brainiac 5.0 database

“…Well, I suppose. I have a girlfriend. Andromeda.”

  “Oh! I met her earlier.”

He flinched, just a little, turning a bit away from her. To have her use his name when she had already figuratively stomped on his heart... Well, that only made it ache worse, as psychological as the pain was.

“…Hi.” He couldn’t quite look at her.

“...Well, I suppose. I have a girlfriend. Andromeda.”

“…Supergirl.” Not Kara. He couldn’t call her that anymore.

“...Hi.” He couldn’t quite look at her.

He pulls back just slightly to look at her, and reaches up to gently tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

     “She wasn’t… Good with emotion. When my father died,         she didn’t take it well. She got cruel. And I -”

Querl knew many would reassure her with meaningless platitudes. That ‘I’m sure she was proud of you’, and the like.

It doesn’t matter if he is, he wants to say. Every Brainiac has gotten better than the one before, and so have I. It is my destiny, insofar that such a thing actually exists. He knew I would be better. I knew I would be better. The pride of a dead man means absolutely nothing to me. It affects me little. Who cares about his pride or lack of it?

   “I know that… Dealing with your parents can be hard.”

He pulls back just slightly to look at her, and reaches up to gently tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

He had not expected the tears, but - perhaps he should have. “Sally, please don’t cry,” Querl pleaded, unable to help himself. He could hear every, well, blubber through the phone and it was nigh-painful.

He inhaled shakily. It was best to attempt to detach himself from the conversation, if he wanted to live through it. “It is not that... I am. In trouble. You merely asked if I was okay, and I replied. I am alive.” Was he ‘okay’? No, he was not, which he did not wish to plainly say. Hopefully she would not pick up on that - his 21st century friend could be surprisingly observant at times, though.

Insult someone my muse cares about