#Mate Box

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The White Dove Pt 49 - Deed He See Us

@devilishminx328​. @theincaprincess​, @lilith15000​, @jesevans​, @jiminapickle

The White Dove Masterlist

...

Thengel absolutely in person had detailed the pieces of furniture you had chosen, adoring especially the familial pieces and the special bed that you chose to help learn how to sleep in beds again. Gladly he had slept on your cloud couch and as you slept before you chose to go back to school he had taken as much time as possible to detail the top of the folded sections of sail without touching or moving them to get a fuller look.

Off the taped up design he could only imagine what it looked completely, as those sections he could see were well beyond what was on the paper. Unimaginably by hand you had made this magical sail out of very natural wool, chord and the spool of Asgardian metal chord on the rotating wooden spools above anti gravity platforms. While with usual supplies even machines took great lengths to meet even the most basic of standards. He couldn’t wait to see it when it was treated and whole to be fitted with the proper grommets to be fixed to Eldfalls’ mast.

Up here you had made a home for yourself over the years and it was beyond what the glimpses in your hobby videos and pictures had shared. To the brim he filled your pantry and with Eddie’s help kept you well fed and coated in your bee creams to help the bruises and scrapes along.

Nightly as promised Wade dropped by to trade your daily dose of pain meds the hospital filled for you before being discharged for snacks and some more candies. A fellow assassin who shared what you knew to be true, both Rogers and War Machine were making trips to Queens to fail at subtly asking others about having seen you with one of Stark’s spare suits was camped across the street to catch the first sight of the injured teen for himself. Something possible as Thengel took a day trip to Washington after seeing you off to school.

 .

 “You’ve been avoiding me,” you said making Harry flinch as he entered the hall were you were waiting for him on the way to his locker. Subtly he adjusted the lay of his sling in a stolen glance at yours. “There is no way you hide from me in this city, Harry.”

“I’m, not, hiding.” He said straightening up out of nerves.

“You know, no matter how badly your relationship ended I highly doubt hiring a man with a wrench is anyhere near your style.”

“I just, after my dad, your wrist.”

“I’ve had my wrist broken five times, this wrist. I am perfectly fine, and if you are washing your hair as often as you claim,” you said making him glance away and chuckle.

“It would fall out, I looked it up.” He said and asked, “Does it hurt? You got almost a hundred stitches.”

“Mostly numb, in a non-frightening dead nerve sort of way,” you said making him chuckle again. “How’s the shoulder. First pop always is the worst then it can become like brunch on Tuesdays after a while.”

“Good, I can take it off tomorrow. Just have to go easy on lifting a few days in the gym and if I have full rotation Coach said I could play.”

“Well, step one to disregarding your safety to building a winning team legacy.” You joked making him chuckle again.

“I’m sorry, I avoided you.”

“You did, call Gwen at least? Or will you be sporting a boot to go with that sling?”

“I texted, brothers are good. Hate me more, but they’re good.”

“See, and you were worried,” you said turning to head to your first class.

 .

Pity points had gotten you alternate assignments or written copies permissible when typing was required as well as when you got to work and the sling had been removed a chance to show the cast wouldn’t hinder you at all.

Misique however wouldn’t be so fortunate. And one handed you would disguise your cast free arm with your usual gloves and sleeves down to ensure no injury was seen as you helped your friends the best you could. Without letting on what you had to face when your glow dimmed and you had to put that cast back on again to pretend to be as helplessly ruined as some passers by imagined you to be now.

All before you turned 18, cut down in the prime of your youth. To achieve apparently nothing like a damsel right out of a romance novel staged in the Victorian age, swept across a fainting couch to spend the rest of your days in hiding for the shame of what you might have achieved had you not stepped into the line of fire.

.

“Pluto,” Dr Octavius was first to spot you and looked your sweater and jean clad self over.

“I’ve broken my wrist before. No Victorian waif here.”

Weakly he chuckled and said, “I was merely curious of where you could hide almost a hundred stitches on you,” making you giggle.

In a circle you moved your free hand with a finger extended, “It wraps around the arm and down the middle finger, rest are on my ribs. Dissolvable. Not more comfortable but at least I won’t have to trouble the good Surgeon to break out his tiny scissors.”

“Are you at least pain free? My spare arms took some getting used to on my lower back and hips. Cast must be heavy, reaches past your fingers, printed metal can be strenuous.”

“Getting used to it. Sleeping, is complicated. Lots of pillows, had to move a foot stool over.”

“I won’t keep you much longer, do let us know if you need anything.”

Stares from Professors didn’t last long as you seemed, aside from the gradual dip into your seat and fidgets to keep tolerably comfortable that you didn’t seem any worse for wear. Braided hair and all well taken care of and well prepared for classes until after a stop for a snack at Octavius’ home where Dr Connors would join you back to your place you went, seemingly unfazed but stealing a glance up at the building Stark assumed you wouldn’t see him hiding on top of.

Eddie outside was there to make you grin and accept his help over the back seat of his bike to be driven back where homework would keep you busy until Thengel got back from his trip. He would only be here a few more days and was pleased prior to the accident that you had been given the week off to fit the shops post holiday schedule around availability of others.

.

All you had to do for the candle shop was keep your arm out of view of customers to keep on the sales floor. Not as hard as it seemed with a rest of your encased arm behind your back faking a lean on the counter with your opposite hip to angle it out of their view to almost seem casual to them but not anyone else behind you really. Absurd but it did the trick, while at the book shop you were reduced to the cart for the crates and toted that around to one handed unwrap and shelve the inventory keeping on usual pace to keep funds rolling in as a good chunk of your hospital money went to pay off the hospital bill.

At least when the first day of spectacle was over your coworkers had a fair solid footing of the notion of pride for how hard you pushed through the obvious pain and irritation of the injuries. Back to striking it on your own now publicly your grandfather was known have to flown back to his work on your home continent.

In glorious fashion you could only laugh to keep from crying how you had 800k within your palms and then like a crash of thunder it was gone only leaving shiver inducing memory in its wake to have you remember it was once there.

 .

