14947/Gar /can/ has cheezeburger (It's a meme)

Gar /can/ has cheezeburger (It's a meme)
Date of Scene:	17 April 2023
Location:	Beast Boy's Room, Titans Tower
Synopsis:	Gar does some streaming and winds up conversing with (likely) his only Coluan fan. Then they have a tour of the Tower and get acquainted in person.
Cast of Characters:	Beast Boy, Brainiac 5

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Beast Boy has posed:
It's not every day Gar manages to go live on his Twitch stream, but it's... okay, it's most days really. He definitely considers it 'Important social outreach' and 'Doing his part to let people see superpowers aren't anything to worry about'. It's definitely not an excuse to bask in his adoring fans' attentions and play video games while _not_ being glowered at for doing it on the Titans mainframe by... whichever far more responsible member of the Titans catches him.

Which is why there's a rather fetching golden retriever, who's actually /green/, seated on a gaming chair at Gar's computer, trying to peer up at the webcam at the most adorable angle, "So anyway, like I was saying, I've got like... three hours, not enough time to make any progress in an RPG or anything, so I thought I'd try that whole 'general discussion' thing! But I need your questions! ...I mean, that or I'm going to find a tennis ball, and that's kind of stereotypical isn't it?"

This stream is going to go /great/, clearly.

Brainiac 5 has posed:

It's the usual peppering of questions - the humorous, the fanboying and girling -

Then somebody named 'DoxAttack3023' chimes in with "I'm curious, Beast Boy - do you find yourself singled out for the color of your skin in the current somewhat precarious social environment? Or do you find that your celebrity status and status as a known crimefighter help insulate you from that to some extent?"

If Gar knew that question was being asked from a spaceship currently in orbit around the planet by an equally green-skinned alien currently browsing twitch streams and having a smoothie while running high-level science experiments... he'd probably believe it, actually.

Beast Boy has posed:

That surprisingly in-depth and considered question clearly catches Gar off guard, as the green retriever goes from answering light hearted questions and fulfilling requests for poses, mostly doing incredibly blatant shifty back and forth glances like he is /up to something/, to shifting back to Gar's typical... Gar form, purple and black costume, his face screwing up in a genuinely thoughtful expression, "Hey! That's a really good question, Dox! It's... complicated. I mean, some people try to make it a thing. But they do that for /anyone's/ skin tone. Or whatever else they can use to try and exclude people."

He shrugs and heaves out a sigh, "I mean, people are going to be close-minded, and all we can do is try to coax them into broadening their horizons and seeing their preconceptions are misguided." He pauses for a long moment, "I do also get a lot of people thinking this is like, bodypaint that's going to rub off and I do it to like, keep some kind of secret identity?" He frowns ever so slightly, "I... don't know how they figure that? I have an IMDB page. I'm /still green/ when I shapechange, I just... it's..." He heaves out a sigh, "People, man. People."

Brainiac 5 has posed:

"It's a hallmark of emergent intelligence to want to find a deeper meaning or a hidden undercurrent in things. This unfortunately creates a predisposition to willful mistruths, or conspiracy theories" Querl types.

"For what it's worth, I see nothing wrong with your color. In fact, on Colu, that particular shade of green would be considered a sign that you're in particularly good health."

"Unfortunately there, you would be pitied for your comparatively low cognitive capacity. Which isn't to say you're not intelligent, you seem to be very bright - for a human." He continues to type.

"Unfortunately, bigotry takes many forms, from human xenophobia to Coluan intellism."

"Anyway I was hoping you were going to play 'Starfield' today - I found it to be a curiously retro look at a possible future."

Beast Boy has posed:

Gar does his best, his very absolute best not to have his eyes glass over once there are multiple multisyllabic words in a row, and he succeeds! He maintains sharp, alert attention on the incoming text.

In fact, he even manages to nod along with the approximation of his health, "Oh, yeah, my last checkup was great! ...I mean, I'm always a little concerned because like, I'm me, right? I'm never sure if I'm healthy, or if I'm just... shapeshifting /into/ healthy? But... would that matter? Is it all subjective? Is it..." He trails off, brow furrowing slightly, one pointed fang peeking over his lower lip as he gazes at those further words... it might take him a few seconds, but that metaphorical hamster on a wheel in his head manages a few more laps, "Yeahhh... I mean, we all... know about how... Coluan intellism can be... for suuuuuuuure...." ...That definitely does not sound like Gar's got /suspicions/ about this viewer and his extensive vocabulary and mention of an alien planet's societal tropes. Really, some people would jump immediately to 'This person is a troll', but when you share a kitchen in a superhero team buildign with multiple aliens... if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... it's totally an alien. Err... you get the point.

"Oh! Definitely. I set up this new alert for the death counter and stuff and we should be doing that this afternoon!" Meanwhile, Gar is ever so surreptitiously throwing a follow onto DoxAttack3023's account. He has a feeling there's something to explore there.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Excellent." Querl types, "I'll log back in then." And then he immediately logs off. Bip!

