#on one hand i think cosmo and wanda would have given him more information

[teethburger]

i feel like when peri went through pasta puberty it might have been a little bit like that scene in turning red where she turned into a panda for the first time

[fountainpenguin]

Do you have any more information on the "Aspen incident" that's been mentioned in a few of your pixie fics? I'm kinda curious to find out what exactly happened but when I search the name Aspen on your blog nothing comes up

Ooh, Aspen’s fun. I worked it out and you technically have all the information you need to answer that question, but it’s all scattered across different pieces because you’re not supposed to know yet. We don’t get to Aspen’s plot for a long time.

I will not give the answer directly, but I will help you out by collecting some hints in this post. Aspen is someone who was associated with some pixies in an ambiguous pre-series time period. He is not alive yet in Origin or Knots, but we will see him towards the end (in both stories). Here are some things Sanderson mentioned about him in Prompt 14, “Minion”- 

1)

“I haven’t been forced from a gyne since the incident with Aspen.”

2)

“Our arrangement would only be temporary. But then again, so is my arrangement with the Head Pixie.”

As I stripped away my shirt, I tried to remember who had planted such treacherous thoughts in my head. Were they all mine, or were they what was left of Aspen’s influence, acting up now that I was here in the Pink Castle again, the very place where I had come to know him so well? It seemed like Aspen would have been in understandable favor of Longwood over any other figure…

Here is what Longwood had to say about him in Pink and Gray:

1)

“Dear dust,” he says, “I’m obsessed.”

“With yourself?”

“With children.”

Rosencrantz doesn’t know how to respond to this. Rosencrantz is pretty sure Longwood has confessed to something illegal.

“Not like that,” Longwood clarifies, always one step ahead of the younger pixie and gleaning his thoughts. With a thought and a twitch of the ballpoint pen he uses as a wand, he pings a small picture into his free hand. The frame is dented, the glass shattered long ago. It’s not even a real photograph–only a crayon drawing. A child’s crayon drawing. Longwood hunkers into the chair anyway, caressing the picture with his eyes while holding the shaking chocolate mug to his mouth. He says, “I’m obsessed with that–that shadowman you used to call a mentor.”

“Sanderson?” Rosencrantz presses him cautiously. […]

“I saved his life, Rosebud. You wouldn’t remember. It was long ago. Centuries before you were born, I traded the one I held most dear to save that snotlick’s life, and I pine after him even now. You didn’t know Aspen. But I did. I had the chance. I could have chosen to save what I wanted most. What does that make me feel?”

2)

At this, Longwood bends his head, his wings jolting every few beats. He sinks a little closer to the sidewalk. “H.P., I–You owe me for Aspen.”

“I owe you for what you chose to do to Aspen?”

Longwood looks away. It’s an insult. He shouldn’t have asked.

“Sir, it wasn’t a choice. I had to. It was his fate. If I'd–If I’d tried to protect Aspen, Sanderson would have died. And…”

This pause is tenser.

“And that’s your fault. Isn’t it, sir?”

[…]

Longwood’s fists grow tighter, not looser. He does not raise his head. “I let go of Aspen for you, H.P.”

“Pretend that Sanderson is Aspen, and start enjoying his company,” the Head Pixie says. Stepping off the sidewalk, he circles Longwood and continues on his way.

“Sir,” he says, whisking after his boss, “please.”

“What’s the issue? Sanderson and Aspen have a lot in common. They both enjoy cheese and crackers. They both play with their food.”

Now it’s insulting. “Sir–”

“They favor gingertie wands. They do enjoy their music.”

“Please–”

“And this one’s a gimme, but you know how fond they both are of water.”

“Stop it!”

Longwood isn’t aware that his own ipewood wand is out of its sheath until it’s pointed at the back of his boss’s head. H.P. slows. He turns, the metal star on the dangling tail of his hat ringing out in the silent night like a bell on a bobtail. He’s amused, not upset. When his eyes glint, they seem to cast a sheen across his glasses as a whole. Longwood suddenly realizes his mistake, and jerks his hand down.

“Sir, I–I didn’t mean to–” He grabs for his face and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Ní larki… Please don’t make jokes about water at Aspen’s expense, sir. He gets night terrors. Calming him down is embarrassing. And if Sanderson ever knew Aspen was still…”

3)

“I liked your singing,” Betty told him. “You sing very well.”

Longwood glanced over at her, pulling Kenny’s blankets up to his shoulder. “Thank you for your response. I wasn’t sure I would. It’s been centuries since I’ve sung to a child.” He picked a large plush shark up from the nightstand and tucked it under Kenny’s arm. Kenny snuggled up to it and instantly went right back to sleep.

