"You know who Peter is?" Kiki responds, fighting the urge to hunch over and try not to hyperventilate. "So…. So I didn't blow superhero rule number one?" Well, there are plenty of superheroes who blew superhero rule number one for themselves. It's literally no secret that Tony Stark is the Ironman. He said it at a massive press conference way back in, like, 2007. Thor never had a secret identity. Everyone knows who Steve Rogers is–There's a whole museum dedicated to him in DC. Kiki visited it with her history nut grandfather.
"And I mean…" She waves around with her hands. "Yeah, Peter and I are physics partners. He saved our project today after I almost knocked it off the table. And yes, I was there when he got the spider bite. I got him Benadryl for the itching. I was also there when his first attempt for web fluid exploded all over him." Messy clean up. Not a very fond memory. Especially when the janitor walked by and wanted to know exactly why Peter was covered in sticky white fluid.
She shuts her mouth as she follows Jason into the living area. There's couches and sinks and three refrigerators. It's all startlingly domestic. If she looks past the color scheme of a dentist office, she can actually see people living here. Odd that the Earth's Mightiest Heroes potentially sit on the couch thirty feet away from her and watch the football game on the massive flatscreen. "Cool," she says to herself.
"You did not blow it, no, though I would recommend against saying it again. Most of us know the other's identities, by this point, but it would not be good if someone else overheard you." he replied, listening to what she said. "It's dangerous, and risky, and we generally would prefer to keep our identities a secret. And you will likely see Peter around, here, too."
He led her through the living room space, past a dining area, and into the kitchen. "This kitchen is open for you to use, if you want to. Tony keeps it stocked, and you can always bring in your own groceries if you feel the desire or need to. Fair warning, though, if you leave something here, there is always a chance that it will be eaten, rather than left alone. Especially if it remains undisturbed for too long. Someone will assume it has been abandoned or forgotten about."
He let her take that in for a moment, then started moving again, back into the living area and past a grand piano. "If you play the piano, you're welcome to use this one. We don't really have any musicians here, but Tony keeps this around for the aesthetics of it all. I don't remember if he ever said anything about playing it, but you could, if you know how. Probably shouldn't be playing it if you don't know how, though."
"Okay. Okay, cool." She nods. "Noted. I won't go around telling anybody anything. You just, uh, caught me a little off-guard, that's all." She's still internally deciding if she should get Peter a massive apology chocolate basket or just not tell him about this whole misunderstanding with Jason. There's benefits to him not knowing, but Kiki's consciousness couldn't handle keeping that sort of story from her physics partner.
Kiki laughs softly, shaking her head. "Okay, so just like my old location. No unlabelled food." She turns in a slow circle with her hands clasped around the straps of her backpack. The windows are large, the floors are clean, there's not a speck of dust, but Kiki isn't sure if that's from constant janitoring or from constant use. This is so cool– she muses as her eyes land on the grand piano.
"I don't play piano, but my girlfriend does. She's decent at it," and by decent Kiki means absolutely disastrous in the most wonderful way. Maren's favorite genre is jazz and that's half comprised of wrong notes.
Jason nodded, gaze flicking to her as she mentioned her girlfriend. "The, ah, girlfriend can't visit here." he said after a moment. "Not just yet, at least. Maybe once you're more established here and she's been vetted for security clearance, but she can't just drop by for a visit. You're aware of that, yes?" he didn't really care that she had a girlfriend, in that it didn't change his opinion of her, but he also knew she was young, and might be a bit stupid about trying to impress said girlfriend. He wasn't sure. He didn't know her well enough yet to be sure, and he wanted to make sure she knew.
"In any case, the stairs are through there." he gestured through the door. "And they go from the ground floor to the top. Great for emergencies, but most people use the elevator for obvious reasons. Stairs can be useful, though." he shrugged faintly, then headed back over towards the elevator. "The next level up is Tony's private suite, so we won't be stopping there. Most of us have rooms here, whether it's permanent or not. If you ever want to stay overnight for whatever reason, there are guest rooms available." he punched in the number for the next floor that they were going to, popping his knuckles as he waited.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I know," Kiki nods, turning away to look at the piano and then out the windows. They're so high and there's even more floors sitting above them. "They didn't allow any sort of visitors at the last SHIELD facility I was in, which, y'know, makes sense granted it's a governmental agency that deals in top secret international and internal affairs." Leaving it at that feels incomplete. Maybe a little more explanation will suffice. "I'm just spitting random facts about the people I know." And she should really shut her mouth.
