Field Trip to the Golden Age for rekindledtitan

[red_room]

There's a whole lot to like about Steve's new place in the Nexus.

It's in a quiet part of the multiverse, plenty of open air and room to train or scout undisturbed. It's a bigger place with a lot more room for furniture and a spare room that Natasha has already commandeered for a makeshift safe house including a bug out bag all ready to go at the drop of a hat. Ready for missions or trouble and ready to come back and have a safe place if her own place is compromised.

The other nice thing about it is having a perpetually warm doglike creature napping over her leg as she cleans her weapons next to one of the windows. Thanks to the Accords and Steve's determination to have that all go sideways and the fallout because of it they'd be on the run a lot more if they were frequenting their home. Having a safe place to escape to in the Nexus for a breather is every kind of good for the soul.

Natasha spies the bots PINpointing to the front walkway and tosses a look over her shoulder toward where Steve's sitting with his sketchbook in lap.

"Looks like the party's about to be started, Rogers."

She'll let Steve worry about getting up and answering the door for Blaze and Ghost. It buys her a minute to finish with her guns.

Comments

[red_room]

And this is the other reason why Steve isn't here right now. Natasha has no doubt that Steve would be bristling visibly at Tony's habit of making light of a situation when he's trying to lighten a mood that has no business being lightened. Steve is the serious sort especially when the going gets rough and Tony--well. Tony needs room to breathe.

Blaze isn't reacting badly to the comment though and Natasha's sure Ghost is busy keeping Steve in the loop so she hums thoughtfully herself and settles in to make herself comfortable as Blaze's moral support. Makes sure Blaze sees her nod slowly when the Exo glances her way.

You can trust Tony Stark.

"Who is, really?" Tony quips back, vaguely distracted trying to place the metals he's touching, understand the scope and depth of the artificial mind he's speaking with. Giving himself time to think before Blaze gets down to business. The short explanation answers at least one question he'd been sitting on and he nods while he walks round her in a circle. One hand is stroking his goatee thoughtfully while the other taps and fidgets at the bent arm constantly.

"So you're Blaze-37 because you've wiped thirty-seven times? Over how long, do you know? Full memory wipe and reboot--what do you keep in between resets? Your motor subroutines, but Nat mentioned you were a soldier. Do you keep all your combat specs?"

Strange. Everything about this is strange, but it's the fun kind of strange and not 'the world is going to explode if I don't fix this' strange. A nice change of pace, really.

[rekindledtitan]

They're getting right down to business. He doesn't seem very patient but I think he's just interested in the problem. Agent Romanov doesn't seem worried.

Blaze twists to watch Stark curiously as he circles, the tattered hunk of cloth at her side swaying with her. She's been on the receiving end of plenty of scrutiny, but from a reputed genius from another universe, it's something different. Though her fieldplate is currently programmed white on black to match its wearer, up close it's not the same style or material as she is. Solid, but not seamless; efficient but not particularly elegant. It's mostly plasteel plate with mesh-lined cloth in strategic places, ensuring the bulk doesn't actually hinder her movement. A Striker is meant to move.

At his first question she nods. This is already more than she tells a lot of people, but they're only getting into the serious parts now.

"No way to be sure of the timeline. I can take a guess and say a couple hundred years, but I have a feeling that's generous. There just aren't any records to say otherwise." She shifts her weight uncomfortably. She just needs to relate the facts, but this is the first time she's stood and laid out the problem out loud, and so completely.

"I retain practical skills, yes. I remember how to fight, how to fly old ships, how to repair equipment. I keep my name and my purpose. I, uh... remember faces. People I've met, I think, but I don't remember who they were. Everything else... I get fragments. Flashes of déjà vu, emotions out of nowhere, bits and pieces that don't make any sense. It's not so bad when I'm in combat. Worse after I resurrect." Oh. She'll have to explain that at some point, though it's probably not very relevant. And where's- is Ghost still hiding? Stark's not that scary.

[red_room]

He's not patient in general, no. He's also pretty open about what he's feeling. If this starts to turn you'll know and Nat will even sooner. If she's not worried you're good.

