2013.07.10 - Weaponized Burgers and Empties

A warm summer evening, full of hot and hazy and lazy. The sun is low in the sky, the approach of evening doing nothing to break the heat of the day. Only up here on the roof is there a breath of a breeze, a hint of air to ease what is downright sultry at ground level. For those unwilling to face the summer warmth, indoors is perfectly climate controlled, but at least one has come up onto the roof. The sounds of a guitar hang on that warm summer air, being played almost lazily to suit the weather. Jazmin has perched with her guitar in her lap, a bottle of silverale sweating nearby.
Having just gotten back from seeing his sister fly off on a date with Vance Astrovik, Garth is resisting the urge to trail after them just to see what they were doing. And yet, after stepping in and busying himself a bit, he gives in, moving towards the roof. About to fly off, the sound of music draws his attention, and so the young Winathian follows the sound to... 
"Hi, Jazmin," Garth greets, glancing at the setup, before regarding the Xanthian curiously. "I didn't know you played." 
"I don't think you've ever asked." Jazmin points out with a smirk, looking up from the guitar. She pauses only a few notes after that, reaching over for her ale. "Where're you off to?"
"Oh, uh... I was thinking about checking on Ayla and her date, but..." Garth's voice trails off, and he shrug. "I guess I shouldn't. So, um..." Giving a slightly sardonic twist of his mouth, the Winathian takes a seat. "What're you playing?" 
"Ayla's on a date?" Jazmin perks up and grins. "Good for you. No you shouldn't go spy on her.. she doesn't need /you/ screwing it up! Who's she on a date with? Anyone I know?" There's a fairly general shrug. "Mostly I'm just sort of playing around. There's a lot better access to historical music in this time, well. It's not all that historical for them, so I can try and play by ear."
"I wasn't -going- to screw it up, just... do more homework on that guy. He's uh... Vance Astro ... Astro Boy. He's trying out for the Legion, it seems. So I've got to do a bit more checking up on what makes him tick. Your typical space cadet..." Garth says, as he looks towards the guitar. "Oh. The classics, right? Van Halen, Aerosmith... Bieber?" 
"Beiber, mercifully, wouldnt know a guitar riff if it bit him so no, you don't get to taunt me about Beiber." Jazmin snorts softy, even if she nodded to the others. "BB King, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn.. not just rock." She ahs softly. "You can research him when he's not on a date with her.. she can give you info on /that/.. well unless she's wildly biased. It might go horribly after all."
"... Right. As long as I don't have to listen to the details of the date..." Garth replies, as he eyes the guitar. "You been wandering around all the different music clubs, or have you found a..." He glances over to see Jazmin's Omnicron. "
"Or have I found a ... what?" Jazmin prompts and then rolls her eyes at him. "Send her my way, I'll listen to all the details of her date. The music clubs generally require legal id, and mine still claims that I'm under the legal drinking age. So, no.. not yet have I found one that doesn't wish me to wait two years because they can't fathom the idea that my impressionable self might be near alcohol." Which does, clearly, require a long draw from her silverale.
Jazmin is perched on the roof on a sultry summer's evening, her guitar in her lap momentarily silenced as she chats with Garth.
"Too bad," comments Garth. "We've managed to get by, we found a few locations that don't really ask too many questions especially if you have facial hair. Plus, Imra sometimes just give them a -look-, and... well they let her right in." 
"I'm telling you, the fast food in this century is not something you should technically call food. It's all chemicals and premade...stuff. I'm pretty sure even my breath couldn't cut through that so-called meat". Marya Pai is wandering up towards the roof, chatting with Salu Digby about, of all things, fast food. She'd been out wandering and tried one of those restaurants. It had not been an enjoyable experience. It's at that moment she spots Garth and Jazmin. "Oh, hello there. Didn't realize this roof was occupied," the woman comments with a small grin.
