Once Paige was left to her own devices, she began to wander a little bit, just cautiously exploring. Every time she came across a new material or interesting-looking surface, she skimmed her fingers over it to take in its texture and molecular structure. It was good to know what was on hand, and it was habitual, anyways. Eventually, she found her way into the kitchen, and her attention was grabbed by a blue-glowing appliance.

"So you're the toaster I heard about," she murmured, going over to take a closer look.

The toaster chirped at her, content as long as she wasn't trying to cook anything. But he literally brightened when Tony came into the kitchen to get a refill of his coffee.

"Be nice," he said, to both of them.

"This is the toaster Charles told me about?" Paige asked, looking at him. "Companion to the coffee machine?"

"Yup." Tony patted the toaster as he passed, going to get creamer out of the fridge. "There's another coffee machine around here too, not sure where. Spike likes newcomers."

"Spike?" Paige asked. "You named an appliance Spike?" She shook her head a bit, fighting back a smile. "How sleep-deprived were you?"

"Two days, I think. And a lack of technology. I cannibalized a few hair dryers and a cell phone." Tony shrugged. "And Spike is a perfect name for him."

Paige just bit her lip to hold back the snickers, even as she absently absorbed a little bit of the marble countertop into the tips of her fingers and was tapping out a random little rhythm.

Tony noticed but didn't say anything about it this time, instead stretching out a bit and patting the toaster again.

"There's coffee, there's always coffee here, and Jarvis will order dinner for us in an hour or so," he said. "Give the little monsters time to settle down."

Paige nodded.

"So it's really alright for everyone to have just... descended like this?" she asked cautiously.

"Yeah. I figured Charles must be delivering, or else you all wouldn't be here," Tony said with a shrug. "Besides, it's not like I don't have the room."

"He is," Paige said. "Crystal stayed with him, Raven already called Erik."

Tony nodded. "Erik will b pissed he wasn't here," he said, shaking his head a bit.

"It's not like he could help it," Paige said. "He's off on business. I'm sure he'll be back as soon as he can manage it."

"Oh I'm sure he's on his way back now," Tony said with a shrug. "However, that doesn't change much to him. This whole family has a thing about being stubborn, especially when it makes the least sense."

"I've noticed," Paige said. She tapped her fingers on the counter again. "Huh, this is actually marble all the way through. I thought Charles was the only one to be old-fashioned like that."

"Nah. It feels a bit different," Tony said with a bit of a shrug. "Besides, marble all the way through is more likely to be able to stand up to the team."

"Yeah, it doesn't feel like marble on top of granite," Paige said. "Just tastes like marble."

"Tastes?" Tony quirked a little grin. He knew what she meant, of course, but it was still kind of funny.

Paige blinked, and then turned a bit pink.

"Sorry," she said. "That's how it kind of works. My skin kind of tastes the molecular structure of solids so it knows what to copy."

"Yeah, I figured that's what you meant. It's just interesting that you chose taste instead of, I dunno, feel," Tony said with a shrug before downing about half his coffee.

"Well, it's not," Paige said. "It's not tactile, not like textures are. It's more like a flavor, a distinction between pliable and rigid and stone or wood or metal or any other material."

"Interesting. So if I put something in front of you and you couldn't look, if you'd "tasted" it before you'd be able to tell what it is?" Tony raised his eyebrows at her.

"If it's something I've come across before," Paige said. "If I've never encountered it before, though, I would have to just guess."

Tony nodded. He was sure he still had a few compounds around she wouldn't have run across anywhere else. That would be fun to test, but he remembered how violently she'd objected to experiments.

"Have you studied any geology?"

"I wanted to," Paige admitted. "Geology and metallurgy would be useful. I've just never had the chance."