Marvel, Rebirth:

IC:

"I already have."

IC:

"Relax. Most of what I do now is coerce them into sitting still for their doctors, anyway." Tera tore off a small piece of her cinnamon bun and flicked it at the Russian, as though the dreaded sugar might get his attention.

"Don't get blueberries on my floor."

IC:

"You were actually easier to handle when you didn't know what emotions were. And didn't have a boyfriend."

IC:

"My aim is better than that." With a faint glare, he ate the cinnamon bun and promptly chased it with a large strawberry half. 

-Tyler

IC:

Challenge accepted.

Shipping mode:

A C T I V A T E.

"...We'll seee."

IC:

"I...had been thinking stop cultists from summoning Thanos. I had been thinking putting our lives on the line to stave off Ragnarok. I was at least thinking of rescuing some cats. Why would we wear swimsuits in the winter?"

-Tyler

IC:

"Well I...I don't know. I was thinking we could do it inside the hangar for the blackbird...but um...let's go with your stopping cultists and rescuing cats idea...I like it better." 

IC:

Goddamn it...

Dallas gingerly put his good arm around Ashley's shoulders and squeezed slightly.

"You can totally play with the kittens we rescue."

-Tyler

IC:

"Yesssss!" Ashley squealed in delight, before quickly composing herself. "When do we start?"

IC:

"Then everything you deal with, from this point out, is due to your own errors in judgement."

IC:

"It had better be. That's how you get mice."

IC:

"Wasn't complaining. Just saying you were."

IC:

"As if." Aleks chucked a chunk of apple back at Tera and let out a breath. "Missed you a little."

-Tyler

IC:

"Can't confirm or deny."

IC:

"It's true. Or ants. Ants are almost worse." The martial artist replied, catching the chunk of apple and setting it next to her cinnamon bun. "It has been a while. Was starting to forget what it was like to have the most uncooperative patient in the world."

IC:

"Yes. But I looked good checking out."

IC:

"Course you can't, what the else did I expect. Tell me what cartoon to put on."

-Tyler

IC: - SHIELD Helicarrier -

Aella let out a puff of air as she dropped the book she'd been reading on her bed. The last few weeks felt like a blur now, once she'd been settled in on the Helicarrier they'd started teaching her what they called 'school'. Aella found what she learned to be very interesting, she'd found herself going through the material rather quickly. As it was now her teacher told her she was currently at the eighth grade level in most subjects and it wouldn't take too long to get even farther. Aella was rather pleased with herself, but something in the back of her mind kept nagging at her, telling her she'd learned all this before somewhere. It was strange because she couldn't recall when and where that was. 

But that wasn't important right now. Aella was bored of school, school had been all she'd been doing for the past week. She wanted to see Tera, but Tera wasn't on the Helicarrier. Tera was at her apartment, a place that Aella couldn't reach because she wasn't allowed to leave the Helicarrier alone. 

Of course, Aella didn't give two hoots whether she was allowed or not. The SHIELD personnel had quickly learned that Aella did not like being confined. And who could really blame her? HYDRA had kept her locked away for a solid year in a little box. 

Well now the Helicarrier, as big as it was, was starting to feel like a big floating box in the sky. A really cool box, but a box that was containing her all the same. Now that her fascination with the place had died down, Aella was thinking it was time to leave, whether SHIELD wished it or not. She would not be kept in a cage no matter how pretty it looked.

And so early in the morning when no one was paying any particular attention to her, Aella packed the few things she wanted to take with her into a backpack. A few sets of clothing, toothbrush and other bathroom items, a photograph of her, Tera, Trinity, and Mikhail, and a box of oreos. Oh and of course a book or two that she found interesting. With that done she put on the backpack and peered out of her door, looking back and forth to make sure no one was around. Once she was satisfied she was alone she began to make her way down the hall toward the nearest balcony. 

