Eliot the Spectacular, High King of Fillory (the_spectacular) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-07-28 15:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | alice quinn, eliot waugh (helladjacent), neal cassidy (au), peter parker / spider-man (mcu), tony stark / iron man (mcu) |
Who: Alice Quinn, Tony Stark (MCU), Eliot 2 with guest appearances by Peter Parker (MCU) & Neal Cassidy
What: Eliot 2 arrives in Tumbleweed and Alice isn’t sure he’s who he says he is.
When: Saturday, July 28th
Where: Fort Neil Resettlement Bureau (but also briefly a camping ground)
Warnings: Eliot casually mentions the death and dying and drugs from his previous world.
Status: Complete in gdocs
It was not the first time Eliot had arrived in a world without magic. It was the first time, however, Eliot couldn’t recall precisely how he’d gotten himself to a new world. Obviously it was a portal of some kind, but Eliot hadn’t summoned the portal and the hotel seemed to block the use of such magic. No one had been able to escape Hotel Kairos. Most people wanted to, except for those that had come from someplace worse like a hellish zombie apocalypse world, but now that Eliot found himself somewhere new he was desperate to get back to the kidnapping hotel and make sure his friends were alright. As it was, he was now alone, without magic and a little bit fucked. Also still kind of drunk. His adams apple bobbed when he swallowed nervously. “Hello?” he called out. This had to be the hotel. The hotel had transformed itself on the inside again? Sometimes it did that, except that it ran on a very strict schedule and it wasn’t Monday. -- Alice had been dreading the alert since Tony had gotten it set up. There was no possibility of excitement over a potential added ally from their world joining Tumbleweed. It didn't matter which face would greet her at in take. The Monster could take any face it liked. She could reach intake, peer inside, and it could be the face of Penny or Todd or Henry peering back at her; but there would be no joy. There would be only suspicion and the sudden feeling of nausea that was tumbling around inside her. As soon as it had come, she'd left the small room where she'd been clicking away at a data pad over information about the portal, guiding her way through the Bureau's halls with ease. She knew the way to intake. And as she walked, swallowing hard, she had pulled out her phone. It wasn't to any of the others she sent a message. They were the last ones she would want to come here if the individual was indeed the Monster. After all, he was coming for them. They were the most at danger. 'Did you get the alert?' Of course he got the alert. He set them up. But she felt better asking that than, 'Please come.' -- Tony Stark was camping. Even more shocking, he was enjoying himself. Of course, it had some to do with the ridiculous amount of stuff he had brought with him. A power bank. A hand held espresso maker. A camp stove. A waterproof lantern/bluetooth speaker/bug repellent device. But he was camping. The scenery was beautiful, the food delicious, and the company surprisingly enjoyable. It was nice to kick back and try to pretend that he was not thinking about his many works in progress he had left back in Tumbleweed. The alert startled him. He retrieved his HUD glasses from his pocket and put them on just as he received Alice’s message. ‘Got it.’ he dictated, oblivious to the perplexed looks he was getting from his fellow campers. ‘Looking at the CCTV now.’ He asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to pull up the live feed from the cameras in the intake room. The video appeared in his glasses, showing a dazed, confused duplicate of one Eliot Waugh. -- Eliot had been wearing a lovely, tailored pair of jodhpurs, tall riding boots and vest with his button up shirt. The High King’s sword was at his side, though he was currently without his crown. He looked not like the modern day Eliot, or the Eliot of Fillory, but Eliot as though he was staring in his own glamourous silent film adventure story. The hotel had stopped in the 1920s once and Eliot was quite fond of some of the clothing he’d picked up from there. Since the hotel was never to be trusted he tried dressing for the unexpected and to impress and thought he pulled it off handsomely. Maybe when he was a little less unsteady on his feet having consumed several expertly mixed alcoholic beverages. Eliot stumbled for the exit and tried to see if he could get out, anxious about calling attention to anyone that might be less than friendly. -- 'Heading in that direction.' She pushed down the level of panic and anxiety that was threatening to rise. Tony didn't know everyone from their world. It wasn't likely he would recognize any of the number she could think of. Plenty of other potential names were coming to mind. Teachers from Brakebills, Brakebills alumni, residents of Fillory Anything that the Monster could find useful was coming to mind. She assumed whichever individual it was would be being moved through procedural soon if not already. They had things down to a schedule here, after all. 