10221/A Celebration of You

A Celebration of You
Date of Scene:	27 November 2019
Location:	Xandar Prime (Nova Empire, S 2194)
Synopsis:	Heroes and vigilantes from around the galaxy attend a party on Xandar Prime.
Cast of Characters:	Mon-El, Invisible Kid, Grail, Mantis, Lobo, Gamora, Star-Lord

---

Mon-El has posed:
    A wealthy Nova Empire dignitary is throwing a big party on Xandar for the galaxy's heroes, adventurers, and other vigilantes. Thanks to these extraordinary individuals who put their lives on the line daily, this corner of the universe is a lot safer and more peaceful than it could be! Celebrating victories is a vital part of keeping up the good fight, right?

    The sponsor has rented out a ritzy club called the Circle on Xandar Prime, a place typically reserved for the galaxy's wealthiest. But today, the doors are open to heroes of sorts! Drinks are on the house (well at least the more standard ones, probably still have to pay for the rarer sorts), the dance floor is open, and drones float about serving at every beck and call.

    The club is circular--no surprise there, with an elliptically-shaped bar at the back and the dance floor in the middle. Colorful lights pulse and oscillate across it in time to the music, and a glittery sphere floats near the ceiling above it that serves as a disco. There is a second floor balcony that overlooks the ground floor, with both stairs and an elevator serving it.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle is no stranger to parties, although they're not his style of super-spydom.  He's just not the James Bond type -- by the time he goes "The name is Norg: Lyle Norg," his quarry is safely restrained and being hauled off by the Science Police or their local equivalent.  Introducing one's self before then is not conducive to the kind of secrecy and stealth he likes to work behind.
    But, there's a public side to his job, and he's willing to do it.  If someone else is willing to feed him, hey, it's that much less out of the Legion's operating budget.
    And of course there's that little nagging voice in the back of his head that this might be more than it seems.  Informed paranoia is both an occupational hazard and a job skill.  If nothing goes down, free food and drink.  If something does, he's right where he needs to be.
    So while he affects a casual air as he sips his drink (ginger ale with a cherry in it to simulate something stronger), he does scan the room rather thoroughly.  If nothing seems out of place, well, that's good.

Grail has posed:
To some, something might seem out of place. Grail is basically a living breathing example of something that is out of place. She walks into the club without much care or words as she found out about this thing from a third party. She decided to come to it because, well, why not? If people want to throw a party for vigilantes, who is she to argue and besides. Might be something fun happening before the night is out. So, she walks straight for where they are keeping the alcoholic drinks to see if they stock anything that packs a greater kick than ship fuel.

Most of the time, she just ends up dissappointed in the drinks available at most places. After all, what's the point of drinking if you can't even get drunk?

Mon-El has posed:
    Drinks that would do anything to someone as strong as Grail on Xandar Prime? Eh, doubtful. At least not any of the ones on the house tonight. She could try some of the rarer stuff, but chances are they're just as disappointing. Out of place as she may be, no one really gives her any odd looks or anything, because hey, it's the galaxy. It's a weird place. Different sorts are expected.

    As for Lar, he's sitting with Lyle and trying his best to ignore Grail and not think about the embarrassing incident at the recruitment event.

Mantis has posed:
The door opens to admit a woman in green and black, arms bare at the top but covered in sleeves to her wrists. Mantis has a pair of antennae that end in fuzzy looking tips, one rotating a little bit in a curious way as she enters the party and looks around the room.

This is her first time being sent to 'case the joint'. Given that fact, and her lack of experience in general, it's quite likely this was just a good way to distract her while something else was going on elsewhere. But she tries to be up to the task, walking in and looking around at everyone and everything. So far she doesn't recognize anyone, but she reads the room, sensing the variety of emotions of the party goers.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle's no telepath, but he doesn't need to read Lar's mind to have a good idea what's going across it.  "I know, I saw her too," he says quietly.  "There's enough other stuff going on around here, just don't engage.  It's probably too much to hope she doesn't notice us, but one can hope."
    He *tink*s his glass against Lar's.  "You need to unwind anyway.  She's not your problem, don't worry about it unless there's a need to, okay?  I try to avoid saying 'trust me', but... uh... trust me."  Grin.

