[ The small stick is left by the door unmarked. Just a strangely placed twig, easy to miss if he doesn't find the one side carved by an unpractised and hesitant hand. It goes something like: Senu wish Thor Odinson good helt ]
( he doesn't notice it at first; in fact, it's not until he's on his way out again that he spots it and picks it up, breaking out into a wholly endeared grin when he sees the message carved for him. it takes him back centuries, to his youth, to his first time being among the men and women of midgard. some days it feels only as if it were yesterday he was charging into battle against frost giants with his father leading the charge, the warriors three, lady sif, and his brother at his side. some days he still longs to return to those days, when battle was simple, unburdened with guilt and grief.
she asked him to march to war with her. once upon a time, he would have done so without question. now, the words of his father echo in his mind once again: a wise king never seeks out war, but must always be ready for it. (the war against thanos still looms, he knows this, and thanos' time will come, but it is not this day.)
and yet — he feels for senua's struggle, for her thirst for revenge. it wasn't so long ago he'd been seeking revenge on his sister himself. the rage, the despair he'd felt after losing loki still coils deep within him, tempered by loki's presence on this ship but not extinguished. there is much he can teach her, as much as she's willing to learn.
he replies via text, though somehow he manages to figure out how to change the keyboard to runes: Senua, your gift is well received. You have my thanks and my blessings. )
ᛋᛖᚾᚢᚪ ᛁᚩᚢᚱᚷᛁᚠᛏᛁᛋᚹᛖᛚᛚᚱᛖᚳᛖᛁᚠᛖᛞ ᛁᚩᚢᚻᚪᚠᛖᛘᛁᚦᚪᚾᚳᛋᚪᚾᛞᛘᛁᛒᛚᛖᛋᛋᛁᛝᛋ ( and then, just for good measure, he adds: ) :D
( with a username like that and that nickname, it literally can't be anyone else, but. still. gotta be sure. though, to be honest, two tony starks on one ship seems almost like one too many. (he loves you, promise.) )
( listen, he knows it's a joke, but also it's kind of nice to hear. he's been through a lot, okay, his self-esteem is the real joke here. not that he'd admit it. he's a strong independent god who don't need no man! )
I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm afraid it'd look a bit odd with only one eye.
( that said ... )
We should probably "compare notes".
( isn't that what mortals are so fond of saying in these situations? )
( there really isn't a cliffnotes version of the past, what, three months? four? (has it only been that long?) but at least by the sound of it tony's up to speed about thanos.
thanos, who still has yet to pay for his crimes against thor's people but will surely feel the wrath of the mighty thor. the rage in his chest rekindles.
and, just like that, the carefully constructed cage he's hammered his feelings into cracks open. )
[That's always a tricky question. He'd faced it with Bruce - who never had filled him in on what had happened to him - and now with Thor. Because if he asks for everything that's happened since the last time he saw him, then that means Tony has to reciprocate, which means dancing around everything with Steve.
Although if Steve's here, there's a good chance Thor knows already (unless this Steve doesn't know, and fuck, this is starting to give him a headache). While Tony doesn't think Thor would get angry with him, he's kind of trying to avoid pissing off the few Avengers he hasn't totally alienated yet. And, yeah, it's stupid to twist the story to put himself in the best light possible, but Tony's just prideful enough to do that. Maybe they both did dumb shit, but that doesn't mean he has to own up to it immediately.
So, anyway, back to the original point:]
I mean, the whole missing eye thing would be a good start.
I lost it in a fight with my sister Hela, the goddess of death, who also destroyed my hammer. She was released from my father's imprisonment upon his death.
( may he feast in valhalla for all eternity. )
Loki and I were forced to initiate Ragnarok to stop her from pursuing her mad conquest of the Nine Realms and beyond. We were traveling to Earth from the remains of Asgard when Thanos found us, decimated our ship in search of the Tesseract. That ugly purple asshole murdered my people, my closest friend, my brother. He, too, will know death soon enough.
