𝟭) On the ground, having a normal conversation: situational awareness of a concussed golden retriever. Bruce could ambush him on a rooftop in broad daylight wearing a bright yellow trench coat and Hal would still scream like a Victorian ghost sighting. this man got snuck up on by BATMAN. multiple times. it's basically a running bit at this point.
2) the second he's flying a plane or fighting as GL in open air: suddenly he has the most terrifyingly complete 360° threat awareness known to sentient life. nothing gets past him. nothing surprises him. he sees you coming from four directions you didn't know existed.
And nobody — not Hal, not the Corps, not Batman himself — has ever gotten a straight answer on why
The thing is it's not the ring "turning on" awareness, it's that the sky is Hal's actual terrain. fighter pilot instincts + a ring literally built for full spatial combat awareness = the ONE environment where his brain finally does the thing it's supposed to do 100% of the time. put him back on solid ground having a normal chat and it just. shuts back off.
(see: the Zod fight, where he explicitly used open sky as a 360° battlefield to win. vs. literally any comic where he's waiting on a rooftop and Batman materializes out of nowhere and Hal about has a heart attack.)
Conclusion: Hal Jordan is only spatially aware when he is Going Fast or Glowing Green. this is not a joke, this is canon, I don't make the rules
every time there's a panel of batman shielding someone with his body i think about how amazing he must smell. i feel like he would have such a specific scent and you'd wanna huff his neck for eternity
Bart Allen's Life as a Carousel of Horrors, Loss, Ableism and Love
cw: ableism
LONG POST
You've been raised in a VR chamber for a possible relative 19 years, but it's only actually been 2 years, you're not really sure what time is, or what it means. The line between reality and virtual reality have blurred so seamlessly realness seems fake and hurts.
You've been told you're dying.
You'll be dead within 4 years if the scientists cannot cure you. Reality reminds you of this. You stay in VR because it's safe and nothing can hurt you there.
You're still dying.
Your grandmother shows up one day, you didn't know your grandmother was still alive. She's furious with the scientists but agrees you are in the best place you can be because you are dying.
She keeps visiting you every now and then, you can only interact with her in the real world. It makes the real world bearable because you can only hug her when you are unplugged from VR.
She is the first person who tells you they love you. You never felt love before.
You are still dying, and the scientists are starting to suddenly feel like they don't actually love you - because you know what kindness and love is supposed to look like and it's not that.
Your grandmother grabs you one day and kidnaps you from the only place you've known as home - you can tell it's for the best, you trust her, because she is the only person who has ever loved you. She says she's taking you to meet other family and everything will be better.
She lied.
But not intentionally.
You're ripped to an alien time where nothing make sense, rules don't make sense, people don't make sense, everything hurts, people don't know what to do with you, you don't know what to do with them either, but at least you are no longer dying.
Your cousin who you already admired from your studies is not the person you thought he'd be - it's for the best if you love each other from a distance even if you're not sure yet if this is love.
Your grandmother cannot keep you.
She has to love you from a distance. She says you will have to live with a man you don't know who never came up once in your history lessons. He is a stranger.
Max Mercury does not love you.
Max Mercury is there to fix you and everyone has reminded you that there is something deeply, deeply wrong with you.
You are no longer dying, but you still need to be fixed.
You make the most out of it because maybe this is just how things are, and there is no use getting upset or feeling bad because there is nothing you can do about it. Video games are like that too - you're just playing on hard mode and you need to practice to get better to clear the level - only no one really explained the rules, and it's up to you to figure out the controls.
You get yelled at when you press the wrong button.
You get yelled at when you press the wrong button.
You get yelled at when you press the wrong button.
You get yelled at when you press the wrong button.
You get yelled at when you press the wrong button, but they won't tell you what the correct button is, and sometimes that button will change entirely for no reason and they will still yell at you for pushing the wrong button.
You love Max Mercury anyway, it's a new sort of love and one that is difficult to explain but you love him and he loves you.
You meet your cousin one day, stranded from your birth-time and you never felt like someone just got you like she did. For one moment, everything feels just right, but she cannot stay with you.
Like your grandmother, and Wally, Jenni has to love you from a distance.
You say goodbye, you don't know if you will ever see her again and you hope your letter lives the thousand years to reach her just so you can make one permanent connection with her.
You don't get yelled at for pushing the wrong button one day, but you know you pushed the wrong button. Max refuses to talk to you, he says there is nothing more he can teach you, you're hopeless.
You're no longer dying, but you still need to be fixed.
Your mother shows up out of nowhere and you fall in love all over again. You are lavished in affection you haven't felt since the first time your grandmother came into your life.
She promises you there is a home of love waiting for you back in your birth-time.
You've said goodbye before, but not like this. You hug Max tight before you go, and you can feel there is love there, but it's not the love from your mother or grandmother. But it is still love.
