[EVENT] IN THE WAKE OF XI TIANLONG

[khuimods]

Characters: All
Date: January 2019
Location: Around Aifaran
Situation: The archipelago is recovering from the megastorm, Xi Tianlong, and a Watcher has sailed into Aifaran's port.
Warnings/Rating: Mentions of death and devastation resulting from a natural disaster; use additional warnings as needed.


The force of the storm and the chaos it wrought - both mundane and metaphysical - has given rise to its name: Xi Tianlong. The Black Sky Dragon left devastation in its wake and many areas are still flooded. The first priority is to ensure the safety and security of everyone living in the archipelago. Anyone of sound mind and body is expected to join the recovery efforts.

I. THE WORK BEGINS

Volunteers may report to operation and logistics outposts run by Sentry and city officials to assist with a wide variety of tasks. Each outpost reports to an overarching emergency operations center, where almost all leadership decisions are being made from.

At a given outpost, the scene is one of organized chaos: most people are in constant motion, wearing weariness as well as their uniforms. Most of the outposts have been set up within buildings but a few are located outdoors beneath huge tents. It may be hard to tell exactly who is in charge, but soon enough you'll be directed to a table designated for processing volunteers. From there, volunteers will be assigned to tasks based on their skills - and not necessarily what one may prefer to be doing. Lives are still at stake. It is time to dig deep.

While participating in recovery efforts, people begin to come across… oddities. Things that do not appear to belong here. Some admit to hearing voices calling their names or whispering incomprehensible secrets, though they're chalking that up to exhaustion and stress.

Below are areas where volunteers are needed:

MEDICAL SUPPORT: A wide spectrum of support is needed, from doctors and magical healers to basic first aid. Individuals will be assigned based on their expertise to emergency clinics that are being set up across the city. There is very little time for bedside manner: the focus is treatment, especially in facilities handling more serious injury. Triage is in full effect.

Including, it seems, for injuries that do not have an identifiable cause, or are reportedly caused by one of the storm's more chaotic effects. Patients falling under this category are sequestered in a separate treatment area, or in some cases moved to an entirely different facility to provide adequate care. They must have stories to tell a willing ear.

DEBRIS CLEARING: At first glance, this is the most straightforward task and easily the one that has the most volunteers assigned to it. One hardly needs particular skills to gather up and deposit debris in bins that are bound for the growing mountain of wreckage outside the city walls. Items of a personal nature or anything that may have immediate use as part of recovery are separated out, but a more thorough sorting will have to happen later. The archipelago is not an endless bounty of resources, and everything that can be reused or recycled, will be. It is hard, messy work. Many volunteer crews push back heartache with song and recitation of well-known poetry to keep their minds focused.

The Sentry does need sharp eyes to deal with a few particularly hazardous areas. Anyone with structural engineering knowledge or similar may end up clambering through the carcasses of buildings, locating any survivors and shoring up instabilities as much as possible.

ORGANIZING AND DISTRIBUTING SUPPLIES:Between what the city and businesses provide, donations, and items collected as part of the debris clearing, there is a lot to go through. Supplies from the city and Sentry are already quite organized, but the rest will arrive at collection points in various states of disorder. Volunteers are needed for sorting, cleaning, and distributing supplies. This may be on an individual basis or to bring items to shelters, such as clothing, medicine, blankets, non-perishable food, and so on.

Items of a personal nature (e.g. pictures, anything with a name on it, etc) that are recovered by cleanup crews are set aside for people to try and claim later, but it can be quite a mess. Lost and found is by no means a priority, and those who come to ask about their property will either be turned away or told they can dig through the piles. There's no time to catalog it all until the city is in better shape.

REPAIRS AND CONSTRUCTION:The first order of business with repairs is to sort what actually can be repaired from what must be torn down and built again, better and stronger. So there is a sort of tiered organization: when the nature of repairs has been ascertained, usually by an expert with long experience at this sort of thing, then the task is assigned. There's some demolition, not all of it skilled, for which Dreamfolk with destructive talents or large muscles are in high demand. Priority in rebuilding is given to utilities and those centres where people are being given aid; dwellings are a close second, since the winter is still in full sway, but all efforts are calibrated toward helping the most vulnerable first.

