| Under 'new' management |
| Summary: | Tony and Pepper wake to a different reality. Welcome to 616. |
| Date: | 2016-06-07 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | Happy Hogan |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
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Tony flew back to New York the night before and fell asleep in a Penthouse that had not yet been finished construction. In a world that he had a firm grasp on. To a time that he understood.
When he woke up, it was in an alien bed, on a foreign floor of the Penthouse, and to the sound of an alarm clock with Black Sabbath crooning ''I aaaaammmm IRRRRRROOOOON MAAAAN''… Tony stares at it with one eye squint.. then around at his room as if he's absolutely certain that the extra couple cocktails he had before bed were a bad idea. "JARVIS…" He says in a nervous voice, reaching out for the controller that links him to the A.I. and finds that it's not where he left it.
"Yes sir?" The voice, instead, comes from hidden speakers built directly into the wall.
Tony sits up suddenly and fumbles around at the mattress trying to find the end of it until he tumbles out from under the sheets and onto the floor. From the floor he pops up to his feet and looks at himself in the mirror… Then back at the bed, pointing, "Where am I?"
"Sir, your heart rate is elevated. Should I contact Ms. Potts?"
"What, why the hell would you do that?" Tony blinks and shakes his head, trying to find some clothes. "No… no no no no…" Rushing out into the main room.
"I am calling Ms. Potts. You are acting erratic, sir. More so than usual."
~~
In all fairness, Pepper should be waking up with her stuff around her. Years of part time allowed her to collect little things here and there. It's a different room. Well, it is but it's not, as in, 'It's not her room.'
Pepper is jolted from her sleep at the oddness of it, and sits up with a yelp, her hand instinctively going to that little canister of pepper spray she's got on her end table. That's not there.
That thing that intruded her dreams makes itself known, however, and the smaller, more compact version of the StarkPhone chimes insistently.
A hand reaches it, and there's that brief bit of fumbling before, "Yes?"
The cool voice of JARVIS plays on the opposite side of the handset, "Ms Potts. I apologize for contacting you at such an early hour. It seems that Mr. Stark is need of your presence before he does harm to himself. If you could be so kind. A car has been sent for you."
For a long moment, Pepper stares into space, the middle distance. JARVIS is a well kept secret- Hell, she'd worked there for years, and there was nary a whisper! But..
Pepper finds her voice, stammered though it may be, "O-o-okay, JARVIS." This is so strange! "Just let me get a shower and get dressed?"
Assuming she has clothes here!
"I think you would do better to just arrive, Ms. Potts. You will understand."
Hoookay.
Pepper barely makes it 'under the bell', as it were. Her clothes.. what the hell? Well, they do fit. Ish.
Out to Stark Towers…
~~
It takes Tony about three minutes to come to the realization that something is fundamentally ''wrong''. Things are his, they look like his things, but they're not his things at all… and some of these pictures on the walls? The News Paper clippings, the articles, the accolades?
"What the fu-…" After that, he sits down with his phone.. turning the small device over in his hand for about three seconds before he's pretty much figured out just about every function it has… which includes the holographic screen projection technology he'd only scratched the surface on.
Pouring through database records, his kidnapping in the Middle East, his return. He devours the information like a super computer, sitting on the edge of one of the couches staring at a holographic screen now brought up by JARVIS as if in thin air.
His fingers sweep articles aside one after the other while Tony keeps half standing and dropping back on the couch trying to make it feel right… which it never really does. "I finished the Arc Reactor…" This is a statement, not a question. Brow furrowed, Tony brings up the schematics with a flick of his fingers. Then another, and another… digital information pouring like lava out of nowhere until JARVIS finally says.
"Sir, I have run several diagnostic scans of your brain patterns and vital signs. It indicates that you are processing new information at an alarming rate." Which is not at all something new, however, "This information is several years old, sir… further. I see no scans of Palladium or Vibranium alloys in your thoracic cavity…" His voice almost sounds like the narrowing of eyes, "Who are you?"
Tony isn't even sure he knows how to answer that because he's thinking the same thing. "I'm not this person, that's for damn sure." Motioning around the room, "What is this…" bringing up one of the schematics, "What is the Veritable Defense System?"
