revivalproject | delivery

Entry tags:

delivery

WHO: Tony Stark, Cloud Strife, technically open if you want to hang
WHERE: The forge? I don't know the structure of this post eludes me, it might be just network, I might just be setting up a bunch of interactions for Cloud to have with everyone else like a benevolent god
WHAT: Tony's been making things and has packages for Reeve, Tommy, Sansa and Jon, and he's not doing all of that walking himself.
WARNINGS: It is genuinely not my fault that all of Tony's posts are horny and you should just expect it now.

a text to Cloud

hey

where are you?

you want a job, right?

Come to the forge.

Outside of the forge, sitting in front of the closed door very pointedly, were five lumpy bundles, the wrapping of these clearly not Tony's strong suit. One of them seemed to be just in a big leaf. They were all labled with thin tags of impressed aluminum tied or just placed on top for Cloud to figure out where they were supposed to go with just a name-- the rest, like who any of these people were and where to find them, was Cloud's job to figure out, apparently.

At least one of them should have been pretty easy.

C L O U D
It was...a chocobo? Or how Tony remembered a chocobo looking from the glance at it in Reeve's memory. Small, grey and surprisingly heavy, it wound up to go bouncing away on weirdly articulated legs. Did Tony think he was paying Cloud?

R E E V E
It's a head.
This might be what Tony thought a cat skull looked like. It wasn't much like the design he had left for Mini-C's skeletal structure in Reeve's sketchbook, he obviously had some time, and the obsessive insomnia turned to 11 after the sleep glut and nowhere to pour his creative energy, to take a more detailed turn, and he would have used the energy to make more of the structure but they were still tight on materials. What he did make was a few servos, dangling from the skull shape like a disembodied nerve system, and a prototype pair of hands tucked safely into the dome, too delicate to be very useful to Mini, but responding to their programming housed in the skull. The systems were done, was the point.

T O M M Y
Was this what he meant by hydroponics? It wasn't like Tony had managed to miss that bit of drama on the network. It wasn't assembled, a bunch of disparate pieces that didn't come with instructions, but a note that only read 'you need a tube'.

S A N S A
This bundle had a pair of brass combs in it, stamped, much like the labels on the packages, with roses. If Sansa hadn't figured out how to keep her hair from being a mess, maybe this would be a reminder.

J O N
A very tiny little knot of a rag, about as big as the label that sat under it, and felt light enough to be empty.
It seemed to only contain a gold chain.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Development And Teaching Assistant. D.A.T.A., for the mouthful problem. I'm trying to reverse engineer the data points, and so far it's...not that, but he has his uses.

Jon wanted a better way to communicate with the Agrii, maybe teach them how to talk to us better, and I figured using something they were familiar with would be the best tool. It's like a contact point that connects directly to the neurons, though, maybe you could solve the puzzle for me because it might be beyond me. Hell, it's a biology problem, not an engineering one.

I'm not familiar with biology. So... it's a computer that connects to the brain directly?

[That sounds... disturbing to him. But his world has nothing like that.]

That's what the data points are, aren't they? A direct download on contact. Fucking mystery. D.A.T.A.'s just a hefty processor with some touch interfacing, that's my limit.

[Having a computer in his brain is a little different, Tony figures, but it would be helpful to have someone like Maya around to make those sort of computer-brain determinations.]

The alternative is that we've been adapted somehow to receive the information.

[More disturbing.]

In the other place I was, we were adapted. There as this vending machine, that if you had credits, you could get things from. Powers. Not that you knew why you got credits. But I think I'd much rather a computer I can see and interact with than have more fiddling in my brain.

...Powers?

[A lot of that left Tony with questions, but this one comes out first.]

Yes. Things like pyrokinesis and I even saw one man who could transform into a bird.

None of it made sense to me, but it enabled me to do something to protect myself.

You took some?

[This is not a judgement; Tony looks stunned, surprised that Reeve would let some alien body-snatcher do whatever they wanted to him. He thought they had resolved the naive thing.]

Only after seeing people who had been there far longer using it without complications. I am a very cautious man, Tony. And, after some of the attacks on the village and the absolute refusal of the Tony Stark there to allow his forge to be used for any form of weapon, it became needful to make some means of self protection.

[Because there were things that were just too dangerous to face otherwise.]

Yes, I know, it was dangerous and foolish. But there were people I cared for there that I wished to protect. Though I imagine the girls were far better at protecting themselves than I ever would have been. And given the long treks that had to be made to the south to get to the farms where I was building barns and lodging houses, it was needful to have a means to protect myself.

[Both not expecting his own name to come up, and to be confronted by a version of him that managed to stick to a definable moral framework that fiercely when Tony found himself slipping through every possible loophole--they are too far from the mirror for Tony to be confronting this feeling--he is quiet for a thoughtful hug around Mini. Maybe he is the most detestable version of himself.]

Not even some arrows?

[This is not what they're talking about. He clears his throat.]

What did you...can you still do it?

