Vacillate

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony, Link, Peter
WHERE: The hotel in Temba, the laboratories in Sh'Ka
WHAT: Tony gives a gift and gets a gift
WHEN: Time is meaningless.
WARNINGS: We'll see.


a. Hotel [For Link]
Celty would have done this for Tony. He should have shown his appreciation more, before he lost the chance, and he had to linger awkwardly outside the hotel to make his own deliveries. The D.A.T.A. unit that had climbed up over the door peered at him expectantly, confident in the supplied chart of Link's most likely location, and rapidly updating its similar data of Tony's location the longer he stood there. Tony pursed his lips in return, and purged that record, and the video of his loitering, which was going to be pointless if he didn't hurry up and go inside before someone else spotted him. His next move was a lot less clear. Though he drifted somewhat aimlessly, he didn't stop moving until he had impulsively wandered toward the desk of the hotel lobby, like he could ask a clerk there to leave this package with Mr. Link. It wasn't a large one, small enough to be wrapped in a single, waxy leaf of something that resembled a banana plant, and Tony could probably etch a name into it if he decided to just leave the thing on the counter and hope someone eventually noticed. Or it would fall back into the dust and this whole thing would have been a waste of time.

With a grimace, Tony considered the stairs, then slouched his way toward them with a sigh of resignation. Maybe Link wasn't even home, and Tony could confidently leave the package in front of his door without being spotted. He just had to climb this ridiculous cliff. Maybe Link's chosen egress wasn't as weird as it looked on camera.


b. Lab [For Peter]
Nothing moved in the caved in expanse of the overgrown lawn. Iron Man sat at the edge of the destruction, feet hanging into what used to be a basement, and was now mostly a landfill of old stone and broken glass, kicking restlessly as he sucked on the berries he had foraged and thought, at the time, that he was going to bring back to Jon. Maybe the demolition had supplanted any memory of their time living in Sh'Ka anyway, he wouldn't care about some berries; he deserved answers. The helmet sat in the grass next to Tony, eyes pointed toward the rubble and scanning what was left of the palatial building, searching for any shift, air current, spike of energy, or fluctuation of temperature--anything to suggest there was actually something to find here, and Tony could tell the team he had roped into the risk that it had paid off. In the approximately nine hundred hours Tony had been sitting here, he had seen a beetle move a rock, and a bird land briefly on an unsteady beam. The Iron Man did not report any alerts. He was out of berries.

Scooping up his helmet, Tony slid from the ledge to drop down onto the settled destruction, letting his weight rattle it and send a shower of dust falling through the cracks that he could only hear below him. Any shifting it had left to do must have been quickly packed down by the snow over the winter, so even Iron Man could wander through the rocks and slowly climb back up along new topography. At the peak of the mountain that had been a palace, he slowly turned, squinting in the sun, intending to watch the way he had come for any changes from the disturbance, only to freeze at only half a turn, staring out across what was left of the lawn. Debris had rained across the big building's nearest neighbour, a squat and already claustrophobic looking structure, without any visible doors or windows from Tony's vantage point. Some of the evidence of the explosion still remained there, dust clogging cracks and larger stones scattered across the roof, and with the basement sunken and suddenly straining under a strange weight, the earth was split with spidery cracks that reached hungrily toward the next building to swallow.

Comments

a

[newmemorywhodis]

Unfortunately for Tony, Link does not appear on the stairs, or in the Lobby. He is, quite evidently, not here.

Or at least, not inside the building. As D.A.T.A. would have seen, Link often makes his way in and out of his room by climbing outside the building. It's entirely possible that if Tony leaves his gift in the lobby, Link won't see it at all.

Better get cracking, Tony. Or invent an easier way to get up the stairs.

[in_extremis]

At least no one was around to witness Tony's climb, and it was still oppressively silent by the time he was puffing is way toward the door that must have connected to the regularly used window. Only the little robot had tracked Tony's ascent, climbing up the face of the building alongside him, to perch on the windowsill curiously, letting Tony stare at either side of the door--or, he would have, if there didn't seem to be so much stuff in the way. He raised an eyebrow, as though the D.A.T.A. unit could see him through the barrier and commiserate with him, then slowly tipped his head against the door and held his breath, listening. Still quiet. He gave one soft knock, just to make sure, before testing the door handle with a final glance up and down the hall. As long as Link wasn't here, no one had to know that Tony had satisfied his curiosity.

