st_arkravinghazelnut | Dog Days 2: The Doggening

“Right.” Iron Man put the sausage back on the plate before Tony could demand more, his jaws working to chew what he already had. “Is this weird? I could, you know—assume a more comfortable shape.”

"What's weird is thinking that there's two almost-identical Tony Starks out here." Thor glances down at the dog. "Physical differences aside."

Thor runs his hands idly over the Tony pup's fur. "What other shapes do you have?"

Iron Man unceremoniously popped his helmet off, walking a few steps as a headless body to set it down on the table beneath a vanity. The dark eyes flickered to life—projecting a holographic image of Tony Stark himself, dressed plainly in his Black Sabbath t-shirt ensemble. The display made Tony’s furry ears prick up.

“There we are.” The image of Tony dusted himself off and pulled the wrinkles out of his shirt, as if he’d just changed clothes.

"I still prefer the original," he says, though the hologram is certainly easier on the eyes than than the Iron Man suit is. "How long has Tony had you around?"

“You know, I see where you’re coming from, but that smarts coming from the man I love.” The AI half-joked, folding his arms. “Few weeks.”

"Just a little side project?" Thor asks, studying the hologram. He can't help but wonder what inspired this particular course of action.

Tony wriggled off Thor’s lap, hopping down and shaking out his body. He made circles around the hologram, passing through the blue light, holding his head high in keen observation of it.

“Backing up data is the best contingency I got for now, besides being a wise decision in general.” The AI’s eyes followed his dog half. “If something untimely occurs, Tony Stark can be more than just a failed memory.”

Thor decides that the hologram is a remarkable facsimile. Still not physical, though.

"Does he believe he's going to die?" he asks, not sure if he should use he or you here.

Both Tony's paused in their nonverbal communication to regard Thor a perplexed look. "...Yes?" The AI paused for the dog to make some sort of statement, though that was a silly thing to do. "Eventually."

Thor was thinking more immediately, but he's not going to push the not-quite Tony Stark for answers.

Even though he wants to.

"All creatures die," he says. "Even I will die someday, though I'm not sure when." Provided he found Thanos and survived that and survived using the stones. He knew now that there was still plenty to lose. He just wish he realized that before his last encounter with the Titan.

Maybe then things would have ended differently.

"I think it's something you need to accept." You in general, not the AI or the cute dog Tony, either.

The Tony Stark made of light and data cupped his chin thoughtfully while the Tony Stark of flesh and fur simply sat at its feet, gazing silently back at the god.

"I could play obtuse and ask, 'and what of it?' I'll acknowledge your point and respectfully add, 'not dying with unfinished business.' If I can help it. And I can. So I will."

Thor hums at that. For an Asgardian whose lifespan is thousands upon thousands of years old and whose longevity is further augmented by the powers he inherited from his father upon his death, he has spent a lot of time thinking of death. Perhaps it was because he'd been on the battlefield since he was fourteen years old; as hard as Asgardians were to perish, he had seen plenty of people die in the glory of battle before they were ready to. Sure, Valhalla itself promised a glorious afterlife, but what of the people you left behind, who may or may not join you at the great hall? What of the things you wanted to do or for those people? All that opportunity was gone; all you had was what you had done and nothing more.

But truthfully, Thor hadn't given death all that much thought until he showed up on Midgard a decade before. He had known before Coulson was stabbed by his brother how fragile and short-lived humans were in comparison to the Asgardians Thor had grown up with. But Coulson's death made the reality of it settle in:

These humans would die long before he did. Any human he made friends afterwards, too.

Coulson's death seemed to trigger a long series of deaths. Friends and family died one after another. Coulson, his mother, his brother (he thought), his father, the Warriors Three, much of Asgard, Heimdall, his brother (for real), the Guardians he had befriended in space, Vision and Wanda, half of what remained of Asgard, and half again of what remained of Asgard afterward.

Half the universe, all with unfinished business. All who had things they still wanted to do. Dead and gone with no way to finish them.

