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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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I didn't say you liked it. [Willow feels such bone deep horror at the act herself that she'd never be able to bring herself to accuse someone else of it, not without good cause.]

But you shouldn't joke about it, either. Or pretend like you're joking but not really be joking. Whatever you were doing.

Idle threats.

That's what it's called, I mean. Just making idle threats. But, alright, no more of those from me today.

[Now she's getting frustrated, because she feels like she's being played, dragged into a personal conflict she knows nothing about out of a misguided sense of loyalty. Willow grapples onto people quickly when she's as isolated as she is now, and even if she doesn't trust Loki, she likes him at least a little, and that makes her feel like she has the right-- and obligation, as per rules of friendship-- to both defend him and call him out.

She doesn't expect him to appreciate it, but damn it, she's tired of being alone. She wants someone to connect. Loki continually evading her efforts underscores the fact that she hasn't yet, with anyone.]

Don't play dumb. They're not idle if the person hearing them doesn't think they're idle.

You're not letting this go, are you?

[ He doesn't like it, but it resonates with him.

He still doesn't know what to do with people that reach out to him, but there's all those little parts of the story that make him hesitate. It was his role, wasn't it? That's what always made it feel so familiar.

Gods were their roles in the stories, and it could be hard to ignore the pull of his. He was so tired of everything making him feel guilty. He'd damn them all for putting this on him, but had to damn himself first. ]

I know. I do. [ He deflates, and is irritated by the fact that Iron Man would end up seeing this. ] I know, and I just went ahead and did it anyway, didn't I?

[Willow can let things go; she's not incapable of it. But not when she feels that it's something that'll come back to bite her, or one of her friends, later. Things like this always do. One step down the slippery slope, and you wake up and realize that last night you got high on black magic and crashed a car. With a girl in it who looked up to you as a sister, or aunt, or mother-- Willow had never been clear how Dawn saw her, but it was familial and it was protective. She'd failed that.

She doesn't want to watch anyone else fail that way. It was something you could never scrub off of yourself, that sense that you were, in some way, always two steps from losing everyone who mattered to you all over again. Maybe that's not what's happening with Loki here; she doesn't really know him well enough to say. But it's close enough that it makes her project all over it like crazy.]

It happens, [she admits grimly. She's still tense, but knowing, too.] It's right there in front of you and it's so easy. And everything else is hard.

I want easy.

[ He also wants to hate this stupid mortal girl.

Where did she get off figuring anything out? She wasn't supposed to get anything. She certainly wasn't supposed to nail him down in front of everyone just because of a relatively minor lapse in judgement. He hated it when people could read him at all, and that's what he's assuming she's managed to do. It's not true, but he couldn't possibly know that.

Hurrah, the good guys won. ]

Ah, I love regret. [ His tone becomes light. ] It's just so... sharp and bitter. Wakes you right up, doesn't it? Far superior to coffee. At least I get that, and Iron Man gets his reassurance that I can't change. Everyone wins.

[Being embarrassed in public for your shortcomings is good for your character. Willow should know. All her attempts to keep her problems to herself had caused them to catastrophically worsen; it was only those cases where she'd been held staunchly accountable that she met any progress. She's applying that principle here, though she's guilty that she's crashed his mood, and accordingly adds a filter now.

Her expression softens, and she bites at her lip.] I don't think you can't change, [she says cautiously. And just so he doesn't feel like she's lecturing... like she's really coming from a perspective of experience--]

I'd be in big trouble if people couldn't change. Regret just, gives incentive. [It's an instrumental part of her own recovery.]

[ He doesn't reply right away, letting an awkward silence fall for a moment. She looked on him with such pity, or sympathy, or something. He didn't know, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

He never knew what to do with that. Those weren't feelings expressed for him, not by anyone but his brother. Even then, it's rare. ]

No one even knows what I am, you know.

[ Loki may look and sound young, and he almost always does, but he has his pride even in this form. He's had this little moment of understanding with her, this odd connection, and it makes him want to pull back like he's been burned.

It's never more obvious that he's running from this than when he finally slips behind the smoothest of his trickster's smiles. ]

I'm like that dip with all the layers in it. Immensely complicated, and made of things no one can remember the names of. What is the green stuff called? That, fittingly, is the best part.

[ Did he just derail a touching moment with guacamole? Damn right. ]

[It's not pity, exactly, but sympathy has always been her downfall. Willow feels sympathy at the drop of a pin, from any slight similarity to her own situation, and she just wants to reach out and help. And, more importantly, be appreciated for it.

Though it's somewhat off-putting to be so smoothly deflected into ridiculousness, Willow has had her friends do that to her many times. She recognizes it. She knows what it is. It's a signal to back off, that she can't always help, that they want their space to make their mistakes themselves, in peace.

She can't say she doesn't identify with that feeling, too. So she lets it go.]

Guacamole, [she says helpfully.] It's avocado. Though it's just a... a name, really. I don't know if anyone knows.

[Willow doesn't even try to hide that she's not just talking about guacamole.]

[ Loki's entirely aware that he's putting her off, and he can't find a single reason to regret it. It was safe, and he liked safe in these circumstances. What he didn't expect was for her to keep trying despite his subject change. ]

My thanks.

[ He wasn't sure what the offered gratitude was supposed to be for even as he gave it.

Trying whatever she was going for, maybe, or just shutting him down before he'd done something he shouldn't in the first place. It wasn't reasonable for people to reach out to him and he wanted as far away from such actions as he could be right now, but it seems like the right response from him in this situation. His uncertainty creeps into his voice, not that his expression changes at all. ] Guacamole is such an interesting name. I might go see if there's something similar that grows here. Productive way to spend my time, I think. T-T-Y-L, Willow. Duty calls.

[ It sounded totally mad, but it was an effective way to bolt from the conversation and he was taking it. ]

[Willow just never knows when to stop trying. It seems to her that everyone, regardless of race or species or dimension of origin, needs someone there for them. She hadn't been kidding with her Streisand references.

She's emotionally in tune enough to hear that uncertainty, but doesn't Loki well enough at all to understand what it means. She just knows he's off balance, and she won't make it worse by calling him out on how awful an excuse that is for abandoning a conversation.

She's been there. She's made worse excuses.

Willow finds a small, reassuring smile for him, and raises one hand to wave her fingers at him before cutting the call.] Don't be a stranger!

[She's here if he decides to talk.]

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