Morose

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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The bell rang and first period ended, with Guin collecting her things and pulling out her phone. She glanced at the text from Lance and rolled her eyes slightly. It wasn't a question of if she'd get in trouble at this point - it was more a matter of when she'd get in trouble. And perhaps, how severely she would be punished for the actions she had every intention of committing.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
You know me. I never get into trouble.

She smirked slightly as she hit send on that, making her way to her genetics class. It was perhaps one of the few classes at MidTown Tech that she actually hadn't studied before. Yet it had been easy and straightforward so far. They had discussed probability of inheriting traits, based on the simple model of dominant and recessive alleles. She was mostly interested in when they would discuss more advanced cases - such as genetic mutations. But according to the course syllabus, that wouldn't be for weeks.

When she got to class, she realized with a sigh that Lance was probably still at the nurse. She glanced around the room, not really remembering where she had sat the day before, only for two boys to wave her over. She paused for a moment before sitting down next to them. "Hi, I'm Guin..." she introduced herself.

Meanwhile...

Banner was still quite clearly pissed. "I'm coming to pick up my kid. Whoever did this to him - I expect they'll be suspended for a week for their actions! Anything less and you'll be hearing from Stark Industries' lawyers!" Banner shouted, before hanging up the phone in a rage.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin huffed, her nostrils flaring as Lance said he didn't even know the names of the kids that had beat him up. She started putting together a three step plan in her mind to flush out those responsible. She couldn't help but wonder how much cred she had left due to her last name and her moderately good looks. Hopefully, it'd be enough to complete her plan. If all went well, by the end of the day, the idiots who hurt Lance would be hospitalized. She didn't care if she got in trouble for it. It'd be well worth any punishment the school or her father could contrive.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
Physical descriptions?

The teacher didn't notice that Guin once more wasn't paying attention, instead tapping away at her watch. When homework was collected, Guin passed her sheet forward with the rest, her eyes sweeping around the room to find a suitable target for phase one. She spotted a guy in the corner - his name was Flash, if she remembered correctly - and she caught his eyes, giving him a sweet smile. He grinned back at her and Guin tried not to visibly gag.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
Don't worry, I'll take care of this.

Meanwhile...

"What the hell happened to my son?! Is he okay?" Banner exclaimed right off the bat. There was the sound of him punching a wall on the other end of the line as he heard Lance list his injuries. "Did they find the kids responsible for this?"

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin raised an eyebrow at her phone. If they were calling Banner about this, then it clearly wasn't a small incident. She had gone to private school her entire life - boarding school to be precise - but even Guin knew what the standards for calling a parent had to be. If Lance had just scrapped his knee on the way to class and felt a bit ill, he wouldn't have had Banner called in the first scenario or referred to it as a minor incident in the second. There was only one logical conclusion to draw - someone had attacked her best friend.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
Send me the names.

And like hell was she going to let someone get away with that. Lance's life was hard enough without people beating him up. After she beat the living daylights out of whoever had hurt him, she figured now was as good a time as any to teach Lance how to fight. If he didn't want to play Just Dance with her, fine. She'd teach him hand-to-hand then. It'd probably help him with his self confidence as well - and there was a chance Aunt Nat would help him out too. She had been the one to train Guin, after all.

"Ms. Stark, what could possibly be more fascinating than physics right now?" her teacher scolded, having finally noticed Guin playing on her phone.

"The amount of bullying and abuse in this school for the so-called best and brightest," Guin shot back. "You'd really think that if someone can take advanced calculus courses in their sophomore year, they'd know better. But hey, I guess that's where super villains with degrees come from, right? Or intelligent serial killers who don't get caught until they actually start leaving clues on purpose?"

"That's enough, Ms. Stark. Put the phone away or it'll be detention again," the teacher ordered sternly, her arms crossed.

Guin hesitated, before slipping her phone into her pocket. "See, was that so hard?" the teacher asked, before returning to the lesson. Guin then pulled up her messages application on her watch, waiting to see if Lance would send her any information on the punks she was about to go school after class. She couldn't help but smirk slightly at how silly the teacher was - did she honestly think her phone was the only electronic device she had on her?

Meanwhile, Banner picked up. "Hello?"

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Dean Kesseli

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Location: Blackbird

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Dean wanted to kick himself at Mira's rebuttal. He always did tend to be a little bit gullible, believing the rumors he heard. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry, man, that was dumb of me...Of course those rumors aren't true - Wakanda's a third world country after all," he said, making an awkwardly insulting apology. "But for someone who's never gone to school before...you seem really smart," he added. He wouldn't have guessed that Mira came from a country that lacked the resources needed to educate its population.

