Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

“I have a lawyer,” Syx muttered, eyes closed as his fingers rubbed over the leather of his jacket in a soothing way, “I got him on payroll right after. Both Minion and I are legally endangered species and are registered under those protections,” he reached up and rubbed his temples, “Only half the time I can’t reach my lawyer now a days. Too many things overlap and displace each other.”

The multiverse was a horribly confusing place in that regard. Syx worried his lower lip between his teeth and glanced at her, “Failsafes?” his lips curled down, but he was intent, “I’m interested in hearing them at the least. I’ve more than just me to worry about,” his mind going to both Minion and Anna. His mate being a shifter put her in potential danger as well. Anna had already suffered enough with her memory loss.

Protections like that only work if the lab is a law-abiding one in the first place. It doesn’t work at all for the places that we’ve been trying to eradicate. [She nods at the mention of the overlaps. Unless you are very clear in where you are intending to go, it’s so easy to end up in the wrong dimensional slice of the same area. And it is that layering that also causes the need for so many heroes in a city that functioned just fine with only one previously.] You should have your little friends in the tower show you how to get around a little better.

As for failsafes, it’s largely a matter of setting up a system so that more than one person is in contact with you every couple of days at least. It’s best if at least one person knows where you live and has access so that they can tell if you’ve simply been pulled back home by the dimensional rifts and vanished entirely or if you’ve got missing and they need to start looking. [Taking another bite of her pretzel, Wendalyn considers what other options to suggest.]

Being a public figure, one that people care about it also good. That’s half the reason I’m a hero; so that I’ve got a whole city of people wondering what the fuck happened when I go missing. Not only is it inconvenient to have a lag in the justice system, but a lot of them just wonder what happened to their entertainment. Like when a TV show has been cancelled without warning. [And that’s pretty much the long and short of how most of the public sees the Game.] I can tell you from experience that it works for supervillains too.

There’s one other failsafe that is better than the others, more certain, but it’s far harder to set up. If you can make friends with or negotiate a favor with one of the deity type beings here, then you can also potentially have a rescuer who has better resources to find you. [She hums an amused note despite remembering the last time she’d been taken by a lab. Sometimes you make the strangest friends in the strangest places and in the strangest ways. Sometimes they are absolutely invaluable.]

Syx pursed his lips,

❝Ah yes… last time I was a nobody. It’s much easier to kidnap a homeless runaway than an armed public figure,❞ it also meant he needed to be more proactive about getting the game up and going again. With or without Wayne,

❝I do have those that keep an eye on my whereabouts daily already.❞

His expressive brows crinkled as he stroked his goatee,

❝There are much bigger things in this city than the Doom Syndicate. I haven’t met many but I’ve been hearing the rumors,❞ his shoulders sagged,

❝It was bad enough just fearing the legal agencies. I’d always thought…❞ he hesitated and glanced at her again,

❝There are those that would like me to disappear in my… less than legal contacts but just as many that need and support me. They’ve always been my fail-safe before. Doesn’t sound like enough anymore.❞

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

Syx rolled his eyes, “It’s a figure of speech. You are aware of how the sheeple of the city see Metro Man, right? The statue they built? The whole worshipful museum.”

His eye lock on the needles, bouncing between those and her forehead, “You’re… talking from experience I assume?”

Oh, I get that. I once used the word the same way you do, but now I know better. [His description of ‘sheeple’, while thoroughly accurate, is a tad less amusing at the moment. It would have been funnier ten minutes ago. Perhaps later, when she is mulling over this conversation by herself, Wendalyn will find it amusing enough to add the word to her own vocabulary.]

And, yes, I’m speaking from extensive experience. This is just the most I can show in such a public setting. [She hums a thoughtful note.] You don’t seem surprised or confused. I take it you’ve seen the inside of a lab as well?

Syx’s arms drew involuntarily around his torso as he shrank into himself, seeming even smaller than normal. He really didn’t want to think about that but it was too late now. Staring hard at the partially eaten pretzel to muttered, “Yeah.”

“It was made quite clear to me that only humans have unalienable rights” he snorted, “That lab mice have more rights.”

