Young Writers Society

Note: Age rating may change as needed, but for now it's 16+ for violence and potential swearing.

The multiverse is a complex place, filled with myriad individuals and countless timelines. New chronologies are created every millisecond; every decision counts for something.
For the most part, these alternate universes and timelines never touch. But sometimes one brushes just slightly against another, and portals open. Perhaps these systems were pushed out of alignment by someone or something within them, or perhaps it was a simple fluke in the space-time continuum; a natural bend, if you will.
The year for the once “Sacred Timeline” is 2024 when several different systems converge on one another at once, and a group of residents from these timelines and universes are thrown into Earth-199999, or as we know it, The MCU.
The portal that opens as a result of this convergence is located in New York City, and those who tumble to the pavement just after the portal closes up are met with a place that may be familiar to them...or may not be.


Let us assume No Way Home has not yet taken place--we’re leaving off right after Jameson’s message plays in Far From Home instead. All MCU instances are canon here, but we need a launch point.



Rules
The rules of the Roleplay tab and YWS in general always apply! The Roleplay Rules can be found here: Roleplay Rules
In addition, though, we do need to get some law laid down since we’re dealing with multiverses and Marvel and the like.
1. First things first--I’m very aware that multiverses are messy, messy things and for that reason I ask that we all try not to take logistics and the like too seriously! I’m pretty in the dark as to multiverses anyway--I had to google what the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s earth number was! This rp is meant to be fun!
2. Characters must be from Marvel OR another superhero-focused company. Examples include but are not limited to DC, Invincible, and Dark Horse Comics (Hellboy, Umbrella Academy, etc).
3. You may peruse any universe in any of these companies, minus Star Wars (Dark Horse Comics). This means comic books, movies, novels, video games, and anything in between!
4. Marvel and some other franchises may have a VERY complicated multiverse, in which case I ask that you provide a very brief description of your character’s situation prior to their departure from their particular universe.
5. Your character can be an OC set in one of these franchises, or they can be a preexisting character. In addition to that, their alignment can be anything! Hero, villain, antihero, in between, stuff like that.
6. This is an important one: Characters in these franchises tend to be very powerful, and that will for sure play a part in the roleplay. However! Excessively OP characters will not be permitted, and godmodding is absolutely not tolerated. In other words, make your character easy enough to harm that they don’t have too unfair an advantage against everyone else. They can be invincible like Superman or something like that, but his villains find ways to make him weak or slow him down, right?
7. I think that’s it; I’ll add as is needed.[/list]

Code: Select all

Character Template:
Name:
Alias (if applicable):
Age:
Appearance An image of your character or a description of them):
Universe/Timeline: Example: Batman the Animated Series
Franchise:
Very brief backstory:
Version:


Here's the OOC! Please post characters and join requests here: We are the Persistent, We are the Misplaced OOC

New York City was in uproar.

This was nothing new; with supervillains surfacing left and right so soon after the reversal of the Blip, the city was in chaos. This was different, though. This was something big...very big.

The swirling mass of neon pixels outside Oscorp Industries had appeared at precisely12:00 A.M. and showed no signs of going away. It jittered noisily, nearly deafening any who got too close.

The police set up a perimeter around the disk at 1:05 A.M. and S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrived on the scene at 1:32.

At 2:45 A.M. the first anomaly came barreling out of the mass at shocking speeds.

~

The hum of the drowning sun was overtaken by a digital roar, and Otto Octavius was blinded by a sudden blast of bright pinks and oranges. The actuators' grip on the metal columns holding the fusion generator in place loosened as he threw his arms up to shield his eyes, and suddenly he was being dragged forcefully into the light.

The next couple seconds were a blur of sound and color, and then he was out in moonlight, crashing head over heels across pavement. Onlookers would see a jumble of mechanical tentacles balled protectively around a soaked green-and-brown mass of leather, rolling like some eldritch tumbleweed toward the nearest skyscraper.

There was a crunch of metal and glass as Otto came to a jarring stop, and the actuators unfurled themselves woozily from their defensive position. He blinked in the sudden brightness--police car headlights, he realized as his eyes adjusted--and tried weakly to lever himself out of the large crater he'd just made in the building across from Oscorp.

