Morose

🦄 Soulless Regency - Merged With T.S.

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Virginia Crypt

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Location: Carlisle/Road to Gretna Green
Skills: N/A

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While some may have become outraged and infuriated at being corrected, Virginia took the correction with grace and smiled. The man was more well traveled than she had thought and it was a stroke of luck as well - for he had seen her father. The location of India did not make much sense to her still, but she did not doubt Ny. She took him at his word, a decision she felt in her soul that she would not regret. She smiled slightly as he said that he was going to write about her and she had to wonder what he was going to put. She wasn't going to ask however how Ny would remember her - it was a personal thing and she had no reason to believe he would write ill of her. And if he did, it would not be the first time someone had thought poorly of the Crypt family.

She was genuinely touched as he handed her a journal and a pencil. "Thank you - it is beautiful," she said, giving him an honest smile. "I wish that I had something proper to give you in return," she admitted. It felt a bit odd to her, to not give an exchange here. He had given her something precious and she wished to be able to do so in return. However, there was one thing she could do, as she picked up the pencil and began to write on the first page, describing Ny. "For now, I shall just have to write about you until I can remedy this," she told him. She would have to fill in the pages with details on Mary and Elizaveta and Millicent and James and all that had come to be - but that could wait. Her memory was sharp enough for now.

However, each time he mentioned Ludwig, she had to admit she felt a little something. That was something to think about later.

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Maeve Brennan

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Location: House Kirkpatrick - Outside of the Study (Main Floor) -> the Parlor
Skills: N/A

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She nodded as Lady Kirkpatrick took the letter, following the elder woman into the parlor and shutting the door behind them firmly. She didn't anticipate that anyone would be back soon, but it was best to take precautions, especially if the conversation was going to be as sensitive as Maeve anticipated it would be. There was something about Millicent's letter that told her it would be important to Lady Kirkpatrick's affairs - and her loyalty was to the woman whom procured Roisin's safety, not to one who showed up out of nowhere and left as quickly as she came. She pitied Millicent and pity did not buy Maeve's loyalty.

Bartending was not something Maeve was unaccustomed to - it was how she had helped her family to earn their more legal living. Getting the proper supplies out, she fixed up a drink for Lady Kirkpatrick and brought it over to her, before making one for herself. She prepared both of them to be rather stiff, figuring that Lady Kirkpatrick would want something strong and would scowl if she served her anything less than that. "I 'ope 'tis to yer likin', me lady," Maeve told her, referring to the drink. Seeing the reaction to the letter, Maeve grimaced slightly, though she was swelling with pride on the inside. Her gut instinct had been right. "If yer don't mind me askin', what does it say?" she then asked, taking a seat herself. It had something to do with her nephew, she suspected, given Lady Kirkpatrick's comments about pruning the tree. Still, Maeve was curious as to what the fuss was over.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Guin Stark

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Location: The Palace - New York City, New York (Outfit)
Skills: N/A

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"And you'd leave me alone here by myself? Rude," Guin teased him softly. She had her medium length brunette hair in a partial up-do, with an elaborate diamond necklace around her length and a matching bracelet on her wrist. She had her amethyst engagement ring on her left ring finger, the stone slightly breaking up the color scheme of her outfit but she didn't care. She loved it anyways. The dress was a navy tulle cutout gown and she had a pair of black wedges on. Now of course, given that she was marrying into the Royal Family, the Stark Industries heiress also had makeup on.

She glanced around the room, picking out her fiancée's brother going around talking to everyone. She couldn't help but be disappointed that Demetria had had to leave for a Red Guard mission. Lorna was always off working on her dissertation and Wanda assisted Magneto on most matters, meaning that Demetria was the closest thing she had to a female friend - one that she could often see, at any rate. Her best friend lived states away and Guin rarely got to leave New York City these days. "Buuut you could tell me what you got me for the first day of Hanukkah?" she asked him, before feeling an odd sense of déjà vu. It was something like that or a daydream - as if she and Pietro had discussed these sort of things before recently.

Guin however reached behind her back and pulled out a little box. "This is yours," she told him with a slight smile. She had designed it herself over at Stark Industries. It was a dreidel that could withstand the kinetic energy of a speedster - meaning that if Pietro gave it a proper spin, it wouldn't burst into flames from the energy and friction.

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Casper Theriot

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Location: LeBeau Casino - New Orleans, Louisiana
Skills: Mediumship, Acting, Deception, Psychology

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Casper didn't remember what he had been doing before he found himself in a basement - there was booming music coming from up above, so he was likely underneath a club or casino or something. Over at the table, his brother was holding some little kid in his lap as she colored - and that kid was definitely not his. "Uh, Ben? What was I doing like... ten minutes ago?" Casper asked his friend. His ability allowed him to see ghosts and ever since Ben died, his best friend had been haunting him. It was rather sweet and helpful.

