iron souls

“mine is worse.” illyana stated, her tone matter-of-fact. not that it made much difference to her, but she supposed there was little she’d find in his aura that would surprise her. part of her was curious for his reaction, but moreso she had a bit of a puzzle to solve on the state of him – as he was meant to be dead. “everybody has aura, but it’s more energy than a tell-all.”

she let out a hum as her head tiled. remaining quiet for several moments as she was seemingly looking for something in the space around him. “you died, i would presume your loved ones buried your body or it was cremated, yet you are here.” if it was uncomfortable to discuss someone’s dead body with them, she didn’t realize. “so is this only your consciousness or has your physical being been brought here and reanimated? this is what i look for.”

“and to answer your question, yes stephen as aura, even the sentient cloak. why do you ask?”

“you know one thing i love about you? you’re always so refreshingly frank,” tony said, and he actually meant it. after a lifetime of people like obadiah stane and justin hammer, it was so damn nice to talk to someone who were straight up self aware and not apologetic. 

“ah, so ... like an advanced mood ring, i guess,” he said at her explanation. “i asked to be cremated in my will, so -- i’m guessing my soul detached at some point, because i really don’t remember being barbequed. speaking of which -- souls are real, right? i mean, i assume they are, but ...” he looked down at himself. “i don’t look particularly translucent.”

he raised his eyebrows at the mention of the cloak having an aura. “so ... does that mean it’s alive? or just sentient? how does that work? would an AI have an aura?”

folding his arms across his chest, he found himself more intrigued by the process than worried. “so... go on, hit me. what does my aura look like?” had he deliberately side stepped the question about stephen? maybe.

“oh, you were making a joke.” mj made the realization, nodding her head. though her original question was still on her mind. 

she was thrilled he’d brought it to light. she loved talking about this kind of stuff. it was pretty much her niche. “the trick is you probably can’t. people think they’re justified in what they do. even some psychopaths consider their murdering ‘cleaning up the city’ to make it a better place. like you said it’s all subjective. so i guess the real question is how do you know who’s right? people just made up rules to follow and the government is nowhere near reliable.” she shrugged, her deep-rooted distrust for the government and any “high power” very adamant. 

“yep, classmates, Decathalon teammates.” she nodded, taking a lighter tone once peter was brought into the conversation. “yeah it’s all totally weird. but we’re in college now though.”

“yeah,” tony said with a bit of a sigh. it was always so disappointing when a perfectly good joke missed its mark. 

“anyway--” he blinked and paused when she launched into the question of morality. oh, to be young again. “see, thing is, i think there’s an objective standard for some stuff, like -- don’t kill people, don’t hurt people -- but then you get into all the complicated things like what if you did it in self defence, and ...” he shrugged. “in the end... you just sort of try your best.”

his voice trailed off as his gaze went distant, remembering things like sokovia. the accords. ultron. good intentions and the pathway to hell. “and in the end, you realise that we’re all heroes, and we’re all villains.” 

he sighed. “sorry, not what you came here for. how’s college treating you? what are you majoring in? got any dirt on peter that you can share?”

On the list of people he had a complicated relationship with, Tony Stark was near the top. Maybe even was the top. From a thorn in his side to allies to friends to rivals and back again, he and Stark had pretty well run the gauntlet of relationship dynamics. Trust and loyalty were things Steve valued very highly, and they had frayed to a threadbare status between them, perhaps irreparably. But then, life was surprising, and people even more so; perhaps there was a thread of hope there, too.

Steve knew Tony was going to make fun of him, knew the man did it as easy as breathing, but that still didn’t stop the flush of foolishness that swept through him. Of course no one had a plan. Everyone was just as lost and confused as he was. Which brought up another question– had they all gotten here at the same time? What about those who had died, how long had they been there? And what had they been doing all this time?