Kiki notes the stairs and vows to never take them, even if the entire building was burning. Her legs are small and while her constitution is tough, she is by no means Captain America. She can not do anything all day. "Okay," Kiki says, nodding as she follows Jason back into the elevator. "I don't live too far from here. It's just a bus ride away from home and school. But, y'know, if it's necessary, I guess I'll stay here." She smiles awkwardly as the elevator doors close and they're taken away. Luckily, the ride is much shorter compared to the previous one.
Jason nodded a little bit. "We allow visitors here, though you'll have to get prior permission so that they can have a guest pass." he replied as the elevator got into motion, the slow whine of it going up the only sound for a long moment. "I…am going to be honest, I haven't had to do this tour before. Do you have any questions or anything?" he was floundering, just a little. He had gone over the basics, what else was there to talk about? What did he need to tell Kiki that she didn't yet know? He wasn't sure. He tapped the fingers of his left hand against his pant leg in a quick, absent-minded gesture. What else to tell her? He knew what else to show her, but would she find it awkward if he didn't talk as much?
Plus, the things that she was here for, the things that she was going to be doing, were not anywhere near the same as the things that he did. As a clone, the things he could do…the things SHIELD could have him do…the law did not protect him the way it did her. He knew that. He knew that the things he had been through were not things he could talk about with her– not that he would have anyway –without possibly raising far too many questions.
A guest pass? That's a brand new concept. Well, maybe now that it's a possibility, Kiki is really going to have to try and get her little brothers here to meet the Falcon, also known as their favorite superhero ever. Maren would kill to meet the Black Widow. "No, no, don't worry about it!" Kiki's quick to jump in, to reassure Jason's deprecation. "Yeah, this is all new for me too. They didn't even take me on a tour at the last facility." She rocks on her feet, staring at her warbled reflection in the elevator doors. "I mean, I don't think I have any questions, but if I ever do, I'll go ahead and ask you." She smiles at Jason through their wonky image in the doors.
The elevators ding and the doors roll open. Kiki whistles as she pokes her head out to look at the new floor. "Say, uh, Jason. How did you get in with SHIELD if you don't mind me asking?" She turns to face him as she takes a few backwards steps into the new floor. "I got in because of my test scores. SHIELD thought I would be some sort of child genius, but instead of actually letting me work in a lab, I became an unpaid assistant." She laughs softly and shakes her head. "This is better though. Hopefully my physioacoustic tech will actually see the light of day here."
(whoops uh)
Jason nodded a little bit in response to her firm comments, then he paused as she asked about SHIELD. "I, uh, it's complicated." he replied, squinting faintly as he tried to think of how to answer her question. SHIELD had never given him a great cover story, not really, so he always ended up trying to dodge the questions somehow. "I've been working with them for a while. Started out doing stuff around the offices, ended up doing field work." it wasn't technically a lie, it was just…a stretching of the truth, kind of. He had started out doing things around the offices, and had ended up doing field work afterwards. He had just…started very young.
"And what sort of tech do you make, exactly? I'm afraid I'm not really a technical person, so the word "physioacoustic" means almost nothing to me." all inventors liked to talk about their inventions, right? He would be able to reroute the conversation to that, instead of his own past. Sure, she would likely find out eventually, but there was no reason to dump all that on her right at the moment. It was always a lot for people to first take in, and she was so young. Maybe that was hypocritical of him, seeing as how he was not that much older tahn she was, but she seemed so young. Younger than he had seemed, at that age.
(hello)
Kiki listens as avidly as her attention span will let her. She doesn't quite hear every single word, but she can at least piece together what's important. Jason's been with SHIELD for a little while now and has moved up the ranks. Did he start as an intern? Has he always been at Avengers Tower? There's about a hundred different questions that come to Kiki's mind, but she respectfully decides to hoard them away in her little mind-file-cabinet for later. There's no need to bombard her kind tour guide with them when they only met an hour ago. She reserves her rapid-fire question sprees for her friends and family who understand there's no way to stop her urges for knowledge.