'Can you get me an image?' she asked as she continued to move through the corridor. She wasn't quite running but it was faster than most would deem necessary. She looked like she was trying to get where she needed quickly. And she was going through the procedures through her mind and trying to calculate how long it would be until they were finished with intake and release. The Monster's powers, theoretically, would be dampened like anyone else's. Only, he was feared even by God's. What if it was the exception to the rule? If he was, she doubted he'd comply to intake all together. She felt sick. -- Tony was not expecting to see a familiar face. He sent Alice a screen capture without comment. Would their bogeyman take the face of one of their own? It seemed a logical choice. He waited a moment, still watching Eliot in the camera footage, before asking, ‘Need backup?’ He could be there in no time at all. They had purposefully left the portal they arrived by open, a sort of wordless decision made by both Neal and Tony. -- Peter perked right up at those words. Backup? He could be backup. He didn’t have to ask, his expression said it all. One word and he would be ready to go. The fifteen year old was sort of frozen in a half ready stance, willing to bolt at the slightest indication from his guardian that he was needed. It didn’t matter if Peter didn’t know where they were going or what they were dealing with. Tony had only to say the word and Spider-man would swing into action. -- Neal didn't know Tony Stark well but he'd seen at least a film. He was capable of putting two and two together. Tony was speaking to someone back in Tumbleweed. Something was going on. As for what? He didn't know. He glanced to Peter for a moment, then back to Tony, waiting to see if the other man was about to utilize the portal they'd kept nearby in case of any such emergency. As for Alice, the image had loaded on her phone and it made her break out into a full run at that point. She didn't want to focus on her phone any longer. A hasty, 'yes,' was sent to Tony's phone from her and at that point, she thrust her own into one of the pockets of her dress. She came to a stop near the medical section. She could faintly hear his voice. Logic told her that it was possible that this Eliot was actually another version of the man but it also told her that it could be what she feared. The Monster was a shapeshifter. What better way to get to them than to take the form of someone they cared for? She breathed out, pushing the nerves away, needing to be laser focused and ready for what may come next. She followed his movements through procedure, hovering on the fringes, likely seen. She wasn't trying to hide. And as she moved along, fingers twitching with frustration over her lack of ability in this building, she kept waiting to hear the sound of Tony's arrival. -- Tony rose to his feet after Alice’s quick reply and removed his glasses in dramatic fashion. It was then he noticed three pairs of eyes looking up at him expectantly. “So, I got a thing.” His voice was casual, his demeanor much less so. “Quick thing, should only take an hour. Or two. Three max.” He began to walk toward the portal back to Tumbleweed. Peter looked particularly perky, bringing to mind the look of Loki’s dog as he stared earnestly up at Tony, waiting for him to throw the toy. “No,” he proclaimed, pointing a finger at Peter before the kid had even said a word. He was starting to understand what Natasha had meant in her assessment of him: Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, no. Maybe Spider-Man could be useful against the creature that Julia had only vaguely described to him. But Tony was not about to risk losing Peter again at the hands of some all-powerful being. Spider-Man, yes. Peter Parker, no. He would be going alone. “Be back in time for s'mores,” Tony called out before stepping through the portal. His armor was waiting for him on the other side, standing in Sentry Mode in the backyard of Emma Swan. With no care about being seen, he stepped into his suit and set a course for Fort Neill. -- Meanwhile, Eliot was trying not to panic. He didn’t speak much during intake, barely containing his anxiety, looking for people he recognized. He tried to appear confident, relaxed and a little flirtatious if only to feel like maybe he had the upper hand, some semblance of control. Mostly he just came off as pleasantly tipsy. Until he saw Alice. Then he stared. Had Alice gotten him out of the hotel? Did she know he was missing? He was still getting memories from home, he didn’t think he was actually missing but she was smart. She could have figured it out and found a way to pull him. Eliot needed to talk to her, get some distance between everyone else. Did she know Quentin was there, too? Had she pulled him out first? Had she meant to pull Q all along and gotten him instead? He started walking toward her. Slowly, one hand splayed against the wall to orient himself as he walked, even though it mostly just looked relaxed. Fuck he needed a cigarette. -- She had barely let her eyes leave him. The only time she'd glanced away was when she had taken a moment to speak to one of the other employees of the Bureau. She didn't want to cause a panic. Tony