House Calls, Part II

[the_wasp]

"Oh, Tony," Jan sighs.

It figures. It's reassuring, actually. She gets pulled away from a battle for the planet and dropped just off shore of a mysterious island in another dimension, or something, with no way home and with a handful of familiar faces who aren't really who they should be and think she's not really who she should be. Her entire life gets turned upside-down and filtered through a scrapped episode of the Twilight Zone. Nothing is the same and everything is strange.

But Tony Stark still has a mansion.

It figures.

The nervousness of yesterday has faded away with some friendly reassurances, a good night's sleep and the somewhat familiar surroundings. Wooden steps leading up to a bamboo front door are not nearly as comforting as this imposing stone facade. There is a doorbell, but probably no JARVIS to answer, so Jan gives Tony points for style while taking away for amenities.

She presses the doorbell and waits, only to have the door answered by... some kind of machine. It's a bit rudimentary to her eyes, not that she's any great engineering genius, but it's definitely more than what should be on an island like this.

"Oh, Tony," she sighs.

Comments

[notawastedlife]

The door was open and no one had told him, which was a bit contrary to some of the things he'd been trying to achieve with the new house. Admittedly if someone had fired a missile at the place, that definitely wouldn't have gotten the open door treatment.

As he closed in, he identified the culprit. "Dope, that's not- how did you even manage that?" he said, scooting the little robot aside with his foot. "Leave the door for Jarvis. Jarvis, why didn't you- you're not plugged in over here, are you? You can't even hear me. Impossible to find good help."

Only then did he finally pay attention to the fact there was, in fact, someone at the door. "I'll take three packets of thin mints."

[the_wasp]

He doesn't know her. Tony would have dropped some comment, even winked at her, done something to show that he knows what's going on. Because he always knows everything that's going on, or thinks he does. It doesn't hurt so much when she knows that lack of recognition is probably coming and when he's still so Tony.

"Should I send Ms. Potts the bill?" she asks primly. "Or have you learned how to take care of things on your own?"

[notawastedlife]

"Ms. Potts," Tony said, without hesitation. "She handles... that. Everything that isn't flying around saving the world, that's her."

She knew Pepper, and something about the dynamic. That didn't really narrow it down, though, but she did seem to be talking as if she knew him.

Which... also, did not narrow it down, he was a well-known guy.

[the_wasp]

"She could probably fly around and save the world, you know," Jan says. "If you ever got around to making her a designer suit of her own. Did she specifically not ask for one? Because if you skipped her over to give on to Rhodey, that's not nice, Tony."

She will make him ask who she is. She will make him stumble. It'll make her feel way and not hurt him if she can slow the Tony Stark roll.

[notawastedlife]

"I didn't give one to- I gave one to Rhodey?" Tony said. Had Peter mentioned that? Maybe he had. He wondered how that worked, he'd kind of pointedly been planning on not handing it over to the government, and potentially giving one to Rhodey was kind of the same deal.

"Are we even from- okay, did we sleep together, or are we on a team? If it's the second, you're probably from my future. Or an alternate dimension. If it's the former- let's say it's probably those, too, that's less awkward."

[the_wasp]

Her incredibly shallow but satisfying victory is completely undermined. She sticks out her tongue and looks vaguely queasy.

"Please. Sleep together? You wish." She shakes her head and reaches into the back pocket of her shorts, coming up with her Avengers card to display.

"Team. Avengers. Probably alternate dimension since you're a little older than you should be and, yeah, Rhodey totally got a suit. On special occasions, he's known as War Machine." She wiggles spirit fingers at him with her free hand. Because that name absolutely deserves it.

[notawastedlife]

Tony considered the 'you wish' statement, and gave it a slight lift of his eyebrows and tilt of his head to acknowledge it wasn't necessarily untrue. Taken, though. He'd have to drop that in at some point just to be clear.

"...War Machine? That's a little on the nose. And- we're on the same page that Iron Man is the cooler name, right? You and me, not me and him, we probably have arguments about it."

He absently shuffled that thought into a compartment, because thinking about how he missed Rhodey wasn't particularly useful or helpful.

"And you're...?"

[the_wasp]

"Iron Man's way cooler," Jan says firmly, shaking her head. "That's not even a question."

She offers out the hand she was wiggling for a handshake. Since he definitely does not know who she is, even in a civilian capacity. Disappointing but not the end of the world, she reminds herself.

