tushanshu | [Video]

Entry tags:

[Video]

[What is visible of the room is obviously in Earth Sector, both from the décor and from the view out of the large, open window over Lois’ shoulder. As for Lois herself, she’s still somewhat damp and visibly grumpy about it. Her sigh is explosive as she runs a hand through her hair.]

Kidnapping, fine. Another day in my life. Alternate universes? They’re not so much my thing. I try to leave that to the heroes. Murder and mayhem are plenty for headlines.

[Lois rolls her eyes as she says the latter. Despite the few sentences, she manages to convey even more information, even subconsciously: her face and tone are expressive. Exasperation, impatience, and the voice of experience shine through. So too does her underlying concern, though. She is absently twisting some hair around a finger. Her engagement and wedding rings glint as she does.]

Lois Lane, Daily Planet, if anyone’s heard of it.

The last time I ran into an alternate world, at least it was someone’s… misguided attempt at a paradise. Nice enough place, but even that ended in a fight. One day I’d like to get a freaking vacation with one of these things.

[Pause.]

So… are there any competent newspapers around this place?

[So much for wanting a vacation.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Depends what "this" is? [She saw Bruce respond to Lois, which makes life a little easier.] If you mean me talking to you, I'm afraid I don't have official clearance. [her expression conveys that she doesn't really fuss about that sort of thing.]

[Lois' eyebrows go up, briefly.]

What I don't know, someone can't get out of me. But if Batman and Oracle relax enough to trust the reporter?

They're worse than Clark. [Her smile is whimsical.] And it took him long enough. I usually pry up to plausible deniability.

Bats is way worse than Oracle. [at least in Steph's opinion, since Bruce wouldn't even let her boyfriend tell her his name, while she was allowed to hang out with Oracle at the Clocktower.]

Anyway, I've always thought that whole "they can't get hurt if they don't know" routine was a bit of nonsense. [if someone's involved with a superhero, they're a target regardless of how much they know.

At least in Steph's experience.]

He's had more years of becoming paranoid.

[Lois rolls her eyes a little.] Yeah, no kidding. Even though I'm married to Clark, people still use me to get to Superman. There was this time with Dracula--

But that's only part of it.

Wait, like, actual Dracula? [Focus, Brown, that isn't the important part] What's the other part?

[She could make a guess or two, but it's simpler to just ask, since she's not entirely sure]

It was... complicated. [Lois sounds reluctant to talk about it, now that it's occurred to her.]

The other part is-- you know the phrase 'three can keep a secret if two of them are dead?'

I imagine it would be. [her tone is gentle, this is Steph's way of suggesting it's okay to not talk about it]

Yeah... [this is not quite where she thought it was going] Isn't that usually about like, the bad kind of secrets?

[poor wording, but Steph knows what she means; I Know What You Did Last Summer type secrets]

[It was not the best time for Lois, or for her marriage. Best left unsaid.]

You think it's any less true for heroes' identities? With all the telepaths and Lassos of Truth and the like running around...

[Her lips thin for a moment at a memory.]

I guess. [Steph's expression is something between rueful and unsure] I mean like - I'm not trying to say everyone should go shouting their names from the rooftops, but...

[a shrug; she rubs the back of her neck] I'm a pretty good example of what happens when people don't have complete information. [she doubts Lois knows the specific details, but she's sure the other woman can guess it had something to do with the gang war.] I just think we sometimes focus too much on desperately keeping secrets instead of taking the time to actually weigh up the risks versus the benefits.

[Lois' lips thin a little, and she looks away briefly. She doesn't have nightmares about Manchester Black anymore. It still took her longer than him to recover.]

How's this for risk versus benefit: if Joker knew who Oracle is. [That Joker-anything is bad news, but... Barbara.]

Besides, there's other forms of 'risk' besides life-threatening-danger.

He'd be dead. [the answer is so simple she doesn't have to think about it, doesn't even care that Bruce is probably watching. If Babs didn't kill him, Steph would.]

But I really don't think it's a 'one extreme or the other' type situation. There's a middle ground, and I don't think people put in enough effort to find it. Maybe I'm just biased. [hours of torture that could have been avoided had she known Bruce = Matches will do that to a girl]

I know there is.

There probably are. And it's probably different in teams, where everyone has to work together.

[Like the League, which she knows has shared before--and, then again, she knows about Bruce. Not always the details of Gotham's crime-fighting force, but nonetheless...]

Admittedly, my angle on it is based entirely on paranoia not related to getting physically hurt. I leave that fretting to Smallville.

I don't really know much about those. [Teams. But it's just a casual comment, there's no real emotion in it one way or the other. She doesn't regret not having been in a team, evem though sometimes she thinks it might've been nice.

She tries not to think about Kara back home, suggesting they should make their girl group a regular thing.]

I imagine he's probably good at that. [He seems like the sort of person to fuss over everyone, especially his wife] What do you worry about, if you don't mind my asking?

[She sighs explosively.] One: There would be all sorts of questions about my professionalism and I'd probably never get to cover anything remotely related to him again. I'd go mad from boredom in a week.

[Though her reason remains utterly serious, her tone lightens into exasperation.]

Two: At work Cat Grant tried impressing Clark Kent with her surgical improvements. What do you think would happen if all of Metropolis knew which apartment Superman lives in?

[Oh. The first point isn't really something Steph has thought about, not ever really having been in a professional workforce and had to deal with considerations like that, but it makes sense.

The second point is not really something she wants to think about too much, but she'll admit that she can understand where Lois is coming from.]

Those definitely aren't things I tend to worry about.

[Really hers are just "supervillains coming after her mom" and "getting arrested because being a vigilante is technically illegal"]

But I can see why they'd be a problem. It's a lot simpler just to have to worry about the supervillain thing.

Oh yeah. Give me Lex Luthor or Parasite or whoever over the adoring masses--especially the hormonal female ones--any day of the week.

[And there is a level at which she is serious. Supervillains can be punched. Hypothetically fangirls cannot be punched.

It's more than a little hypocritical of her, considering how she met Superman (rather than Clark) and her attitude towards him for years. Then again, she knows the mindset intimately.

Thing is, she learned better. And now she's a little territorial.]

Besides, neither of us wants that much attention.

I'd take the supervillains over the fans, too.

[It makes her think of Secret, who'd managed to get a crush on Robin and had decided that Steph was - what, keeping him from her? All she really remembered was being scared out of her wits because a fucking shost was trying to kill her.

Admittedly, that's a little different from the average fangirl, but the association is there.]

That doesn't surprise me. I mean - I don't really know either of you, but he's never seemed like... [she trails off and waves a hand in the air, hoping Lois will just understand. For all that Superman's in the spotlight, he doesn't seem to really need it.

He's no Booster Gold, is what she's saying.]

[Lois smiles dryly. She thinks of Booster Gold too.

After all, Booster worked in Metropolis for a while, while Clark was going through another lack-of-powers streak.]

No. He's not. And I don't think Metropolis--or the world--would love him the way they do if he were.

[Or possibly she's projecting.

Then again, her writing helped shape Metropolis' opinion of him, so it might be the same thing.]

I'd be willing to agree with that one. If people thought he was doing what he does for fame or glory or what-have-you, they wouldn't respect him nearly as much.

[It's always sort of interested her, the difference between the superheroes in the spotlight and the vigilantes hiding in the dark in Gotham.

But she does think Lois is right, she knows she personally wouldn't respect Superman as much if he seemed to love the attention.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Video]

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions

video; 99% batcryptions