Stark Industries, Wednesday, 5/29

[ultron_junior]

It started as a normal workday, and it might have stayed that way if Victor hadn't managed to step on a container of oil in a way that made it explode all over him. He could scrape his arms and face clean, but staying in his clothes was impossible -- they were cold, wet, greasy and smelled terrible.

"Hey, JARVIS?" he called toward the ceiling. "Are there any clothes in the shop I could change into?"

"My pleasure, Mr. Mancha," the AI responded, and a closet door Victor had never noticed before whirred open.

"Thanks," he started to say, before he got a good look inside. The dress in the closet was about the pinkest, poofiest, girliest monstrosity he had ever seen.

"JARVIS?" Victor said. "That ... is not for me."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mancha," JARVIS said. "Our systems indicate that is the only piece of clothing available in your size. Would you require anything else?"

Victor gave a moment of wild thought to working in his boxer shorts, but of course he'd worn the pair with the hole today. And after a year at the shop, he knew that when JARVIS made a decision it tended to stand as final. "No, thanks," he said. "I guess this'll have to work."

He plucked the dress from the hanger and set to trying to figure out how to get into it, cursing the whole time. Some AIs had horrible senses of humor.

[OOC: Open shop! Come see Victor's pretty pretty princess dress for I Never week.]

Comments

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

After a couple days of her alarm clock just not going off at the right time, Maddie finally brought it in to get fixed. And oh, was she glad she did.

She was just going to stand here at the door, waiting to be noticed.

[ultron_junior]

It took a minute -- Victor was fussing with the back of the dress for a long time. He looked dismayed when he finally glanced over and spotted Maddie.

"So, how many pictures of this have you taken so far?"

He'd get to the this-isn't-what-it-looks-like stuff later.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Well, with that kind of opening, none yet," but look at her getting out her phone now. "Smile!"

[ultron_junior]

Victor sighed but held still for long enough for her to take the shot. Using his powers to interrupt seemed a little over the top.

"Guess this kind of had to happen," he said. "Believe it or not, I have a totally rational explanation for the way I'm dressed."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Please tell me what it is," she said, snapping the picture and making sure it turned out okay.

[ultron_junior]

"My clothes got ruined and the shop says this is the only thing it has in my size," Victor sighed. "So ... it's this or work in my underwear, and this seemed less likely to get me arrested."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"You couldn't just call someone to get you clothes?" she asked, still smiling. Come on, it wasn't every day you walked in on this.

[ultron_junior]

"No, because --" Victor considered it for a second, sputtering. "Because that would have made entirely too much sense. I should call Alec, huh?"

Not that he'd get around to it before Alec walked in, but points for thinking of it?

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"This makes a way better story, though," Maddie assured him.

[nottrivial]

"Hi," Alec said slowly as he entered with a corgi puppy scampering along after him. "Do you know if your robot dog is okay with--"

Pause.

"Um."

That was quite a dress.

[ultron_junior]

"Alec." This was either a relief or embarrassing, Victor wasn't sure which. "You don't randomly carry around extra clothes, do you?"

[nottrivial]

Both, maybe? "No, but I can run and get some from the room if you want," he offered. "How did this happen?"

[ultron_junior]

"Yeah, I exploded a bottle of motor oil all over my clothes and the shop AI says this is the only thing it has in my size," Victor said, glaring at the ceiling. "What I want to know is, why does it have this kind of dress to start with?"

"And," he added, "you would be my hero for the day if you got me regular clothes."

[nottrivial]

"So... the assumption is that someone once wore that to work here?" Alec wrinkled his nose. "It doesn't really look like..."

Whatever. He shook his head.

"I'll go get clothes if you can watch Sparkle for a sec," he offered, gesturing to the puppy who was now biting at his shoelaces. "...It's a long story."

It really wasn't. He had turned into a dog.

[ultron_junior]

"He turned into a dog?" Victor guessed. "Done. Though I can't promise I'll chase him down if he runs after you."

He cast a wary eye on Sparkle, as if daring him to do just that.

[nottrivial]

Alec shook his head. "He won't. He doesn't seem to like running a whole lot while he's like this. He mostly tries to be carried." Which was maybe a little bit TMI.

Anyway. "I'll be right back," he said, and then he set off at a run for the dorms, leaving a sulking Sparkle behind.

Before long, he was back with a lump of clothes for Victor.

"Here," he said, thrusting the pile of clothes out at him. "They might not be as stylish as that dress, but, y'know."

Alec thought that was hilarious.

[ultron_junior]

"Thanks. And I don't think pink's really my color," Victor responded, rolling his eyes.

And then froze as he considered something.

"Alec ... I don't know if I can get the zipper back down on my own." The stupid thing had been hard enough to get up in the first place, and because it was plastic his powers were no help.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Tony remembered he was technically employing people and stopped by to check on them. But, in this case, he just needed to steal a few parts.

And it all would have gone to plan if he hadn't noticed Victor. "Wow, really thinking about starting a dress code here."

[ultron_junior]

"Please don't make it black tie," Victor requested earnestly, and with just the slightest hint of a blush. "Why was this dress in your shop, man?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"...I have dresses here?" SINCE WHEN? "JARVIS?"

"I believe it was a drunken purchase while you were 'out with your peeps', sir."

[ultron_junior]

Well, that answered one of Victor's questions. "Was it for some girl, or for personal use?" he laughed.

He was a man in a poofy pink dress. He needed to laugh at somebody.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I'm just going to blame this one on Ben." A beat. "And Ender for not supervising us as we so desperately need."

[ultron_junior]

"Ben should wear a pink dress if he's that into them," Victor grumbled. "... and actually, I bet him and his grandpa are going to make that the next challenge for their class."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"You should tell him that," Tony replied brightly. "Can even say it's from me if you want to avoid trouble."

[ultron_junior]

"Nah, they already have it in for me," Victor said. "No way should I have finished in the bottom three first two weeks."

And yet he had. Curse you, RNG.