sam "flying jackhammer" alexander ✧ nova (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
headinjuries) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionworld2016-04-27 03:50 pm
headinjuries) wrote in legionworld2016-04-27 03:50 pm
Entry tags:
not going anywhere for a while?
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.
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.
no subject
Rich paused and pulled his helmet off, collapsing it into cloth to tuck into his belt. He raised his eyebrows.
"Well, you are, at least. I kinda think maybe it's been a while. For me. Uh. Since I kicked it. From the sound of things. The last thing I remember is...you know. But that's just because it was the last thing I remember. It's possible whatever brought me here didn't gather me up and put me back together until the present -- your present."
Rich scratched the back of his head.
"You, uh, you wouldn't happen to know how long it's been since I disappeared into the Cancerverse with Starlord, would you? Did Rocket or Gamora mention maybe? Did Starlord and Drax make it out of the Cancerverse okay?"
Okay, now it was his turn to be curious rather than troll-ey, but Sam was the first person from back home back home. Gwen was only from a similar universe.
"Did anyone tell my parents about what happened? They always freaked over the idea of something happening to me up there and never finding out. And did someone manage to get my brother Robert and Namorita and my Novas back to Earth and their home planets? Oh oh and was Worldmind okay after I was gone?"
Wait wait, now he was bumrushing the kid.
"Okay, actually, uuuh, I kinda have a whole list of possible questions that you may not know the answers to, but to say I am behind on current events would be pretty much the world's biggest understatement."
no subject
But that was a weird thought, when he considered what it meant for Rich. Going back to being dead? Going back to being alive when he died? Going back to being alive some undetermined time after he died?
Time definitely undetermined because he...really wasn't sure how long ago that was.
"I don't...remember anybody saying how long it was. I think the last time I heard someone mention Starlord, it wasn't all past tense, though? So I assume that means they got out -" All these questions, geez. He started ticking them off on his fingers as he tried to keep up. "I don't know if anybody's told your parents yet, and I'm not sure about the other Novas getting back, but - is Worldmind the...whatever's smart in our helmets? Because it doesn't talk to me, at least not with words, but it understands me talking to it just fine and it shows me stuff it thinks I need to see, so I guess that's at least some kind of okay..."
He shrugged helplessly. "I'm really not kidding when I say I've totally been winging it. There's still a bunch of stuff I'm trying to figure out. Also, the short version of current events is that everyone keeps fighting over reasons that are usually pretty stupid, but if you want the long version, that at least I can do. Kind of."
He'd been out of commission or out of the loop on a lot of things, but at least he had a better idea about what was going on at home than he did about the rest of it.
no subject
They were suddenly floating in space, standing on a small asteroid. Other smaller asteroids floated in a field around them. Unlike the moon in this universe, the moon in the simulation was whole and huge, closer to the asteroid than the Earth was. He figured they might as well get more comfortable than just standing in a big white room.
He sat down on the edge of the asteroid and looked down at Earth.
"Good. Sounds like Peter at least made it." Hopefully that meant Drax had too. "And Worldmind is chatty and has a personality interface. You'd know if she was in your head, trust me. What you're talking about sounds more like your suit's User Support System. It's a default computer interface standard to all Centurions that they can fall back on to have some help managing their powers and their suit's functions."
Congrats, Sam, you now have someone who actually knows stuff about your powers.
"And I know about the fighting. Some of it anyway. I stopped in on Earth a few times." Rich shook his head. "It was stupid. Don't get me wrong, I thought the idea of some kind of accountability was understandable, especially after what happened to that poor town -- those kids -- but that everyone couldn't work together to force the government to come to some kind of compromise so people could keep their IDs, and their families, safe but have some kind of training and accountability..."
He shook his head.
"The secret ID part was the dumb one. Everyone would up getting the New Warriors' secret IDs anyway and all it meant was a bunch of innocent people, who weren't at Stamford, getting chased by lynch mobs. What everyone needed was the training, something the New Warriors even asked the Avengers for, once upon a time."
He rolled his eyes.
"Bet they never mentioned that part to anyone. How they turned us away and said they were too busy for it. And then they went and fought about the whole thing, causing collateral damage and risking lives. Meanwhile a war was going on in space -- where thousands of species managed to work together to fight a common enemy."
Rich rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb.
