tushanshu | Video;

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[ The video begins with a dark-haired man centered in the middle of the frame. He’s got dark eyes, a precisely cut goatee, and hair that’s a little too styled to be naturally that neat. There isn’t a lot to see beyond his chin, he’s sitting too close to the camera, but what can be seen looks vaguely like a shirt of shiny red metal.

His brow knits almost immediately after the feed starts recording, his expression edging toward disbelief as his lips twist into a mild frown. ]

Look. I get it. In a time of crisis, rationing’s necessary to keep resources moving in the right direction. Perfectly understandable. You guys needed to save your turtle. What responsible citizen wouldn’t do their part for that noble cause?

[ There’s a slight hint f sarcasm creeping into his voice, as though he’s heard the whole turtle spiel already and not only hasn’t been impressed, but also doesn’t really buy it either. Not even after having spent half a day scouring the network for information about what’s really going on here before making this video. ]

But really? Twenty bucks?

[ The low, indistinct murmur of another voice can be heard, though what it’s saying and who it belongs to is anyone’s guess. Whatever it says, it’s enough to make the man roll his eyes. ]

Juulan. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. The point — [ Whether he’s talking to the camera or the unidentified voice is unclear. ] — is that it isn’t enough for a day, let alone the entire bogus adventure.

[ It isn’t so much the way he looks at the camera – his eyes have never left it – but the change of his tone, less querulous and more curious, that indicates that he’s talking to whoever’s on the other end of the console. ]

So really. Turtle propaganda aside. What’s a guy gotta do to get some decent money around here? Sell his organs? Hit the street corners? Scrub barnacles off the bottom of the turtle? What?

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I also live in the suit next door.

[For a few minutes she just stands there and stares at him. He looks the same, of course. It isn't as if this isn't the same Tony that she's always known. She also realizes that the suit is the newer one.]

I - [She looks away, pressing her lips together with eyes still glistening.] You've got a lot of catching up to do.

So we're neighbors. Imagine that.

[ She looks like the Pepper he knows, which only makes it more awkward. It would be easier, he thinks, if she looked like that other Tony Stark. The one who's still here. Different eye color, different hairstyle, different something so that he could separate them in his mind.

He knows he has to just get this over with, like ripping off a band-aid. He just really doesn't want to hurt her the way he did the invisible guy. Especially after what he'd said about how hard she'd taken it after her Tony's disappearance.

Staying within the dubious safety of the doorway, Tony takes a deep breath, then just starts talking before he chickens out. ]

I know the gist. I got here yesterday and checked out the network. Not all of it, but I have enough of an idea not to be completely clueless and—Listen, you're going to find out eventually, if you haven't already, and knowing you, er, knowing a— [ He waves a hand, changing tracks. ] Point is, it's not me. The guy you're looking for? The one that disappeared? He's not me. So don't—I went through this with someone else already and I thought you should know so you're not—Sorry.

[ That I'm not him. ]

[It breaks her heart to hear him say that. Of course it's him. He may not have the memories of being here for the past some odd months, but he's still her Tony.]

I know you don't remember being here. That doesn't make you any less you.

[Finally, she moves over to him and wraps her arms around his waist. Feeling the familiar titanium alloy of the suit is both a comfort and an annoyance. She wants to feel him. His warmth, not the cold of the suit; but she'll get him out of it soon enough. She leans in and kisses him. It's the only way she can think of to let him know just how much she's missed him; just how much he is her Tony Stark.]

I'll take a few days off.

Edited 2013-07-30 12:31 (UTC)

[ He doesn’t pull away from her, but Tony can’t help feeling a little sleazy kissing another man’s woman. Even if she looks and sounds like his Pepper Potts, she’s still this other Tony’s girlfriend and probably still upset from his disappearance. Which makes this even worse, because now he feels sleazy and like he’s taking advantage of her. But then she’s talking instead of kissing him and the whole thing becomes moot. ]

You don't have to do that. I don't--There's no point. It's fine.

[ She might be convinced that he's the one she's looking for, but he isn’t. Looking like his counterpart isn’t the same as being him, and Tony knows that it’s the memories and experiences that count. Not the packaging.

