Found Family - A Domestic Sol Meme

[trpmememods]

FOUND FAMILY

A DOMESTIC SOL MEME

Things have been a little intense around here lately. How about a chance to just chill out and take care of the house?
Leave this wasteland for the day and settle down somewhere a little more homey with your pals. This could mean a straightforward modern Earth situation, or something more familiar to you characters to AU together, wherever you find your fun. Have a chat and expand your family, or jump right in to see what kind of home grows up around you!

WHAT TO DO

Kitchen: Get cooking together. Try a lavish meal, a midnight snack, or a new pastry recipe you've been preparing for!
Living Room: It's game night! This always ends in tears, why do we keep doing it? For the glory. And the beer.
Washroom: Do the chores. Just do it. The longer you put it off, the longer it will take.
Study: Run some errands. Do the grocery shopping, pick up the dry cleaning, bring the kids their lunch because they forgot it at home again, and forget the ice cream in the car.
Basement: Family secrets. Its dark down here and there might be skeletons. What's your family's weird thing that you've been keeping from the rest of the world? Why are you just finding out now?
Bedroom: Date night. You finally get a chance to get away from each other. Hopefully, the kids at home aren't getting into trouble...

Comments

tony is your dad now

[in_extremis]

(don't make that weird. unless...👀
mundane modern version of Tony is probably still outrageously rich so you can live in his fancy house. If we're going to some other universe, be prepared for surprises.)

Hi dad we going grocery shopping

[on_repeat]

(maybe not dad, I dunno what the relation is anymore lol)

How did they forget to stock food for the house?

That was the question currently occupying Echo's mind as he pushed a cart up and down a few aisles, scrolling through the hastily texted list he made on the fly between other errands he still had to get to before the day was done.

Usually this would go faster, but he quickly found out some of the items were not where they were supposed to be. "...Did they switch things around again?"

[in_extremis]

As far as Tony knew, grocery shopping always took excruciatingly long, and they were fighting for their lives every time. He was not the right person to bring along on this venture. He didn't even know cereal came in boxes, and not the neurotically matching containers arranged in their cupboards. Ten feet behind Echo by then, a pack of six walkie-talkies under one arm and sipping from a juice box that he definitely didn't walk in with, Tony went, "Hm? What are we looking for?" as though there was any chance of him helping.

[on_repeat]

"Basics," Echo automatically answered, looking up to scrutinize the shelves that hadn't been restocked and left a mess of wrappings and ripped corrugated cardboard. "Bread, eggs, milk. Some of those meal kits they'd usually have right here if someone hadn't wiped them out."

The slow glance back at the man became a double-take, brow furrowed because he forgot how casual Tony was at times. "Do we need more walkie-talkies?" He wasn't even going to ask about the juice box.

[in_extremis]

It was a good thing that Echo elaborated, because Tony was staring at him and sucking noisily on his straw with very little recognition of what 'basics' would be in this place. An oven? The list didn't sound too difficult, though, so Tony wandered up closer to consider the meal kit destruction area, and lifted the box he was carrying like he was just as surprised to see it at Echo's question. "Catra wanted to make a new intercom system," he explained. "Thought she could break these and get bored and not have to deal with an intercom system." Tony didn't need to hear Catra's voice when he was in his room, and he'd get some more parts to play with, wins all around.

Gesturing with his juice toward the emptied shelf, he suggested with incredibly unearned confidence, "We'll just make our own." It sounded perfectly reasonable, he made things all of the time. Except for the fact that without the meal kit, that would just be cooking, and he cooked about as much as he got groceries.

i'm not pinnochio and you're not my real dad

[deal_me_in]

Sneaking into the house. Sneaking out of the house. There's a lot of sneaking and not at all because he shouldn't have been somewhere not doing something, nope, he's innocent!

you're pinnochio now

[in_extremis]

"You might as well take the credit card, too, if you're going to do that."

Did Cayde think Tony slept? He should have been very aware of the schedule by now, and that left him a very narrow window of time to risk slipping out and getting back before Tony noticed he was gone, no matter how thorough he was with the security system. He really couldn't have expected to come slinking back in before 5AM and not find Tony in his slippers making another pot of coffee.

[deal_me_in]

A garbled yelp was as much of a greeting as Tony could ever hope for as Cayde pulled up short from his sneakery, hand flying to his chest in a motion he's witnessed countless times to be sure it was a reasonable response for the occasion.

"Geez! You're gonna give someone a heart attack!" he sputtered, straightening up immediately like he hadn't just been caught doing something he shouldn't have, and even then only partially. He stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets, still looking towards a positive in all this. "-which card?"

[on_repeat]

They did have ovens on one side of the building, but that wasn't their priority at the moment. Echo stared back, his eye nearly twitching as Tony sucked up the dregs of the juice box as he squinted. "Guess that works," he said after a beat, resigned to accepting the logic behind the thought. "Throw it in."

