tushanshu_logs | Thank God this universe doesn't have Jingle Bell Rock

Entry tags:

Thank God this universe doesn't have Jingle Bell Rock

Characters: Tony, Sherlock, Pepper, Brigid, Raine, Sonja, Miles, and others
Date: Throughout December
Location: Keeliai and Ioa Elanag
Situation: Tony invites shady characters to his lab and regrets it; Tony learns the true meaning of Christmas by ~~ministering to~~ inventing at the needy; Tony is terrible at shopping; Tony spends too much damn time in mysterious abandoned structures; AND MORE
Warnings/Rating: none yet

1. For Sherlock | Tony's Lab | backdated to November 19

Welp, Tony's invited Sherlock Holmes to his lab. This should be interesting.

He does a little tidying of his lab while he waits, though there's not much to do - in contrast to his living space (which is, even with the influence of Gene, barely restrained chaos), he always keeps his lab clean and organized.

2. Pepper | The Compound on Ioa Elanag | Early December

Tony has not spent much time on Ioa Elanag: he is uninterested in hunting, neutral on the scenery, and immensely creeped out by the empty city.

But people have been coming and going ever since they landed without incident, and Tony eventually decides that he's probably not going to get jumped by a scythe-wielding ghost reaper or a giant stone dragon if he indulges his curiosity.

Plus, exploring a weird and probably magical city in the middle of nowhere is totally the kind of wacky adventure Pepper's into, so it'll be a chance for them to hang out do some, well, adventuring. Just like old times. (And maybe a chance to talk some more about that whole Bakura thing. Or not. On second thought, actually, let's not talk about that.)

3. Brigid | Dara Deis Shelter | Mid-December

Sonja's idea of wearable heaters for the kin'nal is a great one, and Tony had spent a couple days in the lab after their discussion tinkering with some possibilities. Now, armed with sketches, ideas, and a few prototypes, he goes to find Brigid in the shelter.

She's easy to find, and he catches her attention. "Hey, Brigid! Sonja came to talk to me about making some kind of heated clothes for the kin'nal, and I'd like to help. Do you have a minute?"

4. Raine | The Holiday Market | Mid-December

Tony already has his big gifts for Pepper and Gene, but he has no idea what he's going to get the rest of his friends. Therefore: shopping! God, he's bad at this. Someone please come help him.

5. Jackie

TBA

OPEN

As always, Tony can easily be found in his lab at the College, and elsewhere around the city. He'll also be doing a little exploring of the continent this month, so it's possible to run into him there, too.

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Knock knock!

"Tony?" Sonja wanders into the lab to see if she can find him.

"Mphnm?" Tony mumbles around a sandwich, from underneath a large piece of machinery. Then, more intelligibly, "Ow!" as he sits up too suddenly and bangs his head on something. He wriggles out into the open, rubbing his forehead, and sets the remains of his sandwich aside.

"I'm here. What's up? Oh— hey, Sonja."

"And here I thought I was good at multitasking," she joked.

"What's that thing?" she asks, pointing at the thing Tony just crawled out from underneath.

Tony grins. "On a good day I can eat two sandwiches at once. A metal lathe," he then adds, in response to her question. "I was getting some vibrations that were throwing off the precision. Just doing some maintenance before it starts launching metal bushings through walls."

(With Tony and engineering, it's always hard to tell if he's being hyperbolic, or if he's being completely honest about his capacity for rampant destruction.)

"Good call," she said, moderately horrified.

"Anyway, so the Kinnel thing is new for me, but from what I gather, heat is an ongoing issue that's only getting worse. Brigid was talking about getting a supply of blankets for them in the Shelter, but I think we can probably do one better. What do you think of making some heated jackets?"

That definitely gets Tony's attention. He's gotten pretty personally invested in the fate of the Kin'nal.

"That's a really good idea." He gets up off the floor and grabs a stool, and offers one to Sonja as well. "Want to sit down? I've been thinking about ways to help the Kin'nal, but most of it's long-term. Portable heaters - yeah. That's more doable. They need to get through this winter if we're going to figure out something long-term."

"Thanks," she says, taking a seat. It's actually really validating to be told her idea is a good one!

"If we can get enough of them it might even be a long-term solution. But anyway, have you ever worked with electric blankets before, or heating pads? I have no idea how they work, so..."

It takes Tony a second to figure out if she's serious or not. He grins.

"I built a powered exosuit with an on-board supercomptuer that I can fly into space. I think I can handle electric blankets."

All right, Sir Brags-a-lot, we get it, you're a genius.