Salu pops out of the tube just behind Marya and says, "Not so different from the ag planets," she notes. "Winath and its grain? You think that's not processed?" The Imskian carries a box under her arm, and rolls her eyes faintly on seeing Garth. "Speaking of Destroyers..." she says, and holds out the box, extracting a bottle from it.
"Call me a stick in the mud, or unduly lawful or whatever, but it just doesn't seem worth it to indimidate the doormen into letting me in. I can just get recorded music." Jazmin reaches a hand up to rub at her chin. "And I /really/ dont think facial hair is going to suit me quite so well." She lifts that hand to wave to the fresh arrivals. "The roof isn't exactly an exclusive location, although now I'm thinking I should have brought more beer up here. I didn't realize I'd need to be sharing. How're you two?"
"You -could- just speed up the clock so they don't get a good look," Garth replies, grimacing. 
Salu and Marya gets a wave, although the Imskian is eyed. "Okay, what did I do now?" he asks, looking back and forth between the new arrivals. 
"Oh, don't worry about it. I've got access to my own if I want it," Marya tells Jazmin easily. "I've found some places that don't bother with ID". The woman shrugs at that easily enough. "I'm doing alright. Just had one of the worst meals of my life, but otherwise I'm doing fine". She shakes her head at Salu. "No, not a chance it's as bad as this stuff. Some place called 'White Castle'. I dare you to try it sometime".
"Just go in and look like you'll shoot them," Salu says, smirking. The good news, is, that she's brought another six-pack. Salu sits down on the ledge, cracking open the bottle with her hand. "Something, no doubt," she says to Garth. "How're you?" she asks, lifting her bottle in salute to Jazmin.
"I /could/, yes, but it's a bother, and I dont see the point." Jazmin replies to Garth and then grins a moment at Marya. "I may need to get those addresses from you. I.. walked into white castle, and the smell sent me right back out again. I'm not sure that's /food/." She sets her own bottle back down, strumming at her guitar as conversation settles to more social.
"Well, I -thought- about going to check on Ayla, but Jazmin's right, she's a grown woman, she can handle herself. Even if she's dating one of the Legion tryouts," Garth replies as he looks towards Jazmin. "Well, I think you have to be in a special -mood- to enjoy White Castle. Like going to Canada." Smiling, Garth moves over to sit next to Salu, reaching for a six-pack, remembering just in time who he was sitting next to. "Uh... do you mind?" 
"I'll send them over to you. I'll even include store and bar names," Marya responds with a grin. Because those were useful things to have! "Which tryout?" she questions Garth, looking over at him. Marya had a feeling that Garth might have some protective feelings about Aya, given what he was saying. "I don't usually keep up on the who is dating who thing. Tends to get messy, especially with the multiple futures thing". She pauses. "And no, it isn't food, I'm pretty sure. I think I could weaponize those burgers though".
"Was that an open question?" Salu asks of Garth. She tilts her head and looks at Jazmin, as if she might have more explanation. "You'll owe me a favor," she tells Garth gravely. "Tryouts are my favorite," she says with a devious smile.
"There's a difference between 'going on a date with' and 'dating'." Jazmin points out to Garth with a tsk. "You have to be in a /mood/ to go to Canada?" She uhhs softly and then nods to Marya. "Thanks. Astro Boy, or some flavour of him. I hadn't heard that he was going to try out or that he and Ayla were going on a date. But so Garth says."
"Yeah. Well, Vince Astro-boy is going out on a date with Ayla. Last I saw, they were flying around up..." Garth motions upwards. "So they're probably cloud-gazing or something. I'll just have to..." And then something sinks in, and Garth eyes Salu. "A favor for -what-?"
"Huh," is Marya's incredibly intelligent remark to Garth staying who Ayla is going out with. She watches the banter quietly for the moment. She makes a note to send the information on over to Jazmin before turning her attention back over at them. "Well, if it makes them happy and all". That's the way Marya sees it. The woman then smiles at Garth just realizing the bit regarding him owning Salu a favor, and just doesn't say anything.
