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11 yrs ago
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There hadn't been much chance to relax. Andy still hadn't told Zari a few things she wanted to talk to her about. And it was obvious she was upset about something. She had asked the night prior if Zari wanted to go on a date the next day, Saturday. With the affirmative Andy had spent a furtive hour setting up a date. She wanted to get out of town, away from the school. Zari had agreed to have her Pegasus fly them somewhere.

There Andy was outside Zari's dorm Saturday morning at 8 am. It would take them time to get to the San Francisco Zoo. She had tickets for them to go there and the Video Game Museum as well as a lunch reservation for Fog Harbor. It had been some luck that a restaurant that she remembered from her time living in San Francisco was still open. She hadn't been to San Francisco in so long. Shaking that thought from her head she knocked on the door and waited for Zari to respond.

Before Andy had knocked on the door, Zari had been in a bit of an argument with Mr. Eyeball. Since apparently the robot did not want to get left behind. When the knock came, Zari very briefly threatened Mr. Eyeball with being temporarily dismantled, before she went to open the door. "Andy let's gooooooo! This is going to be so much fun I can't wait!" Zari said as she stepped out of the room and shut the door behind her.

Andy grinned at Zari's excitement and let Zari lead them out of the building. There was no point in trying to go first. Zari would have been too happy to slow down enough for Andy to try to lead. "So, first stop, we go to San Francisco. I got us tickets to go to the Zoo." She told her. Andy hoped that was something that would interest Zari.

"Oooooooh the zoo! that sounds like so much fun!" Zari said as she led Andy outside and pulled out her horn to summon up her pegasus. "We can get there pretty quickly with Mr. Sparkles anyway, so let's goooooo!" with those last words she blew into her horn, summoning up the pegasus, and climbing on board. "Come on Andy."

Andy climbed up behind Zari on the Pegasus. She hadn't ridden it that long of a distance yet. Andy had ridden the Pegasus for a few minutes during battle, but not for what would probably be a few hours. A flight on a plane from Los Angeles to San Francisco took two and a half. She didn't know how much faster, or slower, the Pegasus would be in comparison. But they had plenty of time so she wasn't worried about it. With the reduced stress of not having to worry about classes, dealing with the Contest didn't seem so daunting. She also had been getting therapy, there had been a lot she needed to unpack. Even though chronologically it had been years that everything had happened over, for her it still hadn't been a full year. She wondered if Zari was doing well with therapy. "Do you know how long it would take to fly there?" She asked. "It's about 340 miles to where we are going."

"Nooooooo idea, but we'll find out the more fun way," she responded with a giggle, as she led the pegasus to go racing forward before taking off into the sky.

Andy laughed too. Zari was right. It would be more fun this way. The pair of them chatted as they flew to San Francisco. Talking about whatever they wanted to. Eventually, the city would come into view—a spec of skyscrapers on the tip of a peninsula. A long strip of green marked Golden Gate Park. The zoo was close to there. The park would be a good landing place. Andy pointed at a large field. The field was often used by Ultimate Frisbee or other outdoor sport enthusiasts. At least that was what it had been used by when Andy had lived in San Francisco. Her memories of living there had been hazy and distant, but some old ones relating to her first foster family, the longest one she had lived with, surfaced as she looked around. Something else to talk to Dr. Whitehall about. Andy had felt abandoned then. She was afraid of connections because of that. Had been for so long and it had felt like every time she made them those connections left her or died (often in horrifying ways). That was why she clung to Zari. She would never abandon Zari. Zari hadn't left her behind. Yes, definitely needed to talk to Whitehall about that.

"The zoo is this way." She indicated toward the ocean and south. Then started leading the way. The tickets were saved on her phone and she scanned them, the pair getting through security with surprising ease all things considered. Apparently, flashlights that turned into swords didn't get caught by their security. That was fine with Andy. "So, first we have a Carousel or Lemurs." Andy pointed left and then right. "Where do you wanna start?" She asked offering a copy of the map to Zari.

Zari only really had to think for just a moment, with regards to what option she would prefer. Truthfully she hadn't really been to a zoo before, considering back home it probably was something fairly different than what it was here. "LEMURS!!!!" she said happily, before heading off that direction sort of skipping a bit as she went.

Andy laughed and skipped after Zari. Her worries about others drifting away behind her. She didn't mind playing tour guide at the Zoo. She liked it here. Andy was excited to see the wolves back in Bear Country. For now, they headed into Madagasgar Center. Behind that was the African Region. First, though, the lemures. They were in a large enclosure with a lot of places to swing and climb. There was even a big treehouse for them. In total, there were seven types of lemures in the enclosure. All seemed happy and healthy. A couple of them, sitting on the treehouse, were cleaning each other.

