Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: On The Other Hand, 62 and 63/?

FDK goes here .

Posting Schedule [ET]:

Friday: Chapters 64 and 65, 9-10am [forgot Grandma's coming over to make cookies so earlier it is probably about this time]

Saturday: Chapters 66 and 67, 10-11am

Sunday: Chapters 68 and 69, after 3pm

Edit
I just broke out the calendar and given the anticipated number of chapters in the sequel, Unanswered Prayers, and the anticipated number of chapters here, I *have* to start posting daily *now* if I'm going to make it by the end of the year.

Hope that's okay with all of you...

Of course, that means I need to get UP done here real quick [because it's a lot closer to done and I'm already in that 'space'] and get back to OTOH by next week so I don't run out of buffer [which I still have quite a bit of but which runs out much faster with a daily posting schedule instead of a EOD schedule].

Previews:

Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Thanks!

Carol

I won't list all the ugly and despicable adjectives because it still wouldn't be enough to describe Mr. 'Bomb'. I also won't quote his abominable behavior because I've cursed and sworn non-stop at that rat while I was reading (and ignoring or skimming over his Lana-induced-deliriums) and reliving so much hate isn't good for my health.

It serves him right. I couldn't be more happy. Take that, you moron!

Oh, my God. His case is worse than I thought. He's gone crazy. Completely, irremediably, utterly crazy. A deranged like him can't be among normal people. Please, put him away in a funny farm, in a nice kryptonite-padded-cell.

Lana is having a baby with her boyfriend and he's making plans to get back with her! It's a typical case of insanity. He has clearly lost his mind. He complains about having to buy diapers for his son, he didn't hold him in two months, didn't spend time with him, ignored him at all, and at the same time he's planning to be a father to his ex-girlfriend's child (with another man)! He's so deranged that if she's married after five years and don't want a divorce, I wouldn't be surprised if he offered to be the "other man". In two months he held his son for the first time(!) and his first words to him are that he's not his biological father and about his plans to leave him after five years! I'm just glad Chris can't understand what that crack-brained is saying.

Get used to it. I hope remorse be your constant companion and haunt you for a loooooooooong time. Burning in hell would still be less than what you deserve.

Andreia

EDIT:
Okay? Are you kidding? That is fantastic!

Let me get this straight, okay?

Tim and Lana are having a baby together. And Clark still has this fantasy that he's going to divorce Lois after Christopher's fifth birthday and find Lana standing outside the courthouse with another baby on her hip, smiling and holding out her hand to him.

Just how nuts is this guy? I've never seen a version of Clark who's less mature, less realistic about life, more self-centered, more selfish, and generally less of a man than this one! He's even talking to his newborn son (legally if not biologically) about how he hopes the kid will understand why he plans to leave them for some other woman!

Even if you post two chapters daily from now until December 31st, I don't see how he's going to have the time to grow up. He's so messed up that he can't possibly become Superman any time soon. He'd just escape into the suit and refuse to face reality.

Lois was very rude to him in the elevator at the Planet, but after his lousy attempt to "comfort" her with his wonderful manliness the night she wore the sexy nightgown, and given his lack of communication with her since then, I can't blame her for it. The only problem is that she's going to get locked into that pattern of behavior with him and will be even less likely to allow him to talk to her and ask for forgiveness and another chance. Of course, as long as he has these irrational fantasies about Lana, that's unlikely to happen, too.

Maybe he should just let it slip that Lana is having Tim's baby but it doesn't matter to him. Maybe Lois will "gently" explain that having a man's child makes a difference to a woman, that Lana is more likely to marry Tim now than she was before. And she's even less likely to wait for Clark to shed Lois and Christopher in five years than she was before.

Gah! Doesn't he understand how devastating that would be to both children? Does he not grasp that when parents divorce it always scars the children, no matter their age? Why is he being so stupid!

/end rant

Hmmmm, didn't you tell us that Clark was going to shape up by 63, Carol? Okay, I was the one who suggested it might not happen until 64, but I so very much hope that it will be by chapter 64, not when Clark's age is 64!

Well, I rather liked the Ghost of Christopher Past that I put in the previous FDK thread, and if you don't make Clark behave soon, Carol, I think I'll send Christopher Past to Clark at night to haunt him!



I'm glad that Lois has a job at the Daily Planet. And I'm glad that she has met Jimmy. And I'm glad that the man with the illegal smile was Norcross and not Claude. (It worries me slightly that Norcross is known for marrying(?) Judd and then divorcing her. I hope that Lois won't be the reason for his divorce.)

