02 | Stockpile

[assumed]

CHARACTERS: "Syg" (assumed) and Megamind (megamind)
LOCATION: Engineering
WARNINGS: None, unless depictions of eating metal and maybe talk of prison trigger you.
SUMMARY: There is a woman in engineering eating up the scrap.
NOTES: None.



It had finally been given a sort of path.

Syg's introduction to the network may not have brought many results, but reaching out to someone like her had. This 'tough' appearance had brought to Alias a 'crew', a thing supposedly worth companionship and protection. They weren't what was considered 'moral', but they were, it decided, an alliance worth having. Interesting. Libby... she had liked the show of a manipulation of metal. She thought it was rad. She would tell her crew about it.

And if Alias was expected to perform for Syg, it had to have the materials to be ready for it.

In engineering, it had recalled a scrap heap. So here Syg was, much like a buzzard or the hyena for which Alias modeled her, picking at the metal corpses of things that no longer served any purpose. Her left hand was simple and pale, black nails that tentatively traced the old skeletons to read what made them up. The right hand was a blackened claw of a thing, wicked sharp edges that sawed into the scrap and cut off hunks like one would when enjoying something like a steak. It made a scraping sound, something awful that made Alias shake. So it had blocked off its hearing and simply scanned the area from time to time.

Each bite-sized morsel it made was soon deposited upon the girl's tongue blackened tongue and mouth, rolled around only for curiosity of taste before her throat bobbed and it was gone.

Comments

[megamind]

It had been the noise that got his attention; echoing down the vents as he worked in wiring, Megamind had to go find it. It took time, but here, among the pieces and the scrap, not far from his lair -- since, well, he'd made a fair chunk of that scrap metal from wrestling up plates from the walls, and working with them to make other thing s-- he found it easily.

In the din, he dropped from the catwalks and simply stood there, bewildered and amazed, so there he'd be when Syg scanned again, head tilted and his mouth slightly agape. Seriously, this is topping his 'weirdest thing I've seen on the ship so far' list, if only because he was too sick to go into maze and see the ex-human meatmonsters.

[assumed]

There was the one called Isaac, the monster-hunting man, and then there was Megamind, from what Alias understood from the communicators, in engineering. Either way, Alias wasn't concerned about being caught. Syg had nothing to hide; she looks mostly human and she has a crew. She can be out now. She's beautiful, a freak worth liking.

But still, when her blue eyes settle on Megamind, there's a momentary pause, inward and outward.

Then, her clawed fingers are lifting, wiggling at the other in both a greeting and passive threat. There's a wink and, simultaneously, her chrome-coated lips cut him a sharp smirk. How's it going? You got a problem?

Alias reforms the inner ear, flips on the switch that brings in noise slowly and adjusts it to the startling clarity with which its accustomed.

[megamind]

Megamind stood there. The finger wiggle, and it's implied thread was not lost-- and he lifted his hand, did a wiggle of his own-- and twisted his watch face, letting the illusion of his unarmed state fade, very briefly, to flash the DE-Gun that was never off his hip these days. Another twist and it faded from view.

He sees your claws, little girl, and he raises you a mysterious, high tech firearm. Now that they both know they're both armed, they can be polite and pleasant and nobody will think that they have the upper hand, right? Of course. An armed society is a polite society.

"So, uh, guess you've got some really interesting dietary needs there," he said. "I'm a vegetarian so I totally get that. I'm Megamind, one of the engineers. And you're in engineering, eating our materials."

[assumed]

A gun. That did make Alias wary, made it begin to spin what it could possibly be made of, what it could fire. Could a metal coating protect it if it were? It didn't want to die, as much as a brave face it would try to place. Some of that panic and calculation gave way for the curiosity toward the watch. It had hidden the weapon from view - intriguing. What else could it hide? How did it work?

Alias didn't want to fight. It also hadn't put Megamind into the profile to attack without reason. Stancing, then, posturing. Animal of them. Alright, Megamind: yours is bigger.

Syg licks her lips.

"Girl's gotta eat," Comes an echoing voice from within. If a pipe organ could form words... "Wanna watch some more?"

[megamind]

Stancing and posturing over with, Megamind approaches with healthy caution but no real fear.

"Well, I usually like apples or, you know, a tasty ripe mango. Spinach salad with walnuts and a nice vinaigrette. Curry! Very spicy. Not, uh. Raw metals," he says, reaching down to sweep some filings onto his fingers. Yup, that was metal alright.

"I don't believe I caught your name?" he says, brushing them off on his pant leg.

[assumed]

"Didn't give it," Duh. But it's realized that this is a bid for an introduction, and perhaps Megamind has noticed her voice seems less mechanical than before. The metals lining the esophagus are being reabsorbed rapidly and, sucking in her lips, as if to catch the lingering taste there, they blossom anew a normal, human pink.

"Syg. And I can eat anything you can. I just need a little... extra, from time to time." Her claw ticks against the jagged edges of the half-eaten metal. "Gotta keep my figure."

[megamind]

"You can probably eat more, actually, if you can munch up steel. My diet's a bit limited," Megamind replied, as he looked at her. This was pretty surreal, but he was turning quickly more scientific in his interest then wary. "How do you process it? Is that how you make your claws? You have to have raw material to use? Fascinating!"

And keep your figure, whatever. "Syg. Haven't met you before, but--" She's spoken to Libby, a bit, from what he's seen-- and he's taken the little bird under his blue wing to educate her. "We've a mutual friend, I think."

[assumed]

Partially unbidden, Syg began to grin. "I dunno. How the fuck are you blue? That's just how it is. I tell it to happen and it does - then I get the hankerin' for something a little less soft. Bein' able to eat a can of beer's a lot more impressive than crushin' it on your forehead, ain't it? And people think twice about fuckin' with ya, too, though it's sorta the first time I've let anyone see it go this far."

