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Lorna Dane
07 June 2008 @ 07:55 pm
RP for [info]sal_starkrogers
Saturday Morning

Dinner the night before was long and chaotic and followed by passion and passionate discussion so Saturday morning finds Lorna sleeping in. It's nearly 10:30 by the time she makes her way to the brunch buffet. She almost wishes Henry were with her, his presence would help keep her from saying something she shouldn't about Sally's relationship to Tony Stark and the man Wanda calls his Imaginary Boyfriend. But it's too early in the morning and the yachting atmosphere too inviting for Henry to have any interest in listening to the two prodigies discuss nanotech. Or, since she'd noted a few star-struck glances thrown around by the girl (admittedly, this boat is chock full of celebrity), he might distract Sally's attention from the nanotech and Lorna is looking forward to discussing her program with someone who has a genuine interest in the material and not just her involvement.

Don't get her wrong, she appreciates her friends interest in her work but she usually presumes it is feigned. Her nanites just aren't all that exciting to most people.

But this is Tony Stark's daughter. Or something. And, already at MIT at 17, she seems poised to follow his path -- at least in so much as having a healthy interest in things scientific in addition to the admiration for celebrity. So Lorna's looking forward to the talk. Though it might be just a meeting to set up a meeting when Lorna visits her former lab at Wayne, NY before starting her new position at Wayne, LA. But hey, if she can befriend the girl she'll have one more ally around when she has to see the formidable Pepper Potts. Two Sallys, even ones as bright as hers, don't quite add up to one Pepper but every little bit helps.

Lorna selects a greek yogurt parfait to swirl around and pretend to eat for breakfast and, of course, coffee. She walks over to take a seat at a little umbrellaed table with a view out over the water. Thus settled she waves at Stetins, who'd she'd noted cleaning up her oragami supplies when they'd arrived. She'd stopped by the children's cabin to see Katie before brunch and she knew her daughter had spent a joyful morning with the Sally she knew from another world.

Sigh.

Someday, her life will be as easy to explain as her nanites.
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Current Location: Bruce Wayne's Yacht
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sal_starkrogers[info]sal_starkrogers on June 8th, 2008 12:22 am (UTC)
Sally was glad -- grateful, glad, thrilled, even -- that last night had ended as gracefully as it did. It was the sort of evening that rumors and stories were made of later, stories that had nothing to do with reality and everything to do with the need people had to make sense of things. Sally liked to make sense of things. And as far as she could tell, the sensible story about last night was that drunk adults were not as funny as they thought they were.

It had been a relief to spend the morning with Katie. The little girl was quiet, and polite, and extremely determined. She'd picked up the gist of origami right away. Only the size and developmental strength of her fingers kept her creations from looking like the ones in the book. Sally loved origami. She liked the order, the way predictability and creativity combined. She'd accepted the origami fish Katie had given her were complete seriousness, and given the child an origami crab in return.

Now it was time to meet with Ms. Dane. Sally watched the woman come over, food and drink in hand. Sally'd eaten much earlier, and was content with an iced chai. She smiled at Lorna. "Good morning," Sally said. "Please, sit down. It's really a lovely day, don't you think?" There. No mention of last night.
Lorna Dane[info]erikscordelia on June 8th, 2008 12:35 am (UTC)

"Beautiful," Lorna agrees with a cheery smile. "I love the weather out here." Meaning the West Coast but Sally can take it to mean on the boat if she likes.

Lorna is under no illusion that stories about this weekend are not going to end up somewhere. It's not entirely far-fetched to think the rumors are going to end up EVERYWHERE. The silver lining: there are people way more famous than Lorna on board so she may get off as a footnote.

As part of her mutation Katie understands objects through touch, in a way the famous saying that a real artist merely reveals what was already there is a truth for her. When she's older and develops her gift she'll be able to not only create origami fish, but tell you seriously the hidden story of each one. Everything has a story, you see, and Katie can hear them.

"Are you having fun?"

Lorna asks, sitting and sipping her coffee, and instantly wishes she hadn't. Sally may ask her the same question and she has no idea what to answer.
sal_starkrogers[info]sal_starkrogers on June 8th, 2008 12:42 am (UTC)
"I am," Sally replied. "It's like a safari. Here observing the rare and exotic Extremely Famous People." She smiled wryly. "That sounds worse than I mean it, but since I met Sally, I've done nothing but meet people whose names are in the paper. And not the Naperville Sentinel local section. The front page of the New York Times."