“It is good to see you.” There was nothing but sincerity in his voice, and the ghost of affection in the smile that hinted at the corners of his mouth. The world had been a lonelier place when it had lost some of its greatest heroes. When he had lost some of the people he considered friends. Or maybe family was a better word for what they were to each other, for this mix of affection and annoyance. It was certainly what Steve wanted, and what he was determined to protect. “I guess the kids will just have to make their own videos for now. Be the future.” Like most of the cheesy things he said, he believed in it too sincerely for it to be entirely in jest. “But you’re really telling me you haven’t put your brilliant mind to work on this problem? What about the loose outlines of a plan, or even something… plan-adjacent?” He hesitated, voice a little softer as he asked, “How long have you been here? Tell me it hasn’t been since…” Memories came in waves, of another battle with too many losses, another pyrrhic victory.

ugh. cap never changed -- and tony wondered how he managed it. always genuine. always the poster boy for shining inspirational goodness, right up there with kelloggs. or something.

“you actually believe in that be the future stuff, don’t you?” tony boggled. “literally, you’re the only one who can say something that cheesy and actually sound like you mean it.” he shook his head and sighed, a smile working its way across his face despite himself. “you actually make my bitter, gnarly old heart warm.”

pacing around a bit, he let the smile slide off his face. “yeah, thing is, before all of you popped in, it was just natasha and i, and a few other dead folks chilling. i genuinely thought it was some kind of afterlife. a really boring afterlife, but an afterlife. what i didn’t expect was for all of you to come crashing my party. but i’m sure i’ll think of something. probably figure out how to build a big sound stage, and do a concert.”

he huffed. “can’t say. there isn’t really much of a sense of time passing, but probably since-- you know.”

even now, it was hard to think of his death, and harder to talk about it. he preferred to let his mind simply glide off the topic. “how long has it been for you? and were all of you up to just before you ended up here?”

“no,” jean admitted. “i don’t.”

so many years had passed, it seemed. literal decades had moved on earth, and it was hard to reconcile it with what she remembered. it felt like she’d fallen through a wormhole; like she’d stepped out for a breath of air and come back to an entirely different world. “so tell me,” she said. 

she felt anger in his words, but there was always an undercurrent of it within him; and it was difficult to say whether that was the strain of old wounds or something newer. “in one reality,” she said, “i stood by your side - i joined the brotherhood... but that...” she shook her head. “that didn’t end well.”

“though you looked better,” the macaw squawked, making jean jump. she’d completely forgotten about the blasted bird. “less round.”

“just-- just ignore him.”

“do you have any face left under that make-up?” the bird yelled at some poor random stranger. jean grimaced; she’d been thinking the same thing, but she hadn’t actually wanted someone -- or something -- to say it out loud.

“protip: shower once in a while,” the damn bird squawked at someone else. “i wonder how the hulk looks like under all this orange light. can’t be good for his skin tone. caw!”

jean took a very deep breath, trying not to die inside. “so... how’s your day going?” she said.

open starter !

there was a lot to be said about stephen strange - but him being akin to harry potter was not one of those things. he absolutely dreaded having to deal with anything about the ridiculous children’s books - so when he woke up and found he’d been ‘gifted’ a wand and that none of his magic worked unless he evoked a stupid spell…. he was less than pleased.

“suddenly… i have lost all ability to cast or conjure magic. it’s a shame really, i suppose i’ll have to default back to my medical knowledge.“ he boasted towards anyone who would listen. it certainly was interesting seeing everyone change in some form… plus the reddish sky. if he hadn’t considered the infinity stones before, he definitely considered them now.

“oh yeah?” tony said. “is that a wand i see? looks like you’re still doctor magic. well, if you don’t want it, hand it over, i want to try my hand at this whole magic thing.”

which was probably the only magic thing he would be able to do for a while, considering the disgusting travesty that had befallen his suit. “hey you,” he said to the cloak of levitation. “yeah you, friendly outerwear. how’s it going?” 

patting stephen on the shoulder was an excuse for him to get close to the man, and he had to note that said man really didn’t seem to mind. “so, talk to me. what’s wrong, doc?”

“ Well, can’t you just, I don’t know, magic them away? ” - ( @ofironsouls​ ) jean grey to stephen strange

both of his brows shot up as he stared over at her in surprise. “is this frustration speaking or do you genuinely believe that i can just ‘magic’ all of this away?“ he asked, a bit taken aback but simultaneously amused. “because i can assure you that i cannot just ‘magic’ this away. how do i know, you ask? i tried.” he splayed out his hands and shook them at her before turning away from the red head. “it’s not as easy as it looks, jean.”

