who: Hera Syndulla & Clark Kent when: Nowish. where: Near one of the swimming pools on the ship. What: Meeting & conversations about worlds. warnings: None. status: complete.
Hera Syndulla's ankle was lowly healing itself from its fight and while she had been frustrated numerous times by it, at this point, several weeks out from the battle at Atlantis, and with a bit of extra assistance from the medbay, it did feel nearly normal. She suspected she still might not want to try anything too terribly active, no jumping activities, or skiing, but walking the decks felt fine, and swimming, which was her ultimate goal this morning, seemed likely to be quite doable. After all, there was very little in the way of weight put on her ankle when she was in the water.
She reached the swimming deck and looked around for an empty chair to leave her small bag and towel on. Relieved of those items, she was able to step her way down into the water, and to take the opportunity to get some real exercise without worrying as much about her ankle. It felt good to spend the time there, even if she had never done a great deal of swimming and she suspected someone who was very on top of things might have something to say about her form.
When Hera climbed out and went in search of her towel, she was ready for a few moments rest in the sun, and perhaps one of the drinks. As she approached the chair where she had left her bag, she saw another man sitting nearby.
"Hello," she offered, along with a smile as she approached, reaching for the towel to dry off.
Clark had left Lois off to do whatever it was she wanted to do while he spent some time soaking up the sunshine on the pool deck. He figured once he got too hot (rarely did that happen), he'd take a dip then sunbathe again. Soaking up the sun like this felt good - great, really. He had been worried that wherever they were, the sun would be different and he wouldn't be able to draw his strength from it, but it turned out he didn't need to worry about that.
He smiled back when Hera greeted him. "Hey," he said. "How's the water?"
"It's nice," Hera told him as she wrapped the towel around her waist and sat down on the nearby chair. "My ankle is a lot happier with exercise in water than it is with most other things I've thrown at it of recent," she remarked as she pulled that ankle up onto the chair. "I'm happy to have the option to do the swimming."
She reached up, patting the lekku dry as well, although they had largely dripped dry while she was walking across from the water. "I was thinking that a drink and some sun sounded like a nice follow-up," she added, with a short laugh. "Have you been in the water yet?"
"Did it get hurt during the big fight a few weeks ago?" he asked her. Clark hadn't had any issues himself, thankfully, but that was because there wasn't any Kryptonite. He was fortunate that way, but he constantly worried about Alex and Lois and some of the others who weren't indestructible like he was.
He shook his head. "Not yet. I'm waiting until I'm tired of the heat and the sun and then I'll dip in to cool off. It's been a long time since I got to relax like this. I'm still getting used to it."
Hera nodded, leaning back against the chair. "I did," she sighed. "And where I'm from it would heal much more quickly - likely I would spend time in a bacta tank - but no such luck here. There is no bacta on ship - or if there is, they're hiding it," she chuckled lightly.
It wasn't the end of the world to have to wait for it to heal, it just was something that Hera was getting used to. "I'm still not certain I'm used to the relaxing," she shook her head. "It's much different from where I am from, and there's been so much there that I have to think about. This is a very big switch. I had just arrived in Tumbleweed before the ship… and this is different from there."
"This is definitely more of a vacation, getting caught up in battles and wars notwithstanding," Clark agreed. "The problem is that besides those surprises, we're not doing anything. We're not working, not keeping busy, nothing. At least in Tumbleweed we had that going for us."
Hera nodded almost immediately. She had never been one to sit still, and if anything, the hurt ankle had only exacerbated the situation further. She'd been required to sit still for far longer than she preferred, and she'd just barely had a chance to even know what could be done in Tumbleweed, and here - well leisure seemed to be what they did and Hera was growing restless.
"What do you do back in Tumbleweed?" she asked her companion. She had just barely gotten to the place where she could think about what she might be able to do in a world so different from her own.
"I worked with the newspaper," he told her. "I'm a reporter. It's what my wife and I were doing back in Metropolis, where we were before we came to Tumbleweed. It seemed like the most natural fit once we got settled there too." Clark smiled. "Of course there's not much call for that here on the cruise though."
"That's nice to have something that can be portable," Hera smiled. Or at least it seemed likely that it would be. News was something almost every world had, and the general rules of how to write seemed as if they would be the same. Of course, what she did was not nearly so portable. One could hardly fly with a rebellion elsewhere from where that rebellion existed. She shrugged and explained, "I haven't quite figured out what I will do. I had only been there for a short time before we were brought onto the ship."
"What did you do before you were brought here?" Clark asked her, curious. He hadn't met anyone like Hera, but that wasn't a surprise. He knew a lot of people from his world and now that he was here, the opportunity for the new and interesting was even higher.
