Of Fathers And Parallels
.
.
.
.
"Obie was a great man"
Standing at Obie's grave, saying a thousand words that ultimately meant nothing. Tony was struck by the parallels between Howard and Obie and they made him want to scream or maybe throw something. He didn't of course, even Pepper can handle only so much bad press and he didn't really feel like soothing ruffled feathers at the moment, so he continued, on and on and on...
"What can I say, he kept SI afloat when i was too young to manage or to drunk"
The crowd laughed like good little puppets, only ever going through the motions, the entire affair was essentially a publicity stunt. Obie didn't have friends ( I once thought I was, how foolish of me) only business partners and those he exploited (Ah, you're a golden goose Tony). No one here actually cared about him, they only wanted to see if Tony would break. He didn't though, well at least not at this moment, but perhaps a long time ago he did. Maybe that was why people generally didn't stay, although it mattered little, Tony never minded being alone because he never really was. A thousand, thousand ideas burst into life inside his head, creatures of metal and programming happy to stay by his side and a star that burned beside his heart, what need did he have for humans?
"It really is such a shame, he had a brilliant mind, he'll be greatly missed"
Tony wondered if they would notice that the eulogy he spoke now was nearly the same he spoke at Howards.
Parallels, he wondered why he didn't notice them sooner. At both funerals he talked about the great person that he personally hated, said lines that were handed to him because he was too numb to care.
Parallels. After this, Tony thought, I am going to get very, very drunk ( It never helped though, never quite drowned out of the voices and memories).
The reason he will never forgive Obie is very much the same reason he never forgave his father.
Howard ripped out his heart with his expectations and disapproval, Obie ripped out the heart that he had built for himself, from metal scraps and poisoned energy, but still his own.
He had thought both of them his father and both of them deemed it their right to control him.
In the end, Tony couldn't find it in himself to surprised when both of them flew a little too close to the sun.