One word particularly sticks out, and that's her own word: physioacoustics. Like a rabbit, her ears perk and she turns to face Jason. "Well, it's tech that combines both physics and acoustics–think of it of the science of how sound works. I put those together into funky lil' inventions and then put them to the test. With some patent-pending tech–" Her patent is only pending because of her age. "I figured out how to warp and manipulate any sort of soundwaves I want and then potentially weaponize them." Though weaponize is her least favorite word for the outcome. She doesn't really want to hurt anyone, Kiki's always been a pacifist in that sense. It's more like she wants to use them to figure out a way towards peace.
(oop)
Jason nodded slightly, taking a moment to process her words. "I see." he replied softly, cocking his head to one side as he thought about all of that. "That's pretty neat. How exactly does that work? Ah– put it in simple terms, if you can. If you get into too much detail you're just going to lose me." sometimes he felt stupid, when talking about science related stuff like this. He knew the basics, sure, knew the elements and all sorts of things like that, but he didn't know as much as she obviously did. Or Stark, or Banner. He only knew about as much as the average person, and when he was around people who knew more, it made him feel a little bit inadequate. Which he knew was not the truth, but it still felt that way, on occasion.
Even on his game nights with Murph, it was like that sometimes. They knew more about tech than he did, that was for certain, and sometimes it bugged him. Especially when they started rambling about it all.
(rip)
Kiki nods, eyes wide and her mind buzzing with an opportunity to explain her life's work. "Okay, so you know how sound is just a bunch of waves? Well, I figured out a way through electromagnetic pulses–basically just buzzes that correspond with nature's natural magnetic state–to make soundwaves and manipulate existing ones. You know how when you stand to a really loud speaker and you can feel the sound? I've figured out how to recreate and amplify that force and weaponize it." A small grimace at the term weaponize. That's not what Kiki wants to do. She's using it to further science and to help.
"Well, I haven't really worked past the kinks. It still hurts your ears like hell, which is why I use a specialized headset. And, well, it's also why my dad told me I couldn't test it in the house anymore. I usually just go to the Wal-Mart just outside of the big city to test at four am. The only people who are bothered are the crackheads wandering around the parking lot and they think they're meeting god most of the time." She laughs and shakes her head, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I uh–sorry if that was too much. I get excited sometimes and I don't really get to talk about it a lot."
Jason just listened, even though some of it didn't really make much sense to him. "Huh. That sounds pretty neat." he replied, then gave her a quick smile. "And it wasn't too much, I don't mind. I'm the one that asked, anyway. I wanted more information, and you gave me it." he finally realized that they had arrived at a new floor, and he needed to tell her what it was. "Anyway– this is one of the science levels, so this is where you'd probably be spending quite a bit of your time. There are a lot of different workstations, things you can use…Tony's in this area a lot, but I don't see him right now." the area was indeed very science-y, with all sorts of different things for Kiki to use to work on her stuff.
It was all very high-tech and cool, and very interesting stuff. Sure, Jason didn't know how to use half of it, but it was fine. This wasn't his specialty, but it was other people's. It was Kiki's, and she needed to knkow about it. "You have free use of Tony's computers, as far as I'm aware, as long as you don't, you know, damage anything."
"Yeah… Yeah, it's all pretty cool," Kiki smiles, looking to her white high-tops. They're fairly nice, something usually only super-rich kids wear and she had saved up a long time to buy them–except her girlfriend beat her to it. Maren had delivered them to Kiki on Kiki's sixteenth birthday. They were eating ice cream and window shopping and holding hands in a very dork way that MJ was sure to let them know of. Peter told her to let people have fun for once and Ned snorted his milkshake by accident.
The elevator doors open and Kiki has to stop in her tracks because otherwise she might just fall over from the sheer amount of equipment that the floor houses. Hell, she goes to Midtown, literally a school for science nerds and she's never seen anything like this before–"Holy shit–" she mutters, gathering her jaw off the floor before taking a few hesitant steps into the room. "And–and you said I could use any of this?" With this new tech, she'll have her second prototypes done and her device patented and her ideas tested and her career launched and the world saved–
She approaches one computer, carefully poking at the keyboard to get it out of sleep mode. A voice greets her, asking if she needs any assistance. She stares–balks even–and smiles. "3D modelling programming?" She asks and the computer instantly listens. The next time she comes, she has to bring her thumb drives and a few boxes worth of inventions. There should be an adequate storage room to hold them. She'd even settle for the bottom shelf of the pantry where she knows nobody stores any good food.
