Chapter One: Eye of the Storm
Disclaimer: Invader Zim is the property and trademark of Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon. This story is for entertainment purposes only, with no profit being made from its existence.
Six years ago, Dib Membrane's life was changed forever when an alien named Zim touched down upon the earth. The Irken, for that was what Zim's people were called, came to the earth to see it overthrown and subjugated in the name of his race. Dib, in return, dedicated his time and efforts to thwarting Zim's plans and operations on Earth. In those six years, much changed between the two and their little private war.
On the other hand... some things never changed.
"And boom goes the dynamite," Dib said weakly, coughing slightly as his thumb pressed down upon the remote detonator in his hand. "Victory for Dib, heh," he managed out, smirking at the theft of his foe's favorite line, even as he struggled to remain standing and conscious, battered and bruised as he was. Before his eyes, explosions rocked the great mechanical tower that stood alone in the fields before igniting into a great colum of flame.
Dib was only vaguely aware of the fact that he was at risk of being hit by flaming debris, given his sorry state. Bruises all over his frame, cuts here and there, his trench coat scorched and burned... it was a miracle that the eighteen year old was still in one piece. Up in the skies, the clouds still swirled in a gray vortex that grew darker by the moment, a residual effect of the tower's earlier activation.
Dib fell down to his knees, panting heavily. "Gonna... gonna give you this, Zim..." he murmured, his hands on the ground as he struggled to stay up. "Reaaallly went all out... didn't think you had it in you anymore..." he chuckled bitterly. "Shows what I know, eh?"
He felt something cold and wet against his face, and he looked up. Rain. It was beginning to rain. Already he could hear the thunder. He tried to stand up, only to stumble back and fall onto the grass below. He felt tired. So very tired.
"Really though... making it rain...?" Dib said, his voice a tired murmur. "Storm machine seems a bit counter productive for you... but hey, what else is new, eh?"
His vision was getting blurry. Things were getting dark. Suddenly he heard something, the familiar sound of an Irken hover engine, and he felt something heavy land close by. A figure now loomed over him, not particularly tall but still imposing from his lowly angle. For a second he thought it might be Zim, but he could see no sign of the telltale antenna. Then who...?
Suddenly it clicked into place, and Dib gave a tired, bitter (and somewhat undirected) glare. Oh yes, he knew who this was, and it wasn't Zim. Zim would have been a massive stroke of good luck compared to who held power over his life now. "Oooooh poop..." he groaned out, too tired to move or to even feel the very natural and needed sense of panic he knew he should be feeling. The winds howled and the sky began to rumble, clouds illuminating momentary as the lightning course.
It was right then and there that his body and mind gave out, and darkness claimed him, blissful unconsciousness washing over him. His mind from there on was a haze as it entered the realm of dreaming, with no sense of time to constrain it. Images sped in and out and blurred into one, some of them memories, some of them conjured from his own imagination. A pattern emerged of a particular individual, someone closer to nemesis than friend and yet perched precariously upon that more benign extreme all the same, evoking feelings of dread and wonder in the young man.
The visions, the memories and dreams grew more and more intense by the moment, until finally he could take it no longer.
His eyes shot open, his body drenched in cold sweat as he sat up, heart thundering in his chest as a single name escaped his lips.
"TAK!"
He panted lightly, in a slight panic, reaching for his chest to hold over his thundering heart. The first thing he noticed was how that name echoed around him. Not a good sign. Echoes implied something cavernous. Cavernous implied isolated. Isolation plus Irken equaled a potentially dead Dib. Not good. Not good at all.
Once he calmed down some, he tried to take in his settings in a rational manner... shocking, he realized he had been laying atop a couch. A very nice couch, luxuriously cushioned and with more than enough space to accommodate him. The room he was in was indeed a large one, but rather than the twisting towers of alien technology and cabling he had been expecting, this was instead a very well furnished and decorated living room area, a very ritzy one at that. "Wha...?" for a moment he was confused. Tak had had him at her mercy, so surely, she would have taken him down into the depths of her base to put an end to him? From the looks of things though, she had simply opted to dump him into the mansion she'd comandeered for her operations on Earth.
"Oooh-kay..." he said carefully as he stood up. "Time to take stock. On the plus side? I'm still alive. Minus side? Totally at Tak's mercy. Okay, gotta focus, gotta focus and NOT panic..." he looked around carefully. "Maybe she's busy with something else and I can-"
"Oh, I'm afraid escape is quite impossible."
