Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic fdk:A Triangle with Three Sides (14/?)

Interesting part.

I wonder if this Lois is more jaded or if she knows Clark and Superman are two different people.

From Herb's response we have tended to focus on Clark as the cause. Perhaps it was LOIS! If that is the case the tampering Visiting is doing with his extra visits to Lois Lane are making things even worse.

IN Visiting's 'Verse Lois was confused by the feelings she had for two different people. Except they were not two different people. IN this tale they really are two different people.

Part of the mythos with Lois Lane is her suspicions that Clark is Superman. Perhaps in the canon 'Verse Lois listened to Clark because her feeling about Clark went deeper than a professional relationship? At some level she knew he was both men?

In this 'Verse she is clearly developing a professional relationship with Clark and a personal one with Superman.

Are they really closer or do they simply have a better professional relationship?

Also all the little Superman visits Lois trips in the canon 'Verse left Clark with warmer deeper feelings for Lois. Surely this affected his behavior as Clark as around Lois.

He got to see another side of Lois and this helped him understand the subtext behind her responses.

This Clark has none of those experiences. In many cases he has no clue Superman was paying her extra attention and when he does have a clue it only pushed them apart.

Canon Clark could be jealous of Superman but it always was himself. In the back of his mind he knew Lois cared and simply wanted her to also care about Clark.

Worst case scenario he had to admit to being Superman to win Lois.

This AU Clark has a very real rival. And there is no way he can step into being Superman in Lois's eyes. At best he can be seen by Lois as a younger brother to the Superman for whom she has developed feelings.

Something happen in this 'Verse to prevent Lois and Clark coming together to create the future Tempus hated. It seems that Herb's intervention, by bringing Visiting, is only making things worse.

In a long term POV the type of world Tempus described likely wasn't able to stand up to the Khund's invasion so it may all be for the best.

I love this story. It is looking at things from a very different prespective. What is the relationship between Lois and Clark and Superman when it is actually 3 different people and not 2? Clark will not get to know that other side of Lois that she only shows to Superman especially when she has conversations with Superman that shows her respect and liking for Clark. Her feelings for Superman could become real since he is a real person and not her Clark. Although since this Superman is not her soulmate maybe those feelings will not be real. Very interesting and intriguing.

Thanks for the comments, Framework4 and robinson!
Framework4 - This is a very interesting thought, and one I had not considered, although I probably should have. In trying to explore how this change changes the relationships between the three characters, I did not really think about this aspect of Clark acting differently around Lois because he had not interacted with her as Superman.

I have been thinking that in some ways, they would be closer as Clark would not be trying to keep a big secret from her. And I still think that's true, but yours is definitely an argument for why things could go the other way.

robinson - You hit on precisely what I'm trying to explore here - how the story changes when there are three characters rather than two. Thanks so much for leaving feedback!

Question, isn't he now keeping three big secrets from her?
His own of course.
The Visiting Superman's
The fact that he and Lois are so important to the future that a time traveler stepped in to try and reshape their lives into what OTHERS expect and desire?

That last one makes the other two seem small to me.

Maybe this hasn't come across, but Clark doesn't actually believe the story he's been told by Superman. This isn't to say he thinks Superman is lying, he just does not believe that Lois will ever learn to love him and thus doesn't see how their future could be the one that Superman painted. (Of course, you may agree with this.)

You're right - he is still keeping the true nature of his heritage from her, but this is much smaller than the fact that he moonlights in tights. Basically, he is not living a dual life here and so can be freer to be Clark.

This is just a hypothesis (but again, as the author it sort of counts for more than one vote) that part of what kept Lois from being with Clark so long in the show was the feeling that he was keeping something from her. Obviously, this at some point manifested itself in him making excuses and running off whenever she wanted to talk about their relationship, but the foundations for that had been set from the beginning. This Clark can be more open with her - he may be keeping his alien heritage from her, but no one is 100% open with someone when they meet. That takes time, for a relationship to develop, and so Clark wouldn't seem (in my mind) to be holding back any more than you would expect.

Still, this doesn't negate the fact that this Clark is missing part of his relationship with Lois by not being Superman and perhaps even more importantly, someone else is having those moments, making those memories, with her.