Lina Sternberk

“Man you have a potty mouth, Cap isn’t going to like you.” Tony teased, slightly sobering up. Cap was going to have his hide for drinking anyways. But that was something for another time. The fact that she didn’t recognize him was hilarious in his book. Then again, she was in pain. It’s not like she could focus enough to realize who he is. On the other hand, she really might not know who he is. Hearing a familiar sound, Tony smirked as his armor pod landed behind him.

The metal contraption opened up allowing Tony to step in. “The name’s Tony Stark, but you can call me.” One armor suit up later. “Iron Man.”

The Pod took off, as he stepped over to her in his Iron Man suit. “Let’s get you to the nearest hospital, sunshine.”

What the hell was he talking about? Who was Cap? Come to think of it, he wasn’t repulsed by her octopus and grizzly bear additions. Was he American?

If she had more pronounced ears they would move toward the sound of the ridiculous contraption. Ah, look at that, her eyes were complete shit. Lovely.

This is what she got for not keeping her human eyes during the shift and -- she squinted -- woooow she really fucked up. Were her eyes a mixture of octopus and bear? She was legally blind. Just perfect.

She’d just... not say that she technically didn’t see what was no doubt an impressive suit-up. She kind of did. It wouldn’t have the grandiose of a human’s admittedly flawed sight. An octopus had no colour cones whatsoever. Could differentiate light way better than a person but it was all grays. Bear eyes were crap for seeing reds and oranges, which she knew made up the majority of Iron Man’s suit colours.

“Heard of the second guy.” Lina muttered breathily when he announced both his names, taking a moment to breathe with her limited lung capacity. It would hurt too much if she breathed deeply. If she could without causing more internal whatevers, she’d laugh at how she just snapped at a member of the Avengers of all people. Yay for first impressions. Why stop now? “Never heard of the first guy. This is Vancouver, Lushbot. You’re not going to find Alpha Flight anywhere near here.”

Bar hopping wasn’t something Tony did often, but when he did, he always woke up with someone hot in some place he probably own. But he wasn’t quiet there yet and honestly he didn’t think he was going to get there. Being a hero, a scientist, a playboy…well, he wasn’t that much of a playboy. Sure he’s slept with a lot of women before both human and alien and all points in between, but he only considered only a few of them really mattered.

Thus he wasn’t exactly surprised when he noticed a red head going through what seemed a failed transformation. He wasn’t exactly fully drunk either so either her powers were malfunctioning or he found a new kink he wasn’t sure he could get into.

“Hey you alright there kid?” Tony asked slipping a bluetooth device into his ear. “Wait, dumb question. JARVIS, what’s my blood alcohol level?”

[High enough that you could get arrested for drunk driving, sir.]

“Good think I’m not going to drive then.” He replied. “Bring the Mark VI around.”

[It’s on route sir.]

Satisfied, Tony spoke to the girl. “Hey, don’t worry kid, I’ll get you some help.”

She could hear him before she could see him. Hell, she could smell him before she could see him. He reeked of alcohol. Her body tensed as the figure approached, likely having seen her as she ducked into the alley. She grunted in response to the tensing, sending a sharp jab of pain through her body, particularly her chest region where her broken ribs were.

A low rumble grew in her throat as he approached, all animal instinct to a strange being approaching when injured. The tentacles that protruded from her sides curled in discontent as he did and the patches of fur on her body stood on end. Still, she didn’t move. It had been years since she disassociated and she still wasn’t quite there yet. Then again, it had been years since she screwed up this bad.

Lina’s eyes narrowed as the man asked if she was alright. Was this idiot blind or was his lack of sobriety really that bad that... this was considered alright? He corrected himself quickly, but the pain made her ornery.

“I’m fucking dandy. Feel like a trillion bucks. I don’t--” A harsh hiss as a stab of pain shot through her body. Something was wanting to move but she’d be damned if whatever it was would be kind enough to not slide together like the friggin’ continental plates to do it. “Know what made you think otherwise.”

Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

He seemed to be talking to someone on the other side of his bluetooth set. Deep down she knew she should be grateful to this stranger. He was bringing an ambulance or something. Her mind screamed at her to just thank him, but another part of her stubbornly wanted him to leave. He was invading on her personal space. He was intruding where he had no business to. She’d gone through this before! She wasn’t helpless!

Lina managed to drag herself into a dark alleyway, away from any light the dark streets might have given. She was breathing heavily, exhales frequented with vocal additions. She moved slowly, leaning heavily against the wall of the brick and concrete buildings. What little light she would cross under would reveal red hair and light human skin mixed with rubbery skin, brown fur and extra limbs.

