Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Comments: Veritas 4/?

Well, what do you think? I'm pleased that people have been liking this story so far, and I always enjoy getting comments from people like Terry, Elisabeth, Tank, Carol, Framework and Ann. Feel free to give suggestions as I'm writing this as I go without a beta reader. If there is anything you'd like to see, let me know. No promises, of course, but you never know.

Well, if you're looking for volunteers to beta... I'm sure you'd get quite a few [/me is reminded she needs to read the next segment of Specimen still in her inbox].

I'm confused - is Clark married to Lana? Earlier, she was pushing for it, here he has a ring, though I supposed it's not necessarily a wedding ring but rather another kind of ring but... perhaps make that clearer?

Lois finding the wallet is genius! Love it! She's the Lois we know and love - and really, who would use the name Clark Kent? Though she uses Lois Lane so it's not outside the realm of possibility that someone named Kent would name their son Clark just like hers named her Lois, but that didn't occur to her - perhaps it will in the future - though she already realized it's a New Troy license...

I'm enjoying this as always, Shayne!

Suggestion? Help Tank out and give her a haircut now that she's home from months overseas .
Carol

$15 won't go very far, but of course Clark has all sorts of way to find / earn money if he puts his mind to it. I just hope he realises he needs to start by creating a new ID.

Great to see this updated so fast, looking forward to more.

Delightful. A dark angry world that really needs a Superman even if only briefly.

By Lois's count "almost two hundred people" are being detained.

Clearly Lois is going to learn that many of the detainees from the plane also have ID from "New Troy", credit cards with the Lexcorp insignia and money that feels real but has unfamiliar presidents on it.

Knowing Clark he is going to feel responsible for everyone on the plane. He won't like how they are being treated, think about the alleged abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, now add that this world is even darker.

This is going to push Clark and Lois into the same area. Lois now has pictures of Clark.

Clark is going to need an identity to even think of getting close to the detainees.

Clark can't have been a reporter without learning about the underlayers present in every society.

With proper clothing Clark still needs funds, given funds he can get ID. Given ID he can use more approaches to get more money.

With more money, and superpowers, he can insert himself into the infrastructure.

Within just a couple of weeks Clark should have an identity that will hold up under the most in depth of background checks.

He has that Eidetic memory. He must be able to think of places with gold and the like that haven't been tapped. Or stolen treasures stashed somewhere by the Nazis.

He still needs to get to a library and get some background on the world he exists in.

Well, Shayne, since you said such nice things about me, it behooves me to leave some feedback lest you say some less positive things next time.

Naw, you're too nice to do that!

The story is getting very interesting. Nice touch having Lois find the wallet and overhear the phone conversation. I wonder if Agent White's first name is - no, that's too obvious!

Lois is in a better position to help Clark than anyone else is. Of course, he has no idea who she is - unless, of course, he uses some of his scarce money to buy the latest issue of Action comics. That would certainly be an eye-opener for him!

This is another powerful story in the tradition of single-word titles like 'Nocturne,' 'Fugue,' 'Duet,' and 'Strong.' I like how you pare down the action to the essentials, yet you allow us to feel what the characters are going through without getting sloppy about it. For example, Lois's feelings are made perfectly clear by making his address the last thing you tell us about her perusal of Clark's wallet. It means that she's far more likely to believe him when he tells her where he's really from.

And now you have me wondering which world will end up with the Lois-Clark pairing. His native world would benefit from having Lois around - and so would he - but Lois's world would benefit even more from having Superman around. But you've also set it up to allow Lois's world to reject a super-hero altogether, making it more likely that they'll return to his world.

Which assumes, of course, that he can go home. Hmm. Maybe I was wrong about Tempus. Maybe Tempus dropped Clark off here as revenge, he'll come to check on him, and Lois will pounce on him and make him say "uncle" in several different languages before she wrests the dimension-traveling device from him.

Or you'll think of something else. Whatever you come up with, I know it'll be good. Them Texas boys got minds as big as all outdoors, y'know. And they shore do know what to do with them!

Excellent, as always. I couldn't even begin to make suggestions, since you're doing so well so far.

I love how National Security people feed her a line they hope will make her salivate, but she sees right through it. It's a much better coverup than, "Nothing happened here. We're doing routine practice exercises in a civilian area."

The bar scene was very believable, as was Lois' ability to hide in the shadows there.