Grail has posed:
Approaching the bar, she frowns at the selection and just orders the hardest drink they have which doesn't even come close to what she needs. It'd need to be more than just alcohol and they don't have that. So, she simply takes her offered drink and turns around in time to see Mantis walk in. She smirks at the sight of the girl and then blinks as she looks past Mantis and sees her alone. The girl really didn't strike Grail as a loner. A shrug follows and she walks toward her.

"Mantis, right?" Grail asks as she approaches the girl. Did she notice Mon-El? Of course she did. She has peak Amazonian senses. Horses are jealous of her hearing and eagles are jealous of how well she sees. For now, though, she is trying to find out more about what Mantis is doing here.

For now.

Lobo has posed:
    When Mantis enters the club, she most likely turns heads. The green, the black, the fuzzy antennae...it's a look, and a bold one at that.

    A few moments later, thhat same door opens again, though it's fair to say that it rather smashes open loudly, the top hinge breaking, the bottom one warping and bending and just barely hanging on for dear life. The perpetrator of this heinous act walks through, sneer on his face.

    Lobo was wearing a pair of shorts today, and over that could only be described as a kilt made out of glossy black pvc. Between that and his big stompy boots and his gunbelt, his ghost-white albino body was full on display. The musculature, the numerous tattoos, his black hair being braided and swept out of his face, it was a different kind of bold.

    "Where's the fraggin' booze?! Bring it here pronto!"

Mon-El has posed:
    The overall feel of the party that Mantis would get is most people are here to unwind from the stressful life of being an adventurer/hero. You know, from those close brushes with death and crazy getaways. So mostly they are happy--for now.

    Although Lar is a little bit on edge. But it seems Grail is ignoring him for now, so that's good. He sighs as Lyle gives him a little toast. "Just as long as she doesn't cause any trouble..." he mutters.

    Okay, Lobo does get -some- looks just because of the way he almost broke the doors, but probably not as much as he's used to. When he demands the booze be brought, a drone immediately hurries up to him with a platter full of every drink on the house today.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis doesn't seem to notice if eyes are drawn to her, though perhaps a few emotions cause an antennae to flit about briefly. She moves deeper through the interesting crowd. Mantis does not really know people, nor on this planet in particular, so is not really expecting to run across someone that she has met before, even if the party is for the sort that her friends are.

But then it turns out she does. Grail stands out a bit in her memory. Not least for her stature, and the way she rips people's arms off and throws them through windows.

Mantis puts on her friend-making smile. That's the extra-wide one. "Hello! Yes, I am," she says in confirmation of her name. "And you are Grail. Are you well? Have you been enjoying Terran foods?" she asks. Memory like a steal trap on the girl. "I do not think we can play the drinking game today. Peter Quill is not likely to come and do embarrassing things here. He is probably doing them somewhere else," she says, giving a little wave of her hand as if to indicate where. You know. Out there. Mantis jumps a bit as the doors crash open, turning to see the familiar sight of Lobo there. He stands out for almost the exact same reasons as Grail, come to think of it. Except the remaining arm when Lobo got to the Navari wasn't mechanical. Which makes him really stand out.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "I think you're in luck, she's interested elsewhere," Lyle says, watching Grail more than anyone else, simply out of the expectation that if there's going to be trouble, that's where it's going to come from.  "I'm going to circulate a little," he then says, getting up and finishing his (soft) drink.  "If I see Grail heading this way, I'll try to intercept.  Really, Lar, try to relax as best you can, okay?"
    Lyle does have a way of moving that tends not to attract attention.  His path to the bar only happens to bring him near Grail and Mantis, and he doesn't hesitate, he passes on by without (apparently) noticing and contnues his way to the bar.

Grail has posed:
A blink as Lobo seems to get distracted by all the booze and wanders off. She was going to punch him, or at least prepare to, but things went differently. Hmm. Well, back to Mantis. Grail looks back down to Mantis and smiles, "I honestly didn't know that was a drinking game but sure." She states, "And yes, I am enjoying Terran foods from time to time." She then considers, "As for well?" She shrugs, "I'm not sure what that actually means to someone like me but sure." She then looks back to the side to see Lyle pass by and hmms as she looks at him before she looks back to Mantis.

"So, Mantis. How are you? You didn't strike me as the type of girl to run off alone to a party." She nods her head, "I expected to see all the others with you. Do you want to grab a drink?"

