Lena may be in a little over her head. She had assumed that she could act as a guardian-in-name-only to provide protection, and then had to go and get attached. She thought that she could continue to get work done while supervising Minnie, and instead barely managed to get anything done while Minnie assembled combustible prototypes in the basement workshop. She couldn't even claim that the obstacles were a surprise; she had just been arrogant and assumed she could keep a child from changing her life.
The latest evidence of Lena's hubris weighed on her and kept her from completing the work she'd neglected to do today. Literally. Minnie had rapidly transitioned from a seemingly unending river of tears to exhausted unconsciousness and left Lena with a slumbering preteen still squeezing her. Lena didn't even have her phone at hand; she'd left it outside the saferoom out of arguably overzealous amounts of caution, especially considering that the saferoom's existence might be compromised after how much they'd been using it.
Then again, it wasn't as though either of them would sleep well if she didn't move. Lena carefully tried to inch her way out of Minnie's grip and ease Minnie into a more comfortable sleeping position on the unfolding bed. Lena hadn't expected to succeed without waking her own personal limpet, but somehow, she did. Minnie was clearly exhausted.
Lena certainly couldn't back out of adopting Minnie anymore, but that didn't make her feel any more prepared for impending parenthood. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too—well, no, that was a lie. She kept telling herself that it was a bad idea and chose to pursue it despite her misgivings. And now, here she was with a mess that could easily blow up in her face. She could lose her position as L-corp's CEO and see it return to manufacturing weapons. She could make mistakes and hurt Minnie even more than she already had been, or carelessly let Minnie sustain accidental self-inflicted injury due to lack of supervision.
At least her original reasons for offering the adoption still held. It would be a waste to let Minnie's talents remain hidden out of fear, Minnie would stay safer this way, etcetera. She was just experiencing some delayed panic, that's all. It wouldn't change anything. And if it wouldn't change anything, then letting herself worry would just waste time. Lena took a deep breath and tried to make her way out of the saferoom as quietly as possible, wincing at the comparatively loud sound of the sliding metal door. She brought the remaining uneaten cake with her—it should still taste fine if she covered it and put it in a fridge overnight.
Still, Lena somehow managed to make her escape from the saferoom without waking Minnie. She headed to the main kitchen first to refrigerate the cake, then returned for her personal phone. Lena would need to figure out a long-term babysitting solution of some sort, but at least she had ready access to a stopgap solution.
Me: Are you available tomorrow? I need to actually go to L-corp to get the ball rolling.
Kara: !!!
Kara: I might be able to get the day off? Or I could try to ask around for suggestions.
Lena grimaced. The only person for Kara possibly get suitable professional babysitter suggestions from would be Cat Grant, and anyone that woman trusted would already be busy with caring for her son. Or—well, Lena supposed that Kara might be able to ask Supergirl. Doing so might end with Lena hiring aliens to look after Minnie, though, which... well, it shouldn't be a problem, but it definitely would be. Unless they were very difficult to distinguish from humans, at least.
...Actually, surrounding Minnie with stronger-than-human babysitters might be one effective method of helping Minnie feel safer. It could reap benefits in the long term, too, despite the short and medium-term risks; after her family members had tried, Lena had no doubts as to what the average alien thought of her. Employing significant number of non-humans could help her regain their trust.
Me:We can talk about that when you're here, but in the short term, I can offer first spot for an interview if it would help. Call it social networking. We both know you aren't paid as much as you deserve.
Kara: That would help, thanks! But you don't have to.
Me: It's not even charity, just ensuring that you have a valid excuse to help me. It would be horribly selfish to let you shoulder all the damage.
Kara: After how this week is gone and what you're doing, I'm banning you from ever using the word "selfish" in reference to yourself. BANNED I SAY.
Lena snorted. Her phone buzzed again moments later.
Kara: *has gone. I'll gush about all your good qualities, don't think I won't.