"Well, don't add things that allow them to fly into space, keep it simple." she said, partially teasing.

"You've never heard of a space blanket before?"

Tony, that was punforgivable.

"No..?" The pun isn't cringe-worthy if you don't get it.

"...Okay, that totally ruins the joke." You can't win 'em all, kiddo.

"Nevermind. Electric blankets, sure. The heating element won't take long at all, it's really basic wiring. Making batteries that will run them for long enough is going to be the hard part. The handset batteries are a good start, though - I just have to scale them up and mess with the sigils a little. Maybe increase the efficiency."

"Oh! You know some sigils?" Hey if China wasn't gonna teach her...

"Yeah, I've been using them for a while. Anton was teaching me - I helped out with maintenance of the magitech appliances in the Hotel. Incorporating them into hybrid tech is... my specialty, I guess."

Given how long China and Anton had implied it took to master sigils (far longer than a normal human lifespan), Tony's not sure he knows enough for it to count as a 'specialty,' but whatever. He thinks he can do some pretty impressive things with sigils. And, honestly, with how few people in Keeliai know how to use them at all, he might as well call himself an expert.

"Could you teach me a bit?" she said, barely hiding her enthusiasm.

"Sure, no problem. Think you could help me out with the handsets in exchange for some lessons? It's been a while since I've had help maintaining the network. Akito used to do a a lot of the work, but I've mostly been on my own since he left."

"Sure, as long as it doesn't take super tech genius to do."

The man that comes through the door at the lab probably isn't what Tony Stark expected. He's tall with a long coat and blue scarf. When he enters his eyes quickly scan the room, taking in everything about it as they do. They stop on the young man and he steps forward with his hand out stretchered. Formalities and what not.

"Sherlock Holmes." He introduces himself. "You've got quite the set up here."

Tony actually doesn't expect anything at all, because his cultural reference pool is a barren wasteland and his only expectation of Sherlock Holmes is 'like, British, maybe?'

In that respect, Sherlock doesn't disappoint, so Tony smiles and shakes his hand and remains oblivious to any differences between this Sherlock Holmes and the (potentially fictional?) one in his universe.

His smile widens at the comment about his lab. "It's nothing like my lab at home, but it's as good as it gets around here." He's pretty proud of what he's managed to cobble together over the last few years. For Keeliai, and most of Konryu, Tony's lab is the bleeding edge.

"Yes, the quality of a lab is always dependent on the resources available." He states calmly. "Out of curiosity what exactly is that that you work on down here?"

From looking around he'd say it wasn't the same chemistry based lab work that Sherlock himself would be regularly performing.

"I would need access to several different reagents for my work of course, as well as if I'm absorbed in my work it's better for all parties to not talk to me."

"Anything I feel like," Tony says with a wide smile. But, like, more specifically: "These days, a lot of fabrication, materials testing, electrical engineering - practical stuff."

He does miss the far-out mad science he used to get up to at home, but he no longer has unlimited time and money to sink into industry-revolutionizing pet projects, and there are people counting on him for the 'practical stuff.'

"You can use what I've got stocked up, and I can check stuff out from the storeroom if I don't have it in here. How do you feel about Metallica?"

He guesses they don't need to be BFFs chatting all the time, but don't take his heavy metal away from him, Sherlock.

"Metallica?" The name does ring a bell far the very back of his mind but he can't quite think why. It's probably information he didn't deem important which means it can't be a type of resource-or one that he's heard of.

"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with it."

"Don't worry about it, you'll love them," Tony breezily assures him. ~~Tony, why would you lie to Sherlock like this?~~

"Anyway, I cleared off that bench over there for you, and picked up some basic equipment." He points to a tidy little set-up over in the corner of the lab, outfitted with glassware, a scale, a burner and hotplate, titration an distillation equipment, and other standard chemistry odds and ends. "So, got any cases yet?"

Love.. them? As in plural. Metallica must be some kind of group then. And if the word 'Metal' was any indication of the type of group he seriously doubted if he cared for them at all as he was much more inclined to listen to classical music.

He turns his attention to the work space and moves silently over to inspect every little piece.

"Not yet, but then again I did only just arrive. I'll need to set up shop before I can take on any cases."

"Right, sure," Tony says, mostly to be polite. He hasn't figured out why everybody's so interested in detective-ing all of a sudden. It looks to him like science-inclined people doing things that are mostly not science, which is a decision that Tony can't wrap his head around.

"I know it's not much, but once you've got your, uh, business up and running you can upgrade to your own lab space. The main labs here are all full, but you can rent a workroom in the makerspace or try" a very slight pause "Stark Industries." Shrug. "Or just set up your own." As far as Tony knows, there's no zoning regulations against dissecting corpses. (Though maybe there should be.)

