have you ever thought about how kara has probably heard every single person in her apartment complex banging someone poor kara someone is always having sex and she can always hear it and she is never the one being banged. so much sex but none for kara danvers
this is why she’s always wearing her glasses and has something on the tv
dont forget baking things if something is burning all she can smell is burning
also consider she can probably hear the entire neighborhood and, before she had the glasses probably accidentally saw things as well and she was 13 years old and had no ability to consent to that–it wasn’t anyone else’s fault but that probably definitely affected her views on sex and why she’s so emphatic about consent
Honestly, I would’ve loved to see this episode with Astra alive and on her way to redemption. Not that it wasn’t brilliant as is (it’s one of my favourites so far), but we know the only reason they chose to off her was because Laura was too busy to film. So it makes me wonder if Astra had still been around, how would she have reacted to see Kara – the one person who believed Astra could change for the better – go to the dark side? Would she embrace the pull to join her or would she be strong enough to resist the urge?
I suppose if there were so much of a chance of Astra switching sides, Alex would remind her what the real Kara would want; what her sweet, kind Little One would hope Astra would choose when seeing her go off the rails like this.
I also want to know how Kara would hurt Astra. We know that even without the ‘that’s why you killed my aunt’ line, the interaction between Kara and Alex was pretty loaded, pretty hurtful. Then again, would she hurt Astra? Or would she understand where Astra – or Non – came from and want to join their side of the battle?
I don’t know, I’m just really interested in what Astra’s role would’ve been; there are so many possibilities.
I’m absolutely here for Red!Kara talking to Astra because that would fuck me up in the best of ways. Because we’ve seen Kara’s rage at Alura for leaving her alone, for being the one to send her away. And we’ve seen Kara angry at Astra, but the thing with that? It’s never really been a personal kind of anger. It’s an anger for the things Astra has done to Earth, and what happened on Krypton, for the atrocities she’s committed in her pursuit of her goals but it’s anger on someone else’s behalf. It’s never really shown to be selfish anger. If Kara is that angry at a hologram of Alura for leaving her alone, how much angrier must she be at Astra, for leaving her alone.
Because unlike Alura, Astra was on Earth. Alura might have made the choice to send her off, but that was a split second decision not to crawl into the pod with Kara, made in the heat of a moment, no time to take it back. But Astra? Day after day, week after week, year after year, Kara had to deal with being the last, the only one who remembered Krypton. She had to shoulder all that loneliness and pain and agony and death all by herself. And we’ve seen with the Black Mercy, there really is very little Kara will not give up to have Alex in her life, but everything else? She’d give up, to have her old life back. And Astra was a part of that life.
And it wasn’t until she became Supergirl did Astra make contact with her. THe woman who taught her the names of all the stars, who once told her she couldn’t love a daughter as much as she loved Kara, and she made the decision over and over not to contact her, because at least from Kara’s perspective, all she would need to do to find out about Kara is to contact Kal-El. But she didn’t.
It’s easy for Kara to be angry on behalf of others, but for herself? That’s a very different story, one we got to see with the red k letting nothing go unsaid and god I wish we got to see Kara’s interacting with her Aunt and then we’d get to see why it took over a decade for them to have contact, or if Astra actually knew where Kara was, or even if Astra knew she was alive (also I want them to hug afterwards they never huggedand I’m so sad)
complete sidenote, but wow did melissa do a fantastic job with red!kara just the way she holds herself as evil!k and just completely transforming anything recognizable about what we’ve come to associate with kara, like we’ve seen plenty of comparisons of how melissa based her work!kara as an homage to calista, and clearly this is also an homage to laura.