 Off the backs of bees colors changed to signal the notice of Eddie entering your apartment. Memory of what was coming from his own 18th birthday lured him here earlier than sunrise. Upon which it took the hand on your forehead to not fling yourself towards your windows at the sudden drop of snow out of a cloud fueled plume that appeared suddenly over your head. “Right here,” he hummed feeling through Venom the race of your heartbeat as he watched you wiggle an arm free from your blankets to catch the small rectangular box with just a mint colored button in the middle of it. “Not the most pleasant of wake up calls.”

When his hand eased back the click of a lighter turned your focus to the shark shaped candle atop the muffin that had you smile. “Happy Birthday, Sister,” Venom hissed along to Eddie’s sing of the traditional song ended by the close of your eyes and blow to send your wish out into the universe.

Just like a switch flipped the sudden sound of trees outside had your eyes open and body turn to go to your window where open mouthed Eddie said, “Someone has very good timing. I know you like cottages but this is a bit much.” About the view of cottages in a world right out of a fairy tale with a castle off in the distance atop a large hill.

“I need my shoes.” You sighed and turned to find socks and boots to go with your knee length sweats and baggy long sleeved shirt. The lack of snow was confirmed when you opened the front door of your place to feel the warmth of a spring day that had some kids from your town giggling as they enjoyed the grass and wildflower patches around cobbled pathways that led in various directions.

Largely a board for notices in the middle of had a partly rolled alert for the citizens of this group delusion you both were drawn to unlike others who had yet to find out why the Grimms had done this again to New York. “Grimms lost Kitty, if found bring to the palace.” Deeply you sighed and said, “Okay, where’s the ocean?” you asked yourself partly as you circled to listen for clues and lead the way to go hunt their Kitty down.

Three hours later an exasperated Reed Richards alongside Tony Stark had taken turns to show off their army of cats that had been gathered and was being kept inside a bubble barrier by Susan Storm to the Grimms who sat atop thrones in a line inside the castle.

Dripping wet the pair of you turned heads on the guard escorted pathway to be announced to the rulers of this world who inched up seeing who had come to offer up findings. Out of a nest of seaweed woven like a basket a color changing octopi poked its head soliciting a collective gasp of glee from the Grimms who stood at the sight of their mischievous beloved. “Took a bit of coaxing, but we found Kitty.”

“Kitty Kristofferson Kraken IV,” the tallest said in accepting the basket off your wrapped cast coated arm that the other group stole what view of the injured limb they could as Eddie stepped forward offering a woven nest all his own.

“Kitty got married. Wouldn’t come without Opal here.”

“Our Kitty is ready for a family! We need to expand his tank a third story for the babies!” the rounder of the Grimms claimed the next basket and the third in the production of a glass apple shaped magical orb Eddie scooped you up bridal style in one arm. You reached up to pinch your nose, and his free hand rose to do the same with his.

Sudden and fast everyone was sent back to their lives at the moment of being taken unlocking the time lock bubble that now had clocks jolt forward to catch up the four hours. Ear pops were a necessity after the jolt back for those who forgot or were unable to plug their nose and as Eddie’s legs buckled to the force of the jolt back to your room he kept you steady by sitting down.

“Oh, I have to get ready for work,” you said adjusting to the change in time.

“Breakfast!” Eddie said helping you up, “You shower and I’ll heat up the food and you can have your birthday muffin and drop you at the candle shop!”

.

Halfway down the street from the candle shop, post shift, you paused outside an upscale jewelry shop and promptly got to ruining the afternoon of the man working inside. Just sight of your well worn heels, bolero hat, stained double breasted coat frayed on the arms and the four year old periwinkle cashmere long sleeved dress you had on over grey tights paired with your rainbow fox fur purse instantly know you were pretending to have cash.

“You need to leave,” the man said as The Rock, Shawn Michaels and Triple H, who were in town for a wrestling film they alongside other big names had cameo roles and were doing press for, each in here to pick up gifts for their partners to take home with them. “We have rules on our clientele.”

“I was just wanting to ask about moonstone pricing.”

Pointedly he looked down at you to say firmly, “This isn’t some crystal shop, so take you and your tacky dumpster diving wardrobe wearing self head down to the bridges and find a palm reader shop where they can help you. Leave now or I will have the manager escort you off the premises.”

“Fetch him then.” You replied making the trio of men behind you internally smirk at the confidence of the petite figure who, by the stature of the man behind the counter, might have otherwise been intimidated.

A second floor attendant, a woman came from a polishing station to the counter off to your left asking the trio, “Can I help you find something particular?” Triple H stepped forward while the other two men split to browse, the Rock closer to you triggering you to steal a glance up at him. A grin flinched across his face after he stole a look at your restrictive cast that stuck out of your sleeve and changed the shape compared to the other.

“Bad fall?” he asked in a polite tone.

“You could say that. Man got fired and came after his former boss’ son with a ten pound wrench. Almost hit my friend’s baby brother in the head, caught it in my wrist pulling him away, then wrench man grabbed me and threw me into traffic.” You said dropping the jaws of the men who were looking at you fully to hear what you said. “Shattered my wrist, fractured ribs, broke my rings covering my head, why I’m here. Not all bad though, used to breaking things.”

Triumphantly the self righteous man returned with a broader older fellow behind him, who the trio of men and sales woman watched go deer in the headlights a moment seeing who was in his shop. Unlike how the salesman expected the Manager fidgeted with his tie and asked, “Countess Pear, how may I help you today? And I apologize fully for my employee, he’s an ignoramus on occasion.” To the man he looked and said, “Go polish something. I will speak to you later.”

The title had the men pause a moment as well as the woman before you had answered, “Viscountess, but oh doesn’t matter, my rings broke and I was wondering about pricing for moonstones if you would be able to get some, or know where I could get some for a new ring.”

“We have a fine supply in the back I shall go and fetch them for you, if you would have a seat,” he gestured at a table for jewelry planning near the back corner of the store for privacy you shifted to move to. “I shall be right with you.”

“Countess?” Shawn asked lowly with brows raised on your step around him.