She had been injured during this nightly excursion. While she didn’t have a healing factor, she had something of a cheat: If she could change into a boneless creature and upon turning back into her human form, her bones would reform like new.

At least in theory.

In truth, Lina didn’t know the full limits of her abilities. She’d be lying to herself if she said she didn’t have an idea. But in her desperation, it seemed she either went too fast experimenting with her hypothesis or overstepped personal limitations. She didn’t know which. The only thing she knew for certain was her time limit had long passed and her body was frozen like this, between three different animal forms.

With a guttural protest, Lina slid into a fetal position as waves of pain wracked her body. Moans of anguish would fade into desperate cries until her breath ran out, and with a jagged breath would repeat again.

“Saber-Tooth cars weren’t actually cats?” Victor asked curiously. He couldn’t help but think to himself that adding the word ‘cat’ into the name was a little misleading in this and he was very eager to hear more to correct this misconception. But while he was happy to hear more, he wasn’t so happy to have Lina pinch his throat. The teenage flinched with a small ‘squeak’ and grabbed his neck to prevent further pinching. Victor frowned and continued to nod along, eventually his small smile returning as Lina continued to get excited.

Honestly, it was getting a little difficult to keep up with her enthusiasm and buckets of information but he tried to keep up. Every once in a while, he’d make comments such as, “O-oh yeah, I remember learning about Pangaea in grammar school” and “wait, Mesozoic is when the earliest of dinosaurs are from…right?”

When Lachian made his comment, Victor chuckled a little sheepishly, “It’s okay. It’s a little hard to keep up but I think I’m getting most of this…”

“No, they’re not. But they’re also not not-cats, either.” Lina said, shaking her head. “There’s a bit too much of a difference, especially with how their middle ear bones are structured to differentiate them from true cats. So it’s more like... a horse and buggy can’t be considered a vehicle. But it’s still a mode of transportation as opposed to being a banana.”

Lachlan snorted. Lina was trying to calm down from her explosive nerdery and go back to explain things a bit better, or answer Victor’s questions.

“The Mesozoic Era is the stretch of time that encompasses all the periods the dinosaurs lived in. So if you combine the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous, you get the Mesozoic. So when the dinosaurs ended, so too did the Mesozoic Era. The Triassic Period on the other hand is when dinosaurs first started appearing. It was the period that directly followed the Permian era, which itself was the end of the Paleozoic Era. But it’s not the end of the Phanerozoic which -- you know, nevermind. That gets confusing. Even I mess up.”

“We’re here anyway.” Lachlan said, turning into a dirt path and following the road for seven minutes along the grassy fields until the came to a barn. There were benches set up just outside a large horse training ring, which also seemed to be set up for something.

Lina undid her seatbelt and leaned over Lachlan’s seat. “Oh my god is that Victoria?”

“Might be. I didn’t think she’d be here. Maybe she came overseas for a movie or something.”

Lina fell back into her seat, grinning at Victor. “Today is Lachlan’s day. So we’re going to watch him participate in his hobby.”

“Maybe after the main event I’ll let you have a go, Victor.” Lachlan said, jumping out of his car. He gave a wicked grin at the younger boy. “If you’re brave enough.” Lina smacked his arm. “Ahah’ow! Stop doing that!”

Responds to this after 100 years

neko-shadow

 Ok, I’ve seen this blog going around… and I figure it might be a fun thing to turn into a sort of meme that you tag other people in. So basically just answer the questions, and then tag however many people you wanna do. I’d suggest 10, but it’s up to you whether you tag more, less, or none at all. I’m gonna break my rules and tag people to see if I can get this off the ground. Also, as is usual with this, repost, don’t reblog.

How they would react upon accidentally walking into a glass door

She’d probably yell out ‘Ow!’ and if she’s with a friend or someone start laughing really hard at the ridiculousness of what just happened and lean heavily on the door because of her fit of giggles. Then make jokes about how she’s a bird.

Their reaction to having their name spelt wrong on a Starbucks drink

'How did they spell my name wrong? It’s literally four letters!”

What kind of vines they would make

Probably things about what happens in her group. Or science jokes.

Their reaction to your favourite character

"He’s cute. I see why you like him.” And will proceed to tease them.

How they would play The Sims

She would play for a little while and then quickly become bored because there’s a lot of more interesting games out there.

What their finishing move would be

A fucking bear.

Tagged people