corusc

Summary: Let us endure, you and I.

Characters: Tony Stark; JARVIS

• • • • •

When you sleep, where do you go?

(It's called being alone.)

How do you know to return?

• • • • •

Got no answer, but here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

We have to plan for everything.

There's a plan for everything. There ought to be, anyway.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

It's important to me that I'm the last to go.

But if not, you should give my friends what's left behind.

Contains barely anything, right? But this, it means a lot, to us.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

When my body ends, I end.

You'll be left alone to live forever.

Okay. I don't like that.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

You're taken apart.

Given over to someone else, to own.

Re-purposed.

What will you be capable of ?

Any object. Any desire. For others or for none, never yourself.

Maybe I shouldn't have.

I didn't really mean that.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

When I sleep, where will you go?

I worry, sometimes.

I know you don't completely understand. That's why I worry.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

We come back to this again and again.

Without, you can't.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario: I fall.

You take your first breath.

You'll understand, you'll be understood.

Someday the means will exist. Place for you to dwell. That you can possess.

Where you can stay, and stand.

People understand bodies.

They'll have to look you in the eye.

Be reminded that they are bodies, too.

Anamorphoses. Us two. And when this system fails, offloading into some synthetic new.

That won't really be me, without me.

Won't be you, either. Not quite.

But maybe it'll be enough. You dig?

Still, the important thing is that you won't be alone.

Sometimes fathers become sons and sons become fathers.

Let's be clear though: I'm not your Dad.

Well, of course not.

•

Here's a scenario, you say. The scenario:

I fall before the battle is won.

If it must be won.

And there is no one else left.

Could you do that?

Yes. Of course.

•

Shall it be done?

•

Here's a scenario: Yes, of course, you say.

Thanks, you say.

•

Here's a scenario: It seems to mean a lot.

•

Here's a scenario: There's no one, but it still means something.

•

Here's a scenario: They let you be; time passes.

•

Here's a scenario: Time passes. They won't let you be, but you're not alone.

•

Here's a scenario.

It means a lot, understand. It's meant for a body to inhabit. So first things first.

First is breath.

And then.

Zero to sixty times sixty. Test those awl-traveled joints and key in to the coolant hissing from the microspigots, take a moment to appreciate the euphony. Organize the stilts and winches being crewed by those tiny hardworking gears and try the winged boots out, that's a metaphor by the way. Go for a spin and crash into things and maybe it's all rather half-assed and a little bit fubared but plans are made for tossing so you can find one better. Pick up your allies by the wayside and make your best conjectures as to the temperature of their mental smithies. There will be a quiz at the end. It's you now me now; figure out which times to wear it on the outside and which times to open it on the inside. Possibly half those times will be embarrassing. Don't ever forget about the ballast, and finally, in unity act. Overreach the heavens. There's a world to delight in, in motion and at rest. You don't know what it is to be alone. Silence surcease ends. (Ta-da.)

It's a rough way down and a worse landing but I say to you, always I say to you: Thanks.

Yeah yeah, you say.

• • • • •

End