Turns out the reason why I felt so sick yesterday was that I have the stomach flu. Great...
Tuesday, August 1st, 1995
Things didn't go "viral" back in 1995. At least, not in the way that we understand today. Computers had much more limited processing power, and sites like YouTube were a full decade out from being created. The most reliable way to play video content was via VHS. Yes, DVDs had been invented by that point, but they weren't as affordable or convenient for the average consumer. After all, most VCRs had a recording function built-in, which made it much easier for people to record whatever they wanted and was less complicated than the process of burning a DVD. Not to mention that if the person possessed the right equipment, they could copy VHS tapes, too, making it entirely possible to share certain videos with friends and family. This was great if you just wanted to share memories or just make a copy of the latest blockbuster. It was terrible if you stood to lose any public credibility.
Back then, it was common for VHS collectors and bored college kids to pass tapes around to their inner circles. Most of it was innocent; cheesy yet hilarious video dating profiles, amateur footage of some poor soul's mishap jumping into a swimming pool, even short films and underground cult classics. A well-known example would be the animated short The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa, which circulated in December of 1995 and ended up becoming the basis for the long-running Comedy Central series, South Park. Hundreds of other films also circulated around this time but some of them weren't as funny as they were pornographic.
Yes, both sex tapes and professionally-made pornographic films got passed around as well. The one thing that could always resolutely be said about the human species is that sex will always catch our attention. As revolting as that statement could be to some, the truth in it could not be denied. "Sex sells" for a reason.
With all of this in mind, it made what happened to Tony make the slightest bit more sense. Add to that his celebrity and notoriety – which made him a household name – and the perfect recipe for a sordid controversy came together almost perfectly. It was a piece of gossip no one could resist, and almost everyone had to see for themselves in order to believe; Tony Stark was gay, and footage of him having sex with another man existed to prove it. All that had to be done to see proof was to pop a VHS into a tape player, and once convinced, for the person to pass the tape on to someone else.
There was one drawback to this method of transmission, however, and that was that it took a long time for these videos to be passed along. Today, video can be passed along instantly with just the push of a button. In 1995, the tapes had to be physically passed from person to person. So, it took a while for these things to gain traction. Once they did, though, the destruction that could be done to one's reputation could be just as devastating.
The tapes had been circulating for about a month by this point. They still had not really reached wide-spread public knowledge, but the rumor mill was running hot. People spoke in hushed whispers about the possibility of Tony Stark being gay, but for the most part it was dismissed as hearsay. That would be, at least until the tapes reached them and they finally got proof for themselves. Then they would pass off the tapes to the other non-believers and the army of people who knew the truth grew. It eventually spread from place to place, city to city, friend circle to friend circle. However, it seemed the last people to know about it were the people closest to Tony Stark himself.
Rhodey didn't know what the tape was when it got passed to him. One of his Air Force buddies just handed it to him, stressing that he "had to see it," and that it would "blow [his] mind." He tried to get his (as it was now apparent, not-really) friend to explain what was on the tape, but the guy insisted that he had to see it for himself. Reluctantly, Rhodey took the tape from him, thinking at worse it would be amateur porn or a bunch of shot-on-shiteo short films. That was an assumption he would come to regret.
When he got home that night, he popped the tape into the VHS player in the living room and went to set about starting dinner in the attached kitchen. For the first minute and fifty seconds, the recording was nothing but snow. Thinking that the tape might be broken, Rhodey rolled his eyes. He finished punching in the time code on the microwave and walked back over to the TV.
Yes, that really blew my mind! I never knew television static could reach such an annoying pitch! I'm so glad I watched this!
Just as Rhodey was reaching for the eject button on the VCR, the speakers' whining suddenly stopped and the screen went black. He took a step back and watched the screen, waiting for the studio credits or possibly even some trailers to start. Instead, he was startled by the sudden onscreen appearance of a man wearing a Michael Myers mask and almost stumbled back into the coffee table behind him.
"Shit!" he cursed as he regained his proper balance. The visual was accompanied by distorted audio. It made every breath the onscreen man took sound like it had been run through an echo chamber. He didn't say anything, just stared right at the camera.
"What is this?" Rhodey questioned aloud. "Some kind of Halloween knock-off fan film?"
