ironmaidenantoniastark-blog

[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

Toni shook her head slightly. "Makes me wonder what else that bitch can do," she mumbled. "I wonder if she can animate statues and shit like that. Piertotum Locomotor." She chuckled quietly at her private joke and stood up, looking at Betty. "I dunno, I just felt so hungry, all the time, in your body. Maybe my mind became addicted to the feeling and then just couldn't let go. As I said, placebo." There was a slight rise and fall of her shoulders as she moved toward the door. "Anyway, we'd better get started thinking up stuff to fight off this supposed army that's coming. I don't wanna be caught off-guard. Have a few additions to the suit I thought up while in your body, too, some hulkish things." She flashed a smirk Betty's way from the door. "I liked feeling powerful, made me feel... well, powerful," she finished eloquently. "You comin'?"

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni resisted smacking Loki’s hand away, and the next moment her vision brightened. She blinked a few times, expecting it to clear, and then realized that she had gotten used to Betty’s view of the world - darker, like Toni’s eyes were a hi-def screen and Betty’s were merely normal. The voices had gone away too - were they voices? She had never really figured out how to describe the fourth wall. It was like hearing voices and seeing her life in front of her eyes at the same time, and yet going through her life normally; she would probably never forget it, or stop missing it.

She looked down at her hand - her slim, perfectly manicured hand - and flexed it, the familiar movement sending shivers down her spine. A pulsing in her chest caught her attention, and she resisted gasping aloud as her senses re-accustomed themselves to the hum of the arc reactor. God, that feels so weird, she thought, placing her hand against the device unconsciously. “Did you miss me, baby?” she murmured to it, in a jokingly endearing fashion.

Loki’s voice startled her out of her thoughts. She glanced up and opened her mouth to shoot some sort of snarky reply to Loki’s arrogant acceptance of their ungiven thanks, but the goddess was gone, leaving only a faint chill to the air. Toni grumbled and rolled her eyes. Bitch. At least I’m not hungry anymore.

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[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

Slicing a Bead of Mercury in Half

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Oh! *claps hands together* I think I saw you mentioned in the SHIELD archives that were given to me that one night - shrinking powers, right? And all scientific. You and I have to get together and talk science sometime.

Are you sure? I’ve heard that some people know me who really shouldn’t - I think my awesome sometimes escapes through the cracks in reality. [smirks] And Hal. I think I’ve heard that or seen that somewhere - hmm.

[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

Toni resisted smacking Loki's hand away, and the next moment her vision brightened. She blinked a few times, expecting it to clear, and then realized that she had gotten used to Betty's view of the world - darker, like Toni's eyes were a hi-def screen and Betty's were merely normal. The voices had gone away too - were they voices? She had never really figured out how to describe the fourth wall. It was like hearing voices and seeing her life in front of her eyes at the same time, and yet going through her life normally; she would probably never forget it, or stop missing it.

She looked down at her hand - her slim, perfectly manicured hand - and flexed it, the familiar movement sending shivers down her spine. A pulsing in her chest caught her attention, and she resisted gasping aloud as her senses re-accustomed themselves to the hum of the arc reactor. God, that feels so weird, she thought, placing her hand against the device unconsciously. "Did you miss me, baby?" she murmured to it, in a jokingly endearing fashion.

Loki's voice startled her out of her thoughts. She glanced up and opened her mouth to shoot some sort of snarky reply to Loki's arrogant acceptance of their ungiven thanks, but the goddess was gone, leaving only a faint chill to the air. Toni grumbled and rolled her eyes. Bitch. At least I'm not hungry anymore.

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni wiped her hand across her face, smiling wanly at Betty’s grip on her wrist. Goddammit. I should not be letting her get to me. She straightened up suddenly from her leaning position against the side of the chair and glued her carefully sculpted mask back together, fixing it in place with a cocky smile. And she’s right, what should I care if the odds aren’t in our favor. I haven’t in the past - I threw myself into space. I threw myself into… No. Bad tactic, bad tactic, okay. With a slight shudder, she fought the flashbacks. Can’t succumb now.

