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droneseco · 4 years ago

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Rode Wireless Go II Review: More than an Upgrade. It's a Game-Changer

Rode Wireless Go II

9.50 / 10

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The Rode Wireless GO II is a no-compromise compact wireless microphone system that gives you the most flexibility and peace of mind when recording audio.

Key Features

200m range (line of sight)

Dual channel recording

Universal compatibility - 3.5mm TRS analog, USB-C and iOS digital output

7 hours battery life

On-board recording – over 40 hours of compressed or 7 hours uncompressed

New Rode Central app compatibility

Specifications

Brand: Rode

Type: Series IV 2.4GHz digital transmission, 128-bit

Pattern: Built-in omnidirectional condenser

Power: USB-C

Battery: 7 hours

Connector: 3.5mm TRS analog, USB-C

Pros

Internal audio recording

Safety channel

Incredible wireless range

Rode Central app adds several new features and recording modes

Windscreens attach securely and allow for clean outdoor recording

Cons

Transmitters do not have displays

Lapel microphone is not included

Non-line of sight range is significantly less

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Rode has recently released the successor to their very popular and industry leader Rode Wireless Go. But have they made added enough new features and tools to this upgraded model to make it worth checking out?

If you’re looking for a no-compromise compact wireless microphone system that gives you the most flexibility and peace of mind when recording audio, Rode’s new Wireless GO II should be at the top of your list.

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After using the Rode Wireless Go II for the past few weeks, it will now be replacing two major parts of my existing audio recording kit. I'll share the unique advantages of using a wireless system like this and how it has helped me more efficiently and reliably record audio compared to my past solutions. Watch our video review of this wireless system for audio tests and comparisons.

Improvements and Key Features

In its updated model, the Rode Wireless Go II has increased its range and stability to 200m/656 feet with a direct line of sight (more than double that of the original Rode Wireless Go at 70m). It's added dual-channel recording with its second transmitter which allows you to now record two microphones simultaneously. And even more importantly for content creators like myself, the transmitters now can record audio directly and automatically with their built-in memory. This last update is the biggest game-changer and has allowed me for the most part to not need a separate external audio recorder like the Zoom H1n to save files.

There are also several other great features either carried over from their previous model or improved upon that when combined with those first three points, make the Rode Wireless Go II an extremely versatile tool for recording high-quality audio wirelessly and my new Go-II choice.

In my experience, this has been the easiest, the fastest, and most reliable wireless system I’ve used to record audio. Throughout this review, I’ll focus on the key areas that make this possible, which include:

Various recording modes

Connectivity options

Range and reliability

Many of these updates and new features are reliant on Rode's new Windows/Mac app called Rode Central. And while this updated Wireless Go II is a fantastic upgrade, there are of course a few quirks and areas (mostly related to the Rode Central software that I’ll cover later) that I think can be improved upon.

What's Included?

The main part of the kit consists of one receiver and two transmitters. They are about the same size and weight and all three have clips on the back which double as cold-shoe mounts.

Three short USB C to type A cables are included which support charging, data transfer, and live recording to compatible devices.

There's also a short red TRS to TRS cable. It feels durable and designed to last a long time. It’s designed to bend and hold its shape for easier connectivity and to help keep it out of your shot.

Specially designed to fit over the internal mics, you three windscreens are provided to help reduce low-frequency noise usually caused by wind. I like how they securely twist on to the transmitter's mics to prevent them from accidentally falling off when in use. It’s also nice of them to include a third windscreen as a back up too.

Lastly, you have a nice soft carrying pouch to store and transport everything. At first, I was a little concerned by it not being a hard case, but in my experience, it offers sufficient protection from external forces. I figure this also helps keep the overall size of the kit as small as possible. On the other hand, I would have liked for the inside of the pouch to have individual pockets or dividers to better keep the receiver and transmitters from bumping up against each other.

That said, when you tightly pack everything up in the carrying pouch, there isn’t much room for anything to slide around, but I could potentially see this leading to more dings and scrapes down the road. The entire kit isn't much larger than my iPhone 11.

Notably Missing

Unlike every other similar wireless audio kit I’ve reviewed and tested, the Wireless Go II does not include a lavalier microphone. For pro users, this likely isn’t a big deal as they might already have a preferred microphone they want to use. Often the microphones included with wireless kits aren’t the highest quality, so they’re replaced with better and more expensive ones, especially for higher production shoots. But an included budget microphone is still better than none at all, especially if you’re just starting off and don’t have one already.

As with the original Rode Wireless Go, I wish that the transmitters themselves also had a display on them. For times when reaching and looking at the screen on the receiver isn't practical, having your key information displayed on the transmitters would be very helpful. Comparable systems at a minimum display battery life, signal strength as well as audio levels.