"Watching makeup tutorials on YouTube..." Ben replied, the confusion evident in his voice. "Casper, I don't think this is you hallucinating... I'm pretty sure the drugs you take can't make me see weird shit too, right? I'm dead. I don't have a body to process them..."

He pinched his arm, trying to tell if he was dreaming or not, but it didn't really hurt. It also didn't help that he couldn't remember the last time he used or what he had done. Sure, Ben would know but he didn't want to rely on his ghost friend entirely. He liked showing that he had a little bit of independence in his life. "Okay then..." he mumbled, before smacking himself as hard as he could across the face. "...Oww..." Casper whispered, his face stinging and full with pain. He definitely wasn't dreaming then and this wasn't fun enough for it to be a high in his opinion.

This meant then that somehow... this was real. Maybe his brother David had done something? The poor kid was in a mental hospital, but he had so many powers that Casper had lost track. He then looked at his brother again, doubting that Jack would believe him if he explained that nothing here was right and that Jack had definitely kidnapped some blonde child. He'd need to try to convince Jack that he knew what was going on and then... as much as he detested the thought... he'd have to go visit his old man in order to figure this one out.

"There's a candy bowl, Ben!" Casper exclaimed happily, grabbing a handful of lollipops and then a can of Dr. Pepper. He shoved the candy into his pockets, before going down next to Jack and sitting down next to him. The kid looked a little bit familiar, but he couldn't place it. "So uh... What's goin' on, little brother?" he asked, smiling at Jack.

"Dude, there is something seriously wrong here..."

"Sssh, shut up Ben!"

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Dominika Novikova

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Location: Red Guard Mobile Unit - Sydney, Australia
Skills: N/A

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It was a weird sensation and not one that Novikova could ever prepare herself for. Her powers were unique - while she could move earth and metal, she also could see alternate realities just by looking at someone. One moment, she had been taking care of business as usual at the Playground, relieved that there wasn't anything too serious going on... and the next, she was on a plane headed to Australia, with a parallel but contradictory set of memories in her head. She could remember both worlds at once and she realized why. It wasn't too hard for the nuclear physicist / SHIELD agent / now a Red Guard member to figure out. Her dimensional energy perception was allowing the two realities to coexist in her head.

She turned her head, looking at Maria through her ruby tinted glasses. It seemed that her power finally had a use, though Novikova couldn't decide if she wanted to know what was going on. She had memories of this life - memories of holding Maria again, kissing Maria, and... Well, the rest isn't proper for polite company. Novikova smiled slightly, but then her eyes fell on Tinley and her face fell a bit. She had memories of saying terrible, awful things to her, just because Tinley wasn't a mutant like the rest of the Red Guard. But she also had memories of the real world, where Tinley was her commanding officer - someone she both respected and betrayed. Sparky wasn't here and she felt a little bit of pain. They had worked so hard to bring Sparky back from the Quantum Realm...

Novikova sighed slightly. Was this world the better one? She didn't know. All of the thoughts about realities and dimensions were starting to give her a headache and she tugged on her hair slightly, only to notice that it was back to her natural silver shade. She wasn't hiding being a mutant here. "...How are you, Maria?" Novikova asked her partner, deciding to factor Maria's response into her next move.

If she did decide to go rogue, it wouldn't have been the first time she disobeyed her commanding officer anyways.

🦄 Darker Than Black - Merged With T.S.

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Cecily Ashworth

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Location: Grimm, Indiana (Police Station)
Skills: N/A

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Cecily grimaced slightly, hearing Roy slip slightly as he walked. The news that they were at a crime scene was not in itself alarming. Cecily had been to hundreds of crime scenes before. She would take her kit with her, collect all of the evidence she could, and write up a report for the coroner. This entire mess she was in had started with her running to secure the crime scene that was Danica's death before it could be contaminated. A small part of her even contemplated telling Roy to put on protective booties right now and gloves, in order to avoid touching anything that was evidence, but there was the reason why this was alarming. This crime scene could very well still have the criminal present.

She glanced around, trying not to feel too unsettled. She had to wonder what sort of forensic set up they had here - her first instinct would have been to say small, but this was Murder Town USA. They had to have recognized the need for forensics, right? Maybe she could volunteer to assist... her thoughts drifted off slightly, wondering if they could trust the law enforcement here. Roy seemed to, but then again, he could have just been watching them warily and waiting for them to slip up. She took a deep breath, deciding to stay as quiet as she could and follow Roy - though her gut instinct was telling her to take a quick sample of the blood on the ground too.

"...If you could not contaminate the scene, that would be great," she told Roy softly.

