Intrust

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony! And there's stuff in here for various people: Merrin, Alberto, Kaz, Omega, but they're all basically open to hop into with the nonsense of your choosing. If Tony's not actually in the scene set, he can be easily summoned. You know how to reach me if you want to talk about it.
WHERE: Kind of all around Temba, mostly at the hospital
WHAT: Tony has some deliveries to make, and is scoping out some space to use at the hospital
WHEN: Late September
WARNINGS: Should be chill. I'll keep you posted.



a. Temba Postal Service [Merrin, hotel denizens?]
The D.A.T.A. unit was under a lot of stress. He barely could navigate around the forge with confidence by now, and here he was, crouched at the bottom of the imposingly steep stairs of the hotel, camera eye tilted back and up and aperture wide open to take in the climb ahead of him, looking frail and like he might be capable of spontaneously weeping. He did know this place well enough, in his own way; there was another camera nearby that scanned the road outside, and occasionally peeked into the hotel lobby. That camera didn't have to try to haul this package up these stairs, though.

The small robot braced himself, literally, legs arranged particularly to bring himself into perfect balance before he was launching himself with a quick, experimental repulsor blast that hurtled him most of the way up the stairs. He crashed into one, leaving his round, polished body rolling across it until he could right himself and repeat the process; careful legs out, and launch.

Eventually, a tiny, tapping scratch came at the door to Merrin's room, and the D.A.T.A. unit disengaged the package that had been strapped around its middle to leave carefully in the middle of the hall. It was a tightly folded scrap of fabric, black and strangely textured, like it had been pressed into the shape of bubble wrap, and topped with a small, delicate plate of hammered brass that had been embossed simply with 'MERRIN'. Inside was the stone she had given Tony, with its strange green glow that looked warm in its poured gold setting that filled the uneven edges and cracks of the rock. It hung from a tight, flat snake chain, whose links faded from the yellow gold to a cooler brass until they were almost green themselves around the closure.

b. Emergency Repair Centre [Omega, anyone lurking around the hospital]
The hospital, meat, all of the inefficient ways that bodies were put together and easily fell apart at the slightest disturbance, that wasn't Tony's areas expertise. Standing at the doors once he had dropped off the D.A.T.A. unit with his instructions was already uncomfortable for Tony, even with BB-8 at his side, a discomfort which he attributed entirely to this lack of expertise and something of an imposter syndrome in his intent here, and not at all to any extended time he already spent here being largely humiliating. He was totally fine with that and definitely didn't need to talk to anyone about it. After all, there were plenty of good spaces in the hospital as well, and he was here to make use of one. Like the break room, or that was what it was the last time Tony had investigated, and looked mostly like storage as Tony peeked inside, the counter with Jon's kettle gone and replaced with a bunch of boxes that left the room looking dreary and dim. Alright, maybe not there, where BB-8 could only roll a tight circle, hardly sufficient for a nurse. Tony knew that if he followed down this hall, he would find at least one room with a bed set up for convalescing, or whatever it was that Billy did to him, and a staircase down to a much less welcoming basement where the generator slept. Maybe not that way either then. He hoisted the bag he carried further up onto his shoulder and considered the direction that would take them deeper into the dark, echoing hospital, and looked to the droid with eyebrows raised. This was supposed to be good for both of them, a purpose to occupy them in the void of Poe's absence, and a reason not to be the one to have to tell Reeve yet. They could do this. They'd make a good team, putting things back together. Only, the first door Tony came across pulled right off of its hinges, sending him stumbling back out of its way to let it fall to the floor with a loud crack. It was possible that there was more than meat that needed fixing in this place.

c. Temba Postal Service, cont [Alberto, beach-goers]
There were less cameras installed further away from the city centre, but the one sitting just off of the path to the beach had watched Alberto pass frequently enough that the D.A.T.A. unit came scuttling along the sand, dragging a package wrapped in waxy paper behind him. Another stamped metal tag hung from this one, bearing the boy's name, and it was much larger and lumpier than the delivery to Merrin had been, so it was with regular hops into the sky with his new repulsor that the robot had made his way across the city, sending the package swinging forward and throwing himself along with its momentum. This had left it looking dirty and battered by the time the D.A.T.A. unit was swivelling its camera eye around the beach.