"Hey!" A deep voice--very, very unfriendly. Otto pried himself from the broken glass and allowed the actuators to pull him up so that he dangled from their center. The vantage point had been a wise choice on their part, considering several men in suits and about ten policemen were all running towards him with guns drawn. However he had gotten here, it was obvious he still wasn't in the clear for what he'd done at the docks. Best to get out of here while he still had his wits--and his head.

"Stay where you are!" an agent yelled as the dripping man and the mechanical monstrosities rose, latching onto the building they had just slammed into and propelling themselves up the side.
"Fire," another ordered, and the group began to fire shots.

Otto looked down at the rapidly shrinking scene below, gritting his teeth at the sound of gunfire. Better hurry.
Sensing the urgency, the actuators picked up the pace, and in no time he was over the walls and on the roof of the building.
The building which was facing a very different Oscorp from what he remembered. What was going on here?

"Where are we?" Otto muttered aloud, and the actuators chittered in bewilderment.

At 2:45 AM, Batman and Robin had just gotten ice cream from a bleary-eyed college-aged student at the ice cream shop just down the street from Gotham Academy. No ice cream place of any kind should have ever been open that late, but Gotham was the kind of odd little city that took comfort in 24/7 ice cream places.

Batman and Robin, of course, didn't usually go for ice cream at that hour. Any true Gothamite knew they were usually spotted at the local Red Robin on the other side of town. But this Robin was much smaller than usual and this Batman much more awkward, so the tired, underpaid college student working the register secretly thought that they might be some kind of imposters. At least they gave a good tip.

"I told you this would be a good idea," Robin bragged, one hand holding a waffle cone and the other resting on a sheathed katana.

"We almost died," Batman said, leaning forward over his hot fudge sundae. His voice wasn't nearly as deep as it should have been. If anything, it sounded like the voice of a teenager. "Twice."

"It was amazing," Robin corrected. The ice cream was pointed at Batman's face. "They thought you were him! I know Nightwing's supposed to be my Batman, but you're better at it than James. We should do this again."

Batman just shook his head and sunk into his seat. Robin, still looking smug, ate the rest of the cone in silence. Batman didn't say anything as he finished his ice cream, either. When they were both done eating, he just grabbed the large, ratty old backpack from the back of his chair and slung it over one shoulder.

The two stepped out the door side-by-side at 2:57 AM-

-and found themselves in a city that was definitively not Gotham. It had the same chaos as Gotham, but it wasn't right. There was a tall building in front of them that had a crater in it, and a strange thing behind them that could only be described as some kind of strange portal.

There were police there in the distance, but they weren't in front of Gotham's cars. A pit formed in his stomach. Commissioner Gordon would have known it wasn't the Batman, but he would have vouched for the two. Add in the military-like personnel in front of them, and Batman was very much sure they weren't anywhere close to home.

Batman's eyes glowed bright green. Robin's hand went for the katana.

"Put your hands up!" one of the non-police officers yelled. Batman tried to remember if he had ever experienced something like this before, but he was coming up blank. He glanced at Robin; maybe his unofficial sidekick knew what to do instead.

Said sidekick was currently standing on the tips of pointed shoes and digging through Batman's backpack.

"We don't want to hurt you," Batman promised, raising his hands up in defense. He wished had his guns on him. They were technically in his backpack, but he didn't think he could reach them before they were shot out. "We're very confused-"

Smoke suddenly billowed through the air.

"Come on!" Robin whispered, grabbing Batman by the wrist after dropping a just-used smoke bomb to the ground. With silent footsteps befitting of anyone trained by the Dark Knight or the League of Shadows, the two slipped past the rows of agents and officers. They didn't stop running until they were several alleyways away.

Batman took a big gulp of air and pushed back his cowl.

"What was that?" Jason Todd asked, wide eyes still glowing green.

Robin looked at him with a serious expression Jason wasn't all that sure he liked. "We were in front of Oscorp."

Jason stared.

"Like Green Goblin's Oscorp?" Robin said.

"...That sounds like a villain," Jason slowly said. "You never know villains. Did Green Goblin have something to do with the League? Do...Do you think Talia had something to-"

"Jason," Robin hissed, "Green Goblin is from Marvel. And those agents looked like they were from SHIELD—the Marvel organization that ran the Avengers. I think we're in the MCU."

Jason's eyes widened.

Late 2-something AM was the perfect time for almost anything. That statement excluded sleeping and wanting to sleep, of course.