Roll Request

Character current location: Grimm PD
Characters attempted actions: Cecily is going to see if there is anything nearby she could use to collect a sample of the blood on the ground
Any and all skills being used: Cool Headedness
Why each skill is being called: Cool Headedness in order to not freak out if the Big Bad comes running in
Desired location of the character: Same as current location

The Gifted - Concluded

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@Nallore@FantasyChic@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@KazAlkemi

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Washington D.C.: September 8th, 2020 - 11:15 AM

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Homeless Shelter - Mutant Friendly:

"You taser me, I hula hoop you," Havok replied with a smirk. He always referred to his powers that way - as just him hula hooping. It was easier to explain than the actual process of energy being converted, amplified, and sent off in what seemed to be chaotic disks. And although he never thought too much about it, he knew that Xavier had told him he had the potential to be stronger than his older brother, Cyclops. He mostly just tried not to care about comparing himself to Cyclops, wanting to be his own person with his own life. He'd go mad trying to live up to the legacy of Xavier's golden boy.

"Going through the back seems fine to me," Havok said, trying to see if there was anyone coming out that way but he couldn't really see anything. With their luck, once they rounded the corner and found a back entrance, they'd come face to face with a legion of purifiers. The police wasn't going to be of any help anyways - they'd turn a blind eye to what the purifiers did and blame it on the mutants at the shelter.

Havok got out of the car, sticking close to Spark Plug as they went around the corner. He kicked down the back door and it opened effortlessly, revealing a bunch of mutant kids hiding back there. One of them was using their powers, moving more and more pieces of furniture against the door that led to the rest of the house. Instantly, one of the kids there started to vibrate their hands rapidly, as if they were about to phase through Havok and Spark Plug to attack them.

"Hey, calm down, we're the good guys - we're with the Underground," Havok said softly, holding his hands up.

Moonwalker will begin here as well - having been told by Colossus to go and provide back up to Havok and Spark Plug here at the homeless shelter. Moonwalker will be able to spot the pair heading into the shelter through the back entrance.

The Surface - ColdStones Near the National Zoo:

A few people in the store seem to be a bit on edge, but there's no telling if that's because they figured you were mutants or if they were just stressed out. People on the East Coast tend to be a bit uptight anyways! Wonder if they'll give Leighton a discount on the ice cream if she chills it for them?

The Mutant Underground - Washington D.C. Station:

Glimpse will have been given directions to the Mutant Underground. Not much to look at really, this Mutant Underground Station was located in an abandoned warehouse. Chain link fences separated it from the surrounding areas and weeds were growing out of the cracks in the pavement. The windows were covered in pieces of fabric, in an attempt to keep the cold out during the winter months. Glimpse will have been told to get in contact with Veil, the mutant running this station. She'll have a general description of her as well - wild curly hair, a sharp wit, powers over invisibility, and blue grey eyes.

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Veil

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Location: Jail
Skills: Perception

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"Is that really such a bad thing - acting like high schoolers?" Veil pointed out to her friend. She had attended Xavier's Institute for high school, only to be told that she lacked the temperament to be a member of the X-Men. She had changed a lot since her high school days, that much was for sure. But she didn't want that life - the life of living in safety up in upstate New York, isolated from the problems mutants were facing. The X-Men couldn't be everywhere at once and while they did help mutants, they also spent a lot of time and energy on issues that went beyond that call. That was why Veil agreed to run a portion of the Mutant Underground - it was an organization dedicated to helping mutants in their every day lives, not just when some colossal problem like the Dark Phoenix occurred.

"Besides, you are blushing so much it is obvious that you have the hots for Freddie!" Veil exclaimed, giggling like a madwoman. There were two sharp bangs on the door, followed by a gruff order to keep quiet. Veil bit her lip slightly and instantly regretted it. She was more durable than most people, but she was still in a lot of pain - but the pain didn't stop the smile from tugging at the corners of her lips. "When you get married, are you going to be Mrs. Flynn or will he be Mr. Sapphire?" she asked, knowing that Sapphire never used her human name. She didn't blame her. It had been ages since anyone called Veil by her birth name - Valery.

In fact, she was fairly certain the last person had been Xavier himself - though he always referred to her as Ms. Simmons. She always felt a bit like she was in trouble whenever he called her that, as if Xavier was scolding her like a child. For a brief moment, she wondered how her parents were doing up in Nova Scotia. It had been years since she spoke with them. However, she didn't let her mind wander too much. Keeping Sapphire from freaking out and having a PTSD episode was one of her primary goals at the moment - as was teasing her about her love life.

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Sunshine

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Location: the Morlock Tunnels
Skills: N/A

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"You think too much," Grimlock whispered into Max's mind. There was then a subtle decrease in pressure, as if he had just gone to a new elevation, but in reality it was just Grimlock withdrawing from his thoughts. Older telepaths were able to withdraw without that slight change in pressure, but she was young and needed to get more experience, so it wasn't too surprising. Erg was about to say something to Sunshine, probably due to her callous comments, but he was cut off as Max jogged on over.

Sunshine's eyes widened slightly as he mentioned people detained in a mutant Super Max. That had been what had happened to her friends. She would have done anything back then in order to break them out - but she knew that escape was practically impossible from those facilities. No one who went into a mutant Super Max came out alive. "As much as I would love to get myself killed for strangers... I don't love that," she told Max bluntly.