"Awwww they're so cute! My mom on a visit here managed to get some old videos of a show she watched growing up. I've never been to a zoo before or really seen a lot of these animals in person back home, but the show made me love lemurs so much oh they are so adorable! Can't remember what it was called though, but one of the characters was definitely a lemur..." Zari said, as she was watching the lemurs.

"Huh. I don't know the show." Andy tilted her head watching the lemurs play. "I think I'd remember a show like that if I had seen it. Sounds amazing. Maybe we can find it online." She smiled watching the lemures, and Zari. "Glad I get to take you then. Zoos are cool. Super important. They keep near extinct animals safe. Sometimes they can reintroduce them into the wild. Andy had read that on the zoos website while booking the tickets.

"What other animals do you wanna see? There's a ton to chose from."

Zari had to stop and think about it for a moment, as she thought about what animals she actually vaguely recalled about. Since her knowledge of animals was pretty limited, "Do they have giraffes?" she asked.

"They do. That way." Andy points farther down the path they were on. "Sometimes they allow people to feed them. But only at certain times."

"Oh I have something to show you." Andy reached into her backpack and pulled out a notebook. Inside was a photograph. An old Polaroid of the two of them. "Dorian and Percy found it. It's from Genosha."

"So now Dorian knows. His dad's are Max and Ben. And Danni's parents are Casper and James."

"Huh, wonder when someone took that picture. Eh, oh well. Not a big secret I told them all back then I was from the future not my fault people don't know that. Oh, I did also briefly tell Percy about the time travel adventures, though think he was a little annoyed that I didn't invite him to come along or something. Honestly, the whole thing doesn't matter to me," she responded with a shrug as she started heading along in the direction of the giraffes. "If people actually listened and paid attention, then people wouldn't get confused about things, just how it goes."

Andy snorted. "Yeah that's very true. No one really believed you at first. I didn't understand, but I trusted you were telling the truth." She shrugged. "Danni and Dorian did invite us to visit their home and therefore we'd meet up with Max and them. So we can surprise them it'll be fun to see how they react to you being here now."

"I mean I'll just tell them I told you so with regards to things. Cause no one listens," she wasn't really too concerned or bothered by the entire situation. If people actually had just listened and believed her in the first place, then there would have been no issues with that sort of thing to begin with.

Andy laughed. That was a major understatement. The two of them chatted and spent the rest of the morning in the Zoo. They had a lot of fun chatting about the animals. Some Zari had never seen before. Andy was sad to see some animals had become more endangered since she had been a kid. After they finished they headed to the Warf for lunch. Andy had a late lunch reservation for them at two p.m.

The restaurant Fog Harbor was on the water with a beautiful view. It was facing into the bay so on a clear day you could see Berkly and Oakland on the other side of the bay. It wasn't a clear day. So instead it seemed closed in with some ships crossing the water and the bridge disappearing into the fog. The food was diverse but heavily focused on seafood. Andy ordered an Ahi Tuna Salad. She didn't care for shellfish, but tuna was delicious.

Zari had no idea what food to order at all. She wasn't exactly sure what half the stuff was, but usually she'd be fine with most anything, so she ordered something at random. "This has been sooooooo much fun," Zari said with a bit of a smile, looking around the restaurant.

"Good I'm glad. We haven't had much time just the two of us, between school and training. I know we went to the mall but that was ages ago and with Mads. Not that I didn't have a total blast. I just wish we had more time for just us. Maybe, now that I don't have a roommate I can convince the staff to put you in my room." That'd be nice, Andy thought.

"What have you been up to? Other than the obvious stuff?" Andy remembered she wanted to tell Zari about the sleepwalking thing. That'd be another plus of having Zari share a room with her. She couldn't hurt Zari and if Andy did get up and wander the halls of the school Zari could stop her.

"Ooooh, that would be fun, like a sleepover or something with it," she said, giggling a bit. Before thinking about the question Andy said, "Oh, nothing really, just been tinkering with my watch a bit, think something might be wrong with it or something."

Andy tilted her head thinking. She didn't know anyway to help Zari fix the watch, but it would be bad if it wasn't working. The watch was how she was able to travel back home. "Any idea what might be wrong with it? What is happening that made you think something was wrong?"

Zari just now realized she hadn't exactly told Andy about what was wrong or going on. At least with how she saw the situation currently. "Oh, uh well... I haven't been able to really contact my parents, like at all. Almost like there is an interference or something when I tried to call them... When I tried to use my watch to reality hop, nothing happened, like at all. Started having issues right after the break..."

"That does not sound good." To Andy going back to Zari's home world, wasn't that important. However, for Zari it was very important. She frowned. "What sort of interference? Is it the watch itself or an outside thing?"

