IC inbox for Snowblind

[thewarningafter]

@beyonce

You've reached Dr. Stephen Strange. Leave a message and my secretary will get back to you.

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Night 257 | @wiccandoit, audio

[fanboyascended]

Hey, Doctor Strange. Just wanted to let you know I'm alive and stuff. I'm sorry for worrying you.

Night 275

[thewarningafter]

Billy!

[Stephen's genuinely relieved to hear him alive again, regardless of how infrequent their conversations have been. Billy is...unfamiliar in a familiar way, in some ways more than the Avengers had been when they'd been here and alive.]

You should be sorry -- what the hell did you do? No, never mind. What are you doing now? How are you doing?

@godsend, audio, Day 288

[termineur]

[ So he's getting to this later than he was planning, but he wanted to try what was suggested first, so he had something to report. -and he was putting it off a little too, okay. ]

Hey, Doc. I heard you were talking to Al about my MN poisoning. It's been getting pretty rough lately. I forget what I'm doing a lot, now. Anyway, thought I'd take you up on the offered medicine, whatever it is.

audio | day 288

[thewarningafter]

Right -- hi.

[Guess who also didn't get on top of this. Stephen sounds distracted and fatigued, but that's been normal for him for quite a while.]

He was saying you're sleeping less, showing more erratic behavior -- manic. He told me you were manic. There are a number of options for that; I can't guarantee how well any of them will work when it's being induced by MN poisoning but we can give them a try. At least one person here was on lithium and seemed to get at least some kind of result out of that, but it might take a few weeks before it starts to really level you out.

@librarian; audio; Day 295

[cahooted]

[For once, Flynn really feels more prone to texting on this day and he has an entire message typed out when he remembers that Stephen doesn't really... like texting. Still, he feels a bit too awkward for video right away so he sends an audio message instead.]

Dr. Strange? Hi. Uhm. It's Flynn... Carsen. The Librarian.

We never really got around to talk about magic since [we traveled together and you had that huge awkward falling out with House right in front of us all] the last time we spoke. Is now a good time? If it's not a good time we can talk some other time, I just remembered that we never really got around to talk and I thought maybe now might be a good... time.

audio | day 295

[thewarningafter]

Hi, Flynn Carsen.

[If Stephen sounds tired and shaken despite the attempt at a playful response, it's probably to do with having woken up this morning to realize that he'd lost his goddamn mind in the future he'd imagined. He'd been so alone even with Wilson nearby and the network at hand, so lost. Somehow that version of eternity seems worse than the one he's faced before by choice.

It's not really a good time for that particular topic; he feels the loss of his magic more keenly than ever after remembering literal decades without it. For all that, though, the offer of conversation is almost painfully welcome.]

Yeah. Yeah, it's a good time, I'm not doing anything. Don't have any eavedropppers to worry about, either.

[No House, is what he means. Screw that guy.]

@jwatson; text; Morning 297

[jumpthegun]

Stephen, please be on your guard over the next several days. If you're approached by Mycroft or anyone here with a history as an assassin or mercenary, please either get away from them, or keep a very close eye on them. Mycroft's lost his head. He wants to take your body and put Sherlock's consciousness in it.

audio

[thewarningafter]

He what?!

[Stephen has been too tired and too strung out for too long to take this with any measure of calm.]

What the hell is wrong with those two?! Is it something genetic?

@theiceman, audio, much later night 309

[holmesice]

[Is it too late to call? He doesn't care.]

Good evening, Stephen. I must apologise for my actions and my proposed attempt to steal your body.

[After the debacle on the network, he was half-expecting him not to answer. Good. He was only doing this to placate Sherlock, his terms for revealing his location to him, and an attempt would be as good as the real thing.]

day 310, small hours of the morning

[thewarningafter]

Did the Blue Fairy come in the night and grant you a conscience?

[Suspicious!!]

@godsend, audio, Morning 319

[termineur]

[ He'd intended to talk to Stephen about what House told him a week ago, but...then he'd gotten sick, and after that they'd had a mission. But talking to Peter gives him a much better reason for reaching out, so here he is. ]

Hi, Stephen. Wanted to let you know that Peter's alive and okay. His death price seems to be a lack of attention span, so he can't remember to contact anyone long enough to do so. Thought I'd do it on his behalf.

audio / action

[thewarningafter]

Oh thank God.

[If Gabriel means to have a private talk, though, that's right out the window the moment Stephen listens to this message. The relief in his voice is palpable, and he immediately calls out to his traveling companions.]

Rocket, Gamora! Peter's alive! He's alive!

[Except...that sounds like a dangerous death price.]

Wait, how's he going to get inside for the night? He's already an idiot; if he gets distracted out there --

@PetertheGreat, video, Night 319 cw ptsd, panic, character death -- throughout this thread

[zunesareawesome]

[His focus is still all over the place, but he's gifted with a sudden clarity brought about by sheer anger, shock, and fear.]

