Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: still need a title - aka Mendacity

What a terrific piece.

I love the way Lois and Clark conduct themselves, a very mature and adult approach with just a waft of the turmoil that is going on underneath. The subtly of emotion you allow each of them to show on the surface left me pondering the depth of feeling that drives them, especially Lois.

The matter of fact acceptance that each has in mutually recognising the decisions and mistakes they have both made to this point makes for a future full of promise as they look for a solution together rather than wallowing or dwelling on past hurts to the point of incapacitation.

Needless to say, it wont be all sunshine and roses and I'm sure Lois is going to do her level best to flay Clark alive more than a few times - which he probably jolly well deserves!

I'd just like to add that I love fics where Lois and/or Clark have undergone some form of separation from each other, but don't just drop the bundle and turn into veritable basket cases as a result. They are both rational and highly skilled adults who had lives before they met each other and, while they suffer a great amount of pain and anguish at the loss of the other (which I believe has a huge impact on them and I don't want to understate the level of that impact), are still capable of functioning successfully, if not as necessarily as content or happily as they would have otherwise.

Title suggestions: 'unmasking duality', 'piercing the veil (of mendacity)' or 'playing the system'

How about Mendacity for the title?

Wow, Dandello, this story blew me away! I don't do lengthy FDK, I'm not good at picking apart a story, I just go by my overall impression and I'm just sitting here with my mouth open, utterly astonished by the quality of your writing! You followed the outline of the challenge but definitely made it your own! Thank you for posting it!

That was wonderful. I loved how Lois recognized his writing right away and her systematic investigation.

This was spot on and just a fragment of all of the things I wanted to quote! Excellent job.

I liked this. I found it an interesting situation and one that could have logically grown from the situation presented in the challenge.

I like that Lois is still a bright, successful individual who, like many of us, has had to deal with loss, but still realizes that she has to keep moving forward.

She misses Clark, and Perry greatly. As any of us would when a loved one is lost. But none of us 'quit living'. We know that for us the sun will rise the next morning and we have to get on with life.

Now we get to see her in a new situation. She's had her secret hope fulfilled in that she has found Clark alive... but what's next?

Can they find a way to move their life paths back together, or is it too late? 'They' say that you can never go home.

Tank (who thinks the getting to know each other again is going to be the fun part)

Since I put this together for not just this challenge, but also for another one that had the key word 'famous' and a 6000 word limit - I figure somethings are best left to the imagination. I tried to portray that they both grew up some (Lois probably more than Clark) and with the truth out in the open between them, they have a chance of making it.

I hope people noticed that even though Clark was 'dead', the other Superman problems in Metropolis were still there.

I have too little time for this, Dandello, but I had to respond anyway.

This was brilliant. I second everything Viv said. I have rarely felt Lois's love for Clark as strongly as I feel it here.

We use the word "love" to describe two emotions: (selfish) need on one hand, and unselfish, caring, giving generosity on the other. The first emotion has to to with getting one's own wishes, the other has to do with empathizing with another person and wanting what is best for him or her. (Of course, if you respect another person you can't decide all on your own what is best for him or her. It's possible to give love to another person in a condescending way, where you believe that you have all the answers.)

Of course, human love can't be all about giving love to others without wanting anything for yourself. People who are that unselfish are intolerable in the end. It's just not possible to understand what drives them. Show me a saint who is nothing but altruistic, and I'm going to believe that this is a con artist with an unpalatable hidden agenda - at least if he or she has the slightest interest in parading his or her goodness and showing it off to others!

No, if you ask me, the best people are those who have their own needs as well as a generous interest in others. And that is how I would describe your Lois in this fic. Lois most certainly has her own needs, and Clark is one of those needs, but she isn't a parasite who can't survive unless she can join herself unseparably to Clark and draw her very life force from him. She can go on without him, and she does. She does well, too. But she misses Clark, and she wants him back. Not because she absolutely needs him. But because "just Lane" isn't as good as "Lane and Kent".

But this Lois understands that "just Kent" also isn't as good as "Lane and Kent". And she most certainly understands that "just Superman" isn't even nearly as good as "Clark Kent from Metropolis".

He needs her. He does. They both need each other. Not because they can't go on without each other, because they can. But because they are both much happier with each other than on their own. And Lois knows that while she misses Clark very much and very much wants her back, she can give him at least as much as he can give her. Because she can help him find his way home, so he can stop running.

This is a most beautiful portrait of mature tolerance, understanding, generosity, caring and love.

