#''cv

∞So here’s a headcanon that I’ve been meaning to put into words for a long while but have never taken the time to. But I’m going to put it under a cut because it has to do with the details of Stephen’s accident and the medical trauma he survived therein.

∞I feel like Stephen’s sex/romantic life is just a string of happy accidents that the people around him just find out about in degrees. He’ll walk into a room and have Weird Chemistry with someone and the question will inevitably come up - wait, have you slept with/dated them too?

The answer is pretty unilaterally yes. And he’s very mellow and open about his relationships not being long-term, but still cares deeply for pretty much everyone he’s been with and is the kind of fling/former partner that tends to and likes to stay on good terms if not friends.

3: Does your character like coffee better, or tea?

After a life spent in hospital wings, Stephen is not above drinking coffee. In fact, he half thrives on it, and has done so for a great deal of his adult career. That being said, he does also enjoy tea, and came to enjoy it ever more so once settling at Kamar Taj. Before that he would have tea as a ceremonial drink or when on holiday, but coffee is still his go-to when he needs some hot, liquid support. Tea, for him, is more for comfort and socializing.

11: How would your character court the person of their dreams?

In spite of being a robust flirt, Stephen doesn’t really have a set design for courting. By and large, Stephen hasn’t had reason or time to consider the decorum of a true romantic approach with a certain permanent end in mind. In fact, he’s shied away from long-term commitments specifically because he fears the loss should they not sustain or come through. 

But when Stephen loves someone, and really wants to keep them in his life, he insures that they have a grounded friendship first. Sex can often be involved, but it can just as often be excluded during this stage. If at any point the relationship isn’t workable but he cares about the person, he is openly flexible to negotiating friendship in those circumstances. 

If the relationship survives, he rather doesn’t know what to do other than continue being friends, and being himself. He may open up more - or close himself off in the beginning out of panic - and in time will rely on them, which for him is the biggest show of confidence. Beyond that, his tried and true acts of affection are insuring they have time together, doing whatever makes the other partner happy. Stephen was by nature of being a middle-aged, genius bachelor prior to his magical career, more than a bit of an egotist. So when he openly devotes his time to others and not to himself or his duties in particular, it’s a clear indication of how much he wants said person to be a part of his chaotic life.

17: When does your character think that violence is justified or deserved?

Stephen has a fraught relationship with violence, harm, and death in general. By and large he despises violence, but he acknowledges that whether or not it’s logical, it happens for good and bad reasons. And sometimes, for no reason at all.

Personally, he does his utmost not to commit unnecessary violence, but that doesn’t preclude him from having to be violent in order to survive so many of the situations he’s put into. If he had his druthers, Stephen would remain a pacifist and well and truly “do no harm,” but that desire is put completely at odds by the requirements of his position. He must kill things, both spontaneously and purposefully, in order to keep balance on a larger scale.

∞So here’s another headcanon I’ve been sitting on for more than half a decade and man... does that age things. But it’s about some press rumors as well as some general musings about CA:CW. Which, by the way, I actively despise for reasons long detailed and well-established.

Back in the day, or at least when Ben C. was signed on for Endgame and the press junket was making its rounds, it was asked which side in Civil War Stephen would have taken. If memory serves, Ben C. himself said that Stephen would be on Cap’s side. If anyone wants or cares to look it up, feel free to correct me. What matters isn’t even really the substance of what the actor said, but of what it made me start considering. Because my initial reaction was “uh... no,” but the more I thought about it, the more I realized Stephen was definitely not Team Iron Man.

Now I’ll premise this with the fact that I despise the way the whole “civil war” arc was executed in the film. Even in a fantasy universe it completely breaks any and all logic put toward international diplomacy and sovereignty, and if you want my full-length dissertation on it feel free to consult my Marvel Meta Field Notes. It also doesn’t help that the ante between the characters is based on Tony’s personal mental breakdown and some heady emotional blackmailing, and Cap’s active reconciling with the injustices built into the American system as he discovered in CA:TWS. IE: flimsy masculinity. 

The basis of the “civil war” does, however, vaguely prod at one fundamental issue which is something akin to the original Civil War comic plot lines. Given the MCU at the time didn’t have the luxury of working with the X-Men franchise, it’s understandable that the legislature itself which was the crux of the issue had to be re-written. Placing it in the UN wasn’t in and of itself a bad move (save for the fact that the UN can’t issue kill orders... again, MMFN), but giving Thaddeus Ross such an inordinate toehold was just. Ew. The UN could fucking smell him coming from a hemisphere away but... Anyway. 

