strangetrip | Jenga

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Jenga - OTA

Ned was almost done making his life-size Jenga. With Thors help, he got his hands on some wood and he had managed to make the same shaped pieces of wood, too. It was a lot harder without power tools, but he did it. He sort of wished he could show his shop teacher - it sort of made him feel like an old timey pioneer using a hand saw.

Some of the wood was stacked already for the Jenga game while other pieces were on the floor in a pile. The ones of the floor still needed to be sanded and that's what Ned was doing as he sat on the couch in the lobby - he was sanding. Sanding, and trying not to think about how some people still seemed pretty upset about what happened around Christmas.

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How much time had passed since Loki's ambush? The sun had been gone but made a climb back into the sky since then, and Tony had spent the dark hours jumping from surface to surface in his room whilst studying the scented feedback of all his things (his human sensibilities coming into conflict with his doggy appetite upon recovering an Everything Bagel from the forgotten place under his couch was slightly traumatic). The scent of breakfast called to him and, filled with confidence, directed his mechanical maid to open the door for him. He'd programmed the robot to respond to a specific count of vocalizations and associate them with various commands he'd see as useful for a quadruped of god-knows-what size.

The size variable was quickly determined. He was tiny. Of course.

A quick trip to the diner to work his charms on the most attractive patron was side-tracked by the harsh scent of sawdust coming from the lobby. Poking his head around the corner to inspect, there was Ned Leeds handling enormous blocks (enormous even if he wasn't purse fodder) all by his lonesome. His pointed ears flattened at the sound of sandpaper on wood, and he reflexively sounded his discontent through a few articulate barks.

"Ah, uh.. h-ey." He stopped what he was doing and looked at the dog which was both tiny and kind of adorable. "You uh... Good doggie?"

The ugly, scraping sounds stopped and Tony's ears perked back up. His mood changed on a dime as all of his attention was grabbed by the tower Ned had built. While it was quite humble (it was just a big Jenga monument) Tony's urge to idly poke and prod was translated into an irresistable need to explore with his mouth.

Approaching the tower, he bounced on his tiny front paws a few times before finding a place to prop them up on one of the blocks that jutted out. He wasted no time in mouthing a corner of the next one up, testing its stability with a harsh jerk of his head.

Ned shot up when the dog started to put it's mouth on the wood - if the dog started to chew too much it would change the integrity of the block and then it would through the Jenga game into chaos.

"Hey, hey. Uh... No? No! Um. Bad dog. Stay"

Ned did not spend a lot of time around dogs.

Given the absolute lack of authority in the boy’s voice, his commands were in one ear and out the other. Tony soon grew satisfied of his own accord, hopping down and approaching Ned with an expectant grin.

‘You with the thumbs!’ He barked. ‘Help me build this!’

Somehow Ned felt like he was being yelled at, which was silly since it was just a dog, right? Even still, the bark got him up and out of his seat. "Um.. You want to play fetch?" Not that Ned had anything to throw. He patted his pants and pulled out a piece of paper with random coding notes. He paused, then crumpled it into a paper ball and threw it. Being made of paper, it did not go very far, but it did get thrown.

Tony watched the paper fall unceremoniously to the ground with a gentle 'plop' and looked back to Ned. Electing to move right along to let Ned save face, Tony approached one of the blocks that sat by the tower and pawed it. He looked back to the teen, giving him a quizzical look, as if to ask how much more plainly he could make his intent.

Ned watched as the paper ball was left unfetched and then he studied the little dog's new posture. "Oh.." He blinked. "Sorry... I, uh. I've never like, owned a dog before? So..." He moved over to the blocks. "There's a few left that need to be smoothed, but we could put the rest on... or.. off?" He squinted at the dog. "Did you... want to play?"

At the mention of "on" Tony barked affirmatively. Part of the fun of being a dog was testing how well he'd be able to communicate--though it certainly helped that this test subject was attentive, whether he was used to dogs or no. Tony jogged back to the tower, hopping on his front feet impatiently.

