#(who may or may not be plotting to try and bum a sleeping spot somewhere in the pub--)

[burlesque-grin]

🐾{ @banditborn -jump scares you with a surprise starter- }🐾

Oh dear, it looked a lot like rain… And while a light shower wouldn't be much of a bother if it was still nice and sunny out, evening was approaching soon. And the last thing Cheshire wanted was to be stuck out in the rain whilst trying to find a place for the night. However, maybe a touch of luck would be his favor…

Spotting a pub tucked away in one of the backstreets he'd been wandering, the cat soon waltzed his way inside. A touch surprised to find it quite empty, but at the same time, a touch thankful for that… Given the strong scent of canines that hit him upon stepping inside. But aside from a flick of his ears, he didn't let a reaction to the scent show. Instead turning his attention to the gruff looking man manning the bar, and offering a charming sort of smile.

"Evening~, I hope that I haven't stopped in while you're getting ready to close up for today?" Half phrasing his words as a question, the feline went ahead with claiming a seat at the bar. "It looks like rain, you see, so~… I was hoping to hide out from the weather for a while, if you'd be so kind as to allow this stray a seat." He chuckled a little with that, and though perhaps his presence carried the impression of drinking… It wasn't an implication said outright. After all, it wasn't like the cat presently had any money on him.

[crisis34]

So I’ve had this irondad idea that I would KILL for someone to write. I’ve wanted to write it too but I don’t think I’ll get to it.

I started kinda sorta actually writing this in a few scenes 😂 don’t mind my weird idea writing style. Feel free to change what you want or add your own twist on things!! And please tell me if you do write this idea. I’ve had it stuck in my mind and I wanted to make it at least 10k-30k words.

I sadly, don’t have time for that though haha! Soooo hopefully someone wants to write this so I can read it lol

———

The idea is that after Tony passes away the rest of the Avengers talk to Peter for about two years, since Peter spends time at the compound and all that.

But at a random point Peter notices he’s getting ignored by the Avengers for months, they won’t say anything on why they’re all stressed and won’t talk to Peter AT ALL.

One day one of them (most likely Sam/Rhodey) let’s it slip that they have an imposing threat on earth they’re trying to find and it’s so classified that Peter can’t get his hands on the information.

So Peters bummed they don’t trust him, probably gets a line said to him like “Look kid, we really don’t need your help on this. Trust me.” And it destroys Peters self esteem because he’s already 18 and they still see him as the kid.

He goes home one day after school/compound/work or something and when he walks in his spidey senses act up.

Looking into his apartment (moved away from aunt May assumingly) he sees nothing at first so he’s suspicious but not taking any drastic measures.

And then he walks into the living room, where he has a view of the kitchen. And who happens to be standing there eating the fucking blueberries?

Tony motherfucking Stark.

Peter flips out, because he saw Tony die. He’s rambling about how he thought he was dead and all that but then he sees something that tells him -it’s not his Tony-.

The Tony Stark eyes he always remembered were whiskey brown. This guy had glowing blue eyes.

And now Peter’s heart drops. He’s trying to get information out of the imposter and that’s when the guy finally speaks.

He tells Peter about how he’s been on this earth for a few months, the Avengers spotted him through satellite, and how he’s from an alternate reality.

Peter refers to the guy as Anthony since he isn’t his Tony Stark. But he also realizes this is what the Avengers were keeping from him.

Anthony explains how he was drawn here as first (which we later get a point of view from Anthony when he first got on this earth and he wasn’t drawn there, he was told to go there. By Tony Stark whispering in his head).

Anthony also tells Peter that there’s a bigger threat than him on their way, and the Avengers are so caught up looking for him they’re ignoring the other threat.

Peters skeptical, he really is. (If you do end up writing this please don’t make this another Quentin Beck. I don’t want Peter being too gullible or getting used by Anthony because that kinda ruins the plot/already been done in far from home)

Peter has close to no trust for Anthony, especially since he has no information at all from the Avengers. But he still partially believes the guy that there’s another threat.

And he knows he’d have a lot of guilt if he turned him in and there was a threat he could’ve stopped.

So him and Anthony team up.

They look for the bad guy, maybe go through goons/hydra agents for information. But now Peters stumped.

Because Anthony isn’t afraid to use a gun or kill. Anthony’s moral meter isn’t like Tony’s was, especially in front of the kid.

Peter scolds him, tells him that he won’t be killing around him or else he’s shutting the whole operation down.

After that Anthony only kills a few more times, and Peter tries to yell at him for those but he sees rage behind Anthony’s eyes.

