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[in_extremis]

OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Bear
Contact: Discord: sirytilaer
DF Alum: N

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Anthony Edward Stark
Character journal: in_extremis
Series name: Marvel 616
Canon notes: This is a fairly young Tony, Peak New Avengers, right before Civil War. If you need a specific reference, the publishing order of his appearances is a little loosey goosey, but from the Iron Man title, this would be vol 4 issue 12.
Retroactive updates to Tony's history in canon since Iron Man vol 4 will also not be welcome in this house.
Species: Human
Age: 31

Arrival Condition: Uninjured

History: A History, up to 'Civil War', minus the adoption details at the beginning. If this is ever relevant, Howard and Maria Stark are Tony's birth parents.

Personality: An immediate impression of Tony depends on your perspective; he is either intimidatingly confident, or an egotistical prick. The image he cultivates is aspirational and intolerable: rich, gorgeous, brilliant, irresistible and, above all, humble. As he might have put it in another life, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. A surface read of Tony makes him effortlessly extroverted (attention seeking), unflappably sharp and calculating (manipulative), and undeniably brilliant (condescending). He certainly has the air of being raised in lavish privilege, floating into any room like he belongs there, and used to buying his way through any gate.

Whether or not any part of that is genuine is debatable. Without the public mask, Tony could be described as chaotically suicidal, stemming from a deep self-loathing. This tendency manifests in private, personal ways, like an addictive personality leading him to alcoholism or hyper-focused isolation to minimize Tony's contact with his own reflection, or in grand, showy ways, like being eager to sacrifice himself into a black hole if it means saving the rest of the Avengers a minor inconvenience. His outward generosity comes from a similar place, and he assumes his value to others is his wallet: while much of Tony's philanthropy has a basis in genuine sympathy for a cause, like the Avengers or foster care programs, the money is definitely his love language. His best friend seems a little peeved at him? No problem, buy him an island. At times in his life when he didn't have access to these riches, he kept strict accounts of his debts, as he saw them, and repaid kindness in triplicate.

The self-loathing is a reasonable karmic response, in Tony's opinion. Starting with the early ignorance of his own war-mongering, which he could never hope to atone for, he became a superhero by choice to try to make amends and at least make the world better from then on. As he would say, he's just a man in a can-- in fact, Tony regards the Iron Man as a separate entity, and he's just a baseline human who willed himself into the responsibility. Superheroing created its own dilemmas, though. Philosophically, Tony would call himself a futurist, and in practice he is a fairly strict utilitarian. To him, the ends justify the means, and he will act in the service of the greater good, even if the short term effects means the cost of a few lives. Every move Tony makes is for the cultivation of a better, brighter future, and he will rigidly stand by those decisions and is willing to be the one to make them if no one else can bear the moral horror of it. He is chock full of moral horror. The cost isn't any less painful to Tony, but putting that burden on anyone else when there isn't a better solution forward, is equally unbearable to him. In a microcosm, he is against using his power as a superhero as a tool to kill; an individual on a dangerous rampage is a symptom, not the cause, and being a superhero means that one has the tools at hand to minimize the disaster without further loss. To Tony, someone who lacks that moral guideline isn't a superhero, but a vigilante.

At his happiest, Tony is curious and falls in love easily, with people and with new experiences. He is highly adaptive, and when not making the difficult decisions, finds his life as an Avenger an ongoing opportunity to explore new worlds and push new boundaries, from travelling through space to travelling through time. When confronted with the unknown, Tony is less likely to panic than he is to smile, roll up his sleeves, and put this puzzle together.

He really hates magic, though.

Abilities:
The Brain: Tony is a baseline human with higher than average intelligence, including academic successes in areas like mechanical engineering and nuclear physics, and has proven to be a quick learner in related disciplines. Unless there is a particular reason to stop him from understanding the alien technology, past experience suggests he should be able to figure it out and adapt it fairly quickly. If changing specialties with the datapoints makes you forget things, I figure there might be an in-universe way to cap this if that's necessary! I am not sure about your universe rules yet, though.

His intelligence has manifested in a spooky level of forecasting. Tony can think several steps ahead, predicting events, catastrophes, and when the toilet paper will run out at the Tower even if he is not there. He is your mom calling you from the car, asking if you have taken the chicken out of the freezer yet, knowing full well what to expect when he walks in the door.

The Body: Tony has been injected with an adapted Extremis virus, tailored to give him a unique interface with the Iron Man instead of all of the fire-breathing superpowers. The virus 'hacks the body's repair center', and has given Tony some boosted healing and immunity abilities, and, upon injection, completely rebuilt his body, ridding him of what had been a severely compromised internal organ situation. He is no longer suffering from the long term effects of his alcoholism, the shrapnel that tore through his heart, or the bullet that paralyzed him. This Tony does not depend on the chest plate or RT Node. He has, however, shown symptoms of the virus' reduced emotional control, including increased aggression.

Extremis has allowed Tony to form a technopathic link with the Iron Man, and, by extension, networks that the Iron Man can connect to, including satellites and computers. The undersuit of the Iron Man, used to interface with the armor, is connected directly to Tony's brain, and is stored in the hollows of his bones. In effect, he can be a never-nude, and can control the Iron Man like another limb.

Personal Item: Weirdly, I don't think the suit is reasonable to have here. I can't say he won't try to build one, but he doesn't have to bring it with him. So, nothing, thank you!

Sample: Here.