“call it admiration, doctor strange,” jean said with a smile that gave away the teasing note in her voice. “honestly, though -- i don’t really know what you can do with magic? but illyana can do some pretty amazing things, and you’re supposed to be her teacher, so i can only assume that you can just...” she waved her hands. 

still, she could sense his growing frustration, and she instinctively reached over to put a hand on his shoulder. “i’m sorry,” she said. “i know you’re trying your best. maybe... it’s time to stop trying to escape and trying to see what there is here instead.”

“i’m being a good person and you are absolutely ruining this moment for me.” { riri x tony }

riri had been preoccupied with working her suit. since she’d gotten there she’d been trying to find a way out. she didn’t know where she was but she had her suspicions. the entire time she hadn’t even noticed there was another person in the room trying to get her attention. It wasn’t until N.A.T.A.L.I.E had alerted her did she turn around to catch tony’s last sentence. “mr. stark?” she almost dropped her helmet in her hands. she never thought she’d actually see his face again, his actual person in front of her. “but you’re…you’re supposed to be…well you know.” she urged on, not wanting to finish off the sentence for herself.

@ofironsouls​

“handsome? amazing? even more stunning in person than i am over a video call?” tony grinned, even though part of his heart sank at seeing riri here. he still wasn’t sure why people were here - and he still couldn’t rule out the possibility that they were as dead as he was, and he really, really hoped not.

“what’re you doing here anyway?” he demanded. “who’s going to save the world if we’re both stuck in orange land?” 

ambling forward, he peered at the helmet. “is that new design? very sleek, i like it.”

talking fast, and talking a lot had always been his best defence mechanism. and maybe it wasn’t fair to the kid - considering that he really liked her, saw her as a protege and practically a daughter... but hell, he’d never been good at showing raw emotions to his kids. 

( “ i hate to say, “i told you so,” but i told you so. “ | @ofironsouls​ | jean grey )

harry rarely ever lost his temper and if he did, it was usually in the presence of no one. he was trained to have longer patience than most considering his social status and anything he did would definitely get back to his father. but this whole situation was slowly eating away at his patience. and do redheads really have this much fire?, he thought to himself as the woman in front of him reminded him of one of his closest friends. “okay fine, at least we tried,” he said as he looked at the pile of stones that was originally a big rock he threw at the glowing wall.

jean had to admit that she was getting increasingly frustrated with this place, and the whispers of the -- don’t think of it -- the entity at the back of her mind were getting stronger. restless. 

she could feel a bubbling pit of rage simmering below the surface, which, in all honesty, terrified her. she couldn’t tell if it was her, or the phoenix, or if indeed there was any difference between them any more. and yet, at the same time, she wanted to just ... give in. 

maybe it was the ‘i told you so’ that made her temper simmer over, but before she realised what she was doing, she’d raised the entire pile of stones and flung them at the glowing wall.

unfortunately, exactly like harry had told her, the stones simply ricocheted off, hurtling in all directions, and jean came back to herself just in time to realise that she’d just done something incredibly stupid. “oh god,” she said, whipping around to look at harry. “are you alright? i don’t know -- i just lost it, i think... did any of the stones hit you?”

if it were any other situation, any other point in their lives, rhodey would just… go with it. he’d let tony play this off as just another day, another casual moment in their friendship, nothing to worry about. he’d deal with the gravity of things in his own more subtle way. but this isn’t the same. this isn’t any other situation. this is… tony died. and yeah, he did it for a reason. sacrificed himself for the whole universe. but he still died. his best friend for basically half of his life. and there was nothing he could do. no way he could save tony, all he could do was… sit there and stare as the light left his eyes.

he stares for a moment, still reeling from the clap on his shoulder, from the voice he was so sure he’d never hear again. “orange is - orange is not your colour. at all. which makes this that much more…” hilarious is where that’s going, but there’s nothing funny here. not a thing.

it’s the question about morgan that really breaks him, though. just picturing her face, remembering how hard she’d taken tony’s death, all the tears and the questions and the sadness in her eyes. before he knows what he’s doing rhodey’s reaching for the man, pulling tony into a tight hug, squeezing his eyes shut. “she’s doing good, tony. as good as.. she could be after what happened.” rhodey pulls back from the hug after a few moments, resting a hand on tony’s shoulder. “and she gets all the juice pops she wants. i’m not a monster.”

