✷ ✷ ✷ ɐılnɾ ✷ ✷ ✷ (hurlyburly) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-06-25 17:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, julia wicker, tony stark / iron man (mcu) |
Who: Julia Wicker & Tony Stark
What: A Midsummer Night’s Peacock.
When: Sunday Evening
Where: Into the woods & ending at Julia’s
Warnings: Swears!
Status: Complete in gdocs
It reminded her of Fillory. Julia could almost tangibly feel the magic in the air that was responsible for the transformation of Tumbleweed overnight. Thankfully she wasn’t responsible this time. Unfortunately, she wasn’t responsible this time and had no idea what was going on. On a side note, she could tell this wasn’t Fillory. The air wasn’t lightly drugged. She checked the network and then went out to explore. If she could find the source of the problem, there was a chance it could be reversed. Or, she could be the one with the pleasant job of letting everyone know they were living in a magical wood now. The town itself looked more like a quaint little village, and her house a cottage. But the trees were thick and the roads winded dangerously. Julia made a gesture with one hand and created a light source. With her other hand she sent off a text message to Tony: Wasn’t me. Checking it out. I’ll let you know what I find. Not that he was the sort of person to accuse her or be upset about what was happening. It seemed only fair to let him know anyway. One minute Tony was tinkering under the hood of the Roadster, and the next, it was like he had been transported somewhere else. Except he hadn't moved. He was sure of it. The room had changed. Instead of his subterranean garage, he now found himself in some sort of underground cavern, supported by great wooden beams. Tree roots dangled from the earthen ceiling. The room was lit by a series of candelabras, amplified by strategically-placed mirrors. His workshop had vanished, his Iron Man suits replaced with medieval suits of armor, and the car he had been working on was now a carriage. What the hell? Tony sighed, "I hate this place." He went topside, to find that the upper floors of his house had been equally transformed, the sprawling mansion now somehow compacted into a tiny cottage. Stepping outside, he discovered that the dry scrub brush that usually encompassed his property had been transformed into a dense forest so thick that not even moonlight could penetrate it. From the light of his open front door, Tony could see a pair of opossums engaged in a full-on conversation. Which he could understand. While he gapped incredulously at the animals, one of them turned to look at him and said bluntly, "We got a problem, here, Bub?" Tony's phone pinged and he reached for it as he backed away from the confrontational possums. How do you plan on doing that? He replied, then shot off another text quickly: Save me from fairy tale hell. Julia looked down at her phone and frowned. She wasn’t sure if that was Tony’s sense of humor or if he was legitimately in trouble, but if whoever was responsible for this was like Ember, those two ideas weren’t mutually exclusive. Got the key on you? Going to play hot/cold. Hold it up, key lights up, means you’re going the right direction to my place. Not sure if I trust the trees. Also I sort of have a history with sentient trees. Long story. Julia hadn’t gone far from her house. She looked back, stood at the entrance and waited for him. She shot off another text: Mind the whimsical. Tony cracked a smile at Julia’s replies. Of course he had the key on him. This was the guy who, until recently, had still been carrying around the flip phone with Steve Rogers on speed dial, waiting but ready for the reason to use it. Still, he was not sure the key would be necessary. I think I can manage without the magical leg-up. Unless you want to set me up with one of your portals. The cross-town journey is less appealing on foot. See you soon, unless the whimsy swallows me whole. Tony re-entered the house, popping his head through each doorway until he found Peter. “You okay, kid?” he began. “Not that it needs saying, but portal shenanigans are upon us. Stay put while I go check things out.” A small part of him wondered if he ought to leave Peter alone, but the kid could handle himself, Tony reasoned. Besides, he was not going to be gone long. Phone in hand, he set out into the woods in the direction he knew Julia’s place to be, the interface on his HUD glasses allowing him to see in the darkened forest. Ever the multitasker, he also perused the network to see what others were making of the situation, stumbling occasionally on a tree root or rock he had failed to navigate around. Change of plans, he texted Julia a short while later. Have to go save a damsel in distress. You good on your own, or do you want to meet up? Julia found herself exhaling a small sigh of relief. It was just the humor previously. She kept her eyes glued to her phone for a few moments, letting the moment process, worried that if she looked up she might see the ghost of her PTSD in the trees. No I’m good, she wrote back. Save your damsel. We can meet up after. I’m going to see what I can find. Julia wondered if she should share what Alice told her