Santa Claus is coming to town

[afallenstar]

Who: Secret Santa participants, but also EVERYONE!
Where: Town Hall
When: Evening of day 24
What: Present giving! The Secret Santa reveal, and anyone who wants to have a christmas party is welcome to join too!
Notess: Party style thread guys, so go nuts. No order, everything is chaos, tag to your hearts content, feel free to break off into separate threads, and no spiking the punch! Also I think she's sort of mentioned it to a bunch of people but want to do me some lovely favours and handwave the actual name drawing? I will backtag if people want but it seems a little pointless to thread that out.


There's another message on the network that morning from Anna, just audio again. It's about as garbled as her first one regarding the Secret Santa idea, but for anyone who is listening closely enough they'll make out a few details. Namely this evening, town hall, and bring your presents before she shuts it off.

She's spent the rest of the day trying to do what she can to make the place look nicer. She's hardly got Christmas decorations on tap, but she's done what she can with what she has all the same. There's paper snow flakes up around the place, some of the food from her house placed in bowls to make it more party-appropriate, and it's no fir but she has relocated a small tree from the edge of the woods and placed it in the hall. Barely decorated, not even the right kind of tree, it's the best she can do with the resources she's been given.

Now all there is to do is wait for people to come.

Comments

[theshield_agent]

Phil puts the box down, now. "Let me see?" He doesn't touch Tony, though. He just waits to see if he'll move his glasses.

"Is anything else bothering you?" Not that Phil is a doctor, but--"Have you talked to Banner about it?"

[manofiron]

Inclining his head in a brief nod, Tony reaches up and pulls the glasses from his nose. As far as he can tell, there's been no damage to his eyes, but he still can't see a damn thing.

"I have, but he doesn't know what caused it either." Without a cause, there's no hope for a cure. He takes a deep breath and lets it out with a sigh. "It's just this. No pain. No discomfort. Nothing."

[theshield_agent]

Leaning in very closely, Phil is still careful not to touch Tony without warning, since he can't see anything coming. He's no doctor, of course, and Banner is a pretty excellent one, but that doesn't mean he's not going to take a look.

"I wonder if anyone else is having this problem."

[manofiron]

Now that he knows that he's there, some of Tony's jumpiness fades. Should he be touched, he figures that it will either be Phil, which is acceptable, or it'll be someone he knows, which is also acceptable. That an enemy wouldn't make it past Phil is something Tony takes for granted.

"Don't freak out—" Which is probably the last thing he should preface anything with if he doesn't want worry to ensue. "—but Steve can't talk. I don't know if it's related, but he could talk just fine yesterday and now he can't. Just like me and my eyesight."

[theshield_agent]

Friend or foe, Phil's not letting anyone touch Tony without warning him. He realizes that Tony's a little more comfortable with touch than he is, but he'd likely break someone's hand if he were in Tony's position and he'd just as soon not give anyone a reason to jump when something is already wrong.

"Well, I'm not freaking out, but I can't say that I'm thrilled. I wonder if it's just the two of you. Could it be something in your house?" He starts to look around for anyone else acting strangely.

[manofiron]

"It's possible. As far as I know, Bruce and Peggy are fine, but they haven't been in the house as long as Steve and I have been."

That there might be something wrong with the houses is a troubling idea. If they can't live in them, where else are they going to go? Especially when it's cold and snowing like it has been. But maybe it's just their house. There hasn't been an uproar about strange illnesses, and he would expect that there would be if other people were going through the same thing.

"Maybe it's like asbestos. Some kind of chemical agent in the walls. We had to move a lot of shit around when they moved in."

[theshield_agent]

"Do you know of a way to determine if it is? I can do the work as long as you tell me what to do." His mind's already racing through all the possibilities. They can move into his house if they need to. He's got the bedroom space for it. A few people might have to share, but that's alright. Better everyone is warm and safe and together than split up when they don't know what's happening, right?

"There's nothing weird in my house, if you want to sleep there until we figure this out."

[manofiron]

“Maybe, I don’t know, blood samples? Compare mine to someone who isn’t affected? See if there’s something there? A virus or a bacteria or something?” He’s not a doctor. He doesn’t know if it would even show up in his blood. If it did, though, that would go a long way in helping to isolate the source of the problem. At least, he thinks so.

“I can’t leave the others. And I don’t—What if it’s contagious? If prolonged exposure to me is what triggers it? I don’t want to contaminate your house too, if it’s clean of whatever this is. If it’s anything at all.”

[theshield_agent]

He's not really worried about himself or Clint. They take risks in the jobs all the time. Kenzi and Galen are another story, though. He can't risk civilians. At least everyone else in Tony's house is somewhat non-civilian.

"You're right. We need to get Banner on this and possibly Doctor Barrett if he needs help." It was a shame Doctor Jones had disappeared, because this seemed like the sort of thing that would be right up her alley.

[manofiron]

"Did she come back to the clinic?" he asks, tipping his head toward Phil with a hopeful half-smile. It's not like he minds helping Bruce out with the clinic, but he's useless like this and for everyone's peace of mind, he knows it would be better to have two doctors instead of one.

"Bruce was training me and Lydia up as assistants, but let's face it, he's down a set of hands again."

[theshield_agent]

"No and we've got to work on that. Personal issues aside, we need all hands on deck in a place like this." He'd hoped it wouldn't come to it, but he's thinking about just asking her to come back to the clinic. Maybe she just needs someone to beg. Phil will do it if it means having an extra doctor.

"In the meantime, I'll help however I can."

[manofiron]

Tony agrees with him. He understands pride, he understands backing off when people seem determined not to appreciate what he's trying to do. But they don't have the luxury of pandering to their egos here and he knows that.

"Watch out for Steve and Bruce." It isn't easy asking for help, and he's certainly not going to ask for it for himself. But for the sake of others, the request rolls easily off his tongue. "I'm trying, but I'm obviously at a disadvantage here. Help me do that. I don't want to lose them again."

[theshield_agent]

"I watch out for all of my people, Stark." And that includes Tony. Of course, now that group keeps growing and it's just more to worry about. He's got the people from his world and a few from Sharon's and then Kenzi and he knows he's not likely to stop picking up strays, either. It's how he wound up with Clint in the first place.

"In the meantime, we'll find a way to fix this."

[manofiron]

"Our best bet is Bruce." At least until he comes down with whatever this is that's going around. "And whoever else is here that knows anything about science and biology. If there are others. I'm not clear on what the current resident roster looks like right now."

[theshield_agent]

"I'm willing to bet everything I've got that Banner is leagues above anyone else we've got here." He's pretty sure Banner is leagues above everyone in general. "He'll figure this out and get you fixed up."

[manofiron]

In that respect, at least, Tony is in complete agreement. Bruce is leagues above everyone else. He doesn't doubt it for an instant.

"Yeah. I know." No he doesn't. But he's willing to pretend. "Just don't get yourself caught up in it, huh? We can't be down too many people."

[theshield_agent]

"I'll be alright, Stark." He smiles and he's glad Tony can't see that there's a sardonic sort of twist to it. "I'm a survivor, right?"

[manofiron]

That stings, but he smiles back thinly, determined. "Yeah, Agent. Yeah, you are."

[theshield_agent]

Phil's voice softens a little. "If there's anything you need a hand with, let me know."

[manofiron]

"I will." He won't. Tony doesn't know how to ask for help, and the last thing he wants to do is appear even more helpless than he already is. "Merry Christmas. Don't drink too much eggnog."