Video - Four days after Malicant's message

[highprofilerichkid]

[Malicant has made his move, and Tony has decided that it's time for the Foreigners to step up their game. Starting with their communication network. As Bakura demonstrated, the consoles are no longer safe from Malicant's prying eyes (if they ever have been).

After a marathon troubleshooting session with Akito, Tony has also concluded that if a truly secure secondary network is going to happen any time soon, there's going to need to be a lot more people working on it. His time and resources are stretched thin, and he needs help.]

The consoles are not secure. I don't know if anywhere is, but we can actually do something about the consoles, at least. I know there've been some attempts to encrypt the console traffic and a couple false starts at a secondary network. I think it's time to get down to business and get a fully independent secure mobile network up and running, as soon as possible.

Magic is too susceptible to influence, so this network is going to be strictly technological. Pure tech and heavy encryption give us the best chance of shutting out our nosy neighbor.

If you have any expertise with radio, electronics, or telecommunications - anything that might be helpful - get in touch. Engineering, physics, cryptography... Hell, if you worked a summer job in IT. I want you here at Stark Industries.

Also, if any foreigners from higher-tech worlds brought any stuff along with them that they don't mind giving up, I'd like to take a look at it. Electronic devices like cell phones would be the best. A lot of post-industrial-revolution consumer goods contain minerals and compounds that are hard to get a hold of here, and we'll need as much of those as we can get.

And one more thing: I've put together a dozen... self-defense devices. Nothing big, but enough to give you a few seconds if you're in a tight spot. Distributing them to the turtle parents is the top priority, but if there are any left over, it's first come first serve. If you want one, meet me at SI and I'll give you the rundown here.

[private to ALL TURTLE PARENTS]

The fewer people are bonded to each turtle, the more vulnerable they are. Protecting the turtles means protecting their parents, so you all get first dibs on the toys. Anyone who's interested, send me a message and I'll set one aside. And come to SI as soon as you can.

[private to AYA, RICHIE FOLEY, CLARK KENT, DONATELLO, and MIKE WESTON]

I'm contacting you all specifically because I know you have tech skills or because Aya told me that you've worked on the secondary network in the past. We need you in on this.


---


((ooc: For the sake of security, Tony will only be describing the self-defense gadgets in person. Anyone who comes to SI to claim one will be given the following information:

There are six aversive devices [remaining: 4]. They consist of a slightly concave hemisphere - sort of like a very thick-walled bowl - that fits in the hand. They work on a principle similar to the Active Denial System. When they are held with the concave side facing out, and a button on the side is pressed, they emit a ten-second burst of radiation that, while harmless, causes immediate and intense discomfort to any person standing in range. Anyone without extreme magic- or drug-enhanced pain insensitivity will be compelled to move out of range. The area of effect is a wide cone that extends out about thirty feet. Each device has enough power for two bursts before it must be recharged.
[claimed by: Enjolras, Annabeth]

There are six force field generators [remaining: 5]. These are devices are disk-shaped, with about the same dimensions as a restaurant pager. Press the large button on top, and they will generate a transparent force field bubble about six feet in diameter. The field lasts about six seconds under ideal conditions, but may collapse sooner than that if it is interacting with a lot of matter (e.g., if the person holding it is swimming, or in tall, dense grass). The field can be moved, and will remain centered on the device when in motion (in other words, you can run with it). Each device has enough power to generate one force field before it must be recharged.
[claimed by: Raine]

Both devices can be recharged at any console, or at Stark Industries.))

Comments

[highprofilerichkid]

Believe me, I know. [He still says it with humor, but there's the weight of personal experience behind it. He's been in that position a lot of times. So far, it hasn't killed him, but he's had a lot of close calls.]

But yeah, I'd prefer a plan that doesn't depend on anyone getting killed, at least.

[solo_patria]

[There's something depressing about that in the same way that knowing of Eponine's existence, or Midii's is depressing. Enjolras doesn't let that show here, much. He gets the feeling Tony wouldn't appreciate it, and instead, he's nodding in recognition of the weight there.]

That would certainly be the way to undermine its goals, wouldn't it?

[And you know, the plans Enjolras makes tend to depend on at least someone getting killed. He was never serious when he suggested, that one frustrated night Grantaire had gotten on his last nerve in the Corinthe, with its terrible wine, and myriad distractions, that they should challenge the National Guard to a knit off, after all...]

