Shatterstar sat in the middle of the park bench, legs crossed under him, and let the world walk around him. Working with X-Force was interesting. It was almost like being back with the Cadre but sometimes it felt like his new team thought he was stupid because he didn’t know about things that they grew up with. He couldn’t demand that they see him differently. But he could relax and let his powers unlace.
“What’cha doing, Star?” Rictor had come up behind him. Shatterstar wasn’t surprised by it.
“People watching.” Or some definition of that, anyway. His telepathy ran wild and danced on the surface tension of the thoughts and emotions that floated around. Rictor’s mental pattern was so very starkly different form the rest. Perhaps becuase they were closer than random strangers.
“Mind if I join?”
Shatterstar moved a little to the side, giving him room.
Rictor sat, leaning his elbows heavily on his knees.
The yellow light turned a little more orange in the silence before Shatterstar spoke. “I killed my sister.”
“Huh?”
“It was my first broadcasted fight on Mojoworld. Title match, who is the true Gaveedra. She was supposed to win, so i’d be making a place for myself as an underdog. Instead, she threw the fight.”
“And you killed her.”
“All Mojoworld fights are to the death. They can make more slaves so what does it matter if one dies. I try to be better than that.”
Opening paragraphs for an AU I’m considering writing in which Howard Stark develops his super soldier serum in 1950 rather than 1991, and tests it on Peggy, not expecting it to actually work. Let me know if you guys think I should continue it!
Howard hadn’t meant for the notes on the testing of his super soldier serum to get lost among the myriad loose papers he had lying around from his other projects. He hadn’t meant to forget to tell anyone about Peggy’s involvement in his experiment to test whether super soldier serum might have kept Steve Rogers alive, provided he’d survived his initial crash landing. He certainly hadn’t meant to simply leave Peggy in the cryostasis chamber he’d built for said experiment. But he had. He’d lost and forgotten and done all of those things, and the world went on unawares, thinking that Peggy Carter had simply vanished in 1950.
Meanwhile, Howard moved on, the world moved on, speeding toward the modern age. A million people were born or died in the years to follow, Howard among them. And Peggy Carter, deep in the dreamless sleep of cryostasis, slumbered on, unawares.
Ethlyn knew this. He could bullshit with the best of them, but actual improvising was beyond his capabilities. he made plans, and plans within plans, and variations of plans should the first set of plans not work out, and another set of contingency plans under those. In all, it made his so-called whirlwind romance to a Verdanian peasant woman as suspicious as it was heartwarming. Arvis did not do whirlwind, and he certainly did not do romance.
“Tell me what happened,” Ethlyn said on entering Arvis’ quarters. She was expecting that Deirdre would be already sharing these rooms with him, but her sister-in-law to be still had rooms situated on the floor above.
“I have begun an engagement with a woman who previously lived in the Spirit Forest of Verdane.” Arvis didn’t look up from the papers on his desk.
“Don’t pull that line with me, brother dearest. Tell me what happened.”
“You only call me that when you want something.”
“I want to know what really happened.”
Arvis started to write something, but the ink on the pen nib had already dried.”She followed me to where I was meeting Prince Jamke for the peace talks. I had to explain why she was there, and ‘I’m secretly planning your assassination’ was obviously not an option. Becuase I’m not planning that. Prince Jamke is more useful alive and he has a good head on his shoulders.”
“Is that all? I would have thought you’d come up with something better than ‘this is my fiancé’.” Ethlyn watch the way Arvis’ shoulders came up a fraction before he rolled them. Oops. He really was embarrassed about this. “You like her, don’t you.”
“Yes, she is a competent spell caster and a marvel with a staff.”
“No, I mean... You like her.” Ethlyn put a bit of emphasis on the work ‘like’, enough that Arvis looked up at her.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“You like her like you liked Aida.” There was a long moment where Ethlyn felt like she could hear the doors and windows inside the maze of her brother’s mind slam shut. “Arvis, please, hear me out. I know that enough of my friends have tried to get married to you-”
“Considering that all your friends are magpies whose chattering leaves me longing for the sweet release of death, that isn’t a very good point of comparison.”
“Shut it. What I mean is, you know what the opposite of ‘like’ is for you. And you know how you feel when you do like someone. So where does Deirdre fall?”
There was a long moment of silence. Ethlyn started to fear that Arvis would bodily throw her out of his room. He’d never do it. Arvis hurt things, not people, when he was angry. But there was a flash where she felt like a possible future had her out in the hall on her rump. When he finally did answer, his words were chosen with care and his face turned soft with each one that was uttered. “No... it is nothing like with Aida. Deirdre is... Radiant. She never does what I expect, and I always want to see what she will do.
“Bonn chance,” Frenchie murmured, clapping Gabe on the shoulder.
“Je vous remercie,” Gabe replied. “Pareillement.” Frenchie smiled as he walked away, and Gabe fervently hoped that this wouldn’t be the last time he saw his friend.
