[Handset - Video - Encrypted to Foreigners]

[highprofilerichkid]

Weird question, but has anyone else been contacted by any of the kedan out of nowhere? Asking about your work, or anything like that?

[Technically the saying goes 'two is a coincidence, three is a pattern,' but any scientist knows that sample size is dependent on the question being investigated. In this case, Tony thinks that n=2 is significant.]

Comments

[wrathfulkhan]

[Six of one, half a dozen of the other? Nobody on this turtle is good at the communication.

Wryly:] Did you forget that you're talking to a manipulative bastard who played at being helpful and benign for an entire year? I played the long game. Who's to say they aren't, too?

[WE CAN'T GO ON TOGETHERRRRR WITH SUSPICIOUS MINDS~~ ^{SUSPICIOUS MIIINDS~~~}]

I'd like to believe their intentions are good, but we can't know for sure. I'll be keeping a close eye on the situation. Especially since this interest in us is so sudden.

[highprofilerichkid]

Because not everyone is as melodramatic as you? [Tony teases. Just because you sit in dark corners twirling your villain mustache eyebrows? and monologuing at the slightest provocation doesn't mean that's everyone else's default, Gene.]

But I guess I am pretty bad at spotting evil plots. [Just, like, the worst.]

[wrathfulkhan]

[Oh, come on! Who twirls their eyebrows??? Zhang, maybe. Well, not anymore.]

Well, you've got me there. I've won several Oscars for Outstanding Achievements in Melodrama.

And that's why you've got me looking out for you, [he says with a winning smile.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony grins back at him.] Lucky me. Maybe when we get home you can start a business as an Evil Plot Assessment contractor.

[You could probably make big bucks telling all those corporate sharks how likely it is that their business partners are going to stab them in the back, honestly.]

[wrathfulkhan]

[Gene's smile falters, just for a moment. He doesn't want to think about 'home'. Keeliai's the best home he's known since he was a child, and he knows that it's too good to last.]

You think there's a market for that? I'd probably have to wear suits. I can't even imagine that.

he's making this face ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[highprofilerichkid]

You'd look really good in a suit.

down, boy.

[wrathfulkhan]

We all know I look really good in anything.

These messages just...I don't know. I don't trust them, Tony.

sad squeaky deflating balloon noise

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony sighs. It got serious again. The laugh overed quickly.]

We should give them a chance. Yeah, I know— I'm not exactly a great judge of when to trust people or not. But most of what they're asking us to do is stuff that we should be doing anyway. We can come up with an exit strategy, but I think we should go along with... whatever this is. For now.

he'll make it up to you later

[wrathfulkhan]

[Like Kocoum, Gene is always soooo serioussss.]

Yeah. Sometimes I feel like even with the KPD and the shelter, we're not doing enough. This is our home now, for better or worse. We should be acting like it is. Not shutting ourselves off.

I'll be ready. For what, I don't know. But I'm suspicious. I usually am.

[highprofilerichkid]

Yeah, you are. Maybe you should work on that. You're going to get an ulcer or something.

[He's only half joking. From a practical standpoint, it's good to have someone who's attuned to the kinds of machinations that Tony is generally oblivious to. From a personal standpoint, Tony wishes Gene wouldn't stress out so much about everything.]

how did i get my morbid special interest involved here

[wrathfulkhan]

[But with a sudden loss of cabin pressure, his oxygen masks will drop down! And everyone will get hypoxia! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?! DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO GET SILLY AND DIE?!

Tony's an engineer, he should know better. Pressure must be released slowly. Or else explosions. Or implosions. Something bad.

Grimly humorous:] If I don't worry, who will?

well, Gene would be the expert on plane crashes

[highprofilerichkid]

Ideally, someone I'm not dating.

excUSE ME

[wrathfulkhan]

It pains me that everyone else is so carefree, you know? It's completely unfair that I have to shoulder this burden alone. [This is said with a long-suffering sigh, but he is smiling. He's finally figured out how to make fun of himself.]

hey, you started it

[highprofilerichkid]

Obviously you need to get an apprentice. You can teach them how to worry about everything all the time, and then you can retire.

not on purpose

[wrathfulkhan]

I can't retire. My public needs me.

[highprofilerichkid]

Hey, I thought I was the self-centered celebrity. We can't both be like that, or we'll be just like all the other tabloid couples. They'll give us a mashup name like "Brangelina."

[And nobody wants that. What would it even be? Geny? Genark? To... Khan... Nah. Totally doesn't work.]

[wrathfulkhan]

["Genie" works just fine, you know. And once their identities are out, "Iron Mandarin" is perfectly respectable.]

...

What the hell is a Brangelina?

[This is what happens when your boyfriend is almost literally locked up in a tower during his formative years. HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THIS SHIT.]

[highprofilerichkid]

That's exactly what I mean. You have no idea what you're getting into. I don't think you're ready for a life of celebrity, Gene.

[wrathfulkhan]

[Bitch he might be.]

Maybe I'll just have to be your secret boyfriend then.

[highprofilerichkid]

Then you'll have to fight off all the people who want to date me because I'm a rich, good-looking genius and they think I'm single.

[It's funny because no one wants to date Tony, because he's a loser.

(It's also funny because pretty soon he actually will have people falling over themselves to date him, and he won't have any idea what to do with himself. Because he's a loser.)]

[wrathfulkhan]

As you well know, I can more than handle myself in a fight. [Smirky little eyebrow raise goes here.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Smirky eyebrows right back.] You are pretty hot when you're kicking ass.

[wrathfulkhan]

I thought I was always pretty hot.