”

Luna rummaged through Andy's room while she spoke, searching until she found a notebook and pens in Andy's bag. She started scribbling down Victoria's explanations, adding her own notes in the margins.

”Yes, I used the fairy ring in England all the time before… Well, I suppose I'll have to use one again. Although, I'm sure there is one nearby. They pop up all over.”

Luna finished her notes. The words were barely recognizable and there were small doodles here and there to help fill in the blanks when Luna's mind had moved too quickly.

”Oh! Tish, come say hello.” A fluttering noise could be heard from the pile of Luna's clothes. After a moment a moth came whirring over, circling Luna's head before going over to Victoria.

”This is Tish. She's my assistant I guess you could say, but she's much more than that. She's pure Avalon tech, with the ability to help me assess, diagnose, and repair many of the tech and contraptions we build back home.” The moth fluttered up and down, occasionally zipping to the side before moving back to center again. As she shifted, the gears inside could be seen working. Luna had become a fan of the steampunk style and loved seeing the inner workings of her passion projects revealed. Her motorcycle was built much the same.

Luna stuck the pen behind her ear and stood. ”Let's go to your room and conduct the scan. I want to see these runes you mentioned.”

Victoria was dumbfounded for a second. ”I… think you’re thinking of Unicron? But nevermind, my hardware is not something we can do much with, I can’t exactly transfer to a different shell at this point. Well… not easily.”

The dangling prize of magical immunity seemed to orbit her on an accretion disk. Always so close, and yet the black hole in the middle barely ever gets to take a bite. Still, a person Victoria just met having a dwarven princess for a friend who may be interested in a trade for something that could save her life was more than she had a minute ago, however tenuous straw to grasp it was. ”No killswitches that I know of.” She kept to herself the ‘which isn’t saying much’, considering she wasn’t told about the backdoor that would rob her of free will either.

When the little mechanical moth fluttered around, Vicky smiled. Steampunk wasn’t her go-to aesthetic, but she could appreciate work that would have gone into making something this small. She raised a finger for the moth to land on, curious if it would. Last but not least, it was cool to see another mechanics nerd join the group. She has been sorely lacking in competition in the field ever since that annoying asgardian left, and someone to talk to about it since… forever, since the asgardian was annoying. There was Dorian, but he also had a myriad of ther hobbies that took up his time. ”Alright then!” Tori grinned and shoved off the wall, leading the short way across the hall.

Since she didn’t yet have the time to do much more here than unpack, the room wasn’t all too messy. There was no sign of Marlena either, so Vicky shut the door behind Luna and pointed to the wardrobe, herself turning to face the other direction. ”Help yourself, if you want.” She just hoped noone would be there to ask why the newcomer looks like she just showered and was wearing Vicky’s stuff. ”Something I need to do for Tish to do the scan?”

Tish landed lightly on Victoria's finger. Her wings twitched slightly before the creature started to move up Victoria's hand. Luna set her notebook and pen aside, taking the hint that she should dress, and rummaged through Victoria's closet.

”You don't have much sense of style, do you?” Luna pulled out a few options, frowning and tucked them back in. She sighed, having to settle on leggings and a Linkin Park t-shirt.

”She'll do an internal scan. She normally assesses the hard to reach places I can't get to, fixes them up for me, and then comes back. She's also a great spy.” While Luna explained, Tish went to work slipping inside Victoria. She had worked her way up to the open arm and was just starting to poke around when something happened.

In Luna's excitement to get a look inside, she forgot the one thing Victoria told her over and over. She doesn’t do well with magic and Victoria starts to glitch. Her limbs move erratically, her eyes glow rainbows, and she starts spewing nonsense.

Luna quickly pulls the t-shirt over her head before running over, now fully dressed.

”Ah, bloody hell. Tish, abort.” The creature quickly evacuated Victoria and settled on Luna's shoulder. ”Sorry about that, Victoria. Are you okay?” After a moment, Vicky's systems level back out.

”I beg your pardon?! Suits never go out of style.” Vicky said, following up by quietly muttering something about barbarians. All those thoughts went out the window though as soon as it was revealed that the scan didn’t involve the moth flying around her or anything remotely sensible, but actually getting under her skin. ”Hey! WHOA!”

Well, Vicky found out the answer to a question she did not have the will to test yet. No, her reprogrammed core didn’t make the magic bullshittery go away. Also:

”Please remain calm while the ceiling finishes downloading yesterday.”

”Error: Bowel movement detected within weather patterns. Attempting to multiply by negative one.”

”I am operating within nominal parameters! It’s the parameters that are screaming!”

”Dark matter atoms have escaped their soup and are nesting in the ventilation.”

Finally the infernal machine crawled back out of her arm. Still, it took a minute for her code to recover enough to speak. When it did, Victoria did not look happy. ”Okay, woman. While I quite appreciated the view earlier, you skipped a few steps between that and trying to put something inside me. I insist on at least getting treated to something first.”

Shaking the last twitches out of her fingers, she made her skin reseal around her hand, clearly on display what she thought about doing that again. ”Well. Did you learn anything at least? If not, shall we move this downstairs where I have my notes?”

Luna picked up her notebook and scribbled down some notes after the informative experiment. She tapped her pen against her cheek, her mind on other things. She didn't even grasp Victoria's comment about Luna's former wardrobe.

”No… Unfortunately Tish was unable to really pick up on anything. Sorry, everyone else I usually encounter knows Tish. Or I don't want them knowing about her and she sneaks in places. But she's super friendly and gentle. Well…normally.” Luna looked sheepish for a moment before she went back to frowning.

”Guess we're going to have to go old school with this. Did your creator leave anything behind about involvement with magic or is this all new for you?” Luna asked.

”My family is famous for size manipulation and robotics. Magic, not so much, that usually married in, or at least tried to. I didn’t even encounter this phenomenon before this year, and I roommed with a mage. Guess he wasn’t that powerful.” Vicky thought out loud, before nodding towards the door, ”Come, it’ll be easier to show you.”

Leading down the stairs and to the basement, Victoria pushed the door of her workshop open and waved Luna inside. The space was only as big as it needed to be, but contained everything a synthetic might need to maintain itself. Multi-axis CNC, 3D printers of all kinds, a big bench for working mechanicals as well as electronics, every kind of tool reasonably imaginable and a rack full of raw materials and parts bins.

All of that was turned off and neatly stowed at the moment though, as the whole space was taken over by large sheets of paper hanging from clothes lines arranged to be easily viewed from the center of the room. There were two distinct sections to the arrangement; One contained an obscene amount of math and equations dealing with particle collisions and various field interactions, while the other was covered in the runes Vicky described entering her code, as evidenced by the writing also following the syntax of a computer code.

Luna walked into the room behind Victoria and instantly fell in love with the space. There were tools she recognized and others she didn't have a name for, but everything had its place and it was perfect. Luna had to actively remind herself to not go running around the space to try out the equipment. They were here for a purpose.

She walked over the charts, running her eyes over the code and runes.

”What have you discovered so far?” Luna asked, trying to make sense of it herself. Tish flew off her shoulder and fluttered around the paper, taking it in as well. Maybe there was something Tish could decipher but it wasn't part of her original programming. Luna would have to do some upgrades.

Victoria noticed Luna’s eyes ticking over the toolracks. ”Heh. Birds of a feather.” she commented, more to herself.

‘Not enough’ was the first answer that came to her mind about her discoveries, but she bit down on her tongue. ”The runes were the easy part. When the effect starts setting in, it just translates my code into this mess, so I was my own rosetta stone. I thought that if I upgraded my core to recognize the language I could get by, but under heavier doses, it actually starts mutating the code. That’s when the loss of motor control, speaking gibberish and death come in.” she explained.

She pointed out one of the code sequences and magic circles in particular. ”Once I understood the syntax, I figured I could use the language to actually cast myself. This is my first attempt. It’s not a true anti-magic field, but more of a brute force counter. I figured, being a machine, I can detect an attack and send out a spell that would counter it before it hits. Two problems though. One, wouldn’t protect me from passive magically saturated areas like the Strange Academy. Two, there’s still the matter of powering it.”

She moved over to the part that looked more like a demon lovechild of Baba Yaga and Niles Bohr. ”My toolkit already gives me a decent command of some of the fundamental forces in physics,” she said, pulling six generators from her pockets and attaching them to her hand, before demonstrating by pulling a piece of sheet steel with a magnetic field, pushing it away with a weak repulsor, suspending it in the air with a gravity field and then blasting it with an electric arc.

”So I figured if I can fit magic into physics, I could use my existing equipment, or do relatively small modifications to generate an actual anti-magic field. Not in a particle-antiparticle annihilation sense, more of a quantum effect that just says ‘the probability of magical energies and particles existing in this area is a limit approaching zero the closer you get to the source’.” she gave the gist of the idea while drawing a probability-distance chart on the whiteboard.

She then turned around to face Luna. ”Are you keeping up so far?”

Luna’s skin crawled pleasantly as the magnetic forces worked. It provided her with the same sensation magic did, but better. Luna’s brow had creased while Victoria spoke and explained what she had been encountering and how she was trying to manoeuvre around magic.

”Somewhat,” Luna responded honestly. ”But you are still trying to make magic work for your code. Magic doesn’t follow the rules of science, which is what I like about mechanics. You can jerry-rig anything to fit when it comes to mechanics. You would be better off trying to fit physics to magic. But as I said, that’s a closely guarded secret. We’ll have to find Kasimira and see what she can do.”

Luna stepped closer to the runes, trying to decipher the language there. She had never been good with runes, and that narrative continued here. Luna sighed, frustrated and looked over at Victoria.

”I don’t think I will be of any further use to you in preparing your body for the transition to the Otherworld. However, the Otherworld is a unique place that listens and hears the travellers of the realm. How much do you know about story magic?” Luna asked, popping herself up to sit on one of Victoria’s pristine work benches.

Tori smiled. At least she didn’t get told her ideas were bonkers straight away. ”Well, thanks, anyway. I did still learn something. I’m hoping you’re right about how much time I’ll have once I get there.” Then she grinned. Luna did deserve some reward for her effort.

”I’m kind of interested to see how your world reacts to this.” she sent the authorization codes remotely and her armor safe, that so far stood relatively unnoticed in the corner, hissed and clicked open. With a wave of her hand, Vicky started pulling the armor pieces towards herself. Where she put them on, Luna could briefly see the android’s nanite skin turn silver with a golden wire pattern before the armor seemed to glue itself to it.

”I don’t know much about magic in general. _Apparently.” she grumbled, shooting her papers an annoyed glance. Once the last piece of armor clicked on, she looked back at Luna. ”So I’m all ears, please. Teach me.”

Luna's eyes traveled over Victoria's skin, in awe of how it shifted to adhere to the new material. She jumped off the bench and circled Victoria, appraising her as if Luna was a salesperson looking over a car.

” This is like those Transformers. Incredible. What did you use for material? Is it coded to your DNA? Is that why it flew to you? What about… gah, bloody hell. Sorry. One track mind.” Luna shook her head and took a step back from Victoria.

”Story magic is unique. You could almost call it alive, as it shifts to match what is needed at that time. For example, the fairy rings. It doesn't matter if you use the same ring every time you enter the Otherworld, you will be let off in a different place depending on where you are needed. Depending on where your story needs you to be. So, because your tale needs you to be adapted to the Otherworld, we will be able to find who and what you seek.” Even though Luna had apologized for obsessing over Victoria's new look, the former Captain Britain unconsciously started circling Victoria again, tapping and tugging on the armor.

Vicky giggled, not minding an examination that was noninvasive. ”I think I’m more of a terminator than a transformer,” the android shrugged, ”Actually, no idea about the nanotech. I think mom may have had to buy some IP from Stark to do that, so it is probably under an NDA. And I don’t have DNA, there isn’t a shred of organic tissue in me. When I was transferred into this shell, it was a shapeless humanoid, and I just picked how I wanted to look like during installation. And no, I just used a linear gravity field to pull them. Tractor beam, so to speak.”

She thought about the magic of the Otherworld for a moment. ”So… Destiny on speedrun then? Well that oughta be interesting. Interesting you mention the Fairy rings… Is there a credible possibility it would spit each of us in a different part of the world then? I’m not too keen on finding myself alone in Everforge while the rest of us are deposited close to wherever they are holding Nemo.” Oh, the risk analysis file was growing by the minute, and none of the risks seem to trend in the ‘mitigated’ direction. ”Well, not much I can do about it though, I suppose.”

As the fairyland engineer started hovering around her again, Vicky grinned. ”Go ahead, ask, poke and prod. First though… I didn’t catch your name at any point? So unless you don’t mind Glimpse… Who are you?”

More questions flooded Luna’s mind, but she bit her lip to keep from voicing them right now, literally.

”Oh, I guess you guys can call me Luna or Glimpse. At least until I reclaim my Captain Britain title. As for the fairy rings, you are very correct. Although I am committed to helping you before the others. So, at the very least, it will be you and I traipsing through the kingdoms until we find Kasimira.” Luna came around to stand in front of Vicky once more. She looked up at Victoria, frowning slightly before she grinned. ”Just remember you said I could ask,” she said before Luna launched into another string of questions.

---

---

---

The group had agreed to meet at the Haunted Tree at 8 o’clock. It had been a compromise between those who wanted to leave for Otherworld as soon as possible and those who struggled to wake up before noon. Most at Margaret Carter were familiar with the Haunted Tree - a gigantic wych elm, it cast shadows over the nearby buildings, large and looming. There were no benches near it and even the other trees seemed to keep their distance. It would have been ideal to study or read under, had it not been for reports of childish voices and laughter, the ghost of some poor child clinging still to this pane. There were whispers as to how this ghost came to be, rumors of sightings and even the occasional paranormal investigation, but never anything definitive, never anything with proof…

And now, mushrooms had grown at its base, forming a near perfect ring. A portion of the circle was on the tree itself, a handful of mushrooms growing sideways on the trunk. And in the early morning light, there was almost an eerie shine to them, as if the mushrooms were not of this plane.

---

---

Danni had been insufferable all morning.

Traveling to Otherworld required the use of a faerie ring. They could be found all over the world, with local legends and superstitions warning of the danger of stepping within one. Children disappeared, loved ones vanished only to reappear stuttering and strange. In their vicinity, strange voices and apparitions were reported, the ghostly laughter of changelings, the melancholic songs of sirens, and trails of blood without a defined start or end. Entering a faerie ring puts the subject at the whims of Otherworld, of story magic - a force somehow more unpredictable than the chaos magic wielded by the Scarlet Witch.

The nearest one just happened to be at the Haunted Tree.