Carpenters and masons are well loved here, but anyone with a talent for reinforcing structures, for hitting a nail with a hammer, or just plain old carrying heavy things and holding them in place, will be valued.

OOC: Anyone who volunteers will receive a unique discoverable based on which volunteer group they choose by responding to the comment below.

II. HAZARDS AND HUSHED WHISPERS

The trees that sprouted improbably from lightning strikes during the storm remain firmly rooted, wherever they are. Most of them grew from rooftops but a handful reside in the streets. Regardless of whether they have soil or sun (and in one unique case of a tree growing in a flood zone, no air), the trees seem healthy and content. They're also quite diverse, including fruit-bearing trees, evergreens, and several from unidentified species. One has a bioluminescent glow at night. Another grows perpendicularly out of the side of a building. None of them show signs of disease, damage, or lack of nutrients. For the time being, the official word is to leave them alone. Given their origin, no one knows how a tree might react to being cut down or uprooted or touched, and in any case they don't seem to be doing anything but standing there. Leaves fluttering a little in a non-existent breeze.

One glaring exception to this ambivalence is the grove of trees rooted in a section of the Skyway. Rumor has it that the cluster grew out of a single lightning strike, whereas all the other strikes only produced one arboreal interloper. About a week after the storm clears, Opara Core technicians erect a containment tent across the entire section to hide it from view, and to cover the roots dangling down through the track. By then, however, enough pictures of the trees have been taken to reveal the gnarled roots and branches are not made purely from wood: they're veined and interwoven with a silvery-blue metal. Even the leaves have silvered edges, giving rise to the theory that they're sharp as razors. The technicians and scientists who come and go from the site are tight-lipped about the situation and will evade questioning.

There's been no improvement or really any change in the status of those buildings now colloquially called 'drowned.' Obviously, no one is allowed inside. Those with a careful ear to the ground may overhear some whispers, that these buildings are -- wrong somehow, strange. But these conversations are hushed quickly. Whatever is actually wrong, it's something that those investigating are trying twice over to make sure doesn't get out to the general public. The clearest thing, perhaps, is that these buildings are not safe.

While it's not the first priority, as soon as there's some breathing space the Sentry has some crimes to look into. The storm's peculiar eddies affected many Dreamfolk, and while there's some debate about the level of responsibility given that many are reporting states of altered consciousness-- crimes still happened. People have still been injured or worse. This is not something that can be simply let lie. Further, cannier minds provide, there's the risk of some having committed opportunistic crimes and then trying to camouflage them under the veneer of a Dreamperson affected by the eddies. Sorting this distinction out comes first; then comes how responsible those under the eddies' influence actually are. Nothing is being allowed to simply slip by if the Sentry catches wind of it. Frankly, they're paying more attention now than they usually do, under the logic that now more than ever their order will be a source of reassurance.

OOC: If a character chooses to touch the lightning trees, please respond to the comment below.

III. WATCHERS IN THE WATER

The two ships that accompanied Melias are of a similar design to her own, but there is no visible cabin on them. In fact, there only appears to be one door on each, at the stern, but there's no visible means of opening them. The ships are cream-colored and almond-shaped, with whorls carved onto them that could be symbolic of the water - and, if one looks closely, there are words carved into them in an alphabet that has been extinct since long before the establishment of Aifaran.

The ships do not dock, but flank Melias' ship in the harbor, seemingly guarding it. If anyone gets curious enough to try and sneak aboard one of the two mysterious ships, they will be met with a feeling of intense amusement projected into their minds before something resembling a tree branch materializes from the hull, grabs them, and gently deposits them on the docks nearby. Any attempt to breach the chitinous hulls by violent means will be met with a wave of anger tinged with disappointment. Hull damage is quickly self-repaired. The ships seem to be alive after a fashion. That's crazy, though, isn't it?