Especially since the guys Anthony had killed almost hurt/killed Peter. Peter kept quiet for those deaths and they end up back at his apartment to sleep maybe.

Peters silent after he realizes that it seems Anthony cares about him. This is the night before they confront the big bad guy.

For reference they’ve been together looking for information for weeks!! Keep that in mind cause then you can add your own cute scenes in those weeks of maybe Anthony being protective or helping Peter with homework.

In the middle of the night Peters spidey senses go off, he wakes up and immediately looks for Anthony. He walks into the living area to see the guy peacefully sleeping on the couch.

His eyebrows scrunch together and he decides to go back to bed but can’t fall back asleep.

And then the Avengers break down the door of Peters apartment.

Peter freaks out l, hearing it and Sams familiar footsteps along with whoever else you want to be there. Rhodey would make the most sense with the rest of the Avengers waiting at the compound.

Peter runs back to the living room to where they’re already handcuffing Anthony and Anthony isn’t saying a word, but Peter is trying to convince them to stop and there’s a bigger threat out there they need to be after.

Rhodey or Sam would tell him sternly to get to the compound.

Apparently they had found out the two of them were working together while trying to find out where Anthony was after figuring out he was on this earth.

When he’s at the compound he finds out Anthony has been out in an interrogating place at the compound and each of the Avengers try to crack him but he won’t say a word.

Now(preferably Sam but you can have Peters main Friendship be with someone else, lol but this part of the friendship will be a bit rocky) Sam confronts Peter.

Goes something like this:

“Peter you knew better, why didn’t you contact an Avenger? Huh?”

“Because I knew you guys would do this shit Sam!! There’s a threat! I’ve seen it, we need to stop the threat.”

“Peter, there have been no signs of a threat against earth. At least nothing like he seems to be telling you. Because he won’t tell us anything. I need information on him! Because that damn well isn’t Tony Stark.”

“I know that, of course I fucking know that. You just.. you don’t know him Sam. I swear he’s a decent guy. Anthony is telling the truth.”

“No. He’s manipulating you, he knew you were an easy target and that’s why he went to you!”

Peter pauses for a second, tears catching up with his emotions as he begins to cry. “That’s what you think? That’s what you all think.. of course.”

Sam seems to realize he messed up, but he keeps his mouth shut and let’s Peter talk.

“You guys don’t trust me. I don’t even know why I hang around here, I’m obviously not welcome.” Peter laughs, pained.

“What? Of course we trust you.”

“That’s a god damn lie!! Because if you did this wouldn’t have happened.” Peter yelled.

Sam stays quiet again, remembering how he told Peter that he couldn’t tell him about the threat they were all worried about. Each of them didn’t trust that Peters reaction wouldn’t cause a hurricane of events, it seems it did anyway.

“Do you know.. how scared I was?” Peter whispered this time, wiping his tears away.

“What?”

“Do you know how fucking scared I was when Tony Stark ended up in my apartment! He died two years ago right in front of me and then there he was!! Eating blueberries in my kitchen with glowing blue eyes as if it never happened.” Peter said, watching as Sams face dropped.

Peter shakes his head and continues. “I’m going home, maybe think before you decide I’m to be untrusted next time.”

Sam doesn’t stop Peter because he’s already pissed the kid off.

Either way it was 2am and he assumed Peter wanted some sleep. The whole night Anthony doesn’t say a word.

The next morning the Avengers decide they need Peter to clarify what happened.

When one of them goes to Peter’s apartment, they can’t find him. At first they assumed he went somewhere but the tracker on his suit the compound has access to has been clipped. (If you can figure out a better way that they figure out Peter went after the threat on his own go for it).

After Sam figures out Peters gone he hurries into the cell that Anthony is in, guilt putting in his stomach because what if Peter was right and he was against a threat much larger than himself.

“Where is he?” Sam immediately asks after slamming the door shut behind himself.

Anthony stares at him, obviously planning on not saying anything.

“Where the fuck is Peter? C’mon asshole, you told him there was a threat and now I can’t fucking find him. Where is he?”

Sam watches as Anthony’s face pales and he looks down at the ground with his eyes wide.

Sams stomach churns. “Please? Come on, I don’t know your intentions but please tell me. He’s only 18, I-“

Anthony gets the watch as Sam regrets every word he ever said to Peter and holds back tears because there was a chance they wouldn’t find Peter and it would be Sams fault.

“Get me out of here.” Anthony tells Sam.

Sam stares at him, there’s a darkness behind Anthony’s eyes at that moment he’s only seen on Bucky when he had to act like the winter soldier with Zemo.