would be enough at first. Eliot, or the Monster, seemed to be playing along. If they needed to detain him at the end, then it looked like perhaps they could. As long as the dampener was actually working and he wasn't just playing a game. Hadn't the Monster enjoyed games? When he spotted her, her blood ran cold. She didn't turn her gaze from him but her arms shifted and crossed over top of her chest, the guarding mechanism that was she was famous for. She held a cool gaze and offered no semblance of emotion one way or another. It didn't appear as though she were happy to see him. Her arms tightened. Better he see her than the others. She was certain of this. But it didn't mean that a shiver hadn't crawled up her back as he walked in her direction. -- Tony moved wordlessly through the Bureau. He had left his suit guarding the entrance, but it could be called forth at any time, if needed. He headed toward medical, it being the most likely place to intercept the incoming Eliot, and by default, Alice. He reached her side just as Eliot was approaching her. “Fancy meeting you here,” he greeted without looking at her, his eyes focused instead on the casual gait of the man in front of them both. It was up to her to make the determination if this was friend or foe. At the moment, Tony was just a very handsome guard dog, waiting for his cue. -- Eliot paused. Mouth pursed slightly quizzically as he looked between… “Alice? Where am I and why are you standing next to Robert Downey Jr.? I loved you in Chaplin, by the way. You were completely robbed. ...Is he a magician? Did he go to Brakebills? Or is this a really weird dream because, I would totally be down for this.” Eliot nodded casually, watching them both for context clues. “...Also I might be drunk. Did you pull me out of the hotel? Did you get Quentin? Fuck. Tell me you got Q. And the others? I’d really appreciate it if we got Jesus out of there, too.” -- She didn't let her gaze leave Eliot but she heard the approach of the other man and was aware of him coming by her side. "You got here quick," she returned, with an impressed tone being forced to be front and center. As for the reason of their meeting, he'd paused and Alice raised an eyebrow. Her name. A question. Pop culture reference. Her arms unfolded and dropped down by her side. Finger tips flexed for a moment before pressing hard against the palm of her hand. The tension was still in her shoulders. Her memories of the Monster were seared into her mind. The childlike demeanor, the strange almost innocence, and the complete lack of knowledge of the current world. He'd been impressed and awed by the simplest of Q's tricks. He'd been wide eyed and full of wonder. Even if he was shifted into Eliot's body, she did not believe he could play act the role of Eliot Waugh to that level of accuracy. Not when Eliot Waugh didn't know who he was and the Monster had no way of accurately studying him. Still... It was only now that she turned to look at Tony. Her expression read, 'I think it is him.' She hesitated for a moment, before looking back to Eliot, "Hold on. My questions first." -- “That’s the idea,” Tony replied. He had not expected to test out his detection system so soon. He rolled his eyes at Eliot’s Robert Downey Jr. line, but did not deny it. Instead, he stood a little taller and placed his hands in his pockets, eyes slightly narrowed, the left corner of his mouth turned up slightly with the subtle hint of a smile. He gave Alice a slight nod of his head. -- “Okay?” Eliot said. The anxiety of not knowing what was happening, where his friends were, made his expression slip, looking more vulnerable than he normally allowed himself to look in front of anyone not named Margo or Quentin. “Um. What questions?” -- The vulnerability made Alice hesitate. It wasn't something she was accustomed to seeing but she knew it was possible. But that felt more in line with a disappointed and hurt child. She pushed on. "Which of my relatives did you want as a mentor? Recite everyone's title. Where am I buried?" She didn't bother worrying on whether that might seem peculiar to Tony. "Tell me one of the questions you had to answer to prove you were the High King." -- “Your Aunt Genji. High King Eliot the Spectacular, High Queen Margo the Destroyer, Queen Alice the Wise, and King Quentin the Moderately Socially Maladjusted. Fuck. I don’t remember where you were buried. I just remember Q doing that dance to try and summon you. That was much more memorable. It was two fucking years ago and we just picked a nice spot in Fillory to make Q feel less shitty. Somewhere in Whitespire. Fuck, the gardens. That’s right. Did I mention I’m still a little drunk?” But the last question, Eliot looked between Alice and Tony. “Oh, you are not going to make me do the monologue in front of him. Not that I get stage fright but come on. He’s A list and prettier in person. That’s just mean.” Eliot patted himself down and found a package of cigarettes. Putting on to his lip, he made a quick gesture to try and light it and forgot he was back to a world without magic. “Mother fucker. Um. So we’re back on Earth, right? We kind of need to get back to Fillory. And deal with the