A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind
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Listing Series
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Stretch Out My Life and Pick the Seams Out by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
11 Apr 2019
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“You need to talk to someone, Tony. Someone who can help you actually deal with things.”
If he had a dollar for every time someone had told him that he'd have a sizable fund to pay said help out of. He had always resisted. Stubborn pride, old fashioned ideas. Maybe just the thought of telling a stranger all his demons made him sick to his stomach. But if this was rock bottom, maybe it was time to try something new. "I know."
Pepper looked over at him, clearly surprised by the answer. Suspicious of it. “I’m drowning,” she said quietly. “Just trying to hold you together. I don’t have anyone holding me.”
That, out of everything the last couple of days, hurt the most. But it also gave him the strength to say, "I'll get help."
Tony gets a vacation, a shrink, and a new bromance.
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My Heart Stumbles on Things I Don't Know by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies)
15 Jun 2019
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Amanda winced and sighed. "I have really shitty bedside manner. It's why I was a surgeon and a researcher. I'm sorry about all of this. I really am. I've lost people, I know it hurts and it feels helpless. Which is why I'm sitting here jamming a screw driver in this and pretending not to think too hard."
Found family saves the universe, and the Avengers start over.
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Crawl Towards a Life of Fragile Lines by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
14 Aug 2019
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"I don't have to. It can go in a box in a safe on the bottom of the ocean. Just because I figured out how it could work, doesn't mean it will."
It was a little painful to watch, because she knew why he hesitated. Not just about what he feared they might lose, but by reopening something he'd made peace with. He wasn't a superhero anymore. It was a little like dangling heroin in front of an addict trying to stay clean. Saving the world was his siren song. Still, she knew him better than anyone on this earth. "Would you ever get a good night's sleep again?"
Turns out there were plenty more surprises.
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Throwing Dice In the Dark by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Thor (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
30 Sep 2019
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A lot of people told Thor what crappy shape he was in. Banner was patronizingly gentle, Rocket was openly irritated, Valkyrie had been every emotion under the sun but had settled for the last few years on resigned. Dr. Yee just said it like a fact. No judgement, just a statement.
"I'm really fine," he said, because he'd been saying it for years and he wasn't going to stop now.
"I'm sure you're managing," she said, evenly. "But are you really happy with how you are? Right now? Would you consider yourself functional?"
He opened his mouth to assure her he was. But she was looking at him, with no judgment or ire, just calm patience. And he found himself saying, "No."
Second chances and one day at a time.
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Our Choices Seal Our Fate by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
18 Nov 2019
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"Absolutely everyone is going to think we're either planning a conquest, or fucking on the table. Maybe both." It was terrible how appealing that actually sounded to him.
"If you're asking me to dine with you again I assume at least one of those is an eventual goal."
Oh, he liked this woman.
Earth wasn't the only place half the population turned to dust.
Series
- Part 5 of A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind
- Part 7 of Syn and Loki Multiverse (Dark Inside AUs)
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Paint My Spirit Gold by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies)
24 Apr 2021
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"I was thinking about our confrontational first meeting, back during the Battle of New York. I asked you what you were without the suit. And you had a list—I don't remember what they were, but it was a list." Steve shook his head. "Suit's just a shell, you could save the world with your brain on a hard drive like Zola's. But if you'd turned that question back at me, you'd have gotten a blank stare. I did not have a list. Still don't."
"You're who you always were," Tony said. "A good man. That's not nothing."
"No. But it's also not a lot of guidance as to what to do outside of fighting the good fight."
Steve faces Thanos, retirement, and his own demons. (On Hiatus)
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So Let The Memories Be Good For Those Who Stay by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
08 Jan 2020
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"Even your snow chains are over the top," Amanda commented as she walked up to them.
"Everything I do is," Tony replied. "Is Wanda here yet? They were behind you. I need something inside the engine and dumbass here didn't bring his suit."
"Why would I bring my suit?" Scott protested. "We're on vacation."
Nothing says Happy Holidays like a natural disaster.
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Live My Life As It’s Meant To Be by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
12 May 2020
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Nat really thought coming back from the dead would be the most surprising thing to happen to her today. But now. This.
She thought about Nate's warm little body propped on her hip, and the pictures of her and Lila on the wall in matching tutus, and the way Cooper had hugged her like she was family and not some guest that visited twice a year. And she thought about Clint kissing her on the front porch and a debate about voyeurism she didn't remember. And for the first time since she could remember, possibly for the first time in her life, she felt something knotted and tense and miserable inside her. . . settle.
Looking up, she met Clint's gaze. He was watching her with concern and she wondered how miserable the last month must have been, to know all this and have her dead and unable to share it with. "I love you," she said finally. "I want to learn how to raise bees.”
Coming back from the dead in the Good Timeline.
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When She Lets Me Call Her Mine by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
09 Feb 2022
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"Parker, we don't have time for this," called Cloak Guy. That was probably Dr. Strange. Who Peter had described as 'kind of an asshole', and considering how fond Peter was of Tony Stark, someone he called an asshole had to be some serious business.
MJ poked her head around his shoulder and said, "You're dragging a seventeen year old to go fight a megalomaniacal alien, you can wait thirty seconds for him to say goodbye to his girlfriend."
A couple of teenagers learn how to grow up fast.
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Neither Lost Nor Found by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
22 Feb 2022
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She looked between the three of them. "Honestly, how do you go through life knowing at any moment someone can just rearrange your brain?”
Strange's memory spell is no match for curiosity, love, truth curses, or Syn's temper.
Series
- Part 10 of A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind
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What's Behind and What's Before by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
12 Feb 2022
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“When are you going to get married?”
Had Waipo not asked him that daily for the last 5+ years he might have panicked. Instead, he responded the same way he always did. "We're just friends.”
Normally, she made noises and nodded. It was part of their routine, going on so long it was almost an in-joke. But this time she turned and stared at him. She looked exasperated, and like she knew he was lying. Somehow. She pulled the ladle out of the pot and pointed it at him. “If you get her pregnant and don’t marry her, I will haunt you from the afterlife.”
Of all the threats he'd had in the last week, that might be the most sincere. "I promise not to do that.”
Life on the other side of the Rubicon.
Series
- Part 11 of A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind
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Whispers in the Dark by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow (Movie 2021), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
27 Mar 2022
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Summary
One offs, PWPs, drabble and missing scenes from the Brush With the Devil universe. First chapter is Table of Contents, tags and characters to be added as chapters are added.
Series
- Part 12 of A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind
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The Blood Through Your Bones by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl
Fandoms: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
16 Aug 2026
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Summary
“Madripoor sounds like a fun place to visit,” Shangqi said. “Katy and I would enjoy that.”
"Once I've settled in we'll make it happen. Maybe we can swing back up here and go visit Auntie Nan. Leave some persimmons at Dad's grave."
"Dad hated persimmons."
"I'm aware.”
He chuckled a little. “Let me know when you’re ready about that arson.”
"You have my word," Xialing told him. They said their goodbyes and she set her phone on the desk with a sigh. After years of trying to hate her brother it was weird to have a relationship with him. Weird, but good.
The new Empress drags an ancient criminal organization into the modern age, and gets herself a concubine.Series
- Part 13 of A Brush With the Devil Can Clear Your Mind