chapter five ♔ it'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down

[eldritchweaver]

the blues - switchfoot

WHO || The Knights
WHAT || Failboat returns from the disaster in LA as the Knighthood goes on lockdown
WHERE || The castle, London
WHEN || Directly after this, Fall 2017
HOW || Actionspam

Hasmed's announcement does not brook any rebuttal: all Knights are recalled to the Castle, where they must remain until the Section Heads and Jack Chessing have spoken about the events in Los Angeles that have left the Knighthood without their usual leader.  

The entire Los Angeles area is now covered with a dark miasma that has interfered with any signals that might be sent out from phones, etc., leaving the whole world wondering what exactly is happening down there.  Final images showed horrendous monsters, a panic of citizens, looting and violence from humans and Shadowkind alike.  

Hasmed has warned of extra magical wards on the castle, and anyone arriving will immediately take notice of one very prominent one: above the entire roof of the excessively large building hovers a black and red sigil in the air, a pentagram in a circle surrounded by runes or words in an unknown language, stretching for miles.  

[ This is the social log for post-LA lockdown.  Failboat must complete the top log before being allowed to tag outside of it. ]

Comments

[loisfuckinglane]

How exactly are they trying to do that?

[clarkfuckingkent]

I don't know. I haven't been involved with it.

[loisfuckinglane]

So what have you been doing, exactly? What do they want with a well meaning farmboy from the back end of nowhere?

[clarkfuckingkent]

[He looks down at the table. Boy, he had hoped to avoid this for a bit longer.]

I helped them when they were in a tight spot. At Luthorcorp.

[loisfuckinglane]

Which seems like a good reason to send a fruit basket, not hire you to join their secret spy squad.

[clarkfuckingkent]

[He sighs]

There are... things I can do. Things that not many other people are capable of.

[loisfuckinglane]

Do they involve baling hay?

[clarkfuckingkent]

Not usually. [how long can he stall..? Ugh, okay he's just going to have to say it. There have been multiple times in his life where he's tried to find the best way to bring this up. It never feels like the right choice. Maybe there is no right choice.]

Lois, I'm... not from Earth.

[loisfuckinglane]

[ she looked all prepared with another sassy comeback that immediately dies on her tongue ] ... Come again?

[clarkfuckingkent]

An alien. You remember the meteor that crashed into Smallville all those years ago? [Not that she was there, but she had family there and people talked about it fairly frequently.] It wasn't a meteor. It was me. The Kents found me and took me in.

[loisfuckinglane]

As far as practical jokes go, this one's gotta take the cake. [ she glances behind her ] Is there a camera? Is this on Facebook Live?

[clarkfuckingkent]

It's not a joke, Lois. [And to try to prove his point, he uses one hand to lift up the table (str 26). He stays seated and just hoists it up over his head. No big deal.]

[loisfuckinglane]

[ waiting for superman - daughtry

her eyes go wide as saucers, all of the sarcasm draining away out of her expression, all of the doubt, replaced by nothing less than wonder at what she's staring at. she doesn't recoil, doesn't do anything more than freeze in place, her gaze moving slowly from the table, back to clark, who she seems to be staring at with entirely new eyes.

she speaks in an amazed tone, her words far away as she struggles to find anything to say to that. ]

... Guess I have to stop calling you "Smallville.".

[clarkfuckingkent]

[He lowers the table and cracks the first smile he's been able to manage for some time.]

You're taking this better than I thought you would.

[loisfuckinglane]

Did you think I was going to get the vapors? [ despite herself she steps forward, almost like she's tempted to just touch him and make sure he's real, half lifting a hand, even ] How did you--

[clarkfuckingkent]

[He just always assumes anyone knowing would be very very bad. Thanks mom and dad for conditioning him for that instinct (but no really thank you for being great parents).]

I'm still me. [He holds out a hand, palm up.] I've been this way for as long as I can remember.

[loisfuckinglane]

"This way", meaning ... the superstrength? [ she looks at him with glittering eyes ] Is there more?

[clarkfuckingkent]

I'm also pretty fast. [He tries to downplay it because he's just a humble farmboy okay!!]

There's more, but I don't have much control over it. [Brushes other powers under a rug since he didn't have power points for them yet.]

[loisfuckinglane]

How have you kept this a secret so long?

[clarkfuckingkent]

Years of practice. And it helped that the farm was big enough that I could play around with some of it as a kid, figure out what I could do without worrying about someone seeing. [Until high school basically.]

My parents were terrified that if anyone knew, I'd be taken away. Studied. Ive only recently started to get comfortable with the idea of people knowing. Besides my parents, it was pretty much only Chloe and Pete for a long time. Only a handful of the Knights even know.

And now you. I'm trusting you with the biggest secret I've got, Lois. And I need to know that you can keep it for me.

[loisfuckinglane]

But... why me? [ there's a surprising vulnerability in the question, something he's not used to seeing very often in tough-as-nails lane. ]

[clarkfuckingkent]

[That's a good question. He has an instinct to joke that she was bound to find out eventually so he may as well come clean. But that's not really it. He's trying to be more honest here, so he pauses for a moment before continuing.]

Because I know I can trust you. And because things are about to get really dangerous. So I need you to be able to trust me, too. Especially if we're going to possibly work together.

[loisfuckinglane]

[ her breath hitches a bit at that, a feeling of importance flooding through her that causes her to straighten up a bit ] I do. Trust you, I mean. I didn't do any of this because I didn't trust you, Clark.

I thought you... I thought you might need help, at first.

[clarkfuckingkent]

[A smile twitches at his lips. She may be pushy and get in over her head often, but having someone track him down and dig into all of this just to make sure that he was okay? It feels nice.]

I'm okay. [He feels like giving that reassurance is the least he can do.] But I didn't just come here to come clean about everything. I've got a friend waiting in the car. Well...he's kind of like a supervisor. Not for my section, but... [He shakes his head] Maybe I should just go get him.

[loisfuckinglane]

He's not about to flash some thing in my eyes to make me forget all this, is he?