Aug 29, 2022 - Flowers of Life: Valerian (FR-13)
Aug 29, 2022 - Flowers of Life: Valerian (FR-13)
Author: mmooch
**Part of 2022 FaD challenge** Chapter Summary: Tony finds people willing to prepare for another invasion with him.
Crossover: She-Hulk; Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1589
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: first Avengers movie timeline for MCU and post-series for BtVS.
A/Ns: Valerian’s active meaning is readiness, which I interpret to mean be prepared (like the boy scouts). If any artists feel like making a virtual bouquet of the flowers, they are: begonia, daisy, daffodil, amsonia, pear blossom, lily, chamomile, verbena, tansy, scotch brooms, hollyhock and valerian.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belong to Marvel, Disney et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Stark Tower
It took a few days before Tony was well enough for visitors beyond his family of Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. But when he started making noise about sneaking out of the medbay, the staff let in the other people who fought by his side during the invasion.
Steve apologized for his attitude when they met and explained that he was still a little overwhelmed at waking up in the future with things being so different and the people he cared about being gone, or practically gone - in Peggy’s case.
Bruce and his cousin had pulled him aside to explain that there was no shame in getting help adjusting. That it wasn’t considered weak to need counseling for PTSD - or as he knew it, shellshock - or to ask for assistance in learning how culture had changed for both the better and in some cases, worse, since he went into the ice. They aided him in finding a therapist he felt comfortable talking to, as well as reached out to a few professors to determine the most important changes he needed to be aware of before he offended somebody.
Coulson brought Natasha and Clint in to pay their respects. They explained how the people who fired the missile had hoped to start another world war to allow Hydra to gain footholds in several strategic government positions. Agent and Nat were going to the CIA with SHIELD being dismantled while Clint was taking some time off to recover from the mind control and his guilt at his actions during that time, whether it was misplaced or not - something Nat insisted was.
Her staunch defense of Barton gave Tony insight into her character. Even if he couldn’t fully trust her after the way they met, he was relieved she had enough humanity in her to care about somebody as much as his platypus cared about him.
Coulson said that he and Fury would be in touch later, and for the life of him, Tony wasn’t sure if that was a promise or a threat.
When Thor came in, Tony offered his thanks for saving him from space by giving the Asgardian several cases of Pop Tarts in every flavor made, as well as a promise to see if he could talk the company into creating a limited-edition flavor in Thor’s honor. The beaming smile Thor gave him expressed his happiness with the idea. The smile diminished when Thor explained that they still didn’t know where his brother had disappeared to, but he hoped Loki was still alive. Even if he was ordered to bring Loki to justice, he still loved his brother.
The people Tony was most looking forward to talking to were Jennifer and Bruce, though. But since he expected that visit to be the longest, he saved them for last.
“JARVIS, lockdown unless I flatline, please,” he commanded when the green cousins came into the room. He warned Pepper and Rhodey that he wanted privacy for this chat, so they wouldn’t be concerned.
“Tony?” Bruce asked hesitantly. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m curious what happened to the scepter, tesseract and Dr. Selvig after you shut down the portal, Jennifer,” Tony replied, remembering at the last second that they had given him permission to use their first names. He still almost used Ms. Walters since he was kind of interrogating her. “They vanished into thin air shortly after the invasion was halted.”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Jennifer checked. “Not only is it something you’d have to keep secret, even from your best friends, but the explanation is going to be hard for your scientific mindset to accept. We’d have to make you and JARVIS sign a special NDA for this.”
“You’d want to have JARVIS sign?” Tony asked in surprise. Normally, people thought of his AI as a fancy computer program, but she was going to the other end of the spectrum and suggesting he was his own person.
“Our allies would insist on it,” she answered.
Tony pondered that for a moment. On one hand, he hated keeping things from his friends, but on the other hand, he was really curious, and his friends would probably understand that when he got curious, he needed answers. “Can I add the proviso that if it poses an imminent danger to the world, I can tell others?”
The expression on Jennifer’s face was strange. If he didn’t know better, he would say she was having a silent conversation with someone. After a few seconds, she nodded, “You can tell others that are already read into the project, some of whom are in the government, including the Joint Chiefs.”