Sometimes, I think about the fact that Kara had nothing from Krypton but the clothes on her back. She didn’t even have any pictures. This is the first time in over a decade that she has seen her mother. Maybe she was wondering if she truly remembers it, if details were starting to fade. Maybe her eyes were a slightly different shade of blue than she remembers, or her hair a lighter shade of brown. And this is something that Alex gave to her. “This is Kryptonese writing,” Kara exclaimed when she saw the device that held the projection. Maybe Clark knows as much Kryptonese as Alex (but not Kara, listen to the hologram of Alura talking to Kara. It’s formal language, it’s stiff. Clark might have learned formal Kryptonese but the sayings and expressions and slang? Clark would have never learned that), but Alex is possibly the only person in the world that has the science background (for feels about Kara teaching Alex Kryptonese, look here) and the knowledge of Kryptonese to put the AI together. Kara has lost so much, has gone through so much, but Alex was able to give a small piece of home back to Kara. Because, for one more time, Kara gets to hear her mother tell her I love you.
oh man what a parallel with cat and adam with alura and kara right now–
“You tried. Sometimes all you can do is try.”
“I didn’t lose.
I quit.” “
Would you make a different decision if you could go back?” “I stopped asking myself that question years ago.
Not being there for Adam is my greatest regret.“
alura said that she thought she saw kara going into the phantom zone, but she never looked. she was surprised to hear about clark–she didn’t look for him either. but the thing is too–i think Alura might have thought that the community needed her more, was faced with do I look for Kara and Kal-El, or do I cut my losses and help build back the community that needs me, that I know is here to support me while going through this?
If it was the other way around, if there was even just a shred of hope that her mother was alive, Kara would never stop searching. And at that time, an Alura grieving for Krypton chose Argo over Kara–just like Cat chose CatCo over Adam. And seeing Kara, seeing her alive, it’s going to be Alura’s biggest regret. Kara grew up without her, Kara lived and suffered and found joy without Alura there
There was that conversation between Cat and Adam ”
I never got to put a picture that you’d drawn on the fridge.
I never got to tell you stories. And I never got to teach you how not to be afraid of the world.
And I never got to tell you how amazing I think you are.
I never got to be your mom.
But I am your biggest fan, Adam.
And I’m so, so sad that I didn’t get to see you grow up”
It’s funny that I keep seeing things that act as if Lena
would be the helpless one out of her and Kara and I absolutely adore Kara and
the girl is a damn genius with super powers and picks up things fast, but growing up she also had to
deal with extreme culture shock, PTSD, and along with powers sensory overload,
to name just a few of the things about
her childhood on Earth. She comes from a dying planet with insanely advanced
technology and science—not really survival skills, and more so just trying to
adapt and heal.
Lillian was teaching Lena chess at the age of 4. And say
what you want about the Luthors, and there’s plenty, we see Lena working
weekends, nights, hell Thanksgiving—she’s a CEO by 24, probably more than a few
degrees. That kind of work ethic and drive (regardless if it’s actually
healthy, it’s huge) didn’t come from
nowhere. Every single skill Lionel and Lillian could cram into Lex and Lena,
they probably did. Regardless of how Lillian might feel about Lena she’s going
to have expectations, and at the absolute least if she’s going to have to be
this girl’s mother she might as well make her useful, or someone for Lex to
compete against, and Lillian loves Lex.
There’s no point to giving him a rival if that person isn’t pushed
and given the same kind of preparation and training and education that he
receives. And Lillian is someone who can be on the run from everyone and not get caught—that’s going
to take more than just money, that’ll take skill. Not to mention running a
black ops program with no one the wiser isn’t exactly on the list of things
that a rich housewife can do.
Kara is from a technologically advanced planet—maybe a few
days is fine but she’s probably so horrified
not to be around any tech she only likes camping for the difference in her
senses and all the pretty nature and landscape. Imagine if you went back to a
time before indoor plumbing—and sure a week of it is fine but months and months???? No. It’s probably worse
for Kara. She was p well supplied with tech, if the spy beacon that Astra had
that had a signal that could be received anywhere
was simply a child’s plaything—or if it wasn’t, and it was something she had
because of Astra’s military connections, then who knows what else she had
access to? She’s probably good with mechanics, to a certain extent because of
her father the scientist—who created a damn rocket
and taught her plenty about mechanical engineering—but they would have had
different elements on Krypton. It’s hard to know how to build something
when all the materials are different—Lena
would be just as screwed if she was given Kryptonian materials from the get go.