[Oh, he's really not the most detestable version of himself. The Tony there had been... superior and certain that his decisions were the only ones that mattered when it came to what was and wasn't worth working on in his forge. Apparently even the village guard even had problems getting things as simple as spears from the man. Reeve had much preferred smith and inventor. The man had delighted in challenges.]

Not even arrows. If one desired weapons, you had to speak to da Vinci. And be willing to walk the miles to the other village.

[But the other question is far more important, and Reeve has no idea that the name might mean something to Tony's world. Instead he held out his arm and pushed his sleeve back.]

When I was there we had this bands around our wrists. They were color coded and were our means of communication. They could not be removed. Each color meant that a person had a specific power inherent to them, though I don't know if Dr. Banner ever determined if there was a reason that specific colors were assigned to specific people. And whatever you could do, you could only do because it seemed to be unlocked through the bracelets. One man lost his once, lost both any powers he could have acquired from the vending machine, as well as the inherent ones. And, frankly, I would like the navy blue powers back.

[There was undeniable value to the analytical vision he had been granted. Being able to slip into it and always see what the best course of action, best route, or best decision to make was had been... Good. Better than good. He could avoid danger because the sight would steer him around it, keeping him safe.]

[He doesn't get long to wallow in the despair of knowing he shouldn't be making bullets if the don't even have that many direct threats, because Reeve has some names for him now.]

da Vinci? [A weaponsmith, that was either exactly who it sounded like, or a deliberate nom de guerre.] Leonardo? Wait-- Dr. Bruce Banner? [This also has to be a long shot, but Reeve also knew another Tony Stark.]

I feel like every new thing I learn about you has about fifty layers to it, you're a field of study, it's like every time I have a question for you I'm being punished.

[Listen, he wasn't very fond of THAT Tony. And if pressed, he'd have to admit that.]

It seems you're familiar with some names. Yes, Leonardo da Vinci. He was dating a young gentleman friend of mine.

[Which was the last time he had an experience of being the number two choice of someone he was interested in. But he had supported his friends with the full of his kindness and warmth. Both of them seemed so nervous about being openly themselves.]

And it seems you're familiar with Dr. Banner as well. He was quite the impressive intellectual. He might do better here on that biological front you mentioned earlier, with that DATA system. It's a shame he isn't present.

[Punished? Reeve comes to a stop, frowning at Tony, before reaching out to touch his arm.]

Come now, need I remind you, Tony? I'm an old-timer, with a bit more experience at being kidnapped to worlds like this than you are. I can say now that the Tony I met was not quite like you. Which doesn't surprise me. I met those young men there too, Billy and Tommy. Though they don't seem to remember me at all. But I don't wish to punish you. If you'd prefer, I could leave off on allusions to the Iteration Village. Then again, if you'd rather I talk and you pursue a specialist degree in Reeve Tuesti, then by all means. Though I warn you, I don't grade on a curve and homework is due on my desk by sundown.

[If the last two sentences have a touch more teasing, perhaps even flirtatious edges to them, Reeve won't mention it if Tony doesn't.]

[At the very least, this da Vinci had to be from Earth to have the reference point. If it was actually the da Vinci, though, Tony suspected he would be trying to get a date, too. He doesn't mind a long beard.

The confirmation of Bruce is much easier to pin down, making Tony immediately excited.]

He's incredible, he'd know exactly what we were looking at, I went to a lecture of his when I was still in school and almost took another degree--

[Any more about their relationship beyond that is dangerous territory, and Tony is glad that Reeve has an interruption for him.

It's a little worrying that Billy and Tommy don't remember, but trying to untangle alternate dimensions and timelines from deliberate alien memory interference could be a lost cause. Rather, it is slightly reassuring that Reeve does remember his time in this other place, if that could be used to gauge how they left this experience, as overwhelming as learning his history has turned out to be. Tony prefers to think he would have a hard time forgetting that serious frown of Reeve's.]

Oh, he's a strict professor. I don't know if this is going to work out, I have a real problem with authority. Tell me, what's the extension policy if you're already bent over--?

[Hey there, Mini, that's awkward, not exactly the kind of audience Tony enjoyed embarrassing Reeve in front of.]

Hard at work?

[From Earth indeed, though the beard was less long when he was younger, as Reeve had known him. And oh how excitable Leonardo had been. Quite the sort of man that would get on with Tony.]

It is not so worrying as you'd think. From my understanding of things here, there are a variety of instances of us. Vincent... Vincent thinks that by being here we exist as alternate forms of ourselves.

[Ones that would cease to be by the very act of departing. Then again, his friend had a reason to fear returning home. A fate he would not wish to see. And Vincent wondered at Reeve wanting to go home, to forget his experiences. Vincent didn't understand though. Couldn't.]

Truly? He seemed so young. I suppose I met him when he was younger then. But brilliant in ways I respected. He would probably be a good teacher. As for me...

[He chuckles at the idea of extension policies there. And that is far more interesting than talking about Dr. Banner.]

I suppose I could make quite a bit of allowance for time then, seeing as you'd be hard at work. Very hard at work.

