THE MAN OF TOMORROW... TODAY

⇏ @imperiouslex from x

                                                          THAAL SINESTRO DOES NOT CARE FOR LEX LUTHOR.    That is a fact irrefutable, indisputable, unshakable in its foundations (FIRMLY LAID.) The human, in all his (flaunting,) in all his bald-headed posturing, in all his ATTEMPTS FOR RELEVANCE proves a creature as base as any animal; as fool hearty as any martyr, as defiant & insolent as any child, it was LEX LUTHOR who proved time & time again to be nothing greater than another beast, clawing desperate at the greater WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, crying for a purpose far bigger than their  l i t t l e  l i v e s. No, no, Sinestro does not LIKE Luthor- & where lesser men had earned even modicum of it, it is the RICH MAN who failed, in spectacular & repeated display (like supernova caving in upon itself,) to earn from him even a hint of RESPECT.

                                                Thaal Sinestro does not care for Lex Luthor,                                                Nor does he respect him, & in this human's pride & narrow-sighted goals                                            it is the LANTERN who sees only foolishness.                                     But Lex Luthor managed to succeed where many others could NOT.                                     Lex Luthor, for all his FAULTS, proved one thing certainly.

Even now, even with his TANTRUMING growing more   o b v i o u s, it was not LIKABILITY that drew Lex Luthor into the Korugarian's vision, was not LOYALTY that drew the Lantern's return to this BUILDING, this LEGION, this collection of CRIMINALS, THIEVES, & LAWBREAKERS...... but something far more DANGEROUS. Something far more powerful- something, quite frankly, more LUCRATIVE.

                                                        Lex Luthor offered INTRIGUE. The promise of GAIN.                                                          The chance, to hold the UPPER HAND,                                                & an insight to the nature of a planet that Sinestro was certain                                                would bend below his heel (IN DUE TIME.)

Golden eyes narrow, chin tips UP, as he watches, WATCHES the   g e n i u s   in his apparent efforts to wear a hole through the very floorboards. Pointed ears, tipped sidelong, (catching stray conversation, the distant sounds of life,) lay back as brows tighten, as lips tug DOWNWARD & draw a firm line across the Lantern's features. Disagreement. Displeasure.

                       A hint of BARELY CONTAINED IMPATIENCE. A dripping of cool vitriol.

Behind his spine long fingers fold, tighten & ease, flex tendons (mindful,) controlled. & in the doorway, THAAL SINESTRO REMAINS, ANOTHER LONG MOMENT.... a PARAGON. Self Control, powerful, & undaunted. He speaks.

"Your inability to hide your AGITATION, Luthor, is not a STRENGTH, nor an INTIMIDATION."

Muscles coil, & the alien MOVES.

A long stride, a militaristic gait, the King of Terror stepping INTO THE ROOM with none of the reverence a LESSER GOON OR HENCHMAN might have displayed. He carries himself as a GENERAL OF WAR, a king, a deity that commands (as shadows writhe at his heel,) as unease settles in the air about him. & This, the UNCONTROLLED EMOTION by which Lex Luthor exudes….- Gleaming, Sinestro's gaze lingers on him for a brief moment, & then departs, pulled away as he PASSES this  w o u l d-b e   leader, crosses to the opposite side of a room, to find DISTRACTION (window, perhaps, or screen,) there.

"In fact, it proves only a weakening of threads with which hold your EFFORTS TOGETHER. It loses  l o y a l t y. It QUELLS determination. One might argue it will be your own LACK OF EMOTIONAL CONTROL that will be your downfall. But I digress-"

Pause. Shoulders, that roll back- a chin that tips, to glance over his shoulder- & shoot the MERE HUMAN a lilted, cold  s m i r k.

"You requested my PRESENCE." 

     his footfalls slow to a crawl, then stop altogether. mercy graves, who stands opposite to her employer, greets the korugaran by lowering her head and delivering a polite, " yellow lantern. " Lex scoffs at the formality, shaking his head to himself as he turns to face sinestro properly. his green eyes follow the alien's every movement, undaunted by the unsolicited critique of his self-discipline.

" it is the heuristic principle that one should not make unnecessary assumptions when drawing conclusions. your haughty little hypothesis assumes that I am unable to hide my agitation because I lack emotional control, but allow me to offer you a much simpler explanation: I want you to know that I'm fucking agitated. "

     the mogul waves a hand to mercy. " give us the room, " he commands. after a moment's hesitation, she replies with, " yes, sir, " and nods to sinestro once more before leaving. once the door clicks shut behind her, Lex gets right to it: " black manta and cheetah were intercepted before they could complete their part of the plan. by the green lanterns, no less, " he adds with a unimpressed snort and a withering look.

Kal felt like he was burning alive and he'd barely cracked his eyes open enough, concentrated enough, to see everything outside of the small pod-ship as a warped haze. Yet before he could even try to give a command or adjust anything he was jolted forward against the belt around his waist, he head slamming into the control panel.

His ears were ringing, but everything had quickly faded to black.

From the outside, the pod was a smoking wreck buried hard into the earth and surrounded like a fallen meteorite by a crater and broken pieces that had been stripped away.

     it certainly looks like it could use some help.

     for the first time in his life, Lex is actually somewhat grateful to be stuck in smallville; not only has it given him another great scientific discovery, but the people here exemplify the name as if it's something worth aspiring to—they're small. and they're especially small in ambitions and brains and curiosity, which means it's highly unlikely they'll actually investigate the crash site. and by the time the men in black arrive, all they'll find is remnants of another one of Lex's projects, and everybody will blame him for making the soil "bad" just as they blame him for everything else...

     but none of that matters right now. the only thing that does matter is vindication. Lex has always known—not posited, not speculated, not theorized, but knew—that there's intelligent life beyond the confines of earth, and now he has proof of it right in front of him! his very own alien. sydney was skeptical, suggesting he may be an undocumented cosmonaut or a nutter who tested out his own homemade spaceship, but the spaceship in question didn't match any designs that Lex knew of (which was all of them), and was far too sophisticated for someone to just cobble together in their garage.

     the only real doubt Lex has about his alien is that, well... it just... doesn't look very alien; it looks like a regular human around his age, give or take. disappointing. he seems to have injured his head during impact, since there was what looked like a bit of blood on his forehead when taking him out of his pod—not enough for a real sample, unfortunately. frankly, there should be more injuries given the size of the crater, but Lex didn't want to start doing ct scans and x-rays before he determined more about the alien.

     and in order to do that, he needs it to wake up.

     when the alien finally does come to, he finds himself in a small, nondescript room. sterile and beige. he's lying on a bed with a computer that's displaying information he doesn't understand in a language he doesn't know. on the other end is Lex (who insisted on being in the room against everyone else's advice), who's gotten up from his chair at the first sign of the alien stirring. he tries to look as non-threatening as possible, reasoning that anyone, alien or not, would be scared in this situation.

" hello, " Lex says in a quiet voice, knowing full well the alien won't be able to understand what he's saying but hoping that how he's saying it will be interpreted as friendly.