fandomtownies | Stark Industries, Tuesday, Sept. 11

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Stark Industries, Tuesday, Sept. 11

Victor came to work carrying a baggie full of the results of his baking experiment with Sparkle. Maybe it was messed-up android taste buds, but he thought the peanut butter-pickle-sugar cookie combination was surprisingly good. Like, the kind of good that made him wonder if he could sell the recipe in stores.

To ... the kind of people who were not automatically repelled by the notion of cookies with peanut butter and pickles in them, yes. There had to be a couple of them out there.

He kept taking cookie breaks through the day as he worked to get a couple small appliances working again. Jarvis -- quite possibly repulsed by his taste in snacks -- was mercifully silent.

[OOC: Open repair shop, no OCD, want a cookie?]

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Olive bit the inside of her lip, studying his features carefully. She stamped down on her immediate reaction -- she wanted to find Topher and hurt him, but if it was an alternate universe, that was sort of useless, wasn't it?

That line of thinking didn't really make anything better, but it helped contain the impulse. Plus it wasn't like she was a big physical threat. She could...glare and say mean things! Ooooh.

And then there the question of how easy Victor was to reprogram, because that...sort of scared her. She kept forgetting that he was programmable and reprogrammable at all, and...yeah.

But more than anything, she just wanted to make it better, because she didn't have to be particularly perceptive to tell this was a bit of a touchy subject. And she didn't know how -- her mom or Rhiannon would have reached out to him, but she was so bad at that, so Olive just...fiddled with her coffee cup a little.

"...are you okay?" she asked softly, after a moment. "Like, now? After? It sounds like the kind of thing that, you know, sticks with you, no matter how 'normal' everything goes back to."

Edited 2012-09-11 21:27 (UTC)

Victor set the toaster down carefully, sipped at his own coffee.

"Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah. There was a week or so of wanting to punch Topher in the face until his nose came through the other side of his head, but ... you really can't hold what people do in different timelines against them. So."

He shrugged. "You just move on, right?"

His version of moving on had included a bunch of poking at his code to try to get rid of the vulnerabilities Topher had used, but he knew hackers. No matter how safe your system was, there was always a different back door.

"I think you might be better at moving on than I am," Olive admitted, "since I would like to punch Topher for that right now until my tiny, ineffectual fists get tired, so." She was quiet for a moment, and then added, "This place is really, really good for reminding me that no matter how much things suck at home, my problems are not really life-ending. I'm sorry that happened, Victor."

"I'm really, really good at having unique problems," Victor said, still with a slightly sour tone to his voice. (Not Olive's fault; just down to his memories.)

He did his best to shake it off. "Anyhow, it wasn't actually life-ending. And if the incredibly weird last year of my life has taught me anything, it's that anything that ends without people dying can't be all that bad."

"It doesn't mean that it's easy, but yeah," Olive noted, frowning a little. "Perspective. And you know, I think...most people here probably have fairly unique problems. I mean, my last year was crappy, though yours probably wins by sheer fact of my world not being your world, even leaving aside the actual severity of problems."

She offered a little smile. "I kind of thought just being seventeen was crappy enough, you know? Doesn't seem fair."

"It's not, but there's awesome stuff to go with the unfairness?" Victor tried. "I have superpowers. I got to go to 1907. Spider-Man got sushi for me and I did not totally dork out at him .... too much. I mean, huge pieces of it have been shitty, yeah, but I bet if you'd given me the choice a year ago I would have taken this anyhow."

Which gave him some niggling guilt about his mom, but it was true even considering that.

"Who's Spider-Man?" Olive asked, because that was where she was going to start with that. Going to 1907 seemed normal enough for here, given the whole Rilla thing.

"He is a superhero," Victor said, weighing how much Olive likely wanted to know against the Wikipedia entry he could have written. "Strong, fast, beats up bad guys. He got the name 'cause there's a spiderweb on his costume and he gets around on strands of web. And he says awesome things during fights, which I always liked."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "You seriously don't have costumed heroes in your world at all?" Weiiiiiiird.

"We have guys who go to Comic Con," Olive replied, smiling and cocking her head. "But last I checked, they didn't have actual superpowers like...super-strength or anything. No one in my world has any of that. Far as I know, anyway."

Spider-Man sounded cool if not for the whole 'ew spiders' aspect. Olive was of the school of thought that dictated that if you saw one of those you made faces while gingerly putting it outside.

"I think if I told people back home that I'm friends with people with powers, they'd freak out. In a good way, mostly," she said thoughtfully.

"Would they believe it, or would they think you totally hit your head on something on your way here?" Victor asked.

