Xan raises an eyebrow. "Well, I would, but Leo gets so irritable when I seduce strange women right in front of him. You're quite pretty, though. By baseline standards. There some reason you're drinking vinegar out of a wineglass?"

"Damn right I get irritable," Leo mutters. "Find your own pretty man."

Damara picks up the vinegar and holds it out to the prettier one, the fact that ageing the wine did that is unexpected but Damara is used to taking everything in stride. "Well I am not drinking it now pretty man, you want? Or maybe you want it instead, you look like your boyfriend make you want to drink a lot."

"Aw, Mikey likes it. I don't want any vinegar, but if he likes you I may be allowed to get you some good wine. Instead of the garbage in that bottle, which you seem to have murdered. Possibly in protest, which I can understand. What's your power, anyway? I assume it's not limited to turning shit tier wine into the vinegar it always dreamed of being."

"[I make it so that men cannot fail to satisfy my by cumming too early]" Damara replies in Japanese, taking a puff off of her blunt. She has never actually tested if her innate abilities with time magic allow that. "What about you?" If the two pretty men don't understand Japanese that is not her problem.

Xan applauds politely. "So, aging wine and slowing down men... an external temporal warper? That's some serious shit, kudos. I'm a Wiz-2 Man-2, I manifest copious amounts of human blood. Then I generally turn it into Bloodfire with a quick incantation, leaving me a neat little packet of napalm that I then lob at my foes. Oh, and I'm an EX-3. In case you couldn't tell." He smirks winningly.

"And I'm an EX-2 Wiz-1. Erebeal, it's this creepy shadowmagic shit, makes you feel like icy needles are pricking your flesh or something. Very versatile, though. For those who can actually use it. Give me half an hour's prep time and I'm a force to be reckoned with, I'm sure."

"Oh, you sell yourself short. Fifteen minutes, tops. Maybe twenty. Maybe an hour and a half."

"Flatterer."

"Okay so I know your rpg stats. [You did neglect to tell me your dick size which is the important one but oh well.]" She leans back in her seat. "I Damara, sit with me if you wish. Just no blood magic shit, this bar get angry about violence because it big spoil sport. Don't worry, I not going to turn you old." She raises a hand to signal the bar for more drinks and to apearify her prefered snacks, pastries with dangerous amounts of sugar and chocolate, onto the table.

"That the bar, not me," Damara says with some resentment. She regrets nothing her powers have let her accomplish but she would honestly consider having pastry powers a fair trade. She makes a point to look at the two men's crotches as opposed to their face while talking to them. "Where I am from no one tell me my stats, they just try to get rid of my sexy head. That blood not going to explode is it? I be very made if you ruin so much good fudge." She grabs one of the pieces and ignores the utensils the bar kindly offered her in favor of just eating it in one bite.

Damara tries to blow out a smoke ring only to find that the bar's provided blunts make that very difficult. "Okay this shit tastes nice but I want my own blunt back," she complains. "I'd go get it but if I show my face in my world then weird knight man comes and try to cut me." She puts the blunt she actually has out against her thumb. "I tell him I no kill anyone else but he no listen. Oh well, fuck that guy. He not pretty anyway."

"Ech. We could come with you and help murder him, or something? I'm always game for some legally sanctioned murder."

"Or we could offer you asylum at Whateley, because this guy is clearly a big-league super if he's threatening a fucking temporal warper and expects to get away with it. Just a thought? It's a nice place, they teach you how to use your powers to their fullest potential and all that jazz. And you can't smoke or drink in public, but we'll show you the good spots and we can share our weed."

"Excuse me!"

"Correction: I will share my weed, because Xan is a fucking hoarder. But seriously, it's a nice place and nobody'll murder you there."

"Not being dead is nice," Damara says, somewhat suspicious. Recent experiences have made her doubt anything that sounds a little too good to be true but she really wants to no longer be stuck in this bar. "Why those rules though, the fuck are you people from? It sound like boarding school."

"It is, in fact, a boarding school. For mutants. It's cool! Everybody's really hot and we have superpowers. It's a sweet gig."

Damara is quiet for a bit, she has lots of reservations about schools. Then again if this school is the sort of environment where someone who controls blood isn't out of place, there is very little chance she would have to deal with the same types pf bullies she did in high school. Plus she had learned the appropriate solution for making bullies stop, be a bigger bitch then them and stab them if they did not learn their lesson. She knows she is powerful, the same probably applies even in a super powered school. "Hot people and superpowers? I guess I can try it if there are sweets."

"There are definitely sweets. Some sweeter than others."

Leo whips his arm lightly with a strand of shadow. "Bad boy. Heel."

"[Call me when you start kissing, this bar does not have any yaoi manga and I need my fix.]" She picks up another brownie and devoured it, not caring about the cavities that she was probably creating. "Okay yeah, I want this. They not care about my past right?"

"[Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint]," Xan demurs. He catches Leo's mouth and kisses him soundly.

Leo has trouble objecting to this! Eventually, however, he breaks away. "Weird Japanese innuendo aside, we have an immigration nightmare to take care of, yeah? Whateley won't care about your past. They'll probably make you a whole new identity."

