El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
Steve had met up with Sam, Buck and Nat at this point. Where his nearest and dearest friends went, he had his bases covered. But there were still other people that he needed to talk to, other perspectives to consider. He was still the leader of the Avengers, even if he wasn't in this reality (a concept that still hurt his brain a bit), and he owed it to his teammates to track everyone down and try and get their thoughts on things. Maybe some of them would be native to this reality, but he wouldn't know until he tried.
With that in mind, Tony was at the top of his list. The guy might not have been his favorite, but he was still the smartest person that Steve knew. If anyone was capable of figuring out what was going on and sending everyone back to where they came from, that would be Tony. And even if Tony wasn't from his dimension, unless the guy's personality was massively different, he suspected that he could get the man to come up with and build something. Tony liked intellectual challenges.
Of course, there was the possibility that he was much different. Steve himself didn't seem to be what anyone expected. It was peculiar.
Finding his way to Stark Industries and the impromptu government chair of New England, Steve entered the lobby. The decorum was mostly the same with some slight differences here and there. Classically masculine accents with rich wood that spoke of Howard's aesthetic. Howard... who was still alive. Another thing that Steve was adjusting to. Walking up to the receptionist, Steve cleared his throat, ready to ask for Tony. Instead the receptionist caught one glimpse of his face and seemed equal parts nervous and familiar.
"Captain Rogers... did you have an appointment with Mr. Stark today?' The woman's fingers flicked over a high-tech keyboard as she pulled up different displays on her state-of-the-art computer, obviously double-checking.
"No, ma'am. But I was hoping to see him today." Steve replied naturally. He wasn't sure if it was his words or the permissive tone of his voice that made her look at him with surprise. Maybe both.
"Of course. Mr. Stark's busy at the moment but I'll give you access to the private elevator. You can wait for his meeting to conclude." Typing in a few quick things, a distant elevator binged and the doors opened. Giving the receptionist an appreciative nod, Steve offered his thanks and moved toward the elevator.
The elevator climbed at speeds far superior to any other in the building, and within a moment he was on the floor where the receptionist wanted him to be. Stepping off the elevator, he took a few paces into the foyer-slash-lounge area and moved to park his rear on the plush couch. Within a handful of minutes he was growing restless enough that he looked for something--anything to do. With no luck on that front he slipped the bag off his back and pulled out some sketchpads and a pair of pencils, which he took to using.
Post by Alice Moore-Stark on Mar 1, 2017 2:44:34 GMT
The entire landscape of the world had changed, and that was saying quite a bit; instead of seven continents that existed, there was only like, five. Hundreds of years of history had been altered, at least from her perspective. To almost anyone else she’d spoken to outside of Tony, this was the way the world always was. The United States of America had never existed. Hell, half the countries and states she knew about never even existed at all. This reality was weird and not a world she wanted to live in. She wanted to go back to ‘her’ universe.
At least this proved the quantum physics theory correct on parallel universes. Provided, of course, that she could prove it. If not, hey. She now had totally original ideas that she could make money off of. Not that she needed to, but it was something to keep in mind. Currently, she was avoiding dealing with problems by not being near them and apparently taking care of super important work duties that she had now.
It was another issue she’d deal with, but for now working at her nepotism earned job and possibly having to see people she disliked was preferable to spending time with Maria and definitely seeing lots of people she didn’t like, and having to wear clothes she didn’t like. Here at least, no one seemed to badger her, except with status reports she couldn’t do much with since she knew next to nothing about what she was supposed to be doing/in charge of.
At most she’d just been bossing around interns….though like the terrible office movies she’d seen, it was just to get coffee from time to time. While doing no work and browsing the internet, and trying to get caught up enough on current timeline events and trying to see where she was in several of her Steam games in this universe, there was ding to this floor of the building; which meant either Tony or one of his parents (or apparently alive Jarvis) was here.
Alice decided to gamble and see if it was or was not Maria. If it was her, surely ‘I’m super duper busy right now’ would work as a cover. If not, well….she still wasn’t going to wherever Maria wanted to drag her off to. As she crept over to the lounge area, it didn’t initially appear as if anyone was there….but then there was Steve. Which was strange, actually. What was Steve doing here?