“Viscountess, my Grandfather is an Earl in Denmark. No one really cares here.” You said making the guys smirk in your path to the seat, each intrigued at the mysterious person and odd mix of reactions to you. Onto the chair you settled gingerly in a one handed adjustment of your dress skirt and coat.

When he came back a picture on your phone helped to settle the styles of both the former stone and black zirconium band, though now the ring would have a three carat round moonstone that matched the finish. Far from the most expensive piece even on display for a few meager hundred dollars before a fee the man promised to have ready for you as soon as possible as he accepted your card to pay in advance.

Johnny Storm’s voice turned your head as he entered the shop, “Now there’s the birthday girl.”

“Hey, Johnny,” you said making his grin spread as he came up to your side with your injured arm.

“Whatcha buying?”

“Replacing my rings, Eddie found a new resin band for me, like my old one with gold foil and forget me nots but also with some spotted feathers too. They’re going to make my moonstone ring replacement.”

“Sounds like you need some earrings.” He said splitting a wide smile across his face.

“I have earrings.”

“You woke up on your birthday and had to dive to a reef somewhere to go find the Grimms’ octopus, terrible way to kick a new year off, for one, and two, how did you know Kitty was an octopus?” He asked with brows arching up to accent his playful tone further amusing the physical entertainers to this odd show of a shopping trip they walked into.

“Kitty and his predecessors have been on their holiday cards for years now.”

“Right, we thought it was some odd find the cat game or something. Makes so much more sense now. I’m buying you earrings.” Your mouth opened and he started to steam up, “Or so help me, Pluto, I will flame up and throw the tantrum of all tantrums until you cave in and Ben has to drag me out of here and stomp me smoldering.”

“One pair,” you said lifting a finger and he guided you to a display case that had the Manager come to help and ensure you were continually treated well while in his shop.

“One formal, one informal and one dressy casual.” He teased making you look up at him pointedly to catch his wink at you.

“She likes yellow,” he said and guided you to a yellow diamond and sapphire section.

One pair with a rather large teardrop yellow stone linked to a downward angled tear shaped diamond with a small circular one on the chain between the two stones was pointed at for you to bring up to your ear only for you to see the price tag. “She’ll take these,” he said and turned his head, “Ooh, they have diamond owls, like your parents’ rings.”

“These are over $3,000.” You said to him and he nodded to the Manager who helped you line up a mirror to see your reflection better of the stunning earrings you could wear to the big reveal celebration that was planned for Eldfalls in the summer. Those were swapped for the owl set within moments, a nice stud pair with sapphire belly stone to further match the rings and onyx stones for the eyes in circles of tiny diamonds for fluffy adorable birds.

“Ooh, moonstones,” he said for a final addition of four dangling teardrop moonstones on a single chain of alternating white and pale green shades, the white that almost seemed to glow when the light hit them. “Final one. You need nice things for a parties here and there when you graduate and get that cast off. And you can blame Susan, she told me to get you gifts from the group, she’s all couply with Mr stretchums so that makes three.”

“I don’t think they’ll be too pleased knowing how much you spent.”

“I gave you 35 grand for a bike, I think this in relation to my other shopping sprees is fairly tame. Plus, now I can give you a lift home right past that shop with that huge stained glass swan lamp you keep stopping and staring at.”

“I stare at it because they put its neck on the bird’s butt and still put it in the front window.”

“That’s why?” he asked mid laugh and smiled wider, “Then you can help me pick up Reed’s new birthday lamp, which he will adore.” He said making you roll your eyes and accept hold of the bag containing the cases of jewelry inside you would keep with the card from the shop.

And when you were gone the Manager filled in the still upset employee you were the one that the Goblin took hostage from the subway stop you often shared with him as you tried to keep kids from being hurt by the fiend. A story finished only inside his memory of you actually being a masked former fiend yourself he had offered his jacket to after you’d exposed yourself out of armor to those capable of paying attention to familiar faces out of crowds. You saved his life and his granddaughters who were with him, for that he’d have sold and designed anything you wanted.

And having overheard the whole thing, including your address, the trio of wrestlers took it upon themselves to send a bouquet and bath set. Paired with a teddy bear basket of snack goodies to your door as another birthday surprise to help make up for the idiot who claimed that just because he knew you worked in the candle shop down the street and dressed in out of season clothes that you weren’t welcome to shop there.

 .

While Eddie’s welcome to a new year was pleasant inside your first class to the announcements you had to bring out your box and stand at the front of the class to press the button. Distantly gaining a pained whine from the exasperated and bruised Loki inside his hidden bunker came at the magical poke into his sore ribs again wounded by the crony Thanos sent to dole out another serving of pain to keep him in line and remind him of his goal.

No one, not anywhere in the school, on a day with no absences, no one was your fated partner and the pressure that lingered ever so subtly Harry’s claim that first week meeting him was released. All the same the ordeal was more an embarrassment than an exhilarating joy others felt in theirs. They found such hope in anyone at all being paired with them while mystery and self doubts made the notion of being paired to anyone impossible.

A group dinner was planned for a quiet spacious place. Nothing too extravagant as you had school the following morning.

The day after though in the return of your Nobel medals that had to be the oddest of your presents to go with the reminder of an appointment in the mail from Mr Murdock he had called you to make after being contacted by another hospital who wanted their scanners to not be hummingbirds. They wanted flying squirrels as they were a children’s hospital and they imagined the design to be more amusing to children and they needed over 300 for shockingly to them the same price as they were a bit lower on spare funds to throw at new tech.

A simple talk with you over the phone and they were calmed in your understanding comparing hospitals were a matter of figures, and on top of that you did not want to take more money away from the kids.

Not even a month and the scanners were the talk of the medical world with the initial hospital absurdly boastful on how successful they were proving to be for both patient care and assisting Doctors even when language barriers were prominent in blocking diagnosis. They knew you were working with one hand and would grant you as much time necessary, merely wanted the deal in ink to have purchase price cemented.

 ..

 “These scans are incredible,” Strange said holding your cast coated arm, “Stitches seem to be improving, cuts look healed almost fully,” gently guiding your arm to shift in various angles to do so. “How is your pain?”

