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]

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.

[breakingmyheart]

...I think she'll manage. I know Iris can't stand the sight of me, and I've got a couple of Time Lords I'd like to have a long talk with, but...someone like Victor Creed needs the sort of thinker she is.

[megamind]

I think Iris isn't as concerned with you anymore.

[ He kissed her cheek, and then began to wiggle a bit to get up, nudging Angus to get him off their lap. The dog obliges, and Megamind is up a moment later to pad over to the workbench, moving things until he finds the box, and then comes back. ]

I know you don't have a lassiebot, but Edward did, and I thought it wise to invest in them. So-- here. [ He unboxed them; hers a small turtle, with a lacquered shell and green copper limbs; his a burnished copper octopus set with bright blue jewels. ] I thought the turtle appropriate. You don't come out of your shell for just anybody, after all.

[breakingmyheart]

[She accepts it when he offers, turning it over in her hands. It really is a beautiful object, and - well, it doesn't surprise her that Iris' anger has faded to apathy because she suspects that's just how Iris is about everything in time, but she is a little surprised that she'd do this for her.

But no, realistically, she did it for Megamind.]

I - I didn't realise you were asking for one for me too.

[megamind]

Well, that's because it's a gift. If you knew about it, it wouldn't be.

[ He settles there, and smiles slightly-- Angus is quit to curl up at his hip, getting patted gently for his trouble. ]

Once Edward comes down, we'll get them all connected and then we'll know if we need help.

Maybe then we can avoid things like-- [ he waved one hand ] earlier.

[breakingmyheart]

[Toshiko's got some reservations. If someone really wants to kill you, they're going to do it regardless, and she wonders if the lassiebots really have a purpose beyond giving one's nearest and dearest an inkling of where to bring the mop and bucket afterwards.

But Megamind went to the trouble. And if it makes him feel safer, then - then that's fine, and she nods.]

Hopefully.

[megamind]

[ He's pragmatic. Or tries to be, sometimes. ]

Maybe we can wire them to trigger a brainbot response.

[ He really should have asked for a couple to take apart and experiment with, but that seemed.... rude. He wouldn't do that to the brainbots himself! ]