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“Yeah…yeah that’d be great actually. Thank you.” Jubilee followed Lois back towards the counter. As they waited for the new order, Jubilee sighed and leaned on the counter, feeling relieved nobody had acted poorly to the request. Although, Lois was the kind of person it was hard to react badly towards. “You’re right…I do need to tell the Professor eventually. I just…I figured if I talked it through with you first I could get my head on straight before I said something impulsive.”

She let out a small laugh, people were constantly telling Jubilee that she was impulsive. Personally, she saw it as a strength, always ready to jump into protection, to say necessary things, to protect people when needed. But it also tended to get her in more trouble than was good for her. As they sat back down at the table, Jubilee rolled her eyes at Lois’ analysis of scared, ignorant people. “I get that everyone gets stuck in their own way of thinking. And I get why accepting metas, mutants, any superheroes really, I get why it can be scary. I just…I wish there was something I could actually do.”

-

As soon as the younger woman spoke, Lois hopped down off her seat and took Jubilee’s tray with her, bringing it up to the counter. “Hey, pardon me, but this isn’t what we asked for,” she said. She smiled as she handed the tray back to the server. Lois was the type of person who believed that you should always be polite to your servers, especially when they made a mistake -- more often than not it was due to behind the scenes stress, and they were just trying their best. As the server came back with the right order, Lois smiled again. “Thank you.”

She handed Jubilee the tray, smiling faintly as the younger woman spoke. “I get it,” she said. “Some people might accuse me of being impulsive, too.” Some people, being pretty much everyone who cared about her, from her kids to her editor Perry. She smiled softly as Jubilee went on, nodding. “Believe me, I get it,” she said. Who would understand better than she, the mother of two half-alien superheroes? “All we can do is keep fighting, day after day. Everyone wants change to happen in a second, but as much as it sucks, that’s not how it works. Change happens when people keep trying even when it seems hopeless.”

.

      Jon shrugged, thinking about being someone else’s third wheel. He didn’t think that he would mind too much, but that didn’t mean he would actively seek it out either. It was likely to put anyone in an awkward situation and he could still have his awkward moments without that. A smile pulled across Jon’s lips at the idea of his father - Superman, being stressed under a time crunch. “Is that the only time he ever did that?” Jon asked curiously, knowing that his mother’s memories of his father were far less fuzzy than his were. “He’ll be okay, Mom.” They both wanted the best for Jordan, but this wasn’t something that either of them could help him with. He would have to figure it out on his own. 

-

Lois smiled and shook her head. “No,” she said. “It happened a lot. I usually bought at least one extra just in case -- he didn’t always do it with the both of you. Usually the first one he made would go just fine, because he was careful and took his time.” She gave a little shrug and smiled again. “But then he’d feel like he had to rush, and he’d get overwhelmed or frustrated…” She offered another smile. “You know, you both remind me of your dad so much,” she said. “I think people forget that Superman is…well, you know, not a person, but he’s not some infallible god. The best parts of him aren’t the super strength, or the faster than a speeding bullet thing. They’re everything I see in the two of you.” She sighed softly. “I know,” she said. She had never been the type of person to just sit back, but she knew that was sometimes the best thing.

Jubilee shrugged, “They gave me beef instead of chicken, I’m just trying to eat around it.”  Jubilee wasn’t the type of person to tell the poor teenager who worked at the mall taco shop that they had got her order wrong. Besides, she had bigger things on her mind and wasn’t in the mood to divert her attention elsewhere. “I had to stop another meta…mutant…whatever, another attack yesterday. My fireworks scared them off, nobody was hurt thank god. I just can’t understand how random people on the street would attack someone for something that’s in their dna.” She looks down, “I knew you’d probably take it better than Professor Xavier or something. Everyone keeps telling me to keep my head down, but you get it, you get why I can’t just blend into the shadows.” 

-

Lois frowned. “If your order is wrong, I’ll tell them,” she said. She’d never had any qualms about doing that sort of thing. It wasn’t like she was going to be rude about it, but if the order was wrong, Jubilee should be able to eat what she wanted. She was always doing that sort of thing for Jordan. 

She glanced over at the young woman as she spoke, frowning slightly. “No, you can’t,” she agreed. “But I think you should tell the Professor, anyway. Just because he wouldn’t take it well doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to know.”

