legionworld | casually draws various sentients without their permission (open!)

Entry tags:

casually draws various sentients without their permission (open!)

Who| Kyle Rayner (

spacesharks) & anyone!
What| Readjusting to the superhero life.
Where| The mess hall.
When| Lunchtime!
Warnings/Notes| N/A!

On a better day, he might have gone about this differently. Kyle wasn't entirely new to the concept of working with a team—he knew, at least in theory, that it'd be a good idea to meet everyone, to get to know the people he'd be spending the next who-knew-how-long with. And he wanted to. But it wasn't that long ago that he'd arrived, and maybe he still felt a bit— disoriented. It was like his body was here but his mind hadn't quite caught up yet, still lost somewhere in the past, somewhere in the middle of the war in the Vega system.

So he opted for a more indirect route in adjusting. Drawing was a good way to unwind, to give his mind a chance to catch up to where he was right now, so he took a seat in the mess hall and started sketching. People passing by, excitedly chatting with their friends, their expressions when they nearly drop their food— oops. Well, it wasn't like they'd ever know...

He was paying more attention to the sketchbook than his food, but that was okay. He was more here for the people, anyway. This felt so normal compared to what he'd left. And once he was able to accept the fact that everything he'd been through in the past couple months didn't mean anything right now, then he'd go about doing this the right way.

...eventually.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Unexpected. When the hell had Kyle gotten here?

Still, Hal squished the surprised look pretty quickly, and smoothly added, "For the fun kind of trouble, anyway. I'll see you around, okay?"

And then, shifting his tray to one hand, he used his other to steer Kyle away with him, back towards the tables, before the kid had the chance to be any more of a cockblock. "Remind me never to ask you to be my wingman, Kyle. When did you get here?"

"I think I already did," he said, mildly amused. He'd feel bad, but he knew what he was doing. Besides, it wasn't like he'd ruined Hal's chances with all of Legion World. (Unless Hal had already done that himself...) Either way, he let Hal guide him away with no hassle. "But you'll be fine. I actually just got here. I mean, a little while ago."

Something like that. It was recent, either way.

"You're a sight for sore eyes, believe it or not. I didn't think I'd know anyone here."

He hadn't seen anyone he really knew in months, so it was actually really nice. A pleasant surprise.

"You actually just missed the Lantern party. Most of the Corps got dragged through to this era and nearly started the war up here." Hal shook his head. "If things seem quiet around here, just wait a few minutes."

It was a lot more like home than it looked, when you thought of it that way.

"Nice to know some things don't change," he said, somewhat bitterly. "But I guess too much quiet can be a bad thing, too."

If he had to be stuck here, he'd rather be doing something than nothing. At least then, his presence here would be— meaningful. And maybe normally, he might not have cared, but leaving one war to fight another? It kind of left a bad taste in his mouth.

"What happened? Is that when you got here?"

"I got in before that. Stuck around after. The reds and the yellows teamed up, everyone else teamed up to take them down...the orange ring was just kind of floating around until Parker grabbed it for a bit, so I've got no idea if Larfleeze was even here or not."

The idea of Larfleeze lost somewhere in the future is...slightly worrisome, but since he was separated from the ring, Hal saw it more in a I feel sorry for the future way than a serious threat to be dealt with.

"What ever happened to the ring?"

He could only think of a few reasons why there might be a Larfleeze-less ring hanging around, and the last time he'd encountered one, it wasn't exactly harmless. (Well, the "ring" was, but the reason wasn't. He missed that little guy, though.) But then again, if Larfleeze had been dragged here to the future just like them, then it couldn't be that bad... right?

"The Corps took custody of it. Not sure how well that's gonna go, but I can't really think of any better alternative." Hal shrugs.

"I'm just glad someone's there to keep an eye on it," he said.

It'd probably be worse if it was still just flying around out there somewhere. If something bad had to happen, at least people who were equipped to deal with it could.

"Did anyone else stick around?"

"Nope. Just me before, just us now."

Seeing Kilowog had been great, for about the five minutes they actually had to talk before it was one thing after another. (Hal still had the bruises from that hug, though.) But what he would've given to have a little longer. Or to see any of the others from Earth. John. Even Guy.

Carol.

"Well, I guess it could be worse. I mean, I could be stuck trying to cooperate with Bleez again," he said, amused. "So I'll take it."

He understood the feeling, honestly—he'd have loved to see any of the others again. He missed them. He missed everyone. But while other Lanterns might have conflicted feelings about Hal, Kyle was pretty okay with having him around. He had a lot of respect for him, and if anything, it was actually really reassuring that he was here. If he hadn't caught him trying to get laid, he might've just given him a hug.

Being fake-dead sucked.

