Anthony "Tony" Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
narcissistictendencies) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
cape_kore2014-05-20 10:59 am
narcissistictendencies) wrote in cape_kore2014-05-20 10:59 am
[Video] Tony Stark | 001
[So, the feed will open to a very, very unimpressed face. Oh so very unimpressed. However, that face might be a little battered and bruised, maybe even slightly bleeding, but it's still obvious how undeniably unimpressed he is. After a moment of silent staring, his dark eyes narrow a fraction, adding mild agitation to the blasé expression. He is well aware this is some form of broadcast, and by the looks of it, it's an open feed, but he really doesn't care if he's making people uncomfortable. He's uncomfortable, and therefore, everyone else should be too.]
Really? No, I mean really? [He also might be a bit tightly wound. He's had a rough day. Understatement of the century, right there.] You should teach your goons not to aim for the face. It's my meal ticket. And honestly? I didn't expect to wake up in such nice accommodations. Actually, I was thinking more like a basement or a dungeon or even tied to a chair. But this is creative, I'll give you that.
[He pauses, thinking over the events and his current situation. It just doesn't seem to fit. This isn't AIM. The introduction said something about a Science Center in Cape Kore. He also sincerely doubts the evil twit has a reason to keep him alive. So, unless he's missing a chunk of time, he's just flat stumped. The injuries disprove the 'missing time' theory, however. So, back to posturing at his captor.]
And if you think this little flair of hospitality will make me any more cooperative, you have another thing coming, Killian. By the way, telling me not to escape will only make me try harder. [He gets ready to cut the feed, only to hesitate, brows knitted together in contemplation.] And P.P.S., this cell model is out of date. [Take that Aldrich! The feed is promptly cut thereafter.]
Really? No, I mean really? [He also might be a bit tightly wound. He's had a rough day. Understatement of the century, right there.] You should teach your goons not to aim for the face. It's my meal ticket. And honestly? I didn't expect to wake up in such nice accommodations. Actually, I was thinking more like a basement or a dungeon or even tied to a chair. But this is creative, I'll give you that.
[He pauses, thinking over the events and his current situation. It just doesn't seem to fit. This isn't AIM. The introduction said something about a Science Center in Cape Kore. He also sincerely doubts the evil twit has a reason to keep him alive. So, unless he's missing a chunk of time, he's just flat stumped. The injuries disprove the 'missing time' theory, however. So, back to posturing at his captor.]
And if you think this little flair of hospitality will make me any more cooperative, you have another thing coming, Killian. By the way, telling me not to escape will only make me try harder. [He gets ready to cut the feed, only to hesitate, brows knitted together in contemplation.] And P.P.S., this cell model is out of date. [Take that Aldrich! The feed is promptly cut thereafter.]
[video]
Then you'd be wrong. I'm interested.
[He was well aware of the implication, and he also had a feeling Loki wasn't about to give up that hold over him without some serious incentive. However, sometimes people--or crazy demigods in this case--surprise you. Stark raises an eyebrow, the gesture accepting but waiting for the other shoe to drop.]
An exchange? Sure. Within reason, obviously.
[video]
[The smile, that smile, widens. It could simply be Loki as he is, some element of his inscrutable madness permitting him to find humour in what for a moment he seems inclined to leave unsaid, or in Schadenfreude perhaps, but then it could be something else entirely: perhaps he simply gleans some dark amusement from this overlapping of potentials. Finally, finally he speaks again.]
I was sprung from my prison by circumstance. A great threat to Asgard. To your Earth. The details are irrelevant; that old enemy is no doubt dead. All the pieces were in place when I departed the stage.
[Loki's expression turns thoughtful, and for a few moments he closes his eyes, as though caught up in trying to recall the events in more detail, suss out their shape, remember how they tasted.]
They sprung me from my cell to save themselves, that I might fetch them away through hidden paths and secret ways to where this threat was hiding; this should not surprise you, nor should you be ungrateful. You were saved in turn. I had no small hand in it. A game was played, an enemy deceived, and the last thing I recall before this place is a blade in my belly and the sky over Svartálfheimr as Thor left me to rot there.
That should not surprise you either. And you should not be ungrateful.
[A lie. Many lies, woven into the semblance of truth – certainly it would match the view as seen from another perspective, and that is near enough to honesty for Loki's purposes. Near enough to earn him what he wishes, and perhaps to win him a laugh in the process. Whether or not it will depends on how easily he can imply the unfortunate. Sometimes all it takes is the shade of a question not quite asked.]
Rather makes a man wonder on what terms you departed for this place.
[video]
[He has to wonder if there isn't something more to the whole thing, but he settles back where he was sitting to get more comfortable anyway. He knew better than to take everything Loki said as pure truth, but he wouldn't dismiss it as a complete lie either. All with a grain of salt.