From what he could recall, more than half of the stuff they ate at home was takeout. And for someone who didn't cook, Tony was right about starting from scratch. "We'll need to get the proteins and vegetables, then. But does that mean you're gonna help with the cooking?"

[in_extremis]

"The executive one, obviously," Tony replied, shuffling closer with his coffee since it looked like Cayde was going to hang around sheepishly and using his free hand to lift the hood slightly and better see his face, eyes narrowed to check for irregularities. "No limit, so you can at least buy me all of the parts I need to make a robot that will stick around here and make me coffee like he was supposed to. No shady, black market AI this time."

[in_extremis]

Oh, this was going to be easy, Tony could probably convince Echo of anything. Tony smiled with some triumph around his now useless straw, only a hint of hesitation as he dangled the box over the cart like he was giving Echo the chance to change his mind and stop the tear that was about to happen, but it was too brief to actually act on. The toys were in the cart and Tony was sauntering away with purpose down the aisle like he knew exactly where to find 'proteins', insisting, "Of course. I'm very helpful. It can't be that hard."

[deal_me_in]

"Right. Will totally make note of that. Uh, would that be in your wallet or your desk?" Cayde hunched up his shoulders just a bit, doing quite the impression of a sullen teenager as those impossible-to-miss eyes, shifted in pointed aversion of eye contact. His gaze snapped right back to meet Tony's face with a pinched look that was probably a scowl.

"Whoa, hey! I am so not the coffee bot! I thought I was banned from coffee making when I almost burned the kitchen down last time! -which, despite how it may sound was not calculated!" He paused. "Also I am not shady. I am very dashing."

[in_extremis]

With a snort, Tony said, "I can't make it easy for you," so he probably wasn't leaving access to his bank account sitting in a drawer. He released Cayde from his inspection with both hands raised in surrender to his impassioned defence of his terrible coffee skills, only raising his eyebrows to make sure Cayde knew that being actively bad at menial tasks was worse, actually, and agreed, "Yes, yes, very dashing. You'd probably still be just as handsome if I donated your legs to a teaching hospital and you were forced to learn the coffee thing."

[deal_me_in]

"Wallet, got it." Any processes towards plotting how to obtain a credit card were immediately diverted by the threat of losing limbs.

"-what, no! My legs are just as important! This beautiful face needs to be at a general eye-level with people!" he lamented, stalking over to the counter to stare down the coffee pot as though it had caused him a personal offense.

[in_extremis]

Tony lingered, letting Cayde work himself up for his battle with the appliances and sipping at his cup languidly before offering, "We could build you a box. You'd look like one of those fortune tellers in Coney Island." His performance of exhaustion, like this would be a lot of work for him and Cayde really asked too much, flickered with an abstract concern creasing Tony's brow, which it looked like he didn't know what to do with until he asked, "Have you been to Coney Island?"

[deal_me_in]

The coffeemaker got the brunt of Cayde's glare at the suggestion of a box. He opened the top to peek inside as though trying to rework what all had possibly gone wrong in his last attempt. Maybe coffee was combustible.

"-on the internet?" he replied as he continued poking about the machine, by than mostly for show before he gave up and swung open a cabinet to contemplate its alphabetized contents.

[in_extremis]

For a moment, Tony gave an irritated frown to Cayde's back, like this answer had personally offended him in its implication, then his shoulders dropped and there came the clatter of his mug as he pushed it aside onto the counter. "I'll get my socks," he announced, padding silently away down the dark hall.

[deal_me_in]

"Buh?" Cayde glanced over at the sound of the mug- Tony couldn't have finished his coffee that fast. Socks?

"-if you're looking for the ones with the flamingos on them I'm wearing 'em," he called after with some hesitance, unsure if this would just be further incentive to have his legs removed. "Wait. We're not going to donate parts now, are we? I can practice making coffee while you go get socks- it'll be great-!!" he called after, if not a little desperately.

[in_extremis]

No answer came from down the hall to alleviate the sock thief's anxiety. At first. It occurred to Tony that this might be at the risk of his coffee maker, and he called, "You break something, and you're on call to go to the Starbucks for the next three months, no excuses." That arrangement would definitely fall apart within the week, but maybe the threat was enough to slow Cayde down and give Tony the chance to return to an intact kitchen in the time it took him to become presentable enough to leave the house. He had a standard to adhere to, that kind of thing took time and a lot of hair product.

[deal_me_in]

That was only slightly more palatable than having no legs, but it also occurred to Cayde that it was not a response to his question. He pressed up a knuckle against his jaw as he stared down the hall, running through several dozen potential courses of action and at least one regret that he hadn't thought to check and see if Tony had his wallet on him when he'd departed.

"This is your fault," he said, pointing at the coffeemaker.

[in_extremis]

Cayde didn't have that much time to enact his plotting. Tony came clicking his way back down the hall eventually, in a pressed jacket and jangling his keys impatiently. "Come on. You missed your chance to go to the bathroom, the car is leaving," he demanded, only slowing slightly to make sure nothing was openly on fire.

