thisavrou_log | ( closed )

Entry tags:

( closed )

Who: A Stark and a Stark
When: Early June
Where: A completely innocuous coffee shop
What: Mostly this
Warnings: N/A

[ Coffee shops are a quaint luxury that Tony's taken to enjoying on Thisavrou, for two main reasons: coffee (obviously), and the novelty of doing so without being recognized. Relative obscurity is not something he's ever been afforded back home, and while the fame doesn't bother him most of the time... there's something liberating about not having it anymore.

Of course, that doesn't mean he's free of seeing any familiar faces - or unfamiliar faces, technically. When he spots her in the small crowd, he recognizes her immediately; he does monitor the network, after all. There's a good ten minutes of internal debate on how he should proceed. Ignore her? Maybe. It's worked well so far, hell, it worked well with T for a certain length of time. But memories of his strained relationship with his previous universe double are actually what spurn him into standing up from his own table and sliding into the seat across from Natasha.

He's gonna regret this, probably, but you could say that for almost everything he does all the time.

With no preamble whatsoever, as he sets his coffee mug down on her table: ]

Normally I'd have a line or two prepared for a lady like you, but I think that'd be too narcissistic, even for me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Natasha glances up from her own cup as someone settles across from her, somehow not surprised to find a familiar-but-not face staring back at her. It was almost inevitable that they'd cross paths eventually. And given the number of similarities they seem to share, the fact that it's over coffee raises the probability to almost a certainty. And here they are.]

I don't know, narcissism sounds about right. [She says it almost absently as she studies him with a slight smile, bracing her elbow on the table and her chin on her upright hand. He's got brown eyes. What a strange difference.] You've got the beard, anyway. Pretty sure that makes you the evil one.

I don't remember claiming not to be the evil one.

[ He tilts his head a bit, making no secret of his own scrutiny. Categorizing the similarities and differences, noting that she looks more like his previous universe double than he himself does. Kind of ridiculous, isn't it? ]

You take your coffee the same way, though. Creepy.

Really? [The look she gives him is all dry.] Everything here and the way I take my coffee is what creeps you out?

[Not that she can blame him, really. It's the little things that get to you, sometimes. But Natasha is going to stick with curiosity over being unsettled for the moment. It's just easier.]

Do you have your armor here?

I'm used to the creepiness here, but this [ he vaguely gestures between them ] is new. Ish. Newish.

[ He takes a long, pointed sip from his identical cup of coffee and raises a sardonic eyebrow. He can give dry as good as he gets. A tumbleweed could blow across their table and it would still be thematically appropriate.

The next response seems measured, as he slowly lowers the mug back to the table. ]

Would you go anywhere without it?

[ Even if it hadn't come through the Ingress with him - it's almost ludicrous to think he wouldn't have just rebuilt it anyway, particularly with as perilous as this place has proven to be. ]

No. Even if I could. [It's an easy admittance, and it pulls a small smile out of her. Natasha is the armor, was even before she was connected to it, and even after five minutes Natasha is willing to bet it's the same for him.

Not that it stops her from tipping her head, expression deadpan.]

That's probably going to get confusing, unless you've radically changed the color scheme.

What, you mean something other than hot rod red? Absolutely not.

[ He gives her a very long, appraising look. Then, generously: ]

Don't worry, though. You can be Iron Man #2. Still a prestigious position.

Iron Woman.

[The counter comes with an arched eyebrow. It doesn't make a huge difference in the scheme of things, but hey. She's decided to own the identity, might as well keep running with it.]

But I appreciate the offer.

Right, naturally. Where are my manners.

[ The faintest quirk in the corner of his mouth, like he wants to grin but is actively resisting. ]

But I'd say that right there is a fair division of identity, wouldn't you?

[ In fact, the more divisions drawn, the better - it might help him sleep easier at night, when the eerie reality of the multiverse feels like it might come crashing down on him. If only she'd just taken more cream in her damn coffee. ]

[He gets an eyeroll in return, but it's mostly lighthearted.]

Do we need to worry about that?

[Because the similarities are there sure, she'd have to be an idiot not to notice even if other people hadn't said the same. But they're not the same person, and she'd bet that even people who don't know either of them would be able to tell.

But it does make her study him a bit more carefully.]

This is really bothering you, huh?

[ "Bothering him" seems like a somewhat comical understatement, but he's not gonna say it. All the same, it grinds his gears that he hasn't gotten used to this yet; the Ingress has pulled in multiples of all kinds of people, he's even met the male version of one of his best friends, and yet - it's different to be staring down another version of himself.

Somebody who knows and understands way too much about him, even if they're innately different. ]

What, it doesn't bother you? [ Maybe it actually doesn't. Maybe she's just better at hiding it. Who the hell knows. ] Please don't tell me this happens to you all the time or something.

I wouldn't say all the time. [She flicks him a wryly amused look.] But it's not my first dance with the multiverse, no.

[Which isn't to say that sitting here talking to him isn't weird. Her other brushes have been quick, or so obviously different it was easier to rationalize. With him, she can't help but catalog the uncanny similarities, even if it isn't quite like looking into a mirror (the obvious aside).]

At least you have other people from your universe here?

[Wanda had mentioned him, anyway. And she was fairly sure Wanda would have said if there was more than one of him running around.]

Yeah, well, that's a blessing or an awkward curse, depending on how you look at it.

[ Maybe if they all came from the same time it would be easier, but the jumbled mess of timelines among himself and the other Avengers has been a point of frustration more than once. Not to mention more than a few awkward conversations. ]

You don't recognize any of them? That seems almost improbable.

[ This is one topic he and other-him never broached. Who is a familiar face, and who isn't? Are their worlds really that different? ]

[Natasha huffs out a laugh and shakes her head slowly.]

Oh, I recognize plenty. The trouble is that none of them recognize me.

[It's difficult sometimes, in it's own way. All these people she should know and all of them treating her like a stranger. Mostly Natasha tries not to think about it too much.]

There's at least three alternate universes that I've been able to track, including yours. It gets a little confusing after that.

Joy. Props for bothering to count, I guess.

[ Not that Tony hasn't done so, at least subconsciously, but he spends a lot of time dutifully not looking too far into it. What are the chances someone he thinks is from his universe is actually from somewhere just different enough - what if the future he's heard about isn't even his own?

That way lies madness. ]

At the end of the day, it just boils down to more Signatures to find. [ He peers into his nearly-empty mug and wonders if stress-drinking four cups of coffee in one sitting will raise the barista's eyebrow, then remembers he doesn't care. ] Hope you're prepared for a long haul in this place.

I've been in worse. [It's mild, but she sits back and folds her arms across her chest as she studies him.

From what it sounds like, he's still new to the idea of multiverse collisions. Which is weird, considering, but poking him further about their divergences doesn't seem like it's going to get them anywhere useful if he's already not handling it well.

Or he's just being dramatic.]

Seems like you've been here for a while.

[ Yeah, caves in Afghanistan and the like probably count as worse. Somehow that doesn't make him feel much more cheerful about the whole thing, though. ]

In the scale of geological time? Hardly. Long enough to be pissed off about it? For sure.

[Okay, definitely dramatic. Natasha doesn't bother to hide the eyeroll she gives in return.]

What's there to be pissed about? You're just stuck on an alien planet god knows where with no direct way of getting home. [She flashes him a quick, sharp smile.] Where's your sense of adventure?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( closed )

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject