{"id":31867,"date":"2012-11-28T04:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T04:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/"},"modified":"2015-02-21T09:49:22","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T09:49:22","slug":"ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-31867 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/attachment\/31868\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/files\/2012\/11\/tumblr_me1xz5tTlz1rf1w2jo1_500-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/attachment\/31869\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/files\/2012\/11\/tumblr_me1xz5tTlz1rf1w2jo2_r1_500-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/attachment\/31870\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/files\/2012\/11\/tumblr_me1xz5tTlz1rf1w2jo3_500-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/attachment\/31871\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/files\/2012\/11\/tumblr_me1xz5tTlz1rf1w2jo4_500-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/attachment\/31872\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/files\/2012\/11\/tumblr_me1xz5tTlz1rf1w2jo5_500-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/ironpep.tumblr.com\/post\/36718197091\/i-cant-express-in-words-what-a-critical-moment\">ironpep<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I can\u2019t express in words what a critical moment this was for me. I had been watching him throw himself into danger the way he used to throw himself into the crazy driving or the substance abuse. As far as I was concerned, it was just one more suicidal stunt. Have I mentioned the man has no sense of self-preservation? I\u2019d seen him get in a Mafioso\u2019s face once in Vegas, just for the hell of it. Money can\u2019t buy you out of that kind of trouble. I\u2019d pictured myself handling all the details of his funeral. Assisting him to the grave. I\u2019d imagined all the business contacts and SI execs standing around the gaping hole in the ground. Gradually they\u2019d all trickle away and I\u2019d be the only one left. The only one who actually gave a damn. No, that isn\u2019t fair. Rhodey and Happy give a damn. But outside of us, this \u201cteam Stark\u201d as he calls us, it would be just another social obligation.<\/p>\n<p>So when he pulled this guilt trip on me &#8211; don\u2019t get me wrong, I saw it for what it was &#8211; I figured he\u2019d just changed the method of his suicide. He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. It\u2019s not like I was against him helping people. I just didn\u2019t want \u201cI have to help my victims\u201d to be another excuse like \u201cI only got in his face because he gave me the stinkeye\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Then I remembered what he\u2019d said with that silly self-deprecating\u00a0grin on his face. <em>You\u2019re all I have.<\/em> Now he was pleading with me to believe him, to believe in him. To help him do what he believes in. Tony Stark, standing up for a cause? I few months earlier it would\u2019ve been inconceivable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The experience is hard to describe. It was like driving before dawn, when the world is all in shades of grey, and it\u2019s hard to tell where the sky ends and the horizon begins. The light gradually creeps in until the sun erupts from behind the mountains and everything blazes into color. Suddenly I saw Tony for who he was, for who he had become. Not a wastrel. A hero. He wasn\u2019t throwing his life away &#8211; he was protecting the weak.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d made a mistake, and for that I\u2019m sorry. I hadn\u2019t believed in him. I\u2019d seen only what I expected &#8211; the gambler, the drunk, the man who thought the world was better off without him. But the man before me had brought something miraculous out of what could have been pointless suffering. It was as if the experience had burned away the excess and left the essence of Tony.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not bragging when I say I\u2019d always thought he had it in him. Why else do you think I stuck around so long? I saw the good in him even few others did. I\u2019m not excusing his behavior, not at all. I\u2019m just saying that I\u2019d always hoped he could get rid of all the crap weighing him down and use his brain and his heart to make the world a better place. Of course, I was thinking more along the lines of Jonas Salk, not Clark Kent!<\/p>\n<p>As a side note, this is why I go a little apeshit whenever anyone mentions Howard Stark. \u201cYou\u2019re my greatest creation\u201d? What a pile of horseshit. Everything that Tony is, he built himself. I\u2019m not talking about the money. I\u2019m talking about the man. You could argue that Tony inherited his intelligence from Howard. I know lots of people with the capacity for intelligence. Few of them bother to develop it.<\/p>\n<p>To sum up, this is why I help him. So I downloaded a few files. It\u2019s nothing compared to what he does, creepy senior execs notwithstanding. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m out there taking bullets and getting my metal ass handed to me. I can\u2019t machine parts or design AI. Hell, I wouldn\u2019t know a capacitor if it bit me in the ass. But I keep his life (and his empire) running. If that\u2019s what it takes, then that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ironpep: I can\u2019t express in words what a critical moment this was for me. I had been watching him throw himself into danger the way he used to throw himself into the crazy driving or the substance abuse. As far as I was concerned, it was just one more suicidal stunt. Have I mentioned the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/11\/28\/ironpep-i-cant-express-in-words-what-a\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\"><\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3846,3847,1889,3367,3845,3116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31867"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31873,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31867\/revisions\/31873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}