"Janet van Dyne. The Wasp. I guess.. you've never heard of Dr. Henry Pym either?"

[notawastedlife]

Tony regarded the hand for a moment before apparently remembering what you were meant to do with them, extending his own to shake it.

"Nope. Well, yes. But not there, here, Pe-" he coughed, "people have mentioned him. I was the only superhero back home when I showed up here. Except Rogers, I guess, but he was still a Capsicle. That card, is that one of mine? Other mine's. It smells like Starktech."

Not literally smelled, but it seemed his style. Adjacent to his style, at any rate.

[the_wasp]

Not even Hank. Somehow, that feels worse than being a stranger to him herself. Her spirit dampens a little, visibly, and she misses his stumble-and-cough completely.

"Yeah, it's Starktech," she confirms, offering up the card. "Communicators. One of the perks of joining the Avengers. My faith in your tech is unshakable. I was screaming into that for about five minutes yesterday before I admitted defeat."

[notawastedlife]

"I like you. Please don't hand me things," Tony said. Faith in his tech was nice, but it didn't change his stance on being handed things, as in, didn't like it. "I could see myself making- not here, pointless, place is weird about long-range communications. Things that should work, don't."

[the_wasp]

She frowns, but then shrugs and balances the card on what she thinks is the cute little robot's head, in case Tony does want to take a look at it. That's not standard Tony Stark, but it's super low on the Howard Hughes Scale of Weird, so she's willing to let it go.

"Yeah, I caught that," she says dryly. "Usually I'm able to shrink down to the size of an insect and grow wings. And that's science. Don't ask me to explain the science, but it is."

[notawastedlife]

"...really? Because I would love to talk about the science of that- no? That explains the codename, I was wondering if your power was being preppy and rich."

He paused. "Is the shrinking really more useful? No, it would be, for rich you have... me, don't just stand in the doorway like you're selling something, come in."

He stepped back, snagging the card out of Dope's gingerly proferring clutch and turning it over in his fingers.

[the_wasp]

Jan grins and follows him in. She didn't think he would leave her standing on his doorstep when she set out on this trek, but there's something comforting about Tony's rambling. It's much like hers. (There's a reason, after all, that they always liked each other before the Avengers.)

"Being rich is a power I use for science and my wardrobe, not crime-fighting," she says, her gaze moving around to take everything in. "Bad guys underestimate me or don't even see me coming when I'm tiny. That's super useful. They're way too arrogant. They trip up real easily. But I can grow, too, I just don't do it. It's not fun. Hank can grow and shrink, but that's because of his suit. It has to do with Pym particles." Jan waves her hand vaguely. "He regulates them. I got too much of them, worked their way into my genetic code. Not that it matters here, huh?"

[notawastedlife]

"Not so much," Tony agreed, skirting around some piles of wood and trying to work out where the least construction-site spot was. "I'd be interested to see if that suit worked, though. Suits seem to work. Mine does, I can still fly. Do the other stuff."

[the_wasp]

She gasps and stares at him.

"It still works? Ooh, that is so not fair. You always get the coolest toys. And everybody else--"

Jan crosses her arms over her chest and sighs.

"Hank's helmet lets him talk to insects. They do his bidding. That's the next coolest gadget we have on the team. But if Hawkeye ever comes here, you tell him I said his arrows were extremely cool."

[notawastedlife]

"...his?" Tony said.

Right. Right, Kate was the second Hawkeye, there was that other guy.

"Right, him. Well, he can make new arrows easier than I can upgrade, so he's got that going for him. If we have an unending supply of bad guys that can be defeated by... pointy sticks, he's our man."

[the_wasp]

"...his. Him," Jan confirms with a little frown. Clint might be a lot of things -- Okay, he's just an archer and a smart ass -- but there's no confusing him for a woman.

"And don't mock the archer." She pokes him in the bicep with her finger. "Clint's a super vital member of the team. And Hulk likes him, so anyone who disses him can get smashed."

[notawastedlife]

"Never got to see that guy be... that guy," Tony said, making a sweeping gesture with his hand meant to be evocative of great mass, embued by rage. "Which I deeply regret."

[the_wasp]

"It's super impressive," she agrees with a little matter of fact nod. It's also super destructive at times and probably not something she should enjoy as much as she does, but she can't help it.

"Hopefully you'll never have the opportunity here though. I hear this Bruce is different from my Bruce, which means a different Hulk from my Hulk, which means.. who knows how much control either of them have."