Visitor Spoilers/Snippet

[rivkat]

Well, Lex seems to have left the Clark-worship building, which is really too bad, though Big Picture of Clark makes me happy anyway. This snippet comes from a comment by cjandre. Despite the title, I really see Clark in the role of the last duchess, loving everyone equally instead of paying proper tribute (as Lex sees it) to Lex.

My Last Duchess

Lex would have liked Helen longer, he thinks, if she’d been honest enough to make the very obvious Bluebeard comparison. It wasn’t as if he were averse to a good literary reference.

Bluebeard never opened the one door for his lady love, though, and Helen wasn’t exactly looking at the corpses of her predecessors. On the other hand – she’d been drawn into the Kents’ orbit, and he’d asked her to move in to keep that connection close, so she could claim some rights of succession.

‘Tis a pity she was a whore.

And what a way to die. The Inquisitor had been in scum heaven for months: Oops, Wrong Luthor! Helen Luthor Dies in Car Crash After Sex Rendevous With Lionel Luthor. Coroner’s Office: Evidence Shows Lionel Was Helen’s Lover.

Leaking the results of the sperm tests was, perhaps, unnecessary. But then it had been unnecessary for his father to fuck Helen, and Lex rather thinks that the disgust with which people have been looking at Lionel of late was worth the public revelation of his cuckolding.

Lex fingers the pages filled with her handwriting. She’d taped them to the underside of the second-to-last filing cabinet in her office, along with a glass slide dark with dried blood. The slide, minus a few cells still being analyzed at Cadmus, has its own transparent cube on the far left of the room. Helen’s notes will do just fine in the safe. He’s fairly confident that she hadn’t seen fit to share them with Lionel before her untimely demise.

The pager on his hip buzzes, indicating that his guest has arrived. Lex is a good host, so he slides the papers back into their slot and closes the heavy door of the safe.

The only real lasting harm of the incident is that this isn’t the sixteenth century, and a man who acquires and loses wives at such a rate will be thought, at best, unfortunate.

He’ll have to be more careful from here on out.

Lex closes the door behind him and hears the electronically activated bolts on all four sides of the door slide home. He tugs at his jacket to straighten it as he descends the stairs and hurries into the study, where his guest awaits.

“Hello,” he says and smiles. “I hope you’re hungry, because the chef has really outdone herself tonight.”

His guest knows enough to be useful, is loved enough not to be abandoned even in the arms of a Luthor, and has the animal intelligence necessary to know that she doesn’t want to see behind any locked doors.

Her smile is brilliant, like a light – turn the switch and it comes on. “I can’t wait,” Lana says, and he takes her arm and walks towards the future.

Comments

[meret.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of people are upset, but I *like* evil Lex. Not torturing/raping/vivesecting Lex, but elegantly manipulative murederous Lex is great. *eg* Terrific story! You struck the perfect mood. I especially like the ending.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I still think the evilness is rushed (what the heck is he going to be doing by S4? Wearing that lavender skintight suit and cackling?) but it worked for me on an emotional level. Lex has given up on so much, convinced himself that he didn't want it anyway -- Clark's trust, Jonathan's approval, probably Desiree since he still doesn't know the whole story -- and that, much more than a botched black op, is where he starts jogging down that famed road into darkness.

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that devious, obsessed Lex from last night creeped me out so much, but your rather jauntily murderous Lex strikes just the right note. I suspect it's the vastly superior writing. (And the absence of that sickly blue light. That just really unnerved me.)

The only real lasting harm of the incident is that this isn’t the sixteenth century, and a man who acquires and loses wives at such a rate will be thought, at best, unfortunate.

I loved this line. Poor Lex. The inconveniences he faces here in the 21st century. *g*

Great literary illusions. And I agree with you. For Lex, it is Clark who gives his smiles away too freely.

Wonderful job!

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I didn't mind the blue light (though I couldn't see Lex's expression as clearly as I would have liked), but I really hope he knows what he's doing showing Helen that room. If she's got the brains of, oh, a duck, she's got to know that she could very easily end up as another exhibit.

I can really see Lex as the Duke, giving orders, until all smiles ceased.