#flagulation

[kaylinasher]

6

TW - VIOLENCE, BLOOD, TORTURE, MENTION OF RAPE, MENTION OF EXECUTION

Damien's a complete and total asshole k?

When Lucifer had ruled Hell, his sons had been granted great power in the realm.  When he'd been overthrown, some had tried to grab the throne, and now were in Caligo for their troubles.  Damien had played by the rules, even if that meant bending them occasionally.   He was not willing to give up his power, but after seeing exactly how much of their own his niece and nephew wielded, he knew that he would not be able to overthrow either of them.  That did not mean, however, that he did not rule those within his castle with an iron fist that came down swift and harsh on any who crossed him.

Down in the bowels of the castle, Asher had been hung by his wrists from manacles attached to the ceiling of a cell that had wrought iron walls, ceiling and floor.  His feet were also manacled with a chain that ran through a loop on the floor that they barely touched.  All the way down to the dungeon, Asher had fought the guards to try and get free so he could get back to Kaylin.  He had known that there were too many of them for him to defeat them all, but he had to try.  Too many times he’d seen Lord Damien’s cruelty against those who displeased him, and Asher feared for what Kaylin was being subjected to now that they were alone in her room together. 

When Damien made his way down to where Asher was detained, the black blood on his shirt was indication enough to Asher that he’d hurt Kaylin. How badly didn't matter, the Prince had laid hands on her in violence and the dragon within him yearned to strike out in a violent and vicious vengeance. Straining against his restraints that bit into his wrists and ankles, he tried to lunge at the Royal Prince.  Curses flowed from his mouth like water as he promised pain and death to Damien, who in turn just darkly laughed in return.  He knew the iron kept Asher from shifting or using any other kind of magic.  It was why that cell was used. Containment. 

“You can threaten till your voice runs out, but you can’t do a thing, dragon.  You're as helpless as the day you hatched, the day I really should have killed you; before you could ruin my daughter.  You’ll only get out of those chains when I take off your head in the morning.”  Damien grinned malevolently as he circled Asher, taunting him.  “Maybe I’ll let you live long enough to hear her scream as my entire legion,” he leaned in close to Asher’s back to whisper in his ear, “fucks your memory out of her.”

The roar that came from Asher could be heard through most of the castle and got the attention of all the guards who were in the lower two levels of the dungeon area. All were supremely glad the dragon could not escape his bonds.  If freed, there was no doubt not a demon nor a stone would be left unscorched by his fire. While there were none that would question Damien’s orders, they also knew that crossing Asher often lead to death, and a painful one at that.

“I will kill you before I let you or your men touch her again!” The manacles cut into his skin, causing his yellow blood to start to slowly drip down his tanned skin that was stretched taut over his straining muscular forearms.  He didn’t know how quite yet, but he would figure out a way to get free and he would get his revenge on Damien for this.  Oaths were silently made to deities that he wasn’t sure existed, but he did believe in.

The laugh that came from Damien next was pure evil. "You can't shift, you can't even change positions.  You'll do nothing but endure my wrath.  The pain you feel will be the cost of ever thinking you were worthy of my daughter.  Her punishment will be much more drawn out.  Remember that as you receive your own…" Reaching to the table behind him, Damien took hold of the cat of nine tails that had imp claws at the end of each of the warg leather lashings.  Sharp as razor blades, there was no doubt the damage that would be inflicted. His grin was malevolent as he slowly turned the leather wrapped handle in his handle, already anticipating the joy of making Asher suffer. There was a warmth of satisfaction that spread through his breast.

For the first few lashings he received, Asher did not give Damien the satisfaction of hearing him scream.  His jaw clenched, his eyes closed, and though the skin on his back was flayed open, he did nothing more than grunt at the white hot pain that each strike brought with it.  Behind his eyelids, he was focusing on Kaylin’s face and the firm belief he would find a way to get free and save her.  Even with golden blood forming building rivers that were starting to flow down the backs of his legs, he refused to admit defeat.   

Every hard strike that Damien delivered had him jerking against the chains, soft puffs of dust coming from around the bolts that secured Asher’s chains to the floor and ceiling.  Even restrained, the dragon was strong and fighting hard against the bonds that held him.  But Damien had planned ahead; the wrought iron contained his magic and slowing his healing.  It was only a matter of time before Damien would break him, and there was plenty of that before dawn.  Pain was one thing that he loved to deliver and he was not particularly choosy about who it was delivered to.  Unlike his father, Damien had no love or compassion within him, only a drive for more power.

By alternating the direction of the strikes across Asher’s back, Damien was ensuring maximum damage.  After hours of flagellation, it was not just Asher’s back that was raw, his throat was as well.  His voice long since lost from screaming at the ever intensifying pain and the deepening realization he was powerless to protect the woman he loved.  He now prayed to any deity listening for death, but it seemed that no one was listening since Azrael didn't appear to claim his soul.  How he would have welcomed the angel he'd been avoiding all his life, if he'd only show up now.

When light started to filter through the small window in the cell, Damien decided it was time to retrieve his daughter for the execution of her lover.  He was no longer enjoying the torture of Asher since he had lost the ability to scream and his strength was failing so he just hung limply from his chains.  At least he would get some pleasure from his daughter watching him die, then what he planned for her after.

#the imperium chronicles #my writing #writeblr #new chapter #new writing #fiction #fantasy #blood #torture #violence #mention of rape #asher #dragon #writing #demon #damien #flagulation #evil #original story #my oc #original world #original concept #dark fantasy #dark chapter

[rin-enjoyer]

"oh sakura is the rin of team 7 cuz they're both gealers" "naruto is the rin of team 7 cuz they're both optimistic" WRONG sasuke is the rin of team 7 on account of they both equate "having goals" with "being a person."

#do you see my vision #guys who hinge their entire identity on what they set out to accomplish lmao lmao #i mean everyone's a little guilty of that but they're by far the worst offenders #nohara “if i want to throw the earth into the sun surely i will get a good grade in being a person” rin #and uchiha “i am an avenger i will kill my brother i wll fulfil my purpose and then like. die i guess” sasuke #its the trauma <3 and the masks <3 and the assumptions that somewhere deep down they have a “real self” #(they dont cuz thats not how personing works. but they think they do. and they're very put out because they cant find it) #i just think they're neat :3333 #oh kakashi is sakura of course of course (aughhhh self flagulation aufg augh) #and naruto is obito. i guess cannon can have that one. #mann naruto makes me sad. golden retrivor of a guy who wanted to change things #but got beat down by the system he wanted to challenge until he was complicit in it. sad! #anyways someday i will compile my thoughts on how rin and sasuke disengage witg the shinobi system #by just. having different values. and Not Caring about that junk #i mean dont get me wrong theres smth wrong with both of them still. its just like. a different #weird problem #ok cool. walks off into the ocean

[sendmyresignation]

why are my discourse tags from a year ago taken out of context appearing on my own dashboard

#say one bad thing about patrick stump and people will self flagulate themselves with it for decadessasss #my posts

[roythesoyboy]

#my friend and i joked ryos self-flagulation would be wyoming #im from there so #devilman

[taldigi]

Why Marianne? Was she planned to exist on pre canon?

I think one of the most disappointing underutilizations in canon ML is that of Marianne LeNoir. She's postured as this mirror of Cat Noir- the love interest of the hero, the temptation from keeping them truly great as the guardian. a character who exists to serve Fu's narrative, an example of his noble sacrifice in service to the greater good to the miraculous and the order.

She is perfect for showing the failures of the order as a concept. An example for how they failed Fu and how Fu uses his trauma and self-flagulation of his mistake to force himself to atone rather than seek change from a method that has failed time and time again. How Fu is on track to push Marinette to be the same. His failure to consider Cat Noir at all as anything than another honor-bound miraculous holder when he is- and very much never was or never will be an honor-bound miraculous holder -is also explicitly setting him up for failure. In fact, it did end in failure!

...This is, of course, if the show didn't insist on the order being a "cool magical kung fu club" and that depicting Marinette as the guardian as anything less than an honorable higher calling. Despite what the show tries to say about this- the outbursts regarding Marinette's stress over being the guardian and her lone wolf task are superficial and lack substance from a narrative position when... her being the guardian was never the issue, it was her sudden lack of guidance when she had been leaning on Fu for so long.

Personally, I think the guardians are fucking stupid and tired and have no place in the show- not as a goal for the characters to aspire to.

That being said, Marianne was prime for becoming Chat's mentor- maybe not as entwined with the miraculous as Fu- but as someone who is able to lay out Fu's mistakes and prepare Cat Noir to handle these mistakes that he is forcing onto Marinette. It's a pretty unanimous decision that Cat Noir needed someone, anyone, to place his hand on his shoulder and say "it's okay, I understand. I can help, even a little bit." or even "Now is not the time for love, you need to be someone who can support her. Grand displays of love are dangerous, show your love in little ways with patience."

"But you were patient, and he never came back for you."

"Because he did not want to trust me- he was afraid to. What is happening is a cycle of abuse- the master is trying to pass what he has learned onto his student, even if it will hurt her. You cannot try and destroy it, but you can guide it. Ladybug still trusts you."

Thats a loose idea, at best. We all know it didn't turn out like that and she ends up being madly in love with Fu and ends up being his caretaker, and Adrien ends up a nothingburger of a character- and such ideas would have to require that the show care about something other than Marinette and her suffering.

Ultimately, Marianne could have been the key to addressing and possibly transforming some of the worst parts of ML into the greatest parts. But alas.

#Anonymous #Marianne LeNoir #Adrien Agreste #Cat NOir

[spiralcass]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 3, EPISODE 7

 We open in a regal washroom, where Lady Akabba is being bathed in flower-scented water, and having her nails and feet scrubbed by servants. She’s relaxing and at peace, and is annoyed when her phone goes off. She sighs and blows it over to her, keeping it in mid-air, and we see that she still has an old group picture with all her old friends as her lock screen. 

Sofia smiles but doesn’t linger, as she checks her messages. She’s gotten a text from Garrison. He’s done his part, priming Quire for their needs, now he needs her to follow through on what Apocalypse promised him. Sofia texts back to consider it done. Today is going to be a big day. 

Sofia is dressed by her servants in her armor, sans mask, and takes her place on her throne. Akihiro stands at her side. 

SOFIA: “Is she here?” 

AKIHIRO: “Famine dropped her off last night before leaving to do whatever that repressed zealot does for fun.” 