"I am afraid that information is no longer available to you, sir. Not until Ms. Potts arrives."
~~
The car. Oh… the car.
The traffic is the same. The building is the same… only different. Pepper doesn't mind so much she doesn't know the driver; Stark Industries has lots of cars in its fleet.
Entering, however, is something of a shock. She's worked here for years, albeit part time. But she's worked here for years, and it seems familiar, but eerily not so much. *click*click*click to the elevator, and it opens automatically for her.
JARVIS knows she's here.
"Ms Potts is in the building sir." However, it's time for a scan…
Reaching the Penthouse level, Pepper steps out and stops dead in her tracks. This.. this wasn't what she'd left only a couple of days ago. There was construction. There was building; a work in progress. This… this?
Opulent.
Finished.
"Mr. Stark?" Pepper's tones are a little tremulous, uncertain. She can't help the staring around the room. She can't.
And if that isn't a give-away to JARVIS that things are strange?
~~
JARVIS had multiple reasons for calling Pepper back to the Tower and this was certainly one of them. He's taken scans of her in the car ride, entering the building, and finally when she stepped out into the penthouse. The data is compiled, processed, and a hypothesis determined. "Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts. I have constructed several potential theories as to these biometric anomolies. First: You are both Synthetic replacements. Which I have ruled out based on biological scans of Mr. Stark's anatomical variations. Second: You are from an alternate timeline that has somehow intersected with this timeline causing a form of overlap. This is more likely, though it begs the question of where your other selves have gone. Third: I have contracted a virus from one of Mr. Stark's many upgrades. I am leaning towards this theory."
He quickly retorts, "That was a joke."
Tony grunts and looks towards the doors as JARVIS gives his theories, motioning around for Pepper's sake, "I told him to leave you out of this, for the record, but apparently I don't cause you to quit in this timeline." As if he had any intentions of doing so. "And we're ''close''…" Finger quoting that word. "Aslo, apparently, JARVIS has a sense of humor… not a good one, but you should have heard the ''zingers'' he was throwing at me about my ''flabby belly''."
"I hold to it, sir. You could do with more situps."
"JARVIS, I'm having a hard time right now… I may or may not be having a stroke… if you don't stop fucking with me, I'm taking you offline."
"As you wish, sir, but I am only thinking of your health." The A.W. is completely nonplussed by such bold threats. He -is- Stark Tower. And the only one in the room who can tell them anything about who they suddenly are. He's holding all the cards. THREATEN AWAY LITTLE MAN.
~~
Pepper still can't help looking up to the ceiling when JARVIS speaks, but now? He's all around. All encompassing, and it's a little disconcerting.
Okay, a LOT disconcerting.
She finally crosses the threshold fully, the door closing behind her like some B-grade science fiction slash horror flick, and it takes all her will not to look behind her. (Even when the audience screams at her to do so!) "A joke?" She's finding it a little difficult to take it all in, much less have an Artificial Awareness make a joke! "If you contracted a virus, I'd say we're all in trouble." Pepper's beginning to get that feeling that JARVIS is pretty damned.. entrenched? Hal, anyone?
Pepper walks slowly towards the overstuffed chair in the center of the room, but she doesn't sit down. She remains at the back; something to lean on. Brows rise at the quick update as to her existence, her head quirking, "Oh, were we?" Beat. "JARVIS?" Just to be sure. Not that she doesn't trust her boss, but she is carrying that pepper spray!
Finally, Pepper breaks a laugh, albeit a nervous one. "He's a personal trainer too?"
~~
There's nothing quite like waking up to the sound of someone yelling in Russian "Come on out, ghost bitch!"
Or realizing that you're slumped forward behind a shot-up car with a hot weapon in your hands. And the smell of the ocean and gasoline in the air.
Domino's head snaps upright so quickly that it pulls a muscle, earning a sharp intake of breath right as the back of her head smacks the side of the car. "Dammit—!"