And I'm glad that Clark spent at least some time with Christopher. Is that what you meant by him shaping up?

Ann

P.S. Yes, YAY to the daily postings!!!!

Ditto to the Yay! and joyous dancing for the new posting schedule. That is about my only saving grace right now. I am *desperate* for a turn around in Clark's behavior and thoughts.

I know that he felt something akin to remorse at the end of 63, but after everything else, it made very little impact on me. He's been so spiteful--refusing to wear the John Deere shirt, complaining about having to buy diapers, referring to Chris as 'her' son, etc--that his little speech at the end to the baby still felt cold. What Clark doesn't seem to realize is that you can love a child regardless of how you feel about his/her parent. In his current mindset, Clark is the worst kind of step-parent/parent. He purposely distances himself from Chris, physically, mentally, and emotionally. If he's ever going to be convincing, he's got to drop all of the qualifiers (biological, step, etc). All he is doing is making excuses for not growing up.

It's sad, but Lois's comment about being better off as a single parent is true. I think that Lois will be easier to forgive than she should be, but she'll want Chris to feel accepted by Clark more than she'll worry about her own relationship with Clark. On the other hand (no pun intended), I'm thinking that she'll be increasingly protective of Chris as time passes. She'll be aware that Chris won't be able to protect himself against Clark's detachment. It's too painful to imagine a toddler who is in love with his daddy not understanding why daddy holds himself back. Poor baby. Resentfulness and bitterness are hard walls to dissolve once they get built. Clark needs to make huge strides in the opposite direction if it will be effective (and before it's too late).

Yay, the Planet! Rehalia as Lois's boss makes me laugh. Lois didn't reveal her true relationship to Clark--methinks that might be an issue later. Oh yeah, to Clark's impressions of the nanny (she's like Lana). He's already working harder at liking other people than rebuilding his friendship with Lois.

Fabulous ride you're taking us on, Carol!

~Sonia

Ell, I'm not so sure yet Clark starts redeeming himself. I mean, why does Lana have to tell him about her pregnancy before he shows any ever-so-slight interest in 'his' son? My heart goes out to Lois. Some situations sound awfully familiar (as in a disinterested daddy), so I have a good idea of what this is like for her.

About the preview... Are you trying to tell us that Jimmy's adoptive brother is actually Lois' biological one? Woohoo! That should get interesting.

And, last but certainly not least: I *love* your new posting schedule!

THanks for the great posting schedule ! Much appreciated.

But I share other readers frustration with the clark character.
Its one thing to realize who you love a bit late, but once babies get involved things are just way too complicated to work out perfectly.

Hope he comes around soon

Carol, Carol, Carol, where should I start

First you mentioned that you intend to finish both OTOH and UP by the end of the year. Which you said in the Nano-thread, means people will be less likely to hunt you down for your wickedness because there will be less space in UP for showing this wickedness. That’s not true. People won’t ever hunt you down for being wicked if you post two parts every day. Seriously. People don’t do that. They might still crucify Lex, but not the Empress of Evil who caused the mess. And I’m not talking Mindy here.

Which brings up the next point. You’re asking about how long it takes for a divorce to go through. And unless it’s about a serious downturn in the TVOS-sequel, I’m just assuming it’s OTOH or UP

Finally: Lois needs to *talk* to Martha. Seriously. TALK, girl. Martha can still drop Lex’s britches and tan his hide like cheap leather.

Michael

PS: Did you notice how I’m already referring to Clark by his Sith name? Darth Lex?

PPS: I so loved this part. Besides the loving to hate Lex-stuff

/runs in quickly/

The milk thing... you're not supposed to microwave breast milk because it breaks down something in it - antibodies maybe? There's also the potential for hot spots, but those can be taken care of by a vigorous shaking. Clark's concern is the breaking down of the antibodies [or whatever]. I have been known to microwave frozen milk in the past for speed's sake. While not ideal, it doesn't mess with the nutritional content, afaik, and one bottle here and there like that shouldn't hurt baby. That's all. Nothing nefarious or uncaring about it. Just wondering if his eye lasers are more like a microwave in that sense or what. I've had him do it in other stories with no mention of whether or not it would affect the milk [LtL for instance]. My guess - and his - is that his eyes aren't like a microwave in that sense.