“Do you have kids?” She hoped he’d say yes. She hadn’t seen any pixie kids yet. True, Sanderson said she and Gary couldn’t live in Pixie World forever or else they’d run out of air to breathe, but Betty hoped they’d visit enough that she could make friends with some pixie kids. Did her Earth friends think she was dead? H.P. had made it sound like they did, or would soon enough. She couldn’t go back to Kansas. No more friends. No more family. No more horses. No more softball. No more school. Betty was trying not to think about that.

“I… had a kid, yes,” Longwood said. “He’s gone.”

“Where does he live now?”

Longwood looked at her more seriously. “I mean, he’s gone. He isn’t ever coming back.”

“Oh. That kind of gone.” Betty looked again at the shark he’d given Kenny. “So is that a dead person’s toy?”

“Aspen’s not dead,” Longwood snapped, and Betty jumped at the shoulders. He inhaled through his teeth. “My apologies for startling you, but I always have to express my disagreement when people state that. Aspen isn’t entirely dead. He’s still in there. I can recognize tells of it sometimes. He’s just… not as alive as he could be.” He scratched his wrist, long nails scraping his skin. “I’m sorry. Aspen was my baby. I know it was highly unprofessional of me, but I grew attached to him.”

Kenny stirred in the bed, but didn’t get up. “I’d be so sad if anything happened to Kenny,” Betty murmured. “I’m sorry. Did someone kidnap Aspen? Or did he run away?”

“No. No, he didn’t run!” Longwood’s throat briefly strangled his voice. “He was so trusting. Sanderson cornered him, and he didn’t even–think–when I saw–No.” He shook his head. “No. You would need a full lesson in Fairykind anatomy to understand exactly what happened, Ms. Betty. It’s black magic stuff. I’m sorry. Anything involving Aspen is very difficult for me to discuss, and I would prefer not to breach the subject with a child I just met, you realize.”

(Note - Black magic is performed by doctors. It’s surgery magic.)

That’s all you “officially” know right now, but you’re about to get some really juicy stuff in Origin.

Solve For Aspen

More hints about Aspen’s identity and what’s coming in Origin of the Pixies:

- Technically you’ve already met “Aspen,” but he does not use this name in public. You’ve seen him in a lot of Prompts and some other stories, but not yet in Origin or Knots.

- The life-giving organ in Fae is called the core. It is left behind when a Fae dies (Think about Anti-Cosmo finding Fairy cores on the road in “Tangled Threads”). A firstborn’s core is different from the core of a second-born (It has extra layers of magic around it). Pixies are infected with the bacteria Wolbachia pipientis, meaning they are genetically identical; Sanderson, being H.P.’s firstborn, has a firstborn core.

- Cores take on shapes specific to the individual (For instance, H.P.’s is a laser cannon, Wanda’s is a radar, and Sanderson’s is a pencil sharpener).

- Longwood was born in the Year of Leaves on the Fae zodiac. Aspen was not. So why is Aspen named after a tree?

- Think about what Finley has around his neck. We see him wearing it as an adult in “All I Ever Wanted” but not as a kid in “Evolution Hopeful” or “This Is a Box.” What could it be and why would he start wearing this thing at that age? Why Finley? What’s different about his life compared to all the other pixies?

- Sanderson and Longwood got in an argument during the “Grooming” Prompt. What exact words does Sanderson use in this scene? Why do they affect Longwood so strongly and why does Sanderson feel guilty?

- Where was Sanderson in “Minion” when he started thinking about Aspen? What unique qualities do we know this location has?

- Think about some settings we’ve visited in Origin of the Pixies that explicitly have special qualities. I foreshadowed a location in Chapter 3 (“Love Struck Out”). It comes up again later. Why did H.P. go out of his way to visit in that later chapter and what did he want to do? Why did I think it was important enough to foreshadow?

HINT: It’s near the beginning because it’s also near the end

- Try to remember if there’s a Prompt that struck you as really, really odd… Something that described special location qualities.

- In that Prompt, there were four people who could sense something. One of them showed up late and did not volunteer the same information as the other three. Who was it and what can we not confirm because they stayed silent? What could be happening off-screen during that odd Prompt?

- Sanderson flinched when the Fairy Elder went to touch him in “Minion.” Look at that encounter and focus on what he’s saying. What does he look at and what do you know about that thing?

HINT: Cross-reference with what Anti-Cosmo says about the Fairy Elder in the Frayed Knots chapter “If She Hollers.” Take his words literally.

- Knowing what you know about Pixies and the Fairy Elder, what would you guess triggered the plot in the “really, really odd” Prompt mentioned above?

HINT: Sanderson uses a certain phrase in “Grooming” that also appears in the odd Prompt. What does he describe with that phrase?

- Just before H.P. and Sanderson meet the Fairy Elder in “Minion,” H.P. names a specific location. What is this location and why would I want you, the reader, to know that it’s there?

