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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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[ Right. Round two. Take one away. Slot in another. No difference, right? Because he’s just a name and a face, a body to add to the count. Irrelevant. Unnecessary.

And he’s just supposed to like it? ]

My legacy isn’t this.

[ If he’s just a clone, an easily replaceable mass of blood, bone, tissue, and borrowed memories, then the truth is, he doesn’t have a legacy at all. ]

Whatever. Doesn’t matter, right?

Right. It doesn't matter.

[He objectively knows that this is an offense to their identities, but he's been shoving that aside because it's just not going to get him anywhere if he panics now. And now that this Tony is planting his feet, he can't understand why he would waste him time with that.]

You're still you. Your friends are here and we kind of need your help if we're going to help them.

[Borrowed or not, it's still part of them.]

If they are just twisting memories, then we need to find out how they're bringing everyone in and how we can get home. And we know that they are taking us from different dimensions whether we're clones or not. I'm not you.

[ Versions of his friends. People who look and sound and practically are the people from his home. But they're not, are they? Not if they're clones. Not if he's a clone. ]

Yeah. I get that. I know you're not me.

[ But he sees his point. The kedan - he assumes it's them - are getting their memories and personalities from somewhere. They're not just fabricating them. Unless... Are they? There are a lot of things about his world that doesn't make sense. Maybe that's why. Maybe it's because the story he's been fed is a little sloppy in some places. ]

If it's different dimensions, that's easy. Just tear a hole in the space-time continuum. I've seen it. It's possible.

[ And he doesn't want to talk about it. ]

But if we're just meat-suits with implanted memories, there's no guarantee they've come from anywhere. Maybe it's all just fiction. Some kedan paid to write lives for people like screenwriters write movies. I fly around in a metal suit. How realistic is that really?

You think they're just churning out these memories to keep us from asking questions? They picked the wrong guys to do it.

[If his life were a lie, they should have stopped a long time ago. The weirdness that he lived through--and at times it was really weird--leaves way too many loose ends.]

I have friends back home. I was actually just starting up a company before this. Things were... not good for a time and I sort of ended up in the hospital. Lost some memories.

[They're just exploring the possibilities. He's cautious about it, dancing around the details, but there's a point to make.]

I still remember making a time machine. I remember traveling to other realms and I don't really go out of my way to do it. If they're coming up with these lives for us, they aren't taking any effort to convince us to stay. Pretty sure Fury would have just made us all soldiers. It would keep us from asking questions. How practical is it to leave so much open if have can implant whatever you want?

I still think I'm me. If I weren't me, I couldn't access the suit or know the things I do. But some things aren't adding up.

[ If he could talk about it without actually having to think about it and relive it, Tony would tell him what has transpired in his life recently. What he thinks of as his life. Maybe it’s not. Now he isn’t so sure. But he can’t talk about it. He doesn’t want to. ]

I’d like to think that too. Things only I know that couldn’t be replicated. But where’s the control in that experiment? What do I know that only I truly know? What can’t be fabricated?

[ He isn’t a philosopher. He’s never wanted to be. But cloning and memory implantation, something he only knows through science fiction, is a slippery slope and it’s easy for the paranoia to take hold. ]

Who knows? I don’t have the answer to that. Not yet.

What about what you don't know?

[It's an off-the-cuff answer, but as he says it the idea sticks. It's one thing to fill them with artificial memories, but another to make those memories coordinate.]

Talk to them. Ask them about your world. You know the first question a friend asked when she met me here was whether or not she had punched me.

[It's not so much the question's answer as the question itself that was familiar. Tony isn't having a breakdown yet. He doesn't like the possibility that the Emperor has recreated his technology, but from what he's seen, they don't know how to use it. And they don't know the significance, or there would be a lot more weapons arming the kedan. The situation is still workable. Just as long as he doesn't think too hard about how it affects who he is.]

I am Tony Stark. Trust me, if they were making our lives up they would have come up with something better than this.

Some friend. You two close or is she just that enthusiastic with everyone she knows?

[ Not that he doesn't remember people like that. Might not be the same person, he hasn't seen many familiar faces since he woke up, but he's known plenty of people who would've liked to have taken a crack at him. Or had.
]

I see some of them, I'll talk to them. Timelines are a little skewed with the ones I've spoken to, though. Makes it harder.

Wouldn't really be her any other way.

[The smile is a little dry, but still appreciative. It's one of the better parts of his history. He has to take the good times however they come.]

She's a teammate.

[He can almost see the wall that's up. Not that he blames him. It's an unsolved problem and has been since he arrived there. But he's still going to talk because it's Tony.]

