(Barely) Controlled Chaos #10

(Barely) Controlled Chaos #10

Follows on directly from last part; make sure you read that one first.

Warnings for this part: none

May 1992, Stark Industries Research and Development plant, New York

They ended up in the chief engineer’s office, where Obie tried to get Tony interested in the new weapons the man had designed.  Tony looked over the blueprints, which the engineer talked about proudly, then put Lillipup down on the man’s desk and pointed at the trigger mechanism on the first schematic.

“That won’t work.”

The man stuttered, his speech drawing to a halt, and Obie raised an eyebrow at Tony.

“What makes you think that?”

“It’s not connected properly.  Look.”

The engineer sneered at Tony, but obediently leaned over the blueprint.  “You have a bit to learn about actually putting things together, young Stark, because you’re wrong; see here, this is connected to…”  the man stopped mid-ramble and blinked.  Tony smirked.

“Yes?”

“Err, nothing; it’s a preliminary design; not important…”

Obie looked between the two, then settled his gaze on the engineer.  “Is he right?”

The man’s hesitation was answer enough.  Tony grinned at him, smug.  Obie’s gaze turned dark.

“Wait here, Tony; I need to have a word with our worker in private.”

The engineer paled, but followed Obie out of his office and shut the door.  Left alone, Tony shrugged and looked at the other blueprints, pulled a pencil from a mug on the desk and made annotations to improve the designs, feeling smug.  He ignored the raised voices from the corridor, but looked up from a rather rude comment on the third schematic when Lillipup let out a low bark.  The Pokémon had jumped from the desk onto the floor, and was peering underneath the furniture, hindquarters up in the air and back arched so his chin rested on the floor.  He yipped again, and Tony let the pencil fall onto the desk.

“What is it, buddy?”

Lillipup looked up, then pawed at the space under the desk and whined.  Tony knelt down and looked under the desk, wondering what the Pokémon had seen.  He often found spiders, but he didn’t draw them to Tony’s attention, so it couldn’t be that, but the gap was too narrow to be anything much bigger.

Tony squinted into the dim gap, spotting an obstruction under there, but not able to make out what it was.  He looked back at Lillipup.  “What is it?”

Lillipup barked again, and the thing under the desk moved.  Tony jumped and flinched back as Obie opened the office door.  The man frowned when he saw Tony on the floor.

“You alright, Tony?”

Tony nodded.  “Fine.  Lillipup saw something.”

“Something?”

Tony shrugged, then froze when the thing under the desk emerged.  It was pink and gooey, and it had eyes and a mouth, which made it either a Pokémon that had sneaked into the building or some kind of experiment that had gained sentience, and if it was the latter Tony was getting out of there right now.  Behind him, Obie sighed.

“Ditto.  They sneak in sometimes; it’s warm in here.  I’ll get rid of it.”

So, it was a Pokémon.  Tony immediately felt better about it being all but on his lap.  Obie stepped forward, and the Pokémon actually did slither onto Tony’s knees, making Lillipup growl quite threateningly at it.  Ditto froze for a moment, then went solid and changed shape and colour.  Tony kept very still, not sure what was going on, and then there was a Lillipup sat on his lap where the Ditto had been, and suddenly its name made sense.  The real Lillipup barked, tilting his head to one side.  Ditto copied him.  Tony found himself grinning at the display.

Obie leaned down to pick the Ditto up, muttering something about ‘finding a way to keep the things out of the damned building’, but Tony leaned forward and shielded the Pokémon from his reach.

“No, it’s ok.  I’ll take care of it.”

Ditto curled into Tony’s stomach, and stuck its tongue out at Obie.  Tony snickered, making Ditto lick his chin, and Lillipup growled again.  Tony scratched him behind the ear.

The chief engineer was standing outside his office, looking nervous.  Tony moved the Ditto so he was cradling it in his arms and stood up, gesturing at the blueprints with a nod.  “I corrected your drawings.”

