epidemiology | (no subject)

[ While he could spend all his hours in the library, Clark prefers to take out a stack of books and settle comfortably in the rec room with something to drink and some music. He's been experiencing hunger and fatigue for the first time here in Oska. While he eats more habitually than he sleeps, it's still better to form a pleasant routine, so that he never forgets to do it.

His chair is next to the window, in direct sunlight. There's no music on in the room this time, he couldn't pick and decided to save his focus for the books. A lot of them are on language. He learns fast, and figured, why not.

As he cracks one open, Bellamy enters. Clark hadn't seen him since the training simulation ended. At first, he had assumed the teammate wasn't real like the rest of it, but he knew better after trying it a few times.

He stands up. ]

Hi. How're you doing?

[ using the training simulation hadn't been a mistake, exactly, so much as a test. he has misgivings about virtual reality after seeing ALIE and her city of light, but it's a resource available to them and he'd be stupid not to use it. at first, like clark, he hadn't been sure his if his teammate were real or another part of the simulation -- he's still too new to this place, too unused to these faces. but clark had been much more real than the townspeople of the sim, and when bellamy sees him, the surprise is only at the unexpected meeting.

or maybe just the pleasantries, which have more place here than they had on post-apocalyptic earth. ]

Fine, [ he says, short, since there's no need to elaborate into specifics that apply to clark just as equally (away from home and worried, missing it, missing people, uncertainty at so much about oska and these people working here). ] You seem busy.

[ He doesn't miss Earth that much. That's hard to come to terms with given what he just gave up to protect it, but it's hard not to like a place that has knowledge from all these other universes. He doesn't have to hide here either. Oska 2, Earth 0.

At the moment, he only misses Mom and Lois. ]

I was just going to read.

[ Some of the books on the table have their spines facing Bellamy. They're on language, history, and astronomy. ]

Are you new here as well?

[ the history books in particular catch his eye, and he spares them a longer look out of curiosity than the others. wondering which era in particular clark's looking into, or if it'll even be familiar. ]

Yeah. I got here when the others came back from the last mission, the labyrinth. [ "as well," so he asks, so: ] Were you there for that, or did you arrive here too?

[ here, aka oska ]

[ He has one on the 20th century, but he's also looking into some histories on alien civilizations. There's no pattern to the names, Clark just picked out books that looked interesting.

Which is to say, all of them. ]

I arrived straight here.

[ He holds out his hand to shake Bellamy's, it's only polite. ]

I'm Kal.

[ bellamy's partial to classical mythologies himself, though he hasn't tried out the books on alien cultures yet.

he takes clark's hand, gives it a shake; firm, with a rough, calloused hand, but not like someone who's shaken a lot of hands. ]

Bellamy. Nice to meet you in the flesh.

[ Clark's hands are smooth despite years of blue-collar work. Blame those Kryptonian genes.

His handshake is firm, but very brief. He's not sure it's a universal gesture. ]

Same to you. Where are you from, if I may ask?

Earth.

[ not so long ago, that wouldn't have been his answer. but to people who don't know anything about his earth, there's not a lot of point in splitting hairs about the fact that he grew up in orbit. ]

Probably not the one you know, [ then adds, grudgingly, ] if you know it.

I do.

[ He grew up there. But he hasn't yet decided what kind of story he's keeping to. From the beginning, he's never needed to hide here. It's hard to get used to. ]

Although, I'm Kryptonian.

[ he frowns reflexively. being at oska means he's met aliens, of course, and more; but it's still incredibly strange to him. ]

Never heard of it. I'm gonna assume you're not just talking about a city somewhere.

No, I'm from the planet Krypton.

[ At first it had been strange that there were universes without it that had Earth, but after a little time here, he's not sure what to expect anymore. ]

[ he shakes his head: unfamiliar. ]

The only inhabited planet we know about, where I'm from, is Earth. And the only habitable one.

[ less so now. but if there'd been others, things would've been so different; instead of having to decide who would survive the radiation that now envelops the planet, who'd get a place in the only bunker, they could've had an evacuation. ]

[ He'd thought the same until the other Kryptonians had shown up.

Space travel hasn't progressed far enough for Clark to know about anywhere else. He's loathe to leave Earth. They can manage without him, but he just worries about another invasion. He can't leave them defenceless. ]

What did you do before you came here, if I may ask?

You can ask, [ he says, more bemused than argumentative. so far, he's come to be under the impression that most people's worlds are like the earth of his history books, not like the one he knows. which makes the kind of life he's led difficult to explain. then again, kal comes from another planet, so his idea of normal is probably relative.

what did bellamy do? mostly, he tried to be whatever he felt his people needed him to be. ]

I was part of the guard, [ is what he settles on ] protecting our people.

Is it peacetime or war?

[ He remembers how Bellamy was in the simulation. He stayed calm and he took charge.

He might have acted, too, if it had become necessary. But there's a difference between a soldier doing it and a civilian. Clark knows he himself can never act or think like a soldier. He has too much power, and taking sides is something he considers very carefully.

There's going to be all kinds of people here. He should know what kind of consensus there is. Try to understand where they come from. ]

[ he scoffs, humorless. ]

Where I come from, survival is a fight. We're fighting whether or not we're at war.

[ even back on the ark, survival was always the number one priority. the chancellor and the council only cared about the survival of the human race -- at any cost. these were the people willing to kill his mother for the crime of having a second child, who sent a hundred delinquent kids back to earth to find out if the planet was survivable, because they were expendable. and then they got to the ground and found out they weren't alone, and the grounders weren't friendly. there were wars after that, battles fought against the others, amongst themselves, and a hostile planet. for now, all the peoples were finally able to unite to survive praimfaya, but no one can tell how long that'll last -- assuming they all last the five years until it passes. ]

We aren't at war now, but I wouldn't call it peaceful.

[ He won't shy away from an unpleasant topic, but he's not looking to dig up any of Bellamy's secrets or to know his history. If he says he's a guard, Clark believes him. He would have noticed an abnormal spike in biometrics, so Bellamy isn't lying.

He considers his next question. ]

Do you know the year?

[ it takes him a beat to answer, but only because the new year's passed while they were on earth; and record-keeping hasn't been what it was on the ark. ]

2150.

2013. Wow.

[ Clark's calculating if he'll live one hundred and fifty years. He doesn't age like other people. ]

Is there anyone here you know?

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~unburdening

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