HINT: Who can get to it?

HINT 2: Don’t overthink it. What is this place literally called?

HINT 3: In several ‘fics, we see special magic keys. Where do you think such keys go and what is the significance of having keys made of different materials?

HINT 4: Why do Fairies not have “perfect memories?” Why do Anti-Fairies supposedly have perfect memories? Why would Fairies not want Anti-Fairies to know about and use these keys?

HINT 5: We will see keys in the 130 Prompt “Repeat.” What material are these keys and where do they come from?

- We now have a person, two places, and some items (and technically a time). How might this information change the way you read Origin?

- Longwood says only one thing in the Origin chapter “Snowflake.” What does he say? Why was Longwood mentioned in the previous chapter (“How to Yoo-Doo”)? Why do these details conflict? What conclusions can be drawn?

- In Origin’s Act 2 finale, “Fruitful Fruition,” H.P. and Sanderson have a conversation where H.P. makes verbatim reference to a quote in a Season 4 episode. What is the context of his talk with Sanderson? What can I do in a backstory ‘fic that sets us up for that episode?

HINT: It’s not a Pixie episode

HINT 2: The quote is VERY specific to that episode and the episode specifically draws attention to it

HINT 3: There is a detail about Sanderson that is easy to forget, so I brought it up earlier in this post. I specifically designed this part of Sanderson in reference to that episode

HINT 4: What was the context of the original quote in the episode? Above all else, the full quote and the context behind it is what Origin of the Pixies is about.

- Four books were recently stolen from the Pink Castle library. Judging by their titles, what information would you guess is in them? (The titles were named in “The Facts of Life” and “What Karma Is”)

- Why could no one solve the crime?

- Take your new information and read “Grooming” again. What does Longwood do at night? Does this remind you of another thing that happens at night? 

HINT: Something referenced in this post

If you can answer all of the above, you should know who took the books, why they took them, what Longwood’s relationship to Aspen is, why Aspen is gone, and why Longwood believes Aspen is alive. Review the quoted text in the first half of this post and maybe you’ll realize why Longwood’s relationship with Sanderson is so complex.

That’s Aspen.

You can send asks here on Tumblr or PM me on FFN/AO3 if you want to share your thoughts, which I’m happy to talk to you about… or you can quietly watch it unfold. Up to you!

[kurtty-drabbles]

Ocean au (Pool of Blood part 2)

N/A: something to further this plot. A small one but the plot is kicking. I think.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @bamfoftheundead

When one thing about magic, and it´s all possibilities, hardly one comes to the question "how magic breathes its first breath" because, for someone, magic is just there and will always be there, but, if you ask to Wanda Maximoff where magic start she´ll have a blast in telling all the theories she has.

Pietro knows about this. Her husband Victor knows about this and their kids know about this too. Yet, her theories and the many other wizards who delve into the subject hardly come into a consensus in regards to the question.

The best outcome that Scarlet Witch and Dr StrangeFate managed to offer to people if they really ask this question, is that this is a gift from Hecate, mother of magic, and how if you truly believe you can wielder its magic in all proprieties in your favour.

Like said before, is only a theory and no one is crazy enough to summon Hecate to make this question. Right now, Wanda´s mind is far further from the answer to this question as she´s watching her kids rehearsing for the big school play.

"Mom, you won´t do that, right?" Tommy asks pouty. "We´re just trees in this story"

"Yeah, mom, we´re just trees, dad we´re just tress" Billy agrees and Wanda and Victor smile as they show the cameras.

"Sorry, kiddo, we´ll take pictures like all the other parents, plus you two will be the cutest trees ever" And this prompts the twins to be embarrassed even more so when Wanda promised their uncle Pietro will be there to take pictures and be their fanboys. Is a nice gesture, but, they´ll still be embarrassed.

The crystal ball lights up and Tommy is the first to run to see it and waves as Dr StrangeFate is present with one cat and one dog on his lap, and Tommy says the dog looks mad at Dr StrangeFate.

"Hello, Wanda, I was doing some research and I was wondering if you know anything about Pool of Blood" is his straightforward question and Wanda frown as is visible something is up.

Her eyes land on the two animals on his lap and realization hits her. "No, I not, but, why you want to know?"

"As I said is research and nothing more. I thought you could have a leading clue about this phenomenon, but, is not important" and turns off the communication and everyone in this house, including the kids, can sense something is off.

"Dad, what´s a Pool of Blood?"

"Is a monstrosity that creates monsters"

Wanda has a bad feeling about this and she vows to call Columbina about what her animals are, but, at the moment. "Come on, little trees, you have to end the song, right?" and the boys whine together but continue to sing the lame song, in their humble opinion, for this school play.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The communication is cut short after all and Cosmo and Jupiter are not happy with Dr StrangeFate and the man knows he´s travelling in thin ice now, but, the Pool of Blood is malicious enough to cause harm and Wanda´s powers are a delicatessen for that thing.

