3354/Oh Grife

Oh Grife
Date of Scene:	10 December 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Invisible Kid, Andromeda, Mon-El

---

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Even though he's from a thousand years in the future, Lyle still knows nothing better than aspirin and coffee for a stress headache.  He's read the social media report three times, and it fails to become any clearer, so he's about to embark on a fourth.
    Before he can face it again, he goes to get his cat.  Additional stress relief is a good thing right now.
    Nope, a fourth reading didn't help any either.  Only one thing to do for it.  He takes a couple deep breaths and calls Lar over the communication circuit, trying to sound as relaxed as he can: "Hey, Lar, if you're not busy, can I see you a minute?"
    Pet the cat.  At least that helps, and she enjoys it, at least until she's had enough and climbs up to perch on Lyle's shoulder.

Andromeda has posed:
Andromeda is a red and blue blur. She has been for hurs, in fact, screaming through the Galaxy at a speed that only spaceships, aliens empowered by solar energy, and embarrassment via social media can travel. She's entering the Legion cruiser now, in fact, the airlocks cycling just quickly enough to keep the Daxamite from making a new door and tasking Invisible Kid with finding someone to patch up the holes.

"Lyle?" Laurel actually waks into the bridge in a stately, serious way. She's six foot two and effortlessly statuesque in the way that ever Daxamite seems to be, her blonde hair somehow falling effortlessly across her shoulders despite long hours in a hard vacuum. "What's going on with Uncle Lar? Someone mentioned a strange media feed from Earth but I figured it couldn't actually be Valor. So I thought I'd come ask what's happening---"

Mon-El has posed:
    Yeah, there have been several...incidents lately involving Lar and his high level of confusion with, well, just about everything on this planet. Break-in at the Natural History Museum in Metropolis that led to a lot of buildings getting wrecked. Dinosaurs showing up in Manhattan (although admittedly he couldn't have done anything about -that- one). And now, the latest embarrassment with Livewire humiliating him and making him sound like some kind of hater on live TV.

    He's just returned to the cruiser and heard Lyle calling him on the comms. Upon entering he notices a woman he's never seen before (well doesn't remember seeing before anyway) there as well. "Lyle? You called?" he peers at Laurel. "Who's this?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle only gets about as far as "Laurel, I--" when Lar makes his entrance and asks three very short questions... the last one of which brings his headache back full force.  He pinches the bridge of his nose, then drops his face into his hand.  "--really hope I wake up and this is all an awful dream."
    Shadow purrs and noses at Lyle's ear.  It doesn't help.  Well, at least he has something other than that Livewire thing to deal with now...

Andromeda has posed:
    "Uncle Lar!" Laurel is across the bridge in less than a quarter second. The resulting breeze might even be enough to knock Lyle briefly off-balance. She moves to wrap her arms around Mon-El. She's very much the excited kid when her Uncle is around. In fact, that's why when he gets to the words 'Who's this?' she starts? And stares.
    "...Are you kidding?" A few blinnks follow and then the young woman looks over toward Lyle. "What did you do? ...What did Brainy do?" She pauses for a second and tkaes a deep breath. "Lar? Are you okay?" Laurel's facial expression is quickly devolving toward 'upset'. ...Oops.

Mon-El has posed:
    "...Lyle? are you okay?" Lar asks when Invisible Kid seems to be despairing over something. He smiles at the cat. "Hello Shadow. How've you been?" Yeah, he remembers that creature is a cat. He saw other cats, and they seemed to be able to talk, so maybe this one is one of the same subspecies with that ability. And if not then no harm done right? Better safe than sorry when it comes to being polite.