Similarly, other systems I've tried out also include gain control levels on the transmitters themselves for added flexibility and ease of use when you can’t access the receiver or need to make quick changes.

Optional Accessories

Rode offers a wide selection of first-party accessories which you can also pick up to expand the versatility and compatibility of your kit.

In my case, I got the USB-C to Lighting cable as it allows me to directly record into my iPhone 11. This was plug-and-play and worked flawlessly.

The MagClip GO also looks very interesting and seems like it would be a convenient way to attach your transmitters to talent or yourself more easily compared to their basic clips.

A Budget Comparison

A few weeks ago I reviewed the Bietrun WXM22, a $99 wireless system that on paper seems to be very similar to the Rode Wireless Go II. At their core, they are both compact systems that transmit audio wirelessly with virtually no latency. These tools both market themselves towards the mobile creator who wants the flexibility to record without wires.

And so, at about three times the price of the budget Bietrun, does the Rode offer enough to justify its price?

Basic Similarities

Both systems are about the same size and share many of the same ports and buttons on the receiver. The transmitters have Omni-directional mics for recording audio as well as have support for 3.5mm TRS inputs for compatible external mics.

Gain control is supported, however on the Rode this is done via the receiver itself vs on the transmitter with the Bietrun.

Both lack a dedicated headphone jack for monitoring audio. Depending on how you plan to use this setup, it could make it trickier to get your levels right without the need for additional adaptors.

The "Rode" to Success

Now here’s where things start to differ and we see the Rode flex its features.

As far as what’s included, the Rode Wireless Go II kit includes two transmitters instead of just the one with the Bietrun. The benefit of course is that you can record two audio sources at the same time instead of just one.

Most will likely use the two transmitters to mic up two different talents, but beyond that, it can also be useful when recording a single source but with a backup or alternative track as well.

The range is advertised to be four times that of the Bietrun (200m vs 50m). As I demonstrate in my range test in the video review, 200m is probably more than you would ever need. Even in my original review of the Bietrun WXM22, I mention that 50m is also plenty for most realistic uses with these wireless systems. At 200m I’m not even visible on camera, but of course, I’ll never complain about having too much range.

Something to note, though, is that this range claim is heavily reliant on having a clear line of sight between the transmitter and receiver. In my tests, I found that with the transmitter attached to my collar, turning my back to the receiver resulted in dropouts from about the 40m range.

I was a bit surprised with this limitation even at these closer ranges. It seems though, turning my body was enough to completely cut out the signal as I was able to get decent connectivity all the way up to about 600ish feet when I had the transmitter facing the receiver.

No Interference

Aside from that one downside, though, its wireless connectivity did not seem to have any noticeable impact on sound quality. When indoors, the Bietrun had a faint low-frequency static/hiss sound that was especially noticeable during quieter recording sessions when I was just doing voiceovers. While I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the source, it would seem that some assortment of wireless interference was to blame. I had similar issues with another competing wireless system, the Comica Boom XD. While it's more comparable in quality and features to the Rode, it was very susceptible to interference from other electrical devices including my non-wireless Zoom H1n audio recorder. This made using the Comica much more difficult to set up and get clean audio out of due to this weakness.

Luckily the Rode Wireless Go II excels here. Even indoors, where I usually have the most difficultly eliminating these sources of interference, its wirelessly transmitted audio sounded as good compared to the internally recorded files it saved. This is the first of many peace of mind features.

Game-Changing Features

In addition to sounding great and working very well in those dense wireless areas we just discussed, the Rode Wireless Go II will continue to record audio internally even when it has weak or no signal at all.

After you update your transmitters and receiver via the Rode Central app, you will be able to use its new features.

More Control

When connected via their USB-C cables to the app, you can opt to use a 10-step gain level adjustment, which changes by 3dB, compared to the standard three-step.

Playing it Safe

You have the option to enable recording a -20db safety track to one of the mono channels while the regular audio levels record to the other mono channel. This is especially great when dealing with highly inconsistent audio levels and you want to avoid peaking and clipping.

Keep in mind that with this option enabled you won’t be able to separate your audio from the 2 transmitters as they will be recorded together. You will need to disable recording a safety track if you want to keep them in separate mono channels.

Auto Recording Changes Everything

Most exciting, though, is that the app can enable recording directly to the transmitters with its built-in storage. This is a very big deal and in my opinion, the Rode Wireless Go II's biggest feature.

