solarcore: (#14572979)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-19 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Clark's mouth presses into a line of protest, at first, but this gentles at the rest, eyes hooded as he thinks that through, absorbs it. It's not you, he'd said, has said before, when it comes to that spiral that Luthor had sent him down, and even in the context of trauma, of fragility, of treatment and its fallibility, the sentiment stands. If either of them were wholly defined by their worst moments, no matter the cause of those moments, and if those moments wholly defined their futures, they wouldn't be here.

"Maybe," he says. Not doubtfully, really. For prophetic dreams, they sound like they get under Bruce's skin more profoundly than they need to. Clark's hand gently sweeps down Bruce's spine. "I guess the question is, if it distorts the delivery, does it corrupt the message?"
solarcore: (#11916687)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-20 08:38 am (UTC)(link)
Clark nods.

:\

And pushes a wayward strand of hair back from Bruce's forehead, then lets that hand rest on his shoulder. Expressing that he trusts Bruce will do that just find feels like it'll start to get into unhelpful territory. They're here, now, and Bruce is taking the things he's said seriously. The 'what' can give way to the 'how'.

'Why' is a longer shot, but maybe an inevitable one, eventually. "Is it ever lucid? Even in little moments."
solarcore: (pic#14762576)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-20 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Lately," Clark echoes. "Maybe it's changing. Or you are."

First lucidity, then control? Food for thought. As much as he can offer up the pieces of experience he has with superpowers he did not ask for, that had controlled him for so much of his life, something like a dream feels far afield of his own experiences. Mental illness, too, to the extent that Bruce grapples with it, for all that Clark hasn't been the paragon of perfectly balanced brain chemistry all his life either.

His head tips against Bruce's hand. "I don't know that it would help, but Kryptonians had a kind of—lucid shared dreaming technology. I experienced it on Zod's ship. Different from something like VR, more organic, and I didn't have control over it. But Zod did."

Maybe they can do more scout ship dumpster diving.
solarcore: (pic#14762513)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-21 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
Unease doesn't make any particularly nuanced sounds. Not so profound as to alter a heart beat, or any other number of internal chemical responses that Clark could attach emotional meaning to. But he also doesn't need those things, sense of the hesitancy in his voice, see the shadow of it cross subtle behind his even subtler expression.

Maybe another time, then, if Clark can pitch it in a way that doesn't sound like literal torture. Maybe talk to Vic about it, do his own homework.

But Clark's attention shifts, and there's a flicker—not quite guilt. Not quite the same as Bruce's unease. He asks, "What does that mean?"
solarcore: (#11893086)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-23 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that's fine.

Odd that the ship might say something like that in the moments prior to his resurrection when the holographic ghost of Jor-El made a very convincing thesis about Kal-El transcending into some symbol of hope that could lead the people of earth into a brighter tomorrow. Maybe it's not him, maybe it's the overwhelming power of technology they were grappling with.

Maybe it is him, though. Some kind of cosmic trade off. Protecting the people of earth from deep space invasion while representing their potential destruction.

Clark breathes in through his nose, brings a hand up to touch Bruce's face, and lifts his head up to kiss him, just gently.
solarcore: (#14572979)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-23 09:28 am (UTC)(link)
The lines of concern that had gathered at Clark's forehead smooth a little. Like if this has turned into Bruce offering him reassurance, then he should accept it. He loops his arms loose around the other man's shoulders, holds there with a hand gripping his wrist to close the circle.

"Okay," he says, a small note of keenness to do so. Any form of forward motion, he wants to encourage. Wants to help. The flickers of doubt he has about what his place is, in the future, easily steamrolled by the conviction that he's meant to be here. That being here, being able to stand with the rest of them, is good.

There's a lot he can do, including this: embracing Bruce in the semi-dark. The first time he said the following, it was simply about how they live with loving each other, and now he means something more ambitious when he says, "We'll figure it out."
solarcore: (pic#14762453)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-26 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Goes with mine," Clark says, easy.

And honest. How many people has he kept at arm's length, throughout his life? And further than that? For so many reasons.

He can sense the slight capitulation in the conversation, and kisses Bruce again. Lightly, first, and then more involved, hands resting on either side of the other man's face. Gentle, soft, warm, these little intimacies that stand at stark odds to the nightmare vision that wears his shape in dreams, or the remote impression of an all-powerful alien crashing through buildings, showers of glass and concrete, blurred camera footage.

