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Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88
Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88 |
Chapter 3 lives here.And here's the TOC.A/N: Location challenge submission! This takes place in season 2. Its best place is likely a couple of episodes after Arianna Carlin wreaks havoc in Madame Ex, probably the week after The Prankster, but before Mayson complicates things in Church of Metropolis (and certainly before Lex comes back in The Phoenix). I got pretty excited about using Egypt as a location basically immediately when Mary set her ‘longest distance from Metropolis’ category, so I did a search on major archeological discoveries in the early 90’s. When I found Kent Weeks in Luxor, though, it was just too tempting for me to pass up. So Kent Weeks is the only non-fictional person in the story. My portrayal of Kent Weeks is entirely fictional, even though he is not. His white bucket hat is also real, and I cribbed a little bit of his speech pattern from interview videos, though I don’t think I nailed it because I still needed to use him as a story device, which meant that he had to act and speak as MY character and not exactly always as HIS character. More about him in the extended authors' notes to come with the epilogue. The next chapter will have two full handfuls of Ancient Egyptian history, a healthy helping of romantic angst and the first little twist in the plot.   Enormous thanks to 90stvfangirl who kindly agreed to beta this and make sure that it didn't go too far off the rails and major gratitude to pacem for a thorough second look! Thanks for reading! 
Looking forward to this summer's Location Challenge! Looks like stories are due around August 1st, and then polls open for voting! And don't forget about the 2026 fundraiser! Head over to the Fundraising page to donate or consider adding a story to the Keepsake Collection fundraising drive!
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Joined: Dec 2024
Posts: 201 Likes: 44
Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Dec 2024
Posts: 201 Likes: 44 |
It seemed like the shared name had finally broken the ice.
Now I'm wondering if this was a reference to the Martha situation in Batman vs Superman  Surely, even if he hadn’t had feelings for her, which he’d heartbreakingly claimed after the non-wedding, surely he might change his mind if he, too, had time to get used to the idea? But with all the chaos of their lives, it never seemed like the right moment to broach the subject.
It would be really nice if she found the time during this trip to bring that up... I also like Lois's uncertainty here, when she considers the possibility that Clark was actually telling the truth about having lied (hmm that sounded a bit confusing) in the park. And now it seems like she wants (or wishes she could) convince him that they could make it work. Lois fighting for her daily dose of air conditioning was very funny. And I loved that Clark caught her looking at him 
Stories are written by the victors.
(Hmm, come to think of it, that's not the exact quote...)
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1 member likes this:
Verity |
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 4,135 Likes: 79
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 4,135 Likes: 79 |
Oooh! Having so much fun with this particular location story! It is refreshingly different in so many ways.  Thank you so much for taking the time to write it for us! A quiet night in the refreshingly crisp air conditioning, supported by soft down pillows, and topped off by a luxuriously long shower had gone a long way toward curing Lois’ cantankerous attitude. In fact, waking up the next morning, she could almost forget that she was in Egypt.
Of course, that all evaporated the moment she stepped outside into the thick heat that pressed against her whole body and elicited a sheen of sweat across her skin.
By the time she’d picked up Clark in the lobby, caught the ferry, met up with Carnahan, and followed the professor back down the rocky path through the dunes, she was irritated all over again.
Okay Lois, we get the fact that being in such intense heat is irritating, but hey, take time to enjoy this new experience, put all the angst and annoyance that was left behind in Metropolis and get on with the story.In fact, he somehow looked even better than yesterday. As they headed toward what looked to be an enormous pile of rocks and rubble, she took the time to examine him more closely. While the immense heat didn’t agree with her, he seemed to be practically absorbing it and radiating a happy light back.
He was almost…incandescent.
Swoon... “Kent Weeks, Director of the Theban Mapping Project.”
Clark grinned and took his proffered hand. “Clark Kent, City Desk.”
LOL! Looking forward to learning more about Mr. Weeks, especially since he is a real person. As always in your stories, this one shows a tremendous amount of research and care in its preparation. Going to save reading the next few chapters for the weekend. 
