Okay, I felt before I slipped quietly into my retirement, that I'd best write my one TOGoM story for the year, and get it out of the way.

I'd like to acknowledge the classic works of BB Medos as a partial inspiration. It was in one of Beverly's stories where I first came across the doodled glasses on a picture of Superman revelation trigger.

Any comments, complaints, fresh fruit or vegatables can go here.

Tank (who would be interested to hear what the gentle readers think that Lois and Clark will come up with this time)

<snicker>

Cute idea! I figured there was something up with all the evasive could-mean-anything language at the beginning, but it was still fun to watch it all unfold

PJ

ROFL!!! Now there's a new twist on TOGOM, Tank! Lois is shown up in the observation department by her own sister!

Now, when can we expect to see your next story?


Wendy

Tank who are you kidding? You can't retire...it's in your blood to write FANFIC!

Interesting idea having Lucy be the one to figure out that Clark is Superman. I loved her conversation with Martha~~ LMAO.

AS to what they will come up with...I like the idea that Superman disguised himself as Clark Kent!! HA HA

Hi,

Great piece.

Great Story.

Melisa

hee-hee. fun, tank. lucy knows and lois doesn't and lucy just assumed lois would have figured it out... priceless scene. nice ending, too, with most, if not all, of the explanations that have shown up in other fics. wonder what they'll come up with this time.

hmm... i guess that would require a sequel, wouldn't it? good thing you're retired, then. you'll have plenty of time to write.

great story.

Paul

Tank,

Good story

It was interesting to see the usual Lois and Clark 'discussion' from another person's perspective...

I had a niggling feeling that Lucy should've quietly slipped out of the room out of politeness once the 'discussion' had started. But you know, if I'd been in that situation I'd have wanted to watch the fireworks too

Helga

I can't help but imagine Martha laughing like a loon after recieving a phone call like that.

Great story!

Julie

Very cute story. Loved the phone call to Martha too. Good job. Laura

Good job, Tank!

Irene

VERY fun read Tank!

Still laughing at the 'shiny red butt' comment!



~Liz

lol, great fic Tank

You should retire every day, Tank. Gives you lots of time to produce fic for us to read.

Nice angle with Lucy being far more observant than her sister, who's supposed to be the observant one in the family.

There's only one thing I would have liked better. It would have been terribly amusing to actually watch the whole fight from Lucy's perspective, rather than told through her after-the-fact introspection. Maybe an epilogue might be in order? And no, I'm not writing it this time.

Keep writing, Tank. We need you to hold up the guys' end of the fic-writing (so the rest of us can retire ).

New angle on ToGoM!!

Fantastic story!!

Hi Tank

Along with everyone else, I want to say "Great story!"

I, too, liked the "shiny red butt" line, but that wasn't, surprisingly enough, my favourite in the story. My favourite line?

Okay, so it doesn't provoke a laugh and it's certainly not central to the story. What it does do, though, is in ten words show the wealth of shared experience the two sisters have. It's a wonderfully understated way of showing how close they are.

Re Roger's comment: I have to disagree here. I thought your telling this part of the story in flashback worked very well. I've seen all the arguments and rages in fanfics before; I probably would have got bored seeing them rehashed once again. As it was, I could imagine them perfectly well without seeing them written out word for word. This way, we get a clear summary of everything that has been said as well as Lucy's response to it.

All told, I liked it, but I think you've worked that out already, right?

Chris

Lois' external appearances absolutely hint to her internal chaos and grief-stricken plight.


Very poignant!

Definitely a unique TOGOM variant and very interesting.

Tank's dislike for Jimmy seems to be in direct proportion to his admiration for Lucy. I will concede that he did kill her off once, but Lucy usually does come out looking verrry good in Tankfics!

Great little story, Tank. I continue to be utterly astonished that there are still new twists to TOGOM out there. When's the next one?

Hazel

You know I could have been first to leave a comment on this one...if I hadn't been laughing too hard when I read it last night to leave fdk.



Loved it! Original, cute and a lot of fun.

LabRat

I think this is a thinly veiled challenge to his favorite BR to come up with a solution...

What do you think y'all? Should a certain someone by the initials WR take up the cause?

James

Tank,

A hoot! You had me grinning away as I read it and I can say that its been the most original take on TOGoM yet.(It would have to be by now wouldn't it?)

Anyway, you can't retire, if you leave us hanging on how you ended To Serve and Protect we are just going to have to come to Minn and hunt you down and waff torture you till you write the sequel!

Okay, lets see if I can wade through some of the comments.

First off, there seems to be some confusion as to what this story was. I write this sad, emotionally angst-ridden vignette and everyone says they thought is was funny. The gentle readers seem to have a twisted idea of what humor.

Also, there seems to be some confusion as to my retirement. I'm not retired from working for a living (in fact I had to work an 18 hour day yesterday) just so I can write more fanfiction. I'm retiring from fanfic so all the new writers coming into their own on the boards have more room to showcase their stuff. Aren't I just the most noble guy. You know what they say about me. I'm just a darn nice guy.

This also brings up Wendy's comment about what would be next... peace? Actually, the only thing I've had any thoughts on would be a sequel to 'To Protect and Serve', because I think I just might have left a tiny, niggling, unresolved thread or two, but probably not. But, I don't think it would be a good idea to waste a lot of time writing another loooong story that no one really wants to read.

Now, as for this story. I'm glad that some of you liked the handling of the 'argument' as a flashback recapsulization as Lucy lay in bed. We've all seen just about every version of this 'fight' that can be imagined, from loud and accusitory, to restrained and forgiving. I didn't want to bore everyone by trotting that out again.

Also this was by no means a 'hidden' challenge for Wendy. Again, we've all seen dozens of different 'miraculous' cures for Clark's deadness so I didn't think it would be necessary to invent another strange way to do it. That wasn't the point of the story, nor did I plan a 'punchline'. I thought it would be more fun to let the gentle readers provide their own miracle return. Actually I kind of like ChaaBreh's idea of Superman going in disguise as Clark. I also think that it would be fun if Lucy was the one who came up with it. That would fit in with the general tone of the story.

Time to get comfy in my Herman Miller Ambi office chair, which I got cheap (an advantage of working for a company that installs office furniture), and sit in front of my computer screen and read fanfic. So get writing out there.

Tank (who admits that he likes the concept of Lucy Lane even if she hasn't always been done very well in the various medium)

This comes a bit late but I just want to post comments as often as I can to show my appreciation to the writers.

I loved this Tank! I never get tired of reading different takes on TOGOM. I also enjoy reading how writers depict Lucy Lane since her character wasn't really developed in the series.

Looking forward to your next fic.

Tank

Great idea, LOL!
I enjoyed it immensely. I look forward to reading your next one.

Tricia