in situ

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony Stark, dangerously open
WHERE: Tony's Calibration Room
WHAT: You're stuck in Tony's head and good luck, buddy, he doesn't want to be there, either.
WHEN: During the Calibration Event (June 3rd - July 10th)
WARNINGS: Some body horror under the cut, but otherwise it depends on you. Digging for Tony's secrets is still going to be a challenge here, so if you work for it I'll assume you want to see that nasty stuff. I'll update as necessary.
Update: Horny, as usual.


There is bright, dazzling light in the eye immediately upon entering this room, another door directly in front of the entrance peppered with bursts of camera flashes and roving spotlights illuminating the fine, gold silk drapes around the open frame, flashing through intricate, stained glass mosaics set into the stone flanking the entryway, and glinting off of the golden struts where a velvet rope had hung but had been knocked carelessly to the floor, an open invitation. Through it is a sweet-smelling party, packed with beautiful people in even more beautiful clothes, laughing among the sumptuous chime of crystal in a warm, welcoming hall. The wall stretching away from either side of it reaches almost to the extreme edges of the room, incrementally decaying from polished brickwork to raw, cracked stone, tumbling down into rubble that litters the way further into this room around the corner from the rich door.

This building the door is set into is just a wall from the other side, built up into a dark cave of that raw stone. Tony is pacing behind it, nowhere in the cave welcoming enough to sit or linger, jagged piles of scrap metal where there wasn't cold stone lining the walls and scattered in piles that would have to be carefully navigated to avoid sharp edges glinting readily to slice into ankles. The lone occupant isn't dressed nearly as charmingly as anyone at that party that would have been such a good time, his once white shirt wrinkled and tattered and rolled up to his elbows, open at the collar and liberally stained black down the front with whatever dripped from his hands, thick and dark like oil and charcoal. In one hand, coated in this viscous liquor, his ever restless fingers worked erratically and mercilessly over a dark knot. The sweet smell of the hall is long gone here, overtaken quickly by acid and whiskey and a bitter, sick smoke.

Set into the back of the wall, there is a computer monitor, spilling a soft blue glow across the stone floor with a constant generation of lines of code in an alien alphabet that Tony throws judgemental glances at as he paces back toward the front of the cave. Most of the light comes from the back of the room, though, the roof of the cave opening to a bright, blue sky, where soft clouds make a slow march across and birds wheel freely, well above the curl of smoke that whisped up out of the cave and dissipated.

Comments

[in_extremis]

Forgetting all of his training and seeing his brief career end right here before his eyes, the waiter stuttered, "Sh-shrimp?" Another that had been close enough to witness the interaction turned right around, not getting involved.

[heeeyadora]

"You-" Her ear swiveled to follow after the retreating waiter, snapping a finger and waving them back over, "Where do you think you're going? What do you have? Is it more of this shrimp stuff?"

[in_extremis]

The second waiter, about as capable as the first under these circumstances, went, "Uh," and reluctantly stepped into the circle Catra was rapidly clearing for herself on the marble floor where he kept as far away as professionally possible to lower the tray he held and offer, "Caviar blini." The party guests that were edging away had started tittering to each other, not particularly subtle about casting sidelong glances Catra's way.

[heeeyadora]

"...I have no idea what that is." She tried it any way, practically purring, and she grabbed the waiter by his tie to drag along after her, nodding for the other to follow as she passed through the guests. She didn't care about the looks they gave her, let them whisper. She pushed through to the back until she was close enough to call up to Tony.

"Come tell me what this is before I eat it all."

[in_extremis]

The other waiter was not eager to follow, but he couldn't very well stay in that circle of stares, either, so he slinked after the weird furry person with his tray in both hands. Meanwhile, Tony was already standing away from the banister as Catra approached, mask still held up to hide his expression, but he gladly came sauntering down at her request to stand just a few steps above the scene she was creating and lean over, tipping the mask aside out of the way, to get a better view of what was left on the rattled tray. "Caviar blini," he also offered, but a glance to the harassed waiter told him that this approach had already been attempted. "Fish eggs," he tried instead. "On a tiny pancake. And I believe that's cream on top."

