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distant-rose · 4 years

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Hey so, care to share any of the mood boards and /or playlists that I'm 99% sure you have your your next gen marvel universe?

Okay, I know you sent this like yesterday morning, but you’re asking for me to share a piece of a universe that @justanotherwannabeclassic and I have been developing since…July? Which is insane but I made my first post about our Earth-6828 universe on the 26th July 2019. We have an estimated ninety-three characters for this universe that categorized as a next generation or involved in the next generation narrative. Ninety-three characters. Nine. Three. It’s insane. WE’RE INSANE. We created an entire universe over the course of a half year.

Anyway, with that many characters, I don’t think it’s possible to share everything on the internet involving them. So, I’m gonna focus on the OG team - the Daughters of Liberty. They’re the catalyst for Earth-6828 universe and they’re eleven women from different backgrounds and skill sets. We deliberately made a all-female team that’s diverse and we really have fun playing with them. So I’ll share some mood boards and playlists that I made for them.

NOTE: Please note that when I make playlists, I’m a weirdo with very specific rules. I make playlists made of songs sung by the genre of music I think the character would listen to, in the gender they identify with and I only do one song per artist. So, a character like Bekka who likes old school country and jazz, she’s a big fan of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and Wendy Nguyen who is folksy really likes the Lumineers and the Mountain Goats but neither of those artists are featured on those lists because both characters are female and I like to think of the songs as being from their perspective. It’s really weird but I feel the need to make the disclosure.

I’m gonna put this under the cut because this is gonna be LOOOOONG. Also, if you’re interested in other characters and nuances of the universe, you’re also welcome to hit up not just me but also Shea because she’s done some amazing work too.

Valeria “Val” Richards

Val Richards is an Earth-616 canon character and the daughter of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Susan Storm (Invisible Woman). She’s the smartest woman in the world and holds more degrees than she knows what to do with. She’s constantly working on a new degree and really hates the amount of condescension she gets sometimes from people who don’t believe how smart she is and underestimate her. It’s half the reason she’s involved with the team - she wanted to show that she and the women she works with shouldn’t be underestimated. She’s the team coordinator and is the most tech savvy. She’s known for drinking her weight in coffee, listening to Led Zeppelin on full blast and always having her hands in one project or another. She has a habit of never going to bed because she’s constantly involving herself in a project and because she’s constantly blasting music, her hearing isn’t always the best. She constantly has people repeat things since she often can’t hear them. Though she’s not involved with the family business, she’s got a great relationship with her parents and especially her brother, Franklin, who is without a doubt her hero. She’s a part of the LONGEST slowburn I’ve ever written and it took SIX YEARS for her and the team empath Wendy to get together.

Val’s Playlist: Classic and Hard Rock, this is the type of music that Val generally listens to when she’s in the lab. It features Lita Ford, Pat Benator, Joan Jett and The Pretty Reckless. I think shows a lot of her attitude and some of her anger.

Eleanor “El” Rogers

El Rogers is an Earth-85826 canon character and the daughter of Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Sharon Carter (Agent 13). She is a professionally trained spy and is a specialist in various forms of combat. Though she offered the mantle of Captain America to Dani Cage, she is very proud of her father’s legacy and sometimes nags Dani on how she should handle things, which sometimes leads to some contention between the two. Prior to the starting the Daughters of Liberty with Val Richards, she was a SHIELD agent and often known as “Espionage Barbie.” Growing up in the spotlight, she’s a gifted and knowledgeable public relations specialist and has more than a few headaches trying to manage this team and the array of personalities she deals with. Despite her PR skills, she’s naturally more introverted and prefers to spend her time with her close friends and working on her art. Though she’s more like her mother, she did inherit Steve’s sense of justice and morals while also keeping questionable company seeing that she often finds herself in some morally grey company, namely a couple of rebellious Southern mutants and three SHIELD trained professional killers. Most people often see El as perfect but she is riddled with anxiety and constantly beats herself up for not living up to people’s expectations. Before her father’s death, she was seen as very upbeat and friendly, but has been much more subdued and even more argumentative. She’s incredibly stubborn, which often gets her into epic fights with Dani and Meredith, as well as the leaders of the Avengers (Sonny Stark) and X-Men (Olivier LeBeau).

El’s Playlist: El is very much a pop music kinda girl, but her playlist comes with a bit of a twist of her anxieties, depression and desires to live up to that expectations that have been put on her. It features Taylor Swift, Elle King, Demi Lovato and Ruelle.

Danielle “Dani” Cage

Dani Cage is an Earth-616 canon character and the daughter of Luke Cage (Power Man) and Jessica Jones (Jewel). She’s the current Captain America and it’s a job she’s very ambivalent about because as much as she is honored by being bestowed the title, it comes with a lot of pressure and criticism which Dani is not great with. Due to her super strength and invulnerability, she rarely uses the iconic Captain America shield which is one of the many things she gets criticized for by El. Like her parents, Dani is tough as nails, a little rough around the edges and swears like it was its her job. Despite her short fuse, Dani has the biggest heart of them all and tends to come from a place of compassion rather than a place of judgment. This doesn’t stop her from being one of the sassiest members of the Daughters of Liberty however. When she’s not shouldering her duties as Captain America, Dani is working out her frustrations in the gym through boxing and acting as a volunteer for the Harlem Boys and Girls’ Club. Dani is a creature of habit. She goes to the same gym that she’s gone to since she was a little girl despite having a gym in HQ, she eats the same thing for breakfast and orders the same thing whenever she goes out for dinner. Her teammates often make fun of her because of this habit, but with all the stress in her life, she clings to these habits as a source of comfort and normalcy. Dani is best friends and incredibly close to Lucy Rand, who is about 85% of her impulse control. Sometimes the only thing keeping Dani from punching out her teammates and the occasional reporter is Lucy.

Dani’s Playlist: Her playlist is the perfect workout playlist because it’s intense and high energy R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap songs. It’s an ode to black excellence and being unapologetically awesome. It features Beyonce, Cardi B, Lizzo and Salt-N-Pepa.

