Christine Supreme AU

[drpalmer]

In all the infinite universes, there was sure to be one in which Stephen Strange didn't survive his car accident, and in this, particular version of such an event, Christine had been with him. It had been a different path that led her to magic. The universe needed a new sorcerer, be it Stephen or someone else.

She had trained and devoted herself to the mystical arts just as she had devoted herself to medicine. Healing magic and defensive spells came most naturally for her, it was in her blood to help. In this universe Christine Palmer became an incredible power, she saved countless lives.

Of course, she had never truly stopped mourning Stephen, but she carried on and fought in his memory.

When the walls between universes started to crack it was as if a call was put out for all the Sorcerers in every universe to find ways to help repair the cracks.

Something was coming and she could feel it. She was pacing around the Sanctum, whatever was on the way was going to come here, of that she was certain.

Comments

[mysticaldoctor]

"The Lost Library of Cagliostro only exists in a certain time, on a certain plane, and it takes quite a bit to get there - or do you want to show off your personal collection?" He didn't think he wanted to visit there again.

The man had already warned him that he could shatter his mind once.

[drpalmer]

"The library here would be my first choice. Hopefully there is something useful."

She thinks she's seen vauge mentions of multiversal theories, but they had been only that.

But to save him, there may be something more about that.

[mysticaldoctor]

"About those cracks - it's not just one event but many, that have likely lead to this. We may need more than one solution."

He wonders if he can die to solve it, and that he accepts it, but he won't say so.

[drpalmer]

"You don't just break this much with one small event."

They'd both be willing to sacrifice themselves to fix this, but hopefully matters won't come to that.

"Do you have your universe's time stone?"

[mysticaldoctor]

"Even one large one would cause ... the cracks, but not the tears that are patched for now."

He opens the Time Stone. "It's not from this universe so it might not be as effective. Reversing the process could work, but we have to be absolutely sure of this, even rewinding by a few minutes could prove detrimental.

[drpalmer]

"I've got the one from this Universe, it's still stored away."

As much as she wanted to use it, the dangers of the eye were too great for anything but the most dire of situations.

[mysticaldoctor]

"Might be safest on your person," he suggests, but he doesn't want to take it too far.
It seemed like he was ... perhaps undermining her authority in his own universe, and he had learned his lesson, and he could prove it.

"If rewinding happens, it's best it's only a few moments."

[drpalmer]

"Now, probably." She nods. Thus universe hadn't had quite the same level of interest in the stones so it has been safe thus far.

She is already leading him to it.

"Probably time for me to wear it, and it does make for quite a statement necklace."

[mysticaldoctor]

"A statement necklace. I'm sure that's new." He thinks this is quite new to refer to it as such.

"What did you like about being ... trained by The Ancient One?" He's mostly curious about what it was like for Christine, a thing he's wanted to know since he knew there were alternate forms of reality.

[drpalmer]

"It is though." The eye is a rather large thing to wear around.

"It was good, hard sometimes. Was your introduction to the mystic arts being shoved into the astral plane as well?" Christine would never forget that sensation of floating above her body for the first time.

[mysticaldoctor]

"Yes. Something about opening my eye. Third eye, that is." It glowed and blinked open, moving independently and looking about the room. "Did you find the sling ring easier than expected or more difficult?"

Knowing Christine, she would have - probably done better.

[drpalmer]

The eye is a bit of a surprise and she is intrigued. "Apparently my third eye isn't so literal."

Leave it to Christine to not only be horrified, but to make a joke about it.

"Easy. Oh, you would struggle with them, wouldn't you? Trying to believe in something like that early on?"

[mysticaldoctor]

"No, but -- I can still see it. It's always been difficult to believe in something - other than myself." He thought he could save her to fix something lacking in himself.

The eye closed and disappeared from view, but his aura still shifted in a manner that it was open, just - not entirely visible, in a way that she could probably still see it if she looked, but - to someone else he might look relatively normal.