Mon-El has posed:
    "Yeah well let's hope it stays that way." Lar replies. He nods as Lyle goes off to mingle a bit with the others. A stare down at a drink that doesn't exactly do much for him, then he scans the room the again, avoiding eye contact with Grail but noting the others' presence. He frowns at Lobo's obnoxious entrance and demands, though that's just par for the course when it comes to the bounty hunter, and this time the offered drinks seem to appease anyway. He doesn't recognize Mantis, but if she can keep Grail's attention then he's not going to complain.

Gamora has posed:
Gamora emerges onto the scene, wearing a slinky black dress that sparkles in ways that reflect light differently every time it refracts through the sequins, cause an array of twinkling lights. Its called an Oasis Dress, known to be rare and very expensive. Where she got it, is anyone's guess. It leaves her shoulders and back completely bare down to the small of her back where it V's together to maintain the woman's modesty, while still supplying a wealth of her supple green skin for view.

Her hair is a solid dark shade of purple now, shiny and brushed off to the right side where it pools in pink curls across her shoulder. Around her neck is a silver starburst necklace.

She strolls around the perimeter of the gathering, making eye contact here and there with her golden hued gaze.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis is over talking to Grail, her large eyes with the thick lashes batting a bit as she nods and laughs. "Oh yes, it is very fun," she says of the drinking game that started as a joke at Peter Quill's expense but then took off in a viral sense. "Though we cannot always play it on the Milano. We would be so drunk we would end up flying through a sun, I think was how it was put," she says to Grail.

Mantis gives a quick shake of her head. "I came ahead to see how the party was," she says, using her rehearsed line. She glances up and sees Gamora stroll in. "Oh, maybe I am not alone," Mantis says, brightening noticeably. "Gamora," she says, in a voice like if you wanted to shout but were trying to whisper. So it's a shout that tries to not be a shout. But still is.

Star-Lord has posed:
    "Flarkin' cursed Xandalarians." Peter cusses from his position. The man having taken the time to actually do something somewhat stealthy. A rather boring looking brown haired waiter walks about the party with one of the silver trays hovering just above his hand as he carry's a plateful of hor d'oeuvre around slowly working his way through the party.

    The suit fits snug and maybe a touch short in the sleeves and the triple tailled coat belies that the humanoid might not have been the one initially built to wear it, but the rest of the serving crew has the outfit on as well. So Peter totally looks the part and he works his way through the party, past all the biggest officials, and even his own crew, silently, invisibly, Guardian-ly.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle collects his drink (gin and tonic, thanks), finds a place to stand, and takes stock of the room.  Lobo is placated with alcohol; as long as that doesn't change, he can be discounted -- although not ignored entirely.  Grail is engaged with someone he doesn't recognize immediately, and showing no apparent interest in Lar.
    Sip.
    Someone else he doesn't recognize makes quite the elegant entrance.
    Followed by a slightly less elegant entrance, and even Lyle looks surprised -- he hasn't seen Peter in two years.
    Well, okay, his own fault, he's been busy.  He takes another sip of his drink, and sighs.  "Grife, Norg, take your own advice for once.  Relax," he chides himself quietly, and goes for a refill.  He doesn't have any particular mutant resistance to alcohol, but he has a superspy's training in how to handle it properly.

Grail has posed:
A blink at the arrival of Star-Lord and Mantis and Grail shrugs, "I had a feeling." She states simply enough to herself more than anyone else. She looks to Mantis, "Seems you can play your drinking game tonight if you wish and you really aren't alone." She glances at Gamora and hmms a little, "She wears quite the interesting outfit." She tilts her head, "I didn't realize we were supposed to dress up." Not that she can speak much about revealing clothing but it is hardly as revealing as Gamora's by far.

"Hi, Gamora and..." She considers, "...Star-Lord, right?" She looks to Mantis with an arched eyebrow and then looks up, "At least I think that's the name he went with."

She looks briefly over at Mon-El and then at Lyle again before considering and hmming, "First time in a while I have seen that Daxamite keep his temper in check." She chuckles. Knowing full well he can hear her.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar continues to monitor the crowd, and immediately recognizes both Gamora and Star-Lord. Yeah, he wasn't on the -best- of terms with them either, although not quite as bad as with Grail. Another sigh. Well, he might as well do that unwinding thing that Lyle said he should do.

