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[billionaires]

𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓪𝓵 𝓽𝓮𝔁𝓽

𝓿𝓲𝓿𝓪𝓬𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓿𝓸𝓲𝓬𝓮𝓶𝓪𝓲𝓵

𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓬𝔂 𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷

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[valuedstrength]

[Continuing from here!!! Steve shrugs helplessly.] I can't verify every single person. I can say that most have.

[billionaires]

So it's only a matter of time before I catch it.

[ is it better or worse to know your own fate? he never could come up with an answer to that one. his sense of organization and logic dictates that he'd want to know, but he is a man who hates being any less than his 100%. 200% even, if it's a meaningless figure mathematically. ]

What are the symptoms? How long have you had it?

[ sorry steve you're now his patient zero and he must study you. ]

[valuedstrength]

[Steve frowns deeply. He doesn't want to go there. He mentally can't since it brings up too many bad memories. He can only hope Tony will be immune to it.] Typical cold symptoms. Right now I'm more on the exhausted and aching side of things than the sneezing and coughing. I've seen a lot of that. I got it not too long after the post from that guy. Here.

[Steve will helpfully pull that up for him.]

[billionaires]

[ he leans over a giant bicep to read the post. oh that doesn't sound great. ]

You wouldn't think a genius would hate knowing stuff, but right now I super do.

[valuedstrength]

Knowledge is power. [Steve parrots. He may have gone on a Youtube binge to get up on pop culture. It got weird pretty fast.]

At least now I know how to get a hold of our captor. [Yeah he passive aggressived his way into that one.]

action. set after reuniting with bucky.

[valuedstrength]

[It is hard to convince Bucky to give him the space to do this. He gets it, of course. Steve is sick. Bucky thought they were past all that. He has a right to be worried, doesn't he? After nearly being killed by him once and being evaded for six months, the whole thing seems too easy. All he had to do to win him back was fall ill? Really?

Steve doesn't know what to make of it. All he does know he needs to make the most of the opportunity. One thing he knows is that Bucky is better at this than him. Steve won't see him coming if he changes his mind. He's got a lot of ground to cover with his roommate. Steve doesn't have time to make it sound effortlessly pretty. He comes into their shared room with only a quick knock as warning. Regardless of what Tony is up to, he holds up his hand to stop him and quickly shuts the door behind him.]

We need to talk quickly. I fucked up. We need to talk about how before anything else happens.

[billionaires]

[ he hears the door creak and indeed opens his mouth to launch into a rant. he has u's panel open, "tinkering" as the bot hangs there listlessly and dum-e whirs around like an anxious sibling. his jaw snaps shut at the abrupt order steve deals him, but as he moves to stand up a big sneeze overtakes him. he manages to smother it against his sleeve but when he looks up at the other man it's with red-ringed eyes and misery. ]

Are you sure I'm the right audience for this? [ can you blame him for being skeptical? steve has never said something like that to him before. bald, self-effacing. if he weren't so sick he'd be scared. ]

[valuedstrength]

This might have to do with your dad so yes. I think you're the right audience for this. [Steve snaps immediately. His expression quickly softens. He's got a lot of shaky ground to cover here. He shouldn't be taking out his frustration and fear on Tony. He approaches gently and offers one of the many tissues stuffed in his pocket as a peace offering.]

I never told you what happened after the helicarriers were knocked out of the sky. Do you know what I was doing? [He knows Tony can get into stuff. It wouldn't shock him to know Tony was well aware that Cap was in the hospital with life threatening injuries that were very clearly given by assassin(s).]

[billionaires]

Howard?

[ he frowns at the tone, but numbly accepts the tissue anyway, pressing it to his nose and looking down a second. ]

I, uh- might've checked up.

[valuedstrength]

Okay. [He nods. How can Steve be mad? He's the jerk in this. He's keeping secrets that could change the team forever because he doesn't have evidence supposedly. If Steve is honest with himself and right now he is due to his fear and sickness, he's scared of what Tony will do. It's easier to say nothing until it's not.

Steve knows he can't live with what could go wrong if he's quiet about this.] All those injuries came from one guy. They called him the Winter Soldier. During that mess, before I ever really fought the guy, an old enemy of mine implied he was responsible for your father's death. I thought it was a distraction, and it was, but I also think it's the truth. I just can't prove it.

[He's getting to where this is relevant to now. Steve is waiting to see if Tony is still with him.]

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[hackedhistory]

[It was their fault.

It was their fault.

Zari's had failures before. The Legends can screw things up on the daily. They almost always fuck things up before they get it right, but they've never destroyed something so completely, at least not while she's been a member of the team. They've never collapsed an entire world trying to help.

Even when she was working for HATHAWAY, they never destroyed an entire world. They might have left things in a bit of shambles in Drakstaden, but the people were alive. They could rebuild in what was left behind. Akvos was just gone.

There's a tightness in her chest that pushes her up and away from the temple itself, heading towards the trees and the lake as though that kind of space will alleviate the pressure. She doesn't even really see Tony as she pushes past him, needing space to breathe and try and process this in a way that will help her function again. Princess Kea had been right next to her, using her communicator to try and coordinate things, what if she had just reached out and grabbed her.