[Vincent's philosophy is...unsettling.]

I'm not even me? You're still back home, rebuilding your city, like you never left?

[That doesn't seem fair. And Tony doesn't enjoy the existential backhand of being the alternate. That really poured a cold one on the flirting.]

That can't be right. What about the thing with the secret agent lady on Risa? I heard she said something about temporal anomalies. Disappearing for a fraction of a second.

[This is not a sound argument against Vincent's philosophy, but comforting enough to Tony.]

I don't know. I really don't. But that is what Vincent thinks. And I don't like the idea of it.

[The Risa lady? Reeve raises an eyebrow.]

I never spoke to her. So I didn't question her. It could be Vincent is quiet wrong. That would... be a comfort to me.

Me neither.

[So maybe he's not really an authority on the anomaly thing. But Tony takes Mini up against his shoulder to drape an arm around Reeve's, looking away like he can't be accused to trying to be comforting in the gesture if he's aloof enough.]

I know I'm going back home with my new credentials. How long is the course? 200 hours? Come on, we'll bang it out.

[Mini hugs his shoulder, and Reeve doesn't move away from the soothing gesture. He leans against Tony for a moment, taking a brief breath.]

Yeah. We'll go home. Or... I'll make sure everyone else can if they want. That's what matters.

You don't want to?

[He's not sure how else to take that phrasing.]

I do. I have obligations. But... I'm afraid of losing all of this.

[His experiences, his friends. The realization that he could something more to someone.]

[Tony knows exactly what that means, but it's veered far too melancholy for him to be entirely comfortable, and he's without anything solid to confidently reassure Reeve besides a squeeze to his shoulders.]

When I first got here--Not here-here, when the Agrii nabbed me-- you know what I mean. One of the first conversations I had was with a--that sort of friend of mine, the kind that's your guy, but not yours, the wrong one.

[No wonder talking to Reeve about his previous kidnapping felt like such a nightmare, Tony is living this one and he hates talking about it.]

Whatever, listen-- He said he was here with what was basically an alternate version of himself, the guy that became the hero that he was in his own world. Are you following me? A parallel incidence in the multiverse. Two people, following the same trajectory, that never should meet-- and they were here, together. Multiversal theory argues that that should be impossible, that there should be a polarity that keeps them apart, but think about that-- that would mean no universes could exist, they would combust. That polarity must be attractive. Now that they're that close, how could the multiverse push them apart again?

[Wait, there are... Reeve pulls away from Tony and stares at him in shock.]

Your world has an explanation of this? Multiversal instances of individuals? How? Will you tell me more?

[He didn't understand why his world was different from that of Cloud and Vincent. But he knew some things didn't line up. His world had no idea about this sort of thing. No one had ever discussed the theory with him. But if Tony has some... Well, Reeve's mood is replaced by that scientific wonder.]

I'm not really the guy to ask, it's not really my field...

[Reed probably would have known exactly what was going on the moment he got here. Tony suspected Reeve would have found him a lot easier to talk to as well, they could be similarly poetic.]

We know of and interact with different dimensions all of the time. Asgard, the Negative Zone, the Dream realm...This is already not working for you, I can tell, okay, great. You'll have to trust me on that one then, whenever you dream you're interacting with a different layer of reality, that's just...true. And we also interact with the dimension of Time typically in one direction-- Time acts on us, not the other way around, and it also acts differently in every dimension. Time on Asgard passes much faster than it does on Midgard. But that means, necessarily, that we can act on Time as well.

[Is Reeve even willing to go on this ride anymore? He didn't really seem interested in something like Asgard the last time Tony tried to talk to him about it. Did he get where Tony was going? Maybe they should have waited to get to his office to do this.]

[It wasn't that he hadn't been interested in Asgard. He had just noted that it was not connected with the city of Midgar.]

Who said this isn't working for me?

{Reeve starts walking again and gestures for Tony to follow.]

Time flows differently. Do you mean like how this world has a thirty hour day? The last one I was on was twenty-four, which is equivalent to my world. The longer day here has been strange, but if that is a matter of difference of time flow that would be intriguing. And this is the second time you've mentioned this Asgard place. Well, third. What is it? Have you been there? What of the negative zone? And by dream realms do you mean that when we dream we are in another place entirely?

[He does follow, and he's walking quite quickly, trying to render his thought process down enough to actually verbalize coherently.]

No, bigger than that. That's just a solar cycle-- do you not have that where you're from? Defining when the sun comes up and goes down is physical, I'm talking more metaphysical. Not the length of a day, but the length of a second. What does that mean? What does it mean that we can experience a second differently, say, in the dream realm, where it can feel like eight hours?

So, okay, Asgard. Of course I've been there, all of these places are part of the necessary ecosystem of--of...a plane of existence. You can't have Reality without a Negative Zone as an opposite and equal force. They're not all made equally, though, like, I can go to Asgard, physically, but I've never been to the Dream realm, really. Just like I can't physically be in Time, I have to be in Space.

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