thatsmytech (thatsmytech) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-05-09 16:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, steve rogers / captain america (emh), tony stark / iron man (emh) |
WHO: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers
WHERE: A diner somewhere
WHEN: May 8th
WHAT: Waffles and coffee in a new world.
RATING: PG!
STATUS: log; complete.
Tony hadn’t slept in a few days, he couldn’t remember the count by now, but it was at least 48 hours. He wished he had tools, scrap metal, anything to build with his hands to distract him from being wired and hooked to his phone. He read through the network all the way from the start. He tried and failed to hack into a few locations, although he’d probably come back to that later on. When he messaged the other Tonys and Steve, he was full of nervous energy and still had that air to him. Since he knew he had to meet Steve, he remembered to take a quick shower and shave the extra scruff on the side of his cheeks that weren’t part of his signature beard. His hair was still wet when he met Cap downstairs. He walked them to the nearby diner and had a hat pulled over his face, since he still looked enough like the real Tony here that people started to pay attention if he didn’t move. He chattered at Steve about absolutely nothing, and he wasn’t even sure what he said, but when they got in the diner he settled into the booth and slouched. “My other self is apparently an alcoholic. I can kind of see it. I’m not sure whether hearing about the other worlds freaks me out or not.” Probably it did. He was after all wired and twitchy at the moment. He was fresh from the shower, but no amount of soap could keep the circles from under his eyes from showing. “Coffee, coffee, the universe for coffee.” He’d gotten up slightly before dawn, Tony’d been correct there. But until Tony had called him out on the network, he’d been in the gym, attacking a boxing bag with all the energy he’d had to spare. Maybe with some anger as well. Grief. And surprise. Steve was still coming to terms with certain things - the fact that he seemed to have moved up in time, again, the fact that there were two other Steves here, the fact that his shield was where he’d left it and the fact that he was worried about Tony. Not that that was anything new. However, with living in the same … mansion and whatnot, he was getting to know Tony. And one of those pearls of knowledge included coffee. “Our lives are our own, Tony. I would think that this is just even more proof.” But then he pushed his coffee mug closer to Tony. “It’s all yours.” “Not really. If our lives were our own we wouldn’t be living in a tower owned by another me with nothing to our name.” Tony was used to having the world at his fingertips. He knew he’d have no trouble catching up and finding something to do like the other hims did, eventually, but for now he was going to be grumpy about it. “Not even the Avengers anymore, not the ‘real ones.’” He made sarcastic air quotes around it. When he first got there, they’d just fought Galactus, so he was too tired to care or look into the future. Now he was restless. “You’re just from the cosmic cube, do you know how weird that is in a way?” Tony took the coffee mug instead of arguing, because he needed it and there was bottomless of it somewhere. That meant he was before the Purple Man. He wasn’t sure if that was a conversation he’d ever need to have with his friend. Maybe they had to. Maybe not. He wasn’t good with how it ended, and this was like a fresh slate. “Not too weird though, you got replaced with a Skrull for like half a year. Guess it’s better you don’t have that.” And then months of surviving their prison and breaking out. Tony had a disjointed way of talking when he was tired like this. It was closer to how he talked on the network, fast and with disjointed thoughts, picking up sentences midstream or making strange connections. Steve saw him on one of these benders a time or two when they lived in the mansion, but he always had something to do to make it better. Steve could listen, be patient and try his best to piece together Tony’s disjointed sentences in his mind. It was harder than usual today however, but again - he could be patient. He raised his eyebrows as he flagged down a waitress. “We’re all real, Tony. The fact that we might be from a book or television show doesn’t make us any less so. Us being here illustrates that fact.” He paused long enough to give their order - Belgian waffles and syrup, two more coffees and the breakfast plate for him, please - waited until she’d moved away from the table and then put his arms on the table. “I’m not particularly interested in my future, Futurist.” He smiled, for good measure. “I’ve already gotten further than I ever dared to imagine.” Because sometimes a soldier had to face the odds and decide right there and then that maybe the future wasn’t ever going to be in their cards. He’d been so lucky in that regard, luckier than most of the people he’d fought with. But where to begin to catch up, really - in either world. Cap was clueless and relied on Tony more than he let on. But he’d try to fix this. He already had a