And Danni wasn’t about to let anyone hear the end of it. There had been a flurry of texts in the group chat the previous night, an onslaught of tree 🌲and ghost 👻 and 🧚fairy and 🍄mushroom emojis, long after Percy had woken up in the movie nest, curled up around his boyfriend. Dorian had apparently planned something for just the two of them in a secondary location, forcing Percy to sleepily teleport all of the pillows and stuffed animals and blankets back to Dorian’s room, all while his head was pounding as if he’d had a sugar high… which he essentially had had. The memories of being Gemini were a little indistinct, a little hazy around the edges, but he remembered the rush, the immense energy at his fingertips - remembered how so many of his inhibitions and boundaries and walls had fallen away, belonging to someone else - remembered with a pang of sadness how easy it had been to hold Danni’s hand and that even the occasional stray contact from Ben hadn’t been bothersome, even welcomed.

Dorian and Percy had relocated to the school’s observatory - it wasn’t as grand as others in the area like the Griffith, but a fair amount of money had been placed into its construction. Margaret Carter was not at a high elevation relative to the rest of Los Angeles, so light pollution was a constant battle, even with the height of the observatory compared to the rest of the school. It had been just the two of them, even more blankets and pillows spread out on the floor, letting them gaze up at the stars. Percy had pointed out to Dorian all the constellations he could see, a touch of sadness in his voice as he showed him Orion, but it was replaced with amusement as he pointed out Gemini to the east with its shining twin stars. Dorian had somehow even known to get Korolevskiy. He must have asked Percy’s moms. It was a complicated traditional Russian cake for birthdays and celebrations, layers of chocolate and cherry and walnut and poppyseed cake, bound together with Dulce De Leche or caramel buttercream, and covered in even more chocolate and fruit. His mother had purchased one from the Russian grocer nearby every year for his birthday. She must have told him about the snacks he had with it, too, as the ginger beer and peanut butter M&Ms were there with it.

The quiet, tender evening had done wonders for his fried nerves. He’d almost cried when Dorian gave him his birthday present - a ring that put a small shield all around his body, dampening out stray, accidental touch, but not so strong as to keep him from feeling his boyfriend’s arms wrapped around him, holding him tight to his chest. It had come with a cost though, beyond Danni blowing up their phones just as Percy had stopped watching the stars and begun kissing his boyfriend’s neck.

A cost that he hadn’t realized until the middle of the night, when he’d woke up thrashing, his body damp with sweat as a nightmare had held him in its grip. Everyone had died in his dream. And it had been his fault. He hadn’t been prepared. He hadn’t been ready. And before he had fully woken up, before he had managed to catch his breath, Dorian had crashed down on top of him - he’d been floating in his sleep - and it hurt more than usual. Somehow, Danni and April and Amelie had slept through the startled scream - through Percy frantically pacing as he realized he had nothing packed for the trip - through him trying to time travel back a few hours to when Ben wasn’t asleep in their room and he’d be able to throw his things together - to him struggling and only managing to go back eight minutes, having to hide out in the hallway to avoid paradox psychosis - to Dorian dragging him back in by his ear and telling him that he was bringing his magic tote bag and Percy could just borrow whatever he needed and he was going to go back to sleep now whether he had to possess him or not.

He still woke up early, though. He had quietly gone back into his room, tiptoeing as to not wake Ben if his roommate was still there. His camping supplies were… he had no idea where they were. He hadn’t touched any of it in over a year and he couldn’t show up at his mothers’ house and tear apart the garage looking for them. So instead he managed to quickly pack what he could find, rolling the clothes up so as to squeeze them into his bag better - two changes of clothes, his compass, his water bottle, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, a journal and the pen necklace Dorian had given him, Agatha’s watch, Nemo’s journal on Otherworld, and a tiny first aid kit he’d kept in his dorm room. He almost forgot the most important thing, however - one of his copies of the Iliad was thrown into his bag at the end. He didn’t have any food, he didn’t have any means of creating shelter or sleeping comfortably… but at least he would be clean. Hopefully they could pull some pillows and blankets out of Dorian’s tote if they needed them. At the last second, he had thrown in his commander deck, too. Just in case.

And at least they’d had time to grab coffee at Secret IdentiTea before they’d headed to the tree. Danni had only been awake for little more than an hour and he’d delivered his bragging monologue about how he’d always known the Haunted Tree was important and no one believed him and if he hadn’t taken Bennie and Milli-illi-illipede there with Rillie on the tour, no one would’ve found the fairy ring and they’d have no way to go to Otherworld to get Poisson-Pas and his ugly mustache back.

Percy had asked DanThé for six shots. He might have been better off asking for twelve.

Or for something even stronger.

“So, how does this work?” he asked, taking another sip of his coffee before crouching down to the ground, examining the mushroom circle. It started on the ground but had grown onto the tree itself, a good three to four of the bright red mushrooms attached to the trunk of the wych elm, with the remaining dozen or so firmly on the ground. His eyes darted over towards Ben. He seemed like the type to know things about mushrooms. “Do we simply focus on our goal and step in? Is there a phrase or incantation? Do we need to hold hands to ensure no one is separated?” He hadn’t been there last night when everyone had discussed their findings about Otherworld. He regretted it slightly, but he knew he would have been a spicy, irritable mess today if he had been. Dorian had done the right thing by planning something for just the two of them. He was really lucky to have such a caring boyfriend. He had Dorian’s bracelet on his wrist.

Heavy on his hip was the scabbard with Nemo's - with his sword.

---

---

April had had a blast at the party the night before - even if it was a little weird that Percy and Dori never showed up for it, even if it had been kinda rude of Chase to snatch the plate of enchiladas out of Leah’s and their hands. But still, sugar and roller skating and karaoke? Incredible! They weren’t as good at roller skating as they were ice skating, keeping them from showing off and doing tricks (being able to control the ice on the rink was incredibly helpful) but they held their own all the same. How did Chase manage to close off the rink on the gym’s second floor for the party? They had no idea! And they hadn’t cared to ask. Their (private) socials were filled with pictures from the night and the new filters Filterella had to offer had been to die for - Leah with a duck face had been iconic. And if April had used the opportunity to also save some photos of Marlena with hearts around her… that was no one else’s business.

After the party winded down, April had received a little help in heisting their meds - and with the lithium pills acquired, they were all set to go to Otherworld! Their usual stuff had been tossed inside their school bag - the medication, the magic comb, the water from the River Styx, two gigantic water bottles that could barely fit inside the bag’s outer pockets, both covered in an onslaught of stickers, some sunscreen and sunglasses, the collapsible batons, a keyboard button fidget toy - and of course, the snacks they’d gotten from the store. Their tote bag was folded up and shoved inside too, so that way they could just reach on through to grab changes of clothes, toiletries, towels, blankets - whatever it was they might need. Their Kingston-Gray bracelet was on their wrist, even though it seemed the magic of Otherworld decided no adult interference - which was iconic. Pops would kill them if he knew what they were up to.

Also, Danni and Millie and Ben and them had been the MVPs of the group by finding the way to Otherworld!!! The Haunted Tree was all they needed!!!

They’d slept soundly and securely all night, curled up around Danni with Amelie snuggling in. The room had been a little warm but it was Los Angeles, even in winter it didn’t get super cold, so April didn’t think much of it. They’d just gone to bed wearing a tank top instead of a long sleeve and it had been enough to regulate their temperature. They’d woken up an hour or so before Danni the next morning, enough to hear Percy panic packing the next room over, but rather than do any extra packing themself, April scrolled through Snikt! There was an insane video of someone making sourdough bread and replacing all the water with blueberries that they needed to replicate. And one of a girl chopping wood with an axe that April watched a little too long.

But once everyone was up and it was time to go, they breezed through their morning routine - they texted a check in to the parents, just a heart emoji - did their skin care - combed out and styled their hair, keeping the rainbow dye for now - pulled on a grey and blue jumpsuit that was comfy and easy to move in while looking rad as fuck - did their makeup, relatively simple except for blue around their eyes and tiny little gems at the corners - and obviously rushed to Secret IdentiTea to get a venti white chocolate raspberry mocha and a molasses cookie from DanThé.

“Our first real adventure!!” April squealed excitedly, hugging their brothers and anyone else who would let them - they didn’t try with Percy, for which he was grateful. “Once everyone is here, we should take a selfie!!! It’s a huge moment!!! We’re moving up in the superhero world and can start doing things to help people!! We beat Arcade, we beat the Young Avengers and the Hex Girls, and now we are going to save Ser Nemo!! Also, Otherworld is gonna be so cool!!” They didn’t even think Pa had been to Otherworld. They could hardly contain their energy and excitement, as they bounced in place from foot to foot.

---

---

Leah was usually up before most people. Old habits meant her metaphorical inner clock woke her up not with a beep but with a foghorn. Ever the morning person, things were already in motion by six in the morning as the sun rose over Los Angeles. Black coffee was in her hand and a bagel in her stomach, and Leah did her best not to wake Sabine as she knelt before her bad and withdrew a wide cardboard box. Contained within was a smattering of whatnots that Leah had always kept with her. Pictures she had taken with the others, a few mementos from Asgard, a laptop she hadn't used much lately... And a container full of rocks.

She collected them. Not only were they useful for her powers, but her powers also made her a bit of a nerd about geology. It was useful to know how different places in the world reacted when she shifted the ground, and that attention she paid often had the byproduct of Leah collecting stones, gems, and anything adjacent that she came across. A chunk of scoria from Mount Rainier, prasiolite from near the Pacific Ring of Fire, Sandstone from the Sonoran Desert... Basalt from the ocean floor, she used part of that to make a gift for April, once. Leah snatched up a variety from the container and sorted through them. It was unlikely that they'd be useful in an actual fight, but stones and precious minerals had other uses. And, every now and then, Leah used to spend time making them look nice. It was a good bit of practice with her powers, and part of how she got so good at fine little details.

There was a small chance her powers wouldn't even work in Otherworld. It wasn't Earth, it wasn't Jotunheim, and it damn sure wasn't just going to be all caves and deserts. Fae could surely use a chunk of kanoite for something.

When she got the ones she wanted, she slid the box back under and and then looked at the seven foot long sword she found a place for by the wall.

Did Leah want to bring Sjafnamarr with her? It was practically weightless to her, and in a strange way, it was a puzzle piece in her being that she didn't know was missing one before they found that prophecy. It was a way to cast spells and wield magic that didn't require drawing or handling runes, there'd probably be dangerous situations where the group would need to fight. But Leah wasn't an expert in swordplay. And it wasn't like there was anyone who could teach her to wield that fucking thing. She wondered, for just a moment, if it'd be easier to just stick to her old MMA training if things went that far.

Well, they needed as many advantages as possible.

She threw her closet open and broke out some more things. Her "camping gear" wasn't exactly glamorous, but she was an outdoors-y kind of girl. A hefty duffel bag, a backpack and a hefty water bottle were retrieved, along with a book she hadn't gotten around to reading.

Then she left the dorm building and got the food she and April had prepared. She stored it in Home Ec room, and thankfully, no one had come in and imped the entire stash of rations she prepared. She had some time to kill, so Leah got in a few practice swings in the gym with her sword, just to get her mind ready for the journey. At 7:50AM, she left and walked across the Campus, wearing her Excelsior jacket and a lot of other things. Being so physically strong, all the things Leah carried on her body didn't weigh her down much. She appeared before the mystical tree that no one dared go near lest they walk away without their soul or with ten years of bad luck. Leah noticed Percy had a sword. That was weird, weren't those heavy for normal people?

"Starting to see a pattern, here," Leah commented, standing next to Percy and April. She elected not to comment on how unprepared he was. That was why she overprepared.

"Anyone else coming?"

---

---

Everyone around Marlena was gold and pale white.

Beneath her, there was nothing but champagne bubbles of every size. All stretching out in every direction, every horizon, until she couldn't see them anymore. She walked forward in the field, in a place so alone that she might've been the only living thing that ever walked the world. No flowers, no people, nothing but herself. Marlena walked and walked, and there was no difference between the hours and the seconds.

The champagne bubbles floated around her as she walked, drifting away and around her. It was almost beautiful in its own way. But the light that shone wasn't from the sun. There wasn't a sun to be seen, and there was scarcely any sky. Not a star to be seen, or a cloud to gaze upon. Rather, there were moons in the empty air. Three of them, so massive and bright as to be the horizon themselves, as though they were falling.

They surrounded her. Far to the left, there was the waxing crescent, the waning to the right, and front and center was the full moon. They didn't move, or maybe it would have been more accurate to say she didn't. She knew she walked along a fourth one. An empty moon, the new moon, but it couldn't be seen. It was too dark.

Marlena looked all around, until she saw something different.

Far ahead of her, a small speck of something she couldn't see clearly. She ran, faster than her feet were used to carrying her. The air burned her lungs with each breath, it felt like she ran for an eternity. The shape in the distance could've been moving either further or closer to her, and her eyes wouldn't have told one from the other. The bubbles floated away, up and around her until they obscured her vision. Marlena shoved them aside, but there were so many that it was almost impossible to see how far to go or how far she had gone. Her lungs began to ache, but her legs still carried her.

"Where..."

There.

The bubbles of champagne thinned out. It became easier to push through the morass and the rest flew off away when her body went to all fours. Marlena caught her breath and hauled herself up, to see where she'd gone. Standing before her was a rectangular structure, ten feet tall. It looked almost like a mural, flowing lines of the palest silver she'd ever seen, wreaths of gorgeous flowers that she couldn't tell the names of. All tracing the edges and the center, a wonderful work of art that didn't feel as if it belonged here.

She rested a hand on it. There was no sensation of touch.

"What are you?" Her voice didn't sound like hers.

Marlena walked around the edge of the structure, to look at the other side. She recognized what she saw. A depiction of a tree, and a body hanging upside down by a rope. A girl with curly, bouncy hair. She looked unhappy. The girl's name was Marlena Evans, depicted as the Hanged One.

For a moment, the real Marlena stared at the fake one, and the fake one stared at her.

On the face of the Hanged One, the eyes came ablaze.

Fire streaked across the card, down the middle and rising high. There wasn't enough time for Marlena to react, before a hand shot out of the blaze overtaking the card. The hand grabbed her throat, and she felt something in her chest give out. The hand was made of old, corroded metal, that reeked of aged coins. Marlena's hands flew to the wrist, but her breath was already gone and her throat stung.

"Sto-" She choked on her words. "St-Stop-Stop-"

In the flames, she saw a shape forming. An upper arm, a head, hair... The smell got worse.

Clink. Clink. Clink. The sound of gears.

"No- No... Stop- No-"

CLINK. CLINK. CLINK.

She felt her throat collapse.

Everything became black.

There was a crash, and then there was a scream.