Two days ago she was being put into chryostasis in an underground bunker in the Everglades. Yesterday she was waking up inside a decontamination chamber who knows how many miles away from her 'home.' Now…
"Jesus, is this New York?" she utters to herself, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Last warning, suka!"
It's enough to bring her back to reality. ..Sort of. This -is- reality, isn't it? Another quick look to the heavy urban skyline does point out one detail which jogs her memory, at least. A massive skyscraper with 'STARK' oh-so-blatantly pasted onto the side.
Screw it.
One tactical retreat, coming up. More automatic fire, now from both parties involved, as she sprints into a shot-up warehouse and finds (a little too conveniently) a blacked out sedan with its engine running. The back end gets riddled with bullets as she floors it back out into the streets, making a bee-line for the tower.
She makes it to the tower, alright. The abused car comes in just a little too fast, causing a tire to burst which sends the car sliding out of control and straight into the lobby of Stark Tower. If this doesn't alert security the woman now stepping out of it in full combat gear with an automatic carbine in her hands ought to do the trick. "..Ow. Uh..anyone seen an angry white dude with fancy facial hair..?"
~~
"That's wasn't in his original programming." Tony is still going through files, moving them at breakneck speeds across the holographic monitor, reading through them almost as quickly as they appear. The information is filed away in his brain, calculating, contriving… processing. "Alright, whatever happened I think I have it narrowed down to a couple of potential causes…" He glances back at Pepper, sips his coffee noisely in response to her clutching her pepper spray, then continues… probably talking to JARVIS, "If the anomoly originated in our timeline, the survey team had just breached the seventy fifth floor of the Everglade research facility." Which he has no schematics for, at least none that he can find.
"Scans indicated a living computer that had been left dormant and inactive for five years. I ordered them to keep hands off, but…" He teeter totters his hand. This is information he'd, obviously, neglected to inform Pepper about. "If the computer somehow went live without our intervention and took control of the networks, it would have full access to Stark Industries bank of research." There's several things he's already surmised about this timeline as well, "I haven't integrated you into our security systems yet."
JARVIS is listening, running these ideas against his own information, "Without anything to keep the computer from taking control of project Genesis…" That wouldn't be nearly enough, however. Not to completely tear a hole in time-space. "JARVIS, how close was I to finishing Genesis in this timeline?"
"I have no records of that project in my database, sir. Also, a sedan has just crashed into the front lobby of the Tower. I have alert Security, sir. Would you like me to engage one of the suits?"
Tony perks a little, "Come again? Wha- bring it up?" JARVIS was already doing so, a holographic image of the sedan spinning out of control through the glass front of the Tower and security teams moving in to get people safely away. "What suits?" Another window brings up the entire wall of the bunker and about a dozen (if not more) various forms of the Iron Man armor… "Oh… those…"
"HEY! You in the vehicle! OH CRAP, I know her!" Happy says, waving at the other security who do not lower the weapons, he makes his way over with his weapon out and wraps lightly at the driver's window… making the international sign for 'roll it down', then leans casually against it, tapping lightly at his badge. "Gonna need you to stop bey the security office, Neena…" Tap. tap. tap.
~~
"No, probably not," is mused, though Pepper can't help the smirk. "Can't imagine why, though."
Pepper straightens from her lead, green eyes moving from Tony to the various wall monitors and flickering to the holographic 'stations' around the room. Her voice is pitched low, and she breathes a soft, "Wow.." before she clears her throat, a touch embarrassed in case someone caught her awestruck expression.
Brows rise again as Tony begins explaining; nope, she hadn't heard about that.. and nope. Not that either! It's easy, then for that expression to shift to something of a scowl, but it's fleeting. Instead, a breath is actually audibly hissed when first the picture of the car careening out of control slams into the lobby. She didn't feel a tremor in the building! "Is she ok-" but in the next breath?
The suits. "Oh my god, Tony." She did it again, and didn't even notice. Her voice is low, and there again, words not much above a whisper. "What are they?"
~~
With a soft hum the dark tinted window slowly rolls on down, permitting one monochromed head to cautiously lean out. Security already on scene are taken into account first. Then Domino passes a sheepish smile up to Happy. "Hi."
