tony (badass motherfucker) stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
privatizes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2016-11-07 04:49 pm
privatizes) wrote in driftfleet2016-11-07 04:49 pm
Entry tags:
ᴏᴏ3 : ᴛᴇxᴛ
Who: Tony Stark [privatizes and YOU.
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: S.S. Pathstone.
When: Now!
[ tony has been awake for the past week, but has been keeping to himself on the pathstone. it's the sudden rush of memories that causes him to kind of keep to himself, because he needs to figure out what, exactly, he's going to do.
he has zero interest in communicating with the avengers, and he has a sudden instinctive well, fuck them anyway churning around in his stomach at the notion that they all knew (again) and they didn't tell him. but after shoving that aside and focusing on the realities of the situation (they're trapped here and they need to do something about it), tony decides to. well. do something about it.
first, a general message. open. to the public. ]
I'm alive. I'm not in a good mood. I don't want to talk about it. Etc.
What'd I miss.
[ then filtered/private to natasha and the vision ]
What's the last thing you two remember from home? Be honest.
[ and lastly, he leaves one (1) tiny hoverchair fit for a snake (more like a hover-skateboard, really) with tiny controls in it, in crowley's room on the pathstone with a note attached that says: A reward for not touching my stuff. ]
privatizes and YOU.Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: S.S. Pathstone.
When: Now!
[ tony has been awake for the past week, but has been keeping to himself on the pathstone. it's the sudden rush of memories that causes him to kind of keep to himself, because he needs to figure out what, exactly, he's going to do.
he has zero interest in communicating with the avengers, and he has a sudden instinctive well, fuck them anyway churning around in his stomach at the notion that they all knew (again) and they didn't tell him. but after shoving that aside and focusing on the realities of the situation (they're trapped here and they need to do something about it), tony decides to. well. do something about it.
first, a general message. open. to the public. ]
I'm alive. I'm not in a good mood. I don't want to talk about it. Etc.
What'd I miss.
[ then filtered/private to natasha and the vision ]
What's the last thing you two remember from home? Be honest.
[ and lastly, he leaves one (1) tiny hoverchair fit for a snake (more like a hover-skateboard, really) with tiny controls in it, in crowley's room on the pathstone with a note attached that says: A reward for not touching my stuff. ]
text | private
You gonna tell me it really makes a difference if Barnes remembers Germany or if the last he knows is DC?
text | private
Pleading the Fifth just means you've got something to hide, Natasha.
[ it means everything, for a purely selfish reason, if barnes remembers everything. ]
text | private
And if I didn't want to answer, I wouldn't have.
I am trying to slow you down though.
text | private
it doesn't matter, in the long run, if bucky remembers or not. he still did it, and tony is still furious, and it's really not even bucky that tony is angry at. it's steve, for not understanding. or maybe he does. he said he did, in his guilt-tripping ridiculous letter with the burner cell phone that he was sent. but he's still furious, and tony still didn't get his closure, and he's just left here to stew.
which natasha probably can see. or infer. ]
It matters to me.
It has nothing to do with Sokovia.
Does he remember or not.
text | private
[Confirming that she either knows or guesses Tony has something else on his mind.
The lapse before Tony replies is enough for Natasha to give a little. She doesn't expect Tony to turn off his emotions. That's not who he is. She just wants him to think this through enough that he doesn't do anything stupid.]
He's as up to date as we are. What exactly that means he remembers is anyone's guess.
text | private
which natasha is obviously concerned about, if she's forcing him to stop already. ]
Does Steve know that?
text | private
I can tell you whatever's coming, Steve still thinks he can change it.
text | private
[ can't change the fact that bucky murdered his parents and steve hid it from him but. whatever. ]
I'm sure he'll be trying to force friendship and feelings down my throat as soon as he sees I'm conscious again.
text | private
[Natasha might not be entirely up to speed on that detail.
The fact Tony knows.
Not the fact Bucky at least implicitly killed Tony's parents for HYDRA.]
Sounds like there's not going to be a lot of hope for leaving problems from home at home.
text | private
[ but there's a pause before another text is sent ]
It's not just the Accords. I don't care about that. I screwed up. I believed someone I shouldn't have. I wanted a simple solution to a complicated problem. Whatever. I tried to make it right and I didn't. Same thing, different story. The Sequel No One Wanted.
