nextgenerationmarvel | Strange Bedfellows (Sofia)

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Strange Bedfellows (Sofia)

This existence is interminable, mortal. I will not be Mephisto's pawn for eternity!

"Believe me, Sweet Cheeks, I ain't lookin' forward to it. But hey, when I die, I get an all-expenses paid trip to Hell. So maybe you shouldn't complain about the livin' arrangements so much, huh?" Tommy said, pulling up to the brownstone and looking around. He was in the heart of Greenwich Village, a hipster hub if he'd ever seen one. They filmed a TV show here, once, didn't they? He couldn't remember.

"Why am I here, Zarathos?" Tommy asked aloud, seemingly to no one.

Because here, mortal, lies the key to my--to our--freedom. Or at least the start. Unless you wish to continue wallowing in defeat and balming your guilt and despair with mindless sex and oceans of alcohol. If you believe yourself defeated, why not try to end it all again? Do you think the fish-girl will save you twice?

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." he said.

In truth, Tommy was pretty sure Kassi wasn't anywhere nearby. If he'd gone down to the pier and jumped in at this time of night, no one would hear him. He could have done it months ago after he left her. He could have put the gun in his mouth after making sure that Joe was okay. But he hadn't. He told Zarathos he didn't know why but Kassi had done something for him that night he hadn't expected.

She'd given him hope.

Zarathos had seized on it immediately. Tommy hadn't lied to Rose about his reasons for coming back to New York, but he also wasn't fully honest about them. Until now, he didn't even know what he was looking for...until he arrived at 177A Bleecker Street.

"So who's here that can help us out?" Tommy asked.

Go forth and see, young knight.

Tommy snorted and walked up to the door, knocking loudly.

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The door would swing open barely a moment later, revealing a young woman wearing yoga pants, layered tank tops, and a ridiculously oversized cape. She smiled brightly at the man standing outside the door, taking him in, before snapping her fingers.

The outfit she'd been wearing changed into something that was a little more suited to company. She turned and waved the half-eaten turkey leg in her hand, and the line of samba-ing mummies also disappeared.

"Hi! I'd say I'd been expecting you, but obvious lie is obvious," she said. Sofia stepped aside and the door opened wider. "Wanna come in? Gotta warn you, if you mean me harm, the threshold's gonna obliterate you like whoa."

Perhaps I misjudged...

Tommy looked beyond her at the things going on inside the house. Cute girl, but decidedly strange.

"Do you even know who I am? If I wanted to hurt you, I might believe what you're sayin' about the threshold. But then, if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't walk up to your house and knock." he said, southern accent coming through in his words.

"But...my name's Tommy. And, if you're offerin', yes, I'll come in." he said.

Edited 2014-12-29 02:05 (UTC)

Well hey. Strange was her name.

Sofia took a step back, her heel clacking on the wood floor. "If you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't find this place," Sofia said. "The place is protected for a reason." She reached up and tucked a lock of her short brunette bob behind her ear. "But hey, a Southern gentleman caller? We don't get many of those." She grinned again. "Tommy. I'm Sofia. C'mon in."

"Fair point, pretty lady. But let me just state for the record, I ain't here to hurt you. I'm actually here for help." Tommy said.

"You met a mutual friend of ours a little while ago. Some trouble with demons in the park. Well, I'm here about that." he said, stepping inside. He looked around at the inside of the place and his mental calculator went to work, trying to put a price tag on several of the items he saw.

"I need to speak with Doctor Strange, if he's available." Tommy said.

"Oh that was a fun afternoon." Sofia took another bite off of her turkey leg. "I mean, not as fun as the samba thing I just had going, but it was fun." She was trying not to think about that afternoon, actually, since it had been something of a family affair.

"You're not taking the doc part seriously, are you? I mean, okay, he was a doctor, but if you caught some kind of magical STI from one of those demons...wrong kind of doctor you're looking for, handsome. On a number of levels." All of this was said lightly, as though she was just making small talk. "Seriously though? He's, like, on vacation. With my mom." Somewhere. They never left a forwarding address. "Rare time taken away from sorcerer supreme-ing their own domains." She started walking down the corridor of the sanctum and indicated that Tommy should follow her. "But, you know. I'm practically Intern Strange. Maybe I can help?"

"I'm clean. Let's just leave THAT part of the conversation there." Tommy said.

He wasn't here. That wasn't good.

He followed her down the hall, trying to guess if she was messing with him or if she could really help. This wasn't something to entrust to a barely-trained apprentice.

"Sounds like he'll be gone awhile." Tommy said. "I don't know how much you can help unless you know something about dealing with demons."