Minnie's misunderstanding of Lena's relationship with Kara sprung to mind, and Lena fought the urge to text back with something like, It's a date! Doing so would mortify Lena more than Kara and might even make the blonde-haired woman uncomfortable. No matter what Minnie's imagination had conjured, Lena was happy just to maintain her preexisting friendship with Kara. Oh, Lena would admit that it might be fun to deliberately find ways to fluster Kara, but there were too many ways for such teasing to end in fire and tears. Even more if Lena actually went as far as flirting.
Me: Duly noted. Thank you for the vote of confidence, and I hope you have a good night.
Kara: You too!
Besides, adopting a child who lacked identity paperwork would generate enough controversy all on its own. There was no need to court more by providing even the slightest signs of impropriety with a reporter who had previously interviewed Lena and would do so again. The implications and insinuations that would inevitably arise from mixing Kara's job with a relationship—no, Lena couldn't do that to Kara.
For that matter, they might be reaching the point where Kara should be warned of the ways views of their friendship could be twisted. Really, if Kara was going to be babysitting Minnie anywhere close to regularly, they should definitely have that talk and may want to avoid further interviews after all. Such a discussion wouldn't be comfortable for either one of them, but it was preferable to having Kara's face splashed across celebrity tabloids.
~~~~~
Kara arrived at Lena's safehouse the following morning feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Not literally brightly eyed, though, she still had her sunglasses on and they would stay there. Although Kara had been tempted to just fly nearby and jog the last half-mile or so, she had the feeling that would cause more problems than it solved. She still wasn't comfortable with the money Lena wasted by calling a limo for her over and over, but would reluctantly admit that it solved more problems than it caused. At least for now. Kara hoped that Lena moved back into town soon.
"Good morning," Lena softly greeted her, and held up a hand to forestall further conversation.
Kara choked down her excited reply until after Lena had closed the front door and led Kara to a living room near the back of the house. By rich person standards, it was relatively small, with a few chairs scattered around the room, two large sofas, and a television that occupied the far wall. By normal person standards, the room remained larger than some apartments.
This time, Kara was the one to close the door behind them and shoot Lena a triumphant grin. The CEO rolled her eyes and turned to walk toward one of the sofas. Kara took the opportunity to lower her sunglasses, discreetly scanned the room for bugs—none—and had her glasses back up before Lena turned back. She power-walked and sat down on the same sofa as Lena, but maintained a comfortable distance even if Minnie might still get weird ideas from seeing them.
"I found two bugs in the television, three in cushions, and another embedded within a headrest," Lena tiredly relayed, "but I'm confident the room is actually secure now. I've done a cursory search of much of the house, but the downstairs workshop, stair saferoom, and Minnie's bedroom are the other places I'm reasonably confident that we can speak without being overheard. I would need a damnable ladder to check a number of the other places, and at that point I might as well just move back home. I never liked this place anyway."
Kara kept her mouth firmly shut until after she was sure Lena was done speaking. It was the only way to keep herself from shaking the chair apart in her excitement.
"So you're actually going to become Minnie's guardian after all?" Kara burst out as soon as it was polite to do so, then clamped her lips shut again so that Lena could actually respond. Don't assume a positive answer, Kara, let her actually reply.
"It will probably be adoption, actually," Lena elaborated, and Kara tried to keep her excited squeal below the range of human hearing. "I plan to check with lawyers just to be sure, but I believe the alternatives would grant the government too much say in Minnie's placement."
Lena sighed and smiled wryly.
"You were right to be worry about how much of my time parenthood would take, though," Lena admitted, and Kara had trouble suppressing another squeal. "I think I may be unhealthily projecting onto Minnie, and it's hard not to want to grant her more of my time than I can afford to. It's nothing I can't handle, but I wanted you to know that you were right to press."
The squeal finally escaped Kara as something Lena could definitely hear, and the businesswoman's eyes crept upward.
"I'm glad you're in such a good mood, because I need to ask you for a favor," Lena half-joked, her expression rapidly turning serious. "I appreciate your own offer to help me find caretakers for Minnie, but I expect the only person you could appropriately ask would be Cat Grant and anyone she recommends would likely already be occupied with her son. No, I was hoping you could ask Supergirl for trustworthy nanny recommendations."
Of all the many things Lena could have said, that had not been on Kara's list.
"Um?"
