Good Cop Bad Cop: Chapter One

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One week. Asher has to be mean, Kay has to be nice. Whoever gives up first has to write a story for the winner. Should be... interesting.

Kay stared at the creature, backing away a little as it came closer. Merith, this is not an appropriate location for this animal, please return it to somewhere safe before someone gets hurt.

"Just fine, just fine..." She sounded almost lethargic. "But I... may have forgotten that its saliva is a bit of a... narcotic..." She wobbled and began to lean over even as her hand healed perfectly. "Oops..."

The creature continued to slowly walk towards Kay, tilting its head a bit as it clicked curiously...

Asher eyed Merith, not sure if she was screwing with them or if she really was tipsy right now. He sighed and went to steady her if she needed help.
He really didn't know what to do about the animal, ugh. He guessed he just had to hope Merith would call it off soon.

Kay looked distinctly worried now. Narcotic spit? well GREAT, just freaking great.

He stared into the animal's eyes, trying to get some sort of read on what it was doing. Was it hostile or just curious? Was it actually a threat? He didn't have an awful lot of experience with judging the mental state of weird alien monsters, or trying to read the surface thoughts of non sapient beings.

"Goodnight..." She said drowsily, before collapsing to the floor in a slumber.

The creature got right upto Kay's face, staring at him.

Well that wasn't good. Asher caught Merith automatically--good thing she was smaller in this form--and glared up at Vestia's camera. "Get that steak," he snapped, "now."

"Okay okay!" Vestia said. A bot rolled into the room carrying a platter of steak on its back.

Asher looked annoyed. How long had the bot been waiting out there?

Kay stared into the creature's eyes, quite unable to back away any further. He gulped.

The creature started sniffing Kay's face... until it scented the meat and instantly swung its head that direction. It made an excited cry and bounded over the desk and snapped at the plate, paying no mind to what mess it made as it ate happily.

"Vestia, get more meat ready in case it needs to be coaxed away," Asher said.

"Yes sir," Vestia said, amused.

Asher carried Merith to a bed and set her on it, then returned his attention to the creature and Kay, not yet daring to show any sign of relief.

Kay closed his eyes and finally breathed a sigh of relief. That... was really.. not.. okay..
His knees went out from under him. Damnit.
He managed to catch himself by grabbing the desk and looking to Merith's prone form with annoyance and just that tiniest tinge of actual loathing.

He picked up his tablet. [Get that THING contained before someone's hurt. ] He wrote angrily, fear giving way to rage at last.

"I really have no idea how to handle a creature like this," Asher said, looking at it in frustration. The animal was BIG, and clawed, and pretty well armored, as far as he could tell. He was reluctant to do anything that might anger it, when it looked so capable of gutting both of them. "It doesn't look like it would be easy to tranquilize, or restrain."

[Think of something.] Kay looked like he was about ready to hurt someone himself. Merith was an idiot, more than an idiot, an irresponsible moron who seemed to value his own amusement over the safety of the crew. If this thing ran loose, who knew how many it could seriously injure or worse, actually kill before it could be stopped. And Merith, the only one who could potentially control the damn thing was out cold.

[Vestia, where's Vanessa? Get her here, now. ] Kay didn't look like he was in any mood for arguments.

Vestia located Vanessa and contacted her. "Vanessa, you're wanted in the med bay immediately," she said.

~~
Asher nodded. Yikes, Kay was mad now, best not to discuss things further. He went looking in a locked drawer for the tranq gun.

The creature would still be chewing away happily as Vanessa entered, a slight frown malformed her face. She glanced at the reptile but didn't see particularly bothered by it. "What is it?"

[Get that thing out of here and make sure it doesn't get out. And take HER with you.] Kay pointed at Merith. He looked pretty enraged and Vanessa's oh this is nothing attitude only made him angrier.

"We're quite tired of having Merith mangle herself with her pet just to amuse herself," Asher said. "We do have limits to our patience." He really was annoyed at this point!

Vanessa stiffened, her eyes narrowing at Kay's lack of tact. She muttered something before shaking her head at him and going over to soothe the creature, who seemed to be growing more and more aggravated. "It is not a thing, Kay. It is a creature, just as you and just as me. I am certain you would not like being called a thing. Oh, I should perhaps tell you that it is an empathic creature, much like a horse and can sense emotions, and since his master is out cold, it's sensing the strongest emotion in the room and is responding to that."

