fic: The Right of Truth, part 1

[xparrot]

Next week we (hopefully) will return you to your regularly scheduled fic. For now - gratuitous Clex h/c, set in late second season. If I had been watching the show back then, this is just the sort of fic I would've been writing: slash angst-fluff, pretty much, exploring an issue about Clark's secrets (and in fact most superhero secret identities) that's been bothering me.

Warnings for a bit of good old fashioned Lex!torture in the beginning, and generally woobie!Lex. Also the Kents are perhaps not very nice here, which wasn't my intent, but how it worked out. Hopefully in an IC way, but still. (And may I say *sigh* that being an asshole is in character for SV's Jonathan...)

Smallville: The Right of Truth (1/2)
R, Clex, h/c; second season
Lex is kidnapped and it's Clark to the rescue as usual, but he might not be ready for all he finds.

Read it on AO3

Comments

[naye]

Aww! So sweet, and touching, and - Lex! Awwwwww! And Clark! And - aww, if the show was more like this, I'd be eating it up with a spoon. As it is, your fic is just perfect. ♥

[hils.livejournal.com]

I am such a sucker for Clex h/c

I love this! Can't wait for the next part

[danceswithgary]

Yes! Exactly what gets me about SV's canon on Clark's need for secrecy. Great stuff!

[aerynvala.livejournal.com]

Oh I am SO excited about this story! God but I love Lex staying true to the (he thought) bitter end. I completely believe that to be in character. And this Clark, this is what I wanted and needed so desperately from the show way back then. Some sign that he understood the gravity of his lies as it impacted the lives of others. Martha and Jonathan are also, imo, in character. And yes, yes, yes: canon!Jonathan is a jerky asswad. So you didn't write him too harshly at all. I cannot wait for more!! :D

[morganichele.livejournal.com]

This is great! I love Lex protecting Clark, and admitting his feelings, and Clark overhearing...This whole story was fantastic and full of stuff I just loved. :-) The way the phone call between Clark and Lex ended was perfect. I can't wait to read the next part. This is awesome.

[ladydey.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! This is lovely. I love what you are doing with Clark here. I can't wait to read the rest....

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I can't wait for your take on their reactions. Not just Lex, Chloe and Lana, too. The Kents were perfectly in character, with their devoted support to Clark and their platitudes covering up the darker depths of what they have to do and are willing to do.

exploring an issue about Clark's secrets (and in fact most superhero secret identities) that's been bothering me.
The problem with secret identities (for superheroes) is that that there's no real alternative for it - if you don't have one, you don't get privacy at best and your loved ones become targets at worst. And it's always a gamble telling someone, and each time someone new becomes a secret keeper, everyone else involved also is put at risk. For example: Lex has proven himself in this fic, but Clark decides to tell Chloe and Lana as well. But can he be sure they'll stay loyal? No. Especially not since he's been raised to trust no one and deny everything ;)

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Really good! Great emotion, cool issues and a wonderful hurt/comfort thing going on, I love it!

Speaking of hurt/comfort, (and this is something I meant to mention in the previous post,) I look forward to hearing yoru reaction to Doctor Who ep: '42', which is MADE of H/C.

At any rate, this is another spectacular piece of writing and I look forward to seeing where it goes. I hope the kidnapp issue is resolved too.

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Another lovely story. And yeah, Jonathan is pretty much in character. It's interesting that he is such a jerk in SV because he's not much of a character in the comics but he's always so nice. Their usual 'characterization' is just what Lex said. "Pillars of the community." Jonathan solves problems with platitudes and Martha worries and they're just good honest folks. I think SV is the first version of the Superman story where we really see anything of their personalities. That's a bit odd because Jonathan Kent has always been so important to the Superman mythos. He's more than a role model, he's what Clark aspires to be. And SV Jonathan Kent just isn't particularly inspirational.

Also, have you ever read Identity Crisis? It's a really powerful piece of DC storytelling that looks at the selective morality that have a secret identity requires. Their take on that issue is different than the one you've poised here. I think taken together that story and this one really challenge the idea that a secret identity protects people rather than endangering them.

Also, I really like the general banter of this story. It's sweet but not treacly and set back when Clark was (for me at least) still a likeable character. I'm excited to read the rest!

[attaccabottoni.livejournal.com]

Aw, it's a good thing I caught this, because angst-fluff is a great thing to take before bed.

Smallville will always be a strange town, because Clark is the biggest fish in a sea of oddities that he should have a local reputation given his relationship with the two most famous/sought-after residents in town and the rate of his involvement in many strange happenings. No one seems to want to look more into Clark Kent beyond his farm boy facade, but I'd like to think that there's always a danger of someone smart getting a clue and wanting to capitalize on it, which the show should have explored rather than rehashing the Lana stalker storyline, which makes less sense because it focuses on her virtues that she doesn't even affirm of herself.

I've been tallying at the back of my mind the relative costs that people around Clark had to pay by not knowing his secret (if Clark in the show had been more thoughtful rather than mopey, he would realize that shield/alibi allegory you mentioned in the fic). Lana and Chloe had sacrificed a lot (physical harm, heartbreak, etc.) and have repeatedly shown willingness to suffer for that, because they love and are devoted to him without knowing he's an alien (their reactions to finding out were dramatic, but not angry). Lex would have been just like Pete, who would be angry for a while but would soon prefer to deal with the practicalities of that new information about a friend that he will never turn his back on as long as it's in his power. But because Clark is Lex's only friend, because he's a Luthor and has Lionel for a father, because his life has been altered by an alien since both his arrivals in Smallville (not even including), because he's got trust issues and needed someone to teach him that you don't have to control people all the time, Lex had the steepest price to pay, because Lex may be more powerful than Lana, Chloe and Pete combined, but he's all the more vulnerable for it. Lex could become whomever he would have wanted, but since he is so inexorably linked to Clark, he couldn't have pulled away even if he knew he should.