Carmine tilted her head at the piles of dirty dishes covering her kitchen sink. All of the folks she invited to come over to "celebrate her and her new home" dispersed themselves out of the door into the cramped hallway, but they certainly didn't clean up the mess they left. Not much to expect.

With the bit of arm room she had to move in, she grabbed one of the bowls towards the top of the pyramid. Someone had definitely abused their microwave privileges, and it was glaring at her with crust and unexplained debris.

"Never again," she muttered under her breath. It was shocking how someone could mess up a bowl this bad with just a microwave, one of those quick and easy frozen meals, and sheer willpower. Not even the dish soap recommended on those commercials scrubbed it out - maybe they shouldn't have wasted their few seconds of screen time on saving and rehabilitating ducks.

The bowl was unrepairable. It was simple. It was actually quite frustrating. She didn't enjoy throwing it out because it did its function well, containing things and all.

Carmine kept her tableware in the cabinet under the sink. It was less of a bend over, especially in such a tight space. She opened one of the doors and peered into nothing. It was empty. That explains the massive, overwhelming heap spilling out of the sink and onto the counter beside it, and it probably almost went onto the floor as well.

She bent over to get a better look. The angle always made it look darker in there towards the back. Carmine got a plate and silverware set as a housewarming gift from a random work friend she had yet to even look at more than a glance, and what a wonderful way to break it in. Not literally.

The floor tiles were a little wet. Carmine reached both of her arms into the cabinet to see what was in it, and she just felt nothing. Both of her hands touched the sides and the bottom, but there weren't any plates or boxes that might contain plates.

She started to wiggle her way out of it but instead fell face-first farther into it.

It must've been a hard plonk on the head because she didn't find herself in her kitchen when she opened her eyes. It was chaos. There was something behind her that she couldn't identify, but it looked weird and sciencey, and she failed high school chemistry so that obviously wasn't a strong suit of hers.

From afar, she heard someone call out a harsh "Don't move!" or something along those lines. Fear crept itself up on Carmine - the question of who these people are and what they want. She felt the urge to run, but complied with whoever barked the orders.

It was just a weird coma dream she'd wake up from in a few years. Totally.

Zara wasn't supposed to be doing this, especially at this hour. The Pipeline was a creepy place to be even in the middle of the day and with the rest of the team there with her. So, wandering around it at almost three in the morning made everything feel just that little bit creepier.

Despite that, it was one of the few quiet places in Star Labs to take a walk, well as long as you stayed away from the prisoners that is. At this hour though, even if she walked near the cells, everyone was guaranteed to be asleep. It was probably not a good idea for her to have snuck in here without letting a single person know, but she didn't feel comfortable wandering around on a random street and she really needed the time to think.

Zara hummed a quiet tune to herself as she turned to inspect a random part on the wall of the particle accelerator. There was something glowing slightly, and as far as she knew, nothing in this part of The Pipeline was meant to be activated. It shouldn't have been glowing.

She reached out to touch it. In the blink of an eye, she was suddenly standing somewhere completely different. She looked around. Was she dreaming somehow? She'd travelled through enough of Cisco's breaches to get used to teleporting around that way and yet this felt different. She looked around.

She was in the middle of a city. In front of here was a building that looked like someone had thrown a large wrecking ball at. Behind here, there was some strange looking portal of a type she'd never seen before. And around here, that was the craziest of all the details.

She was currently surrounded by police and a whole lot of military secret agent looking dudes, all of whom were holding weapons and very clearly not thrilled to see her.

"Stay where you are and put your hands where we can see them," ordered one of the agent looking fellows.

Z, it looks like we're in trouble.

Looks that way, Frost. I have no idea how we're here. You're sure we aren't just dreaming?

This is definitely weird, but also very real.

Run away, or talk?

The agents in front of them pointed their weapons directly at here.

Lemme take over, we need to run

The rest happened on instinct. She could feel Frost take over and then suddenly she was just a passenger in her own body as she could feel her appearance alter slightly. Soon, she was shooting up in the air on a temporary ice bridge, using a trick she'd picked up quite recently as she took the sky even as an agent on the ground gave the order to fire.

