Blizz

Young Justice

---

In keeping with her gruff, security specialist persona, “Fulgora” simply kept her mouth shut while Origami started analyzing everyone. Stormcaller would have said something, but she wasn’t dressed as Stormcaller. She rested her rifle in one arm against her shoulder, very professional-looking, and boarded with everyone. Behind her graphene-black helmet, she kept an eye on Origami as much as possible, careful not to let her do anything unsupervised. She knew, of course, that the girl had waved the white flag and gone to the League for this. But Batman had outlined the risks between that point and now. She was habitual about being nosy, prone to analyzing every possibly detail she could. So Fulgora watched her and paid mind to her own demeanor. Nothing spoken that wasn’t necessary, because her job was security and being a bodyguard for Meilin Li.

The location was unbelievable. Just looking at it from the sky impressed her. The things a person could do with the amount of money that was spent in places like this within an hour… Yeah, they were in a viper pit, now. The League wasn’t likely to bail them out here, and escape would be a struggle. Fulgora had enough struggles already. They needed to be critically subtle here.

She crossed the bridge, keeping close to Meilin, and standing ramrod straight. One arm was folded behind her back, the other cradling her high-tech weapon with the barrel pointed skyward. Fulgora looked the part of someone not to be crossed, someone professional and not here for games.

She had a job to do, in more than one sense of the term. Security for the venue would likely expect her any minute, and she needed to be in a position where she could guard Meilin and be able to subtly disrupt things. A flickering screen here, some diverted attention there.

”Lead the way.”

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: Thousand-Faced Rose, Rune Stones
First Day Fit: Letterman jacket, baggy pants, sneakers.

---

Every word this frosty bitch spoke made Leah feel a bit less intimidated by a social encounter. Largely because she was feel more and more willing to be the opposite of social. Her expression made it clear she wasn't very impressed. Maybe it said something about her that she was feeling like being bitchy in return, but holy hell. Leah was pretty antisocial her first year, but she wasn't that bad, was she? Maybe most giants were just like that. Maybe it was in their blood or some shit. Or maybe Leah was just overthinking a social encounter with someone who very clearly didn't want to be bothered.

Still, she could've just told Leah to leave her the hell alone. Like... Damn, girl, who experimented on you when you were thirteen? How tragic is your backstory? Gods forbid Leah just actually go out of her way to make a friend one fucking time.

"Okay, fine. Fuck me for trying to be nice to someone, I guess. I can take a hint," She lied. "I'll leave you alone. You know, I hear Death Valley's got way less people in it, maybe you'll like it better there." What the fuck did she come all the way here from Australia for with that fucking attitude? Fucking frigid bitch.

Leah turned and walked off past Princess Snowball. Her grip around her sword's hilt tightened. "I'm gonna go and see if April's dead or not," She said to Sabine. "Text you about it in a few minutes."

"She's fine," She twinkish girl with the tube told her. "They're answering their phone right-"

"Cool."

And then she was gone.

She walked in that direction, mulling over the nuclear dumpster fire of a conversation she just had with that girl. Could she have said something different? Maybe. Bringing up the fact that Jotunheim was cold probably stupid... Honestly, it'd be great if Skoll ate the moon right about now so she'd have something to distract herself with. Her face felt hot, she was embarrassed. Fuuuuck, she hated feeling anxious about something so stupid.

There were noises coming from a tent. Immediately, Leah was reminded of the one she got a very bad reading in a few months ago. Normally, she wouldn't dare go inside that tent again, especially if that one wasn't Agatha's, but she recognized the voices inside. April's, Danni's, and a few others. So, being the socially-inept fuckwit that she was, Leah walked towards the crowded tent and pulled open one of the flaps.

"What the hell are you people shouting about in here? Why's the floor covered in ice? Did-" Leah immediately snapped her attention to someone she didn't recognize. Some blonde girl their age. That Millicent girl was in here along with them.

"Hi, whoever you are. So... Anyone in here get hurt from flying over the school?" She asked, turning her attention to April and her brother.

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: _{She’s no magician but you know she’s got that magic wand.}
First Day Fit: Floral button-up, slacks, converse shoes.

---

Marlena did not, in fact, get it.

