"No, they were founded a few months before I got my ring, in 2003. But after I got my ring, I was away on Oa for about a year and a half doing basic training. When I got back, I wasn't in a big rush to sign up. Partially because, as mentioned, green tiny mask doesn't like me very much."

"Ah that makes sense. Do you have any hobbies or the like that you spend time on when you're not out helping people?"

"I used to play football, and visiting places with my ring is always fun. But I haven't really had regular hobbies lately, I've been busy trying to... put my life back together, catch up with everything that's happened in the past four years."

"That makes sense, are there any big events that happened that you were surprised by?"

"Not really... there was stuff like the Vlatavan crisis or Poison Ivy's first attack, but that kind of stuff just happens every once in a while."

"Could you say more about that? I'm not sure what kind of thing you mean."

"Supervillain attacks, natural disasters, political crises, it's just stuff that happens from time to time. It's slightly disruptive but the world keeps going more or less the same as always."

"I guess that makes sense."

By this time, they have both finished their food.

"Have you ever seen an aurora?"

"I haven't. I never travelled in my old world."

"Would you like to see one?"

"Sure, that sounds nice."

"Alright, I picked out a nice spot, I'll send you the coordinates."

Guy pays the bill, leaves, and transitions away once they get outside.

Ring transition to follow.

A burst of light, and then—

Sapphire and Guy are standing atop a rocky hill, overlooking a field of ice. In the dark sky above them, green light dances in waves and arcs.

"Wow," she breaths and just stares.

Guy joins her in silence for a few moments. Now that they're away from eavesdroppers, he kind of wants to brag about how he broke into the watchtower, but he'll wait until she asks about it.

After a minute or so, he asks, "Do you have any shapes you like?"

"Favorite shapes? I'm not sure what you mean?"

"Oh, you know, two-dimensional shapes or symbols that you like."

"Not really, maybe the heart shape but that's more about what it appears with. Do you?"

"Ah, I was asking because I was going to make the aurora show a shape."

"Ooh, can you make it look like fireworks?"

"Maybe?"

He transitions upward and is gone for a few moments. A part of the sky goes dark, then lights up in a shape that approximates fireworks. It looks a little blurry. After a minute, he transitions back down, and the aurora returns to its normal sinuous patterns.

"I don't think that worked very well. It would probably be easier to just buy fireworks."

"Oh well, thanks for trying. Speaking of money... is there a way you'd recommend for getting some? I suppose in the long term I could probably take donations, but I don't think that'll work for a while."

"If you just want something in the short term, you could try the Justice League. I think they have programs, or can connect you to programs, which are uh, meant to prevent people who have freshly acquired superpowers from robbing banks and so on. Which I think you're pretty unlikely to do, but they don't know that. In the long term, there are probably a lot of people who'd pay you to do work with your power ring—you might even be able to convince the Mexican power companies to pay you—or you could mine asteroids for precious metals. Maybe parts of the ocean floor too, I'm not sure what the law on that is. There are probably a lot of ways to make money with a power ring, if you're allowed to do that kind of thing."