[heeeyadora]

Fish, okay, she knew what fish was. She'd never eaten them, but if their eggs were anything to go by- "It's amazing-" she praised through a full mouth, stealing a few more. "What else is around this place? Do they have this stuff out there??" she asked, meaning the world outside of Tony's mind.

"What's the deal with this whole thing anyway? Is it like a prom or....something like that? What's with the masks?"

[in_extremis]

Those questions went in a lot of different directions and Tony did not know Catra nearly well enough to discern which were actually important to her, or even to what lengths she meant 'out there'. Out on the streets of New York, probably not a wide caviar selection. Outside Tony's head, sure, it was a big world. Temba? Not a caviar capital, so far. He pouted, tilting his head to either side; that was a big question.

"It's kind of like a prom, sure," he agreed with a baffled laugh, and he really could not emphasize how little he knew about Catra now because his impression so far did not include fanciful high school mating rituals. "When did you go to prom?"

[heeeyadora]

"A while ago. Princess Prom, it's this stupid...ball thing the Princesses throw every year or something. I was Scorpia's plus one." She definitely didn't know the context of prom in Tony's world. "But yeah, same deal. Lotsa fancy people in fancy dresses, dancing and tiny food. I didn't get to try any of it then though."

[in_extremis]

"Princesses," Tony repeated, as though that would clarify this detail any more for him, but it didn't start sounding any more like the kind of name a school would give its mascot once he said it out loud, either. Instead, he offered, "I never went to a prom, so..." with a shrug, maybe missing out on the tiny food didn't seem like such a loss, but Catra did seem incredibly excited about it. "This is more of a charity thing, probably. Everyone paid a ridiculous amount of money to be here and try the food and dance, and some of that money will fund a new museum exhibit or disease research or whatever the hot topic is this season. Nobody here is going to talk about it, though, so I couldn't tell you what it was."

[heeeyadora]

"Princesses, yeah," Catra gives him a look like she was confused he couldn't piece that one together. "Royalty? Magic Powers? SUPER annoying?" Ringing any bells?

She hummed, clearing off one of the platters and finally releasing the poor waiter. "Seems like if they really cared they'd just give the money right to the people who needed and not bother with all this fancy stuff. That's got cost a lot, right?"

[in_extremis]

Not any of the bells Catra was aiming for. "But then no one would see you doing it," Tony pointed out, not eager to pursue that any further and moving on quickly. "We don't do a lot of royalty here, they're mostly symbolic since the guy giving out their magic powers didn't turn out to be all that important and the powers were mostly, uh, unwelcome," he offered, trying to fill in some of the gaps. That didn't really explain the prom thing.

[heeeyadora]

"Heh." That at least she seemed to understand. Of course they had to be seen ~doing~ the good deed, or why bother? People like that always needed the credit.

"...the guy giving out their powers?" Her head tilted in confusion, looking at Tony like he'd grown an extra head. "What are you talking about?"

[in_extremis]

"You know what? Don't worry about it," Tony dismissed. They clearly were not working on the same wavelength there, there was a major disconnect. Instead, Tony offered a hand and asked, "Do you dance?"

[heeeyadora]

She gave a dismissive snort and rolled her eyes before shrugging a shoulder. "Yeah, I guess. Why not." He wouldn't be quite the dance partner Adora had been, but it wouldn't be the worst way to pass the time since she'd cleared out those trays.

Despite the clear height difference she still moved to take the lead.

[in_extremis]

"Absolutely not," Tony was not hesitant about correcting as he joined her at the bottom of the stairs in a sigh of his cape, sliding away from the gesture to draw Catra by the hand first closer to the centre of the dance floor. A few couples around them clapped for the band as their melody ended, their company shifting as others took their place for the next dance, and Tony brought Catra's hand up to bow over, watching carefully in case this earned him a slash across the face instead of securing his position with a courtly kiss to her knuckles.

[heeeyadora]

She arched a brow almost comically high, but continued to seem more amused that vicious in that moment, laughing and repeating that dramatic eye roll. "Is that supposed to be charming?" she asked, smirking up at him.