Lena's seriousness dissolved and left behind a sheepish smile.
"Recent events have proven to me that I'm not a perfect judge of character. Meanwhile, aliens could be turned against me if they're sufficiently bribed, but ideologically? They're inherently opposed to xenophobes and wouldn't touch Cadmus with a twenty-meter pole. It seems... safer, than entrusting Minnie to those who might mean her harm."
Kara was stuck between defending Lena—it wasn't her fault that she'd inherited a company already infested by liars—and squeeing over how awe-inspiring Lena was. So much of the world seemed to be growing increasingly hostile to aliens, and not only had Lena grown more accepting, but was even talking about hiring non-humans as her first choice!
A thought struck Kara. Addy was having trouble accepting Minnie's appearance, but it might help if Addy had control over some aspects of the situation? Like, say, by vetting the extra staff that Lena would be hiring. They would need to warn those staff about a telepathic check was part of the vetting process, but it would definitely ensure that nobody had ulterior motives.
"I know that humans are near the bottom of the pile as far as evolutionary benefits are concerned," Lena continued, "and having people who won't die as easily from a stray bullet might also help Minnie feel better about not being surrounded by a swarm of literal killer robots at all times. I've convinced her not to make them for the time being, but she's not happy about it and I can't say I entirely blame her."
"I can ask Supergirl, sure!" Kara volunteered at the earliest available opportunity. "Any other requirements I should pass along? Say, people who could tutor Minnie in human history, or might actually be able to teach her something about robots? I think the last one would be really really hard, but she could try."
It didn't occur to Kara until afterward to ask about schools. Honestly, it was practically a given that Minnie wouldn't be going to any sort of private or public school; Kara couldn't imagine Minnie sitting still in a classroom with a bunch of human kids. Not after all the times Addy had complained or commented on how slowly humans thought.
Lena winced and clearly didn't appear entirely comfortable with what she was about to say.
"I suppose I shouldn't call it a hard requirement," Lena began, appearing somewhat guilty, "but it would be very helpful if they could pass for human. I don't have anything against people who don't, but I'm going to be courting plenty of controversy just by adopting a complete unknown even if I have medical records to brandish at anyone who questions her humanity."
Kara was very proud of herself for keeping a straight face. She felt bad about lying to Lena, but if Minnie wanted to keep her status as a Shardite secret, then that was her right. Kara wouldn't want to be associated with a genocidal species if she was in Minnie's wittle shoes.
"There's actually nothing?" Kara asked, not needing to manufacture surprise. Didn't Addy have benign tumors that Shardites were supposed to use for connections? "I mean, I know she kept saying she was human, but I wasn't totally convinced."
And I still know better.
"Whole-genome sequencing, brain scans, miscellaneous imaging for most of her body, heartbeat, temperature, etcetera," Lena rattled off. "She's as human as they come."
Lena hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"Did you know those glasses of hers are just for eye protection? She does show a genetic predisposition for nearsightedness, but possesses perfect vision. I'm told it might not be a problem until later, but…"
Lena hesitated again, silently stared at Kara for several seconds, and seemingly decided against telling her. It would have hurt if not for what she'd decided to say instead.
"Never mind. By the way, could you ask Supergirl about psychic shielding? I imagine she could ask Administrator about it, at the least. Minnie isn't comfortable explaining the mechanics of her 'Friends' to me until I'm protected from a telepath rummaging around in my brain, and quite frankly, I agree with her."
"That might be a problem if you want to hire aliens," Kara warned, grimacing. "The kinds of telepaths or psychics Supergirl is most likely to find are community-oriented ones who might associate artificial shielding with being hunted. It doesn't help that Cadmus are the first humans to really start adopting it."
Lena echoed Kara's frown, and Kara felt a pang of sympathy. Kara knew that she was an anomaly as far as psychic presence was concerned—for whatever reason, she so was so psychically inert that it acted as its own form of protection. Most people didn't have that benefit.