But I can't leave this at home.
Leaving it at home is just going to cause the same problems over again, here.
text | private
Want to fill me in on what it is we can't set aside and what kind of problems it will cause us here?
[It's presumptuous to say we. Especially after how their alliance ended the last time.
It's a signal, though. She's not necessarily taking Tony's side in this, but she's open to hear his position.]
text | private
I'll talk to you in person.
My feeds can still be hacked. Nothing is private.
I'm not having some moron with a B.S. in 4-Chan hold something over my head.
I've had enough of an awful day.
text | private
[It's a conscious decision to offer to meet him on his home turf rather than neutral ground. Fewer people around. And she wasn't asking him to meet her half way—just to meet her.]
Give me half an hour?
text | private
No one is around right now anyway.
[ the pathstone is woefully small, so. this is better. and tony feels more comfortable here, anyway. less anxious, or panicked, or frustrated. ]
text > action
From the sound of it, Tony could use a friend right now.
If he'll listen to one.]
action
still, tony doesn't look terrible. he's hanging out on the bridge, in the captain's chair, idly looking at the communications station as if he's considering actually doing something with it. he looks tired, but not starved of sleep. just -- well, tired.
anxious, really, because he doesn't particularly want to talk about this, and he also doesn't want to have to talk to steve about it either.
the alert of the shuttle docking and natasha's arrival causes him to turn slightly, pushing himself up to greet her. ]
I fall asleep for a month and no one bothers to repaint the place.
[ honestly. ]
Good help is so hard to find these days.
no subject
[Funny how everyone sleeps for a month and looks exhausted when they do wake up.]
You should consider recruiting a new first mate. Someone who'll take care of things to your standard.
[She leans back against one of the consoles, watching Tony patiently. She's not here to rush him.]
no subject
[ mildly enough, although he's partially joking. he likes his crew enough, but he also doesn't want to enlist them to play in a game that he feels is pretty pointless. he has his team already. they're just not on the ship.
or, well. had his team. now, that's very much up in the air.
natasha isn't here to rush him, but her presence alone has the weight of expectation. and tony is keenly aware that spreading the information he has could make things worse. it probably will, and it'll definitely land natasha right in the middle. but natasha is comfortable there (sort of), and she's always played both sides anyway. so what's the harm in sharing, especially if she can give him perspective on whether or not it's a smart idea to punch steve rogers in the mouth.
he purses his lips together. he doesn't have his suit. so it would be a stupid idea, and end in a broken hand, and --
he's stalling. ]
It's not the Accords -- I mean, yeah, it is the Accords, I screwed up. But after it all went south, I left to go bail out Steve and Barnes. To get the evidence we needed to prove him innocence, to investigate this ... stupid wild goose chase, I don't know what to call it. We found a bunch of stuff about HYDRA, about the super-soldiers and the serum...what HYDRA was doing with them.
[ you are stalling, tony, just spit it out.
there's a silence, a difficult one, and tony draws in a breath before crossing his arms, in an effort to do something with his hands. ]
-- my parents didn't die in a car crash.
no subject
If she were a suspicious person, Natasha might believe it was intentional, a way to keep people in when they'd be better off getting out. It would be on model; addicts did things like that, and addicts backslid. Wasn't even meant to be manipulative. Just adaptive, under the circumstances.
Natasha is suspicious enough that it does occur to her, but it still works. He starts by admitting that he was wrong about the Accords, so she listens.]
Tony... [It's not hard to picture what he would have learned, especially when Natasha had all of the pieces.] Barnes killed them. That's what you found out, isn't it?
[She winces slightly, sighing.]
Makes sense.
no subject
[ it's said in a sudden snappish tone before tony draws in a sharp breath and turns away to get a grip. because it's not natasha's fault that this happened, and there's really no point in yelling at her over it.
