El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
“Chasing an answer, a sign lost in the abyss, this metropolis…”
Enough was enough.
It had been almost two weeks since the first time she’d caught Tony staring at her like a wounded puppy. And it had been almost two years since their drunken one night stand after a company Christmas party. She hadn’t actually spoken to the genius in the past few weeks - he’d seemed a bit off, puppy eyes aside - but today, that was going to change.
She’d put on her best suit - the one she’d worn to her interview with the company a few years back, as a matter of fact. Coupled with the ruby necklace her dad had bought her for her birthday after graduating college, and a snazzy pair of heels that matched her camisole, she was fairly certain she was currently the sharpest dressed woman in the building. The only one who could possibly outmatch her today was Pepper Potts, but well, it was Pepper fucking Potts. Nobody outdressed that woman.
One of the perks of her position meant she had access to just about everyone on staff at Stark Industries, including Tony’s assistant. Penciling herself in for an appointment at the beginning of his workday was easy. The fact that she occasionally went out for drinks with the young woman who managed the Stark heir’s schedule also ensured that she’d know if he tried to sneak out before any appointments could arrive for the day. It might be considered a slight abuse of power, but for this, she was willing to get a little Fifty Shades of Nay.
By the time Tony arrived at his office, Darcy was standing casually by his door. “Morning, Stark,” she chimed, turning and opening the door for him. “I’ve just got a few things to run by you if that’s cool.” She hadn’t told the assistant what the meeting was about. The truth was, this was personal business and as such, it was none of hers.
Once the genius was inside the office - where he couldn’t flee - she closed the door behind them and moved with an air of confidence towards the guest chairs in front of the desk. It was personal, yes, but she needed to keep it professional. She couldn’t just lose her shit at her boss. That was a recipe for disaster and honestly, she kind of loved her job way too much to put that at risk. Rather than sitting down, she remained standing and turned to look at him, putting one hand on her hip. “Alright, dude…” Whoops. Not exactly professional. Oh well. “What’s the deal? Are you okay? You’ve kinda been givin’ off some real weird vibes lately…”
It had been difficult to deal with changing worlds, and one of the main reasons was the loss of Darcy. Not that he didn’t still see her, but they clearly weren’t anything more than co-workers in this world - where he was dating a different woman that he couldn’t really break up with out of fear of someone realizing he didn’t belong here. It was hard to see Darcy - a version of her at least - and not be able to wrap around her like he wanted to. Something familiar in this insane world would be nice, after all.
So when he arrived for the morning to see her waiting outside of his office, he very nearly turned to go back into the elevator and avoid her instead. But he was an adult and he couldn’t just hide from things anymore, much as he wanted to sometimes. Like right now.
“Uh. Morning. Yeah. Okay,” he replied to her greeting with a sigh, shoulders sagging a bit in resignation. He preferred to keep his distance from Darcy, lest he do something that he regret or get yelled at for or something of that type. He trudged past her into his office and quickly slunk his way to his desk chair, glancing toward where there used to be a mini-bar as he wished for a drink to take the edge of nerves off. Being sober sucked.
He blinked up at the young woman as she started talking, irritation clear in her frame. “Nothing’s the deal. Well. A lot’s the deal, but it doesn’t have to do with you. I stopped drinking. There’s gonna be weirdness,” he replied, trying to wave off whatever she was thinking with the same excuse he’d been using a lot lately. No longer being drunk most of the time was a good excuse for the change in demeanor between himself and this universe’s version of him.
Had he been too obvious in missing her? He supposed that he had, given that she’d thought a confrontation was needed. He shifted awkwardly in his chair as he avoided meeting her eyes or even really looking at her in general, instead shuffling through papers on his desk.
“Chasing an answer, a sign lost in the abyss, this metropolis…”
Darcy couldn't help but notice something in Stark the moment she laid eyes on him. He reminded her of a groggy gazelle. There was something in the sudden tension of his shoulders and the way his eyes had widened for just the briefest moment that suggested he was currently fighting his flight instinct. Thankfully, he didn't run, which meant she didn't have to make him look like a pansy bitch by kicking off her heels and chasing his ass down.
