Watchtower

[have_no_mercy]

When they leave Milliways, Tess and Jim enter what looks very much like an elevator. That's because it is. Steel all around with a camera up in one corner.

Smile, Jim, you're on TessTV!

She presses the button for the top floor and then waits.

Comments

[just_cant_lose]

Smile? Bah. Jim blows a kiss at it, then lounges indolently against the back wall and starts whistling. Taking too looooooong.

[have_no_mercy]

When they get to the top, the elevator stops. The doors do not open.

"Welcome, Tess Mercer."

It's an automated voice, female. Tess responds.

"Guest override, code EL09257."

"Guest override protocol initiated. Submit name."

She glances at Jim but answers before he can.

"Richard Brook."

"Access level?"

"Minimal."

She smiles at him as the doors finally open.

[just_cant_lose]

His eyebrows quirk upwards.

'Have you been reading my press, darling?'

[have_no_mercy]

"You even brought it into the bar."

She steps inside what appears to be one giant round room and heads for the main monitor at the centre of an arc of screens, turning it on.

"Thankfully, no emergencies."

[just_cant_lose]

'I wouldn't want anyone to have missed it.'

He smirks and saunters after her, his attention immediately drawn to the room. SCREENS. Always promising. Though he does take a moment to add, 'if you wanted to meet poor Richard, you only had to ask.'

[have_no_mercy]

"It was just a name for the system. I wasn't having Jim Moriarty in there. That's ridiculous."

She turns to face him.

"So this is Watchtower. As you can see we have a sort of conference room type setup right in the middle - that I'd like to keep - and computer banks behind you and upstairs. There's a medical bay upstairs as well and that couch there folds out into a bed for living quarters."

[just_cant_lose]

He raises an eyebrow.

'So this is one of those worlds where I'm a nineteenth century professor?'

Whatever. He paces right across to the circular stained glass window, and peers out at the city.

'Do you want it recreated as faithfully as possible, or can I make it better? What's your budget? And why don't you merge the medical bay with living quarters to save space, as the two logically mesh.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Yes and add in fictional."

The city is large and bright. You can see Luthorcorp tower from here, standing taller than any other building. On the other side, if he ares a look, there are two identical towers that don't quite fit in with the rest of the architecture of the city. They're a little more... advanced.

"You can make it better, more streamlined. This building wasn't purchased to be a hero base, but it's what we had and we used it the best we could."

[just_cant_lose]

He is not bothered by fictional. He smirks again.

'Worried your friends will think you've been smuggling people in under fake names?'

Again: whatever. He's definitely taking a look at those towers. He heard a fair bit about them as she was trying to get them approved, and there they are. Don't they just look...advanced.

'I'm not insulting what you've got, don't get defensive. I just need to know what you want.'

[have_no_mercy]

She's wondered before if she's fictional in someone else's world, but there's no time to be figuring that out.

"Better to be safe than yelled at."

She doesn't need much time to consider that. She's been thinking about this a lot recently, too, you know.

"I thought we'd keep the medical bay upstairs and move the living quarters up there as well. I don't even think we really need this sitting area; there aren't going to be any get-togethers in space."

Unless the Legion comes back for a visit, but the can deal with that then.

"We can move that whole bay of computers down here, leaving a few for Emil to work at when he's in medical. But really, that should all be closer at hand."

[just_cant_lose]

'Is there any particular reason you want an upper level at all? It'll be far more efficient to have everything on one level on the moon. More energy efficient, easier to anchor it.'

Jim puts his laptop down on the nearest desk, and his modelling device next to it. Both get switched on, and he takes his phone out to start making a video. He's all business like this; all focus.

'You might need to up my access if you want life made easier,' he says, casually. 'I need to see what systems are keeping this place going, what programs you're using, and you need to tell me what exactly you want the computers to do up there. Easier if you just let me take a look around.'

[have_no_mercy]

"I was thinking strictly for ease of continuity, but if you think one level is better, then we can go with that."

His latter request, however, is going to be hit with a brick wall.

"What do you need to know that for?"

[just_cant_lose]

'The monitors can be manoeuvrable...what year is it here?'

Has he asked her that recently? Time might have moved differently while she's been in and out of the bar. Jim takes a seat, typing incessantly, only sparing her a glance.

