tushanshu_logs | [NPC] public

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[NPC] public

Characters: [NPC] Zanru, OPEN
Date: December 8-15 2015
Location: Stark Industries
Situation: Studying the returning Foreigners.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

It was impossible to miss that the Foreigners had returned. Thus far it seemed they had only given Yunxu trouble--of course, Yunxu was troubled by anything he couldn't control--but Zanru was aware of her current position. She was aware that most of what the Foreigners had once owned was hers. Though too many of the Foreigners had left over the years for Zanru to know any of the current ones personally, it was nevertheless the bulk of her family who staffed their offices. Soon after they'd disappeared no one had wanted to touch the Foreigners' technology. No one had dared, except Zanru.

For all they had been her allies in the past, Zanru had no intention of simply handing over everything for which her family had worked. If the Foreigners couldn't even be obliged to stay after building such large companies, then Zanru was damned if she'd let them have them back after a year's disappearance. It would be the height of irresponsibility to let some of Keeliai's largest industries be run by people who couldn't even guarantee they'd be there to run them.

That being said, the returning Foreigners provided an ... opportunity. That was why Zanru had asked her assistants at Stark Industries to tell her if any of them came to the building to ask for information. Sometimes, she wasn't there and the Foreigners were turned away. She wasn't going to make things easy for them.

But, when they were fortunate or had managed to arrange an actual appointment, there were times when Zanru was in Stark Industries office, diligently overseeing the paperwork and the research under her care.

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Tony strides up to the front desk of Stark industries, looking confident, determined, and a little bit riled up. He's not angry - yet - but he's prepared to get angry, if things don't go his way.

While he can't blame the kedan for taking over here in the foreigners' year-long absence, he can't help but be a little ticked off that a bunch of inexperienced amateurs have been messing with his stuff for all that time. He's dreading finding out what kind of state his lab is in.

"Hey." He nods at the receptionist. "I'm here to see... whoever's running things."

The receptionist, with an air of vaguely irritated resignation, looked at him up and down and then asked pointedly, "Do you have an appointment?"

Zanru was in the building, and had made her orders clear, but still. It was as though the Foreigners had no concept of businesses running without their influence or encouragement, and assumed everyone else would be readily available to meet their needs at a moment.

So while the receptionist was under orders to call Zanru and let her know when a Foreigner wanted to see her as long as she was already in the building, she certainly wasn't going to let the Foreigners think everything would be dropped in a moment.

"Yeah. For right now o'clock," Tony says blithely. He might be serious. He might be joking. It's not really clear. But what is clear is that, one way or the other, he does expect to be seen right away.

Tony Stark is not accustomed to being kept waiting. Stane had liked to do that, to remind Tony of who was boss, back when he had snatched Stark International away from Tony. And, well... That had not ended well. Especially not for Stane.

"That's not a proper appointment," said the receptionist flatly, and she stared at him rebelliously even when she picked up the phone to call Zanru and let her know a Foreigner was present and wanting to talk to her. After having mistaken Aya for being kedanese, she had deliberately memorised all the Foreigners' names and appearances. No one was going to slip by her.

So she knew who this was, and told Zanru so, and a minute later hung up the phone. "She can see you in an hour. Take a seat, if you'd like to wait here."

She'd much rather Stark didn't, though.

"An hour?" Tony exclaims, indignant. He huffs out an irritated sigh and mutters, "fine," and plops sullenly into one of the chairs.

He spends a couple minutes waiting patiently, a couple minutes fidgeting, a couple minutes messing with his Pod, and then he finally gives up and turns back to the receptionist.

"Hey, do you still have the coffee and tea bar set up? Can I go grab a drink?"

Wordlessly the receptionist pointed to the table against the wall, between two pot-plants and a water-cooler and thus potentially half-hidden from Stark's sight. It wasn't exactly a bar, but it did have tea and coffee amenities--just maybe not the good ones Stark was used to past the staff-only zones.

