"Um." Tony rubs the back of his neck and clears his throat. "Sort of...? I'm not really there much. As much. It's..." A long, frustrating story that doesn't paint him in the kind of light he wants his dad to be seeing him in.
Well, he'd better tell his dad something— before Zanru gets to him. That is definitely not the side of things Tony wants Howard hearing first.
"So... way before I got here, there were two other, older versions of me. From alternate universes. I never met them. But one of them started Stark International - well, he called it Stark Industries - here. Aya - she's the AI - she was running things after the other two Tonys left, and when I got here, I started helping her."
Are you ready, Howard? Because now it starts to get complicated.
"Then, after we beat Malicant, all of the Foreigners were lost in this... realm, I guess, called the Dreaming. It really was like we were dreaming, except it was for a whole year. And while all of us were conked out and locked up in the Hotel, the Kedan went back to life as usual. They took over almost all of the foreigner businesses— including Stark Industries. A kedan woman called Zanru runs it now." He mostly manages to keep the distaste out of his voice. Mostly.
"I wanted to take it back, but... Everyone decided that it would be better if we let the kedan recover from the war and run things the way they want. Since it's their city. So we let them keep it."
Yeah, 'we let them keep it out of the goodness of our hearts' sounds a lot better than 'I made an ass out of myself and everyone told me to shut up and play nice, or else.'
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Well, he'd better tell his dad something— before Zanru gets to him. That is definitely not the side of things Tony wants Howard hearing first.
"So... way before I got here, there were two other, older versions of me. From alternate universes. I never met them. But one of them started Stark International - well, he called it Stark Industries - here. Aya - she's the AI - she was running things after the other two Tonys left, and when I got here, I started helping her."
Are you ready, Howard? Because now it starts to get complicated.
"Then, after we beat Malicant, all of the Foreigners were lost in this... realm, I guess, called the Dreaming. It really was like we were dreaming, except it was for a whole year. And while all of us were conked out and locked up in the Hotel, the Kedan went back to life as usual. They took over almost all of the foreigner businesses— including Stark Industries. A kedan woman called Zanru runs it now." He mostly manages to keep the distaste out of his voice. Mostly.
"I wanted to take it back, but... Everyone decided that it would be better if we let the kedan recover from the war and run things the way they want. Since it's their city. So we let them keep it."
Yeah, 'we let them keep it out of the goodness of our hearts' sounds a lot better than 'I made an ass out of myself and everyone told me to shut up and play nice, or else.'