And either way, he doesn’t want to be coddled. He’ll deal with it or he won’t. He doesn’t want anyone else having to see him struggling with it. Or with any of the other problems that have been plaguing him lately. ]

You should—Why don’t we sit down? Talk about the… Just sit down and—Do you want something to drink? There’s got to be something in here.

[ He’s hiding behind that suggestion and he knows it, but he’s a little out of his element here and he doesn’t know how to deal with it. ]

[She can tell his feeling isn't in the kiss. She's kissed him enough time, both at home and here to know that.

When he speaks she opens her mouth to protest, but he keeps going. And it's the usual floundering. Of course Tony's not listening to her. He's out of his element and has just met his counterpart from another world. He probably thinks she's the wrong her.]

Tony.

[Her voice is gentle but firm. The look she's giving him is annoyed, but plaintive. It's probably the most familiar face Tony sees from her.]

I'm your Pepper, Tony; from home. The last time I saw you we'd just moved in together after the invasion.

[She hadn't expected him to be this bad over the fact that there had been another Tony here before, but she supposed that the conversation with Jack had probably hit him harder then she'd expected.]

You were here before, but that doesn't make you a different person, you're still you. You still have the same memories of the Tony Stark I've known for over ten years.

[ It’s almost mind-boggling how a conversation can go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. As if all of this isn’t horrible enough, she has to go and mention the invasion. It’s something he tries not to think about and definitely doesn’t talk about. And now the images are starting to filter into his mind.

The Chitauri flashing through the sky on metal flying crafts. Impossible monstrosities twisting through the air, clipping the corners of buildings as they go. A great hole in the sky, sparking with energy as it—

No. Not going there. Focus. Focus on right now. Right now’s the problem. Yelling at himself helps. So does blinking the images away and shaking his head, expending the anxious energy that has already begun collecting in his gut. ]

How do you know? I met the other one. And sure. Okay. He looks a little different from me. It’s easy to tell that we’re not the same guy. But looking the same doesn’t mean… I don’t want you getting your hopes up, okay? That’s not fair to you. And I’m not—Can we just—

[ He nods toward the living room, lightly touching her elbow. As well as he can in the suit, anyway. ]

Really. Let’s sit. Take a load off. Let me get out of this thing.

[She can tell something's wrong but she's not sure what it is. It could honestly be anything. Pepper hates when things get like this; when Tony locks her out the way he's doing now. It'd started after the invasion, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it is right now. She can't stop the pained expression on her face.

Part of her wants to just leave. To walk away until he's calmed down and comes to her, but she knows he won't be doing coming to her any time soon when he thinks he's the 'wrong' Tony Stark. Knowing that just makes her angrier. He can't be the 'wrong' Tony to her. He's the same man that drives her insane with worry. The same man that she moved in with ... twice. He's her Tony, and he should know that.

Finally she looks away.]

You're being - [Frustrating, ridiculous. over dramatic. ... Unfair. Any of them is true. She wants to scream at him, hell, she wants to throw something at his head.] Fine.

I just woke up on a turtle. Cut me a little slack.

[ He says it mildly, his tone more matter-of-fact than argumentative or sarcastic. It’s obvious that she isn’t happy with him, but he’s not really sure what she’s expecting. He’s been abducted, he’s just discovered that he isn’t the one and only anything, and he doesn’t have a damn clue how to figure which world everyone comes from. Pepper may think he’s the same guy who disappeared, but Tony knows that he’s not. If he was, he would remember this place and he doesn’t.

Stepping away from her, he moves out of the doorway. Halfway across the room, he mutters a quiet “Jay, let me out of this thing” and when the suit opens, gets out of it and makes his way over to the nearest chair. He flops onto it like his spine’s just been removed, then rubs at his face with his hands before looking up at her. ]

How long have you been here?

[This time it's Pepper's turn to lean on the doorway. Her eyes are still hard until she sees the way he melts into the chair. Then it's just too hard not to walk over and comfort him. He wouldn't accept that and she knows it. He'd just push her away again and curl further into himself.