    And then Laurel rushes at him. He's spent a lot of time over the past few weeks being confused. And now, he's -very- confused. He doesn't really resist being hugged by her but doesn't exactly hug back, either. Instead he just stands there, stunned. "I--ah...umm..." he stammers, sounding a lot like he sounded on Live On the Wire. "Uncle? How old -are- you?" She doesn't look much younger than himself, so he just stares at her, befuddled. "Yes, I'm fine."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Shadow peers at Lar, but all she says is 'mew?' and then goes back to pawing at the side of Lyle's head.
    "It wasn't us, Laurel," Lyle explains, still not looking up, doing his best to sound both calm and calming because no one needs the woman who can punch holes in planets to become angry.  "We haven't been able to determine what exactly happened to his memory.  It seems to be even more profound than his last round of amnesia -- I don't think you had yet shown up in this era when that happened, had you?  No, I'm pretty sure not."
    He sits up and takes another couple aspirin, and a corner of his mind is trying to remember where Brainy's silverale stash was, and if the lock protecting it is one he's picked yet.  "Lar, this is your niece about thirty or so generations and a millennium removed," he says quite simply.

Andromeda has posed:
    "...My name is Laurel," the woman begins slowly, blinking as she listens to on-El stammer. "I guess physically we're about the same age? But you're more like a thousands years older, I guess... Um." Laurel starts to fidget. Now that her initial emotional response is over she's starting to feel... nervous, her expression dimming by the second. She flushes a faint red and takes several quick steps back toward the far side of the bridge, awkwardly glancing between the two.
    "Oh. ...Sorry," Laurel begins somewhat sheepishly. "I didn't know. He's done this before? I don't understand. And we have no idea what's going on? Do you know what happened at least? ...Anything?" She squirms a little bit. If there were somewhee suitable to hide a Daxamite she'd probably fly away now.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Laurel, a pleasure." Lar smiles politely, but then returns to looking confused again. "So I'm the same age as you, except a thousand years older. Right." he chuckles. "That makes -so- much sense."

    He shakes his head at her question. "No, I'm terribly sorry. But I haven't the slightest clue. I...uhm..." Well, this is awkward.

    He turns toward Lyle, trying to break the tense moment by changing the subject. "So, Lyle what was it you needed to talk to me about? I had some questions myself but I'll let you say your piece first."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "It's okay, Laurel.  With so many of us on away missions, it's hard to keep track of everything and everyone.  We're still working out what happened; so far as I know," Lyle says, glancing towards Lar, "he remembers nothing before I found him planetside a couple weeks ago."  No, he's not going to explain finding Crown Prince Lar Gand of Daxam in a bar in Metropolis at the center of an angry roomful of bar patrons.
    At least not yet.
    Ugh, speaking of angry patrons... he was actually kind of hoping to use Laurel's return as a way to get out of having to deal with this Livewire mess just now.  "Uh, yeah, Lar.  Uhm."  For lack of any way to phrase the question, he just turns a monitor towards Lar, showing the cell phone store incident.  He does *not* look angry, or even upset.  Tired, more than anything else.  "I know you too well to believe her for a microsecond, Lar.  She's obviously taken something *way* out of context and is just as obviously not telling the whole story.  I have no doubt in my mind, *none*, that when you said you would hurt her, you meant by accident since you're still sorting out control of your powers.  The rest of it, it looks like she's just made it up on the fly to make the situation as awful as she could."
    He sighs heavily.  "Obviously, I can't /make/ you stay on the cruiser.  But I recommend you lie low at least for a little while, until things settle a little.  I'll figure out some way to handle Livewire."  He turns the closest thing he's had to a smile all day to Laurel.  "Unless you'd like to volunteer to address the attack on your family's honor?"

