[Video] Week 34 - Friday Evening

[wisdom_of_hounds]

So about this fog...

[Hey guys, there's a redhead on your network looking magnificently scruffy. That is full Irish beard right there. Actually... that's way more than a week's growth for those of you that knew he was leaving. He's currently sprawled out on the stone floor of his cavern hideaway, holding his arm up so the video's looking down on him.]

I was hoping to make it back into town today but apparently Verdana had other ideas. [And there's a knowing smirk that comes with that because he at least has spent most of the last weeks (as far as he knows) talking to her.]

So, I don't know when I'm going to be able to get back but... [His free hand comes up to thread through his shaggy crimson curls.] Anyone out there good with a pair of scissors?

[Private to Lyall]

As soon as this damn fog clears we need to go hunting... Oberon is bored out of his mind and we both need to stretch our legs. You in?

Comments

[pepperspray]

Trust me, I've handled engineers coming off of a 72 hour R&D binge. I can handle smell.

[Her attention shifts for a moment as an indistinct but emphatic sound that's probably 'Hey!' filters in from off camera right on time for someone to have been eavesdropping on her half of the conversation. Amused dimples have blossomed as she turns back.]

Do you only encounter ostrich-eating ladies every second Tuesday, then?

[wisdom_of_hounds]

[He grins, biting back laughter as she turns her attention back to him.]

Unless I mistake your accent I don't really meet too many east-coasters that eat ostrich. That's more of a... uh... well an African thing, really. Don't exactly see a lot of ostriches in the US.

[pepperspray]

[Pepper's accent is definitely East Coast professional class, but there are a few notes here and there that say she wasn't always born to it. Just where is indistinct, although still American.]

There was a fad for ostrich ranches back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, if you're from the right time and place to remember them. I think I must've munched my way through about twenty venture capital raising presentations.

[wisdom_of_hounds]

[It's something that sounds vaguely familiar. That was the time he'd been moving into Arizona, after all. And the Southwest was as close to their natural habitat as America got.]

Well they're not bad eating at least? So you're some kind of businesswoman then?

[pepperspray]

CEO of Stark Industries. Clean energy research and advanced technology development, these days.

[Pepper's smile is a slight one but there's a note of pride there, as well as the tacit assumption that Atticus, product of roughly the same time period, will have heard of the company. The expression turns crooked a moment later.]

Of course, that means very little here.

[wisdom_of_hounds]

Stark? Oh so you’re from New York, huh? [He smirked a little before remembering that Thor was friends with these people from New York.]

I’m from Arizona, about the same time as you, I guess. Though we haven’t had any alien attacks where I’m from. I mentioned the year and was asked if I knew you guys. [There's a pause, a frown, and then an exaggerated look of pity.]

Wait does that mean you're stuck here with your boss? Talk about getting the short straw.

[pepperspray]

We do have some holdings there, and I'm finding that we're splitting time there more and more since the ribbon cutting on Stark Tower -- self-powered building, very shiny -- but 'home' as much as I'd say have one would probably be Malibu. And... well, 'boss' is relative.

[Normally this sort of reiteration would give Pepper a headache, but as Atticus seems both friendly and not a member of the press, and as there's a fog to wait out and the sounds of a bored engineer up to something she's maintaining plausible deniability on in the background, she doesn't seem to mind too much today.]

Tony was my boss, until he made me CEO of his company, which means that I'm the one ultimately signing his paycheques for the work he does. He, of course, is the owner of said company by way of having 51% of the shares. After the CEO thing, I decided I could take leave of my senses and date him, and since the stock's been thriving again and the investors are happy with what I'm doing, the press has mostly stopped implying that I totally slept my way to the top.

[wisdom_of_hounds]

[He nods, wincing a little at that last bit.] Yeah I could see where the press would have a field day with that kind of thing.

Sounds like you guys are doing well for yourselves though, so... uh... congrats? Splitting time between Malibu and New York sounds like a pain in the ass though. [At least for someone that has to make the trip via airplane or any other modern vehicle instead of shifting planes.]

[pepperspray]

Well, that's what corporate jets with satellite uplinks are designed for... but I admit I've pretty much gone right through jet lag to some strange other side by now. Or I did before ending up here, at least.

[Pepper's good cheer falters for a moment, as hopeful thoughts of getting home get tangled up in concerns about how seamlessly she might be able to adapt after all this time. Smile reinforcing itself, she moves on.]

But the corporate world is a lot more boring than the movies paint it as. What part of Arizona are you from?

[wisdom_of_hounds]

[He can understand that little pang of homesickness, it’s one he’s been familiar with long before showing up here, after all. He doesn’t comment, just lets her pull that smile back into place and keep going. It’s really all you can do.]

Somehow I doubt the life of a bookseller from Tempe is much more interesting. [Not that that’s exactly what he is but… she doesn’t need to know that.]

[pepperspray]

Oh, I don't know...

[Pepper's smile is still small, but a little more genuine as time passes.]

I didn't spring fully-formed from the forehead of the accounting pool, so I've done my time working retail. Comparing the similarities between entitled board members and entitled customers could be good for a laugh some time.