He took a deep breath through his nose, trying very hard to keep his head level. There were no shadows, no one watching. It was okay. Blue wouldn’t automatically make him a target in this city. Showing skin wouldn’t automatically spell doom. The paranoia wouldn’t rule his life entirely. He felt taut as a bowstring. Ready to run and hide away again. It hadn’t mattered one bit that he’d never seen those men again after he’d gotten away from them. He knew the boogie man was real.

[To see someone react like that always makes Wendalyn feel vindicated in her eccentric behavior and suspicious nature. This is, however, the first time that she has met a blue person who had potentially been through similar circumstances. With a Megamind’s twitchy nature, she knows that he’ll be too distracted to continue a decent conversation if she can’t get him to relax a little.]

Pretty much. [She takes a sharp bite of her pretzel and then shrugs.] But you don’t have much to worry about at the moment. I’ve been razing any questionable labs I can find and Harrison has been attempting to shut these things down from the legal end. There are a few others here who also have a stake in keeping such things out of the city. I can also suggest some failsafes, if you’d like.

“I have a lawyer,” Syx muttered, eyes closed as his fingers rubbed over the leather of his jacket in a soothing way, “I got him on payroll right after. Both Minion and I are legally endangered species and are registered under those protections,” he reached up and rubbed his temples, “Only half the time I can’t reach my lawyer now a days. Too many things overlap and displace each other.”

The multiverse was a horribly confusing place in that regard. Syx worried his lower lip between his teeth and glanced at her, “Failsafes?” his lips curled down, but he was intent, “I’m interested in hearing them at the least. I’ve more than just me to worry about,” his mind going to both Minion and Anna. His mate being a shifter put her in potential danger as well. Anna had already suffered enough with her memory loss.

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

Syx rolled his eyes, “It’s a figure of speech. You are aware of how the sheeple of the city see Metro Man, right? The statue they built? The whole worshipful museum.”

His eye lock on the needles, bouncing between those and her forehead, “You’re… talking from experience I assume?”

Oh, I get that. I once used the word the same way you do, but now I know better. [His description of ‘sheeple’, while thoroughly accurate, is a tad less amusing at the moment. It would have been funnier ten minutes ago. Perhaps later, when she is mulling over this conversation by herself, Wendalyn will find it amusing enough to add the word to her own vocabulary.]

And, yes, I’m speaking from extensive experience. This is just the most I can show in such a public setting. [She hums a thoughtful note.] You don’t seem surprised or confused. I take it you’ve seen the inside of a lab as well?

Syx’s arms drew involuntarily around his torso as he shrank into himself, seeming even smaller than normal. He really didn’t want to think about that but it was too late now. Staring hard at the partially eaten pretzel to muttered, “Yeah.”

“It was made quite clear to me that only humans have unalienable rights” he snorted, “That lab mice have more rights.”

He took a deep breath through his nose, trying very hard to keep his head level. There were no shadows, no one watching. It was okay. Blue wouldn’t automatically make him a target in this city. Showing skin wouldn’t automatically spell doom. The paranoia wouldn’t rule his life entirely. He felt taut as a bowstring. Ready to run and hide away again. It hadn’t mattered one bit that he’d never seen those men again after he’d gotten away from them. He knew the boogie man was real.

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

Syx raised an eyebrow, “Which is exactly why I wouldn’t ‘cause injury’ in the first fucking place. Gods aren’t supposed to bleed,” he snorted, “Just because I get shook up seeing it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do it. I need to know that so I don’t fuck up and accidentally hurt him. As impossible as I once thought that was.”

“And I am not an idiot,” he smacked the pretzel out of his face, “I know just what those fuckers would do if they could,” his lips drew thin and paled at the unwanted memories, “There isn’t a human on this planet that could piece together my notes even if they were all written down. My technology would be just as bad in their hands as that information would be,” he mumbled like a paranoid man, biting the inside of his cheek to shut up. He’d gotten yelled at by his Uncles too often for his paranoia no matter how warranted Syx knew it to be.

The concentrated power of the sun bit had him rolling his eyes. He hadn’t tested it on Wayne though he had finished building it, “Like that would do more than cause a sudden bought of nakedness.”

