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Tweak says, "We're also kinda leaving."

Tony Stark (campusking) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-05-22 13:27:00

Entry tags:

jean grey (trn240), tony stark (avac)

Who: Tony Stark and Jean Grey
What: Just another day in Starklandia
Where: Around town
When: Wednesday

It turned out Tony had a limit to the amount of time that he could sit still watching his new droid stumble and struggle his way through his stash of spare parts looking for what Tony had requested, or maybe it was that Tony just had a limit for the amount of time he could sit still since he'd arrived here. Whatever it was he tapped the nose of his new droid and put it and himself out of his misery and left his work space for a little bit of fresh air.

Mostly he just wanted a little sun, and maybe he hoped that he'd run into Steve again. Things still hadn't gone quite the way he'd wanted them to - but he didn't have to rush it, did he? Maybe he should rush it, he didn't know how long they'd be stuck here, if his chances for this were slowly slipping away from him. Once they got back Steve would no doubt get back to his work with Bucky and Tony and Jan would be back to their original plans and well.... he wouldn't get to see him as often as he did here.

He sighed, kicking at the ground as he walked when he caught sight of a flash of red hair and for a second he thought maybe - "Pepper!" He called out toward her standing up just a little bit straighter and jogging in her direction only to come up short when he realized no it wasn't Pep at all. "Oh, sorry, sorry I though-" He sighed and shook his head, "I thought you were someone else." That would have been crazy, if Pepper had found herself here, it was probably best that she hadn't - she'd hate this. Being stuck here, none of the kind of organization she was used to - but maybe that's what they needed. Someone like Pepper. "I'm Tony."

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campusking
2019-05-27 10:17 pm UTC (link)

"Sounds like we've got a pretty good team so far," Tony nodded as she listed off who she'd gotten already for this scavenging plan. "Maybe I can talk Steve into joining too." They could use a little bit of added muscle, right? And Steve was always good for a bit of back up.

It sounded like Jean had spent a lot of time already thinking about the team and what they could do together and how they'd be able to handle different situations. A drone was a great idea, he remembered someone talking about that a while back, but one for them and their group would be even better. All of it was good, and Tony was getting even more eager for trying this out the more Jean explained.

And then she mentioned t-shirts and well, Tony was all about that. "I think that's an amazing ideas all of it." He agreed. "I really like the drone and the telepathic messaging, I wonder if we can set up some sort of sensor to start getting an idea of what might be on the other side of the door before we open it." Or if it even worked like that if there were things there before they opened it or not - it was difficult to say for sure but Tony thought maybe they could try and figure it out together.

"There's so much stuff we could potentially bring back with a group like that, what we really need to do is figure out a way to get larger things through the door." He wished Scott was around, he'd have something to help with that, but for now it was down to them to figure that out.

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theotherjean
2019-05-28 06:23 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, you should definitely invite Steve!" Jean said, smiling because she had a good idea what that meant. What? He was thinking it!

"Hmm. I wonder how anticipating a door location would even work? I mean, back home, all the time traveling we've done has been to targeted points in the past and the future using the Time Cube, so theoretically the same kind of targeting could work, somehow? With the right technology."

Jean steepled her fingers and leaned chin onto the tips.

"On second thought, maybe not? All the dimension hoppers here can't seem to get their shit to function. So maybe that kind of targeting is always going to be scrambled. Maybe that's just, like, a weird rule of this place. Like gravity, but more annoying. And you've got a good point about bigger items. I could carry them with my telekinesis, but fitting them through a little door frame? We need, like, a shrink ray."

Jean idly led them down the street and out of the line of buildings toward the river. Running water was better for thinking, it stimulated the mind!

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campusking
2019-05-28 09:58 pm UTC (link)

Bolstered by her agreement that he should ask Steve to join up with them, Tony was already on to the next bit, thinking about the idea of combining some sort of targeting ability on the doors to get them to open where they wanted, rather than at random. It'd take a bit of working, but like she said with the right technology....

"I wonder though if there are dimensions there all the time." He said thinking about it as they walked together. "That's kind of what I'm hoping some sort of sensor will be able to tell us, if it's there before we open the door and we're just stepping through into a room that's already been built, or if it doesn't decide what it's going to be until the moment we open the door, does that make sense?" He asked her. A little bit of a Schrodinger's Cat situation, it was both until they opened the door and saw what was there for themselves, but what if they could tell before then? Would it make a difference? Would something like that even work with whatever was powering the house itself?

It made his head hurt just thinking about all the different possibilities there, both when it came to the tech and the reality of whatever the house and the doors might be. It was the sort of thing that'd take a little time to figure out, but he was more than willing to try.