She hated at more then anything. That helplessness, not being able to comfort him or even reassure him. She let out a sigh that even she hadn't realized she'd been holding in and melted against the doorframe.]

Just under seven months; and there are differences between the worlds. He's not you. He acts different, thinks differently. He may have the same name but he's not you.

What's the last thing you remember from home?

Edited 2013-07-31 19:57 (UTC)

He who? The guy I talked to? I know. His eyes are blue. And he's younger than me.

[ He can only assume that she means the Tony Stark he spoke with on the network. It had been a surprise, he can’t deny it, and it pricked his ego to realize that he isn’t the one and only Tony Stark in the universe. But it’s not Stark the Younger that’s the problem. It’s the one that he isn’t. The one who looks exactly like him, if the video he found on the console is any indication. The one that he’s been mistaken for and told, in no uncertain terms, isn’t him. ]

Going back to Malibu.

[ The less he says about New York, the less he thinks about it, the better. ]

Messing around with the suit. Waking up here. How about you?

[ Because as far as he remembers, she hadn't been missing for seven months. She hadn't been missing for a day. ]

And he's not you. There's more then just superficial differences between worlds. His whole personality is different; he's not you. You're the one I have a history with, the one I've been missing.

[She's not sure how else she can say it to make him believe it's him that they're looking for.]

Date night. We'd just gone to bed. Then I ended up in the water.

[ There's a misunderstanding here. Finally Tony sees it and he leans forward in his chair, voice getting subtly softer. He doesn't know how else to break this to her, but he has to try. ]

I know he's not me. But I'm not—The one that disappeared. The one that you and Bruce have been missing? That's not me. That guy's still out there somewhere. Someone's already confirmed that. But it's all right. I told him I'd find him.

[ He's always done the impossible. He can do it here too. ]

And I will, Pepper. I promise. So don't worry, okay? It'll be okay. I'll make it okay.

[Jack. Pepper knew it could only be Jack. Besides, she's been watching his network post, making sure that it was really Tony and not another Tony from another dimension.

She frowned, crossing her arms. Tony was stubborn and she knew that.]

Jack was wrong.

[The words are point blank and honest. After all, Pepper doesn't hold punches when it comes to telling Tony things. She's not going to start now. She purses her lips into a pert frown. This whole situation was ridiculous. She could understand it coming about with people he'd met here and who had never known him back home. But with her it was ridiculous and counterproductive.]

He knows the man that was here before, and maybe you'll get to know him again, but that isn't this. I've known you for over ten years, and if I have to choose between you and him; then I choose you.

You don’t have to choose between anyone. That’s not the point. The point is that things are really—They’re not right and everything’s a mess and I just need…

[ He doesn’t know what he needs. He hasn’t feel right since New York and this isn’t helping. Other worlds. Other versions of himself. Other versions of people he knows. Not being able to reliably tell who’s who. Clones. Especially the clones. But he can’t go into that here. Not when he doesn’t know if Pepper knows about it.

And even if she does, he’s not sure it’s something he can talk about. No, he’s pretty sure that he has to figure this out himself. Burdening people with his emotional issues – not that he’ll admit that he has them – isn’t something he can do any more than he could burden them with his palladium poisoning, once upon a time.

It takes a moment for what she’s said to penetrate the chaotic jumble of his thoughts, but when it does, he shakes his head and frowns uncertainly. ]

Who’s Jack?

[Time. She's heard this before and it always ended with her worrying. She moved over to his chair and crouched down to be eye level with him.]

Don't shut me out Tony. Not again.

[The last time he'd done that it'd almost killed her, and it literally almost killed him.

At the question of Jack she gave him an honest answer, as always.]

Jack's a friend. He actually reminds me of you a bit. He's ... hard to see though.

[ It's not necessarily that he wants to shut her out. It's that he can't talk about it. Physically can't get the words out of his mouth and mentally can't bring himself to focus on the problem long enough to vocalize it.