"O...kay." This was one of the weirdest things he ever had to do, but he did it. He picked up a piece and placed it on the tower. He looked down at the strange dog and waved his hands back and forth just a little. "Ta-da?"

Another bark, clearly approving in its jubilance. 'Again!' It was a tremendously simple task, but being understood and obeyed was more thrilling than it should have been.

Was he listening to a dog? He was definitely listening to a dog. Ned looked around the lobby as if worried someone was staring and judging - had this been back home, Flash would have definitely found this a convenient time to show up and say something mean. Still, there was just something about the eagerness in the dog that made Ned want to please the animal. He smiled a little and sort of laughed. "Okay, okay, yes." He began to place another one on. "I wonder if there's some sort of Guiness World Book of Records or something for playing Jenga with a dog."

Another bark, even more excited than the last. Even as a small child he couldn’t have imagined falling over himself for Jenga, but his reward pathways were in doggy overdrive. How tall could it get on Ned’s watch? Where was Peter to compete? He jogged in circles around the tower, getting himself worked up in the best way.

‘Are you embarrassed, yet, Stark?’ He pondered.

‘It had its chance.’ He swiftly concluded.

Ned didn't know a lot about small dogs, but he kept being reminded of the woman who lived down the street from him. She had a chihuahua and it peed every time it got excited. Ned really hoped this dog wasn't like that chihuahua.

He built a few more and then looked at the dog. "I'm, uh.. starting to get worried it might fall on you." And then whoever owned the crushed dog would probably be very angry.

Tony eyed Ned, now positioned between the teen and the tower authoritatively. He backtracked, squeezing between Ned’s legs rear-first.

"Uh" Ned tensed, both wanting to move away to help him, but worried moving would hurt him somehow. He settled for sort of bending his knees a little.

Something was weird.

He turned around once the dog had back through and he looked down at the Pomeranian. "Can you like, understand me?"

Another bark of affirmation. While the thought of playing dumb was tempting, why not excite this human some? He was demonstrably excitable and while Tony would have played it off, his own excitable canine mind fed off it.

Ned grinned, then paused - maybe that was a fluke? He squinted a little at the dog. How could he find out for sure? Asking him to sit or bark was normal dog stuff.

"Okay, okay. If you understand me, uh..." He glanced around for some visual to help him. "Find something that's green." He paused again. "Wait, are dogs colour blind? Okay, never mind that. Find.. a flower?" There were a few items in the lobby with flowers including a lamp and one of the couches.

'That is a MYTH.' Tony grumbled insistently. 'Less cones than humans in the eye jelly but they're there!' No fovea, though. Reading whatever WALL-E managed to write was gonna be a bitch.

Stalking off, Tony approached one of the floral couches and sat beside it.

And he was possessed with a powerful and terrible urge that he could have tried harder to fight, but he didn't. He turned his head in the direction of an upholstered leg and clenched it between his jaws, shaking his head violently.

"Uh, wait! No no no, don't attack the couch dog." Ned hurried over to him and crouched, but paused because he did not want to get bit by a dog, no matter how tiny. His mind race on how to fix it. "Uh, uh! bacon? You want some bacon?"

As abruptly as Tony began his attack, he stopped. But not wanting to leave a job half done, he nosed a shred of the floral pattern Ned's way and gazed up at him expectantly. 'I'll take what you're selling.'

Ned stared. Did it work? Was he making a deal with a dog?

A few blinks and then Ned stood up. "Okay, yeah. Bacon. Can't be too hard to make. Uh, follow me?" Were dogs allowed in the restaurant? He'd soon fine out, he supposed.

‘Step one—remove bacon from package. Step two—apply heat until it reaches desired crispiness.’ Tony grumbled in the most lecturing tone a dog could muster, running up ahead of Ned. ‘I like mine crisp, but not black, for the record.’

Ned was already thinking about how to successfully cook bacon.When he reached the kitchen and found the package of bacon in the fridge, he looked at it. It did not have instructions on it like Mr. Noodle did. He glanced around the kitchen, then to the dog, then back around the kitchen before his eyes settled on the microwave. He walked over to it and started to tear open the bacon packaging.