( that's not even going into the more lighthearted fare of, you know, being imprisoned and enslaved for entertainment, getting all his hair cut off by a creepy old man, and being forced to fight the hulk. but, speaking of loki — he's not going to make the same mistake with tony twice (even if they're different tonys). )
You should know, the anomaly that brought us here gave me my brother back. He's hardly anyone's favorite except mine, so I would ask you leave him to me. At least for now, we share a common enemy.
( please leave all beefs with the god of mischief at his door and he'll get back to you as soon as possible, thanks. )
[ The rune she left out of her name: ᚪ is for ansuz, for breath divine, for Odin. After all, his very son has said so himself, that she has his blessings. She will remember from this moment on. She is Senua — ᛋ ᛖ ᚾ ᚢ ᚪ
So perhaps that gives her undue boldness, as if it isn't already bold to try out her sparse knowledge of his people's sacred runes on one of their gods. As if she hasn't gathered everything she knows of them from just one delirious Irishman. Rife still with misspellings and misplaced runes, it goes something like: As the Allfather sacrificed to know these runes, so will I, Senua, learn. ]
[ Sacrificed. Hung for nine days and nights. Gave an eye for wisdom. She believes Thor still remembers what she had asked of him before — what she still asks of him. War. Vengeance. But she is starting to understand that perhaps what she needs most is restitution. A new beginning. A new story, starting with the words with which to tell it. ]
[Well, shit, that's a lot. Tony has to pause for a moment to take it all in, to slot Thor's information into the rest of what he has on Thanos. And, yeah, so maybe it turns out having this conversation via text wasn't the greatest idea after all, because he wishes he could be there to offer his friend support right now. (On the other hand, text means that he can censor all his shitty kneejerk jokes, so it's probably the only thing keeping him from getting punched in the face by a god.)]
...Bruce said you were gone. Not the Bruce that's here, the Bruce from back home.
( ah, so banner's here too, and from around the same point it seems. that's some relief, at least, to know he made it back to earth. that heimdall didn't die in vain, even if ... well, they're all stuck here for the time being. )
A fair assumption. If Heimdall hadn't managed to open the Bifrost, Banner might have been another casualty of Thanos' rampage. But as Fate would have it, I survived.
( as for loki... )
Thanos used my brother for his own ends. Even gods are not immune to the effects of the Mind Stone.
( not that either of them realized that until much later. and it isn't necessarily an excuse for, you know, loki in general, or the destruction he unleashed on new york (or the trauma tony suffered as a result) but thor is always going to be loki's #1 apologist. besides, a lot has happened since then. a lot has changed. loki's changed, or so thor likes to think. )
Hela's power was beyond even mine. I admit this freely. Asgard's history is stained with her murderous appetite, one she satisfied with the aid of Mjolnir.
( it still doesn't sit quite right with him, hela wielding mjolnir, the image of her and his father raining destruction and death upon the nine realms. perhaps it's for the best mjolnir is nothing more than shards now, even if its absence has left an ache in his chest, his hand still reaching every now and then for a hammer that isn't there. )
All right. I don't like it, but I trust you, Thor.
[Meaning he won't do anything to Loki - unless Loki starts something. Tony's still uneasy about it, and he doesn't think he'll ever not be uneasy, but if he can come to terms with Barnes, then he can co-exist with Loki. (Although Barnes, admittedly, isn't half as antagonistic as Loki.)]
And when we get home, we'll all take on Thanos together. Hopefully.
[He's not sure how going through the anomaly will work, but he hopes it'll throw them all to a similar point in space-time? Maybe? WHO KNOWS, physics can be weird. Especially the more esoteric branches.]