But my point is, Lena is probably actual fucking MacGyver,
or even better yet, the Supergirl version of Elliot Spencer. The Luthors definitely
seem like the kind of people who have their kids be in Boy/Girl Scouts, because
you never know when you might need those skills—they’re Luthors, they have people
gunning for them from the cradle. You never know when you might need some of
those skills, especially if you need to go off grid, or have to dump everything
in a moment’s notice. Like I’m not making a definitive statement, except yes,
yes I am if you gave Lena a knife and some decently warm clothes and set her
off into a forest she’d probably be fine for however long she’d be there for.
Lillian and probably Lionel seem like they would definitely hire a swim coach
to make sure their strokes are textbook perfect, but first they’d absolutely and quite literally throw them in the deep end to teach them
how to swim—the coach is about achieving perfection, and this is survival. And
Luthors don’t depend on anyone else for that—the sooner they learn that the better.
A powerless Kara, on
the other hand, would be absolutely fucked. She may have gone camping w
alex but lbr kara definitely used heat vision to start a fire and has no idea
what kind of clothes to pack or what to do about bug bites and maybe knows how
to pitch a tent and some useful things that don’t rely on her powers but 5 minutes
after losing her powers she cuts her hand on glass and breaks her arm—it’s not
a matter of intellect, but it’s kind of like how astronauts look up when they
drop a pencil—you get used to a certain baseline. Kara could definitely learn,
but Lena already knows what she’s doing. Lena was taught she couldn’t trust on
anyone but herself to survive and Kara was taught stronger together. This isn’t to say this is a failure of Kara’s
that this isn’t her mentality—Kara has plenty of knowledge about science and
alien cultures and technology and language and religion and understanding of
people that Lena probably struggles with, especially in comparison. Kara was
doing calculus at least since she was 4. Honestly out of the two of them she’s
most likely better at science and
math—but it’s probably painful for her bc it reminds her of Krypton, and it’s
not like humans are going to be very accepting of a 15 year old trying to
correct them on widely accepted theories. That would bring attention.
Kara was told to hide—Lena was told she wasn’t allowed to,
that she had to be extraordinary because
that’s what Luthors are.
We see in her very first episode she’s a marksman, able to shoot
the man that had Alex hostage without even hesitation. We also see her Gerry
rig that device at her charity under the table with a tiny bit of help from Winn, but not that much—that’s not exactly a
lab setting.
The Luthors have so many back up plans and hidey holes that
their family motto almost seems to be “be prepared.” Like Lena does not like
Roulette and has 0 plans on ever going to her fight club but she knew exactly where
the address was from the top of her head, without consulting a planner. And
the fight clubs most likely rotate
where they’re at—sure Roulette has connections but the DEO took Leslie Willis—if
they don’t know about her she’s not going to bring her to their attention. And
still Lena knew where it was, because it’s
important to be prepared.
Or better yet—the Luthor motto might be all knowledge is worth having.