"Oooh, secret sexy man. Okay. We've all got them." Sofia led Tommy into a room with bookshelves that reached up to high ceilings, filled with lots of antique-but-comfortable looking furniture. The library. Which looked as though it shouldn't have fit into the Sanctum from outside, but somehow, it did. "Secrets, I mean. Not secret sexy men. Though I could do with a few of those. Demons are only so satisfying, after all."

Once inside, Sofia snapped her fingers and one of the tables was suddenly filled with food and drink.

"Sweetie, I'm the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo. I'm friendly with demons. Unfriendly too. Also friendly in ways that aren't appropriate for polite company." She shot Tommy a smile. "Granted, I don't know how polite you are, southern gentleman or not." Sofia sunk into an overstuffed couch and indicated that Tommy take a seat. She reached over and grabbed an ice cold bottle of bubblegum soda and popped it open. "Okay. Demons. What's the what, handsome?"

"Wow...this is a lot of books." he said, looking around the library. He'd never seen this many books in his life. He wasn't one for the library when he could do other things. Like drink or have sex. Or rob banks.

A nearby table filled with food and drinks and Tommy's stomach rumbled, a little loudly. He was always up for food but that was a little weird. Magic made him nervous, even when it was wrapped in a package that looked like Sophia.

This one has a mouth on her. I'm not sure if she's scared or just annoying.

Tommy went and sat down in the nearby chair, adjusting his holster inside his coat and the knife on his belt. He took up can of Coke and looked at her.

"First...how secure is this place? Could someone bust in on us or hear what's goin' on without you knowin'?" he asked.

"Yeah, well, you never know what's going to attack when, or what's going to come crawling out of what hellhole or you know, all that. Better to be prepared." The library could rival Harvard's in terms of the wealth of knowledge amassed there. For as long as she'd been learning there under her father's tutelage, Sofia had barely made a dent in the books.

"Only my parents," Sofia replied. "Well, there's my nanny Vesper too, but she's usually knocked out on absinthe right now, asleep in her quarters." Or she'd be bumping uglies with Wong, but Wong wasn't there right now either. "Basically, you're safe. Far safer than any princess in any ivory tower ever."

Tommy nodded. This was probably the first time in history that he wished a girl's parents would come home while he was there. Not that Sofia didn't look like a wild ride any night of the week, but more because he hoped to solve this problem quickly.

"All right. Well, I need to know how to get someone out of a demonic pact. A deal with the devil, so to speak." he said.

"Oh," Sofia said. "Is Mephisto running around trying to steal someone's marriage again?" She licked her lips. "Or are we talking about one of the other guys? Satannish? I mean, he's the knock-off-iest of them all." She seemed oddly calm for discussing how to break up a demonic pact. "I need more deets if this is going to be a thing that happens, champ."

"The boss isn't exactly fond of happy-ever-after." Tommy said.

"No, we're talkin' about Mephisto. He managed to get a young and desperate punk to sign away his soul after his family beat him to death and buried him in an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere." Tommy said.

"I just need to figure out if there's a loophole in the contract. Maybe help this guy get on with his life...without endin' up in Hell for eternity." he said.

"The boss." Sofia took a sip of her drink. "So, Mephisto's your boss then?" Her lips twitched with amusement.

She held up a hand and snapped her fingers three times. A couple of books flew off a faraway shelf and glided over to Sofia, landing in her lap.

"Any chance you have a copy of the contract somewhere on your delectable person?"

"Yeah, he's my boss. Not a situation I'm fond of, mind you." Tommy said with a rueful smile.

He almost jumped when the books flew off the shelf toward Sofia. He still wasn't comfortable with that.

"No such luck. I've never actually seen it. Deal was kinda verbal on account of the guy bein' dead at the time he made it." he said.

"And just to clarify, you were the dude that was dead who did the deal?" Because clarity was important when it came to all things magical. "What I wouldn't give for a pensieve right now," she added.

The young sorceress lazily waved a finger in front of one of the books and it fluttered open, pages flipping. "Sea witches are so much easier to deal with," she added. "At least they sing a song and force you to sign the contract in front of them." She glanced up from the book. "Why'd you do it?"

"Yeah, it was me. No use in hidin' it. It ain't somethin' that comes up in polite conversation." he said.

He watched her wave her turn the pictures without touching them and wondered how hard it was to do that. He opened his mouth to ask when she asked him why he'd taken the deal.

He looked down at the floor a moment, before looking up at her.

"You ever been to Hell, Angel-face? Ever been dead?" he asked.