Lucy Rand

Lucy Rand is an Earth-21722 canon character and the daughter of Danny Rand (Iron Fist) and Misty Knight. She’s a highly skilled martial artist and gifted detective. While Val might be the most intelligent person in the world, Lucy is skilled at picking up social and culture nuances quickly and reading people despite not having empathy and psychic abilities. Despite having great tragedy in her life and losing her parents at a young age, she’s a very positive person who tends to do her best to make any difficult situation manageable. Lucy’s anger rarely comes out but when it does, it usually is when people disregard the sacrifice her parents made. Though privately, she’s very upset with them for not being there for the major events in her life and though Luke Cage and Jessica Jones had a big hand in raising her, they are not her parents. She has a permanent job at handling Dani’s short fuse but she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Like Dani, Lucy is very involved the community, but she has a lot of other outlets including knitting hats and managing the Instagram of her favorite little gremlin - her hairless cat Dobby. Lucy is the type of person who tends to put the focus on everyone but herself, something that the team does their best to curb. Very rarely is Lucy in any photos, mainly because she’s normally the one taking them. While she’s not field commander like Dani and El, she’s certainly the team negotiator when it comes to arguments. Needless to say with the amount of big personalities on the team, there is a fair share of fights she needs to break up and while Dani might be her best friend, Lucy’s most trusted companion is her jumbo sized bottle of migraine reliever pills.

Lucy’s Playlist: Like Dani’s playlist, Lucy’s playlist features a lot of black excellence, but completely genre. Like Lucy herself, it’s a playlist with a lot of Soul and with a focus on fluidity rather than high energy. It features Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Whitney Houston and Ari Lennox.

Rebecca “Bekka” LeBeau

Bekka LeBeau is an Earth-41001 canon character and the daughter of Remy LeBeau (Gambit) and Anna-Marie LeBeau (Rogue). She inherited her father’s kinetic manipulation and her mother’s enhanced durability and flight. A complete Daddy’s Girl, she’s an incredibly gifted thief and has a penchant for using her abilities to blow shit up. However, instead of using playing cards, Bekka’s weapon of choice is…random objects from the dollar store? Don’t be surprised to see this chick throws weaponized plastic army men or marbles at your face. Despite her charisma, revolving door of men and natural extroversion, Bekka rarely opens up to people nor does she let people get close to her. This is a result of a very traumatic event in her childhood that completely changed both of her and older brother’s lives and caused her mutation to develop early at the age of eight. Due to this, she often suffers from nightmares and can be seen putting her absurdly gifted baking skills to work in the middle of the night. She’s the unofficial chef of the team and has introduced the team to a lot of Cajun cuisine. She’s a proud New Orleans girl and prepared to stomp your Southern stereotypes out of you. A running gag with Bekka is that despite being a very observant person, she is a penchant for refusing to see what’s right in front of her if she doesn’t want to see it such as her brother and best friend hooking up or that a certain ginger SHIELD agent is madly in love with her.

Bekka’s Playlist: Like Bekka herself, her playlist is a mixture of old school, new old and a little bit of subtle darkness. It has a mixture of Old School jazz, Classic Country and Southern Rock. It features Billie Holiday, Delta Rae, Dolly Parton and Gin Wigmore.

May “Mayday” Parker

Mayday Parker is an Earth-982 canon character and the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson. She inherited Peter’s enhanced physiology and wall-crawling abilities. While Mayday has her father’s intelligence, smart mouth and penchant for science, she’s more of an athlete than a nerd. She’s an avid lover of basketball and even played two years of Division Three basketball at Empire State University. She is a very frustrated New York Knicks and New York Mets fan and is often antagonized by Dani Cage, who has a tendency to be a very obnoxious Yankees fan. Though Mayday has a spot on the Daughters of Liberty team and often works outside the team as a research chemist, she has struggled with her identity since she stopped playing basketball. While she is currently Spider-Girl, she always views it more as her continuing her father’s work rather it being her own thing. Despite being incredibly bright and formidable fighter, Mayday also struggles with a lack of confidence and anxiety. She is often makes sarcastic jokes and often at her own expense. Mayday is loyal friend and often agonizes over the fact her superhero duties sometimes make her break her promises to her friends and family. However, she’s found a good support system in her girlfriend Nancy Lu, a telekinetic member of the X-Men and in her mentor, Val Richards. Though she is seven years older, Mayday often mothers her younger sister Annie, whom she sees as reckless and impulsive.

Mayday’s Playlist: This playlist is a mixture of Alternative and Rock music. It has a lot of songs that deal with self-esteem and discovering who are you is enough. It features Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Halsey and P!nk.

Anne “Annie” Parker

Annie Parker is Earth-18119 canon character and the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson. Like her sister, she inherited her father’s enhanced physiology and wall-crawling abilities but that’s where their similarities end. Like her mother, Annie is an incredibly outgoing personality. With her love for pink, glitter and partying, most people look at Annie and think of her nothing more than an empty-headed party girl who does stupid shit and has nothing to add to the conversation. Wrong! Annie has one of the world’s highest IQs and is usually the smartest person in the room. She’s gifted in both sciences and mathematics. At the start of the story, she’s a student at Empire State University and is pursuing two degrees in Mathematics and Physics. She’s got an endemic memory which helps her manage her schoolwork, hero work and social life. Annie wasn’t initially invited to be a part of the team, but Mayday convinced Val and El to bring her on in hopes of curbing Annie’s partying. She’s a bit of hedonist and often does things to an excess. Since she was a child, Annie has been known for her bubbly attitude and infectiously positive attitude. This was developed at a young age as she rarely saw her older sister happy (not understanding that her sister suffered from depression and anxiety) and she made it her personal mission to make Mayday smile. Annie is a fearless girl with a big heart who doesn’t often think before putting herself in harm’s way, which unknowing stresses out her older sister more.

Annie’s Playlist: This playlist features a lot of Pop, Hip-Hop and Dance music. It’s high energy, upbeat and makes you just want to have a good time. Honestly, a good chunk of these songs have featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race as Lip Sync for your life songs. (Annie is a massive RuPaul fan). It features Arianna Grande, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Tove Lo.

Meredith “Mere” Pryde

Meredith Pryde is an Earth-41001 canon character and the daughter of Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) and Kitty Pryde (Shadow Cat). She inherited her mother’s phasing power, tech skills and ability to make epic callouts. She inherited almost nothing from her father, whom she doesn’t really remember since he died when she was young. She was raised mainly by her mother and her aunt Illyana Rasputin. Meredith joined the Daughters of Liberty so she didn’t have to deal with her brother Cameron second-guessing all of her choices and telling her to calm down. When Meredith sees injustice, she does her best to correct the situation and she doesn’t care who she has to call out. When she’s not doing work for the Daughters of Liberty, Meredith is active activist who is involved in various projects but especially on mutants’ rights. She attends and supports every march she can and her instagram is full of all her favorite protest and march signs that she sees. Aside from being involved in activism, Meredith’s second favorite activity is trolling her teammates, especially those who tend to be nonplussed about things. She’s notorious for her pranks and for playfully flirting with her teammates’ siblings to make them uncomfortable, namely Bekka. While she’s a notorious flirt, she has no interest in relationships and will punch you in the face if you ask her if she has a boyfriend or girlfriend. Though she is involved with the Daughters of Liberty and various movements, Meredith often suffers from loneliness because she doesn’t have a lot of time for herself and fostering her friendships. She’s every girl’s friend, but no one’s best friend.