[’Gods’? Good lord, he wasn’t kidding about putting Metro Man on a pedestal. They might have god-like powers, but they definitely weren’t at that level. She has been around true gods and knows where she stands on that matter.] Gods can bleed. They just don’t stay hurt or stay dead.

[She allows the hand he had slapped away to drop to the table, exposing the numerous needle scars at the bend of her elbow.] It’s not individual humans that are the problem. It’s organized groups that can restrain even a god.

Syx rolled his eyes, “It’s a figure of speech. You are aware of how the sheeple of the city see Metro Man, right? The statue they built? The whole worshipful museum.”

His eye lock on the needles, bouncing between those and her forehead, “You’re… talking from experience I assume?”

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

“Ah,” Syx frowned softly, “The world has gotten quite… strange since I came here, but roughly speaking it’s still my Metrocity,” it did give a horrible thought, to have truly lost all the people he had known… it was strange enough when his father had become his mother.

He blushed a light lavender when his staring was called out. Worrying his lip in thought, he reminded himself what he had learned from Harrison’s Wayne. Similar, but not the same. He’d had to do a lot of thinking lately anyway… maybe it would be okay to open up a little.

Syx steepled his fingers before him, “Do you know why I throw myself relentlessly at Metro Man despite always failing? It’s the same reason that I used to punch brick walls in prison,” he tipped his head long blue fingers tracing nearly faded away scars on his knuckles, “Because I’m the only one that can get hurt. I know that no robot or laser I throw at him will do more than mess up is hair.”

His bright green eyes sought hers, “Why would I really want him dead? Any of you dead? He’s all that remains of everything I lost. We’re the last. Even if there are technically more of us now.”

“I’ve envied him, I’ve hated him, I’ve loved him, and he’s broken my heart a million ways whether he was aware of it at the time or not,” Syx shook his head with a sigh, “You’re not the first I’ve seen with scars, just not nearly so… severe? It still is just… I put Wayne on a pedestal. He was unbreakable so it was okay to hit him. It was stupid and immature and idiotic as much as it was fun and entertaining. But it meant that when he did get hurt… when I see any of you hurt… it’s as if gravity suddenly failed. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this new information.”

[Throughout his little speech, Wendalyn has been eating her pretzel and watching him with a seemingly lazy interest. She is listening, but he isn’t saying much that is actually interesting. The most interesting thing that he mentions is having a soured romantic relationship with his Metro Man too.]

You must have misheard me. I said ‘cause injury’, not kill. [She takes another bite of pretzel.] It’s far more attention getting than any half-baked memory bomb.

As for what you do with information like that… You keep it to your fucking self. [The half eaten pretzel pointed at him does nothing to soften the hard look she’s giving him. She is dead serious and he had better realize as much.] Don’t write your theories down. Don’t draw up plans that play off a perceived weakness. If you don’t want my kind dead or worse, you don’t draw attention to the possibility that more than the concentrated power of the sun can harm us.

Syx raised an eyebrow, “Which is exactly why I wouldn’t ‘cause injury’ in the first fucking place. Gods aren’t supposed to bleed,” he snorted, “Just because I get shook up seeing it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do it. I need to know that so I don’t fuck up and accidentally hurt him. As impossible as I once thought that was.”

“And I am not an idiot,” he smacked the pretzel out of his face, “I know just what those fuckers would do if they could,” his lips drew thin and paled at the unwanted memories, “There isn’t a human on this planet that could piece together my notes even if they were all written down. My technology would be just as bad in their hands as that information would be,” he mumbled like a paranoid man, biting the inside of his cheek to shut up. He’d gotten yelled at by his Uncles too often for his paranoia no matter how warranted Syx knew it to be.

The concentrated power of the sun bit had him rolling his eyes. He hadn’t tested it on Wayne though he had finished building it, “Like that would do more than cause a sudden bought of nakedness.”

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

Taking his food, Syx leads the way to a place to sit. He picked a place where no one could come at him from behind, but also made sure the side for his companion to sit in had enough room for her size and dog. Ripping a bit of the pretzel and grinning at the hot steam that escaped, Syx dipping it into the cream cheese and munched on it happily. The dairy would upset his stomach later, but god was it delicious.

