The Park, Monday Morning

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Being in kinda-sorta Greece made the usual morning run almost fun for Tony today. Almost. His sides still hurt when he moved wrong, but at least it wasn't due to him being woefully out of shape.

Go him?

He slowed down once he entered the park, pulling out his phone to check for new messages. Because technology would always trump exercise in his mind.

((Open like a park!))

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[lockestheway]

Sometimes, going out for a walk helped perk up Peter's creativity. He was mentally drawing up Topher's contract, thinking about potential clauses he could add in to further his cause - this was going to work out quite nicely. And he was jogging along just like that when he very nearly ran into...

"Tony!"

Luckily, at least Peter wasn't staring at his phone.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Attaboy! Go, Tony!" came a not-entirely-teasing yell from somewhere up among the branches of a tree, because Stephanie liked perching in high places for some STRANGE REASON. She was kind of itching to go explore Atlantis herself, later today, like after class, but having taken care of her own morning run she felt she was entitled to at least a few minutes of hanging out and relaxing.

The entertainment was a bonus.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Because Peter was eeeeevil. And stuff.

Tony looked up quickly, text from Rhodey momentarily forgotten. "Hey, Peter."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I'd make a rude gesture, but somehow I think you'd be better at that than me," Tony informed the tree. Oh, and Stephanie.

[lockestheway]

He wasn't evil, he was just misunderstood.

"What's up?" Peter asked. "Out for a morning run?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Stephanie leaned to one side slightly and pulled the branches away from her face, just so she could smirk down at him. "Putting down the phone would help with the rude gesturing. Just a tip. Hi, you."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Which meant evil where Tony was from!

"Mr Rogers seems to think running will be helpful," Tony replied dryly. Because he knew science was better.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I have one hand free," Tony insisted, waggling his fingers up at her. "Any reason youre up a tree?"

[lockestheway]

"Ah, one of those really over-motivated teachers, huh," Peter said, with sympathy he didn't actually feel. "What, has he turned you into a project?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Oh, the jokes I could make about that," Stephanie said, deadpan, swinging around to dangle her legs off the branch. "Do I need a reason, anyway? Maybe I didn't get enough skinned knees from tree-climbing growing up, and I'm making up for it."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I asked him for help, but I didn't realize how much stuff went with it," Tony admitted. "I don't know if he's even human at this point."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I climbed on particle accelerators when I was a kid," he admitted thoughtfully.

[lockestheway]

"Considering the island's track record, it wouldn't be that far out of left-field," Peter said, cheerfully. "Sounds like you've got a while to catch up with the guy, buddy."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Okay, more like jungle gyms," Stephanie replied, just to be more accurate. "Decent climbable trees in Gotham are hard to come by." Seriously, hear about one nasty encounter with Poison Ivy and you'd never look at plantlife the same way again.

She waved a hand at him, then patted the branch beside her. "Want to give it a try?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

I'm not your buddy, guy!

"It's not as bad as when I first got here," Tony replied, shifting from one foot to the other to find a comfortable position. Oh, breathing, so evil right now.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"If I do, will you start singing nursery rhymes?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Nursery rhymes are useful, young grasshopper," Stephanie intoned, shaking a finger at him playfully. "I'll have you know they're a wealth of cautionary tales about falling and breaking your butt."

She flicked a leaf down at him.

"But maybe we can skip the cutesy PSA."

[lockestheway]

"I figure you'd need to learn, though," Peter said, thoughtfully, "With all that stuff invading the island. Cardio, my zombie teacher likes to wax about it."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"And not being around wolves," Tony added, pulling himself up. Slowly. Because trees might not be a structurally sound as a particle accelerator.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I think I'd rather be able to fight than run."

[lockestheway]

"Sure, but it's easier to fight something if it's not close enough to be able to whale on you, right?" Peter said, casually.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Well, maybe." OW, HIS RIBS AND COMMON SENSE HURT. "But if you can fight, you should."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Wow, was it ever a shame Stephanie didn't possess fourth-wall-breaking powers, and neither she nor her internal monologue could comment on that, because really, talk about sentences she never thought she'd ever encounter.

Ah, well. Woe for lost opportunities.

"And how you should never go to St. Ives unless you're really good at mental math," she went on, ticking off on her fingers, "not to mention a lot of warnings about spiders. Maybe they should've been more specific about what kind of spiders, because ewwwwww with the creepy clockwork ones."

[lockestheway]

"Hey, nobody's contesting that," Peter said. Sure, his style of fighting tended more towards 'PR and political maneuvering', but if Tony wanted the beat-'em-up type, he'd have to go talk to Peter's soldierboy brother. "How is the engineering coming along, anyway?"

One of these days, he was going to wind up having a 'my engineer is bigger than yours' battle with Karla.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

It was weird to hear someone say it like it was just a hobby. "Uh, not bad. The power systems from that Japan aren't applicable with technology at this point, so its ground up redesign right now."