..Waaait a second, here…
"Your name is actually -Happy?-" she suddenly exclaims, unable to keep herself from breaking into uncontrollable chuckling. Maybe it's just a little system shock. Or hysteria. But she's soon thunking her head back against the seat and holding an open palm across the side of her face as she starts laughing like a fiend.
"Who has the name 'Happy,' for real! Oh my god!"
More than a dozen feet behind the car there's another *CRASH THUN-Clanggg!* as bits of the lobby fall onto the floor.
Dom holds her hands up in mock-surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll be Grumpy, let's go see h—Happy to Security!-" she stammers while bursting into another laughing fit, barely able to find and open the door to step out of the damaged car.
~~
"You know what's not cool at all? Dissin' a dude who can totally have your kiester thrown in the pokey." Happy says with a little frown, "I don't think I like your tone, ''Domino''…" Yeah, two can play at that game, "Gettin' here in thirty minutes or less takes on a whole new meaning when you're not minding the big glass front doors of the building, huh?" Yes, he just compared her to a pizza joint.
"You're lucky I'm in a forgiving mood…" On account of waking up in a building that's not quuuuuite familiar. "But the next joke and you're never gettin' one of these." He holds out his badge as if it is a merit of valor. "Come on, we should go upstairs." The other guards, they are not so happy… hey… as Happy. They do not seem to think this is at all a good plan.
Tony, however, is staring at the walls of armor. "I… don't know…" He says to Pepper's question, pulling up files on them almost as fast as the NASA computer calculating launch codes. "Holy crap, these are incredible…" He knows he built them, even if he doesn't know he built them. They have him written all over them. Style, violence, superior technological craftmanship? Oh yeah…
"JARVIS, once we've had a chance to digest all of this, I'm going to be starting a new project…" Portable Arc Reactor. For now, there's business down in the lobby. "Oh, right yeah, stand the security team down and let her up… Do biometric scans, also. I want a full anatomical and biological data compiled on her." Six months worth of medical information collected in the time it takes her to get to the penthouse?
Tony is grinning like the devil.
He just became soooo much more dangerous.
~~
Pepper watches; she's good at that. Taking everything in. While she's not as technical as Tony, and who really is, she's got something else on her side that could be summed up in a generic, sexist, chauvenistic way. Woman's intuition. Subtlety. A quietness about her that makes her shake her head slowly in response. Tony is a fish out of water, though he's flipping his fins really hard to get back to the bowl, and he's in the same position she is. Relatively speaking. Minus a few billion dollars. And what looks to be an even bigger Corporation than before.
"JARVIS?" She can't help herself. She's looking up. "JARVIS? Um.. lock some of that up please?" She gestures towards the suits. "We need a little time adjusting to things." How's that for explanation? And if it's true, that she and Tony were "close", then perhaps it may hold true that JARVIS will actually at least listen to her requests?
Did she just commit treason?
"If you can. I mean.. there's so much." And Pepper is frankly worried. Concerned.
~~
Domino sniffs once and slowly wipes at her eyes, now giving Happy a somewhat more confused look when he starts making fun of her. "What are you going on about?" Project Armageddon didn't tend to do pizza deliveries. She's had a very sheltered life.
A moment later and she really starts to look confused. "You're just going to -give- me a security badge…" Pause. "Huh. Listen, I don't know what the deal is but I'm having a really messed up day here. I think I might have been shot a time or two. I mean..whatever I'm wearing is pretty awesome stuff but it hurts like a mutherf—"
She stops herself both in speech and step, suddenly giving Happy a much more serious stare. "We still know each other. Do you..have any idea how I wound up in a run-down harbor full of angry Russians?" she asks while thumbing back over her shoulder.
Falling back into step again, she adds "And do I have to validate my parking?"
~~
Happy is judging Neena pretty hard with not but a stare. Through most of their short time together following her crash into his place of employment, he engaged in such judgemental staring in relative, if obvious and obtuse, silence. Though, once she's invited him to speak, he does so in earnest, "If I had to guess, I'd say it's because you have world class manners and are just the most polite person I've ever met." A little 'that just happened' smirk as they board the elevator, "That or we're still worried about the spread of Communism. Which…" Happy shrugs a little. "Not really ruled that out yet." Thank god he's not the ''smart one''.
