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Tweak says, "Orange is the new blue."

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
2019-05-24 10:34 pm UTC (link)

The longer she went showing off like that, the more impressed Tony became. That she was managing several globes of water and moving them all at the same time while they were talking? Well it was an impressive display both of ability but also focus and concentration - both things that Tony could lack at times. He was already thinking of a million different ways he'd use an ability like this, but then thought of his bots and was sad for just a second at the idea of putting them out of a job if he could do something like this.

But maybe that was the point, Jean could use her abilities to move things, to lift water and hear the thoughts of others and probably a whole host of other things that she wasn't showing off, but Tony had his own abilities, he created the tools he needed to do what he imagined, he made the bots to help him out, even when they were often times more of a hindrance than a help, but that wasn't really the point. It was all just kind of interesting from where he was sitting.

And as she explained to him the different kinds of mutations that her friends had Tony couldn't help but think about how useful all of those things would be, how those were the kinds of things that could potentially help in so many different ways. Not just for a single person but people as a whole, mutant or not.

He frowned when she went on to tell him about some of the hardships and bigotry that they faced as mutants. "Ugh of course, I guess it'd be too much to hope that people learn how to not be awful in any reality." He knew there were people who didn't approve of what they did as Avengers, of course there would be people who didn't want mutants around simply because they were mutants - it was a different level of course, what they dealt with as Avengers was something they chose to deal with, Jean said they were simply born mutants, you couldn't choose that sort of thing for yourself. "I'm sorry about that." Not because he was the one doing any of it, but that was a shit hand to be dealt.

"Do you think things could get better?" He wondered, there would likely always be bigots in the world because someone always had to be an asshole, but maybe people could learn and grow? Maybe Tony had too much hope for the human condition.

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theotherjean
2019-05-25 02:33 am UTC (link)

"That's the hope," Jean said idly, staring into the fountain. She recalled the early days. Back in her original time, back when it was just the five of them and the professor. Back when everything was so clear. Back when they were all innocent and optimistic. "My mentor had a vision of a future where people didn't judge us because we are different. That they weren't afraid of us. I've been to six timelines and a handful of parallel realities. It's always the same. People always fear what is different. They hate it. And they try and destroy it."

She got up from the fountain and stretched, finally feeling like her normal self again and not a dying horse. Her legs still trembled a little, but she imagined that wouldn't go away for the rest of the day.

"I actually was hoping to talk to you about living with, uh, Old Tony?" She felt his satisfaction at giving him that particular moniker, so Jean did the same. "I'll be honest, where I come from, he's done some really bad things. And I was wondering how you, um," her eyebrows furrowed and pressed forward, "how you deal with the fact that he's you but not? How maybe he's made choices you never would, or behaves in ways you don't like. And sometimes people maybe project his legacy or reputation on you?"

Jean turned around to look at him.

"Does that make any sense?"

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campusking
2019-05-25 04:38 am UTC (link)

It was a lofty goal, a world where people didn't get judged for their differences, Tony wanted that for his own world too. Maybe that was the sort of thing they were all looking for in some way. Though it sounded like they all had various ways of dealing with how to best make that happen and of course various degrees of success with making that happen. "I think maybe that's the one thing all our worlds have in common." Tony said with a sigh, that people didn't like what was different, that they feared it, and mutants - they were an especially convenient scapegoat, to place the blame on something that you could point to and say that's not human. Tony could see how very easy it would be to put the blame for so much on their shoulders deserved or not.

It was probably better that they didn't think about these kinds of things, they were stuck here after all not back where they were from and where Tony was from Mutants weren't a thing, and a lot of the hate was aimed squarely at him and the rest of the Avengers.

But Old Tony, well that was something he could probably talk about a bit, it was a little more personal than guessing about society and the state of humanity at large. He'd gotten the feeling things weren't all that great for Old Tony were he was from either if he was being honest, maybe that was something that would await him too, doing something terrible that made people actually hate him? "I-" He started and stopped. "It's strange - knowing he's me, or I'm him, at least a little bit - we're from different worlds but I can't help but wonder if that's the direction I'm headed in."

"It makes sense," He nodded, he felt a little of that when Steve looked at him, older Steve, like he knew what Tony was thinking, like he could read him because it was pretty obvious watching him with Old Tony that he could read him.

"Half the time I feel like I don't measure up." He admitted, he knew he was smart, a genius in fact, but compared to this older version? "The other half of the time I feel invisible at best."

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theotherjean
2019-05-25 06:27 pm UTC (link)

"I can relate," Jean replied. It didn't happen often, but her feelings ran parallel with Tony's down the river of his thoughts. They felt the same way and, in that rare moment as a telepath, it was like they were thinking one shared thought. Pressing her opposing thumb into her left palm, Jean reared out of that river before she got swept away deeper into Tony's mind, deeper than she wanted to go and certainly deeper than he would want her to be. It faded away and she found herself back in reality with her feet on the ground.

"When I got ripped out of my timeline and stranded in the future, I learned about what the older version of me had done. Really terrible, awful things, I..." She felt herself shudder because it was real to her. "Things I can't ever fathom. And she'd died horrible deaths, time and time again. And everyone knew her name. And they loved her and feared her and I wasn't--I'm not that person. But they treat me like I am. Or like it's inevitable."

Jean looked up at the sky and took a breath, feeling her lungs fill with air until the pressure felt like they could burst.