Lena probably picks up new skills in her “free time”—or really
whatever time she has that she’s not working at her company, not able to simply
lay around and do nothing. “You never know when you might need to know how to wrangle
a crocodile kara” “You never know when an assassin might try to kill me while I’m
on ice Kara” “You never know when you might need to know this very obscure and
esoteric language Kara” “It’s a very distinctive sound and one day I might need
to be able to distinguish between the sounds different guns make when cocked
Kara” “Who knows if you’re ever in the mountains with only a paper clip and a
hair tie Kara” “Kara it’s always useful to know how to be able to get out of a
straight jacket without any help”
Kara is very confused about her strange nerdy friend but
Lena feels such vINDICATION the first time something she’s been practicing
requires her expertise you said it was
weird to know how to competitively duck herd AND YET HERE WE ARE WITH A DEADLY ALIEN
SPECIES THAT RESEMBLES IN SEVERAL WAYS DUCKS
tl;dr Lena would be absolutely fine wherever she’s dropped
up to and including the woods or a farm with only the clothes on her back and a
used tissue and after a week or so Kara would be clutching her phone wondering
where the wifi is
When it
happens it happens fast. The story about Lena’s illegal activities leaks
online first – a blog run by a disenfranchised L-corp employee who was shocked
to discover the company she works for is spending a fortune to develop
technology seemingly designed to kill the superhero who once saved her
life. Lena did the science on her own, but the amount of money she
spent making the kryptonite couldn’t stay hidden forever. Lena and James
are in full damage control mode. Kara is panicking and conflicted by the
tone of the coverage – people are laying into Lena in defence of *her*,
supergirl, furious at what they perceive as another Luthor up to the same old
tricks, threatening their hero.
‘Lena’s
my friend’ she wants to say. ‘She’s not a bad person.‘ Except Lena
did do all the things they’re angry about and their reasons for being angry
seem valid. Kara’s left with an uneasy feeling that she’s missing
something.
Cat sees
the stories within an hour of the original leak. Her response is immediate.
After a long conversation with Olivia and a hasty search for a replacement Cat
hands in her resignation and takes a private flight back to National City,
networking all the way. By the time her flight lands there’s an emergency
board meeting scheduled for the next day, one that James and Lena don’t know
anything about. They’re surprised to see her, then furious. The
terms under which Lena was allowed to purchase a controlling interest in a
multi billion dollar company so cheaply are quite clear – provided Cat has the
money and isn’t in public service she can claim them back any time she likes –
but that doesn’t prevent Lena from trying to stop the buy back. The
meeting gets ugly, but Cat doesn’t give her a choice and the board is on side.
They don’t all love her, but they like Cat (and the power of her brand, not
exactly weakened by a stint as the WHPS) a lot better than a young and untried
CEO who seems to treat the company as a hobby.
Especially when that CEO is being investigated by the FBI.
Because
the feds weren’t just sitting around while all this is happening. Lena Luthor has possibly broken a bunch of
federal laws and the DEO has apparently dropped the ball on investigating
her. The FBI are already opening a case
file.
Lena
doesn’t seem to know how to handle someone who simply refuses to let her
browbeat or guilt trip them into submission. Is that why she signed the
contract, Cat wonders? Did she think she could get her own way just by
complaining? Lena claims prejudice against Luthors. Cat points out
that it’s not prejudicial to be investigated for breaking the law when there’s
quite a lot of evidence that you did, in fact, break the law. When the meeting
gets out Kara is there, wide eyed and pale faced and Cat wishes, badly, that
she had time to stop and explain, but she doesn’t. There’s a lot that
needs to be done and it needs to be done fast.
Her next
meeting is with James. Olsen is all pride and self-importance, clearly
thinking this is an opportunity to badger her about the short sharp way she’s
just dealt with Lena. She expected so much better from him than this.
“You’re
fired,” Cat tells him.
There’s
yelling, all the usual words men call women who have power over them.
Cat has
some things to say about people who run media conglomerates not reporting major
stories. Such as, for example, a powerful billionaire having secretly and
illegally made their own stockpile of kryptonite with misappropriated funds and
having lied during a criminal investigation. There are also the illegal,
unethical, unauthorised medical experiments (with no actual doctor involved)
said not-so-hypothetical billionaire was running. And James knew about it
and didn’t report it.
It didn’t
even occur to him that he should report it, Cat observes. He’s so far
gone there wasn’t even an ethical struggle. Is it because Lena was his
boss or his girlfriend? She doesn’t accuse him of thinking with his
dick. She doesn’t have to.
She has a
few observations to make about the amount of time he spends being Guardian when
he’s supposed to be running her company, too.
