milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Herc looks a bit worse for wear when he steps into the bar today.

He's wearing a pair of black pants and white boots. And nothing else.

He looks like he'd recently been on fire. Because... he was.

He also looks slightly grumpypants about it. Even though her gets his note from Dinah at the bar, he is still grumpypantsy.

Stupid Ares. Stupid hydra venom. Stupid SHIELD.

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"Commands...as in he's got some authority, or just has followers?" There were rumors of his reality's Ares - the same Ares even? - being involved with crime and war in an active fashion, but nothing anyone would prove.

"He somehow associated himself with SHIELD, a mighty organization," Herc says.

"Government agency?" That has overly precious not-so-scret secret agency written all over it. The kind he used to dream of busting wide open when he was young and ambitious and stupid.

"Aye," Herc says. "It stands for... S... something... H... something..."

"...the letters doth mean things!"

"Secret Headquarters for Inappropriate, Extreme Large-scale Deployment." He smiles at his attempt at being clever. "I've met the type on occasion. Well meaning but little else of note. Unless taken over by a megalomaniac." See under "Luthor, Lex - President."

Herc frowns.

He's not sure if Tony Stark counts that way.

"I'm sorry. Did I say something I shouldn't have?" He's smarting over having offended the bartender last night.

"SHIELD has fallen under... nefarious auspices," Herc says.

"That's been known to happen." He pauses. "I know this might sound strange, but did you have a President Luthor?" He's really not sure what would or wouldn't cross between realities.

Herc shakes his head. "I know not anyone of that name."

"Consider yourself lucky. He's...well, if he weren't a billionaire and the former president, I suppose I'd call him a super-villain. He was elected in the last election - an election I'm still not convinced he won fairly - and while he did some good, he ultimately abused his power and turned the government against our world's leading heroes." And while he's not Batman's biggest fan, Batman didn't serve that treatment anymore than Sueprman did.

"A concept I am all too familiar with," Herc says.

"Are you familiar with the saying 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?' I don't think that it applies to physical power but politics...yes, I think it's true."

"Tis sad, when Mortals do such things," Herc says.

"Though," he notes, "it seems that your brother does the same thing?"

"...he is the god of War," Hercules says. "Tis his nature."

"But wouldn't you say it's also the nature of man to be that way?" He gets philosophical. That's his own nature.

"I... believest this not," Hercules says.

Charlie just nods. "I'm not saying it's the absolute truth. Just something I've observed."

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