"Nooooooo idea, haven't figured that part out yet."

"Ah, I wouldn't even know how to test that." Andy sighed and shrugged. Soon their food was brought and it was delicious. Very high-quality food. It didn't really fill Andy up. She mostly ate for the taste these days.

"I should tell you. I don't think it is connected. If it was that would mean someone found out and was mad at me and was taking it out on you. But knowing your world that's unlikely." She shrugged. "So the last night we were there I sleepwalked. I've never done that before. But I woke up and I had touched someone. They were dead at my feet. I don't know who it was. I do know I was full. That's really hard." Andy had come to realize she didn't feel remorse about the death. She was just concerned she'd do it at the school and get in trouble.

"Well you clearly didn't mean it, it was an accident, so honestly shouldn't be the end of the world. We literally not that long ago had talked about how Vicki shouldn't worry about having accidentally killed you in the game and not knowing about you clearly not dying. So it shouldn't matter too much if you ask me. Accidents happen, that sort of thing."

"Oh yeah. I'm not that worried about that part of it. I'm just concerned that if I do that at the school. They'll probably actually expel me for killing a student in that case. Part of why I think it'd be good for you to be in the room with me. If I do that again you can stop me. You're the only person I know who is basically immune to my touch."

"If you're that concerned about it sort of, don't see how they'd have a problem with it and moving into your room."

"Thank you." Andy smiled. The rest of lunch was more of them just chatting about random stuff and enjoying their meal. After Andy paid for it she had Zari fly them with her Pegasus again. Across the bay, they landed in front of the Museum of Video Games. Andy led the way and showed her reservation.

The docent led them to a terminal and explained the setup. They would have two hours. The computer had an emulator for any game system you could imagine. Andy opened the one for the Switch and opened "Breath of the Wild." She had wanted Zari to see the game she had been trapped in for context. She didn't plan on playing only that, since it wasn't great for two players.

"Sooo...What are we exactly trying to do?" Zari asked as the game got pulled up. Despite being majorly into tech of various sorts. Her time with actual video games were a bit non-existent. So she didn't actually really know what she'd be doing with the game or anything.

"Alright, there are a few things to do." Andy grinned and started explaining the game. She taught Zari how the controls worked. She explained the story as best as she could. "I don't know all the Zelda games super well, but I played this one. I didn't finish it though."

"Uh, okay then? Seems simple enough, probably. Though mentally have to stop brain from trying to talk to the computer and console sort of thing," she said with a shrug as she started sort of just pushing buttons to try to get Link to wander around and do something productive in the game.

Andy laughed. "Yeah, that would be cheating. We can do a multiplayer game whenever you wanna switch. I'd appreciate you not talking to the game though." This moment. It was happiness. Andy had for years been afraid of people. Afraid of making friends. Afraid of so much. She had let herself become close with the Drummonds and their death had almost broken her. But Zari had saved her. "Thank you. For being my friend and my girlfriend and bringing me with you." She took a deep breath. "I love you. I know it's probably ridiculous to say that when we've only really been dating for a few months. But I do. I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't met. I don't want to ever know. Because the world with you in it. That's the world I want."

"I don't trrrrry talking to the games or computers. It just happens!" Zari protested a bit with a giggle, before thinking about the next thing that Andy said. "If you want to get on technicalities we could say we've been dating for 17 years!"

Andy laughed. "Then we've taken this really slow." Andy grinned. "Last time I kissed you without asking. So this time I will. May I kiss you?"

"I mean nothing wrong with going slow anyway," she responded with a shrug, before she thought about what Andy asked her, "I don't see why not."

Andy smiled, waiting. She was glad Zari was thinking about it. She didn't want her to feel pressured. She wanted the honesty of what her emotions were. With the response, she leaned in. Her lips pressed against Zari's. A warm pulse of life passed to her, but Zari had never complained. She felt like it had just rained. It was clean and clear.

Zari kissed back. For a moment it was just the two of them in their little cubicle with the computer playing Breath of the Wild music. Andy let Zari lead. Neither of them had much experience with this. It was awkward. Andy felt herself drawn into the pull of her energy vampirism so she pulled back. Not wanting to risk hurting Zari.

She grinned, her lips glistening and a little puffy. "So, video games? When we get back to the dorms we can explore more."

"Sure, fine with me," Zari responded with a smile.
Andy & Vicky





Andy heard that Vicky was at C.A.G.E. At first she didn’t think anything of it. Then she found out what it stood for and she found herself shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to not think about her own past with Northwood. That place had been a hellscape. They had been power suppressed with crude collars. Getting out of there had been one of the best days of her life. She had gotten free. This place was what she feared most in the world and knowing it was around caused her stomach to cramp.