The idea of going to Stark Tower that the new kid had - that seemed promising to him. "Only problem with that is I'm pretty sure they don't just hand out that number...Where's Stark? She'd have it," Dean proposed. "And the others...I guess we just wait till the last possible second and then we leave," he suggested softly. He took a look at Lance before grabbing some bandages and nodding for him to sit down.

"Uh, let's not pull them out with a beak...If you can try to stitch up Beast, I can get these cuts cleaned and patched up for him," Dean said to Bethany. Although Carolina had volunteered, he had some medical training and had a vague idea of what to do. He gave Lance an awkward smile, quickly disinfecting his hands and putting on a fresh pair of gloves he found in the medical supplies. He hadn't imagined doing this when he woke up that morning - all he had really wanted to do was pass out flyers for prom and get the attendance to be higher than expected. Instead, he'd had to give first aid to Dr. McCoy, he'd insulted a Wakandan girl by accident, and now he was about to pull glass out of a new student's back - all while running from robots that wanted to kill them all, accompanied by the future version of Quicksilver.

What a day.

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Guinevere Stark & Folly Valeska

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Location: Grounds of the Institute

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Folly nodded, running towards the Blackbird without question. She ran into Charlie and Sara, raising an eyebrow at the pair. She recognized Charlie - he was so young now, it was a little strange to see. She herself looked largely the same after a decade, yet the others had changed dramatically. Pietro hardly looked anything like his younger counterpart in her opinion. In some of those she had seen, the largest difference was in the eyes - an innocence that was no longer there. She then looked at Sara sadly. "You both need to evacuate," Folly told them calmly. She pulled out her daggers and gave them a twirl.

"This isn't the time to make a heroic stand," she then advised them softly. She understood the temptation for heroics - but they didn't have her healing factor. She had every intention of covering the escape route for the others, keeping it clear so that way everyone could get out - especially Marygold. Two inexperienced kids would only be getting in her way.

Meanwhile, Guin was resisting the urge to punch Nina as well. She could see the self righteous look on the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's face and for a moment, she was seeing red. Punching Richard had given her some satisfaction, but it hadn't fixed the underlying problem that no one seemed to understand how the chain of command worked. She took her last EMP and lobbed it at an oncoming Sentinel, giving Pietro a quick smile as she spotted him. "Volim te, Pietro," she told him with a grin, having remembered that one short little phrase from the Serbian lessons.

Pulling her icer, she headed back with the others to the Blackbird, intending to stun any O.M.E.N. agent they crossed paths with. As she climbed onto the plane, she spotted a pale Lance that had lost a bit too much blood, covered with glass shards. "LANDO!" Guin called out, quickly running over to him. "What did you do, you idiot?" she asked him, looking him over to try to see if he had any other visible injuries.

"Uh, Ms. Stark?" Dean asked, raising his hand.

"Take a number, kid. My lab husband is in trouble and I don't want to find a new fume hood spouse."

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin glanced up from her desk as the bell rung and there was no sign of Lance. Had he decided to skip? It didn't seem like him. He had been rather adamant about always following the rules the night before. He'd finished his homework before she had even considered looking at her own. As the teacher started to take attendance and marked Lance down as absent, she considered getting up from her desk and looking for him herself. It was just too weird, in her opinion, for him to not be in class.

However, she also knew her dad would have killed her if she ditched class, especially after already getting detention. She instead put her notebook in front of her, taking her hair out of its ponytail and letting it down, as she placed her phone on the desk. With one hand holding a pencil and jotting down notes, she typed away on her phone furiously. Maybe it was a bit of a future stalking streak in her, but she managed to get a location on Lance's phone - and cross referencing that against the map of the school, it looked like he was in the nurse's office.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
What're you doing in the nurse's office?

She then paused, before sending off another message.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
Also be proud, haven't gotten detention yet.

To: Lando Calrissian (Lab Husband <3)
Today, I mean.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Once Lance left, Guin gave up all pretenses of even trying to work on her homework. She left it on the counter, taking her music with her as she walked to her room. She paused in the hallway for a moment, pressing a few buttons on one of J.A.R.V.I.S.' interfaces, followed up by typing in a manual override. To all security cameras, her room would be looped with footage she had taken a few days ago for just such an occasion - her, lying in her bed, just listening to her walkman.

