"Yes?"
I wait, but they don't say anything else. Looking inside them I see little flickers of fear, which strikes me as strange. I think I've tried to make myself approachable, even to the Orange Lanterns who've flat out told me that they want to kill me. I don't know why someone as inoffensive as Thump-Thump-Click would feel this strongly.
I mean, if he's a fresh recruit and the second-highest ranked Lantern, and unequivocally most
powerful, came up to him, there's definitely all manner of scenarios running through his head.
"What led to you that preference? Were you an architect before joining the Corps?"
"I… I find digging satisfying. Sir."
And somewhere, a Kreigsman of the Death Korps feels odd pangs of spiritual sympathy.
"Oh, come now. I've seen the rapid-deployment settlements you designed for refugees. That's not just a matter of a digging fixation."
"It is for clickers-. I-." And the scratchy-hum noise is back. "I apologise."
Ah, the young'un has a bit of an architectural hobby, eh?
"Why, what have you done?"
"I-I-I-." The scratchy-hum sound is so raspy that I'm worried that they're going to snap something.
Too panicky to even stabilise himself with his Ring. Man, what does he think is going to happen?
I crouch down, which is usually seen as a little insulting to a clicker but under the circumstances I think I'll be forgiven. If they're this nervous then it's probably better not to loom. "Lantern Thumb-Thump-Click, you have nothing to be concerned about. I was making a small joke about your phrasing, not accusing you of misconduct. I am simply trying to discover more about you, to assess whether or not you can help me with a project I have."
Hopefully that calms him down a bit.
I take a risk and gently tap his exoskeleton on the side in what is supposed to be a reassuring gesture amongst his species.
"I'm not sure why you're so worried, but if you'd like to talk to me about it, I'll listen and try to help."
At least he's not having the Lantern equivalent of 'Oh god, Batman is touching me. Am I about to die?' moment.
"I don't want to kill you!"
"Okay. Thank you. That's good. I don't want to kill you either."
To be fair, it would be - and pardon the unavoidable pun - like squashing a bug.
"The-the-others said…"
"Is this about Ragnar and Zartok? Because as far as I know they're the only ones who want to kill me. Heck, Xor and I are friends. Clarissi Dox and I have never tried to kill each other."
I mean, Dox may have entertained
thoughts of homicide, but he's never acted on them.
"The others said that we were supposed to try and kill you."
"Well… It's… Not a terrible level of power to aim for, but you aren't required to actually follow through on it if you don't want to."
I really hope that's not a thing they're
actually teaching new recruits. Otherwise, there might need to be some retraining.
"You don't want me to?"
"Dying isn't actually a pleasurable experience, so, no. Why do you think I want you to?"
And if it was, I'd be rather
worried about your state of mind.
"You know what it is like to die?"
"I've died twice. After the second time I started keeping clones of myself around in case I needed to transfer myself into one."
Something which isn't typical of the
average Orange Lantern, mind you. He does have rather special quirks that enable him to do that.
"That was true?"
"You didn't believe that, but you believed that every Orange Lantern is obliged to try and kill me."
I mean, they could have stories about you drinking plasma and pissing lightning, but it wouldn't be
true.
"That was what Instructor Ragnar said."
"Lantern Ragnar comes from a highly martial society, and I recruited him by beating him in a duel. Naturally, he regards beating me… And probably Lantern Xor, as his objective, as… How he can measure how far he's come. You don't need to do the same."
Ah, I see the problem now. Hopefully he isn't holding
every recruit up to his high standards.
"And Lantern Zartok?"
"He used to be the best fighter in his empire, before he got overthrown. For him, the idea of being the best fighter in so much a part of who he is, anyone who he thinks is currently better than him is a target. I fought him once and delivered him a crushing defeat, so he's working towards getting to the point where he can actually beat me."
Though I suspect there's still a long way to climb before he sees the peak of Mount Tai, so to speak.
"And then?"
"If he's successful? I'll be dead, so there isn't an 'and then'. But I'm hopeful that the spiritual transformation he'll have to undergo to get as good as me will require him to rethink the whole thing."
...Eh, I wouldn't count on it. But if that hope keeps him happy, let him dream.
"Will it?"
"I don't know. 'As good as me' is a short list. Lantern Xor is the only other Orange Lantern to attain enlightenment, and he didn't want to kill me in the first place." I give them another pat on the thorax. "Feeling calmer?"
"Yes. Thank you, sir. But are the rest of us supposed to try and kill each other?"
God, no! What sort of lunatic would want their soldiers killing each other long before they see actual combat?
"We'd run out of Lanterns fairly quickly if that was the case. I suppose that for a relatively new Lanterns, earnestly trying to kill each other while there was a senior Lantern around to prevent you actually doing so isn't a terrible way to train, but it's not a requirement. Heck, if your natural inclinations don't lie in combat, we've still got a lot of useful things that you can do. Like designing habitation for refugees."
Or medical, like Soranik Natu. Or administration. Or social counselling. It's one of the more fully equipped corps, I suspect. Greenies probably don't lean far from the 'space cop' archetype, barring oddballs like Salaak.
Which is what I came here to talk to them about, but let's make sure that they're on an even keel first.
"Calmed down, now?"
"Yes, sir. I apologise. I should have realised that I was being hazed. But when you appeared in front of me the only thing I could think was that it was my turn. What did you want me to design?"
Good, good. But
Hazing? That may need attending to.
"We had our supply of magicians disrupted by an event on my homeworld. Given how turbulent my homeworld is, Clarissi Dox is keen to avoid future disruption. We've found another world that can supply our needs, and now we need to assist them in setting up the production facilities we want to produce the things that we want to buy from them. And while we don't think that the Reach know about them, a certain degree of Reach-hardening would be useful."
Though I would hope it's a ways out of their way. Still, better to be prepared and safe than unprepared and caught bare-assed.
I raise my eyebrows and smile.
"Are you up for it?"
"Yes. Absolutely."
If nothing else, it's a chance to make a name for himself in a corps of largely interchangeable recruits.
"Do you have any experience with magic construction?"
"None at all!"
All the better, no preconceptions to interfere with his developments.
"Then you're no worse off than anyone else here. If you've got the time now, we can go there and I can introduce you to the people you'll be working with."
I look around, taking in the Orange Lanterns who appear to be rubbernecking in the expectation that there's going to be a fight breaking out.
"But before we do that, why don't you point out the Lanterns who were in on that hazing thing. I feel that I could stand to offer them a little more instruction."
I suspect there's going to be a few guys about to master Wholeness Rightly Assumed in a right hurry.
