has anyone here discussed the way rhodey and nebula bonded over their flaws?
when nebula noticed that rhodey can see her bones, she dropped her gaze ashamed, and said, "i wasn't always like this." rhodes was quick to respond: "me either. but we work with what we've got, right?" and she looked slightly stunned and taken aback because she has almost never had anyone sympathize with her on the "body changes" ground.
i always appreciate how marvel makes a great job with having two characters understand each other basing on the ground made of their flaws, whether it's guilt, daddy issues, a-man-out-of-our-time issues, or inability to find their place in the world. but this was different to me - it was about two creatures, one human and disabled, and the other turned from an average alien woman into a killing machine. both of them got a moment to bond over the fact that their second nature wasn't their choice and they became creatures of circumstances. in the end, they found their way to live with that, with the fact that they wouldn't be able to walk if it weren't for the robotic parts attached to them, with the fact that they lost their shot at being normal and they will never go back to being what they once were.
"we work with what we've got" - it's just a little cyborg-bonding moment, but i felt it to my bones.
To say he was angry was an understatement. He was beyond anger. Tony felt a strange clam, like putrid acid ran through his veins.Slowly, torturously. Focused on a point of inflection, as if the earth had found a new axis. As a predator waiting for its prey. Furious, but calm.
Steve was brooding by the window. It seemed like the only thing he knew how to do those days. It was insufferable.
Tony had lost all capacity to feel compassion for Steve, of course ignoring the fact that he was giving him asylum in his house. Tony was making a superhuman effort to ignore him. Get out of the house, tour the city, clean your mind. Divert calls from Pepper, who at that point was desperate to know something him. He couldn’t blame her: Tony had gone to that shitty town with the excuse of negotiating a new manufacturing facility for Stark Industries. Of course, there was no such thing.
He had received Natasha's call three months after the disaster in Siberia, the Accords and all that shit. Steve is hurt, she had said. I don’t trust anyone else.
And like a good lap dog, Tony had fixed a house in the middle of the field so they wouldn’t be found, brought a doctor to help Steve -who he paid more money than he would earn in his whole life to keep the silence-, and his own ass up there.
All of that only to spend the days watching Steve descend in a spiral of self-destruction. Honestly, it was pathetic to watch. And Tony's patience was running out.
“This has to stop,” he said one afternoon suddenly, after getting tired of seeing Steve sitting on the garden porch contemplating nothingness like a zombie.
Steve turned to see him, the confusion clear in his eyes.
“What...?”
Tony was so fucking angry, it was unbelievable.
“You-” it took him a lot of energy to not explode right that second. “You have no right to be like this.”
Steve crossed his arms, offended. Good. At least he was showing some emotion.
“It’s not- I’m not doing this on purpose,” he said, and it looked like he was ready to cry. Tony clenched his fists, counted to ten, and walked over to sit next to Steve on the porch.
“What you did was fucking awful, Steve. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive you.” Tony covered his face with his hands, sighed tiredly, and turned to stare at Steve. The man seemed to tremble: small, insignificant. The guilt was eating him alive. And it was probably not just because of having hidden what he had hid from him, but because he facilitated the fracture of the only family he had left as well. The one they had built together.
“But you’re in the wrong path. Before I forgive you, before anyone does, you have to forgive yourself. I won’t matter if I say it’s ok, or if Natasha does, or if your friend Barnes does. It won’t matter because if you don’t forgive yourself, you’re going to make the same mistake again.”
Steve retained a sob, and he looked like he wanted to puke.
“I don’t know how to do that,” he whispered.
Tony looked away. “You’re going to have to learn. And I can’t be your guide anymore. You’ve proven me that you don’t actually give a shit about me.”
Steve reached out to him, his face dejected. “Tony, no-” he took a deep breath, “Caring about you is exactly my problem.”
Tony smiled, a bitter taste in his stomach. Steve would never change.
“You’re right. We can’t get this angry at people we don’t care about.”
His heart was beating a million kilometers per hour. His fingers felt cold and trembling. The pit of his stomach began to tighten with vertigo. The severity of what he had done slowly dispersed in his consciousness, like adrenaline rushing through his veins.
He dropped the phone violently and left it on the coffee table. He threw himself on the chair and closed his eyes, counting to ten.
There was no turning back. Of all his stupidly impulsive decisions, this one took the jackpot. Oh no, wait until Pepper finds out. She was going to skin him alive, oh shit.
(watch for the cut, mobile)
Tony got up from the chair abruptly, walking in circles around the chair. He approached the huge picture window of the apartment, and observed the city somberly, feeling like a movie character, brooding into the distance. The city was noisy, chaotic, gray, familiar. An entanglement of circulations and crossed roads, high walls to the sky, eternal itineraries. Chaos in its purest state, chaos from which creation is born. He had rarely thought about the longing for anonymity, the idea of being one of the bunch.
Being born in a golden cradle had opened infinite doors, given him the opportunity to get up one day and decide that he wanted to build a colony on Mars and virtually no one could say no. But the power that money gave him was a double-edged sword.
In the same way that growing up on the spotlight had transformed him into a circus act, dominating the political field from the shadows had been something his father had been expert at, but never Tony. No, Tony was a showman, pragmatic. Politics and bureaucracy were very far from his interests.
But what he had just done? Political suicide. There was no way to recover from this. Humiliation poisoned him inside.
A few soft heels sounded in the distance. With a sigh, Tony turned to see Pepper enter the room.
She took one look at him and all her anger melted.
