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Shameless request for more feedback.

Not my usual fare but very interesting none the less...

And for lives saved... would this be pre or post Nightfall? ~.^

Ooh, good question, Lieta! Definitely post-Nightfall, but I had totally forgotten about that! So Clark has officially saved over six billion people.

<3 no problem... it's easy to misplace the details of any one episode... the characters sure do after the episode is over ~.^

I loved every word! Brilliant story.

This was a touch too supernatural for me, the inveterate skeptic, but for all of that... it was brilliant.

I'd like to imagine that it was Lois who brought Clark back from the dead. Maybe he wasn't really, really dead, because of his superpowers and invulnerability. And Lois was standing over him, giving him CPR, and calling and calling his name. If Clark loves Lois as much as I like to imagine, maybe the last spark of life in him couldn't help but respond to her.

Hmmm, so that is what Pie-Maker was doing with all those rotten apples? I thought it had to be something like that. Everything in his cafe and kitchen was squeaky clean, except all those rotten apples there. They had to be there for a reason.

And imagine bringing all those murder victims back for sixty seconds to have them tell the world who their murderer was. Let's just hope they are alert and awake for those sixty seconds and not groggy and confused!

Like I said, all of this fic was brilliantly written and excellently fleshed out and brought to life(!). I could hear, see and smell details all the time, and they all made sense and became a part of the texture and symphony of the story.

Ann

P.S. Elisabeth told you that you had taught her a new word in part one, 'susurrus'. Well, me being a Swede and having learnt so much of my English from reading books, 'susurrus' was a word I knew. I have so much more difficulty with ordinary everyday words. But in part two there was indeed a 'literary' word that I couldn't remember having heard before, 'postprandial', 'after a meal'. Thanks for teaching me!

P.P.S. I may need to buy the supernatural explanation after all. It has the added advantage of making Lois and Clark equal partners when it comes to extended life spans (or are we talking eternal life?). Lois got Clark's life force, or a part of it anyway, and now she won't die. I mean, just look at that dog....

P.P.P.S. Got to agree with Michael. The sweetly embarrassingly platonic-erotic stuff at the end was absolutely adorable.

P.P.P.P.S. I see that this was my post number 4559, so I've got to celebrate myself with a good-looking galaxy, NGC 4559 !

You REALLY need to see the show - groggy and confused doesn't begin to describe it.

I hadn't anticipated the supernatural explanation, but it does explain it. Alternatively, Superman probably has life force to spare. We don't really need an answer.

You know, I did went online after I read the first part and checked out the plot behind Pushing Daisies. And now of course, I have to wonder who will have to die instead of Lois. And isn’t it still dangerous to have the Pie-Maker living in the same city as Lois afterwards…

Anyway, the beginning feels so surreal. I’m pretty sure that means you’re doing an amazing job. And it almost makes me want you doing a worse job, because then I wouldn’t feel this weight on my chest. /goes back to nibbling on finger nails/

Why is Clark hoping it’s an insurance scam? You know, I love it that the angsty part is over and we’re back to lighthearted fluff. We are back to that, no?

*chokes* It’s amazing how you’re pulling this off

Clark!!!! Shocked

The rest was so sweet and slow. It really rounded things out and you did an excellent crossover with this.

Iolanthe, that was an extremely intense story. Very well plotted and excellently written. You really need to show us more of your writing.

Michael

I concur. This is an excellent story, and we need to read more from you. This is one of the best crossovers I've ever seen in any genre.

I agree with Marcus on the life force issue. I think that when the revived person goes past the sixty-second barrier, another person's life force must be transferred into him/her. Because Superman has more than the usual human amount of life force (re: "Brutal Youth"), he can spare enough for Lois to stay alive without crippling himself. At least, that's how I intend to view it. That way, Lois' "souls pushing back" explanation, while ingenious, becomes unnecessary, although there's no reason to take it out of the story because it does help Clark to realize once again how many people he's saved over the years.

The only negative (and it's a very small negative) is that the bulk of the story is in first person present tense - which is an excellent choice for this tale - but the first part of part 1 is first person past tense. I re-read part 1 to see if I just missed something, but if I did I missed it again.

Great standalone story, great crossover. I've never seen Pushing Daisies and I was never left wondering what the heck something meant. This was a tense, well-executed thriller with a very interesting revelation. Write some more! Soon, please.

