[ Pre-shatterverse - warning for spoilers for Iron Man]It starts in the sky, several hundred feet up. There's a light and a bang, and something appears
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The wind blowing against his metal shell turns strange for a moment, and then there's a woman there, floating quite impossibly underneath him and trying to hold him up with arms made of directed air.
It doesn't work very well. He slows, but not enough.
Damn bloody quirky mortals and their damn bloody quirky armour.
"What the hell," says Sky, all in one breath because air spirits don't need your paltry mortal lungs, "are you hi I'm Sky and if I can get through that damn helmet I can stop you going splat."
On one hand, he may have been struck upon the head, and this is all part of the subsequent hallucination. Which would mean he'd be opening his helmet for no reason, except maybe to go unconscious from lack of proper oxygen before hitting the ground. (Which could be a good thing.)
On the other, this is real, and he should - no, no, this is definitely an insane hallucination.
...But just in case, maybe he should open up anyway. He's kind of low on other options. And he could just close the helmet again anyway. (Also, she's cute.)
"Okay," he says, hesitantly. "I'll let you in. But for the record, if you're not real, I'm going right back to trying to get the stabilizers to work properly."
There's a brief hiss - carried away by the rushing wind - and the suit's faceplate slides back.
And Sky darts her head forward and kisses his cheek.
It's... hardly even perceptible under all the other air movement going on here, to be honest.
But the effects are noticed immediately; for one thing, he stops falling as though his line to gravity has just been cut.
"Hi," she says cheerfully. "Again."
The other noticeable effect is that now she can... sort of touch him. Sort of. Her presence has an effect on him slightly more tangible than 'the wind is blowing in your direction', at least, though it's very much not easy to tell through that suit.
"Now that I've given you an air-blessing and saved your life, do I get to know your name?"
[ooc: And you are free to have him keep the little green lip-print on his cheek and accompanying ability to flip the finger to gravity at whim for as long as you like! In his business it will probably come in handy!]
Tony, frankly, is not surprised by the kiss. This isn't the first time a random woman has made romantic advances out of nowhere, although this is probably the furthest lengths any of them has gone to do so.
...And the first time any of them has had that effect on him. (The floating, that is.)
"Okay, not falling. Hoping this is real. I - you don't know who I am?"
Okay, it's true, he was just flying over Afghanistan. Maybe (appearances aside) she's a native. Who's never seen a copy of Forbes or Wired. And has never picked up a newspaper.
Tony Stark's ego is willing to concede, just this once, that there could be someone out there who doesn't recognize him.
"Yeah, it kinda is," he says with a bit of a smirk. "I'm Tony Stark, head of Stark Industries."
She grins, and taps his chestplate (there's a faint shushing noise instead of the expected rapping).
"This thing supposed to do anything besides make your life difficult? Since I'm betting the main reason people build airtight seals back where I'm from isn't a problem for you."
That being: air spirits can't spy on you if they can't get through your walls.
Somehow she doubts he'd have much of a problem with her staring at him in the shower even if there were spirits in his home 'verse.
His first thought is, Sky? Must've had hippie parents. His second thought is, She's floating and apparently made of air and the best you can come up with is hippie parents?
"Oh yes. It's designed to protect me when I fight the bad guys and hey, right, just remembered I'm still a couple hundred feet off the ground here. Will your, uh," he waves a hand vaguely at his face, "blessing thing last for about fifteen seconds while I do a full system reboot?"
"Yeah, trust me, you'll get warning before it fades. Spirit blessings don't cut out all at once. Bad for business."
Seeing as they're protective, and you don't want a mortal left sitting in the middle of a fire / ice-storm / the goddamn sky with a surprised look on their face as they char, freeze, or splat. 'Cause then their buddies won't burn you delicious incense.
Speaking of which, Sky may be sniffing the air thoughtfully. Tony's suit does not produce nasty exhaust! She approves!
"You're good for at least a day until it wears off," she continues. "More if I like you, and I'm starting to think I do."
...seriously, flirting with the mortals. Why. No. Bad. Fundamental incompatibilities.
Is it possible that the glowing electromagnet nestled in Tony's chest has had the side effect of increasing his natural animal magnetism? Only time will tell!
Regardless, he doesn't exactly look unhappy about Sky's proclamation, one way or another.
"O-kay. I'll be right back."
The helmet slides shut, and for a moment he hangs there in silence. All across the suit lights dim and go black - except the big one in his chest, that never fades - and then snap back on. There's a low mechanical whirr, and the spoilers along his back start to move, testing the air.
"Now that's much better," comes Tony's voice from inside the suit, tinny once more. "I think I should be able to fly properly now, I should probably do a test to be -"
Various rockets power up, cutting him off: he zooms forward a short distance before bringing himself into an upright position, hands out at his sides for balance.
"Well I should probably get out of this suit and do a full systems check, to be sure. So I need to get back to my lab. And Malibu is..."
On the suit's HUD, backup nav systems are taking effect, calculating things like compass direction, location of the sun, visible natural landmarks on the ground far below.
"Oh, I see. You're mocking me, is that how it is?"
He tumbles into a controlled spin to one side, trying (and likely failing) to out-maneuver her. This is what it's all about: the speed, the rush. Like racing Happy to the Stark Industries campus in his Audi R8 just because he can.
He pushes for faster, faster, as much as he can without kicking in the supersonics.
That is majorly unusual.
