11th Command; Video

[aggravating]

[Hey guys. Hey. Guys. Was Tony kickass in that Port or what? Yeah, that's right. He was.

And he is totally lording it over all of your heads for the rest of time.]

So, uh, for the record. We should probably have some sort of actual sane plan for situations like that. Like. The Bargites Guide to Surviving Alien Kidnappings. First chapter: Listen to the Locals and Don't Rush the Aliens.

[And, almost as an afterthought:]

And in case anyone knew her, Pepper Potts went home.

Comments

[Telepathy]

[aggravating]

[If anything else, Charles should know by now that Tony knows torture. It was right there in his file, underneath the stuff on his parents, the general background. It was always written right there in big, bold letters. Afghanistan. Missing three months. Held captive by terrorist group known as The Ten Rings. Injuries sustained: lacerations to chest and shoulder, burns, bruises, damage to heart and chest cavity. He couldn't run from it, could never get away from it. Everyone knew, it had been headlines for months. He'd never faced it down, though. Never looked back. He'd taken what he needed to from the situation and used it to move forward. He'd never dealt with it.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knows what happened to humans taken by the Vanquish. Torture, experimentation, or forced to fight for their own entertainment. Sometimes a combination of the two, sometimes all three. He knew, he just didn't want to admit to it. Wanted to allow Charles to do what he needed to in order to deal with the situation. To suppress or bury for now, to act like everything was normal. God knows that Tony knows that feeling. Knows that, in a way, it works.

So he allows himself to relax, doing the mental equivalent of a shrug and calming himself down a bit, letting his appreciation for Charles' words bubble to the surface. A rare show of actual affection.]

Any way you can get Faith to lift my bar ban? [Oh yeah, sorry Charles. He kind of forgot to mention he's been called out for alcoholism...]

[Telepathy]

[wedonot]

[That rare show was appreciated, but it made answering the next question even harder. He knows he's not exactly been doing the best job at not enabling Tony so far, between actually drinking with him in the bar and not quite policing it as much as he should. So the answer, really, should be absolutely not, you're not going to touch anything alcoholic as long as I have anything to say about it.

But he really isn't in the mood for arguing right now. Holding himself together enough to converse with anyone is draining enough without saying you have a problem, you're never going to have access to alcohol again to someone who was very good at picking a fight.

And there was the fact that he didn't even know there had been a bar ban in place in the first place.

So, not entirely intentionally, not quite, he decided to go about this maybe a little manipulatively. Play dumb, get Tony to offer up a little more information, and play the I was just tortured for four days, I don't really want to talk about this card.]

I don't know. Did she explain why?

[Telepathy]

[aggravating]

[He knows.

He knows full well that Charles is tired, that something traumatic happened during the last port. He's not stupid, that much has been proven time and time again. A bit out of touch with human emotions and friendship, but Tony Stark is a genius. Too smart for his own good. And he knows that what he's doing is a dick move.

But that doesn't mean he's stopping. Doesn't mean he's taking back the question, the thread of affection. He's using it, the emotional connection to someone else, the responsibility Charles unfortunately had for him. Pushing it in his face, settling it on his shoulders in an attempt to break him, for him to look two problems in the face and realize that one has to go, one has to be forgotten, overlooked. And Tony is always the overlooked.

This time, he's playing it to his advantage.]

I might have been a bit of an ass a while back.

[The word alcoholic is being buried stubbornly under a pile of AC/DC trivia and conversational Persian right now.]

[Telepathy]

[wedonot]

[He wasn't sure if he should be angry or not. He didn't want to be. He was too tired and sick, and it wasn't something he could deal with, so he didn't. He mentally curled in on himself a little, protective, refusing to let Tony use his vulnerability to his advantage. That had happened enough this weekend already.]

Once I'm out of the infirmary, I'll speak with her. [He would, he meant it, although he wasn't going to be making any sort of promises about whether or not he'd actually get it lifted. Just because Tony was hiding the word didn't mean Charles couldn't think it on his own.

And he turned up the guilt card a little, letting some of the exhaustion and frustration filer through. It wasn't even really lying, he was just giving him more than he would have if the situation had been different.]

I don't think I'll be all that convincing right now, I'm afraid.