Andromeda has posed:
    "..." Laurel listens to all of this with a blank expression, having sequestered herself into a corner while Invisible Kid has been explaining the situation. The mighty Andromeda, Savior of Daxam and foe of the Khundite Empire is busily tapping hr left toe against the floor rapidly like she is trying to chase a pernicious thought ouf f her mind using percussion.
    "Oh, um... It's fine, Uncle Lar. We'll figure it out." Laurel's voice is softer now but she flashes Mon-El a smile as she turns her head slightly to study him. Carefully, from head to toe. "We'll figured out what happened to you," she promises gently then.
    Then Lyle is back to speaking. laurel crosses her arms over her chest, nodding seriously in repsonse to the points being mae. Blonde hair bounces along with the movement, framing her motions and the way she adjusts herself as her expression becomes progressively more serious.
    Then Invisible Kid mentions her family honour and Laurel tenses slightly. There's a connection there. She's taken the bait. "What's going one? ...What bout my family honour? Someone is going after Uncle Lar?" Laurel makes a fist. Never a good sign for anything nearby. "Does this have to do wit hthat video people were talking about?"

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar sighs at the sight of Livewire's embarrassing footage of him. -Great-. "She was attacking the patrons of that shop, causing property damage. I was trying to stop her, and she just...accused me of beating up women because I said I'd have to hurt her if she kept endangering them. Of course she purposefully talked over me as soon as I started explain -that- bit. Then she started talking about... a bunch of stuff that didn't make any sense to me. So I said as much." He slumps into a chair near Lyle, looking somewhat defeated. "I'm...sorry if I made you guys look bad."

    He listens as Lyle suggests laying low for a while. "And how do I do that? What do 'normal' people my age do on this planet anyway? And you can't expect me to just--sit there and watch if something dangerous happens!"

    "Speaking of dangerous, I was hoping you could tell me if--uh--we ever encountered anyone who could summon massive reptiles out of portals? Claims she's in love with me? Likes to demand that I marry her or something, or else she'll hurt people? Oh, yeah. And have you ever heard anyone called 'Unstoppable Juggernaut'? I kind of unintentionally got into a fight with him. He was...as strong as I am, and that's saying something. I buried him in the ground, but he got away. Should I be worried?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "*You* didn't," Lyle says.  "*She* did.  There'll be a reckoning one way or another, I promise you that.  Maybe that shop has some security camera setup, we can get the whole story and show Livewire up for a liar.  As for what normal people do around here... no clue."  He shrugs and grins.  "This isn't my millennium, and I wouldn't know 'normal' if it bled to death in the bathroom sink while yodeling an aria."
    At the rest of Lar's statement, Lyle genuinely goes pale.  Finally, all he says, and very quietly, is "Glorith.  Oh, *grife*..."

Andromeda has posed:
    "...Juggernaut too?" Laurel's expression is a stony mask. She nods once and takes a deep breath. "I've got this, Uncle Lar. This is going to end here." Then Laurel is - gone. Or rather, she's standing by the airlock and tapping a toe against the floor while she waits for it to cycle. Ships have so many restrictions.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Yeah, she was -using- the security cameras." Lar sighs. "She just kept interrupting me. Maybe if we can get audio from another source, I guess." he rubs his head.

    "Right, so no idea -how- to lie low, if I don't know how to act like a normal person. I guess I could try to ask someone else I've met recently for advice..." Maybe Power Girl? Or Bombshell, or Kaelyn. Not that he hadn't caused them all sorts of frustration already.

    Anyway, at least Lyle and Laurel seem to know these people he's asking about. "So you know them? Laurel, wait--!" But she's gone. He shakes his head. "I'm never going to get used to that." Meaning the whole 'uncle' thing. But judging from Lyle's expression, Glorith is even more bad news than Juggernaut. "Glorith? That's her name?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle nods.  Looks like 'Juggernaut' didn't even register beyond being a name he's seen in the news.  Glorith, on the other hand... that's bad.  "She's a time manipulator.  Deeply and profoundly dangerous.  And yes, she had a thing for you.  Maybe still does.  And she didn't care how you felt about it."  He's back at the terminal, trying to look up news about dinosaurs and insane time manipulators and... "*Grife*!!"  It's a noise of pure frustration, not anger, and definitely not directed at Lar.  "Too much to keep track of..." he mutters under his breath.  "And the *real* worst of it is, she may be our best hope of getting back to our own time."