Catch-All | Open

[highprofilerichkid]

Characters: Tony, Jackie, Hayley, Gene & OPEN!
Date: End of October, early November, before the endplot.
Location: Mostly Stark Industries and Tony's suite; other locations as necessary.
Situation: Tony is trying to pull everything together before the inevitable showdown with Malicant.
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will be added in subject headers as necessary.

Tony is still trying to get the secondary network up and running, and so, as usual, he will be hard at work at Stark Industries - often into the late hours of the night.

After participating in Wan's attempt to possess Asti, he'll need some time to recover, but he'll still be at SI fairly regularly and accessible via console if anyone needs to set up a meeting.

If anyone wants to join in on the network effort, get Tony's help with something, or discuss anything with him before the shit hits the fan, now is the time. He's well aware that things have gotten serious, and he won't turn anyone away.

OOC note: Your character can visit Tony either at SI or his suite in the metal sector. Gene is also spending a lot of time with Tony now, especially after the possession fiasco, so there's a good chance that anyone coming to see Tony would run into Gene too. If you would like Gene to be present in a thread, make a note of it in your subject line. Threads can take place either before or after Wan's possession attempt.

OOC note: If you would like to claim one of the self-defense devices mentioned in Tony's last network post, but don't want to thread it out for whatever reason, drop an OOC note in here.

Comments

Jin-Wei; a day or two after the possession attempt;

[ruinsprofessor]

[She'd seen Tony at the Hotel directly after the possession attempt, but quite honestly she's concerned that she didn't do enough at the time, and in any case she wants to check in on him to make sure nothing's worsened, so Raine stops by his suite in the Metal sector when she has a spare moment. She hasn't let him know she's coming, however. She knocks twice on the door, steps back a pace and waits.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[On the couch, Tony hears the knock, and groans and pulls a pillow over his face. Ugh, visitors, now? Couldn't they have shown up when Gene was around to deal with them, instead of out doing grocery shopping or whatever? Tony sighs into the pillow. Can he just ignore them?

...No, probably not. He still needs to be available, even if he feels like shit. He can't risk missing something important because he was too lazy to answer the door.

Groaning again, he heaves himself off the couch and plods over to the door. He doesn't care that he's in wrinkled pajamas and probably looks like he got run over by a bus - if whoever it is can't deal with him not looking presentable, then they can just fuck right back off and he can go back to napping.

He opens the door, and manages a weak smile when he sees Raine. Definitely one of the more tolerable visitors he could have gotten.]

Hey, Raine.

[ruinsprofessor]

[She only cares about his lack of presentability in that it speaks to his physical and mental state. Raine glances him up and down, decides it was probably a good thing she stopped by.]

Hello, Tony. How are you feeling?

[He definitely looks like death warmed over, but he's not actually falling over, which is something. And she does have other things to ask him, but ascertaining his well-being comes first.]

[highprofilerichkid]

Like I've got a railroad spike behind my eyeballs, [he grumbles. He's pretty much had a headache of varying intensity since he woke up in the hotel two days ago. Which makes sense, he guesses. Not that that improves the experience any.]

And tired, and generally like crap. [He squeezes the bridge of his nose, and rubs his eyes. The bright sun outside is starting to make his headache worse.] Are you coming in?

[ruinsprofessor]

[She'd been waiting for an invitation, because she likes to observe some social niceties with the people she's friendly with, but that certainly qualifies. She steps inside so he can retreat from the sunlight again.]

An improvement, or about the same? I'd like to try a couple of things, if you don't mind. I can't help tired, but I may be able to ease your pain a little.

[She can't do anything about sickness and immune reactions, but if there's anything lingering damage that she didn't have enough power to fix the first time she saw him, maybe she can do something.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony closes the door and retreats back to the couch.] Better than it was at first. Worse than it was a while ago. [He sprawls out on the couch and flings an arm over his eyes.]

It changes. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's pretty bad. Probably an inflammatory immune response to the deactivated nanites.

[ruinsprofessor]

[She follows him part of the way, settles leaning against the arm of a chair rather than loom over him. Inflammatory immune response she follows, but he's got her at nanites.]

[A moment for thought, and then she casts briefly, letting a first aid settle over him, on principle. It can't hurt at this point, can only speed whatever organic healing there might be left to do.] It's fluctuating. Reliably, or unpredictably?

And-- hm. Nanites?

[highprofilerichkid]

Dunno. Haven't noticed a pattern, but it's not like I've been keeping a journal. [He gives a start and sits up when he feels a weird tingling sensation pass over him, but when his headache then abruptly drops several notches, he realizes it must have been one of Raine's healing spells.] Oh. Thanks. [He lies back down again, looking relieved.] That helped a little.