[newmemorywhodis]

There's no lock on the door - it opens without resistance.

Inside, Tony will find a truly ridiculous amount of stuff.

The most notable will be the giant mgoose antler, somehow shoved into the room. There's a few dents in the doorframe that were probably the result of that, in fact. Next to the antlers are also a pile of giant feathers, from the same beast.

In one corner, there's a collection of rocks. Mostly flint, but there's a few other, more glittery ones as well. A pile of wood in another corner. Next to the door, a pile of bones and what appears to be lizard tails. The desk is covered in herbs and dried flowers. So is the space beside the desk, because apparently Link ran out of room there. There's one small vial, inside of which is a dead cricket. The shelves are filled with bottles of various elixirs and concoctions that Link's made.

In other words, it looks like the kind of room that belongs to someone with a serious hoarding problem.

[in_extremis]

For a moment, Tony was stricken, his super casual lean against the doorframe that was supposed to suggest the door just opened all by itself and he was perfectly innocent going rigid as he let the door swing open. As far as it would go, anyway. Before he could even taken in the details, the full impact of the collection had him starting to raise a lip in uncomfortable confusion. Then he noticed the bones. Now he really hoped this kid's deal was some magic thing, because Tony did not know of a comforting alternative explanation. At least Strange kept his weird collection very orderly, though--Tony felt like he had to keep his elbows tucked in as he sidled into the room so he didn't overturn some pile and release a hex. Why was he still going in? Was that a cricket?

He finally made himself stop at the desk, not sure what he thought his next move was supposed to be. Abruptly, it became dumping the package there, among the herbs, then turning on his heel to escape.

[newmemorywhodis]

What wrong with bones, Tony? Sometimes they're useful for elixir making. And they look cool.

Plus, Link had found that without his korok-enchanted pack, other things he used to keep where a bit harder to store. Like hearts. And eyeballs. And guts. Bones, at least, didn't rot.

Just so happens, though, that outside the window there's some faint scuffling noises. Like perhaps someone is now climbing up the wall. Maybe towards this very window.

[in_extremis]

The sound caught Tony mid-spin. It might have been there since the door open, he realized in the awful eternity he was suddenly caught in, he just hadn't really heard it over the noise all of this stuff was making in his brain, not until he was already too far into the room, and he was turning, and then he was impulsively crouching, like that would help him sneak away from the approaching noise any more effectively. What it did was knock him off balance as he went to take another step, and whatever was under his foot was weirdly soft and had him recoiling. It felt like he had so incredibly much time to listen to the ever increasing noise from outside, and the glimmer among the pile of rocks that he was pitching into. There were probably some precious metals in there, if Link would let him process them.

The sting of the scrapes from crashing into the pile were going to last another eternity.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link pauses mid-climb, briefly, as he hears the crash. Did that come from his room?

Scurrying up the wall as fast as he can, Link soon clambers in through the window, trying to see what in Hylia's name just happened. Then he stops, and blinks, because apparently what happened is Tony is in his room, and has apparently decided to go swimming in his rock collection for some reason.

For a moment, there's just silence as Link stares.

[in_extremis]

Tony had plenty of time to prepare an excuse, and none of them felt particularly believable by the time Link was staring at him. What he had to offer was a weak wave, and a wince for the movement, and for the due displeasure that Link must have been producing for the invasion. Maybe if Tony didn't make too much eye contact, and kept them distracted, he could slip his way out of the room before he caught too much of that punishment. "Yeah, hi," he said, voice strained as he worked himself out of his rocky torture, "Thanks, no, I'm good, I've got this. You really shouldn't keep that there, it's a hazard, someone's going to get hurt." By then, he was on his feet, doing his best to smooth down his clothes so he didn't look entirely harassed by his fall, and started sidling toward the door. "Your stuff is there, with your...flowers, I didn't know where else to put it, they don't really go together, you know, listen, hard to tell what pile is for the mail in here, so, maybe make that more clear."

[newmemorywhodis]

"...Hi." Link says, still blinking. Though really, it's not the fact that Tony's in his room that has him blinking. Link wonders into other people's places all the time; that's just normal, as far as he's concerned.

No, it's something else that really doesn't make sense at all. "Why were you in my rocks?"

There's a pile of giant mgoose feathers right there. Surely that would have been more comfortable to jump into?