Marlena was not in a strange land where the powers that be wanted her neck. She was not under the light of the moons. She on the floor, hands digging into the carpet of a dorm room, gasping for air. Pencils and bits of hand-made projects, a thermos and her phone hit the floor after her, flung about in her sleep by telekinetic force. A box she'd yet to open and unpack was flung across the room, its contents spilled everywhere against the door.

For long minutes, she choked on air that was trying to force its way in and out of her lungs. There was a throbbing pain in the back of her neck, and every breath was like brimstone in her mouth.

A bead of sweat landed on the floor.

Just a bad dream.

Marlena eventually calmed down enough to look up, and around. She was in her room, the one she shared with Vicky, who she didn't see crashing through a window ready to blast someone with an electromechanical Anihilationator 9000. She stood up and leaned against the wall. It was still dark, so she flipped on the lamp and saw the damage. The walls appeared fine, even if the room suddenly looked like someone had come in with a search warrant. She coughed and reached for water, feeling her throat start to relax.

Marlena rolled her shoulders and checked her phone. It was nearly six in the morning.

Well... No going back to sleep this early.

She spent half an hour re-organizing things and making sure her powers didn't accidentally destroy something. Then she sat down on her bed and thought about that dream she had. The Hanged One tried to kill her, and the card meant a change was coming. Marlena didn't put much stock in dreams and prophecies, but a lot of coincidences were lining up lately. Carlos saw her in that card, the Otherworld was somehow influencing everyone who wasn't in Excelsior's immediate company to ignore all mentions of the place. Oh, and now she was being attacked in nightmares.

She had spent plenty of time yesterday, before the party, reading up on Otherworld. It was a land of the medieval. Of swords, kingdoms and power of Story Magic. There was a narrative to be told, and that was how things carried out. Ominous prophecies weren't out of the question when a hero needed to go on a journey. Hollywood sure knew that much... But why her? She wasn't a hero in any sense. What story was there to be told from haunting her with that?

Clockwork didn't fit the aesthetics she saw in those books. Metal arms moldered and aged to the point of corrosion weren't what she thought of when she imagined the Fae.

The moons had so many meanings. Triple goddesses were a thing in many cultures, apparently. It wasn't even limited to gender, from her study. But she didn't know much about Fae religion. The arm didn't match the shadowy ones in the visions they were given, either.

What was going on?

She spent the time getting ready. Marlena grabbed a shower to wipe off the sweat she was caked in, then began packing her things. Food, knives in case things got heated, her cruiser. A backpack was good enough to pack everything she needed, since she wasn't much of a camper. Marlena was used to urban activities like spending whole days out in places where some people wouldn't go, but she didn't think that translated to wherever they were going. She got water and some things to write with. Then she gathered up her usual traveling gear, the sorts of things she'd always have on her back in Brooklyn.

The time between then and the meet-up was filled with pondering fashion, something that always put Marlena's mind to rest. She got her most outdoors-appropriate fit on and boarded around to pass the time. When she met the group, she looked plenty put-together. It seemed the group was just starting to link up, not many of them were here just yet.

"Hello, hello, hello," She withdrew a pocketbook from the underside of her button-up, layered over a sweater. Then she sat her cruiser down in the grass and sat on it, biding her time. "I'm ready to jump over there when we're all here, but I did learn a few things yesterday. I think everyone's ignoring us because of Story Magic. Exactly what it sounds like, we're in some scheme and someone, somewhere, doesn't want it stopped."

She opened her pocketbook and flipped to an empty page. Then she drew it in pieces, separated vertically across the page's length. "I saw this symbol in the Scarlet Witch's eyes, right as I tried asking her about Otherworld. Then I look into it, there's something really close to this that blocks memories. If I write it down fully, not separated like this, I'd probably forget something- Think that happened to me last time."

---

By the time Victoria answered what she could of Luna's questions and having offered the former Captain Britain the use of her bed for the night, Vicky was fashionably late to the party.

Fortunately, there was time for those attending to share what intel they found, so they were not going in completely blind. Vicky made sure to mention that there was a good chance of everyone being split up on arrival. Hopefully people would prepare accordingly.

She also got to talk to Sabine about the thing she wanted the psion to do. Although as soon as Vicky started to think what that was, she found that she could not remember. When the android inquired, Sabine informed her that they already had that conversation, it was done, and it was by Victoria's own request that Sabine erased the memory. That alone was enough to stop Victoria from analyzing how Sabine's powers impacted her hardware, despite her curiosity about it.

Once the group dispersed, Victoria went back to the workshop to do her own preparations. She eyeballed the bag she used to carry back when she was pretending to be human, and decided that it would be woefully inadequate. Instead, she dusted off the hardened box she used during the qualifiers. A bit of bending sheet metal later, she welded a console to the bottom of it what would allow her to hook it to the upper back of her armor.

Testing the fit and being relatively happy with the range of motion left to her, she set the box down and started thinking about what to bring. A lot came to mind. Too much. Okay, prioritize. What's the worst case here? It's not beig alone, it's actually having dependents.

At that thought, the rations and the first aid kit were moved from her bag to the box. Water. Fleshbags need water. The first thought was to bring some canteens, however, everyone sensible should already be bringing their own. What they needed was a way to refill, especially if part of the group got separated from April.

A bit more fabrication later, Vicky had a water filter that could be used to get water from natural sources to a potable state. Nothing she could do agains stuff like heavy metals, but hopefully a magical realm wouldn't be dumping copious amount of industrial waste into their rivers.

Okay. Water and food to last some time. Something to patch the others with. I'm the power bank and firestarter for whoever gets left with me. That should do for hopefully long enough. Now, what do I need?

In the end, Victoria made the decision that her armor was a bonus, not a necessity, and if it got damaged to the point of no use, she could do without. She needed to think of maintaining her chassis, as if her arm was disabled, it would be useless, armored or not. And while the rest of them could probably find decent enough doctor equivalent in the Otherworld, accordih to Luna, a mechanic capable of servicing her chassis would be much rarer.

By the time she was happy with her selection of tools and spare parts, the sun was already up. After a brief detour to the convenience store to pick up a few bulbs of garlic to distribute among the group, she put the armor on, and swung by the dorm to pick up a few changes of clothes. As she was getting ready to leave, her eyes landed on something she has not thought of for a while.

You know what? Why not. If nothing else, I may be able to pawn you for something actually useful. she thought as she took the viking shield Agatha gave her, hooking it to her arm.

---

She came upon the gathering group, tossing a bulb of garlic to each of them. "Mornin'. Keep those on you, especially while sleeping." she said as she unhooked the storage module from her back and set it down for now.

She moved to get a closer look at the fairy ring, before looking at Percy. "From what I gathered, it doesn't care what you want. It will send you where 'the story' needs you to be, whether that's exactly where you want to be, or completely alone and in peril."

A momentary, but intense pamg of annoyance shot through her mind. Weren't they doing this to save his sorry ass? How is half of the group doing better job preparing for this?

She walked back before she could say something that woupd blow up emotions again, and sat down next to the box, idly trying to juggle the garlic bulbs while she waited on others to arrive and she could give out the rest.

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Dorian had enjoyed seeing how happy and enamored Percy was throughout the night of his birthday. Seeing his excitement at each and every turn of the night made his heart flutter, yet it also left him feeling hollow inside. All of this was Chase's doing, so much that Dorian hadn't known about Percy. His favorite cake, his favorite snack, drink, all of it. The way he spoke about the stars and constellations. Had it not been for their trip in the Mountains, Dorian would've thought he could never make Percy this happy. But he'd seen it before, and that was enough to give him more hope, even if he hated that Chase did this for him.

The next morning was rough, between the late night and the fusing, Dorian ended up sleeping in later than he wanted to, causing him to panic pack and throw random items he wanted into his bag before snagging his tote that was tethered to his room for future use. Drink in hand and with everyone meeting up, Dorian poked at a mushroom from the outside as it wobbled while they waited for more to come. Chase wouldn't shut up, and it seemed now more and more people were in fact carrying swords. He caught the garlic tossed at him and stared at it confused. ”You expectin’ us to run into Vampires while we are ‘ere? Also what if t'ey go rotten? Does it still work?” Dorian pocketed the garlic, seeing the bottle of water that was flying towards him, his powers instantly locking it into place mid-air as he sent a glare to Chase before grabbing it and placing it in a side pocket of his bag.

Dorian ignored what Chase was talking about, instead making his way over to the new girl Marlena to see what she was saying. He recognized the sigil, and knew it did as she said, but beyond that he could hardly remember. A part of him wondered if he'd attempted to use it as a prank and had it backfire, given his usual aptitude for recalling anything that he studied. April had always hated it, how easily his grades came to him. ”I've seen t'ese sort of magicks back at Kamar-Taj. Potent stuff, I would try not to mess wit’ it mon ami. But speakin’ of memories, I'm wit’ April. I can take t'e photo usin’ a bit of TK to get t'e best angle.”

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The party was exactly what everyone needed before heading off onto an adventure and braving a land of Myths and Legends. Especially if what Vicky had brought up was true, if Avalon relied on the powers of Story Magic. Chase bit back a groan and the urge to roll his eyes. There had been some Arthurian stories that related to Story Magic, and if that's what they were facing then they were in for a world of trouble. Trouble he wanted to ignore for the night so he could focus on having fun and showing Ben a good time. Chase had done everything available to them within the gyms wall, partying to his hearts content and having way too much sugar that would make a normal person crash. At some point the chicken from earlier had given him back “his sword” made of shadows. Respect to her for stealing their stuff back, though the sword itself was just shadows he could create once again. He thanked her regardless before snapping his fingers and making the shadows disperse as if he was stowing it away.

As the night wound down and everyone slowly began to make their way out and to bed, Chase stayed back to clean up the mess they'd all made. Not that it would take him long, shifting shadows and having the paper plates and plastic cups and move and shuffle into the nearest trash cans along with the decor. The left over snacks were moved into his own dorm, and when he was all done, he'd made his way back towards his room and threw himself onto the bed. He couldn't sleep, he knew he wouldn't be able to, but even then, Chase wanted Ben with him. He'd used his shadows to pull Ben out of his bed and into Chase's, covering his mouth and whispering to be quiet as Millie was asleep. They talked in whispers and cuddled until Ben finally fell asleep, leaving Chase all alone again. Staring up at the ceiling, painted blue by the moon's light that filtered in and colored the world. He moved himself through the darkness, appearing at the foot of his bed as he decided to begin packing for himself, then after for Ben when he remembered how poorly he'd packed before for their trip.

When morning came, Chase had stepped out of his room to get Ben some tea and breakfast to bring back for him in bed, surprised (and annoyed) when he came back and noticed his roommate was already up. He wanted to smack her and Ben with pillows but that would have to wait for another day. After some food, an offer of a shower together, and a bit more if Ben was up to it before launching off, Chase was ready to finally meet up and see what everyone else was up to. Percival didn't seem to be packing much, Lancelot was full to the brim with items, the Nymph had hardly much going as well save for water, Lena seemed…decent, and Vicky's made little to no sense to him. Especially the garlic she was hanging out to everyone. ”Sweet. More seasoning for cooking. Speaking of which –” Chase began tossing everyone a bottle of water that held 1 Liter and was currently full. ”Wasn't sure how many of you guys actually had reusable water bottles to bring some figured if you didn't, you can use these to refill as we go.” The bag on Chase's back seemed filled to the brim, a pair of shoes hanging off the side from a strap, a lantern hanging off the other side as his skateboard was strapped to the bag with the modifications he'd done years ago. His Bedroll visibly tucked underneath and held together by more straps that ran along the bottom of it.

”There's a chance the Story had no place for them. I've actually seen things in Story Magic before, its dangerous and unpredictable, but usually if you can figure out what Story you're in, you can alter things in ways that can help. It also makes things more dangerous for anyone who knows about the story. If they're made aware, regardless of their wants, they get sucked into the story and are given a roll, and sometimes that roll is just dying so that the story can move on. We'll need to figure out what our roles are and play them accordingly…maybe. Or if we are not assigned roles yet then we need to be careful which roles we may pick up along the way.” Chase leaned against the tree, tossing the garlic bulb up and down in his hands. ”If this is a doorway to another world, and the story dictates we go there, then I think all we do is step through like a doorway and see where we end up going. Follow the tale and head to the next until we find who we're looking for.”

Danni slept great.

A great make out sesh that got cut a little short, a party that Danni had the time of his life at (apparently people were planning and discussing but Danni was too busy not being a stick in the mud; parties were for partying, not talking), and then cuddles back at the dorm. It seemed a little warmer in the room than usual for some reason, but Danni wasn’t complaining. It made him feel all gooey when he went to bed, Amelie clearly much the same, and it helped stave off the cold that usually slithered in when the fan was turned on. Moving heat? Good. Stuck heat? Yeesh. It definitely helped that he’d spent the whole night in the roller rink - he was a little sore all over from running into people, walls, and using his flames to whip around the place in a way that was definitely outside the normal rules but they also took over the gym for an against the rules party so Danni didn’t particularly care!

So the next morning, as they all woke at an ungodly hour because they were definately going to Secret IdentiTea and he wasn’t missing his facial routine because of coffee, Danni really considered long and hard what he should bring. Rillie was loading up reasonable supplies into their school bag and Dee was snatching up entertainment options so Danni realized he needed to bring the self care stuff. He didn’t know what Otherworld skin care was like so he threw lotion and chapsticks into his regular bag and then a handful of other necessities - a little candy for a pick me up, a little gum to help him focus, Amelie’s treats and the chewing gloves he kept for her, ibuprofen (his few times Pops had taken him out on a hike were memorable), hand sanitizer, and nail polish remover in case his nail paint chipped. Those were all the necessities he figured they needed on hand at all times - the rest followed suit with his siblings and he piled them up on this bed for easy access through his tote bag.

And when he realized it was at the Haunted Tree?



“I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT! EVERYONE IGNORED T’E ‘AUNTED TREE BUT LOOK AT US NOW! ‘ERE, AT T’E ‘AUNTED TREE, WAITI’ TA GO TA T’E OT’ERWORLD! I WAS RIGHT! T’ERE WAS SOMET’IN’ ‘BOUT T’E TREE; ONE ELSE CARED!” Danni could be heard before he was seen, arm in arm with April, gloating about how his obsession with this tree for the past three years was finally vindicated. He had his tote slung over his shoulder, his handbag in the same hand, and he was sipping at the sugariest iced drink he could order that morning. “I bet t’ere were fairies just poppin’ in and out all t’e time, just easy as ya please and t’at’s why peeps t’ought t’ere was a ghostie, but it wasn’t no ghostie ‘cause it was a faerie! OMG, Dee we coulda gotta faerie ta ‘elp us wit’ pranks t’is whole time! What a waste! T’ey gotta ‘ave some wicked ideas after comin’ in and out all t’e time. I wonder if I can get t’eir autotaph? On like a cherry bomb or somet’in’. T’at be real cool, yeah?