Talk to the ones that are here. Just think of it as a cross-dimensional party that just so happens to be caught in a time loop. The people here are different, but that happens when you jump dimensions.

[ The only teammate, and he uses that term in the loosest sense of the word, he has is Natasha Romanoff, and he wouldn't really talk about him like this. He knows there are others with his name out there with other teams, some not even called Avengers. It's not surprising to hear this, but it does make him wonder about these other worlds.

How they're different. And why. ]

I try to keep the partying to a minimum these days.

[ The last one hadn't gone over so well. ]

Still, when in Rome...

Do you? Good for you.

[He has to comment on that. Not really because it's important, but because it's not. It fills the space between them without adding to the tension and makes him feel more comfortable. And Tony doesn't really think twice about approving of that particular decision.]

We keep having this problem with inter-dimensional travel. I think we attract it. I'd say I've been lucky lately, but here we are.

[It doesn't bother him too much as long as he can find a way out. The more unsettling part of this situation is the number of people involved.]

You get used to it.

Amazing what you can get used to these days, isn't it?

[ It's offhand and casual, but it has to be. He doesn't do feelings, and maybe it should be easier with himself, with someone who knows how important it is to avoid them and present an untouchable exterior, but it's not.

Maybe that's just because he's feeling superfluous. He's never been very adept at dealing with feeling mediocre and unnecessary. ]

I'll deal. We both will. Something tells me that we always do.

We're adaptable.

[He keeps the casual tone to agree with that. Tony doesn't want to break through the act any more than his counterpart does. Everything becomes a lot easier to talk about when you pretend it doesn't matter. And maybe it really doesn't. He hasn't decided about that part yet.]

Anyway, they're pulling us here for a reason. And based on what we've got, they have limited resources. That, or they're just bad at it.

My vote's for limited resources and lack of skill.

[ Whatever the case, he isn't impressed with what he's seen so far and he isn't likely to be. ]

Which means they'll screw up and we'll all be there to catch them when they do.

Just makes sure you stick around to do that. I'll use a tracking collar if I have to.

[That should lighten the mood, right? Or get a reaction. He's not sure which he's really going for, but he's talking to himself so it doesn't matter that much.]

[ For half a second, he looks offended. Then he rolls his eyes. ]

Yeah, good luck getting that to stick.

Hey, I'm resourceful. I could do it.

[For all the good it would do them.]

Not that resourceful.

[ Woe unto anyone who tries to put a collar on Tony Stark. Or whoever he's supposed to be. ]

You don't know me, Mr. Stark.

[There's a challenge in there. Different universes; different experiences. He can't help it. He has to push his luck. Besides, the last one left him feeling slighted so he's getting out some pride he didn't get to before.]

And all appearances to the contrary, you don't know me. Try it if you want. But be sure you're ready for the consequences if you do.

[ Whatever else is going on, whoever he is, one thing will always remain the same. He will never back down from a challenge. ]

[This could go horrible places very quickly. Starting a battle with himself isn't the weirdest thing he has done, but it's also not what they need to be doing right now. He wants to continue this, but maybe it isn't the smartest way to welcome his alternate self into a place that doesn't make sense.]

I only said I could do it. I'd like to think I'm not that into myself, although there are a lot of people who would disagree with me on that point. you've probably got the rest of the city keeping tabs on you right now. I guess I can live with that.

I don't see why the rest of the city would. And if they think they can, they've got another thing coming.

[ No one's keeping an eye on him, like he's a child that needs monitored. ]

Why not? You're a Tony Stark. People like to know what you're doing.

[Temper. He really doesn't have room to talk, but he's going to take the liberty to point that out anyway. It doesn't bother him here, where no one really knows what he's up to.]

[ His eyes narrow, not taking well to that a Tony Stark business. ]

I don't care what anyone else wants. People can get their kicks nosing into somebody else's business.

[Oops, is that a button? Yeah, he has trouble with it too.]

Don't take it personally. It could be worse. They actually like you here from what I've seen.

[Or the last one. The other one. Whatever, he's still wearing his face and is probably closer than he himself is to that world's Stark.]

I was joking. I wouldn't actually do that.

[He gives the other man an almost concerned smile. As if he's actually questioning why Tony would be angry at him for the suggestion.]

[ He doesn't smile back, just looks flatly at the screen for a moment. ]

Whatever floats your boat.

[ It's been too long of a day and it's been filled with too many unpleasant surprises. ]

Thanks for the heads-up about the cloning. I'll look into it.

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definingfuture - 2013-08-21 18:12 (UTC) - Expand

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manofiron - 2013-08-21 20:29 (UTC) - Expand

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