2014.03.22 - Let Us Not Be Monsters

The Lobby of the Legion of Super-Heroes Head Quarters is fairly quiet today, with a few curious visitors coming in to look around the public-accessible areas. Even with access to Stark Tower, Booster ends up spending a lot of time here. The technology probably reminds him of his native era. A polite robot at the front desk directs Keith to the Commissary, a faintly glowing blue holographic line pointing the way. It leads to a transport tube that apparently uses anti-gravity to whisk a user quickly to their destination. It is much like flying.

Within the Commissary, Booster is just sitting down at a table. He is in casual clothing, except for his goggles. There are translucent, round-edged holo-panels floating before his face, so he can look at readouts as he eats a very unassuming looking sandwich. It does not look delicious.

Unless it's an actual outing or special event, Keith is seldom in casual clothing. He walks over to booster, stopping at his table, tail swaying a little.

"Hey, Mike... are you busy?" he asks.

"Oh, hey, Keith." Booster glances up and grins. He waves his hand and this seems to shoo the floating holoscreens aside, so that they do not cover his face. "Just finishing my recovery. And analyzing data. That kind of thing. Have a seat, do you want something to eat or drink?" He gestures back at the automat panels. "If you don't know how to work one of those, there's some pre-set stuff as well."

The cheshire sits down next to Booster, "No, no, its ok... I don't need to eat. I shouldn't even be here to interrupt you, but I had to talk to you."

He is clearly in a much more subdued mood than he was yesterday at the gym. "Something happened and I sort of had a moment."

"Dude, you're welcome to talk to me whenever you need." Booster sets his sandwich down, hands brushing together to dislodge a few crumbs. He peers at Keith, as if to check whether he might be injured. "Are you okay? Ah, ugh." He shuts his eyes for a moment and sits back. "Sorry. I hate it when I accidentally look -through- someone. Man that's gross, no offense. Innards, you know?"

"I'm so sorry I screamed at you yesterday. I'm sorry I've been screaming all over the place. I was so... horribly wrong..." he says quietly, the new Robin's face fresh in his mind.

"I thought you were dead too. I wanted to kill... I wanted to maim..." he shakes a little, hugging tightly for a few seconds. "I don't want to be a monster. I don't want to be like -him-."

"Anger is natural, Keith. Even urges like that. Just having those feelings and thoughts doesn't make you monstrous." Booster returns the hug this time, although not too hard. Even without his powersuit on, there is the impression that he can seriously crush someone. "You haven't done anything wrong. Although I gotta admit, I'm glad you're seeing things in a new light."

Keith closes his eyes, letting some of it go. He'd be embarrassed to cry in front of most people... but probably not Patrick or Booster.

"I saw what I was becoming. This... vile and disgusting creature, it was like looking at my future. I can't turn into that." He tries to take a couple of breaths to stady himself. "Just... please try not to die," he says quietly. "While I thought you were gone, I realized I never said to you what I think of you."

Booster laughs a little, quietly. "I promise, I'm not -trying- to die. I'm aware it's something that can happen, but it's not my goal. My goal is to get famous and rich. Or rich and famous, I'm not picky about the order." The pat he gives Keith on the back is a hearty one. With a more serious attitude, he adds, "I know it can be rough. Y'know, you told me about your mom and all that. We can't protect everyone in the world, I wish we could. What we can do is protect everyone we can, for as long as we can."

Keith sniffles, and then looks up at Booster, listening to his words. He nods slowly and looks at him straight in the eye.

"Michael... you are my friend. I think you are decent and good, and probably one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. You mean a lot to me- you were really my first friend.... and while I have more friends now, I can't replace any of them. Especially you." He gulps, obviously speaking out like this at considerable effort, his first instinct is to bottle up. "I love you, Michael. Try not to die, okay? It's not cool." He hugs him again, and takes a deep breath. It had been hard to say it, but at least he said it.

Booster is quiet as he considers this. He sounds thoughtful when he replies. "Thank you, Keith. That means a lot to me, to hear that. I love you, too. You're my friend." It is all pretty simple and direct, but he seems sincere. "I think everything will be okay. It may not be the same as it was before, but... things being different doesn't mean its the end of the world. I mean, I know it's not the end of the world, because I've actually seen it."

Keith does not ask about the end of the world. He'd rather not know, right now. "Thank you, Mike. It means a lot to me too." He gives his friend one last hug before sitting up again, wiping at his eyes. "Damn, I'm a mess. Sorry, I got your shirt wet." He looks embarrassed, but there's a clear change in him- there is less tension, less of that impression that he was a coil ready to spring.

"Nah, man, it's cool." Booster waves off the apology for his shirt and picks up his sandwich again. "And it's okay. I get it. I was glad to get a chance to talk to Tony one last time, so I got to thank him. But he said he'd be back, so I know he will be." Reaching up, he touches a fingertip to one of the floating holoscreens and it turns, so Keith can see the image on it. It looks like someone took a dish of multicolored spaghetti with glowing gel sauce and tossed it into the air. "I'm updating my time maps. One of the things you said the other night, I thought it might help if I explained how a timeline works..."

"Promise you'll show it to me, then?" Keith says with a smile, drying his eyes. "I've got to go home soon... Patrick and I need to look into a new place to move closer to Metropolis. I can afford a decent apartment now... and we're taking Eddie in. For now, at least."

"Well I mean, it's pretty simple." Booster gestures at the display. "This is a map of the timestream, which is sort of a big soup of timelines, alternate dimensions and so on." He touches one of the spaghetti strands and it glows while everything else dims. "This is our timeline. Uh, an image of it. Apparently most people can't see this stuff in the holofootage I've taken, so I had to make a simulation. If I'd convinced Tony to not die, it wouldn't have changed this timeline, it would have caused a branching. That branch would either become a parallel timeline, or would fold back into this one at a later point. Easy, see?"

Keith frowns, looking at the map. "You mean that whole theory about there being multiple choices, and every choice creating a branch where that choice was made, but lasting only as long enough as the likelyhood of that choice being made in the first place?"

Someone read way too much science-fiction in highschool.

"Well, kind of. Most decisions aren't going to cause a branch at all." Booster sits back, gesturing at the image with his sandwich. "It's more like... for minor things, each time that part of time is experienced, there is a chance of the other decision being made. So it's in potentia. If it's something that has a more far-reaching effect then you get little minor branches that weave back into the main line. BIG incidents can cause a major branching."

"I see..." Keith watches the map for a few seconds. "This is headache-inducing. How on earth do you deal with this, Michael?"

"Eh, it makes sense to me." Booster takes a bit of his sandwich, which looks a bit like two thin slabs of styrofoam with a greyer version of peanut butter spread between them. "I get memories from my future self, sometimes. I don't usually talk about this stuff with people outside of the Legionnaires. This..." He jabs a finger at the blobby noodle image, "Is not something that is public knowledge. I can also see time, which is not something most people can do."

The cat frowns, looking at Booster's sandwich. "Mike, how can you eat that stuff? Here... why don't you let me take you out for dinner? Eat something that doesn't look like it's part of a prop at a Star Trek convention?"

Booster glances down at his food, then at Keith again. "Man, I grew up eating stuff like this. The food in this era is delicious but it's also scary. There's so much of it, and it's all complicated and made out of storybook animals." He touches a corner of the holo screen and that one winks out. The remaining ones have text on them, and although Keith can easily see them, their readouts are not in English.

"Well, I am THE storybook animal par excellence. Just read Alice in Wonderland." He smirks. "Come on. We've just had a moment, I've cried, and now I'm hungry."