"Let me be in her place, my powers won´t attract the attention of that thing and I know more magic than her" Dr StrangeFate speaks his case and Cosmo shakes his head as 4 eyes begin to emerge in his face and his body begins to grow.

Jupiter is nearby, walking on the corners, watching and waiting, he could end everything so easily, but, at the same time, is so rare to see Jupiter do something this drastic. Celestial mother loves monsters more than humans, but, she loves being a contradiction. Ironic, Jupiter´s patron is straightforward in his intentions.

"And what can you do to stop a Pool of Blood? How can you end it?" The dog asked bemused as the hot breath leaves his mouth. And Dr StrangeFate is left with his own mind and witts now.

"I could freeze the Pool and take it out"

"Can you freeze blood? Her blood?"

"....I´d not know"

The dog shakes his furry head and utters some Latin words, no, ancient words from other planet and time as Dr StrangeFate´s infinity stone is removed from him. "Remember, human, this power can be given and taken, and I´m her son, now, about our other plan...do you will help or not?"

"I obey Celestial Mother, her will is mine will" and this would be over if Cosmo didn´t set on fire one of Dr StrangeFate´s machines. The fire is blue and burns the machine in one go.

"Don´t go make questions your mind is not ready for the answer...and to resurrect the deads only brings problems" Cosmo replied shifting to his "normal" appearance and Jupiter still remains in silence, peering through the human´s soul. This one is different from universe 616.

"As for Columbina, you keep your mouth shut, got it?" Cosmo speaks still under the fire and Dr StrangeFate knows no blade or spell or even venom can take down Cosmo.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

In the life of espionage, one thing you must always have in your mind is how to leave the scene and this is one of MJ´s best qualities if she can say so. And right now, the red hair and her assistant, Peni Parker, need to flee for their lives, but, of course, still in the characters, they are pretending to be. A lovely aunt and niece having fun in the glamorous part of New Gotham.

"I knew it! Coming to New Gotham is always bad news" MJ is complaining as she packs her package in the most calmly and aggressive way one can imagine while Peni, doing her package without caring about the order is just saying how New Gotham was not that bad.

"It has everything here. Nice buildings, nice people and...vampires" Peni states as she has her gun on position and MJ has only time to look Dark Claw and Spider-boy on their balcony.

"Are you going to shoot at me?" Dark Claw asked and the man´s voice is frightening on its own but as he stands up the effect increase 10 times more and MJ does not want Peni to die.

"I´d not know, vampire, you´re the one peeping on innocent women, not very heroic, is it?" Peni asked still with the gun in hands and she shoots Dark Claw, but, thanks to the healing factor, the wound heals the man right away.

MJ looks at Spider-boy who notices her peering gaze at him, hard to not notice, and speaks to calm down the situation, if is possible. "We mean no harm here, Dark Claw just want to be dramatic, in reality, we would like to ask if you would rather work for us...in the future"

MJ crosses her arms and exhales as her green eyes are far from pleased. "Do we really have a choice? If we say no...how can we know you´ll not throw us in jail....we´re far too valuable to you all to ever let us go" MJ states bemused.

"So, I guess, me and Peni have to stay on the JLX´s side, right?"

"Or else" Dark Claw speaks "you would rather face Kilmonger on your own, you think he wouldn´t use you two again?" and Peni and MJ exchanges looks as they really don´t want to tangle themselves between Wakanda and Kilmonger.

"Well, it seems Spider-boy puts the news nicely than you, Mr vampire" Peni states and an agreement is made, MJ may not like, but, this is the lesser of evils in her situtation. _________________________________________________________________________________________

Kurt Ryder is googling on the internet, yes sometimes even him has to rely on good and old Google, to get information about Kitty Pryde, and to his surprise, the internet has nothing useful to tell. Aside from some cat videos and some cat porn (no, Ryder does not need to know about Cats the hentai), he found next to nothing, except this one article.

"Brave little girls escape certain death by sheer luck" he reads the title and notices it has a photo of Kitty Pryde when she was younger, and a girl with green hair who is hugging Kitty (the said girl is smaller than Kitty) and continues to read "according to the police, the Ferris wheel went malfunction in the exact moment those two girls decided to join in and it was a miracle that they didn´t die, but, no one knows how the Ferris Wheel malfunction in the first place as...it was turn off in the first place, investigation will be issued and the Amusement Park Happy Land will be closed"

Kurt Ryder, if he was a less experient detective, could let this information go as it appears to be irrelevant, however, Kurt is an excellent detective and looking at the legend of the photo of the two girls he notices something crucial.