That guy is upstairs staring at the Iron Man armors with such lust that it could be easily and understandably observed that he ''needs to get a room''. Then Pepper goes and tells JARVIS to lock them down, "JARVIS, don't listen to her… she knows not what she speaks.. besides, I don't see her name on the letter head." No way would Tony let a new hire take any amount of control of his precious company.
"Correction, sir, she owns 14% of your company. Further, you yourself instructed me that any decision made by Ms. Potts was to be regarded as coming from you. While this looped logic presents a connundrum in that ''Mommy and Daddy are fighting'', this leaves the deciding vote in my hands." The ever polite, if slightly detached A.W. states flatly. "You should not have threatened to take me off line."
The bank of holographic monitors showing the rows of Iron Armors goes dark. "…are you legit holding my things hostage?"
"I prefer to call it, hostile negotiations, sir. But it really is for your own benefit. Finish your dinner and I will allow you to play with your toys. I have the information you require on the young lady driving the sedan. Shall I feed them to a monitor for you?"
Tony grinds his teeth and flops back against the couch like a paddled child, staring daggers at Pepper. "YES… FINE…"
~~
Pepper is finding her way, weighing everything that is before her. Judging, no. Weighing, absolutely. Evaluating.
And making decisions.
The small kitchen area looks like a pretty good 'haven', and having the counter between her and her employer (who is not going to be happy!) is a good thing. (Not that she's worried about physical, but psychologically, it's nice.) And coffee. Coffee is good!
JARVIS' reasoning, however? That is a shock, and Pepper stops reaching for that coffee pot to make a new batch, and she looks back. "What?" Beat. "'Mommy and Daddy fighting'?" Then, there's that even bigger shock, "JARVIS, did you say 14%?" Of a publicly traded company. 10% is a lot. She takes a deep breath and leans against the counter, hoping it'll keep her upright.
The stare from Tony, however, doesn't help. More realizations compound, and she turns around, her hands shaking as she works the pot.
~~
Without skipping a beat Neena says "You wound me, comrade" in rather fluent Russian. Then regarding Happy with a sidelong glance and switching back to English, she thinks aloud "Either we're going to hate each other with a passion or we're going to become another pair of unlikely drinking pals. Given that I've only been awake for fifteen minutes and already had eight guys shooting at me, today I'm kinda favoring door number two. So let's go and get this shit figured out before I turn all Red sleeper agent and kill you all in your sleep," she suggests while dropping a hand on the back of Happy's shoulder.
The other hand, idly keeping a slung carbine from smacking against her side with every step, gives the weapon a light pat. "Still, could be worse. Here I thought I'd have to raid your armory for some proper toys. Turns out there is a God. Who knew," she thinks with a light shrug.
The elevator, at a loss of words, simply says *Ding!*
On the monitors up by Tony things are..a little different from digging up a frozen soldier down in Florida. In this reality there is a person matching her description almost exactly, with a very long list of things attached to it. Despite helping the 'good guys' here and there for any random reason, it turns out that she's really not a very nice person. 'Mercenary' shows up enough times to turn it into a valid drinking game.
~~
"Yes, Ms. Potts. It was Tony's wedding gift to you." JARVIS informs her rather patiently, "After I informed him that it was impractical to carve your name on the moon with a high powered laser."
Tony snorts derisively, "I bet she married a jackass." Because he's still very cross about her locking him out of his own armory, poor form Pepper, poor form.
"I would agree, sir, but it is against my programming to insult you directly. Only subtly." JARVIS considers this, or the silence indicates that he's considering, "I believe this amuses me."
Tony goes white faced and looks like he's going to faint… then he just slumps into the couch and slaps his hands down on the cushions. He's going to be processing that for a while.
Happy, however, is taking in Neena's Russian with a skeptical stare. "We broke down the Berlin wall, don't you go hobbling at me in your Commie speak…" But there's a truce on the table and he opts to take it, "Fine, but I get to pick the alcohol… I hate vodka." He's a nationalist.
