revivalproject | Network

Entry tags:

Network | Video

[From the first moment the video is on, it's clear Reeve hasn't had NEARLY enough sleep. But isn't that just his way? Still, he looks positively exhausted today, and the video includes Mini-C pushing a cup of something steaming to Reeve's hand. The man doesn't even seem to notice as he lifts it and takes a hearty sip before starting.]

Good afternoon all. I would like to let everyone know that through the diligent work of several individuals here, power has been restored to a larger portion of the city. Please extend your thanks to Tony, Echo, and Cal for all their hard work.

[Reeve himself does not wish thanks. He just wishes to keep working.]

There have been some issues, of course. There are, as always, issues with breaks in the power supply network. Therefore we ask for your help and feedback. If there are buildings you are finding have issues with power supply, please advise me, or drop a physical message at the Restoration Committee building, just south east of the fountain. There are likely areas we still need to work on power lines to, and it will take time for us to survey to figure out where they are.

Also, I would like to offer myself as assistance to anyone whose ship currently lacks an engineer. I've been trying to do what I can for the damage in our crash landing, however I've only been able to deal with external issues on the ships I cannot access.

[Another long sip of his water.]

Of course, with water and power in a better place now than it was when we arrived, my question becomes what projects of comfort we might turn to here in Temba. Yes, I know our greater goal of returning home, but I find myself in need of projects.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yeah, Tony didn't think it was going to be that easy.]

Did these ones start before you came here?

[Nothing is ever easy, Tony. That's the sad truth.]

They occur, on and off, through the years. Have for a few years now. I suspect it is something akin to PSTD.

I might have heard of it.

I've told you about the Mansion right? With the Avengers?

[Mansion guy? Reeve has to pause and consider.]

I don't quite remember. Was there something relevant?

No, I just didn't want to talk about your thing anymore.

Yes, it's relevant, just give me a second, geez.

[It's not like Reeve has to wait that long for Tony to type.]

We all lived there. It was my house, I mean, and I invited the Avengers to use it, for the team stuff obviously, but also to crash there whenever they didn't have a place of their own. That wasn't really that often, most of them weren't there long, off and on, rarely all at the same time.

Most of them

All of them have seen the world end, too.

So, the relevant part, I guess, I'm trying to tell you, I know how cold the kitchen can feel in the middle of the night, when the house is empty.

But when one or two of them were around, it was a lot warmer, even if we were all there for the same reason.

[Didn't want to talk about his thing anymore? Well, he supposed he could understand. But then Tony finishes with his message and Reeve's heart aches.]

Want a cup of coffee?

Only very badly.

Come on over. I'll make another cup. Because kitchen floors are cold.

Okay, but you better put it on now, I'm not that far and I'm used to a certain standard of service.

I'm not here to service you.

[Which sounds horrible. Reeve is too flustered, and drops his phone as he goes to start hot water.]

That didn't read flustered as much as irritated to Tony, giving him pause before he sent into what turned out to be an unforgiving void:

I didn't mean it like that.

I'm sorry.

I can get someone else to go over. I don't have to tell them why.

Reeve?

So he found himself pacing restlessly outside of the Restoration office, revising the messages that hadn't warranted a response and chiding himself for so many 'I' statements in what sounded a lot like Pepper's voice. He hadn't even managed to come up with a less self-centred apology by the time he was knocking on the door, then letting himself in without waiting for an answer, brow furrowed in focus until he was blurting what tended to work best in lieu of greeting, "You're right." It wasn't like he could just leave this scale outside the door and hope Reeve found it, but that left him staring at the metal as though that was what he was talking to and realizing he could have just taken it back to the forge.

Reeve had no idea that Tony was going to take so long. And he had been so expecting jokes that grilled him for the easily taken for sexual comment he had given, so he hadn't bothered to look. Instead he'd made coffee. And waited. At last when Tony knocked he rose to his feet, quick to go and open the door, only needing to dodge aside before it hit him.

The words left him staring.

"Uh. I am? About what?"

Reeve's confusion was only echoed, Tony staring right back and starting the same, "Uh," as he tried to recalculate for Reeve not looking all that irritated with him, at least not enough to be ignoring his messages. "Most things," Tony came up with, then offered the ruler to him to quickly bluster through, "I've been meaning to give you that, could be useful, I don't know, I don't know anyone who works by hand," as though he hadn't melted and recrafted several drafting tools in doubt and didn't really intend to deliver this one, either, until grabbing it in a panic about showing up empty handed.

A ruler. The gift is taken well. Reeve takes it in hand with a delighted noise, going to the table, not paying attention to Tony as he tested the edge of the thing for straightness before inspecting the distances on markings. Oh yes, he's very happy.

Giddy even. Enough so that he doesn't think to chide Tony for giving him another gift.

"Working by hand isn't as quick, but it's not like I've got a computer with a crystal display and several monitors to look over."

He sets the ruler very carefully next to his papers and goes to lift up the mug of coffee to offer it to Tony.

"The Village I was in, it gave me a whole set of drafting supplies. But then, since it was so set in the past, gave me surveying tools in the form of metal bars of precise lengths, with loops on the ends to hook them together. No one has used such a method of measurement in many decades back hom, more than even that. You would put them in the ground and then stake them in place. But the stakes had loops in them, so you could look thorough them to see if the area was truly level."

That delighted noise was enough to have Tony trailing happily after Reeve, taking stock again of all of the other pieces he had thought Reeve might not really want and taking the evidently well earned coffee with a smile. This place that Reeve was in before always sounded in equal shades better than what they had to contend with in Temba, and much more intolerable, just like this anecdote sounded like it gave him a welcome gift but left Tony raising his lip to say, "That sounds medieval." This planet might have been abandoned, but at least they had made it out of the dark ages at some point. It was only after his assessment that Tony considered, "Uh, did you want...some?" Maybe Reeve had gotten used to working that way.