If Melias learns of an attempt to board or damage the ship, she'll scold the Dreamfolk: "All in good time! Honestly, you lot are so impatient."

---

OOC Notes: Melias will be available for threading upon request.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[khuimods]

Melias!

[afoolsgold]

How easily can Melias be reached by the Dreamfolk? I'd very much like to thread something with her and the Fool.

DISCOVERABLES AND ARBOREAL MYSTERIES

[khuimods]

OOC: If your character volunteers for any of the listed groups, comment here and get a reply about something they will come across or experience while working. Each response will be unique, but we ask that (for the time being), each character only comment once.

<b>Character Name(s):</b> <b>Volunteer group:</b>

If your character chose to touch (or otherwise interact with) one of the lightning trees, comment here for the tree's reaction.

<b>Character Name(s):</b> <b>Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction:</b> <b>Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect:</b>

Re: DISCOVERABLES AND ARBOREAL MYSTERIES

[redlightgreenlight]

Character Name(s): Valdis
Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction: Looks at with Soul Sight
Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect: Yes: RESTORATION: gained the ability to see all the things that people normally subconsciously edit out of their perceptions to maintain their sense of reality. (Her extra sense made it extra fun)

[necrocabbage]

Character Name(s): Trahearne
Volunteer group: Medical Support

Re: DISCOVERABLES AND ARBOREAL MYSTERIES

[ninjainviolet]

Character Name(s): Sheena Fujibayashi
Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction: Yes. Touched it to see if she could affect it with her new Alteration ability.
Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect: Yep! Alteration--color-changing/making people and animals sick. The color? Purple, of course.

Volunteer Group: Sheena and her Summons will be helping with the Debris Cleanup

tree time!!

[afoolsgold]

Character Name(s): the Fool
Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction: Rather recklessly, the Fool will attempt to touch the bioluminescent tree with his Skill-silvered fingertips.
Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect: He got super, super lost.

[annihilist]

Character Name: Devin Parker
Volunteer group: Repairs and construction

Character Name: Pepper Potts
Volunteer group: Debris clearing

Character Name: Pepper Potts
Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction: Yep, touching a tree.
Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect: Restoration; she lost one of her senses (sight)

Re: DISCOVERABLES AND ARBOREAL MYSTERIES

[highprofilerichkid]

Character Name(s): Tony Stark
Volunteer group: Repairs and Construction
Did your character interact with a lightning tree? Please indicate touch vs. other interaction: Yes, he's gonna try to touch one, because he's a moron. If possible, could I have him touch the metal tree on the Skyway tracks before it gets cordoned off? He would definitely to try to get a sample of that metal.
Did your character experience an eddy effect during the storm? If yes, please indicate which effect: No

arrives very late with starbucks

[psituational]

Character Name(s): X
Volunteer group: Repairs and Construction

X isn't exactly the handiest with a hammer, but his talent's progressed to where he can really help out with demolition efforts. He'd volunteer anywhere a talent for destruction is actually helpful.

1 Repairs and Construtction

[redlightgreenlight]

Returning to Aifaran had been as devastating as leaving, though for very different reasons. Her flight had been due to self-preservation, what she now knew to be an eddie had caused her senses, including her empathy to be overwhelmed. The panic faded only after she left the city behind, and avoiding people was easy when everyone was locked down. Now the city was in ruins and her talents could be put to work rebuilding, but, much to her frustration, only small things.

"Dammit."

Though it didn't cause further damage, the wall she'd been trying to shore up collapsed for the second time. Valdis took a breath, trying to center herself. Her memories of the storm still lingered on her conscious, making it hard to focus. She waved over the workers who had given her space to work.

"You'll have to do it the old fashioned way."

Once they got to work, she moved on, trying to figure out a way to be useful now that the storm was over.