His account is - pretty ordinary. It lists the games he likes and his scores at them - all astonishingly high. Isn't that the Tetris record that was set by that one AI that was trained on - oh wait, no. DoxAttack3023 beat that record. He seems to have an affinity for extremely complex puzzlers, logic games, and... RPGs? That's a list of 'has played' and 'is playings' going all the way back to the Gold Box games of Yore. His last review is of one of the Dragonlance games, grumbling about how the "incredibly crude" interface was difficult for him to master and "I kept hitting my own party with the Sleep spell, which was deeply frustrating and yet - I found myself wishing I could do that with my teammates in real life."

It would be easy enough to message him.

Beast Boy has posed:
Gar's eyes narrow... that Tetris score is suspicious! So suspicious! ...Oh, not that it beat that AI. It beat him! ...Yes, his score is /well/ below the AI, let alone this mysterious follower. But still, of /course/ he got beat by an AI designed to stack blocks! But by another player? Clearly, that is incredibly suspicious. Definitely. Totally.
And it /is/ incredibly easy for him to send a message, and if Gar's about anything it's taking the easiest route to problem solving. Even if he kind of skips past tact and subtlety in one fell swoop. "So! Are you from Colu? Also oh my god, those old Dragonlance games were _so_ clunky."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
A few minutes later, the response comes in.
"I am. Excuse me, a small fire has just broken out, I need to go salvage an experiment."
A few minutes later he starts typing again. "They were inelegant, but there was something in the boldness of them I admire - a vision that pushed the capabilities and limitations of the technology available at the time, even if it didn't overcome them. It's why the Ravenloft first-person games were very... atmospheric - not in spite of the limited controls, but because of them."
"It's nice to meet a fellow D&D aficionado - though at heart I'm a 101st-edition man. It's almost like archaeology to play your current edition."

Beast Boy has posed:
Gar's mouth works silently for a moment. Well... if the fire's only /small/, it can't be that bad. So at least this mysterious alien's not in too much trouble.
And then he's reeling... that's... a /very/ wide edition gap. He ponders. He frets. And then his fingers tap rapidly, "Oh god, they didn't bring back Thac0 did they? I'm so bad at math. So so bad." He ponders a moment further, "Did they make druid shapechanging less reliant on having to flip through the monster manual every time you do it?" Oh yes, Gar has the /most/ important questions. Or, maybe he's just watched enough sci-fi movies to know not to ask the typical future questions about himself!

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"It's just imaginary numbers." Querl says. "The 101st interface was all holographic, with the players sitting around the game terminal - using an analog book is novel, and I like the minimal back-end resources actually. But I have a perfect recall of the rules without having to reference the book." There's a thoughtful series of dots ... and then, "Even if the other Legionnaires wouldn't agree."
Querl has a question of his own. "In 'Curse of the Wolfwere' did you wear makeup or did they digitally recolor you? I wasn't able to tell."

Beast Boy has posed:
"Oh! It was digital recoloring, we thought about doing it practically, but then it took like two hours of brushing with charcoal for that black cat in the one jumpscare scene? So we figured doing it for the main role would take even longer, and it just became like, a whole schedule consideration. The test runs for the practical colouring were /neat/, but yeah, studio finance department came down on the 'Not on your life' side pretty darn quick." There's a brief pause and he continues typing, "I mean, there was also all the action scenes in Radioactive Raccoon Swarm, where they just put a green filter over the camera lens whenever the Lead Raccoon showed up as an excuse to skip the entire conundrum."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Well I can see why having an actor with your protean abilities would save money in an otherwise tight budget-" Querl continues to type. "If I don't want to make a scene, I just use a holographic image inducer, but I think it makes me look - well, pallid. And it interferes with my partially photosynthetic biology."
Querl continues to type. "I wouldn't admit this to my teammates, but I'll often take in a low-budget Earth movie while I'm working in the lab. It's a harmless guilty pleasure. I admit I didn't particularly like Horse of a Different Color but mostly because the director didn't take advantage of your remarkable skill at emoting in animal form."

Beast Boy has posed:
"Yeah, also I can do a lot more intricate stunt acting than an actual animal could, and still make all my cues... admittedly, it took a /lot/ of practice... even for the low-budget movies! Although they're definitely the most fun to work on." He pauses for another long moment, "And yeah, it's kind of... like, I have trouble /not/ emoting sometimes? Like sometimes you just want a dog, and it's really hard to keep that kind of middle distance stare going. And I hope it doesn't cause you too much biological trouble! Ideally you shouldn't have to use an image inducer at all, I'm sure your shade of green is stunning all on its own!"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"I find it quite fetching." Is Querl's response. "If you'd like, it would be fun to meet. I only recently returned to Earth orbit, but I believe we're planning to be here for some time." There's another pause. "I admit not to being a social animal, pardon the pun, but it would be nice to make some new acquaintances among Earth's metahumans. Where would you like to meet?"

