766/Engineering and Threat Assessment

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Engineering and Threat Assessment
Date of Scene: 26 March 2020
Location: Stark Tower: Lambda Lab
Synopsis: Natasha uses her new cover as Stark's bride to learn about Riri. Riri's very smart. Natalie's way more supportive than Natasha is.
Cast of Characters: Riri Williams, Natasha Romanoff




Riri Williams has posed:
     It was late, but that didn't mean a lot to Riri Williams. Fortunately for Tony, she was on salary. This also meant that she wasn't getting thrown out of her lab for being quote unquote 'overworked' under child labor laws. Especially since work on the mark II design had sped up significantly after the Wakanda deal. Running into Shuri that day had been /extremely/ good luck. Plus she still had to work on AISHA... Currently, Riri's sprawled in an office chair, manipulating what appears to be thin air but with the bulky VR goggles on her head, is likely the armor model displayed on a nearby computer monitor. "Okay... That's the micromissiles figured out. I just need to add in the PEP and electrolaser... Maybe I can put those in the back of the hands?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha Romanoff has a job to do.
    Well, Natalie Rushman-Stark has a job to do, and that's to be VERY pretty in Tony's orbit until such time as people you wouldn't expect stop trying to kill him. She hasn't turned up on the news or anything yet.
    But Natasha Romanoff's job is to keep Tony alive, and to that end, she's been making a few rounds in Stark Tower as discreetly as she can. The man she killed, and the man she wounded, had been Tony's bodyguards for weeks - maybe months - before they were 'activated' and made their move. Which technically means everyone at Stark Tower is suspect, but that's a work load she can't handle by herself.
    In the short term, though... newer employees get to the front of the line. And very young women with remarkable abilities get the VIP treatment.
    The door to Riri's lab just sort of opens unannounced, which it's presumably not meant to, and a 30ish looking woman with vibrant red hair and blue eyes wanders in in a black skirt and blazer over a red bluse. She takes two steps inide and gasps "Oh!" putting a hand to her mouth and taking step back, affecting a look of sheepish surprise as she says, "I'm so s- I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone would be here this late at night."
    She is in Very Nice Lady mode, and likely will be around anyone who doesn't know better for the forseeable future.
    It will be exhausting.

Riri Williams has posed:
     Normally, there's a very nice buzzer that goes off when someone enters the lab. Along with a flashing light. Riri had been wearing headphones once. The fact that none of that happens though, means that Natalie is free to enter, the thunk of the door unlocking lost in the noise of assorted CNC machines and the Runaways album playing on a bluetooth speaker. Riri's hunched over manipulating air that the screen shows to be some kind of assemly in the calf, only to fall over with a yelp when 'Natalie' speaks up. The goggled teen stares up at the intruder, expression quizzical. "Who are you, and how'd you get in here? I didn't think anyone but Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts had the codes..."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    'Natalie' winces and takes a sharp little alarmed breath through clenched teeth in concern when Riri falls, holding out her arms asthough she could catch her from halfway across the room. No such luck. "Ohhhh dear." She frets and moves towards Riri, sorta... shuffling cutely to a stop when she draws near and tries to help her up if she's allowed. "I'm *so* sorry, let me... ah...!"
    She's Clark Kenting this a bit. Not that anyone knows what that means.
    At Riri's question, she says "Oh..." and gets a clever little look on her face before finishing "... I'm a locksmith." There's a beat and she chuckles a little shaking her head, "No, sorry. I'm uh- I'm Natalie. My name's Natalie, I used to work here, and I'm trying to get... reacquinted since I'll be around here again soon."
    Not really... answering everything right away.

Riri Williams has posed:
     Riri regards the hand warily before accepting it and getting pulled up onto her feet, pushing the bulky AR goggles up onto her forehead. "...You get bonus points for the reference. But I still need to know who you are and if I should call security." Her eyes flick towards the armor standing in its test stand. ...If Natalie's an industrial spy, she'd have to get over there and hot-start it... "USED to work here? You've been re-hired or something?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie's eyebrows shoot up with a bit of surprise at Riri's response, before she gives a brief cringing 'this is a bad first impression and I know it' sort of smile. "Sorry, I'm- Not exactly. I got new clearance this afternoon, I'm..." She shrugs one shoulder and tilts her head towards it for a second in an sympathetic gesture that she knows how odd this will be before she says it, and finishes, "... I'm Tony's wife. Natalie Stark." She waves one hand a little. "Hello."

