milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Clark entered the bar a few hours ago. So far, he's spent most of that time outside by the lake, enjoying the cold weather. People tend to ask fewer questions here about his lack of appropriate winter attire than they do at home.

He's back inside now, having obtained a cup of hot cocoa from the bar, along with a few books. Currently, he's settled in a chair nearish the observation window, idly flipping through a travel guide to Argentina.

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"It might help," she says. "Mine's terrible, too. Like, terrible to the point of non-existant."

Her French is quite good, though.

"I'm Hannah, by the way. Hannah Griffith, not-quite-2008, Neptune, California."

"I can't even say I can't speak Spanish."

An eyebrow is raised at her introduction. He's heard something like it before. "Nice to meet you, Hanna. Clark Kent, Smallville, Kansas, 2007. Do you know Lilly, by any chance?"

"Nice to meet you, Clark.

"And I met Lilly here once. She was a few years older than me. We have an ex-boyfriend in common."

For what it's worth. Which, in Hannah's opinion anyway, isn't all that much.

"But I don't really know her well."

Clark nods. "I've only met her a few times myself. Neptune's just a bit of a memorable place to be from, you know?"

He gets a very bright smile that only barely edges off towards wry.

"You have no idea," she tells him.

"I don't think I've ever heard of Smallville."

"Few people have," he replies with a smile back. "I always say unless you're from or live there, or are really into astronomy, you don't know where it is. We're pretty much in the dead centre of Kansas, right in the heart of farm country."

"Heartland of America kind of place?" she asks.

"What makes it astronomically interesting?"

"Exactly," he nods.

"We've been hit with two meteor showers. One would have been enough to make us interesting in that field, but two has sort of made us a can't miss place for the astronomically inclined. To the rest of the world I think we're just 'that place in Kansas where the meteors hit'."

"Yeah, seems like the odds should be against that. Like lightning striking twice or something. But I guess the second set of meteors don't care where the first ones fell.

"Anyway, that's a lot better than what my hometown's known for these days."

"No, they probably didn't." Except they did. Clark just isn't going to mention that little detail.

"That doesn't sound too good. Anything you care to talk about?"

"We've had a string of pretty high profile murders in the last few years," she says. "Like, seriously high profile. People-write-books-about-them high profile. Couple of movie stars, billionaire's daughter, busload of kids coming back from a field trip, the mayor . . .

"Not all related, I mean, it's not a like serial killer sort of thing. Just sort of happened a lot there for a while."

You can take a tour. Murder Sites of Neptune.

That sounds like fun in the way that's not.

"Wow, it certainly seems like you've had your share of bad luck there." To put it mildly, of course.

[[ooc: Off for sleep. Slowtime?]]

Hannah shrugs, lightly.

"Well, it's a memorable place to be from," she says, with that same slightly wry smile.

"Things have kind of settled down, I think."

~~The way they do, when you get postcanon.~~

[OOC: Would be lovely -- I hope you slept well!]

That garners a small smile. "That's good, at least. It would be a bit worrisome if it kept continuing."

"So what's Kansas like?" she asks.

"I have a friend from there, but he tends to put things in terms of how it's not like Neptune, which is okay, but doesn't tell me what it is like."

"Big and flat," he answers immediately. "Smallville's pretty rural, so there isn't much more than a bunch of cornfields and farms, with the town sort of in the middle of it all. Metropolis isn't too far away, though, so we can get a taste of the big city if we want."

"Big and flat," she repeats. "I'll remember that.

"Do you like it? Farms and cornfields and pretty rural?"

A slow smile spreads across his face.

"Yeah, I do. Not that I don't like the city, I mean, I spend a lot of time in Metropolis and I've been to New York and though that was ... big, but the country's just so quiet and peaceful. I'm not so sure I could keep up with a big city on a day to day basis." Figuratively, of course.

Oh, of course.

"That's good, then, liking where you are and where you're from. Even ig you have to duck the occasional falling piece of space rock.

"It sounds really nice, the way you talk about it."

Where he's from. Clark will just let that slide by and nod.

"Thanks. It is nice. Nothing like California, I imagine, never having been there myself. I have a grandfather in Coast City, though."

"California is big and my part of it is flat, so they have that much in common, anyway. Some days I really love it, and some days I can't wait to be away from it.

"I haven't heard of Coast City. West Coast? East Coast?"

"If it helps, I think everyone has those moments of wanting to get away from everything."

He gives her a brief look of confusion, before he remembers not everyone here has the same cities as he does in his world. "West. It's just north of Los Angeles."

Hannah nods. "It does."

Coast City. Metropolis. Smallville. Clark's apparently from an Earth in which places are given very literal names.

"So maybe you'll make it to California someday. It really is beautiful, though Neptune's closer to San Diego than LA, so that's not the part of the state I'm most familiar with."

And he hasn't even mentioned Gotham yet.

"I hope so. I'd like to do some real travelling one day. Preferably when I can just go and enjoy it instead of having a specific agenda," he nods down to the book.

"I should probably let you get back to planning your trip," says Hannah, with her own nod to the book.

"But it was really nice to meet you. And good luck, with finding your friend's friend."