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There is a new tenant of the garage, one that can't be missed: an animatronic baby Brontosaurus in bay two. It's six feet tall at the shoulder, with a long neck that goes up another six feet. Beautifully textured, tough foam rubber makes up its hide. The creators of the robot have decided that as a baby, it would have protective coloration, so it's dappled in browns, greens, and whites that would be hard to spot under trees. Big adorable eyes are closed with cloth lids.
If there was a truth that could be spoken it was Jean-Pierre still had the heart of a 6th grader. He didn't have a phone but for the payphone that was right outside the garage on the curb and that suited him just fine. He still had no hot water but that didn't keep him from taking a shower anyways. Hell 10 years in prison prepared him for a life scant on amemnities. So long as the soap worked, he was alright. That usualy greased mop of hair was hanging in his face that slowly went wide-eyed trying to figure out what he was looking at. "Elmo what's all the fuzzin… abou'…" He pointed as if Elmo MISSED this somehow, "Enorme petit dinosaure, Sparkplug!"
The baby dinosaur looks at JP. LOOKS at him, cloth lids sliding open to reveal huge sparkling glass eyes. It whirrs its motors at him and wags its stubby tail. Elmo's behind it and comes around it to grin wildly at JP. "He followed me home. Isn't he great? His name's Owen." The dinosaur looks down at him, too, then dips its neck and affectionately headbutts him, making him oof and pat its nose. "What a good boychik," he coos to it.
Feet stampstampstampstampstamped down the stairs where JP hurdled the end of the hand rail landing bare feet onto the concrete with a slap. It looked at him and both hands covered his mouth slurring something in his bastardized French that Sev might even have trouble translating. THe broad translation was the machinist was over the damn moon. "Aaaaaw, bebe!" Was he cooing at it? Yes. Yes, sir. He was. Now he was hugging the big mechanical brute.
Owen whirrs and headbutts JP, too. Elmo's laughing in unrestrained delight. It seems like maybe he hasn't slept much, with dark circles around his eyes and that overtired energy he gets, but he is happy and nothing can stop that. "Me and Arlo went to the World Fair. They got a dinosaur exhibit and we took a truck in and—" he waves up at Owen. "You shoulda seen it, JP! The T-Rex came alive! There was a little girl about Amelie's age and she was hanging on it and it stopped bein' a machine and started bein' an animal!" He's gesticulating, eyes wide and thrilled. "And this pretty cowboy lady JUMPED on it and RODE it! I never saw something so ballsy!"
JP could get weak in th e knees over that story, though he seemed to comprehend loud and clear. THe grin was goofy. "Aaaaah mon ami, Daniiiiiii, missed you. Bet you ten t'one that soundin like Danielle. She was chasin wofl men in the woods with me. Gal like that could steal a day or two from me and I won' even mind man. She can have em. How long she ride it? She win? How's the kid? Kiddo ok?" Of course JP is gonna ask about the kiddo
"You know her? She can have days from me too," Elmo says with a slightly infatuated sigh. "Kid's okay, not a scratch on her. The Rex didn't seem to notice her. Danielle didn't get to ride it long, because she pulled the girl up with her and then it turned back to a machine. And then this buff cute green guy smashed it. Man, what a waste of a good mechanism—but gave me 'n Arlo an excuse to come back later and claim we were repairin' dinosaurs." Elmo looks up at his new baby and thwacks it fondly on the side. "I powered him up, and here we are."
JP was busy hugging and petting the baby dino. A hand flapped, "Leggo of it…" One thing he didd learn from the garage was it was unwise for he and Elmo to contest operation over any one machine. THat was a great way to twist a machine apart but good. Yup. He was gonna take it for a ride. Beeeecause this is JP Bonaventure we're tlaking about. "Cmon, we gotta let the kiddies play with this." He paused and looked to his car and said sincerely, "Jeanne, you know you the love of my life…but right now I gotta love me a dino a lil bit more." He paused and slid a sly grin to Elmo, "I s'uppose you on the list too. THis is genius, man."
Elmo predictably turns red and waves JP's nonsense off. "Feh!" But he's grinning, he can't stop it. He makes a little beckoning curl of the fingers towards Owen and its power dies out, the light in its glass eyes going dark. "He's all yours, buddy."
JP snappointed to Elmo with a wink letting it slide for now, and asked, "Steel or aluminium construction? I can' tell. How much you think it holdin?" He had 800 questions that followed. "How fast you think our boy can run, Sparkplug? We gotta enrill em in school or somethin? They expectin this guy back?"
Elmo, laughing, covers his face for a second. JP winking and snappointing, it's too much! He shakes his head, looking at his partner fondly. "Some a both, steel where it's gotta impact, alumnium where it's gotta be light, like the neck and head. The transitions are the really good parts. I don't think he can run so fast. These guys were like elephants, you know. Probably did a lot of steady cruisin' around. Top speed I'm guessing around fifteen, twenty mph? More if I do some work on him, but I'll hafta reinforce him a bunch, give him better feet—Yeaaaah they're expectin' him back." He shrugs, not all that interested in giving it back.
