Application: Altered States

[the_mechanic]

Character Information

Character Name: Tony Stark
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: Immediately post-Age of Ultron
Character Journal: the_mechanic

Appearance: Tony is a very attractive man, well above average at the least, though his confidence/arrogance can definitely increase or decrease his score depending on one's preferences. (For me? He's a 12 on a scale of 10, just saying.) He's about 5'10", medium build and muscular, but not overwhelmingly so: he's fit, and active, with broad shoulders and concealed strength. His dark brown hair is carefully mussed, and his facial hair is literally a trademark: manicured goatee and thin beard sculpted to accentuate his strong jaw and ever-present smirk. He has dark, bright brown eyes, always glittering in the light with myriad ideas, windows to a heavily-guarded soul, accentuated by animated, groomed eyebrows. His complexion is tanned and olive-toned, and he looks just as at home in a ten-thousand dollar tailored suit as he does in a Black Sabbath tee and torn jeans.

His hands are scarred and calloused, worker's hands, mechanic's hands. He has faint scars all over his body from accidents, lab work, the Iron Man suit, so many he can't begin to remember their origins. For years, his chest was also littered with scars from the seat of the arc reactor, a glowing electro-magnet he designed, invented, and installed himself to keep a handful of shrapnel from piercing his heart, keeping his heart beating, and used as a power source to run his suits. Now there are new scars in the absence of the arc reactor, and new skin (no doubt courtesy of Dr. Cho and her particular skills with regeneration).

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Age: 44ish (denial denial denial)

History:

Wiki Link #1 Wiki Link #2


Personality: The easiest place to begin would be the personality Tony appears to have.

For all intents and purposes, one might narrow down Tony Stark to a box labeled: brilliant, arrogant, eccentric, flirtatious asshole.

These are all true. However, they're only scratching the surface.

Tony is absolutely brilliant. This is not hyperbole, this is fact, and it translates into every action, even his actions that seem to run in the opposite direction of intelligence. Most of what could fall under this trait is better suited for the "abilities" section, but Tony's intelligence is still a huge part of what shapes his personality. He can see multiple outcomes to every action, can read people very well when not emotionally involved, and cannot rest when his brain is in motion. He's a creator, and inventor, a tinker. He is a "futurist," one who sees where the world is headed and builds to adapt to it. He anticipates the future with every motion and is always poised not to react, but to cause the reaction. His mind is a vault of engineering and physics knowledge, and those are just his doctorates.

Due to this brilliance, and his heritage, it stands to follow that Tony might be a bit arrogant. This is an understatement. He has a high self-worth, and a seemingly high-self confidence, and is neither shy nor discreet, therefore, he has no reason to hide this from the world. He's rich, he's beautiful, and he knows it, so in order to stay one step ahead of everyone else, he flaunts these facts like the armor they are. If you play the part like you cannot be touched, others are much less likely to try. This does not win him many friends, but it does win him investors.

Tony may not have many friends, but he has a slew of one-night-stands that would probably not hesitate to tout his charm and his flirtatious nature. He's trying this monogamy thing, and so far it's going pretty well, but Tony is still a physical-touch oriented person who can't help but flirt with just about anyone, even for the sole purpose of making them uncomfortable.

Those he does actually consider his friends he is absolutely, fatalistically devoted to. He builds them suits, gives them absolute override power in his house, makes them CEO of his company, pokes them with sticks to try to bring out the monster in them just to let them know that he doesn't care about that and he sees the beauty in them. (And he absolutely does not design entire floors in his tower for people he hasn't even extended a move-in invitation to, nope). He can be downright overwhelming as a friend. He's not good at most simple intimacies, but if he can build a friend something they need, something that will keep them safe, something that will make their life easier, he'll stay up for three days and build it. And not take no for an answer.

He doesn't actually expect anything in return from anyone he loves. He learned at a very young age that love is fleeting and has nothing to do with family. So he makes his own family and will remain absolutely devoted to them. He'll screw it all up along the way, out of fear, out of love, but he loves wholly and it terrifies him so he hides it behind extravagant gifts and grand gestures because it's the small, quiet intimacies he has very little experience with.

