Lima to Stockholm
Notes: This chapter's been a bear to write, mostly because I keep deciding that every scene I write needs to come later. On the plus side I've got a nice buffer of scenes to be used in future chapters built up now.
Random observance on Marvel's inconsistency about Tony's parents dying when he was 17 in IM1 and 21 in CW. If you leave Tony's birthdate the same that moves their deaths from 1991 to 1987. The Gulf War is the main thing I find for '91 and it was done before December however the Soviet-Afghan war (sort of the USSR equivalent of Vietnam) was still going in '87. That seems like a better motivation for the Winter Soldier to go after Howard Stark at that particular time. I'd already decided that I was going to stick with Tony being 17 (21 when his parents die writes out Stane running SI until Tony came of age), but rather than move Tony's birthdate later my headcannon is that Howard and Maria died in 1987 rather than 1991.
Chapter Four: Sharing Hurt
It was the fifth or maybe sixth time Tony's nightmares had been loud enough to draw Loki back into his room. "I've always found my mother's library to have a soothing air," Loki offered holding out his hand to pull Tony to his feet.
Tony stared at the outstretched hand warily, remembering that same hand wrapped around his throat five years earlier. "I don't like being handed things," he mumbled.
"I am trying," Loki complained. "Can you not remember that we are in the same boat now?"
Tony gave him a twisted smile in return, "Don't take it personally Reindeer Games, my little issue predates the first time I met you. Although, the whole super-strength thing isn't working in your favor, after all your big brother was my friend and his hand around my throat didn't really feel any different from yours."
"I'm hardly that oaf," Loki sniffed but his shoulders relaxed and he stepped back, granting Tony more space while gesturing for him to follow him through the door leading to the rest of the royal suit. "I don't damage useful allies."
"Hooray for enlightened self-interest," Tony said with a complete and deliberate lack of enthusiasm. But he stared around him at the veranda Loki had revealed hungrily. There were three doors beside the one they'd come through and porch opened on a small, walled garden. Tony could see a willow tree bending over a bench and a tiny pond that reflected the stars back up to the sky. The center of the garden was a grassy clearing broken by a few scattered bushes and flower plots. Climbing vines covered the walls, their blossoms closed for the night and the air smelled of growing things. Tony had never been particularly drawn to gardens before but he'd never spent what he estimated had to be at least six months in a single room before either. He walked to the edge of the veranda, "Is it safe?" he asked. "Can I?"
Loki hesitated for a moment. "Yes, the garden is within our region of Valhalla," he allowed.
Tony sat beside the stairs leading into the garden, his bare feet brushing against blades of grass. In the dim light of the stars and what spilled from the open door of Tony's workroom he looked worn, as if the mask he'd pulled on when Loki woke him no longer fit quite as seamlessly as it had. Loki wondered if it were exhaustion or the beginnings of trust that made it so. "What do you dream of?" he asked.
"Steve is not Obie," Tony said forcefully. His hand came up to rub at the spot where the arc reactor had been. When he'd woken up in Asgard even the scarring left behind when it had been removed was gone but with the nightmares close to the surface he could almost feel the cool metal embedded in his chest, could still taste coconut and metal on the back of his tongue.
"I lack that background for that to be anything but cryptic," Loki pointed out.
"What can it hurt?" Tony said to himself, "You and I are both stuck here until the end of the world right? I trusted them both. The arc reactor might not have literally been my heart but for half a decade it kept it beating, Obie ripped it out and Steve crushed it. But it wasn't like Steve did it for money. He was just protecting his friend, not me, obviously. Steve's not Obie, it was me that made the same mistake with both of them: I let myself believe that I mattered to them, that they were like Jarvis, Rhodey or Pepper, not just another opportunist out to see what they could get from me."
"Is it so much worse that this Obie's aims were material?" Loki asked. "They both betrayed the trust and friendship you gave them."
For a long time Tony didn't say anything. "I built this device Binarily Augmented Retro Framing, or B.A.R.F. because it was fun watching the guys in marketing make faces when I called it that. It was supposed to fix my memories, make them hurt less," he said. "But it's real value might be that it forces you to stand outside yourself and review the memories you want to change as an observer."
"I would not wish to be subjected to such a thing," Loki said. "There are legends about the terrible devastation that can be wrecked by forcing a person to look upon themselves with all illusions stripped away."