Sam thinks back to Peter voguing for Anthony and makes a decision. This time, he would trust Peter.

“Alright.”

None of the other Avengers had been consulted during this decision, but Sam leaves the tracking of his wings on just in case.

He and Anthony would go together to help Peter.

“What are we doing?” Anthony asked while Sam walked into his room at the compound.

“I don’t know what we’re up against, I gotta suit up.” Sam said.

Anthony hummed and nodded, leaning against the doorway while Sam picked up something familiar.

“Is that Captain America’s shield?” Anthony asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah, Steve gave it to me before he retired.” Sam nodded, picking up a duffel bag.

“Which makes you Captain America.” Anthony smiled.

“Yup.” Sam chuckled.

“Alright, grab your suit. You can change on the plane.” Anthony decided, already walking off.

“What?” Sam quickly slung the duffel bag over his shoulder, carrying the shield and jogging to catch up with Anthony.

“What do you mean, plane?” Sam asked.

Anthony lifted his hand, holding a pair of keys in it. “Snatched it before you guys locked me up. You should really have an AI looking over this place to tell you things.” He suggested.

Sam felt some deja vu, remembering when Tony was alive and the voice of Friday could be heard everywhere. Rhodey shut her down, unable to listen to her voice and be reminded of his friend.

—

Anthony takes them to where Peter is currently trying to get a good vantage point on the threat, he’s only getting minor goons outside the building(maybe? The antagonist is up to you).

Sam stays back for a bit, getting a call on his phone from Rhodey who he knows is pissed.

He hesitantly answers and listens to the scolding but gives them their location anyway, having more Avengers on their way.

Anthony and Peter are talking and planning as well as joking. Peter seems pleased that Sam decided to trust him.

The three of them start to infiltrate the threat, Anthony has a wrist gauntlet that’s ice blue and silver he uses as well as a gun.

The Avengers arrive rather quickly to help the fight, all very wary about Anthony.

Here’s the thing, they all know Anthony’s moral is messed up and he isn’t afraid of killing or anything like that. They know he isn’t Tony.

So when Peter gets injured/almost dies they are all very surprised to see Anthony freeze as Sam tries to help the wound on his body.

The threat is gone at this point and the Avengers are trying to help Peter while he’s screaming out in pain, and Anthony is unfamiliar with the liquid rolling down his face.

(You can also make it where everyone thinks Peters dead and he kinda wakes up in the middle of their mourning lol)

And then Anthony snaps back into it, rushing forward and sliding through The small crowd and leaning down next to Peter with Sam on the other side.

“Hey hey hey, you’re alright kid. You’re alright.” Anthony said, forcing and smile and putting his hand on the side of Peter face.

Peters crying while Sams trying to get the bullet/clean the wound.

Anthony grabs onto Peters hand and squeezes it, Peter squeezes back.

“You’re gonna be okay Peter, I know it hurts, Underoos.” Anthony whispered in Peters ear.

Peter looked like he was gonna say something but then looked up and locked eyes with Anthony.

“What?” Peter whispered.

For Anthony, that moment too felt unreal. Memories began to blend with his own.

~~

‘There’s this crazy car parked outside!’

‘Mr. Parker.’

‘Umm. What, what are you doing? Hey.. I- I- I’m Peter.’

‘Tony.’

~

‘If you’re nothing without the suit, you shouldn’t have it!’

~

‘I don’t want to go, please, I don’t want to go Mr. Stark.’

‘I’m sorry.’

~

‘Hey! Holy cow! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? And I must've passed out because I woke up and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there right. And he said 'It's been five years. Come on, they need us.' And he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does. Anyway...’

Tony hugged Peter, feeling as the teens excitement wore down.

‘This is nice.’

~

‘Mr. Stark, hey, Mr. Stark?’

‘Can you hear me? it’s Peter. Hey..we won. Mr.Stark. We won, Mr.Stark. We won, You did it sir, you did it.’

~~

“Anthony? What did- what did you just call me?” Peter asked, sliding up against the wall nearby after Sam finished making sure his wound was okay.

The Avengers looked confused, Rhodey glancing at the Tony lookalike uneasily.

Anthony and Peter looked at each other, both pale and scared.

“I- I don’t understand.” Anthony muttered.

Peter seemed to be staring at Anthony’s eyes the whole time, tears going down his face.

“Your eyes, Mr. Stark.” Peter held his hand to his mouth, staring in disbelief.

“What?” Anthony asked, new found emotion for the kid and everyone around him.