“Still good. Feels like I need to pop my middle finger though,” you said. Making him smirk and through the open circles in the cast press into the still slightly swollen arm and finger in various places to test the feel of it before he looked again to the scan on his tablet one of your birds had taken.

“Between the mesh and your compound bones are holding well, almost looks like just a hint of a stress fracture without a break at all, should see more considerable improvement the next week. Surely we won’t know for another month for certain how the mobility is affected, any idea of how your sensations affected or has the swelling hindered that?”

“Aside from the middle finger I would say it’s fairly normal, but I think it’s the swelling, I can wiggle most of my fingers.” And he smirked peering on at the mild wiggle of each finger around the injured one. “Know I’m not supposed to move much,”

“No, this is good.”

“Figure at the worst nine fingers full sensation not bad.” You joked making him chuckle.

“Ten fingers, even if the final one takes a bit longer to progress in physical therapy. Just keep taking good care of yourself. We heard a kids hospital hired you for some scanners, try not to work too hard. Need your rest.”

“I actually have a printer for the bodies,” causing his brow to tick up.

“Ah,” then drew in a breath, “Different story then.”

“Mainly handle the programming only, which is easy one handed. Heard about your award dinner thing. Congratulations.”

“I appreciate the actual work more than the accolades from events like that. Getting you better is the goal, dinner is a couple weeks off, right before your next checkup and that will merely be a way to mark time until we can get another scan for your file. Might even get the cast off early.”

 ...

 “Are you playing poker?” MJ asked as she sat beside you at the morning assembly peering on at the tablet you had found broken on a night run in a dumpster and repaired.

“Yup.” You said making her smirk as you lost a hand on purpose.

“You’re not very good, just lost $200.”

“I’ll win seven hand after next.” You said making her brow arch up.

“You win hands and lose at growing odd intervals going up to nine and then it starts over again until you reach twelve rounds and then you reverse the order.”

“How do you know how to beat an online game?”

“All in the algorithm. Face to face is more complicated, more factors. No tells here it’s all on the computer and human error.”

A bit wider her grin crept as she asked to your notice of Gwen and the other Color Guard team members who sat a few rows ahead of you with stolen glances your way in doing so, “This your college fund?”

“Amongst other things. This I can do to increase my income without picking up a fifth job. Military wants to wait till March for the next Blackhowls. A kindness of theirs to not make me work in the cold hangar I assume.”

“Do you think I could get a weekend shift at the bookshop you work at?” you asked looking her way. “Got fired from the flower shop.”

“Mrs Agatha?” you asked and she nodded. “Someone needs to stop that woman. I respect the power she’s gained in her sixties but she can’t go expecting to ruin every employment record of every teen in town forever. Manager is always up to spare hands. He’s a bit loud though, tends to scare off other girls, but he’s harmless. Then again I mainly spend my summers with a squishy cannibal so I have a fair comparison of those who can do some damage.”

Softly she chuckled and replied, “Dad’s half Latin, no problem with loud.”

“I’ll talk to him and bring an application tomorrow. She tends to steer clear of the place so if you like it you’ll have a chance to stick around.”

“Good, figure I keep saving up and I could have enough for a scooter at least by the time I graduate.”

“Well if you’re up for a financial tip,” you said and she nodded, “Have a savings account for half of every check. Even if you have two savings, pretend one has a dragon in it and don’t touch it. Just in case,” you said making her grin.

“Thank you, Abuela just keeps saying stuff it in my mattress.”

“Mattresses burn,” you said making her chuckle, “Quite rapidly, no time to grab the money at all, not to mention how that would ruin a spine. Now if you’re into pottery you could seal it inside a vase or something, then you just shove those in a pillow sack and run for it if there’s a fire. But then that’s clutter and can be quite heavy, not to mention no interest at all.”

Your voice faded off and she said, “Where are you when I need a good argument over Sunday dinners?”

“Well chaos follows me. Tend to over think and have twelve backup plans minimum and fifteen possible poor outcomes accounted for prior to deciding if possible.”

“I think I’d be too paranoid doing that.”

“Well, past four years, I got a golden ticket and then got abducted. Titans attack I find a hole to dislocate my hip in the evacuations and I was on bed rest after that. That Thane guy snatched me through the window of a bus. I fell asleep on the subway platform and got snatched by Harry’s dad who was plotting to murder hundreds of people, possibly thousands to get his hands on my property. Not to mention the boxer who swung a book at my head on the street. Now wrench man. I mean, if I wasn’t a bit paranoid, then I would be the worst case of denial ever recorded possibly in the history of humanity. Right up there with the people who accepted the Trojan Horse through the gates.” You said making her cover her mouth to stifle her chuckles.

“You have arguably, the best, and worst luck in the world.” She said with a smile as you won another hand for a few hundred.

“Proof someone somewhere has a sense of humor concerning my fate.” You said making her chuckle again causing Gwen to fake fixing her sweater to steal a glance back at you both.

 .

300, in groups of ten you counted off the hovering flying squirrels and fixed them into a series of carriers that were loaded into the bus for another series of installations at the children’s hospital.

Instruction was easy of the systems once Eddie had helped you install the nests on each floor and curious children peered up at the new additions to their care, which like the first time began to show some unseen issues that could be seen to right away.

And as the end of January came about the accomplishment of receiving a second $800k check to put into the bank was crushed a bit as you found yourself knocking on Dr Strange’s private room inside his own hospital. Horrifically injured with both hands littered with metal rods and braces rested atop two dangling trays to keep them still.

“I don’t need anything, go do something useful!” was shouted from the bruised man whose eyes flinched wider when he looked at the door.

“Hey, doing well I see.” You said easing in to let yourself in the room that Christine slipped in behind you and shut the door.

“You actually called her?” he asked Christine who let out a huff.

“You threatened to throw yourself off the bed,” she replied flatly.

“What logic is that? Why would I throw myself off the bed and damage myself more?” he said making you giggle softly and brush the loose half of your hair out of your face after settling your rainbow fox fur purse on the bed at the foot of his bed. Ever so slightly you had to adjust your bag and sweater that hung over your torn jeans that exposed bright colored tights. His eyes swept over you, “You don’t have to do this.”