Dib went stock still at the sound of the refined, female voice. He swallowed slightly, eyes darting around for signs of the illusive would-be invader. He forced himself to calm again, determined to at least construct a veneer of playing it cool. "Thought so," he said wearily, before putting on a determined look and putting on his 'defender of humanity voice'. "I don't know what you're trying to pull here, Tak, but it isn't gonna work! Whatever you're scheming, know now that I am going to-!"
Suddenly there was a bright flash and the sound of thunder, and Dib could swear that the house had shaken from the force of the sound. He yelped and went spilling back in a panic, immediately becoming entangled in the decorative sheets of the couch before rolling down to the floor with a loud thud, landing on his back. He let out a pained groan, staring up at the ceiling balefully. So much for playing it cool.
A chuckle echoed around him, amused yet devoid of mirth. "I am sure that was an impressive threat you were mustering, Dib, but sadly it would have been wasted- you are in NO position to do anything," Tak said, still unseen by Dib despite his best efforts. Suddenly the air before him started to ripple, and there, looming above him was Tak, undisguised and for all to see. She was taller now than when she had first come- all of the Irkens were, though none of them would ever be considered 'tall' by the standards of most people on Earth. Why this was, Dib could only speculate, but speculate he did. He even speculated about a few... other changes the Irkens had undergone, since coming to live on earth, though he didn't DARE share anything about *that* with anyone.
Tak was smirking down at him, a catlike expression that never boded well. Speaking of cats, a disguised Mimi was suddenly by her side, before her own disguise shimmered away to reveal the true, modified SIR unit underneath. "I believe there is a saying on your planet that is VERY appropriate for this occasion, Dib," she said smoothly. "Welcome to my parlor..."
"...said the spider to the fly," Dib finished glumly, squirming in his cloth prison before at last giving up, defeated. "Complete with a web," he muttered.
"An unforseen, if rather enjoyable development," Tak said, her smirk blooming into a wickedly gleeful grin. "And what shall the spider do to this juicy little fly?" she cooed mockingly, her PAK-legs lurching towards Dib.
Dib's eyes shot open and he began to thrash about frantically. "Wait, wait, hold it! Don't-!"
The powerful limbs clasped around Dib's encased form, lifting him up, and Dib cringed away, preparing for what was surely to be the death blow... only to suddenly find his cloth prison loosening around him, allowing him to drop down on his feet before Tak, her legs working at high speed to place the coverings back on the couch, as if they'd never been disturbed to begin with. Dib looked to Tak curious, prompting a derisive snort. "Oh please, Dib, you should be aware by now that if I wanted you dead, I would have finished you then and there in the field. Her face twisted into an evil smile. "Zim is the one I want to take my time with," she hissed out. A moment later she was now regarding Dib curiously, brow raised along with an antenna. "I admit, my interest is piqued- how were you able to tell that it was me?"
"Simple- you still had your disguise on," Dib said, brushing his arm absently before continuing on. "I was blacking out already by the time you got there, but I could see and hear enough to notice a few things. Firstly, the sound your ship makes? It's different to Zim's Zoot Cruiser or my ship." At the mention of 'his' ship, Tak gave Dib an ugly look, and Dib smiled nervously. "Yeeaaaah, still sore about that, huh?" he chuckled slightly before continuing. "But anyway, besides that? Even if I couldn't see the features, I could tell you had your disguise on. Zim wouldn't bother with his, that far out and with nobody to see but me. You on the other hand would take no chances, at all." He then rubbed the back of his head, the instinct to ramble taking over swiftly. "I mean yeah, in theory Skoodge might've come over but ah... yeah, not gonna be mistaking him for you anytime soon, under ANY circumstance, heh..."
Tak listened to the analysis, her perturbed expression slowly washing away into something decidedly more neutral as he carried on, and once more the brow was up. "All that while struggling to remain conscious. I admit, Dib, I am... sufficiently satisfied by your explanation," she said. Naturally she refrained from saying 'impressed'. She would never use that word around Dib. Ever.
Despite that, Dib was able to manage a small smile. "Heh. I'll take that as a rave review, coming from you," he quipped lightly, only to let out a loud yelp when another flash of lightning and world shaking clap of thunder broke out. "Cripes!" Dib yelled out, looking towards one of the distant window. "It's still going on?" he asked, incredulous to see that despite his seeming destruction of Zim's little doomsday weapon, the weather machine still seemed to be going off as planned.
