the joint council of magical milfs
As she finished herding Dr. Banner through Kamar-Taj, leaving him to recuperate in his quarters, she was joined once again by Thor.
“How may I be of service, prince Thor,” she asked amusedly, craning her neck slightly.
He bowed, “No need for such formalities,” he smiled warmly, “I believe the All-mother needs our assistance on Vanaheim.” He tipped his head in question.
“Of course,” Yao agreed, walking off to the side and swiftly creating a portal. Frigga was clearly visible on the other side, not having shifted from her stance reading a scroll.
As Yao and Thor entered, Frigga did a backhanded sweeping motion to summon a tea pot with four cups.
Yao smiled lightly before settling down, watching as Thor found a seat as well, “And who will be joining us today?”
At that, Frigga finally looked up, with a grim expression she answered, “I think you know who, Yao.”
Thor watched as her smile became strained, almost reaching bitter before her expression smoothened over. She hummed, the noise extending for a few seconds before she retracted her hand and stood, “Very well.”
Thor tilted his head in curiosity, looking to Frigga, who simply shook her head in response, stopping his movements.
He watched as Yao created a portal, he craned his head to look through and only seemed to see a well-maintained garden before she walked through and it snapped shut.
The branches crunched under Yao’s shoes, she made no effort to dull her sounds. Stealth would do her no good, if anything it would do the opposite. She slowly approached the house.
Admittedly, it was quite cute. A Capecod style house with dark green shutters and a beautiful wooden door. Yao would have thought she was mistaken if it weren’t for the garden, perfectly maintained with flowers in deep hues of violet, black, and red.
“What are you doing here?” came the question, the voice openly curious.
As out of place the emotion was, Yao couldn’t help but feel relief at her voice. She sounded healthy and sane.
“Agatha,” Yao greeted, turning from where she’d been looking at the flowers. “Your home looks surprisingly alive,” her eyes cut to the flourishing flowers suggestively.
Agatha titled her head in response, “Here for another lecture?” She stood at the porch, door open behind her, wearing a purple dress paired with a deep blue cardigan. She looked perplexed and on guard at Yao’s sudden appearance.
“I’m not here to fight,” Yao sighed. “We both know you seek the darkhold and we both know I won’t let that happen. A bigger threat looms, we need your help.”
Agatha tilted her head again, slowly floating towards Yao and landing before her. Her eyes sparked with excitement, “Inviting me back into the club, are you?”
Yao scoffed, turning and creating a portal which Agatha immediately looked through, waving. The portal tightened slightly, making Agatha groan and turn to Yao, “yes, yes, I’ll behave.”
She then swiftly jumped through the portal, forcing it closed before Yao could pass through.
“Friggaaaa, you miss me?”
Frigga had been friends with Agatha and Yao for centuries now.
They’d met when Frigga was well into adulthood, having been married to Odin and the mother of three younglings. She’d been exhausted, felt isolated, and needed allies and friends of her own.
One such expedition on Midgard, she came across a wily sorceress who worked amongst the mortals to control a mystical threat. Frigga had been surprised that the mortals even had access to seidr in any form, so she watched from afar, curious as to how it would play out.
It was then that she met Yao, who’d also been watching from afar. And that washer she learned that the sorcerer Agamotto had created an order of sorcerers all trained in his unique form of dimensional Eldritch seidr manipulations. An order which was alive and well, existing and protecting silently.
By the end of her expedition to Midgard, she’d gained two new powerful allies, who soon became dear friends.
Unfortunately, they had lost contact when Agatha went off to create a coven of her own. From Yao’s recollection, the mortals became wise of their mystic origins, and began killing them ruthlessly. Yao claimed that Agatha had never been the same since then, but Frigga hadn’t had the chance to actually verify that fact.
And seeing her now, lively as ever, had Frigga suspecting that Yao had just been upset with her. Those two always had their own drama which Frigga could never keep record of.
“Where have you been, Agatha. It ha been much too long,” Frigga greeted with a smile.
She then turned her head, watching as Yao re-entered through a new portal, huffing before sitting sullenly on her chair.
“Well, the Department of the Uncanny was dull. So, I made a daring decision to bid farewell to that lacklustre world and retreat to a charming little house of my own, Yao is just paranoid..” she paused, turning to look at Yao before finishing, “and rude.”
Yao responded with an affronted expression and said, “You may live in a cute little house, but that does not mean you weren’t actively pillaging and searching for the darkhold at night.”
Agatha huffed, “and what have you been up to? hmm? You haven’t brought Thor to our little pow-wows in centuries, at least.”
Thor started at the mention, almost forgetting that he was clearly on the couch and not a fly on the wall for the duration of the conversation.
He stood then, realizing his err. “Forgive me. It is a pleasure to meet you once again, Lady Agatha,” he said, bowing his head in respect.
Agatha cooed in response, making Thor tilt his head in confusion.
“I shall leave you three to your tea, I must locate Loki,” Thor said as he began to pace away, making a hasty escape and leaving the three women amused.
