propulsion | fade rift. inbox.

[ score. ]

Nothing. Reading, perhaps. Why?

Let's get dinner. My shout.

[ Promotions! ]

[ whoa ]

Alright. I'd like that.

[ 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. ]

[ 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. ]

[ 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.

[ 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. ]

[ 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.

[ 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. ]

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.

[ 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.

[ 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.

And you don't want him to know?

[ Perhaps more important than asking exactly what the glowing light in Tony's chest is or what it does: knowing who can be privy to any of the information about it. ]

[ Tony tips his head as if both in a gesture of uncertainty as well as working out a neck cramp. ]

Jury's out. If he was just a jock with a sidearm, I'd ice him out, but he said something about being an engineer.

It's gonna come up, but I'd rather it be me.

It will be.

[ Ellis certainly isn't going to tell Fitz anything, and he hopes that however unhappy with Tony Wysteria is presently, she isn't inclined to spill the beans.

There is a pause while Ellis struggles to think of something benign to ask. Prying further about the reactor itself is off the table, even if Ellis can think of at least one very specific question he'd like to know the answer to. ]

Is there something I can do to make dealing with him easier?

[ Though maybe Tony's reaction to him was more the shock of surprise rather than genuine emotional distress. Ellis likes to think he's reasonably good at parsing one from the other, but. ]

[ It's far from the question he expects out of anyone, even though it makes sense coming out of Ellis. Amusement briefly crinkles the corners of Tony's eyes. ]

No. Just--

[ Hm. ]

Not that you need another lost lamb to shepherd, but if keeping an eye out for him is within easy doing, I'd appreciate it. Not 'cause [ a hand out, to clarify ] I want to timeshare my friends, but if he gets in trouble, it'll probably splash me. But he seems okay. Behaved. Hard to get a read. Weird accent.

[ A beat, then; ]

I was in a weird place when I came here. It was like, what, six months after the invasion. We'd dispersed, me and the Avengers. My girlfriend moved in, which was awesome, and I'm pretty sure she was getting close to walking out 'cause I couldn't stop thinking about how the next time the sky broke open, it'd be worse, and we were not equipped to deal. The only thing I could think was that I had to protect both her and the world she was in. It was all I was doing. Building suits, building protocols, trying to catch up.

And then I'm here, and.

[ Empty hands. ]

Now I have to care about this world, while I can't even comprehend what's happening to mine. Maybe nothing. All I know is this Fitz guy's got five years of time on me and anything coulda happened. I don't know what I'll do with that information. If I want it.

[ There are things Ellis has suspected about Tony. He hasn't asked, but he'd understood that there had been pain. Now, as Tony speaks, it's as if he pulls aside a curtain. The shape of all Ellis' carefully ignored suspicions resolve, become unmistakable.

His spoon scrapes the bottom of the pot. Ellis puts it down, doesn't reach for the tankard. ]

You have time to decide if you want it.

[ What comfort can he really offer? Ellis doesn't know the answers. ]

But knowing...I don't know if it helps. You're still here, not there. And whatever he tells you won't be a complete picture.

[ Would it be worse to know parts of the story? Would it be worse to sit with a different set of questions afterwards? Ellis doesn't know that either. He has a complete answer. There are no more questions for him. ]

Yeah.

[ --quick agreement. Like he knew that all along, maybe. ]

I doubt five-years-in-the-future me plays with others any nicer than current me.

[ Well, anything could be true. The world could be in such a crazy state of play that he has no choice but to be forthcoming, and he knows that he never had any intention to die and take everything he had with him, so even if that's the case-- ]

For what it's worth, if we crack this thing open and find a way home, I'd think I'd miss you most of all, scarecrow.

[ It sounds like a reference, the way Tony says it, all mock cheer as he reaches for his drink. Gotta get the taste of all this emotional vulnerability out of his mouth. ]

[ Across the table, Ellis finally lifts his tankard. ]

I'd miss you too.

[ Would Tony find a way home before Ellis had to find his way down into the depths of the Deep Roads? There's something to think about. Either way, in the space that follows, Ellis recognizes the need to move on to a less tender topic. ]

Now, tell me about your promotion. It's not going to cut into the time our projects?

[ "Our projects" is a bold description. But it's going to be an easier topic for them both. ]

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slaps bow onto this