fairy fucks currently invading Fillory. Also there’s the issue of getting magic back. Seriously, how did you get me here? I didn’t even think you’d notice I was missing.” -- Tony had long since come to grips with just how fucking weird Julia’s universe was. She had also told him about Alice and her status as formerly deceased person. He was still slightly disappointed that did not mean she was some sort of off-brand zombie. It was a peculiar line of questioning, but with how fearful Alice was of the creature they were after, Tony trusted it was specific enough to weed out an imposter. Eliot had yet to actually address Tony, instead choosing to talk about him as if he was not standing there. As enjoyable as it might have been to keep up the pretense of being the actor Eliot admired, Tony preferred to be praised on his own merits. "Not Downey Jr.," he stated matter-of-factly, pulling his hands from his pockets. "But I expect you have heard of me. Name's Tony Stark. So please," he made a 'go on' gesture with his hands, "monologue away." -- “Oh fuck,” Eliot said. They weren’t on Earth. -- It was Eliot. It was Eliot. "It's fucking him," she said, gaze shifting to Tony as she said this. The tension released in her shoulders and she brought her hand up, sweeping her hair back behind her ear. He'd given her everything she'd asked for and more. It was him, he knew about magic being gone, and...hadn't he said something about a hotel? What was that about? Her hand dropped and then she felt her expression drop. "Oh, fuck. There's two of him," she said, quieter, more to herself before she turned to address Tony fully. "I'm so sorry." -- Tony clapped his hands together, looking from Eliot over to Alice. “Great,” he replied enthusiastically, as if they had just decided on dinner. When she apologized, his tone lost some of its levity. “What’s with the apology? Everything worked the way it was supposed to. Nobody was disemboweled in the end. I’d say we’re good.” -- “Okay. Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” Eliot said, staring at them. He glared at his cigarette as if that were its fault. The sword was no longer at his side, having been taken from him while he was being processed and promised back later, which was fine. The sword wouldn’t do him much good without magic anyway. “Alice, I haven’t seen you in two years. I have been trapped in Hotel Hell and met Captain America and Bucky Barnes. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Q is still there. My friends are still there. My fucking boyfriend is still there. So will someone please talk to me and tell me what the fuck is happening and how I got here?” -- She appreciated the response from Tony. It had gone according to plan, hadn't it? The sensor had worked and they'd assessed and they came out of it with no Monster. It was a good thing. She breathed out and gave him a light smile. "We're good," she agreed, but then turned her gaze toward Eliot. "You've come through a portal," she said, matter of factly, "And you're in processing to be released. We've likely slowed the process down," she admitted, though she had followed him through the varying stages. He wasn't far off from completion. She frowned, "Yes. I'm well aware of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes." She wasn't necessarily fond of one of them. People who hurt Quentin weren't in her favor typically. She let out a sigh. "They are likely still there. We have no control over that." She glanced back to Tony now. "I can take it from here." A beat. "Thank you." -- Tony wondered if someone was keeping a running tally of all the other universes people had been detoured to on their way here. Hotel Hell? He hoped the multiverse spared him from a bypass through that particular destination. He did not react to the names Eliot dropped; apparently there was no universe free of the wonder twins. He gave Alice a nod and a smile to go with it. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” He turned to Eliot, his smile shifting into something slightly piteous. “Welcome to Texas. You have my sympathies.” A smirk, and then he turned to depart, leaving Alice to do all the heavy lifting as far as explanations went. He had s'mores to make. -- Eliot did not like Alice’s answer, or the way Tony Stark left. Even in the hotel, he seemed to get more attention for being a king than he was here. He held his hands up in the hair helplessly before turning to look at Alice. “Alice. Please.” His eyes could have bore into her. “What do you mean we don’t have control. I just came through a portal. So we just have to portal everyone else, right?” -- Alice watched as Tony left. Knowing it was Eliot now made it so the fear she'd held close to her chest, and hidden from view, was dissipating and with it went the rush of adrenaline. She felt completely exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed. Where as she had stood tall and with a stern look on her face when she'd begun hovering through his intake, now there was a vulnerability and a display of some emotion. She looked like she'd been actually frightened. She glanced back to Eliot with sad eyes. She'd been prepared to fight. She'd been intent on