It took a day, but Andy decided that she was going to talk to Victoria. She’d walk into that hated, horrible place and tell Victoria that her actions would not be held against her. Andy actually appreciated it. So she made her way there and asked to have a visit with Victoria.

“You’re popular, miss van Dyne. You have another visitor.” One of the nurses said as she delivered the message to her room. Victoria chuckled in response. “Clearly you don’t know me very well. I wasn’t expecting anyone, who dropped by?”

On her way to the visiting lounge, Victoria was truly baffled. Out of everyone on the list… Andy Drummond wasn’t even on the list! Edward Arca was on the list, perhaps coming to apologize or gloat! Vicky’s head was all over the place as she neared the room. Did she change her mind about the events in the Framework? She wasn’t feeling like Victoria needed more assurances, was she?

Shaking her head, she willed herself to focus. No sense worrying about it when the answer to the questions was sitting a few paces away. She turned the corner and stepped into the lounge. ”Miss Drummond? I must say, though not unwelcome, this is a surprise. I do not mind a social visit, although I hope you don’t hold it against me if I ask what brought this up?” Victoria greeted and asked, moving to sit down by the table.

Andy’s skin itched and she felt a little sluggish, a side effect of the whole place being basically one big power dampener. At least Victoria wasn’t collared. She smiled as Victoria came in, joining her at the table. "Hi. I, uh, well I wanted to talk to you. I know I told you that I didn’t blame you. And that is still very true. I’ve been in a position where I didn’t have control over myself. Something else had control. I don’t know what happened while I was away, because I went somewhere else.” Andy caught herself going off on a tangent.

"Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because even though I know you blame yourself for killing me, it got me out of the Framework. It gave me the chance to help Zari and then the rest of the group.” It also had given her the satisfaction of beating the shit out of Usagi. "We often do things that we don’t consider the consequences of those actions. We just go through life doing whatever we want. Sometimes we find out the consequences quickly and they are negative. Other times, we may not even realize that there were consequences. I don’t think we should live our lives completely focused on what the consequences may or may not be, it’s important, but can’t be our only focus or we would get stuck in some serious decision paralysis and fatigue.” Andy paused again, realizing she was going off tangent again. "Sorry, I’ll try to get to my point. In this situation, the consequences of those actions did not negatively affect me. In fact, as far as I’m concerned it was a net positive. I don’t know what all you’ve got going on, but I wanted to make it clear that I do not blame you at all for what happened. Zari doesn’t blame you either. Being controlled does not put any guilt upon you for possible negative consequences of what happened.” She nodded, satisfied.

It felt like it took all of her dampened attention to follow, but Victoria managed. Smiling, she raised her hands as if wanting to slow the verbal machine gun. ”Thank you. You didn’t have to take the trip here to tell me that again, though. I agree that what happened was a lucky occurrence. I mean, we know of at least one version of events where things didn’t end up as well.”

She sighed, looking at her hands, ”I’ll admit, I respect you a lot for not being even a little bit bitter about it. I don’t think I would have been so forgiving in your place, even if I wouldn’t have perhaps acted on it. Heh. That and I don’t know many others who can lay Leah out in one move. But it doesn’t change the fact that I, a supercomputer with legs, got outplayed by a wouldbe villain, whom I let hide under my nose, on a team I led. Me being here has nothing to do with blaming myself, so you can put that thought to rest.”

She looked back up, her spirits lifted a little none the less. ”I went here to get help growing more resilient against such interference in the future. Well, that and I have some mommy issues, apparently. It’s something between parapsychology and coding on the spectrum, but next time, I want to be able to get us out in the first place. Then, perhaps, I may be happy with the outcome.” Given that Andy seemed to have the need to further reassure her, Vicky opted not to tell her about the whole self-shutdown attempt.

Andy smiled. She was glad that Victoria was getting help. Not just for the Arcade stuff but more things. "I think some form of parental issues are near universal. Parents, even if they aren’t in our lives, seem designed to fuck us up. I lived most of my life without any clue who my mom was, and finding out was, uh, well almost apocalyptic. If and when the group found out the whole truth about Andy it would be best to be as honest as possible leading up to that. And calling meeting her mom for the first time nearly apocalyptic was the truth through and through.

"If you want, if you need, I can ask Zari to help with the code stuff? She loves to do that sort of thing.” Andy was nearly computer illiterate. She had no idea how to do more than the basic programs like Word, and even that was a bit of a nightmare and she seemed to always have a headache after. However, she liked to listen to Zari talk, so she had some idea that at least Zari could help. And since Victoria hadn’t permanently killed Andy, Zari would be more willing to help. Also, if it helped prevent something like that from happening again Zari would definitely help. Though, Andy would expect just the chance to do some coding would be enough to make Zari want to do it. She wouldn’t think through all of the other stuff.