James
wonders why Kara gets special privileges. She knew too, he says.
She’s hardly ever in the building because she’s being Supergirl.
Save the
world a few times Cat tells him, then we’ll talk. There’s a difference
between having power come to you and feeling you have to put it to good use and
chasing the thrill when you already have a job and power that you could use to
change lives, Cat says. And Kara is one
very junior reporter (whose identity James just outed, by the way). James
is – was – responsible for setting the editorial tone for the whole damn
company. He has to be better because his choices affect everyone, affect
CatCo’s entire output and determine what kind of information CatCo’s readers
are getting.
Which
brings her back to how his ass is fired. Security are already waiting.
CatCo’s
coverage of the scandal is unrelenting. Cat has brought a new protege
back from Washington with her, a woman named Nia Nal who ends up taking the
lead on the story after an investigative piece that examines how Lex Luthor
used Lexcorp resources in his campaign against Superman and questions to what
degree those operations were repurposed by Lena. What did she find out after she took over the
company and how much did she keep to herself instead of reporting to the
authorities? Nia is sharp and incisive in her writing, more Lois Lane
than Cat Grant in the way she reports but definitely Cat’s student in the way
she dresses and acts and charms. Kara is
a little intimidated honestly – Nia is a year or two younger than her but feels
ten years ahead in experience and confidence.
And maybe a little jealous of her connection to Cat. The timeline
she assembles of Lena’s activities is damning. So is the article she
writes about the dangers involved in artificially synthesising Krytponite,
happily unaware of Kara’s personal experience with both of the major incidents
related to it.
When Lena
is marched out of L-Corp in handcuffs, by FBI agents who are actually FBI
agents, Kara watches from CatCo. She
doesn’t trust herself not to do something stupid if she was there in person and
they are actual law enforcement officers doing their jobs. Her conscience says to protect her
friend. Her conscience also says to
respect the law. It feels like being
ripped in two. It turns out that having
private manufacturing capability for Kryptonite is a much bigger deal than Kara
even realised – she’s surprised by how many laws Lena actually broke to make
it. It seems like half the government is
involved. The FBI of course and the IRS
aren’t that surprising. There was
apparently some tricky bookkeeping involved in hiding the expense. But OSHA?
The EPA? She doesn’t realise she
spoke the thought aloud until Nia answers.
Well
yeah, says Nia, Kyrptonite is an unstable radioactive element that doesn’t
occur naturally and which scientists hardly know anything about. There’s even some evidence that it might be
dangerous to humans as well as Kryptonians. Experiments with it often go
wrong. Lena was working with the stuff
in a building with thousands of occupants who had no clue it was there, with no
oversight and only the safety regulations she felt like following. Not to mention all the ways it could be
abused. What if criminals got hold of it
and detonated a dirty kryptonite bomb in Metropolis or National City? What if terrorists threatened Superman or
Supergirl – beloved national icons – for leverage? The role Supergirl and her cousin play in
society makes an unregistered, unknown supply of Kryptonite a national security
issue, Nia points out, although she adds that she has mixed feelings about
letting the government have a monopoly on the stuff either. Kara is reeling. She’s not used to thinking
about herself in those terms, but she realises Nia has a point. And it occurs to her, with a sinking feeling,
that Lena can’t have been blind to all of this.
The trial
is a nightmare. Kara feels torn in every
direction at once. Alex is furious on
her behalf and fights to stay calm because she knows Kara is heartbroken and
her anger isn’t helping. James turns
state’s evidence to avoid charges of being an accessory after the fact.
Through
it all Cat is her rock, even as the media rips Lena apart. CatCo’s coverage is uncompromising, but Cat
gives strict orders that they aren’t going to sink to the hysterical conspiracy
theories about the Luthor family that every other rag in town is spouting. All the while Cat counsels Kara, even when
Kara lashes out, screams at her for the things CatCo is printing about
Lena. It’s true, Cat tells her, soft and
sad and just hurting for Kara.