She sort of has you at a disadvantage, Megamind, at least insofar as she's a little more acquainted with you than she's saying. She can guess the friend you're talking about. It doesn't take a genius to calculate that mechanical minds would talk to others of a similar vein. And Syg's only got one person so far that can be called a 'friend'. "Libby, I'm guessin'." The claws flex, begin to shrink into something that looks a lot closer to human fingers, "You in with the rest of us, then?"

[megamind]

"Usually there's a catalyst. Psycho Delic has a chemical accident, Hot Flash took drugs that were experimental. Cured her cancer, but left her setting things on fire," Megamind replied, as he sat down, long legs folding under him. "And I'm obviously not human and thus, smarter than everybody else on the ship!"

And so modest, too.

Libby's name gets him to nod, bt the ...rest of us? "I didn't know there was an us to begin with. Libby surrounding herself with new friends, hmm? Smart girl. No, I guess I'm not."

His lips twist, a brief flash of bitterness in the baring of white teeth, before it passes. Good enough to be used for what he knows, but still a mushroom: kept in the dark and fed crap regularly enough. Oh well; he knows there's one person he can count on here, and that's... going to have to be enough.

"It's a smart thing to do, chose the right friends. Keep safe in numbers." Not that it saved Steph, Tim and Jason in the science labs.... But oh well.

[assumed]

"Nah. Just plain ol' borin' born this way. And I don't think that's really how it works, but your head is massive, man, there's gotta be somethin' worthwhile in there."

She uses the metallic hand to grab hold of the thing she was bothering and rips off a thin sheet of metal. That done, she looks over the heap nearby and settles to sitting on one of the less sharp things there.

"I ain't really met the rest of 'em yet, but me and Libby are chill," Her other hand was beginning to darken grey now, flecks of metal beginning to pock her skin starting up from her fingernails. She was twisting the strip of metal in her hands musingly, peering over at the other thoughtfully. "So I guess we'll see. Takes more than a month to decide if someone's the right friend, but Libby seems alright. How'd you meet her?"

[megamind]

He snorts once, and shrugs; she can disagree if genius if she likes, doesn't make her right! (...well, she is right, but who can argue with that propped up ego?)

"She wanted to learn. I'm willing to teach," he says simply picking up one of the scraps to dance over his knuckles; he had long nimble fingers. Good for a con man -- if he ever had the patience enough for a proper con. He hasn't, in a while. Not flashy enough. Not amazing enough. "You?"

[assumed]

The word 'genius' is relative - this is what Alias knows. Having no comparison of another of Megamind's species, it couldn't call him a genius. He was smart, certainly, and it wouldn't deny that. Smarter than a human? It depended. It hadn't seen that much yet. It knew he was good with machines, which made him useful. He was different, which made him intriguing as an outlier.

"She was showin' off. I was curious," Syg was slowly working the metal apart, curling the ends and slowly tearing as if the sheet were simply made of a thick paper. Her fingers were not so nimble when they were made of iron, but they were movable. Her studying the other over the stuff was meant to be discrete, something sly and wary. Alias missed Jared, who was more suited for openly staring and more forgivable besides, "Heard some people here have got a few powers, but fuck if I really believe these normals just accept 'em. There's that crew of 'mutants', or whatever, but they're already a knit bunch. Fuck that. They're a little too up on being behaved, too."

[megamind]

"Oh, you mean Erik and his lot?" Megamind had-- well, not an in with Erik, but they at least knew each other. Megamind didn't much care for the man's overtly violent manner, and Erik... well, he didn't seem to think much of Megamind in turn. The alien was used to that. "Yes, they're-- a colorful bunch. Not exactly my speed."

But it was well known that Megamind was on the outside, out of favor, and generally disliked. Kirk showed him kindness and Spock knew how to get him to work and that seemed to be enough so far. Beyond that, he was barely tolerated, though real enmity has faded in the face of real threats.

He'd become the thing he most feared, most loathed: a joke. So he hid in the guts of the ship, and lapsed back into old habits; making things nobody knew or cared about, giving vent to his creative urges, and using Roxanne to stay somewhat stable.

"So you'll form your own, then? Like the ship needs more factions," he says. "When you all start sporting colors and prison ink, I'll really start to worry."

[assumed]

"Whoever, whatever. They all came from the same place, seems like. Not somethin' you go into blind."

She laughs, a bark of a thing, and finally tears free a chunk of scrap, which she drops between her thighs. She'll eat that later.

"I made it three years without that paperclip and lighter shit, and this ain't prison. Think I'll be alright, at least. It ain't bad to have someone else at your back, even if you can look out for yourself. 'least, that's what I figure."

[megamind]

"It's enough of a prison," Megamind replies, dry and harsh. He'd been to prison, and knew very well what it could be like. "Functionally, anyway. We are out of control of our own freedom, we face violence from within and without, and someone else controls what we do and who we see. We just happen to have a very large yard, and working in the prison 'store' keeps everybody alive, instead of just somebody in cigarettes."

He shrugged his shoulders once, and then says, "A crew never hurts. You just have to be sure you can trust them and if they're useful int he long run. If they're not-- you need an exit strategy... and in this case, it can't be a shank. Libby may not remain important to you, but she might to others, over all."

In short, it's a friendly suggestion: Don't hurt the little bird. Megamind isn't invested enough to really care, but he's always held himself to a higher standard when it came to crime and thugs. Don't hurt anyone if you can avoid it. Hurting and murdering is Easy Mode, for amateurs and thugs.