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Joined: Jun 2004
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Pulitzer
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OP
Pulitzer
Joined: Jun 2004
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Wonderful setting, Marcus, and a very nice story, with an interesting artifact to end it. I hope Xander doesn't decide to sell it on E-Bay.
Life isn't a support system for writing. It's the other way around.
- Stephen King, from On Writing
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,797 |
Fun story, Marcus. Reminds me of a weird little artle I read once in Sky and Telescope - it was about how you should care for your own pet black hole. The main thing to remember was to keep the thing under control by using very powerful magnets. You should regard the black hole as an extremely slippery thing, and the magnets are the things that are constantly catching it. Remember that if your magnets ever let the little singularity slip past their control just once, Blackie would immediately sink to the center of the Earth, from where it would start eating away at the Earth from within, slowly at first but then faster and faster as it developed more and more of an appetite the more it ate... until the entire Earth and everything on it finally disappeared into the now Earth-mass black hole! I hope this Xander guy has some really powerful magnets at his disposal! Xander looked round to see a stocky dark-haired man, about his height but more heavily built, wearing a suit and a tie patterned with small reproductions of Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures. Love the tie!  "Clark Kent, I presume," said Xander, trying to conceal his reaction to what the bar's wards were telling him. Powerful, more so than anything below the deity level he'd seen before. Not human, though not far from it. They didn't show exact readings, not as such, but he was willing to bet that if they did they would show that Kent was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive... Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!!! Clark seemed to be looking around the bar over the top of his glasses. Xander tried to remember if there was anything around that would show up on x-ray vision, but couldn't think of anything too damaging. There weren't even any heavily-armed Slayers around at this time of the afternoon, the younger ones were still in school, Buffy and Faith never came in until the evening, and none of the other older slayers were in town. There's something rather cute about the idea that the younger slayers are in school. "Okay," Xander said enthusiastically. "Want to autograph it?"
"If you like," said Clark, amusement in his voice. He got Superman's autograph! That's some trophy! Really fun story, Marcus. Ann
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Jul 2006
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lisa in the sky with diamonds
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
Joined: Sep 2006
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I love it. I simply love it.
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
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Originally posted by TOC:
Fun story, Marcus. Reminds me of a weird little artle I read once in Sky and Telescope - it was about how you should care for your own pet black hole. The main thing to remember was to keep the thing under control by using very powerful magnets. You should regard the black hole as an extremely slippery thing, and the magnets are the things that are constantly catching it. Remember that if your magnets ever let the little singularity slip past their control just once, Blackie would immediately sink to the center of the Earth, from where it would start eating away at the Earth from within, slowly at first but then faster and faster as it developed more and more of an appetite the more it ate... until the entire Earth and everything on it finally disappeared into the now Earth-mass black hole! I hope this Xander guy has some really powerful magnets at his disposal! The black hole story is a crossover with a Dr. Who spinoff called "The Sarah-Jane Adventures" which will be airing some time later this year - they showed a pilot episode on New Year's Day. There are minor spoilers in it, for that and for Dr. Who Season 2, but nothing too serious: Good Dog - it helps if you're familiar with Buffy and Dr. Who. Larry Niven wrote a story on the lines you describe - someone messes around with a time machine and accidentally drops a mini black hole into the moon millions of years ago, with fairly nasty results. Can't remember the title. But I think since then someone has proved that small black holes aren't stable, even at the centre of a planet they release matter and energy faster than they can absorb it, and eventually evaporate.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Joined: Jun 2004
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Pulitzer
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OP
Pulitzer
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,147 Likes: 3 |
After checking out a few of the 'Barman' stories on TTH, I remembered what this premise reminded me of. I'm sure, Marcus, that you've read Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Bar" series. (Had to go to Amazon to make sure I was right about the author!) This is very similar to that, and it's a wonderful opportunity for writers to try their hands at short stories where the premise is already laid out for them.
If you'd like to share another of these with a Lois/Clark twist, I know I'll read it. Thanks for sharing!
Life isn't a support system for writing. It's the other way around.
- Stephen King, from On Writing
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
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I did have a vague idea for a followup, but probably involving Batman rather than Clark.
The trouble with this thing now is that with 116 (I think) authors and 250+ chapters an awful lot of ground has been covered, some of it by (dare I say it?) less than inspiring authors. Reading through all that to find out if an idea has been used or not is a fairly lengthy business.
I think that the guy who started the story has acknowledged the influence of the Callahan's Bar setting - it'd be difficult to pretend ignorance given how many people have "borrowed" the idea over the years - and it was hardly original with Spider Robinson in the first place...
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Apr 2003
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Great story. I really enjoyed it.  Artemis
History is easy once you've lived it. - Duncan MacLeod
Writing history is easy once you've lived it. - Artemis
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