BLOODSTONE.

“I can do what I need to without being tethered to a hypothetical side. I think you’re all being bonkers.”

“I happen to love hunting monsters. I’m duty bound to an extent, but I also find my work to be rewarding. My father is dead. He can’t force me to do this work. Even when it’s exhausting, it’s worth it.”

“Well, as a rite of passage, I had to face the Blight Beast as a baby. He then proceeded to throw me to a horde of Great White Sharks when I was a little older. I messed up my first kill by ten seconds and got its blood all over my head. Mum wanted to shave my head, but my father made me keep it until I got an infection. And then there’s my brother. There was an incident with Cullen. He was never the same after that. I don’t my father loved us. Ulysses Bloodstone, the great immortal monster hunter, made for a rather poor father.”

“As a rule of thumb, I’d prefer to leave it but our paths do cross via the Midnight Sons from time to time.” 

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Johnny, Robbie and Alejandra, rest her soul. I’ve never wanted to be a host, but I respect that they do.” Elsa chuckled. “All those things that go bump in the night? I’ve seen them up close and personal.”

“As disappointing as heroes dividing themselves over your fortune teller?”

“I don’t know -- how queasy are you?”

“I feel like you should have learned by now that it’s in your best interest to listen to me, Stephen. I do take care of your dirty monsters for you.”

“The Inhumans are temperamental. It’s why I don’t deal with them.” That and the fact that there were very few Inhuman monsters,

“Nor do I. I do, however, want to talk about the Negative Zone and the hole you left. Do you know how monsters breached into our world? You six usually are more careful.”

“Here, hold this.” Elsa thrust a jar into Clint’s hand. “Don’t drop it or let it open. We can talk, but I need to handle this.” She dug in her bag. “Is that because you’re hiding something or you have nothing to say?”

“none of it’s reversal, from what i’ve seen. i didn’t think i would need to cross survive a multiversal crash off my 2023 bucket list.” 

“sometimes that fails and all you can do is sprint and shoot.”

“i’ve long come to terms with it. someone has to keep the bloodstone line thriving and it won’t be cullen.”

“seems like too much work for me. you may as well just sober up and face reality head on.”

“i had a creepy childhood, so to speak. my father was unconventional. you would have thought he was trying to dissuade us from it with how undesirable he made it seem.” ulysses had been a shit father. there was no way around that. he had, however, raised a damn good monster hunter.