/runs far far away until tomorrow at least/
Carol

True, about your reasoning. My peeve with Lex was that unlike you making an informed guess based on wanting the best possible at any time for your little one, Lex comes across as if he is just not caring enough to even know for sure.
It's not like he knows that it won't make a difference. It's more like, nobody will ever find out and so it's okay. I'm a sociopath and if that wrench is leaving me to care for her bastard, it's her fault if I just make sure he's still breathing when she get's back.



Michael

Wow. I feel bad for Lana. I hope she and Tim actually do get along, and she's not only with him because she's bitter at Clark. Clark has a good reason to feel guilty there.

The ironic thing is that if he had been mature enough to deal with his responsibilities to Lois, he might have been able to hurt Lana less. He could have told her, "Lois and I didn't realize it, but we slept together that night at the Cabin, and now she's pregnant. I love you, and I wish we could be together, but I have to take responsibility for my wife and child." She would have been distraught, and eventually moved on a stronger person. Heck, he might have even stood a chance of getting her back in five years if he'd done that....

Michael, though I'm in a tantrum with Mr. rotten, low life, no good, pond-scum, your description of his crazy thoughts make me laugh so hard that my side hurts. That's exactly how I see Mr. Lex Kent (or Mr. Clark Tempus).

I didn't think it was possible for me to hate Clark but you have managed to make me dislike him so much I hope Lois takes up with Billy Norcross and soon.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-foooour?

Yeah, so Clark's remorse did little to redeem himself in my eyes as well. We'll probably get somewhere when Clark sits Lois down and starts a conversation with, "So, I've been a mediocre buzzkill to you, and I'M SORRY."

Sweet, Lois got a job at DP!

It's about damn time you bonded with that kid, Clark!
JD

:drumroll: Cheating Clark coming up?

Hmmm.

This is sad.

She misses her friend.

I do wish Clark would stop believing he could still get back together with Lana under these circumstances. But he's still holding on to those ideas. Like I said before, I wonder if that will change if/when he finds out what she thinks of aliens.

As far as Tim goes, I do hope for Lana's sake that she and Tim will fall in love. It has been known to happen. And I want her to fall in love with someone else. But quite frankly, I find it unlikely given these circumstances. Lana slept with Tim to take revenge on Clark and because she was on the rebound. That's not the best way to start a loving relationship, baby or no baby


You know, I was thinking the other day that this story reminds me of "Sister Switch." (I think the author might be similar here... )

In that version, Clark took almost a year to get over his previous love. But in that version, she rejected him first. (Not to mention that they had repressed memories of being married as Lois and Clark.)
So under the circumstances, it makes sense that this will take more time. And it hasn't even been a full year since they got married yet.

I'm glad he's decided to start being a proper Dad to Chistopher.

Carol, I didn't respond to this story at first because I didn't like Clark being so crazy about Lana that he wouldn't feel anything when his soulmate showed up. But you write well enough that you caught my interest with the first two parts, so I kept reading.

However, you've written the equivalent of a 600-page novel so far, and I dislike the main characters more now than I did at the beginning. You can take everything Ultrawoman and Terry have said on the boards, and that's the way I feel about this Clark, too. Unfortunately, I don't like Lois, either. In all those pages, she's done two decent things, which is only one more than Clark has. Neither of them has shown a trace of empathy for how the other feels in the situation they've found themselves. I'm staggered by how relentlessly self-centered both of them are. I know everyone on the boards excused Lois for that because she was "hormonal and pregnant," but that doesn't excuse her not thinking about her baby after he was born or her handling him with all the love and wonder and amazement that she would give an uninteresting little dog that she was pet-sitting. If you want readers to believe otherwise, you have to show it. At this point, her only thoughts are of herself.

By the time you spend 600+ pages convincing your readers that a character is completely one way, they'll not only believe it, but you also won't be able to convince them that he (or she) can be different. Without signs all the way through of a different core personality, of remorse for his behavior even if he can't sustain it for more than a few hours, of an ability to empathize with someone else and put someone else's desires ahead of his own when he doesn't get anything out of it, your readers won't believe it's possible for this Clark to change without giving him a personality transplant. After all, he's 19 years old. If he hasn't internalized his parents' beliefs enough by now to make him habitually alert to what other people need and eager to help them, he won't ever do so. With enough motivation (which I assume is coming up), he may eventually change his behavior, but it will always be an unnatural thing imposed from the outside, not like the cheerful, willing, I'll-help-even-if-it-wrecks-my-life assistance offered by the Superman in L&C.

