The Perk, Thursday afternoon

[livingartifact]

Jenkins' first week in Fandom was going rather well, he felt. His conversations with the townspeople so far had ranged from only-mildly-irritating to actually-rather-interesting, and he'd gotten in an entire day of lab work yesterday without any interruptions whatsoever. He might even find his way eventually to liking it here.

And now the staff at this darling little coffee place had managed to talk him out of his usual jasmine tea and into something called a London fog.

"I tell you, I had my doubts," he said to the baristas, all of whom were crowding around as he took his first sip. "But this tastes nothing at all like that blasted pea-soup the actual city was plagued with." He took a second sip. The barista who'd prepared the tea latte clasped her hands together at her chest. "It is simply delightful."

The baristas all cheered and clapped the girl on the back. Jenkins smirked faintly into his tea.

"Don't any of the rest of you have jobs?" he asked.

The baristas scattered.

[open coffee shop! Now I wish I had earl grey tea.]

Comments

[imafuturist]

Post-class caffeination was what Tony needed. You know you have a problem when the baristas were already preparing one of the largest to-go cups they had before you even got in the building.

Once the sweet, sweet nectar of life was in his hands, Tony turned to look at the other customer in the shop. "New in town?"

[livingartifact]

"What remarkable powers of observation you possess," Jenkins said. "To recognize a new face in such a sea of people."

[imafuturist]

Tony raised his eyebrows, sipping his coffee before responding to that. "It's almost as though you moved to a small town."

[livingartifact]

"Extraordinarily so," Jenkins agreed. "I am afraid the squirrels beat you to both these observations though."

[imafuturist]

"Damn, there goes my winning the 'new person bingo' game. I'll never get the square I need," Tony replied dryly.

[livingartifact]

"Now, now. If you persevere, I'm certain you could beat the little buggers eventually."

[imafuturist]

Honestly, he should have won by being the third version of... himself, but noooo. There had to be more versions of Batman and Spider-Man out there instead.

"I'll hold out hope," Tony assured him. "Tony Stark. Teacher up at the school and owner of Stark Industries."

He helpfully pointed in the vague direction of the shop in relation to the Perk.

[livingartifact]

Jenkins obliged by looking off in that vague direction and nodding his head. "Jenkins. Startled proprietor of the local 'Magic Box'." It was always a good sign when you put finger quotes around the name of your own store. "May I ask what it is you teach?"

[imafuturist]

Well, it certainly made Tony like him. Because screw magic, science all the way!

"Nice to meet you, Jenkins," he replied. "This semester it's civics."

[livingartifact]

Or, you know, you could work with both magic and science with equal fascination.

Admittedly, it was easier to double specialize when you were over 1,000 years old and not likely to die even when your experiments blew up.

"This semester? Does the school not have you focus on a particular area of expertise?"

[imafuturist]

Don't you take this from him. Science for the win.

"It's a bit of an... eclectic school," Tony replied with a grin. "Last semester was debate."

[livingartifact]

That was certainly one word for it.

"The students must do marvelously in standardized tests."

[imafuturist]

"Of course," Tony agreed.

How anyone got into college was a mystery.

[livingartifact]

Sheer determination. And probably magical cheating.

Which was occasionally how they did it in Jenkins' world too.

"I admit, I'm rather impressed by teachers, generally. I haven't the temperament." That was an understatement. According to Baird, his two speeds were 'annoying' and 'cryptic'.

[imafuturist]

"It's fun," Tony replied. "An education is one of the most important things a child can get. Well. A good education is."

[livingartifact]

"And you never find yourself just wanting to . . ." Jenkins trailed off, finishing his sentence by making an impressive squelching noise and closing his hand into a fist.

[imafuturist]

Tony laughed, shaking his head. "I come from the corporate world, so my tolerance is pretty high."

[livingartifact]

"What brought you here, then?"

[imafuturist]

"At first it was a sabbatical and now it's sort of a... holding pattern as I figure a few things out," he replied after a moment of consideration.

[livingartifact]

Jenkins nodded. "You've been here a little while," he surmised.

[imafuturist]

"Way longer than I intended, yes." It was almost like this place just sucked you in or something!

[livingartifact]

"Then perhaps you can tell me: what the hell is an alot?"

[imafuturist]

Tony held up his free hand like it was beyond him. "Your guess is as good as mine. Wait until Christmas time when the island itself apparently wants to give us all gifts."

[livingartifact]

"Gretchen must love that. . . ." Jenkins grumbled. "I'll prepare myself for more angry phone calls."

[imafuturist]

"You sort of get used to it," Tony replied. "It's easier if you don't come from a... baseline version of Earth."

[livingartifact]

"How on earth would you define that, though? If you'll pardon the pun. It seems to me that likely every person here would imagine their own reality to be the 'baseline' reality"

[imafuturist]

Tony grinned at that. "No aliens, no super powers, no magic, I'd say."

[livingartifact]

"And you believe a lack of these things must somehow make an Earth more . . . normal?"

Yeah, Jenkins wasn't buying that for a second.

[imafuturist]

"As normal as humanity can be."

[livingartifact]

"Preposterous. One might as well dismiss all of quantum mechanics as well as magic. By your reckoning, the true 'baseline' Earth would have to have stalled out by, say, the Industrial Revolution."

[imafuturist]

"Why would the world have stalled out then?" Tony asked, tilting his head to the side.

[livingartifact]

"Why would this hypothetical world have not included magic?" Jenkins countered. "It's as arbitrary a delineation as any you made."

[imafuturist]

Tony raised an eyebrow at that. "Right," he replied, wondering if he'd somehow stumbled onto some sore subject here. "Well, those were my stipulations on what I'd consider a baseline version of Earth. You're free to specify your own."

[livingartifact]

Well, the fact that Jenkins was quite literally magical, possessing what some might consider a superpower, might have something to do with it. But if pressed, he would claim this was an entirely theoretical discussion.

"And your world, how does it compare to this 'baseline' theory of yours?"

[imafuturist]

"Well, we have all three things," Tony replied. Because Marvel. Always because Marvel.

At least his world had slightly fewer Nazis?

"And time travel. Sometimes interdimensional travel."

[livingartifact]

"Considering that time travel could potentially be accomplished by any of those three, that doesn't surprise me." Still, time travel gave Jenkins a headache. It gave nearly everyone a headache.

[imafuturist]

"In this case it was science," Tony said, thinking back on it. Man, Kang was a jerk.

[livingartifact]

"Ah," Jenkins said. "I'd ask for the details, but I'm not actually particularly interested. Time travel always gets needlessly complicated."

[imafuturist]

"He was from the future. Really did not like a friend of mine." So, clearly he was evil. Because everyone loved Captain America.

Unless you were a Nazi. Even then, though. Steve's nemesis-es were... interesting.

[livingartifact]

"Mmhm." Jenkins sipped his tea.

He'd literally just said he wasn't particularly interested.

[imafuturist]

Tony took a breath, trying not to huff out a laugh.

"Well, it's been... nice meeting you."

Sure, that word worked.

[livingartifact]

"I'm sure it has," Jenkins said. "I suppose I'll be seeing you around."

[imafuturist]

"It is a small town."

[livingartifact]

"As you've mentioned." Jenkins tilted his head. "You have noticed I have eyes, yes?"