Meredith’s Playlist: This playlist highlights Meredith’s confidence and unapologetic nature. She is who she is, and you can take it or leave it. It’s an eclectic list which has mixture of Pop Rock, Pop, Alternative and R&B music. It features Superchick, Billie Eilish, Lily Allen and Icona Pop.

Wendy Nguyen

Wendy Nguyen is a character Shea and I made up, she is not related to anyone. Shocker. She’s a licensed therapist who often treats other superheroes and was actually assigned to El Rogers after the death of her father. She is an empath who is capable of sensing people’s emotions and when she touches them, she gets not only your emotions but your thoughts and even your memories. Her senses are incredibly strong and she often cannot be in the same room when someone is feeling things a bit too strongly, particularly her teammate Maya Ayala during the team’s first year together. Because she feels people’s emotions so strongly, Wendy is often confused whose emotions she is feeling - hers or someone else’s. This is one of the reasons it took her so long for her to admit her feelings for Val. Wendy is often seen as a quiet and thoughtful person who does her best to make her teammates confront their feelings for both her sake and theirs. She has an affinity for tea and has the world’s most absurd tea cabinet which is filled with tea from all over the world from her many travels. She also as an affinity for butterflies, which she views as being similar to human emotions - intense, sometimes beautiful but fleeting and fragile. Wendy often wears gloves to keep herself from accidentally touching others and taking their thoughts and memories without their permission. The ethics of her ability sometimes is a struggle for her since while they allow her to be good at job, however she feels them without control or consent from others. She rarely goes out with her friends in public areas mainly because being around so many people who are feeling a variety emotions is too much for her and causes her to have splitting headaches.

Wendy’s Playlist: Best described as folksy and acoustic. Wendy prefers most chilled out music because feeling others’ emotions can be very overwhelming. However, there’s a range of emotion here because she feels a lot. It features Of Monsters and Men, Regina Spektor, Jolie Holland and Hannah Connelly.

Yasmin “Yas” Khan

Yasmin Khan is a character Shea and I made up, she’s the niece of Kamala Khan (Miss Marvel). Like her aunt, Yasmin has Inhuman heritage alongside holding Pakistani and African heritages from her parents, Aamir and Tyesha. She was exposed to the Terrigen Mists and gained abilities similar to her father in which she can create psychic force fields, however she also has telekinesis and touch-telepathy. Yasmin is a practicing Muslim and while most of the women don’t wear hijabs nor expect her to wear one, she often feels to try and normalize Muslim practices in a society that is suspicious and often hateful towards her culture. She likes to joke that it covers up her bad hair days. Yasmin loves fashion and color, and though she is often the most modest wearing person in the room, she is definitely the most colorful and enjoys outrageous patterns. She is a big lover of pop culture and can often be seen playing Pokemon Go and watching shows on Crunchy Roll on her phone. She has a massive sweet tooth and can be seen in the kitchens watching Bekka bake in hopes of being allowed to have a bite. Though she doesn’t drink, she is best friends with Annie and often accompanies her on nights out and makes sure her friend doesn’t get into any trouble. Yasmin is one of the few people who isn’t out with her personal identity and this is mainly due to her fear of people hurting her family due to the rampant Muslim prejudice in the United States. As one of the youngest members of the team, her teammates are incredibly protective of her and have actually a designated plan ready to cheer her up if they ever see Yasmin is upset, which is called Operation: Yas Smiles.

Yas’s Playlist: Like Meredith, Yap’s playlist is very colorful and has a diverse range of generics from R&B to Soul and Rap. It has a range of emotions since while Yas is a very cheerful person and absolute sweetheart, there’s some anger there at how she and other Muslims are treated. It features Mona Haydar, SassyBlack, Daya and Azealia Banks.

Maya Ayala

Maya Ayala is a character Shea and I made up, she’s the daughter of Hector Ayala (White Tiger) and the niece of Ava Ayala (White Tiger). Nothing happy ever happens to the Ayala family and unfortunately that saga continues with Maya, who witnessed her entire family and boyfriend being murdered in front of her during a shoot out in the Bronx. She took up the mantle of White Tiger and has been on a search to find their murderer. Before becoming the current incarnation of the White Tiger, Maya was a former competitive gymnast who was almost on the United States Olympic team and was working as a gymnastics coach. However, since the incident, she’s put all of her energy into getting revenge for her family and joined the Daughters of Liberty to honor her aunt and to use her resources to get justice. While her focus is on revenge, her greatest desire is to see her family and her boyfriend again. At the beginning, she kept herself from her teammates because she didn’t want to get attached, but after awhile, she became very close with Wendy, Val, Dani and Lucy. Maya has a secret love for telenovelas which she tries to keep quiet because she’s afraid of being seen as stereotypical. Despite this, she’s very proud Latina and gets pissed off when people write her off as “Mexican” or “foreign,” especially since her family hails from Puerto Rico and she’s just as American as anyone else. However, occasionally she does share her culture with the others, and occasionally makes arroz con gandules and pollo guisado with Bekka for the team.

Maya’s Playlist: This is list is a mixture of Latin Pop, Alternative and R&B. It holds a mixture of Maya before the loss of her family and after. A lot of the latin pop are from gymnastic routines she would create. However, there’s also a lot of anger and sadness here, which is understandable. It features Audri Nix, Ciara, Lana Del Rey and Skylar Grey.

#asks #answered #katie-dub #earth 6828 #ro and shea write a comic #the daughters of liberty #marvel #val richards #dani cage #lucy rand #ellie rogers #bekka lebeau #mayday parker #annie parker #meredith pryde #yasmin khan #wendy nguyen #maya ayala

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justanotherwannabeclassic · 4 years

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prompt 2: quarantine

For those of you who still pay attention to this nonsense blog, I’ve been working with @distant-rose on creating this wildly expansive second-generation Marvel AU. It’s pretty wild, has 20+ AUs of itself, well over 100 characters, and a timeline spanning 40+ years. These are their stories.

