APPLICATION ⌬ APOCALYPSE HOW

[fightinginfinity]

→ PLAYER INFO

Name: Alice
Age: 33
Contact: DontAskAlice
Character(s) in game: N/A
Permissions: Here, not 100% complete or pretty but I've got the important stuff in lol.

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Tony Stark
Age: 48
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon point: Avengers Endgame, right before Captain Marvel saves Tony in space
History: Here.



Personality:

There was a time when people saw Tony Stark only as the image he’d projected to the world for the majority of his life: that of the narcissist, the playboy, the eccentric billionaire, the celebrity, the man with the ego as large as the latest technology he’d just developed in his basement, etc. It hadn’t been a complete fabrication*; it’s still Tony, living life the only way he knows how, by plowing through it with no plan of action outside of the immediate one. He’s a person who often relies entirely on instinct, heart, and his mile-a-minute intellect to push him through one end of a situation and stumbling out the other--but even though he never quite grows out of that completely during his run in the MCU, he’s overall someone who has a lot going on beneath the surface and whose character arc is marked with incredible, tangible development and growth.

Because he is a character who goes through SO many changes and developments in his characterization and personality, I’ll go through each of his appearances in the MCU and describe where he’s at emotionally/psychologically at each point in canon.

Tony experiences what is perhaps his biggest character transformation right off the bat during his very first film, going from an attention-starved, ignorant celebrity brat to a man thrust into the dirty, bullet-ridden world his company’s legacy had created. Something quietly changes inside him; before his captivity in Afghanistan, Tony seemed to care about little outside of himself and his latest project, but we come to see just how deeply he actually loathes himself and his own mark on society as well as the lengths he's willing to go to in order to right his own wrongs. What follows is an extensive character arc spanning multiple films centered around the ideas of accountability, penance and reconciliation.

Despite his initial transformation from unwitting villain to hero, Tony goes through a large part of his life with a sense of blatant, determined detachment; nothing ever seemed to matter to him, whether it was a hearing in front of the Senate or the fact that he was about to be shot out of the sky with a missile. This made it incredibly difficult for many people to take him seriously, and he has been regarded with ire and disrespect by peers and opponents alike. Despite this, no one can deny that Tony is a genius*. Stark Industries (as much as it functions financially and bureaucratically without him) would flounder if not for his sheer technological and scientific knowledge and aptitude. Tony seems to accept his position reluctantly, however, and is quick to give the CEO position over to Pepper--because when he's not basking in the shallow attention of a million strangers or in a single pretty girl for one night, Tony is a deeply personal and solitary creature, someone who is at his happiest in his workshop in the company of his AI and an engrossing project. The arrogant celebrity persona and the aloofness* he displays when he’s away from his safe little world are largely defense mechanisms, crafted to protect a deeply vulnerable soul that’s far too easily battered about.

[ *Personality traits: incredibly intelligent, acts egocentric and aloof though it's mostly a front. ]

There is something inherently self-destructive about Tony’s early incarnations. In the second Iron Man film he suffers from a degenerative illness brought on by the arc reactor, a device he'd (ironically) designed to preserve and prolong his life. Instead of telling his loved ones, the few that he keeps near and dear (namely Pepper Potts and James Rhodes, the only people who have seen glimpses of his aforementioned vulnerable interior), he isolates himself and throws himself into his work and his mission as Iron Man. There is the desire to protect his loved ones from worrying, but it's uglier than that; Tony courts death, plays with it, dares it to come and get him. He fights in battles with little regard to his personal safety, drinks himself into oblivion, and dives headfirst into situations much larger than he is*. It's a sense of responsibility that drives him, a desire to take the reins in his own life and his own company, but also a testament to just how little he actually values himself*.

