8805/Okay So What Happened At The Zoo Though

Okay So What Happened At The Zoo Though
Date of Scene:	24 November 2021
Location:	Starrware Inc. CEO's Office
Synopsis:	Karen talks to Terry about how to handle this weird situation. Pertinently, no boning in the basement. That's the one rule.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Karen Starr

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
It hasn't been but an hour since the strange events that took place at the New Troy Zoo, and Terry had to call his headline into the Planet. Afterwards, though, he had received a message to meet Miss Starr, the strange adventure proving surprising but not exhausting to anyone who can be properly called a Metropolite.

The motto of the City Of Tomorrow isn't "Expect The Unexpected," but it very well should be. Even if you point out that, once you expect it, it isn't unexpected anymore.

But we digress...

"Miss Starr?" Terry calls out, making his way towards the office. It was the weekend, but the building wasn't deserted- flexible schedules and all, after all. However, this particular stretch outside of Karen's office does seem to be mostly vacant, except perhaps for the woman who presides over her software empire from within that office.

Karen Starr has posed:
    In the office as Terry enters is one artificially disheveled Karen Starr. The kind of almost stereotypically shaken up visage that belies a recent brush with unconscionable violence that, for someone as... Exaggerated as Karen is, makes complete and total sense. Her hair's a mess. Her salmon business suit not as well tailored to her zaftig physique as it had been before. There's dirt on it. It's still a little soggy in places.

    On her desk, seem to be a stack- no less than seventeen different versions each of every book in the Wonderland saga, from different interpretations to different printings. If such a thing could produce a clear understanding of what Terry is and what they experienced, you'd get it somewhere in that stack.

    "Terry, Terry, Terry. What AM I going to DO with you after today?" she asks, poring through one of the open books. Of course, she'd already read them. In fact, she'd read through the stack mere seconds after procuring them, because Kryptonians aren't fair- but there's no way for Terry to know that. Not yet, anyway.

    "I imagine this isn't really the uh..." She clicks her tongue, "The /norm./ I imagine you /normally/ don't turn back into regular ol' Terry O'Neil partway through."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry spots the books and swallows, managing to not make an audible gulp, and walks in after closing the door behind him.

"It's... not usual at all. There was something that happened there that just... sucked all the magic out of me."

Still standing, he fidgets with the strap of his messenger bag, uncomfortably. "This has only happened once before. It's not permanent, I can feel it coming back... it's just not there yet."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen adjusts the thick glasses she's wearing, the dull brown of her eyes visible behind them- her eyes lock on Terry, but only so much- without her glasses, Karen supposedly can't see anything sharply at all.

    "We were cornered by deadly monsters that looked like Otters but spoke entirely in conjecture-based puns. What can you tell me about that?" she asks, chewing idly on the end of one of the legs of her glasses.

    "An' if it's happened once before, what do you know about the why and the who and the how? How long you think you're gonna be vulnerable?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"--the once before... okay. Just bear with me, because it's not... usual. One of my boyfriends had a /very/ vivid dream about the planet he came from, and apparently my subconscious thought it was a great idea and when we woke up we were somewhere across the galaxy and I was completely drained of magic. It took a day or so for it to all come back... so I think that by tomorrow I should be back to my usual self."

He glances down at his hands and seems to be focusing for a second, but nothing happens. "Yeah. Tomorrow."

He glances back up, and he scuffs his shoe across the carpet, "The otters... the whole thing was bizarre. When you stop to think about it it was all sorts of wordplay being made literal and..." he bites on his lip and frowns. "I mean. I saw something similar when there was that parade on the Avenue of Tomorrow and Mister Mixreru.... Msruet... Mister Mixiqutez... the little guy with the bowler hat brought Bizarro over to fight Superman. It just seems like his style."

He's always had problems with that guy's name.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen nods once or twice, listening but not commenting for a time. "Boyfriends plural?" she asks, first. "That's modern." The expression isn't one of disdain, more just an acknowledgment of a fact. "Tomorrow sounds good. Would rather not have to deal with some sort of pun-thing and not have you have your powers. That'd be -trouble.-"

    "Mr. Mxyzptlk." She corrects, an oddly intense tone to her voice and, of course, perfect pronunciation. "Yeah but isn't that guy not your uh- I mean he isn't part of the wonderland thing, is he? And I don't think he's -magic- as much as anomalous Weird, right? Also not supposed to be super violent. I haven't read about him ever causing someone's death, just a whole bunch of pranks."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry's green eyes grow wide with something that looks like panic. "Wonderland? I mean, it was unusual, but we don't really have any evidence that this was in any way related to Wonderland..."

Is it fear of it actually being so? Or merely that he finds that inconceivable? "I mean... it wouldn't have just vanished like that if it had. I'm still here. There is more than one type of chaos magic..."

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Terry." she states, tapping her glasses on the book. "Listen. I don't know anything about chaos magic, or magic of any kind. Really, really I don't. But that /whole thing/ was exactly the kind of shenanigans that was one tea-table away from being in this book."