"Sorry. I'm angry old man ranting right now. Whole thing still pisses me off. Especially since I sent a message to Earth to help with the Annihilation War and they got it. They just blew it off to keep fighting each other. It was like...I went away for the war and I never really got to go home again. Last time, it was a little better -- Justice and Speedball, they were teaching at that Avengers Academy, and that sounded like a good idea to me. But it never really was the same."
no subject
That went back further than the cases of everyone fighting over stupid stuff that he'd had in mind, really, which was a pretty sad thought the more he turned it over in his head. Shouldn't everyone have gotten this out of their system by now?
He took a seat next to Rich, and then flopped onto his back. "They just found new stuff to get mad at each other about. The Phoenix Force came back to Earth - I was off-planet, so I saw it first and went back to warn them, right? And then the next thing I remember is waking up when it already landed, possessed someone, and went all Dark Phoenix to try and get its slaughter on, so I don't even know how everyone got from 'powerful bad mojo incoming' to 'let's smack each other up over whose plan we're following to deal with it,' but the Avengers and the X-Men were at each others' throats and they didn't get it together until the very end."
His turn to sound bitter - not as bitter as Rich, but he definitely hadn't gotten chased halfway across the galaxy and crash-landed into a coma just so everyone could waste the prep time he'd been trying to give them. And the X-kids had been pretty cool when he'd spent Halloween with them; if they could cooperate in the quest for Bottle Caps and Skittles, shouldn't their supposedly wiser adult counterparts be able to cooperate to save the world?
"At least the thing that was happening when I left, it's not like anyone could help it - there was some crazy stuff going down on Genosha, and I guess they were trying to stop it but the magic backfired, I was never clear on how that stuff works - and everyone who was there got kind of...inverted. Like, the good guys all started acting bad, and the bad guys started acting good, so now the X-Men are going all-out war on humanity, and the bad Avengers called everyone in for a meeting before we figured it out, because it was really just an excuse to hit everyone with Pym particles and put them where they couldn't do anything, but Spider-Man and I jumped out the window so I think we're the only ones who got out. And I have no idea what the plan is after that, but -"
He had to stop for a breath somewhere in there, and then he realized that he was probably talking way too fast.
"...yeah, so, uh. I guess the short version of that is 'most of what you missed is people still being stupid.'"
no subject
"I swear to God, if I do get to stay alive, and if I get home and everyone's fighting over something, I'm putting them in separate corners. And by that, I mean other planets. And they won't be allowed to leave until they agree to get along."
He pulled the hand away from his face and tucked it behind his head.
"I don't know if you know 'em but is there any chance you've seen Justice or Speedball around? Firestar? Any of those guys? If you haven't heard anything, that's probably as good as them being okay because it means they're staying out of trouble."
no subject
Maybe she'd have been more amenable to him joining the Avengers if one of them had cleaned her kitchen like Vance, but that was a mystery they'd never see solved.
no subject
He smiled.
"But if he was recruiting New Warriors again and fussing over getting the team going, that's definitely him going back to his old self a bit more." He briefly laughed. "And of course they were gunning for you. Every time the team fell apart and reformed, he'd be at my door, annoying me into rejoining."
He sounded fond, though.
"I'm a little biased, but, uh, as someone who's been both a New Warrior and an Avenger -- even if the latter was only for a short time and kind of on the DL -- being a New Warrior is so much better. You're around people closer to your age, and everyone was learning -- but also teaching each other. If that makes any sense." A pause. "And we were a family. Still are. Even now."
There was a difference. A huge difference. They'd had their knock-down drag out spats with each other, but when it came down to it, they never would've fought each other like the Avengers had.
Still did.
"They're always my second stop. When I get home. My parents and then I meet up with them. So if you do decide to do the superteam thing, maybe I'm biased, but they'd be good at helping you. And I know the team got a bad rep after Stamford but that was...that was a lot of different things. We saved the world from cosmic-level, reality-manipulators at our best. Justice knows his stuff and Robbie's learned a lot since then -- enough to...well. Teach people not to make his mistakes."
no subject
(Okay, at least he had the good taste to avoid using it, because who wouldn't want to go by something cooler like "the High Evolutionary," in his shoes?)
"They're...easier to be around. I mean, the Avengers are cool, but it's kind of hard not to think, oh man, I'm talking to Thor, what if there's something stuck in my teeth or I say something totally stupid?"
no subject
He wasn't sure if the time spent as dead/dissipated counted or not, or how much time he was like that or if he was even alive as energy like that (kind of) or dead-dead.
