with so many lovers singing soft.

[quigonejinn]

Pretty Good Company
Tony/Obadiah FST
58MB, Zip file.

bottom of your heart, you don't love no one (The Black Keys - When the Lights Go Out)

Obadiah keeps, in the foyer of his house, handsomely-framed photos of him with celebrities and politicians. The theme continues on every flat surface in the public areas of the house, though the closer the space draws to Obadiah's private areas, the fewer photographs of appear and the more South Asian art tends to take its place. Statues of gods and saints with more than the usual number of arms, for example, or war elephants shrunk down to the palm size. On the mantle in the showpiece living room, which also features a cathedral ceiling and photos of Obadiah with every president since Eisenhower, there is a candid black-and-white of Tony and Obadiah the year that Tony came back from Europe. It's an out-take from the shots that the photographer for the Forbes article took; Obadiah bought the negatives for it, so it's the only print in existence.

Tony wears a suit made in Italy; you can see it in the slope of the shoulders and the height of the notch at the lapel. He has his mouth open to argue a point, and Obadiah has his hand on Tony's left shoulder in a comfortable sort of way and is talking over him.

since I've come home, well, my body has been a mess -- I hope you find the right man who'll fix it for you (Mark Ronson - Valerie, feat. Amy Winehouse)

So coming home form Afghanistan is the second time that Tony has come home in a dramatic way. He did more press coverage the first time back, in fact, and one night, he's doing an interview in Obadiah's office since his isn't ready for press yet. Tony has his feet on the coffee table and a glass of Obadiah's best scotch in hand; the reporter is determined not to get into a drinking competition on the job, so he has a ginger ale with a couple of ice cubes in it. Obadiah sits across from the reporter, next to Tony. The rest of the couch are the year-end financials that Obadiah is looking through.

"Right. So the thing I missed most while in Europe?"

Tony holds the glass of Scotch up to the light. Obadiah looks over at him, and Tony looks back over and tries not to roll his eyes. When you go to Europe like Tony did, missing things about America is not really an issue. If Tony Stark wants a McDonald's Big Mac at two AM, the Ritz Carlton in Paris will get you a fucking le Big Mac, even if they have to recreate it by grinding filet mignon and serve it on Limoges porcelain.

"Knowing that I was part of something bigger than myself," Tony says.

"Also, drinking Obie's Scotch. You know how hard it was to get him to visit?"

Obadiah snorts, mutters something about having a company to run, and Tony leans back on the sofa, pleased at the effect he's produced. The reporter is charmed, and includes, as a detail in his story, that while Tony is talking about this, Tony hast three pieces of cardboard that look like scraps from a box. The reporter watched Tony idly cut them, freehand, out of a piece of stock cardboard that Accounting had run graphs on for the financial. Tony gives them to R&D later; they're the solution for the tailfin problem they've been having on the Stark Interceptor CD-34. He'd started thinking about it on the Concorde ride back, he explains. Accurate miniatures of what they should look like within a tenth of an inch.

traveled time for the future of mankind (The Cardigans - Iron Man)

"Do you remember when Dad was building the place on Long Island?"

"Sure, I remember. Gave him more headaches than building the Arkansas plant."

This is a lie, and they both know it -- Obadiah clearly, and Tony, at least in the back of his head. Tony seems to enjoy it that way, though, much like he enjoys working on the Roadster under the general of banner of trying to get it run well. The thing hasn't been driven an inch in five years now, and Tony and Obadiah are sitting on the blocks in front of the half-dug hole in the ground that'll become Tony's pool by the Pacific. City lights wink at at them from the other side of the bay.

I watch you capture what I can't hold. now, make it make some sense to me (Santogold - My Superman)

At seventeen, Tony has had as much sex as some people have in the course of their married lives, and he has the confidence, too, of being able to start twenty minutes after he last got off. The moon is out and low over the ocean; in defiance, Tony insisted on wearing jeans. If the graduation party was being thrown in honor of him and not, say, as a reminder of Stark Industries having a freak of a genius for an heir, then he'd wear what he wanted, right? And there's a half-drunk G&T in his hand to match the one in Obadiah's hand. The cleaning crew is going to show up tomorrow morning; there are balloons and dying tiki torches all around the back yard. It's the Hamptons, after all.

Howard and Maria have gone to bed. It's only Obadiah and Tony sitting on a bench, looking at the pool.

"How soon is Dad going to ship me out to LA?"

