wrathfulkhan | oh, this'll end well.

Howard grimaces; he's not exactly a fan of the situation or the circumstances, either. He's going to be even less of a fan when the truth about Gene and Tony's relationship comes to light.

He watches Tony take a sip of his tea. Tony's definitely agitated. "Are you sure he's reformed?" he asks, probably for the tenth time. There's a little hope in his voice, and a lot of suspicion. The kid had been a real piece of work, but...Gene had still been a kid, and Howard hadn't turned a blind eye to Zhang's parenting techniques. Maybe some time spent here, away from Zhang and all that destiny bullshit, had mellowed him out a little.

"Yes. Definitely," Tony replies, for also probably the tenth time. The words are a bit hasty, but it's more impatience than it is anxiety. He's been telling his dad about Gene for days, trying to convince him that he's reformed - the whole point of this meeting is so Howard can see it for himself, because Tony hasn't been able to convince him. Not completely, anyway.

Tony sighs. "You'll see. He's totally different now." As if the tenth repetition is going to magically be more compelling than the first nine.

Well excuse him for wanting the reassurance. He sighs.

"I'm sorry, Tony, I know I keep asking. But it's just...it's hard to believe. It's only been a week since the invasion, for me. And you two have been here for years..." He trails off. "I guess I'll believe it better when I see it." He's never been one to take things on faith.

"I know," Tony says, running his fingers through his hair. He's just irritable because he's stressed out. "Sorry."

He takes another sip of his tea and stares down into his mug. "I know it's asking a lot, for you to give him another chance," he continues quietly. "But when you got back, you were the one who told me not to go after him. Because hurting him back wouldn't fix what he'd done to hurt us. And I want..."

Tony looks up at his dad again. "We were friends, back in school. Even when he was just using me to get to the rings, we... we really did get along. It wasn't all a lie." He fumbles through the words, struggling to phrase this in a way that doesn't make it sound like he's just making excuses for Gene. "I'm not saying I don't blame him for what he did. But... there's no way to punish him here for what he did back home, and punishing him wouldn't change it anyway. I guess I want this to be a chance to do something better. To try to fix things, instead of just getting back at him."

And that? Is exactly the rationale Howard had been looking for.

He hadn't wanted Tony to be pushing him to forgive Gene solely because he's the only other familiar face around here, he'd wanted another reason. He'd wanted proof the other boy had been working to turn himself around. And he's relieved, deep down, that Tony had been able to see the person behind the mask of Mandarin, the persona of the last of the Khans. Howard had seen the mask slip rarely enough, seen the child hurting beneath it, failing miserably, and turning to cold villainy to salve his wounds.

"Ending the cycle," Howard says, and nods. "Okay. I can accept that." Now I just have to see if he's really made himself worth this second chance.

Tony relaxes a little, and actually manages a tentative smile. "Right."

Something like that, anyway. 'Ending the cycle of violence' is a perfectly good rationale, and for now, that's the only rationale Howard needs to know about. The 'wanting to get into Gene's pants' one can wait. Preferably forever.

But Tony tries to steer away from that line of thought, lest his guilt show in his expression. Think chaste thoughts, Tony. Chaste thoughts. Stay on topic.

"Thanks for doing this, Dad."

Oh, Tony. Nothing lasts forever. Especially not keeping your relationship secret from your eagle-eyed dad.

"Of course," Howard says, and takes a drink of his own tea. "It'll be interesting to see how he's changed." If he's changed. Howard's no fool - he knows Gene's got the ability to control people - but he also knows Gene's been here for a while, and at least he'd been prepared for this meeting.

He wants to be able to believe the best of Gene. He hopes Tony is right.

And speak of the devil himself - here he comes. Gene's approaching slowly, his hands at his sides and notably unadorned. The rings are still on the string around his neck - he's not that comfortable - but he's not stupid enough to show up to the meeting armed, as it were.

"Hey, Tony," he says, his body language a little stiffer than usual, and then he turns to Howard, his tone subdued. "Mr. Stark."

That alone is a change in the form of address. It's a little weird, for Gene to be showing his belly, as it were, but he knows where he stands with Tony, and he has to make nice.

"Hey, Gene." Tony smiles - brightly, out of habit, before he remembers who their audience is and tones it down a little. "I got you a tea." He slides the mug over to the empty seat at the table. They're all going to need about a gallon of calming tea before this is over.