Uh, the Extremis nanobots. Really tiny robots. That's what You Know Who went through to get at me, because of their capacity for wireless transmission. Fried most of them. Usually damaged ones get broken down and recycled by the active ones, but now there's a lot of dead ones and not enough on cleanup duty. So, body's reacting to a lot of foreign particles and freaking out about it. I guess. Biology's not my strongest science.

[ruinsprofessor]

Of course. [She probably should have warned him she was going to do that, but at least it helped.] Tracking the pattern may be beneficial if this persists very long, but if you're continuing to improve overall, that's what's most important.

[The explanation he provides next is in terms she can understand or extrapolate, and Raine nods.] It's a reasonable conclusion. If that's the case, I may be able to help speed the process a little, but only insofar as helping your body deal with the dead ones.

If you're not noticing any cognitive impairment, and the rest of the problem is inorganic, this will likely be as much as I can do. I did have a few questions-- [Pause. Given what happened to him, maybe passing the vision right now isn't the best idea, and she has other people to ask about telepathic problems.] Well, one point of curiosity that may become relevant, at least.

[highprofilerichkid]

Cognitive impairment. [He snorts.] I'm pretty cognitively impaired from not having the mental boost from the nanobots. I haven't been this stupid in more than a year. [He's being a little dramatic, here: a lot of the mental enhancement came from the anatomical modifications in the initial Extremis transformation, and that's permanent, whether he has the nanobots or not.] Other than that, can't really tell. But if I forget how to do calculus, I'm probably dying of terminal brain-melting.

[Okay, now he's just whining. Feel free to ignore him, Raine.]

Yeah? What is it?

[ruinsprofessor]

[A little dryly:] I meant in a way that would indicate brain damage. I'll assume not for now.

Though I can provide a math test if you're concerned.

[She's not quite teasing. If he is worried about lasting damage, it might be a good gauge.]

Solomon mentioned that you were able to manufacture acceptable substitutes for white marble and obsidian. How, and what are the limits on your methods?

[highprofilerichkid]

If I'm worried, I'll ask Aya. I think she has pretty precise parameters for what my abilities are. [Nothing personal, Raine. Aya's the only person on the turtle who's smarter than Tony, and her familiarity with Tony, as well as her nature as an AI, make her uniquely suited to make judgements like that.]

Oh. Right. Solomon's dumb rocks, [he says sourly.] The obsidian's just kiln-fired glass with the right balance of chemical impurities to make it black. The marble's actually a mineral-polymer blend. That one was lot harder. Not like I got any thanks for it.

[ruinsprofessor]

[Well, as long as Tony's taking reasonable care, it doesn't matter who does it. And Aya does sound like she'd be able to keep an eye on these things well enough.] Good.

[Raine does blink a bit at the sour tone. Solomon had implied the relationship wasn't entirely cordial, she supposes, but what merited that?] They've been useful, and I expect will continue to be, given the increased importance the Dreaming is taking on. ...Thank you.

How did you produce the marble, then? [Mineral-polymer blend only tells her so much.]

[highprofilerichkid]

Oh, cool. Glad to hear it wasn't just an excuse to get on my nerves and waste my time. [It should be very clear now that Tony is not on great terms with Solomon.]

The marble was... A whole lot of chemistry. I can show you the process if you really want, but it's pretty boring. Unless you really, really like chemistry.

[ruinsprofessor]

[It's increasingly clear, and while she should probably know better morbid curiosity drives her to ask,] What did he do?

[She is however actually interested in chemistry, so with that in mind she adds,] I'd like to see, yes. Sometime when it's convenient.

[highprofilerichkid]

He used his freaky death-sight necromancy power to make Hayley think I'm some kind of psycho serial killer, and apparently he thought that was just hilarious, and he's been on my case ever since. No matter what he shows up for, he just has to be a huge asshole about it. Because I guess ruining my friendships for no reason wasn't funny enough. [Oh yeah, he sounds bitter.

He makes an angry, dismissive gesture.] Whatever. He got his damn rocks, so maybe he'll leave me alone for a while. Yeah, I can show you the process sometime. If it's not vital, it might have to wait, though.

[ruinsprofessor]

No, it's not vital, simply a point of curiosity.

[...oh, Solomon, was that strictly necessary. Raine covers her eyes with one hand for a moment, almost a facepalm.]

Hayley seems... volatile. Have you spoken to her since? Whatever rift he caused may not be irreparable. [Pause. Hm.] You have killed people, then.

[There's not actual judgment there; everyone she knows has killed people. It's always about the intent and the situation, and he sure doesn't seem like a murderer. A teenaged boy, yes, but that's hardly a crime.]