Steve sets his Starkphone aside and gives Sarah an idle headscratch from where he's holed up at home. This is kind of nerve wracking, sitting back unable to help if something goes wrong. Well, not unable to help exactly. He can always PINpoint in if he has to. It just won't be an immediate response and that doesn't sit well with him. He's got to trust in Natasha though. Trust in her and in Tony.

--------------

"So you're basically left in the dark about your maintenance and upkeep because no one's left who understands how the hell you work. Typical government efficiency. Good to know it's still recognizable in the future or wherever you're from."

Tony takes a step back once he's gotten a decent look at both Blaze and her armor before turning on his heel and heading back to the table he'd been working at before they arrived. He picks up a screwdriver and flips it end over end with a little toss before turning and pointing at Blaze with it once he's caught it.

"Full disclosure-- I have a few theories as to what could be causing the problems but I'm going to have to do a full scan to try and figure out what exactly I'm looking at here. Uh, I have no idea how that's going to feel to you. Do you have a sleep mode? I'm not sure you're going to want to be awake for this."

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze considers that the ancient government can't really be blamed, this once. Although come to think of it, maybe if they'd left more widespread records then the Cryptarchs would have figured all this out by now. Doesn't really matter now. She relaxes and shifts her stance again as Tony backs off, feeling more free to fidget now she isn't under inspection.

"I can sleep." Does she want to? Not by preference, but Tony raises a good point. She figured on her brain getting probed at some point, but does she want to be conscious to find out what that stirs up? She doesn't like being so vulnerable, but that's going to happen one way or another.

"Might need some help getting there," she says, decision made. She holds out her left hand, palm upward. "Enough hiding, Ghost. Come on out." The little bot materializes above her palm, looking up at her, then round at Tony with an uncertain spin of his shell. "Ghost's my partner: he knows my internals better than anyone."

"Hi."

[red_room]

"I've been awake while someone was messing around in my head more than once and let me tell you it's fucky in a way you never want to experience if you can help it." Tony gives a firm shake of his head and drops his gaze for just a moment from Blaze to the floor between them. His expression has soured slightly and Natasha chooses that point to push herself away from the table and approach the trio, giving Ghost a tiny little nod as she comes into view once more.

"This isn't the same, Tony. She needs help. She's giving you permission." Natasha knows the demons that crawl in Tony's mind because they're the same ones Wanda unleashed on her own years ago. They might have experienced different things, but they both know how it feels to have something else intruding in your head.

"I know, I know." Tony's head jerks up at the unknown voice speaking up and his eyes widen considerably when he spies Ghost. "What th--you brought another one?"

"He's Blaze's Ghost. Friendly guy." Natasha extends one palm toward Ghost's spinning shell and then moves it toward Tony. "Ghost, this is the Tony Stark who invented the Starkphones you've scanned on multiple occasions." Mostly Steve's but she leaves that part out. "Tony, this is Ghost. He watches over Blaze and acts as her eyes and ears in the field."

"Wow. Okay, I was impressed before? And then you brought in another bot? This is unreal." Tony sounds more amused than anything though, and it looks like he's fighting back an urge to smile. "Right! So. Let me uh..huh. I hate to ask a lady this but how much do you weigh? Trying to figure out the best place to set this up."

[rekindledtitan]

The Exo's gaze is on Tony for a minute, watching him with a mix of concern and sympathy. She nods slowly to both humans. She knows the sound of an awful memory only too well. Whatever else can be said of the man, she thinks he knows the weight of what he's about to do. That reassures her, even more than her trust in her friends.

"Oh, yes." Ghost perks up a little bit at Natasha's reminder. He floats up to Blaze's shoulder. "I, um, I like your phones." Very smooth, Ghost.

"He's shy," Blaze explains, in case they didn't deduce that. Stark's positive reaction toward Ghost obviously pleases her, and she chuckles when asked about her weight. It's a small point of pride: the more weight a Titan has, the harder she can hit. "Hah, more than these benches would tolerate. But... if I'm honest, most of the mass I carry is in my fieldplate. If it's necessary I can ditch it and just use the undersuit." She glances aside at Natasha. "So long as it's close by."

