Beyond Evolution

Gaea told her what was needed. …No, told was the wrong word. She let Illyana feel it through everything else. The only choice. And she was willing to make it.

Another portal opened and she dropped through, landing right in front of her older brother, power knocking the enemies he was fighting away. She couldn’t help it – she grabbed him into the tightest hug she could. “I love you.” And then she was grabbing his hand and pulling him through to Limbo, straight to the depths of the castle where the coven was still chanting, still feeding Gaea energy.

“I need it. I’m sorry.” She reached a hand out and her magic pulled the soul shard from where he kept it to her.

Part of her was already woven into the cage, thanks to Belasco. Another third she’d held within herself but let the ritual drain from her to shove into the barrier as well. Now this one, which she turned to offer to Gaea, holding a hand out behind her to freeze Piotr in place. Gaea took it, and instantly Illyana changed. Her demon form came out, the hooves and the horns and the tail. Taller now, with her eyes flaming yellow as her armor and sword appeared, both turned black as onyx. The shard flew to the barrier, and Darkchylde slammed the soul sword into it, up to the hilt, with an ear-splitting sound from what was inside. The entire foundation of the castle, of the world started to shake, hard. Larger pieces of the walls and ceiling came loose, dropping all around the people assembled.

The cage started to glow. The Gods that Gaea was using her energy to hold back started to scream as one as the magic in Yana’s soul spread across the gateway. She had been used to un-make it, and now the reverse was happening. It was sealing up, becoming whole, crackling with her essence. Darkchylde dropped, and the plane of existence started to become unstable. A universe with no master had no business existing, and Limbo seemed like it wanted to fall apart without its Sorceress Supreme.

Gaea stepped forward, her hand pressing against the pulsating wall, the angered screams of the Elder Gods silenced now. It had been enough. But Gaea wasn’t done, not yet. Her usually-impassive eyes moved to Piotr, and something close to sympathy came to them, if human emotion was something that could be ascribed to her.

It was enough. She will be whole.

The sacrifice had been enough not only to help Gaea lock the Elder Gods away for good, but Gaea was able to take the sacrifice and use it to pull her soul away from the magics, funneling it back into her until she was enveloped in white, too bright to look at. When it faded, Yana was herself again, crumpled on the floor.

Gaea turned and left, blinking out of Limbo and going about her new mission – to hunt down the rest of them throughout the galaxies and worlds, to continue gathering and containing. Around them, the castle, the world, went still.

((Minions will start to scatter – this is now an aftermath thread!))

In the wailing darkness behind the barrier, eldritch creatures struggled to force themselves through the widening crack. Spines, tentacles, a lashing tongue, all of them withdrawn with a shriek of rage as the being attached to it found itself still trapped. Their fury was building. But there was one Elder God with a strange aura of calm, moving through the maelstrom almost gently until it -- she -- finally reached the opening.

Gaea. The Great Mother, the Bright Lady, the World. Sister of Cthon, but while her brother and the other Elder Gods had degenerated she had held on to something pure inside herself. Now, as she drew close enough to the breach, she reached out.

The book had always been a vessel, and it had emptied itself of the dark energy drawn from the Coven days ago, feeding the weakness in the barrier. Now, empty of intent, it became a vessel for Gaea. She reached through it to the Coven that had first found it, to the girl whose soul still powered what was left of the barrier and kept it from collapsing completely. She poured her knowledge into it. It had held the spells the that had drawn power for the Elder Gods, but it had also held the spells that saved the world from the Hellfire Club's destruction, and it held the spells that could save the world again. She just had to guide the right people to them.

(Open to Coven, Inferno Kids + Amy)

4/9 - The school is contacted by a higher up in the Vatican, questioning about the book. They warn about it's dangers, and want to know where it is. They give up the location of the mad nun -- in a diocese-run mental hospital.

4/12 - The X-Men and the Coven go to the hospital, but don't bring the book. They are allowed to see the nun and ask whatever questions they want. It's not guaranteed that she will answer any of them.



