arcreact | ( savrou ) ic contact

[ Shove it, pop snob.

If Adrien was in anyway surprised or put off by the suggestion that Tony had locked correspondences, he doesn't show it. Far away, he'd trusted that very paranoia, he wasn't about to remark on it now.

Instead, he took a breath as if about to answer the question, paused and reached up to tap his finger against his lip, before nodding to himself. ]

More a theory, developed as a result of process of elimination. [ He was up front with that fact, not wanting Tony to believe this was anything except speculation. Which, on board a ship, you had to be careful about.

Which was why ... he was coming to Tony and not making a call over the MID. ]

There is, at this time, nothing Medical can do to change glass back to organic material. We can provide supportive care, we can give short term fixes and there are options for limbs broken but ... it's all treating the symptoms.

[ Which he hates, even as he accepts it as a necessary evil. Lowering his hand, he pointed at the Ingress. ]

But if we're looking at the wrong patient ... [ he began, finally looking away from the Ingress and to Tony, to see if the man followed what he was saying. ]

I know you and Banner and the others aren't sitting around with your thumbs up your ass. [ It was a compliment ... sort of? ] But every thing I look at, from my perspective, is telling me we aren't going to be able to provide the crew with a permanent solution, until we can cure the Ingress.

[ Tony half turns, eyes drifting back to the portal in question. He still feels a little frustrated just looking at it. ]

Well, you're not wrong.

[ The thought had occurred to him at least a few times, but he hadn't had time to do more than sigh at the prospect. There's just too much shit to do right now, attempts to patch the ship and keep it within some semblance of working order. They're so busy plugging holes that they haven't had time to consider any other alternative. ]

I helped fix the thing when it first broke down. It's practically incomprehensible. [ And that coming from the mouth of Tony Stark probably means quite a bit. ] But I haven't been convinced the Captains have nothing on it, even before hearing about these mystery notes floating around.

[ As Tony talked, Adrien rocked pensively from one foot to the other, listening to his roommate closely. It was something, indeed, to hear Tony admit that the Ingress was practically incomprehensible. That alone would have impressed the gravity of the situation on Adrien, if the doctor wasn't already seeing it from the front lines in Medbay.

As Stark spoke, the doctor began to actually pace. He was wrestling with himself, had been for hours now. He could just shove his head into Medical, like an ostrich in the sand and ignore the rest of it. Just work in his little corner of the ship and pretend the rest was for someone else to figure out.

Apathy.

The crunch of bone as necks were snapped. Caducian crew members falling dead as he shot or sometimes stabbed them. Some of the crew little more than civilians driven by grief to try to bring a fight to people who were better trained.

More blood, more death and if the Moira was hopelessly damaged, dying a slow death, then the sacrifice of those lives meant nothing.

Neraki ... Ajna.

Adrien squeezed his eyes tightly shut, as if attempting to obliterate an image he didn't want to see (or couldn't handle envisioning) and he took a deep breath. He shook out his hand, fingers twitching before he shoved them into the pockets of his lab coat.

When he walked back to Tony, he was composed. ]

Has anyone tried talking with the Captains? [ It was a genuine question. He'd had his head down in Medical for so long that he would have missed the memos. ]

[ Tony doesn't say anything, but he's watching Adrien pace with the same dangerously perceptive look he uses on complex mechanical devices that aren't quite working the way they're supposed to. Like when he's trying to isolate which part(s) aren't functioning, and why.

The look lingers for a beat too long before he deigns to answer the question. ]

Probably. [ He just shrugs, like that one dismissive gesture can encapsulate his entire opinion of this place's authority figures. ] The people around here aren't stupid - well, most of them, anyway. If the info were offered up just by sitting down for tea, I'm damn sure we wouldn't be in this position.

[ Stop being so fucking perceptive, Stark. ]

But you don't know. [ It was a statement and issued in a soft voice that intended to express that he wasn't saying it in a derogatory way. His words may suck at times, in their order and content but he liked to think he'd learned some lessons about delivery. ]

In the medical field you have many moving parts. Doctors, nurses, lab technicians, experts in different fields. When a patient is suffering, these pieces come together to diagnose and treat the affliction because if any one tries to work alone, shit gets missed.

