IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE!

We are bound together by the future. We all share the same tomorrow.

[oftomorrow]

What do you most want people to know about you? That I'm just a regular guy. But you're anything but regular. Okay, fair, fair. But, you know, beyond the powers, I'm a husband. I'm a father. Really, I'm just like anyone else out there who loves their family. And wants to be better. For them.

An independent roleplay blog for DC's Clark Kent / Kal-El / Superman. Blended and flexible canon, primarily inspired by Superman & Lois, My Adventures with Superman, and the DCU. As written by Jeanette.

MOBILE LINKS — RULES · ABOUT · VERSES BLOG ROLL — SUPERFAM MULTI

[daisychase]

SUPERMAN & LOIS // 3.10 "Collision Course"

[oftomorrow]

I have now met two (2) Supermen. Tyler last year and Tom this year ✨️

Shoutout to the unintentionally very funny Smallville panel where people cheered for their favorite seasons, only for Season 6 to receive a single person going "yeah" and Season 7 to get literally nothing. What a mood honestly.

[nogoodnessimproveme-archive]

Reblog this is your muse has straight up actually died

Optional: they’ve returned from the dead

[murder-popsicle]

Bucky couldn't help it; she immediately pulled her aunt's housecoat closed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she did so, and fixed Clark with a beady, suspicious eye. "You ain't lookin' through my clothes, are ya?" she demanded. "You better not be! 'Cause if you are, I'll bop you one, I swear!"

Of course, bopping Clark one might not actually hurt him, Bucky realized belatedly. A kid who could catch a burning beam in his bare hands probably wouldn't be troubled by her left hook.

[oftomorrow]

Clark turns his head, sees the way she's covering herself, and promptly turns scarlet as he forces his attention forward again. "No! I swear I don't. And it's not even like — it's like an x-ray. I'd just see a skeleton. Promise."

He gestures towards his face. "The glasses stop that, too. And it's hard to do on command. They're... well, they're all kinda hard to do on command."

[greenarrow]

@oftomorrow: i promise you, however dark and scary the world may be right now, there will be light.

❝  you know, you're actually pretty good at that. ❞ oliver's chuckle is airy, the sound punctuated with a wince. when he bends to sit, it's done carefully, his bow moved from across his lap to the bench seat next to him. ❝  i think you might have missed your calling as a motivational speaker. ❞

he's grinning now, though, reaching to press his palms behind him in order to sit upright again. ( truth be told, he might have cracked a rib or two in the fight ) ❝ seriously – hallmark doesn't know what they're missing with you. ❞

but he wouldn't trade these little moments for the world. clark kent, beacon of hope, standing resolute in all his heroic glory in the watchtower locker room, spouting off about darkness and light. usually, you have to pay to get this kind of front row seat.

❝ it's a big promise to make, but you're right, clark. ❞ of course he is – that's kind of always been his whole deal. ❝ sun's gotta come up eventually, right? ❞

[oftomorrow]

Clark hums quietly in agreement. The way Oliver's holding himself has him mildly concerned — like he's hurt more badly than he's letting on. It wouldn't be the first time. But he knows better than to x-ray his friend without permission.

"And if it ever doesn't... then it's our job to fix it, isn't it?" Then he chuckles. "Don't mention the motivational speaker thing to Lois. She doesn't need more ideas."

[grawl1x]

" they're good kids. "

     john watches the boys race each other back to the house. smiles to himself when their brotherly bickering is cut short (at least, to his ears) by the door closing behind them. " already got my hands full with nat, can't imagine raising another one, " he continues, glancing around the farm. it's not that he and lo—his wife—hadn't thought about expanding their family, it's just... the timing was never right.

     john has often wondered if having a sibling would have made everything more manageable for natalie, or if it would have just doubled the grief. this usually leads to him thinking about his own sister, and he's still not sure if it's for better or worse. but he does know he wouldn't change a thing, and maybe that's enough of an answer.

" for what it's worth, you two make it look easy. "

@oftomorrow requested a starter!

[oftomorrow]

Clark smiles too, hearing the argument about whose hoodie it is muffle slightly behind the front door. Then he lets the boys' voice fade from his awareness — he'd made them a promise not to eavesdrop, after all. "Thanks. I could say the same to you about Natalie, you know." John Henry's young daughter has the most level head on her shoulders of any teenager Clark has ever known. Unfortunately, that's probably out of necessity.

"I think the boys like having her around. They seem to be on better behavior around her, anyway."

[murder-popsicle]

"If they're good dreams, then I'm glad you got 'em," Bucky said, and meant it. "It sounds comforting. After what you been through, you damn well oughta get some comfort. Seems like the least you're owed, by God or Fate or the cosmos or whatever." Though what kind of God would let something like that happen in the first place was one of the questions that kept Bucky up at night.

At Clark's mention of seeing his own grave, Bucky shook her head -- not in disbelief, but more in sympathy. "That's gotta be weird," she said. "Haven't experienced it, but...yeah, I think that'd mess me up, too."

