8th Command; Voice

[aggravating]

There's this old adage, Bargians. Secrets, secrets are no fun. Unless you are a part of one. I'd kind of like to add onto that for a minute. So, uh, bear with me.

There are a few things that yeah, they're supposed to be kept secret. No one and their aunt Martha care about your latest bowel movement or who you had a crush on in the third grade. Seriously, they don't. Unless you're loud, obnoxious, spray tan like hell every chance you have, and get into cat fights over who gets the last can of soda. Those are fine. As are the family secrets, things like divorces, fights. I'm not saying "Spill your guts, Bargites, 'cause it's just not faaaaaaair~!" Those aren't the types of secrets I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the secrets that have to do with someone else. If someone knows something about your future that, you know, might be good to know for your own peace of mind, your own well-being, then hey. What the hell are you keeping it from them for? Because I pretty much guarantee that when they find out - and they will - things will be even worse than you imagined.

And yeah, for the record? Lies of omission totally count.

[Private to Natasha]
Coulson's dead, huh? Or did Rogers leave that out of his debrief?

[Private to Arkady]
Gorgeous, I needed to be drunk yesterday.

[Private to Charles]
Give me a reason to actually keep giving a shit, Prof. Because apparently even if I work to come back to life now, I just die again later.

[Private to Steve]
So. Rogers.

Coulson's dead.

I flew a nuke into space.

Loki's a fucking supervillain.

Game over.

Comments

[Private]

[wedonot]

[Oh Christ Tony what is going on with you right now, DOES CHARLES NEED TO MINDWIPE SOMEONE.]

What happened?

[Private]

[aggravating]

I've been making friends with a supervillain. [There's... almost an edge of laughter to his voice right now]

And apparently Pepper's here because I end up dying. Again. Flying a nuke into space.

[He needs a drink. So. Fucking. Badly.]

[private]

[trenchcoatedly]

You don't worry telling someone their fate could ruin destiny?

[private]

[aggravating]

If it's going to happen, it'll happen anyway. Might as well be able to brace yourself for it.

Pretty sure this place doesn't care about destiny, anyway.

[most_feared]

The angel's right. One misplaced word can throw off a whole future.

[He knows this, and hates it.] Even things that have to happen even if you don't want them to.

[aggravating]

[Snapping at people is exposing too many things, right now. He's being too emotional. He was hit where it hurt and hit hard. Tony doesn't trust people easily, doesn't like most people, and after his dad raising Cap up on a pedestal... well.

So he's trying something else, trying a different approach, trying to get himself back under control, before he tells someone something really personal. (As if what he said to Castiel wasn't just that.)]

Is everyone on this ship an expert in destiny or temporal whatever?

Private;

[thestarspangledman]

There was never a game. If there was, I never wanted to play it.

...It wasn't my idea, not to tell you. I'm sorry.

Private;

[aggravating]

I get the nuke. I don't care about the nuke. I die like, once a year. It's how I'm here.

[Breathe, Tony, there's no- oh you know what, yes. Yes there is.

There is every point in snapping at Steve right now. Every goddamn point in the world.]

How did Coulson die?

[private]

[didknowthat]

[Hey this is how the private locks work, right? Pepper's not stupid.]

Tony, what's ... What's going on?

[private]

[aggravating]

[Pepper he could just kiss you - if he wasn't already on his way to Charles' room]

Nothing, it's- really nothing.

Just some jackasses deciding not to tell me a few really important things.

[timesbureaucrat]

A person might keep such a secret because for certain events, a deviation from the proper timeline can cause a massive rupture in reality, damaging paradoxes, and general chaos across the web of time.

And for other events, nothing happens and the universe continues to unfold with barely a hiccup. It takes an expert to know which is more likely to occur and so it's best for non-experts to avoid playing Russian Roulette with the timelines.

For the record, yes, I am an expert in temporal mechanics, and temporal intervention in particular.

[Private]

[persuadeyou]

[Uh-oh.]

What?

[Private]

[aggravating]

[Uh-oh is right, Nat.]

Coulson's dead, Loki's evil.

Did you know?

[plays]

Somebody had an unpleasant surprise today, hmm?

[aggravating]

That's putting it about fifty seven levels below what it's actually at. But, yeah.