JP made the machine crouch and paused. "Uhhhhh… oui." RIght how to get up there was going to be the issue. RUn and jump? Meh. Okay he climbed he workbench. Owen shook his head at him. "Waht do you mean 'no'?" He squint to Elmo, "THat you feedin him opinions?"
Elmo just laughs harder. "That ain't from my side of the family, he must take after you!" He's enjoying the heck out of this, watching JP clowning with the animatronic.
JP held a hand up to see how high up the brontosaurus' neck went up. What matters is he didn't say Well clearly. "maybe. Maybe he get his good looks from me." God, kid in a candy store much?? Sitting on it like some derranged prehistoric cowboy carefully he looked around letting Owen walk forward slowly. The dino was no longer the biggest issue so much as staying on it without either flying off or crushing his balls racing a Chevy down the street. "Can you, um… So i had to let go of the garage to tag the dino…Owen…hmmm?" Which was JP for can you get the door open?
"Obviously," Elmo says, "and he musta got my brains." He hits the switch for the garage door, opening it to let JP and his mighty steed out to rampage in the streets of Mutant Town.
JP plodded along at…maybe 5 miles per hour. He was feeling adventurous with his petrolivore. STOMP….STOMP…STOMP…
"Keep it down!" came the irritated voice of the neighbour lady as the dino head passed window one.
JP looked up at her in total disbelief and he was the one on the dino. He had to look to Elmo to see if she was for real. Seriously!? "You have no soul Ms. McKinney!"
"It's a THUNDER lizard!" Elmo yells back at Mrs. McKinney. He dashes for Owen's tail, gets up on it, and clambers up behind JP. He's good at climbing things, as he proves every day reaching stuff that is too high. This is a challenge, though! "Aw JP, this was the best idea!"
JP was grinning like a renegade 9 year old. Can't responsible right now, busy playing! At Elmo's recalcitrance he cackled, and turned the dino , and it peered in her window to make the olld lady scream peeping tom. "HIS NAME, OWEN, Ms. McKiNNEY!" WIth a deep breatha nd alaugh he shook his head, "You gotta get you own dino if in ye' wanna name em. Them's the rules." Or at least they were now as J declared it so
Elmo wraps his arms around JP's waist, laughing just a little crazily. Just a little…for now. The promise of escalation in his voice. "You got the hang of him? Speed 'im up!"
JP scoffed, "Better n'any other. Do I have the hang of- Elmo, I am the dinosaur." THis amused him to no end. Still the dino was picking up plod speek and may eventually make it to ten! "I dunno if he'll hold t'gether if we sprint em. My ability don' work like that, chere." Hey the dino wouldbe needed for later but lo, there was a red light and so he stopped. And the dino peeeered around the corner to see if traffic was coming which caused the squeeling of tires and quite a bit alarm because there was a dinosaur observing traffic laws in the middl eof their commute!
"Ah well," Elmo says cheerfully. "He'd need heavy-duty shocks. I could put 'em in…" He's already planning what upgrades he wants to make to the thing, while hanging on to JP with his arms and to Owen with his knees. "This is hard! I'm gonna be sore in muscles I didn't know I had." There's a statement with a wealth of possibilities. Car horns go off, that New York lullaby, and he grins that wild grin at the startled commuters.
JP listened to the car horns and laughter an cheering and inevitably someone yelling, obsenities and someone inexplicably, and commedicaly, informing "You can't park him here!" JP blinked and almost slid off the dino crackping up. "Ooooh those bags of frozen peas are gonna get a workout. Awwww…uhhhh we wnana grab burgers oooor more peas or jes' go roun' the block. I think we can get em in teh alley an' take em back but is too much fun t' see people laughin man. I mean my junk disagrees, but this' great. Needs a saddle tho."
Elmo makes a wordless sound of sheer excitement. "A saddle! You're a genius! I could make a saddle! With an extensible ladder!" Of course the shortest member of the X-Ternals thinks about ladders a lot. "I could build a whole harness so it'll stay steady on him and we could mount somethin' on him like…a trebuchet!" Oh he's on a roll now. "I saw this design for a rolling trebuchet and it oughta work! I'll have to give him more horsepower and stabilizers and—" He grunts as Owen lumbers on. "Okay, yeah mine isn't too happy either." But he's happy. He's really happy.
JP opted for the short drive as it was super uncomfortable and while he was a fair rider (do not ask why this is) this was a bit much. So around hte block to the whistling and cheering and delight of a few people and a veering slightly out of their way to go over to one of the nearby tennaments where he assured, "Whaaaa? Naw he don' bite less you a tree or my sister." Hey Yvonne Bonaventure was more than a bit leafy. That said the young boy reached a hand out the window like one would a puppy. JP nudged Elmo hanging onto him with a grin whipering (watch!) And teh dino to its limited ability snoot nuzzled the kid's tiny hand out his second story window. The moment of wonder was broken when the kid yelled inside, "I wanna be a dinosaur when I get older!"
