2012-08-08 Clever Girl

Stark Tower. Interviews for Stark Future are still going on. Maybe because Tony Stark believes that people can join the future whenever they feel like it. There's no time limit. There's no reason that they should be stuck rushing to a deadline when they should be more worried about being awesome. Tony's attempting to deal with Stark Industries business, all by himself. Pepper Potts, some people say she's the real brains behind Stark Industries, is on vacation. This means that Stark Industries is not exactly at its best.

The door to Stark's office is wide open and he's sitting at his desk, staring at piles of paperwork. A lot of which probably needed to be handled yesterday. EIther way, though, he's here. And he's trying. And he probably has no idea someone's coming in for an interview right now.

A chance to work for Tony Stark. What card-holding member of the superhero fanclub wouldn't want such a chance? Cassie stands outside the door, adjusting the collar on her blazer nervously. Maybe borrowing it from her mom had been too much. But she knows, with a resume that has very little connected with science or technology on it, that she'll need all the help she can get.

"Uhm, Excuse me?" She steps inside, knocking on the open door to help announce her entrance, "Mr. Stark?" She offers a polite but hesitant smile, and tries not to clutch her resume too tightly in her nervousness. This would be so much easier if she were in her costume!

Tony peeks up from behind the Paper Jungle in time to see... someone showing up. "JARVIS?"

"She's here about Stark Future, sir." The voice of JARVIS just seems to come out of the walls. So weird. But so Stark.

"... I knew that." Stark is up and stepping around the desk in a heartbeat and leaning back against it, which knocks down a few of the paper piles, but then he's smiling at Cassie. "Tony. No Mr. Stark. I'm not dead yet." He cracks a smile, which may or may not help this girl relax. Who knows. "Please. Have a seat." And with that he's motioning to the only chair that doesn't have random technological non-lethal weaponry blueprints shoved in it.

Cassie's eyes go instantly to the walls as JARVIS speaks. She looks around, trying and failing to pinpoint its source. How awesoeme is that? And between the voice that comes out of the walls and the easy manner of Tony himself, she does relax a little. "Thanks." Grinning a little at the spilled papers, she enters and carefully navigates her way to the chair. "Um, thanks for seeing me. I can tell you're really busy, I'll try not to take too much of your time." She takes a look around the room, wondering if this is always the way things look. Id did seem a little crazier in the building in general than what she's used to seeing in the ads. But then, one can't usually trust the ads, anyway.

The building is going bonkers without Pepper Potts. JARVIS can barely keep up with it all and he's a computer!

As for Tony, he's waving a hand dismissively at this juncture, still smiling like there's no reason for him to not be smiling right now. "Please. Take as much of my time as you want. I could use the break. Work is hard." He says this as if he's never done any actually real work in his life. Which, considering how much of a genius he is, he probably hasn't.

"So. You're here about Stark Future. That's, first of all, muy awesome that you want your future to be a Stark one. But let's get a couple questions out of the way before we finalize anything, hm?" He reaches up to stroke his signature goatee. "What's your favorite food in the history of all your favorite foods?"

Cassie smiles, happy that he at least /seems/ pleased by the interruption. She even laughs a little, her stress starting to drain away thanks to Tony being beyond unintimidating. Settling more comfortably in the chair, she nods and readies herself for the question. Her expression is becoming serious again, her eyes turning thoughtful. And then his first question... is about food?

She blinks, obviously caught off-guard. "Eh... " But, odd question or not, she's going to answer it! "Well, I think that'd have to be my mom's kitchen sink cookies." Knowing that will sound weird, she explains, "We, ah, traveled alot, when I was little. So we always had different stuff in our kitchen. But she started this thing where we'd make sure to find at least the basics for cookies no matter where we were. Then we'd throw in whatever else was good in that country. I remember once we put jalapenos in them." She grins wider at the memory, then shrugs. "But yeah. Kitchen sink cookies."

Stark is raising an eyebrow at this. "You realize you're going to have to bring me some of these cookies now, don't you?" Stark is, of course, possibly just kidding. That's why he's smiling that charming Stark smile of his. But then again, considering that it's Tony Stark, he may not really be kidding so much as requesting and hoping they will be here by tomorrow.

"Next Question!" He shifts in his position in front of the desk and that causes even more of those papers of his to fall and litter themselves all over the floor around him. Whatever. "If you had the power to change one thing in the world tomorrow, what would you change?" Um. What.

Cassie laughs again, this time more. She nods, whether going along with the pretense or believing it. She snaps to attention at the next question, still grinning but ready, her expression stating that this may just be the most fun interview she's ever had.

And then he surprises her again. Biting her lip, she thinks hard about the second question. Her mind spins, hundreds of things flashing through her thoughts and clamoring to be picked. Just one thing!? "I think... maybe... all the hatred out there for Mutants right now." Does that mean she's a mutant? It didn't say so on her application. But then 'Mutant' wasn't on the list with Caucasian and Pacific Islander. "If tomorrow people could stop worrying about stuff like that, and the Mutants wouldn't have to be so afraid of being freaks... well, that'd be awesome, right?"

"Awesome. Yes. Because mutants are awesome." Tony tosses a wink in Cassie's direction, just in case she's a mutant and that was her way of telling him. He doesn't know and he doesn't care. He's just making sure that everything gets handled that needs to be handled on the 'quiet' tip. Just in case. "I'm notorious for making these interviews short and sweet. So, I'm going to give you a choice. You can either take your verdict now or you can go for the Final Question. Which, by the way, is for all the marbles."

Cassie smiles, looking reassured. The reassurance flees quickly when the offer is made, and once more she bites her lip. For a few seconds, she almost considers taking a verdict now. But then, she wouldn't be Wonder Girl if she didn't rise to a challange, would she? So, straightening her shoulders, she smiles up at Tony and says as calmly and determinedly as she can, "I'll take the final question."

Tony Stark is quiet for a long time. In fact, he seems to just be staring at Cassie. As if he's trying to come up with the verdict. Or something. Actually, there's just one thing that he needs to say to her. "Well. If you insist." Stark stands up off the desk and takes a step foward... only to extend his hand and smile, "Welcome to Stark Future." Looks like that question about the final question was the final question! Clever Girl.

Cassie leaps up from her chair, "Really!? Ohmygosh, this is so awesome!" Grabbing his hand, she shakes enthusiastically (and maybe just a /little/ harder than someone with her build should be able to). It only takes a couple of seconds for her to remember just /whos/ hand she's shaking, and to jump back to a more respectable distance, "Thank you /so/ much, Mr.- uh, Tony. I swear I won't let you down!"

"I know you won't. I knew that when you walked into my office." Tony flashes a big smile and takes a second to hide the grimace from the extra strength hand shake that comes from the girl. Interesting. "You just remember my cookies. You start Monday. Bring safety goggles." Uh oh. Sounds like Stark Future interns just dive right in! Unlike Hammer Interns.

Cassie nods eagerly, "I won't!" She'll probably even rush right home and tell her mom to start baking RIGHT NOW, she looks so eager. "Thank you!" Beaming, she grabs her resume and spins to rush out and share the good news with everyone she's ever met. She's in such a hurry, she nearly takes out a stack of books. Recovering with a quick backpedal, she shoots one more grin over her shoulder, then heads out more carefully, "I'll see you Monday!"