'Whoa, WHOA!' Tony jumped a foot off the floor, pushing at Ned's calf with his front paws. 'A microwave?? Is that all I'm worth to you? I'm a dog with standards!'

The jumping caught Ned's attention and he paused. "What?" He stared, trying to figure it out. "Do you not want bacon anymore?" He slowly moved to put it back in the wrapping.

'Oh Good Lord. Here.' Tony sprung back up and caught the box in his teeth, bringing it back down with him and striking a path towards the nearest oven.

Ned was too surprised to react at first, but then figured out, finally, what the dog was doing and followed. "Okay, okay. The oven. In a pan, right?" He saw his mom do this a lot - how hard could it be? He went looking for a pan and then placed it on the oven. It took him a half minute to figure out with dial to use to turn on the oven correctly. Then he turned and extended his hand. "Can I... have it now?"

‘Good boy.’ Tony raised his head for Ned to take the package back. ‘Make some for yourself. Don’t be shy.’

Oh, Ned was going to make some for himself for sure. In fact, the entire package was used. Thankfully there was enough fat on the bacon to keep the bacon from sticking to the pan since Ned had no concept of butter or spray before cooking.

There was a lot of sucking in of breath and soft 'ow's when the grease naturally splattered, but after a while, Ned was pretty sure the bacon was done. He looked at it - Definitely on the crispy side. He got a fork and awkwardly forked each slice out of the pan and the separated the bacon so that there was the exact same amount for both him and the dog.

"Alright... I did it. I hope you like it." He paused. "Do you... want ketchup?" He placed one of the plates on the ground.

'All yours, kid.' Tony gave the bacon a few appraising sniffs, flicking his tongue to give it the taste test. He'd eaten far worse, and his doggy palate wasn't particularly discerning. Granting an appreciative grin Ned's way, he angled his head to attack the meat with his teeth.

Somewhere, the horrible thought of him turning back into a human at that moment occurred to him, but that was quickly quieted by the immediate thoughts of bacon.

"I really hope bacon's okay for dogs. I know grapes aren't... I think. And milk can make you puke. Oh, and chocoate. Chocolate's bad." Ned picked some of this up from other kids at school and the rest from random Youtube videos.

He took a bite of bacon - not bad.

The dog body was the driver, and Tony Stark was a slave to its desires. The bacon made light little crunches between his teeth, and the warmth and fat satisfied him from top to bottom. Before long, the bacon had vanished from the plate and he lapped up any remnant crumbs and grease eagerly. He almost had the decency to feel shame--almost.

Licking his chops, Tony approached Ned's leg and pushed against him repeatedly, less in demand and more in praise. 'Start learning this while you're young! I did you a favor, kid.'

Ned was happy and relieved to apparently have done something right. He smiled widely. "Thanks. I, uh... I like bacon too." He paused. "Do you.. uh... want help finding your owner?"

Tony shook his furry head in a distinctly human-like manner, though it came off a bit wobbly for the altered biology. He sat on his haunches, ears laying flat in preparation for a nice pat. 'You can get behind the ears, though.'

Ned had no idea what the dog wanted. He looked down at the pup and blinked. "I have no more bacon... sorry."

Tony bowed his head to paw at it before regarding Ned expectantly. Now that he had deigned to ask, he was determined to get. 'Your hand here, Tiger!'

The dog appeared to be itchy so Ned bent down to scratch it behind his ears. "This better?" How did people know how to own a dog?!

Tilting his head this way and that until satisfied, Tony padded backwards and managed a wink up at the boy. 'That'll do, Tiger. That'll do.' He got his attention, he got his obedience, he got his bacon, and all was well in Pomeranian-world. Not just that, but he'd had a decent field test with his new form--would all bode as well if he ever underwent a similiar scenario without his consent or his mind intact? At the very least, he had his little contingency waiting for him back in his room.

Then, like the wind, Tony was gone, leaving a freshly licked plate and some shed fur in his wake.

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Jenga - OTA

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Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

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Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime

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Re: Tony & Ned - Playtime