Slightly Less Animated Than Usual [Open]

[starbolts]

Who: Starfire and anyone who wants to join her!
Where: Media Library
Summary: Starfire's received news that her love has returned to stasis in the pod caverns. Her escape is the bright and colorful world of cartoons.
Warnings: Nothing too serious here! Some potential sadness if that line of conversation is followed, but a little fun can be had here.



Visitors to the Media Library today will find a rather distressing sound coming from one of the watching pods. It's a croakish, scratchy sound that might be called a laugh...if the listener were underwater, inebriated, and otherwise less able than usual to discern the sound. The sound contains the basic elements of a laugh, anyway. It's loud, sudden, and presumably in response to funny events on the screen!

In this case, a bacon-eared and sausage-lipped breakfast monster is in hot pursuit of a banana boat. Colorful cherry-men are yelling in musical-sounding gibberish, directing themselves down a river of orange juice in their attempt to avoid the meat monster. There's a dip in the river, and the little banana boat flies---only to slip on the air (how does that work?) and do a flip into the monster's mouth.

Thus ends one segment of this bizarre cartoon. Starfire is clutching a small pillow from her room and laughing at the screen. Or trying to, anyway.

Comments

[starbolts]

"...Yes," she nodded, not entirely convincingly. "Is it not normal to laugh when amusement is present?"

She watches as another explosion occurs. The poor juice-splattered sausage looked so aggravated that she chuckled at it. Surely Kon would show her how to laugh, if hers was not appropriate?

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"Is that how Tamaraneans usually laugh in your universe? 'Cause my version of Kory laughs like we all do."

Then again, his version of Kory had lived on Earth for a good while.

[starbolts]

"It is...uh...the ritual of Tamaranean throat-laughing! Perhaps she did not have the honor to share this with you."

Smooth, Starfire. Definitely smooth.

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"Probably just a difference in worlds. No big, Starfire."

It was cool. Kon didn't care how she laughed as long as it didn't mean a baby was choking somewhere.

"By the way, do you prefer Starfire? Star? Kory?"

Different universe, different Starfire. Treating her the same was rude.

[starbolts]

"I am most often called Starfire. Star is the nickname my teammates prefer," she added, making it clear with a friendly look that he was permitted to join this category.

"He called me Kory," she whispered, eyes downcast. "I do not wish to hear that name at present."

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"Who did?" Kon asked, his expression sympathetic.

[starbolts]

"Peter. My boy-friend," she explained, still slightly stumbling on that last word after all this time. "He has been returned to stasis. I am here attempting to find enjoyment on my own."

In other words: dull the pain. It somewhat works.

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"Oh man, I know that feeling. I had two girlfriends get put back over the years."

He shrugged. "I guess maybe that's better in the long run, since the first one might have woken up to get really mad I decided to eventually move on, but it still sucks. I miss them both. I know it's hard. Tana just got put back, too."

[starbolts]

They did have something in common---right down to the moving on. She hugged herself, fighting back a chilling sensation of guilt. That sweat was not fun.

"Does it ever seem to be a punishment?"

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"Yeah, it does."

Kon sat there and thought about it for a little bit, chewing his lip.

"At the same time, it's reassuring. Even though people in the Pod Caverns have died, there's so many people in there, the chance of the specific people you love getting hurt isn't as big as if they were out here."

It was still there, but the life they led on the ship was dangerous. He preferred that the people he cared about like Tana, and Ma, and Cassie (who was still his friend, even if his feelings about her had changed) were safely tucked away.

In fact, he held up the stump of his arm to show how unsafe it all was and lowered it.

"I mean, look at me. I'm a clone of one of the greatest heroes who ever lived." Lived. Past tense. Gah, that still hurt. "I could knock a supervillain up into the atmosphere if I wanted and this still happened to me, invulnerability be damned. Even if it hurts us, it's...a relief sometimes, too. Sometimes the things that are best for the people we love hurt us, but you don't have to be near someone to still care about them."

[starbolts]

"This is true. Our mission is very dangerous. I wish to fight for them," she whispered, closing her eyes and calling forth the images of her friends. There they were, smiling and waiting: Peter. Raven, Cyborg....Robin. Her smile wavered.

"But the heart sometimes wanders away," she added. "I must not allow it to stray too far."

[mythoughtsoncloning]

"It always wanders back," Kon reassured her, speaking from personal experience here. "Even when you're as alone as you can be, even when you're lost or walking a different path."

The corner of his mouth tweaked into a smile.

"Once a Titan, always a Titan.

[starbolts]

"Precisely. They are my family and my home."

Starfire wasn't better. That was going to take plenty of time and patience. But she was well

This called for a long night of cartoons with Superman. She settled beside him, laughing at the screen once more. This time, it sounded genuine if weak.