He listened silently, entrapped by Loki's retelling of the tale. He was prepared to mistrust, but he was ill prepared for the level of skill the trickster posed with his craft. That silver tongue spun elaborate webs of truth and lie into the finest silk, indistinguishable in motive and origin, losing what was truth and what was lie in awe of the breathtaking final product. It was unlike Tony not to quip or interrupt a retelling. But he said not a word, made not a sound of derision as Loki continued. His eyes were narrowed in scrutiny with a hand folded around his chin, a finger lying across his lips in contemplation while his thumb rested along the line of his jaw.
When he finishes, Tony mulls over the tale, working it around his scientific mind, attempting to pick it apart. He needed to weed out the lies from the truth, if there was any truth at all, but he didn't have enough prior knowledge to go on to accomplish the feat. Like speaking a language without knowing its roots and having no prior experience with it. In a word, it was impossible. However, that final statement fully rattles the Man of Iron.
Loki's words had been like a spell, that last sentence was the final incantation and Stark found himself flinching at the camera. Was it just Loki or was it the implication of death that set off this attack? It mattered not, because Tony was dropping the phone to the bed as he abruptly stood from it and paced the room, breathing deeply. Was Loki implying this was some kind of purgatory? The midway station? He wasn't dead. He wasn't because he still needed to make things up to Pepper and stop Killian!]
Yeah, okay. [He was off-screen, but he hadn't ended the call. All Loki would probably see was a nice view of the ceiling, but Tony sounded winded.] You died to save the world, right? S'that what you're telling me?
[Loki was a trickster and a liar. This was a trick or a lie. He was trying to get in his head and Tony wasn't going to let him. He took a deep, calming breath and fought off the approaching panic.]
Well, I'm not dead.
You want to know my story? Spent a lot of time cleaning up your mess. Then this guy starts blowing things up. One of them hits a little close to home and it gets personal. The guy's goons start screwing with my little world and expect me to just roll over and play dead when they drop a house on me. My newest suit's a mess, I get stranded in Tennessee, some genius tries to drop a water tower on me, then I'm left trying to defeat a terrorist with a kid's watch, some gardening supplies, and a suit that's been through the wrecker.
[He pauses his tale to take another steadying breath. Once the shaking stopped and the elephant decided to crawl off his chest, he returns to the bed, picking the mobile device back up. He's pale and his eyes seem a little wet, but his determination is present again.]
Found the bad guys, got hit in the face, [He points to the bleeding gash on his temple.] and woke up here. So forgive me if I don't remember you saving the world. I was kind of busy stopping some terrorists.
[Little does he know, the events Loki had recanted took place after his time in Hell.]
[video]
I have given you what you asked, Mr. Stark.
[There's no cause for hostility, he lets the silence say for him before he continues.]
If Thor were here he could vouch for my honesty. In his absence... I won't insult you by swearing on my honour, and my life...
[His smile becomes faintly pitying.]
Perhaps not. So perhaps this will convince you instead: I didn't die to save your world, nor Asgard. I did not even die for Thor, though he may believe that I did. I died for the sake of loftier concerns by far, and to deny them the satisfaction of putting me back in that cell after I'd swept up their mess. I am not a weapon to be sheathed and locked away until it is time that I should be wielded against an enemy that may not be mine.
[As he progresses the care he takes in his articulation grows, his expression growing steadily more serious with it until the end, the final syllable articulated with a vicious flash of teeth. Trust my rage -- Loki trusts, at least, that his rage will read as honest. Whether or not it can be trusted in itself is another matter entirely.]
[video]
Okay, fine. He could do this. He could play civil. Couldn't he?]
Fine. Doesn't hurt to believe you until someone says different. [And you can bet, if Thor ever actually shows up, there will be a line of questioning on that subject. But that rage in Loki's voice, his expression, it all seemed genuine. And that did sound more like the dramatic demigod he slightly knew.]
So, Excalibur, you'd rather die than repent? Who off'd you? So I can send them a gift basket when we get out of here.
[video]
[Loki tilts his head to one side, eyebrows rising and brow furrowing in an earnest expression of wounded innocence.]
For having watched over you these three thousand years? For having seen you grow wild under the careless administration of an absent Father, and done nothing? For having been groomed myself, perhaps, by the hand that could not have been bothered to care for you, small and weak as you are? Perhaps for having done as I was always meant to do, as the Allfather himself taught?
[His expression turns mournful, almost pitying.]
I am not the faithless child. I demonstrate the truths given to me, and if there is falsehood and cruelty in them, it is not mine. Perhaps you imagine I should repent for having permitted myself to be made, I, a child stolen, into whose ear was whispered sweet words to make of me a machine for the slaughter of my own people. Odin put the blade in my hand and told me which throats to slit. You trust too easily if you imagine otherwise. I am Asgard's monster, not yours.
