daretodo: ([smm] Not gonna stand here and wait.)
[personal profile] daretodo
The date hasn't escaped my notice. Even if I wasn't a New Yorker, born and raised, even if I hadn't picked my way through the rubble of the World Trade Center, today would have some meaning for me, though it's hardly comparable. Nearly getting killed by a friend on a bender isn't exactly on the same scale as flying airplanes into buildings, after all, and just putting them in the same sentence feels cheap. They share an anniversary; that's more or less where the similarities end.

Consequently, what also shares an anniversary, give or take a couple of days, is Tony's sobriety. In AA, they give out these medallions for certain milestones; they're about the size of a poker chip, nothing too conspicuous. I've made one for the occasion from a piece of scrap metal that I shaped, engraved, and painted -- red and blue, with gold detailing -- over a few weeks between working on other projects. It's on the table in front of me, in plain view so I don't forget it whenever Tony decides to grace me with his presence.

It's rare that I actually ask him for help with something, preferring to keep most of my private stuff, well, private, but one of those other projects I've been working on needs a second pair of hands.

See, I've been working on this one thing, on and off, for the better part of a year: a spider-sense that's technologically based, allowing me a facsimile of the power I relied on more than I would've ever realized if I'd never lost it to start.

It's been little more than a series of glorified motion sensors until recently, each one carefully threaded throughout the material of the quote-unquote 'Vespa' suit that I designed with supplies given to me by whatever forces are in charge of the mysterious presents passed out every January. A part of me thinks it's a bribe to keep us all appeased just a little bit longer, but I've long since passed the point where I'm appeased by much of anything this place has to offer. This is a petri dish of a prison -- an experiment. And even if I don't spend my every waking moment clawing at a way out of here, trying to find a way home, I never forget that one single fact. Not since MJ disappeared.

But still, bribe or not -- experiment or not -- the raw materials I received have proven useful. Sure, things would've gone a heck of a lot faster if I'd had better facilities to work with, or had been less distracted with my mess of a personal life, or had listened to my own speech about impossible problems needing time to solve, but as it stands, I've finally got something workable on my hands. Something a bit better than a bunch of glorified heat and motion sensors.

In an effort at recreating the sensation of my old ability, the current network relies on localized pulses that increase in strength depending on the threat -- basically, the bigger the pulse, the more whatever's about to run into me is gonna hurt if I don't get out of the way, fast. To make the whole process a little less subjective, though -- and to make swinging through the trees a heckuva lot easier -- I've got it connected to a HUD in the left eye piece that analyzes the surrounding environment, increasing my spatial awareness up to 100 feet in all directions so that I don't run into anything. I've even managed to repurpose most of my old spider-tracers to work on the new frequency, and though I doubt I'll have much need to track people on an island this size, you never know when technological breadcrumbs'll come in handy.

Provided it all actually works, I'd say I'm kind of a genius. I mean, it's impressive, really, even if it's not perfect. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade the HUD to something more sophisticated, something with more processing ability to analyze a greater variety of threats -- ones that don't just involve what's out there to hit me -- but I'm working with scraps salvaged from a homicidal space station and a limited power source, here, and arc reactors don't grow on trees. Still, it's functioning enough to warrant further testing, which is why I'm in the workshop decked out in full gear, sweating like a pig and waiting for Tony to show up.

Or, well, a boar, I guess. We don't have pigs here, and I like to keep my references apt. It's a thing.

Anyway, sweating like a boar and growing impatient, I've long since pulled off my mask, and am about to ask Jarvis if Tony's even in the mansion, when the guy finally strolls in.

"There you are," I say on a sigh. "I was about to send out a search party."

Date: 2011-09-04 05:31 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Shades make the man (awesome))
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
Tony was not a man to let frustration show, in general. Right now, this was because he didn't really have any. Terrible was up and running and doing the job, which meant he didn't have to watch the scrapyard personally as much as he had. So he could do a little more work around the place, and a little more scouting for improvement projects. And the Aperture tech was starting to give way on being a conundrum.

So. Things were better than, say, last year.

He hopped over the last few steps to the workshop and settled into a stroll, blinking at Peter, who was... geared up.

"If you're having private time in the get-up, I could come back..." he said, indicating the stairs.

Date: 2011-09-04 06:30 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (That's... a little disturbing)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"...are we- cooking?" Tony said, but headed over anyway, pausing by said frying pan, looking between it and Peter. "If you feel like you need more firepower, I'd recommend something a little less... culinary."