Andy rubbed her arms, under her jacket they felt numb a little. Like when the limb had fallen asleep but the pins and needles hadn’t started tingling just yet. "Anyway, I’ll head out soon unless you want to chat longer. I’m glad you’re getting help. Everyone needs help sometimes.” She smiled. "When I first met Zari she was trying to do some things alone. If she had done it by herself she probably would have failed. It required help from a big group of people. I was also alone. Trying to do everything by myself. But I met Zari and a bunch of other people and we saved the world, twice. I could not have done that alone.”

”Well, my mother put a failsafe in me which is what Arcade used to control me, and unknowingly almost unleashed Ultron upon the world again, so, in the range of apocalyptic? Not that that is something I wish to be a contest.” Victoria shuddered.

She looked aside with a sheepish smile. ”Weeellll… I don’t think me and your significant other work too well. I mean, I did call upon her once in this manner, but I would hesitate to call it anything more than an alliance of convenience. She didn’t take well to how I led our team, I may have blown up on her a few times for how she went about expressing her disapproval, and… I don’t know if that is a bridge that can be rebuilt.”

“And besides, she may do too good of a job and make me immune even to herself. Part of why I am okay leaving that bridge burnt is that I need to know there’s people that can bring me down if I go rogue, and having those people not be on friendly terms with me makes that decision easier for them.”
she huffed. This wasn’t a topic she wanted to discuss. Definitely not after whatever the thing with April was. Leave well enough alone.

”If you’d like to talk outside of here sometime though, I’d like that.” she smiled, ”You got to tell me where you got that jacket at least, it looks amazing. But I’ll let you off from here, Dorian mentioned that the dampeners don’t feel right.” She got up, a thought entering her head. ”That said, I believe this may be the one place where I may shake your hand?” she offered her right.

Andy doubted that Zari would ever be friends with Victoria, so she wasn’t worried about any bridges being mended. She smiled and shook Victoria’s hand. "You’re right. It is probably the safest anyone has ever been around me since I was eight.” Minus her own time at Northwood.

"Unfortunately, the jacket was a gift from Ash Drummond, she’s who I take part of my name from. Without her I wouldn’t be here. I would have frozen in Rochester, New York before meeting Zari. But she died many years ago. I believe she got it from a thrift store in upstate New York, that’s all I could tell you.” Andy’s smile was gone as she spoke about Ash, her voice soft. When was the last time she had said her name out loud? How many years total? How many months relatively? Had it been a full year relatively even?

"As for this place, I feel slow. I feel like the world has sped up and I can’t keep up. And I’m used to a hum of electricity inside and out of me. There is none here. It’d be like suddenly losing your hearing.” She stood up. "I’ll see you back at school.”

Seeing Andy’s face droop, Vicky didn’t dig deeper into the family history and simply nodded. ”I guess I’ve had practice when I was pretending to be human. It doesn’t really bother me, I’ve lived like this for over two years. Well, take care. And thanks for coming by.”
Mandy Mason


Location: New York Streets - in Car -> Home
Skills: N/A


"Dad" Relief washed through Mandy. Her dad was okay. Nothing had happened here while they were gone. She hugged him tightly. That prevented her from answering him for a moment, but that was okay. Hugging her dad was worth it. Mandy feared for a moment as she did that this might be her last hug with him. Things were already crazy, it wasn't going to get better any time soon. Finally she released him and stepped back. Mandy raised her hands and started signing quickly. Faster than Hermes could probably follow.

"Well we left here and everything was wild already. There were cops and helicopters. Hermes said on the radio they warned to avoid being bit! Yes, bit, by people. Then we got to Hannah's apartment complex and there was this old man on the street. He had been hit by a car. His wife didn't know what to do. So we called 911 and they told us to stay away if he had been bit. He had been. By some homeless man. An ambulance and some cops showed up. While that was happening some kid attacked and I was attacked by birds for some reason. Hannah's neighbor got put in the ambulance and the kid was put in the police car. The two of us went to leave and some other kid was trying to steal my car. The cops stopped him and we drove him. The traffic is getting crazy and I don't know what to do other than prepare for the worst."

She slowed down taking a breath. ASL was a very visual language so the parts that would be easiest to understand were about the attacks.

"Anyway, we are planning what to pack now. I don't know if we can drive out of town or what. But we have to be ready to move if it gets worse. I think for now staying inside is the best plan." She was signing slower now so Hermes could follow along easier. "I've got my vet tech things. That's a lot of medical supplies. We've got the usual emergency kit. Now we just need to make it all travel sized. At least I got a backpack for the kitten so we don't have to worry about him." Though that did mean she would have to carry the cat and whatever was her share of supplies if they left the house.


