Goo-Goo G'joob
17th June 2013
11:34 GMT -5
I watch as Lantern Son of Great Mother floats over the farm,
construct tools occasionally
appearing to make a repair or trim the grass. A short distance away the cows are
very happy to have a full feed trough. Modern farm animals are generally bred to need far more fuel than they can get from grazing, and with the family who once worked here… No longer able to, they've been hungry for a while.
"And you're alright doing this?
"
"It is well within the bounds of my competencies."
"Yes, but a lot of Orange Lanterns prefer work relating to their personal fixations. I want to check that you're not getting bored to the point where it's impeding your effectiveness.
"
"It is
a mindless and repetitive task. Why would I find it boring?"
Why indeed.
"Alright. Once you've finished, list required materials, personnel and timelines to keep this farm functional, as well as predicted yields, upload to me and to the League database.
"
"I will."
I nod.
"Keep up the good work.
"
His image over my ring tilts to the side slightly. "I do not know what constitutes 'good', but
I am satisfied that you are pleased."
"In this case, 'good' is that which assists in restoring Earth society to full functionality without completely upending it.
"
"I do not understand. Earth society was upended by the Anti-Life. Is 'good' upending it again, or not?"
"I meant… Default human society, not how it was during the Anti-Life period. Like… You wouldn't 'restore' Great Mother to how she was when the dominators took her over, would you?
"
"No."
"Same principle. There's a healthy state and an unhealthy state-.
"
"Unless she asked me to." … "Except if she was being compelled to ask me." … "I am confused."
"You'll get there. Focus on fixing the farms, and then report to me.
"
"I comply with contentment.
I was made to obey."
Well, it's progress. Won't do much for the city's food supply until we can get some people familiar with milking here to start. And… Since no one has been here to slaughter the male calves, the herd is probably going to need some culling in order to turn it back into a normal dairy herd. Mr. Kent has already put out messages through the farming areas of Kansas that there are farms going begging for anyone who wants to stay in the industry but doesn't stand to inherit, but I think people are… Mostly focusing on their local area.
Huh. I know that horses drive colts away from the marital herd, but I've never bothered looking up what wild cows do.
I… Fly back in the direction of Hub City. I haven't actually seen The Question since this started. I.. don't
think he died, if only because he hasn't been reported as dead, but it's a fairly generic costume and there are a lot of places for a body to go missing in a city. His magic abilities mean that finding him with a scan isn't a reliable thing, and… It feels a little intrusive. I don't
need to find him, and if he wants to talk to me it's not as if I'm not obvious.
Heavy excavation machinery is based around the area where Mr. Schreiber's people are starting work. He's not on-site himself, of course. Designing an entire city centre isn't a quick process even for someone as skilled as
he is. Though taking out every review and level of bureaucracy is speeding things up a good deal. But one of the first decisions he and I made is that it'll be easier to replace all of the utility cables and pipes as we go, rather than trying to work with what's already there. As a result, what we have so far is a giant hole, some prefabricated concrete sections and a whole lot of rubble. This would be basically impossible if the city was functional and fully inhabited, and messy as it is now…
Even if nothing else I've done here comes to anything, at least the city will have a little direction as it gradually pulls itself together. A nice thing about things being so bad is that it's almost impossible to make them worse.
And… I'm only me. Having a superhero work a great deal on one city isn't very likely to mess up our entire civilisation.
"Incoming communication request from Blue Lantern."
"Answer. Morning, Alan.
"
"Hey, Paul." His bust regards me curiously.
"Kinda surprised you haven't called me already."
"I thought I'd give you to the afternoon, just in case.
"
"Hey, I'm not that kind of heel, I'll have you know. Though, ah…"
"She wants to wait until the
second date?
"
"She wanted to know what it would cost to buy you out of your betrothal."
I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Darn it.
"
"Don't feel too bad. It was my best date in fifty years."
"Yes, but now if I tell Jay about it he's just going to say 'Oh, how did it go?', and then I'm going to feel like a prat.
" I open my eyes again.
"I assume that you told her it isn't that sort of relationship?
"
"I did, which made her confused. She thought I was speaking to her so I could arrange things for you."
I wince again, this time on his behalf.
"But at least the food was good."
"Um.
"
"And I will say that I'm not feeling as gun-shy as I did, so it wasn't a complete waste of time."
"So maybe twenty-five years until the next time?
"
"Heh. Ah. I'll think about it."
"Right. I'll speak to her and make it super-clear myself. And maybe take Jade along?
" He raises an eyebrow.
"Do you think that's a good idea?
"
"I wouldn't have thought so, but I guess Jade must be pretty tolerant if she's still seeing you."
"Ow, Alan. Ow.
" Hm.
"And I do need to take her to see the Dream King at some point… Maybe we could make a day of it?
"
"How's Hub City?"
"Much the same, now with a ruddy great hole in it while they're sorting the utilities for the first block. It's progress of a sort.
"
"You don't wanna just..? Wave your hand and do it yourself?"
"I don't want to give people worldwide the idea that's what's going to happen. I want them to see regular people putting their cities back together, not things being fixed by some weirdo with city-fixing superpowers. At least, as much as possible.
"
"I'm a little surprised, but I guess I can see where you're coming from." He smiles.
"Good luck with Jade. Blue Lantern out."