Characters: Francis Barton, Kassandra Page, Matthew Natchios, Ian Rogers, Gerry Drew, Bekka LeBeau, Megan Frost

Prompt 2: Quarantine

Dates: November 10-24, 2019

Day 1

“Since we’re stuck together for the foreseeable, I think we need to establish some ground rules.” Francis Barton laid down a pad of white paper and pulled out a pen. “It should, hopefully, make this a seamless experience while the Richards figure out if we’re going to die horrible, painful alien-virus related deaths.”

There were worse things than being quarantined in a SHIELD facility after being exposed to some sort of alien virus. They could all be dead, for one. They could also be undergoing some weird mutations -- NOT THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING WRONG WITH MUTANTS -- and grow six or seven different limbs. That would be worse. Really, considering those two options, Francis Barton was certain that quarantine was the best case scenario. But he also knew however long stuck in one place with little-to-no outside interaction was bound to be hell. As such, rules needed to be established.

“That sounds like a very El thing to say,” Kassandra Page, absolute badass and love of his potentially shorter life, noted from her spot on the table. She didn’t even bother to look up from her book.

“Well, she’s the one who gave me the idea.” So what if he wasn’t the one to come up with the rules thing? El was a smart cookie. El was also safe and moderately happy thousands of miles away in New Orleans. That didn’t stop her from blowing up his phone with several texts. He was sure she was doing it to the three other members of their quarantine cohort.

“Should I contact the Xavier School and have them send over their roommate contracts?” Ian Rogers asked drly.

“That sounds like a great idea!”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“See? That’s not helpful in establishing positive roommate relationships.” Francis argued. “Where’s Matt?”

“In the bedroom trying to convince his pregnant girlfriend from murdering him before the virus does, by the sound of it,” Gerry Drew commented. “For what it’s worth, the ground rules sound like a good idea. I was going to suggest it myself, but grew distracted finishing the mission report. Work never ends, even in quarantine.”

“Has my brother-in-law punched you in the face?” Ian twisted in his chair to look over at Gerry.

“No.”

“Wonders never cease.”

Kass glanced between the two men and back to Francis. “El might be right. Maybe we should establish ground rules.”

Day 4

Gerry Drew wondered if he had died and gone to hell. Perhaps the virus had actually gotten to him, eaten him away from the inside out until he perished, and this was his punishment. He could hear the unmistakable sound of a bed creaking from one of the bedrooms as well as Natchios talking to his mutant girlfriend from a different room.

“You would think they would have left us headphones,” Gerry groaned aloud, hoping the one other person in the room would agree; instead, Ian ignored him and continued to tap away at his laptop. Gerry turned on the television. He settled on ESPN, and looked over his shoulder to Ian. “D’you like sports?” Again, no answer. Gerry sighed deeply. “What the hell are you working on?”

“Lesson plans.”

“Lesson plans?” That was not the answer he expected. Gerry knew the other man was contracted by the Xavier Institute to assist in some training, but requiring lesson plans didn’t seem necessary. “They require you to do that shit?”

“Since I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future, I don’t want the kids to fall behind. I’m creating reports for the various cohorts. UV is capable, but she’s short staffed, meaning she’s doing to bring in someone like Jet to help,” Ian explained. He didn’t bother to look up from his laptop.

“I don’t think a few weeks will make or break them.”

“They’re mutants. Considering the targets on their back, it might.”

“I know it’s our job to be spooks and have contingency plans upon contingency plans, but the school hasn’t been attacked in years. They’re prepared. I’ve been working with them longer than you. The targets aren’t that big. Not on the kids.”

“The X-Men are now down several members, including their former leader. While they’ve been left in capable hands, enemies could view the perceived void as a vulnerability,” Ian explained gruffly. “Beyond that, society as a whole is still anti-mutant. Three states have banned human and mutant marriage. Congress still has very vocal members rallying for mutant registration. There are reports of several hate crimes against mutants this year alone. These kids have targets on their backs, Agent Drew. I am right to be concerned.”

“You sound like your sister.” How many times had he heard Ellie Rogers expound upon the injustices mutants have faced over the years?

“I will take that as a compliment; however, coming from you, I assume you meant it as an insult.”

“I actually didn’t. I meant it as a neutral statement. Ellie is a pretty large advocate for mutant rights.” He wasn’t a fan of Ellie. He thought she was both entirely overrated and unprofessional, but he didn’t hold the mutant advocacy against her. “It makes sense, considering the mutant husband and kids.”

“Or she could be a good person. I know you think she’s blinded by her relationship with LeBeau, but there’s more to it than that. You don’t need to have a direct loved one be a mutant to care.”

“But it helps. It is an influence. She wouldn’t have done half the shit she pulled for the X-Men if she wasn’t involved with their leader.”

“Former leader.”

“Are you getting pedantic with me? He was leader up until three months ago.” Then he and Ellie fucked off to retire to New Orleans and raise their mutant kids. Whatever. Arguing wasn’t going to make his living situation any more tenable, but Gerry never met an argument he didn’t fight. “You mean to tell me your mutant niece and nephew don’t have any influence for why you’re working at the school?”

“They are influences, as are my friends, but they aren’t why I care about mutant rights. Not originally. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t always a psychopath.” Ian shut his laptop. “I liked history and politics as a kid. No surprise, considering my parents. Some people are obsessed with studying the Second World War. Others are obsessed with different countries. England. Japan. China. Me? I was fascinated with Genosha. I grew up on my father’s stories of liberating concentration camps, and how we swore never again. Over ten million innocent lives, more than the population of New York City, were lost, slaughtered my Sentinels and the world hardly cared. The world turned their back on an atrocity and wants to put in place structures for it to happen again on a larger scale. I say ‘never again’. Where do you stand?”

He didn’t wait for a response, quickly standing and taking his laptop with him as he disappeared into another room, leaving Gerry alone to his devices.

Day 9

She missed her dogs.

They were currently staying with Barnes and Romanov, so Kass knew they were well taken care of, but still, she missed them. She missed a lot of things. She missed her apartment and her bed. She missed the cafe that was two blocks from her apartment. She usually stopped by for coffee most mornings. They knew her order there and called her ‘Kelly’ because that was the name she gave them. She always paid in cash, so nobody needed to know the fib. It was comfort built on a lie, but a familiar comfort nonetheless.

Nothing about the past nine days was comfortable. Kass chafed at sharing living quarters with four other people. Francis, she could handle. She had more or less been living with him for months. The others, not so much. Matt was like a brother to her, and few others understood her the way Ian did, but neither of those qualities made her want to share a living space with either of them. She didn’t trust Agent Drew as far as she could throw him, which was an added element to misery.