“Okay,” she squeaked, her voice still sore from the yelling. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Okay. Say that you do do this, and you, uh, help us fight.” She thought over her words carefully. “And we go back to our bodies.” Again, there was a passing glance of regret at her host body; she really did like the feeling of so much power under her skin. It made her a lot more secure in performing experiments - but it wasn’t hers. For now. “And that will be the end of our… alliance, I guess this would be.” She fixed a hard stare on the goddess. “Right.” With sudden energy, Toni gripped the sides of the chair. “Let’s do this.”

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Breathtaking.

I hope people don’t stop giving a shit about this in a week or two.

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You're tellin' me, darling. I've been hopping through the universe for a few weeks now - or has it been months? Time isn't as linear around these places as I would like. I've been meeting people I don't think I should really be meeting, but whatever - the universe is basically stable now. Probably.

Reasons are hard to come up with a lot of the time - usually don’t have those either. Why thank you, I’ll have to taunt the male-mes with that one - Natasha likes me better! I amuse you? Well, good, I guess that’s sort of the point of me cracking jokes, isn’t it… I think I called Nate Charlotte once, he almost broke my arm - yeah, not making up names for you, you’d probably finish the job.

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Are you sure? I've heard that some people know me who really shouldn't - I think my awesome sometimes escapes through the cracks in reality. [smirks] And Hal. I think I've heard that or seen that somewhere - hmm.

girlintheanthill started bugging you

Hey there - Toni Stark, not really at your service because SHIELD’s already taken that privilege away from me, but I guess I can still say hi.

[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

Toni wiped her hand across her face, smiling wanly at Betty's grip on her wrist. Goddammit. I should not be letting her get to me. She straightened up suddenly from her leaning position against the side of the chair and glued her carefully sculpted mask back together, fixing it in place with a cocky smile. And she's right, what should I care if the odds aren't in our favor. I haven't in the past - I threw myself into space. I threw myself into... No. Bad tactic, bad tactic, okay. With a slight shudder, she fought the flashbacks. Can't succumb now.

"Okay," she squeaked, her voice still sore from the yelling. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Okay. Say that you do do this, and you, uh, help us fight." She thought over her words carefully. "And we go back to our bodies." Again, there was a passing glance of regret at her host body; she really did like the feeling of so much power under her skin. It made her a lot more secure in performing experiments - but it wasn't hers. For now. "And that will be the end of our... alliance, I guess this would be." She fixed a hard stare on the goddess. "Right." With sudden energy, Toni gripped the sides of the chair. "Let's do this."

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

After I’m back to normal, I’m making no promises I’ll be around for a few hours. Betty thought, taking a deep breath. If she was going to be the peace-keeper here, she’d had to remain fairly neutral and ,more importantly, calm. Although, not much could occur should she get too angry right now. As much as she wanted to take advantage of this, her better judgement reminded her this was too important to screw up. She saw Toni become a little defused, noticing a bit of green in her eyes. She rested her hand on Toni’s gently, and mouthed, ‘breathe’ looking at her in the eyes with a concerned relating stare. 

She turned back at Loki, and spoke like a diplomat, hiding her previous experience like a large swallowed pill and remained fairly stone faced. She would have to deal with this if Toni couldn’t. She raised an eyebrow, “You promised them Earth?” She sounded a bit surprised and somewhat peeved. She breathed out her nose and sighed in thought. She snapped back her speech and replied, “I’m not rejecting your help, Loki. The situation you describe doesn’t seem one we can do that. However, can I get your word, or perhaps some good sign of faith you will fight along side us and not pull any tricks on us? I know this favor I ask of you is supposed to be that. We can’t defend Earth or you if we don’t have our powers straight and are back in our normal bodies.” Betty explained only slightly irritated. It killed her to not be angry with her, but if she could keep her cool, Toni could as well and she had to show her that.

