12091/The Stark Files: Chapter 2

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The Stark Files: Chapter 2
Date of Scene: 29 August 2020
Location: Paris, France
Synopsis: The first clue leads our sleuths to Paris! Not a bad way to start a scavenger hunt.
Cast of Characters: Peggy Carter, Iron Man
Tinyplot: Stark Files


Peggy Carter has posed:
After chasing a few more leads of Howard's old notes, Peggy and Tony weren't having much luck. But there's an old diary and a fairly easily broken (if you know howard) coded phrase which came out in French. A strange, rather plain French saying, but something about it made Peggy laugh. She laughed and laughed. She explained it was an old boarding house, a place they stayed during the war and, since it managed to survive the war, they'd gone back to over the years. It was a strong enough lead that an actual excusion to Paris, France seemed in order.

Now, however, things seem horribly pointless. The old boarding house? Torn down ten years ago. In it's place is a modern looking coffee shop with achingly trendy young folk going in and our of it. Peggy stands in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at the place where so much of their past no longer lays. She's in a sharp, dark burgundy suit and black high heels, her outfit a little more high couture than she'd wear in the US. They were going to France, after all.

"...I can't believe it's gone. It was here... almost a hundred years. It survived two wars... How could they just... Tear it down?" She breathes out quietly.

Iron Man has posed:
"Uh huh... I agree..."

It's not a secret that Tony has a bad habit of not paying attention when others are speaking. He is, after all, a rude person. But maybe this particular time his absentmindedness is justified somehow? Not all the other times, obviously, but maybe this time?

No, he's got his sunglasses pulled down to the end of his nose, and he's exchanging flirtatious smiles with an 'achingly trendy' Parisienne who seems to be less than half his age.

In a white linen suit, with the top few buttons undone on the deep burgundy dress shirt he wears, Tony doesn't exactly look inconspicuous. But then, he rarely does.

The buttons are just low enough that the top of his currently empty RT Node can be seen.

Also chest hair, but the RT Node is what we're interested in.

Pushing his sunglasses back up, he returns to the task at hand. He's better at multitasking than most men, but just barely, so the task at hand seems to be taking up quite a bit of his bandwidth at the moment.

But what is the task at hand? It seems to be something involving a very high-tech looking screwdriver-like tool, and a very tiny piece of metal whose details are hard to make out with the naked eye. Maybe that's what the sunglasses are for?

"Well, we're here, right? Maybe we just head in, scope the place out, maybe... interrogate a few of the locals?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
If Peggy felt like revisiting what it was like to go to Europe with Howard, taking his son along was a rather perfect answer for that need. As Tony turns to somewhat flirt with that trendy young woman, she's walking a bit to the side to study the sidewalk, and the way the building presses into the others around it. He's having fun. She doesn't seem to know HOW to have fun and is just getting to work after getting over her initial shock.

She's about to try and jerk his attention back to her when he asks her that question about going in. "Probably. I... can't tell if they actually demolished the entire building or have just gutted, sanded, and repainted so much it still looks like itself. If it's the original building, there still might be something here." She tosses him a look, dark, curious eyes flickering to that strange tool in his hand and then back up to him. "...Can you get us any sort of...scans with that? And somehow, I doubt what you want to do with the locals is interrogate them."

Iron Man has posed:
"Ha! Scan with THIS!?" Tony holds up the vaguely screwdriver-esque device, looking at it with obvious merriment.

"God you're adorable. No, I can't get us 'any sort of scans' with my Omnidirectional Particle Arranger. It's for arranging particles." His voice is both infuriatingly smug and incredibly condescending, as if he were trying to explain a smartphone to a caveman.

He leaves the commentary on his interrogation methods untouched for the moment, unless the devilish, slightly patronizing smile is meant to serve multiple purposes. Instead, he begins walking toward the entrance, putting his tool away inside one of the pockets of his suit long enough to hold open the door for Peggy.

"That's what I brought my shades for. Already rendered the entire building down to its substructure, and compared it against all of the blueprints registered with the municipal authorities. Or... les authorities municipale, as they say here."

That's not how they say that, for the record.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"... that's not how they say municiple authorities here, Tony." Peggy states flatly, not even bothering to dignify his condesncing respons about the particle arranger. She just gives him a look, more than a bit chiding in it's stare, but she wastes no mrore time on it all. Peggy is fairly used to dealing with Stark men, their arrogance, and other whims.

She accepts the door being opened for her, giving him a slight tilt of her head in thanks. She's still a lady, especially when he does one thing that is gentleman-like. "...Alright, so, is this the original structure or not? If it is, they've ripped down most of the interior walls. This was a tiny lobby and then two halls of rooms, one upstairs, one down..." Peggy mutters, looking up to the now loft-tall, open air room done in creams and blues, clearly meant to be calming and trendy at the same moment.

