not going anywhere for a while?

[headinjuries]

Who| Sam and anyone
What| New kid getting acclimated.
Where| Out and around, mostly mess hall and observation deck.
When| After the diplomacy/disaster missions end.
Warnings/Notes| Probably not, will update if needed.



Waking up in unfamiliar places and trying to piece a fuzzy sequence of events back together was getting to be a more and more familiar routine since Sam had gotten into the superhero gig.

The doctors here were helpful, at least, so what happened after the fight sounded straightforward enough even if he had no idea how it actually worked; he'd somehow wound up in another dimension (uh, okay) on a planet with some bad juju in the environment (occupational hazard), and they said it looked like he'd managed to smack his head on something and knock himself out (wow, he'd said, must be a day that ends in -y).

Swallowing the story they gave him about the Legion and the way to get home hadn't been hard, with how much weirdness he'd already had to get used to in his life. Deciding whether to sign on hadn't been hard either, because that was the right, heroic thing to do, duh. Convincing them that he was fine to get up and wander around, on the other hand?

That had taken a bit of pleading, some lying about how good he felt (or didn't), and a promise that he wouldn't try to figure out the flight ring until his broken arm was done healing and they took the splint off.

Which was apparently only going to be in a day or two. Modern medicine was awesome.

So it slowed him down a little, having to getting around the ship only by foot, which was kind of a bummer, but the mess hall wasn't too hard to find, and that led to a good twenty minutes of contemplating the candy bars of the future because which one was closest to just finding a freaking Snickers bar, seriously?

(And once the decision was finally made, he took two, because come on, passing out for a few days absolutely gave you an appetite and anyone who thought otherwise had clearly never tried it.)

Second stop was the observation deck, and for a good few hours, he could be found there, sprawled out on his back on the platform, staring straight up at the stars, and eating some weird alien facsimile of a Snickers, a pensive look on his face. Maybe he was considering the differences in the view here versus the moon in his own dimension (because the stars were almost right, but a few of them seemed off). Maybe he was considering the responsibilities of joining the Legion, or how far he was from home despite Earth being right there below, or -

"Huh. Whatever a fweiuff nut is, it definitely tastes more like cashews than peanuts."

Nailed it.

Comments

[kingtyrantranger]

"They get more peanutty if you get them toasted."

That's Jason. Helpful as ever. He paused and glanced over at Sam, shrugging. "But I guess that's kind of hard to do that with a candy bar. Those are a bit better than their soylent chips, though." Apparently they were made of soy mixed with seaweed? Either way, it was a funky mix. And one he wasn't quite sure he liked.

Unlike Sam, Jason had been here considering the massive weight of the Legion's responsibilities. He'd had a pretty rough awakening to the differences between his responsibilities at home and the ones here recently, one that he was still rolling over in his head. A chance to take a break and talk about something else, even something as dumb as candy bars, was pretty welcome.

[headinjuries]

"Well, with the weird preoccupation with vegetarianism here, at least that means the soylent chips won't be made of people."

That was going to be weird to get used to, the vegetarianism. It didn't always fit in the budget, and his mother at least tried to make sure they were eating better than that when she wasn't too busy, but left to his own devices, Sam probably would've been content to subsist entirely on a diet of burgers and pepperoni pizza. Someone in the mess hall had been cheerfully chatting his ear off about protein substitutes, but...

[kingtyrantranger]

Jason laughed and waved his hand. "True enough." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and rolled his shoulders. "I mean, I can respect them for their beliefs. I've heard some nasty things about how meat is prepared. But..." He glanced around and leaned in conspiratorially. "Doesn't mean I don't miss a nice, juicy hamburger with all the works. I've been here for months now and I haven't found anything that scratches that itch."

He laughed again and straightened up. "But they think that it's better not to eat meat at all and... Well, when in Rome, right?"

[headinjuries]

"It's kind of sad that they've got technology to cross the universe in no time flat, fix broken bones in like a day instead of months, but nobody's figured out how to fake a burger that doesn't suck." Sam crumpled up the wrapper to his candy bar and shoved it in his pocket. "I mean, there are how many species in the universe? You'd think it would be a priority for somebody."

[kingtyrantranger]

"I guess they were too busy inventing space travel to focus on the important stuff." He glanced at Sam's arm, but didn't comment. Not his business. "Though I guess if everyone's vegetarian, then getting someone to make a decent veggie burger isn't that important."