“So,” he waved a piece of pretzel around as he spoke, “Which one is yours anyway? I know of a few now. Let’s see…” he ticked them off on his fingers, “Female hero, tongue ring guy, two that wear suits… but I know you can’t mean either of those,” he tipped his head, feeling like he was missing some other options. His eyes flicked to her scar again, but he bit his tongue on the question for now.

His leather jacket sleeves were getting in the way and leather didn’t really roll up… why had he gone gloveless today? He sighed internally, recalling his parting touches with Anna before coming here. That had been the reason, but now re regretted his exposed wrists. Fuck it all, he’d just leave the jacket on and just suffer through it.

[Being that he has taken the seat against the wall, that leaves her with the choice to either give her back to the room or to sit next to him. Neither are appealing. She settles on sitting across from him and stretching her senses to catch potential threats. Fakk 2 is getting old enough that she can’t trust the dog to scent all ill intent.]

None of them. The Megamind I knew my entire life is still back in my original dimension, along with most of the rest of my life. [Wendalyn gestures vaguely towards Fakk 2, indicating that the dog had come along with her.] And don’t think I don’t notice you looking at my temple. But rest assured that he didn’t cause it. I have yet to meet a Megamind who has the balls to injury one of my kind.

“Ah,” Syx frowned softly, “The world has gotten quite… strange since I came here, but roughly speaking it’s still my Metrocity,” it did give a horrible thought, to have truly lost all the people he had known… it was strange enough when his father had become his mother.

He blushed a light lavender when his staring was called out. Worrying his lip in thought, he reminded himself what he had learned from Harrison’s Wayne. Similar, but not the same. He’d had to do a lot of thinking lately anyway… maybe it would be okay to open up a little.

Syx steepled his fingers before him, “Do you know why I throw myself relentlessly at Metro Man despite always failing? It’s the same reason that I used to punch brick walls in prison,” he tipped his head long blue fingers tracing nearly faded away scars on his knuckles, “Because I’m the only one that can get hurt. I know that no robot or laser I throw at him will do more than mess up is hair.”

His bright green eyes sought hers, “Why would I really want him dead? Any of you dead? He’s all that remains of everything I lost. We’re the last. Even if there are technically more of us now.”

“I’ve envied him, I’ve hated him, I’ve loved him, and he’s broken my heart a million ways whether he was aware of it at the time or not,” Syx shook his head with a sigh, “You’re not the first I’ve seen with scars, just not nearly so… severe? It still is just… I put Wayne on a pedestal. He was unbreakable so it was okay to hit him. It was stupid and immature and idiotic as much as it was fun and entertaining. But it meant that when he did get hurt… when I see any of you hurt… it’s as if gravity suddenly failed. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this new information.”

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

“Tomato, tomato,” Syx shrugged off, pronouncing the word the same both times. He squinted up at her over his shoulder, “I mean… donuts are nice… but why would you assume that?”

Winding through the crowd proved not to be difficult at all. It turned out being blue and flanked by a huge woman with a dog meant they were given quite a bit of breathing room. Far more than he was used to since he normally only shopped (during business hours) in disguise.

When they made it to the soft pretzel stand, he held his chin up, expecting to be refused service. He made sure to flash the cash before the cashier could even question him, “Two of your finest pretzels. With butter and cin-o-” he glanced at Wendalyn, “Cinna-men,” getting closer but the word still felt weird on his tongue today, “And please tell me you have the cream cheese.”

He was actually rather shocked when the woman took his order without defiance or questioning him. It was still so strange for his skin not to immediately get him kicked out of everything on principle. The cashier looked up to Wendalyn, not sure if the two were together but guessing so as they had walked up together.

[The butchered phrasing makes her roll her eyes. In this case, it’s not worth correcting him for not mispronouncing one of them.] My Megamind favored doughnuts above all other pastries.

[His twitchy behavior almost earns him another eye roll, but when he actually tries to say cinnamon correctly, she can’t help but give him a small smile. Prehaps this one isn’t as spitefully hopeless as the one she had grown up with. It’s almost cute.]

