2015.01.05 - The New Adventures of...

It's a typical evening at the Daily Planet building. Which means everyone's working their fingers off at keyboards, while interns relay coffee, food, and occasionally notes to busy typists. Lois Lane is at her desk as usual, finishing up on an article for the next day's paper. This particular article is about the apparent rise in the numbers of metahumans - her argument being that the actual number of metahumans hasn't changed, just the number of publicly revealed ones. "Jimmy, you're still here?" Lois calls over her shoulder. Jimmy Olsen grins. "Still have some work to do, just like you Lois."
Since returning from hiatus, Editor-in-Chief Clark Kent has been taking a more active role in the daily affairs of the paper. For example, he walks around the various cubicles when he has his coffee instead of just taking it in his office the way he used to. He's also made a habit of talking to every single person in the building at some point throughout the day. Those who aren't in on the secret wonder how he has the energy, but by this point most people have a few theories.
"I got your card, Ed. Thanks for remembering." What exactly Ed remembered is probably not all that important, but Clark shakes his hand earnestly regardless and pats him on the shoulder before moving on.
"Oh Bob! Did you get that email I sent? The cat climbed all the way up the well! Unreal, right?" The two share a quick chuckle before Clark moves on.
But not all of his encounters with employees are so cordial. In fact, when he gets to Jimmy's desk, he's practically frowning. "I've been looking over the expense reports. You and Ms. Lane have some explaining to do, Olsen."
Jimmy squeaks a bit, eyes widening as he looks at his boss sheepishly. "Ah, what do you mean, Mr. Kent? We haven't been too unreasonable, have we Lois?" Lois swivels her chair to look over at the two men from across the way. "I know 've kept good records of all of my business expenses, can't speak for you Jimmy." Lois's voice is professional;l she considered Clark a dear friend, but he was also her boss. "What's the problem, Mr. Kent?"
"Oh no, everything looks alright up until a few weeks ago. But then there are bills from... an ice rink? Am I reading this right? Something about ice-dancing lessons?" He squints as he looks at the paper, adjusting his glasses as if to sell the idea that he's having a hard time making out the numbers and figures.
"Did you know about this, Lois? I didn't know Jimmy even owned a pair of skates..." He hands her the paper, as if to let her corroborate the figures. The paper is blank, of course, but props to Clark for at least attempting to joke with his employees, even if it is at Jimmy's expense.
Lois Lane shoots Clark a skeptical look... until she looks at the paper. Her lips twicth in a smirk; somehow she doesn't start laughing immediately. "Why, Jimmy, I didn't know you liked ice skating!" Jimmy's eyes practically bug out. "W-what?! Hey, I didn't tak ice skating lessons! Boss, there has to be some sort of mistake." Lois can't keep her laughter in any more; Jimmy's face was priceless. "Hey, you two are pulling a prank on me? Lois, stop teaming up with Clack it's no fair!" Lois holds her hand to her mouth, still chuckling. "You're too easy of a mark Jimmy!"
Clark manages to keep a chuckle in long enough to see the look on Jimmy's face. But he breaks out into laughter at almost the exact second that Lois does. For a few seconds, he's just an aging newspaperman making corny jokes. It's an illusion that he's worked decades to perfect, and he isn't going to give it up anytime soon.
"I couldn't help it, chum. The mood in here was just a bit too stuffy for my tastes. You two are doing excellent work though, positively keen. I was just telling Roger in finance that I'm going to have to watch myself, or one of you two will be gunning for my chair inside of five years."
"And give up being in the thick of a story? Not on your life Clark." Lois says, still grinning. Jimmy shakes his head, but he's smiling through it all; he really did like Clark's humor, even if he did end up the butt of the joke on occasion. "Score one point for the boss. Man, you two are terrible you know that?" Lois shrugs. "C'mon Jimmy, you know us." Lois winks. "So other than harassing the minions, how's you day going Clark?"
"Oh, you know, just waiting around with bated breath, hoping to see another front-page article from the Dynamic Duo. This one is about... mutants, right? I hope it's not a scare piece." Clark takes a sip of his coffee. He swears it's the only thing that gets him through the day, but anyone who has ever paid attention knows that he's always been a decaf drinker...
Behind him, the bullpen is still abuzz with activity. One might think they'd traveled back thirty years to before newspapers started laying off personnel en masse. Whatever the reason, things that the Daily Planet are picking back up.
"Metahumans, Clark. Not mutants. Slight difference." Lois grins, turning back to her computer. "Metahumans have latent powers that are triggered by outside stimuli, while mutants have a genetic 'X-factor' that gives them superhuman abilities." Jimmy sounds like he's reading off a dictionary definition. "And it's no scare piece; Lois is better than that. It's an anti-scare piece, more like." Lois takes a sip of her own coffee - double black. Unlike Clark, who drank coffee for the taste, Lois lived off caffeine. It was probably going to cause problems down the line.
Another voice pipes up; Linda, who covered the political beat. "Hey Lane, how's your boyfriend?" she asks with a sly note to her voice. "He's not a boyfriend Linda, just a friend!" Lois replies with a deep blush. "And none of your business anyway." She's not mad... just embarrassed.
