ataraxionlogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

CHARACTERS: Tali'zorah & whomever
LOCATION: One of the passenger-quarters lounges!
WARNINGS: Quarian eating?
SUMMARY: Tali's taking a break from work to have some dinner. Yep.

Tali is currently relaxing on one of the modest couches in the lounge, carefully turning down the edge of her nutrient-paste tube. It isn't as if she can't just eat at her station in Engineering, but coming up to the common area to eat reminds her at least a little of the Normandy, and that's not something she can pass up. Besides, eating over the computers seems rude, even if it's grossly unlikely that she'll actually spill anything.

She's tapping her foot absently while she has her meal, thinking about the implications of having new people arrive here. If -- whatever brought them here -- is trying to repopulate the ship, why would people have left this jump as well as arrived? Had someone judged the original arrivals unacceptable? The idea made her uncomfortable. Quarians weren't exactly well-liked in her universe -- it was almost refreshing to see that people here didn't have the same biases past thinking that she looked a little strange.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I--"

He doesn't know.

He doens't know how to answer and that will reveal his weakness! He's got to come up with something that'll -- distract her from such a stupid question that he doesn't know how to answer!

"-- think you're --"

What is he supposed to say? Nobody ever-- acted like this at home. But there was no one like Tali at home, who knew what it was like to be alone among humans. But she had a home to go back to, her Migrant Fleet, her people.

He--

--was working on finding out more about that. If there was something, perhaps, to be found.

"--overstating."

Yes. That sounds very smart. Yes. Overstating. Overstating what? Think fast, bighead.

"I'm dealing just fine!"

There. He didn't answer anything about friends because there's no good answer and he deflected the subject of Roxanne. Good job, Megamind. You showed her.

Right?

Unfortunately for Megamind, Tali is totally going to call him on his shenanigans. She shakes her head, visor tilting side to side.

"Nothing you just said actually made any sense -- aside from the last bit, which I just don't think is true. You know that you can talk to me, right? I'm not going to ... judge you."

Or whatever it was he was worried about. She decides to go out on a limb here, tapping a fingertip against her arm.

"It's not like I haven't had feelings for humans before, you know. Race is less important than people think when it comes to ... romance."

Humans blush when flustered, shamed, all that blood suffuse their face. Megamind is apparently no different; he just turns a delightful shade of lavender from ear to ear, both cheeks and nose, as he backs up another two steps.

"That's not it at all!" he blurts, so unhappy in this situation he doesn't know how to control. "I don't have friends! And I certainly don't have-- relationships! Like that." He straightens, puffing up his skinny chest. "And I don't need your help!"

Desperate for his pride, he looks at her for one more tense moment before bolts for the back of the lair, reaches for a hatch plate handle in the ceilng, and hauls himself up into the crawlspaces.

Most adult reaction to help ever.

Edited 2012-01-23 05:16 (UTC)

Blood rushing to the surface of the skin when you're embarrassed seems to be a near-universal trait for species with circulatory systems similar to humans. She doesn't stop Megamind from retreating up into the crawlspace, but she also doesn't leave the vicinity of the lair.

Instead, she starts taking a look at all of the things that he's got going in the lair: the breaking and entering tools that he's working on (for Kasumi, based on their earlier conversation) for one. Nobody who's clueless about the art of thieving would be able to make tools like this -- so that helps explain why he doesn't like feeling caged up.

Huh.

No, really, she's not going anywhere. She'll just wait until he's done hiding.

There's a lot of clues about the lair -- his boxes of parts and the starmaps, the general scavenging he does...

Eventually, he returns, though, before she can find where he's hidden his costume-- the hatch opens-- and for a moment, he pokes his head out-- immediately scowling.

"Why are you still here? Hey-- don't get into those! Those aren't for you! They're for Miss Goto!"

"Even if these are thieving tools, Kasumi's still likely to at least mention to me that she had them made." They had a -- good team dynamic, or at least she liked to think so. The other woman had certainly been a little more open with them as time had gone on.

