Framing A Moose

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Carousel
Skills: Radio Wave Manipulation, Perception

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Waverley quickly stepped back almost as soon as she called out her name, cringing a bit at the disjointed chants that followed her pathetic attempt at a grand introduction. Luckily, within seconds, the attention was off her and back on her team. The rest of the introduction went without a hitch; well, without many hitches. There was Casper's so-called 'cannonball' and Warlock's witchy hijinks. Waverley thought about joining the former, only to remember how little she liked being in crowds let alone riding them. And he latter...well, the latter admittedly caused a small smirk to break out on her lips. It wasn't awful to see Havok be the butt every now and then. Maybe it'd do something to his attitude. Still, she shook her head in disapproval; Havok or not, it was a dick move on Warlock's part. They were a team, and needed to act like such, especially in such uncharted waters.

There was one more hitch in the introductions, one that particularly distracted Waves: Echo calling his name out to the crowd, before attempting a shameful retreat from the stage. Waverley made a motion to go and stop him, but saw that Veil - along with her abilities - were coming to her brother's rescue. Before Waves could give another thought to trying to help the two, Magneto stepped up with Reeva's mention of tokens. She practically jumped as the ex-terrorist (or hopefully ex-terrorist) launched these tokens at them, small bits of meteorites for every one of them. Her mind instinctively reached out, caressing the thing for any signs of signals, but she found nothing. It was surreal. The people who Waves had grown up learning to fear from the news, the people they'd once fought, now stood with them handing out awards in front of a roaring crowd. It was like Waverley's biggest dream had a baby with her worst nightmare. Still, it wasn't enough to stop the idea of putting them all together to make a Sokka meteorite sword from shoving its way into the forefront of her mind. She raised her head to voice this thought, only to see Havok quite literally throw the gift away and run off their little podium.

"Shit, someone should probably go check on him," Waverley said, shooting a glance out at Polaris once more. She wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting of the ferrokinetic, maybe to either help catch her ex or find the precious space stone, one of the two, but she didn't entirely expect either. It was made clear pretty quick by Waverley's actions that when she had said 'someone' she meant herself. She felt about Havok the same way she had about Sapphire; he could be kind of a dick, but he was still family. In a lot of ways, he reminded her of her actual brother; a semi-charismatic douchebag with a temper. She gave an awkward wave to the Quiet Council, then curtsied (in her jeans, mind you) to the crowd of chanting mutants, before quickly vamoosing from the stage. It didn't take long to find Havok. When she did, she grabbed gently onto his arm and did her best to stop him in his tracks with her limited physical prowess. "Dude, are you good? If this is about what Warlock did up there, we can have a talk with him later. That was a dick move on his part, I'd probably be fuming too."

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Carousel
Skills: N/A

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Stepping out onto the stage at the Carousel was like a nightmare for Waverley. It appeared as though her newfound confidence was limited to assault and other stupid decisions, and did not stretch to protect her from good old fashion stage fright. The presence of the Quiet Council didn't help; they were all people she'd long since learned to fear, so feeling their eyes watching her and her friends was unsettling to say the least. And somehow, the strangely dressed stranger somehow managed to be even more intimidating, an impressive feat given her company. It was moments like this (and many others) that Waverley found herself jealous of Veil's ability to disappear. She did her best to do so mundanely, sticking near the back and hoping to become just another face among the Underground. She watched as her friends went up and did their things, clapping along, snickering slightly at Havock's fuck up.

Then, right after James stepped up to say his part, there was an undeniable path for her to the forefront of the stage. Her mind immediately went haywire, trying to figure out if she was expected to go up now, or if the pathway left for her was simply an accident. Her body eventually made the decision for her, putting one reluctant foot forward, then another, then another. Her hands were nervously clutched together in front of her, her legs threatening to collapse out from under her from the nerves. She stood quietly in the front for a solid few moments, frozen in place, staring out at the crowd of strangers. Or, well, mostly strangers. Seeing Polaris in the front row was...oddly comforting? She was by no means a friendly face - their only interaction had left Waverley traumatized - but she was a familiar one, which was more than could be said for most everyone else there. Waves let out a deep breath, her shoulders sagging a bit as she forced herself to relax.

"Uh, Waverley...Watts. Waverley Watts. Or Waves. Sometimes I go by Feedback? It's, like, my superhero name...or whatever. Really anything is cool, I'm cool with anything," she said, before giving a small, demure wave.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Omega Building
Skills: N/A

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As Jack spoke to Waverley, explaining the money situation, the young woman gave a small nod of understanding, tucking the bills back into her wallet and slipping it back into her pocket. She supposed it made sense; there were bound to be a variety of mutations that cut down on resource use. Still, in a country pushed by the mutant elite, she couldn't help but be surprised that they didn't use the age old tool of capitalism to keep some amount of control. Her lips turned down a bit into an uncertain frown as Havock spoke, giving a half shrug.

