Video;

[manofiron]

[ The video begins with a dark-haired man centered in the middle of the frame. He’s got dark eyes, a precisely cut goatee, and hair that’s a little too styled to be naturally that neat. There isn’t a lot to see beyond his chin, he’s sitting too close to the camera, but what can be seen looks vaguely like a shirt of shiny red metal.

His brow knits almost immediately after the feed starts recording, his expression edging toward disbelief as his lips twist into a mild frown. ]

Look. I get it. In a time of crisis, rationing’s necessary to keep resources moving in the right direction. Perfectly understandable. You guys needed to save your turtle. What responsible citizen wouldn’t do their part for that noble cause?

[ There’s a slight hint f sarcasm creeping into his voice, as though he’s heard the whole turtle spiel already and not only hasn’t been impressed, but also doesn’t really buy it either. Not even after having spent half a day scouring the network for information about what’s really going on here before making this video. ]

But really? Twenty bucks?

[ The low, indistinct murmur of another voice can be heard, though what it’s saying and who it belongs to is anyone’s guess. Whatever it says, it’s enough to make the man roll his eyes. ]

Juulan. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. The point — [ Whether he’s talking to the camera or the unidentified voice is unclear. ] — is that it isn’t enough for a day, let alone the entire bogus adventure.

[ It isn’t so much the way he looks at the camera – his eyes have never left it – but the change of his tone, less querulous and more curious, that indicates that he’s talking to whoever’s on the other end of the console. ]

So really. Turtle propaganda aside. What’s a guy gotta do to get some decent money around here? Sell his organs? Hit the street corners? Scrub barnacles off the bottom of the turtle? What?

Comments

[manofiron]

[ That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What does he want to do? Go home. Get a drink. Knock himself out for a few hours so that he doesn’t have to think. What he wants to do is to not have to deal with any of this. But that’s not an option. It never is.

He shrugs, affecting a casualness he doesn’t feel. ]

I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out. You’ve been here, what was it? Seven months?

[ If they’re clones, there’s no way they’re ever really going home. He can’t think about that, though. Not yet. It’s too overwhelming when he hasn’t processed the rest of it. ]

Something tells me I’m going to have a lot of time to do it.

[the_other_eight]

Well,

[She sighed. This was going to be a long uphill battle and she wasn't happy about it.]

you have free reign of any materials you want at Stark Industries. Although I do have a problem I need a genius to figure out. If you feel up the the challenge.

[manofiron]

[ He lets the comment about Stark Industries go. Bad enough that people expect him to just step into this other guy's life while he's not here, like an understudy filling in while the prima donna's sick. Now he's supposed to take his company too? ]

I do like challenges.

[ And if it's a problem he can solve, it'll get his mind off of other things. ]

What's the problem?

[the_other_eight]

[That's hardly what Pepper means, and for Tony to even think she did mean that after their argument two seconds ago would have made her angry. Good for him he didn't voice it.]

It's the tribbles. Wherever they come from is apparently extremely hostile so they multiply at an insane rate. All the districts but the metal have been inventing new ways to kill them. The metal district thought of using them as an energy source instead. I've managed to make a few rough sketches based on what I saw, but I'm not a genus.

[It's not that Pepper looks down on herself. She just lives in a world full of brilliant people and is fully aware of her average ness. She's not gifted with false bravado or a competitive nature, and she knows others can far exceed her own ideas; especially someone like Tony.]

Would you be interested in looking into it?

[manofiron]

Pest control?

[ His brow wrinkles, not entirely thrilled with the idea. Though it's less about dealing with little balls of fur and more the mental image he's getting that would do the Wachowski brothers and their vision of the future in the Matrix proud. ]

Are you talking put them on treadmills or hook them up to batteries? Because I'm not keen on running afoul of whoever runs the Turtleworld branch of PETA.

[the_other_eight]

It's not pest control so much as keeping them from being killed by the other districts.

[She frowns, pursing her lips close together. He doesn't sound pleased, which she knew he wouldn't be, but she doesn't have any projects that he would be interested in that he wasn't already on. ]

The metal district was working with treadmills, I was hoping you could do something better, but still humane.

[manofiron]

You probably want to get a tribble expert for that. Figure out, I don't know, behavioral patterns. Territory. Whatever people learn from animals when they watch them for hours.

[ He's talked to one already, hasn't he? What's his name? Lory? Cory? Jory? Something like that. ]

Talk to Cory. [ That sounds like a better bet that Lory or Jory. Those don't even sound like names. ] He's the tribble-whisperer. He might have an idea. Biological things... [ He shakes his head. ] Not really my forte.

[the_other_eight]

[She raised a brow.]

If it'd make you feel better I can ask him to be your assistant.

[Pepper has no idea who Cory is, but she gets the feeling his name is actually Rory. This is why she stalks Tony's conversations.]

[manofiron]

I don't need an assistant.

[ Assistants don't work out. They can't keep up. And eventually, they get tired of it and leave. Working alone, he's found, is better for everyone. ]

And I'm not really sure I should be minding a tribble farm. There are other forms of energy production that don't require using living creatures. I'd rather stick with those.

[the_other_eight]

Then what do you suggest?

[Yes Tony, she's baiting you. Baiting you to start a long term energy project and remind yourself just who the hell you are. You're Tony Stark, the man that has been a pain in her ass for over ten years, the man that could put McGyver to shame if he were a real person.]

[manofiron]

What do I suggest about what? Tribbles? I don't know. Energy production? Does it matter? This isn't my world. I don't know what it needs. I don't even really care. I didn't ask to come here and no one asked me if I wanted to be here either. I woke up on the floor in some room and then got brought to this apartment like someone putting away a pair of shoes in the closet.