No way was she going to let him out of the reception area. Tu Vishan only knew where he'd get to and what he'd get up to--probably go and disrupt the class Zanru was teaching.

Tony turns and looks where the receptionist is pointing, and lets out a dissatisfied-sounding "hmph." Not really what he'd had in mind. Ugh, they'd better not have gotten rid of his coffee station! He'd had it set up perfectly - he'd even figured out how to mix something that tasted almost ~~but not entirely, quite unlike~~ exactly like a perfect caramel hazelnut mocha.

But it's not like he has anything better to do with his time, so he goes over to investigate the sad little tea corner. A minute later, he's put together a sugary coffee-like concoction that suits his tastes. It's no caramel hazelnut mocha, but it'll do.

"You want anything?" he asks the receptionist, simply out of habit rather than any attempt to ingratiate himself. The situation is annoying, but the receptionist hasn't been nasty or outright rude to him, so he defaults to casual amiability.

She maybe looks a little exasperated, but that's such a common sentiment when Tony's around that it barely even registers anymore.

"No," said the receptionist without looking up, and then added, "thank you." Afterthought, perhaps, but one that was vaguely surprised and suspicious in one, as if unsure whether Stark was asking for a reason or whether she could trust the offer.

It was a long hour, but finally, eventually, her phone rang and she picked up to listen, and then set it in its cradle. "Zanru's ready to see you," she informed Tony, and gave him the room number.

That particular room was a few floors above and had used to be an office. Now it was a classroom, complete with desks and computers. The class of kedan would be leaving when Tony arrived, comparing notes; most of them are young, but there are a few older kedan in the group. The person Tony wanted was at the desk, piling folders haphazardly on top of one another, her overalls rolled up at the sleeves and the stains on the front evidence of the fact that she usually worked with mechanical machines or fire.

Tony spends the next hour being intensely bored. All the games that he'd been lucky enough to have loaded on his Pod's hard storage, he's beaten more times he can count, and about the only other thing he can do with the now-stupid smartphone is reorganize his music. Again. For probably the fiftieth time.

So he passes the time by sketching in his notebook and fidgeting relentlessly. He's not trying to be annoying by wiggling around in his chair and tapping his fingers against the arm of the chair and jiggling his knee and chewing on his pencil and periodically sighing loudly, but... yeah, he's probably being pretty annoying.

When the receptionist finally gives Tony the go-ahead, he practically leaps out of his chair.

"Thanks!" he says over his shoulder as he jogs off to find this... Zanru person.

He's startled when a large group of kedan spills out of the specified room just as he arrives. He almost walks into one, and leaps out of the way just in time. "Uh... Sorry...?" The kedan gives him a dirty look anyway. When the crowd has passed, he steps inside.

Tony looks around at the neat rows of desks and computers. A class? Curiosity beats out manners. "What are you teaching?" he asks, completely forgetting to introduce himself.

"Trigonometry," said Zanru, picking up the stack of books and tucking them under her arm, and only then looking up at Stark. Hers was the sharp gaze of someone who made quick assessments and didn't hesitate in acting on them, and didn't hold back in doing so either.

She wasn't going to offer much unless directly asked, either. Though the new college offered classes like this, things that were useful to build a background of theory rather than learned in apprenticeship, it was still so new that only children were accepted. So theoretical and mathematical classes for adults had to be taught at Stark Industries. That was okay--most of those in the class worked there, anyway. It was a matter of training.

"What can I do for you?" Zanru asked briskly, moving toward the door and out past Stark.

"Oh," Tony says, losing interest. Somehow he'd been expecting something a little more exotic, though, in retrospect, he's not really sure why. Even aliens need to know math, after all.

He'd also been expecting the new head honcho to pay a little more attention to him. She knows who he is, doesn't she? The receptionist had recognized him and said so over the phone. Annoyed, Tony trots after her.

"I'm Tony. Tony Stark? I want to get my equipment and lab back."