"And maybe it is because I have her memories. These things I haven't done, that I wouldn't even possibly do for another ten years, they're like past prologue to me now. I remember it all. I've felt it all. Everyone I murdered. Every time I've died. It's like I can't be my own person. Like the choice is being taken away from me until nothing about me remains and I just become...her." Become Phoenix.

"So I know what it's like," she swallowed hard and wet her dry lips, "to feel like your stuck in some impossible shadow. Like people don't see you."

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campusking
2019-05-26 12:44 am UTC (link)

Strange wasn't the word he wanted, but listening to Jean talk Tony felt such a strong resonance with what she said about how she was feeling in the shadow of her older self, a life she hadn't yet lived and expectations of the people around her as well as the memories of things she'd done but hadn't done. The details weren't the same, Tony wasn't dealing with those expectations in quite the same way that Jean was, but the feelings still resonated, feeling similar in a way that he hadn't expected to find in another person.

"I'd just like to go home." He admitted lowly, maybe that was the cowardly thing to say, he wasn't sure his older self would have admitted it, at least not beyond a general everyone wants to go home sort of way. "No one ever looked at me there the way I see people looking at me here." There was confusion on some faces, or the sort of smiles you gave to children when they were particularly cute. He knew it'd be strange for them, to see him and have only an older version for comparison, but he could see it on their faces all the time whether they meant to show it off or not.

"It's not that anyone here is unkind or anything like that." He was quick to add, because he hadn't had trouble with anyone here, it was likely something that was all in his head, he was reading too much into things, putting his own fears and doubts onto others in some terrible sort of echo chamber that made everything ten times worse than it actually was.

"At home all I ever had to deal with was people hoping I'd live up to the example set by my dad." He said with a low huff, "I think I pretty much blew that out of the water early on." Just a little bit of that Stark ego because he needed a bit more of it. "Here I see how much he's done and how easy he has it with his friends and all I can see is all the ways it's harder for me and I wonder what I should be doing differently so it's not always like this."

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theotherjean
2019-05-27 02:25 am UTC (link)

"Weirdly enough this is, like, the first time I've encountered a lot of people that don't know who I am."

Which, sans context, probably sounded vain. But Jean was very, very grateful for the fact that so many people had no idea who she was. The anonymity was something she hadn't lived with for two years, and the new normal was that everyone had seen her face on the television. Had known the horrible things she'd done.

"Well," Jean said, spinning around to face him and clapping her hands together. She put a smile on her face. "We'll have our own little support group. The 'We Are Our Own Damn Person' Support Group. Waa-oo-dup, for short." Behold, the founding members of WAOODP.

"You should come with me on scavenging missions. You're the Avenger, I'm the X-Men. We could be, like, the XCAVENGERS--" her hands arced out in front of her like a rainbow, because this was the second brilliant idea she'd had in as many minutes.

"Think about it," Jean continued, counting off the reasons on her fingers, "it's something to do, productive, helps the community, you could find new tech to make gadgets out of, and we could totally benefit from your expertise. Plus, it could be fun."

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campusking
2019-05-27 05:00 am UTC (link)

"Does that make it better or worse?" He wondered, curious a little if it was easier for her being here without everyone who looked at her having the thoughts that people did when they saw her when they were back home. Of course on the other hand you really were invisible if no one knew who you were - but then maybe that was just his ego talking.

At her suggestion of a support group, for just the two of them he couldn't help but grin, laughing as she laid out it for him, "I like it, support groups are always a good thing." or so he'd heard, but you know it was nice knowing there was someone else around who got what this was like, hers was different of course, she was living with it in her every day, his was a little more focused right here in this place, but they had an understanding that Tony found comforting.

Watching the arc of her hands through the air, Tony imagined a little ding following the action, like some of the commercials he used to see as a kid - the more you know with a star arcing across the screen. "XCAVENGERS" He repeated, well it wasn't a bad idea, bringing their two groups together, even if it was just the two of them, but getting out a little bit more, having something to do other than his tinkering that was an appealing idea.

"Huh, I like the sound of that," He admitted, "I just went to some desert planet recently, I brought back a lot of interesting new things, but we could always use more, especially since it looks like we're kind of going to be stuck here a lot longer than people really want to believe." Tony hoped they'd figure it out, he'd been working on his own angle to all of it, but he hadn't made any headway just yet, and well the others were working on it too - surely with this many supposed geniuses in one place they'd find an answer sooner or later.

"Okay, yeah, I'm in. XCAVENGERS it is!" He held his hand up for a high five because well they were cool and what better way to seal a deal than with a high five.

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theotherjean
2019-05-27 04:26 pm UTC (link)

"Awesome!" She exclaimed and smacked his hand with her palm. "I think Kate is down, and Flash and Peter, and there's Ben, and maybe you can ask your team as well?"

And trust and believe, Jean was about to tell him all of them. She walked and talked, inviting him to circle the pond with her. Jean started spit-balling everything she'd been cooking up alone in her cottage with nothing better to do: Tony could build, like, a recon drone that he could pilot ahead and scout out potential hit spots and dangers! Kate was apparently already proving that she was a hunter extraordinaire. And Jean could link everyone so that they can send telepathic messages as comms-- which would come in handy in case any door they went through led to somewhere with scrambled radio signals or who knows what else.

"And if things really get going," Jean concluded after laying all that out on the table, "we could totally get branded t-shirts or something. What do you think? Any cool ideas cooking up in that genius brain?"

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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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