“weird, eh? red and gold are definitely my colour, but toss orange in? nah. orange is not the new black.” 

he kept up the lighthearted tone, but his eyes never left his best friend’s face. and he knew, he knew what rhodey was going through. decades of friendship (how had he ever gotten so lucky) would do that - he knew rhodey would banter, knew that he’d kid around, knew that that was as much a front as his own rambling.

when rhodey pulled him into the hug he didn’t hesitate to return it, wrapping his arms around the other and squeezing him like he’d never let go. “i’m here,” he mumbled. “i’m here.”

when they pulled back, his eyes felt suspiciously moist. “yeah? she’d better.” his hand lingered on rhodey’s arm, trying to convey a world of thank yous. 

“so... what’s been going on? catch me up on all the gossip. all of it.” if his voice was a bit tight in his desperate attempt to not fall apart completely, well -- hopefully rhodey wouldn’t notice. (who was he kidding? of course honeybear would notice).

peggy smiled genuinely for the first time since she found herself in this odd place. “yes, that would be me. unless there’s some clone i don’t know about. that would be particularly disastrous.” she added lightly.

howard and mr. jarvis were some of the most pivotal people in her life. it seemed only fitting that even after she and howard began to run s.h.i.e.l.d that she managed to catch a glimpse of his son, tony, when she can. she just knew with one look that the kid was going to be a lot better than howard, both in brains and she had hoped then, by heart.

“you were dead?” peggy looked surprised. but then again, she wouldn’t have known that as she had already been dead herself at whatever point tony lost his life. “pleasure to officially meet you, tony. in your most adult form too, no less.” she then takes his hand to shake it firmly. “did he now? nothing too embarrassing, i hope. mr. jarvis tends to overshare around closer peers.”

tony made a show of glancing around. “nope, no clones, the last i checked. though i heard that skrulls are a bit of a thing, sometimes. you know, aliens that can shapeshift.” he patted himself down. “i sure hope i’m not a skrull,” he muttered.

clearing his throat, he glanced up, bouncing a little nervously on the balls of his feet. “yeah, i mean, it was a bit of a moment,” he said awkwardly. show-boating was easy - he could do that in his sleep. but he didn’t want to start off this afterlife by bragging about the whole hero shmuck to peggy, even if part of him thought that being a hero was still pretty cool. “there was a big battle, might have fought off a big angry purple dude bent on genocide. loads of people were involved. steve was there. in fact, he might be here now, somewhere.”

there. that was probably as much as he needed to say. and frankly, he was quite happy to shepherd the conversation on to talk about jarvis. “depends on what you mean by embarrassing,” he said, shaking her hand warmly and grinning. “if you consider certain hero moments to be embarrassing, then unfortunately, you’re going to have a bone to pick with him. i just know that i never got tired of hearing about how you fished my old man’s tail out of the fire.”

“that’s... that’s really not how that works,” jean said, trying very hard to ignore the thing lurking at the back of her head whispered that perhaps - if she wanted to, she could literally will things out of existence. she slammed the lid on that box, hard, and shoved it away as quickly as possible.

“i mean, my powers are telepathy and telekinesis, so i suppose i could toss them away if i tried, but that’s not... really nice, is it?” she paused. “actually, which ‘they’ are we talking about? all those other people here? because they really haven’t done anything, even if they’re looking at us funny.” narrowing her eyes, she stared out at the horizon, wondering if the flickers she’d been seeing - and the voices that she thought she kept hearing - were something other than her over-active imagination. 

“or is there... something else here?” she asked, very carefully.

“hey, no worries – i’m starting to think this place might be playing tricks on us.” lorna admitted – only hesitant to admit that she felt like the dead were in her ears, like she was being haunted. “everyone else is looking just as confused and i’m starting to wonder if we’re all even from the same time and place.” maybe she was making conspiracy theories, but was anything impossible here?

lorna glanced down a moment, gaze flickering over her hands as she pressed her lips together – after a moment, a shade of green danced around her fingers. “magnetism, actually. i can manipulate the magnetic fields around me to carry myself – among other things.” it was leading, as it wasn’t necessarily a common power but she wouldn’t deny it.