Damara gives the kissing boys an appropriately objectifying stare. "I probably can keep my name since you in other world," she says once the kiss breaks. "Alright good then, I can just pretend my worlds Damara is dead. Now lets give your world a Damara, all worlds should have at least one."

Damara stuffs her mouth with pastries and then nods. The logistics of chewing and swallowing a mouth full of sweets occupies her as she follows the two boys out of the bar. She makes sure her knitting needles are still in her pocket, worst comes to worst she will deal with this new school the way she dealt with her old one. She thanks the bar in her own special way before closing the door behind them, a middle finger and a smile.

"[Nice to meet you too, old lady. Who the fuck are you and why do you know my name?]" Damara says in the sweetest possible tone of voice while picking the rudest possible vocabulary. Damara is a girl of many smiles, for once she does not choose the one that makes her look like she has just kicked a puppy.

"I the fuck am Thoth, former A-List superheroine, but you can call me Professor Wahlberg. I'll excuse the profanity because you obviously didn't expect me to speak Japanese. For reference, a solid 30% of the people on this campus can be assumed to know any language they've ever had a passing interest in. I personally am fluent in every language used by more than fifty humans on this planet, but I'm something of an outlier. And I know your name because I can see the future, and I see myself muttering it under my breath every time I find some jackass shoved halfway down a flagpole for the next four years. Congratulations on retroactively making an impression."

Damara laughs, "I take back nothing I say and they probably will deserve it, don't worry old lady. Just be glad it not worse" She likes this woman and this school. The fact that people are more likely to understand her japanese bullshit will do nothing to change the way she acts here.

"Very true on all counts. Anyway, that dimensional portal dealie isn't coming back any time soon, so I have the... privilege... of getting an eighteen-year-old girl matriculated into my school halfway through the term. Despite the fact that you're not even a mutant and your magic is like nothing we have in this universe. Sure do love my job."

"Wait, she's not a mutant?"

"Of course she's not a mutant, you little twit, she's from another universe, they don't even have the meta-gene complex there. The grown-ups are talking, get to your class. And Richardson, hide your damn flasks better, I don't even need to turn on my clairvoyance to see those things."

"I have no real idea what I am or what meta-gene is, I just do time shit," Damara says. She fidgets with a lighter in her pocket. "There any way I can make you think I need blunt for medical reason?" She's a bit nervous despite her demeanor and she really wants something to smoke.

"You're not my student yet, feel free. Tell me about the kind of time shit you can do."

She takes the one not-bar-provided blunt she has been saving and lights it. "I can touch things and make them old really," she explains, visibly calming down from the mere action of smoking. "It easy with dead things but with live things I can't age them. I just slow them down. I traveled before but it require timing something." She takes out a small music player she had tied around her neck and opens it. A gentle tune starts playing and a second Damara is now standing behind the teacher, her music player is almost done with its song. "I go back and front as long as this plays." The initial Damara does the time jump required to make this loop work. "That about it, I can go further but I only done it once... I really pissed that day." She leans against the wall, trying to pass of magic induced fatigue by slouching rebelliously and blowing out a cloud of smoke.

Johanna nods. "I'd classify that as... Warp 4t;b, if I had to make a guess. Which I do. Any other abilities?"

"I good with needles and can eat lots of sweets without stopping," she offers. "Also I do this." She blows out a near perfect smoke ring. She had a lot of time to figure out how to do that.

"Impressive. What exactly can you do with needles?"

"Knit a scarf, what else could I possibly do with needles and with someones neck," she says with an innocent smile. "I can make small magic go through yarn too but that about it."

"I'd recommend that you go for the crotch or gut while you're here. Still incapacitating, hurts a hell of a lot worse, but it isn't immediately fatal, and we've got healers for that. What kind of small magic?"

"Like my normal time spell but not as strong and a little energy spell. It weak, like sticking fork into outlet."

"Hm. So, maybe PK 1a. I'd like to see if you could learn to do that without the needles; you don't necessarily follow our rules, but it still sounds like a crutch. And you'll probably spend some time trying to strengthen the effect. At any rate, that's a starting classification, and I'll let the lab techs at you next week or so. Now, for less nerdy chores. I can get you a full scholarship and a legal identity on the basis of your 'traumatic manifestation', so that shouldn't be a problem. You might have to take on a part-time job for the scholarship's sake unless you're comfortable mooching off Mr. Santacruz. Which you may be, I suppose. And you'll have to determine where you want to live. Of the cottages, the ones that you could fit into without irritating maneuvering would be Dickinson and Poe, which serve as the non-monstrous women's dorm and the queers' dorm, respectively. Richardson and Santacruz live in the latter, if that's a factor."

Damara shrugs, "I guess dorm with those boys work, they cute enough. I guess I can do job but my English reading kind of shit so if you want me to be secretary find someone who like my skirt. Anything to worry about when your lab boys probe me? Will I need to bring lube?"

"Good call, Dickinson is full of bitches. I barely graduated from there without a body count. We've already got a full complement of secretariat, I'm afraid; scholarship jobs are mostly cleaning work. Sewer duty has the highest pay, and you get to kill monsters. Otherwise there's various janitorial jobs, landscaping, et cetera. And the lab boys are very professional, I assure you. Plus, they'll be absolutely terrified of you, so you'd be safe regardless."