with Tony. She had no choice, right? She literally had to take the potion or risk losing her identity. Except she found herself having the same chicken vs. egg argument she’d had with Tony. Which came first? Reality or the TV show? She’d told Tony there was no way they’d really lost because that would never fly in a superhero movie. The same couldn’t be true in TV show, right? Unless the show was cancelled and it had ended on a bad note. She couldn’t gamble her life on that, could she? Julia wrestled with her thoughts as she calmly wandered the woods. She avoided most the magical creatures. There were a few talking animals she’d spotted, but she left them alone as well. Tony had been wrestling with his own thoughts over the past day, since the arrival of Steve Rogers Squared. He had engaged with the serumless one, mostly out of curiosity, but also because he missed the guy. Sure, they did not have that shared history together, but that was also the appeal. Given the choice, Tony would rather forego the uncomfortable reunion with his Rogers. Once was enough, and it had all been for naught anyway. Who was to say there would not be a revolving door of Steve Rogers in this place, taunting Tony like some sort of purgatorial punishment? So he had avoided the man altogether. It seemed to be Steve’s play as well. It was easy to pretend that did not bother him. Tony met up with Natasha, and together the two of them were able to track down Clint, who was still mere blocks away from home, but could not seem to get there. Once they got him situated, Tony broke off to find Julia, hoping wherever she was, it was closer than her apartment. These woods and their strange inhabitants were giving him the creeps. Tony Stark: 1; Dark, Creepy Woods: 0 Where are you? Solved this mess yet? Julia looked down at her phone and smiled. Tony had that effect on her. Looking back up at the magical woods surrounding her, she was comforted by the fact that none of the trees seemed to be talking at least. Though she couldn’t be certain that they weren’t moving. Not even close. Can’t find the source. God? Something else? No clue. Have my watch and my phone. Can you track my location? Tony was grateful the tech he had on him at the time this woodland realm transplanted their own was still in working order. He tried not to think too hard about how that was possible. He quickly found her location, not too far off, and sent her a text indicating as much. Found you. Keep heading southeast and our paths will converge. Got to be portal related, he continued, as he walked toward her location. Know anyone with a portal to the base? It was likely that Fort Neill had been similarly transformed, but it seemed like the next logical step. A rustling of the trees overhead caught Tony’s attention, but he kept his eyes forward, not wanting to deal with whatever this forrest had in store. Fairy lights, talking animals, creepy trees that he could swear were moving. He just wanted to find Julia and figure out a way to get his house back. There was a sudden popping noise, and then Tony felt his body go numb, like a limb that had fallen asleep. As his feeling returned, it was to a body that felt decidedly different from his own. He did not know precisely what had happened, but he could venture a guess. For the second time that night, he sighed and muttered to himself, “I hate this place.” I have been punished for my hubris. Tony Stark: 1; Dark, Creepy Woods: 1 Julia looked down at her phone. The portal sometimes gets more blame than it deserves. She didn’t feel like mentioning the power swap in writing, so she didn’t. It took her a moment, and she wasn’t sure she could trust her usual sense of direction, but did her best to move southeast as requested. It was when she got the second set of text messages, that Julia bolted. It may have been an overaction, but she had enough experience with the whimsical side of magic to know it wasn’t something to fuck around with. Her imagination was doing a number on her anxiety levels as she tried not to read too much into the word punishment. “Tony!” she called out. Julia kept running. Her speed was impeded by her need to take the uneven ground carefully. “Tony!” she called again. “Shit.” If Tony had known the way Julia would react to his texts, he would not have said anything. Though, it seemed like a word of warning had been in order, rather than suddenly being confronted with the fact that one's significant other had been transformed into some sort of human-peacock hybrid. Because of course things could get weirder than a town suddenly being doused with fairyland. He heard Julia before he saw her. “I’m here,” he called out. “But the whimsy, it got me.” He spoke with all the exaggeration of a D-list actor in a B-movie Western who had taken a bullet. He had to make light of the situation, the alternative was unacceptable. When she finally emerged from the forest, Tony greeted her with an awkward shrug, his eyebrows, now long and almost feather-like, raised high on his forehead. His nose had the appearance of a beak, and a length of colorful feathers followed him like the train of a bride’s dress. Julia was still running, but stopped dead in her tracks by