Instead, like this, Clark is almost just some guy with a nice apartment, warm beneath Bruce, the slide of his fingers seeking out little sensitive spots down Bruce's neck. These gestures together all seem to say hey, wanna do something else?
solarcore: (pic#14762512)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-06-27 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
It's kind of nice. Kal-El. Just in this context, it's kind of nice, and reminds him of the easy affection with which the copy of Jor-El that harboured so much intelligence and feeling and kindness called him 'Kal'. It is a mere sliver of a memory, but something of a precious one, too.

It makes Scout Ship 0344 feel like a kind of home, anyway, inasmuch as a gigantic spaceship made up of cold silver caverns can.

And Kelex is being sassy. Clark stands, arms folded but expression gentle and querying. "The data has yet to be properly analysed," she says in smooth Kryptonian. "It remains speculative. It should not be disseminated widely until charting of implication and outcome has been completed by specialised personnel."

"This isn't widely, Kelex," Clark says, patient. "And there is no personnel left. What are you worried will happen?"

"Incomplete projections may cause fragmentation. The data is corrupt and incomplete."
Edited 2021-06-27 06:23 (UTC)
solarcore: (#11899928)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-07-04 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
Kelex very neutrally says, "Yes," and Clark is pretty sure that the variant they're using is the English equivalent of an impatient of course.

"You gave him a warning," Clark says, his voice gentle and kind, as he'd speak to anything actually alive. As far as he's concerned, Kryptonians mastered sentient artificial intelligence a long time ago, clearly. "Against following a path that was taken anyway. We just want to listen. And—"

A beat, and he doesn't look back at Bruce or anything as he adds, "Maybe there's data we can provide in return."
solarcore: (#14572974)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-07-07 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Please," Clark echoes, like maybe some manners will help.

But it's not just manners. It's becoming clearer to him that what they're asking flies in the face of what Kelex is programmed to preserve, in the same way that his existence does too. Every time some new revelation of what was core to Krypton comes to light, it becomes easier to understand why he was propelled away from it at great speed. But even Jor-El couldn't help but take care of some remaining connection, to ensure Clark knew where he came from.

Maybe that was a mistake. Another trapping, a blind spot. But Jor-El never claimed to be anything but fallible, unlike his brethren. "There's no one left to claim anything forbidden," he says. "There's no great work to protect, anymore. But there's Earth. And I was sent to protect that. I have to believe that's still true, and I need to know how to keep it true."
solarcore: (#11916695)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-07-08 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
Clark turns to study the map. He has at minimum entered every chamber within this ship, even if some of them are completely disabled, and their function opaque. He's also spent many hours with Kelex, even before it was Kelex, hovering over his shoulder and guiding him through some maintenance, which is the reason why the interior doesn't feel just as cold, if not colder, than the snowy wastes outside.

"What did they use these for?" asks Clark.

"Multitudinous purpose," Kelex says, its voice serene. "Education. Interfacing with complex internal systems for the purposes of improvement and maintenance. Harmonic alignment. Intellectual and imaginative stimulation. Interrogation and proc—"

"Sounds great," says Clark. "Thank you. Can you help us make it operable?"

Kelex swims around to hover by his shoulder, as if to look at the map itself along with him. As neutrally as a robot can be: "If that is what you want."
solarcore: <user name="oslo" site="insanejournal.com"> (224)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-07-09 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
Kal-El will confess that he doesn't mind Kelex playing favourites, if pressed, maybe after some dithery assurance that it totally doesn't play favourites. But not much dithering. This is due to both the obvious reasons and also the fact that the original AI had so strongly advised against his existence.

This is a better change of pace. Not quite like a new puppy, or anything, but an extremely aloof house cat that's chosen you as its person.

He presses a thin smile to Bruce and watches what he does, a smile that then fades at the sight of a perplexed Batman. "What is it?"
solarcore: (#14572983)

[personal profile] solarcore 2021-07-11 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
Clark considers that seriously, gaze flicking to the wall of shifting mercury. He asks, query directed towards Kelex, "Are you able to draw up, um," the 'um' is in English, for the record, "schematics of any parts beyond repair? Do we have materials that we could repurpose?"

"This can be provided," Kelex affirms. "Along with an overview of compatible materials that can be found both on this ship and on earth, along with those that cannot."

He lets go of a breath, and looks to Bruce. Yes, a long project, but, "It'd be worth it," he says, all earnest eyebrows, quiet certainty.