Ed Penior




Location: New Orleans - Botanical Gardens
Skills: Magic
Items:
Magic cloak (like Dr Strange that allows him to fly)
Protection Amulet from Klara



The fight fell into chaos. Exodus was throwing cars at everyone. Max had showed up though. That meant that the back up was here. With something from Asgard. Ed hoped it wouldn't hurt Mary. They just needed to get the Phoenix out. Ed needed to think less laterally. He realized now that with the cloak he could get up and over the fight. It wrapped around him and he shot up into the air. He had been ready to shield himself if he needed to, but it hadn't been necessary.

Now he was above the fight and could see it from a bird's eye view. He could see where the cars were being thrown at his team. So he started bubbling the cars and moving them farther away, setting them down in a parking lot. No guarantee the car was undamaged, but it'd be in a better state than being thrown around like baseballs.





Benjamin Moss
Benjamin Moss

"Insects are fascinating."
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
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C H A R A C T E R P E R S O N A L I T Y
C H A R A C T E R P E R S O N A L I T Y
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| Couragous | Fun-Loving |
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| Messy | Absentminded |
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| Optimistic | Careless |

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S
C H A R A C T E R N O T E S
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A B I L I T I E S
A B I L I T I E S
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P O S T C A T A L O G
P O S T C A T A L O G
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C H A R A C T E R H I S T O R Y
C H A R A C T E R H I S T O R Y




Dr. Maeve Whitehall read over the file on Andy as she sat outside. This was one where she felt more information in the file would have been helpful, but even then, it paved the initial road in therapy better. Energy vampirism and electrical manipulation were strong powers to possess for a young person.

_______________________________________

The office Andy would set foot in held neutral tones in light brown, white, and gray. The sitting area had three chairs, two armchairs and a sofa. The coffee table had a pot of coffee on it, freshly brewed, with two cups and some coasters. There was a stuffed sloth animal on the sofa. The walls held various black and white photographs of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House. There was also a water fixture on the side that made the sound of a light waterfall.

Maeve sat in one of the armchairs as Andy came in. “Hello Andy. My name is Dr. Maeve Whitehall, but you can call me Maeve or Dr. Whitehall, whichever you prefer. Please, take a seat wherever you like. Help yourself to some coffee if you want, or I can get some water if that’s better.” Maeve had her own coffee cup in front of her and she sipped it while Andy got comfortable.

Upon entering the room, Andy’s eyes darted around it. Taking in the set up and art. She smelled the coffee and it had already had her attention before Dr. Whitehall had mentioned it. ”I like coffee.” She said, picking up the cup and sat down in one of the armchairs. She sipped on the coffee, tasting it. She let it linger for a moment before sighing.

”Before we get into stuff, I have a question. When I was...little there were always rules around things like therapists and confessionals. Confidentiality rules. Could you clarify them for me?” Andy had established that talking about being from the past would probably be fine from Zari, but she wanted to make sure.

Maeve gave a warm smile as Andy sat and enjoyed the coffee. ”I love coffee also. Quite literally cannot start my day without it.” To fine that point Maeve picked up her own cup and sipped.

”I am happy to clarify that with you and I am very impressed. You are one of very few people I have spoken to that knew that at the start. So, confidentiality means that what we talk about in this room will stay in this room. Despite Coulson’s request for these sessions, I will not share with him what we talk about. That is unless you give me permission to and even then I will share only what you give me permission to. There are some stipulations to that confidentiality clause that, if they occur, I may need to break confidentiality. Those include if there is any desire to want to seriously harm yourself or someone else, if there is child abuse or vulnerable adult abuse, or if the authorities get involved and ask for my records. Even if that was the case with that last one I would fight them on it. Other than that, this is a private space. Does all of that make sense?”

”Yes. Thank you.” Andy nodded and took a sip of her coffee. ”I know that this is supposed to be focused on the recent incident. And I do suppose I should talk about that. But I need to talk about something else.” Andy considered what she wanted to say. She had been fretting over it but the doctor's comment about abuse made her pause. She wondered what sort of statute of limitations there was on that. To give herself a moment she took another sip of her coffee.

”I was born in 2004. I time traveled to get here. I can't say I don't know anyone but as far as anyone knows I've been missing or dead for the last seventeen years.” She said it all in almost one breath and sucked in another when she finished. Andy hadn't said that to anyone yet. Zari and her parents knew, obviously, but she hadn't told anyone.