"Kitty Pryde and Lorna Dane Pryde. Two lucky survivors."

"That´s...something"

___________________________________________________________________________________________

On a secret lair, a villain that the JLX hopes is really retired and will never come back to the good old days, is watching a fascinating video on the big screen thanks to his secretary/ sometimes lover provide for him. Magneto is watching a green-haired woman using her power to help someone, Magneto has no idea who is this person, but, it appears she is taking him out of the prison.

"Interesting" Magneto states. "Oracle once told me I have a lost daughter...could this be my lost daughter" and smiles proudly as the video ends with the green-haired woman taking the unknown person away.

Meanwhile, Irene has a small smile on her face. Oh, her old prophecies are coming together.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

The cellphone rings loudly and Kitty answers and is no surprise to know is Jubilee as the TV is showing the news of a person is missing in the Arkhan, but, the twist in the news is that such person was actually not who he claimed to be, which means, the police make a mistake and the system arrested an innocent. And this happened in Jump City.

"Hello, Jubs" Kitty speaks still peering at the news and is impressed by Kurt and Peter´s professionalism even through Kurt confessed to Kitty, once thanks to a nice mood and delicious food, that sometimes is a pain work with Peter (and Kitty wonder if Peter thinks the same)

"Kitty, your sister was here!" and is all Jubile needs to say about the situation and Kitty can picture the image just fine.

"And let me guess? You want me to do something?"

"No, I want you to help me with a case, your sister unmask a crook system here but has no intention of helping..."

She takes the cellphone out to mutters tiredly the name Lorna and that´s the mood for this situation. "Ok, but, I´ll need a favour too if Kurt Ryder asks about me...tell him I´m a sexologist"

"Do I want to know?"

"NOPE"

"Then ok, I´ll cover for you"

"Then...guess I´ll go to Jump City"

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometime later, Cosmo arrives with Jupiter on his back and meet Kitty eating popcorn and greeting them, however, the cat and dog have a concern expression on their furry faces. "Someone watch Cats the movie?" and Kitty is the only to chuckle as Jupiter is not happy. "What happened?"

"Kitty, you need to gather the gang to a new heist. This time...you need to steal a Pool of Blood!"

"....sounds crazy, I´m in"

[southernfxckinghero-blog]

Avenge.

Pairings | Avengers x F!Reader

Word Count | 1,878 words

Warnings | INFINITY WAR SPOILERS, language, angst

Summary | The worse has happened and the reader just cannot deal with the pain.

It had happened.

Everything that everyone had been fighting for was all for naught.

The sound of the golden metal fingers connecting in a snap was haunting, not to mention the fact that it seemed to stop time with the echo that followed. Everyone came to a stop that was in the immediate area of Thanos as he disappeared, no one truly knowing what happened. Steve demanded to know what happened, his voice rough and very obviously worried.

The war happening back in the main area of Wakanda raged on, though not for long. Bucky had wandered from the battlefield to find and assist Steve, but as he made it his body felt different - not like it had ever felt before. He started to stumble more and more with each step he took, finally reaching the area where Steve, Wanda, Vision, and several others had been. "Steve?" He called as the super soldier's eyes landed on him, almost falling over. Before Steve could even think to respond, Bucky slowly turned to nothing more than a dust pile before him. A knowing expression fell upon Steve as he realized what was happening, tears filling in his eyes; how could he have let this happen?

Carnage surrounded Wakanda, full of dead human bodies and alien bodies alike, before the majority of the survivors turned randomly to dust - even the king, T'Challa. There were very few survivors. Steve, Rhodey, Rocket, Thor, Bruce, and Natasha were amongst the only heroes on Earth to survive. It was no better in space, specifically on Titan.

Tony was the only original Avenger left standing on Titan, only with Nebula seeming to survive with him. Strange, Drax, Mantis, both Peters, all gone. The amount of pain Tony was in as Peter - Spiderman - died in his arms was so overwhelming that he couldn't even register it. All Tony could manage to do was mourn into his hands, silently cursing himself for ever involving a child. Wanda had given him a vision of all of his friends dead before him - back when Ultron was a threat - and now that it was real, he didn't know what to do.

Back on Earth, [Y/N] curled into a ball against a tree as salty tears ran down her face to mix with dirt and blood. She had been in the immediate area and witnessed the deaths of Vision, Wanda, and Bucky. Part of her begged silently to be taken in place of them, her heart full of pain. "We need to go," Steve ordered with a booming authority, "I said get up, [Y/N]!" He never yelled before, not really, so this sudden anger made her flinch. It was evident that he was trying to hide his agony, though that was no excuse.