I'm not saying that Lex had unknowingly paid enough to earn Clark's secret, but he has shown more than enough willingness to provide whatever he can for Clark and his family in ways that he couldn't profit from. How could the Kents have handled Lex's consistent gestures goodwill so badly then? I'm not putting a direct causality here, but they essentially made Lex more dangerous than he initially was.

And wow, I can't believe I've blurted out my own issue with Clark's secrets here. While I'm saying with little knowledge on how this is handled in the comics, I think the superheroes should be more conscious of the responsibility of having two identities, which Clark hasn't realized the necessity of due to his desire for a normal life, the poor boy.

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

This is awesome! *squees wildly* You have everyone perfectly in character, and I lovelovelove your tackling the issue of Clark's secrets and the price others may pay for being close to Clark without knowing them. Love your brave, self-sacrificing Lex, too, and this is exactly the way I see him, especially in the early seasons. Thanks so very much for posting this; I really needed a gallant Lex today. *waits most eagerly for more*

I've been thinking about how maintaining a secret identity...

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

... is somewhat analogous to being in the closet for gay people. I'm not gay myself, so I can't speak from personal experience. Everything I say on this subject is second hand, from things I've read or heard, so it's all pretty obvious. But gay people who have been in the closet all say it's divisive to your personality, that they hate lying to their friends and family, and that coming out is a relief, that it makes them stronger and happier.

I know it's not quite the same thing for Clark. Clark is the last Kryptonian, as far as he knows, so there isn't going to be a Kryptonian Liberation Front waiting in the wings. His parents are the first to know his Kryptonian identity, not the last, as is often the case with gay people and their gay identity. His identity as an alien is far more dangerous for his friends and family to know about, than would be his identity as a gay person. So I'm not suggesting it should be as easy for him to 'come out', and that he should come out publicly. I'm saying that hiding his identity as an alien must have something of the same effect on him.

In fact, the original comics did realize this. There is that split between 'Clark Kent' and 'Superman'. They're two different people, really. And Clark Kent from the comics was a rather unpleasant person, which was why Lois Lane didn't like him much. It was 'Lois and Clark' that really made Clark the hero of the show, I think. Though Christopher Reeve's Clark was an improvement on the comics Clark, too.

SV's Clark is shaping up to be much more like the Clark of the original comics. And it is his lack of any sympathy for, or understanding of, how his lies affect other people that I find distressing.

People keep saying he's young. Well, how mature do you have to be to realize that you hurt people when you lie to them? When Clark ran off, leaving Lex to be taken back inside Belle Reeve and essentially tortured, all to protect himself... that was unspeakable. But when he and his parents justified his actions, by saying it was all for the best, and Lex was happier for having his brains fried.... Gah! That was the worst. He'd just had a terrible revelation of how he hurt people by lying. If he'd seriously questioned his own actions, if he'd even seemed to consider whether or not it was worthy of him to allow his friend to be tortured to protect his secret, if he'd shown any sign of maturing through his experiences and being less judgemental of other people's faults, I'd like him more. But there it is.

Oh, and I was so into the entire subject...

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

... that I forgot to say 'Great Story!' and 'Thanks!' :-)))

[lukita.livejournal.com]

I'll just say I agree with what everyone wrote about Clark and his secrets up there.

♥Story, I think the Kents are very in character. Eee~ woobie!Lex, he lost this battle with Lionel.

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

Was just happily rereading, and noticed this:

Hearing footsteps through the door, Lex hastily tucked his hands under himself. He was halfway through the rope, not quite ready, and couldn't blow his chance until the time was right. Which hopefully would be soon; he was quite thoroughly bored. The only thing keeping utter ennui at bay was the knowledge that he had seen his captor's faces, enough to pick them from a lineup. That did not bode well for his future chances, if he failed to procure his own freedom.

In the next-to-last sentence, it should be 'captors' faces' rather than 'captor's faces.'

Love this story!

[tasabian.livejournal.com]

Ooh, love this! This is the thoughtful, ethical Clark I would like to see on the show. Love how he holds his own with his parents and also with Lex (and notices the parallel between Lex and Jonathan's protection of him.)

And your dialogue is always so clever. Love this bit:

"A necessary nightcap. Fortification for facing my father."

"If you're alliterating, you definitely should be going to bed. Not staying up drinking."

Awesome!

[talitha78.livejournal.com]

Greatly enjoying this. Thanks!

[ilostmynuts.livejournal.com]

Loving it! I stopped watching the show after the beginning of the second season. Fic is just so much better! :)

[lola-thursday.livejournal.com]

Oh my this is *so* my kind of crack. I am in heaven with this fic, it is so good. *rushes on to next part*

[ender24]

god, how much do i love your clark in this story (but to be honest, my view of the show is mostly shaped by the views of my flist, and as there are more loyal lex minions than clark ones... or maybe i am just biased on what i read *g*, so i dont expect myself to know much about the current clark , or the one of the last 3 seasons).

he is soooooo much .. better than he could be on the show.
and your lex is equally so much better.....

and alas, i love the kents in the first seasons, and dont want to taint my pink-colored tinted memories of them, so i mostly skipped the parts, where clark talked with them, coz i assume, if you go the realistic - show - course, they would say something along "lalala, your secret is big, lex is bad, you shouldnt tell, no matter who else get hurt, lex or others..."