Edited 2014-12-30 02:26 (UTC)

"My mom is Clea," Sofia said softly. "of the Dark Dimension." She set used her powers to put one book down and selected another one from the pile as she spoke. "My grandmother is Umar the Unrelenting. My uncle, Dormammu." She looked at Tommy with all seriousness. "I lived in the Dark Dimension until I was eighteen, then my mom sent me here to live with my father. it's not Hell, but it's a Hell dimension. I have a good idea of how these things work."

He nodded as she spoke.

"My other half has told me about the Dark Dimension and Dormammu. Another fun guy to know, so I hear." Tommy said.

"People tell each other to 'go to Hell' all the time. It makes me feel bad when I hear that because I don't think people would ever say that to each other if they'd experienced it." he said.

"I was betrayed by the man who raised me and my own mother. I found out they murdered my father and I confronted them. I made threats. I should have killed them both right then but...I couldn't.

So they got me first. They convinced my friends that I was a traitor and, where I'm from, there's only one thing you do to traitors." Tommy said.

"So when Mephisto showed up with that sweet deal for a twenty-one year old kid with no future that deserved to go to Hell...I said yes. I wanted to live. I wanted to make amends for the life I lead. I wanted to be a better man.

But I wanted revenge, too."

Sofia listened intently. She leaned forward and reached out, limply waving a hand. A Red Vine floated into her hand. She took a bite of it and chewed thoughtfully for a long moment. "And now I think I know who you are," Sofia replied. "I'm sorry. You've gone through a tough time, but I'm sure that's something you've heard from everyone you've told your story to." Sofia continued flipping through the book. "Deals with Mephisto are notoriously hard to break. He needs to be offered something that he wants more."

"I don't talk about it much. You just got the most in depth version of the story I've ever told." Tommy said.

He sighed when she spoke about deals with Mephisto being hard to break. He understood that pretty well. He'd collected on a lot of people who'd tried to weasel out of them at the last minute.

"The only thing he wants more than one person suffering is lots of people suffering. Or seeing true love die. I'm not sure where to find either of those in the quantity he'd want. And I'd like to think there's enough of me left that I wouldn't give it to him even if I did." he told her.

"So what was with the zombie dance party? The yoga pants were pretty nice on you. You didn't have to change on my account." he said, teasing a little.

Sofia put one book away and chose another one. "Piece of advice? True love? Don't mess with it. Not in magical terms. It's freakishly powerful stuff, and trading it or messing with it in anyway...well. The ramifications are not good." There was a reason why, when love magic was involved, they all tended to consult with Venus, after all.

"Well. Hell guy. They're big on the suffering. I'm surprised that my mom turned out differently from the rest of her family." Hell, considering that Sofia had spent such a large amount of time around them, she was surprised that she had turned out differently.

Sofia chuckled. "Dad's away, Wong's away, my nanny was asleep. I needed to amuse myself. There's a few old mummies Daddy had lying around, and I was in the mood to dance." Compared to what Sofia tended to do in Limbo, this was wonderfully low-key and family-friendly.

"Besides, there was a thing with harpies last week, and I needed some down time."

"Well, I'm not really one to judge what is and what ain't true love. Never done it. So it's probably safe from me." Tommy said.

"Family can make you better or it can ruin you. Take it from someone who got the latter part of that. Your mom turned out well. Seems like she passed it on." he said.

She chuckled and Tommy noted the smile.

"And she smiles. Score one for me. But what's this about harpies? First we get a demon invasion and now there are harpies. I don't like where that leads. Usually ain't a good place." Tommy said.

She smiled. "Thank you. I appreciate that." She shrugged over the harpies thing. "Doesn't concern me so far. If there's a harpy in town, general thought is that it has something to do with one of the many Greco-Roman demigods living somewhere in New York. Until it's an issue that lands on our doorstep, we tend to stay out." Or unless you ran into a harpy in a dark alleyway somewhere.

"New York. You know how it is. There are dozens of somethings going on around at any given time." Ergo, all of the many, many teams the city was teeming with.

"I don't know much of the super-hero set in these part. There's one guy I call friend, his significant other, who's also a badass in her own right...and that's really it." Tommy said.

"I've always wondered if these people meet up on their own or if they just find each other through the Society of Superheroes or something." Tommy laughed.

"But with all that, New York SHOULD be the safest city in the world. But it isn't. Always a funny little conundrum." he said.

"Hey now. Police can't keep normal crime down, you can't expect the superheroes to keep the supercrime down." Balance and all that jazz.

