thearena | I've Seen Awful. Taxidermy Though, That's New.

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I've Seen Awful. Taxidermy Though, That's New.

Who| Lyle, OTA
What| Lyle Norg is informed and investigatin'
Where| 2nd Floor
When| Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Inevitable swearing

This universe might have had two Legionnaires in it, but it was still a hell hole of truly staggering proportions. Which would possibly explain why Lyle was currently looking at a couple of sculptures with bear skin wrapped around them. Yuck.

He was planning on sticking close to Brainy until one (more likely both) of them died or they found a way out (highly unlikely), but being Legionnaires "close" meant "within shouting range". So while Brainy hit the gift shop, Lyle was checking out some of the exhibits to see if there was anything useful still left in them. He couldn't read any of the signs (Brainy had confirmed that they were in English), which was a shame considering how much of Earth's history had been lost in the Cataclysm. But this awful place wasn't part of their past anyway, so who knew what differences there were?

Lyle tore his attention away from the dead bear-based art installation and glanced around the room to see if anyone else had entered while he was distracted. It didn't seem like it, but better safe than sorry. Lyle slipped back into the shadows and put his not-inconsiderable skill at sneaking around to work.

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Cuthbert managed to step back when this stranger turned around to look for him, but he was bold after that. He wanted to see what it was that this young man was interested in and whether or not it would be interesting to Bert also. He had left his Gunslinger partner to fend for herself for a bit as he was considerably faster on his own.

Nothing seemed strange about the bears, other than them not being alive. But he ended up standing and watching it long enough that he could easily be found there.

Interesting. Lyle wasn't entirely certain if the other sentient had arrived before he'd hidden and was wondering what he'd been looking at, or had arrived after he'd hidden and was also intrigued-slashed-horrified by dead-animal art.

The other sentient might also have more experience in the Arena and what was and was not good ideas for being sufficiently entertaining to be resurrected. On the other hand, there was a fifty-fifty chance of him attempting to kill Lyle on sight.

So, time for an experiment.

Lyle carefully acquired a rock from the exhibit he'd hidden by, and lobbed it away into the dark -- away from the door, in case he needed to make an escape, but not exactly across from him in case the other sentient expected the sound to be a distraction and investigated away from the sound.

Cuthbert turned toward the sound of the rock hitting the far wall and did a quick turn of the room looking for whatever the source of it was. He changed the loose grip on his flashlight to one more suited for bludgeoning and tensed his muscles to prepare for a fight.

He focused more on the shadows and places where he would hide if he was in the room.

"Go on then, come out. This doesn't have to end poorly, aye?"

Lyle crouched down behind another one of the displays. Sprock, did he ever wish he'd gotten around to learning how to throw his voice. He'd gotten too used to relying on his invisibility for misdirection.

"How are we defining 'end poorly'?" he called back casually. "Because I'm in favor of an interaction where we maybe chat, but more importantly don't part ways as corpses."

It didn't look like the other sentient had a ranged weapon, Lyle was willing to count that as a positive so long as he stayed out of grappling range.

Bert was not usually one to leave without at least exchanging a few blows. At least, not in an arena. But it wasn't written in stone that he had to kill someone he met or die trying, and besides, he was far too curious about who this stranger was to want to off him right away.

"If we were both corpses, there would be little in the way of parting ways, say true. But if you come out we can talk this over as gentlemen. Or gentleman and whatever it is you are, I should know better than to assume in this place."

Lyle's voice was unfamiliar, and Cuthbert was usually better at remembering these sorts of things. He had to assume he hadn't met or possibly even seen this mysterious person before.

He could stay hidden, or he could step out. Lyle knew which one he was more inclined to do, but he also knew which one would be more entertaining. Perhaps he could manage if he kept his distance.

He chuckled in response and left his hiding place, moving openly in the other sentient's direction. "The possibility of a fight and proper manners? Well, I feel right at home now. I suppose I could be identified as a gentleman for at least as long as we're going to talk."

"Oh? And what after?" Cuthbert turned to face the strange voice turned boy who had already spoiled one opportunity to get the drop on him and might not spoil a second. But Cuthbert was a man of his word, and he wasn't about to attack Lyle for actually following through and showing himself.

"Mayhap we can agree here and now to leave as gentlemen as well. There will be other chances to slit one another's throats, aye? For now I'd like to know why you didn't simply kill me where I stood while you had the chance?"

Bert knows he wouldn't have been so forgiving if their roles had been reversed.

"I like to keep my plans flexible once I'm in the mix," Lyle said. "I'll see where 'now' goes before I worry about 'after'."

Because he had poor impulse control. And, more truthfully, because plans never withstood contact with an opponent.

He grins when the sentient asked why he hadn't taken the chance to try and kill him. "Sir, I'm an interplanetary man of mystery. I have many reasons. Not the least of which is that it's hard to get information off of a corpse who's probably not even wearing his own clothes."

And, of course, the greatest was I'm playing a different game.

"Do you know why there are statues of animals wrapped in actual animal skins? I'm not asking rhetorically, I'm genuinely curious."