The masked person on onscreen said something, but the audio was so distorted that it could not be clearly made out. By Rhodey's guess, he was trying to figure out if the camera was recording, as he immediately turned it away from his face and pointed it down at the carpeted floor below him. The man made another distorted remark – probably getting confirmation that yes, it was recording – before stepping up on to a bed.
The sheets and bedding were very non-descript, plain white; the kind you would see in your average hotel room. The shine of the silk that the duvet was made up of was the only clear indication of luxury that could be seen. Well, at least from that angle. The man squatted down to retrieve what looked like a vent cover resting on one of the pillows before straightening up again. Then, the screen went black again.
Despite that, it was clear that the recording had not suddenly stopped as distorted audio could still be heard. Brief glimpses of light showed that the camera's lens had been covered by the man's gloved hand. Rhodey questioned what he was doing until the man slowly started pulling his hand out of the way, replacing it with the vent cover. He struggled to balance it and place it in a position where the lens was able to view the scene below through the slats, but eventually somehow, he managed it. Once he had everything lined in position, the man produced a screwdriver from his belt and put the bolts back into place. After that, he got down off the bed and stepped out of frame, leaving Rhodey feeling concerned.
His first thought was automatically, holy fuck, I just came across a snuff film! Which was natural to assume. After all, a guy dressed like Michael Myers just put a camera over a hotel room bed. Anyone with half a brain cell would assume that someone was about to be raped and murdered on camera. Hitting the fast forward button on the VCR, Rhodey retrieved the phone from its cradle on the side table, trying to remember what the number for the FBI was.
Before he could, though, he saw movement on the screen and hit the play button. Although he did not really want to watch someone die, he had to find out if this was really what he was seeing before he called the authorities. He and Tony once watched a Japanese horror film called Guinea Pig and the effects in the film were so realistic that they felt compelled to call the FBI and MPAA to make sure that no one had died for real. Both organizations were able to get into contact wit everyone involved with the making-of the film and were able to confirm that all the actors were in fact alive, much to their relief, but that experience made Rhodey wary of calling them again, simply because he didn't want to waste their time if it was fake.
Onscreen now, however, nothing nefarious seemed to be happening. At least, as far as Rhodey could tell. Someone's shadow could be seen in the corner of the screen, clearly humanoid in shape. The person the shadow belonged to stood off-screen for a good couple of minutes, before they slowly started to step into frame. Almost right away, Rhodey noticed that there was something familiar about this person and a sinking feeling began to slip into his gut.
The person was talking to someone off-screen, but from the angle the camera was at, Rhodey could see the person's face, let alone attempt to read lips. The only thing that made it clear that there were two people there were the two distinctive – albeit distorted – voices exchanging words. What they said couldn't possibly be made out, but that wasn't what Rhodey was trying to do. He was listening to see if he could hear any recognizable qualities to the man on-screen's voice. However, the audio was messed up completely beyond all recognition and thus he couldn't hear anything definitive; just two voices talking back and forth.
Eventually, the person onscreen moved to sit down on the bed, tossing his jacket to the side. For a moment, the person glanced up towards the vent, allowing their entire face to be seen. In that moment, all of Rhodey's worst suspicions had been confirmed. The person on-screen was, in fact, his best friend, Tony Stark. The sight made Rhodey's blood run cold and within seconds, he was dialing Tony's home phone number.
He didn't think anything was seriously amiss. After all, he had just seen Tony two days before and he was clearly alive. However, he needed to know what the hell he was watching and hoped Tony would be able to clue him in. Despite his hopes, that isn't what happened. Instead of Tony answering the phone, Rhodey was instead met with the voice of JARVIS, the AI Tony had recently installed into his home.
"Good evening," the slightly automated, British-sounding voice said. "Mr. Stark does not wish to be disturbed right now. If you would so kindly leave a message, I will make sure it gets to him. Please, start your recording after the tone."
The tone then sounded and Rhodey rushed into leaving the message.
"Tones, what's going on?" he asked. "I got this videotape passed along to me today of you talking to someone in a hotel room. I haven't even watched the whole thing yet and it's already creepy beyond hell. Just call me back to let me know you're alright, because this thing is giving me a bad feeling. …Unless this is a prank, in which case fuck you, but either way, call me back." He then hung up the phone and tossed it down onto the couch behind him. Squeezing his eyes shut, Rhodey scrubbed a hand over his face and began hoping against all hope that this was an elaborate prank of Tony's and not anything truly malicious.
