maskormenacelogs | Feelin good cause the City's alive

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Feelin good cause the City's alive

WHO: Tony Stark and YOU
WHERE: Mostly around De Chima (negotiable!)
WHEN: Throughout the month of August
WHAT: King Dick reigns supreme
WARNINGS: Will update as appropriate

❰ A - STARKTECH ❱

Starktech was the place where things happened, and right now? Things were happening. The main offices, where most of the business was conducted, were as posh and sterile as ever, personal assistants and secretaries clicked in heels with tablets and escorted guests and business partners around the facility, disappearing into doors with frosted glass that opened and closed automatically. There was a fountain, which often seemed to sell the wealth. This one, of course, had a fantastic light display that projected the company logo from somewhere into the waterfall. Because Tony Stark was nothing if not ostentatious.

And there were panels everywhere in the white lobby, that logo -- 4 -- stylized and sharp, internal advertising what was going to be the "biggest hit of the century", if you would believe the man behind it all. Personally programmed and designed by Tony Stark himself, although the rollout was a surprise.

But hey, at least there's a slew of reporters, tech people, and contractors constantly coming into the building -- and hey, with business like this? Getting a job should be a breeze.

❰ B - IMPORT CITIES ❱

The man himself -- Tony Stark, for those who were unacquainted -- wasn't always at the office, for how busy it was. Much of the time, he was out, either on the streets, drinking coffee, holding a lunch or dinner meeting, posh suit and tie, or if it was late, well... A man had to get out and have some fun, didn't he? The club scene wasn't his thing, but... there was a certain aspect that was the draw.

But most of the time? Day or night? He was flying. Either to somewhere, from somewhere, or just for the sheer enjoyment. And well, it was nice when you were as fast as he was, rocketing over the sky in a suit of shining silver -- he still hadn't decided on a color -- the lights a dead giveaway for the tech suit. Sometimes he slowed down, when it as appropriate -- either a criminal, or just to sign a few autographs, take a few selfies... make a pass at the blonde on the corner. Normal things that superheroes did.

Why have a suit like this if you weren't going to use it?

[ Starters will be dropped below, but feel free to tag into this with whatever! I'm pretty flexible! If you'd like a starter, or maybe something specific, feel free to PM this journal, or contact me on plurk at

hundreds! ]

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After the disaster a few months ago -- a recent change that had complicated things -- the fact that Karen was willing to give him another chance said a lot. Hell, maybe the fact that she'd been this willing to work together was more promising than he initially thought. Better than he could have hoped for, really. And if it was better than he could have possibly hoped for, well...he had to impress, didn't he?

Saturday morning ended up being brunch in the workshop. Maybe not the most sanitary, but he'd ate down here often enough without getting sick even before the extremis, let alone now. So he'd catered something nice, all the usuals, coffee, orange juice, food. Add a few tables filled with parts, keyboards, screens -- his personal workshop was devoid of almost everything from his own personal projects --

Save, of course, for the Iron Man suits at the walls, empty eyes staring out. Most dented or scratched, but whole -- and most were the classic red and gold, save for the one in the middle, smaller, leaner -- unpainted, but instead polished. It was something, at least.

When Karen showed up, one of the staff escorted her down, where Stark was already typing away at a console, coffee in one hand, a monitor showing detailed shots of solar panels.

"Hard at work, I see."

Karen's never actually seen Tony working in this sort of setting before, so her perception of him has always been a little skewed in that respect. She eyes the Iron Man suits lining the walls curiously, thinking to herself it's still a privilege he has to be able to tell the world he's both Tony Stark and the superhero Iron Man. She doesn't have that herself back home, and maybe things could be different here, but she won't be taking a chance on that any time soon.

"How long have you been at it?" she adds, pulling back her hair so she can tie it in a small ponytail, away from her face.

"'bout an hour or so," he said, turning to stand, drinking from a water bottle, when he peeled away from the little piece of technology on his table.