SOFIA: “I wouldn’t be surprised if he just flagulates himself in the shower while crying.” 

Akihiro cackles. 

AKIHIRO: “Apparently the poor thing was on her way home from a Build-A-Bear when he grabbed her.” 

SOFIA: “That doesn’t surprise me. Bring her in.” 

Two mutants, Greycrow and Riptide, enter the throneroom, and drag in the unconscious body of Pixie, bringing her before Sofia. 

GREYCROW: “Want us to wake her up?” 

Sofia waves them off, getting up from her throne, and gently strokes Megan’s face. With a pop of air in her ears, she wakes her up herself. 

MEGAN, woken up with a headache: “Uhhh, I don’t feel so good.” She rubs her head. “I’m not wearing helmet. Did I hit my head?” Pixie fully wakes up and notices Sofia in front of her. “Sofia! What’s going on? Where are we?” She looks around her. “Who are all the buff, scary guys? And where’d you get the cool armor?” 

Sofia smiles with her lips together at her. Rather than explain anything, she promises Pixie she’s going to be okay. She is so weak and innocent, and there was once a time when Mutants could afford to be just that. But if that time is ever to return, then the Mutants of today must be strong. 

SOFIA: “And those who stand in our way must be eliminated.” 

She is going to help Pixie, and Pixie is going to help her. 

PIXIE: “Why are you talking like that Apocalypse guy from class?” 

Sofia, without a word, returns to her throne, and orders the spell to begin. Greycrow and Riptide each slash Pixie across the face, prompting her to scream, as the cultsits who line the wall chant. Sofia comments on how Pixie’s blood is mystical. She is not just a Mutant, but fae. And that means her soul can be used for many useful purposes. 

Sofia joins in the chanting, evidently having learned some magic from Apocalypse, as Pixie screams in agony, her soul exiting her body through the cuts on her face. 

This goes on until the ritual is completed. From one cheek, a sapphire pops out, caught by Sofia’s winds and brought over to her. From the other, the excess remaining portions of her soul take the form of a dagger that lands her now limp from unconsciousness hands. 

AKIHIRO: “I wasn’t even involved in that spell, and I feel like I just murdered a puppy with my bare hands.” 

SOFIA: “She will thank me for this one day. A fae soul dagger is no soulsword, but it is still formidable.” She eyes her real prize, the gem she just crafted. “Just as this sapphire is formidable…even if it’s no ruby.” 

We cut to the girls’ dorms at the school, first thing in the morning, where it’s Valentine's Day! 

Cessily and Roxy are naturally into the spirit of things, dressed in matching all-red outfits, with Roxy reading a homemade card Cessily made her, and absolutely loving it. She kisses Cess on the cheek, thanking her, and reminding her she’s got a gift coming to her every single hour until they go out for dinner, with her especially excited for hour four. Cess is clearly a little offput by this, meekly asking Roxy if she doesn’t think that’s a little much. 

ROXY: “What? No. Of course not. You know I love spoiling you. Especially after what we’ve been through.” 

Cessily tries her best to smile gratefully.

Rubbermaid, Preview, and Loa walk past the two, with Rubbermaid yammering to the other two about how amazing her boyfriend is, which is why it sucks he lives in Canada and can’t be here. The other girls clearly don’t buy it.   

Sooraya is holding a small pink box and talking to the Cuckoos. She tells them the card just said, “From you know who”, but she has no idea who it’s from. Mindee thinks it being a secret admirer just makes it more romantic, while Phoebe offers to scan everyone’s heads. Sooraya asks them to please, definitely not do that. 

CUCKOOS: “Your loss.” 

The Cuckoos and Soo walk off in different directions. The school’s newest student, Escapade, steps out of her room, yawning and looking like a mess, not having begun to get ready for the day. Her face lights up as she sees the Cuckoos. 

SHELA, waving: “Good morning, Cuckoos!” 

The Cuckoos just snicker, not even looking at her, as they walk past her. 

SOPHIE, whispering: “What is that jawline?” 

ESME, whispering: “Or that non-existent ass?” 

The Cuckoos intentionally laugh even louder as Shela looks depressed. Her roommates, Martha and Ernst, come up to her, with Ernst telling her not to take it too personally; everyone but the X-Men kids hates the Cuckoos. 

SHELA, confused: “Hate them? Why would I hate them?” 

Ernst looks at Shela like you would someone who just said their shoe tastes good. 

In the bathroom, Sofia is doing Laura’s makeup, telling her she looks amazing either without any or with the bare minimum she usually wears, but she promises just a little extra effort will make a world’s different. Laura, still in disbelief this is happening, is speechless, just widely grinning with her mouth open. 

“Hey, has anyone seen Megan, she never came back from…” 

Noriko enters the bathroom and is caught off guard by the sight of Sofia and Laura. 

NORIKO: “...build a bear. Sorry, I’ll go.” 

Noriko is about to leave the bathroom, but Sofia tells her to stop and wait. Sofia and Laura come up to her, with Sofia apologizing for her outburst after she found out about her and Julian. She’d been through a lot already, and finding out about Danger didn’t help. 

SOFIA: “But you are still my best friend. I am obviously over Julian.” She sends a little breeze under Laura’s nose to tickle it. “And I hope you two are as happy as Laura and I.” 

Noriko laughs nervously, so happy to hear all of this. And she’ll be sure to let Julian know Sofia doesn’t hate them so they CAN be happy. 

SOFIA: “Oh come here!” 

Sofia hugs Noriko, and Noriko hugs her back. Sofia shivers before pulling back. She’s sorry, she forgets how cold Nori’s gauntlets can feel. 

SOFIA: “If you don’t mind me asking, has Julian said anything about them? I hope they aren’t too uncomfortable for him in bed.” 

NORIKO: “He…hasn’t said anything.” 

SOFIA: “I am not surprised. He can be boorish, but when he LOVES you…well, you know.” 

NORIKO: “Yeah…loves. Um, hey, we should totally hang tomorrow, I’m sure we’veallgotvalentinesplansandIneedtofindMegan,bye!” 

Noriko super speeds off. With Laura behind Sofia, she can’t see as Sofia mugs evily for the camera, satisfied with how that went. 

LAURA: “She can be so weird.” 

Sofia instantly flips the switch back to her act, as she turns to Laura and giggles sweetly. 

We cut to Illyana’s room, where she’s just waking up, hair a mess, wearing an over-sized, custom made, “Magik Rulez” night shirt. She stretches her arms and yawns. 

MAGIK, kissing the plush next to her bed: “Good Morning, Giant Green Garfield.” 

Illyana hears a chirping, and notices Lockheed perched on one of her shelves. Yana barks at the dragon, asking if he was being a little perv and watching her sleep. Lockheed chirps again. 

ILLYANA: “Well, at least you admit it.” 

Yana comments how it was sweet of Kitty to hold onto all of her old things. Of course, it’d be sweeter if she’d stop avoiding her! 

YANA: “What’s the problem?! I’m the real me, give or take a soul, I know she loves me, so why is she being so weird about the kiss?!” 

Lockheed chirps. Yana sighs that he’s no help. She just wishes she knew what she was supposed to say. The Kitty she knew was a teenager. She doesn’t even really know who THIS Kitty is. Lockheed chirps. 

YANA, magically changing her clothes, fixing her hair, and growing her horns and tail: “No, I’m not going to wait and learn to get to know her! That’s boring! I’m just going to teleport us to Limbo and force her to hash this out there! Yeah, that’ll do it.” 

Illyana is saved from her own stupidity by a knock on her door. Kitty asks Illyana if she’s awake. She has a surprise for her. 

Illyana snaps her fingers at Lockheed and tells him she’ll save this for plan B. She grabs a seed from a jar and grows it into a rose. She then teleports into the hallway and greets Kitty, asking her if she was really waiting till Valentine’s Day to agree to go out with her like a sap. 

Her face falls as she notices who’s standing next to Kitty, holding her hand. 

COLOSSUS, wearing the most gentle smile possible: “Hello…little snowflake.” 

Illyana is stunned, but her face fills with rage, as she burns away her rose. 

In the cafeteria, Doop, who’s evidently the lunchperson on top of being the janitor, is serving a special Valentine’s day breakfast, with heartshaped pancakes and scrambled eggs dyed-pink. Doop is proud of himself, and smacks Anole on the head when he says the eggs look gross. 

Noriko speeds in, looking around for her friends, as a tray of food, surrounded by green energy, hovers into her hands. 

JULIAN: “One tray of gross cafeteria food, sparing you a wait on line. As requested, the only thing you want today, because Valentine’s Day is dumb.” 

NORIKO: “I didn’t say it’s “dumb”. I said it’s a misogynistic scheme by greeting card companies to make money by–” 

JULIAN: “by objectifying women and commodifying them. Yes, I pay attention.” 

Julian kisses her and Nori smiles. 

NORI: “Thank you.” 

As the two walk to their table, Julian putting an arm around Nori, he remarks that most girlfriends let their boyfriends just do this normally. Nori reminds him she’s not like other girls. 

NORI: “You…do like that, right?” 

JULIAN: “Duh.” 

The two reach their table, and find themselves the only ones there. Nori asks where everyone is. Julian explains that Laura, Sofia, Cessily, and Roxy are doing a double-date brunch, and Soo’s mom set her up with some Flatscan. Noriko asks about Brian, Quentin, and the Cuckoos, to which an annoyed Julian gestures at a table, where the seven of them are seated and laughing with Glob, Radian, Tattoo, and Redneck. 

Julian doesn’t care what Quentin does, and he’s not sure what’s up with the Cuckoos suddenly being so buddy-buddy with him, but he doesn’t like Brian hanging out with that crew; the latter four are total losers, always in detention. 

NORI: “You sure you’re not just jealous Brian’s finally got some other friends?” 

JULIAN: “I am NOT jealous.” 

NORI: “And you also wouldn’t see him as just another loser if he hadn’t been your roommate, right?” 

JULIAN: “Of course not!” 

Nori giggles and pinches his cheek. 

NORI: “I’m kidding.” 

Nori adds that, by the way, she’s got good news: Sofia doesn’t hate them! According to her, everything’s cool. Julian breathes a sigh of relief. That’s the only thing he needs as a gift today. They may actually be able to get things back to normal. 

JULIAN: “I never actually got to take her out dancing when we were dating. Think she’d be down?” 

NORI, jealous and insecure, as she picks at her food: “Oh, yeah. Duh. You know how she…loves dancing.” 