Salu takes a big gulp. "Good for her," Salu says. "I hope. Don't know a Vance," she says. Salu mmmphs towards Garth. "That would be telling," she says, and plucks a beer out of the pack, offering it to him (and all the delicious strings attached to it)
"I don't know Vance either, but I am looking forward to pumping Ayla for information when she gets back." Jazmin picks out a blues riff on the guitar, adding background music to the gossip. "I tend to agree with you, Marya. Dating is more trouble than its worth."
"I need to do the same." Garth sighs, Regarding the bottle and then Salu curiously, the Winathian sighs, before holding his hands up. "Fine. If you get the info on Ayla's date, I can figure out what to do with his tryouts," he says, as he takes the cold bottle and pops it open, taking a swig. "And Marya...? I want my sister happy. So I wanna make sure this guy is -really- good." 
"Haven't had any brilliant ideas for what to do for it, huh? What have you rejected so far?" Marya asks Garth. She wasn't really big into doing the tryout thing. She'd never been in a position to deal with it herself though, really.
A nod is given to Jazmin. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind dating, but I guess with the whole timeline jumping thing, I'm not sure I want to get into it. I mean, I might get yanked back at any second, for all we know". She shrugs at that. "Makes it hard to think about having a long term relationship of that type".
"Dating," Salu says, shaking her head. "You all lack focus," she says, taking another swig. "Aim for what's important, the rest will sort itself out.
"And in your mind, Salu, what do you qualify as important?" Jazmin asks as she shifts her hand for another chord, her attention more on the guitar than looking over to the person she's speaking with.
"Getting home," is Garth's response, even though nobody asked him. Taking a swig of his beer, the Winathian sighs. "I still think we should take a look at trying to get through that time/space portal, see if we can open them long enough to take a peek." 
"I figure that if it's going to happen, it'll happen to us regardless. I'm all for making our own destiny and everything, but chance grabbed us. I suspect we're not going to get to go home until we do whatever has to be done here," Marya says with an easy shrug.
She lets Jazmin's question stand for her, however, regarding what was important. Marya was curious as to Salu's answer to that now.
"Of course," Salu says. "You don't want that?" she asks Garth, looking at him directly.
"I dont want to ignore everything else in the here and now because we might someday go home, either." Jazmin points out. "I don't think it's an either/or scenario. I can appreciate the 21st century and enjoy the music and people and still want to go home."
"Of -course- I do. I just don't think we should be passively awaiting our fates. Maybe if we could find out more info for Brainy, or... I don't know, poke at the Phantom Zone..." Garth tilts his head. "Till then, I guess, we catch criminals here." 
There is a nod to Garth. "I can see that. I'm not an expert on that area, but if we want to explore something like that, I will gladly go with to help out however I can," Marya says. She was just fine with people wanting to go home. She wasn't entirely sure she'd want to go home herself, given the state of things, but that was another discussion entirely.
She gives a nod to Jazmin as the woman explains her views about enjoying things in the her and now as well.
"Hasn't he been locked his lab for months? I haven't even /met/ him," Salu says with some upset in her voice at that. "Aren't /you/ supposed to be a leader?" she asks Garth. Salu narrows her eyes and leans back against the rail, focusing on he rdrink. "We're not all history buffs like Tinya."
"Rokk is, currently, our leader. Brainy roams out now and then, but I can't argue that he's hard to catch." Jazmin gives a shrug. "There is only so much useful time in a day, Rene and Brainy too, and yes.. even for those of us who manipulate time. Wanting to go home /really badly/, doesn't mean that working 24/7 on it will necessarily make an answer come more quickly, nor is it especially mentally healthy for those who focus on nothing else. So, I disagree on the notion that we should work /harder/ because people want it more."
"Hey, I want it to happen just as much, Salu, but I'm not going to just go stand over by Brainy and give him little shocks every time he's not -working- on getting us home. That's... well, he'd be within every sprocking right to just fold me up into one of his little tesseract experiments and never let me out." 
Running his hand through his hair, Garth wrinkles his nose. "Just support him, but don't smother him. Or anyone else." 
