tushanshu_logs | science is fun [closed]

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science is fun [closed]

Characters: Tony Stark, Gene Khan, Raine Sage
Date: Early September
Location: The labs in Stark Industries
Situation: ~~"Hi, I'm Tony Stark, and welcome to Jackass."~~ Hey you know those crazy-ass rings of insane phenomenal power? We should test them. For science.
Warnings/Rating: Idiot teenagers attempting ~~Mythbusters~~ science with technology beyond either of their ken. Watch what happens. ~~someone's prolly gon git hurt and it's prolly gon be gene~~

So, things are weird.

Not much weirder than usual, granted, but weird all the same.

The weirdest thing, though, is that Tony has agreed to work with Gene. Doing science. Ring science. The last one's still locked up in Tony's possession, of course, and a good thing, too. But they both decided that they ought to test the effects of using only one at a time...just in case.

There's a whole section of the lab they have to themselves, which is great, because Gene is going to need a lot of room and a lot of test dummies to test out all the rings' powers.

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[Tony had finally worked up the nerve to ask Gene if he could test the rings, and Gene, astonishingly, had agreed. Things still aren't totally settled between them, but after Gene willingly handed over the tenth ring, Tony's reasonably sure Gene won't use this opportunity to do something horrible to him.

And he has to admit, he has been itching for this chance ever since they'd found the third ring. All the rings (well, almost all - Tony's still not letting Gene anywhere near the tenth one) together and activated and at his fingertips? Free reign to study the most advanced technology humanity has ever encountered? It's the opportunity of a lifetime. And not one he'd ever imagined he'd have while Gene was still breathing, to be honest.

It's just a shame that this opportunity comes when can't analyze them with all the fancy equipment he's used to having access to. There's going to have to be a lot of old-fashioned trial-and-error, instead.]

Okay. [Tony has a fresh notebook laid out before him, pencil at the ready.] Let's start with the known powers of each ring. The first one is armor, teleportation, and force fields, right?

Right, [Gene says. Truth be told, he's still pretty apprehensive about this whole thing. He didn't even really want to let Stark test the rings, but he'd decided to go through with it anyway. They're all - save for the last, which is locked up under Stark's care - within arm's reach. That had been one of his conditions. He doesn't feel safe without them. Can Tony really blame him for that? He knows as well as anyone that almost every time the rings have been taken from Gene he's suffered greatly for it.

But they're starting over, he keeps reminding himself. They're making a fresh go of it. And the only way Tony's going to trust him is if he shows a level of trust first. Which is why the rings are off his hands, and on the table.

It's not a fun feeling, to have them so close and keeping himself from putting them on or even having them on the string around his neck. It's vulnerability, and he doesn't like it.]

Hmm. [Tony taps the pencil thoughtfully against his lips.] Alright, teleportation: have you found any limits to the teleportation? How far it can go? Is it harder do go longer distances? And what would happen if you tried to teleport into solid rock or something - does it not let you, or does the forcefield clear a bubble of space for you? How much mass and volume can you teleport in addition to yourself? How do you tell it to teleport you to places you've never been before? Do you need spatial coordinates, or an image of the place, or...?

[Halfway through the flood of questions, Tony leans over his paper and starts scribbling, realizing that he needs to write these down before he forgets half of what he asked.]

[~~Stark you need to calm your tits right now.~~] Whoa, slow down, [Gene says, laughing a little, though he's somewhat bowled over by Stark's rapid-fire interrogation.] In order: I haven't found any limits yet. I've been able to travel anywhere on Earth; I haven't been using it that much here, and I haven't noticed any issues traveling longer distances. In fact, I suspect it has an interplanetary range at least...given what we now know about its creators.

[He drums his fingers on the table, thinking.] Well, I'm not stupid enough to try and teleport into solid rock, so I have no idea. I...was able to teleport the Helicarrier, [he admits, wincing - he doesn't like to think about his past misdeeds or bring them up in front of Stark,] so I'm guessing if there's an upper limit to how much I can teleport, I haven't discovered it yet.

And... [He really has to think about the last one. He just thinks himself where he wants to be, most of the time.] Either? Both? I hadn't been that far into the ruins when I found the ring in July, but I sort of homed in on where it was. [He'd done that to get the green ring from Stane, too.]

[~~But SCIENCE, Gene!~~

Tony keeps scribbling industriously as Gene talks.] Well, there's got to be an upper limit, but that's going to be hard to determine without a bunch of helicarrier-plus-sized objects to test it on.

