tushanshu | video; shortly after waking up this morning

Hot Pockets...

[ Dummy can make those. Surely. He can make smoothies, how hard could Hot Pockets be? ]

Sure. Okay. Hot Pockets it is.

[Adventures in cooking!]

Cool.

[He glances back towards his kitchen.] I don't think I'm tall enough to get to anything in there. [He could try the rings, later, but he's not quite sure he wants to find out if the armor scales too. Oh yeah. And he doesn't want to spill those beans. Particularly not now.]

[ Oh hell no. Does that mean he's somehow going to be accidentally responsible for his other world teenaged self's friend who's stuck in the body of a child? Why does this happen to him? ]

Yeah, okay, look. Come over, I'll handle dinner, and then I'll give you money to avoid the kitchen until whoever's in charge of this mess gets it sorted out.

[ He has yet to meet a problem he can't make go away by throwing money at it. ]

Just don't get lost on the way over, take candy from strangers, get into any vans, or run with scissors.

[Mission accomplished. (Starks were so easy. He'd feel bad...except he doesn't 'cause heck yeah free dinner.)]

Cool. Thanks.

See you in a little bit.

Sure thing. Just come in when you get here. I'll let the door unlocked.

[ Otherwise he'll have to come get it and he doesn't want to bother. ]

[About twenty minutes later, a very small person pushes open the door. Gene hasn't been to Tony's place yet, so he considers this both reconnaissance and a chance to get a free meal (and, you know, teenagers can't pass up free meals).]

Tony? [He closes the door behind him, incidentally while hating his child's voice. You can't strike fear in the hearts of the masses with the voice of kitten-Yzma, here.]

[ Although there have been numerous consultations with JARVIS, Operation: Hot Pocket hasn’t been going as smoothly as Tony would have liked. He doesn’t know how to make dough. Dummy doesn’t know how to make dough. JARVIS has tried to explain it, but neither man nor machine really gets the concept. In the end, Tony has to go out, buy some dough, some cheesey substance, and some meat and bring it back to the apartment. Then he dumps it on the counter and leaves it to his two creations to figure it out without him.

The smell of baking dough, cheese, and meat is wafting through the air when Gene comes in and Tony, up to his elbows in parts for Loki’s Angry Bird robots, glances in the direction of the entryway. ]

In here. Follow the sound of my voice. Hot Pocket Stromboli things will be done in… uh, soonish. Probably.

[Not having to cook for himself is a win in Gene's book, though having robots prep one's food is a little bit...weird...to him. But, hey. Supergeniuses are way too big and important to mess around with almost-but-not-quite Earthly ingredients.

Gene follows Tony's voice, and finds his way into the robot prep area. It occurs to him that he's never actually seen his Tony working on any projects, because he hadn't been part of that inner circle. So it's a little weird to see Tony actually building things.]

What are you making?

[ Truth be told, it’s a little weird for Tony too. When he works, he works alone. Doing it in front of an audience is a novelty about which he’s not sure how he feels. ]

They’re little—Well, birds. Mostly. There’s going to be a pig in here too by the time I’m done.

[ That probably bears some kind of explanation. Carefully, he sets the parts down he’s currently connecting and turns to look at Gene properly. ]

It’s a cell phone game. Angry Birds. The cellular tech’s a little lacking here, so I had to improvise.

[Bird robots. Gene has seen weirder. But if they're better at being birds than Killer Shrike, then more power to 'em. Because Killer Shrike is just terrible.]

Oh. Okay.

[And then the explanation comes, and it makes a little more sense.]

Angry Birds? Yeah, I've heard of that. Never really played it much, though. I prefer Temple Run. ['Cause at least Temple Run can be considered 'practice' for actual temple runs!]

[ Tony has never played it. There isn’t much point. He always flies through games like that. It’s the math; it makes them too easy. ]

I know a guy who wants an upgrade. This is the best we’ve got.

[ Disentangling himself from all of the equipment and pieces of parts, Tony turns around properly and rubs his hands against the legs of his pants. ]

Okay, so what do you want to see first?

[Gene shrugs. He doesn't want to seem too keen about the armor...but on the other hand he really wants to check out that armor.]

No clue. What else do you work on over here, aside from bird robots?

Everything.

[ He recognizes that that's a little broad and tries to narrow it down to a more helpful focus. ]

The tech here isn't very good. All you need to do is see the consoles to know that the computers are crap. So I'm trying to make something better. Lots of somethings. Not just computers. And I've been trying to design some retroreflective panels for the suit out of the materials here in the city. No small feat, let me tell you.

[Gene nods thoughtfully. The contemplative attitude looks a little weird on a six-year-old.]

What would you even have here to make retroreflective panels out of? I mean, it can't be easy, cobbling this all together out of scrap and salvage.

It's not. It's actually really hard to do. The materials here are... substandard at best. At worst, nothing like what I'm used to at home. But where there's a will, there's a way, right?

[ And he's got will in spades. At least when he's determined to do something. ]

I'll find an appropriate substitute. Or I'll change the way I approach construction of the things to make whatever I find work. Long as you're not married to only one way of reaching a goal, you can get there no matter how many obstacles are put in your way.

[Pep talk from Tony? Pep talk from Tony. Pep talk that was...actually, weirdly, exactly what he needed. Hell yeah.]

