2.24 - Voice + Spam

[breakingmyheart]

[Private to Chromie]

I need to take a few days off work so I can take care of some friends.

...and I know this wouldn't be the first time. I'm sorry about that.

[Private to Nathan]

So...I know we didn't really get a chance to talk. [Beyond things like 'please move while Creed is immobile' and 'are you seriously not aware that you're bleeding'.]

How are you doing?

[Spam for Megamind]

[Toshiko is, at least, in the hinterlands of 'okay'. She's seen worse than she saw at port and on the Barge - a career at Torchwood's proven useful, in that completely horrible sense - and she suspects that a life in Gotham had the same effect on Edward but she knows that Megamind isn't handling it well. Which she can understand. And it's why she's choosing to stick around.

Right now she's making lunch. Cheese on toast, her own comfort food on the rare occasions that she's bothered with cooking for herself. Insofar as you can call 'bread + cheese + heat source' cooking. Megamind's huddled up with Angus near his idea wall and she knows she's going to join them rather than try to talk him into joining her at the table.

She glances over her shoulder to call over to him.]

Do you want something to drink, Megamind?

Comments

[megamind]

[ He turns his head to kiss her temple. He loves her; it was easy to fall back into those feelings though he rather sometimes wishes it could have been a bit more of a struggle. ]

Good. I like having a plan.

[breakingmyheart]

[Toshiko smiles faintly and tilts her head.]

Mm. They do make life easier.

[When they pan out, anyway.]

[megamind]

Planning is sort of my bread and butter. Scheming too. Edward as well.

[ So you're in for a lot of it, Tosh. But oh, look, tilted faces. He dots her cheek with a kiss, because he can. ]

[breakingmyheart]

What, and you think I don't like having my eventualities covered? This is hardly our first date, Megamind.

[Hell, she was the only one at Torchwood who ever seemed to favour a more solid approach than throwing random crap at the wall to see what stuck.]

[megamind]

Well, I suppose that we'll be able to avoid everything from accidental children to scheduling over anniversaries, at this rate. [ A collection of planners, that's what they are. ]

[breakingmyheart]

[She blushes faintly as she reaches for her Coke.]

Yes, well. If there's one thing I think I can just about manage to avoid, it's getting knocked up.

[megamind]

Well, you only have to worry about one of us being a father, at least. Kids would be nice, though. At least, for a while.

That's supposed to be Deal Number 2.

[ He eyes the ideas above their head, the papers and bits. ]

[breakingmyheart]

[She follows his gaze up, although she already knows what's there.]

It's worth hanging around for. You'd be a good dad.

[And already is, to some extent, but adopting a bratty mob kid isn't quite the same and she knows he'll know what she's getting at.]

[megamind]

Deal one, planet. Deal two, kids. Deal three, interdimensional travel outside the barge.

Got a long way to go, don't we?

[ He nestles in closer, tucking an arm around her now, hand settling on her opposite hip. ]

[breakingmyheart]

[She does much the same, huddling in tight with him. God, she missed this: the simple ease of it, the quiet intimacy.]

I don't think either of us would know what an easy life looked like if it punched us in the face.

We'll manage.

[megamind]

Oh, I know. I know we will.

[ Angus happily snuggled into the pile, draping himself across two laps and trying to makie himself part of the cuddle pile more firmly. ]

Thanks, though. For-- the great dad thing.

[breakingmyheart]

[Toshiko has to admit it took her a while to adjust to Angus - she wasn't much of a dog person previously - but it's fine now, and when he decides she and Megamind are equally comfy she's happy to scratch behind his ears.]

No need to thank me for that, Megamind. But still. You're welcome.

[megamind]

[ Angus loves who Megamind loves -- and loves as unreservedly once he knows who Megamind has claimed. Pack is pack; you don't have to be a werewolf to understand family. ]

[ The alien pats the dog's side, prompting a nubbin wiggle. ]

S'okay. For now this is my family. I'd co-op the line from Lilo and Stitch but there's only so many blue aliens we can allow in here, okay?