"Your children never want to join us, at the very least Hela used to humour us," Agatha complained.
Frigga’s expression turned fraught at the reminder of their current situation. She sighed, “I suppose there’s quite a bit we need to fill you in on.”
“Oh wow, yeah. Makes sense that you had Yao come get me,” Agatha laughed. “I knew it must have been bad for her to bury her beef,” she jabbed her thumb towards Yao.
Yao sighed in response.
“So… why is Odin still alive?”
Frigga looked incredulously at Agatha who simply stared back blankly. She turned, looking for support from Yao, only to find a resigned sort of expression and a hint of curiosity.
Frigga huffed, “I can’t commit Regicide if I wish to maintain my position of power. I can tarnish his reputation however and keep his testicles in my back pocket,” she said matter-of-factly, a small smirk twitching at her lips by the end of the statement.
Yao coughed a surprised laugh at the revelation before straightening back up, “Sometimes I forget who you are beyond your regality, Frigga,” she added, making Frigga smile wholly.
Agatha on the other hand cackled openly for close to a minute, while the other two watched on amusedly.
“Ok. Have you found any way to break Odin’s spell?” she said, finally calming down and sitting upright. “And is regicide really off the table because I can do it!”
Frigga sighed. “I have not had much luck in my research,” she admitted, hit with a wave of melancholy.
Yao and Agatha mirrored that expression briefly, before turning to each other and seemingly having a silent stand off.
“No, Agatha,” Yao suddenly said firmly.
“I’m just saying. There would likely be an answer in the Darkhold,” she huffed, turning to Frigga and raising an eyebrow.
Frigga shook her head, “let us not sully ourselves to rectify my bastard husband’s actions.”
Agatha harrumphed, sullenly reaching for her teacup.
"Don't you worry, we'll get her."
Stephen was distinctly uncomfortable.
He slowly trudged through the long grass, noting that it needed to be mowed. Probably not a good sign.
He got to the door, finally, and raised his arm to knock, holding his breath as he heard footsteps approaching the door.
The door swung open and revealing Victor, who very quickly started frowning.
“What do you want?” he said sounding annoyed before turning and walking back into the house, leaving the door open.
Stephen sighed, following him in and shutting the door behind him.
“The grass is getting long,” Stephen said, in lieu of an answer. He followed Victor into the kitchen, sitting himself down at the barstool on the other side of the island.
“Yeah? That why you’re here? To criticize me or to actually step off that high horse long enough to help your family?”
Stephen sighed, audibly this time. “I’m not here to fight, Vic.”
“Yet the first thing out of your mouth is a criticism,” Victor snapped back, turning to glare at him from his position in front of the fridge. “We’re doing fine without you, don’t feel the need to lower yourself to our level,” he spat out, turning back to the fridge. He grabbed a bottle of juice and shut it swiftly.
As Victor walked to the cabinet, Stephen watched silently. He didn’t know what to say, he probably should’ve called first, but he didn’t really know what he would’ve said. He probably should’ve spent time thinking about it, but he portalled here on a split second decision.
“How is dad doing?” Might as well get to it.
Victor didn’t answer. He was walking back to the island with two glasses. He slowly poured orange juice into both glasses, capping the bottle before placing a glass in front on Stephen.
“How’d you know?”
Stephen shrugged. He reached for the glass, taking a sip as he watched Vic.
“The grass is getting long.”
Victor sighed, swiping a hand down his face, “Yeah, it is.”
“I can help,” Stephen replied quickly.
Victor tilted his head, silently asking for elaboration.
“I’m not just a doctor anymore,” he said as he swiftly stood up, half-turning while maintaining eye contact. He swiped his hands up, opening a portal to his old room upstairs. He heard a gasp, but was distracted by the state of the room.
“You seriously couldn’t have dusted in there?” Stephen commented, reaching a hand in, “I mean, seriously?” he added as he pulled his hard back out, holding a pair of pliers.
“Why are these in here?” Stephen asked, waving the pliers around and turning back go Victor as the portal spun closed beside him.
Victor stood, glass half raised to his slack jaw. He spluttered lightly before recovering and muttering, “If you didn’t want it converted into a dusty storage room, you should’ve stuck around.”
“What have you gotten yourself into, Stephen? What the hell is that—magic?”
Stephen dropped the pliers onto the counter and leaned against it, “It’s an art, actually. Regardless, I have been researching healing magics and will hopefully be able to help.”
Stephen watched as Victor hummed, sipping his juice slowly, before responding, “Can ya mow the grass with that magic of yours?”
Stephen rolled his eyes, he swiped his hands flamboyantly with an irritated expressing, aiming to make a show of it.
“Done. Now can we see dad?”
Loki sat at the table reading. Scowling and reading. They weren’t the worst terms he’d ever heard, but they weren’t very good either.
He flipped the document to the next page, grabbing his pen and underlining interesting lines. Right as he was about to flip the page again, he heard Thor’s call.
His head jerked slightly, hand reaching to his second necklace. His fingers found the cord and rubbed against the blonde hair braided into it. Loki closed his eyes, mentally reaching out to Thor.
