runs_on_batteries | IC Inbox/ Interactions 2.0

[Tony laughed both when she has to check on the time and when she pulls out her slippers. He takes her jacket from her and seriously considers tossing it at Gladio- but the chocolate would make that less amusing and more messy. So instead, he just hangs it up.]

Make yourself at home. However, you can't sit on that chair, stand on that spot of carpet, or look out that window. I'll go put the kettle on.

[ Era nods, stepping further inside and taking stock of her surroundings. It's... quaint. She tries not to think of the time she spent in a near identical townhome what feels like an eternity ago, before all of the heartbreak. It helps that the furniture is laid out differently, and not altered into a more pretentious aesthetic. ]

Where should I put the cookies?

Ignore him. He's a terminal stupidity case.

[Gladio lowered his book and gave a warm smile and gestured with a hand toward the couch opposite him. The house was still very basic. Only having lived there just over a month he'd still not had time to really personalise the place. But give him time...]

Those teas are great. Want a cup?

[After marking his page, Gladio set his book down and went to hold his hands out for the cookies. They smelled pretty good.]

I'll take em into the kitchen. Just sit and relax for now.

She did it to me!

[Tony gave Gladio a glare, but it didn't have any heat behind it.]

I'll get those, I have just another minute on the tarts.

[He takes the cookies from Gladio and gives him a brief, friendly pat on the arm and left to add the crumb on top and stick the pastries in the oven. In this case, it wasn't a general statement but literally a task that took sixty seconds before he was coming back.]

Sometimes I'll find a way to get us real fruit, but right now these are going to be the synthetic stuff from the replicator. By the way, Era, you couldn't use any potatoes could you?

[He gestures to a bucket near the replicator that is now overflowing with various kinds of synthetic potatoes.]

[ She blinks as she hands the cookies to Gladio, confused by what she may have done, but ultimately decides it doesn't matter. More pressing is the matter of where to seat herself...

By the time Tony addresses her, Era has yet to move, uncertain of where to sit. ]

Ah— I have real fruit, in my garden. Just pomegranates and caelumfruit, but it's enough for desserts. [ Her hands move as she speaks, accentuating her words with vague gestures. ] I made apple-pomegranate oatmeal cookies — free of added sugar, and low in fat. The green ones are matcha cookies, with a bit of vanilla. They've more fat than the others, and have minimal sugar.

[ Era draws her hands back in, wringing them together. Absentmindedly, she begins pick at a loose scale on the back of her hand. ]

If they'll otherwise go to waste I can find use for them.

[Gladio didn't get it either, but since the cookies had been taken from him he decided to change tack and deal with Era instead.

Well aware of what that tail of hers could do, he smiled and with the lightest of touches to get her attention, he tapped her elbow and then pointed to the sofa.]

Those cookies sound great. But c'mon, sit with me.

[And so he moved and dropped himself down on one end of the sofa to show her it was okay, since Tony seemingly put in her head she couldn't go anywhere and she actually believed him.]

Tony can make himself useful and make us tea, can't you?

[Tony hoped Gladio would straighten Era out on what was real and what was him just joking around. He didn't have the patience for it. However, the request for tea which others might have thought was beneath the older man, got a positive response.]

On it!

[He found a plate to set the cookies out on and sampled the apple-pomegranate one- yum!. He waited for the kettle to boil so he could rejoin the party.]

[ The touch to her elbow comes as she's giving one final, analyzing look around the room, startling her so badly she nearly jumps out of her skin, tail standing straight up in alarm. It slowly lowers back down as the fright wears off and, upon concluding that the sofa is the most secure seat in the room, Era moves to sit on the end opposite of Gladio.

She sits on the edge of the cushion, tail curled firmly against her leg, and wonders if it would be impolite to say she doesn't like tea. ]

You were both in a different world before this one.

[ Because Tony is not of Eos, nor Eorzea, and he and Gladio have an easy comfort with each other that doesn't come from only a week of cohabitation. ]

[Gladio tried to keep his reaction to Era minimal. He'd tried to be more obvious when he'd touched her elbow but clearly not obvious enough. He sighed internally and did his best to push himself as far away from her as he could, if she didn't like his presence that much.

She was a damn minefield and Gladio didn't have a map to navigate it.]

Before coming here we were on the same train together, yeah.

[Tony came back in and gave the two a pleasant smile. He had the plate of cookies that he set on the coffee table.]

The tea is steeping, so it'll be a few more minutes.

[To Gladio.]

You should try that pomegranate one. It's really good.

[To Era.]

So I hear all three of us make terrible first impressions.

If we all make terrible first impressions, does that put us in good company, or terrible? [ She hazards a joke, a bemused smile on her face that slowly falls, turning pensive. ]

...I was in a pocket dimension called Deerington. It was a small town in Maine, in the United States of America sometime in the 1960s, though more 'modern' media and technology could be found. [ She offers, slowly shifting in her seat so that she can pull her knees up comfortably to her chest. ] It was a place of nightmares, with numerous people dying brutal deaths each month by monster or manipulation, only to be revived and inevitably suffer again.