"Okay, I bitch enough for entire dorm anyway. Maybe I take job to kill shit, it sound fun but I not sure about walking in shit while doing it. Why that problem you have anyway? Do you not have grates in this world or do lab techs keep dropping waste down there to mutate the rats?"

"Some chucklefuck decided to install a portal to Hell down there, and it leaks occasionally. But there are also horrible sewer mutants. More albino crocodiles than giant rats, though."

"Why the fuck would you do that? How the fuck would you do that?... also you want drink? I still have bottle from magic bar and your wrinkles tell me you need lots of alcohol."

"How: lots of magical unpleasantness and some human sacrifice. Why: probably to destroy the world, or something? I'd love a drink, but I've got brandy in my office, so you can keep your Chateau du Cat Piss with my blessing. Do you need food, or should I show you to Poe?"

"Take me to my room and then point me in the direction of the sweets." She takes the small bottle out and tosses it into a trash can behind her. "Does anyone give shit about alcohol rules here?"

She smiles and puts out her blunt. She likes this woman more than she liked anyone in her old highschool. In her head she is memorizing the route, keeping time in her head for how long she needs to go down each corridor. "Whoever designed this place probably came from that portal, how you remember all of it?"

"Well, let's see. I have an eidetic memory... my mental processing speed is several dozen times that of a human... I have the ability to instinctually determine the best path to take at any time... I can read the future... I can see the power lines in the walls leading to Poe... the ley lines are aligned with the house of Venus... and I guess I've always just had kind of a knack for finding my way around."

"Not fair, I demand map or a phone app or something. You even have phones in this world? Actually what do you have in this world, that probably biggest question. I know there is weed and chocolate but what about less important shit?" Damara is slowly realizing that she might be taking this a little too calmly.

"I am going to try the shit out of those mad science drugs and no one will stop me." She smiles again, showing her gratefulness to Johanna in the most tactful way she is willing to do so, "Thank you for telling me all this old lady. As long as no assholes with swords are hunting me down I think I will stay. Do I have to worry too much about things in this school besides highschool bitches and mutant crocodiles?"

"We maintain a culture of bullying to inoculate our students against the harsh realities of life. You may want to get a protector of some kind; many of the bullies are more powerful than you are. Xan may serve, he's scared them off by setting them on fire enough times. Also, we occasionally have people trying to bring about some kind of apocalypse, but usually they're thwarted. Other than that I can't think of anything."

"I'll get myself enough minions, don't worry. Well maybe worry, I apologize for nothing that happens to anyone because of me. Otherwise give me a warm bed and lots of sweets and I am happy."

"You'll fit right in."

"[Of course, lead the way. A single sounds perfect unless you wish to occupy a double with me. I have nothing on me except these clothes and the valuable things they cover up]"

"[The important thing is that I speak whatever language causes your trousers to tent up.]" she says, leaning closer to him for the fun of it. She debates lighting a blunt so that she has something to blow into this man's face but there is a chance he would be less cool about such things then the headmistress. "Lead me to room now"

"Can I have extra clothes," Damara asks, laying down on the bed. "I've been stuck with this uniform for days." She takes off her red shirt, both to fluster Mr. Dresden for her own amusement and to see if the stripping would make him suddenly run out of the room.

Damara laughs, "You need better tastes but okay. I'll shower and then go. Anytime you change your mind on me stripping just ask." She punctuates her statement with a wink.

Damara lets out a little cheer at her victory and then falls asleep shirtless on the bed. She eventually wakes up in the middle of the night and goes for that shower, intending to be clean before she checks in the C-store has anything worth wearing.

The showers contain one (1) other person, a sexless angelic being with marble skin and gold-flecked wings. They nod politely to Damara. "Are you the new resident? I'm Sky. That's- that's my name, not my codename, my codename's Mercy. I'm Sky. Hello."

Damara walks around the marble angel, confused. How is she supposed to sexually harass Sky to assert dominance if they have no sex to harass? "Hello," she says nervously, "I'm Damara, no codename yet... can you fly with those wings when they are full of water?"

"Not very well. I've got a little magic widget from a friend of mine that dries them out really quickly, otherwise I'd have to fluff the feathers out and get in there with a hairdryer every time I showered. Like long hair, but even worse." It shudders. (There is no hair anywhere on Sky's body. It does not seem bothered by this.)

Damara is going to figure out some way to sexually harass this being, if a sufficiently blunt statement would not do it then perhaps touching will. She steps closer to the being and runs a hand through its wings, feeling the feathers on her fingertips. "I like these" she says, playing with individual feathers using her fingers, "These feel so very strong."

Sky twitches. "Please don't touch me without my permission," it grits out. "They are very strong, yes."

She smiles and backs off, holding her hands up. "Alright, whatever you say big... birdy? I don't know, what right word for you?"

"Bye bye birdy," Damara says, waving at Sky as she leaves. She laughs and strips out of her clothes, throwing them into a corner and then turning on the shower hot enough to turn her skin red and fill the room with steam. Her body shows the end result of multiple very close calls with wardens with large cuts from sword slashes and stabs across her torso.

