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.

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.

"Vanessa has it contained now, thank goodness." Asher sighed. He looked at Esk quizzically as he swore, "What is it?"

Esk shook his head. "Just.. occurred to me why he's so mad." He sort of half laughed. "I mean damn... He nearly knocked me down coming out of here." He helped Asher pick up some of the paperwork and set it on the desk.

Asher looked at him in question, prompting Esk to tell him if he was willing to do so.
"Thank you," he said, referring to the papers.

"Think about it." Esk looked at Asher, shaking his head. He really hadn't worked it out had he? huh.
"You said the monster went for him? Kay, cornered, by a monster that probably wants to eat him? It's not like it's the first time that's happened to him. " He shook his head. "only this time nobody was around with a shotgun to save him. Interesting he went for blind rage rather than curl up and go catatonic though. I always had him pegged for the catatonic, roll over and just die type. Go figure." Esk sounded dismissive.

Asher looked at Esk, taking a moment to process that because at first he didn't understand. "Oh." He said quietly. "I'm an idiot." He shuddered, thinking of what Kay must have been flashing back to, and how he had done nothing to help. "I should talk to him," he said a bit dizzily.

Esk nodded. "A lot of people on this ship are. If you do go talk, prepare to have things hurled at you. " He paused. "At least he can't scream into your head. " He shrugged. "This Merith's blood?" He pointed.

Asher smiled weakly. "I've heard he does throw things a lot when he's angry. Should be... therapeutic for him at least. Or something." He nodded "That's Merith's blood. What happens when you regenerate fast, and make a monster chew on you for several minutes."

Esk shook his head. "that guy's a prick, I don't get why you let him wander around the ship, especially not with kids around. " He waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever, not my problem. As long as he stays away from me and my crew I don't really give a shit."

Asher nodded. "I know it's not ideal," he said tiredly. "Like you said, we're all idiots." He looked at the remainder of the mess, "Vestia, can you send a bot in here to clean up? I need to go see Kay."

"Sure thing," Vestia said. She'd send a few cleaning bots over.

Asher nodded to Esk and nervously went to find Kay.

"Asher?" Esk called after him. "Remember to duck." He smirked, nodded and headed off to find something else to do. Yeah he wasn't cleaning up this mess, bots were gonna do it. Maybe he'd tell Matt to go clean stuff too, that was always fun.

Asher headed to Kay's room and knocked on the door. "Kay?" He called softly, "I know I'm an idiot, and I could have dealt with that situation way better, and I have a better understanding of how completely I messed up now. Can we please talk for a bit?"

Kay looked up from his ball of rage and misery at Asher's voice and his eyes narrowed. He seemed to have some sort of inner conflict with himself over whether to open the door and let this moron in, or pretend like he wasn't there.
He took a deep breath, stood up and padded over to the door, opening it only enough so he could glare at Asher.

Asher was glad that Kay was at least willing to acknowledge his presence. That was... something at least, right? Yeah, he really had no idea. He just hoped he'd manage to not screw things up further here. He'd always been really good at hurting Kay by missing really obvious things, hadn't he?
"I'm sorry about how I handled that back there," he said softly, "I should have realized that Merith's ...pet needed to get out of there immediately, and I should have done more to get it out. And I should have yelled at Vanessa and Merith for you. I was thrown off a bit by Merith, but that was no excuse to abandon you like that." He sighed. "You don't have to accept my apology, but I apologize anyway. I was really stupid back there."

Kay stared at him for a while, maybe a little too long after the android had finished speaking. Then, at last he nodded curtly. Yes Asher, you were stupid.
Kay closed his eyes, teeth gritted tightly, took a deep breath and opened the door properly so Asher could come in.

He walked to the side table to pick up the tablet. [I think... ] He wrote. [That I actually really do hate Merith.]

Asher came in, watching Kay nervously while he waited for him to write something. He looked at the tablet when Kay had written, and nodded in agreement. "I've liked Merith in the past, but that was just unpleasant and mean spirited of him to subject us to that. I'm not fond of him myself at the moment."

