Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: In a Better Place 18

I think that we're all running out of superlatives to use about you and your story, CC.

All I can say is it's brilliant! Funny, poignant and witty, the dialogue is clever and everything is so tightly woven together that there isn't a wasted word.

Wow!

Please don't rest on your laurels but write something new!

Loved this!!!

Irene

CC

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!
This is definitely on top of my list of all time favourite L&C fics.

Tricia

CC

Thank you!

That was great on so many levels! I loved it...

In my heart of hearts I knew that they wouldn't be allowed to remember, but there was a little niggle hanging around in the back of my head that said that somehow, Lois would have to try to find a way to change Utopia. Turns out she didn't need to do anything, the people of Utopia did it all by themselves. Change from the inside. It's beautiful.

There's two things about your writing that get me everytime:

One - why hasn't anyone done this, in this way, before? It's so simple, yet so originial all at the same time.

Two - If I could write this is what I would write.

And that is why I love it so much.

Thank you again

Helga

Wow!

Everything has already been said, so just ditto the above!

A third story would be more than nice, but I suppose we could let you have some time to recoup your writing strength.


How about two weeks?

James

Just caught up on the last two parts and... fantastic. <Oh, happy, happy sigh!> Everything tied up wonderfully well. What a rollercoaster ride, though, from the waffy start to part 17, to the various reactions from Madge, Elise and Co to Lois and Clark... Petal and Silas (and I love Silas, by the way) and... Well, you get the picture.

I don't, as a general rule, like the soul mates thing. However, at least you made a good use of it in this story, so I'll forgive you for mentioning it. I do, however, wonder about the whole not-being-able-to-track-Lois-and-Clark-in-the-present-because-their-souls-are-already-there thing. How can they be tracked in the past, when there are previous incarnations of their souls? Or can they not be tracked whenever there are living incarnations?

I know, I know. I'm worrying about this way too much.

Just one other thing...

Uh, aren't they Lois and Clark's descendants?

Anyway... this has been a wonderful ride. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.



Chris

I haven't gone back to re-check so I might be way off, but the impression I got is that the souls aren't tracked in their own time out of respect for the privacy of the two current incarnations. I think Madge was the one and only person who knew it was Silas & Petal. So, maybe L&C could have been tracked, but everyone was too polite to look.

PJ

Thank you, Pam. That would make sense.

Chris

Hi,

Great story.

If you don't want to write the sequel for pesty me, CC, then write it for all of your other loyal fans that are requesting it:

And of course, I'll reiterate my suggestion for the title:
And you thought you were going to take the summer off! Hey.... any chance you have a 5-page epilogue written for this one too????

CC, what a perfect ending to a marvelous, wonderful, superlative, imaginative, romantic, amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring story. Very big happy sigh. But I'm going to miss it.

Everyone has already made so many wonderful, insightful comments that I want to say that I agree with all the well deserved compliments and accolades to you above.

Here are some of the things I loved:

Silas - what a marvelous character. I laughed every time he called Lois "Grams," and she reacted to it beautifully - gracious, gruffly affectionate and intelligently Lois all the way. I loved his crush on Lois, the way he gamely re-grouped when he realized he was developing a thing for his great, great, great, great.....grandmother. I loved how he asked if she was willing to fly with him and her response that she was good at flying with new Supermen. I loved their exchange about his deep desire for someone to love and be his partner. VERY nicely done. And I really liked the way Lois not only, in typical Lois fashion, realized that any attempt she made to assure Silas that he would find his own (sorry) soulmate, would just sound empty as she could barely believe it herself (very insightful) but was her usual perceptive, all seeing self and noticed the SECOND that Silas was thunderstruck by Petal, and her memory that she had seen the very same reaction from Clark, to her! I loved his rapport with Clark and the way Clark honestly explained to him that he didn't grow up aware of his "destiny" - that he was just himself and was slowly learning how to be Superman. After all, he'd only attempted one rescue (but a pretty spectacular one!) at that point. And I loved the way that Clark recognized so many things about Silas - and his instant understanding of what a "throwback" was and his instant realization that Silas was THIS century's Superman.

Yeah, yeah... I'm back.

I've been reading comments and reflecting a bit... (shows you what a truly great story this is, CC)

I started to wonder why you had Lois and Clark disappear to the attic. What purpose did it serve if they were going to have their memories erased (not that *they* knew it, but I'm talking about CC's motivation)? Well, I came up with something which sorta goes along with what some others were saying, and also what you hinted at, CC.

I think their making love - as it's so commonly illustrated time and time again in fic - is the true melding of their souls, so to speak. An experience that leaves them fully connected, one heart as opposed to two seperate. So because of that, even after their memories are wiped, they're still connected. This ties in wonderfully with the idea that Lois and Clark each remember something that's just out of thier grasp. I'd like to think that feeling stays with them throughout the series. All those little moments when Lois catches herself looking at Clark or feeling something she's not really expecting of herself. And perhaps even those little moments where Lois *almost* thinks Clark might be someone more than who he pretends to be.