That made his eyes widen in surprise; he wasn’t expecting Banner to have any dealings with the military after what Ross was putting him through.
As if guessing Tony’s thoughts, Bruce explained, “I work with people who work with government officials. I stay out of that part of their dealings.”
“Then I’ll sign on the dotted line,” Tony agreed. “How long before we can do this? ‘Cause I’ve been suffering with these questions for almost a month now!” he added dramatically.
“You were in a coma over half that time, Tony,” Jennifer responded with a chuckle.
“Still counts,” he insisted.
“I’ll have them come over right away,” Jennifer said. “Can you lift the lockdown so they can get in, please?”
A couple hours later…
An interesting mix of people walked into Tony’s living room - where he was able to convince his medical team to allow him to recuperate now that he was out of danger - with flowers and presents…and a file which he assumed held the paperwork he’d have to sign.
Jennifer handled the introductions, “Tony, this is Buffy Summers, Lead Security Officer, Rupert Giles, Organization Leader, Tara Rosenberg, Operations Manager, Willow Rosenberg, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Daniel Osbourne, and Alexander Harris of the WP.”
Both Xander and Oz piped up at the same time, “Call me Xander”, “I prefer Oz.”
“Not all of you have titles?” Tony pointed out the obvious - or at least what felt obvious to him.
“Their titles come after the signing,” Buffy explained. “First things first, we’ve brought some prezzies for the hero of New York.” She handed over the flowers and explained, this is a special arrangement of flowers that aide in healing. You can enjoy them in this form and in the tea we brought for you to drink. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to heal fast so you can get back to the ambrosia that is coffee,” she said with a knowing smile.
“You have me there, Miss Summers,” Tony answered with his own grin.
“Buffy, please.”
“And the decorations your friends are placing around the room?” he inquired.
“Will protect us from outside surveillance of any kind,” she answered honestly.
That alarmed him and he immediately called out, “JARVIS? You there, buddy?”
“For you, Sir? Always,” came the instant reply, calming Tony’s nerves.
“JARVIS is part of this discussion, so it’s vital that he’s here,” Oz said, going on to ask, “Do you have scanning capabilities, JARVIS?”
“Yes, Mr. Osbourne.”
“Don’t even try to get him to call you Oz, it’ll never happen,” Tony warned before Oz could make the request again.
“When you’ve scanned the contract, please indicate your signature by a verbal agreement,” Oz requested. “That will serve as your digital signature.”
Tony wasn’t sure how that would work, but the enforcement was their problem, not his.
The language for the contract was very straightforward…like a layperson wrote it rather than a lawyer. He glanced at Jennifer in confusion. Why would she let it be this simple?
“They wanted anyone to understand and not get tripped up by legalese,” Jennifer explained.
That in itself was interesting to him. It certainly made reading the document easier. “You happy with this, J?” he asked his AI.
“It is acceptable to me, Sir.” JARVIS responded.
“Me, too,” Tony confirmed, signing where it indicated. After Jennifer signed as a witness, it honest to goodness flashed and he had a copy in front of him while Mr. Giles had another copy. “What the hell was that?” he demanded.
“That is what we do, Mr. Stark,” Buffy answered with a smirk. “Giles, wanna start us off with the speech before we discuss any future plans for an alliance to fend off the next attack?”
“To finish the introductions first, Willow is the head of our mystical department, Wesley is our lead Watcher, Oz is our outreach director and Xander is our human resources manager. Our organization goes back thousands of years under various names, the latest of which is World Protectorate. We have understandings with most major governments in the world and have recently agreed to serve as a special group within the United Nations for our specialty.”
“What’s your specialty? New Age stuff?” Tony snarked, wondering if this was some kind of prank being pulled on him.
“You are now aware that beings exist from beyond Earth; they are not just from other planets, however. There are an infinite number of dimensions and realities, not all of which are human-friendly. Our organization deals with the ones that used to rule our planet. Now you lot be quiet so I can get all the way through this speech for once!” Giles growled at his team, who were already biting their lips in amusement. “This world is older than you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth…”
A/N: This feels like a good place to leave this story. Thank you for reading and reviewing! I only have two days left for this August’s challenge, so let me know which stories from this year need updates the most.