[deal_me_in]

It was probably a good thing that he couldn't put any of his plans into action. At least one of them involved a tank.

Cayde whipped around as he heard Tony's footsteps, that jangling of keys. He made something of an anxious sound that wasn't necessarily for lack of taking the opportunity to go to the little robot's room, looking uncertain about whether he wanted to take that car ride or jump out the window. Curiosity seemed to win out, bolstered by the confidence that he could abort at any time if it looked like they were heading anywhere remotely suspicious.

[in_extremis]

Nothing appeared to be broken and Cayde was coming along without complaining? Either Tony had missed something, or Cayde already had some guilt keeping him on his best behaviour. Tony eyed him suspiciously until they were in the car and tearing out of the garage. The speed at which Tony drove was probably not conducive to an intent conversation, but that didn't stop him from asking, "Where do you go, then?"

[deal_me_in]

One of these days maybe Tony'd let him drive. Maybe. Cayde hoped, anyway. Just like he hoped for a tank for Christmas. Despite their pushing the speed limit, he casually leaned an elbow against the window frame, propping his head up with a fist as his internal sensors clocked their speeds.

"Around," he replied, and there was a stretch of silence that suggested he'd leave it at that until he eventually followed up. "The park. Or just around the city. Net cafes." At least he'd been good about not trying to drink or eat anything ever since that spaghetti incident.

[in_extremis]

"You just..." Tony tried to extrapolate, waving the hand that should have been on the wheel while he shifted up into a straightaway, "go on walks?" That didn't sound true, if Cayde could be placated with a walk he wouldn't cause so many explosions, but Tony was far more worried that it was true. That was sad. That was his fault.

[deal_me_in]

"...most of the time," Cayde admitted. He didn't really go looking for trouble so much as excitement. He'd done his homework, obviously, but reading up on things and watching TV only gave you info, not experience. While late night in the city was a pretty favorable time for troublemakers and questionable activities, he found it an ideal time to just be able to take things in without getting stared at too much in turn.

Although it wasn't much fun just being an observer either. Maybe people just weren't as friendly at night. Or too drunk and far more easily startled by someone with glowing eyes coming towards them. People weren't too keen on playing a robot at the arcade either, under the assumption that he probably cheated.

"And then there was someone who was willing to sell me a tank but I scoped his place out and I don't think he actually has one."

[in_extremis]

For a moment, the whole concept seemed so forlorn that Tony even slowed enough to follow comfortably behind another car and keep a sidelong eye on Cayde, eyebrows raised inquisitively but apparently without the proper words despite his sharp inhale. He released the laugh abruptly in a laugh of disbelief, eyes rolling at the tank, and dropped them back into the more familiar rhythm of manic weaving through the city traffic. Most people could take a casual stroll without being offered a tank. Tony was pretty sure they were talking about very different experiences now.

"You're not the only one that can follow people home," he chastised. "Or that can find an IP address, or extract metadata--there are worse places to be than stuck in our house."

[deal_me_in]

It was Cayde's turn to roll his optics, letting his head rest on his arm as he let his hand drop from its position. "I knooow," he said. "I've been careful! I didn't even go to the underground fighting ring!" That was reassuring. "But there's nothing to do in the house." Clearly not by way of starting accidental kitchen fires, anyway.

"You don't have work or something today?" Or...whatever it was Tony tended to disappear off to. Work with quotation marks.

[in_extremis]

"I'll talk to the boss," Tony waved off, "He's no stranger to a late start because of a headache." He gave Cayde's shoulder a backhanded tap, in case he didn't figure out immediately that he was the headache, then wound the conversation back with a finger circling in the air.

"If it's a fight you want, I could build you something," he offered, and it did sound weak even as he said it, but that didn't mean he was any less intrigued by the idea. "A simulation, or a training dummy that hits back..." He was watching Cayde out of the corner of his eye then, knowing a bit of violence wouldn't satisfy him. "Or do you need a girlfriend?" he ventured. That tended to keep Tony occupied, anyway. "Or boyfriend. The hardware isn't very important."

[deal_me_in]

"Heh." 'Headache' might as well be one of his nicknames by now. Cayde tilted his head enough to glance over his shoulder at Tony and his finger circling. The suggestion of having a training buddy made him scowl a bit at first, but he wasn't shooting the idea down right off the back, so maybe there'd be something to it.

He did have to groan at the next suggestion. "What, you're going to make a girlfriend for me?" he asked flatly, just to make sure he wasn't the only one thinking it sounded like a very sad idea. He leaned back in his seat, reaching down the side to tilt it back into a reclining position so he could stare at the ceiling. "I don't- look, I'm not sure what I want. I'm not sure what I should be doing."

[on_repeat]

He felt like he should have said no. That smile only cemented it, and regret soon followed after it was dropped among the other items, staring him in the face like the mistake it was.

Echo suppressed another sigh as he pushed the cart with his knee, turning it after Tony with little effort. "If you're so confident, then you're making the next meal," he added dryly.