Reality in Motion

something going on

"And then he had the audacity to tell me my code was rudimentary?!" Dawson shouted out, shoving his fingers into his chest, "Fuck him, honestly, it was because of his fancy shmancy new turbines that I had to re-do all of my code in the first place!" he angrily ripped off his tie, throwing it across the room. It didn't get much air or have as much impact as he wanted it to, which made him even more frustrated. "But he's Stark...Iron Man." he said disgustedly, "He's soooooo much smarter than everyone. God, fuck him." he huffed out. There was a beat of silence where Q was supposed to chime in, agreeing with him. But instead the silence turned into a long moment and he looked over at her. She wasn't even paying attention.

"Q!" he shouted out, throwing his arms wide. She looked over at him, blinking a bit as she stopped focusing on whatever it was that was going on inside of her head. He made his eyes wider and she straightened up, realizing that she was supposed to have a response.

"Uh, yeah, whatever you said." she bobbed her head in a nod, pressing her lips together and crossing her arms over her chest. He let out a scoff, dramatically rolling his head back and letting his arms drop to his sides.

"Thanks." he spat out, now annoyed with her too.

"Sorry." she apologized lamely, pushing off the table she was leaning against, "Sorry, it's been a weird couple of days." She rubbed her temple with the palm of her hand, "And I have my Friday Fury meeting today, so you know how I get."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, always gotta impress daddy." he scoffed, ignoring how she crinkled up her features in disgust at the nickname he used for Fury, "He's been on my ass lately too." he complained, "Making sure everything's perfect for this project so that it launches in time."

"Is it?" she asked, making him pause. He glanced over to her and bobbed his head in a nod,

"Yep, yeah. It's great." he answered, not wanting to tell her about his work on Project Insight or the side safety net project he was trying to complete at the same time. He knew she knew he was lying to her, but she didn't push him on it. He figured it was just because she knew how secretive the project was in the first place. But it would be finished soon and he wouldn't have to worry about it any longer. Thank God.

Project Insight was not his favorite project he had worked on over the years. He knew SHIELD did some pretty shady stuff, but this just seemed excessive. Before getting recruited into SHIELD, his whole deal was to make people aware that they were being watched by the eyes of the government. Exposing their secrets, taking sums of money from their accounts (for himself, yes, but that was beside the point), and shining a light on just how unsecure everyone thought their "secure" networks were. Now, he was working on a project that made it so SHIELD could be an overlord. Literally. Putting up helicarriers in the sky with a code (one that had already been created pre-Dawson) that would proactively strike out against potential threats before they actually happened. It was supposed to make everyone feel safer, but it just made Dawson sick.

Still, it was his job. He had to make sure the satellites and the code all connected so that the helicarriers could do their jobs. And it had taken him a little under two years to make sure the new stuff worked with the old stuff, only to have Tony fucking Stark come in with some fancy fuck ass turbines and change the game. He had spent the last six months trying to re-calibrate everything and just finished showing it off to Stark and Fury, one seemed pleased while the other tried to undermine him in front of his boss. The fucker.

The division he mainly worked in was the Cyber one. He was self taught in the world of code and computers before SHIELD. His job allowed him to grow and develop his skills for SHIELD's own personal use. He began to try his hand at engineering tech and weapons for himself, as a side project just to feel like he had some sense of freedom within the division. But once Fury got wind of it, he was tasked with doing it for the STRIKE team and other SHIELD teams. Sure he wasn't the only tech guy able to do these things, but sometimes it certainly felt like it.