It was only Day 9. Kass wasn’t accustomed to this much stimulus, not without any outlet. She couldn’t go to the shooting range. She was cautioned against excessive training. She couldn’t go to the park for a run. She was trapped in a quarantine pod with several other people on the off chance she was carrying an alien virus. Valeria Richards proposed isolation of two weeks. She had another week of this. Someone was going to die.

Francis was trying to lighten the mood with ice-breakers and other games. It was mostly annoying. They played poker over celery sticks and passive-aggressive barbs. They argued over movie nights Matt and Ian spent most of the time engrossed texting whoever on their phones, which was fine, except for the excessive buzzing each time either one of them received a message. Matt, himself, had several loud phone calls with Bekka, his annoying, pregnant girlfriend. Kass wanted to shake him and scream that Bekka would be fine, her goddamn mother had flown up from New Orleans to spend time with her while Matt was trapped. Gerry had stupidly tried to institute a ‘No Sex’ rule, targeted solely at her and Francis. Kass, in turn, had threatened to break his face.

May the alien virus take us all.

Kass had decided to stay holed up in her room for the rest of the day. It was the only way she could keep from killing everyone, and even then it was a close thing. She could hear Matt having another loud phone conversation in the main area; however, instead of Bekka’s Southern’s drawl, she could hear El’s half-melodic voice over the speaker. From what she could hear, Ian and Francis were also joining in on the chat.

That twisted something else in her, another emotion she had no desire to dwell upon. She hadn’t spoken to El in months, not since that last argument before she’d uprooted her life and ran away to New Orleans. Kass had called the action out for what it was, a stupid mistake. El hadn’t appreciated that, and since El was a stubborn bitch, she dug in her heels and argued back. They’d both said some shitty things, and that was that. The end of almost a decade of friendship.

It was fine. She was fine. El was off to live her life with her husband and babies, and Kass was...Kass was trapped in a quarantine pod with several people she wanted to be exceptionally far away from. Most of whom seemed happily to monopolize the living area chatting away with her about....Thanksgiving plans? Whatever. She was fine. She didn’t care about Thanksgiving. Kass didn’t even want to think about Thanksgiving, not while she was stuck in this space.

She wanted to be alone. She buried her head under the pillow in hopes of drowning out the voices and laughter.

Day 11

Ian was on a beach. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in his quarantine pod, but he was on a beach. He could almost smell the salt of the sea and feel the sand underneath his toes.

“Relax. You’re dreaming,” a familiar voice floated behind him. Ian turned at noise to see Megan Frost standing behind him. She walked slowly toward him, as if she were afraid of startling him. “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

Megan was a telepath, a damn good one. She’d been the one who had psychically reprogrammed his mind after decades of tampering and torturing. For the past few months, she had also been his lover. Now, she was invading his dreams and doing so while she was wearing a rather daring bikini.

“I don’t mind at all.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his. It was exhilarating even in dream form. “You’ve never done this before.”

“Kissed you? Darling, we both know that isn’t true.” She began to place open mouthed kisses down the column of his throat. He groaned lowly, and tightened his fingers on her hips. She knew perfectly well what he was talking about. She never invaded his dreams before. As if reading his mind, and she probably was, sighed, “I missed seeing you, and since I can’t do that in person, I thought I would try the next best thing. Is that so wrong?”

“No, it isn’t.” Ian was sure some people would mind the intrusion. He wasn’t some people. He also knew better than to take anything Megan was willing to give. Telling him she missed him was a monumental step in the right direction when it came to emotional displays of her affections. She tended to keep her feelings close to her chest. He supposed it probably had something to do with her fiance.

Part of him wanted to ask what the Tin Man was doing now. Was he lying asleep next to Megan, while she mentally fooled around with him? The thought thrilled him. If Megan was carrying out a telepathic affair with Ian while her fiance was right there, surely she was steps away from finally choosing him.

The scene shifted around them, and they were in his studio apartment. Megan pushed him onto the bed, and he fell with a laugh. “The beach no good?”

“I suddenly thought you might like something familiar. The beach is lovely, but nothing compared to home.” Ian didn’t know what home was anymore. He barely knew who he was anymore, but he enjoyed everything more when she was involved, but he couldn’t tell her that. Not yet.

Instead, he pulled her down on the bed, and delighted in her laughter and the feel of her body next to his. “You should do this more often,” he whispered against his lips. A telepathic interlude paled in comparison to the real thing, but it was exciting enough. It meant she was here with him.

“Maybe I--” A crash shook him from his dream and pulled Megan away from him. He could hear shouting and the sound of glass breaking. What the fuck?

Francis poked his head into the room. “Sorry to wake you, man, but Matt and Gerry are having a fistfight, and I might need your help breaking it up.”

Day 14

“Your face looks terrible.” Bekka grimaced over the phone. Video chats had many benefits, but this was not one of them. “Not that he doesn’t deserve it or anything, but what got you fighting Gerry Drew anyway?

“Gerry’s an ass. That’s all. He said some shit, got hit.” It hurt to talk. His face was several different kinds of bruised. Worth it.

“What’d he say?”

“What didn’t he say? He’s been nothing but a pain in the ass for two weeks.” That much was true. He’d been petulant and whiny over everything. Was it annoying hearing Kass and Francis fuck? Sure. Did Ian take extremely long showers? Yes. Did Matt call Bekka often? Also yes. But they all had their reasons for it and even if they didn’t, Gerry was a waste enough of a human that he didn’t care how he felt.

Gerry might top Matthew Natchios’ List of People He Hated.

It was an extensive list.

“I’m sure he’s been a pain. That’s baseline Gerry Drew, but he had to say something specific to see you off. Ian, I’d get. If Olivier were there, I’d get the punching too, but this isn’t normal you.”

Matt considered lying through his teeth. There was no way Bekka would know why they fought unless someone told her. She wasn’t a telepath. Her mutation was explosions. She didn’t need to know, but he was going to tell her anyway. That’s what relationships were built upon. Trust. “He just said some shitty things about you and us. That’s all.”

“Oh,” was Bekka’s reply. Prior to dating Matt, Bekka had been dating Gerry’s best friend. It had gone as south as a relationship could go before they split. Gerry held a lot of resentment about that, especially since Matt had played a very big role in Bekka and Damon splitting. “How shitty?”

Matt took a deep breath. “He implied Baby Girl wasn’t mine.” Bekka remained quiet. “Becks?”

“Didja break his face?” Bekka asked finally. “I’m gonna be disappointed as hell if you didn’t at least break his nose.”