Cuthbert wasn't sure what to make of this, he didn't really believe that anyone here would genuinely give up a chance at killing someone without some ulterior motive.

"I'm afraid I have no answer for you. I don't think they're statues, I think they're simply stuffed. They may be prizes of some kind, but I suspect there is some reason for it that I could not understand if I tried."

So much of what the Capitol did was a mystery to him, Bert tried to ignore it when he simply couldn't figure it out.

"Is that all you wanted to know from me? That was worth keeping me alive to find out?"

Lyle laughed. "No, that'd be pretty ridiculous. I was making small-talk; I didn't realize I had a limited number of questions."

He shrugged, but didn't take his eyes off the other man.

"But, death-match and all, I'm sure you're a very busy sentient. I'll cut to the chase: I'm new here. Haven't been out of the tube in the blood-soaked basement more than a few hours, and all they told me before they tossed me in was that we're here to kill each other for entertainment purposes." He spread his hands wide. "Anything else I should be aware of? Anything at all?"

It'd be interesting to see if this man lied to him, and what about. Thank sprock for Brainy being here, it made telling the truths from the lies so much more easier when he had someone he could trust.

"Limited questions, no. But I have limited patience, because as you said, this is a fight to the death and I intend to come out the other end of it."

Bert eased up a little bit hearing that this stranger really was new, as he suspected. It was tough to be brand new and dropped into the games.

"Trust no one, and nothing. The walls and floors may yet turn against you. And while I will pity you enough to let you go this time, do not expect to meet me again as a friend."

Cuthbert was very serious about being in this game to win it, and there was no sense in lying about it to this newcomer.

"What do you call yourself?" He wanted to know what name to listen for in the death announcements.

"I haven't trusted anyone since before I hit puberty, but I'll keep all of that in mind."

Lyle wondered why the man didn't mention the 'and you (may) come back when you die' part of the game. Did he not know? It didn't seem like this was his first time in the Arena...

"I call myself a lot of things," Lyle said. He was going to need to come up with something that sounded more like a supervillain than 'Invisible Kid'. "The sentients in charge went with 'Lyle Norg', which I have no objections to. And yourself?"

Bert knew enough people who didn't come back again after dying that he didn't want to get Lyle's hopes up. Besides, what good was there in a death game when you just expected to come back each time you died?

"I am Cuthbert Allgood, and the chances you will hear it again before I hear yours again seem slim. Most were brought here to be cattle, but I was brought here as a wolf. You ken wolves, don't you?"

He knew he didn't talk like most people in the Capitol, but neither did Lyle, and it was possible he wouldn't get the reference.

"I'm familiar with wolves," Lyle said with a nod. "But I'm less certain of cattle. And I don't see how you being highly social, family-oriented, and misunderstood by a majority of humans has anything to do with the situation. Though I suppose that 'displays unusual and neurotic behavior when imprisoned with strangers' is relevant."

Lyle was familiar with wolves. He was just familiar with them in the context of one of his teammates giving another nass about his tough-guy codename. And he wasn't even sorry about under-cutting the drama of Mr. Cuthbert Allgood's pronouncement. He had a reputation of his own to build after all, and Cuthbert had said he'd try to kill him the next time they crossed paths.

Wherever the Capitol dug this guy up it had to be an interesting place. Not that Cuthbert was in tune with the Capitol the way a lot of people were, but he seemed to be from at least somewhere human. This boy, however, was something new and different.

"Wolves are hunters, ruthless hunters and killers. Cattle are the soft, docile prey they can take down with very little effort. They are generally the two sorts of animals you get in the world. Predators and prey."

Lyle laughed.

"Oh, see, there's your problem," he said cheerfully, rolling his shoulders. "I'm strictly a city kind of boy. Animals aren't a major element in my day-to-day life. My business is often with the more sapient end of things.

He fixed an unblinking stare on Cuthbert and smiled slowly. "After all, it takes sapience to make prey of a predator."

Cuthbert nodded, he understood now what it meant to be a 'city' boy. Despite being from the largest city in the whole world when he left, it was nothing like what he'd been dropped into, and he was no longer a city boy.

"Don't flatter yourself. If you were a predator you would have killed me where I stood before you ever tried to find out who I was. Predators don't have the luxury."

"Now you're just deliberately not hearing the words coming out of my mouth," Lyle answered, making a face. "Or at least the words the translation system makes you think are coming out of my mouth. I'm not a predator. Predators are as much slaves to their nature as prey, they kill because that's simply what they do."

He spread his hands before him. "A hunter, though, they look at the situation and they make a choice. And they choose to hunt. I don't worry about predators even when I leave the city, Mr. Cuthbert Allgood, because predators may kill, but they're not nearly as intelligent or twisted as the people I deal with on a day-to-day basis. Clear enough?"

"Aye, I ken it. You're not the first to see the dark heart of man. Now go on and go before I change my mind on killing thee."

He was mostly just amused at Lyle's response. But he wasn't going to tolerate standing out in the open like he was much longer. It was time they both went their separate ways.

