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[ Finding out that Pepper's stocks in Stark Industries have been transferred to him - and because she'd been running it, he can only assume that it's the lion's share - and that that means she's presumably gone is not the way he wants to start the day. But it is what it is and there's nothing he can do about it.

He's wearing the suit, though the helmet's off, and the expression on his face is as professionally detached as the matter-of-fact tone of his voice when he speaks. ]

It's come to my attention that Pepper Potts may no longer be in residence in the city.

[ That covers that and he's not lingering on it. If he does, he'll wonder what that means, if some piece of her has gone back to the world she remembers or if she's dead and her body is being recycled or whatever it is they do with clones when they're gone. It isn't something he needs to worry about right now. Not in front of an audience. So he moves right along to business. ]

I've been informed that per her request, her interests in Stark Industries have been transferred to me. For those of you don't know, I'm Tony Stark, and if you work for SI, it means you're working for me.

[ May whatever aliens people consider gods help them all. ]

If you do, I want to know who you are and what you do for the company. If you don't, and you want to, talk to me.

And be prepared for change. It's coming.

[ What that change is, he doesn't know yet. But once he finds out what the company's been doing, he'll figure out the right path for it to take under his leadership. And this time, it's going to be a damn sight better than the last time he was at the helm. ]

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[Okay, no. That's not funny.]

If you hurt anyone, I'll take you out myself.

[That is one hundred percent posturing, but he's sticking with it.]

[ Yeah, well, bringing up Thor isn't funny either. ]

No, you won't. You'd have better luck not pushing me merrily down that particular path.

[What? He never said his name. It's totally acceptable. No lines were crossed.]

No one's pushing you anywhere. I'm just saying that if you do take up that mantel, it's not going to go the way you want it to. I guarantee that.

[This is probably a bad idea.]

And you! I know you're the other one, but you should know better. Don't antagonize the reforming villain.

[She's not actually sure Loki is reforming. Or that he's a villain. But it sure sounds good when she says it.]

[What the-]

Hey, I'm not the one threatening lives!

It's called escalating and you were doing it. You can't react to stuff like that.

Too late. [Ugh, okay. Maybe this is a good thing.]

[It's not like she's unsympathetic. She's a bit torn between feeling loyalty for someone she kinda sorta feels like she's friends with but is probably a lying villain, and then someone who's demonstrably the good guy in the exchange and a double of another person she's kinda sorta friends with. It's tough.]

It's not fair, I know.

Edited 2013-10-07 16:57 (UTC)

No. You really don't.

[Does it matter, though? He'd like to think it does, but in all likelihood that's his own wishful thinking. It's not his problem. It's not. They'll probably all end up in a worse hell anyway, so why should he care?

Damn the city, anyway.]

[That instantly closes her off, sympathy drying up. Willow never reacts well to having her input rejected or her feelings invalidated, even when it's justified.]

I'm just a stupid bystander who couldn't understand anything. Right.

[So she'd barged in where she probably doesn't belong. That doesn't stop her from being passive aggressive. Willow's feeling a little desperate for connection with how stranded she is, and therefore extra sensitive to rejection.]

[Ouch. Yeah, okay, passive aggressive answers still work on him. And he's clearly the bad guy here, so there's no ground to stand on.]

People died. Good people. I'm sorry if I let that get to me.

[She doesn't exactly relent, not in her demeanor, still as hard as before. But she relents a little in explaining her perspective, why she'd felt like she could barge in.]

That's why I said it isn't fair. Being the good guy isn't. People die and there isn't an answer. There isn't something you can do about it. Retaliation doesn't bring anyone back, and--

[An exhale, because now this is really getting too personal even for her.

More normally,] I understand more than you think, okay? [Not about this exact situation, but the pattern she can see fitting into her life.]

[She seems like a nice girl. That's the thought that he has when he looks up again. Honest. Just a decent person trying to back up her friend from the strange man that was attacking him. That's what she sees, he realizes, and maybe she isn't so far off.

It's not like he's that different, right?

He's still looking at her. Tony should have said something a few minutes ago, but he dropped the ball and he's now just watching the screen. People die and there isn't an answer. He shakes his head.]

There's always an answer. We just don't want to take it.

[It's partially backing up someone who might be her friend, but more strongly, it's her honed urge to prevent any and all conflict she sees. Conflict means more to Willow than a fight on the network. It means irrevocable, heinous acts, and she's sick of it. Sick of watching it, sick of being part of it-- sick of letting it happen.

She can't do that anymore, she just can't, and she's left floundering without a direction here in Keeliai. So this petty squabble got more energy directed at it than it really merited. She yelled at Loki, too, for good reason, in her mind.

Willow isn't sure what he's talking about, the other Tony, but it sounds far too much like her own mental thought process that had led to her resurrecting Buffy. One of her greatest sins and greatest regrets. She can't help tensing.]

We don't take it for a reason.

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definingfuture - 2013-10-07 17:52 (UTC) - Expand

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guiltapalooza - 2013-10-07 18:00 (UTC) - Expand

[ He really doesn't care if people fight, as long as it's harmless, but there is something that hits a little too close to home here. Enough that he feels compelled to act. ]

The most difficult part about being who you want to be is everybody else having an opinion of who you are that they think you need to conform to. Out of everyone here, I'd've thought you would understand that.

