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[freakinblur]

Answering Machine meme


☎ Post a comment with your character. This comment functions as their answering machine or voice mail. Include an IC message if you want.

☎ Other characters will reply to these comments to leave your character messages.

☎ Be creative, have characters leave messages when they're drunk/high/bored/being chased by a rabid T-rex, whatever.

☎ Your character can then call these people back and demand an explanation!

Comments

[uninsurable]

[ Wryly; ] I didn't start out here.

[ He wishes he wasn't in Mexico, the heat's awful. ]

What? No, I'm going to drive — [ uh ] — when I get a car.

[manofiron]

Bruce. I have a suit. I can fly down, be there in a couple hours, we can get some drinks, wait for my plane to get there. It'll be great.

Come on. What do you say?

[uninsurable]

Don't you have things you should be doing today instead of flying off to come and meet me?

[ Why yes, he is deflecting. Because really. ]

[manofiron]

Uh...

[ There's a momentary pause, like he's actually thinking about it. He's not. ]

Nope. Only thing I've got on my calendar is "rescue Bruce from the desert of tiny, yappy dogs."

1/2

[uninsurable]

[ Snorting under his breath, glad this isn't a video-call. ]

Thanks, I think.

[uninsurable]

You'll be on the plane back, too?

[ Just double-checking. He really doesn't want to have to politely but firmly decline to board one if Tony gets distracted or pulled away on business. ]

[manofiron]

Of course. Where else would I be?

[ He sounds genuinely puzzled by that, like the concept of leaving Bruce alone on the plane is so outlandish he never would have thought of it on his own. Fainter sounds can also be heard: footsteps on a hard floor, the whir of machines, the rustle of cloth. ]

Are you going to be okay until I get there? Shelter, water, clothes, that kind of thing?

[uninsurable]

[ He declines to wonder along with Tony, inherently both surprised and ... not, given who he's speaking to. Of course he wants to be everywhere at once. ]

Yeah, just one problem? There isn't an airport here, I don't know how far I am from the nearest town.

[ Listening to those rustlings on the other end, there's little but out-sized shoes scuffing rocks and the distant cry of a bird on his. ]

I'm following more of a dirt-track than a road.

[manofiron]

No problem. I'll send coordinates back to the plane once I've found you. The pilot can make whatever course adjustments he needs to then.

[ The machine whir gets louder, and there's a moment when the connection gets a little spotty. But it's just a moment and Tony's talking again as if nothing happened. His voice is slightly tinny, as well it should be, really, given that he's now in the suit. ]

Just take it easy. I'll hit supersonic, shave off a few hours, and be there in no time.

[uninsurable]

Apologize to Pepper for me? For stealing you away.

[ With that as his last concession (is there any point arguing when it sounds like Tony's suited up?) Bruce heads over to a set of boulders and sits with his back against them in the shade. ]

Do you want me to hang up so you can concentrate on flying?

[ Please don't wind up as a bug on the wind-shield of a commercial aircraft, Tony. ]

[manofiron]

Pepper's fine. Don't worry about it.

[ Pepper's at a shareholder's meeting. Or in Geneva. Or maybe she's gone on vacation, Tony can't remember. She's busy, though, and as long as he doesn't do something stupid to make the company look bad, it won't bother her a bit. ]

Nah, JARVIS is doing most of the work. Talk to me. What were you doing out there, anyway?

[uninsurable]

I was passing through and stopped at a bar to top up my water reserves when some guys decided they felt like a fight with the nearest white guy. Only he turned green.

[ There's a lot to be ashamed of. He doesn't usually lose his temper and bar fights don't qualify as triggers for the Hulk to take over, but when idiots are allowed to tote around guns ... Yeah, he really is tired of being in Mexico. Was a while ago.

He doesn't remember the impact of the bullet, but the bang serves as a clean sever in his memory. The next sight to greet Bruce's eyes had been an endless desert starting at his chin on the ground. ]

I'm pretty remotely planted out here, it seems like the Other Guy really went for a run.

