Project: Collection
Mar. 30th, 2017 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Iron Man Crossover (Self-Made Hero)
Summary: Kris is a fan of Pepper. And maybe models a few dealing strategies for her own boss. Also, Tony and Xander have this habit of collecting people. (It's not weird, they promise.)
Word Count: 1919
Rating: Gen
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Iron Man Crossover (Self-Made Hero)
Summary: Kris is a fan of Pepper. And maybe models a few dealing strategies for her own boss. Also, Tony and Xander have this habit of collecting people. (It's not weird, they promise.)
Word Count: 1919
Rating: Gen
One of Krista’s favorite superheroes is Virginia “Pepper” Potts, herself. In all her forms. Rescue and MCU and everything else. The woman is superhuman simply with her human-ness and her ability to deal with weird situations, and maybe that’s something that drew her to that particular line of comics in the first place, the idea of the realism of it all, the fact that somewhere, it could be real. (The revelation that it actually was, well, that took a little while to get used to, but not as much as some people because she’d already thought about the possibility, which both shocked and delighted her employer.)
It was actually a little more shocking how quickly Xander took her into his confidences after that. Probably more than it should have been, really, considering how little Mr. Knight actually gave the press (tidbits, here and there, to keep them occupied, to keep the situation under control). Either you were a member of his inner circle or you were to be kept preferably at a building’s length, nowhere in between. He did a good act of being friendly with all his employees, the dancing, the karaoke (and there was another shock, learning that Alexander Knight, rising star of the business world, could sing even if he couldn’t really dance, no, no matter how hard he tried to bribe you to lie about it), and to his credit she’s fairly certain he thinks of them all as family. A real family, not his own (which he admitted one late night after far too long spent tinkering). But at the same time, there were levels of realism and honesty, and you didn’t get to the deepest core (great, now she’s thinking of him as an onion) unless you were of a select few.
Which apparently she was now one.
Honestly, maybe the ‘can deal with weirdness’ checkbox on the application was a clue, but she’s pretty sure she did the same thing as most of her coworkers and raised an eyebrow as she checked it and sent it in, desperate for a job.
She’s pretty sure none of the rest of them got the Spike treatment, though (she asks for details and only gets a vague ‘he’s a vampire’ as he surfaces before diving right back into the depths of some machine, covered in oil). Most of them probably got normal recruiters. Whatever that even means for Knight Innovations.
She’d admired the woman’s restraint, the way she took things in stride, even fantasized about things a little, but she’d never quite made it to realistic imaginings when she’d tried. There were clear holes.
Xander’s control freak nature, for instance. It never manifested in an obvious way that it would’ve for anyone else. No, it was either hidden or over the top. No ‘I’m not letting you go there because it’s a dump’. No ‘I’m just looking out for your safety’s’. When she’s thinking about heading to a new bar, a packet of information will just show up on her desk, complete with fifty years worth of horrifying reading all in one neat little package. With glossy pictures and handy summaries. (If she could maybe wrangle him into making their next brochures…)
She’d been expecting it ever since learning that her boss really kinda was Iron Man, but it still took her by surprise the first time. And the second time. And the sixth.
(By the tenth time, when she’d finally decided to ignore him and date the guy anyway, he’d blasted into the alley with as much prejudice and fanfare as one can get with an armored superhero suit designed for stealth just as the tentacle monster was trying to hold her in place, kiss her, and tear off her clothes, all with the help of extra appendages. She took advantage of the change in angle, because extra strength due to handy tech ‘cause yeah, she really does love the Exoskel even when it clearly needs a Cthulhu patch, doesn’t help when the physics for the leverage are freaking wrong, to punch the thing through the wall and then complains when the slime gets on her dress. This sets Xander into a giggle fit, which sounds odd coming through the suit’s synthesizers but is no less adorable, and then she starts laughing too, and she can feel the way he’s looking at her. He loves her and needs her and is totally clueless as to what to do with her, which is all right because he’s a genius and he’ll figure it out.)
So, yes, control freak. He’ll gather a ridiculous ton of information and then just sit on it. Perhaps some of the paranoia is justified considering some of the stories he tells about Sunnydale when he has a free moment (when he’s not trying to avoid even the name because the touch screams like glass). He has reason to want to keep his family safe, and if that means a little invasion of privacy, so be it.