At its core, the question of border, sea, and air space crossing is somewhat of a valid one, as well as responsibility for cataclysmic destruction. However, this issue is like trying to track global debt ratios: in short, a spiders nest inside of a hornet’s nest in the gullet of a shark. While tracking Avengers involvement is easier, blame is both legally and personally a harder metric to map, which is why it’s taken two centuries of legal development to build precedents around concepts like murder aforethought and criminal conspiracy. The fact that even basic home insurance policies include “acts of god” as a legitimate sub-clause speaks to the acceptance of some unforeseen events. Unlike flood insurance, you can’t just call a few days ahead of an Avengers event and get extra coverage. (I would also posit that most insurance companies have or can establish direct contact with the Maria Stark Foundation for compensation claims, which don’t trickle down as an extra expense for the consumer, but that’s maybe a soft wibbly dream.) To say nothing of the fact that while the Avengers’ fight may cause the damage, the villains - often killed - are legally more “to blame” than the Avengers themselves. But honestly, prosecution law is fucked up for this exact reason, because even causing damage in the line of duty is (or should be) still grounds for being held legally responsible for said damage. That’s where Avengers culpability gets legally complex, and the overall Accords complaints have valid precedent. (The preexisting legal precedent largely regarding international espionage efforts which naturally don’t get tried publicly if ever... Which is the precise bee in my bonnet on why the UN could just publicly crucify Bucky... because?)

Legalese regardless, CA:CW comes down to, “do the Avengers legally have the right to exempt themselves from international sovereign laws for the sake of saving the world” or “are the Avengers still answerable to every country’s sovereign laws, from illegal border crossings all the way down to parking tickets”? Boiled even more down: do they have the right to impunity so they can make split-second decisions, or do they need to be answerable to international governmental structures?

As a civilian, Stephen has a different opinion on the matter than he does as a sorcerer. However, Stephen does not believe that a bum-rushed, unamended document - as the Accords were implied to be in CA:CW - is viable infrastructure for the exceptionality of the Avengers. Having been at the hospital and working during the 2012 Incident, he doesn’t exactly have a soft-spot for world-ending tragedy, but as a seasoned New Yorker (and not an idiot), he sees that the demand for governmental oversight has too much potential for corruption and subjugation to interior agendas.

Stephen’s opinion as a sorcerer is much in the same vein, though on a more applied level. Even in the comics, Stephen was one of the only marked exceptions to the registration act, largely because even the governments were like, “uh... maybe let’s not fuck with the guy who we can’t prove is a mutant but has power that we depend on to save the universe from things we don’t know about and can’t access...” In his current position, Stephen sees that his work has no business being monitored by any form of world government, no matter how well-intending. He therein also believes that there are things that the Avengers could and should do that a full UN floor couldn’t make decisions on wisely or in time for them to be effective. He doesn’t have an issue for the law and the collaborative efforts being made, but the abrupt and sweeping power over the Avengers and the tendency toward it being abused is for Stephen as much of a risk as total chaos.

In short, in spite of Stephen having benefitted from structure and control in his civilian life, he would fundamentally be on Team Cap and would challenge the sudden and overarching power of the Accords. Particularly as it regards the bodily autonomy and heroic oversight of the team as a whole. 

∞Good question, and I’ll gladly elaborate on this a bit more because it’s a pretty prominent part of Stephen’s day to day functionality even into his magical career.

So given Stephen spent the better part of a year in and out of major surgeries, as I mentioned, his body was an absolute mess from the anesthetic and pain killer regiments he was put on not only for his hands but his other injuries. His hands, naturally, were the largest source of discomfort after his other minor injuries had healed, and nerve damage is especially nasty and takes quite a bit to medicate away. Hence why I believe he developed a pretty stiff reliance on them to just not be in pain, once being functional was no longer a concern so long as he was on his way to regaining motor function in his hands.

When his money ran out, he would have long-term been looking at poverty-line health care plans that just don’t cover those kinds of prescriptions or treatments without massive deductibles. By that point Stephen was more fixated on the cure than on his own long-term maintenance, as evidenced by his liquidation of his property and even the implication that his apartment either didn’t have heat, or he’d turned it down so far as to requisite him wearing multiple sweaters just to stay warm indoors. At this point, more by necessity than by preference, he would have relegated himself to putative but cheaper OTC options. And far too many of them, by the by.

