casually draws various sentients without their permission (open!)

[spacesharks]

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.

Comments

[ringslinging]

"Why am I completely unsurprised." The Guardians being complete dicks in the service of what they thought would keep order wasn't exactly new, but it never became any less frustrating. And for them to go to the level of lobotomizing the one sensible voice among them...

[spacesharks]

"I wish I could say that was the worst of it," he started, his tone enough of an indicator of where this was going. "But that's just the tip of the iceberg. They also tried getting rid of us. All of us. Apparently, the Green Lantern Corps was a mistake."

There was also the time before all of that where they kicked Hal out of the Corps, and they also thought he was dead for a while, but... Well, he came back and even got to be in charge at one point so it turned out okay. Mostly okay.

"It didn't work out, but that sure happened."

...then other bad things happened.

[ringslinging]

"Okay. So Manhunters were a mistake. The Corps was a mistake. Do I want to know what their next bright idea was?"

[spacesharks]

"Not really," he said, honestly. Really, there were a lot of things he probably didn't want to know, but he couldn't leave him hanging. "I guess they were made from the Guardians. They were kind of like zombies. Not much for conversation and terrible personalities."

He could make light of it now, but it sucked. And speaking of zombies, there were actual zombies, too...

...man, now that he thought about it, did he have anything positive to tell him?

[ringslinging]

"Everyone should be limited to one zombie apocalypse per lifetime. One."

And they'd definitely gotten theirs out of the way with the Blackest Night, so clearly the universe had something to answer for.

[spacesharks]

"You're telling me." The ideal number was more like zero, but they were superheroes, so he supposed there should probably be some wiggle room. "If it counts for anything, it doesn't get that bad. I guess there's no zombie apocalypse like your first one."

Optimism...?!

[ringslinging]

"So. Is there good news? Somewhere in all there, there had to be some good news."

[spacesharks]

"Uh, well, last I heard, nobody's dead," he started, but paused. Well. "...except for the aforementioned Guardians. But we have new ones now, and they're alright, I think."

It probably did not bode very well that 'I don't think anybody's died lately.' was the best he could come up with. Then again...

"I've been a bit out of the loop myself, lately. But every time things got bad, they also got better, eventually. So there's that, too."

[ringslinging]

"It's not much, but I'll take it."

Things could always be worse. Hal was used to his circumstances scraping the bottom of the barrel, so he could think of plenty of colorful examples of just what could be worse.

And maybe instead of worrying about the past, they ought to get back to the future.

"So, you been settling in okay?"

[spacesharks]

Kyle was almost relieved by the answer, honestly. The last thing he wanted was for someone he cared about to get stuck worrying about things he couldn't control. (Maybe... No, especially because that was something he had to keep reminding himself.) Besides, things did get better. Hal didn't need to worry about losing his ring if he was going to get it back eventually. Things turned out okay, all things considered.

(It still felt wrong, like he was lying by not telling him those things. But then again, it's not like he was hiding another Parallax incident from him or anything. That would be different.)

"Yeah, I think so. So far, so good," he shrugged, a smile on his face. "It's not exactly home, but I'm used to being away, so I guess it's not that different." He didn't like the idea of being stuck here, not with other stuff going on... But it could definitely be worse, and if people needed help, then this was where he wanted to be. Having Hal around was pretty reassuring, too.

"I'm not really sure what's happening with the whole superpowers thing, but I can still make a construct, so I'm not gonna complain."

[ringslinging]

"Your ring disappear, too?" It was a little weird to know that he could still make constructs without it, but he wasn't inclined to complain, either. It was the power he was used to, and if he was going to face the end of everything, it was the one he'd rather have at his back than be subject to the Time Trapper's whims shuffling up what he could do.

[spacesharks]

"Yep," Kyle frowned. He couldn't help but feel kind of disappointed. "I actually just got mine back before I got here. I'm starting to feel like someone's trying to tell me something."

Was it because he was too powerful now— But really, this was less of a question of whether or not he deserved it and more of just... even if he didn't need it, even if he wasn't entirely powerless without it, it meant something to him. It meant a lot.

[ringslinging]

"You start reading that far into everything that happens, you're never going to stop worrying about anything." Hal gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder. "This probably isn't anything more sinister than the Time Trapper not wanting to count on nobody losing theirs."

[spacesharks]

"You're right," he said, smiling a little at his reassurance. He knew that was true, but it was still kind of nice to hear from Hal. He appreciated that he was looking out for him. "I won't think too hard about it."

Maybe that was the nice thing about all of this. Time displacement aside, this was a lot more straightforward than what he'd left. A lot more 'normal.'

"What about you? You said you were here before the others, and the only one that stayed. How've you been?"

The people here were nice enough, but it still couldn't have been fun, being on his own. Besides, he knew Hal could get a bit carried away sometimes.

[ringslinging]

"The usual," Hal said, maybe a little too dismissively waving a hand. Great, no big deal, who's still thinking about his ex-mentor trying to torture-brainwash him into embracing the dark side again, definitely not this guy.

[spacesharks]

"I'm not sure if 'the usual' is a good thing for people like us," he said, honestly, only half-smiling now. Part of it was definitely the sneaking suspicion that something else was there, something he didn't want to talk about, but it was also just the truth. They kept on going, they always did, but... that didn't mean it was easy. "And don't take this the wrong way, but I know you. I know you've got a habit of shouldering way too much responsibility at once."

And if he was alone, who would have stopped him from doing it?

[ringslinging]

"Hey, it may not be the Corps, but we do have a team here. I'm not even the one who made the boneheaded sacrifice play against Galactus."

Rich and Hal might've had a little too much in common sometimes, to be fair.

[spacesharks]

"Well, that's a relief." That was exactly the kind of thing he was worried about—he trusted Hal's judgement, so much so that he never thought twice about going to him for advice or help, but he still worried. He was pretty into the self-sacrificing thing. Though, if it wasn't that... Well, it could be any number of things. "But, you know, if something's bothering you, you can talk to me. Goodness knows I come to you with a lot of my problems."

It was the least he could do.