In the middle of the night... (cw: animated animal skeleton)
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princess_of_ida
2023-11-03 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Once the village went back to normal, Ianthe resolved herself to following through with her promise to send Stephen Strange a special nocturnal visitor. She'd acquired herself the appropriate raw materials and it was deep into the night that she entered the boarding house. The necromancer was alone, everyone else seemingly asleep or absent from the building, but she'd taken the time earlier to figure out which one was Strange's.
The construct, lovingly dubbed skelesnake, was flush with her thanergy and executed her every whim. A little piece of paper was rolled and tied at the base of the skull with words intentionally written in English upon it, secured so that it wouldn't accidentally get lost unless Strange blasted the construct to bone dust. It was a chance she'd take.
Skelesnake silently slithered down the hallway and underneath the door gap into the room where one former Sorcerer Supreme slept. It had its instructions, continuing over to the bed Strange occupied. Up the support of the bed it curled and climbed before slipping underneath the bedding. Once there, it slowly slithered toward the closest leg of the sleeping man, being every child camper's nightmare as it brushed against skin.]
The construct, lovingly dubbed skelesnake, was flush with her thanergy and executed her every whim. A little piece of paper was rolled and tied at the base of the skull with words intentionally written in English upon it, secured so that it wouldn't accidentally get lost unless Strange blasted the construct to bone dust. It was a chance she'd take.
Skelesnake silently slithered down the hallway and underneath the door gap into the room where one former Sorcerer Supreme slept. It had its instructions, continuing over to the bed Strange occupied. Up the support of the bed it curled and climbed before slipping underneath the bedding. Once there, it slowly slithered toward the closest leg of the sleeping man, being every child camper's nightmare as it brushed against skin.]
[ Getting to sleep is a struggle these days: there are a great many things on any given person's mind, and even more work to be done. Wasting hours sleeping is a luxury he affords himself only sparingly, fitfully. So he's only a couple of hours into unconsciousness, sunk fast and deep into the blanket of rest all the same, when something comes creeping.
His body's so desperate for rest that it battles its own recently refreshed instinct to leap up the second it senses so much as a disturbance in the night. The moving something in the night makes it up into the bed, under the covers, makes it halfway up his leg before sleep's grip starts to give.
From there it's one bleary moment of denial, one of dim recognition, then his eyes are wide open in the dark and his covers pulled back, hand swatting down and splintering a litany of fragile little ribs as it goes in blind pursuit of the slithering invader.
Turns out even big shot sorcerers have gut reactions to creepy crawlies in the dead of night. ]
His body's so desperate for rest that it battles its own recently refreshed instinct to leap up the second it senses so much as a disturbance in the night. The moving something in the night makes it up into the bed, under the covers, makes it halfway up his leg before sleep's grip starts to give.
From there it's one bleary moment of denial, one of dim recognition, then his eyes are wide open in the dark and his covers pulled back, hand swatting down and splintering a litany of fragile little ribs as it goes in blind pursuit of the slithering invader.
Turns out even big shot sorcerers have gut reactions to creepy crawlies in the dead of night. ]
[ This is not a text about dimensions. ]
Wasn't aware you were a triplet.
Wasn't aware you were a triplet.
[ His voice is stiff. His personal life's going 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 and it makes him so capable of dealing with added physical discomfort. Hello, Stephen. ]
Thought up a reward.
You can magic up a key, can't you?
Thought up a reward.
You can magic up a key, can't you?
[ There's no response for another day and half, mind on mute, emergency calls only. Kovacs will be able to tell him where Stephen is if he's worried by the radio silence: out in the woods somewhere, taking some time. But eventually - ]
It's alright. I've had worse in worse company. [ But, a beat later, ] Thank you
[ An apology for pain isn't nothing. It's so rare to get one. ]
Welcome back. How are you?
It's alright. I've had worse in worse company. [ But, a beat later, ] Thank you
[ An apology for pain isn't nothing. It's so rare to get one. ]
Welcome back. How are you?
[ This man cannot be serious.
It's exactly four minutes after Eddie announces Strange's death that Wanda tracks him down. It would've been sooner, but she was busy laughing. ]
You could've done a lot better than that.
It's exactly four minutes after Eddie announces Strange's death that Wanda tracks him down. It would've been sooner, but she was busy laughing. ]
You could've done a lot better than that.
[ Here she is, as he knew she would be. The only real threat that can't be mitigated. There's no attempt at hiding, no pause to consider silence an option. He responds immediately, and his tone is light. ]
I'm glad you think so. But who for?
[ Already the shock is pouring in, the panic. If she's the only one he needed finesse for, and he was never going to get it past her anyway, why waste the effort? ]
I'm glad you think so. But who for?
