Profession

Vistas

We managed to arrange things so that we got to see Uncle Tony and Aunt Ann's new facility off the coast of Wales slightly before the official opening so that we could also do our other work. They both were there, smoothing out wrinkles in the lead up to the ribbon cutting to open the facility, and while they looked harried, they looked exhausted, they also looked triumphant.

With good reason. This facility was a total game changer in many ways. In terms of marine biology, it was the first large-scale laboratory to be placed in an actual ocean or sea. There were locks where small submersibles or divers could exit the facility and perform their research, collect their samples, and take their stuff directly into their labs for interpretation or further testing. This phase of the project had been operational for seven, eight months, and they were already getting results and generating more avenues of investigation. The first crop of students were due after the grand opening to pursue their own research interests, and Aunt Ann had taken Uncle Tony's initial plans and run with them, making these internships pretty glam--each student had a lab tailored to the research, personalized lab coats, access to the full suite of Aunt Ann's laboratory software and the in-house research journal to which everyone could contribute and from which articles were culled to present to outside journals, nice quarters in the facility, and free access to all that the facility had to offer--not just the cafeteria, which was helmed by world class chefs and pastry chefs, but the entertainment offerings, the groups that people put together to pursue non-career interests, like painting and literature, gaming, quilting, pretty much anything a few people liked to do, plus access to Wales, and guided sightseeing trips. It was a self-contained little city where the main requirement that you had to have a deep and abiding curiosity to earn your place there. And best of all, there were huge windows all throughout the facility, so that you could see the storms roll through, the sun shine, and the undersea part offered vistas that were never the same from moment to moment. It was laid out like a wagon wheel in order to maximize the window space, and all offices were on the outside of the halls so that people could be inspired by nature during their desk work, most labs on the interior because the view could be too distracting. Uncle Tony and Aunt Ann had been besieged with offers from around the world to build similar facilities elsewhere, and they were considering it in order to facilitate learning about other marine environments in (literally) submersive facilities.

Aunt Ann had taken Jon to meet some people--he wanted to write an article about it on spec--and Uncle Tony was showing me around and letting me shoot images for both Stark and Jon. I loved seeing my uncle in his element, making things happen, studying things, finding solutions, providing sparks of inspiration that other people could take and develop. If I could point to one thing that summed him up, it would probably be this place, which was luxurious, cutting edge, and was responsible for bringing together many of the world's most innovative people with the intent of finding solutions to developing problems before they became acute, learning more about this massive, hard to explore realm. And what wasn't known was a separate little installation, out of sight from the main facility, where Aquaman could come to use the net, keeping up on world and interstellar events without having to come to the surface. He was philosophical about the squeezing out of the heroes, knowing that this would bite people's butts but also feeling like experience was the best teacher, and was showing up less and less to League matters. Namor could also use it, but he was a lot pricklier and had yet to visit. I grinned as Uncle Tony was showing me the heart of the place, the labs, where engineers worked with the biologists to create new tools and equipment. Uncle Tony looked at me curiously.

"People, even family, are always surprised to see the extent of my planning, why I do so much extra, especially things that won't turn a profit, like upgrading the electrical grid around Holly Village. I just realized that I do it because I watched you do things like this all my life, and I thought it was how it was supposed to be." He blushed. "Make people happy, and they won't want to leave, and you get the best of whatever the point of the place is." It finally dawned on me. People didn't really leave me behind, but that had been Uncle Tony's experience, and although he wasn't the most self-aware person I knew, I knew instinctively that what he did when people were important to him--the Avengers facilities during his first lifetime, all his world-class facilities, the things he provided to his nearest and dearest, like the construction materials for Grandma Alex, my pods and armor, a loving and nurturing home for his wife and children, were to help keep us fast to him. I wanted to shake my head. He's worth being close to just because of the kind of person he is, generous to a fault with his time, ideas, and resources. If  I ever met his parents, I was going to open some kind of a king-sized can of whoopass on them.