Tony is sarcastic, cynical, and offensive, as well as charming, flirtatious and self-deprecatingly affectionate. He is such a mix of traits he can appear to be a bit of a paradox. He wears his brilliance and his arrogance like armor to hide the fact that he has never felt good enough. Now more than ever, he feels he can never do enough good to make up for all the damage he has done in his short life. He wants to protect, to save, to better the world around him, and every time he fails it cuts him down just that much more, and causes him to try that much harder to make it right.

He can be absolutely cruel when provoked, recognizing weaknesses and going for the jugular in an argument, or in small talk that's dragged on too long. He has very little filter, if any at all, and if it's on his mind, it's likely on his lips. There are secrets he'll take to his grave, he's not wholly indiscreet, but he is never one to back down from starting or finishing a fight. He cares very little for his public reputation, much to the dismay of the company he is a symbol for. He bases his worth on the battered soul he has built all manner of armament around, and on the world he can build for his friends.

He is in a constant state of attempting to better himself while simultaneously fighting to keep his demons at bay. Demons he creates, demons he was born into, demons in glass bottles and in reflections on stainless steel. Demons that haunt his dreams and his every waking hour. He wants to keep those around him safe and when those people he loves refuse to leave him, despite all his attempts to distance them for what he sees as their own good, he can go more than a little overboard preparing for any and all threats.

After the events of New York, after experiencing his heart stopping as he slips through a wormhole holding a nuclear warhead in his arms, Tony experienced an understandable amount of PTSD. That was an outcome, an alternative, he never saw coming. He didn't anticipate aliens, nukes, or gods and monsters. His mind hadn't come to these conclusions until they were in his face. The futurist had been outwitted. Part of his mind broke. He suffered anxiety attacks, mostly brought on by mentions of New York, wormholes, and his own failures. He's much more stable now, having moved past the immediacy of those issues, but they're still there, lingering.

He still fears, but it's less for himself, and yet still a selfish fear. He fears he will be the reason his friends die, that the world ends, that destruction comes. He sees a future of destruction, himself at the core, the cause and the reaction both. And in spite of all his failures and successes, nothing is ever enough. So he keeps building, keeps anticipating, keeps doing anything and everything he can to somehow level the playing field, and ultimately win.

Have I mentioned he is a recovering alcoholic? No? He's trying, and failing, but alcohol is his oldest friend and has its tendrils deeply embedded in him.

Powers/Special Abilities: Tony Stark is brilliant. He has multiple doctorates from MIT (which he graduated at the top of his class at age 17) in the fields of electrical engineering and physics. He is also highly skilled in computer technology, weapons making, and robotics. He has an active, analytical, mathematical mind that can solve problems in record time and predict multiple outcomes for any situation. He is arguably the most intelligent (though not wisest) person in the Marvel universe. At least in the top 3.

He is a master-level hacker, mechanic, engineer and alcoholic. He can build something from anything and make it better than it ever should have been. He built the first Iron Man suit in a cave in the desert with scraps of his own weaponry and a car-battery strapped to the electro-magnet in his chest. The man is an innovator and survivor.

He has basic combat skills, though he's mostly self taught and relies heavily on the defenses and added power of the Iron Man suits. He can operate just about anything mechanical in nature because he probably designed it or at least improved it at some point in his life. If in a purely hand-to hand fight, he can often get by on adrenalin and determination alone, though if against a skilled opponent, he can only last so long. He will always use his environment to his advantage.

River Power: Tony can summon the Iron Man armor from within. Essentially, he can call the armor at will, piece by piece or as a whole, from within himself. And still be able to remove it to repair it or alter it. But essentially have it be a part of him, now. (But for a while he'll just assume it's gone, stolen, gods only know.)

No additional powers or abilities, really. Just the ability to absorb and call out the suit at will. Eventually. It'll take him a while, and probably an instance where he just instinctively reacts as if he's wearing the suit and suddenly the gloved hand is there or the helmet or some such.

And once he gets a handle on summoning the whole suit, he'll get his AI back. =)