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Tony Stark (notyourplayboy) wrote in somerealityrpg,
@ 2019-11-25 15:35:00

Current mood:	productive
Entry tags:	active: tony stark, inactive: ned leeds

Tony & Ned
WHO: Tony Stark & Ned Leeds
WHAT: Pete’s boys meet up.
WHEN: Monday morning
WHERE: Ostrich’s Villa
RATING: PG (Tony’s mouth maybe)
SPOILERS: Endgame
STATUS: Threading

Thread

NED LEEDS

TONY STARK

Tony was still walking on cloud nine after his wedding and subsequent weekend alone with Pepper, but Monday was a special day he wouldn’t miss for anything. It was Morgan’s birthday, a day he’d never take for granted. He couldn’t wait for the school day to end so that his family could celebrate together. However, breakfast was barely over when he logged onto the network and saw Peter’s best friend arrived in Goodland. Tony knew Peter tried to be strong for everyone else, but he knew the kid had to miss his best friend. How much had Tony missed Rhodey? How much did he still miss Bruce and Happy? Sometimes people just needed a best friend.

Tony could tell why Ned and Peter were friends the minute he and Ned started typing together; furthermore, there was no way Tony would leave the kid to figure Goodland out on his own. Peter was in school, but Tony would take care of the kid’s best friend until Peter could step in.

Ned said he was nearing the apartments so Tony agreed to meet him in the lobby. He vaguely knew what Ned looked like from when Peter showed him photos and from when he watched their matches, but he’d never met him. Still, it wasn’t hard to pick out a new kid in Ostrich’s Villa, especially when most were in school.

“Ned?” He asked. “I’m Tony.”

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nedinthechair
2019-11-25 09:06 pm UTC (link)

Ned was being bombarded with information--- they weren’t on a planet, as far as anyone knew and they couldn’t get past the bridges. There were superheroes who weren’t the Avengers. Ned was almost sure that if there was a barrier keeping them in there was a power source-- and then if there was a power source than maybe they could figure it out. This was an adventure. He’d been so distracted for a few moments, that he had almost forgotten that TONY STARK was coming to meet him.

He had been typing on his phone when he heard Tony Stark’s voice and looked up with wide excited eyes. He stared for about ten seconds, “NO WAY.” He said again, not to Tony, but to himself. He was really meeting Iron man right now. He moved forward and held out his hand to shake Tony’s hand with way more excitement than might have been necessary.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mr. Stark,” He said, his voice way louder than he had intended it to be. He was meeting Tony Stark. He was just staring at him, just impressed by being in his presence. “I can’t believe I’m meeting Tony Stark right now.” He wished Peter were here, even though he knew that Peter already knew him for a while.

“Do you have the suit?” He couldn’t help but ask.

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notyourplayboy
2019-11-25 10:59 pm UTC (link)

Tony couldn't help grinning as he gripped the boy's outstretched hand. It had been some time since he got such a reaction from someone and, while he loved the idea of retiring to live happily ever after with Pepper and the kids, he still relished fanfare. "Tony," he reminded Ned. "And, the suit? Yeah, of course. I was actually in it." It seemed like such a long time ago even though six months was really nothing. So much had happened. So much had changed. "I'll show it to you sometime, but, tell me, how are you doing with all this?" And just like that? Tony went from attention loving superhero to concerned dad. "Are you hungry?"

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nedinthechair
2019-11-26 12:08 am UTC (link)

Ned, still gobsmacked, held onto Tony's outstretched hand for what was roughly 12 seconds too long. "That is so cool." Ned said when Tony mentioned having the suit, his eyes going comically wider when the Tony suggested he might be able to see it. "Peter let me try on his mask once but I'm not sure I was supposed to tell you that." He said in the span of a breath.

There was a pause though, as Ned focused on the question at hand. How was he? "I'm still sort of waiting to wake up." He admitted, "This… this is all sort of like… my biggest dream ever, you know. There are heroes and Starwars characters and and well none of us are disintegrated." Ned shifted awkwardly as he mentioned that. He wasnt sure what happened or what to make of it.

"I could eat, I feel like I havent eaten in years, but it…" Ned reached around in his pocket and pulled out two crumpled dollar bills, "This is all I've got."

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notyourplayboy
2019-11-26 09:29 am UTC (link)

Tony always felt uncomfortable with close contact with those he didn't know well, but he let Ned hold onto his hand too long. He was a kid in a crazy world and Peter's best friend so it was the least he could do.

He nodded along when Ned mentioned still waking up. He recalled how disoriented he had been when he arrived and imagined it was worse for...he guessed Ned was somewhere between 16 and 18.