He paused, then scratched his cheek. "They've got some pretty good ice cream, though. It's weird to be drinking a blue, fizzy milkshake, but it's still awesome."

[headinjuries]

Okay, that, on the other hand, sounded pretty awesome.

Because for all the time he'd already spent blasting around the galaxy back home, that was usually to get things done, like distress calls or stopping the two-bit space dictator asshole of the moment, or getting home really fast because there was nothing quite as hard as being a spacefaring superhero with a curfew, thanks, Mom.

Checking out the local cuisine hadn't really been on the priority list.

"You have my full attention."

[kingtyrantranger]

"Bst... Bgzt... Ugh." He shook his head. "I just call it 'that blue milkshake thing' and I get it about seventy percent of the time."

Why couldn't their aliens have sensible names like Pumpkin Rapper or Scorpina? Bztilian was just a tongue twister.

"However you pronounce it, it's still pretty awesome. They'll make it pretty much on demand, too. Just avoid asking for any additional syrup. Usually makes it too sweet and suppresses the fizziness."

[headinjuries]

Blue milkshake thing. Okay, that sounded easy enough not to screw up asking for.

"...so do I want to know what they give you the other thirty percent of the time?"

[kingtyrantranger]

"It's not bad, it's just..." He waves his hand, trying to find a good way to put it. "It's like when you went to your grandparent's as a kid and instead of Coke and Froot Loops, all they have is RC Cola and Fruity Hoops."

Not bad. Just. Not what you wanted and not good.

[headinjuries]

"Oh. Gotcha."

Granted, he never actually went to see his grandparents, and his mom was usually the one buying the weird cheap off-brands, but it still painted a picture, anyway.

"Anything I should just not touch, ever?"

[kingtyrantranger]

"Dulcefruit." It's flat and plain, with zero hesitation. "If you've got any fillings, it's like... You know when you were a kid and used to stick your tongue to those batteries with the prongs on top? It's like that. Only with your teeth."

It sucked.

Actually, thinking of that, Jason had to pause. He frowns for a moment, crossing his arms. "I wonder if they could redo 20th century dentistry..." Hey, they did everything else, right?

[headinjuries]

That...was the kind of thing that never would've occurred to Sam about being in the future if someone else didn't bring it up first. But the more he thought about it, the more he figured there had to be something to it.

"If they're this far ahead with everything else, they probably have like. Something they can put on your teeth once and keep you from ever getting cavities again or something, wouldn't you think?"

They had to be putting all that amazing future tech to use somehow!

[kingtyrantranger]

"Maybe a pill to swallow or something?" He shrugged. "I dunno. They've got sonic toothbrushes. Talk about things that feel weird." He was honestly a little disappointed that they didn't have laser toothbrushes, but apparently the vibration took care of the need for flossing. "I guess cavities are still a thing if you've still gotta get the gunk off your teeth. Unless that's just a color issue."

Having butterteeth. Ew.

"I'm not really the dentist type, though. So I dunno, maybe they've already handled that." Another thing to ask Brainiac 5 about.

[iamresponding]

Rich was in plainclothes today (wearing a Han Soloesque outfit because he could), a rare thing indeed, but that was because he'd taken a little field trip down to Earth to explore for the day. He'd gone alone so he could get lost in his thoughts, but after the Naltor disaster and all that chaos he'd wanted to at least be around people.

He was still feeling a little out of sorts -- not mopey, just reflective -- so he'd come to the Obs Deck to collect his thoughts. Back home he never had time to think like this. He always just rocketed from one crisis to the next. Now he had time to breathe but that meant sometimes needing to catch said breath.

The kid he saw laying there was definitely unfamiliar and since he was so young Rich assumed he was another displacee.

"Haven't seen you around before," he said. "What's your name, kid?"

[headinjuries]

Not that Sam was a paragon of good etiquette or anything, but trying to get through introductions while flat on your back with someone towering over you didn't really seem like the most practical way to do things. He started moving his left arm - the one with the splint - to brace himself, caught himself halfway, and then shoved his candy bar to hold in his mouth for a moment, freeing up his right hand to push himself up to a sitting position.

Still totally being towered over, but he was pretty sure that would be happening even if he got to his feet. This guy was huge.

He took the candy bar back out of his mouth. "No-"

Wait. He didn't have the party hat on, even if that was totally not how he usually did things in space.

"...Sam Alexander." On the other hand, it seemed like that kind of thing was public record here anyway. "But I guess nobody cares that much about the whole secret identity thing here anyway, right? So, uh. Also Nova." He really didn't want to sound like he'd stumbled over that because he was the kind of moron who'd forget his own name, even if he did have the excuse of having been hit in the head (again) recently.

