Blizz

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

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

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"Enough, Jake. When you're in danger, the last thing you want to do is get jittery." Rohan watched them withdraw beetles from the head's mouth. Three. With skulls and other animal heads where a beetle's should be. Yeah, that didn't bold well. The Rule of Three was an old aphorism that any sensible witch or sorcerer knew to give attention. If they saw three more of an odd animal, after magpies and beetles, then that had to mean something. What, exactly, he wasn't sure. But it couldn't have been anything good, certainly not in a dark and dismal place like this. "Barty's got a point. And if an actual person got in trying to kill someone, they're either stupid or not worth fighting. So maybe we don't split up on the way to the lab? Just in case."

Rohan would gladly slip away and skulk around undetected, but the school may very well wind up in a frenzy soon. Planning for the worst, he imagined being with a herd beat being an ambush predator right now. "Alright... You birds want to earn your place with me?" He bent down near the head, where one magpie had perched. Root trotted over as his master withdrew a small pouch from his pocket.

He reached in, and withdrew three cashews, roasted over a campfire during his travel back from the natural world.

"Fly. Stay in the pocket dimension we're in around the school, and scout. Look for anybody going out or coming in, or any thing. A monster, and a witch, doesn't matter. If you see the perimeter being crossed, fly back and tell me."

Then he held the snacks out. "Go."

He watched them accept their payment, and flutter off. Then he stood up, letting Root perch on his shoulder. "Stay with us for now, friend. But be ready to fly if we need you... Let's get the hell out of here."

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

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

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Leah was not the best reader of people, but she knew that Dorian Gray was not known for screaming at people. Sat there on the ground, she just observed him ramble and phase between here and the Astral. He dreamed of Nemo in a bleak place, he must have been holding that in for a while. It just wasn't like him to behave this way. Things like that were hard to carry alone, even if there was never a good time to air it out. She didn't know how to help with what he was unraveling right now, but he was a friend. Dorian was always so level-headed, a better hero than she was. And Leah took a guess he just needed to scream. So she just did nothing. It was easy to do nothing, and sometimes it was the most sensible option. Could she have jumped in there? Sure. Could she have just walked away? Absolutely. But she did nothing.

Nemo was missing. Leah knew, the moment she heard of his alleged death, that it was nonsense. She voiced that opinion back in New Orleans. Loudly, in fact. A time traveler who was always prepared for a disaster with enough foresight to save someone from suicide, being taken out by a heart attack? No. He'd know when it was coming, he'd have the resources to be sure he'd survive it if there was no way to circumvent it. For all anyone knew, the old man probably had a mechanical heart or a pacemaker or some fucking immortality shit going on. How would they know if he didn't? It was bullshit. Sometimes, paranoia had its upsides.

"I don't know how we find him, April. The only spells I've got fix injuries, stop people from hurting each other, and make things last longer." She reached into her jacket and withdrew her rune pouch. "But... I don't think I need a spell for that."

It was sat down on the Thousand-Faced Rose's blade, and then Leah started rubbing her hands together. "There's a way to get answers for the future and the past with runes. Normally, the way it works is you ask a question and lay them out left to right. Left being the past, middle being the present, right being the future. The ones you pull are your answer, but it's like a riddle. It's cryptic, you figure the rest out yourself. Since I'm not that great with this yet, I'm gonna do just one."

She held out one hand over the pouch. The stones inside started to glow gold through the fabric.

”How do we find Ser Nemo?”

A rune stone flew out, and stopped above the ground. It twisted and turned and… It the Ansuz rune.

Leah squinted. ”Not what I expected, but okay. That’s Ansuz, the rune of wisdom and mental clarity. Messages, inspiration, that sort of thing. It’s Odin’s rune. So, I’m guessing that we just… Use what we already know? Start by looking around us, learn what we can. Maybe we already have the answers and just need to back up and think, and there’s something we’re not paying attention to.”

If that was to be believed, what were they missing? Getting everyone on the same page was just smart, and the team could stand to coordinate. Was that Luna girl part of this? Leah would have to ask.

Maybe they could ask Heimdall to send them to him, but that almost sounded too easy.

”I dunno about cooking a big dinner for everyone, but Danni and I can get some food going for a trip to wherever he is. The kitchen we used last time’s probably not empty. If there’s time, and we’re not leaving in an hour or whatever.” The thought of Sabine or Andy trying that turbo-spiced stir fry they made crossed her mind, and amused her.

Leah reached out and let the Ansuz stone float down into her hand, and stopped. It felt… Slimy. She looked at it and noticed something on the surface. ”Is that fucking ectoplasm? Weird.” She stuffed it back in the pouch and noticed the rest weren’t that way.

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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.

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"I've never dealt with a lot of anything fantastical," Marlena admitted. "Pretty boring, actually. I don't do sorcery or see the future. I can make a mean top though." She tugged at the opened collar of her shirt, pulling up a page about the King of Swords.