"Awesome. Thanks, boss." Flashing the receptionist a quick grin of success, she ushered the billionaire into his own office and got to work on her plan of confronting the man on his recent behavior. At least she was nice enough to take it straight to him, though, and not to HR. Or to his dad.
Granted, she really didn't want any of those parties to know about the Christmas party incident, so... here they were. Solving problems face to face like adults! Her dad would be proud - about the problem solving aspect of the situation, at least.
When he said nothing was the deal, her body language shifted to one that clearly stated she didn't believe him. One hip jutted out, both arms crossed over her vast tracts of land, and she arched a finely plucked eyebrow. The hell nothing was the deal. Her posture softened almost instantly as he backtracked, but the eyebrow remained hovering in curiosity.
"Oh..." Her face dropped into a look that could almost be construed as apology all on its own and she turned to glance towards the minibar. Sure enough, he'd had it cleared out. Well, damn. Now she kind of felt like an ass. "Uhh... Okay. Sorry, I didn't know..." The conversation had gone from slightly tense to immensely awkward in less time than it took to down a shot of Patron.
Maybe she should try to insert some humor. Smiling would help him get through his sobriety, right? "Not gonna lie - I totally thought the weird looks you've been giving me were because of that Christmas party a few years ago," she chuckled. If he was just sad because he was depriving himself of alcohol, there was no reason they couldn't get a laugh out of their drunken one-night stand, right? "I'm just glad we always have those things on Fridays at a venue outside the tower."
She shuddered to think just how many desk spaces would have been ruined by amorous party-goers if they didn't. Thank goodness her office had a lock. At least when the party was at a rented ballroom type place, people could sneak away to have their drunken sexy fun times. Maybe it had been the drinks that night, but she'd actually been impressed by Tony's ability to actually sneak when they'd finally decided amicable flirting wasn't enough. Lord knew everything else that man did was loud and in-your-face.
The look that Darcy had about her right now was very much her 'you're in trouble, mister, and you're gonna hear about it' look. Tony was quite familiar with it and even though it made no sense, a shock of homesickness coursed through him at it. He missed his world and his girlfriend. He missed the people and the company and not having to worry about being found out every second of the day. This world was exhausting.
He shrugged a little as the mention of sobering up made Darcy falter a bit. "I thought everyone knew already. It's not a big deal. It was just... time to do it, I guess," he replied, smile turning wry and just a bit tense as he spoke. The reasons he'd had for becoming sober hadn't happened in this world. Here, it had been what Howard and Kayley thought was a small break in reality. For Tony it had been something far worse.
His eyes went wide at the mention of a night at a Christmas party and he stared at her for a long moment while his brain tried to catch up. So he'd slept with her and decided to date someone else instead? What kind of idiot was this universe's Tony, anyway? That was just plain ridiculous.
Clearing his throat, he looked away from Darcy and down at the papers on his desk. "Well. Certainly not that," he replied, more of a mumble than anything, "And we have the parties at another venue so people don't spill bodily fluids and alcohol all over company property." He shuddered as he remembered the year that they'd had to clean vomit out of a copy-machine. Discovering that had been... well, 'not fun' was an understatement.
He shook himself a little. "It's not anything with you. I've just been zoning out a lot lately. The drinking - it started as a way to calm my mind so that I could focus on a singular task at once. Now that I'm not doing it, my brain is like... it's like watching six to twelve TVs on different channels at full volume all at the same time. It's hard to concentrate." He shrugged a shoulder, still not quite making eye contact again.
“Chasing an answer, a sign lost in the abyss, this metropolis…”
As social as she was, Darcy tended to keep as far away from the gossip mill as possible. If people wanted to talk about her behind her back, she really would rather not hear about it. As management, she had no doubt there were rumors abound about her. Only a small percentage were likely true, of course, but for her sanity’s sake, she just avoided them all.