Iron Man has posed:
"Easy there, Carter. You're giving off reeeeally serious vibes right now with all of this business talk. Don't be an Ugly American."

Smiling brightly, still wearing his high tech future shades inside, Tony approaches the counter and acts as if he's about to order something.

"Bonjour! Me amo Tony Stark. Donde es el... hold on..."

Tapping his shades, Tony looks a bit flustered.

"That's Spanish, isn't it? What the hell? That's what I get for downloading the free translation app."

The barrista looks at Tony blankly for a few seconds, before sighing loudly.

"It's okay. I speak English. We get a lot of tourists here."

Tony looks as if he's never been more offended in his entire life.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"..Anthony. I'm a British citizen. I'm *never* an ugly American." Peggy flatly states at him, trying to figure out if he was actually serious or maybe she walked straight into that joke. Still, she does try to soften a little bit, her smile more gentle and diplomatic than it was a moment ago.

The Peggy that was outside is entirely different from the Peggy in here. She's warm and casual, hips swaying a bit more, shoulders looser. His stumbling over the Spanish gets a slightly embarrassed look from her and she looks up to the bar mistress, speaking in perfectly fluent, elegant, Parisian accented French.

<<I'm sorry, you have to forgive my American friend. He doesn't get out much. I'll have an espresso with one of the.. Lavender almond biscuits. And...>> Then she switches back to English, giving Tony a smile that can best be summarized as 'bemused girlfriend putting up with clueless boyfriend', "Do you want an espresso, darling?" She's falling into a cover story already. it's just habit.

She then looks back to the barista, switching smoothly back to French, <<Tell me...was this a historical structure before? I swear it used to be a hotel...>>

Iron Man has posed:
Surprise surprise, but Peggy gets an entirely different reaction from the locals than Tony does. But it's a bit much to expect someone who pairs cheeseburgers and scotch to also be 'well cultured.'

<<Right away, mademoiselle... I'll just get that...>>

Standing off to the side a bit, and still fiddling with his Particle Arranger, Tony pays attention just long enough to loudly interject.

"Espresso? Hell no! I've got a heart condition, woman! I'll just have like an extra large regular coffee, heavy on the ice cubes, extra syrup and... a donut. Two donuts."

The barista looks as if she's never been more offended in her entire life.

"And a shot of cognac."

Rolling her eyes, the barista gets to work, pointedly calling into the back something about 'Un Cafe Americain!' which seems to draw groans from the rest of the staff.

<<Yes, actually. But it hasn't been a hotel for a very long time. The early Twenties, at least. I was still in school then."

Fortunately, Tony can't understand most of this or he'd feel incredibly old.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Well, they look no different than any other annoying American tourist couple, the man horribly clueless and acting as if he owns the place and the woman cleaning up after him. Peggy slightly winces at Tony's response about the coffee, and the donuts. She just stares at him a moment, trying to figure out if this is a part of the act or if it's really just Tony. Even she cannot tell. "I... don't think they have donuts. A chocolate croissant will do you fine..." Which she turns and orders in fluent French, as well.

"A drink when we're done here. I promise. And...should you be drinking? You *do* have a heart condition." She gives him a momentary pointed look, before gazing back to the woman and letting her smile go a bit more apologetic.

The explanation of the place gets a slight nod, though Peggy has to reset her mind to realizing the girl means the 2020s, not the 1920s. <<Did they tear down the original building? Sorry, I study historical architecture. I'd love to see any of the original work, if there's anything left. And it'll get him out of your hair. I promise we won't stay too long.>> And while tipping isn't really a thing here, a few francs above and beyond the call of duty almost always buys some good will and turned away eyes. Peggy slips five euros across the bar to the girl.

Iron Man has posed:
<<Oh, I don't see any problem with that. If you go down that hall past the restrooms, you'll see the door that leads to the basement. It's all still original and full of cool old stuff. And spiders.>>

The girl seems to have been mostly won over by Peggy before she gets the tip, but she's certainly more willing to turn the eyes away after receiving it.

<<Our owner likes it when tourists post pics to their social media, it's how we get most of our business. Your order will be ready in just a few minutes though, so no sex please. This isn't Amsterdam, after all.>>

"Uh... yeah... I agree with you. Totally. It's a... real good coffee shop."

There's some whirring from the device in Tony's hand, as he puts a few finishing touches on whatever it is that he's been working on for the past hour or so.