**From this point on, the book will be strongly influencing the members of the coven to try more dangerous and high-risk spells, including dark ones

March 2023
Murderworld
February 2023
January 2023
2022

4/2 - A spell from the book goes wrong and a demon is summoned. Fight! (anyone want rolls?)

EDIT: The demon has minions! Demon spiders, go wild.

4/6 - Instead of water, chocolate gold coins come out of any faucets turned on.



**From this point on, the book will be strongly influencing the members of the coven to try more dangerous and high-risk spells, including dark ones

3/25/23 - 3/31/23
Murderworld
3/11/23 - 3/17/23
3/4/23 - 3/10/23
February 2023
January 2023
2022

3/25 - In a turn of events, day turns to night, only at Xavier's. Despite light pollution many many stars and constellations are visible, including the Milky Way. This lasts until Sunday morning, when the sun comes up as usual.

3/28 - The cafeteria is filled with cakes! Each cake has a little flag with a name on it. Everyone at the school has their own, and it's their favorite kind.

3/30 - Despite it being past St Patrick's day, little (fun!) leprechauns can be seen running around. Everyone gets a real gold coin left in front of their door.



**From this point on, the book will be strongly influencing the members of the coven to try more dangerous and high-risk spells, including dark ones

Murderworld
3/11/23 - 3/17/23
3/4/23 - 3/10/23
February 2023
January 2023
2022

1/7 - All animals on the grounds disappear until 1/9

1/10 - School starts!

1/11 - A massive hail and lightning storm begins on the west coast, and within hours is on the east. It doesn't stop there, though. Other storms of the same nature are hitting every continent. Hail is up to the size of basketballs, and the lightning is constant. The school (sans the med labs, who are on their own generator) loses power for two days due to the damage. Doing spells from the book to help (and in general) seems to urge the coven to use more (not to a worrying degree -- don't ruin the fun by having your char notice yet!)



1/2/23 - 1/6/23
2022

So we're not all posting a hundred journal entries. ...Yes we include ourselves in that >_>

Illyana had known this would come. She’d been aware ever since her powers had started faltering. She ruled Limbo with an iron fist, and took care of it better than Belasco had, but that meant nothing to the demons that lived there. They respected her, sure, but the minute she showed any weakness, they would be there to take her down. Her followers’ loyalty was dependent upon her ability to keep everyone in line (well, to a reasonable degree), and her disappearance would mean a massive power vacuum.

And there were several demons being held in her dimension that were very, very bad. She worried what they’d be able to do when they found her secrets in her castle.

She didn’t even know if there was a new Sorcerer Supreme. She didn’t really care though. Anyone that opposed her would die.

She opened a portal to drop her war party a little bit away from the castle, where there was cover to stop the footsoldiers from seeing them. They needed intel before just storming in. She could teleport them, but first she wanted to see what kinds of demons were there – it could give her an idea of who, exactly, was sitting on her throne.

She heard the rustle behind them though, and she turned immediately, arms out, black and purple magical energy swirling around her hands, looking for who was there.

(Inferno babies, war party, and Kurt! thread headers below)

"Everybody ready?" They were holding hands in a circle, and while that wasn't necessary Yana found it a little comforting. She wouldn't be able to go with them to the temple -- she couldn't even teleport near it thanks to her partially-lost soul -- so she would offer them what comforts she could.

Everyone had a bag packed with necessities, enough for a long trip which is what they'd anticipated. Illyana would do what she could to order demons away from them, but she had no doubt that one or two would test their luck anyway.

In a blink, they had portalled from the school to somewhere in Limbo's plains. Yana's castle was a dot in the distance. "This is as far as I can go." It infuriated her that there were places she wasn't allowed, in her own dimension, but the power that the temple had been giving off had been growing strongly. Like it was waiting for them.

"Good luck." She hugged each of the girls, one by one. "I'll see you when you get back."


(Rapid fire for the coven! They'll be gone until Sunday night, roughly two weeks in Limbo-time.)

