25 - You can't be a Queen, you know, till you've passed the proper examination

[notdreaming]

[ Video ]

[ Kara is as chipper as the day she left, though the sigh of relief that escapes her suggests that this is a recent change. Kryptonians do get headaches, it turns out. Especially when they argue with their own Council. ]

Hello again, barge! I can see I've only been gone a few days in this timeline. It's been more like a year and a half, in mine. Superman says hello, and so does Mother. They practically insisted I take Krypto with me.

[ Hearing his name, the big white dog barks cheerfully from his place at his mistress' side. She smiles and reaches down to scratch his ears, which quiets him down. ]

I brought some... interesting souvenirs. [ She snickers, glancing off-screen to look at the small pile. ] See, everyone on Earth is really excited about Krypton, and everyone on Krypton is really excited about Earth. And I get free merchandise, because everyone wants an endorsement. A lot of it has pictures of places the artist has only seen from other pictures, and the result is... well, like I said, interesting.

Who wants a volcano snow globe, or a cat light chime?

[ She holds up one of each: A snow globe depicting a very shiny gilded gold mountain with red "lava" snow, and what looks like a Hello Kitty wind chime in orange, but instead of metal bars something that looks like tiny lines of light. These are in fact very small metal bars. They reflect rainbows all over the place, it's great. ]

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[notdreaming]

[ Don't be silly, Kyle. She's already knocking at his door. ]

[mercurialize]

[kajsldkjaslkdd

Dammit Kara. He answers the door, but stands in the doorway.]

I said I could go to your room.

[notdreaming]

[ Damn straight, Kyle. She immediately goes in for the hug. ]

Did you? I must have missed that.

[mercurialize]

[The retort gets jammed in his throat by the hug. He really can't handle this right now. He's had such a rough few days, but she's so happy to see him and he can't keep up. He hoped things would go more slowly, or that he could hide and just recover for a while on his own by his own terms, but the hug obliterates that idea. It's the glaring realization when you feel most alone that someone else comes, someone like Kara, and picks you back up whether you're ready or not. And she has no idea that she's even doing it.

For a long moment he can't speak, he can only cry into her shoulder. He should explain, he has to. It's tumbled through chokes and sobs.]

Elene. She's dead. Elene's dead.

[notdreaming]

[ She only holds him tighter when she realizes he's crying, excitement immediately overpowered by concern for her friend. She rubs his back soothingly - it's the only thing she can do, really. It breaks her heart to know someone she loves is suffering this much. ]

Oh, Kyle. I'm so, so sorry.

[mercurialize]

[He can almost feel her mood sink and part of him is sorry to drag it down with him, and the other part is grateful it was her to knock on his door.

It takes time for him to compose himself, you'd think he'd have run out of tears by now.]

It- I was only back for a three months. [But they were easily the best 3 months of his life. Everything felt like it was coming together. And then it just shattered into pieces.

Finally, he steps back and wipes his face with his sleeves. He's not fully back together again, but he tries.] Sorry. You should come in. I didn't mean to- What were you saying before?

[notdreaming]

[ She keeps holding him until he pulls away. Then she slips into the room so she can close the door behind him. She knows what it feels like to lose people, and she knows how long it can take to be even remotely okay again. ]

I was just saying hello. How long have you been back?

[mercurialize]

[His room reflects the manse he had with Elene and Vi near the Chantry. It's elegant, well-furnished and completely uncharacteristic to Kylar. There's a variation of red tulip bouquets on every table. However beautiful they are, they remain painful reminders, littered around the house of what was once here.

His demeanor is relaxing slowly, there's a shrug and he gestures for them to sit.]

A couple hours, I guess. How's Krypton?

[notdreaming]

[ She sits and smiles, but it's much more sober than the smile of a few minutes ago. ]

Krypton is great. Oh, I almost forgot, Mother sent you flowers. She said it's the least she could do.

[mercurialize]

[That's curious.]

Flowers? Um. Thanks.

[A thought dawns on him.]

What did you tell them?

[notdreaming]

Everything. [ She shrugs. ]

Mother and Kal, at least. Kal for one wouldn't let me leave the living room until he knew exactly what had happened and how.

[mercurialize]

And they... believed all of it?

[notdreaming]

What's harder to believe? An interdimensional space prison run by a God-like entity, or a planet and some billions of people suddenly popping back into existence?

[mercurialize]

[You have a point there, Kara.]

Both? All? I don't know.

[notdreaming]

Well. It isn't as though Kal hasn't seen stranger things in all the time he's been Superman.

[mercurialize]

[He rubs his forehead.]

Yeah, maybe.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad they believed you.

[notdreaming]

[ She frowns as a thought occurs to her. ]

I didn't undo their deaths, Kyle. I only brought them back.

[ They still remembered dying, though nobody seemed to remember any pain that didn't set in beforehand. ]

[mercurialize]

Right, I guess that would make any explanations make more sense.

[He's ruining the topic. Let's try something else.]

So what is your deal going to be now?

[notdreaming]

[ Nope bad choice ]

My father is missing. Mother says he was with her when she died, but he wasn't there when she woke up again.

[mercurialize]

[God dammit Kara, he tried. He frowns.]

I'm sorry. Do you think he escaped before? I mean, when you did?

[notdreaming]

[ She frowns too, at the ceiling. This is as confusing for her as it is upsetting. ]

He must have. There's no reason he wouldn't have come back with the others. Argo did survive the initial explosion. I just don't understand how we still haven't found him after all this time.

[mercurialize]

Well, space is kind of big. Kind of really big.

[He tries to lighten things with a laugh.]

I used to think the sky was a painting. That the sun was held up by an invisible string or something. Because it couldn't just float there, right?

Boy, was I wrong.

[notdreaming]

[ She smiles, amused to hear the same thing she's been telling herself. That, and that her father can take care of himself. He IS a genius. ]

I remember the first time the solar system was explained to me. I didn't understand how the planets knew where they were supposed to orbit.

[mercurialize]

Orbit? How's that work?

[He knows a 1001 ways to kill a person but space is 0]

[notdreaming]

Solar systems happen because a sun is so massive, it has a gravitational pull that holds all the planets in place. [ She holds up one finger, indicating the sun, and makes several circles with the other index finger. ]

They're always moving, so they just circle around it.