Erg's expression had hardened - somehow that was possible! "Language," he warned James, though he was relieved to see that the man caught himself in time. Erg wasn't certain how old Sunshine was, but with a name like Sunshine he was pegging her as being around 15 or 16 at the oldest. There were also plenty of young kids down here and they didn't need to hear that sort of talk. He waited to give Max a piece of his mind until James had finished speaking. At least James had some sense about him. "If you are going to break into a mutant Super Max, when you leave these tunnels, you will not be welcomed back," Erg told him bluntly.

"The same goes for Stretch," he concluded. Erg and Stretch had an incredibly tense relationship to begin with.

Blink then came over to them, looking a bit worried. "We've got police and purifiers crawling around near the tunnel entrances on the surface," she told Erg. Erg just nodded grimly, grabbing his gun. The odds of people finding the Morlocks were slim but he was going to be damned if he wasn't going to prepare to defend his home.

"...The other two are still up there," Sunshine said, noticing that Stretch and Leighton weren't anywhere to be seen in the tunnels. Stretch was annoying but he was nice - and he seemed like someone she could trick if she needed to into getting her things she wanted. Leighton irritated her, purely because she had the life that Sunshine wished she had - she was able to afford to get her nails done, to sleep in a real bed, to not go hungry. "Are you gonna help them?"

Erg nodded. "Stretch may be an idiot, but he is a part of my community."

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Spirit Box

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Location: Sephora -> Sidewalk
Skills: Mediumship

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Casper was enjoying himself splendidly, leaving the Sephora and walking down the street. He passed a bank on his way and similar to what happened to Leighton, the alarms were triggered, detecting the presence of his X-gene. He groaned slightly, hating the obnoxious sound of the alarms and Casper waved his hands around. "I'm not even trying to go into the bank! I'm just walking!" he complained. "Seriously, do you pick the most ANNOYING sound on PURPOSE?!"

"Dude, you might want to get out of here... Those alarms are probably programmed to call the police..." Ben pointed out, shaking his head slightly. Once more, he had to wonder how he was the dead one and Casper was still alive. With everything Casper did, he should have died a long time ago. The only explanation that Ben could come up with was that he was either too dumb or too stubborn to die.

"I didn't even steal from them! I stole from the old lady!" Casper shouted, a bit mad and Ben sighed, unable to believe that his friend could be this clueless at times. Apparently he hadn't inherited his father's brains. "Ugh, fine, whatever, this strip mall is dumb anyways..." he complained, walking off calmly away from the alarm. Police hadn't shown up yet, so it seemed that he had a minor stroke of luck. His mind had started to wander a bit though and he glanced at the remaining money he had on him.

It was time to go and score, Casper decided.

The Gifted - Concluded

@KazAlkemi Luna is going to start off outside the Mutant Underground, having been given the address and being told to go find Veil there

The Gifted - Concluded

@KazAlkemi ... I love that that is a phrase we have to type lmao - normal people empathy

Kay, looks good, move him on over. I'm going to have him be directed to go help Havok and Spark Plug out. He'll be brought in with tonight's update.

The Gifted - Concluded

@KazAlkemi Empathy - you mean normal person empathy and not super power empathy yes?

Otherwise, Dumbledore looks good to go.

🦄 Deeper Than The Sands - Merged With T.S.

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Gene Benaszewski & Nora Kingston

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Location: Tours/Train Depots
Skills: N/A

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Nora smiled slightly when Mahendra addressed her as Miss Kingston - it was a nice change and her preferred manner of address. She had not done anything in her life that warranted being called Lady Kingston - and besides, to her Lady Kingston referred to her mother or her sisters. She was just plain Miss Kingston - just Nora. She wished to stand on her own merits and not based on the circumstances of her birth. Nora took a seat down next to Lauren, glad that the window seat was the one available for her. She adored looking out windows and watching the world go by. There was something serene about it. And at any rate, she knew that Lauren was the more conversational of the two.

Gene chuckled slightly and nodded at Reginald's description of old age. She was tempted to ask him what season of her life she was in, according to his analogy. It would have been amusing regardless of his answer. Pausing for a moment as she glanced around, she saw that J.C. was sitting with Bella and Lauren appeared to be saving a seat for Nora. She was infinitely amused with the Lord Major and Gene decided to sit down next to him. It wasn't like George was there for her to bother anyways - she hoped that he was having at least something akin to fun, back on the ship. "Hope you don't mind," Gene told the old gentlemen, having not really asked if she could sit next to him or anything.

Miss Kingston did have to wonder if her theory would be right - that no matter where they went, something odd would happen. She did not understand why this group in particular had been selected for these occurrences, but she similarly did not understand the brand that had appeared on her body. She knew that Neema had told her she had been marked, needing to protect the Bastet - but from a scientific standpoint, she was having a hard time rationalizing it all. There had to have been some sort of cause for the brand, something beyond magic and mythos. But if magic was the only answer that remained... perhaps it was indeed real. Just because she had never seen it before in her life did not mean that it was impossible - merely improbable.

