Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: The Ears Have It (1/1)

Any Mayson defenders out there? The story can be found here.

Hi Sue,

Very nice inbetweener. Nicely done.

*sighs* That was nice. Made me feel better. Thanks, Sue!

I actually don't think you did anything harmful to Mayson's reputation. It wasn't as if Mayson herself did anything in your story to earn the snarky barbs that Lois tossed her way. It was just a jealous woman defending her turf by bashing the competition. If anything, I felt bad for Mayson -- once again -- for the poor treatment she received from Clark, who claimed to like her. In 'The Eyes Have It' Mayson may have been pushy, but she didn't deserve being stood up by Clark, no matter the outcome we wanted for Lois and Clark, especially after all she did for Superman despite not liking him. /Hey, you asked for Mayson defenders to step up.../ From his behavior in his relationships with Mayson and Lana, Clark has shown himself to be a huge pushover when it comes to strong women and rather than tell them how he really feels, he avoids conflict and runs away. I wouldn't be surprised if Lana and Clark never formerly broke up when they went away to college, but he just stopped contacting her or responding to her, so that they just 'drifted apart'. It's a wimpy move on Clark's part and personally Mayson deserved better. Frankly, it's the one aspect of his personality I dislike. It's his flaw*. I don't understand how Clark can stand up to Lois (Sewage Rec. Fac) when he can't stand up to these other strong women in his life, especially when he loves Lois and doesn't love them.

Sadly, Clark doesn't come off nearly so well. Sure, we still love him, because he's Clark and, despite how he treats Mayson, we know it's only because he loves Lois so much. Second to Lois, I envy the way you show how much Clark loves everything about her and falls into this pit of despair of his own making. He deserves to be put through hell for deceiving Lois in this manner.

Concise, fluid, artfully written you drew me in AGAIN and caught me by surprise. This is why I keep coming back.

----

* Every romantic male lead needs a flaw. I once wrote a male lead I loved so much, I never wanted to stop writing the story, so I gave him a major flaw (smoking) so I could end the story... er... novel... and move on with my life.

Absolutely wonderful. I loved this conversation.

I had a tiny, small, infinitesimal moment when I wanted it to veer off cannon so that they could get together 'right now' but it was lovely to know that this leads into the real relationship.

Thank you.

Lovely. Very well written, as usual, and I really enjoyed the conversation from Clark's perspective, reexamining some of his own actions in comparison to how Lois saw them. Also-- nope. No Mayson support coming from my corner. :p I think it was a very apt description of their relationship (Lois and Mayson's I mean. I don't think her estimation of Mayson being a slut was accurate... entirely.)

Good job!

OK, I will probably be hit with laserbeams, but here I go.

Wow--you had my interest immediately by only reading the summary! What a good idea to explore--never had had the thought of exactly why Clark finally asked her out when he did...(but honestly, just knowing it was one of your stories was enough of a reason to have me sitting down to read it--BIG fan! )

Like was mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed the story from Clark's perspective--and hearing what he thinks and how he internally reacts to Lois...I just love how he loves her so much--reading his thoughts was a pleasure.

This is exactly what I am talking about (as I sigh again thinking about this blurb ).

And again...your insight into Clark's inner-workings is amazing! One of my favorite things to watch in the show is the looks Clark gives Lois--especially before they are together officially...you can tell that he is blown away by his feelings for her. I like that you included that element into your story b/c it is very "Clark" --''according to my mom, I talk about Lois all the time"--LOVE! Such a simple sentence, but for some reason, it really did a lot for me...This insight added into the great conversation that was progressing between them.

I love a jealous Clark, and a jealous Lois is pretty great, too

Lois really opening up...love to see that! And see the levels of emotion going on with her regarding Clark and Mayson and her true feelings...

The "but sometimes..." Oh--all the possibilities in that open line

Laura

It's all treats for me this Halloween, no tricks!

Ken - Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

Kismatt - I know last night was a rough one for you, so it means that much more to hear it made you feel a little better.

Virginia - I was being more tongue in cheek with that question about people defending Mayson. In truth Mayson Drake is one of my favorite recurring characters. Maybe it's because I can relate to her attraction to Clark (and the fact that she's never going to get him). I don't share her antipathy for Superman, but I thought they made a good case for her feelings.