Midday, multiple portals are going to open up and a great deal more of the tentacle monsters come out than came out originally. Along with them are ten of THESE things, who seem to be the ones in charge. They are capable of paralyzing anyone that meets their eyes, summoning elements, and forcing the opposite side to fight each other instead of the bad guys. Most dangerously though, they also have the capacity to use their central eye to project a field that cancels the effects of all mutant abilities within a cone of 150 feet in length around them.

There will be a post going up soon for non-team members to talk on, but the entries there don’t count towards activity. On that note, keep in mind that only posts happening before midnight will count for activity this month (that's why this is going up so early!).

Enjoy!

“I do.”

Luke had felt like he’d become unattached from the real world all day. Yesterday too. All month, if he was honest. It wasn’t that he felt disconnected from what was going on, it was a more surreal feeling than that, a wonderful feeling, like he no longer had to hold both hands on the steering wheel to keep his life on track because some great unseen hand had gently taken him in its grip to usher him on towards his destiny. This was the moment his whole life had been leading to. The exact place in space and time he was supposed to be. He’d felt like he was drifting on clouds.

And now he was standing in a perfectly pressed suit on his precious front lawn at the school, holding the hands of the love of his life as they declared their commitment to each other in front of all the people they cared about most. Everyone was here, both their families seated along the front row, their mothers who’d been worryingly thick as thieves since being introduced, Luke’s brothers and their partners, both their dads, a sprinkle of aunts and cousins. Backing them up were the hordes of Xavier’s School inhabitants. Linus and Luke had invited everyone and most of them had shown up. It made his breath short to glance out at their audience and know that they weren’t gathered here for a memorial this time. This was a happy occasion. The best.

There were flowers everywhere, some grown by Luke himself, others encouraged into bloom by helpful plant manipulators. Feathers of pink blossom floated on the air. It was a beautiful day too, thanks to further intervention from atmokinetics, rendering the sky bright and warm and summery in defiance of the month. Kurt stood before them, having graciously agreed to officiate for them. Paige was at his side, with strict instructions to catch him if he fainted. It was perfect. Everything was perfect.

But it all paled in comparison with the man before him. There had been so many times in Luke’s life when he’d never believed he could be happy. Never believed he deserved such a thing. He spent half his life waiting to die, then the next half wishing he had. And then he’d met Linus Sinker and in an instant, everything had changed. Linus made sense of it all, put all his broken parts back in their proper places, and now they could stand up in front of everyone they knew and say this is all we need, this is our everything.

Their vows had passed between them like a dream made real, and Luke felt a bubble of laughter spill from his throat into the air, too happy to hold it in. He needed to say those two words again.

“Forever, always, I do.” Luke squeezed Linus’s hands, giddy. They were about to be pronounced as husband and husband, and everything they’d been through, together and before, shrank away under the light of this one idyllic moment.

[ Rapid fire! Wait for Linus to tag first though, obv. :D There’s food and music both outside and inside for the rest of the day, and the summery weather will last into the night. <3 ]

Suffice to say it wasn't a Fyre Festival 2.0, thankfully, and that everything went nicely. The island was small which explains why it went off the radar for most people. A nice, white sand beach was perfect for setting up shop for sunbathing, partying, and of course some cabanas where people could drink, congregate, and everything else. A music system was rigged, tents (that were decently nice, like a safari) were set up if people wanted to nap and recharge or get some privacy, and Billy amazing reality-warped in a small house set back on the tropical mainland just up from the beach if people need to shower or the weather gets bad. How does it work? Reality-warping chaos magic, don't ask questions. There's a full wet bar set up, and Tommy zipped back and forth for a while serving everyone before it became just self-serve. It really pays to know reality warpers and teleporters to set all this up easy.

See below for headers!

The waiting was the worst part. Yana used to be used to this sort of thing, having to sit around and wait on someone else to deign to fill her in or let her out of a cell. But that had been back in the days of Belasco, when she’d been a young, scared girl. She didn’t like being back in these same circumstances now. It felt...claustrophobic. Belittling. It brought her back to a state of helplessness that she’d worked hard to never feel again. It had left her in a black mood, shifting back and forth between current injustices and ones from years ago that she’d never actually gotten over.