The engineer looked like he wanted to cry, but settled for nodding and muttering a ‘thank you’ that Tony ignored.  Obie rolled his eyes and stepped aside so Tony could get out of the room, Lillipup following and glaring at everyone.  Obie growled another threat at the engineer and guided Tony and the Pokémon towards the exit of the building.  As soon as they got outside, Obie gestured at the Ditto still in Tony’s arms.

“Get rid of that thing.”

Ditto stuck its tongue out at him again, turning back into its original jelly-form and crawling up Tony’s chest to sit on his shoulder, resting against his neck.  Tony patted it gently, and it made a happy-sounding noise in his ear.  He smiled.

“I like it.”

Lillipup barked, and Tony chuckled and bent down, catching the puppy as it jumped into his arms.  “I like you too.”

Lillipup licked his nose, then sniffed at Ditto under his chin.  There was no angry squealing or barking, and a few seconds later the dog settled quite happily into his hold, so Tony guessed they were sorting out a hierarchy or something.  Obie’s eyes rolled heavenward.

“What am I going to do with you, Tony?” he asked, and Tony didn’t think he was just talking about the Ditto.  He tried not to be hurt by the comment, shrugging the shoulder that didn’t have a passenger and giving his standard flippant response.

“Let me go on my date?”

Obie paused for a second, then sighed and turned his back.

“The driver will take you back to the airport, but I want you in regular contact, you hear me Tony?  This is your company, whether you want it or not, and you have to be involved.”

Tony nodded, paying very little attention, and climbed into the limo that was still waiting for him.  Ditto and Lillipup both settled in his lap, looking quite content to be there, and Tony felt a smile stretch his face as he carefully poked the pink blob on his knee.  It twitched and then poked him back.  He laughed.

Ok, so maybe this was worth missing his date.

(Barely) Controlled Chaos #6

Follows on directly from part 5

Warnings for this part: none

November 1991, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

He was on his way back to his dorm when he heard it.  It was dark, cold and raining, and Tony was clad in a pair of jeans that were more hole than denim and a too-thin t-shirt that bore the evidence of his late night working in the robotics lab.  He was frankly surprised that he could hear anything over the sound of his own teeth chattering, but he was sure he had.  He paused his stride and listened carefully.  Yes, there it was again; a high-pitched, almost inaudible yip.

Tony turned in the direction he thought the sound was coming from; there was an alley to his right that seemed to be the source.  It wasn’t wide enough to be a walkthrough for the general populous – it was a three-foot-wide gap between two university buildings rather than an actual pathway – but Tony had used it before to get from one class to another when he was running late and could actually be bothered to go.  He squinted down it, but it was too dark to see if there was anybody there or not.

“Hello?” he called, just in case.  The only reply was another, slightly louder yip.  Tony narrowed his eyes, debating the wisdom of checking it out.  Well, it wasn’t like he could get any wetter, and this was a very elaborate set-up for one of his dorm-mates’ let’s-mess-with-the-kid pranks; usually they just tripped him up and stole his stuff.  Decided, he shuffled closer to the alley and peered down it, calling out again.

The yip this time came from below him.  He looked down, and saw a huge pair of brown eyes looking up at him from a sodden, skinny Pokémon.  Tony knelt slowly so as not to startle the creature and gently reached toward it.

“Hey there, are you ok?” he asked soothingly, ignoring the shirt sticking to his back.  The animal shivered violently and sneezed, crawling closer until its nose touched Tony’s knee.  He rested his hand on its back, hoping it wasn’t about to turn around and bite him.  It shivered under his palm, cold and soaked to the skin, but didn’t move otherwise.  Tony could feel its ribs bumping against his fingertips.  He sighed and pulled his shirt off, shivering as the night air made intimate acquaintance with his bare skin, and carefully tucked it around the Pokémon, picking it up and tucking the material under its paws.