In many ways, 'The Eyes Have It' illustrates one of my biggest gripes about the series. Specifically, that characterization was often sacrificed simply to make a joke or force the plot along (especially in those last two seasons). Up to that point, Mayson and Clark had gone out to lunch together once (and danced together at Church's ball). Their one "date" ended with Mayson telling him that if he wanted an interview, he should schedule it with her office. So for her to suddenly show up and proposition him to go away to the mountains on a romantic retreat stretches my credulity. As does the comedy of errors that prevents Clark from giving her a straight "no" answer. First he's paying more attention to Lois' phone call than Mayson's invitation. Then, when he's about to turn her down, Perry interrupts. Then Mayson's beeper goes off. And, finally, he gets blinded. I suppose he could have called Mayson the next morning when he called his parents, but he had bigger problems on his mind. He never actually accepts the invitation ergo he never stood Mayson up. She made that assumption. And that's what irks me most, because Mayson is a stickler for rules. There's no way she'd assume a "yes" answer without an *actual* yes answer.

I don't mind them making Lois jealous. It's good for her to recognize that Clark (whether superpowered or not) is a keeper. Plus, Mayson and Lois made great foils for each other. What I mind is that they turned Mayson into a repugnant and desperate female. They were trying to be cute and clever, and it came at the expense of both Clark and Mayson's characterizations. Clark is too well mannered to stand someone up, and too much in love with Lois to even consider spending a weekend with Mayson. I think Mayson does intrigue him, but not in the way that Lois does. Mayson should have been allowed a lot more dignity.

So, IMHO, Clark's flaw isn't that he has a hard time standing up to strong females (because there are many more examples of him NOT having that problem: Lois, Toni Taylor, Diana Stride…). In this instance, it's the writer's fault, not Clark's. His flaw(s), as I see it, is/are that Clark has a hard time admitting when he's wrong or being petulant ("Unless it's lined with lead, it's a waste of time" and his reaction when she turned down his proposal) or discounting Lois' theories if they don't fit with his. Usually that's because he actually had special knowledge of the situation as Superman (just about every time Lex is involved or his insistence on investigating Martin Snell over Mayson), but he acts so superior about his POV that I can't fault Lois for getting frustrated with him. Sometimes he's simply a jerk horning in on a story because he thinks Lois can't function without him(I've Got A Crush On You). And sometimes it comes down to the fact that he thinks he's always right (breaking up with Lois for her own good).

And that should about do it for my tangent.

Katherine - Originally I had this written in the third person and it did veer off canon. And then I realized, that while that was fun, it wasn't what I meant to write. Thanks!

Mouserocks - I don’t think Mayson was a slut, either. But it does take a certain kind of gal to invite a guy you're barely dating to come spend an isolated weekend with you. I'm glad you enjoyed the story - thanks!

Morgana - I think you're absolutely right about Mayson's two biggest sins (especially in the eyes of most female fans). It seems to me that Scardino gets more of a pass than Mayson. They were both pretty aggressive, but only one of them was smarmy. Yay! I'm glad that came across.

Laura - I'm

That was a good story. I think I could finally understand why Clark wants to tell Lois as Clark that he is Clark.

Ah, Sue! Sigh! So wonderful a snippit. It definitely moves the romance along. More of this anytime you get the urge.

Artemis

Loved it Sue! Wonderful little story. Wish there was more of course. Laura

When I was reading your story, what really pulled at my heart, were the lines about how Lois was the one keeping Clark 'sane' (for lack of a better word) during the blinding crisis...That intimacy--that he knew he wasn't alone and could somehow get through this because he had Lois right there with him--was the emotional 'hook' that really got me. When you quoted the 'being with you is stronger than me alone' speech, I had a bit of a 'aha!' moment

And she is very animated when jealous, too (thinking of Lois jumping on Clark's bed in The Rival). Getting Lois all worked up, in full-babble mode, is priceless

I was thinking about this off and on after I read the feedback tonight...guess I'll put my 2 cents in ), I never have thought much about anything that ever happened btw Clark and Toni Taylor/Diana Stride/etc...I really only saw them as 'episode story-lines'--didn't mean much of anything to Clark, so didn't think much about his interactions with them.

Basically, I get the feeling from Clark that he is SUPER polite (maybe a bit to a fault sometimes), but not a pushover. He wanted Lois from the get-go and didn't stray from his heart. As Lois says about Clark, to her mother in INPY, "He made me notice him" (I think that's the quote anyway--late, sleepy, and a little out if it now ). Point being, he was focused on Lois, and not too much on anyone else...

Tangent, I'm sure, beaten to death with a large stick now--sorry . Officially done.....I think.

Laura

There are few things that can compare to the joy of checking the boards and finding lovely, lovely comments waiting for you.

