somethingwithturquoise | Some Rocky Archipelago in the Middle of the Ocean; Earth, Dimension FH-001; Friday [05/09].

Summer had promised Stark that she'd show off her massive red robot ferret to him (not a euphemism, oh-em-geeee), and she figured the best way to do that was to just take him to where the thing was kept when not in use. Or, rather, to take him close to where it was kept, because it was actually kept at the bottom of the ocean.

"Okay," she said, once they'd portaled onto one of the larger outcroppings of rock, surrounded by the vast blue ocean, the stench of seaweed and salt water, and with the cawing of seagulls over head. She firmly set her GoTron pilot helmet on her head and then pulled her portal gun back out. "So you just wait here. I have to portal back the the house because the only way to access the cockpit is through the transport tubes, which will then suck me from the house into my ferret, and then I'll bring her out here so you can see her. Sound good?"

Because surely there was nothing nerve-wracking about the woman who just broke up to you leaving you all by yourself on a random rocky island in the middle of the ocean just because she basically said trust me bruh, right?

[[ for the aforementioned Stark and very NFB for distance ]]

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The thing was that Stark did trust her, implicitly.

That didn't stop the nervousness though. That was just his default.

"Sounds fine," he said. "You won't be gone too long?"

"Barring any interruptions from annoying family members," Summer said, with a shrug of her shoulders, "nope. It's, like, insanely fast. Five, ten minutes tops. Of course, with my family, you know there's a non-zero chance that someone will try to rope me into something stupid, but I'll try to shake them off or just portal back before they even have a chance."

Honestly, her biggest concern was her unemployed, perpetually bored, consistently lonely dad, who would probably leap at her the moment she stepped foot inside that house, but she had never had a problem with brushing him off.

"I could always shoot your grandfather," Stark muttered.

Then he shook his head.

"I'm sure you can get away from them if you need." Complete faith in that.

What if Jerry decided he wanted to hang out with Stark?

Summer grinned faintly, because 'just shooting them in the foot' may have been on her list of escape plans in the instance of Family Bullshit.

"Okay," she then said with a nod. "Gimme five minutes. If it pushes past twenty....well, you've got portalocity, I guess?"

Sorry if you ended up stranded out here for a while, Stark! It would not be her intention, and she would try to be back for you as soon as possible!

There was a faint, habitual sort of impulse to swoop in for a kiss on Stark's cheek that she was obviously pushing aside, and instead, she was just going to shoot her portal gun out to pull up that Not At All Suggestion, How Dare You pink glowing oval, which she popped into and then it closed behind her, leaving Stark with nothing but the sea.

And then, approximately eight minutes later, that nice quiet ocean suddenly started bubbling, and, seconds after that, a giant red robot shaped like a ferret burst out of the water, jumping up into the air, and landing on the ground next to Stark, shaking it like a minor earthquake because this thing was heavy. It pranced around a little bit, with ground-trembling thunk, thunk, thunks until it finally stopped and it seemed to shut down, glowing eyes going dark and mechanics inside slowly settling.

A hatch opened a moment later in the GoTron's chest, and Summer emerged from within with a sweeping gesture of her arm.

"Ta-dah! Massive ferret mech robot!"

Stark was watching the minutes pass on his phone, while also staring out at the sea a bit moodily.

He let out a relieved sigh when Summer's big red ferret appeared. Or what he assumed was Summer's, his Summer's (even if she wasn't that, really) ferret.

"Bigger than I expected," he said, with a very quick flash of a grin. "It's... impressive."

"

"Thanks!" said Summer, beaming from behind her visor and giving the mega mech ferret a proud little pat on its toe. "I get that a lot."

It would never not be euphemistic, would it?

"I wish I could, like, take you for a ride or something, but for all it's size, it's kind of a one-person deal. If you want to check it out, though, go fo it! But, like, try not to touch or mess with anything. I don't want to have to go to Rick and be all 'I need help, my ferrets gone rogue because my friend accidentally bumped the parking break,' You know?"

These two might not be capable of talking normally at this point. Or maybe the euphemisms were normal?

"I wouldn't break anything. On purpose."

Probably.

"I'll try not to touch anything i shouldn't?"

Summer would definitely say that the euphemisms were not only normal, but required.

"I mean," she said, "that's only if you want to check out the inside. Honestly, after the initial reveal, there really isn't that much more to do or show off unless we get a kaiju call."

There was then a pause where she sort of looked up toward the sky almost expectantly, because if this were a TV show or something, that was exactly what would happen. But since it wasn't...

...Summer's phone then chimed.

"Oh shit."

Summer's shoulders then sagged.

"Never mind. It's just my dad asking if I'm planning on staying in this dimension for dinner tonight."

Stark had tensed when the phone went off but he relaxed, mostly.

"...are you?" He asked. "Or...do you have somewhere to be? And i wouldn't mind getting inside. Just to see what it's like."

Totally normal conversation with zero vibes here.

"Am I planning on it?" Summer asked, already texting her dad back as she spoke. "No. No way. That's like signing up to a whole weekend of unexpected bullshit and I am so not interested in that. But I don't really have any other plans, either. Why? Did you want to do something?"

Text sent, her eyes went back up to her ferret. "Man, it really does suck that there's really no passenger option with these things. We could go, like, take it out, stomp around on the moon or something...."

Her head tilted. Her eyes squinted at an idea filtering across her brain.

"....you know, I could probably blackmail Morty into letting you borrow his. Or talk my dad into loaning his. But then we'd probably definitely have to stay for dinner."

"We could do something," Stark said carefully. "Like...stomping around the moon, yes. I've never done that. And I miss doing things with you. New things."

He winced a little as he said it wondering if he shouldn't have said that.

Summer just sort of looked at Stark a moment when she noticed that wince, and then then she blinked and was back on her phone again.

Thank god her GoTron suit gloves had touchscreen friendly fingers.

morty let me borrow ur gotron, stark and i want to stomp around the moon for a little bit

im not letting u borrow my gotron summer, their not toys!

if u dont let me borrow your gotron, i'll just make brunette summer let me borrow hers and i'll tell all the other summers that u have dick acne

i don't have dick acne!

yeah but do they know that?

She took a moment to smile sweetly at Stark in the few minutes before she figured Morty would reply.

ok fine

"Awesome," she announced, tucking her phone away. "We're go for Morty's GoTron. You'll have to access it from the house, though, and then that'll shoot you straight into the cockpit. You'll have to go through the parking garage that got built over it, though, but don't worry about it, they're used to it."

Stark gave her a crooked,slightly sheepish smile.

"I get to pilot a ferret? You'll help so I don't do anything too terrible? And...it's ok to, to go in your house?"

"It's not my house," Summer pointed out. "It's my parents'. And the ferrets are pretty intuitive. If my dad could pick it up almost immediately, anyone could. And it's Morty's GoTron, so if something does happen to it, who cares?"

"If I couldn't do it and your father could I'd...walk into the sea." Stark made a face.

Jerry was very nice! But.

"They won't mind me being in there, your parents? And even if it's your brother's I don't want to break anything. I...just want to stomp on the moon. It sounds fun."

And weirdly it might be the most normal he'd felt around her in weeks.

Some Rocky Archipelago in the Middle of the Ocean; Earth, Dimension FH-001; Friday [05/09].

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