"I'll work something out, but this will do for now." Sherlock responds with a wave of his hand as he picks up a few things to look them over.

"And, of course, if you have any interesting cases that might need my attention then I will waive my usual fee. Which I've just realized will need to be adjusted." He pauses to go over a few calculations in his head.

"..What is the cost of living here, anyway?"

"Oh, yeah? I'll keep that in mind." And he looks actually interested in that offer, not just fake-interested. He's very hesitant to send a newbie - and one without any enhanced abilities, it seems - to tangle with cultists, but he'll keep that in his back pocket.

"Cost of living isn't too bad. Rent is cheap," anything is cheap compared to Manhattan, "it's the food that's expensive." Like Alaska! "Since we basically live on a big rocky island. But all the Foreigners I know have been doing fine."

Brigid had found out that the kin'nal were going out, and were fine in the shelter itself. Well, that certainly made things a lot easier. Though, she's just short of banning them from going out.

Brigid twists her chair back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. There are still donations coming in, of course, but they should get more, especially with the cold coming.

Hearing her name, she turns and stares blankly at the young man who obviously knows who she is. Her mind vaguely reminds her he said the name Sonja, but she's still a bit foggy on the details. "Of course, come in. What can I help you with?"

"Um, heaters for the kin'nal," Tony repeats. She obviously wasn't paying attention, but it doesn't look like he's interrupting anything other than daydreaming, so he continues. "Sonja said you were trying to figure out how to keep the kin'nal warm when they go outside. We came up with a few ideas, if you want to take a look."

Heaters for the kin'nal, who are going outside in this weather, and... OH! RIGHT! Brigid pushes thoughts of Jackie and all other worries aside.

"I'd love to..." She sighs. "I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name." She pushes herself up out of the chair. "Please, come in anyway and show me what you have."

"Tony," he reminds her, with a slight smile. "The sigils guy. From the Hotel." You remember. The really obnoxious one?

He hefts the box and looks at her expectantly. "Sure thing. Where to? You have a table I can spread stuff out on?"

"Ah, yes, I remember." She begins clearing off a table in the room, shoving papers to the side. None of them are very important anyway. "Just put your box down here." Brigid says. "Unless you need more room?" This is only the office after all. "We can go out into the common area and use one of the tables there?"

"This is fine." He sets the box down and pulls out the first of the items: what looks like simple vest made of thick fabric, with two large pockets on the front.

"Sonja's first idea was jackets, but something that can go under clothes is more efficient. It's basically a wearable electric blanket. Pepper helped me pick out an insulating fabric."

He lays the vest on the table, and reaches into the box again. "Obviously they've got to have a power source, so, batteries." The batteries are big, chunky, ugly boxes (he said prototypes, remember?), and they're clearly meant to fit into the large pockets on the vest. "Generating enough heat to keep someone warm uses a lot of energy, so they only last a couple hours, but they're rechargeable. I thought two would be good, so you can have one going and one charging at the same time."

Brigid runs her hand over one of the vests. "This will be wonderful. Even if it only lasts a couple hours, that will help them immensely." She shakes her head. "Right now, we've got kedan running errands for the kin'nal, but they're getting restless." Which, Brigid didn't blame them for at all.

So, this would help with that. "Have you made smaller ones for the children, or not?"

Pepper, being naturally curious, has already done a fair bit of exploring in the empty compound. As much as she dislikes the seriously spooky, nothing jumped out at her the time she's been there, and it was an odd and interesting sort of place. Lots of mysteries to be solved. Super cool, for all that it's a little bit creepy.

"It's totally super cool," she assures him as they approach the compound. "Ooh, hey have you seen any of the owl-rabbit critters yet? They're really cute. Seems like the feet are doing some weird things, though. I hope we find something interesting while we're there; I found this weird windchime when I first showed up."

She's rambling, as is her way, excited about the prospect of exploring with Tony and faintly, distantly worried about how he's been taking her relationship but she's not going to bring it up if he doesn't.

"Will it still be super cool if we get attacked by living statues or sand monsters?" Tony asks jokingly. "And I don't think I trust those rabbit things. They're too cute. I bet they're up to something."

He hitches the armor backpack a little higher on his shoulders (which is just fidgeting, because the antigrav makes it weigh effectively nothing). "Seriously, you don't think there's something wrong with this place? It looks like somebody set off a neutron bomb. It's creepy. It feels like a trap."