[ *Personality traits: self-destructive, self-loathing ]

This deflated sense of self-worth (made even more apparent by the way he needs to stroke his ego at every available opportunity; Stark Expo and the Tower stand out as examples) shows in his relationships with other people, particularly when he first starts interacting with other Avengers and finds himself part of a team for the first time. He blithely talks about Nick Fury's disability ('How does Fury see these?' 'Do I look at the patch or the eye?') and has no trouble discussing Bruce Banner's transformation into the Hulk, a sensitive subject everyone else avoids. But the way Tony points out people's perceived flaws isn't to deprecate them or make himself look good by comparison; instead, it shows how little stock he puts in those flaws, unwilling to let them cloud the way he sees people--probably because that’s the way he wants to be seen himself.

Tony definitely started out his hero schtick with his own agenda, and did so entirely alone. Initially he is, arguably, the most difficult member of the Avengers when it comes to teamwork; Tony Stark’s brain operates at whip-speed, to the point where it's often difficult for others to catch up, and that is seen stretching not only to his social interactions but to the battlefield as well. Cooperating, to him, meant slowing himself down to a level other people can understand, and he found that frustrating*. Tony is do do do, so slowing down enough to explain his actions was something he’d considered a hindrance to his goals. Despite this, he did eventually learn to function with others, which made him part of something unstoppable instead of a force as self-destructive as it is deadly.

[ *Personality traits: can be impatient and abrasive ]

Though Tony often spends a lot of time in his own self-occupied, overthinking space, he has an intensely caring and vulnerable heart. His relationship with Pepper is the most obvious testament to that; out of everyone else, she is the person who sees every angle of Tony and who thus has the most faith in him. Tony is definitely seen struggling with outwardly expressing affection toward her (he once buys her strawberries, forgetting that she's allergic to them, and later gets her a giant stuffed bunny rabbit as a gift even though she clearly hasn’t ever wanted such a thing) but his efforts are what makes his actions much more meaningful. As I mentioned before, as early on as in the first Avengers film Tony is seen expressing to Bruce a genuine empathy for him, believing in him while everyone else seems to respond to him with fear and distrust. The events of that movie show Tony getting closer to growing into himself, to becoming something that's less a force of nature and more something with a definitive purpose, a mission, a reason to fight and live. This culminates at the end of the Avengers film, when Tony sacrifices himself to save New York City from a missile, ultimately confronting his own mortality fully for the first time in his life. This act is his defining moment as a member of the Avengers and a superhero in his own right, and is recognized as much by the team and general populace, but it has a devastating and irrevocable effect on Tony’s psyche.

In what is probably his biggest bit of character development since the first Iron Man, Tony develops severe PTSD and anxiety after going through the wormhole and starts to experience constant nightmares and debilitating panic attacks. He collapses into himself, retreating deep into his shell, isolated in his basement as he develops suit after suit in a desperate attempt to prevent the events in New York from ever happening again. Much of the extroverted attitude and egotism from his first two films are gone, replaced by an obsession that drains his energy and puts a strain on his relationships. Iron Man 3 shows Tony struggling with regular anxiety attacks and acting even more impulsive and dangerous (going so far as to tell a known terrorist his address and invite an attack on his home) but at the end of the film he compromises; at the behest of Pepper he elects to destroy the many suits he'd created and finally get the shrapnel in his chest and the arc reactor surgically removed. For a brief moment it seems as though his obsession with being Iron Man has quieted somewhat as he settles into his relationship with Pepper, putting her well-being first, but it doesn't last very long.

[ *Personality traits: anxious, single-minded and often impulsive ]

In Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch triggers Tony to experience a vision of the future he fears most: a future in which he fails to protect everyone and loses everything, seeing it all swallowed up by an unfathomable universe that terrifies him. The reason Tony’s greatest fears are so cosmic in scale is partly because his mind cannot process things at a normal human level (again, it’s too expansive and works far too quickly) but it’s also because his heart just cares way too goddamn much. This vision triggers his anxiety and causes him to spiral into obsession again, this time in the form of the sentient robot Ultron, who Tony creates in an attempt to prevent the future he saw from happening. Instead of saving the world, though, Ultron tries to destroy it; the AI is shown to be a manifestation of Tony's anxiety and how it bleeds into his actions, working in tandem with his lightning-fast mind to his ultimate detriment. The result is chaos, and Tony can only pick up the pieces it leaves behind.