"That sounds pretty cool," Marlena commented, swerving the conversation back from whatever the hell that giant girl was on. How did a cube with thoughts sleep? "Minus the part about someone getting shot down. I haven't seen a bear around here yet, though, maybe you rolled low? I wish I saw sparkly women in my dreams." She chuckled and stood up, spinning the tube on its side and resting it over her shoulder to get out of the way of people sliding down.

She assumed post-cog meant seeing stuff that happened in the past. Like memories after a fight or something. "What was I doing in your dreams, though? I don't have any swords. Just a knife I keep around for when I'm out around other people."

To demonstrate, she held a hand out. A close observer may have seen her veins turn purple for a moment, and then a butterfly knife flew from her belt and inches away from her palm. The blade was hidden inside its handles, and she held it up to show Sabine and and Carlos. "I don't really fight like a lot of mutants, or even really show it off, so I keep this with me. It's pretty cool how so many people around here are packing swords like it's nothing, though. I was surprised when I learned weapons are just normal here, so when I-"

Marlena's hand moved as she was talking. Because of course it did, that was just a thing people did. But she clammed up quick when the purple knife streaked across her peripheral vision. It actually made her flinch, how quickly it moved. Like a damn rock from a slingshot, it went smack against Carlie's abdomen and bounced off thanks to the handle being locked. That was why she always insisted on carrying a butterfly knife, opposed to a switchblade with test springs or some kind of fixed-blade knife that could just fall on someone's foot and take a toe.

Her face frowned as it hit the snow. "Sorry! Power thing..."

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

My Hider

redacted

Recollections: Where the Folds Meet

Current day
Interactions:

---

Magic was real.

All Tommy’s life, he was fascinated by the idea of magic. He was no theatre kid by any stretch of the imagination, but there was a thrill in sparking a glimmer of light into the eyes of someone who had yet to smile that day. There was something fulfilling in putting on the act, wearing the mask and showing off to wow someone. The enigma, the intrigue, the inherent force of personality… It spoke to Tommy on a level that made living in Cornell tolerable. Not easy, but tolerable.

But it wasn’t really magic. One called themselves a magician because of the performance. It was all sleight of hand, stage presence and misdirection, all to give the illusion of something baffling. Half of the tricks Tommy knew came down to turning his hand a certain way so his fingers hid the card, or just depositing one somewhere so he wasn’t even holding one. The notion of “magic” was just the kayfab of it all.

And so, running through the woods, it dawned on him he was both a stage magician and a fucking sorcerer. A wizard. A goddamn Adept.

The sound of his footfalls slowly won out over the screams of the party, and the cool night air over the morass of bodies and alcohol. Tommy’s breath came in ragged fits and starts, while golden smoke fumed off his hands and from his mouth as though he were burning up from the inside out. The power of Gold Lux was coursing through his body, carving out something raw and unexplainable in its path. He didn’t have time to think about what it was doing to him, he didn’t even know what it was. Tommy ran for the woods, away from his car. Away from the warehouse. Away from people.

Did anyone else experience this? Was Kari in there seeing ghostly old men and women with snakes? Did Tyler get something stuck inside him that felt like it was paying footsies with his soul? It swelled inside him in a way that would feel euphoric if it weren’t for the circumstances of fucking everything.

Who the fuck were those people? Who did-

Tommy’s foot snagged on a bush.

He tripped and tumbled, the ground gave way beneath him and he rolled feet over head, down the side of a hill. It was hard to see in the dark, but he could have sworn he banged his face against a rock. His foot hit the ground at an odd angle, and Tommy hissed. He ate the ground, and came to a stop.

It was impossible to hear anything over the sound of his heart beating in his own chest. His head swiveled around, looking for anything visible. But there was only the moon, the faint stars, and the golden magic roiling off of him.

He’d never breathed so fast in his life. He wasn’t safe here. He was hidden, secluded for a while, but he wasn’t safe.

Tommy clutched a hand to his chest and felt his deck. Something seemed different about it. Tommy unzipped his jacket and reached for it.

The small box the cards were in felt… Different. They felt more natural to him, more right. That old man had said to reach for them.

