Aftermath

A few minutes after their encounter, Clarisse had continued to dismantle her bed. Seeing as fucking Theo had clearly stolen her blanket. What a fucking bitch. Cuddled up in her duvet, she watched her pick me up porn with little success. It was pretty hard to get into all the lewd nonsense when your eyes were watering. The illusion just didn't work as well when you were so thoroughly reminded of the public's opinion. She really was just meant to be the next Stark as far as they were concerned. Cause it was her responsibility by default, and she should obviously see the logic in some assholes blasting her door in and shoving it in her face. What a joke.

Her decision was made. They could collect their own funds and leave her fucking family alone. They were a bunch of assholes. OK, admittedly the guy hadn't been so bad, but she really wanted to kick that girl's ass. That was the only good reason they'd given her to become Stark 2.0. She flipped open her phone and considered making a tweet about how much she fucking hated superheroes, but then she remembered that she got bored and uninstalled that app last week. Whatever, she'd rant to mother dearest once she got a break from the bullshit that was life.

She wiped her angry tears from her cheeks with her sleeve, defying even the concept of guilt. She didn't owe anyone anything. What favors the world had done for her had been paid with money. They could weasel someone else out of their wellbeing and safety if they wanted a super monkey. She'd read a book on alchemy a few years ago, which had detailed the importance of equivalent exchange. She completely agreed with this law, even though alchemy itself was probably bullshit. She did something, she deserved something in return. Could they pay her back for accepting a burden that wasn't even hers? Well, maybe, but they wouldn't. So stop crying.

Stop crying. Fuck, she didn't have anything to be upset about. She didn't care about being called an asshole unfairly. At least, she shouldn't. Fuck, being a human was annoying. But she'd feel worse if Pepper was the one that she disappointed. That was the silver lining to this. The only damn human on this godforsaken who didn't project daddy dearest onto her wasn't gonna do a 180. They were wrong to believe that she'd be disappointed in Clarisse's actions here. Pepper had never wanted her to be Tony Stark. Sure, she wasn't completely supportive of her solitary lifestyle, but at least she actually talked to Clarisse rather than the sperm induced genetics inside Clarisse.