    Aaand then Grail has to go and say that, and yes, he saw the look on her face too. Because super senses, and all that. He grumbles and forces himself to ignore her again, instead turning his attention to Star-Lord as he happens to approach where the Daxamite is sitting. "Star-Lord. I would've thought you'd be here to enjoy yourself, not carry plates around and bus tables." After all, the party was supposed to be in honor of people like him, right?

Gamora has posed:
Gamora glances over to Peter and when they make momentary eye contact she affords him a light smirk before she looks away.

Its Mantis' loud whisper that draws Gamora's attention and she strides toward her friend. "Manti." She says in an affectionate sort've way. "Having fun, I hope?" Gamora then asks before she reaches for a drink that is offered to her by a server.

After receiving her drink, Gamora sips it and lets her golden gaze go to Grail who gets a soft nod, then a smile once the glass is lowered, then to Lar who gets a measuring stare before she looks away again.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis smiles as Gamora comes over. At seeing the woman take a drink, Mantis does as well. Thankfully she has seemed to have the same kind of dietary requirements as the rest of the Guardians. Other than maybe Groot. Mantis tells Gamora. "It is Grail. The woman from the bar where Rocket got the new mechanical arm," she explains. Even if Gamora wasn't at the bar, the mechanical arm showing up after the trip to the bar probably did occasion some comment on the Milano. Especially as the edges of it made it look like it was removed less than gracefully.

Mantis tries to the drink and reaches over to grab Grail's arm. "Oh, this is GOOD," she says, smiling and taking another drink. She looks towards Peter Quill, seeing him in the server clothing. "Do you have anything good to eat?" she asks him.

Star-Lord has posed:
    Pete's eyes are scanning the room slowly, but not slowly enough to be casual. He's got nefarious plans written all over his face and then Gamora is the cool cucumber that totally buys his disguise and might even help him with the totally previously discussed side mission the guardian's are conducting tonight but it seems that Mantis was not in on the meeting.

    Peter stares at Grail and then at Mantis with his face shifting from 'secret agent man' to 'One is the loneliest number' as he sighs and with a single motion his hand under the tray pushes it towards Mantis and Grail, the snacks flying from the try at the women as his hand draws the plasma repeater from beneath the jacket and his other hand reaches up for the activator for the mask that spaws quickly from his ear to cover his face in silver with red disks at the eyes.

    "We've been made Rocket. Plan D. Plan D!" Peter says into the comms before he lifts his hand up into the air and fires at the ceiling as a warning. "This is a stick up. Everyone drop their valuables and pants and no one gets hurt!" He says making his way on top of a table.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle doesn't even give Grail the pleasure of a reaction... and really hopes Lar doesn't either.  A reaction is what she wants.  And then....
    "Grife, Norg.  Quit giving yourself advice," he mutters to himself, setting his drink aside and flicking out of sight.  He flits up towards the ceiling, staying out of Peter's line of fire, and assesses the situation, glancing first to Lar, and then to Grail.  Let's see what the heavy guns do first.
    He *did* get to relax for 6.3 seconds.  That might be a new personal record.

Grail has posed:
A grin is sent toward Mon-El as she knew he heard her before she turned and nodded to Gamora, "You are a good fighter. Against Daxamites anyway." She nods to her before she then reaches a hand to catch Mantis's arm as she holds on to hers, "Careful." She states only to blink slowly as Star-Lord speaks up. She stares at him a long moment and looks to Mantis beofre looking again to Star-Lord.

"Is...he serious?" She asks and looks to Mantis and then Gamora before looking to Peter again, "Like, seriously serious? He does know that the weapon he has is not really a threat. Right?" She then looks to Gamora carefully and then back to Star-Lord, "Hey, are you serious?" She asks him, "I am not exactly intending to interfere but I'm not giving you anything either."

Mon-El has posed:
    Well at least Star-Lord's dramatics put Grail more fully out of Lar's mind. Because...what the -hell-? A good number of people do stare up at Peter as he fires into the ceiling, though a significant number are also too drunk to notice. And the music is pretty loud, anyway.

    There is an awkward moment of silence, and then a bunch of people just start laughing. Pants? Seriously? Everyone -knows- what kind of party this is, and just who is likely to be attending it. So maybe this was just part of the show.