[Wendalyn waves off the cashier’s questioning look.] My order is separate from his.

[It doesn’t take the cashier long to get Syx’s order together and to accept his payment. Wendalyn has an even simpler order of just a plain pretzel. Once they both have their food, she gestures towards the various tables open to sit at.]

Taking his food, Syx leads the way to a place to sit. He picked a place where no one could come at him from behind, but also made sure the side for his companion to sit in had enough room for her size and dog. Ripping a bit of the pretzel and grinning at the hot steam that escaped, Syx dipping it into the cream cheese and munched on it happily. The dairy would upset his stomach later, but god was it delicious.

“So,” he waved a piece of pretzel around as he spoke, “Which one is yours anyway? I know of a few now. Let’s see…” he ticked them off on his fingers, “Female hero, tongue ring guy, two that wear suits… but I know you can’t mean either of those,” he tipped his head, feeling like he was missing some other options. His eyes flicked to her scar again, but he bit his tongue on the question for now.

His leather jacket sleeves were getting in the way and leather didn’t really roll up… why had he gone gloveless today? He sighed internally, recalling his parting touches with Anna before coming here. That had been the reason, but now re regretted his exposed wrists. Fuck it all, he’d just leave the jacket on and just suffer through it.

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

His eyes were drawn instantly to the scar, a confused frown gracing his features as it distracted him from the question. Harrison’s Wayne had scars but the very idea of these tremendously powerful being ever being seriously hurt shook his very world view. Even more so now as a scar like that… Not only painful but potentially very deadly.

Snapping back to the conversation, he stuck his chin. He’d been mocked every which way about his name. Expecting someone do so again just validated the coil of resentment in his stomach.

His lips thinned as he spoke, “Syx, with a Y,” he drew in a breath to say something spiteful to nurse old childhood pain, but… he sighed and looked away. So much had changed in the last year and part of that had been the slow acceptance that maybe he did need to give people more of a chance, “It’s a pronounceable variant on my given name.”

His heel bounced in nerves so he started walking, towards the food court. If she was a danger to him it really wouldn’t matter where he was and he didn’t have gear on him to even begin to hope to take on a Glaupunk. Shrugging a shoulder in forced nonchalance, he told her, “I don’t know about you but I’d rather talk where I can get a cin-o-mon pretzel.”

[She had seen his eyes flick upwards and knew he wanted to ask. If he would stop being defensive and fearful, and be more observant instead, he might find a clue or more questions. Still, it would be interesting see what the twitchy little alien does.]

Cinnamon. [The correction is automatic. Suppressing the urge to add an insult afterwards is not. This is not her Megamind, so she doesn’t quite have the right to step all over his speech quirks. Though, it is amusing that he expressed something of a distaste for people not being able to pronounce his full name, then immediately butchers a simple english word.]

And I half expected you to get donuts. [Grinning, she and Fakk 2 follow behind him. If he’s going to leave the invitation for further conversation open, there isn’t much reason for her to not take it. Then again, if he had flat retreated, she would probably still have followed just to watch him squirm.]

“Tomato, tomato,” Syx shrugged off, pronouncing the word the same both times. He squinted up at her over his shoulder, “I mean… donuts are nice… but why would you assume that?”

Winding through the crowd proved not to be difficult at all. It turned out being blue and flanked by a huge woman with a dog meant they were given quite a bit of breathing room. Far more than he was used to since he normally only shopped (during business hours) in disguise.

When they made it to the soft pretzel stand, he held his chin up, expecting to be refused service. He made sure to flash the cash before the cashier could even question him, “Two of your finest pretzels. With butter and cin-o-” he glanced at Wendalyn, “Cinna-men,” getting closer but the word still felt weird on his tongue today, “And please tell me you have the cream cheese.”

He was actually rather shocked when the woman took his order without defiance or questioning him. It was still so strange for his skin not to immediately get him kicked out of everything on principle. The cashier looked up to Wendalyn, not sure if the two were together but guessing so as they had walked up together.

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

Syx raised a brow and crossed his arms. So she was going straight to insults. That at least removed the option of goody-two-shoes type. But it did go with the dangerous look about her.