[in_extremis]

There wasn't a reasonable excuse or explanation for the one, and it managed to halt Tony's very sneaky retreat as he opened both hands toward the rocks, grasping for answers. "Thing is, listen, they were in my way, I was just trying to, it's, I'll work on that one, I'll have the solution for you in no time, I'll bill hourly. Why do you have a pile of rocks?" Expert parry.

[newmemorywhodis]

"They might be useful." Which, honestly, was Link's explanation for...pretty much everything in this room.

Really, he didn't get why people here kept asking him why he had all of his things. They were all weirdly hung up about it.

"And they're nice." And indeed, Link didn't just pick up any old rocks. He picked the ones that had interesting shapes and colours, or were nice and smooth to touch, or had a little bit of sparkle to them. He had yet to find any really big chunks of gemstone here, but he still had some that he liked.

He picks one particular rock up, and shows it to Tony. It's largely layers of browns and yellows, but there's flickers of deep red sparkles in there too. See? Nice.

[in_extremis]

The logic was sound to Tony, who gave an appreciative pout with a thoughtful roll of his eyes up toward the ceiling, trying not to think too hard about his own piles in the workshop and how useful he thought they could be some day. A pile of rocks in a bedroom felt a little different than meltable scrap in a forge. He did live much too lavish of a lifestyle to deny the draw of nice things, though he wasn't sure they were working with the same palate as Link displayed his shiny rock with pride. Maybe he was holding a bit of a grudge for the battering he took from the rocks. "Uh-huh. What are they going to be useful for up here?" he had to ask.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link shrugs. "Don't know yet," he says.

But Tony seems to like getting more of an explanation for things, so he adds, "Used to give gems to the Great Fairies. For enchantments."

And hey, you never knew - there might be a Great Fairy hidden somewhere here as well.

B.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter is in desperate need of somewhere to work on his web fluid because just getting it from the replicator did not go as planned and he's pretty much back to square one. At least he'd healed up from that monster attack.

what a weird first few days back he's had. He's spent some time catching up on things, and but now nothing's going to hold him back from his dreams of getting more web fluid before the next monster attack. The need for materials and viable lab provides a good enough reason for him to come all the way out to Sh'Ka.

He's pretty sure he's never actually been to Sh'Ka before, it only takes getting creamed by a monster, cracked ribs, and empty web cartridges to get him here. He looks down at his webshooters forlornly and then looks up as he comes across a... scene. It looks like something might have exploded.

"Wait. Tony?" Peter squints as he see's Tony and moves a little closer. He knew Tony was still around somewhere, but it's a relief to actually see him.

[in_extremis]

Tony was about ready to slide back down the rubble when the frustrating nothingness was suddenly broken by a very human voice, and it startled him enough that he started sliding anyway and had to quickly scramble to get the weight of the Iron Man back under control without blasting his jets directly into what might have been evidence. A spray of dust a shriek of metal on stone later, Tony was staring across the lawn and clearly had to work up a smile to try to suggest he totally meant to do that, and an effortlessly cool greeting that eventually turned out to be, "Hey." Of course he knew Peter was back. That did not make him any easier to actually see, and the sear of guilt that quickly tore a hole through Tony's chest turned his smile into a grimace.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Okay, Peter was not expecting that reaction. If he didn't know any better he'd say Tony wasn't happy to see him. Did he do something wrong?

"Um, hey." He responded, watching Tony carefully. "Guess I kinda disappeared for a while. It doesn't feel like that to me but apparently it's been over like six months?" Maybe he shouldn't ramble so much.

"S-so uh... I'm out of webfluid." He blurted.

[in_extremis]

There wasn't any good reason for Tony to hang back, so he couldn't argue himself out of being drawn hopefully closer, picking his way from the edge of the worst of the rubble to slink across the brown grass with one last, suspicious glance over his shoulder. "Yeah, it's been a while--" he started to answer, the grimace returning, and he drew the helmet he carried up against his chest to hug anxiously, but was saved from having to make any apologies or excuses as Peter abruptly continued.

