★ synodiporia application .

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Ca
AGE: 26
PLAYER JOURNAL: nothingtofear
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT: PM
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Tony Stark
CANON: Marvel Cinematic
POINT IN CANON: Post Avengers: Age of Ultron
AGE: 44
APPEARANCE:
CANON HISTORY: HERE.

CANON PERSONALITY:
Tony has that whole white privilege thing going for him, naturally, and from a young age comes to think he's better than other kids his age. Which, in some ways, he is. He comes from a rich family, he builds his first engine at five years old. He can't relate to his peers and it disjoints him almost instantly from them. He doesn't have many (any) friends growing up save the Jarvises, who are more parental figures than anything. 

It doesn't stop him from trying to get his father's attention. He tries being good, he tries being bad. Ultimately he decides if he just tries following in Howard's footsteps that the man will eventually have to be proud of him. The problem is that Howard spends the entirety of his life after Steve's plane crash trying to recover his body. Tony grows up thinking that Steve, and not himself, is the son Howard wants and because of this never truly develops a connection with his father. This can all be gleaned from the brief video clip in  Iron Man 2  where Howard keeps telling Maria to take Tony away, and in the way Tony speaks about his father in general. Also in that video however, something he had never seen until adulthood because it was being held by SHIELD, Howard tells Tony that his greatest creation was him and he addresses him directly meaning that he did intend for him to see it. 

This displays the sort of social ineptitude that Tony also possesses, and while Howard never hugged him or told him he loved him while he was alive, he was very proud of his son and knew he would go on to do great things even long after he was gone. 

The first true friend Tony makes other than bots and AIs of his own creation is Rhodey. Rhodey doesn't seem to mind that he's abrasive and socially awkward, perhaps because he is a little bit of both of those things, too. He also sees how brilliant Tony is, but rather than exploiting it as Obadiah and countless others had, he respects it and wants to see Tony realize his full potential. He worries about Tony when he drinks too much and sleeps around, but he doesn't lecture him overly – wanting his friend to find his own way. He is supportive to a fault, as much as they also bicker. It's never in serious anger and it's in Rhodey that Tony first experiences a completely equal relationship full of love. 

Again, Tony is entitled and he doesn't always treat people the best. It isn't because he thinks they deserve this treatment or that he truly believes he's better. It actually comes from a place of deep self-deprecation and he lashes out with witty defense mechanisms just like his father did. There aren't many people who can put up with his impulsive behavior and over the years Rhodey truly is the only one who stays by his side, that is, until he meets Pepper Potts. 

She's a mathematician in her own right and had been working in the SI accounting department for who knows how long. Probably less than a year if we believe estimated timelines in the first film. (That Pepper had quit AIM in 1999/2000 and had known Tony for 8 years in 2008.) At a meeting, she points out an error in his math, and while they're trying to haul her out of the meeting she pepper-sprays Tony's loyal bodyguard/lackey/driver. Rather than punish her, Tony promotes her to his own personal assistant and she becomes another loyal-to-a-fault staff member who is unshaken by his wild behavior. At least, on the surface. 

Not to neglect Happy Hogan, he has also stayed with Tony throughout the years and fiercely defends him from all threats, real and imagined alike. It also showcases Tony's fear after his parents' death of being driven by anyone else. So while part of Happy's duties is driving Tony around, he usually rides shotgun instead. It's only if Tony is truly intoxicated (though a lot of times not even then) that he'll relinquish control to another driver. He needs to be completely in control of all things in his life at all times. He hates when people touch his stuff. He hates being handed things. In my opinion, all of these plus his trauma add up to a case of functional OCD. 

It is not until Afghanistan, however, that Tony Stark feels true fear for his life. Yinsen calls him out and he realizes that while yes, he has the fancy cars and houses and the big corporation; and the notoriety it comes with: he doesn't have anything worthwhile. He is a man with everything, and nothing. It's an empty, lonely existence that he immediately sets about trying to turn around when he returns home. Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy just want him to stay safe, but it isn't enough for him. He knows his purpose now: he must vanquish all those who hurt the innocent. 

Though he doesn't know it yet, this is when Tony Stark first becomes a superhero. He is still egotistical and arguably narcissistic, but his heart is always in the right place. He doesn't become Iron Man to gain fame – he already has that. He wants to atone for all the things he did in his father's name, for his company putting weapons into the hands of evil-doers. He is fiercely patriotic, and these trespasses against God and country are the ones Tony takes most offense to. This is why his primary targets tend to be terrorists on a larger scale. 

While in that cave, he was waterboarded and tortured tirelessly. It took a lot of strength to withstand their demands. Now he suffers from PTSD and severe Anxiety as a result from this. And later on, when he flies that nuke into the vacuum of space that he fears he won't return from. This alters him from the Playboy of the past to someone much more focused and withdrawn. He doesn't trust easily anymore, nor does he let people close (i.e. Obadiah) who might have cause to hurt him in the future. This is why he takes Natalie/Natasha's betrayal so personally, for instance. 

It takes him a long time to get together with Pepper Potts as more than colleagues. This is for multiple reasons. He knows he's proven himself to be impulsive with partners before and he wants her to know that she's different. It's also because he's scared. But the most primary reason is because he knows he's going to die soon, and he's trying to make as much of a difference on the world as he can before he does. Once he is healthy again, he doesn't hesitate to proclaim his love for her and without her he would have nothing to live for going forward. He is fiercely codependent on her, and they admit to one another that they're the only ones the other has. 