[highprofilerichkid]

A little. [He doesn't say anything more about Hayley, both because he's never entirely sure what's going on with her, and because he feels it's a lot more important to address the other thing that Raine brought up.

He rubs his forehead and grimaces.] It was an alien invasion, okay? I wouldn't have had to blow up their ship if they weren't trying to blow up the planet.

[ruinsprofessor]

[She didn't ask him to justify himself, and while she appreciates the explanation there's something about the way he offered it that makes her wonder if he's not telling himself that as much as her.] All right. A ship. That doesn't explain why Solomon would have felt the need to comment on it.

[Granted, she doesn't see him in group settings much, but if he paused to pick out every single person's death count he wouldn't get anywhere fast. Which means there's something different about Tony's.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony throws up his hands, and then crosses his arms defensively over his chest.] I don't know! Because he's a jerk? Because he doesn't like me? Why does it matter?

[He looks away from Raine. He hates that this keeps coming up like this. He hates that Solomon... poisoned it, has made him out to be a stupid blundering child, for something he should be a hero for. He saved the Earth, didn't he? The fact that he might have died doing so - that's just salt in the wound.

Possibly dying to save your planet and then waking up somewhere where people hate you for it really does a number on the self-esteem.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[In contrast Raine simply stays very still, watching. When she speaks it's cool, detached.]

It matters because understanding is a vital part of trust. Tony. I've killed people, and he's never once commented on it. Something about you or the situation sets you apart.

[It could also be a purely personal issue, she supposes, but she doesn't think simple personality conflict would go that far. Probably.]

I'm not asking to judge whatever it is that you've done. Only to understand.

[highprofilerichkid]

I said I don't know. I don't know what his problem is!

[Unfortunately, this is true. Solomon hadn't explained why he'd reacted so strongly to Tony in particular; Tony doesn't know about his powers fluctuating and his deathsight showing him unexpected things. Solomon's coolheadedness had actually made things worse - from Tony's perspective, he hadn't looked startled or shaken; he'd casually accused Tony of mass-murder in front of a girl he was trying to be friends with, for no reason at all, and then just walked off.

Tony sits up again, still not looking at Raine.]

Why does it matter if you trust me or not? Everyone whose trust matters is in a different fucking universe. [And I may never see them again.] You don't understand because you weren't there. None of you were. It wasn't your planet the Makluans were gong to destroy, and you didn't have to make the choices I had to make.

[He scoots down to the other end of the couch, ostensibly so he can reach the glass of water sitting on the coffee table, but also probably to get farther away from Raine. He picks up the water and takes a sip, glaring down into the cup so he doesn't have to meet Raine's eyes.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[Tony. Tony no. Trust is important. Raine does have to restrain the urge to smack him, succeeds mostly because he's out of reach, but when she speaks again she's audibly a bit less calm.]

It matters because there are so few of us left. Because even fewer of us aren't potentially compromised by "Asti" in one way or another. It matters because that compromise means we Foreigners can't realistically trust each other's actions, which means all that's left is to be sure of each other's hearts. Because faith in one's friends sometimes helps carry on when nothing else is left. [There's a bit of a wry quirk to her mouth as she says this last. She's conscious it sounds a bit, ah, corny. This is because at least half the idea is cribbed directly from one of her students, who is a teenaged boy with more optimism than actual common sense. That doesn't make it less true, however.]

It matters, Tony, because while I trust Solomon Wreath unreservedly, and did even before personal attachment came into the equation, we are both potentially very compromised, and I'd like to be able to rely on the good judgment of those who aren't.

[Unspoken, but heavily, heavily implied: right now, she's really not sure about him.]

[There's a decided downturn to her expression as she moves on to the next issue.] And Tony? Don't make the mistake of thinking you're the only person here who's had to make difficult choices.

[A pause, while she decides whether or not she's done. Finally Raine inclines her head a little bit, because it's true she's been a bit pushy at a sensitive topic, and adds,] I'm sorry.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Raine is actually making progress with the corny speech: Tony's shoulders slump, and he looks a little bit ashamed. He's gotten himself worked up over something stupid just because Solomon bugs the hell out of him, and he's taking it out on Raine.

And she's right that the foreigners need to be able to trust each other. He'd said the same thing himself, to several other people.

He's just about apologize, when something she'd said in the middle of that reprimand finally clicks.

WAIT A SECOND.

HOLD ON.

STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES.]

...Are you dating him?!

[ruinsprofessor]

[Something to that effect absolutely came out of her mouth, didn't it. Raine's visibly startled for a moment, and that fades straight through into bemusement. That's what he chose to take away from this. Her romantic choices. Tony, why.]

[She has, however, definitely gone faintly pink.]

...Yes, I am. Does it matter?