"I think they'd need a demonstration," Olive said slowly. "Like, my parents for sure would play along but they'd probably secretly wonder what sort of long elaborate joke I was pulling. But they'd probably deal well, at least, if they ever visit! After the initial shock. And Rhiannon -- the cute one from my computer -- would initially think I was crazy but then play collector and try to see how many differently-gifted boys she could hook up with, just to say she had."

What a terrifying thought.

Edited 2012-09-12 02:09 (UTC)

"I wouldn't make out with somebody just because she was playing collect 'em all, but she'd probably get more than a few takers," Victor decided. "And I'd totally show off for your parents, if you wanted. I'm pretty good with parents."

"Oh, I wouldn't let Rhi near you, anyway, I promise," Olive said, and then swiftly moved on from there because really, she needed to shut up while she was ahead on that one. "But, um, what would you show my parents? You'd totally get applause out of my mom for ripping a blanket."

And Rosemary would most likely bring it up in relation to bodices when talking to Olive later, so. There was that.

"That's all it'd take?" Victor asked. "I dunno. Probably I'd zap something."

He couldn't remember if she'd seen his sparks, so he turned a palm up and let the electricity flicker around his fingertips.

"That kind of thing. And I promise I won't let Rhi trip and land on my lips." Because he wasn't letting that one go quite that easily.

"Whoa." Yeah, no, she had not seen his sparks, and initially she kind of reeled back. But once Olive felt comfortable that she wouldn't get zapped (of her own doing -- she trusted him), she leaned in a little closer to his hand to look at the electricity. "I feel confident in saying that all Penderghasts would probably get a kick out of this, yes. Actually, I think my little brother would maybe worship you if he ever met you, so. Be prepared, should my family ever turn up. It seems unlikely but hey, I thought time travel was, too."

She darted a glance back up to his face, and added, "And thank you for promising to keep Rhi at arm's length. It'd probably be under duress. She's kind of a handful. And she'd probably find you adorable, but that's just too bad for her."

Stop talking, Olive. Stop.

"If you say so, but I'm not usually all that into blondes." Because that was totally relevant and helpful and not at all guaranteed to make things more awkward.

He flashed a sheepish grin at her, then closed his fist so the sparks would go away. "They come out of my mouth too, but that's a little scarier, so ... you really think your brother would like me?"

Edited 2012-09-12 02:48 (UTC)

"I think both my brothers would, but Chip would just follow you around and annoy you all day with questions," Olive decided. And just ignore the blush creeping up her cheeks, too, because...yes. It was usually hard for guys to resist the siren call of Rhiannon, as far as she could tell, and yet. Hm. "And yeah, I'd imagine that the sparks coming out of your mouth could be...scary. Can you totally control it? Like, is it entirely at will?"

...yeah, Olive, please just go ahead and ask this boy a series of questions about his mouth. That'll be totally appropriate.

"It depends?" Victor shrugged. "Like right now, talking to you, yeah, it would be. But sometimes when I'm angry, wham, sparks, without me really thinking about it. And a couple times when I was just exhausted my static regulation system's gone all ... kerflooey."

That was the technical term.

"And apparently I'm a little magnetic when I'm asleep, which I don't even get."

"Only when you're asleep?" Don't mind Olive, she would just be planning head for should she ever find him asleep on a common room couch or something. She could probably find some alphabet magnets or something. "Why not all the time?"

Victor shrugged. "I didn't get a chance to ask? The best I can figure out is that the system that makes me not stick to things takes up a lot of resources, so it just turns off when I'm not moving around," he guessed. "I only figured it out 'cause I kept waking up with paper clips on my face."

A strange look crossed his face, as if he realized he may have just given Olive an idea.

Olive smiled sweetly at him. "Pff, paper clips. There's potential for way funnier stuff than that. Not, of course, that I would ever do anything like that. Ever. At all."

Once again: she was a way better liar when she didn't like the person in question.

Or when she was actually trying, which, at the moment, she was not.

"Right," Victor said slowly, eyes sparkling. "Which is good, since it means I won't accidentally make your laptop play the Care Bears theme song every time you turn it on."

He fought dirty.

"I mean, that just sounds distracting," Olive decided. "Way worse than my sticking magnetic letters to your face to spell questionable words or something. Not that I would."

"It might be a little bit overkill," Victor agreed. "On the other hand, if I went to class with 'smell me' on my forehead, maybe not."

"I think you'd notice before then," Olive decided. "I have confidence in your observational skills. But I guess you'll just have to make sure that you don't fall asleep near me."

Pause. Awkward.

"Like in a common room, or something. On a couch."

Nice save, Penderghast.

Stark Industries, Tuesday, Sept. 11

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