Peter and the Cloak
As Peter moved through the Kamar-taj archives, all he could think about was that this building hated him. What it hated, he wasn’t as sure about. Maybe it was that way towards all non-magic users, or did he accidentally knock over a relic when he tripped over that last stack of books? Whatever it was, the building almost seemed to be shooting daggers into his back. Cold, sharp, and not at all awesome daggers. It gave the teen an oddly anxious feeling and with the hair rising along his arms, he found himself expecting something to happen. Of course, there wasn’t a reason for him to be so keyed up, Wong practically knew this place like the back of his hand. And even though objectively Peter knew that, he couldn’t help but be a little on edge. It probably didn’t help that he was bored out of his mind, picking up book after book from the pile in front of him with little to no guidance. Now that he thought of it, did anyone here know what they were looking for? Because as far as he was concerned “something to explain wacky weird visions” wasn’t a genre of novels and he was pretty sure personal interpretations of the problem weren’t being accepted. If Peter had it his way, the only thing Stephen would be searching for is “Therapists near me”. Not to mention he didn’t understand half the languages in these books, and the ones he did made little to no sense. Like, what even is a Shuma Gorath? And why was it so…. Ugly. On the bright side, however, he was under the impression it wasn’t just a him thing. Stephen looked horribly uncomfortable at the far end of the room, flicking quickly through a book as the cloak of levitation danced in circles around the room. Whatever he was reading was either very concerning or very confusing and actually, Peter really felt that. Every now and then the cloak would circle back around to the man, smacking its collar onto whatever the sorcerer had in his hands and flipping pages with little twists of its cape.
Peter would assume the desired reaction would be some attention thrown its way, but all it succeeded in getting was a stern look and an orange-tinted zap. Part of him couldn’t help but feel bad for the poor thing as it slumped over for the third time since Wong started ignoring it too. It was like one of those goofy little dogs with curled tails that bark too much. Sure it was annoying sometimes, but did it really deserve to be punished?
Peter thought not, so to fight back against the totally douche-ish behavior both sorcerers seemed to be contributing, he caught the attention of the cloak. Yeah, objectively it probably wasn’t the best idea to start tossing really ancient and mystical books back and forth with a piece of floating fabric, but at the time he wasn’t really thinking about the drawbacks. Though in his defense, if he hadn’t been “reckless and acting with little to no decorum in such a sacred place” (obviously Wong's words because Stephen had no room to talk on the matter) they never would’ve found what they were looking for. Or maybe they would. But it definitely would’ve taken way longer.
So when the cloak finally understood what Peter was throwing things for, it didn’t take long to grab each book and toss it back just as quickly. Unfortunately, it seemed to overestimate Peter’s ability to catch and as the next book flew towards him way faster than it should’ve, he was quick to duck down, and shield himself from the air strike. But this meant that the book instead hit the shelf behind him, and with the initial slam came a slow creaking sound. The teen turned his head slightly, eyes widening as he saw the stack of dusty novels teetering on the edge of one of the higher shelves.
"Shit shit shit shit" He stumbled forward trying to steady the shelf with his weight. "Levi" Peter hissed, watching the cloak prance through the air as if it were basking in its victory, twirling slightly and creating laugh-like sounds with the air. "Come help me steady this! Do you want Dr. Strange to catch us?" The cloak pulled up its lapels before dropping them and continuing its dance. "You understand Wong's here too right?" He continued, shooting the glorified jacket a bored look. It didn't take long after that for Levi to put his fabric into gear and move to hold the other side of the large and abnormally tall shelf. God did someone need to work with it on understanding strength because the next thing he knew the cloak had pulled the wood and the shelf was coming down. A shelf that weighed hundreds of pounds. Falling. On top of him.
The wood hit Peter’s back with a crack, his arms snapping up to carry the weight. Easing himself through the strain he slowly lifted up the wood, gritting his teeth as his feet planted. Thank god for spider strength. The books above his head began to clatter down, slams echoing through the otherwise silent wing. “Please don't fall” He mumbled, shifting his hands slightly to press against the shelf's wooden grooves. He let out a shaky breath before carefully pushing up, the shelf leaning backward towards its original standing position. “Easy- just a tad bit more…” and with that the bottom slammed back to the floor.
Once it was steadied, which "No dude, you're the reason it fell in the first place. I'm not letting you touch it again", all Peter was left with was the fallen books from the top. The air around him swirled with hurricanes of dust, light from the wall fixtures gleaming across the mess and leaving the cast shadows slightly obscured. If the room's aura wasn’t so unsettling it could’ve been almost homey.
