Oh, the bar is a beautiful place
Jul. 2nd, 2002 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hackthis_archiveI wasn't planning on going out last night, but it happened anyway. Oops. Somewhere along the way I heard this happening.
For shame Clark. Chloe can do better.
Oh, this is for Kassie.
Slugger
“I said I wasn’t cheating then I began repeating/ I said I wasn’t cheating then I began repeating/ The abundance of redundance flooded her head/ And she said “If I’m leaving with a broken heart, you’re leaving with a bleeding nose.”
-Jettingham ‘Cheating’
~ * ~
Journalists are supposed to follow their noses, but Chloe cut hers off, and now her pretty face is suffering the price. Now Chloe suspects that she looks like a pig/human hybrid gone awry. She never was an elegant crier, but she knows that pretty criers are Hollywood tricks.
Like beautiful farmboys who claim to love you.
So when Chloe cries, it’s all tears and snot and puffy eyes and convenient flannel for Kleenex.
She doesn’t actually mind making a mess though, Clark could learn something from doing some laundry. Something about keeping things clean. About not lying.
Maybe it’s something Chloe needs to learn as well. A truth about self-delusion.
She couldn’t smell this one coming, not because it wasn’t there, but because she refused to acknowledge its pungent stench. The scent of betrayal. Clark’s loft reeks of the smell. It reeks of sweat and sex and an abundance of XY hormones, and the truth hit her like a story that someone stole.
Her reality makes the journalist in Chloe rage in full-on National Enquirer mode. It howls about leads she ignored and stories she never followed up. Chloe’s mind is worse than any Editor-in-Chief could ever be about a missed deadline.
Chloe deliberately mislead her reader. She deliberately mislead herself. No wonder she has to give up her Pulitzer.
No wonder Clark isn’t really hers.
Chloe knew from the beginning that it wasn’t going to work out, and yet. And yet she still went ahead with their burgeoning relationship, she still tried to write her story. She still tried to create a story worth writing about.
Even when she knew better.
Her gut is seriously pissed off about her lack of self-preservation, her lack of journalistic integrity, about the way she deliberately muzzled her source. Even when she knew the truth, even when she saw it with her own eyes.
Clark and Lex in the Talon. Clark and Lex at the Beanery. Clark and Lex, Lex and Clark.
Chloe’s brain is buzzing and shrieking like the newsroom of the Daily Planet the day she went in for her internship interview, and yet, it’s kind of comforting. In that white noise to block out the pain way, in that better the devil she knows way.
The devil looks better in black and purple than red. She has to give credit to his tailor. She also has to give credit to herself.
People have to be willing to be deceived.
Chloe was willing to be deceived, but she’s not willing to be anybody’s beard.
She’s not going to hang around in the outfield while the home team steals all the bases. She’s not a part of the 1919 White Sox.
She is Chloe Marie Sullivan, and someday she’ll find someone who isn’t psychotic or in the smallest closet in Kansas. Someday she’ll find someone who’s willing to be honest with her, like Pete, only with the sexual attraction thing happening.
She’ll be someone’s first choice, someday. She’s that good, she’s better than that. She’s better than sobs and sniffles and stupid stupid stupid copies of letters that Clark wrote to Lex.
Clark is never going to be an international thief; he can’t cover his tracks at all. Clark Kent sucks at lying and maybe that’s why she let him do it for so long.
Maybe that’s why she knew all along. Maybe that’s how she knows deep down inside it will all be okay.
She’ll get through this because she’s strong. Because weak people don’t survive in her chosen profession. Chloe will get through this because there has to be a life for her after Clark Kent. She knows there was life before him, so it stands to reason that there’s going to be life after him.
Or there will be as soon as she can figure out how she’s going to react. What she’s going to do to him now that he’s standing at the top of the stairs looking at her like she just spontaneously mutated.
A good journalist always thinks on her feet. A good journalist never has time for second-guessing or doubting or anything like regret.
Chloe doesn’t regret any of her time with Clark. She doesn’t even regret going to the dance with him. But she has *quibbles* about the way he just left her to go save Lana.
Lana, who as it turns out, wasn’t even her real competition. Not that she never had her suspicions, but Chloe is suspicious by nature. She thinks that the mailman pinches her Jane magazine and that’s why it’s always late for delivery.
But there’s always something to Chloe’s suspicions, and she knows that. She’s always known that when she doesn’t listen to her suspicions she only has herself to blame for the outcome.
Chloe still has some integrity, and she’s got a whole lot of pride. She has more than enough to not automatically smile back when Clark tries to act concerned and worried.
Chloe still has dignity, and it’s more than enough for her to haul off and slap Clark Kent for all of his lies.
-finis-
For shame Clark. Chloe can do better.
Oh, this is for Kassie.
Slugger
“I said I wasn’t cheating then I began repeating/ I said I wasn’t cheating then I began repeating/ The abundance of redundance flooded her head/ And she said “If I’m leaving with a broken heart, you’re leaving with a bleeding nose.”
-Jettingham ‘Cheating’
~ * ~
Journalists are supposed to follow their noses, but Chloe cut hers off, and now her pretty face is suffering the price. Now Chloe suspects that she looks like a pig/human hybrid gone awry. She never was an elegant crier, but she knows that pretty criers are Hollywood tricks.
Like beautiful farmboys who claim to love you.
So when Chloe cries, it’s all tears and snot and puffy eyes and convenient flannel for Kleenex.
She doesn’t actually mind making a mess though, Clark could learn something from doing some laundry. Something about keeping things clean. About not lying.
Maybe it’s something Chloe needs to learn as well. A truth about self-delusion.
She couldn’t smell this one coming, not because it wasn’t there, but because she refused to acknowledge its pungent stench. The scent of betrayal. Clark’s loft reeks of the smell. It reeks of sweat and sex and an abundance of XY hormones, and the truth hit her like a story that someone stole.