"Don't bully the angel, it's tacky. Nice... shirt. Do you want me to dry you or would you rather stay transparent?"

"It just my way of saying hello," Damara replies, tilting her head slightly so that her hair would cover her face and she could achieve maximum creepy Japanese schoolgirl. "Anyway this will dry by itself, no need to waste power on it. In fact its my treat to this dorm." She sits down next to them. "You mentioned there would be weed?"

"We can't smoke, it's past curfew and there's no spots inside the dorm."

"Leo, you're hilarious. No, sure, let's go get stoned. Can you fly?" He gets up and drags Leo towards the stairs.

"I didn't get fairy wings when I got the time magic so I don't think so." Damara follows them. "Where do I get a boyfriend that easy to boss around?" she asks Xan.

"Good fucking luck with that," snorts Xan. "Leo is a physically impossible level of pushover." With his free hand, he ruffles Leo's hair.

Leo bears hair-ruffling with dignity. "The secret is that if I don't actually resist, him dragging me places is actually just holding hands. And, you know, if you have to have somebody unapologetically running your life, he's not the worst guy to do it."

"That is a fucking lie."

"Okay, yeah, that's a lie. But I don't mind him running my life. It's cozy."

"If you say so, no one gets to run my life but me," she says, clearly amused at the boyfriends. "Maybe I will make quick exceptions for those that supply me."

"I don't order anybody else around this blatantly, don't worry. If you end up doing my bidding it'll look like a total coincidence."

"A coincidence that gets me high, I hope. You on the other hand will do my bidding without getting any of my weed because I don't share."

"Nobody's bidding is being done, we're going out for a smoke. Power plays come later. Wait until you're a political entity on campus, then he'll start plotting at you. This is just recreation."

"I can see why he is so easy for you to control. I already almost got through school once, I learned that it is always plotting." She then copies Xan's earlier move of condescendingly patting him on the head.

Xan chuckles. (Leo scowls and bats her hand away.) "Yeah, yeah, everything's a power play. But we're in the preliminary stages of all that. Still feeling you out for when you're established, et cetera. Speaking of which, you should probably get a codename. Any ideas?"

Damara shrugs, "I don't know... that really have to be part of being in this school." She thinks about it for a bit and then remembers some of the teasing she used to have to deal with. "How about witch, I mean these powers are magic right? Thats good, I will be the Time Witch."

"Well, there's been worse codenames."

"I assume you're referring to Power Pork? Because that's the only name worse than 'Time Witch' that I can think of."

"Yeah, I'm talking about Power Pork. Damara, I hate to break it to you, but that is the shittiest codename."

"Give me a better one or deal with that one."

Leo ticks down his fingers. "Clockstopper. Chronomancer. Hourglass. Momentum. Timer. Shall I go on?"

"Do you have one that doesn't make me sound like a sentai villain or a kitchen appliance? You get bonus points if I can also theme it with a cute costume."

"Tempus Fugit? You could wear tacky angel wings. Sky could accuse you of cultural appropriation."

"Sentai villain names make the best codenames, honestly. He's Hemomancer, I'm Scion, we know a chick called Stormhammer... You learn to deal with it."

"Just call me Damara until I do something cool, I'll get a codename that way... Also hemomancer, really? This is my second language and I see all puns"

"Bite me."

"I keep saying, you should just make it official. Rename yourself Homomancer and have done."

"I swear to God, I will castrate you with your own teeth."

"I said nothing."

"I'm pretty sure he still wants you to bite him." She fails to resist laughing at this situation. "Atleast my choice would have also given me the nickname time bitch."

"When do I get to be a magical girl?" Damara asks, holding on to Xan. "I want to be able to flash everyone before I fight." Despite her jokes her smile is more of a happy child then of a cruel bitch. She starts to make plans to validate all her years of cosplaying.

"I am glad you are using your powers appropriately and responsibly." She takes out the blunt she had been smoking throughout this rather ridiculous day and lights it. "I might just join your team if you can make me look like a sailor senshi. They do have Sailor Moon in this world right?"

"Leo can probably tell you more about that than I can."

"God damn you to hell. Yes, I can name all the fucking senshi and design their costumes for you in appropriate colors and materials, and I can probably turn you into a fucking fan-senshi if you want. I was a little girl for a very long time, dammit!"

"There is lots and lots of porn made by adult men so you do not have to feel shame about liking it. Not that you should feel any shame at all, not unless they also have the bad remake in this world and you happen to like it."

"Ugh. Remakes."

"Leo being fucking ridiculous aside, I recall a purpose to this expedition. In the spirit of friendship, I will share my pot with you on this occasion."

"Fucking hell, the world is ending."

"Or your boyfriend knows what is good for him. Although if we are going to end a world lets end the one I came from since everything of value besides my sister's corpse has left."

"Sorry about your sister, I guess." Xan pulls out the bag he got from Milliways and passes it over with some papers, after rolling one for himself. He lights his with a flick of his thumb.

Leo takes out his own stash, but uses a pipe. He uses the same lighter spell.