"Don't worry about money, kiddo." Tony waved his hand dismissively. "This way. There is a small cafe in the building. Let's get you something." He started walking, fully expecting Ned to follow. "And get used to superheroes, Nedders. You'll trip over one at least once a day." He glanced back to grin at the teen.

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nedinthechair
2019-11-26 03:56 pm UTC (link)

“Oh yeah, okay.” Ned said with a grin. Tony Stark was going to take him to get breakfast. He was going to have breakfast with Iron Man. “Yeah, Peter said that there was a bunch of them. And that he got to play video games with Thor and ..” Dang, he was supposed to be playing it cool. Play it cool. He adjusted his shirt just to focus on something else.

“So, like, someone mentioned they have to pay rent, and like Peter is in school… so like.” Ned tried to figure out what exactly he wanted to say. “Does everyone just.. Do like normal things?” He tried to picture it… Captain America at the grocery store. Han Solo playing soccer with Chewie in the park. And here he was having breakfast with Iron man.

He followed Tony into the cafe and got himself a muffin and a banana, trying to be cautious about the money he was spending, not wanting to seem rude or anything by spending too much money.

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	notyourplayboy 2019-11-26 04:30 pm UTC (link)
	Tony sipped his hot coffee while Ned chose his breakfast. He raised his eyebrows at the muffin and banana. "Are you sure that is enough food? Do you want eggs or something?" He was used to Peter, who needed quite a full load to sustain himself. "And, yeah." He chuckled. "Except I am still not very good in a grocery store. Why so many aisles?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

nedinthechair
2019-11-26 05:04 pm UTC (link)

“No thank you, sir. I’m fine, sir.” Ned told him with a nod of his head. If he was being honest, he still felt strangely odd but being blinked in and out of existence and then being transported to another dimension altogether probably had that effect on people. Not that Ned was an expert in that sort of thing. “Dimension hopping doesn’t exactly agree with me, apparently.”

“And is it true… that we can’t go past the bridge?” His family was somewhere on the other side of the bridge, or well, not exactly, because this wasn’t even a planet, right? That’s what that guy had said. And to figure out what stopped them from going passed that. He would make a note to ask Peter to go with him to check it out. This was just another mystery to solve, right? He’d just have to figure it out without his computer, which would be hard, but at least he had his phone.

“They have signs, so that you can see what you want.” Ned said, with a little bit of a smile.

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notyourplayboy
2019-11-26 05:34 pm UTC (link)

Tony empathized with Ned. It couldn’t be easy facing the blip (snap, whatever) and then showing up in Goodland. Hell, he came from moments after the initial finger-snapping and had wanted to drink himself into oblivion when he arrived. His family’s arrival gave him a reason not to. He didn’t want to imagine how it felt being “alone” in the strange dimension. Still, he’d make sure Ned knew he wasn’t alone. He had Peter and now he had the rest of their family too. Any friend of Peter’s and all that jazz.

He laughed when Ned mentioned the aisles; no one could accuse Tony of lacking a sense of humor about himself. However, he grew more serious when he answered the boy’s other questions. “There is some sort of barrier,” Tony explained, “I’ve been working on it with a few others, but…this place defies both physical and magical laws. No one seems to be able to break through. Cisco managed a portal once so we managed to get…” He decided not to tell Ned about the demons. “Some bad guys out, but no one could get through after that.”

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nedinthechair
2019-11-28 12:07 am UTC (link)

Ned moved towards a seat in the cafe, and he nibbled on his muffin as Tony spoke to him, nodding along when Tony mentioned the barrier. Though Ned still felt the undercurrent of excitement about the whole ordeal, his mind had something logical to focus on, and his voice dropped to a more serious level.

“Well, When I helped…” Ned paused there, and sort of looked around the cafe to see if anyone was listening to them, “Spider-man with checking out the arms dealers who were using alien tech… they had this big pink alien battery that went explosive if it was knocked around too much.” Though of course, Tony probably knew all sorts of things about that tech, but he ignored that part. “I was just thinking that like… something that big would have to at least one.. Like power supply or something. Maybe more-- but i mean, that is assuming it isn’t some weird magic thing. I kinda want to go look at it. If it does have a power supply, is it stable? Because the one ….spiderman brought me accidentally almost blew up the Washington Monument with all of our Decathlon team in it.”