[highprofilerichkid]

Right. Besides, if anyone dies, the afterparty will be kind of a downer.

[Tony. Stop.]

[solo_patria]

[It's wrong to be amused by this. Enjolras knows that he shouldn't be amused by it, but in light of having faced that situation entirely, even as he recalls it not being very funny at the time, he cannot help smirking a little, for a moment, anyway.]

In the interest of no one dying, I hope that we can manage something.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony chuckles. It's so nice when someone else appreciates his terrible, tasteless jokes.]

Me too. Not dying is a pretty strong incentive, so I don't think we'll have any trouble with people slacking off.

[solo_patria]

I should rather hope that.

[Actually, Enjolras looks rather serious as he considers it more carefully for a moment. There are always those within a group who might betray it. Yes, he knows this is not a time or place to think of such things, but, he cannot help remembering Le Cabuc, the gun in his hand, the weight of the gun as Malicant offered it...It takes a moment, but he's shoving that back instead.]

The odds are fairly good that most of us hope to survive and will do a lot to make that happen, aren't they? We ought to be all right.

[highprofilerichkid]

Yeah. Well, good luck out there. [Tony grins and gives Enjolras a joking little salute.] Try not to die if you can help it.

[solo_patria]

You too.

[Enjolras is returning that in kind.]

We can hardly have our inventor hurt if we intend to save the world, yes?

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony's smile widens. "Our inventor"? Oh, he likes that. Sounds very impressive.]

I'll do my best.

[solo_patria]

Very good.

The edge that you've given some of us now should help. I can only imagine how much more we'll have to call on you before the end of things. I really do, and I suspect almost all of us, if not all of us already, appreciate your presence here, and willingness to work for us.

[highprofilerichkid]

Oh, uh, thanks. [Tony sounds pleased, and surprised. No one here has thanked him before for just... generally being around.] Just doing what I can to help out. That's why we're here, right?

[Tony continues to be astounded by how much this guy can talk, but hey, if he's saying such nice things, Tony's hardly going to complain.]

[solo_patria]

By the Empresses's confession, yes.

[Enjolras DOES manage to talk a lot when he gets going. And tends to lose people sometimes. But he's pretty grateful for the help right now, so things should probably stay on that sort of a level.]

Perhaps I babble a bit, but knowing we have a chance is refreshing. I am not sure how best to thank you, honestly.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Aw, Enjolras! You're going to make him blush.]

Don't worry about it. I don't usually get thanked at all - my identity was a secret back home.

And there's no way you could ever talk as much as my friend Pepper does. [He's not just being polite, here: this is 100% true.]

[solo_patria]

[Is that some kind of a first, maybe? He'd be proud, if so.]

Was it?

[Enjolras asks that more as a matter of course, while he's considering that, and then nodding.]

It makes rather a lot of sense, actually. Low profiles taken to another level.

And good. I usually am not the one to do that, so it does feel strange.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony laughs.] Yeah, well, they don't usually let teenagers run around fighting crime in power armor. I don't know if I would call it 'low-profile,' though.

[The Iron Man armor is the exact opposite of low-profile.]

[solo_patria]

Ah I did not mean I imagined that your armor was low profile.

[There is an eyedart, because even with his limited understanding of technology, Enjolras cannot imagine that.]

More that you must be forced to take one in your...civilian? life.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony grins. Nice try, Enjolras, but not quite.]

Um, not really low-profile there, either. [He sounds amused. Tony Stark has never had the option of being low profile. About the closest he ever gets to "low profile" is the stealth mode on his armor.]

Just different high profiles, I guess.

[solo_patria]

Ah, really?

[There is an impressed sort of eyebrow at that. Enjolras had not considered that possibility in detail before, really.]

Different high ones can work just as well, I'd venture. I had a few of my own nom de plumes and images in Paris.

There was rather less suspicion about who I might be because I was known in every role I played, or worked under. I suppose that I can see your point. One COULD hide their secrets in such a fashion, couldn't they?

[highprofilerichkid]

It's worked so far. A couple people know, but they wouldn't go public with it.

[Except for maybe Ghost, if he ever got tired of holding the secret over Tony's head for blackmail. Oh, and Stane. If he, uh, ever woke up from that coma.]

