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[ Kara spends some time familiarizing herself with her surroundings before trying to send a message. It's all very strange, very alien, but no more so than Earth is. Once she feels collected enough to do so she turns her attention to the console. It isn’t quite like anything she’s ever used before, but the technology is close enough to what she’s used to on Krypton that after a bit of fiddling around she manages to get the video feed on and recording. She takes a deep breath and addresses the network. ]

I’m told that people are brought here from all over the place. If that’s true, and you can all understand me… [ She doesn’t really get how that works, but she sincerely hopes that it does. Otherwise, she’s on her own. Again. ]

I need to know. How many of you know the planet Krypton? And what do you know about it?

[ She almost adds a ‘please’, because if nobody here has answers for her then she won’t know anything until she returns home. If she returns home. But instead she clenches her jaw and turns off the feed. ]

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Two weeks... [Two weeks since she woke up. Two weeks since she found Kal and he told her... about Krypton. For all he knows she might not even know it yet, she doesn't seem to fully trust him.

Kal what mess has the turtle gotten yourself into?]

I'm so sorry you've been kidnapped here so soon after waking up. If there's anything I can do to make your stay here feel better, I will. But there's some things you need to know first about me, to avoid confusion.

Have I- that is my counterpart in your world talked to you about Secret Identities?

I can handle it just fine myself. [ Everything he knows about Krypton he had to learn. He couldn't possibly help her rebuild her life without it feeling out of place, forced.

She gives him a very confused look. ]

No. [ It sounds like some kind of weird disease. If he needed to keep his identity a secret, why did he wear her family's crest on his chest? ]

Edited (icon what) 2012-11-28 22:10 (UTC)

[It's hard to not laugh when she looks so confused but he somehow manages. The Kara in his world never liked secret identities either and none of them stuck for longer than a couple of months.]

I am not... this [he points at said crest] all the time. I wouldn't be able to, I'd go crazy. I was raised as a human-

[He stops himself because that might be the wrong way to go about it, Krypton's disappearance being still so recent to her.]

My point is, I need you to be careful when I am not wearing these clothes even though you'll surely recognize me. Do you understand that?

[ She frowns. And then she gets angry. ]

No, I don't understand. How can you claim to be my cousin and deny your own family? Do you have any concept of what it means to be a son of the house of El?

[ How is she supposed to trust him if he doesn't have any of the Kryptonian pride she holds so dear? ]

Kara-

[No. Kal takes a deep breath, trying not to get angry himself. She just lost her world and family, she just lost all her life- she's still angry, still scared. And the only link she has to Krypton is a man who's telling her he's hiding his origins.

He'd be angry too.]

I don't deny my family or my origins. When I wear this- [He points at his S-shield] This is who I am. I am the last son of Krypton and the scion of the House of El.

I'm proud of it. Do you understand that? [When she gets this is not about him denying his heritage and family, he might be able to explain himself better.]

[ She tries. Or at least, she tells herself she does. But she's torn between wanting family and wanting to deny everything he's ever told her. Her frown deepens. ]

Then who are you when you wear something different? [ And why would he, if he's so proud of it? If it's about anything else, she can't imagine what it would be. ]

I'm Clark Kent. Kara- [He makes a face, this was hard the first time already. He hopes the Clark in this Kara's world will be better at explaining this kind of things.]

I wasn't raised in Krypton like you. Up until I as 14 I didn't even know I wasn't Terran. I had a life by then, I had dreams and hopes... I had a family.

I'm proud of being Jor-El's son, but I am proud of being Jonathan Kent's son as well.

You didn't- [ Well this is news. And very strange news. How does a Kryptonian come to Earth and not know that they're different? He did say his powers took longer to develop than hers, but he must have come in a pod. Surely her uncle left a sunstone for him like her father had for her.

Fourteen years? ]

How is that even possible?

I don't know. The Kara in your world also took a very short time to develop her powers.

[He shrugs] I suppose my infant body wasn't as ready to process the yellow light of the sun as your adult ones. The point is, I didn't even know I was adopted for a while.

[ For fourteen years he was raised as a human. He may as well have been human. Things start to click in her head, and her puzzle doesn't seem quite as puzzling anymore.

Her baby cousin. Her little baby cousin, taken in by strangers, raised as a human, learning human history and culture and language. He wouldn't be old enough to remember her holding him in her arms, tickling him until he stopped crying. He thought he was human. No wonder he cared more about them than the chance that there might be more survivors from Krypton.

It feels a little like somebody ripped her lungs out, but she knows that's not it. They ripped out a part of her family.

She doesn't really know what to say anymore. ]

I- I'm sorry, I didn't know.

Kara...

[He's good at reading body language but he can't be inside of her head. She looks like a train is about to run over her, she wouldn't look any more hurt if Kal had punched her out of the turtle and back.]

Do you need time? Do you need to talk? [He doesn't say 'please, let me help you' out loud but the message is very clear.]

You're still my family, I'm still your cousin.

[ She doesn't know what she needs, not to make her feel better right now or to make her feel better in the long run. The whole concept of 'feeling better' about any of this just seems... impossible. The weight of her emotions, conflicting as they are, is suffocating.

All she can think to do is push him away. It was easier when she thought of him as a large stranger who was only going to try to control her. But he's being so understanding and he wants to know what she needs?

The large controlling stranger suddenly seems more like an over-sized victim who knows about as much as she does. Probably secondhand, too. So there's still hope. Still a chance that he's wrong, even if he isn't lying.

As she struggles with these thoughts she feels like she's frozen in place, but in truth she's making a rather obvious attempt to keep control and not seem so transparent in her internal conflict. ]

You... have your own family.

[ She said something similar to Lois. And once she says it she knows it didn't come out like she wanted it to but, well. She's a teenager, and she can't take it back now so she just has to run with it. ]

I just want to be alone for a while.

[ She turns to leave, but realizes she doesn't know how to work the locks on the windows without breaking them. And she would have to go around him to get out the door. So she just stands there with her back to him instead. ]

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