The wind blowing against his metal shell turns strange for a moment, and then there's a woman there, floating quite impossibly underneath him and trying to hold him up with arms made of directed air.
It doesn't work very well. He slows, but not enough.
Damn bloody quirky mortals and their damn bloody quirky armour.
"What the hell," says Sky, all in one breath because air spirits don't need your paltry mortal lungs, "are you hi I'm Sky and if I can get through that damn helmet I can stop you going splat."
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"You're not an F-22," he tells her, voice made to echo and growl by the suit.
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For the record: translucent, no. Intangible, yes. And all right, a little blurry at the edges. It's the speed.
[ooc: unless the suit isn't airtight. She'd know; I wouldn't. XD]
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On one hand, he may have been struck upon the head, and this is all part of the subsequent hallucination. Which would mean he'd be opening his helmet for no reason, except maybe to go unconscious from lack of proper oxygen before hitting the ground. (Which could be a good thing.)
On the other, this is real, and he should - no, no, this is definitely an insane hallucination.
...But just in case, maybe he should open up anyway. He's kind of low on other options. And he could just close the helmet again anyway. (Also, she's cute.)
"Okay," he says, hesitantly. "I'll let you in. But for the record, if you're not real, I'm going right back to trying to get the stabilizers to work properly."
There's a brief hiss - carried away by the rushing wind - and the suit's faceplate slides back.
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It's... hardly even perceptible under all the other air movement going on here, to be honest.
But the effects are noticed immediately; for one thing, he stops falling as though his line to gravity has just been cut.
"Hi," she says cheerfully. "Again."
The other noticeable effect is that now she can... sort of touch him. Sort of. Her presence has an effect on him slightly more tangible than 'the wind is blowing in your direction', at least, though it's very much not easy to tell through that suit.
"Now that I've given you an air-blessing and saved your life, do I get to know your name?"
[ooc: And you are free to have him keep the little green lip-print on his cheek and accompanying ability to flip the finger to gravity at whim for as long as you like! In his business it will probably come in handy!]
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...And the first time any of them has had that effect on him. (The floating, that is.)
"Okay, not falling. Hoping this is real. I - you don't know who I am?"
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Sky... grins.
"That's kinda cool."
...DAMMIT WHY CAN SHE NOT STOP FLIRTING WITH THE MORTALS.
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Tony Stark's ego is willing to concede, just this once, that there could be someone out there who doesn't recognize him.
"Yeah, it kinda is," he says with a bit of a smirk. "I'm Tony Stark, head of Stark Industries."
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She grins, and taps his chestplate (there's a faint shushing noise instead of the expected rapping).
"This thing supposed to do anything besides make your life difficult? Since I'm betting the main reason people build airtight seals back where I'm from isn't a problem for you."
That being: air spirits can't spy on you if they can't get through your walls.
Somehow she doubts he'd have much of a problem with her staring at him in the shower even if there were spirits in his home 'verse.
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"Oh yes. It's designed to protect me when I fight the bad guys and hey, right, just remembered I'm still a couple hundred feet off the ground here. Will your, uh," he waves a hand vaguely at his face, "blessing thing last for about fifteen seconds while I do a full system reboot?"
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Seeing as they're protective, and you don't want a mortal left sitting in the middle of a fire / ice-storm / the goddamn sky with a surprised look on their face as they char, freeze, or splat. 'Cause then their buddies won't burn you delicious incense.
Speaking of which, Sky may be sniffing the air thoughtfully. Tony's suit does not produce nasty exhaust! She approves!
"You're good for at least a day until it wears off," she continues. "More if I like you, and I'm starting to think I do."
...seriously, flirting with the mortals. Why. No. Bad. Fundamental incompatibilities.
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Regardless, he doesn't exactly look unhappy about Sky's proclamation, one way or another.
"O-kay. I'll be right back."
The helmet slides shut, and for a moment he hangs there in silence. All across the suit lights dim and go black - except the big one in his chest, that never fades - and then snap back on. There's a low mechanical whirr, and the spoilers along his back start to move, testing the air.
"Now that's much better," comes Tony's voice from inside the suit, tinny once more. "I think I should be able to fly properly now, I should probably do a test to be -"
Various rockets power up, cutting him off: he zooms forward a short distance before bringing himself into an upright position, hands out at his sides for balance.
"Oh yeah. We're in business."
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(It... sounds kind of lame. Hands made of air, and all.)
She also swirls over and grins impishly at him.
"Race you, flying man," she suggests. "You pick the goalposts."
Man, she always picks the bestest mortals to give the kiss of blessing to, doesn't she just.
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On the suit's HUD, backup nav systems are taking effect, calculating things like compass direction, location of the sun, visible natural landmarks on the ground far below.
"It's..."
Ah, hell with it.
"This way!"
And he zooms off.
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Okay, air spirit racing mortal? Probably not fair.
Especially not because that's Sky's blurred-as-hell outline doing looping barrel rolls around his suit. Mockingly.
(He hasn't gone supersonic yet, or she wouldn't be giggling. There actually are limits to her speed, much as she wouldn't like to admit it.)
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He tumbles into a controlled spin to one side, trying (and likely failing) to out-maneuver her. This is what it's all about: the speed, the rush. Like racing Happy to the Stark Industries campus in his Audi R8 just because he can.
He pushes for faster, faster, as much as he can without kicking in the supersonics.
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