Ruby

Avengers Unlimited [On Hiatus]

I've been thinking about characters and wanted to run a few by you.

Rage from New Warriors, although reworked as a Super Soldier rather than Toxic Waste exposure

The Golden Dragon, as a pastiche of the Iron Fist gang and the Bronze Tiger character from DC (a Richard Dragon ally/enemy)

Wolverine (because goddam if I don't love me some Wolveriner)

@BangoSkank

I bet you'd write a good Logan.

Avengers Unlimited [On Hiatus]

@Ruby
Thanks for replying. We do have a discord server, it's linked in the first OOC post.
As for characters I am surprised that you considered Spitfire. I thought that she was too obscure.
As for other recommendations on characters, here is a list.
Classic Avengers:
- Iron Man
- Hulk
- Ant-Man
- Wasp
Powerhouse Avengers:
- Sentry
- She-Hulk
- Hercules
- Ares
Regular Human Avengers:
- Hawkeye
- Mockingbird
- Two-Gun Kid
- Hellcat
Space Related Avengers:
- Darkhawk
- Mantis
- Quasar
- Machine Man

Honestly there a lot more interesting Avengers, but that's just a small sample.

@Martian

I'm a fairly massive comic nerd who grew up going to old school comic cons.

Pre-cosplay, even. Gasp. I'll give it a hard think and join the server.

[1x1 RPs] How much should a character do in a post?

Seems like a question better asked to your partners in 1x1 RPs than the whole Guild, tbh.

But...wildly depends on your personal writing style. Whatever works for you. Whatever keeps you writing.

Avengers Unlimited [On Hiatus]

@Ultimate Spidey
You still interested in playing Blink? If you add how she joined the Avengers then she is approved.

@Ruby @Moonlit Ghost @Rekker
Are you guys still interested in participating? We've still got plenty of openings.

@Martian

Apologies! I just saw this. (I'm way more responsive on Discord.)

THAT is an interesting cast of characters.

I'm not sure I'd know who to throw in that team. If you have any ideas I'm all ears. lol (That only idea that springs to mind is Spitfire.)

Avengers Unlimited [On Hiatus]

What is the status quo of the mutants at the moment?

In other words, are we pre or post Krakoa era?

X-Men: Ascendancy

Events were transpiring in a chaotic sequence. Even given the variables, of which there were near infinite here, this was, as Ben Grimm would say, a shit show. Johnny warned them about the circus being in town even before they touched down. Reed was well aware of the situation on the ground, but it was good Johnny was alert and acting as perimeter already. Ben and Sue were reminiscing about the first time they meet the X-Men, while Reed engaged the automated systems for landing and responded to the demanding voice on radio comms.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Command, please identify yourselves."

Reed found himself merely raising an eyebrow, before depressing the button on the side of the microphone he had brought near his mouth. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Command, this is Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four," his tone remained neutral, despite his desire to ask them why S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Command couldn't recognize a version of the Fantasticar when it touched down in front of their eyes. The response of the voice began to come through before a shriek pierced through the signal, his ears, and from the judge of it, everyone else's ears.

"Reed!"

Sue's voice was clear to him, leaving him...curious. His neck stretched three feet and craned to the right, looking at the systems monitoring display at the auxiliary station of this reconfigured and more subtle-looking Fantasticar. "The decibels of that noise were off the charts."

"Then if fire is hot, why aren't we burning?"

Ben just looked confused. "...it ain't warm in here, Susie..."

Reed understood her. "If the sound was that loud, and if our sensors measured it correctly, why can we hear? Why aren't our eardrums burst and bleeding? What makes a sound that doesn't follow the scientific laws of nature? Was it the sound? Was it another force at play?"

Sue's head stopped, entranced out the window. "Um."

Reed rotated his neck and stretched the extra five inches in length to get a close view of the front window. "Oh. Ben?"

The first one out of the Fantasticar was Ben Grimm, out the lowered back ramp of the more unified and streamlined design. The orange-brown of the Thing's stone exterior was quickly painted red with laser light as he reached the bottom of the ramp, his only reaction a slow raise of his right hand to take the stub of a cigar burning cherry red as he inhaled one last time, before taking it between two of his stony digits, and flicked it in the general direction of all the armed S.H.I.E.L.D. meat bags. "Heh. You fellas forget what side we're on, or you jus' forget yer manners?"