'If you want a working computer system to detect your alien threats, it'll be a lot quicker to let me base it off what you're already running. I won't know if everything I can do is compatible with what you use here, unless you let me into it.'

He is, y'know, already working on hacking in but that's like taking a job interview, right? He's only proving he knows what he's doing.

[have_no_mercy]

"2016 almost 2017."

The tech is years ahead of what's on the current market anyway. Hooray for Queen Industries.

"I don't need you to create the system, someone else is already on that and, in all fairness, they're better than you are."

Not an insult, just the truth.

"So don't bother trying. It won't work."

[just_cant_lose]

His hands still.

'Better. Than me.'

No no no. Not possible. And paling with the computers was going to be the fun part of this.

'Who is it?'

[have_no_mercy]

"Chloe. Jon's mom. She created all this years ago."

Not that Tess likes to admit it, but Chloe has a talent for tech that is miles beyond her own.

"And if you think I'm protective of the system and the secrets it holds, I've got nothing on her."

[just_cant_lose]

'So you're giving it to your friend because you don't want me looking around.'

He sighs, and shakes his head.

'Seeing as I can't even get on to this planet without you opening a door for me, I fail to see what damage you think I can do.'

[have_no_mercy]

"First of all, I didn't give it to her. She took it. Secondly, she's the best person for the job."

Take that or leave it, Jim.

"I need you for design, to make sure this is actually going to work. The computer systems are a separate issue."

[just_cant_lose]

'Oooh. Lay down the law baby, it turns me on.'

His fingertips tap one rapid line on the desk top, and his expression is dark. And then he grins, and drags his modelling software closer. He could sulk about it - and still is - but he might as well enjoy himself for the time being.

'Why wouldn't it work? Give me some credit.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Why wouldn't what work?"

Now he's lost her.

"What are you talking about? I'm giving you credit. You were the only person I thought of for this, otherwise I'd be doing it all myself."

Like Clark and Oliver could design a moonbase.

[just_cant_lose]

'To make sure this is actually going to work.'

He quotes her own words back at her in a near-perfect representation of her accent, crunching up to sit cross-legged on the seat and dragging his laptop onto his knee.

'Of course it'll work, Tess. Don't talk to me like I'm stupid.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Yes, that's why you're here, because if left to my own devices it might not."

Ugh, now she has a headache. It wasn't supposed to be like this, It was supposed to be interesting and maybe sort of fun and now it's like one argument after another. As usual.

"Hey, uh, am I interrupting something?"

A tall, handsome, blond man stands just outside the elevator. He eyes Jim.

"Who's this guy, Mercy?"

[just_cant_lose]

Ohhhhh, look. A tall, handsome, blond man. Jim eyes him right back, then glances to Tess - Mercy? - and then back to....Jon's father, by the look of him.

He slides his laptop back off his knee, and on to the desk. It's probably a good thing Karkat's modelling hardware looks like a sandwich toaster, because otherwise one of them would have to explain alien technology that is not in the least bit subtle. Unlike Tess's.

'Who's this guy, Mercy?'

Yum.

[have_no_mercy]

Oh, God. Her worlds are colliding and it's not even going to be remotely fun.

"Oliver, this is Jim. He's helping me with the base. Jim, this is Oliver. He's not supposed to be here."

Oliver's eyes brighten as he drops a large duffel bag over near a set of small lockers and then walks over.

"Jim? Jim Jim? Not-boyfriend Jim?"

He offers said named man a hand.

"Nice to meet you, man."

[just_cant_lose]

Jim now, and not Rich? Her reasoning is odd, but who cares? This is fun.

He had started to smile as Oliver said his name, doing the automatic raising of his hand that men do, anticipating a shake. And then he falters at 'not-boyfriend', and a look of pure hurt crosses his face, backed up with an involuntary glance at Tess.

'Um. Well, I'd agree, but I didn't know I was a not boyfriend.'

His accent is a little more broad, and in a slightly lower register. When Oliver was dumping his bag, Jim had run a hand through his own hair to fluff it up a bit. His eyes are wide and soft.

'Nice to meet you too, Oliver. You have a lovely son.'