Character Name: Dr. Stephen Strange (thewarningafter) IC Date of Death: 357 OOC Date of Death: May 6, 2018 Type of Death: IC consequence/canon update. Loss: Stephen is going to take after his facetwin by losing the ability to make short term memories.
Canon update: Stephen's new canon point is the end of Infinity War.
About a year has passed for Stephen, during which time he made leaps and bounds in his study of the mystic arts, mastering many spells and techniques unknown to him at his previous canon point.
He became aware at some point that Odin was residing on Earth but respected Odin's desire to be left alone. When Thor and Loki arrived in New York in search of Odin, Stephen reacted by immediately imprisoning Loki and luring Thor into the Sanctum where Stephen could question him; once he knew their mission he assisted them in locating Odin in order to expedite their departure from Earth.
My interpretation is that Stephen's approach to dealing with Thor and Loki was strategy born of knowing he wouldn't win a real fight against either of them. Rather than risk a direct confrontation, he removed Loki from the situation and kept Thor both metaphorically and literally off-balance through the entire encounter by plying him with beer and constantly shifting space around him. This indicates that while Stephen has become a much more powerful magic user, he's aware of his limitations and is still inclined to use trickery rather than force.
INFINITY WAR SPOILERS START HERE
Presumably about a year after Stephen took over the New York Sanctum, Bruce Banner crashed through the roof, having been sent by Heimdall when the Asgardian refugees' spaceship was attacked by Thanos, a powerful being who wanted to gather all of the Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half the life in the universe. The Time Stone was in Stephen's possession at that time; he immediately recruited the aid of Tony Stark (and, by extension, the Avengers).
As Stephen, Tony, Bruce, and Wong were discussing how to locate the other Infinity Stone known to be on Earth, Greenwich Village came under attack by the Black Order, followers of Thanos. Spider-Man joined the fight; while Wong was able to send one of the attackers, Cull Obsidian, to the arctic, Stephen was captured by the other attacker, Ebony Maw. Because Stephen had bound the Time Stone to himself, Ebony Maw took him prisoner aboard his spaceship. Spider-Man and Iron Man took chase and were able to board the ship.
Stephen awoke to Ebony Maw's efforts to coerce him into breaking the binding spell via torture, but was shortly rescued by Spider-Man, Iron Man, and his own Cloak of Levitation. He mostly seemed annoyed about being rescued; while it's really unclear how Stephen thought he was going to get out of that situation, he was likely pretty confident in his ability to stand up to torture owing to his previous experiences in the Dark Dimension (and, you know, never having lived through Noisy Black). Though Stephen wanted to turn back for Earth, Tony was able to convince him to press on instead to the ship's intended destination, Titan. At that time, Stephen explicitly stated that protecting the Stone and keeping it out of Thanos's hands was more important to him than the lives of anyone present.
After crash-landing on Titan, Stephen, Tony, and Peter Parker shortly came under attack by about half of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Peter Quill, Drax, and Mantis), both groups misidentifying the others as allies of Thanos. The fight ended in a standoff and they were able to come to an understanding and work together from that point forward, but Stephen and Tony were generally not impressed by the Guardians' intellects.
While the others on Titan argued over how to handle Thanos, Stephen used the Time Stone to view alternate futures in order to determine the best course of action. He viewed and analyzed more than fourteen million potential outcomes, of which only one ultimately went in their favor. With Stephen as their guide, the assembled team made their plan to subdue Thanos and take the Infinity Gauntlet (and the Stones he had so far gathered) from him. They were initially successful; their combined efforts (and that of Nebula, who made a dramatic entrance by crashing her spaceship into Thanos mid-battle) enabled them to pin Thanos down long enough to let Mantis put him in a trance. However, as they were attempting to remove the gauntlet, Peter Quill interrogated Thanos and learned that Thanos had killed Gamora. Peter went into an anguished rage and began beating Thanos with his pistol, breaking Mantis's control.
