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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.

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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.