She glared sharply at him. "As much as I'm certain Merith did wrong, I'd watch yourself. You thing your greatest threat is your Lycanthropy? You'd be surprised." She began trying to soothe the creature, who was growling slightly at the tension in the room.

[Then perhaps Merith should use some sense and not bring animals into a medical lab. He only did so to irritate us, because clearly his amusement is far more important than anyone else's safety or security isn't it? Get them out of here Vanessa, don't you dare make this my fault and don't you DARE threaten me. He brought his pet in here, now as you're his partner, it's your responsibility to get it OUT again.] No, there was no way he was able to calm down even if he wanted to. He'd descended completely into flight or fight, and unfortunately for everyone, his body had opted for fight having come up with zero escape possibilities. He was stuck on this side of the room with that pet blocking the only way out.

"Please," Asher said to Vanessa quietly, "Perhaps we can discuss this later. Merith's creature and her own behavior have put us rather on edge." He looked apologetic

Kay GLARED at Asher. He was being POLITE to her? POLITE? after her attitude?

He composed himself enough to write [If that creature hurts anyone Vanessa, it's on you and your moronic partner. This is a cruise ship, not a zoo.]
His eye was twitching again. Damnit.

Vanessa glared at Kay. "You are acting just as unsensible as Merith, Kay. I'd say more, but I am no parental guardian." She turned and nodded at Asher, trying to settle her own anger which was upsetting the creature all the more. She went over to Merith and slipped the sleeping body on the creature's back, who stood up as she did so. She coaxed it away, giving Kay a final, disappointed stare.

Asher flinched at Kay's glare. Kay was really mad right now, when he was this mad, it was pretty scary.
"Thank you Vanessa," he said quietly.
Kay wasn't going to be happy about that, he thought guiltily.

Kay glared at Vanessa, fuming absolutely at her attitude. How DARE she? Merith marches in here with a dangerous beast just to be an annoyance and HE is supposed to be the one who's wrong? His anger is unreasonable? That thing could have killed him! But he's not ALLOWED to be angry? He's not allowed to be pissed off at Merith yet again endangering people with his IDIOCY and his selfishness? She had the audacity to JUDGE HIM?
His hands shook.

He glared at Asher, he wasn't even going to defend him?

Well then.

He waited till Vanessa and that creature were gone before knocking all the paper off his desk and storming for the exit in a flurry of scattered papers.

Asher watched Kay leave, feeling thoroughly guilty for a great number of reasons. Well, he could have handled that a lot better. He really needed to talk to Kay later. And probably Merith. And Vanessa.
Nicely handled, Asher.

He went and started cleaning up the blood and papers.

Letting Kay fume was quite probably the worst thing Asher could do at this point, He headed toward his room and locked himself into that safe haven where he could curl up and process what the hell had just happened.

And try to get a handle on this rage, which was honestly terrifying him as much as anyone else.

--

Esk hadn't gone far from the medical room mostly because he was waiting to see when Kay would finally lose it and throw something at a patient. The sudden sound of Vanessa and the growling of that creature caught his attention and he had headed over just in time to have Kay barrel past him in a rage.

Huh..

He peered into the medical room. "So... what set him off?" He asked Asher.

Asher tried to smile at Esk, but the smile failed completely. "Merith turned into a woman and had her pet giant monster chew on her hand, then came in here to harass us. We got it to release Merith, but then it went after Kay, and scared him pretty badly. Finally Kay thought to call Vanessa in and she got it away, but not before blaming this nonsense on Kay. And I probably should have defended Kay, but honestly I was pretty worried about what might happen if Vanessa lost her temper so I didn't and instead apologized to her."
He sighed. "I think that's the gist of the story. A lot happened."

Esk listened to that and slowly ran it back through his head, lips moving as he recited it quietly back to himself. "So... Merith was merith... brought a monster in here... it's contained right?" He frowned, yeah the idea of a giant monster roaming the ship wasn't a good one. "Vanessa's got it contained?" Or did he have to go monster hunting and get these idiots out of danger again? Bah.. morons.

Something else seemed to occur to him and he swore under his breath.