motherofnemesis | ic contact

smart

a) if i don't want you to find me you won't b) why do you need to know anyways

a. hah wanna bet b. because i'm curious

it's a bet you would lose

can't you just drop it?

why do you want me to so badly?

it's not a fun subject

not really a deterrent, sry

i'll figure it out eventually anyway; i'm a genius

where are you

subtle subject shift. where am i ever

not a subject change. might as well get it over with.

be there soon

[ wait really. normal people don't not avoid things. ]

awesome. can't wait.

[ no response to that, but she does in fact show up not much later, slipping in through the back quietly and circling around to the bench she's been doing most of her work on. ]

Can't wait is always an inaccurate statement.

[ He's just working, quietly, and not all that chatty, tbh, so he would have done better with the texting, but w/e. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters - that's the mantra right now. None of this matters. He'll go back home and he won't remember any of this time here and he'll be where he wants to be and with whom and if he hopes that Pepper gets stuck here too, with him, well, that just confirms a third of the things about himself that make him a horrible person. ]

You wanted to get the conversation over with?

[ texting removes the possibility of using her most valuable tool in a conversation that's going to be, she strongly suspects, unpleasant. even now she's tentatively feeling the waters, just seeing if there's any way she can dampen the reaction she's sure he's going to have. ]

I removed their anger and substituted boredom and apathy.

[ he's listening vaguely, also working on something else, and then it hits him after she's been finished talking for a little bit. He looks up at her completely, a little wary, and squints, trying to figure out if that meant what it really kind of sounds like it meant.

so, after a few moments of that, somewhat slowly: ]

You... emotionally manipulated them. Like, telepathically, not the kind that people use on each other to get others to donate to needy African children. You just... Told them not to feel something anymore.

[ a long pause, her shoulders perfectly square and back straight. She's not watching him entirely, her gaze just missing his face most of the time, sliding back to it and then glancing away again. She's got enough other senses to feel him realize what she said, anyways. ]

Yes. [ Short, concise, and then she is looking at him directly, tired. ] I'm an empath. Knock off telepathy via emotions. Not actually as fun as it sounds.

[ It's not so much that he ~suddenly feels uncomfortable in her presence or anything in as much as it is a vague 'oh shit' lack of hiding that seems to exist without prior warning. ]

Doesn't sound fun at all. Especially here. [ Maybe that means here for Exsilium or here for the workspace. but he continues. ] So you can change how people feel. To do that you'd have to feel what they're feeling in the first place.

[ It's about one standard deviation up the desirable side of the 'reactions to being told she's an empath' scale from the normal reaction, at least. Could definitely be worse. ]

Emma did fix my shields, though, so. [ A shrug, as careless as she can make it, and she looks away. ] It's easier now.

[ Ah yes that. ] That's the other side of it, yeah. I sense emotions and I manipulate them. Voila. Empath.

[ masking all the everything, even though mentally he has no idea how to shield. all he's doing mentally is tell JARVIS to rotate the schematic and then run it with a different set of parameters, staring at the screen as he watches JARVIS execute the command in front of him. It leaves a decently sized portion of his thoughts left over despite that for considering this development. ]

Only when you have to though, right?

[ she can feel the attempt, but immediately after that she's retreating, staying well away from any of his thoughts or feelings, pulling back tightly within herself. she'd really rather not do anything to jeopardize anything here. ]

I try to avoid it. Most problems have other solutions.

[ It's mostly physical reactions he's masking, because that's all he knows to do. He's got no idea how to hide his emotional ones beyond just not letting them show on his face, mentally shoving them elsewhere. And there's a lot of feelings right now that need masking, very few about this current situation. ]

Yeah, most do. [ He works again for a little while. Then stops. ] That was it? That was what you didn't want to tell me?

[ note to herself: teach Tony how to shield. actually, note to self, bring that up as soon as possible. it might help this whole thing, and then she won't need to worry about whether or not she's accidentally reading his emotions, because right now that seems like a Very Bad Idea. ]

Most people take it worse. [ a shrug. ] Most people take it much worse.

[ He knows how to shield from machines, so far, which... may or may not be completely different.

Yeah he'd take far less kindly to that than he would the general idea of this as a whole. ]

Yeah, I can see that. If you want, I can suddenly get really unhappy about it. Make things a little more authentic.

[ It's probably enough on the same principle to be a solid starting place, at least.

All good as long as it never happens. ]

No, that's - fine. Really. [ Joking is not a skill she's able to juggle on her repertoire right now. ] I can teach you how to shield yourself. If you wanted.

[ That gets a quick look. It very much says 'do I need to?' before he cools it back a little. ]

What would that entail.

[ Thaaat was not the reaction she was going for, but she's still not willing to try to use his head to navigate her way through the conversation, so hit and miss is to be expected. ]

It's not that hard. A lot of practice on your own once you know the basics is all. Not that it will help against someone high level, but anything basic.

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actiooon

aw yeah

highfives

\o/

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