By the time he got to Nepal, Stephen was truly in horrendous shape. He’d more than likely run out of even his OTC reserves, and you can actually see in the film that his posture at this point is pretty awful. He hobbles and shuffles around Kathmandu, and even before he gets mugged is seriously cradling his hands. During his early days at Kamar Taj - even up to the first couple months - he would have been full-on detoxing as well as trying to learn magical doctrine. The order also during this time would have been trying to help him through it with herbal remedies, though not full-strength potions for obvious addictive concerns. Eventually Stephen did come clean, and because of the physical training did regain a lot of mobility.

𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞 - fast beating hearts, red wine left out overnight, victorian shirts, a crisp autumn breeze, holding hands with someone you shouldn’t, a painter staring at a blank canvas, brown coats, meticulously done hair, being misunderstood, sitting alone in a hard wood chair late at night, dead roses, gold rings

𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 - billowing curtains, thunderstorms that you feel in your chest, waking up from a nightmare, hands cold to the bone, earl gray tea, old anatomy books, losing a loved one too soon, purple bruises, a red velvet dress, a calcified heart, half written love letters, fountain pens, moss covered gravestones

𝐟𝐲𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐬𝐤𝐲 - leather bound books, dust covered homes, pawn shops, chest pains, the sharp cold of winter, rotting apples, dark circles under the eyes from not sleeping for days, thrifted classics, an empty hallway, a spoonful of sugar, rushed handwriting, stale vodka, an old hat, pebbles from a driveway

𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐫 - dried blood on a white shirt, staring at the mirror until your features start to disappear, an old record playing on repeat, gothic churches, pining over poets, a scraped knee, pomegranate seeds, tobacco incense, a forgotten supper, hands stripped from over-washing, a tattered portrait of an unknown man

∞Sure thing, anon! It’s been a long time since I’ve given a good explanation.

So the FC I use for Stephen is Tom Mison, who’s frankly a pretty small-potatoes British actor contemporary in age to the Cumberbatch/Hiddleston docket. He’s most well known at the moment for being in the HBO Watchmen series, and also as the co-star on the FOX series Sleepy Hollow. 

The reason why I chose Tom is a bit manifest. First and foremost, prior to writing Stephen I had been writing a muse that used Ben. C. as the FC - for a character he had indeed played - and at the time that role was an issue which naturally generated Tumblr Discourse. TD being TD, it of course came back on the lowly RPer to account for the casting choices (and mistakes) of the character. Seriously, I had people come at me for daring to have the audacity to use him as an FC. Not, you know. About my writing of the character? And the complexity of the portrayal I put into it? 

Needless to say, the experience didn’t exactly flatter me. It was one of the reasons why I left the muse for good. Now, I was hankering for some familiar territory so I wandered back to Marvel. And it’s justifiable to note that the Marvel RPC isn’t without drama, but man I will say that if you don’t let it in the door, it’s pretty damn easy to avoid. The problem was, I knew that the same drama around Ben. C. in the prior role was going to - and did - follow his casting choice as Doctor Strange. So for the first couple months while I ran this blog I didn’t have an actor FC at all and just used comics.

This is where @drcpalmer comes in. She knew that I’d been struggling to find an FC, and having watched much more TV than myself, set to helping me troll through options. 

What I liked about Mison was a mix of things: His stature - because aside from the super old comics where everyone is built like Tom Selleck, Stephen is one of the leaner Avengers. He’s an academic for fuck’s sake. And was a surgeon before that. He might keep fit but he’s not a gym rat and never was. So having a tall, lean guy worked better for me than the muscled up Avengers bod thing. His face - now this isn’t shade on Ben. C., but because Stan Lee based Stephen on both Sherlock Holmes and Vincent Price, I wanted someone with a sharper, more hawkish look. (Speaking of things I personally despise: people just making Stephen a facsimile Sherlock. Which was ANOTHER reason why I dumped Ben. C. One thing that the MCU Doctor Strange writers got right is that Stephen might be an asshole as a professional, but he has friends and is also a humongous dork and cares about people and isn’t just some blue steel automaton. Ugh. Leave Sherlock back in 2012 when it was still okay. Let me have my soft disaster wiznerd.) His scruffiness - now this is one that the fandom avoids because they like Beard Bro discourse and for Stephen to be immaculate. Normally he is, but he’s also a workaholic and crippled, so I wanted someone who could look refined and put together but not impossibly so. Someone who could look imposing while covered in filth and a few days late on a shave just as well as clean and primped. It also helps that in the Sleepy Hollow TV series a character LITERALLY calls him “Doctor Strange” and I NEED SOMEONE TO GIF IT I SWEAR I’M NOT LYING. (It’s also right after a woman shorter than himself pins him to a wall and pats him down and he just lets her and if that’s not a Stephen mood I don’t know what its... Ahem.)