    Leaning back in her chair, she crosses one leg over the other. "I'm not a hundred percent sure what all the hallmarks are, but come on. It sure looked like it. Chaos isn't /funny/ and it sure isn't /puns/ unless it's from a source that isn't meant to be /sane,/ right?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Her argument made sense, for all the non-sense that it was addressing. The young man takes a deep breath and stares at the book.

Uncomfortable possibilities. "That doesn't make any sense. I'm the only Wonderlander here..." even more uncomfortable possibilities arise. "Wait. You don't think that /I'm/ doing this somehow... subconsciously? Like how I ended up on Kian's world?" he asks, his voice suddenly very, very quiet.

"That means my magic is doing things /I/ don't know how to do..."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen shrugs. "As I said I don't know anything about magic, I do technology stuff, we make nanotech. I know magic when I see it on accounta I just assume anything I can't think of a way to make happen is probably wizardry. Helps that people probably look at what I do and feel the same way."

    Leaning back forward, she puts her glasses back on and rests her elbows on the desk. "But you're not the only wonderlander. It could be you, could be that you're getting tougher what with all the Titaning and copywriting you're doing, your powers are growing and if I were a betting genius I'd sure as hell bet that as you get more... Whatever it is, your powers start to make less sense. May be also that you're not the only wonderlander here anymore. Sounds like a couple of avenues. May be you need to talk to somebody that knows more about magic than you do."

    Looking down at the book for a moment, Karen looks back up at Terry. "Only thing to do is find out whether or not we're all in danger."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry bites his lips and wrings his hands. "Oh ffffu---- fiddleferns," he quickly corrects himself, as things race in his mind. "I might be the danger, then. Maybe. What I need to do," he says, starting to count on his fingers, "Is sequester myself. Like, go somewhere remote. Telework while I try to get this figured out. I gotta talk to someone who knows magic..."

He starts pacing the carpet, one hand brushing at his disheveled hair, "Ra-- no, Raven doesn't do chaos. Zatanna? No, nevermind, I don't know anyone in the League... but I do know someone in the Avengers..." he snaps his fingers.

"Scarlet Witch. I can ask King T'Challa to introduce me to the Scarlet Witch and have her look me over." And then he stops.

Making decisions without your team again, O'Neil, he seems to tell himself in a mental voice that is very much similar to the scolding of Donna.

"I need to run this idea by Troia first, but... I-I think I should probably leave, Ms. Starr. Take my laptop and work remote. Can't go back to the apartment, too many people. Maybe somewhere remote... like Tristan da Cunha! I could bunker down there. Hardly anyone around there. Yeah... that seems like a good idea..."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen shakes her head. "No no no, that's a terrible idea." she offers, "None the least of it is that I denied someone else's request to work remote and can't play favorites. Going off on your own is a great way to go missing. You should still come into the office, we just up the security detail, right?"

    Offering that, she smiles all-wide. "Make sure I get a few guys that think they can handle being told they never should've washed out of the military or whatever. Some real anti-pun special forces or something. You stay here, we keep you safe, and therefore keep everyone around you safe. Maybe get a few Titans to come along or something."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry hesitates, and frowns. "... you don't need to go through that much of an expense... but okay. We can start that way, but if things get squirrelly... we'll have to rethink."

The mention of Titans makes him pause,and then he adds, after thinking about it for a bit: "Dove. We could ask Dove. She's a Lord of Order, which might keep... the things at bay."

He takes a short breath, "But I think it might still be a good idea to talk to the Scarlet Witch. But if we're going to make this area pun-proof, that means Beast Boy should stay very far away... even from me. For now."

He frowns, clearly not too keen on that idea. "I should probably go home and tell him. If my magic is weaponizing bad puns, Gar would essentially be a tactical nuke in this situation."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen shakes her head. "You shouldn't be thinking about stuff getting squirrely. Don't need you turning things into squirrels, please." She closes up the book and sets it aside, pulling some papers over to the center of her desk and momentarily looking like there's going to be Business Afoot.

    "I'll leave any Titans you bring along up to you. I'm sure we'll recognize 'em at the door and give 'em the proper access. And you definitely should speak to whomever you're going to. That's not a bad idea."

    Offering a little hum, she shakes her head again. "No can do. You're going to have to keep the stress down, which means seeing both your boyfriends and keeping things relatively normal. You get stressed or worried, you probably lose control even /if/ this isn't you. Just, you know, conjugal visits don't happen on Starrware property."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
And suddenly, Terry turns bright red. Rather, he turns redder than usual, which is quite a look considering the coloration of his hair. "Miss Starr! I'd never- I mean!"

Terry turning into a stuttering, flustered and embarrassing mess is something that doesn't happen very often. Gar would be one to say that Terry has absolutely no shame. He would be forced to correct himself, were he here.

It's a good thing that he isn't.

"I- Understood! Right. I just. Need to. Need to head home for now, yeah." He wasn't, after all, on the clock, so he could run out. "I'll just. Stop by the bookstore and... see if they published the evening edition and... head home and... no conjugal visits, I understand!"

He starts backing away, towards the door, turning brighter red.