Tony winced, "Somehow that doesn't surprise me, I build something to help people and it turns out to be one hell of a weapon. But I think the clarity helped me recognize a few things even if it didn't fix what it was supposed to fix. The last time I saw my parents alive my dad and I fought. It was practically inevitable, I was barely out of rehab which naturally reminded him that I'd forced him to abandon his search for Captain America to throw me in rehab in the first place... When I heard Dad was coming home I told Rhodey I'd just wait in the hospital and save everyone a long trip to the morgue."
At Loki's look Tony rolled his eyes, "A joke, my dad's weapon of choice was always his tongue not his fists.
Verbal evisceration only but he was seriously unhappy about me publicly humiliating him because I'd gotten dumped by some girl. If he'd shut up long enough for me to get a word in edgewise I'd have pointed out that dumped was an overstatement, I left the party with Marissa Wending for a one-night stand not a face full of mace and an hour of listening to her go on about how I -read Stark weapons- killed her mom, until Rhodey rescued me. He wanted me to file assault charges against her but gave it up when I pointed out it would only end with me charged with attempted rape. He dumped me at our hotel room because he had designated driver duties for the night for all our friends. While he was busy I paid room service an extra hundred dollars not to check my ID. I had slightly better sense than to blame Rhodey for calling the ambulance when he came in but damn did I wish that it had been Obie when I woke up to a camera flash." Tony laughed bitterly, "See, I'd pulled the same stunt the Christmas before my parents died, Mom was busy with a charity so there was way too much unbuffered contact between my dad and I, hence drinking. On both of our parts, I just had to wait for him to be out of the room to sneak my share. Obie found me that time, got me over to his his house and called a private doctor to pump my stomach. I heard him on the phone with my Dad the next day saying how he'd wanted some quality time with his favorite honorary nephew, I was so fucking grateful. It wasn't the first time and very far from the last time Obie helped cover up my drinking. The month I lived with him after my parents died I don't think I spent a moment fully sober. My problem, my bad choices but oh Obie made it so damn easy."
Then to Loki's surprise, Tony smiled, "He must have been furious when Rhodey's mom kidnapped me after that first month. I lived in their guestroom until summer, Mama Rhodes' glare and her cooking are definitely the most effective means of keeping me captive ever discovered. They worried when I drank and never once mentioned how it looked so I actually started practicing some of the crap they tried to force on me in rehab. I had to keep my mind occupied so I figured out what Marissa had been going on about, it was easier to think about her dead mom than my own: A quality escape. Her mom was a died because of a faulty arming mechanism on an SI missile, it didn't blow the whole payload but the explosion was big enough to take out the poor soul who was in charge of getting the thing loaded. I spent the next year staying busy by overhauling our entire inspection system and got the board to start taking me seriously as a bonus.
"It never once occurred to me that I might have been derailing Obie's plans for the future. Good old Obie, always so understanding: 'Your dad's just jealous because a fourteen-year-old got more patents this year than he did.' 'You were only acting your age, the media pays more attention because you're a celebrity.' 'Quite the triumph, you deserve to celebrate, don't worry about ID.'" Tony's face twisted, "He made sure I knew I could always count on him to have my back. And all the while he was making sure the board knew I couldn't function without him. Until he got tired of keeping his hands clean and ripped my heart out."
"And when the Captain betrayed you he attacked your heart as well," Loki said as he moved to sit on the opposite side of the stairs from Tony.
"All my life I heard about what a good man Steve Rogers was," Tony said. "He certainly has the whole personal loyalty thing down."
"Just not to you."
"Never to me," Tony agreed. "No one ever thought to mention the part where he's constitutionally incapable of changing his opinion and has his old pal confused with security blanket. But- Steve's not capable of the sort of callous, cold-blooded, day in, day out psychopathy Obie practiced. I know that... In the daylight. When I sleep they're practically one person, one nightmare anyway."
In Odin's study Loki waited for his Loptr-clone to return with something new, something good to fill his Midgardian's mind with thoughts that wasn't nightmares.
In the early days after Tony's arrival he'd have sent a clone in the guise of a guard or a servant, someone who could pass through the palace halls unnoticed. But as the months went by the forms he used regularly seemed to increasing take on lives of their own. The Loptr-clone preferred to actually do what he claimed to do for Tony and Loki had no reason not to indulge his younger incarnation.