"Maybe...she already had lunch plans?" Waverley half-heartedly suggested, her hopes of spreading her optimism out to the grouchy man getting dimmer and dimmer. Her expression was dampened more when she saw the look of suspicion decorating the face of Sunshine, looking at her like she was trying to sniff out some grander scheme she was up to. Waverley, for one, was pretty sure she'd never been up to a scheme in her life, and the fact that Sunshine was gazing at her the way Waverley tended to gaze at Max rather than the unfiltered excitement that had been bubbling in Waverley moments prior made her shoulders sag. First she'd blown her off in favor of Max upon waking up, and now she was staring at her like Waves had spat in her sandwich. Waverley couldn't help but wonder if she did something wrong. "Dude, is it that hard to believe I want to record an important part of my friend's life just for the sake of having it?...and maybe showing it to the MarrBow kids, if, y'know, you two decide you want children." A life of geekdom had left Waverley pretty well capable of coming up with ship names on the fly, and she was about to give herself a pat on the back when suddenly the room faded away, leaving them in a strange, semi-futuristic version of on old Norse house.

It took Waverley a moment of confusion before she understood what was going on, at which point she watched young Zari and her tender mother. Waverley couldn't help but feel a hollow sadness at the memory playing out around of them; she would've expected some deep stabbing pain at the reminder that she was now without a mother, but instead, it caused her to look inside for a memory similar to Zari's. She found none. As much as she had mourned the stern woman, Waverley didn't have much in terms of vibrant, loving memories of her. Part of her wondered what would appear were the woman to use her powers on her, but the other part was scared to find out. As the memory faded away from the room, Waverley shifted uncomfortably on her feet, quickly nodding along with Callie, trying to shove past her own thoughts.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Omega Building
Skills: N/A

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"Oh...I see..." Waverley was almost visibly buffering at Sunshine's assertion that her wedding wouldn't be what she was imagining. The girl tended to have a romantic, yet somewhat traditional view of marriage, having spent hours upon hours in the past imagining her own dream wedding. Her head tilted to the side, as if Sunshine was speaking a language she couldn't fully comprehend. In the end, it was memories of her old YA Fantasy Pinterest board that gave her the tools to try to better connect with the younger girl. "So...ceremonial weapons instead of wedding rings? Or maybe matching tattoos?" she suggested, "And can I still record the ceremony? For posterity?" As she asked, her finger twitched to press a button on her video camera, the red light blinking on. It seemed less like she wanted to record this specific moment and more like she wanted to stretch a muscle that'd been left alone for far to long; her videography muscle. She twisted both her organic eyes and the mechanical one that blinked away in her hand to look at Havock as he spoke.

"Well...she was fighting for Genosha, so now that it's here...she's probably chill again, right?" Waverley interjected optimistically, giving a hopeful shrug. She turned to Renegade, beginning to say "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know a woman with really cool hair named P-" before the loud crunching of wood interrupted her, causing her to flinch. She spun around to see Zari, sword out, swinging down on the table. She took a step towards the girl, ready to go see what was wrong, until she saw Veil stepping forward first. So instead, she quickly lunged into the box, pulling out her wallet. "Shit, sorry about that. We can pay for it if you..." she trailed off as she looked down at the pale green faces of the long dead racists that decorated the cash she was pulling out, the realization suddenly dawning on her. [color=purple]"...these don't have any value here, do they?

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Some Medical Room in Genosha
Skills: N/A

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Max's clothing magic actually managed to peg Waverley's style pretty spot on, perhaps even improving on it. Waverley had never put much effort into her appearance, having long since mastered the art of throwing on whatever was clean and closest. The magic, at least, seemed to have some sense of color coordination, giving Waves a deep purple blouse under a black baggie hoodie, as well as black leggings and a pair of tennis shoes with purple trimming. All in all, she looked like an ad for leisurewear. She stiffened as the magic worked its...well, its magic on her, her jaw setting as she looked down. She pulled the neck of the blouse out a bit to see if the spandex was still underneath. Luckily it was; she would've had to have a long chat about boundaries with their matricidal magician if it wasn't. But instead, she let it go.

