#evilmcg

@evilmcg sent: “Mortimer! I need you to help me!” from ghost Meg

Morty had seen many things during his short life, much more than most people (humans but not only). His Rick had made sure that he would witness enough horrors and wonders for him to have learnt to expect everything. An endeavour that has been successful, because each and every experience had been traumatically burnt into the teen's mind, to the point that there was very, very little that could surprise him nowadays.

Ghosts didn't happen to be on that short list. He had been face to face with various kinds of undead beings, spirits of the deceased included.

Yet, he would have lied if he had claimed that being faced with this specific ghost hadn't caught him off guard. Because it...she had. And seeing her left him unsettled for more than one reason, which however had nothing to do with her current form.

The feelings that have fired up with the news of her death and that had never quieted down after that flared up the moment his amber eyes landed on her pale face.

For several seconds, all the president did was staring, his face completely devoid of emotions, even if there was an odd stiffness in his features and a darkness in his gaze. Then, always without a word, he reached out for the bottle of scotch that these days he always kept within his arm's reach. He poured a generous amount of liquor in his already used glass.

Only once he had finished his drink and gotten himself a refill, he finally spoke up.

"...Of course you do," he murmured, glancing away. He couldn't deal with looking at the image that was floating before him. It made him sick, even if he refused to acknowledge the feeling. "You wouldn't be here otherwise. I'm assuming you already tried going to other me and the results were...unsatisfactory."

He lifted the glass to his mouth, taking a long sip from it. He could relate to her frustration. He had been experiencing that very same emotion very often lately.

"I'll tell you what he should have told you. His Rick and mine are working on bringing you back to life. It won't take too long, so...sit tight and be patient, for once. It's not like it would kill you."

The last words were supposed to be a cruel joke, but the words were spoken with such bitterness that didn't leave space for even the smallest hint of amusement. Morty washed it down by downing the rest of the scotch, and finally looked back towards Meg.

"Is there anything else your forever second choice can provide?"

@evilmcg & @countlessrealities {mentioned}

The question caused the ever-so rare occurrence of a small chuckle, muffled by an even smaller smile. The president's hand brought itself to cover it absent mindedly, limp wrist and relaxed rather than actually hiding it. He couldn't believe the bold question. The audacity to ask him about his love life.

Well, his messed up version of one, at least.

"I can see why you'd be confused and I could give you a simple answer, but it isn't that simple really," If it would have, that'd be too boring for someone like him. He needed the dramatics, the constant chaos around him. It's what he missed in his life. "Because these things just never are,"

Straightening his posture, his face sobered a little. His tone a bit softer and yet firm as he spoke. "Let's start with my counterpart, he's an interesting one, someone who can keep up with me, but what we have --- I.. I'm not quite sure what this mutual understanding between us is, but for now, that's what it is. A mutual understanding,"

He knew how vague the term was. So many implications hidden underneath. Layers of unspoken words entangled within those two words.

@evilmcg sent: "I demand attention." for Evil Morty

At first, when Meg marched into his office without knocking, Morty had barely spared a glance in her direction. She had been taking plenty of liberties with him since they had made their relationship official and he wasn't exactly pleased, but he had let it slide...for the most part. After all, she tended to have at least some semblance of reason to disturb him.

Besides, he could always get back at her if she annoyed him too much. And that would have been what he would have done this time too, if it hadn't been for the pushy request that followed.

Now only the words had Morty stop typing so that he could fully look at her, but he was left so surprised that he completely forgot about his displeasure. Saying that this was unusual would have been a big understatement.

He quickly managed to school his expression back into an unimpressed mask, but he was very aware that she had to know that she had caught him off guard. How grating.

"...What is this?" He asked in the end, tone flat if not for a hint of suspiciousness. "A practical joke? Did you take the wrong portal and end up here instead of in other me's office? Or maybe he doesn't have time for you, so you came here hoping for a better outcome?"

