Create a story from a random character (non-major, non-co-starring, preferably from canon) where they may have happened to notice Clark acting Super or Superman acting ordinary. What does this person notice? How do they interpret it?

The stories should be short, one-part vignettes, preferably rated G.

Groobie and I have started us off with our stories: The Cabbie's Tale by VirginiaR and The Florist's Tale by groobie (aka Susan Young).

Or as groobie suggested:
Which other characters fit this bill? The lady who witnesses Clark stop the bus. The homeless man who witnesses Clark fly. (Angel, I believe he calls Clark.) Who else can you think of?

The Canterbury Tales of Metropolis:

The Cabbie's Tale by VirginiaR

The Florist's Tale by groobie (aka Susan Young).

Platitudes by LWhite

The Slumlord's Tale by Lynn S.M.

The Look-ALike Agent's Tale by Lynn S.M.

The Nun's Tale by cuidadora

The Showgirl's Tale by by groobie (aka Susan Young).

Questionable Evidence by Deadly Chakram.

The Psychic's Tale by Annie B.

Jack's Story by Lynn S.M.

The First Lady's Tale by cuidadora.

Incognito by Deadly Chakram

This I'll Defend by Deadly Chakram

The Panhandler's Tale (1/1) By Lynn S.M.

Hey, lurkers...this would be a great challenge for you! Surely you could put together a couple of typed pages worth of a story. And you'd be eligible for multiple Kerth awards - Super Short Story, Original/Supporting Character, and New Author!

I really like this challenge and have decided to write The Slumlord's Tale in response.

Joy,
Lynn

I just thought of another whole group of people who could be candidates for telling a tale... During the NK arc, pretty much all of Smallville should have pieced together that CK=S; that's assuming, of course, that they hadn't figured it out long since. (See Shayne T.'s excellent story Gossip for more in that vein.)

Joy,
Lynn

Here's another response to the challenge.

Virginia, do you plan to collect all the responses to this challenge and submit a single "Canterbury Tales of Metropolis" file to the archive, or would you prefer to have the authors submit their responses separately?

Joy,
Lynn

LabRat, what do you think?

I had already submitted "A Cabbie's Tale" to Labby at the Archive before Groobie and I came up with this challenge. Feel free to mention the challenge in the story's description, though. Or you can link them by using the long title: "The Canterbury Tales of Metropolis: The Slumlord's Tale" to let the readers know that it is part of a series.

I was going to submit mine separately, too, but include the challenge in the description. I like that you're updating the stories in the challenge thread, though, so that there's a list of them. Or Virginia can edit the first post in that thread as new stories are posted so the complete list is right at the top.

That I can do.

I'll submit my stories separately then, and will add "In response to the "Canterbury Tales of Metropolis" challenge in parentheses to the end of the story titles.

Thanks again, Virginia, for coming up with this challenge.

Joy,
Lynn

Groobie - I feel like your story "Whining Ends" should be included in this. It was a great little look into Elise.

It's definitely a story from a minor character's point of view, but it's not about Superman in any way, so it doesn't fit the challenge. I appreciate your complement, though!

My submission is The Nun's Tale.

That's an interesting question. Because, here's the thing... Now that we're linking series on the Archive, it occurred to me that we might also link challenge stories. If a reader has read one story response to a challenge they might be interested in reading how other authors tackled the same premise.

Lauren agreed, so I will shortly be mining various sources to identify challenge stories to be linked. And once I have that basic list, as with series, I'll post and ask for your help to identify more.

So, shorter answer - send them in separately and we'll link them together once they've been uploaded.

LabRat

LabRat,

Brilliant! And I mean that in both the British and the American sense of the word.

Joy,
Lynn

So, please make a note when sending Canterbury Tales challenge submissions to LabRat that it is part of this series. In the meantime, I'll keep a running list on these boards. I believe I'm behind on that.

Does it mean something else in England?

My understanding is that in the U.S., it means "extremely smart," but in Great Britain, it has a more general meaning of something positive -- something more akin to our "cool" or "fantastic."

As always, I am eager to learn the nuances of other dialects, and would gladly accept correction if I am in error.

Joy,
Lynn

Really? I thought it had both meanings here. Although, you're probably correct in thinking that the former meaning is used more than the latter, here in the U.S. Perhaps I've just been reading too much of The Hero Business over the last 24 hours.

Hi Virginia,

I first head the term used in the British sense a few decades ago on the show "Head of the Class"; Billy Connolly's character used it often. Perhaps it's been Americanized since then?

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., I'm glad you're enjoying The Hero Business, too. I just started reading it earlier this week, and I'm almost caught up to everything that has been posted. It will be tough to wait a week for each part to drop.

It's used as both here. Extremely intelligent or, colloquially, as something excellent, very good. "You passed your exams? That's brilliant!"

And, if you want to get really colloquial... in Glasgow we'd go even further and call it 'pure dead brilliant'.

LabRat

Thanks for the clarification, LabRat. Is "pure dead" used to intensify other adjectives as well, or just "brilliant"?

Joy,
Lynn

As L. White says, dead on its own is used quite regularly. Throughout the UK, I think. But pure dead brilliant is a complete phrase in itself. The only other adjective I can ever recall being associated with it is, "She's pure dead gallus, so she is." Gallus being Glaswegian for cocky, confident, full of oneself.



LabRat

Fascinating. So "pure dead" is similar to "drop dead" in that it is very limited in what it can modify.

"Dead tired" is a common phrase in the U.S., as is "dead wrong," but I can't think of other instances of "dead" being used as an intensifier over here.

Joy,
Lynn

Great idea! When I first started reading stories on the Archive I used the random story link. I eventually came across a "plot untwist" story and wanted to read more but had a hard time finding them. Granted, I didn't realize then that I could have found the stories on the board, but why shouldn't things be easy for the newbies?

Here's a new one from me.
The Showgirl's Tale

Here's my contribution:

The Psychic's Tale

Not sure if it counts (Henderson was slightly more than the minor characters people have been using), but I submit to you, Henderson's tale: Questionable Evidence.

Thanks, Annie. I'll add it to the list.

I was going to ask you, DC, if you wanted to submit it for the challenge, because I thought it fit the bill. Glad to think you did too.

Cool, thanks, Virginia!

Two more stories were added to our list of now 10 (or is over 10) stories in the Canterbury Tales of Metropolis Challenge! Good job, everyone! Keep 'em coming.

Both Lynn S.M. and cuidadora gifted us again. Lynn with Jack's Story and cuidadora with The First Lady's Tale.

Enjoy!

Please let me know if I've missed anyone's tale. I had a rough and spacy July and couldn't check the boards every day. I would hate to have not added anyone's story who should be on the list. I'm keeping a running tally on the top-most post for this challenge (page 1), so please let me know if someone's story should be there and isn't. Thank you.

I'd like to offer up Incognito since it features not one, but two minor characters, even though it doesn't *exactly* have Clark/Superman in it. But the implication is clear...

Clark Kent wasn't as careful with his secret identity as he thought he was, because here's another tale of another person's (people's) revelation:

This I'll Defend by Deadly Chakram

Ah, knew I forgot to update something! Thanks, Virginia!

And yet another story for the challenge: The Panhandler's Tale (1/1).

Joy,
Lynn