18558/Building a better hog

Building a better hog
Date of Scene:	12 July 2024
Location:	Stark Tower: Workshop
Synopsis:	Xio is invited back to Stark tower and Tony has bigger plans than she imagined.
Cast of Characters:	Tony Stark, Xiomara Rojas

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Tony Stark has posed:
    Xio received a call from Tony a little bit ago, asking her to stop by Stark tower to talk about the space hog she wants to build. Upon coming into the lobby, she would have been met by one of the greeters and steered to an elevator hidden out of plain sight. The greeter would reach in and press a button, then let a panel scan her thumbprint. "Have a nice day." would be the last we hear from said greeter. The elevator is apparently an express, as it rises quickly towards the top of the tower. Slowing down to come to a stop, the doors open on a somewhat chaotic scene.

    Taking up what looks to be this entire floor of the tower is a workshop like none Crush has probably ever seen. "High tech" barely describes it, though a few other words might do so as well. Words like "cluttered" or "disorderly" would fit. Half finished projects cover most of the table space, looking like Tony probably had another idea while working on something and simply walked away from it to go with the newer idea. There are many, many shelves and racks that are mostly neat, it's only after he takes things out that it all goes to hell.

    "Hey, there you are! Ok, come over here, I've got some things to show you. I digitized all the plans and diagrams you left with me, and boy have I got options galore. Water and soda in the fridge if you want some." He waves a hand in the direction of a fridge, on the door of which is a note held on by magnets that says "Tony, remember to eat something at least every 12 hours." in very neat handwriting.

    The one table that is clear is in the center of the open area of the shop. Tony claps his hands and says "HOMER, give me the updated space hog." Said hog appears floating over the table at full size. "Ok, so this is the hog as the plans lay it out. But having studied this stuff for the past week, we can do a lot more with it if you want. Now that I understand the drive system, we can build just about anything you want around it."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
First of all, a call from /the/ Tony Stark was a shock. Yes, Crush realized that they were going to be working together on the hog, but that didn't actually register in her head as meaning he would actually call.

The arrival to Stark Tower came shortly after, she wasn't going to keep the man waiting, after all he could have said no and his time was precious... or so she believed. She wasn't mean to the greeter, but she also wasn't chatty. They got a nod, a grunt, and a soft, "Thanks." at the end.

The chaos of the lab is what took her most by surprise. Some how she had expected him to be a little bit OCD about his work space. Seeing the number of half finished projects and clutter around the room, she came to realize rather quickly that his mind worked in sporadic bursts of genius rather than flowing nicely like a river... that just made him a little bit cooler.

"Thanks for the call," she said as smoothly as she could manage, trying to remain calm. Second time seeing him, and still the "fangirl" butterflies flitted around in her stomach. She paused to collect a bottle of water from the fridge, then made her way to the table he was at.

"Yep, that looks exactly like Lobo's," she states, for once not gagging on saying his name. "Doing more with it was sorta the idea, I gotta personalize... well, we gotta personalize it. His is good for him, but this... whatever we can do to make it better, I'm all in."

Tony Stark has posed:
    "Well, the first question would be do you want to stick with the whole biker motif, or would you rather go with some kind of actual ship? I can scale the engines to make it work, and being as how you walked in and handed me the solution to what was at the time my biggest problem, I'm feeling pretty generous. I mean, we're not gonna go star destroyer size or anything, but we could do something up that you could fit four or five people in so you're not rolling solo all the time."

    He reaches up and flicks the hog out of the table space to be replaced by a sleek craft that kind of resembles a Star Trek runabout. "This one's not life size here, since it would end up being about twenty or so feet long, but it gives the idea."

    He pauses to look at her, then says "And don't agree with me just because I suggested something, you tell me which way _you_ want to go with this. This is going to be your transportation, so I want it to make you comfortable. Oh, and since you're affiliated with the Justice League, I'm trusting you and replacing all the messy parts of the powerplant with an appropriately sized Arc reactor. So power's covered on whatever scale we build."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Opening the bottle of water as she walks around the table slowly, taking a drink when she stops to look at the bike from the last angle, Crush listens to every word spoken. She had always considered the idea of a space hog, because for the most part she was always alone, but that was changing.

"I'm not one to mince words," she admits plainly. "Even if you're /the/ Tony Stark, if I don't like somethin, or I think it's a bad idea, I'll tell you so."

"Never considered the idea of a ship, didn't have a whole lot of friends, or teammates to work with until recently," she hmms softly, looking over the little ship. "Might be nice to be able ta take others with me..."

"I know I don't /look/ trustworthy, never have, never will, but ya /can/ trust me. It's not just the Justice League, it's also the Titans, an several years of makin certain I /NEVER/ end up like my father."

Now, for a single moment she is quiet, just looking and working things out in her head. The design of a ship was something that could be worked out, and recently she had been on the Milano which was a really nice way to travel.

"Gotta admit, that's a hard choice... hog or ship," she finally laughs. "I've always been one to ride bikes, an the idea of riding on in space sorta tickled my fancy, but a ship... that'd be /way/ better."

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony nods, "Ok, ship it is. It doesn't have to look exactly like this, of course. I just stole a basic design from Star Trek as an example of something we could do. As for what we end up with, that's up to you. If you're good at art, or know someone who is, feel free to whip up a design you like. These engines don't need a streamlined hull or anything, given how they were propelling a motorcycle through space, so we can make it look like just about anything."