A soft sigh fell from her lips. “People are afraid of what they don’t understand,” she said. “And when people are afraid, they lash out. They don’t want to bother opening their minds up, because they’re creatures of habit and they’re too lazy or stupid or scared. Sometimes all three.”

“They are…smart asses.” she said before she bit her lip for using a crass word in front of her - was he her boyfriend? - mother. Dory nodded her head. It was just a natural thing for her. “You know it’s not just marine life. There are different types of Atlanteans, my mom is from Xebel they closely resemble the surface people, but the Tritonis are like a mix between what you call Mermaids and sharks.” 

-

Lois just smiled when Dory looked at her worriedly. “I’m not surprised,” she said. “Flipper always seemed like a bit of an ass.” Another smile touched her lips as Dory went on. “So by surface people, you mean…” She pointed at herself, a smile still warming her face. Her eyebrows lifted as Dory spoke. “Tritonis,” she repeated carefully. “Huh. That’s a vivid mental image.” She considered the information for a second. “So when you say what we call mermaids -- does that mean there isn’t actually anything like that? They’re completely a myth?”

Open Starter @assemblestarter​

Jubilee sat down at a table in the mall food court, picking at her taco bowl. 

“I told you we needed a day out, besides,” she looked at the shoe box her friend was carrying. “Those boots are the stuff of legends and on sale too. This mall must be lucky.”  Jubilee smiled, leaning a little on the table and looking up cheerfully at the person in front of her. “So, what’s going on in your head?” 

-

Lois chuckled softly as the younger woman spoke. “Yeah, aren’t they?” she said. “They’re definitely gonna come in handy when I’m stomping around New York getting into things I shouldn’t be getting into.” She grinned again, to show that she was joking. Mostly. Sort of. Except not really at all. 

She smiled. “Oh, you know, mostly elevator music,” she joked. “What about you? For someone who was starving a minute ago you’re picking at your food now. Is everything okay?” Lois wasn’t very good at talking about herself, especially if something was wrong. But at this point, she was mostly just worried about her kids -- and in that vague, faint way that she supposed many parents worried about their children.

Dory smiled politely at Jon’s mom. She was a reporter and a pretty good one, so it was natural to have an inquisitive mind. “Oh, uh, I guess it’s like telepathy? It’s better to talk to dolphins they’re more articulate than fish.” she explained as if that was just something so natural. “Maybe it’s a sonar thing? All I know is I hear words as if they’re speaking to be and I assume they just understand in whatever way they communicate. “brain….bubbles?” Dory asked curiously confused. 

-

Lois hummed softly. “Dolphins,” she repeated. “Yeah, that makes sense. They’re supposed to be pretty intelligent.” And pretty vicious at times, but that didn’t seem to be something to bring up to Dory. She wondered if that would be offensive. “Wait, really? So you hear…English? That’s so interesting.” She laughed. “Yeah, you know…like the blub blub bubble sound you hear in cartoons.”

“Why thank you Miss Lane! Or is it Mrs Lane?” It would be smarter of him to suss out the situation, check if Jon and Jordan were born yet or if she was still married to Clark Kent AKA Superman! Bart knew tiny details of their history but who knows how things had changed? Butterfly effect and all. PLUS, even if she knew Clark’s secret identity she was still a reporter! He had to be a bit more careful about info slipping. It may have been common knowledge in his time but sure not here. “Ah-” WELL that was a loaded question. Given that they had yet to meet in this timeline, Bart would go with that. “Not really! I mean I’m a huge fan of his and how he runs and we have speedstering in common and the awesomeness of the color red but besides that I haven’t had the chance to meet the dude!” The dude, ha, his GRANDPA. 

-

Lois smiled softly as the young man spoke, a little laugh leaving her lips. “It’s Miss Lane, I guess,” she said. “But you can call me Lois.” She raised her eyebrows as he hesitated, looking at him for a minute with another little smile playing over her lips. “Okay, well, I’m going to pretend you’re telling me the whole truth and nothing but the truth, because you’re a nice kid,” she said. “But I gotta tell you, I have a pretty good Bs detector. It’s a pretty important part of my job. It’s definitely going off right now.” She smiled a little. “It’s more than just being a big fan, huh?”

“You know what Lois, I’m hurt. Here I thought you were the nice one.” he sighed dramatically, one hand on his head. He stood up, taking the sweater from her. “Oh good. She’s been looking for this anywhere. Leave it to jade to find a crochet freddy vs jason toddler sweater.” he sighed. “sometimes i wonder if i should be worried about how much my kid liked violence.”