( it's a big ask and thor knows it, but he's grateful for tony's trust on the matter. he might be able to rest a little easier knowing he won't have to worry about it right now. besides, loki really hasn't been causing too much trouble (that he knows of, anyway).
he's discussed some strategy regarding thanos with steve already, but having tony here might make that strategy more cohesive, even if — well, he's only heard one side of the story, but "it's complicated" from what he understands. he doesn't actually think it's that complicated, but his perception of mortal conflict ranges anywhere from fond amusement to mild irritation to total bewilderment depending on the situation (though, generally, he thinks most mortal conflict is petty at best). he's somewhere in between those three points at the moment.
still, he refrains from mentioning steve for the time being. maybe out of respect for tony's pride, who knows. plus ... )
You mentioned a wizard and a teenager. This wizard, does he call himself Sorcerer Supreme?
( a ridiculous title, if you ask thor, but no one ever asks thor. )
[Thank you for sparing Tony's ego, Thor. He appreciates it. After his talk with Bruce, he's pretty wary about telling anyone else - although admittedly, explaining it to Bruce had required him to omit all mentions of how colossally fucking stupid Tony had been re: Ross in particular, and Thor doesn't have that problem. (Yes, he has Regrets, but he wouldn't be Tony Stark if he didn't do something stupid basically all the time and then have to fix the fucking mess he made.)]
Oh, I see you're familiar with Strange and his ego. I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, Bruce crashed into his house and wrecked the place.
Assuming that Mjolnir didn't leave a Hulk-sized hole in the roof, yes.
He's- he's a kid I found pulling stupid stunts on Youtube. Got bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip, and he started taking on minor crimes. And then I gave him a suit and he inadvertently destroyed a Staten Island ferry, nearly took out the Washington Monument, and crashed a plane near Coney Island.
Good kid, though. Solid head on his shoulders. Most of the time. Except for when he follows me into fucking outer space.
( sacred as they may have been (perhaps still are, in certain circles of civilization), everyone starts somewhere. he finds no offense in her quest to learn. rather, he finds it would be an honor to teach, to pass on the language he rarely has chance to use among an age of mortals who have forgotten the old ways. )
ᛋᛖᛘᛘᛁᚾᚾᚠᚪᚦᛁᚱᚷᛖᚱᚦᛁᚩᛏᚩᛘᛁᚳ ᛋᚠᚪᚩᚷᛋᚪᛘᚢᚾᚢᛖᚳᚢᚾᛞᛖᚱᚠᛁᛋᛖ
( As my father did unto me, so too shall I teach. )
( but while we're talking about responsibility... perhaps now is the time to, ah, rip the bandaid off, so to speak. )
And what of the fracturing of the Avengers?
( he leaves it open ended, to give tony room to explain his end of things. honestly, thor leaves for five minutes and the children start fighting each other, then he comes back and literally has to set his world on fire. )
[Tony pauses. He dearly wants to know what Steve's told Thor - he can't play this like he did with Bruce (something that will inevitably come back to bite him in the ass later) and spin things like he was totally in the right the whole time.]
If you found out that your best friend had been keeping a secret about the man who killed your parents - that he was protecting his friend from the consequences - how would you feel? Not after you had time to think about it, but in the heat of the moment. After watching a video of your parents' murder, which you had always thought was accidental.
[Thor, he thinks, might understand the emotion behind it in a way Bruce wouldn't. Bruce is ruled by logic and reason, while Thor is more emotional. He understands the bonds of family, even family you don't always get along with.]
So you wanted vengeance. Justice. No matter the cost. It seems you and I aren't so different after all, Stark.
( he imagines, in the same situation, he would have reacted similarly. (in any situation regarding loki, he would still react similarly now.) what a bunch of hot-headed fools. )
But if it's my judgement you're worried about, you needn't be.
( he just thinks his friends are being dumb mortals? so par for the course, really. please just (kiss and) make up. )
That's what I tell myself when I look at my muscles in the mirror every morning.
[ha, ha.]
I made a lot of stupid choices. One of them left Rhodey paralyzed from the waist down. I tried pretty hard to kill Barnes. I still think I was right about the Accords, but- not about how I handled it. Any of it. My mom wouldn't have wanted vengeance. My dad used to know him, back in the war. They were friends. And I took one look at him here, on this ship, and- he was just a tool. He's a broken man who was brainwashed, and all the people who were really responsible for my parents' deaths are dead. I'll never get that justice. I'm still mad about it, because who the fuck wouldn't be? My mother was killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But none of it was worth it, not with the threat Thanos poses now. Of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty.
