Caleb is the cat in the hat (worth_therisk) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-05-16 22:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caleb rivers, tony stark (iron man) |
Who: Tony Stark and Caleb Rivers
When: Sometime in February. Not long after Caleb arrived in Orange County
Where: Stark Tower
What: Caleb gets his first legitimate job
Rating/Warnings:Status:Complete!
Caleb wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing at Stark Industries. He had already been caught hacking into the network to steal the plans of Tony’s latest invention. Well at least his online identity had been caught. And for some reason Tony wanted to meet him. Caleb wasn’t sure if this was some type of trap to get him to reveal his identity. His instincts told him to run. Take off and move on to the next town. It was what he was good at after all. But Caleb was tired. He had been on the run for a year now. He just wanted to stay in one place. At least for a week or two. So here he was at Stark Industries. Unsure of what was to come next.
Whoever this guy was, he'd tried and nearly succeeded at hacking into all of Tony's nice things. Most people would have been angry, called the cops, but Tony was mostly just intrigued. He'd done as much research as he could, mostly discovering that Caleb had been all over.
That kind of made sense if you were trying to dodge the law.
The truth was, Caleb was here for an interview. He just didn't know it. But Tony liked to spring these kinds of things on people, and that was certainly the case as he came out of the elevator towards his office, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and carrying a travel cup of coffee that was almost as tall as his arm.
He waved at Caleb. "Hey. So, just curious- About how much trouble are you in, exactly?"
If Caleb had known this was going to be a job interview he would have dressed a little bit nicer. Though for Caleb nice was his flannel shirt and jeans. But right now? He was just in a black t-shirt and jeans.
And then Tony Stark came out. Honestly Caleb couldn’t believe he was actually in the presence of The Tony Stark. The guy was a bit of a legend after all. And here Caleb was trying to steal from him to make some good money.
His brow furrowed at Tony’s question. “I’m pretty sure that’s up to you,” Caleb replied. After all he had hacked into Tony’s company.
"Well, you're not wrong. It kind of is up to me. But also - this is a lot of moving you're doing. Are you on the lam?" Tony squinted at Caleb, as if he could read the answer on the other guy's face before Caleb could even say a word.
Then he waved a hand as if cancelling the question, and replied, "No, of course don't answer that. Not out here in a lobby, anyway. Come on into my office, it's a safe space. Promise. You want a coffee or something?"
Maybe Caleb was dressed wrong for a normal interview, but if he was, Tony didn't seem to care. He motioned towards the doors that lead to his office, and gave Caleb an expectant look.
Caleb had no idea what was going on. How did Tony know all that about him? Caleb did a pretty good job about covering his tracks, using fake IDs. And how did Tony even guess what the reason was? Well he wasn’t exactly in trouble with the law, even if he did break it numerous times. It was his old gang he was on the run from.
But then Caleb remembered this was Tony Stark he was talking to. Of course he was able to find out. He was Tony freakin’ Stark after all.
In a daze Caleb followed the man into his office. “Uh yeah sure,” he finally said. “I like coffee.”
"You hacked me, relax about it," Tony said while shutting the office doors behind them. It was a fancy office near the top of the building, surrounded by panes of glass windows on two sides. A very small set of stairs lead down to a more casual meeting place; Couches and a coffee table stacked with magazines. In the back was a bar that looked like it was particularly well stocked, considering its location.
Tony snapped a finger, and a black robotic arm raised up from behind the counter. "Hey. DUMM-E. We need some coffee."
The arm bobbed up and down a few times, before smacking a button that started up the coffee machine. Tony glanced at Caleb and waved towards the couch. "It'll take a bit. And no, I don't trust him to actually carry it over here. Or put anything in it. He can barely handle brewing the stuff. He earned his name."
But that had nothing to do with this interview. "So... trouble? Or have you been good at covering your tracks up to now?"
Caleb’s eyes slightly widened as he fully took in Tony’s office. It was definitely the fanciest office he had ever seen. What was he even doing here? And he had a robot arm that made coffee? Even if it was called dummy, it was still a fucking robot arm.
“Add my own creamer, got it,” Caleb replied following him to the couch. He usually only added a little bit of cream anyway. Caleb didn’t need his coffee that fancy or sugary.
Taking a seat he rose a brow at Tony’s question. As astounded as he was to be here, in Tony Stark’s office, with Tony Stark, Caleb still had his wits about him. “You wearing a wire or something?”
“Absolutely not wearing a wire, promise. You can search me if you want. But here’s kind of the thing, is if I’m going to give you a chance with me, I need to know what I’m getting into. Kind of a full disclosure thing, you know?” Tony leaned forward a bit, placing his elbows on his knees and clapping his hands together. “So. If I take you in, I just want to know how much bargaining I have to do to keep you out of jail.”
In the background, the coffee machine was still doing its thing. There was some audible banging around from the robot arm as it returned to whatever task it had been performing previously, punctuating Tony’s words at odd moments. He tried very hard not to laugh about it.