“2023, but a lot of people lost five years after this purple guy snapped his fingers. what’s the last year you remember?” 

"you know, i think you might be right,” jean admitted, looking around. “though i wonder how it works if people are from different times.” she had to admit to staring for a moment in surprise at the mention that it had been 2023. “i was in 1992, the last i checked...  that’s a whole -- more than 30 years? that’s crazy!”

she spent a moment wondering if she really could have spent 30 years in space - what was it some people had said about time moving differently if you were travelling closer to the speed of light...? but before she could get lost in that particular train of thought, she realised what the other had said.

magnetism.

the thought that had been lurking at the back of her mind exploded to the fore. “are you...” there just wasn’t any delicate way of putting this. she hadn’t been aware of erik lehnsherr having any children when she’d left earth, but there had been so little she’d known about him. 

“are you related to magneto?” it was a question, but she already knew the answer. “i went to him for help, once. i thought, perhaps, that he might have answers for me. but i think ... that didn’t go down well.”

stephen squinted at his words, scoffing as he did so and raised a hand to defend himself. “i have never professed to be good around people - it’s on you and anyone else who projected that upon me.” he retaliated despite knowing he shouldn’t be putting this misplaced aggression onto tony.

sighing, he dropped his hand as he let his shoulders slump - a feeling of direct defeat coming over him knowing entirely well that tony was correct. “sorry,” he muttered, hating that he apologized but deciding it was best to face up to his own asshole-ry.

but it was in tony’s final statement of words that caused the sorcerer to snap his attention to him, his eyes boring into the other with acute and direct persistence and determination. “what do you mean the infinity stones? are we within one? of course, i should have known that. i am so STUPID.” he started to rant, pacing to and from as he went, muttering about theories and who could have done it.

“tell me, tony - what all do you know? i need to know everything.“ he stated bluntly, stopping mid-pace to address the fallen avenger.

tony snorted. “oh no, no projections here, doc.” he huffed. “but you’re a bit prickly, all things considered. what are you hiding?” his tone and gaze sharpened, before the sudden apology made him blink in surprise. “well ... don’t wear that word out,” he said, after gaping a little.

watching in further bemusement as the good doctor started pacing and all but tearing his hair out, tony folded his arms and let him have his moment. “i mean, it’s just a hunch, right? but the colour of this place looks pretty much like the soul stone to me. and maybe it’s because nat was here when i showed up -- i just...” he shrugged. “she sacrificed herself so that clint could get the stone, it made sense. it doesn’t seem to be a generic afterlife, because i haven’t really seen any other dead people here.”

“everything, huh?” he said. “i know how to cook a really bad omelette. and that you shouldn’t put the spinach in after you cook the egg.”

he shrugged. “beyond that? i don’t know.” he looked out over the horizon, and sighed. “i was pretty much resigned to being stuck here, and was getting pretty comfy with it, then all of you turned up. guess i gotta figure out how to send you all home.” he gestured at the sorcerer. “you see that crashed ship over there? think you could get us any closer to it?”

“you know, you missed all the fun,” tony said without preamble, coming up behind rhodey and clapping his shoulder like they’d just seen each other five minutes ago. “we were having this huge bash. really epic. music, dancing, booze, everything. made our MIT days look tame.”

tony would have called it ‘breaking the ice’; someone else (like rhodey) might have called it trying to avoid the inevitable awkwardness of having to say “hi i’m dead -- but not really” to your best friend; “also, i figured out that orange really isn’t my colour. by the way, how’s morgan? she conned any juice pops out of you yet?”

really, if he stopped and thought about it, he’d have to acknowledge that painful heart-squeezy feeling that was lurking in his chest at the sight of rhodey. rhodey. the one constant in his life, through thick and thin. the guy who’d been collateral damage of his craziness too many times. godfather to his kid. there were few certainties in life, but tony knew one thing - his death would have hurt for james rhodes, and if there was one thing that tony had hoped never to do again, it was to break honeybear’s heart.

....so much for that. 

