14055/Family from another Reality

Family from another Reality
Date of Scene:	06 February 2023
Location:	Mebbin National Park, USA
Synopsis:	Alura puts her foot in it trying to make a connection with alt reality Kara, Power Girl. Alura never was the one who was good with feelings.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Karen Starr

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Alura In-Ze has posed:
Whether Powergirl will turn up or not, Alura's not sure. People seem to have opinions of her but she has pushed those ideas aside. Because what she has learned means this person is important to her. This person is family. That she is another version of Kara - it explains the look Karen had on her face when Alura first arrived on the planet.

She chose a quiet place, away from prying eyes and ears - not too far from here, giant heads were carved in to the stone side of a hill. She's not sure what that's about either, but the trees and rocks make for a nice place to talk. Better than on top of a building somewhere.

She's wearing white, with the symbol of El upon her chest and a flowing red cape. A uniform she only recently assembled together. Clipped about her waist, the last thing she has from Krypton itself, a belt her partner made her in red metal with the El symbol carved in to its buckle.

Karen Starr has posed:
    The first time Alura sent the message, there was no response. The woman that was the mother of this universe's Kara was left waiting at Mount Rushmore, until eventually it was time to go.

    So it was the next time. And the next. And the next.

    Eventually, however, despite how some might mislead regarding the definition of insanity, repetition is key. Alura sends the message from the fortress. Goes to the park outside the mountain. Waits. Not too long after the appointed time, there is a rush of wind, and the imposing, blonde form of Power Girl is standing there before her.

    "I don't have long." she begins, already closing herself off. "What do you need?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura can hear her coming. It's a strange sound - she's so very fast. She wonders if Kara is of a similar speed. It's strange to know this side of her daughter, and then to meet another of her. She smiles as she turns to face Power Girl.

"You don't go by Kara anymore?," she wonders. She's been thinking a lot about Karen, about the other Alura - another version of herself - and what she would think of all this if the coin were flipped the other way.

"You're a grown woman, who has lived a whole life - and here I come waltzing in like it's no bodies business. It's unfair, that Kara gets her mother back but you don't. I've been trying to imagine what I would think if it were my Kara who was in your position."

She takes a step forward. "I have a twin sister, if it makes things easier you can consider me an aunt but - but on some level I feel a deeper connection to you. These aren't normal times, these aren't normal things a person should ever have to contend with. Your loss is greater than anyone could ever possibly bare."

She offers her hand to Karen, "Please. Let me be a part of your life. You're an amazing person but no body should have to do it all alone. We're family."

Karen Starr has posed:
    She'd broken a couple of speed limits on her way here to get this over with. That much was certain. Kal does it all the time, so she feels like she ought to get to do it too. Sure, flying over the continental united states at several hundred times the speed of sound to arrive at Mount Rushmore in mere moments is a little /rude/, but then again, Power Girl is a little rude.

    "No no no, we're not doing this. I've buried these bodies already, so this isn't a discussion I'm going to have. I don't go by Kara, I'm happy to be a family, to help you, and Kara, acclimate to a brand new world that is in every way different than the one you know- but these wounds have had twenty years to heal, and I'm not ripping them open."

    Karen is... An imposing woman, with an imposing demeanor. She's six-foot-three, she's physically built to do what the Kryptonians do, even if she could do it without the musculature. She's spent two decades under a yellow sun, fighting the good fight, against beings that snap planets in twain and fancy themselves the rulers of reality.

    She's won, and she's lost. She isn't a little girl who needs her mother anymore- and that much is evident in her demeanor. She's not cold- she's not ruthless. She's just not a kid anymore.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
It's a strange thing to see, for Alura, to see what her daughter would become if she was left with nothing at all. It was almost the case - she could just have easily faded away in the phantom zone. Her arms fold, she recognises this stubbornness. She understands it. It's a part of her too.

"I get it," she states rather matter of factly. She has the demeanour of someone who often put science ahead of family all too often. Somehow Kara still loves her despite that. "And you pile up the work around you so you have the perfect excuse to stay too busy."