Blood dripped down his hand and onto a card that sprung up on its own. The six of hearts. The golden smoke around him started to coalesce and fall inwards on the deck. The cards were eating the magic. Or perhaps it was his magic?

The burning in his chest was weakening.

Something clicked for him.

”…I need you for magic. This one too, don’t I?”

He touched his fingertips to the bloodied card.

”That woman with the snake, she was like some kind of witch, or wizard. That must’ve been her damn familiar or something. Okay… If I’m like that too…”

Tommy pulled the card free and held it up. The golden glow shimmered around it, and he imagined something coming out of it. His blood burned away in the gleam like flash paper. Could he make something do his bidding? Help him out in this situation?

”If I can do that… Give me something that hurts.”

Sharp blades. Something fast. If he was followed, he’d want protection.

He willed the power into a shape. The wings of a bird, red-streaked blades where feathers met the air. A great flying menace. Its body formed in the air, and for a moment, Tommy felt weak. Something tugged on his insides, and then it flew threw the air. A streak of golden light, accented in neon red, swooping in circles around him.

It nearly made Tommy jump out if his skin. It was a large bird with razor-sharp wings, and it landed in front of him. Its head and neck were crowned in needle-like feathers the color of the sun. Tommy reached out to touch it, and it felt familiar.

”…What in the good goddamn fuck are you?”

The bird just chittered at him.

”Okay. You’re mine. I- I made you. You wanna help me hide?”

The bird unfurled its wings and took to the sky again. Tommy crawled to his feet with a wince. ”If you see something that’s not a person… I don’t know, swipe at it! Kill it, cut it, don’t care! Just don’t let it near me!”

Tommy used the dim light of his glowing deck to reach for a tree limb. He hauled on it, and the bird came down to slice at it. It came clean off, and the bird went up again.

”Huh… Thanks. Okay, follow me?”

It circled overhead. It was easy to spot. Maybe it would screech if something happened?

Tommy used his stick to keep the weight off his foot. It felt like he twisted it. He started forward, and kept walking. This time much more quietly.

”If I can make that… What else can I do now?”

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

---

Location: The Feasting Hall, Strange Academy
Grimoire:
Skills:
Current Outfit

---

---

Rohan was a paranoid man. Literally jumping at shadows aside, anything down here could kill someone more power than him. Better witches and warlocks and magicians were taken by weaker forces for their mistakes. He didn’t dare let himself be [i]slow[/i/] to react down here. He kept his eyes mobile while the others hemmed and hawed about the wall there the trail was the strongest. Connie managed to turn the wall into paper, and they got it open. Good.

They stepped inside, and Rohan hung back just enough to not be inside the room. He looked over Cassie’s shoulder, and…

Yeah. There it was. Whoever it was, anyway. Rohan didn’t recognize the face on it. Some dark-skinned guy, and no body to be seen. The head wasn’t too damaged. No signs of disfigurement, it hadn’t been burned, or impale. It was easy to assume the head was taken off nice and simple. Perhaps with a bladed weapon of some kind. That came with its own implications.

”Damn,” Rohan commented, flatly.

Rohan looked around the room, keeping behind Connie and Cassie. Root trotted forward, stopping at Cassie’s side. He made a cooing noise and bowed his wooden head slightly.

Rohan’s altered vision illuminated a few things. Inside the room, there was… Nothing. No mystic forces stood out. The head had no magic, no life left. It’d probably be rough trying to animate.

”He can’t have been dead too long, but good luck rousing him. There’s nothing left but the flesh and bone. Probably a few hours ago, maybe longer.”

The brick-turned-paper wall glimmered with flecks of divine magic, the same magic that Connie glowed with. He’d seen that before, there was something inherently “godly” about her spells and the source they were derived from. And… Something else. With his mask, Connie’s magic looked like flecks of golden light floating around her, flickering in and out. But there was something else there, too thin and transparent for him to see clearly.

And Cassie, meanwhile, was practically on fire. Red energy whirling around her like a tornado, like it was alive. It looked like it was trying to take her over.