“I’m pretty sure I did that,” Matt answered with a laugh, relieved that Bekka was responding with anger instead of tears. Rarely did she cry, but Matt didn’t want one of those instances to be when he wasn’t there to hold her.

“Good.” She was quiet for a few moments more before she added, “You know Baby Girl is yours, right? No way possible she belongs to anyone else.”

“I know, it’s why I hit him.” He’d been angry about other things. All the shit Gerry had said about Bekka and she and Damon had split, the way he undercut El out of her job as SHIELD liaison with the X-Men, and how he went out of his way to make her miserable. Matt didn’t know much about family, but he knew who his was, and he didn’t like when others messed with them.

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Val swears that y’all aren’ infectious or whatever. She’s been running so many tests. I miss you something awful”.

“I miss you too.”

“Momma and I are baking you something special too. I won’t tell you what, because it’s supposed to be a surprise. I would trade anything to have you home, but it’s been nice having Momma here.” Bekka’s accent was thicker than usual, no doubt thanks to spending the past two weeks with her Mississippi-born mother. Matt didn’t mind at all -- he adored her accent. Truth be told he adored everything about Bekka. He couldn’t wait to be home and in her arms. “You sure you’re okay with her staying until after Thanksgiving?”

“It’s fine. I love you mother.”

She’d been more of a mother to him than his own mother, not that it was a high bar. Elektra Natchios was a terrible mother, the complete opposite of Anna Marie LeBeau. Besides, it was clear how much Bekka enjoyed having her mother around. Much as she tried to pretend otherwise, Bekka was riddled with anxieties over pregnancy and becoming a mother. Having Anna around comforted her in a way no other person could manage. As far as Matt was concerned, she could stay around as long as she liked.

“Je t’aime. Tu es le meilleur.” She yawned deeply. “Your baby needs to go to bed, which means I am. But good news, I’m seein’ you tomorrow. That’s a win.”

Matt smiled against the phone. I can’t wait.”

He let her go, pleased to know that she was taking care of herself and getting some sleep. He needed it himself. One more sleep, and he would be free from quarantine.

#earth 6828 #s writers things #writersmonth2020 #ship: mekka #ship: meian #ship: frass #none of you knows what this means

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rogueslove · 7 years

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Hi Do you know anything about Earth-41001. Anything about appearance of Rebecca Raven Lebeau other than in X-men the end?

It’s Genext right. Do you know if there is any encounter between Gambit and Oli in those series? If so, could you please post few pages. Thank you.

I haven’t read more than a few pages of those, I’m afraid. (A universe without Rogue doesn’t appeal to me much). I thought I had a bit more with Bekka and Oli, but this is all I could find of my scans …

#sorry I don't have more #I honestly thought I did #but I looked everywhere to no avail

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marveldc-rph-blog · 11 years

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Ray LeBeau - Willa Holland

#rebecca lebeau #ray lebeau #bekka lebeau #genext #marvel #face claim #willa holland

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justanotherwannabeclassic · 4 years

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when you're not plotting 18 AUs of an AU, what is your writing process? do you set aside time/space/energy for it? do you pants it or do you always plot ahead (even if it isn't 18 AUs' worth)?

Hoooo boy. First of all, I feel the need to say that since the last time we chatted about AUs, two more have been created, so we are now at 20. @distant-rose and I have a problem.

The answer itself is pretty complicated, as it depends highly on how we came to discuss the AU and whether or not the AU interacts with the main universe. Because the Earth-6828 universe is inspired by comics, the latter occurs more often the not. The vast, vast majority of our AUs are ‘canon’ divergent, meaning they exist if one tiny thing in the main universe was different. We have one completely off the wall AU (”What if everyone was evil?”) and a Gender Bender one, but for the most part, canon divergence. For all of our AUs, we have two constant truths:

Olivier LeBeau and Eleanor Rogers will fall in love

Bekka LeBeau and Matthew Natchios will hook up

I’ve said before the Earth-6828 is essentially the story of the personal and super-heroic lives of the LeBeau and Rogers families, and those who orbit around them, and our ‘rules’ sort of spin off from that. The love story between Olivier and Eleanor is basically the romantic spine of the ‘verse, and as such, pretty much every AU ties to them and how minor changes affect them and even influence them in our ‘core’ universe. As such, whenever Ro and I create an AU, we sort of end up asking ourselves, “How does this influence Oli and El in their personal and emotional journeys?” And it’s fun, because it helps us explore our characters in a deeper way and also gives a broader understanding to help us figure out our characters in the ‘main’ universe by contrast.

When it comes to specific writing times or set discussions, it varies. When we first started creating our AUs our of AUs, it sort of began as a joke with me saying something like, “You know, if Sam Jacobs hadn’t died, Olivier might have probably ended up Captain America” with Ro demanding I explain. Many of our AUs stem from those various big moments and us asking “What if?”

Sometimes we spend more time delving into these AUs than others. We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the Mutant Holocaust AU, the “What if El was a mutant?” AU (she ends up taking up her dad’s shield!), and “what if Ollie (their ship name) forgot to use birth control the first time they had sex?” (You see where this leads.). And then others we spend maybe an afternoon on: “What if El didn’t break up with Andrei and they got engaged?” (Oli interrupts their wedding.).

The funnest fact of this is that the main!universe Oli and El end up adopting three kids from those universe, the children of the AU-selves: Lucas (Mutant Holocaust AU), and August and Octavia (Evil AU) I’m not sure if that answered your question. But that’s the thought process.

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justanotherwannabeclassic · 4 years

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prompt # 4: long distance relationship

for @distant-rose

prompt 4: long distance relationship

Bekka didn’t tell him how long she would be gone.

Did that make her a bad girlfriend? She wasn’t good at the whole serious relationship thing. The last time she tried, it imploded in her face. Would this be the same? No, said the fierce voice in her mind, the one she barely recognized anymore, the one that had been in hiding since Sinister ripped her open and tore her apart. Matt loved her. He told her that he understood her need to go back home to New Orleans. He promised that he’d be waiting with her with open arms whenever she returned.

“Distance doesn’t mean that I’m not yours, Becks. I’ve been waiting so long for you, what’s a thousand miles?”

What was a thousand miles? It meant no late night dance sessions as they swayed to the music of Billie Holiday. It meant that she couldn’t stir him from sleep to taste her new muffin recipe. It meant no lazy kisses or passionate nights twisted around each other in bed. She wouldn’t fall asleep to the sound of--

“No, not that. I’ll call you every night, if you want. I’m fine with that,” was what he said in response to that before kissing away the doubt curling around her heart. They’d be okay.