To her surprise she made it to the balcony without incident, she'd even passed a few personnel and they'd hardly even paid attention to her. She supposed they didn't realise what she was about to do. She climbed up the railing, turned around to look at the jaw dropped expressions of whoever happened to be walking by, and smiled and waved as they shouted at her not to do it. Then she jumped. 

Anyone who rushed to the railing and looked down would see Aella falling, however at a much slower rate then one would expect. Aella had to roll her eyes as she looked up at them, before gliding downwards towards the city below. SHIELD had naturally underestimated her control over her powers, probably because she hadn't used them all that much during her time on the helicarrier. She began to accelerate her descent towards New York, slightly worried that SHIELD would send someone after her that could fly. Tera was down there...somewhere. Thankfully Aella had thought ahead and wrote down where Tera's apartment was at. She still had no idea how to get to said apartment but she figured she'd hail one of those tax cabs she'd read about and have them take her there, it would be easy...maybe.

IC:

"What do you think looks good?"

IC:

"Fair enough point."

IC:

"I literally couldn't answer that if I tried. What's...good to you?"

IC:

"And to stay that way," the Russian said, his face becoming a soft glare again, "you need to stop throwing junk food at me. Or fruit bombardment begins anew. My bloodline drove back Napoleon, it can drive you back too, couch potato."

-Tyler

IC:

"Why the emphasis on that word?"

IC:

"And Napoleon was an arrogant idiot. I'll do what I want. My apartment."

IC:

"My quality barometer has no bearing over anything in Japanese. Or cartoonishly large boobs."

...

"In TV."

IC:

"Then I'll always be ready to throw grapes at you, Tera."

-Tyler

IC:

"That's a copout answer."

IC:

"Truly the most fearsome of artillery."

IC:

"I just have no idea what makes any of this good. I don't speak Japanese, all my favorite girls are flesh and blood, and the only cartoon character who ever had boobs in my childhood was the secretary in Powerpuff Girls." Dallas grinned playfully and wrapped one arm around his counterpart's neck, pulling her down to his level and tucking her into the crook of his elbow. "I'm hopelessly American. So try and cure me, Bek."

IC:

"In the right hands, anything can topple a foe once thought insurmountable. David used a stone. Vietnamese used their . Australians fell to flightless birds, once upon a time."

-Tyler

IC:

"Oh, I will. It is inevitable."

IC:

"Whatever."

IC:

Aella crept out of the alley she'd landed in, her nose crinkling from all the awful smells it had to offer. A sudden gust of wind to carry the smell away from her helped, but it wasn't quite enough. As she walked down the street well away from said alley she scanned the streets for a taxi. She'd looked at enough pictures to know what they looked like at a glance now, she'd been preparing for this. 

There! There was one turning the corner and heading her way. She waved at it frantically in an attempt to flag it down, to her delight the taxi driver pulled over to the side, the driver was a bearded middle-aged man who looked like he'd had one beer too many. He stared at Aella with brown eyes. "Where to doll?" 

Aella looked at him funny for a second, she wasn't a doll! Taxi drivers were weird. "Well I need to get to...this place!" She frankly pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and unwrinkled it before handing it to the driver, he looked it over before looking back at Aella. "Sure thing doll, for a pretty thing like you it will only cost you forty-five." 

Aella blinking for a moment. "Uh...forty-five what?" She prayed it wasn't the cookies he was talking about, she wasn't sure she even had that many! 

"Cash. I don't take credit sweetheart. Too many bozos' credit cards refused to go through." 

"Oh money..." Aella fidgeted, she'd completely forgotten the whole money thing! Why couldn't things just be free? Trading things for paper was ###### stupid anyway. "I...I don't have any money..." 

The driver looked at her like she was crazy. "No money!? Look ######, I don't appreciate having my time wasted. So unless you want to pay by getting on your knees and suc-AAAAARGHH JESUS!" Aella had rather robotically reached through the car window, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it way farther than it was supposed to, till she heard a satisfying snap. Then she pulled his collar with both hands till his face met hers just outside the window. "Don't speak to me like that again." She said with such a rage in her eyes it made the man whimper in fear. She growled before letting the man go and walking quickly away from the car. 