Everything we’ve said is true.
She did break the law. She broke
a lot of laws. And lied about it in the
course of a criminal investigation. CatCo will be fair. If Lena is damned, she’ll be damned only with
the facts, not with rumour or suspicion. When she’s calmer Kara works up the nerve to
ask her why she’s so understanding of Kara’s mixed feelings towards Lena,
especially when she knows that Cat is furious about the conflict of interest
Lena created by taking a position at CatCo in the first place (Kara’s heard
more than one staffer speculate about Lena’s motivations for buying the media
outlet with the close relationship to Supergirl in light of everything).
Cat takes
her out onto the balcony and talks to her about unhealthy relationships. Sometimes we love people who are bad for us,
she says. Sometimes we are loved by
people who are bad for us. That doesn’t
mean the love isn’t real, only that it isn’t healthy. Cat will never disrespect Kara’s emotions or
say she’s not entitled to them. She will
encourage Kara to understand them and recognise what’s good and what isn’t, and
leave what isn’t behind, but she’ll never tell Kara she’s not entitled to
them. No crying at work, Kara reminds
her. We’re not allowed to be angry. That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to feel
them, Cat replies. Only that there’s a
time and a place to show them. Then she
asks Kara how her new junior editorial position is working out – the position Cat
gently nudged her towards as soon as she found time after plotting CatCo’s
response to the first wave of LuthorGate (Cat purely hates that name, but
despite her best efforts it seems to have stuck). Kara’s not sure if it’s for her yet, but in
some ways it comes more easily than reporting did. For now it’s a good place to have a little
peace.
Then Lena
takes the stand. It’s a disaster. The evidence of her illegal activities is
incontrovertible, especially since she has outright declared much of what she
did. When confronted over why she broke
the law, she insists that she was justified, that it was necessary, that she
had to do it and only she could do it.
Not once does she deny any of the crimes she’s accused of. Instead she declares that she was right to
commit them or that she had everything under control so there was nothing to
worry about. The prosecution press
her. Why? Why was it necessary? Why did it have to be her? Eventually she has something that isn’t exactly
a breakdown, it’s too calm and controlled for that, but a long declaration of
the threat posed by aliens, the necessity of being prepared, whatever that
takes, even if it means lethal force and dragging them lout of their homes. They’re so dangerous, Lena says. Earth has to be ready. Just in case, she says. Just in case. Kara thinks about Alex when she was under the red kryptonite. Thinks about how Alex would have killed her, if she had to, not in fear or anger but in love, because she knows Kara would want someone to stop her. Lena is all fear and anger now.
It’s
horrendous to witness, partly because she’s so calm, so certain, even as she spouts
the language of fear and paranoia and hostility. She’s speaking but those are Lillian’s words
coming out, Kara thinks, and Lena doesn’t even realise it.
Then the
defence call a surprise witness. Cat
Grant. Cat recounts several encounters she
had with Lillian when they were both a lot younger. When Lena was a child. She talks about how she saw Lillian treat
Lena, the coldness, the manipulation, the steady stream of prejudice Lena was
fed. Cat is not the only witness to
these events and not the one who saw the most – a stream of household staff,
classmates of Lena’s and others are called.
But Cat has the biggest impact – the woman who supported Supergirl from
the start, who always had faith. Kara
hears what no one else can in Cat’s words and knows that Cat sees parallels between
Lillian and Katherine. Being raised by Lillian Luthor was probably a lot like
being raised by Katherine Grant, multiplied by a 100 and with sustained
exposure to anti-alien bias thrown in.
