Brainiac 5 | Querl Dox (post-zero hour) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
googledox) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionworld2016-09-18 12:11 am
googledox) wrote in legionworld2016-09-18 12:11 am
[closed] what the cat dragged in
Who| Closed to Brainiac 5, Mabel, Speedball, and Niels
What| Niels gets into the labs
Where| The Labs
When| After Tinker, Tailor, Hero, Spy ambush
Warnings/Notes| N/A
"--Get back here you pestiferous, flea-bitten nuisance!"
PWONG.
It wasn't like Brainiac 5 hated animals. After all, he'd once been inseparable with his pet monkey for the time Koko had deigned to stay with him, even letting Koko sleep wrapped around his head. But monkeys that occasionally played with the wrong beakers were not the same as cats that broke the laws of physics and went ping-ponging around a room filled with priceless equipment.
Between Brainy's annoyed shouting and the pwong pwong pwong of kinetic energy, the racket was noticeable from outside the lab.
How the cat had gotten into the lab was a mystery, but how he'd escaped from Medbay was easy enough to figure out. Back in the Medbay, the staff were still marveling over the broken and mangled cat carrier they'd tried to put Niels in.
"Would you please cease your infernal--?"
PWONG.
He had to occasionally throw up his shields to protect himself and some of the more delicate equipment, but providing hard surfaces for Niels to bounce off only made his constant ricocheting worse.
What| Niels gets into the labs
Where| The Labs
When| After Tinker, Tailor, Hero, Spy ambush
Warnings/Notes| N/A
"--Get back here you pestiferous, flea-bitten nuisance!"
PWONG.
It wasn't like Brainiac 5 hated animals. After all, he'd once been inseparable with his pet monkey for the time Koko had deigned to stay with him, even letting Koko sleep wrapped around his head. But monkeys that occasionally played with the wrong beakers were not the same as cats that broke the laws of physics and went ping-ponging around a room filled with priceless equipment.
Between Brainy's annoyed shouting and the pwong pwong pwong of kinetic energy, the racket was noticeable from outside the lab.
How the cat had gotten into the lab was a mystery, but how he'd escaped from Medbay was easy enough to figure out. Back in the Medbay, the staff were still marveling over the broken and mangled cat carrier they'd tried to put Niels in.
"Would you please cease your infernal--?"
PWONG.
He had to occasionally throw up his shields to protect himself and some of the more delicate equipment, but providing hard surfaces for Niels to bounce off only made his constant ricocheting worse.
no subject
There's another crash and the klaxons start blaring. A computer system bleats:
||WARNING. WARNING. Neogenic plasma conduit destabilized. Secondary plasma conduit damaged. Core meltdown in 30...29...28...||
"Don't worry, a meltdown will only destroy the experiment," he reassures them both. He gestures to Robbie. "You subdue the feline and the glitter-covered child. I'll deactivate the piece of modern art that was priceless technology several seconds ago, before it melts into the floor."
Brainy grabs some tools and crawls behind a now-broken piece of equipment and gets to work. The klaxons stop blaring almost immediately.
||System Stable.||
no subject
"Robbie! Boy, am I glad to see you!" She narrows her eyes and cups one hand around her mouth. Then she motions over her shoulder at Brainiac before whispering "HE'S NOT HELPFUL. But you are!! Help me catch Jaunty! He's the best cat ever and he's bouncy just like--" She gasps.
"Just like you!! Maybe you're related!"
no subject
... or they can stop the alarm. That was always a possibility. Right.
"Mabel! Oh no, you've discovered our secrets! Brainy is a - gasp! - not helpful person, even though he totally made the screaming computer stop using terrifying science words! And I, Robbie, have an awful confession to make!"
He takes a moment to climb atop a clear spot on the counter. This is more to put himself in closer proximity to Niels while also seemingly not paying attention to the stupid cat, because he has a tendency to bolt when he realizes he's getting hemmed in.
Robbie presses his forearm to his forehead and turns his head in mock shame. "I have a secret cat-son! Now please, stay still and silent in your shock and shame!"
Because Robbie is very carefully creeping over to the high shelf that the cat has finally stopped on. He can catch the cat if it starts moving again, yes, but he has learned that the two of them bouncing around a tight area takes forever and causes so much more collateral damage. "Hey, Niels, I know you keep getting drug to new homes, buuuut this one has fake salmon ice cream thaaaat doesn't actually have cream. You know you're my favorite little sentient cat-son and we can - gotcha!"
