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airas_story
Tony looked at everyone gathered around the table, watching the footage of Wanda, Stephen, and Loki in the other room, each at their own table with the ugliest vases Tony had ever had the misfortune of seeing. “All right,” he said. “We’ve got three cursed items and three wizards—”
“None of them are wizards,” Steve reminded him, as though Tony cared about those sorts of details. They all used magic, they were wizards.
Tony threw a pile of paper strips onto the table between them all. The moment he’d heard about this little magical contest of theirs, he’d known the bets would be golden. “Bets on who uncurses their cursed item first.”
“Fifty bucks Wanda wins,” Clint said immediately, grabbing a piece of paper and scrawling his bet. “Plus, the losers have a two day penalty in the next prank war.”
“I don’t know if we should be making bets about this,” Steve said slowly. “We shouldn’t be promoting division, especially since Stephen and Loki are already… competitive.”
Bucky gave Steve’s shoulder a fond nudge. “Come on, Punk. A bet isn’t going to hurt anyone.” He reached for his own piece of paper and pen. “Fifty bucks on Loki. Plus, the losers have to take my night on the dinner rotation for the next two months.”
Other bets were made quickly, Steve giving in after only a moment, and Tony threw his own bet in for Stephen—normally he’d vote Loki, given the thousands of years of experience he had, but Loki had stolen his cheesecake and would get no support from Tony—and they all watched the, admittedly boring, footage of the three trying to undo the curses on their vases.
“Wait,” Natasha said. “Do you guys see the magic leaking?”
Tony saw what she meant immediately. Scarlet, green, and golden magic were all leaking from their different stations all drifting toward the middle, a collision course in the making. Oh no. “Should we warn—”
The three magics collided and the footage went blinding white for a long moment. When the footage came back, Tony found his mouth dropping at what the footage showed. “Something tells me that was not supposed to happen.”
SomeSortofItalianRoast
“No, it most assuredly was not supposed to happen.” Stephen’s voice was in his head.
Stephen’s voice was in his head.
“Um, guys?” Tony started. “Do you… do you…”
“Have a voice in our heads?” Bucky asked, nodding. “I’ve got Cap.”
“Bucky,” Steve said, pointing to Bucky.
“Nat,” Clint said. “And Phil.”
“Clint and Phil,” Natasha said. “You?”
“I’ve got Strange,” Tony said. “He says… He says the vases say… Okay, fine. He says Loki says that the vah-zess say that they… connected our souls.”
“They connected our… what?” Steve asked. “Souls?”
“Soulmates?” Bucky asked. “Soulmates.”
“Yeah,” Clint said, bringing a hand to his temple and wincing. “That sounds right. Sorry, Phil is… rather loud.”
Natasha simply shrugged, as though whatever was happening in her head wasn’t distracting at all.
Tony winced, rubbing his temple. “That’s what Strange says. What he thinks Loki means.”
“Can we let them out?” Steve asked, motioning to the three sorcerers on the screen. Tony closed his eyes, concentrating, before nodding.
“Strange says that we can,” Tony said. Steve would bet a considerable sum that that wasn’t what Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, had said.
“Get them out of there,” Steve said. Tony hit a button on his phone, and, on the screen, the door opened. Strange helped Loki to his feet, followed by Wanda. They all left the room, leaving the vases behind. They wandered into the common area, Wanda half collapsing into a chair. Loki stood behind her chair, his hands blue as he rested them on her neck.
“The binding of the souls has affected her far more than us,” he said. His green eyes flashed bright red, disconcerting against his pale face, before returning to their usual green of his glamour.
“I’m okay,” Wanda said, her voice rough. She gave Loki’s hand a gentle pat. Loki gave her a soft smile, flexing his hands as he put the glamour back on them. He rubbed his hands together, before wincing and bringing his hand to his temple.
“I’m not sure who is in my head, but they are loud about it,” Loki said.
illogicalkat
Tony nods absently, eyes fixed on how Stephen is sitting uncomfortably straight on the edge of a chair. Unlike some of his teammates, his mind is quiet. Not silent, Tony can sense the sorcerer’s unease, but he isn’t shouting or otherwise expressing his opinion.
Before he knows he’s even moving, Tony is filling a water glass from the carafe and walking it over to Stephen.
“Here,” he offers, setting the glass on the side table within reach.
“What’s this for?” Stephen asks.
You look hot, Tony thinks, and then mentally kicks himself when Stephen smirks at him.
“Thanks,” Stephen replies. But I’d prefer it if you didn’t try to beat yourself up.
“This is going to get weird, isn’t it?” Tony muses.
“I think we’re a bit beyond weird already,” Stephen says.
Clint lets out a groan. “Is there any way to undo this? Or will it become less, uh, headache-y, eventually?”
Stephen shakes his head slowly. “May I remind you whose idea it was to put three sorcerers in a room with cursed objects and turn it into a game show?”
Steve raises his hand.
“Are you seriously doing that? Does this look like a classroom? Ask your question, Captain.”
Steve blushes and pulls his hand down. “Uh, I was just wondering if this is just the people in this room who are affected, or if it’s everyone in the building, or…or more.”
Loki, Wanda, and Stephen go very still.
“If Clint and Nat have Phil in their heads, it’s at least bigger than this room,” Tony points out. “But how do we even go about testing that?”
“I need to visit the Sanctum,” Stephen says. Tony nods and steps back as Stephen opens a portal, wondering if the reason Phil and whoever is Loki’s soulmate are so loud is due to distance.
Come with me? Stephen asks Tony, privately, but holds out his hand. Tony glances at the rest of his teammates. They’ll be fine without him for a few minutes.
Tony grabs Stephen’s hand and follows him through.
Jesmalestiel
“What. Did. You. Do?” Wong accused as Stephen and Tony entered the Sanctum. “And what is Stark doing here?”
“Stark was instrumental in causing this mess, and I’ll be damned if he doesn’t help fix it.”
“I’m not the one who agreed to experimental magic. That’s on you, Gandalf.”
“So you’re both to blame for the worldwide chaos, then?”
“I was afraid you’d say that.” Stephen rubbed at his temple. “So it is global?”
“If by ‘it’ you mean that people all over the planet have voices in their heads then yes, it’s global.”
“Is there a way to reverse it?” Tony asked.
“I still don’t know what ‘it’ is. What happened?” Wong looked at them expectantly.
Tony scratched his head. “Loki—”
“Of course they’re involved,” Wong muttered.
“It’s not all their fault. They were just trying to help,” Tony protested.
Just trying to win a bet, you mean. Stephen echoed in Tony’s head.
You really want me mentioning the bet to Wong right now?
Point taken.
“I can tell you are being chatty in there,” Wong, the only real adult in the room, scowled. “You two are a match made in hell. Now, tell me everything.”
The worldwide telepathy phenomenon was unlike anything people had experienced before, but as is human nature, once Wong removed the enchantment that had affected people across the globe everything went more or less back to normal.
Almost normal. The telepathy incident left a mark on everyone who had been affected, which included those off-world whose soulmates had been on earth.
“It could’ve been worse,” Tony mused, idly tracing his handwriting scrawled across Stephen’s abdomen.
“We handled it as best we could,” Stephen shrugged, “and soulmarks aren’t going to make or break society the same way mass telepathy would’ve.”
“True, but Loki, Wanda, and Agatha being in a polycule just might.”
Stephen paused, considering. “Let’s table that conversation for later. I’m hungry.”
“What, I wasn’t enough of a meal for you?” Tony asked, getting a pillow in the face for his trouble.
“Hungry for food. We can have another round later.”
“Promises, promises.”