Not that she’d ever properly spoken to him at all. Well, no time like the present. “Hey, Cap.” Alice said, with a slight wave. “What brings you here?” She asked, looking perplexed.
Steve's posture immediately snapped up to something that a soldier could be proud of the moment he heard Alice's voice. Flipping over the cover of his sketchpad and then setting it away, the blonde at last looked over to Tony's daughter. He'd only ever interacted with her in passing, which had been fine with Steve up until this point. He and Tony weren't close enough to put him in much contact with her and when word first got out about her existence Steve had figured space was best. The two of them had had a lot of catching up and bonding to do and Steve didn't always have the best opinion of her dad and didn't want to influence how she perceived him.
"Hey, Alice." He responded right back, and then immediately caught her choice of words. 'Cap'. While it was easy to overlook since that was what a lot of people called him, it wasn't a title that was used often in this universe. He still was a Captain, but since he'd surrendered the title 'Captain America', most he'd interacted with that recognized him called him 'Rogers' or 'Nomad'. Rogers seemed to be the preference, though. So much so that he wondered if this version of him insisted on being addressed by his surname rather than first name.
But considering everything else he'd learned about this Steve, he wasn't surprised.
"Sorry if I'm making any assumptions here, but are you displaced?" If she wasn't, he hoped that the term was vague enough that she wouldn't immediately catch on. As it was, though, he couldn't maintain the illusion for much longer. If she wasn't what he was expecting, she was going to catch on pretty soon given the differences in his behavior compared to Native Steve's. And if she didn't catch on, he knew that her dad would. He just hoped that Tony's curiosity would be enough to have him look into Steve's claims, verify the truth and figure a way out of here.
"I'm looking for your dad. I think he's the guy we need for what's going on. Uh... how's he been doing?" Steve asked, taking Nat's concern into consideration. The Russian had seemed to believe that what had been going on with Tony would make his transition even more traumatic than it would be for anyone else.
Post by Alice Moore-Stark on Mar 7, 2017 0:50:13 GMT
Alice hadn’t really met the other Avengers except in passing and she figured most of them were busy doing Avenger-y things. In fact the only person she’d ever held a conversation with longer than ‘hi’ aside from Tony was Clint. Dr. Banner was usually talking science with Tony whenever they were together, and Alice was aware that while she was pretty smart, she was nowhere near a genius. Thor was often off doing…whatever Asgardians did.
So this was technically the first conversation she was having with Steve and it was strange to say the least. He could be a completely different person in this shifted universe, but she’d been working under the assumption that Steve was mostly the same. Some things didn’t change, after all, right? And he’d just asked her a question. She needed to stop being awkward and get her game on. It was only Steve, Captain America. The greatest hero like ever. There was no need to be starstruck around him.
Or ever think that sort of thought again.
“Yeah, nothing like waking up in an entirely different universe to shake up your morning.” It was a joke, but being in this strange world with barely anything familiar to it was not in the least comforting, and so her default way of dealing with this sort of issue was to deflect with humor. She was a little more comfortable now, walking forward and sitting on the couch across from Steve.
“Hmmmm. I’m not sure where he is, actually. I think working on another Iron Man suit or fiddling around in his workshop.” Alice said, in response to the first part of the question. “Now that one, bit easier for me to answer. Not well, as far as I'm aware.” Alice commented. If it hadn’t been Steve or an Avenger member asking, Alice would’ve probably just gone with a standard ‘fine’ as the answer. “He, uh. He didn’t seem to take the news that his parents were alive in a good way.” Which was strange, considering.
You’d think that the chance to try and have a better relationship with your parents was a good thing. “I mean, it’s kind of strange, but ultimately isn’t that a good thing?” Alice asked Steve, though she wasn’t truly expecting a reply. “He might already be working on finding a way home.” This place wasn’t their earth, their home. It was a strange, odd world. “Probably helps him keep his mind off of whatever has happened.” She stated; Tony was a workaholic and it seemed that whenever something got to him, he liked to shut himself away from the world and work on things in his life that he could control.
