#angry house wife magneto

[mkpersephone]

Part 2! 🎉🎉🎉

This is soooo great. Magneto calls squirrel girl radio show and all he talks about is Charles🤣

Hi, I'm the unbeatable squirrel girl and I'm in your corner

Charles?

You can totally hear that squirrel saying "oh no" not this guy again.

I need a cup of sugar, Charles.

Sir, we're not–

These are clearly students of yours Charles so I know your listening...

The fact that he is never willing to listen to someone else's words or consider the possibility of making a mistake and only speaks his own words is sooooo magneto.🤣🤣🤣

It's Erik

Oh like you need to say🤣🤣🤣. Everyone in New York already knows who you are.

you see, brownies are in baking for Victor's birthday, they're more sugar than they are flour; should've called himself sweettooth Charles, hahaha. Anyway my "pentriguns" low

I don't know which part of this sentence I should focus more? The fact that Magneto is baking brownies for Sabertooth's birthday, the fact that Sabertooth likes sugar, or that Charles knows about it? Does that mean Logan is also invited? Oh God that would be great.

Also... Magneto makes dad jokes! And he laughs at them himslef? He's not even funny🤣 who told this man that he is funny? Charles I assume.

He is also very fond of saying Charles's name. For no reason at all.

That word "pentrigun" I can't quite understand what he is saying. English is not my first language, so I don't get that word properly. But whatever it is he doesn't have it and expects Charles to give it to him.

He is supposed to be your nemesis Erik, why would you ask him about "pentrigun"?

We are not Charles's students Erik. And even if he was listening I don't think Charles can–

ofcourse he can't you fool! But Jean can. Charles, listen to me, have Jean float a cup of sugar across tawn and let me know if you like to come over and watching that Dazzler rockumentry. I have better internet now Charles, I made them give me more gigs.

The citizens of New York look above their heads and see that a cup of sugar is coming from Westchester. 🤣🤣

Charles goes to Erik's house so they can watch documentary together. 🥹🥹

Does that mean Magneto went to the telecommunications company and threatened them to give him more internet? 🤣🤣🤣 Can you imagine it? "Give more gigs to this internet line, otherwise I will fry all these telecommunication cables or I will drop this atomic bomb on your heads" *Magneto said menacingly*

It's all because he didn't have a good internet last time so Charles left him early. 🤣 He's now mad!

And now is threating time:

refuse me and there shall be war between us, Charles. I will not be denied again!

Okay call me back.

He.Will.Not.Be.Denied.Again! What are you doing Charles? Don't you see/hear he is waiting for you? Go to him! Call him back!

Poor Doreen. 🤣🤣🤣 she and her friends were forcibly caught between the dramas of these two old men.

Honestly, I'm kinda into this Erik/Charles dinamic.

Everybody is my child. Everybody is.

Are thay friends, are thay enemies, mabye it's a ferenemy's thing maby it's more that a ferenemy's thing...

Did she just....? Did Marvel just...? In a cannon product...? Even the Squirrel Girl understood this from behind the radio! That they are more than that!!!!

Why are you doing this to us MARVEL?!!!!!!

Okay this was all😊 tell me what you think.

Part 1 here!

Podcast: Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show. (The Sinister Six Are No More) 13:38

[itzaras]

Magneto

" The thing none of you will ever understand is that there are no sides. There are no heroes or villains. There's just what I want and how I'll get it. —Magneto

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Name: Max Eisenhardt

Current Alias: Magneto

Aliases: Auschwitz I.D #24005 (retcon from #214782), "The Creator", Eric Lensher, Erik Magnus Lensher, Erik the Red, Grey King, King Erik Magnus, the Leader, Magnus, Master (by toad), Master of Magnetism, Merciless Magneto, Michael Xavier, Miraculous Magneto, Mr. Sullivan, Phantom Saboteur, "Red", White King, White Pilgrim

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Affiliation: Quiet Council of Krakoa

Relatives: Parents: Jacob Eisenhardt (father, dead)

Edie Eisenhardt (mother, dead)

Siblings: Ruth Eisenhardt (sister, dead)

Spouses: Anya Eisenhardt (wife, MIA)

Children: Lorna Dane (daughter) &

Zala Daner (alleged daughter, presumably dead)

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Other Relatives: Erich Eisenhardt (paternal uncle, dead) ;

Anya (mother-in-law, deceased),

Joseph (clone, deceased)

Alpha (creation)

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Eyes: Blue & Grey

Hair: Silver (formerly), Black

Unusual Features: Magneto has been devolved into an infant by Alpha "the ultimate mutant" and regrown by Erik the Red into a younger adult; so that, despite his much greater chronological age, he appears still to be a relatively young man. Auschwitz I.D #24005 branded on his arm.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Origin: Mutant

Status: Alive; formerly dead

Birth: Nuremberg, Germany

Place of Death: Utopia, San Francisco Bay, Space (presumably), Terra Verde.

Cause of Death: Psychic blade to the skull (first death). Aneurysm (second death); energy blast to the head (third death).

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Identity: public

Citizenship: German, Krakoan

Education: Some public schooling unspecified advanced training in genetic engineering and robotics.

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (July 1963)

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

───── ❝ 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞 ❞ ─────

Maven of Mutants

Max Eisenhardt began his life in a world amid mass turmoil and intolerance—Germany, World War II. He witnessed the worst the human race had to offer and while he may have survived, his family and his people were persecuted and torn apart. After the death of his parents and sister, he landed in Auschwitz where he reunited with his childhood crush, Magda. Growing to adulthood in the camp, Max continued to urge his fellow captives to fight for their freedom.

Eventually, Max and Magda escaped and fled to a small city where they married and had a daughter, Anya. Caught in a house fire, the future Magneto’s mutant powers finally emerged as he tried to rescue his family, but due to the interference of angry authorities, Anya did not survive. Enraged, he laid waste to the onlookers causing Magda to flee, fearing the evil within him.

Max obtained forged documents to change his name to Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and settled in Israel where he befriended Charles Xavier. The two enjoyed debating at length the prospects of a superhuman race before revealing their true identities to one another to thwart a Nazi criminal. The ordeal brought to light Charles and Erik’s vastly different stances on the matter of mutant rights and the two went their separate ways, each championing their ideals.

Magnetic Mastery

Earth’s most powerful mutants, Magneto’s abilities are essentially limitless. He can manipulate all forms of magnetism, summon force fields and shoot electromagnetic pulses that can disable electronic devices. He can assemble complex machinery in seconds and manipulate the iron to blood to take control of people's actions. Even shown power over forms of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum like visible light and gamma rays, though he rarely uses these abilities.

Repelling Rivals

Professor Charles Xavier and the X-Men both claim the role of Magneto’s principal and longest-standing foes; however, they do often find themselves on the same team. This holds true for other heroic groups like the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Defenders, and Inhumans as well. Magneto has also had run-ins with Hydra and given his upbringing always remained their opposition. The entire United States Government also lands on the foe list—which makes sense considering the number of times Magneto has threatened, destroyed, or held something hostage in an attempt to take control of the world at large.

Attracted Allies

Magneto’s allies tend to fluctuate, but the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Acolytes have established their places as support groups. Charles Xavier and the X-Men occasionally fall into this category as well, though they always remain wary. And finally, the New Mutants, Hellfire Club, Savage Land Mutates, and High Evolutionary have all found themselves backing this magnetic madman at some point in his long and complicated run.

Push and Pull

After parting ways with Charles Xavier in Israel, Magneto began a career tracking down Nazi war criminals for a covert agency. But this affiliation ended poorly, and Magnus finally stepped over the line he’d been skirting, beginning down a path of aggression to gain mutants their rightful status as Earth’s dominant race.

Early on in his career, Magneto acquired Asteroid M as his orbital base and established a team known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which notably included Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, with whom he would share a complex future relationship.

Magneto traveled to the U.S. to seize the military missile base at Cape Citadel, Florida but former friend Xavier and his newly assembled team of crime fighters, the X-Men, disarmed the escalating situation.  He then laid a trap for his new foes by occupying the small South American nation of Santo Marco and setting a bomb to detonate upon their arrival. The team managed to foil these plans as, uneasy with Magneto’s obsessive war against humanity, Quicksilver helped them defuse the bomb. He and his twin sister Scarlet Witch soon left the Brotherhood to join the Avengers.

Magneto had several run-ins with the X-Men after this, usually ending in explosions that led them to believe him dead, only for him to resurface with a new group of mutants and fresh plans for world domination. Some notable attempts were his discovery of the Savage Land and his manipulation of Namor the Sub-Mariner.

After each failed scheme Magneto established different versions of the Brotherhood until he eventually used his knowledge of genetic engineering to create Alpha the Ultimate Mutant who, instead of joining his progenitor, reverted him into a powerless infant. Professor Xavier entrusted baby Magneto to his colleague Dr. Moira MacTaggert who performed experiments on the child to alter its mind. Later restored to his adult form, Magneto resumed his war with the X-Men.

After almost killing the young mutant Kitty Pryde, Magneto began to realize the error of his ways and aligned with the X-Men. Learning of a supposed relation to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as their father, he attempted to reach out, but understandably the two remained wary of their so-called reformed former master. Magneto aided in the fight against the Be yonder and finally turned himself over for his crimes against humanity. However, an attack on the trial left Professor Xavier badly wounded and Magneto reluctantly took up the mantle of headmaster in his absence, joining the X-Men on missions and mentoring the New Mutants.

This transformation did not last as Magneto’s old supremacist personality began to reemerge after he and X-Men leader Storm sought an alliance with the Hellfire Club. Magneto dethroned the Black King, Sebastian Shaw, becoming the Grey King and in so doing alienated himself from the New Mutants. He then regained control over a grief-stricken Scarlet Witch who had just lost her husband and children. Quicksilver also rejoined his purported parent, conspiring to save his sister and turn Magneto over to the Avengers. The plan worked but ended with the heroes believing the Master of Magnetism had once again died in an explosion.

From there, Magneto went on a side adventure with Rogue of the X-Men and Ka-Zar in the Savage Land that ended with Magnus killing his alleged daughter Zaladane. He then retired to solitude on Asteroid M until the mutant group known as the Acolytes pleaded for his help reclaiming the island nation of Genosha. The X-Men once again intervened and destroyed Asteroid M. Undeterred, Magneto converted the space station Graymalkin into a new base named Avalon as haven for mutants, recruiting all he could to his cause. The government and the X-Men tried to intervene and after a series of events, Magneto removed Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton—so Professor Xavier wiped his mind in retaliation.

In a form of revenge, a mutant named Astra restored Magneto’s mind while creating a clone named Joseph to destroy him. The duplicate failed to kill the original and gave its life saving the planet: Magneto attempted to free mutants from mankind by threatening total world destruction, demanding that the UN cede Genosha to him. They did so with reluctance, with the caveat that he does not attack any other nations.

Magneto was revealed to be one of the Twelve, a roster of mutants prophesied to bring in a new era for their people; Apocalypse captured the group, hoping to use them to his own gain. However, Magneto tapped into another mutant’s powers to compensate for his waning ones and defeated the genetic tyrant. He then returned to Genosha with Polaris, yet another of his offspring—this one legitimate—and began to teach her to expand her own abilities while seeking to restore his to full capacity.

After the Legacy Virus was cured, Magneto used the mutants at his disposal to declare war on mankind, but the X-Men wounded him during their opposition, rendering his nation defenseless. Genosha was destroyed by Cassandra Nova’s Sentinels and its 16 million mutant residents executed. Again, humanity and the X-Men believed Magneto among the dead, but he remained on the island in secret to rebuild it, eventually joined by none other than Professor Xavier.

Magneto then began caring for the Scarlet Witch after she’d gone insane and attacked the Avengers. Quicksilver convinced his sister to alter reality into the world Magneto fought for with mutants as the dominant species and their father the ruler of them all. Unaware of the previous state of the world, Magneto soon regained his memories and killed Quicksilver as recompense for his actions. This led the Scarlet Witch to resurrect her brother and revert reality to its original state simultaneously stripping many mutants, including Magneto, of their powers. To restore the lost mutant gene, Magneto teamed up with the High Evolutionary; however, they only succeeded in reinstating his own powers.

Viewing their work to be noble, Magneto joined Cyclops’s X-Men on their island home, Utopia, where he worked with the team to protect the remaining mutants and fight in missions around the world. During this time, he helped Rogue battle the Children of the Vault and learned that two members of the Young Avengers may be reincarnations of Scarlet Witch’s lost sons. Though warned not to interfere, Magneto sought out his possible grandchildren and joined them on their mission to find the missing Scarlet Witch and restore her memories and sanity.

Magneto struck up a relationship with Rogue, who thus far had rebuked his romantic advances. However, when the X-Men split into two groups with conflicting feelings over the return of the Phoenix Force, Magneto stayed with Cyclops on the West Coast where he slowly worked to gain the trust of his allies, while Rogue returned to the newly opened Jean Grey School for Higher Education in New York.

With the eventual dissipation of the Phoenix Force by Hope Summers and the Scarlet Witch, the mutant gene was reestablished. Magneto joined S.H.I.E.L.D., supposedly as a double agent to protect his group of rogue X-Men; he recruited new mutants to the New Charles Xavier school, helped the world’s heroes defeat the Red Skull who had taken over Charles Xavier’s brain, and fought to stop the reality-ending Incursion of the Beyonders. During this time, Scarlet Witch revealed her and Quicksilver’s purported parentage to be a falsehood.

Most recently, Magneto once again found himself leading the X-Men, or at least a group of them, as they searched for a cure to the mutant-poisoning Terrigen Mist.  During Civil War II he fought to stop Ulysses and predictive justice, and most recently battled against the altered Captain America and his Secret Empire. There may be hope for his reformation after all…

[magnetxgirl]

Verse: The Lawyer

Polaris was born the child of Erik Lehnsherr and Suzanna Dane. Suzanna strayed from her marriage vows to Arnold Dane. She had been feeling neglected as her husband spent more and more time at the office. She did not know at the time that Erik Lehnsherr was a powerful mutant and a terrorist— only a man who gave her the attention she had been missing. The affair resulted in a pregnancy. Suzanna convinced her husband that the baby was his and they decided to name her Lorna Sally Dane after their grandmothers. However, when Polaris was born with a tuft of black hair and green eyes it became clear that the baby was not Arnold’s since he and Suzanna were both blonde with blue eyes. Arnold, upset with his wife for her infidelity, left her and the baby. Suzanna went after Arnold at the airport, but he was gone. The plane crashed, not long after taking off and it was found that an electromagnetic pulse had caused engine failure. It was ruled an accident by authorities. The true cause was the stress, fear, and distress Lorna felt by her mother due to her husband leaving her.

Suzanna, depressed, fell into a drinking habit that was detrimental to Lorna growing up. During this time, Suzanna also began to smoke heavily. Suzanna  often berated her daughter, even lashing out once or twice at her. She blamed Lorna for Arnold leaving.  Lorna grew up feeling lonely. She knew that she was different from other kids, but wasn’t sure why other than the fact that her mother did not show her the same affection that other mothers showed her peers. When she was ten, her hair began to slowly turn green. Suzanna helped her dye her hair so that it didn’t show. They did this ever few days when Lorna had to shower and the dye washed out.

Outside of electromagnetic pulses that messed with the electricity and electronics in the house when Lorna was upset, the first time her powers truly began to manifest was at the age of nine. She began bending spoons when she was upset. Suzanna was ill-prepared to deal with a super-powered child. She would get frustrated and upset when all the silverware in the house was bent or twisted.

When she was thirteen, Lorna was approached by a group of boys while on her way down to Wendy’s to grab a frostee and chicken nuggets. They were all older than she was. They began to tease and taunt her. They were all anti-mutant. Lorna lost her cool and attacked. She was just angry. She didn’t mean to hurt them that bad. Yet, one had to go to the hospital from being hit with an ice box from the gas station parking lot while the other had been choked by the steel rebar supports inside the gas station wall.

The judge sentenced her to a psychiatric assessment and 60 hours of community service since it was her first offense. However, during her assessment Lorna was diagnosed with Bipolar II Rapid Cycling. The therapist assigned to her case, a human’s first activist, deemed her unable to live among society and had her admitted to Rolling Heights Mental Health Facility. She was admitted on the grounds of her untreated Bipolar Disorder and Depression, along with her mutant powers which were deemed a threat to those around her. There she was fitted with an electroshock collar. Anytime Lorna used her metal manipulation power she was shocked.

It was during that time Magneto came to visit her. He told her not to give up. He gave her a token– a red round disk with the M emblazoned on it. This gave her both hope and drive. So, just after her fourteenth birthday, she tried to escape the hospital but was found on the ground with blood running from her nose and the door wide open. She still had a little fight left in her afterward, and liked to give the nurses a hard time, but they often gave her Klonopin and Valium— medications to knock her out and make her less resistant.

By the end of the year, however, she was given another chance. Chase Morus came to the mental hospital to volunteer. He found Lorna. She was a bit volatile towards him at first, but, she opened up to him. He saw what her life was like there and decided to do something about it. Although, he didn’t know it at the time, Erik had also called the hospital and demanded her release.  Since Chases’ parents were licensed and certified foster parents— and had gone through a special training course on how to foster mutant kids— Lorna was sent to stay with the Morus’ home in the meantime. Though, after the paperwork was all said and done, everyone involved believed it was best for her to stay there for a sense of stability. She was sent to a new therapist and a new psychiatrist prescribed the correct medications to help deal with her mood disorder and depression. For a long time Polaris was shy around the Morus family. However, after three years of living with them she considers them her family. She uses their last name as her own, even if she hasn’t legally been adopted.

