video » @LOKIOFASGARD

[ikols]

[ The recording shows Loki in a tall-backed chair, a faint green glow off-screen drawing his gaze now and then in the shadowy surroundings. Chinning a hand, he appears uncharacteristically sober, the way only a handful of people have witnessed, and his lips have lost their usual mischievous quirk.

Sighing as though this is a chore, he begins. His voice remains carefully level. ]

Tony Stark of Earth-616 has returned through the portal. I had his movements tracked via rune-magic in case he fell into a different dimension or was kidnapped into Hel-knows-where, that sort of thing tends to happen back home more often than not. But it seems, from what I can confirm from tracing his last steps, that they led him ... away from us.

[ His gaze falls to the mysterious glow, watching it from under hooded lashes instead of paying viewers any mind. ]

If anyone wants to claim his workshop in the perimeter guard headquarters, it's full of his last projects. Unfinished. I suggest our other-verse Starks take precedence over commandeering his mess to make use of it or throw it away.

[ Turning the phone around, the illumination reveals itself to be a ghostly green Tony going about his work on the other side of the desk, a conjured echo as the reality-bending god looks on with everyone else. Why Loki summoned it is unexplained, but he raises two fingers to brush aside the phantom with a gesture and it dissolves in an unearthly silent breeze. The workshop's lights remain off; Loki doesn't need them to see and he would rather hide his face. ]

I doubt he would mind, either way.

Comments

[buildsomething]

[Spells. Right. Somehow, Tony manages not to outwardly react to that, in favor of leaning in a little more to quickly read through what he can see of the coding sections.]

Can't speak to the magic integration stuff, but I can't definitely get the program running, yeah. Looks like it's pretty much complete, and he sent me some of this stuff to look at before.

[ikols]

[ A wan smile flits over his lips and his gaze wanders, keeping Stark in his peripheral vision. ]

He must have liked you, to work with you.

[ Tony never suffered fools gladly and always insisted on calling out any dubious games on Loki's part in order to keep the trust strong.

Until it broke, anyway. ]

I suppose I owe you one for this.

[buildsomething]

Liked might be overstating things. [Tony can't help but be dry about it. The other Stark certainly hadn't trusted him completely, and Tony can't entirely blame him for it.] But if there's anyone's work you know...

[He trails off into a shrug only to give Loki a slightly curious look.]

Owe me for what, making the thing work? Please. Like I'm just going to leave that stuff unfinished.

[ikols]

[ As Stark downplays the personal nature of Loki's requests, he nods and keeps it so. There's no point arguing, especially with any version of Tony. ]

Still, thanks. Victor will insist he doesn't want Anthony's suits and inventions but he wouldn't turn down any opportunity to absorb them into his possession and act casual about it. The same goes for these programs.

[buildsomething]

Right, that.

[He doesn't actually doubt it, though he does wonder what he's expected to do about the issue.]

I can take most of it to my own workshop. Or all of it, if the other Stark doesn't want any.

[ikols]

I don't trust the other Stark.

[ With a pointed look. ]

[buildsomething]

But you trust me?

[Okay, that's a genuine surprise, and it probably shows.]

[ikols]

I don't distrust you.

[ Hand on a hip, he considers the man before him and lets that be seen. ]

Take comfort in the knowledge that I don't believe you're the worst Stark in the Multiverse.

[buildsomething]

[That. Huh. Tony studies him for a moment, then nods once. He of all people can read beyond the flippancy.]

So I'll go through and note down anything that can be moved without blowing anybody up and we can decide what to do with the rest of it.

[ikols]

That sounds ... like a plan.

[ Tired as he is, his shoulders slump with relief for a moment. He squares them to offer a hand, meeting brown eyes with green. He misses the sharp electric-blue keenly. ]

Thank you, Tony.

[ Who has now graduated above the sea of other 'Stark's out there. ]

[buildsomething]

[He quirks a slight smile but reaches to take the offered hand.]

Thank me when we've gotten something done.