Steve was right, apparently. Alice was in the same boat as the rest of them, which gave Rogers some pause. While they'd already ruled out the possibility of the dimensional-shift targeting only Avengers, everyone else that had been knocked out of earth proper seemed to have a combat history. That didn't apply to Alice, though, leaving him to once again reconsider what the root could be. He still had no idea, but he knew even more than before what it wasn't. It'd be hard narrowing down what it was when they didn't have the access to the other universe, a point of origin or even a pattern of whom it expelled.
They would have their work cut out for them. Hopefully Tony would be on board.
"I think only I'm supposed to be this blasé about waking up in a new reality." Steve replied, fairly deadpan. It was a little alarming how nonchalant she was about this but he figured that she had her own process to cope with it, and he'd play along for now. Since he didn't know if Tony was native or not he wasn't sure what kind of support Alice might have been getting. Hopefully she wasn't stranded on her own in a tower of doppelgangers and relatives she shouldn't know.
Frowning at the revelation of how Tony was dealing with things, Steve reached up and scratched his cheek. He couldn't say how he'd react to finding out his parents were alive, but he could only imagine that it'd be an ultimately good reaction, even if his crying inside of the moment suggested otherwise. Apparently Tony's issues with his father were worse than he thought if he was taking the news so badly. Steve could only hope that Tony hadn't crawled back into a bottle to help him deal with the tumult of the situation.
"Has he been drinking?" It was a hard thing to ask and he didn't know if Alice knew what kind of strides Tony had been taking towards sobriety, but it was something that he needed to know. And if Tony was drinking, Steve wasn't going to get an honest answer from him about it. Of course, there was a good chance he was keeping his drinking from Alice if he was, which would put Steve in a somewhat precarious situation.
"In a way, yeah. That's a lot of the reason why I'm here." He needed to check up on Tony just to see if he was doing alright. He was the guy's leader and sort of his friend and he owed it to him. But more than that was the bottom line. If anyone could get them home, Steve was pretty confident that Tony could. Especially if he really put his mind to it. "I think he might be one of the few people with the ability to set this all right."
Post by Alice Moore-Stark on Mar 16, 2017 18:58:07 GMT
Alice sort of side-eyed Steve at that. She hadn’t expected him to have a deadpan sense of humor. “Point. I’ll remember to lose my head if we’re ever stuck in a crisis together.” Alice replied. Tony was at least himself, and everyone else she wasn’t close to in her family, except for her mother, who she was having trouble contacting. It was hard to figure out where the woman was when the world had shifted. That was some sort of science she didn’t even begin to understand beyond the fact that theories existed.
And what if the woman who was supposed to be her mother in this universe wasn’t the same person? It wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on, but she’d have to face that reality at some point. Steve apparently seemed to be mulling over her statement on Tony’s reactions to the new world, before asking her an unusual question, at least from what Alice understood. Again, it wasn’t something new, just odd; she never thought she’d be asked by Tony’s teammates about the state of his addiction. “I’m not the best person to ask; alcoholic parents are kind of the norm for me.” She said, the fact sort of spilling out because, well...it was the truth.
There would’ve been an odd feeling about lying to Captain America anyway. “But, he doesn’t reek of alcohol, so I’d say that’s a good sign. He was actually making an effort to get clean before all…uh, this.” Alice said gesturing in the air to indicate the new universe they were in. “Can’t imagine he’d want to undo it this time, but backsliding isn’t uncommon.” She said, sounding rather clinical, since she’d dealt with this before, just not with Tony.
Alice really couldn’t argue with that. “Well, let’s see if we can find him. Jar...er, Friday? Could you tell Tony that Steve’s here to see him?” Alice said, remembering that ‘Jarvis’ was a real person in this universe and the helpful AI was named Friday. “And then I guess we’ll see if he can send us home.” "Of course, ma'am." The mechanical female voice came from the loft, before fading; probably to go talk to Tony wherever he was. "Mr. Stark will be right with you, Mr. Rogers." the AI said, after a few moments.
She didn’t voice the other thought she had, which was, what if he couldn’t? Then what? Would they just have to get used to this new world all together? Because that was quite a bit of alternate history to learn, and then oddly you had to learn history about yourself, so you did stick out like a sore thumb.