She was seated against a wall of the cell now, picking up pebbles and throwing them hard at the opposite wall. This was taking forever. It almost would’ve been easier to bear if they were being dragged out, or interrogated, or hurt. This unending waiting was a torture all of its own. And while she still had unwavering faith in the fact that her brothers would be breaking her and the rest of them out of this place, the waiting was hard.

Her hand went up to the bruise that had spread across her cheekbone from the backhand in the throne room, rubbing at it idly. She should have done something back. Spit on them. It would be worth the extra injuries.

She watched as Angelo was taken out and brought back, saw that they’d done some kind of surgery on him, and wondered how long until the rest of them were being taken to that room as well. She’d been on her way to getting ready to go to bed, to make this all the more frustrating. Leggings, no shoes, and an oversized shirt stolen from Tommy (as though there was much that wouldn’t look oversized on her).

Another stone was thrown, a little harder this time. “Can’t we at least grab one of their guns the next time they come in here? They’ll win, but fighting them would be fun.”

(Kitty!)

The battle was over before it even started. The Worldly Avatar had watched from the safety of the throne room as Mikhail's forces and the rebellion camp were squashed, running like dogs. Tailiv had been successful, as always. And he brought gifts.

His subjects had always been loyal, devout supplicants. They stood before him now in the antechamber of the citadel. Captain Taxxu and her guard. General Tailiv and his lieutenants. A half dozen robed and shrouded nobles in a line behind the throne where the Worldly Avatar sat. All of them extraneous; the Worldly Avatar was more than powerful enough to wipe them all out should he grow weary enough to break things for amusement.

He had felt the arrival long before a single mutant set foot on the planet's ground. Mikhail was an explosion to the Worldly Avatar's senses, like a shark to blood. ( It had been easy to rally forces, to send them to take Mikhail and finish what they started five years ago. )


[ Open to HAVOK, MAGIK, SKIN, SHADOWCAT, AURORA, TWINKLE. Powers are off, they have suppression collars on.]

Mikhal Rasputin was an honest man.

He had only ever been an honest man. When he arrived at Xavier's his desire had always been made clear. He had no interest in the people here, even his own family caused him little want to stay. His goal was to return home, not to Russia, but to Theia Prime, to finish what he started. No one could claim that Mikhail wasn't true about his feelings on all things, or where he stood when the line was drawn in the sand. Every second he stayed trapped on Earth, was another second where that deep resentment began to build.

His family was the only bright spot in the dark recesses of his mind. But they had their own foolish weaknesses. Power was not their first priority. It was these human connections. ( Mikhail did not understand, and so he slowly, inevitably broke away from what should have mattered the most. )


[ OPEN to the DIMENSION TRAVELLERS. Battle will start immediately upon landing and powers are on. A selection of this group will end up taken by Tailiv's forces, via their mutation suppression devices. See subhead below for details. Don't worry, you'll have things to do there, you're not out of the plot! Eventually, rebellion forces will meet for backup and the remaining characters will retreat with them.]

“You want more whipped cream?” Kitty asked, already topping off Yana’s ice cream sundae with the stuff. Without looking up to give away her movement, she titled the can up and shot a quick stream at the other girl, though Kitty couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her after. Ice cream sundaes and chick flicks after appropriating one of the rec room’s giant sofas had always been their thing. Through sadness, heartbreak, confusion, homesickness, sometimes there was no better cure than hunkering down in pajamas and watching the world go right for once. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case! This time, the occasion was a celebration of the holidays, and Kitty looked forward to all of it. Even the part where she tried to make latkes and succeeded only in making a mess of the kitchen and of herself. Flour everywhere, and mountains of potatoes that were larger than Kitty.

Being back, being with her family, felt so incredibly right. It was like the part of her that had been unmoored in Chicago had locked back into place the very second Yana had shown up in Kitty’s studio apartment, ready to take her home.