Gene swung her legs slightly, hoping that the train would get on with things and pull out already. They had about five minutes until they were going to head on over, from what the conductor was announcing. It was funny - she sometimes felt like she was stuck in a boring loop of repetition, with nothing every really changing. And here she was, someplace vibrant and new and Gene already was bored with the train. She wanted to press onwards, to get to the exciting ruins and features in this area. There was so much of this world to see and while she had seen a lot already, she wanted to see more. New things were finally happening!

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

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Guinevere Stark and Pietro Maximoff

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September 18th, 2020

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It had been a few hours since they had taken down Mesmero, since everything that had happened at the warehouse. Pietro had almost forgotten about something that he had originally been planning on doing the night before, but the whole situation with Mesmero caused problems for them. It hadn't felt like the right time for it, so now he went to go find Guin. "Guina?" he said once he found her.

Guin glanced up from what she had been working on. She was improving the security of the laboratories, namely the highly sensitive information that they wouldn't want to get out again. Her idea had been to attach a dormant virus to the files that would have to be disabled using a second authorized individual, in order to prevent Mesmero from repeating this stunt to get the Cerebro plans hopefully - or at least make it more challenging. "Did I work through dinner? Shit, sorry..."

"It's okay Guina, don't worry, it isn't quite that late, so no, you didn't work through dinner," he said, chuckling slightly that she had lost track of time so much that she automatically assumed that she had.

"Oh," Guin grinned, a bit proud of herself. "Cool. So what's up, Silver Balls?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

She nodded a bit, wondering what exactly Pietro wanted to talk to her about but she assumed it had something to do with Mesmero. Understandably, loads of people were shaken up after everything that had happened, so she quickly saved her progress on her work and turned off the computer she was using. "What is it?"

"Want to know what I had been doing before Mesmero messed with my head? After I had talked to older X-Men people I mean..."

"...Okay, I am curious, not going to lie," she admitted. Pietro had been the first one Mesmero controlled. Given his speed, she had to wonder how exactly Mesmero managed to slow him down enough to catch him in the first place. She had assumed initially that Mesmero must have caught him while talking to the pair of old X-Men closest to the Mansion - but Mesmero had been in New York City and no ex-X-Men lived there.

"I was going shopping actually, but leaving the store before I could take off running I literally bumped into him, turned to apologize since I didn't recognize who it was I had run into, and boom, that's when he got control of my head... So much fun..." he said, giving her a slight smile.

Guin giggled slightly. "Okay, so several strange things in that story besides Mesmero - one, that you were shopping and not shoplifting and two, that you apologized," Guin teased him, sticking her tongue slightly out at her boyfriend playfully.

"Actually with what I was getting I wanted to make sure wasn't stolen or stuff like that..."

She was smiling at him. "And just what were you getting? I assume not those Department of Defense hats you brought back since those definitely were stolen - epic, but stolen." The hat he had given her was sitting on the table next to her computer in fact.

"This..." he said, pulling a little box out of his pocket and setting it next to her.

Guin looked at the box, her eyes widening a lot and her heart started pumping quickly. "You know, one of the theorems of quantum mechanics states that things aren't the way they are until we act on them... So until I open that box and observe what is inside of it, there technically is exactly what I think will be there and something else, coexisting at the same time until the wavefunction collapses," she told him, rambling a little bit as she picked up the box.

"Theories are so boring though, so why not open it and find out already? Suspense is over rated anyway."

She nodded slightly, opening up the box to reveal an amethyst engagement ring. Even though she knew that her future self had married Pietro, she still didn't know how to react to this. Neither of her parents were married. In fact, her father had more or less been a revolving door when it came to partners when she was growing up, only settling on Pepper a little after she was ten years old. Her paternal grandparents had been married but she never met them, as they died in a car accident. And her mother's side of the family? She liked to pretend that they didn't exist.

"Was going to ask last night, but things got a bit um... Messed up to say the least... Anyway, so Guina, will you marry me?" he asked her, not really caring to be all formal about it.

Her eyes watered slightly and she quickly tried her best to dry them. Although marriage had never been in her life plan... she loved Pietro and never wanted to be with anyone else. Guin knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. "Of course I'll marry you," she told him, grinning.

"Yay!" Pietro said with a smile, before he picked the ring up and slipped it onto her hand.

She started giggling a bit, looking at her fiancé who had just said yay. She then reached into her pocket and took out Muscles' wedding ring, before she slipped it onto Pietro's ring finger. "I think this fits you nicely?" she commented, hoping that he wouldn't be upset she had given him Muscles' ring or anything like that.

"Wow, still a little surprised you carried this thing around for a while... But it doesn't matter, it works for me," he said, before he gave her a kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him back. Bedroom? she suggested through the mental link. Sure, he said with a grin.