For her to find the wallet is brilliant. It gives her an edge to finding Clark that the feds don't have. She knows his name and what he looks like. In fact, she knows who he is and where he's from--even if she doesn't believe it.

As for poor Clark. Right now, he's not trying to find a way to anything other than to survive through the night. It seems he hasn't quite got his footing, yet, even though he's taking steps in the right direction.


Elisabeth

I didn't catch the Agent White thing like Terry did, but that would be a bit much - though I suppose they could have discussed that in the past - how much they hate being named after comic book characters or something.

Another thing brought to mind when Elisabeth mentioned that he's just trying to survive the night was that he didn't want to go to Goodwill the next morning because he'd be taking clothes from those who really need them or something to that effect. Leave it to Clark to feel that way. If anyone needs new clothes at the moment it's him and it's not like he'd clean the place out... just an outfit or two and here at least you pay for the clothes [though one store in town, everything is .99 or something and the other it's all priced individually but not expensive] so it's not like he's just 'taking' it.

Something else came to mind, but it's escaping me at the moment.

This wasn't it but it'll work: More. Now.
Carol

Edit: Okay - it was what Lois was thinking when she saw the pictures of Lana! That's what it was. Very insightful of here .

Well, you're doing very well without a beta so far! My favorite plot aspects were already mentioned--Lois finding the wallet is very interesting, and leave it to Clark to feel like he's taking clothes from the homeless. <g> I'm very interested in what's going to happen to that planeload of people! It's one thing for one person's strange ID to be a gag, but when all of these people are from New Troy...I'm sure Lois will have a field day when she finds out. I'm already leagues ahead in my mind wondering how Clark will possibly get home...and if he'll want to after he meets Lois.

JD

I'm really enjoying this story as well!

I was wondering if the intelligence agencies were going to start putting together what they've learned from the passengers on the plane. Not just wallet contents: any plane load of people would have books, newspapers (including the Daily Planet and Gotham Gazette!), magazines (in-flight and other), video, you name it. What about the route map in the in-flight magazines, showing routes to Metropolis and Gotham City? Maybe someone even had an atlas or AAA maps?

Surely someone in the intelligence agencies has to be getting past the "terrorist attack" theory by now?

Even better is a plane load of people who claim Metropolis and Gotham City are real places, but have never heard of Superman! :rolleyes:

Looking forward to chapter 5!

Debbie

Fantastic concept, Shayne! Superman lands in our world -- or one much like it. How would we really react to a miracle man? I can't wait to see what happens next.

Thanks for writing this -- and all the stories you've shared with us. I reread "Family Hour" the other day, and it was just as amazing the second time around.

And thanks also for giving us a link to your stories over on Twisting the Hellmouth. I enjoyed "Wishes" and all your other stories over there. ("M is for Moaning Myrtle" -- for me it was M for "Mwa-ha-ha!" That was a lot of fun. "Say something in Swedish." <g>)

In fact the best part of my weekend has been courtesy of Shayne Terry, so I'll probably be in withdrawal tomorrow. Unless you have some other links you could share.

-- Lauren

Shayne, I'm all caught up now. And for the record, I did catch the Agent White thing, but surely it isn't "Perry".

Anyway, Now, I'm catching on to what has happened, but How is Clark ever going to escape and how is Lois going to handle this. Of course, Lois will eventually know--when she finds out that this is really Clark Kent--that he is also Superman.

I, too am curious about Clark's and Lana's relationship. At any rate this world needs Superman more than Lana's world does.

Nice job Shayne and I'm looking forward to more.

~Sheila

Well, *technically* Gotham exists as a nickname for New York, doesn't it? Please post more soon! I can hardly wait for Lois and Clark to meet up!

Wowzers!!! Just imagine watching a plane appear out of nowhere, realizing that the U.S. military forces have launched a missile at something over U.S. airspace, and then finding Superman's charred wallet!!! I mean, imagine something like that happening here and now, in this world! Superman's wallet! Superman's ID! Lexcorp credit cards! A Metropolis, New Troy address!

It's almost like having the U.S. Army firing at a strange UFO late on Christmas Eve, and then finding Santa Claus' singed wallet on the ground, sunk into the snow, isn't it? What would the name on his ID be? Kringle, Kris? Address, Christmas Street, the Arctic? Height? Weight....? And what's that reindeer carcass with a shiny red nose that was found a few hundred meters from the wallet?

Sorry, I'm getting carried away, aren't I?

