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Tony Stark: Earth's Best Defender (allaboutego) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-08-27 12:13:00

Entry tags:

gwen stacy, tony stark (mcu)

Who: Tony Stark, Gwen Stacy
What: Family bonding, talking, legos
Where: House Stark
When: August 27th

It’d been an eventful week. Vegas tended to do that to people, Tony supposed. It’d started out so well with some pool time and a trip or two to a tailors, a proper date with Steve and hell, the day had ended in a wedding. Not his, mind, but it wasn’t like he’d been about to let Steve go be a witness without him.

He hadn’t even really been bothered by having to bail a few folks out of jail — while he didn’t one hundred percent condone the goings on there, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t done worse when he was younger. It was like a day off that went a little too far. That was fine. Even if Gwen had been involved.

Tony had not so much liked the next day — alien invasions in general were sort of a sore spot for him and while he’d suited up and helped deal with the problem, god he really wished it hadn’t been a problem in the first place.

At least it’d been easy to deal with. But it left Tony feeling a little twitchy and raw, thinking about how this was something that apparently happened more often than it should have.

So obviously the best way to alleviate some of that twitchiness was by drinking an entire pot of coffee whilst sitting at the kitchen table and doing nothing else. Obviously.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-08-29 08:31 pm UTC (link)

"I'm not the best at it," she said. "But I had to get passable with it for the look of the band when we'd play or get our picture taken." Gwen didn't talk a whole lot about her life back home voluntarily; usually only if asked or it was pretty situational. Even now it kind of was situational because she was responding to something he said, but she was still kind of going there. She didn't mind Tony knowing more about her life other than the Spider-Woman business. If anything, she'd rather talk about the normal parts. "I always started with the right eye, would get it right, then the left eye looked like I was on a turbulent plane. Em Jay usually had to redo it for me."

She took the coffee that he poured for her and took a sip. Yeah, it was still kinda gross without anything in it but she didn't even notice that anymore now that she was used to it.

Her little AI had actually turned out pretty great and was quite the helper in the clothing shop. Since she'd been running it by herself it was nice having the little robot to fold things for her.

When he asked her about how she was, Gwen's eyebrows raised a little. "Hm? Oh, yeah," she said. "Hope you don't mind I told them my last name was Stark." Gwen hadn't known the perimeters of the world they were in. Yeah, they were in Las Vegas but what if there was a Gwen Stacy in New York City? She hadn't had an ID on her so she'd told them her name was Maxine Stark when they booked her. Whoops.

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allaboutego
2019-08-30 04:41 am UTC (link)

Sometimes Tony felt like he should know more about her other life -- but he didn't like pressing, didn't want to ask unless she volunteered. It was -- well, it was probably a touchy subject for everyone and the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel homesick. But if she was talking about it, he'd go with it absolutely. "At least you could pass it off as a punk aesthetic?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. She had drums. No matter how sound proofed the house was (very), there was no avoiding hearing jam sessions now and again. Not that Tony wanted to avoid that. "You could just do the raccoon thing. Seems to work well for some people."

He sipped his own coffee for a minute, passing over a lego or two -- they were making a pike for the darker ones, because obviously those were the windows. Stark. She'd given her last name as his and god, if that wasn't just ... well, he didn't had a word for it. Cute didn't quite fit. But it was close. Maybe something more fond? Sometimes when she just outed with stuff like that, his heart ached a little. "No," he said, "It's a great last name. I could see why you'd want it." That hadn't really been what he'd meant when he'd asked, but if that's what she was offering to tell him he wasn't complaining.

He wondered if Miles had been clever enough to lie about his name.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-08-30 07:40 pm UTC (link)

Not many people seemed to be open books when it came to their lives prior to coming to town. Basic groundwork was laid, and those who came from the same place tended to know more, and you could probably fill in some gaps with educated guesses if there were versions of you other people knew. She'd been forthcoming a few times, but not really about the minor things. Not the everyday stuff that while seemingly trivial actually meant a whole lot.

"It is a great one," she said. "Almost as good as Stacy, because you know, that's also a first name so. I guess that makes it cool." She was sorting out legos that were the same color and looked like they were probably the outside walls. "It figures. I evaded police capture for months and then get busted in an alternate world for nothing even Spider related." She laughed a little and shook her head. "Do you think Mr. Rogers was more not mad, just disappointed about the jail thing or the dicks?" Though she was making light of it, it did kinda.. well, the whole getting arrested thing did affect her more than she let on, but she was pretty good at deflecting. About as good as Tony, maybe.

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allaboutego
2019-08-31 02:42 am UTC (link)

The thing was, even if all these people were from the same place -- well. Most of them were either superheroes or vigilante superheroes. That didn't lend well to talking much about yourself, generally. Tony was -- well, his little stuff was an open book in most cases. Because his entire life had been for just about as long as he could remember. Sure, he kept some little details and inner angsts to himself but the every day stuff? Well in his own world that could have been found with the quickest google search ever. Hell, the Tony Stark in Gwen's world was probably just the same in that regard.

