[Beantown Arsenal - Outside Boston]

[ednygma]

It's obscenely early when Eddie rolls into the office. It's not all that early for him - someone who's somewhat notorious for never going home or sleeping - but for everyone else, even on a military base, it's capital E early. His department's quiet and mostly empty when he arrives. Eddie gets coffee, boots up all his computers, and then wanders across the building to see if Jonathan's at work already. He's guessing yes, probably. Crane's as prone to prioritizing work over petty things like sleep as Eddie is.

He gives Crane's office door the most cursory of knocks before just letting himself in. Eddie has big news to share, and also be smug about. Crane's going to get to hear all about it, whether he likes it or not.

"Good morning," Is how he cheerfully announces himself. He plonks one of the mugs of coffee down on Crane's desk. Couple sugars, very very little cream. Not that Eddie himself would ever admit to knowing those specifications. "Guess who showed up at my door last night? And made me spend several hours filling out paperwork."

Comments

Re: [ten days later]

[ednygma]

"One can only hope, I suppose." As for the question of the protoype... Eddie flattens his lips into a thin line and waves his hands around in a vague, exasperated gesture. "Problematic," He says, finally. "I can deliver all kinds of fairly complex, working VI, but this is... The theories are all sound, our tech just isn't quite there yet."

He sighs. He's hit a few speedbumps - or maybe walls - with this particular project, as much as he hates to admit. "Between the shifting deadlines and the general who's more or less moved into the test lab, we're not really getting anywhere very quickly. I can't magic up something that's decades ahead of anything we have now on demand, unfortunately, no matter how much pressure they apply."

He knows he's not even the only division working on this. There's another working with brain scans, and while he's fairly free to look into their research, so much of that is so far out of his fields of expertise.

Eddie settles back into his seat, taking a few drinks of his coffee. "You know, that's the first time you've asked about my research in a while."

To be fair, it's not as if Eddie can really remember how much of that he's mentioned in the past week or so - he's sure he has, he just... didn't really keep track.

Re: [ten days later]

[atomosophobia]

Crane nods. "Ah yes, nothing like a little good old-fashioned bureaucracy." He's been having some similar problems. It helps that no one's currently expecting him to invent something from a science fiction show, however. "I've only just gotten Wincott to stop pestering me about test subjects myself." At least for the moment. Wincott is an imbecilic blowhard who never shuts up for long.

"Is it?" Crane knows it is. He shrugs. "I suppose I was due, then." He hopes Nygma doesn't push about this, but that's probably a futile hope. Prying is one of Edward's hobbies. Mostly Crane would like to escape this conversation without having to admit to having been paying so little attention lately. That would be... awkward.

Re: [ten days later]

[ednygma]

Eddie lets out a short, small laugh. "Do I even want to know how you managed that?" He's run into Wincott enough to be grateful that he wasn't stuck with the man - not that he doesn't have a few other people just as obnoxious to deal with, if not more so.

"Yes, it is," Eddie says thoughtfully. "You have seemed rather.... distracted lately." 'Distracted' is the mildest way he can think of phrasing that. It could simply be the ramping stress of their work during wartime - it's certainly hellishly stressful as is - but it's been especially noticeable lately. "You look much more rested today." He considers that, briefly. "Did something resolve itself?"

Re: [ten days later]

[atomosophobia]

Of course. "Ah. Yes." Crane clear his throat. "I... may have been, yes." He almost winces at how awkward he sounds, even for him. He blinks at Nygma's assessment. Jonathan supposes he shouldn't be that surprised that he's been looking more tired lately... or that he looks more rested today.

"Actually... yes. I suppose something did." He still feels foolish for having been so worried about it. And for being as relieved as he is. It doesn't change much, really, and that's assuming the Vaults even work as intended. And yet.

Crane huffs to himself. Fine. He might as well get this over with. He reaches into the top drawer of his desk and pulls out the stupid brochure he brought with him to work this morning. Crane tosses it onto the desk with what turns out to be too much force. It skitters across the desk to Edward and practically falls in his lap.

Re: [ten days later]

[ednygma]

Crane's surprisingly awkward about the whole thing. Better than him being snappish and short, but still. Eddie's immediately distracted by the glossy Vault Tech pamphlet thrown vaguely in his direction, though, before he can really ponder Crane's mood shift. He watches the brochure slide across the desk until it stops precariously close to the edge. He wordlessly grabs it and rifles through it, his brow furrowed intently. After several silent moments of brochure perusing, he says, finally, "This is nicer than the one I got."

It just falls right out of hims mouth before he can think further about it. It's absurd, just completely absurd, but he goes with it. Better than admitting to... anything about how much of a fuss he was going to kick up otherwise. (Not that he'd be able to, given that he wasn't sure exactly what he'd have done. Yell at Vault Tech people? Flail angrily? Blackmail or otherwise extort?) Regardless. "It's fancy and new."

His had looked slightly... photocopied.