"You've got a couple months. At least. We don't have much out there right now, so there's nothing for you to develop." Obadiah looks over at Tony, who's staring fixedly at the lights underneath the pool. "It's nothing to worry about, Tony. He's just making formal what you've always done for him."

"Yeah, well, it would have been nice if he told me beforehand."

Tony drains the rest of his G&T; it makes his lips shine in the light, and he offers to get the box of cigars that Obadiah got him for a graduation present, but Obadiah tells him to save them for something really worth celebrating. Instead, Tony ends up blowing Obadiah behind the pool house, and Tony is seventeen. He's had as much sex as some people have in the course of their married lives, but it doesn't mean he knows a whole lot about giving head to a guy who has, himself, had plenty of it.

"Slow down," Obadiah says and puts one hand on Tony's head and pulls him off enough so they can look each other in the eye. "Pull off sometimes and take it between your lips. Use your tongue. You had the right idea before."

Later, when Tony decides he wants to jam as much of Obadiah's cock in his mouth and down his throat as he can fit, though, Obadiah isn't going to say no. He thinks Tony is going to gag, in fact, but Tony, surprisingly, doesn't, and Obadiah knows Howard isn't just sending Tony out to do R&D at a new location. Howard means for Tony to inherit the full measure.

the knife in your back ain't as sharp as your tongue (Joseph Arthur - Pretty Good Company)

Obadiah doesn't use sex to bring Tony back from Europe, and after the time behind the pool house, they don't do anything for over a decade -- breakfast was less awkward than might be expected. Tony and Maria weren't morning people, so they stayed in bed and had it brought up to them. Howard and Obadiah split the Sunday Wall Street Journal out on the pool deck while the housekeeper made omelettes and waffles in the kitchen.

Ten years later, Tony and Obadiah are having an argument about settlement negotiations with a woman who brings a class-action gender discrimination suit. Tony wants to fight it out; Obadiah wants to settle for a reasonable amount, and he wins by laying out the hard numbers, but Tony is still pissed even after he's had a couple of post-argument drinks. They're in Tony's house in Malibu; it's mid-afternoon, but nobody is expected in for a while. Obie sits on the couch with his feet up on Tony's coffee table; Tony stands.

"You want to fuck me?"

Obadiah looks up from the puzzle in the newspaper. He lifts his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You know. Your dick, my ass. I've already blown you, so I figured we'd try something else."

Obadiah still has the pen in his hand, and he doesn't say anything. Tony is still pretty pissed. It shows in the way he stands, really, even more than the hands balled up into fists. Tony has unexpectedly large hands. Probably the result of working on engines and things that need to be soldered since he was large enough to sit without on a stool without falling off.

"I'll let you do it bareback, if you want. Pepper will swear to me being clean."

Obadiah considers Tony. Tony unclenches his right fist, then clenches it back again.

"Yeah, let's do it that way," Obadiah says and puts the cap back on his pen, then sets the pen and puzzle onto the coffee table.

They go into Tony's bedroom.

it will bleed (Arlene Bishop - Cut A Man's Heart (Angel Chorus))

Obadiah has faith in his ability to read people, and he knows this guy is a reliable customer. A good operator, with a reputation in this part of the world; agents that Obadiah relies upon vouched for how badly he wants the Jericho missiles. Still, though, Obadiah wants to take his measure, face to face.

"Raza of the Ten Signs," the man says and holds his hand out.

"You know who I am," Obadiah says and shakes the hand.

don't hang that head. you know it's nothing I ain't seen before. (Kris Delmhorst - Heavens Hold the Sun)

Tony has more trouble relaxing than Obadiah expects -- than either of then expects, really, to judge from the way Tony starts to snap and snarl and shove pillows off the bed. Obadiah doesn't know whether to hold Tony down and go for it or go slower, gentler, in the hopes that he'll get to do this again, but Tony makes the decision for both of them. Tony lies on his stomach; Obadiah is propped over Tony. He has two inches into Tony, and slowly, Tony works himself up an inch or two on his elbows. Then, his knees. Obadiah holds still. Up with the elbows again. Then, the knees. It's not really a stable position because Tony is still less than halfway up.