Back in the hallway, Pitor wraps his big arms around Illyana. He always knew his little sister would return to them. He never lost hope. 

PITOR: “I have missed you so much.” 

While Kitty is smiling over what she thinks is a sweet moment, Illyana scowls and shoves Pitor back, down, and to the floor. Kitty calls her out, but Yana isn’t listening.

YANA: “What are you doing here?!” 

PITOR, unsure what’s going on: “Scott called me.” Kitty helps the big guy stand up. “He told me you were back. Truly back. I had to see it for myself. Why are you not happy to see me?” 

Illyana sneers at him, then at Kitty. 

YANA: “Ask her.” 

Yana opens a stepping disc under herself. Kitty tells her to wait, but she’s already gone. 

Kitty sighs and apologizes to Pitor. She doesn’t know how much exactly Scott told him, but Yana’s revival was messy. Even more than revivals tend to be for them. Originally, she was just a demonic copy of Magik called Darkchylde, but then Jean swapped how much Mutant and demon there was to her, so now she’s mostly Illyana, but without a soul. 

Pitor thinks for a moment before smiling. He posits that even if she doesn’t have a literal soul, she must still have some kind. Without a soul, she could not laugh or cry or love. She has been through so much, and he has failed at times to keep her safe. So he understands. Whatever her issues with him are, he will be patient with her until she is ready to talk to him. 

KITTY, hanging off his arm as they walk: “This is what I’ve missed about you! Always looking on the bright side and seeing the best in things.” 

Also,  all this soul mumbo-jumbo talk reminds her: he should go say hi to Kurt! 

COLOSSUS: “Of course! I saw him recently, but there is so much time to make up for. And after that, I must speak with Cyclops.” 

KITTY: “What about?”

PITOR, beaming: “You and Magik are here. You’ve just lost Iceman. I believe the time has come for me to rejoin the X-Men.” 

In Noriko’s room, she and Julian are making out on her bed. In contrast to their previous intimate scenes, Nori, trying to make sure Julian has a good time, pulls his hand onto her ass. Julian laughs. 

There's a knock on the door. The teens are content to not move until…

DANI, disgusted: “Surge, I can hear you both.” 

Nori and Julian laugh and cough as they untangle and get up. Nori opens the door to find not only Dani, but a disheveled Megan, now with streaks of black in her hair, being held by her. The worried kids ask what happened. 

MEGAN: “I don't know. One minute I was making the cutest lil bunny rabbit, the next I woke up in an old, dusty factory. Everything hurt.” 

Megan runs from Dani’s arm into Noriko’s. 

MEGAN: “You said you'd keep me safe, right?” 

NORIKO, awkwardly hugging her back, her eyes focused on her gauntlets and perceiving them to be uglier than they are: 

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

Julian questions if this could be related to whatever caused Sofia’s amnesia, with Dani confirming the adults already had the same thought. 

Like usual, they don't want to spoil any special days for the kids, so Magneto and Emma are already investigating, along with Warpath, who's been Pixie’s new advisor since Beast left. 

DANI: “Pixie was just hoping she could get some sleep and privacy.”

Nori and Julian are of course fine with giving her the room, with Nori once again telling Megan she’ll smack whoever hurt her. 

The two + Dani leave the room, with Julian aggressively telling his old advisor that, whatever’s going on with Megan, to not let that Garrison creep near her. He turned Quentin from a dweeb into a jackass, and he doesn't want to see what he’d do to Megan. 

DANI: “For once Julian, we’re in agreement. But don't try giving me orders.”

JULIAN, smugly: “We’re X-Men, you're not. Don’t we kinda outrank you now?” 

DANI, not humoring this: “No. No, you don't.”  Dani whispers in Nori’s ear. “I don't know how you deal with this.” 

Nori chuckles as Dani walks off, upsetting Julian. Nori asks what the problem is, with Julian pointing out that he doesn't care if Nori teases him, that's their thing,  but she's his girlfriend; he doesn't want her laughing at him with other people, especially not the teachers. After all he's done for this place, it's BS he still gets treated like this. 

Nori makes a quiet crack about how he could just not say things like that, but does apologize and promises it won't happen again. As she says this, she puts a hand on him, which he swiftly takes off. 

JULIAN: “Sorry. Nothing about this. Just cold.” 

Nori’s eyes widen his horror as she clenches her fists. She stomps down the hall and tells Julian to follow her. She has something she wants to do today after all: see the last “person” either of them wants to. 

In the teacher’s lounge, Kurt and Pitor have a bro-hug. They may have just seen each other recently, but it’s still a sight for sore eyes for Kurt to see Colossus back where he belongs. Plus, they didn’t really talk too much about themselves. How has he been? 

Pitor explains that it hasn’t been easy for him. He returned home to Russia after Illyana’s death and the disbandment of the X-Men to help his parents, but life there wasn’t as he remembered it. It had changed. He had changed. The air was miserable. But he still got up every morning and took pride in the work he did. 

PITOR: “When Kitty called me about Darkchylde, I couldn’t hold back my hopes it would lead to something more. And now, my hopes have been rewarded.” 

Kurt is cheerful and excited for his friend. He hasn’t been able to spend too much time with Magik, but he’s sure Kitty can tell him more about how she’s changed. 

KITTY: “Yeah, totally, so when were you two hanging out?” 

KURT, trying to keep a secret: “Oh, you know, we just went out for–” 

PITOR, oblivious to Kurt trying to be discreet: “Much of the old X-Men gathered to mourn Warren at Braddock Manor. You should have come, Katya; it was healing.” 

Kurt cringes as Kitty focuses her crazy eyes squarely on him. 

KITTY: “Eeeeelf. Did you forget to tell me about something?” 

KURT: “What? No. Of course not.” 

KITTY: “Then why didn’t I know this was happening?” 

KURT: “Oh, you know, it really wasn’t that big a deal. Logan didn’t come either!” 

KITTY: “Logan hates these kinds of things. I love these kinds of things.” 

KURT: “It’s not what you think! There are just some harsh feelings still going around about Cyclops and–” 

KITTY, the realization dawning on her: “Aaaand, apparently about me for sticking around on the team. Wow. Nice, guys.” 

KURT: “No one is mad at you, I promise, we just weren’t sure how to–” 

Pitor laughs heartily. These two haven’t changed. 

PITOR, cupping Kitty’s chin in his hand: “Not that that is a bad thing.” 

Kitty blushes, but quickly frowns at him. 

KITTY: “Did you know?!” 

PITOR: “Of course not. I would have come to pick you up myself if I’d known you weren’t invited and carried you the whole way.” 

Kitty gets squishy at his words, phasing her chin through his hand a little. Just then…

SCOTT, walking down the hall: “Pitor! Good to see you again bud–”

Scott cuts himself off and makes a disturbed face as he sees Pitor and Kitty being flirty. Scott enters the teacher’s lounge and forces a smile as Pitor comes to hug him. Pitor cheers over seeing the old boss again as he crushes Scott in his arms, even without being in his metal form. 

KITTY: “Good news, Scott! We’ve got our replacement for Bobby right here!” 

PITOR: “I wish to avenge Archangel, and I believe I can further help Illyana adjust back to being human. If you will have me.” 

SCOTT, coughing as he’s let go: “Of… course. How could I say no?” 

Kitty and Kurt both cheer at Pitor’s return and high-five. 

KITTY: “Still mad at you.” 

KURT: “I know.” 

We cut to the school’s lab, where Danger is just…sitting there. Perfectly content, but unmoving. 

“Hey rustbucket!”

Danger turns her head to see Noriko and Julian.

DANGER: “Hellion. Surge. Happy Valentines Day. Have you completed the customary rituals of the holiday?” 

SURGE, cringing: “No. Danger. No we haven’t.” 

DANGER, curious: “I thought young, hormonal couples enjoyed excessive displays of romance.” 

JULIAN: “I mean…” 

NORI, exasperated: “I need your help!” 

DANGER: “Of course. Anything. I have been hoping for a chance to apologize for the pain I caused you.” 

Nori sighs. Danger has Kitty, Beast, and Forge’s data all inside her, right? Plus a genius mind of her own and complete mastery of technology? 

NORI: “No one has been able to help me control my powers without these stupid gloves. I can deal with a lack of control, but I don’t want to look at them anymore!” 

Nori isn’t sure if it’s possible, but she wants Danger to try mixing the tech into her body. Julian freaks, her not having gone over this with him, but she insists it’s the only thing they haven’t tried. He still doesn’t like the idea, not with how much could go wrong, but Danger jumps in, saying that cyborgs are not a revolutionary concept; she has plentiful data on them. She believes it could be possible to connect the tech in her gauntlets directly to her x-gene. 

DANGER: “If at any moment I fear you are in danger, I will stop the procedure.” 

Despite Julian’s protests, Nori’s puppy dog face gets him to go along with it. 

We montage as Danger runs scans on Nori, takes some blood, and preps her for the surgery, numbing her whole body. Eventually, Danger begins the procedure, one mainly reliant on her own abilities, and while lights flash and sparks fly, ultimately, Danger backs away. 

DANGER: “I am sorry, Surge. This is beyond my power. It is as  if your x-gene is resisting being melded with the technology.” 

Noriko looks like she’s about to cry, so Julian quickly just thanks Danger for trying, and gets Nori out of there, and into the hall. He tells her not to worry, that they’ll figure something else out, but Surge lashes out, tearing up and lighting herself up in electricity. This isn’t fair. She shouldn’t have to live like this! 

Julian uses his TK to keep her energy contained as he holds her and asks what’s going on; why is she so worried about this all of a sudden?

Noriko, trying to get a hold of herself, doesn’t want to admit that Sofia said some totally harmless stuff that she took too seriously, so she dances around that part. Julian knows how her powers changed her life. How they made her lose everything, how they put her on the street for years, how she changed everything about herself, and gave up on all her old goals. 

NORIKO, embarrassed: “And, you also know that one of those goals was to be with a guy like you.” 

And now that she is dating him, well, she wants him to be happy. She doesn’t want herself to be an eyesore, she doesn’t want to make him uncomfortable, she doesn’t want to make him upset because of her lack of interest in things, she just– 

Julian cuts her off. 

JULIAN: “Ashida, you are being ridiculous.” 

Whatever she was taught about being a “good girlfriend” or other crap, he doesn’t care. He just likes hanging out and being with her. Yeah, some of the stuff she mentioned can be annoying, but when haven’t these two annoyed each other? 

