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Infinite Consortium, Monday

Liliana had been working on a secret project over the past three weeks and it was almost finished. It was almost as important to win at birthdays as it was at Christmas--and she had lost Christmas to both Ignis and Prompto! Obviously, this could not possibly stand.

And so, her project, sparked by a dinner conversation. One she was putting the finishing touches on now, sitting behind the counter and chuckling to herself, highly pleased by her own cleverness.

In the window was today's item, the Magister's Scepter.

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"Tony, darling, hello!" Liliana said brightly. "Welcome to the Infinite Consortium, darling, and what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Well, I was hoping you might be able to help me out with something." Two words: magic bubble wrap.

Wait, that was three. Fine. Three words!

Ah yes. Because the super soldier needed to be protected from the world. This would absolutely go over well the other way!

"I'm not usually looked to as a helper, darling, but for you, I'm willing to bestir myself," Liliana declared. "What are you looking for?"

Look, Tony, she was really great at death and destruction. Protection? Not her forte.

Shhh. Shhh. It'd be fine.

"Well, I've hit a brick wall on keeping Steve from getting injured with his... career, so I'm thinking maybe I branch out a little here."

He jumped out of planes without parachutes, Liliana! Only Tony was allowed to do that.

Well, fortunately for Tony, Liliana was the last person to chide somebody about hypocrisy, as she was quite comfortable with her own.

"Oh?" she asked, brow furrowing. "Did he get hurt?"

You know, outside of the minor mishap that didn't require any yelling from any doctors.

"What happened, darling? Would you like to sit down and have some coffee?"

Not that she was concerned, mind. But Tony and Steve threw the other parties on the island and if Steve were out of commission, it would interfere with her social calendar.

Well, Valentine's Day was fast approaching, there should be a party for that, right?

"I'd never turn down a coffee," Tony said. "But it wasn't anything serious, just... I hate hitting a wall when I have a project. You know?"

It was basically their duty to the island!

"Oh, incredibly well," Liliana assured him while a suit of armor clanked it's way into the back room. Such a helper. "It's so frustrating,, when you know there is a solution there but it continues to hide itself. Sit down darl--absolutely not."

That last didn't seem directed at him, but a chair that was suddenly just off to the side.

"Ignore that chair, Tony, this one over here is fine." The other chair sulked back into the aisles. "Now tell me, darling, what kind of safety and protection are you looking for?"

Tony was definitely not alarmed by the chair. Except how he for sure was.

"Well, Steve tends to lead headfirst into dangerous situations." As did Tony. Shut up. "And I want to make sure he actually comes home from them. So, I've tweaked everything as much as I can without getting yelled at for trying out airbags. Again."

The things Steve put up with for love.

It was an entirely normal armchair!

...That was also an ambush predator.

"And now you're looking for magic ways to fill in the gaps," Liliana said with a nod. "How often does he go up against magic?"

The armor returned, clanking down a tray with a pit of coffee on it, and some tiramisu truffles that she hadn't gotten around to eating yet.

You know, his bots were suddenly the most normal thing around!

"Well, less often than my version of New York, but planning ahead is always the name of the game." Obsessively planning ahead, one might say. "You don't know what comes next, so best to plan for everything."

"Of course," Liliana agreed, though her MO was closer to 'fuck it, I've got a fuckton of power and a can-do attitude and baby that's enough' than meticulous planning.

"I do have some things that can protect him from different colors of mana, but I'll have to see if they can also be used against magic that just...doesn't use mana at all."

As truly nonsensical as that was.

"And plenty of equipment to make someone stronger and tougher, harder to harm, and quicker to heal. Nothing that will make him indestructible, of course, but that's more the area of enchantments than artifacts, anyway."

"Well, we can make it a project then," Tony suggested. "And you can explain what mana is."

And they'd for sure not going to end the world in the process.

Noooo....no, no, no...a bit, maybe...yeah, a bit.

"Love that," Liliana said. "I'm always delighted to explain magical theory." Because she was a nerd. "Especially since it would be fascinating if you could find ways to replicate what mana does, so people who can't access mana could still use it, if only for triggering magical equipment."

This was going to end up with them blowing a hole into the Earth's crust at minimum.

Look. Look. It'd be just fine. Ignore how both Steve and Ignis were suddenly on high alert and couldn't explain why.

"You know, that's a great idea." And excuse for when they got caught.

They were just paranoid. Everybody knew that.

"And think of how much safer he'll be afterwards, once we get it to work!" Another great excuse! They were definitely focused on safety and not if they could make it happen!

"I love the way you think," Tony replied, beaming.

Liliana dimpled back at him, just two very gorgeous and brilliant people who were going to work together and very possibly destroy the world!

"It's because brilliance recognizes brilliance, darling," Liliana said with a laugh, pouring him a cup of coffee and toasting him with it, before handing it over. "The first thing I suppose we'll have to do is find something that recognizes the energy that is magic."

Tony's grabby hands at the coffee was perfectly normal, you know.

"In a lab environment," he agreed. "Then we can transfer that over to the field. And I can hold one over on Strange if we manage it."

She was involved with Ignis Scientia, for whom coffee was her only rival. It was perfectly normal.

"...Strange?" A pause as she tried to figure out why she knew that name. Perhaps an Earl Gray tart would help. "Ilyana's Doctor Strange?"

Oh look! It did!

"Well, a version of him, I assume," Tony replied. "I don't know that I know of Ilyana back home, honestly. But that could just be a timeline thing."

Also, the X-Men were hard to keep track of. They just kept dying or going to space or both.

"The sheer number of versions of you all hurts my head," Liliana said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What can I say? I'm a popular guy." Tony, no.

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Infinite Consortium, Monday

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