you'll be a leper, be a healer, be a sinner, be a saint

[ahollowman]

What we've been doing for one-fortieth of a second can't continue indefinitely.

If you compare the six days in the Book of Genesis with the four billion years of geologic time, on that scale, one day is equal to about six hundred and seventy million years. At three minutes to midnight on the sixth day, mankind appeared. At one fortieth of a second before midnight, the industrial revolution began.

And it's unsustainable.

There were a couple things I learned eight years ago in a cave with Ho Yinsin. One of them? Was that it's all unsustainable. And it needs to change.

Ultron wasn't wrong. He wasn't right, either. But he wasn't wrong, even if the execution was, even if he lacked empathy. Even if he had no appreciation for the sanctity of life. Something's got to change. We've got to evolve. There's more out there, we've seen it, I've seen it, aliens, the Asgardians, dark energy. Cosmic Cubes. If we keep doing what we're doing, there is no future.

There's just one-fortieth of a second.


Darrow still used fossil fuels. It was weird, and Tony didn't like it. Why did it work that way? What made it that way? Who the hell could say, because Tony had yet to see even a single convincing piece of evidence that Darrow wasn't just some elaborate simulation, that it wasn't thoughts thinking thoughts of their own, ten million billion calculations every second on an alien computer.

So why did his motorcycle still run on gasoline?

There was a way to fix that.

It started with Henry Cheng, a boy whose first language was thought, a boy who needed his RoboBee. It became Panoptes Solutions. Soon it would be too big for the two of them, especially because there were things they couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't be in charge of. A think tank of two guys was a pretty shit tank. Phil had asked Tony how he'd sift for employees, and Tony had known the answer. He'd set up shop -- he had literally set up shop, they had computers and a band saw and a screenprinter -- and began to make logic puzzles.

Little metal boxes, opened very specific, convoluted ways. Not all the same, but different, with different kinds of puzzles. Meant to target different kinds of minds. Mechanical intelligence, social intelligence, knowledge of chemistry or advanced maths. Things for tactile learners, some puzzles better suited to observers or the more auditory type.

In the end, they all contained a business card with a web address on it.

The web address took them to a website that prompted them to submit a resume.

And if Tony liked the resume, the submitter was given the address of the shop that would one day be Panoptes Solutions and an invitation for an interview.

[ any characters who might be interested in joining the think tank are free to respond here under the assumption they solved one or more puzzles they found around darrow. it's up to you how difficult it was for your character. they can meet him at his shop, which looks like a half-furnished cement-floored shop with some equipment, a refrigerator, a blaring ghetto blaster, and truck delivery bay doors in the far end of it.or chase him down somewhere else. ]

Comments

[theyoungdetective]

And that is exactly why he brought his resume.

"Uh, no Mr. Stark," Tim says as he pulls the paperwork and one of the boxes from his bag. He does recall him wanting to be called "Tony," but this is business, and 17 or not, he was called "Mr. Wayne" at meetings, even if prefaced with "Young."

"Unless I got the address wrong, I'm here for an interview."

[ahollowman]

"Tony," he corrected again, because Tony Stark wasn't a huge fan of corporate culture, even if it'd made him twelve billion dollars. That was also why he hadn't set a specific time to interview anyone who he invited; only an open time window of 'business hours, M-F.'

"You interested in this sort of thing? Cutting edge tech? Clean, smart, cool? You do photography, right? That was your thing? Could use a photographer."

[theyoungdetective]

Oh boy. Eccentricity is not a front here, then.

As he wonders how Bruce would react to Tony (not well, he's guessing), Tim pulls out a tablet.

"Actually, photography is more or less just a hobby. This is more what I thought I'd be doing here."

It's mostly compiled of parts from last generation models he bought here and there, and he has a bunch of what he considers essentials for life in Darrow; your typical shopping and social media apps, Chalkboard for his accelerated classes. Catsunami, because even he needs mindless entertainment.

But, the majority of apps are Tim's own. Nothing too big. The really good stuff is hidden on his phone. He doesn't think there's too much harm in showing apps like the one he set up to listen to police scanners and get push notifications for things coming his way, though. Given what he arrived to, he thought it was something pretty much anyone would find useful, if they wanted to run from danger instead of toward it as he did.

A few others are versions of other data collecting tools he uses in his detective work, but adjusted so they could be used instead for academic purposes, scientific research, or even creative and social endeavors.

And a game called "Yappy Bird," but that's just out of boredom between work and Catsunami. Tim is not much of an artist out of photography.

[ahollowman]

"Really?" Tony's dark brow darted.

He took the tablet, looked over it, wildly scrolling through the apps, making noises, both impressed and less impressed, though for which reasons, he didn't share. Still, it was a nice body of work. Tony'd maybe been better at that age, but he'd also had a world of privileges. And from what he remembered, Tim had lived an odd childhood.

