Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Comments: Veritas 9

Let me know what you think!

Are there any questions you'd expect Lois to ask? What would you expect to happen between the two of them on a first meeting?

I really appreciate all the comments, by the way.

Wow - I managed to refresh even before the FDK thread was up!!!

Well... without the feds looking over their shoulders, I don't know what all they'll say, but it'll be interesting.

I'd like to see at least some of this from Lucy's perspective. Lois thinks Lucy's nuts, but Lucy will think the same once Lois starts talking, most likely anyway.

Poor Lois and Susan. Poor Lucy once she starts talking. Lois must be going through he** once she realizes Lucy really believes all this and she realizes Lucy's not crazy. That said, I don't think the feds will let them stick together long enough to figure out what's going on.

The biggest complaints I have about this... the parts are too stinking short!!!!!!!

So, if you want to post part 10 tonight, I'd be okay with that .
Carol

I'd ask her what State. When she says New Troy it will click with Clark's ID, which Lois has seen

Next I'd ask if Lucy reads the Daily Planet and has heard of a reporter named Clark Kent. Then she can move on to Superman, who Lucy will never have heard of.

I was hoping things were going to be better for the passengers than this. Hundreds of people of all ages (there must have been children on the flight, too), and they all get thrown in windowless prisons? Clark has his work cut out for him.

I think the way Lois and Lucy behaved was entirely believable. Lucy thinks Lois went missing in the Congo, and Lois (currently) thinks that this is her Lucy. I can believe that the whole "parallel worlds" thing is not the first scenario that would come to either of them.

I kind of hope Clark followed Lois and is watching all this from above.

Oh, and I forgot to add: another great part! I wouldn't mind part 10 tonight either.

Hooray!!! More Veritas!!!

Like Patrick said, I'd like Lois to ask Lucy the kind of questions that could link Lucy to Clark somehow, or at least to Clark's reality. What did Clark's ID say? Metropolis, New Troy?

It's reasonable for Lois to think that Lucy is insane, given the information she has been given. However, as an investigative journalist, it is not reasonable for Lois to just meekly accept that Lucy is nutters. Lois should be used to looking for patterns. If Clark's ID said that he is from Metropolis, New Troy, and Lucy claims that her and Lois's parents live in Metropolis, then it's time for Lois to ask Lucy a bit more about Metropolis. Is it at all reasonable for two unacquainted people, whose sudden appearance in New York(?) is a mystery, to have delusions about Metropolis? Delusions about living or having lived in Metropolis? It's too much of a coincidence not to mean anything.

If Lois wants to find out whether or not Lucy is crazy, it is a good idea to ask Lucy very many questions. What is the Lanes' street address in Metropolis? How old was Lucy when she moved out? Did Lois herself go to college? Where? What were the names of her Professors? What paper did she work for when she disappeared in the Congo? The Daily Planet? How long had she worked for the Daily Planet when she disappeared? Does Lucy know the names of any other reporters working for the Daily Planet? Clark Kent, did you say?

If Lucy can answer all these questions unhesitatingly, or if at least she can explain why she doesn't know some of the answers, then she is either completely sunk into a fantasy world and is stark raving crazy, or else she is telling the truth.

On the other hand, maybe Lois should go with her impression that Lucy is nuts for now. Her conversation with Lucy is being supervised. Perhaps it is better to pretend that she thinks that Lucy is insane? Perhaps those who listen in on the two of them will breathe easier if she does? Then, if the authorities let her go, she could try to contact Clark somehow. He is the one whose ID says he's from Metropolis. Anyway, Lois has mailed his wallet to herself, so she should get it in the mail soon enough. When she does, it's really time for her to start thinking!

Of course, the idea of just leaving Lucy in her dungeon and walking out on her to try to look for clues elsewhere... that would be very hard to do. I wonder... wouldn't Lucy want to ask Lois questions about what happened to her in the Congo? Wouldn't she want to know how Lois got out of there and made her way back to Metropolis(!)? But I guess it is possible that this Lucy is a bit too self-absorbed to wonder much about her sister's life.