”Don’t know if it’s normal for you, Cassie, but you’ve got a lot of magic around you right now.” He knew chaos magic was… Finicky, but he didn’t quite know what was normal amounts of finicky and what wasn’t. ”And something’s off with you, Connie. No idea what, but it's coming off you like your magic does.”

Did someone just behead him and leave it down here? Why? Could it be that someone was luring something with it? Or was his body chopped up a lot more, and then shuffled around by this space?

Worse things could happen, at least.

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: Thousand-Faced Rose, Rune Stones
First Day Fit: Letterman jacket, baggy pants, sneakers.

---

Deep down, a piece of Leah shriveled up like a raisin and fell over on its side. Her face was pretty much blank, but internally, the girl was wailing. Who the hell did she think she was, marching up to this person? Of course, of course whats-her-name was weirded out. Leah felt her stony face burning. What kind of fucking moron did she have to be to assume the first Giant she ever met would be from Jotunheim?! She felt like a massive idiot, and kind of shitty for bothering the girl who was clearly not a big fan of people.

Validation? Her? Leah Jordan? Seeking validation?

”No… Not particularly.” Leah tilted her head, and her hair somewhat obscured her face. ”I was just being friendly. Sorry.”

Maybe Heimdall would fast travel her to another planet if she gave a signal? Maybe drop her into Nastrond so she’d get swallowed up and never have to think about how there were Giants in fucking Australia. Because of course Leah couldn’t possibly be the only Giant raised on Earth, right? Ughhhhhhhhh. People were staring at them, weren’t they? They absolutely were. Fuck. Being a petty asshole to those girls whose names she barely remember was easier than this.

”…Jotunheim’s actually pretty cold, too. Cold enough to kill people if they’re not prepared. A few dozen feet of snow, last time I was there.” Yeah, change subjects. Because of course she’d care if she was that antisocial. Of course. Genius play. Masterful.

This was what she got for having the audacity to desire a social connection.

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: _{She’s no magician but you know she’s got that magic wand.}
First Day Fit: Floral button-up, slacks, converse shoes.

---

”Yeah, we’re cool.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly what she meant. She wondered if he was a humanoid person that just turned into a cube for some reason, or maybe someone created by wizards. However, Carlos still gave an answer that was good to have. Not the worst conversation she’d had today. She wasn’t going to push it.

”She/her/hers, the rest is complicated.” Marlena loved women and women-adjacent people, but wasn’t much interested much interested in being someone’s girlfriend. Not currently, anyway. Too much baggage for her to feel comfortable worrying about it. And she had just moved across the country. So it was sticky to even consider.

”I’m new in town, moved in from Brooklyn over the last few days. Place seems pretty cool so far, if you don’t mind flying like a bird down a ramp,” She joked.

He dreamed about Sabine? Was Carlos making a move on her? Marlena couldn’t quite blame him, the feminine majority of Excelsior was hot. But wasn’t she already dating someone? Marlena took that opportunity to check her phone…

And she just blinked.

Time travel. Okay, sure, of course. Yeah, no, totally.

”Yikes.”

@April

Okay.

Me showing up isn’t going to help much. If someone’s worked up like that then crowding around them makes that worse. Give them space? Talk to a trusted adult maybe?

Let ‘em breathe at least. Get their bearings.

”…Now I’m curious, Carlos. You see the future often when you sleep?” She asked.

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

---

Location: The Feasting Hall, Strange Academy
Grimoire:
Skills:
Current Outfit

---

---

"We can't, Jake." Rohan had an edge to his voice, while addressing the guy who immediately refrained from being quiet. "Franklin can. Or maybe we find a necromancer to do it. Whisper if you want to say something." Was it that important? Probably not, but if there was something actually alive down here, Rohan would've preferred it being surprised by their presence, not the other way around. He watched them go through what they had, and eventually Connie just pulled out a flashlight, which was good enough. He ignored the banter, keeping an ear out as they were led on by Finley's nose for blood. Rohan hung back a little while the others took the lead, listening for his familiar to return.

The creaking of his wings was easy to pick up on. He turned and stood still a moment. Root swooped over with one of his master's artifacts in his beak. "There we are. Alright." Rohan plucked it out of the air as Root dropped it. It was made of bog wood older than history, with black, oiled leather to strap it to one's face. He pulled the Mask of Other Things over his head. Gossamer-thin strands of something black snaked from the edges of the mask up to his eyes, and he felt his vision shift.