Obadiah would guess he's got four inches into Tony at that point, and after that, sinks all the way in. Tony throws his head back, and when Obadiah pulls Tony fully onto his knees and elbows, Tony moans with his whole body.

was it two wills? one mirror holding us dearer now. (Little Dragon - Twice)

"Obie, what're you doing up?"

your father and me, we were a team (Antonio Salieri - Piano Concerto in C, II, Larghetto)

"Do you ever worry, Mr. Stane -- "

"Obadiah. Please."

"Do you ever worry, Obadiah, that Mr. Stark will retire early or leave Stark Industries?"

The answer is always no. Obadiah has a line about how Tony believes in what Stark Industries is doing. It carefully echoes, but doesn't mimic, language that Tony uses himself in interviews. Reporters find similar themes, but it's not phrased so similarly as to make the PR gambit obvious. It helps, too, that Obadiah honestly believes it: the idea that Tony owuld walk away from Stark Industries would thrill him. Even more than that, though, Tony would never give it up. He tried for two years in Europe. He tries it every time he drinks so much that a normal man would collapse on the floor, but Tony is still able to walk. Talk. Deliver a lecture on integrated circuits. Wake up the next morning with the solution to the YF-44 thrust coordination problem in his head, casually mention it in a morning text to Obadiah, then make the head of R&D play Twenty Questions about it until Tony gets bored and has Pepper re-fog his bathroom and transcribe the equations he wrote on the mirror when he got out of the shower.

Obadiah watches the end of the video that the Ten Signs sent him, then closes out and executes the keystrokes to wipe the ghost drive. No sense in giving the government what they already have, and he turns the chair around, looks at the lights of the Stark Industries plant underneath the window, glittering like tiny orange stars.

And then he picks up the bag with the extractor and casing for the arc reactor and leaves.

their names are never spoken. the curse is never broken. the curse is never broken (Arcade Fire - Black Mirror)

Pepper is ready for a lot on the day of Obadiah's memorial service. In her head, she's prepared scenarios to cope with drunk Tony, angry Tony, sulking Tony, and Tony-who-can't-be-found-because-he-slipped-off-to-Vegas-for-coke-and-showgirls. She's even brought the makeup kit in case he did something foolish; she's allocated precious pocket space in her suit for the extremely unlikely event that Tony starts to cry and she can't reach over and grab his pocket square.

What she doesn't expect to see, on arrival, is Tony sitting on the couch in the living room, already dressed with his tie knotted and shoes polished and ready, for at least an hour, to go and be done with Obadiah Stane.

. . . basically, the Kris Delmhorst song is, in its entirety, one great giant clusterfuck of Iron Man movieverse awesome. I know it's dafnap's song for the forthcoming creepfic of TOTAL AMAZING PORN AND PAIN, from which I also pulled the bit about how good Obadiah is at reading people. And the Arlene Bishop and Santogold songs from her. HURRAY HIVEMIND.

Comments

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

oh boy. YOu were mentioning killer details?

Wake up the next morning with the solution to the YF-44 thrust coordination problem in his head, casually mention it in a morning text to Obadiah, then make the head of R&D play Twenty Questions about it until Tony gets bored and has Pepper re-fog his bathroom and transcribe the equations he wrote on the mirror when he got out of the shower

and


What she doesn't expect to see, on arrival, is Tony sitting on the couch in the living room, already dressed with his tie knotted and shoes polished and ready, for at least an hour, to go and be done with Obadiah Stane.

just killer.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Tony is so over Obadiah.

Except, you know. Not at all. And I'm going to keep spamming the Internet about it until everybody believes me.

[atrata.livejournal.com]

WHAT. OH MY GOD WHAT. Little ficlets! Little ficlets of awesome! "Yeah, let's do it that way." Jesus christ.

Argh. I will come back. I went to bed three hours ago and am not remotely coherent. Obviously. Argh! Yes! *flail*

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

YEAH, LET'S DO IT THAT WAY.

I am inordinately proud of that line, so I'm glad it worked for you. XD Because Tony totally had throw that added sweetener in there. Or else Obie would totally have turned him down.

[atrata.livejournal.com]

He totally would have. He knows where Tony's been.

Oh, I never came back with coherency. I think the thing I like. One of the godzillion things I like. Is, yeah, like daf mentions down there, Tony's very casual genius. The cardboard cutouts he makes out of boxes, the equations on the bathroom mirror. It's hard for me to remember (and harder to write) sometimes that Tony is a kind of scary crazy genius, because I get so focused on the broken, so there's something about these little kind of throwaway reminders that I find completely charming.