passing idea to hit the scrap yards in the city, dump as much material on him he could afford. Tony smiled back at Steve and shook his head. He’d never understand how it was so simple for him to just live with such certainty. And maybe it wasn’t simple, but Steve made it feel like it was. He was steady and constant and completely unlike anyone Tony ever knew before. Which came as a surprise to someone who thought he was jaded and saw everything and everyone he needed to in his life. “Looking constantly into the future isn’t always a good idea,” he admitted with a shrug. “Sometimes you learn that the hard way.” That was lesson #1 that the Purple Man taught him. Tony had these ideas in the back of his mind, the ways he could ensure humanity’s safety if he absolutely had to. Those were the ideas he used to take over the world briefly. They were there under the surface, and he still had them. He thought too much. He saw too far. And somehow that made him short sighted. “Sorry here I am babbling away. Did you get much of a chance to talk to anyone here?” Steve smiled. “Many people. On the network. Although most of them seem a little distressed by the fact that I don’t look like the others.” But Steve took that in stride because it wasn’t his fault and also because it allowed him to get past the paparazzi relatively unnoticed. Something Tony couldn’t do around here. Steve promptly shut up again when the waitress came by with their coffees - and he made sure to claim one for himself, faster than Tony could blink. He poured some milk into the black concoction and called it done. “Your other selves seem to have gotten themselves together.” It wasn’t an accusation, more an observation. “Yeah, but I’m not sure those little pictures are super accurate. The other Tonys and me look identical on there, but in person it’s not hard to tell us apart.” Tony found that out for himself when he saw a few of them, and sure enough, there were plenty of details that were different. Height, weight, age, even eye color for the comics guy. “Jan looks nothing like other her. Barton sure didn’t look like the other two of him.” So it was all a mixed bag, really. It was weird, sure, but hardly the weirdest thing about this place. He was all about the new coffee, although he didn’t think any amount of caffeine would keep him from crashing later. He made a face at Cap at his observation; felt sure like an accusation even if it wasn’t meant that way. He flicked a sugar packet at him petulantly. “Yeah well they’ve had more time. And probably don’t have to deal with Jan and Hank having a melt down on a public network post.” Those two. Seriously. Facepalm central. “I think my height is subject to discussion too.” That were his own two cents - other than that, he didn’t really care what anybody looked like, until he got their names wrong. There’d been too much of that happening lately. And he had a son running about here too - he wasn’t so sure to approach that. But he’s sure as hell try. Yeah, there was something else he wasn’t sure he understood - what had happened to Hank anyway? “I thought they were a couple?” He’d missed out on so much again and really, there had to be a limit on what he could feasibly miss - preferably before the punching bag broke. But he tried not to grumble too much right away. It wouldn’t really solve anything. Instead, he watched Tony go for the second cup - and he briefly wondered if he was better off giving up his own cup as well - and gave him a look. “Honestly, Tony. You can go to sleep after this.” “You’re giant. That’s what I have to say about your giant. Not as big as Thor and the Big Guy though, but that does without saying.” In truth Steve was only a few inches taller than Tony, but he seemed bigger due to his build and Captain America-ness. Thor was a god and Hulk was Hulk, so they towered over everyone. “The Banner here is super sensitive about our Hulk. Be careful with that. He knows that Hulk is aware and in control, but he’s out of control with Hulk here. I tried to give him some advice.” He knew Banner was taken out in their world by an adrenaline blocker. He gave him the formula to tinker with. “That’s Facebook status: It’s Complicated in active form. There’s a lot of crap that happens down the road you’re not aware of. Hank freaked out after the Ultron thing and quit for awhile, and then he faked his death and came back as another superhero, I don’t know his deal.” He knew that Hank had a serious martyr complex, but Tony didn’t judge. He had a version of that himself. Talking to Hank was like talking to a stone wall sometimes. “Jan loves him, but he has stuff to work out, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go. By tomorrow they might be together and going to the prom again. Who knows.” “I just have good posture.” At least as Captain America, he did. But it was all so needlessly complicated in the end; Hulk wasn’t Hulk, people weren’t this, people weren’t that - and he was flailing in the end. It was really just better to start off from scratch, but people weren’t giving him that, either. “I will remember that.” And he closed his eyes when it got even more needlessly complicated - Jan and Hank. Suddenly, he