Christine muttered, “Geez you are annoying. It’s the most impactful medicine we’ve seen for trauma injuries. Half a day you said you’d do anything, then the threats started and now you pretend as if you’ve been a kitten this entire time.”

“Either way, can’t make you promises, but it should at least get you out of here sooner.” You said and he wet his lips.

“How do you administer it?”

“Open cut is the best.”

“So IV is out?” she asked.

“No, you don’t put it in the bloodstream would only obstruct blood flow and cause the vein to tear.”

“He has a cut on his side, here, get you some gloves. Or, a glove.” She said and added her own carrying one back from a mounted box on the wall to help you fold the blankets back and open the front of his gown to expose the cuts and drain taped and bandaged across the exposed portion of his torso.

“Okay,” you said holding the syringe that was unwrapped from a germ sleeve as they both watched you palmate your fingers around the now uncovered gash. “Triple checking, you aren’t allergic to bee products?”

“No. Will it hurt?”

He asked and you looked up at his face, “Yup. Dull throb and if you know the feeling of nearly passing out should prickle throughout your body as it engages the healing response of your body. I’ll go a notch at a time, usually adrenaline of the accident tends to distract from the pressure. Probably best to add to this one and then the rest in those two.”

Deeply he drew in a breath saying, “I’m ready when you are.” He was willing to take a risk to heal faster and listened to Christine share on your latest scan to help distract him from the sensation of it spreading throughout his body when the syringe was put away and he was covered up again.

“Oh this is weird,” he said.

“Best to go three hour intervals checks and scans for the gashes, head and hands. Four hours in the drain shouldn’t be necessary and would be best to be removed, but that’s more for comfort as risk of germs is minimal with these clean rooms.”

“And my nerves?”

“Compound works open wounds first, then goes deeper. By the time you get this hardware out it might seem a bit hopeless but nerve damage will be faster to improve once the rest is gone.”

“And if I need a second dose?” he asked with worry in his eyes.

“You have my number, but that will come after-,”

He nodded saying, “After the trauma damage heals.”

“Let’s get that brain or yours back to 100 first, hmm?” you said patting his arm. Causing him to draw in a calming breath to deal with all of this that kept slamming into him over and over again with regret of having been the one to take his eyes off the road for a second and now his career was ruined. However by the time you left a bit later he felt he had someone who understood his place in this situation and the both of you could help one another repair what was almost taken from the world if your hands were ruined forever.

 .

 “Go away,” simple enough to understand the group of men who were clearly inebriated circled you on your walk home from the hospital. All fighters from a pro circuit in town for a tournament who recognized you as knocking one of the best out cold. Yet a caught fist and a warning shove with your foot away one man who wanted to fight had three of the five balling up their fists. Up off one foot your other rose to tangle around the leg of one of the men to tug his body into yours as you spun around to have him be punched by another. Your body weight, or rather the weight of your hidden weapons, clothes, boots and bag on top of your body weight caused that same man to drop when it let him loose enabling you to just dip out of the way and keep on walking.

The two groaning men were hunched forward to the sound of a furious, “Get back here!” And the hand that took hold of your shoulder had you reach back to grab the arm attached and drop to fling the body over your back to land flat on the pavement.

“Don’t touch me.” You said releasing the arm to keep walking.

Heavy boot falls came to a stop behind you from a body who stopped the angered two and the rest of the group who had shouted, “Get back here, little bitch!”

“You best be calling me a little bitch or I’ll break a bone for every syllable in that sentence you overgrown walking talking clumps of sewer scum. You calling me a little bitch?” A stern much deeper voice exclaimed without pause or shame.

Luke Cage, name enough to scare them away the man turned when they had gathered the man of the ground Luke kicked up onto his feet and shoved their way to run off, turned back to you. There up at him you had waited to see what he wanted to say and found him give you a kind grin. “Not bad for one arm,” he said then promptly added, “Wanted to talk to you about what you did for Mr Bradley and Miss Jubilee.”

“My first Christmas Eve here he protected me from those Nazi clones. I lost my home once, he built his life back up, doesn’t deserve to lose it. Neither does Miss Jubilee.”

“Still, most people wouldn’t bat an eye, two black heroes out on the streets.” He said with a sentimental growl to his tone.

“You know, when I was little all I wanted was to make the whole world smile. Even just once.” You shrugged and said, “I suppose you have to work your way up to the whole world, but he’s part of mine, and I think I’m wearing Miss Jubilee down.” You said jokingly making him chuckle and nod his head in a turn to walk with you.

“Known her my whole life and she still throws wooden spoons at me.” He teased back, “You find that secret you share.” Walking with you to the subway stop you needed and split up at so he could head back himself.

Halfway to your home however midway through a park you just stopped to the wonder of Iron Man who was pitifully hiding atop a bridge behind some large trees lifted up to get a fuller look of what you might have stopped for. One handed you opened your purse and brought out a blood stained pack of cards and closed the bag again. Since the delivery of the letter he had been checking on you and even following you home on occasion when he was in town. Towards the bridge you turned chucking the deck his way for a glimpse of a ruby red hand to catch the deck.

Open mouthed when his gloves folded back he opened the worn box to bring out the copperish stained cards. The two of hearts on top didn’t seem any important, though when he turned the deck over a breath caught in his throat and right away he recognized his father’s handwriting.

Pocketing the cards he let his suit cover him fully to soar over the park and land by you folding back his mask as he did. “Why’d my dad give you this? What’d you talk about? What happened back then and how did you-,” his voice cracked as he said, “What did my dad say to you? He was a terrible alcoholic all his life, whatever he said to you, you didn’t deserve it. To think you had to give us any credit, me, any credit in your speeches, whatever he said to you it isn’t true.”