"Seems a good way to go about it to me," Marya says in response to Garth's suggestion. Which may, actually, be a first. "Pushing him that hard is just a good way to break him, and nobody wants that". Marya sighs and looks about. "Besides, I'm not entirely sure I want to end back up in my timeline. There might not even be a timeline or a Legion left there by the time I get back". She really didn't know. And it was a little frightening.
"He doesn't react well to that," Salu says. "Nobody can push him harder than he pushes himself," she adds. "Oh?" she asks Marya, "You haven't time travelled before? All I know is it always seems to work out in the end."
"We have no clue what happened after we left, Marya, you're totally right. It does generally work out in the end, but it doesnt always work out quite the /same/." Jazmin shrugs easily enough. "We could see if Brainy wants a beer and a break, while we're talking about him working too damn hard. I expect he'd disagree that he works too damn hard."
"You know what... I'll tell him to get his nass butt up here," Garth says, as he takes a swig, before reaching for his comm. "Hey Brainy... you there? Come on up. We're talking about you. Have a beer. And if you don't -want- to have a beer, have one anyway. Or I'll send Ayla down there after you." Click. 
Glancing up, Garth grunts. "What? I won't tell him where Ayla went if you guys don't." 
"Yeah. First time. We were under attack when the portal swallowed me up. Some of the people here are dead where I'm from, but I'll avoid getting into the somber stuff for now and just say that right now, this place is a far cry better than where I'm from. Things were looking kind of ugly when I left," Marya tells Salu. "For all I know, when I go back, I could pop up and have my face fried before I could blink".
After an instant of perhaps shocked silence, Brainiac 5's voice replies, "Understood." A few moments go by, but with what may be unexpected promptness, Brainy emerges from one of the transport tubes. He does not, notably, have a beer with him, but he does approach the others, arching one golden eyebrow. "You called for me?"
The arrival of the green man pushes all other concerns out of her mind, and Salu jumps up to her feet. "Brainiac!" she says, surprising even herself with the force of that greeting.
"Some of us have decided that you work too much." Jazmin replies to Brainiac as he arrives. There's beer, there's Jazmin with a guitar slowly playing some blues into the summer evening, and there's a Salu ambushing him. The scene on the roof is casual chatting under a warm summer's evening.
"I think we all think that," Garth comments. As Salu greets Brainiac, Garth reaches over to pick up a bottle of beer, which he passes on to Marya. "Pass that on to Brainy, willyou?" he asks, as he helps himself to another one of Salu's bottles so that he can give it to Marya so that everyone else can join in. 
Passing the bottle over to Brainiac, Marya nods as she accepts the next bottle from Garth. She pops the cap off and holds it in her fingers, dissolving it with her acidic touch so she doesn't have to deal with it later. Taking a swig of beer, she looks around casually. "So, how've you been, Brainy?" she asks. She hadn't seen the guy in quite some time, it occurs to her. Though that seemed a theme.
Brainy nods his greeting to first Salu, then Jazmin, Garth, and Marya in turn. He accepts the beer, peering at it rather than moving to open it. "Hm. Is there some reason you wish me to imbibe this alcohol-based beverage?" His eyes flicker magenta as he begins to scan the beer, though he pauses to glance up at the other question. "I have been--fine." There's a beat, and then Brainiac 5 does something that he only does in the presence of a relatively small group of people he trusts to at least some fair degree. "Yet," he adds with a certain reluctance, "concerned. My current experiments have failed to yield a successful result, which is cause for a measure of--anxiety."
"Cammeraderie," Salu says, picking one up and passing it to Brainy, in this case with no apparent strings attached, unlike Garth's. "IT's good to see you," she says, voice marked with restraint. There's a pause and she mmms. "Do you need assistance?"
"Traditionally, alcohol based beverages are a social cue towards relaxation, an indication that it is an informal event." Jazmin explains absently to Brainy as she goes back to playing guitar. "Is not a lack of information, or a lack of successful experiements also information to help refine things further? Hellishly frustrating, I can imagine though."