Date: 2011-09-04 07:13 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (A little bit frank.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"Bashing them around the head with a frying pan is not the answer," said Tony, who was frankly at a loss for the connection, there, so made one up all on his own. "Tempting, but, not... viable. Are you? Running."

Date: 2011-09-05 12:48 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Said it would work.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"Did you offer yourself up, last time? Seem to remember... someone else staying up there," Tony said, picking up the frying pan and turning it over by the handle a couple of times.

He was kidding. It'd been fun, and he probably had more experience at that whole bit than Peter. At least, at doing it without a mask on.

"Anyway, it's politics. People have short memories."

Date: 2011-09-05 03:04 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Well... good.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
Tony paused, then reached over and picked it up with his left hand, the one not currently weighed down with a random frying pan.

"You shouldn't have," he said, "probably. This is sweet, it's a nice... piece of... metal? It's awkward, I didn't get you any scrap."

Mostly because he was trying to cast his mind back and figure out what the hell was going on. Anniversary of what? Also, anniversary? Well, clearly Pete was kidding a little, as he did.

There was that date, but Peter wouldn't be making a joke about that.

Pretty sure he wouldn't be celebrating the other thing, actually, either. Was that a year past?

Date: 2011-09-05 04:16 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Fleeting moment.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
Tony held the piece of metal -- medallion, he supposed, would be accurate -- a little closer, and it registered. He was familiar with AA. He went to the meetings they had on the island, although he had his doubts as to whether any of that actually helped, because it hadn't seemed to get a whole lot easier.

Then again, it had only been... a year. And while he knew they gave out tokens for that, he'd never been much for sentimentality along those lines. So he claimed, anyway. He'd never seek it out, say that much. But here it was, formalized. One year, not one drop, Tony Stark could function day by day without drink in him.

The thought kind of made him want to have a drink. The chip reminded him to get annoyed at having the thought.

"Hunh," he said, rubbing his thumb over. "A year? That long? I'm -- frankly, let's face it, we all are -- kind of amazed."

Date: 2011-09-05 05:36 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (A little bit frank.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"But you wouldn't have put money on it," Tony concluded, nodding, turning it over another time or two, and then pocketing it. He shrugged, with an equally crooked half-smile. "I wouldn't have. Maybe that's why it's a chip."

Date: 2011-09-05 07:02 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Suit and sunglasses.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"That's very... scarce," Tony said. "Does anyone even use those- why am I holding a frying pan, again?"

He hefted it.

Date: 2011-09-05 07:49 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (That's... a little disturbing)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"...if this is a masochism thing, I don't know if I'm comfortable participating," Tony said, nontheless essaying a practice swing with the frying pan, as if it were a tennis racket. "It'd explain a lot about the costume and the mouthless mask, true, but, not in my workshop. Well, not you in my workshop."

Date: 2011-09-05 08:14 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Whaaaat)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"That's a job for a wig, not a mask," Tony said, "and I'm not going to bean Pepper with- what are we testing? Reflexes? Thickness of your- are we roadtesting the Vespa? Why didn't you just say that. Mask up."

Date: 2011-09-05 09:20 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (You. Me. Let's do this.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"Scrub up, then, come on," Tony said, now taking some more enthusiastic swings, one of which came very close to knocking several pieces of equipment off a nearby desk. "Where do you want it? Surprise?"

Date: 2011-09-06 04:54 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Confidence.)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"Jarvis, cue us up something, you should have something in the library," Tony said, flipping the frying pan in the air and catching it by the handle, walking around Peter as Jarvis murmured a very well, sir and hit the speakers.

"So, you just want me to go ahead and lay you out?"

Date: 2011-09-06 05:23 am (UTC)
notawastedlife: (Sinister purpose / Knockin' at your door)
From: [personal profile] notawastedlife
"Right," Tony said. "Well, just tell me when you're-"

He swung the frying pan at Peter's head, bottom side first.

"-ready."

The swing wasn't hard and abrupt; he wasn't about to damage the guy, it was a frying pan. So a long, rapid arc across distance, to get some speed; it was a reflex and reaction test, after all.

So maybe a little hard, if it did connect. But the tech was probably sound, he figured.

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about

Peter Parker, also known as the vigilante, Spider-Man, is one of Marvel Comics' flagship characters. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Spider-Man first debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15.

April 2020

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