STEPHEN--WHAT THE HELL!?

audio | cw CPR injuries; failed resuscitation

[thewarningafter]

[The relief -- joy, even -- of the news about Peter this morning has been eclipsed by the sudden loss of Rocket. Stephen's desperate attempts at resuscitation out in the blistering cold had left them with nothing more than renewed stiffness in Stephen's hands and a memory of the sound of the crack of ribs. Stephen has been turning the bottle of Vicodin over and over in his hands as he sits apart from the vigil set by Bluestar. Peter deserves to know what happened, but in his cowardice it's not Stephen who called to deliver the news.

He should have expected a call like this one.]

I don't know.

[The rattle of the pills is audible, a nearly constant background noise. Stephen knows this, but he doesn't stop, doesn't put the bottle away. He's run over what happened so many times since they reached shelter, but there's not an answer to be found. Aneurysm, maybe, but what good does guessing do them?]

I'm sorry, Peter, I just -- I don't know.

@librarian, video, night 326

[cahooted]

Stephen? Hey, it's Flynn.

You're still with Peter, right? What's going on with you guys?

[Honestly, he leaves for two weeks to dig up corpses and you starts cults in the backyard.]

Right. Uh, just, call me back when you get this?

@beyonce | audio | same night

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen's still bristling from the fight he picked with House earlier this evening and still reeling from the fallout surrounding Bluestar's announcement of her intentions. He can guess what this is probably about.]

Yes, I'm with Peter. No, we're not on the ground level of a new feline world order.

[He sighs heavily. This shouldn't be such a big problem. She's a cat.]

I hope.

morning 338; @Betterhalf; text

[darkincrement]

[ Good morning, Strange. On a scale of one to no, how much are you in the mood for Snowflake's crap? He's sending a selfie of himself, still wearing the helmet, with Billy in the background. Billy doesn't seem to be aware that Mickey Mouse is taking a picture. ]

Look what I found.

@beyonce | audio

[thewarningafter]

[It's a no until he sees what this message is about. Cordiality and amusement it is, at least for the moment.]

You know a sorcerer isn't just for Christmas, right?

Day 361, @betterhalf; text

[darkincrement]

Normal yet?

@beyonce | audio

[thewarningafter]

[This begs the question of normal in what sense, but by now Stephen has a few key answers inscribed on his arm. Anterograde amnesia. P.Q. alive dont call. How helpful of himself.

He doesn't remember talking to Vanitas since waking up from what seems like a year-long dream, so the answer is clearly 'no.']

New phone, who this?

@librarian; video; Day 374

[cahooted]

[He should have called sooner. So many people to keep track of, so many cans of worms, so many problems, traumas, things to worry about, to follow up on. His mind is racing just thinking about it. Peter, Nicole, Harley, Bucky, John, Stephen... how can this town be so small but so impossible in its demands for emotional support?]

Stephen? Hey. It's been a while, we haven't really talked since...

[His voice trails off and he makes an awkward gesture. Since, you know. You died. Peter died. You went home for such a long time and now everything's a mess and where do you even start with this.]

And I thought I'd call, see how you're doing, so. Uh. How are you doing?

audio | same day

[thewarningafter]

[Luckily for Flynn, Stephen leaves the bunker the very same day this message comes in--which means, of course, that he actually gets it. He doesn't send video in reply; he's still unaware that the static won't cover his face when he does.]

I'm alive. Cleaned a sink today. Stopped forgetting everything as soon as it happened about a week ago, so I could be said to be doing well.

You?

@godsend, video, Morning 435

[termineur]

[ He waits exactly ten minutes after being cut off by John's tablet throw before he contacts Stephen. He frowns slightly and his eyes occasionally dart off to look at something in the distance. ]

Is it a bad injury?

audio

[thewarningafter]

Oh, it was only a small nail, barely rusty at all.

What -- is something wrong?

@godsend, video, Day 441

[termineur]

[ Gabriel looks exhausted, shivering against the backdrop of the door to the bunker. It's not exactly an unusual look for people here, but today it seems heavier. He chooses video because he knows Stephen used to prefer it, because they know now he can see the man, and because he doesn't know how many times they have until it's not possible to talk to each other anymore. ]

Hi, Stephen. I wanted to check in, after everything.

[ Usually there's a question that follows, something at least somewhat upbeat, but he doesn't have it in him right now. ]

video

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen can add his months of avoiding video to his growing list of regrets. It feels good, somehow, to be seen as well as to see, even if his own face is gaunt and sunken under the scraggly beard.]

You were right. There wasn't any point in us coming up here. I, uh...I will point out that none of us died, though.

[For all the good that does them. Stephen blows out a shaky breath; looks away a moment. A less good thing about being seen: it's excruciatingly obvious that he's holding back tears.]

Listen, I...we're going to try to come back to the bunker. But a week isn't....

[Isn't long enough, given how long it's taken them to gather here.]

@hexappeal, Audio 439

[sleight_of_fate]

Hey, Stephen. Come find me when everyone's settled down for the night. I've got something for you.

>action

[thewarningafter]

[Oh...kay...?

Stephen has a vague recollection that Rhys promised to give him something, but his expectations are not high when he seeks Rhys out.]

You know, when you phrase things that vaguely it makes it sound like someone put a hit out on me.