[ Already the shock is pouring in, the panic. If she's the only one he needed finesse for, and he was never going to get it past her anyway, why waste the effort? ]
Edited 2024-01-15 14:00 (UTC)
[ Oh, Jim. You precious, prized man. ]
As safe as I can be.
[ A pause. A careful hitch of breath, fear mingled with relief mingled with an underlining thrum of desperation. Then, in a rush, in one breath: ]
I'm sorry, Jim. It had to be real.
As safe as I can be.
[ A pause. A careful hitch of breath, fear mingled with relief mingled with an underlining thrum of desperation. Then, in a rush, in one breath: ]
I'm sorry, Jim. It had to be real.
Edited 2024-01-16 16:31 (UTC)
cw: inference of intended suicide + the manipulation cw I should've slapped on this whole thing
rehandle
- 2024-01-17 13:42 (UTC) - Expand[ two days. she gives him two days, after hearing about what happened, but he never comes back to claim his shit, nor do his belongings vanish in the night. they're still the frantic, scattered pile that she'd made of them when she was rifling through.
the navigational chart is still in her pocket. ]
Where are you staying?
the navigational chart is still in her pocket. ]
Where are you staying?
[ He isn't expecting to hear from her. Been gearing himself up for at least a day to find the words to break the silence. To find an apology that might not taste like ash.
And then there she is. He startles in his little cabin in the canopy. Stares out across the empty room at the closed door and tries to catch at any of the half-finished thoughts he's dragged together, things he might say to her when he saw her, goodbyes that might not sound like self pity.
They slip away from him like sand. ]
The woods.
And then there she is. He startles in his little cabin in the canopy. Stares out across the empty room at the closed door and tries to catch at any of the half-finished thoughts he's dragged together, things he might say to her when he saw her, goodbyes that might not sound like self pity.
They slip away from him like sand. ]
The woods.
hello Dr. Strange. this is Ignatius Melville, inquiring after your health and wellbeing. it occurs to me that I haven't seen your well trimmed beard in some time, and I miss your expressions of resigned disdain.
I understand you feel like shit. if you need an ear, I have one. I'm not going to understand what you went through, but as you know I'm intimately familiar with possession.
if you'd rather be left alone, I understand completely. but do know that people care about you.
💕
I understand you feel like shit. if you need an ear, I have one. I'm not going to understand what you went through, but as you know I'm intimately familiar with possession.
if you'd rather be left alone, I understand completely. but do know that people care about you.
💕
[ He's kind. Kind in spite of fear, in spite of self, in spite of a great many things. It makes Stephen's brief and horrid spike of white-hot fury, a firecracker primed weeks ago and set off now by Iggy's giving presence in his head, feel all the worse.
He drowns it immediately in a vat of affection, gratitude, humour, relief, recognition, untainted self. He drowns it until it's nothing more than a blackened, muted scrap, and then leaves it to float abandoned in his wake. ]
Thank you. Really.
[ What else to say? ]
Are you alright?
[ There's intent in the question. He doesn't ask in a general sense. He asks because of the smoldering husk of unearned hate floating in a pool of refusal to let it burn, and the action that had set its fuse for delayed detonation. ]
He drowns it immediately in a vat of affection, gratitude, humour, relief, recognition, untainted self. He drowns it until it's nothing more than a blackened, muted scrap, and then leaves it to float abandoned in his wake. ]
Thank you. Really.
[ What else to say? ]
Are you alright?
[ There's intent in the question. He doesn't ask in a general sense. He asks because of the smoldering husk of unearned hate floating in a pool of refusal to let it burn, and the action that had set its fuse for delayed detonation. ]
How long are you able to keep those portals of yours open? Would you be able to set up a door from the town to the peaks?
[ John Gaius, king of a] ignoring any lengthy time periods between communications and b] also ignoring any messy feelings in order to return to the status quo. ]
[ John Gaius, king of a] ignoring any lengthy time periods between communications and b] also ignoring any messy feelings in order to return to the status quo. ]
With a physical structure and a little time, I can affix a portal to a doorway permanently.
[ It would be so easy. To let that be that, slip into old rhythms, pretend he carved no rifts and found no - ]
Are you sure you want to do this the easy way, John? More convenient, but I don't think it'll last.
[ Too much happened. If it's not going to cave in at some unspecified future moment, they have to fortify it somehow. ]
[ It would be so easy. To let that be that, slip into old rhythms, pretend he carved no rifts and found no - ]
Are you sure you want to do this the easy way, John? More convenient, but I don't think it'll last.
[ Too much happened. If it's not going to cave in at some unspecified future moment, they have to fortify it somehow. ]
[ Stephen has made the mistake of saying that House can ask him about anything. Time to make him regret it, breaking into his thoughts completely unannounced: ]
You didn't have sex with John.
You didn't have sex with John.
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