I had to look this up, my knowledge of American history being what it is. So, Alexander Hamilton was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury and one of the founding fathers of the republic, but he was never a President, was he? Then what is he doing on Clark's ten dollar bill? I thought dollar bills were only for dead Presidents. (Well, I checked on Google, and yes - Alexander Hamilton's portrait really is to be found on every ten dollar bill.)

And Grover Cleveland? He was the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885&#8211;1889 and 1893&#8211;1897), says Wikipedia. He was apparently somewhat disgraced during his second term. Was he more successful in the LnC universe? Was he, by any chance, one of those successful Presidents that the LnC universe liked to remember? And could he possibly have been the champion of somewhat gentler ideas that led to the gentler world of LnC, compared with our own more paranoid universe?

Agent White! I immediately thought his name must be Perry. And if not Perry, how about Richard?



(Let's hope Lois won't have a son by him, and let's hope that if she has a son by Clark, the boy won't be raised by Richard.)

I couldn't help snickering at this reference to the Roswell incident of 1947 - but you know, in that case it was some military flygear that crashed, and because the military didn't want to admit it, rumors spread like wildfire that it was a UFO. Here, the military suspects that it was a UFO, and so they prefer that people believe it was some crashed military flygear.

(As for the Roswell incident, some 55 years later this image of one of the dead aliens appeared. It loooks very much like latex to me. Note, too, how amazingly G-rated the dead body is.)



Clark's experience at the pawn shop is bitterly reminiscent of the fact that the less you have, the less you are likely to receive in exchange for the few valuable assets that you do have. I remember John Steinbeck's beautiful, heartbreaking novella, The Pearl. Here, a poor fisherman finds the biggest and most amazing pearl in the world. But since he is so poor, he can't sell it, because no one wants to give him anything at all in exchange for it. Instead so many people try to steal it from him. If I remember correctly, his little son dies, his wife either dies or leaves him, his boat, which he needs to make a living, is destroyed, and his house may be burnt down. All because he found the most amazing pearl in the world and tried to sell it but couldn't, because he was a poor nobody.

This surely makes me wonder what it would be like to be dropped into a similar but non-identical universe, where you have nothing at all, not even a name or an identity, and your money isn't worth the paper it is printed on.

Correction. Clark does have a name. And it is a name he most certainly won't be able to use, if he is going to stay in Lois's universe.

Will he stay in her universe? Or will she go with him? Will they, instead, be separated once again and for ever?

Well, Shayne, if you are trying to write a Nobel Prize-winning tragic novella like John Steinbeck, then you should probably force Clark and Lois to be separated again. But if you want to please us LnC fans, then you should surely keep them together. Though in what universe I don't know. It will be easier for both of them to fit in in Clark's universe, but Clark may be able to do more good in Lois's universe. Or maybe not.

Ann

Shayne - I finally got a chance to catch up on parts 3 & 4. I really enjoyed them. It's always great to see Lois in top investigative form. I swear, the Bush Administration would be shaking in their boots if we had Lois around today. I love to see her kicking butt and yet in this world, she knows she can't bend the rules too far without getting in serious trouble. No Bill Henderson in our world.

I also loved seeing Clark's reaction to his situation. He's catching on, but would like to see him kick into investigative mode as well. He's running scared right now and it would be nice to see him pursuing the answers rather than running scared. The fact that this is Alt-Clark and that he's used to hiding makes a difference, but I'd love to see him go after the story.

I'm wishing that Clark and Lois would meet sooner rather than later, but I know that you never rush them getting together (physically or emotionally) and it makes the story that much more enjoyable and intense.

Keep it up!
BJ

Ann - money is sometimes referred to as 'the dead Presidents'. However, Hamilton is one of two who is not a former president. The other is Ben Franklin on the 100. There was some talk about putting Reagan on the 10 after his death, but it didn't happen and I don't know if it's still in the works or what.

Grover Cleveland came to see Lois in Neverending Battle. Well, a guy claiming to be him and who supposedly had information on Superman. Of course, he was a crackpot.

Now, if Elvis is on one of them... .
Carol

I really like the premise and I am following the story closely. You got me hooked. I can't wait to see what happens next. Laura

I saw this article and thought of Shayne's fic. Not quite the same but...

Maybe this guy read it and that's why he's confused .

Carol

Sorry, this is slightly off topic, but I thought that Gotham was supposed to be New Jersey and Metropolis was supposed to be New York.

Elisabeth