you_tried | IC CONTACT

Hey are you free for a little while I need to yell at someone

Not like yell AT you yelling I wouldn't announce that ahead of time

I need to complain at someone

Loudly

amazingly enough my usually busy schedule is open right now

as long as you're not yelling AT me

what's up? want me to come over or something?

Probably not a good idea. Can I come over to you instead?

yeah. sure. anytime.

[Hopefully Booster understood that by saying anytime, he was inviting Jaime over in the next ten minutes, because Jaime flies over there almost straightaway. He still feels angry, itchy in his own skin, and he has to talk to someone about it or else he's going to explode.

Or try to punch Hal Jordan. Which really wouldn't end well for him.

Brenda's not around anymore, and besides, he wants to talk to someone who knows the full story, who knows Jaime and everything he's done (or, perhaps, failed to do) both here and at home. That's Booster. When he winds up at Booster's door and knocks - checking to make sure that Ted's not around, because God knows he worships the man, but he doesn't want him to be around for this - it's clear that he's not in the best state he's ever been, expression irritable and jaw clenching and unclenching with thinly veiled tension.

He's not used to being this mad.]

[ Booster opens the door, and— ]

Whoa.

[ Smooth. But wow, Jaime looks like he needs to do way more than complain. He wasn't kidding about the yelling thing, was he? And Jaime's got the patience of a saint — at least compared to the people Booster's used to hanging out with — so whatever it is, it must be pretty serious. ]

Jeez, Jaime, what happened? Come on in. [ Handwave, handwave... ] Tell Uncle Booster who pissed you off.

Ugh, I know, I'm all...

[Jaime just sort of waves his hands around his head, like that actually means something. It only sort of does, and all that means is that he looks like a wreck. Like a very, very angry wreck. He toes off his shoes (just because he's angry doesn't mean he's going to track mud inside of Booster's house), and once he sees the coast is clear, tips backwards onto the couch with a loud, remarkably teenaged groan.

He plants both hands on his forehead, scraping back his hair.]

It's that freaking psycho Green Lantern again. He straight up attacked me this time. I've never wanted to punch anyone so hard in my life.

[ Booster follows him over to the couch, but he freezes in his tracks before he has a chance to sit. His eyes go wide; he looks surprised, and then pissed. There's never been any love lost between him and Hal, but this? This is way over the line. ]

He did what? What the hell's his problem with you?

[This time, Jaime's not even looking at Booster to see how his expression shifts. His gaze is firmly on the ceiling above them, staring sullenly at it like it's somehow caused him some sort of personal offense.]

He's a psycho, that's his problem.

[Okay, he should probably explain a little better than that. He sighs, relenting.]

He's been on my case since the day he got here. He's totally convinced that I'm still part of the Reach, and everything I've done was to, I dunno, trick people. [Finally, he sits up, scooting back onto the couch and tugging his legs into his chest.]

So I'm hanging out with KF, and next thing I know, he's punching me and dragging me across a field and he's all like, tell your Reach bosses we're authorized to kill now, grrragh. [He raises his hands to bounce off his temples in the universally recognized crazy symbol.]

[ Okay, so Hal Jordan's officially a dick. Nice to have that confirmed past his own (maybe, possibly, sightly unfair) bias. But still, he could have some sense about the whole thing, right? ]

So, what, does he not know about you saving the world and stuff?

[ Booster sits heavily in an armchair, spreading his hands, wide and angry and confused. What the hell, Hal? ]

I mean, that's a pretty long con.

I told him. I told him the day he hauled me outta my house in the middle of the night. [He leans forward, resting his chin on his knees.]

I guess he doesn't believe me. I'm not gonna say I've been polite to him, but... [He glances down, away from Booster.] Even if I didn't save the world, even if I didn't do anything good with my powers, it's still not enough to attack someone over. What if he met me before I'd even done anything, huh? Best way to turn someone into a monster is to treat 'em like one.

[It would have been so, so easy to fall into the clutches of the Reach. The only reason he'd been able to fight it off was because he had surrounded himself with people he loved, and who loved him in return, who believed in him. Who knew if he'd still be here today if he'd run into someone like Hal before anyone else?]

[ Booster scoffs, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. ]

Yeah, listen. It's not your job to be polite to him. He's a superhero. He's a space cop. He's supposed to protect the innocent regardless of how sassy they are. Plus, you know, he was a supervillain for a while — it was this whole thing — so he's got absolutely no room to talk. Whatsoever.