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Marygold Isley and Guinevere Stark

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September 19th, 2020

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Guin was feeling more and more like her old self. Everything that had happened with Mesmero had been awful, but she couldn't help but smile slightly looking at the ring on her left hand. She never was much into diamonds, but she did love the color purple and beyond having to take it off when working in the lab, it didn't get in the way too much. Knocking on the door to Mary's room, Guin had two things of Dr. Pepper and a bag filled with assorted candies with her. She also had a variety of movies, including Mary's favorites. "Mare?" she called out. "It's Guin. Your annoyingly amazing best friend."

"Come in Guin," Mary called through the door. She was currently reading a book, having taken to being a bit by herself lately since the Mesmero incident. She didn't really tell anyone why that was the case, but she seemed to just prefer being by herself, though it wasn't too hard to figure out the reason for those who know her. Mary hated the idea of hurting anyone, and the fact that she could have caused a lot of damage still freaked her out a little.

Opening up the door and heading inside, Guin set down the junk food and movies in front of Mary. "I'm here to eat crow... I pushed you away, Mare, after Muscles died and... that wasn't cool of me," Guin said softly, deciding to just get this over with. She fidgeted a bit with the ring on her hand. "I'm sorry... I'd like to go back to that sister like friendship we had before, if you're willing," she then asked.

"...I can understand why you pushed me away Guin, it was hard on you, that much was obvious... And I'd be perfectly fine with things going back to the way they were before that whole incident... Things were better then than they have been, I can tell you that..."

She nodded, sitting down next to Mary and giving her friend a hug. "Yeah, it was rough but... That doesn't excuse me shutting you out. You're my best friend and I didn't treat you like one for a while..." she trailed off, figuring the next thing she had to ask Mary would come a bit awkwardly after this, but she didn't know how else to say it and she wanted to know Mary's answer already. Only her father knew so far about this - Mary was the second person she was telling. "...Would you be my maid of honor, Mare? Piet asked me to marry him yesterday and I - I said yes."

"...Congratulations on that Guin," Mary said with a smile. She was happy for her friend, not sure what else to really say about that one as she returned her friend's hug. Hearing the other part, Mary couldn't help but smile at he, "Of course I would be happy to."

"Thanks," Guin couldn't help but smile, looking at the ring and showing it to Mary. "I kinda have no idea what I'm doing, since it's not like my parents were married at any point in their lives so... I honestly have no idea at all what to do or what needs to be done, but I know that you are definitely a type A personality and you made that amazing little swirly flower and you're my best friend so... I need you so hearing that you'll be my maid of honor is a huge relief."

"I'll happily help you out with anything Guin... Don't worry, if you need anything I'm here for you, I always have been. And that ring is beautiful, not too surprised that he didn't go for a diamond or anything, amethyst definitely suits you."

"You really are the best, Mare," Guin told her honestly, giving her friend another hug. She promised herself that she wasn't going to shut Mary out if she went through another trauma like that again. Mary had never done anything like that to her, always being open and honest and being there for her if she needed it. Grabbing the sodas, she handed one over to Mary. "Do you want to just keep on talking and watch Jumanji maybe?" she asked, pulling out the DVD and showing it to her. She preferred the original movie over the sequel. "Also, fun fact, he actually paid for the ring. It isn't even stolen."

"Now that is surprising. Your future husband is a bit of a kleptomaniac... Let me guess, he went to your dad to ask for the money for it so he didn't have to steal it? As for Jumanji and talking, I am all for that, works for me."

Guin nodded, getting the movie and putting it in the DVD player in Mary's room, before getting the TV all ready to go. "This feels so retro, watching on a little TV," she commented as she worked. Back home at Stark Tower, they had a private theater. She got to see movies about a month before they were released to the public. Sitting down next to Mary on the bed, she grabbed the bag of prepopped popcorn she had brought up with her. "And yeah, apparently he went to talk to my dad to get his blessing two days ago - bit old fashioned but he is from Serbia so I'm not too surprised."

"Well not all of us come from rich families or whatever you know. And sure, he's a bit old fashioned, but honestly that isn't that bad all things considering you know."

She giggled slightly. "I know - but think about it... What if he wants me to change my name to be Mrs. Guin Maximoff?"

"I don't think he will, especially if you tell him you don't want to or whatever."

"I've honestly never thought about it," Guin admitted. She knew that some people liked to dream about getting married one day and they already had an idea as to what name they would take, if any. Some of the girls and boys at her boarding school had picked out names for their future children and knew what style dress or suit they wanted to wear. Sure, she knew there was a good chance she and Pietro would get married thanks to Muscles, but this stuff hadn't been what she spent her time thinking about. She didn't even know if she wanted to get married in a dress or not.

"Well, knowing Pietro I'm pretty sure that he'd be fine with no matter what you did."

She nodded again, having a bit of a silly/dreamy smile on her face. "I am really happy that he asked me... My dad, not sure how he feels about it."