"Edwardian, I was told," Reeve counters. The term hadn't meant to anything to him, because he wasn't from Earth and he didn't think of time periods based on British monarchs.

The idea of the tools makes Reeve shudder.

"No. I prefer more modern methods. Pacing out an area with a rotating measure is tiring," he admits, shaking his head. "Raising a barn after doing all the measuring and leveling and all of that, it's horrible. But I've done it."

The expression that suggestion Reeve was talking about eating spiders with these details returned, almost effectively distracting Tony from his coffee. Almost. It was long seconds before Reeve got a response as Tony buried himself in his cup, spinning on his heel to take in the room while he had the chance to try to get a sense of what Reeve had been keeping himself up with and slowly hugging his arm across his chest to hold tenderly around the opposite shoulder.

"Luckily, you shouldn't have to do any of that around here," he finally said, gaze still darting around curiously. "You've got an important enough job, keeping the lights on. Leave the barn-raising to the Amish."

"Indeed," Reeve agrees, and he's clearly happy about that. He takes his own cup and takes a seat. A solitary seat. One that doesn't have room for two people. Yep.

Around hte walls Tony will find all sorts of sketches on the walls. Diagrams of parts of the power station, of the water treatment facility, of the replicator. Schematics of the ships. Layouts of the city, and suggested routes that underground power and pipe lines. Clearly he's been working really hard.

"I'm glad. But I'd much rather have a computer, three or four monitors, and CAD software. So badly."

Don't worry, Reeve, you're safe, you've already freaked Tony out with the text, and reminding him very pointedly that he hadn't actually delivered what Reeve was hoping for was a good way to get Tony to pout and get some distance, sidling further away along the wall under the guise of inspecting the diagrams. They were at least giving Tony a very strong impression of what kind of software would suit Reeve specifically, spinning up errant blocks of code that would eventually knit together into something Tony hoped would satisfy. That was, unfortunately, the easy part. Extremis had in large part allowed him to skip having to build an interface entirely as he worked; the materials were elusive.

"But then how would we get you to sleep?" he pointed out. "Never happen. You're forced to pace yourself like this, do the physical work, and look at you."

That wasn't what Reeve meant at all. Tony just kept reading other things that Reeve didn't mean, and sometimes Reeve just made it worse with what he thought or how he spoke but didn't follow up. This was really why they wouldn't work.

Reeve laughs at Tony's point, shaking his head. Yeah, that sounds about right.

"The power project was important, Tony. And Mini chides me into bed every night. He's insistent."

At least Tony wasn't so avoidant about verbalizing their misalignment when he didn't think it was his fault, which was admittedly rare, but in this case had him turning away from the sketches to ask, "We're not talking about it? Okay." If Reeve's intent with this visit was to be distracted from the problem, Tony could be an excellent distraction. He had practice. Tipping his head and biting his lip with his gaze thrown blindly aside, Tony tried to optimize his greatest strength to Reeve's needs, and looked very much like Reeve might regret letting Tony scheme on his own.

Talk about it. Reeve sighs. The very thought of the things he might talk about makes him shiver. Within moments there is the sound of cloth dragging in the bedroom beyond the door. Mini is bringing his coat, and Reeve has to be glad for that.

"My nightmares are of my world in ruins, Tony. Are those things you would really wish me to speak of?"

While Tony knew Mini couldn't be far, the appearance of the doll made his absent calculation drop easily into a smile of greeting and he said, "Hey, kitten." His voice dropped then as he realized where Mini was coming from, toddling out on his own, to continue, "Did we wake you up? Sorry about that, we can keep it down." At least someone in this house was getting some rest, Tony figured.

Reeve's mourning was chilly enough to chase the smile quickly away, leaving Tony pouting in consideration as his attention returned to the doll master. "I don't know, I'm not--a psychologist, or whatever, I don't think we're going to be interpreting your dreams and uncovering your daddy issues or something, so..." he admitted. It wasn't like he came over here with a plan. "But if you want to, or if you want to walk it back and figure out why you're having nightmares this time around, or just want to talk about the kind of hardcore medication you had on your planet for dealing with this kind of thing to long for wistfully..."

If only Mini could sleep. And hadn't already been with Reeve earlier. But the doll holds up Reeve's coat and the man pulls that on. Reeve pulled the large thing on, not caring if he'd get judged for his fashion. Once that's done Mini turns to bounce and wave at Tony. He's happy to see his friend as well.

"I don't have any issues with my late father," Reeve insists, waving suggestion off. But he wants to laugh. "I'm not medicated. I just work."

He always works. With addictive focus.

"Yeah? What's that like?" Tony asked with a sardonic grin into his coffee, as though Reeve's lack of issues was a multiversal singularity. It certainly wasn't common, in Tony's experience. As for medication, Tony tapped his free hand where he still kept it propped over his shoulder in lieu of a illustrative gesture and suggested, "You should try it some time, I'd be on an eight thousand dollar cocktail to eradicate the concept of sensation like a Long Island housewife every day if I could get away with it." Which might have had something to do with the reason he couldn't do any getting away. "There's plenty to do around here," he was willing to accept, continuing restlessly before Reeve had time to reply, as long as they were pretending that was a reasonable alternative. "Lots of new kids, could probably use some help patching up a good place to put their feet up, get some security."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

--> I assume this is what you wanted

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject