Who: Conner and Dick What: Conner and Dick apologize to each other When: After Crane Plot (much backdated) Where: Dick's house Rating: low
Conner hadn’t heard much from Dick since the whole scarecrow incident. But then again, it was him that was new. Not Dick. Dick probably had his shit in order, and didn’t really need to check the net as much. Still, Conner kind of worried. Maybe Dick was angry with him for knocking his ass out? Dick was one of the few people from home he really had any kind of actual connection with. Everything else was foreign. He was a clone out of water really.
He showed up at Dick’s place with Kyrpto not far behind, and knocked at the door. The impatient dog kept nudging at him, and Conner only rolled his eyes. “You’ve made a mess of things already as it is.” He chided the dog gently as he rubbed his ears anyway. He was still annoyed with him, but Krypto made it hard to be angry forever.
–
Dick was sore, but he was mostly healed. It was as if his body was used to being beaten up on a semi-regular basis and so it knew how to heal itself. It didn’t hurt that there were healers at the clinic as well as doctors. Really the only things that were harder to heal were his ego and his guilt. Attacking Conner was the last thing he wanted to do. It had been a good thing that Conner had looked like the Joker, otherwise Dick would have used his knowledge of Superman to help him. As it was, Dick was happy he had gotten his ass handed to him.
It took a moment before Dick answered the door. Dick hadn’t been avoiding Conner or anything, he was just being Dick which meant he sometimes forgot about the whole ‘keeping up socially’.
“Conner.” He greeted him even if it sounded like a simple, factual statement without a smile - a typical Dick look rather than any underlying emotion. What Dick did do, though, was take a step to the side to let the guy in.
– Conner mirrored emotions. It was how he worked. He hadn’t really figured out how they worked, but he realized Dick’s energy seemed to be off and a bit low. He frowned. Krypto let himself in first. Happily greeting Dick.
“Hey. I haven’t seen you in a while…” Not since that whole mess with Crane anyway. Krypto was perfectly comfy in Dick’s presence and found himself a place to lay down by his couch. Conner just shook his head gently at the dog. Whatever, at least one of them wasn’t awkward as hell. “You okay?”
–
Closing the door, he ushered them into the living room. The question made Dick cross his arms over his chest - an unconscious reaction - and the man nodded. “All better. The clinic has a lot of talent, though I’m sure Barbara will want to take a lot of credit.” It was a joke even if he didn’t have the usually tone that people had when telling jokes.
His arms unfolded as he looked at Conner. “How are you?” A short pause, then. “Want a drink?”
– Conner shrugged at the question of how he was. He was still finding it difficult to really fit in. He felt even more like an alien in this place than he did on their Earth. “Physically you do appear to be in tact..” He looked him over with a small frown. “...What about the other part?” He knew that was rough on his friend, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it yet. So he nodded to the drink. “Yeah. Anything is fine.” Conner wasn’t really that picky with things. He was still figuring out what he liked. Having to figure things out for himself was challenging. He was frustrated ninety percent of the time.
–
Dick didn’t have a lot of drink choices, but he did have juice and so he poured some for Conner. It gave him something to do as he thought about his next response. He knew Conner had to be worried, but Dick wasn’t the sort of person who often like other people worry about him. This was something he knew drove people crazy - like Kory and Donna - but it had been entrenched in him from his time with Bruce. Slowly he was trying to unlearn it though and Barbara was definitely helping with that.
“I’ll be fine.” He held out the glass to Conner, then paused before saying, “I’m sorry I attacked you. It shouldn’t have happened.” Said it a tone as if he had seriously injured Conner or something.
– Conner couldn’t drink alcohol or anything anyway, so whatever Dick had was fine. “Thanks.” He frowned a bit when Dick deflected the question and shook his head. Taking a moment to drink the fruity liquid he shrugged. “Didn’t hurt me. I’m fine. You on the other hand…lets just say I’m learning how to hold back more and I’m glad.” Clark was helping with that a bit. While not overstepping, it was a fine line with Conner. He was still struggling a bit, and still had yet to really make a friend outside of the ones he had that came from their world yet.
–
Dick felt guilty because you just didn’t turn on your team - it was why Jason’s betrayal had really cut deep and Dick hadn’t even experienced it first hand yet. But why he also felt guilty about was he knew if he had turned on Conner that Dick had a few things up his sleeve that might have hurt Conner even just a little and that was too much. Not to mention what he could have said verbally. What had happened to Gar still weighed heavily on his conscience.