Then, he walked back up through the middle of the group, while Root landed on one arm. He didn't seem very vocal about his opinion of the magpies still hitching a ride on Rohan's right shoulder, which happened to be Root's favorite perching spot.

"There are things mortal eyes just aren't made to see," He explained, voice still quiet. "That's what this mask is for. So..."

He focused his attention ahead. There didn't appear to be any strange energies or immaterial beings that could go invisible. He walked ahead of them, and... Nothing. It was just the usual.

"Huh. Well, for the dungeons, it seems pretty normal. I don't see anything out of the ordinary, just the usual liminal oddness." Rohan turned back to the group.

"Doesn't seem that there's-"

His head whipped back around with the quickness of a predator. A knife found its way into his hand. He saw-

Nothing.

For a brief moment, something was there. But as he focused on that spot along the stone walls of the dungeons, it was just an empty space.

"A shadow- It's gone." Rohan tilted his head around. Nothing was jumping out at them. Could it have been a trick of the light? Something Annika was working on casting? It was hard to be overly careful in spaces like this, where one could get lost in ways that were hard to amend.

"Hm. Probably just one of those witches just haunting the place."

A magpie on his shoulder made a quiet chittering sound.

"Or that," He agreed. "Okay, so far so good. Annika, you're the shadow wizard, did you see that too?"

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

---

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: Thousand-Faced Rose, Rune Stones
First Day Fit: Letterman jacket, baggy pants, sneakers.

---

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuuuuuck.

What was she supposed to say? Oh, hi, I'm Leah. We're both Giants, let's hang out. No. Wow! I'm not the only Giant here anymore! The thought of walking up to a stranger just to talk about that felt nerve-wracking. It felt preferable to fight her dad in his lab while he had his stupid bird suit on, did she really care that much about identity all of a sudden? Around half a year ago, this was the last thing that would've been on Leah's mind, why would that Leah give a flying fuck? She didn't care about mutant solidarity, back when she thought she was a mutant. She never got the point of it. But now Leah was six feet tall and had rocks for skin (kind of), and she had never even met another Giant, despite being born on a planet covered in them.

Leah stared at the ground. What if that girl was a bitch? What if there was actually space racism between different Giants?

Sabine was right, though. She should. Thinking about it, Leah drummed her fingers over the hilt of her sword. She was a superhero with galaxy-wide fame, she could handle a damn talk with a stranger.

"Cógeme... Preocuparse por nada. Yeah. I'm going. I'll be back." She sucked it up and walked over. The list of things Leah was good at outside of fighting was short, but looking like she wasn't a nervous wreck was up there. She did her best to avoid looking like she was about to turn and scram the second the other Giant had enough of her.

"Hey. Didn't know there would be other Giants in town," Leah greeted her. Fuck, she was tall. Was that how tall Leah would've been if she hadn't been experimented on? "You new here? If you are... Welcome to Earth. They call me Leah here."

Translation

Cógeme... Preocuparse por nada: Fuck me... Worrying over nothing.

---

Location: Margaret Carter - Winter Carnival
Magic Items: _{She’s no magician but you know she’s got that magic wand.}
First Day Fit: Floral button-up, slacks, converse shoes.

---

Marlena cracked up. The tall lady was some bark, and she thought that was fun. The comeback made her laugh, she wasn't even mad. That wasn't the first time she'd been bumped off, or even the first time she'd been bumped off without even intending to make a pass at somebody. And in Marlena's experience, both of those situations called for taking the out that was given. So she tilted her head up on the tube she was splayed across and put her hands up in surrender.

"My bad." She wasn't about to tell the girl she was misreading Marlena's intentions. Yes, she just happened to come to a dead stop where they were, but they were also in front of the tubing area, where people slid down. They were gonna hear conversations if they passed by. But, hey, that was life.

But she did internally grimace a little when the short guy, Carl, mentioned having a thing for Poltergeist's man. Yeah, that earned a second, less telepathically communicated yikes from her.