Nori giggles. She asks if it’s really all okay. If he really thinks the gauntlets don’t make her ugly. 

JULIAN: “Of course not. You’re beautiful.” 

Julian kisses her, as Noriko’s heart explodes because of his impossibly bad word choice. 

NORI: “Hey, you know, maybe going out tonight, something casual, could be fun. Find us something?” 

JULIAN, ignorantly pleased about how he’s handled this situation: “On it.” 

As Julian flies off, Noriko screams into her hands. 

“I’d be screaming if I was dating that lughead too.” 

Nori picks her head up out of her hands and sneers at the person who just spoke: Quentin, flanked by Glob, Ernst, and Martha. As Nori wipes the remaining tears from her eyes, she asks Quentin what he wants. 

QUENTIN: “Nothing, Just hanging out. But I couldn’t help but overhear what’s going on. Quite the tragic situation you’ve found yourself in. I suppose not all of us can have mastery over our powers.” 

Glob snickers with Quentin. 

NORI: “So are you just done trying to be our friend now?” 

QUENTIN: “On the contrary, I come AS a friend. One with the possible answer to your problems.” 

From his shorts pocket, Quentin pulls out a bottle of pills. Nori tells him to stuff it, she’s tried drugs before, and she only survived because of Dani. Quentin tells her this is nothing like those street drugs she poisoned herself with. This is Kick. Real medication, straight from the office of Dr. Garrison. It clears the mind, refocuses you, and grants you strength you didn’t know you had; and it’s particularly potent with Mutants. 

QUENTIN: “A few pills could be all that stand between you and getting those eye-sores off. You’ve seen what it’s done for me. You could be the girl you always wanted to be.” 

As Surge contemplates her choice, Glob and Ernst echo Quentin’s thoughts about the gauntlets being ugly. Surge stares back at them, having made her decision. 

Elsewhere, Scott walks Pitor to a room he can stay in. Pitor comments on how lovely the new school is; he’ll always miss the old one though. Scott, awkwardly, is glad he likes it. But listen, there’s something they need to talk about. About him and Kitty. 

PITOR, grinning: “Has she been speaking of me?” 

SCOTT: “Well, no. It’s just, I want to make sure…things are messy and–” “Pitor cuts Scott off by laughing. He gets what he’s saying. “You do?”

PITOR: “Da. Katya has someone new, right?” 

SCOTT: “Ummmm.” 

Pitor tells him not to worry about it. He’s just glad she’s not dating that “Pete Wisdom” guy anymore. Him and Kitty broke up years ago for a reason. If she’s happy, that’s all that matters to him. And he can wait for her to tell him herself who the lucky man is. 

Scott is surprised, but pleased. Pete’s done a lot of growing up, clearly. A lot of growing in general. He pats Pitor on the arm, and tells him to get settled. Them and Kitty can go look for Magik afterward. 

Scott leaves Pitor to move into his room, Pitor struggling a little to fit through the small doorframe. His eye is immediately caught by a gorgeous sapphire on the nightstand. There’s a twinkle in his eye as he approaches it. With the gem, there’s a note that reads: “Welcome Back, Sexy.” 

PITOR, picking up the jewel and pressing it against his heart: “Oh, Katya. You shouldn’t have.” 

We immediately cut to the person who actually did leave the gem, as Sofia, with Laura, waves goodbye to Cessily and Roxy, who are driving back to the school before heading out again at night. 

Laura, quietly but excitedly, asks what’s next. Sofia tells her she got them both tickets to one of her favorite ballets, Giselle, from one of the top companies in the country. 

LAURA: “While I was with Logan again, I met an assassin who had studied ballet as part of her training. I got jealous.” 

SOFIA: “Because if you had that training, you’d be able to better dance with me?” Laura nods. “Do not feel jealous at all. If you wish to learn, I can teach you! Just like the TikTok dance.” 

Laura snort laughs, remembering that. 

SOFIA, smirking: “This other assassin…did you fight her?” 

LAURA: “I wasn’t going to. Then she turned out to be one of Cannonball’s friends. I kicked her ass. Logan got mad.” 

Sofia kisses Laura on the cheek. That’s her girl. 

“Um…excuse me.” 

Sofia and Laura, standing by the entrance to the restaurant they’re in, notice a shy, blonde girl covered in more layers than the other girls, who are also dressed for Winter, asking the hostess about her takeout order. Last name: Collins. The Hostess tells her she’ll be right with her. 

The blonde fidgets in place, with Laura commenting that she probably used to look like that, as she takes Sofia’s hand to walk her out. Before they leave, however…

SOFIA: “Laura?” 

Laura breaks away from Sofia and nearly gives the blonde a heart attack as she claps her hands around hers. 

LAURA: “I don’t know who you are, but I feel like we were destined to meet.” 

LAURIE: “Nononononono.” 

Laurie tells her to please let go. Laura of course does, whatever she wants. Laurie runs off crying. Sofia asks Laura what is wrong with her, as Laura’s head aches. She doesn’t know. The hostess returns with the food, but there’s no sign of Laurie. 

We cut to Illyana, actually dressed like a normal young woman for once, skipping stones in the Hudson. All around her, happy couples are doing the same. This pisses her off, as she throws another stone, but instead of bouncing it normally, she teleports it down the war through a series of stepping discs. 

ILLYANA: “Stupid Pitor. Stupid Kitty.” She looks down at her own reflection. “Stupid human with stupid emotions.” 

Illyana tugs at her hair, grunting. Things were so much easier when she was Darkchylde. No real love or compassion or worry, just doing whatever she felt, whenever she felt. Now, here she is, pathetically moping and wallowing in her own sorrow. 

ILLYANA: “Not that that isn’t what I deserve.” 

“Yana!” 

Yana groans as Kitty comes running up to her. Yana asks how she found her, with Kitty reminding her that, duh, that used to come here to hang out and skip stones all the time…err, all the time when someone wasn’t trying to kill them. 

YANA: “Oh. Right. I forgot.” 

Kitty tells her that she and Pitor have been looking over all the places they used to go around here. She figured if she wasn’t just hanging out in Limbo, she’d probably be at one of them. 

ILLYANA: “Great deductive reasoning, Nancy Drew.” Magik opens a stepping disc under herself. “Bye.” 

Kitty pulls Yana off the disc before she can teleport away. Talk to her! What’s wrong? She thought she’d be happy to see Pitor! 

YANA: “Why?! Why would I be happy to see him?!” 

KITTY: “Because he’s your brother and the nicest guy in the world and you love him?” 

YANA: “He’s a jerk who wants to take you from me!” 

Kitty is baffled by that statement. Both because, “Seriously, that’s what this is about?”. Pitor doesn’t want her back! They’ve moved on. Sor-ry if she’s need a little while to process her kissing her out of the blue, but she was just being friendly with him. 

MAGIK: “So you do want to date?” 

KITTY: “I don’t know!” 

Magik pouts, crossing her arms. Kitty tells her she’s being ridiculous. And yes, she can tell her that to her face now that Magik can’t just threaten to chuck the planet into the sun. There’s gotta be something else going on here, right? 

Before Magik can answer, the two X-Men notice an explosion elsewhere in the city. Putting this to the side for the moment, the two exchange nods, Magik draws her anti-soulsword, uses a spell to change them both into their costumes, and teleports them both away. 

In the school’s common area, Julian, Cessily, Brian, and Sooraya are hanging out. While Julian is frustratedly trying to teach Soo how to play a video game for the first time, he’s also telekinetically braiding Cessily’s hair for her date tonight. 

CESSILY: “This is the coolest thing you’ve ever done for me…why do you know how to do this?” 

JULIAN: “I think Ms. Frost was just upset one day that Mr. Summers couldn’t help with her hair, so she made me learn.” 

SOORAYA: “You aren’t bad.” 

JULIAN: “Right? Almost makes me wish Nori had long hair.” 

We cut momentarily to the hallways, where someone with long, jetblack hair is walking. 

Brian, who’s on the floor and leaning against the couch, is texting. He receives a message from Quentin. Specifically, letting him know that he’s about to see something hilarious. Brian snickers. 

Cessily asks Sooraya how her date went. 

SOORAYA: “Aamir was a sweet and very religious man, but a little too intense. From the jokes you all make about New Jersey, maybe coming from there is why. His little sister was sweet though. She loves the X-Men.” 

BRIAN, sarcastically: “Yay, one Flatscan not related to any of us likes us.” 

Out in the hallway, Rubbermaid, Loa, and Preview’s jaws drop as they see someone walking in high heels, with polished nails. 

Soo asks Cessily what she and Roxy are doing that night. Cess, anxiously, says she doesn’t know but she’ll sure it’ll be something big and glamorous and amazing. 

JULIAN: “You don’t sound too happy about that.” 

Cessily bristles at that. Of course she is! Like, yes, the way Roxy is constantly buying her expensive gifts, giving her a career, and welcoming her into her family is…a lot, but it’s all just cause she loves her. 

BRIAN: “If she’s making you uncomfortable, just tell her.” 

CESSILY: “I am NOT going to be that ungrateful. Besides, it’s not like I never do anything for…Noriko?” 

Cessily and Sooraya’s faces contort in confusion, as Brian covers his laughter, and Julian looks extremely horny. 

We see what they’re looking at: Noriko, with long black hair, a cutsey dress, heels, a full face of makeup, and no gauntlets. 

Nori cheerfully pumps her shoulders and smiles wide. 

NORIKO: “Hi guys!” 

She superspeeds onto the stunned Julian’s lap,kissing him on the cheek. 

NORI: “Happy Valentine’s Day.” 

We cut to a middle-class apartment, where a blonde woman with glasses is reading a book. She’s interrupted as Laurie bursts into the apartment, crying. Her mother, Gail, immediately rushes over to comfort her. 

Laurie cries on her mother’s shoulder, saying that it happened again. She tried using the techniques she showed her, she was bundled up, she thought she only went inside when the food would be ready, but it wasn’t, and she did something awful. 

Gail holds her and tells her baby it’s okay, everything’s okay. Tell her exactly what happened. Did anyone get hurt? Did anyone touch her? 

Laurie shakes her head no. There were just these two girls, both way too pretty to ever acknowledge she exists, normally, but her pheremones got loose, and they took hold of one of them. She clapped her hands around hers, and started hitting on her. She was able to get away, but just…

LAURIE: “When will this end?” 