Jean woke from the dream with a start. She didn't remember the details. There were images, feelings. She was on some kind of alien planet. Her friends were all there, beside her. She had sensed that they were all in grave danger. She'd had the dream often since her second chance at life. She'd tell the Professor in the morning. It was still 2:45am.

Scott was still fast asleep. She looked at his closed eyes. Sleep was the only time he could go without his visor or his glasses. She noticed, in the moonlight, a red mark on his nose from their constant wear. He knew his powers were a gift, and without them, he wouldn't be who he was. And yet, like anyone, there were days when he hated the glasses, where he hated the beams, where he just wanted a break from all of it where he could see the world with his own two eyes.

Jean kissed his cheek. He'd been irritable of late, and Jean suspected the fact that the Phoenix force was still inside her was the reason why. It had supposed to leave after safely protecting the M'Kraan crystal. And yet, what Scott didn't understand was that without the Phoenix, she would die. And anyway, she was still the Jean Grey he'd met and fallen in love with all those years ago. In a way, things had been so much simpler then. Still, for now, she'd let him sleep while she went outside to get some air.

When Jean had first entered the Xavier mansion as a girl of sixteen, she thought it belonged to another time and place. And she still felt that way. As she passed everyone's bedrooms, down the stairs and toward the front door, she couldn't sense anyone's thoughts. She knew they were all asleep.

As she walked out the front door, something was wrong. She wasn't in the comfort and safety of Xavier's mansion. Somehow, she was in New York City. And yet, something about the city felt off. She didn't notice it right away. The cars were different. That's what it was. The buildings, too, felt like something out of the future.

A squadron of police was surrounding Oscorp. Wait, that wasn't Oscorp. But it was clearly marked. She wasn't sure when they'd built a second office. Skyscrapers took a long time to build.

But something was wrong. It was surrounded by police. And she wasn't alone. A small group of people was gathered nearby. She read their thoughts, and knew they were just as confused as her.

Kurt Vargas jumped over his backyard fencing as quietly as he could, trying to avoid getting caught on the wire and scratching his leg up thoroughly. He didn't have a plan as for where he was going, but he needed fresh air. Everything was overwhelming back at home, and maybe the night sky would guide him somewhere.

His neighbor's cat scurried across the alleyway into one of the garbage cans someone knocked over.

"Dumb thing," he muttered to himself, hoping the cat wouldn't hear him. His family on his father's side was allergic to anything with fur, but he had a cat growing up until it ran away. It was just a cat, but he'd end up feeling bad if it had emotions at all. Kurt slung his backpack over his shoulder and looked back one last time.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and started towards the bus stop. He had checked his phone earlier to see what times they ran from, and it was getting closer and closer to the last scheduled stop in his neighborhood. He couldn't run because he didn't want to risk stepping on something sharp and hurting himself, so he just started walking faster and hoping that it was fast enough.

The alleyway was littered with, well, litter. He forgot to put on his shoes before he had left, and his socks were starting to gather all kinds of dirt and other gross things.

He took a turn and started down the main street.

After power-walking for some time, Kurt found himself inching closer to the bus stop just as it reached the same destination as him. He took a deep breath and pulled his backpack off as a few drunk fellas stumbled off, shoving him in the shoulders slightly and smelling like skunk.

He climbed up and reached to put his bag on the front seat when he found himself somewhere he's never been before.

A few men dressed in police officer-esque gear started rushing from their cars with hands waving wildly and an angry shine in their eyes. They screamed something incoherent at Kurt, but he didn't hear them through the raging headache formed by his own anxiety. He didn't think he was a coward until now.

He scratched at his head, confused.

The first thought that crossed Otto's mind as the actuators launched him across the rooftops was that he had to get as far away from New York City as he could. There was nothing left for him here; he had failed in his experiments, lost his wife, his home, his credibility. Better to start fresh and find a doctor to cut these damned burdens away from him.

But we must rebuild, a wheedling voice said in his head, and Otto shook his head.

"We can't," he snapped, and the actuators paused a few buildings away from Oscorp. "It's all lost. There's no point anymore." He probably looked like a madman, arguing with himself like this. Maybe he was a madman. There wasn't much evidence to suggest otherwise, nowadays.

Otto commanded the actuators to lower him to the roof; the urge to flee had faded for the moment now that the sirens were a bit further away. He needed to think right now.

