ANATOMY OF A HERO
book 1 /             MARVEL
the wounds we  leave series
2019,          re-written 2024
camicazii, ⓒ

✵

You cannot   disown         what is     yours.
Flung out,        there is   always the return,
the reckoning,            the revenge, perhaps
the  reconciliation.       There is always the
return. And the wound will take you there.
It          is       a              blood             trail.
— Why be Happy when You could be Normal.

✵

Do you think that God stays in heaven,
does not come down to Earth,

Because, he too, lives in fear of the monsters he's created?

I. Scientists did not kneel at the altar of the divine. They did not believe that God guided their hand as they worked. They believed in only the cold truth that empirical evidence helped them gather.

While others sought solace in the comforts of faith, they sought truth in the certainty of science.

Science was predictable, it held answers to all questions whereas Religion lacked many of the concrete that comforted the intellectuals.

What is to say that scientists shy away from religion not out of disdain but perhaps out of fear? The Unknown. What good were questions which had no answers? What value could be found in that which could not be proven by evidence and research? Science offered those answers, it nursed them to sleep, comforting them into knowing that there was reason behind everything.

( Perhaps Religion and Science were old cousins that had grown apart. )

The worshippers have taken the leap of faith, they have trusted Him. And perhaps the scientists hate that, because trusting something which has no evidence to support it goes against the very core of their own altar they kneel at : Science.

Let us imagine a scientist, one Charles Darwin. His name will be Dede.

Let us imagine a worshipper, one Moses. His name will be Momo.

Now let us suspend our train of thought for just a few minutes and imagine these two men walking through a zoo. It is a Sunday, and Dede has one hour to spend before returning to the laboratory. Momo has all the time in the world to spare after attending Sunday Mass.

Dede, the man with the long white lab coat and beard kept clean shaven so it will not interfere with his studies, walks with a jolt in his step. He knows everything, he goes from cage to cage in natural order of selection, reading all the notices, nodding his head at what he already knows and can prove.

To his ears, when the lion feels the urge to mate, he thinks immediately of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. There is a reason for everything. and when the lion shows its teeth, he smiles and says "Charles Darwin", the father of natural selection. There is a reason for everything. When Dede ventured into the zoo, it was to decipher the heartbeat of the universe. If he could put a stethoscope to the lion's chest, he would. And his analytical mind always assured him that everything adhered to the laws of order, that everything was in its rightful place. He departed from the zoo, scientifically reassured. All his questions had answers he could see with his very own eyes.

Beside him walks Momo, clad in the humble robes of devotion, his eyes alight with reverence as he gazes upon the creatures God. To him, the lion's roar is not merely a biological instinct but a testament to the majesty of creation. He sees in the sinewy grace of the predator the handiwork of a divine craftsman, whose artistry transcends the bounds of human comprehension. There needs not be an answer to every question. Only God.

And yet, despite their differences, there is a common thread that binds them together—a shared awe in the face of two vastly different faiths. For Dede, it was the thrill of discovery, the exhilaration of peeling back the layers of ignorance to reveal the hidden truths that lie beneath. And for Momo, it was the quiet certainty of faith, the unshakeable belief that behind every mystery, there is a purpose, a plan woven into the very fabric of existence.

So let us not condemn the scientists for their reluctance to embrace the mysteries of faith, but instead, let us marvel at the courage it takes to confront the unknown, armed only with the tools of reason and inquiry. For in the end, it is not the absence of belief that defines us, but rather, the pursuit of truth in all its myriad forms.

II. Piper was no Momo, or Dede.

( Abominations have no names )

She was no scientist or worshipper.

( She'd taken turns being one then the other. )

Simply, she was.

( Created by scientists, used by fanatics. )

There was no altar she knelt at, only her own.

III. Many thought they knew her.

Many thought she could foresee what she was to become.

A girl, whose intelligence advanced her age by leagues, plucked from the Mermaid Motel on Route 33. The heir to Stark Industries. Tony Stark's protégée.

Piper Potts had been groomed to be another Tony Stark. His replacement, his heir, the future of his name and work.

The Gobi Desert had wiped all that clean just as the sand could bury a body in minutes if the winds were strong enough.

