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[propulsion]

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark."

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[propulsion]

Uhhh. Well the ringing in my ears has faded to a quiet whine, so had to be at least a couple days.

[ Slight gear shift as he actually registers the question-- ]

Why? She okay?

[heorte]

[ a short, conflicted pause while ellis tries to consider how best to answer the question. ]

She is unharmed.

[ helpfully ]

But I think you should pay her a visit when you've a free moment.

[propulsion]

Okay.

[ what ]

Were you gonna want to supervise, or.

[heorte]

[ another pause while ellis considers flinging himself into the sea ]

No.

[ you make one verbal blunder... ]

Perhaps bring some of those cinnamon twists she likes.

[ he guesses??? unsure what gift smoothes over unfortunate nicknames. ]

[propulsion]

I mean I get it and you're probably gonna have an easier time if you apologise in person, but I can lay a little groundwork, sure. How bad are we talking?

Like on a scale between 'didn't notice she did somethin' with her hair' to 'we should see other people'.

[heorte]

[ what is this scale ]

She was very upset, and then she was very, very polite.

[ Politeness more worrisome than the tears, really. ]

So I would say it's fairly bad.

[propulsion]

Yeah? What did you do?

[ A little enunciated. Out with it, handsome. ]

[heorte]

I wasn't the one who upset her.

[ POINTED PAUSE. ]

I got the impression she doesn't intend to speak to you about it.

[propulsion]

[ Wait. ]

Did she do something with her hair?

[ Because he definitely missed it, if so. ]

[heorte]

[ Did she??? Sudden concern that he missed it in all the weeping. ]

It's nothing to do with her hair.

[ Unsure of how to explain this without feeling as if he is betraying Wysteria's confidence. Why. ]

Just talk to her.

[propulsion]

You want me to walk my happy ass across a city, hat and cinnamon twists in hand, and you're not gonna say why?

Because you should know I'll do that for two reasons and two reasons only: someone is dying, or on a whim 'cause I'm bored.

[heorte]

Not because I've asked it of you? As a favor to me?

[propulsion]

[ Pause. ]

Dirty play but I respect it. Fine. Had something I needed to run by her anyway.

What are you doing tonight?

[heorte]

[ score. ]

Nothing. Reading, perhaps. Why?

[propulsion]

Let's get dinner. My shout.

[ Promotions! ]

[heorte]

[ whoa ]

Alright. I'd like that.

action.

[propulsion]

[ Screen wipe to

a dockside tavern for a change of scenery, a change of menu, and the promise of no one interrupting, but mainly those first two things if he's being honest. They eat from clay pots that is full of long cooked chicken simmered in its own fats and over-salted gravy and vegetables cooked to some unrecognisable state, but the bread is good, and the beer-- sorry, the ~ale~ is alright. It's fine.

It's not super often that Tony really has a proper meal, anyway, but this feels a little better than inviting Ellis to go get drunk with him, even if he low key has a few impulses to do exactly that. ]

It's weird, right, [ Tony is saying, as he twists a handful of bread off the loaf set between them. ] This Leo Fitz guy, coming in, knowing way more about anything going on with me than I've thought to share with you or anyone. You probably have, uh.

You have questions, probably.

[ Right?? Burning questions. ]

[heorte]

[ Ellis glances up at him. He'd been stirring the contents of his clay pot, but lifts his gaze to raise an eyebrow.

Does he have questions? Yes. But he'd never intended to pry beyond what had already been spoken and answered in the snow. After what happened with Wysteria, Ellis is acutely aware of the way he's linked himself to the pair of them. Too late, he's realizing that this conversation is not going to alleviate his own worries about what he's doing with himself in Riftwatch. ]

I don't want to pry, [ Ellis answers carefully. ] I'm not envious of what this Leo Fitz knows, if that's your concern.

[ But Ellis does understand what Tony's getting at. It's a mirror of what Ellis had been thinking of when he'd spoken with Alistair.

The difference is that Ellis is hesitating over what he should share, and Tony clearly isn't. ]

[propulsion]

[ Maybe a little hesitation, seeing as Tony is staring at him as if in silent hope for questions he can answer, but he looks down at his food so as to mash some bread into his stew. ]

You shouldn't be. I don't really-- I'll figure it out, figure him out, but I don't know him. You know.