[manofiron]

See, this is exactly why you should stay with me and stop trying to play Wild Adventure on your own.

[ Even to Tony's ears, that sounds pushy. He doesn't mean to be pushy. It's just that sometimes with Bruce, he doesn't know how else to get through to him. ]

Or, you know, stay somewhere a little more local that doesn't have a climate that could kill you.

[ He digests the rest of that in silence for a moment. ]

That's okay, being remote. I've got JARVIS looking for you. Long as you're still on the planet - and if you went to another world without me, I'm going to be so put out - I'll find you.

[uninsurable]

I was planning on going back to India soon. Head's up on that, I guess?

[ Sending Tony a postcard would have been funny. Probably. Maybe Bruce's sense of humor needs tweaking, it's kind of snarky on the meaner side of the scale. ]

[manofiron]

Oh.

[ For exactly one second, the disappointment is audible in his voice. Then it's gone, with only flippancy in its place. ]

You want me to have the plane drop you off there instead? I mean, why wait, right?

[uninsurable]

[ With nothing else to focus on but the voice in his ear, his expression eases at a thorny bush. ]

I'd rather go back with you. [ To put a poorly joking edge on that — ] Where the air conditioning lives.

[manofiron]

[ Tony's voice remains light and flippant. He knows Bruce is leaving now; he won't let himself get over-invested. ]

Maybe you don't realize this, what with spending all of your time in the middle of nowhere, but I'm not the only one with air conditioning. There's a whole wide world of temperature control out there, Bruce. You just have to come in out of the bushes to find it.

[uninsurable]

Yeah, I ... Sorry. Bad joke.

[ Ah, shit. That went down the wrong way, time to be An Adult. ]

I wouldn't have remembered your phone number if I didn't want to see you again. You're not a means to an end, Tony.

[manofiron]

The nice thing about living in the modern age is that everyone's just a video call away.

[ There's a shift in the inflection of his tone, the audible version of a shrug. He has issues. He knows it. He also knows how to avoid them. ]

Provided that you have reception and a smartphone. With a video calling app. You should probably make sure you get one of those before you head back out into the wild blue yonder. Just, you know, FYI.

[uninsurable]

Don't you ever just want to hear someones voice?

[ Video-calling seems like it might be a bit invasive if it happened on a constant basis. Tony's lucky Bruce is even using a cell phone right now, his usual arsenal amounts to a land-line on the road-side to avoid being tracked by the military, but being an Avenger has bumped him up a few perks since those days. For now. He's a little suspicious all of this is going to come crashing back down around his head again. ]

You can pick me out a smartphone if you think I need one, I honestly wouldn't know which was worth paying for.

[manofiron]

Sometimes.

[ More than sometimes, but that's approaching Issues territory, and he's not going there. Ever, if he can help it. Better to just focus on Bruce's issues, large and small. At least those can be helped. Maybe. Or so Tony thinks. ]

Why pay for it? You can have one of mine. Top of the line Stark tech that no one else on the planet has. They're video capable if you want to use the feature, but you can stick to what you're comfortable with too.

[uninsurable]

You sound like you want me to video-call. Miss the sight of me?

[ He gets to poke things too, albeit minus anything pointier than his attention to detail. ]

[manofiron]

You mentioned seeing me again. I'm just trying to make wishes into reality. It's my thing. Like a genie without the lamp.

[ Although the suit is metal. So maybe kind of like a lamp. ]

[uninsurable]

You're technically the genie inside the lamp but I'm going to stave off stroking anything other than your ego for now, if that's acceptable.

[ Never mind he's stuck in the rear end of Nowheresville, it's easier to smile when back-chatting his friend. ]

I don't know where you've been.

[manofiron]

In the lab working on my suit. Not collecting rare and colorful diseases, or whatever it is you do out in the jungle, Doctor Tarzan.

[ He won't have to wait long. Relatively speaking, of course. The second Tony got high enough, he went supersonic. And since he's coming from Malibu, it's going to be a pretty short trip. ]