“Your dad didn’t give me the cards, he gave me the pack of ammo Chickadee left him with the cards were inside. He just put that in my bag in case I vanished on him. If anything Peggy’s grudge against Chickadee had her more confrontational than Howard could have dreamed of being.” He nodded with painfully pleading eyes for you to continue. “Conversational was more the gist of topics. Kept it simple to what was happening. He was a bit disappointed, that I was me and not her, but was relatively, I would say playful in his tolerance of my company. I’m a hell of a shot and rather useful when I aim to be. Not a terrible choice. I said what I did in my speech because I hate speeches and obviously you were involved. Mostly had to wing it on stage. I wasn’t kidding about the flying car though, seen the recordings of the demo at his expo. He made a promise he didn’t keep.”

“There’s no regulating flying cars, we have terrible traffic on the ground, same as accidents, can’t trust people to be up in the air.”

“Reed’s got a flying car,” you said and he scoffed.

“That’s a jet, difference.”

“Fine, Howard Stark’s biggest promise unfulfilled.” You joked and he rolled his eyes.

“I am terrible with names,” Stark blurred out turning your focus from your glance towards the street hearing a horn, “And dates, but that’s beside the point. No one ever apologized for how Obediah treated you.”

“That-,” you said but were cut off.

“It was wrong,” he said looking at the ground, determined to get this out without tearing up or sending himself into a panic attack getting lost in the emotions of the time frame he was about to refer to. “He was agist and sexist, and a bunch of other -ists. He should have heard you out, no matter the terms of the contest. It was wrong. He had taken what I created for so long, a kid who was brilliant and he would have rather chosen an inferior design over granting you a chance that hands down should have been yours.”

He looked at you to add, “I still, to this day, cannot touch those kinetic engine schematics. You said I could catch up to the code overhaul on Goliath and I can’t even figure out what language you created to make it do that.” For a moment that hung in the air and he said, “And you gave Rhodey the code that saved me.” Sharply you drew in a breath in the clear fight of tears in his eyes, “I was in that desert for two hours because had I waited two more hours, that cave was next on the military’s list. I would have been wandering for days. You saved me.”

“I told Stane it would take more than a desert to best a Stark.”

“Almost did.” He replied softly uncertain of what to say next to fully express what he’d been trying to compile for so long to tell you. “And you saved Happy, without those shots he’d have bled out,” a bit more like a growl he asked, “Why’d you go to talk to Osborn? You dropped the letter for me, why?”

“People when they get involved in my life tend to want something. I still don’t know if Harry was being genuine in his offer of friendship with me or if it was a plot. I know when people lie to me. You really, out of everyone who could have been picked for your airline-.” He cut you off.

“No one makes an environmentally harmless aircraft. My family legacy is blowing up the planet. I don’t want that anymore. Why? Are, you happy with it? Would you have picked differently?”

“Well, the interior,”

“Terribly cliché,” he said cutting you off. “Atrocious, I believe was close to what Rodey said you said?” he said in a joking tone making you smirk.

“Tacky, is probably closer to what I said.”

“I’ve seen the Scadanavian line you made. Just finished off the final three builds, last two are sold off and next fleet, make some sketches. First round got the usual customers off my back, now we can market the top of the line package.”

“Why’d you want to give me half the profits? Nobody-,”

“Nobody bats an eye at an inner city kid who works four jobs and with twenty seven dollars in her pocket goes to donate seven to another kid’s laptop fund and uses the rest to feed herself till payday. You got four jobs, two schools, building a boat and sail that’s the talk of museums worldwide on top of being eaten by a space cat that hurls you back and forth in time. I am exhausted just thinking about it and you still are almost electrocuted to death while building planes for the military who almost refused to pay you at all. You turned the aviation world upside down at 14 on pocket change. I want some serious competition and you need deep pockets for that.” You smirked and glanced away and he asked, “What did I say?”

“When your dad asked if he had an heir he said he wanted you to have competition or it would have you go complacent.”

“Exactly!” he said pointing at you, “Hammer was useless, Reed has his head in space, Banner is still going all yoga on us, you hacked Goliath in two minutes! On your phone, whole code, everything!”

“You know the most annoying thing I kept hearing in school?” He shook his head mid shrug and you said, “That of my parents hadn’t vanished I would have been the next Tony Stark.”

“You are better.” He cut in without hesitation.

“Damn right,” you said reflexively splitting a wide smile across his face.

And he nodded repeating, “Damn right.” After a moment he said, “We’re gonna find your parents, Pluto. One day, we will.”

And with your eyes on his instantly his brows furrowed at the unknown expression that washed over your eyes that had him instantly want to cry you answered, “I was there that night and watched my father kill the first eight people who broke into our home with his bare hands.” That had his lips part, “He was larger than Thor, taller and broader, you really think for the eight years they had me in Russia, in any universe he was alive in anyone could keep a man that stubborn from finding me. Name anywhere he would let me live alone.”

“The first eight?” He whispered back.

“My father told me not even King Ragnar himself would keep him from me. Odin’s Ravens helped to name me Lagertha after the strongest shield maiden and mightiest Queen in our people’s history. They had me for eight years but they had no notion of the blood they dared to spill that night. And not even Odin himself can protect them from him when he finds them in the afterlife.”

“Lagertha, tell me something about her, Thor seems obsessed with finding her. Apparently she’s reborn and roaming around the planet somewhere. I know she was married to that Ragnar guy, had some important kids with him.”

That had you grin at him. “He was her first husband, when they divorced she married again to another King, and one day when she felt she no longer wanted to be his Queen she killed him,” you said making his brow arch up, “And became his people’s King.”

“Girl power. I like it.” Making you giggle to yourself. “Good name, Greek God of the Underworld and top Viking King out there. Can’t touch a name like that.” He paused and asked, “Odin’s ravens? How’d that work, them naming you?” Making you smile and begin to share the story on how your name was chosen.

“Good story, better than mine. Anthony, dad picked it because it sounded Italian, still even in the eighties didn’t want anyone to know we were Jewish.”

To his sunken expression you replied, “Well coming from a Pagan,” you said making him smirk your way, “Not a bad deal in the end. Could have drawn worse out of the hat. Harry Osborn thought my parents named me after Mickey Mouse’s dog when we first met,” you said making him chuckle to himself.