[zohvin]

Zohvin had been alternating between rescue teams and going it solo ever since the worst days of the storm. Now that the storm had passed, there were fewer people to find and he'd been starting to run himself ragged. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, and only the fact that he was still new to the city kept him from overdoing it. He was finding it more and more difficult to care about people he didn't know, as much as he still wanted to be of use during the disaster.

He had stopped here to rest simply because there was a volunteer work crew nearby, and a little company was preferable to sitting by himself somewhere and looking out at the ruined streets. After spending some time in the shelter of a half-collapsed awning, Zohvin spotted a familiar face. That was another of the Dreamfolk, though he was lacking on information about her. That was all the more reason to introduce himself.

"Hello there," he called out to Valdis. "Were you assigned to this group, or just passing through?"

[ninjainviolet]

Of course, those who are helping to clean up the debris are going to cross paths with those who are rebuilding. Though, that's not the main reason the ninja isn't too surprised to see Valdis heading her way. Her friend is a member of the Sentry, so it makes sense for her to be out and about patrolling.

Still, that doesn't keep the ninja from greeting her friend. Besides, she has an important question to ask her.

"Hey, Valdis! You got a sec?"

II (closed to Trahearne)

[afoolsgold]

The bioluminescence of the alien tree would have drawn the Fool's attention even without his peculiar... gift. That one touch of his Skill-silvered fingertips upon the tree's trunk will leave him awash in sensory information, perhaps even memories, is merely a side-benefit.

Still, he does not seek out the strange tree this particular evening with any intention of making use of his gift, for he promised Devin to be less reckless in how he uses his borrowed magic. Yet as he comes to stand beneath its boughs and gazes up at it... well, it's rather like escorting a cat to the cream and then being crossed with it over the inevitable result.

He slips his glove from his hand and reaches out a slim hand, then closes his eyes and places his fingertips upon one of the tree's low-hanging, ethereal branches.

[necrocabbage]

"My friend! Are you here to commune with nature?"

Trahearne's voice calls out from just up the street, as he approaches the tree at a jog. He had to admit to feeling a pang of worry when he first realized just who was standing under the branches. There had been such a strange variety of effects brought on by the storm that Trahearne hadn't known what to think of them - and he'd been kept busy enough to delay any personal attempts at research, not to mention the other new mystery that had fallen into his lap.

He stops a short distance away, looking at the Fool with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Because if you are, there are surely safer places to do it." Prodding at untested magics was always risky, especially doing so without help.

OTA

[lasergrenades]

I. Debris Clearing

With Bakura's departure from Aifaran coinciding with the start of the new year, Pepper has been struggling to deal with the loss and the simultaneous impulse to help the city recover. She swings, sometimes wildly, between collapsing beneath devastating grief and throwing herself into the work and persona of Rescue.

The armor is well-suited to this kind of work; she can lift hundreds of pounds and fly them to the drop-off zones, brace unstable sections of buildings, and locate survivors buried in the rubble. Vee is almost always nearby, sometimes towering at her full ten feet and sometimes scaled down to human size depending on what she's assisting with. The ka silently nudges Pepper from time to time, reminding her to rest when she works for too long. This is met with mixed success, and Pepper will stay at a recovery site well past the point of exhaustion more often than she relents and goes home.

At one point she's pausing to get some water and scarf down a sandwich provided to the volunteers when she hears the tell-tale cracking and splintering of breaking wood. Pepper drops what she's holding and kicks off the boot jets at the same time, sweeping into a building and catching one of the support beams before it collapses. Vee shimmers into view as the braces another, and Pepper feels the mental strain of her summoned presence despite wearing the Duelist gauntlet.

"We've got this!" She yells this confirmation at the other people who have come to help. "Get some supports or just get everyone out of here."

II. Hazards and Hushed Whispers

One of the lightning trees took root near the townhouse - her townhouse? - and Pepper has more or less been ignoring it in favor of working. Keeping busy means she doesn't have a lot of time to feel the hole in her heart, and it means she's too tired to dream much when she falls asleep.