Oscorp wasn't the way he'd left it. It was sleeker, darker, nothing like the clunky square buildings Harry Osborn had inherited from his father. The city looked different, too. Not immediately noticable, but now that Otto had stopped he could tell there was something just a bit off with the place he'd spent most of his life traversing. What had happened when he'd destroyed the sun? These weren't the results of a fusion reactor; if Otto was a less logical man he might say this was an entirely different New York than the one he'd just attacked.

The hum of a helicopter overhead sent the actuators into a frenzy of action, and they leaped down the side of the building. Otto couldn't argue with that course; he had no desire to be chased down by possibly armed aircrafts. Even the actuators couldn't stand up against that.

"Into an alley," he muttered. "Get into an alley and undercover. They can't track us if we move quickly enough." The actuators complied, scuttling him along the side of the walls in the opposite direction of the helicopter. A searchlight flicked on.

"I don't think we have time for this," Robin—Damian—Alex said, listening to the hum of helicopter wings up above as Jason slipped out of the batsuit and into his usual Red Hood outfit. Alex knew he had been wearing some of the outfit already. The change theoretically wouldn't take all that long.

Still, Alex knew the MCU. This wasn't like being stuck in Gotham. This was her home turf—assuming it either a) was one of the movies she saw pre-death or b) was one of those sweet, sweet 2012 Avengers fics where everyone lived in the tower.

...Given the SHIELD agents swarming the whatever they had come out of, it probably wasn't the second option.

"I just need a few more seconds," Jason promised.

"A few more seconds is enough time for them to find us," Alex pointed out. She glanced up at the sky. All she could see was a helicopter right now, but she kept waiting for Iron Man to drop in from above. Guns and swords couldn't hurt Tony's suit. Worse, Black Widow could show up. The league was good at training its assassins, but Natasha had more years under her belt than Alex did. Alex couldn't stand the thought of losing to her.

Jason shoved the batsuit into his backpack.

"I'm done," he said. He slipped his helmet on. Giving one last glance the way they came, Alex followed Jason down into the next alleyway.

She slammed into him.

"Why did you-" she started to ask, only to stop when she saw what he was looking at. There was a person in the alley. They looked familiar, but not in a way that Alex liked.

"Doc Ock," Jason whispered.

Alex readied her katana. If she wasn't so worried about fighting a man with mechanical limbs for the first time, she would have been surprised at Jason actually knowing a comic thing outside of Red Hood's lore.

Zara had only one thought in her mind and that was to avoid getting shot. It was an odd feeling to be a passenger in her own body as shots rang past, but it was something she was getting more and more used to with everything she'd been getting upto recently.

Frost took quite high, sliding along ice up until they were above some of the rooftops in the area until the shots that were following them seemed to stop.

I'm putting us down in an alley.

Zara didn't have any objections to that plane and she could soon feel them descending down onto the city below.

Frost brought them down, relinquishing control now that they were out of immediate danger.

As Zara became fully aware of her surroundings once again, she saw something up ahead. It looked like a man attached to several large and creepy looking mechanical tentacles of some sort. That didn't particularly faze her...she'd run into enough crazy things before...but running into said man were two others and one of them was drawing a...katana of all things.

Uhh...Frost, did you have to pick the most dangerous alleway in the entire town?

Would you believe me if I said I didn't see them when coming into land?

What do you think?

I just thought perhaps that man with the mechanical things could help us know where we are...he looks like he was running away from the same gunfire we were, not to mention the one who made that hole in the building. Katana person could be hostile, could be not.

I guess we don't really have another option.

"Heyy," called out Zara, feeling rather stupid. For all she knew, all three of them were going to immediately attack her.

No one had paid Jean any mind as she stood there, in the street. She didn't blame them. For all they knew, she was an average citizen. But what average citizen stood outside at three in the morning in a nightgown?

She tried to sense Scott, but their connection was completely dark. And if she'd somehow lost her connection with him, she knew there was no way that she could contact the Professor.

Could she still become Phoenix?

Two boys in strange costumes seemed to be especially confused as they wandered into an alleyway. The younger one was waiting for Iron Man to rescue them. And Jean was in front of Oscorp. Just not the one she knew. Whatever this world was, it wasn't completely foreign.

While she couldn't see it, she knew the boys were face to face with Doc Ock. But Otto was conflicted, and didn't possess an immediate threat. Still, that might not be the case for long. Jean knew she had to act quickly if she was to find out what was going on. She couldn't freeze time the way the Professor could, but perhaps she could stall something bad happening.

