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[expatriates]

username: LATRODECTUS

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[expatriates]

[ It stings in a surprising way. Of course Cap is important to her, but to be called on it directly after Cap shut her down and wouldn't give her any more information about where he was, how Bucky went back under the ice, after she learned that he'd withheld information about the Winter Soldier targeting the Starks ...

Topsy turvy.

She doesn't let him hear how it affects her beyond a flinching pause in her reply. ]

Tony only wishes he had the technology to clone a god. [ He'd probably remake himself in Thor's image, more like. It's too easy to imagine. She decides to ignore it and surge forward with— ] What happened to Steve after the SRA was signed?

[ Steve, not Tony, because she cares, dammit, and caring makes you desperate. ]

[selfimage]

[ a mess. more than a mess. her admission gives him a little relief: at least that path couldn't be followed.

there's no reason to skew the truth, to weave a web of exaggeration and omission, instead he tells her what he knows. being dead at the time didn't give him first hand experience, but the way that his prior incarnation had used circumstances to his advantage, he may as well have. ]

Well, let's see, do bear with me with this ... there was an event that rushed through the SRA, one known as the Stamford Incident, where a superhero group known as the New Warriors accidentally set off an event that killed over six-hundred people. The SRA meant to force transparency, much to the displeasure of many, including Captain America. All those who didn't comply became fugitives, were hunted down and, and of course, imprisoned in another dimension.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but, ah—Clor was unleashed around then, and more people were killed. It went on and on, heroes fighting each other, more people hurt, more damage done. In the end that was why Captain American finally conceded. He was set for trial and Stark imprisoned him, before he was assassinated by the Red Skull.

[ there's a pause, then Loki adds: ]

He came back, eventually, but the harm was beyond repair.

[expatriates]

[ It hurts more than she guessed it would, hearing that Steve had died. In fact, for a moment, it all feels surreal, as though Loki is simply playing a prank, as though this other universe is the lie that Steve and Tony want to believe that it is. But Natasha trades in lies, and she knows that lies are prettier than this. ]

Rogers gave the U.N. the slip, and Red Skull has been dead for over seventy years. [ Loki has been believed dead for a while now too, though, so Natasha knows as she says it that dead doesn't always mean dead in this business. After all, HYDRA had survived like a cockroach, with or without the Red Skull. ] You'll be happy to know your brother stayed out of the whole thing.

[selfimage]

Ah—good and bad, some things are better with Thor there. You can see what happens when he's absent. He didn't take too well to being cloned and used as a living weapon against those he considered friends. There was quite a lot to make up for, on Stark's end.

[ he does, however, allow himself sound a little relived. ]

Some events never lead good places.

[expatriates]

[ Maybe not. Natasha thinks of what she lost in the fallout. Steve's alive (so far), yes, but the Avengers aren't, so isn't the effect the same? ]

I'm sure it won't be a problem, given present attitudes, but I want to make sure we're on the same page: You can't tell them any of this.

[ As much as he likes to pretend that he hates Steve for what he'd done, Tony wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of starting the ball rolling on the events that led to his death. ]

[selfimage]

[ there's a long pause that says that he's still sore. both with Stark's accusations that he's torn a rift and their world and is by proxy responsible for this, and Captain America's insistence that he's a threat. ]

...

Would they believe me, if I told them? They're looking for someone to fight, I just seem to have a large, multiversal target on my back that they're aiming for.

[expatriates]

Probably not.

[ There's some chagrin there, but empathy too. ]

If your only impetus to do something is to get a certain reaction, you might want to reassess your motives. Otherwise, you'll be pretty disappointed in how this "Good Loki" thing works out long term.

[selfimage]

"Good Loki" is a bit reaching.

[ he admits without hesitation or self-depreciation. the line between good and evil was already too grey for him, and good brought some comparisons in nobility to Thor that he'd rather not repeat. once their father had posted them apart (or in Loki's mind, he had posted them apart) as contrary players. they were never that, and Loki refuses to fit the expectations of any meaning of the term. ]

Honestly—honestly?—I'll settle for "Loki that doesn't hurt people anymore."

[ which means he'll lie and steal, be an annoying probe and amuse himself with reactions.

but he wouldn't go that far ever again. ]

I'm still Loki after all. I have a role to play, I just have to make a damn good story of it.

[expatriates]

Well, that's much more believable.

[ Her tone is so dry and placid that it's nearly impossible to tell that she's joking, ribbing the overdramatic reactions of Steve and Tony's testosterone-fueled posturing. ]

[selfimage]

Never believe anything they say about old dogs and new tricks.

[ he adds as a last note. ]

Though I don't like the term dog, myself ...

[ it reminds him of All-Mother's lapdog, and the little woof that accompanies his calling card. ]

[expatriates]

If we're throwing out cliches, I should probably point out that beggars can't be choosers. [ And his current standing with the Avengers—she grits her teeth to suffer the sting of not counting herself among them—certainly makes him that. ] You're lucky. As long as you keep your hands clean, Stark and Rogers should keep each other too busy for either one of them to make a preemptive move against you. [ If anyone did, she reasons to herself, it would be Tony. He's all about preemptive strikes. ] So whatever role it is you're playing, I hope it plays well with ours.

[ She doesn't give him the chance to counter because she just lets the feed cut then, closing the book on this very weird ? ? ? ?? interaction. Sometimes it's hard to ignore the way her skin crawls on principle. ]