Piper was no longer a girl when they were finished working on her. She just was something else.

( Say its name. )

The mangled child of religion and science.

( Foolish girl, say what you are. )

An Abomination.

✵

— ✵ PIPER POTTS
[ the kid, the heir to stark industries, tony's protégée, the child prodigy ]

"oh drunken gods of slaughter
you know i've always been
your favorite daughter !"
— cassandra, florence + the machine

—       ✵ LUKAS RIVERS
[ robin hood, the kid 2, "your comedic relief sidekick? oh, hell no. what's next? me dying first in a jurassic park movie?" ]

"you're just a boy,
you are no man and
nobody you know will understand."
— time/space, alex g

—       ✵ PEPPER POTTS & TONY STARK
[ the boss and the assistant, the former boss and now CEO, the old married couple ]

"at dinner parties i call you out on
your contrarian shit
and the costal town we
wandered 'round
had never seen a love as pure as it."
— gold rush, taylor swift

others !

SKEET ULRICH RICHARD BESSER
JON FAVREAU HAPPY HOGAN
JEFF BRIDGES IRON MONGER
CLARK GREGG PHIL COULSON
SCAR JO. NATASHA ROMANOFF
DON CHEADLE JAMES RHODES

others as described / casted / fancasted

✵

playlist, piper's mixtape

i. killer queen, queen
ii. arabella, arctic monkeys
iii. teenagers, my chemical romance
iv. back in black, AC/DC
v. left hand free, alt-J
vi. shoot to thrill, AC/DC
vii. legend, the score
viii. the chain, fleetwood mac
ix. smells like teen spirit, nirvana
x. sweet child o' mine, guns n' roses
xi. devil town, cavetown
xii. burning pile, mother mother
xiii. you get me so high, the neighbourhood

xiv. family tree (intro), ethel cain
xv. angel of small death and the codeine scene, hozier
xvi. american teenager, ethel cain
xvii. witches, daughter
xviii. arsonist's lullaby, hozier
ixx. working for the knife, mitski
xx. handmade heaven, marina
xxi. king, florence + the machine
xxii. hayloft II, mother mother
xxiii. little trouble girl, sonic youth
xxiv. sea within a sea, the horrors

✵ THERE WAS AN IDEA...
TO BRING TOGETHER A GROUP OF
REMARKABLE PEOPLE /

author's note :

me coming back to this fic 6 months after i said i was scrapping it :

anyways, hi 👩🏻‍🦯 hello i'm back to writing for the mcu after much time sitting back and watching it implode in flames 🔥

i. as many of you might've noticed, piper's back!
obviously this story is revamped, meaning a lot of changes will be made to the original plot, for the better imo 🧍🏻‍♀️(i feel like rick riordan making changes to pjo for disney +)

ii. one of the more obvious changes is going to be the writing style! i was like 12-13 when i wrote this and i'm now close to 19 which means my writing style has evolved hopefully improved lmao!

iii. other than that i am going to be spending more time on chapters, especially piper's childhood! i tweaked it a bit after re-watching the florida project a few days ago because it gave me some inspo!!
i'm also giving her a friend! you heard me, my loser loner gf piper is going to have a friend!
she still only has 1 friend tho, you've seen him in the intro, it's lukas river!

iv. the changes aren't going to be hugely major! i'm still on the fence about whether or not i keep her powers or if i change them! i really liked her absorption powers in the OG book but they were hard to delimit / write so i might tweak it slightly. other than that, she still has the same personality, the same love interest (some of you already guessed who it was in the OG version, i'll keep you guessing ) and she's still part of my marvel series! (go read sashenka's book if you haven't, i'm in the process of editing it and publishing chapters every couple of weeks!)

v. in terms of casting, i've kept the og mcu cast for mostly editing / graphics purpose, but i highly encourage you to imagine whoever fits best in your opinion!
me personally i'm a slut for diego luna, dev patel or pedro pascal as an alternative tony stark!

vi. as always, if you have any questions regarding this story or piper's character feel free  to ask right here and i'll do my best to answer!

dts. to my lovely mutuals velaryqns Iadymisery diorwidow sayyadiina -inklore

as always, happy reading!