"You know what we really need is someone like Hank Pym," Tony said when she mentioned a shrink ray, he'd know what they needed and how to go about implementing it. He and Jan would be the best ones to go about figuring out something like that, but Tony could do it too - it'd just help to be able to bounce some ideas off his old teacher. Maybe get a little bit of guidance from him, as much as Hank ever gave.

There were a lot of things to consider about the portals to other dimensions, especially when you stopped to think about how this place seemed to be playing havoc with so many people's abilities too. It wasn't just that they were here with no way out, it was that it had taken abilities from some people and that was a powerful sort of magic at play, even Tony could admit that. And Magic, wasn't really his area of expertise.

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theotherjean
2019-05-30 05:40 pm UTC (link)

"Honestly...I have no idea."

Jean looked at him with the same kind of awkward smile as the grimace face emoji. He had so much science jargon flying through his head and it went right over hers.

"Basically you're wondering if the dimension destination refreshes when the door closes versus when it opens? Well, what happens when you go through one? How do you get back here? Do you have to leave the door open? Is there some kind of portal? Time limit?"

Honestly, Jean realized that going through the doors at all and just...trusting that you'd not end up stuck was a big risk.

Once they got to the riverbed, Jean unlaced her shoes and set them on the grass before dipping her toes into the moving water. It felt nice. Following the rush of the river, she wondered where it went. Did it bounce back to the beginning just like all of them did when they went too far? Just one circular source of water? Oof. Better keep it clean.

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campusking
2019-05-31 03:02 am UTC (link)

Yeah he could tell he was getting carried away with himself, but he nodded when she gave it a shot, "Right, or maybe there's just a void on the other side of the door until we decide to open it. I really just want to try and figure out more about how that place works." It might not be the key to getting out of this place, but they more they understood about it the better.

"I leave the door open," He admitted because well it freaked him out to think about the door closing behind him and then being stuck on the other side. "But I've been through and the door closed on it's own too once before." That had been a situation that had left him feeling like something was itching up over his spine like he'd never make it back. "The door disappeared then too, but that's only happened to me once, I'm not sure if it happens for others that way though or if it was just a one time thing."

"Honestly it feels like there are too many variables to know for sure if there is one right way to do it or if we've just been getting lucky so far, but a sensor might go a long way to figuring out things like that, whether or not it cycles based on the day or based on the person or you know any number of things." He didn't want to get lost in the weeds or drag her down with too many specifics, especially when it was all just speculation right now. But it was something they could work on figuring out.

Tony watched as Jean walked into the water a bit as they reached it, wondering what she was thinking as she looked at the water, "There's just a lot about this place that we don't really understand yet, I'd love to be able to figure out even one of those things."

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theotherjean
2019-06-04 04:48 pm UTC (link)

Jean pressed her feet down into water. She could feel the (thankfully) smooth stones pressing into the soles and the tug of the current. It was trying to carry her off, sweep her away and send her downriver. But there Jean stood, a defiant anchor in the current, unmoving. Pretty good metaphor for her life.

"You've got the brain to figure it out."

She didn't need to be a telepath to know that; Tony's reputation and resume spoke for itself and something so unique as mental prowess wasn't the kind of thing that varied between parallel universe. But being a telepath certainly helped. The complex web of theory thoughts firing neurons throughout his brain was a lot like watching speeding cars down a four lane highway.

"Maybe..." Jean gesticulated aimlessly as she threw out an idea, "what you need is more experience? Like, going through more doors. That's how science works, right? Hank always talks about experimentation and gathering data and adjusting your 'null hypothesis' whatever that means. So maybe that's what you need. And you'll start to to notice things and trends and it'll all start to click into place."

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campusking
2019-06-05 04:24 am UTC (link)

She was right, he did need more experience, more accounts of how the doors worked, they should maybe consider keeping a log, it would go a long way to learning if there were any patterns emerging that they couldn't see on an individual basis. He'd have to consider something like that.

"You're right, yeah." He nodded. They needed more data no matter how it was gathered. With the sensor he had planned or something else entirely.

"I have a feeling we're going to be doing a lot of adjustment to the null hypothesis before we actually figure out what we're dealing with here." But his mind was basically made up now, they needed more experience with the doors, more data to work with, both with the sensor and individual accounts. He was working up another flurry of ideas that he needed to make happen to get the information they wanted.

"Thanks for letting me bounce some ideas off you like this." Tony said finally, because she had been a big help, inspiring some ideas for the future in him and what their next steps should be.

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