“You did what you had to do. If I was in the same position, I’d have had to do the same. And you’re right, you’re getting better.” This wasn’t the first time Dick had gone up against Conner, after all, though the first time he hadn’t gone well either.
“Next time we just need to be smarter. I let myself forget that this place can bring people from home. People we don’t want to be here.”
– That comment about it bringing people from home concerned him a little, but also made him think. There were people Conner missed from home, so maybe it wouldn’t always be someone terrible? “Is it always someone bad that it brings?” Conner was still sort of struggling with the concept of being there. Not having anything that really stimulated him was frustrating. The Titans had done that for the clone, now he felt like he was stuck in a slow sluggish mode that was actually hell on earth for him.
–
“Not always. Barbara showed up here. And you did.” They also sent people home, like Rachel, but Dick didn’t like to think about that part. He didn’t do well with loss, after all. “I wish I could say there was a pattern, but I’ve been monitoring the Dome since I got here and there isn’t any.” Which was beyond frustrating for Dick. He liked things that he could solve.
“How are you doing anyway? With being here, I mean. Minus the whole Scarecrow thing.”
– Conner did offer a faint smile and nodded. “Doesn’t surprise me…” That Dick was monitoring things, he could always count on him for that. At the question, Conner leaned back on a chair that was near by on his arm gently in the hopes not to break it and frowned. “I don’t know…It’s confusing.” He admitted with furrowed brows. “With the Titans I knew what I was good for.” While he was there? He had zero clue. Zero ideas. “I might have maybe made a friend? There’s a guy that keeps coming around.”
–
“You know you’re ‘good for’ more things than fighting, right?” Dick looked at him. This might be a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black, but Dick knew he was a good detective alongside the fighting.
“Why don’t you start by taking some classes? Or getting a job? Jobs don’t have to be permanent so if you hate something, you just quit. But it’ll be an easier way to meet people and you might find something you like while doing it.”
– Conner gave Dick a sort of flat stare. As if he was going to say something about that comment to him too, but it seemed like both of them were a little lost at that point. He cut him some slack and just shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you..bored here?” Conner couldn’t help but feel a little bored. It was causing a few other issues he wasn’t really equipped to deal with.
“What kind of job would I do?” Conner had never had anything like that. He wasn’t sure what he was good at to even start finding one. “Lois suggested art classes. Maybe that..” He rubbed the back of his neck a bit awkwardly as he fiddled with the glass of juice in his hand. Unfortunately he’d done so too long and ended up cracking it in his grip. Without something to focus on like training, it was hard to keep skills up. “Damn” Juice ran down his hand and he looked for a paper towel.
–
Bored.
“Sometimes, yeah.” He paused, then added, “I was a lot more bored before you and Barbara showed up.” Dick didn’t think it was a fair comparison because it wasn’t like Conner could just get a love interest or anything like that. What Conner needed were some friends and something to do, but that was easier said than done. “But there are a lot of nights I have to go for a long run to get rid of the energy I’m used to using. Even if I know I’m in a place that isn’t as dangerous, but body hasn’t gotten the message.” He paused again, then admitted. “And sometimes I still end up patrolling… once in a while I catch a mugger or something.” Definitely not the same as anything back home.
“Art class sounds interesting.” Dick was lying about it sounding ‘interesting’, but he wasn’t good at the art thing. Too stationary/ But he agreed Conner might like it.
He was quiet for a moment in thought. He couldn’t help but think he was reluctant to suggest Conner get into something science-related because of his Luthor DNA. His thoughts were broken by the broken glass. He moved to get the roll and hold it out for Conner, obviously not worried about the mess or the glass. He also knew asking Conner if he was alright would be stupid.
“What about something physical? Ever thought about being a personal trainer? Or helping with construction.” He paused again, then offered. “You should talk to a man named Bruce Banner. I don’t know too much about him, but from his world he turns into a big, strong guy. He might have some ideas.”
