pineslog | (no subject)

Who: Pepper, Scott, and Tony.
Where: Potts/Stark Household.
When: May 27th, early.
What: Dum-e arrives just in time for Tony’s birthday… some assembly required.
Warnings: None… but if there’s an explosion or something I’ll update.
[Closed]

[ on her way out of the house to run a couple of errands pepper nearly trips over the mountain of packages stacked on her porch. if not for the bright red and gold bow sitting atop the largest one she might have thought this was a practical joke. but on further investigation she finds dum-e inside… in about a dozen pieces. a bit troublesome to be sure, but well worth it. ]

[ she smiles, excited, sealing the poor thing back inside as she calls for scott from over her shoulder. the sad beeps and boops he makes from inside one of the boxes cause her smile to falter, it but for a second, because relax she’s working on it. ] Scott, I could use a little help. [ since this needs hauling inside. ] We need to hide this from Tony… and [ she huffs a sigh, chuckling. ] Maybe see about piecing him back together.

[ grabbing one of the boxes she hurried through the house, hoping tony had retired to his workshop for the evening, so she could sort this out. ] Scott?

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Here, mom.

[ Because honestly, it's part of his teenage prerogative not to be easily accessible, but it's still his... well, his foster mom. He's not gonna not help. Especially when it looks like she's messing with- ]

Is that a motorcycle? [ Beat. ] A build your own motorcycle?

Scott. [ oh thank goodness. ] No, not quite. [ she sets the box in his hands, relieved that she had caught him before he had a chance to run out. ] His name's Dum-E, and he's a robot your father built. [ that sounds like it could be right. she turns, returning to the porch for another box. ]

His birthday is Monday and this is, well, it's perfect timing. [ strangely enough, but she tries not to focus on that for too long. ] He's going to need some assembling though, and this kind of thing isn't my forte... [ so help your mom surprise your dad? ]

[ Scott's a little confused on this, mostly because he's thinking about it from the point of view of well... him. He's a gearhead and the chance to get his hands on parts and mechanisms is like, awesome in and of itself. So he's not sure why he's eing handed the box. Assembling? Wouldn't Dad want to-

Okay. All right, she wants it assembled. Well- ]

I can do it.

[ Full confidence. And if he can't do it, well, he'll make sure to be careful with it so that Tony can put it back together how he likes it and Dad'll probably be jut as pleased that way. ]

Do I have to keep it in my room is there a spot in the garage I could use, you think?

[ she smiles, relieved, because she has no idea how to assemble dum-e. she could try, of course, but the resulting attempt would be disastrous. she has a vivid picture of him in her head, but she knows there’s more to putting him together than stacking the various pieces atop one another. ] You’re the best, Scott. [ and she means that. ]

Maybe. [ she’s not entirely sure, but it’s worth looking. ] If not we can make room. [ she heads into the garage and sets the box down on one of many cluttered counters, looking around with a sigh. ] I don’t know how he works in this mess. [ it bothers her, but she knows there’s a method to his madness, so she tries not to move too much around. ] Just help me bring in the rest, if you don’t mind, and then you can work your magic. [ she catches herself smiling as she heads back to the front, hoping this is something they’ll be able to bond over. ]

It's not magic, Mom...

[ But he's following along behind her, looking around for boxes or pieces that may have slipped out, mentally putting the parts he's seen into some sort of cohesive robot unit that makes sense to him. ]

Not actual magic, no, but... the things you and your father are capable of doing with a wrench are just as amazing. [ she throws a smile at him from over her shoulder as the remaining boxes are moved into the garage. ] I wonder why they disassembled him in the first place... [ unless he was causing trouble. dum-e could be a little... special, at times. ]

I dunno. Maybe that's how they got him.

[ But he's hunkering down with his tools and starting to look at the pieces, working out how to fit in the right wiring to the right places, and-- man, this needs to be fixed because that seriously hampers the mobility the way it looks like it was... ]

Maybe… [ she doesn’t sound convinced. as much as she’d like to know what happened to dum-e ( and why ) she should probably just count her blessings and be glad the powers that be decided to return him at all. ] Let me know if you need a hand. [ she removes him from the boxes and sets him down carefully, grabbing a razor from tony’s bench to cut down the boxes. ]