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(no subject)

Who: Clark and Open
What: Clark's Intro
Where: North Pole
When: (Early October)
Warnings/Notes: None yet, will update as needed.

ARRIVAL

It's cold. Clark usually doesn't get cold. Not this much, anyways. The last time he'd felt anything comparable was that freeze ray Intergang had been toting around.

This, however, is worse. At least then he could break himself out of it. Here? There's snow as far as he can see and his sweater isn't much protection. To top it all off he feels much weaker than he should. As weak as he was at Cadmus.

At least there's no attacking robots. Outside, anyways. Who knows what's waiting for him in the building ahead?

Inside

Yeti, apparently. Yeti were inside. Jimmy would freak. Clark was freaking. It's not every day you found yourself in Santa's Workshop. Or get wrapped in a warm blanket and get served hot stew by mythical creatures.

The stew wasn't Ma's, but it was pretty good. Especially after being stuck outside. And as long as he was eating he could put off the inevitable panic about being stuck in an alternate universe with no idea of how to get home.

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Tim wasn’t looking for anyone - he was looking for stew, and so he just drifts into the room with most of his attention on his communicator. Seeing Kon out of the corner of his eye, he breaks into a warm smile, though his face stays glued to the screen. “Hey babe.”

Pocketing his phone, Tim dishes up a bowl for himself and leans back on the counter as he digs in. “So I’m thinking about asking to see how they make the snow globes and you aren’t Conner. Uh.”

Maybe a bit more of Jon to him? But the bearing isn’t right… oh no. “Who are you?”

Clark's got a mouthful of stew, which is why he didn't immediately correct Tim, but he swallows it with a gulp.

"No, sorry. I'm Clark. Clark Kent."

Tim wants to strike a balance between making normal, human eye contact for a conversation and outright, open-mouthed staring because Clark Kent is young - younger than Tim's ever seen him outside of a few photos.

And Tim just mistook him for Kon, who he's managed to keep separate and distinct from Clark because he's known that if he ever drew too direct a line between Kon's appearance and Clark's, it would confuse his whole life.

He just called Superman babe. There has to be a rock to hide under - oh he could shrink and scurry off? Calling that plan B. "Yeah... I figured that out."

Lying would be a lost cause. Clark only needs to see Kon and he's going to know. "It's a very small multiverse."

"Is...that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Please don't say he was a world conquering villain. Finding out about those Clark's hadn't done wonders for his mental health. Or his physical health, considering it had come with a radioactive green rock.

"It's an... odd... thing." Tim manages to keep his face neutral, when he wants to look at Clark like he's grown a third arm out of his forehead. He gives his head a little shake and moves to take a seat by Clark. "We should start at the beginning. I'm Tim. I'm a friend of the Kent family someday."

"Oh, that's good." More friends were always good, esp6for someone who didn't really have many until Jimmy and Lois.

"How's Conner enter into that?"

“It is. The Kents are some of the best people to ever exist.” Tim really means that. Their reputation is spotless, and they’ve got three incredible people to show off their parenting skills.

(Although Jon is but a twinkle in Clark’s eye.)

“Jonathan and Martha Kent took Conner in when he was a teenager,” he says truthfully. There’s no need to overcomplicate this until he can read Kon in, but - reporter. Tim has to give him something to get caught in his teeth. “And Kon’s my boyfriend, ergo friend of the family.”

"Yeah, I figured that out," Clark says, echoing Tim.

His parents taking in a teenager wasn't a surprise. They'd taken in a baby from outer space. This was a lot less weird.

"How'd you meet?"

"I think it's one of those stories that only makes sense in Gotham," Tim begins. The lede gives him time to select what he's going to say. "The city was being attacked by Metallo."

He names the robot. It's borderline that a citizen would remember the name of a villain that wasn't a frequent flier, but Tim doesn't intend to hide who he is here. He just doesn't want to overwhelm him with an info dump. "You'd be surprised how many people click when they're sheltering in place. Anyway, that's when I met him."