She just kept walking, ignoring the stares of any passersby as she felt the blood pumping through her head. He'd sounded just like them...just like the men back at the HYDRA base...she hated them. After a while that hatred turned into fear as she realised she had no idea where she was or how to get to Tera. "Phone!" She'd almost forgotten the cell phone she'd been given...it was only for emergencies but this certainly qualified. She sat down on a bench and fished it out of a backpack. She hesitated before turning it on, she knew it was capable of letting SHIELD know where she was (if they didn't know already), but she didn't care, it had Tera's number in it and she needed help. 

Aella pulled up the contacts, it only had Tera's number in it. She wasn't sure how Tera would react...she'd probably be really, really mad. She swallowed a lump in her throat before calling the number. 

IC:

"Christ, that sounds ominous. My girl just gave me the same response I used to get when I asked Mom if I had to go to Confession."

...

"I'm up. Either as a boyfriend or a Catholic, I am up."

IC:

"Don't you whatever me."

-Tyler

IC (Lucia)

Lucia smiled slightly, a bit of pride of sparkling in her eyes. "I know many things.The outer darkness. The gods of old. Old lore on the wolfkin and the bloodkin...." She paused, and suddenly a bright smile split her face "Of course, compared to some of the wonders this age, they pale in comparison." He gestured proud at the collection of model airplanes placed around the shop. "Truly. An age of wonders."

"As for your...condition. What languages do you speak? I have translations....if need be."

IC: Abigail

Abigail just nodded as Lucia gestured at the models. The girl liked her airplanes, nothing wrong with that. She bit her lip as she was asked what languages she could speak. 

"Just english...I never exactly finished highschool...cause of the whole turning into a vampire thing." She rubbed the back of her head. "I know my kind is typically seen as old...perhaps wise and full of knowledge from all the ages they've lived but...I'm not even fifty yet." And I look fifteen to boot...forever.

IC (Lucia)

"Ah." Lucia's faced turned sympathetic. "I take it you didn't have much choice in the matter then? I...." The time displaced roman sighed. "I do not normally do this, you understand. But...in an age of wonders...well, perhaps I can find it in my merchant's soul to do a favor for one in dire straits." Lucia moved out from behind her counter, and strode towards a set of doors in the side of the room. 

"I keep the better part of the collection in the back you see. Can't have anyone waltzing in and trying to pocket them. Learned that lesson after someone touched the wrong book. Nearly got us killed."

Lucia's voice became positively frosty. "And damaged part of my collection at that."

IC: Abigail

"Yeah it was a bit of either become a vampire or die from fatal injuries." Abigail said with a shrug as she followed Lucia toward the back. "Dying didn't appeal to me."

IC:

"Hey, Enzo! Got anything to eat?"

"Deer and hamburgers."

"Ooooh, hamburgers!" Jenna chirped. "Luke? Leon? Hamburgers?"

-Tyler

IC:

"...Burgers." I agreed. It had been a good while since I'd had one, and as much as I enjoyed the cuisine of my homeland, I was also shamelessly and unabashedly Americanized.

Not that I didn't like burgers back in Japan, either. Fast food, truly, was not beholden to the borders of man!

Really, though.

I was expecting a boss battle, and I get burgers. Shouldn't I be happier at this outcome?

I looked down at my plate, that my hands had seemingly accepted from one of my companions or the host on their own. It must have been something along the line of "not getting what I was lead to expect", but then again, that seemed to be a common theme for Vampirism as a whole to me.

After all: I fully expected I was going to die when that woman sunk her fangs into my neck. I expected I'd never pick out a fellow Vampire in the city of millions that never sleeps. I expected that I would never be able to feel sunlight again on my skin. And, honestly, I didn't expect turning to suddenly give me a six-pack.