“Oh, sweetie…”
“Don’t-” Tony cut her. “I don’t need to hear it. It was impulsive and stupid and now I regret it. Can we focus on how to solve this, please?”
She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. She arranged the papers she carried in her arms and sat down in the chair next to Tony’s computer.
“Read the people’s answers, Tony. No, no, listen to me-” Pepper insisted strongly before he could interrupt her. “Take a second to read what most people, your fans, are responding.”
There was no denying it, Tony was scared. He had been in the act for years, he was not ready to let go. No, that was a lie. He had been ready for decades, but he did not want to face reality and the consequences of abandoning it.
He sat next to her and with a knot in his chest and opened his twitter account, where less than a couple of minutes ago he had furiously announced to the world that he was bisexual. And in the most subtle way possible.
Iron Man @tonystark · 8m ago
How about a rainbow suit for pride month?
5,6k replies 594k retweets 1,3M likes
↩ MAGA @repusa · 5m ago
you heard it here first folks, iron man is a cock sucking faggot
83 replies 48 retweets 309 likes
↩ Iron Man @tonystark · 3m ago
Yes, and I’m very good at it. Almost as good as I am at kicking idiots like you in the ass.
87,5k replies 986k retweets 3,8M likes
“Ok, I admit that I could have handled the situation with a little more tact …”
Pepper refreshened page almost furiously and began to scroll trough the responses.
“Tony for God’s sake, listen to me and look at the responses of the people.”
↩ staaaacy @lifeaspuppy · 3m ago
omg iron man is queer?? My fav avenger is queer??? This is the best thing to ever happen in 2018
↩ Jonhy @firstgrop · 3m ago
iron man proving that 20gayteen is here to stay
↩ NAT FOLLOWED @avengerstan · 3m ago
GUYS FJKGHDSJ TONY STARK IS GAY?? OR BI OR PAN??? OMG!!!!! I’M SO HAPPY FOR HIM
↩ Iron Daddy @starkinghero · 2m ago
sfdhjds i’m crying of happiness my idol is a gay idiot like me
↩ Fred @threedaysout · 2m ago
i mean we been knew but I’m so happy Tony came out
There were hundreds more like that. Some were indecipherable for Tony, but he got the positive vibe from the majority of the replies. The deep anxiety in his gut didn’t fade away, but he did feel relieved. He looked up and found Pepper smiling at him.
“I… I don’t know what to say…”
“Two things: it’s 2018, the political morality is dominated by allies of the LGBT community, and the internet is the domain of the community. If you had said this at a press conference, the result would have been different, because you would be giving the media the monopoly on how they build the narrative. But on twitter? People dominate the narrative.” Pepper said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Tony frowned.
“I had not thought about it that way …”
“Tony, you have 85 million followers on twitter, you must know your audience!” She rolled her eyes, but her smile was fond.
“Honestly I don’t care, I use twitter to throw up what comes out of my mind.”
Pepper started laughing.
“You’re lucky you’re pretty….”
“Hey! I’m a smart person!” Tony was outraged. He was a genius!
“I would call it more selective intelligence…” she kept saying, and he looked at her with resentment. Tony knew she was right, but he’d never admit it. “I have to go to a meeting, please do not provoke another scandal before we clarify this one, yes?”
Reality fell on Tony’s head like a bucket of water.
“What are we going to do?”
Pepper tilted her head.
“You could simply tweet again, say the truth in an honest and clear way. But don’t fight anyone. Please.”
“No promises.”
“Tony…” she said like a warning while picking her stuff from the table. While she was leaving she passed her hand through his hair, and he sighed.
Tony contemplated deleting his account altogether for a couple of minutes. Nervous, he looked around the notifications section, and noticed one in particular that caught his attention:
Steve Rogers @captainamerica · 2m ago
All of you people saying nasty stuff about @tonystark get in line, I’ll fight you one by one.
9k replies 35k retweets 76k likes
Tony started checking the answers. People were going crazy, answering with insults and laughter, but the vast majority were supporting Steve in his mission to fight homophobes.
Tony could not stop smiling.
He started writing a new tweet:
↩ Iron Man @tonystark·1m ago
hey, @steverogers I’m supposed to be the knight in shining armor, but thank you for defending my honor.
22k replies 173k retweets 830k likes
In less than 30 seconds he got a response:
↩ Steve Rogers @captainamerica · 1m ago
how about you thank me with dinner?
42k replies 802k retweets 1,6M likes
Oh shit.
Tony’s heart stopped for a full minute. He stared at the screen, stunned. Did… did Steve just ask him out? And come out on twitter?
Oh… oh damn.
The replies started to appear.
↩ NAT FOLLOWED @avengerstan · 1m ago
Did Captain America just came out of the closet????
3 replies 498 retweets 758 likes
And of course, Steve’s insanely fast response:
↩ Steve Rogers @captainamerica · 1m ago
So what? He did it. I can do it too.
9,2k replies 504k retweets 1M likes
Of course, Tony thought fondly, everything is a competition for him. But it fell good to have someone to take the punches with.
Steve was asking him out? Tony’s mind was in emergency mode. He actually had fantasied about asking him several times, but he never had the courage to actually act on his feelings. Steve was always so hard to read, and honestly, way too harsh when he rejected something. Tony had never seen him reject someone romantically, but he was so afraid of humiliation that he had buried his desire. But now? It was all out in the open. Posted on public for everyone to see. It felt good, actually. For Steve to make a show out of it.