Kay shook his head. [But that's him isn't it? putting himself first and everyone else second. He's a self centered egotistical asshole, he's ungrateful, he's petty, he's reckless and childish. I mean why us? After all we've done for him, why does he continue to treat us like some sort of cheap entertainment? To be abused and insulted and outright threatened? I sometimes feel like he actually just wants everyone to hate him, maybe he has some sort of martyr complex, maybe he's like my brother and he's intentionally pushing people away I don't know.. but.. ] He reached up to still the twitch in his eye. [I keep trying to rationalize it all, and convince myself he's worth saving but then he pulls a stunt like this and i'm left thinking why am I bothering defending someone who doesn't want to be defended, who doesn't seem to want to be saved? I find myself, no matter what, trying to help him and for what? Why do I keep doing it?] He slumped down on the edge of his bed and buried his head in his hands.

Asher moved hesitantly to sit next to him. "I wish I knew what he was doing, and what we should do. He's struggling with what's about to happen and I'm sure that's making him even more selfish than he has been in the past, but that doesn't make it okay. And maybe he doesn't want to be saved, maybe what he did is too much for him. I don't know. I doubt he'll tell us what he wants or why, maybe he doesn't know himself." He sighed, "He's messed up. All we can do is try to decide for ourselves what we want to do when we reach the Guild."

Kay shook his head. [I'm tired of all of this. ] He wrote. [I'm sick of knowing nothing and being treated like an idiot for it. I'm sick of being attacked, i'm sick of being hurt. And i'm tired of people dying around me. ] His eyes glistened with tears but he blinked them away and wouldn't let them fall. [I don't know if we can save them, and honestly, i'm not sure if I even want to. I Do believe they should be punished for what they did, but I don't believe that death is the right call. There's been too much death and it achieves nothing. But how do I stand up in front of a court or whatever it is and convince them of the integrity of a man i'm not entirely certain has any? That stupid pet of his could have killed both of us today, and neither he nor vanessa seem to care. How do you defend that? How do you defend people that you don't actually trust care if you yourself live or die? Who scold you for being angry that your safety is in jeopardy? Like how I dare I not want to die right? Maybe they've just decided if they're going down, they may as well take everyone else with them.] Anger flared in his eyes again.

Asher bowed his head. "I guess we'll never understand the immortals and they'll never understand us, and that's awful when we have to spend so much time around them." He looked back up at Kay wearily, "I guess all we can do is hope the Guild can help us. I know it's foolish to expect immortals to help us with our problems, when our problems are immortals, but it's a chance at least."
He held out his hand hesitantly, wanting to comfort Kay in whatever way he could. Words wouldn't work, he was sure, but maybe physical contact would, at least a little.

Kay shook his head, he looked hesitantly to Asher and chewed his lip. He was still pretty pissed off at Asher. Why did Merith have such an effect on the man? [I think.. ] He began. [It would be best if I stay as far from Merith as possible for the time being. I don't think I can be civil to him and if he loses his temper a lot of people could get hurt.] He frowned deeply. [I'm done with him. And Vanessa. I'll do what I can to defend them to the guild, but after that, I want nothing more to do with either of them. I can't continue to do it to myself. ] He exhaled deeply and didn't take Asher's hand.

Asher nodded and withdrew his hand. "Do whatever is best for you. If they need medical help, which they generally don't, I'll deal with it. Staying away from them is probably a very good idea."

Kay nodded, looking sullen. [I'm not sure it's fair to make you deal with Merith either, his.. her.. whatever, behavior seems to make you extremely uncomfortable. Why should either of us tolerate it? I'm inclined to suggest we find a way to ward the medical bay against all magic just as a precaution, and ban Merith completely. I doubt he'd obey a ban though.] He rubbed his temples. [We need more efficient security. I'm getting pretty tired of being threatened in my own workplace. If I wanted to work with dangerous patients i'd have signed on to work in an asylum.]

Asher sighed. "As long as he isn't trying to mess with me, I'm fine around him. It's only when he gets it in his head that it would be funny to act like... that, that I start having trouble dealing with him. We should certainly discuss magic wards for the med bay though. His behavior wasn't acceptable at all, and having that much power at his disposal makes him very hard to deal with."

Kay looked to Asher, he had a feeling he knew why Asher hated Merith acting in that manner, but he also didn't really WANT to confirm that suspicion, it wasn't something he liked to have to think about. That was selfish wasn't it?
He sighed and patted Asher on the shoulder. [I'll mention it to Starr when I next see her then, i'm sure she'll have some ideas. She usually does. ]

Asher saw no reason to confirm any suspicions Kay had, although he felt pretty certain that Kay had figured it out, because it was so not something he had any desire to think about himself. Best to keep it all nice and safely unspoken.
He smiled slightly. "That sounds good. I'm sure she can think of something that would help."