“Your eyes, Tony. They’re brown.”

[storyunrelated]

Candidate for completion - George & The Dragon

George & The Dragon

Most dragons spend their lives, comfortably, happily alone.

Jessica is not like that, because Jessica has George, and Jessica has George because they met when they were both young and they have had years of each other to grow together and George was patient enough and dense enough to just wade through Jessica’s bluntness, until it stopped being blunt and started being warm. 

Had she ever just told him to go away he likely would have, being a nice chap in that way, but she never did, and so he kept coming back. Like a lost dog. And eventually Jessica realised that she liked him coming back and didn’t like those times when he wasn’t there, and that was that.

WHAT

Jessica's name, it should also be pointed out, isn't actually Jessica. Being a dragon she had a suitably grandiose and impressive draconic name, the sort of thing to be bellowed out while stood on a rocky promontory during a thunderstorm.

To properly pronounce it, however, required the kind of vocal architecture that George simply did not possess, and since he'd pointed out that the last part of the name kind of sort of maybe sounded like 'Jessica' - full of sibilance and magnificent hissing sounds - that is what he elected to call her.

And since she had something of a soft spot for the human she allowed him to get away with this.

To put it bluntly, a young man and his friend who is a dragon bum around a vaguely defined setting, hanging out, wasting time, meeting people and talking while the narration waffles on at length about absolute bollocks.

There’s hugging.

And not a whole lot of what you might typically call ‘plot’.

WHO

“Hey, Blossom, how about I ask you a question?” George asked, asking to ask a question by asking a question. Blossom was delighted - trees loved questions, both giving and receiving them.

“Fire away,” they said.

“Where are you right now?” George asked. It had been tugging at his brain, this question.

“Technically speaking I am wherever I am - you’re talking about where most of me is right now, aren’t you?” Blossom asked. They had seen this question coming. It was fairly common.

“Yes?” George said, unsure.

“The tree part, you’re talking about the tree part,” Blossom clarified.

“Yes!” George said, now sure.

There are two main characters. There is George, who is human, and Jessica, who is a dragon. They are friends and have been since they were little. Because of this Jessica is not like most other dragons, who are grumpy loners. She is grumpy and possessive of George and other than him is a loner.

George is cheerful and outgoing and just loves meeting new people, and there are all sorts of people to meet! And he also thinks Jessica could benefit from having even more friends - after all, he’s her friend and look how well that turned out!

Thus. 

Related to these two and following close behind are the other two friends, Capability (aka Billy) who is an elf (specifically a princess, because I like princesses) and Blossom who is a tree. They’re kind of tangential but are still important.

What I am attempting to do with these schlocky fantasy stock characters (and some others, later) is deliver them in a sufficiently idiosyncratic way to make their interactions, well, if not interesting then at least not just standard. A point of this hackneyed setting is that despite everyone operating on a different level everyone just gets along, because.

I don’t just want different-shaped humans. Even if they’re vaguely human shaped, I want the way their lives run to be different enough that their values might not necessarily line up, but everyone gets on anyway, yeah?

So - and this is where it starts getting dicey, at least in my mind - you have characters like Blossom, who is big grove of thinking trees somewhere but who interacts with everyone else by growing a wooden body with flowing hair of flowers that goes off and does all the talking. And, being a tree, is amused and unaffected by such flesh-and-blood concepts of gender because, well, they’re a tree. They also wear nice big fluffy jumpers.

The dicey part in there for me is the gender part. I’ve mentioned before that I’m probably the straightest, whitest, malest person you could ever hope to meet and if I haven’t I’m mentioning it now. I’m likely brimming with prejudices I’m not even aware of and spilling careless words like a drunk spills their drink. But I just want a story where everyone, no matter who they are and how they interact with the world, gets along. And none of it is ever called into question. It just is. People might be curious and ask questions, but only so they know the answer and not continue being wrong, not because they want to start poking holes.

Elves reproduce by spores, fine. Trees love to meet people and don’t really get fucking, fine. Dragons are incredibly myopic about the things they like and if something isn’t a thing they like then they don’t give two shits, fine. Humans are everywhere for a very specific reason but no-one makes a deal out of it, fine. Everyone gets along anyway, and all is well in the world. What’s for dinner?

I’m doing a bad job of explaining this...

WHERE

The past is - not was, is - full of monsters, it’s true, and the intention is to try and ensure that the future isn’t. You can’t ever be rid of monsters, of course. That’s not how it works. But you can certainly do your best to keep them to a minimum and ensure that those times they do pop up (and they will pop up) the damage they inflict is limited.