The past few months had been hell for her family, nightmare after nightmare, their worst fears almost come to life. Almost. Almost. Almost. They were all alive, which is more than other families can say. They were all alive, but bruised and broken -- Bekka with her peach fuzz hair and surgery, Irene with her chest cracked open and the surgery scars, and finally Olivier, who had disappeared into his own head and down a bottle to deal with the weight of it all.

It was partially why she was heading back home. After her kidnapping, and the mission gone awry that had lost Olivier six members of his team and landed Irene on the operating table, she sensed her family needed her. Irene was already down there, curling in on herself as she healed from the trauma. Olivier stayed in New York. He had the school and the team, El and a ring burning a hole in his pocket. He didn’t need them.

But Irene needed her, and perhaps, Bekka needed Irene. Bekka knew the strength in wrapping herself in the stability and love of family. It was, in many ways, how she survived her first horror with Sinister. The second go around, she’s allowed Matt to shoulder some of her pain. Still did, even if he was miles and miles away. Irene didn’t have that. The failed missions cracked open her chest and exposed her insides in more ways than one, and she’d been forced to do what none of her siblings could fathom. She’d buried a friend.

Irene needed Bekka and the comfort of family more than Bekka needed the strength of Matt’s arms around her.

This was the breakdown of the LeBeau siblings:

Olivier was the oldest and acted as such. He was the one who shouldered the responsibility of the family, even when no one asked him to, even when he shouldn’t.

Bekka was the oldest daughter, the second child. The less she dwelled on herself in comparison to the others, the better. Everyone called her pretty. Olivier called her reckless. Sylvie and Luke called her fun. Irene just rolled her eyes.

Irene was the typical middle child, and she acted as such, lashing out this way and that until she got what she wanted -- not that Bekka ever really cared to find out.

Luke thrived in chaos, fitting considering how he came into the world. He tested boundaries, then retested them. He thrived with potential with none of the ambition to harness it.

Sylvie was the youngest and sweetest of them all. If she didn’t resemble them all, Bekka would have sworn she was adopted.

“My Royal Flush,” her father would say. It was both silly and perfect. It was her family.

Bekka wasn’t always the best sister to Irene.

She loved her fiercely. She would kill for Irene, and would die for her. But for much of growing up, that was where Bekka’s kindness ended. They were sisters, close enough in age to know how to press each other's buttons, but not far apart for Bekka to have the maturity to know when to ignore.

Their personalities clashed something fierce. Bekka mirrored her mutations, explosive and bright, demanding attention regardless of whether you wanted to grant it. Irene was quiet, introverted, muted like her white, white hair, and envious too. Bekka was pretty. Bekka could pass as normal and disappear into the crowd. Irene, their father’s red eyes and white hair, had no chance in hell. And Bekka, too caught up in her own sense of superiority and desire to define herself hadn’t let her forget it.

After all, there was some truth when they said teenage girls were a certain kind of cruel.

She ought to apologize for some of that, but those sort of words weren’t her strong suit. El would know what to say, El her soon-to-be sister, the one who always reminded Bekka that time with your family. But El and Bekka were barely on speaking terms nowadays, something that tapped at the fragility of Bekka’s heart. El didn’t approve of what Bekka was doing with Matt. El didn’t approve of a lot of what Bekka was doing these days. It was confusing and fraught, because El was her best friend. Bekka tried to talk to Wendy, the team therapist and empath, about the whole thing, but Wendy had only reminded Bekka that El was probably stressed managing Olivier’s downward spiral. As for her situation with Matt, “She was friends with Matthew long before you came into the picture, and she’d discouraged you from pursuing him in the past. Maybe that should tell you something.”

Maybe Wendy was right, but Bekka wasn’t willing to focus on that. She had too much on her plate to navigate the complexities of her friendship with Eleanor Rogers; instead, she turned inward and focused on her sister by blood, the sister who had nearly bled out on the battlefield and again on the table.

She’d almost lost her younger sister. She wasn’t about to blow that chance.

The thing about being an utter nightmare of an older sister meant that Irene was as skittish as a colt when it came to Bekka’s affections.

“I’m not dead. You don’t have to be so nice,” Irene told her one afternoon, after Bekka offered to bake her favorite cookies.

“I want to be nice.”

“Yeah, right.” Did Irene have any right to believe her?

“You’re trying and you’re there. That’s what counts,” Matt assured her. Matt was an only child. The closest thing he had to sisters were Kass and El, and he didn’t meet either until he was an adult. He didn’t -- couldn’t -- understand the minefield she was navigating. She still thanked him for trying.

Because of her own traumas, and there were many, Bekka was a bit of an insomniac. Matt was too, which after many late nights conversing in the DOL headquarters kitchen, was how they became friends.

Irene was young. Irene still tried to sleep. From the stillness of her own bedroom, Bekka could hear her sister tossing and turning, crying out too for Chrissy. Bekka was not Chrissy, but she could still provide support. She slid through the dark and crawled into bed with Irene, and allowed her to shed her tears against her chest.

They didn’t speak about it in the morning.

Time spent at home in the garden district of New Orleans was a startling change of pace from New York.

Bekka hadn’t realized how much she’d grown accustomed to the ambient noises of a thriving city and the speedy efficiency of the North. Still, she relished in the comfort of Southern hospitality and accents that mimicked her own.

She especially enjoyed spending time with her family. New York kept her busy with the Daughters of Liberty and friends, filming baking videos with Marty, spending late nights with Matt, and curling up on El and her brother’s couch during one of El’s many patented movie nights. Those times were nice, and she missed them, but time spent with Sylvie, her parents, and even Irene filled a void she never realized existed.

She spent afternoons learning proper motorcycle maintenance from her mother. She created art with Sylvie and listened as her littlest sister spoke about her dreams. She trained and played cards with her father, and spent countless hours in the kitchen as a reward as they made their favorite meals.

“I’m glad you’re home, p’tite,” he father told her one such night as they hovered over jambalaya.

She considered his words. Trauma and fear brought her here, and she missed her people in New York terribly, but… “I’m happy to be home, too.”

She kept up with her baking, only this time without Matt by her side or Marty providing commentary for their video series. Even without them, baking was his refuge, the perfect task for clearing her mind and allowing creativity to take hold. Sylvie made requests and her parents supplied her with ingredients.

After a week, Irene even wandered in to watch her work.

“I’m hopeless with baking,” her sister admitted as she studied Bekka's latest batch of chocolate muffins.

“Nobody’s hopeless,” Bekka replied. “I can help teach you, if you’d like.” She thought of Matt and the early days of their friendship. “I’ve been told I’m a good teacher.”

