[MINGLE] Worried/Sick 1: Symptoms Manifest & Reaction

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Anywhere; multiple locations
WHEN: Apx. 13-18 November
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Serious illness and reactions to such

IMPORTANT NOTES: This is the first of two mingles. Please see the timing and general event details here.

Illness Presents and Putting Heads Together will have their own top-levels in this post, but you may make separate top-levels for whatever you like! Anything is welcome, as long as it tangentially relates to the Worried/Sick plot.

Please keep in mind the established plot details, but creative license is welcome and encouraged as long as it doesn't step on toes.

Comments

[eaglesonofnone]

"I think that your mind is sharp and your will is strong. I see no reason why this couldn't be done - especially if you let others help. If you listen to their words and build together rather than apart. People are willing to stand and help, but you have to let them, Ibni. Ideas come from everywhere. All you have to do is listen."

Holding on to Tony this way - a hand on his shoulder, the other at his back. It helped to hide how his thoughts lingered on Sef. On Darim, when he was young, when the journey East brought an illness to all of them but how it had hit Darim the hardest. How Sef died alone, with Swami's words in his ear--

He would not make that mistake again. There was no Abbas here, but he would not let someone put ill words in his mouth again. Especially not toward someone who had just found hope again after too long.

"I have faith in you, Tony," he said, uncaring that the name was still odd to him, that their times were separated by centuries. He needed reassurance. Altaïr could give that without reservation.

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Nine times out of ten their ideas are unreasonable." Tony mutters, hunching in, listing against Altaïr as he settles. But he won't be alone- provided he can make it back to earth. He'll figure something out, probably.

He always does.

For the first time since Thanos vanished off Titan, since he woke up in that tube? It feels possible. This pit of frustrated grief feels...manageable. He'll have people he knows he'll have people. He knows he'll have Rhodey and Bruce and Shuri and that'll be more than enough, probably. Some of the tension in him unspools, eyes slipping shut, cheek tipping against Altaïr's shoulder. Whatever this purgatory is? He thinks he might be able to endure.

[eaglesonofnone]

The answer to that was a soft chuckle - so soft that only Tony could hear it. The weight of a head to his shoulder was nothing new, and he found it, if anything, comfortable. He could feel Tony slowly relaxing, and he took the weight with a small smile. It felt good to be relied upon again. For too long, he'd had to rely upon Malik the younger and Darim.

"They can be," he agreed, "but I believe some of your talent would be to make the unreasonable reasonable. To find a way. Because do not mistake, Ibni - I know you can."

[nonstopnarcissist]

"...What does that mean? Ibni? I can't-" He huffs, mind twisting and turning around his conversational grasp of Arabic. He can follow a line of thought but- some stuff flips through the cracks. "I can't place that one."

It's a noun, he thinks. Has to be. Everything he's heard makes sense with or without it so- something with emphasis? An endearment. As though he earned the right to endear anyone to his mess of a self.

[eaglesonofnone]

His hand tightened on Tony's shoulder before he answered, "My son."

He wasn't sure if it would be appreciated. If the thought would be turned away. But if it was, he would accept it - even if he kept the feeling in his heart. This was one feeling he was sure of: that Tony needed something so steady in his life.

[nonstopnarcissist]

That- the effect is pretty instantaneous. Tony's shoulders don't tighten so much as loosen, melting into the contact, the support, the promise of affection and kindness. Listing into the idea like a flower to the sun, starved and fragile and infinitely wary of how fickle such a thing can be- but...

He leans into it all the same, eyes fluttering shut. "Oh...that's- that's nice."

[eaglesonofnone]

"It is a promise," Altaïr said, easily taking Tony's weight. "So long as you wish it, Ibni, you will be my son."

With carefully light touches, he stroked Tony's hair back from his face. He was still over-hot and sweating, his hair sticking to his skin in damp curls, and Altaïr knew that it couldn't be comfortable. When his sons had been ill, he'd held their hair, pulling it back while their body fought the sickness. And so here, he did the same.

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Don't think I'll ever...not. Wish it." There was more to the thought, probably. Something about asking him not to make a promise- too many broken for him to really trust it but it slides in and out of his mind before he can grasp it long enough to attempt putting it in words. Plenty slips out of his grasp, consciousness ekes out little by little, leaving him boneless and dozing against Altaïr.

This time when he sleeps? The nightmares aren't quite so terrible.