Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Finding Clark Kent: Poll #1

As you may or may not know, I have a poll-driven story up in the fic section. You can find the TOC here.

Part 1 was posted this past Monday, and in the comments section, I asked the readers what they think Lois and Clark should do next. I've gathered the answers, and now you get to vote.

There will be 3 questions.

Question 1 is about what Lois should do with the rest of the work day. I've listed all the possibilities (the only one I left out was contacting Alt-Clark, since she has no way of doing so herself). Choose what you think she should do with her time. Since she has several hours to work with and phone calls and such won't necessarily take much time, I'm allowing you to choose as many as you want. However the vote comes out, those will be her priorities. So, she'll do the things with the highest vote totals until she runs out of time. Please try to limit yourself to what you think is most important (especially if you're considering some of the more time-consuming options). She should have time to do several things, but if everyone votes for everything, Lois will be locked with indecision.

Question 2 asks what she should do about the Pier. You can pick one option, but I've tried to give you as much choice as possible, so read all the options carefully.

Question 3 asks what Clark should do. Since he's got nothing but time (and rope) on his hands, you can pick as many as you like.

Note that some of the options are conflicting (in question 1, you have the option to call Martha and Jonathan or to put off calling them so as not to cause undue panic. In question 3, you have the option to ask for sunlight or to try to hide the need for it). Try not to pick both sides.

Also, while you're voting, try to consider not only what you think Lois and Clark should do but what you think Lois and Clark would do. I don't think any of the options are completely out of character (especially given that unusual circumstances sometimes call for unusual actions), but some are more fitting than others.

EDITING BECAUSE SOMEONE POINTED OUT TO ME THAT THE TIMING WAS OFF:

I'm not sure when the poll will close, exactly. I set it for just before midnight Friday US Eastern time. The boards are on US Pacific time, which is 3 hours earlier. So, as far as I can tell, it should have said that the poll closes at 8:59 PM, but it seems to have adjusted 3 hours in the wrong direction (even though the boards do show the correct timestamp on the posts that I see). Hopefully it will work out. If not, I'll try to adjust for next week. Whenever voting stops, no one will be able to see the results before then. After that time, everyone will be able to see them (which is crucial, because I will not be voting). I'd appreciate it, btw, if the first person to see the results would post to say that the results are available. That way, I can check the timestamp on the post so I know whether or not I need to adjust. It doesn't make that much difference, really, but it would be good to know.

That's all. Thanks for your participation. I'll be interested to see how things come out. Good luck.

Paul

Phil, in question 3 you had an option about Clark's and Lois' bond. Maybe have him contact her through that link, but accidentally. When it first happened in HIWTHI, I don't think either realized at the time what they'd done. And of course, it was never mentioned again on the show. Even when the New Kryptonians came and the perfect intro for it was there, the show still didn't mention it. So maybe he sends out his distress to her without knowing it until she shows up.

That could also give Lois quite a lot to think about. Suddenly having Clark's voice fill her head would be enough to send her into fits. But it could also make for some good scenes.

Just some more thoughts.

SQD

Wow, Paul. I don't envy you this task <g>. But I can't wait to see how this whole experiment turns out. This could be a lot of fun - for us at least.

Thanks,
Lynn

This is great fun! I suppose it's too late to add another activity for Clark? Information is power - Clark should try to find out as much as he can about his captors and why they're holding him. A few weak "Who are you's" and "Why are you doing this to me's" wouldn't go amiss.

Yvonne

SQD, this poll is about Lois and Clark's concious decisions. I've been thinking about an unconcious effort ever since Kathy brought the whole idea up in the comments thread, but I'm still not sure what I'll do.

Lynn, I think it'll be fun for me, too. Challenging. If things were any different, I wouldn't be doing this.

Yvonne, glad you're enjoying it, too. Yes, it is too late to add something to this week's poll. Still, asking "who are you?" and "what do you want?" seem like simple and obvious enough things that I may write them in anyway. If not, maybe it'll go into next week's poll. Hey, I don't even know if Clark will be seeing his captors again today. (Remember, part 2 will be the second half of the first day.)

All that said, I'm not sure if I'll be on time this week. Turns out my niece and nephew are coming over for the weekend, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write. We'll see how it goes, but I thought I should warn you.

I am excited to see so many votes, though. Glad people are participating.

One other thing to note is that it's now 1am here, and the poll still isn't closed. Looks like the boards did adjust 3 hours in the wrong direction when I set the poll to close at midnight. Surprising. I thought, when I put that setting in, that it would either end at midnight here or midnight Pacific time. Guess I'll have to set it for 6pm next week, so I'll be able to see the results Friday night (and be able to sleep on things before starting to write on Saturday).

Oh well. We'll see how things go.

Paul (who is not Phil )

Results are up!

(and a lot of fun to read. I can't wait to see what you do with this! Have a nice weekend and enjoy your family, Uncle Paul!)

- Vicki

Thanks, Vicki! Good to have confirmation. I'll know what to do for next week.

Haven't gotten any actual writing done yet, but I've been going over things in my head. So, hopefully I'll have a productive Sunday and will be able to post on time. We'll see.

On another subject, there's something I'd like to ask...

10 of you voted for Lois to search Clark's apartment, but 12 of you voted for her to listen to the messages on his answering machine. I'm curious... At least two of you voted for her to check his answering machine without searching his apartment. Why? You don't have to post if you don't want to, but I am curious.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I think I was one of those two.

I thought there wouldn't be much point in searching the apartment. At least not now, it is still the first day and Lois is just worried not desperately searching for Clark, at least that's what I imagine.

So, while listening to the machine could give Lois information about dates or persons Clark could have met, searching the complete apartment, like snooping through his drawer and such, seemed a bit drastic to me (not that this would prevent Lois from doing it ) and not very promising. Besides it would probably cost her too much of her precious time.

Maybe when she visits the apartment and listens to the message she will look around for notes or papers lying around, that would be completely normal for her. I just don't think she would start to search the whole apartment right now.

Just my two cents

Ines

And by the way, great job you are doing here, Paul, I'm looking forward to the next part!!