[ Is that tacky to mention? Probably, but so is punching teenagers in the face. Suck it, Hal. ]

A supervillain? Was that the Spectre thing? Because I saw that memory of his already, and man, the Spectre gave me the exact same treatment. You try stopping a guy from horribly killing people and it turns right into I'm watching you.

[He knew the Spectre thing was bad news. Nobody who kills caged men can be counted as one of the good guys.]

Shoulda counted that as a hint.

Wow.

[ This is getting complicated. Complicated and stupid. Booster sighs, rubbing the back of his neck and wondering if he'd be overstepping his bounds if he gave Hal a piece of his mind. Also, wondering if he cares. ]

Um, yeah, kinda, sorta. Parallax. It was this whole, uh, possession... thing. I think. Look, a lot of the Lantern stuff goes over my head, but my point is? He's being a gigantic hypocrite about your little beetle buddy.

He was two supervillains? And then a superhero? And they just go and they, what, welcome him back to the clubhouse with his super-powerful scary ring?

[Okay, okay, he said it. That ring is terrifying. It scares the Scarab, and that means it scares him too. He'd be a hypocrite to say nobody could have it, but being able to comprehend exactly how strong it is, to have a weapon with nuclear capabilities to tell him what a huge danger it is?

That's something, all right.]

Geez. This keeps getting better.

Yeah, it's— I mean, okay, to be fair [ and he hates being fair ] most of us have done things that were, uh, less than PR friendly. For whatever reason. And just about all of us have the capability to do some serious damage.

But you've lived up to your name. You're a hero. If he can't look past what you could do and see what you've already done, that's on him.

Thanks, Booster. [And it means a lot, it really does. But the thing is, even though everyone he respects seem to respect him in turn, it's hard, hearing he's a monster. He's aware of how much damage he can do, and Hal belabouring the point just makes it stick in his head even harder. It's like he has the magical ability to find all of Jaime's sore spots and regularly jab at them.

He wants that to make him feel better, but it doesn't, not yet. Quietly, he confesses,]

I'm still really pissed off, though. He even said I stole Ted's name, which -- if he really thought so, he could've just asked Ted. He's pretty much the King of the Dicks.

[A scathing insult, to be sure.]

He said— [ And that makes Booster's blood boil. ] Who the hell does he think he is?! You know, everyone wants to act like they were Ted's best friend, but they—

[ At least he has the presence of mind to cut himself off before that train of thought can go any further. That's— that's a bad place to go. His gaze drops down to the carpet, and he lowers his voice. ]

... He has no idea what he's talking about. He doesn't know the first thing about you.

I know, Booster, I -- I got the picture. [He raises his hands placatingly in front of him. After talking to Ted, he's realized it's not only Booster who feels a grudge against the League, and god, he really, really doesn't blame them. Either of them. He's got a bit of a grudge too, truth be told.]

You're right though, he doesn't, because if he cared, he'd know that Ted would've had something to say about it by now. He'd know that you wouldn't let some random go screwing around with the name.

Of course he wouldn't think to ask Ted about it. Or me. That'd interfere with his— his punching first and asking questions never.

Ugh. [ Booster slumps back in his chair, dragging his hands down his face. ] Sorry you have to deal with this crap. Is there anything I can do? I mean, has anyone else talked to him about this, or is it all on you?

I didn't want to have to get anyone else involved, [Jaime mutters, voice low and resentful. Maybe that's a problem, but nobody had to get involved for Guy, and nobody had to get involved for that other Lantern. Most things, he can handle on his own -- it's just the prep work and the aftermath he needs help dealing with. He hadn't bet that this incident out of all of them would have spiraled out of control.

He had hoped that maybe Hal would take him at his word, and not gone to the worst possible conclusion. The idea of having to go up to one of the other heroes and ask them to vouch for him seemed to be a ludicrous one in the moment when Hal seemed to do nothing more than snap in his direction, but now?

Maybe he can't handle this one on his own.]

Wally was there, so he talked to him too. Could've gone worse. [He winces a little.] Could've gone a lot better too.

[ The thought of Wally handling things doesn't give Booster a huge amount of confidence, but he's not about to point that out. ]

Weren't you just telling me how we shouldn't have to handle stuff alone?

[ Booster arches an eyebrow in Jaime's direction. It's a different situation, but the point stands. So they're not officially teammates — so what? They're friends, aren't they? ]

I won't butt into your business if you don't want me to, but I'm offering because I want to help. Not because I think I have to, or whatever.

[ Maybe he can't do a lot here, but he can do this. He can try, at least. ]

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