She's seen Tony Stark now - for five minutes, but it's enough for Blaze to form some conclusions about him. Besides, both Natasha and Ghost will be keeping watch over her.

"Think you can get me under for this scan?" she asks Ghost.

"Yes. I think so. But you'll have to let me. If you fight it you'll never get to sleep."

"Whatever it takes, Ghost."

[red_room]

"Yeah? Glad to hear it." Hearing a sentient machine compliment your tech is a stroke to the ego Tony isn't going to argue with right now. Best not to look a gift horse (or bot in this case) in the mouth. Do they even have mouths? Why would they need them, really?

Focus, Tony.

"One of these things here it rated for the Hulk so, I'd hope it could hold you. But better safe than sorry. Ditch the plate and hop up on here and we'll get this show on the road." Stark's unaware of whatever talks Blaze and Natasha might have had before now about the subject, nor does he know why it might be a point of issue if she's the one bringing it up.

Off to Blaze's left side Natasha offers another slow minute nod of her head. She's got your back, Guardian. If something happens someone will be there to fight for her sake. And Steve's only a PINpoint away.

While the two ladies are having a Moment, Tony heads to his sturdiest workbench and begins clearing it off so there's a place for Blaze to settle herself. He barks a few orders to FRIDAY to initiate some protocol or another and soon there's several large holographic screens at Stark's fingertips that he's manipulating to get the right systems online for this. He hopes it works. First time for everything though, right?

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze follows Tony over to the workbench (and it does look like it's built for Cabal patients, this one - maybe Steve's stories haven't been enough for her to properly appreciate the Hulk). While he clears it off and Ghost wanders over to take a look at all the interesting holo-screens, she sets to work detaching her armor. Her mark's unbelted and folded gently before she sets it aside; the rest is held in place by a mixture of toughened straps, environment seals and latches that unlock at the right touch. There's a lot of redundancy and mixed materials: this armor wasn't designed so much as put through generations of trial and error in the field, iterated until the successful designs become tradition.

Most of the interesting parts are hidden from the outside, though. Blaze stacks her gauntlets and main armor neatly to one side of the bench, reluctantly putting it out of Tony's way. Even with the padding of the black undersuit, the sudden loss of visual bulk makes the Exo beneath look almost delicate in comparison. Around the shoulders, anyway. Thin white-plated fingers work briskly as she pulls off the rest of her plate, then swings herself up onto the bench. She thought she'd feel more vulnerable like this. But it's hard to feel that through the overwhelming unease about what Stark is going to find in her head... and the growing flame of hope that he really can find a solution.

"Do you, uh, scan a lot of people's heads like this?" Artificial or otherwise. Were she honest with herself she's not sure where she falls, but neither Tony nor Natasha knows that.

[red_room]

"I originally made this program to monitor myself, actually. Was a long time where I had a very complicated energy source in my chest keeping me alive because of some shrapnel in my ticker trying to kill me. I needed to make sure the energy output wasn't cooking my brain or anything and here we are."

Tony looks up from the screens and gives a small quirk of the corner of his lips toward Ghost but says nothing about the bot inspecting his screens or the system he's currently booting up.

"In your case, I'm not sure if this is going to be the right tool for the job or if one of the diagnostic programs from the Ultron project would be better since there's no way of knowing what you're made of just yet or how your brain works. CPU. Whichever. Point is, I know what I'm doing."

Natasha shoots Tony a glare sharp enough to make him stop from dropping the 'mostly' to the end of that little schpiel before she moves to stand over to Blaze's right on one side of the table.

"Ghost will get all of this down. Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it."

[rekindledtitan]

"I've scanned my Guardian thousands of times. If there is a problem I can help you adjust your program." Ghost doesn't really expect that will be necessary, though. Stark looks to be as well-equipped as he says. One way or another, they'll see what's in Blaze's head.

That's the easy part.