“Boy needs help.”

“A lot of help won’t have a fair stand at graduation at all if I hadn’t have tutored him.”

“I’m sorry, and thank you,” he said making you look at him in his glance forward then back to you again, “Didn’t actually say it before.” Making you grin and nod as he drew in a breath then changed the subject.

“You want a tip on the code?” he nodded and off a hologram his suit projected off his chest you took his side and said, “You’re reading it backwards. Aircraft are alive, they have been flying for decades, know what they are made of and how to fly, just need someone at the wheel.” You explained a simple line of code for his open mouthed self. “You don’t tell someone the process of how to catch a ball you throw at them, anatomically to depth perception and reflexology.”

“You tell them catch. So, it’s, sentient?”

“In a way. It can’t go fly to Paris and back on a whim, but we build them to work with interchanging parts that with physics work quite well on their own, like more complicated clocks. When you take out the clogging code it flies smoother. Don’t have to remind it what a light bulb is to know when a switch is flipped to turn it on and proceed to the next step. Just list the steps and reference them later. But every ship has its own intelligence level so it takes some trial and error to know how to lay out the code.”

“How did you think of that?” he asked in a whisper.

“Every night eight years chained to my bed, plenty of time to ponder the great questions of life.”

Lifting the cards again he asked, “Is this your blood?”

“No, clone blood. I have scans if you want to keep those.”

He nodded and at an alarm from his suit he said, “Walk safe, let you know about the check from the new fleet.” And off into the distance he soared freeing you to turn back the way you were headed. At least until a hand grabbed your arm and pulled you inside a shielded ship.

���You!” you said making Peter Quill gawk back at you.

“ME?!” he shouted, “You know me?!” his eyes followed the arm you had resting across your middle, “Is that a cast? I wouldn’t have grabbed you like that if I’d known.”

“Why’d you grab me at all?”

“That Iron Man guy was scoping out my ship, he talked to you about if you’d seen my ship?”

“No, it’s sort of complicated. Wanted to talk to me about an encounter with some Nazis I had recently.”

“No, no, there aren’t any Nazis, they were dead by the time I was snatched.”

“Not, exactly.” You said and sighed shifting your gaze to the mohawk donning blue man who stepped out of the cockpit.

Him asking as he got closer, “Any clue on if metal boy is staying gone or not? We just wanted some new tunes for my boy little Missy.”

“We were talking about Nazis,” Peter said looking at you intently, “You said Nazis.”

“Do you know what a flerken is?”

“Ya,” they both said and you nodded, “Well I got eaten by one, and it sent me back to ’63 and other flerkens got captured by another dimension and pulled some Hitler clones from some hidden sect who want to release them every so often, or something like that. They got killed in this one, but, ya. I ran into Iron Man’s dad back then and he had questions, plus we sort of overlap paths in this city. Why didn’t you just go to Texas or Oregon or Wyoming where Stark doesn’t travel much instead of one of his stomping grounds?”

“All the best grunge and glamour rock bands come to New York.” Peter said and you simply blinked up at him.

“Unless you went to a concert you can buy music anywhere on the planet. The whole planet. We connect cultures through the internet.”

“I know that,” he said defensively.

Looking at the blue man you asked, “Hi, Pluto, and you are?”

“Yondu,” he said with a grin. “Helped my boy Peter here get this shielded ship for this trip.” Offering you a hand you stepped aside of Peter to fit yours in his. The scars on your palms had him curiously shift his hand to look at your hand to ask, “This how human hands look nowadays? Peter’s got squiggly lines all over his, feet too.”

“Lost my parents in a fire,” you said making his grin dim. “Burned my hand prints off, footprints too but my feet don’t have the same scars. Is this planet fun, to visit? I can’t imagine we’re very high tech. Maybe like visiting the Old West to know how people survived in an older time, or is it more like visiting a zoo, let’s go gawk at some humans today?”

Yondu laughed saying, “Mainly spectacle for me, for my boy he wanted to check up on the music scene. Which can’t say for tech, but music is certainly top notch attention compared to other races we’ve encountered humans got that going for you.”

Peter said, “You never said how you knew me.”

“I know Misique and Venom.”

“Oh,” he said. “They doing okay?”

“Ya.”

Yondu asked, “What happened to your arm?”

“Man with a wrench almost hit my friend’s baby brother in the face.”

“Ah,” Peter said and nodded his head, “Well we’re not kidnapping you, you, can go now.”

“Okay,” you said and turned for the door hatch he opened again to let you out. “So weird,” you waited to mutter after hearing from the plants around you that the ship had lifted off to leave the planet.

Pt 50

[krysmcscience]

Narilambs your goat

Get adopted, idiot

[ilyfynn]

and it's here. the boxing au, written for mcytblr aufest.

Feinberg does first place, and first place alone.

Welcome to the ring. We hope you enjoy the show!

kier @im-bored-so-i-draw's gorgeous, brilliant art, which is the basis of this work:

@mcytblraufest

thank yous and bonus fic beneath the cut (very long)

many many MANY MANY MANYYYYYYY thanks to:

the mod team for organizing and running the event. i'm unbelievably grateful for the time and effort it must have taken to keep all of this up and running, so thank you for fuelling this creation of ours <3

@theembergazer for perpetually being there for me and listening to yap on about the fic. you are goated and lovely, and i hope you don't hate me too much for it.

