Stark Industries, Wednesday, 5/22

[ultron_junior]

Another Wednesday, another Stark shift for Victor. He was inspired by his chat with Raven the afternoon before to spend some time setting aside refurbished products he thought might make sense to someone from sixty years ago.

This was not easy. Sixty years ago, computers were pretty much the size of the shop, so he imagined the learning curve was going to be fairly steep.

He was so happy to have a project that he ignored the jumble of figs that kept spilling out of open drawers. After so long in the shop, the fruit was pretty much expected.

[OOC: Open shop, no OCD.]

Comments

[tigerundercover]

Definitely a steep learning curve. But Raven was still excited to learn.

She came by in the early afternoon, leaning into the shop to peer around before walking all the way in. "It kind of smells like figs in here," she observed.

[ultron_junior]

"There are figs in here," Victor said, as he glanced over. "The shop kind of ... generates its own fruit. Don't ask me why. Also, hi."

[tigerundercover]

"I'm just going to have to learn to smile and nod at all the strange things that happen on this island, aren't I?" Raven guessed. "Hi!"

[ultron_junior]

"It saves a lot of time," Victor agreed. "Also, how mad can I get at weirdness that wants to give me a snack and isn't trying to kill me?"

[tigerundercover]

"People keep saying that," Raven said. "How often do things on the island try to kill people?"

[ultron_junior]

"Two serious attempts since I got here," Victor answered, after taking a second to think about it. "And then you have things like the jalapenos last week, where it probably could kill you but it won't. But that might still be safer than home, so..."

[tigerundercover]

"Your home is that dangerous?" Raven asked. "And why would they put a school somewhere that gets attacked?"

[ultron_junior]

"I'm from one of the worlds where people have powers," Victor explained. "It gets pretty crazy. And the why ... I have no freaking clue. Maybe this was the only place they could build a castle."

He rubbed the back of his neck and added, "And I'd feel bad if I, like, convinced you to run screaming. I promise, mostly it's fine."

[tigerundercover]

"I'm made of sterner stuff than that," Raven assured him. "Are you from a world with mutants, too? It seems there are a lot of us around."

[ultron_junior]

"With Avengers and aliens and stuff?" Victor asked. "Yep. I'm one of the many. Definitely makes adjusting to this place easier."

[tigerundercover]

"Never heard of the Avengers," Raven said. "But we've got mutants. Not many, and no one knows much about them yet, but they're there."

[ultron_junior]

"Right, sixty years ago," Victor remembered, sounding -- well, a little bit excited. He was enough of a superhero history geek to find someone from pretty much the beginning of all of it a little bit extra-interesting. "I thought only the government knew about mutants that far back."

[tigerundercover]

Well, them and the actual mutants. "My brother's into genetics research," she said, using the same cover she used for Anya. "There's been bits here and there in journals, if you know where to look."

Mostly because said brother had written in letters to the editors.

[ultron_junior]

"Huh." And now Victor was going to have to look through genetics journals from the 1950s to see if he could find anything. "That must be awesome for him, being there right at the start of a new field. Speaking of" -- and here Victor displayed his not-so-deft mastery of the segue -- "did you want to start with the phone or the computer?"

[tigerundercover]

Oh, if only he knew just how at the start of it all Raven's brother really was.

"Well, I've used a phone before," Raven said. "So that might be more familiar."

[ultron_junior]

Oh god, if and when he figured out Raven's brother was Charles Xavier he would start asking questions and might not stop until she told him to shut up.

"Maybe." Victor sounded like he doubted it but wasn't going to argue. He passed an iPhone across the counter to her. "Okay, so the first thing you should know is that this does a lot more than making calls. There are games, information ... basically it slices and it dices."

[tigerundercover]

Raven picked it up a little gingerly, as if she might break it if she weren't careful. "Well," she said. "That might just make it the first really futuristic thing I've seen other than the shows on TV."

[ultron_junior]

"Now I'm curious what kind of futuristic things you thought we'd have," Victor asked, grinning. "It's the lack of flying cars, right?"

[tigerundercover]

"Well yeah," Raven said. "And moon bases and interstellar travel and even the clothes aren't that different. Can't say I'm complaining about the lack of gas masks or flattened cities, though."

[ultron_junior]

"We have space ice cream," Victor told her, semi-seriously. "It's ... crunchy. And yeah, we avoided world war III. Go us, I guess."

[tigerundercover]

"From my perspective? That last one is one heck of an accomplishment." Duck and cover was still standard in her old school, after all. "At least tell me we cured cancer or polio or at least the common cold?"

[ultron_junior]

"Polio, pretty much," Victor said, relieved he had some good news. "There's a vaccine almost everyone gets. I've never known anybody who had it."

[tigerundercover]

"Oh good." Raven actually visibly relaxed a bit at that. "Good to know the future's got something other than fancy phones." Speaking of, she turned her attention back to the device in her hand. "Where's the dial?"

[ultron_junior]

"There isn't one," Victor said. "Touch the screen to wake it up, then touch the little picture of a phone. Should bring up a keypad."

Though he was going to watch her anxiously, just to make sure the phone hadn't stopped working somehow since he set it aside for her.

[OOC: This is the part where I explain I have an Android, so my knowledge of iPhones is limited. Carry on.]

[tigerundercover]

Raven frowned at him a little dubiously, then back at the phone. She followed his instructions and (sure, why not?) the keypad appeared. "It's just glass," she said, a hint of wonder in her voice. "How does it know I'm touching it?"

[ultron_junior]

"There are sensors under the glass that put out a tiny current," Victor explained, biting his lip so he wouldn't smile at the wonder. "When you touch it, your finger changes the resistance and that tells the phone what to do. Gloves or a pen won't work."

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded along seriously, making note of the glove and pen thing, especially. "Well, it's definitely impressive. So do all the other pictures on the screen do other things?"

[ultron_junior]

"You got it," Victor agreed. "This one's music, that one's email, a couple games, there's an internet browser ... probably I should show you the internet next."

He tapped on that icon, loading a search homepage.

[tigerundercover]

Raven was about to ask what an email was, then looked surprised when he opened the browser. "Oh! Tony showed me a little bit of internet," she said. "That's how I knew I needed to get a computer. His was bigger, though."

[ultron_junior]

"I always heard size doesn't matter," Victor said. Because he couldn't waste a line like that. "I mean -- yeah, it's pretty much the same as what Tony showed you, just ... on a phone."

[tigerundercover]

"Is that what they're saying these days?" Raven asked with a slightly sly grin. "So how do I tell it what I want to see?" she asked. "There's no typewriter part."

[ultron_junior]

"Ah. Voila," Victor said with a sly smile of his own, reaching around her to tap the search bar and bring up the keyboard. "That's on the screen too."

[tigerundercover]

Raven wrinkled her nose. "It's so tiny. I'd need mouse fingers to type on that."

Which was possible, but not in public.

[ultron_junior]

"It works better than you think," Victor promised. "Try it."

[tigerundercover]

"Okay," Raven said dubiously. She frowned down at the keyboard. ". . . I don't know what to search for."

[ultron_junior]

"A lot of people start with their names," Victor shrugged. "Or ... I dunno. A band you like. An actor."

[tigerundercover]

"I'm pretty sure I already know all about myself," Raven said. "And I'm not sure why I'd be on this internet at all."

Oh, honey.

She typed in a name, her tongue sticking just slightly out of her mouth as she carefully worked the tiny keyboard, then waited a moment while the phone searched. It took her a moment, but she figured out how to make it scroll through the results that came up.

". . . Wow, Patti Page just died this year."