All of those... they tie back into what you've created, CC. Can you see it now? Can you see just how great this story is that it fits so well with the series that it's almost too hard to wrap your head around the idea? Heck, if I were you, I'd send it off to DC Comics or Warner Bros. or whoever owns the rights now. Seriously. Don't know if they'd go for it, but they damn well should!

It's really that great, CC. I just hope you know that.

Sara

CC, now that I'm back after grades and a lengthy vacation out of state, I was all set to analyze everything you'd done in the parts since I last posted--only to find that Vicki had said almost everything I wanted to say. So, ditto her comments.

Yes, the plot was wonderful; the characters delightfully in character; the dialog so good that, were I a sociopath like Tempus, I'd kill to be able to write that kind of sharp, witty, humorous dialog. Your balance of introspection and scenic development in the second half of the story was excellent, allowing us enough view inside the main characters to make them utterly real without making the pacing draggy. You also quit summarizing important events and decisions in introspection and let us experience the action with the characters, so it definitely flowed smoothly. You used deep POV deftly so each character's voice was distinct from the others' and so the details in the narrative were entirely ones that the POV character would have noticed. Your story was funny, dramatic, exciting, romantic, and deeply emotional. And finally, you have a wonderful voice, fresh, lively, and appealing.

I am so jealous.

However, as much as I loved IABP, there were a few other places you might want to look at. The scene with Lois, Clark, and Silas in his office dragged a little (the only place I noticed that the pacing was less than excellent). IIRC, it was during one of the multiple distractions or interruptions that kept Silas from finding out that L&C were the original L&C.

A few of Madge's explanations struck me as off. For example, when she said that L&C couldn't be tracked in the present because Utopia wasn't wired for it, I came to a screeching mental halt, trying to imagine how the Utopians had managed to wire every location in the world in all of history. Similarly, in your little rewrite, you had Madge thinking about going back before Tempus was killed and thinking of it as resurrecting the dead. She seemed to think that was a horrible thing, and yet, it was basically the same thing that happened when she and her team went back in time to observe L&C's first meeting. Lois and Clark were dead, so going back before their deaths was resurrecting them--at least as much as going back to an earlier time with Tempus would have been. I realize the Utopians went back to watch rather than change, but I think that's still missing the point Madge needs to make.

Okay, so why did you say I was off-target here when I said Silas was Clark's current incarnation? After you said I missed the target, I was ready to accept that Hank and Elise were the L&C incarnation of that century--until you had Silas and Petal replay L&C's first conversation in part 18. So, yeah, I missed that Silas was going to be this century's Superman, but that doesn't have anything to do with the current soulmate incarnation, does it?

Finally, I know a lot of people were disappointed that you had a memory reset, but I was delighted. Madge was right; L&C couldn't have functioned knowing how much of the future of the world rested on what they were going to do. Besides, your reset means that this adventure actually happened to "our" L&C. It is, in fact, the reason that the night-time rescue of Prometheus was followed by a daylight return to the Planet. I know it doesn't matter to any FoLC other than me, but thank you, CC.

Well, I'm speechless.

I read this last part almost the second it was posted, CC, and I've been trying to come up with words for the last two days.

Reading this fic was a simply marvelous experience. It encompasses so much of what I love about the characters all in one beautifully wrapped package.

It's truly been a privilege to read it, and the discussions that have ensued in the comments folders have been almost as wonderful.

So although I really hate saying "ditto", I have to now, because everyone has expressed their thoughts about this story so much more articulately than I could have. Please just read all of your comments again and revel in the praise, knowing that you have countless other readers who feel the same way.

Kathy (proudly wearing her CC Fan Club button)

Read all the posts above yours, Shelia. We're all quite happy with the outcome and for exactly the reason you mentioned.

Sara

I'm sure CC will be back to give her answers, but I thought I'd take a sec to give my views on Shelia's comments.

When Madge said that Utopia wasn't wired to monitor itself, I didn't take that as meaning that they literally had equipment everywhere and everywhen. I personally took it to mean that from Utopia, they were looking back across the entire timestream, monitoring everything that had come before. Sort of like standing on a hill with a telescope looking down at everything below you. You don't need cameras and lenses on the rest of the hill. You just need to be able to sweep around with your telescope.

With the way the scope works, however, you'll have more trouble seeing things up close. They'll be out of focus. You'd need an entirely different setup to see what's right around your own feet, and the Peacekeepers' equipment isn't set up to do that. Why? Partly for the privacy of the current incarnations. Partly because if everyone knew who the current incarnations were, they'd be swamped all the time and treated oddly and all that. Partly because there's no real need. The Peacekeepers' job is to monitor the past to make sure nothing happens to prevent Utopia from being established. With that goal in mind, there's no need to monitor what's going on in Utopia itself. Maintaining things in the present is for the Justice League to do.