He sits her down one day, because she complains about an article she read and he doesn’t like telling her lies, and explains exactly how many people are trying to get information on her through her computer and phone browsing habits (among other things). She likes that he doesn’t try to sugarcoat it or dumb it down too much. He then explains with a roguish smile that he has probably the best VPN on the planet and that no one can track her if she doesn’t want them to. “If you want,” he explains, “I can throw in some decoy cookies, just to not leave too obvious a gap. I’ve been doing it for myself for about ten years now.”
She thinks about it and nods. Her family (well, all the ones who married in, the blood relations are all dead besides Timmy) would probably yell at her, tell her that he wanted access to her laptop to install some sort of virus to see her dressing or something. He doesn’t really need to steal her laptop to do that, though, and when someone had brought up the fact that he might be a perv like that he gets the same hurt, haunted expression that he’d given after being harassed by that weapons company representative (which makes so much more sense in retrospect, wow) and later explains a sociopath named Warren. He smiles wryly after the end of the story. “If I was ever tempted, I just think about that and how much scum that guy was, and then I realize that I’m a decent human being with some self control and respect for my fellow human beings and then all desire to be a creep goes away. Amazing how that works, really.”
On the whole, he’s more mature than most of the ones she’s read about or watched, aside from maybe Avengers Assemble Tony. She compliments him on that, and they tease her about it for a bit, but she doesn’t miss the way his eyes crinkle up in pleasure at the comparison, the way the genius (genii?) preens a little. He’s responsible. She doesn’t have to clean after conquests or pine for his bed and heart.
Occasionally he’s childish. He’ll throw temper tantrums or sulk or (rarely, but she finally figures them out for what they are) have a panic attack.
He’ll get caught up in a project, and assuming he even manages to notice you exist, he’ll bombard you with words a mile a minute. He gets so excitable, and that’s definitely cute. Andrew’s more bearable when Xander’s in one of those moods, as it’s only he or Willow that can really keep up with a hyped up Xander.
It took her a bit to realize that Xander has PTSD. And as if those problems aren’t enough, he mentally rooms with over a dozen other people with the same unresolved issues. He’ll respond to the name ‘Tony’ more than he’d like, especially after a panic attack. The last one he had he’d accidentally fallen asleep in the bath. It’d been a little nerve-wracking maneuvering a naked, shivering and completely terrified version of her boss out of there, but they haven’t spoken of that (directly) yet. Not even when she returns the next day to find he’s donned all his protective gear and is dismantling the tub. With a sledgehammer. He is managing to climb his way out of the pit on his own, though. Most people would beg for help, and at first she’d feared it was just pride. She finally realized that it wasn’t, exactly, but he had healing to do with his robots and his magic, and she wasn’t going to force the issue.
He’s capable of being lazy and selfish in one heartbeat and possessed of breathtaking drive (or feats of generosity) the next.
The one thing it had been a little hard to get used to was the idea that where most people collected bottle caps or stamps or something, Tony collected people. It was something that Xander had probably resisted at first then eventually given up. If they’re competent, not likely to hurt him or his people, he wants to take them in and give them everything. She explains, quietly, that people aren’t pets and no, he can’t just keep them, which is the point where he starts to offer them a job or quietly make their lives better from a distance. She’s caught him interfering in the lives of Tonys in other dimensions before and only vaguely recalls being relieved he hadn’t decided to buy out a country’s government or something.
She’d had a surprising amount of jealousy the first time his goofy excitement had focused on the collection of another woman before she had a reality check and realized that for all his talk and Tony mannerisms, Xander’s a romantic at heart (if an odd one) and her just quietly being there for him or nudging him laughing at some remark on screen as both of them work on paperwork means more to him than just some blond with legs. Even if they are fairly spectacular legs.
Also that he’s honestly a little wary of romance, given how it’s gone in the past, and she’s probably the only one that can pull him out of his funk. Even if she has to be the one to ask him out and reassure him that, no, she’s amazing and she refuses to go anywhere.
