enter Sir Grumpus McWhinelord, King of the Pissbabies [audio; filtered from Gene]

[highprofilerichkid]

[It's been a week, and Tony has done everything short of throwing himself on the floor of a Governor's office and literally kicking and screaming. And despite all his arguments and protests and even a few veiled threats, he is still stuck with Gene. They take this 'link' pretty seriously here. Tony thinks it sounds like a bunch of faux-mystical nonsense, but apparently he's not going to get the Governors to budge on it.

That means the only people he has left to turn to are the Fatemarked and his fellow Sentinels. He has absolutely no faith that the Governors are telling him everything. Maybe the other recruits will give him some straight talk.

The post is audio - he's not disguising his identity, but he's not going out of his way to make it obvious, either. He has locked the post from Gene, though. Gene already knows that he is extremely unhappy with the situation, and Tony really doesn't care about offending him, but he wants to minimize Gene's opportunities to needle him with snarky comments.

He makes a cursory attempt to hide the post from the bigwigs, too, but he's aware that it probably won't be effective. Fine. If they see him going behind their backs to get this fixed, maybe they'll start taking him seriously.]

So, these 'links' that some people have - what's the deal? The Governors can't really think we'll believe them when they say they don't know anything about them, right? Somebody's got to know how they work. And how to break them. Who else has one? Are they permanent? Does anyone have any idea why they happen? [...HE'S ASKING FOR A FRIEND.]

Comments

[brewglory]

Thus far, I have found no explanation for how the links work. I am interested in any answers you may find, however.

[highprofilerichkid]

What, did you get stuck with one too?

[brewglory]

I did not. That does not mean one may not develop, however, and that is a situation I would like to avoid. The link apparently has many different manifestations, and none of them are particularly appealing to me, regardless of their perceived usefulness.

[highprofilerichkid]

Well. It sucks, [Tony helpfully informs him.]

And I don't see how it's useful, either. [There is literally nothing useful about empathic nightmares. What the fuck.]

[brewglory]

How exactly did it manifest for you?

[traqueur]

So far nothing, but I think we may be one of the first groups to be linked. At least ones who are still here.

I'm Martha by the way, Martha Jones.

[highprofilerichkid]

Wow, lucky us, [Tony says sourly. That's not good news - he was hoping some of the longer-tenured Sentinels or Fatemarked would be able to shed some light on the phenomenon.] How many people has this happened to?

[traqueur]

Ten pairs, I think? Somewhere around there. I didn't actually count.

[highprofilerichkid]

N equals ten. I guess that's not a terrible sample size.

So you think this is a new thing? Or something that hasn't happened in a while? There would be records of that, right?

[traqueur]

I imagine there has to be some somewhere.

[And then, with a tone of admitting something.]

Not that I've found, though.

[aquilawful]

Stuck with someone you don't like? [Assignments were one thing; being somehow intertwined at a cosmic level does sound ridiculous to Jack's ears. But if it's true, just like if the rest of this is all true, well...] You're smart. If anyone does figure it out, you will.

[Both the link and whoever his new partner is.]

[highprofilerichkid]

Yeah, you could say that. [You can hear the glower in his voice: it's amazing it isn't burning a hole in his laptop screen.] I'm smart with engineering, [Tony complains bitterly.] Physics. Science. Not... stupid magic bullshit. Whatever this is.

[aquilawful]

From home? [Given the amount of hatred in Tony's tone, Jack sincerely doubts whoever he was linked with is a new acquaintance. That much enmity takes time or trauma.] Some people would call physics stupid magic bullshit. And exactly how long did it take you to figure that subject out?

[highprofilerichkid]

From home, [Tony agrees.] He only caused, oh, about all of my problems.

[He makes an annoyed huff at the comment about physics.] No it isn't. Physics follows rules. [Okay, so does magic, but they're stupid rules.] I don't even know where to start with this.

[But he seems slightly mollified by the compliment. He's dealt with more than his fair share of weird, baffling, and occasionally supernatural problems. Maybe he can figure this one out, too.]

[aquilawful]

Kidnappings from airplanes kinds of problems? [If so, that's a genuinely miserable setup he's got going.

Jack's tone and expression are sympathetic, but there's a hard edge to it - Tony strikes him as the kind of kid who needs direction. If he sits on his hands he'll end up going crazy.]

Well, start at the beginning. How do they figure out who the Fatemarked are in the first place? Figure out those rules, and some of them are bound to hint at the rest of the ones that don't make sense.

not here

[wrathfulkhan]

[Oh, cry some more, Stark.]

not here

[highprofilerichkid]

>:V

private;

[catchingwrenches]

Believe me when I tell you, kiddo, we are goddamned well stumped.

Your encryption's passable at best, but do yourself a favor and don't bother with it next time. Save the energy for something else. You play Minecraft?

Hi.

private;

[highprofilerichkid]

Just checking if you're paying attention. [There's a little bit of bite in his tone, like he said that with a not-very-pleasant smirk.]

And I think learning your computer system from the ground up is a pretty good use of my energy. [This is, after all, an entirely unfamiliar computer architecture. The encryption isn't his best work, but it's proof that he's been doing some serious code crunching in his downtime.]

private;

[catchingwrenches]

Hmm...Anthony Edward Stark, isn't it? [She knows you go by Tony, she's just being difficult. Congrats, Tony, she's like an older you.] In case you haven't noticed, there's a lot going on. But yes, we are paying attention. And no, we can't do anything about your link. Not even LoTUS can, and they're the smartest person I know.

[Her tone immediately turns chipper at the mention of the computer system.] Oh really? What do you think of the architecture? I took it over when I came on board so I'm patching holes all over the place. I'd love to overhaul it entirely, but that's just not in the budget right now, financially or temporally. Governoring is harder than it looks. Big time commitment.

private;

[highprofilerichkid]

So your whole organization exists because of these super special "fatemarked," but you don't know why or how they sometimes spontaneously form a mysterious mystical bond with one of your Sentinels? That seems like it might be important. No offense, [yes, definitely offense,] but that's not really filling me with loads of confidence.

[Even if her chirpy segue into shop talk is supposed to be some kind of passive-aggressive insult, Tony feels some grudging camaraderie for a fellow nerd.] Your system's alright, [he concedes.] Nothing special. [But it's not totally terrible either. You're welcome.

And then, because it's not classy to complain about how busy your schedule is to someone you've just kidnapped, he adds:] A whole year is a big time commitment too.

[video]

[cisskabob]

[Cissie's frowning thoughtfully, her chin propped up on a hand.]

Honestly, I haven't heard too much about them yet, other than that they exist and can happen. What are they?

[She pauses, and visibly hesitates, but. Tony, your phrasing gives you away.] ...Did you get one?

video; private

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony switches to video too, but he also locks it. Maybe he should have just automatically set all replies to private to begin with.]

They're some kind of psychic connection. I don't know why they happen or what they're supposed to do. [He grimaces.] I got one.

Re: video; private

[cisskabob]

[Cissie doesn't even bother trying to hide her surprise or alarm.]

What? Seriously? That's.. hideous. Who is it with? What kind of psychic?

video; private

[highprofilerichkid]

[Thank you. At least someone shares his outrage over the situation.]

Tell me about it. I don't know what kind of psychic. [Not really his area of expertise.] I think... it might work differently for everyone. I got one of those marks on my neck like the assigned Sentinels have, but it appeared on its own. And— [He pauses. No. He's not quite ready to talk about the dream yet, even with someone who he (relatively speaking) trusts. It still weirds him out too much.]

...They say it can have other effects. [Like the effect of making his skin crawl at the thought of being in some kind of empathic mind-meld with Gene.]