Fae Tony AU
Fae Folk
Once upon a time, there was a type of being that was called the Fae. There were many stories about these people. There were terms like Underhill and Courts applied to them, but none of them were truly accurate, because human record keeping is always subject to the opinions of those whose lives never do last long.
Some of these stories got close. The Courts, Summer and Winter, Seelie and Unseelie, they did exist, in their way. Some call them the Spring and Autumn instead, but the meaning is the same. It’s the Light and Dark, the Beautiful and the Ugly, the Prized and the Unwanted.
There were other stories, about the Goblins, the Trolls, Elves, and similar things, that were nothing like the stories of the courts, and were taken to a place of high fantasy that would confuse greatly the unwary observer. Still, even some of these were closer than others, when a Goblin King with crystals and a land that bent to his whims and desires was strewn across the human perception. Still, even this was not quite right, for it was filtered through the eyes of an unknowing human child, and she could not See what was there to be Seen.
Thus leaving a story that is closer than any of these, but is still probably wrong in its way. There are those who are Concepts, beings of Belief and Magic and Nature, who give life to imagination but are born from something true. These concepts become the fonts of magic for their courts. There is the Summer Court of the Fae with its King, and he is one. There is the Winter Court with its Queen, who is yet another. There is the Chaotic Goblin King who is a Third, but there are those that are outside these courts, that fall between the cracks and who are there, created to do that very thing.
And this is the story we have come to tell. Every concept is born from a being, often inside the courts, but not always, and often wanted, but again, not always. This was one both wanted and not, but was certainly unique in spite of, or perhaps, even because of, that.
Basically, Tony’s father was a Winter Court Spellcrafting Fae, one of those who was a nightmare, complete with tentacles and generally not the sort of thing that would wander off into human spaces. His mother had butterfly wings, was beautiful in all the same ways that his dad was scary, and was a court darling. In the Summer Court where all is beauty. When her baby came out far too much like his father, she freely gave him away without a thought, leaving him to be raised by the parent who wanted him.
Tony is an oddball, as while his mother’s wings were those of a butterfly, all he inherited was their coloration, the shape and texture somehow turning out like a bat’s wings. When he goes among humans, he uses them as a monarch butterfly colored cloak and plays it off as being nothing strange. He has tentacles like his father, which he often curls around his waist and legs to hide when he moves around in mortal spaces, or among those of the Summer fae he doesn’t want to frighten. The colors of these are golden that fade to crimson, with the gold blending easily into the perpetual tan of his skin.
Onto the hierarchy! Basically, it goes like this! All Fae take in magic, it’s just their sources that vary. Some, like Tony, take it from inside themselves and it just sort of spills into the world around them. These usually end up the monarchs who have created realms that lesser fae come to. Tony, only being around 50 years old, is barely an adult and has far too tiny of a court to realize this is something he needs to do. He is a Concept. He has a realm of things he controls and which calls to him, and those are the ones who become his people.
From there are the Higher Fae, who are self-sustaining and can sustain a handful of others, then the Lesser Fae, who are the bulk, and while self-sustaining, cannot usually sustain others either. Finally are the Demi Fae, who cannot sustain themselves, and rely on those more powerful to keep them from fading back into concepts and magic entirely.
Tony’s Concept is the New and Unique. Often these overlap, as things that are stuck between two things, such as a child who is of crossed species that usually doesn’t breed, or something new like some technology that no one has thought of before, or which was forgotten so long it might as well be new. In this way, Tony is the place where the unwanted go and they can call him for help and he will come. Because of his realms, unwanted children can call him easily, as they are both new and between, and their creations often fall into his hands.
His very first foundling being was Dum-E, who rather than being a bot as he is in the MCU, is instead a highly prehensile ball, covered in tiny little arms that looks like something you’d throw around in the yard. He’s green and orange.
Butterfingers is a puffball that’s pale pink and has about six paws and three eyes that rather resemble a kitten’s. She chirps.
Friday is a purple Medusa crossbreed child whose features have a bit of an anime cast to them. Big eyes and small lips and mouth. She appears to be five.
Nandre is one of the babies, and she’s a little blue deerlike satyr baby.
Tilm is a being like Dum-E, created from a child’s imagining (though not Tony’s this time) and who is rather stretchy like elastic and cannot make noise.
Jarvis is the oldest, though he hasn’t been with Tony the longest, and Takashi is almost in the same age bracket. Both are fae that can self-sustain once they’re grown.
Vision and Ultron are the same type, but they’re younger than Friday.
Their details will all be added once they’re better established in the verse.
One last thing though, Tony can’t use magic like a normal Fae, no, he has to find a new way to do things every time he is introduced to a new spell. Lucky him.