When he first stolen the throne of Asgard Loki had worn Odin's form almost constantly. The kingdom Loki's trickery had won him was more war-ravaged than he'd ever heard tell of even in all the stories of epic battles that he'd been raised on. During each of their reigns Buri, Bor and then Odin had expanded Asgard's influence. Buri pacified Muspelheim, battering the planet until it's inhabitants dare not put a toe outside of their own realm and forced a peace treaty on Nidavellir that forbid the dwarfs from practicing their craft for any purpose besides the glory of Asgard. Bor continued his father's trend, the first Dark Elf uprising ended with Svartalfheim little more than a lifeless waste, he also disarmed Vanaheim taking their princess as a wife for his son. Odin added Alfheim to the growing list of Asgard's subject states and repelled Jotunheim's attempts to expand its own influence into Midgard, carrying that war back to the Frost Giants' home world.
By constantly remaining on the offensive Asgard had ensured that war never reached the shores of the golden city… Until the second Dark Elf uprising. In the world Loki and Thor had grown up in Vanaheim, Nidavellir and Alfheim sent their best men to Asgard to bolster the All-Father's armies and in return Asgard protected their realms. Svartalvheim, Jotunheim and Muspelheim were largely quiet, fearful of drawing Asgard's wrath down on them after their earlier defeats. Midgard was seen as an underdeveloped way station, useful for passing through and occasional depositing unwanted items on but otherwise ignored. Niflheim remained a land cloaked in mystery, the rumored resting place of the dead and too intimidating to consider invading so long as they continued their age-old practice of keeping to themselves.
When the Bifrost fell Asgard's subject states were left defenseless and the pacified worlds were left to their own devices. The realms fell into chaos almost instantaneously. Once the Bifrost was restored it took nearly a year and a half to re-establish the peace across the realms and ending the hostilities was only the first step in rebuilding. What Thor had impulsively begun by allowing Hogun the Grim to remain in Vanaheim to aid in his home planet's recovery Loki spent the first ten months of his reign relentlessly expanding upon. As Odin he traveled tirelessly between the realms overseeing the restoration, returning their soldiers and redrafting their treaties with Asgard. When Thanos came he would find not one army easily reduced to impotency by a single point attack but a number of armies scattered across the realms each ready to oppose him.
But Asgard quickly grew unhappy with the All-Father's lack of focus on their rebuilding. It didn't matter that Asgard was more capable than the other realms of seeing to its own restoration, the All-Father was expected to see to the Golden City's needs first. When Thor returned from Midgard to report on developments with the Mind Gem and chose to stay it was almost a relief for Loki. Naturally he didn't trust his heavy-handed brother with something as delicate as negotiating new treaties with the realms but Thor's defeat of Malekith during the Convergence was still fresh in the minds of the people of the Nine Realms and Loki quickly discovered that his older brother was surprisingly talented at good-will missions, Midgard had taught him a genuine concern for all the disparate peoples Asgard ruled over and it showed in his every action.
Meanwhile two and a half years passed and not a single person saw Loki in his own skin. And then Tony Stark died, the Avenger who had built a shield for his heart that effortlessly repelled the power of the Mind Gem, the one who had been called the Merchant of Death and a beautiful plan unfolded in Loki's mind. In setting his plan in motion Loki found himself becoming increasingly dependent on his clones and the more he used them the more Loki felt as if he were actually splitting off pieces of his consciousness and sending them out into the world as independent entities.
There was the Odin-clone, of course. Even before bringing Tony to Asgard he'd begun using a clone to fulfill Odin's more ceremonial duties while he monitored Thor's attempts at diplomacy. While Tony hovered between life and death Loki had faked a brief descent into Odinsleep. Leaving Thor to oversee the tedious day-to-day business of running Asgard hadn't gone particularly well and when he 'awoke' to discover the mess Thor had made, almost without Loki's conscious permission, the Odin-clone decreed that Thor would continue overseeing court business on a regular basis under his personal supervision until Asgard's first prince had shown himself capable of basic statecraft. When Loki realized what the clone had done his first thought had been to reverse its decision but he was busy with Tony and it wasn't as if Loki enjoyed spending his days listening to idiots who needed their king to tell them what should be as apparent as the noses on their faces. It briefly crossed Loki's mind that this was probably what Odin had intended to happen after the coronation only Loki had provided Thor a much more spectacular venue for failure and in the end he allowed the Odin-Clone to carry out its plan. Shifting some of the burden of keeping Asgard running left Loki with more time to focus on more important things like his various plans for dealing with Thanos. Besides he found the idea of reabsorbing the Odin-clone oddly distasteful and while it was still running around he could hardly risk countermanding it's orders lest Odin appear indecisive. With practice Thor even got better at the minutiae of running a kingdom.