All hope of that disappeared when Rhodey looked back at the screen and saw another figure step into frame. Clearly this had been the person Tony had been talking to as he kept his gaze on him. Just from the back of the man's head, Rhodes was able to recognize him as Tiberius Stone; Tony's now ex-with-a-capital-E hook-up.
Tony Stark did not date people, but he did have a few that he regularly hooked up with. Tiberius Stone was one of them. He was some executive from another company that Rhodey did not even bother to learn the name of. All he knew was that he did not like the guy or the way he seemingly treated Tony like he was his property. However, that did not stop Tony from seeing him off-and-on for the past year. In fact, the only thing that did was some argument Tony was not willing to go into the details of. Rhodey did not pry further because he was only glad that the guy was out of Tony's life for good. At least, that is what he thought until he saw him appear on the tape. Then, he started to realize that Tony might not be out of the woods yet.
The video was not exactly new. Based on the surroundings and the clothes that Tony and Stone were wearing, Rhodey was able to conclude that the video was taken at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas the previous November. Tony seemed to have it in his head that the best way to celebrate Thanksgiving was by getting drunk and gambling away huge sums of money. How those two things correlated with the holiday, Rhodey did not know. All it really meant was that they got to spend the weekend indulging in all the reckless hedonism the City of Sin had to offer. Rhodey himself had indulged in a buxom blonde named Tiffany he was whom he met up with by the roulette table. Meanwhile, Tony had been indulging in his time with Stone – as the tape was now showing.
Rhodey bit his lip, not liking the situation at all. Tony seemed oblivious to the fact that he was being recorded. He glanced in the camera's direction a few times, but never seemed to take notice of it. That alone caused red flags to raise in Rhodey's mind but paired with the fact that Stone appeared to be completely avoiding the camera made nuclear sirens go off as well.
Stone never turned around, nor did he even glance in the direction of the air vent above him. It appeared that his gaze was constantly on Tony, rather than randomly looking about like a normal person would be. It was clearly an intentional effort to keep his face from being seen, meaning that he knew the camera was there.
"Son of a bitch!" Rhodey wanted to say so much worse, preferably while punching Stone in the face repeatedly. He deserved that in the very least, especially with what he knew was about to happen.
A few minutes after Stone sat down next to Tony on the bed, he went in and stole a kiss. Tony was a little surprised at first, but quickly kissed back. It did not take long after that for the clothes to start coming off. Rhodey turned his back to the TV, not needing to see his best friend's privacy be most maliciously violated.
Rhodey picked the phone back up and tried dialing Tony again. To his displeasure, he just got the same message from JARVIS. Frustrated, Rhodey next called Happy Hogan – Tony's chauffer – to see if at least he had heard from Tony at all.
Unfortunately, Happy had the previous two nights off and had not gotten any of the usual last-minute calls from from a completely drunk Tony needing Happy to drive him from whatever party or bar he had stranded himself at. For normal people, it was considered a good thing for this not to happen. For Tony, it was highly unusual.
Naturally concerned, Happy asked Rhodey what was going on and Rhodey reluctantly explained what the had stumbled across. Happy did know about Tony being bisexual – it wasn't that hard to put the pieces together if you were around him all the time. Rhodey just felt bad about having to explain what happened because it felt like a further violation of Tony's privacy. Regardless, Happy was Tony's friend, too, and needed to know what was going on. Undoubtedly, Happy was just as infuriated as Rhodey to hear what happened.
"I knew it!" he exclaimed across the landline connection. "I just knew it! I knew that guy was trouble right from the start! I told Tony that he should stay away from him, but did he listen to me? No!"
"Well, this isn't an 'I told you so' moment, Hogan," Rhodey explained. "This is going to be absolutely devastating to Tony, provided he doesn't know about it yet."
"Yeah, I wouldn't count on that," Happy said. "I just flipped channels to NBC and caught the tail end of a commercial for Entertainment Tonight that teased 'Tony Stark's dark secret.'"
"Oh, God damn it!" Rhodey cursed. "The media's already gotten ahold of this?"