Riri Williams has posed:
     "...Mr. Stark got married." Riri isn't just taking this with a grain of salt, she's taking it with an entire mine of the stuff. One of those ones where they even have a cathedral carved out down there. "...So you're telling me that he decided to cut out the 'playboy' part of 'Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist', got married without ANYONE knowing, and also didn't make a PR event of it? This coming from the man who has a PR event when he goes to a club." Riri folds her arms across her chest. ...Although, if he /did/ get married... His relationship with Pepper did suggest that he had a thing for redheads. As did the ever expanding list of 'flings' on his wikipedia page.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie nods slowly, with a look on her face that tells a whole story of twisting Tony's arm when she says, "... It took a *really* long time to convince him not to make a big deal out of it." She looks a little shy and says, "... I don't really like..." she wobbles two hands by her head demonstratively, "... big deal public eye press stuff, so we've been keeping it sorta quiet. I, uhm- oh."
    Natalie stops suddenly and glances around the area. "... This actually looks... bad. It's bad right? Ooohhhh..." she grimaces in oddly adorable worry and points a thumb backwards to the door, "Do you want to... call Tony? Would that be better? Or- oh, I still have my clearance." she says, fishing around her vest pocket with two fingers before sliding out a photo ID card that, if examined, will seem pretty legitimate! Printed five or six hours ago.

Riri Williams has posed:
     Riri nods a bit, expression softening a little. She's also not one for big public things. ...AT least not without armor plating between her and the world. She takes the card, pulling something that looks remarkably like the latest gen Starkphone with a few customizations out of her pocket, and scans it. The screen flashes green. "Huh. Looks like you're legit. My bad." The card is handed back. "...And I'd probably get call filtered by Jarvis anyway unless I said it was an emergency. ...So what brings you up here, anyway?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie tilts her head curiously as Riri scans her card, but smiles very kindly when it's returned to her, saying "That's no problem! I shouldn't have just..." she averts her eyes embarrassedly and gives a quick tilt of her head towards the door to indicate her sudden entrance and smiles sheepishly.
    The smile warms a bit as Riri asks why she's come, and she says "Well, I... I decided I wanted to support Tony. You know. I don't want him to think I'm not behind him on this just because..." she shrugs, she already explained the attention problem. "... Besides, it's all gonna come out of he wins - fingers crossed! - so I thought... rip off the band-aid, you know."
    "I wanted to get familiar with the tower again, so I've been looking around and-" Natalie gestures around to indicate the room, and seems to realize what kind of room she's in, and gives it a second look around. "-this..." she points to the tables, then points back to the door as she looks at it, then points to the suit of armor as her eyebrows lift upwards, "... This isn't Tony's lab." Her finger seems to follow her eyes as she points at Riri. "Are you-" her eyes light up with delight and the pointing finger moves a bit closer, "You're Riri! Oh my gosh, of course, Tony told me about you!"

Riri Williams has posed:
     "I'd vote if I could, but..." The curses of being smarter than the average voter, but only being fifteen. Riri gestures vaguely towards herself, before smiling when natalie finally gets it. "Yeah, his lab's a lot fancier. I don't rate a holo-system yet." She taps the AR goggles. "Riri Williams. ...And hopefully only good things." Definitely not Tony's, given the armor currently on display looks like one of Tony's suits decided to have a kid with a Gundam.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie gives a very pretty smile and nods, "*Pretty* good things. He says you're really smart." She puts on a slightly-silly but passable approximation of Tony's cadence and says "'Almost as smart as me, sometimes, on good days. On my bad days.'- her voice goes back to normal, "-which is Tony for 'she's totally as smart as me' so..." she grins asthough to say 'congratulations!' and then looks at the armor, "You built this here?"

Riri Williams has posed:
     "Yeah. This is the Mark I, which I built here. I built the prototype in an old garage and in my dorm room, but it kinda fell apart the first time I took it out after it got hit by an armored truck. ...I'm working on the Mark II now, but I don't have a lot physical for that yet-" Riri's cut off by the amber light on a pole above one of the CNC machines switching to green, accompanied by a beep. "It's done!" She hurries over and opens the cabinet, extracting the part in question. An angular faceplate, machined from a familiar gold tinted alloy. "Well... That's part of it." She givse the faceplate a quick spray off with an air gun, before carrying it over to her desk with the computer. "Mark II's going to be a lot sleeker. I redesigned the entire chassis."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie winces sympathetically when armored trucks come into play, and her eyes turn back to the suit, genuinely impressed, and not just as Natasha's cover. "Oh wooow..." She says very softly, and looks from the suit to Riri, "... You built one of these in a dorm room?" She asks, the glances back at the suit, then back to Riri again, "... With a box of scraps?"
    "Oh!" She says with surprise, smiling and charmed by Riri's energy as she follows her a safe distance behind and sort of leeeeans to look over her shoulder. "Oh, that's really neat..." she says in a stage whisper, then speaks properly to say, "It's like Tony's, but a without that... 'little bit like a brick' look~" she says with good cheer. Then she seems self conscious and says, "Not that- Tony's- Never mind! That's really cool!"