"What's a little more bias on the pile?" Lena soon sighed. "I'm actually somewhat surprised that nobody has previously hired telepaths to conduct industrial espionage—well, that I know of. The potential for undetectable insider trading alone would be invaluable. But no, if telepathic aliens might be on Supergirl's list of recommendations, then it's even more vital that I find a means of shielding my and Minnie's minds. A human-like appearance only delays how long it takes for someone to discover that Minnie's caretakers are aliens. Can you imagine what people would say about having mind-readers that close to L-corp's secrets? This whole situation is a gamble, but that would be an unmitigated mistake which would almost certainly see me ousted from the position of CEO."
Kara winced. Lena had a point even if Kara hated needing to yield to bigots like that.
The quiet shifting of sheets sounded from nearby, and Kara resisted the urge to cock her head like a dog. She wasn't supposed to be able to hear Minnie waking up, especially from over here.
"I'll pass it along," Kara promised. Addy might be able to help and might at least appreciate being asked about it. "So, uh, does Minnie know where to find us once she wakes up? This place is pretty huge."
Lena winced and nodded.
"I left her a note in the basket with her phone, and I might actually need to wake her if she doesn't get up soon. She… was rather overwhelmed last night, to say the least."
Kara could still remember resisting the urge to fly over at the sound of crying. Only Lena's anxious reassurances had kept her from barging in and possibly making the situation worse.
"Anything I should look out for?"
Lena almost looked to be experiencing actual pain as she nodded.
"The hospital and I agree that she has almost certainly been abused, likely in part to discourage certain behaviors and encourage obedience. If possible, we should try to phrase things as suggestions rather than instructions, because she won't hesitate to obey anything that sounds like an order. I mean that literally—she doesn't hesitate or try to argue. She might be frustrated by physical phenomenon not working the way she expected, but reminding her of new potential opportunities helped her almost instantly get over that last time. Again, that's literal, so please keep an eye out for mood swings; I'm hoping the appearance of such are a product of her hiding her emotions, but there might be something worse to watch for."
Kara swallowed and wondered how much of Minnie's past was echoed in Addy. Kara knew there was some significant divergence that seemingly came with extra individuality on Minnie's side, but Addy was, in her own words, "Aberrant." If Minnie echoed that abnormality, then it could easily leave Minnie vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. Humans were far from the only species to ostracize that which was different.
The door to the room opened, and Lena visibly brightened. The reaction was cute and Kara wanted to squee, but she definitely couldn't get away with doing that for the behaviors of a grown woman. But really, Lena was taking to acting as Minnie's mom so quickly and eeeee!
"Good morning, Minnie. I need to spend the day speaking with lawyers over at L-corp, and may be out late as part of that. Did you want to tell Kara what you wanted to do for Supergirl? You two could work on that while I'm gone if Kara is comfortable with it."
Kara perked up. Whatever that was for, she hadn't been paying attention at the time. As far as Minnie knew, they hadn't met yet; it was gratifying to hear that Minnie wanted to do something nice for her alter ego anyway.
Minnie looked between Lena and Kara several times, her expression stuck on neutral, before she finally nodded.
"I find the lack of countermeasures against the Kryptonian vulnerability to Kryptonite to be highly troubling, and wanted to construct one or more expendable, non-sentient, non-sapient Hunter-Seeker Acquaintances to destroy Kryptonite upon detection. I may disguise the Acquaintance as one of a number of biological organisms in order to avoid associations between such gifts and myself. Ideally, the Acquaintance could be worn as an arm-band, thigh-band–"
Lena choked back a laugh, eyebrows shooting up in a way that indicated she had not been warned about that possibility.
"–or belt. Why was that funny?"
Lena froze and glanced at Kara. She didn't know what Lena expected from her, honestly—her head was still stuck on the idea of not only using, but wearing a Kryptonite-seeking robot—and shrugged helplessly. Lena returned her gaze to Minnie and forced a smile.
"It was… crass humor, I guess I should say. It's not actually that funny. Supergirl wears a skirt, and the idea of something that looked like an animal rocketing out from under her skirt amused me more than was warranted."
Minnie nodded soberly.
"Thank you for telling me."
"Of course. Breakfast isn't ready yet, but there's still cake in the kitchen fridge if you want to start with that."