She’s quite over the impulse when he kisses her excitedly (like a puppy, how adorable) before pulling up a person’s entire life history and explaining—“Willow’s been so sad since she broke up with Kennedy, and she banned me from outright following through on my shovel speech, so I’ve had to focus on petty revenge from a distance, but she’s been taking me out to this one coffee place since she’s been in town and at first I thought it was just because the coffee there is amazing until she got all shy and kinda hid from the woman working the counter—”, and she gets pulled into Project Alicia.
She shakes her head. “Don’t forget your deadline tomorrow; I marked it on your calendar for you,” and bops his nose with a flour-covered hand, and privately approves. Which maybe isn’t as private as the usual definition of the word, since with the way he grins at her he gets it, but she finds that isn’t as worrying as it used to be.
It was actually a little more shocking how quickly Xander took her into his confidences after that. Probably more than it should have been, really, considering how little Mr. Knight actually gave the press (tidbits, here and there, to keep them occupied, to keep the situation under control). Either you were a member of his inner circle or you were to be kept preferably at a building’s length, nowhere in between. He did a good act of being friendly with all his employees, the dancing, the karaoke (and there was another shock, learning that Alexander Knight, rising star of the business world, could sing even if he couldn’t really dance, no, no matter how hard he tried to bribe you to lie about it), and to his credit she’s fairly certain he thinks of them all as family. A real family, not his own (which he admitted one late night after far too long spent tinkering). But at the same time, there were levels of realism and honesty, and you didn’t get to the deepest core (great, now she’s thinking of him as an onion) unless you were of a select few.
Which apparently she was now one.
Honestly, maybe the ‘can deal with weirdness’ checkbox on the application was a clue, but she’s pretty sure she did the same thing as most of her coworkers and raised an eyebrow as she checked it and sent it in, desperate for a job.
She’s pretty sure none of the rest of them got the Spike treatment, though (she asks for details and only gets a vague ‘he’s a vampire’ as he surfaces before diving right back into the depths of some machine, covered in oil). Most of them probably got normal recruiters. Whatever that even means for Knight Innovations.
She’d admired the woman’s restraint, the way she took things in stride, even fantasized about things a little, but she’d never quite made it to realistic imaginings when she’d tried. There were clear holes.
Xander’s control freak nature, for instance. It never manifested in an obvious way that it would’ve for anyone else. No, it was either hidden or over the top. No ‘I’m not letting you go there because it’s a dump’. No ‘I’m just looking out for your safety’s’. When she’s thinking about heading to a new bar, a packet of information will just show up on her desk, complete with fifty years worth of horrifying reading all in one neat little package. With glossy pictures and handy summaries. (If she could maybe wrangle him into making their next brochures…)
She’d been expecting it ever since learning that her boss really kinda was Iron Man, but it still took her by surprise the first time. And the second time. And the sixth.
(By the tenth time, when she’d finally decided to ignore him and date the guy anyway, he’d blasted into the alley with as much prejudice and fanfare as one can get with an armored superhero suit designed for stealth just as the tentacle monster was trying to hold her in place, kiss her, and tear off her clothes, all with the help of extra appendages. She took advantage of the change in angle, because extra strength due to handy tech ‘cause yeah, she really does love the Exoskel even when it clearly needs a Cthulhu patch, doesn’t help when the physics for the leverage are freaking wrong, to punch the thing through the wall and then complains when the slime gets on her dress. This sets Xander into a giggle fit, which sounds odd coming through the suit’s synthesizers but is no less adorable, and then she starts laughing too, and she can feel the way he’s looking at her. He loves her and needs her and is totally clueless as to what to do with her, which is all right because he’s a genius and he’ll figure it out.)
So, yes, control freak. He’ll gather a ridiculous ton of information and then just sit on it. Perhaps some of the paranoia is justified considering some of the stories he tells about Sunnydale when he has a free moment (when he’s not trying to avoid even the name because the touch screams like glass). He has reason to want to keep his family safe, and if that means a little invasion of privacy, so be it.
He sits her down one day, because she complains about an article she read and he doesn’t like telling her lies, and explains exactly how many people are trying to get information on her through her computer and phone browsing habits (among other things). She likes that he doesn’t try to sugarcoat it or dumb it down too much. He then explains with a roguish smile that he has probably the best VPN on the planet and that no one can track her if she doesn’t want them to. “If you want,” he explains, “I can throw in some decoy cookies, just to not leave too obvious a gap. I’ve been doing it for myself for about ten years now.”