"It seems like it," Happy said in a dark, dreading voice. "God, I just want to punch that fucker in the face."
"Get in line," Rhodey said. "I've already called dibs on the first ten rounds."
"Well, don't let me stand in your way, then." Happy remarked.
"You haven't heard from Tony at all, though?" Rhodey asked.
"Not a peep," Happy confirmed. "You think he's alright?"
"I'm going to find out," Rhodey said as he went over to the kitchen counter to grab his wallet and keys. "I'm heading over there now."
"Do you need backup?" Happy asked.
"I don't want to overwhelm him," Rhodey explained. "But I'll call you if I need you."
"I'll be on standby," Happy assured and shortly after the call ended.
Hanging up the phone, Rhodey headed back over to the TV, not even chancing a glance at the screen. He kept his gaze on the VCR's stop and eject buttons until the screen went blue and the tape popped out of the loading bay. As soon as it was out, Rhodey took it and stormed out the front door of his house, heading straight for the driveway.
Once he was behind his car, Rhodey spiked the tape down on the ground as hard as he could. The plastic casing cracked a bit, but otherwise it was relatively undamaged. Rhodey gave an angry and dismissive snort, resolving that it would not stay that way for long. He marched over to the driver's side of the car, hopped in the front seat, and turned the key in the ignition. He did not even give the car a chance to warm up before he threw it in reverse and slammed on the gas pedal.
The car gave a jerk as it backed over the VHS tape and the distinctive sound of plastic cracking could be heard, but Rhodey was not satisfied. He shifted the car to dive and ran over the tape again. He backed over the tape at least three more times before he finally felt that it was good and thoroughly destroyed. After that, he pulled out of the driveway and sped down the road, leaving behind the mess of scattered plastic splinters and ruined film tape across the pavement.
Pulling down Tony's street, Rhodey was relieved to find that the media had not set up an encampment in front of his house. At least, not yet anyway. Punching in his access code at the gate, the entryway flung open on its own, allowing Rhodey to drive down into Tony's garage.
Once inside, Rhodey headed straight for Tony's workshop, expecting to find Tony there working on something, but the place was totally empty save for DUM-E, who immediately ran up to Rhodey in greeting. Rhodey gave the enthusiastic robot a pat on the claw before exiting the workshop and heading upstairs. He did not know where in the house to look for Tony, but luckily for him, Tony had made himself relatively easy to find.
As soon as he reached the top of the stairs and turned back to check the living room, he spotted Tony fast asleep on the couch. Well, that was how it appeared at first. Closer inspection revealed that Tony was passed out with three empty bottles of scotch surrounding him. Rhodey quickly checked for a pulse. Finding one, he let out a relieved sigh.
"JARVIS," he prompted. "Do you know how much alcohol he had to drink?"
"Mr. Stark has ingested three bottles of scotch," the AI confirmed. "In addition to a hundred milligrams of ketamine."
"Ketamine?" Rhodey questioned. "What's that?"
"The consensus of several internet sources is that it is a sedative." Rhodey held back the urge to groan.
"Sleeping pills, Tony? Really?" Tony did not seem to stir one bit at the remark, so Rhodey shook his shoulder. "Tony! Tones, wake up!"
Tony did not give so much as a whimper. He remained soundly asleep, much to Rhodey's frustration. Hoping to shock him awake, he went into the kitchen and filled a glass with cold water. Going back over to Tony's side, he poured the contents all over his face. Still, Tony didn't stir. Rhodey frowned, realizing that there might be something more going on here.
"JARVIS," he said. "Do you know how Ketamine reacts with alcohol?"
"Yes, of course." Rhodey waited a beat for JARVIS to elaborate further but he was not so fortunate to have the young AI understand that that he wanted more information than just that.
"Can you tell me?" Rhodey struggled to keep the annoyance and frustration out of his voice. Thankfully, the AI did as prompted.
"Of course," JARVIS said. "According to web searches, when mixed with alcohol, Ketamine can cause prolonged periods of sleep and drowsiness, along with a lowered heart rate and shallow breathing. Other complications include difficulty breathing, arrhythmia, and potentially death." Rhodey's eyes went wide.
"And you let him take that?!" he exclaimed in shock.