I've only seen a couple of episodes of Pushing Daisies, but I love how you combined the worlds. Your writing style and the first person perspective worked really well for this story. I like how you resolved everything - a sort of cosmic justice for Clark. It's too bad Lois and Clark have to stay away from Ned and company...that could have been a great ongoing series with the whole lot of them.

Amber

This was really good. I normally dislike cross-overs because I can't figure out who anyone is and what their relationships and backstories are. You completely avoided that by keeping us in Clark's first person perspective, so we learned everything as he did. I'm so thankful that I didn't read the first part until the second part was up because I don't think I could have stood waiting overnight while Lois was dead in Clark's arms.

As soon as I realized what the conditions for bringing her back from the dead were, I expected Clark to offer himself for Lois. However, I didn't expect him to actually die. I was kind of picturing something like in BY, where he staggers but comes back okay, so the pain in his chest and everything caught me by surprise.

I loved Clark's internal monologue. It was long enough to give the reader some interesting insights, but not so long that we ever lost track of what was happening in the world around him. Nice balancing act.

I'm glad you explained what was up with all the rotten fruit at the Pie Hole. And I loved the way you described Clark's reaction to spooning with Lois and their ensuing conversation.

Really good story. I look forward to more from you.

Wow! That was an incredible story. I've never seen Pushing Daisies, but, like Sheila, the way you did it made it easy for me to read and understand. Very, very well done.

Nan

Thanks, everyone, for replying. It's a tremendous compliment to get such long, well-thought-out feedback. (*dislocates elbow patting self on back*)

You know, I like that too. It's so romantic! (In a death-ficcy kind of way).

Thanks. I'd like to, but I can't take credit for that. The bit with reviving the rotten fruit was on one of the episodes of "Pushing Daisies".

Also there's been feedback in another thread about Clark smelling the "death smell" and noticing it's different. I can't take credit for that either. There was an episode of "PD" which focused on two men, professional rivals, both with extraordinary powers of olfaction (one was named "Napoleon Le Nez", ha ha.) So the show did give me the idea of "the death smell". Clark has super-extraordinary powers of olfaction, so of course he would pick up on something unusual like that.

Yes, that was my intent - strongly implying that Lois, too, may be immortal, or at least have a very long youth and lifespan.

Heck, it's happening in our world! In the comics, Clark and Lois are still young, despite being 70 years old! (Action Comics, 1938, Superman's debut).

(Oh wait....that's a comic book.....never mind.)

But I did mean that part of the fic as a homage to the epic, archetypal nature of the Superman story. And, of course, Clark must have his Lois, and vice versa. Their love is so intense that death cannot separate them (wow, that prose came out a lot more purple than I intended).

But of course!

That was for the "Angry Clark" request in the Ficathon assignment. I couldn't write him angry for very long. Clark is just so controlled (as everyone knows) because he is aware of the potential (and lethal) consequences of his unbridled anger. He had to be facing desperate circumstances before he could allow himself to show his anger. Losing Lois might make him pretty desperate.

Wow! Massive ego-boost here! The fics and feedback here on the boards are really supportive. I will have to post more if you keep showering me with compliments like that.

I didn't realize that this many people would be interested in the mechanics of Clark's life force. I thought about using the "Superman has more than the usual amount of human life force" too. But Clark got very queasy about it and I had to come up with some other semi-plausible explanation.

But good point, Terry. I hadn't really thought about it that way, and it is good that Clark is reminded of how many he has saved.

You're right. (*eyes shift furtively at being caught*) I wrote the first bit in past temse, switched to present tense shortly thereafter, and was too lazy to go back and change the part I'd already written. I told myself that I didn't need to because it was flashback (*yawns lazily*).

Same for me. Total agreement. I like it where 1) either things are explained right from the beginning (as I tried to do in this fic), or 2) the crossover part is so widely known that the bits the author uses don't need to be explained.

I've read some of Marcus Rowland's crossover fics in the Archive - he is a very good practitioner of the latter. He's written some very good (and some very funny!) crossovers that you can understand just by knowing a little bit about the other source.

It could be that Lois' explanation is total bunk but it makes Clark feel better... and since the story is in Clark's PoV... he gets to choose what's 'truth', ~.^

Great story!

I really enjoyed seeing Clark and Ned's camaraderie at the end of this. Now there's one more person in the world who Clark can relate to. I think if I had my choice of powers, I would choose Clark's rather than Ned's, though. Ned's just seems like too much responsibility.