He loved working. He loved tech, and it was obvious, the way he hadn't been able to stay idle, or rest, but instead immediately moved for working. The screens flashed and died, changing gears from streams of equations and numbers -- simulations that only he could read, buried deep in the math -- to look at Karen.

"Want to eat first, or last? Everything should stay pretty warm all day."

Karen herself didn't mind staying occupied, mentally or physically — they both often required one or the other anyway, but there was only so much she could or wanted to do before she required a couch to sink into and a re-watch of The Wire or something horror-related. She enjoyed and appreciated work, however, she also enjoyed personal space a great deal.

"I'm not going to say no to the food," she smirked and made her way over to the food, pouring herself a glass of orange juice first. "Does anyone else ever come down here or is it just you?"

"Mostly just me," he shrugged, and kept his hands busy, still working his way through whatever small, minuscule little thing he had, to keep himself going.

He couldn't help it, of course, staying active, thinking, moving. Work wasn't so much a way to pay the bills as it was a way of life. Then again... he didn't have much else, now did he? He grinned at her. "Sometimes people stop buy, when they've given up trying to call me -- or if it's late, Charles stops in," he rolled his shoulders. "But generally?"

He grinned. "You're the first one I've invited in to work."

"Should I be honored?" Karen asked, both amused and slightly taken aback at Tony's admission. She would have thought someone else, a colleague or one of the other imPorts in similar fields might have been down here at some point.

But strangely enough, she and Tony are getting along better these days. It certainly helped that the Registration debate isn't being pushed by many people anymore, though if she were asked she would still declare herself Unsettled after all this time.

"One of my own employees and friend's been working on something at Starrware for a while now and even I haven't seen what he's up to. For all I know he could be building a robot that could go rogue."

"Hah," he paused, and lifted his head. "Would recommend keeping an eye out for that. Rogue robots get nasty," he set down the device, and dusted his hands off, the expression on his face falling, just slightly.

"One time, Ultron turned me into a woman," he said, mildly. As if it were nothing.

Seriously, his life was odd, sometimes. "But I don't know if honored is the word," he paused, and shook his head. "But I'd say you're special," it was cheeky, his grin, then, but he reached out to grab a bagel to plop in his mouth, while he tooled around with the mechanics. It was obvious, in his workspace, the difference between the polished, pristine man, and the eccentric in his own lab.

"Uhh..." Karen isn't sure if it's the blase attitude or the act itself that throws her off for a moment. She stares at Tony over her glass of juice, then takes an awkward sip. Well, that's quite the story to share.

Thinking about it, however, it does as a decent cautionary tale. Who knows what Ted (and Qubit for that matter) get up to when she isn't paying close enough attention? Ted especially has a penchant for trouble.

"Special, eh?" she takes another sip of the drink. "Flattery's not going to get you everywhere. Not with me."

"It's not flattery if it's true, right?" he asked, his grin apparent, even when he took another drink.

"Let's be honest, I know what the stakes are, but..." he rolled a shoulder. "Let's just say, you inspire me," this was delivered by a self-depreciating smile. He knew, of course, that Karen wasn't interested, but Tony Stark could hardly help the things that came out of his mouth half the time, if just because it was natural.

"You can have a seat, if you'd like to tell me what you're thinking, so we can get this started -- unless you don't eat and work at the same time. It's unsanitary, but... I tend to do both."

It certainly doesn't hurt to hear such things, but Karen's no schoolgirl so all Tony gets is a polite but knowing smile. Nothing more and nothing less. She does admire Tony's genius and work, but she's more inspired by the people at Starrware than general competition.

"I'll be quick," she said as she took a seat, grabbing a small piece of food to munch on quickly. She doesn't want to leave crumbs around the place or anything. "I feel kind of bad you've been at it already and I'm just getting started. Here, let me take a look at the notes?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm a workaholic, remember?" he said, and handed her a tablet with shifting data on it, all the notes he'd taken down for the ideas.