Sue and Reed were quickly next to Ben, as Johnny landed in full dazzling fiery splendor. "Johnny," was all Sue said. A beat of their hearts later, and the blonde Johnny Storm in dark blue white trimmed Fantastic Four uniform stood where the Human Torch had.

"Relax, everyone, stand down," the red targeting lasers of over a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. response team members diverted from the Thing when Steve Rogers stepped out of the swirling red-gold energy of a portal conjured by the Sorcerer Supreme that walked just behind Captain America, immediately ignoring the commandos in favor of the giant energy dome that dominated the horizon around them.

"Captain, something is different..." Steven Strange sounded concerned, which made Reed Richards more concerned than he already was. It was never good when Dr. Strange was concerned. Now all that was missing was Valeria calling in with the Future Foundation's analysis to the issue of the Phoenix and Jean Grey. Missing that, Reed just focused on the fact that weapons were still trained on the Fantastic Four and two members of the Avengers who had just shown up. On Captain America. Something was very wrong.

"STAND. DOWN." The command was barked with the full weight and fury of angered authority. Reed recognized the man immediately, though it was noteworthy that Clint Barton was back with S.H.I.E.L.D. in a manner that gave him authority over commando teams. Red dots disappeared and the formation of the fire teams were broken. "Sorry, Cap," Clint and Rogers shook hands, before Clint gave a nod to Strange and turned to face them. "Sorry, Reed. The Acting Director of the National Security Agency is inside that."

That didn't match. "Theodore Bailey is a Deputy Director, Clint."

"Yeah, he was, until the Director was assassinated today and Bailey was next in line. The U.S. is angry and there are serious thoughts the mutants may be playing some 4-D Chess."

Reed couldn't help hide the disappointment in his voice, "Clint, they seriously think the mutants are controlling what's going on here?"

"MUTANTS!"

The shout came from one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. men, the Blackbird of the X-Men came almost silently swooping in from overhead--maybe thirty feet over Reed's head--for a landing adjacent to the Fantasticar. Of all the people Reed expected to see descend from the Blackbird, the very last of those expected was the one Reed ended up seeing. Chaos, indeed, Reed thought to himself as Iron-Man came down the ramp of the Blackbird ahead of a group of overly capable mutants.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. team put every red dot Iron-Man and the mutants. Barton stepped in behind their line of knelt and standing gunmen. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has jurisdiction here, X-Men."

"We are not here as X-Men, Clint Barton," Storm's voice came first as she stepped from behind Stark, eyes sparking and glowing with the brilliant white of lightning, "we are here as Krakoans. Multiple mutants have been trapped within."

"We know," was all Clint gave her, before a slight shake of his head and a look that was sympathetic, "but this is still our jurisdiction."

"Hawkeye, she's IN there, you're not stopping us from being here," the man said, sadly, and with a fanatic's truth behind it.

Clint's face hardened as it looked up to the top of the Blackbird's ramp and regarded Cyclops. "It's about the mutants trapped inside, or a God for mutants Cyclops? Because gotta be honest with you, man, getting kind of tired of this whole firebird cosmic god thing with mutants."

The S.H.I.E.L.D. team re-balanced their weight so they all stood, and threw their weapons at the foot of the Blackbird's ramp, their eyes glazed over with tell-tell emptiness of a mind-controlled by a telepath. Emma Frost's hands rested on her hips as she came to join Cyclops at the top of the Blackbird's ramp. "Jean Grey is no God, you scared silly fool of a man, just an irritating basic American bitch--but she is a mutant, and we ARE staying to ensure the safety of her and all the other mutants present. Do what you must to deal with this reality. Stark? Remove yourself from our ramp. You're leaking on it."

X-Men: Ascendancy

"I voted to execute you, for the record."

Those were the lone words Emma Frost uttered to Tony Stark at the start of the flight, as she walked past him without looking in his direction as she embarked onto their current iteration of the Blackbird. The cape she wore was snow-white, extending to mid-thigh, covering the skin-tight full corset of white leather and sparkling white-lace mesh that exposed the tops of her hips and the sides of her body. Her bottoms were little more than matching white shorts, or actual lingerie shorts, given their fit and how much they revealed...white boots covered her from mid-thigh on down, each seam accentuated in rows of tiny white diamonds.

