Zanru (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forgediron) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tushanshu_logs2014-12-17 07:40 am
forgediron) wrote in tushanshu_logs2014-12-17 07:40 am
[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.
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.
no subject
"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.
/queues up the perfect sequence of increasingly angry icons/
"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?
no subject
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.
and this cr takes a nosedive straight into the tarmac
"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.)
raise your hand if you're surprised
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.
his entire canon can be summarized as "people take Tony's stuff and he throws a tantrum"
"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.
no subject
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."
sometimes I forget that Tony is a corporate capitalist pig, and then I remember
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's not going to forget
"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.
nevr 5get
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.