And yeah, the ending. Tony playing at grownup.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

No problem, yo. After the outpouring of fandom love and awesome that is the G-doc, I don't think I'd complain if I didn't get FB for, like. Weeks. And God, I do love coming up with ways for Tony to be freakishly smart.

Revelation of the morning: so Rhodey knows that Tony has the suit, and he knows that the suit has weapons. Ergo, he knows that Tony is building weapons again. If Tony going humanitarian is the main reason Rhodey backs away in the hangar, wouldn't he contact Tony again? Especially if he still has Tony's number and picture in his phone?

(Yeah, I know, movie about Tony and booms, not the grand love affair of Tony and Rhodey but. I choose to ignore that fact.)

So yeah. We get no canon for Rhodey actually going and being friendly with Tony again until Pep calls him and is like OMG RHODEY SAVE HIS LIFE. And. Man. The only conclusion I can come to si that he seriously broke up with Tony, didn't he? Yeah, he's still got Tony's number and picture on his phone, but THAT'S JUST ALL PART OF THE BREAKUP.

[atrata.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the fact that he's building weapons is probably part of the reason he DOESN'T contact him. You know, he pulls Tony out of the fucking desert and Tony is broken and weird and different and Not His Tony, and he goes and makes this crazy announcement out of NOWHERE, takes Rhodey completely by surprise. And, okay, Rhodey can maybe maybe try to wrap his head around humanitarian!Tony, maybe. If that's what Tony really seriously honestly wants to do, but Tony should think about it for a while, weigh his options, make sure he fucking means it. Should get his mind right. Then maybe Rhodey will be okay with it, because it's not that he doesn't appreciate the sentiment, but the way Tony went about it really fucked Rhodey over, puts him in a really tough spot.

And then he finds out that no, Tony is still building weapons. He's just doing it in the most batshit insane way imaginable, making this thing that no one can have and no one can use and no one can understand and no one can control; it's just him, out there, Tony Fucking Stark, self-declared arbiter of All Things Good And Right And True, and what the fucking fuck.

[dafnap.livejournal.com]

Tony has his feet on the coffee table and a glass of Obadiah's best scotch in hand

Oh GOD. So that's how it starts, that's where Tony gets the habit. Oh man.

Howard means for Tony to inherit the full measure.

I'm kind of in love with that line, both how Obie comes to that realization (Tony going for broke) and the door it opens.

...then make the head of R&D play Twenty Questions about it until Tony gets bored and has Pepper re-fog his bathroom and transcribe the equations he wrote on the mirror when he got out of the shower.

And I love how casual Tony's genius comes, in this, how frustrating it is too, and it serves to build Obie's case in the end.

And man, that end, on the couch, Tony all put together, trying just a little too hard. Gaaah.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

He has shoes on and everything. What more does Pepper want from him?

And ahah In retrospect, I think I cribbed the "full measure" from Swordspoint. There's this one point where the Duchess says (roughly). "I will die soon, and nobody who comes after will be able to handle the full measure of my power." *insert creepy controlling-ness*

[furius.livejournal.com]

There's a part of me utterly stunned that I'm enjoying reading all your Obadiah/Tony fics, but there's a larger part pretty much screaming that surely all this explains the unnerving tension and touches between these two in the movie.

There's such a tension between Obadiah and Tony where one wishes to be in control (and usually is) and the other's pretty much uncontrollable. It's very much a power dynamic complicated by the fact that Obadiah watched Tony grew up lonely. It's so twisted and fascinating to watch, so to speak, how they deal with each other through the years. I mean, at what point Obadiah just gives up and decides to write off Tony Stark, who is, after all, the backbone of the company? (Though I wonder how Obadiah clashes or cooperates with Pepper...)

Anyways, gorgeous characterization of Tony's casual genius and Obadiah's deliberate..everything.

Also, at this point, I realise that I sporadically come back to this journal- first for the HH stuff, then the SW stuff, now Ironman. I love your fics. Thank you for sharing them.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

where one wishes to be in control (and usually is) and the other's pretty much uncontrollable

My goodness. I do believe that's Obadiah/Tony in a nutshell. The description of Tony as uncontrollable (wait, that is Tony, isn't it XD) is spot-on, I think. Tony, especially as played by RDJ, has this wonderful sense of being a wild card and reveling in being a wildcard. Like, with the cackling laughter when he falls off the bed with Christine? And the whole cheeseburger shtick?

