Outage

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony and fellow 10s exclusively.
WHERE: Heading to the power plant, open to suggestions
WHAT: Tony gets into the civil engineering game, for his own purposes. He has disrupted the grid. Sorry.
WHEN: Now? Whenever you're ready?
WARNINGS: Thread is horny.
SOME NOTES: This is a blackout that I didn't really intend to last very long, but that's up to you. If you want to use it to do some power outage shenanigans, let me and/or Hux know and we'll stay distracted from fixing the problem.


network
[Shortly after all of the power seems to cut abruptly, whether or not anyone noticed or were peacefully asleep in the dark, absolutely everyone receives a direct, private text message at the same time.]
I will fix it. Not a problem.



problem solving
It was inevitable that this would become a problem, but Tony didn't anticipate it happening this fast. There was a whole city out there that, presumably, had been run on this very same grid when fully populated. How was he supposed to know that the entire alien power load was only built to anticipate a single Gamecube and a dinky water display? D.A.T.A. was still smoking in the dark from the surge when Tony wandered dejectedly back into the workshop, no luck fixing the outage locally-- this wasn't a fuse problem. It was everyone's problem.

At least one thing was obviously not part of the same grid; the network hadn't gone down for Tony, and while that was further bad news in the long run, he could take the blessing to try to address the issue before anyone got hysterical about it. He sent out the mass text as he tore the data spheres down from their suspension and meticulously worked in the low light from the simmering forge to feel for the heat and melted warp, and gut the most damaged pieces, leaving them spread blindly on the workbench. That was really going to fuck up his schedule.

He knew where the power plant was, kind of, in theory, and it wasn't a trek he was eager to take without the full light of day on his side, but it wasn't like he was getting anything else done here. It would be faster than it looked, he could run, there was probably a generator up there and the way was going to be brightly lit and not an dark, creepy forest at all. Deep breath. Tony grabbed his jacket and his tool belt and started across town.

Elsewhere, the hum of power had gone silent, lights winked out, and the steady bubbling of the fountain at the centre of the city murmured to a stop, until the surface of the water was still as glass.

Comments

[deal_me_in]

Cayde stumbled back and twirled around to make sure the ends of his already raggedy cloak weren't catching fire behind his back. He took a moment to try directing a frown at Tony but the man's grin and maybe his missing eyebrow made it very difficult to keep a chuckle from bubbling up.

That he knew he probably looked pretty ridiculous trying to stamp out the fire didn't really help either. In spite of the fact that they could have potentially if accidentally razed a part of the city, the Exo started to laugh because the circumstances that had led up to it suddenly struck him as incredibly funny.

"Lookin' toasty, Stark. You all right?" He wandered over after one last, halfhearted stomp of a boot, to flop down beside Tony, still snickering. "Aw hell, what a mess."

[in_extremis]

The laugh was infectious, and Tony was perfectly alright, giggling through, "How's my beard, is it okay?" as Cayde approached, turning his chin in the light of the fire as though he was really concerned. One of them really should have been able to anticipate this outcome, they had gone into it with such confidence.

"It's not so bad," he insisted once he could keep his voice even because, in the grand scheme of things, this wasn't really the worst thing Tony had done tonight alone. He turned to brush some ash from Cayde's hood that-- oh, that had been part of the hood, sorry about that, it could probably be patched by someone with the skills that Tony's grimace suggested he certainly did not. "Think of it this way, anyone else could have been here. Luckily, nobody's been down this road in weeks, not a soul." By the time the fire burned out, it was going to be hard to tell what happened and it wasn't going to be easy to point any fingers.

[deal_me_in]

"What's left of it, anyway," the Exo reassured before squinting. "-oh wait, that's how it always is." He grins and gives Tony a light elbowing.

Turning his gaze back towards the flames as though they were just enjoying a casual bonfire. They were lucky to have been doing this somewhere damp, and not say, in the middle of the city where they'd be sure to attract a lot of concerned people's attention. "Yep. Totally wasn't an accident. Everyone should be asleep anyway, not wandering around in the dark like certain other parties I won't mention by name."

After a moment he glanced back at Tony. "...I won't tell if you won't."

[in_extremis]

Tony was happy to nod along, confident in their alibi, until the dig at his nocturnal wandering and eased a sidelong glance Cayde's way, canting his shoulder away like he was ready to fight back if he had to and Cayde was going to try to pin this on him. Tony could fight dirty, he hadn't lost a he-said robot-said in his life, he was ready to throw Cayde under ten buses if he wanted to play that game.

It would have been fun, but Tony wasn't about to turn down the deal. "I've never met this man in my life," he agreed. "Shockingly handsome, though, we should get a drink sometime. Have you tried the juice? I've heard it feels the same way coming out. Burns all the way through."

[deal_me_in]

It wasn't much of a dig, really. Cayde had been partially referring to himself as well, not that he didn't have a good reason for wandering about late at night. He arched a metal brow at the man, along with the slightest cant of his head as if waiting to see which foot would drop, even if he wasn't too sure why one would be over the other.

Then came Tony's response, and the Exo grinned that amber-lit grin of his. "I know, the blue and gunmetal look is especially fetching, and that beautiful, beautiful horn." Never mind that Tony probably wasn't referring to him. "Eh, I've had better, but the juice still doesn't disappoint."