Kara looked incredulously at Lena, and the businesswoman smiled sheepishly. So, she knew that you weren't supposed to do that and was resorting to it anyway, possibly to get Minnie out of the room. It certainly worked; Minnie's lips momentarily twitched into a tiny smile before she nodded and began walking away.
Lena craned her neck to keep one eye on the door and waited until it was shut with Minnie outside to turn back to Kara.
"I'm very sorry to bring this up," Lena began, her features shifting to pained embarrassment, "but we may want to avoid having you write any more articles on me. It was one thing when we were simply socializing with plenty of witnesses, but now that I've arranged for expensive solo transport multiple times and will continue to do so—well, people make assumptions when the powerful mix business and personal matters."
Kara blinked, mind drawing a blank. She didn't see why that was an issue.
"I… thought people already knew we were friends?" Kara hazarded. "We haven't been subtle about it."
Lena's face fell into her open palms, and the CEO groaned.
"Kara," Lena said, sounding thoroughly aggrieved, "I don't want them to think you're trading favors for these interviews."
Lena peeked out from between her fingers as though fearing her reaction, but Kara still didn't understand what the problem was. Friends did stuff for each other all the time; there wasn't anything unusual about it.
"I mean—you offered an interview after asking me to babysit…?" Kara said uncertainly. "I would have been fine with it being one-way, but yeah, I guess that's trading favors? I still don't get the problem."
Lena's fingers closed, hiding her face once more, and the CEO took a long, slow breath.
"Kara," Lena said, sounding halfway between laughing and crying, "we don't want them to think you're trading sexual favors."
The words took a moment to bounce around the inside of Kara's skull and register. Once she actually understood their meaning, though, Kara couldn't help but choke and resist the urge to flee from sheer humiliation. No wonder Lena looked so uncomfortable!
"But—I'm sorry, I don't want to assume, but aren't you straight anyway?" Kara squeaked. "I thought I'd heard—I mean—never mind!"
Lena's head shot up, and Kara regretted ever bringing up Lena's ex.
"Am I straight?" Lena parroted, and Kara wished the floor would just swallow her whole. Lena shook her head in apparent disbelief, and Kara's mortification grew. "Kara, I'm very much bisexual and that's arguably part of the problem."
"It's absolutely not a problem," Kara's mouth objected on autopilot.
It took Lena blankly staring at her for Kara's brain to catch up with her mouth and tell her just how that statement could be interpreted. She hadn't meant to come across as flirtatious!
"I–I mean, no, I meant–" Kara stuttered. "It's the opposite of a bad—oh, gosh, that sounds even worse! I mean, not that I would mind–"
Kara forced herself to stop, breathe, and marshal her thoughts into some semblance of working order lest she pull a Krypton and dig clear through to the center of the planet with catastrophic results. She still couldn't make herself meet Lena's gaze, though.
"Sexuality should never be treated as though it's somehow problematic," Kara finally managed. "The assumptions of other people–"
The door to the room opened and Kara clamped her mouth shut. Minnie arrived with a slice of cake half the size of her head, because of course she did. Trails on the icing and a small chocolate stain around Minnie's mouth indicated that the child had already laid claim to the slice via the ancient, noble, and cross-species practice of licking it.
By the time Kara looked back at Lena, the slightly flushed CEO had sat up straight and was pretending to be the picture of perfect poise. She wouldn't meet Kara's eyes, though, and the Kryptonian cursed her own traitorous mouth for getting them into this mess. Kara would need to apologize for making Lena uncomfortable, and soon.
Minnie closed the door behind herself and momentarily examined the two silently shifting women.
"Good morning. Are you feverish, or was the cake a diversion so that you two could flirt?" Minnie deadpanned.
"No–" "Not at all–" Kara and Lena said simultaneously, stopped, and glanced at each other. Lena jerked her head to indicate that Kara should go first, and Kara shook her head in turn to offer the same.
"I'm small, not stupid," Minnie informed them, and yes, Kara could definitely see the imp's lips twitching with suppressed amusement. "So long as you do not engage in–"
"Okay," Lena loudly interrupted, standing up and straightening her grey business suit. "That's enough of that, you're making Kara uncomfortable. Please listen to her while I'm gone. Do you want a hug before I leave?"