Tony is far too put out with the idea this most recent bombshell to properly enjoy having useful information on Domino.
~~
Well, with 14% of the company, Pepper can afford to drop the coffee carafe on the floor. It shatters, naturally, and she spins around, "What?" Never mind the notion of carving her name in the moon is/was amazingly romantic, but! She looks at Tony, and catches his reaction to it all before she finds herself some busywork. The carafe needs to be picked up, all the while she's really trying not to faint.
*ding*
The announcement of Happy and Domino's arrival brings Pepper's attention around, and straightening again, she hisses a breath, "Ouch" before she sucks at the pad of her thumb. "Dom-" Look at those guns… "-ino.." Beat. "Hi."
~~
"No arguments here," Domino replies with a lopsided smirk. "So what's the sitch with Stark, is he the same guy that pulled me out of my nightmare or did I just crash the party of a billionaire that doesn't recognize me? Kiiinda going into this op blind, here."
The question is barely asked when there's a *BRRRT* of a phone on vibrate mode making its presence known, and rattling against the metal receiver of her weapon to greatly amplify the effect. It's so unexpected that the albino jumps slightly, a hand quickly darting out to find and retrieve the device.
"Jersey Fuckwit, who—?" she quietly asks while glancing at the caller ID. The call is answered with a hesitant "Uh, yeah?"
Happy can make out the conversation just fine from where he's walking. "-What the hell are you doing with our deal, woman?! You were supposed to move the cargo not start World War Thr—!-"
She quickly ends the call and tucks the phone away, eyes just a little wider than before. "Wrong number."
Oh, and there's Pepper, looking awfully surprised. And Tony, looking like he's seriously hung over. Dom looks over to the broken remainds of the carafe on the floor then eyes the two. "Bad time?"
~~
"I bet Happy was my best man…" Tony says from the couch, staring at the ceiling as if there's some solution to this great calamity among the finely crafted rafters above his head, "I probably looked pretty sharp in my custom made tux… and Pepper. ''Obviously'' she wore white.." Motioning with a hand, "Something gorgious that hugged her shoulders.. strapless?" He's babbling. He really needs booze right about now. There aren't enough booze for him to completely comprehend what's transpired over night.
When the door opens and into this little scene walks Domino and Happy, Tony rolls his head in their direction and doesn't give Happy any chance at all to answer Neena's question, though he would have no answer for her. "Well, I have good news and I have bad news…" He pushes off the couch with his elbows and heads purposefully to the bar, "The good news is, I have a fully stocked bar…" Pointing at it, reaching up with one hand to snatch down a glass and pour in some scotch (which is not for drinking as quickly as he's drinking it) without ice.
"The bad news is, we're in some crazy Twilight Zone universe where everything we know is wrong… But I have really cool toys downstairs." He drinks his third drink in the time it's taken him to say that. Shooting them back almost as quickly as he can pour them.
"Badder news." He motions towards Pepper over in the kitchen, "My ''wife'' locked me out… Hah.."
Happy nods slowly, chin jutting out a little, "I don't suppose I've got a hot wife waiting for me at home?"
JARVIS, helpful as always, "Mr. Hogan, if your intention is to be funny, I should inform you that Mr. Stark is having a difficult time adjusting." Happy frowns a little, "Oh… you are also affected…" A nother brief pause, "I believe we can all appreciate how unfortunately humorous this is, excluding me, however. I remain the only sane one in the room."
Tony points up at the ceiling with a 'did you hear that shit' smile that's entirely in objection to the almost complete lack of any mirth he's feeling. "I programmed him to be funny… I regret that."
~~
Wait.. wait. She's -married-. Married. Married? Married to him? Pepper's gone from shocked to.. wide-eyed and she tries to speak. Her jaw moves, but no sound comes out. Again, she tries, but nothing but a soft sound of forced air. A third time, however, she gets something out. "I think maybe it's a good idea right now that we don't actually think about those 'cool toys'?" Or sulk about them.
Happy's question posed most likely for JARVIS is met with a stare from Pepper. She's trying, she is.. and as her attention flickers back to Tony, she's counting those drinks.