"Will you ever be finished? Will any of us?"

Thor leans forward and stretches out an arm to scratch the dog Tony on the head; his attention is there on the pup now as he speaks to the Tony AI. "If you live until you've done everything you want to do, you'll never stop living."

“Maybe not.” The hologram took a seat beside Thor, seeing no reason not to, spreading out his arms and legs to own his space be it physical or no. “We’ve all got our ways of chasing our legacy.”

Tony’s tail wagged sluggishly, but it did. He whined softly, approaching Thor to sit on his feet.

Thor reaches down to pick up the Tony dog and settle him down on his lap. He runs his hand across the length of the creature's back. He finds it relaxing. He can understand why so many people kept pets.

"And what is your legacy?"

"Not dying to the Giant Purple People Eater, for one." Tony Stark's essence replied coolly, passing a hand through the Stark pup, earning a little huff from him.

Thor gives Tonypup an affectionate scratch at the back of the ears at the creature's huff.

"What about for two?"

"Scum-sucking war profiteer. Then that got mostly-overshadowed by the destructive savior schtick." Tony smirked as his original became easily placated by Thor's clever fingers. "Teammate. Father. Husband--in here, out there if fate's kind."

"I really thought you were dead then, you know," Thor says, as if the destructive savior schtick remark had suddenly reminded him of it. "When I flipped you over and ripped off your faceplate."

"After I fell out of the big eye in the sky?" Though the AI recognized Thor's meaning instantly, Tony himself had to take a moment. He hadn't been conscious for that moment, after all. His small body stiffened, and he lowered his head onto his paws. "Thanos put my name in his little black book for that one."

You're not the only one cursed with knowledge.

"I was pretty sure I was dead, too. Remember the pathological aftermath of the Halloween dance with Tyrone? Microcosm of every year since." The dog eyed his creation silently while he went on. 'Wanna broadcast my daddy issues while you're feeling so goddamn candid, Me?'

Thor looks down as his feels the Starkpup's body stiffen. He frowns, brow furrowed, and strokes his back. He had been told before that dogs could be quite empathetic. Was this all just animal instinct kicking in?

"You earned my respect then," Thor says. It's true; before then, he hadn't thought much of the man who had stolen his brother and mocked him within moments of their first meeting. That had changed after Tony took that missile through the portal. "On Asgard, the greatest glory is to fall in combat in the protection of others."

Tony's dark eyes floated closed, huffing again as he willed his body to relax. What else was there to do? His ears stayed poised and alert.

"Still time to earn my Valhallan keep." The projection, as objective as he'd been, smirked in a melancholic way. "I can boast Never Say Die attitude, but denying the possibility's just disingenuous. That's where contingencies like me come in. My physical body goes but my will stays."

"My opinion on that has changed since then." Asgardian belief or not, his opinion on that started to change after the Titan attacked his ship. "I would rather have a cowardly, selfish living brother than a dead one, just as I would rather have a Tony Stark who values his life instead of one so eager to die for the cause that he conjures an AI to replace him."

Alright, he couldn't help it. Tony's doggy eye peeked open to read his projection's face. There was a high element of unpredictability due to recentness of the AI's existence as well as being modeled after Tony himself.

"I wouldn't say eager." He made a sort of face as he searched for the word. "Realistic? Realistic."

Thor feels a tinge of irritation at the AI's response, though he somehow manages to keep it from seeping into his voice.

"Not realistic if you know your limits and act within them. I'm sure you can confirm that both of you are aware of those limits."

"I'm a futurist. I look at trends. Each and every time I've had to exceed my limits for the greater good." He explained, gesticulating his immaterial hand. For better or worse, his AI was hitting his thoughts, beat for beat, but there was a definite reckless disregard for Thor's nature in there. Tony covered his snout with his paws, grumbling into Thor's lap.

"Pile-driving a nuke through a wormhole. Disintegrating a landmass 2 kilometers across. Taking on a man armed with artifacts powered by the building blocks of the universe itself. By the law of serial escalation, whatever comes next..."

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