What if they had stayed behind, stayed out of the rift, tried to find another way(, left the mermen to die? Could she really have lived with that any more than the end result)?

She doesn't know. But right now, the end result is untenable, and she doesn't know how they're ever going to manage to fix this.]

[billionaires]

[ the avengers are much the same. hell, that's probably why he's out here instead of in the temple with everyone else. when a familiar figure flits by him, he doesn't hesitate to follow her, not trying to be sneaky but kind of sneaking up on her anyway??? sorry. ]

Zari? [ is his concerned ask from literally right next to her. again, yikes, sorry. he didn't mean it!!!! ]

[hackedhistory]

[She does jump, the anchor of her own thoughts dragging her into a place where she doesn't want to be so in a way, she's grateful when Tony drags her back into the present. At the same time, that doesn't force the look of horror on her face to fade, or stop the words from falling from her lips:]

We did that.

[billionaires]

[ it doesn't take tony long to catch on, tony's expression growing dark as clouds gather over their heads. between how tired he is and how much he's learned to control his ability however, no rain falls. yet. ]

Did we? 'Cause from where I'm standing we were sent without any backup into a losing battle.

[hackedhistory]

It may not have been intentional, but I guess we ... overloaded the rift somehow. We upset the balance and it took both kingdoms down with it.

[The person delivering the message to her made it seem like they could have stopped it if they just had more information, and maybe she should be angrier with that, but right now, she can't help but think she should have known better.]

[efficacy]

[ Pepper hates this. God, how she hates this. She doesn't think she's ever been more frazzled and out of place ever before in her life as she is now, stranded onboard this hulk of a derelict spaceship. She has a whole new understanding of Tony's anxiety and fobias now, that's for sure. On top of the fact that she's absolutely useless in this setting, possessing no special skill or talent to help repair the ship nor explore its bowels, Pepper feels particularly crotchety. She hates these jumpsuits, hates the constant thirst and absolutely despises feeling so filthy with no access to toiletries, clean clothes nor water in such quantities as to allow a decent shower. She's braided her hair tightly in effort to keep it from going greasy so quickly with that fact in mind.

Shivering, Pepper suppresses the urge to wrap her arms around herself for warmth-- it's so cold in space she's freezing all the time. Instead, she sorts through the pile of supplies she's collected from the mess hall, from the common pools of random stuff that people have been finding from the nooks and crannies of the ship. Every woman and man for themselves, Pepper's decided; fuck Astoria's intentions. It's not like they were the only ones hoarding items for later use, who's to say how long they were stuck here? (Not long, she fervently hopes.) ]

Here, [ she says, handing Tony a bar of soap and... a switchblade. The most romantic of all gifts, clearly!! She brushes her bangs from her eyes and tries to ignore her oily forehead -- what she wouldn't give for a face cleanser! -- returning to the task of sorting through the things she's piled onto one of the pod beds in their room. At least these terrible jumpsuits have big pockets for carrying quite a few items in them. This is something productive she can do, at least, trying not to pay attention to the fact that she's effectively been demoted from a CEO to a scavenger, basically. ]

I got some first aid supplies, bandages and antiseptic... and these are-- [ she picks one a few of the silver packages and studies it closely. ] dried fruit, I think. It's not much, but still nicer than that goo.

[billionaires]

[ she really will adapt in any scenario and though he's been busy working on the electricity issue with zari, he still feels like pepper is coping much better than himself. her veritable mountain of trash is quite impressive as well, and he takes the items on offer like they're the best things he's ever seen. ]

Have I told you how beautiful you look today?

[efficacy]

[ Pepper huffs, a sound caught between a laugh and a scoff. With her oily, makeup-free face, hair in a tight french braid and wearing a drab jumpsuit that's a size too big on her, she feels anything but beautiful. The only flawless thing about her is the shiny, burgundy nail polish on her fingers, still miraculously unchipped through her misadventures.

But his words still screw her lips up into a fond smirk in spite of herself, a warm sparkle in her eyes even though she does her best to give him the look. ]

No, because that would make you a liar.

[billionaires]

Come on, when have I ever lied to you.

[ tony, you literally do it all the time. he rushes to tack on: ]

You really are gorgeous. [ to his credit it's obvious he believes it ]

[efficacy]

[ She arches a brow and purses her lips against another smirk of amusement. Does he really want her to answer that.... ]

Well. Thank you. [ Now she has to look away, abashed by that earnestness even after all these years. ]

I guess you're pretty cute, yourself.

[ She guesses!! Now who's the liar. ]

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[hackedhistory]

Have you seen Sara?

[billionaires]

No. Why? Have you seen Sara?

[ obviously not... ] When's the last time you saw her? And where??

[hackedhistory]

It's been a couple days. She checked in with food, and said she was going exploring, and I was working on the bridge but she's not responding to any of the messages I've sent out.

[billionaires]

Search party?

[hackedhistory]

Yeah, if you don't mind helping.