"It kind of just happens? I mean, I think it depends. My generation..." Sofia shrugged. "I kind of already know the Avengers by default. You know, because my dad was in with them." She was a reservist. "But then the Defenders. We just...kind of formed. And don't really team-up unless the situation really calls for it." She shrugged. "There's really no set rules?"

"I guess it works out for everyone who's a part of the club." Tommy said.

"So...you think Mephisto will want something more than he wants a soul. Got any non-dangerous magical artifacts no one's sitting on? Maybe if I find one, I can make him an offer." Tommy said.

Tommy knew even as he said it that it wouldn't fly but he was simply throwing things at the wall right now.

"He's like a class two demon," Sofia said. "There's not a lot he doesn't already possess. Man's got some hefty demonic souls in his possession, already, that he messes around with. I can't really think of anyone who's gotten away from him, not off the top of my head." In other word, there weren't very many artifacts that Mephisto was going to find interesting.

She pursed her lips. "I mean, there's always a way out. We just have to find it."

He chuckled again.

"You didn't have to throw that last part in on my account, Sorceress Sofia. When I finally understood what I'd done, I wanted out. But over the last few years, I've been comin' to terms with it." he said.

"I've figured out that the boss isn't gonna let me die from anything as simple as gettin' hit by a truck. It'd probably just hurt like hell before I got up again." Tommy said.

He thought back to the stunt he'd pulled in New Orleans a little while ago. If Kassi hadn't been there...

"All right. New topic. Talk about the first thing that comes to mind, Angel-Face. Go."

"Just Sofia's fine," she smirked. "Though Angel-Face? A witch could learn to like that."

She reached out and ran a hand through her hair, gently mussing her short, wavy bob. She stared at Tommy for a long moment. "Nothing that can be said in polite company," she finally replied. "How about you?"

"I carry a gun and a knife at all times, and I ride a Harley. Angel-Face, in what world do I look like polite company?" he asked, returning the grin.

"My thoughts ain't fit for polite company. But I'll share if you will." he said.

"Hell?" This was said lightly, flippantly. She grinned at him and stretched her legs out. "Unfair question, by the way. You know exactly what's on my mind." She snapped her fingers and the books flew back to their shelves. "I mean, demonic, motorcycle riding bad boy. Innocent, lonely sorceress locked away in an ivory sanctum. What else could she possibly be thinking?"

"Compared to what some of my, ahem, co-workers would do to a lonely, innocent intern, locked away in her ivory sanctum...yeah, I guess I'd be considered polite." Tommy said.

He considered her words.

"Oh, I know exactly what you're thinkin', Sofia. I knew it the moment I walked in here." he said, rising from his chair. He walked over and knelt in front of her, close enough to touch.

We did not come here for this.

"You want the same thing I want." he said.

"Ice cream."

Edited 2015-01-01 02:31 (UTC)

"Damn," Sofia said lightly. "And here I thought you wanted little marzipan shaped like demons and devils." She was still grinning at him, but there was a look in her eye. As if she knew something, or suspected something. There it was, though, another snap of the fingers, and two ice cream sundaes, with the works, sitting on the cluttered coffee table behind Tommy. "Rest assured, handsome. Your associates? Couldn't lift a finger against me."

"A guy could get used to havin' his desires fulfilled just by askin'. Doesn't happen much in my world." he grinned, looking back at the sundae.

"Perhaps after these, we can talk about dessert?" he suggested.

Old Zarathos was raging a bit inside his skull but he ignored the demon for the moment. He needed a bit more fun before he had to get back to work.

"Tell me what else you're thinkin' in that innocent brain of yours." Tommy said.

"Tell that to Tony Nelson and Darrin Stephens. They didn't seem to enjoy it as much." Which was something Sofia had never understood about the men in those old tv shows. You had someone who could grant you anything you wanted.

Why try to avoid that kind of goodness?

"Mmmm. So many thoughts." She picked up her sundae and lifted up a spoonful of the butterscotch-nutty goodness. "I just don't want you to have a massive headache if I start naming all of them. Could end badly for you."

"Well, I don't think either of them were real smart, all things considered." he laughed. "Not in the ways that mattered, at least."

Tommy ate a bit of his own ice cream and sighed. Ice cream was his favorite comfort food. Left to his own devices, he could eat an entire carton of ice cream on his own. It was one of the reasons he'd taken up drinking, at the start.

"Angel-Face, if I spend my night listenin' to you talk, I'll count it a good night even if my head explodes. A little headache is the least of my worries. With Mephisto and the guy in my head arguing at times, I've felt like my head might explode. Anything else is just a dull ache.