Entering her room, Guin locked the door and set her walkman aside. She pulled out her phone, scrolling through Spotify until she found the playlist she was looking for. She didn't like to listen to modern music on her walkman. It felt sacrilegious to do so. She plugged her headphones into her phone, tucking her phone in her pocket before she climbed on top of her dresser. Pulling out a screwdriver that she kept for these occasions, Guin dismantled the vent cover, pulling it off and grabbing her stash. She smiled weakly at it, her hands still twitching.

Grabbing a few pills from the bag, she put the stash back in the vents and replaced the cover. She sat cross legged on top of the dresser, just staring at the pills. Her body was shaking lightly with need. Slowly, she raised her hand to her mouth, tilting it slightly so the pills would fall back.

"No...I can't do this..." Guin whispered, before hopping down from the dresser. Her entire body was trembling as she walked into her ensuite and flushed the pills down the drain, a single tear sliding down her face.

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The next morning was a Friday, universally agreed to be the best day of the week. At MidTown Tech, Fridays were shortened slightly, with school ending two hours early in order to allow the teachers a chance to get a head start on grading before the weekend. When Guin woke up that morning, she spent a good ten minutes in bed debating as to whether or not she should just skip class. She hadn't gotten much sleep that night. She had tried playing Just Dance against J.A.R.V.I.S. around 3 AM, since she couldn't sleep, but the A.I. was worse than Lance was at the game.

She arrived to class on time that day, dark shadows under her eyes. She didn't argue with the teacher this time, just sketching in her notepad.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin sighed, letting go of his hand. "Fine, whatever..." she grumbled. She went over to where she had abandoned her book bag and she picked it up, pulling out the homework assignments that were due the next day. She put in her headphones, before queuing up Twist and Shout. Guin then began to quietly work on the homework assignments. Her mind went faster than she could write down information on the page. She was tempted to write down because I'm not stupid for every step that asked for an explanation.

She eventually grew incredibly bored with the homework, only to find that she had barely made a dent in the pile. Had the material been advanced enough, she would have been able to focus on it. But instead, her mind solved each problem a few seconds after she glanced at it and the effort of putting down her thought process on the paper was exasperating at best. Her fingers twitched slightly against the countertop.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin pouted slightly. She loved playing Just Dance. And of course, she did want to go off on Lance about how it was pointless to just do things because someone said to do them, but she had to pick her battles. Just Dance seemed to be a better battle that inspiring teenage rebellion in her best friend at the moment. "Lando, you don't look silly or dumb - and if you do, then I look equally ridiculous playing them," Guin encouraged him.

She stood up from the couch and finished her drink, walking over to him and taking his hand. "Come on - shut up and dance with me," she urged him, singing the last few words a bit with a large grin. "Look, if we play Just Dance, then I'll do my homework or whatever. Sound good to you, Lando? And it'll be fun. I'll even let you pick the songs."

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin kicked off her shoes, before curling up a bit with her feet on the couch. She was completely unaware of Lance's feelings for her and if she had known, she wouldn't have been in such close physical proximity to him, as she just didn't feel the same way about him. He felt more like a brother to her than a potential boyfriend. "Why'd you do the homework?" she asked him curiously. "It's just practice for the exam - and if you already know of it, what's the point in bothering with it?" She'd tried the same argument on her boarding school teachers and they always insisted on homework - but she'd rarely turn it in and still ace the tests, meaning she passed the courses easily.

She then bowed her head mockingly as he acknowledged her getting detention so quickly. "Thanks, Lando. I do my best - going to make a goal of getting detention in two minutes or less tomorrow." She then grabbed the book from him and started flipping through it. It was interesting, but it wasn't what she wanted to do with Lance until he decided to go home for the day. "You wanna play Just Dance instead?"

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin tried to resist rolling her eyes at Tony during the lecture. Once he left to go back to the lab, she went over to the couch Lance was sitting on and sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He was her closest friend and she'd always felt incredibly comfortable around him, ever since they first met. Though, she smirked slightly as she thought back on that. She'd scared him unintentionally that day. Taking another sip of her soda, she glanced over at the book he was reading.

"Is that business or pleasure?" she teased him. "Guessing pleasure - since I don't remember being told to go check that one out from the school library." She wasn't all too happy about the gen ed program at MidTown Tech. Her boarding school had had the decency to allow them to combine some of those gen eds - so rather than taking strict English, she instead was taught Japanese and was able to watch anime to satisfy that credit. She had abandoned her bag by the mini bar as well, having no intention of doing homework.

"So...What're the plans for tonight, Lando?"