[breakingmyheart]

[And this just gets a 'what' look from Toshiko because she has literally no idea what you're talking about, Megamind. How do pop culture.]

[megamind]

...alright, next movie night: Lilo and Stitch.

[breakingmyheart]

[She chuckles.]

Well, alright. Twist my arm.

[There's worse things than Disney to spend an evening on. Lilo & Stitch was Disney, right?]

[megamind]

[ Totally Disney. ]

Already twisted.

You'll actually come up, right? Edward won't. He's a party-pooper. People might see us together and realize we're an item, blah blah blah...

Not that half the ship doesn't know already.

[breakingmyheart]

Yes, I'll actually come. I don't think anything that might come out of it is going to be worse than Trial By Chris D'Amico was.

[megamind]

Yeah. Uh. Sorry about him. Still a kid, all that.

[ Chris, no. ]

[ For all the things you are about to do, just: Chris, no. ]

[breakingmyheart]

[She laughs it off.]

Oh, it wasn't that bad. Just not what I'd been expecting that early in the morning. [And then a thoughtful look. That conversation had sort of ended with Megamind kicking Chris out of his cabin.] Have you two smoothed things over?

[megamind]

Mmmmmnope. Though, we talked a bit after he graduated, and... well, Dean threw his party and all that, and...

[ Megamind's just sort of sat in the dark and had a hard time eating and sleeping. Post-murder-of-your-loved-ones-and-colleagues is a hell of a thing. ]

He's not mad, I don't think. But he's got a lot going on right now that I'm not really a part of.

[breakingmyheart]

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I know how much you care about him, but...you need to be able to take a step back now and then. Look after yourself. God knows that you need to be your own top priority right now.

[megamind]

I know. I'm just--[ captain responsibility ] I guess I just need some time. Feel like -- like this shouldn't be this big of a deal. I didn't die. I just... cleaned up after it.

[breakingmyheart]

[She's quiet for a moment.]

About six months after I started at Torchwood, the team was investigating a series of child disappearances around Cardiff. They had started after a major burst of Rift activity, so...we had reason to believe the two were connected.

We tried to trace them, but our big break was - luck, really. We had nothing to go on until I tripped over some complaints to the council, some people working near a condemned warehouse thought there was someone running an unlicensed abattoir out of there. The team went to check it out, and - [She swallows dryly.] - and they were right. There were the remains of a crashed ship, and the crew were - were kidnapping children, and butchering them, and - and eating them.

[She takes a breath.]

I wasn't there. I was just working tech at the time. One of them - I think Suzie, was wearing a camera so I could keep an eye on them from the Hub. No mic. I couldn't - smell the blood, or hear the two little girls they were keeping in an animal crate. I was as far removed as I could possibly have been without just reading the report afterwards, but for weeks, I...I couldn't sleep. I couldn't even go near that part of town. I would be working, doing something completely different, and...the monitor would just turn red. I just felt...numb.

[She swallows hard, shakes her head.]

Megamind, what you're going through is post-traumatic stress. Just because other people were objectively 'worse off' than you doesn't mean you're not allowed to be affected by what happened.

[megamind]

[ oh god eating little kids!! ]

[ not okay!! ]

[ Megamind just makes an expression best called 'aghast', mouth open and curving downward, eyes wide. Ugh, God! Don't eat kids! Well, new ideas to keep him up at night. ]

[ But he gets it. He does. Logically. He rubs at his face, losing his horror at kiddie meals or at least scrubbing it away. ]

It just seems strangely petty. I know that's-- stupid, but it does. I just-- can't not see her all over the engine room. Or him, on deck. Creed's this fascinating new animal-person.

Sure glad I'm not his warden. I think this is practically payback for poor Iris, sometimes. Deadpool was easy-mode, compared to this. But I feel bad for her all the same.