"You don't have a lab," said Zanru without even turning. If Stark wanted something, he'd have to follow her to her office. "This company was built by someone who wasn't you, and when he left it was run by kedan with Aya's help. You weren't even present at the grand opening. I don't recall you owning anything. I recall you borrowing a few things, but that's a little bit different."

They reached the door to Zanru's office, which was notably not the main company office. As one of the largest rooms in the building, the CEO's office had long been repurposed as a playroom for the tots most parents had to bring into work, the ones too young to yet be trusted in other areas. Zanru turned and put her hand on the doorknob. "Anything else?"

Wow, that sure is a creative interpretation of events. Tony starts to scowl. "No, when the other Tony Stark left it was run by Aya and me, with the help of some kedan, and some foreigners.

And I built almost all the equipment in my lab myself, and any materials that didn't come from the basic storerooms supplies I bought or bartered" - or in the case of the radios, begged - "for or took out of my pay. So, yeah, I kinda do own that stuff. And yeah, I'd like it back."

There it was. The Foreigners were easy to anger--it made them worlds more honest than Yunxu. Anger was passionate, and from the gut, and said everything about what was important to a person. Anger couldn't hide between layers and layers of lies. Despite her words, Zanru wasn't there to fight--just to get the truth. It just so happened that she did it by making people honest.

"Okay," she said. "Make a list of the things you bought, begged and bartered for by rights, and we'll pack them up for you to pick up."

He might lie a bit, making the list--but he was so indignant by the idea that he was being accused of a thief that Zanru didn't think so. The equipment might be the only point of contention. She had worked longer at Wayne Enterprises--she didn't know how much of this younger Stark's equipment was actually built with his own hands, or what had been taken from the company.

Aya and him. Hah. He hadn't even known the original Tony Stark; he'd only come in on the coattails of the name and the merit of knowing a Foreigner while the kedan were brainwashed.

"That's it? You're just going to box up my stuff and drop it on the curb?" Tony's expression progresses from 'annoyed' to 'offended.' When he'd said he wanted his equipment back, he'd meant in situ. He wants his lab back, and access to the supply room, and the freedom to continue doing his work.

"And what about our jobs? All the foreigners who work here?"

He can understand the kedan not wanting to immediately hand over control to the former tenants, after they'd been running things on their own for a year, but he'd expected at least to be granted access to his own equipment in his own lab at his own company. Does she seriously expect him to just slink away with a box full of circuit boards and let her take over Stark Industries for good?

Edited 2015-01-03 08:05 (UTC)

"What jobs?" Zanru asked bluntly. "You were gone for a year. Did you expect us to keep a position empty for you in case you might come back? Do expect us to fire the people who took over in your absence so you'd have a job again? In case you haven't realised, you Foreigners have a habit of disappearing without warning. Why should we entrust Keeliai's largest industry to people who might not be here the next day?"

She turned the knob and strode into her office, and while it was one of the larger ones it was by no means the largest, because all of the largest had been converted into classrooms or other community rooms. It was a tinkerer's space, filled with bits and bobs Zanru had investigated personally, but showed evidence of her smithy background--primarily in the smith's hammer on display behind the desk.

She left the door open, though, so it wasn't a dismissal, especially since Zanru kept talking. "If you want to apply for a job, go ahead. Aya already has, and been accepted. But you'll be judged by the same merits as any kedan applying for the same work, and frankly--" Zanru dumped her paperwork on her desk and turned to give Tony a critical look. "--frankly, you're too immature for me to trust you won't be a problem to the company's hierarchy."

Like Aya, Zanru would have preferred keeping the Foreigners who knew their stuff in-house. But unlike Aya, Stark was too young and hotheaded for Zanru to trust he wouldn't cause problems just because one of his parents had owned the company in his own world, or he would grow up to own the same one. Aya had been willing to accept a kedan's authority, however grudgingly. Would Stark?

Zanru didn't think so. She'd much rather have that other Stark--the girl who had worked at both Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries. Though she had attitude and a mouth, she knew how to work as a team and under other people. Zanru had seen her public defence of the kedan, too, and knew that she was willing to learn. Yes, Zanru would much rather have her back. She would have been willing to negotiate, instead of just barging in with demands.