She doused the whipped cream with a liberal shake of rainbow colored sprinkles (thank goodness for the kitchens and the seemingly endless bounty of food...and thank goodness she kept up with team training) before handing the bowl of ice cream off. “Your majesty,” Kitty said, complete with a dramatically low bow. Kitty’s own ice cream had chunks of brownies sticking out from behind scoops of mint chocolate chip, though the green of the mint ice cream was mostly covered with hot fudge. Although Kitty was mentally adding on the extra hours she’d need to spend in the gym to accommodate the sugar bomb she was about to consume but it would be totally worth it.

“So,” drawing out the word, Kitty looped an arm across Illyana’s shoulders for a quick squeeze as she escorted the tiny Queen of Limbo to a couch. “Tell me about the boy and if he’s good enough for you.”

That last part was dropped in ever so casually, and Kitty already knew the answer: no. Sorry, Tommy, nothing personal.


[Yana!]

Once the gods were done with the school, they could move onto other, easier targets. Gorge themselves on the souls of the millions of citizens of New York and further until Selene had finished her ascension and called them all back to where they’d been pulled from.

But.

Until then, the school proved to be a fertile hunting ground, most of the gods able to feed off the chaos and fear just as much as the souls being reaped.

Back at Selene’s island, things were going just as well. The teams seemed evenly matched, and she was confident that those fighting for her would prevail. They were, at the very least, very capable of keeping the teams from venturing further and finding her or the dagger. As long as that was accomplished, nothing else mattered.

(Continued fight threads for both the school and Utopia scenes -- please look to thread headers for which one your char belongs in!)

WHO: Mikhail and Illyana
WHEN/WHERE: Limbo, sometime during the day.
WHAT: Getting to know each other.

( But he wouldn’t be Mikhail Rasputin if he didn’t go following his siblings into holes.  )

WHO: Piotr Rasputin (COLOSSUS), Illyana Rasputin (MAGIK), and Mikhail Rasputin (AVATAR).
WHERE/WHEN: Medlabs, during daylight hours.
WHAT: A pretty awkward family reunion, tbh.

( The only images he could recall were when Piotr was thin as a reed and reaching up from the hole in the fields of the collective and Illyana swaddled in a blanket barely two years old. )

Kolkata in July was hot and humid.

At first, after he and Yana had teleported into the eastern Indian city and his hair had become stuck to his forehead, Tommy wondered why he’d thought this was a good idea. It was practically the least romantic thing in the world to be hot and sweaty — in this fashion — which practically killed the whole date idea before it started. Those thoughts continued until they got seated in a little air conditioned restaurant that served (obviously) authentic cuisine. The whole point of the endeavor was to go out for the real deal of certain foods. Things settled down happily after that, at least in his mind. Globetrotting and all was one thing, and it was fun, but really, he just wanted to spend time with Yana.

It was also good to get away from everything for a while too, and so Tommy had the brilliant brainstorm of asking Yana out to different places around the world for date nights. Food, activities, you name it because okay, Tommy was still more than a little taken by the Russian woman who was also Queen of her own dimension. While Billy had urged caution given the fact that Yana was apparently missing some of her soul, Tommy looked past that. She was wholly unlike anyone he’d ever met, strong, confident, capable, intriguing, stunning, and of course that element of danger only made things more enticing. And he’d told her all that (sans the danger part), and while it definitely could have seemed like they were lines, they weren’t — it was earnest. Yana had never given him reason to be afraid of her, or anything like that, and so Tommy ploughed onward with it.

So, here they were eating dinner in India in their own little world at a table beside the big window that looked out into the street. Let it be said that Tommy was charming, and knew how to be a gentleman. He’d been free with the earnest compliments, held her chair out for her when he really didn’t need to — made her feel like a princess even if she were an actual queen. Because she liked the dances, the dates, the simple everyday stuff that teenagers enjoyed doing as couples. Tommy was happy to oblige. It was perfect, really.

( But of course nothing could really go right if you were Tommy Shepherd. )

[ ???? & QUEEN ILLYANA ]