John - Thank you! I find it fun that we can all still find new things in the characters after all this time.

Artemis - Thanks! Glad you liked it! Sadly, the "urge" that started this story occurred about four years ago. When I was going through all the snippets and unfinished ideas on my laptop a few months ago, I found it. It was short and it was almost done, so that made it easy to salvage.

Laurach - Thank you! There's always more lurking in our imaginations, isn't there?

Laura - Half the fun of a comments thread is reading everyone else's perspective on the characters. I know I've had my eyes opened or my mind changed on more than a few occasions due to the insight from another FoLC. That is so gratifying to hear! That's exactly the tone I was trying to achieve. I question how they made Lois so over-the-top jealous in 'The Rival', but I do enjoy when Clark (deliberately) pushes her buttons and she tosses him out of her apartment. And, yeah, I did/still do laugh at her checking the bed in his apartment. Oooh! I like that! See, that's what I mean by finding new things in the characters. Yes! He was very nice to Mayson, but he never pursued her. He never asked her out. To our knowledge, he only ever called her when he was looking for information. Yes, exactly! It was much too early in their "relationship" to be asking that sort of thing. And he never answered, so it's insane to believe that he was agreeing to the idea. I'll skip over discussing Lana, just because she's in his past and, whatever he might have felt, it was never anything more than puppy love. I only mentioned Diana and Toni because they were the first examples that came to mind. Like you said, he's unfailingly polite (as both Clark and Superman) to them, but he doesn't take much crap from them, either. Very well put! I tend to err on the side of him feeling something different when he first met Lois. It was attraction, yes, but there had to be something else for him to stay interested after she was so awful to him. Like he tells her in 'Battleground Earth', the day he met her he finally felt like he belonged. Even though that probably wasn't the instruction they gave back when they were filming the Pilot, he certainly looks thunderstruck at their first meeting. Naaaah. There're still plenty of details to obsess over. <rubs hands in glee>

My thanks to everyone for commenting. You absolutely make my day!

Real quick now (because it's late):

YAY another Sue S story

YAY for the great story

YAY because it answers a question I never knew I had, which was why did Clark finally get off his duff and ask Lois out? Because he hadn't done for two years up to this point, so why change now?

YAY for the great banter

YAY for the character insight

and general all-round YAYness here!

Very fun story! It really helped justify why Clark (FINALLY) asked Lois out. I love (and at the same time want to shake him very hard for) the fact that he finally takes the initiative because of something Lois says to his *other* identity. It's such a very Clark thing to do.

So there I was, late last Friday night--with the kiddos asleep and my husband napping on the couch--catching up on our laundry ...some sort of 'familiarity' kept nagging at me while I was putting clothes away, and then your story popped into my head again LOL...Point being, my husband and I have GOT to go out on a date night sometime soon ), I think--and this is all IMHO--it all comes back to Clark's origins. By the time Clark arrives at the Planet, he has been 'different' for many years. He has hidden who he is--from everyone he has ever known (barring his parents, of course). He has been on-guard constantly, and he has been putting distance between himself, and literally the rest of the world, by traveling place to place. Getting a job at the Planet was probably a dream of his--but would he really have stayed around long enough to make it his reality? Don't know.

And see, I think the reality of what 'clicked' for him--what made him WANT to fight to have a normal life--was meeting Lois. I think he instantly was attracted to her when she steam-rolled into Perry's office (maybe a 'love at first sight'?), but I think it was him identifying with her that forged his deep, early connection to her. He had been alone, and outsider, up to this point, and I think he saw himself in Lois--which would have been a connection he had never experienced.

Lois came across as different. Everyone sort of kept their distance from her, somewhat intimidated, or not knowing how to connect with her. She pushed people away--something Clark had been doing out of necessity. She put up a front--hiding her true self from everyone--and because of this, she was alone...exactly like Clark. She had issues, as an adult, that were from her childhood experiences, and as Clark learned about her early life, he could understand some of her insecurities b/c he felt some of that himself (due to questions about his past, and also, his current life).

I think Clark saw right through Lois' 'game' when he met her b/c he was playing the same 'game' himself. And this was HUGE for Clark--giving him familiarity that he had never had before. Hence what he says in BE: "I kept waiting for some incredible feeling of connection--a feeling that I was exactly where I belonged. But that's only happened once in my life....the day I met you." I don't think it took him very long at all to really 'get' Lois--and when he did, he fell whole-heartedly in love with her.