"Recall how I said escape was impossible, Dib?" Tak said, a large hover monitor floating down as she spoke. "It is not because of anything I might do to you- but rather because you really have no other safe options available."
As soon as she stopped speaking the monitor activated, a frantic news man on screen as he hastily read from his notes, the screen behind him demonstrating images as he spoke. "-freak storm affecting the surrounding area! Curiously, this unusual weather phenomenom is perfectly circular and shows no sign of expanding outward, but we are receiving reports of extreme winds and mass lightning! Everyone in the affected is advised to stay indoors, and all traffic has been suspended until the crisis ends. I repeat, all people in the affected area are advised to-"
The screen turned off, and Tak looked over to Dib impassively. "I take it you've gotten the gist of things, yes?"
"Yeah, I got the message," Dib said with a groan, taking his glasses off to rub at the bridge of his nose. "Craaaaap. I destroyed Zim's weather machine, but he managed to fire off a shot before I blew it up. This is all happening because I wasn't fast enough. Wonderful. Just... wonderful."
"As opposed to your flawless track record of nipping Zim's little schemes in the bud before they bloom into catastrophe?" Tak drawled out, scoffing lightly as she gave a dismissive wave of her arm. "You give yourself FAR too much credit, human."
"...you know if it wasn't for the fact that that's actually a pretty fair point, I'd be really ticked off with you right now," Dib said flatly before sighing. "Either way, doesn't do much to change the fact that I'm stuck here." And completely at your mercy, he added silently.
A cold smile came over Tak's face. "Yes indeed, Dib. You are entirely subject to my hospitality, at least until the storm ends. Aren't we fortunate?" she said, that smile spreading to become a chilling grin. "Oh, worry not Dib-monkey, I am nothing if not a generous hostess, especially to those who have consistently proven themselves to be so useful to me."
"Small comfort," Dib said, though he took care not to come off as TOO insolent. "But... thanks, Tak. For saving me and for letting me crash here. Not that I got much of a choice."
"Your thanks is duly noted," Tak said primly. "Understand though that I have no intention of letting you out of my sight. I am not so foolish as to leave you unsupervised within any of *my* facilities, and I warn you right now," she jutted a pointed finger against Dib's nose. "If you attempt any of your usual information gathering antics, I *will* cripple you, understood?"
Dib raised his hands defensively, frowning down at her. "I get it, I get it, alright?! Would you just calm down already, sheesh! I'm not gonna try anything so long as you don't try anything, and trust me after the day I've had, I just wanna find a nice, quiet place to sit down and wait out the storm, and that is *all*. Got it?"
Tak sneered. "Don't you DARE speak to me so lightly, Dib, not here! Not in my base!" she shot back.
"I am *NOT* taking you lightly!" Dib shouted back, frustration boiling over before he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, his tone almost pleading. "I'm just... very tired, alright? Not just from ruining Zim's stupid plan, just... this, all of this!" he said, spreading his arms randomly. "I'm not asking you to trust me, but given all the crap we've been through together, I'd like to think we could at least interact with one another without having to worry about all the usual cloak and dagger waltz of the damned crap that we always do when we're not on Skool grounds! Is that REALLY so much to ask?"
Tak said nothing in response to this, withdrawing her hand from his face and instead glaring up at him as he launched into his little tirade. When he finished, her expression remained unchanged, at least at a first glance. Dib swore he saw something- a twitch of the mouth, a motion of the brow, something about her face softening for a microsecond- but nothing he could properly hone in on and pursue, nothing that couldn't be dismissed as the result of his very over-active imagination.
Her hostile stance and expression did calm into something more traditionally neutral. "Just so long as we understand one another," she said tersely. Mimi, forgotten by the both of them in their little exchange, looked from Tak and then to Dib, tilting her head curiously before Tak swung on her heel, her back to Dib. "This mansion has guest quarters. You are free to use them until the storm is over," she said, and began to march forward, Mimi following suite. "Come."
Dib followed after her, staying quiet for a moment before his natural curiosity overtook him. "So, uh... Tak. How did you know to find me?"