– A kryptonian with all that strength and nothing to do was bound to get dangerous. Or ridiculous, depending on how things went. He really wasn’t great at making connections, he’d been there a few months now and made maybe one friend? And he wasn’t sure about it either. “ I keep breaking things.” He was frustrated. While his ability to hold back on people was better, the fact that he had to take time to be gentle with stuff was more frustrating than he’d initially thought. “Caught the library at the school on fire too.” He frowned a bit, brushing some of the glass off his hands into the garbage can. It didn’t cut him thanks to who he was. But it was annoying. He hadn’t been done with it yet. “I probably would do that too..” He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.
He took the roll to clean up the remaining juice on his hands and put it back a moment later. “I don’t know. Lois wants me to try it. And things like that.” It was obvious he wasn’t too sure about anything, except that he was getting near death by boredom. “Everyone just knows what they want.” Conner had no idea.
Conner wanted to say so many things but most of them were just confused angry things that were boiling up in his head, so he chose to say nothing. “Yeah. Maybe I will.” He was pretty unhappy, but was attempting to deal with it all. It was just a lot.
–
"Most people don't know what they want most of the time Conner." He did a palms up. "Life is pretty much just faking it until you find something that sticks. When I got here it took me a while to find something I don't hate, but if I could go back to what I did before? I would." Unfortunately for both of them there just wasn't the need. "Even now, I only have part of life figured out and even that confidence changes. So don't be too hard on yourself. The only difference is you never got the years of growing up as a kid where people expect you not to know."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "As for the breaking things, I don't know how to help you with that except for maybe some training. If you want, we can set up some time every week to meet and work on your control." Probably Clark would be better for that, but Dick knew that was complicated still. Plus he did want to help Conner out.
–
“How do kids find out what to do?” He asked with a bit of a frown. Life being hard was an understatement, and he was feeling a bit of resentment towards Lex just now for even creating him. But he didn’t voice it. He didn’t have the words for that, those were complex things. He just needed an outlet mainly. “Only half? I feel fucked.” He gave a slight smile in attempt to lighten up some in spite of feeling a bit heavy.
“Well I’d really like to not break door handles and stupid things like that, so yeah…might be a solid plan. I told Clark, he’s coming up with some things too…he also thinks maybe I can fly.” Conner had never flown before, but it might be a nice outlet if he could. He might feel like less of a useless rock as he did just then. Anything to lighten that mental load honestly, he’d try.
–
“They go to school where they’re exposed to a bunch of different things over the years and most of the time something sticks.” Not all the time, he knew that too.
“Okay, let’s do that.” He meant the training. He’d figure something out and he’d do it quickly so they could start as soon as possible. Dick wasn’t one to let things flounder.
The flying thing was news though and his eyebrows went up subtly. “That’d be a good skill to have.” He paused, then added carefully. “But you know you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.”
– “I didn’t like it.” He paused and side eyed Dick with a bit of a frown. “School I meant. Everyone’s loud. Never shuts up.” He could hear all of them all at once, all the time. “Clark has me going part time…But I don’t know why. The classes are easy.” Work like that came easy to Conner, but the social aspect did not.
Dick was always looking out for him with those subtle comments, and they caused a small smile before his response.“I know…I think I might like it though.” The flying. Krypto could also kind of glide he’d noticed sometimes. Conner mostly just could jump high. Flying hadn’t been a thing yet for him. “I want to know what else he can do that I can’t. Maybe I can too and I don’t know.”
–
“He probably has you going to socialize. It’s basically a bunch of people stuck in the same place for several hours and you’re forced to talk to each other sometimes. You could find some friends that way.” If Conner let it, but it was always difficult to know if it would be successful or not.
He nodded. “You might even find there are things you can do that he can’t.” He meant it, even if he realized it sounded like some after school special pep talk. Conner was only part Superman. Sure, his other half was from a man who was terrible, but it meant there would be other skills. Maybe some of Luthor’s big brains would unlock other things.
“You’ll figure things out here Conner, I promise.”
– Conner wasn’t sure how to let it happen. The friends thing. Letting people in was hard for him. He’d only let Dick and the others in by circumstance, but these kids didn’t have that circumstance. “Yeah…that’s what he said. I don’t know how to talk to them.” It was annoying really, he was annoyed.
“I hope you’re right.” He had been there for just a couple months, but was struggling a bit. “Lois said something about trying out for a sport..but I don’t know if I care about sports.” It sucked being a teenager, being a clone teenager was no different except it was actually harder. Or so he felt.