There weren't a lot of places that someone might be living so close to the water, so the robot made for the rare structure that he did spot, and launched himself with another repulsor hop (he was getting better at the repulsor already!) and swing straight through the door, hammering it open under the weight of his metal body and the delivery he brought. With a flail of his spider-like legs, he righted himself and delicately went about releasing his package like he hadn't just come tumbling in.

Inside the waxy paper was a pair of shoes, hard black exteriors like the soot Alberto's feet had been coated with in the forge, but with soft soles, and lined with more black, textured like bubble wrap, gentle and springy. A faint pattern was printed along them, pressed into the fabric and creating a shine in the nap, a subtle scaling that caught the light with a jagged row of shark's teeth wrapping the toe.

d. Meanwhile... [Kaz! Interrupt him if you're nosy?]
It was a long day before anyone made it back to the forge. The flicker of the fire burned ceaselessly, and the armor hung from the ceiling swayed slowly with a the breeze that swirled in the scorched air. The D.A.T.A. unit dutifully returned first, scuttling along the dusty road, aperture half closed and relying more on the cameras hidden in empty windowframes or perched on roofs around him to navigate, his repulsor charge burnt out. He had a perfect map of how exactly the forge had been left before his important deliveries, so he continued to walk blindly through, heading without sight directly for the Iron Man chestplate that leaned against the workbench to drag down with a screech of metal on stone, and sit on like a nesting bird, legs all tucked in and the sound of motors whirring down to charge. It intended to idle, pointed watchfully toward the open door, only background processes to record and expecting only Tony back eventually, so it remained still at the flicker of movement that fell across the doorway.

Comments

[demjiin]

Kaz was first found at the edge of what looked like a bizarre negative space around the sinkhole. Everything from trees to stone was gone already and Kaz was careful not to enter the border where trees still stood. There wasn't anything to see from here so Kaz selected a rock about the size of his fist and threw it a fair way into the negative space. Nothing happened to the rock and it seemed to sit on the surface of the equally dense ground.

It was a little after sunrise that Kaz walked the rest of the way to the Forge, or rather to the scrap pile next to it. There he seemed to be looking for something in particular and selected scrap metal from the pile then testing the metal by seeing how much it bent. Apparently, it bent too well, and it was discarded. After a few more moments of looking, Kaz picked up another piece and gave that one the same test. This one was made of sterner stuff and withstood bending, but was judged to be lacking when Kaz tested it out against the bar of his cane and it was so brittle that a big piece came away. Finally, he picked up a piece of scrap metal that withstood bending then withstood Kaz's cane to his satisfaction. He was intending to turn right around and leave the Forge altogether once he had what he'd come for.

[in_extremis]

Since the unexplained tremors, Tony had spent his nights more alert to the noises in the area, listening for what would come next. Because something would be coming, he was sure of it, that was what this place did. It was another giant spider invasion, or a rain of candy, something, and Tony would like to be more attuned to the signs. Mostly, he heard crickets, or frogs, or--things that weren't really crickets or frogs, but made their mournful cries at night from the grass, and quickly became the white noise of the dark on this alien planet. This morning, as those cries quieted, he heard the scrape of metal. A strange clatter.

"Hey." Thud. Tony had crept his way out of the workshop as quietly as he could manage, carefully hoisting up his viciously weighted hammer from the anvil as he passed, ready to brain whatever giant insect thought it could muscle its way into the city this time. When he spotted the kid instead, his tense shoulders dropped with some despair at his own anxiety, and he let the head of the hammer swing down to hit the dirt heavily, leaning on the handle. He took a deep breath, and could see it as he sighed into the cold, morning air, and pursed his lips irritably for this discovery. "You looking for something?"