"I didn't," Tak said, looking over her shoulder at him and then away, frowning slightly. "I don't know how, but Zim managed to pull off this disastrous plan of his without tripping up once. Either I'm losing my edge or that miserable little maggot," her fist tensed as she mentioned the hated one, the bane of her existence, "Is actually starting to learn a thing or two. I never would have suspected him of having the audacity to try and turn this planet's damnable weather patterns against it, though perhaps I should have prepared for his stupidity prompting him to try it. Anyway... the storm came as a surprise, and my equipment detected the use of Irken technology at the source. I flew there to inspect the source and hopefully disrupt things. Imagine my surprise to find the machine already blown to pieces, and you half-dead," she drawled out. She smirked slightly, glancing back at Dib. "Blowing up Zim's insipid projects intentionally, Dib? You really ARE getting better at this..." she then turned away again, her brow furrowed once more. "Now if only I could figure out where and how Zim got the idea to do this, and how he was able to do it without *me* noticing...!"
"Eh-heh... funny thing about that..." Dib said meekly, rubbing the back of his head. "I might have... kinda...sorta... been responsible...?"
Tak stopped in her tracks, whipping around to face Dib, flabbergasted. "...what?" she said, dumbfounded and quiet. "You... YOU gave him the idea...?" she asked, and Dib could already see the murderous rage developing, threatening to boil over. The vein throbbing on her head was a pretty clear sign.
For the second time that night, Dib raised his arms defensively, though this time he backed away just to make sure. "Not like that!" he yelped. "Please, I promise, I did not GIVE him the idea for a weather machine! But I did kinda... prompt him into it?"
Tak's jaw set, and her eyes narrowed. "Explain. Now."
"I made the mistake of implying that Zim wasn't really as into conquering Earth as he liked to rave about," Dib said, rubbing his arm as he sheepishly looked away. "And I... might've pointed out how he was doing his plans with less and less frequency compared to the early days and, well, long story short, he decided to prove me wrong."
Tak buried her face into the palm of her hand. "I am starting to think I have vastly overestimated your intellect, Dib."
"Yeah, that's fair," Dib admitted with a sheepish smile. "But hey, at least you know what he can do when motivated, right?" he offered up weakly, grasping at whatever straw he could to salvage the situation.
"Hmm, a not unworthy point," Tak said, looking up to him and tapping her chin. "Hm. You are becoming very good at this. Salvaging your mistakes and errors and turning them into advantages, I mean." An faraway look came over her now. "It is a shame that you-" she caught herself before she could finish, almost looking startled. She turned around immediately. "Come, we have taken too much time on getting you to your room as is."
Dib wasn't a fool. He'd seen it. That moment where she'd realized she'd almost said too much. He logged it in the back of his head, and followed after her dutifully. "Well given how big this place is, maybe not," he mused as he looked around. "So... this is your mansion base, eh?" he said. "You know, I don't think I've ever been in this part of the mansion before."
"Ah, glorious. Small talk," Tak drawled. "No, Dib, you have not been in this particular section before. You've always focused your efforts around the northern quarter. This is the southern quarter."
Dib let out an impressed whistle. "Man. I knew this place was big, but I didn't realize it was *this* big." Privately he wondered if it said something about Tak in particular or Irkens in general.
"What can I say. My 'father' was fond of what passes for luxury among your people," Tak said airily, an antenna quirking up in curiosity as she looked over at Dib. "Your father has comparable wealth. More than comparable. Why do you and your family live in such relatively humble conditions, then?"
"Ah, that's just dad," Dib said with a shrug. "Dad loves science and pushing the boundaries, but beyond that he enjoys what he already knows. He grew up in a house like that, so we live the way we do. Same reason he sends me and Gaz to public school rather than a private place... I think he feels it's character building or something." Dib rolled his eyes. "Nevermind that educational standards were a lot higher back when he was a kid."
"Hmf. How very... human," Tak said with a light sneer. "I would think a man as enamored with science as your father would find it far more logical to ensure his offspring have access to better resources than the average specimen of monkey on this planet."
"Apes, Tak," Dib said patiently. "We've been through this, humans are *apes*, not monkeys. Also, there IS a logic to it- he went to public school and did okay, so from his perspective, the same could hold true for Gaz and me," he continued, feeling a small need to defend his father's choices even if they didn't always make the most sense.