Everybody has a role.

[ Looking back at the Ingress, he sighed softly. ]

That's our patient right there, the best opportunity we have for a solution to what's afflicting the crew but it feels like we're all in our silos, throwing all our resources at treating the symptoms and not looking up when we should.

[ Tony resists rolling his eyes, but only because it's clear Adrien is nearing the end of his emotional tether. He's not about to dig into specifics - he figures he can make a few solid guesses, anyway - but that much is clear from his behavior alone. ]

So, what, we need to hold hands and somehow get all these people working as a cohesive unit?

[ If it sounds skeptical, that's because it is. But it's not nearly as scathing as it might have been, once; whether he likes it or not, being aboard the Moira has already forced him into more teamwork than he's participated in - ever, maybe. And the Avengers initiative is still fresh in his mind, besides.

It's less that he's shooting the idea down wholesale, and more than he fails to see how it can happen, realistically. ]

We'd need some kind of actual leadership for that, and I think that's a pretty tall order.

[ He really was at the end of his emotional tether, from a number of directions and Stark's words hit him all levels of wrong.

For a moment, Adrien felt his breath slam into his chest and then seem to stop moving through his lungs. It was like suffocating while standing upright. Inside his own skull, he felt like a pingpong ball was ricocheting against bone, thoughts flying every which way, with no one clear reasonable response standing out above the others.

He reached back and gripped at the short hair just above his nape, a half measure from the temple to temple grasp he wanted to indulge in. Tony wasn't aware of it, wasn't aware of any of the emotional land mines he'd triggered with that entirely reasonable statement. It truly was ludicrous, impossible ...

hopeless. ]

Yeah. [ He said, softly after a moment and in the moment after that, he dropped his hand away. ] Yeah, right. Tall order .. ridiculous.

[ Taking a deep breath, Adrien seemed to collapse in on himself even as he straightened, hands going into the pockets of his uniform as he looked back at the Ingress and then to Tony. ]

I shouldn't have wasted your time calling you down here.

[ Tony doesn't appear cowed by Adrien's sudden meltdown. He just drives the conversation onward in spite of it. ]

I said it would be a pain in the ass. I didn't say we should all roll over and give up without even bothering.

[ The keen eye that had back tracking him earlier is back, sharper this time. The current situation is stressful, sure. People are dead and haven't come back. People are crippled with no clear path to recovery. The ship is in shambles. It's enough to drive even well-adjusted people to their limit, and there are no well-adjusted people in this room.

But this reaction isn't about just that, plain and simple. There's no way. ]

This isn't just about the Ingress. So, what?

[ Hadn't they originally connected over the fact that Adrien understood Tony was a genius? Should it surprise him that the man could be an insightful bastard; nope.

For a moment he just looked at his roommate before he shook his head and looked past Tony and towards the Ingress. ]

Now's not the time. [ He said in a quiet tone. He wouldn't insult Tony's intelligence by trying to pretend there wasn't something, but as Stark already recognized, there were no well-adjusted people in this room. ]

If you're not insisting it's impossible, well ... you're the social butterfly, who or whom would you tap for such a task?

[ He lets it go. Don't ever say he was never magnanimous. ]

Hey, I've been here just as long as you have. [ But if he really has to stop and think about it... ] Shepard, maybe.

[ There was an irony to this situation that Adrien probably would never go into. Tony offered up a name that the doctor had actually considered himself, despite his previous experiences.

But it still forced a choked off ... something.

At least he caught himself and in the next moment he nodded. ]

Her and possibly Cortana. Have you talked to either of them?

[ One eyebrow ticks upward, but he doesn't comment. ]

I've worked with both of them in various capacities, yeah. [ Shep down in engineering, Cortana on projects more personal - it's not that he trusts them necessarily, at least not in a personal or meaningful sense. But he's aware of some of their skillsets. ] They're competent, which is saying something.

From you? Definitely.

[ It was a weak ass attempt at humor that probably fell flat. ]