Minnie placed her cake on a small side table, stopped, and shook her head.
"My mouth is likely contaminated after I laid claim to this portion of the cake," Minnie explained. "Humans prize appearances and I do not wish to stain yours."
Lena picked a suspicious time to cough, and Kara didn't bother to suppress her own giggle.
"That's very considerate of you," Lena said diplomatically, crouching to put herself closer to Minnie's height. "But I don't think I'm in any danger unless you deliberately wipe your mouth on me. So, are you sure? The offer is still open—actually, you can ask for a hug at any time you want."
Minnie deliberated for a moment more before walking over and stiffly accepting the hug. She even looked a little happy about it until she noticed Kara looking. The tiny smile vanished almost instantly afterward, and Kara couldn't help but feel guilty about it. Kara couldn't decide if, in the future, the Kryptonian should pretend to look away when Minnie was actually expressing emotion or if doing so would harm more than help.
"If you are killed before I can make you proper protector Friends, I will be very upset."
Minnie evidently felt the need to continue while Kara and Lena were still reeling from the jarring change to a grim subject.
"Elaboration: I will be very upset if you are ever killed, but it is more likely before I make you Friends. Please allocate more of your resources toward self-preservation until then."
Lena pulled just far enough away to place her hands on Minnie's arms and establish eye contact.
"Minnie, I'll be fine. I'll have my phones with me and will be in my office practically all day. L-corp has armed security, the limousines are bullet-resistant, and nobody will be coming to see me unless they have an appointment. I even have Supergirl to look out for me, remember?"
Minnie's eyes momentarily flicked to Kara before the child pouted.
"I am assuming you will not let me replace your skull with an armored alternative."
A small, horrified squeak escaped Kara. She couldn't help but feel even more flabbergasted when Lena managed to do nothing more than sigh.
"Maybe when you're much older, and when you have a better handle on our physics."
"Acknowledged. I hope your day is productive, successful, and safe. Goodbye."
Minnie turned her attention back to the cake, and both Lena and Kara shook with suppressed laughter. Straight from a goodbye to treating her as having already left, huh?
"Stay safe," Lena said softly, and stood back up. She smiled at Kara, all traces of embarrassment buried. "Thank you for looking after her."
Kara swallowed and mustered a shaky smile.
"Of course! Any—well, okay, not any time any time, I do still like my job, but I'll do my best!"
Lena's smile widened and she nodded.
"And thank you for that. Have a good day."
"You too!"
Lena started toward the door the moment Kara finished speaking, and—was she walking a little differently than she normally did? It had to be in Kara's head, didn't it? Lena wore high heels and suits all the time and always looked nice in them. But really, she could swear that Lena was walking just a tiny bit differently and it was driving her nuts, but it wasn't as if she spent much time staring at Lena's back and gosh that sounded even worse after their earlier conversation so Kara should definitely bury that thought under a few million tons of rock right now. Kara tore her gaze away and kept her gaze fixed on the child she was supposed to be babysitting.
The door had barely closed behind Lena before Minnie looked back up and fixed her gaze on Kara.
"Supergirl should strongly consider relying less on her Kryptonian disguise power," Minnie said neutrally. "Those with sufficiently anomalous mindsets appear to be capable of seeing through it, especially as she does not wear a mask. It is exceptionally reckless and irresponsible of her, and I am not impressed."
Kara's plans for the day came crashing down around her. Minnie knew.
"Supergirl should strongly consider relying less on her Kryptonian disguise power," Minnie said neutrally. "Those with sufficiently anomalous mindsets appear to be capable of seeing through it, especially as she does not wear a mask. It is exceptionally reckless and irresponsible of her, and I am not impressed."
Because it doesn't exist. Kara and Clark don't have any powers to hide their identities and the only reason they are not widespread knowledge is decades of author fiat.
Minnie just assumed there is some kind of obfuscation going on, because the alternative is too stupid to contemplate.