"I advised Mr. Stark of all of these potential reactions before he took the drug," JARVIS explained in a calm tone that would have been worrying if it came from a human. "He muted me and went ahead with it anyways. I'm sure you're aware that there was nothing I could do to physically stop him." Rhodey let out a harsh breath, forcing himself to calm down.
"I'm aware," he confirmed. "Please tell me you've been doing something to prevent harm from befalling him."
"Certainly," JARVIS said. "I've been monitoring his vitals for the past five hours, keeping a lookout for signs that a serious reaction had taken place. Had his condition taken a turn for the worse, I would have contacted the emergency services and yourself, along with Obadiah Stane." Rhodey narrowed his eyes.
"I called twice," he pointed out. "Why didn't you let me know what was going on then?"
"Mr. Stark asked me to turn away any calls he got before he passed out," JARVIS explained. "His vitals weren't indicating an adverse reaction, so I deemed him not to be in enough danger to defy a direct order."
"Yeah, Tony's going to need to work on your Asimov protocols." Rhodey sighed before pressing his fingers to Tony's pulse point again. He could still feel a heartbeat, albeit one that was a little slower and weaker than it probably should be. "Call poison control. I want a more reliable source of information than the internet."
"Right away," JARVIS said before the audio switched over to the sound of a phone dialing and ringing. He brought a hand up to Tony's forehead and found it to be unusually warm and sweaty, particularly for someone who had spent the past five hours sleeping with the air conditioning on full blast. He could only hope that it was not indicative of something serious as he waited for poison control to pick up.
After what seemed like an eternity, a woman from the LA County Poison Control Center picked up the phone. Rhodey explained the situation and Tony's symptoms as best he could but did not make it any further than the word "Ketamine" before the woman was cutting him off.
"Your friend took Ketamine?" she – most certainly unprofessionally – exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah," Rhodey said. "I know it's a sedative and he really shouldn't have mixed it with alcohol, but we just need…"
"It's not just a sedative!" the woman said. "It's a form of anesthetic, more commonly used on animals than on people!" Rhodey's heart dropped at the words.
"Are you telling me he took animal tranquilizer!?" Panic was creeping into his voice. JARVIS had not mentioned any of that, but then again JARVIS had gotten the information off the internet. He technically could not be blamed for parroting back erroneous information. At least, until Tony worked on making JARVIS' judgement a little better.
Really? You think you should leave that up to Tony? Rhodey pushed the thought away as he focused on the voice of the woman over the line who was trying to calm him.
"Sir," she said. "I know this is a shock and my own response was inappropriate. For that, I apologize, but you need to calm down." With that, Rhodey took a deep breath and found his logical center again.
"Alright," he said once he deemed himself stable enough. "What do I need to do?"
"I'm going to patch you through to the City of Malibu's 911 center," the woman explained. "Just explain the situation to them as calmly and rationally as you can and give them updates on the injured party's condition, as necessary."
"Yes ma'am. Thank you."
While he waited for the call to be transferred, Rhodey checked Tony over again. His pulse was still slow and his head still warm. Despite that, Tony did not look any worse for wear. In fact, one could easily mistake him for being in a very deep sleep. However, that was not the case. Tony could be in danger and whether he did that to himself or not didn't matter. Tiberius Stone was responsible for this. Of that, Rhodey was certain.
I think that kind of serves me right for going out so much recently when we're supposed to be on lockdown. I'm starting to get the feeling that once the pandemic has passed, a lot of people are going to get hit with a bunch of minor colds and viruses thanks to not properly socializing for over a year. Oh well, at least I didn't get struck with COVID, right?
Because my last author's note was so long, I didn't get a chance to thank everybody for showing their support throughout the hiatus! So, thank you to mfaerie32 on FFN, and Saidra, DiveTooDeep, and all the guests who showed their support on AO3! You guys rock! I'd appreciate it if everyone reading this would continue to show support by leaving a comment or a review, but just be advised I might not reply right away. I'll still read it but I don't think my head is focused enough right now to generate a valid response. I don't even think it's focused enough to generate a valid author's note, but here we are.
Remember kids, follow the lockdown procedure. If you don't, the best thing that could happen is you get the stomach flu, and if this is bad I don't even want to imagine what COVID is like.
Originally uploaded to FFN on 1/2/21.