That was a friendlier greeting than Howard would have expected. But, Tony has been here a while, and he's had a chance to better get to know this New and Improved Keeliai-Model Gene. Maybe he's not so bad after all.

It's clear Gene's uncomfortable, though. "Gene," Howard says, nodding at him, and indicates the chair - permission to sit.

Riiiight. Gene smiles at Tony, and it's genuine, if brittle. It's hard not to return one of Tony's smiles; he has to admit to himself, he's still a bit smitten. "Thanks." He nods again when he returns his attention to Howard, and takes the offered seat, curling his hands around the mug, his shoulders straight. But it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to tell they'd practically be up around his ears if he didn't keep such tight control over himself.

"It's...good to see you," Gene says to Howard after a moment. "And I should probably apologize for what I did. I know that doesn't fix anything. But I'm sorry all the same."

Look! Look at how penitent he is!

This is going great so far! So, uh... what is Tony supposed to do? Is he just here to mediate? Is he supposed to contribute? He hadn't really thought things through in that much detail.

"Gene's been heading the construction project. The one that I showed you," Tony blurts, apropos of nothing. But that's a positive thing Gene's done, right? This is helpful, right? Tony's totally helping.

Tony, you're here to make sure they don't kill each other. And maybe to advocate for them to make nice.

"Oh, really?" Howard asks pleasantly. Pleasantly surprised, even.

"I can't take all the credit," Gene demurs, which in and of itself may seem strange for him. "I just did my best to get everything lined up properly with the family heads to demolish the old Palace."

What? Modesty? From the self-proclaimed rightful ruler of the world and all that old shit? Gene really has changed; mellowed out, at least.

"Yeah, but you've been running the show," Tony insists.

"Nobody else would have gotten anything done if you hadn't gotten everything lined up and kept the project on track. And the family heads aren't easy to work with." A fact that Tony is all too familiar with.

"You got the ball rolling and... you know, kept the peace. Nobody got too pissed off, and the construction has been going great."

Edited 2015-05-12 03:28 (UTC)

Howard continues looking at Gene as if he is a particularly interesting wild animal - fascinating enough, but not something he wants to be closer to than necessary.

"Good to hear that you're turning your skills to some good use."

Gene smiles, and it's a bit strained. "I always knew I had it in me to be something other than what I was. And look. Here I am. Half-managing a construction project and trying to keep everyone from being at everyone else's throats."

Yeah, how's that last part working our for you, Gene?

Tony wonders if he's imagining the passive-aggressive tone of that last exchange. Probably not. The tension in the air is still thick enough to fortify a bunker, which is coincidentally something Tony kind of wishes he had right now.

"And you took care of Kalliel," Tony prompts. "You should tell him about Kalliel."

Bunkers will not save you from these munitions, Tony.

"Kalliel?" Despite himself, he's intrigued.

Gene nods at Tony, as if to say, 'good idea'.

"Back before we were trapped in the Dreaming, there were hatchlings on the turtle. Big hatchlings; Kalliel was the size of a van the last time I saw him. They'd pick out a few people to look after them, and...he picked me. It's a psychic thing, we don't have any control over it. If they pick you, you're picked. I took care of him for a few months, until we had to go fight Malicant." He shakes his head. "They all left in a pod, and they're somewhere out there in the ocean. I can feel that he's still there, and still safe, if I really concentrate."

For further clarification, Tony contributes, "They're hatchlings of the same giant turtle species we're on right now. And they not just animals - they could talk to us psychically. Just like regular, non-giant-reptile kids." He chuckles timidly. "It was a big deal, because they're almost extinct, and turtles are what make up all the landmass on this planet. Everybody thought this turtle was the last one until the hatchlings showed up."

See, Howard? That's a big responsibility! And Gene didn't fuck it up. That's a pretty compelling character reference, right?

Compelling enough. At least, if Gene didn't mess up Kalliel the way he'd been broken. Howard's had a taste of Gene's 'care' - he can only hope, for the endangered turtle's sake, that Kalliel hadn't been subjected to the same fate.

"How do you take care of a giant psychic turtle?" This sounds like the lead-up to a bad joke, Howard knows.

The punchline of that joke is 'carefully'; it also happens to be the truth.