The ensuing fight was ugly and rapidly went against the Guardians and Avengers. Stephen briefly held his own against Thanos in a one-on-one fight, but Thanos was able to defeat both Stephen and Tony while the others were unconscious or fleeing for their lives. Just as Thanos was about to kill Tony, Stephen offered him the Time Stone in exchange for Tony's life. Thanos took it and left them to go to Earth and collect the last stone, at which point Stephen commented to a distraught Tony that they were "in the end game now."
Not long after, Thanos successfully won his battle against the other defenders of Earth and obtained the final Infinity Stone. With a snap of his fingers, Thanos caused half the people in the universe to spontaneously stop existing. On Titan, everyone except Tony and Nebula disintegrated into dust, including Stephen, whose last words to a distraught devastated Tony were that "it had to be this way."
I think it's clear that Stephen planned to allow Thanos to take the Time Stone. Whatever ultimate outcome he saw in the one "good" timeline required Thanos to succeed and required him to believe he had truly bested them in battle, thus Stephen's choice not to tell any of the others until it was too late for them to alter the course of events.
What's not clear is how the timeline will proceed. Stephen died apparently confident that he'd set things on the correct path, but whatever IC knowlege he has of coming events is OOCly unavailable. As okay'd here, Stephen is going to come back without clear memories of the futures he saw, including the one he set into motion. I reason that without his powers and the powers of the Time Stone, Stephen is arguably incapable of remembering or differentiating between fourteen million futures. He will remember the actions he took and he will remember that he undertook them believing they would lead to the best possible outcome, but he will not remember what that outcome is going to be.
TL;DR: -Stephen has become a much more powerful magic user. -Stephen met Odin, Thor, Loki, Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Peter Quill, Drax, Mantis, and Nebula. -Stephen saw the future and deliberately allowed half the people in the universe to die, including himself, in service of orchestrating a "good" timeline in which they somehow ultimately triumph over Thanos. -Stephen will remember doing all of this, but will not remember what he saw of the future.
MAJOR INFINITY WAR SPOILERS IN UPDATE SECTION
IC Date of Death: 357
OOC Date of Death: May 6, 2018
Type of Death: IC consequence/canon update.
Loss: Stephen is going to take after his facetwin by losing the ability to make short term memories.
Canon update: Stephen's new canon point is the end of Infinity War.
About a year has passed for Stephen, during which time he made leaps and bounds in his study of the mystic arts, mastering many spells and techniques unknown to him at his previous canon point.
He became aware at some point that Odin was residing on Earth but respected Odin's desire to be left alone. When Thor and Loki arrived in New York in search of Odin, Stephen reacted by immediately imprisoning Loki and luring Thor into the Sanctum where Stephen could question him; once he knew their mission he assisted them in locating Odin in order to expedite their departure from Earth.
My interpretation is that Stephen's approach to dealing with Thor and Loki was strategy born of knowing he wouldn't win a real fight against either of them. Rather than risk a direct confrontation, he removed Loki from the situation and kept Thor both metaphorically and literally off-balance through the entire encounter by plying him with beer and constantly shifting space around him. This indicates that while Stephen has become a much more powerful magic user, he's aware of his limitations and is still inclined to use trickery rather than force.
INFINITY WAR SPOILERS START HERE
Presumably about a year after Stephen took over the New York Sanctum, Bruce Banner crashed through the roof, having been sent by Heimdall when the Asgardian refugees' spaceship was attacked by Thanos, a powerful being who wanted to gather all of the Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half the life in the universe. The Time Stone was in Stephen's possession at that time; he immediately recruited the aid of Tony Stark (and, by extension, the Avengers).
As Stephen, Tony, Bruce, and Wong were discussing how to locate the other Infinity Stone known to be on Earth, Greenwich Village came under attack by the Black Order, followers of Thanos. Spider-Man joined the fight; while Wong was able to send one of the attackers, Cull Obsidian, to the arctic, Stephen was captured by the other attacker, Ebony Maw. Because Stephen had bound the Time Stone to himself, Ebony Maw took him prisoner aboard his spaceship. Spider-Man and Iron Man took chase and were able to board the ship.
