memeboxing

[fe_male]

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[motherofnemesis]

[ Well that's really not subtle at all there, though she wouldn't have particularly expected subtlety from him at any age. She hopes it's not bad that she feels curious now, because she does, but at the same time - okay wow those questions are going to be hard to answer, maybe she can dodge them. ]

More stuff to do here, or? [ And a short pause. ] You ran the whole company for a while, but you got bored of it. [ She'll just. Leave it at that version of events yes. That'll work, right. ]

[nanite]

Yeah. Cooler stuff. Less school. I don't know.

[ Okay, that sounds enough like him, he thinks. He considers it fairly heavily for a little while, but accepts it afterwards, starts spinning again. ] I guess they're back in New York still. It looks like a lot of work - I really just like building things.

[motherofnemesis]

You don't like school?

[ She lets out a half breath of relief at that, her physical reactions as always muted around him but never quite eliminated. ] Well, you do a lot of that. And really well, of course.

[nanite]

Goes too fast. I don't see why I have to do it at all when it just means that I'm here for a little while and there for a little while and everybody's new all the time and the older they get the more they... I dunno. They don't like it, for some reason. I can't wait until I'm done with school.

[ He perks back up a little bit, because right now most of what he makes is for school or secretly with pieces his dad didn't need and didn't notice were missing. ] I build whatever I want here, don't I? This is my house.

[motherofnemesis]

Skipping grades? How close are you to being done with school?

[ She notes that perking up, and it brings a little bit of the smile back to her face. His enthusiasm about building stuff remaining a constant is nice. ] You do, and you can. It's all yours.

[nanite]

I'm moving to the fifth halfway through the year, officially, but they all blend together. [ And that's proud, because this is the most tangible reason he's special, aside from, you know, all the obvious stuff. ]

Yeah see, just more reason to stay here. Are we building something? What are we building? Do we work together?

[motherofnemesis]

Yeah, not a lot changes between the first several years. But most kids don't get that. [ She knew you had to have been a genius early, but fifth grade already, wow. ]

Mostly we both work on our own things, though we've been working together on my car some. I think your latest project was working on boosting your stabilizer output again when it's under stress, but you may have already moved on.

[nanite]

[ He'll finish his sophomore year and start his junior year in high school when he's twelve, Max. What do you think of that? ] Most kids don't go to special private boarding schools either. That probably helps.

Hmm. [ He glances back over at his own screens again, the one bottom left of Iron Man flying around and being awesome in general, and then his gaze shifts to some of the other screens, as he stops spinning entirely and pulls up some of the other recent projects, looking them over. He's smart, and he intuitively understands machines and electronics and stuff, but he knows he doesn't know any of this, and thinks that maybe future him would be angry if he messed around with any of it. Maybe he'll start his own project. Or something that was still labelled under the 'future stuff' heading; stuff that his older self hadn't started working on yet. He couldn't mess any of that up, right? Just sort of, jot down some ideas and save them in a supplemental file. Maybe they'd help. ] What's wrong with your car?

[motherofnemesis]

[ That that is going to suck for him. Probably a lot, given what she remembers of high school. ] Boarding school, huh? [ He's so young though, why is he in boarding school already? She doesn't like it at all, that's not something she approves of. ] Do you like it?

[ Instinctively not seriously defensive. ] There's nothing wrong with my car, she just needs a few upgrades. Get her more up to speed.

[nanite]

Yeah. It's not bad. Homework's easy, but not like, shoot-me-now-boring-easy like it was before; the shop is easy to sneak into, and it's an old building so there's lots of secret hiding-spots. And my teachers talk to me a lot, which is kind of fun. A few of them don't mind when I interrupt, although most of the others get me in trouble for it. [ /shrug. He doesn't get asked that often. More just: 'When are you graduating from this one?' ]

Upgrades like what? Something's wrong if it's not starting at up-to-speed.

[motherofnemesis]

What all do you do in the shop? They wouldn't have too advanced stuff, would they? [ has anyone even bothered to teach him safety regulations? will at some point in his life anyone ever bother to teach him basic safety regulations applicable to life in general. ]

It was a used buy, so it started out at what you call horrifyingly sad and I call in need of a little care.

[nanite]

Not really, but it's better than reading in my room or the library. I made a new part for an engine, and fixed something else into a little robot that throws away paper on the floor. [ Grimace. ] He's really good at it - I keep having to redo homework assignments he's burned.

That sounds dramatic.

[motherofnemesis]

[ awww, robots by tony started so young. she grins a little, sits down on a bench. ] Maybe you could work on modifying that design here.

Nah, we just have much different views of what it takes for a car to be worth driving.

[nanite]

[ She can embarrass him with stories of when he was younger all she wants to later on. ]

Hey, that's a good idea! Maybe I'll do that, if I'm here long enough. I bet between me and JARVIS we could figure out how to stop him just burning everything.

Which car is yours? [ Pointing to the old Ford. ] I like that one.

[motherofnemesis]

[ oh she totally will. she'd be looking forward to it if she was certain she was going to get him back. ]

I'm sure you could. Hey, maybe that was Dummy prototype one.

[ Swiveling to point out hers, just a couple down from the Ford, still unassuming and basic in comparison. ] Course you would, that's one of your favorites. Older you's. You've got good taste.

[nanite]

[ He has mixed feelings about his older self so far but he does think he's pretty cool either way.

But he hops up, moves to look at her car, peering at it from a handful of angles. ] It's not bad. Not as pretty as the one I picked, but I ber it works pretty well. Looks like you take care of it.

[motherofnemesis]

[ It's kind of sad how happy that makes her. It's just been a really long time since she had something to call hers, even if it was a gift from someone else, and she does take good care of it. She works hard at it. ]

I go for being unnoticeable over pretty, yeah. And I do. She's a good car, and she'll be even better.

[nanite]

[ Better? ] What are you gonna do to it?

[motherofnemesis]

Keep tuning up the engine, make sure everything fits together just right. [ Running her hand along the hood with a smile. ] Make it perfect.

[nanite]

[ He watches this, looks at her and the car, considers things. ] I want a car.

[motherofnemesis]

You're in luck, then. You've got a lot. Not that you're allowed to drive them yet, I don't think you'd be able to see over the dashboard.

[nanite]

Yeah, I don't think they count if you can't drive them.

[motherofnemesis]

Well. Legally speaking, you can drive them on private property.

[nanite]

[ why don't people tell him these things ] You don't need someone to sit in the car with you?

[motherofnemesis]

[ For the same reason she sort of thinks she shouldn't have - it's dangerous. ] You can't be arrested for it as long as you're not on public property I think, but insurance won't cover any crashes.