The Young Avengers Initiative

[Wightraven]

Winner: Look for Gwen and/or her squad.
Number of voters: 6

It's a big party, but it's only about fifty people, give or take. Your squad makes up five of them. Gwen's should make up another six. That's only forty other people to sift through... you feel like you should see them from afar, or... wait. You spot America wandering out of the crowd and onto the floor, no costume, appearing as though she's looking for someone. ... maybe it's you? She rolls her eyes as you approach. It is not.

"Dios..."

"Hey, America! Glad you could make it!"

"Yeah, thanks," that's some of the deepest sarcasm you've heard since your moody teenage years. "Gwen told me to come and I don't even see her here. I don't suppose you know where she's hiding?"

"No, I was just looking for her when I ran into you. All of you, actually. Did you not leave together?"

"They left a few hours ago, I told them I'd catch up... but I guess they already bailed."

Did they already bail? Did you miss them? Did they think you didn't show? You pull your phone out of your clutch and check your texts. There's only one...

Gwen
Hey, we might be a little late, helping Dex with something.

This was an hour and a half ago. You text back quickly.

Vilina
No problem, caught up with America. Hope I see you soon?

There's some nerves as you wait, so you decide to break the tension with some small talk.

"So, decide not to come in costume?"

"My... parents didn't celebrate Hallowe'en. I've heard about it, but... didn't really feel like I should intrude."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to offend--"

"Cállate. It's not like that."

Your text tone dings.

Gwen
All good. Hey, could you do me a favor and see if Moonbeam is there?

Vilina
Who is Moonbeam?

No response. You wait a minute or two... still no response. You look up to America.

"Uh... do you know who Moonbeam is?"

"No," she says rather flippantly, aaaaaaand walks off.

Great.

You check your phone again... still no response from Gwen. You're worried she's in trouble, or someone is in trouble. You start to panic a little. You need to find Moonbeam.

What Do You Do?
[ ] Ask everyone to see if they know where Moonbeam is.
[ ] Walk around shouting "Moonbeam!"
[ ] Wait for Gwen to respond.
[ ] Write-In

OOC: Try not to use meta-knowledge, obviously. <3

 

[Sqweaktoy]

[X] Write-In
-[X] Take a breath and calm down, Gwen didn't sound super worried in her texts, don't catastrophize.
--[X] Ask around to see if anyone knows Moonbeam/knows if she is here.

 

[wlowery]

[X] Write-In
-[X] Take a breath and calm down, Gwen didn't sound super worried in her texts, don't catastrophize.
--[X] Ask around to see if anyone knows Moonbeam/knows if she is here.

 

[Erehwon]

[X] Wait for Gwen to respond.

 

[Silvereagle21]

[X] Write-In
-[X] Take a breath and calm down, Gwen didn't sound super worried in her texts, don't catastrophize.
--[X] Ask around to see if anyone knows Moonbeam/knows if she is here.

 

[Tnoz]

[X] Ask everyone to see if they know where Moonbeam is.

 

[Jeboboid]

[X] Write-In
-[X] Take a breath and calm down, Gwen didn't sound super worried in her texts, don't catastrophize.
--[X] Ask around to see if anyone knows Moonbeam/knows if she is here.

Why do I get the horrible feeling that Fate is gonna show up again?

 

[Sqweaktoy]

We're Fortune, you probably mean Fate, aka Felix the other possible MC, aka Creepy Felix.
Good instincts there, considering who Moonbeam might be. There's no IC reason to freak out, but things might not be going well for Moonbeam right now, to be honest.

There's also something to consider, Vilina started to freak out just now, and she didn't have a lot of stimulus to do so that I can see. It's possible that some aspect of our powers was at work in the vein of 'sure is lucky I freaked out about this, otherwise...'
I'm not changing my vote, but if someone wanted to 'listen to our instincts', I'd understand why.

 

[Jeboboid]

Sorry, fixed.

 

[Wightraven]

Winner: Take a breath and calm down, Gwen didn't sound super worried in her texts, don't catastrophize.
- Ask around to see if anyone knows Moonbeam/knows if she is here.
Number of voters: 4

You can feel your heart racing, and your breath quickening... but something inside you tells you there's no reason for that. You're overreacting. You have no idea what danger Gwen and Dex are in, if any. Freaking out isn't going to help them, in any case. You close your eyes and relax, sucking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly. And again. You open your eyes and focus. You don't wanna freak anyone out like you just freaked out... so you slide your Iron Man mask on and start walking up to groups of people.

"Hey, citizens. Have you seen Moonbeam? I'm here on official Iron Man business."

You get some laughs, some compliments, but most importantly... no information on Moonbeam. That is, until a familiar, smooth voice calls to you from over your shoulder.

