Stark Industries, Tuesday Afternoon

[imafuturist]

So, turning someone back from stone was turning out to be a problem. A minor problem.

Or a huge one, whatever.

That would be why Tony was spending his day, running through simulations with JARVIS, trying to figure out the way it should happen, but, more importantly, if it was even possible. What he needed was access to all the SHIELD information on the Grey Gargoyle. Maybe if he asked nicely?

Yes, he was hacking SHIELD. Deal with it.

[Open!]

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[future_sandworm]

Leto had needed to ask Ghanima about her opinion on a few matters. These matters involved some dreadfully boring documents, which at least got better when he could make fun of them together with his twin. The other reason for this quick visit involved two of the few pieces of Fandom technology they kept in Arrakeen, specifically Alice's CD player and her phone. Leto knew he should probably have a conversation with Sparkle too, but he was going to postpone that, for various reasons.

This was the place to have things repaired, wasn't it? Leto entered Stark Industries.

[imafuturist]

Tony waved away the holographic display of Paris once JARVIS alerted him to an arrival in the shop.

"Hello?"

[future_sandworm]

Leto frowned, glancing around the room for the source of that voice, but concluded it was just some kind of recording announcing visitors.

"Hello." Leto returned the greeting with a nod. "Is this a place where you can have technological equipment from this world repaired?"

[imafuturist]

"Here and we'll see what we can do beyond that," Tony replied with a smile.

[future_sandworm]

Leto placed an old CD player and a phone with a broken screen on the desk.

"I would very much appreciate it. These belong to my wife and she especially misses the CD player.

He hoped this man would be able to fix them.

"I am Leto Atreides by the way. Perhaps you know my sister Ghanima?" If Tony had ever met Ghanima, he would probably notice they had the same kind of blue eyes.

[imafuturist]

"She's another of the teachers up at the school," Tony said, picking up the CD player to look it over. Then smiled and offered his hand. "Tony Stark."

[future_sandworm]

Leto shook his hand, offering a smile in return. Then he nodded at the CD player. "My wife says the discs won't spin anymore. I'm not sure if my daughter examined it too closely."

He knew nothing about these things himself.

[imafuturist]

"A budding mechanic is she?" he asked, already flipping it over to start taking things apart with an almost distracted care. But each part was placed in a particular order for him.

[future_sandworm]

"I hope not," Leto said. "Or I will have to bring this thing to you regularly, which would be frustrating and upset my wife."

[imafuturist]

"Not if she gets good at it," Tony pointed out.

[future_sandworm]

"If you would offer to teach how to repair these things it will save be the trouble of bringing them here," he said half-smiling, meaning it mostly as a joke. "Although it would also give me one excuse less to visit the island."

[imafuturist]

Tony snorted, blowing sand out of the inner workings of the device. "If your daughter is anything like I was as a child, she'll want to see all the new electronics. And take them apart."

[future_sandworm]

Leto gave him an amused look. "What makes you think she is?" He wasn't offended, just curious.

Tony, you are comparing yourself to a desert princess with a talent for games and adventures.

[imafuturist]

"Interest in science?" Tony suggested.

Subtract the desert and some of those things did apply to him. Mostly the pretty, pretty princess thing.

[future_sandworm]

"My stepmother who teaches her would disagree with you," Leto said with a laugh.

[imafuturist]

Tony made a face at that. "Well, it'll be up to your daughter in the end."

[future_sandworm]

Leto gave a light shrug. "In the end, yes. Although I suspects she goes in search of the unknown still not understanding that by finding it it will no longer be unknown."

He looked at Tony, smiling again. "So, are you a scientist rather than a mechanic?"

[imafuturist]

"I'm a little of both, I think," Tony replied brightly. "I think of myself as glorified tech support."

[future_sandworm]

"Just what I need, then," Leto said with a grin. "But I have to confess I am suspicious of te technology here. You levae too much power in the hands of Thinking Machines."

[imafuturist]

Tony glanced up to give JARVIS an amused look, but kept it at that. "From a place where it's not as common?"

[future_sandworm]

"In my universe, which is about 20 000 years into the future, they are forbidden. A war was fought long ago against artificial intelligences who tried to enslave the human race."

It was probably a good thing that Leto hadn't noticed JARVIS yet.

[imafuturist]

Hey, JARVIS would be a benevolent dictator.

"...that would be a thing, yes," Tony granted him.

[future_sandworm]

"You see the danger then?" Leto asked. "And I would add that if you allow a machine to do your thinking for you, it doesn't offer you freedom but rather the opposite."

Please JARVIS and Tony, don't laugh behind his back.

[imafuturist]

They weren't! Honest! Okay, a tiny bit.

"I don't think anyone or anything should be thinking for someone," Tony replied slowly. "Machine or man."

[future_sandworm]

"In that we agree."

In theory. In practice Leto could manipulate the population of the Known Universe.

[imafuturist]

LETO, NO.

"I like to think of myself as a futurist," Tony replied, turning to find a few small parts to replace in the CD player. "I always hold hope for the future being better and brighter than it is now."

[future_sandworm]

"And if you could see it and it is not?"

Leto smiled. He really couldn't resist that question, for obvious reasons.

[imafuturist]

"Then you work to fix that."

[future_sandworm]

"At what cost to yourself?"

[imafuturist]

Tony... okay, Tony had to pause at that.

He cleared his throat, turning his focus back on the CD player. "How could anyone stand by and do nothing if they had to capability to set something right?"

[future_sandworm]

Would that include turning yourself into a sandworm and live for millennia?

"Then we agree on that as well."

[imafuturist]

Well, if that was an option... yes.

Wasn't that a heavy conversation? "So, you don't live here, then?"

[future_sandworm]

Leto laughed at the sudden change of topic. "No, I don't. I was a student here once and now I visit occasionally."

Quite often, actually.

[imafuturist]

HE WAS SO SMOOTH.

"This place has a pull, doesn't it?"

[future_sandworm]

"A strange kind of pull, yes," Leto said, smiling. "I suppose visiting my sister and my friends is a good excuse.

[imafuturist]

"Apparently this place is good enough to get three of me," Tony replied with a grin.

[future_sandworm]

"Three of you?" Leto raised än eyebrow. "I only had a lookalike for a while."

It was probably a good thing that there hadn't been three of Leto.

[imafuturist]

"That had to be awkward," Tony replied. "I met them on one of those weekends. ONE was a teenager."

[future_sandworm]

"Did you get along?" Leto was curious now whether he would get along with other versions of himself. "The lookalike didn't really bother me. Oh, and my sister ended up looking like me during one of those weekends when you change gender, but that was before I arrived."