[Tony wiggles the pencil between his fingers, tapping the ends back and forth on the notebook, considering a new train of thought.] Can you... uh, still do that negative-zone thing? If the ninth ring is capable of dimensional travel... we might be able to use it to figure out how the "magic" that got us here works. I wonder if it opens to different dimensions depending on what dimension you use it from?

[~~CALM THE CALAMITY THAT IS YOUR MAN-MARIES.~~

Gene frowns. Tony's right. Gene could maybe try and teleport Asti himself, but...no, it's way too risky. (Gene-from-a-year-ago would have tried it. He likes to think he's changed.)]

I don't know, [he says again when Tony asks him about the black ring.] I haven't tried it. I don't like using it...and I don't want to accidentally give our enemy another ally.

[DON'T GIVE MALICANT A NEW BFF IN THE FORM OF THE FLYING CENTIPEDAL ELDER GOD OK? OK]

[~~But soft, what light through yonder window SCIENCE~~]

Yeah, I guess that's... not a good idea, [Tony admits, sounding disappointed. Also sounding like he's not entirely convinced he doesn't want to try it anyway. Gene might recognize Tony's "I'm letting it go for now but it's definitely going to come up again" tone of voice. Tony doesn't like the idea of being brain-wiped before getting sent home, and he's very interested in investigating alternate routes home. Routes that don't involve the Magic Amnesia Express.]

Will any of the rings summon the armor, or only the first one? [he asks abruptly, switching tracks again.]

[Gene recognizes that tone of voice and he does not like it. So he's glad of the opportunity to change the subject.]

I've never tried to use them without the first one, [he says. Hey, why mess with what works? ~~For SCIENCE, apparently.~~]

Oooh, okay, that's a good thing to test, [Tony says enthusiastically.] Oh, and we should also see what happens when you summon the armor and take the gauntlets off. When Pepper did that to Zhang, the gauntlet didn't disappear, so we should figure out if you still have any control over the armor without the rings.

[Tony plucks the green ring out of the pile and passes it to Gene.] So, try to summon the armor with just that one and see what happens.

[Gene's probably going to be making weird faces a lot. Right now he looks a little uncomfortable. He slips the ring onto his finger and stands, stepping away from the table. Feeling a little foolish, he tells the ring to give him armor.

And it obeys.

There's a flash of light, and there's the armor of the Mandarin, standing awkwardly in the middle of the lab.]

I guess it works.

Looks like. [Tony checks something off in his notebook.] Okay, now take the gauntlet off, and see what happens. If the armor stays formed up, try making the helmet or something disappear and reappear.

[Tony looks like he's almost entirely forgotten the awkwardness of the situation. This is way too much fun. It's like a puzzle!]

If that works, then try dismissing it completely, and we'll see if the gauntlet stays. Hmm... I think it should. Yeah— Rhodey said Zhang didn't have the armor on anymore when he showed up, but we still had the gauntlet. Oooh, do you think that means you'd be able to summon the armor again after dismissing it, even if you're not wearing the gauntlet? [~~TONY SERIOUSLY CHILL OUT.~~]

[The Mandarin gives the universal gesture for 'Calm ya tits, ya fucking psychopath'. He then removes the gauntlet, and the armor remains. It's weird to see Gene's hand sticking out of the armor like that. He tries to make the helmet disappear, and succeeds for a second...before there's a flash of light and the armor disappears like smoke. He puts the gauntlet - which remained with the ring sitting on it - back on and armors up again, and looks at Tony. The helmet doesn't show expression, but he's canting his head as quizzically as possible.

He is having fun, despite himself. Testing the limits is...good?] I don't think it sticks around if the rings are gone, [he says.] Maybe it's too unstable without them.

[Tony stifles a snicker when Gene takes the gauntlet off - look at his little tiny noodley human arm sticking out of the armor like that! - but when Gene starts running through Tony's tasks, his attention returns to the SCIENCE at hand. Speaking of hands:]

Can I see the gauntlet again, on its own?

[~~YOU WILL NOT LAUGH AT ME!!!~~ Gene dismisses the armor. He looks a little perturbed by Tony's request, and, after some marked hesitation, hands it over.] What're you going to do with it?

[Tony doesn't answer, nor does he bother to ask for Gene's permission before sticking his own hand inside the gauntlet. ~~There's no time for social niceties, he has science to do!~~

He wiggles his fingers around, and peers down into the gauntlet.] Oh, whoah, [he says, after a couple seconds.

The gauntlet is much bigger than his arm, and his arm ought to be rattling around in it like a pencil in a mason jar. And yet, it seems to fit perfectly. It feels like his fingers extend down into the gauntlet's claws, even though that should be impossible. And it looks like his arm fits snugly inside it, even though that's definitely impossible. His eyes are telling him that with absolute certainty that the gauntlet is way too big, and they are also telling him with absolute certainty that it fits his arm just right.