He floats over the holo-screens and settles beside Blaze, trying not to look nervous. It's just a scan and he'll be watching over her every step of the way.

"Always is," she says to Natasha, quietly appreciating the support even if it makes her kick herself for acting like a twitchy recruit. These tables, though. When's the last time she was up on one of these...?

"Best to let Ghost wake me when you're done." She glances at her partner, ready and waiting, and pushes herself back onto the table fully before peering over the side. "Guess I'd better get comfortable. Does this thing adjust? Kinda weird to sleep lying flat."

Either way, it's all going to end the same. Once settled, she and Ghost share a look before she nods and he reaches out with the blue light that marks his own scanners. He's doing more than scanning, though. He's reaching into her systems, to circuits he's restored and rebuilt a hundred times. Most of them he doesn't understand, but he knows what kind of activity he sees when she sleeps. He can try to prompt the same patterns in the right circuits, lulling the Exo brain into a sleep cycle. Which is what it is - she's not powered down by any means, but sleeping almost exactly the way a human does. From the outside the distinction is invisible, though. The Exo is motionless, the light of her optics dimmed to almost nothing.

[red_room]

"She's really out, huh." Tony's hand is drumming absently at the edge of the table while he stares down at the sleeping Exo for several long seconds. "This is. This is a hell of a thing you brought me, Natasha."

"Blaze's systems keep shutting down and rebooting like they are, she's not going to have a lot of time left. The Nexus needs her. Her world needs her. You're the best chance she has." The spy unfolds her arms while she talks but even now her words are measured and carefully chosen. Just because Blaze can't hear them right now doesn't mean Ghost isn't still here. She can't let Tony get too worked up or he'll scare the poor bot.

"Right, well. Let's see what we've got going on here. No sense in wasting time." Tony grabs a stool from a different table and scoots it over until it's next to the table Blaze is at so he can plop down on it and pull up those holographic screens again. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. give me some images."

"On it, Boss. Initial scans are a bit strange. It doesn't look like any computer I've ever seen."

Tony doesn't bother to agree with her. He's too busy staring at the images coming up on his holographic screens. There's a whole lot of extra stuff in here and connections going to places they normally shouldn't, but there's no denying that this looks eerily like the map of a human brain.

"Nat, what exactly is an Exo?" Tony's gaze snaps up and Natasha shrugs her shoulders. Gestures to Ghost. He's the one from that world, Stark. Not her. Tony turns his attention to the little bot. "Why am I looking at someone's brain?"

[rekindledtitan]

Ghost? He's just been hovering quietly, checking out the readings on those displays and hardly casting a glance at the humans. You'd almost think he wasn't listening. (Ghost is always listening.) This looks pretty typical to him: he may not understand much of it, but he's rebuilt these connections often enough to know them.

So he's taken a little off-guard when they turn that very loaded question to him. Ghost's single blue optic flits from Natasha, to Tony, to Blaze - why couldn't you be here to answer this? - then back up to Tony. His shell spins one way, then the other.

"Exo minds are structured very similarly to humans'." He's doing some rapid calculations. Blaze hates discussing it, but Tony could need this information to do his job here. More to the point, if Tony takes an evasive answer poorly, they could be in real trouble. Natasha's right: they're depending on his help.

"We didn't understand why," he says quietly at last. "We only discovered recently that they... well, that she was human once." He looks back at his Guardian, almost guilty. "Blaze doesn't like to acknowledge it."

This just isn't the time for talking about the things they want to.

[red_room]

"Okay hold the phone here, I'm a damn good engineer and computer expert but I'm not a brain surgeon. This is some Helen Cho levels of what the shit, or even Br--" Tony had started to get to his feet, but he cuts himself off when his gaze falls onto Natasha.

The spy isn't looking at him at the moment, but Tony can read her tension in every muscle and despite what people say about him he can in fact take a hint.

"We're not trying to build her a new body, Tony. Or an artificial replacement brain. We're trying to fix her systems. Similar mapping or not, that is your specialty and you've done it before." With Bruce's help, but Natasha isn't going to be the one to open that door especially when she's just kept Tony from doing the same. There's no sense invoking a man who's years gone by this point to who only knows where.