"I was a pilot," Hera explained and then she hesitated. She wasn't certain how much more she should say about that. But then again, this place was different and people seemed to know about things that they wouldn't know about at home. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I had my own ship, the ghost, and I was a pilot with the Rebellion against the Empire. What that tended to mean in practicality was running supplies, and sometimes protecting refugees, and a number of other things related to that. The supplies were a livelihood, but the other was what I really did. There's no such thing here."
He nodded along with her. "Oh, are you from Star Wars?" he asked, practically blurted out really. He might have thought better of it with one more second to think about it. "Bet it's really different here then, huh?"
Hera raised an eyebrow, her lekku moving as she did so, a gesture that would have been recognized as startled on her own world, but would mean nothing to anyone here. But then she smiled. "I suppose yes. Although, what a thing to be from," she sighed, her gaze glancing back at the pool. It felt absurd to speak of rebellions and empires when one was sitting in warm sun and staring at a pool filled with laughter and frivolity. Hera didn't like it, really, but she couldn't do anything about it.
"It is much different," she turned back to Clark. "Much, much different, although there are people here from home, from times I've seen and times I haven't, so that has been nice. Is this different from your world? Or very similar?"
"Yeah," Clark agreed. He was still getting used to the fact that people here knew who he was and, more importantly, what he could do. "It's mostly the same. I live on Earth, from a small town even smaller than Tumbleweed, though I live in a city. Or, I did before I came here."
Hera smiled, wondering briefly if it was more strange or less strange to be in a place that was like your home, but wasn't your home. "What city? Is it one that is here on this planet?"
He shook his head. "No, it isn't. Smallville is where I grew up. Metropolis is where I lived. But I -" Clark hesitated for a brief moment before he decided it probably didn't matter, in the end. "But I'm from a planet called Krypton. I don't think it exists or ever existed in this reality either."
"Oh," Hera tilted her head with a smile. She supposed it made sense that some version of Earth would have space travel and have reached out to other planets beyond this one. "I guess we really wouldn't know if it exists here or not, would we? Having not been able to travel among places. What is Kypron like?"
Clark hadn't thought of that, but a big part of him thought that he'd know, somehow, if Krypton was around in this universe. He frowned, shaking his head. "I don't really know. I was sent away when I was a baby, before it was destroyed."
Hera didn't say anything at this, but her eyes softened. "I'm so sorry," she offered. "That has happened to some planets in my own galaxy, and I'm so very sorry to hear that it has happened to yours. I suppose that it is good you found Earth then."
"From what I understand, it was unavoidable. Our sun died. Like I said, I wasn't around for it. My parents had the foresight to send me off to Earth, so I was raised here. I do consider myself fortunate, yeah." While Clark had no memories of Krypton, at least not ones that weren't manifested from the power of the crystals in his Fortress of Solitude, he still had an ache and a yearning for a home he never knew.
There was a part of Hera that wanted to say 'at least it was natural', but she paused on those words. It did not particularly matter. Because in her own galaxy there were people who had to leave their own worlds for reasons such as that - and it still was there home - other places could not entirely match that.
"I hope that Earth has welcomed you as one of their own," she said softly. "Tumbleweed, and those here, have largely been welcoming, although I get some funny looks sometimes."
Clark nodded. "Earth's great, yeah," he agreed. "I mean, there's always something that comes up, inevitably, but it usually passes. I've definitely found that Tumbleweed's a great exception, welcoming so many different people there."
Hera wondered if she wandered outside of Tumbleweed what the reaction would be. She hadn't really spoken to Ahsoka about that, and perhaps it was something to bring up with her. She supposed she could wear a veil as some women did, and that it would likely hide most of her lekku, although not her skin color. It was a moot point, as she did not intend to do a good deal of travelling outside of Tumbleweed when she returned.
"What sort of somethings?" she asked curiously. "I was only there a month before the ship, and I'm afraid I haven't really settled to this new reality completely."
"Oh, I don't necessarily mean in Tumbleweed. I meant back where I'm from. Not everyone always takes kindly to someone who's different, or someone who has different abilities or powers than people native to Earth. That's all I meant. I guess here in this reality, and in Tumbleweed, there are so many people coming in who are already different that it means it's not as much of a surprise or shock."
"I suspect there's a bit of truth in that everywhere," Hera sighed, thoughtfully. "At home there are certainly planets where those who are not from that planet will be viewed with suspicion - particularly if they look different. You look very human, at least - that surely helps at home."
Clark smiled. "Yes, it did help. Does help. Even though I'm not human, which feels easier to say out loud here than it ever was before."
"I would not have known," Hera gave him a warm smile, her lekku twitching slightly. "I suppose being here among so many different people from so many different worlds does place a different priority on what we say."
She glanced over towards the bar and then tilted her head back. "I'm thinking I'm going to follow up on that drink. Do you want something?"
Clark smiled back. "Oh, I think I'm fine right now, Hera, thanks."
"I'll catch you in a few minutes then," she smiled, stood, and headed towards the bar.