Bucky Barnes hadn't had a grave, because her family had wanted a body to bury, not a tombstone over empty soil. The closest thing she'd had was the makeshift memorial in the Alps that Steve and the other Howling Commandos had made -- half a pack of cigarettes buried under a rock. Frenchie had used a dribble from one of his little bottles of chemicals, Steve had said, to etch a B.B. and a cross into it. It was the best they could do; even a Soldier's Cross had been out of reach, because her rifle had fallen into that ravine with her.

She didn't know if that rock was still there. If it was, she didn't think she wanted to see it.

Bumping her shoulder against Clark's, Bucky said, "It still doesn't feel real to me sometimes, either. I'll be in bed, lyin' awake, askin' myself, am I even still human anymore? Or does this make me somethin' else now? I mean, I don't think it's the kinda thing that you can just...absorb and then move past. Even when I'm not thinkin' about it, it's still there. Like a pebble your shoe, y'know? 'Cept this pebble's in my brain."

[oftomorrow]

"I think we're still human," Clark replies after a long moment. "Well, Kryptonian, in my case. But we're still us. Just... a little different than we were before." Physically and emotionally, in both their cases.

"The things that happened to us can't undo who we are. Not if we don't let them." It's said with more conviction than he really feels. Much like Bucky, that question still hangs in his chest. It probably will for the rest of this second life he's been given.

[oftomorrow]

It's so funny/adorable to me how Tyler's mannerisms are exactly the same as a kid, he just has a teeny voice.

[championoftheoppressed]

SUPERMAN & LOIS — "The Thing in the Mines" (2.03)

[oftomorrow]

oh no I love him already

[murder-popsicle]

"'Course I can shout," Bucky said, managing to dredge up the pale ghost of a smile. "I mean, you've met the little hellions I spent my life wranglin', haven't you?" She paused and then, deadpan, added, "There was a time when you were one of 'em."

But her expression quickly grew sober once more. "I know what you're tryin' to do here, Clark," she said, "but we both know you're blowin' hot air. You're Superman. You got the whole world to look after, and I'm just some chicken-hearted broad from Prospect Heights. If you're really sayin' you're gonna drop everything and come zippin' over just 'cause I yell, you're a damn fool. I ain't worth all that. I know it and so do you."

There was nothing special about Bucky. There never had been, not in the grand scheme of things, and there would be nothing special about her in the war, either. She was just one more schmoe getting tossed into the meat grinder in the hopes that if the Allies threw enough bodies on the battlefield, it might slow Hitler down for just long enough.

[oftomorrow]

"Jane Buchanan Barnes, you are worth all that and more." Clark gives her arm a little squeeze. Though it is true that Superman can't always afford to drop everything and go right then and there. But whenever he can...

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. And stop with the 'chicken-hearted' nonsense. You're braver than I am." He means that. If he flies into the middle of a battle knowing full well he can't be hurt, does that really make him brave?

[b4kerline]

and so they make it work. they book a house, they tell the boys, they pack the car. for exactly twenty-four hours, it's like none of this ever happened, like clark hasn't given up half his soul for the sake of his family. there are marshmallows and a campfire, lifejackets and a lake. there's a creaky, too-small bed that would doom a couple that didn't like each other so much, and the sound of their twins laughing downstairs from the pull-out couch as they put another movie on at three am.

maybe her mistake is believing this will last. lois has always believed in getting through it. in survival. she's never doubted for a minute their survival ⸺ but their peace? it's why she's always been drawn to clark. he sees what she can't.

their life falls apart over pizza. what a ridiculous thing to say. forty-five minutes ago, clark was grabbing the car keys and heading out to pick it up. now, their lives are over. there's a slice dripping grease on lois's hand and she can't even think to put it down.

" what? " she says, staring at jonathan. " what did you just say? "

their boys seem unaware that the world has stopped spinning. jordan just laughs and slides his phone over to her. " you didn't hear? " he asks her. " superman's back. "

she's looking at the screen, but she can't see a thing.

" clark ⸺ "

[oftomorrow]

For one blissful evening, life is normal. No cries for help, no superheroics, only a tiny bit of guilt nagging at his heart. Otherwise, it's just Clark, his wife, and his sons, enjoying some family time together. He only embarrasses the twins a little, enough to keep them on their toes and savor their annoyed groans.

He knows that it won't last. He just didn't know how drastically it would shatter.

As casually as he can manage, Clark pulls Jordan's phone closer to see the image he's always dreaded — a blurry cell phone photograph of a distant figure, running through a fiery building like the flames mean nothing. His face isn't visible, and he'd thankfully thought to remove his glasses first. But his overall build, and the fact that he's not affected by the fire... it's pretty undeniable.

"People think it's Superman?" he asks, unable to keep a slight tremor from his tone as he glances at his wife.

Jordan shrugs and takes back his phone. "Who else would it be? I think it's awesome."

"You guys okay?" Jon asks, his eyes darting between his parents. Ever the perceptive one, just like his mother.