"I...I hope you're right," she mumbled to Sunshine, letting out a deep breath. She had to let herself believe that the place could be as good as it seemed, at least for a little while. The thought was quickly expelled from her mind as she finally processed something else Sunshine said, something that made her eyes widen. Her hand shot out to grab Sunshine's arm as they entered the omega building, holding it tightly for a second, practically bouncing with excitement. "Sorry, did you say fiance?! Shit, dude, why didn't you fucking lead with that?! That's big! Enormous! The fucking goliath of news! Do you have a date for the wedding? A venue? Bridesmaids? A videographer? I can do it for free, if you want, though I've never done a wedding. Shit dude, this is so exciting! It's exciting to just say it! Wedding! Sorry, I'm being weird, but god, this is gonna be fucking awesome! Oh shit, I didn't even ask about your fiance. Are they cool? I mean, obviously they are if you're marrying them but, like, what're they like? What's their name?" Waverley excitedly rambled as they made their way through the omega house, up to their things. She bent over the box, rummaging around the things until she found what she was looking for: her camera, as pristine as the day they were frozen, perhaps even more so. She'd been worried it'd be damage, but it was perfect, practically brand new.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Some Medical Room in Genosha
Skills: N/A

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Waverley gave a small, content nod at Veil's affirmation, a warm smile snugly at home on her lips as she readied herself to go. It fell away from her face, however, when she heard Max spoke out in her direction. Her eyes flitted back to him, though they looked to be filled more with soft annoyance than the fiery fury that'd previously been burrowing into him.

"I dunno, dude, I'm not your beautician. Your face isn't my responsibility," she said with a passive aggressive shrug, blowing off his warranted confusion, instead stepping in line with the others, finding herself drifting between Callie the twins, and Sunshine and Kristina. She almost snorted when the name of the hospital was revealed to them, but she managed to stay quiet. She found it darkly funny that despite all it's s Genosha was sticking to the age old tradition of naming things after sketchy people who committed sketchy acts in the name of their country. But that sense of amused irony died inside her as she got an eyeful of the paradise that stretched out before them.

"Holy shit..." she mumbled, those two simple words an instrument of all her amazement. There was, of course, a darkness hanging over that wonder, the knowledge of the kind of people who fought for the place, but it wasn't enough to overshadow the beauty of the place completely. She couldn't bring herself to fault the flower for being planted by bloodstained hands. As the tour went on, Waverley slowed a bit, soaking it all up as she walked alongside Sunshine and Kristina. "I...I kinda think the whole place might be cool..." Waverley offhandedly replied to Kristina, even if the question had been directed at Sunshine.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Some Medical Room in Genosha
Skills: N/A

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"I might have to take you up on that," Waves replied to Andy with a snort, giving one last shake of her bruised knuckles. She winced a little bit when the woman mentioned their things being at her place, specifically the bit about Zari's robots. She knew what was coming even before it came, and within seconds, Zari was chewing out the mystery woman as if she weren't old enough to be her mother. Waverley looked over to Z, deciding it'd be best to try to calm her down before she did something reckless, like, say, punch one of the people who had helped bring them back. "Dude, you're a super genius. There's nothing some kid could do to your robots that you couldn't fix." Ego stroking always worked with Waverley's own genius sister, who had a lot in common with Zari, though admittedly her arrogance was far more prevalent than that of the time travelling Valkyrie. She then looked over to Casper as the glow left his eyes.

"Is there a ghost Hawa-" she began to ask, but her words quickly trailed off as she felt a strange feeling in her knuckles, the disappearing of pain. She looked down, seeing a soft magical hue surrounding her fist. She didn't have to follow it to know whose magic it was, but she did anyway, her eyes landing on Max waggling his fingers away as he worked his magic. Her gaze shifted into a puzzled glare, as if she was trying to figure out a riddle that didn't make any sense. And in a way, she was. She had a picture of Max concrete in her mind, one that was admittedly contradictory, though she didn't like to admit it. She saw him as something both chaotic and conniving, someone who was constantly scheming, always working towards some self-serving goal, but someone who was completely unpredictable, even to himself. So as her eyes burned into him, she tried to discern why it was he healed her, what end did that get him to? Was he just trying to win her over so stabbing her in the back would be easier later? Or was it more complex than that. She pondered on it for a good half a minute, staring at him, before eventually letting out a sigh and breaking the stare. She forced herself to get over her annoyance at not being able to figure out Max's agenda as her gaze fell upon Veil.

"You good to go get our stuff, or do you need a bit more time?" she asked, her voice soft, trying to be comforting.

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Some Medical Room in Genosha
Skills: N/A

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Waverley half expected all the fear to flood back into her as soon as the immediate consequences of her actions reared their ugly head, but even as the menacing man straightened out and released an evil laugh, she couldn't find it in herself to care. A small smile spread across her lips as she realized this, her eyes turning down towards her knuckles. She flexed her hand, gazing at the evidence of bruising that was starting to show. Her stare was broken when she felt the soft hand of Callie, causing her to glance up. She was about to respond to her, when a bright blue glow filled the room, stealing Waverley's attention. Sapphire. Waverley's expression softened, her smile widening, becoming warmer as it did.

