A Day At The Park

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

After an experimental nap in the bunks (actually do-able, but kind of creepy) and a nourishing meal of something that made school food look appetizing, Paco had trundled off to the Sensorium to see what it could do.

At the moment, it was larger-than-life version of the playground where he and Jaime and Brenda had used to hang out. Also the playground where Jaime got attacked by trees. And not in the funny-story sense, but in the sense of HOLY SHIT THE TREES ARE ATTACKING.

He'd left out the evil trees, but Stacy had managed to duplicate the smell of the place too. He could have sworn that he was back at the park in El Paso, except he could actually fit on the swings.


Thread with Jaime is locked to Paco and Jaime, but the post is otherwise open!

Comments

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Jaime had come in quietly, and hopped on the swing next to Paco. He looked quite distraught as he declared:

"I'm going to hell."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Hey, no changing the playground out from under me," Paco objected before he caught sight of Jaime's face. "What happened, man?" he asked, dragging his feet on the ground to stop his swing.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Robin's here," Jaime said.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"And he's what, ground his teeth so hard that we need to get him dentures?" Paco asked, raising an eyebrow. Whatever the problem was, Jaime wasn't spitting it out.

"Or is it some alternate-universe Robin?"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Our universe. I asked Stacy."

Jaime kicked a little, to drift around on the swing half-heartedly.

"The problem is that Superboy and Impulse are also here. And Robin wasn't surprised at all about them being alive. They're all from before the Crisis."

Jaime took in a deep breath and let it out.

"He thinks Superboy is going to survive, because I sort of...um. Lied."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Oh. OH. That was awkward.

"What did you tell 'em?" he asked, running a hand through his hair. This was going to take some thinking.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"I was vague. He asked if Nightwing and Wonder Girl got through the Crisis okay. I said yes. He asked about Superboy, and I said... that he's off doing his own thing."

A wince. "Technically, he is?"

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Rotting's usually a all-by-myself sort of thing, yeah," Paco said. Gallows humor, had to love it. "Gonna have to come up with something a little more specific if you want to keep that up. Did you say anything about Impulse?"

Jaime really, really sucked at lying. He was good at it in a life-or-death situation, but only then and only to people that he wasn't trying to work with. So either they were going to need to practice constantly, and deal with Jaime's ulcers as they came, or they'd have to figure something else out.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"No. I have no idea what to say to that, either. And he's Impulse. Definitely Impulse. Not the Flash. Not even Kid Flash, I don't think."

Jaime stopped swinging and held his face in his hands.

"I'm going to hell. I lied to my team-mate's face and told him his best friend wasn't going to die and pretty much utterly destroy him--he laughed, Paco. He didn't do the teeth-grindey thing. He was a nice and friendly, and not...hiding off somewhere alone, like he always does in the tower. And I lied about the thing that's going to change him to be that way. I'm going to have to lie about the same thing with his other best friend that makes it worse. I'm going to hell."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco dropped a hand on Jaime's shoulder, grimacing a little.

"We can work this out," he said with confidence he didn't really feel. "First step is acknowledging the absolute suck that is time-travel. Second..." He chewed on the pad of his thumb. "Even if they don't know what's coming, you do. And you can fix it so it works and doesn't happen like it did."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

He nodded slowly. "I'm going to fix it. I mean, we obviously have some pretty powerful tech at work behind all this. And I can tell the truth later, after I'm sure it won't...doom the world. He'll be mad, but hopefully he'll understand why I wanted to wait and make sure, first, that it wouldn't mess everything up, before I told them the truth."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"He'll understand. He'd probably do the same thing," Paco said. "Any of them would, it's a whole super-heroic, not-blowing-up-the-world thing." He thumped Jaime on the back. "And trust me, if anyone can save two super heroes from dying in the past without making the present go kerblooey, it's you and me and Khaji."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

He couldn't help but give his best friend a crooked grin.

"That is, after we figure out how get everyone out of here and save the day with whatever weird space thing is going on. Of course."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco elbowed Jaime in the shoulder, cracking a grin himself. "Goes without saying. And after we figure out how to make Kate's world stop sucking, using only a toothbrush arrow and a rubber duck; and visit where ever the talking dinosaur is from because dude. Talking. Dinosaurs."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Jaime Reyes had stood on his own, in space, as the Blue Beetle. Powerless (and naked), he'd fought and thought his way through it, stopping a plan that would've resulted in the enslavement of the human race.

In the end, he'd almost died to save the world, alone in space, scared and in pain, holding apart a circuit--thus holding the fate of the planet and everyone he loved on it--with his own two hands, so the world wouldn't basically...explode.

The reason he could do things like that was because of his hometown, and everyone that came with it, like Peacemaker, the Posse, Nadia and Hector, and even La Dama. That whole legacy that came before him thing, and Dani Garrett helping him understand it, helped a bit, too.

But the main the reason he could do things like that was because of his family--and it was a family that included Paco and Brenda.

Paco had faith in him. They all did. They had faith that he'd set things right, however he could, that he'd do the right thing--or if he did the wrong thing, that he'd fix it and do the best he could. Always. Their faith was what made it possible for him to have faith in himself.

Even if he'd been alone here, he'd have carried that with him, just like on the Reach Mothership. He always carried it with him. It was what he lived on more than food or water--the fuel to his fire, the wind in his sails, the cliche to his corny metaphor.

It was still nice hearing it anyway.

"We really need to talk to the dinosaur guy. Because... yeah. Talking. Dinosaur. I'm really not sure if the human brain can conceive of something cooler than that, let alone find it naturally occurring somewhere in the existence."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

All that went unsaid, of course. They were men, manly men, who had no need to talk about girly things like feelings. At least not in so many words.

"I think the only way a talking dinosaur could be any more awesome is if it had lasers or something," Paco said. "But that might even detract from the pure awesome that is a talking dinosaur. We're going to have to come up with something awesome to say to the talking dinosaur, or we're just going to be standing there and babbling about how awesome he is, and he probably knows that much already."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. What if he doesn't realize how awesome he is? If he doesn't, we should tell him."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"How can he not realize his awesomosity? The natural state of a talking dinosaur is awesome, like how water is wet and sand is itchy."

Paco thought for a moment. "On the other hand, if he somehow isn't aware of it, telling him might break the spell. Some of the awesome might come from the fact that he doesn't know that he's awesome."