"Well, I know who Moonbeam is," it is, as luck would have it, Felix Park, "but why are you looking for her, Tony?" He looks a little shaggier than the last time you saw him... is his hair longer? Or does he usually just keep it styled? You're having a hard time remembering. He's wearing some kind of makeup that gives his skin a greenish/golden, glittering hue and dark-colored foppish clothes with a vest of scaled leather. He's certainly not high on the list of people you'd like to run into while you're trying to have a good time, but when looking for information for Gwen...

"It's for Gwen," you answer, pulling up the mask, "I really thought she'd be here by now, but when I texted her she said she was helping Dexter with something, and asked if I could find Moonbeam for her. Do you know where she is? And the rest of your squad? I ran into America earlier--"

He holds up a forestalling finger and grins. "I don't know for sure, but I can venture a guess, dearie~!" He put on some sort of voice for that line. You don't get the reference. He returns to his usual speech patterns as he explains further. "The Gwens and Dexter went to handle something... 'personal', they said. Told me, America, and Vance to run along to the party and they'd meet us later. Well, it's about half past later and I was starting to worry about them, myself... and if they think they need Moonbeam... well, it's either something very stupid or something very dangerous and very stupid."

You're a little put out by him being so dodgy with whatever information he has, but you push it aside. "Well, for whatever reason they want her... I want to help them out. Will you help me find her?"

"You don't have to go far," he gestures, and across the room where he's directing your eyes you see a woman you've seen before, with pale bluish-green skin. Only instead of grey hair, she's got long black hair, a floppy black hat, and she's wearing a black layered outfit with a camera around her neck by the strap. "Voila~! Dead Girl, as requested."

You whip out your phone, hoping Gwen has texted you back, but you've received no such message.

Vilina
Found Moonbeam with help from Felix. What now?

You give it a few minutes nervously looking from Moonbeam to Felix, back to your phone.... repeating in a cycle. Nothing is happening and it's starting to make you tense again.

"You said you had an idea where they went?"

Felix nods. "Ghost hunting."

"Ghost hunting?"

"Ghost hunting. Dexter's powers let him see into the spirit world... he gets... more wrapped up in the goings-on all around us that we can neither see nor affect under normal circumstances. The Gwens really try to help him on that front, but they can't see ghosts... or fight ghosts... or any of that. Dead Girl... can. She can also probably find them... or at the very least Dexter."

That calms your breathing down a bit. Maybe you were wrong about Felix? Maybe he's not creepy after all? Melodramatic as hell, certainly. He talks kind of funny. But he's being very helpful tonight. Maybe he's just like Quentin and he's a little hard to get to know? Now really isn't the time for deep consideration, however; you have a mission. You thank Felix for his help and march up to Moonbeam, pleasant grin plastered on your face. She concludes her conversation and turns to you as she notices you walk up.

"Heeeey... Fortune, right? You were at Dexter's party, yeah? I swear to god you nailed me from behind a wall during laser tag."

"Y-yeah! And you're... Moonbeam?" You feel a little flush creep up your cheeks. You shot this woman with a laser and you didn't remember who she was. For shame.

She shakes her head. "Please, call me Dead Girl. My parents were super-hippies. Good to see you again!"

"Good to see you, too! But, uh... I'm kind of on a mission right now. The Gwens and Dexter are off somewhere and they asked me if you were here at the party?"

Dead Girl rolls her eyes and interrupts the flow of your explanation. "Ugh... I don't mean to be a bitch, because he's nice, he is. I had a fun time at his party! But Poole was really pushing me into trying to date Dexter in some way and I'm just... not about it. He's a little too quiet, a little too... lacking in confidence, y'know?"

"I'm... I don't think that's what they're talking about. At least... I hope it isn't... I'm a little worried they might be in trouble."

Dead Girl shakes her head, smiling patiently. "Yeah, I've heard that one before. I don't know why Poole is trying so hard to play Ms. Matchmaker but I'm just not... into it, y'know? Just because we have similar powers doesn't mean we need to hook up, y'know?"

"... right..."

Is this just some elaborate scheme to score Dexter a date? Would Gwen do that to you? She didn't say she was in trouble, but... she hasn't texted you back. Felix seemed to think they might be in trouble... but he's not exactly making a huge effort to save them. He's already gone back to the party. Was he just a part of all this? Hng. This is a tough one...

What to Do?
[ ] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.
[ ] Try to find Dexter and the Gwens without Dead Girl.
[ ] Return to the party until Gwen texts you back.
[ ] Write-In.

 

[Jeboboid]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

Well, if it is a big scheme, then Fortune has a right to be upset about it, as does Dead Girl.

And no, Felix is still really creepy and I would like it very much if he just stopped whatever the fuck he's trying to do and leave, preferably forever.

