trans_9 | Trying To Settle

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Trying To Settle

Brenda has been spending her time since the Epic Meeting just trying to get her bearings on the ship and find something useful to do with herself. Everyone seems to have squared themselves away to an extent, finding roles that make them feel productive enough not to kill each other at any rate, but she was frankly a little too lost in the fray at the time to be sure where to put herself and now that seems to have backfired.

She's going a little nuts without a task to focus on.

So she finds herself wandering back to the 'Special Weapons Division' that was such a wreck when she first saw it. Neatening a mess or putting things in order always managed to knock her stress down a few pegs at home (she'd spent weeks organizing and re-organizing her room at Tia Amparo's house when she first moved in) so really the half-demolished lab seemed like a good place to put her otherwise wrung hands to work.

Finding her way back to the door is easy enough, but she's surprised to find the lights on already. Cautiously she steps inside and looks around.

"Hello?"

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Brainy has hidden here after the meeting. He's grumpy.

"What do you want?"

Brenda frowns for a second, then steps all the way into the lab and comes over to where Brainy is bent over some disassembled machinery and looking irritated. She thinks, then decided upfront and honest is best.

"Uuuuh, well, I'm stir crazy and I want to organize the crap out of this place until my hands fall off or a feel better, whichever comes first."

Brainy perks up.

Someone useful for a change.

"Can you tell the difference between a fuse and transponder?"

"Er, yes. At least as far as the electrical panel for a building goes."

"Clone enough," Brainy says shortly, gesturing to a pile of junk. "Sort those parts into the bins."

Brenda frowns at the way he just orders her to task, but goes over to the pile on the table and hops up on the bed platform closest to it, setting the bins where she can reach them the easiest and starting to sort, weeding things by size, colour, and apparent function.

"So... what are you trying to put back together there?"

Might as well make a bit of small talk.

"Energy source for the lab equipment."

Take your small talk and stuff it, Brenda. Rassum frassum Master, with his rassum frassum pointing out his horrible ethics...

"Sounds complicated."

She's quiet for a second, trying to think of a topic of conversation that doesn't get her a short, stiff answer. She remembers overhearing an awful lot of grouchiness at the meeting for one thing.

"What was that Time Lord guy flipping out at you over back at the meeting earlier?"

Sort, sort, sort...

Good going, Brenda, pick the subject he's sore about.

"He was publicly reprimanding me for scanning the crew to maintain medical files on them when I'd claimed I was no longer doing it without permission--an action that saved a crew member's life, regardless of its ethical ramifications. He was also making implications about my character by bringing up my ancestry."

Brenda makes a face.

"That's... charmingly un-understanding of them. I mean, maybe you should have tricked them into signing a waiver first to avoid getting yelled at but if you saved somebody's LIFE because of it that should have counted for something."

She tossed a particularly large transponder into a bin with a loud thunk.

"And they can go to hell on that 'evil ancestry' shit. That's just a pot shot."

"Hmmph. If I recall correctly, your initial reaction to me was resoundingly typical."

Edited 2009-04-06 10:24 (UTC)

"Yeah, well, I backed off once you clarified the five part and I haven't given you crap about it since have I?" She tosses a transistor over her shoulder into a bin, shrugging.

"I didn't even know there were any numbered Braniacs that were descendants and not clones before I met you and having been just choked by my best friend and then called an idiot for it... Well I was a little prone to being scared of my own shadow at the time. I'm sorry for freaking if that means anything."

Nobody ever apologizes, typically. Having Superman and now Brenda do it is a nice change of pace.

"The first descendant was a clone, but after Brainiac 2, the line continued in the usual way, and eventually relocated back to the homeworld."

"Huh. I never knew. That's what I get for not being hardcore into superheroes as a kid I guess. What's your homeworld like? Or were you one of those displaced and raised on earth types?"

Asking Brainy about his life is VASTLY better than dwelling on her own feelings and history right now.

People...never ask him about that. Most likely because they assume he won't answer, but he has no reason not to. He attaches no emotional significance to his upbringing and homeworld--it's a neutral subject.

"Colu, in the 31st century, is far more advanced than 21st century Earth, that much I can assure you, though it was far more advanced in the 21st century as well. I was property of Colugov and grew up working for the planetary interest, until I was eventually placed in an intellectual exchange program, working at various labs and institutions until I was drafted into the Legion of Superheroes. We later managed to get the draft abolished."

He stayed.

Because.

Edited 2009-04-06 10:55 (UTC)

"You grew up working for your planet's government?" She can't QUITE keep the shock out of her voice and is frankly biting her tongue to keep from making a remark about him being 'property' as well.

"That doesn't sound very fun."

"My...mother--" The slightest hitch to his voice with that word "--was Brainiac 4. The genetic material for my paternal DNA was collected and manipulated by Colugov to produce optimum results. After pouring all the resources they did into my creation, they sought a return on their investment," Brainy says simply. "The Brainiacs have always served Colugov, since the return to the homeworld--"

And then always gone nuts and left or tried to kill everyone somehow.

"--and always been treated as something between royalty and indentured public servants."

And utterly loathed by the people they served.

"I did as I was told." A pause. "Mostly."

He did build a lot of shit that he wasn't supposed to. Sometimes it exploded.

Edited 2009-04-06 11:12 (UTC)

"Royalty and indentured servants don't cross paths so much there." She frowns. "Being lauded by everyone for your work doesn't count for much if you get treated like a pariah on all the levels that matter."

She tries to push that thought aside. He speaks of it with no malice, his tone relaxed and matter of fact, but it still leaves her with the uncomfortable image of a small child crammed in a lab working away their young days in service to a government that treats them like a commodity instead of a creature with a soul.

"What was your time with the Legion like?"

Good topic switch Brenda. Ask him about the time he got drafted/forced to go work with heroes and see if that's any less frustrating to hear about.

He ignores the first statement.

"What is it like having a part to play in your friend Blue Beetle's heroism?"

Edited 2009-04-07 03:18 (UTC)

She has to think about that for a second.

"You know at first I thought 'this just sucks' but the more I get involved with it the more it's just..." she trails off for a moment, then picks back up more confidently. "It's just become how my life IS now, you know? And I could say I want it all to be normal again, but frankly I've seen some amazing things and had stuff happen for my friends and I that I just would never trade back. It's not EASY but so much good has come of it. I had my own little foothold in saving the god-damn world you know? How cool is that?"

She gives him a sheepish smile. "So... it's awesome when it doesn't suck."

"Now imagine that you get to do even more than the good you've already done. You get to fight by his side in much the same way he fights," Brainy says. "Imagine it's not just the world you save, but you've done things like save the entirety of time, you've not just saved one town or one planet, but all of sentient existence."

There's the tiniest ghost of a smile quirking at his mouth.

"That," he finishes, "is what it's like with the Legion."

Brenda can't say a lot to that other that a faint. "Whoa..."

"Did that adequately answer your query?"

"... I... yeah." She sorts another transistor out of the pile, feeling kind of outpaced now. "Is anyone else from the Legion here on the Meatship?"

"Superboy is technically a member, but none of the Legionnaires from my own time."

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