The next few months were full of anguish and regret on the survivors, but after the civil war that happened to break the Avengers apart, it was enough to mend the bullet holes. Steve and Tony began talking again, trying to find anyway to reverse the damage with the help of Bruce. Natasha was reunited with Clint, and the two worked on reforming Clint after the death of his family. Rocket and Thor searched the cosmos for Thanos with the help of Nebula, though they had found nothing of interest. [Y/N] was the only person who remained too damaged to function. She hardly spoke to the others, and when she did it was brief.

Every night, [Y/N] would have nightmares involving Thanos. He would torture her friends, the people she loved, in front of her with no mercy - she was never able to save them or do anything. "It's all right, little one," Thanos would coo at her as he ripped the mind stone out of Vision's head over and over with Wanda screaming in the background, "they were holding back your true potential - potential I can unlock. Take my hand and I will lead you to a life without pain." It was always the same. He would beat people she didn't even know, other aliens, down to a pulp and she would cry for him to stop. Dr. Strange was tortured by spikes of ice going into his face, Spiderman beaten until he couldn't breathe, Loki choked out over and over, much more graphic things happened, then it would all start over.

[Y/N]'s response was always the same, in every single recurring nightmare. "I'll never go with you, you sick son of a bitch," she would cry, "just take me and stop torturing them, please!" She would beg, but Thanos never did anything more than smirk. The end of the dream also never varied, it always ended with all of her friends dying. Every time it happened, [Y/N] would wake in a pool of sweat and start crying, unable to sleep the rest of the night. No one was aware this was happening to her, so they couldn't help.

These nightmares lasted for months until [Y/N] finally gave in to what the dream wanted; she told Thanos that she would join him so long as her friends lived. The Mad Titan agreed to these terms, tossing Spiderman to the side to grab her instead - and then the nightmare ended. The terrible dream no longer happened, and sleep was much easier to achieve. Something drastic had changed though, not that it was noticeable to [Y/N]; she felt fine, but the others saw she was far from it.

Knowing nothing of these nightmares that [Y/N] had, they became confused when she would lash out for absolutely no reason. Her personality had changed and she would mutter to herself about killing them, but everyone marked it off as trauma. It was all very bizarre to the other survivors, especially considering [Y/N] had finally come out of her room to socialize. The nightmares, not that anyone knew about them, were gone, so why had [Y/N] changed into someone completely different?

More months passed by and the attitude of [Y/N] only worsened with time. It had become so terrible, in fact, that she had been in several physical altercations with Clint. Everyone had decided that it would be best to contain [Y/N], but upon sharing this information with her, she lost it. "You people will never understand what it was like to lose everything," she yelled in rage, "I loved them, all of them! Yet here I stay, hopeless and lost in this tower in New York, silently praying that this is all just another fucking nightmare." Her words had faded into a whisper, tears rolling slowly down her face as she mourned. "It's never just another nightmare. Hell, maybe Thanos was right after all," she continued after a brief moment, everyone watching on in guilt and confusion, "maybe half of the universe did deserve to die just to prevent anymore pain, but man do I wish it was all of you bastards instead of all of them." With nothing more than a bitter laugh, [Y/N] turned on her heels and began her way back to her room.

Just before [Y/N] reached the top, someone decided to say something. "Another nightmare?" Steve asked simply, his voice low and compassionate despite hearing such harsh words. With bloodshot eyes, [Y/N] turned to the group and smiled grimly. It was only then did they see how broken she was, how tortured she had been, how desperately she wanted everyone back. Her hair was in knots and tangles, her clothing worn and stained, her nails covered in grime. "Why didn't you come to us?" Steve asked after a moment of long silence, taking careful steps towards [Y/N].

Standing completely still, [Y/N] stared at Steve with an intensity he hadn't seen since the war. "Why didn't I come to you? You were the group that never gave a damn about me," she spat once he was close enough, "Wanda always soothed me when I was upset, y'know? She would sing in her first language and rub my back and do whatever she knew would make me feel better. And I would help Peter with his homework even though he never needed it, he always accepted the help." More tears slid down her cheeks. "Vision would teach me things I never knew, and I would teach him to cook. Sam and Bucky would always argue and I would be the one to break it up," she laughed solemnly, "and once I even spoke to Loki about everything from space to his life, and we had fun together." At this point, [Y/N] was a mess of tears in the middle of the room. No one dared to speak or move in fear of angering her, though she needed no persuasion to be angry - she quickly wiped away the tears, her eyes glaring daggers at everyone. "And what have any of you done for me, ever?! I wasn't an original Avenger and that's why you never gave a shit," she pointed at each individual person, "and I tried so hard to get you to notice me. Whenever Steve was around I would always ask to go to the gym with him, but he'd always say he was busy. Clint and Natasha were always too busy to spar with me. Tony and Bruce were always too busy to teach me anything scientific. And Thor was always in space and too busy conquering people that didn't need to be conquered while his brother fought to be his equal. So, to answer your question Steve, I was too busy to come to you." With those last words of truth and anger, [Y/N] stomped back to her room and locked the door.