In every microphone or audio recording review I've shared, I make a point to mention if the product in question either helps or is more frustrating to set up and make sure I have the audio recording correctly. The biggest culprit in my personal experience is remembering to hit the record button on my Zoom H1n or even remembering to bring spare batteries for it.

With the Rode, I don’t really need an external recorder now as its core functionality is built right into each transmitter. Sure, I don’t have the same level of control and file types to choose from, but I am willing and able to give that up in a heartbeat if it means there is one less piece of gear I have to remember to bring, setup, and of course, hit record on.

Via the Rode Central app, you can choose between recording 40+ hours of compressed audio or about 7 hours of higher quality compressed. I have mine set to compressed as that’s all I need to make these kinds of review and tech videos.

At first, I thought I’d dislike that the transmitter automatically starts to record audio when it pairs with the receiver. But going back to what I just said, the biggest thing that frustrated me and took the most time with my old setup, was that I always forget to press record. As simple as it was, every now and again I'd forget and I would have to re-record everything when I realized my error. Now that the Rode is set to record automatically, this is one less thing I have to worry about.

On the other hand, I sometimes feel that I want the option to hit stop and start and have more control over when the transmitters are actually recording. And while that might at times make it a little easier in post to edit my audio files as they are more condensed, I would rather have peace of mind knowing all my audio was recorded.

As far as the recording limits go, 40 hours and even 7 hours of recording is more than enough for an entire day of shooting for most people. After each recording session, I connect the transmitters to the Rode Central app to download and export my files.

It's great that the app can connect to all your devices at once instead of one-by-one. The app displays your file's waveform and allows you to quickly scrub through it and listen. It also shows markers which are either indications of the transmitter going out of range or manual ones you added via the transmitter itself by clicking the power button.

On the off chance that I forget to delete my old recordings, the transmitters automatically will begin to overwrite your recordings in order of oldest. Going back to wishing the transmitters having displays, the remaining storage space would have been another thing for them to display.

I Walk a Lonely "Rode"

Finally, I want to discuss some of the minor quirks with the Rode Central app. The added features it can enable or change are great and definitely are a big part of what makes the Rode Wireless Go II my favorite wireless audio system currently. It offers a simple and clean interface that works well... for the most part.

Most likely due to it being a relatively new app, I found the experience to a bit buggy at times. Connecting the transmitters specifically to the app frequently required me to unplug and reconnect the USB C cable a few times until the app would detect and allow me to browse its internal storage. Oddly, it detected the transmitter each time and showed its battery life, but said it wasn’t able to browse the recordings.

Another more annoying bug was that one saved recording on my transmitter always seemed to have issues when exporting via the app. I ended up with two identical partially exported clips which failed at the same exact timestamp. I’m not entirely sure why this was. All of my remaining clips exported without issues on both transmitters. Unrelated to exporting, I did have a few other random times where the app completely crashed and I had to restart it.

Moving past those issues, the app is still a welcome addition to the recording experience. I imagine with future updates many of these issues can be easily ironed out. I would also like to see Rode release a mobile app that can change these settings with your phone or tablet, devices that are more accessible when out shooting, instead of needing a PC or Mac each time.

That said, it would have been even better if these features could be enabled or changed on the “GO” without the need to connect to the companion app at all. Going back to my earlier points, a built-in screen on the transmitters and some additional buttons likely could have achieved this.

Is This the "Rode" for You?

Compared to every other comparable compact wireless audio system I’ve tested out, the Rode Wireless Go II offers the most complete, easy to use, and reliable experience. Despite a few of its quirks, many of which related to early software bugs, the Rode provides the best sound quality and performance. In addition to not having any noticeable signal interference, a common issue I've had with similar systems, it also is the only one to offer built-in audio recording as either a fail-safe or your primary source.

Rode Wireless Go II Review: More than an Upgrade. It's a Game-Changer published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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lightshadowverisimilitude · 7 years ago

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Error Notification 1/?

I started writing this awhile ago in response to a prompt. I’ve lost the prompt, but I know @sineala and I were fiddling with it about the same time. Do you remember where the original prompt ran off to?

This prompt by @hellogarbagetime

Mind the cut. :D

Static flickered around him, breaking the world up into nauseating flashes of sensation in between bursts of static. Falling, twisting, over-and-over: sky [#C1CDCD]; city [#D3D3D3]; sunlight [#FFD700]/[#FAFAD2].

He hit the ground with so much force that he couldn’t even feel it as an impact, just pressure like being squeezed by a giant fist. Everything went black [#000000], all sensation ceased. Just his luck that death was floating in nothingness with no sensation for eternity. Lovely.