Aqua is outside to look at the Northern Lights again when she spots the stranger approaching. Unlike her, who is bundled in the kind of snow wear that preps you in the arctic, he looks cold.

She starts running in his direction — easier said than done in snow this deep. She summons her keyblade and does a quick sweep with it, casting a spell to warm the air around him a bit and maintain that temperature for a few minutes.

She slows and dismisses her keyblade as she reaches him. "Hey, are you all right?"

He's still shivering, but it's not quite as bad as it was

"I'm a little better now. Do you know where we are?"

He's got other questions. Namely, what is with the giant key. They can wait unyil.after he gets inside and warms up.

Edited 2023-10-06 20:35 (UTC)

Aqua places a gentle hand on his shoulder and starts leading him toward the workshop. "We're on a world called Earth," she says, figuring it would be easiest to start broad. A lot of the recruits are local to some form of Earth, though, so she opts to narrow it down. "In a place called the North Pole."

Loki wasn't outside at the tie, but when the yetis suddenly started leaving, talking about a stranded new arrival, he felt motivated to join. He was more human-looking than them, which could be reassuring, and he's one of the myths most impervious to cold.

He's not dressed for the cold at all as he approaches, though he's carrying a huge fur coat. And while he looks somewhat put out, it doesn't seem to be about the temperature.

"If everyone will be arriving outside-" he mutters to himself as he gets within earshot.

"Sorry. Didn't exactly get a choice in the matter," Clark says as he shivers.

"Thans for coming oir to get me though."

He shakes his head slightly as he hands over the coat. "Oh, that was not directed at you. Another has suggested that we should relocate our base, and loathe as I am to agree with him, he certainly has a point. It would not do to have new arrivals freeze before we can retrieve them."

He steps back and gives a slightly-forced, too-big smile. "That aside, welcome to the North Pole! Do you know what to expect?" He watches the man's reaction, anticipating.

[Kon had only just missed Tim, who'd gone to look for him.]

[He comes into the dining area to see someone wrapped in a blanket. It doesn't cue in that he's necessarily new. It's the North Pole. It's fairly warm in here but the lower levels could get nippy so it could just be someone getting snuggly.]

Man, that smells great, what'd the yetis make n - whaaaat the fuck?

[He never would've cursed around his Clark but a) he was momentarily taken by surprise. And b) He isn't actually 100% sure it is Clark. That's the problem that comes of living his stupid life. Is it an alternate self in civilian disguise? A clone like Match giving a glasses disguise as a try?]

Huh.

So, what, is this a clone thing? Alternate self thing? Time travel thing?

[He is completely inured to every single one of those possibilities.]

[Which makes for a slightly surreal encounter - someone walking in who looks like a kind-of-cooler version of yourself, wearing black acid wash jeans with distressed knees, a blue t-shirt, studded boots, and a black leather jacket. His hair is subtly different, too. No fade right now but pretty low on the sides and curlier on top.]

[There's only the subtlest height difference (1 inch, Luthor's DNA dragged him down, as it so often has) but otherwise looking largely identical (the Clark genes were potent there.)]

Edited 2023-10-07 10:27 (UTC)

Clark's eyes widen. When Tim had confused him for Conner, Clark had expected a vague resemblance. Not an almost exact duplicate

His spoon snaps under his grip.

"Dangit," he says, looking forlornly at the broken utensil. "Conner, right? Tim definitely left some things out. I'm Clark."

[Oh that's absolutely Clark, he figures it out even before he says so. Like even Jon has to carefully stifle the occasional cuss word and he's good kid. He'll at least go for a "damn" sometimes.]

[Going right for the dangit is absolutely Clark and sure enough...]

Soo...either time travel or interdimensional stuff and time travel. If it's straight time travel and we're from different points I'll have to be careful about how much of the future to talk about.

If you're from an alternate past, we don't have to worry as much about altering the timeline.

[He says it all like it's very normal.]