I'm not writing to upset you, but to try to convince you not to rush this to the archive by year's end. Please take the time to go back through and feed in all the moments that are necessary to make your readers believe that the change you want these characters to make is possible for them.

Shelia wrote:
I wish you'd stop beating around the bush, Shelia, and tell us how you really feel about these two.

Shelia is a very intelligent person and an outstanding writer, so if she says something about a story I'm going to listen and give it credence. She's right that you've pretty much set these characters up to have to perform a Herculean task if they're going to end up actually in love and loving each other. Shelia has helped me to remember that while I really don't like this Clark, I'm not all that wild about this Lois, either.

But one of the beauties of the novel form is that the characters have the opportunity to change, to grow, to become more than they were when the story began. Clark's constant pining over Lana and Lois's comparisons of Clark to Joe aren't helping either of them, but they have another five years to finish growing up and a beautiful little bundle of reason to grow up. Maybe Sam can talk some sense into Clark's head. Despite Sam's weakness where Mindy is concerned, I like him a lot more than the Sam of the series. He's just such a darn nice guy.

The one selfless thing Clark has done - marrying Lois and claiming her baby as his own - has almost vanished in the flood of stupid he's been wallowing in since then, but it's something to build on. Lois's unremitting anger at Clark has its root in her missing him as a friend. Maybe that's the key. Maybe if Clark behaves as a real friend towards Lois, she can get past her justifiable anger at him long enough to see the selfless, caring person he's buried under all that stupid. Maybe if he treats Christopher as his actual son, he'll start the process.

The one positive thing about their current situation is that it's unlikely that it will get much worse. Oh, wait, there's Lois' attraction to Billy Norcross and Clark's attraction to Jessica and - oh, no, it canget worse!

That's true, Terry. Remember, though, it takes time to overcome a reader's convictions, usually much more time than it took to develop them. (Lessee, 600 pages + more than 600 pages = 1250 to 1500 or 1800 pages ) That's one reason I don't want Carol to try to rush this to the archive.

The thing is, Carol, I don't want you to rewrite this whole thing. I just want a few scenes, maybe 8 or 10, scattered through the last 400 pages that would make me believe the two characters are redeemable.

I want to see Lois feeling sorry for what Clark had to give up and thinking that she needs to thank him some way, only to find him kissing Lana in the library. I want to see Lois crying, wishing Clark would treat her like he did before--and actually remembering a time when he behaved like a friend. I want to see her cuddling little Chris and feeling her heart swell so big that she can't swallow with the love that fills her. I want to see her torn up when she can't figure out why Chris is crying, not because she's tired and he won't go to sleep but because he's distressed and she can't make it better for him.

I want to see Clark sneaking off to help people secretly--and that gets him in trouble with Lois because he hasn't told her he's a superpowered alien yet. I want to see Clark doing several things: helping Lois, getting something for her that she mentioned, and doing something nice for her, only to feel guilty like he's cheating on Lana each time.

Those things would make me believe that the core personality of each main character is good and decent, that circumstances have just knocked them off track, and I would be waiting impatiently for the moment that knocks sense into their heads so they can grow up and become those people.

Sheila - this cross posted with my next post.

Maybe that's part of the problem - *I* see a lot of those things, but they are apparently not translating well or something.

Lois with Christopher, for instance, is based largely on my first night home with my oldest. I was in tears for hours because I was exhausted and I had no idea what to do to make it better. It was pure exhaustion combined with 'I don't know how to make it better for her' combined with 'oh crap what have I gotten myself into'. To me, Clark's offer to help there was genuine. He didn't know what he could do to make it better, but he was willing to try, even if Lois didn't take it that way.

And I think some of what you want is coming - and has been there 'in between' in the past, in my head, but maybe it needed to not be 'in between' or something.

All that said, given your math... With what is already written, added to the number of chapters planned out after that [taking Ch. 1-? and pasting them back into the file to account for those not yet written], this is on track to be, if not the longest ever, then close - and probably the longest [if my txt KB doohickey is right]. I've been hesitant to say that for fear of scaring folcs off, but it is.

I was going to say more, but that involves spoilerish stuff that I really don't want to get into here and now, but will be posted [without double checking the chapter numbers] within the next week tops [probably the next 3-4 days but don't remember the ch. # off the top of my head].

Carol