Gail promises her she did nothing wrong. If she was using everything they’ve practiced, then that’s good, and even if the tricks didn’t work, Laurie stopped things before anything happened. She’s proud of her. 

GAIL, holding her daughter: “Scientists and doctors around the world are working toward finding a cure. I promise this won’t be your life forever.” She pauses and smiles. “And for now, we can get delivery for our No-Men Valentines.” 

LAURIE, giggling: “Chinese?” 

GAIL: “Works for me.” 

There’s a knock on the door. Gail goes to see who it is, Laurie staying behind her. Gail opens the door, revealing Sofia and Laura. 

SOFIA: “Hello, ma’am. I know we are unexpected, but may we come in?” 

While Gail is just confused, Laurie faints. 

Kitty and Magik teleport to the general area where the explosion took place. Buildings have been wrecked, cars have been turned over and set aflame, and everyone is terrified. Kitty tells Magik that she’s going to get to, and save, every person trapped either in a collapsed builder or burning car, and she needs her to find who did this and take them down. 

YANA: “Of course you don’t even want to work with me. What? Scared the soulless monster will stab you in the back?” 

KITTY: “Please stop this. If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be asking you to handle the bad guy. Please.” 

MAGIK, sneering: “Fine. Go.” 

Kitty moves to start rescuing people, while Illyana casts a spell to find killers. Only ones present are herself and one other. She teleports to where the villain should be, landing in a gift shop. 

MAGIK: “Alright, let’s get this over with.” 

Magik is stunned as, within the small, cramped store, she sees a hulking, metal monster standing over a dead cashier, looking into a snowglobe. 

YANA: “Colossus?” 

Pitor, in his Juggerlossus form from the comics, but with a sapphire in his forehead, grins sadistically at Magik as he crushes the snowglobe. 

PITOR, in a gravelly voice: “Snowflake.” 

Magik giggles. Is he a bad guy now? Does that mean she’s the good guy? 

MAGIK: “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to be a noble hero and kill you! Such a shame.” 

Magik attacks Pitor with a fire spell, but he just tanks it, grabs her, and throws her through multiple buildings. She lands on the floor of a restaurant, dirtied and bloodied. 

MAGIK: “This…may be a problem.” 

Back in the school’s common area, Julian and his crew are shocked by Noriko’s makeover. 

JULIAN: “What happened? Where are your gauntlets?” 

SOORAYA: “What are you wearing?” 

CESSILY: “Is someone threatening you?” 

NORI, cheerfully playing with Julian’s hair: “Of course not, sillies!” 

BRIAN: “Sillies? You been spending too much time with Megan?” 

NORI: “Ha ha! That’s funny, Bri.” 

Brian just blinks in disbelief at what’s happening. 

Julian asks her, seriously, what happened. Did Danger figure something out? Nori tells the truth and tells him nope, before lying by saying the procedure had a delayed effect…or something. Hee hee. 

NORI: “I’m finally free.” 

She nuzzles her head against his chest. Julian nervously laughs and holds her, kinda into this. Nori then tells Julian not to worry about making plans for them tonight, as she already got them a reservation at a fancy restaurant (doneso while the cosmetology club, made up of kids with powers suited to it, worked on her). 

Julian points out that she hates stuck-up, fancy restaurants, and that neither of them can afford the place. 

NORI: “Don’t worry, babe. The Cuckoos said they’d cover it! They were actually really nice when I asked. They must like the real me as much as I do!” 

CESSILY AND SOORAYA: “The real you?” 

Nori excitedly tells them that this is what she was telling them about last year. This is who she is! Nori superspeeds and pulls the other girls into a hug. She has wasted so many of her teen years stuck being angry and gross, and she is so excited to spend girltime with them! 

While Nori smiles like the sun, Cessily and Soo turn to each other, terrified and uncomfortable. 

Nori then speeds back over to Julian and gives him another big kiss and hug. 

NORI: “Isn’t this amazing, Julian? I can finally be the beautiful girlfriend you deserve.” 

JULIAN, quickly becoming as uncomfortable as the others as he holds her: “Y--yeah.” 

In Gail and Laurie’s apartment, Laurie is passed out on the couch, while Sofia and Laura have been given tea by Gail, as they explain who they are, and what happened at the restaurant. 

SOFIA: “Are we correct in our assumption that your daughter is a Mutant?” 

Gail, anxiously, confirms this, but tells them outright she will not be attending their school, and she would appreciate it if they didn’t spread this information around. Laura questions why, with Gail explaining how Laurie’s powers work: she can release pheremones, of any kind, from her body. With them, she can make anyone feel or think or anyway she wants, on a biological level.

Laura, hearing this, flashes back to her fight with Akihiro. She expresses how she knew she’d felt what Laurie did to her sometime before. In both cases, it was completely overwhelming. Like she didn’t even exist in her own mind or body.

Gail isn’t surprised she’s fought a villain with this power; most people wouldn’t use it for good. That’s why it’s important that Laurie stays here with her. She struggles with controlling her powers, as they’ve seen, and they work on skills together to help work toward eventual total control. 

GAIL: “I won’t let my only daughter grow up to be a monster. Absolutely not. Nor will I put everyone at your school at risk.”

Sofia understands. And she truly respects what Gail is doing. It takes true strength. 

SOFIA: “My own mother was the strongest woman I ever knew. I think she would have liked you.”

GAIL: “Well, she raised an X-Man, so she must have done a pretty good job. I…admit Laurie can be a handful. But I know no one could handle her better.” 

As Gail gets up to grab some sugar, Sofia pointedly asks another question: Where’s Mr. Collins? 

Gail freezes up for a second, before explaining that he passed away many years ago. Laurie never even met him. He wasn’t a good man. 

Sofia plays along and accepts this. If that’s everything, then they will respect her choice. But she does hand her a card, telling her that if she or Laurie ever need anything, the X-Men will be there for them. Gail thanks her. 

Gail tells the girls they can finish their tea before they go, but Sofia would actually like to stay a little longer. She and Laura would just like to talk to Laurie as well, and make sure she knows there are no hard feelings. 

SOFIA, sickeningly sweetly: “That will not be a problem, will it?” 

GAIL, slightly uncomfortable: “No. No, that should be fine.” 

SOFIA: “Splendid.” 

Laura finally drinks some of her tea and spits it out. 

LAURA: “Got any coffee?” 

Juggerlossus stomps over to Magik, towering over her. 

PITOR: “I have been looking for you.” 

Magik picks herself up and consumes her eyes in purple flames, looking inside Pitor’s soul. She can see the sapphire inside him and its presence around him. 

MAGIK: “I’m as much the girl you want as you are my jerk of a brother. Didn’t know gems of Cyttorak came in blue.” 

Juggerlossus isn’t interested in talking, going on the attack. Magik is only barely able to protect herself from his punches using her anti-soulsword. She teleports above him to try taking off his head, but she can only chip his neck. Pitor grabs her and smashes her into the ground, forming a crater and making her scream. 

Nearby, as Kitty is pulling civilians out of a building that’s been reduced to rubble, she worries as she hears Magik scream. Kitty goes for her com and calls Cyclops. 

KITTY: “Cyclops! Cyclops, are you there?!” 

We cut to the Jean Grey School, where we see Scott’s already been knocked out inside the school. 

KITTY: “Dammit.” 

With him not picking up, she instead calls Emma and Magneto. She knows they’re busy looking into what happened to Pixie, but uh, they kinda have a situation over here! 

The headmasters question what’s going on with Kitty giving a brief rundown. She doesn’t know who’s responsible, but she’s handling search and rescue, and it sounds like Magik can’t handle them alone. 

Magneto tells her they’ll be right to her location, with Emma checking to see who they’re up against by reading Magik’s mind. 

EMMA: “You aren’t going to like this, Katherine.” 

Kitty’s eyes flash. 

KITTY: “What the Hell?” 

EMMA: “The Mutant sibling urge to kill one another. I understand it well.” 

Magneto clenches his pained face. 

Kitty tells her to not joke. Pitor wouldn’t have chosen to become the dang Juggernaut for no reason. She needs them here NOW so they can figure out what’s going on and help them both. 

“Don’t forget about me.”

KITTY, surprised: “Warpath? You sure you want in on this?” 

JAMES, already being flown through the sky by Magneto and Emma: “Juggernaut and Colossus are one-trick ponies; they hit hard. So do I.” 

Magik screams again. 

KITTY: “Okay. Just hurry.” 

In Julian’s room, while he gets changed into something nicer, Noriko is excitedly talking about how she’s gonna see if any other girls here like volleyball, get her grades up just a little, and plan ideas for how the gang can do Spring Break “right” this year. 

NORIKO: “Maybe later tonight we could go dancing!” 

Nori’s face falls as she notices Julian looking like he isn’t paying attention. 

NORIKO: “What’s wrong? Am I annoying you?” 

Julian takes a breath. 

JULIAN: “No. That’s the problem.” 

Nori is so confused. How is that a problem? Julian exasperatedly tells her that he likes her annoying him! Her being annoying is what makes her Noriko. 

JULIAN: “Something is wrong that you won’t tell me.” 

Nori shakes her head, no, and tells him he’s wrong. All that anger and snark was just a shield.

NORIKO: “I have nothing to be angry about anymore, nothing holding me back. No more than you do, I mean. Why do you want me to still be miserable?” 

JULIAN: “I want you to be yourself.”

NORIKO: “This IS “myself”. Do you just see me as a jerk who’s fun to fight with?” 

JULIAN: “Of course not, but–”

NORI: “But what? You’re going to tell me that’s what you want in a girlfriend?”

JULIAN: “This isn’t about me.” 

NORI: “You’re making this about you! Just be happy for me!” 

JULIAN: “I am happy for you.” 

NORIKO: “Then act like it!” 

Nori, getting hysterical, falls against Julian, pressing her head against his chest.

NORIKO: “Do you love me?” 

Julian telekinetically stands her up and holds her, unsure of what to say. 

JULIAN: “I…” 

NORI; “You had no problem telling Sofia.” 

Julian cringes, putting together what this is about. 

Nori gasps. Clearly and suddenly unwell, she tells him she can’t do this right now. She’ll still be ready to go out later if he has an answer. Maybe. 

Nori superspeeds off, collapsing against a wall as a surge of electricity uncontrollably escapes her body, with her struggling to keep it in, paining her to do so. 

NORI, panicking: “What the Hell?”

“Enjoy your trial run?” 

Quentin floats up to her, smug as anything. Nori, stuttering and talking super fast at the same time, asks what he did to her. 