ᴛᴏɴʏ: the good, the bad, the dirty -- (panic! at the disco)

it’s panic! you know tony would love to be all about that ac/dc vibe, but really, under all of that he’s mostly panic. and disco. don’t let him fool you. and that title. if that doesn’t scream tony to you, i don’t know what does.

there are tons of lines that resonate with tony: 

truth is that it was always going to end // this symphony buzzing in my head // took a market of filth // and sold it like summer

this just screams pre-IM1 tony. 

if you wanna start a fight // you better throw the first punch // make it a good one

and here’s im1/im2 and avengers-era tony -- either the one to start the fight, or to give as good as he gets if someone throws one at him. 

there's only two ways that these things can go // good or bad and how was I to know // that all your friends won't hold any grudges // i got the final judgement

and here’s im3, age of ultron, civil war, infinity war and endgame tony, in a head-over-heels roll down hill. 

and if ya wanna make it through the night // you better say my name like // the good, the bad, and the dirty

because it isn’t tony if there isn’t a reference to a good time, amirite. but at the same time, that’s him - a bit good, a bit bad, definitely a bit dirty. 

ᴊᴇᴀɴ: shallow -- (lady gaga)

ok, disclaimer -- lady gaga is not the first artiste to spring to mind when i think jean grey. i mean, i can’t see jean running around to the tune of bad romance or alejandro. nopes. but lady gaga is such an incredibly talented lady with such an amazing creative range, so--! i picked this song mainly for the lyrics, and of course the sheer power in gaga’s voice when she sings.

here goes:

tell me somethin', girl // are you happy in this modern world? // or do you need more? // is there somethin' else you're searchin' for? 

right there, right off the bat, that’s jean’s whole crisis - she isn’t quite happy, she doesn’t fit, and while she would love to, there is definitely something more she’s searching for

i'm falling // in all the good times i find myself // longin' for change // and in the bad times I fear myself 

and there we go - jean’s terrified of her own power; she’s been taught that it’s something to lock away (but at the same time she’s fast outgrowing those training wheels).

i'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in // i’ll never meet the ground // crash through the surface, where they can't hurt us // we're far from the shallow now

open starter

Steve woke up with a burning in his lungs and a pounding in his head. Which wasn’t necessarily an unfamiliar sensation, but it was certainly happening in an unfamiliar place. He got to his feet, and tried to take in his surroundings, looking for assets and resources. Shelter. He would need shelter, and water, and probably food at some point. His shield lay at the ground at his feet, and could hardly help with any of those.

Darkness was the last thing he remembered. Darkness that felt like a weight, like everlasting night, like failure. But it wasn’t dark here. Here everything was golden-orange, a perfect warm twilight. Steve kicked at the ground that seemed to be ever-shifting beneath his feet, as much liquid as it was solid. 

He couldn’t see anyone or anything, no matter which way he looked. He was alone. His chest seized with panic. He had no memories of being trapped in the ice, but sometimes he almost thought he did. He thought he could remember being frozen, an eternal wasteland, a world of silence and nothingness and no one, no one. He would wake up drenched in sweat, as if he had indeed been in the ocean, on the nights that particular haunting visited him.

He took several deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. It hadn’t happened again. It couldn’t. Not even their broken world could be so cruel. “Okay. Everything’s fine.” The sound of his own voice, any voice, began to steady him. “We just need a plan.” He turned in a slow circle again, and his heart thumped painfully at the sight of a person-shaped blob on the horizon. He picked up his shield and began to run.

“Excuse me,” he called out as he got closer. “I’m looking for a plan.”

“i’ve got a plan. attack,” tony said blandly. hands in his pockets, peering at steve behind totally-unnecessary-sunglasses, his laid back, casual demeanour was the diametric opposite of the good captain’s at the moment. then again, wasn’t this just perfectly normal for them?

“hey cap,” he said, “i don’t think you’ll find a plan around here. believe me, i’ve looked.” he spun around. “any one seen a plan around here? no?” turning back to steve, he shrugged and grinned. “sorry, i think we’re fresh out of plans, but maybe if you used that shield and started digging, you might strike gold.” 

deciding to cut the man some slack, he wandered up to him and clapped his shoulder. part of him still tensed up with remembered panic when he did so (biting cold winter air and a shield coming down right onto his suit’s reactor), but he pushed it aside. “i’d say it was good to see you, but i wish you weren’t stuck here with the rest of us. who’s gonna do all those educational videos for the school kids now?”