The guilt over Ultron changes Tony even more, crushing him under the weight of his now-crippling anxiety. Still fueled by his incessant need to stop devastation before it starts, he agrees to sign the Sokovia Accords and fights with Captain America over their clashing ideals in Captain America: Civil War. Ever since the very beginning Tony's character arc has been focused heavily on accountability, and it's something he continues to strongly believe in and fight for. He sees the Accords not only as a way to clean up his mess, but to rein in his own obsession and prevent him from making another Ultron. To him, they're a way to stop himself and everyone else from making any more deadly mistakes that jeopardize the safety of others--a logical progression fueled, once again, by a brain that sees all variables and can plot years into the future that also happens to have a raging anxiety disorder. Despite this conviction Tony still has a change of heart in the end, upset by the treatment his former teammates end up receiving for their dissent with the Accords--only to be ultimately confronted with the truth about his parents’ murder and, in what’s perhaps even an even worse reveal, the fact that Steve knew about it all along and didn’t tell him. This betrayal hits Tony incredibly hard and weighs heavily on him, especially when it’s coupled with his one-on-one confrontation with Thanos in Infinity War, which ends up proving Tony’s foresight about the Universe’s imminent destruction to have been correct all along.

All this time we’ve been discussing Tony’s obsession with saving everyone and how it’s clear evidence of that protective, caring and vulnerable heart of his, but a more intimate look is through his interactions with Peter Parker. Though Tony initially acts somewhat aloof toward him on a surface level (like he does with most people) he shows how much he cares about Peter through his actions: He equips Peter’s Spiderman suit with all of the safety features that his own suit’s lack thereof had landed him in serious trouble before (such as a tracker, a heater, and a parachute), saves Peter whenever he’s in trouble, encourages him to attend college and listens to all his daily reports (‘Like the lady that bought you the churro’) even though he gives off the appearance that he doesn’t--because acting aloof means he doesn’t care, and if he doesn’t care he can’t be hurt again, right? Well, when Peter disappears after Tony’s aforementioned fight with Thanos, Tony is devastated, and absorbs this loss as yet another failure; as always Tony cannot help blaming everything on himself, and takes responsibility for Peter’s death because he’d encouraged Peter to become an Avenger and, in his eyes, couldn’t protect him well enough. This guy's level of self-loathing is beyond subterranean.

[ *Personality traits: vulnerable, caring to a fault, guilt complex ]

As Tony's story continues in Endgame, Tony is in a very broken place, having been stuck in space for days and carrying all that grief and self-blame as well as a resentment toward Steve in particular. He’s starving and oxygen-deprived, and it’s in that breathtakingly healthy state that I’ll be bringing him into the game. In the movie, Captain Marvel saves Tony and brings him safely back to Earth, so he’ll be arriving in the game right before that happens.

Suitability: I mean I just hammered out an excessively long Personality section describing all the ways Tony Stark has an overactive mind, crippling anxiety and a guilt complex the size of Neptune, so yeah, there is literally no way this guy won’t want to learn as much as possible about the setting and inject himself into whatever wacky goings-on that he can. He’s physically incapable of not getting involved in bad situations and trying to fix them, even if the results can be the opposite of helpful.

Powers/Abilities:

Two (2) things: 1. Tony is an unparalleled scientific genius and engineer whose intelligence wildly surpasses the average person’s (on Earth anyway), and 2. he has an absolutely fucking unreasonable amount of money. Other than that? No powers. Zilch. Nada.

So given that its wearer doesn’t have super-strength or magic or high-level fighting abilities like the rest of the Avengers team, Tony’s Iron Man suit serves as a reflection of just how accelerated intelligence and a fat wallet can work around those pitfalls effortlessly. The suit is a streamlined, efficient weapon and stealth device--capable of flight, nearly bullet-proof, and tricked out with built-in ammunition in the form of repulsors, missiles and an entire arsenal of advanced weaponry once Tony incorporates nanotechnology into it. It’s also, you know, controlled by a supercomputer that has access to all of Tony’s other tech creations and just about everybody else’s too. After the nanotech is implemented, Tony can activate the suit anywhere at any time simply by hitting a button on his chest, and once it’s active he can materialize weapons and shields as needed by moving the nanomachines around at will.