Tony's left eye and nose twitch with his barely contained emotions but he sighs instead of saying anything again. Settles back onto the stool and pours over the screens at his fingertips again. He's playing around in someone's brain. Not something. Someone. It doesn't feel right, doesn't sit right with him. But it might save a life here and that trumps his misgivings.

Fuck it.

Natasha didn't turn a perfectly good human into a robot and neither did Blaze probably. He's not here to argue the morality of what's been done to this poor woman's identity over the centuries. Tony Stark is there to fix it.

"There's a lot of redundancy here that's probably clogging up her processors. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say she's struggling to operate because of all the front end strain trying to maintain this much crap. Let me see what I can do here..."

[rekindledtitan]

Ghost is frozen in mid-air when Tony starts up. The little bot doesn't dare say a word as Natasha talks him back to work, terrified that they're going to be turned away just when they've finally found someone who could help. What will they do if he refuses? What can they do?

His optic flits from one human to the other as they talk, but finally Tony sits again. Ghost droops for a moment in relief, then looks back up at Natasha and gives a little spin, trusting she'll understand the message.

For now he edges closer to see what Tony's doing, and whether he can assist. Exo systems are too unlike any extant Golden Age programming for the scientists back home to figure out. Knowing what he does now, Ghost suspects that’s as much down to their quasi-human neurology confusing things as to whatever classified, proprietary systems their creators used. Which means Tony has a double advantage, despite what he thinks: he’s familiar enough with this type of weird that he could identify it almost on sight, and he probably has a lot in common with whoever was behind this. If anyone can follow what they were doing, surely it’s him.

That said, figuring out an electronic brain is going to be a hell of a challenge. Detached from biology, Exo minds don’t have to arrange anything according to human layouts. Detached from engineers’ logic, they don’t need to truck with neatly labeled directories. There are connections that repeat and duplicated files and bits of corrupted data all over the place and some things that are downright inaccessible. And underneath it all is something a lot simpler and much less fragmented: a set of systems that twine around all the others. Monitoring, directing, processing. They’re the ones doing most of the work now, regulating Blaze’s sleep, and the ones likely to react to any changes Tony makes. The core processes. To a man who’s built AI with combat in mind… well, they’re someone else’s style and a couple generations removed, but they’re clearly cousin to systems he knows.

“I don’t think the reboots ever succeeded in wiping everything properly,” Ghost volunteers. “Um, I repaired everything I could when I first found her, but I couldn’t tell where all of it ought to go.”

[red_room]

Frankly these scans look like a nightmarish mess. Elements of a biological human brain, a computer's CPU, and something else at the core of her processes that is maintaining her equivalent of the autonomic nervous system. Stark inhales sharply at how unnerving that last one is. It reminds him so much of what powers Vision. That kind of power is terrifying.

Larger than any one man.

More powerful than mere human science. There are no energy signatures cropping up warnings on his screen, but the similarities to such an ancient power are too strong to be ignored.

"Alright c'mere Pint Size. I'm gonna explain what I can here."

Natasha rolls her eyes at Tony's penchant for inappropriate nicknames but otherwise doesn't object to the request. She gives Ghost a tiny nod of encouragement instead. Go ahead, she'll look over your Guardian for a moment here. One of Nat's hands is resting on the tabletop as she looks down at the still Exo.

Just a little longer, Blaze. They'll get you the help you need.

"Sounds like you're the one rebooting and reconnecting her systems when her processor shits the bed and memory wipes. You need to learn what's necessary and what can be cleared out. She doesn't need this extra redundant data clogging up her system. Even just clearing out the redundant files would go a long way toward helping her function at a more optimal level."

That makes Natasha shut up fast and pinch her nose. Are they really going to clear an Exo's cache? It makes a ton of sense to start there, even if the premise is utterly ridiculous to Natasha. Tony's just one of the few who could actually do it to an Exo without getting rid of of anything important in the process.