    As for Lar, he just sort of arches a brow at Quill. "Sheesh, I was just asking. I'm sorry about the mess on Theseus, okay? But I thought we'd moved past that already, anyway."

    "...how many drinks have you had?"

Gamora has posed:
Gamora offers a quick smile to Mantis before Peter's declaration takes center stage inside of the party. She takes another drink of her drink, its a good drink, as a drink should be.

Her eyes sweep back over to Grail and she smiles softly at her. "I kill indiscriminately. Its the right thing to do after all."

With that said, Gamora's eyes flicker around at the reactions domino-effecting through the party after Peter's demands were thrown out. She looks back to him then. "I don't think Plan D is working. Perhaps Rocket is ready for Plan E?"

Either way, Gamora turns back to the bar and reaches past the bartender to grab at the bottle. "Free, right?" She doesn't wait for an answer and draws it back to her, then moves to settle down onto a stool and raise her legs up to set them on the stool across from her, which causes her dress to fall away from her thighs, leaving a lot of long muscular green legs to be viewed as she refills her glass herself with said bottle.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis definitely was not at a briefing for this bit. She looks around, considering what to do. Taking off her pants is considered for a moment. The lack of de-pantsing going on in her vicinity makes her feel like she might stand out though. And possibly not in a good way.

Or possibly so. She really doesn't know.

In the end Mantis just takes a big sip from her drink, having noticed a tendency by the other residents of the galaxy in moments of this sort of indecision, to seek clarity in copious amounts of alcohol.

Though that is probably going to favor the pro-pants removal side of things if kept up.

Star-Lord has posed:
    Movement starts happening and it's crazy fast and loud and somehow the music is louder than a plasma repeater it seems to Peter does the next best thing he can think of and draws his second gun with a spin around his finger before he points it skywards and fires both at the same time, and one towards a speaker in the room. He looks over his shoulder briefly and fires two more shots into the roof before he leaps backwards towards the window and crashes out.

    A moment later his ankles explode, or the pants around his ankles burn off as the rockets he wears are activated and Peter is soaring through the air directly to the opposite building, where he crashes through that window.

Grail has posed:
A slow blink follows all of that. Just...all of that. She looks over toward Gamora, arching a brow and not exactly saying no to looking over that leg before she looks to Mon-El and then at the window before she just looks confused, "Was...this some kind of show?" She looks to Mantis and blinks as the girl drinks more alcohol and then says, "Do you..." She pauses and then shakes her head.

"Ya know what, nevermind." She just smiels at Mantis and then looks to her, "I don't know what any of that was about but it was sure entertaining." She looks again to Gamora and hten back to Mantis, "Is this normal for your friends? They seem to be trying to enact two parts of two different plans and I'm not sure the goal of either."

Invisible Kid has posed:

    Well.  That's a problem that resolved itself, Lyle thinks as Peter takes to the air.  He collects his drink again, touches down next to Lar, flicks back into visibility, and says, "You know what, old friend?  The hell with it."  And he drains off his drink.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar stares as Peter just...smashes out of a window. And smashes into another window of another building. Welp. That just happened. "Must be drunk out of his mind."

    There are a few more laughs, and some applause, even, from the partygoers. Given the nonchalant reacton of his teammates, perhaps this is normal for him.

Gamora has posed:
The lounge Gamora continues to lounge, legs out, feet crosed at the ankles with her heeled shoes dangling on the tips of her up-pointed toes.

She glances over to where Quill jets off too and then exhales softly. "I think he and Rocket are getting along again. Which means they act even more odd than when they're arguing." She says this to whomever is near her and might be interested in a reason. Her eyes do go to Grail though. "So you gave Rocket a robotic arm? Stuff like that has a tendancy of distracting him for hours. I'm in your debt." She takes another sip of her drink then before she looks to the Legion-folks.

"If you are asked to arrest him, please don't hesitate." She says to them then.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis watches as Star-Lord jets off through the window. She glances around the room again, wondering if this was a diversion meant to help her in casing the place. Though it seems like they might be on their guard now towards someone pulling out a gun and trying to rob the place. On account of pulling out a gun and trying to rob the place.

Perplexed, Mantis takes another drink.

The new drink helps a lot. She stops worrying about whether she's messing up the casing the joint thing, and instead is just glad that Peter Quill remembered to wear his rocket boots. This time.