And about that supercomputer; Tony's engineering expertise extends to his creation of advanced robotics and several high-functioning A.I. of varying abilities and homicidal tendencies--most particularly JARVIS, the sentient computer system that initially runs his house and powers his Iron Man suit, who he later helps develop into a being called Vision (after this event, Tony uses an AI called FRIDAY to control his suit instead). Tony is also able to (naturally) hack into high security programs and systems and manipulate machinery with ease; he’s decrypting nuclear codes and you don’t want him to, etc. Oh and he also figures out time travel at some point.

SO. How all this will translate into the game’s setting is something I’ll have to defer to mods about; because while Tony’s technology exists in the ‘modern’ world within his canon, I’m not certain how it’ll work in your specific setting. There are also virtually no limitations on nanomachines so that kinda messes with the three-weapons rule. Tony will have his entire arsenal with him in the form of a button on his chest so there’s no reason for him to be without it unless some aspects of it are nerfed or taken away. I’m willing to work with whatever, so depending on my acceptance please let me know what actions I need to take if any!

EDIT: Accepting the limitations put on his nanobots etc and FRIDAY as a non-sentient AI, thank you for the clarification!

Entity Affinity: EDIT: Though Tony doesn't have any powers, the Entities he'd be most drawn to would be The Slaughter or The Extinction. He spends half his canon freaking out about a cataclysmic act of violence upon the universe that hasn't happened yet and does some truly insane and highly destructive things to try and prevent it. In the end he's unsuccessful, and literally just had to contend with that fact in a very violent way. If I'm interpreting the Entity Affiliation correctly, it comes with needing to inflict this fear on other people, which could lead to some truly brain-breaking moments if things should get to that point. He'd need some strong motivation to do that though.

Inventory: Again, Tony has his Iron Man suit and arsenal stored in a nifty little glowing light he wears on his chest 24/7. Other than that, he’s been drifting in space for weeks; he isn’t going to have much on him that he couldn’t salvage on board the ship he was in. So essentially he's got his photo of Pepper and Starlord's coat lol.

Samples:

SAMPLE ONE:

(( ooc: This sample was written for another app; for this game I’ll be taking Tony from a different canon point. That’s also why the setting is different lol. Let me know if it works or if I should write up a new one. ))

[ See this? This is the face of a man who is wholly unimpressed with just about everything in his general vicinity right now. That’s right; the dude’s in what’s supposed to be literal fucking Heaven (though he isn’t buying that at all) surrounded by the otherworldly and awe-inspiring and incredible, and he looks utterly unmoved by any of it. Right now it’s mostly this little Blackberry-looking motherfucker though. ]

...kidding me with this? How quaint, very Y2K. [ The recording catches the end of Tony muttering to himself. Whoops. He continues on in a much more purposeful tone: ] Hello, this working? What am I supposed to say here, ‘welcome to my first vlog’? Okay no, god no, we’re gonna fly past that one.

Anybody got a minute? Let’s do something interactive. A Q&A. I ask question, you give answer. Easy peasy. Okay, here goes: Which one of you, if any, arrived here after having previously been, uh...un-alive. Departed from the mortal coil. Returned to the biochemical cycle. Pushing up daisies, ceased to be, ex-parrot, yadda yadda. You know what I mean.

Okay, answer time. Go! Or I can go first, why the hell not. [ He raises his hand like he’s in fucking class, he is that much of a crabby child right now. ] Yes teacher, I’d love to volunteer the information that I was in 100% complete, total, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel acceptance of the ultimate, inescapable and unequivocal cessation of my existence like, forty-five minutes ago, and would love to know if anyone out there is in the same boat.

There, that break the ice for anybody?


SAMPLE TWO: here