[It's easier to tell Thor about it, he discovers in the process of typing. Someone who wasn't on the same planet at the time, someone without an emotional stake in any of it. Someone who's close enough to understand him and his feelings. Tony's spent a lot of time wallowing in self-pity, but that also requires a lot of reflection. He's read the files on Barnes now, and he understands more. And now that he knows what's at stake, it's hard to not realize the magnitude of what went wrong.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a little gift
ᛋᛖᚾᚢᚹᛁᛋᚺþóᚱᚱᛟᛞᛁᚾᛋᛟᚾᚷóðᚺᛖᛁᛚ
text; @ironman
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she asked him to march to war with her. once upon a time, he would have done so without question. now, the words of his father echo in his mind once again: a wise king never seeks out war, but must always be ready for it. (the war against thanos still looms, he knows this, and thanos' time will come, but it is not this day.)
and yet — he feels for senua's struggle, for her thirst for revenge. it wasn't so long ago he'd been seeking revenge on his sister himself. the rage, the despair he'd felt after losing loki still coils deep within him, tempered by loki's presence on this ship but not extinguished. there is much he can teach her, as much as she's willing to learn.
he replies via text, though somehow he manages to figure out how to change the keyboard to runes: Senua, your gift is well received. You have my thanks and my blessings. )
ᛋᛖᚾᚢᚪ ᛁᚩᚢᚱᚷᛁᚠᛏᛁᛋᚹᛖᛚᛚᚱᛖᚳᛖᛁᚠᛖᛞ ᛁᚩᚢᚻᚪᚠᛖᛘᛁᚦᚪᚾᚳᛋᚪᚾᛞᛘᛁᛒᛚᛖᛋᛋᛁᛝᛋ ( and then, just for good measure, he adds: ) :D
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( with a username like that and that nickname, it literally can't be anyone else, but. still. gotta be sure. though, to be honest, two tony starks on one ship seems almost like one too many. (he loves you, promise.) )
When did you get here?
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I see you have a hipster AI twin, BTW. You ever thought about glasses? It's a good look on you.
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I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm afraid it'd look a bit odd with only one eye.
( that said ... )
We should probably "compare notes".
( isn't that what mortals are so fond of saying in these situations? )
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One eye?
[don't make any pirate jokes, Tony, don't make any pirate jokes]
All right, cliffnotes: a wizard, a teenager, and I were on a spaceship going to fight an ugly purple asshole. You?
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It's a long story.
( there really isn't a cliffnotes version of the past, what, three months? four? (has it only been that long?) but at least by the sound of it tony's up to speed about thanos.
thanos, who still has yet to pay for his crimes against thor's people but will surely feel the wrath of the mighty thor. the rage in his chest rekindles.
and, just like that, the carefully constructed cage he's hammered his feelings into cracks open. )
How far back would you like me to go?
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Although if Steve's here, there's a good chance Thor knows already (unless this Steve doesn't know, and fuck, this is starting to give him a headache). While Tony doesn't think Thor would get angry with him, he's kind of trying to avoid pissing off the few Avengers he hasn't totally alienated yet. And, yeah, it's stupid to twist the story to put himself in the best light possible, but Tony's just prideful enough to do that. Maybe they both did dumb shit, but that doesn't mean he has to own up to it immediately.
So, anyway, back to the original point:]
I mean, the whole missing eye thing would be a good start.
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( it's as good a place to start as any. )
I lost it in a fight with my sister Hela, the goddess of death, who also destroyed my hammer.
She was released from my father's imprisonment upon his death.
( may he feast in valhalla for all eternity. )
Loki and I were forced to initiate Ragnarok to stop her from pursuing her mad conquest of the Nine Realms and beyond.