"He's the only sane one right now. Our link to whatever happened." Pepper comes out from behind the counter, throwing the broken bits of carafe into the garbage before checking that thumb again. "JARVIS, if I tell you what the news reports of the day were, and what Stark Industries was looking at," and she glances at Tony, "I have been studying the numbers, the financials for that Board Meeting, remember?" Beat, "Could you even begin to work out where we were in terms of where we are?"
Pepper shoots a look at Domino, and with a hint of a nod, she adds, "Bad time."
~~
'Fully stocked bar.' "Today just keeps looking up," Neena deadpans while automatically drifting toward the bar, as well. As far as she's concerned guns and booze mix just fine! Just..not in the same glass. Given the opportunity she'll help herself to the bar's offerings, too.
Just as quickly she's looking downright offended. "Aw, -dammit!- You get a massively huge tower full of toys with your name on the side and all I got are some fresh bruises and a stupid M4? I call Mulligan."
Hearing that Pepper locked the guy out of his own resources, the albino makes a *tik* sound in the corner of her mouth and looks back to the redhead. "Well played." Blink. "Wife, huh. Sorry, musta slept through the wedding. My, how the time flies."
Happy's hopeful comment suddenly has Neena looking perhaps a little more pale, muttering "Oh shit I hope I don't have a husband" from over the edge of her glass. She's..just gonna drink a lot faster than she should be, as well. Tony's setting a great pace for the start of their day.
Then, back to Tony lamenting JARVIS' sense of humor, she smirks and offers "At least you got that part right."
Once more to Pepper, Dom simply grabs the bottle of booze and offers it over. It's how everyone else deals with bad times, after all. "Hang on. 'Twilight Zone' level. Should we be looking at this more like 'Terminator,', or 'Doctor Who?'"
~~
"The Misses has spoken." Tony isn't ready to let this go back to normal. While he is taking no delight from this, well… seriously, he could do worse than Pepper. She's smart, she's funny, she's kind of cute… Tony is staring at her from the bar, sipping at his drink, thinking these things…
Then he looks at his glass and sets it down suddenly. Booze talking. Bad Tony.
"Please god tell me we don't have kids?" Tony Stark, asking the tough questions.
"No children, I threatened child protective services." JARVIS states, "Mostly because of Tony, Ms. Potts."
"Yah yah yah yah, you're talking about ''your'' Tony, not me Tony." What this requires is him to start formulating a plan, to stop being taken aback by all this and get his shit together. "I'm going to fix this." He says, draining what remains in his glass and then he's off! Headed towards the stairway that leads to the bunker, "JARVIS, it's time for brass tacks buddy.. No way am I missing my own damn bachlar party."
Happy is still hurt. Shaking his head slowly, "I'll go get Neena a badge…" Head hanging, shuffle walking towards the elevator.
~~
Tony's comments doesn't help her at all, but should she really expect as much? She'd only started working for him a couple of days ago, and while he'd rigged it such that she would eventually work for him, being told they were -married- is rather jarring. Upsetting. Pepper looks at Tony, all those thoughts going through her head that she's sure he's thinking: women, booze, spotlight. What sort of relationship is this going to be? Convenience? Is she going to be talked into an annulment? Tell the press it was just one horrible mistake?
Actors do it all the time.
And then, the question about kids. Looking up at JARVIS' pronouncement, Pepper nods quickly before she turns around to face the kitchen again to actually make some coffee, his word ringing in her head, 'No way am I missing my own damn bachelor party'.
There's a Board Meeting soon, isn't there?
"You do that, Happy."
~~
When the offered bottle isn't accepted the albino shrugs once more and pours herself another drink.
"Can't believe I'm sayin' this, but..if you think you can 'fix' all of this then I guess..I'll lend a hand," Domino says with a light sigh. As if it was something really difficult for her to say. She isn't about to -follow- him, though. The man abandoned his liquor cabinet! There's stuff in here that's older than Kennedy! "I'll be here if you need me," she calls back with a raised glass.
Then her phone starts buzzing again.
"Oh come -on.-"
<End>