[for Duo]

[notawastedlife]

The island had a lot of beautiful sights, most of which Tony was completely blasé about. Verdant jungle, scintillating oceans, grand mountains, gorgeous woman, sure, okay. They were nice, sure, but still just window dressing

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[self_named]

Annagovia had not yet had to maul, disembowel or devour anyone who had visited her family's keep, but that didn't mean she wasn't perfectly willing to. She stepped down from the back of the increasingly solid, charming bungalow house and padded over to the place where the well trod path between house and junkyard disappeared under the first of many piles of odd metal bits, and watched the new arrival with open, accepting interest. She openly accepted that he was either welcome, or dead. Duo followed, since she didn't really leave him much except to keep her pathetically stupid husband or little zwerg in line, and brightened when he saw Stark.

"Hey, man," he called, waving, and absently slid his hand along the top of Anna's skull. She sat.

[notawastedlife]

Tony had been for a moment wondering if he should have brought the suit, and not just the head.

"That is a big- does that even count as a wolf? Has someone been gamma-irradiating animals around here?"

[self_named]

"Uuuh, yeah," Duo said, scratching the top of his head and looking down at Anna, who looked back with a certain amount of patience and a total lack of concern, "she's from a kind of... alternate universe pre-medieval flat-world kinda universe where direwolves never went extinct. So she's like... you know, she's a pony-dog." Her ears ticked forward.

"Wolf," he corrected, then looked back at Tony. "It's all good, she's smarter than I am. C'mon, I'll show you Deathscythe." He kept the Gundam shielded and shadowed at the back of the yard. It was difficult to see unless you know both what you were looking for and what you were looking at, which was impressive for a fifty foot tall mech.

[notawastedlife]

"Huh," Tony said, still frowning at the wolf, before following Duo into the yard. "Good dog," he said, as he passed, and then considered the response.

"...wolf. Good wolf. How big did you say this thing was? Because it seems like it's awfully inconspicuous, you know, for something so..."

[self_named]

"It's designed for stealth. Shields are giving me the most trouble by far, when it comes to maintenance. I don't have any Gundanium, it's the biggest problem. I can do all the repairs I want, but it's just not going to be the same." He stifled a sigh, then started ahead at a jog.

"One sec," he called over his shoulder, before ducking into the undergrowth. It took about fifteen seconds for him to climb into the cockpit and get Deathscythe humming, which drove him nuts- shouldn't be running that loud.

The gundam stood, wings still folded, shaking the trees back as it stepped forward into plain view. Or plainer, at least, once it was moving and meant to be seen, it was difficult not to.

[notawastedlife]

Now, okay, there was something.

Just like he didn't do over-the-top aesthetic appreciation, Tony didn't do impressed. Generally. Generally, he didn't do impressed.

This, though, this was a fifty foot tall beautifully put together machine.

"Wow," he said. "Okay, I'm giving you a wow."

He still didn't do wary, though, and walked right up to the the base and immediately began walking around, inspecting it from ground level.

[self_named]

Duo preened like nobody's business. He was a champion preener. He did this from the cockpit as he flipped the front of it down, and Deathscythe spread its wings almost silently.

Almost.

"I know, right? Yeah," he said, and affectionately ran a hand along one view panel.

"So aside from building houses and fixing stuff, this is sort of... my continuing project."

[notawastedlife]

Tony nodded, still intent on Deathscythe.

"Who made this? You're- were you from the future? Because I'm pretty sure I know everyone who could build something like this in my time, and- well, because it's me, and- yeah. Me."

[self_named]

"I am almost definitely from the future," Duo said, expression turning as close to closed as it usually got, before he flashed Tony a grin. "So don't feel threatened. You should've seen the other ones. Nothing like Deathscythe, but all the Gundams were pretty impressive. Only the seven of them, though. These weren't mass produced machines."

[notawastedlife]

"Good," Tony said, craning his head back to stare up at it. "What were they for?"

Considering how Tony felt about weapons, and powered suits of armor, this was... not an insignificant question.

[self_named]

"Uuum," Duo said, squinting nonchalantly at the sky before looking back down to Tony.

"Freedom fighting?"

[notawastedlife]

"That's a little- freedom from who? Or- of whom, I guess," Tony said, studying the Gundam some more, now with more of an eye of how one got up to the important sections.

[self_named]

"Theeeee... Earth?" Duo replied, and threw down one of the thick black ziplines that were ideal for people not skilled and, more importantly, experienced at climbing up Gundams.

[notawastedlife]

Tony looked at the rope, at the helmet under his arm. That wasn't going to work, so much, so he put it on, leaving the faceplate open, and set about hauling himself up hand over hand.

"Is that the from or the of?" he grunted as he climbed. "Both? I could see it being both."

[self_named]

"Kinda both," Duo said, then lifted his eyebrows juuuuust a smidge.

"Nice headgear."

[notawastedlife]

"Yeah, well, you know what they say, safety first," Tony said, getting his feet under him and pulling the helmet off again. "Jarvis, meet Deathscythe." He set it down, then peered into the cockpit.

"So, did it work? Freedom for all?"