EDIT: One of two things fixed it. I put an SD card in the phone and tried entering the words manually instead of the QR code on one attempt... it restored, not sure which (or if both) solved the problem. But now it stands for any who come after me that have a similar issue, it either A. didn't like the QR code (unlikely) or B. didn't like not having an SD card.
Thanks for the hint!
I already had a SD card in my phone so I tried
NOT using the QR code.
Manually entering in the seed (12 words) worked fine.