Maeve nodded as Andy opened up with some information she had not been made aware of. Granted, that was by her own request. Still, it pleased Maeve that Andy was open to this. ”We can talk about whatever it is you want. The situation with Arcade may have been the starting event that got the ball rolling, but I am here to help with whatever it is you need in the moment.”

“So you time traveled here from 2004? How was that experience for you? I imagine it was somewhat of a shock. And a revelation to those that knew you in 2004 and then 17 years later. Did you share this with anyone? Parents? Siblings? Friends?”


”My girlfriend is aware.” That was an understatement. ”My mom is too. I never knew my biological Dad and I haven't spoken to my adoptive dad about it. I kind of left without saying anything. I don't have any siblings, that I know of. My mom very likely has had other children. As for friends, that's complicated. It turns out one of the friends I've made now is the son of one of my friends from before.” Andy was not ready to give details about who her family was and that she had been on Genosha.

”That’s a lot to handle. Still, it is nice to hear you have some support from others. Friendships can be complicated at the best of times, though I imagine your particular situation makes that different. How has all of this impacted your time at school? With the coursework and the contest amongst other events, as previously mentioned, a typical student would be understandably stressed.”

”I didn't have the most complete education before and the seventeen year gap has not been an easy hurdle. I feel like I have to study four times harder than the others to catch up to what I should have been.” Andy was honestly very stressed with trying to get a handle on all of that. ”I've gotten some help at least. From a couple of others. The contest itself sounds...magical. When I left, mutants were hated. It was a mess. Shortly after M-pox.” Shortly after the Drummonds deaths. ”There was a lot of hatred and resentment. And then I came here and Mutants are just,” she waved her hand encompassing the school and everything.
Maeve of course knew of the hatred of mutants. It was a topic of discussion during her time at school as well as her own experiences. ”Yes, growing up I heard stories of mutants and how they had to be feared. Harder still having ones power manifest. Things have gotten better thankfully and schools like this have done their part in that progress.”

“With the pressure of catching up on not only schoolwork, but really society as a whole, what do you do to take that stress off? The contest can be a nice distraction but that comes with its own share of stress.”


”The contest is fine. I don't mind being part of it. It isn't driving me or anything. I have no idea about modern social media. I've been meaning to try to figure it out but haven't had the time. I started reading the Percy Jackson series. A friend lent them. I like it. Kind of wish I had read it back when it was more age appropriate.” Andy pauses to take a sip of her coffee. ”I've honestly been so swamped between the two that I can't even find time to do something else. I suppose with the grade promise Coulson gave us will make it a bit easier.” She looks down at her coffee. ”That's why we were doing the extra training in the Framework. We all felt the pressure.”

Maeve nodded, making further mental notes. ”I know about that book series. And don’t worry, I still enjoy a young adult book now and then. The Hunger Games? Still a favorite. I think responding to that pressure in the way you all did is valid. It was a way to get extra help in preparation for something a lot of you were looking forward to and wanting to work hard at. You especially are in a unique situation having been from the past and making decisions for yourself knowing you have to take extra steps and put in more work to be where everyone else is. Do you find it makes it harder to relate to your classmates and, by extension, those on your team?”

That last question drove home. Andy had on a whim decided to abandon her time to follow Zari. Zari was sometimes impossible to understand but she still wouldn't change that choice. Zari kept her grounded and happy. However, there was so much boiling inside her.

”Yeah.” She answered simply. ”I also...since they were all born around the year I left. There is this feeling that I'm not seventeen. I've only lived that long but I should be, if I hadn't time traveled, in my thirties. I was friends with some of their parents, who think I am dead. Heck, one of their grandfather's adopted me. I think she hates me sometimes because of that. Then they all have seventeen years of pop culture and history and I was never great at it back in my own time with that stuff. I only got interested in b- movies about a year ago, relatively. And that was because of the Drummonds, who were murdered in a horrifying fire right after Christmas by some Purifiers, anti-mutants, and then m-pox happened and I was just fumbling from one thing to the next. For me that was just months ago. Not seventeen years. Then I joined this group and we stopped M-pox. When we woke up from that months later we were on Genosha. There I found out who my biological mom is. Then she turns around and tries to kill everyone and I just left. I didn't even think about it. Zari asked me and I followed. Started coming to this school, which by the way if you remember from 17 years ago how horrible mutants were treated going to a mutant school was a massive fear. But I'm here and I don't want to just keep stumbling between crises. I need to be prepared. And I'm not. Eventually people are going to come looking for my mom. And if I can't keep her out of their hands the world will be in danger again.” Everything came tumbling out. She hadn't wanted to say all of that but it was like an avalanche once it started. Her hands were shaking. She looked down at the coffee and drank half the cup. She really hadn't wanted to get into who her mom was. Discussing that couldn't be a good idea.