Alice was not a fan of just twiddling her thumbs while waiting; the silence would stretch on and just make things awkward. “So, what were you drawing?” She asked him. It was a good starting point.
Steve Rogers I figure we can tag Tony in after you post.
"Those are a little different," Steve pointed out jokingly. He didn't know her skill where that went. If Tony was as smart of a man as he was supposed to be he would've seen her get some self-defense classes by now and have tried to teach her some crisis-management skills. That was a skill set many people could have. Waking up to new realities was probably one of the few things he actually had a monopoly on.
Steve sighed at that, immediately feeling a genuine sympathy for her. That had been the way of a lot of the kids he knew growing up. A lot of them were poor or immigrants or both like he was. And a lot of them had dads who'd come back from the first World War with a case of shell shock. The kind of things that left kids afraid of their fathers and mothers nursing from bottles because divorce wasn't an option at the time and a man was allowed a few slaps. He knew even if he didn't experience it.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He replied, genuinely. Some people didn't want any sympathy, though, since they perceived it as pity. If she didn't take kindly to it he wouldn't continue on with it.
"Yeah, I heard about that." He cleared his throat softly. He hadn't expected Tony to go to the people he had, but he'd hoped it had been successful. He'd hoped that Tony hadn't fallen back off the wagon, but the sudden jar of a shift in realities would leave him fairly blameless. "I hope you're right. Something like this could really set him off." Steve shifted his weight from foot to foot, obviously uncomfortable with the discussion. Even if it wasn't with Tony's daughter he wouldn't found in somewhat obtuse. Her blood relation made it downright obscene, in a way.
Listening to her request to JARVIS to find Tony, Steve waited patiently. When a silence had settled he'd almost began to wrack his brain for something to talk about but she beat him to the punch, asking him about something he was still somewhat guarded about. "Uh, new costume design." He replied quickly and honestly, thankfully not sounding all too strained.
Tony had taken to research, recently. He didn't like this new reality and he wanted to go home. He'd been tentatively - with much hedging about the reasons for his research - working with Reed Richards on a solution. Much as he didn't like the man most of the time, he was the best when it came to weird science like this. He was a bit startled when FRIDAY's voice broke through his work-related haze - still not used to the female AI's voice rather than the soothing tones of JARVIS.
"Uh. Yeah. I'll be up ASAP," he replied, hunching over his project to finish soldering a few things before setting it aside for whatever Steve want. He desperately hoped that the Steve waiting upstairs was his Steve - the one from the normal reality, rather - and not the Steve from this world. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to deal with this world's Steve on top of everything else. From what he'd read since getting here, the personality of this world's Steve was much different than the one he was used to.
He took his time turning off his instruments and setting his projects in their proper places before leaving the lab to trudge up the stairs, moving slowly as if that would keep him from being disappointed when he reached the sitting room.
Pausing to take a deep breath and plaster a grin on his face, he rounded the corner into the room where Alice and Steve had been talking. "Hey, Steve," he greeted, though he walked to Alice rather than his maybe-friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders in a hug as he stopped next to her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" he grinned.
Post by Alice Moore-Stark on Apr 10, 2017 20:34:04 GMT
Alice was surprised at how easy Steve was to talk to; she’d expected him to maybe be a bit more awkward, though that was mainly on her. She was the one being tense and weird here, and all she needed to do was let go of that feeling. “I suppose so, though I maintain it’s just a different sort of crisis.” She said, pulling up her legs to sit cross-legged on the couch across from him. He sighed and expressed his sympathy.
She appreciated it, which just showed her how much she’d changed. There was a time where anyone expressing sympathy would’ve irked her and gotten a ‘don’t you dare pity me!’ speech. With Steve, however, it somehow felt more genuine: as if he really understood what going through that sort of thing was like.
Then again, he was from Brooklyn like she was. “S’okay.” She said, starting to notice how uncomfortable he was getting; it didn’t really bother her anymore; she’d had a hundred conversations like this. “But, anyways. My life story isn’t why you came here.” She stated, quickly changing gears, putting in her request to Friday. “Oh. Stars and stripes not doing it for ya anymore?” Alice asked, teasing him lightly. That at least was something to talk about, until Tony got here.