He briefly rose a brow, before returning his eyes on the screen, clearly ready to dismiss her and go back to his work.

Plotted starter for @mcltiples & @evilmcg

The air in the lab was still and cold, saturated with the pungent smell of chemicals and disinfectant. Under other circumstances, there would have been other odours in the mix, coming from various experiments and test subjects, but Rick had made sure to remove any trace of his usual activities for the occasion.

Not only the procedure was delicate and demanded his utmost attention, but there was an emotional value to it. Not for him, of course, but for everyone else who was in the room with him. It seemed appropriated to treat it as a ritual.

The tools and devices he needed were already in place, perfectly aligned on the mobile side table set next to him, ready for use. He was very peculiar on how the instruments should be positioned, but he would have been more lenient about it today. After all, his counterpart would have been assisting him and he couldn't demand that the other knew every detail of his methods.

Grey blue eyes landed on the corpse that was lying on the operating table, studying it for a moment, blank expression unreadable. It had been perfectly preserved, as if mere seconds had passed from when her heart had stopped, but no one could have denied that this was a portrait of death.

The cold, naked flesh was too pale, closer to grey than to its usual rosy complexion. The hair was messy and spent, no trace of its usual volume and softness. The limbs were perfectly still and rigid. The face, unmoving and expressionless, was the biggest giveaway, even if he had made sure to close the eyes.

Holding a syringe in his gloved hand, Rick turned his attention on his other self, who was standing on the opposite side of the table.

"L-Let us begin," he spoke up, draining the vial of orange liquid that his counterpart was holding for him. "I-If any complication presents, I'll handle it myself."

Not that he thought that there would be any. It was a procedure he had perfected through the years. However, he knew better than being overly arrogant. In the unlikely case something went wrong, he would be ready.

Leaning against the whole, away from the too bright white lights, Morty watched in silence as his Rick injected the first drug in Meg's dead veins. Just as his second-in-command, his expression betrayed no emotion, even if his lips were pressed together in a thin line. A little hint that betrayed that he wasn't as unfazed as he was trying to look.

From his spot, he couldn't fully see the operating table, but he didn't need to when he could easily watch the procedure through his Rick's eyes. Literally.

Besides, even if he wouldn't have admitted it, he felt more comfortable remaining in the dim darkness. It made it easier for him to hide any reaction he might have against his will. Self-control wasn't something he lacked, but the feelings and the thoughts that had been festering inside him for weeks now had grown powerful and unpredictable.

Useless to say, the fact that he was conflicted about what was taking place in that moment didn't help. He would have never denied Meg the chance to be alive again. He could be cruel and he had been unfair to her plenty of times, but he would never cross such a line with someone he cared for. On the other hand, though, he couldn't stop thinking about how he would have soon be set aside, relegated to a background role while his counterpart and the girl were all over each other.

He had hoped that forcing them to put him at the centre of their world while she had been gone would have softened the blow that was about to come, but the knot that was squeezing his stomach in that moment told him that it hadn't worked.

Pathetic, that was what he was. Wounded by something as trivial as emotions. Perhaps this was for the best. It could have been his chance to walk away and get rid of the weakness that relationship had brought him.

A firm tug coming from the back of his mind snapped him out of his gloomy contemplations. He lifted his eyes just in time to meet his Rick's for a moment. No thought or gesture passed between them, but there was no need for it. He knew what he was being told.

CUPID'S ARROWS EVENT || Closed.

@evilmcg sent: “Can I help you with something?” (for Evil Morty)

Morty found himself freezing in surprise for a moment when the voice that greeted him wasn't the one he had expected. After the odd events of the morning, he had decided to come and check on his counterpart. First of all to know whether anything weird had happened on the other Citadel too or not, and secondly, even if he wouldn't have admitted it openly, to make sure that the other hadn't been affected.