I counted you a cleverer man, Mr. Stark, than to speak with such certainty about things of which you are so profoundly ignorant. If you seek to wound you will have to find a sharper blade than that, and learn to wield it with more skill.
[He offers a small, almost regretful smile. It's true, he had held Stark to be capable of greater things than these petty attempts at wounding him would imply. One ridicules what one would dismiss, and one would dismiss what wounds; the blade is held by the wrong end, and in that Loki finds some dark fascination. What other cracks in the iron façade might be find, and what might happen if he were to wriggle his fingers into them and pull, remain to be seen, and he hopes they will be seen. Even if there is no ultimate use to be found in him, there is always something to help pass the time.]
I am not your enemy here, járnsíða. It does not behoove you to seek to drive me away.
Re: [video]
You come to my planet, you destroy my home--my city--and make threats. You throw me out my own window to fall to my--to fall, when all I did was offer you a drink, and you have the gall to tell me we're not enemies? You're all kinds of messed up, but don't you dare try shrugging all that off on someone else. I don't care I'd he did make you. Those actions were your own. You're playing with the big kids now, and big kids need to own up to their mistakes.
If you don't want to be my enemy, you have to prove to me you can be something other than that. You wanna start over? Fine, I'll play ball. But the first sign of back-stabbing, and we'll test just how immortal you really are.
[He needs to breathe. He needs to stop and think. This will come back to bite him and he knows it.]
Re: [video]
If you imagine I am under any obligation to care, then of the two of us I am hardly the child. I have watched millions of you die by hands other than mine — by yours, even, unless you have forgotten — and a few more under my command are irrelevant. You, Mr. Stark, are not — in killing you, I wonder how many others I might have saved? There is a delicious question, and one I advise you ponder before you try to assuage your guilty conscience by challenging mine. Or perhaps you have already guessed? I can't imagine why else you would be trying so very hard to provoke me.
Thor and his sainted ilk would once have had me believe that I come of stock that has exterminated species and razed planets, and yet I came to you in the stead of a far less merciful force. For that I owe you no apologies — and unless you have forgotten, I have done more to atone for my sins than you for yours. Ground we have just covered, Mr. Stark; I wonder if you were paying any attention at all.
[He offers a fond, indulgent smile, silent for the space of a few seconds as he surveys the screen.]
We are not so different as you would like to pretend, you and I — excepting that I am willing to look on my handiwork and own it to be mine. Be proud — we shall all be better for it.
no subject
He caught himself, taking in a sharp breath. His voice wavered as he attempted to continue speaking.] Yeah, sure. You and I, we're alike. But at the same time, we're opposites. You did what you did for yourself. I did what I had to, for the sake of others. See how those two things aren't the same?
[He's probably given Loki far too much and he can't quite find it in him to care at the moment. He's worked up, he's cracking, and he's teetering precariously on another attack. He's also too proud to actually hang up on Loki. So, instead, he's just here hating the true bits of what Loki says.]
What's your game? I just can't get a read on you. Cut the convoluted BS and come out with it so we can all be better for it.
no subject
[He speaks with careful articulation, with a calm that is almost unsettling next to his previous mirth.]
I am bored, Mr. Stark, and if that made me a danger to you I wouldn't be debating our relative merits with you now. And yet...
[And yet here they are.]
I have done you the courtesy of permitting you all appropriate distance. I have announced my presence across an intermediary medium, and plumbed the depth of your shallow regard for me. Given you answers, and taken my own. We have made a fair exchange, have we not?
[He pauses, head tilting to one side as he gazes, assessing, down at the screen.]
If you would like character references, I direct you to your associate Doctor Banner, who can attest that I have played nicely. I would advise you to consider that. My... friendship could be very valuable to you.
[Nevermind that he says friendship like it's an euphemism for something far less simple or savoury.]
I could have done you a far greater service, and if I had not come, something worse would have instead. Remember that.
no subject
He continues to listen, this time with far less focus on the tone and more on the actual words. He actually gives Loki the chance to finish what he's saying before Tony makes any move to reply. He's... considering his suggestions carefully and weighing his own answers with just as much care.]
You are always a danger. But if you want to be a manageable danger to society, then I'm fine with that. I think friendship is a bit much, or whatever you actually had in mind there, but I'll go with a truce.
Let's be real here, I guess you were kind of helpful and I... [He grimaces just a bit that he's actually saying this.] do appreciate the forewarning that you were here. But I will absolutely be checking with Banner on that character reference.
[His breathing began to level out. He needed time for this to all sink in, but he would much rather have Loki tentatively on their side than be forced to dodge both whatever dangers came with this place and the God of Madness.]