#starseized

what he can force himself to be aware of, and focus on, to drown the sensation out: @starseized kneeling by the rock he had perched on, scraping blood and grit out of an open slice across his palm.

“you don't have to,”  he tries to say, though the ingratitude of it galls him,  “it doesn't hurt.”

and this much is true.  he remembers nothing before this misadventure, but his body remembers pain — real pain — and these shallow injuries, though they bled and tore and stained her hands red, weren't a fraction of what they could have been in order to incapacitate him.  perhaps that was what his birthright really was:  to shoulder violence, his own and that which he inflicted, without feeling the full depth of it.  a felled tree would have more life in its trunk than the whole mouldering form of him.

after-action patch-up starters / @starseized

╰┈➤ "You did well out there, but you're not invincible. Let me help." ( from steve ! )

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 a long one. chasing down the many agents of HYDRA was no small task. they knew well the ins-and-outs of their territories , and claimed vestiges of the tesseract's power. THEY WERE RESILIENT as humans ever were , and so loki's scepter remained unaccounted for. with such power still held firmly in the clutches of FIENDS it had been of ill consequence to thor the lengths to be taken to ensure its RECOVERY.

so perhaps this time about , spurred in no small part by his own fire-wrought visions , thor had been a bit more RECKLESS than usual.

and the battle had been glorious for it. together , the avengers had had driven HYDRA into the depths. thor had laughed and shared in his companion's REVELRY as he had held the line in a FLURRY OF WINDS , AND THE FURY OF LIGHTNING. this time , their enemies had fled all but SCRAMBLING for safety. but the scepter still remained MISSING.

thor had spared them his worry for it. but his FRUSTRATION had been palpable on the ship ride back. soon enough , thor had disappeared from the main hangar of the carrier. SLIPPED AWAY as the conversation had veered off between barton , natasha and stark.

rogers had found him in the med-bay , slowly , methodically fussing with a dislocated shoulder , and a healing , open wound ripping up the side of thor's abdomen. it was not the first time that thor had been sought out by any one member of the team. and still , thor found himself searching rogers with all the mild - mannered wariness of fox circling a hound.

silence reigned. . .

until , finally , thor dipped his head in acknowledgement. this , punctuated by a low grunt. the door whizzed shut behind rogers , but it seemed entering was about the only acquiescence his teammate was allowed for now. thor's body angled part-way aways , hands thumbing through the propped-open tin of a midgardian FIRST - AID BOX. stubborn as ever. stubborn , stubborn , stubborn.

"You did well out there, but you're not invincible. Let me help."

airlessly , thor laughed. ❝ contrarily , my friend , i have not said that i am. ❞ thor's lips curled tersely around a grimace as he relaxed his shoulders and methodically worked his shoulder back into place. but feeling it ill-mannered to leave steve's offer of kindness on such an uneasy note , thor TRIED AGAIN. this time , with a teasing twinkle in his eye.

“You want some tea? Coffee? I always got some stored away.”

Paris had become the unofficial home of the surviving Romanov's. And even though Anastasia had married Dimitri, she was still a Russian Grand Duchess.

So hosting Prince Naveen and his American bride on their tour of Europe was the least she could do.

Her grandmother was busy mingling with the influential people of Europe, and Dimitri was somewhere around here, so for a moment, the Grand Duchess was watching the dancers.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" She asked when the Prince came to stand beside her. She had met him briefly earlier in the evening, but they hadn't really spoken much beyond pleasantries.