I'm almost scared to read the posts in here.
And well you should be. This was a well written and tragic story, Terry. I'm both glad and saddened by reading it.
Ann said:
Interesting. There are a several requests for Clark to bring Lois down, after he brought on Lois's personality change by freezing her in the first place.
I agree. I know that Clark's distance is a direct result of Lois' biting comments and cruel actions, but it's like he doesn't remember his part in her descent into this twisted and bitchy version of herself.
If nothing else, I would have expected Clark to try to become her conscience using his Superman persona (or unseen from the shadows). It may have been a full-time job and it may not have worked, but seeing as how Clark caused the problem by agreeing to her brilliant (/me rolls eyes) freezing plan, I thought Clark might take more responsibility for the outcome. It seems to me like he gave up a little too easily here.
We never did get to see Lois interacting with Superman after the 'big freeze.' Would she treat Superman with the same amount of disdain as her colleagues? Would she see him only as a story, or would some of the old moony-eyed cheerleader still exist?
I also had a hard time accepting Clark and Perry's reactions to Lois' abusive behaviors. I can accept that Perry couldn't fire Lois, but as her boss, there's a whole lot he could have done to discipline her for her poor behavior. Also, her physical attacks on Clark (the slaps, pushes and kicks), while they didn't really hurt him, were physical attacks. That's assault and it's against the law. There should have been some kind of disciplinary actions either Clark or Perry could have taken to show Lois that there *are* consequences to her actions, even if it's just a written warning for her HR file.
BTW, her relationship with this Lance character didn't make sense to me. Lance indicated that he didn't want his key back, so her pregnancy and subsequent abortion wasn't the result of a one-night stand. Lois obviously had some kind of long-term romantic relationship with this man. So here's my question, if Lois has the rational/emotional capacity for a romantic or intimate relationship with Lance, why couldn't she treat anyone at work with a modicum of civility, warmth or friendship - even if she is ultimately faking it?
Overall, it was an interesting (and probably more realistic) take on the bone-headed idea of freezing Lois to meet Jace Mazik's demands. You get bonus points for originality and creating a truly despicable version of Lois. However, as usually happens when I read a story where the toys stay broken, I have a deep and compelling need to read lots WaFFy stories.
/me runs to the archive to re-read
Momentum .
