[video]

[tryingtoholdback]

[The video probably came on when Dee accidentally dropped his device on the ground, accidentally kicking it under the bed, and just couldn't be assed to exert the effort to pick it up. He can't be assed to do much of anything. After spending what seemed like forever in the medbay, he's finally released and allowed to wander back to his room. He makes it through the threshhold but doing much of anything else is far too much effort. Making it to the bed is too much effort, even. And so he finds himself lying down on the ground, right where he's standing, not exactly collapsing but not far from it. He puts his head in his hands and stays like that for a few long moments] God damn it, where are you...?

[He sighs, turning his head to the side and giving in to the fact that he really doesn't think he'll be getting up again that night, when he notices the device flashing at him from across the room, which means it's recording. He groans and squeezes his eyes shut] Oh, fuck me.

Comments

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

[He feels like he's been there - too tired to move, not tired enough to collapse completely. Which is why he casually responds.]

Rough day, huh?

[tryingtoholdback]

[Dee shrugs, as much as he can in the position he's in] Rough day, rough week. Every moment since I showed up on this ship has been a piece of crap in some way or another.

[He sighs, shifting to look at the camera again] At least I'm still alive and kicking, I guess. Small miracles, man, y'know?

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Yeah, preaching to the choir here. [It's been pretty shitty all around.]

Yeah, small miracles. I know how it feels to just be lucky you made it through the day.

What's your name? [He doesn't think he's seen them around...]

[tryingtoholdback]

I mean. Don't get me wrong, I was a cop. A detective. Life wasn't exactly a piece of cake back home either, but. [It wasn't this]

I'm Dee. Dee Laytner. What about you? [Nope, not getting up from the ground anytime soon]

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

It's not any easier when you're used to the conditions, trust me on that one. Though it's good we have a cop around.

[It's okay, man, he sleeps in Engineering most of the time, he can't judge.]

Isaac Clarke. I'm kind of... I won't say 'head engineer', but I'm the guy down here most, more often than not.

[tryingtoholdback]

Yeah. Too bad the streets of New York City aren't anywhere even close to preparing me for this shit.

So you work in engineering. That mean you understand the technology of this thing then?

[audio]

[testgasm]

If you're looking for something, you should just ask.

[video forever!]

[tryingtoholdback]

I'm looking for someone. Who's not here, as far as I'm aware.

[perma-voice]

[testgasm]

Okay, someone. Who is it?

[tryingtoholdback]

Look, it's my partner, okay?

[testgasm]

No need to get tetchy. Maybe if you gave a name and weren't so rude, people would help you out.

[tryingtoholdback]

[SIGH]

Look, sorry. It's Ryo. Or Randy, I guess. Randy MacLean. He's not here, though. Not on the ship. If he were I would have found him by now.

[testgasm]

I dunno. The ship is pretty huge.

[tryingtoholdback]

I would know if he's here. Trust me, he's not here. Never was.

[testgasm]

He might show up! That tends to happen, sometimes.

[megamind]

Ooh, is this our own private cop drama channel? I love cop dramas. [so much sarcasm]

[tryingtoholdback]

[Oh, it's you again. Sigh, Megamind. SIGH]

God, man, are you always this much of a dick?

[megamind]

[He stops. He thinks. He actually sits and thinks on this for a time, because it does bear thinking about. If's not bad, how does... one go about being good? Without royally cocking it up, anyway?]

I've-- never been-- anything else. Allowed to be-- anything else. I've always been bad.

[This is probably the most honest Megamind has to give, and he's giving it to Dee.]

[tryingtoholdback]

You... [Whoa, that was not the answer he was expecting. He does something of a mental double-take, and actually turns his attention to think of Megamind as a real guy and not just this troll who shows up and tries to make his life hard]

What do you mean, 'allowed to be'? [Asked honestly - he's curious to know now]

[megamind]

[Megamind's hands fluttered in a brief nervousness as he realized he'd-- actually have to follow things through. He didn't expect Dee to actually listen. Dee was a cop. Cops were notorious for Not Listening. Hell, nobody listened to him except Roxanne.]

This just got very complicated, didn't it?

[Well, he's committed. So he squares his shoulders and tries to bull through it with showmanship.]

Not allowed. I mean, I tried at first. But I was-- never very good at it. Nobody really-- wanted me to be. So-- [he shrugs his narrow shoulders] I stopped trying and decided to be the best bad I could be! I mean, if I wasn't meant to be bad, I'd be able to be good, right? But I'm not.

So now I'm a supervillain! And my nemesis back home is a superhero, and we're good and bad all over the place. That's what I do. That's my fate, back home. Destiny! Best to embrace those things wholeheartedly, I think, than fight it and make one's life a bigger muck-up than it already is...

And here we are. Now I have to be good, since ... [Well, there's no way to endure being a bad screw up and a good screw up on this ship. And even his lame goodness seems to be better than his perfectly cromulent badness.] Well, bad hasn't gotten us off the murdership. So maybe a terrible goodness is going to have be what I've got.

[tryingtoholdback]

[Okay, superheroes and supervillains, Dee's trying to take all of this in and keep a level head about it, because there are different worlds and it's entirely possible that this guy is from somewhere where this kind of stuff is actually real.]

[And so he shrugs in response to the end of his statement] Hey, man. Terrible or not, if we all work together on this thing, it'll be a whole lot more pleasant for everyone involved than if we're all teamed up against each other. I mean. Everyone's brand of goodness is their own, y'know? That's pretty shitty, that people didn't give you a chance to begin with.

[megamind]

[He's a big headed blue alien, Dee. Is it really such a stretch that he's a supervillain?]

I've noticed your species is, ah-- less than inclined to work with what is different from themselves.

[And it's only echoing itself on the ship. Erik's a great example of that.]

voice;

[coffeeking]

Waiting for someone?

[video forever!]

[tryingtoholdback]

Yeah. My partner. And I've never really been that good at it. Waiting, I mean.