Sally leaned back. "None of this is mine, my life. But it's a lot of fun to enjoy for a couple days. I'm really glad I don't have to live like this all the time. The pressure grows the deeper you get, you know?"
Lorna Dane[info]erikscordelia on June 8th, 2008 03:17 am (UTC)

Oh, she knows. She knows very well.

"It is a bit much." And here she means the lifestyle, the pressure, yes. The burden. But Sally can take it to mean the trip -- or the boat, itself -- if she prefers.

"Actually, Sally had a similar experience herself when she first met Bruce. It's like a contagion we're spreading around." This amuses Lorna. She grins.

"Everyone speaks highly of you, though. I'm looking forward to see you and Sally in action at Stark."
sal_starkrogers[info]sal_starkrogers on June 8th, 2008 02:14 pm (UTC)
People have been saying that for all of Sally's life. People speak highly of you. We have such hopes. We expect a lot from you. And Sally, she thrives on it. She knows she's that good, when she lays in bed at night and stares at the ceiling. She knows she's going to do great things. Save people. Save the world. In some way, it's what she was born to do.

"I'm looking forward to the project, at the end of the summer," Sally told Lorna. "For the internship I'm on, I have to to do things -- re-write a pitch I've witnessed, and try to get Ms. Potts to say yes this time instead of no And I have to write a proposal of my own. I don't pitch that to Ms. Potts, though. Somebody else. I haven't figured out my original, yet."

She smiled. "This boat seems far away from the work that Wayne and Stark both do. I don't know why both men seem to like this kind of thing, when they're actually hard workers."
Lorna Dane[info]erikscordelia on June 9th, 2008 01:45 pm (UTC)

"I imagine that's the point," Lorna answers, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Work hard, play hard?"

Though, Lorna is a hard worker herself and it can take some prodding to get her to play. Except in the bedroom where she's as likely to be taking charge as not, which can go a long way to explain how she held Bruce's interest. But that is neither here nor there and Lorna is actually impressed at Sally's wherewithal to notice the two men are 'actually hard workers'. Most people are blinded by the boats and models and built in stripper poles.

"You're enjoying the internship?"
sal_starkrogers: Young Avenger[info]sal_starkrogers on June 9th, 2008 09:21 pm (UTC)
"I am!" Sally smiled, cheerful in the morning light. "It's a lot of work, and incredibly difficult." Sally's dark eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips in thought. "But there's something almost intimate about seeing the way power is actually held by people. How some are comfortable with it, and others not. It's good to learn to recognize these things now, so I'll be able to tell what it looks like later."

When I have power, Sally means, but doesn't say.
Lorna Dane[info]erikscordelia on June 9th, 2008 11:47 pm (UTC)

Honestly, Lorna thinks following Pepper Potts around all afternoon sounds extraordinarily boring. Sitting silently in power meetings -- well, she would not be comfortable with it. She really does want to understand the allure of all this, it's why she asked Sally (her Sally) to set up a visit.

And this Sally's explanation is better than Blevins'.

"Sally's using this internship to help her decide what she may want to study in school. You've already started at MIT, yes? Do you know what your concentration will be?"
sal_starkrogers[info]sal_starkrogers on June 10th, 2008 12:35 am (UTC)
"I haven't figured that out yet," Sally admits, and now she looks uncomfortable. Uncertain, really, and a lot more like a teenage girl. "I think -- I think I'll just take the core for freshmen and see what looks like it will get me what I want."
Lorna Dane[info]erikscordelia on June 10th, 2008 11:02 pm (UTC)

"You don't need to know!"

Lorna shakes her head adamantly, she didn't mean to imply she did. Sally just seemed so confident.

"I didn't know when I started at Harvard," Lorna says. "Just that I was interested in the science program."
sal_starkrogers: Young Avenger[info]sal_starkrogers on June 11th, 2008 02:31 pm (UTC)
Sally smiles. "I don't know about anyone else," she says, "but I'm glad you did. Go into the sciences." She settles back. "so can you tell me all about your projects? And what you hope to do with them?"

Sally doesn't think about it too much, but she's planning ahead, thinking of the future. Thinking of what the world will look like when she's old enough to shape it. Lorna Dane's nanotech will be a part of that future, and Sally wants to understand it from the start.