Then, because she figures stroking his ego is probably a good way to go, "They look good so far. Well-made, I'm sure she'll be pleased."

She pauses, crossing her arms back over her chest. "And I'm here because I wanted to at least let you know in person that even if you didn't have friends at home, you can count me as one here."

"...you know her?" Crap. Crap crap crap. It was like finding out that the girl you had the super-secret crush on had a nosy older half-sister that looked nothing like her.

Dropping out of the crawlspace hatch, he closed it up a moment later and straightened up, still huffy over her lingering in his lair.

"Why?" he asked. "You don't -- know me. I could be the Boston Strangler for all you know." And he was a villain, that much was true. Just not that kind of villain. He had class! Standards. Style.

"Of course. We've both worked with Shepard for some time now trying to stop the Reapers in our world. But that's -- sort of a moot point here." Regardless, they were friends who totally talked about men with each other.

She waved a hand toward the tools on the bench. "These are the first indications I've seen that you're actually doing anything that's vaguely illegal," she said with a shrug, "And you should be able to figure out that me being friends with Kasumi means I understand some things need to be done unconventionally." A pause. "Besides, you've yet to be -- particularly evil."

Little did he realize that he qualified as a 'man' in this instance, really. He's never done so before.

"A favor for favor. She brought me parts. I work with them. It's in my best interest that she's equipped to bring me more parts as I work," he said, still attempting to puff himself up, like it'd somehow defend him from Tali's interest. "Dr. Foster is getting other parts, useful to everyone parts, so she can get more more knowledge for us!"

He's trying to be careful, couch the phrases for innocence, even if she's 'on' to him. Sort of. She hasn't grasped just how wrong she is about how 'evil' he can be-- he's totally evil, ready to mutiny evil-- but it's not the time to reveal that.

As long as he isn't on the side of 'kill everyone and pilot the ship solo' mutiny, she's pretty sure she's still got a good bead on just how evil he is.

She nods. "Well, I'm glad to hear that you're also helping people whose interests are more public than private. Dr. Foster seems to know what she's on about when it comes to astrophysics, at least." Yes, Megamind is certainly one of the people she's going to have to bring up with Kasumi.

Killing is just so -- dirty and crass. And mostly challengeless, let's face it. Just about anybody can die if you do the right stuff. So -- no, unless you're Metro Man you can avoid murderous impulse.

"I don't need your approval," he points out, eyes narrowing. "I'm just explaining so you'll stop being nosy!"

"If it's happening in the department I work in -- regardless if it's up here in your clubhouse or not -- I'm not being nosy, I'm checking up on coworkers."

She waves a hand off to the side. "Besides, friends know what other friends are up to."

Do they? Megamind looks plainly confused as if he honestly had no idea if what Tali was saying was true. But neither could he say he didn't have any friends-- that would be admitting weakness and that he was unlikable, stranger-- or that he didn't need friends, because that would reveal that he was a villain. Only villains didn't have friends. Villains had Minions, maybe, but no friends. Only Goody Two-Shoes had friends.

"My clubhouse!" That left him sputtering. "No! This is my space! You're-- you're not the boss of me!"

For someone who is, by all appearances, over thirty, he acts like a toddler when pressed a lot of the time.

Yes, she's beginning to figure that part out for herself. Tali doesn't do anything but lean back against one of her hips a little, unable to express her neutrality over this statement any other visible way. She does snort, though.

"My apologies. Your space. And -- no, I'm not. I haven't pretended to be, I'm just -- worried about you!" And his not having friends, okay? That's kind of sad.

And lonely.

Megamind is rather sad and lonely, but he's the sad and lonely that cannot admit to it for fear of being seen as weak. So he grabs at his things and covers his workspace again.

"I don't need you to worry! You're not Minion, that's not your job! That's why I have Minion!" He will look after you, his mother had said. But he's not here now. Megamind really needs him here now, but--

Well, sometimes the Rolling Stones were wrong. Sometimes you didn't get what you want-- sometimes you didn't even get what you need.

