Looking around on the boards and realized I wasn't caught up from over the holidays yet
...
LOVE this story
. The sarcastic humor, the mockery, and best of all, Tempus
. You really 'found' him here in this piece.
Some of the parts that really get me laughing:
TJ had a flash of concern. “Hey, is this going to create a paradox that will cause the fabric of space and time to fold in on itself?”
Tempus scoffed. “Who do I look like? Herb? I just muck around in time; others can clean up the mess.”
Ha! If this doesn't sound like Tempus, I don't know what does
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TJ followed this exchange, understanding slowly dawning. He turned sharply to his older self. “She doesn’t know?”
Tempus shook his head with an amused smile.
“But…” TJ looked at Clark. “It’s so obvious! He’s standing right in front of her.”
Tempus’ voice dripped with a sardonic tone. “No, that’s Clark, not Superman. See? Clark wears glasses.”
TJ’s face contorted with incredulity. “Is she stupid or something?”
Tempus rolled his eyes. “Galactically stupid.”
This-Is-Great!
TJ nodded as he remembered a fact from the museum tour. “Yeah, yeah. Superman got on one knee in the middle of Centennial Park, asked Lois Lane if she would be his wife and build Utopia with him, and they got married and had a crap load of super babies.”
“Quite a story, isn’t it?” Tempus asked. There was something in his voice, though, something in the set of his eyebrow that seemed to suggest he knew more than he was saying.
“Another lie?” TJ said with a frown.
“I’m sure Superman’s descendants would prefer to call it an interpretive framing of the relevant facts.”
“So what really happened?”
“Clark used his freeze breath on Lois – nearly killing her, by the way – and so after less than one month of dating, he proposed in the park. As Clark. She’s the one who called out his alter-ego before rejecting him.”
TJ’s eyes widened in astonishment. “He asked her to marry him before he told her about Superman? Is he a freakin’ moron?”
....Ohhh--pour Clark. Yeah...from Tempus' point of view, he could have handled things a bit better. Hilarious dialogue, Susan.
“Hmm. It’s strange,” TJ said, recalling the various images he had seen of the woman. “She looks like most of the pictures I’ve seen of her. But there are a few scattered ones where she looks much older, almost as if she was a completely different person.”
“I know what you mean,” Tempus said with a nod. “Same thing happened to Herb. Must be the butterfly effect. Change even one small thing in the past and it can cause weird and varied changes in the future.” Tempus moved closer to him and clapped TJ on the shoulder. “Just go with it.”
--Seriously? This is amazing! Lovely mockery of the actor change ups, and so funny how they gather it's a time travel glitch.
“Swear to God, I’m not kidding,” Tempus said drolly.
Gotta send you a virtual high five! Ha! GREAT use of material
.
Tempus identified a young boy with floppy hair. “Jimmy Olsen.”
“No! More butterflies?”
“Exactly.”
Yeah, this is awesome, Susan
.
Thanks for another amazingly entertaining reread
Laura