Rebooting…

Tony watched the reboot sequence flicker orange over the blackness and heaved a sob of relief. His sobbing made no noise, and he had no sense of drawing in breath, or the beating of his heart. He would have thought that he’d gone through every possible scenario of what it means not to have a heartbeat, but surprise. There had been at least one left.

Loading memory…

Tony sucked in a breath, and the world flickered back in. For several seconds he just saw code, and then infrared, and finally the colors condensed down into understandable shapes. There were people leaning over him – two, three, five. Three men, two women. Blond, blond, blond, red, brunette. Text floated around them; hair, eye color, projected weight and height, weapons (lots of weapons). Flashing at the bottom of his vision was a single line of text in bold orange print: MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED.

“Woah,” Tony said, and was surprised when it came out as actual sounds. “For a wet dream, you lovely people are wearing way too many clothes.” He tried a smile, and thought that it translated okay.

“Jesus, Tony,” one of the blonds said, bracing his hands on his (massive, like wow) thighs. “You scared me. Again.”

“Huh,” Tony said. He reached up, feeling for the release for the faceplate, except he wasn’t wearing a helmet. He picked up his head and looked at all the beautiful people kneeling over him with worried expressions, and found the helmet in the brunette’s lap. She had her hands wrapped around it, slender fingers incased in black gloves that matched the rest of her black and yellow leather suit.

MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED.

“Huh,” he repeated and tapped at the side of his head with two fingers. “Ow,” he complained when he managed to hit himself harder than he’d meant to.

“Tony?” the same blond asked. He had weirdly (beautifully) symmetrical features, very blue eyes, and expressive eyebrows. “Are you okay?”

Tony thought about it for a second and the scrolling text let him know that he was not okay, but he was working on it. Repairs were running for three bone breaks, several internal bleeds had already been staunched, but were still leaking very slowly into his abdomen, and he’d suffered a severe concussion – hence the reboot.

“Um. Yes?” Tony tried. “Mostly. Will be soon as long as I don’t move. You know this is going to sound weird, but I don’t actually remember you guys?”

Silence fell heavily around him and stretched from a few seconds to an uncomfortable minute while everyone exchanged increasingly worried glances. The redhead leaned over him and shined a light in his eye. He knocked her hand away sharply, and then apologized.

“Concussion,” he explained. “Damage is being repaired. I know that I’m supposed to know you, but I don’t actually remember who any of you are. So.”

“How do you know that you’re supposed to know us if you don’t remember us?” One of the other blonds asked (short hair, messy, potentially intentionally, but just as likely bedhead. Dark blue eyes, kind of a cute button nose, pockmarking well concealed along his jawline giving him a rogueish appearance).

“Well,” Tony said slowly, “I have a line of text at the bottom of my vision that says ‘memory file corrupted,’ so I assume that means that there is a memory file in the first place and I just can’t access it. Do… do all of you have floating text in your vision?”

A round of headshakes went around the circle, and symmetrical-man said, “That’s Extremis, Tony.”

“Right,” Tony said. At the word, a memory file launched and he remembered Extremis and the way it ran his brain and nervous system. “Can you say your name and maybe it will trigger the file?” he requested, locking eyes with symmetrical-man.

“Steve,” he said readily, but the crease between his brows got deeper.

MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED.

“Nope,” Tony said. “Sorry, Steve. Can someone help me up, please? The spinal column cracks have been sealed, I should be stable to move.”

Looks went around the circle again, growing somehow even more confused and worried. They might not have had Extremis, but they must have been telepathic, because they seemed to be communicating silently. He groaned and tapped two fingers on the big blonde’s knee (long hair, electric blue eyes, strong jaw raised to the power of ten, cape (really?) and great big hammer).

“You look like the big strong type. Can you get me on my feet?” He really wasn’t enjoying the idea of being on his back, being helpless, the strange weight on his chest. [Memory file: Afghanistan] kept flashing across his eyes. He tried to lever himself up despite the sharp pain in his low back, reaching out blindly for something to grab onto. None of the people surrounding him reached out to help, and he had a brief moment of uncertainty – just because he had a memory file somewhere about these people didn’t mean they were friends. He remembered falling before the blackout and reboot – how had he fallen?

Steve put a hand on his shoulder and gently pressed him down. “Just relax, Iron Man. You took one heck of a fall and you were out for almost an hour. We didn’t want to move you in case…” He made a vague gesture down the length of Tony’s body. “Did you say cracks in the spinal column?”

“I said the cracks have been sealed,” Tony stressed. “I’d really like to be not on my back anymore.” He looked around the unfamiliar faces again and MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED kept flashing across his eyes like a strobe. He waved irritably, trying to push the words away. There was a way to disable error notifications, he knew, but he was having trouble access the directory. He felt trapped in his suit, in his own skin, and the error message was making him nauseous.