[murder-popsicle]

"Lie low and await further instructions," Bucky recited immediately, the words popping out as if by rote. That particular protocol had been drilled into every one of Department X's operatives, and even now, Bucky thought that she could probably recite it in her sleep if prompted. But adhering to that protocol also required that the operative in question be in their right mind. The Winter Soldier herself had violated it once, when she'd been sent to assassinate Senator Baxter and, instead of returning to her extraction point, had dropped off the grid entirely and made her way to New York in a confused daze. And that had just been a run-of-the-mill mission. But this situation? This was different -- and much, much worse.

Tearing her gaze away from the shattered tube, she looked at Clark and, her voice grim, said, "But that assumes he's still behaving rationally. When I said that you don't want your sleepers wakin' early 'cause odds are it'll go bad, I wasn't jokin'. I meant bad -- really, really bad. Like, take the absolute worst you can imagine and then multiply it by ten kind of bad. And that's just with a sudden thaw. I dunno exactly what this kinda catastrophic damage to the cryotube might do to the fella's mind, but I don't think it'll turn out to be anythin' good. Humans ain't meant to get frozen like this. We're not built for it. Even when the freeze-thaw process goes exactly the way it should, it still causes damage to the subject. And that damage is cumulative."

A dark expression of visceral fury flashed across Bucky's face, there and gone in an instant, and she added icily, "The only reason I survived it so many times and came out just a little crazy is 'cause of Zola's serum. These guys don't have that. They got one of Karpov's knockoffs, and God alone knows what the long-term effects might be."

[oftomorrow]

Clark's jaw tightens at Bucky's last remarks — the knowledge of what was done to her will never sit right with him, and it will always make his skin crawl, no matter how much time passes.

"So if someone like that was out wandering the streets," he thinks aloud, "they would have made an impression. Maybe someone at the hospital remembers seeing something. Or there could be some documentation here." That doesn't seem likely — the place looks pretty picked over — but best not to leave any stone unturned.

[showgal]

" oh ⸺ that's okay. i had a granola bar, like, three hours ago. " which is not dinner, but by the standards she set for herself during the first part of her medical career, is pretty damn good. " thanks, though. " she folds her arms over her chest, an awkward gesture, made worse by the way she clears her throat. " do ⸺ you think they want to keep playing, or should i go get her? we've probably taken up too much of your evening ⸺ i really have to get this hospital daycare thing figured out, but she just feels too old for it. do you have a good babysitter? for the boys? "

[oftomorrow]

Clark almost wants to protest and insist that she eat some actual food, but he stops himself. She's a grown woman, after all. If she doesn't want to eat, she doesn't have to.

"They'd keep playing forever if we left them," Clark remarks. "Especially Jordan. He... doesn't make friends very easily." Even at this age, it's very clear which of his twins is the introvert and which is the extrovert. "There's a girl down the hall we've asked to watch the boys a few times. I could give you her number."

[murder-popsicle]

"Lead?" Bucky echoed. "For real?" She tilted her head and, sounding more puzzled than disbelieving, said, "Huh."

Pride was a sin, of course, but Bucky still knew for a fact that when it came to science, she was the top student at Holy Spirit, the best in the whole entire school. And she knew about lead, knew about how it could be used as a shield to block x-rays and gamma rays. She could even explain how the process worked. But using lead to modulate hearing? That was a new one, and she couldn't work it out.

Or at least, she couldn't work it out yet.

"Is that how you found us?" she asked. "Me and Kitty and Mrs. Slonimsky? 'Cause you could hear us even over the noise from the fire?" She paused for a moment, and then, more quietly, admitted, "I had no idea how loud it was gonna be up there, y'know. I mean, you hear fire and you think smoke and heat, right? But it was almost like the building itself was screamin' in pain. I keep havin' dreams about it, and every time I wake up with my ears ringin'."

[oftomorrow]

"Uh... sorta." Clark fidgets in his seat a little, remembering the roar of the fire himself. It hadn't even occurred to him that other people might struggle to hear over it — it's an issue he has somewhat often, being unable to gauge what the 'normal' level of something is. "I mean, I could hear you, and that definitely helped, but mainly, I... I, uh...."

Oh, this one's going to sound genuinely insane. His voice drops to a rushed mumble. "I can see through things."

[grace-of-gotham]

Grace nods and waits until they are leaving the barn to say something.

"Are..." it felt ridiculous to ask if he's was okay. Grace can hear the way his heart hammers away in his chest despite how reassuring he looks. "Do you want to talk about it?" She offers instead. "Or- maybe Lois or your mom would be- y'know - better. " she shrugs, not knowing what would be helpful for him.

She was usually better than this. Comforting someone. But Grace wasn't sure what it meant for her if Superman himself wasn't comforted by what Batman and the frigging Justice League were doing. "I didn't mean to overhear..."

[oftomorrow]

Clark's eyes widen a little, before he realizes — he can almost always clock how someone's feeling just from listening to their heartbeat. And now Grace has his hearing, and his own pulse is probably giving him away.

He sighs. "I, uh... I'm okay. Really. I just... spent most of my life wanting to be normal, and now I am, and it's... not at all what I thought it would be. But you shouldn't have to worry about any of that. I know this has to be a thousand times more overwhelming for you."