"And every time I talk to Cap, the only thing that comes into my head is 'duuuuuh.' And other things that aren't words. It never, ever changes. I was the head general in a galactic space war and I still feel like a moron every time I open my mouth around some of the Avengers. Except for Thor, he was always a pretty chill guy with the Warriors." A pause. "And except for Stark. No problems talking to him. But it's easier to talk to someone when you're yelling at 'em."
Rich was not particularly fond of Stark.
"But hey, if they asked you to be an Avenger as young as you are, that's pretty damn impressive." Sam said his mom had nixed it and Rich assumed that meant he'd been asked. "Took until I was in my late twenties 'til Cap felt like I had the chops. I had to become space General Patton, lead a war like in Starship Troopers, and fight the Borg first."
no subject
It didn't really have the same ring to it as winning a space war, that was for sure.
no subject
Rich was still just a dork loser in high school at that age, getting shoved on his ass on the basketball court.
no subject
"Fifteen."
no subject
That was pretty goddamn impressive.
"Not many people can say that. Don't let it get to your head, 'cause humility's important, but it's okay to give yourself a little credit now and again, too. I don't know that I could've done that at your age, just starting out. I started later and built up momentum into being a decent hero a lot slower."
no subject
"Too bad I can't tell my principal that my horrible attendance is the reason we're all still alive."
no subject
"That's the downside to it all. Having to come up with never-ending excuses. I was always terrible at 'em." He bit his lip to hold in another laugh. "Something people probably never told you with all their 'oh, the last Nova was this big damn space hero, how come you're not like him?' stuff? Know what my last job was before I went up into space for the war and just stayed up there? I mean before the reality show thing."
Take a wild guess, Sam.
no subject
With a lead-in like that, he could guess that it wasn't going to be anything impressive.
"Give me a hint on a scale of one to mortifying?"
no subject
Yes, it was that bad.
"And keep in mind I was in my late twenties."
Pretty goddamn mortifying, yes.
no subject
That would definitely do it.
"I mean, I guess it's...not really that shocking? My dad was cleaning toilets. But I want to do better than that."
no subject
A pause.
"And for the love of God, stay in school. What screwed me over the most was I went up to space for a year at the end of high school. Nobody knew where I was because I didn't expect to be up there that long and couldn't get a message home to Earth. So I came back and I was just a high school dropout and all my friends'd moved on. Maybe I'd fought in a war and saved a lot of lives but it still ruined my life. The career end of it, if not the hero end of it or the friends and family end of it."
The latter two were the most important but it sure as hell hadn't been easy spending most of his life barely able to scrape enough money together to buy a subway token.
"For a while in my early twenties, I was actually homeless even. Not in a sleeping-outside way but my parents kicked me out 'cause they were afraid villains would crash the house (again) and I couldn't get a job and I couldn't afford to rent my own place. If Thrash hadn't taken me in and let me sleep in the Crashpad...well, one of the others would've taken me in instead, 'cause my friends are pretty great. Still, not fun. And it was definitely hard on the pride, having to accept help, feeling like I was this big, dumb loser that wasn't enough good enough to get a job flipping burgers."
If Sam's dad had been a Nova and had been cleaning toilets, maybe they were pretty similar.
"It's not selfish to have a civilian life and to take care of your own stuff. There are plenty of villains in our world, but hey, upside is there are plenty of heroes, too, and a lot of them have solid jobs and degrees and have their lives all built up. You deserve time to build up yours so you can be the kinda adult you wanna be, so you don't have to settle for cleaning toilets or flipping burgers or picking up garbage -- not that people should disrespect that, because somebody has to do it but if you want more, it's okay to try to get more for yourself. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was not asking for help when I needed it, so I could have a life of my own, 'cause I thought it made me weak to need it, but it was pointless, because in the long run I wound up having to accept help anyway."
It'd only taken him close to thirty years to realize otherwise.
"Don't do that."
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"We lost the house after Dad disappeared. Mom started working, and I guess she's making enough to keep us in an apartment for now, but she's not home much. I feel like I should be doing more, but I'm barely still enrolled and if I keep cutting out more than I already am, I won't be."
Getting that off his chest felt better than he'd thought it would.
"How does everyone else do it? Or do we just get it twice as bad because of being in space?"