He's snagged the cat by the scruff, and there is the expected hissing and scratching and random floating bubbles because the cat is kicking him and then headbutting him.
no subject
The ludicrousness of Robbie claiming to have a cat-son overrode the salt, however. Brainy peeked his head out from behind the now-useless equipment and his face made the contortions the faces of the attempting-to-be-humorless often made. It was distinctly a 'I am not admitting I find a silly thing funny even though it's hilarious" face.
Brainy cleared his throat.
"I don't care what you do with it. You can declare it royalty for all I care, just get it out of my lab. A moderately well-behaved monkey is one thing -- that's a respectable pet for a lab."
The problem with cats was they believed they owned the space they were in. This was a problem because Brainy also believed he owned the space he was in. It didn't matter how much space he cordoned off as workspace for other scientists, he was just lending it. It was still his.
no subject
"Why didn't you tell us you had a son? Has he always been a cat?" She can hope, right? There's a chance he could turn into a handsome cat boy.
no subject
But he can hear Mabel, and Robbie cannot believe that she's taken him seriously. The question about a possible species shift - is he understanding this right? Robbie meets Brainy's eyes for a second and raises an eyebrow as if to say, 'can you believe I have to explain this joke?'
"I don't like admitting to being a single parent. People judge us enough without that burden." He's struggling to not laugh, though, and he has to stop acknowledging anyone is in the room in order to keep going. "Would you believe Niels is actually adopted? He is, you know. How else could a human spawn a feline child? I'm just a super-evolved monkey, after all."
Robbie shoots a wink at Brainy and grins happily. "I hear we make great lab pets."
no subject
Brainy was not a person who people winked at. The last person he could even remember winking at him had been Lyle. Lyle was a winker to the core, it went with that whole devil-may-care vibe he tried to cultivate.
Lyle was also an irrepressible flirt and as a result Brainy associated winking with that.
His cheeks flushed ever-so-slightly greener, but he ignored it as he got up and went over to a console, working on dealing with some of the residual damage from the machine he'd just fixed.
"The cat can only stay if he's capable of not destroying everything. The tiny person can only stay if she's capable of being quiet. (Highly unlikely.)" He gestured to Robbie without looking up. "And you can stay if you can make yourself useful and don't have aspirations of leaving the Legion to form your own society."
no subject
At the very least though, she is actually being quiet. Probably because she's watching the exchange between them very closely. She's not sure about a lot of what's being said, but there's definitely a vibe there.
no subject
Robbie can't tell if he was or wasn't. If he knew that Robbie was trying to wind Mabel up, Brainy certainly wasn't playing along with the joke, and Robbie isn't sure what that means. From their conversations thus far, the green Legionnaire has a sense of humor, buuuut maybe the partial destruction of his lab is killing the mood. That's probably it.
The blush goes completely unrecognized and uncommented on. If Robbie was asked what color a green alien would blush, he would have guessed a ruddy brown color, and he'd expect it to be just as bright.
"Sorry, Bells." Robbie would ruffle her hair, but he doesn't want to let go of Niels, who has started squirming. "But if you want to play with him, I'll let you catsit while I stay here and prove that I can totally be useful."
The over-emphasized loudness continues, and, even though it's directed at Mabel, it's completely for the benefit of the man who is apparently so busy that he can't spare them eye contact anymore. "I also don't have aspirations of world domination, or solar systemic, or galactic, so someone needs to dial down the comparisons to monkey bros I don't know and let me make my own mistakes. I will. I'm good at that."
no subject
"Our universe's version of Superboy had stories about a secret island of humanoids who had human features blended with that of various other Earth mammals -- including some felinoids. Given that they hid themselves from the rest of society, it's highly likely that they still exist, somewhere on Earth."
Ergo, cat people -- including cat boys -- were potentially a thing. Have fun with that, Mabel.
"As for you." He pointed to Robbie with an omnitool, still without looking up. He let out an exaggerated sigh. "That's what all the intelligent bipedal mammals say."
And then they tear your heart out and rip it to pieces like a wet paper towel.
"But fine, I will endeavor to stop comparing you to Koko. You've already surpassed his talents by being capable of sentient speech anyway."