"A social cue," Brainiac replies to Jazmin with some slight annoyance, "that can be false, such as at any high society event with cocktails." At the offers of help and questions about progress, he attains what might even be called a somewhat surly air. "I am doing all that could be done. As you are no doubt aware, my intellect is more than up to the task. We are simply limited at this point by available sample sizes and the dangerous nature of the experiments."
"Yeah, we figured that, Brainy. We're all anxious ourselves." Glancing about at the others, Garth takes a swig of his beer. "We've tried timing other portals. Appearances of those whale-sharks, other people showing up from different times, time anomalies... all recorded. It's just a matter of analyzing and seeing what all that means. And it still seems to mean nothing. I'm telling you guys, we're dealing with -some- sort of stupid living thing that keeps responding to what we're doing..." 
"Like some crazy puppet master pulling the strings of everyone around us, and all of time," Marya says. "I'm sure there's some time theory out there or universe existance theory that talks about that, though if it's the case, then I think we're all destined to lead very interesting lives indeed," the firebreather says as she takes another drink of her beer.
"Terrifying if true," Salu says, taking a chug of her beer, and finding the bottle empty. The bottle gets a scowl.
"I never claimed social cues were particularly accurate. Here and now, however, it is an indication of casual." Jazmin answers evenly, changing her fingering to change chords. "As impatient as everyone .. as many people.. are to find answers, there's absolutely the potential that we simply do not have enough information to pull answers from yet."
It's unclear whether Brainiac 5 really even hears the discussion of the strange intelligence that seems to be affecting matters. He just glares at the beer bottle in his hand for a moment before setting it down. He glances back to the others, his manner turning quite abruptly and pointedly bitter, and says, "Anyone who TRULY believes they can contribute without slowing me down may find me in my lab. Else, there's nothing to say." He pauses, frowning, and then says stiffly, "Good night." And then he strides back into the tube, vanishing.
"Now that's familiar..." Salu mutters, turning and passing Garth her empty. "I should go see what I can do," she says.
"Are we taking bets on how long it takes for Brainy to kick her out?" Jazmin muses almost absently while she strums on the guitar.
"Don't think so. She worked pretty well with the Brainy in her universe, so she says. I think it's because she can just shrink out of the way," Garth comments. "Well, at least we got him out for all of... five minutes?" 
"Twenty minutes, tops. Ten if he somehow actually gets alcohol into his system, but that's about it," Marya comments with a laugh as she takes a drink of some more beer. "Though the whole shrinking out of the way doesn't count. If she's literally not even really visible to him, that completely doesn't count".
"You can hear all the qualifiers in that, right? In her universe, so she says. This isn't /that/ Brainy, this is a grumpy irritated Brainy." Jazmin looks up and nods to Marya. "I'm not sure if alcohol in his system will drop it to ten, or up to it thirty. I really can't picture what booze would do to him. He's.. hard to read."
"... So's Salu, and I don't think she'll take any nass from him. I'd bet on -her- making him leave his lab," Garth retorts, as he takes another swig. 
"Whichever way it works out, it'll give Brainy something else to chew on other than the problem. And that might get him thinking in new directions," Marya points out. "Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to go work on something else entirely unrelated, then come back at it. Or just let the answer hit you".
"Ah, but I like Brainy, and for whatever reason, she rubs me wrong." Jazmin shrugs. "So I'll happily bet on Brainy, and you're welcome to buy me an iced coffee if Brainy kicks her out, and I'll buy you an ice cream. Or coffee, or whatever, if she kicks him out."
"... I'll take you up on that," Garth replies. "So if neither of them kick each other out after... an hour, does that mean Salu wins everything?" 
"I'll drink to that," Marya responds, raising her bottle up before she takes another drink from it. Of course, could she even get drunk from it? Would the acid just eat away the alcohol? It was best not to think too hard about these things, or one's brain might explode.
Category:Log