was very glad he’d never gotten down that road, at least never for long. Time had taken all that from him, in the end. But that was ancient history - quite literally. “Facebook?,” he brought belatedly. “What happened to just talking in person -” he wondered out loud. Tony snickered at his ‘good posture’ remark, even if he knew Cap was being serious. That was just such a him thing to say. “Sure, if I just stood up straight I’d definitely be as tall and imposing as you are.” Tony could present himself that way if he wanted to, but he preferred to be relaxed and comfortable. In the middle of a fight he was likely to snark and listen to music while he flew around. They made a good team. He wasn’t sure what the rules were here about going out on their own, but he’d figure it out fast. No SHIELD, never SHIELD. Tony wanted them to be happy, they were friends after all, but he also preferred people not to see his team squabbling everywhere. It didn’t exactly encourage confidence in their ability to work well. Then again, it seemed all the other teams had their own versions of it. That’s what happened when work became personal. Tony smiled at Steve and shook his head. “It’s a long dead art form. It’s faster to do it this way. Faster is better. Besides who knows where everyone is. We were able to contact Thor from states away. It’s useful, depending on what’s going on. We should make you a Facebook.” Mostly just for fun. “You could be.” Be it far from him to tell anyone on his side that they couldn’t be something. And really, since when hadn’t he ever encouraged Tony and tried to help him in his own way? But he felt at a loss all the same, because too much had transpired. And it became ever increasingly clear that the only way he could ever hope to catch up was to live it. He could do that. At least he wasn’t dead by then - and he had a calm sip from his coffee to round those thoughts up. He put his newspaper, formerly on the bench, on the table. “Please tell me people don’t say L.O.L. as often as you write it.” He knew what it meant by now, but still. It was a little worrying. “I really can’t. But that’s why I’ve got you around.” Dark eyes watched his friend and he sipped his coffee, lounging back in the both and trying to remember to focus. “Hey, if it makes a difference, you’re the one and only Captain America to us.” Tony thought the other ones were nice and everything, but they weren’t Steve. He was a little more shaky about the other hims, because they seemed to have it together more. They were there longer, and they probably didn’t, long term. One of them was a former alcoholic and apparently his company crashed and came back so many times he rebranded it multiple times. He knew the one here had his shit too. Common thread was none of them had it fully together. “No, but that’s because they actually laugh out loud instead of typing it. The only people who say LOL in real life are teenagers.” At least he hoped so. The quick computer language was helpful when trying to move fast, but as much as Tony loved his tech, he liked doing something like this too. Something had to get him out of his room. “Maybe your kid does that. He doesn’t seem like the LOL type.” No, he seemed like the never laugh type, honestly, but from what he could tell the kids had that in common. “Yes, you could.” Steve heard learned not to give up when it came to Tony - so if neither of them caved, they’d be yes’ing and no’ing until hell froze over. “Bad posture is nothing to joke about either,” he confided in Tony with a knowing nod. And that might have been due to past experiences, but- “Thank you. I appreciate it.” Suddenly their waffles were there, the breakfast plate was there and before Tony could really blink, Steve was digging in. “I was in the gym.” Not that it needed said. He was sure that Tony knew his schedule better than anyone else on the team. “It sounds like he’s had a rough life,” Steve commented. “All of them, really. That Azari kid, hm.” If those kids had to live up to them, then perhaps he could try to begin to understand. And even then he’d probably never get close. “I’d like to get to know James better, though.” Tony stared at Steve when he said bad posture was nothing to joke about, and burst out laughing. “That sounded almost like an after school special.” It fit him so well too. Don’t do drugs, kids! Stay in school! It reminded him of the way his father used to talk about Cap. Not the father here though; he was very different from the Howard Stark Tony remembered, and he was glad for that. It’d be a lot weirder otherwise. He knew that the kids had a hard time, just hearing the basics made him feel terrible. Especially the fact that he apparently abandoned his friends after causing the problem in the first place. Yeah maybe it was to save their kids, but he wasn’t sure that was enough. It didn’t feel like enough. “I think you’ll get the chance to do that.” He looked at the waffles and picked up his silverware, suddenly aware of how hungry he was. He’d eat this and then probably sleep and wake up less anxious about everything. Or that was the best thing he could hope so, luckily he had friends like Cap to keep him in line. |