Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Email from [email protected]

Subject: Job opening as a Lv.8 Chemical Engineer

Hello Paris Orton,

We are contacting you to inquire when you will be able to work for SI Industries. We have reviewed your resume and have found it suitable for this opening. If you are available within the next 1-5 business days, we would like you to come to SI tower for a 1 week working interview. Food and board will be provided. For further information please go to our website and click on the Interview tab, the information needed should be there. If additional information is needed please click on the Help button located at the bottom of the page.

Well Wishes,
Stark Industries Recruiters

*Woa, there was no way this was happening. Was there? Oh my God, it really was! I've got it!*
"MOM!!!"
"WHAT?"
"I GOT IT! I GOT THE JOB AT SI" Paris practically teleported to the end of the short hallway to the kitchen
"Oh good you can finally get out of your room and do something"
"Mom, I love you but I don't think you know what a big deal this is."
"What's so cool about it, ya throw shit ina tube, it explodes, big success. Whatda want me know about it?"
"Mom you are officially dead to me, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! I'm being hired at a job with clearance levels not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR levels higher than I applied for. I'll get to work on stuff that will change the world!!"
"Ah Ah, stop ranting on and on ya gonna talk my head off; now go wash ya hands. We're havin leftovers go pick ya somethin out the fridge."
Paris sighed dramatically as he shuffled his feet over to the fridge. *3 day old mac'n'cheese, mom's leftovers from Yala's Greek(unless I want to die, avoid like plague), and yesterday's chicken and rice. Screw it, I'm gonna ask for the Greek.*
"Hey mom? Are you gonna eat that leftover Yala's!
"No, you can have it. Lady fucked up my order, I said chicken, she gave me beef with no tsiki sauce, didn't even give me a refund, you believe that huh?"
"Yea, thanks. I wonder what happened, they always get your order right?"
"Eh, don't worry about it to much. Anyways when do ya go for that fancy dancy interview huh?"
"Oh uh... I forgot... I'll go check the email later"
...........................................................................................................
2 days later
"Alright, you got everything? I'm not driving over there to bring you any of your shit you forgot, you got that?"
"Yes, I got everything."
"You know where ya goin and whatcha doin right?"
"Yes, I love you and I'll text you when I get there okay?"
"Just go already. (Muttering) Makin me all sappy an shit.."
Paris walks out the door and rushes down the steps. It's a 5 minute walk to the subway station. The ride was uncomfortable, a teenager with brown hair and eyes sat next to him. He kept muttering about that Spider-Man hero?*Eh, he's prolly one o' them fanboys or something* Paris looked around the car, a man passed out on the seat in front of him with an almost empty bottle of whisky, a woman with a stained fur coat looking around as if in a dream, and that boy next to him gripping hard onto the pole with a now panicked expression on his face. Paris didn't say anything to the boy. He got off at the next stop anyways. It was four more stops before it time for Paris to get off. But here he was at the center of progress

Stark Tower..
To be continued

Chapter Text

"God, why did we have to take on this job. Man I could have been at home, with air conditioning!"
"Look Jul, this pays triple per hour we're out here! I won't have to work for like, what? Two, three weeks?"
"Seb, I don know what corporate told you, but they not gonna pay you that much."
.....
DOUP DOUP DOUP
"Dosimeter's picking something up!"
"Yeah, no shit Jul"

"Seb, it's like really high, man?!"
"How high Jul?"

"......... 5,000 Geiger......"