In the first  Avengers  film, Tony and Steve argue. It's hard for him to see a man come back to life that his father wasted his life searching for. It's even harder to accept he's just as perfect as Howard said he was. They are also under the influence of the mind gem, but it's more like sibling rivalry than any great divide. He wants to prove that he's better and more useful and it tends to run him into trouble time and time again. By the end of the film, the two form an unsteady alliance and agree that they can work together within the confines of the group. Tony even relinquishes some control to him when it becomes clear he's much better at leading in actual battle situations. He is a soldier after all. Cap and Pepper are the only two people he has ever truly deferred to in canon, and allowed himself to take on a lower status. 

It isn't that Tony doesn't care about others – quite the opposite is true. He feels strongly for his teammates and friends. But because he is ill in multiple ways, his own trauma and pain often usurps a more logical side. He can easily be overpowered by his own emotions and is basically just extremely problematic when it comes to making decisions. That said, he doesn't want to burden others with any of this and will keep huge things from the people he cares most about. See: dying for like two years. 

Tony is working in the present to be a better man, not just as Iron Man but himself. He wants to forge better relationships and be completely functional in social situations, it just isn't always possible for him. He is troubled by frequent anxiety attacks, vicious nightmares, and constant paranoia. All of these things, though he is brilliant, hold him back from doing even the simplest of tasks at times. For example, getting lunch in a crowded restaurant with Rhodey in  Iron Man 3  where he is forced to leave when his anxiety becomes too much for him. 

As Iron Man, Tony feels invincible; it's a high. While out in the field he will do anything to protect anyone. He is a truly selfless superhero, but also in those moments we can see how he can take this too far. And how he develops a God complex in this role. He knows better than everyone, just like back at school. It's why he needs people like Steve and Rhodey to humble him and to constantly remind him of reality. (And of course Pepper off the field.) 

In Age of Ultron, again Tony fails to trust his friends and falls into the same destructive patterns as before. He creates a program to “institute world peace,” however his extreme desperation causes him to keep it a secret from everyone but Bruce Banner who helped him create the protocol. It is safe to say Bruce is the one person in the Avengers that Tony trusts the most, and regards closest to his intellect. Because of his own genius, he often underestimates his friends and assumes it would be simpler not to explain Project Ultron. This is partially arrogance, but he also admits it's because the others would stop him. He has been pushed to the brink by all his past trauma and he's convinced that this is the best (and only) way to keep the world safe. 

Everyone else's “vision” that Wanda forces upon them is geared inward, fears that they have harbored perhaps since forever. Tony's is instead a living nightmare of outliving the other Avengers. Of failing his team. This obviously comes from a place of extreme love and care of others rather than the way it is colored: by narcissistic posturing and callousness. The way the characters Wanda and Pietro Maximoff view Tony is much how the world does. They see his name on a warhead and equate him to it, when if it weren't for him New York would be a hole in the ground. 

Obviously, Ultron is a disaster, but Tony doesn't hesitate to spring into action yet again. He dismantles his own best friend and closest ally, J.A.R.V.I.S. The AI to save the world again. We see how selfless Tony is even more transparently than ever before, though his friends often turn on him and accuse him of intending heinous things. Even Maria Hill after defecting from SHIELD to work for SI betrays him anew to become a double-agent for Nick Fury. We see the hurt in Tony's eyes as Nick gives him some tough love in Clint's barn. It's a PG scene I swear. 

Because of this reality that Tony lives seemingly separate from more well-adjusted individuals, he often places a greater value on certain relationships than the other party. Maria and Natasha were both only doing their jobs, but Tony takes it very personally. When Clint keeps his family and farm from the team, Tony again feels out of the loop. He feels as though no one trusts him with anything substantial, and so it seemed only natural for him to hide his intentions from them in turn. 

In summation, Tony is extremely damaged. He holds a deep sense of abandonment from his childhood that carries over into each and every relationship he attempts to forge in the present. He is fiercely codependent on Pepper, places a much greater stock in his friendship with Steve than is healthy (in short, he idolizes the man), and is nearly brought to tears when Nick Fury infers he cares for him. He is a deeply emotional man who on the surface seems very quirky and confident but inside he is fractured and broken by his experiences and continued failures to keep his friends safe.

POINT OF DEPARTURE: Roughly 6 months after Iron Man 3 (OU)

ABILITIES: Tony has an extreme genius intellect, graduating MIT summa cum laude at seventeen with degrees both in Electrical Engineering and Physics. He has a mind for mechanics and often relates more to machines than humans. He has no suprahuman abilities though he is resilient and stubborn to a fault. Without the Iron Man suit, he is still quite proficient in hand-to-hand combat and has an extensive knowledge of all types of weapons and is entirely fearless when it comes down to protecting those he loves.Though he could be described as scatterbrained or even ADHD in speech, his work tells a different story of laser-like focus on those projects he deems most important.

INVENTORY;

this outfit/glasses combo ( here )

key FOB for 2014 Audi R8 E-tron ( here )

fully customized and loaded Starktech smartphone ( here )

.45 caliber Kimber Custom TLE II ( here )

Jaeger-LeCoultre Amvox 3 Tourbillon GMT wristwatch ( here )

small flathead screwdriver ( here )
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?

S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: (what we’re looking for is how well you know the voice of your character; we’re not looking for what’s in the action/thought brackets. 8-10 sentences should do (or 100 words minimum). We also allow a 10+ comment thread from a previous game or a thread from the test drive)
PROSE SAMPLE: (here is where we’re looking for your character’s thoughts, their reactions, your writing ability; if this is your first character in the game, then we ask that you write out this sample, 250 words minimum. If this is your second or third character then you’re more than welcome to use a 10+ comment thread from a previous game or a thread from the test drive. if you need to write a new one and are looking for a prompt, check out the ones on the test drives.)