Until Morale Improves [Closed]

[whyarewehere]

Who| Grif, Rocket, Judy, Nick
What| Grif gets his ass kicked for being a jerk on the comms, Nick is on camera duty.
Where| A hallway
When| Backdated to before Total Recall plot, but after the comm post.
Warnings/Notes| idk probably nothing

Grif hadn't expected there to be any repercussions for being a jackass on the comms. So far, the space internet had been just as free and meaningless as the regular internet. It was kind of great that way.

He did feel kind of bad about upsetting Judy. Judy was an actual upstanding, decent person. Rabbit. Rabbit person. One of those members of the team that made him feel like an asshole for being here, really. Rocket was a snarly little jackass and he didn't regret riling Rocket up a bit, but despite Grif's insistence that he was proud to be the resident jerk here, he felt the tiniest pang of regret about disappointing Judy.

She'd also planned to beat him up. And that was kind of scary, because someone who was calm about that was much more likely to have a good plan than, say, Rocket and his angry rose bushes.

When Judy had come his way, Grif had bolted the other direction. Speed was great. Speed let you get away with almost anyth-

Something grabbed Grif's ankles and he yelled as he was yanked high into the air, dangling from the corridor ceiling. Thick, thorny vines had grown here in the perfect place to trap him.

Which had to mean Rocket.

"Oh shit."

Comments

[whyarewehere]

"Pitiful" was a good word for it. Not one Grif was ever happy with in a sentence anywhere close to his name, but this wasn't the first or the last time it would land there. A certain degree of patheticness was inherent to the Grif experience, and that was what had him the most upset at the moment. They caught him, there was nothing he could do about it, and it was easy.

Just one more embarrassment for the pile.

"Because you want to make me feel like an asshole?" he replied to Nick, glaring. He was redfaced from hanging upside down, out of breath, and starting to bruise a bit. But still defiant.

[thethinzooline]

"Because I can't get angry at you," Nick said honestly. "Oh, I can be annoyed. Annoyance is easy and you excel at being annoying." He held a paw to his chest. "And I say that as someone who's annoyed other people on a near-professional level before. It's legitimately impressive."

Nick shook his head at him.

"But I can't get angry at you. I can't get outraged. That's why Judy had to do it for me. Whatever part it is that mammals have that lets them be upset on their own behalf? Mine broke a long, long time ago. See, because I wasn't allowed to be angry. Ever. That's what everyone was expecting me to be. All the time. Because of what I am."

He rolled his eyes skyward.

"That and untrustworthy. 'Shifty.' Everyone loves that word."

Words were what failed him right now, when they rarely ever did. But he also was rarely ever this honest. If it'd just been him Grif had been pushing the buttons of, maybe he never would have. He probably would've just stopped talking to him and done nothing else about it, but he couldn't do nothing when Judy and Rocket were getting disrespected, too. And he couldn't do nothing if Judy was wanting to sympathy maul on his behalf.

And that meant for once -- just for once -- he felt like he was actually allowed to be honest and speak up for himself, too. Directly.

In the end, he decided to rip everything Grif had told him about talking animals in his culture to shreds.

"Grif, we're not cute, little, fuzzy talking animals in some cartoon. We're not at the beck and call of lost human girls singing soprano in the woods. And we're not here to put on a little show to teach human children valuable lessons about honesty and sharing. We're people."

He gestured with both paws to Judy. "Judy is a person who gets called 'cute' to make her feel small and weak."

He gestured to himself. "And I get called 'shifty' because my entire world thinks that's all I can ever be, someone who steals and cheats and lies."

He gestured to Rocket. "And I'm assuming from what Rocket's told me that he gets disrespected in general because otherwise he wouldn't be this pissed at you, and because he's apparently the only one of his species in a universe full of humans --" He gestured to Grif with a flick of his paw and a raise of his eyebrows "--and hey, look at what some humans apparently think is a-okay."

He held out both paws in a beseeching gesture. "So stop. Just stop. Because this isn't stupid, harmless jokes about how ugly we find each other. This is you finding buttons we've had pushed our whole lives and pushing them on purpose even after we've told you not to -- and yes, that means we're at the point where we're ready to start snapping off fingers and hooves. Are we clear?"

[whyarewehere]

“Jesus Christ.”

Grif’s eyes rolled up. Well, not up. Floorward. “Did it occur to any of you guys to talk to me? And I mean talk to me, not whatever the hell this is.”

Because this was on another fucking level, as far as he was concerned. He was hanging from the ceiling being hit in the face. What the fuck was this?

“Talking. Just to me. Not in front of anybody else? Maybe in person, even? For like two seconds?”

That was important. It… he couldn’t just tell them why it was important because even he wasn’t sure why it was. But they couldn’t have nailed him to something serious on the comms like that. Not on a public channel. Not where people could see. Not Grif, not in a million years.

“I can’t believe you guys actually believe I think you’re not people.”

He was amazed. Amazed and… kind of hurt, actually. Grif hadn’t realized they’d thought this badly of him. He was an ass, sure. He tried. But it was different, it wasn’t supposed to be like this.

He’d thought they were playing too.

“Do you even pay any attention around here? I give shit to everybody. It’s what I’m for. Dexter Grif. Team asshole."

It was nothing personal.

"So fine. No more cutesy shifty bullshit. Whatever. But fuck you, and fuck your shitty self-righteous attitude, and if cornering me and beating me up is the only way you can talk to me, then Nick? You guys've got some fucking problems that I can not help you with."

Grif spat at Nick's feet.

He hadn't been mad, before. He hadn't been serious. It had all just been fun silly space internet games.

Not anymore.

[the_fuzz]

"And why, exactly, should we have expected you to act any different in private?" Judy replied, still glaring. She'd been done, even before Nick stepped in. She'd only wanted the one punch, and even that had been in defense of Nick rather than herself.

"It's not like you gave us any reason to. We asked, over and over, for you to stop. Not grovel, not apologize, but stop. And you couldn't even be bothered to do that. What guarantee did we have that you'd magically start listening if we talked in person?"

Because, as far as she'd seen, Grif acted the same way on the comms as he did anywhere else.

[frickingguardian]

Rocket snorted, nodding in Judy's direction. "What she said. Oh boo hoo, the asshole's upset because we didn't try to talk it out. Maybe you should've thought about people getting pissed before you started talking shit!"

He bared his teeth, and as Nick had asked, put Grif down-but having the vines lower somewhat, then suddenly let go around his ankles. It wasn't a long drop, but it was definitely meant to be one last hit.

"There, asshole. You're down. Now show off those speed powers you keep bragging about and beat it."

[thethinzooline]

Nick barely even reacted to Grif spitting at his feet. It was hardly the first time anyone'd done it.

But the rest. The rest clearly had him quiet and thoughtful. He pulled out his omnicom and deleted the recording. Aside from potentially getting him, Judy, and Rocket into a world of trouble, it felt wrong for it to exist.

"You--you just --"

For a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something else, and then his mouth snapped shut and he just waved a paw at Grif in an angry, inarticulate gesture.

"I'm not doing this."

And then he was off. He disappeared with his powers and left because he needed to. Because it was hard to deal with when anger and guilt were vying for equal attention, especially when you weren't used to feeling either so strongly.

[whyarewehere]

Grif yelped when he hit the floor and scrambled to his feet again. He took a moment to scowl at Rocket and Judy.

He could've argued with them some more. He was an argumentative sort, it was fun most of the time. But the fun had gone out of this almost immediately, and he just wanted to be left alone.

"I'm done, I've said everything I wanted to say to you guys. Bye."

And he was off and running.