I so enjoyed this. Having never seen Pushing Daisies, I didn't see it coming that the Pie Man would refuse the offer of bringing Lois back from the dead. Also, knowing what the consequences were, I couldn't imagine how Lois came back to life.

When Clark made his offer, I was devestated. The price is too high, but the Pie Man never pointed that out--admittedly, because he felt as if his own life was at stake. Depression is such a liar. Essentially the Pie Man was complicit in aiding Clark in committing suicide. While it all turned out well in the end, still...

It was eerie watching Clark put his affairs in order. It was also so odd to see him angrily lieing about where Lois was and getting away with it. I realize that he lies every day when he leaves to go be Superman, but the tone is very different when he does that.

None of this is intended as criticism of your writing; I'm just frustrated that Clark could be suicidally depressed and nobody talks to him. I hope that isn't a reflection of real life.

I appreciated you filling us in that they now have the smell of death. I had wondered if Lois would, but it never occurred to me that Clark would, as well, probably because I theorized that the process was more like Brutal Youth than like an actual death.

Count me in among those who would enjoy reading more from you.


Elisabeth

Having seen the entire series of Pushing Daisies, I say that you have captured the essence of the series and melded it to LnC wonderfully.

I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes romantic comedies with just a touch of farcical eww-y-ness.

James

Go to ABC and pick FREE EPISODES, select Pushing Daisies. This will bring up their video Player. This will get you, eventually, the last couple of episodes.

You can also find it at Graboid.com . It is a free service that allows the free download of many TV shows.

This was wonderful. I'm so glad I wasn't online in time to read the first part and then have to wait for the second. While I'm familiar enough with the premise of Pushing Daisies to assume Ned would revive Lois, I still don't think I could have dealt with the suspense.

While I'm familiar with the premise of Pushing Daisies, I'm not a viewer, so I was surprised by Ned telling Clark no when asked/ordered to revive Lois, but you did a good job of showing Ned's reluctance to use his gift in a way that might have negative consequences. It really showcased how much he has in common with Clark.

It is too bad that Clark and Ned can't continue to be friends - I imagine that it would be nice to be friends with someone who totally understands the pressures of living with a gift like these, but I love the LnC stuff. Lois reaction to Clark was sweet and you made it completely believable that she would react without anger to the realization that Clark was Superman.

This feedback is a little late but… YOU KILLED LOIS! Not only that, you killed Lois IN A HOLIDAY FIC! My first reaction was…well, let’s just say that I wasn’t in a good mood about the story. I mean, YOU KILLED LOIS!

I took me a full day to calm down enough after part 1 to even read part 2. Then, after reading part 2 the first time, I have to admit that I still didn’t like it. I mean, YOU KILLED LOIS!

Have I properly conveyed the specific aspect of your story that bothered me?

Anyway, after another day to calm down, I was able to re-read the whole story with all of the emotional dampers in place. I was finally able to read the story where my reaction was only; you killed Lois (as opposed to the earlier reaction.)

So, when I could finally read it a bit more dispassionately, I found that I did enjoy it. (Really!) I’ve never seen Pushing Daisies so I don’t have any real connection to those characters. It was an interesting and fun concept. It’s just not what I expected in a holiday fic.

Bob

No. My background assumptions as to why Clark is suicidally depressed are as follows: Clark and Lois are soulmates (generally conceded to be established as show canon). Clark feels the connection, even though they are not yet dating, not yet married, and nowhere near physical consummation. We all know that he's already given her his heart (metaphorically speaking).

When Lois dies, suddenly half his soul is torn from him. He's bereft. That's why such a normally optimistic guy becomes a walking zombie. And of course, he's willing to sacrifice himself to save others (cf. numerous Superman comics, fics, movies, etc.)

So, from Clark's POV, he has no reason to live, and plenty of reason to die, if it means that Lois will live again. He's rather selfish in not thinking about what his dying will mean to Lois and how it will affect her, but he's not thinking too clearly right now.

Thank you. In the "PD" show, the Ned character is shown to be a good guy, but a man who's been beaten and battered by life, and always expects the worst to happen. Ned has a much less optimistic personality than Clark.

Yes, I agree. But I felt the need for closure of the story. Also, there's the whole Lois safety issue.

Bobbart, I'm so happy that you feedbacked this vehemently about the story! That means that you read it and you care! A sincere compliment.

Now, in response to your impassioned post:

BWAH-HA-HA-HAH! (*villainous laugh*) No one is safe from my evil machinations! BWAH-HA-HA-HAH!