trying to keep everyone safe. And now? Now she had to be the bearer of bad news for another version of one of her dearest friends. She wasn't supposed to be the one in this position. That was Margo. Margo knew how to comfort Eliot. "It isn't like our portals, Eliot," she said, her tone completely different, and the volume decreased. "We don't choose who comes here. We have no control." -- “Someone does,” Eliot insisted. He calmly, as calmly as he could manage, closed the distance between them and held her hands in his, as though she were the one he needed to plead with. “Like the hotel, you could tell it secrets and win favors from it. So who’s responsible for kidnapping us here? Who can I…? Where the fuck even are we? It isn’t actually Texas, right? Alice, Alice please. I can’t just leave everyone else behind. If I showed up here, they’ll show up here, right?” -- "Possibly," she agreed, but her definition of 'we' had been in reference to the Displaced. They'd been studying it for how many years now and there was still no definitive answer. She'd only recently become part of this. She'd only done so because of the threat of the Monster, too. When he bridged the gap, taking her hands, she gave a small whimper. She gave his hands a squeeze. He really was Eliot. "We've been trying to find an answer to that but we don't have one yet," she answered before grimacing a little but nodding her head. "It's Texas, Eliot." As for his friends showing up... "There are multiple people who've arrived here that had a second point of origin that differed from their home world. The most common is the group who were from Hawaii. It's possible your friends will show but none have yet. I've not heard of a Hotel Hell." A pause. "That...that isn't literal, is it?" -- “I mean, literally the hotel was called Kairos, and it was all about making us adapt to new fuckery every week. So, hell adjacent?” Eliot offered. He wasn’t crying, but his mouth was tugged into a very suspicious, worried frown. “Of course, the hotel also has a habit of giving us very vivid, real seeming dreams. So in addition of spending I’m not quite sure how long there, sometimes one night of sleep would result in living out months of some kind of fucked up what if scenario. Do we age here? We didn’t age there. Also can we die here? I’ve died a few times now, but if we died in the hotel we always came back the next week so. That seems important to know because I would like to take a lot of drugs right now and not think about anything if there’s really nothing I can do.” He sighed. “On the bright side this might be just another one of the hotel’s dreams and I haven’t just left everyone else behind in endless physical and psychological torment.” -- Perhaps because she was already emotionally compromised, her brows came together in a sympathetic and sad expression as she listened. Her hands had gripped his tighter in her own. For now, all fears she was wrestling with were pushed down inside and she focused on him. She gave a small nod to the actual question. They could die here. He'd died? "No one who has died here has come back," she told him. She couldn't say for certain if that would always be the case but from what she'd heard about the space cruise, and then the two individuals who'd passed in the pirate attacks, so far it seemed to be true. She breathed out. "I've been here a year. Others longer. Some years," she informed him. Shifting, she dropped his hands and instead took a step forward, wrapping her arms around him, tighter than a typical hug from her ever was. "We need to get the rest of your admission finished and then talk about here. And home." — Still questioning the nature of his reality, Eliot put his arms around Alice and returned the hug, kissing the top of her head. She wasn’t someone he expected to see ever again, and he pleasantly surprised to see how well she seemed to be doing. “Yeah. Okay. Mhm.” Eliot wasn’t letting go until she let go. Alice was solid and stable and if Eliot continued hugging her he didn’t have to wonder about what had happened to Castiel or Jesus or Negan or Rowena or Gretel or anyone else left behind. — She pulled in a shaky breath at the feel of the kiss. She couldn't remember the last time she had given or received comfort from one of the others. Kady wasn't really the hugging sort but she was the one Alice felt safest telling her emotions these days. And perhaps it wasn't fair to take a moment to enjoy the sudden feeling of safety this gave, when he did not know everything and what she had done, and when he would likely turn icy toward her too. She sighed, bowing her head for a moment, just letting the embrace hold. She held back enough to prevent the trembling after effect from earlier. She knew it would come eventually. Hopefully once she was alone. "It will be okay," she offered up, even if that was not how she felt most days. Today was simply a stark reminder of how she was living with the sword of Damocles hanging over her head, always waiting for it to drop. Finally, she pulled away. "Let them finish and then I'll walk you out?" -- Eliot looked behind at the staff waiting and sighed. Nodding, he left to finish up as a new arrival. |