"You uh...you manage this core program too?" Tony glances up at Ghost out of the corner of his eye.

Unattended alarm going off outside means bonus late-night tag!

[rekindledtitan]

Even under the circumstances, Tony's getting a startled eyeballing from the little bot for that nickname. Despite the look, though, he glances at Natasha and flies over by Tony's shoulder to watch and listen.

"Can we do that?" He hovers closer to the screen, shell spinning halfway back and forth. Clear her memory without damaging anything? "I've never actually seen her reboot. Her own systems seem to handle all of it, but the last time they tried to do it was... it was while we were separated."

And he doesn't wish he'd seen that. But he doesn't know enough about the process to tell Tony what he's watching out for. He can't help the way he should...

"Core program?" He looks back at Tony, then at the display. What does he mean-? Oh. Oh! Ghost is surprised the human noticed it. His equipment is excellent but this is something it surely wasn't designed to track. Ghost can sense it, but then it's the same thing he's made of. The very thing that binds him to his Guardian.

"That is my Guardian's Light." He says it reverently. "It's much more than a program, Mr. Stark. I tend to it, but I don't control it. I can only use it to heal her. It's... not part of her original build."

[red_room]

"Well, look. Her systems aren't handling it properly. That's why all this shit is in here. I'm gonna show you how to do it, but you gotta keep an eye on her going forward."

Tony's fingers hover over sections of duplicate data, old file directories that no longer point to any kind of valuable data, and corrupted files. Little lights begin popping up all over the screens as he continues scanning over Blaze's systems.

"See all this crap? I'd wager everything I'm worth that it's a big part of what's giving her trouble. We need to get rid of it." Though when Tony tries to do that there's a reaction from that third program almost immediately. Refusing to get rid of certain files, while helpfully removing several other ones he'd failed to select that seem to fit the same criteria he was looking for.

"What the fuck." Pint Size just talked about this program like it was some kinda magic and....honestly? Tony's about three seconds away from freaking out at the sentient program arguing with him over how to do his job without so much as ever saying a word. "Not part of her--you DO realize it's keeping her alive right now right? It's worked its way into her most basic controls. Everything Basic she keeps between wipes...that's ALL this program."

"Is that a problem, Tony?" Natasha hasn't strayed from Blaze's side, but she quirks her eyebrow when she asks so Tony knows she's asking after Him too. If he's unsettled then there's a potential for danger, even if he's playing it cool.

"I don't--I mean, maybe? If it ever decides to stop doing those jobs. Right now she's running on what looks like infinite power and that makes no damn sense whatsoever."

[rekindledtitan]

Ghost hovers close, watching every choice Tony makes, following close so he can understand what he needs to. So he can safeguard his Guardian when the fragments inevitably build up and connections go astray once more.

He's not surprised when the Light overrides some of those choices, but he does dart over the display to scan his Guardian directly for a moment or two. He can sense the Light trying to work with Tony's changes- and to him it looks as if it's stabilizing the Exo's circuits before the alarmed monitors of her autonomous functions can take issue with this tampering. Turning interrogating diagnostics aside, settling processors before things get out of control and potentially trigger a reboot.

(And her base systems announce, to whoever might have the tools to see: THEUT ASSESSMENT DIRECTIVES (SUBTLE; SELF-VERBOSITY: TACITA) COMPLETE. Status level: ELYSIAN. Cognitive stability: nominal. DEEP STONE CRITERION: NOT MET.)

"It's trying to protect her," Ghost says quietly. The little bot turns in the air to look at Tony. "You're right. The Light is a part of her. As one of its Guardians, she's bound to it. It won't just abandon her. I... it must be hard to understand, and it might take a while to explain. But it's on our side."

[red_room]

"Not really. Just because we don't understand it, doesn't mean we haven't seen something similar to that before."

Natasha lifts one shoulder in a shrug as she looks between Tony and Ghost. "Vision's no less inexplicable."

"Vision's powered by an Infinity stone, Nat. This is--"

"A terribly Ancient power outside the scope of our capacity to understand that has the power to give life even to artificial bodies? Sounds pretty similar to me."