In order to help her with her mutation, Lorna was sent to Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters after Xavier found her with the use of Cerebro when she was sixteen. She often trained in the Danger Room so that she couldn’t hurt anyone while learning to control her powers. The more she trained, however, the more convinced Xavier was that Lorna was the daughter of his long-time friend, Erik Lehnsherr. He kept this to himself.

It was during her time at the school that Lorna decided to name herself Polaris. She chose the name Polaris because it was the Northern-most star. It was the guiding star, stable, and the traditional star of guiding travel. She thought this was fitting because her training as Polaris was guiding her and keeping her on the right path. It is also the point of magnetic north. After choosing her new name– one that was all her own and felt like it fit her, she decided that would be the name everyone should call her. Only those closest to her are allowed to call her Lorna.

After graduating school, Polaris enrolled at Columbia University studying Sociology and Human Rights. Graduating Summa Cum Laude, Polaris was accepted into Columbia’s Law program. During her undergrad and graduate programs, she has been active in the following clubs and societies: Sign Language Club, Pre-Law Society and later Women in Law and Politics. She graduated Summa Cum Laude.

After graduation she worked with another firm, but after about two years she has started her own Law firm.

[multiverseforger]

Born in Milbury House in Victorian London, Nathaniel Essex was the son of Admiral Erasmus Essex and his wife Mary Essex. Earning a full scholarship to the University of Oxford, Essex becomes a biologist in 1859 and married his wife Rebecca. A contemporary of Charles Darwin, Essex becomes highly interested in theories and research regarding evolution and "survival of the fittest." He concludes that humanity is undergoing increasing mutation, due to what he calls "Essex Factors" in the human genome. After the loss of his four-year-old son Adam due to birth defects, Essex becomes more obsessed with his work. While he dreams of evolving the human race to a greater state of being, he is also frustrated that his peers do not agree with his methods due to moral constraints, arguing that science is beyond morality. His research methods and ideas lead to mockery and finally ousting from the Royal Society and the scientific community. Angry and bitter, Essex decides he will accept becoming a "monster" in the eyes of others if that is what is necessary to achieve success in his work.[2]

Essex later hires the criminal Cootie Tremble and his gang, the Marauders. The Marauders kidnap homeless and neglected people off the streets of London as test subjects for Essex's experiments, including a man named Daniel Summers (an ancestor of the X-Man Scott Summers AKA Cyclops). Two years after Adam's death, the Marauders awaken the immortal Egyptian called En Sabah Nur ("The First One," known in later years as Apocalypse), whom Essex believes is the first of a new race of mutant humans. Holding similar beliefs regarding "survival of the fittest", the mutant villain Nur offers an alliance in order to aid Essex's research.[2]

Cyclops and Phoenix, heroes from the future, arrive via time travel to stop Nur from conquering 19th century England, though they also hope to find a way to prevent Dr. Essex's future transformation into Mr. Sinister. Nur defeats Cyclops and Phoenix, leaving them for Essex to experiment on. Phoenix explains to Essex that continuing his work with Nur will lead to worldwide destruction. Sensing truth in her words, Essex decides to leave behind his research and dedicate his life to family instead, as his wife Rebecca is pregnant once again. Unknown to him, Rebecca Essex investigates his lab and is shocked to discover imprisoned human test subjects and the remains of their son being experimented on. Freeing the prisoners and reburying her son, the strain and stress evidently cause Rebecca to go into premature labor. When Nathaniel arrives to explain he is leaving behind his unorthodox research, he finds that the unborn child has died in stillbirth and Rebecca is now dying as well. Nathaniel asks for forgiveness, but Rebecca refuses, saying with her dying breath, "To me, you are... utterly… and contemptibly… sinister!" Following Rebecca's death, Essex allies with En Sabah Nur, becoming the villain's first "prelate." Using alien technology at his disposal, Apocalypse subjects Essex to a painful genetic transformation, turning him into an ageless being with chalk-white skin and gifting him with a form of telekinesis. When En Sabah Nur tells the transformed scientist to shed his past identity and choose another, Essex decides he will now be "Sinister."[2] While claiming his humanity has now been carved out of him, Essex continues to carry Rebecca's photo until 1882.[2]

Another encounter with Cyclops convinces Sinister that the hero knows him from the future. Cyclops and Jean Grey then leave before Sinister can get further answers. When Apocalypse demands Sinister create a deadly plague that they can unleash on Earth, the scientist refuses, arguing that cruelty without purpose is ignorance, thus the enemy of science. Appreciating that Sinister has shown strength through defiance, Apocalypse returns to his hibernation state but promises that when he returns Essex will be his servant and they will reshape the world.[2] Following the death of Charles Darwin, Sinister travels to America and assumes the identity of obstetrician "Nathan Milbury" (taking the name of his ancestral home), head of the Essex Clinic in New York in the 1890s. There he continues secret experiments on people in order to learn more about genetic manipulation and improve his own biology. He comes to understand more and more that certain people are born with an "X-factor gene" or "X-gene", making them mutants whose powers and abilities often manifest during puberty or trauma. One early test subject is a mutant with a long lifespan named Amanda Mueller. To see how her children will be affected by her genes, Sinister has Amanda marry his former test subject Daniel Summers (who recently became the first of his family to immigrate to America). With each birth, Amanda feigns a miscarriage and secretly brings the baby to Sinister, who compensates her. Seeing great potential in the Summers family line, Sinister monitors the family for over a century to come.

Around this same time, Sinister encounters Courier and Gambit, two mutants from the future. Sinister takes a cell sample from the shape-shifting Courier and is able to implant its genetic traits into his own body, gaining complete control of his form's appearance and allowing himself to regenerate from damage. Before Courier and Gambit leave, Sinister sees evidence that he has (or will) perform surgery on Gambit at some point in the future.[10]

In 1899, Apocalypse emerges from hibernation again and is pleased with Sinister's work, including the development of a deadly techno-organic virus. Sinister then injects the virus into Apocalypse, but it only weakens the villain. As Apocalypse returns to hibernation to heal, he promises to kill Sinister when next they meet. Sinister decides his genetic research must now include the possible creation of a mutant who can kill Apocalypse.[11]

20th CenturyEdit

In 1907, Sinister works at the Ravencroft Institute and employs the mutant killer Sabretooth as an agent. Sabretooth brings him the mutant called Logan. Sinister experiments on Logan but the man is then freed by coworker Dr. Claudia Russell (ancestor of the werewolf Jack Russell). Sinister then leaves Ravencroft and Logan's powerful mutant recovery abilities eventually heal the damage he suffered.[12] In 1912, Sinister encounters Grigory Rasputin and encourages him to father many children, promising they will have superhuman potential. These descendants later include the mutant warrior siblings Colossus, Magik, and Mikhail Rasputin.[13] A few years later, Sinister grants shape-shifting abilities to Jacob Shaw (father of the X-Men villain Sebastian Shaw).[14] It has been implied that during the 1920s, Sinister gave Dr. Herbert Edgar Wyndham information regarding how to map and break a human genetic code, thus leading to his career as the master geneticist called the High Evolutionary.[15]

During the 1920s, Sinister lives in Los Angeles as "Nathan Essex" and befriends radio comedian Faye Livingstone. Realizing Faye's genetic potential to have mutant children, he keeps her prisoner and experiments on her for some time, then one day releases her. Faye never has children and develops cancer. When both her mind and body break down, she become a patient at a hospital in San Diego for the rest of her life, her treatment apparently provided for by Sinister himself, who visits her once a year in his human guise of Essex.[16]

During World War II, Sinister works with the Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Others who see Sinister nickname him "Nosferatu." A young Max Eisenhardt (who will grow to be Magneto) encounters him at this time and realizes that Sinister is experimenting on children, then killing those he deems failures or no longer needed. During this time, Sinister sometimes plays a favorite piece by Franz Shubert, and decades later Magneto still associates him with the music.[17] During his work with the Nazis, Sinister creates a clone of the Atlantean warrior Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The clone, N2, is defeated by Captain America and Sinister soon concludes that it's time for him to leave the Nazis behind, as they will soon lose the war. Sinister's research during World War II is later recovered and used by the scientists behind the Weapon X project.[18]

Following World War II, Sinister adopts the name "Dr. Nathan Milbury" again and works on Project: Black Womb with Dr. Kurt Marko (the father of Juggernaut) and Dr. Alexander Ryking (who, like Marko, is a friend and colleague of Brian Xavier, father of Charles Xavier), as well as the precognitive mutant Irene Adler. They conduct research on many mutant children and take note of several families that may produce mutant children later, allowing Sinister to monitor them for decades.[19] In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Scalphunter brings soldiers and civilians to Sinister's new lab in Saigon for experimentation. Sabretooh, working as a mercenary, is hired to find the truth about the "White Devil" and his connection to reports of missing people, as well as the rumors of "monster men" appearing. Scalphunter tells Sabretooth to leave him and Sinister alone, offering money and teasing that he will let the authorities know the mercenary has been killing prostitutes during his investigation. Sabretooth agrees to leave with the money and Scalphunt indicates that he and Sinister will recruit him in the future.[20] Some years later, Sinister returns to England as Dr. Milbury, becoming a professor at the University of Oxford. His students include Moira MacTaggert and the mutant telepath Charles Xavier, who realizes he cannot sense Dr. Milbury's mind or read his thoughts.[21]

Years after Sinister's time back at Oxford, and during the time that Charles Xavier is first befriending Magneto while both are living in Isreal, a version of the heroic mutant Hank McCoy from an alternate timeline (known as the "Age of Apocalypse") enters the mainstream Marvel reality. Known as the Dark Beast, this version of McCoy is an amoral geneticist who worked for years under the mentorship of his reality's version of Sinister. Dark Beast eventually makes his way to New York City and experiments on many mutants, using techniques Sinister taught him. Several of his surviving test subjects become deformed or disabled by their own abilities as a result, choosing to hide underground and join a sewer-dwelling mutant community known as the "Morlocks" (taking the name from the subterranean race of the novel The Time Machine). Years later, Dark Beast's experiments indirectly lead to Sinister ordering the "Mutant Massacre."

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #182: Honor Thy Father

April, 1979

Wherein Captain America kills Abraham Lincoln.

Shame. They had so much in common. Like fighting vampires.

Anyway, I can’t help but feel that this is perhaps related somehow in some form or fashion to the old man who put Wanda and Pietro’s souls in some dolls.

Last time: that thing I just said. Also, Agent Gyrich dictated a new team roster. The roster doesn’t come into effect this time because Gyrich gets confused and wanders off in his confusion. But I just want you, the reader, to know the essentials. The essentials Avengers.

Also.

Its semi-commonly known that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are Roma. Good representation although somewhat marred by Wanda’s power being ‘hexes.’

We’re about the time in Avengers where their mutable backstory starts being delved into more. Including their upbringing. The writing seems overall sympathetic with the Roma but still resorts to stereotypes. And don’t expect them to use anything about the g-word for a very long time. I guess this is a heads up about that whole thing.

We start off with actual real doctor and not a secret Norse thunder god, Donald Blake, giving the Avengers his professional medical opinion on what is wrong with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Actual doctor, Donald Blake: “It’s almost as though... someone had stolen their souls!”

Yup.

Oh also their vital signs have ceased but their bodies aren’t degenerating. So that’s weird.

Vision acknowledges this diagnosis, tells actual doctor Donald Blake to do what he can, and then heads off to join the Avengers.

Hawkeye thinks to himself what a cold fish Vision is. His wife may be dying but he’s acting like he’s still on the time-clock.

Why must we go through this song and dance over and over? People always think Vision is so cold and emotionless and then he gets angry and people go ‘no wait maybe he’s the most human of all of us.’

Think before you think, Hawkeye.

Meanwhile, the Avengers haven’t been having much luck. Yellowjacket even anterrogated some friends of his and nothin’. And the reinstalled databanks didn’t have an answer for ‘suddenly died, souls possibly stolen??’

It’d sure be niiiiice if some of those cosmic friends from last time had hung around and sensed things with their cosmic senses but someone had to shoo them away.

GYRICH.

Thankfully, when Formicidae and technology let you down, you can always count on technology.

Jocasta pipes up that her cybernetic senses picked up an organic energy flux emanating from Avengers Mansion around the time Wanda and Pietro dropped dead.

She didn’t bother mentioning this before because... well, I guess because they didn’t think to ask. Look, she’s like a month old. Give her a break.

Jocasta even manages to trace the flux towards an area called the Bowery.

‘HOLY SHIT YOU CAN TALK,’ Gyrich, probably.

But really his reaction isn’t so different.

Agent Gyrich: “Hey! I thought this tin woman was just a trophy or something! If she’s intelligent, she has to have security clearance!”

Jocasta: “Really, Mr. Gyrich, has the government become so paranoid that it requires security passes for mere machines?”

Agent Gyrich: “Why, no, of course n... I-I mean, there are extenuating circum... well, that is to say, I -- I’m not quite sure. I’ll have to check with my superiors on this.”

Jocasta: “’Bye!”

So two things.

One, she just owned him. Completely and totally. He will never recover from how thoroughly she conversationally devastated him.

Two, she’s apparently been so quiet this whole time and so determined to stay out of anyone’s way that Gyrich mistook her for a statue. And I guess didn’t realize that she had followed everyone else from the meeting room to the computer room? Geez, Jocasta.

Anyway.

Now that they have a lead, the Avengers are going to assemble right out that front door. But clearly someone needs to stay on monitor duty.

Hawkeye: “Hey, don’t look at me, pal! Come tomorrow, I won’t be a full-time Avenger any more -- an’ I’m not about to pass up my last chance for some action!”

Wonder Man volunteers to stay behind. He’s going to be a handsome movie star. He can’t take the chance that someone ruins his apparent good looks.

And then Iron Man fails to say assemble as the group all runs off together. Come on, Iron Man. You have a lot of jobs but one of your jobs is to say the damn catchphrase.

Meanwhile, at the Bowery where Old Man is playing with his dolls.

Trying to feed them cookies.

Can they eat??

He’s apparently planning on taking them back to Europe in doll form. The implications of that are a bit staggering. And he’s trying to feed them to keep up their strength for the long journey. Their clothes are painted on though. If they eat, do they have to poop?

Also that cookie is bigger than Wanda doll’s torso. This is a bafflement!

Quicksilver has his usual patience for shenanigans. That is, none. Or maybe the usual amount but he goes through it at super speed. He tells the dude they aren’t his children.

Scarlet Wanda backs him up. Clearly their parents are the Whizzer and Miss America. This is true and will remain true forever and never be changed, become beloved canon, and then changed again causing acrimony throughout the land.

The old man (Django Maximoff. He’s Django Maximoff) bemoans that they continue to torture him by not remembering him.

YOU SEE YEARS BACK IN A ROMA TRIBE IN CENTRAL EUROPE THERE WERE TWO SPECIAL CHILDREN WITH POWERS

One had silver hair and could run like the dickens. The other had red hair and could use magic even without using the tribe’s sacred talisman, the Nivashi Stone.

In this very sensitive portrayal of other cultures o’clock, times were tough because of prejudice and nobody wanting to employ the Roma. So Django stole a cow.

This instantly caused an angry mob to spontaneously form and burn down his wagons. We don’t see the cow again so I have to assume that the mob set that on fire too.

Ms. Maximoff died in the wagon fire which is not great. She didn’t even have a name.

And young possibly Quicksilver did as Quicksilver do and accidentally ran off a cliff, sister in tow.

So Django was pretty bummed what with losing his entire family. He wandered for years before settling down in Vladivostok where he carved dolls and puppets for the joy of children.

But he was dead inside so he didn’t even care that shady men used his dolls for evil in Spider-Woman #12.

But all that changed when he saw a newspaper article about the Avengers.

Clearly these two adult people that closely resembled his own lost children and had similar powers were his lost children! They weren’t dead! They had just hid from him to punish him for the tragedy he had brought to his whole family! What a relief!

But clearly he had paid his dues. All those years of living alone with the guilt and also selling dolls to evil people.

So having clearly made up for the wrong he had done them, he made plans to steal their souls and put them in dolls so they couldn’t leave him again.

This makes absolute sense.

Anyway, he used the aforementioned Nivashi Stone to put their souls in dolls for the express reason of preventing them from running away again.

Scarlet Witch says um hey, we didn’t run away from you. This is all some crazy coincidence. One day we’ll look back on this and laugh.

But Django is suddenly distracted because his plot senses are tingling. “Your friends have come to play.”

‘I also sense that they brought some accessories, sold separately.’

Introducing the sky-scooter, in all of its ludicrous glory. Sold separately.

Luckily, the Avengers brought Jocasta and she points them to the rooming house Django is hiding out in.

Django: “I’m sorry, young friends, but Ana and Mateo can’t come out today. They’ve been naughty. But perhaps the Nivashi Stone can provide... other playmates!”

And then he says some magic words and some mannequins in a nearby theatrical supply warehouse begin to glow, pulse, and then OH YEAH right through the window.

And they pack a real punch too!

One FWOPs Beast right in the beak.

Captain America decapitates a mannequin Lincoln (like on the cover!) with his mighty shield but dammit that president will not yield.

So Wasp goes inside the open neck and grows to full size inside the mannequin, shattering it.

Geez.

Okay so then they continue to fight mannequins and making jokes. They’re really having a good time with this.

