In Which the Overlord is Flat On His Face

[badassfreakingoverlord]

It's going to be one of those days.

In the hallway directly outside the mess hall lay a book. The bright red body and overall size clearly pointed to it being the Overlord, for those familiar with him, but his back cover was the one facing upwards. No sign of any minion around. None of the cursing, struggling, and flopping one would expect from Zetta in such an undignified posture.

Just a tome, lying flat on the ground, as if a crew member had simply discarded it thoughtlessly.

Comments

[thewunderkind]

"No you're not!" Lash insisted right back (there was a lot of insisting going on). "I bet you don't even remember being unconscious, just like that time in space!" Yes Lash, please bring out that time when you ended up being unconscious in space as well, a good way of arguing anything.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I told you I'm fine! What the hell could happen to me?! A, I'm the Overlord still, and B, I'm a freaking book!" Insist insist insist. "What am I gonna come down with, paper pox?!"

[thewunderkind]

"You could be!" Lash replied, having no idea what the heck paper pox could be. "Does it involve you being unconscious like that?!"

She shook him for dramatic effect. And totally not caring.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Paper pox doesn't EXIST!" he all but roared -- unsteady, because, well, he was being shaken. "I'm freaking fine!"

[thewunderkind]

Raising his tone just meant she'd try to make hers down him.

"SO WHY WERE YOU ON THE FLOOR?!" Hey, it was a good question, if anything!

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I WASN'T!" Yeah, even he's pretty sure he was. But reflexive denial was the Overlord's natural response. Judging by the awkward look he adopted immediately after the words left his mouth, though, even he knew that was going just a bit too far.

[thewunderkind]

"YOU WERE!" Yeah Lash saw that look, but hell if she wasn't going to drive that point in. "What do you remember last?" The tone was a bit softer.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I was eating!"

That would explain why he was right outside the mess hall.

[thewunderkind]

"Oh....and then? Do you remember finishing eating and walking out or just...nothing at all?"

Shut up she was not worried about this.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Yeah, I had my minion carry me out and -- and then someone started HITTING!" Zetta said, right back to glaring at Lash.

[thewunderkind]

"But there wasn't a minion there...and there isn't one now." A pause, as she considered her options and, of course, went with the most complicated one. "Maybe I should put a tracer on you to monitor you to see whats happening exactly."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"W-what the hell do you mean a tracer?!" Zetta said, attempting to back up (and obviously failing wholeheartedly). "I'm not gonna be tracked all the time!"

[thewunderkind]

Too late the idea had been planted in her head.

"Oh just a tiny chip thing! I'd be the only one who knew too, so it wouldn't be like...the entire engineering group that would know about it."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I WOULD KNOW!" Zetta protested. "And it would probably explode!"

[thewunderkind]

"I promise it wouldn't. I could attach it to your yellow ring. It's so tiny you wouldn't even notice its there." Well, if Lash could build it properly anyway. "I dunno if it would really work with the ship, mind you."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"And what's your contingency plan if someone goes, 'Hey Zetta, what's that on your ring?'" The book eyed her suspiciously.

[thewunderkind]

"I'm the damn badass Overlord, I do what I want and that's none of your business, you foolish, puny mortal?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Would that work with you, Hit Girl, or Ruffnut?" Zetta said accusingly.

[thewunderkind]

"Not really! But I'm pretty sure they'd understand." Lash thought so, anyway. At least before she cracked a grin.

"Granted they might see this as a sign of weakness and challenge you." And now she was just teasing and being terrible. At least this was tossing some of the tension aside.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"EXACTLY!" Zetta said, doing the exact opposite of shedding tension. "No trackers! There's nothing wrong with me anyway!"

[thewunderkind]

Oh. Well. Down that path again, then.

"I contacted you on your comm system an hour ago. Or that feels like an hour ago anyway. You can check if you want, and you'll see."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"For -- for all we know it was like ten seconds!" Another feeble argument from the Overlord. "You know time is weird here! What were you trying to contact me about anyway?"

[thewunderkind]

She just started at him, knowing that even from the Overlord, that was a really weak argument.

Then she spoke up about her problem at had.

"Oh Dog wrapped himself in a cocoon." You know, it really said something that she was now treating this as the normal thing between that and finding the Overlord unconscious.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta latched onto this as an eager chance to get off the topic they were talking about (and really, didn't that occur in about three-quarters of their conversations?). "A cocoon? Are you sure it's a cocoon and not a chrysalis?"

[thewunderkind]

Well his gamble paid off, as Lash was momentarily distracted. "Isn't that just the same thing?" she replied with a slight shrug, rubbing her hand over her chin. "Look human organics and technology she knew. But humans did not come from cocoons or chrysalis.

Part of her was surprised Zetta knew the word at all.

"I guess you could say he's in one of those too, yeah."