“Okay,” the rogueish blonde said, “That’s enough of that.” He pushed Steve out of the way and grabbed Tony’s wrist. He pulled Tony’s arm behind his neck and worked the other arm under Tony’s shoulders. He counted to three and pulled Tony slowly upright while the brunette with his helmet held her breath and made tiny distressed noises, and Steve hovered with his brows deeply furrowed and lips pinched together.

Tony didn’t make it completely upright before his back gave a sharp spasm and he sucked in a startled hiss of a breath. His helper freed himself from Tony’s arm and then slid around behind him. He let Tony come to rest against his chest, which couldn’t have been comfortable with the armor, but he didn’t complain.

“Better?” he asked.

Tony nodded weakly and checked the status of his spinal cord. The cracks had been sealed but they were still too weak to take any weight. He let his head rest on the strong shoulder behind him and closed his eyes in hopes of blocking out the incessant MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED message flickering over his sight whenever one of his audience’s faces came into view.

“Nice traps, my friend,” Tony breathed out as the pain in his back faded to a deep warmth that he understood was Extremis repairing the damage he’d done by sitting up.

“My name is Clint,” his helper offered, and then added with a smile that Tony could clearly hear, “And I do have nice traps.”

Tony didn’t open his eyes, but he had a general sense of everyone’s position and felt it when Steve got up and walked away. Without making a conscious effort, he found his hearing tuning out the close noises and trying to follow Steve’s progress. He was worried about how he’d ended up on the ground and who these people were. They seemed genuinely concerned for his wellbeing, but they would be if they’d tried to kidnap him and accidentally almost killed him in the process. Steve only moved a few feet away and paced for a few seconds before he started talking.

“Iron Man is seriously injured. We’re going to need crowd control now that Graviton is out of the area.”

When Steve was quiet for several seconds without any response, Tony realized that he must have been on the phone. He reached out with mental fingers and snagged onto the cellphone. He felt the connection as a buzz on the back of his neck.

-Status? The other voice asked. Immediately, memory file: Hill, Maria rose to the surface and he let out a relieved sigh. Not all of his memory files had been corrupted, but that left him uncertain of exactly how much of his memory had been corrupted and how he was supposed to repair the damage.

“He seems stable, physically – at least he says he is. Spinal injury, and a concussion that Extremis is dealing with, but he’s experiencing some kind of memory loss,” Steve answered.

Bring him to SHIELD medical and we’ll see what we can do, Hill suggested.

Alarm bells (literally) went off between Tony’s ears and he almost managed to muster up enough adrenalin to get him out of Clint’s supporting (restraining?) arms, before Steve firmly answered, “Not going to happen. There’s no way he’d ever be comfortable with SHIELD playing around in his head. We’ll take him back to Avengers’ HQ and assess from there. Anything else?”

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line, but Hill finally said, No. SHIELD agents will be on site in ten minutes for crowd control. Let us know if you require further assistance.

The line disconnected after a terse thank you, ma’am from Steve, and Tony let his connection to the phone go. More aware of his body again, he felt Clint shifting slightly behind him, and the minutest sense of weight on his armored thigh where the brunette bumblebee girl had put her hand.

“I just need 312 more seconds to repair damage and I can get up. Promise this time,” Tony said. He still felt nauseous and his salivary glands were working overtime. There was some minor inner-ear damage that was low on Extremis’ priority list under propping up his spine and sealing up the internal bleeds.

“I’m going to start counting,” Clint warned him playfully. He moved his arms down so they were wrapped around Tony’s midsection rather than his chest.

Steve returned a moment later to crouch at Tony’s side. “That was SHIELD,” he said, addressing the group. “We’ve got crowd control incoming, but it’ll be another ten minutes. In the meantime, we’ve got some civilians getting pretty bold with their cellphones, and they’ll probably be taking selfies with us before SHIELD can get a perimeter set up. Thor, Wasp, Widow – I’m going to need you on civilian-sitting duty until we can get Iron Man out of here.”

The three of them nodded and Tony guessed that Big Blonde with the cape was Thor, and Bumblebee girl must have been Wasp, which left the redhead as Widow. He filed away the aliases in a new memory file and judiciously tested his back again. He was going to be sore as hell in the morning, but as long as no one smacked him with a steel pipe (or a firm pillow) for the next few hours, he should be okay to move.

“Okay, should be good now,” Tony said, patting Clint awkwardly on one knee.

“You sure?” Clint asked skeptically, “We’re only at 300 by my count.”

