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[OOM: In Smallville, Clark isn't having much fun.]

Clark doesn't hang around the main bar very long when he enters - too loud today - and heads outside, walking along the lake shore. He can still hear just about everything that's going on, right down to the rustle of demon bunnies in the forest, but at least out here the conversations emanating from the bar overlap enough that it's more a background buzz.

It's preferable to a hundred mooing cows, at any rate.

He stops a fair distance away from the main building and picks up a few rocks, casually tossing them into the water. Occasionally, he actually puts a tiny bit of effort into it and a few land clear on the opposite shore.

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Naturally, Clark saw the ship. He'd even heard the people aboard it, but how does he tell this man the rocks weren't going to end up anywhere near the ship?

He doesn't.

"I guess I didn't realize how close they were getting," he offers apologetically. "And I didn't mean any offense."

"Y' better not. Y' don't want to offend pirates." Now he's having fun. "But that's some arm you have."

"No, I suppose I don't," Clark agrees gamely, with a tiny hint of a smile. "Lucky throw, really."

"Some luck. Luck like that, and you should try your hand at dice." Around here, luck is as likely as anything, but Gibbs has doubts he won't voice on this matter. "Why is it that you're throwing rocks? Trying to wake the beastie?"

"I don't gamble." Clark walks a bit closer to the ship, for ease of conversation, eyebrows rising as he takes the Pearl in. He hasn't seen anything like it before, in person.

"Just trying to relax, mostly, and I'd rather not wake anything." He possibly should have paid a bit more attention to what was under the water. "What sort of beastie are we talking about, anyway?"

"A giant pink squid." A beat. "No, I'm not making it up, lad. I've seen it with my own eyes. A friendly beast, though. At least with Miss Rachel."

"A friendly, giant pink squid." Clark shakes his head. "Just when I thought this place couldn't get any weirder."

"Aye, that was my thought. But it's better than a fair number of things that are out there on my seas at home, so don't complain." He thought it was the kraken at first, after all. "You have a name, lad?"

"Clark Kent," there's an awkward pause at the end, where a 'sir' would normally go, but Clark stops himself. "And you?"

"That's a good English name, but you don't sound English. 'M Gibbs." He gives a half-wave.

"That's because I'm American. From Kansas." Clark has no idea if that will mean anything to a pirate. "Nice to meet you, Gibbs. Is this your ship?"

"Kansas? I don't know that town. It's not on the sea, is it?" He'd know the ports of call along the Atlantic and the Caribbean, but not much more.

"This ship is the property of Captain Jack Sparrow. The Black Pearl. Finest ship on the Spanish Main."

"No, it's pretty much landlocked. We have a lake, but somehow I don't think that comes even close," Clark smiles and then it fades ever so slightly when he hears the names.

"I don't doubt that it is. It looks like a fine ship." Said as someone who knows absolutely nothing about boats in general.

"Lakes are nothing like the sea. I've learned that the hard way." Oh, what he'd give for the sea. (And oh, what he fears he'll have to give when the time is right.)

"I'm the first mate here. My job is to keep her in shape till the time comes to get her home."

Clark eyes the ship up and down. "Looks like a pretty big job. I hope you've got some help."

"We did, at home. But here, it's just me and captain, for the most part. Not that we go anywhere." He misses a crew almsot as muchas he misses the sea.

"Are you stuck here?" Clark asks. "I've heard that happens to some people."

"For now. At some point, I'm supposed to return home, agree with to work with a bitter enemy to bring the captain and the ship back from here, and accept the consequences. But until then, I'm stuck."

Agreeing to work with a bitter enemy. Clark knows that feels.

"I hope it works out for you," he says, genuinely.

"As long as we get Jack back, it should." Jack can solve everything.

Clark smiles at that. "Captains are usually captains for a reason."

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