Danni squawked as people tossed things at him, garlic and water, and he tried to figure out what to do with his hands as they came at him. Amelie, who had been buddled up in her carrier and content to watch the hustle and bustle sleepily from inside the warmth of the cloth, perked up at the two things coming hurtling at them. “Amelie, t’ese are not toys. Please don’t-” Danni managed to flick open the bag and shift just as Amelie lunged for the garlic, Danni snickering at the huffing dragon as he successfully snatched it away from her. “Gotta be faster t’an t’at girlie! ‘Ow do ya t’ink you’re gunna catch any prey if I can- WAIT AMELIE NO T’AT’S-” Danni wasn’t quite fast enough, his gloating distracting him just enough that Amelie snatched the water bottle out of the air, stared at him dead in the eye mischeiously, and chomped down hard.

Water went everywhere.

Amelie screeched, scrambling out of the soaking cloth carrier. Danni matched her volume, screaming as his clothes were sunlit soaked, the pleasant warmth of the Los Angeles sun snatched away from him as a liter of water drenched his shirt and pants. Amelie nearly knocked his coffee out of his hands as she thrashed her way up to his shoulders and it was only because of his impeccable reflexes (and tossing his bag to the ground so he could stabilize it) that he only lost a little. It was the little things in life that made them good and if Danni wasn’t able to finish his caffeine, he probably would have written this off at the worst start to an adventure in the world.

Instead, as the shock of cold water spilling on him wore off, he giggled and patted the still protesting Amelie on the head. He fished a treat out of his bag and offered it to her, pleased that the shrill squawk were replaced by the grumpy crunching for a few moments.

“Okay, t’ere ya go y’all! I took all t’e bad luck right outta t’e gate so everyt’in’ else is gunna go perfect!” He looked down at t’e mangled water bottle and sheepish grinned at Chase. “Uh, sorry ‘bout t’at? It was real nice t’ough ta brin’ everyone water! Lemme just dry off real quick!”

Danni felt the fire bubble up, a little quicker than he wanted, but he figured a little singein’ was aright. Until he looked at his bag and realized he was wearing his Papa’s jacket and he stamped down on that real hard. “On second t’ough, Rillie please help!” Danni pouted at his sibling.

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Sabine woke up several times during the night from nightmares she could not remember. All of it was compounded from worry and anxiety over Nemo being captured, them traversing to a world most of them knew nothing about, and above it all, her mother somehow, some way, being involved.

The party the night before had been a welcome distraction. She had helped Chase prepare, but left him to do most of the work as he was excited to do this. It was wild, Percy and Dorian didn't come despite it being for Percy, but she also knew the boy would likely not enjoy himself. What truly excited her was seeing Leah waltz in with blue hair that was styled. It made her even more attractive, which seemed impossible, and Sabine was demoralized to not be able to run her hand through it lest she want her palms completely shredded.

Still, the night was enjoyable, and she was happy to be amongst friends, new and old. It distracted her enough until she got back to her dorm room with Leah. It was then that she decided to tell Leah what had bothered her. She opened up about her mother, which Leah already knew, but now with the vision, it seemed her mother was somehow involved. That her mother had been alive this whole time and never reached out to let Sabine know she was okay. Leah did her job as 'supportive girlfriend' by being angry at Sabine's mother and Sabine took comfort that Leah would stand up for her if needed. But Sabine also knew she would need to be the one to look her mother in her eyes and ask...no, demand to be told why.

When she woke up Leah was already gone. She went over to Jean-Luc, who perked up at her. It felt like ages since she spent time with him and part of her wanted to keep him here. But she did not trust anyone to take care of him. Her father and stepmother would not care. She scratched under his chin and gave him belly rubs. "You ready for this Jean-Luc? I don't know if I am." As if sensing her discomfort, Jean-Luc began to jump into her lap in an attempt to comfort her, his weight nearly dropping her. She scratched him some more before standing. "At least I have you."

The Haunted Tree was not something she intended to ever visit. The fact the portal to the Otherworld had been there this whole time was both worrying and fortuitous. She had packed what she could on her person, wondering just what they would be facing. Were the others as scared as she was. If their faces were to be believed as she neared the tree, it didn't seem so. She put on a brave face, clutching Jean-Luc's leash. "Great day for dimensional travel, I guess." She looked around at the others. She would not be the leader this time around, despite what Chase thought. "Anything to note before we go in?" Though a few people knew her mother would be there, not everyone did. She would tell them when the time came. She was still reeling from it herself.

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Millicent had spent the party trying to get to know more people. She had only really spoken to a few of them. Hell, she hadn't even gotten to know her roommate much. The party was a chance to relax before they went off on some crazy adventure. She knew it meant a lot to the Excelsior team to go, and the second team, the B-team, as it were, was going to assist, but it didn't really hold much for them. Still, it beat classes.

She still felt uncertain about her aunts and uncles not knowing where she would be. She didn't know how time would work there and if they would notice she was gone.

She had fallen asleep pretty quickly when she got back to her room. She sang a lot, much to the dismay of the others (but if you were going to sing Happy Birthday, you were going to go all out!). Chase and his boyfriend had gotten in after her, and she saw them when she woke up. She had gotten to talk to Chase, asking him to please not punch further holes in their wall and to at least clean up after himself. She had a feeling it all went in one ear and out the other. She didn't know what to pack, but she remembered some of her training from her aunts and uncles when it came to survival. Pack light, but pack essentials.

The fairy circle being near the Haunted Tree, the one Danni went on and on about, was quite the find for them. Millicent strode up to the others. "Uh everyone cool?" she asked, noting Danni. "Think we'll be in and out in this time even if it takes days over there? Just wondering if the school is going to miss us. I don't imagine skipping first day of classes goes over well, even if it means saving one of their own."

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Andy was a little irritated that Chase was hosting a birthday party for Percy. She felt like that definitely wasn’t his place. But if everyone was going at least it would be a good place for everyone to aggregate their knowledge. She made sure Glimpse was invited and made sure Glimpse was introduced to everyone. That was enough for Glimpse and she dipped out early. She made sure to share the information she had gathered from Glimpse and make note of the Story Book magic and other stuff she needed to know going into the Otherworld.

Sleep was easy. It had been since Magneto had given her the pillow. She slept with no dreams and woke with ease. She had given herself a bit of extra time in the morning to do her packing after she got ready. Andy decided to not do any makeup, which was fairly unusual. She didn’t want to deal with it while in the Otherworld so she might as well not wear any in the first place.

Packing took a bit more time than she would have liked. Most of the stuff was easy. Gideon had put together most of the true ‘camping’ stuff. The rest was deciding what Andy was willing to potentially lose vs. was necessary. Some things she took even if she didn’t want to lose them, like the necklace from Percy. It was more important to have it with her than not. She decided on one change of clothes to make room for more things. That was wildly frustrating. Andy remembered a time when everything she owned fit into her backpack. Now she was struggling to make sure she had everything she’d need for this quest.

Andy intentionally left her phone behind, plugged in and turned on. She was bad about it at the best of times, though she was trying to get better about it. There was likely no signal in the Otherworld so she wouldn’t need it, so it was one less piece of weight to carry. Andy wrote a note and folded it up under the phone. “If you’ve come looking for me and you’ve found this I don’t know when I’ll be back. Hopefully soon. - Andy”

Several people were already at the tree when she arrived with Gideon. Victoria threw a garlic bulb at her, and if Andy hadn’t fixed her curse she’d be annoyed. Andy held her Everfill thermos in one hand so she had to try to catch it one handed. She shrugged and shoved it into her pocket. Chase tossed a water bottle; that too she was able to catch. She already had one, but it couldn’t really hurt to have extra. She opened her collapsible bottle, drank some water and then refilled it. Shoving both back into the backpack wherever she could fit them.

“Well some of us have detention Monday with Wanda. So if we aren’t back before that our absence will be likely noticed. Or whatever story magic is keeping them from caring will keep us out of trouble. Besides, the detention was to make us friends. This will probably do something similar.” Andy sipped her coffee. This was one item she was not leaving behind. If she had to, she'd make a new one. It might be harder without her mom coaching her, but she had done it once. Andy would go through withdrawals if she didn’t have caffeine. She had long since run out of caffeine or sleeping pills. Those self-destructive habits had diminished.

“Also, Monday is technically a holiday so there aren't any classes. We’ve got a little bit of wiggle room with that.” Tragically they didn’t have guaranteed A’s this semester.

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Ben had been nervous about the party. He had kept close to Danni and/or Chase. If they were busy Marlena was his next choice. He did like Millie though so he had made sure to spend a bit of time with her.

Sleep had come easy to him once he was cuddled up with Chase. Waking up however was not as easy. Chase, for his part, had not only brought him tea, but also packed his back. Ben hadn’t even thought about what to pack. Other than he supposed meat. That he would have just packed some jerky or something similar. His experience with camping was just the trip with Chase. That had been cold. Very cold. He made sure to grab an extra jacket. Ben made sure to thank Chase for his forethought.

Ben had taken Chase up on the offer of a shower and other stuff. After getting dressed and ready to go, the backpack of goods was a bit heavy for him, but Chase promised they’d eat some of the food and the weight would be reduced after the first night.

Ben joined everyone at the Haunted Tree with Chase. He hadn’t picked up on the conversations the night prior that the mushroom ring was important. He had picked up on how excited Danni was about being right about how important the tree was.

When Victoria threw the garlic at him, Ben fully missed grabbing it. The garlic hit him in the chest and fell to the ground. He picked it up and shoved it in his jacket pocket. “Thanks?” He didn’t get why they were taking garlic to the fairy world.

He did notice that Sabine had a dog and wanted to ask if he could pet him, but kept to himself. Her question made him shrug. He didn’t have anything to add. Was this everyone? Did anyone need to pee or grab something last minute before they left?

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Luna rose with the sun the next morning. She tried her best to sleep through the night, but her anxious thoughts inhibited her ability to relax. Her years in the Otherworld had given her the confidence to lead effectively and keep people safe. Of course, there were always the unforeseen circumstances that led to injury or, more regretably, loss. But by wearing the Captain Britian mantle, Luna had learned to harness those feelings and create a strong and capable army. She had learned to make tough decisions and live with them, but being back here, all those former insecurities resurfaced.

After borrowing a different, looser pair of clothes, Luna left the campus and went for an early morning run. The sun here was brilliant. It felt warmer to her, brighter than the sun she experienced when she visited her parents back home. The people here seemed livelier as well. She wasn’t the only one running at dawn. She passed several joggers and runners, along with a sprinkling of people heading down to the beach to surf or take photos of the gorgeous views. Maybe she would bring the girls here. They would probably love the warm Pacific compared to the cold Atlantic.

Luna ran until she felt properly warm and level-headed before returning to Victoria’s room. She gathered her clothes and supplies for the shower, then took a moment to enjoy the sound of running water. With all the travelling they potentially had to do, Luna did not know when she would get the luxury of enjoying a proper shower or bath again.

Dressed once more in the clothes she had arrived in from the Otherworld, Luna made her way to the Haunted Tree. She had located it in the middle of the quad moments before Percy and the others started to trickle in. Having no aversion to things magical or spooky, Luna leaned against the tree, watching and listening to the growing group. She shuffled her tarot deck, keeping silent until everyone was present. As soon as the last person joined the group, a card fell to the ground. Luna ceased her shuffling and bent over to pick it up.

Death. How fitting. They would be experiencing transformation today.

Luna lifted her eyes until she found the boy depicted in the card. She walked over to Ben, stared at him for a moment, then handed him the card.

”Don’t lose that,” she said before walking away. She didn’t know why, but she felt he needed it.

Luna stood next to the tree once more, half a step from the fairy ring, and met the many eyes of the children before her. Children. They were just children, about to enter a foreign land to try to save someone they cared about. Flashes of the MU greeted her train of thought, and she looked at Andy before speaking.

”We are about to enter a completely different world. One where halflings, dwarves, vampires, fae, and beasts all exist and don’t all take kindly to outsiders or people staring at them. Although, to be fair, they will probably stare at you. Once we cross over, our first mission is to get Victoria to the dwarves. If we don’t, she will be lost to us. As we move, we can gather intel on what is happening with Ser Nemo, and what her Royal Whyness is up to.” Luna watched the others to gauge their reactions. ”Should we get separated when we cross over, find your way to the Starlight Citadel. It is at the centre of our world, and where both our missions will meet their epic conclusion." Luna paused, looking at Sabine. "I would keep an eye on that dog. They’d make a lovely little treat for Capybaras," she said before turning her attention (unfortunately) onto Danni. "Your dragon should manage just fine, but be warned, they would make a fine prize for those looking for an easy mark." James would kill Luna if something happened to Danni. Even though she hadn't spoken to him, this was his kid. But if Danni screeched like during their journey? He would bring every unsavoury creature out from the shadows.

"Something else we may encounter is trade and bartering. You are entering a land where currency, as you have it on Earth, does not exist. You will have to trade or barter to get information, supplies, and sometimes even directions. It can be simple items like a favour, whatever you hold in your right pocket, or your water bottle. Or it can be something worse, a lock of hair, your name, your ability to turn left. Do not make rash decisions and do not make promises, say thank you, or give away something you can’t afford to lose. We could be journeying for days or weeks, depending on how your Story is meant to go. I no longer have my standing as Captain Britian or head of the corps. We are, for all intense inpurposes, on our own. I have made some connections before my title, but we will likely have a few scraps along the way to the Citadel. Now, questions. One, at a time,” Luna spoke firmly. Her “mom” voice paled due to her young age, but there was intent there.

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The quad was quiet this early in the morning, no other students milling about, an absence whether by coincidence or design. The sun blearily stared down at the children, as garlic bulbs and water bottles were tossed about carelessly, a sun that did not shine on Ser Nemo, on Captain Giselle, on Lady Saturnyne, on Memoria. The mushrooms of the faerie ring grew ever more vibrant with unnatural bright hues, tiny spots freckled across them like smiles.

Once the photos had been taken, a temporary silence fell over the group. Tiny glistening bells chimed, the scent of sweet honeysuckle filled the air, and a breeze tickled the back of their necks.

Gideon adjusted her sunglasses, her go bag down at her side, her buster sword slung over her back, her rapier in her hip holster, and her knuckle blades in her bag. She stared at the mushroom circle for a moment longer. If the nuns could see her now.

“Well, if no one else is going to go first,” she shrugged, before stepping backwards into the circle, throwing up a shaka. “Cowabunga, dudes.”

