3855/One is the loneliest Number

One is the loneliest Number
Date of Scene:	18 October 2020
Location:	Giorgio's Pizzeria - St. Martin's Island
Synopsis:	Colette, Gar and Kyle go for pizza. Kyle learns a little about his ring, Gar gets a little more hopeful, and Colette manages to only swear once.
Cast of Characters:	Colette O'Connail, Gar Logan, Kyle Rayner

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Colette O'Connail has posed:
    It has been a while since Colette had tracked down Gar to his safehouse of loneliness. She had visited the tower since to check up on Kian and Kate, but Gar hadn't been around at the time - though Kyle had. An untrained Green Lantern! Fascinating. It was time to check up on Gar again, because... well. He probably needs it. And why not invite Kyle along too? He's new after all, and probably has yet to experience the glory that is Giorgio's pizza, except via remote delivery.

    In addition, it's a thematic thing. Gar is green. Kyle is green. Well not actually green, but certainly green-adjacent. It makes sense!

    Giorgio's is close to the tower and easy to get to, but to make sure Colette had turned up to the tower to give Gar and Kyle a ride there.

    It's in the brief wait after Gar gets to the car before Kyle arrives that Colette choses to explain what the hell she had been talking abot to Gar that last time they had met. It's the perfect opportunity, as far as she is concerned, because the strict time limit means she can put off answering any awkward questions until later.

    "Hey Gar," she says as he gets into the car. "So. Before the new guy turns up. I know I said some things that were pretty weird last time. It's like this. You're Garfield Logan. You're also Beast Boy. These things are not contradictory. I'm Colette O'Connail. Twenty-one years old, born and bred in Metropolis. I'm also kinda a Martian called Kal'at Varr who died a few centuries ago. That's also not contradictory, it just seems that way because things are fucking weird. I'm also kinda... well, I didn't have a name back then. Or whatever it was that became me didn't have a name back then. But part of me has been alive for a very, very long time. So that's why I sometimes... I have different perspectives. But mainly I'm Colette, okay? I'm sorry I can be a bit of an ass at times. I'm trying."

    She looks towards the tower, avoiding Gar's gaze, and hoping Kyle will turn up really soon so she doesn't have to answer any questions.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan did not particularly want to go out, but there were a few reasons to suggest he should:

* he wasn't feeling quite as interested in being alone since flying with Kian
* he didn't know Kyle very well, and he'd be a bad teammate if he said no
* he'd also be rude to turn down Colette, because no matter any past issues he'd felt toward her, she had been a help more than once
* it's hard to say no to pizza you don't have to pay for

Still, he was unprepared for the immediate launching into the story of being Colette but also once being a Martian, leaving the casually-dressed Titan to tilt his head at her and stare. "I, uh, was totally not prepared for that all of a sudden. But I guess it explains a few things. I'm not even sure what to say to that."

He's left to rub the back of his head, green fingers through green hair, eyeing her speculatively, if not questioningly. "And..hi."

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner hasn't really been out much at all, except, for the occasional thing to do for school or the Titans. So he definitely was quite happy to leave and go somewhere that wasn't the Tower, or the University, and there's a car ride. Which definitely beats the usual walk that he does, because, he'd rather do that, then try and fly the whole length of Metropolis.
    Coming out of the Tower, and towards the car, he has a big smile on his face. A hand runs through his own black hair, not from stress, but to make it somewhat neater than it's usual just-everywhere-ness.
    "Hey," he says with a smile as he comes up, before he notices Gar rubbing the back of his head and he stops, "Everything good," he asks, looking between the pair, and providing Colette the out that she had deviously planned for.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "No need to say anything about it," Colette replies to Gar. "I had to get it out there. I'll answer questions if you have any later, or we can just shrug our shoulders and get on with life, which suits me because I'm not sure I have the answers. But I owed you the truth, so there it is."

    She shrugs her shoulders and finally looks at Gar properly. "More importantly, how are you doing? I know this is all hard on you. I can't say something dumb like 'hey don't worry he'll be back soon' because nobody knows that. But he's alive. Kate showed me the prophecy, and that one thing at least seems clear. Remarkably clear for a prophecy, honestly."

    Since Colette had been introduced to Kyle as Kian's English teacher, he might be a little surprised by how smart and expensive-looking her car is, but who knows. Maybe people who teach English as an Alien Language get a good salary. Still, there seems to be a lot of money around the Tower and a bit of luxury is nothing new to Kyle these days! The door opens for him and Colette ushers him in with a smile. "Hey there Kyle! Feeling hungry? You guys deal with those Fearsome Howevermany?"