It took several days after the outburst for anyone to try to communicate with [Y/N]. Steve was the first, of course, and offered to take her out for whatever dinner she desired, but she declined in a rather rude fashion. The next person to offer to take her out for food was surprisingly Clint, but again she declined. Natasha, Bruce, Thor, they all tried to coax [Y/N] from her room and failed. Tony was the only person to not even attempt to comfort [Y/N] after the outburst because he was hurt from her words, true as they may be. It was that famous ego that held him back, so Steve would say, which would only annoy Tony. Finally, he did walk to [Y/N]'s room and offered to get takeout, she accepted. She told him her order through the door, sniffling and hurt, before he left to grab her food.

That was how everything worked from then on; someone would bring [Y/N] food and she would stay locked away. Everyday was the same process over and over again... until Scott Lang offered an option to travel through time. Of course, [Y/N] thought it was impossible, but when it turned out to be truth, [Y/N] promised herself that she would find Thanos when they went back to their own time. She swore to herself that she would be an Avenger, that she would avenge her fallen friends, and that she would be the death of the Mad Titan.

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (111/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Ten

“What’s our timeline?” Tony asked. Natasha and Steve were gone still but they’d be back soon -- before the end of the day definitely. Tony couldn’t stay still, he moved around the space of the foyer.

“No telling,” Bruce said. “He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones...Tony--”

“He can destroy life on a scale hither to undreamt of,” Dr. Strange finished.

Tony stopped at Strange’s words and leaned against the nearest thing -- some sort of cauldron apparently.. “Did you seriously just say hither to undreamt of?”

Dr. Strange gave him an annoyed look. “Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?”

Tony looked at the cauldron and then back at Strange. “Oh, is that..that what this is--”

Bruce was sort of shaking his head at him, but Tony didn’t care. It was easy to fall back on making jokes and making light of the moment in order to give himself time to actually take in the information. They were all sort of screwed, weren’t they? Strange’s cloak hit his arm. At first, Tony thought it was Strange that had done it, but then it was clear that it was the cape.

“I’m going to allow that,” Tony said with just a smidge of interest to how the cloak worked. Then, returning to the problem: “If Thanos needs all six, why don’t we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?”

“No can do,” Strange said.

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives,” Wong said and he looked serious like they would be no budging him on it at all -- like he would fight Tony if he even tried.

“And I swore off dairy,” Tony said, “but then, Ben & Jerry’s named a flavor after me, so…”

Sometimes it was nice to bring that up in conversation. Most people seemed a little impressed or just completely unbothered.

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts,” Strange supplied and wasn’t it funny that Strange actually knew about it. Then again, Strange had also known about his and Steve’s wedding which meant that this man was keeping tabs on him. And somehow, Tony hadn’t heard about him before.

“It’s not bad,” Tony said. He far preferred Cap-ilicious Triple Berry. Maybe he was biased.

“A bit chalky,” Strange said and Tony couldn’t tell if he was saying it just to rile him up or because that’s how he actually felt.

“A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite,” Wong said and when Tony glanced at Bruce, he realized that Bruce actually had no idea what they were talking about. Right, because he’d been in space.

“That’s a thing?” Bruce asked.

Tony gave him a quick nod and then looked between Strange and Wong. “Whatever,” he said, “the point is, things change. This oath is--”

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.”

Tony agreed. Well, maybe. The thing was -- the thing was that any time any of them had tried to control or use the stone things just didn’t end well. Ultron came to mind. Messing with time -- that was a recipe for disaster and anyway if Thanos was as strong as Bruce described him to be then it didn’t matter if they had the ability to time-travel because Thanos already had two other stones and keeping it was like welcoming Thanos to come at them. Of course, Vision had the Mind stone. Strange and Vision were both going to be targets. And if Thanos got to either then--

“And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us,” Tony said and stared straight at Strange.

“Well, if we don’t do our jobs.”

“What is your job exactly? Besides making balloon animals?”

Dr. Strange stared right back at him. “Protecting your reality, douchebag,” he said and Tony could tell that the dislike was mutual which was just perfectly fine by him.

Bruce stepped forward and he gave Tony a sort of reprimanding look. Tony had missed that look -- it only ever came when Bruce thought that Tony was pushing too hard. He couldn’t believe that Bruce was back -- that he seemed to be alright. There was a whole story to still get from him but he was back even if it was with news of their impending doom.

“Okay, guys, can we quick table this discussion right now? The fact is that we have the Time Stone. We know where it is. Vision has the Mind Stone and I assume you know where is is, Stark.”