"Put your fucking pinkie up, why don't you," Xan mutters.

Damara just uses a paper and an actual refillable lighter with an etched sailor moon logo. "Its fine, she's probably enjoying herself meeting all the skeletons she loved digging up." She lights up and lays down, blowing smoke into the air. "O do hope the sex is good enough to justify that pipe"

"Excuse me for having some fucking class," Leo sniffs. (He immediately goes into a small coughing fit.)

Damara starts laughing, "This is not fair, I demand a submissive fuckbuddy that is this adorable." She shakes her head, "Just use a bong, it is to weed what a pipe is to tobacco."

"Bongs are declassé."

"And you can find adorable people to terrorize scattered all over this great campus. This one's the best, though." Xan drapes himself over Leo.

Leo pets his hair in a beleaguered sort of way. "He gets really clingy when he's high. For reference."

"My ex used to look at other peoples asses more when he was high, clingy is a lot better." She takes very long drags between sentences, a less experienced user would find themselves passed out. "If anyone is going to fuck up this relationship it will be you."

"Thanks."

"The variety and quantity of your baggage is amazing. Kudos."

"Is it baggage if I tried to stab holes into all of it? Besides don't tell me you have no problems in your past."

"Stabbing your baggage does not make it less baggageful, no. And I've had trouble, but your shit is clearly a level beyond. Or it all happened yesterday, one or the other."

"It was recent, if my time travel powers ever get really strong then I will introduce you to me from two years ago and then we can kick her face in together."

"A worthy goal."

"First I need to go further then a two minute hop and maybe get a longer music box. Also I need to have a magic wand. Maybe I'll figure out how to enchant my hair sticks."

"If you join our team, I can get Sally to make you some new needles. Maybe out of adamantium. That'll go straight through bone, you know. And she could inlay some mithril to help you focus your magic through them. That's what she did with our armor, it makes our magic work way better."

"So tell me one sexy yandere to another," Damara says before blowing smoke into Xan's face. "Are you always this generous to new girls?"

"Okay sanctioned violence is fun," Damara says, looking slightly disappointed that Xan was unphased by the smoke. "Okay I will be on your team for as long as I decide its worth it." She takes another puff, this time blowing at Leo. She is going to get someone to couch dammit.

Xan considers the shadowy mask and sends a puff of red smoke curling at it. The shadows curl away at its touch.

Leo coughs some more. "Goddammit, Xan, I know where you sleep!"

"Is that not where you also sleep?"

"Irrelevant!"

"He's threatening to put fire ants in my bed again," Xan clarifies. "Because it worked so well the first time."

Damara laughs, this is better then her animes. "There is lots of money you two aren't making by not filming a porno reality show out of your dorm."

"I've tried to convince him, but he never lets me film it."

"You know that thing where we're legally minors? That didn't stop being a thing, or anything."

"Pussy."

"Those rules are bullshit, just be an anime 19 year old. All you have to do is have big boobs, dress like a middle schooler, and actually be like 12."

"There's an idea. I could commission porn of us! With life modeling, maybe? Damara, can you draw hentai?"

"I veto any idea that involves us playing out your weird exhibitionist fantasies. Pervert."

"I can actually draw okay hentai, I might have to be creative with your hands. Just send me reference photos and I will make it work. Lots and lots of photos."

"Veto. Veto. As in not a fucking chance. Draw them from your twisted fantasies, devil-woman."

We'll talk, Xan mouths.

"Don't worry, I will do plenty of that." She smiles at Xan. "So whats contracted violence like, who do I get to kill and how much fun can I have?"

"Sanctioned, not contracted. Contracted is a different org, they're unsanctioned and they're a bunch of pretentious assholes. But we get to beat the shit out of anybody who's disturbing the peace, and we murder each other in the combat sims a lot. And sim murder is fun. No holds barred free-for-all, capture the flag with murder, dark Phoenix scenarios... It's a berserker's wet dream."

"There is no part of what you just said that I don't want into. I need more practice killing." She stands up and walks to the end of the tree house. "There is one last thing I want to test before I say yes, Catch me motherfucker!" And then Damara jumps out of the tree house as part of the worlds most absurd trust fall.

"Very," she says with a smile, managing to land perfectly on her feet. There are perks to being able to slow down her own personal time stream so that she has more time to figure out how to land. "Okay I'm on your team then."

"I'm sure Harry will be thrilled that you took it upon yourself to recruit an interdimensional refugee hunted by the Wizard Cops for apparent mass murder."

"Ah, yes, the discerning tastes of the man who allowed me into his vigilante organization. How could I have forgotten his refusal to accept the other members of our team who have murdered people, such as all of them except Sky."

"I only tried to murder two people!" Damara complains facetiously, "One of them just doesn't have feeling from the dick down and the other one got healed by her girlfriend somehow after I turned her to cheese. And that fire was totally justified anyway, the fucking school was condemned."

"Wow, you didn't even successfully kill anyone. That is a good track record, by Harry's standards. Kind of a shitty one by ours, but there's time yet."

"Not for lack of trying, I still want to know how that bitch came back to life. I'm pretty sure I heard air coming out of the holes in her lungs but the next day I saw her looking just fine. Then she saw me and screamed. Fun times."