[demjiin]

Kaz was generally good at avoiding detection when he wanted to be, but to be totally fair, Kaz wasn't expecting Tony to be awake and wasn't expecting him to hear Kaz mucking about with his scraps from inside the Forge. Still, Kaz did not startle instead he turned to face Tony.

"Yes, I was. But now I have it."

Kaz was making no move to try to hide the scrap metal he had in one hand.

[in_extremis]

That was weird. That was weird, right? Kaz standing here, at the edge of the city at dawn, with a jagged tear of metal in hand. For a moment, it looked as though Tony might ask Kaz himself for assurance that it was a pretty weird sight, eyes narrowed and teeth worrying his lip, only to take a deep breath again and nod in acceptance, great, Kaz had what he came for. "Cool." With a flick of his hand dangling from its balance over the hammer's long handle, Tony suggested, "Careful with that. Don't know if we're set up for tetanus shots around here."

[demjiin]

"I planed to dull the edges so it could be safely held."

Yeah, this was definitely weird. Enough that Kaz raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you awake at dawn?"

And do you have ears like a bat to have heard Kaz while hammering something inside the Forge?

[in_extremis]

Kaz made it sound like his intended purpose with the scrap was to...hold it, lurking around at odd hours for other people to find much like this, so maybe Tony would have someone to try to rationalize the experience with shortly. How nice.

"Early riser," Tony replied, which was an obvious enough lie that Tony was already shaking his head to dismiss it before Kaz had to be the one to cast his doubts. Any answer Tony had, anyway, wasn't nearly as important as, "Switch from defence to offence is a bit of an escalation," with another flick of his hand. Secure, private room, armor Kaz could wear under clothes, and now this, from Tony's perspective. "Something happen?"

[demjiin]

Kaz let out a short, sharp bark of a laugh at that.

"I'm not making anything I don't already have."

At any given time, Kaz had secreted about his person at least one oyster knife, one bowie knife, one delicate artists razor and the straight razor he used to shave. And he'd had all of it before he had ever asked for anything from Tony. On one hand, it was funny how much Tony seemed to have a very different impression of Kaz. But on the other hand, it irritated Kaz that Tony seemed to have a very different impression of Kaz based solely on his age.

"It's not meant for me. And saying you're an early riser isn't much of an answer. You'd have to up before dawn if you were already working on something before I got here. Which says some interesting things about your work ethic."

[in_extremis]

"Making something," Tony echoed with a small nod of approval, his calculating stare finally dropping from Kaz to cast an unfocused consideration out to the middle distance. This was a much better explanation for what Kaz was up to than just being here to have this jagged piece of metal. That it wasn't 'meant' for Kaz wasn't very reassuring, though; Kaz had a posture that suggested he'd say the something similar about a bullet.

Tony raised his eyebrows with a new curiosity at Kaz's observation, and glanced from side to side like he expected to see someone else who had captured the kid's attention this way. "Is that a good or a bad thing? I can't tell, trying to read you is like trying to understand a snake, it's warning bells. Come on, you're up here at the crack of dawn to make something, can't be that bad. And all dressed up, too."

[demjiin]

Kaz assumed that Tony was referring to the fact he had started to wear his suit jacket again as cooler weather returned. Right now he smirked a bit to himself, though.

"That's because while a snake has warning signs, I don't. So when I bite, the one who gets bitten never sees it coming."

Kaz had learned over the years to let others get a glimpse of the madness that was always inside him. Just a little, but it made other people uncomfortable. Those older than he was would find someone as young as Kaz with that hint of darkness inside their eyes disturbing. Those that were younger would be less focused on his age, but just as disturbed by his behavior though they didn't know why.

