[ at once, almost argumentative. pushing back, with a tight-lipped frown. ]
If you were dead, and your so-called friends or guardians or whatever the hell we are, we knew, and didn't tell you? You'd want to be kept in the dark?
[ there's a soft huff of hair, and tony shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest ]
Not me. Rip the Band-Aid off. I'd want to know, and I'd want to know how, and who did it, so I could figure out how to fix it here. Or something.
[ there's a pause ]
Keeping secrets never works, and it usually explodes in your face. Even if you're trying to help.
[ tony knows better than most, that keeping secrets usually doesn't end well. ]
[ Sometimes, Steve has to shake his head at Tony, at the times he acts almost like a teenager, starting an argument in a place where one hadn't been before. He is hopelessly tired and fond of Tony at the same time. ]
He doesn't necessarily feel the same, Tony. I don't know him well enough to know how to approach this one. It's why I think we should listen to Wanda; she wants what's best just like you and me.
[ he sighs a bit ]
You do the science much better than me, Tony. Is there any way that you could think about that we can change the past from here?
[ it's not argumentative, it's actual curiosity. ]
But even if it were, I wouldn't want it to exist. Stuff like that can fall into the wrong hands too quickly, and things that happened should probably just stay the way they are.
[ he pauses again ]
I was just talking to talk, it's not -- fixing what's done isn't fixing anything, it's just creating a new host of problems. And I'm not going to be a part of that anytime soon.
[ he is quiet for a moment, giving him a look and nodding before admitting ]
I don't know if I wouldn't have fallen, though. This here - you know.
[ there is those rare moments like this one when Steve and Tony just do this, just talk without the entire sass on Tony's part and annoyance on Steve's part.
Sure, then Tony ruins it with surprise birthday parties but oh well ]
I would have gone back and made sure they never got a hold of Bucky. You're right, though, it probably would've made it worse, somehow.
Stark Industries would still be blowing up the Middle East and supplying weapons to terrorists if my parents weren't dead.
[ -- okay, so tony is both more blunt and more vague about what he would change, but honestly, what else in his life would he alter? not getting kidnapped? not getting blown up? all of that is easy to get through in comparison to losing his parents. ]
I'd probably change the last thing I said to them, if I could change something minor that wouldn't up-end the realities of space and time. Make me feel a little better. But I don't know if I'd have the willpower to stop there.
[ he knows he wouldn't, but he's not going to admit it ]
But that's why it doesn't exist. And it shouldn't. Because people are people, and people screw things up, and it's better off if things just stand as they were. Tragedy is a part of life. You can't undo what's already been done. You just keep going forward or whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the day.
Time's really been something that I tried not to think about.
[ it's harder here, with Peggy, to not think of the life he lost when he went under the ice. he will never regret the avengers, what they do but it seems everything beyond that function will never quite be the same. ]
When all of this is said and done, I'd lose this all over again without even knowing it.
[ and it's hardly a kindness. ]
Wanda will do the right thing. She's stronger than she seems.
That's the problem; there is no 'right thing.' It's tell him he's dead or not. There's no happy ending here.
[ delaying the inevitable is just delaying the inevitable. and tony knows he's hypocritical, and he's kept secrets, but he wouldn't want people to hide things from him -- not things like that. plans, ways to defend the earth, that's just looking at two solutions to the same problem. but death? that's another ballgame.
but tony knows ignoring steve's first point isn't going to solve anything either, and so: ]
Can you get drunk.
[ this is how tony stark solves his problems which is probably why he's a trainwreck ]
[ shaking his head so much. he has to smile a bit, Tony has this I can fix this gene in him that Steve knows from Howard; some things don't seem to change much. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-07 02:55 am (UTC)[ at once, almost argumentative. pushing back, with a tight-lipped frown. ]
If you were dead, and your so-called friends or guardians or whatever the hell we are, we knew, and didn't tell you? You'd want to be kept in the dark?
[ there's a soft huff of hair, and tony shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest ]
Not me. Rip the Band-Aid off. I'd want to know, and I'd want to know how, and who did it, so I could figure out how to fix it here. Or something.
