Mark I - ||video||

[the_mechanic]

[There's a close-up view of a well-manicured goatee, though there's a bit of blood around the lips, and as he adjusts the camera, it's plain to see that the clearly-attractive man has definitely been in a fight recently. Put mildly. And also that he's wearing some kind of metal armor suit thing, with the face-mask open.

He opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again. Twice. This is not a man accustomed to being at a loss for words.]

Please tell me there's someone in this sparkly-rainbow-nightmare than can get a full sentence out, with minimal KUPO, that can tell me what the hell is going on?

...please?

[The camera pans out just enough to show the komory bat perched on the top of the man's head, chittering away happily. Tony swipes at him half-heartedly, as if they've been through this a few times already, and the bat makes no motion to vacate his vantage point.

Tony looks pleadingly into the camera, and with a deep sigh, cuts the feed.]

Comments

[defrostedpride]

[Even looks away from Tony and more directly at his communicator.]

Aeleus, if he's dead by the time you get there due to an utterly unfounded resistance to using basic medical alchemy, would you be so good as to bring that armor by here? It looks like some of it is still good for parts.

[Who, him? Smiling troublingly at the very thought of getting to dismantle something complicated, almost as though he were bored? Perish the thought.]

No combination of the ingredients in a Potion has any negative effect. I don't know where people get these ideas. Unless the Moogles have broken with their usual policy and decided to adulterate yours, the worst it can possibly do is nothing.

[earthshatter]

None of his injuries appear particularly life-threatening.

[defrostedpride]

He might be attacked by Nightmares. It's been known to happen, oh, constantly.

[earthshatter]

I believe he's still in the First District.

[defrostedpride]

Now you're just leading him to expect consistency, a swift road to bitter and violent disappointment.

[earthshatter]

As I am aware.

[unrecovered]

You can't have it. I call dibs.

[defrostedpride]

How old are you, five? There are no 'dibs' in SCIENCE!!

[This is a lie. There are always dibs in science. Happily, disregarding others' dibs is also a long-standing scientific tradition.]

[unrecovered]

[Wash folds his arms casually. He's spent enough time with the Reds and Blues to know this one.]

Of course there are. It's the International Dibs Protocol. You didn't call dibs, so if he dies, I get his armor.

[defrostedpride]

Ah, but have you published?

What would you do with it, anyway? Redecorate?

[the_mechanic]

NOBODY GETS THE SUIT, THE SUIT IS NOT UP FOR DIBS, THE SUIT WILL FRY YOU IF IT DOESN'T RECOGNIZE YOU.

No. Touchy.

Jesus.

[unrecovered]

The suit's also beat to shit and out of power.

[He shrugs; he'd more been baiting Even than anything else.] Just don't die anytime soon, and you won't have to worry about any of it.

[defrostedpride]

Then drink your potion and the question will not arise!

...Recognize how, precisely?

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Guys, guys, you're ignoring an important point here: you can't call dibs until the original owners are dead or legally declared dead by a reputable government agency.

[the_mechanic]

[Tony just. He has no words. There aren't actually words for this. So. Yeah. He's gonna walk away now. He's cutting his part of the feed and ignoring the rest of this convo.

York, he still likes you.

You other two poaching vultures, the jury is out on.]

[unrecovered]

That's what I said. If he dies, I call dibs.

Plus, you don't have a leg to stand on. You have dibs on my armor, remember?

[allfunandgamesuntil]

That's different. You don't have that armor now.

[unrecovered]

That didn't stop you from calling dibs on it while I was - am - still alive.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

I'm just saying, it's not an issue now.

[unrecovered]

It's the principle of the thing.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

You won't even let me be a little hypocritical, will you?

[unrecovered]

You wouldn't let me, so no.

[unrecovered]

Yeah. [No.] If you don't believe me, look it up.

I had no idea you were into taxidermy. [Asshole.] And no. Ever heard of reverse engineering?

[defrostedpride]

I have, obviously. I didn't realize you had. [Or that you could reverse-engineer your way out of a paper bag. ...So mechanical engineering isn't Even's field either. So what.]

But you haven't published on this, which makes it fair game.

[unrecovered]

[He cocks his head. Really?] I've spent the last decade in power armor. You really think I don't know how it works?

It'd be wasted on you and you know it.