"I don't really know what is normal," Mantis admits to Grail. She gets a big grin. "Just that it's usually fun." She smiles over to Gamora and says, "Nice that everyone is getting along again." She glances over towards the Ficus tree in the corner, making sure that it is not Groot. That would probably be Plan G.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle raises his glass in Gamora's direction and nods, and perhaps even smirks a little.
    "This millennium may be primitive," he says quietly to Lar, "but it's not dull."

Grail has posed:
A smile at Gamora and she nods her head, "You're welcome. Wasn't really a big thing but I'm glad to help." She nods her head as she then turns her gaze over to Mantis and nods to her, "WEll, glad to hear you are having fun, I guess." She shrugs and then looks back at Gamora, "Do you have any idea what this was about? And...why you are..." She looks down at Gamora and hten back up at her, "Are you trying to distract people for a reason or this normal or abnormal..." She sighs and shakes her head, "I really don't have alcohol that is strong enough here for whatever this is or was."

She looks over at Mon-El a moment, "Thinking about punching the Daxamite just to have things make more sense but I'd hate to get him in trouble with his friend." SHe glances to Lyle.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Is anything ever dull for us?" Lar chuckles in response to Lyle's comment, shaking his head and sitting back down after that whole...attempted robbery? Whatever that was.

    And then Grail had to keep on saying this provocatory stuff. Seriously? It's like she -wants- him to beat her up or something. Ugh. A sigh. "Maybe I should go."

Gamora has posed:
Gamora's tipping back another sip from her purple tinted glass while she listens to the others around her immediate area. She lowers the glass and smiles at Mantis, tipping her chin toward the purely innocent little flower that she is. "She's the most normal amongst our crew. So her claiming she doesn't know what normal is. I'm not buying it." She states with a half-cocked grin before her gaze goes over to Grail again.

"Yes, I'm distracting all of you, so that my talking Raccoon companion can sneak around stealing everyone's pocket purses, and my rocket booted idiot captain can have time to realize he snuck into the wrong party, oh... and so the living lumberyard that piloted our transport here can refuel it up, by siphoning all of the fuel out of everyone's own personal transports parked outside."

Her left hand slaps down against her bare muscled thigh, smack! "Is it working? Are you all distracted?" She asks in a very unenthusiastic tone, then takes another sip from her drink. "Great." She adds with a smack of her lips then and a heavy exhale.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis is about to comment on Gamora's legs when there is a little chime from her communicator. She pulls it out and takes a look, hand covering the screen to be discrete. Though she looks over at the broken window and the window on the other building, then back to her communicator.

Mantis puts it away and says, "The drink was very good. I would like to have more later. But I need to go," she says towards Grail and Gamora. Probably needs to put an injured person to sleep. Or maybe help Groot figure out which of the ships run off of Xenthorian-based fuels or whether they run off of something that will just cause the Milano to explode into a fireball on take off.

Better hope it's not the latter. She knows less about fuel than she does about this culture's pantsing traditions.

"This was a fun party, you should have more of them," Mantis says brightly before turning to head out.

Grail has posed:
A smirk as she looks at Gamora and then she rolls her eyes, "Luckily, I don't have anything valuable on me nor do I have a ship." She then looks over at Mon-El and smirks at him before she shrugs, "I should get going myself." She looks to Mantis, "It was fun speaking to you, Mantis. Be well and keep your pants on." She nods her haed and chuckles before walking a step toward the door and looking back at Gamora, "Distracting." She winks before she looks then to Mon-El and Lyle.

She purposefully blows a kiss right at Mon-El and waves at him, "See you later. I'll just have to give you that smack you so crave another time." She then is gone in a burst of speed that only Mon-El has any hope of keeping up with.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle exhales as Grail departs -- one less stressor to deal with.  Automatically, he reaches across the table and puts his hand on Lar's forearm -- not that he could hold him back, of course.  "Just let her go.  She's trying to get under your skin; don't give her the win."

Mon-El has posed:
    Ugh. Ughhhhh. Why?! Lar just refuses to look at Grail, though of course that doesn't exactly prevent him from being aware of her taunting. There is a slight red glint in his eyes as she walks out, but thankfully, it fades when Lyle puts a hand on his arm. He sighs. "I'm gonna go. You enjoy yourself, okay?" Then he exits out of the broken window created by Star-Lord earlier.