[Kon leans back against the wall, crossing his arms.]

Okay, a few questions. One, how old are you?

"Twenty two," Clark says, before realizing he has a way to hopefully clear this up much quicker.

"I think the League of Lois Lanes said our Earth was Earth-12? If that helps any."

"...okay, we're from different Earths. So you're from an alternate past then. If I tell you any future stuff it might not even be destined to happen in your timeline and it won't change the past in mine."

A pause.

"And man I've got some questions about that League of Lois' but we've got more important stuff to talk about first."

He thinks about Clark at age 22. That was pre-Luthor establishing himself wasn't it?

"I think the first question that's most important is...did you find out what you are? And where you come from?"

Just like that, the answers are right in front of him.

Edited 2023-10-10 05:33 (UTC)

"That I'm a sent from Krypton to conquer Earth? Yeah. At least that's what all the evidence has pointed to so far."

Really, Clark wasn't sure what to think. The hologram of the man he assumed was his Kryptonian father had *helped* him while he was destroying the ship. And he didn't really know what that meant.

Kon squints, wondering if this Clark really was sent to conquer or if there are some crossed wires.

"What exactly makes you think that? Did the messages sent with you by your Kryptonian parents say that?"

Clark shakes his head.

"The hologram on the ship only spoke what I'm assuming is Kryptonian."

All the information he'd gotten was piecemeal from other sources.

"A couple of weeks ago I saw a video from a year before I arrived . It was if someone wearing the same S-shield I do coming to Earth through a portal with an army of robots and a ship that looked like mine. They attacked a military base but were stopped by an explosion causing the portal to shut off."

Considering the source, it was possible it could've been faked. Clark didn't really think so, though, and what happened afterwards had made it clear it wasn't.

"A couple days ago, my ship sent out robots that look exactly like the ones that attacked Earth and tried to open another one of those portals before I destroyed it."

Kon continues squinting and then comes to what is probably the right conclusion, nodding a little nod.

He reaches for a large red napkin and a large green napkin to imitate the light and dark spaces of the symbol he's thinking of.

"Did the symbol on the attacker's chest look like this?" he asks, holding up his hand. Blue TTK cuts the napkins up and rearranges the pieces into a shape that's near identical to the one Clark saw, sharper and more jagged than the "S."

There are slight differences but it's pretty close.

Edited 2023-10-11 03:42 (UTC)

"The shield was blank," Clark says with a shake of his head. "just in the same shape as mine. The robots had a different symbol on them. Three circles connected by two lines in a v-shape."

Maybe it was relevant. Maybe not, but Conner had answers that possibly weren't just more confirmation of his worst fears. Any little bit might help him find them.

"If it was blank, there's no reason to freak out just yet. Back home there's boodles of bad guys from Krypton, and some of 'em have shield stuff on their costumes. But they're not some invasion force, a lot of 'em are escaped Kryptonian criminals. And if the circles look like this -"

Using his TTK and the napkin scraps, he makes an approximation that matches.

"That's Brainiac's symbol. I don't know if it's the same in your universe, but he's not even Kryptonian in mine. Even if he is in yours, sounds like you've got two bad guys teaming up for some reason."

He lets the napkin pieces collapse and tosses them onto the table.

"I don't know about your 'bots but Brainiac is this crazy tech genius so they might have been hacked or something."

He grabs a chair and plops it down in front of Clark, sitting on it backwards.

"So far, I'm hearing about some coincidences, but they might not mean you were sent to do something bad. In my universe, Krypton was a lot like Earth. There were good people and nasty ones. So..."

He nods his head a few times. It look distinctly like a slow, mellow surfer nod.

"For now, we're gonna go with the idea that things might be the same between our universes, and I can tell you about Krypton and why you might've been sent to Earth. And then I'll tell you more about where I come from, but it seems important for you to get to hear where you come from first."

It's so weird to potentially be the one to explain this. He remembers the day Kal took him on a little holographic journey to learn about Krypton, the day he gave him his Kryptonian name. Does Clark even know his other name yet?