Tak rolled her eyes, or at least the nearest Irken equivalent. "That does not discount the detail that with the resources at his disposal, you and your sibling should enjoy access to greater advantages than your so-called 'peers'. Were it not for his useless attraction to some abstract ideal about the conditions he grew up in, you would not have to float around in the sea of wanton ignorance that is otherwise known as your classmates," she said. "Your people would benefit greatly from the Irken system."
"What, you mean having knowledge downloaded directly via the Pak?" Dib said idly, prompting Tak to halt suddenly and whip around to face him.
"How do you know that!?" she demanded sharply.
Dib smirked, pleased to have finally managed a small victory over her. "I've been watching Zim and raiding his base for data for nearly a decade now," Dib said casually. "Picked up a few things in the process. Gotta say, I'm not really seeing the benefit of the Irken system of education."
"Oh that miserable little-!" Tak growled out angrily, rubbing at the temples of her head. "He'll be the death of the Empire one day, you hear me? Somehow that defective worm is going to be the end of it all."
"Sooo I *shouldn't* stop him on Earth then and find a way to get him back to Irk, is that what you're telling me?" Dib said, grinning now.
"You will cease and desist so much as *fantasizing* about such a thing you-!"
Dib let out an amused chuckle. "I kid, I kid, calm down," he said. "Besides, my main concern is making sure he doesn't wind up blowing up *my* planet first."
Tak forced herself to do just as Dib suggested. "Yes... yes... and in doing so provide me ample time to go over my own plans," she said, more to herself than to him though. She then looked over her shoulder, towards a closed door at the end of the massive hallway. "Hm. We have arrived. Mimi, if you could be so kind?"
With a flash of red-eyes, the SIR united saluted and raced to the door, opening it in an instant. Tak led Dib inside, giving Dib a moment to observe his accomodations- a spacious room with a large bed, a closet, a desk, a personal bathroom area and a rather sizable television.
Dib let out a whistle. "Not bad. Not bad at all," he said as he stepped in, looking around admiringly.
"I am sure it's lovely by the human reckoning of such things," Tak said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You are permitted full access to the entertainment system and facilities, and should you require sustenance simply push that button," she pointed to a button connected to a speaker next to the bed. "A service drone will attend to you, and yes, the food IS human food."
"Thought about everything, huh?"
"My 'father's' job requires that he attend to guests, on occasion," Tak said. "Thus, a supply of human foodstuffs is kept on base at all times. You are more than capable of deciphering facilities and systems of this room on your own, and with that I take my leave. Remember, Dib, I have this room monitored at all times and-"
"Yeah, I know, I know," Dib said with a heavy sigh. "If I stray too far away I'll end up as swiss cheese. I'm not an idiot you know."
"Normally, no, but you ARE prone to lapses in poor judgement," Tak countered, and began to head for the door, stopping only to flinch when she heard another crack of thunder. "Gah. When this is over remind me to do something horrible to Zim at Skool. It's bad enough this planet's entire biosphere is dead set on terminating Irken life, but for him to provoke it like this..."
"Would you really need me to REMIND you to do something to Zim?" Dib pointed out.
"Point taken," Tak conceded. "Come, Mimi. We've spent enough time on our... extremely temprory guest," she said with a sniff, turning around to head out. "There is work to be done."
That word. That was a bad word, coming from Tak. A word that implied terrible, terrible things in the future. Dib looked at her warily. "And what kind of 'work' would that be, Tak?"
Tak froze in place, not looking at him. "...if I were to tell you it's not the kind of work you think it is, would you drop the matter?" she asked. This gave Dib pause. Normally Tak was a very good liar, even after the years he'd known her, and he knew enough to know that if she wanted to dissuade him from something, she would never simply up and say it. That she was doing so now was good cause to be alert, but what really caught his attention was her tone- she sounded tired, almost pleading. It was... very much unlike Tak, and Dib was taken aback by it.
"Yeah. That'll do," he said. A thought then came to him. "How important is it?"
Tak shuddered in anger, her antenna twitching as she glared at him from over her shoulder. "Oh you miserable little dirt pig! I should have known better than to-!"
"I'm not trying to find out what you're doing," Dib said quickly. "I promise I'm not, and I'm not asking if it's important to pry. I just want to know if it is important to *you*, because I wanted to propose something."
Tak turned fully now, still angry and eyes narrowed as she glared at him. "You get one chance, Dib. One chance. Only one."
"Well..." Dib rubbed his arm. "I feel kinda silly for asking but, well... I mean, the only thing I can really do until the storms stop is sit around watching TV. So I guess what I'm saying is... care to join me?"