Eventually
Lena is sentenced to a minimum security prison with a lot of mandatory
therapy. Kara’s not sure how she feels
about that. Take your time, Cat tells
her. You don’t have to figure it out
right now. Kara reaches out and takes
Cat’s hand. And just sits. And lets herself be.
kara zor-el lived on krypton for 13 years as a normal girl who got scrapes and bruises and colds like a normal person. her being upset that lena kept kyrptonite a secret isnt a god complex. she knows how it is to be vulnerable, no one knows how excruciatingly terrible kryptonite is to her. she doesnt have a god complex, she’s scared of the substance that kills her in the most painful way imaginable
this is what I mean when I say the show isn’t portraying Kara’s side as well as they should and could. They are making it seem like Lena is in the right (at the moment). Kara knows well what it’s like to be powerless (1×07 is also a good episode) but they don’t bring that up because it doesn’t serve the narrative they want to tell right now :
Or the writers just didn’t of it? It’s not like they don’t overlook details all the time.
Imagine Alex’s plane isn’t brought down and Supergirl never comes to be.
J’onn is firmly Hank Henshaw, known alien opponent.
Kara is Cat Grant’s assistant with aspirations to, uhhhh, figure out her aspirations.
Kara’s on a coffee run when she hears something she hasn’t heard in a decade, a spoken word that shocks her so deeply she drops her coffee cup on the cafe floor. It’s a young voice screaming “help!” but the word is screamed in a language she learned as a child, one spoken on a planet light years from here.
She’s sprinting out the door before the barista is even done scolding her for the spill.
There are three people – well, two humans and a small, greenish creature Kara recognizes from her childhood textbooks – fighting in an alley. It’s clearly young and terrified, and the black-clad humans are rough as they pick it up and throw it down hard, earning another garbled scream.
Kara’s punching him before she can even really think about it, sending him sprawling into the trash. The other one pulls back from where he’d been holding the creature down to gawk at her only to snap back as well from her lightly placed kicked. They’re both out cold.
The creature stares at her and backs itself away, crawling on all fours and trembling, it’s gill-like facial features flaring up in an attempt to intimidate. Kara squats down low and holds her palms up, submissive, and says, “I’m not going to harm you,” in it’s language. Her words are rusty – it’s been years and years – but the creature perks up and lets out an excited trill. Much to her surprise, it latches on to her hand and begins dragging her quickly down the alley.
Kara just follows along, confused and increasingly concerned about who she just beat up and where she’s being taken, and soon finds herself in the middle of a very sketchy warehouse in an even sketchier part of town.
The critter begins to chirp away again, calling out words Kara’s childhood vocabulary don’t quite catch, and all at once the walls seem to shift around her and the empty place she was before is now swarming with aliens.
There are dozens of them all around her, some holding guns and knives, some just watching, and Kara realizes with a gasp just how much she messed up.
She shakes the critter’s hand off hers and moves to run only for her entrance to be blocked, and she wants to fly but she’s not even sure if she still knows how and now all of the aliens are continuing to speak in dozens of tongues she only vaguely recognizes and she’s about two seconds away from rushing the smaller one near the window when a loud voice calls in English,
“ENOUGH.”
Everyone goes silent, and an alien approaches her that looks almost human. There’s something off about their eyes, though, which give them away.
“You saved her from the feds,” the creature says. “You’re one of us, then?”
Kara’s mouth stutters a bit but no words come out – her instinct is to deny deny deny, but it’s been so long since she could just talk about her actual, real self, so she nods. The alien smiles, a smile too wide and sharp to be human.
“Thank you for doing that. Are there more from your planet here?”
She shakes her head, whispers, “all dead,” and the alien puts its slightly too large hand on her shoulder.
“We understand. Most of us came to escape death and inprisonment only to find the cycle continue on earth. But we can protect you, like you protected ours. We are a community. A resistance.”
Kara nods, her heart beating fast as the idea of a community, and says, “what are you resisting?”
“Those men who attacked you are from an evil group that tries to snuff out all aliens on this planet. They’re called the DEO.”
Kara can feel it in her pulse as it beats faster and faster, that feeling of purpose and meaning coming in to play. People like her are here and they need her help.
Question of Smoke 