Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related L&C Fic Idea

Decided to start a new thread for this.

The L&C idea I had was much more tenuous (than my original fic). I was reading Yesterday, Upon the Stair by Carol (?) (C. Malo) and I wondered "What if Lois and Clark lived on a boat?". It may have been an elseworlds beginning (one or other lived on a boat and (both?) never worked at the DP, or it may have been that they moved to the boat after they married. They may have travelled the world, or it may have been a barge moored permanently at Metropolis (is Metropolis even *on* the coast?!) and still worked at the DP, or something...

I really liked the idea, but have no knowledge of 'Life on a Boat'. I went on 3 trips in secondary school, where a group of us where on an 80 ft boat/yacth for 3 or 4 days and we sailed it with the help of the 4 permanent crew, but I've forgotten all of it (except tacking across the bay to get into the pier at Rothesey, Bute; stopping at Tighnabruach, I couldn't pronounce it and how tiny the toilet was!). If I blitzed the research, I could get the facts right (maybe!) but living on a boat is something I have no knowledge of and it may be more reserach than I have time for, especially since I find writing quite hard - I think I procastinate waay too much.

I'm interested to see what everyone thinks, both of the idea and my thoughts on it.

Loriel

I would assume that Metropolis has access to the water (whether or not it's directly on the coast) since we know from "The Phoenix" that they have a marina where yatchs can be anchored. (It's where Sheldon Bender kept his boat, and Perry's friend had a little hideaway apartment.) I would imagine it would be extremely expensive to live there, though, so I'm not sure L&C could afford it, even if they pooled their money after they got married. But there certainly have been plenty of Elseworld stories where Clark got rich and famous writing books before he came to Metropolis, so maybe him having his own yatch could just be one more take on that theme.

Alternatively, a way to include a mention of boat living in a more traditional L&C story might be for Clark to have spent a summer living on a boat during his travels, or something like that.

Kathy

Or if you don't want it to be an elseworld, you could have them get richer in a futures fic. Maybe they started writing novels, or maybe they climbed the corporate ladder of the DP, or maybe they inherited a bunch of money.

I think this sounds like a great idea and I'm anxious to see where you go with it.

~Anna

Nah -- just have them cash in their chips from the Daily Planet and buy a small boat and sail away - anything is possible.

Carol

well, if it's an elseworlds, who says they have to be reporters? or that they didn't have other, better-paying jobs first?

as for life on a boat... it depends. i know someone who used to live on a boat. he takes people out fishing for a living. he didn't have enough money for an apartment in the area, since tourists and other seasonal travelers have seriously raised property values in the whole area (not to mention the local law that says that a percentage of every real estate transaction has to go to land conservation).

so, he started out with a small motorboat and lived there. it meant a cramped cabin and a tiny head (instead of a real bathroom), but it let him live and do his job.

meantime, he worked with his uncle (who owns a sloop and makes his living taking tourists out sailing) to build a larger boat. it's got a fiberglass shell, but they did all the woodwork and assembly themselves.

when that boat was ready, he sold the old one to his first mate (who moved a couple hundred miles north to do the same thing) and moved into the new one.

eventually, he managed to move into an apartment in town. that was due to a combination of success, savings, and the fact that his wife was pregnant (when i saw them last, the baby was about a year old and she was in the early stages of pregnancy again).

so, for him, living on a boat meant that he had a tiny cabin with a bedroom and a few things and an even smaller quasi-bathroom that he had to share with the tourists. i expect most of his meals came from local restaurants, since you can't really cook under those conditions.

so, they could do something like that. cramped quarters wouldn't be too bad for l&c and they'd have the freedom to go just about anywhere they wanted (so long as it was on the coast). docking fees might be a problem, but if they made some sort of living (or, as has been mentioned, had enough money saved up to basically retire), it could be done.

otoh, the whole thing would be much different for a billionaire, who could afford a large staffed yacht and wouldn't have to worry too much about the expense of docking fees. might even belong to one or more yacht clubs (which, as i understand it, basically gives you docking rights at the club, use of their facilities, and an invitation to meetings and parties... though they do sponsor races and such from time to time).

there are a variety of options in between, too.

there are even things called "houseboats," which are essentially ocean-based RVs.

hope at least some of this helps.

Paul