Wing AU
The Wing Thing
Some worlds had minor differences and changes that were indiscernible from one another. Some worlds have dramatic ones that lead to people having feathers and wings of other assorted types. It should be noted that in this particular world, it was nearly unheard of for a human being to be born without wings, and even more bizarre for those wings to not have feathers than to not have them at all.
Tony had once met one of these oddities, a man with furred wings like a bat, as a child, and he could safely say that it was perhaps one of the strangest things he’d ever seen. This opinion held right up until about 2012 with the whole Chitauri thing.
Overall, most things remain the same with Tony’s history. There are, however, a few key differences.
When Tony was taken down in Afghanistan he had his wings trimmed down only barely shy of being actually clipped. Even if he’d been able to run, he wouldn’t have been able to fly with them like that, and that’s part of where the suit came in during that particular escape.
The suit has special metal pinions to cover and protect his wings, as well as to minimize the drag on them while in flight. He’s never been much of a distance flier so the change is not only gratifying but incredibly welcome as well. He’d always envied that Rhodey could do distances without desperately wanting to hug a thermal.
He was not, however, ever anything but smug that his wings were fairly waterproof, which was an unfortunate blessing after his time in the desert as he went from rather enjoying water to being unable to handle it in more than one kind of situation.
His wings, in the shape and marking form of an Osprey, are a deep brown with a buttery gold in place of where the white would otherwise have been. They’re big enough to use, when they’re undamaged, and lead to no small amount of jokes wherein people try to feed him fish, but he still likes them. Not everyone has such subdued wings, of course, and in fact, it’s far from the norm, with most people having the brighter colorations of various type of non-meat eating birds rather than the mark of raptors.
Of course, there are superstitions about what wings say about a person, and there will always be biases to offer things that have to do with the associated bird type to the people possessing the wings, but many of these things have yet to be proven, even with extensive studies. Mostly, peoples’ wings are just unique expressions to themselves and follow according to family lines in type, if not coloration, just like any other physical trait.
One thing to note, however, is that in society as it stands, losing one’s wings, or being born without them, is a crippling blow.
Which probably accounts for part of why Tony’s tower is one of few places with just as much comfortable ground level entrance access and convenience as it has higher ones. And better security on said higher ones to keep assholes off his balconies and landing pads who aren’t authorized.