Your mother cannot keep you.
You never knew what it was really like to be hated before now, and it's not fair that the villain of your story wins and gets to love your mother and you can't.
You start to realize that your story is when the bad-guy wins over and over again.
Like your grandmother, Wally, and your cousin Jenni, your mother has to love you from a distance.
You go back 'home' and there is no home to go back to. Your cousin Wally yells at you for coming back and you're reminded that you can only be loved from a distance.
It's not like you want to live with him either.
Max is the only stable home you've known of and he accepts you back in his life with his daughter Helen.
You like Helen. She doesn't yell at you when you push the wrong button. You can tell Max doesn't approve but it amuses you that there is someone he can't say 'no' to that is on your side.
You are no longer dying, and no one has mentioned that you needed to be fixed for a long, long time.
Your home isn't perfect, you don't feel the same sort of love that you did with your grandmother and mother, but there is still love and you wouldn't change it for anything because Max and Helen are everything to you.
No one gets you like them.
You are no longer dying, but Max is.
You try desperately to fix him because he spent so much time fixing you and it didn't matter if you still don't know what's wrong with you, he is everything to you and you love him and he loves you and you finally feel the same love for him that you do your mother and grandmother and it all goes away.
You've never felt so loved, then so hated all at once when your clone tries to take what you had. You can't hate him though, because he hates enough, and unlike you he was never loved.
You remember being unloved too.
You beg him to stay.
He doesn't.
You don't have time to mourn him, and what you could have had with him as a brother, because Max is still dying and you're the only one who can help fix him.
When Max is no longer dying and things return to normal you know you are loved and whatever everyone said was wrong with you was wrong. Max loves you like your mother loves you and Helen is no different.
You are no longer dying, and you are so very much loved.
Everything is perfect.
You have to say goodbye to your best friend, and it hurts more than when you said goodbye to your mother, because you don't understand the sort of love you had for her. Was it romantic love? Did it matter? You loved her and now your best friend is gone.
Like your grandmother, Wally, your cousin Jenni, and your mother, Carol has to love you from a distance.
One day you feel yourself die and you almost lost everything.
You feel like you are dying again, and it never stops.
The event is so visceral it makes you question if you really need to be a superhero after all and you decide to stop.
One of your other best friends calls you a coward for it and you know she's wrong, but you swallow your disappointment and you leave. It's okay if she doesn't understand you - no one really does.
Your civilian friends, Helen and Max make you feel like you are safe again and it is all because of their love.
You find meaning and purpose again as a superhero.
You are no longer dying, and you know you are loved and accepted and everything is as good as it can be. It was a long journey, but you are content despite your grief because you are loved.
... ... ... ... ... ...
Max dies.
No, he doesn't just die, he's gone, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
You think he will be back any day now and it fills you with hope. You still have a home with Helen and all of your friends and you will wait for him because despite everything he is your dad.
The family that was supposed to be your family all along tell you that Helen cannot be your family anymore, and you have to move.
There's something still wrong with you and Helen cannot deal with it. You're an imposition to her. Max was the only thing keeping her home stable while you were there. You need someone to watch over you, not love you, love wasn't part of the equation.
Your grandmother denies there's something wrong with you and Helen, but she still won't take you in, she has someone else's child to love instead.
Your cousin still insists there is something wrong with you.
You know there is nothing wrong with you, and you think you finally get your cousin to understand and see you for the first time.
Nothing about this is fair - Helen's life isn't fair either, and you decide to help give her the life she deserves even if it breaks your heart.
You move, you lose everything again.
Like your grandmother, Wally, your cousin Jenni, your mother, and Carol, Helen has to love you from a distance.
You never lived in a house with a married couple before. They bond with you quickly and you love them, but you never forget Max and you love him from a distance.
You think your relationship with your cousin is mended but he reminds you that there is something wrong with you and it will never be fixed.
No amount of love, will ever save you, and you will always lose.
You eventually decide enough is enough, you are no longer going to accept losing as an option. You lost for the last time as Kid Flash and within you is a power that helped break reality. You are a neutron star and you've played fair long enough in a world that was unfair to you.
You find the one person who made you feel less lonely. The world is still wrong, it forgot him, but you could never. You’re glad he's back. Your friends are back too.
Bart casually walking around naked at home when he doesn't need to wear clothes for anything specific because clothes are for jobs (going to school or doing hero work respectively) so why bother wearing them if he doesn't need them. Max is going nuts over his innocent little shota body just chilling with his thing out.
It's not like Bart has to be normal and presentable at home or anything, it's just Max. I mean, they share clothes and rooms all the time, and Bart changes with superspeed every day, who even cares? Hey max are you okay you look like you're about to have a stroke.
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