Mary giggled slightly, seeing the expression on Guin's face. She felt better and happier than she had in a while ever since the stuff with Mesmero had happened. "Well clearly he's accepted it otherwise odds are he wouldn't have given Pietro the money."

"What's the giggling for?" Guin asked Mary, nibbling on a handful of Goldfish.

"No reason Guin... Just glad to see you smiling and all happy."

Guin rolled her eyes at her friend. "You are such a Hufflepuff sometimes, Mare. I know you want to be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor - probably Gryffindor, knowing you - but you just can't help but be a little gooey marshmallow on the inside," she teased.

"Whatever you say Guin," Mary said with a slight laugh, shaking her head at her.

"Oooh can weddings have themes? We could do a Harry Potter wedding!" Guin suggested excitedly.

"Okay, saying this now, fairly certain that Pietro would not let you have a themed wedding."

She paused for a moment. "He'd probably say yes if it was Star Trek themed," Guin mused. It was her boyfriend - well, now fiancé's favorite show to watch. She fell on the Star Wars side of that rivalry, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy watching Star Trek episodes with him and pointing out that she would be considered a red shirt.

"He's a bit old fashioned as you pointed out before, so I don't think even then he'd go for it."

"True... Oh well, a girl can dream about wearing Harry Potter robes since dresses aren't really my thing..."

"He's going to make you wear a dress whether you want to or not Guin."

She wrinkled her nose at that. Her dad had made her wear dresses to Stark Industries events before, despite her insistence that she would be a lot more comfortable in a power suit instead. "Bleh, I hate dresses. They're the worst. My legs are always freezing in them and I feel like they're just designed to show off people's boobs."

"Yeah well, pretty sure you'll survive wearing a dress Guin. It's kind of generally what is worn by the bride you know."

"...Fine, as long as there are no heels," Guin rolled her eyes, taking some more GoldFish.

"You might need them because of the height difference," Mary teased.

"He's not that much taller than me!"

"He's like, 8 inches taller than you!"

She shrugged. "Then he can just lift me up for the photos, I hate heels!"

"Ever heard of wedges? They add the extra inches but are more like flats than heels and don't have it so you are like, walking on a spike or something."

"... See, this is why I want you to be my maid of honor. You've got good ideas. Oh, and don't worry... I am not asking you-know-who to be a bridesmaid, so you don't even need to get stressed out about that," Guin told Mary. She wasn't friends with Ayita, but she wanted to make sure that Mary knew she wouldn't have to be in that sort of situation at all. Guin had heard some of the things Ayita had been saying to Mary lately and it was horrifying, to be honest, that someone could be that cruel. She thought Ayita had been a better person than that.

Mary smiled at that, really glad that Guin wasn't going to have Ayita be a bridesmaid. She had tried to patch things up between them, but it didn't seem like Ayita was letting her do that. Though she started getting a slight headache now, but she wasn't going to let Guin know that. "Good..."

Guin nodded. "If you need me to do anything regarding that entire mess... Let me know. Richard owes me a favor."

"Honestly Guin? I don't think you can do much about that entire situation."

She grimaced slightly. "Yeah... It's just really shitty. But I know what I can do is offer you some of this variety of junk food I have. I can even get Piet to go grab us some deep dish pizza from Chicago if you want?"

"That sounds like it would be amazing," she said, smiling slightly at Guin.

Piet, can you get Mare and I some deep dish pizza from Chicago? Guin asked him, using the mental link. She had gotten the idea from the Flash TV show, since the Flash was always running off to Keystone City to get pizza for his friends back in Central City. "Okay, I asked him, so I hope you are hungry."

Alright, came his response. Mary nodded her head, glad that they were going to have pizza and such. Watching movies, probably talk about the wedding maybe, it was going to be fun.

Yay! I love you. Guin grinned, giving Mary two thumbs up to indicate that Pietro would be playing pizza delivery service for them. "Okay, so what else should I know about the wedding stuff...We talked about how I have to wear a dress or whatever, and then the not heeled flat things... wedges, right, that's what they're called..."

"I think I have a pair of wedges here somewhere..." she said, before she got up and went to her closet, looking around. After a moment, she pulled out a pair of shoes to show Guin what exactly they were. "These are the sorts of shoes I was mentioning, they are much easier to walk in than heels."

Guin put aside the junk food, getting off the bed and going over to Mary. "Those are actually kinda cute," she said, a bit surprised. "Of course never tell anyone I said that. I have to keep up my reputation as dressing like a street rat," she added with a bit of a giggle. She knew that Pietro would love it if she wore nicer clothes, but a large part of it was she wanted to be comfortable and she was stubborn as hell.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Anyway they are a lot easier to walk in then heels by a mile." she said, before there was a knock at their door. It was Pietro with their pizza.

Guin headed over to the door and opened it up, beaming at her husband-to-be. "You are really the best," she told him with a grin. "I'm assuming one of those pizzas is ours and the other ten are for you?" she giggled a bit, knowing that Pietro's metabolism required him to eat a lot.