"Oh," was all he had for a beat, trying to shift gears out of that tight coil to properly process. "Let's get you some more," seemed like a reasonable answer. The step that followed that would come naturally, hopefully. "Is that what you're doing out here? If you thought there was something in this place--listen, that's possible, but I went through it before it came down and, I'm not the expert, but I wouldn't say there was any webfluid lying around in there, and now--I'm not saying nothing could have survived, but there's probably not much going in there for," he rambled back, thumbing back toward the pile that used to be a building.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter's honestly relieved to bypass the emotional part of their reunion mostly because for Peter he just saw Tony a week ago so not being emotional would feel a little awkward. It wasn't what he didn't miss Tony-he's sure he would have if it felt like he hadn't seen him in six months.

"Yeah. That was the goal." He states when Tony suggest they get him more webfluid. "I mean-I was able to make some with the replicator but it doesn't come with casing so that... that ended up being... a disaster." to put it mildly. "So I was really here to look for like.. measurement stuff or maybe a lab that might have some of the things I need to make it on my own since the replicator is... not gonna work." He doesn't particularly want to be stuck to it for another two to fours hours.

[in_extremis]

That was a disaster that Tony could easily envision, making him snort before it occurred to him to check, one hand up in caution, "You didn't break the replicator," not entirely a question, more of a wish. The last time it was broken, it took ages to fix, and Tony did not want to live like that. He only needed the slightest signal to be reassured enough to drop his tense shoulders, then look around in confusion for what Peter thought he was out here looking for, and wondered, "Is that what that place is, a lab?" A well sealed building might be like that to maintain certain conditions, so he waved a hand toward the windowless structure. At least that one was still standing, for now, and Tony didn't have yet another reason to feel guilty over the demolished one.

[hashtagparkerluck]

"No." Peter answers automatically. At least, he's pretty sure it's not broken. No one has made any indication that it's broken. Maybe he should have checked? "My webfluid dissolves after about two to four hours after being exposed to the air. So, it's gone now."

A whole supply of webfluid. Wasted. But he's not gonna let that slow him down any more than he let those cracked ribs slow him down. "I don't know-I just came out here to look for one. Looking at the state of things though-if I do find what I need, it's probably gonna be broken."

[in_extremis]

Tony had spent enough time slung up in those webs himself that he knew precisely what factors helped speed up the process to dissolve them, and none of them helped by enough, so he only nodded with a grimace and widened eyes, sure, that was probably totally fine, before he was pulling his helmet back on.

"That's kind of the deal with this whole experience, sweetheart," he said, voice artificial and hollow behind the mask. "Good thing we're here to fix it." He tipped his head to invite Peter ahead to find out just how dire the situation here was, a delicate hand on his back as Tony threw another suspicious glance over his shoulder at the damage he had been inspecting.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter watches for a moment, distracted by the voice because that's still just so cool. Then his brain catches up and he shakes his head a little before frowning.

"We are?" He blinks in confusion at the statement. He doesn't remember signing up for this but then again, anything to spend more time with Tony Stark. "I mean-Yeah! We are."

Peter glances in the same direction Tony was looking. Should his spider-senses be going off right now? "Is.. everything okay?"

[in_extremis]

"Of course, completely," Iron Man answered quickly, waving his free hand to dismiss any concerns. Immediately, he undermined this by continuing, "I was just wondering..." and seemed to realize maybe he shouldn't. Still, he said, "That place that came down, had a big basement area. It might have had some structural effect on the surrounding structures, since they're all--They're made of this rock, you see that?" He pointed ahead to the formidable looking hopefully-laboratory, all of it stone that would have been surprisingly seamless if not for the patches of more of it stitched on top like plaster. "Heavy stuff. The people who lived her could mold it, so it's solid, dense."

[hashtagparkerluck]

Talking to Tony Stark always feels like getting sucked into a whirlpool- he mentions something and then immediately goes to something else before there's time to consider the first thing. Which means that all Peter hears is that's perfectly safe and he needs to lift some really heavy rocks.

Easy!

"I could probably lift it?" Peter offers, looking over at the structure. "I probably won't even break a sweat." He brags as he moves over to try and grab a piece-it is a little heavier than he'd anticipated so maybe he will break a sweat.

[in_extremis]

It took Tony a moment to shift gears, because he had been talking about the entire building, and was briefly struck by the suggestion that Peter was that strong. Maybe under the right circumstances, with the right leverage, not strong so much as clever--Oh, no, just the patch, right. "Don't wear yourself out before the party's even started," Iron Man muttered, sliding up alongside the kid to tip his helmet almost against the wall, searching for any hint of a seam or weaker joint to help work the patch away, one hand hovering maybe a little too obviously to catch any accidents.