"It's cool because it's yours," Tony corrected smartly, snapping a few pieces of lego together so that they could start with a basic exoskeleton of a building. Gotta do them Legos right, after all.

He eyed her curiously for a moment and then nodded. "The irony is always the worst, isn't it," he said, and it wasn't really a question. She was almost as good as deflecting as Tony. Almost. But that also meant he could spot it out pretty easily. He was, after all, a master, and there was no bullshitting a bullshitter. "It's hard to say with Steve. Which do you think he should be more disappointed in?"

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-08-31 01:50 pm UTC (link)

Gwen imagined it was different for everyone. Some people were chatty, engaged in talk about themselves and others in light conversation. She'd kind of let the bare bones be known. She was a teenager, a drummer in a rock band that'd been steadily growing more popular, her dad was the captain of the police, and she was falsely being held responsible for the murder of her best friend. In a nutshell, that was it. What was missing was all the little details that tied it all together. How did it feel to be in a rock band? How was she coping with being hunted down by her own dad until she was forced to show him her face in her spider-suit? What was it like going over to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house knowing exactly what happened to their nephew? These were the little things she kept to herself because no one really wanted to know that. Not really. Not in the light, passing sort of conversations she had with most people.

That was why when Flash had been here and he asked her about her life, she'd stopped and questioned him; do you want the brief summary or do you really want to know me? because there was a huge difference. It was easier to go with the former. It seemed like most people here did that. It was also just sorta... normal. Most people didn't go unloading their grief and struggles in everyday conversation. But on the other hand, the people that really knew you were supposed to be the people you could talk to when that heavy stuff got to be too much.

She smirked a little when he corrected her reasoning. It made her feel good to know the person she admired most thought she was cool. That actually... was really cool in of itself.

"Ah man, I bet he'd loop them both into a guilt trip about my choices and overall behavior lately," Gwen said, and shook her head. "He's good like that."

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allaboutego
2019-08-31 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Tony would have listened. Tony wanted to know, he really did. He wanted to know anything and everything Gwen wanted to tell him. He did, however, suffer from a distinct lack of communication skills when it came to most people. It was a learning process, for the most part - not the same as Rhodey having known him since he was just an underaged brat at MIT or Pepper having worked with and for him for over a decade.

He was getting better, he thought. He had to be. It was probably Steve's fault; Tony's long awaited outburst at the other man had offered up results he'd never before imagined. And Gwen -- well. They were always on the cusp of something. Saying more by not saying something than the other way around. But they'd get there.

"He is good," Tony agreed mildly. "But he's also less morally black and white than people give him credit for. It's a bad break, getting caught up in Vegas when all you were doing was having a little fun. The odds of hitting that kind of jackpot are pretty wild. You got unluckily lucky." He paused to click together to corners of the building. "I get wanting to do wild and fun stuff just for the sake of doing it, you know? I would have given you money though."

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-09-02 06:00 pm UTC (link)

It was hard, finding that balance, that way to slip into the deeper conversations. They'd fallen into a certain level of comfort with each other that really allowed them to enjoy each other's company. Gwen had never really lost her usual demeanor around him other than those brief moments when he came to get her after Jan disappeared. Gwen had cracked a little and he'd protected her vulnerability without making her feel exposed as a result of showing her sadness. It hadn't lasted long; the length of a hug, really. But for people like them, it was kind of a lot.

It was also likely just.. personality habits. She'd never been an open book even before she shut everyone out. The Tony Stark she knew was kind of a half-celebrity so people knew of him and knew some of his life but it wasn't because he put it out there. She guessed her Mr. Stark was kinda like that too, or at least he probably chose what was put out when he could. There was a difference between an interview and confiding in someone.

"Yeah," she said, while clicking together a couple of pieces that probably fit. "Just.. I dunno. It was a lot of things. We were already there, and I thought we'd just hit the button a couple of times to cover our entrance fee and not think twice about it. It just kinda.. er.. well we just kept seeing dollar signs and didn't quit while we were ahead. But I get what you're saying. I feel pretty shitty about it, honestly. It was like, the one thing I never thought would happen to me. Even beyond getting bitten by a radioactive spider."

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allaboutego
2019-09-04 01:38 am UTC (link)

Any length of time was a lot, really, when it came to showing real emotions, not filtered for whatever audience they had in front of them -- or, more likely even, for themselves. Living life without being able to give things away -- or feeling like you have to keep everything inside because that was simply the way it had always been was very often was tiring. They all needed someone they could drop their shields in front of sometimes.

He nodded thoughtfully, building the sliding doors of the building and wondering vaguely if they couldn't add a little pizzaz to this later and actually make things a little animatronic. "It's never something someone really expects, I think. One minute you're riding high on good feelings, the next you're in a little holding cell. It's -- yeah. It sucks. Don't feel too bad about it. I think it's safe to say in a normal setting you probably wouldn't have felt so inclined to have a wild night of tourism."

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