Log: Matt and Reed

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Matt goes looking for Clint and finds Reed. That's not at all reassuring given the sciencing that goes on.



Heading down to the labs to look for his brother, Matt paused outside an open door, not recognizing the heartbeat inside the room. He was familiar enough with the mansion denizens that even if he didn't know someone personally, he at least recognized their heartbeat. This was a s totally new one though and to be in the labs meant that either he was a new science person or he was in one hell of the wrong place.

"Hey," he called, striding in to check it out. The guy didn't seem nervous or anxious, so he was probably someone new.

Reed barely noticed the new person who had walked in. His hands were steady tweaking a small mechanical replica of a new phaser he was trying to perfect. Weapons work was absolutely not something he enjoyed if he stopped and thought about its practical uses but from a technical perspective, it was fascinating. So much could go wrong that it was the very details that gave the project its perfection. Such attention to details meant that it took him several minutes to realize someone had said hello to him.

"Hello," Reed responded distractedly.

"Don't blow anything up," Matt recognized the look of 'distracted mad scientist' easily enough, his brother wore the look often. Then Clint would pick up a bow and arrow and all hell broke loose. Hopefully, this guy wasn't interested in projectiles. "And don't push the red button."

Again, it took several minutes before Reed finished his manipulations, and put down the phaser. Furrowing his brow, he looked around the room. "Red button? Why would I push a button that I have no knowledge about? That would be highly irresponsible, and could potentially lead to injuries and/or fatalities. And for what? To satisfy my curiousity? I can wait until the appropriate person comes into the room so I can ask."

"You are clearly new," Matt stated coming in and sitting on a nearby counter. Touching things and pushing the button in curiosity seemed to be a staple behaviour by a lot of people. "But the short answer is....yes. Because it is a button and we are curious."

"Being new has no bearing on my lack of curiousity," Reed pointed out. "Having a scientific curiousity is normal -- pushing theoretical boundaries, testing hypotheses, creating theories..well. That should definitely be celebrated. Pushing a button because it's there makes no sense. Besides," he added. "It makes no difference in my life if the button is pushed or not since I have no idea of it's overall potential and -- I'm sorry." Reed interrupted himself. "Who are you?"

Something told Matt that this one probably couldn't be trusted to feed and water himself. Or sleep. What was it about the sciences that made people forget about everything else? Like reality? "I'm Matt," he said as if it were obvious. "I'm looking for my brother. You're not him."

This was a strange man. "Of course I'm not," Reed responded slowly. "I'd be concerned if you thought otherwise." Assuming that Matt meant a biological brother, Reed continued. "I'm sure I look nothing like your brother."

That made Matt smirk, "Wouldn't know, never seen him," he replied, amused. "You might be his twin, but I doubt it. You don't sound like him at all."

"How have you never seen your brother before?"

Matt cocked his head to one side, "You're dumb," he stated, slipping his glasses off his face and pulling his folded up white cane from his back pocket and shaking it until it was straight again. "You talk a good science game, but your observation is for shit."

"You're blind," exclaimed Reed. "of course. All the cues are there but as I wasn't expecting it, I didn't see it."

"So anyways. Since you are not my brother, but you are sciencing, do you know him?" Matt asked, "His name is Clint. And if not, what are you sciencing? And will it involve extra-dimensional fish?"

"Science isn't a verb...and no, I'm not doing anything with fish," Reed responded, giving Matt a strange look. "I'm trying to calibrate the neurolaser so that it's more precise and, more importantly, doesn't explode. I've been having troubles with the trigger."

"Yes it is," Matt replied, this guy was clearly very new. Not exploding things was good. "Lots of things are verbs. Look at 'to google' for the classic example," nerd, but not geek. Curiouser and curiouser. "Why are you trying to build a neurolaser then?"

"Because that's my job," Reed responded simply. He stood up suddenly and started to slightly clean off his work bench. More like move one thing to another area, but at least the papers were being thrown out. "I work for Storm Tech and they manufacture weapons. I dislike weaponry; however, if I design it, that means I can build in safety features that, in theory, can disable the weapon if necessary."

He built weapons. "So...you're a wannabe Tony Stark," one of Storm Tech's competitors. "Except you dislike weapons. Well. I can see that making you very successful at your job. Most weapons around here are all pre-industrial."

Reed stiffened. "Tony Stark wishes he was at my level. The man may be a genuis, but his ego is insufferable. He has no interests that have nothing to do with his own."

Soooooo, he was exactly as described by every media outlet everywhere. "I'm an apple user," Matt assured Reed dryly. "Better adaptive tech."

"And their encryption is second to none," Reed added idly, his mind now comparing StarkTech with Apple. "That being said, I do quite like the newer innovations, where the phones are essentially -- for lack of a better word -- puzzle pieces. You simply modify the phone as you need it based on already constructed pieces." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It was a bulky thing, and not very attractive, but Reed didn't care. "Mine, for instance, has all the capacity I need, with the mods that I don't need gone. I don't have a camera -- I find that pointless. I don't need a lot of processing speed, as this is not meant to replace my own cognitive capacities. I need it to make phone calls. Apparently text," he added, frowning as he saw how many missed text messages he had. Why did people keep messaging him? Molly, Sue... "We may live in the age of technology, but that simply means we are inundated with things that the common person thinks is necessary, versus what actually is."

Pulling his own phone out in its bulky otterbox, Matt played with it in his hands for a moment, "Whereas I use the camera all the time," he noted. "And the internet. And the voice-to-text program. My battery gets killed easily," because he ran too many programs. Even when he closed things out that he wasn't needing, he still had quite a few at any given time. "But we don't live in a world of necessary. We live in a world of 'why not?' and 'because we can.' People need fun in their lives, not just practicality."

"I could look at it if you'd like," Reed offered suddenly. "See if I can't make the battery life a little bit more efficient for you."

"Eh," he passed the phone over, not terribly concerned by it, "I think my brother's already optimized it, but I probably jacked the settings at some point unintentionally. Like I said, I use several battery-eating functions all the time."

Peering at it, Reed said without thinking, "I highly doubt he was able to configure it the way I would. Give me maybe a half hour, and then I'll come find you. It shouldn't take too long to undo whatever was done, and make it more efficient."

Well. Reed was certainly confident. "Do not science with my brother," he ordered, putting his phone back. Slipping off the counter, he headed back towards the door, "I don't trust either of you not to blow yourselves up."

Reed was already thinking about how to improve the battery life, and was already in another world. It wasn't until Matt had almost left the room that Reed finally said, "I can withstand up to 2 tons of explosives." There was no further comment as the scientist grabbed a piece of paper and started drafting out equations.