-

“Oh, I am,” Lois said, grinning at him. “It’s just that everyone else is such an asshole, you know?” She laughed as he spoke. “Honestly, I love it. I’m thinking bout asking her where she found it so I can get it in my size.” She held up her hand. “And if you say that is my size, I’ll get you with my pointy little elbow.” She smiled a little and shrugged. “Yeah, maybe she’s a little…uh, spirited. But she’s a sweet kid under all that.”

“So, um,” Lois began, glancing down at the freaking lion, which was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. “You’re telling me you’re giving this to a two year old? As a toy?” She bent her head to look closer at the tiny animal, raising her eyebrows. “I mean, I know it’s tiny, but he also has tiny fingers. What if it bites him?” She paused, looking at the miniscule king of the jungle for another few moments. “Now that I’ve had my mom moment, I really, really want to pet it, and I also want one.”

​“Okay, I have a question,” Lois said, holding up her hand. “And feel free to tell me if I’m being weird or stupid or invasive.” The first two were very unlikely to stop her, but the last one actually mattered. “How does the whole communicating with fish thing work?” she said. “Is it, like…some kind of sonar thing? Does he communicate telepathically with a fish? And if that’s the case, do fish have…you know, coherent thoughts? Or is just…brain bubbles?”

.

      “Does anyone?” There wasn’t anyone that he could think of who wanted to be. “He crushed them?” Jon laughed, imagining the image of it in his head. His father, despite having super strength for years, still underestimated his own strength at times. “I didn’t either until I saw her in the library the other day. I don’t know what they’re doing now though. That was before we left. I don’t even know if he still has feelings for her. We were gone for so long. Things can change in that amount of time. I’m just lucky that things with Dory didn’t.” 

-

Lois shrugged and flashed her son a grin. “I think at best, people like me don’t give a damn,” she said, laughing. “I’ll be a third wheel and make things awkward as hell if that’s where I feel like being at the moment.” But then again, Lois had never really cared about what people thought of her. “Oh, yeah, he was putting them together late that night so you guys could find them under the tree in the morning. I think the time crunch got to him.” She smiled up at him. “And then, you know, the trikes were crunching instead. I had to do it myself.” A thoughtful little frown touched her lips as she listened to Jon speak, nodding after a moment. “I guess it’ll just take time,” she said, though a little sigh left her lips. She knew Jordan was not a just wait and see type and that was really what this situation required. “I just worry about him.”

“Oh that’s good. I don’t have the muscle tone to get through this many bars.” Lyla smiled, grateful when she saw the woman on the other side. She watched as the guard got up, unlocking the door. Lyla instantly wrapped her arms around Lois in a hug. “You didn’t tell my parents did you?” she asked worriedly. “They think I was trespassing. Which I mean technically I guess I was BUT it wasn’t on purpose! No one even lived there anymore.”

-

Lois smiled at the younger woman, glancing over at the guard as he unlocked the door. “Oh, hey, Kevin,” she said, smiling at him. “It’s been a while. How’s Jennifer?” She had been in the holding cell at the NYPD a time or two herself, so she was familiar with the guards and their families by now. She hugged Lyla back, giving her back a gentle little pat. “No, I didn’t tell them,” she assured her. “You’re an adult now, there’s no reason for me to go to your parents with every little thing. I would only tell them if you had gotten hurt, and thank god you didn’t.” She laughed. “Yeah, it’s still private property even if no one lives there,” she said. “It’s not abandoned unless someone has clearly relinquished ownership. I mean, we still have our house in Smallville, even though I don’t live there anymore. I wouldn’t want anyone traipsing around that place.”

He shot her a smile when she said that she loved the flowers that he got for her and shook his head at her words. “No- of course not! I’m just saying.” He told her before pausing and looking away from her. “Actually, I was kinda wondering… Does Dad come around much?” He asked a bit suddenly. She wouldn’t have to do all that if he was and he couldn’t help but be curious about the state of their relationship. He knew that Clark was busy with the hero thing. And if anyone wouldn’t be able to understand why Clark couldn’t stop back in- it would be Jordan. Everyone else in their family who did the hero thing made it a much bigger part of their lives and they still came home at the end of the day. Jordan watched Jon do that kind of stuff all the time. So why wasn’t Clark around? He could feel a small spark of resentment inside of himself. 