Emma sat towards the front, with only Illyana Rasputin behind Tony among the five rows of seats. Unlike some of the jets the Avengers used over the years, the Blackbirds were typically smaller and more militaristic in interior design. The result was less legroom, but they could usually cram in a fair amount of people. Some Blackbirds were better than others, and designs tended to differ wildly depending on the generation of Blackbird used, but their current cramped rows of seats with a few feet of room for the pilot and co-pilot, with barely enough space for a center aisle? Cabling and tubing and hydraulics and more sticking out here and there? Not out of the norm for a Blackbird.

Beast and Cyclops took up pilot and co-pilot. Hank McCoy gave Stark little more than a single word greeting, the fallout of the Illuminati events before Battleworld and God King Doom still rubbed Hank's fur the wrong ways. At the end Tony had been unhinged, abandoning everything in the pursuit of some death, as Hank and the other Illuminati who kicked him out of the group had seen it. Cyclops had chuckled at Emma's response to the human before turning and starting to bleed engines and approach half-power. Beast handled the rest of the take-off.

"Strange to leave Krakoa like this," After an hour Magik finally spoke up after she watched mile after mile of ocean pass under them outside the window as they flew at top speeds for upstate New York.

Cyclops kept his attention on instrument panels even as he felt the need to respond, "Yeah, the Council voted against allowing Stark a flower for Gate travel."

"His own people barely trust him, there was very little discussion on the matter," Emma Frost spoke up, though her white shadowed and black lined eyes remained closed, either the result of a cat nap or telepathic concentration was impossible to say. "I believe Shaw laughed, and Mystique appealed for the rest of the council to vote again on how to respond to such blatant and disrespectful violations of Krakoan borders. I seconded, if only holding out hope someone as soft as Charles or Storm would grow enough spine to execute him and send the only of message men like Stark understand."

Beast's only movement was that of his wrists and hands, his fur was slicked back, his eyes squinted as he focused on the horizon and sky. The only laugh he mustered was a short snort from his blue whiskered nostrils. "You are harsh, Emma. I'm sure Mr. Stark will appreciate the Council's reason in the matter, and in the future be respectful of Krakoa borders and air space."

Magik and Cyclops gave bittered chuckles, and not under their breath. Emma Frost, however, remained silent and feigning inattention once more, until the noise came. The sound of the comms system alerting of an incoming signal perked her left eye open, though otherwise she hardly moved a muscle. Beast eyed the display and tapped through the message text, Cyclops scanning it as Beast went. Magik was silent, but she was no longer just lounging in the back row with the armrests up, laying on her back. There was tension, and the message itself didn't really seem to help that.

"It's the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards says they'll be meeting us in New York; apparently, a Celestial host is moving towards Earth from the outer edge of the system, and Galactus has made inquiries."

Prolong silence followed until Magik asked the question. "Is it possible this is some kind of end?"

"Jean wouldn't be the harbinger of death," Scott responded immediately, firmly.

"...not unless you lived in a certain former star system. A trillion, right? More?"

Emma wasn't holding back. Even at her most villainous, she hadn't murdered over a trillion souls. Was it Jean? Was it the Phoenix Force animated Jean? Emma didn't care. She just knew that many people were dead, and they wouldn't be had Jean Grey never existed. Probably.

"Jean's body wasn't present. It's unsure how much of that was Jean, how much of that was the Phoenix Force." Hank McCoy sounded uncertain of anything other than his desire to carefully measure and observe before coming to one conclusion or another. "Given she was at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, cocooned by the Phoenix itself, it can be easily argued she bears little to no fault. Would that we could ask her ourselves. I trust the three of you to know more about the Celestial response than I."

McCoy referenced the Phoenix Five, when Tony Stark had the brilliant idea of trying to shoot the Phoenix Force with a big gun. The result was simply the Phoenix dividing into five and taking five lesser hosts. Cyclops, Magik, and Emma Frost were three of the five. Cyclops would again host the Phoenix, alone, when he was brought into the Secret War conflict by Beast.

"They're nervous about a Phoenix host. A White Phoenix of the Crown..." Magik tried to explain it, but she stopped as she struggled to find the words. Every Host knew of the White Phoenix of the Crown, on some level. Cyclops more than most.