We were traveling to Earth from the remains of Asgard when Thanos found us, decimated our ship in search of the Tesseract.
That ugly purple asshole murdered my people, my closest friend, my brother. He, too, will know death soon enough.
( that's not even going into the more lighthearted fare of, you know, being imprisoned and enslaved for entertainment, getting all his hair cut off by a creepy old man, and being forced to fight the hulk. but, speaking of loki — he's not going to make the same mistake with tony twice (even if they're different tonys). )
You should know, the anomaly that brought us here gave me my brother back. He's hardly anyone's favorite except mine, so I would ask you leave him to me.
At least for now, we share a common enemy.
( please leave all beefs with the god of mischief at his door and he'll get back to you as soon as possible, thanks. )
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So perhaps that gives her undue boldness, as if it isn't already bold to try out her sparse knowledge of his people's sacred runes on one of their gods. As if she hasn't gathered everything she knows of them from just one delirious Irishman. Rife still with misspellings and misplaced runes, it goes something like: As the Allfather sacrificed to know these runes, so will I, Senua, learn. ]
ᛋᛅᛘᚪᛚᛚᚠᛅᚦᛅᚱᛁᚾᚾᛒᛚᚬᛏᛏᛁᛚᚢᚪᛁᛏᚦᛅᛋᛋᛁᚱᚢᚾᛋᚢᚪᛘᚢᚾᚢ ᛋᛖᚾᚢᚪ ᛚᛅᛅᚱᚾᛦ
[ Sacrificed. Hung for nine days and nights. Gave an eye for wisdom. She believes Thor still remembers what she had asked of him before — what she still asks of him. War. Vengeance. But she is starting to understand that perhaps what she needs most is restitution. A new beginning. A new story, starting with the words with which to tell it. ]
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...Bruce said you were gone. Not the Bruce that's here, the Bruce from back home.
[a pause, and then:]
He also said Thanos was the one who sent Loki.
[another pause.]
She destroyed your hammer? What the fuck?
[IT'S A LOT TO TAKE IN.]
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A fair assumption.
If Heimdall hadn't managed to open the Bifrost, Banner might have been another casualty of Thanos' rampage.
But as Fate would have it, I survived.
( as for loki... )
Thanos used my brother for his own ends. Even gods are not immune to the effects of the Mind Stone.
( not that either of them realized that until much later. and it isn't necessarily an excuse for, you know, loki in general, or the destruction he unleashed on new york (or the trauma tony suffered as a result) but thor is always going to be loki's #1 apologist. besides, a lot has happened since then. a lot has changed. loki's changed, or so thor likes to think. )
Hela's power was beyond even mine. I admit this freely.
Asgard's history is stained with her murderous appetite, one she satisfied with the aid of Mjolnir.
( it still doesn't sit quite right with him, hela wielding mjolnir, the image of her and his father raining destruction and death upon the nine realms. perhaps it's for the best mjolnir is nothing more than shards now, even if its absence has left an ache in his chest, his hand still reaching every now and then for a hammer that isn't there. )
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[Meaning he won't do anything to Loki - unless Loki starts something. Tony's still uneasy about it, and he doesn't think he'll ever not be uneasy, but if he can come to terms with Barnes, then he can co-exist with Loki. (Although Barnes, admittedly, isn't half as antagonistic as Loki.)]
And when we get home, we'll all take on Thanos together. Hopefully.
[He's not sure how going through the anomaly will work, but he hopes it'll throw them all to a similar point in space-time? Maybe? WHO KNOWS, physics can be weird. Especially the more esoteric branches.]
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he's discussed some strategy regarding thanos with steve already, but having tony here might make that strategy more cohesive, even if — well, he's only heard one side of the story, but "it's complicated" from what he understands. he doesn't actually think it's that complicated, but his perception of mortal conflict ranges anywhere from fond amusement to mild irritation to total bewilderment depending on the situation (though, generally, he thinks most mortal conflict is petty at best). he's somewhere in between those three points at the moment.
still, he refrains from mentioning steve for the time being. maybe out of respect for tony's pride, who knows. plus ... )
You mentioned a wizard and a teenager.