    As soon as Kyle is in, Colette drives. Fast. She's one of those drivers who drives with a confidence that is reassuring to confident passengers but nervewracking to nervous passengers. Fortunately, Giorgio's is only a mile or so away and it's only a few minutes before the three are entering the pizza place and taking their seats.

    Or possibly geeking out over the rather extraordinary collection of memorabilia that lines the walls here. This was, after all, Terry's favorite pizzeria before it was introduced to the rest of the Titans - and the nerd-shrine nature of the place undoubtedly has something to do with it

Gar Logan has posed:
Another time and place, Gar might have to give Colette the side-eye or more for taking advantage of a small window in which she could tell him something like this, 'in private,' just before someone else turned up to make for a reason not to delve deeper into the topic just yet.

"Just fine," he says to Kyle more than Colette, though his quiet demeanor is a contrast to what others normally expect out of him. Something Colette has to say about that gets him to reply, "I don't know. I'm not very good at waiting, especially if there's something we can do. Just because they're alive doesn't mean they're safe. And.." He shrugs and settles his hands in his lap. "I just want them all back. And those guys won't be bothering us again for a while."

The speeding toward the pizza place doesn't affect him much, at least outwardly. Not even being there and seeing all the stuff on display - and there's something of his up on a wall - shakes him of the heavier weight that still hangs over him, though a couple people who immediately approach seeking autographs and pictures are obliged with the sort of smile and cheerful nature any practiced actor can put on at a moment's notice even if they aren't feeling it.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
     "Yeah, the Fearsome Number got what was what, it was pretty great. I got to hang out with folks and everything," Kyle says, suddenly animated, as he delves into the finer details of his contribution to the defeat. "They had like this laser turret, so I put a mirror in front of it. It was.. pretty awesome," he says with a grint, wrapping his own little tale.
    Then his attention is dragged into all the COOL STUFF, and he's soon hustling from one side of the restaurant to the other, looking at each thing on a display, "This place is so coooooooooool," he says.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
"Laser turrets, huh? Hmm. This was a green mirror, right?" Colette asks thoughtfully. "That's probably not a trick which would work as well on higher-powered lasers. If they're red, most of the energy will be absorbed directly by your mirror rather than reflected. Best bet would be to project a construct directly onto the barrel. That way you're dumping the heat of absorbtion directly back into the laser. Of course if it's a green or blue laser, then a green mirror should work pretty well. "

    After the initial flood of autograph hunters swarming Gar dies down, the waiter brings menus and Colette looks at Gar with a small sigh. "I wish I could... I'm not a scientist, and wormhole physics is a pretty specialized area of knowledge. I'm not even sure what could be done to help get them back, to be honest. It's hard enough to imagine how they could have survived. The only thing I can think of is that the collapse must have created a temporary gravitic bubble in the wormhole substrate. Their ship could be caught in a bubble of space-time within hyperspace. The amount of energy it takes to open a wormhole though -- even if you could figure out how to locate such a bubble within hyperspace... that's not going to be easy. "

    Colette opens her menu and scans through the list of pizzas. "If there's anything I can do to help though Gar... let me know. Right now though I'm more cncerned with you, that's a more immediate issue. This kinda... you were like this when I first met you. I think getting back with the Titans helped you a lot."

Gar Logan has posed:
Somewhere during the course of Colette's advice about dealing with lasers, and her speculation over wormholes and hyperspace and bubbles of one kind or another, Gar's eyes begin to glaze over as he stares at the menu. Knowing the way his appetite can be, he could order half of what's listed and still have room for dessert, except this time he just can't settle on anything. Pizza would be the easiest way around that, but...