That's my view, at least.

As for the thing about Silas, I should probably just let CC answer for herself. My guess, though, as long as I'm writing, is that she meant Silas's big reaction was going to be for Petal who is, oddly, more his soulmate than Lois. Very small difference from what you said, but if CC had said "yes, you're exactly right!" that would have been a big spoiler. It's not that what you said was inaccurate. It's that it wasn't the full truth.

Moving on to bigger things -- Madge's thoughts on ressurection. The Peacekeepers aren't the ones who moved L&C in time. That was Tempus's doing, and Tempus is evil. There's also the fact that he didn't ressurect them. He kidnapped them to another time. Madge going back for Tempus would be different because the circumstances and intentions were different. Going back for Tempus would have meant deliberately going back to a moment soon before his death with the express purpose of circumventing/preventing that death. That's a ressurection.

Tempus, OTOH, went back in time to a point long before L&C's death, with the intention of changing their destinies. They'd still live about as long as they otherwise would have, but they'd be living in a different place in time. More to the point, by removing them, he'd change the past and prevent Utopia's founding.

It has nothing to do with their deaths. It's about changing their lives. Which is also immoral, but less so, and, as stated, Tempus is evil. The Peacekeepers' purpose in going back in time was not to monitor the event, but to prevent Tempus's interference. They were going to stop a kidnapping, not to preform one.

So -- Changing the timestream for evil purposes is bad. Going back in time to prevent a death is worse. Going back in time to stop someone from changing the timestream is not bad.

Just like holding a gun on someone for the purpose of robbing them is bad. Shooting them is worse. Taking the gun away from someone (which also involves the physical act of holding the gun) in order to prevent a robbery is not bad.

That's how I see things, anyway.

Paul

I'm sorry, Sara. I didn't make myself clear. I just meant that the other posters were disappointed at the prospect of a reset, although they obviously understood and agreed with the necessity of it. I, OTOH, had been looking forward to a reset so this adventure could happen to our L&C.

Paul, I see your point as far as a resurrection goes. However, I wasn't seeing it as a resurrection because I apparently misread or misunderstood the place in the story where Madge and Hank decided to bring Tempus back to Utopia. I was under the impression that the plan was to go back to North Dakota, promise him fame, get the information from him, and leave him to escape on his own as I had mistakenly assumed they did each time. Because of that, I didn't see it as a resurrection, but as visiting the past in order to correct the timestream, just as the Utopians' had done with L&C and EPRAD. That's why Madge's explanation of why they couldn't go back a few minutes after they left the time Andrus screwed it up didn't work for me.

As far as the soulmates part goes, I was working under the assumption that different incarnations of Clark would work like alt-Clark: that Silas couldn't help but be attracted to a Lois, even if she wasn't his incarnation of Lois--at least until he had met his own soulmate. So I'm just glad to see that my guess wasn't wrong. It wasn't complete, but it wasn't wrong, either.

Ah, okay. The way I understand that part of the story is this:

Tempus is in prehistoric Dakota. Hank and Petal go back in time to offer him the deal. Instead, they find that he's dead. This means that their plan of last resort will not work.

Now, the follow question came up: If talking to Tempus was their last hope, and if it can't work because Tempus is dead, then why not just go back in time to shortly before Tempus was killed, grab him away, and then talk to him.

Madge thinks about this and is tempted, but she realizes that doing so would effectively be raising the dead. He is dead. His bones (or what she assumes are his bones) are in her lab. She could save the day by going back and preventing that death, but doing so would be highly immoral.

Paul

What a beautiful ending CC. I loved it! Laura

Okay, I for one am glad this thing if finally over. What a piece of crappola this story was.

Come on, gentle readers, who wants to read something that's clever and original? If that was what we were after we could read a book.

And sharp and witty dialog? If we want that we can just watch a Star Wars movie... oh wait, forget I said that.

And a sex scene? Come on people, we all know that Lois and Clark would never fall into bed together. Who'd believe that moralistic uptight Clark, and defensive, 'no time for men' Lois would decide that this would be the perfect time for a little bedsheet samba.

But what was the worst? I mean the terrible ommission that just screams out at the gentle readers? Lois didn't get her haircut! How could such a necessary part of any Lois and Clark fanfic be forgotten?

Couldn't you just imagine how much fun it would have been for Lois to have had to cut her hair to play the part of a 'later' version of herself, then once she and Clark make it back she suddenly has to figure out how her hair got so short.

I guess we can all just thank our lucky stars that CC has gotten this fic out of her system and can get back to writing something we've all seen time and time again.

Tank (who actually was a little bothered by Lois and Clark 'sleeping' together in this context)

Tank:

Anyway, C.C., forget Silas and Petal (though I did like the characters) I want a sequel that shows how this experience, even though forgotten, affects Lois and Clark's current relationship. Though I'm rather tired of Season 1 rewrites, that is definitely one I would enjoy reading. So more please when your muse has recovered?

Artemis