It was simple, really, quick notes that shifted even now as he processed data. An alteration to a calculation, a change in a blue print, a realtime look at the process he was working on, the way he thought through a problem bit by bit, working the pieces together, fitting the entire thing into a cohesive unit piece by piece.

"Tell me what you think, or add what you like. It's a work in progress, obviously."

She took the tablet carefully, setting it atop a surface while she ate as fast as she could without making a mess. In the meantime, with her other hand, she swiped the surface to peer at the notes, humming thoughtfully. No one couldn't say Tony Stark didn't do his homework, it seemed...

"It looks like there's only so much tinkering you can do to avoid reducing the power quality," she said, absorbing the information on the tablet. "Although with this much power output, are we sure we're not going to blow something in the process?"

"Not without experimenting," he said, simply. "I work on multiple redundancies here -- you wouldn't believe how many times a week people try to blow the power," he looked up from his tinkered metal, and grinned at her. "Or really, how many people accidentally blow it from one experiment or another."

Hell, even he'd blown his own power once, but...

Extenuating circumstances. Working against oneself in a digital space would do that.

"What do you think, we could give it a go on a low projection, and work up from there."

She nodded and put the tablet down once she had finished eating, her glass emptied and put away so she could move toward Tony. Reaching for her sleeve, she rolled each one up before she was as about a foot away from where Tony sat.

"Hm..." she frowned, the concern on her face evident. "Starting low sounds better — safer. I know you mad scientist types like to blow up things, but I don't want anything exploding in mine."

"Well, I guess I could resist..." he said, and turned to give her a grin. "This time, at least. Since we don't want to blow and circuits, and I certainly don't need another power outage."

He clicked a piece into place, and handed it over to her. "Part of the inverter," he said, and pointed at some of the pieces. "We're going to connect that to the rest of the system, but we're going to need a control conduit, to make sure we can start it out low."

She stepped away, eyes scanning the lab for wherever he kept spare parts, tools and the like around.

"Let me guess, you've got one just lying around." Judging by the lab alone and the fact it was Tony Stark, she would hazard a yes. She can't help a small smirk at that either, taking the piece of the inverter in her hand to examine it. "I admit half of this stuff goes past my head sometimes; I wasn't exactly a hands-on person back home."

She was too busy to involve herself in projects — too busy saving the world and all.

"Well..." he said, the sound of his voice obvious that yes, yes he did have that available. Of course he had it, was partially the tone, but in a teasing tone.

After all... he had everything, didn't he?

He reached out to pick up a box, and hold it up for her to see. "I had a feeling you'd want to limit things, and built one ahead of time. I can tell the future like that."

"When do you sleep?" She couldn't believe he had already gotten one prepared, looking into the box.

"Alright, so where do you want this?"

Did it come with an instruction manual? She hated to think it, but she would have to rely on Tony for directions on this.

"Only when I'm really bored," he said, a gentle smile, then. That was, perhaps, more true than he would really want to admit. Even in his most heavily-drink laden stupors, he was always, always moving and thinking. That just simply didn't change.

"So what we're going to do, is hook the inverter to the control module, and then the module to the power source. Once we have that together, we'll be able to limit the flow of how much is coming in through the inverter," he paused, and held it up.

"Now most of the time, this is a separate device that's hooked only to the inverter, but I wired it to constantly generate and work as a ground, too, sot he power can flow through it, without burning it out."

"And I thought I was the one who didn't ever stop working." She laughed lightly and cradled the piece of the inverter, careful not to drop lest she broke it and headed to do just as he instructed.

It's only a moment before she actually did anything she turned to look at Tony, extending a hand and motioning with her fingers.

"Oh, almost forgot: safety first. Got goggles?"

Not that she needed them, but Tony doesn't know that...

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Feelin good cause the City's alive

For KAREN STARR

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