    A quiet chime sounds and HOMER says "That's ten hours sir." Tony sighs and heads for the fridge, saying "Pepper's trying to inflict good eating habits on me, so I have to fight a rearguard action by eating unhealthy things." He pulls a bag out of the fridge with the "Katz's Deli" logo on it. "Besides, their pastrami on rye? Heaven. Nothing better in the city as far as I'm concerned." The sandwich he takes out is piled high with the pastrami he was just complementing. "Want half? They make these things huge." He pulls a couple paper plates from a pile on the counter beside the microwave. "Go on, take a bite of that and tell me it isn't amazing."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Designing the look of her own ship, now that got Crush's attention. It was rare that she got much of a say in anything, without forcing the issue of course.

"I got a friend who'd try ta murder me if I didn't at least suggest the Millennium Falcon once," she laughed, then shook her head a little. "But that's just thinking way too big. I don't need to haul cargo past the Imperials or nothin."

When HOMER speaks up she blinks in confusion, then Tony basically explains why ten hours matters. She doesn't require food, or water, or air for that matter, but a pastrami on rye? Who the hell could /ever/ turn that down. "How about half of a half? I don't need no food, an if this Pepper has a mind to get the computer AI to remind you to eat, probably best you eat most of it."

Taking the half offered, she tears it in half rather neatly and offer half of the half back before taking a bite. She may not require food but dayum was food a glorious thing. "Holy shit," she blurted out when she'd swallowed. "This is one hellamazing pastrami on rye!"

Tony Stark has posed:
    "Right? Totally worth the clogged arteries, I say. Besides, I could go out in a blaze of glory at any time" he gestures towards the armors in their alcoves "so I don't see a reason to not enjoy the finer things while I can." He takes a bite of the sandwich, which forces him to stop talking for a minute or two until he can swallow it.

    "Oh, right, you're not one of the regulars yet. Pepper's my significant other, I think that's the current way to say it, or girlfriend if you want to go old school. And the CEO of Stark Industries. That way she has to sit through the meetings instead of me. It was a little bit of a mean thing to do to her, but she does a way better job than I ever did. And she still finds the time to try and improve me." He smiles as he explains, obviously thinking about her.

    "Explanations aside, take this." He picks something up from the counter and tosses it over to her in an easy arc. It's a StarkPhone(tm), latest model by the looks of it. "So far you've only got one contact in the list, and that's me so that you can reach me easily." He taps a small lump in one of his pockets, indicating his personal phone. "Use it for anything you like, it's hooked up to my personal network, so you'll have signal pretty much anywhere you go on the planet thanks to the satellites I have cluttering up space around the globe. That way if you have an idea or want to swing by with a design, you can check if I'm here or busy."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The phone is caught with her free hand, while Crush finishes off the half of a half with the other hand, then picks her water back up for a drink.

"Partner, significant other, girlfriend... all mean the same thing," she chuckles, putting the cap back on the water before looking the phone over. "I still ain't used ta all this... niceness, but I'll only call if somethin is needed, or I come up with an idea."

Unlike her other cellphone, that has been replaced a few times, the StarkPhone(tm) is treated with a little more repesct and goes into the inside pocket of her denim vest. "It's good ya got someone ta remind ya ta come up for air," she offers with a smile. "Or in this case, a pastrami on rye. The amount of work ya do, the calories you gotta be burnin, you'll be fine... until ya aren't." She blinks. "Sorry, I'm a realist... but anyway..."

Clearing her throat she adds on, "I got some idea for what might work, just need a general clue how big you're thinkin. Got a lot of factors to consider, like air, for human types... if they want to go I mean... but size is the last thing before I start plannin in my head what to make."

Tony Stark has posed:
    He nods and says "I was thinking twenty to thirty feet long, maybe ten or so feet wide... Enough for four or five people and some equipment, as well as supplies and a small bathroom for those long trips. And I figured on life support if you went with the ship, since that would mean you'd have people other than you travelling in it. I'll start building the infrastructure for it, get the engines scaled up and tested, so all I need from you is a hull design to put around it. And if you want to steal it from sci-fi, be my guest."

    He chuckles and half-sits on the counter as he works on the sandwich. "At the same time, I'll be designing what you made possible - actual interstellar freighters that will be based at the station once we get it built. That's what I meant by my biggest problem, I was building a trade station without any ships to do the trading. Can't just build it and hope aliens decide to send ships, we need to get out there and let them know we've got stuff worth trading."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Crush blinks a few times, wondering now if Stark was intending to just send freighter captain off into space with no of what was out there, or if he had information on the safe routes to take. She'd only been out there a few times, but she already knew that most aliens out there didn't believe Earth was ready to be part of the great big universe beyond their own solar system.

"Uh... you should look up a guy named Starlord, I mean..." she shakes her head and snerks, correcting herself. "Peter Quill. Captain of the Milano, part of the Guardians of the Galaxy, whatever the hell that is... anyway, he's been out there a while, so might be able to hook you up with some safe trading routes once everything is built."

Looking back to the ship design, not really at the Runabout but more looking at the idea. Slowly a grin spreads across her face, getting bigger as the seconds tick by. "I'm a big girl," she teases as she looks back at Tony. "Might need ta think just a smidge bigger so I don't go hitting my head on things... but I'll get ya a design by the middle of next week."

Tony Stark has posed:
    "Yep, I've got a lot of people to talk to before we head out there. Couple of your buddies at the JLA who wear that Lantern ring, SHIELD has collected a lot of info and I've met a few aliens myself along the way. I have no intentions to go into something like this blind, believe me. That part of it I'm going to be very, very careful about. If this goes up in smoke, it'll be years before humanity tries it again." He hops down from the counter and nods with a smile, "I'll make sure all the ceilings are high enough to accommodate you, never fear. Can't have the captain knocking herself out every time she stands up. Now, get to work on that design and I'll see you next week. I've got to get to work on a couple things I've been putting off or I'd chat longer, but I'm coming up on deadlines."