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[impure_tale]

Since I haven't the pleasure of addressing the culprits responsible in person this will have to suffice: She won't forget you, but I may forget to keep hold of her leash when next you meet.

[Spam for Megamind]

[He's started to bring Renate out for walks again, starting on the main deck, and she has been less given to run, at first laying her ears back at many a person that walks by her and shying from other dogs. Today is a little better. Trusting her master's hand and herself, her sense of play has begun to slowly return. For this the Marquis is glad. She still, at times, will stop and whine when he reaches to pet her, something apologetic coming out of her, perhaps, from some memory of what the sickness had done to her -- impressions that were hazy and dream-like and perhaps not full memories, given what it had done to her mind.]

Comments

[megamind]

She's a smart girl. She'll bounce back.

[ The Marquis, on the other hand... ]

You, uh, okay?

[impure_tale]

Right as rain, dumpling. [He smiled.] Just healing. Much as she is.

[megamind]

Ahuh. Well, uh. Okay.

So, uh...

I suck at small talk.

[impure_tale]

Small talk is not for greater minds. What would you prefer to talk about?

[megamind]

Heh. I don't know. When I talk lately I seem to make everybody mad, or they tell me I'm wrong, or things are too hard, or... whatever.

Kind of a downer.

[impure_tale]

I would offer to agree with everything you say, but that's hardly challenging. [A glance] You do not make me angry. [But then he's not an easy one to anger.]

[megamind]

That would be dishonest and boring.

I consider boring the worst of those, by the way.

[impure_tale]

[A little chuckle. Renate can be heard barking in the distance but it's not an alarming sound.]

I'm impressed you want to talk at all. I thought I'd made you angry during one of our last discussions.

[megamind]

I don't really hold grudges. You really have to make me mad to really get me to hold a grudge. [ like Rorschach ] I just don't agree with you. And everything I see makes me want to graduate... and dread it, too.

[impure_tale]

At least you wish to graduate at all. Many don't even go that far.

[megamind]

I have something I want. A deal will get it. I don't want to I've up who I am to get it, but I can do the math, you know ?

[impure_tale]

Why do you think you have to stop being who you are?

[megamind]

Because that seems to be the point. If I don't give up what I do, I can't leave. I can't go home a villain. But it is what I am, what I have always been.

I mean, sure, I can save people and be allowed to do good things here... but only to a point. I go home? It will be back to prison for good, then.

[ At this point, he knows he would have to flee back to the barge, rather than rot in prison. ]

[impure_tale]

[A sigh, there.] A familiar notion, that.

[megamind]

So.. yeah. Not a lot of incentive to give up who I am.

Thankfully my deal would be pretty hefty, so it's worth it to try.

[impure_tale]

To be perfectly honest, knowing as little as I do about you, I don't think it's who you are.

I know what it means not to be able to go home without fear of imprisonment, however. [And his eyes slowly glance off to something away from them] ...Or being burnt at the stake, seeing as how I am dead. But having been an Inmate I believe I can say that I am still me. The features that define me are still there. I have simply... [a wince] It is not too silly, I hope, to refer to myself as "maturing" at such an old age, is it?

[megamind]

Well, it's not you who has to think that. It's me.

...did you say 'burnt at the stake'? [ Ew. ] I'm--not the guy to ask about maturity. I build robots and plan city take overs. Not exactly the height of maturity here, but it's real fun!

[impure_tale]

To clarify, I think you are more than simply a title that has been afforded you.

[megamind]

That's, uh, generous of you, I guess. [ To not think he's... just a supervillain. Or a freak. Or whatever people are calling him today. ]