Tony's presence created the need to maintain a second clone, one of Loki himself. Like Tony, 'Loki' was supposedly confined to the royal quarters and even though Tony had been barred from any room save Odin's former sitting room Loki still left a clone of himself in his mother's rooms whenever he left their gilded prison. It wasn't a complete lie, Loki decided, there was no place left for him, for Loki, outside of these rooms. "Your birthright was to die." It was no surprise really that his place in the universe had sealed over so completely and seamlessly after he'd fallen from the Bifrost, he'd never been meant to have a place in the first place.
Even when Loki was out the clone was there, always available should there be need to interact with Tony, although Loki didn't really like it when Tony dealt with a clone. The Loki-Clone was little more than a placeholder used when he was needed to perform Odin's duties, to find the objects Tony required or when Loki chose to interact with Tony in a different form and needed to be present as himself to complete the illusion.
It had turned into something of shell game, using clones in various guises to enter or leave his mother's rooms while maintaining the illusion that Loki was never further from Tony than the neighboring room. There was always the Odin-clone who lived in Odin's study when not needed but Loki deemed it to suspicious to have Odin always be the first to enter each morning so Loki took to keeping a Loptr-clone or one of the female-clones out in the palace so it could come in the door before Loki left in any form. Throughout the day he trade forms, switching with the clones so that it was him that Tony interacted with as much as possible.
The Loptr-clone opened the study door and peeked in timidly. Loki raised a questioning eyebrow, normally the boy was eager to share whatever mischief he'd gotten into once Loki turned him loose on Asgard. "Did you not find anything?" Loki asked.
Loptr held up an intricately machined powered glider that folded up so compactly that it could be carried easily in a pouch. "Quite good," Loki praised. He put his hands over the boy's, in a rush of sensation and memories the boy vanished and Loki assumed Loptr's form.
"Do you see the resemblance?"
"He's young enough, the second Prince could have produced a bastard."
A shudder, "A Frost Giant, even a halfling roaming freely in the palace halls? Someone should bring it to the All-Father's attention."
"Not I. Even when he made Loki's heritage known and condemned him to the dungeons he failed to disinherit him."
Loki, Loptr now, reminded himself that it was nothing he hadn't expected but the boy's heart ached at being rejected by the only people he'd ever considered to be his own. He did his best to push the feeling aside as he opened the inner door. "Mr. Tony, see what I found?" he called uncertainly.
Tony looked up from what he was doing, a genuine smile lighting his face. "Gimme!"
In a few minutes the glider's guts were exposed and Loptr was leaning over Tony's shoulder. "Okay, here's the power source and its got nothing on my arc reactor," he added smugly.
"Really?" Loptr asked. It ought to have been disbelieving, across the other eight realms Midgard technology was widely held in contempt, seen as little better than fire-hardened pointed sticks. But Tony let Loptr lean up against him the better to see and right then Loki couldn't picture a single other living soul who wouldn't have cringed at the thought of his touch. Scepticism didn't quite make it past the wonder at having someone who took pleasure in his company.
"Well, not that I'm biased but neither this nor my arc reactor pollute, now that I'm using Starkinium anyway. My reactor may have a hair shorter lifespan but it can take a higher short-term load. Which is useful for the occasional unibeam. Size is comparable. Aesthetics favor my design." He shrugged, "Your society is apparently trusted with them where I don't dare try taking on the auto industries and oil interests by putting my design in personal vehicles because there'd be hundreds of arc powered bombs going off before the first car hit the market. But that's society not my tech." Tony pried out the power source and tested its weight. "You seriously just let people have these things? I could adapt this to have a payload similar to an atom bomb in half an hour. Then all you need is a willing pilot and mankind's never suffered for a lack of kamikazes."
"We'll all die when Thanos comes," Loptr said seriously.
Tony wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders, "I won't let it come to that."
"Space Pirate, you think I could get a look at the specs on Thor's Hammer?" Tony asked when Odin stopped by to check on what progress he'd made in understanding Asgardian technology and magic.
The All-Father paused. "You are finally willing to look at a weapon?" he asked.
"The hammer's the perfect weapon isn't it? It can't be wielded by someone with bad intentions. Wish I'd had that option back when I was in the arms business," Tony said with a touch of bitterness. "To hell with what everyone said about me, I may not have sat up nights agonizing about what my weapons were used for but I believed I was doing something right and necessary by arming my country and hell, I'm American, making obscene amounts of money in the process isn't a sin. I should have watched my old mentor more closely but- I followed the regulations and if I'd had a way to guarantee that my weapons were only ever used by the US military I would have used it. If for no other reason than my best friend is a pilot and SAMs have always been the hottest item on the black market. So if I'm going back to making weapons I'm going to be damn sure I approve of what they're used for."