As she stepped back, the world swung about rapidly in perspective. Gideon stepped down to go into the mushroom ring - but her foot found purchase higher, in something loose but compact. And as her other foot moved, the ground beneath her slipped, and she skidded, falling not onto the grassy ground of Margaret Carter but into a sand dune.

She wasn’t on Earth anymore.

She was in Otherworld.

She spun around, trying to see where she had come from, trying to find another circle - but there was nothing there. Just sand, and in the distance, a great, hulking mountain that she could’ve sworn was slowly getting closer.

“What the fuck? Is that fucker alive?”

Gideon hadn’t noticed yet the change in her clothes - hadn’t become aware of the dark, tattered, sleeveless robes she was wearing, of the worn leather boots and belt, of the skull painted to her face. Her sunglasses remained unchanged, protecting her eyes from the dimming light, and that was all that mattered.





Upon entering Otherworld, your electronics cease functioning. Your clothes, the ones you wear and the ones you carry on you, change to resemble fantasy traveling attire (please check with the GMs that what you’ve selected works!).

@Achronum@Trainerblue192: The magic that enchants the tote bags of the Kingston-Gray kids is great, allowing them to access items in their rooms across large distances. But it is also limited. The moment you cross into Otherworld, your tote bag fills with a random assortment of the possible items it could pull. No new items can be drawn from it - and no items can be shunted back to Earth.

@Forsythe: Vicky has had perhaps more experiences with magic than she’d have liked. Each exposure has been different, her reactions to them unpredictable and varied, the main commonality that they were bad. There was no Agatha Harkness here to save her, no Maximilian Gray. Internal warnings are flashing, readings from all around her spiking, and her internal power outputs rapidly falling. She is still herself, still coherent and aware, but she would not have the strength to carry another like this - she barely has the power needed to fly. She’s operating at 35% efficiency.

More distressingly, however, is that she has changed. She is still an android, still a synthetic being - but her hair, her eyes, her build - all have been altered. Were she to look in the mirror, a different blonde woman’s face would greet her.

@PatientBean: It is more than just a change of clothes for Sabine. The sun is setting in the desert, the air is beginning to cool, but she feels fire in her veins. There is a buzzing energy underneath her skin, a persistent itch, the maddening compulsion to dig her nails in deep and tear, tear and tear and tear until there the energy is out, until her skin has been discarded on the ground like a carcass. It does not stop there. The itch deepens and becomes unbearable, as she can feel her bones shift and snap. Jean-Luc is barking like mad, jumping and stomping his paws down on the sand, desperate for someone to help his mother. And all Sabine can do is scream.

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Percy didn’t know why Vicky had decided to throw garlic at people today. He didn’t fully even register that was what she had been tossing until it hit his hand, falling to the ground at his feet lamely. Admittedly, Dorian and he hadn’t made much progress in translating Nemo’s second journal the previous night, the one dealing with his knowledge of the fae. Perhaps garlic was useful to protect against them? He snatched it up from the ground and tucked it into his bag.

His eyes widened and he froze, however, as a second projectile came his way - a full liter water bottle. Thrown at him by Chase. Just like he used to, like he had when they were friends - when they’d taken a bus all the way across the city to find a new park to explore, the sun beaming down on them as the grass crunched beneath their feet. They’d both been different then. For a moment, he saw Chase as he was, his face full of color.

The water bottle hit Percy’s chest and fell lamely to the ground, its contents sloshing.

And before he could decide whether to pick it up or refuse it, there was screeching. He hadn’t been the only one struggling with hand-eye coordination. Danni was being menaced by his dragon, dripping with water as Amelie scrambled up to his head. Percy barely bit back a smile. “Maybe karma is real,” he muttered under his breath. The nonstop rants about how he’d told everyone about the Haunted Tree and no one had listened had been more than a little irritating. He didn’t dare make his snarky comment louder, though.

The discussion of story magic prompted by Marlena was new - particularly the sigil she showed and Chase’s insights that spoke of experience with the phenomenon. He frowned. He knew the others had been investigating yesterday, and he hadn’t shared much of his own findings yet so being bothered by it was hypocritical. They should have met earlier to go over everything as a group. Not everyone was on the same page. But if he were being honest with himself, it wasn’t being out of the loop that bothered him. It was how helpful and knowledgeable Chase was being. It wasn’t what he’d expected from him. Nothing he’d done in the last twenty four hours had been. And he didn’t know how to feel about it.

“When we have our bearings, possibly during a period of downtime, Dorian, Ben, Danni, and I found another book from Ser Nemo last night. It’s his notes on Otherworld. Gem- Dorian and I are still working on the translation, as well as translating the first volume he recovered, but we should be able to share some parts.” He then paused for a moment, his cheeks going red. “I would appreciate being brought up to speed on what everyone else has found at the same time.”

The last of their number finally arrived - the strange girl they’d found in the tent the day before. Percy had almost forgotten about her, with all the revelations about Nemo and his future. She hadn’t seemed keen to speak with any of them the day before. He was surprised she’d even shown up today, that she hadn’t just gone to Otherworld on her own. But she’d been in the vision the cube, Carlos, had shown them. She was part of this. He didn’t trust her yet, however. He didn’t dislike her, but she was an unknown quantity. Most of the others he knew, he’d trained with - and for the ones he didn’t, they had strong ties to the others. If it meant getting what she wanted, he didn’t know for sure that she wouldn’t betray them.

He stared at her for a moment, his expression hard. “Does your information also come with a bartering price?” That was his main question for now. He would formulate others later, once he had a better understanding of what Nemo had given them and the others had discovered.

The group arranged themselves for a selfie, some likely more willing than others, and Percy forced himself to smile. He knew from experience that the more he scowled in photos, the more Dorian and Danni and the rest would insist on taking them. It wasn’t long before his cheeks ached from holding the expression, and he was relieved to go back to his neutral, glare adjacent gaze… even if he was, despite not voicing it, still excited. He’d gone to this school wanting to be an adventurer, not a superhero. And this was it. This was everything he’d asked for. Even his grumpy demeanor and worries of doom and gloom couldn’t completely poison that.

Not too long after they’d finished taking photos, a stillness swept over the group. Bells tinkled in the distance, faint, sweet laughter drifting on the breeze, and the colors of the mushrooms in the ring became impossibly rich, lush and vibrant. It was as clear an invitation as they were going to get. He watched as Gideon sauntered forward, boisterously confident, as she turned around and stepped backwards, down into the faerie ring as if it was a pool of water - and vanished without a trace. His heart pounded furiously. Danni really had been right, then. The Haunted Tree sent people somewhere - ideally Otherworld. There was no turning back now.

Percy’s face twitched. Most everyone was here to save him - to save Ser Nemo. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to thank them. The same people who a month ago had barely spoken to him were ready now to risk their lives for him. He swallowed, rubbing at his eyes for a moment.

If there was a role he could choose to play… it wouldn’t be Odysseus. He would be Perseus. He made that vow to himself, as he stepped into the faerie ring…

…and promptly fell, stumbling and rolling in a sandy dune, his limbs flailing wildly as he tried to stop his descent. He came to a stop crouched on his feet. His weak ankle throbbed a bit - he didn’t think he’d twisted it, at least, but it smarted. His heart was thundering now furiously as stumbled up to standing, quickly taking in his surroundings. The sun was up in the sky, not rising but slowly beginning to set. He was in the midst of a desert, the rays of light glaring down onto the dunes, the sand getting trapped between his toes.

Trapped between his toes.

Percy did a double take. He wasn’t wearing what he’d put on in the morning. He didn’t have boots on, instead he had sandals, the material extending to wrap around his calves. His pants and shirt and jacket were gone, replaced with an off-white toga, leather straps helping to secure it to his shoulders. He still had on his bracelets, his watch, his ring, his necklace. His sword still hung at his side off his belt, and he felt something twitch on the top of his head. Slowly, carefully, Percy reached up to feel his hair… and he felt fur. He felt two triangular shapes, soft fur on the outside, something more flesh like on the inside.

His tail twitched.

Percy’s face turned bright red.

He had a tail. He had cat ears.

He’d turned into a cat boy..

If he were being entirely honest with himself, he didn’t hate it. He actually…maybekindofsortofjustalittlebit liked it.

But being turned into a cat boy in front of everyone?

He wanted to bury himself in the sand. He dropped his bag to the ground, opening it up to check and see if he’d placed a beanie or a hat inside or something that he could use to try to hide the ears - maybe he could tie something around his waist to hide the tail? But as he found the changes of clothes he packed, they weren’t his clothes, not anymore. They looked like they’d been taken from a LARP rather than his wardrobe. None of it would hide it. Maybe Sabine had her hat of invisibility? Would she take pity on him?

Was Dorian going to hate it?

Was Danni going to hate it?

Was it permanent? He…maybe wouldn’t have minded if it was. Potentially. Possibly.

He felt the ears again. They were really soft…

---

---

April caught both items thrown at them like a pro - they were the only Kingston-Gray sibling with a real interest in sports. Danni only liked the aesthetics of the uniforms and the way an athlete’s body was sculpted, Dorian could pass into dude bro culture but never really enjoyed it. April was the one who would unironically go out into the yard to play catch with Pops, who would sit on the couch and watch the game with him. “Oh, someone remind me that I wanted to sign up for that hockey thing!” they requested. They dropped the garlic into their tote bag, the bulb vanishing and reappearing in their dorm room. The water bottle, they were about to do the same with, only to watch - with horror and amusement - as Amelie eviscerated Danni’s bottle, scrambling up to his head and threatening to rip his clothes - Papa’s coat! - to shreds.

“I got you, bro!” they promised. They set down the water bottle Chase had given them on the ground, so that way they had one hand to hold their coffee and another to manipulate the water. They focused in on their brother and his dragon, their fingers twisting as April hummed softly, as the water slowly floated up off of him, condensing into a small sphere. They glanced around, looking for a container that could be filled, before shrugging and deciding the Haunted Tree probably could use a bit of water. It was Los Angeles, after all. They redirected the water there, dropping it down at the tree’s roots, being careful not to splash it onto Glimpse, who had designed to pose like a cool, mysterious anime character up against it.

“Here, you can have mine - I’ve got loads of water on me. One bottle for drinking, the other for fighting,” April bent down, picking back up their bottle before offering it to Danni. “Hydrate or die straight, y’know,” they grinned, their tongue poking out slightly between their teeth.

When it came to the conversation of story magic and roles, April didn’t have much to contribute. They’d shrugged when Marlena showed off the sigil. Their dad was the (former) Sorcerer Supreme, but April knew more about magic from Wizards Beyond Waverley Place than they did from Pa. Even Nimue hadn’t really taught much, and Mads had been really bad at explaining things whenever she’d tried to instruct April on something. So if everyone said the sigil had something to do with memories, that was good enough for them. It did give them a few ideas, though. “Would be a killer way to get people to use a new name for you, if you pick one,” they mused. “Oh! And pronouns too. Not that I’m complaining. Everyone so far seems to be doing a good job with my new ones.” They’d mentioned the new pronouns last night at the party a few times to a few of their friends, and while they hadn’t been keeping track of who had been told and who hadn’t been, April assumed everyone knew by this point. Gossip spread fast in their circle.

Luna gave a wonderfully spooky warning that really set the tone, too - going on about how capybaras could eat puppies and that people would try to get favors out of them. That was one thing Pa had taught them, at least. They knew not to make deals with wizards and what were the fae if not wizard shaped? Wizards were gay and extra with magic powers, and April assumed the fae were gay and extra with magic powers too. Percy’s comment made them giggle, though. “I don’t think we need to trade with her. She’s friends with our dads. And maybe Andy’s dad? Idk if those two really got along.” They had the sudden urge, though, to ask Luna if the fae would take payment in twinkies. They hadn’t known to pack things of value. They did have the River Styx water from Agatha, something April had been saving for something important, and maybe this was it? Or maybe they could just pull something from their tote?

Either way, though, they were mostly just beyond excited to be going!! Everything was coming together perfectly!! They were smiling like mad in the group photos - “Everyone say Excelsior!!” - immediately asking Dorian to send copies in the group chat, they needed to update their social banners anyway and they were positive this photo would be iconic. They powered down their phone and put it in their bag, and as they looked back up, they could feel a chill in the air, a shudder traveling down their spine. For the briefest of seconds, they had the feeling they weren’t alone.

But that was impossible - probably just nerves getting to them - so April shoved it aside. And once it was their turn, they skipped through the mushroom circle with a giddy grin, effortlessly moving from the grassy terrain of Margaret Carter as the world flipped upside down and suddenly they were jumping up into sand, easily sticking the landing.

April stepped off to the side, just in case other people were about to materialize on top of them, and stared at the view in awe. They’d been expecting an enchanted forest, filled with pixies and unicorns, with babbling brooks and ominous caves. This was far more beautiful. Rolling sand went as far as the eye could see, the sky painted in hues of gold and pink as the sun began its descent. The temperature was warm but cooling, and off in the distance, they could make out a gigantic mountain, easily the largest one they’d ever seen in their life. It seemed to lumber, slowly increasing and decreasing in height, and soft tremors emanated throughout the ground.

“This is so fucking cool,” April whispered, their voice filled with awe.

“OHMYGODWEGETCUTENEWOUTFITS?” they screeched, as they suddenly realized their clothing had changed. The adorable blue and grey jumpsuit was gone, replaced with a knightly tabard in similar colors, with a beautiful, ornate design. The tabard was on top of a white puffy blouse, with blue gloves and vambraces. A gorgeous brown belt was tied around their waist, with a spot on it to hold a sword - they figured they could try looping one of the water bottles through there later for easy access. Their shoes had shifted, changing from steel toed combat boots to black leather boots - and an experimental tap on the sand told them the steel was still there. Sick. “I need a mirror right now, I have to look so fucking hot, holy shit.”

They reached into their tote bag, expecting to push their arm all the way through and grab the mirror they’d left in their room, only to find that the bag was… full?

April blinked.

The tote bag was never full. Pa had enchanted it himself, making it an easy way for them to grab things while on trips and put things they’d got out shopping away. But it was full. April laughed nervously. “Danni, Dori - are your magic bags broken, too?” Their heart skipped a beat as the pulled the objects out - the tiara and board game Danni had given them for Christmas, their makeup bag, a bottle of aloe vera, the snow globe Vicky had given them, a sleep mask - and they turned the bag upside down, shaking it as if that would get the magic to work but…

Nothing happened.

“Fuck.”

