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]

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.