And to get Lois into the conversation (hey, why not? )). Everyone else kept their distance, due to Lois' actions mostly, so Clark stood out immediately to her--and looks GREAT in a towel, but that's a whole other topic ).

Laura

Iolan - It's enough to know that you read it and liked it. I didn't fully realize I had that question either until recently. :p

Lucille - Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. To be fair, Clark did ask her out in the Pilot ("Do you want to grab some dinner or something?") and she sort of accepts, then turns him down, then lectures him not to fall for her. A year later he tells her he's in love with her and gets the "I only like you as a friend" speech. So I can see why he's a little leery about going for a third rejection.

Laura - LOL! You paint a very domestic scene -- Friday night, kids asleep, husband napping on the couch while you fold laundry... It's exactly the sort of thing Lois thinks she doesn't want (but secretly does). <sigh> It's true! And it's what surprises me most about the Mayson hate. That poor girl never, ever had a chance. Clark was intrigued by her (and the fact that she liked him just for him), but he was never smitten. Lois, on the hand, actively dated Scardino. Yes! You're totally preaching to the choir here, because I know I've explored variations on that theme in at least a couple of stories (most recently in 'Second Honeymoon', over on the nfic side of the boards). Earlier in that story Clark tells her: "There's noise around me all day, Lois. For the most part I simply tune it out. I go home to Kansas a lot because I love my parents, but also because there's a peace on the farm that I've only ever found in one other place. Whenever you're near me, it's like the rest of the world goes quiet and I don't have to concentrate so hard to ignore it. It happened the moment you stepped into Perry's office when he was interviewing me. It's why I never gave up pursuing you, even when you were mean to me. You're like this island of quiet in a world of chaos to me. You're… home to me."

Several parts later, he follows up on that statement with: "… I wanted to believe that there was someone out there I could tell about this field and the truth about me. I traveled the whole world, looking for the one person I could trust. So don't ever think there could be somebody else. It's you, Lois. I knew it the moment we met in Perry's office." Yes! I'm pretty sure I've followed that thread of logic before, but I can't remember which story. Let's go there next! Very true! And, I think, the same goes for Lois, she was just slower to acknowledge it. One of my favorite things about Lois is that, for all her bravado, she's got this soft candy center and she wants (but hates to admit, even to herself) someone to love who will love and adore her in return. It was a great reveal in the Pilot, after we've watched her be tough and professional on the job, to see her go home and weep over a soap opera. At other points in the series we see her reading romance novels (and she's even writing one).

One of the most endearing things about Clark is that he never gives up on her. He's willing to be whatever she needs -- a partner, a friend, a shoulder to cry on -- so long as it keeps him in her life. He's a very patient man, in more ways than one. If nothing else, this tangent has demonstrated that there's at least one other FoLC out there who shares my view on the characters. Like Clark, it turns out I'm not alone, either. It's a wonderful feeling.

Now, about that towel…

You summed up the Mayson storyline perfectly here:

All of my rambling, and really, that said it all ...

Anyway, to sum it up, the only way IMO that Dan was a more viable opponent to Clark (than Mayson was to Lois), was because Lois, at this point, didn't have all of the information (re: Clark=Superman) at her disposal, and Lois was, due to her upbringing/etc., more gun-shy than Clark with truly acknowledging her own feelings.


Funny you should mention that...about to start reading part 18! Amazing! (First nfic I have ever read--and definitely will now be reading more). I read Honeymoon in Vegas last spring (till 4:00 am one night ), and discovered your new story a few weeks ago. Thought about commenting as I went along, but kept wanting to get to the next part. I've been reading each chapter--along with each comment thread (they are great, too!)--but now that I'm getting closer to catching up, I've been slowing the reading down to 'enjoy' it longer . LOVE this story! Will post when officially caught up

Exactly why I love his character. My favorite thing about Clark is how he loves Lois, so purely, and so completely. The feelings he has (and later, that they have for each other) elevated their relationship, IMO, over so many other shows or stories I've seen.

Definitely agree--and now I understand why your stories have always stood out so much to me! . Very similar takes on these characters, and their story. Please--keep writing your wonderful stories, Sue!

Next up: Any and all discussions about towels

There's a Tumblr gif I need to share about Lois' disguise, but I can't get to it at work *kicks firewall*. I'll post a link to it when I get home. *makes a note to self*

Also, Laura, you neeeeed to read Sue's nFic. *ducks flying tomato from Sue* I particularily loved Revisionist History....oh, and Evasive Action....oh, and the Steps duo....and then there's...well, you get the idea.