[iamresponding]

Rich's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline.

"Nova, huh?" Rich took a seat next to him, drawing up his right leg and wrapping his robotic arm around it.

The expression on his face was almost mischievous. For someone who looked so grizzled, thanks to the scar on his face and missing arm, it was a very youthful expression.

"As in, the superhero that goes around with a bucket on his head? That Nova?"

[headinjuries]

"Hey, that was my dad's bucket, don't make it sound so undignified."

As if Sam could make any claim to being remotely dignified, but this guy didn't know that. Maybe. Hopefully?

"But, uh, that's not even a thing here, as far as I've noticed. Are we from the same place? Same...Earth, I mean?"

[iamresponding]

He'd gotten the powers from his dad? Interesting. Centurions could pass their power to another -- like Rhomann Dey had passed his power to him -- but he'd thought he was the only Earth Nova until he'd started rebuilding the Corps.

"You got Captain America in your world? The Avengers?"

That was enough of a commonplace that it'd be easy to figure out if they were from the same or a similar dimension.

[headinjuries]

"Yeah!"

Man.

Captain America was going to be so pissed about the whole running off the fight the Hulk by himself if-when he got back, wasn't he? Things he hadn't even considered yet. Hopefully the dawning look of oh, shit didn't make it all the way to his face before...who was he kidding, Sam was kind of an open book that way.

Whatever, just keep going.

"What were the odds?"

[iamresponding]

Even more ridiculously unlikely than you think, considering whose name you got, kid.

"Wow, probably like a kabillion to one," said Rich. He paused. "If you're Nova, how come you ain't taller? I thought he was taller."

Time to mess with the kid a little.

[headinjuries]

Wow, rude. This guy hadn't even seen him standing up yet to see how....not actually tall he was, to be fair, but it was the principle of the thing.

"Do you really need to be tall when you can fly through a star without dying?"

[iamresponding]

"Not really, but I just was confused because I remember Nova being taller," he said. "So I guess you're not the one I'm thinking of then."

Another pause.

"That's the one that had the stupid bucket on his head. I remember seeing him with the New Warriors -- he kept doing things like changing his costumes to try and trick people into thinking he had sidekicks. Why would you wanna go and take on the same name as that goon? He always seemed like a knucklehead."

This was too fun. Too fun.

[headinjuries]

Sam leaned in, eyebrows going up. "What, seriously? Nobody ever talks about that stuff, they mostly just get disappointed that I'm not as good as the old one."

[iamresponding]

"Good? Only thing he was ever good at was grandstanding. At least that was what was on the TV," Rich said with a shrug. "I don't know, maybe other superheroes thought better of him for some reason, but all I ever saw was how goofy he was. Why would you wanna carry on after him and do some kind of legacy thing? Seems like a weird person to imitate."

Rich had no idea how he was managing a straight face.

[headinjuries]

"It just kind of happened. Dad always had all these stories about being some kind of space cop badass before I was born and I always figured it was crap, you know? Like he was trying to make up for being a loser. But then he disappeared on us and there's a green lady and a talking raccoon showing up in my room going, hey, by the way, that was all true and there's an alien fleet that wants to nuke everybody, your dad couldn't stop it so here's his helmet, get out there and let's do something about it."

It started slow, but the further he got, the faster the words started spilling out. It wasn't that often that he really unloaded - mostly, he just saved it for the Watcher, and now the Watcher was dead and he was stuck ranting to empty vacuum on the moon. It wasn't really the same as having someone listen.

"And it seemed pretty cool, even if I couldn't really stick it in the face of anybody who thought I wasn't going to amount to anything, but everyone was expecting someone more like my dad if they knew him, or like the other guy if they knew him, and people keep telling me I don't know anything, and it really sucks every time I realize they're right. But it's not like anyone ever explained -" Vague, emphatic hand wave. "- all of it! Oh, by the way, that thing's radioactive, and that other thing you can't actually destroy by chucking it into a star, so you shouldn't have dumped it there, and those guys with the distress call you answered are actually major assholes you should've been going after..."

He flopped back onto his back, staring at the stars again.

"...I guess that doesn't really answer the why. But when I do something right everything seems okay again, and I don't want to stop if I know I can keep helping people like that. I always resented hearing Nova anything before that, but it means something good to everybody else. And it finally started meaning something good to me, too."