Ask the Luthors, Red Queen, White King verse.
1: are they associated with a certain color? what color do they wear the most?
Lionel Luthor, the founder of LuthorCorp and the patriarch of the wealthiest family in America, settled down in the armchair by the fireplace. His family was gathered and keeping to themselves in other parts of the study while in front of him, seated on the sofa was a journalist from the Daily Planet. She wasn't what he had expected when the chief editor had suggested his family do a weekly column to help with their growing reputation and to curb any ideas that they were anything less than human.
Martha had thought it to be a wonderful idea, but he had his reservations and had warned his children not to speak of things that the public shouldn't know about. So far, the questions that had been asked by this Chloe Sullivan were innocent and no doubt meant to be ice breakers between her and his family. He could see a nervousness in the young reporter, an inkling of wariful fear that told him she knew of his reputation and what happened to journalists who invoked his wrath.
He quirked a small smile at the thought of Perry White. The man had tried to investigate the tenant fire that had killed his parents, had flat out accused him of conspiring with Intergang and the slum lord that owned the building. Morgan had wanted to make the man swim with the fish like they often did with those who crossed them, but he had the sense to realize that making Perry White disappear would only draw attention to what he had been investigating.
So he destroyed the man by attacking his crediability and causing his employer to question the validity of his own works. It led to his termination at the Daily World, now called the Daily Planet, and blacklisted from any newspaper and tabloid company for the rest of his journalistic career. The only thing he could land was a host position for a paranormal television series, harmless hogwash that only fools would be watching and believing in.
The threat to his family had been dealt with but despite his efforts to erase his past misdeeds, he couldn't keep people from talking. White had told someone what he had been looking in to and that was the only reason he found out about it in the first place. That person had told someone else and word eventually got to him before White could sideswipe him with the accusation. As soon as he was terminated and his career was ruined, gossip had spread like wildfire and it had taken more damage control to tear apart those careers too.
Eventually people stopped talking about Perry White out of fear that they would join him in his fall from grace. The rumors had done the job in silencing people, but the damage was already done. From that point on, journalists left his family alone unless he made arrangements for interviews and press confrences. Rarely did anyone throw a curve-ball in his direction and those that did were quietly spoken to by their editors to never go off script again.
The Luthors essentially owned the news media.
"So… Mister Luthor," Miss Sullivan continued, her eagerness to do this interview quite clear in her posture despite the wariness she may feel toward him. It intrigued him and he wondered if it was her inexperience and youth that brought forth that excitement. He sensed she was the type to throw caution to the wind in order to find the answers she was looking for.
He would need to be cautious with her.
"Miss Sullivan," Lionel gave her a wolfish smile, his hands steepling in front of him. "How long have you been a journalist?" he asked of her first and that seemed to throw her off. She must have expected to be the one to do all the asking.
"Uh… about two years now. I interned for a year with the Planet before officially obtaining a position as a gossip columnist." Chloe reached up and pushed back a stray strand of her blonde hair, tucking it neatly behind her ear as she returned his smile with a nervous one.
"Would you care for a drink?" he offered.
"I'm only twenty, I can't," she tried to decline.
"I don't just have alcohol, Miss Sullivan," Lionel gestured to one of his children to fetch a drink. It was Tess who stood from the table nearby and approached the bar.
Chloe seemed a little surprised as she replied, "I… thought that is what you meant?"
He laughed a gentle and soft laugh that he knew would put her at ease, "My wife would give me an earful if I served alcohol to someone under age."
"Does she do that often?" That seemed to intrigue the young reporter and he wondered as to whether he should reveal that part of his relationship with Martha. "Chastise you, that is?"
He pondered it for a moment and found that there would be no harm in letting the world know that he had a partnership as well as a friendship with his wife. After all he hadn't married her for money or prestige, her family wouldn't have been considered among the top one hundred in the country. William Clarke certainly was influential, but only the circles of lawyers and local politicians; beyond that he was just an upper middle-class citizen who had a successful career.
"Only when I am wrong," Lionel finally answered and then added, "Which isn't that often."
"No, Mom just gives you the silent treatment the other times," Alexander spoke up from the chess table. He was trying to teach Liam how to play and it was going as well as Liam trying to teach him about Power Rangers. He sometimes questioned where the inept brains of this family came from. Its not like he was calling his son stupid, far from it. Liam was intelligent but he seemed to have little to no interest in all things intellectual. He was just as obsessed with Power Rangesr and Legos as Lex had been with Warrior Angel and his figurines.
"Which still isn't that often," he countered and gave his eldest a look to keep quiet.
"It sounds like Missus Luthor is the one who wears the pants in the family," Chloe suggested and received a few snickers from the others as a reply. He threw glares at each of them and his children suddenly found something else far more interesting than teasing their father.
He was about to reply when he noticed the girl's gaze shift just past him and he knew exactly who she was looking at. With a reluctant sigh and knowing he was never going to live it down later, Lionel replied; "When it comes to the family, yes. I… defer to my wife. But when it comes to LuthorCorp and other business dealings, I am in charge."
Lionel felt a hand on his shoulder and he didn't need to look to know it was Martha. She came into his periphial when she leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek, "Smart answer, love." He rolled his eyes at her and watched Martha walk away with a laugh in her smile.
"As you can see, my relationship with Martha is not one sided," he added before turning his attention about to the reporter. Sullivan had her attention on his wife, a curiosity he hasn't seen directed at Martha in a long time. "Miss Sullivan. Shall we get on with this interview?"
Chloe blinked and cleared her throat, embarassed at being seen with her mind wandering. He wondered what she had been thinking of about his wife. He would need to figure out a way to steer the conversation back around to Martha to find out.
"Right. Lets see," she picked up her notepad and flipped through the small pages until she found the questions she wanted to ask. Reaching over for the tape recorder, she pressed the record button and began, "We'll continue with the simple questions before we go into the more uh… deeply personal ones. So, Mister Luthor, what kind of color do you believe would be associated with you and what color do you wear the most?"
"Shades and hues of blue or purple," he easily answered. He remembered one time when he had gone to an appointment to his tailor and Martha had accompanied him. She had pointed out to his tailor that he looked best in blue lighting and whether there had been shirts or ties that would work in any other lighting. The man had made him try on different shades of blue and then purple to see which variations worked with him and the dark suits he preferred. "Mostly dark shades. Something about me being a winter or whatever that nonesense means."
"Its artist terminology from what I've heard," Chloe supplied. "Summer, spring, winter and autumn. The colors usually associated with those seasons. Winter would be mostly dark to medium blue, purple and white, I think."
"It sounds about right. Those are the colors I mostly wear and I do like them."
"Alright then," Chloe scribbled on her notepad. He would hear her whisper, "Lionel Luthor is a winter. Ask Jenny his zodiac later." Lionel raised an eyebrow at the last part. He hadn't struck her as someone who believed in astrology, then again there wasn't much to know about this woman other than her short time as the head of the Smallville High School paper and her stint as an intern for the Daily Planet.
There had been her father who worked for him as a plant manager here in Smallville, but other than that, he had nothing. He would have to rectify that if these interviews were going to continue.
