a thief among thieves
Robin Hood AU: In a country much like England, King Rogers the Just has vanished while overseas fighting the Red Dead King. His closest confidante, Sir Barnes, is rumored to have fallen under the influence of the distant and icy Tsardom. He now contests with the appointed Steward Nicholas Fury for control over the country while its affairs are in
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Ooo think thoughts...
Hmm, you could go with Tony as the rich son of some wealthy person who mouths off or loses his lands to Obie or something and ends up living in the forest with them. (I could just see him constructing all the rope bridges and weights lifts and crazy treehouse stuff that I vaguely remember from one Robin Hood film *grins*.) And if you want to throw his drinking problem in there, he could be dipping into the wine.
Or he could be from a rich and wealthy family, which means he ends up at Court, with all the political games, which he either dives into and plays like they really are a game and life and death doesn't matter, or can't be bothered with at all. And then with the Crusades he helped think up weapons, was too valuable to go to war and stayed, or was too young at the time (although they went young, so nix that probably) or his father wouldn't let him go, or his parents died and he had responsbilities (that he didn't want)? But yeah, he could be at Court and be your angle into the rich side of things and the political craziness with the King vanished...
Or, in a plot similar to the first Iron Man film, what if he got taken by (some of) the forest rabble/refugees? Held for ransom from his family or his wealthy business partner, as his money is not in coin but could be changed to coin and then they could take it. Or for his weapons and tactical knowledge. Or because Obie paid them to. And he could fight them, or end up joining them.
Or he could be on his way home from the Crusades himself. Hear his parents have died and his wealth taken by Obidiah, and join the refugees. Or not want to go back to that life after he's seen the war and dig himself in with the forest lot, help them build the treehouse stuff (and they're all bemused as to why they ended up with this crazy fellow, and maybe don't even realise who he is until Natasha or Clint says something. Or Natasha knows, because she's seen him at Court before the wars or something).
Or...
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See, Tony has consistently been the odd man out when I've poked at this AU. Any of your suggestions could work, if I could iron out the creases... Although it would be perfect, I'm wary of throwing him into the woods under the 'woe is me my lands have been taken' pretext. It feels too much like the normal Robin Hood set-up (or just the 1991 film, my defining Robin Hood source). It would be great if our insane genius could help out the refugees with the crazy contraptions since, giant tree houses, whoo! - but I can't decide if I would want him to have gone to war or not. Hm.
If he ended up in the forest, I would need to get him to be very clear about who was leading the refugees in Sherwood's defense. Clint doesn't want to be point on that (oh man how he doesn't want to be point on that) which would make it too easy for him to try and bow out of the way if Tony showed any signs of leading/bossing others around. Unless Tony tried to boss Clint around. That bit would not go over well, so much. It feels like an odd choice to have either of them leading a group, honestly, but in Clint's case he's so weary of fighting battles he just accepts that taking charge is a given (being one of/the only trained knight in the camps) and tries to scrape together what he can. Tony... selfishly, I don't want Tony leading the charge so Clint can do it. Which is easier to force him to do if Tony isn't there. (Regardless, Barton spends a good deal of time wishing his goddamn king were there so he wouldn't have to do this, it's not his job, where did Steven get off being conveniently kidnapped so he wouldn't have to handle this fucking mess?)
Having Stark at court would be interesting and has the benefit of keeping him out of the way until I could use him. I don't know where court interludes could fit into the story that inspired all of this. The basic plot that inspired all this is very much Sherwood-oriented: it begins with Clint arriving at the forest, progresses through meeting Natasha and forming the 'Merry Band', and finishes with the battle against the Sheriff/Loki's forces. Mostly I wanted to retell Robin Hood with MCU's own archer, and everything else started falling in around that. By the end of Clint's story we still have no idea what has happened to King Rogers, Sir Barnes vs. Fury is far from settled (and likely tangential to any of the action here), and the country's cataclysm is still looming on the horizon, heavy and ponderous and seemingly unavoidable.
What would be interesting to explore, once the first disaster was avoided, would be the larger political scheme. That's where having an eye at court to observe the power plays would be really helpful. With Thor taking Loki back to the Northern Lands, the next danger is the overthrow of Fury's control - and the brewing civil war that could ignite, if all the pieces fell in precisely the right way. And all the while the search for King Rogers, simmering underneath it all and waiting for the third act to arrive...
*squints* Some days I really wish I didn't come up with ideas for long fic, because I never actually write it.
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I can see the leadership problem, in that Tony and Steve are generally the leadership figures in Avengers stuff, Tony's even been Director of SHIELD, but Clint did lead the West Coast Avengers, so when he breaks away from the others he has the capacity. So neither of them an odd choice to lead a group, but comics-wise Clint came to it later :)
If you want to keep Tony in the forest but out of the leadership role you could either make HIM not want to lead or the people who would be under him not want him to lead. If Tony was still recovering from torture, Clint was already established as leader and Tony came along later, if Tony was happy for someone else to make the decisions and just let him be, let him tinker and improve where he could, but God please don't let be in the position of having to be reponsible for someone else's life ever again... Or Tony could be the kind of drunk from the comics, or Iron Man 2, where he's not a functionable leader or people won't let him lead. It could be that if Clint is a Knight, Tony was the equivalent of a civilian? Might not fit the time period though. Tony could have his own agenda - think how he pratically ignores his company, international law Rhodey, everything, to become Iron Man and track down those who stole his weapons. What if he wasn't in the forest to lead (or even wanted to be in the forest) but was persuing a seperate agenda...and the forest lot were part of that or just convenient, or Pepper pays them money to keep an eye on him, make him eat kind of thing...
I guess it depends whether you're going for the jockular kind of Robin Hood, where Tony can be the odd man out, kind of humourous but perhaps a bit sad, or a serious Robin Hood, where things are dark and people broken.
I like your weary Clint and his annoyance at Steve :D
If you wanted Tony at Court you could do that stuff in a later story and just have allusions to his position, mentions of him when people are discussing wealthy marks to go after or what's going on in the wider world or politics or letters or who owes what debt to who or... Not necessarily interludes. Alternatively, you could have Tony be a peripheral part in a first act in the forest, a background figure who spends his days making crazy contraptions to improve life or because he's bored, or a broken person, or persuing his own agenda, or whatever else. And focues on Clint. And then in your act two, in which Tony returns to the Court, make Tony more a focus. Perhaps follow him as he relearns Court, what's happened whilst he's been away and what's changed now with the events of the first act. Or perhaps he's known all along, as part of his agenda, or why he was in the forest in the first place, or it all went to shit so he'd been avoiding it, or...and he does know what's going on and as such explains to the reader.
I haven't finished writing any fics since last summer, because everything wants to be long :S So yeah, I empathise on that front!
*ramble ramble ramble*
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