I wonder if that’s part of the spell. Django did say he was going to provide playmates. Or maybe the Avengers are just enjoying using some brutal attacks on some guilt-free targets.

Iron Man repulsors a cowboy mannequin and thinks to himself: “I know I’m supposed to be a serious, emotionless leader -- but I can’t help having an irresistible urge to shout ‘DRAW’!”

Oh and Vision kill Shakespeare.

So fun’s over. Time to get back to the actual task at hand.

Maybe the mannequins were so fun to murder because it was a RUSE to lure them into a false sense of security. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

So they cautiously proceed into the rooming house and to a room that Jocasta points them towards.

But when Iron Man opens the door...

I GUESS WE’RE IN SPACE NOW

Also Djano is looking like a youthful pirate. And he yells at the Avengers for being such a bad influence on Ana and Mateo (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, probably).

Since their own parents have been lax in discipline, its up to Django to punish them by invoking a triad of totems.

THE TOAD

THE SNAKE

THE BIRD

Or, the Toad, Princess Python, and Nighthawk. Or that one sycophantic guy that used to hang around Magneto, a woman whose superpower is ‘owns a snake’, and Not-Batman.

Django is taking some liberties with these totems.

Right when Beast is dismissing the idea that a snake could get a drop on him, the snake gets the drop on him, bites him in the leg and starts whipping him against space rocks.

Vision tries to do his go-to and shove his hand through Princess Python’s chest but she smirks off the attempt. And tells him to worry about his own insides. Which are suddenly full of snakes. Oh he can feel them slithering beneath his skin.

Wonderful. I have a new nightmare now.

You will believe that an android can scream at body horror.

Iron Man tries repulsoring her but she no sells that too.

He’s very confused. The Princess Python he knows isn’t so powerful. And also didn’t used to hang out in rooms that are a starry void. And also Iron Man didn’t used to be able to walk on starry voids like it was ground. What’s up with that?

Nearby, Captain America and Hawkeye try to fight Nighthawk but its not going well.

Annnd... Wasp and Yellowjacket are fighting Toad.

This... this is going somewhere predictable, I can tell.

Yup. Yup.

Toad whips out his tongue and swallows them both.

So now I know where the Ultimates got the idea. Jeph Loeb clearly read this issue as a young and with tears streaming down both cheeks hoarsely whispered ‘yes, yessssssss.’

Iron Man meanwhile still hasn’t come to the very obvious realization so he throws a sink at Princess Python.

She just bats it away and it flies out the window of the rooming house to alarm and bemuse some drunks.

Meanwhile on the floor below, a man trying to sleep is disgruntled by all the noise of a superhero battle taking place over his head. He raps on the ceiling and tells them to keep it down.

This is finally the clue that Beast needs to realize that HEY this is all fake! An illusion! We’re not really in space! And Iron Man suggests the very helpful idea to “concentrate on clearing your minds, Avengers!”

I mean. It works.

Django realizes that the situation is FUBAR. He grabs the doll cages and tries to flee.

Django: “No! I-I won’t let you take my babies from me! I won’t!”

He flees the rooming house and tries to lose himself in a crowd but Vision ghosts through the road in front of him.

Vision: “What... have... you... DONE... TO... MY... WIFE?”

Tiny doll Wanda tells Vision that its the stone that has made them into dolls. So without hesitation Vision shoots the stone with Solar Beam, shattering it.

The doll versions of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver slump lifelessly. Django too slumps, to the ground, crying “Not again. *Sniff* Dear god... not again.”

EPILOGUE: But they brought him home to Avengers Mansion.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are fine. Returned to their bodies right when the stone was shattered.

But Wanda asks to take a leave of absence. Some of the stuff Django said made her think so she and Quicksilver are going to accompany him to Europe to do some digging into their past. Besides, whats the harm in giving a lonely old man who kidnapped you and imprisoned you as a doll a family for a few days? Probably no harm, right?

Beast gets the last word on this whole ordeal.

Beast: “Well, I guess that’s that. Everyone’s back safe and sound and all the loose ends have been neatly tied up and gift-wrapped! Looks like we can enjoy a little peace, quiet and ree-lak-sa-tion for a change. Right, gang?”

Everyone: -skeptical-

Beast: “Uh... nah, I don’t believe it, either! *Sigh*”

Racial dubiousness of the issue aside, a nice little story. The Avengers take attempted soul kidnapping in stride because they’ve seen weirder things.

And Jocasta! She fades back into the background as soon as she gets the Avengers where they need to be but she’s real fun in this story. I’m pretty sure I’m to be disappointed but I hope she hangs around the book for a while. Saying and doing things. Where is her character to go? She was built solely to be a wife to Ultron but she rejected that destiny. And unlike Vision who got to define himself absent of Wonder Man for a while, the Wasp is still around. So whither Jocasta from here?

Next time: THE ABSORBING MAN. Well, in the main book.

I remembered to check annuals and I need to go back and cover one I missed. I don’t know that annuals are essential come to think of it. And I don’t know what I’m going to do when annuals for various books all start being poorly tied together into one story.

Like many looming problems, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Follow @essential-avengers for more content like this but older. I would appreciate it.

[multiverseofmiracleshq]

Following the United Nations tragedy, the mutants gathered together at the Kirby Building in New York City with those closest to them to lay their dead to rest. Since Krakoa has no cemeteries and there were no bodies to bury, it was a sorrowful goodbye to a group who shouldn’t have had to go.

THIS IS THE OFFICIAL COMPLETE CHAT LOG COVERAGE OF THE IC

ERIK: So, how was he supposed to approach this? Erik had gone back and forth for hours, trying to figure out what version of himself he should present at the funeral. He was a leader. He was feared. He was.. different. Before, he would never have cared this much about what people were expecting from him. Magneto would be what he chose to be and people would have to deal with it. But there was so much loss, and for the first time in a very very long time he was acutely aware of it. He felt it and saw it in the faces of the people around him. And he felt it in his chest. It was pain like this that he had cut himself off from for decades. It made him feel stronger-- the fact that he could choose what not to feel. But was he stronger now? Was he stronger for being honest with himself? That was still up for debate. "Thank you all for coming." He interrupted the soft chatter of the people gathered together. As they settled down, his eyes glossed over everyone huddled together in their various groups. Friends. Family. "Like all of you, it pains me that we are here today. The mutants on Krakoa have prided ourselves on the very fact that funerals would come only once in a blue moon. For decades, our people have been targeted. Killed. Taken from us far too soon from the world we so rightfully exist in. So we found a way to bend the rules to our will, and make it so that our people could live life on their own terms, and for as long as they wished to live it. This should never have happened." He took a pause, took in a breath. "I have lost daughters. We have lost friends and family. And while most of us here have been touched by death before, it never gets easier. So I will leave you with this: for the ones we have lost, we must strive to do better. To be better. In their memory, we will fight harder. But tonight, let us put aside our hostility and our anger and let ourselves breathe. If I had to guess, it's what they would have wanted."

REMY: The morning had been almost unbearable. Remy had gone through the motions — getting Dawn up, fed, changed, dressed. It would be the last time he saw her for a while, if ever again. The once bubbly, bouncy girl had started crying, a constant plea for a mother that wouldn’t return. The news of the resurrection process had been the final nail in the coffin for him, and Marcos would be meeting him at the funeral and taking Dawn with him. That way, Remy could mourn in a way that didn’t adhere to responsibilities and with her father, Dawn might find some peace. The house was quiet as he’d gotten dressed out of a box, having pulled the last of his clothes off of hangers and out of drawers the night before. That had been his last night in the bed they’d shared and as he gathered his meager belongings and Dawn, Remy shut the door behind him and couldn’t stand to look back. They’d chosen a beautiful spot to host it, but he didn’t really notice. Only heard the soft chattering among groups as he hung back until Marcos arrived and took Dawn from him. She was too small to really understand what was happening — and only seemed to register that her father was there, ready to console her for the news that would come eventually. When she was old enough to understand. By the time Erik had spoken, Remy had already nursed the flask he’d stored in his coat pocket, back to something he’d managed to reign in when he and Lorna had gotten serious about his role in Dawn’s life. It had been a requirement, but now Dawn was with Marcos and Lorna was dead, so what was the point?

RAHNE: Of all the souls the universe had to steal from her, it had to be Dani and Sam. Her family. Never expecting tragedies like this to hit so close to home, Rahne couldn’t help but feel somewhere deep down that everything was her fault. Sure, there was no legitimate justification to her feelings, but the voice in her head - the one that sounded a lot like Reverend Craig - served as a persistent reminder that she could have done much much better. Maybe she could have saved them — if she’d been better. But moments like this ( funerals - or memorials, at the very least ), however soul-sucking they felt, were necessary. They helped the spirits of the deceased pass on. And if there was anything Rahne wanted left in the world, it was for her friends to be able to do just that - despite the gnawing in her gut that reminded her resurrection was possible, just not right now. Dani and Sam at least deserved this. But as she let her thoughts get the best of her, Rahne was having increasingly more and more trouble paying attention to those speaking. It was Erik right now. The pain in his voice was evident, and her heart ached in sympathy with his.

EMMA: Magneto was telling them to be better. Out of all of the people in the world, the mutant ‘terrorist’ was speaking with sympathetic eyes and a diplomats tongue. They had slipped into some kind of strange alternate reality where the earth was no longer spinning on its axis. It had been nudged ever so slightly to the side and now they were unable to right it. Emma had never been good at accepting no as an answer. Winston Frost had dealt them with a heavy hand and Emma had been too meek to rail as hard as she could against them. The flat chested brunette with glasses and insecurity had been gone so long that most didn’t know she ever existed. There were no pictures or home movies. Just the slight hum of insecurity that occasionally flared up under Emma’s breastbone and reminded her how human she was. No matter bulletproof she pretended to be, at the end of the day Emma was capable of shattering and in that moment she was splintering. Not that it would be obvious. Thigh high boots, skintight skirt that barely cleared her ass  -- it all served a purpose. It made her feel strong when she felt weak and right then she felt very, very, weak. Arriving to the funeral of her lovers wife on his arm may have seemed strange to some but Emma and Scott had long since surpassed norms or standards. He could mourn Jean. The two Stepford Cuckoos present were haunted by the three daughters that Emma had lost. She loved them, but there was a weight in her heart where Kate had once resided. There were too many ghosts now, Emma mused as she tossed back her second - third?? - flute of champagne. The clinking of the glass hitting the table coincided with the final note of Erik’s little speech. “I loathe this.” Emma signaled with one black polished hand for another glass. “I expect someone to be drunk, sad and stupid and you, Scott Summers, are to ensure that it is not me.”

LAURA: It would be redundant to say that Laura was familiar with death. Her mind had learned to process at a ( too ) young age and ever since then had known how to compartmentalize and move on. It had been a long time but some still stung more than others. Her role that night wasn’t to be a babysitter, per se, but she didn’t plan on drinking her sorrows away. That seemed to be the job of others. Instead, she turned her nose at the bitter strains of the alcohol everyone seemed to be drinking and kept an eye out for Logan while making her way to Remy. “They said we would never attend a funeral again.”

CABLE: There was no standard definition of family that Nathan Summers had ever latched onto. It was a skewed concept to him-- a product of being thrown into a foreign time, taken away from everything he should have been able to learn about and love as he grew. And there was a big difference between parents and people who raised you. Nate was raised to be a fighter, because that was the only thing he could be. He needed to fight for his life from the very start. He needed to fight to make his way in a harsh and unwelcome reality. He was raised well enough, but there were no parents for him 1600 years in the future. His parents were in the here and now, the 21st century. He had bounced around through time, passing through. But eventually, he stayed. And it was because of them-- his parents. Because after all his mistakes, after showing them how two decades of life becoming a time-traveling super-soldier could make someone harsh and brash and not easy to love-- they wanted to love him anyway. Nate had heard all about families and that kind of love, but actually feeling it? That changed him. While Erik spoke, Nate barely registered anything he was saying. The words became muddled in his ears as his thoughts wandered to Jean-- his real mother in all ways that mattered-- and how horribly bitter and angry he was that she was gone. The chatter started back up and Nathan looked up as things came into focus again. He saw his father, Emma at his side. Maybe it would have been proper to greet Scott, seeing as they were the ones left behind. But Nate couldn't get his feet to move. Unconsciously he shifted in place, his shoulder gently leaning into Lana next to him. He wanted to talk, but he didn't know what to say. He hated being angry. He hated being sad. But he was thankful that he at least wasn't alone.

SCOTT: Emma had stood before him, readjusting his tie, the silence lingering between them as they’d finished getting ready at her palace. They hadn’t said much — Scott had just continued to look at her through a pair of glasses he’d swapped his visor out for. The past few days, since the arrest of Osborn and since he’d carried Emma here again, for the second time in two months, they’d been quiet around each other, both respectively mourning a loss. Despite knowing that they had the ability to resurrect once they secured Eve and Hope, it was still a tough reality to wrap your mind around. And then they’d heard the news. Eve and Hope had disappeared off of Cerebro’s radar. They’d been presumed dead. The air was heavier today and Scott couldn’t shake it. Jean had died before. Jean had died without an idea of resurrection before, but with baby Charles, with the life they were building, with their home, this time just felt — different. They’d both left her palace and arrived at the Kirby building with only a small conversation passed between them. They’d walked in together and Scott had stared straight ahead, but the hand he had on Emma’s squeezed periodically. He needed her now in a way he never had before. As Emma finished her third glass, Scott placed it on a passing tray and grabbed a fresh one, setting it down in front of her. “Wouldn’t be you with or without my intervention.” he replied. “I thought the funerals were over.” he said softly to himself.

TEDDY: In the lives they chose to lead, death was always circling. Yet it somehow still didn’t feel real that he was gone. Just days ago they’d been laughing, curled up in either of their rooms—escaping the chaos of the world spinning wildly out of control around them. And now he was gone. Worse, any hope of bringing him back died with him and it hurt more than anything he’d experienced, so much he could barely breathe. Erik’s words rang through his ears yet he zoned out of the speech midway through. He’d been crying for days, yet the tears kept rolling in, no matter how exhausted he was. He hadn’t been in this world very long but he knew Billy had been the love of his life—and he only got two years with him before he was ripped away. He didn’t want to move on, he didn’t want to even consider a future with anyone else, he wanted to go back to a week ago and hold him again. He wanted to wake up that morning and not let him get out of bed so he was never anywhere near that explosion to begin with. Inhaling with a shaky breath he blinked through a heavy stream of tears. “I can’t do this.” he turned to Kate abruptly. “I can’t.”

REMY: He’d emptied the flask at some point during Erik’s speech and now he reached for a passing glass. Champagne, it looked like. What an inappropriate choice. Looking down at it, he almost handed it back, but that nagging pull at the base of his skull had him finishing it too, just as Laura approached. “T’ey lied.” he grumbled, abandoning the glass somewhere, he didn’t care. “T’ey have servers passing around champagne like it’s a celebration, but no open bar.” his mismatched eyes swung to meet Laura’s. “So what are we celebratin’ then.”

ILLYANA: She always wore black so it wasn’t much of a stretch for Illyana to dress for the occasion. Mourning had never really been her thing but some of the dead were teammates, the other her best friend ( who had nearly become her sister in law ) she hadn’t done the best at keeping up with. Krakoa made them feel like they had all the time in the world when it had suddenly become very apparent that they didn’t. Of all the people there it was Emma and Scott that Illyana was strangely the closest with. They had served as the core of Nation-X before splintering apart. While Illyana knew she could join them she opted to leave the two be and instead found herself near Rahne. “So we have this thing called resurrection,” she glanced down at her friend. “But when we need it for people we care about, it’s gone. чушь собачья.”

PIETRO: Listening to Erik drone on about loss like he had any place to miss Wanda when, in his opinion, he barely knew her, was beyond irritating. Perhaps his anger was misguided, yet it was far easier to channel it at one individual than attempt a trapeze act between miserable, devastated, and furious. There was a large part of him that wanted to die along with her. It didn’t feel right existing in a world where she didn’t—and another part of him wondered how the hell she’d done it when the roles were reversed. He took an angry swig of his ale and stayed leaned against a tree near the back of the group. His method of coping had essentially been to stay belligerently drunk for the better part of the last 72 hours. With the news of any hope of a resurrection slipping right through their fingers he was finding little reason to stay alive.

KATE: “Hey, hey.” Kate hadn’t really been listening to the speech but as soon as Teddy was turning Kate was moving to wrap her arms around her friend. He was taller and broader but she had always had long arms. Helped with the archery thing. “I know.” Her voice was quiet. “I know. But we have to. You have to. This is one of those times when we have to be strong when we don’t think we can. But we’re going to help you, okay?” Kate pulled back to tilt her heads upwards to look at his. “Me, America, everyone. We love you.”

RAHNE: Rahne let out a bitter chuckle, glancing at her feet, “Sounds about right. Not t’ sound like a pessimist, well - given the situation - but nothin’ ever wants to go our way, right? It’s all one big, cosmic joke.” She turned to face Illyana, tears welling beneath dark eyes. For a brief moment, they glowed yellow, but the light was quickly extinguished, “—I should’ve been there instead.”

ILLYANA: “You weren’t invited.” Illyana shook her head sharply. “I was. But it would not make a difference in the end. They’re gone.”  They were gone and they couldn’t bring them back. Illyana couldn’t hide her bitterness -- nor she did want to. “They’re gone and we’re here. What will you do with that?”