Tony's going a little cross-eyed trying to reconcile the conflicting data, and it's making his brain hurt. This must be what it feels like to see a real-life blivet.]

Dude, have you seen this? [Tony waves his gauntleted arm excitedly.] I think I'm getting seasick, [He says happily.] Check it out.

[Gene stares at him suspiciously. It's very weird how exciting Tony finds this - it's like walking up to a bird and telling them excitedly about how neat flying is. To the bird, it's a fact of life, not an object lesson on the Bernoulli principle. Gene's never really had to think about it before - that's just how the armor works.]

Of course I've seen it, [he scoffs.] That's normal. That's just what it does. [It's all wibbly wobbly spacey wacey, to use the scientific term.

The real explanation is probably something more horrifying like it fucks with the user's nerves and sense of proprioception because nanobots or something, but, either way, that's just how the damn thing works. And Tony waving the gauntlet around like a flag is making him antsy - not because he thinks Tony will damage it, but because Tony has it and he doesn't, and he doesn't like feeling that vulnerable.]

[Tony looks a little hurt that Gene doesn't share his enthusiasm.] Well, I've never seen it.

[He flexes the fingers a few more times.] Zhang could summon the armor even though he didn't have the dragonseed. Does that mean anyone can do it?

[Oh, don't make the face! Stop. Stop it!

At the mention of Zhang, Gene's face totally shuts down.] It's plausible, [he says, his voice a shade from being icy. He means, it's plausible, but don't attempt it.]

[Hearing the coldness in Gene's voice, Tony glances up and finally notices how uncomfortable Gene looks. He clears his throat awkwardly and slides the gauntlet off, passing it back to Gene.]

Right. Okay. Um... Okay, the second ring. Energy blasts, right? Now, if you...

[...And thus follows an exhaustive battery of tests and measurements, some of which have an obvious purpose, and some of which could only make sense to Tony Stark. He has Gene test the rings together in various permutations as well as alone, moving up through the set, slowly approaching the more powerful rings.]

[Tests, tests, tests! This is kind of exhausting! Plus, Gene's starting to get a headache. Not like he's going to tell Tony that, though. Maybe it's just because he didn't sleep well, or because a lot of these tests are really annoying. Most of them are actually...kind of fun, though.

After a while, they've progressed through the first six rings and have arrived at the seventh - the crimson ring. Gene's wary of using it, given his and Tony's prior history with it. Gene has a pretty bad track record of using it against Tony.]

We can skip this one, if you like, [he concedes.]

[Gene's right: Tony's none too pleased to have arrived at his least favorite ring.

He looks uncomfortable. But he hates the idea of just skipping over one of the rings, especially now that they're getting into the more powerful rings that he knows less about. His words are a little clipped when he asks:] Can it do anything other than mind control?

Edited 2014-09-30 20:47 (UTC)

["Can it do anything other than mind control". There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio..! Gene resists the urge to be very, very annoyed at the question, because Tony really ought to know better.]

It can create illusions, or show people things, [he says, delicately "forgetting" to remind Tony that this ring was how come he'd gotten to see the Gene's Life is Terrible Show.] It can answer any question. It told me that Bianca had disappeared during the bombings.

[Smirking:] It's telling me now that you're a huge nerd.

[Forcibly inserting memories into someone's head is not 'illusion' or 'showing people things,' Gene. That is not just a pretty light show. THAT IS DEFINITELY MIND CONTROL OKAY. Do you want him to revise the question to 'can it do anything other than shove a psychic blender in someone's brains'? He was trying to be tactful.

All this SCIENCE has put Tony in a pretty good mood, though, so he doesn't let it get to him.

He rolls his eyes at Gene's taunt, smiling a little, and crumples a loose piece of notebook paper and throws it at him.]

Answer any question? So can it tell me if you're an enormous buttmunch? Oh, wait, never mind, I already know the answer.

[Oh my God THAT WAS LIKE ONE TIME. And he wasn't even talking about that anyway, so there.

Gene catches the crumpled paper and wings it back at Tony, still smirking.] No, it won't tell you anything.

I'm lucky I'm a supergenius who doesn't need Space Wikipedia, then, [Tony says loftily. He catches the paper, but as it has failed in its mission to hit Gene in the face, he has lost interest in it, and sets it aside.]

But if it can answer any question... [Tony looks Gene dead in the eyes and, with absolute seriousness, asks:] How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

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what light through yonder window SCIENCE

tony pls

science

no tony

but science

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