the time she made it through the forest growth and had Tony in her sight. She was, very quietly, doing her best to assess just how bad the situation was. He seemed to be in good spirits, if his humor was any indication, no physical pain or signs of active suffering. Her eyes had grown a little wide, but she did her best to keep a straight face, nodding like a bobble head. “Uh huh. Um, I can fix this.” Maybe. “Let’s get out of the woods.” She approached him carefully, and started with her hands on his shoulders, trying to get a sense of how deep the change went and how extensive it might have been. “Did you say something to someone to piss them off?” Her fingers were still trembling from her previous anxiety as she tried to subtly recover her breath. Tony pretended to be offended by the suggestion that he had pissed someone off. “I was minding my own business. Didn’t even stop to gawk at the animal orgy I stumbled upon back there.” He could feel her hands trembling on his shoulders, so he reached up to grab them and hold them between his own. “I’m alright,” he added, more serious now. “I mean, all things considered.” “Maybe they wanted you to join,” she said. She watched him take her hands, met his eyes and nodded. The trembling was still barely present but better. “I think we should get out of the open. Closest place to get to would be…?” His place? Her place? Maybe one of the two options would be better for privacy. Julia looked around. “I have an idea.” She stepped back from Tony, pulling her hands away gently. It wasn’t hard to find two trees spaced roughly a doorway’s width apart, with branches overhead that formed a suitably sized rectangle. Julia created a portal and on the other side of if it was her bedroom. Tony looked on as Julia created the portal. “Couldn’t have done that before someone turned me into Big Bird, huh?” He did not wait for the go-ahead from Julia, but stepped through the portal and into her room, more than ready to get out of the forest. Once they were both safe in her room, the doorway to the woods closed, he asked, “So let’s hear it. What can we do about this?” He motioned toward his entire body. “Clearly this is in your wheelhouse rather than mine.” Julia put her hands to her mouth and stared at Tony thoughtfully, thinking it through slowly and deliberately. “We wait,” she said. “It would be easier to fix this if the transformation had been complete, and we know nothing about who or how even did this to you. If I try to do anything now it could make things worse, it could change you for the worse.” She knew that probably wasn’t what Tony wanted to hear. “If it is the portal, then this will likely blow over, you’ll be back to normal. If it gets worse or progresses, it’ll be easier to transform you back once you’re fully … bird. We will fix this, but the smarter move is to wait.” Julia stepped in closer again, this time to be the one to reassure him, her hands in his. “Don’t be a cock.” Her face was almost straight, but the corners of her lips struggled not to curl just slightly. Wait was not a word Tony liked hearing, nor was it one he usually heeded. “What makes you think this isn’t complete?” He ran his hand down his chest. His breast bone protruded awkwardly like a bird’s, lower than where his arc reactor had been. There were very obviously feathers there. “You think they meant to turn me into an actual peacock?” Tony rolled his eyes at her cock joke. If the roles had been reversed, he would surely have done the same. “So what, I’m just supposed to sit here and pretend there aren’t feathers coming out of my ass?” “I don’t know, Tony. That’s the problem. I don’t know if this was the end goal or if who or what did this to you fucked up. There are too many unknown variables to do something about this safely. If this is the work of a god or fairy, versus a human, it makes a difference. I am not going to risk hurting you over something that might be temporary anyway.” She gave his hands a squeeze. “Tonight, I think you should stay here for observation, just to make sure things don’t change. Tomorrow, if things look stable we can go out during the day an explore. It isn’t Fillory, but it feels similar. They could have their own version of magical creatures or helpers or gods we can petition to fix this.” Julia was taking this all in stride, and it helped Tony continue to make light of it too. He was not sure if it was owing to her past and her world, or if it was just in her nature, but he shuddered to think of how he would have coped with all this without her there to normalize the weird. And keep a (mostly) straight face about it. “I suppose the only thing to do now,” he began, sliding his phone out of his pocket, “is to subject all my friends to selfies of this nightmare fuel.” He took a step back from Julia and spread his tail feathers in full display. “It’s only fair.” Julia blinked in surprise, seeing the display. It was one thing to see it on a peacock, and something else to see it up close on a much larger human. Her mouth opened slightly, not sure if this was a choice he was going to regret once this was over, but she stopped herself from interferring. He seemed to be himself. It was probably okay. |