As Kyle's eagerness to see everything in here is taken care of, or at least the itch is scratched, he shakes his head. "I don't know anything about any of that, Colette. I just want them back. I miss gaming with Vic, and all the stuff we'd get into. I miss Cait and her cooking and her sort of Team Mom side. I miss Donna and, you know, just the way she is. But I miss Vorpal a whole lot, and we'd only just told everybody about us." The relationship, that is. The one that had been exposed at the ball. "I just can't deal with knowing they're out there, but not being able to go get them because of whatever reason. I know Raven said we have to let this play out, but a big part of us is still not there." And it's killing him in a different way than the actual losses of the past did.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner continues to zip around for a bit, before the settle into sitting and there are menus to occupy his time. "Well, yes, I suppose, that makes a lot of sense," he says while he nods along, mostly trying to keep up with Colette, and failing a little bit trying to listen and get a feel for it. His attention then goes to Gar, and he kinda falls silent while mention is made of those that are still missing.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "I'm not convinced, Gar," Colette says. "That prophecy... Kate said she heard it in her mind, which means there are no translation issues. Mind to mind communication removes ambiguity. And that prophecy had a change from passive to active voice. There was a difference in phrasing, starting out with 'before they can return', right? But then it changed to 'before you can find them.' So to me that says there's some problems they gotta solve first, but after they solve those problems, you'll be able to find them. So whatever Raven says... I wouldn't be twiddling my thumbs just yet. If figure there's stuff you could be doing to help find them. Maybe it's a matter of meeting them half way or something, you know what I mean?"

    Colette watches Kyle finish off his tour of the memorabilia under a raised brow. "He's not taking this in, is he?" She says quietly to Gar. "Those F... damn Oans hand him one of the most powerful weapons in the universe and he has no clue how to use it. It's lucky yellow lasers are too inefficient for anyone much to bother with them."

    She puts down the menu. "I could just order one of everything?" she says with a smirk. "Saves trying to make your minds up. How's life as a Titan treating you, Kyle? Getting used to the crazy yet?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan can only shake his head at what Colette has to say. "I don't know what it all means. None of it makes sense. They're..gone. I don't know why anybody would have to do anything before we can help them or they can come back or..whatever!" He waves his hands, gesturing at how helpless the whole thing still has him feeling. "If we can find them, we should just go get them. I can't think of anything that would, like, threaten the whole space-time continuum or destroy reality here."

It's clear he still doesn't know what to do, if there's anything he /can/ do.

As far as Kyle goes, he shrugs. "You're asking me about Green Lantern stuff?" he replies, full of skepticism and doubt, before holding up the menu in front of his face, his eyes. "I'll just have a five-cheese pizza. I don't care about the size."

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner points to the menu, "BBQ Chicken sounds like a good pizza to me," he notes, before he adds, "Um, well, I mean, I'm worried about our lost people. But, I guess I've gotten used to the craziness, because I've been just doing the usual things, school and being a superhero or trying to train," he says with a small smile. Yes, he's very cheerful and still full of wide-eyed innocence for at a lot of things, but he is very earnest that he's doing his best to learn all the things he needs to know.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "They do an eight-cheese," Colette says to Gar with a smirk. "Will that do?" She nods to the waiter and orders the aforementioned pizzas, plus a Philly cheese steak pizza, all extra large. That's way too big really, but she's eaten with Gar before.

    "If they're stuck in hyperspace Gar... then that would be tricky. I mean just going there. You can't really navigate in hyperspace, you have to... well you can navigate in relation to the universe outside. Essentially you're opening up a pathway, but going off the path, there's not really any landmarks, you know? So maybe what you need to be doing is providing them with some kind of landmark. A hyperspace beacon that they can follow to find a route out, something like that."

    "So how much /do/ you know, Kyle? I mean about your ring. All that stuff. Do you even know where the ring comes from? You heard of the Oans? Know about the Lantern corps?"

Gar Logan has posed:
"No. Contrary to what some might think, eight is more than enough. It's too much," Gar says flatly, seeming to have serious opinions about the variety of cheeses on a pizza and what's overkill.

Hyperspace? He pulls out his phone just to look up what is generally accepted to be so. "If they need a landmark or an anchor or something to latch on to, I'd be more than happy to be one if it gets them back."

He shuts up so Kyle can answer.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner blinks at Colette, "The.. who? The what? Nope.. just a dying alien who handed me a ring... there wasn't really time for any sort of.. talking," he says after a while. Shrugging his shoulders, "I mean, beyond knowing it needs a lantern, I don't really no too much about it except from what the news might saw about the other Lantern, but he hasn't been seen in a while either. So, I don't know what's going on."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Oans. Or Maltusians. Or self-appointed 'Guardians of the Universe'," Colette explains to Kyle. "They're the ones who run the Green Lantern Corps. Basically space cops, though it's not like an official thing. Not everyone..." she stops, blinks thoughtfully, then shrugs. "I guess you could say it's a bit like the Titans really. A bunch of people getting together to fight crime, except instead of defending their city and their world, they kinda declared the entire universe as their beat."