 

[veekie]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[Bea]

Heeeya new to the quest just got caught up will like and subscribe

That calms your breathing down a bit. Maybe you were wrong about Felix? Maybe he's not creepy after all? Melodramatic as hell, certainly. He talks kind of funny. But he's being very helpful tonight.

Click to shrink...

One of the greatest skills of some creepy people is to continually get people to second-guess if they're really creepy people. Even when they're being creepy.

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[Silvereagle21]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[ObsidianWings]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[Aetherstorm]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[veteranMortal]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

 

[WanderingEye]

I might be missing things but what happened?
Why the Creepy Felix thing? Last time I recall we're the ones that being creepy with him.

 

[Sqweaktoy]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

I might be missing things but what happened?
Why the Creepy Felix thing? Last time I recall we're the ones that being creepy with him.

Click to shrink...

1. In character we get extremely bad vibes off him.
2. He just so happens to be another original character, who just so happens to have the same name and code name as the one that was one vote from being our MC.
3. He's on the same team as America Chavez, Ghost Spider, Gwenpool, and freaking Ectokid. All of these characters have some very specific stuff in common.
4. I like Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time as much as the next person with bad taste in TV, but it speaks to the characters he wants to emulate, I think.

 

[Wightraven]

Hey, guys. Sorry to do this again but I don't have time to do the morning update before work. I don't like that this keeps happening but there's not a whole lot I can do about it. I'll go ahead and leave the vote open, especially because some interesting points have been brought up.

Should I just switch to a daily schedule? Or are these occasional hiccups worth the typical twice-a-day update?

 

[ObsidianWings]

Do what works best for you. If you like updating twice a day keep doing that and just tell us when you can't. If you feel bed about not updating twice (most people don't even do daily updates) then do daily.

Just don't burn yourself out, pace yourself, this isn't an obligation it's for fun.

 

[WanderingEye]

[X] Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.

1. In character we get extremely bad vibes off him.
2. He just so happens to be another original character, who just so happens to have the same name and code name as the one that was one vote from being our MC.
3. He's on the same team as America Chavez, Ghost Spider, Gwenpool, and freaking Ectokid. All of these characters have some very specific stuff in common.
4. I like Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time as much as the next person with bad taste in TV, but it speaks to the characters he wants to emulate, I think.

Click to shrink...

TBH, Beyond number 1 which could be chalked to be weird power interaction between people with same powers, I'm not really convinced.
2. EDIT: Was mistaken nvm, still though what of it?
3 & 4 and these made him creepy? How? especially 4, that's really flimsy it's Halloween.

 

[Sqweaktoy]

4 is mostly just something I added on a whim. It could be a pure coincidence, I just don't think it is. 2 and 3 are about his thematic place as 'alternate universe' us. Which when combined with the bad vibes we get off him, and his level of interest in us in interactions, paints a very specific picture. As for you not being convinced, that's perfectly reasonable, all I can do is lay the facts out as I see them and if it's insufficient to convince you, oh well.

 

[WanderingEye]

4 is mostly just something I added on a whim. It could be a pure coincidence, I just don't think it is. 2 and 3 are about his thematic place as 'alternate universe' us. Which when combined with the bad vibes we get off him, and his level of interest in us in interactions, paints a very specific picture. As for you not being convinced, that's perfectly reasonable, all I can do is lay the facts out as I see them and if it's insufficient to convince you, oh well.

Click to shrink...

It's because I'm not seeing the "his interest in us."
Mind you I read back some of the interactions with him and the thing that I get is we are the one that interested in him, since yanno we practically stared at him in several occasions until people noticed.

 

[Wightraven]

Winner: Persuade Dead Girl help you find Dexter and the Gwens.
Number of voters: 8

"Please," you implore before she turns back to her friends, "if they're messing with you I don't know anything about it, but if they're not I'm worried they're really in trouble. I don't wanna drag you into something stupid, but I also don't want them to get hurt because we just assumed nothing was actually wrong."

Dead Girl sighs, finishes her drink, and hands the glass to one of her friends. "OK, Fortune. We're heroes after all, right?"

"Right," you smile. You're very much relieved.

"OK," she exhales, "let's find these kooks..." Dead Girl closes her eyes and focuses. You can see her exerting herself, her eyes moving beneath the painted lids. She winces, then opens them again, the shocking red of the iris and white of the pupil startling you even though you knew that's what her eyes look like. "Ohhhh I found them... and something else... something... big." The look of concern on her face says it all.

"Let's go!"