Tony blew out an exasperated breath and rolled his eyes. He counted aloud down from 10, and Clint had him on his feet by 1. Steve stepped into his side to ease a shoulder under Tony’s left arm, and Clint slid around to the right while Tony cautiously tested his weight on his legs. His left ilium had gotten a nice spider web of cracks as a souvenir from the fall, but they’d been small and were already 85% healed. All the same, he left his arms over the other men’s shoulders as they moved slowly out of the street to the sidewalk.

Tony had a scary moment when he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to lift his foot high enough to get over the curb, but the actuators in the suit kicked in to lift his legs for him. He slumped gratefully against the suit and let it carry his weigh instead of trying to move it under his own muscle power. As they approached the corner, a gunmetal gray van rocketed around the corner and screeched to a halt.

Another spike of panic shot through his chest, but he saw the stylized “A” stenciled on the door before he could direct the armor to escape. [Memory file: Avengers] presented readily, but half of it was missing – chiefly the roster, charter, and of all the strange things, the file marked ‘chore calendar’ was corrupted and wouldn’t launch.

“How is this my life?” Tony asked no-one in particular, but Clint laughed anyway.

The driver’s door opened and a man threw himself out, leaving the door open behind him as he rushed to them. His eyebrows were deeply furrowed and his eyes darted over Tony in quick, precise sweeps, assessing.

“Rhodey,” Tony breathed in relief.

Rhodey nudged Steve out of the way and slid under Tony’s arm. Steve hovered for a second before breaking away and jogging to the van to get the sliding door open and the ramp folded out. Tony frowned at the side of Rhodey’s face, noticing gray hairs and lines on his face that weren’t matching what Tony was expecting.

“You’ve gotten old,” he blurted out, realizing the problem. The memory file was incomplete, and what Tony was remembering was a cocky twenty-one year-old James Rhodes in his thick MIT hoodie, and his tightly maintained fade, with his bright eyes and his textbooks cradled in his arm. This James Rhodes with the lines inscribed deeply between his brows and in the corner of his eyes, and the speckling of gray hairs at his temple was a virtual stranger.

“You and me both, buddy,” Rhodey said, the frown lines deepening around his lips. He adjusted his grip on the armor over Tony’s ribs and tucked in closer to Tony’s side, even though the armor was doing most of the work of supporting Tony’s weight. “Exactly how much are you fibbing about your injuries?” he asked, but he kept his voice low.

“Not that much,” Tony defended as damage reports scrolled off to the side of his vision – with the life threatening injuries downgraded to merely ‘severe,’ he was left with a list of pulled muscles, sprains, contusions, and warning levels on resources. He needed water and calories in a hurry, and then he could see to solving the laundry list of minor deficiencies.

Rhodey pulled him away from Clint’s side to help him onto the ramp just as a pack of civilian bystanders and reporters made it around the corner, and broke into a collective run for the van. Startled, Tony’s vision momentarily shifted into binary, and then flickered back into full color. The electronic controls for the ramp lift practically sang to him, and he reached out to automatically to get the lift moving while Rhodey and Clint tried to head off the crowd.

The door closed automatically once Tony had been pulled into the dark interior, and it was a matter of a breath to access the van’s computer and turn the engine back on. He could have driven the vehicle from the back seat, and for a few seconds he seriously considered doing exactly that. Maybe if it hadn’t been for Rhodey, he would have. The driver’s door opened and Rhodey climbed in, quickly slamming the door shut before a reporter could get his camera into the van.

“Can’t go anywhere without making a scene, can you, Tones?”

“Scenes are my scene,” Tony answered distractedly. All of the cameras and cellphones crowding around the van were clamoring for his attention. He knew that he could fry all of them with a spare thought if he applied the attention to it, but his head was starting to fill up with cotton and he was having trouble just keeping his eyes open.

“Stay awake, Tony. You have a concussion.”

“I don’t think that applies to me,” Tony mumbled. “I need to shut down.”

“Tony, you don’t shut down, you’re a person,” Rhodey stressed, but he sounded alarmed. He twisted around in the seat just as the passenger-side door opened, letting in a flood of clamoring voices and the flash of several cameras that exploded across Tony’s eyes like miniature freight trains. He reached out with quick snapsnapsnaps to fry the cameras responsible and immediately regretted it. Fireworks went off somewhere in the back of his head, and he activated the emergency shutdown procedure.

~*~

Rebooting…

Rebooting wasn’t exactly like waking up. It wasn’t stepping out of a lesser form of a consciousness, taking stock of where the pillow was or how the blanket was falling on the bed, sometimes noticing scents first, or temperature, or the way the light hit the window, or the complaints of the joints, or that one cold spot on the shoulder. Rebooting was an exact step-by-step cascade of processes that engaged functions in a specific order. An error report scrolled up behind his closed eyelids, and every third line or so read MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED.