QUENTIN: “Nothing! I just gave you less than a daily dosage earlier. Now that you’ve seen how it works, I was hoping I could get something in return for a month’s supply.” 

NORI: “What?” 

QUENTIN: “Nothing too much. Just the entrance code to Cerebro. I want to try it out, and Ms. Frost has locked the password too well in every X-Man’s mind for me to pry it out.”

Nori, slipping back into her old self, tells him to go to Hell. She isn’t gonna be used like that. 

QUENTIN: “I just wanted to trade! It’s nothing nefarious. But if you’re happy digging your ugly old gauntlets out of the trash and staying the Surge we all know and tolerate, that’s up to you.” 

Quentin starts to float away, until Nori calls out to him to wait. Just as he knew she would. 

NORI, pained and desperate: “You have a deal.” 

Magik, battered and beaten, continues to try and fight Juggerlossus, throwing various spells at him, but none of them working. 

YANA: “You are really pissing me off!” 

EMMA, telepathically: “Magik, Magneto, Warpath, I and will arrive at your destination in 20 seconds. Perhaps you should teleport Colossus away to an unpopulated area and then–” 

YANA: “Don’t tell me what to do!” 

Juggerlossus grabs Magik, crushing her in a bear hug. Magik is helpless as she drops her sword and screams. Before she can be killed, however, Illyana falls to the ground, phasing tight through Pitor. Pitor, confused, turns to find Kitty touching him. 

KITTY: “Sorry about this.” 

Juggerlossus is flung up into the sky, where he’s met by Magneto, Emma, and Warpath, Magneto actually having to exert himself to maintain his hold, as Pitor tries to break free. Emma tells Pitor to stay put as Auntie Emma takes a closer look inside his head. 

Pitor screams, trying to resist, but he can’t hold Emma back. 

Inside his mindscape, which takes on the form of an abstract painting of a farm, Emma in astral form sneers at another astral figure. 

EMMA: “Exodus.” 

Exodus turns to face Emma, smirking and leaning on a blue egg that Pitor is trapped inside. 

EXODUS, mockingly: “A pleasure to finally meet you, my fellow Omega.” 

In the real world, Kitty huddles over Magik, asking if she’s okay. 

YANA: “Da.” 

KITTY: “Good.” Kitty slaps her across the face. “Now tell me what your dang problem is!” 

Yana cringes, too weak to keep fighting. 

Back at the school, with Quentin confirming telepathically that the coast is clear, he and Noriko approach the entrance to Cerebro. Noriko hesitates, unsure if she should be doing this, but Quentin shakes the bottle of Kick in her face to taunt her. 

NORI, sighing: “What do you want with Cerebro, anyway?” 

QUENTIN: “LIke I said, I just want to try it out. Don’t blame me, blame Ms. Frost’s obvious favoritism.” 

Nori bites her tongue, and opens the doors for him, shutting them behind her once they’re both in. 

QUENTIN, in awe of the machine as he approaches the helmet in the center: “You’re making the right choice, Surge. Kick helps make you whoever you want to most be. If this is what you want, then it’s worth doing anything for.” He sits down and puts on the helmet. “I couldn’t imagine going back to being that dweeb.” 

Quentin cracks his fingers and says it’s time to get to work. As he powers on Cerebro, he’s initially overwhelmed, but quickly gets the hang of it. 

QUENTIN, adjusting his glasses: “Piece of cake.” 

Quentin shuts his eyes and starts doing something, but Nori can’t tell what. Noriko is antsy and wants this done as quickly as possible before they get caught. Quentin promises he’ll be done in no time; he’s just checking out a few things. 

Dramatic music swells as Quentin does whatever it is he’s doing, and Surge looks back and forth between him and the door.

It’s all fine though, as Quentin takes the helmet off before anyone comes in. 

QUENTIN: “All done. See? Nothing to worry about.” Nori still appears distraught. “Come on. Cheer up, Surge. Girls like you should always be smiling.” 

Quentin floats over to the exit, but before Surge even meets him there to punch in the code, the doors open and Quentin is sent flying back by a burst of green energy. 

NORI: “Oh no.” 

Hellion enters Cerebro, pissed. 

JULIAN: “What do you think you’re doing here?” 

Back in Gail’s apartment, Sofia and Laura sit on the couch while they wait for Laurie to wake up. Laura feels bad for Laurie; without control, her power is more of a curse than anything. Danger could probably design a suit for her to keep her pheremones contained but…

SOFIA: “But she is already frightened and insecure. It would only make things worse.” 

Sofia then comments that they know it’s possible to control this type of power. The Horseman Laura fought had total control, right? Laura reluctantly sighs yes. 

SOFIA, pretending to be concerned: “You haven’t told me much about what happened out there.” 

LAURA: “Nothing too say. We fought. I lost. He let me live. Said his master had plans for me.” 

SOFIA: “Why would Lady Akabba care about you at all?” 

LAURA: “I don’t know. But she didn’t kill me, Julian, and Noriko when she had the chance either.” 

SOFIA, holding Laura’s hand: “Forgive me, but you know I cannot help hearing things through the wind. Such as your debriefing with Cyclops. Death is your brother, right?” 

LAURA, shaking her head: “I don’t care what he is. This isn’t about him.” 

SOFIA: “No. It is about you. Why did you run away from the school? And why did you come back?” 

Laura gives the cliffnotes of what happened with Kimura and Akihiro. 

SOFIA: “You came back just for me?” Laura blushes as Sofia kisses her cheek. “No one as loving as you could ever just be a weapon.” 

LAURA, weakly: “Thank you.” 

Sofia thinks to herself. 

LAURA: “What?” 

SOFIA: “I am trying to put the pieces together.” 

Sofia goes over the odd sequence of events. She woke up and escaped Apocalypse’s lair just after Laura ran off, and then Death was sent to push her back, just after she arrived at the school. Laura, eyes widened, adds that Akihiro had been at the Facility, working with Kimura. 

LAURA: “We’re being played with.” 

Before Sofia can respond, Gail enters. Laurie’s awake. 

In Cerebro, Julian demands to know what Quentin is doing with Nori and Cerebro. As Quentin picks himself up, Noriko races over to Julian, holding his arm and telling him everything is fine; Quentin just asked to try Cerebro and she didn’t see the harm, that’s all. 

Julian, examining the scene, takes note of the pill bottle that was knocked out of Quentin’s shorts when he was knocked down, and telekinetically pulls it over to himself. 

JULIAN: “Kick?”

Julian is hit by a bust of purple energy and knocked back against the wall, as Quentin pulls the bottle back over to him. 

QUENTIN: “That belongs to me.” 

Julian’s eyes widen with rage. He glares at Noriko. Danger didn’t help at all, did she? He glares back at Quentin. 

JULIAN, livid: “You put her back on pills!” 

QUENTIN: “I didn’t do anything. She wanted this. Besides, like I told her, these are nothing like–”

JULIAN: “Shut it! Truth is, I don’t really care what you were doing with Cerebro. But you breaking the rules is gonna be a real good excuse for what happens next.” 

NORI: “Julian, no, please don’t fight.” 

JULIAN, just confused and distraught looking at her: “Who are you?” 

Both are caught off guard as an intense purple aura surrounds Quentin. 

QUENTIN: “Don’t worry, Surge. This won’t be much of a fight.” He laughs at how stunned they are. “What? Did you forget where I finished last year in the rankings? And you both just make the “aura” thing look so cool, I had to try it.” 

Julian and a cocky Quentin stare each other down, as Nori fears what’s about to happen. 

Julian rushes Quentin, only to fall in agony at Quentin’s feet. 

QUENTIN: “Telepathy, tough guy. Like I said. This isn’t a fight.” 

Quentin punts Julian against the ceiling, and proceeds to telekinetically swing him against each of the walls, repeatedly. 

QUENTIN: “I’ve said a lot of bad things about women. A lot of it I regret. But you, Julian Keller, are something so much worse than any “cool girl”.” He pulls Julian in front of him. “A man born with everything, but who acts like he has it so hard.” Quentin resumes slamming Julian into the walls, even faster, as Noriko cries out for him to please stop. “Good looks! A cool attitude! Real parents! It doesn’t matter that I’m richer and ten times the Mutant you are; you’re the X-Man, and one who’s slept with all the hottest girls in school!” 

Quentin slams Julian down in front of him once more. Julian’s body is covered in bruises. 

QUENTIN: “Things are going to change soon. And then, you’ll be nothing, and everyone will respect me!” 

Julian pants. 

JULIAN: “Listen…you unhinged virgin loser…I am a lot of the things you just said.” Quentin groans and stumbles back as Julian performs the red triangle. “I’m also Ms. Frost’s apprentice.” 

Julian is able to go on the offensive, blasting Quentin away, before rushing him. Quentin tries to fight back, but in close-quarters-combat, Julian has him completely outclassed, and is able to whale on him. 

JULIAN: “Whatever you were planning, give it up! There is enough I have to worry about right now as is without you throwing a tantrum because your fake parents don’t love you! Join the damn club!” 

Quentin increases his shielding around himself at the moment of impact of Julian’s next punch, momentarily stunning him, allowing Quentin to form a psychic blade around his hand and slash Julian across the chest. 

As all of this goes on, Nori continues to shout at the boys to please stop, electricity crackling around her. 

QUENTIN: “This isn’t about me! It’s about all of us! I’m just the only one smart enough to see what needs to be done.” He smirks. “Well. Besides Tag.” 

Julian screams, charging up with energy. Quentin does much the same. Both are positively throbbing with energy. Nori continues to shout at them to stop before they destroy everything and kill everyone. The electricity around her intensifies. 

As Julian and Quentin prepare to unleash their respective power, auras flaring up in huge spires, Noriko’s pleas are silenced, as she’s overtaken by electricity, and passes out. 

Immediately, both boys power down. 

JULIAN AND QUENTIN: “Noriko!” 

Both boys fly down to where Nori is, Julian checking her pulse. He breathes a sigh of relief that she’s still breathing. 

JULIAN, angrier than ever, but also now afraid: “What did you give her?!” 

QUENTIN, genuine in his concern: “I…I don’t know. Hellion, I had no idea this could happen to her, you have to believe–” 

JULIAN: “GET OUT!” 

Quentin lingers for a moment out of guilt, before sneering, adjusting his glasses once more, and leaving. 

Julian holds Nori in his arms. 

JULIAN, quietly: “You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.” 