[drpalmer]

"You've never lacked self-confidence, but you also earned it. The best surgeon I ever had the pleasure of working with."

He truly was magnificent, so incredibly brilliant. Her presence unlocks the door so she can get the eye and put it on. She's dabbled with it, she can open it, and it responds well to her, and her intentions.

"What artifacts chose you?"

[mysticaldoctor]

"The Eye... and at one point I had the - Cloak but I'm fairly sure that ripping it apart counts as rejection. I tried - reasoning at one point - with myself. We can see how that turned out."

He doesn't want to discuss this too much - he's better as an instrument of battle - not talking it out. He admires how well the Eye responds.

[drpalmer]

She can't help the way she moves to hug him again. Christine wishes she could have been there to help him, but he wouldn't have been strong then. Just as in her universe his death is a fixed point, hers is to him.

"I'm here. We will do this together." She wants to reassure him but also to be reassured herself.

[mysticaldoctor]

He awkwardly hugs her back, though it's more of a matter of trying to figure out what he needs to do - where his arms should go. "For better or worse, I expect - in ... not...er."

He pulled away awkwardly and went to go look in a book.
It had been a bit of a long time since he had bothered with flirting.

He waved his hand over the pages, looking for the information he sought on the multiverse.

[drpalmer]

"Sorry." She mutters, she's still too affectionate. She dips to a shelf to grab a few old tomes that she remembers seeing some information that may be relevant.

"I think these may be useful as well."

[mysticaldoctor]

Strange nodded and levitated all the books, turning the pages with an additional limb, he was looking for ways to seal the cracks that currently existed. "So if you didn't cast this spell, then ... who did?" He knows her, she's very by the book - and he's not sure if that's a flaw anymore.

That meant she hadn't done this.

[drpalmer]

"Someone reckless, with the sort of ego to back it up."

She gives him a little look, it wasn't this Strange, but it sounds like something one of them would do.

She uses magic to stop one of the pages he's turning. "There, the ink has been smudged and I couldn't quite figure it out when I first read it."

[mysticaldoctor]

He frowned at it. He could open the time stone and reverse the smudge, but - he could - remember. If he wanted.

He held up a finger and thought - perhaps too hard. "Cyclothymic paradoxes may result in unrelated paradoxes, temporal incuravation, and expungement of personal timeline," his mouth moved, but his voice was not that of Stephen's

[drpalmer]

"Thanks." It's just instinctive, she's thanking whichever entity read that out for her.

"That's not exactly encouraging though." She would prefer her timeline not be expunged.

[mysticaldoctor]

He nodded and took a breath - odd that - sometimes he had to remember how. He wasn't sure if it was just being around her, or if sometimes he didn't in that crystalline space.

"Well I didn't - no point in... everyone being punished for my mistakes."

"It means someone tried to change something - they shouldn't have. The natural order of things. You have some..." he waved his hand oddly. "leeway, with that. Absolute points. If you change one point you have to be prepared to shift it to another, and you can't change your personal timeline, well - maybe not 'can't' - if we're being technical. It's not recommended - we'll put it like that, shall we? It also could make it worse by ... reversing it, unless the original spell-caster can be convinced to undo it."

Sounds like something one of us would do."

[drpalmer]

"It wasn't you, but it sounds like something a Strange would do."

She considers it, wondering the best way to deal with this.

"Should we try to contact the source of this? Granted it's risky, but we're looking at a collapse of reality, so, it seems reasonable."

[mysticaldoctor]

"Could try. Might not want to listen. Think of the most arrogant version of me that you know - and I would guess that's close to what we're looking for."

Strange opened one of the books to the chapter on scrying.
"Probably want to use this, then we'll ... drop in, as it were."
He smiled a little, pleased with at least part of this idea, to be up to the challenge of beating an arrogant version of himself that thought little of breaking the universe itself - and the consequences.