[There's a sort of bitter look on Tony's face in response to what Charles is immediately saying. It's funny, really. He'd looked at Erik's post, at what replies he could see, until they mysteriously vanished into private conversations. And he's sure as hell that Charles had been playing clean up all over it. But that's not really the point. The point is, what he saw there? He saw a man who was pissed, sure, but a man who was playing the other people responding.
Erik Lensherr would make a damn good politician.
Tony wouldn't, because he just doesn't give enough of a shit to play people that way. He gets bored and moves on to the next line of business. Erik was pissed, to a point, sure. Tony had seen and expected that. But the fact that Charles was the one who'd burst in here, punched him in the face, and proceeded to lecture him? The fact that Erik hadn't beaten him here, ripped Tony's arc reactor out of his chest, and left him gasping for breath on the floor, dying with every strangled beat of his heart? He's been playing ball with politicians, reporters, psychopaths for all of his adult life.
He kind of wonders when Charles is going to realize his friend is even more of an asshole than he seems at a glance.
But instead of saying anything, of baiting the conversation, making everything worse. Tony's taking a path of action he honestly never takes anymore. Only takes when he really wants to. When it's no longer about posturing or pissing people off. Where it's not about getting people to pass him off and leave him alone, let him do what he wants to do with no questions asked. He's listening, eyes intent and focused, his hands still where they're draped over the back of the chair. No nervous ticks, no tapping out rhythms and binary against the back of the chair. No shifting or spacing out as he runs through programs and codes in his head, diverting just a portion of his concentration on what's actually being said.
No, this is something he's interested in. Something he actually cares about. Sure, they don't have "mutants" back home that he knows of. But. He has a reactor in his chest, has plans dancing around in his head of binding chips to his bones, rerouting his mind to turn it into a biological computer, turning his body into a literal extension of the suit. Captain America was the world's first superhuman, changed with chemistry to be beyond normal. Bruce Banner was exposed to radiation, becomes a nearly unstoppable green rage monster when he gets pissed. And Thor? He's an actual God. A god who had prompted SHIELD command to develop a nuclear counterstrike, just in case his people decided to make Earth their next happy battleground.
There's the capability, in his world, for what Charles is talking about. There's the same capability for fear and hatred and discrimination. He could already imagine the public's response to the Avengers, back home. Could already imagine the distrust and hatred of this group of "superhumans". What they could manage to do if someone didn't slap a leash on them and keep them under control. He could imagine stock drops, laws that would pop up, regulations. People fear what they can't understand, they fear what's not normal. And people's reaction to fear was usually to destroy the source of it. To, no matter what it took, stamp it out of existence. In any goddamn way possible.
Tony may be an asshole. And he might be stuck on this goddamn ship as an inmate, someone a hair's bredth away from insane. A danger to himself and others, apparently. But damn if he's not every inch the philanthropist he brags himself to be. Damn if he doesn't give every inch of himself to the people of the world. To peace and equality, the halt of crimes and hunger, the production of affordable medication to third world countries. Sacrifices his life, his safety, time and time again just to personally be the man in the suit. To make sure it's being used for good, for what he'd designed it for.
Wanda had accused him of not being a hero, as well as a lot of other things. And he could take those other things, could square his shoulders and let the judgement fall, it was what he was good at. But not being a hero?
In some regards, she was right. But in this, in trying to make the world a better place, a safer place. In what Charles is describing on the beach, the problems mutants face at the hands of people who don't understand. In understanding the actual root of Erik's issues?
In the face of things like this, Tony Stark would rather hang up his suit, than not try and act like a hero.]
Show me. [He says, almost as soon as Charles finishes speaking. His eyes are still just as serious, his expression still set and determined.] You don't think I can get it, right? The guys firing missiles on you because they were scared, didn't get what was going on. Auschwitz, too. I don't care about whatever happened to Lensherr personally, skip that. But the general feel of it.
[He's sitting up straighter now, still determined.]
Show me, and we'll see if what I think of him changes.
spam
Erik Lensherr would make a damn good politician.
Tony wouldn't, because he just doesn't give enough of a shit to play people that way. He gets bored and moves on to the next line of business. Erik was pissed, to a point, sure. Tony had seen and expected that. But the fact that Charles was the one who'd burst in here, punched him in the face, and proceeded to lecture him? The fact that Erik hadn't beaten him here, ripped Tony's arc reactor out of his chest, and left him gasping for breath on the floor, dying with every strangled beat of his heart? He's been playing ball with politicians, reporters, psychopaths for all of his adult life.
He kind of wonders when Charles is going to realize his friend is even more of an asshole than he seems at a glance.
But instead of saying anything, of baiting the conversation, making everything worse. Tony's taking a path of action he honestly never takes anymore. Only takes when he really wants to. When it's no longer about posturing or pissing people off. Where it's not about getting people to pass him off and leave him alone, let him do what he wants to do with no questions asked. He's listening, eyes intent and focused, his hands still where they're draped over the back of the chair. No nervous ticks, no tapping out rhythms and binary against the back of the chair. No shifting or spacing out as he runs through programs and codes in his head, diverting just a portion of his concentration on what's actually being said.
No, this is something he's interested in. Something he actually cares about. Sure, they don't have "mutants" back home that he knows of. But. He has a reactor in his chest, has plans dancing around in his head of binding chips to his bones, rerouting his mind to turn it into a biological computer, turning his body into a literal extension of the suit. Captain America was the world's first superhuman, changed with chemistry to be beyond normal. Bruce Banner was exposed to radiation, becomes a nearly unstoppable green rage monster when he gets pissed. And Thor? He's an actual God. A god who had prompted SHIELD command to develop a nuclear counterstrike, just in case his people decided to make Earth their next happy battleground.
There's the capability, in his world, for what Charles is talking about. There's the same capability for fear and hatred and discrimination. He could already imagine the public's response to the Avengers, back home. Could already imagine the distrust and hatred of this group of "superhumans". What they could manage to do if someone didn't slap a leash on them and keep them under control. He could imagine stock drops, laws that would pop up, regulations. People fear what they can't understand, they fear what's not normal. And people's reaction to fear was usually to destroy the source of it. To, no matter what it took, stamp it out of existence. In any goddamn way possible.
Tony may be an asshole. And he might be stuck on this goddamn ship as an inmate, someone a hair's bredth away from insane. A danger to himself and others, apparently. But damn if he's not every inch the philanthropist he brags himself to be. Damn if he doesn't give every inch of himself to the people of the world. To peace and equality, the halt of crimes and hunger, the production of affordable medication to third world countries. Sacrifices his life, his safety, time and time again just to personally be the man in the suit. To make sure it's being used for good, for what he'd designed it for.
Wanda had accused him of not being a hero, as well as a lot of other things. And he could take those other things, could square his shoulders and let the judgement fall, it was what he was good at. But not being a hero?
In some regards, she was right. But in this, in trying to make the world a better place, a safer place. In what Charles is describing on the beach, the problems mutants face at the hands of people who don't understand. In understanding the actual root of Erik's issues?
In the face of things like this, Tony Stark would rather hang up his suit, than not try and act like a hero.]
Show me. [He says, almost as soon as Charles finishes speaking. His eyes are still just as serious, his expression still set and determined.] You don't think I can get it, right? The guys firing missiles on you because they were scared, didn't get what was going on. Auschwitz, too. I don't care about whatever happened to Lensherr personally, skip that. But the general feel of it.
[He's sitting up straighter now, still determined.]
Show me, and we'll see if what I think of him changes.