Ann

Delightful. Stunning. Wonderful.

Oooh I liked this too--it had a smart opening. I liked that the other events in S2 happened and Lois and Clark's interaction felt really genuine.

Great story. Good title. Keep it coming.

Artemis

Sorry to disappoint but this is a 0ne-off. (I'm pretty much going back to the Planes and to Time - but this challenge just hit me right) I've wanted to see a 'Lois figures it out' revelation that was adult and didn't have her screaming that he was the lunkhead - that she knew she was a player and she was part of the problem and if there was going to be a future for them, it was up to her to start handling it.

But if somebody else wants to take up the pen to continue it - let me know and maybe we can collaborate.

Can I just say 'ditto to what Tank said'?

I like that this was calm, logical, realistic. Not waffy (I remember that you don't do waffy!) but satisfying.

My favorite line:

Thank you for sharing this with us, Dandello!

This was a great fic. I loved their adult interactions and the passing references to other S2 events.

I, too, loved the line re: Lois at her most dangerous. I also loved that Clark was so thrown off-balance, and yet he didn't run away. I also was quite pleased that Clark still managed to pay his taxes all these years.

Nice story, from the details to the all-over "feel" of it.

Elisabeth

I always like to see Lois at the top of her investigative game. Very well done.

Nan

There are some things about this fic that stuck in my mind, and that I didn't comment on the first time I replied.

I very much like how you describe Lois here: short dark hair, fashionable skirted business suit, burgundy leather briefcase. There is tension around her eyes, and she keeps her ankles crossed demurely as she sits down.

There is nothing lightweight or flimsy about this Lois. She is a very mature woman who has considered her options and knows ecxactly what she wants. Lois at her most dangerous, as you pointed out a little further down in the text!

And Clark is very impressed (as well as frightened). He, too, likes this not-to-be-trifled-with Lois:

Seeing her is wonderful. Her beauty is so striking, and her maturity and strength of character is a wonder to behold. Yes, Clark has dreamed about this woman ever since he himself "died", and now she is here, his wonderful dream. Except...
Seeing is believing, but seeing is not enough. Look what happens when Clark's other senses picks up Lois's presence:

He can hear the sound of her clothes as she moves, and he can pick up the smell of her perfume and her sweat. And suddenly she is overwhelmingly real. Clark can see her and smell her in a way that makes sure that she isn't a dream. This woman not only looks like Lois. She sounds like Lois too, and she smells like Lois. She is Lois. And from this point on, I felt convinced that Clark would come home, to Metropolis and to the wonderful physical reality of Lois. By the way, thanks for mentioning Lois's sweat. Women do their very best to kill their own natural smell, but Clark would know the smell of Lois. And if he loves Lois, he is almost bound to love the smell of her, too.

Once again, I love this vignette.

Ann

Wow, Lois was perfect and intense to me. She was very mature and calulating. I liked her change in those two years, it was fabulous that she figured out the mystery, didn't keep Jimmy in the cold, went after what she wanted and didn't hesitate.
It was enjoyable seeing another potentional TOGoM outcome.

The opening was great, funny and made me curious.

Good she admitted that Clark was good, but I enjoy how she agreed with Perry about herself.


Good heart string pull. Poor Lois. Her 'home' has really been altered.

That's our Lois!

Hehehe.

It is difficult to go back when one has had such changes.

I don't find that a great life, despite doing all the good he would have done during that period. Poor Clark, but he didn't fight hard enough to keep his life as Clark.

A person does need that.

She is one smart cookie. She didn't give up unlike Clark. I like what Clark did to try and have a real life and he became very sucessful - lucky guy - but to feel like you have to walk away from your life you prefer, that's not something Lois would do. He should have gone to her.

There meeting was so well done. So calm, yet there's an intensity...to me anyways.

She makes it sound so easy.

Good stuff as always. I love your style.

Wow! This was really nice. Yet, another take on TOGOM that I never considered. Both Lois and Clark were hurting so much. Lois put all of her energy into her work and Clark...well...

You could always tell when Lois was mad or hurting because she did her best work then. I understand why, I hate that he thought that being dead was better than just telling Lois the truth regardless of how she felt about Clark and no matter how mad she would get.

This was a great read! Well done!

~Sheila

I was just rereading some of Dandello's work. This is still one of my favorites.

Mendacity

I was diving into some old L&C fanfic, I needed it after skimming the final season of Superman and Lois.