Irene shook her head. “I’d rather not.” Rejection. Or not. “But I can watch?”

“Of course you can.” How could Bekka say no?

Baking was not the answer to bonding with Irene, not entirely. Nor were the late nights holding each other and crying in bed. The answer was art and ink, the flowers in Momma’s garden, and the pictures of Olivier hanging in the living room.

The answer was a tattoo.It was something Irene mentioned off-hand, how she wanted something to cover the scars and a memorial to those she had lost that fateful date.

“That’s a beautiful idea. I’ve always wanted a tattoo,” Bekka admitted. She felt like porcelain on the inside, ready to crack at any moment, but her skill was hard as steel. “I’ve always been envious of Oli and his ink.”

Irene studied her carefully before offering an olive branch. “I can help with that.”

Olivier’s mutation could suck the souls and psyches of a person with the touch of his skin. Bekka could manipulate kinetic energy to create explosions and had nigh-invulnerable skin. Irene could negate all of that. “You’d do that?”

Irene shrugged. “Sure.”

From there they researched artists and designs. Irene wanted poppies on her chest. Keeping with the theme, Bekka chose Magnolia flowers for her design. She refrained from telling Matt. There was something precious about having this experience solely with Irene. As much as she cared for him, she needed this moment with her sister, and Irene needed it as well. They held hands as the needle pierced them and beauty was painted on their skin.

No one could take that from them.

“What do you think?” she asked Matt after it was finished, once it could not no longer keep it a secret. She adjusted her phone so he could better see the magnolias curling around her thigh.

“Different. I’m going to have to get used to it, but it’s absolutely beautiful.”

“Irene and I got them together. Just her and me.”

She watched Matt smile from over a thousand miles away. “I’m glad you can share that.”

“Who’s that you keep talkin’ to all hours of the day and night? And don’t say no one, because I’m your Momma, and you’re too old for those kind of lies.”

She hadn’t told her parents about Matt. Not because she wanted to hide him, but because she wanted to navigate the newness of it all before inviting too many people in. El’s skepticism clanged around in the back of her mind, making her timid to announce the good news; but, Bekka knew she couldn’t hide Matt forever, nor did she want to.

That realization shook her to the core, because there was a non-small part of her who wanted to shout it from the rooftops. This was a first for her, a previous kind of thing that she hadn’t felt for anyone else. Not like this.

She couldn’t hide the blush coloring her cheeks when she made her confession, “Matt. We’re kind of together now.”

Bekka waited for the penny to drop quite like it had with El. Instead, she watched a smile bloom across her mother’s face. “Are you now?”

“Yeah. Just for a couple of months now, but we’re together.”

“Are you happy, Sug?”

“Very,” Bekka said without thinking. “He makes me very happy.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Her mother pulled Bekka into a hug and pressed a kiss to the crown of your head. “That’s all I ever wanted you to be.”

“I told my Momma about us,” Bekka said over the phone that night.

“How’s that go?” Matt usually excelled at hiding his feelings, but he couldn’t ramp down the nervousness in his voice.

“Good. She’s happy for us. She likes you.”

“That’s great.” A beat. “I’m glad you told her about us.”

“You’re important to me. I want people to know that. I need people to know that.”

“You’re also important to me. More than you realize.”

Bekka found it telling who contacted her during her sabbatical in New Orleans.

Marty was a reliable comfort with his constant streams of texts and pictures.

TJ, her cousin, checked in and reported on the goings-on of the X-Men and Xavier Institute. The DOL chat remained lively, and her teammates made sure to keep Bekka abreast of team development and drama. Meredith Pryde-Rasputin had even managed to pull herself from the foxhole of her grief to check in. Meredith had buried her sister, whereas Bekka could hold hers through the pain of it. Bekka doubted she would have the same strength.

Luke, ensconced away safely at Xaviers, mostly bitched about Olivier and classes. El remained quiet, a rare text here or there. Olivier never messaged her at all. Bekka tried not to let that get to her. She mostly failed.

Matt kept his promise as well as he could. With his job, there were times when he was whisked away by the demands of being a secret agent overruled his own desires. He made sure to tell her when he would be disappearing, even if she didn’t know for how long. He’d call her the first moment he was free, and that was enough.

She should have known that it would be a mission that brought her home. The universe wouldn’t allow her to make that sort of choice out of her own volition. She was a superhero, that was the way the world worked for people like her. No rest for the wicked or the divine.

Matt played the messenger. “We need you back, Bekka,” Matt said, his voice telling her everything and nothing at all. He wouldn’t call her home, not unless it was an emergency and they’d explored all other contingencies. “It’s El. She’s in serious danger, and Olivier isn’t… It’s bad, Bekka, we need you as backup. I can’t tell you what’s going on until you get here, but...we need you, and I think you’d want to be here too.”

El, her supposed best friend. El, who belonged to Matt long before Bekka ever had a chance to lay claim. El, who her brother wanted to marry. El, her almost -- no, no almost about it -- her sister. Not by blood, but in the other ways that mattered. They might not be in the best space -- an angry, raw, confusing space -- but Bekka didn’t turn her back on family. Not to mention, Olivier needed her too. “I’m in.”

“Good. We’ll send Nocturne to you.” They never sent TJ for travel assistance unless the situation was totally dire. “I’m sorry you’re coming back to this.”

“I’m a big girl, Matt. I can handle it.” She had to be.

“She’ll be there in ten. See you soon.” The line died.

She had just enough time to give a rushed half-explanation to her parents. She watched as the color drained from their faces at the mention of Olivier before she disappeared to find her uniform. As she dressed, she overheard them calling their people. Her parents might be retired, but they were still well-connected. She had barely gotten dressed by the time she heard the familiar crack of TJ’s arrival.

Bekka was just about to go to her when she heard her name, and saw Irene rushing to her. Irene pulled her into a hug, nice yet unfamiliar. “Be safe,” she said, “and take care of Oli.”

“I will.”

She emerged from her room to see TJ talked to her parents in low voices, “...keep Stark from blowing them all out of the sky…” before they noticed her. Something like relief washed over her face when she saw Bekka.

“It’s really you, thank God.” She reached out her hand. “Come on, we need to go. I’ll give answers when we get there.”

Bekka said goodbye to her parents and cast one last look over her shoulder to Irene before TJ pulled her through space and time all the way back to New York City.

Matt was waiting for her when she, woozy and disoriented, appeared.

“You’re home,” he breathed.

She nodded in confirmation. “I am.”

#earth 6828

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