"As far as I know, yes. You might want to double-check that with Tony, but I think you should be good to use whatever you want. It would be pretty stupid to let you use some of this but then not all of it." he replied, leaning against the doorway as she explored around the room, watched as she spoke to the computer system. He had no idea how to use any of the stuff in this room. It was all rather over his head, if he was honest, but that was fine. He didn't necessarily mind that part of it all. It was probably better that he not mess with any of it.
As she explored, he tried to think of what rooms to go to next. He had not shown her the training rooms or the gym yet, though those were on the same level and he could show her all of that at once. Even if she did not use it frequently (or at all), it would still be best if she at least knew where it all was. And then maybe he should show her the main meeting area, and the guest rooms. And the garage. Though she wouldn't be driving any of the vehicles in there, most likely.
(i forgot entirely when this takes place so just roll with it aksdjf)
"Cool," Kiki responds, trying not to absolutely explode with energy. It would suck to clean up and she doesn't want to leave that kind of impression on her first day. It's only a few seconds later do Jason's words sink in. Oh my god, she's going to meet the Tony Stark and she's going to work with him. As soon as she gets off, Kiki needs to call Peter and ask how the hell he handled it the first time he met Tony. Well, the first time he met Tony resulted in Peter being whisked away to Germany and Peter coming home with far too many injuries for it to be just a "normal intern trip." May was suspicious–Hell Ned and MJ were both just as suspicious. At least Ned knows now, but Kiki thinks it absolutely sucks to leave May, MJ and Maren all in the dark.
Kiki asks the computer to go back to sleep and she bustles over back to Jason's side and to the elevator. She smiles at him, trying not to bounce on her feet. "Okay, this is so cool. Where to next?" And next, and next, and next–Kiki wants to see it all. She wants to see it all just in case she gets her internship and ID revoked and she won't ever get to experience anything this cool ever again. (I mean, it would be their loss. She's too smart to be let go without insane reason.)
(ok lmao)
"Training rooms and gym. Even though I doubt you'll use them too much, you should still know where they are just in case." he responded, heading back over the elevator and punching the button to bring it to the level they were on. "The gym has different machines, that sort of thing. Training rooms have hologram things that you can set up, fight. I know you aren't really a fighter, but there's always the option if you wanted it."
The elevator arrived, and he stepped inside, waiting for Kiki before he let the doors closed and punched in the number for the next floor that they were going to. Her enthusiasm about all of this was…endearing. She was going to fit in here just fine, as far as he could tell. She would do just fine. She didn't seem like the type to cause any fights, or antagonize people, so everything would be fine. Tony, for all his blustering and ways, enjoyed, on some level, being able to teach kids more about science and technology, and he would like helping Kiki learn.
Most likely, anyways. There was always the possibility Jason was wrong, but he didn't think he was wrong about this. Tony and Kiki would get along pretty well, as would Dr. Banner. And she had said that she knew Peter, so obviously she got along with him, too. There was no one here that she had any reason to have conflict with, and he coubted that she would have any at all.
Kiki raises an eyebrow. What does Jason mean he doubts she'll use them much? She might be small, but she is not entirely scrawny. By far, there are more muscular people than her, but Kiki has endurance, damn it. She could probably outrun at least a few SHIELD Agents. Not, like, Captain America or anything, but at least a regular person. She didn't force herself to do cross country without a reason. 'Not a fighter.' Right. She's just a kid scientist to all these guys.
Without a word, she follows Jason around to the elevator. The irritation she had felt earlier fades away. Whatever mystery awaits her on the next floor is far more appealing than holding onto the stupid comment. She'll get over it soon enough, she's sure. If she can't prove that she's physically capable, she'll just have to show them all up with her brain. After all, she did find a typo in one of Doctor Banner's books. She was ten and politely emailed the publisher about the mistake. She has no idea if it was fixed, but she found it and that's an accomplishment enough. Slipping her thumbs beneath the straps to her backpack, she rocks on her feet as the elevator comes to a stop.