He shakes his head, not ignoring her plea but also unable to address it. ]

Seems like there's a rash of that going around. People who're hard to see. They don't have optometrists here?

[ It's either make jokes about inconsequential things or shut down and not say anything at all. He decides to err on the side of the former. ]

[She offers a small smile. Trust Tony to turn things into a joke. She didn't even know if he still thought she was the wrong Pepper. She worried that he'd keep hiding things, convinced that she was the wrong Pepper and he couldn't confide in her, couldn't come to her for support. ]

Jack's last name is Frost; so I don't think and opthomatrist is going to be helpful in making people see him.

[ He just looks at her a moment, not really sure how to take that and waiting for the punchline. Something about Santa Claus, maybe, or the Easter Bunny. But then he lets it go. He's got too much else to worry about. ]

So you and the rest of the Scooby gang are running a company here too? How's that going?

Since you left it's just me. Bruce has a few volunteers though; they help him with the hydroponic garden.

[Her legs were getting a bit cramped from her current position, so she stood up and perched herself on the arm of his chair. If he chose to move away, showed uncomfortableness with her being in his personal space, then she'd know that he still didn't think of her as the real Pepper.]

You're still head of the company Tony. Now that you're back the shares you left with me return to you.

[Go ahead Tony, fight her on that. You won't be winning.]

[ He doesn't pull away from her. If she wants to sit there, she's perfectly welcome to do so. But her stubborn insistence that the man who'd been there previously was him makes him sigh in frustration. ]

Pepper. I didn't leave. I didn't give you anything.

[ Quiet though his voice is, the tone is firm. He knows who he is. At least, he knows what his memories tell him, and he has never been here. He knows that, no matter what anyone says. ]

The man who was here before wasn't me. I was never here. And I don't need an identity crisis dumped on me in the middle of everything else right now. I know who I am.

[Pepper purses her lips in that frown of annoyance she gives when Tony is being unreasonable. If the man that was here for the past seven months wasn't him, then she'd been cheating on him for seven months and the thought made her sick.

On top of everything else he just looks so lost. She wants to help him, to acclimate him to this place and to make things better, but she can't, and that's what's killing her the most. Being helpless to do anything to make things better for him. Part of her wonders if just leaving would help him. Walking away and letting him be alone, but she knows what'll happen. Tony had always been prone to self destructive behavior.

She lets out a heavy sigh, not even sure what to say anymore.]

What do you want to do then?

[ That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What does he want to do? Go home. Get a drink. Knock himself out for a few hours so that he doesn’t have to think. What he wants to do is to not have to deal with any of this. But that’s not an option. It never is.

He shrugs, affecting a casualness he doesn’t feel. ]

I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out. You’ve been here, what was it? Seven months?

[ If they’re clones, there’s no way they’re ever really going home. He can’t think about that, though. Not yet. It’s too overwhelming when he hasn’t processed the rest of it. ]

Something tells me I’m going to have a lot of time to do it.

Well,

[She sighed. This was going to be a long uphill battle and she wasn't happy about it.]

you have free reign of any materials you want at Stark Industries. Although I do have a problem I need a genius to figure out. If you feel up the the challenge.

[ He lets the comment about Stark Industries go. Bad enough that people expect him to just step into this other guy's life while he's not here, like an understudy filling in while the prima donna's sick. Now he's supposed to take his company too? ]

I do like challenges.

[ And if it's a problem he can solve, it'll get his mind off of other things. ]

What's the problem?

[That's hardly what Pepper means, and for Tony to even think she did mean that after their argument two seconds ago would have made her angry. Good for him he didn't voice it.]

It's the tribbles. Wherever they come from is apparently extremely hostile so they multiply at an insane rate. All the districts but the metal have been inventing new ways to kill them. The metal district thought of using them as an energy source instead. I've managed to make a few rough sketches based on what I saw, but I'm not a genus.

[It's not that Pepper looks down on herself. She just lives in a world full of brilliant people and is fully aware of her average ness. She's not gifted with false bravado or a competitive nature, and she knows others can far exceed her own ideas; especially someone like Tony.]

Would you be interested in looking into it?

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