-- but tony has a Complicated Relationship(tm) with the memories of his father. and he knows that howard was involved in ... awful things. but his mother has always been the innocent bystander. his father being murdered for his involvement in grand HYDRA-destroying secrets, that's to be expected, he supposes. and tony, one day, could make terms with that.
but his mother? what did she do to anyone except marry into the stark family? ]
... he caused their car to crash into a tree and stole tech that my father was working on out of the trunk -- serums to make new soldiers. My father was probably dead on impact, he was driving because my mother didn't -- [ that's not the point, tony. ] . . . The camera couldn't see. But he went back to kill her.
[ there was another pause ]
Steve knew.
[ and purposefully and deliberately didn't tell tony in order to keep the peace. or to protect bucky. or to prevent tony from killing him. ]
We got into it at the base after I saw the tapes.
no subject
Shit.
[She could almost respect the brutal efficiency. Political differences would have been so much easier to mend.
But that didn't mean Natasha wouldn't try.]
I'm sorry. [A pause followed by a clarification.] About your mother, and that you had to find out that way.
no subject
[ with a tiny ounce of frustration and bitterness slipping through, but tony seems to have his temper. for the moment, at least.
but he unfolds his arms and draws his hands over his face, exhaling slowly. he's had time to think about it. he's not coming off fresh. he's read steve's letter. he's digested bits and pieces of it. he's had time to swallow his pride and figure out what he wants to do. but he still hasn't had the chance to sift through it, with suddenly being in charge of what remains of the avengers. ]
... after deciding saving Bucky's skin was worth more than the Avengers or our friendship or my mother's crushed breathing tube, [ which isn't fair for tony to say of steve, but he's angry, and he may as well say it now rather than to steve's face later ] he managed to collect everybody else that had been captured by the feds. Broke in and saved them, I'm assuming. He sent me a letter and apologized for not telling me about my parents in his typical self-righteous fashion and told me that the Avengers were mine.
[ he draws in another breath ]
And apparently he has no idea what's going on here and Barnes didn't tell him the entire story, so I'm glad to see they both have another thing in common.
no subject
She sorts through all he's said, picking out which detail are relevant now and which to file away.]
Would you rather he knew?
[If Steve remembered or if Barnes had already told him, then Tony could give him the full heat of his temper and not feel guilty. As it was, their different timelines complicated any confrontations.]
no subject
[ it's said automatically, which is probably telling, but it doesn't have a lot of heart in it. but once that's out of him, tony stops and sighs. ]
... he wouldn't have made a different decision. He's not going to give me the answer that I want to hear and have me believe it.
[ but the way tony talks, there's an obvious "but." ]
But he needs to know that Barnes isn't telling him the truth, and he needs to know that Barnes murdered my parents. HYDRA or not. Barnes told him that the Avengers fell apart because of the Accords and that "something happened," but wouldn't tell Steve what happened.
[ which is frustrating, because tony has never trusted bucky, and steve had never fucking listened to him, and look who's laughing now. ]
That son of a bitch can't be trusted -- he had the chance to tell the truth and he didn't, and I know I have the world record for just doing stuff without thinking but I come clean in the end. But Steve's not going to listen to me about it. Obviously.
[ there's a pause before tony shifts to go through his pockets, to find his own comm device and hand it to natasha, the locked text thread already queued. ]
What's the conversation going to be? "Hi, your old partner in crime murdered your new partner in crime's parents and now I guess you're back to what you've got before back home, congratulations, and also, he totally lied to you about it here, and everything is ruined."
no subject
Steve is her friend, and a good one. Tony is important to her in his way as well, not that she'd tell him that. But right now, Natasha's not here as either of their friends. She's here to do what she can to salvage some kind of relationship between the two of them, and she looks at the situation with an eye for damage control.]
How about something like, "I know Bucky is important to you. He's been your friend a lot longer than I have, and he's about the only thing you have left from before going into the ice. But he's also not just the person you remember. Whether or not he's responsible for his actions, I still deserve honesty and accountability for my parents' death."
[Natasha's voice is even, free of irony or snark. Tony has gone through a lot, and she can imagine how Steve's apology might have gone.
So instead she does her best to respect both of their perspectives in her answer. They've both earned their emotions in this situation, and neither of them are prepared to set those aside.]
Am I wrong about any of that?
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