To actually bash George & The Dragon into something with a beginning, a middle and an end I’d need a plot to lash the whole thing around, some structure. Right? Right.

The story as it is right now - such as it is - is just chunks strung together, vaguely detailing George and Jessica going on a small holiday together to some town, eating steak, meeting Blossom, meeting Billy and generally just...

...hanging out.

And she manhandles him because she’s a whacking great dragon and dragons have difficult dealing with others and certainly have no real concept of friendship and yet she does and it’s all confusing and oh aren’t they just lovely together blah blah blah. Self-indulgent. I like this kind of shit.

Which is the whole point of the thing, for me, but lacks any actual drive or goal or anything. It’s just fluff. Which was the point, for me. But to have a hook on which to hang the fluff - something people sometimes desire - I’d need something else.

There’s vague ideas later in the story for George’s uncle Bob (who vanished in a magic-related accident years ago) to pop back. He’ll be fine, of course, as this story is about people being fine, and he’ll then start up a business of going around the world looking at weird crap, for this world I cooked up is meant to be full of weird crap (the ground was mentioned to be missing in some places).

Likewise, the world is also heavily implied (and in some cases outright stated) to have once been much, much worse. As in, everyone used to kill everyone else all the time until one day they all realised it was a huge waste of time and so they stopped. So the world has seen some shit, and is still full of weird stuff from ages past if you go out looking for it.

This leads to things like digging up a magically slumbering human from the old times who is appalled at how peaceful things are now. 

And later they find a door into our world and someone falls through it, and he’s appalled at how peaceful things are. It’s quite explicit.

There’s dragons under the ground, too. Eventually they get super-big and just sink under the ground and turn to stone and sleep forever. That’s what’s going to happen to Jessica, eventually. 

What was I saying?

Oh yeah. And so Jessica and George would then basically have an excuse to go off and see more stuff and meet more people and, uh...

What was I saying?

WHY

“Back in the real world - my world - cream is not what rises to the top, typically. In fact, let’s run with this imagery. Forget cream at all. There is no cream. Never was, never will be. No milk either. It’s just shit. And you might think that, well, it’s just shit on top, if we reach down through that we might find something of value, something hidden. But no. It’s just shit all the way down. Runnier, maybe, less rancid perhaps. But still shit. That’s life. Top to bottom, shit. That’s the people in life, too. People are, without fail, varying level of stupid, ugly and slow. The ratios differ, the ingredients do not. That’s the real world. That’s how things are meant to work. This place is all wrong.”

The point is fluff. The explicit point is fluff. I wrote this initially for my own edification and because I have a huge soft spot ‘Guy and something that is not human have a very close friendship that maybe could be a bit more but doesn’t necessarily have to be’.

Bite me. We all have our vices.

So that’s the point. It’s mainly about these two people who like each other hanging around and doing stuff. Eating steak, swimming in a lido, random crap like that. One of them is a dragon and can turn into a duck because dragons can change shape, why not. Just two people, having a good time.

The other point is, uh, trying to just navel-gaze about a more pleasant place. Wish-fulfillment? Escapism? Something like that.

A lot of what I write here (and you may have noticed this) tends to be a bit miserable, a bit maudlin, a bit nihilistic, maybe. Run For It!, for example, is just misery after misery after misery, that’s just how it is. 

But sometimes I just want to write about getting hugged by a dragon, alright! In a world where that’s seen as cutely novel! And your other friend is a tree! And they pull their finger off and give it to you and you plant it and grow another one of them! And your other other friend is an elf princess who has wings and who looks out for all the non-princess elves in town because that’s just what she does! And you all go out and eat ice cream!

What was I saying?

WELL

Normal is not a stick to beat people with. Because if you do start doing that you end up having to beat everyone with it because no-one fits perfectly and they might start threatening to take the stick away from you because you can’t be trusted with it and then no-one would listen to you and someone else might get the stick and hit you so you just keep hitting and hitting. 

What’s the point?

There’s a line that runs through this whole thing. A dividing line.

On the one side there’s the simple, straightforward and self-indulgent stuff.

On the other, there’s my cack-handed efforts at, uh, trying to be diverse, I guess would be the word? I don’t know. I just want - calling it variety makes it sound like a novelty act - uh...

...broadness. 

The main guy might just be another hacked-up version of me but I want others coming from all angles. But I don’t know those angles! And I’m ever-fearful that I’ll get them horribly, horribly wrong.

Suppose this is why, uh, sensitivity readers are a thing?

Not that anyone ever really reads anything I do anyway, not really.

Probably for the best...