“Nah. I don’t buy into word on the street - or in the halls, as it were,” she offered with a shrug. Despite how over-the-top Tony had always been, deciding to sober up was a personal choice, so really it wasn’t her business to begin with. The fact that he’d offered it to her, though, made her feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. It was nice to know that your boss trusted you with sensitive information like that -- even if he did assume everyone and their mother already knew. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Oh, way to go, Darcy. Step one: open mouth. Step two: insert foot.
“I mean, not that I think you need it or anything, but I’ve never heard of anyone’s life getting ruined by deciding to quit drinking.”
Good save… not.
Tony’s reaction to her comment about the Christmas party was nothing short of frightening. Shit. Had he been so drunk he didn’t even remember it? That was one way to make a girl feel good about herself. Ugh, but she’d just complained to Felicia about it possibly being the reason for his stupid sulky looks and now it seemed he might not even have known about it?! Bravo, Lewis. Bra-fucking-vo.
Darcy could feel the blush filling her cheeks and instinctively looked down and away when he decided the papers on his desk were suddenly extremely important. “No, yeah, of course. It was silly of me to think…” she tried adding on, her own voice considerably less confident than it had been at the beginning of this little meeting. Letting out a quiet snort at his reasoning for not hosting the party at the office, she nodded her understanding. “I’ve heard horror stories from before my time here…”
Her eyes drifted up slowly as he began to speak more, her expression softening the further he went on. “That sounds… absolutely horrific,” she announced. “Is there, uhh, anything I can do to help? Get you some vitamins or… uhh… I dunno. But if you need anything, I’m more than happy to help, Tony.” Even despite their one-night stand, it wasn’t often that she actually called him by his first name. He was her boss, after all. But with how personal the conversation had turned, she figured it wasn’t a terrible move.
He supposed that it made sense to not believe rumor when it came to him, but he was still a little surprised when Darcy said it. She was still so wonderful in this world and Tony didn’t know how he was supposed to deal with that. He wanted so badly to get up from the desk and go over and wrap her in a hug, but he couldn’t. And the person that he was supposed to want to do that kind of thing with was someone he was doing his best to avoid when he could. It was pulling at him; stressing him out more than he really needed to be this soon after the sober-making decision.
Chuckling a little as Darcy seemed to get tongue-tied over his response, he simply smiled over at her. "Yeah, that’s true. It wasn’t exactly a leap that I was excited to get started on, though. Not after decades of dependence." He shrugged, trying to make the motion appear nonchalant despite the distinct discomfort with the situation that was settling in his gut.
Tony realized a little too late that it probably wasn’t a good thing to lead a girl to think that you’d forgotten about your one-night-stand with her and he wasn’t really sure how to fix that. Was she going to be angry? A glance showed that she mostly looked embarrassed and he searched for a way to make that better. He wasn’t sure there was one. "I can get, uh, overly sentimental. When I… I just. Uh. I’m sorry if I’ve been looking at you funny?" Great, that probably would make it even worse. They made quite the pair, really.
Moving on to the horror of in-house parties and other things seemed far safer, so he let the conversation flow there before he did something more idiotic.
The admissions about the root of his drinking problem weren’t something that he’d really expected to flow from his mouth so easily, but Darcy had always been easy to talk to. If there was anyone that Tony could trust with this kind of thing, it would be her, and he supposed that it didn’t matter if they were dating or not for that to be true.
He shrugged a shoulder. "I’m getting used to it. Slowly." He looked up again to give her a smile. "But thanks, Darcy. I’m glad that we’re still friends. After everything." He wasn’t sure that he could deal with it if he’d lost her completely with the universe change.
“Chasing an answer, a sign lost in the abyss, this metropolis…”
As the Chief of Staff, Darcy was privy to quite a large amount of information, even just when it came to the goings on of the employees at Stark Industries. So far as she was concerned, however, every rumor that hit her ears was nothing more than hearsay until she got proof herself, or from one of her deputies. If she bought into every bit of gossip that floated through the halls, she wouldn’t have half the people who were currently employed by the corporation. Quitting drinking really wasn’t a reason to fire a guy at least.