“It’s alright, let’s get you dry, shall we?” he said to it, pulling it into his body and hoping that any warmth left in him might transfer to the creature.  He finished his jog back to his dorm, doing his best not to jostle the Pokémon, and for once didn’t run into any of his jackass dorm-mates.  He put the Pokémon down on his bed, ignoring the damp patch that spread over his sheets, and found a dry towel in the bottom of his closet.  Gently, he unwrapped the animal and dried it off, telling it what he was doing so it didn’t startle.  After it was no longer dripping, Tony ran the towel over his own hair and chest before throwing it onto the floor.  The Pokémon sneezed again and climbed onto his lap, huddling against his stomach in a little ball.  He petted it carefully, making soothing sounds until it stopped shivering.

It blinked up at him with huge brown eyes, and Tony realised what it was.  “Lillipup,” he said aloud, and the little dog yipped at him and wagged its skinny tail a few times.  Tony smiled down at it.

“You’ll be alright now; it’s safe here.  I’ll go find some food and you can sleep here, if you want?”

It yipped again and rolled off his knees, so Tony got up and traipsed into the communal kitchen.  He didn’t keep food in there, but the others did, and unless he wanted to try to feed day-old pizza to the ill puppy, he needed to raid the fridge.  He pulled it open and found a plate with the remains of somebody’s chicken dinner on it.  He grinned and stole a handful of the meat before slipping back to his room.

The Lillipup ate from his hand happily, and all the chicken was gone in seconds.  The dog still looked starved, but at least it was dry and warm now.  Tony spared a minute to change out of his sodden jeans into something more comfortable to sleep in, then pulled off the wet top bed sheet and slid under the remaining layers.  He patted the pillow beside his head gently, and the Pokémon wobbled its way up, curling up beside him.  He arranged the sheets so that the creature was at least partly covered, hoping that he’d done enough for it.  He wasn’t sure what else he could do; it needed food and sleep, but he wasn’t a physician and couldn’t tell more than that.

Not that it really mattered, because the dog would be gone in the morning.  Pokémon never stayed with Tony for too long, so there was no point getting too attached to this little one now.  He leaned over and cracked the window open just enough so the Lillipup could crawl through when it woke, then curled up and closed his eyes.

When he woke, Lillipup was curled up against his chest, awake and looking at Tony.  It yipped when it saw his eyes were open and stood up, licking him on the nose.  Tony blinked at it.  “You’re still here…”

The dog rolled its eyes at him and yipped again, wobbling down the bed so that he could sit up.  He did so, staring.  It wagged its tail and licked his hand, eyes never leaving Tony’s face.  Slowly, a smile spread across his face.

“You’re still here.”  It was a statement this time.  The dog wagged its tail faster.  With a grin, Tony got out of bed and dressed, then stole some more chicken for Lillipup.  At the first chance he got, he’d take it to a nurse, but until then he let himself pat it and reassure himself that it was really there.

It had chosen to stay with him.  Today was officially the best goddamned day of his life.

『25 Lives』 by Tongari (ಌ)

This is beautiful

THIS is amazing

Best thing I’ve ever seen.

omfg funniest thing i have watched in a long time,love it

everytime i see this - REBLOGGED LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

OMG THE DRAG QUEENS LAWL

THE END O.M.G LOL

SPREAD THIS LIKE HERPES CHILDREN.

(Barely) Controlled Chaos # 13

A timely update!  The last one, probably, because I'm away this weekend, but I'll post again on Thursday possibly, then it's gonna be either Sunday or Monday.

Warnings for this part: other than swearing, none in particular

August 1997, Stark Industries Main Office, New York

“Mr Stark?”

Tony looked up at the voice.  He was half-heartedly glancing through the third fucking ream of paperwork his good-for-nothing secretary had dumped on his desk ten minutes before, just prior to screaming that nothing was worth putting up with his bullshit and quitting.  The woman knew how to make an exit, he’d give her that.  Pity she didn’t know anything about filing; the first two piles he’d looked at had been nothing to do with him; they were for Marketing and Accounts respectively.    Tony had no idea who’d hired her – he certainly hadn’t, and he was quite glad that she’d gone – but they’d done a shit job.  Hell, he hated paperwork with a passion that had once led Ditto to turn itself into a paper shredder, and he had managed to do a better job in the last few minutes; the woman was not getting any kind of recommendation from him.