"That's bullshit," Tony says bluntly. "There's more than enough industrial and economic development in Keeliai for Stark Industries to afford to employ all the foreigners who used to work here, without firing anyone." An assessment that he is... actually somewhat qualified to make. He likes the lab better, but he didn't totally ignore the corporate side of his unconventional homeschooling. "Unless you've completely run our finances into the ground." He sounds like he doesn't find that possibility particularly far-fetched.

"We stuck around long enough to save your asses from an enemy we got kidnapped to fight - I'd say the fact that anybody on this turtle is still alive at all proves we're reliable enough to work nine-to-fives."

Her comment about his personal reliability is really what sets him off, though. "You don't want to hire me back to my company because I'm 'immature'?" What a load of bullshit. WHAT INCREDIBLE BULLSHIT. "Look, lady - I was running things just fine before you showed up. I started and operated my own independent company at home when I was seventeen; my dad practically raised me inside Stark International, which is about a thousand times bigger than Stark Industries here. I know more about running a business than you ever will. Not to mention that I'm smarter than everyone you know, combined. What are your qualifications? Or were you just the first person who was able to pick the locks and plant their butt in the boss's chair while we were away trying to save your lives?"

(Ironic, that Zanru would have preferred Hayley to Tony - since Hayley's a part of why Tony is as outraged as he is. She hadn't been too pleased with his position in SI, either, and Tony had always felt like he'd had something to prove to her. They'd never really worked things out, and now that she seems to have vanished, possibly for good, proving that he can run SI and run it well is more important to him than ever. He doesn't even realize it, but he's looking for closure, for that and for a lot of other things, and he is not emotionally prepared to just walk away from this.)

Zanru crossed her arms and gazed at him until he'd finished. Did he even realise that he'd just proved her point for her? Probably not. He wasn't that young, not too young to realise how badly he was behaving--it was appalling how much he expected things to revolve around him. In point of fact she'd been running a series of blacksmiths for twenty-four years--one of them her own, others owned by members of her immediate family, but all under the same umbrella and all businesses.

Not that she was going to say so. She wasn't around to get into a he-said/she-said argument, especially since she'd been unwise enough to get into that with Aya. Aya had been the first Foreigner who asked to meet, and one of the most accomplished--Zanru had been rattled, unsure of her footing, wanting to be recognised. She'd overtipped her hand, somehow. She just hadn't quite figured out how yet, and it had bothered her at first; then she remembered how much she hated that kind of politics and second-guessing and chose to move forward instead.

But on this occasion Zanru's qualifications weren't important to the conversation, and the fact Stark felt the need to whip them out only said a lot about where he put his focus: in all the wrong places.

"It's not your company," she told him. "Just because it's got your name on it doesn't make it yours. It was funded by someone who shared your name but it was built by kedan, and the fact that you took advantage of our having been brainwashed doesn't mean you have an inherent right to something you didn't even know existed until you got here."

She snorted. "You think you were the only ones kidnapped? When the kedan were brought here Eshai removed our ability to be curious. We were brainwashed into not having any ambition. We were sitting here, waiting to be guided because a part of our selves had been stolen. Did you ever see us as anything other than tools to be used? Sorry. We're not anymore. If that means you don't get to build our world to your specifications, tough. Come back and apply for a job when you're willing to work with others--and I mean actually work, not just expect them to do what you say."

Zanru turned to face her desk, putting her back to him in clear dismissal, and bent to start sorting her paperwork.

Edited 2015-01-03 10:51 (UTC)

Tony acts like the world revolves around him because he's used to the world revolving around him. The idea that he wouldn't be entitled to anything with the Stark name on it - whether it was made by him, or his dad, or an alternate universe version of himself - is alien to him. Ah, the foibles of the obscenely wealthy and privileged.

"It makes it mine a hell of a lot more than it makes it yours," Tony retorts.