ALEX: Alex refused to stand too close near any others at the funeral; ( He debated even coming at all, but several had urged him to - for your own good, Alex. ) for personal reasons, and because even if he couldn’t see the bastard - he was almost positive Sinister was breathing down his neck at all times, urging him to be on his best behavior. That put him somewhere out on the perimeter, near a slowly unraveling Pietro. “You know, I was gonna ask if you wanted company, but then I realized you don’t have much of a choice,” he let out a curt laugh, leaning against an adjacent tree.

RAHNE: Rahne couldn’t meet Illyana’s eyes again. You bloody coward, a voice in her head chided. The other girl was clearly very angry - and that, juxtaposed with Rahne’s ever-flowing fountain of guilt, didn’t seem to be leading anywhere good. She didn’t have an answer to Illyana’s question, at least not a good one, so she folded her arms over her chest and shrugged, putting all her energy into slowing her heartbeat, “Don’t know.”

CRYSTALIA: It was the worst timing in the entire world. Once again, everything seemed to be burning down like a wildfire with no way to extinguish it. It wasn’t about her but Crystalia had found herself with a myriad of personal problems. Her abdication of the throne had been fast and unexpected but after a tense conversation with her sister and brother in law they had agreed to step back in. Crystalia spent her nights adjusting to her normal and mornings sick to her stomach. It hadn’t been hard to figure out and the physicians had urged her to reach out and make contact with the one person she had been with ( even if she refused to name him ) to see where he stood. The funeral of his twin sister seemed to be horrible place to do so but Crystalia had been invited and he had been hard to get a hold of otherwise. Dressed in the appropriate black with the dark ring still dyed in back of her strawberry locks, the Inhuman cut through the crowd to where Pietro stood with a mutant she hadn’t seen before. The smell of the spirits he was clutching made bile rise in her throat, but she just smoothed her skirt down instead. “I need to speak with you. It’s important.”

LOGAN: "Nothin' good." Logan was staring down at his glass of champagne as he walked over to Laura and Remy. His steps felt slow and heavy, and the bubbly stuff in his glass had never been to his liking. If he was going to drink, he preferred it to not be fizzy. But it was what it was. Nothing about this event would be good, not even if he tried to pretend it was. "Never been good at funerals or parties. But no matter where they serve it, champagne sucks." Small talk. Logan wasn't good at small talk either, and yet the words coming out of his mouth was boring and ridiculous bullshit. It was better than talking about the mess of thoughts and feelings he was currently trying to tackle down.

LAURA: Logan and Remy were, objectively, the two most important people in Laura’s life and they had both lost the person they loved. There were a lot of condolences but none of them really amounted to much. Logan and Remy knew that Laura was sorry for their loss. It went without saying. Light eyes moved from one man to the other, lingering on their glasses. “That may be on purpose. They said they’re going to try and do something.” Something, as in anything, to fix it.

PIETRO:  His azure hues slowly slide over to the the man he only vaguely knew as Alex Summers. On any other day he might be civil, if Wanda were there to shoot an unapproving look or nudge him with a quick jab of her elbow, he might find it in him to feign nice. Yet his mood is terribly sour and unfortunately the next words to tumble out of his mouth would be rude. “Was that supposed to be a joke?” He took another swig of his drink. “It was terrible.” He muttered. The only thing more miserable than the funeral was having to endure it in slow motion. As Crystalia approached, he was actually relatively pleased to see her. They’d only spent a short time together but he was far more fond of her than most. Though her serious tone immediately shook what little nerves he had left “Excuse me, Alex.” He nodded to the Summers brother and gently placed a hand at the small of Crys’ back, guiding her to a more secluded location. “What’s wrong?”

LANA: Even though she had been doing the mutant song and dance for a while now there were times when Lana still felt horribly out of place. She hadn’t really known any of the mutants who had died. She had been killed by Magneto once upon a time but now he was giving some kind of eulogy. What happened was @#$@# up. There was literally no way around it. Jean Grey was a name that carried weight in the mutant world but Lana had sat at her kitchen table and had dinner with her son. She had watched Nate play with his brother and very hesitantly joined in because even though babies scared Lana it was clear that Nate adored his brother. That’s why she was attending: for Nate. Her hand was tangled up in his metal one as they entered the room and looked around. “It’s really beautiful.” Her voice was quiet. “Thank you for letting me come with you. Nate, I’m...” she pursed her lips, head shaking. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

ILLYANA: “Not a good answer.” The blonde tapped Rahne on the top of the head. “I plan on raising hell. Seems more productive than crying, no?” Illyana was sad but she was also angry and it was easier to feed that wolf. She needed that to carry her through this.

TEDDY: Teddy let himself sink into her, nodding as she spoke. He took several deep breathes, trying to calm himself enough that he didn’t have a total meltdown right then and there. “I know.” he said. “I love you guys too. I just can’t believe this is still real. I keep thinking I’m gonna wake up from this shitty nightmare and he’ll be laying on the other side of the bed with his hair sticking up in fifteen directions asking me whats wrong.” he sniffled, trying to wipe his face and blink back watery vision. “But this is it. We can’t even bring him back.”

YOUNG JEAN: Funerals for Jean Grey were a dime a dozen. It felt wrong to see her name printed on the programs and spoken aloud, but Jean had to remind herself that she was alive and it was a different version of her who had died. Again. She had cried a decent amount over the entire thing but by the time Jean arrived her eyes were dry. Feeling out of place at her own funeral, Jean had eventually made her way over to Erik without even realizing it. “I miss her.” She admitted. “And I know you must miss them too. I’m sorry.”

ALEX: An eyeroll was the only response he could muster to Pietro’s clipped reply. Clearly, the woman ( one whom he vaguely recognized as part of the Inhuman royal family ) had something dire to discuss with Alex’s unwilling conversation partner. So the grieving Summers brother nodded at the duo, before watching them leave, as he remained behind - the back of his suit jacket dirtied by tree bark.

ORORO: Ororo had learned to control her emotions from a young age. A slip in the pendulum swinging too far one way or the next and the atmosphere could light ablaze. It was a heavy weight on her shoulders indeed, but in cases like this it helped her hold it together. The loss they’d suffered was deep, and it struck within their community for so many. She was filled with devastation and anger for the blatant attack on their people, yet she was also determined to get to the bottom of it. “Don’t mind him,” Ro said, approaching Alex. She’d just caught the tail end of the conversation. “Pietro’s never nice to anyone aside from his sister.” she glanced at the white haired young man as he walked away with the Inhuman girl, interest piqued at the nature of that relationship. “How are you holding up?” she asked Alex.

REMY: “W’at are we even burying.” he said bitterly, the anger and sadness a swirling blizzard inside of him. He really hated the taste of champagne and he hated that his tolerance was to a point that he was still bitterly sober and entirely tired of funerals. “Holding a funeral for nothin’ but ash.”

EMMA: Her nails were digging into his palm. It had to hurt but Scott hadn’t said anything so Emma had just kept at it, black filed points meeting flesh. Scott had been as dashing and heroic as ever ( he veered sharply between golden boy prince charming and too intense extremist ) and had not only carried her home but also called the physician she kept at the ready. It was a concussion. A bad one, exasperated by the rush of using her powers directly after. Rest, rest and no alcohol had been prescribed but here Emma was pounding back champagne after not sleeping for two days. “One would think, but I am so completely and utterly tired of this dreadful bullshit.” It wasn’t just the funeral she was referencing. It was this entire situation they were now trapped in. She downed the glass as well before pinching at her nose slightly, mouth scrunched. “Paradise is lost. They fooled us well, didn’t they, darling?”

RAHNE: Rahne flinched slightly as Illyana’s hand came in contact with her head. “Who said anythin’ about cryin’?” she protested, tone defiant despite the sniffle she couldn’t suppress. Swiping a sleeve of her black sweater over her eyes, Rahne glanced up at her friend, fearful but curious, “You know tha’s not really my speed, but I’m in. Wha’ever you need me t’do, just say it.”

CABLE: Was it beautiful? Up until this point, Nate hadn't really paid attention to anything around him. Once he heard Lana's comment he made an effort to take a good look around him, brows pinched together like he was concerned he would miss something important. After a few seconds he stopped, almost like the effort of taking it all in was too much effort right now. He didn't comment back about how nice the location was-- even though he agreed with her from what he saw-- and instead let out a sigh. He felt her hand in his and relaxed a bit, letting the physical contact connect and ground him to the moment. He was grateful Lana was here. He loved her for so many reasons and for a moment Nate focused on that feeling instead of the aching pain in his chest. "You're here with me." When he finally spoke, his voice was even quieter than hers. "That's enough. Thank you." For once, Nathan was wearing a nice suit-- not the body suit he stuck himself in practically everyday. It wasn't the first time he had dressed up, but this style still felt so foreign to him. He didn't feel like himself. His hair was even different-- devoid of it's usual spunk and instead laying flat against his forehead. The tuft of white was hidden underneath the brown but peaked out slightly when he ran a few fingers through it. "I want to go home and see Charlie. But then I remember she won't be there with him, and.." He shook his head. "Nothing feels real. I think it was easier when we were the ones who died, instead of them."

ALEX: Alex shifted slightly as Ororo approached, making room should she so choose to lean against the same tree. Despite the apprehension he felt at the moment toward being near anyone for fear of causing harm, Ororo’s presence was immediately much more comfortable - and he knew the woman had very few reasons to worry about Alex, so why should he worry in her stead? The question, while expected, caught him somewhat off guard and he stumbled to find an answer, “I- Holding up? Not sure what you mean by that.” His tone was light, humor masking hurt.

CRYSTALIA: Even though Inhumans tended to be low in the alcoholism field, Crystal could sense that he was drunk. You really only needed eyes to tell. His hand was on her back as guided the two towards a more secluded side. She had been nervous before but now it was intensifying. “You remember that we -- spent the night together, correct?” a pause. “Can you manage a conversation right now?”

KATE: “He really did have terrible hair.” Kate joked lightly even though they both knew it wasn’t true. “Look, the mutants are waving the white flag but for months they’ve been talking about this amazing island they’re building. My boyfriend’s a mutant. I can try and talk to him, see if he knows anything. I can’t believe they’d just quit like this.”

PIETRO: His brows furrowed deeply and he had to focus on her intensely to follow her words but he could manage. It helped she was speaking slowly in his perspective. “Yes—and yes.” he answered. “of course i remember, we had a lot of fun—did we not?” Despite the inebriation and absolute misery he still found room to be flirtatious. Some things never died.

ERIK: A soft look of surprise had glossed over him when Erik turned to Jean and realized it was her. He blinked quickly a few times, clearing the fog in his mind before he answered her. "I do." He replied with a nod. "I find myself questioning whether or not I have a right to miss them as everyone here is missing the people they care about. That's what comes with having a complicated relationship with grief. And with the people I am grieving." It never failed to surprise him how easy it was to be open with Jean. Even with their relationship currently in a less than ideal state, he trusted her. That never changed. And he was glad she was willing to speak to him. "How are you holding up, Jean?"

SCOTT: “It’s not their fault.” He defended automatically, even though he understood that Emma was attacking no one. At least, no one he should be defending. “We let our defenses down and we didn’t handle Osborn the way we should. We tried to be diplomatic. We tried to stave off war.” The anger was cold, numbing. “We should have killed him the minute he became president.”

CRYSTALIA: “Yes, we had a lot of fun.” Crystal couldn’t help the blush that flushed her cheeks. She had never looked good when blushing. It put her hair and face too close together in color. “We had a lot of fun and maybe not a lot of precaution? I haven’t been feeling well. With everything going on I haven’t been able to see you, and my doctors wanted to confirm it first.”

ORORO: Ororo crossed her arms and tilted her head at Alex “You lost people, I want to know how you’re doing.” she continued. Deflection was a go to for many of them, admittedly even for herself, but there was no sense in it at the moment. If he wished to talk she was tossing him a line.

ILLYANA: “Your tear ducts. Maybe.” She had cried alone and that was how Illyana preferred it. Rahne had always been more sensitive. Maybe it was all of the repressed Catholic guilt. “We are going to find a new speed. I’m accepting a mission tomorrow. I can’t sit here and be sad. When did you last talk to Dani?”

PIETRO: Pietro’s altered state of mind meant he was sloppy, not stupid—he was piecing it together, yet he was hoping what he was assuming and what she was saying were very different things. “At the risk of being terribly rude, could you please spit it out.” He felt a sharp rise in anxiety as the seconds ticked on. His eyes flashed down to her abdomen and then back to hers. “Are you saying you’re...” He trailed waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

LOGAN: "From what I gathered, there's no other something to be done." Logan scoffed, taking a large gulp of the horrible drink in his hand and making a face of disgust as he did. He turned to Remy. "You and I might not be fans of the funeral thing, but everyone else seems to need this. What did you expect them to do? Do nothing just because we don't have their bodies?" He was taking out his feelings on them, and even though he was aware of it, he couldn't stop it. It was easy to argue when he was pissed off and depressed.

EMMA: Her gaze was rock hard as Emma glared at the crowd for a moment. “I wanted to, lest you forget. I wanted to topple his whole empire the moment he violated me. They twisted my mind, humiliated me and then they had to take my children?” Emma hated the fact that her voice cracked. She turned to hide her face, the waiter she’d telepathically ordered to stay near delivering her another glass. “I don’t really care whose fault it is, Scott. Not at this point.”

CRYSTALIA: “I’m pregnant.” Crystalia blinked, finding no relief in her admission. “I’m pregnant.” There, she had said it twice. Still didn’t feel any better. “It’s so soon but the physician said it’s growing incredibly fast and that’s probably your fault. Not that they know it’s yours.” The fault  of the father, they had said. Her abdomen looked the same as always even though there was something apparently taking root inside. It terrified her. “I thought you should know.”

PIETRO: He blinked...several long, agonizing seconds ticked by and for the first time in three days his mind was not consumed with the loss of his sister. It was instead jolted into a stream of panicked thoughts. “They don’t know its mine because it could be someone else’s?” He asked quickly.

LAURA: As Remy began to wax poetic and Logan seemed to grow more pissed off Laura crossed her arms over her chest. The dress was scratching her skin and it nagged at the corner of her mind. Of course there were no bodies. They had been blown up. Neither Jean or Lorna’s children were orphans but Laura still felt the sharp bite of losing a mother. “Logan,” she turned to her father slightly. “How are you? Actually.”

ALEX: “I don’t know— not good that’s for sure,” Alex grinned, the expression not fully reaching his eyes. He and Lorna hadn’t been on the best of terms when they last spoke, so her death may have hit a bit harder than normal. Jean’s absence was also a punch in the gut. The two of them had grown closer over the past few months, and while she may have only been his sister-in-law, her loss felt like half of the wind had been stolen from his lungs. Truly, Alex was aimless — and very very unsure of how to articulate this to Ororo. “I- I don’t know what to do with myself.”

CRYSTALIA: Without thinking Crystalia opened her mouth. “You’re the only person I’ve ever been with, so that’s not it.” She had been with Johnny Storm but it had been puppy love. Inconsequential. It wasn’t a secret that she was a virgin but Crystal hadn’t mentioned it and now they were in the thick of it. “They don’t know it’s yours because I didn’t tell them. Medusa asked, but you’re a mutant. Magneto’s son. I’m Princess of Attilan. We’re not exactly on the  best of terms most days.”

RAHNE: Dani. Oh God— Dani. Rahne took a slow, deep breath as clawed nails dug into the palms of her hands, and the urge to sob subsided. A comfortable numbness arose in its place. “What kind of mission?” She asked, one dark brow raised in curiosity, “Could probably use a distraction’. Might be a good thing. For the both of us.”

LOGAN: I'm alone. Logan replied to his daughter in his head but managed to keep it to himself. His eyes darted over to where Scott and Emma were, and his jaw tensed, but he again managed to hold his tongue. Lifting his glass, Logan gulped down the rest of the champagne and found it still as disgusting as the last time. "How do you think I am?" His voice was lower this time. "She's gone. There's no bringin' her back. This is the part where I move on."

YOUNG JEAN: “I get that.” Jean sighed. “I mean, I was so determined to not go to the past I almost got Jean wiped from existence while pregnant. I was so intimidated by her and the idea of being Jean Grey, but I never wanted her dead.” Jean couldn’t really explain what she was feeling. “I know it’s been weird between us lately, but with all this death and stuff... would you want to maybe play chess sometime?” She glanced downwards, red hair slipping from its updo. “Fine, I guess. Debating if I need to raise my future son. How are you?”

PIETRO: Pietro opened his mouth to speak and for once no words came out. “—I—didn’t know that.” he finally managed. She certainly failed to mention that when they’d had sex and now he was more than mildly concerned he should have gone about the whole thing a bit differently. “Forgive me if I’m not up to speed on the politics, but what exactly is wrong with my being a mutant?” He asked. In the background, his brain was still trying to process the fact that she was pregnant and it was his.

ILLYANA: As they spoke one arm crossed over the other as Illyana surveyed the room. “I’m the Combat Captain of Krakoa. Scott’s the Commander but I’m giving him a week.” It seemed like a fitting time to mourn your dead wife. “You want to travel and check the Krakoan gates with me? It is far from exciting, but without Sage we need someone who can easily get to them all. There may be some humans congregating who need to be pushed back. That part could be fun.”

RAHNE: Rahne didn’t have to think — she just nodded, vigorously, red hair bouncing as she did so. “Absolutely. Count me in. Aye aye, Captain,” she punctuated her sentence with an awkward salute before a halfhearted grin crept onto her face. Maybe things would be okay after all.