Edited 2023-10-11 09:11 (UTC)

Even if their worlds aren't the same when it comes to this, it's still more than he'd known

There was just one sticking point.

"Could you at least tell me why you look like me first? I've gone my whole life without knowing anything about Krypton. This is a little more of a concern right now."

The way Kon's shoulders slump a little and the way he puts his head down on his arms on the back of the chair makes it suddenly clear he was trying to give himself time to work up to that.

Trying to take the time to chew over his approach. Does he just say he's a clone? Play down the Lex angle? Does he tell him about the mind control? Will some other Kon come into being and will it ruin that Kon's chances of wearing the S, of being trusted, of getting to live with the Kents?

He thinks about the place he was in when Clark had come to him and told him to come with him to Smallville.

His friend Cooper was dead. Calvin Gardens was in flames, all its residents homeless. He was homeless, after trying to scratch away a life in Suicide Slum, with no education, no guardian, no money. His Hawaii ohana dead or scattered to the four winds. Dubs had left on some kinda of soul-searching journey. Cadmus in hiding, having left him behind without even a note.

The truth is he doesn't have faith that another version of Clark would trust another version of him if he knew the truth, if he didn't have time to bond first.

...how messed up is that?

But he also can't lie. He's seen the kind of trouble that can lie at the end of that road, knows that it could break any trust he builds with someone that's effectively a stranger, someday down the line. Something could reveal it somehow. And wouldn't that be even worse for some alternate Kon? Clark's first experience with any version of himself being deception?

He has to tell the truth and hope for the best, hope he can convince Clark it'll be worth it to not just push some possible future cloneboy away - and possibly right into Lex's arms.

(Lex had tried to win Kon over and get him to work for him right after he'd shown up on the scene, after all.)

He lifts his head again, lips pressed tightly together.

"Everyone's going to love you for the hero stuff. Except for this absolute tool and total psychopath from your hometown, Lex Luthor. If he's not someone you know yet in your universe, you probably will. The only thing he loves more than himself is making himself your problem."

He keeps avoiding Clark's eyes.

"Lex became one of my Clark's worst enemies - maybe even like his absolute worst enemy. And he was totally obsessed with him. Some stuff happened and this government project called Project Cadmus decided to clone my Clark and make a Superman they could control. They couldn't get it right at first but Lex slipped into the project and messed around with it in secret and made the clone stable by using his DNA. I got rapid aged up to 14 before some other clones busted me out of the project."

He finally meets Clark's eyes again.

"The whole thing was a mess. Mind control programming was involved. It got...bad. My brain's clean now but he made me to hurt Clark, years down the line, sleeper cell style. I look like you because the Kryptonian genes are either just naturally potent or Cadmus and Lex wanted me to look like Clark. But half my DNA is human."

He juts out his chin a little, almost daring him to react badly to everything he just said.

"I used to go by Superboy. I don't anymore. It's complicated."

Edited 2023-10-25 12:47 (UTC)

"I guess that explains why Ma and Pa took you in."

He takes a breath. For all Clark thought he'd been made to be a weapon, it was just guesswork. It was one thing to think you were made to be a weapon. It was another thing entirely to know for sure.

"I'm sorry. That's a horrible thing to do to a person. And you are one, whatever Luthor thinks he made you to be."

It sounds like Conner already knows that, but it can't hurt to be reiterated.

"I might have to thank him, though. He went about it in literally the worst way possible, but I did get a new family member out of it."

It is the nicest possible answer he could've given. It is the answer of Clark at his best. His Clark manages to be that most of the time but...

Not always. There are things he overlooks. Things he does that hurt by accident.

Kon's expression softens.

"If you, uh, happen to have some goofy clone kid show up at some point back home, be sure to tell him that, too. When he needs it."

There. That's explained. He doesn't really want to linger on it.

"And I can tell you whatever you need to know, too."

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