Stark Industries, Friday

[midichlorianfail]

Because he'd been up most of the night with a wailing droid baby, Theron hadn't noticed anything out of the usual so far today. In fact, the only thing he'd noticed was that the murder-roomba seemed intrigued by the baby and more importantly, the baby loved the roomba.

So it was with very little guilt that Theron put the baby on top of the roomba and went to have a nap behind the counter.

[Open!]

Comments

[heroic_jawline]

"What's that?" a very short, skinny boy with huge blue eyes asked, pointing in the general direction of both baby and roomba.

[midichlorianfail]

"A solution to a problem," Theron said, blinking sleepily.

[heroic_jawline]

"What's the problem?" Steve asked. "I'm a good helper!"

[midichlorianfail]

"The problem is crying droid babies."

Did Steve hear any crying droid babies? No, he did not.

[heroic_jawline]

"I don't hear any crying," Steve said.

[midichlorianfail]

"Because the problem got solved."

By a murder-roomba.

[You know what's great, replying to the right comment.]

[heroic_jawline]

"By putting the baby on that thing?" Steve looked kinda judgmental. "That doesn't seem safe."

[midichlorianfail]

"It's fine, it won't hurt the roomba."

Theron, no.

[heroic_jawline]

Now Steve looked horrified. "What about the baby?!"

[imafuturist]

"Are you supposed to sleep back there?" Tony asked, crouching down to inspect the murderbot and robobaby.

[midichlorianfail]

The murder-roomba spun threateningly whenever Tony came too close.

What was with all the kids today? "So long as I don't leave anything turned on."

[imafuturist]

Tony accepted that with a solemn nod since the house robot didnt dispute it. "How did you make it to that?"

It did 'that' all on its own with murderous impulses, but okay.

[midichlorianfail]

"My charming personality." Because kids understood sarcasm, right?

[imafuturist]

"Personality doesn't program things." And now a small,child was judging you, Theron.

[midichlorianfail]

Somehow, Theron would survive. "Sure it does," he said. "Otherwise code would be a lot more consistent and most slicers would be out of job."

[imafuturist]

"Slicers?" Yes, explain your weird slang to a child.

[midichlorianfail]

It wasn't slang, it was perfectly normal Basic. "You know, getting into computer systems you're not supposed to."

[imafuturist]

IT WAS WEIRD SLANG.

"A hacker?"

[midichlorianfail]

LANGUAGE WAS WEIRD, OKAY.

"No, a slicer." IT SOUNDED SO MUCH MORE ELEGANT.

[imafuturist]

"A hacker." This was going to be a thing, wasn't it?

[midichlorianfail]

Just wait until Tony found out about dataspikes.

"Slicer."

[imafuturist]

Tony would just be all over it. "Hacker. "

[midichlorianfail]

"Slicer."

Yes, keep arguing with the tiny child, Theron.

[imafuturist]

"Do you actually work here?" Tony asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

[midichlorianfail]

"Yes." Just because he wasn't doing any work right this moment.

[imafuturist]

"So, you work for my dad then?" Because Tont was going to have to make sure not to mention anything about this guy to Howard or else he'd get fired.

[midichlorianfail]

"I don't know," Theron said. "Is your dad Tony?"

Look, Theron didn't know if he kids or not.

[imafuturist]

"No, my dad's named Howard. I'm Tony," he said with a deeply confused frown.

[midichlorianfail]

Uh, what?

"Uh, what?"