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[ He waves back and gives her space. ]

Sorry about that. I was curious.

[ Clark holds out his hand to shake hers. ]

My name is Kal.

Curiosity isn't illegal. Frowned upon in some places, mind.

[She's teasing, Kal. She shakes his hand anyway, her grip is firm and sure.]

Shai.

I defer to your expertise.

[ His grip is similarly firm. Though she's much denser and stronger than humans, Clark estimates he's stronger. ]

I'm Kryptonian. What about you?

[ #secret agent man ]

[Yeah okay but she has no idea what that is. Inference means it's probably a planet, or at least a people. Not one she's ever heard of, though, which makes her statement a safe surety.]

Janiraki.

Sorry, I haven't heard the name.

[ Aliens have to stick together. ]

Do you know of Earth?

[A faint roll of her eyes. Who doesn't know about Earth at this rate, honestly. She's starting to dislike the place on principle.]

Only on account of the folks here not knowing when to shut up about it.

It's a useful point of reference.

[ Clark uses New York for people from Earth. It works. ]

It exists in my universe.

[She arches an eyebrow.]

Congratulations, you've found what is clearly the center of the universe.

[He's reminding her so strongly of Rkeylah she's surprised he hasn't slipped into the royal we anywhere yet. Plenty of time for that, she supposes.]

Sorry about that.

[ It would be annoying to someone who doesn't know what it is. ]

Have you been here long?

[Hoo boy. She stretches a bit, takes her still-wet hair out of its awkward, soggy braid and shoves it into a messy bun at the nape of her neck instead. He's asking questions with a peculiarity to them that's raising her hackles, and she doesn't like that much.]

Goodness, last time someone tried to interrogate me they had the good graces to include alcohol.

[It's a warning, however faintly said. Conversation is fine, interrupting her morning work-out is fine, she doesn't mind the companionship in the least, but Kveth's tits the man needs to learn how to hold natural discourse. He sounds like he's going down a checklist.]

A few weeks now. Enough to be settled.

[ He already knows this but has to pretend he doesn't. Clark hides but he doesn't always succeed. ]

Two months.

[ He purses his lips. ]

Sorry, am I disturbing you?

Edited (tweaked) 2017-04-22 00:50 (UTC)

Only in that you don't seem to understand what conversation is.

[She gives him a bit of a Look.]

I honestly can't tell if it's your first time meeting an alien, or your first time meeting someone with extranormal powers beyond whatever it is you're doing to make yourself fly, or if you're just supremely flustered by my wet shirt.

Edited 2017-04-22 01:13 (UTC)

That obvious?

[ Oops. He'll bear that look. ]

Yes to one and two. I've met people with abilities after I came here. Very few are [ "like me" ] because of alien physiology. The others are supernatural or acquired.

[The fact that he refers to it as alien physiology is... interesting. She only referred to herself that way because it's clear he has no idea what Janirak even is, but she doesn't think of herself as being alien.

He seems to. Curious detail.]

What about the people on your planet?

[ Clark shakes his head. He answers tersely. ]

My family sent me away for my safety. I grew up on a different planet.

[Dryly,]

Let me guess. Earth?

[ He nods. ]

Yes. I'm the only Kryptonian there. If there're others from different planets, they stay hidden.

Edited 2017-04-22 01:26 (UTC)

[It's a terrible thing, to be bereft of one's people. Even though he's well and truly annoyed her over the duration of this conversation, that at least she understands.

Doesn't mean she won't be a dick about it, though.]

Safety in anonymity and all that, I suppose.

[She makes a soft hmm.]

What happened on your world that warranted your being sent away?

[ He's only told Taako that his world is gone. Clark is a private man and doesn't want to share that. He'd evaded the question with Bucky even when he trusts Bucky.

It's too much to put on a stranger. ]

Krypton is uninhabitable. I don't know the exact circumstances.

[If only you knew, Clark.

'Uninhabitable'. Sent away by people who likely didn't survive whatever made it so.

He's more open about it than she'd care to be, which means he's probably never really had someone to discuss it with. An alien stranded on this 'Earth' place, no one like him, eager for-- what, kinship in Otherness? She towels idly at her hair. She's not really here to babysit some wayward culgenic, but she's not entirely heartless.

Liranya might mention Janirak's destruction. Her greatest strength has always been using her vulnerabilities to bolster the confidence and securities others lack, but Shai is fucking selfish. Her history, her demons, her wars-- those are hers. She's not here to tear herself open so other people can find closure in the guts of all she's sacrificed.

She lets the towel stay on her shoulders, and drops one hand to trace the line of her throat. It looks like she's wiping away excess water, nothing more.]

That's a lot to put on anyone's shoulders. You ever talk to anyone about it?

[ Clark shakes his head. ]

It's not a topic of friendly conversation.

[ His adoptive parents didn't know about Krypton to tell him. Zod and his followers are gone after telling him every Kryptonian outpost in the universe is as dead as the people in the scout ship Kal found.

Any other alien on Earth who might be a refugee is (wisely) hiding. ]

Mm. No, I imagine not.

[She tosses the towel off and stretches. She's flexible, but strength has always been more important to her.]

You should see about finding someone here you can unpack that with. Not healthy to keep survivor's guilt bottled up inside.

[It's a guess, assigning a name to whatever his issues are like that. But it's an educated one, and she's dealt with a passel of therapists on the Greyjane payroll who are trying to get into her head on that very same subject. She knows what it looks like, the forms it takes and the specificities of its damage a little too well.]

[ Despite all the books he's read for Ellie and Bucky, it never occurred to him. Clark had never felt traumatised. He knew something was missing. It still is and it's become worse after losing what might have been the last survivors of his planet in favor of his adoptive world.

It's not trauma. Although he feels guilty, he thinks it's for killing Zod. ]

I'll see about it.

[ She's doing the decent thing but he doesn't want to impose. ]

Thank you.

[She laughs.]

Don't thank me, sweetheart, I'm not going to listen to you. Well above my paygrade.

[ He's still not sure he has anything to say.

Clark smiles at her politely. He's polite, she's polite in turn. It will go on forever. ]

All right. It was good to meet you. I'll be seeing you around.

Edited 2017-04-22 04:56 (UTC)