CRYSTALIA: Crystal’s eyes drifted downwards as he spoke. “I know. I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I was happy.” Happy enough that she didn’t want to risk it turning sour. “I never told you that I’m royalty, so I apologize. I didn’t think that that ( sex ) would turn into this ( a baby ). A quick history lesson: Inhumans get our powers from Terrigen Mists. The Mists are poisonous to mutants. As in, kills them. There was a fight over that. One of your own also drowned me and took me hostage when he was possessed with the Phoenix. Our people don’t love one another.”

ILLYANA: “No, no. Don’t call me that.” Illyana shook her head. Rahne would slow her down but it looked like it was something she needed. Besides, they had been friends for a long time. “I wanted to go back to space but apparently the Majestrix wants to stay on Earth. We have to settle.”

ERIK: "Of course you didn't, I know." Erik was trying his hardest to be gentle with her-- especially on the topic of her choice to stay in the present. That event had sent their relationship spiraling again and he didn't wish to dig up their ill feelings. Erik hadn't wanted this Jean to leave, and he wanted her to be safe and happy, but it had been impossible to balance both. Once again, Jean was surprising him. At her chess suggestion, his expression softened dramatically to the point where he was practically smiling. "I would like that. Very much. It's a struggle to find a good partner to play with." Then his face shifted again. "Are you referring to young Charles? It's a tragedy that he is without his mother, but you must not burden yourself with that. You are young, you have your own life, Jean." Erik stopped himself, realizing he might sound a bit insensitive. If there was anyone who shouldn't give advice on how to properly raise kids, it was him. "I am.." How was he? He didn't have the words to describe it. "There is plenty to do, to keep busy. I will focus on that, and hope that things will be better in the future."

LANA: If she could have made it better, she would have. Lana hated feeling useless even if she did often and here was no different. “Of course I am. There’s nowhere else I’d even consider being.” He broke her out of jail and snapped the collar from her neck. How could she abandon him when his mother had died? Seeing him mourn his mom made Lana even more sad that her mother was shit and they’d never had any kind of positive relationship. Nate didn’t deserve this. Jean didn’t deserve this. If she could have swapped her mom for his Lana would have in a heartbeat. “He’s a part of her.” Lana reminded him. “And you are too. I’m glad you have Scott and Charlie and Rachel right now. I’m glad you’re not alone.” Nate needed people who could be there in a way that Lana couldn’t. She turned so that they were chest to chest, bodies close. “Maybe. But they hurt so much when you were gone.” That was the difference between them: Nate had people who missed him. Lana never would. “I didn’t know your mom well but Jean would not want a world without you in it. It doesn’t take a telepath to see how much she loved you.”

YOUNG JEAN: “I never really apologized. I know she knew, but I should have said it and now I never will. I should have let her know.” It had been eating at Jean. That guilt was overriding her previous anger at Erik for not siding with her.  She was here. In the future. Jean had a life and now it seemed so pointless to be holding onto past grudges over it all. When he agreed to a match Jean found she couldn’t smile even if she was relieved. There had to be at least one semblance of comfort or normalcy she could find. Scott had been perfect. He had been patient and gentle but Jean still wanted to scream. “I’m his mother. Technically, genetically, whatever. I don’t want him to not have a mom.” That being said, Jean was only a year over twenty. She had  a lot of lessons still to learn. “I just feel bad, that’s all. Charles keeps cooing when he sees me. It’s  like they had a psychic connection and he knows I’m a part of it.” Every time Jean saw a combination of her and Scott it was weird but it was  beginning to make her heart ache. Jean  had gained Erik’s trust by not reading his mind when she was able to but in this moment it wouldn’t have been necessary. “You’re sad. That’s okay. I am too. Erik,” Jean paused. “Is this really it? Is there nothing we can do?”

SCOTT: “We never learn our lesson, do we.” Scott turned to face Emma fully, his eyes tracing the lines of her face behind his glasses. “It’s our fault, Emma. It’s our fault that mutants walked into a building and didn’t walk back out. We sat idly by and let Osborn and his band of idiots terrorize us. The Avengers. Gen pop.” his mouth had settled into a hard line. “Nation-X wasn’t our proudest moment, but at least we didn’t just let mutants die.”

JULIAN: “I have a name, you know.” Julian said casually as he approached, a set of two glasses in one hand and a loner in the other. He handed one to Kate and then offered Teddy the other, as if he were expecting this conversation. “Take it. You look like you need it.” His eyes moved between the two of them, and for a moment, it seemed like he were debating what came next. “It’s not happening. We’re back to just dying like regular people. No resurrections guaranteed for anyone.”

RAHNE: “Settle how?” Rahne raised an eyebrow, ignoring Illyana’s protests to her unintentional nickname, “Of course they want to stay- cannae make anythin’ simple for us, can they.”

EMMA: There was a scoff, Emma’s lips poised right over the rim of her glass. “Great. Thank you, Scott. I truly needed that soul crushing guilt heaped on my head. It’s my fault then that darling Jeannie is dead? And Kate; my daughters as well? They were adults. Competent, powerful adults. You know this. We operated in the sphere that the Avengers and Council set for us. I would have lobotomized him a long time ago, but it was all we must bide our time, Emma, and we need to get him in the right spot.” Scott wasn’t the one she was angry at. Emma knew that. She just couldn’t keep the resentment from sneaking into her tone. “Yes, well, apparently it’s a fantasy to live in a world where you can be happy and effective. We picked the former this time around. Our mistake.”

TEDDY: “Yeah that much is pretty obvious, but uh—thanks for the reminder. Funeral wasn’t enough.” Teddy replied and debated on accepting the drink. After a moment he took it. Not that it would help but for once it was actually nice of Julian to actually think of someone other than himself or with the incentive of getting laid. But, then again, with Kate right there it was entirely possible he was putting up a good front for her sake.

ILLYANA: “In light of recent events I don’t really want to be in this solar system. So, yes. We’ll settle.” It would have been smart to ask Isabel if she wanted to come with them, but Illyana didn’t want her dead friends wife tagging along. It would ruin any attempts at trying to purge her anger to a more acceptable level. “Little Xandra wanted to reconnect with her father but Charles is missing. Seems pointless to me.”

JULIAN: “Figured the reminder was all around you, considering. Didn’t realize you came to the funeral to escape it all.” He nursed at his own drink, even if he really didn’t have a taste for it.

TEDDY: “Yeah it’s almost like everyones dressed in black and sad.” he said, sipping his own. How Kate managed to date the guy, Teddy would never understand. Julian might be cute from a distance but up close he was like someone threw Pietro and Tommy in the same body and set the asshole dial to 100. “Are you planning on being an ass to the rest of the people here in mourning or am I just special?”

SCOTT: He understood why it was more difficult for Emma to understand why Scott shouldered so much of the blame. Why he thought they all did. In fact, he only took the blame because he was Scott — he didn’t even have a seat on the council. “If we sat back instead of doing something and that resulted in death? Then yeah, it’s out fault.” he instinctively reached out to grab Emma’s hand. “This isn’t meant to make you feel guilty. You should be angry. Sad. That doesn’t change that we should’ve done more and we should have listened less.” But it was so easy to speak retroactively. Scott wasn’t even sure he would have been able to do something other than ordered. “We just do better next time.” the promise was there, even if he wasn’t sure if it were empty. “The mistake we made was believing we were safe in Krakoa.”

CABLE: There was almost no hesitation after Lana moved in front of him-- Nate let himself lean down and set his forehead down on hers. His eyes were closed, jaw tense. Everything was tense. It felt like he would crumble apart if he didn't try to physically hold himself together. It felt strange to admit that he knew his mother loved him. Part of the reason that fact was so easy for him to understand was because he had Madelyne to compare her to-- the woman who gave birth to him didn't care much for him. Jean had taken to him right away and it had been terrifying. But his parents were the reason he had stayed. "Before I got here, they had been doing fine. They had that old version of me. Sometimes I still wonder if they miss him more than they ever missed me." Nate was still holding on to a lot of the resentment and guilt surrounding that day. But it was done. There was no time traveling back to fix it-- too messy. "If I hadn't stayed, right now I would be somewhere and some time far away. Eventually I would learn she was gone but it wouldn't have hurt this much. Or maybe with me not being here it wouldn't have happened at all." He lifted his head, eyes still glued to Lana as he straightened up. He tried to smile. "But if I hadn't stayed, I wouldn't have gotten close to you. And leaving you here without ever getting to kiss me would have been so rude."

KATE: And just like that two worlds were colliding. Kate didn’t mix her boyfriend with her friends for the most part for reasons she found obvious even if they weren’t. America maybe but she was special. “That you do.” She accepted the drink, one arm reaching out to snake around Julian’s waist. Kate was in the middle of a sip when the tone began to shift and she tried to mask slightly choking on the champagne with a weak cough. “Let’s cut this before it goes any further. Teddy’s in mourning. I’m in mourning.” Kate pulled back to tilt her heads upward at Julian. “And we’re all being respectful of that. No one needs to be an ass.”

PIETRO: “That wouldn’t have ruined the moment.” He’d known Crystalia for a short time but he’d begun to care for her. In the past he bounced from fling to fling without thinking about it, but she captivated him in a way that he’d yet to experience before. After her explanation he had an oncoming headache that wasn’t from the ale. He’d somehow managed to not only impregnate her, but she was the princess of a group of people that clashed with mutants. What were the odds? Leave it to him to achieve the impossible. He tucked the information about Namor in the back of his mind and set the bottle down on the ground beside the tree, leaning against it with his shoulder. Pietro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This somehow didn’t feel real. “You said it was growing quickly—how quickly?” He couldn’t be all that surprised considering the nature of his abilities and the two of their genetics.

LAURA: He wasn’t alone, but it wasn’t the time to point that out. Even if the words didn’t leave his mouth Laura knew Logan. The two of them would always have that weight tying them to one another no matter how much they grew. And god, Laura had grown. She had grown only because she had clawed her way there one step at a time. “I think me trying to guess would just upset you more. It doesn’t seem right.” Laura took a step back, once again bringing Remy into the fold. She had just needed a second to check on her father before returning her attention to both. “It’s not the Krakoa they promised.” The Krakoa she had wanted to believe in but was so hesitant about because it was an inevitable powder keg. “Magneto and Moira haven’t said anything else?  They’re just folding?”

JULIAN: Julian’s dark eyes travelled down to meet Kate’s and he wanted to ignore the serious glint there, but he knew that would just end worse than some petty squabble with Kaplan’s (ex) boyfriend. Resigning into his glass, Julian shifted back into whatever casual indifference he’d arrived in. “Sorry for your loss.” it was about as close as Teddy would get to an olive branch.

ERIK: Erik let a stifled sigh, jaw tense, and looked away briefly before answering. "Being a part of that child's life does not mean you must take on the responsibility of raising him. It's very selfless of you to even consider it. But Jean-- you have your own life. Do not listen to anyone, not even me." His reply came with a shake of his head. Lately it felt as if he always had too much to say. Or not enough. His mind went almost painfully blank after that-- the whole emotions thing. Maybe he just wasn't built to feel things like everyone else did. He was sad. "I had my chances to be a parent. Many times. If I had the chance to go back and start it all over with my first daughter.. The point is, I shouldn't advise you on baby Charles. But I know you'll do the right thing." There was a pause as he shifted the conversation and cleared his throat. "I don't have an answer for you. But I can't say there isn't a one in a million chance at fixing things somewhere out there. There's always hope." Now he was starting to sound like Charles. Times had certainly changed.

RAHNE: “You’d think that’d be enough of a reason t’ go home,” Rahne shrugged. The presence of the Shi’ar was a truly unique course of events, and Rahne would be lying to herself if she said she’d prefer they stayed. But if Illyana had a way out of this - or at the very least, a way of distracting them from all this, Rahne was ready to leap ( for lack of a better term ) into action.

HANK: Henry had been keeping to himself by and large through all of this. Despite his enormous wealth knowledge and composure very little of that made things any easier. He had just lost one of his oldest friends once again and now Betsy, someone he had been hoping would one day be more than that. Someone he felt at ease around and respect greatly. Now he was just a mess. Fur going every which way from constant nervous picking he meandered aimlessly, with the rare sight of a drink in his hand. "Everything says alcohol is a depressant and does more harm to your emotional state in the long run, but for once I say nay to science. It's making things tolerable.

REMY: “What do you expect them to do?” Remy looked down into the flute and watched the inch of liquid swirl. “It’s out of their hands.” the sadness was thick and heavy in his voice. “Maybe we’re just no’ meant to be happy at the end of the day.”

EMMA: In moments like this they needed to band together, not fall apart. Emma knew that. She was a good businesswoman and an even better teacher. There were a lot of hats she had precariously balanced on blown out roots but in that moment she wanted to set each and every one on fire. No matter how hard her skin became or how unpenetrable her mind was, Emma was made of the same fragile, delicate bones as everyone else and she didn’t break well. For the most part she kept herself buttoned in. The death of Kate she could have stomached with grace. The death of her daughters she could have stomached with composure. In one blow - she knew she could have done more against - it was too much. When Scott reached out her hand danced past his own, first smoothing down a nonexistent flyaway and then grabbing a new flute of champagne. “War is a game of strategy. You pick the one most beneficial. There was no way to know Osborn would cross that line. But that isn’t supposed to make me feel guilty?” Again, a scoff. It was apparently the only sound she was capable of making. “I lost three daughters. Four, almost. We’re to do better next time?*  Next time, when they come  for my remaining two and your sons? I’m grieving. I don’t want to talk about next time. I’m not interested in this game right now.”

ALEX: Through the ebb and flow of conversations, Alex continued meandering around the perimeter of the funeral. As much as he talked about drinking, he was as sober as ever right now, and wow did that suck. But a large, blue figure caught his eye and he approached the other mutant warily, hands reaching out to steady his intoxicated friend, “Woah, hey— take it easy, big guy.”

SCOTT: The hard lines in Scott’s face didn’t soften. “I lost people too, Emma. I failed to keep them alive because I sat on my hands and let people talk. I should have let Nathan take off his head, and I carry that guilt with me. The mother of my child is dead. Again. I feel that, but I can’t be sad about it. I can’t raise my son into a world where his father sits idly by while a madman assassinates us. This isn’t a conversation for now, I agree. But I’m on your side, Emma. It’s fine if we don’t agree about the reality of the situation.”

STRANGE: The doctor walked the perimeter. Despite being invited he still felt that this wasn't his place. Dressed in a black suit and gloves - his hands were still a sensitive spot - he tried to not interfere in their mourning. They were a community, a family in both literal and figurative means. He was not a part of that. He was here because of the tragic loss of Wanda. His student and dear friend. If only he had better prepared her or done more maybe she'd be fine. It took everything he had not to astral project into the various lands of the dead to track her down and have on last chat, so for now, he nod and try not to make things too much about himself.

LOGAN: As Laura stepped a twang of guilt hit him and briefly, the tense lines on his face softened. But they reappeared quickly enough, and he let out another scoff after Remy was done. "And you think I'm a downer." He had been thinking the same thing, but up until then hadn't said it out loud. "He's got a point there. What else is there to do?"

HANK: "That's what I'm attempting to do, Alexander. Take it easy. What is more easy than drinking away travesty and devastation? Or would you prefer me to remain the stiff and ever composed professor?" He said, his tone starting to sharpen as his body shifted towards Alex, his fangs peeking out ever so slightly before catching himself and partially composing himself. "I'm... I apologize, Alex. That wasn't fair of me."

JIMMY: He wanted to say something. Be a part of the healing for everyone, but he just wasn't good enough. At empathy, at helping others, at anything. Besides, he felt at least partially responsible for all of this. He was being controlled by the enemy and hurt the people he called friends and family, so now here he was. In a ragged suit sitting in the grass away from everyone. He had never really felt much of a true member of the troop, but now with his original memories back and being involved in imprisoning some of them he felt he had little right. So here he would stay, alone and watching. Repressing his own grief and emotions until his next violent outburst.

CRYSTALIA: It was nice to know that on this side of things. Her nerves and anxieties had all been internal. After her rushed history lesson Crystal moved to the bench next to the tree and sat down, carefully arranging the folds of her black skirt around her. The dress was loose fitting. Even if she wasn’t showing the nausea was enough to dissuade her from anything tight. Pietro was processing. Crystal had to remind herself that she had sprung this on him at his twin sisters funeral. She hadn’t really understood how close they were, but it was still bad. If he was upset it wasn’t only aimed at her. So, instead of melting down internally, she just focused on breathing carefully. “I feel so stupid. Getting pregnant during the first -- we tried to be safe.” It was a halfhearted reassurance to herself. “We were together a week and a half ago. Roughly. My physicians said I was five weeks along. I told them that wasn’t possible.”

ALEX: Alex immediately took a step backward, letting go of Hank— er, Henry - sometimes his mind had a hard time differentiating between the two; for they were two entirely different people despite being the same person. One thing Alex always understood, more-so now than any other time in his life, was the importance of boundaries, and if he was pushing past the other mutant’s without thinking, maybe it was best to step back. Holding up both hands in a gesture of surrender, Alex was quick to apologize, “No, you’re right. People are grieving. There isn’t anything wrong with what you’re doing.”

