4269/An Appreciation of Chocolate and Tech

An Appreciation of Chocolate and Tech
Date of Scene:	13 April 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Katherine meets with Tony to talk about End of The World.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Katherine

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Iron Man has posed:
    The original contact with the woman 'Katherine' got lost somewhere in the maze of priorities and emergencies. Sometimes even a warning like 'the world is ending' can get swept under the rug or put into the wrong bucket, with all of the various things that come through the Avengers. But during a routine check through contact data, her case was flagged, and one of the STARK AI finally marked it with a priority.

    And so here they are, a brisk morning on a Friday, with the staff at the front of the mansion readily welcoming Katherine: she's expected, and escorted into the main entryway, and then into one of the warm sitting rooms just off of the foyer, suitable for meetings. "Mr. Stark will be with you shortly," the employee says. "Can I get you any refreshment?" she questions.

Katherine has posed:
Having arrived again to the Avengers mansion, Katherine responds to everyone who's meeting her with a great big smile. She walks in and follows the employee leading her to a place to wait for Mister Stark. She does not have any shoes on her feet, but otherwise is dressed in a nice pair of business slacks, and a top that looks business-y if it weren't for the plunging neckline. Though if Carol mentioned anything about Katherine in passing for description, it might've included her odd taste in outfits and some mannerism problems. "Oh, thanks! Yes, I would. I love hot chocolate. And marshmallows." She mentions, "The small ones, those are so great, and they have more surface area so they melt faster, making the whole thing more delightfully delicious."

Iron Man has posed:
    The assistant laughs warmly. "I entirely agree. I never thought about it: that must be why it's better. I'll get that for you right away," She heads off to procure the drink, leaving Katherine to look around the sitting room for a little while. There's a small library there, chairs, and a view out into the back yard of garden and statues. The Captain America statue is in the foreground, the round shield with the star and stripes most evident through this window beyond the trimmed bushes.

    But then, Stark makes his appearance, in his usual explosive way, opening the doors wide and flashing his broad, charismatic smile. "Hi there, welcome. Katherine, right?" Tony asks, striding towards her, and offering a casual handshake. In his wake comes the assistant with the drink for Katherine; she'll offer it once Tony's not occupying her hands. "Thanks Rachel," Tony says to the assistant, but attention is entirely on Katherine. Tony's dressed in casual business attire: expensive but not remarkable, beyond being worn by Tony Stark.

Katherine has posed:
Nodding her head enthusiastically, Katherine is grinning the entire time the assistant is running through the thought process. Then as soon as the asssitant is gone, she heads walking over to the small library and starts quickly scanning book titles, searching for them in a digital copy online and downloading them into her memory. That's a good minute of her time waiting, and then she's looking around, analzying things. She's currently hunkered down next to one of the chairs, and looking at it instead of the grounds with the statues. She's sort of tipping it up a bit, then down, and she hrms, rubbing a bit at one end of the chair, until she smiles, "Ah there." And she stops fiddling, sitting down, "Perfect. 1/702nd of an inch unbalanced, now corrected." To hereself since no one else is in the room till Tony comes charmingly explosively in.

Standing up and walking over in his direction, she has a great big grin on her face, "Tony Stark. Yes, my name is Katherine." She takes the hand that is offered and shakes it, while still talking, "It is very good to meet you, I mean, I have seen you online, and in media broadcasts, and Carol and I had a great conversation about you. I almost came dressed as a schoolgirl for that, but I felt that would be more to persuade you instead of appropriatelly acknowledge the more professional and business nature of our meeting." She is still shaking the hand until then, and then finally lets it go. Eyeing the hot chocolate she takes it, her eyes get wide as she smells it, taking it in for a moment, before smiling, "Rachel, thank you so much. This is going to be amazing. You are Captain Chocolate." She offers and waits, then she looks between the two, and starts laughing, a full body shudder type of laughter, and it goes on for a good ten seconds before she sighs and stops. Sipping at the chocolate without so much as a smirk.