Granted, there was nothing she could have done to reprimand Tony for any bit of slander.
Darcy’s lips twitched into some semblance of a smile as Tony didn’t harp on her for her verbal blunder. He was a merciful and forgiving boss, and for that she was extremely thankful. “Oh?” she responded, without thinking about the possible consequences of inquiring more into the personal life of her boss. “Do you need to talk about it or anything? Because, I mean, I scheduled you for half an hour and it’s been all of five minutes. Like, is talking one of the steps or… there are steps, right? Or is that just with death?”
She was in so far over her head it was stupid. Honestly, she needed to just stop talking. Hell, she probably should have stopped talking minutes ago, as soon as she found out he wasn’t mooning after her because of their one night stand two years ago. The longer she stayed here, the higher the likelihood that she’d walk out of his office unemployed became.
“Overly sentimental?” she asked, feeling her cheeks flush slightly. Sentimental? Over sex? She was pretty sure that’s all it had been. Granted, she’d been pretty smashed. But she was typically just a happy, flirty drunk - not some mushy romantic. Maybe he’d been the romantic? “Uh, yeah. It’s okay. I just didn’t want to get you in trouble…” More like she didn’t want to get in trouble her own self. “I know it was before Kayley, but as your Chief of Staff, we kinda have to see each other fairly frequently. If it helps, I’m pretty sure you and I are two of the only people who even know about what happened,” she tried, hoping that helped. It likely wouldn’t of course. Talking about their night together was probably the least helpful thing. But god forbid she ever shut up when it was the smart thing to do.
Darcy had always wondered just went on in a genius’ head ever since meeting Jane, but had never seriously inquired. Sure, she’d joked around and poked at Jane’s skull teasingly on occasion. Tony’s explanation, though, was enlightening to say the least. And downright horrifying to say the most. She was a woman, so focusing on multiple things came natural to her… but there was a limit, and Tony’s explanation went way past that.
“Friends…” Were she and Tony friends? They’d never been close - not outside the biblical sense - but they had worked together for a few years by now. Slowly, her lips twitched up into a smile and she nodded. “Yeah, still friends for sure.” That was going to take some getting used to, but she was okay with that. “So… You know I work two offices over. My door is open to you whenever you need it, even if you just need a place to lay low for a few or whatever.”
She didn’t know if recovering alcoholics had panic attacks or anything, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d had a member of the Stark team use her office as a safe space. Maybe she should put one of those little yellow signs up by her door. No, that would invite people she didn’t know. Best to keep it reserved for only the ones she wanted in her office when they weren’t at the worst.
Tony couldn't help the smile that he shot in return at that particular line of questioning. "It's nice to know that you're willing to listen if I need it, but right now I think I'm doing pretty okay. I even found an AA group nearby. And there are steps, but I've gone through most of them already. I think." He shrugged a little. He'd only just gotten through most of the things when he'd switched universes and he'd only just started on the whole thing here, but still. He was pretty much done.
He frowned a bit as she explained why the whole thing was so awkward for her, nodding to show that he understood. "It wasn't just the sex, you know. You do so much for me and this company; you mean a lot to me as a friend and as someone that helps wrangle this hellscape. So it's not just the one night thing." He gave her a wide smile with that, hoping that he wasn't just making things more awkward.
It was a relief to hear Darcy express that she was there for him. If he couldn't date the woman he loved - at least not right now - then at least he still had her in his life. And at least they were friends. "Thanks. I might have to take you up on that," he replied with a small chuckle, "It's nice to know where I can hide from the board members." Some of them were quite irritating when they needed something.
Tony smiled over at her again. "Well, if you blocked out time for this, we should make use of it. Got any issues to talk about? Juicy gossip to share? Restaurants to recommend?"