LANA: Whenever they were close Lana always had to stand slightly on her toes to try and meet him in the middle. He always ended up bending down more but she liked to feel like she was contributing. For a moment Lana just stood there with Nate, breathing slowly and giving him a moment to try and process. If she was a telepath she would have had all the answers. Instead she felt clunky and unsure of what she could say that  wouldn’t be the wrong thing. “I don’t want to be rude, but wasn’t your mom dead before you came? And your dad kind of a terrorist? They may have had the older you, but life has been better since you’ve been here, Nate.” Lana wasn’t used to being the supporting type for such a long stretch. She wanted to toss in an expletive to alleviate the situation but it wouldn’t have helped. “I don’t have the answer for you. I’m going to tell you that they miss him but they love you. I’m not good at this whole family stuff, you know? There’s no way for you to know at this point. You’re here. You’ve been here. That’s been done, and the world is better for it. I’m not saying that because I like to kiss you. That’s only a tiny part of it.” As they moved apart Lana gave him a small smile. “You’re a saint, Nate Summers. Thanks for not leaving me in the lurch.”

YOUNGER JEAN: At his words Jean shook her head with a small chuckle. “I don’t listen to anyone. That’s why I’m still here and not hanging out in the past waiting to get blown up one day.” Too soon? Maybe, but it felt good to say. “Anya.” The name was spoken quietly. Jean had been in his head. Erik had shown her all of the tragedies that formed the mosaic of his history. She had cried for him then, but this time they were both in mourning. “I doubt Scott’s just going to let me take over baby care taking, but I don’t know. The last time I was around him and Jean was dead was the Nation-X mess. I haven’t heard stellar reviews of him as a dad.” Which was actually a little concerning since she was dating Scott again. Her heart sank at his words. Not a complete no but it wasn’t reassuring. “How could this have happened? I thought we had back-up plan after back-up plan.”

HANK: "I appreciate that but I've overstepped." He said making the conscious decision to pour out his drink onto the ground. "We've all been through a lot as of late and you aren't excluded from that. I was being insensitive of that."

ILLYANA: “I don’t get aliens.” Mutants, some. Demons, definitely. Humans most certainly not. Her eyes scanned the group that was milling about. Henry was looking drunk and talking to Alex. She wanted to prod the latter but with Beast there she would resist. Noticing Jimmy sitting alone, Illyana nodded her head once in a wordless invite before moving towards him. “Hey, lover boy. You look happy to be here.”

LAURA: Unsure of what exactly to say, Laura reached into her pocket to remove the metal flask she was hoping to avoid breaking out. “Stronger than champagne,” she offered up as she held it out to Logan. Remy seemed to be doing well with his own poison. “Do you believe that?” She asked Remy. “You used to tell me something different.” That was then. The days when Laura crawled out of her own skin and couldn’t find a way past the cemetery that had taken root in her mind. She could learn to be happy. It wasn’t decided for her. “I think you are both downers but it’s warranted. Today, at least. You loved them and now they’re gone.” In Logan’s case Jean wasn’t fully his to lose. Did that make it worse?

REMY: Remy watched Laura’s movements idly and uninvolved. It was hard to be present, when his mind kept reaching back into the moments before Lorna walked into that building. They’d talked about it and it hadn’t been a debate. He’d really had no opinion, just a mild curiosity. How incredibly ineffective he felt as someone Lorna was supposed to be able to depend on. “I’ve lost her twice.” Laura was not the shoulder Remy had even chosen to lean on. Usually, it was the other way around, him being the voice of reason, the one who always reminded Laura there was more to life than what had happened to her. Now, he wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. “Even with t’e promise of resurrection, I didn’t want to chance it. Too much uncertainty, no matter how many times t’ey brought people back. An’ now look. I’m having a hard time seein’ the positives here.”

CABLE: One shoulder lifted in a shrug. "Every family has their problems." She had a point. Things were a mess before he arrive. But they had also been a mess after he showed up and they were still a mess right now. The problem was figuring out which mess was the worst. Right now, Nate was sure that the answer was this mess. "Yeah. I'm sorry, I know this stuff isn't easy for you either. I don't.. I dunno, want to drudge anything up for you. One of us being miserable is enough." A single tear managed to escape and roll down his cheek, which he wiped away immediately with a huff of sad laughter. "That's what they call me: Saint Nate. I almost like that better than Cable. Or Bable which just.. no." Hopefully Wade wasn't spreading that nickname around.

EMMA: “Then mourn, Scott. Stop thinking about what we should have done. I love you.” There they were, words rarely spoken aloud and certainly never in public. It was uttered in the heat of the moment when their bodies were stuck together or when they were lying in the dark, shoulder to shoulder with the blackness allowing the words to float above them. Emma had said it in his minds hundreds of time, passing the thought from one to the other. They said it but only when it counted. Emma loving Scott was a private affair but her emotions were bleeding off of her now and she didn’t want to be coy. “I love you, and if you love me you will mourn with me right now. Your son is mourning too. Look at him,”  Emma turned to see Nate and the girl he kept toting around. “I can feel that he’s sad as well. He needs a father right now, not a tactician. And I need you. Can we smear the line in the sand for right now, darling? I don’t ask you for much.” Demanded maybe but never really asked.

LOGAN: Eyes moved to the flask being offered to him, lingered there, and then he took it from her. Laura had planned better than he had, it looked like. A secret stash of alcohol wasn't something he should be proud of her for though-- even if it was something he wish he would have thought of. "Stop trying then." Yup. The perfect solution: just stop. "There are no positives here. It'll be better for you in the long run if you just stop trying to look for that silver lining or whatever other crap you hope is there."

SCOTT: Scott lowered his head and rubbed his eyes from behind his glasses, a feeling he kept refusing to process rushing through him in a wave. He didn’t want to mourn. He didn’t want to sit here and cry and be sad like the rest of them. He wanted to figure out his next move and analyze his last ones. He wanted to know where he went wrong so this wouldn’t happen again. But then Emma kept speaking and Scott couldn’t help but look up and over at Nathan and then at her. He tried to focus on her. “We’ll figure it out, won’t we.” he tried to let the tension out of his shoulders. “You know I do, Emma. Love you. You just know it isn’t easy for me to just...feel all of this.”

LANA: Lana resisted the urge to snort. “You really don’t need to tell me that.” Not that what she and Lori had could even be considered family at this point. The last time they had seen each other the elder Bombshell had been attempting to abduct her daughter and force her into a life of crime once more. Lana had refrained from attending her sentencing or visiting her in prison. But this wasn’t about her, was it? “Am I doing that badly? I’m really afraid of @#$@# this up or saying the wrong thing. I want to make your life better, not worse.” Lana glanced down. “It’s not. Don’t worry. I’m not easily triggered. I accepted all the @#$@# with my mom a long time ago.”  It wasn’t totally a lie either. Even though he wiped the tear away Lana still reached up to brush his cheek. “Does it make you feel better to know that you look good while crying? I don’t, so I think hearing that would make me feel .0005% better.” Her nose scrunched. “Who the @#$@# calls you Bable?”

TEDDY: “Thanks.” Teddy said, it was about as genuine as Julian’s condolences. He offered a thankful smile to Kate and gently tapped her glass with his. He was more than grateful for her right now.

KATE: Glass connecting with Teddy’s, Kate flashed Julian a thankful smile. “Should we all have a toast? In honor of those we lost.” She felt shitty standing there with her boyfriend when Teddy’s had literally just died, but Kate needed Julian in that moment. “Thank you,” she mouthed to him.

ALEX: Alex’s inner frat boy cringed as the alcohol spilled out onto the grass, but he just as quickly acknowledged Henry’s apology, despite the self-deprecating goblin inside his brain furiously attempting to keep him from doing so. “Thanks- man. ‘preciate that.”

LAURA: “I’m disappointed.” Laura really did not want to be giving that kind of talk to her father and the man who was like family, but they were spiraling down fast. “Jean has died before, and you didn’t think you would get her back then but did. And you lost Lorna. In what world would they want you to decide that there was nothing to do but quit? After everything you have both told me about finding a reason to live and being better than the things that hurt us.” Laura shook her head, mouth a pursed thin line. “You are both better.”

RAHNE: An amused exhale was all she could muster as a reply. Illyana seemed lost in thought for a moment, which Rahne was never too quick to question, before her attention turned elsewhere and the red-headed mutant took the hint, following her as they approached Jimmy. Not wanting to pile too much onto the other she simply waved gently upon arrival.

JIMMY: "Lover boy?" Jimmy scoffed looking up at Illyana as his fingers traced through the grass before looking back at the crowd, notably to Jean then to his father and sister. "Who wouldn't be happy to be at a funeral?" He replied, voice laced with sarcasm.

HANK: "I know it sounds so selfish, but why did this have to happen now? Right as things were starting to show potential for she and I. Then all of this happens. Stars and garters I sound like a terrible person right now..."

JULIAN: He placed a soft kiss to the top of her head and then settled back, his drink still half full and he didn’t really plan on finishing it. Something about it felt weird at a funeral. “Why not.” he shuffled a bit on his feet. “Something you wanna say?” the question was directed at Teddy.

ALEX: Alex folded his arms across his chest, remaining a comfortable distance away from Henry, eyeing the older man with concern and an unsure sadness, “No, no- I understand,” Alex answered, genuine sympathy in his tone, “— and don’t worry, I won’t ask. But I’m so sorry, Henry.”

HANK: "Thank you, Alexander. No matter what everyone else says, you're decent." He said in his drunken wisdom trying to sound endearing.

REMY: Remy just looked at her for a long moment, and then the corners of his lips lifted into a smile. Albeit a sad one. “So we have taught you somethin’ then, non? Here I thought it was all in one ear out the other.” He took a breath, inhaling deep. “I don’ think the dead care what we do at this point, Laura.”

ILLYANA: “I couldn’t remember your name,” Illyana glanced down at him before closing one eye in thought. “Jimmy.” She noticed the way his gaze moved and made a note of it all. Ex-girlfriend, father and sister but still he sat alone. Three of Illyana’s closest friends had died and her brother was either drunk or painting on a beach somewhere. A recent mission behind the Russian portal had scarred him in a way she had yet to figure out. Then again, she’d also been busy. Maybe Illyana hadn’t been the best sister as of late but they had both become wrapped up in their roles. “A sadist, maybe. I never cared about funerals but this one is different. They have not caught Mesmero, have they?”

ALEX: Alex blinked, caught off guard, “Oh uh- thanks? I think?” Did people seriously not like him that much? Although it didn’t come as much of a surprise, the revelation still stung. “I think you better sit down,” he continued, changing the subject as he attempted to usher the large blue man to a nearby chair.

TEDDY: Admittedly there was a pang of envy at their display of affection—it made him ache for things he’d lost but he wouldn’t wish this on anyone. He was glad Kate had Julian right now, even if he was an ass. Teddy sighed some, and slightly raised his glass. He knew Billy wouldn’t want him to be sad, even if that wasn’t possible right now. He wasn’t really in the state of mind to give a grand speech, but he could muster something. “To those we lost and ...to those we still have. May we cherish them a little more for it.”

JIMMY: "Yeah that makes more sense." He said as he brought his attention back up to Illyana. "Yup." He replied with a small nod as she got his name right. He was pretty sure they had never actually spoken in this world or his. As far as he knew in his world Piotr didn't have any family other than his boyfriend. "Right. Sorry 'bout that." He said somewhat awkwardly giving her a sympathetic nod. She lost a lot more than he had. "Nah." He responded rather gruffly as he unintentionally ripped some grass from the sod. "Lost his scent too. I'll find him though..."

EMMA: Even before he spoke Emma knew Scott’s answer. She just wanted to see his lips moving and hear his voice when he agreed with her. Emma couldn’t wallow for long. It had never been something that she was good at. This seemed to warrant it though. On this day she was willing to let up on being the White Queen and just be a person who tilted her head upwards to blink back tears even though people could see. It was now that she took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before kissing his cheek. “You and I, Scott? We always figure it out. We just need a moment right now.” Her body remained close to his, his warmth heating the icy numbness that she had been wrapped up in. “I’m made of diamond. Rock hard and able to block out emotions.” Emma raised her hand, letting the stone coat the skin. Diamond was easy. She was stronger even if her telepathy was blocked out. When it returned to normal Emma patted Scott’s cheek twice before reclaiming another flute. “God, I hate everything about this no matter how tasteful the decorations are. Have you spoken with Nathan?”

RAHNE: Illyana appeared to have struck up a conversation with Jimmy, and Rahne didn’t feel she had much to contribute, so the redhead nodded politely to the duo before vaguely gesturing that she was going to leave; a solo training session as a feeble attempt to relieve some pent up emotion seemed much more appealing than additional aimless mingling anyway.

KATE: As he finished his speech Kate reached out to squeeze Teddy’s arm with her free hand. “May we never forget them and love them always.” Taking another sip from the champagne, the bubbles fizzed on her tongue before she swallowed the sparkling drink. “I honestly still can’t believe it. The fact that Wanda and Billy were there too? I wish I could shoot something.”

PIETRO: Pietro moved to sit beside her. He leaned back on the bench and fell quiet for a long stretch— or what felt like it anyhow. There were a million things running through his mind—he hadn’t the faintest clue on how to be a father or that he’d even be a decent one at that. He’d spent the entirety of his life looking after Wanda, yet Wanda was also a fully developed person that didn’t need him and had proved that on more than one occasion. This was entirely different. He wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or something else, but some how he wasn’t entirely terrified. “Well, I do have super speed...” he mused more to himself. “As you said I’m mutant and you’re inhuman, I cant entirely say I’m surprised.” a beat. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

ILLYANA: Deciding against sitting in the grass, Illyana just crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded him in half interest. The moment she had heard what had happened Illyana had sat still and stared. For an hour she sat there and tried to control the demon in her to resist the urge to bitchslap Osborn to hell. After Emma’s work it would have been far less satisfactory but it was still tempting. “I don’t want your apologies.” Everyone was sorry. There was no reason to keep saying it. “Looks like you need help. Emma was after him too but she’s preoccupied now.  They killed three of her clone spawn.”

LAURA: “I was angry, not stupid.” Laura arched a brow. She still was, it was just more manageable now. “People say that to feel better when people die. It keeps them going. Did it not help?”

SCOTT: A moment right now. It was the standing idly by that just wasn’t cutting for him. And Scott didn’t want to take anymore moments. Still, he stayed where he was, both physically and metaphorically, and tried to ease in the comfort Emma was offering. Looking over at Nathan again at her question, Scott shook his head. “Haven’t had the chance. It all happened so suddenly and we didn’t find out about Eve and Hope until recently.”

HANK: "No need to thank me, it's the least I can do." He said with a nod as Alex tried guiding him to a seat he followed but protested. "My balance is still likely superior to the vast majority of people on the planet even while I'm inebriated.

CRYSTALIA: “And super speed equates to super fast sperm?” Crystal couldn’t hide the disbelief in her voice. No matter how skeptical she wanted to be that fast sperm had somehow impregnated her and now they had some strange child rapidly growing inside of her. “A mutant/Inhuman hybrid. That doesn’t even exist.” Crystal’s gaze was aimed at her lap where she fiddled with her fingers. It was easier to look there than her now baby daddy. “I’m keeping it.” It was the first time she had admitted it out loud. Crystalia had brushed her doctors off and promised more information. It was assumed she’d keep it by the Inhumans but the mother to be had yet to actually confirm it. “I want it. And, if you want, you can be in its life too.”

JIMMY:  "Fair 'nuff. No more apologies." He said with a nod. He got it. He had gotten sick of people apologizing and wanting to coddle him soon after he got back here. "Yeah..." He said trailing off as she brought up Emma. "Can't even ask her to help after all of that..." He said before processing what she meant and raising an eyebrow at her. "You interested?"

EMMA: “There’s time. But Scott,” Emma paused. “He needs his father. Now more than ever.” She had seen what kind of father he could be. It was a far cry from the man who wore yellow gloves over his suit to cook. The man who had family dinners with an adoring ( and now dead ) wife. Emma was the fantasy, the other women. She loved teaching but loathed children at most ages. At one point she had debated telepathically making a surgeon give her a hysterectomy without medical cause, but in the end had decided against it. She loved her daughters and she loved the fact that she didn’t have to give birth even more. Setting down her most recent glass, Emma took a half step before pausing and steadying herself on her heels. “I’m intoxicated,” she stated. “And I’m exhausted. I think I would like to continue my mourning from my couch with my own bourbon.”

ALEX: Alex shook his head, but pulled out a seat for the other anyway, before taking a seat at the empty table himself. “Just— humor me, dude,” at least here he still had a good vantage point of the group.

ILLYANA: Lip quirking to the side, Illyana shrugged. “They’re already overplayed.” Nothing anyone said would make Illyana miss her friends any less. They said sorry and then she was just sad and angry. She hadn’t really been offering but she also wasn’t opposed. “I have something I need to do first. I agreed to check Krakoan gates, but you could always start there. I’m a good person to get around with.”

JIMMY: "Getting around with you doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world." He said rising to his feet this time, not noticing the potential innuendo in his phrasing. "Fine. I need to be busy, I need to hurt someone. I need to hurt him. Let me know when and where."

SCOTT: “I know.” It was automatic, but he also understood. Now, more than ever, he needed to be there for his family, he just didn’t know how to be a father without Jean there to be a mother. At her declaration, Scott nodded. “Yeah. I think it’s time to get out of here.” Scott out his hand for her, expecting most, if not all of her weight to fall against him and he would welcome it. Despite Emma’s icy demeanor, he always found a warmth in her presence.

ILLYANA: At his words Illyana’s eyes rolled, vaguely amused by the verbal misstep. “Rahnne wants to come with me but I doubt she’ll last long. We have gates all over the world and monitoring them is more difficult than before. You can come with me as long as you aren’t a distraction or slow me down. And when the time comes,” Incisors peeked out of her smile. “I’m going to hurt him too.”