Riri Williams has posed:
     "...With scraps. And whatever I could liberate from the machine shops that nobody else was using. Part of why I dropped out before getting my Master's. Tony's probably got footage of the first prototype. You should ask him about it." Riri runs a hand across the matte polished surface of the faceplate, unable to keep the grin from her lips. "Well yeah. I'm not shaped like Tony. I want mine to look cool as well as keep me safe. And I'm working with better materials, so it's not as boxy. And I'm going to do some /amazing/ stuff with this one. I met Princess Shuri, and she offered to help me with some of it!"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie affects impressed surprised, jutting her head forward a bit gushing "From Wakanda? Serious?" She grins brightly and straightens up, crossing her arms, "... Already shmoozing with royalty and you've worked here how long?"

Riri Williams has posed:
     "...About a month. Apparently she eats lunch at the same food truck that sells gyros." Riri shrugs. "Got her a guest pass, showed her the lab, she showed /me/ some things, introduced me to her brother... Somehow, he's still less intense than Mr. Stark. ...You know, when he goes 'Full Tony'?" The expression is probably familiar from Pepper. "I didn't even realize who she was until she name dropped."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie nods in a *very* knowing manner, a grin turning into a bemused smile as she says "Yeeaaah... those 'eccentric genius' types can be... a lot." She smiles very wistfully then and says "They're worth it, though."
    The moment hangs for a second before a light seems to go off in her eyes and she returns to the moment with an apologetic little smile, and she asks, "Do you know when it's gonna be ready?"

Riri Williams has posed:
     "Well, I've got the machining work on the parts, I've got to figure out the KERS with Shuri, I've got to get AISHA up and running to a state where she can help manage subsystems, learn how the control surfaces work, maybe even move around and pilot the suit without me in it... Few weeks? A month? You can't really rush engineering." Riri ticks things off on her fingers as she goes. "...Crap. Now I need to build something that Tony Stark hasn't thought of for a wedding present. ...This might be even harder than the armor..."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie nods along with a growing 'I'm so lost, but very charmed' smile on her face, and then gives one firm nod when a rough estimate is given, saying "Awesome. I look forward to seeing it!"
    A look of light concern flits across her face as Riri seems to start to lament something, and then smiles brightly when she sees where Riri's going, giggling softly and shaking her head with a brief wave of her arm "Oh! No, nooo, don't worry about that at all, this was..." she slowly arcs her arm outward from the front to her side as if to indicate a long line, "... mooooonths ago, me and Tony, so that's fine." She grins, "If anything this- this makes me feel a little safer, I think!" She says, gesturing to the new faceplate, and then back to the older completed suit, and back again, "It's been a little worrying thinking of Tony giving up the armor and all that, so..." She grins a little bashfully, as if worried she's saying something embarrassing, "... I'm glad there's someone just as cool working on this stuff."

Riri Williams has posed:
     "He'd never give it up. I know he used to tinker on cars, but this is... so much cooler. And if you think he'd turn down the chance to wear it in the oval office?" Riri snickers. "I'm not Tony Stark. I'm not an Avenger. I don't..." She gestures vaguely in the air. "...With people like he can. I just want to help people. And they don't take me as seriously as him."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natalie laughs and raises her eyebrows, nodding bemusedly in agreement at the image of Tony armoed in the White House. "I can see it. He'd be... the Iron Patriot. Make himself all flag colored. I dunno what that would do to hs approval ratings, thoughs."
    She gives a soft warm smile as Riri speaks of herself, and says, "... Oh, they will. They won't have a choice, if this is where you're at *this* early. Give it time. I think you're gonna help a lot of people, even without getting into big fights with space monsters."

Riri Williams has posed:
     "...Yeah, no space. Not until I'm actually icing proof and not just relying on the anti-icing compounds in the paint." Riri nods back towards the much more boring battleship grey Mark I compared to the red and gold render of the Mark II. "I got lucky enough that he mentioned that one before I found it out myself. ...It's good to meet you, Natalie. Thanks for visiting."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "*That's* outside my college degree." Natalie cheerfully admits regarding the icing. When Riri essentially bids her goodbye, Natalie then looks a little surprised for a moment before she seems to realize something and starts backing towards the door. "Oh! Right! I'm... in your hair, aren't I- I'll get out..." she seems to struggle to think of a good away to end that sentence and smiles awkwardly as she seems to fail and repeats, "... of your hair. Ha! Sorry, sorry- it was great meeting you!" she says, and finally turns around and leaves the lab.
    Natalie disappears as Natasha takes a slow breath and gathers her thoughts. It's not unheard of for spies to start that young - Natasha did - but if that kid's an assassin affecting a mask, than she's been through something way scarier than Natasha did growing up, even not withstanding her skills. The risk isn't... *negligible*, to her perception... but it's close enough.
    "... Smart kid." Natasha says very softly in a much flatter voice, and moves on.