Rooms

[Max M]

Hi there. Me again. :-D [uh oh]

[ETA: Locked: Ella D]

Hi, Ella. It's Sharon Carter. Do you have a minute?

[Neat Freak Anon]

So. I did as you suggested with no response. I can't say I'm too surprised here.

My wish still stands. Some sort of...job. If you can't bring the two people I mentioned here. That would be the first wish.

[Public]

I have explored every option on this phone. There is no way to turn the alarm off. There are ways to make it earlier, but nothing allows you to cancel it altogether. What did I do to deserve this special sort of torture?

[Any X-Men]

Don't you think we should come up with a snazzy phrase like the Avengers have? It's so much easier than asking for roll call. That is what they use the whole "Avengers Assemble" thing for, right? It would be silly if it was used as a cheer.

[Destiny]

Um. Have you thought of what you'd like yet? And cheese puffs is okay, I guess, but surely there isn't something more you'd want?

[Graham considered bringing Joy. He really did, for a good half hour or so, but then he decided a new baby half-sister was something Jake needed to be eased into. He didn't want to force anything on the boy. Plus, after their talk, he was half sure that his son was going to be even angrier with him then he had before. The truth wasn't a fix, he didn't think it was. Wouldn't take away the hurt but at the very least, Jake did deserve answers and, maybe, it would help. How, he didn't know, but he held onto a tiny flicker of hope that someday the boy would understand that his father had just tried to do what was best for him. Even if he'd gotten it horribly wrong, he'd tried. Meant well. He thought--hoped--that mattered.

Valentine's Day was coming up real close, and he hadn't forgotten his wish. But he had no faith in the hotel, no belief that this wish would be different than the countless others he'd sent up to a God that wasn't listening; getting Lore back for real seemed like a dream that wasn't ever meant to become anything more. So yeah, he remembered, but he didn't expect a miracle.

The halls of the hotel were quiet, empty, and Graham sat himself down at the bottom of the staircase to wait. Jeans and plaid, warm since Marvel was cold, but the snow didn't extend out here in no man's land.]

[The revolving door of the hotel ushered in those she knew, and swept out those she didn't, people who were familiar without bonds forged with the chemical strength of shared experiences. Pepper hated it. She hated ungoverned and unexpected change, the tide-sweep smoothing over sand and leaving only the very traces of the people she had known. But there was enough: a strand, its tensile strength slack with the absence of someone on the other end, but a strand. There was enough she recognized of the assistant she had liked and admired in the new Mary-Jane. And then there was Doctor Banner.

The sharp clip of stiletto heels over uncarpeted floor signaled her entry, even before the scent of warm, fragrant steam and the redolent smell of coffee indicated the reason for her presence. Pepper was used to the layout of the building, familiar enough to find the lab that would be the kernel cradling the scientist who was as predictably the same as he was different.

She found the nearest side, and set down what looked like take-out from the nearest Thai place and two cardboard cups of coffee and withdrew her own, fingers laced through one another around its sleeve.]

Hello, Doctor Banner.

"The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment." - James Baldwin

[Charming red mailboxes appear en masse on the eve of the 13th of February. There's a latch that opens the boxes wide to admit packages, and a slot for letters. There's a mailbox for every door and an especially large one in the hotel's main lobby. Everything placed in a box is delivered to the recipient's home exactly as provided, signed or unsigned, until the eve of the 17th, when the boxes disappear without warning or explanation.]

[The day before Valentine's. Woo last minute.]

( Left in her penthouse at the Egyptian... )

[SERGEANT JAMES BUCHANNAN BARNES OF THE 101ST DIVISION AKA "BUCKY" AKA THE WINTER SOLDIER AKA REDACTED]

[The wish had been specific, and the grantor had agreed with joyful glee. When the day turned over, the tingle of knowledge that it could be done was warm and gentle, to the wisher. The anonymous solder was given the hope and the assurance that it had been done. It was cradling, it was a caress, friendly and clinging. Tight and comforting. A hug? Swaddled in love, affection, femininity, strength, and more importantly understanding and familiarity. Either way it had been done. And when he next met his enemies, they would try. And they would fail. Again and again they would fail. And fall. One. By. One.]

[First the electric alarm clocks start going off at 12:01 AM on Valentine's day - in every local apartment/house in the vicinity.

Shortly thereafter every computer switches on, or off, depending on its state at the time.

Microwaves? Same thing.

Garage Doors? Open then shut.

Anything and everything that could be considered electric machinery starts going a little haywire.

If its in a two mile radius of Eddie Nigma's location at 12:01 AM? It's going bonkers.

Better do something about that, Eddie.

His wish has been granted.]

[The $100,000 account is opened, as requested. Unfortunately, because there is no official custody agreement for Teresa, the money is placed into an account directly in her name. This account is accessible only by Teresa, and, as a result, has no caveats on its access once she is no longer a minor.]

[The granting of this wish is subtle, and nothing Jules can possibly have visible proof of, since its intention was to affect the person granting it. But, rest assured, a limitation is now in place that will prevent this individual from killing anyone in the immediate future. No guarantees beyond that, though.]

[The "mirror" appears in the rooms where Loki is staying, with no sign of how it came to be there. It can be removed from the wall, though doing so changes nothing and reveals nothing. There's a sense of power about it, though no sign of real, traceable magic or spells. The rectangular frame is wide all the way around, wider than the spread of a man's paired hands, and holds designs of intertwined runes that cannot be read. The center, instead of being polished to a reflective silver shine, is matte gold with only the hint of a figure within it. It hangs on a wall at eye-level, waiting.

On each side of the frame is the outline and indentation of a handprint, both large enough to belong to a man. Even so, they are different, the indentation on the left-hand side is long-fingered and narrow-palmed, while the one on the right is wider, thicker, more strength than grace. In the palm of each is a single rune, the same rune, a simple engraved "X" - gift.]

"But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream. But the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted." - Gaiman

[At midnight, it begins. Every wish grantor in the hotel feels a tingle of magic, and the compulsion they've felt to learn the heart's desire of their particular person becomes something stronger.

There is no avoiding it. A wish must be granted, though not through any normal means. The wish grantors do not need to stand in lines, and they don't need to order anything from their laptops. The mailboxes in the hotel lobby are bypassed, and it's just a bit of hotel magic. A twitch of nose, no fairy dust required, and the wish grantor can make the wish come to fruition, just like that.]

[Granted without guile - all of the wolf's wounds are healed, very quickly but not painlessly. But the stipulation for 'healing' was so broad that the wish goes further than that. Any wounds in the wolf's heart are also sealed over and mended, though how long they will stay so is harder to say.]