[love_slave]

I know someone who knew about a very bad future, and could do nothing to change it. He suffered a lot during it, and knowing never made anything better.

I'm sorry your friends didn't tell you, though. I think I would have wanted to know, too.

Would you like me to bring you a drink? [She promises she won't try to sleep with you or anything. You just seem sad, Tony.]

[aggravating]

There's a difference between knowing and not wanting to know, and not knowing when you put a value on knowledge.

[What is with people and saying-] They're not my friends.

[Oops, slipped out in a non-private filter. Goddamnit.]

Scotch. Lots. And lots. Of scotch.

[lacksconviction]

...I wonder if your knowing this will change the future, when we two do meet.

[Loki's not going to pretend he wasn't lying for his own gain, but all these excuses about not changing the future are KIND OF INTERESTING TO HIM.]

Commit this circumstance to memory: When I am imprisoned by Shield, on their airship, after you have deduced that your government has been creating weapons to challenge the galaxy, forged from the power of the Tesseract? I will begin embarking on my escape. My servants will destroy one of the ships engines, your Doctor will betray himself to his monstrous urges, and your friend will come to the cell where I am being held.

That is when and where I killed him. A thing which for you has not yet come to pass.

It was an act of war, and necessary to my pursuit of freedom, but I feel no pride or attachment to having done it. Especially knowing as I do now, that it was to be for naught.

So stop me. When the time comes for you, use what you now know, and stop me.

[Private]

[persuadeyou]

[She wants to hunt him down and break his jaw for calling it necessary to murder her friend. What's worse is she understands what he's saying, and why, and hell, she'd probably play the same card. (She wants to punch him even harder.)

But she doesn't, she's calm and collected and zeroing in on him and shelving the massive fuck you feelings because that's what she does.]

And how do you benefit?

private;

[ichoosefight]

Are you okay? I mean, apart from being obviously pissed at what I can only assume is everyone from your home.

private;

[aggravating]

I'll be fine once I'm drunk.

And for the general record? Captain America's a dick.

[nakesnakecobracobra]

It's so amusing how everyone treats changing the future like it's such a bad thing.

[trenchcoatedly]

Do you have experience with this?

[thestarishere]

Well somebody's having a temper tantrum.

[Have an amused Ladd. Aww, poor baby.]

[aggravating]

Call it what you'd like, it's still a pretty fucking important point.

[omar]

Future is you die, man. If you lucky, it happen quick. If not... maybe I'd want to know, but not a lot of people who can stomach that kind of understandin', you feel me?

[aggravating]

Yeah, yeah. You either die without even realizing it, you get the long and drawn out one, or you're a incapacitated raisin wasting away in a room getting your diaper changed.

I don't care about people telling me I'm going to die. I've been dealing with that hanging over my head for almost a year, now.

I care about people keeping important information from me. Information I just so happen to give a crap about.

[Okay, dial it back, Tony. Frustration is starting to make actual emotions slip out, now.]

[can_has_vodka]

...right. Your place or the pub?

[private]

[aggravating]

[A little while later, after both Zev and Charles have given him a few drinks to start off the night]

Pub. I need to get out.

[ Video ]

[surfaceshine]

[Tony? Dean totally knows these feels. He's still not sure whether he really wishes the people who have freaking spoiled him for a demon-blood addicted brother, a Hellbound father, the fact that he himself is Hellbound, or that he starts the damn Apocalypse would've just shut their mouths or not, but he knows he should never have been in this position.

He's still not sure what to do with any of it, but he definitely knows how much it sucks. So he's not grinning, he's not joking, and he's certainly not about to begin emoting when he flips the feed on and offers seriously.]

Dude, sounds like you could use a beer. Or something stronger. [Because alcohol? Fixes everything.]

[ Video ]

[aggravating]

[Honestly? The lack of sappy sympathy and talk about his friends is really fucking appreciated right now. So appreciated, in fact, that Tony is latching onto it for his life.

... Even if, by now, he looks like he's had a few drinks already.]

Once I'm done at the pub, you're on. [He's scowling into a glass right now] Aiming for near alcohol poisoning, that's the kind of fucking day it's been.

[And woe unto the person who tries to stop him.]