"Nor will I be the last, I'm sure," Lyle agreed, already backing away into the shadows. "Nice talking with you, Cuthbert Allgood. I'll see you when I see you."

And, if he was still in the Arena when he saw him next, he was booking it in the opposite direction.

Barbara moved high above, amid some of the larger hanging exhibits. It was safer up there: people didn't normally look up. Even if they did, most couldn't follow her.

There was a creak as she leaped from one exhibit to the next, a little dust shaking down. She cursed internally, glaring down below her. She was not interested in a fight, right then.

Her glare met the bemused stare of a young man in black pajamas hiding among the exhibits down below.

Sprock, Lyle thought to himself. Busted.

He didn't really want to fight anyone, and he wanted to fight someone who had the full force of gravity behind her even less. He dove into a series of rolls to get out from immediately underneath her and into the dubious safety of the next exhibit.

Then, because he was nominally here to entertain, he gave her his best nass-eating grin and a salute.

She wondered if she could bring the next one crashing down on him. If she had to, maybe. It would probably be better if she didn't have to try.

"I bet you salute all the girls like that." Snark was a redhead's best friend. When they don't want to get off their high exhibits and actually fight. Entertain the people, right?

"Alas, my respect and high regard are all that I have to offer those sentients who identify as women," Lyle replied. "Especially those who seem to have gotten the drop on me."

Snark was pretty good friends with brunets as well, it seemed.

Excuse you, Snark totally preferred redheads. Red heads who stick their tongue out at you... and then feel just a little bit childish. But just a little bit.

Wait. No. There was something wrong with that snark. "Sentients?"

"Sentients. Plural of sentient. Noun. Beings with the ability to feel, perceive, or experience reality within their own mind."

She stuck her tongue out at him. That was adorable.

It also made him want to destroy the Capitol with his bare hands this instant because girls who stuck their tongues out at you when you teased them back shouldn't have to be involved in gladiatorial combat.

Instead, he just grinned more. The show must go on.

"What, are you still back in the dark ages of 'people'?"

It had seemed like the right move at the time! If he really wanted entertainment, though, he should give her a stack of wanted posters. She and Robin had spent many a stakeout trying to decide how various crooks had lost eyes or worse. Oh, the fun they'd had discussing what Black Mask must be hiding...

"Twenty first century. You?" Because she's guessing... not.

"Thirty-first, before it unhappened."

He said it casually, but even years of training concealing his emotions couldn't stop a darkness from passing over Lyle's face. It had been two years (ish. As far as they could tell. Time travel is weird), but grife, it still hurt every sprocking day.

"Earth, I assume?"

"Before what unhappened?" the darkness didn't pass her by, though she wasn't sure how far to press it.

"Barbara," she added to him. And then, because she couldn't resist wondering if her name survived time, "Gordon."

"The thirty-first century. Or at least the version of it I knew." Lyle shrugged, still as faux-casual as you please. "It turns out that time travel is illegal because if someone mucks about in the past too much, reality changes." He shrugged again. "My team and I were outside of time when it happened, so the new reality just spat up new versions of us out of the whole cloth instead of changing us to match."

He grinned up at her again when she introduced herself. "Sorry, if you're looking for hints of future fame, we lost a lot of information during the Cataclysm. Lyle Norg, also known as...well, I've gone through a few other names."

Nobody was going to buy "Invisible Kid" as a super villain. Which was probably why EarthGov had suggested it, way back when.

Her eyes narrowed, her chest tightened.... and Barb held off on the deep urge to "Duh." Somehow it felt like a bad idea to let loose her traditional snark.

There was the invisible girl - but somehow, strangely, the power to be invisible seemed connected to super heroes Maybe because they worked harder at not being known, somehow. Speaking of which, it was probably better that "Barbara Gordon" wasn't known anyhow. She just had to try very hard not to ask about Batgirl. What were the chances this one even came from Gotham, anyway?

"..So you changed it to Lyle?" That one just slipped out.

Edited 2014-02-14 11:05 (UTC)

Lyle laughed. "No, my parents named me Lyle. I've just gone by other names because governments seem to feel more squeamish about having their kid assassins on their payroll than they do about training them up for the job."

Thank sprock she was too far away to be able to get a decent read on whether he was telling the truth; he was a good liar but that was more blatant than he generally liked to go. He'd retired from spying for EarthGov with a substantial amount of money and, more valuable, a veritable bank of people who owed him favors.

Also, you know, "spy" not "assassin". Though it wouldn't shock him if a couple of the kids he'd known at the Black Hole went that route.

"Think I should start going by one of my sobriquets here? They're certainly more memorable than 'Lyle'."

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I've Seen Awful. Taxidermy Though, That's New.

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Bad keyboard, bad.

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Sliiiides back in here like i don't have inbox phobia

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I've Seen Awful. Taxidermy Though, That's New.

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Bad keyboard, bad.

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*Sliiiides back in here like i don't have inbox phobia*

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Sliiiides back in here like i don't have inbox phobia