Another brilliant part, Sara. I love how you force me to stop and think before I really understand what is going on. Like in the beginning, Lois glares at her coffee, and - it starts to bubble??? What? How? Oh - right - heat vision, and out-of-control heat vision, too! I love it that you didn't just tell us that the coffee started boiling, because Lois just noticed that the coffee was bubbling, and she was as momentarily lost as I was. Brilliant! (And I loved it that Lois poured the boiling coffee into the potted plant. That must be the first time ever I've seen Lois throw away coffee! And poor plant! Lois, how are you going to explain what happened to it?)
And I
loved the way Lois was trying to write the article about Superman putting out the fire in Hobbs Bay. I loved all her furious typos - "Spuper-" and "Hobbs Bat" were my two favorites. The really interesting thing about what Lois was trying to write, however, was that she couldn't bring herself to even write down the word "Superman". Whenever she tried to do that, she got lost, furious and distracted again.
Well, I guessed last time that you'd make Lois see how difficult it really is to be superpowered, so that she'd feel more empathy with Clark. I had expected, however, that you'd make Lois carry out a rescue or two. But there is none of that here, but instead all those scary and inconvenient little freak-things like breaking off all door knobs she touched, or involutarily X-raying Perry's polka-dotted boxers. (LOL!
That was adorable!!!) And, not least, being so scared, being scared of being caught, of being found out, and being scared of being dissected like a frog.
You really made Lois see a some important things about Clark in this part, Sara. I loved the photos, particularly the one that Clark wasn't really showing, or rather, he had it stapled behind another one so that people wouldn't see it by accident if they happened to find the two pictures. But he had brought it to work so that
he could look at it. That was so hugely interesting. And Lois saw what she had never paid enough attention to to see before: that Clark's eyes and face simply shone with love for her. I wasn't going to quote much here, or at all, but I guess I must quote that little photo description:
And the photo... was stapled to another one. She flipped it over and instantly felt like somebody had dealt her a blow to the solar plexus.
The self-timer... he'd been trying out the self-timer, she'd been teasing him so much about his bashfulness in front of the camera. She'd wrapped her arms around his neck, laughing up into his face as the tips of his ears turned red.
She looked at it. Her grin was wide and impish, her eyes dancing, comfortable in the embrace of her best friend. And he... he was looking down at her with such emotion in his dark eyes and his bright smile, such... depths of feeling. She couldn't think why she had never noticed it before.
What do they say, Sara? *hearts*?
And the text goes on, and becomes no less interesting:
Never noticed it before. But then she couldn't have, could she? He'd never shown it to her before. He'd obviously seen how obviously... he looked, and had hidden it.
*hearts* again, I think. But *curiosity* too. Because
where had he hidden it?
In his *drawer? His desk drawer?
She felt a sudden pang. He'd taken it to work with him...
This is so hugely interesting. Clark loves Lois and wants Lois to love him. Here he's snapped a picture of himself and Lois that speaks volumes of his own love for her. And he brings it to work so that he can look at it every day at work. But he has never shown it to Lois? Clark, if you want her to love you, why can't you show her your true feelings for her? And why can't you show her your true self?
You know, Sara, the thing I dislike most about Clark, hands down, is the way he's lying to Lois while at the same time trying to have a relationship with her. I think, bottom line, that this is unforgivable. Or at the very least, that it is so, so wrong. Seems to me you must choose between being a good guy and being a pathetic liar, because you can't be both at the same time.
And I hate it -
hate it!! - when he's trying to justify those lies. You know, when he says that he lied to her to protect her. Or when he's saying, like you make him do, that he had to lie to her because he was afraid of losing her entirely if he told her the truth. Or when he is blaming
her for forcing him to lie to her, because she is so shallow that she'd have loved him for all the wrong reasons if she'd known the truth about him. And I hate it when he says that he is really just plain old ordinary Clark Kent, and Superman is not who he is at all. Every time he says something like that, I want to yell at him or shake him.
And it's so interesting to see fanfic writers try to explain this lying Clark Kent. Many of them apparently side with Clark and say that it really was Lois's fault in the end. Fortunately, though, you don't give us such an unsatisfactory explanation. I was so fascinated, and also moved, by this:
He couldn't sit there with her when his head was spinning like a merry-go-round. He couldn't be so close to her, let her see who he was, when he didn't really know himself.
Fantastic, Sara. You show us a Clark Kent who is not crazy, but who nevertheless suffers from a rather severe case of split personality. I'm thinking of those documented cases of people with multiple personalities. People with this kind of psychiatric condition compulsively compartmentalize their personalities. They don't know how to be a whole person. Isn't that what we see in Clark? If I'm getting you correctly, plain-old-Clark is Clark Kent's dominant personality, but superhero-Superman regularly, inexorably, takes over. When that happens, plain-old-Clark can offer Lois nothing more than lame excuses and maddening absences. When the crisis has been dealt with, plain-old-Clark comes back and wants to resume his plain-old-life with Lois as if nothing has happened.
And maybe he can't talk about his double identity because it is really a case of split personality, and he doesn't feel comfortable with this psychiatric condition of his? And he is just so scared that anybody will find out? Being found out about this is as bad as being outed as Superman to the world, and being brought to a lab and dissected like a frog? Maybe these two revelations amount to the same thing to him? Panic, loss of self? Somehow utter defeat?
In some ways, you have shown us Clark as the scaredy-cat in this story and Lois as the tenacious bulldog. It was Lois, after all, who ultimately went in search of Clark after they couldn't find a way to reconnect after Clark had "died". And whatever happened at the cemetery, I think it's fair to say that it was Lois who was the driving force there. Here in this chapter, you show us how Clark hands in his notice rather than fight for his love. He doesn't come to work, so Lois leaves the Daily Planet - admittedly partly so that she won't have to look at Perry's polka-dotted boxers - and comes home to Clark. Finally, in the end of this chapter, Clark wants to fly away in sheer panic rather than talk to Lois, and it's only Lois's determination that makes him stay.
But Clark has many reasons to be afraid, and Lois is beginning to understand many of them, when she has to deal with having superpowers herself.
Fantastic, Sara. The complexities of this story are wonderful. And all your wonderful imagery certainly sticks in my mind, too. I think my favorite this time was Lois's "pulsing soul". How perfect. Wow.
Looking forward to the conclusion of this brilliant story!
Ann