"You know me too well Guina," he said with a smile as he handed her a box of pizza.

"I don't know if that is possible," she told him, giving him a kiss.

"Have fun you two," he said with a slight wave, before there was a gust of wind and he took off.

Guin then shut the door and put the box of pizza on the bed, opening it up. Thankfully, Pietro had included some plates and even some forks if they needed them. Deep dish got messy super easily. "Okay, so what's next to chat about? I'm assuming you don't have anything going on in your love life which is a shame - though Gambit did ask me if you were still dating Folly..."

"He's ridiculous about that and won't believe me when I tell him that we were never dating!!!!"

She cackled slightly, getting a piece of pizza for Mary and putting it on a plate for her, before getting herself a plate. Jumanji was playing in the background and it was about halfway over. "Why does he think you two are or were dating, anyways?" Guin asked. Mary never really struck her as someone that swung that way, so to speak. She had her own life and career and her plants - not really much room for a relationship and people didn't need those to be happy.

"Just because when Folly first came to the mansion and everyone told me to stay away from her I didn't and instead befriended her. I don't swing that way at all... Is that the only thing he mentioned about Folly?"

"He mentioned something about some corporate job he had and the CEO wanting to recruit her... He, obviously, gave a hard no to that," Guin told Mary. She didn't really know Folly, but she knew that the girl was insane. Her mutation also prevented any medication from really helping her, meaning that Folly's sanity was just going to get worse and worse as time went on. "I think he said he's working for Serval Industries - they're having some sort of private superhero team, which is interesting, but also will never kick ass as much as the Avengers."

"...Remy working for some company? That's a shocker, though I can totally understand why he'd say no to Folly being on any superhero team... She's too unstable... Last time she was here at the mansion she might have stabbed Remy..."

She raised an eyebrow at Mary, taking a bite of her pizza. "So I'm taking it she most definitely did stab someone then? Good to know."

"Yeah... Um, can we talk about something else now, just about anything else will work."

Guin paused for a moment, before she started snickering. "Okay then. Marygold Isley, Fuck, Marry, Kill? Your choices are Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Magneto." She used to love playing these sorts of games with Lance - MASH was always her favorite and she tended to have better success getting him to play that, rather than Fuck Marry Kill. But hey, they were pretty much having the semi-stereotypical female hang out session - they might as well lean into it.

"Yeah no, especially given those choices of yours!" Mary said, before she threw one of her pillows at Guin. She generally didn't mind the game, but was not going to pick from those three no matter what happened.

Guin narrowly managed to get her pizza out of the way, before the pillow hit her in the face. "Fine, fine - how about... Jakobsen, Loki, and Xavier?" she asked cheekily, throwing the pillow back at Mary.

"Nope, not happening."

"Okay, but you know the rules. You can't skip on the third set - Mr. Fantastic, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man," Guin posed to her friend.

"Yeah, no, I'm passing on the game entirely."

"Lame!" Guin giggled. "Okay, how about MASH? I used to play it to keep myself entertained whenever Dad made us fly to Europe so he could watch someone race one of his cars. Honestly, I totally approved when he decided to drive one himself - much more macho than just owning one and not doing anything with it really."

"Alright fine we can play MASH," Mary said with a laugh, shaking her head.

🦄 The Paradoxical Emendation - Merged With T.S.

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Andromeda Aldrich

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Location: Ville au Camp - Main House - Room 100: Parlor
Skills: N/A

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Andromeda didn't get to take too much of a breath before she found she was no longer alone in the parlor. Truthfully, Sophia hadn't been the person she expected to go check on her, but it made sense after a moment of reflection. She was arguably the sweetest person there. The Emendators were too busy to check in on her and she didn't fault them for that - they had things to discuss with Siduri. Part of her had wondered if James would come follow her, but he seemed to wrapped up in everything that was going on. If Bart or Faith had gone into the parlor to check on her, she would've asked to go buy lottery tickets - since apparently the impossible and improbable would have become reality. "Yeah, I'm fine," Andromeda told Sophia. She crossed her arms slightly, leaning up against the wall. It helped her to feel a little bit more grounded.

"It's just... this is all eerily similar to my timeline - things that happened there, at any rate," she explained. "The End of the World, time travel shenanigans, paranormal abilities... I'm trying not to think too much about my life before this, but I guess the universe has a sense of humor," she shrugged a bit. She hadn't really talked with the other Paradoxes about the timeline she came from. There were little moments though, when they would reference events and things that were fictional on their worlds but real on her world and she would pause for a moment, thinking about it but she always decided to keep her mouth shut. She was trying her best to move forward, to not be so tied down to the past and her previous life that the Destruere would come. Belladonna had taught her that.

"Thanks for checking on me, though, I appreciate it - but I don't think I'm going to go all Force Ghost just yet," she told her, giving her a slight smile.