---

---

---

It softened her worries to see the others joking around, giggling, and playing. It made this whole thing seem normal. Though she knew better than to let her guard down. Her mind raced back to that concert. How safe she felt in that moment. How she had never had to worry before. Her security team had always been top-notch. She knew there were moments where fans got rowdy and out of control, though there had never been any threats, verbal or otherwise. She knew this wasn't the case; likely, she had been protected from it.

How that night altered her life forever. How she occasionally had nightmares about it to this day. How it triggered her powers' awakening, which only further cemented her future. How her PR team had done their best to control the narrative, but how she felt less than whenever they pushed the lie that she wasn't what the Internet was claiming her to be: a mutie, a freak.

The whole thing changed her course, but allowed her to control. She got to determine what the future held. And the future was the school and that meant this lovable group of delinquents, and helping them find their lost teacher.

The new, new girl (newer than her, at least, considering the first time they met the girl was encased in ice) droned on about what to expect. Millicent felt like she was a toddler being told the rules and how to behave, but she couldn't deny the girl seemed to know what she was talking about. Leave it to the experts.

She scooted in for the selfie. A final moment before venturing into the unknown. Gideon ran in headfirst, both brave and incredibly stupid, but Millicent had to give her credit. Slowly, the others followed. "This is going to make a killer set list when we get back. Maybe I can incorporate Otherworld music into my tracks? Exciting!"

She didn't know what to expect when she set foot into the fairy circle. She was lowkey kinda bummed when it seemed like she had just been plopped down. She managed her footing, difficult though it was given she landed on sand. She looked around. She definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore unless Kansas looked like the desert. What she also hadn't expected was feeling a breeze on her legs. She was sure she wore pants when she came to the tree, but she looked down to see her clothing had changed. She was now wearing a white lacey dress with brown patterned accents and belt. Intricate flowers were woven in throughout. She was also wearing brown, leather ankle boots that matched the belt. She spun around and the dress swayed nicely. "Holy crap! This is so cute! So I guess the Story Magic or whatever is responsible? Makes sense then. The people here would likely look at us weird if we came wearing flannel or Lululemon leggings. She wanted to run around and explore, to check in with the others and see their fantasy setting fits.

That is until she heard Sabine start screaming.

---

---

---

Sabine held Jean-Luc closer to her as the new person essentially told her that he would be a wonderful treat for any creature they would come in contact with. She knew, deep down, it was given with the best intentions, but Sabine still bristled. "I'll be sure to keep him safe. He's my dog, after all. Bold to assume I would do otherwise." She took a breath. It wasn't an insult, she told herself. "Sorry, I'm nervous. Thank you for the warning. I'll keep an eye on him. He may not look it, but he's a fierce guard dog when he wants to be." Which wasn't often, but still.

The others seemed at ease, which was nice. Inside, she was a mangled mess of emotions. She did some meditative exercises that Dr. Whitehall had taught her, which helped somewhat. But she knew once she was on the other side of this that she was a step closer to seeing her mother. Sabine had gone over it again and again in her mind what she would say to her when she saw her. The result was usually some form of righteous anger, mixed with relief, mixed with sadness and fear. Anger usually won out.

She stepped closer to Leah, grabbing her hand and squeezing it for, really, her own comfort. "Whatever happens over there, I know you have my back," she whispered.

She got into the group selfie and plastered on a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She hoped they would use a filter, at least. But the time was upon them as people started stepping through. She wanted to go in with Leah at her side, but one at a time was how it needed to happen. So she took another deep breath and, one foot in front of the other, stepped in.

She hit the ground and....

Sabine's breath was knocked out of her body. She fell to her knees as an intense pain ripped through her body. It was pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was as if her nervous system was attacking her from the inside, and the only solution she could think of was to rip it out completely, if only to satiate the pain. She started screaming involuntarily, like it needed to escape before she imploded. "Gah, fuck! It hurts!" The pain didn't relent. What the hell was going on?

She could barely see in front of her; the pain was that intense. She tried to crawl forward, but found that if she moved, it made it worse. Or was that her imagination?

Either way, the only thought that ran through her head as she heard Jean-Luc bark, pleading and begging someone to come help, was "I'm dying. This is how I die."

---

---

Pictures still made Leah flinch. These days, it didn’t really matter since the whole galaxy knew her name as of a month ago. But for a brief moment, she wanted to lean away from the camera. Still, she let the picture be taken, even if she expected it to come out like most pictures of her did… Though, she did have other things on her mind at the moment. One of them being the information Luna was giving them. Leah had thought they wouldn’t be using human money there. Her collection would be useful, then. Good. No expression of gratitude, no getting wrapped up in social norms. Honestly, that wasn’t a problem for Leah Jordan.

She slowly nodded when Sabine spoke to her, putting away the her piece of the garlic handed everyone. Some things were on her mind. If they got separated, how quickly could they meet again before the center of the realm?

It seemed everyone was jumping in before asking questions. Leah wanted to ask Luna how vague or strict the rules around favors or names would be. But if some of them were just not going to listen… Oh well.

”Yeah, good idea, just go through before we can get straight answers…” She shook her head. Then she walked in anyway, and felt the world fall away beneath her.

Leah didn’t particularly like passing through warped spaces. They made her dizzy, and it didn’t particularly matter what method it was carrying her. Percy’s teleporting had the same effect on her as Heimdall shunting her across the galaxy. But this? It felt more like Stephen Strange opening up a hole underneath her feet. On the other side of the proverbial tunnel, there were colors of brown and yellow.

THUD.

Leah landed in the desert on one knee, one fist in the sand and her sword over her shoulder. Sand flew up and around her from the impact, and she took a moment to look around.

It was late evening by the standards of this world, if she understood it right. The sky was turning dark, but the heat was comforting. Familiar, in fact. She preferred this over Jotunheim.

Okay.

She didn’t get a chance to comment on the mountain that seemed to move, in account of the screams and Jean-Luc barking. Something was happening to Sabine that immediately put Leah in panic mode. The bones under her skin shifted and popped, writhed and twisted in ways that she was pretty fucking sure an Inhuman’s wasn’t supposed to.

”Sabine- Sabine!” She was knelt over her girlfriend in a heartbeat, sword rested on the sand beside her. She didn’t recognize this, she didn’t know what to do- Could they return to Earth from here?

”Fucking” Leah reached into her pocket to-

Her pockets. She wasn’t wearing pants. Her clothes had changed. She was wearing some kind of long skirt made from cloth and leather. And in place of her jacket was… What did anyone even call that? It was just a strap over her chest and a huge shoulder pad, leather lined with fur leaving little of her muscle much to the imagination.

She found her runes and withdrew Berkano and Algiz. They floated above a hand that she pointed at Sabine. The runes made a golden, glowing line between them that branched out and shaped a glyph, a combination of the two runes.

Warm energy rolled over Sabine’s body, and it eased her pain. It wasn’t much, but it had some effect.

”Fuck. Jean-Luc, sit!” She commanded. Having helped train him, she knew he’d understand that.

---

---

Marlena made a note to be careful with the glyph. She wasn’t exactly a wizard anyway. She caught the garlic and stuffed it into her shirt pocket, and stood up. It seemed no one was looking to ask the expert any more questions. And so… She slid her board away where it was secure and jumped through the ring of mushrooms. It was fun, too, falling between worlds. One might have heard her scream of sheer adrenaline as her arms and legs went out wide…

Before she ate sand.

Marlena faceplanted in the desert, feeling her body ache with the fall. She rolled over halfway on her side, laughing like the world’s biggest jackass, when something flopped over her face. A hood. She hadn’t been wearing anything with a hood.

She stood up and dusted herself off. Otherworld had changed her cute outfit into an earthy brown robe reminiscent of a wizard. Or perhaps a monk? The hood was a dark brown, with a lighter brown over it pinned by a metal fastener. A belt at her waist kept it all tight. It was actually pretty damn nice, and Marlena wondered if she could keep it when she returned to Earth.

She spun around and saw the other fashion choices put on the group. April in a blue tabard, Percy in… cat ears? Real. But the moment passed when she heard Sabine screaming in pain as something warped her. Her girlfriend was trying something that didn’t seem to fully stop it.

Marlena froze and looked between the situation on the ground and the ominous mountain in the distance.

Was that thing moving? Ohhhhh shit.

”Well, we’re telling a story…” Marlena reached for her bag that seemed to not have been Otherised. She laid her board upside down in the sand and withdrew her tool pouch. A black nylon container, from which she retrieved a T-shaped thing. She used it to removed the wheels from their brackets, then the trucks from the board, and stored those with the tool.

Something told her they’d have to move pretty quickly. So Marlena quickly converted her skateboard to a sandboard.

”Guys, I don’t think that’s a mountain. Can anyone carry her?” She asked, picking up her de-wheeled board.

---

"We've had a vampire in our own midst until recently, is it really that far fetched? And I'm sure they dry out into pretty nonperishable state." Victoria smiled challengingly at Dorian's question, before looking at Chase. "Hey, you already look pale like a vampire, and I won't lie, red eyes would look good on ya. I'd know." She smirked, blinking her eyes into the combat mode's red and then back to green, "But unlike me, you wouldn't be able to admire yourself in the mirror, so what's the point? I'm just saying, I found a journal of someone who was there recently that said to do this. I'm trying to look out for you lot. But If you insist on playing stupid games, you'll win stupid prizes, so eat yours at your own peril." she shrugged.

Luna tried to talk some last minute sense into the group, but Vicky could predict the result. YEET! Because of course. It doesn't matter if they launch themselves out of a tube slide or to another world, there's never a fraction of the thought preceding the decision that there should be. she rolled her eyes and got up herself, picking the storage module up and hooking it to her backplate before turning to Luna once the two of them were the only ones left there: "You see what I have to deal with on a daily basis?"

She moved to the edge of the circle. This was it. It wasn't a matter of if stepping through this would kill her, only how fast. Unless they found a way to stop it, which would most likely involve some other bargain, knowing her luck. Getting there is going to be easy. Getting back is going to be a bitch. Why do I hang out with these people again? She gave one last look behind her. "If this doesn't work like you said and I check out immediately... I'm coming back as a ghost and haunting your ass." she said with a wink and stepped through.

---

The trip was a... trip. Her skin felt like a million bugs were crawling under it for a moment, before whatever magic took her wherever she was going let go of her, and she landed on something soft and immediately sank into it.

"Guh!" she choked out as the errors came rolling in, and safeties nearly shunted power from her extremities. She was generating power still. But almost two thirds of it never made it where it was supposed to go. She immediately started shutting down everything she didn't need like most of her sensor array, and dialing the current back on her servos so that she could keep upright and walk, and not much more. Is this what it is like to be sick?

The first thing she noted was her roomie on the ground, eating a fat bowl of shit. No. Sand. They had to land on fucking Tatooine. Did the story magic know that sand got everywhere? Picking it out of the armor's actuators was going to be hell. At least her own skin was sealed, so hopefully she won't find herself with creaking joints in a day or so.

Then came the screaming. Her head swiveled, and her armor rattled. Since when did her armor rattle? She looked down and saw that she was wearing something that no longer resembled an anthropomorphic tank, but a weird cross between a roman segmented plate and a renaissance full plate. It was still power armor though, albeit she could not see what the hell actuated it anymore.

Right! Sabine. Screaming. A blur of glitches that was Leah these days was at hand, spewing more glitches over to Sabine, so probably doing her rune thing. _{"Great. We enter a magical realm and I'm not the one worst off. This is starting well..."} Victoria said for herself, but then stopped. She wasn't well. Sabine was in agony. Their minds were linked. What if she was broadcasting her own discomfort in some strange otherworldly way?

Can't hurt to try... She thought as she pulled the psi-block bracelet from a pocket and put it on her arm, waiting if anything would change while she set her storage module down and rummaged through it. "Leah, med kit." She gave a heads up before gently tossing the pack to the giantess.

In the meantime, Marlena got up, and brought up that they would probably have to carry Sabine for a while. Vicky got an idea about that and fished for clothes first. ...since when do I wear tails? How huge are those boots?! And is that a cane? Nevermind, that's useful right now. she said, pulling out the cane, some round stock, tape and two jackets. "I can make a jacket stretcher." she called out, checking over her shoulder on Sabine whether she should get to it, or if Sabine was doing better.

Then the second part of Marlena's sentence registered, and she looked the same way. "At least some luck. Walking mountain? Exactly where I need to get. Can you see any legs attached to it? I'm a bit blind at the moment." That noted, she pulled her helmet off, frowning as she saw a sallet with barely a slit for a visor. And then she saw her reflection.

"............What?"

---

---

Dorain was so excited to be going on his first real adventure with a party! This was everything Percy had said he wanted, everything he wished to do after AA. And while Dorian mainly wanted to stay within the world of heroics, he did like the idea of heading off with his boyfriend and doing adventures like this one from time to time in between all the usual fight and fluff of superheroism. He worked hard to capture the perfect picture for their travels, using his telekinesis to snap the photos at various angles and poses until finally on the last one he snuck the kitty ear hat April had made Percy back onto his head. At first it was only hovering right above him so that in the photo he looked as if he was wearing it, not wanting to have Percy immediately take it off, he waited until just before Percy hopped over the mushrooms that he finally put it on his head fully. Giggling all the while before following right after his boyfriend into Otherworld and on their grand quest to save his future self. What Dorian hadn’t expected was the change in altitude or consistency. He was used to his fathers portals or Heimdals, ones that placed you exactly where your next step needed to be. So as his foot hit sand, he slipped back and fell hard into the dune. His hands pressing against the sides of him to help push himself back up, only to feel new fabric at the palms of his hands. ”Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod! NEW CLOTHES!!!!” Dorian twirled around inspecting himself, as the magical tote he’d brought hopped out of the bag it was in, unfurled itself, and finally fell with a heavy thud as it yanked his arm downwards and began to fill with stuff. There was a sheepish laughter as he looked over towards April, and then back at his now filled tote. ”Yeah…it’s broken I t’ink…” He would have to fully sort out and see what all made its way into his bag later, but for now -

Percy stood there, blush across his face, new outfit fit for a Greek Hero, and cat ears and a cat tail. Dorian shot towards him like a bullet, instantly playing with the cat ears as he gave them scritches behind while pinching Percy’s cheeks. ”Perce you’re adorable! Omg!!! You’re like Goose now!” Dorian gasped, his eyes sparkling with delight. ”Do the twitch? Ohmygod do you ‘ave airplane mode now? If we Gemini do I get cat ears?!” He squeaked with delight, about to move on towards the tail when suddenly Sabine shrieked in pain. It sounded not too dissimilar to when Danni ran out of a skin care product without realizing it and needing to skip the routine just to go shopping in public for it before he could continue. Dorian felt horrible, he didn’t know what to do, how to help. All of his skills and powers leaned more towards combat than first aid. Jean-Luc was barking up a storm, and Leah was using magic to help Sabine somehow. He felt small, useless at the moment, then seeing how quickly Chase went to action to help where he could, it made Dorian feel even worse. He bit his lower lip, making his way over towards Jean-Luc to try and at least help with something. He glared at Chase, standing there on his stupid staircase with his dumb ice binoculars, and felt his powers just flicker. Dorian quickly made over and picked up Jean-Luc, petting him and kissing him all over his face to try and distract the dog from Sabines pain. ”Is ok mon ami, she gonna be alright ok? Just focus on me for now and all t’ese pets you’re gettin’” It seemed to work, as suddenly his face was being peppered with slobbery kisses from the dog, making Dorian have to hold him back a little to keep himself from being too slobbered on.