Anyway, I think Lucy should be interested in telling Lois about the strange storm that landed her and the other passengers here. I really think she would be wondering why she is not allowed to board another plane and just go home. Maybe she should ask Lois to find a lawyer for her?

It is horrible to contemplate what might happen to Lucy and the other passengers. Of course they are not U.S. citizens, because the are from another U.S.A. It is possible - probable, even - that some Bureau 39-like agency might decide that the best way to handle this whole affair might be to either kill off the entire planeload of trespassers, or else stick them forever in the deepest dungeon anyone can find. It seems clear that Lucy and the others have no future here.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Clark needs to find a way to bring Lucy and the others back to the universe where they belong. I just hope he can find a way to bring Lois along with him and the others!

Ann

Hurray for Shayne-fic!! More soon please!

Great, a new part of Veritas! But as always, too short!

I would also like to see Lucy asking questions. Her main questions should be: "What is happening here? Why am I stuck in this prison, I have done nothing!" "What the heck is this 9-11 everyone is telling us as the reason why we are held here?" "When did you return from Kongo and what happened to you there?" "Did you get back your job at the Daily Planet? Perry White was devastated when you vanished!" And that´s the moment when Lois should recognize names and all the puzzle pieces start clicking into their places in her brain! The name Clark Kent, Clark´s wallet, the plane that doesn´t exist, Lucy alive and talking about Metropolis, Lois´s parents alive and so on...

Of course, when Lois returns to the agent, they will tell her that all the passengers tell the same story about cities named Metropolis, Gotham, a paper called Daily Planet (perhaps there even was a copy on board of the plane?), but no one knows anything about someone called Superman!

Please keep up this good work and update SOON! I´m waiting and watching the boards all the time!

More than further Superman-related references — which might just reinforce Lois' view that Lucy is delusional — I think the one piece of the puzzle that is missing for Lois is the information that everyone on the plane says Metropolis and the Daily Planet are real.

The government obviously still believes it's some kind of conspiracy, but given her earlier thoughts about conspiracy theories, I would expect Lois to realize it's unlikely that 200 people would all be delusional in exactly the same way. Not to mention all the corroborating evidence from the plane (maps, newspapers, magazines, books, money, and on and on). Having the plane and the people on it be a fraud requires the same kind of impossible consistency that we've already seen Lois doesn't believe in.

I'm sure she'd nail it if she had just a few of the facts that the government does. Maybe Agent White will drop just a hint to her, and get the wheels turning? Lois should be able to figure it out on scant evidence: that's her trademark!

Of course, just as she was blind about Clark in the canon version, maybe she has a blind spot about Superman, given how she feels about her name...

Further thoughts beyond Lucy and Lois asking questions. Surely the GPS system on the plane has Metropolis and Gotham TACAN's listed. You said it was a 747-400, right? That's 2 pilots and a navigator. They're going say they were flying to Metropolis and couldn't find it anymore.
The guidance system will have a direct plot of the route in it. There should be this huge anomalous spike when the lighting hit it. Maybe the spike wiped memory? Even if the surge wiped memory, they still have hard copy maps on board where the east coast looked really different than ours.
How about the black box and the pilot's yelling "what the heck happend?" only not in those words?
As to the personal questions by Ann and Debbie, those were well covered.
I vote for longer parts too. It's a very interesting story and a sad reflection of our possibly current state of affairs.

Ann

One thought on this - if they're looking for it they'll find plenty of evidence that the people aren't from our world - in any electronic equipment they're carrying. We know that the L&C world has big differences in its major industrial players, the really major one being Lexcorp with a finger in all sorts of pies.

You could maybe fake up a computer complete with operating system etc. which will probably be a bit different from those of our world, but inside it there will be things like chips that have been fabricated by LexCorp and have their copyright data on the masks, only readable with an electron microscope, hard disks of slightly different design to anything made in our world, etc. And tooling up for a fake like that and ending up with hardware that actually worked would require a global effort by hundreds of manufacturers. It's easier to believe that they come from another world.

Loving it..

one more thing.. I think there'd be plenty of evidence on board the plane (newspapers, inflight entertainment, watches / computers with calendars, expiry dates on foodstuffs, etc.) pointing to the plane's timeline being 1993(?, as mentioned in an earlier part) and not 2008, which would further force the authorities to look for another explanation than terrorists, etc.