"Okay, well. I can't do anything for that kind of power so if it ever goes on the fritz you're on your own." Tony turns his attention back down to the screens and continues highlighting extraneous files and getting rid of them as best he can. He needs to write a goddamn script Ghost can run to defrag the Exo without all this manual selection shit. But that won't help Blaze in the Right Now, so he continues to work. Fingers continue dancing across holographic screens with only the occasional swear whenever Blaze's Light stops Tony from doing what he's trying to do.

It goes so much quicker once the programming has caught on to what he's doing. He'd almost think it was helping him. Files keep popping up in the directories he's searching through, ready to be gotten rid of.

To Ghost it must feel like a century before Tony's pushing himself away from the table and stool he's been seated at, banishing the screens as he moves to get up.

"You might want to run a scan next time she's sleeping for anything else but that's about as much as I could find easily. If we want to start looking at what's literally causing all of this I"m going to have to do a hell of a lot more scans and studies before I can even try to come up with a solution. Let's make sure we didn't hurt your friend here. Wanna wake her up?"

[rekindledtitan]

“If the Light ever goes on the fritz, we’ll all have much bigger problems.” It’s strange, talking to someone who isn’t used to treating the Light as an unfaltering fact of life. There must be people – civilians in the City, maybe – for whom Guardians and the power of the Traveler are more story than solid truth. But Ghost has never spoken with them. He is a part of the Light too, born from it, trusting in it, depending on it. He supposes it makes sense for Tony to be so wary of it, but Natasha’s pragmatism is welcomed. And as frustrating as its intervention must be, he’s comforted to know it’s watching over them, so far from the Traveler’s reach.

He does a double-take when Stark wraps it up, but he’s only too quick to dart over to Blaze. He hovers in front of her, the half-spins of his shell betraying his concern as he calls out gently. “Blaze? It’s time to wake up, Guardian.”

She returns suddenly, pushing herself up almost before her optics have powered up. There’s an automatic reach for something beside her that isn’t there, a flex of her hands before she swings herself round to sit on the edge of the table, head snapping round to glance over the room. Ghost follows her, watching carefully.

“It’s all right, Blaze. We’re in-”

“Ghost. I know.” Her voice is calm, but she still seems – feels – a little disoriented. She blinks, looks at both humans. Everything seems all right - no angry faces, no alarm from Ghost. No bullet holes. “How long was I out? Did you find anything-?” She pauses. Takes a slower look around, then down at herself. Something has changed, something subtle enough that she’s going to take a minute to place what feels so odd. “...What did you do?”

[red_room]

"There we go. Everything feeling all right over there?"

Tony's got his arms folded over his chest while Natasha bends down and with some effort heaves a piece of Blaze's gear up onto the table so she can begin to get dressed again.

"Found out a lot more than I bargained for, but what else is new. Your Core programming--Ghost calls it your Light-- is working round the clock to keep you stabilized and prevent another one of those memory wipes you were talking about. Seems like it's also trying to keep your formerly biological brain from freaking out about the new change of scenery going on here, since that seems to be a factor in your crashes."

Natasha offers the Exo a friendly enough smile while Tony's already moved to go pick something up to fuss with while he talks and so he's not effectively watching a lady dress herself.

"I'm gonna teach your little friend there how to perform the maintenance needed to keep your systems clear. You should have an easier time of things for a while. I went in and got rid of redundant and corrupted files that were taking up processing power and making you unstable. But it's gonna be something you have to stay on top of going forward or it'll get bad again."

"More importantly, how do you feel, Blaze?" Natasha's hand hasn't left the Exo's shoulder.

[rekindledtitan]

“Thanks,” she says when Natasha hauls up her cuirass. While Tony talks, Blaze starts pulling it on piece by piece, strapping each on securely before she locks the seals. She stops dead the second Tony brings up biology, though. The Exo’s head snaps up to look at him. Then at Ghost.