"But in this case, I would not say you being awake and working before dawn is a good thing or a bad thing. It says that you are very committed to your work. Moreso than most people would be since you are trapped in Temba too. I wonder if you are making something for someone else, or if you are working on something meant for yourself? One option means you're selfless to a fault. The other option swings that observation back and means you are selfish to a fault. Either way, it's interesting to see"

[in_extremis]

Tony understood what he had done to deserve what sounded a lot like a threat about as well as he understood what had drawn Kaz's scrutiny, which was not at all, and he gave the performance of looking around for a more appropriate target again. "Listen, you don't have to do that with me," he insisted, hand up to stop any more...biting. "I'm not here to make your life more difficult. If you're having a problem with somebody, I'd rather help you work it out."

Not that he really expected Kaz to take him up on the offer, or he probably would have by now. He wasn't afraid to ask about the bed situation or the armor, after all. So Tony dropped the hand with some defeat, only to immediately gesture again toward Kaz and his early morning project that wasn't 'meant' for him, and surmise, "That makes you selfless to a fault then. It's nice, that kind of self-reflection. I've never been a big fan of humility myself, really slows a guy down."

[demjiin]

While Kaz did not intend to threaten Tony, a lot of what he said would sound vaguely threatening. That was just his default now. Kaz tilted his head to the side, almost birdlike.

"That's the second time you've implied I'm having some sort of problem with someone else in Temba in particular. What exactly makes you think that way?"

Kaz had an idea what Tony was referring to but he wanted for Tony to say succinctly what it was he was thinking about in relation to Kaz.

b

[small_compromise]

Temba's hospital was hardly the picture of sterility that Omega associated with medical facilities, but then Tipoca City practically embodied sterile for its clean white corridors and sweeping lines, spotless even while numerous soldiers and scientists passed through rooms and halls like the lifeblood of the city itself. Yet this was still a slight step up from the dilapidated Venator-class starship that her brothers had used to extract their inhibitor chips, so far as cleanliness was concerned.

The girl was straightening out the gathered community supplies now that she had a few more jars of salve available, when she heard the sound from down the hall. It made her jump, so quiet as the hospital tended to be, but she didn't expect whatever company she found herself in to be hostile. She did however approach the doorway with caution, looking around it before she stepped out to further investigate. Any lingering hesitation melted away quickly once she saw who was making all that noise.

"Tony! -and Beebee-Eight?" she said, pleasantly surprised. An unlikely pair, to be sure.

[in_extremis]

The droid went rolling happily toward Omega first, Tony still lingering over his fallen door for a moment with a frown of disappointment before he followed. "Yeah, he's--" he addressed first, flicking a hand to dismiss any worry about his unexpected companion. "Poe's busy." The droid stopped his greeting rolling around Omega to beep with some concern at this explanation, and Tony cut him off with pursed lips. They weren't stressing about it, not yet, so there was no reason to make Omega stress about it either.

By then, Tony was close enough to finally greet Omega with an inquisitive frown of his own, searching her face as he sighed, "Hey, Stardust." She didn't look like she was hurt, so he rested his hand on her head just a little too long to entirely justify the ruffle of her hair, feeling for any sign of fever. "You okay? What are you doing here?"

[small_compromise]

Omega was right at home with droids, it seemed. She smiled as BB-8 came to greet her, giving him a friendly pat. She hadn't given too much thought on Tony's dismissive explanation of the droid's current companionship until said droid shared his own thoughts on the matter. While her handle on Binary wasn't the best, there was enough in the tone of those beeps and Tony's subsequent look to make her wonder. Her smile upturned in a thoughtful frown, but it eased up slightly as the man came over.

Just slightly. She gave him an inquiring look past the hand settled on her head, pursing her own lips at his strange behavior. "That should be my question," she pointed out before offering a response regardless. "But I'm fine. I was just fixing things up in the other room. What were you two looking for?" Her eyes flicked towards the fallen door and back up at Tony.

[in_extremis]

"Oh," Tony accepted, now trying to maintain his frown as he searched for some other way to justify it so Omega didn't think he was worried about her or anything embarrassing like that. Only, he did have a smile breaking through for seeing her again, and with relief that she wasn't in the hospital because she needed it. They had that in common now. Tony raised a finger to make his important declaration, "We're looking for a place to make repairs." He spun that finger to justify himself with his tale, eyes rolling with it as he explained with some impatience, to get it out of the way, "That guy, Luke, said he has a prosthetic, and that we aren't exactly set up to service that kind of thing around here, which was a very good point. The percentage of mechanical parts that don't have reliable treatment is very high in this city."