Edited 2013-10-07 16:47 (UTC)

[And that makes him grimace.]

Seriously? [Of all the people? Yeah, right.] I guess you would know.

[He gets the point. And, hey, Tony's defending his friend. He'd do the same thing in a reversed situation. Still, it doesn't mean he agrees with it.]

Maybe everybody else isn't wrong.

[ He smiles. It isn't a pleasant smile. There are too many sharp edges. ]

The greatest mass murderer of the era doesn't become a humanitarian overnight.

[ It takes months of captivity and a life-threatening injury. ]

A second chance isn't stupid. A third one is. Try to remember that. Not everyone wants to live up to the legacy of the man who came before him.

[ Maybe it sounds like a deliberate reference to Howard. It is. ]

[Oh, that gets a glare out of him.]

Yeah? Thanks for the advice. Good to know you're on top of everything here, Stark. I never give anyone second chances. Man, that's what I was doing wrong with my life this whole time.

[It doesn't even matter. Why is he fighting?]

I'm not talking about the man who came before.

[Not Howard, and not in Loki's case. He's still Loki.]

The way I understand it, you're not talking about him either. So who are you talking about? Not Loki. Not the Loki that existed before this one rose to take his place. Is there a third one? How screwed up is your world?

[ Having just died, he's maybe a little sensitive about all of this reincarnation mumbo jumbo. ]

Where exactly do you get off telling me this, anyway?

[Nope. Screw your questions. He's low, but not low enough to be told off by a version of himself.]

It's my world. You don't know him. Maybe he's a saint in your world and that's how you handle things there, but unfortunately for us it isn't that easy.

[It's not even his business, technically. It's just injured pride and a heavy dose of bitterness at losing meaning. Tony raises his hands in surrender.]

I don't know. I don't know who I'm talking about. I don't think any of us does.

[ Where does he get off talking about his other version's world? That poses an interesting question about meddling in the affairs of others. He's firing it right back. ]

I think you better check yourself before you wreck yourself.

[ It's mildly spoken, just like what follows. ]

Because where I get off? I think you ought to ask yourself that one first. I'm not the one who thought he could cozy up to another man's life's work just because he had the same name. I'm not the one who thinks people are that interchangeable.

[ He's been avoiding Stark Industries, and most of the people he knows, because he doesn't want to replace the man who had been here before him. But this guy? Where's that level of respect? He's not seeing it. ]

So you tell me, Tony, where do you get off setting up shop in another man's life and acting like it belongs to you?

[That throws him. Not in any shocking way. He's not caught, just confused.]

What the hell are you talking about? I didn't touch your work.

[In fact, he'd made a point not to touch anything on SI's project list aside from menial maintenance. He stares back at the other man, not sure what he's being accused of now. The one thing he'd done out of respect to the other Tony Stark had apparently only made things worse.]

I was asked to do lab work. I didn't cozy up to anyone.

[Is it the same for Loki? He doesn't know. But this doesn't at all sound like it's about the god.]

It was just a job. I didn't- I didn't have anything else to do. I took it because she asked me to.

[He shouldn't have said she, but he's too tired to care. It's too late for regrets at this point anyway. Forget burning, he's already hit the proverbial bridge with a meteor.]

Look, I... think you have me confused with someone else. Up to this point I was just a guy running a few tasks in a lab. Former management didn't seem to mind.

[He starts to add "sir" almost instinctively then just falls silent.]

[ He doesn't miss that she that he drops in the middle of his explanation and it doesn't take a genius to figure out who that is. Pepper is the one who so callously tried to slot him into the spot the absent other Tony left in her life. That she shoved another one into SI hardly comes as a surprise. ]

I don't have anyone confused with anyone else. That's never been my problem. I'm afraid I can't say the same for former management.

[ He's not buying the lack of cozying up either. Considering the parties involved, he suspects something far less innocent than the way he'd initially meant it went down. ]

You want to work in the lab, fine. I'm not taking your job from you. But all the little perks that she gave you are over. You aren't him. And it's time everyone realized that.

[He could be offended, but there really isn't a point to it. The man's angry because he's been invaded, as far as Tony can tell, and maybe he has every right to be. Maybe.]

I meant Tony. The other one. He was running the company when I was offered the job.

[Fuck it. He doesn't have anything to be ashamed of, and personally, this whole tantrum is pushing too far. He gives the man an exasperated look. This is too much like business at home.]

I don't know what perks you think I was offered, but I didn't have any. And I wasn't trying to be anyone. I did a job on contract and nothing else. You don't like that I happen to have your name? Tough. You can fire me because you don't like me, but I did what I was hired to do, so save the slander for someone that deserves it.

I don't fire people I don't like. And considering there were forty-two people in the United States named Tony Stark when I was last in Malibu, I can't say I care if you have my name either.

[ It pays to look into these things, if only because then he knows what may be erroneously attributed to him by some overeager reporter who fails to doublecheck sources. ]

Stay. Go. Whatever. I'm done defending a guy this place is only too happy to forget.