What could be next? Computers, labs, chemicals, training, living spaces? It could literally be anything and Kiki is buzzing with the thought of actually meeting an Avenger face-to-face. She waits behind every elevator door knowing that it could be just behind the door that she comes face-to-face with Thor! Or Captain America! Or Falcon! She just hopes it's not the one guy Hawkeye.
(fgbdf uh)
It was the gym area that the doors opened to, which was what Jason had been talking about. It was laid out nicely, with various pieces of equipment, and plenty of training areas. "Do you, uh, want me to show you how to use those training spaces?" Jason questioned as he led her out of the elevator and to the gym areas, gesturing to the various training spaces that were available for use. There wasn't any Avengers in here, at least, not at first glance that were visible. "I can at least switch them on and show you how to turn them on and off. I wouldn't use them right now, we don't really have that kind of time at the moment, but I could at least show you how to use them. They aren't too hard to figure out, though, so if I don't show you I'm sure you're smart enough to get it on your own." his tone turned slightly teasing towards the end of his speech, mouth pulling in a faint smile as he made that soft joke about Kiki's intelligence.
He ran his hands through his hair, eyes flickering around the gym. He and Steve were more alike in more ways than either one wanted to admit, and their usage of the gym was one of those things. Both blond men used it as a way to blow off steam, used it to get out their excess energy. Both vented their anger through training, pushing their bodies to the upper limits of what they could do. And it was something neither of them would have admitted, that they were similar like that. Occasionally, they would be in there at the same time. And they never acknowledged each other when they were, preferring to just…stay away from each other and pretend both of them were not in the room.
(we're going to pretend this isn't months late… but bestie you know my hyperfixation rn is the stupid bat guy and his stupid children alkdsjfla)
Kiki's eyes widen as she looks at all the unfamiliar technology. Well, of course she knows what a treadmill and the massive weights are, but not necessarily how the wide pads with seemingly very high tech wiring and maybe holographic displays–this is all… incredibly out of Kiki's ordinary place of comfort. It's not necessarily that she's uncomfortable, per say, but she is definitely far from normal. (She's pretending like she's not one Avenger sighting away from exploding. She's entirely normal about everything. She will not be a fangirl. She will not pass out if she sees Falcon. Probably.) Kiki has to keep running happy little affirmations through her mind. Her doctor said something about high blood pressure and this new job certainly cannot be helping.
"I mean, yeah, I should probably learn how to use them sooner or later, right?" Kiki smiles, her braces on full display in the fluorescent LED lighting. "I'm not really a physical contender, but I can always put on some muscle, he he… heh." Her smile quickly turns into a grimace when she fully realizes how completely awkward she is being in front of the stone cold, completely cool tour guide who might be some really cool sleeper superhero in disguise. Oh shit. The realization that Jason, the absolutely jacked guy taking her around the tower, could secretly be like. Thor. Or something. Well. Probably not Thor but the point still stand and oh no now Kiki is overthinking literally everything she's ever done to lead her up to this point.
"SO UH." Kiki speaks loud enough to mute her own thoughts. "Yeah. What does this button do?" She points directly to a button which is clearly the ON one.
(fngkjhnkj dw you're forgiven, bc this is. also a month late lmfao)
(did we wanna have one of the avengers come in?? falcon or steve or someone?)
"That turns on the holographic systems. I use those to train a lot. JARVIS controls them, and then we can fight them like it's a real person. It's a lot better work out of skills than just using a punching bag. You can set the controls so that it's more, uh… so that it fits your abilities better. Like if you need to put it on beginner, versus more advanced. And JARVIS will usually automatically adjust the skill level as needed." Jason fought on a far more advanced level than he surmised that Kiki would. Not that he thought that she couldn't fight, he just doubted she could match him.
That was fine, obviously. Everyone had different strengths, and the only people in the tower who could match Jason blow for blow was usually those who were either just as strong as him, or had a lot of training. Steve, Nat, Bucky, Thor, they could all match him in hand to hand combat. Tony couldn't, as far as Jason knew. The attempt had never really been made to test that theory, likely because Tony knew that Jason could and would mop the floor with him. The sparring matches Jason had had with Steve had always been… well, interesting. Steve didn't like his existence, and Jason had a lot of built up resentment towards the man that had provided half of his DNA. So those sparring matches always ended up being a little bit more like a real fight, for better or for worse.