Iron Man has posed:
    Tony did see the lack of shoes. And a bunch of the other cues going on with her. Plus, well, the mansion scans visitors: generally for safety reasons. Or being nosy. "Tony," Tony gives his preference easily, of his name. No need for the full formality, simple first name is fine. He lifts his brows a little to the comment about wearing a schoolgirl outfit. "That would set a different tone, but you should wear what you like," Tony assures her, and gestures a little to the chair she'd been in, inviting her to sit again. He'll move to a different chair, reclining with an easy manner, one leg crossed over the other with an ankle resting on a knee. Rachel grins back about being Captain Chocolate, and lets herself out, shutting the door. Tony is amused that Katherine is amused: he's glad to entertain, even if he's not sure what he did. "You have a wonderful laugh," he compliments, in amusement, but without any real flirtation.

    "So, from what I have from Carol, you have some dire news. Or had. I'm hoping for less dire now, maybe a low level warning."

Katherine has posed:
There may be a lot of cues, and the scanners here are probably far more advanced than many others, but this looks like SHIELD technology (if Tony was privvy to any of the details about the Life Model Decoys). But it's pretty clear she's not with SHIELD.

"Tony." She repeats your name and then mentions, "You can call me Katherine." She nods, in a similarly friendly manner as everything else. "Oh, would the schoolgirl outfit be a preference?" She wonders, tilting her head a little to the side, inquiring in a more serious tone, but then you tell her she can wear what she likes and she smiles, "Thank you. I tend to wear what I like, based upon research what I am wearing right now is appropriate for my body style and figure for a meeting of professional nature." She clearly is checking online not with actual fashion research for that neckline is far too deep to be business oriented.

Taking a seat she leans back and sips at her hot chocolate and then mmms, she nods her head, "This is very good. You should give Rachel a raise. Do you think she knows how to exchange cryptocurrencies for actual money? If so, I could transfer some to her as a surprise bonus." And then she pauses for a moment before thinking, "Nevermind. She is paid well above average for an administrative assistant sort. My laugh? You like it?" She perks up and grins bit, "Thank you, again. You are flattering me. I enjoy that. People sometimes do not like my laugh. Or the way I stare sometimes. But, yes, news."

With that she hrms, and taps at her lower lip a few times, "So, short version. There's a incredibly advance nanite swarm that will likely take over the entire matter of all of the universe, including biological life, that is already probably in existence. Since it is almost impossible to pick up data from that far away I am unsure of how far along this process is, but it is almost certain that this Earth will come to peril in the future from such a threat."

Iron Man has posed:
    "It can be both flattery and truth at the same time," Tony points out as she analyzes his compliment about her laugh. Otherwise, he takes her in with a curiosity and alertness, quite interested in her reactions, movements, and perceptions as she presents them. As she's certainly in Tony's wheelhouse of interesting things. For multiple reasons, including neckline.


    Tony takes the information in stride, relaxed, it appears. "Okay. Peril at an unknown timeline. Do you have a scope of where the swarm is or how it functions? I'll accept any data you care to share on it," Tony says, switching raptly into a more focused mode. "I like to change probabilities like 'almost certain' into 'maybe never' when possible." A wink.

    "Also, if I may ask, how did you come by the information?"

Katherine has posed:
There's a pause, and Katherine is staring at you for a moment, and then she taps her lower lip again with her fingertip before then saying, "You are so nice." She says before adding, "86 percent of the time that is what women respond with to such kind words and flattery. At least, some similar connotation." And she waits for anohter moment as you switch gears.

She leans forward in the seat a bit, holding her hot chocolate and taking a sip, though she gets an equally serious look on her face despite drinking hot chocolate with tons of small marshmallows in it. "Hmmm. Yes. You have assessed correctly, and that is exactly what I wish to do. I am an engineer, advanced. Very advanced. Unfortunately I do not know how to get from where we are now to the level of technology that is necessary to slow, or stop this incoming problem." When you ask if you can ask about how she came by the information she smiles, "Yes, yes you may ask."