[ This place isn't his problem. Until he's given a damn good reason why it should be, he's not going to start caring about it. ]

I just got here. I don't even know who I am and you expect me to, what? Put on a tie and go sit in a office somewhere? This isn't my home. I'm not going to start treating it like it is.

[the_other_eight]

Oh please. I can tell you exactly who you are. If you can't figure it out then I'm scheduling you to get an examination.

[To Pepper there is no question. Tony is Tony. She's already settled it with herself that the Tony she knew for seven months is dead, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still her Tony.

she knew her anger was getting the best of her. That she was starting to say things that she shouldn't, that he was starting another argument, but at the same time, she wanted to argue back. Tony wasn't someone she handled like everyone else. She got angry and yelled and argued with him. She'd wanted so badly for this to be a good meeting. After Tony almost dying, then dying and now coming back she needed this to be a good meeting, but it wasn't going to be. So finally she let herself loose her temper.]

No one asked to be here Tony. I was sleeping before I showed up here. I'd finally gotten you out of the workshop and into bed. I woke up to being fished out of the ocean like the catch of the day, paraded through town dripping wet and in your t-shirt and stuck in an apartment with nothing but the bed sheets for clothing.

This isn't any of our world, we're just doing the best we can until we can find a way back home.

[manofiron]

[ He can tell her exactly who he is too. A man with no name, no past, no future, and no memories of his own. All he’s got is a head full of someone else and those thoughts are so toxic that they make it difficult for him to think. ]

Then maybe accept that I’m trying to do the best I can too.

[ Does she know that they’re clones? Maybe. He hasn’t asked and on the off-chance that she doesn’t know, he’s not going to be the one to break it to her. It’s enough of a mindfuck for him. He’s not going to impose it on anyone else. ]

I just don’t have a lot to work with right now.

[the_other_eight]

Then let me help you. Tell me what you need and I'll get it for you. Talk to me, I'll listen.

[manofiron]

[ He shakes his head. If he had an answer, he would give it to her, but he's as clueless about this as he is about everything else. ]

I don't know. This isn't something I ever planned for.

[the_other_eight]

How about we start with what you've been told about this place?

[When all else failed she could always fall back on her PR skills.]

[manofiron]

I got the welcome speech. And I've heard what everyone else has said about it. Turtle's not sick anymore. The kedan get hostile sometimes. We've got to work to make money.

[the_other_eight]

[That was vague, which means Tony is trying to keep something from her.]

What has everyone else said about it?

[manofiron]

[ He shrugs, brushing the question aside. ]

The same stuff. I just told you. You hear it enough, it starts going in one ear and the out the other. Shame shit different day. Different planet.

[the_other_eight]

[This time Pepper gave him a flat look and frowned.]

What aren't you telling me Tony?

[manofiron]

Every nitpicky detail. You want to hear about tribbles? Me and a guy talked about tribbles. Couple people gave me ideas for jobs. We talked about the feasibly of barnacle removal from the turtle. None of this is relevant or important and I don't see the point in parroting it back.

[the_other_eight]

[She closes her eyes. She knows he's hiding something, shutting her out again and it hurts. It almost hurts worse then it did when he was dying, almost. ]

Fine. You know that we've been brought here to fight a, well, a thing that they can't seem to kill. A few months back some people went exploring under the turtle's shell. They managed to salvage a few things before destroying the lab. What they found however seems to indicate that we're clones of ourselves.

[She frowned, pursing her lips tight. Honestly, she was trying to break this to Tony gently. She'd been very blunt about it with Mr Stark because the news had been still new, but she was trying to do better this time. Especially since Tony was already shutting her out and shutting her down.

[manofiron]

[ Hearing her mention the clones, it makes him wonder how common the knowledge of the discovery actually is. At first he'd thought everyone knew. Then he started to wonder if maybe it was partially a secret. Maybe it doesn't really matter. ]

Wouldn't really make us ourselves then, would it? I've seen enough science-fiction movies to know that.

[ He says it with a blase tone, indicative of either being totally unconcerned by the possibility or already aware of it. ]

And the prevailing opinion on it is what? Yea or nay?

[the_other_eight]

[She's not sure which it is, but she gets the feeling it's the second one. He's been too who he isn't, and for him to not have a violent reaction is weird.]

I don't know what popular opinion is, but I don't think it's been discussed in length. Personally I'm taking my cues from the world and culture. It's strongly based in Ancient Chinese mysticism. I think that what they drag here is the soul and house it in a clone body.

[She's never said it out loud before; no one's ever asked her opinion on the subject. saying it now to Tony she knows it probably sounds stupid. He's science, facts and reason. Pepper is emotion and empathy and existentialism. it's a miracle that they go together like they do (probably because they both have a strange way of moving planes to the other's when it's needed). It's what she really believes though, and she feels that the culture and political structure support it.

She'll know more once the book is translated. Concrete proof that they are or aren't who they think they are. At least she hopes.]

[manofiron]

[ Minus that soul malarkey - Tony prefers the more scientific term the mind - that's the simplified version of almost exactly what he postulated to Bruce. It's somewhat gratifying to learn that he isn't the only one who thinks that. ]

It's possible. Considering that this is another plane of existence, a case could be made that they needed to create bodies to house the minds they were pulling from the world our memories tell us is real.

[ That's what he hopes happens. It would mean that he really is who his mind tells him he is. But when does he ever get what he wants? ]

And if they're pulling from every dimension there is, it would explain the variations in the people we recognize and think we know.