She stopped to check the tree out on her way home. Emerging directly from the pavement, the tree proudly bears a pink and white fruit that resembles peaches. It looks like a few people have harvested the fruit despite warnings from the Sentry. As tired as she is, Pepper ends up staring at the tree and then staring into space, mind wandering around the strange phenomenon of the Dreaming.

II!

[makebelieveavenger]

"If I've learned anything, it's to be careful about what you put in your mouth," Alice remarked offhandedly, her eyes on the branches.

"...For a given measure of 'learned'," she amended after a moment. She nudged aside a bit of rubble with the toe of her boot.

"It looks like something out of a fairy tale."

I

[spiralpatterns]

The lady is impressive, but not the tallest Zephyr's ever seen, and even if her provenance isn't strictly human-- well, that's none of Zephyr's business. They've got bigger worries to hand.

He's definitely not going to be quite as buff as they are, but he can get people out of there, and when enough people have cleared that the immediate danger is less, he moves up beside the pair. "Tell me where you need hands and you've got mine." It's simple, straightforward, and entirely heartfelt.

[makebelieveavenger]

I - The Work Begins

A: Distributing Supplies - Open It was terribly dull work, but Alice's job at Houndsditch and the Opera House had left her with a good head for numbers. She didn't exactly have the physical prowess to go digging up the rubble, so she offered what she could. Which was keeping track of supplies.

But familiarity breeds contempt (or so the saying goes) and the work was much too familiar for her liking. So her mind did what it always did - it wandered. Even a natural disaster like this couldn't keep her grounded long, and the ledger is soon filled with doodles of all manner of oddities. Bull-finches (finches with literal bull heads) and a hairless cat all skin and bones and tattoos with all too many teeth grins up from the page.

B. Picking up Scraps - Open She didn't look so out of place amidst the destruction. Dressed in dull black, with shaggy hair that needed a proper trim, and her sickly palour, one would be forgiven for mistaking her to be the grim reaper's long-lost sister looking for souls to cart away.

But Alice wasn't looking for souls. She was looking for her bat cat.

"Lucy!" She called, clambering over a damp brick wall that was all that remained standing of a small set of apartments. What couldn't be salvaged had been carted away. All that remained was an empty lot with a few crumbled bricks and broken glass that crunched softly under her feet as she navigated the ruin.

"Where did you run off to? ...Lucy, darling!"

Lucy, who had just started to take wing, was rather enjoying her new-found freedom, and hide and seek seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to play in the midst of a crisis.

II - Hazards and Hushed Whispers - Closed to the Fool

Alice had the good sense to steer clear of the trees. Getting too close or even looking at them too long gave her a throbbing headache. Unfortunately that good sense didn't extend to the 'drowned' buildings. All she'd heard of them was hushed rumours that gave her a vague idea of their location. But it was enough to pique her interest. The way she'd heard them uttered sounded like something much more than just buildings that had been flooded.

She knew she must be getting close when one of the sentry stopped her and sent her back the way she came. Once she was out of sight, she slipped down an alley, heading back towards the drowned buildings. She'd made it further this way, but a peek around the corner revealed two sentry patrols, having a late lunch.

She ducked out of sight before they saw her snooping, and she scanned around for anything that might get her closer to her goal. A flimsy fire escape that led up to a second floor door that had been blown off its hinges during the storm.

...She'd had worse ideas.

[afoolsgold]

"That does not seem wise."

Rich words, coming from a Fool. He has the good sense to make his observation quietly from where he stands, safely out of sight of the Sentry but near enough for Alice to hear him. Standing in the shade of a nearby awning, the Fool regards her with an inscrutable look on his face. A second or two of silence--from him, at least--follows, before he lifts his eyebrows and makes an artless gesture with one hand.

"What you need is a distraction."

X | Backdated To the day after the end of the storm

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis' head still throbbed, but far less than during the storm, still, she had sent Hila into the city to find X. She didn't trust anyone else to hear what she had to say without judgement, and the man knew her better than was possible for everyone else.

