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[ 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. ]

This is different, [Jaime says sourly, but only because he's still feeling sulky and contrary, and it's a lot safer to be a kid around Booster than it is around Hal - or around Wally, who had already stuck his neck out for him. He's not thinking clearly enough to feel bad about his hand in making Hal and Wally's relationship get - hopefully temporarily - blown to pieces, but he will later.

He doesn't want to admit that a big reason why Hal gets to him so much is that he's worried that one day, somehow, Hal will be right. It's easier to get mad about being punched. Tipping his head back onto the armrest of the couch, Jaime folds his hands over his stomach and wrinkles his nose.] Okay, maybe it's not.

[What a thing to come back and bite him in the ass. He blinks up at the ceiling, and contemplates his current plan of just avoiding Hal for the rest of forever and hoping he doesn't come after him again. It's a pretty attractive sounding plan, but not exactly a long-lasting one. Ignoring it hadn't worked out for him this time, after all.

Finally, quietly, he asks,] You think it would actually help?

Sure. [ Well... Booster winces a little. Sticking up for Jaime is one thing, and it's the right thing to do. Succeeding at sticking up for Jaime is another thing. Will he just make the kid look worse by association? ] Maybe. I dunno. I'm not exactly his favorite person in the world. But—

[ Wait a minute. ]

Look, I'm from the future! If you went totally nuts and tried to take over the world or something, I'm pretty damn sure that would've come up! And I know, I know, spoilers are cheating, but if it gets him to shut up I don't care.

Really?

[He tries to keep that strain of hopefulness out of his voice, but he can't stifle it entirely. He had been worried enough back home, sure to be as careful with his powers as possible, being here had only exacerbated matters. Knowing what Bart had gone through, seeing even the briefest moments of his dream... how could he not be paranoid? How could he not give Hal's words at least a little bit of weight? He rises again, propping his weight up on his elbows.]

So, like -- you knew about Hal doing the whole supervillain thing too?

Edited 2015-02-27 18:08 (UTC)

Not... exactly. I mean, I could've, if I'd asked Skeets, or if I'd paid attention in history class, but I was a terrible student, and...

[ Sigh. Shut up, Booster, you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. ]

Look, I only really started paying attention to this stuff after— after Ted. When I realized I could've stopped a lot of things from happening, if I'd known. [ He looks away, expression pinched as he picks at a stray thread in the arm of the chair upholstery. ] I still don't like to ask about all the details, cause it kinda makes me feel creepy, but trust me. If there was something majorly wrong with you in the future, Skeets would've said something.

[ Hopefully. ]

[That's not that reassuring, overall. Skeets hadn't said anything about Ted dying, or else it wouldn't have happened, right? If Skeets wouldn't say anything about Booster's best friend, then why would he mention anything about some kid Booster hardly knew? Because they didn't know each other back home, not really.

There goes that relief.]

If you talk to him, you might not wanna use the time travel argument. It's, um... not that convincing? Not without Skeets around.

Urgh.

People get mad at me when I don't know something, people don't believe me when I say I do know something...

Can I yell at him anyway?

Hey, I'm just saying. Dude doesn't need any more ammunition than he's already got. I can hear him now -- that's not proof! He's just got you fooled so you won't check in the first place!

But I mean, if you wanna yell at him, go on ahead. I'm not -- it's not worth it to tell a lotta people, honestly, but I don't mind him knowing that you know.

[Who else was he going to go to?]

... well. Uh. Thanks.

I'll try not to yell. But if he deserves it I'm definitely going to.

He'll probably deserve it.

[He's still sour. He's going to be sour for a while yet.]

I mean, I've already yelled at him. And I don't do that!

[He sounds almost offended that Hal made him lose his temper. How dare he. That's even worse than attacking him!]

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you_tried - 2015-03-03 04:24 (UTC) - Expand