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]

“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.