The ka moved through the streets with purpose, unfazed by debris or the remainder of the floodwaters. Valdis had been able to pinpoint an approximate location, and Hila, being tied to Valdis, could find the place easily enough. She yipped when she grew near, ignoring the odd glances she received while she searched for X.

X, she called, Valdis needs you. She is recovering outside the city and will need clothes from her apartment, if you can bring them.

[psituational]

It was the first day in weeks X spent most of his time outside of his apartment. He'd wanted to help during the storm, but knew the risks outweighed the benefits; as long as there was any danger of him dying, he'd be less than useless, and there wasn't much he could contribute to offset that possibility.

So, he waited, indoors in relative safety, with no true certainty that the storm would ever end -- only then, it did.

And it left thousands of questions in its wake.

In the middle of trying to work out where his help was most needed for the disaster relief effort, X became distracted with a familiar voice in his head. He could place it immediately -- Hila -- but had to take a few seconds to remember who the white wolf actually belonged to. Valdis, of course, all the thousands of years of memories in his head that didn't belong to him, and in which Hila was recent enough to be a footnote. No wonder the thought of it had been so difficult to place.

Valdis needs you.

X's muscles tensed. Valdis sending her ka out to find him signalled that she was in more trouble than simply needing a spare change of clothes.

So he did exactly as he was asked, and stood outside the city border some time later with a full bag over his shoulder, scanning his surroundings for any sign of either an ephemeral white wolf, or a large, black, and solid one. "Valdis?" he called out. "Where are you?"

[annihilist]

Ia. Repairs and Construction - Open

Once Devin's name decides to metaphysically rematerialize, his abilities return as well. Most important now is his strength, though the fact that he has medic training means he ends up spending time helping patch people up as well as clearing debris and assisting with repairs and new construction. Today he's doing his part on the heavy lifting, hauling beams of wood and bundles of rebar and pretty much anything people put into his hands to take somewhere. He carries more than any human can, and works without complaint.

Ib. Tony

The red and gold armor stands out even when the city isn't a disaster zone. Amid the waterlogged streets and the rubble of buildings, it's even more obvious. He and Tony had only interacted briefly in Keeliai, but the obnoxious young man is hard to forget.

So on a break, when most of the volunteers stare grimly into sandwiches and cups of lukewarm tea, Devin finds a nice pebble of rubble and flicks it at the back of Tony's armored head.

II. Medical Support - Open

This isn't the first time Devin has been faced with the combined challenges of many injured or bleeding people and the general shortage of blood available for his own consumption. Without question, he puts the care and survival of the people here ahead of his own well-being, but the thought is in the back of his mind that he may need to limit his intake for a while. He'll manage. He's had worse.

Since he isn't actually licensed in any way, when he's volunteering they assign him to treat more minor injuries. The most they let Devin do is administer stitches, and only after he shows off how the wounds he sutured on himself have healed cleanly. Devin's bedside manner isn't stellar, but he has sure hands and works quickly, binding lacerations and handing out salves and changing bandages. A few times he pulls out dry humor, but these people need comfort more than anything, which is something he is not very good at giving.

Ib

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony is just taking a break, eating a protein bar and minding his own business, when a pebble pings off the back of his half-open helmet. He turns around, indignant, looking for the culprit. What jackass would—

Oh. That guy.

Instead of saying anything, Tony stoops down to pick a loose bolt up off the ground. He raises his eyebrows, presses the bolt between his gauntlet-clad hands, and then slowly pulls his palms apart to reveal the bolt spinning in a magnetic field. Oooh, aahh! Neat party trick, Iron Man!

Then, without warning, he adjusts the magnetic field, and the bolt is launched out from between his hands, whizzing towards Devin. Catch!

[highprofilerichkid]

[ I - Repairs and Construction - OPEN]

Option A: Tony can't say that he enjoys disaster relief – it's physically and emotionally taxing, and rebuilding the wreckage of people's lives and livelihoods is never going to be, well, fun.

But it's important, and it's helping people in direct and concrete ways. He feels like he's doing as much good as he ever did fighting villains in the Iron Man armor – maybe more. It's rewarding, in its own way.