Error report compiled, Tony’s consciousness expanded to include his surroundings – two cellphones, a StarkTablet that was powered on, and one that was in sleep mode, and –

Good morning, Sir, Jarvis greeted.

Morning. Tony yawned and opened his eyes. He was in his bedroom, the suit was down in the workshop, his connection to Jarvis was just as strong as ever, and someone was sitting at his bedside reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the tablet.

Tony turned his head and found the blond with the symmetrical face [memory file: Steve] sitting in a chair with one ankle crossed over the opposite knee. He had the StarkPad propped up on his knee, one thumb periodically tapping the right corner to advance the page. According to his text size and the frequency of his taps, he was reading at just over a thousand words a minute. At 257,045 words, this Steve guy could get through the book from cover to cover in a little over four hours.

“Quick reader,” he said.

Steve glanced up at him, the pad tipping forward to rest on his thigh. His eyes were sharp where they flitted over Tony’s body, but he wasn’t even taken off guard by Tony speaking. “Good morning, Tony. How are you feeling?”

“Memory files are still full of holes like Swiss cheese,” Tony reported, “And I need some carbs, water, and vitamin A, but otherwise fine. Injuries are clear.” He almost asked how long he’d been out, but Extremis helpfully informed him that he’d been shut down for 12:47:16. “Also I need to piss.”

He pushed his blankets back and swung his feet around to the floor. Steve hurried to his feet, his arms hovering up at chest level like he wasn’t sure what to do with them. Tony irritably waved his hands away and stood up. There was a sharp stab of pain low in his back, but it faded to a sullen ache once he was upright.

“My memory has holes in it, I’m not an invalid,” Tony grumbled on his way to the bathroom with Steve standing awkwardly at the bedside.

Steve was striking him as a hover-y sort of guy, and Tony was not appreciating it much. He shut the door firmly behind him, made use of the toilet, and stepped into the shower. A ping of a notification showed up on the bottom left-hand corner of his vision and he swiped it open to see that his bedroom door had opened and then closed. Steve must have left. Good.

Idly flipping on his music – Green Day, why not? – he sorted through his emails and text messages while he scrubbed shampoo into hair. The further he went through day-to-day minutia, the more annoyed he got with the incessant MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED popping up in response to the contents of his daily life every few minutes. The majority of his memory loss seemed to fall in the last ten years, but it wasn’t consistent. He had no memory at all of the latest camera upgrades sent to him for approval from R&D – which the email assured him were corrections based on his recent comments – but he clearly remembered having a frittata for breakfast the previous morning.

He flipped his right hand over, brought up the controls for the shower, and swiped the temperature down sharply. Cold water smacked him across the chest and made his skin lift in gooseflesh across his entire body. He sucked in a startled breath and turned quickly under the water, letting the tiny shocks of chill dance over his skin, and then clapped his hands together. The water turned off, leaving Tony very awake. He shook hard, flicking chilly droplets against the foggy glass.

Jarvis, can you bring me up to speed on this camera from R&D?

Without asking why, Jarvis brought up the schematics and walked him through the evolution of the newest camera upgrade for the next StarkPhone while he got dressed.

Wow, these guys are idiots, he said, laughing out loud.

You said much the same when the initial schematics were proposed the first time, Jarvis replied. Shall I approve the latest version for a prototype build?

Tony paused with his shirt hanging open, and blinked twice to bring up the latest schematics. He went through a quick mental exercise of building it out into a 3D hologram projected into the middle of his field of vision. There’s going to be a latency issue, he said.

Most likely, Jarvis agreed.

Then why would we let them build this out to a prototype? Tony asked with his eyebrows drawn together. He buttoned his shirt mechanically while the hologram rotated in his vision.

To quote your last response to this conversation, sir, “how else are those idiots going to learn?”

That doesn’t sound like me, Tony protested, tucking his shirttails into his pants and threading his belt through the loops. The buckle was deep gold with red enamel on the inside and outside edges, the leather supple and glossy with precisely outlined grooves every twenty centimeters to give the illusion of armor plates. The marketing on me is phenomenal, he decided.

Indeed it is, sir, Jarvis agreed. In regards to your previous comment, I can assure that it is an accurate quote. If you wish, I can replay the conversation for your benefit.

Tony hesitated, but finally shook his head. Send it back and tell them to fix the latency issue.

The product will likely be late to production, Jarvis warned. Ms. Potts will not be pleased.

