Debbie, thanks for the feedback on the "chou-" prefix. I'm very ignorant of Japanese as a spoken language, so it's good to learn this. But the reason I wanted to use a native term for each of the super-powered people was to give a slightly different insight to the pair. I'm sure it didn't escape your attention that the captain began by addressing Superman as "Choujin" and ended by addressing him as "Choujin-san." It was intended to show that Superman had earned a bit of respect from this very correct police officer. And while Japanese society has indeed "loosened up" over the last generation, that's quite relative. The saying "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down" is still valid in that society today. (That's an observation and not a criticism.)
And Superman's translation of "Ultra Woman" was intended to show a bit of his real feelings for her, and to demonstrate that he's not fluent in Japanese even though he and Captain Shimusen can understand each other.
Concerning Lois's rather intimate conversation with Martha: I wanted to show that Lois doesn't have any other woman in whom she can totally confide about her life. And I wanted to show that she's got some real conflict about her feelings towards both Lex and towards Clark. Maybe Clark's conversation with Perry might have been better coming from Jonathan, but Clark's dad doesn't see Lois and Clark working together on a daily basis, so he couldn't know all the things Perry does.
Ann, thanks for the comparison to Carol's "Learning to Love," which I'm also following. I don't know that our two portrayals of Lois are so different after all. Both of them are basing their actions on the expectations of others and their preconceived notions of how others (especially Clark) feel about her. Carol's Lois is taking all that frustration and stuffing it down inside her, while my Lois is lashing out, but both of them are failing to communicate and both are refusing to deal with the root problem. This is a fairly common human condition, but I think it's definitely something any Lois would do, especially the pre-wedding-to-Clark Lois.
Thanks for reading, y'all! And thanks for caring enough about the story to comment on it. Bonus post coming up today!