He seems to notice that something is happening, however, and sort of instinctively begins following Peggy. While looking almost straight down at his own hands. With sunglasses on. Sunglasses with crappy translation apps.

Peggy Carter has posed:
<<Thank you! Thank you so much, we absolutely will. We won't be long.>> Peggy tosses a look back to Tony, almost some sort of inside joke as she lofts a single brow. <<...No sex. I promise.>> And with that, Peggy turns on the ball of her foot and nods for Tony to follow, leading the way fairly quickly through the shop to the back hall.

When they are out of the public front room, she looks back to him, brows furrowing as she realizes he's still playing with that little device. "...And can I ask what has your attention so enraptured when we are in the middle of Paris? I could have left you at the hotel, if you wished, and told you what I found..." She doesn't really seem cross about it, more so a bit concerned that she's missing something important. Possibly to do with his missing arc reactor?

Then she's encountering an old, more original looking door, which she pushes open to a slightly more musty smell and aged staircase. "Here we go. The coffee girl said the basement is still original and we're welcome to take a look around. Just no sex." Peggy deadpans, as if that had been an actual concern. She flicks on the light switch and carefully picks her way down the hollow wooden stairs. "...this looks more familiar."

Iron Man has posed:
"You're absolutely right, and I'll work harder on that in the future."

It's almost as if Tony is working off a set of index cards that he's thoroughly internalized after years of repetition. It makes a person wonder who exactly he's been practicing all of these quasi-platitudes for?

But when they're actually inside the basement, he seems to suddenly be paying more attention. And not even because the word sex came up like three times. Instead, he puts the tool away, and holds out the palm of his hand.

"Already way ahead of you there, Carter. What do you think I've been doing the past hour and a half?"

The little metal thing in his hand begins hovering above his palm, slowly raises itself up further into the air, and then begins zipping quickly around the basement in a jerky haphazard manner like a hummingbird doing its best impersonation of a Roomba.

"Figured we'd end up in some crappy basement or... ugh... a crawlspace. So I outsourced all the boring looking for stuff to my new little buddy here. Took me a little longer to input the code through such a small interface, but I had some time after I finished building my new Arc Reactor so..."

Tony watches the little guy zip around, admiring his own handiwork with a smile.

"We just sit tight, and let the clues come to us. Tout de suite."

It's not the correct idiom to use right now, but he's getting closer to the ballpark.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Oh... Well that's... convenient. I suppose it makes up for your not listening to a single bloody thing I've been saying this entire time." Peggy stares at him quietly, that bemused look leaning a bit more towards insulted, but she's still used to keeping her frustration around Stark men. She has far more patience than most would have with him. (Well, most women who aren't fawning over his fame and fortune.)

"...And you made a new arc reactor!? What?? Why didn't you tell me? Hell, Anthony! We... we could have waited. You could have installed it! This... this is just a wild goose chase!" She huffs at him, that concern that always lingers in the back of her eyes just deepening now.

His little drone, meanwhile, is ducking off into the hallways. Searching for hidden boards, fake walls, anything Howard might have put somewhere that only they could find it. Sure enough, there is an ancient wine cellar that has been boarded up and a few planks tossed over. The modern staff probably doesn't even know it's there. But the boards are loose enough they can be pried up. There's definitely some things in there.

Iron Man has posed:
"Of course I've been paying attention! I can multitask better than most men."

This is true, but just barely. It's true in the sense that Tony is just generally better at most mental activities than most men, but he's not really known for his ability to give equal amounts of attention to a lot of different tasks. Like most men, he's pretty singleminded, and Tony can often spend entire days in The Garage before remembering that humans are supposed to eat food in order to survive.

Joining her over near the loose boards, Tony looks very reluctant to offer to do the prying. He almost looks guilty over it, but those boards also look really dirty and he's wearing a white linen suit.

"Maybe we should just come back with some cheap labor. Like a carny, or maybe Hawkeye. You and I aren't really qualified to be rooting around in this... hold on... what do you mean 'could have installed it?"

Tony grasps at his chest, feels the empty socket where he was supposed to have put his brand new Arc Reactor, and all of the blood drains away from his face.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peg is just about to crouch down and start prying up the boards herself, giving him a little, dismissive huff as he asks about getting some help back here. "Trust me, I've crawled through worse in more expensive dresses." She really does look at ease with the dust and dirty. A french wine cellar is just natural to her.

But then his words register. Dark eyes jerk up to him, a little too wide as she tries to figure out if he's joking. The pallor of his face answers any question she might have. "...Oh Tony..." She breathes out, heart deep worry behind her tone. Loose boards are forgotten as she dives into helping the not-quite-complete Iron Man.