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Chase found himself smiling at the wild ideas that Danni was spewing out about the Haunted Tree he had been telling them all about since break. He supposed it was bound to happen, that a kid in a super hero school would develop some innate sense to know when something is of import even if its not until later on. Danni would make a good hero someday. The thought crossed his mind as a smile spread across his face before he caught himself laughing at the scenario before him. In the contest, they all hardly seemed like normal teenagers. Especially with how they handled themselves for the press, but here, watching as April bent the water right off of Danni and Amelie, he could actually see himself having some friends, beyond the one glaring at him of course. Millie seemed too concerned with whether or not they’d get caught skipping school, the way Chase figured it, they had a couple of days before classes actually started, and should they be absent it appeared the Story Magic was already working on the adults at the school so the chances they’d get caught were slim to none in his book. Not that he even cared if they did. Andy had seemed to be of the same mind, answering Millie’s concerns in a nicer way than he would’ve. His attention was brought back to the new girl, Glimpse, as she handed Ben a tarot card that had his image on it. He’d remembered the visions from the day prior, the cards and swords and what was to come, but seeing it be so tangible…it was weird. He rustled Ben’s hair, trying to make sure that he didn’t focus on that card too much. ”Shit I missed the vampire fights? Damn.” Chase clicked his tongue in annoyance before quirking an eyebrow at what Vicky had said. He hated that she called attention to his appearance, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it, but what’s more was that it almost sounded as if she was hitting on him somehow. ”First off V, I look good with anything, the fact that I make even make this emo shit look good is testament to that. Secondly, I do have a reflection you know?” He clapped his hands once loudly to gather others attentions once Luna was done talking. Unfortunately Gideon had already decided to leave, Percival following shortly after and then April, Sabine, Millie, Leah, Dorian, and Lena. Chase audibly sighed as he looked at those who remained. Leah had made a comment about going through without answers, and that's how Chase felt at this moment.

”No it’s cool guys, let’s not make any game plans before barreling into the wonderful world of Story Magic where one wrong move could spell your death.” His tone dripping with sarcasm.”Christ on a pogo-stick. Can you believe these people? Anyways, for those of you who remain, I think Luna here brings up a good point about these rules. We need code names, one we can use to ensure we aren’t messed with by the fae of this world. I’ve taken the liberty of assigning them all already so that we aren’t spending time fighting over who’s what when we need to survive or should we immediately encounter a local. Benny Boi, you’ll be Galahad, Danni you’re Gawain, Andy you’re Kay, Vicky get’s to be Isolde, and Glimpse is Tristan. I’ll be going by Mordred while we are there, and when we cross over I’ll have to give the rest of the team their names just…try and keep them memorized ok? Now, before I go over to the other side, there’s one more thing that needs to happen on this plane of existence. Fair is fair after all.” Chase walked up towards Danni and pulled him in for a long, tender, kiss, before pulling back away and waving goodbye with a wink as he hopped backwards through the mushroom ring and into Otherworld. Chase had been used to teleporting by now, having made it one of his favored forms of travel beyond his board, but this felt different. The world turned around him, and all he could think was that this must be what Alice felt like as she fell down the rabbit hole. The morning sky of Margaret Carter had swirled and shifted giving way to the oranged hues of a desert sky that seemed to be setting off in the horizon. Large shadowed wings burst from Chase’s back as he slowed his decent down onto the sand and released the shadows back beneath him once he felt he was stable. Fabric tapped against the back of his legs as the dark black cape he now wore slowly fell down against him. A neck cowl rose up and underneath his chin, as dark fabrics wrapped around him with several leather belts across his chest and waist, making him look like a final fantasy character. He didn’t hate the new outfit but he was a bit annoyed that he seemed to have lost his jacket and boots that were a pain to thrift for. He inspected his bag to notice that his other clothing had also changed to fit the theming of this land. Wonderful. Chase was about to bring up the names again when Sabine began screaming bloody murder all while the sounds of every horror movie imagined came from her body. He could feel his morning breakfast already starting to crawl up his throat at the noises, choking it back from spewing before steeling himself completely. ”We can’t move her if we dont know what’s going on. We may hurt her more by touching her or trying to relocate her unless a Telekinetic wants to try.” His eyes were peeled to the horizon, watching the approaching hulking structure that Vicky seemed to know a deal about. Apparently this was where she had to go, why? He didn’t know. For what? Who gave a shit? All he knew was there was a task, and tasks kept him from focusing away from the horror show he had no way of helping with. He snapped his fingers at April, approaching her as he held out his hand. ”Waterbender, Think you could make me a pair of Ice Binoculars? I didn’t pack mine.”

“Ummm… yeah! I can give it a shot! Water’s just glass if you think about it - or glass is just water - you have like normal sized eyes, right?” Chase rolled his eyes but smiled ”Yeah” Binoculars in hand, Chase tried to use the shadows to help give him some height to see further out into the distance, a small platform forming under each step until he had a small staircase. ”Hey V, we got legs! Is that good or bad?” He felt something give way beneath him, as his foot slipped and he fell down into the sand, hand held up high with ice binoculars in hand to help save them before finally standing up and handing them back over to April ”Sorry about the whole misgendering thing, I get it now that you’re like totally a new chick and that its all super new to you. Kudos for coming out and all that.” Chase said as he dusted off all the sand that clung to his new outfit. ”Sidenote, kinda came up with some code names for everyone but uh…now seems a bad time to say.” His eyes looking over towards Sabine’s body writhing in pain.

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“Classic Gideon.” Andy sighed. They should have, as a group with Glimpse the night before, spent more time talking about whatever plans they could have. Party was a party though.

“Not a traditional vampire. It wasn’t like I couldn’t eat garlic or go out during the day. I also could use mirrors, thank god for that cause makeup would have sucked to put on otherwise.” Andy shrugged. She rolled her eyes when Chase lamented missing the vampire fight. “There was no fight. Just a stupid curse put on me by my mother. The curse is gone. So no more vampire, which let me tell you is a relief and a half.”

“Why Kay?” Andy was confused by Chase’s names. She didn’t recognize any of them. There was no way she was going to remember who was who. Andy took her turn crossing over, nearly stumbling but caught herself. Some of her coffee spilled from the cup to the sand. She checked to make sure there wasn’t any sand on the lid before taking a long sip and then putting the mug in the side netting of her backpack.

Andy didn’t have time to take stock of her own changes. The important things were still there, the weight of sword and dagger on her hip, and the gentle awareness of her Star of David necklace. She started to reach into her bag for a mirror to lend to April when Sabine started screaming. Andy winced and instead grabbed her fist aid kit. She moved over to Sabine. Andy looked over Sabine trying to figure out what was wrong with friend. There were no open wounds. But what Andy did see was... horrifying. The bones under Sabine’s flesh were moving. She thought of two things: Demonic possession and werewolves.

“Her bones are... rearranging themselves.” Andy could only hope that this would end quickly. After, if Sabine wasn’t possessed or a mindless werewolf, she might want some ibuprofen or something. Andy placed her free hand on the hilt of her sword. She did not want to fight a demon possessed Sabine.

“Uh, Glimpse,” Andy felt alright using the old code name of Glimpse's; it wasn't her real name and it wasn’t even her active moniker. “Are horrifying transformations like this... normal?”

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Ben stared at the card that Glimpse had handed him. It made him uncomfortable. Ben didn’t know the nuances of the meaning of the card. He just saw him depicted as Death, upon a pale horse. Chase patted the top of his head and Ben sighed, pulling off his heavy backpack enough to slide the card into the front zipper pocket which normally held pens and other small items, right now it held his toothbrush and other things.

He felt awkward joining the group photo, but everyone was in them and it would be even weirder to not be. He knew Danni well enough to know that Danni would have spent twenty minutes just taking photos if given the opportunity.

Chase told the group how he had come up with new names. Ben was certain he wouldn’t remember everyone’s names. He’d probably remember his own, Gallahad, and Chase’s, which Ben had caught the meaning behind. But there were some names in there he had never heard of before. Even with all of Chase’s recent chatting about King Arthur. Ben assumed Chase didn’t call him Arthur since that was technically one of his names. Ben wasn’t surprised that Chase kissed Danni though he wished he had given a little bit of a warning to Danni. Ben didn’t think it was polite to kiss someone without their permission.

“I, uh, told him about last night. He wasn’t mad, but apparently wanted to make things even. Sorry that he didn’t ask first.”

He wasn’t excited about stepping through, so he waited, following Chase. The change in elevation and the sand was unsettling but he was able to keep his balance. They had landed in a desert. Sand dunes were the primary site, and some walking mountain in the distance. Everyone had changed clothes. Percy had become a cat-person even. Seeing that made Ben take a look at himself. Checking for ears that didn’t belong. He was relieved that he hadn’t been apparently transformed. Just his clothing, which might be a good thing since he had been wearing a heavy winter coat and they were now in the desert. Though, Ben knew how cold a desert could get at night and had a feeling he’d be missing that coat if they were still out here at night.

His new outfit seemed to be well designed for travel at least and was layered. He missed the hat though. That would have been good against the sun. Sabine was screaming. He stepped closer to make sure she wasn’t being attacked by fire ants or something and then stepped back again when he didn’t see any. He couldn’t think how he could help her. Hopefully whatever was happening would end quickly and she would be alright.

Ben looked to Chase who had transformed clothing too. He looked... even more dark and broody than normal. The wings he had temporarily summoned had not made that image any less...attractive. Well bloody hell. Ben distracted himself by looking into his bag to check if everything was still there. There was clothing he didn’t recognize, which either meant the stuff that Chase had packed was different than his usual stuff, or it had changed too. Ben sighed, figures. It seemed everything else was there, and the weight hadn’t changed. He lifted the bag and put it back on, grunting a little under the weight.

“Okay, now I am super confused. April, or Rillie? Though, I suppose if we are here you should use a different name. And you said yesterday they/them pronouns right?” Ben was starting to think he had missed a whole conversation. He probably had. He was new. No one had a reason to tell him anything.

Danni beamed as his sibling peeled all the water off him and Amelie, who refused to let that be enough to satisfy her need to voice her displeasure with the world. Danni giggled and snatched her off his head and swung her around until she was yipping and howling with laughter. “See? T’ere ya go, right as wind and all t’at jazz! Not’in’ ta go scremain’ ‘bout ya know?” Danni laughed as he whirled around, conveniently overlooking that he too had been screaming his displeasure. He came to an abrupt halt as both he and Amelie spied one doggie companion and they glanced at each other before Danni wrestled her back into the carrier. She popped her head out just to fix the dog with an intense stare. “Oookay, no playtime for you yet. Ya need ta remember t’at’s a squishy - it doesn’t ‘ave as much bite as Amour. Do not spook Beanie’s doggie or you’re gunna be stuck in ‘ere for a looooong time.” Danni pressed a kiss to the top of Amelie’s head, who did not bother acknowledging Danni spoke.

Danni flashed Millie a thumbs up at her question and then the new girlie was talking, even as Danni was trying to put two and two together about detention. He wasn’t quite certain why Andy seemed to think it would bring people together; it was just going to be boring for them and they’d probably have to do a dumb school assignment that would make Danni want to tear his skin off but then he’d get yelled at and it’d be a whole cycle. He snapped back in as he heard his baby’s name brought up and he frowned. “If someone wants my baby, t’en t’ey better be ready ta ‘andle t’e heat. The ground around Danni caught fire and writhe up around him in long, thin ribbons and he held his signature fingergun out at Luna. With a pop of his hand, the fire rushed towards her and fizzled out just a breadth away from her nose. Danni blew on the tip of his fingers with a wink. “I’mma melt t’eir faces off and take t’em for everyt’in’ if t’ey even t’ink ‘bout touchin’ my baby.” Danni cocked his head as she continued and bounced up and down excitedly.

“Oh, so it’s all just barterin’? Like, you ‘elp t’em and t’ey ‘elp ya kinda a t’in’ too? Or do t’ey only trade stuff like names? Can I trade ‘way bad ‘air days? I mean, I never ‘ave bad ‘air days, but like some of t’e ot’ers do and I get it, it’s terrible ta ‘ave t’em, not t’at I’d ever know, but like, could we? Like, we don’t ‘ave curralty in t’e French Quarter but we ‘elp each ot’er out. So like, if t’ey need someone ta cook ‘em a meal, can I make t’em food and t’en t’ey can ‘elp us like… idk, find a magic sword or somet’in’?” Danni asked, the one question at a time rule immediately out the door. “And like, I’mma be ‘onest. I don’t really know why anyone would wanna give t’emselves a rash. Like, what if I don’t know t’ere is like… idk, ivy or somet’in’ and t’en BOOM rash. ‘Ow bad would t’at be? Like, I did not necessarily make t’e choice ta walk t’rough the plant but if I do, does t’at mean I broke a rule? Or like, what if a bug bites me and I geta rash? Is t’at a problem? And ‘ey don’t worry! We aren’t on our own! We’are all toget’er and we’re t’e best group ta be in a story wit’, ya know!” Danni beamed excitedly, overing Amelie a few little motes of fire to bite at to keep her content while they wrapped up.

But he was glad it was time for photos. He was very proud of how cute he was today (he was always cute but today especially) and it was definitely worth stealing Papa’s coat. He’d shrugged it a little lower, let it settle across the uppr parts of his arms and he crowded in close to the siblings, every click of Dee’s telekenetic grip a new expression, bunny ears behind Dee and Rillie’s head, and touching as many people as he could at all times. He was definitely excited for new snuggle buddies; they could all have a big ol’ cuddle pile for the next few nights! Danni was super excited, but wasn’t satisfied with how few photos they took. He needed to commemorate the moment, commemorate he was right, and he caught a few selfies in front of the tree as others started jumping in. He’d join them in a moment but he had to get the angle just- Danni had somewhat heard Chase talking about code names but people popping in and out of the fairy ring was really making getting the right angle right. When there was moment of peace, Danni snapped off a handful and eagerly typed away, putting together the perfect photo for his socials with a cute string of fairy and mushroom emojis.