She thinks about it and nods. Her family (well, all the ones who married in, the blood relations are all dead besides Timmy) would probably yell at her, tell her that he wanted access to her laptop to install some sort of virus to see her dressing or something. He doesn’t really need to steal her laptop to do that, though, and when someone had brought up the fact that he might be a perv like that he gets the same hurt, haunted expression that he’d given after being harassed by that weapons company representative (which makes so much more sense in retrospect, wow) and later explains a sociopath named Warren. He smiles wryly after the end of the story. “If I was ever tempted, I just think about that and how much scum that guy was, and then I realize that I’m a decent human being with some self control and respect for my fellow human beings and then all desire to be a creep goes away. Amazing how that works, really.”
On the whole, he’s more mature than most of the ones she’s read about or watched, aside from maybe Avengers Assemble Tony. She compliments him on that, and they tease her about it for a bit, but she doesn’t miss the way his eyes crinkle up in pleasure at the comparison, the way the genius (genii?) preens a little. He’s responsible. She doesn’t have to clean after conquests or pine for his bed and heart.
Occasionally he’s childish. He’ll throw temper tantrums or sulk or (rarely, but she finally figures them out for what they are) have a panic attack.
He’ll get caught up in a project, and assuming he even manages to notice you exist, he’ll bombard you with words a mile a minute. He gets so excitable, and that’s definitely cute. Andrew’s more bearable when Xander’s in one of those moods, as it’s only he or Willow that can really keep up with a hyped up Xander.
It took her a bit to realize that Xander has PTSD. And as if those problems aren’t enough, he mentally rooms with over a dozen other people with the same unresolved issues. He’ll respond to the name ‘Tony’ more than he’d like, especially after a panic attack. The last one he had he’d accidentally fallen asleep in the bath. It’d been a little nerve-wracking maneuvering a naked, shivering and completely terrified version of her boss out of there, but they haven’t spoken of that (directly) yet. Not even when she returns the next day to find he’s donned all his protective gear and is dismantling the tub. With a sledgehammer. He is managing to climb his way out of the pit on his own, though. Most people would beg for help, and at first she’d feared it was just pride. She finally realized that it wasn’t, exactly, but he had healing to do with his robots and his magic, and she wasn’t going to force the issue.
He’s capable of being lazy and selfish in one heartbeat and possessed of breathtaking drive (or feats of generosity) the next.
The one thing it had been a little hard to get used to was the idea that where most people collected bottle caps or stamps or something, Tony collected people. It was something that Xander had probably resisted at first then eventually given up. If they’re competent, not likely to hurt him or his people, he wants to take them in and give them everything. She explains, quietly, that people aren’t pets and no, he can’t just keep them, which is the point where he starts to offer them a job or quietly make their lives better from a distance. She’s caught him interfering in the lives of Tonys in other dimensions before and only vaguely recalls being relieved he hadn’t decided to buy out a country’s government or something.
She’d had a surprising amount of jealousy the first time his goofy excitement had focused on the collection of another woman before she had a reality check and realized that for all his talk and Tony mannerisms, Xander’s a romantic at heart (if an odd one) and her just quietly being there for him or nudging him laughing at some remark on screen as both of them work on paperwork means more to him than just some blond with legs. Even if they are fairly spectacular legs.
Also that he’s honestly a little wary of romance, given how it’s gone in the past, and she’s probably the only one that can pull him out of his funk. Even if she has to be the one to ask him out and reassure him that, no, she’s amazing and she refuses to go anywhere.
She’s quite over the impulse when he kisses her excitedly (like a puppy, how adorable) before pulling up a person’s entire life history and explaining—“Willow’s been so sad since she broke up with Kennedy, and she banned me from outright following through on my shovel speech, so I’ve had to focus on petty revenge from a distance, but she’s been taking me out to this one coffee place since she’s been in town and at first I thought it was just because the coffee there is amazing until she got all shy and kinda hid from the woman working the counter—”, and she gets pulled into Project Alicia.
She shakes her head. “Don’t forget your deadline tomorrow; I marked it on your calendar for you,” and bops his nose with a flour-covered hand, and privately approves. Which maybe isn’t as private as the usual definition of the word, since with the way he grins at her he gets it, but she finds that isn’t as worrying as it used to be.