Stephen awoke to Ebony Maw's efforts to coerce him into breaking the binding spell via torture, but was shortly rescued by Spider-Man, Iron Man, and his own Cloak of Levitation. He mostly seemed annoyed about being rescued; while it's really unclear how Stephen thought he was going to get out of that situation, he was likely pretty confident in his ability to stand up to torture owing to his previous experiences in the Dark Dimension (and, you know, never having lived through Noisy Black). Though Stephen wanted to turn back for Earth, Tony was able to convince him to press on instead to the ship's intended destination, Titan. At that time, Stephen explicitly stated that protecting the Stone and keeping it out of Thanos's hands was more important to him than the lives of anyone present.
After crash-landing on Titan, Stephen, Tony, and Peter Parker shortly came under attack by about half of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Peter Quill, Drax, and Mantis), both groups misidentifying the others as allies of Thanos. The fight ended in a standoff and they were able to come to an understanding and work together from that point forward, but Stephen and Tony were generally not impressed by the Guardians' intellects.
While the others on Titan argued over how to handle Thanos, Stephen used the Time Stone to view alternate futures in order to determine the best course of action. He viewed and analyzed more than fourteen million potential outcomes, of which only one ultimately went in their favor. With Stephen as their guide, the assembled team made their plan to subdue Thanos and take the Infinity Gauntlet (and the Stones he had so far gathered) from him. They were initially successful; their combined efforts (and that of Nebula, who made a dramatic entrance by crashing her spaceship into Thanos mid-battle) enabled them to pin Thanos down long enough to let Mantis put him in a trance. However, as they were attempting to remove the gauntlet, Peter Quill interrogated Thanos and learned that Thanos had killed Gamora. Peter went into an anguished rage and began beating Thanos with his pistol, breaking Mantis's control.
The ensuing fight was ugly and rapidly went against the Guardians and Avengers. Stephen briefly held his own against Thanos in a one-on-one fight, but Thanos was able to defeat both Stephen and Tony while the others were unconscious or fleeing for their lives. Just as Thanos was about to kill Tony, Stephen offered him the Time Stone in exchange for Tony's life. Thanos took it and left them to go to Earth and collect the last stone, at which point Stephen commented to a distraught Tony that they were "in the end game now."
Not long after, Thanos successfully won his battle against the other defenders of Earth and obtained the final Infinity Stone. With a snap of his fingers, Thanos caused half the people in the universe to spontaneously stop existing. On Titan, everyone except Tony and Nebula disintegrated into dust, including Stephen, whose last words to a
distraughtdevastated Tony were that "it had to be this way."I think it's clear that Stephen planned to allow Thanos to take the Time Stone. Whatever ultimate outcome he saw in the one "good" timeline required Thanos to succeed and required him to believe he had truly bested them in battle, thus Stephen's choice not to tell any of the others until it was too late for them to alter the course of events.
What's not clear is how the timeline will proceed. Stephen died apparently confident that he'd set things on the correct path, but whatever IC knowlege he has of coming events is OOCly unavailable. As okay'd here, Stephen is going to come back without clear memories of the futures he saw, including the one he set into motion. I reason that without his powers and the powers of the Time Stone, Stephen is arguably incapable of remembering or differentiating between fourteen million futures. He will remember the actions he took and he will remember that he undertook them believing they would lead to the best possible outcome, but he will not remember what that outcome is going to be.
TL;DR:
-Stephen has become a much more powerful magic user.
-Stephen met Odin, Thor, Loki, Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Peter Quill, Drax, Mantis, and Nebula.
-Stephen saw the future and deliberately allowed half the people in the universe to die, including himself, in service of orchestrating a "good" timeline in which they somehow ultimately triumph over Thanos.
-Stephen will remember doing all of this, but will not remember what he saw of the future.