2013.05.08 - Hypertemporal Whatsit

Cos is standing on the roof of the HQ because it's basically the sexiest HQ ever and it's got a phenomenal view. He's also drinking a chocolate milkshake. He's also waiting on Booster, so he eventually thumbs his flight ring comm and calls into it, "Cos to Booster Gold. Come up on the roof, willya? I have an idea. Which should have a capital I."

"No problemo, mi amigo!" is Booster Gold's response via the ring communicator, which is clearly not in Interlac. It is not long before there is a bright golden glint in the sky, and then it is streaking towards the top of the Legion Headquarters like a shooting star. Booster can really get some serious speed out of his flight ring. It isn't a crash landing, he swoops down then up in a graceful if showy manner, and hovers before Rokk, giving him a jaunty salute and a thousand-watt grin.

Booster only gets one thumbs-up from the jock in black and purple, but it's because chocolate milkshake. He grins back, just as bright. "Awesome," he says in English. "So how would you feel about handling PR? Licensing and revenue and whatever."

"Wow, for real?" Booster's eyebrows are just visible behind his goggles, arching upwards. He drops down for a landing, and the golden glow around him winks out, leaving him merely shiny. "I mean, I'd thought..." He pauses, and taps his chin, looking thoughtful. "Well, some folks in this era seem to find that idea crass, which I've never understood. But of course, this isn't your native era either. Sure, I'd love to take a crack at that!"

"They can find it as crass as they like," Cos answers dismissively, waving his free hand around. He slurps from the milkshake again. "They probably have investors or inheritances or something. And basically I'm thinking if we're gonna go all Prime Directive Schmime Directive, we might as well also do the fun part. Swag. Amirite?" He's thirtysomething and he's saying 'swag' and 'amirite'. He's a jock and he's saying these things. Nerrrrrd. "I figure you're probably our best bet in that direction, anyway; you know from a good photo op."

The thrum of a transport tube, as usual, announces Brainiac's arrival. He's dressed in his own black and purple outfit, a fashion statement he shares with Rokk, and approaches the others on the roof. Glancing up and down at Rokk, Brainiac says hesitantly, "It seems somehow inappropriate to call you 'Cosmic Boy,' given our current measure of temporal disjunction. However--Cos--I am here. May I be of some assistance?" A moment, and he adds, "As for... temporal prime directives, or... whatnot. I do not believe that is at issue. According to my calculations, this reality is hypertemporally persistent. We will have no greater or lesser impact on the unfolding of future events here than anyone else."

"Right? Some of us have to work day jobs, I mean... it's not like I'm going to charge anyone when I do something heroic." Booster lifts his hands in a mildly exasperated gesture. "And then it's even more expensive to keep an entire team functioning. Especially for stuff like incidental damage while fighting the forces of evil. Sometimes... sometimes overpasses fall over. That kind of thing." When Brainiac arrives, Booster greets him with one of his brilliant smiles, points at him with both hands, and says, "Dude!"

"--!" is what Cos says, which isn't words, but definitely gets a speech bubble of its own, when he sees Brainy come out of the tube. "Hot damn!" This is milkshake getting set on the surface of the roof next to the railing, and then Cos is totally shamelessly already up in Brainiac 5's space, launched to give the guy a ridiculous hug. "GRIFE I'm glad you got here! Yeah, Cos is all I go by, I haven't had a real codename in about ten years-- I don't know if you've met Booster in your timeline? Booster Gold, meet Brainiac 5." Already pulling away, already doing the one-hand-on-back one-hand-spread-out introduction thing, Cos is just grinning. "How long ago did you even get here? I've got a stack of things tagged with your name already, because at this point I'm just assuming people are going to show up sooner or later. Garth told me Superman has some time travel stuff, and we've also got Rond, so if you want some parallax on what you've been able to determine, that might be a good place to start-- and I'm assigning Booster PR duty, and you'd be the best judge of what technology we can release without terrible ramifications in the present, obviously--"

Well at least Rokk flinging around stuff to do isn't anything new.

Brainiac 5 wears contacts. It's true. His vision is fine, of course, but HIS contact lenses are microsupercomputers capable of feeding intense levels of data into his brain via the optic nerve, which causes his eyes to occasionally flicker with a purple glow. As Cos goes crazy greeter on Brainy, this happens in abundance--information is being processed by scads of teeming, frantic nanobots, and so by the time that Brainy has regained some measure of dignity, he is able to nod politely to Booster and say, "Pleased to meet you, Booster. Cos--well, I'm pleased to be here. I've established a bit of a presence in this century, and I have some income as a result, so I've already begun some calculated release of technological advances. I would be happy to give you my statistical analysis of the results...."