In Colossus’ mindscape, Emma mocks Exodus for being a coward; for all his power, he’s still brainwashing someone else to fight for him. 

EXODUS: “Were it up to me, I’d simply fly up to your school and blow you all to bits. Tragically, Lady Akabba has forbidden that. She wants you, Cyclops, and Magneto for herself. Such an annoying little Daddy’s Girl.” 

EMMA: “Sounds like someone’s been whipped.” 

BENNETT: “Only for my sins.” 

Exodus attacks Emma, with the two entering a telepathic struggle. Bennett points out that he knows in this area, Emma has him beat, but he doesn’t need to win; he just needs to buy enough time for his beast to do its job.

In the real world, Juggerlossus roars as Magneto strains himself holding him in place; this isn’t the real Gem of Cyttorak they’re facing, or they’d already be dead, but it’s far closer to it than they’d like. 

Juggerlossus stops struggling. Magneto and Warpath are confused. Pitor smirks, as he exits his metal form, grabs Magneto and Warpath’s necks, and, smashes them both down into the pavement below. The impact shakes the whole city. 

Juggerlossus cackles and roars triumphantly. While Magneto struggles to stand, Warpath gets up. 

WARPATH: “Okay, Jimmy.” Warpath draws his knives. “Let’s see if you’ve still got it.” 

Nearby, Kitty once again demands Magik talk to her. Magik relents and explains. Even when they were kids, she was still evil. She didn’t want to be, she tried to act like she wasn’t, but she was still a demon sorceress above all else. Pitor never accepted that. Even when he was comforting her at her lowest, he couldn’t get it out of his head that she was still the innocent little girl who’d been kidnapped by Belasco. And every time he’d make that clear, or call her his “snowflake” she’d feel disgusted with herself. 

But she couldn’t just push him away and tell him to stop. She still loved him and, well, so did Kitty. They were inseparable. And that sucked because, unlike Pitor, Kitty always did see her for her. 

YANA: “I thought I was finally free of him. I thought we both were.” 

But now Colossus is back. And if they’re able to save him, things are just going to go back to the way they were and– 

Kitty shuts Magik up by kissing her. 

KITTY: “We WILL save him. But nothing will be like it was.” 

Magik is stunned. Pleased, but stunned. Kitty giggles. Yana has always been so quick to assume the worst when it comes to herself. But she’s also always tried to be her best self. That’s part of why she loves her. 

KITTY: “I’m sorry I’ve been weird. This has just been a lot. But I do want this. I promise. And I promise to help you be the best “you” you can be.” 

Magik processes all of this and grins, planting a much sloppier kiss on Kitty. 

KITTY, pulling back, laughing: “Oh my god! Did you use the forked tongue?!” 

YANA: “Maybe.” She stands both of them up. “Let’s finish this fast. We can still get a Valentine’s Day dinner.” 

KITTY: “That sounds real good.” 

Magik teleports them both away. 

Back at the fight, Warpath puts up an impressive performance against Juggerlossus. He still clearly losing, but he’s at least able to hold him back from continuing his rampage. On the Astral Plane, Emma continues her duel with Exodus. 

Just then, Kitty and Magik arrive on the scene, teleporting in from underneath Juggerlossus, with Kitty dragging Pitor halfway through the street. As she does this, Magik chants. 

Warpath asks what she’s doing. Kitty explains that the Gem of Cyttorak was created by a demon god. Magik knows a thing or two about how to fight those. And so if this thing is close enough to the genuine article, it should work. 

Juggerlossus screams as he’s overwhelmed in the real world by Magik’s spell, and Exodus is overpowered by Emma in the astral plane. 

EXODUS: “No, no, no.” 

Pitor’s astral self breaks free of his shell, as the gem is destroyed, and he crushes the head of Exodus’ astral self. 

COLOSSUS, reverting to normal and passing out: “Thank you…all. I’m sorry.”

Emma returns to her body and helps up Erik and James, as Kitty hugs Pitor. Yana thinks about doing so, but she still can’t. She settles for just holding Kitty’s hand. 

In Laurie’s bedroom, she whimpers out an apology to Sofia and Laura, who make clear they aren’t mad and that she did nothing wrong. 

SOFIA: “We completely understand your situation. My best friend cannot control her powers either. One of our teachers had to design special gloves for her.” 

Laurie’s eyes light up at that. They can do that???

Laura tells her she’s under no obligation to stay at the school with them, but whether she’d like to enroll or not, they’d be happy to call up Beast to meet with her. 

Excitement and, more importantly, hope spread across Laurie’s face. That sounds amazing. 

LAURIE: “You’re both…so cool.” 

SOFIA: “It wasn’t long ago I was a lot like you.” Sofia runs her hand through Laurie’s hair. “We could teach you to be like us.” 

Laurie doesn’t think she ever could be, but the idea of trying sounds amazing. Not until she’s got her own special gloves or something though. She doesn’t want to risk hurting anyone. 

SOFIA, smirking: “Pheremones are your gift.” Sofia blows a gentle wind in Laurie’s face, ticking her nose with her hair. “Control of the wind is mine. So long as you stay close to me, I can keep you safe.” 

Laurie’s face lights up and she hugs Sofia, thanking her. This is so cool. She just needs to talk to her mom first before she makes a decision. 

SOFIA, hugging Laurie: “Of course. You must respect your parents.” 

Shortly after, Sofia and Laura exit Laurie’s room. Sofia receives a telepathic message. 

EXODUS: “Your plan failed, War. Just as I told you it would. Magik and Kitty Pryde survived.” 

SOFIA, forcing an outward smile: “Disappointing. Moving on with my contingency.” 

SOFIA, outloud: “I’m so glad she wants to come to the school. It may blow up sometimes, but it’s still the best choice any of us can make.” 

LAURA: “Best choice I ever made.” Laura holds Sofia’s hand as they exit the apartment. “Sorry we missed the ballet.” 

SOFIA: “Do not worry. This was more important.” She makes a more serious face. “There is something else I still want to do though.” 

Sofia explains that the X-Men haven’t been able to have any luck tracking down the Horsemen. All the while the Horsemen toy with the two of them, launch attacks on their friends, and put Scarlet Witch in a coma. They need to do something - and they can. 

For whatever reason, the Horsemen want her. She could find a way to contact them, say she’s ready to ready to join them, and that Laura wants to come to to learn more about her brother. Sofia could learn about her missing six months, while Laura could work on trying to get her brother off this path, and then they could supply the location to the X-Men. 

Laura isn’t sure. They need to run this by Cyclops. Sofia tells her that’s pointless; of course he’ll shoot that down. He probably doesn’t even fully trust her still, and she can’t even blame him. 

SOFIA: “But you trust me. Right?” 

The elevator doors open. 

LAURA: “More than anyone.” 

The two kiss as they step into the elevator, and the doors close. 

Kitty, Magik, Emma, Erik, and James arrive back at the school, the two men carrying the barely conscious Pitor. Magneto congratulates Warpath on the clear progress he’s made. James dismissively tells him he’s been training, still not a fan of him. 

Magik eagerly asks Kitty what they should do once they’ve gotten Pitor to the medical center. Before Kitty can answer, the group is approached by a somber-looking Danielle. Emma asks what’s wrong; did something happen to Megan? 

DANI: “No. She’s acting a little stranger than usual, but she seems to be doing better.” 

KITTY: “Then what’s up?” 

DANI, pained: “It’s about Surge.” 

In the medical bay, Noriko lies awake in bed, glaring at the ceiling, and wearing new gauntlets that resemble Danger’s body. 

“Hey kid.” 

Noriko cringes as Kitty enters. 

NORIKO: “I know I messed up. No need to lay into me.” 

KITTY, sitting down next to her: “I think I’ll be the judge of that. Talk to me.” 

Nori sighs. She was stupid, like usual, and insecure. She wanted to be more like her old self for Julian, because she used to be more like Sofia, and she thought that was what Julian wanted. 

NORI: “LIke I said. Stupid.” 

KITTY, shaking her head: “I don’t think that sounds stupid. That sounds like you’re a teenage girl trying to please your first boyfriend. Happens to all of us.” 

NORI, not buying that: “Oh yeah. What stunt did you pull with Colossus then?” 

Kitty looks up wistfully at the ceiling. 

KITTY: “I tried having sex with him for the first time in outer space while we were facing an alien invasion and he was almost 20.” 

Nori is stunned. She then bursts out laughing. 

NORI: “Okay. Yeah. That’s pretty bad.” 

Kitty, getting back on track, tells Nori that she should never change herself for anyone else - especially a guy. She has to know they all love her the way she is, right? 

NORIKO: “Julian couldn’t tell me he loves me.” 

KITTY: “Julian’s a stupid 17 year-old boy. You know what the truth is, even if he’s too dumb to spit it out.” 

Nori nods along, before glaring at her gauntlets. 

NORI: “Fuck! Ms. Pryde, I don’t really know who I’d rather be for myself. I just know I’m sick of this!” 

KITTY: “And we’ll keep doing everything we can for you.” 

NORI, shaking her head: “Don’t bother.” BEAT. “Am I still on the team?” 

KITTY: “We…still need to discuss that. But we do all want you to rest. Okay?” 

NORI, cringing without much hope: “Okay.” 

There’s a knock on the door, as Julian, chest bandaged up, reveals himself. 

KITTY: “I’ll give you two some privacy.” 

She pats Nori on the shoulder before allowing Hellion to take her seat. 

NORI, wanting to die: “You hear all that?” 

JULIAN, guilty: “Yeah. I did.”

Both go silent, before they simultaneously try to apologize. Noriko is unsure what Julian is apologizing for. 

JULIAN: “For making you feel like I wanted you to be Sofia. I don’t know what did to do that, but I did.” 

NORI, hanging her head: “I believe that you don’t want me to be her. But you still want her, don’t you?” 

JULIAN: “I didn’t say that.” 

NORI: “You couldn’t say you loved me. Do you still love her?” Julian opens his mouth before cringnig. “That’s what I thought.” 

Julian is REALLY sorry. He was ready to move on, he was, but then Sofia came back and…he can’t help how he feels. 

Nori pounds her fists against the bed. She’d call him a dick, but she doesn’t get to talk with how she’s been acting. 

NORI: “Do you even still want to go out?” 

JULIAN, struggling to say this: “I do. I WANT to love you.” Nori weakly smiles. “But I don’t think I can date someone who can’t be honest with me.” 