And then... Leah showed up with her girlfriend. Marlena took that opportunity to fade into the background a little. She sat up on her tube, skidding it a little on the snowy ground. Then she planted one foot down, swung the other over her knee, and pulled her phone out. It was getting a bit later in the day, but there was still plenty of time to do stuff. Cool, great. She took a moment to text April, to see if they were even alive still.

@April

Hate to interrupt your flight but??? Are you okay??? That looked crazy.

Your teammates came over asking about you. Think they saw you flying over. You good?

"So..." Marlena leaned over a little and kept her voice down, so as to not interrupt whatever the two giants were getting up to while she socialized with the ominous floating cube. "Carlos, was it? Is it rude if I ask what you are?

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

---

Location: The Feasting Hall, Strange Academy
Grimoire:
Skills:
Current Outfit

---

---

"Root, grab the mask and bring it to us in the dungeons. You know where it is," Rohan instructed his familiar, who with a ruffle of his wooden feathers, acknowledged the command and fluttered out the doors. He followed Annika out, leaving the magpies roosting on him to either hitch a ride or just fly off on their own way. The dungeons weren't a pleasant place, but most places where dead people congregated weren't. He descended down the stairs behind Annika and ahead of the others, keeping quiet the closer they got. The cold air and dark halls were familiar to him, he'd been down here once or twice before for a few reasons. Once to test something he didn't trust anyone other than Connie to know about, once when he was feeling more paranoid than usual... It was certainly a useful space to bury a body.

"Try not to make too much noise, or get too far ahead," He whispered, for the benefit of the newer people among them. "The school's protected from things outside, but every now and then, people come down here to work something foul. They don't always clean it up, and sometimes it can get someone killed. We should be fine with this many of us, though. As long as we don't do anything foolish." Of course, Rohan didn't have that much faith in this particular team composition. But at least they couldn't say they weren't properly warned if something jumped out to bite their heads off from around the corner.

He reached into his pocket for a lighter. "Anyone bring any light down here?"

Recollections: Where the Folds Meet

Current day
Interactions:?̶̥̼̠̪̮̭̾͆͝?̶̡̋͋?̷̧̅̓͆̌͠͠?̵̰̹̮̍?̶̢̺̳͓̖͛?̵̢̤͖̤̐̓̾̒́͜?̸̩͉̙͌͐̍͑?̵̰͉̔͛̂?̴͕̝̜͔͙͈̽̏?̸͚̄̎̔͆́̈́?̷̦͇͕͍̠̀

---

Noise.

Music.

Pulsing voices.

There was too much going on to focus on even a third of what was happening. The lights, the smells, it was all just so much. Tommy’s brain lacked the capacity to divide attention up among it all, which meant that some things were coming to him a matter of seconds slower than if he were more accustomed to this scene. He felt every single beat of the music as if the natural rhythm of his own heart had sought to match it. A small part of him wondered if he was just going to get motion sick in this place, or discover a photosensitive condition he didn't know he had. But no, instead, he was just in this feeling of being high-strung, where entire minutes felt like they were going by before Tyler said anything. Tommy didn't feel that something was wrong in that. His thoughts were slow, tonight.

Then there was a thud. A beat out of sync with the rest of them, that tugged on Tommy's sense of awareness, and roused his senses. Then Tommy thought he heard somebody screaming over the noise.

"What-"

"Run."

There was a man standing next to him, wearing a tweed suit jacket. He was taller than Tommy, maybe five-eleven and smoking a cigar. He couldn't see the man's face, because it was obscured by golden trails of smoke. He looked so casual, so in his element here. Even though, somehow, Tommy just knew he was probably in his fifties. Around his neck was locket of brass, that glowed yellow against a dark green sweater. His hands were stained red, but he couldn't get a good look at them.

"It will be here soon, boy," The man said, through the smoke. "Do you not see it?"

Tommy blinked.

"Who the hell are y-"

"RUN! IT'S COMING! HURRY!" There were more screams. Tommy's head snapped around directly behind him, and saw people clambering over each other. People were pushing, shoving, trying their best and then some to leave. Why?

Tommy saw something fly up over the crowd, a human arm. Blood sprayed up and over people, and that was cold water to his disjointed senses.