"Oh, so that's why you've been getting so much dead vegetation recently. I thought maybe you'd had a death in the family..." It's perhaps a positive sign that Clark is joking openly about death. But then, neither of these people were around when Clark experienced any of the last few family deaths that he went through. "... or maybe it was some new-fangled diet you were on."
He takes his glasses off, wiping them on his immaculately-pressed white shirt. He's been wearing the 'Mad Men' uniform since long before the show was even an idea, but it's worked for him so far.
Lois Lane is deeply glad that Clark isn't heckling her about her love life - not that she'd ever think he would. He was a good man, a wonderful boss, and a good friend. "Me, eat flowers for lunch? Bleh, no way. I get my figure the old-fashioned way; excersize!" Jimmy chuckles, having turned back to his own computer. He's working on touching up some photos. "So, who is the luckly guy, anyway Lois? Half of Metropolis wants to date you!" Lois turns bright red again. "Not you too, Jimmy!" The photographer grins. "You can tell us Lois, we'll keep it secret!" Lois takes a long drink of coffee, not before muttering 'The hell you would' under her breath.
"Don't forget about our fine readers in Moose Lake, Jimmy." Clark takes a gently scolding tone with his young photographer as he puts his glasses back on. His blue eyes refocus as the lenses distort his field of vision to almost human levels. All part of selling the disguise, obviously.
"It's really none of our business. But if I had to take a guess, I'd say Lois is the one who made the first move. This is the woman who jumps off of skyscrapers for interviews, after all."
"By the way Lois, Floyd from the insurance company said we could save a bundle on our policy if you'd just promise never to do that again..."
"Hey, to be fair I didn't intend to jump off a skyscraper, it kind of was the end result of a really complicated day!" Lois says with a huff, as Jimmy mutters 'Yeah yeah boss' and returns to the tedious task of color correcting a photo taken at night. "Landing in Superman's arms was just a highlight. Talk about falling for a guy." She winks playfully at Clark with that line. "Wait... are you dating Superman?" eases Linda. "Nope!" Lois shakes her head. "Far as I know, he's still a bachelor."
Superm-- erm... Clark comes dangerously close to blushing, but is saved from reddening at the mention of the word 'bachelor.' His features get just a bit heavier for a second. 'Bachelor' isn't really the correct word for his relationship status, after all. But he brightens up so quickly that the change in his features is all but imperceptible.
"I imagine Superman will be single for a long time. He's busy working on his house at the North Pole and making presents for all the good boys and girls. How do you work dating into a schedule like that?"
Everyone listening to the conversation gets a chuckle out of that one. "Hmm, well I heard rumors that he and the Amazon Princess were having a fling?" Jimmy says idly, taking a break from glaring at his screen. Lois rolls her eyes. "Oh come on, really? that's stuff the Bugle would print. Thought you had better standards Olsen!" Jimmy chuckles. "Well, they are good friends, so why not?" Linda looks thoughtful. "They're teammates, Jimmy. Somehow I don't think they see each other in a romantic light."
"Okay, okay. I'm paying you to find facts and get scoops, not gossip about who's dating who." His tone is certainly good-natured, but apparently Clark didn't like the way the conversation was turning. "But if you really want to spend your days gossiping, I might be able to transfer all of you to our Celebrity page...." He leaves the threat out there, looking at the reporters in turn with a convincingly menacing air.
It's good to be the Chief.
"Oh god, and have to spend all weekend covering Bruce Wayne?! No way!" Linda yells in mock horror, returning to her task at had. Now it's Lois's turn to look upset, and she mutters under her breath, 'Bruce is a wonderful man...' with a surprising amount of warmth. True, she had interviewed him a few times, mostly in regards to his connections to Lexcorp and Stark Industries, but nothing in her articles suggested anything but profession respect for the man. The office quiets down to its normal dull rumble as everyone heeds the Boss's words and quits the gossiping.
There's no such thing as 'under your breath' when you work in the same building as a Kryptonian. But, it's not like Superman makes a big deal about letting everyone in the world know that he has Super-Hearing. Well, aside from the Signal Watch that he gave Jimmy Olsen (still wearing it, in fact). And all those times he just kind of hovers above the city listening for people in distress.
But although he hears everything that everyone in the building says under their breath, he's learned not to react to any of it. So he just places a hand on Lois' shoulder and gives it a quick squeeze. "Have that on my desk as soon as you can, Lois. I can't wait to learn all about people with superpowers."
And with that, he's off. He heads down the bullpen, shaking hands and sharing smiles.
Lois Lane smiles at the simple gesture. "Sure thing boss." Somehow, the man always knew when she needed a little pick up. Or course, Lois had a pretty good guess as to how - but she wouldn't bring that up to Clark. If he wanted to be known as a humble newpaper man, she wasn't going to argue. 
"Hey Jimmy, does Flurry count as a metahuman?" she asks. "No Lois, she's a tech and-or magic user."
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