[ Era rests her chin on her knees, relaxing a bit more now that she's acclimating to their company. It's easier with Gladio nearby. He is trusted implicitly by Noctis and Regis, which would have made her trust him even if he hadn't already proven himself through their interactions. ]

It was miserable and I loathed it, but I found it preferable to Havenwell.

[Gladio listened quietly to what she said after he'd nodded to Tony. He'd try the cookies later, Era was currently confusing him.

After describing what sounded like a nightmare, that was apparently better than Havenwell? Why, Gladio had no idea. But he was about to ask. And hopefully without sounding like he thought she was crazy, because he kind of thought she was crazy.]

You'd prefer murder and monsters over... peace?

I don't get it, Era. You hated it but you think it's better than here?

[Good job there, Gladio! Totally didn't sound like you thought she was nuts...]

[It took everything in him not to fall out of his chair laughing. He glanced toward Gladio to see if he'd heard that correctly, but his roommate had focused on another part of her statement.]

Wait.. 1960's Maine is the more nightmarish place you can think of? That's where I'm from. Well, over fifty years in the past but.. there weren't any monsters.

Other 'Sleepers' from Earth claimed the monthly happenings to be what you would expect from horror films. There was a... wrongness to everything. Creatures lurking where you least expecy, ready to disembowel and feast upon unwitting victims. The creatures were straightforward. The manipulations of the mind were more... [ She trails off, and abandons the line of thought. ]

There were crippling diseases, famine and food shortages. You could not trust even the most innocent of things. The virtual reality was insidious. Whatever your virtual self experienced would be reflected upon your body.

[ She falls silent, looks at her feet, and rolls her shoulders in a small, self-conscious shrug. ]

There were things to do. To help with. There was never time for... idleness.

It's where I began my lessons in modern sciences, as my magic no longer worked reliably. My mentor was Dr. Moira O'Deorain.

She had her bachelor's of arts in biomedical sciences and physical sciences from Trinity College Dublin. Her PhD in medical genetics and nanotechnology came from the University of Manchester. Her MBBS and MD came from the University Hospital of Zürich.

She was ruthless, but kind... It's been a long time since I last saw her.

[ Another small shrug. The tip of her tail taps nervously against her leg. ]

...Apologies. I don't get to talk about her much.

That's the most selfish, immature, load of shit I've ever heard.

That whole thing is about what can someone else do for you. How about teach others if you're so brilliant you have nothing left to learn or write books if you have so much knowledge? If you know magic that can help with famine and food shortages how about making modern medical packs that every household can have at hand in case something happens? If you can fight, then teach others.

You don't wish for disaster and you don't wish for suffering. You damn well don't go to someone else's house who has just been trapped for months in hell and pine for what they survived through.

Now take your fucking cookies and get the fuck out of my house!

[ She startles, but stands up, feeling a surge of anger. ]

I invited you into my home and what is the first thing you do? [ She hisses, eyes flashing. ] Fetishize my race. And yet I didn't kick you out, because it wasn't your fault you don't know.

You don't know what it was like in Deerington or Eorzea, just as I don't know what it was like on your fucking train.

If this place is a wonderous haven for you then so be it! I am happy for you. But for others it is a hell all its own, and you can damn well respect that opinion in turn, Tony Stark, even if it offends you.

[ She heads toward the door to gather her things. ]

The answer to your question:

Au Ra are a rarity in Eorzea, as the original auri refugees were all ruthlessly slaughtered. Rarities fetch a high price on the markets.

So, too, do women.

[ She doesn't bother changing her shoes, or putting on her jacket. She does, however pause as she opens the door. ]

I have been the Warrior of Light since I was born. Six years ago.

At least I have an excuse for being a selfish, immature load of shit.

What's yours?

[ And she'll just. Politely shut the door behind her, then take a moment to try and compose herself before she returns to her house. ]

Edited (a word) 2021-02-25 04:26 (UTC)

[As she closed the door, he picked up the plate full of cookies and flung it against the door, shattering it. He glared at the door, flushed and breathing heavy with rage. His whole body trembled from the maelstrom in his mind.

He lifted his left hand and stared at it remembering the glove with the glowing stones. He could still feel it, even after all this time.

She might have been right on a number of things, particularly that he was old enough to keep his cool, but it made him think of his failures- creating Ultron, the murder trial on the train, the death of Joss, not catching Pepper when she jumped, being useless and.. idle on that spaceship. The stupid thing about youth was you never realized how there would never, ever be enough time of peace to love your children and your friends before it was taken away.

He didn't notice the tears just as he'd forgotten everything else in the present, including Gladio.]

Edited (I'll let her have the last word) 2021-02-25 05:11 (UTC)

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