"Making sure he was fed and socialized, mostly," Gene says. "It's a big job. Most of the turtles started out with two or three people to take care of them. By the time we went to fight Malicant, I was the only one left to take care of Kalliel."

He really hopes the turtle hadn't felt abandoned. He's not sure if he'll ever know.

And the less said about the turtles that were murdered, the better.

"Yeah, he ate even more than I do." It's a joke! To lighten the mood! Ha ha!

"We had to protect them from Malicant's cultists, too," Tony continues. "Things got pretty rough, by the end - but saving the turtles was as important as beating Malicant." Gene may not have volunteered for that responsibility, but he'd seen it through.

Howard smiles a little at the joke before looking serious again. "Sounds like a tall order. And it looks like you did both. Good job, Gene."

And this just happened in Gene's brain.

"Uh. Thank you?" he says, extremely nonplussed. "I just wish they were still here. They deserve to see Keeliai without it being under the shadow of Malicant."

Tony stares at his dad for a couple seconds, suddenly wondering if he comes from the bizarro version of their universe.

"...Right," he says, when he's (mostly) gotten over his shock. "Yeah. Yes. He, uh, did great." Tony smiles at both of them. This is going much better than he expected.

"And he's sorry about kidnapping you. And... everything else."

Tony fidgets with his teacup and blushes slightly. That was maybe pushing things ahead a little too quickly. He really hopes he didn't ruin it.

Gene winces when Tony brings the kidnapping up - he'd wanted to mention it himself, give Howard a little more time to get used to him, before properly broaching the subject. Howard hadn't really responded earlier - maybe that had been a polite dismissal. Maybe not.

"I know it was wrong now. I think I knew it was wrong then, but I didn't care. I was so caught up in what I thought was my destiny that I didn't care who got hurt."

The implication being that now he does.

"Hm."

Tony's really pushing for them to make up. On the one hand, Howard can see it, since they're the only people Tony has from home and he would ostensibly like to make sure they're not about to kill each other. On the other hand...Tony's really pushing it. He sure would like to know why his son and Gene are suddenly so cozy.

Howard's demeanor has gotten a whole lot colder, and all of that chill is directed at Gene.

Oops. Too far. Tony glances nervously between Gene and Howard and slouches in his chair a little, unconsciously retreating (insofar as retreat is possible).

"I think... a lot of people here made mistakes back home," he says, quiet and uncertain, when the silence starts to get awkward. "Maybe some big ones." A lot of the foreigners keep their backstories quiet, but it's pretty obvious that when Eshai's spell summoned 'warriors,' it wasn't too discriminating on which side they'd been fighting for.

"But we've all been mostly working together, trying to help this world. Whatever people did back in their worlds, they get a second chance here. And... the people they hurt in their worlds are never going to get to see that. They won't get to see how people have changed, and the good we've done here. Except— except us. You're here, and I'm here, and Gene's here, so..." So they have a rare opportunity to work through their grievances from home, and maybe begin to set things right. It's not an opportunity many foreigners get.

Tony takes another anxious sip of tea, not making eye contact with his dad. This is really stressful.

Gene looks down at his drink, at that. It's better if he just doesn't say anything here. He knows that he's not his own best advocate where Howard is concerned. And he really can't say he's surprised.

"Okay," Howard says, in a way that makes it sound like 'okay' doesn't necessarily mean all is copacetic.

"Do you think that's why you're here, and I'm here, Tony? For a second chance?" Howard knows he hasn't kept his nose the cleanest in his life. He's made a lot of mistakes, too. He just doesn't like being called on them by some intrauniversal whateverthefuck.

Well, shit. That took a quick left turn into 'this is not the conversation I signed up for' territory.

Tony looks startled, and then uncomfortable - or, more uncomfortable. "I... I don't think that was the point of the spell. I just always figured we got pulled in from when we did because blowing up the Makluan FTL drive caused some kind of spatio-temporal event that made it easier for the spell to grab us." No judgement by intrauniversal whateverthefuck necessary.

"But people can get away from their pasts, here," he continues cautiously. "It's a good place to start over." Except for the part about sometimes randomly getting pulled back to your own world. Details, details. "There are a lot of opportunities to help out the kedan and do something good for this world. Anybody can... give themselves a second chance. If they want it."

oh, this'll end well. | tushanshu

that is an amazing goddamned icon

isn't it?

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