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. ]

Comments

[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.

[mercurialize]

[He squints, it's a decent enough visual.]

And somehow no one feels dizzy by this?

[notdreaming]

Nobody falls off the edge of the world, either.

[mercurialize]

[Good at sea, bad at astronomy. It would help if he'd ever seen an ocean.]

What? Why would they do that?

[notdreaming]

Have you ever tried standing on a sphere?

[mercurialize]

I don't know, probably?

[But he can walk on ceilings so... what does that have to do with anything?]

[notdreaming]

Gravity, scale, relativity. [ She waves a hand, as though to say 'it's not actually very important'. ]

Some time I'll put you on a moving vehicle and I can show you exactly what I mean.

[mercurialize]

[He frowns]

Vehicle- car, right? I think I was in one. Do you remember those death dreams?

[That one sucked.]

[notdreaming]

[ She grimaces. ]

Hard to forget. There are other kinds, though. A bike, for one thing, would be a lot easier.

[mercurialize]

Bike?

You're gonna have to explain that one.

[notdreaming]

It's an Earth invention. It has a seat and two wheels, and you make the wheels spin by pushing the pedals with your feet.

[mercurialize]

So a wagon but... you're the horse?

[notdreaming]

Something like that, yeah.