"Cool," he said, "Good job." The understated words were high praise from Tony Stark.

"Hired. You're on. Don't get a big head."

[theyoungdetective]

Tim takes his tablet back a little startles.

"Wait, that's it?" he asks, disbelieving.

After all, Tony didn't seem to recall his application at all. Even to blend over-priced frozen fruit, there was a lengthy interview with annoying questions regarding work ethic and how much desire to provide a service towards a healthier life style.

"There's no more interview process than that?"

[ahollowman]

"What?" Tony looked up, equally startled.

"I'm not a hiring manager. I'm a team leader. My gut tells me I want you on my team, you gave me a fried Oreo, and if you don't fit Darrow law says I have thirty days to fire you for literally any reason. Did you ... want an interview? Because I could, I dunno. Ask you questions."

He considered, not for very long.

"There's a train with thirty people in it headed down a track toward a bridge that's been washed out by a storm. You're near the lever that can switch the train to the other track. You can save the thirty people in the train, but only by killing one person who is working on the other track. What do you do?"

[theyoungdetective]

Tim's mouth presses into a thin line. It's not a situation he's entirely unfamiliar with, in actuality, and part of him really doesn't appreciate this suddenly becoming part of his interview.

"I figure out a way to get the worker off the track safely while getting the lever. No one dies."

He says it clearly, without hesitation, and with absolute certainty. He doesn't divulge that he already knows the details would likely be done with a mask and cape, or the use of a grapple gun. Even without the obvious way, Tim still would be figuring out a number of other ways out, depending on the actual lay out of the scenario.

[ahollowman]

"That's right," Tony said. He stood and moved toward the coffee pot at the counter on the other side of the room.

"That's correct. I know there isn't supposed to be a right answer to that question, but there is, and you had it, I don't care. Your answer is exactly what I'm looking for. Because there's always a better way to do something. And there's never a situation where you only have two choices. Because when you start letting yourself think like that, well. When all you've got is a hammer..."

Tony shrugged, and poured himself a cup.

"Coffee?"

[theyoungdetective]

His shoulders relax and he follows Tony further into the shop. It's... a bit of a dump, but in the way that his room is a bit of a dump. Full of unfinished ideas, but ideas that are clearly taking shape and obviously in need of more hands to be realized. Things that could be dangerous in less intelligent or less scrupulous hands. No wonder the hiring process is going the way it is.

"Uh, sure. Black is fine."

[ahollowman]

He poured it into a mug with a smiley face on i, black, and handed it over. He poured a cup for himself also, with a little sugar.

"Haven't told me whether or not you're interested yet," he said, watching Tim. "It's paid. No benefits yet, but they'll be in the contract at signing. Six months for full benefits. Call it a probationary period or call it loops to jump through, both would be the right answer."

[theyoungdetective]

"I'm interested," he answers before taking the mug. He takes a sip and the rest of the nervous tension seems to slip off Tim's shoulders. He ran out this morning and ended up settling for tea on the way.

"Honestly, I was more concerned when I found the first box, but I didn't find anything sketchy in the web address. There's, uh, a bad association with little puzzles like this just being left around where I'm from. But the second had me realized that I was bored with doing the whole 'normal' teenage after-school job thing. So, definitely interested."

His hand tightens a little on his mug.

"I'm just wondering if you're really interested in having a kid on the job. I mean, I'll be eighteen in a few days, but I still have a year of high school."

Not that he wouldn't hesitate to drop out again if he feels like the work he's doing is more important, but that aspect of a normal teen life is one he honestly likes, the week before prom aside.

[ahollowman]

"I love kids," Tony said. He did not. Alhough he understood them, because he was half a child himself. He did not dislike kids, though, because he saved the effort of dislike for things that deserved it.

"Serial killer or something? Bad association sounds interesting. Where I come from, cryptic hiring practices are Google territory. Also possibly the CIA, if you believe the rumors about Cicada 3301."

[theyoungdetective]

Tim nods, but internally cringes a little. He's not quite convinced Tony's tone and facial expression matched right for sincerity there.

"Not at first. More a thief and con artist with a bad compulsion that typically got him locked up in the end. But it escalated when he got frustrated with getting caught," he explains.

"It's mostly a Gotham thing, really. A lot of, uh, dangerous nutjobs so to say, so a little paranoia is kind of necessary for survival."

[ahollowman]

"Gotham?" Tony wrinkled his face up. "What a depressing damn name for a city. They could have picked literally anything else, and they went with that?"

Tony waved it away. Dangerous nutjobs? That he could relate to, that he could understand. He'd begun to make a career out of having his own rogues gallery of nutjobs, with Killian on the top.