Tony was almost a little surprised that Strange hadn’t just appeared in front of Vision and pulled him into this discussion in the first place. Maybe he hadn’t wanted both stones in one place which Tony could admit to being smart.

“He should be at the tower. Or maybe the compound.”

“How do you not know where he is,” Bruce said.

“He’s his own person. I’m not his keeper,” Tony said.

Bruce stared at him. “He’s an android with an Infinity Stone on his forehead and--”

“And he could lift Thor’s hammer,” Tony pointed out. “He’s grown and changed and become more like a person. Anyway,” Tony tapped his glasses. It was a new model that he’d been trying out that morning. So far, he liked it more than the last. “Fri, can you find Vision? He’s probably with Wanda.”

“He is at the Avengers compound,” Friday said a few seconds later.

Tony nodded. “There you go. We know where he is.”

“Yes, and he’s going to be a target for Thanos,” Strange said as if Tony wasn’t taking the whole thing seriously enough. “You should get the rest of that team of yours together. I don’t think anyone will care if they break their house arrest now. This is bigger than that.”

Strange was right. If anyone gave them trouble for breaking it under these circumstances then there truly was something wrong with the world. It was just that Steve and Natasha were still gone and there was no contacting them. Wanda was probably with Vision and it was likely that Rhodey was there as well. Sam was probably at the tower.

“House arrest?” Bruce said. “What?”

“Yeah, you’ve been gone a while,” Tony said and winced. “I guess you could say that The Avengers sort of broke up.”

“Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?”

Tony shook his head. “I guess more Fleetwood Mac. Anyway, this could be worse. We’re all on speaking terms and everyone’s technically on the team again. It’s just that most of the team is also technically on house arrest and so not officially back on the team.”

“Which means nothing now in light of recent events,” Strange said and Tony nodded. “At least it means everyone’s in one place.”

Tony shook his head and he could see that Strange was glaring at him. “Steve and Natasha went on a mission for Fury. Should be back later today but I can’t -- there’s no way to reach them. Well, I have a phone that could but it’s back at the tower. I wasn’t exactly planning on leaving my penthouse today.”

“I think you should go get it, then,” Bruce said. “Thor is gone. Thanos is coming. Whatever Fury sent them on -- that doesn’t matter. We need Captain America and...and Black Widow.”

Bruce winced a little and Tony tried to give him a smile before he turned back to Strange. “So, go on, Doc, create one of your portal things…” Tony trailed off and stared at Strange for a moment and his hair which was moving as if a breeze was pushing it except that they were indoors and this house wouldn’t have been capable of that.

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair, would you?” Tony asked, almost a little hopeful.

“Not at the moment no,” Strange said.

It all became more clear as soon as they all heard the noise coming from outside. And when Tony looked up at the opening through which the Hulk had crashed into Strange’s house it seemed like things were flying past at high speeds. It could have been the start of a huge storm but Tony knew otherwise. It was supposed to be nice and sunny out but really they all had their suspicions on what this was. They had even less time than they had expected. Tony made the decision for all of them and he ran towards the heavy front doors and opened one.

---

Somehow, and James didn’t really think that Tony had done it on purpose, he had ended up doing all the paperwork. At first it had been because Steve was gone and Tony was busy with just about everything else including bonding with his son and James just hadn’t been able to do much aside from his physical therapy. So he’d picked up on the workload that usually landed on Steve’s desk. At first he’d enjoyed the work. But it was getting tiring. Friday helped a lot, but even with her help sometimes things just got boring. He would have given Steve the workload back except that he really couldn’t.

At least once a week he spent long hours working through Accord related things and other Avengers things. Sometimes he had to deal with Shield and the UN and the Accords council and the president and it was a lot.

When Vision wasn’t at the tower hanging out with Wanda, James tended to get his help and together they would get a lot of the work done. But when Wanda came with Vision -- and james wasn’t a fan of Wanda leaving the tower without a good reason -- there was no getting Vision to help him and so when he saw them together early in the day, James just left them be and kept to his work.

It was a while later that Friday put up a message. There was an alien ship in New York.

“Mr. Stark says to stay put,” Friday said. “Vision is in danger. The Mind Stone is in danger.”

“Well, shit,” James said. “What’s happening in New York?”

Friday brought up a feed. There was an alien ship hovering over the city. But if Vision was in danger then why was the ship in the city? Did they not know where he was?

Suddenly there was a loud noise and Friday gave him video feed of that without being asked. There was another alien ship and it was outside.

The facility alarm went off.

“Friday, alert Sam about what’s happening. We might need him here if Tony didn’t ask for his help in the city.”

“Will do,” Friday said.

Wanda and Vision entered the office at a run. “What is happening, Colonel?” Vision asked.

“Aliens. They’re here for that,” James said and pointed at the stone.

Chapter One Hundred Twelve