THAT took Tak by surprise, and she stared at him as if he had lost his mind. "I *beg* your pardon?"
"You heard me," Dib said. "Sitting alone in a room for several hours while my brain rots on television isn't all that appealing. Having someone to share that with though? That at least could be a bit more enjoyable, perhaps."
It was ludicrous. It was the single most ludicrous thing she had heard out of his mouth, and considering the various things she'd heard him say over the years at both the Skools and elsewhere, that was saying something. "It's finally happened," she murmured. "You really HAVE lost your mind. What in Irk's name would possess you to think that I would ever indulge such a request?" she said, voice breaking into a slight laugh, unable to hold it back in the face of such an absurd and stupidly bold request.
"A potential break from routine," Dib said. "I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest that, when not at Skool, all of your free time is spent focusing on some plan or the next to either conquer Earth or take down Zim, right?"
"Right," Tak said, eying him warily. "And...?"
"You've been doing this for years. Why not, I dunno, take a break?" Dib said. "You've already said what you're working on 'isn't what I think it is', and if that's the case, then I'm not really doing anything to interfere with your plans to begin with. So I'm asking, how important is this work really? Is it so important that not doing it one day would ruin your life?"
Tak's expression softened, and a very rarely seen expression molded it's way onto her nearly featureless face- uncertainty. Even Mimi took note of it, looking up at her mistress with a curious tilt of her head. "It... is not THAT urgent, no," she said slowly, giving him a wary glance. "What makes you think though that I would do this?"
"For a change of pace, and well... don't you get a little tired of it?" Dib asked. "Day in and day out, I'm either going at it with Zim or allying with him against you or going against you solo or you and Zim go at it while I'm not around, and that's not even mentioning all the weird crap that seems to follow us all around even when nothing else is happening. Over and over we all do this. Don't you feel just a little bit sick of it?"
Tak opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out, the uncertainty becoming even more evident in her. After a moment of thought, she found her words. "Alright. I will concede that maybe, just maybe, you have a point. What do you hope to gain from this, then?" she asked suspiciously.
"Same thing I get whenever we're at skool," Dib said without skipping a beat. "Someone to talk to. Someone on my level. Someone who doesn't think I'm crazy. Come on, Tak, if I can buy into you being honest when you say I got nothing to worry about when it comes to your research, then maybe it's possible that I just wanna hang out, without any kind of ulterior motive?"
Tak stared at him, long and hard before shaking her head. "You are insane," she muttered, glowering slightly, shaking her head. "And your insanity is contagious, because that is the only *rational* explanation for why I would even be vaguely tempted by this ridiculous proposal of yours," she continued, looking back to him with her antenna pinned against her head.
Dib didn't lose his smile. "Is that a 'yes'~?" he asked in a teasing, sing-song voice.
Tak looked at him narrowed eyes. "It is a concession to certain points you made, not an approval," she stated sharply, pointing at him accusingly. "Understand that? I am only doing this because you have managed to provide enough evidence to suggest that this scenario may provide me insight where previous attempts at similar have failed."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Dib said with a shrug, heading over to the bed and patting a spot beside him. "Don't suppose you have any popcorn around here?"
Tak said nothing for a moment, before marching over to the bed and taking seat next to Dib. Mimi perked up and, quick as a flash, she was between her mistress and Dib. Tak stared at the television balefully. "Computer- send a drone to the back guest room with refreshments," she said tersely. A few moments later, a small, circular robotic drone floated in with a tray in hand, and upon the tray was a soda can, a glass of a liquid that Dib couldn't identify, and none other than a large bowl of popcorn.
"Wow, really?" Dib said. "I was kinda joking about the popcorn. But I'm not complaining," he said as he took the poop cola and the popcorn, looking at Tak curiously. "You like popcorn?"
"It is among those earth foodstuffs I can consume without issue. That, and it goes good with salt," Tak said, grabbing a handful of the stuff and munching down upon it. "Well, human? On with the show!"
"Right, right," Dib muttered, looking around for the remote and grabbing it, pointing it towards the television. "And so, we take your first step into the way of the couch potato."
"Oh joy," Tak drawled out, before raising a hairless brow and looking to Dib. "What do potatoes have to do with this...?"
Dib just grinned, and with a single motion of his finger, the television was on.