writers_muses - "Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity." - Elizabeth I
Perry’s been stewing since Martha told him about her conversation with Lionel. He acknowledged her honesty, and appreciates it but he sees the words in his head, involuntarily. What he may have said to her, what she may have said to him. He’s still stewing about it at dinner, despite her many efforts at total reassurance.
Martha has apologized, taken the blame, and asked forgiveness. She started it. She ended it. But there’s so much about her relationship with Lionel, past and present, that Perry doesn’t understand.
“Lionel’s…he’s a very sad man,” she tells him. “He has so little in his life, and such a…skewed view of love and relationships. And a surprisingly self-pitying attitude.”
This does little to assuage Perry’s concerns and dissatisfaction. She goes on. “He doesn’t know the meaning of a healthy relationship, or what one entails. He uses money as his key to the kingdom and sex as his drug, to dull the pain. The loneliness.”
Perry doesn’t give a rat’s ass if Lionel Luthor is lonely. But Martha digresses. “He’s attracted to the broken type. The unstable. God only knows how I snuck in there. Possibly because I was married, and Lionel is something of a masochist. He is unwittingly determined to break himself, one way or another. Either by dating women who are broken, or wanting women he can never truly have.”
Perry has nothing to say. Martha has plenty. “He’ll never be truly happy. I don’t think he ever has been. Moments, fleeting moments, but complete, unadulterated contentment in all aspects of his life? No.”
Okay, now Perry almost feels bad for the guy. Martha no longer does. “He fills his life with material things and empty young girls when he could be fixing the problems, mending the holes. But he’s too stubborn for that. Too proud, deluded.
Perry asks about Lionel’s new conquest. “Young. Empty.”
He asks about the late Mrs. Luthor. “Troubled and broken. Not empty, to her credit. But if you ask me, Lionel was more in love with the idea of Lillian than with Lillian herself.”
And you, he asks. Here, Martha has little to say. “Merely his attempt at redemption.”
Martha Kent
Smallville
362
Martha has apologized, taken the blame, and asked forgiveness. She started it. She ended it. But there’s so much about her relationship with Lionel, past and present, that Perry doesn’t understand.
“Lionel’s…he’s a very sad man,” she tells him. “He has so little in his life, and such a…skewed view of love and relationships. And a surprisingly self-pitying attitude.”
This does little to assuage Perry’s concerns and dissatisfaction. She goes on. “He doesn’t know the meaning of a healthy relationship, or what one entails. He uses money as his key to the kingdom and sex as his drug, to dull the pain. The loneliness.”
Perry doesn’t give a rat’s ass if Lionel Luthor is lonely. But Martha digresses. “He’s attracted to the broken type. The unstable. God only knows how I snuck in there. Possibly because I was married, and Lionel is something of a masochist. He is unwittingly determined to break himself, one way or another. Either by dating women who are broken, or wanting women he can never truly have.”
Perry has nothing to say. Martha has plenty. “He’ll never be truly happy. I don’t think he ever has been. Moments, fleeting moments, but complete, unadulterated contentment in all aspects of his life? No.”
Okay, now Perry almost feels bad for the guy. Martha no longer does. “He fills his life with material things and empty young girls when he could be fixing the problems, mending the holes. But he’s too stubborn for that. Too proud, deluded.
Perry asks about Lionel’s new conquest. “Young. Empty.”
He asks about the late Mrs. Luthor. “Troubled and broken. Not empty, to her credit. But if you ask me, Lionel was more in love with the idea of Lillian than with Lillian herself.”
And you, he asks. Here, Martha has little to say. “Merely his attempt at redemption.”
Martha Kent
Smallville
362