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Toni stood up, anger flaring. "I knew it - there's a catch, and the catch is we have no chance against these guys." She stalked up to the chair Loki was smirking from and leaned in to snarl in her face, "And as far as I'm concerned, you don't have feelings, no, your heart is as cold as the ice you use to fight." She glared down at the trickster for a moment more and then backed off, fuming, trying to get her temper under control lest she lose any semblance of said control. She did not want to fly off the handle, especially not now, in Betty's body, where the anger would not be so easily contained.

She collapsed back into her chair, still quivering with anger, and massaged her forehead with one hand. There was definitely some element to Betty's body that made Toni's emotions spike more than usual - she definitely wouldn't have burst so quickly in her own skin. Maybe something with gamma rays, or maybe just estrogen. Toni wondered idly if Betty would allow her to do some tests after this whole thing was over, and mentally shook her head at herself. Focus.

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni flashed a grateful smile at Betty and ripped into the pretzels. “I don’t know, maybe my mind is creating some sorta placebo effect now that ‘m actually eating,” she mumbled through a mouthful. Swallowing hard, she turned to Loki. “Alright, so, what’s the catch?” At Loki’s stare, she elaborated. “You know, the catch. The fine print. The stuff you’re not telling us about. I want to know why you’re so scared of these Chitauri guys and if it’s even possible that we’ll even be able to defeat the fuckers.” The bag of pretzels was quickly becoming a prop for the point Toni was trying to make. “For all we know, these guys could be like some sort of immortal alien species or something.” She shook the bag around for emphasis. “Worse than you. A lot worse than you, especially if you’re scared of them.”

[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

So if Skrillex drops acid when he drops the base does it get neutralized

[ironmaidenantoniastark-blog]

Toni flashed a grateful smile at Betty and ripped into the pretzels. "I don't know, maybe my mind is creating some sorta placebo effect now that 'm actually eating," she mumbled through a mouthful. Swallowing hard, she turned to Loki. "Alright, so, what's the catch?" At Loki's stare, she elaborated. "You know, the catch. The fine print. The stuff you're not telling us about. I want to know why you're so scared of these Chitauri guys and if it's even possible that we'll even be able to defeat the fuckers." The bag of pretzels was quickly becoming a prop for the point Toni was trying to make. "For all we know, these guys could be like some sort of immortal alien species or something." She shook the bag around for emphasis. "Worse than you. A lot worse than you, especially if you're scared of them."

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni rolled her eyes. “Perfect. Just what I need in my life: more unpredictability. Say, do you think there could be any way to actually harvest magic power?” She looked interested, far too much so. “From what I hear it’s practically boundless - though the people I hear it from probably don’t know as much as you.” She shook her head. “Whatever. Back on track. So what are you gonna do, just snap your fingers and we’ll be back in our right bodies?” Eyeing her resident body with something close to reluctance, she finally took a seat on the chair, flopping back into it and groaning. Would her stupid body ever get full? “Betty, are there any snacks in here, I can’t remember.”

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Toni rolled her eyes. "Perfect. Just what I need in my life: more unpredictability. Say, do you think there could be any way to actually harvest magic power?" She looked interested, far too much so. "From what I hear it's practically boundless - though the people I hear it from probably don't know as much as you." She shook her head. "Whatever. Back on track. So what are you gonna do, just snap your fingers and we'll be back in our right bodies?" Eyeing her resident body with something close to reluctance, she finally took a seat on the chair, flopping back into it and groaning. Would her stupid body ever get full? "Betty, are there any snacks in here, I can't remember."

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Betty stomped a bit in her clicking heels to the chair Loki pointed to, and sat down crossing her legs. She rested her arms on her lap and had her hands overlapping each other. Betty stifled a small growl in her throat, her hands almost clawing and gripping her knee cap. She took a deep breath and breathed out her nose audibly irritated. “We would make you wait forever, Loki. However, I have some … important matters to deal with this afternoon involving some older computers on the 37th floor.” Betty thought and chose her words carefully and then smiled maliciously, playing with Loki’s fake smile-off. She tilted her head a bit, cocky angered smile and raised eyebrow on her face.