JP snorted trying nto to laugh offering, "Eeeeh ya know, try? There a couple fells that flap aroun', why not be a dino?" There's a squeal of delight and he ruefully added, "Ya know Dinos like dis' eat trees. Practice on broccoli. Dem jes' lil trees. Dino starter set."
Elmo yells back at the kid, "Me too!" trying not to laugh too hard to talk. He's sagging against JP's back, just cracking up. "Look at you, bein' all responsible," he teases JP, "encouragin' kids to be dinosaurs and eat broccoli." He smooches him on the shoulder blade. Caring zero about who sees it. "Bring 'im home, I can't hardly hold on anymore."
JP grinned jus tenjoying the hell out of this and defended his dignity there, "Heeeey jes' cause I act twelve don' mean I ain' still a parent, man." Still he soaked up the praise like a plant and got the dino to get them home carefully. A hand was used to grapple Elmo's thumb and lower him back to teh ground before sliding off the back of the giant thing. Carefully VERY VERY carefully, did he limp up … only three stairs. the others could wait their turn. "Man… kinda reminds me that first night we hangin out on teh Lower East Side. Ran so hard I thought m'legs 'snap off."
Elmo almost buckles and grabs Owen's leg to hold himself up. Still grinning fit to split. "You got a funny definition of 'hanging out', you know that, Jeanushka?" He limps along after JP, sore but exultant. "That was awesome." Laughing, leaning against a wall. "Man, I don't wanna give him back. …We can make OUR OWN."
JP grinned at the pun and treid to give Elmo a bit of a swing before he hit the ground but the leverage wasn't really there. "Oooooh tres beien!Haaaa you hear that, Owen? You might be a daddy. Is okay. I'll e'splain." If there was one thing in his life that he was damn proud of it was that one tiny fact. "Speak of which can you get me some magnets? My neighbours don' got any I need on their fridge." Because that's how one goes shopping right? Just break into 4B and see what shit you need?
Elmo's got stars in his eyes thinking about the potential of an X-ternal dinobot. JP's question gets him back, though. "Magnets? How strong you want 'em? …What do you wanna do with them," he rephrases it, realizing JP might not have any idea.
JP blinked with one hand holing the front of his hip. THe question seemed to just confuse the shit out of him. "Stick em to metal stuff? That's wwhat magnets do Elmo. They stick. An ya pull em off and then tehy stick again." He paused and asked genuinly, "Y'all call em somethin else?"
"They do a lot more'n that," Elmo says, so excited over the entire dinosaur thing that this doesn't even irritate him so much as make him think of a thousand things magnets can do. "A lot more, but okay, you want to stick 'em to metal. You CAN ask before you raid the neighbors, yannow!"
JP waved his free hand around, "Hence the askin, Sparkplug. I got a fridge now. I wanna stick Amelie's drawin on it. When you have a fridge and a drawing from a five year old there's expectations. Ya know, in case she sees it and so I can have it up there." He sighed and said calmly, "Cause there's rules to this stuff." Oh, why didn't he lead with that? Who knows. Still more careful steps dragged his happy dino-riding ass up the stairs. muttering his mantra "Peaspeaspeaspeas…" there was a prize at the end of the trip.
"Fridge magnets. You want fridge magnets," Elmo says, making sure this is the right thing. And there's a look in his eye which promises mischief. "You got it. Sure, you gotta put it up on the fridge. There's rules." He echoes JP with great amusement.
JP laid his hand on teh door and all the locks fell open and it swung ajar for them. He paused and looked to Elmo, "Well yeah. What else would one use em for?" He pointed a warning finger, pinky floating there, "Don' you stick nothin t'my car. You'll scratch the paint." JP; authority on magnets. Ask him how. Going into the place it was cleaned up a bit and he fished out one of many bags of frozen veggies never meant for wating and lobbed it at Elmo and took teh other to wade over to one of the 2 chairs he stole.
"I'm not gonna scratch your paint!" Elmo says, affronted at the very idea. "Please, I'm a professional." He catches the bag of peas and shakes his head ruefully as he collapses into one of the armchairs that formerly belonged to one Clint Barton. "JP, I swear. You're the only guy in the world who would ride a dinosaur, ice his crotch after, and get me to do it too." It's said with love. Lots of love, actually.
JP pointed, "You'll thank me." JP, protector of junk and stuff and mutant structural integrity (magnets sold separately). Lemme tell you you tackle a horse wit'out a saddle for a while and you know the value of a bag of peas man. I notice y'all are lackin a few horses. Bribe Sev. He can prolly hook you up. Still that dino is like ridin a wide metal box. Merde, man."