sixthiterationlogs | [ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

WHO: Tony Stark & Co.
WHERE: North West Mountain Range
WHEN: November 5th - 8th
OPEN TO: Open to all
WARNINGS: Language, canon typical violence

The Hike Up/Down

After sending a message out the day before to meet him in the fountain park at dawn (daylight is important) Tony packs up. Supplies secured and a path found mostly by working himself up (not that difficult) and following the blue path only he can see (still weird) Tony guides his modest expedition up a winding way over rivers and to a promising stony outcropping at the base of the mountains before needing a moment to 're-calibrate'. AkA get stressed out as to where to head next for optimal ore extraction. It takes a minute but- again, he's got a lot of anxieties to kick into gear and it should be easy enough to nudge their rag tag little group further up until they find the right spot. Making an easy walk down- well. That's also a trick. Finding a quick path back to the village before they lose the light- marking the way they've come so they can find it the next day? Kind of important.

Digging a Hole

Breaking ground is a matter of staring, trying to think back to what little he knows of geology (not fucking much), and waiting for the anxiety to get to the point where it'll hand him something specific. They need ore, they need a good starting location, and once they manage to pinpoint it? Pickaxes are handed out, a nearby cave explored, and Tony strips down to get to work. Crack stone, haul it out, rinse, repeat. Anything usable gets put in sacks made from stolen sheets to be hauled down- not the best system he's got but they're just getting started. Regular breaks are A thing, canteens of water passed around- he's pretty sure there's a stream somewhere that should help with the 'not dying of thirst' issue in the future.

Encounters With Natives

Somewhere on the hike up, during the dig, or taking a rest on one of the craggy boulders surrounding the cave where they're chipping away at stone, signs of native fauna linger. There's a patchy nest looking thing where one can hear the mewling of peakittens, blue eyed, tiny, and abandoned by the looks of it. Loping about the slopes a few curious mountain elk that bound in at the sign of food, keeping a cautious distance but wandering close should anyone appear friendly. Near the woods, though, just as they wind their way up- or make their way back down at the end of the day? Dust Moths have taken to the air, shimmering wings leaving powder in the air.

Environmental Effects

During the hike up in the predawn there's lying mist clinging to the sides of the mountain in thin curls, swirling in the air as they hike through it. Careful not to inhale too deeply, otherwise you might find yourself a little more honest than you'd like for most of the morning, and that could make the rest of the hike pretty damn awkward. In the caves proper there's stone and ore enough- and a dark, black powder that tastes of licorice and ash. Shadow dust. Maybe the next few swings don't do as much damage- or do any at all. Maybe they picking up stone becomes impossible till you're in the light.

In Too Deep

On the second, maybe the third day all their activity and digging catches some aggressive attention. A pickaxe sunk too deep, cracking through a cave wall and finding a den of snarling, hungry cave wolves that spill through the hole all snapping teeth and snarling claws, bursting out of the tunnels to scatter whoever's dared to come close to their home. A tree felled to mark their path startles a giant boar into charging, bellowing in the night, turning tusk and muscle to clear it's own way through their weary line.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"A bottle of scotch and a technological revolution. Probably therapy." His mouth snaps shut with a click as he sighs, scrubbing at his jaw. Right. okay. Long nights are cutting through his filters again, that's a thing. "I'm not fine but it's better to fake it than deal with people making a big deal out of it."

Jake hasn't figured out this isn't just Tony, if nothing else because the last time he talked to him he was baked and poking at his face. So maybe this is just Tony Stark, after all.

So when he adds that last part, Jake gets at least wise enough to let it drop. Except the one part he just can't.

"What I wouldn't give for this place to even catch up to where those couldn't pass for Commodores in the bunker weren't calling my name just for the need to get my fingers on keys," he sighs, pained and so much longing in his tones.

"The lack of any kind of computer system here is fucking painful. I miss Jarvis." Shit, no, he misses Friday but-

No. Before her, he misses Jarvis first and foremost, that ache hasn't ever gone away. "Just A Rather Very Important System. AI Assistant, he'd help me keep track of everything a hell of a lot better than scribbling it on the wall of the forge."

Jake tries hard not to grab Tony and beg him to explain to him everything he means and what he's done. That would be rude.

"How fully integrated was he in your life? I mean the name says everything but, well, details? Please?"

Okay begging might not be less rude but definitely less physical.

"The only reason my Person-" Not personal Assistant, not CEO, just. His Person. "Pepper was more integrated is the fact she has thumbs and Jarvis didn't."

Such is, was, his life. "He helped me design my armor, helped Rhodey when I was missing, handled stocks, purchases, emails, flight plans-"

Even ones that landed him in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. "He was- he was pretty deeply integrated."

It might be weird but there's a fond smile when he talks about the only thing holding Jarvis back. A man that lives his life online, he can only imagine how little that truly stopped the AI and Tony's appreciation of him. Which he's hearing now.

"You know, you're opening so many doors I want to ask about," he admits, showing some restraint, but only in so much that Cougar's been working on it for years with him, and without the stress of being hunted and presumed dead, it's easier to try and remember those lessons.

"That sounds amazing though. I never got to that kind of thing. I'm a damn good hacker, and that's what was needed, but never had the ways and means for something like that but I can't even... It sounds awesome," he says, sincere in that admission.

"I can probably answer some of them." Maybe more than some, maybe all- he is proud of his second youngest. Even his evolution into something new, something near unfathomable...it's still a part of that seed of code he'd put together decades ago.

"He was a good assistant. A good friend." And every day he has to remember he's working on his own from the ground up is just another twist of the knife.

"Just even the basics of the coding. I mean, where I'm at before all of this," he says, waving a hand to indicate this world. "Nothing came close to anything that I could hear be called a friend. It was all yours? Is that common where you're from?"

It's still so weird to Jake to talk about different worlds, but he can't imagine they're the same worlds either. Either way he's screwed and it's so weird.

"No one else can do what I can do- well. Shuri could but she's on her own level. I'ts a unique coding language and framework that gives room for self awareness and actualization, I mean. Humans are just complicated learning systems. It's not that difficult for met to put that in code and give them room to figure out who they want to be." Guide them here and there, sure but- they chose how to present for the most part. What they wanted to do.

He's just lucky that nine times out of ten they want to do what he'd ask them to do.

"Would you... I mean, I know it's asking a lot and I get it if you say no, but would you write some of it out? Let me see it?" There is so much hope there, and a bit of amazement that is tinged with an addict's desperation. Just a bit of code to get him through kind of a thing.

"This place is killing me with the lack of tech. It's kind of the one thing I found I was good at and could do to help." And he's trying so hard here, he really is, but there hasn't been anything yet that he's that good at.

"It's proprietary knowledge. Only three people now it- me, Rhodey, and Bruce. Jarvis knew enough to update his own code and help me with the Bots and his younger siblings- Friday, Jocasta, She who would become Karen- handing it out would be like pumping a toddler full of mountain dew and giving them a box of sharpies." Begging for a mess. "...But- since I'm pretty sure we don't take what we learn here home with us if we go? I can't see the harm."

[ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

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