Issue #62 - Video

[mistconduct]

[In the mess hall is Chris, who's somehow procured a gigantic poster board stretching a good twelve feet across.

On the board is pinned a photo of everyone on the Barge. Marker in hand, Chris begins going through the photos one by one - every time he gets to someone he knows is changed, he scribbles a black goatee on their face. Yes, even the women. Especially the women.

He pauses when he hits Tig Traeger.

And then takes out a small bottle of White-Out and begins to carefully erase his goatee]






[OOC: A thousand thank-yous to Fire for the amazing art!]

Comments

[walkingmeltdown]

[Honestly he doesn't even particularly have a good reason to be in here today. He's already had breakfast, he's in too foul a mood to have much of an appetite. He would much rather spend the rest of today locked in his room and trying to ignore how once again everything has managed to go wrong.

But instead he's out quietly circling the common areas, because the overachiever in him would never live it down if one of their new psychotic friends set the barge aflame while he was off feeling sorry for himself.

He comes up behind Chris and stands there silently at first, hands on his hips as he swiftly takes in the chart. When he speaks it's softly and dry.]

So we're going by Star Trek rules for this, I see.

[mistconduct]

[Chris jumps about a mile and a half, twisting around to spot Derek behind him]

Holy shit, man. You're a ninja.

And yeah. Star Trek rules.

...I'm not shaving my goatee.

[walkingmeltdown]

Yes. Because the man who literally lights up every room he walks into, that's the cornerstone of subtlety.

[His mouth twitches, but he's too worn and unhappy for a smirk.]

Well I admire your commitment to uniformity across gender representation. [Beat.] You need to add one to Iris, we ended up with Bianca.

[mistconduct]

Hey, maybe I'm going deaf. Or maybe you're sneakier than you think you are.

...Ah fuck, yeah. Jack mentioned Iris.

How much is that going to suck for us, you think?

[walkingmeltdown]

For us? [He considers it, at a distance.] Well for me personally, I'm down most of my friends, have picked up several violent enemies, and I'm out a warden. Just as an example.

[mistconduct]

You've still got me, Powers.

You've still got a friend in me.

[walkingmeltdown]

...You had better not be about to start singing at me, or I'm leaving.

[mistconduct]

I have an amazing singing voice.

[walkingmeltdown]

Which I will hopefully never hear. Until some point in the future when I'm dragged very unwillingly to barge karaoke night, and then I'll never be able to forget.

[He's learned how things tend to work out around here by now, all right.]

[mistconduct]

Me and Iris'll hook you up. It'll be great.

[walkingmeltdown]

Right. [His amusement falters somewhat, thinking of Iris again. Why are all the ones missing also the ones that are best at keeping the mood up despite the worst that's going on?] Maybe to celebrate. Once everything's back to...what around here we're forced to consider 'normal'.

[mistconduct]

Yeah. How long do you think that'll be?

[walkingmeltdown]

I...I don't know, D'amico. [He doesn't. He can't even begin to guess. That freaks the hell out of him.] But it had better not be for too long.

[mistconduct]

Tell me about it. I already miss them.

[walkingmeltdown]

Me too. And that's...not a situation I'm exactly used to.

[He checks out the board again, eyes passing over the faces that have been marked as false. After frowning a bit over his allies, he zeroes in on his warden.]

Have you had a run-in with the other Megamind yet?

[mistconduct]

You mean Asshole McSpikes? Yeah, he came over to bitch about his goatee.

[walkingmeltdown]

I haven't seen him yet - I only knew he was changed because I saw what happened to his cabin door.

[mistconduct]

Why, what's with the cabin door?

[walkingmeltdown]

It's changed. It looks...well, not like his, that's the important part.

[More like something that would be guarding the entrance to a padded cell in a maximum security prison.]

[mistconduct]

Great. I'll have to stop over and take a look when I'm over there next.

[walkingmeltdown]

So is he safe to go near, or what? How bad are we talking?

[mistconduct]

He tried to get all intimidating on me, but he didn't pull a weapon. Whether that's because he didn't own one or because he's not murderous, I dunno.

[walkingmeltdown]

Right. I'll try to keep that in mind. [Ugh. He rubs at his face, a bit.] I'm not looking forward to meeting him. But I imagine that's inevitable.

[mistconduct]

Maybe this one doesn't have a beef with you. Maybe we're lucky.

[walkingmeltdown]

I'm never so lucky.

[He says this bleakly, and unthinking, but with surety. And he waves a hand, an absent gesture of dismissal - turns around and starts to walk away.

He's done here, he thinks. There's nothing left he can do. Except perhaps depress Chris even more than he already has.]