Pepper? She’s scary, I’ll grant you that, but I don’t think my PA’s opinion of production deadlines is –

[MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED]

– relevant, Tony finished lamely. He dropped his tie around his neck, took a deep breath, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why is Pepper’s opinion of my production deadlines relevant?

An incomplete file loaded and Tony made another frustrated sound. He perked up. Have I stored memory backups with you?

No, sir. You specifically forbid any copies from ever being made of your memory in case the system were ever to be hacked.

Tony rolled his eyes, and picked the ends of his tie up and let his fingers run down the silky surface. Of course I did. Tell me then. Pepper?

You promoted her to CEO, though you retain controlling interest of the company.

Tony thought about it for a second, and humph’ed. He pulled the short end of the tie across the long end. That also sounds unlike me, but in a really… unexpectedly good way. Way to go, Past Me.

Turning his attention to his tie, and barely held in the shout of frustration when [MEMORY FILE CORRUPTED] popped up across his vision. He let the ends of the tie go, and concentrated on just counting his breaths for 120 seconds.

Load me a YouTube video on how to tie a tie, he requested wearily.

~*~

“That’s an interesting tie,” Wasp greeted with a bright smile. She bounced across the dining room and scooped the end of it up with two fingers.

Tony took a hasty step back from her, the tie sliding out from between her fingers, [Memory file: Obadiah Stane] flickering over his consciousness. Her expression shifted immediately, eyebrows curling upward and lips tugging downward. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and took a step backwards.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and then forced a giant smile. “I forgot that you don’t… remember me.”

[Loading memory file JVDBD12] A pretty girl with a heart shaped face and brunette hair in curly pigtails. She had big eyes and a bright smile, and a smear of birthday cake frosting on her cheek.

“That’s a very nice tie,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her very fashionable brown plaid dress with faux sued patches on her shoulders and elbows. The dress came to just above her knees and she was wearing thick white tights with glossy black Mary Janes. She rocked back and forth on her heels the longer Tony remained quiet. Mustering up an even brighter smile, she tried, “Thank you for coming to my birthday.”

“Sure,” Tony muttered, kicking at the ground. Dad had made him stand in front of a mirror for almost two hours knotting that stupid tie until it was imprinted with sweaty creases, saying again and again that you could tell everything you needed to know about a man by the way he tied his tie, the shine on his shoes, and the strength of his handshake.

“It’s okay you don’t remember me,” the girl said. “We were only five the last time, at the Christmas party.” She thrust her hand out, and Tony absurdly noticed that she was wearing a bright pink bow in her hair, and she had dirt underneath her immaculately painted fingernails. “My name is Janet van Dyne, but you can just call me Jan, because Janet sounds like an old lady name.”

Tony smiled at her and shoved the brightly wrapped box into her arms. “Jarvis picked it out,” he said, “It’s a Barbie Doll.”

She wrinkled her nose, but smiled at him and said, “Thanks! I like to make clothes for my Barbies.”

Tony glanced back behind him where his dad and mom were making schmoozey faces at the other adults. He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and angled his back to block Dad’s view in case he happened to look over. “I brought my erector set,” he said, opening the pack to show her. “You wanna go play with me?”

“Sure!”

Tony gasped, and abruptly the memory file [doublewinsorknot] loaded. He reached up to yank the knot of his tie apart.

“Janet van Dyne,” he blurted out. His eyes screwed shut and he pressed the base of his palm to his temple to soothe the bright burst of pain. “But call you Jan because Janet sounds like an old lady’s name. We played with my erector set behind your house for your twelfth birthday, and you got mud all over your dress. Your mom was furious.”

Jan clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my god, I’d forgotten all about that – I hated that dress! You know I fell in the mud on purpose? Mom dragged me up to my room and made me change in the middle of the party, but she missed the dirt smear on my cheek. She commissioned an artist to repaint my birthday portrait to get rid of it!”

Tony felt a smile stretch across his face. “My father tanned my hide so hard I couldn’t sit right for three days.”

“I knew you couldn’t forget me, Tony Stark,” Jan said, lightly smacking his chest. She reached up for his tie. “Here, let me get that for you.”

Tony gently nudged her fingers away. “I can do it,” he said, and his fingers slid through the tie with the confidence of more than thirty years of repetition. He smoothed his hand down the length of the red silk and let her straighten out the triangle of the knot against the collar of his shirt.

“I still don’t remember anything about you past your twelfth birthday,” Tony warned her, but she didn’t seem upset about it in the least.

“You’ll figure it out,” she said confidently, leaning up to kiss his cheek. “You always do.”

#ladyshadowdrake writes #stony #memory loss #extremis

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