A trap that he's tempted to spring just to see what it does, but a trap nonetheless.

"Relax, Admiral Ackbar," Pepper replies, rolling her eyes in amusement. "People have been spending time all over the complex and nothing creepier than it being totally empty has happened. Well, I mean, some of the things people have found are pretty creepy, too," she allows, shrugging.

It was mega weird, she'll admit to that, but it didn't seem dangerous. Not really. Not any more dangerous than some of the other things they've had to deal with anyway.

"There's definitely a mystery to be solved, though. Like, were there people here before and they left, or did they never arrive in the first place?"

Tony smiles, but informs her, "Well, when sand demons are trying to eat us, I'm going to say I told you so."

They enter the compound, and Tony looks around at the longhouses, still impressed by the engineering the mysterious builders managed with such primitive materials.

"It doesn't look like anyone ever lived here, but why build all this and set everything up and then just... leave?" He frowns, and runs his hand over the bark exterior of one of the buildings. "It looks like they were expecting someone to show up, and they never did." Insert sinister musical sting.

"I'll keep that in mind," Pepper says with a roll of her eyes.

She's gotten a little familiar with the compound, but it's still new enough to be interesting, and it'll probably always be weird. The only thing that's really changed is how the animals react, now that they've gotten wary of people.

"Yeah, maybe. Either that or they all picked up and left really quickly," she replies, peering around. "Or maybe it was like the terracotta warriors. Like a funeral city." Which doesn't help the creepiness factor. "There's no food here or anything. Just structures. And Cyrillic, which is extra special strange."

"Like the one Whitney blew up in our art collection?" Tony asks. Not that he'd been aware of the significance at the time, or cared, but Gene's recurring indignation at the destruction of a terracotta warrior has started to rub off. "Even better. There might be someone" or something "powerful buried around here. And after everything else we've seen on this planet, I wouldn't trust them to stay like that." Burial city for a restless undead sorcerer and his zombie hordes? Definite possibility.

"What do you think is up with the Cyrillic? Has anyone been able to translate it yet?"

"Yeah, like one of the many priceless artifacts she destroyed in a poorly thought out attempt to keep you alive," Pepper says with a snort. Not that she had any personal attachment to those artifacts, but seriously? You don't go into public spaces and start shooting with automatic weapons just to attract some psychopath's attention.

Moving on.

"I flew Alex Conklin here a little while ago and it seemed to grab him. I'm not sure what it says, but I bet the suits could translate it pretty easily," she answers. "We'd probably have to run a bunch of scans to see if anything was buried. Right now it's just one big empty mystery with hopefully no undead critters running around."

"Well, I am still alive," Tony points out. Maybe a little bit thanks to Whitney? Everything with Whitney went south in a big way, but at one time, she had cared enough about Tony to put herself at risk and destroy her father's reputation to save him. He'll always owe her for that.

Not something Pepper wants to talk about, though, Tony thinks. She'd never been in the Whitney Fan Club.

"You're right, I didn't think of that." They might not get a completely fluent translation, but the suits do have language software, and Russian's in there. "It's been ages since I used the suit to translate anything. Want to go check it out?"

Raine is actually doing something very similar; while the list of people she feels she needs to find something for has decreased in size, she still counts many of the Foreigners as friends, and it's coming up on the time of year when gift exchanges are customary in many cultures.

She's out alone, though, so when she sees Tony she brightens, and goes to join him, tilting her head to give what he's looking at some curious regard. "I take it you're doing your -- hm. Christmas shopping as well?" she inquires, with only the briefest hesitation over identifying which holiday is appropriate.

Tony jumps a little when Raine sneaks up next to him - mostly because one of the people he's trying to shop for is her and she's blown his cover.

"Oh— Raine, uh, hi. Yeah. Christmas shopping. Heh." He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "I kind of suck at it," he admits with a sigh.

Raine remains politely oblivious to impending gifts, at least for the moment. "Would you like some help?" she asks, missing barely a beat. "Often I find a second point of view is useful for many endeavors. At the very least, you'll be able to talk your ideas through."

And she herself is experiencing some slight difficulties, and would appreciate the reciprocal herself. "Whose are you looking for?"

"Actually, that would be great." He smiles sheepishly. "I'm done with Gene, Pepper and Aya. Still looking for Yorda, Valdis... Maybe Jackie and Sonja. Marie, now that she's back. And... Bakura, I guess."

He really doesn't know how to feel about that last addition, which probably shows.

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Thank God this universe doesn't have Jingle Bell Rock

LAB!

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Lab.

tony is a goddamn moron

/pats him

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3!

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2

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4!

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