“Wendalyn, huh,” he mulled that over. Still a Scott. Safe to guess just as powered as the heroes he knew. Or at least his assumption unless proven otherwise, “Pleasure.”

“You can call me Syx or Mr. Blue. My other name is far too common around here,” he carefully avoided saying Megamind out loud. He was slowly getting more used to being addressed by Syx and it made passerby and cops far less suspicious of him than his villainous name. He raised an eyebrow in challenge, wondering if she’d take the low hanging fruit and mock his name.

[He wasn’t as easy to rile up as she’d hoped. It didn’t even seem like he’d swallowed his pride to stay calm, he was just mildly irritated. Even someone as ‘refined’ as Harrison got more upset over comments like that than this guy did. Interesting.]

[Wendalyn had heard of another blue man in this city by that same name, but she’d never bothered to meet him. At least, she was pretty sure this one wasn’t the same one, it had been a while since she’d smelled his scent, but this one didn’t smell like Alice and a half-human child.]

And how does someone come by a name like ‘Six’? [She cocks her head slightly in curiosity. And, in doing so, unintentionally causes the scar on her temple to be more obvious. To someone who has been in prison, it might be recognizable for what it is: a blunt force trauma scar. Like one might get from being hit repeatedly with a nightstick.]

His eyes were drawn instantly to the scar, a confused frown gracing his features as it distracted him from the question. Harrison’s Wayne had scars but the very idea of these tremendously powerful being ever being seriously hurt shook his very world view. Even more so now as a scar like that… Not only painful but potentially very deadly.

Snapping back to the conversation, he stuck his chin. He’d been mocked every which way about his name. Expecting someone do so again just validated the coil of resentment in his stomach.

His lips thinned as he spoke, “Syx, with a Y,” he drew in a breath to say something spiteful to nurse old childhood pain, but… he sighed and looked away. So much had changed in the last year and part of that had been the slow acceptance that maybe he did need to give people more of a chance, “It’s a pronounceable variant on my given name.”

His heel bounced in nerves so he started walking, towards the food court. If she was a danger to him it really wouldn’t matter where he was and he didn’t have gear on him to even begin to hope to take on a Glaupunk. Shrugging a shoulder in forced nonchalance, he told her, “I don’t know about you but I’d rather talk where I can get a cin-o-mon pretzel.”

Measure Up

youcanttrapjustice:

syx-blue:

That smile makes Syx’s chest tighten, but… every version he knew of the Glaupunks were heros or cops or something on the ‘good’ side of the law… so… there wasn’t any reason to worry. Right.

Chin up and putting on a cockier show of himself and trying to bury his nerves, Syx, nodded in response, and held out his hand towards the dog in a friendly way. He did adore dogs.

“I take it you just can’t resist this blue visage?” he boasted, “This city is just filled, isn’t it?” so many doubles and versions, but he wasn’t sure how publicly he want to announce that, so kept it vague, “What should I call you anyway?”

[For all of his bravado, it’s clear to her that he recognizes her as something of a threat. Now, that could be because of a myriad of things, but it’s most likely just because his sense of self-preservation isn’t shit. For the moment, she stops a conversational distance away, not pressing his space yet.]

-Fakk 2 stops when Mistress does and sits. The blue man is interesting, but she isn’t going to get in Mistress’s way.-

Yes, there are a lot of you. You guys are a lot like cockroaches in terms of numbers and durability. [She scoffs, not about to let him have the high ground in their conversation.] I am Wendalyn Scott. And you are?

Syx raised a brow and crossed his arms. So she was going straight to insults. That at least removed the option of goody-two-shoes type. But it did go with the dangerous look about her.

“Wendalyn, huh,” he mulled that over. Still a Scott. Safe to guess just as powered as the heroes he knew. Or at least his assumption unless proven otherwise, “Pleasure.”

“You can call me Syx or Mr. Blue. My other name is far too common around here,” he carefully avoided saying Megamind out loud. He was slowly getting more used to being addressed by Syx and it made passerby and cops far less suspicious of him than his villainous name. He raised an eyebrow in challenge, wondering if she’d take the low hanging fruit and mock his name.