She focused as hard as she could and connected with the younger boy, who she realized, somehow, wasn't a boy but a young woman named Alex.

My name is Jean Grey, she telepathically communicated. I don't mean to scare you, but I come as a friend. Where are we?

Otto paused, as did the actuators, as two forms entered the alley. He whirled, trying to take the other exit only to be blocked by someone else.

"What do you want?" he growled, turning back and detaching one of the arms from the wall to coil menacingly towards what he perceived as the bigger threat--the two costumed strangers. "Stay back." Friends of Spider-Man---Parker, he reminded himself. Spider-Man was Peter Parker--perhaps sent to stop him from escaping. They wouldn't have much luck if he had anything to say about it.
Kill.
Don't kill, he admonished the arm. Examine.

The person behind him, depending on whether she was an innocent bystander or another threat, took second priority. Another of the actuators detached, fixing its camera-eye on her.

~

"Hands where I can see them," one agent yelled at Kurt and Carmine. Several police officers began to approach both of them cautiously, weapons at the ready. "What is your business here and what do you know about that portal?"

Underneath his helmet, Jason stared. It took him a moment to remember Doc Ock wouldn't know who they were. They knew who he was, but it wasn't mutual. He also didn't really know what Doc Ock was up to. He knew it was probably bad. Maybe this was what James had felt like when he tried stopping Jason after Jason's return to Gotham-

"Jesus Christ!" Alex suddenly yelped from next to him. "Meta—mutant—meta-mutant."

Jason stared at her instead. There was another person in the alleyway, too, but Alex was looking right at Doc Ock right now.

"I don't think he's a meta or a mutant," Jason pointed out. He wasn't even sure there was actually a difference. One was just Marvel and the other was just DC, right?

"Not him!" Alex hissed. "There's a voice. In my head. She says she's a friend, but a friendly person would actually show themselves and not do this."

She wildly waved her katana around in emphasis.

"You have a sword and I have a gun," Jason carefully said. He glanced at the alleyway around them, trying to figure out where the owner of the voice was. It could have been the other person there, but she had already spoken. Jason didn't know a lot about metahumans or mutants, but he guessed that it was easier just doing one or the other. "...I would keep my distance, too."

An agent screamed at her, asking about some portal. Goodness if she knew anything about a portal when she didn't actually want to be here. "Hey, hey, dude, I think you got the wrong person. I know nothin' about a portal or whatever that is and I actually don't know why I'm here at all anyway."

The agent shrugged a little, turned away from her, and went to another person in a similar attire. The response probably wasn't what they had expected to hear, especially if something was actually really wrong.

Police officers around her and whoever else there looked around to themselves, probably in doubt or shock or a mixture of those emotions. Carmine followed the directed they were looking at - some kid just standing there. Maybe he also just happened to come from a "portal" as well.

She turned her head to the other side, but she didn't notice anything that stood out. Just cars and even more officers shouting and shaking their weapons in the air. Maybe some crime happened and they're just trying to get to the bottom of it, or maybe it's because of a portal. Either way, this place did not feel familiar at all.

Something didn't feel right about this, but she wasn't scared anymore, just confused. She probably wasn't the only one feeling that way too.

Kurt stood still. He put his bag onto the ground in front of his feet and looked from side to side. People were panicking and officers surrounded him with suspicious looks on their faces and weapons in their hands. One agent called out from the crowd, but he wasn't listening.

The first thing that came to mind was to say something about how he was lost and how he didn't intend to be here when he could be back at home and reading a book, but nothing ended up coming out when he tried to speak. He didn't know what to do, so he put his hands in the air to show that he wasn't actively dangerous despite the fact it didn't mean anything.

Another person was standing nearby. Kurt couldn't see beyond the crowd of officers gathered around them, but from what little he knew about today and whatever was going on, it was probably another one questioned about portals and such.

Now, the agent came closer to him. "I said tell me what your business here is." Kurt swallowed hard enough for it to be noticeable, probably. He simply nodded in response, mainly because he didn't know what to say.

"I, uh, just kind of appeared here."

He wasn't confident in what he had said, because everything felt like it was going wrong. After all, the worst thing that could happen has already happened.