"The White Phoenix of the Crown would have been enough to stop Doom, maybe even stop the Beyonders. I felt a limit to the Phoenix Force's power, but the White Phoenix of the Crown doesn't have any such limit. They are truly omniversal in terms of power. Even Celestials are afraid of what that kind of power can do. They usually want a closer look." That happened when the Dreaming Celestial awoke, and Cyclops found himself telling the Celestial's that it was okay, it was handled, they could leave. To even his surprise, they did leave.

Emma Frost sighed. "They want reassurance Ms. Perfect won't destroy the universe, or them. Marvel Girl, indeed..."

"Landing zone coming up fast," Beast broke in, "Prepare for landing."

X-Men: Ascendancy

"It's raining."

Music played over the scene that suddenly met the both of them: his room at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. The music wasn't his, it was her's. The walls were off-white, with dark wood paneling. The windows and doors were all thick, the hardware on each old but immaculate and perfectly functional. His bed had a musk to it, half sleeping bag, half ancient blanket, maybe even the super soft throw blanket she bought him as a gag gift for always stealing hers during movie night. His stash was under the bed, the biker jacket of his hanging from the desk chair, and a desk that it was. Partially functional given his role.

"You were taken off the Avengers roster at this point. At this point...oh."

Where before he'd seen her in her purest cosmic White Phoenix of the Crown glory, now he saw the same bright green she was born with. Dark lashes, dark red hair...and the suit. The last suit he'd seen her in, except the colors were different now: white and gold-trimmed. The gold shined and danced in the light of the room so much it almost looked liquid, and the white of the suit would break down light into a rainbow if someone stared too hard at it. At least, right now, there was nothing she could do about it.

There, in his bedroom at a school he started, in a building he had rebuilt, Logan stood face to face with Jean Grey again. Her lips smiled at him, amusement sparkling in her bright eyes. She laughed loud and sudden when he reached out to touch her, to see if she was real. Most would have gone for an elbow, a shoulder. Head still tilted back, laughing, she nodded--his hand firmly on her chest. "I'm really here, yes. This time, this place...it felt safe for you. I'm sorry it took so long for me to see you. The Phoenix Force was trying to hide it, hide you. I'm not entirely sure why, yet, but at this point, it cannot fight me. Nothing can. Walk with me?"

His confused face and, "Uh, sure, Jeanie..." was enough for her to open the door of his bedroom and wait for him. A few students had quick greetings at the sight of the man: A few of the Cuckoos chatting with professors Bobby Drake and Jubilee. Jean was quick to point out everyone could see him. After all, he was alive and well during this point in time and space. She was not. "Like a ghost I can grope?"

"Yes." He grinned. She tried not to laugh. "Shut up."

They were too quickly down the back stairs. That was the thing about the rooms at the ends of the halls. Any Xavier's student knew how fast those rooms could get into the stairs and outside, or how quickly people could get into those rooms. Certain students were never allowed those rooms, and usually, they were occupied by a "bachelor staffer." Logan probably just wanted the smoke, but did Jean really have to know everything to know Domino had been here at some point? She liked when he tried to be happy. She preferred more sustainable methods than insane levels of narcotics and women like Domino, but, he was only mutant.

The rain just outside the side exit made her eyes close and her body turn back towards the door, towards him coming through it. Golden gloved hands in long red hair. "I missed this. I never forget, it's just so...distant, usually. So many times when I act it's an invisible hand, not even Franklin Richards can see, try as the poor man might. So vast is the canvas, so impossible the number of tools available for any task. I love it. I love being the White Phoenix. I did, at least. I know the timelines. I know the cycles. I've seen them all."

Her head tilted up, again, skyward as her green eyes blinked upon between tiny drops of rain in the side lawn of the school. Of their home. "But why can't I remember all of it? Something is missing."

When her eyes opened again, she felt it. She saw it on his face, as his eyes looked past her. She never felt the heat, only turned on her heel. There the Phoenix Force was, in the same small size, hovering semi-sentience, a force of reality that transcended even the multiverse. "Why would you hide part of me? It seems this me found a way, hmm? Let's have it...oh." Her shoulders turned first, followed by the rest of her body as she turned to find Logan once again. "It was you. When Scott died, I knew when I looked that not every version of Scott loved me the same. But when I looked at you...it was different. Every version of you loved me, if there was a me to love...and you hid this?"