[ He takes a wolfish bite of food, and reaches for his tankard. ]

And I'd rather get ahead of whatever might come out in the course of him existing in proximity. Ms Poppell will probably take it as it comes, it's all the same to her [ he adopts her accent, there, before reverting ] but I said I'd tell you about it sometime anyway.

You know some stuff. Aliens is a big one.

[heorte]

[ The impulse to divert the conversation solely towards dissecting what Fitz may or may not reveal is tempting. It feels like an easier route to take, speculating rather than sharing.

Even with full knowledge of why it's likely going to be difficult to get Wysteria in a room with Tony anytime soon, Ellis still wishes she were here. She'd have no trouble thinking of questions, where Ellis is reluctant to dredge up any of his own. ]

The chitauri, [ he offers after a moment, recalling the name. ] I remember you mentioned them.

[ Basically monsters, as far as Ellis can tell. He taps his spoon anxiously against the inside of the pot, causing the bits of meat inside to jump. ]

What do you need me to know? [ Ellis attempts, trying to make this easy for Tony in spite of his own internal struggle. ]

[propulsion]

[ It's a decent question, in fact. Framed in a way that makes sense. Tony's eyes flick down to the tap-tap of Ellis's spoon to bowl, then down at his own, thinking, playing the game of Guess That Root Vegetable while he does so. ]

I used to make and sell weapons to the military for a lot of money, [ seems salient. ] High tech stuff. Explode a mountain from a hundred miles away stuff. I stopped doing that because, quelle surprise, it's hard to single-handedly enable the subjugation of foreign countries without some of that falling into the wrong hands. [ If it was ever in the right hands, but now's not the time to ponder national corruption with a guy who didn't ask to be brosies with any of this. ] I switched focus. Diverted the company's priorities, temporarily stymied the stock market--

[ Fun times. ]

Did better, or that's the mission. But what Mr Fitz is more likely to associate with me is the part where I built a high tech suit of armor that let me fly around and rescue people under the super-moniker 'Iron Man'. But that sounds kind of buckwild without the context, you know.

[heorte]

[ Do better.

That goal in relation to the first half of Tony's recitation is an uncomfortable signal. But it's a good frame to set the idea of flying armor against. Ellis is quiet for a moment, processing.

Admittedly, he has more trouble with the idea of flight or high tech weaponry than he does with the concept of the armor, but that's neither here nor there. ]

Alright.

[ is the first, slow response. ]

The armor, the name...that is how you do better?

[ It's not a sarcastic question. It's possibly not even a question Ellis really needs to ask. There is a stretch of common ground between them, enough so that Ellis recognizes similar, if less destructive, attempts at the same goal. ]

[propulsion]

Yeah.

[ And it's not enough, but again: one thing at a time. ]

There's a lot in my world that needs a personal touch when it comes to getting weeded out, and more than that that needs something powerful enough to protect it. That was me -- just me, for a minute, but. Mr Fitz, uh, he's a part of an agency that does something like that, called SHIELD. Protects global interests. They put together a group, kind of a team of likewise weirdos called the Avengers, and we got our shit together in and during the chitauri invasion.

Which was a first. This place knows about demons and darkspawn and whatnot, but aliens was new information for us. Newish.

[heorte]

[ Ellis shovels a few spoonfuls of stew into his mouth while Tony explains further. The distant link to Fitz explains certain things, and the number of words Ellis can't place are minimal. (Unsure if on purpose or not.) ]

I understand.

[ To an extent. ]

There are similar mechanisms here. The Inquisition, Riftwatch. [ beat. ] The Grey Wardens.

[ Very casual namedrop. ]

But you don't have the armor here. And he does not have SHIELD.

[propulsion]

[ This isn't the first niggle of suspicion that Tony and Ellis might have some Stuff in common, but finding that out requires a level of shared detail they're only just getting around to beyond 'fights monsters'.

Tony takes a long sip from his tankard as he watches Ellis process, then lowers it. ]

Yeah. Tell me about it. But, uh.

[ He taps the centre of his chest. ]

I have this. And I don't know if Fitz knows a lot about it, but some of SHIELD does. Did, whatever. It works differently here, but it's here.