"How did you learn of that aspect of Mjolnir's powers?" Odin asked. Tony didn't answer right away and Odin added, "Do not tell me because your Vision lifted it. By that point in your battle Midgard had my attention, Thor did not need to explain what that meant when it happened."
"Is Thor going to be too deep in the doghouse if I say semi-drunken party games?" Tony asked disingenuously.
"Your country had not yet been born when seeing my son and his shield-brothers make fools of themselves while deep in their cups was a new sight for me," Odin replied with a grimace.
"Like I said, I don't let my weapons be used by just anyone these days. I thought it was a biometric lock like I have on Iron Man and War Machine. No one gets access to my armors without my say so," Tony grimaced, "but that's hardly fool-proof, it relies on my judgement after all. Thor made his hammer out to be something more, a whole sword-in-the-stone thing. Camelot wasn't exactly far from your old stomping grounds on Midgard was it?"
"It is true that Mjolnir can only be lifted by one who is worthy," Odin confirmed.
The expression on Tony's face was bitter-sweet. "No surprise that I couldn't budge it, but Vision- J.A.R.V.I.S. was designed as a tribute to the most tolerant, understanding person I ever knew, in thirteen years I didn't drive him away even once. I put everything I could capture of Edwin Jarvis into J.A.R.V.I.S. because I couldn't let him go. Vision was born from J.A.R.V.I.S.'s code, from his willing sacrifice, maybe that was why he could look at the mess that is humanity and still love us, his spiritual 'grandfather' got enough practice loving me. If I could replicate the hammer's, well, security system for lack of a better term, I wouldn't have to worry about what the things I build are going to be used for after Thanos is gone."
"If you do nothing then all you must worry over is what Thanos will do when he is here."
"I know!" Tony snapped. "I'm trying."
"The dwarves provided no written records of Mjolnir's construction and while the enchantments upon it can still modified the means of laying them has long since been lost," Odin said. "I cannot even offer you the weapon itself to study, Mjolnir is one of a kind and I will not, deprive Thor of his weapon."
"Oh, yeah, of course not," Tony agreed crestfallen.
"However," Odin continued, "I can give you Gungnir, my spear to study. It is similarly enchanted. Gungnir can be carried by any member of the family of Buri but it's true power can only be summoned by the rightful ruler of Asgard. However Gungnir is not a simple tool, the spear can refuse or reject the sitting ruler should his intentions fail to coincide with the kingdom's best interest."
"The spear's nationalistic?" Tony grimaced. "That was the deal-breaker when it came to the Accords. Our good Captain couldn't stomach the thought of the Avengers being used for anyone's agenda except his own." He rubbed his temples tiredly. "It's a starting point anyway. Bring on your toothpick of destiny."
Loki walked through the halls of Asgard in the guise of one of Odin's elite guards, the Einherjar since it was no longer safe to let Loptr run errands. It really was the perfect guise. People walked by never speaking or even making eye contact with him and it amused Loki to take the form of what Tony believed them to be. He stomped through the halls without looking left or right until he stood in front of his old rooms for the first time since his mother had placed Gungnir in his hands so long ago. Loki hadn't returned after retaking the throne in Odin's guise. He told himself that Odin wouldn't waste his time in his disgraced fosterling's old rooms and for him to do otherwise would raise suspicions.
Loki opened the door prepared to find his rooms stripped bare, all his belongings destroyed. At best he expect dust covering the ransacked ruins of his old life. Instead he found them pristinely maintained. Slowly, eyes wide with disbelief he stepped inside. Loki felt the faint tingle of spell he'd used to blur Heimdall's vision against his skin as he crossed the threshold. He shut the door behind him and slowly walked to the center of the room then turned in a circle staring around him as if he couldn't believe his eyes.
"They had to have searched my belongings, searched for additional evidence of my true, monstrous nature leaking through." He went to his nightstand and delicately ran his fingers over a seam in the wood. Loki shook his head, "No, no, it can't be undisturbed." He pulled open the drawer and retrieved a pair of daggers, the blades were covered in ruins from tang to point. Loki's breath came in shallow gasps as he stared down at the daggers in his hands. Then, finally, he slipped the knives into his sleeves and turned back to his shelves. Loki selected an intermedial book of spells.