So he was not proud to admit it, but he let out a little squeak as he felt a hand grab him and drag him into a long, sweet kiss. Danni went cross eyed as he focused on the face in front of him and blinked as Chase kept him there, lips locked together. It was a different experience from kiss Ben, far happier to take the lead and more eager to forge ahead. Danni let himself lean into it and then it was over, Chase whisking away and leaving Danni dazed. He brought a hand to his mouth as he watched Chase vanish into the next world and suddenly his face felt like it was on fire as everything caught up to him. He gaped at the fairy ring and then Ben and then back and Ben. “OMG, what t’e ‘eck? I mean, I kinda expect ‘im not ta be mad from what ya told me and, I woulda been mad at ya if ‘e’d ‘ave been mad, fyi, but just takin’ whateves ‘e wants like t’at, jeez. What if I’d forgotten ta rinse of my lip mask? What if I’d been ‘bout ta sneeze? Could ya ‘magine? It’d be terrible. I breathe fire when I sneeze!” Danni sputtered, still processing even as Ben vanished into the ring as well. Well now he was one of the few still behind and Danni wasn’t thrilled about that. He hit post on his socials real quick, shoved his phone in his handbag, and danced his way over to the ring of mushrooms and jumped in…

Only to hit the sand and suddenly he was heavy. Danni shouted, the sound of screams and something sending tremors through the ground afterthoughts as his back slammed hard against the sand and slid a little. Something large squirmed on his chest, the noise strangely familiar, and he tried to catch his breath even as this thing poked and prodded and squirmed and caught his chest with something sharp. “Ow, what t’e ‘eck! Why didn’t we get t’e warnin’ t’at we was gunna be ‘ttacked ‘fore ‘oppin’ trough t’e portal? Get off me! What is-” Danni paused as a dragon snout pressed against his nose and he was eye to eye with Amelie…

But bigger.

“Oh. my. God.” Danni breathed. Amelie had grown from the size of an adorable puppy to the size of a fully grown golden retriever. Her teeth were longer, eyes a little wider, and little puffs of fire and smoke curled out from between her teeth. SHe was breathing heavy, watching Danni carefully, and he beamed. He kissed her snooty and she let out a happy trill, bouncing up off his chest and Danni gasped as she knocked the wind out of him. He made a mental note to get some extra padding under his shirt if this was going to be a normal occurrence. Amelie stumbled as she hit the ground, the length of her limbs unfamiliar to her, and Danni pushed himself to his feet. He went to adjust his coat and glanced down at himself as his hands caught nothing. Danni stared down at his clothes in horror. Not because it wasn’t cute - nah, he was vibing with the patch world stuff. No it was because…

“I’m dead. I’m so dead.” Danni whispered as he realized Papa’s 25th favorite coat had vanished. Anything over 100 was fair game for Danni to steal but if Papa found out he’d not only borrowed it, but then lost it? Danni might as well just never go home. Danni immediately sprinted for his siblings, determined to get ahead of this by some miracle. They were in the fae realms, there had to be some sort of magic to help here, and his feet slipped and slid as he headed to Dorian acting as pet sitter and he realized someone was screaming.

“‘ey what’s goin’...” Danni’s panic faded away at the sight of Sabine on the ground, body twisting and breaking and shifting, and Danni promptly turned away as his stomach crawled up his throat and ejected itself across the cooling sands.

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Luna grinned at Percy before shaking her head. ”Lucky for you, I am only a quarter Fae. My knowledge comes for free. I only ask that when the time comes, you remember that the Otherworld is my home. I have many loved ones and people I care about there. Remember that when you are trying to retrieve Ser Nemo.”

Sacrifices would be made on this journey. If the tarot cards held any truth to them, that was already evident. It was nothing Luna wasn’t already used to, and playing both sides as she was would surely bring problems to their doorstep, but it was something Luna had to do.

Luna didn’t hold Sabine’s reaction against her. It was healthy to be nervous. It meant that you cared and would be cautious. Hopefully, the others would hold that same temperament. She had her doubts.

Luna frowned at Chase. ”You can’t use names that already belong to people. Your world’s stories about King Arthur, Avalon, and Merlin are not mere stories. They are real. I need you to understand that. The Land of Stories is very real and needs to be taken seriously.”

A sudden warmth was in front of Luna, and she stepped back, frowning at Danni’s teasing. She opened her mouth to protest when Danni started speaking in rapid fire. She blinked, doing her best to keep track of everything he was asking.

”Wow.” Luna shifted her weight and shook her head. ”No one is required to help us. We can ask, but they could refuse. You can make offers, but if you are the one asking the questions, you have less authority to make the bargain, as they hold all the cards. I suppose you can make a bargain to have no bad hair days, but I wouldn’t waste it on that if you have more important questions to ask. And a price has to be paid. No one wants a rash. But if you want beautiful hair, a sacrifice must be made in order to gain what you desire. It is fair. At least according to the fae. An eye for an eye and all that,” Luna said, waving her hand dramatically.

And then Gideon stepped through the portal. Luna opened her mouth to protest, but they disappeared. And then one by one people started jumping through. Luna sighed.

”I’m surrounded by igits,” Luna groaned. She glanced at Victoria, who stepped forward to take her turn in crossing over. Luna grinned and laughed, nodding. ”I suppose there are worse ghosts out there.”

Luna watched Victoria disappear and sighed. She hoped the humanoid would find her way and arrive where she needed to be—that she wouldn’t be alone.

Once Danni stepped through, Luna took a moment to survey the building behind her. Everything was changing. Luna just hoped it would be for the better when it came to her family and her home.

Luna shut her eyes and stepped into the ring of mushrooms. The ground disappeared beneath her feet, and she plummeted to the ground before tumbling forward.

”Ah, bloody hell,” Luna grumbled. She opened her eyes to blinding sunshine and shifted her weight only to feel the ground moving easily underneath her. Sand. Luna ran her fingers through the fine grit and grinned. They were exactly where they needed to be.

Luna stood quickly, her midnight-blue cloak billowing behind her as she surveyed the horizon, looking for familiar sights. Her clothes remained the same; the only change was the addition of a cowl and a cloak with a hood that could shield her face from the wind, the sun, and her identity. The atmosphere of the space around her suddenly pressed down on her. Luna turned her head to take in the crowd of teenagers. Most of them surrounded one of the girls who lay on the ground. Luna’s eyes widened.

”It can’t be… I mean, I’ve heard of it, but not in this capacity. Not after crossing over.” She took another step forward, removing the cowl from around her face. ”She’s transitioning.” Luna’s eyes shifted from awe to confusion. ”I think your friend might be fae. Sometimes they bloom late, transitioning all at once. It’s incredibly painful.” Luna looked sympathetically at Leah. ”There’s nothing that can be done. We must let what has begun finish. But once we help Victoria, we will be in need of finding the fae quicker than I had intended. I can only teach her so much.”

Luna turned her attention back to the distance, seeing the Walking Mountain and smiled. ”That is our destination, Victoria. We can walk, but we cannot move Sabine. Not while she is transitioning. Danni.” Luna turned her head to look at the boy with the now dog-sized dragon. ”Can you do your little fire trick again? Into the sky this time, if you would. We must try to signal the dwarves. Unless one of you can fly? The rest of you, form a circle. This land is known to hold bandits and smugglers. Once we attempt to signal the mountain, all will know we are here.”

Luna supposed she could try to send Tish, but Luna had a flair for the dramatic.

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Gideon whistled appreciatively as Marlena transformed her skateboard into a sled. It reminded her of a really old, bad movie she had seen - where a girl had slid down sand dunes on a piece of metal. “I call dibs on going second.” Her voice was joyous, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes - not that anyone could tell behind the shades. She dropped her bag down to the ground, quickly reaching through it before pulling out the emergency blanket, the tarp, and her medical kit. “This’ll be more comfortable for her than a jacket for the stretcher. If we have to move her, then we have to move her.”

She regretted slightly some other items weren’t in her go bag. They were banned from the school, though, so as much as she wanted to offer Sabine something strong for the pain, she didn’t have anything. But she was tough. Gideon didn’t doubt that she could bear whatever fire was coursing through her. And she knew from experience how much something like this hurt, the feeling of having her bones snap under her skin and rearrange themselves. She hadn’t come by her powers easily.

@Forsythe: There is no great change in Vicky’s overall condition. She hasn’t improved, but the deterioration seems gradual and slow for the moment. Wearing the bracelet causes no change in Sabine.

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Percy’s face burned hotter than Danni’s flames as Dorian eagerly rushed over to him, his hands finding their way to Percy’s ears and cheeks, looking every bit like a mysterious, enigmatic wizard of the wood. He hated having his cheeks pinched, no matter who was behind it - usually his mame, Naomi, but from time to time Dorian. “Dorian, sto-” He started to pull away from the touch, only to freeze at a dueling sensation, at warm, pleasant vibrations emanating down from his head. The soft euphoria swept throughout his body, his eyes partially closing as he gave into the simple bliss. He should have been angry and upset, should have been frantically finding a means to undo what had happened to him, should have been reminding everyone, Dorian in particular, that he was still a person, even with these new features.

But it felt incredible having the back of his ear scratched.

It was like all the tender care and affection of a snuggle on a cold winter’s night. It was like the buzzing sweetness that covered his body after a deep kiss. It was like the joyous thrill of dancing in air, his feet never touching the ground. It was all of these things and more, amplified a hundred fold.

“Airplane mode?” Percy repeated back to Dorian, his head clearing again as his boyfriend’s fingers left his ears. “I don’t think we have cell phone signal here, airplane mode doesn’t seem necessary to enable. As for Gemini… maybe we would have one cat ear? I don’t know if this is permanent, I’m assuming it’s some odd effect Otherworld is having on me and…”

Percy had been about to say and no one else when Sabine began screaming.

Immediately, their group was a frenzy of action, each move punctuated by Jean Luc’s terrified barks. Gracious light. He wasn’t sure if the name fit. Leah was scrambling over Sabine, Vicky had thrown a med kit, Andy had gone to help, and Chase had wisely pointed out that they couldn’t move Sabine without knowing her condition. His eyes followed as Chase obtained a pair of ice binoculars from April, before clambering up a set of shadowed stairs. He lost his balance and fell, and for a brief moment, Percy could’ve sworn… His gaze shot back over towards Dorian, enamored with the full sized dog in his arms, not even struggling under his weight. It must have been his imagination.

“Instead of announcing our location to the entire desert and multiplying our problems, half of the group can fly or teleport. Some of us remain here to defend Sabine, the others can go ahead to the mountain and ask for aid.” He assumed that was Glimpse’s intention. From her warnings, however, they would need to trade for this help. He lacked valuables on him, the only things of meaning and significance he had were things that were priceless to him and trash to another.

He frowned, as another thought occurred to him. “How long will this transition last?” Sabine’s sudden revelation as part fae was surprising to him, but not shocking. He had never spoken to her about her family, about her past. They didn’t have that sort of relationship - he knew as little about her as she did about him. All he knew was that she was French and came from considerable wealth. But if they did not need to trade for aid for Sabine, it would help them to keep what slight resources they had. Perhaps Gemini could try the trick with the teacup on her, but in reverse - force time to accelerate for Sabine and no one else…

Percy crossed his arms, as he surveyed the rest of their party, more so looking beyond to see if there was any disturbance in the sands, any looming threats on the horizon… only to blink as he saw Amelie. She hadn’t been that big before, right? She looked as big as Jean Luc now, no longer the size of a pup. And then he saw Danni - and saw the vomit staining the ground. His stomach clenched and his ears flattened out.

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Their adrenaline had already been pumping from the start of a new journey, a new adventure - excitement and joy and curiosity filling them. But as April heard Sabine scream, the adrenaline curdled into horror. They spun around to look at their ex-girlfriend, writhing on the ground as her skin rippled, the impressions of her bones sliding up against it. It reminded them of when someone had started seizing at the clinic her Pops practiced at, all of her limbs moving as if possessed. He’d told them then how important it was to not move the patient, that they needed to make sure the area around them was clear so they couldn’t hurt themself, but otherwise not to touch them. They’d been proud of themself then, proud that they’d been able to watch without fainting, without getting sick.

But it was easier to watch a stranger convulse than a loved one. Especially when the stranger’s bones had stayed in place.

Fortunately for April, their attention was dragged away from Sabine and towards Chase, as he asked them to make him some binoculars. They hadn’t really done a lot of focus yet on generating ice in specific shapes, despite a certain sibling begging for custom ice sculptures in the dorm room, but their ice generation and control had come along way. They unscrewed the cap on their water bottle and concentrated, pulling out the water and holding the shape in their mind - just a pair of connected tubes with ice at the end as lenses, that was all. They preened as they did it, handing the binoculars back to Chase with a sense of victory.

His apology a moment later continued to distract them from Sabine’s horrifying condition, as they weren’t really sure what he meant. Ben didn’t seem to understand either. They thought they’d been clear the night before with everyone, and while they couldn’t remember if they’d told Chase explicitly, they’d told Ben and Danni already knew. They were Chase’s boyfriend and bestie, so April thought they would have said something to him at the very least. Still, it didn’t come across as transphobic or anything, more well meaning but misguided. “Thanks, man - I’m actually not a girl, and yeah, like Ben said, they/them pronouns please. Just they/them, not they/she or they/he or anything else. Oh! And yeah, my name is April - Rillie’s, like, a special family name, so I’d prefer to keep it to, like, my dads and brothers for now.” They liked their name. It was one of the few things they still had left from their birth family - the only thing, really.

April took the binoculars back from him, about to turn them back into water so they could put the water back into their bottle to conserve it, only to catch another glimpse of Sabine in the ice - and this time, they couldn’t redirect their brain in time. They swayed on their feet, all the blood leaving their head, as their consciousness lapsed - only Chase grabbing their shoulders kept them upright.

“Erm, sorry - thanks again!” April’s cheeks were pink. They hadn’t been out long - just long enough to miss Glimpse’s explanation of what was happening to Sabine. They took an unsteady step forward, before remembering what they’d been doing and they turned the ice back into water, safely depositing it back into the bottle - some of it hit the sand, but the majority made it safely through. They left the lid slightly cracked, just in case.

“Leah - let me know if there’s anything I can do to help?” they then called out. They didn’t want to crowd Sabine - but they’d do what they could, even if what was happening to her made them faint again.

At least they hadn’t puked like their brother. “Hey, Danni - if you aren’t sending up a signal or rushing off like Percy suggested, maybe Amelie could use some cuddles right now? It’s a new place and she’s… holy fucking shit she’s HUGE what did baby girl eat????”