"What the fuck?!"

He backed away, feeling something in his chest burn. He hit a wall. He didn't remember being that close to a wall. He-

<sub>"He's Blind."

"They all are. He doesn't know, he hasn't been taught."</sub>

Tommy slipped, and he was face down in a mess of cheap alcohol and blood. His blood, he cut himself on the glass. The burning didn't help him feel any more coherent. What the fuck was happening?

<sub>"Almost there, I think."

"If he dies here, it won't matter. Look, that's close to him. Close enough to work."</sub>

Tommy got his feet under him and ran.

_{"Go, Vera."}

All he knew was that he didn't want to be here. The screams, the blood, the sound. Was somebody here? Was it that fucking guy who the FBI caught? Did he escape? Tommy jumped over someone who was kneeling in a pool of their own blood, he didn't question that they were staring into thin air like something was watching them. He wasn't breathing properly, he wasn't thinking rationally. The people around him were dying, he knew that, and he could've maybe stopped to help someone to their feet. But... He was scared. Tommy didn't have the strength to stop. And besides, who would do the same for him? No one. Most people in this town didn't even know his name, except when they needed something from him.

No, he had to help himself.

So he ran, away from the direction others were going. His car was in that direction, but if there were that many people, he'd just get caught in whatever was going on. He shoved past bodies, nearly hit the floor a few times, almost tripped over someone's lost bag of drugs. He pushed away from them. He didn't deserve this. Whatever this was.

"This way."

There was a woman, standing by the walls of the warehouse. She was in a red dress, brown hair in short curls. She looked... Old, familiar. She had his mother's eyes. Despite the chaos, she just stood there, arm outstretched. She looked like watercolor against impressionism, pointing him towards a door.

"You do not deserve this, young man."

That voice sounded familiar to him. It pulled on that feeling in his heart. That warm, swelling feeling of pride.

It burned.

He couldn't breathe.

"I don't- What- What's going on-" He felt like he was going to burn up, sweat beaded up under his hair. There was a pain in his chest, and it made Tommy clutch at his shirt and-

His hands. They were smoking. Golden flecks of something he'd never seen before were coming off his skin.

Something far away from this, something both nowhere in the world and everywhere roared.


"Ah... There it is." A hand fell on his shoulder, and made him flinch. He looked, and the smoking man was there.

"Congratulations, boy," He said. His face was visible now. He was old, with ashy blonde hair, his features gentle and soft. There was a smile on his face. His eyes were yellow like sunflowers, and just looking at them made Tommy feel still. The locket around his neck had more details to it, Tommy could see what looked like a sword, circled by olive branches, engraved on its surface. He smelled like wood ash.

"That was more rough than mine," The woman in the red dress remarked. Tommy noticed her arms were covered in tattoo sleeves, depicting flowers of various species. Everything from thorny roses to hemlocks. She held a fountain pen that glowed the same color as the old man's locket.

A black snake hung around her shoulders.

Finally, after what could have been a thousand years, Tommy breathed.

"What... In the fucking-"

"Quiet, we don't have long." The woman had a stern tone. "You are going to run for your life, and then you will use what you've been given. You just Kindled, Thomas Bracken, as we did when we were alive. We're already running out of time, so I'll just tell you now, that magic is real."

Tommy blinked. What?

"And..." The old man sighed. "As much as we would love to tell you more, I expect that we won't have that chance."

He stepped around to face Tommy, and his body seemed to be fraying like an old photograph. He tapped his locket, and then touched Tommy's jacket, where his cards were stored.

"When you know you are safe, reach for those. You will know what to do."

He felt so confused. What was he supposed to do?

The black snake around the woman's neck stuck its tongue out and hissed. Her legs and feet were evaporating.

"Well, time to go."

"Yes. Be proud, boy. Above all else, be proud."


They flickered out of his vision, and with them, the burning feeling that gave him pause. Tommy's thoughts felt a bit more ordered. He touched his hands to where his cards rested in his jacket. They felt heavier... And then, with that faint moment of peace behind him, Tommy came crashing back to reality. Back to the screams, back to the blood. Back to the warehouse.

Back to the writhing bodies of the living and the dying.

And he just ran.