Though she wasn’t sure how well that would go over, but she wasn’t trying to be nosy or malicious or anything like that. It was then that Tony arrived, and still did his touchy-feely thing. This seemed to be much more common ever since the kidnapping. Or maybe Tony just liked hugs. Either way, it was already awkward with the way she was sitting, and it was especially awkward with Steve in the room. Right there.
She really just wanted the Earth to swallow her up. She was careful to make sure she didn’t look too embarrassed, or that she could play it off as a normal reaction to ‘ew parental love in front of other people’. Also, there was something else to note. “Uh…Dad.” It was still so awkward to call him that. “When was the last time you had a shower?” She asked him; it looked like he’d done the basic Tony thing of staying up all night, working on things. For days.
It hadn’t occurred to her at first to catch Tony up on the fact that Steve was their Steve and not this universe’s Steve. When that idea finally hit her, she wasn’t sure how to bring it up to Tony. She probably should’ve told him already, but now it would just seem like she’d forgotten about it completely.
Oh well, Steve knew and he wasn’t…well, whatever he went by in this universe. So it should become obvious pretty soon. And then she should probably let them get on talking. Though Tony was liable to say something stupid; machines he was good with, people not so much. Maybe she should stick around for a bit, if only to try and prevent Tony from open mouth, insert foot problems.
"Actually, I don't seem to wear 'em here. That's part of the problem." Maybe there wasn't an America like he knew it in this dimension. And maybe the one back home wasn't always perfect, but it was home. It was familiar. It birthed the ideals that he strove to embody. If he was going to be here long, having a piece of home with him would be nice, especially with the shield gone. Hopefully he wouldn't be here longer than a few days, but the science behind dimension hopping could have them all stuck a while, and he liked to be prepared.
Watching Tony come in not too long after, Steve smile a little as the billionaire dragged his daughter into a quick clasp. She looked flustered and mildly irritated and Tony seemed to ignore her discomfort on the matter. He wasn't sure if he was happy in spite of her or familiar with the irritation of Tony violating personal boundaries. Both. Definitely both. But more than anything, he was glad to see the Tony he knew.
After being warned about her dad's smell, Steve was happy to keep arm's distance between them and fend off any hug attempts. They weren't exactly friendly enough for that, anyway.
When Tony's attentions toward him, Steve nodded his head a little in momentary acknowledgement, and gave a shallow smile to suggest some familiarity. "I was figuring if any guy could build the tech we'd need to get back home, it'd be you. Besides you and me, Nat, Buck and Sam all seem to have some through from our universe. All of us want to get back home, so if you think any of us could help you with that, you'll have our complete assistance." Maybe it was a little presumptuous to volunteer them, but last he'd heard from any of them, they all wanted back home.
Tony made a playfully-irritated face at Alice from her comment, shrugging as he moved away to sit down on one of the armchairs in the room. "Dunno. Couple days, maybe?" he replied. He didn't really keep track when he was busy. And it wasn't like working in the lab was clean work - it would dirty up fast.
He turned his attention to Steve pretty quick after settling down, knowing that no matter which Steve this was, he wouldn't have visited just to shoot the shit. He had a reason for seeking Tony out, and hopefully it would be related to the universe- switch so that Tony would feel less alone in this strange place.
"Nat and Sam are ours, too?" he asked, leaning forward a bit as he grinned at the idea. That was getting to be quite the collection, really. He'd already known about Bucky, but the more that the collected from the old world, the more chance they could figure out a way back there, he was sure. Even if they weren't scientists, surely there was some kind of... resonation that they had with their home dimension that would be easier to match with a larger sample size.
"God, it's good to hear that, though. Barton isn't. Neither is Darcy," he added, tapping his fingers against his leg as his mind rolled over this new information.
"I've been working with Richards on some dimensional travel stuff that he's been theorizing for a while - I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get something out of that. He doesn't know why I'm suddenly interested in it yet and I intend to keep it that way. I figure the fewer people that know about this whole thing, the better it'll turn out in the long run," he explained, "What have you - is there anything you've noticed that you think might be important? Do you remember the shift? Me and Alice and James all woke up to it..."