"Bleez? She's one of Atrocitus's groupies, right?" Keeping track of the reds could turn into a big blur. They were all angry and puked a lot and weren't much for conversation, which didn't do much to differentiate them from one another. "Since you've got all your limbs and no horrible burn victim scarring, I'm assuming that you were successful."

"Amazingly. It probably shouldn't have, but it all worked out." It probably helped that she was a little more coherent at the time, but he liked to think Hal was still easier to cooperate with (special circumstances not withstanding). "She thought I stole a red ring. Common mistake."

Especially lately, jeez. But Kyle didn't think it strange that he wouldn't know about all of that—it wouldn't be unreasonable if he didn't know exactly what led him to becoming a White Lantern.

(Of course, the funny part was that that wasn't even the worst thing that had happened lately. He kind of wanted to talk about it, but... even though he trusted Hal, that felt kind of terrible to put on someone out of nowhere. He might hold off on that for now.)

Hal raised one eyebrow. "Common mistake, really? I never really saw red as your color."

Red was more of a Guy thing, if anyone.

"I mean, I didn't want it," he shook his head quickly, defending himself. The red ring was a mistake... Well, they all were a mistake, but especially the red one! "I could've gone without ever trying that one, trust me. But it wasn't like it was the only ring that came looking for a new owner. I would've been suspicious of me, too."

But what would it have been like if that had never happened? ...actually, probably better if he didn't think too hard about that.

"Does anybody ever want a red? I had one for five minutes and that felt like plenty for one lifetime."

Wait, back up a minute. "You're making it sound like a rainbow came to kick your door in or something."

Surely that didn't happen...did it?

"Um," he said, awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck. "Well... Yeah. That's kind of actually exactly what happened."

It was weirdly embarrassing when he put it like that, but it really wasn't all that far from the truth.

"That's kind of how the whole thing started. The White Lantern thing, I mean."

White Lantern thing. Okay, there had been that part during the Blackest Night (which Kyle hadn't really been in on, since that had mostly come down to those of them who had at least a death or two under their belts), and then there was that white lantern that had appeared on Earth, before they all got distracted by chasing down the entities, but -

"I think you're gonna need to back up a couple stops, Kyle."

Because seriously, what the hell was even going on.

'Back up?' Back up to what? He knew Hal knew about that much, at lea— oh. Oh.

"Oh man." But then, it occurred to him. If he had no idea what he was talking about, there were probably a few reasons for that, and given their situation... "I'm such an idiot. I didn't think... Sorry. I was so relieved to see you, I didn't even think that things might be... different."

Oops. He probably should have known better. But it really was so good to see someone, anyone, that he knew—someone he could talk to and trust and not have to worry about being poked and prodded for one reason or another.

"It's, uh... a long story."

"Don't worry about it." Hal shook his head. "There's plenty else to be thinking about here before you get to alternate points in the timestream, and that's before counting whatever's been going on before you got here."

Because whatever it was, it sounded like a lot.

"Superboy's hanging around here, but he's from right before I had my, uh, mid-life crisis, if that puts things into perspective."

"Superboy?" He blinked. Huh... "I had no idea he was even around back then."

Had he just not noticed... Actually, yeah, that was entirely possible. Kyle didn't associate with the kid superheroes too much. Definitely not anyone who used the word 'boy' as part of their superhero name. And back then, he was still getting used to being a superhero at all, so he wasn't thinking about anyone else. Definitely not what other superheroes were up to. Something about it struck him as a little odd, but not enough to dwell on it.

"But yeah, it really does. So, then... When are you from?"

"The Blackest Night was a few weeks before I got here." And then they were still mired in all of the fallout of that. Entities. Krona. The rainbow brigade hanging out on Earth. All of those shenanigans.

"Wait... Really?"

Oh wow. He'd gotten really ahead of himself, then. It was kind of weird to think about.

"I guess that puts me ahead of you by... a lot. It's been way longer than that for me."

But Hal seemed enough like himself, and they were nearly a thousand years into the future. There were probably so many worse ways this could've gone. So far, so good, at least.

"So." Hal rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If you tell me about anything, do we potentially create a time paradox? Or does the fact that we're already in the future anyway mean that we can't mess anything up too badly? These things always give me a headache."

"I— You know, that's a good question." He hadn't thought about that. "It's not like we can change anything from here, right?"

But what about when they went back? Maybe he should just... not tell him anything bad. But that wasn't really fair, was it? It wasn't really his place to decide what was 'okay' for him to know or not. But it wasn't like he was going to tell him every moment of their lives or anything, either. Hmm...

Hal was right. This made his head hurt, too. He shrugged.

"I promise not to screw up time if you don't."

"Come on, Kyle. When was the last time I ever - actually, you know? Don't answer that."

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