[ there's a pause ]
Keeping secrets never works, and it usually explodes in your face. Even if you're trying to help.
[ tony knows better than most, that keeping secrets usually doesn't end well. ]
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-09 08:33 pm (UTC)[ Sometimes, Steve has to shake his head at Tony, at the times he acts almost like a teenager, starting an argument in a place where one hadn't been before. He is hopelessly tired and fond of Tony at the same time. ]
He doesn't necessarily feel the same, Tony. I don't know him well enough to know how to approach this one. It's why I think we should listen to Wanda; she wants what's best just like you and me.
[ he sighs a bit ]
You do the science much better than me, Tony. Is there any way that you could think about that we can change the past from here?
[ it's not argumentative, it's actual curiosity. ]
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-10 01:24 am (UTC)Anything is theoretically possible.
[ but the way tony says it -- ]
But even if it were, I wouldn't want it to exist. Stuff like that can fall into the wrong hands too quickly, and things that happened should probably just stay the way they are.
[ he pauses again ]
I was just talking to talk, it's not -- fixing what's done isn't fixing anything, it's just creating a new host of problems. And I'm not going to be a part of that anytime soon.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-11 05:32 pm (UTC)[ he is quiet for a moment, giving him a look and nodding before admitting ]
I don't know if I wouldn't have fallen, though. This here - you know.
[ there is those rare moments like this one when Steve and Tony just do this, just talk without the entire sass on Tony's part and annoyance on Steve's part.
Sure, then Tony ruins it with surprise birthday parties but oh well ]
I would have gone back and made sure they never got a hold of Bucky. You're right, though, it probably would've made it worse, somehow.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-11 05:58 pm (UTC)[ -- okay, so tony is both more blunt and more vague about what he would change, but honestly, what else in his life would he alter? not getting kidnapped? not getting blown up? all of that is easy to get through in comparison to losing his parents. ]
I'd probably change the last thing I said to them, if I could change something minor that wouldn't up-end the realities of space and time. Make me feel a little better. But I don't know if I'd have the willpower to stop there.
[ he knows he wouldn't, but he's not going to admit it ]
But that's why it doesn't exist. And it shouldn't. Because people are people, and people screw things up, and it's better off if things just stand as they were. Tragedy is a part of life. You can't undo what's already been done. You just keep going forward or whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the day.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-11 06:04 pm (UTC)[ it's harder here, with Peggy, to not think of the life he lost when he went under the ice. he will never regret the avengers, what they do but it seems everything beyond that function will never quite be the same. ]
When all of this is said and done, I'd lose this all over again without even knowing it.
[ and it's hardly a kindness. ]
Wanda will do the right thing. She's stronger than she seems.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-11 06:21 pm (UTC)[ delaying the inevitable is just delaying the inevitable. and tony knows he's hypocritical, and he's kept secrets, but he wouldn't want people to hide things from him -- not things like that. plans, ways to defend the earth, that's just looking at two solutions to the same problem. but death? that's another ballgame.
but tony knows ignoring steve's first point isn't going to solve anything either, and so: ]
Can you get drunk.
[ this is how tony stark solves his problems which is probably why he's a trainwreck ]
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-11 06:26 pm (UTC)[ grim shake of a head ]
metabolism too fast, that's what they said, anyway.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-17 01:44 am (UTC)[ with the undercurrent of if i had invented it, i would have done that. ]
Bummer. Guess I'll just have to do it for you.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-17 08:28 pm (UTC)[ shaking his head so much. he has to smile a bit, Tony has this I can fix this gene in him that Steve knows from Howard; some things don't seem to change much. ]
You sure? alcohol here is really disgusting.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-29 11:04 pm (UTC)[ who tf injects someone with serum and doesn't double-check something so crucially important ]
Like ones that would choke down gross acorn liquor for you because you can't do it yourself.
[video : encrypted]
Date: 2016-08-30 01:44 pm (UTC)[ a long-suffering sigh ]
I'll drink the acorn liquor with you, if you want.