    Colette looks thoughtfully at Gar, and nods her head. "You know, that might actually not be a bad idea. I mean you being an anchor, Gar. You could be on to something there. You can't exactly use a radio beacon in hyperspace, but if you could figure out some kind of psychic beacon that carried an engrammatic imprint of your mind... that would be sure to attract their attention. I dunno. I mean I'm not a scientist, but you've got some science types on the team, right? And there's Kian. Don't forget, he may not speak perfect English, but birdy buddy there is really smart, and probably has a better understanding of psychic interfaces than... well, on his world they have robots that they can communicate with psychically, as far as I understand. That means they must have some kind of psychic transciever technology. Could be worth bringing up the idea with him."

Gar Logan has posed:
"Yeah. They're, like..right, what she said. Space cops. I guess the ring is like your badge," Gar adds, rubbing the back of his neck again after putting in his order through an electronic interface. "But I haven't really known any other ones."

It's no offense meant to Kyle, but his thoughts are primarily more on Colette picking up on what the green teen said and running with it. "I'm not psychic, but I dunno. If Kian can help, if even Raven can help, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure they can find their way back if that's what they need. Maybe Vorpal would be able to notice something, or Vic could scan somewhere, somehow." He gestures with his palms up, indicating he's taking a shot in the dark with the whole concept.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner isn't worried about Gar trying to upstage him, he's more here for the pizza, and the cool nerd stuff at this point. Clearly enjoying his surroundings while he sits there and looks between the two. He's absorbing the information, Colette is giving him, but he's not focused on that information right now, because people are missing, and there's pizza! "I didn't know that... maybe one of these days I should talk to some of the folks in the League who knew the other Lantern. They'll probably point me in some sort of direction."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "I'm not sure if the other people in the League would..." Colette starts to respond to Kyle, before stopping herself. "I mean yeah. It's probably a good idea. Ultimately you probably need to speak to another Lantern to learn how to use that thing properly, but they'll probably know more than most people. The ring is more than a badge though, it's also... well. Dangerous. And it's powered by... it's an emotional thing. Your emotional stability is something you should probably work on. That thing is only as reliable as you are."

    Colette leans across the table to give Gar's arm a quick squeeze. "Look, I can't guarantee that it would work. But it's /something/, right? Some kind of beacon transmitting a psychic message recorded from your mind, Vorp would be bound to pick up on that. I don't see how he couldn't, he'd be tuned in to it. I just... well a psychic beacon might be a tough ask for Earth technology. But it's /something/, Gar. It's an idea. Something you could actually be working on, so what's to lose?"

Gar Logan has posed:
"I'll talk to somebody. If we can find a way to make it work, at least I'll feel like I'm doing something that matters," Gar replies. "I know people don't really think of me when it comes to using my brain all that much, but I use it a lot when I'm trying to decide what animal to be for something. There's a lot I've got up in here. It's just different stuff compared to most people."

There is a faint tick of something more upbeat in his tone and body language. It helps to feel like he could make a difference with all of this, rather than having to sit around and hope.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner falls silent as things turn back towards the missing folks, and he kinda just lingers there, until suddenly, there is pie! He grins, but waits for Colette and Gar to grab their food, before he turn snags a few pieces to eat.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette gives Gar a broad, encouraging grin. She'd probably punch his arm if there wasn't a table in the way. "That's the spirit, Gar. Waiting sucks, but if there's something you can actually be doing to make the wait a bit shorter, that's only a good thing, right? Yourself as a beacon... That's actually a pretty smart idea. Mental communication is one of the few ways it's possible to communicate in hyperspace, you could be on to something here!"

    As the pizzas arrives, Colette is quick to dig in to her Philly cheese steak pizza. There's really no need to be polite, the pizzas are pretty huge - though Gar's appetite might be enough to finish of his pizza on his own. It might not be a good idea for Kyle to try the five cheeses pizza anyway -- it's rather yellow.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan handles a couple slices of the five-cheese, taking alternating bites. "If there's a way, we'll find one," he says between chomps.

Conversation begins to give way to eating, but when another autograph-seeker drops by and asks for a moment of Gar's time, the smile he gives is less forced than it was for the group when they'd first arrived.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
    Kyle Rayner munches on his own pizza, falling silent and just enjoying the companionship of friends and pizza, and nerd stuff on every wall!