Tony Stark (in_extremis) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2010-04-16 22:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | z: om1: !closed, z: om1: affiliation: stark enterprises, z: om1: character: tony stark, z: om1: location: costa rica, z: om1: past character: moira mactaggert |
Hacienda
Characters: Moira, Tony, Team SCIENCE!
Setting: Afternoon-ish, where no one will hear Moira scream, Costa Rica
Content: Tony trying to redeem himself. It'll be messy.
Summary: Definitely not because Nick told him to, Tony goes to Moira to try to help him dull some of the negative effects of one so he can maintain two addictions guilt free. He's thoughtful like that.
Even at the tail end of the dry season, everything this high up was still green, like the mountain sucked the moisture directly from the clouds and sighed it out again in wispy puffs. The forest just browned at the edges, choked with the dust from the road, terracotta orange staining leaves and hanging in the air well after the car had passed, but just inches back from the road it was endlessly lush and every little sprout was competing to overtake the other and become thick and ripe. Vegetation so dense it was just murky darkness to Tony from his vantage point behind tinted windows, slouched in his seat and staring blankly out at it, wincing and taking another drink with every breath too deep. Every lurch of the car around the winding corners of the mountain road or into crater-like potholes had him squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his hand firmly to his ribs, only to treat him to another flash of imagery best forgotten like a movie played continuously on his eyelids, and the vague secrets of the rainforest won his focus again, until abruptly it thinned and was disappearing behind them.
Only the ice clinked in his glass as the car drew to a stop, and Tony was left in the cocoon of silence to collect himself, swallow the last mouthful of scotch, and flip open his mirror. He just had time enough to rip the butterfly from his temple and touch the pink wound that remained, trying to curl an already perfectly arranged and set lock of hair in front of it to no avail, before his door was pulled open. His cool, quiet darkness was filled with the heat, bright white light, dust in the air, and the sounds of the people milling around curiously for these new arrivals overlaying the endless birdcall that was the voice of the rainforest. Queerly absent was the sound of the engines of the jet that had hovered and landed much more like a helicopter without a landing strip some time before the car had pulled up. Tony stepped out to lean with his elbow on the black roof, tapping an idle rhythm, and squint at the jet until he had pushed his sunglasses onto his nose. "I thought we were on time," he mused, not quite to the driver who still stood holding the door.
"Your time, sir," the man still offered, and only bowed his head when his employer corrected that impulse.
"Tony, please." The door slammed behind Tony when he finally moved, sauntering across the dry grass with his arms spread to welcome his guest into a home that he didn't seem to realize wasn't his, betraying none of the pain that had plagued him except perhaps in his checked posture. "I trust you had a pleasant flight. That's an experimental model, but my math is never wrong-- twenty-two minutes from take-off to landing, right? I hope you told your pilot she's a treasure, I'm pretty sure that's the first time she laid eyes on it," he was saying as he approached, stopping at the boarding steps of the jet to offer Moira a hand for the last step down. The dry heat kept his heels from sinking into the ground and his blazer from being too heavy over his t-shirt, but it was certainly making Tony thirsty fast. Hopefully, they could breeze through the pleasantries and get to the point.