Celestials stirred as the White Phoenix of the Crown turned once again to the bird, a new edge to her voice. They needn't have bothered, immediately her face softened as it regarded the bird. "I'm sorry you felt you had to do that. That wasn't really fair to me, was it?" She turned in the direction of the lake, moving with a few uneasy steps as her mind raced. When she turned back, now, it was to look at them both. "This has been good, I think," she said, sadly, "I will always be part of the White Room, but you cannot represent all life when you focus so much on one life: mine. You have to move on, you have to let me go. I have to let you go, too. We have done this so long now, you cannot grow more with me. And I need to come back now. We'll always be part of each other."

It left quickly after a slow lingering regard in a lifting haze of yellows and reds and whites and oranges, streaking across a sky she knew all to well outside Xavier's.

As she still stared upward, Jean's eyes squinted at the rain, her mind already starting to change. "I won't be like this for too much longer, Logan. I can see infinity starting to slip, darken at the edges so it's impossible to see it all. I'm already colder..." The warmth Jean felt now didn't come from the energy of life, or the unknowable energy that godhood poured into being. It came because she reached out, and took his hand in both of hers. "Where and when do you want to go, love?"

X-Men: Ascendancy

"Is he in range?"

Scott Summers asked as his visored, covered, head tilted skyward. The pacific sun was warm, but the cool island breeze was more than enough to keep sweat off you. Even in some of the outfits mutants were known to wear. Not Emma, Scott thought, but other mutants. Polaris stood in a bodysuit of her preferred shade of green just feet away, eyes closed in concentration. "Almost."

Magik snorted, stating again her belief they should have let her toss Stark in Limbo for a time-out. Scott saw the appeal, especially after everything Stark had done in the past few years. As far as they knew, and their information was good, Stark was back on good terms and once again an Avenger. That was enough to let him land, even if it would be on their terms.

"He's in range."

"Storm," was all Scott had to say.

The sky directly above Krakoa would darken with angry clouds and harsher winds that suddenly became arctic, leading to an environment of black-out conditions and enough lightning to turn Stark's sensors into damage avoidance mode, at best. And by then Polaris had him, bringing him down fast but controlled. The last member of the group finally stepped forward, massive hands behind his massive back, just a few feet from where Stark would be placed next to the grassy island cliffside and the sound of crashing pacific ocean waves below. Scott wasn't sure he loved the idea of Apocalypse being the first one Stark would face, but he had to admit one thing: It was nice having Apocalypse on their side for once. Besides Apocalypse wasn't here to intimidate.

He was here as a member of their Council.

The ancient mutant's voice was deep and edged like jagged stone, his body towering over the armored human as his eyes stared at the man. "You have violated Krakoan airspace. We have deemed your violation necessitated by extenuating circumstances, and allowed your presence so that this audience can be conducted with members of the Quiet Council in Storm and myself, as well as ranking members of our military; Great Captains Cyclops, and Magik."

"Tony," Scott stepped forward, as Apocalypse half stepped back, "I believe you're aware of the other party present, Polaris. If you're here about New York, we don't have any answers. Logan hasn't joined us on Krakoa. Xavier has reported Cerebro identified a part of Jean's psyche, but only a part, not the whole. We have lost three Krakoans inside the field: Ice-Man, Esme Cuckoo, and Jubilee. Another mutant was detected, but they're young and weren't supposed to awaken--their proximity must have triggered it. There's also a human, Deputy Director of the N.S.A., presumably because he was with Logan, Ice-Man, and Esme when the field...grew." Scott heard himself sigh and slowly shook his head. "That's all we know, Tony, we were headed there ourselves, trying to come up with a plan better than just jumping in and hoping it worked out."

It was a joke, kind of, but deep down...that was exactly what Scott intended to do. Even a part of Jean was enough to risk it, to him.

X-Men: Ascendancy

JEAN GREY

Krakoan ⭙ X-Men ⭙ White Phoenix of the Crown

⭙ _{H I S T O R Y} ⭙

New England girl with a fairytale life that became a nightmare. Founding member of the X-Men, founding member of X-Force. Former Head Mistress of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Responsible for over a trillion deaths. The most powerful telepath on Earth. Discovered the Crown within the White Hot Room, had been one with the Phoenix Force.

Until recently...