Which felt like a very immediate threat to droids who might find themselves without their reliable mechanics. Tony glanced down at BB-8, who had gone watchfully quiet, and tried to make his smile more reassuring. "So we're going to take care of them."

[small_compromise]

She was still watching him carefully at that, but Tony's smile once it surfaced was easily mirrored. As he explained his own reasoning for this sudden excursion she nodded her quick agreement on the points made.

"That's true. I'm familiar with droid repairs, but having a place and the tools and parts for it would definitely help to have on hand. Working with prostheses might be a little different, but it'd still help to have a place to work on things like that."

Omega followed Tony's glance to BB-8, stepping over to rest her hand on the droid's domed head. "That's good, right Beebee-Eight? You're all just as important." She looked over at Tony again. "So! We're looking for room then?"

[in_extremis]

Tony considered this question like Omega was making him an offer, hand to his chin and tapping restlessly until he produced, "Usually, when I'm putting my name on something, it's at least a wing, if not a whole building. Until we can get a plaque made, though, I'll settle for a room." He raised his eyebrows and grinned, then asked, "This is where you're digging in, then? You know this place pretty well?" Omega would know better what was in use, and what doors might be prone to falling off in that case, so Tony invited her to show them around with a beckoning hand.

[small_compromise]

"You make buildings too?" Tony was all sorts of handy! Omega laughed a little. "Never hurts to start small. And there's a lot of space, so at least there's plenty to choose from."

She looks up and down the hall, considering the now wide open doorway from the man's earlier exploits. "Digging in? Oh- Well, I've been trying to get a little more familiar with things here, but I'm not sure how well I know it," she admitted. She folded her arms, tapping a thoughtful finger against her chin.

"We should probably treat a repair room like an emergency room- at least for easy access." She cast a smile at BB-8 again. "I'm not sure how well you and CeeCee-Nine can handle stairs." Turning to Tony, she pointed down the hallway past the broken door. "Let's stick to the first floor for now- there's a lot of rooms, and most of them have already been cleared out by the looks of it."

[in_extremis]

Tony started nodding as though it were at all the same thing as making buildings when he answered, "Pay for them, mostly." Really, there wasn't a more important part of the development. That was what the plaques were for.

"Perfect!" he enthused about Omega's attempts to familiarize herself, just as thrilled by the idea that they could all benefit from taking a look around as he was to have a guide a second ago. Turning to sweep back down the hall the way that Omega had indicated, he mused, "I don't know if there'll be an emergency repair situation like that, that kind of thing isn't usually as time sensitive as a biological problem, but I also don't want to be in the position of trying to carry Cayde up these stairs." Cayde was probably the last person Tony had to worry about carrying, or so he was sure he and the Ghosts would assure him, but that didn't stop Tony from worrying about the possibility.

Nudging the fallen door out of the way so the droid didn't have to roll over it to get through to the next hall, Tony continued, "Jon put a bit of work into this place, before, but his heart wasn't exactly in it so I don't know how far he got."

[small_compromise]

Well, she supposed someone had to pay for everything. It wasn't something she'd given extensive thought to until living with brothers who were also figuring out that they needed to find means to get paid so they could keep themselves supplied and fed. "What did you do back in your world?" Omega asked, looking at him curiously then. If he was paying for building it must mean he made the money to do so, somehow.

She wandered along down the hall at a leisurely pace, nodding as Tony thought aloud. "Like I said, easy access," she grinned. "Jon did tell me about the supply storage, but not much else. But aside from him, there's someone named Eddie, and Billy who work here. Maybe they've been fixing things up too."