Besides, all you need to cure a headache is a lot of water, a little aspirin...and maybe some fun." he said.

Edited 2015-01-01 03:59 (UTC)

"No, though there is something noble in what they did. I mean, if they'd forced Jeannie or Sam to use their powers all the time, we'd probably view them in a very different light, too," she contemplated. "It's all about balance."

Her lips twitched in amusement. "I could have a lot of fun with you. So much that you probably wouldn't be able to walk afterwards, for a few hours at least." She leaned in close to him. "But I'm not sure how the Hyde to your Jekyll would dig that."

"You're probably right. Person's gotta stand on their own feet someday." he said, agreeing with her.

His eyebrows rose as she talked about the kind of fun they could have and something, in the back of his mind, woke in alarm, but he pushed the idea down. If she'd really wanted to hurt him, she wouldn't have let him talk this whole time...would she?

"Mr. Hyde, as you call him, understands that thing about balance. We've got an arrangement, him and I. I help him out and he lets me live somethin' close to a normal life now and again." Tommy said.

"In fact, it was his idea I come here because he wants to fix this situation as much as I do. But I got goodwill stocked up." he said.

"Do your worst, Intern Strange. Make a believer out of me...if you can, that is." Tommy taunted.

"I'll help you with that to the best of my ability, Tommy. I'll try to contact that parentals too, to see if there's something they can help with. They earned their positions as Sorcerer and Sorceress Supreme. Mine was...handed to me. Unexpectedly." In other words, the raw power was great with this one, but the intricacies of magic - the knowledge for the finer, more delicate stuff?

She was still learning that.

Some things were not as easy as just snapping your fingers.

Various scenarios did play out in her head, though. Many of them which would leave a lesser person scarred for life. But sex and magic, mixed together, had a habit of doing that.

"I don't know you well enough to go full-on beastie style when it comes to that," she answered. "Maybe one day, when you come back begging for more. But you can ask anyone - demons, Atlantean princes, Egyptian demigods. No one's ever walked away a non-believer."

"Well, whenever you feel comfortable, let me know. In the meantime, this is sundae is top-notch." he said, eating a bit more.

"And thank you, Sofia. Anything you come across, no matter how small, helps. Maybe someday it'll lead to a breakthrough." Tommy told her.

"Oh, no. I wasn't saying no to a little fun now," Sofia laughed. "I meant, I wasn't going to get all magical-kinky on you until later." She licked her spoon. "I mean. Unless you have somewhere else to be?"

Gently twirling the caramel sauce in her cup, she smiled warmly at him. "Hey. Of course. You came to my doorstep seeking help. I'm not the kind of girl to turn someone away for that, handsome."

"No, nowhere else to be." he said, eating a bit more of the sundae. He was probably going to regret not eating dinner later but, right now, that didn't bother him.

He was more interested in the woman in front of him right now.

"Oh good."

She muttered something under her breath, her eyes taking on a preternatural glow. A soft wind stirred up in the library, and the scent of roses and vanilla filled the room.

The world melted away around them for the briefest of moments before becoming solid again.

They were in the same positions as before, ice cream sundaes intact, but instead of being in the library, they were in an opulent bedroom - Sofia on the bed, Tommy still kneeling next to her.

A fire cheerily crackled in a well-used fireplace.

A bucket moved over from a corner next to Tommy. "In case the teleporting made you feel a little ill," she grinned.

"Oh no. I'm good. Teleportation's always been one of those things I wished I could do." he said.

He whistled as he looked around at their surroundings.

"This is the nicest place I've ever been in. Usually, Motel 6 is the livin' large for me.

He rose and unbuckled his knife, setting his knife aside. Next, he took off his brown leather jacket, revealing the black t-shirt beneath. He slipped off his holster with his Glock and set that aside as well. Free of the extra weight, he moved to sit down on the bed with Sophia.

"Now on the menu: Angel-Face sundaes."

"Thanks. I keep on trying to modern the place up, and the Sanctum keeps on turning it back into this ritzy, stuffy old thing. I stopped fighting it recently."

The place really did kind of have a mind of its own.

She grinned and snapped her fingers one more time. Her outfit changed within a blink of an eye, from the shorts and t-shirt she'd been wearing, to something a little flirtier and sexier.

She let go of her sundae cup and it floated away to the nightstand, leaving Sofia all kinds of open.

"Extra whipped cream, please."

"As you wish, Intern Strange." he said with a smile.

"Set us up with some ingredients."

Once the ingredients appeared, Tommy and Sofia spend the night making sundaes and getting to know each other.

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Strange Bedfellows (Sofia)

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