video;

[goodluckkobra]

[ The video comes on and it's mostly his bright yellow motorcycle helmet, the garish smiling face and GOOD LUCK printed over the visor. ]

--fuckin' hell.

[ He's off balance, but he catches himself and flips up the visor to give a toothy grin. ]

Lookin' to get my hands on some paint or dye or fabric. Bright colors.

[ He looks thoughtful for a moment. ]

Or music. Somethin' loud and fast. Gotta be somethin' worth looking at or listening to on this ship.

Name's Kobra Kid, by the way. Anyone heard of me? Kind of a big deal where I'm from.

Comments

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Okay, I'm with you so far. Evil assholes suck.

[She'll chastise herself later for sounding about as intelligent as Dean...]

Some proper nouns could help though.

What evil assholes are you talking about?

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Better Living Industries.

[ The name is spit out like he's talking about Hitler. ]

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Mmm, can't say I'm familiar with that particular Big Bad.

[She bites on the inside of her cheek for a moment.]

Do they go by another name? Something like COMPASS, maybe?

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Never heard of COMPASS. You'd know if you'd heard of BLI. They control everything they think's worth controlling.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Had to ask.

[She's paranoid. Sue her.]

And how about your name?

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

What about it? Either you heard of me or you haven't.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

I haven't.

Sorry.

[Not that she's going to lose sleep over that.]

My name's Fatima Merali. You haven't heard of me.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Nothin' to be sorry for. Just means you're not from where I'm from.

[ Which could be good or bad. He's not really in the business of caring if it won't affect his life back in the Zones. ]

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Well, no. But this isn't exactly my first rodeo in inter-dimensional kidnapping either.

[A pause. Fatima shakes her head slightly.]

She said without any irony.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Wait, seriously? 'Cause I've been shot and kidnapped and drugged, but this whole space thing is pretty fuckin' new.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

I really, really wish I were kidding.

I just did a year and a half hard time as prisoner of this organization called COMPASS.

...where I was kidnapped and drugged and...nearly shot by an incompetent boozer.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Was that also in space?

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Um...not regularly. But there was this one time we were subjected to a stress test on a space station.

It...didn't go well.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Wonder if anyone else here's been through shit like that.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

[She has to bite the inside of her cheek for a moment. To be certain, there's no one from Zelien here. She's double and triple checked.

No. She left them behind.

...to die.]

I don't know. The multiverse is...infinite.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

What, like a fuckin' comic book? You really buy that?

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

You meet four versions of the same guy, you tend to become a believer. Pretty quickly.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Whoa. You think there's another me out there? You think he'd be up for a good time?

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Probably. But your odds of meeting him are...

Actually, I dunno what they are.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Hope they're high. I wanna meet that sexy motherfucker.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

You have a refreshingly positive outlook on things.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Guy's gotta know what he likes.

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

I find no fault in this argument.

I'll definitely let you know if I ever learn about you having a doppelganger.

[VIDEO]

[goodluckkobra]

Looks like I got a real friend in you.

[ Not that he actually trusts her. Or anyone else. ]

[VIDEO]

[dust_of_life]

Oh dear. I feel a song coming on.

We better quit while we're ahead.