poeticterms | (no subject)

"Thought so."

"You win this round," Tony concedes.

Smug Auggie is smug.

"So that's the sound system. What about that workshop?"

"Downstairs. Uh, stairs or elevator? Elevator's closer."

"Elevator, then. That tends to be easier."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, you got it."

He bounces to his feet and gets out of Auggie's way, but stays close enough to start leading him once he stands up.

Auggie grins when he hears Tony moving, and accepts the implied invitation of a guiding shoulder when he stands.

"Got any projects underway at the moment?"

"Three. No, four."

For a genius, Tony is pretty bad at counting, isn't he.

"Three gadgets and a car," he explains on the way—out of the room, right turn, down the hall, right again. "The car is basically just a car, but some of the other stuff is cool. Encrypted cellphone, improved laser targeting system for a none-of-your-business, and I'm trying to figure out if I can build a Faraday cage for magic."

Cellphone: very interesting. Laser targeting system: also very interesting.

". . . A what for what?"

"Faraday cage, as in—" (the elevator dings) "—thanks Jarvis, don't worry about stepping into the elevator it's dead level, a Faraday cage is basically a barrier that certain kinds of energy can't pass through. If you're sitting in a steel box and it gets hit by lightning, the lightning goes around the box and doesn't touch you. Also my world has magic, did I not mention that?"

"I'm pretty sure you skipped that part, yeah." Auggie frowns. "Do you . . . do magic?"

That would explain Jarvis.

"No," says Jarvis, dryly.

"Only the 'sufficiently advanced technology' kind."

"So how're you proposing to make a non-magical lightning rod for magic?"

"Sufficiently advanced technology, duh."

You kind of walked right into that one, Auggie.

He snorts.

"Right, sorry, of course."

"Thank God I've got Sherry and Jarvis to research materials for me, though. Spending a couple days bingeing on fairy tales is not my idea of a good time."

Ding.

"And out we go."

"So your sufficiently advanced technology," Auggie says, following Tony out of the elevator into an open space full of hard surfaces, "is, in fact, something out of the Brothers Grimm?"

"Nnnnnnoyesmaybe? No," he decides. "Like. I get the ideas for what to build it out of from all that, but not the idea for how to build it. And it's not magic the same way a lightning rod is not made of lightning."

"Huh. Got it, I guess."

"So, this is my workshop. It has a really impressive holographic interface that is totally meaningless to you. The sound quality's probably worse than that home theatre back on the ground floor, although you know, lots of things are worse than that setup without actually being bad. You can check out my cars if you promise to be gentle," he says generously.

He laughs, sweeping his cane around to gauge the immediate layout.

"I'm jealous of your holographic interface on principle, though. I do remember being sighted. Also what exactly do you expect me to do with your cars?"

"When I invent tactile holograms, me and Jarvis will show off all the cool shit this place can do and it will be awesome. And I have no idea what you might want to do with my cars, and wow this line of conversation is turning out amazingly filthy."

"On which note, I'm going to let go of you now," Auggie deadpans, and does so. "Let me know if I'm about to break anything."

...Tony may have difficulty letting anyone know anything while he is giggling like that.