"It happens to the best of us."

"Maybe we should get a healer on our team for this. Her being scared of me was more fun then the actual kill."

"We've got a healer. You traumatized it. They're mostly an auxiliary, but they're around."

"I won't make it watch then, not unless they piss me off anyway."

"Mercy's got a stomach for gore, don't worry. Wouldn't be a very good healer if it didn't. It gouged my eye out with its thumb in a sim once, it was great."

"How strong is it? They were like a second away from hitting me with their wings."

"It's only an Ex-2, so if it was punching you it'd feel like you were getting hit by an Olympic-level athlete. Those wings are serious fucking business, though, they could break you like a twig. I recommend staying the fuck away from those things."

"They were nice to touch. Its got some history getting touched in places it doesn't like."

"Yep. Congratulations on being very, very creepy and making a really nice person feel bad. Please don't be mean to Sky. Feel free to be worse to me to compensate."

"They'll get over it," Damara says with her normal current level of concern for the feelings of others. "If it doesn't like me then they can ask me to stop or punch me in the face. One is better at stopping me then the other."

"I'll let them know. Would a one-on-one sim fight be an acceptable setting for a punch in the face to establish dominance, or do you need it in meatspace?"

"As long as it hurts, there is no point otherwise."

"It'll hurt like hell, it just won't do any permanent damage. Tap-out or to the death?"

"Their choice, I won't tap out. No matter what happens I will leave that sim laughing."

"To the death, then. Sky'll probably be alright with you, honestly, they're good at taking the good in people. They just opened nice when they should have opened hard. This is a pretty good opportunity to see how you are in a fight, really. We've got sim time on Saturdays, we'll set something up tomorrow. And maybe we can arrange a Dark Phoenix, those are always fun."

"What even are those? Dark Phoenix, is that a reference to those American comics they made bad animes of?"

"Yep. Basically it's a sim for when one of your team members goes evil and gets a massive power boost, and the rest of the team has to try to take them down. We had one for Ariel a while back where she absorbed the Magus Force and found the remnants of the Champion Force and decided that she was going to take over the wooooooorld. That was great."

"She killed us all in literally under a minute."

"And it was badass!"

"I want in on that... what would I even be like with a power boost? I could probably make loops where I'd be in maybe 40 places at once."

"Eh, you'd still need a big gun to pose a credible threat to Ariel. Maybe they'd give you TK or mage powers or something."

"You're sure your only power's the time shit? You don't have, like, energy blasts or telekinesis or anything?"

"I got this little shocking thing I can do through yarn, I'm told it hurts like a bitch. Otherwise fuck if I know. I only recently found the time shit, maybe if I had a magical girl transformation I would find more powers."

"...Through yarn? Only through yarn? I admit I don't know what kind of magic you're working with here, but that sounds like a crutch to me."

Xan holds his hand out languidly. "Try to shock the hell out of me. No yarn, just amperage. Imagine the look on my face."

Damara takes his hand. "I never tried it this way but we will see." She presses his hand tightly and thinks, concentrating on the idea of hurting him. She hits him with quite a bit of power, unfortunately since the two are directly touching she also hits herself. Her eyes widen but she tries her best to not show any signs of pain despite the fact that she is frying her own hand.

Leo completes the circuit! "Jesus!" he yelps. "Why do you people keep hurting me?"

Xan makes an entirely indecent noise that he tries and fails to disguise as a giggle. "So- so that worked. Wanna try at range?"

"Hm. Can you send it through metal? I don't have anything conductive on me, though... anyway, this is the kind of shit the lab techs are gonna put you through a couple hours of. So you've got that to look forward to."

"It goes through me needles too so probably. I mostly know how my powers are useful when it comes to running away from assholes with swords. I guess I'm at this school to find out."

"That's the spirit!"

Damara thinks for a moment. "One question and then lets head back, I got enough weed in me for trippy dreams. Do ghosts exist?"

"Eeeeyep. One of our auxiliaries is a ghost-speaker. Why, are you getting haunted? Ariel can eat it for you if you like."

"I don't know, sometimes when I am sober and really mad I feel things. Its weird and I want to know who is watching. If I don't like them then eat them."

"Well, we can introduce you to the resident Ghostbusters tomorrow. For now, let's get back to Poe, where we two shall eat snack food and watch terrible movies until the dawn. And have prodigious amounts of sex."

Leo rolls his eyes but declines to comment. The two of them perform their magical girl transformations and wing it back to the roof, Damara in tow.

"Shit," Xan hisses under his breath.

"[Hello, you here because touching yourself was not as good as touching me?]"

"What, for being out past curfew?"

Harry points disbelievingly at his own face. "You see how I have a nose? I honestly have no idea how you expect me to miss the smell of weed, but you are very, very wrong."

"[You must really love fucking dead dogs if you could choose one of those over me.]" She says, stepping closer to him. Her body moves very suddenly, skipping forward like a video on a bad internet connection. A lit joint is in her hand, she blows a cloud of smoke into his face. Benefits of time travel. "[All the weed is from me, dog-corpse fucker. So bring your paddle down on my ass.]"