Author: mmooch
**Part of 2022 FaD challenge** Chapter Summary: Tony finds people willing to prepare for another invasion with him.
Crossover: She-Hulk; Avengers
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1589
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: first Avengers movie timeline for MCU and post-series for BtVS.
A/Ns: Valerian’s active meaning is readiness, which I interpret to mean be prepared (like the boy scouts). If any artists feel like making a virtual bouquet of the flowers, they are: begonia, daisy, daffodil, amsonia, pear blossom, lily, chamomile, verbena, tansy, scotch brooms, hollyhock and valerian.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belong to Marvel, Disney et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Stark Tower
It took a few days before Tony was well enough for visitors beyond his family of Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. But when he started making noise about sneaking out of the medbay, the staff let in the other people who fought by his side during the invasion.
Steve apologized for his attitude when they met and explained that he was still a little overwhelmed at waking up in the future with things being so different and the people he cared about being gone, or practically gone - in Peggy’s case.
Bruce and his cousin had pulled him aside to explain that there was no shame in getting help adjusting. That it wasn’t considered weak to need counseling for PTSD - or as he knew it, shellshock - or to ask for assistance in learning how culture had changed for both the better and in some cases, worse, since he went into the ice. They aided him in finding a therapist he felt comfortable talking to, as well as reached out to a few professors to determine the most important changes he needed to be aware of before he offended somebody.
Coulson brought Natasha and Clint in to pay their respects. They explained how the people who fired the missile had hoped to start another world war to allow Hydra to gain footholds in several strategic government positions. Agent and Nat were going to the CIA with SHIELD being dismantled while Clint was taking some time off to recover from the mind control and his guilt at his actions during that time, whether it was misplaced or not - something Nat insisted was.
Her staunch defense of Barton gave Tony insight into her character. Even if he couldn’t fully trust her after the way they met, he was relieved she had enough humanity in her to care about somebody as much as his platypus cared about him.
Coulson said that he and Fury would be in touch later, and for the life of him, Tony wasn’t sure if that was a promise or a threat.
When Thor came in, Tony offered his thanks for saving him from space by giving the Asgardian several cases of Pop Tarts in every flavor made, as well as a promise to see if he could talk the company into creating a limited-edition flavor in Thor’s honor. The beaming smile Thor gave him expressed his happiness with the idea. The smile diminished when Thor explained that they still didn’t know where his brother had disappeared to, but he hoped Loki was still alive. Even if he was ordered to bring Loki to justice, he still loved his brother.
The people Tony was most looking forward to talking to were Jennifer and Bruce, though. But since he expected that visit to be the longest, he saved them for last.
“JARVIS, lockdown unless I flatline, please,” he commanded when the green cousins came into the room. He warned Pepper and Rhodey that he wanted privacy for this chat, so they wouldn’t be concerned.
“Tony?” Bruce asked hesitantly. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m curious what happened to the scepter, tesseract and Dr. Selvig after you shut down the portal, Jennifer,” Tony replied, remembering at the last second that they had given him permission to use their first names. He still almost used Ms. Walters since he was kind of interrogating her. “They vanished into thin air shortly after the invasion was halted.”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Jennifer checked. “Not only is it something you’d have to keep secret, even from your best friends, but the explanation is going to be hard for your scientific mindset to accept. We’d have to make you and JARVIS sign a special NDA for this.”
“You’d want to have JARVIS sign?” Tony asked in surprise. Normally, people thought of his AI as a fancy computer program, but she was going to the other end of the spectrum and suggesting he was his own person.
“Our allies would insist on it,” she answered.
Tony pondered that for a moment. On one hand, he hated keeping things from his friends, but on the other hand, he was really curious, and his friends would probably understand that when he got curious, he needed answers. “Can I add the proviso that if it poses an imminent danger to the world, I can tell others?”
The expression on Jennifer’s face was strange. If he didn’t know better, he would say she was having a silent conversation with someone. After a few seconds, she nodded, “You can tell others that are already read into the project, some of whom are in the government, including the Joint Chiefs.”
