diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 363289c..ea2a2da 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,8 +5,7 @@ USRLIB_PREFIX ?= $(USR_PREFIX)/$(LIBDIR)
 SYSTEMD_LIB_PREFIX ?= $(PREFIX)/lib/systemd
 LIBEXEC_PREFIX ?= $(USRLIB_PREFIX)/bees
 
-MARKDOWN := $(firstword $(shell which markdown markdown2 markdown_py 2>/dev/null))
-MARKDOWN ?= markdown
+MARKDOWN := $(firstword $(shell which markdown markdown2 markdown_py 2>/dev/null || echo markdown))
 
 # allow local configuration to override above variables
 -include localconf
diff --git a/contrib/gentoo/bees-9999.ebuild b/contrib/gentoo/bees-9999.ebuild
index d39b895..0742ee8 100644
--- a/contrib/gentoo/bees-9999.ebuild
+++ b/contrib/gentoo/bees-9999.ebuild
@@ -12,9 +12,7 @@ if [[ ${PV} == "9999" ]] ; then
 	EGIT_REPO_URI="https://github.com/kakra/bees.git"
 	EGIT_BRANCH="integration"
 else
-	IUSE=""
-
-	SRC_URI="https://github.com/Zygo/bees/archive/v${PV}.tar.gz -> bees-${PV}.tar.gz"
+	SRC_URI="https://github.com/Zygo/bees/archive/v${PV}.tar.gz -> ${P}.tar.gz"
 fi
 
 PATCHES="
@@ -26,12 +24,16 @@ SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS=""
 IUSE=""
 
-DEPEND="
+COMMON_DEPEND="
 	>=sys-apps/util-linux-2.30.2
 	>=sys-devel/gcc-4.9
 	>=sys-fs/btrfs-progs-4.1
 "
-RDEPEND="${DEPEND}"
+DEPEND="
+	${COMMON_DEPEND}
+	|| ( dev-python/markdown dev-python/markdown2 )
+"
+RDEPEND="${COMMON_DEPEND}"
 
 DOCS="README.md COPYING"
 HTML_DOCS="README.html"