"Shit."
"You know for once I'm glad the company made us put on the suits."
"For fucks sake, Jul this is not the time for jokes."
"Looks like it's coming from over there??"
"Jul, my brother in Christ, that is dirt. Just dirt"
"No, look it's coming from right there!?!"
"Get the shovel from the truck bed."
"Idk man.. weird shit happens out here, we're on the Rez, Seb"
"Did you just spell out "IDK" out loud?"
"Not my point, my point is that we shouldn't be out here digging around on the Rez!"
"I'm just doing what I'm getting paid to, Jul"
"Fine, I'll get the damned shovels"

The dirt was a red neither of them had seen before. A dark blood red. Julian and Sebastian had lost count of how long they had been digging for(it had been 20 minutes, they were drama queens).
"Please tell me I'm hallucinating, I'll pay you"
There laid out in the dirt was the bottom of a roller skate, the paint still vibrant. Sebastian dug further. The rest of the leg came into view. They both dug frantically, and the rest of girl was revealed. Cherry red roller skates, denim shorts, and a Black Sabbath T-shirt. Her makeup was still done in all black and red. Hair pulled back in a tsiiyéé. Around her neck was a dog tag branded with the logo for a school, "Huerfano Dormitory". The back read:
Lori Chavez
Navajo
17
Born 1958
"I told you we shouldn't have come out here!!!"
Sebastian stood speechless *How did this happen? Why's she out here?* He started back towards the truck to call in the girl, a million thoughts racing through his head. A piercing scream came from Julian.
"What!?!?!"
"SHE MOVED!!!"
"Oh my God Jul, she can't move SHE'S DEAD. She's been there since, like the 70's."
"Um, hello? Where am I. Who are you?" A small voice, a bit rough from disuse, called out to them. The girl, Lori, was sat in the dirt. She looked up at them expectantly and a little scared.
To be continued

Chapter Text

Lori blinked away the dirt in her eyes and looked up at the men in front of her
"Um, Hello? Where am I? Who are you?"
*Her voice was small. She was confused, one minute she was getting yelled at by the principal and the next she's in the middle of the desert while two strange men in some kind of rubber suits argued loudly above her.*
The man on right with the shovel in his hand screamed like he had seen a ghost. She skittered backwards away from him.
"HOLY SHIT!!!"
"Jul, I am begging you. Please tell me this isn't real."
"You didn't answer my question. Where am I and who are you?"
Sebastian took a few steading breaths and answered
" Y- You're um at uh Shiprock, New Mexico? And uh I'm Sebastian, and uh t- that's uh Julian"
Lori blinked slowly.
"And how did I get here? WERE YOU TWO TRYING TO BURY ME ALIVE!?!!"
"NO! I-we- we're nuclear researchers and uh this spot was really radioactive and we started digging and we found you and uh one question. What year do you think it is?"
"It's 1975, what else would it be space cadet?"
"Oh shit. Well uh it's no longer 1975?"
"Are you trynna fake me out or some shit? It's not gonna work. I don't know how long I've been out here, but it can't have been more than like what, a day or two?"
"............."
"Okay, how bout this we get in the truck, we leave, and we don't tell corporate."
" What's corporate?"
"Shhhhhhh, Lori. Is your name Lori?"
" Yes, but what's corporate"
"Not important. Let's just get out of here and back to the house"
Lori was shuffled over to the truck, tripping over her roller skates and rocks, but was finally smashed awkwardly between the two.

Chapter Text

Humans are genuinely terrifying if you think about it from an outside pov
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Stuff I've done for my sister:
• Pushed a tree off of her that was like 10x my size
• Killed a dog( Boxer) that attacked her( yay trauma)
• Got stuck in a river
• Took a beating that prolly would have hospitalized her
• Didn't eat for 3 days
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
For my friends:
• Took a mystery pill that made me pass out for 7 hours
• Drowned in a pool(dieing is not fun 😓, don't recommend)
• Got stung by a Portuguese Man of War( hurt like a MOTHER FUCKER)
• Was lost in the woods
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Stuff my Mom( I love her very much, even if sometimes she is el stupida) has done for me:
• Beat my father half to death cuz he hit me in front of her
• Crawled halfway across a hospital to get to me with both her hips dislocated
• Died twice from blood loss whilst giving birth to me
• Lived in Cilbola National Park for 1 month with nothing but a shitty Walmart tent, a hunting knife, and me( newborn)
• Shot down 4 coyotes with a handgun
• Many more things
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hope my life was entertaining lol

Chapter Text

Hi, to whoever is reading. I kinda forgot about this lol I'll update a new chapter soon

Chapter Text

Paris had been at Stark Industries for roughly a week before he had been cornered by two of the older interns.

