Who: Tas and Tony When: During the Silent Hill Plot Where: Out and About What: Fighting Monsters Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete!
Tas couldn’t believe his luck. A couple of days ago he’d walked out of his apartment and into, well, an abandoned foggy Orange County. Which really hadn’t been all that exciting, because he kind of missed people, but the next day had been even creepier and today, today he got to fight real life monsters which was really, really exciting, if not still a little lonely.
Still, Tas was used to travelling alone, and he didn’t really mind being in his own company. He was spinning his hoopak staff above his head so that it emitted a high pitched, rather creepy noise which was very good at scaring away enemies in his dreams. Though, the high pitched whine didn’t sound too menacing with Tas happily singing a French drinking song that he had learned in Quebec a few years ago.
It was the voice coming through the fog that made Tony stop. Something in a foreign language he could barely make out. Surely his suit would have told him if it’d been working. This fog was disrupting everything, though, his suit was no exception. As much as he wished it was. Thankfully, the self-defense mode could be turned on, the suit stashed in a safe place, and Tony was out again, facing the fog. The confusion and lost feeling, the loneliness… he’d lost contact with Pepper, wasn’t sure where to find any of his other friends…
He turned toward the sound, wandering through the fog, and stopped when he saw the man with the… staff? And the French tune. (Tony could tell that it was French now.)
Tas could see something coming towards him through the fog. He loaded the sling in his staff with a rock and pulled it back, ready to let loose. He wondered what it would be this time. Maybe another one of those annoying wall people, who’d managed to get out of the wall and was now following him. That would be pretty exciting.
He was almost disappointed when whoever it was materialized into an actual human being. He didn’t let loose the rock, but then, he didn’t unload his weapon either. “Hi!” he called cheerfully. “You look really human for a monster! Are you? A monster, I mean? Or a human? Or something else! Oh, are you something else? That’d be great!”
Trying not to panic was taking up most of Tony’s concentration. He didn’t do all that well with being alone against his will--when he was alone in his own laboratory, he could be alone for hours. But when it wasn’t his idea?--Not only was he alone, but he was terrified. Without the suit, without his tech, without Pepper… what did he have to keep himself safe?
But the guy that came through the fog was… not as terrifying as he’d imagined. “Human, I’m afraid.” Tony said, shoulders relaxing. “Definitely not a monster.” Beat. “Well, in the typical sense, I suppose one might say. And you… you’re something else? What with the staff and the singing?” Beat. “...are you French? I won’t hold it against you, I promise.”
“Oh,” Tas said in response to Tony claiming he was human, sounding more than a little disappointed. But he perked up soon after. “Oh no, I’m human. Well, mostly human. Here I’m human. In my dreams, I’m a kender!” He was rather proud of that fact. He would have said it regardless of if he thought Tony was a dreamer or not, but he assumed anyone in this fog probably had an idea that the OC wasn’t exactly normal. “Not French though! I just thought it was a catchy tune! It’s about lumberjacks!
Tony raised an eyebrow, scanning his mind to see if he recognized the word ‘kender.’ He came up blank. “Well, everyone likes a good tune about lumberjacks.” Tony took a couple steps forward into the clearing, glancing left and right before bringing his eyes back over to the young man. “Tony Stark,” he said, offering his hand. “If you’re as lost in this fog as I am, I’m thinking we can travel for a bit together. Find the nearest building. I just need a phone, my cell isn’t working.”
“Tasslehoff Burrfoot!” Tas said, taking Tony’s hand and giving it a vigorous shake. “But my friends call me Tas. It’s nice to meet you! I’d love to travel with you! It’s always so much more fun when you’re with a friend to chat with. I know a couple of lumberjack songs though!” He added in a conspiratorial whisper “Canadian’s really love lumberjacks.” He started to head out to where he assumed a building might be located. “My phone’s not working either. I tried to give my friend Raistlin a call - he’s my roommate, we actually moved to California together, and we have the same dreams isn’t that cool - but nope, didn’t get anything at all. I can’t believe he just wandered off on his own in this fog. It’s probably not very safe, you know? To be out here, all alone?”
Tas. A very interesting name. Tony was amused by the enthusiastic shake, then nodded a little and turned to walk beside the younger man. “Must be something in the fog,” Tony mused aloud, glancing to turn and look into the ominous wall of grey. “...No. It’s probably not safe.” Then he wondered if Tas ever stopped talking. Not that he minded, it was nice to fill the eerie silence with something a little less unpleasant.
“Maybe it’s water damage!” Tas said. “Like, the fog is leaking into our phones and getting everything all wet and that’s why it isn’t working.” He skipped along, a little bit ahead of Tony. “I’m not too worried about Raistlin though. He’s a mage, you know, so if he comes across anything that isn’t safe he can just blow it up with magic which is really exciting. I wish I had magic.” He sighed wistfully, then looked at Tony. “Do you have magic?”
That would be a reasonable explanation, except that all of Tony’s tech was waterproof to a ridiculous depth. The suit could withstand… well, far more than a little fog. It could go underwater, it could go into space. Well, sort of. For it to stop working because of a little weather? That was unheard of.
“No,” Tony replied. “I don’t have magic.” Though some of his tech could probably be considered magic. After all, what is magic but tech that’s currently unexplained? “Your friend has magic in this world?” Or was this a Dream conversation? In Orange County, it was hard to tell.
“Oh,” Tas said, looking a little disappointed to discover that Tony wasn’t a wizard. But he brightened at being asked about Raistlin. “He sure does. It wouldn’t do him much good in the fog if he didn’t have it here, now would he?” Tas said, as if it painfully obvious and that Tas’ thoughts didn’t jump all over the place. “He didn’t always have magic here. See, it all started with our dreams. See, Raistlin and I met when I was sixteen and was checking out the sights. I’d been on the road for two years already, and that’s when I met Caramon. And since I liked them so much, I decided to stay in town for a while. But then Raistlin wanted to move to Orange County so I decided to move in with him. And so we moved here, and then we found out we have the same dreams! He’s a mage, and I’m a kender. We had met up for the first time in five whole years for drinks, but then a man fell in the fire so I hit him with a staff and he was cured. He wasn’t very happy about it though and tried to have us arrested, so then Raistlin put a bunch of goblins to sleep!” Tas took a breath. “But we didn’t know he could do it here until around Christmas, and we were fighting off hundreds of vicious gremlins! And I was fighting as hard as I could, armed with only my hoopak and Rabbitslayer,” he said, brandishing the forked walking staff and his dagger, “but the gremlins were overwhelming me. I couldn’t fight them much longer, but then Raistlin said the magic word, and KABLOOOY! He blew them all up!”
Tony was getting pretty used to tuning the other man out. He simply shook his head as they walked forward in the mist, hearing the other one prattling on and on about his… was this Dream talk? Or Real World stuff? And then he started talking about killing rabbits or something, and Tony turned back to glance at him… But the younger man was gone. Tony turned to the left, to the right, but all he could see was fog.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Tony said, and ran a hand over his hair in frustration.