Harry makes a twisting gesture with his hand. The smoke dissipates, and Damara's joint burns in on itself, the smoke feeding into the flame until it's nothing more than pungent ash. "Miss Megido, I don't want to antagonize you; you're a new student and you've apparently had a rough few days. But if you continue to harass me, you may find yourself unable to feel the effects of any mind-altering substance more potent than coffee. Not that I would do that to you intentionally, as I'm sure that's technically a form of cruel and unusual punishment. But I'm a chaos mage; to me, magic is like breathing. The right provocation just brings it out. And it can be remarkably difficult to remove that kind of effect."

"If you do that then you will have killed me," Damara replies. "But I do not wish to die yet so I will behave."

"Good. As I said, I don't want to make your experience at Whateley unpleasant. I'm not even going to give you detention, this time; first offense, and all. If you can control your raging lust for me, I think we may be able to get along quite well."

She sticks her tongue out at him and flips him off. "Don't worry, its dry as sandpaper down there."

"Good to know. Now get to bed, all of you. Xan, Leo, I'll be expecting you in the sims tomorrow morning. And at your respective detentions tomorrow night."

"Fine, they better be as fun as I was promised." She follows Xan and Leo back to the dorms.

Harry looks confused, but lets it go. The boys head down to their room for various bed-related activities.

Damara falls asleep pretty much as soon as her head hits the pillows. Her powers activate on their own, giving her a much needed extra few hours of sleep.

Damara rises up in an instant, reaching for the needles in her hair to stab whoever prodded her. It takes her a second to remember the events of the previous day. "I'm awake asshole, no more prodding."

"I can get them, next time tell me what time to wake up and I will be up!" Damara says, clearly a little annoyed. "If I stab you by accident it is your own dumbass fault." She gets up and pushes past the boys to the shower.

"Hello birdy!" Damara says with the most exaggerated happy voice she can muster. She has no concrete plans for ruining the angel's day but she will figure out something after she gets herself freshened up for the morning. She turns the shower on hot and closes her eyes, letting the scalding water hit her face.

Damara picks the pinkest looking soap she can find. If she is going to be a misanthropic bitch she may as well do so while smelling of spring flowers. "Hey birdy, help me with my hair," she says after she is done, trying to remake her prefered bun.

The birdy continues to decline to respond! In fact, it appears not to be moving at all. How odd.

Damara realizes what is happening and sighs. She kicks aside the partition and looks at the hologram. She can't figure out where its coming from but it gives her ideas. Someone was messing with her and she would repay them 12 times over.

In the meantime, several high-pressure jets of ice water slam into her face with teeth-jarring force, and a filament springs out of the wall to give her a shock that could be described as "the joy buzzer from Hell".

Damara reacts to this prank with unsettling laughter, even as the the jet of water knocks her to the ground and electricity courses through her body. 12 times over would apparently not be enough. "[Enjoying my hard nipples?]" She asks to the room on the off chance the prankster is listening. She gets to her feet and walks to her clothes, there is a wide smile on her face.

Damara hands the towel back to Sky and puts her clothes back on, she decides Sky doesn't need to know what just happened to her. Not only was it embarrassing for her to be caught out like that, she also doubts Sky would be willing to be complicit in her revenge. "I just want to know who makes shit like that, my room is bare right now and holo decorations would be nice."

Sky's face lights up. "Oh! Well, if you're just looking for decorations, my boyfriend does some really nice hologram work, and he's always looking for commissions. And then there's Spark, she's an actual artist but she uses hard light displays for maximum effect, and... Do you want a list? I'd be happy to help you personalize your room, that sounds like a great way to adjust to a new world."

"Sure, list would be nice," Damara says, putting up her actually sweet smile. Maybe she will actually grab some decorations off of whichever one of these people isn't responsible for hurting her. She really hopes that Sky's boyfriend wasn't the one responsible but revenge is much more important then her relationship to the apparently very nice Angel. "You are very helpful, thanks."

"Well, we, uh, got off on the wrong foot, I think. But Xan and Leo like you, so I don't want to be the team albatross. You know? Nobody wants to be the only friend who doesn't get along with somebody."

"I think," says the girl who isn't really sure what albatrosses have to do with anything. "Anyway can I have list, you have shower to do and I have places to go."

"Oh! Sure." Sky shuffles through its bag for a piece of paper, then rapidly writes a neat series of names and room numbers on it. "This is everybody with expertise in holograms or other things that might be nice in a room. I marked the ones that live in Poe, so you can find them more easily. And I'll see you... in a bit, I guess, because apparently Xan recruited you?"

He sits up. "Yes indeed. Sky's my SO. You fucked up on its pronouns, but I won't hold it against you. You also sexually harassed it yesterday, which I do hold against you, but Sky's decided to play nice, so I'll let it slide. Apart from zapping you, I mean. So I guess it might be more accurate to say we're even?"

Hakim sighs. "I don't speak Japanese. Were you threatening me, or making weird innuendos?"

"[Yes,]" she replies, although she says so while speeding up her internal time as fast as she can. The ticks extend longer, becoming louder as they cease to be ticks. At this point all Damara can hear is the gears grinding behind the clock, she grits her teeth and moves forward. She just needs to touch the visor before whatever defense system thats around it becomes active. If she can do that then she can reduce the visor to dust.