(Though I wonder how Obadiah clashes or cooperates with Pepper...)

dafnap up above is working on this amaaaaazing fic talking about the consequences that would come if a) Pepper sleeps with Obadiah during the time that Tony is gone and b) Tony finds out. But yeah, you're right. There's stunningly little Obadiah-Pepper interaction fic in fandom despite the fact that throughout the whole movie, Pepper calls Obadiah by his first name.

All of which is to say, I poked over at your LJ just now, and OMG. Augustus in heels! Iron Man/Gargoyles! I am in crazy, crazy love. Would you mind if I friended you? There's no obligation to friend back at all, but I don't think I can live without having somebody who can casually reference Suetonius on my f-list. XD

[furius.livejournal.com]

Tony's absolutely convinced (and usually rightly so) about his ability to deal with every situation. His genius and upbringing sense of entitlement pretty much guarantees that he revels in being godlike with no consequences to consider. A young Tony has the same reckless abandon as a Greek god, which makes Obadiah all the more remarkable for lasting as long as he did. I really still wonder what made him to decide, after all this time, that Tony Stark is no longer necessary/he doesn't want to spend the time and energy to deal with him...

I'm working on an Iron Man/Gargoyles crossover, because of course Xanatos Enterprises would have dealings with Stark Industries and very interested in Iron Man. Also, Xanatos is pretty much a more dashing version of Obadiah....

Friended :D

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

. A young Tony has the same reckless abandon as a Greek god

adlkfjgdf. Tony as precocious baby Hermes! Howard as Zeus, Obadiah as Hades, and Rhodey the fighter jet pilot as Apollo? Although if you make Tony as Apollo, that conveys the amaaaaazing ego better, and Pepper can probably be Diana.

which makes Obadiah all the more remarkable for lasting as long as he did

Yeah, it's an odd little point. I think the most convincing one I'v eheard that doesn't require inventing other events is that Obadiah kept waiting for Tony to get bored with Stark Industries and go off, as livia_penn put it in that one fic, fuck off to Ibiza to design underwear for supermodels. And over the course of the next fifteen years or so, Obadiah also comes to the realization that no, the only way Tony is going to be separated from SIA is when Obadiah pries it out of his cold, dead hands.

more dashing version of Obadiah....

HEY. HEY. Dude rocks velvet suits. XD

[furius.livejournal.com]

Apollo was also a precocious youngster. As a baby, he slew the Python (though he wasn't suppose to) so that virgin priestesses ever after has to speak his words while sitting in a tripod where they experience the god, so to speak. I can see Tony quite clearly as Apollo.....casual cruelty and everything.

It's disturbing to think that Obadiah decided to blow up Tony Stark instead of choosing poison or any other a dozen more discreet way of assassinating him. He must've been counting on increasing arms orders from the US gov, foreign govs. security firms etc etc. while killing Tony Stark, which means he's been looking for a chance that will maximize his profits for a long time, perhaps even fifteen years.

HEY. HEY. Dude rocks velvet suits. XD
What velvet suit? Xanatos will rock everything except possibly his own ponytail while being hotly manipulative. I've fangirled him since I was ten.. As one calculator and illegitimate arms dealer to another, I would like to think he and Obadiah has certain understandings between them.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

I can see Tony quite clearly as Apollo.....casual cruelty and everything.

Yeah, Apollo does have that whole thing going for him, doesn't he? And he's got the whole DEATH AND DESTRUCTION AND PLAGUES OF WAR FROM ABOVE WHILE I FLIT AROUND GIGGLING AND SEXXING YOUR WOMEN feeling. He was my first choice, but the very, very specific info about when Hermes invented certain things tipped me over into Hermes to parallel the info we get at the Apogee Awards.

Obadiah Stane in velvet. And his PA comes running after him later with that white scarf. Bitch is fly.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*squeeclaps*

If Tony Stark wants a McDonald's Big Mac at two AM, the Ritz Carlton in Paris will get you a fucking le Big Mac

I am still saying "fucking le Big Mac" to myself and giggling like I'm nine.

[montana-crows.livejournal.com]

Best. Mix. Ever.

I am sharing it around. Because, dude, I haven't done radio in what feels like ages, but sharing new and indie shit like this just is gratifying in a deep and almost dirty way.

I don't know who is involved with the Hivemind, but I heart it.

[tonpep1.livejournal.com]

Every one of those was nicely done. Great song choices too.