Iron Man has posed:
    "I've often heard I can be /exceptionally/ great; kind of you to say, though explaining your analysis takes a little bit of the strength of it out," Tony advises, with a flash of grin, amused by her, but not in a mocking way. It's difficult to not mess with her more, really, but for now he'll try to focus on the whole 'doom' aspect to the visit.

"I can build some good bridges, I think. If I have an idea of where we need to go," Tony says, offhandedly confident. Some view it as arrogance. "You've come to the right place for technology advancement," Tony assures her.

    He may ask? He does, with only a minor pause. This isn't different than asking queries of his own AI that don't have his upgrades on how to take logical leaps he wants them to take based on his personal speech patterns. "How did you come by the information and end up here?"

Katherine has posed:
"Oh. Shoot." Katherine pouts and nods her head, "I knew I wasn't supposed to say anything else." She quirks her mouth to the side before saying, "I'm a bit of a chatter box. Sorry, sometimes I just blurt things out." And she smiles still, "Perfect. Then that is easy. We are trying to create me, well, more precisely my old body." She indicates while looking at Tony.

For the answer to how she came by the information she says, "I was created when the nanite swarm was at the outer reaches of our Milky Way galaxy. Though I was able to, at the time, take over much of the swarm that was invading Earth to keep it at bay. All I could do was keep it at bay. My growth rate was stifled too heavily by its greater head start."

Iron Man has posed:
"Okay. Then it sounds like you have another body, earlier model, that I can get a closer look at?" Tony asks, with a flippant edge attached to it. Whether or not it goes over her head is of no consequence: he's amusing himself.
    "I mean, I'm guessing that's why you're here. I'm happy to deconstruct interesting tech," Tony says, managing to sound very relaxed and blase' about it, though his dark eyes are sharp.

Katherine has posed:
There's a few blinks and then, Katherine shakes her head, "You misunderstand. I do not have that body." She reaches up and taps her lower lip, "If I did, I would descontruct it. It is not an earlier model, it is a model far more advanced, and would... chronologically, be... well, it is not exactly your future or mine. It is my past, and it is technology that is yet to be invented here." She offers, "If you have an email, that I can forward specifications to, I will do so. Maybe after you have had a chance to review the documentation you will understand better."

Iron Man has posed:
    "Aw. I was hopeful we had parts of it, at the very least," Tony says, but doesn't seem actually dismayed. "I'm a bit surprised you don't have files of deeper scheomatics -- unless it's more the hardware creation that's blocking you from building. And I could understand the security needs, depending on what your model was used for -- all right. Email? I'd rather give you a physical drive to put everything on, with the security level of this," Tony says, flipping an object from his pocket that only vaguely resembles a phone, tapping away at the holographic interface of light that floats upwards from it with his fingers. Some of it keys off of where his eyes move. He then stands, and moves to one of the long consoles next to the bookshelf, opening a drawer, and fishing out a small USB style drive with multiple input styles. "Just mail or bring that by, or I can send a pickup to get it when you're set. Work for you?"

Katherine has posed:
"There were dimensional transference barriers that prevented the body from being moved. Only data and a small amount of matter could be transported." Katherine stands up as she offers, "Much of the universe's archives had been destroyed before I came into existence by the swarm. It would be the equivalent today of attempting to recreate the process of making viking ship glue that was water tight in the same way that they did hundreds of years ago. The ships are still here, and there are best guesses, but it is unlikely we can recreate the process. Now do that over multiple millenia and many more steps." Taking in a breath though she smiles and says, "Tell Rachel I greatly appreciated the Hot Chocolate." And she takes the drive, "I can put the data here, but my encryption would not break. Though to ease your mind, I will do as you ask and meet you again."

Iron Man has posed:
    "It does ease my mind," Tony chuckles in return. "We have some odd things in this word, with magic that chews up technology. Call it just habit, now, to watch my ass. And my new friends' asses - when I can." Tony spreads his hands some, and glances at his device. "Oops. I have to get to something else. Hope to get that data from you soon, Katherine," Tony says, getting to his feet. "If you want another chocolate to-go, we can arrange it," Tony says as well, cheerful.