Her reality makes the journalist in Chloe rage in full-on National Enquirer mode. It howls about leads she ignored and stories she never followed up. Chloe’s mind is worse than any Editor-in-Chief could ever be about a missed deadline.
Chloe deliberately mislead her reader. She deliberately mislead herself. No wonder she has to give up her Pulitzer.
No wonder Clark isn’t really hers.
Chloe knew from the beginning that it wasn’t going to work out, and yet. And yet she still went ahead with their burgeoning relationship, she still tried to write her story. She still tried to create a story worth writing about.
Even when she knew better.
Her gut is seriously pissed off about her lack of self-preservation, her lack of journalistic integrity, about the way she deliberately muzzled her source. Even when she knew the truth, even when she saw it with her own eyes.
Clark and Lex in the Talon. Clark and Lex at the Beanery. Clark and Lex, Lex and Clark.
Chloe’s brain is buzzing and shrieking like the newsroom of the Daily Planet the day she went in for her internship interview, and yet, it’s kind of comforting. In that white noise to block out the pain way, in that better the devil she knows way.
The devil looks better in black and purple than red. She has to give credit to his tailor. She also has to give credit to herself.
People have to be willing to be deceived.
Chloe was willing to be deceived, but she’s not willing to be anybody’s beard.
She’s not going to hang around in the outfield while the home team steals all the bases. She’s not a part of the 1919 White Sox.
She is Chloe Marie Sullivan, and someday she’ll find someone who isn’t psychotic or in the smallest closet in Kansas. Someday she’ll find someone who’s willing to be honest with her, like Pete, only with the sexual attraction thing happening.
She’ll be someone’s first choice, someday. She’s that good, she’s better than that. She’s better than sobs and sniffles and stupid stupid stupid copies of letters that Clark wrote to Lex.
Clark is never going to be an international thief; he can’t cover his tracks at all. Clark Kent sucks at lying and maybe that’s why she let him do it for so long.
Maybe that’s why she knew all along. Maybe that’s how she knows deep down inside it will all be okay.
She’ll get through this because she’s strong. Because weak people don’t survive in her chosen profession. Chloe will get through this because there has to be a life for her after Clark Kent. She knows there was life before him, so it stands to reason that there’s going to be life after him.
Or there will be as soon as she can figure out how she’s going to react. What she’s going to do to him now that he’s standing at the top of the stairs looking at her like she just spontaneously mutated.
A good journalist always thinks on her feet. A good journalist never has time for second-guessing or doubting or anything like regret.
Chloe doesn’t regret any of her time with Clark. She doesn’t even regret going to the dance with him. But she has *quibbles* about the way he just left her to go save Lana.
Lana, who as it turns out, wasn’t even her real competition. Not that she never had her suspicions, but Chloe is suspicious by nature. She thinks that the mailman pinches her Jane magazine and that’s why it’s always late for delivery.
But there’s always something to Chloe’s suspicions, and she knows that. She’s always known that when she doesn’t listen to her suspicions she only has herself to blame for the outcome.
Chloe still has some integrity, and she’s got a whole lot of pride. She has more than enough to not automatically smile back when Clark tries to act concerned and worried.
Chloe still has dignity, and it’s more than enough for her to haul off and slap Clark Kent for all of his lies.
-finis-
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 11:33 am (UTC)Dammit.
Poor, poor Chloe. Stupid Clark.
This is lovely.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 12:30 pm (UTC)I am left wondering if slapping Clark broke her hand. I mean, knives shatter on his face. Why not bones.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 01:09 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-07-02 01:31 pm (UTC)It is most delicious *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 02:48 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-07-02 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 04:35 pm (UTC)Clark is a dipshit. Word. He's only dealable when he's all cute and horny...and even then. *sigh* Word on shipping characters too.
"Dear Flippy, this is why you don't date high school boys. Especially ones that trade looks like *those* with their best friends. There are support groups, look into them."
got a whole cd full of Chloe songs - anti-chlark anthem of the day "Free Agent" by the No-No's. Kassie, Criss and Ali know of what I speak. *g*
*mwa* beautiful job, bella. most squee worthy.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 06:28 pm (UTC)that's an icon if ever i heard one. power to the flippy. oh lord.
you go, girl...
Date: 2002-07-02 09:05 pm (UTC)Re: you go, girl...
Date: 2002-07-03 09:24 am (UTC)Re: you go, girl...
Date: 2002-07-03 02:05 pm (UTC)I can't take any real credit for the icon--I modified the hell out of this gal's SV sprites (http://www.pink-cloud.nu/primadonna/), and did stuff like make Clark taller, and put 'em in formalwear... She, erm, got kinda miffed at me for altering them, actually. I felt really bad...
Re: you go, girl...
Date: 2002-07-03 04:51 pm (UTC)Ask and you shall receive!
Date: 2002-07-02 09:18 pm (UTC)Flippy Power Icon (http://www.geocities.com/misswyndy/images/flippower.jpg) (by moi).
This fic was great... a tear jerker... and Chloe can DEFINITELY do better!! Somehow, Clark comes out as a big stupid tool in all my writing too. Interesting how a lot of Chloe-finds-out-about-the-Clex fics have her being very positive about it; yours is a lot more realistic. And no, she's not an elegant crier at all; that's part of why she rocks. I love an actor who isn't afraid to look totally hideous on screen. ;)
Re: Ask and you shall receive!
Date: 2002-07-03 09:26 am (UTC)and as for clark, he's a dumbass. i see why kassie writes chloe/lex, i just can't quite do it yet.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-18 01:44 am (UTC)wasn't it fun when we were in the same fandom? *pines*