The noise of the dummy robot was a little distracting. Caleb used it to take a moment to think about what to say next. How much he should reveal. But well if Tony was going to turn him in he would have already. Right?
“The cops aren’t after me,” Caleb replied. At least as far as he knew. He had broken the law on numerous occasions. But last he checked the cops weren’t on to him. However he was still on the run. “I was in a gang.”
"Which means you're pretty damn good, since you were never caught. Except by me. I don't count," Tony decided. He got up and walked over to the coffee machine, grabbing both of their mugs and some packets of cream and sugar for Caleb, should he have the need.
When he returned, he set one mug and all the extras on the coffee table in front of Caleb, then took his own and stole a sip. "Hey, he actually fixed the grounds problem. Maybe I'll rename him. But DUMM-E has such a nice ring to it." Tony shrugged a shoulder at that, and refocused himself on the job interview. "So- You were in a gang. And in this gang, what exactly were you up to? Hacking businesses, police records, the usual?"
Caleb added one packet of cream to his coffee. No sugar. He didn’t need things super sweet. He still couldn’t quite believe where he was right now. “Yeah,” Caleb admitted. “It started with the DMV. Stealing vin numbers.” It was easy enough and Caleb didn’t see the harm. Especially when he needed the money to survive. “But they kept wanting me to do more and more jobs.” And Caleb witnessed them murder someone but he left that part out. “I just had to get out.”
Tony nodded his head. "Pretty easy to start with something that you've got no qualms about and end up neck deep in stuff you're sure you wouldn't have been okay with a month ago." That was the way of the world for a lot of careers. "It's a big mood, I actually get it. Things get about that slippery when you're making weapons for the government. Which is why we actually don't do that anymore."
Operations were still in the midst of closing, but Tony had gone and closed down all of those deals himself. It had taken him a few months, but he couldn't complain. Orange County had been so happy to see him that it'd finally given him dreams. "So you just... took off? Went to a new place? And I'm guessing that's still the only way you knew to make a living."
Who would have thought he would be sitting in Tony Stark’s office and the man would be relating to him. The guy was a genius. And Caleb, well he was just some kid from the streets. At least that was what he was made to believe his entire life.
“The government was making you do stuff you weren’t comfortable with?” Caleb asked more to clarify the statement. Though he could see how that could happen. The government wanting bigger and badder, more lethal weapons.
“Yeah,” Caleb confirmed with a small nod. “That about sums it up.”
"It's pretty easy to believe, right? Especially with our current leadership." Tony replied, nodding his head. "And you know, they're big into drones now. So they want faster drones, stealthier drones, drones with better weapons, drones that do a barrel roll and pour a frappuccino..."
He trailed off and shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not a fan of drones. If you want to extinguish an enemy population, you better be there in person to check first. Before you bomb a wedding, or take out grandpa who's just going fishing, you know? But enough about me - let's talk about you. What would you say if I told you I wanted to hire you?"
Caleb didn’t pay much attention to the war. He probably should, but he had enough going on in his own life to think about politics. Mostly how to survive and not get himself killed. Though he had to agree with Tony. If you were going to blow someone else, you should do it in person. Not via drone.
“No drones,” Caleb replied with a sip of his coffee. “Noted.” Luckily he wasn’t taking a sip during Tony’s next question because he probably would have spit it right back out. “Shit,” Caleb replied not even realizing his language. “You serious?” Why the hell would Tony Stark want to hire him? He was just some kid off the street, at least that was what he was led to believe his entire life.
There were plenty of things Tony wasn't good at, but sensing the interior character or potential of people had always been one of his stronger suites. Caleb might have been told his entire life that he was 'just some street kid', but Tony knew better.
"You very nearly got through all my security, for starters. I like to pay attention to anyone who can go the distance, and you're actually the person that's gotten that far. It's kind of impressive. I mean, I know I'M impressed. So I'm sitting in my workshop one night watching this go down and thinking to myself 'this person, whoever they are, they've got talent'. And then I hunted you down. And now you're sitting in my office and looking a little pale. Hey, it's okay, just breathe."
Caleb’s eyes were wide as Tony Stark rambled about why he chose to call him in. He only took in about half of what Tony said, but he did take a breath like he suggested. Tony Stark was impressed with him. Wow.
“So you want me to do cyber security?” Caleb finally asked processing it all.
"Yup." Tony replied, nodding his head. "So if you want the job, it's yours. We've got good benefits, though I won't lie the hours will probably suck. You've got some underlings if you want them, and we'll make sure any trouble you might have been in won't come to find you. Plus we've got a pretty awesome cafeteria and a place with cronuts and coffee on the corner there, and you get a monthly credit. What do you say?"
Caleb just stared in silence for a moment. This kind of shit didn’t happen to him. Ever. But no way in hell was he about to turn it down. Holy shit, he was going to have people working under him. And cronuts. He couldn’t say no to that “I say, when do I start?”