"Dude, that is so many words," Booster Gold cheerfully remarks, in response to Brainiac 5. He says this admiringly, as if it was a true compliment, and even moves in to present a fist to Brainy; not to punch him, of course, just for a bro-fist bump. "I assume you're from the 30th or 31st century, like these other guys? I'm from the 25th. It's not as nice as this century is, though. Which is why I came here. I mean seriously..." He glances up as a flock of pigeons flies by, and points to the birds with an expression of genuine awe on his face. "It is amazing."

"--you've been here?" Cos stops up a little short, hanging up on that even though pigeons; his face has an expression that's probably about a quarter annoyed and three quarters rueful. "Next time let me know? I mean-- granted I stopped sending open 'is anyone out there' broadcasts once enough of us showed up that there's ambient chatter-- but." He lifts his hands in surrender and shakes his head. "Never mind. That'd be perfect, thank you." If Brainy leaves Booster hanging, Cos will, of course, dap a brother. Otherwise and either way, he does move to scoop his milkshake back up, then swish the cup around to aid with maintenance of consistency. "So yeah, Booster, check with Brainy here for what can safely be licensed. The economic system here's pretty messy, and if Jan shows up it'd be altogether too tempting to just get him to make piles of gold-- and that'd probably just end up tanking the dollar."

It takes him a moment, but Brainy does eventually figure out to "fist bump" Booster in response. "Ah, 25th Century. Congratulations on your escape to this time, and--yes, I am from a similar hypertemporal context as my fellows." He glances pointedly at Cos. "We should make a point not to call ourselves simply TIME travelers. This is not like other times--I assume that your Legion, like my own, has time-traveled. Rather, we have traveled through HYPERTIME. This is not another era in our own timeline--it's an entirely different branch of reality. I have not yet prepared a comprehensive lecture on the subject, but I'd be happy to get something together if you want to hold a mission briefing." Another pause, and he adds, "But yes, I can work with Booster to establish some sort of... appropriate merchandising options. Income will be required here."

When the fist-bump is completed, Booster transforms that hand into a finger-gun along with a quiet 'pk-choo!' and a wink. Then he says, "Soooo, yeah... all that time talk. I have no idea what that means. I came here in a sphere and it was smooth sailing the whole way." He certainly seems happy about it, in any case. Booster is the type of guy that seems to project an inner glow at all times, as if he had no reason in the world to bother with misery. Now that he has contributed all he knows about time travel, he moves on to something he does know about; finance and public relations. "It's a good idea to come up with a few tech-based items that you can put on the market. But the thing is, depending on the price point, it may limit your target audience... and they'll be adults in any case. I recommend putting out a few toys, because not only will kids want those, you'll get adult collectors, too. But before you can do that, you need to generate some good will... but I don't see that being a problem!"

"Not at all: that's why I want Thunder to work with you, she's sort of... made of perky adorable. I'm pretty sure she has an exclamation point quota to meet on an hourly basis. I mean, grife, I saw a kid in a Flash t-shirt the other day. There's enough versions of our symbol floating around that you can probably even do limited edition baloney. Believe me, man. There was a LegionCon in 3005-- okay, some of the cosplayers were a little bit embarrassing, but that's not the point-- we haven't been here long enough to get fans, but we're pretty sprocking noticeable now. Imra's started networking with some of the established groups, and-- Brainy, if you can give her a hand talking with SHIELD, we'll be able to get as much information on them as they undoubtedly want on us. I'm hoping we get a few more Legionnaires who've been Science Police, it'll make it a lot easier to interface with local law enforcement." Then the man finishes his milkshake and sets the cup down again, stretching and cracking his knuckles-- and grinning at Brainiac 5. "And yeah, that's how I was looking at it. There's too much inconsistency in this version of TwenCen, too many things we would have known about-- it's obvious this isn't our TwenCen. Well. Any of ours, anyway. I'm familiar with more timelines than I'm really happy about, to begin with-- and I actually know how I got here. My wife shoved me through a hypertime portal to get me out of our collapsing universe." A beat. "She'll be fine. She's a Flash."

Brainiac offers one of his thoughtful little smiles at Rokk's enthusiasm, and he nods in agreement with the points being made. "Actually, I was approached by SHIELD earlier tonight--they want me to help them develop... certain materials. I will let you know when I've reviewed their data, but it's undoubtedly got my attention." He falls rather silent at the discussion of the future, of popularity, and particularly at the mention of Cos's wife (fine or not), simply continuing to nod along. He then steps forward, leaning a bit against the rail, and as the hues of the sunset wash over him he looks almost human-colored, save for the silver discs gleaming on his forehead. "All in all, this century should prove an interesting challenge for us." He turns to glance back, smiling a bit more broadly than usual. "But, at least we won't have to do it alone."