@bioluminescentfrog also for listening to me yap. i appreciate it goat <3

@goober890 again, ALSO for listening to me yap. i know i put you through intense torture talking about it. but it's here now. i appreciate you so much - you're one of the people who can boast of having read my works before i shifted focus. thank you thank you thank you <3333333333 the happiest of birthdays to you :3 (everybody wish him happy birthday right NEOW)

all of mcsrblr for having to put up with me going on about the fic. it must have been exasperating. sorry about hiraeth's multiple month hiatus. i love you mcsr - don't you ever stop being awesome ppflower

and last but most of all,

kier @im-bored-so-i-draw.

it has been the pleasure of a lifetime writing this au. i can still remember going fucking insane over whether i would get your frankly absolutely stunning gorgeous art. and then i did and it was absolutely unreal. when i walked into this i didn't expect to produce what i ended up producing. i never would've dreamed of writing a 22k+ fic in 2 months.

and kier, you have GOT to know this, half of the writing was done by you. if not in reality, then in spirit - all those times i thought i was going insane by staring at the doc, you pulled me out of it. i am absolutely, eternally grateful for your consistent presence throughout this entire journey. because that's what it was, wasn't it? a journey, starting with new beginnings and ending with - if i allow myself not to be modest for a moment - a masterpiece. this is my longest work to date. and i have you to thank for that. from complaining endlessly in the google doc to watching httyd together, you have been there the whole time, and i cannot stress enough how absolutely wonderful all this has been.

so thank you. thank you! thank you for everything. thank you for starting this gorgeous au with your art, and thank you for making it come alive in the same way. your art is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, impeccably beautiful. i am in love with it.

thank you for choosing to participate in the aufest at all, and thank you for supporting me as i mentally collapsed struggled to write halfway through. thank you for your patience, and kindness, and all those words and emotes and gifs - they mean so much, and i will forever be grateful.

i could not have done this without you, kier. we've made it, see? we've made it! look how far we have come. only the Universe can see how thankful i am. i love you because you are love. you are one of the kindest, most brilliant people i have ever interacted with. remember that.

i hope the future holds more for the both of us. i absolutely hope that we will immediately recollab on - gets shot and dies

but i couldn't let this go without gifting you something you haven't seen yet. so. just for you, have silverrreign's side of the story.

enjoy :3 (for those who are not kier please read the main fic first there are spoilers 😭)

[activatebutterflyshield]

I was compelled last night and I’m quite honestly scared of whatever 11:59 PM me intended for those middle sections. At least I still know my colors when sleep deprived, and I’m sure someone else on here can fill the blank spots out better than I can on a full eight hours of shut-eye.

[hitwiththetmnt]

Hiii fellow camper(s)! Would you want some chocolate strawberries- and crocheted emotional support worms?

Have fun at camp!! Can't wait to meet everyone

Strawberries and crocheted worms?! Thank you so much!♡

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

Cabin #7 (7 Wonders of the Turtleverse)

[im-bored-so-i-draw]

I tore rook wings forever

At last. The long awaited au is finally out !!!

From an event @mcytblraufest, created with love by me and @ilyfynn the goat of everything in this au making, you can finally read it!

Happy reading!! ✨

[goshyesvintageads]

Paper Mate Co, 1955

[loiteringandlurking]

jack who thinks he's suave but his idea of flirting is shadow boxing and bantering

[dannyriccloverrr]

‘Nice to keep a few people quiet’ Daniel u rock my world

[atopvisenyashill]

i’m afraid my “catelyn and arya are both struggling against violent misogyny in a mirror of each other and it’s therefore only with each other will they find peace in their new understanding of their own gender” has broken containment and it hasn’t even reached 100 notes 😭 what have i done to deserve this r’hollor pls

[eddie-redcliffe]

[alexisntedgy]

i love humorously terrible rhythm and timing. more specifically, i love pat’s humorously and somewhat impressively terrible rhythm and timing in his summer camp rap. how is he that bad.

do u think the ghosts are more familiar with it than like. hermione and roger. because they seem to have cap’s ration pack memorised and at least pat’s rap is set to music

[bassguitarinablackt-shirt]

i just remembered i’ve seen a production of percy jackson the musical and i figured you should have that information 😋😋😋

YOUVE WHAT. YOUVE. YOUVE WHAT. AND YOU'RE JUST NOW TELLING ME!? WHAT THE FUCK GOOBS :(

[james-p-sullivan]

i was going to let this go but its happened a few times now and i want to address it before it becomes A Thing™️

DO NOT come into my ask box whining and begging me to appeal to blackstar on your behalf. if you want art made by him, he has a commission page. if you want to submit a request, well look at that he has an ask box! if you got blocked, i don’t care.

i have exactly ZERO authority on what he draws outside of my commissions and i have even less authority than that to tell him who and who not to block. i will NEVER put the feelings of some rando in my ask box above the feelings of someone i care very deeply about. if you got blocked, then you probably were acting like a shit head and deserved it.

if you know all of this and still feel the need to appeal your case to me, i want you to go through a quick checklist:

1.) i don’t care

2.) i don’t care

3.) what makes you think im going to try to appeal your case to him when I don’t know you and you’ve now made BOTH of us uncomfortable?

4.) i don’t care

anybody who comes into my ask box complaining will get an instant block. glad we had this chat!!! :)

[hitwiththetmnt]

HEYYYY-OOOO!!! I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MICHELANGELO (tmnt: shadows of the escaped) FROM CABIN 12. HERE TO ANNOUNCE THAT YOUVE JUST BEEN PRANKED!! ENJOY YOUR NEW CABIN VIEW :3

(Cabin 12) @tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

We had some relocating but the new view is still amazing!

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion @actuallynobutwhynot

Cabin #7 (7Wonders of the Turtleverse)

[toxicrevolver]

He gets chicken in the morning and at night. But he has dry food down 24/7, two bowls of it. But yeah 🙄 he's starving. When I'm taking a part the chicken to shred, he'll come up on the table and chew and eat on the whole chicken and my parents are always like "have you been feeding him? he's starving" He is, in fact, NOT, he LIES.

He also has multiple water bowls, except he doesn't like the water fountain, because... It's too cold for his likings 🧎🏼‍♀️

Cats still believe they’re gods I swear. Sherb also screams for any food he likes and I’ve had people ask if he’s starving. Obviously he isn’t. He’s a chonk. He’s okay. Jsut dramatic.

I have the same struggle with water dishes! Sherbert prefers to drink out of the toilet or if the turtle is having a soak he wants the water they’re sitting in (which the turtle has most likely already used the bathroom in). Like bro. You have at least 2 water dishes around the house and I know they’re filled regularly. I’ve been told he sometimes sits in the kitchen sink and just screams for the faucet to be turned on just so he can get a drink.