There is no such canon power. It's Minnie's rationalization—aided by her bodyguard suggesting it during their ride to the hospital—for how the civilian IDs of Superman and Supergirl have not been associated with the two superheroes despite how they run around without masks. Humans might be inferior to Shards, but they're not that stupid.
There is no such canon power. It's Minnie's rationalization—aided by her bodyguard suggesting it—for how Clark Kent and Kara Danvers have not been associated with Superman and Supergirl despite running around without masks. Humans might be inferior to Shards, but they're not that stupid.
There is no such canon power. It's Minnie's rationalization—aided by her bodyguard suggesting it during their ride to the hospital—for how the civilian IDs of Superman and Supergirl have not been associated with the two superheroes despite how they run around without masks.
They are somewhat protected by other people "knowing" that the people who look like super heroes actually aren't (though this protection wouldn't be very effective against people who are dedicated / very familiar).
IIRC they don't exactly have a disguise power, but they do have the fine muscle control of their faces to make their features, expressions and manerisms just slightly different enough that their alter egos just come accross as people who look a lot like them, rather than having the exact same face. It's basically what Lisa does, just superpowered.
Everything else is refuge in audacity and author fiat.
There is no such canon power. It's Minnie's rationalization—aided by her bodyguard suggesting it during their ride to the hospital—for how the civilian IDs of Superman and Supergirl have not been associated with the two superheroes despite how they run around without masks. Humans might be inferior to Shards, but they're not that stupid.
Kara digging holes and Lena is smart enough to pick up on that she might have a chance judging by her slightly moving differently after leaving causing Kara to stare as she goes.
There is no such canon power. It's Minnie's rationalization—aided by her bodyguard suggesting it during their ride to the hospital—for how the civilian IDs of Superman and Supergirl have not been associated with the two superheroes despite how they run around without masks. Humans might be inferior to Shards, but they're not that stupid.
As far as disguises go, a lot of it was supposed to be things like posture, mannerisms, and tone of voice. They do make a big impact in recognizing a person. I think somewhere there was some stuff about minor tricks they do to confuse cameras that was tossed in as a random mention in one of the comics at some point in time.
The above is from one of the early superman movies and shows some of the tricks that can be used.
Another example is a fun fact, Henry Cavill decided to test the Kent disguise in real life and stood by a Batman Vs Superman billboard while wearing a superman t-shirt under an open coat in New York and no one recognized him.
Classic comics Superman had the ability to erase memories with a kiss, and did so several times to Lois after she found out his dual identity. Such silver age superdickery has mostly been left out of the more modern interpretations, though in the case of mind-wiping super-kisses the concept is amusing enough on its own that I kind of regret that
Another example is a fun fact, Henry Cavill decided to test the Kent disguise in real life and stood by a Batman Vs Superman billboard while wearing a superman t-shirt under an open coat in New York and no one recognized him.
How often do you pay attention to the faces of random strangers while you are busy trying to get somewhere else? How many would actually care about Henry Cavill in Man of Steel to harass him in the street at the point in time?
Over the course of my life I've had a few people comment on how I look like Spiderman just because my face has a resemblance to a younger Tobey Maguire - Wikipedia
They are somewhat protected by other people "knowing" that the people who look like super heroes actually aren't (though this protection wouldn't be very effective against people who are dedicated / very familiar).
I'm reminded of how Lex Luthor refuses to even contemplate the thought that Clark Kent could be Superman, despite having evidence shoved into his face.
Although that's mostly a psychological thing.
Lex believes that someone as powerful as Superman could never pretend to be less powerful than he actually is, because Lex himself would never do so and he subconsciously assumes that Superman is just as arrogant as he is.
Classic comics Superman had the ability to erase memories with a kiss, and did so several times to Lois after she found out his dual identity. Such silver age superdickery has mostly been left out of the more modern interpretations, though in the case of mind-wiping super-kisses the concept is amusing enough on its own that I kind of regret that
That particular superdickery is actually from the Christopher Reeve movies in the 1980s, specifically it appears in Superman II and in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. I can't find anything except extremely dubious claims on Wikis that would support it being a comic power, at least as a power that he had before the movies. And the movies are obviously well past the Silver Age.