Yet, when he opened the door of the conference room, he hadn't found himself face to face with his mirror image, but with the last person he would have wanted to discuss the matter with.

Or, at least, that was what he would have thought until a moment before his gaze landed on Meg. Yet, after they did, he couldn't remember a single reason why he could have wished not to run into her.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he spoke, before his mind could catch up with the words. His charming president persona had automatically slipped in place, but there was something off about it. "In all truth, I was looking for you specifically."

A little lie, but spun so fluidly that it sounded like nothing but the honest truth. What was unsettlingly, however, was the intensity with which his amber eyes were locked on her.

"I've been...thinking," he went on, stopping right in front of her, a mere inch too close than it was proper. "All this...animosity isn't doing us any favour. So, perhaps, we should try to find a new ground for our interactions."

@evilmcg sent: She just strolls into his office and kisses him out of nowhere. (For E-Morty)

The sound of the door of the office being thrown open hardly disturbed Morty's focus. There was only one person who would dare to barge in uninvited and without knocking, and by now he had gotten used to her unplanned visits.

What he wasn't expected was the change in their usual script that happened next. Usually Meg would either wait for him to finish what he had been in the middle of doing or she would have made some annoying noise, like clearing her throat or tapping her foot, to force him to give her his attention instantly.

This time, instead, the girl had other plans. Before the president could do or say something, Meg had walked around the desk and come to stand right next to him. Morty barely had the time to look up before her hands framed his face without warning and the next moment he was being kissed. Fervently and insistently.

All he could do was responding to the gesture, a little clumsily, even if he would have denied that even under torture, because of how taken aback he was.

@evilmcg - Continued from HERE

Wow that threw her for a loop. When it came to mortimer she just kind of assumed they'd remain having a casual relationship forever, but it sounded like he wanted things to get serious.

"Alright I'll bite. We have been having fun, but there are certain things I want from you, but first you gotta tell me something. What exactly do you want from a relationship with me? This game you're playing with me, what's the end goal? What do you really want, Mortimer?"

Morty's lips curled in the smallest frown at Meg's reply, but the hint of annoyance was as quick to go as it had come, and it was almost instantly replaced by a blank mask.

Instead of answering right away, he took the time to retrieve a bottle of scotch and two glasses, pouring a thumb in each before sliding one towards the girl. She didn't have to drink, if she didn't want to. He, on the other hand, was going to have at least a few.

"When I first learnt of your existence and your ties with other me, I just wanted to mess with you and send you running...hopefully into the Blender Dimension, but I wasn't too picky," he started after taking a sip of liquor. His tone was flat and unreadable, not unlike the one his Rick used most of the time. "I wasn't expecting to have this much fun with it. So, after a while, the 'sending you running' part stopped being important."

The real turning point in their relationship might have been that one afternoon they had spent together while he was under the effect of a drug, but the truth was that his despise for Meg had mellowed before then already.

"I never had friends. I don't know how relationships are supposed to work. Platonic, familiar, romantic. I never had the chance to learn about them." He had a family, once, but it was such in name only. "The only relationship I understand is the one Rick and I share and...It can't be applied to anything else."

He wouldn't go into details, he had no wish to. He never talked about his past, never bothered to explain what exactly went on between himself and his second-in-command. It was no one's business but theirs.

"Let me make things absolutely clear." He joined his hands before him, staring at the girl dead in the eye. "I don't see you as an equal and I never will. In my eyes, you will always be beneath me. I won't go out of my way to meet your expectations because I don't care enough to do it. I don't love you and I'll never be in love with you."

She could take or leave it, he didn't care. As long as she was aware that, whatever her decision would be, he wouldn't stop what he had started.

"That said...I suppose that I've started to...like you, in a way. Our little outings are something I've come to look for. You've proved yourself to be less insufferable than I initially thought. I enjoy your company, when I feel like entertaining it."

He was speaking smoothly, but the truth was that being this honest on personal matters was anything but easy for him.