Morgana
A writer's job is to think of new plots and create characters who stay with you long after the final page has been read. If that mission is accomplished than we have done what we set out to do, which is to entertain and hopefully educate.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,016 Likes: 98
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,016 Likes: 98 |
I really enjoyed this part. Love how Lois detects the small oddities of Clark. I wonder when Superman might be needed.
It's never too dark to be cool. 
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Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88
Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88 |
Peixinho, LOL - I didn't think of the 'Martha' connection from BvS when I wrote this but that's really funny! Anyway, great parallel now! (Though it does turn out slightly differently in this story.) Lois is definitely figuring some things out here that's all sort of emotional carnage and debris from House of Luthor. I think that she'll be forced to reckon with some of it, but I'll save whether she brings it up, Clark brings it up, or it's forced into the conversation by the universe. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! Morgana, I'm so glad you're enjoying the location. I was really, really excited to tackle this, which is probably why it turned into a bit of an epic! I did do quite a bit of research for this, but honestly a lot was dusting off memory and double checking the details. I was an amateur enthusiast and came pretty close to going to college just for this. Bakasi, So glad to hear it! I'll tell you that we definitely have some Superman conversations coming up. But for now I'll leave it a mystery as to whether he actually shows up. Thanks for stopping by to comment!
Looking forward to this summer's Location Challenge! Looks like stories are due around August 1st, and then polls open for voting! And don't forget about the 2026 fundraiser! Head over to the Fundraising page to donate or consider adding a story to the Keepsake Collection fundraising drive!
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 2,882 Likes: 12
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 2,882 Likes: 12 |
Kent Weeks in Luxor!! Well, I don't blame you for wanting to use this!  I am really fascinated by the whole Egypt setup and you're doing a great job with it! Loving the descriptions of how Lois is experiencing it! The sand was overwhelmingly everywhere, with no change to its domination of the landscape for as far as she could see in three directions. Luxor felt like a lonely oasis of civilization, and she wasn’t thrilled to be moving in the opposite direction from it.
This paragraph is just so FUN! In fact, he somehow looked even better than yesterday. As they headed toward what looked to be an enormous pile of rocks and rubble, she took the time to examine him more closely. While the immense heat didn’t agree with her, he seemed to be practically absorbing it and radiating a happy light back.
Upon reading the first sentence, I was like oh wait - and then the rest confirmed it!! It's the yellow sun effect, isn't it?? Brilliant, I love it!! I have a feeling that not spending the night with the crew is going to save Lois and Clark a lot of trouble 👀👀 just a hunch! Let's see what all this control is about, then!
What we've got here is failure to communicate...
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Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 568 Likes: 77
Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 568 Likes: 77 |
I'm loving Lois' perspective here. It's great to see things through her eyes and you're doing a great job of telling the other viewpoints through her observations!
I also enjoyed her internal thoughts about Clark and convincing him to get used to the idea of...more.
Come hang out in the Discord server! Just make a Discord account and click this https://discord.gg/fv2bAVVUBQ to join. Discord can be a little intimidating, but we keep our server simple and are always happy to help people learn their way around!
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Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88
Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 569 Likes: 88 |
Anna, THANK YOU, right??? How could I resist another Kent staying in Luxor???
It absolutely is the yellow sun effect. He's closer to the equator and he's in a tee and shorts, too, so more exposure to a more direct ray of sunlight. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Verity, oh, thank you so much! This story felt like a heavier lift since there was so much of it (characters, location) was new and not something we all had a visual reference for; I'm glad so much came through!
And yeah, I guess I fugured that if Lois wanted something, she would have a plan to get it. Or at least... a plan to make a plan.
Looking forward to this summer's Location Challenge! Looks like stories are due around August 1st, and then polls open for voting! And don't forget about the 2026 fundraiser! Head over to the Fundraising page to donate or consider adding a story to the Keepsake Collection fundraising drive!
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