”It sounds like a lot of pressure on you, both one you're willing to take on and one you had thrusted on you. I get the sense talking about your mother spiked your emotions. While I am happy to address that area I want you to know you do not need to during this first session. But I am here to talk about it.”

“While I do not know about time travel and being displaced like you are, I think everyone experiences those feelings of unknown in who you are compared to others. Yours is on another level to be sure, but I will go out on a limb and say there are probably others who have similar feelings. This is why it is important to have a support network of people who want the best for you. But it is also important to know your own boundaries and what you want to share and when.”


Andy's hands tightened around the mug. The coffee didn't feel warm anymore. And there wasn't much left anyway. She finished it off then set the cup down.

”I have to take it. No one else could protect people from mom like me. I haven't told anyone new. They think I'm weird and old fashioned. I don't know how to socialize with them. I miss the ring and fighting and knowing a person from how they fight. I miss the Drummonds. And I miss thinking I'd be safe.” If Andy was honest with herself she hadn't really felt safe since she had been eight. But the death of the Drummonds had sealed away any hope of that.

”If I get strong enough to protect Mom then I'll be safe. No one else will protect me.” Except Zari.

”I am going to assign you some homework. This isn’t like school where you will be graded nor are you obligated to do this. I will sometimes assign homework if I feel it is in my client’s best interest and I think it will help. This is, assuming of course, you want to make this a regular thing. If you do, then for next time, I want you to sit with yourself in those feelings. The need, the desire to want to be strong to protect yourself. Allow yourself to feel all the emotions attached to that desire. Write them down if you want. Then, I want you to take a step back and think about allowing others in. Friends, family, other loved ones and other supports. Even if briefly, allow yourself to feel what it would be like to allow others in to help. Write that down too if you want.”

“Even if you do not want sessions to continue, I would still encourage this. And even if after this session if you do not want to come back, know that I will be a support for you in whatever you need it for.”


”I'll try. I am willing to continue meeting too.” Andy said. ”Thank you. I've been needing to talk about some stuff. And I've only scratched the surface of that.” Andy stood up sensing that this was the end of the session, and left the room. She felt better. ”Oh! She poked her head back in, ”Do you do family therapy?”






Location: School Field
Skills: Enhanced Reflexes (Passive)





Andy was surprised that the teacher didn't know them. Part of her was thankful for it. She raised her hand as Zari drew attention to them. "I'm not surprised you scared him. Your power would have been perfect for that situation. If he had let you into the Framework you would have beaten him in moments." She agreed.

"And yeah I don't blame her at all. Hell I know I've done things under external control. I am not happy about it, but I don't blame myself for it. Also, if she hadn't killed me in there I wouldn't have gotten out and gotten your help. We would have been in there longer. If it had been someone else they probably wouldn't have woken back up either." She shrugged. "I guess I should tell her that so she stops blaming herself so much. I told her, just before you came into the meeting, that I didn't blame her. I don't think she took it to heart though."

Now they had to wait for the all clear so they could go back into the building. There were a bunch of students milling about waiting. Some had just come out of the building and were making a fuss. Andy looked over and saw that it was the Wonder Trio plus their friends. Part of her wished she had gotten a better start with them. She was glad her and Dorian had worked through it and watched the movie together. However, the others still felt like they hated her. Leah was cool and Andy would love to be her friend. That group was so tangled up in their relationships though it was difficult. Andy knew she'd always feel like an outsider. At least she had Zari.
@Morose Updated Andy for approval




Ed Penior




Location: New Orleans - Botanical Gardens
Skills: Magic
Items:
Magic cloak (like Dr Strange that allows him to fly)
Protection Amulet from Klara



Ed had dodged a damn bus. Exodus was there and that guy was the worst. Chrysi had been stalling. Ed wished he could have kept talking to her. Kept trying to find a way forward. He understood Mary a bit better now. But he hadn't been there for all of those things. His family had been hiding doing their secret society bull shit. He needed to step up. He needed to take over the family and start doing good for the world. Too bad the family was so broken and few now. But it would be better than doing nothing.

That's what Ed was thinking about as he started trying to heal those who had been hit by the bus. Orange light flickered from his hands and failed to transmit to those hurt. He frowned. Hoping this wasn't something he had to be worried about. He cast the spell again, touching each Perry, Pietro, Jaclyn and Bethany's jars.

Again the spell flickered and then died out. Ed took a slow breath. Centering himself. Pushing the worry of his family and his own magic failing him aside. He couldn't let that concern him right now. Now he had to help his friends. This time his magic flowed from his hand and a tendril of orange light touched each of the four. They would feel warmth in the spots where they had gotten hurt and the pain would fade. Their bodies healing.
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