Dead Girl takes off, gaining a bit of distance on you as you pause to invite Felix along... but he appears to have vanished entirely. Not wanting to lose her, you bolt after. You leave the school, and the campus, and head out into the forest that surrounds the Philip J. Coulson Memorial Academy. It's a maze of trees that would take a normal person possibly hours of searching to find who they're looking for, but Dead Girl seems to have a lock on exactly who she needs to find. She slows to a stop in a relatively clear section of forest, though you'd hesitate to call it an actual 'clearing'. Both Gwens are standing by, poised but not acting. Dexter seems to be... air-boxing? It looks a bit silly at first, like a little kid pretending to be a Power Ranger, but the amusement vanishes when he's WRENCHED off the ground and held aloft in the air.

"HELP HIM!" Gwen seems to have noticed the two of you, and pleads for assistance.

Dead Girl leaps into action, climbing up nothing to reach a hand out to Dexter. Lacerations and bruises on his body begin to reknit and heal before your eyes. This seems to grant Dex the extra 'oomph' he needs to fight back a bit harder, swinging his fists at the nothing as though wielding a weapon of some kind.

"What the hell is going on!?" You're surprised to hear your own voice the one shouting those words.

"We were trying to help Dexter contact his father," explains Other Gwen, "the veil is thinner closer to Hallowe'en, always has been since ancient times or whatever. His dad is... well, he's pretty hard to get ahold of. So he wanted to try tonight before it got too dangerous... we didn't wanna do it ON Hallowe'en because... well, something like this was more likely to happen..."

"It's some kind of... ghost... monster... demon? Dexter's been trying to fight it," Gwen adds, "I feel so worthless! I can't do anything... it can't hurt us because it's... part of the Ectosphere or something? The spirit world?"

"Dr. Strange would make this whole thing a lot easier," Other Gwen adds, "or anyone with magic, really."

"No..." At that moment Felix comes stepping out of the woods nearby, staring up at Dead Girl and Dexter trying to combat... nothing. He purses his lips and shakes his head. "Stacy, Poole, get out of here!" His voice sounds a little... different.

"Wh--Felix? Why?" Gwen seems confused and incredulous, but Other Gwen isn't arguing.

"He seems to know what he's doing, Stacy, let's just trust him for once!" Gwen sends a parting look over her shoulder but Other Gwen has her by the hand and is leading her away at a rapid pace.

"Vilina," now you're sure he sounds different. Something syrupy to the way he's talking. Slimy, almost... and a bit of an accent he didn't have before. "Dexter and Moonbeam could both use a lot of luck right now, or else they're going to be very hurt."

You almost subconsciously nod, and he takes that as enough signal to begin doing... something? He weaves his hands in front of him and you feel... power. You can almost see the energy when you focus on it, and through it you can see what Dead Girl and Dexter are fighting. It's... massive, but otherwise hard to define. There are tendrils and knots of... flesh? Grotesque spines and a beak with a huge central eye... your mind revulses at the vision and you turn away, closing your eyes and instead focusing on your friends. You put all hope into their safety, visualize them laying gently in the grass. You can feel whatever it is Felix is doing growing stronger. This isn't luck... this is something more. A power you haven't personally felt, or ever been close to that you know of... no! Your friends. Think of your friends. Dexter is unharmed. Moonbeam is unharmed. Everyone walks away from this... everyone. There's a sound like sudden silence and you feel the ground pulling away from you. You chance opening your eyes and see nothing but a swirling field of stars. The air... wobbles all around you, unstable and unsteady like a leaf in the wind... but it is the wind, and you are the leaf...

---=====---​

Your eyes flutter open. Everything hurts... but you can feel it. It could be worse. You're not sure how long you've been out, but the sky is still full of stars. You want to stay laying there, numbing yourself to the pain, but you need to check on the others... everything around you is forest. You have no idea where you are. You roll to your side and groan with pain, pushing off of the earth and grass to your feet. Almost an arm's length from you is another figure. He's just as tall as Felix and wearing the same costume from earlier, but otherwise looks completely different. His face is thinner, as is his nose. It looks like it may have been broken before... his hair is much longer and gathers around his shoulders as he pushes it back from those same green eyes that nervously flit toward you. It's a look of tension. Of pain. Of fear. Because he sees that you see what's standing before you, and the man before you is someone you and every other New Yorker is very familiar with. A man the world is familiar with. News footage didn't exactly have the best shots of him, but you've done the research. You know his face well enough; he's man who brought the Avengers together, for better or worse. The man who is rumored to have torn through S.H.I.E.L.D. defenses from the inside, out. The man the news said The Hulk was forced to kill to stop his threat to the city.

Loki.

He blinks, long and slow, drawing in breath like a sigh. "I assume you have questions..."

Oh, You Do. (Choose Four)
[ ] Where is Felix?
[ ] What did you do back there?
[ ] Aren't you supposed to be dead!?
[ ] What was that thing?
[ ] Are the others safe?
[ ] Does anyone else know you're here?
[ ] How did you find us so fast?
[ ] Am I in danger?
[ ] Write-in.