If I was half as smart as anyone else I knew, I would have long ago learned to stop expecting things.

But...

I chomped down on my burger eagerly, relishing the taste of perfectly grilled meat, spice, and just a hint of blood.

Wait, blood?!

I recoiled, swallowing even as the wound on my lip sealed itself, one second bleeding, the next restored as if nothing had happened.

Oh, come on, I thought I'd grown out of that!

IC:

 

"Christ, that sounds ominous. My girl just gave me the same response I used to get when I asked Mom if I had to go to Confession."

 

...

 

"I'm ###### up. Either as a boyfriend or a Catholic, I am ###### up."

 

IC:

 

"Don't you whatever me."

 

-Tyler

IC:

"I think," The former Weapon began, shifting in place a little to try and settle more comfortably. She was not, at this point in time, accustomed to relaxing on an actual couch. The couch pillows in her vents were much more familiar. "You have a rather tenuous claim on the latter. Your choice in expletives and overall irreverence, in particular, are not helping your case."

IC (Leon)

Leon, as was his custom, had moved off the the side and done his level best to shrink in on himself, less Jenna remember his existence and hock his smartphone to passersby for travel money.

Or pull his ponytail to wake Luke up.

Or....

He registered the question just as he was moving down the list of reasons for his possible PTSD. "Uh." Burgers did sound nice....but he didn't trust anything that he hadn't hunted himself. Or at least that someone trustworthy hadn't hunted. Trust was what had gotten him into the shitshow that was MACE. "Uh. Deer would be nice actually." It came out more as a mumble then anything else.

"And...you have springwater here or anything?"

Springwater would be nice. Was always refreshing.

...He really didn't know why Jenna called him boring.

IC:

"See what I mean about boring? My boy Luke wants a burger, though!"

The two Italian vampires began preparing takeout meals for the new kids with deft, practiced motions.

IC:

"More of one than you dooooo~."

-Tyler

IC:

"And you eat more meat than a vegetarian, too. Your point?"

IC:

"In conclusion, you suck."

-Tyler

IC (Leon}

"I'm not boring."

Leon mumbled his comeback. Almost like he was afraid Jenna would hear it.

IC:

"Careful. You might irritate me."

IC:

"Real once in a blue moon occurrence."

-Tyler

IC:

"Still a risk."

IC:

"I could stop cuddling, if it puts you at ease."

-Tyler

IC:

"Oh, don't be a prick." The ex-Weapon muttered, fixing Dallas with a mild glare.

IC(Cynegild Picker - Congo Flashback):

Hoisting the sack of explosives over his shoulder, Cynegild used his free hand to push himself over the barrier separating the last of the stands from the field, breaking into a sprint as soon as his feet hit the turf. The disarray caused by the destruction of half the stadium gave him an advantage, for now, as everyone was more focused on finding those responsible than on continuing the ritual, leaving the sacrificial altar on its tiered platform of basalt wide open for a mischievous Brit with a bag of C4.

Unzipping the sack, he began the work of attaching fuses to bundles of explosives, and placing those bundles where he thought they would do the most damage to the altar. Just as he was about to prep the final bundle, however, something with a number of unpleasantly sharp claws and a rather firm grip took him by the shoulder, and, lifting him off the ground, pulled him around to face it.

It was one of the squid-faced creatures from before - not, necessarily, one of the same two, he didn't see a knife sticking out of its head, but it was the same sort of thing, and no more attractive up-close. After making a series of rasping and gargling sounds that, based on context, Cynegild was fairly sure were obscene and maybe even blasphemous, the monster threw him down onto the grass, from which vantage point he had a much better view of the sword it held in its off-hand, a blade apparently crafted from coral, which soon had blue-green flames coursing down its length as the guardian stalked towards him.

"Look, I know it's not really my place to critique your style, but wouldn't it have been more practical to run me through and then throw me?''

IC:

"The Bekah fears cuddle withdrawal."

-Tyler