Her next complaint about Eshai is valid; Tony just doesn't care. "So what?" Like seriously, what does this game of misery poker have to do with literally anything. Why is this relevant to him getting back stuff that is his.

"So, we all got screwed over - and you're not the only ones getting spiritually vivisected, either." The fact that the foreigners get their memories wiped when they return home does not sit well with Tony. "Sucks to be all of us, or whatever. What I'm not getting is how that gives you the right to just take everything the foreigners left behind for yourselves. I mean, if we're operating under the law of 'finders keepers' now, why shouldn't I go down to the labs and fly off with whatever I want? It's not like you could stop me."

It's not so much a threat as a— okay, yeah, that's totally a threat.

Zanru straightened and turned, and her expression was cold when she looked at him. There was definitely annoyance and anger there--she didn't pretend to be emotionless--but it was controlled. She spread her arms. "You're right. You've more powerful tools at your disposal and you're smarter than me. I can't stop you. But if you do that you're just proving my point. You can't stand the idea of someone else dictating terms to you, even when they do benefit you. You just can't stand not being the one in control."

She snorted. "Your things? Everything in this building should rightfully belong to the people as a whole, and you come in here demanding things that belong to you, an individual? You're too old to be acting like such a child. Everywhere you go, you represent your people. You're a Foreigner. And you're doing a pretty piss-poor job making me want anything to do with any of you."

Zanru pointed out the window toward the Foreigner's hotel's sector entrance. "But in the end, when you come in here and take what's yours by breaking and entering and theft instead of negotiation, you're the one who'll have to go back to the other Foreigners and explain why the Metalworkers want nothing to do with a family group that cheats and steals just to get their way."

Edited 2015-01-05 12:03 (UTC)

"How does everything I built at SI getting stolen benefit me? But, no, I get it— 'the people as a whole,' meaning 'everybody except the foreigners', right? Sure is nice redistributing wealth when you only have to redistribute it to your friends, huh?

And you know what? You're doing a pretty piss-poor job of representing the kedan, if you ask me. Because all I'm getting out of this is that it's bad when the foreigners steal and cheat, but it's totally okay when you do it. So why should we care if you want anything to do with us? Obviously you've already decided not to treat us fairly."

He turns on his heel and starts stalking towards the door.

"Have fun with your cute little choo-choo train and your little AlphaSmart computers. Give me a call when you decide you need a real engineer."

Zanru rolled her eyes and didn't stop him, but turned around to pick up the phone to have someone go through the inventory receipts and figure out what Stark might have bought or brought into the building himself--though Zanru doubted it would be much. Anything they could find records for--or not, as the case might be, since anything that was his wouldn't be on company record--was all he was going to get, and that was if he bothered to come back and ask nicely.

"Foreigners," she muttered as she put the phone back down. "Did any of them even have families before they got here?" Few of them seemed to have any idea how to be polite or how to handle being in a group of people who depended on one another, and that was twice now that Foreigners had thrown around their own intelligence as if that was a merit all on its own. Aya at least had had a point with being able to help--all Stark did was whine as if being intelligent meant he was owed things.

Things had been much simpler a year ago, before there was ambition to drive politics. But simple didn't mean better ... even if it usually meant easier. Shaking her head, Zanru went back to sorting paperwork.

Tony is almost hoping she'll have a retort so he has an excuse to turn back around and continue the argument, because he's still coming up with more things he wants to say. But she doesn't, and he's committed to his dramatic exit now.

So he storms out of SI without a backwards glance, and as soon as he's in the street he armors up and starts flying back to the hotel. He's going to get SI back, and he needs to start making plans.

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[NPC] public

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toot toot everybody make way for the arrogant douchebag

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/queues up the perfect sequence of increasingly angry icons/

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and this cr takes a nosedive straight into the tarmac

raise your hand if you're surprised

his entire canon can be summarized as "people take Tony's stuff and he throws a tantrum"

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sometimes I forget that Tony is a corporate capitalist pig, and then I remember

Zanru's not going to forget

nevr 5get