“He worked it out almost immediately,” Ghost says softly. “And it might be important…”

She wants to reject that. She wants to tell them it’s irrelevant. She didn’t know it would show. But Tony’s already said it’s part of the problem she asked his help with. Part of the reason she can’t keep a hold on her own mind. She shoots a glance up at Natasha, then grunts and cinches the strap of her vambrace hard.

"I feel..." She feels awkward and angry and embarrassed. She doesn't want to say any of that. She can feel the lurking memories called back, the same confused tangle of emotions as always...

But.

It's not overwhelming. She doesn't feel the urge to go jump in a fight so something will make sense. Doesn't have to talk through her thoughts just to put them in order. The memories are there, but they're not butting in on her while she's trying to think how to answer. She picks up her greaves, and for once she's not grabbing for a task to focus on.

"Clarity," she says thoughtfully. "Not sure how I could describe it. All the same things are there I think, just- hn. Not so much all at once." She lifts her head, optics focusing on Tony. There's gratitude in her voice, and not a little respect. "You really did it."

Some of it, anyway. His description of the situation inside her head is plenty unnerving but just for this moment she's not dwelling on that. Something actually worked.

[red_room]

"Yeah? I should hope so, after all of that. If you're looking to make those things stop altogether, it's gonna take a lot more work than this. All I did this time were some basic scans and some much, much needed Spring cleaning. Keeping that all sorted will go a long way toward building up the emotional duress and processing strain that was one of the contributors to your reboots."

Tony recalls the holographic screens back up and motions for Ghost to come over so he can explain step by step how the little bot can do what he'd done here today. Definitely encouraging Ghost to write a script to do it while his guardian is asleep or otherwise out of commission for repairs and the like. Will go a long way toward helping her.

"It's no panacea but it's a start." Natasha hands Blaze her cloak last and offers the Exo a small relieved nod and another shoulder squeeze. "One less thing to worry about for the time being, right?"

[rekindledtitan]

Ghost keeps his relief to himself, getting to work listening to Tony and making suggestions about what he can do. Maybe Blaze will sleep more often if he can point to such a compelling reason why it's necessary.

"Yeah." Blaze takes the cloak gently, smoothing the stained and ragged cloth in her lap. It still smells faintly of decay and must. The scent of the Nightmare. "I'm not going to reboot. I can actually hear myself think." She lets out a short chuckle, staring down at the cloak for a couple of seconds before she starts folding it over.

"You know, I always figured the reboots were part of our design. Some kind of maintenance protocol - or a security measure, maybe. A necessity our creators couldn't avoid. I used to hope it was a good reason. I don't think I ever considered that it might be unintentional. Hnh. Starting to wonder if they- if any of us knew what we were doing." She looks around then and reaches up, placing her hand over Natasha's for a moment. With its owner back, the mesh lining of her gauntlet is starting to warm up again. "Guess I'm just lucky to have friends who do."

[red_room]

"There is a damn good reason they're in there." Tony pipes up from where he's looking over the schematics with Ghost. He nods at Blaze with more seriousness to his expression than he's had at all when she's been awake for any of this visit. "They're keeping you from shutting down for good. And not like your body or whatever. Your mind. Forced wipes and restarts from backups are a safety feature. Better for you to lose your memories and wake up again than for your mind to go total meltdown and shut down for good. I'm not sure how that would work for you though, since that Light function seems to be keeping you online either way."

It's possible she'd just go back to being a non-sentient robot lady if the Light was bound and determined to keep her functional. Tony doesn't think that would be doing anyone any favors though. He doesn't understand how any of that works. What he does know is that Blaze's wipes smell suspiciously like a work around or a design feature moreso than a bug. There's enough "smart" tech he's built to recognize someone else's ideas for what they are.

Natasha gives Tony a grim eye until he's finished before nodding back down to Blaze. For better or for worse, Tony seems to understand what she is a lot better than most. Even if he's woefully ignorant on some big things about her and her world, including her, there's enough familiar for him to wade into it with some degree of confidence.

Natasha doesn't let go of Blaze's shoulder until Blaze pulls away first.