This wizard, does he call himself Sorcerer Supreme?
( a ridiculous title, if you ask thor, but no one ever asks thor. )
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Oh, I see you're familiar with Strange and his ego. I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, Bruce crashed into his house and wrecked the place.
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What manner of jest is this, brother?
( he is nOT AMUSED )
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I found it very factual.
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Causing more property damage than Mjolnir did, I expect.
What of this teenager?
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He's- he's a kid I found pulling stupid stunts on Youtube. Got bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip, and he started taking on minor crimes. And then I gave him a suit and he inadvertently destroyed a Staten Island ferry, nearly took out the Washington Monument, and crashed a plane near Coney Island.
Good kid, though. Solid head on his shoulders. Most of the time. Except for when he follows me into fucking outer space.
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And here I thought you were a responsible adult.
( he's hilarious. )
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[Tony is clearly just as hilarious.]
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No, you're mistaken. I am clearly the more responsible of the two of us.
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[a poll of their peers would 100000% show that tony is the least responsible avenger]
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Remind me again who created an artificial intelligence that nearly destroyed the whole planet?
( too soon? )
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It was supposed to PROTECT the planet, okay? Which is a very responsible thing to do.
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( where is the punchline loki!! )
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It's just a hammer, after all.
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ᛋᛖᛘᛘᛁᚾᚾᚠᚪᚦᛁᚱᚷᛖᚱᚦᛁᚩᛏᚩᛘᛁᚳ ᛋᚠᚪᚩᚷᛋᚪᛘᚢᚾᚢᛖᚳᚢᚾᛞᛖᚱᚠᛁᛋᛖ
( As my father did unto me, so too shall I teach. )
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( but while we're talking about responsibility... perhaps now is the time to, ah, rip the bandaid off, so to speak. )
And what of the fracturing of the Avengers?
( he leaves it open ended, to give tony room to explain his end of things. honestly, thor leaves for five minutes and the children start fighting each other, then he comes back and literally has to set his world on fire. )
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If you found out that your best friend had been keeping a secret about the man who killed your parents - that he was protecting his friend from the consequences - how would you feel? Not after you had time to think about it, but in the heat of the moment. After watching a video of your parents' murder, which you had always thought was accidental.
[Thor, he thinks, might understand the emotion behind it in a way Bruce wouldn't. Bruce is ruled by logic and reason, while Thor is more emotional. He understands the bonds of family, even family you don't always get along with.]
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So you wanted vengeance. Justice. No matter the cost.
It seems you and I aren't so different after all, Stark.
( he imagines, in the same situation, he would have reacted similarly. (in any situation regarding loki, he would still react similarly now.) what a bunch of hot-headed fools. )
But if it's my judgement you're worried about, you needn't be.
( he just thinks his friends are being dumb mortals? so par for the course, really. please just (kiss and) make up. )
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[ha, ha.]
I made a lot of stupid choices. One of them left Rhodey paralyzed from the waist down. I tried pretty hard to kill Barnes. I still think I was right about the Accords, but- not about how I handled it. Any of it. My mom wouldn't have wanted vengeance. My dad used to know him, back in the war. They were friends. And I took one look at him here, on this ship, and- he was just a tool. He's a broken man who was brainwashed, and all the people who were really responsible for my parents' deaths are dead. I'll never get that justice. I'm still mad about it, because who the fuck wouldn't be? My mother was killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But none of it was worth it, not with the threat Thanos poses now. Of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty.
[It's easier to tell Thor about it, he discovers in the process of typing. Someone who wasn't on the same planet at the time, someone without an emotional stake in any of it. Someone who's close enough to understand him and his feelings. Tony's spent a lot of time wallowing in self-pity, but that also requires a lot of reflection. He's read the files on Barnes now, and he understands more. And now that he knows what's at stake, it's hard to not realize the magnitude of what went wrong.]