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notyourplayboy
2019-11-28 12:37 am UTC (link)

Tony, who had been smiling at Ned's excited science-speak, gritted his teeth when reminded of the dangerous situations Peter put himself in without Tony knowing. Granted, they'd discussed it and Tony forgave him, but he still hated remembering he could have lost Pete. He did lose Peter. Sure, this version of Tony only dealt with that loss for a few hours before landing in Goodland, but he had memories of his older self now and felt the weight of that loss even more. However, he quickly recovered and focused on Ned. "I remember that day," Tony replied. "Let's not dwell on it, but I do want to hear more of your theories. Fresh eyes and all. I think my friends, Sam and Cisco, will like you. We've been trying to figure this place out for a while. We have others helping too. Liz, Cait, some others..."

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nedinthechair
2019-11-29 11:07 pm UTC (link)

"Really?" Ned couldn't help but blurt out a little bit when Tony seemed honestly interested in hearing any of the theories that he might have about the border. He was shocked. Who was he compared to Iron Man, and yet he wanted to listen to him. He had to remind himself to play it cool, and shoved a piece of muffin in his mouth before he could blurt anything else out. It gave him a moment to breath and to think.

"That's cool." He said finally. "I'm better at computers than alien things--- thats why I was Pete's guy in the chair, you know?" He grinned a little bit, "But that's cool. I think I talked to Cisco a little bit, he was a cool dude."

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notyourplayboy
2019-11-29 11:30 pm UTC (link)

"Pete is one of my interns," Tony responded, before drinking more coffee. He was better about eating in Goodland, but coffee was still very important to him. "We can use all the intelligence we can get if we want to stabilize this place. Give people a choice, you know? Stay, go...it should be the individual's choice." He was careful not to say people given the various entities in Goodland.

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nedinthechair
2019-11-29 11:44 pm UTC (link)

Ned blinked a few times and leaned forward, "Uh... like is Pete really your intern or is this like back home where he had the "Stark Internship" back home," Ned asked, side eyeing Tony a bit and using Finger quotes when he said 'Stark Internship'.

"I can't even wrap my head around something that can... basically duplicate likenesses. It's got to be some sort of alien tech. And then if there are two parallel likenesses, what happens when they merge back..." He wasn't particularly asking Tony, just talking out loud. "Then again, I was literally a pile of ash this morning, so"

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	notyourplayboy 2019-11-30 12:05 am UTC (link)
	"That kid really told you a lot, didn't he?" Tony chuckled. "And it is a real internship. We don't have to be quite so secretive here. Lots of different types with powers. He winced when Ned mentioned the ashes. It was Tony's fault. If he hadn't failed on the planet... "So," he said, changing the subject, "tell me about how you and Pete became friends." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

nedinthechair
2019-11-30 12:22 am UTC (link)

"Well... after I accidentally found out, I guess, he just wanted to get it all out?" Ned remembered that moment vividly, when he found out his best friend was a hero.

"OH. When I was in the sixth grade, I made some extra money fixing computers in my apartment complex. I was knocking on a few doors of new people who moved in, to see if they needed they're computers fixed, and Peter and Miss May had just moved in. And you know, we just sort of shared all of our video games and leggo sets and everything since then. " Ned sort of smiled at the memory, "He is my best friend."

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	notyourplayboy 2019-11-30 01:18 am UTC (link)
	Tony could just picture Ned going door to door inquiring about who needed computer help. He could also perfectly see Peter and Ned cross-legged on the floor playing with legos. "You two are perfect for each other, I think. Just like me and my Rhodey. He is my best friend." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nedinthechair 2019-11-30 04:00 am UTC (link)
	"Is your best friend a hero too?" Ned wanted that. He wanted to be a hero, he wanted to be on Peter's team, wanted to help him succeed. Ned knew that he didn't have anything going for him powers wise, the best he could hope for was that Peter would always need his computer skills. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notyourplayboy 2019-11-30 10:58 am UTC (link)
	"He is," Tony replied. "He's War Machine, but, even before that..." Tony shook his head. "You don't know the trouble I'd get up to without Rhodey, kid. He has been by my side since college." He shot Ned a teasing look. "Is this where you call me old like everyone else?" He joked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nedinthechair 2019-12-01 05:36 pm UTC (link)
	"I don't have a lot of friends, but it's nice to have Peter. It's nice to have someone you can always depend on, you know?" Ned shook his head, taking another bite out of his muffin. "You're not old. My parents are like way older than you." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notyourplayboy 2019-12-01 08:30 pm UTC (link)
	Tony's heart went out to Ned. He never had many friends growing up either. It was difficult being so ahead of his peers. Perhaps that was partly why he rebelled so hard as a teen. However, he said none of that to Ned. He merely grinned and teased, "You are officially the favorite kid now. The only one not calling me old." (Reply to this) (Parent)