fandomhigh | How To Avoid Misadventure, Monday

"'Ello there, students," Alistair said, his accent only a little overexaggerated. He felt naked without his sword around, though he did still have his shield firmly tied to his back. (He'd protested that it was 'mostly decorative, unless someone takes a swing at me', and then he'd pointed out that it didn't even have any sharp bits, and...) He looked cheerful, though, and if the armor he was wearing was heavy, he wasn't admitting to it. "Welcome to How To Avoid Misadventure Class. I'm Alistair, I'm a Grey Warden, and I've got a fair bit of experience with misadventure, if I do say so myself." Beat. "Which I do. Anyway, this lovely creepy woman over here is..."

"Tis certain, one of your instructors is more prone to misadventure and stupidity over the other," Morrigan added sweetly. "Luckily for you, 'tis not I."

"I am called Morrigan. And as you are being inflicted with the misadventures of a Warden not yet old enough to be without his masters, I am here to provide balance, not being prone to misadventure myself."

Mostly because any issues Morrigan ran into were easily dealt with using fire or fangs, but that was a small detail.

"Really," Alistair said. His eyebrow lifted. "I find that very hard to believe. What was that your mother wrote about stockings...?"

He had limited blackmail material, but by the Maker, he'd use it.

"My mother says whatever amuses her most, and 'tis not usually worth it to question her meaning," Morrigan stated. "But if we are to discuss mothers, please, enlighten us about yours. Did she put your name in your socks for you, or did you start that after joining the Wardens?"

"My mother is dead, not that it's any of your business," Alistair said. Mildly. "The Templars put their names on their socks, it's how we keep them apart in the laundry, if you've ever heard of that at all."

"You cannot wash your own clothes, and thus, must rely on someone else to do it for you," she replied smartly. "Tell me, how does it feel not to know how to use soap?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Alistair asked. "I feel like I have to constantly move to stay upwind from you."

It was clear they had completely forgotten the point of the lesson by now.

Perhaps Alistair had, but Morrigan didn't expect much else from a baby Warden. "Let this be your first lesson," she sighed. "Always be sure to choose your own party members, least ye be stuck with someone less than desirable."

"Yeah, yeah, blah, blah," Alistair said, rolling his eyes. "Let's get around to the first exercises, shall we? 'I'm going on adventure, and I'm taking with me...'"

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"I think the Silver Surfer is from another planet," Angelica explained. "He's worked with the Fantastic Four before. They're, um, heroes in my world." Not that she was jealous of that at all since they got to be heroes for getting their powers from cosmic radiation instead of being born with them. GOD, MARVEL.

"I've never heard of New Gotham," she added in response to the question.

Karla tried to pin either of those names with any of the versions of Earth she'd heard of and couldn't. Maybe Angelica was from a different one all together, like Stan and his gay orgies for job security, or whatever.

"Just checking," she said with a smile. "It's kind of like a puzzle, trying to see if people from Earth belong to different versions of the same realities as the ones I already know."

"...Which probably made no sense right there. Huh."

Angelica glanced over to Warren, since he was ever-so-conveniently in the class. "I'm from the same world as Warren," she said. "I mean, there's a lot of things that are alike. I don't know if it's exactly the same."

"Oh? Oh!" Karla couldn't hide a pleased, slightly shyish grin. "Oh, you know Warren? He's my boyfriend."

And then her smile faded as several implications sank in. "Wait. You know that Warren?" She needed to check. "Because, if you do...he's not, uhh, open, about his wings. Back home."

Don't make Karla go crazy-protective on you, Angelica.

"Oh, no, I don't know him back home, I just met him here," Angelica said. "I saw his wings and he told me he's a mutant, and there are mutants in my world, too. And he knew who Professor Xavier is."

And if Karla was Warren's girlfriend, clearly she had no problem with mutants, either. She wished her own world was more like Fandom.

"There was someone else I met here, too, who was like my headmistress but younger, but she was" -- be diplomatic, Angel -- "too busy to talk."

Karla relaxed a little more. The last thing Warren needed was some random girl accidentally outing him back home. "Headmistress? Do you mean Emma?"

She remembered Jono's shock at finding a younger version of his headmistress here. Unless there were two future headmistresses from the bunch of worlds where there were Bobbys and Warrens and this Xavier guy?

Though she did shoot Angelica a sympathetic grin. She could picture the kind of response that would earn a '...[slight pause] too busy' description. "Emma's another good friend of mine. She can be a bit...brusque sometimes. But she's amazing when you get to know her."

"I love Ms. Frost," Angelica said, spinning the gold bracelet on her wrist. "She's been really good to me. She invited me to her school and has helped me a lot."

Despite everything, it was still hard for her to come right out and admit she was a mutant, but she figured Karla could probably guess by now.

"She sent me here for the summer, but I don't think she knew exactly what kind of school it was. Or if she did, she didn't tell me."

"So, you go to Emma's school?" Karla asked carefully. "Perhaps you know another friend of mine. Jono? Jono Starsmore? I know he went to the Academy for a bit before he came here. And I've met a few of his classmates during Parents' Weekend."

All of whom were mutants. So, yeah, Karla could guess.

Angelica shook her head. "I don't know that name," she said. "And there aren't many of us in Ms. Frost's, um, special classes. What can he, uh, do?"

Karla was a bit hesitant to answer that question. It wasn't like Jono really hid what he was when he was here, but she knew so many people who did. "Well, he could speak telepathically, for one," she said cautiously. "I think he tossed around the term 'psionic'?"

Usually in conjunction with 'flame,' but Karla wasn't going to just share every detail, thanks.

And she wasn't even going to breathe a word about Bobby.

"You know people in her special classes?" she asked. The look she gave Angelica said that Karla knew, but if Angelica was more comfortable not admitting to it, Karla wouldn't press.

"Ms. Frost was the only telepath at the Academy, I think," Angelica said, still fidgeting with her bracelet. "I know Catseye and Thunderbird" -- surely just saying their code names was fine, not their civilian IDs -- "and Jetstream and Roulette and Empath." She couldn't help but frown at those last two names.

She gave Karla an apologetic look. "I'm not used to talking to people about things like this," she said. "I was so shocked when Warren said he could be himself here without being afraid of people hurting him. They don't like mutants in our world."

How To Avoid Misadventure, Monday

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