He made his way to one of the larger tomes, an odd feeling flickering through his body. He knew Stephen liked to talk a lot about magical pulls and all that but Peter never really thought it meant anything. Not until he felt the book whispering. It seemed to get louder as he drew nearer and soon he found himself crouched down, fingers running across the leather spine. If anything in the library screamed a solution, it was this. But Peter wasn’t stupid enough to mess with it while no one was around. He knew nothing about magic, you think.
“Wong! Stephen!” He called, scooping the book into his hands before turning towards the far side of the room. “You guys might wanna come see this”
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Stephen felt a familiar tension in his shoulders as he scanned the room, his fingers barely grazing the pages of the tome he was struggling to comprehend. The Kamar-Taj archives always had a way of amplifying his stress, and today was no exception. Peter sat at the edge of the room, listening intently to whatever Wong was explaining, and the cloak sat sadly on Stephen's shoulders.
“How does this book actually apply to my situation?" He said, cutting the librarian off his tangent. " Can’t we just do a spell or something?” Wong shook his head, crossing his arms. “Spells have their place, but understanding the root of the problem is crucial. This book can guide you on how to stabilize your mind and dig deeper into that chaos. A spell won’t fix the underlying issues that are causing these visions. The more you know about the forces at play, the better equipped you’ll be.”
"The book's about the stones right?" Peter asked, his voice breaking slightly at the mention. "If they're the reason he's having... visions, then how are we supposed to stop them? I mean weren't they destroyed with the snap?" Wong studied him for a moment before shaking his head slightly. "If my theory on what's happening is correct, the destruction of the stones has nothing to do with our situation. I believe that during Stephen's time with the time stone, he somehow bonded with the dimensional energy it was outputting."
He moved to stand next to the sorcerer in question, nodding for Peter to step over towards them. "If he had just been in contact with it while wielding the Eye of Agamotto there shouldn't have been a problem. But-" Stephen placed the book on the table in front of them. "But I was exposed for much longer than I should've been" Wong nodded before flipping to a diagram in the tome. "You lived millions of realities with that stone-" "Fourteen million-six hundred- and five." "Right. The dimensional leakage from that alone is enough to cause some sort of reaction, but you weren't just exposed Strange. You were actively using it." The younger sorcerer pursed his lips, leaning towards the page in front of him. "So what do we do?"
Wong took a breath before gesturing to the paper before him. "The concept is that a displacement of the energy flow of the stones is seeping magic from you. I assume it's grown so attached that now that it's being destroyed, the time stone's essentially using you as a conduit. If there's any residual energy left in our dimension it's using you to stay corporal." Peter let out a shaky breath and Stephen could see the way this was affecting him. The last time Peter had even thought about the stones was when Stark... snapped for lack of a better term. "So what do we do?" The teen asked, running his hands through his ruffled hair. "Extract the excess energy. If we can get rid of the stone's energy that still remains in Stephen's body, we can hopefully sever the mental connection between him and the stone, and hopefully, the visions will stop."
Stephen felt his hand drift towards the necklace dangling from his neck. The stone was gone sure, but the empty eye still remained a comforting weight against his chest. "How do you suppose we do that? The Infinity Stones aren't something you can just 'extract'. " Wong sighed before flipping further into the book, gazing at the scribbled runes and red-lined drawings. "We draw on the bond from your side. If we can force the energy back into your body, we can pull all of the energy through you and out using your end of the bond."
"Obviously We need to set up a circle of protection to ensure that the energy doesn’t escape back into the environment or affect us during the ritual. If we can manage that, we should be able to extract the excess energy without incident.” “Sounds easy enough when you say it like that,” Peter chimed in, trying to suppress a nervous grin. “What could possibly go wrong?” Wong shot him a pointed glance, unamused. “Let’s just focus on the task at hand, shall we?"
He dismissed the others, pulling the book closer and drawing a few of the runes in the air. "I'll find you two when the rituals are ready. For now, make yourself useful, and Peter? Try not to tear down the library." The boy let out a small chuckle in response backing away from the bald socerer. "You got it chief!"
Before he could leave though, Stephen grabbed his shoulder, turning the younger to face him. "Can we talk?" Peter's eyes widened slightly before he nodded. "Yeah, what's up?" "I want to know if you're sure you can do this. I don't need you risking yourself because you feel the need to prove something to us. I know that what happened to Stark left a big impact-" Peter's face hardened. "Dr. Strange with all due respect, I can't avoid the topic my whole life. Unlike some people, I don't run from my past or my problems." With that he turned to leave, casting one last glance at the man. "Find me when the circles are ready