Tali has more than a small inkling about how he actually feels, especially with how he's acting at the moment -- and that's the reason that she doesn't actually protest to his statement, and instead just moves forward to rest a hand on his shoulder briefly.

"Just keep in mind you can talk to me about things, all right? I'm not going to tell the world about it." There was a difference between telling someone Megamind's name and revealing his deep personal secrets.

The sound that wells up from that skinny chest is one of pure frustration, of not knowing how to deal with this. Prison was one thing. They kept him locked up, away, nobody expected him to be anything but a villain. Now there are all of these options and social expectations! It's enough to drive a shut-in supervillain with little social grace up the wall with frustration and back down again.

"No, I can't! Quit telling me I can do all these 'normal' things that other people do!" he snarled. "I'm not normal! I'm Megamind!"

Well, Megamind, it's fortunate for you that Tali has come from a family that -- although fragmented in some ways, at least included an 'aunt' who was loving enough to give the vaguest context in which hugs are a good idea.

She just shakes her head, hood swaying side to side with her helmet, and pushes forward from the hand on her shoulder to give him what amounts to a light hug. No words, because she's still a little too awkward with those.

There is a moment of pure, awkward confusion. It's -- it's so strange. It's intimate. It's-- rather scary. He freezes still; makes no move, has no idea where to put his hands or what to do -- bringing them up to-- just look ato them briefly over her shoulder with a total lack of comprehension.

He has never been hugged before. Nobody ever took his short, child self into his arms and told him that he was loved, nobody comforted him, and certainly, nobody held him.

So she finds Megamind at a loss for words and action, so quiet and confused.

What if he supposed to do!? This isn't the game! Nobody cares about the supervillain, or he -- he wouldn't be a supervillain!

If he'd been more actively hostile with his body instead of with his words, she wouldn't have risked the hug. She'd never have risked such a thing with Jack, for fear of being thrown into the wall or literally torn to shreds with a Mass Effect field, for example.

She's still glad when it doesn't backfire, though. She doesn't hold it for too long in case he gets the wrong idea, drawing back with her helmet canted to the side.

"There, see? Something normal and you didn't burst into flames or explode." She leans back with her arms crossed again. "Really, Megamind, if you need to talk or anything -- just ping my comm."

If Megamind knew he was compared to Jack -- or knew what that meant -- he would have been gravely insulted.

Still, he's-- released a moment later, hands up, like he might've--been trying to figure out should I hug back what do I do by the time she left him, and just looks at her as if she'd abruptly burst a second head from her shoulder or something.

He cocks his head, still trying to connect the dots A to Hug, and failing. The only logical answer is that she actually cares and that can't be true. Does that mean it was a trick? If so, it was quite cruel.

"..but why?"

She shrugs her shoulders. It's an easy, practiced motion.

"Because I know what it's like to be around a bunch of strangers that you don't know and wondering if you can or can't trust them." It had been like that on the Normandy at first, that first mission with Shepard and the rest of the crew also staring at her like she'd grown a second head.

"And even though I'm sure we've got plenty of differences, we've also got a lot in common."

"I don't know that we do," Megamind said, wary. "You have a people waiting."

He--

--He doesn't know.

He hopes. This place, being out in space--it gives him hope. Oh, the news has been bleak, the information that Kasumi brought him saddening, but-- really, humans were a dim race. Who knew if they really had the big picture?

"That might be true, but I also have a crew -- and those people are ones I can trust that I wasn't raised with. Sometimes we have to -- improvise."

She shakes her head. "Anyway. I should probably be getting back, I just wanted to make sure you were doing all right."

"Improvisation is a talent of mine," Megamind replied, stepping backward, getting his space back, perpetually wary and bewildered now. "But people are not."

He tried. He really did. But nobody cared. He was a freak, and freaks don't get anywhere.

Lapsing into silence, Megamind lets Tali go her own way, giving her space in case anymore weird hugging urges took her. She could go. He'd watch her leave, and ...try and figure things out on his own.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only