‘What?’
‘Where are you?’
‘Ugh.’
Loki then reached out through their connection, finding Thor on Vanaheim, before pulling. When he re-opened his eyes, Thor appeared in the room, stumbling.
“Warn me!” he grumbled, recovering his stance. He looked around the room before settling back on Loki, at the table, and sitting down in the nearest chair.
“Where are we, brother?”
Loki tilted his head, “My home,” he replied.
“What?”
Loki sighed, looking down at the contract he’d been reading. He clasped both his hands and rested it on top of the stack of paper in front of him.
“When I instructed you to forge an identity on Midgard, you realize the disguise was simply the beginning, right?”
Thor huffed before rolling his eyes, “Aye, Loki. Anthony lended his aid in the creation of what he dubbed a ‘paper trail’,” Thor explained sounding condescending.
Loki hummed in consideration, “Decent effort, I must admit. But, what of your present predicament? Have you secured gainful employment? Where shall you rest your head in this realm?”
Thor looked around again, assessing the room, “It may not be to my exact taste, but I would happily stay with you, brother!”
Loki stared back and deadpanned, “That was never an option.”
Thor slumped down, huffing again, “How did you come to acquire this abode?”
“I am now employed as a model, actually.”
“What is a model?”
Loki huffed, acting put upon, “Well, Thor. If you had taken time to learn the customs of this realm, you’d know that it is a living work of art who parades before adoring eyes, adorned in exquisite attire,” he explained.
“Verily? And it has afforded you this space? Perhaps I shall join you in this,” Thor mumbled. He’d taken to scratching his chin and looking lost.
Loki laughed cruelly at that, “Unfortunately, dear brother, you have chosen to become a healer in this realm and your prospective employment shall be much more difficult to navigate.”
Thor frowned, reaching over the table and grabbing Loki’s chalice of wine and chugging it glumly.
“I must speak with Anthony, once again.”
Loki looked at the pathetic sight his brother made, “You are an embarrassment. You lived amongst the mortals for several Midgardian years yet I am more knowledgeable?”
Loki waved his hand, summoning a new chalice of wine and refilling Thor’s. He pushed his StarkPad towards Thor, “use this to learn and be silent while I continue to read.”
Peter was excited. Well, nowadays, he was always excited. But today was a Thursday so, Peter was extra-excited.
Today, like all Tuesdays and Thursdays, Peter got to have his magic lessons with Ms. Yao—or advanced tutoring, if Peter was getting technical.
Peter hadn’t really gotten a heads-up regarding that plan. It was an almost perfect replication of his meeting with Mr. Stark. Except he’d been home, and Ms. Yao had been at the door suddenly, introducing herself as a tutor. Apparently, she’d cleared advanced tutoring with the school and was introducing herself to May and Ben.
Unfortunately for Peter, he had not learned any actual magic just yet, but he was still holding out hope.
Peter walked to the back of the school swiftly—which was Peter and Ms. Yao’s meeting spot. As he arrived a golden portal slowly swirled to life near him, snapping open to reveal the Sanctum.
As he hopped through, he quickly greeted Yao and sat down in hiss designated-non-designated spot.
“What are we doing today?” Peter asked, before adding dryly, “Oh wait, let me guess, meditation?”
“Well, if that’s what you want to do,” came the response, in a deep and sarcastic voice.
Peter snapped his head up, away from his phone, to see Dr. Strange instead of Ms. Yao.
“What is happening?”
“I came to see how you were doing. How are your powers?”
Peter scratched the back of his neck, “I’m not sure.”
“You can’t keep avoiding this, Peter. And yes I was getting updates from Yao,”
Peter deflated slightly, “Uhh, I’m just not feeling them.”
Stephen sighed, leaning forward slightly, “Peter. You can meditate all day long and you still won’t see results if you’re not being intentional. Dealing with problems head-on can be scary, but evasion only wastes time.”
Peter slumped his head back onto the back of the chair, “Well, lucky me. I’ve got plenty of time, huh.”
When he got no response, Peter raised his head to look at Dr. Strange who stared back with a deadpanned look.
“I guess I’m just scared, ok? What if I just don’t have powers anymore and the one thing I love more than anything has just, poof! disappeared,” Peter said, imitating an explosion with his hands.
“You are Spider-Man with or without the powers, Peter,” Dr. Strange began.
“But I’m not though. Getting bit and mutating was a one in a million sort of thing. I was so luck and now I’m scared that I’ve turned into a liability instead of a member of the team,” Peter said, sounding miserable.
Stephen frowned, standing and moving to sit beside Peter on the couch. He clasped his shoulder.
“Peter,” he said, waiting for Peter to meet his eyes, “That will never be true. You remember what Tony said? Your only job is to live the life you deserve. Powers or not, we’re always going to want you on our team. Don’t avoid this for that reason, because it’ll never be true. Peter Parker is what made Spider-Man great, not the powers.”
Peter flushed under the praise, “Thank you. But I still can’t seem to tap into them.”
“Well, let’s figure this out.”