Rich wasn't far off and he looked amused as he leaned against a wall, arms crossed, keeping an eye on the whole room. Every so often he flexed the fingers of his robotic prosthetic slightly. He was still getting used to the thing and it had become something like a nervous reflex to keep moving his fingers experimentally, as if he was reassuring himself fingers of some kind were still there even if they weren't his flesh-and-blood ones.
Despite his vigilance, he was still far more relaxed than he'd ever been during or after the war. Part of it was him just quietly enjoying being alive again after that whole turning-into-a-dimensional-door-and-dissipating-into-energy thing. The other part was the fact he didn't have to worry about absolutely everything because he wasn't the boss man anymore. He wasn't even that guy that everyone looked to for cues on how to act despite not being the boss man.
He was just another cog in the machine now, and after dying and coming back, not having to worry about the things a leader had to worry about suited him just fine. It was like being just another Nova again, only this time it wasn't Worldmind trying to force him into it because he'd lost it and become a few fries short of a Happy Meal. This time the leader in charge was actually marginally competent.
He spoke to Peter in English instead of the Interlac that their telepathic earplugs defaulted to. It was just as much a small act of defiance in the face of the ethnocentric superiority of the people around them as it was to prevent anyone around them from understanding they were talking shit about them.
"You know," he said, "if I was the one in charge of this whole operation I'd be pissed you just possibly screwed up a very delicate diplomatic situation."
A pause.
"But I'm not, so --"
He laughed. It was a laugh that didn't pop up all that often, a boyish, mischievous one that had probably been far more common during his days with the New Warriors, before the war, before everything that made him almost want to never laugh again.
"And I thought the Rigellians were bad. Forget throwing a drink in his face, you should'a found a punch bowl to dunk him in."
The average Rigellian had all the personality of a block of wood, but these Coluans...
If someone could have an inverse of a personality, they had that.
A
Despite his vigilance, he was still far more relaxed than he'd ever been during or after the war. Part of it was him just quietly enjoying being alive again after that whole turning-into-a-dimensional-door-and-dissipating-into-energy thing. The other part was the fact he didn't have to worry about absolutely everything because he wasn't the boss man anymore. He wasn't even that guy that everyone looked to for cues on how to act despite not being the boss man.
He was just another cog in the machine now, and after dying and coming back, not having to worry about the things a leader had to worry about suited him just fine. It was like being just another Nova again, only this time it wasn't Worldmind trying to force him into it because he'd lost it and become a few fries short of a Happy Meal. This time the leader in charge was actually marginally competent.
He spoke to Peter in English instead of the Interlac that their telepathic earplugs defaulted to. It was just as much a small act of defiance in the face of the ethnocentric superiority of the people around them as it was to prevent anyone around them from understanding they were talking shit about them.
"You know," he said, "if I was the one in charge of this whole operation I'd be pissed you just possibly screwed up a very delicate diplomatic situation."
A pause.
"But I'm not, so --"
He laughed. It was a laugh that didn't pop up all that often, a boyish, mischievous one that had probably been far more common during his days with the New Warriors, before the war, before everything that made him almost want to never laugh again.
"And I thought the Rigellians were bad. Forget throwing a drink in his face, you should'a found a punch bowl to dunk him in."
The average Rigellian had all the personality of a block of wood, but these Coluans...
If someone could have an inverse of a personality, they had that.