JIMMY: "So long as she won't cause a distraction, I've got no problems." He let out a small laugh at her last comment. "Can't complain to that." He said with a smirk. "Promise won't slow you down. If he's within a couple miles I'll know."

PIETRO: Something between and snort and a choke escaped him—he cracked half a smile for the first time in days and draped an arm around her. “Sure, something like that.” he hadn’t been suggesting she get rid of the child but he wanted whatever decision she made to be hers. “I’ll be here if you’d like me to be.” he found himself saying, then his gaze drifted to her abdomen—strange to think life was growing in there. “Do you need anything?” he asked. Was she sick? terrified? upset? Insane to think they barely knew each other, had sex one time, which he was now discovering her only time, and now a baby was involved.

ILLYANA: “She’s small and occasionally furry. Cute.” Also a bit emotional but that was neither here nor there. “I leave tomorrow. Get your knapsack or whatever you carry.” Illyana took a few steps back, gold beginning to glow around her feet. “I *will* leave without you.” And just like that, she was gone.

CRYSTALIA: When his arm made its way around her shoulder Crystal sagged against him gratefully. She was tired. Her body hurt and the nausea sucked. She remembered when Medusa had been pregnant with Ahura and her mood swings. Crystal had always been more hot and cold than her level headed sister. That in itself was concerning. “You’re its father.” Her head had somehow moved to rest on his shoulder. “I lost my father. My mother too. I want this baby to have every chance.” Feeling his gaze, Crystalia moved her hand to let it rest over where the baby was nestled inside of her. “At this moment? No. I’ve already taken too much of your time. But I will later. I’d like to meet again soon. Maybe you shouldn’t come to New Attilan yet, but I wanted a second opinion. I could meet with an Avengers doctor and you could come.” If the freak baby continued to grow they could most likely get an ultrasound to see it. “Thank you,” she sighed. “I’m terrified, but this helped.” With that she stood, kissing him on his cheek before whistling slightly. A second later Lockjaw materialized, the giant dog panting as she quickly pet his face. “Try and drink water. It’ll help with your hangover.”  With one last smile Lockjaw and the Inhuman vanished.

EMMA: There was a strange sense of relief at Scott’s words. Emma took his hand and allowed herself to lean against him. She could easily hold her weight even if she was a little unsteady but his broad form felt solid against her arm. In that moment, it was more needed than Emma wanted to admit. They would strategize soon. Scott accommodated her form of grief so she would work with him through his. Eager to get home so that she could cry without the sharp burn of overpriced mascara, the blonde cast one last look around the funeral before teetering with Scott to the waiting Krakoan gate. There were no cemeteries on Krakoa. They left the funeral but they carried their dead with them. Dead, gone and not coming back. What a dreadful thought to end a dreadful night.

[selinaneveahcrystal]

Going Home—Part 3

Prompt from: @simbagirl15 Marcos and Lorna feel the baby move for the first time + discuss about the family that threw him out+ the fact that Marcos said that his family was not so much his family (so I presumed that he must have had someone he missed back home/loved dearly)

Credits to: @wereallmisfts for giving me the biggest idea about Aurora’s powers and the partial reason why Lorna can feel her baby in her tummy. So I went along the line that Aurora has powers similar to Lorna, but more specific and super fine tuned that it senses automatically the electro magnetic aura of individuals and objects and she manifests them in the form of coloured lights that are quite similar to the Aurora Borealis. But because the electro magnetism of an individual is suceptible to change because of emotions, Aurora’s ability also likes in being able to change the electromagnetic auras of an individual, which in turn affect their emotions. Something like an empath. She cans till control metal, but mildly and not as effective as Lorna because her powers lie in the more fine tuned aspects of electromagneticism. So the pros is she can cause widespread empathic situations to occur but cons is she only affects metal very vaguely. That means she can bend metal, but she can’t shape it like Magneto and Polaris can, because her power is too specific.

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2

“Lorna Dane. Lorna Diaz-Dane.” A flicker of recognition seeps into the old man’s eyes as he hears her last name. “I am the wife of your son.” She prodded his chest angrily. “And you’re nothing but a fool!” Marcos jerked her back as his father swung a fist angrily in her direction, snapping his body forward and shielding her from the blow. The shriek that fell from her mouth woke her daughter, who wailed at her interrupted slumber.

“You!” Lorna hissed angrily, one hand comforting her young child, and she swiftly pinned the large Man by his belt to the wall. “I should kill you for hitting Marcos!” She shrieked as her daughter wailed in her arms.

“Lorna!” Marcos gripped her hand tightly just as the metal chains tightened almost unbearably around the old hulking man’s throat. “Forget it! You’re scaring Aurora.” Lorna snapped to attention immediately at the mention of her daughter, and her eyes fell to her little daughter, who wailed her lungs out, little hands fisted in her shirt, tears running down her tiny face as she lost control of her powers in her distress.

Marcos and Lorna glanced at each other in alarm as the glimmering black and red lights rose slowly from their daughter’s body, and then exploded into the air, almost blanketing the entire neighbourhood.

Aurora screamed half in anger and half in terror as she clung to Lorna, her empathic powers twisting all of their emotions to rage filled ones, her intense fear and rage taking precedence over all over emotions.

“What…” Marcos watched with horror as his brother and sister cowered in a corner, their own feelings a messed up jumble of emotions. Aurora hadn’t intended to impact them, she was simply lashing out in accordance to her fear and the feedback she got from her mother’s anger.

“Lorna! You have to calm her down!” He hollered over the sudden cacophony of angry shouts as everyone in the neighborhood reacted instinctively on the rage and anger Aurora had pulled out and amplified. Fists beating flesh sounded close to their ears, and screams of pain and distress welled from almost every corner and every direction.

It only served to increase Aurora’s fear and anger, and soon screams of terror filled the air as Lorna tried to calm down her little baby, almost to no avail. Aurora quieted slightly, still sniffling momentarily as she clung to her mother almost desperately. The black red lights sparked, then dimmed to almost nothing before it resumed it’s regular purplish green hue, pretty and sparkling, as Marcos cupped some broken glass in his hands and gave his daughter a mini light show.

Aurora reached curiously for the broken glass, and Lorna snatched her hand just centimeters away from the shattered fragments, exhaling slightly in relief. Her daughter turned to her curiously for a moment before becoming content with stuffing her fingers in her mouth like all babies should, and Lorna glanced at Marcos worriedly.

“We should leave. The Sentinel Services probably would have heard of this by now.”

“See what you did here? Bringing a freak lady and freak child to my house and causing all this—” The old man didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Marcos tore his blazing fists into him, without remorse.

“You can say anything you’d like about me, but the line draws where you insult my family. My wife, my child.” The pudgy old man coughed, blood spurting from the mess of a broken nose and teeth, his face sporting some serious burns. “At the very least, I’m glad you disowned me, because I found my true family after that.” He turned towards his younger siblings. “Of course, with an exclusion of you two.” Marcos said quietly. “You’d always be my younger brother and sister. And we’ll welcome visits if you’d want to.” He smiled tentatively as the twins brightened.

“Yes!” Eliana threw her arms around Marcos before planting a kiss on Lorna’s cheek affectionately. Her fingers gently touched the chubby cheeks of her niece.

“She’s beautiful.” Lorna watched quietly with a smile as Eliana’s face widened into an adoring smile at the little girl in her arms.

“Well, she’s half of your brother.” Lorna chuckled. “So of course she’d be beautiful.” A tender smile crossed her lips.

“¡No! Eliana, tú y tu hermano no pueden visitar a Marcos, ¿entendido? ¡No lo puedo permitir!” Lorna growled as the old man interrupted them again, and she felt her daughter’s fear peak as he stalked forward, as though about to hit Eliana.

“Eliana! We’re leaving!” All head whipped around to the long forgotten Gabríel, who tossed a filled bag at his sister, a scowl on his face.

“What?” The teen stalked forward, almost boiling with anger as he walked past his father to stand next to Marcos.

“Are you deaf or you purposely didn’t hear me? Do I need to translate to Spanish for you to understand? ¡Nos vamos! ¡No nos quedaremos! ¡Vamos con Marcos!” There was almost a violent tone to his vehement voice.

“You cannot leave these premises—”

“Oh yeah? Try me. We’re nineteen, way past the legal age to make a living outside without your help, thank you very much.” Gabriel snapped. “I will not have you insult El hermano and his child in front of me no longer! Puedes negarme todo lo que me importa, ¡todavía voy con Marcos!” Lorna stared, slightly stunned as the older twin grabbed Eliana’s hand and dragged her out of the compound. “I packed your stuff for you already–”

“You went through my stuff? Gabriel you—” Their squibbling voices echoed from the front gate.

“Hey! You coming or not?” Marcos stared after his younger siblings with a brighter twinkle in his eyes, and Lorna slipped her hand into his.

“Well, who knew?” She teased, still bouncing their daughter slightly on her hip. “I told you they’d want you back. They love you too much not to care.” She murmured. “Let’s go.” She pulled a stupefied Marcos forward with a chuckle, and waved her hand, barring the gates with reinforced steel as the hulking man started after them.