Maybe Lois should also ask Lucy about what she thinks today's date is?

I have a feeling that it's going to take something big to convince this world's Lois Lane that something "other" is really going on. Really, if any of us were confronted with this kind of data, we would be falling all over ourselves to find a way to explain it in terms that make sense to us (and alternate universes don't fall under that category). Lucy on her own isn't going to convince Lois, and I don't think Lois will have access to any of the other passengers.

So the only solution is to have a flying man drop in for a visit and provide some hard evidence that can't be explained away.

(Okay, this may be just me lobbying for a real meet-up for Lois and Clark, but can you blame me for trying?)

Shayne, like everyone else I'm loving this. As with the other gentle readers we all love to guess which way your characters will react as they are continually confronted with the obvious anomolies between what the passengers of the plane believe, and the reality of our much harsher world.

I have a small problem with Clark's method of getting some ready cash. The way lottery tickets are sold wouldn't allow Clark to 'choose' which ticket he wanted even if he could 'see' which ones were winners. The tickets are housed in a loose roll in a box and when you buy one, you get the next one in line. You aren't able to choose the 'third one in line'. I suppose Clark could either wait around until the one he wants comes next in line, or just buy enough to get to the one he wants. But that isn't all that practical. It's also going to get increasingly awkward for him to be running around to a bunch of different convenience stores to get some cash.

Considering the current price of gold, maybe Clark should consider a little prospecting? Maybe some deep sea diving to bring up some long lost treasure which he can sell (in very small quantities) to some coin dealers.

Another way for Clark to be able to move around somewhat annonymously would be to pose as a homeless person. Every large city in the US has a sizable homeless population. They can move around the city without being noticed because no one 'sees' them. It might be a way he can get close enough to 'overhear' some important information.

Heck, he's Superman (even if he doesn't know it yet), he can check out the comics and movies and find out all kinds of clever ways to accomplish all sorts of stuff. He really needs to get to a large library, or an internet cafe where he can do all sorts of researh. Not only on what kind of world he now finds himself in, but the width and breath of the 'Superman legend'.

Lois and Lucy; that has so many ways it can go that any way you choose will be fun. Somehow, though, Lois has to make a connection between Lucy and Clark. Did he look for Lois on his world? Did he ever have contact with the Lane family? It's less likely in this story since he isn't Superman and never had any reason to look for Lois Lane since he hasn't met her counterpart from the Lois and Clark world.

This is fun. Keep it coming.

Tank (who wonders if there was a Lois and Clark TV series on this world that is so much like ours, and if there was, does Lois actually look a bit like Teri Hatcher)

And Tank is also wondering if it was the long-haired or the short-haired Teri Hatcher.

Seriously, I like the way you have the meeting between Lois and Lucy. Lois has forgotten all about protocol. She's thinking with her heart--not like the seasoned professional we're used to. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.


Elisabeth

Shayne - please, please post more soon. This is a fascinating fic. The previous posts have said much more than I ever could about how good it is, and why.

What I find gripping - and incredibly sad - is the mirror you've put up to current practices. Holding people without charges or trial, in secret prisons. Giving up freedom for security (and not even getting that). Constant surveillance. Suspicion, profiling, facial recognition software, alert lists. It's crept up on us, bit by bit, and one doesn't notice the changes till someone steps back and says, "This is where we are today." And it's scary. This was never what America used to stand for. And yet it's happening here, right now, today.

If this fanfic is going in the direction I hope - where Lois ends up with Clark in Metropolis in the parallel world - I'll just say that she's not the only one who would like to go there.

Oregon has scratch-its that come flat and the local plaid pantry has a display of a dozen different styles. So here he could look at about 24 different possible winners and indeed pick which one.

One other thing — there may well be a conflict between the interpretation that the professional intelligence analysts are putting on the evidence, and the interpretation that the higher-ups want to believe. We've certainly seen enough of that in the news.

Maybe the career analysts have put the evidence together, but the brass aren't buying...

Impatiently waiting for my dose of Veritas...