Beast Boy has posed:
There's another brief pause before Gar responds, "Oh! Totally. I mean, I'd say something about it being novel to meet an alien, but like... there's one down the hallway? You could drop by the Tower sometime, you wouldn't need to worry about an image inducer or anything, and it doesn't /actually/ get attacked by giant monsters that often. And we've got a wide collection of terrible movies /and/ a pool, so we won't have any trouble coming up with something to do." Another, longer pause. "Heh. Social animal. Good one."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"All right. It might be fun to join you on your Twitch stream later." Querl resumes typing, as he finishes his smoothie. "I can set a drone to babysit my laboratory experiments, it's all just passive data collection on microsingularities today anyway-" Is he incubating a teeny tiny black hole or something? Yes. Yes he is. "Give me a moment to Gate down to the planet and I'll meet you on the helipad on the roof?" Querl types, before he gets up from his console.

Beast Boy has posed:
"Sounds like a plan! ...I mean, the microsingularity thing sounds like a bit of a scary plan, but you're the science guy, right? But okay! I'll meet you... up there for me? Down there for you? We'll work it out." And then Gar's practically springing up from his own seat, and heading off to the elevator for a quick ride up to the roof... with just a quick scan around the horizon to make sure he doesn't see any kaiju. 'Rarely attacked' is not 'Never attacked' after all.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
No Kaiju. No alien armada to speak of - just a sort of... wormhole opening up on the roof, and someone who looks mostly human, except for the green skin and cybernetic implants in his head stepping through. For a moment the image of a futuristic laboratory is visible behind him. The wind ruffles Querl's golden hair as he looks around, and then says, "Aha! Hello, Beast Boy! My name is Querl Dox. I'm also known as Brainiac Five, head Scientist of the Legion of Super-Heroes." After a moment, he offers a... dap. "This is still a polite greeting less formal than a handshake, right?"

Beast Boy has posed:
It's probably a pretty low-key display for arrival of a time traveler, or an alien, let alone a time travelling alien, but Gar's waiting on the rooftop in black and purple bodysuit, hands clasping behind his back, shifting his weight foot to foot, tensing... he may have tried three or four different poses for 'Greeting teleporting alien superhero' before settling on 'mildly' awkward. "Oh! Nice to meet you! I mean, like, in person. And you can call me Gar, or Garfield... but probably Gar." He grins crookedly, giving a dap back and nodding his head, "Yeah, it hasn't gone out of style... yet. That's gotta be confusing, trying to remember like... where on the 'stylish greeting' timeline you are?" His voice lifts a little, like he's not /actually/ sure that must be confusing.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"It's only a minor inconvenience." Querl says, before he clears his throat. "Well." He says, "I see that you are very... green. As you can see, so am I." Then he has to... stiffle a giggle. He fails, and it turns into a laugh. "I'm sorry. It really is very nice to meet you. As I said, I'm not precisely... social. But!" He holds up a finger. "I'm trying. So." He looks around, and then muses, "When do I get a tour? If you'd like, I can reciprocate in kind sometime, and give you a tour of our ship."

Beast Boy has posed:
Gar has to stifle what is clearly a laugh, but in doing so, it turns into a soft snorting sputter of helpless noise that's /far/ more undignified than the laugh would have been. "Oh! You can have one right now! I doubt it'll be all /that/ thrilling, but it's a good walk, and there are some nice sights to see." He perks his eyebrows up and hums out, "Oh! And I'll /definitely/ try to make it the best tour I can if it means I'm getting a tour of a no fooling spaceship in return. I promise I'll keep my hands inside the ride and not poke any microsingularities you're experimenting on at the time." He gestures grandly and gives a little twirl, right foot lifting as his knee bends, "This... is the roof! It has a pizza oven, which I actually forgot about until I came up here, so... I guess I'm kind of getting my own tour, right?" He chews his lower lip and murmurs softly, "I feel like I need some kind of museum tour uniform for this... but we'll make due." And then he's ambling towards the elevator, past the olympic sized pool which... he could point it out, but 'Thing so big you have to walk around it' seems pretty self-evident.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Querl seems politely interested - there is that air of 'extremely advanced alien from the future sampling a variety of analog technologies' but he tries hard. "I see." he says. "Since water is at something of a premium on a spaceship, we use technology to simulate the resistance you would get from water, since it is excellent exercise. And sonics for bathing. But I will admit, the real thing is refreshing." He continues walking, his own pace measured, hands behind his back, but his eyes keenly taking everything in. "No need for a uniform, this is just fine."

Beast Boy has posed:
Gar's eyebrows perk and he tilts his head thoughtfully, "Huh! I never thought about that. The scarcity of water on a spaceship and all. I just figured the whole sci fi sonic shower thing was, you know, to sound cooler than 'Yeah, people still use water.' and stuff." He clicks his tongue and taps the call button for the elevator, doors instantly swooshing open as he steps in with a grand gesture, "Well, I suppose I can give you the rest of the tour without worrying then! You'll probably find some of the tech at least a little interesting... but uhhh... I am /so/ not the guy to explain the intricacies."