"I think I'd do the same thing too if I were in your shoes. But just so you know - it doesn't _have_ to be that way. You can have your cake and eat it too - that's the Earth saying right?"

"When I arrived here the last thing I expected to meet was a fully grown adult Kal-El. Let alone an adult version of my daughter." With slight frustration she takes a breath, "I will be what you need me to be - because that's how this works. I can't just shut it off so easily. I thank you, for being there for me - but know I will be there for you too. No matter the cost."

Karen Starr has posed:
    At first, Karen's look is sympathetic, but impassive. Nobody else is in her shoes. Not even /this/ Kara is in her shoes. She's lost everything, twice. Two mothers. Two fathers. Everyone she's ever loved.

    Twice.

    Yet, here she stands, unbroken by it. While she has an immeasurable willpower in a lot of ways, there are, however, many ways that one can draw her ire. It's kind of a landmine.

    A landmine that Alura just stepped on.

    "Have my cake... And eat it too?" Karen responds, her expression twisting into one of incredible, almost furious, disbelief. As if she needed Alura to repeat what she just said. As if she could not possibly have heard those words.

    "You have no idea what you're talking about- I'm /not/ your daughter. My biological parents died with my Krypton. My adoptive parents died with my universe. There is no having my cake, there's no eating it, and there's no fixing that. There's just living with it, and carrying on. Hoping that the future is better and brighter. Lessons I learned from /my/ Kal."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
There was also an anger inside Kara. Even as a little girl. Now she sees this version too has the same deep within her. "I know. I know you're not. But if it were my Kara who had suffered your terrible fate, I know I wouldn't want them to be so isolated."

Despite her claiming these bodies are buried, it is clear they are not. This impressive Kryptonian, larger than life, she sees too much of her own Kara in her. "You're thrice bitten, the tangle weed has tightened upon you - who am I to tell you it's different this time around? But I never thought I'd live, never thought I'd see my Kara again. Every day is a blessing. The events that have brought me here so improbable, beyond comprehension, that I cannot account for them with my science."

"I'm not going to convince you that it's -okay- to have your Kal, and this Kal too. That it's safe even for a moment to let down your guard." She looks saddened, "You're more than I could have ever imagined for my own daughter, yet she flies around this planet saving people every day too. I can only ask that you consider it.. consider that this reality, this universe, doesn't have to feel like a punishment."

Karen Starr has posed:
    If she wasn't imposing before, the moment where she folds her arms while listening to Alura is when it starts proper. Her expression is sour, and there is this anger boiling just beneath the surface. Most people would be rather worried at this point that they were going to become an astronaut in record time.

    "It's not about whether or not it's different this time around. It's about what I'm going to do about it if it tries to be the same. I don't count blessings. I do my best to preserve the hopes and dreams of everyone I come across, because this world needs help, and needs hope. The one that needs you is still too young to do this on her own."

    Karen starts to lift off, at that point- tired, and angered, by this discussion. "She's the one you should be focusing on. Not me. This universe isn't a punishment. I'd never think of it as one- but it isn't a replacement, either. It's a new home, and I've already come to terms with that. I'm not here to dig up the past."

    With that, unless Alura finds away to stop her, she who calls herself Power Girl, who doesn't wear the insignia of the House of L anymore, is off- breaking into a streak in the blink of even a Kryptonian's eye.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura dips her head a little and looks down at the soil beneath her feet. Her booted toes shift the dirt about. Even this is alien to her. Sure, Krypton had soil - just not like this. As Karen disappears from her sight she lets out a small sigh.

"Zor was always so much better at talking to Kara about this kind of thing," she comments to herself. But it's true, her daughter is here and now and could use her mother. The wounds within Karen are all too easy for her to see but there is little she can do about it.

"What was it father always said...," she muses to herself, "Alura stop speaking and listen." She rolls her eyes. The long dead words of In-Ze still matter so much to herself. For now, she knows she needs to focus on what she can do, rather than what she cannot.