And now that it's been a few days and the bulk of the rescue operations have been completed, Tony can focus on the easier work of helping put the city's infrastructure back together.

At the moment, he's troubleshooting a generator that's supposed to be providing emergency power for a few residential streets until the grid comes back online. He's nearly got it working – unfortunately, he's wedged quite thoroughly underneath the whole contraption, and he's just realized that he needs a different tool from his kit.

"Dammit," he mutters under his breath, stretching his arm out as far as he can and blindly patting the ground. Where did he leave that stupid thing? The armor is occupied holding a large, heavy, and rather important component in place while he works, so it looks like Tony's going to have to extricate himself and find the wrench on his own... unless some helpful passerby wants to lend a hand.

Option B: Tony had found the clock half-buried in a pile of excavated mud while working a repair shift on some water lines that had been washed out by the flooding. It's an odd item, and an odd place to find it, so when he'd asked around and no one had claimed it, he'd decided to hold on to it. It's intricate and obviously valuable, and the inscrutable dials had intrigued him – surely the rightful owner won't mind if he tinkers with it a little, just to make sure it's in good working order.

It's been ticking steadily since he'd found it, but he'd started to disassemble it on his lunch break to check if any of the movements needed cleaning. Even if it doesn't look damaged now, moisture and rust can spell the end of delicate clockwork.

What he'd found had been... weird. The finely-crafted housing had remained watertight, but the array of movements inside are unlike anything he's ever seen. They certainly don't help elucidate what sort of time or other measurement the dials on the front are supposed to be keeping. Baffled, Tony had covered the half-gutted clock with protective cloth and returned to finish his shift.

And now that his shift is over, he's even more baffled, staring down at the clock as it ticks merrily along— fully reassembled and sealed up tight, as if he'd never even cracked the housing open.

He picks it up and turns it over in his hands. "What the heck?"



[ II - The Lightning Trees - Closed to Pepper ]

Tony sure is glad he was able to sneak a sample from the lightning tree growing from the Skyway tracks before the Opara techs cordoned it off, because this shit is amazing.

First of all, it had been no small task to get a sample in the first place: he'd had to slip out one of his gauntlets and use the laser cutter to slice off a sprig. Whatever the trees are made of, it's tough as hell.

The next attribute he'd discovered: within minutes, the little cutting had sunk tiny rootlets into the gauntlet he'd been carefully cradling it in. He's not even mad about having to sacrifice a few pieces of finger plating for that.

And when he'd gotten it home and started to run tests, he'd discovered that the silvery-blue streaks running through the wood are, as hypothesized, metal – and not just any metal. The alloy is mostly steel from the tracks, but whatever is mixed into it to give it that blueish sheen and incredible strength confounds all his attempts at identification.

As for how the cells are interacting with the metal, he can't tell much without destroying his little sprout entirely. Given how vigorously it had tried to integrate with his armor, though, he suspects there's a solution to that problem. He fills a plastic bucket with steel scraps from his workshop, nestles the cutting into it, and waits.

Sure enough, the little tree takes root, and within a few days it's sprouting new silvery, razor-edged leaves. Finally, a plant that Tony will be able to keep alive.

So, of course, when Pepper tells him about the peculiar effect of her own investigation into the lightning trees, Tony sees an opportunity. (An opportunity to find out more about his new houseplant, but also, maybe, an opportunity to cheer Pepper up a little.)

"Hold on, I'm gonna go get something from the workshop. I think you should take a look at it." His eyes are sparkling with excitement. He returns with the bucket, and holds it out to Pepper, grinning. "Check it out. It's a cutting from the trees on the Skyway tracks. Do you think you can try to, you know, talk to it?"

I A!

[afoolsgold]

A golden head pops into Tony's peripheral vision--upside down, at least from his perspective. The Fool, bending at the waist, peers beneath the contraption. He raises his eyebrows.

"Trouble?" he inquires innocuously. (As innocuously as one can manage while also being a nosy busy-body.)