[in_extremis]

"A-ah..." Tony began to answer hesitantly, partially because that was a big question and partially because Omega had phrased it that way--what did he do, like that was over now. Which wasn't necessarily wrong, Tony had been here too long to pretend otherwise, but it still felt like a judgmental presumption. "I'm an engineer. Was. I was making the future."

So much for that. Tony took a deep breath, and was glad to raise his eyebrows curiously, head tilted slightly as he tried to place Eddie, scrolling through the images of faces that had been on this planet. In the meantime, he said, "I know Billy. Good kid. Tortured me when I came here to get something fixed, haven't been back since, keep an eye on him. Who's Eddie? Don't tell me everyone that works here now still has their baby teeth. Oh!" The guy that didn't die yet. That seemed poetic. Also the guy that had tried to melt Tony with his spit. "Richie's friend. Is he nice to you? Is he making you do this stuff? You can tell me."

C! 🧜‍♂️

[silenziobruno]

Not a lot of people comes to this side of the beach, since his house (to call it something) was further down the shore and there were plenty of rocks around. It wasn't the easiest place to reach. It was also why Alberto felt more at ease and could spend plenty of time swimming in the water in his true form, even during the day. He heard rather than saw the D.A.T.A. unit approaching and stuck his head out of the water, purple fins visible, the slit pupils of his eyes checking around for the source of the noise.

When he finally spotted the robot launching itself into the air like there was no tomorrow, he couldn't help but laugh. He also witnessed firsthand how the robot kicked open his door with his whole body and moved to leave something inside his place. That was...slightly concerning. Swimming fast, he got to the shore, the long scaly tail trailing behind him, and then ran up to the house to get there before the DATA unit left.

He recognized the robot as one of Tony's inventions and wanted to say hi before it left. And that was what he did, standing behind the robot and letting out a cheerful and loud;

"CIAO! What are you doing?"

[in_extremis]

The robot had just managed to fully extract himself from the package when Alberto's greeting rang out. He crouched down defensively, delicate joints tucked up close to his body as he rolled his camera back to take in the vibrant boy in the doorway. He didn't have a great way to answer, only gave a whir as he narrowed his aperture then swung his focus back onto the package, scuttling in place in a small semi-circle for emphasis. Delivery!

[silenziobruno]

"Oh, sorry!" Alberto's fins tensed up in response, his tail curling inwards, but he raised his hands to show he was no threat. He had four fingers instead of five as a sea monster, the tips ending in pointy claws, and his whole body was covered from head to tail in purple and blue scales. It dawned on him that perhaps that was the reason why the robot didn't recognize it. Since it wasn't human, he thought that the D.A.T.A. unit wouldn't mind of his looks, but perhaps he was wrong.

"It's just me! See? Alberto." The boy shook himself like a dog, getting rid of the excess water, and triggering the transformation back to human. The fins in his arms and legs disappeared, his tail was no more, and the fins on each side of his face turned into his ears. The purple scales disappeared, leaving tanned skin in its wake, and his hair was once again brown and curly.

"I was swimming when I heard you coming. I don't get a lot of visitors. You look so much better no longer covered in soot, too." He flashed a friendly grin to the unit, his teeth no longer shark like. The expression morphed into confusion when he noticed the package. "That's for me? Ah, thanks."

Presents weren't something usual in his life, but it was true that since coming to this city, he had been able to enjoy them more. People were really nice and generous, yet Alberto was always surprised. He didn't even care that the package was a bit dirty and banged up. In fact, when he opened it to reveal the shoes, Alberto's eyes practically sparkled, and he let out a low, long; "Wooooah. You did this?"

[in_extremis]

The D.A.T.A. unit watched this whole process closely, adjusting his focus and shuffling from side to side to observe this ability of Alberto's that he wasn't familiar with. It didn't look anything like Alberto's, but the robot gave his own experimental shake then, two of his legs raised to flick out like he was shedding water. He didn't seem to otherwise understand much, but backed away respectfully as Alberto took up his package, and continued to watch his elation dutifully. His best answer to the question was two of his legs raised again, to tap their points together delicately.