-

Lois looked around in surprise, feeling a little pang in her chest. She definitely hadn’t been expecting that question. There were a lot of things that came with being a part of a superhero’s life, and especially a significant part of their life, as she’d always been for Clark. And not all of those things were good -- which probably went without saying, considering how many times her life has been put in danger because people knew she was important to Superman. Another pitfall was how often you ended up separated, for one reason or another. She was used to being apart from Clark, but that didn’t mean her kids had to deal with the same thing. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him,” she said finally, her voice soft. She didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t even sure where Clark was right now. She knew it would just make Jordan worry. “I know it’s hard for him to be away,” she said. “I don’t know how he does it.” She reached out -- well, up -- and put her hand against Jordan’s cheek. “It would drive me crazy to be away from you guys for so long.”

@bylinelxne​ liked for a starter

“REALLY GUYS?? YOU KNOW WHAT NO MORE FREE DINER DONUTS FOR YOU GUYS! GAIL, DON’T ASK ME TO GET YOU THOSE LITTLE CAKES FROM AROUND THE CORNER ANYMORE!” Lyla called to her coworkers. She’d gotten arrested for trespassing and she knew her co-workers were just following protocol but they didn’t have to put her in the pen. She knew she couldn’t call her parents, it be just the excuse they needed to drag her back to smallville. So she took a chance, and called Lois. If the twins were in the city, she may have been as well.  She had to leave a message and hoped she would still show. 

-

Lois’s lips twitched into a smile as she heard Lyla screaming at her coworkers before she’d even rounded the corner so that the pen was in view. The young woman had always reminded Lois a little bit of herself, especially the sense that Lyla followed her own drummer, regardless of what anyone else advised. “I was gonna bring you a cake with a nail file in it, but I figured I’d just post bail,” she said, grinning as she saw Lyla. “What did you do? Or I guess I should say, what do they think you did, and why do you think they’re wrong?”

“Me? Subtle? Always!~ Subtle is my middle name.” Exclaimed Bart with a grin on his face and his hands on his hips, in a mock superhero pose. “Ah well most heroes leave them tied up for the authorities but me? I could do this!” The moment the word left his lips, Impulse swiped the villain off his feet and in chains, brought him to the nearest holding cell, left a ticket of his crimes and was back before even a minute passed. “Totally crash, huh?” He grinned fully at her inquiry. “You could call me Impulse and yeah I could do some questions!”

-

Lois couldn’t help but laugh as the young man spoke, shaking her head. He reminded her very much of the Flash -- actually, now that she thought about it, he even looked a bit like the Flash. Although she’d only seen him with the red cowl off a handful of times, but still. In fact, it was making her wonder if the type of thing the Flash could do was genetic -- maybe the similarities she was seeing weren’t just down to personality at all. “Very crash,” she said, with a little laugh. “Okay, Impulse it is, then.” She paused, looking at him for a moment. “Do you know the Flash?”

“Sort of late to be stopping by. You’re gonna cause a scandal. People might think you’re here to steal my innocence. ” he joked as the person he recognized approached.  “Lian’s inside asleep with Jade. I’m just enjoying nice night.” he explained. “What’s up?”  @assemblestarter​

-

Lois snorted, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, your what now?” she said. “I think it would be easier for me to steal the Declaration of Independence. At least that still exists.” She flashed him a playful grin and shrugged. “Yeah, Lian left her sweater at my house when she and Jade were over there the other day,” she said. “I found it doing laundry, I thought I’d bring it over.”

“Ah this ones a classic! Ice on the floor so the speedster can’t get traction, right?” Bart veered to the left, running up the building and rushing into his enemies side, knocking them down. “Wrong.” And TIP now they were falling too. “Did you hit your head or something? Not very crash.” And then in a burst of speed be brought the unconscious villain to safety. “This century’s villains need a course in villainology. Or protective headgear.” / @assemblestarter​

-

Lois raised her eyebrows as the young man spoke, an amused smile touching her lips. “Subtle,” she commented. She glanced down at the unconscious villain. “So what now?” she said, clearly very interested in the next step. Her journalist mind was whirring. “Do you take them to the station yourself, or do you call someone?” She paused. “Would you mind answering a few questions, on the record? I’ll use your superhero name if you have one. Or no name at all if you don’t, or if you don’t want to use one.”