That made his eyes widen in surprise; he wasn’t expecting Banner to have any dealings with the military after what Ross was putting him through.
As if guessing Tony’s thoughts, Bruce explained, “I work with people who work with government officials. I stay out of that part of their dealings.”
“Then I’ll sign on the dotted line,” Tony agreed. “How long before we can do this? ‘Cause I’ve been suffering with these questions for almost a month now!” he added dramatically.
“You were in a coma over half that time, Tony,” Jennifer responded with a chuckle.
“Still counts,” he insisted.
“I’ll have them come over right away,” Jennifer said. “Can you lift the lockdown so they can get in, please?”
A couple hours later…
An interesting mix of people walked into Tony’s living room - where he was able to convince his medical team to allow him to recuperate now that he was out of danger - with flowers and presents…and a file which he assumed held the paperwork he’d have to sign.
Jennifer handled the introductions, “Tony, this is Buffy Summers, Lead Security Officer, Rupert Giles, Organization Leader, Tara Rosenberg, Operations Manager, Willow Rosenberg, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Daniel Osbourne, and Alexander Harris of the WP.”
Both Xander and Oz piped up at the same time, “Call me Xander”, “I prefer Oz.”
“Not all of you have titles?” Tony pointed out the obvious - or at least what felt obvious to him.
“Their titles come after the signing,” Buffy explained. “First things first, we’ve brought some prezzies for the hero of New York.” She handed over the flowers and explained, this is a special arrangement of flowers that aide in healing. You can enjoy them in this form and in the tea we brought for you to drink. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to heal fast so you can get back to the ambrosia that is coffee,” she said with a knowing smile.
“You have me there, Miss Summers,” Tony answered with his own grin.
“Buffy, please.”
“And the decorations your friends are placing around the room?” he inquired.
“Will protect us from outside surveillance of any kind,” she answered honestly.
That alarmed him and he immediately called out, “JARVIS? You there, buddy?”
“For you, Sir? Always,” came the instant reply, calming Tony’s nerves.
“JARVIS is part of this discussion, so it’s vital that he’s here,” Oz said, going on to ask, “Do you have scanning capabilities, JARVIS?”
“Yes, Mr. Osbourne.”
“Don’t even try to get him to call you Oz, it’ll never happen,” Tony warned before Oz could make the request again.
“When you’ve scanned the contract, please indicate your signature by a verbal agreement,” Oz requested. “That will serve as your digital signature.”
Tony wasn’t sure how that would work, but the enforcement was their problem, not his.
The language for the contract was very straightforward…like a layperson wrote it rather than a lawyer. He glanced at Jennifer in confusion. Why would she let it be this simple?
“They wanted anyone to understand and not get tripped up by legalese,” Jennifer explained.
That in itself was interesting to him. It certainly made reading the document easier. “You happy with this, J?” he asked his AI.
“It is acceptable to me, Sir.” JARVIS responded.
“Me, too,” Tony confirmed, signing where it indicated. After Jennifer signed as a witness, it honest to goodness flashed and he had a copy in front of him while Mr. Giles had another copy. “What the hell was that?” he demanded.
“That is what we do, Mr. Stark,” Buffy answered with a smirk. “Giles, wanna start us off with the speech before we discuss any future plans for an alliance to fend off the next attack?”
“To finish the introductions first, Willow is the head of our mystical department, Wesley is our lead Watcher, Oz is our outreach director and Xander is our human resources manager. Our organization goes back thousands of years under various names, the latest of which is World Protectorate. We have understandings with most major governments in the world and have recently agreed to serve as a special group within the United Nations for our specialty.”
“What’s your specialty? New Age stuff?” Tony snarked, wondering if this was some kind of prank being pulled on him.
“You are now aware that beings exist from beyond Earth; they are not just from other planets, however. There are an infinite number of dimensions and realities, not all of which are human-friendly. Our organization deals with the ones that used to rule our planet. Now you lot be quiet so I can get all the way through this speech for once!” Giles growled at his team, who were already biting their lips in amusement. “This world is older than you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth…”
A/N: This feels like a good place to leave this story. Thank you for reading and reviewing! I only have two days left for this August’s challenge, so let me know which stories from this year need updates the most.