Nori cries, swearing and pounding her head against the bed. She’s so stupid! 

Julian hugs her to comfort her and get her to stop banging her head. He’s sorry. But he just has too much else stressing him out to deal with this. He still cares a lot about her; she’s still his best friend. 

Julian starts crying as Nori sobs and hugs him back. 

NORI: “Still gonna hang out together?” 

JULIAN: “Yup.”

NORI: “Still gonna kick ass together?” 

JULIAN: “Duh.” 

Nori laughs. 

NORI: “Keller, I’m the third girl you’ve broken up with here. I’m starting to think you might just suck at relationships.” 

Julian playfully pushes her back. 

JULIAN: “Not as bad as you suck at sucking, Ashida.” 

NORI: “Oh my GOD!” 

The two laugh. 

“Ah, Surge, good. You are awake.” 

Danger approaches Hellion and Surge. Julian begrudgingly thanks Danger for patching them both up…again. He knows she’s been doing that a lot lately. Danger is grateful for his thanks, but has a more important matter to discuss. Nori sarcastically asks if she figured out how to help her, to which Danger says no…but she does have news for her. 

 Danger explains that she ran some tests on Nori while she was working on her, and she found something interesting. The gauntlets serve the purpose of restricting Surge’s energy output; when her powers aren’t restrained they’re far more potent. But over the last year and a half, and especially the past nine months, Nori has been working for hours a day to train her powers. Obviously, she’s noticed she’s gotten stronger and gained more control. But she hasn’t been tapping into more of her pre-existing power. Rather, she’s only been increasing the potency of that existing strength. While restricted, her total energy output has increased at the same rate as her restricted output. 

SURGE: “I’ve got a C- in math, explain this to me like I’m five.” 

DANGER: “Say you are ten times stronger now than when you came to the school. Your full power is also ten times greater than when Danielle found you. I estimate the next time you remove your gauntlets, you would have the power to destroy all of New York.” 

NORI, flabbergasted: “Woah.” 

In the mission room, Scott (with an icepack), Emma, Magneto, Kitty, and Magik sit with Colossus. Colossus weakly apologizes to Scott for all this trouble. And for hitting him. He should have known better than to touch the gem left in his room. Kitty tells him not to blame himself; they used to get each other gifts all the time. 

PITOR: “Even still, I’m sure this isn’t what Cyclops had in mind when he called me.” 

SCOTT, confused: “I…didn’t call you.” 

KITTY: “Wait, what? Then who did?” 

Sofia pops into the mission room. 

SOFIA: “Oh, hello, everyone. I’ll let you all finish whatever you were discussing, but Mr. Summers, please expect a call from Gail Collins; she may be looking to enroll her daughter.” 

CYCLOPS: “Um, thank you, Wind Dancer.” 

Sofia nods and quickly exits. 

EMMA: “Already helping to find new students. They grow up so fast.” 

Kitty is annoyed. The questions just keep piling up, and they aren’t getting any answers. 

KITTY: “At least we’ve got you around now to help.” 

Magik holds Kitty’s hand, on the table, as she glares harshly at Pitor. 

PITOR, reluctant: “Unfortunately, I have had a chance of heart.” 

He apologizes to his little snowflake for coming to see her before she was ready. He will always be ready to talk to her when she wants to, but he does not wish to bring her any strife, or the team any dysfunction. Kitty is right that there are many mysteries, but the X-Men aren’t the only ones working to solve them; Logan and Storm are as well. He thinks he will go join them. 

COLOSSUS: “I never realized the two of you held these types of feelings for each other…but I wish you only the best.” 

MAGIK, smirking at her brother, arm around Kitty: “Do not worry, big brother. I will take very good care of her.” 

As Magik glares at Pitor, Kitty phases through the table to hug him goodbye. Pitor points out that a few years ago, she would have been kicking and screaming over him leaving. 

KITTY: “Yeah, well...we all grow up fast here.” 

EMMA, bitter: “Not everyone.” 

In detention, Quentin pays no attention as Emma lectures him for his misbehavior. 

EMMA: “Do you understand, Mr. Quire? Never again.” 

QUENTIN, smirking: “Of course, Ms. Frost. I will never be a bad boy again.” 

Later, as he exits detention, he’s flanked by Glob, Radian, Redneck, Tattoo, Martha, Ernst…and Escapade. 

QUENTIN, sneering: “Who’s the brat?” 

ERNST: “Escapade. She’s cool.” 

QUENTIN: “She better be. I got what I needed off Cerebro. Next week, we make our move.” 

#New X-Men: The Animated Series #New X-Men #Academy X #scott summers #emma frost #magneto #kitty pryde #roberto da costa #laura kinney #illyana rasputin #julian keller #noriko ashida #sooraya qadir #cessily kincaid #brian cruz #roxanne washington #the stepford cuckoos #sofia mantega #quentin quire

[metamorphopsia]

They've been caught in the herb garden again, mouth open as they're getting ready to chomp on another pepper. Will they ever learn their lesson? No. They're making direct eye contact as they chomp down on it.

The plant gets the impending sense that this bug won't learn any other way, knowing full well what kind of chilli they're about to eat.

"I'm not saving you this time. You didn't read the warnings, did you?" Nai asks, almost conversationally, a small quirk to the side of his mouth. "Those chillis... Those are carolina reapers. Legato's special strain for his self-flagulation purposes when the urge is too strong to ignore."

He folds his arms, leaning down to Zazie's height, taking in the eye contact.

"Today is the day you learn the depths of your follies, kraken."

#TIME TO LEARN TODAY ZAZ #a fellow feral - (zazie) #they look like googly eyes! - (crack)

[vexx-the-egg]

AS Requested: Jesus of Nazareth being Flagulated with Phone charms

(Please zoom in for the fine details) @penguin--person

Bonus:

#really hopeing people recognize some of the charcters but ESPECIALLY the ponies bec that was a bitch to hunt down #Christianity #egg posting

[haserhaser732]

I think fiction writers kind of harm reduction what they(or others) may have experienced and create fantastical layovers to perhaps relate to a wider auidence than just themselves? And maybe to allow themselves to process what motivated their creating and writing?

Also worry/concern/relationship for/to a fictional character/parasocial peer kind of seem like good things? Even if the concept of "good" is subjective. Real people seem to struggle with relating to eachother in meaninful ways during the popularity of a Media or personal parasocial peer conflict/tragedy(that might require privicy for perpatrators, victims and all involved to cope?) and that seems more problematic than humans "making up" stories to cause unneeded anxiety. Learn from or find comfort in relation to these written harsh lived characters rather than compare and self flagulate? Maybe even inspiration and protection? How about where do you even disagree with thier actions despite the harshness of thier life or perspective? Not to diminish the character and to further find about yourself? What do you think you would have done? Where are there comparisons in your lived experience?

What if Media is treated as an expression not a judgement or criteria?

I'm trying to teach myself to not use perspective/trauma olympian tactics as a weapon or power tools or deflection so I write this mosty for me.

#idk #personalpost

[reclaimingjoy]

Day ????

Okay, so I dropped off the earth a bit. What happened?

One, I think I let it start feeling like a chore instead of something I looked forward to.

Two, work got .. complicated, and I was basically just working and sleeping.

Three, I let myself take some time for recovery.

I'm on leave from work, and I want to better understand my motivation before I go back in January. This is just a way for me to learn more about myself with reflection rather than self flagulation!

So, how do I avoid self sabatoge? I have to do something I enjoy each time. Whether that be watching a show I love while I do something slightly more boring (biking, for instance), or doing something absolutely exciting, either works.

I have to prioritize my wellness above.. well.. last place. :D Work is important, but I'm more effective at work when I feel well.

And finally I have to KEEP letting myself recover without guilt. The second I feel guilt, everything becomes a chore, and leads to brain melt, and suddenly I'm back in the same place all over again.

So, back to it my friends!

[prawnhubpremium]

self flagulation is just as self centric as self aggrandization, hero or villain it's still all about you ain't it

[desertboogierecordneedle]

[carllisle]

Enough with the posts abt it being impossible for Carlisle to be Catholic because he grew up in Cromwellian England as if there weren’t thousands and thousands of sexy closeted Catholics putting their whole transubstantiatussy into practicing in secret

#listen Puritan carlisle is fine #but I want like. Spanish / Portuguese Catholicism for him #not aristocratic Catholicism where it’s all wine and orgies and divine right of kings #I want hair shirts and self flagulation and believe in the Body and Blood #I want carlisle and saints and rosaries and penance #I don’t want carlisle rejecting holy days I want carlisle putting his whole carlussy into every festival #religion cw

[painless-innit-colourful]

I think I'm trippin' right now (on what I dunno... energy drink?) but there's definitely at least one otherworldly presence in this room with me. I wanna listen to some loud music but I'm afraid of disturbing it... Not like, scared of it, but in the way I'd be afraid to disturb my cat while he's sleeping.

I'm gonna listen to some Sonic music.

#crim speaks #don't mind me i'm just flagulating

[rvexillology]

In case anyone wants to look flagulous

from /r/vexillology Top comment: Please take your puns out of this subreddit. Thank you and have a good day.

#In #case #anyone #wants #look #flagulous #flags #vexillology

[mintmatcha]

post nut clarity hits levi in the worst way makes him remember youre annoying rip

Levi's tired of the way you haunt him.

He can't stand how he catches a hint of your perfume whenever you pass and it clings to him, hiding in the corners of his mind long after the physical scent is gone. The fact he's never gotten close enought to you to get a full inhale, never been able to taste it on your skin, makes his hands shake with frustration.

In the quiet moments between the chaos, his mind drifts to the curve of your hips, the way your shirt gaps when you lean forward, the way you hum to yourself when you stretch.... sometimes he can't wait until nightfall to deal with the issue.

Having his back pressed against the already locked door of his office is extra protection. This is the only way he'll fully indulge of the thought of you; Head tipped back against the wood frame, pants only jnzipped and pushed to the side, Levi drinks in the thoughts of you he wanted to repress.

He doesn't savor the feel of his hand- he fucks his painfully tight fist like it's punishment- self flagulation for lusting over someone so annoying, so dreadful, so lovely, so, so, so-

His spend dribbles down his knuckles and he awaits for the hormonal drop. He waits for the fog to clear and the tightness of affection to fade,

but as he watches a pearl string of cum drip off of his fingers, he imagines you again- how your lips would be the perfect shade when glossed with him.

....post orgasm clarity never comes.