Yeah, I guess so.

[Tony, you may have just done a bad thing by accident. Gene smiles slowly, as if something's just occurred to him. Then he's talking again, all curiosity.]

So you showed up here and decided to build a branch of Stark International? [Shit. That's not right. Different Stark, different company.] No, sorry. Stark Industries.

[ He notices the smile, but he doesn't pry into its origins. If something he said struck a chord with the kid, so much the better. He doesn't need to know what it is. ]

Not quite.

[ This isn't his favorite topic, but now that Gene's brought it up, he figures he may as well answer him. ]

It was already here when I arrived. Seems like there was a Tony Stark here before me who was a little more nostalgic for the old days than I am. I think he built it.

[Gene reacts with appropriate surprise. And it's genuine.]

No kidding. So that's three different versions of you that have been here?

[Sheesh, did the Emperor just buy Starks in bulk or something? Knock freakin' wood there aren't any other self-styled Mandarins that have been here. But judging by the lack of reaction his name has gotten from...well, anyone on the network, either any prior-visiting counterparts have kept their Mandarin status on the down-low, or there haven't been any.

Which is good, because then they would have to fight, and Gene did not intend to lose to some older, lamer version of himself.

Oh, great, Tony is being cryptic. He does not like when any Tony is cryptic, anywhere. That usually does not bode well.]

What do you mean, 'nostalgic for the old days'?

Three that I know of. Maybe there have been more, who knows.

[ And since they’re clones, that means that it’s likely there might continue to be more. It isn’t a pleasant thought, not to him, and he doesn’t want to dwell on it. Lucky for him, Gene gives him an opening to talk about something else. It’s tangentially related, but not so much that it makes him feel awkward talking about it. ]

A couple years ago, I put Pepper in charge of Stark Industries. It’s still mine, but I can’t run that and be the Iron Man without my work suffering somewhere. Since I’m not really suited for board meetings, I picked the suit.

[ Though to be fair, even if he had been suited for protracted meetings about nothing important, he would have still picked being the Iron Man over being an ordinary man. ]

[If the thought of Tony actually running a multinational corporation had weirded him out earlier, the idea of Pepper Potts of all people running it totally freaked him out.]

You put...Pepper...in charge. Pepper Potts. Pepper got-a-guy-deported-in-the-eighth-grade Potts. That Pepper?

[Nope. Nope. Still not processing. Still too insane to contemplate.]

I really hope that the Pepper you know is, uh, not as... [He waves a hand vaguely.] Yeah, I can't see the Pepper I know running your company.

[Actually, he can. Everything just happens to be on fire.]

What, was Rhodes too busy?

Edited (HTML AND I ARE NOT FRIENDS) 2013-11-13 05:35 (UTC)

[ That gives him a moment's pause, and his eyebrows rise high on his forehead as he looks at him. What kind of world is it that he comes from where Pepper isn't responsible and Rhodey would want to run a company? ]

Rhodey's in the military. They call him War Machine now. He pilots one of my suits. And Pepper's one of the most organized, detail-oriented, responsible people I know. It'd be weird for her not to run the company. She actually shows up to board meetings. The shareholders love her.

[ Unlike him, who could never be bothered to attend. ]

Military? I wouldn't have seen that coming. [Not like he particularly cares about Rhodes anyway. Easily his least-favorite member of Team Iron Man.] He's War Machine where I come from, too. [And maaan, do those missiles sting!

But seriously, this information about nega-Pepper is freaking him out. In this bizarro universe, what would have happened to him? Is the Mandarin a coked-out British actor? Nah, that would be silly.]

Yeah...last I checked, my Pepper wanted to work for SHIELD and have a jetpack. She even has her own armor. [Which, just before he ended up here, she was using to ~~kick his ass~~ unfairly impugn his character.] I would think that showing up to board meetings would be way too low-octane for her.

[ His name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery. He's an actor. ]

Sorry, what?

[ It's weird enough that apparently he and Rhodey - who he didn't know as a teenager - both have suits before they're able to drink legally. But Pepper wanting to be part of SHIELD? Having a suit? Wearing a jetpack? Is he nuts? ]

Pepper. Pepper Potts has a suit. A metal, flying suit. Not a business suit?

[ And now the hilarity strikes. The Pepper he knows hates his lifestyles, hates him being Iron Man. They argue about it all the time. There's no way she would ever join it. ]

The one I know hates all that superhero stuff. She's been trying to convince me to stop wearing the suit for years.

Yeah. A metal, flying, repulsor-equipped suit.

It's purple.

[Pepper. Pepper hating the superhero life? Trying to make Tony quit? Impossible. The very thought makes him scoff.]

It looks like we know two very different Peppers.

[And that's a relief. At least there's not a copy of his Pepper running around where this Stark came from. One is more than enough for every universe.]

Sounds like your Pepper's a lot more fun.

[ Not that he necessarily wants her to put herself in the line of danger. Tony thinks he's better suited to that. If he dies, it's not that great of a personal loss to anyone. To science, yes, but no one will mourn his passing when he goes. That's the way he wants it. ]

Not that great in the taste department though. Purple suit? Really? Why did I make it purple?

video; shortly after waking up this morning

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can you handle my slowness to play this out? :D

you bet!

action;

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