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Among invertebrates, the ability regenerate complex structures like a limb or an entire section of the body is fairly common—flat worms can be cut into 50 pieces, and you’ll just get 50 different worms! In vertebrates, though, there’s only one group who can regenerate complex structures like limbs, jaws, eyes, etc—the urodele amphibians, such as salamanders, newts, and axolotls. Geckos are not actually part of this group: they can regrow a tail imperfectly, but if they lose a leg it won’t regrow. Urodele amphibians, though, can regenerate complex tissues perfectly over and over again.

We don’t yet fully understand how these animals can do this. We’ve documented that in urodeles, regeneration involves dedifferentiating their cells at the amputation site—i.e., their cells regress to a more basic form and then begin to regrow—and so we think regeneration depends on the “flexibility” of the cells’ programming.

It’s not really about what those animals have that we don’t—rather, we’ve lost that ability. Human fetuses can basically regrow anything that gets damaged while in the womb using a substance called extracellular matrix, which lays a framework that cells use to generate any given body part. Though this mechanism largely stops working when fetuses are fully developed, children up to the age of two have been known to regrow lost fingertips.

In the future we might be able to trigger this extracellular matrix to start working again, but in the meantime, I guess the lack of it is the price humans pay for being a complex organisation of cells—we can’t naturally regrow arms, but then we don’t have to spend our lives eating insects or plankton.

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Toni swallowed with some difficulty and glared hard at the smug woman. "Nah, no hard feelings - unless you count the intense need to punch you in the face as hard." She didn't sit. "So out with it, how are you gonna switch us back? And don't try to wave it off as magic, I'm not gonna buy into anything that doesn't have at least some science to it. Magic is too unpredictable for me to trust my amazing brain to be put back in the right place." She eyed Loki warily. "After all, you might decide to put me in a squirrel or something, and I only know one person who would actually be able to talk to me."

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni snorted. “You clearly haven’t talked to Pepper enough.” Her face tightened. “Hm, yeah, I forgot how much you hate that bitch - must have been pretty hard for you to stay civil. I would have a better time. Probably wouldn’t have made the deal, though. Just because it’s Loki.” She thought about the conditions for a moment. “Are you sure there’re no loopholes?” At Betty’s look, she shrugged. “Okay, fine, I’ll talk to the broad, at least. I still don’t trust her worth a cheese sandwich, but I guess I can judge for myself - speaking of cheese sandwiches…” She reached into a crevice and pulled a pile of food from it, selecting a pack of cheesey crackers from the top of the stack and ripping into it.

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Toni snorted. "You clearly haven't talked to Pepper enough." Her face tightened. "Hm, yeah, I forgot how much you hate that bitch - must have been pretty hard for you to stay civil. I would have a better time. Probably wouldn't have made the deal, though. Just because it's Loki." She thought about the conditions for a moment. "Are you sure there're no loopholes?" At Betty's look, she shrugged. "Okay, fine, I'll talk to the broad, at least. I still don't trust her worth a cheese sandwich, but I guess I can judge for myself - speaking of cheese sandwiches..." She reached into a crevice and pulled a pile of food from it, selecting a pack of cheesey crackers from the top of the stack and ripping into it.

Soul Meets Body. // @bettybannersciencechick, @ironmaidenantoniastark

Toni rolled her eyes. “But that takes so loooooong,” she whined. “Why can’t I just be not-hungry like normal?” An eyebrow crept toward her hairline at Betty’s next words. “Who’s helping us? You mean you can’t do it yourself - I thought better of you, Betty.” She tsked jokingly. She resisted Betty’s pulls with ease and stood her ground. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me who the hell’s decided they can help us - she?” Her eyes widened. “Oh. Ohhh, no. It’s Loki, isn’t it.” She stiffened her stance. “No way in hell am I gonna let her fiddle with my mind. She might put me in a hamster or something.”