“So, thou hast cemented your place as an official intern.”

“Yes? Why are you speaking like that?”

The older intern *Kathrine* put a finger over his mouth.

“ Initiation, come with me”

“Where are we going”

Paris was pulled into a small supply closet two hallways down. Wallace lit up a candle *Where the hell did he get a candle?*

“Ms. Mamedov, would you do the honors?”

“Why of course Mr. Glass”

“3 years ago on the 17th day of May at 10:57 pm, one Dr. Simon Chrisdis walked into the 12C lab. And there, crouched near the Dangerous Chemicals closet, which you have to have a supervisor’s ID card for, was a short doe eyed teen. Dr. Chrisdis had run from the room for security, but, when he and a team of 4 guards rushed into the lab. The boy was nowhere to be found. They searched the lab top to bottom, nothing. The only sign that someone was ever there was a missing drum of Salicylic acid and an open window.”

“So…… What are you saying?”

“ We have a cryptid here at Stark Tower.”

“...... You’re bullshiting me aren’t you Kathrine”

“ No I’m not, I’m telling the truth. I swear on my mother’s grave.”

“Your mom was cremated.”

“ Not relevant, the point is, we have a cryptid and we want you to be on the lookout for him.”

“ Yea, you two are bullshiting me”

Paris straightened up to walk away. Kathrine grabbed at his shoulder and whined about

“ Just listen to one more story! Please? I’ll get you that one candy you like? You know, the one called uh,” she turned to Wallace and whispered something,” Oh! Those Divinity candies! I know they’re your favorite!”

* Damnit, she had a point. He would do damn near anything for a Divinity.*

“ Fine, I’ll listen to your stupid story.”

Paris was pulled back into the supply closet and sat down on the floor again.

“This tale hails from Cafeteria 6B. 1 year ago, the same teenager seen by Dr. Christdis got in line to that Italian stall. He then proceeded to order 2 full size spaghettis, 4 slices of cheese pizza, 10 pieces of garlic bread, and two large cokes. And you can check that it’s true because they still have the receipt hung up next to the register as the largest single person order ever placed there. When they had finished said order, he sat down and ate every last crumb of that monstrosity of an order. But! Just as he had finished his food, a certain playboy, genius, billionaire, philanthropist walked over to said boy and proclaimed,’ Kid, I know I said that you should come down to the lower level labs more, but not if you’re going to terrorize the staff like this.’, and he honest to god sighed like a tired dad. ‘The Kid’ was last seen disappearing into Dr. Stark’s elevator.”

“Well, that was a fun little tale. Make sure to clue me in when you see El Cacoey here too.”

“Oh come on Paris! Look I’ll even show you where the receipt is! I promise it’s real! On my Grandma’s grave!”

“They never found your Grandma’s body, Dumbass!”

“You know what I mean!”

Paris was already down the hall and on his way to the cafeteria. The elevator ride was agonizingly slow, he just wanted lunch.

Chapter Text

Thankfully the company truck was an old model, something from the early 80’s, with air conditioning that only worked once in a blue moon and only if you hit it with the hammer from the glove box. The rest of it was a pale blue, freckled with rust spots and a faded company logo. Sebastian and Julian had gotten Lori situated in the center seat before heading to the back of the truck to take off the rubber suits. The bed of the truck had a steel storage bin with a few drawers. Seb cleaned and put up the equipment while Jul took care of the suits and finished the notes ( leaving out Lori of course).

“Seb, where the fuck are we gonna hide her?” Julian had a panicked look on his face.