A man sat on a throne, sword raised, dressed like a nobleman. "The King of Swords radiates intellectual power, clear thinking, truth, and authority," Marlena read, word-for-word. "He understands that power holds great responsibility...Huh, like Spiderman." She kept reading, and it seemed there was a running theme of thought and controlled emotions. Ethical standards, objectivity, rationality and high moral standards. The opposite, or the reverse, seemed to be abusive and greed, power-hungry, emotionally unwell. She scrolled slowly so Carlos and Sabine could read along with her if they wanted.

"So... Swords mean the moral high ground? Being a bigger person? This is beyond me, but maybe if you're seeing swords and there's that pattern, maybe it's a reference to a king? Do you know how many swords in particular you saw? Or what they looked like? Looks like there's a whole card suit of them. Fifty-six between swords, cups, wands and... Pentacles. Not seeing anything about a bear, maybe your Teddy Bear's something else." She scrolled a bit more.

Through what looked like a quick description of every single card in the deck, major and minor. Marlena was already losing track of what few details she actually took in. ”Wow, okay, that’s a lot. Glad I’m not studying that, can’t say I envy anyone who has to. Any chance either of you know an expert? I'm invested now, thinking it's time for a side quest.”

Avengers Academy: X of Swords ⚔️

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

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"I'm fine," Leah put her free arm around April's shoulders when Danni hopped over. "Gideon. Listen to her. Put the damn sword down, and quit threatening that girl. No one's fighting anybody right now," She warned. "Andy can handle herself, and it really doesn't look like anyone here needs to be protected from anything. I'm hoping nobody in here decided to just gang up on whoever this is over a misunderstanding... If they want want to talk alone, leave them be." It seemed that she walked in one something tense. Leah knew she wasn't the best at that sort of thing.

Was that someone Andy actually knew? Another time traveling Underground mutant who actually got younger? That was weird. But Andy's life was weird, as far as Leah understood. She followed after April, back outside sat down by the outer wall near the entrance, legs crossed, resting her huge sword flat against the snowy ground by the others outside. Leah decided she'd give them some sense of privacy if those two needed to work something out, but she still wanted to be present in case somebody, for some reason, needed her assistance. Like if Gideon actually started swinging on whoever "Glimpse" was.

"Tried being friendly with this Frost Giant girl who was out there," She said, keeping quiet. Leah reached into her pocket and withdrew her rune pouch. "I don't think I've ever fucked anything up that bad. You remember how I was when we first became friends? She's worse. I'll tell you more later..." One thing at a time. "The hell's going on?"

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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.

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Marlena felt her heart jump into her throat when the ice queen screamed. The imagined that Sabine laying everything out nice and simple was the only reason Marlena wasn't running for her life from someone bigger and likely faster than her. Without taking her eyes off of the bickering Carlie and her brother were doing, she awkwardly accepted the knife. Then she tucked it away. "Dancing... All of Excelsior? I don't- I'm not a superhero, don't really want to be one. Maybe I'm just hanging with them? April, maybe with Sabine or Chase? Hmm..." She wasn't the sort of person who know a lot about how to see the future.

"And why would I be hanging from a rope? Am... I'm not dead when you see that, am I?" She was thinking out loud, now. "Swords. Half of Exclesior's packing swords. Maybe that means something? I don't suppose any of you knew a bear at some point or another?" Her face scrunched up in pondering. This was interesting all of a sudden, a hell of a lot more interesting than trying to make friends with Australian Elsa.

Then, her eyes lit up. "Wait a minute." She fished out her phone and typed something in. She pulled up pictures of a tarot deck. "There's this guy back home who has this inked on his arm. This look familiar?" She stepped around and showed them her screen. A man hanging beneath the branch of a tree, arms behind his head with a noose around his ankle. The Hanged Man, the tarot card of sacrifices. She didn't know much about it, but the guy once described it as such.

"And you saw swords. Like the King of Swords? Huh..."

Strange Academy: Journey into Mystery

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

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"Quit jabbing at me," Rohan groused, waving at the magpies perched on him. "I never said you were lying. We should... Hm, someone ought to know he's dead. He's probably been missed already, and I wouldn't rule out the chance he knew better than to come down here." Some people weren't able to get this deep into the dungeons to begin with, they would just lose their way before. "Small chance something got in, cut him up and left him here, but these magpies got in somehow. If they can, something bigger, something smarter could."

Rohan was very interested in knowing what happened, like Barty. "Awfully clean cut, probably wasn't an animal. Yeah, I want to know what did this. I don't see much in here except our magic. Seems like our cue to go back upstairs." Who would be the best person to talk to about this? Marino was unhinged, Croan was liable to give a negative number of fucks about a dead student, he didn't know enough about Mikhail that he'd even trust the guy with this. And there was no way Rohan would be getting ahold of someone like the big man in the red cape himself.

Maybe someone responsible for the security of the pocket dimension they were in. Since clearly something was amiss.

Young Justice

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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 ⚔️

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

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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

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

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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 ⚔️

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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.

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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.