A cautious meeting

[reality_warper]

From Jeannie's perspective, it's been less than two weeks since she and Jack had met the Clark Luthor version of Ultraman in the Nexus. Give or take an unspecified amount of time, given all the weirdness of their current living situation. She'd honestly expected to get to this sooner, but Pamela's kids had been more of a handful than she could have predicted. Things had finally settled somewhat and she has a place all prepared... so its a matter now of sending a text message off via PINpoint and arranging to meet Mr. Luthor in the Nexus to do something about those scars.

Comments

[clark_luthor]

He nods slightly, and rubs his fingers over his scar. If he pays attention, he can still feel the lines carved into his arm, though far less than he used to. It will certainly take some adjustment, but he certainly doesn't mind.

"So, do we need to discuss payment?"

[reality_warper]

Jeannie smiles, but doesn't bring up that, really, what could he offer that she can't do herself, at least for now. "Right now, we're more trying to get off on the right foot with people we bump into in the Nexus... 'specially with the reputations some of us have."

"Though... if you can maybe not tell Bruce Wayne about the Nexus, if he doesn't already know..." She sighs, "Running into you was just enough of a shock to get my husband over wondering when the other shoe was going to drop and how bad it'd be when it did. Running into Owlman, or Batman, or any variant thereof is something I don't think he's ready for. Not yet."

[clark_luthor]

Clark smiles slightly, like she's said something incredibly obvious. "And give up an advantage like this? I would never. It's like you don't know me at all." He might be joking a minuscule amount.

[reality_warper]

Jeannie laughs. "Well, of course we don't! We've met an Ultraman or two, as well as Superman and other variations. And we've met Luthors. But usually those things tend to be opposing in whichever timeline they're both in. Someone who's both? That's a whole new twist!"

[clark_luthor]

"I do have to wonder why that might be. The decision point between my universe and Kent's is clearly defined, after all."

[reality_warper]

Jeannie shrugs. "Who knows? Pod lands in pre-Second World War Germany, and eventually there's Übermaan... but the division between Superman and Ultraman wasn't as simple as the Nature Versus Nurture debate for our section of the multiverse." There may have been a bit of a joke in there, since the nature versus nurture debate is anything but simple. "Unless you apply it to the nature of the whole timeline... And even then, we may never know just which quantum butterfly got stepped on where."

[clark_luthor]

"If anyone was in a position to study such a thing, I believe it'd be you," he concedes. "And I suppose all the differences between my universe and Kent's can't be tied purely down to who found and raised me. I'm at a loss to explain why the color saturation of our worlds would differ at all, for instance."

[reality_warper]

She nods. "Or why one of the universes we knew with Ultraman had so many other things 'reversed'... down to the positions of people's internal organs. It's easy to 'blame it on the writers', but... I'd kinda hope there was some reason on our side of the Fourth Wall too." Because the thought of being toyed with like that makes all of them a little sick.

[clark_luthor]

He looks slightly amused by that. "My father attempted to impersonate his counterpart, and was caught because his fingerprints are reversed from the other Lionel's. So differences like that exist between my universe and Kent's, as well."

[reality_warper]

She nods. "A friend of ours... the same one with the chronic 'Ultraman uses heat vision on his face in more than one timeline' problem... a Supes figured out who he was and where from with the whole 'x-ray vision' trick. He wasn't really trying to impersonate another him, though, so it didn't really make much difference."

[clark_luthor]

"Strange. There should be no reason for such differences to exist, and yet they do."

[reality_warper]

"There was even a timeline where everyone's gender was flipped," she says with a shrug. "And then there's all the cases of people's hair or eye colors going wonky. Like getting a dyejob without the dye."

[clark_luthor]

He looks thoughtful for a moment. "Any instances of realities where no one has any special abilities at all?"

[reality_warper]

"If there was, would I have been there?" she half-jokes, before looking thoughtful. "That one Superboy I've been calling 'Superbrat' in my notes... he was supposed to be from a timeline where nobody had powers except him, but I don't know all the details yet. So... I guess it could be. And then I think there was one where everyone with powers suddenly lost 'em..."

[clark_luthor]

"I see." Not quite what he was looking for, but then again, she has a good point about it being a bit beyond her knowledge. And of course he's not going to let on that he has ulterior motives for asking - his beloved assistant and friend hasn't been very forthcoming about the universe she originally came from, and he's naturally curious about it.

[reality_warper]

"'Course, I mostly just know about our own section of the multiverse that collapsed... and a few others I know about from records. There are 'ended' timelines my bosses kinda 'collected' before I was involved, or that they're watching in case they fall apart. Between that and the Nexus... the farther 'away' you get from what you know, I figure just about anything goes."

[clark_luthor]

"That would account for the degree of variety I've seen here," he agrees.

[reality_warper]

She nods. "I popped in and out a lot while I was getting the basics of what I'd have to do down. Sometimes I had errands, sometimes just to take a break... Somewhere out there, everything imaginable, and probably a lot of things that aren't, can happen... just because you're dealing with infinity, and that means there's somewhere out there for everything to happen in. Somewhere, everything's real."

[clark_luthor]

He smiles slightly. "On one hand, that would be an incredibly useful resource. On the other hand, it can also be a dire threat. It all depends on which iteration you meet."

[reality_warper]

"MMhmm. It's like that one Narnia book, the one with the boat. There's this one island that's supposed to be where all your dreams become real, and everyone's all 'Oh, I want to stop there, please'. And then someone says, no, you weren't listening... not your wishes, not daydreams... dreams. And everyone got out of there really really fast. The Nexus can be like both, and everything in between."

"Like you said, Mr. Luthor... it depends on which version you run into. And... I hope you keep being a version of you that none of us have to worry about getting blasted with heat vision by... And if I do my job right, you'll never have to worry about the Ultraman we're more familiar with, either."

[clark_luthor]

Clark looks at her blankly, not having read the Chronicles of Narnia at any point. The context she gives is enough to get the point, though.

"As long as you don't give me a reason to, I don't see why that shouldn't be the case," he says, raising an eyebrow. "That puts you far ahead of certain others I've met who decided to threaten Zara simply because they don't like the idea of me existing."

[reality_warper]

"I think putting home back together from pieces is gonna keep most of us too busy to meddle in anybody else's universes. Well... except maybe my daughter. It's a chronic thing for her, but I'm sure she'll stay out of yours." They'd already had a talk about that.

"And targeting the adorable bittydragon is just not playing fair."

[clark_luthor]

"I imagine that task will be a lifelong one."

[reality_warper]

"Life always is, Mr. Luthor."

[clark_luthor]

"Indeed." He's being polite at the moment, though he does wonder at the fact that she didn't hustle him out of here the moment their business was done, given her feelings about him from the start.