“Jul, I-I don’t know, but she needs help and we’re the people who just happened to find her. So we suck it up and figure it out as we go.” Sebatian’s voice shook and broke as he went on.

“HEYYYYYYYY, RUBBER DUDES! WHAT’S TAKING YOU TWO SO LONG! I GOTTA GET BACK TO MY SCHOOL. MY SISTER’S WAITING FOR ME!”

“Seb, how do we tell her that her sister’s probably dead?!” Julian whispered as they walked to the front of the truck.

“Shut it, Jul.”

The truck started with a roar and stuttered for a moment before the radio started. Julian smacked down the button to shut the radio off.

“It was, uh, too loud?” Jul sputtered out when Lori stared at him.

“Yeah, sure. Just take me back to the school.”

The first thing Julian noticed about her was that her teeth seemed sharper than anyone's teeth he had seen before ( not that he was looking into people’s mouths that often, he wasn’t in the dentistry field. No that was his mother’s job) with an almost pearlescent sheen on them. Lori’s head snapped to look at him

“What’re you lookin at?”

“ Uh, your teeth? Have they always been like that?”

“ The hell are you talking about?” Lori reached up to touch her teeth. She looked shocked for a second and then reached over Julian to the window visor mirror. Lori practically shoved her face into the mirror. And sure enough, her teeth were a lot different than she was probably expecting.

“What the fuck is going on with my teeth?!”

“Hey, Lori! Where do I turn to get to that school of yours?”

“Next left, go two streets down and take a right. Don’t bother me until then because there’s something weird going on with my teeth.”

“Uh, okay?”

Chapter Text

Finally the elevator doors opened into the cafeteria. When Paris first got here, he wasted almost half of his hour-long lunch break just looking at the architecture around him. It was very modern, sleek and crisp. It wasn’t that soulless crap you see in newly remodeled colleges though, it had beautifully crafted mosaics tiled onto the walls. And although it was in geometrical designs, it both looked and felt like it was built with love and care. The windows had stained glass sun catchers that lit up the room with sparkling colors. The other wall was lined with food vendors, all of which had been selected based on employee recommendation( a great way to keep them happy by the way), most of which had art and pictures hung up on the front of their stalls. Paris was on his way to the Italian booth mentioned earlier by Kathrine, it had a purple counter with a green and blue sign. There were only a few people in line( 2 or 4 maybe, he wasn’t paying attention) and when it was his turn he ordered a simple carbonara with an Aranciata. The wait wasn’t long and he busied himself with watching the suncatcher reflections sway and change, he almost didn’t hear the person at the counter call out his name.

“Order for a Paris Orton?” They said with a thick Italian accent.

“Yeah, uh that’s me.”

“Thank you for choosing us today. NEXT!”

Paris grabbed up his order and went to go sit next to his friend from the legal department.

“Paris! I thought you were out today?”

“Hi Madi, I was called in for some meeting today? Do you know anything about it?”

“Uh-No?? Were you on call?” Madi sounded absolutely bewildered at him being called in on his day off.

“ No, but I told my floor manager that he could call me in if they needed me. But maybe she took that as a ‘Call me in whenever you need me’ type deal. I don’t know if he changed my schedule or not.”

“ Paris, we both know that Mx. Skou is bad about calling in people on their days off.”

“Yea, but I don’t want to get in trouble with her though.”

“Paris, look at me. No- stop looking away- okay, we aren’t at some crap job where it’s ‘Do everything I say and don’t argue with me or I’ll fire you!’. If you have a day off and people don’t respect it, you don’t have to come in because you had that day off and they are intruding on your time.”

“Fine, I'll talk to them after my lunch break.”

Chapter Text

Hi everyone, I'm back. I had a slight mental breakdown, but I'm doing much better now. I'm on meds, had a week long stay in grippy sock town and got diagnosed with autism, anxiety, and manic depression. I'll write something soon but I need a quick break. Love you guys!❤️