"Good work, Sapph. You saved the day," Waverley said, filling the few words with all the sentiment welled up in her for her deceased teammate. She gave the woman a small nod, doing her best to convey that just because she was leaving most of the fussing to the other members of the Underground didn't mean she didn't care. She knew that the others needed the closure more than she did. As soon as Sapphire mentioned her old friends, Waverley gave a nod. "You got it. Kristina can contact her sister, I'll get in touch with the Doc," she promised, reaching to her backpack, only to find it wasn't there. Right, all they had was their weird scifi bodysuits. Lovely. She turned to look at the two older women, purposefully asking them over Nemesis. "Um, do you know where our stuff is? I need my laptop to contact Watts."

The Gifted - Concluded

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Location: Some Medical Room in Genosha
Skills: Punching Robot eyes on guys named Nemesis

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Waverley flinched as Veil suddenly popped out of existence, using her abilities to shield herself from view. Part of Waves wanted to reach out with her powers, caress the air where Veil had just been to make sure she was still there, but the notion didn't last long. She'd already decided she'd let Echo comfort his sister to avoid crowding her, so it wasn't going to do much good to know she was still there. After a few seconds, her silent stare directed at the empty spot Veil once inhabited was interrupted by a warm hand around hers. She snapped her head in the direction it came from, seeing James looming over her. She let out a breath through her nose, feeling undeniable comfort in his presence. It was strange; her body reacted to James' comfort as much as it did to his powers, so much so that it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. It was hard to differentiate the relaxing of her muscles from the healing of them. Her insides had a pleasant warmth as they were pulled out of their damaged state. She almost missed his words in the feeling.

"A parade isn't what we need right now," Waverley replied into James' shoulder as his arms wrapped around her, though her words were sharper than she had intended. She let out a deep breath, returning her friend's hug. "Thank you..." her tone was as apologetic as it was grateful. As he stepped away, however, she was met with a new feeling, a feeling spurred on by the doctor's words, insensitive, apathetic.

Waverley wouldn't have normally done what she did. She likely would've glared at him like the others, maybe cussed him out. But...there was something odd in her brain. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there was something missing: fear. All her life, she lived in horror, worried over every little thing, terrified that any wrong move would end in disaster. It'd gotten more visceral, vivid in her time with the Underground, dealing with actual life and death situations on a regular basis. And it'd all built up to the X-Cutioner. The worst had happened. She'd died, effectively. And here she was. It was like...anxiety afterglow. Bliss. Liberation. There was no fear in her as she stepped off her bed, briskly walking up to Dr. Nemesis and rearing her fist back, slamming it into the side of his face. Pain shot through her fist, the first vibrant feeling she'd had since waking up. It was almost refreshing, feeling the pulse of bruised skin in her fist as she let it drop to her side.

"I don't know what the fuck that was supposed to mean, but if you talk about anyone in the Underground like that again, there won't be a council in the world that'll be able to save you," Waverley threatened. It was true, Sapphire and her hadn't exactly been friends, but they'd still been family. And no one talks about family like that.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

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Location: Apollo Cabin
Skills:

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"I'm a bureaucrat, Ms. Isley. Most of my strength lies in the pen rather than the sword," Leandra said, though the statement was only partly true. She was a fighter, but she'd found that her strengths were most powerful when she was underestimated, so she didn't mind understating her role in New Rome. "I was calling for a tactical retreat. I was loving Team BureauCat as much as you, but I thought the battle would end with less injuries had we the aid of more warriors, perhaps even a plan. And inventory is the lifeblood of any organized institution. Back at New Rome, keeping a close eye on it was part of my job. I've made an effort to do so here as well. You can never be too careful." With that, Leandra exhaled a breath from her nose, letting any desire to engage slip away with it. She let her eyes glide back over to Alexandra, giving her a nod.

"Yes, of course. You can always just...come get me," Leandra stated, letting out a small sigh at the words. She so dearly longed for the days back home when the scheduled appointments and meetings outweighed the "I'll find you when I need you"s that Camp Half Blood seemed to inspire in its residents, even the new Roman ones. "Anywhom, I'm going to fetch myself some breakfast. Would you like me to grab you anything? Or have you already eaten? I know it's a cliche, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Also, erm..." she reached her finger under the neck of her shirt, poking it through the bloody hole. "Is that a no on the top?"