"Next time I stab you in the eye," she says, breathing deeply, she tries to push herself up and then decides that is not happening. "You have asprin or something?"

"I don't give a fuck what it is so long as it works," she says, grabbing the headboard so that she can push herself to her feet. "Do you actually not have asprin or are you fucking with me?"

"Yes, that's kind of been my point here. Revenge is tedious and gets in the way of getting shit done. Anyway, in the spirit of truce I'm willing to give you half off your first piece."

"I like being winner," she says, feeling the headache recede slightly. "You aren't going to be picky if I ask for anime shit are you? Because that totally all I will ask for."

"Not a problem. Extra charge if you want me animating all the tentacles, though."

"I feel like that would be confusing in 3d hologram form," she says, heading towards the door. "I'll send you what I want and money, whenever I get money anyway. Right now I need to find where Xan is for some exercise or something. You know where that is? Sky is there too."

"Me?" she asks. She thinks about it for a moment and then shrugs. "If the teammates are hot and don't fuck me over somehow then I will work with them. So the fuck am I late to?"

He rolls his eyes. "Fortunately, all of your teammates are hot. Or, at least, they're all Exemplars, so they're symmetrical and they have clear skin. I can't guarantee Xan wouldn't screw you over, but you seem closest to him anyway, so what do I know? And you're not late per se, since you're not part of the team yet. But what you would have been late for if you were is the warmup exercises before they beat the hell out of each other and/or some simulated supervillain in the combat sims."

"I want in on the beating the hell out of people," she says, doing a few stretches of her own. The idea of beating people up has her excited enough that she isn't going out of her way to be sexual about stretching out. "You are making this sound like the best gym class ever, don't fail to satisfy me."

"I won't, I'm sure. How experienced are you in combat? Tae kwon do classes when you were six? Street fighting? Having your My Little Ponies try to kill each other?"

"I know how to fight, my ponies know to behave themselves around me," she says, not wanting to detail things further. "[Want to test it out by wrestling me to the ground?]"

"Well, I could. I've got two feet on you, though, so unless you screwed with the timestream it seems like it'd probably be a pretty short fight. And powers would kind of defeat the purpose, so I think you'd be a better match for Leo. He's stronger and faster than a human, but not by all that much."

"[Don't underestimate my abilities with controlling men's bodies,]" she says, not being as actually malicious about her inappropriate comments as she was the night before. She looks Leo up and down and then shrugs. "Xan, am I allowed to kick your boyfriends ass?"

Xan looks over incredulously in between jumping jacks. "You kidding me? I'd pay to see that! If it weren't for the fact you're doing it anyway."

"Can I still get paid?" she asks, cracking her knuckles. She is doing the creepily serene variant of her scary smile. "Don't worry Leo, I'll make sure not to hit the important bits too hard."

"I'll pay if you're shirtless," he suggests.

"Veto. Obviously."

"Can we try to break the veto?" asks one of the unknowns.

"This is not a democracy, Ariel."

"[No it obviously isn't because I would have voted for someone more sexy.]" She has managed to go through every crackable knuckle. "Okay teacher, explain to me how this works."

"Take five, everybody. Kool-Aid, as usual, by the east wall. Leo, in five, you're going to be fighting this one. No weapons, no powers. Victory by tap-out or referee declaration; referee is me, obviously. Questions, comments, concerns?"

Damara undoes the needles in her hair, they would just be too tempting to use if she were wearing them. "No questions, just try not to stop it before it gets fun." And then she goes for the sugary drinks.

He moves back, but only quickly enough to lessen the force of the blow. Somewhat frantically, he throws a jab at her face.

Damara sees two choices before her, to end the fight quickly or to be deeply inappropriate. She picks the latter, rushing forward and taking the kick to her side. She braces herself as much as she can and leans up, trying to kiss leo on the cheek in an attempt to toy with him.

(And, from the sidelines, a wolf-whistle. Naturally.)

"[You're very good. Who taught you?]"

"[My mom and an asshole who wore too much white,]" Damara says. attempting to sound nonchalant. "[Its a long shitty story, there is much better pillow talk about me to be had.]"

Damara starts laughing, "[You are adorable when you are apologetic, give me a cookie and I'll accept you apology.]"

"[I am a slut for many things, most of all sugar and chocolate.]" She snatches it out of the air and scarfs it down. She suddenly wonders if this universe has magical dentistry, she will have to ask later. "[So do I get another match? I like making boys tired and sweaty before knocking them to the ground.]"

"[I'll probably put you up against Sky. It's not actually holding a grudge against you anymore or whatever that was about, but it's a speedster, so we might as well test your top speed against its. Fair warning, though: it might break your arm. Beware of wings.]"

"[If I am allowed my powers then speed doesn't matter, otherwise it is free to kick my ass and heal me after.]" Damara takes out a maroon ribbon from her pocket and ties back her hair. She is taking this one more seriously. "[Thanks for the advice and the cookie, maybe I'll tease you less but you would have to have less cute reactions first.]"