What did you need all those identities for?

[solo_patria]

As it ought to be, I think. My closest friends, those I trusted with my life knew mine. And often helped with some of the work.

[They'd been instrumental proofreaders, offered commentary and added asides and other points to consider along with offering work of their own.]

I was a journalist in a dangerous time and place for those. And a revolutionary in a country run by the rich and powerful, who supported the divine right of kings, and kings themselves. Some of the things I said should have gotten me killed.

[And there's a wry twist of his lip there.]

Some of the things I did managed to accomplish that.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Enjolras had mentioned being dead in their first conversation, so Tony's not surprised by that (and he still doesn't really want to talk about it, since he has been valiantly ignoring his own uncertain status for the past several months). But the mention of kings catches his attention.]

Kings? Wow, you must have been pulled from pretty far back. France hasn't had a king in... two hundred years or something. [He knows next to nothing about the history of France.]

Unless you're from a really different timeline. [A pause.] Or a really different Paris. That was Paris, France, Planet Earth, right?

[solo_patria]

Rather far back compared to many people here, yes. It was 1832 before I woke up here. And no, so I have been able to learn here. France has had a series of other events, a new republic, then, further on, another that worked.

[And that thought alone, of the republic that came, and the thought that one came after that have been helpful in all of this. It is something to look back at and realize that Les Amis were a part of, and to see their marks left on the world.

Not that Enjolras has learned much of France's history here. Only that there is a future for his country.]

I've been told there were some hardships along the way to that as well, but I've avoided most of the details. France will always have my love, my whole being, but I am not able to influence her anymore, so...

So here I am, babbling at you, I suppose. Although, I must point out that there seem to be very different Earths involved in all of this as well. Which is...incredibly odd, actually. Enough to make your head spin, and maybe never stop. Timelines got thrown out of the way here, I'd say. Then again, a lot of things we accept here by now are also really strange.

[highprofilerichkid]

All I remember about French history is that a lot of people got their heads chopped off in the French Revolution. [All the way across the divide between dimensions, Rhodey is facepalming.]

Is it weird, being from so far in the past? I mean, it seems like a lot of the people here are from some version of early-twenty-first-century Earth. Not necessarily your future Earth, but some of them can't be too far off. It's like... living in a sci-fi novel.

[Tony seems quite fascinated by Enjolras' position. If he were stuck somewhere with a bunch of people from 200 years into his future, he'd never be able to stop asking them questions about it.]

[solo_patria]

Ah, yes.

[Enjolras has to admit the description is...pretty apt, really. Sure, it's a little basic, but, well. Chopping off heads and Marie Antoinette are about what one who does not know the history well are things that stand out. ]

The Terror was. well, needed, I think, based on the situation at the time, but would have better been avoided. I think that there are ways to form a republic without shedding blood, but it seems as though the world was not ready, either then, or in my lifetime.

I missed that revolution by quite a bit, though I had a friend, almost a second mother, who witnessed it. She had some interesting stories and advice when we took up the task of bringing the republic back.

[Enjolras is pausing there, considering the question carefully.]

It has been odd, especially at first. I suppose I've grown used to it now, but at the time, well, I was lucky friends from home were with me, then. It was easier to find my place.

[Though, there is a blink at the concept of a future Earth, there.]

The idea of a future Earth seems so....strange. Or any of the other places people might come from. I do not think it will ever seem entirely normal. I do admit I wonder who might be from the future of my world here.

And I may have spent a lot of my first few months here being rather lost. Sometimes I do suspect I still am. It's...taken some getting used to.

I suppose it must be odd for you as well. It seems a bit before your time in terms of the technology that could be put to use here, no?

[The future is equally strange and fascinating. Enjolras cannot imagine stepping back and how frustrating that must be at times.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony nods politely as Enjolras talks, but a lot of that political and historical context goes straight over his his head.

He's still with you on the time displacement, though, Enj.]

Yeah, man, the tech here sucks. [But the complaint is fairly good-natured, and he's still smiling.] I guess they make up for it with magic. Magic— that's what I'm having trouble getting used to.

So what are you most looking forward to about the future? Cars? Hot Pockets? The iPod Touch? [(No, he's not actually expecting Enjolras to know what those last two are.)]