possible endgame spoilers - the dr strange open post.

[rehandle]

give me mcus or au your crosscanons into the mcu or weird space cross-dimensional magic them there I'm easy I just want to play a magical, magical man with too many responsibilities who is also a shit

pre-IW, post-endgame, an au where everything's simpler, weird side pocket universes or suspended states where characters can have some chats, space, the sanctum, post-ml au for those who are/have been in a game with me, etc. the world is your oyster and any kind of thread starter or thread genre is fair play.

drop me a starter or a prompt or just a theme/genre or idea in the body of the comment, or leave it empty and give me free rein, I'll come back at you when I have the get up and go.

please also let me know whether or not you'd be happy to have spoilery themes involved in the thread if the tag-in doesn't already make it obvious.

thanks let's get MAGIC and STRESSED

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[sensor]

( already happened, the strangest doctor says. you think you're dying? already dead, man. tony's eyebrows furrow. he remembers surprisingly little from the fight as a whole - there was steve, he's sure, standing tall in the face of danger. he remembers seeing peter, of course, remembers embracing him like a lost son. other things, here and there. in the grand scheme of five long, sweat born years, the whole thing was over in an instant. the glove, yes. slight of the hand. stephen's all knowing eyes, betraying that veil of neutrality. snap. he knew. of course he did. stark didn't become tony for no reason.

even still, he finds himself slipping. further and further away, years pulled off him like garlic cloves, bunches at a time. whose house is this? it must be his. whose box set of lost is that? maybe his. who are these people?

eyes back on the picture, he remembers. pepper, morgan. his wife, his daughter. his world. he shuts his eyes.

what the fuck are you talking about, strange. )

As, apparently, my afterlife primary care physician — and I hate to tell you how to do your job — but maybe being pussyfooted with a recently deceased person isn't the best choice you've made.

( he lifts his brows, stands up, lips mashed together while his hands fold in front of him. what does he have left, strange? what more could anyone take from him? )

I mean I'm forgetting things by the second. ( he squints his eyes, inquisitively ) Doctor Oddball, was it? Doctor Weirdo? Doctor Love?

[rehandle]

[ a break in still clouds as Tony casts out with wit and some urgency. ]

Don't be so dramatic.

[ sure, you're dead, but you're not gone yet.

this is the first time Stephen's had a person in here. theory made flesh, straight to human testing. not necessarily the best plan. but it can be done. he knows it can. the things he's already managed, he can manage this, make room for this and hold it steady, whatever the cost. Tony's already losing pieces, he can feel it as it happens, but all it does is reveal more of him. that's good. still "alive", still kicking, and Stephen's got the rest - over 14 million versions of it. all he has to do is make sure he gives back the right one.

but not yet.

Tony's owed a life, yes. but he's also owed peace. and if that's what he chooses, there's no need to give it to him at any higher a cost.

he'll even leave him to be an asshole about the name. ]

When I asked you where you wanted to go, you said your daughter. I can't do that directly here. [ there's a but in that somewhere. he's coming to it. ] We're in an artificial pocket dimension. Small, uniquely undetectable. At present it's not accessible by the usual avenues, it's too volatile to stand up to that kind of magical intrusion.

You came in through a back door.

[ facts, simplicity, the complexities of it left for now. another dimension. nobody can reach it. ]

I can't take you to her and I can't bring her to you. But you can oversee. If you want to watch her grow, it can happen.

[ even as he lays it out, he knows it isn't kind. cruel, almost unfathomably cruel, for a man like Tony Stark whose better times have always been spent with people. he's not designed for extended solitude outside of a workshop and he's not designed for sitting on the sidelines.

but the detail of it can wait. no need for it if the other choice is made first. ]