Tony shrugs. "More odd jobs. The usual." The same kind of stuff they've been getting by on so far. But Tony isn't satisfied with 'the usual.' And, normally, he'd be champing at the bit to do something, to make a mark, to make progress.

But... He'd gone from being the heir to the biggest technology company on the planet, to being the pseudo-owner of a small technology company that was sort of named after him, to being an academic researcher slash tinkerer, to being... unemployed. Right at the beginning again, starting from scratch again.

It's not demoralizing, because nothing demoralizes Tony for long (even the apocalypse), it's just... annoying? demeaning? frustrating? Yes and yes and yes, but that's not really it.

What it really is, is that he's bored.

He's bored of running around in the same circles, of starting over again, of building a decent hydraulic press for the third fucking time instead of doing anything actually interesting.

Going home for a few weeks had only made it worse, because he'd been reminded of how good he has it back home, and how many exciting projects he has waiting for him.

Truth be told, he's in a bit of a funk. And certainly none of the job postings on his yimo are inspiring enough to pull him out of it.