“You’re not following us.” She glared back at the man her husband used to call father. “I’m never having you and your poisonous air near my child ever again.” The metal gates bent inwards threateningly, pointing their sharpened heads at the old man, before both Lorna and Marcos disappeared down the drive, with two extra teens in tow.

~~~~

¡No! Eliana, tú y tu hermano no pueden visitar a Marcos, ¿entendido? ¡No lo puedo permitir! : No! Eliana, you and your brother will not visit Marcos, understand? I do not allow it!

¡Nos vamos! ¡No nos quedaremos! ¡Vamos con Marcos! : We’re leaving! We’re not staying! We’re leaving with Marcos!

Puedes negarme todo lo que me importa, ¡todavía voy con Marcos! : You can disown me for all I care, but I’m still leaving with Marcos!

And yes. I used Google Translate for Spanish so it’s trash. :p

@eclipsepolarisxauroraborealis

And we’re done with this prompt! Hope it meets expectations. Again xD I actually wrote this while at work so 😂😂😂

[god-hunter]

X-Men: Gold #8

This issue focussed on a home battle and side-stepped the event entirely.  Which I suppose was a smart move considering what this book is doing.  But if I’m honest, one of my favorite parts of last issue was seeing Logan and Storm battle against some demons.

So lets get to it.  Last we checked, Colossus can’t metal up any more and he just got shot in the head!

[SPOILERS]

This issue gets right into it.

“PETER!” Rachel shouts as she uses her tele-kinetic powers so well that she actually manages to freeze the bullet in place.

“This is yours...” she chucks it back to The Executioner.  His mask protects him, and the fight continues between Kitty, Rachel and Peter who just narrowly escaped death.

Meanwhile, Santo, the stone guy and Dust bring up their barrel bomb problem to Kitty. (Either over coms or telekinetics.  I can’t tell.)

Rachel goes unconscious and Kitty decides to retreat to the other room, Phasing all 3 of them right through the ceiling in a pretty cool way.

Meanwhile, we get a bit more of Logan, Nightcrawler and Storm in the city. So I shouldn’t have complained before.  They all rescue Nightcrawler from the angry civilians.  I was surprised to see no flashbacks here.  Kurt got beaten pretty bad though.  He says something interesting when Logan says he has no idea how they didn’t kill him.

“But they did kill me, main freund.  But because I escaped from Heaven... Heaven wouldn’t let me back in.”

There’s some long-term continuity there, regarding Nightcrawler’s resurrection a couple of years ago, which I skipped out on.  He had a solo comic where this happened.  But the notion that Heaven wouldn’t let him back in...

Is he being metaphoric, or is he vaguely telling us that he’s actually immortal here.  Or should I say eternal.  That he can get beaten down to shit, but he won’t actually.. die anymore.

Who knows...

Back to the bomb.  The new plan is to get everyone out of the mansion.  No word on where Executioner is right now...  They just got everyone out within a panel...

Meanwhile, in Russia something new is going down.  It looks like The Hand is doing business with Russian weapons dealers or something.  Not sure if that’s a giant missile that they grabbed, but they’re very private about why they want it. “...For the remains of Arkady Rossovich.”  [Is it a... coffin??]

Anyway, back at the mansion, we find that Executioner is starting to beat up Pixie.  Kitty grabbed a sword on the way to the room he’s in and re-engaged him in battle.

They have a pretty good fight.  He uses a power dampener, and the stakes are even.  She knocks off his face plate, and he pulls out a gun at point blank range.  All she has now is her strength and her wits.

She appeals to him that they are not evil.

“Tell that to my Wife and son. ...you can’t. Because they’re dead.”

[I KNEW it!  This was the same guy from that flashback who lost his family thanks to Magneto.

“How many “evil mutants” have you fought?   How many times have you saved the World, but never bothered to ask about the people lost to collateral damage?”

He asks.  She admits fault.  But then she points it back at him.  What they’ve done in the past was negligent and not on purpose.  What he’s doing right now is intentional.  “Which makes you more evil than I’ll ever be.  If you’re good with that... If you think your Wife and Son would be good with that... Pull the trigger.”

He pauses, then fires.

Peter runs in at just the right time though and gets shot in the shoulder.

Then Stone guy Santa comes in with a big win.

“Next time... Let the guy made of rocks dive in front of the bullet.”

After bashing him across the head, they grab his detonator and save the mansion.

Then we’re taken to ‘Days Later’.  The caption tells us that Manhattan has been freed from the Darkforce Dimension.

So much for their tie-in, but it was okay, I guess.

Back to business as usual.

Executioner is taken away from their Mansion by a Detective Mahoney.

Then a Congressional Staffer known as Zully Garcia walks up to Kitty and asks her if she wants an opportunity to testify before Congressman Zelman’s subcommittee concerning H.R. 372.

Kitty is handed an envelope and she has no idea what she’s talking about.

“What’s H.R. 372?”

“It’s a bill currently pending in the house.  It’s called the “Mutant Deportation Act.”

-End Issue 8-

Damn!

Well, back to business as usual, which has still been a pretty thrilling ride.

Kitty’s gonna go to D.C next time and find out what all this is about.  I wonder what else will happen and what other mutants will be involved.  Not for nothing, but a lot of this is starting to feel like the Road to Civil War I.  But who knows?

Curious about X-Men: Gold #9

[itsworn]

1931 Ford Roadster Packs ARDUN V-8 Power

You could say that Bobby Hilton has reinvented the Model A Ford. His angry-looking A/V-8 coupes are seriously chopped and dropped, and they’re running vintage OHV V-8s (but not Chevys) with open headers. Hoods and fenders? Radials? Forget ’em. Big ’n’ little bias-plies, honey-finished interior wood, minimal chrome, and exceptional paint finish them off. Hilton’s hot rods ooze attitude. You can’t miss them—and they beg to be driven. Bobby and his clients think nothing of boogying from his shop in The Plains, Virginia, all the way to Austin for the Lonestar Round Up.

First time they did that, it rained like crazy, but all four of Hilton’s hoodless, fenderless coupes just hammered along. Nothing broke, and in Bobby’s words, “We flat had a ball, man.” An ex-drag racer whose wife Diane’s parents are famous drag racers Jim and Allison Lee, Bobby is down-home southern, through and through. His syrupy Virginia accent is sprinkled with jazz slang. He does most of the work on his cars himself, in a tiny shop that’s tucked away in a posh equestrian park. Don’t look for a fancy garage with matching tools. That’s not happening. Bobby has an artist’s keen eye for aesthetics, a drag racer’s can-do attitude, and the hands-on skills of a crew chief who knows how to do things right.

Bobby achieved national recognition when he built a chopped Model A coupe for Tony Lombardi of Ross Racing Engines, in Niles, Ohio. It was a Hilton-style car, for sure, but done with a bigger budget that permitted little more chrome and a lot better paint. Perched on Deuce ’rails, hoodless, and packing a 400-cid stroker Olds V-8 with a polished 4-71 blower, Lombardi’s Model A was selected as the Goodguys 2014 Hot Rod of the Year in Indianapolis.

“That whole Goodguys thing was the best,” Bobby grins. “And I had never even been to a Goodguys event before.”

Ask Bobby Hilton how he defines one of his cars and the answer is immediate. “It’s got to look pissed off.” His cars don’t have hoods. They don’t have fenders. The big V-8 motors are souped to the gills, and very nicely detailed. They’ve got that 4-1/4-inch chop and that sneaky little sunvisor. They are Model As with an attitude.

“Maybe I painted myself into that corner with these Model As,” Bobby admits, “but right now, I think it’s a good corner. I like them slammed in the front, man. They have flat front crossmembers. Put them down on the ground in the back, make the wheels follow the wheel. Put 7.50s, 4.50s on old steel wheels, get a nice rake going. They’ve got to have a vintage motor, and I like to keep real Ford parts on them. I try not to use a lot of aftermarket stuff in the suspension.”

Bobby’s a good mechanic because he had to be one from the outset. “I was raised at a time in drag racing where you were damn lucky if you had a professionally built chassis. Later on, Woody Gilmore built some cars for us. But I was working on race cars when I was 13. We did it all, man, from A to Z.” And he still does.

“We’ve been building those cowl steering boxes ourselves, in-house. That’s a big part of the look. They are F-100 truck boxes. We’re modifying the sectors on ’em and creating a center steer box, similar to a Schroeder setup, but more true to hot rods instead of being a racing box. Every one of my cars has one. I put a center steering setup in my son Tyler’s car 10 years ago. It’s not brain science. It’s got a lot of racing background in it. Plus, it makes it damn simple to get the steering around these vintage motors. Typically, they have the starter on that left side; they’ve got some big filter or something else going on. You wouldn’t be able to get a steering column in them if you wanted to.”

For a guy who’s admittedly not an engineer, Bobby is an intuitive technician with some ingenious solutions that don’t break the bank and work really well.

More builds and even more exposure followed the success at Goodguys. Bobby has a suite of 1932 Ford chassis modifications he likes. He uses original Ford parts wherever possible. Hilton’s “Angry A’s” are immediately recognizable with their fully exposed, 4-71 blown, OHV V-8 motors from Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac, and Chrysler, flowing outside headers using reworked 1936 Ford driveshafts, flattened X-members, kicked-up 1932 Ford frames, Buick finned brake drums, 5-inch handmade dropped axles, and TREMEC five-speeds. Hilton Hot Rods’ Model As sit right and run like crazy.

But they’ve all been coupes.

A couple of years ago, Bobby told me, “If I had my grand plan of the world, I’d want to put a roadster of mine in the AMBR. I don’t have to win. I just want to get in line. I’ve wanted to build an East Coast, channeled-style roadster, with Tony’s motor and Travis’ paint. We could build such a cool car, man. Maybe do like an old-style 303 0lds with a LaSalle transmission and a chrome banjo … something to really make it pop. That AMBR thing is due for an East Coast–style car anyhow.”

So here we are … with just a few things changed.

Bobby Hilton’s AMBR contender, owned by Ray Enos, Sacramento, California, is a 1930-1931 Model A roadster with a Brookville steel body on a seriously Z’d 1932 Ford frame. It started with elegant renderings by Eric Black (eBDCo) in Portland. But take a closer look. This car will fool you. The body has been treated to what Bobby calls an “anti-section,” meaning a 1-1/2-inch strip of steel has been discretely added all around the lower perimeter. So the body now has more depth, like a 1932 Ford, but it still retains that classic upright Model A tight shape and early style stance. The 18-inch wheels perfectly follow the rear wheelwell’s radius. Bobby calls it “a wannabe Deuce,” adding, “when you put a Model A body on 1932 ’rails, it looks squatty. We released it, kinda raised it up for a little more girth.” You know something’s been changed here, and you like the proportions, but just what’s different is not immediately apparent.

About that engine … it’s not an Olds Rocket as Bobby once imagined, it’s a Ross Racing Engines–built 294-cid  (3.315×4.25 inches) ARDUN V-8. The block and ARDUN heads are from Don Ferguson, famous for his modern reinterpretation of the classic Zora ARkus-DUNtov overhead valve cylinder heads. Tony Lombardi finished the block externally and performed all the internal machine work. There are custom billet pistons and a custom flat-tappet camshaft. That super trick finned Scintilla magneto is from an airplane engine that’s been converted to HEI. “We left the fan off,” Bobby says, “so you can see it, but it doesn’t overheat anyway.”

There are no mufflers, not even tailpipes, and the sleek four-into-one headers exit just before the doors. “It’s a hot rod, man,” Bobby says, “you don’t need mufflers.” The ARDUN makes a deep throaty racket, and it sounds like a Bonneville racer.

The fuel injection system, with its eight individual housings and tall chromed stacks, was adapted from a 331-cid Chrysler Hemi mechanical setup, and meticulously converted to EFI with high-pressure injectors, to run electronically. There are no visible fuel rails or anything modern. All the ports are matched. Tony Lombardi says it dyno’d at 322 bhp and 340 lb-ft of torque. That’s impressive from a naturally aspirated “flathead.” The polished powerplant features a Centerforce clutch and it’s backed by a T5 TREMEC five-speed gearbox. An open driveline leads to a polished Winters quick-change rear with 1940 Ford axle bells. “That’s all Classic hot rod stuff,” Bobby adds. The front wires are 17-inch 1933-1934 Ford steel spoke wheels. The rears are 18-inch 1932 Ford wires, widened in the back, with 5.25s and 7.00s for a decent rubber rake.

Other mechanical niceties include a 5-inch handbuilt dropped axle, Model A crossmembers, a 1933-1934 Ford-like center X-member, 1935-1936 Ford trailing arms, a custom V’d spreader bar, Bobby’s own design cross steering, Schroeder-style, with a custom draglink, tubular shocks (“those old-style lever shocks are terrible for long drives,” Hilton says, and he knows from experience), and buggy springs with reversed eyes, front and rear. The framerails are kicked up in the rear and notched to clear the front spring. The hydraulic drum brakes are early Lincoln style by Brian Bass (Bass Kustom) in Dallas.

Rare old Arrow accessory headlights with a discrete fin are mounted on vintage stands. The rectangular taillights are 1948 Kaiser, just to stay period but be a little different. The aluminum instrument panel, by Hartman Machines and polished by Jeff Smith, is old style with eight custom gauges from Classic Instruments. The steering wheel is a thin, four-spoke item from a 1948 Ford COE truck. I’d never seen one of these wheels before but it fits this car’s theme to a T.

The classy interior, by Mike Lippincott, aka Mikey Seats, is handcrafted of dark contrasting leather and there’s a subtle divider that makes quasi-buckets out of the bench.  Bobby fabricated the aluminum transmission cover. The bare floor has polished wood panels. The door panels sport old-style door pulls and polished inserts (again by Jeff Smith), all tastefully done to a very high level.

Acclaimed painter and pinstriper, Travis “Tuki” Hess (Kolor by Tuki) from Bucky’s Ltd., in Martinsburg, West Virginia, was responsible for that Hershey chocolate finish. It was painstakingly rubbed out over the Christmas holiday. I visited Tuki, he’s a consummate perfectionist, when the freshly painted body was in his spray booth and he was seriously pressed for time. “I was supposed to get this in September,” he muses, “but we’ll get ’er done,” and he did. Tuki and John Shank were responsible for the bodywork; everything is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. The finish is flawless and the gleaming milk chocolate hue, Porsche Cockney Brown, contrasted with ebony black wheels and painted running gear, and very little plating is beautifully understated, like the subtle pinstriping and outlining by Jennifer Thomas. “It’s a simplistic car,” Hilton says, “and we built it to stay within the budget.”

Like many AMBR projects, work continued at a frenetic pace, right to the end. The Model A body and 1932 chassis, wired and plumbed, was trailered to Ross Racing Engines, in Niles, Ohio, near Youngstown, where they were mated with the freshly dyno’d and tuned ARDUN. Last-minute details were all accomplished over four sleepless nights and days, and they loaded up in a snowstorm for the Banzai Run West. Driving straight to Pomona through a blizzard, alternating drivers, so each one got a little sleep, they made it to the judges’ preview, in the nick of time.

An exhausted but exhilarated Bobby Hilton says, “Our goal was to get there. I’ve never been to this show before and I’m excited to be here.” The owner, Ray Enos, saw the car for the first time at the show, he likes classy cars and this was everything he wanted. “He trusted us completely to build it … and he loves it.”

The 2019 AMBR competition was very tough, but the Hilton Model A was definitely a contender. Approving spectators flocked around the roadster all weekend, many of them recognizing that something was very different about the shape of this car, but they were unable to articulate just what that was. … Says Bobby, “This car’s a Model A that wants to be a 1932 roadster.”

On Sunday, the AMBR winner was George Poteet’s spectacular 1936 Ford roadster, built by Eric Peratt and his talented crew at Pinkee’s Rod Shop, in Windsor, Colorado. That didn’t phase the Hilton gang one bit.

“We wanted to learn the ropes,” Bobby said, and we’ll be back next year.” “This is a simplistic car and it speaks for itself. The first time I’d put the clutch in was when we drove up to the judges’ stand. I thought I was out of my mind to just drop everything and do this, but it was worth it. We met a lot of great people and we proved we can compete at this level.”

It’s worth the trip.   SRM

The post 1931 Ford Roadster Packs ARDUN V-8 Power appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1931-ford-roadster-packs-ardun-v-8-power/ via IFTTT

[mkpersephone]

This is sooooo goooood!!!!! 🤩😍

This is a radio program where people can call and talk to the squirrel girl.

and a specific caller is:

Charles?

I love that every time he calls this is the first thing he says😂

Now Charles you won't trickme by hiding behind your students!😡

Have you heard the sound of his huffing and teeth grinding?

I know you're listening Charles...

The way he says Charles is just great😂😂

It's like: I'm angry but in the same time I'm not very angry but i also want to hold my picture in front of these kids.

Silence! I'm speaking only to Charles!

He's not even willing to listen to anything.😂 he's like an angry house wife.🤣

What an ICON!!!

Oh my god this is Amazing!!!!😂🤣

So in the heat of the moment i told him i never shop there again. And I'm a man of my word Charles everyone knows that.

I can imagine Magneto as an angry grandfather who goes into a store and after being treated badly swears to never shop there again. And he keeps his word. This gives sooooo much grandpa vibe!!! I just can not...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

He is a man of his word!!!

So i was wondering if you could send that Logan fellow here to trim my hedges

...

I don't know what to say🙃

Your trick won't work this time CHARLES! YOU HEAR ME????!!!!

He is not even willing to think about the possibility of having the wrong number🤣🤣🤣

He is so Karen!!!

Now listen! I know Scott could trim them to but last time he left scorch marks everywhere. I don't care for him Charles.

Scott! What have you done???😂🤣

This is not how you most trim your professor's huband's hedges.

And Erik's vocal expressions are really good!

This rudeness amongst your students Charles! I won't stand for it! And i shall not be denied! Some warnings are never given twice CHARLES! Remember THAT!

At the end, he threatens to show that he is still in control.😂🤣

Angry housewife Magneto!!!🤣😂😂🤣

Good talk! Charles call me back.

Completely normal. It's not as if he was threatening him two seconds ago.

Thats it! Thats their Relationship!

Now all i want to know is Charles reaction😂😂

Tell me what you think😂🤣

Podcast: Marvel's Squirrel girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show. (The Fate of my Universe) 23:35

[selinaneveahcrystal]

Going Home–Part 2

Prompt from: @simbagirl15 Marcos and Lorna feel the baby move for the first time + discuss about the family that threw him out+ the fact that Marcos said that his family was not so much his family (so I presumed that he must have had someone he missed back home/loved dearly)

Credits to: @wereallmisfts for giving me the biggest idea about Aurora’s powers and the partial reason why Lorna can feel her baby in her tummy. So I went along the line that Aurora has powers similar to Lorna, but more specific and super fine tuned that it senses automatically the electro magnetic aura of individuals and objects and she manifests them in the form of coloured lights that are quite similar to the Aurora Borealis. But because the electro magnetism of an individual is suceptible to change because of emotions, Aurora’s ability also likes in being able to change the electromagnetic auras of an individual, which in turn affect their emotions. Something like an empath. She cans till control metal, but mildly and not as effective as Lorna because her powers lie in the more fine tuned aspects of electromagneticism. So the pros is she can cause widespread empathic situations to occur but cons is she only affects metal very vaguely. That means she can bend metal, but she can’t shape it like Magneto and Polaris can, because her power is too specific.

Continued from Part 1

….

“You sure this is the place?” Lorna gently cradled Aurora in her arms as they stood outside a landed property. “You never told me you were rich.”

“Well, in my defense, we were one of the better off families in the area.” His eyebrows furrowed. “And my God, is that a pool? I don’t remember a pool in my old house. Shit. Maybe it’s the wrong house.”

“Language!” Lorna hissed, covering her baby’s ears as Aurora gurgled and suckled on her thumb.

“Sorry, peanut.” Marcos pinched their daughter’s cheeks slightly, and watched with delight as a tendrils of drifting light wrapped around his wrist affectionately, glowing his characteristic white yellow shimmering lights as his daughter rested her head on Lorna’s shoulder and babbled slightly.

They had found out about Aurora’s mutation the moment she was born. She had the ability to manipulate metal in a smaller extent as compared to her mother, but had a wider range of sensitivity to electrical, magnetic and solar energy. Hence, she was able to manifest the rare electro magnetic auras that people tended to have within a few feet of their body, sensing where they were even if they were hidden. It was also something more on the lines of an empathy too, because she tended to alter emotions when she was feeling decidedly happy or otherwise. Once, they had tried out to see how badly yet empathic abilities affected people around her, and had placed her in the centre of the HQ, while Marcos tickled her and made funny faces, sending her into fits of gurgling laughter. Needless to say, the effective two blocks radius of laughing people was more than enough to say how sensitive their daughter was to the electromagnetic fields of individuals and how impactful her empathic abilities that cane with those sensing abilities were.

Marcos smiled tenderly as Lorna grinned back at him, running her hand through their daughter’s messy greenish black curls. Their daughter was perhaps the perfect mix of both of them, her olive skin and a perfect balance between the darker complexion Marcos had and fair complexion that Lorna had. Her eyes were entirely Lorna’s, and Marcos could never refuse her when she gazed at him with puppy dog eyes so reminiscent to her mother’s own, and her long lashes that fluttered in her sleep as she yawned. Her lips were a soft pink shell colour, and was plump and decidedly cute and kissable. Marcos decided that he was going to have to be her knight that defended her honour as she grew up, because their little girl was a stunning individual that would perhaps stun everyone with her beauty wherever she went.

“Marcos!” Lorna hissed as footsteps echoed close to the door, and the familiar bout of Spanish echoed behind the door.

“Coming coming!” The door swung open to reveal a lean girl teen, her long curling her falling to her waist, her eyes a warm chocolate brown and her mouth open in a wide o of surprise.

Marcos smiled tentatively.

She’d grown all up from that small impressionable and mischevious little girl to a lanky and slim teenager, with curves and a bright smile.

“¡Hola, El Hermosa.” Marcos breathed nervously. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as silence ensued awkwardly before the lanky girl shook her head in surprise.

“Marcos?” The shock and surprise was apparent in her voice before it gave away to extreme delight and she leapt into his arms. “Marcos! ¡Te extrañe!” Lorna watched with pride as her husband caught his sister with surprise on his face that broke away into a shy smile. “¿Dónde has estado?”

“Everywhere. Just not back home.” Lorna knew that Marcos replied back in English for her benefit, and she turned slightly, letting him have his moment with his sister while she shifted Aurora’s weight in her hands.

“Gabríel!” She heard the girl turn and call shrilly. “¡Marcos regresó!” There was a shatter of glass in the kitchen, before two different sets of footsteps coming to the door.

One heavy set, the other, light footed.

“Hermano!” Marcos was trying not to cry, Lorna could tell, as his brother captured him in a wide hug. Gabríel was in every way a leaner and taller Marcos. A considerable feat, considering the fact that Marcos was a whopping 1.85. She suddenly felt like a nervous teen in love again as Marcos and his siblings glanced at her, a wide grin of Marcos’ face as he held out a hand to her.

Her brave, stupid foolish man.

Her heart swelled at the thought.

“This is Lorna.” There was a quiet but protective and affectionate action in the way he pulled her intimately against his body, and Lorna felt a warm surge of affection for the man that held her heart. “My wife, and this little peanut here is Aurora.” He looked up at his siblings with a gentle smile. “Our daughter.”

His brother stared at her with slight awe in his eyes that made Lorna want to laugh.

“You know El hermano has powers, right?” There was a sharp edge to the teen’s voice. “And do you accept it?” His voice was oddly hard.

“Gabriel!” Eliana hissed beside him, tugging on her twin’s arm.

“Of course I do.” She watches with satisfaction as Gabríel relaxes at her words.

“And you will never leave him?”

Lorna chuckled as Marcos scratched his neck sheepishly.

“Why would I?” She leaned back smugly into Marcos, with a “I told you so” written right on her face. “Besides, I have powers too.” She let her powers pick up a stray metal piece from nearby.

“Cool!” She grinned widely as Gabriel’s eyes flashed excitedly. “Not as cool as El hermano’s powers of course. He’s the coolest. He saved us you know.” Surprise was clear in Marcos’ face as his brother proudly stated his views on his powers.

“I know.” Lorna said quietly, her hand slipping into Marcos’ own. “He told me. He doesn’t believe he’s a hero, you know.” She said conspiratorially. “He doesn’t really like his powers.”

“Lorna!” Marcos nudged her slightly, a resigned grin on his face.

“Eh. It’s because our parents don’t know better."Eliana spoke up this time. "If I were to say this I’d say that they’re idiots. Who don’t know better.” Her hand pressed on Marcos’ shoulder comfortingly.

Their peaceful camadarie was interrupted by a angry loud retort from behind the twins.

“You! What are you doing back here?!” The large hulking man that looked nothing like his son’s looked in the doorway.

“¡Hola to you too, Papa.” Marcos said grudgingly.

“Get out of my house. ¡Tu no eres bienvenido aqui!” Lorna felt a well of anger boil in her as Marcos flinched slightly.

“Hey! ” Marcos tried to pull her back as she stepped forward, Aurora still half asleep in her arms. “Don’t you dare talk to him that way!”

“And you are?” The big bully of a old man sneered, but Lorna wasn’t afraid. She glowered at his sneer, but his imposing figure still failed to instill almost any fear in her.

Continued in Part 3

~~~~

¡Te extrañe! : You’re back!

¿Dónde has estado? : Where have you been?

¡Marcos regresó! : Marcos is back!

¡Tu no eres bienvenido aqui! : You’re not welcome here!

And yes, I used Google Translate For the Spanish.

@eclipsepolarisxauroraborealis