Tony stared at Loki in dismay as the second prince paced his room like a caged tiger. "Odin picked me up as another trophy of war, no different from the Casket of Ancient Winters, proof of Asgardian superiority over the beastly Jotun. He didn't love me! Why would he leave my rooms untouched? Why!"
"How do you know your rooms are untouched?" Tony asked.
Loki stopped in mid-step, "I scryed them," he said flatly. "I was testing my abilities. He threw me in a cell, forbade me visitors," Loki resumed pacing, "Why wouldn't have my things destroyed? Why would he allow my rooms to stand empty and unused after I was written off as dead? Was he just appeasing Mother? But nothing was even disturbed. Surely he would have searched them?"
"You could ask him," Tony pointed out and Loki started laughing, almost giggling hysterically. Tony stared at him for a moment. "Okay, yeah, if someone had told me to talk to my old man that would have been my reaction too." Tony sighed, "But my dad's dead now and I spent most of my life blaming him, blaming myself, the two of us, our inability to say three words to one another without it turning into a screaming match. I blamed him for my mom's death. I thought he driving recklessly because he was mad at me and that's why he wrecked the car, why my mom died. I was wrong.
"Even before Zemo's tape, learning what really happened to them, I'd been trying to rethink my relationship with my dad." Tony stopped, he shut his eyes. "You know, it was because of Steve. He knew this great person who became my dad and- and I- My whole life, everything I did right was never good enough but damn was he fast to come down on me when I screwed up. I- I trusted Steve's judgement, used to anyway, I wanted to try to see if I could find the guy he knew in my dad. I'm the last person you should be talking to about father-son relationships."
"Odin always favored Thor," Loki said. "It makes sense, I'm not his son, just a- a- thing, at best a pet he brought home to display how powerful he was that he could claim his enemy's son. The worst of Thor's failings were met with an indulgent smile until he brought us nearly to the brink of war while even my strengths were cause for suspicion. It suddenly made sense! Any hint that the pitiful foundling creature he brought home with him could rival his heir, his true son, naturally he would frown at that.
"I'm certain the moment I stopped being the helpless infant he could pity, the fool-child blindly plying him with hero-worship he began to wish he'd left me to my fate. 'Your birthright was to die!' He told me that!" Loki's breath came in agonized gasps. Tony edged closer drawn by Loki's pain but still wary. "I was nothing to him if I wouldn't kneel at his feet and offer gratitude for the very breath in my body! My life, his to save or take upon a whim! And I refused him, I dared to think myself Thor's equal! Why? Why did he not destroy every trace of my existence when I gave him the excuse? Why am I still the second prince of Asgard?"
Hesitantly, almost helplessly Tony caught Loki's shoulders, "It's- Hell, I don't know if it's going to be okay, but I want it to be true."
Loki stared at him, loss and need written across his face.
"You're a thousand years old or something, why do I feel older than you?" Tony wondered. "Look, I know crappy fathers and looking back when they're gone and it's less raw and seeing, I don't know, suggestions, that maybe, just maybe they weren't what you thought they were. Still a crappy father, but maybe not for the reasons you thought when they were there. Talk to Odin, find out if he meant what he said or if he letting his mouth run while he was too angry to hear what he was saying."
Loki let himself lean into Tony. "He collapsed when he learned of my death," he whispered sharing a secret that bewildered him. "But I don't matter to him, I can't."
Note: It might be wrong to consider lifting Thor's hammer an infallible test of character but at this point whether it's true or not is irrelevant to the story, it's what Tony and the Avengers believe. In AoU the whole team accepted Vision as good because he could lift the hammer. But in trying to replicate Mjolnir's test of character Tony is going to gain greater understanding of what the hammer actually does.
I'm mainly making use of Norse mythology for Easter Eggs, Loptr is of course another name for Loki and the fold up glider comes from Skidbladnir. In TDW we saw Gungnir in Bor's hands so it can't have been forged at Loki's bidding and I'm making Mjolnir considerably older than Thor and Loki as well. Rather than trying to anticipate "Thor: Ragnarok" in any meaningful way, I'm bundling Ragnarok into Thanos' coming (so the myths about Ragnarok should be considered more prophecy than history). The myths about Loki's kids just don't fit with my take on the character, Loki in this story is the equivalent of a 19-22 year old, too young to have adult children (Hel and Jormungand at the least feel like they should be grown adults).