Not that Tony thought she’d take one if he offered.  She had made her opinion of him quite clear before she stormed out of his office.  Well, him and Ditto.  Mostly Ditto.  The blob freaked her out, usually on purpose.  That was her problem so far as Tony was concerned, and one of the big reasons he was glad to see the back of her.

As he’d threatened when he was seventeen, the first thing he’d changed when he inherited Stark Industries three months ago was the ‘no Pokémon allowed’ rule.  Obie had not been happy, and neither had his neurotic secretary (whose name he had never bothered to learn – she had shrieked the first time she saw Ditto, so he had dubbed her ‘Screamer’ and ignored all her attempts to correct the nickname), but everyone else had loved the change, and the upswing in productivity – after a week or so of the novelty wearing off – had silenced any objections on Obie’s part.

So yes, Screamer was gone, and she had left him with a headache from staying up four nights in a row working on crap that he had very little interest in and the shrill pitch of her voice as she yelled at him, and a pile of paperwork that was taller than he was.  Even Herdier had been pissed at her, and that took some doing.  The dog put up with Tony and Ditto every day; annoying him to the point where he showed it visibly was a feat and a half.

So Tony was understandably thankful for the interruption/rescue from the ridiculous amount of paper on his desk.  He leaned sideways to see around the largest pile, and couldn’t help the smirk that crossed his lips as he saw the owner of the voice.  It was a woman of about his own age, certainly no older than his own twenty-one years, and she was very pretty.  Her hair was fire-red, swinging down her back to her waist, and framing her slim shape nicely.  She was an inch or so taller than him, if he had to guess from his seated position, mostly because her legs were about six miles long and revealed quite nicely from the knee down by a modest skirt that was far too long for his liking.  Also, there was a small grey Pokémon peering from behind her knees, which instantly gained her points.

Tony smiled at her, pushing his exhaustion back as he did so.  He needed to sleep soon, but he could fake his way through whatever she wanted before collapsing and dealing with this shit when he woke up.

“I am.  Who are you?”

“Virginia Potts, sir.  From Accounting.”

Tony made a mental note to look her up on the company files later – when he wasn’t close to passing out from lack of sleep, he was going to hit on her until she swooned.

She stepped fully inside the office and eyed the desk with distaste, the Pokémon at her side doing the same thing.  It had a white tail that was wrapped about its neck like a fur scarf – it was a very well-groomed, elegant looking thing, like the woman it was with.  Tony had no idea what it was, but he was going to find out; it was rare these days for him to see a Pokémon that he didn’t know the species of.  Walking forwards, she gingerly placed her own – small, thank god – pile of papers on the tiny clear space remaining on his desk.

“I wanted to talk to you about a problem I found with some of your numbers.”

That woke Tony up.  His appreciative leer turned into a scowl as he totally abandoned the prior paperwork (not that he’d been paying it much attention in the first place) to study the file in front of him.

“Impossible.  I don’t make mistakes with math.”

“Third page, fifteenth line from the top,” she reeled off.  Tony frowned at the pages as he flipped through and found the so-called ‘error’.  He read the line, blinked, then read it again.  And then a third time.  He sighed loudly.

“Fuck.”

“Told you,” Potts said, not sounding as smug as he would have thought – not many people corrected Tony Stark, it was usually the other way around – and he looked up to find her elbow-deep in the papers on his desk, her Pokémon sitting by her side passing her piles and taking ones she filtered out from the much larger selection to her left.  He cleared his throat, wondering what she was doing.

“I’m pretty sure at least some of those are private.”

Not that he cared, but the statement made her blush, and yep, he was right, she looked good like that.

“Sorry sir,” she said, sounding embarrassed.  “I shouldn’t have touched it.”

“I don’t actually care,” he said, waving one hand carelessly and taking a pen from Herdier with the other to correct his error.  “Screamer dumped it all on here and left; I don’t know what most of it is.”

Potts smiled, a tiny quirk of lips on one side.  “Most of it isn’t for you.”