Herb waited patiently outside Clark’s apartment. He could hear someone moving around inside and he hoped he hadn’t arrived too late. He glanced down at the copy of the Daily Planet he had picked up from the future.
Herb, if you had only known what had nearly gone on in Canon Clark's apartment would you be nearly as adamant about jumping on Alt-Clark for just about the same thing?
“So, Herb, please give me good news,” he said, dispensing with his usual pleasantries.
Herb got an uneasy feeling.
Yeahh... an unhappy Clark is probably not that conducive to the future of Utopia.
“So, I don’t have any competition for Lois’s heart? She’s mine, free and clear?” Without waiting for a response from Herb, Clark grabbed his hand and shook it with glee. “That’s terrific news, Herb. Well, no, not terrific all around, but you have made me very happy.”
Clark:
Wells: Now just hollld your horses mister.
“No… No! It isn’t true!” He shook his head. “She forgave me. She loves me,” he said adamantly, pointing at Herb, before his voice dropped to almost a whisper. “Doesn’t she?” He raised his gaze to Herb’s beseechingly. “Doesn’t she?”
Herb shrugged. “Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t, Clark. I haven’t met her.”
Maybe you should Wells. You rarely interacted with her in a non-dangerous situation. Maybe you might find her a little bit not what you were thinking she was.
“No, Clark. You cannot ever consummate your relationship with Miss Lane,” Herb said as plainly as he could.
“Excuse me?” Clark said, rising to his feet as his fists remained on the table. His voice sounded ominous. “What did you just say to me?”
Telling a superpowered being that he is not allowed to have intimate relations with someone could well be bad for your health.
“Yes. Yes, I can, Herb, and, frankly, whether or not I do is none of your business,” Clark said with the intensity of Superman. “That’s between me and Lois.”
I could see how this Clark might be offended by the insinuation that he wouldn't (or couldn't) do it with Lois.
Clark looked aghast. “No she won’t. That’s an old wives’ tale.”
When I first read that I couldn't understand what old wives' tale you were talking about. It took me a bunch of reads to realize you were talking about the "Man of Steel: Woman of Kleenex" myth. I can't imagine how he knew of that one.
Alt-Clark: It was a running theme in my world. Apparently I was deemed a "sex-threat" and someone decided to spread the rumor that I had to be celibate so that no one could be hurt.
Me: Ouch. (Ok, that above is just my postulation of why it would be an old wives' take in his world... unless there's a Superman variant comic that received the same treatment by a sci-fi writer.)
Herb leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together. “And how exactly do you know that she won’t, Clark?”
Herb, are you
trying to be Mr. Know-It-All?
“It’s not like she would be my first,” Clark said with a pointed look.
“She wouldn’t?” Herb said with some surprise. “I thought…”
Herb, your mouth is gaping a bit there. Close it or you'll catch some flies there. Don't forget, different and yet the similar universe. DIFFERENT and yet similar. NOT the same.
Clark shook his head. “Well, clearly the curse was lifted by the Lois and Clark from your dimension…”
“Regrettably, the curse was only lifted in my universe’s timeline, Clark. Each universe has its own timeline. What happens in one doesn’t necessarily reflect in another. What’s past is past, unless one has a time machine to go back and change it.”
This is an interesting point. Would Clark have to go back in time before he brought Lois over to his universe? (I know, I know, you address something else that makes this question moot.)
A guttural sound emerged from Clark’s throat as if he were repressing a roar. “And you didn’t think this curse was something I should have been apprised of earlier? Say, when we first started discussing the possibility of rescuing the Lois from my dimension? Or before you brought me here under the guise of falling in love with this dimension’s Lois?”
A pretty good point I would think. I would also think he should have done the same with Lois and Clark BEFORE they got married... unless by undoing the curse before they got married they would have found themself married even EARLIER (say, around the clone arc?)
Clark’s thunderous eyes flashed to his and the time traveler tugged on the collar of his shirt in discomfort, suddenly rather hot. Herb was never so glad to be addressing Clark Kent, who wore leaded glass spectacles, as opposed to Superman.
Yeah, an pretty angry Clark/Superman is not someone you want to deal with lightly.
“And you know this for sure? Are you positive, despite the fact that Lois and I are from other dimensions and our souls don’t match up completely, that this curse would still affect us?” Clark asked. “Couldn’t you just travel into the future and see if she…”
This one's the point I think Wells should have done. It's not like he hadn't done so before. I mean, he had to do it when Lois and Clark consummated the marriage in a different timeline (i.e. his own).
Herb hadn’t quite understood how Lois and this dimension’s version of himself hadn’t disappeared with Tempus.
*puts on my crazy hat* I think I have something of an idea for that. I think that when Tempus died, he blanked out the slate prior to that. That INCLUDES the curse. Of course since Wells can't go back further than when Tempus died there is no way to know that.
Herb had truly thought that if he exposed Clark to the Lois she had been, before a Clark’s love made her the kind, loving woman who had made this man Superman, it would have made Clark realize that not all Loises were the same.
I think he underestimated her attraction to Superman counteracting the (outwardly) negative attraction to Clark. It's that triangle effect of his soul that balances out those perceptions.
Clark’s head slowly rose from his hands. “I am not going back to my dimension, Herb,” he said.
And again, I can understand why.
[QUOTE] “But… but… ” Herb stammered, at a loss for this decision. “You cannot marry Miss Lane, Clark. It is…” His voice faded. He hated that word but, in this instance, it seemed the best choice.
Wells! I can't
believe that you believe this to be true. You yourself TOLD him that nothing is impossible!
“Impossible?” Clark retorted angrily. “Perhaps it is, for now. Instead, you must return to your dimension’s future and find out everything you can about Tempus’s history, his genealogy, and any stories from his family tree that intersect with mine… er… the Clark or Superman from your dimension.
You know, I was thinking on this. If I remember correctly, isn't his world different from the Canon/this one's world due to a robbery? If it's the one that happened in Smallville then maybe there's some hints in his own as well.
If you cannot discover the answer, you will head into the past to the time of this Baron Tempos, use my dimension and solve the problem of that curse if you must, but find the antidote for the curse. Lois Lane and I will marry someday.” He paused and exhaled. “If she’ll still have me.”
Clark: Gotta have as much of a fall-back plan as possible. I want to make sure everything is in place to bring her to my world if there's even a CHANCE we can be together.... And she'll have me.
“But I’ll keep the idea of bringing her home with me open as an option of last resort.” He raised a brow. “If you are fairly certain that my dimension’s timeline isn’t damaged in a similar manner.”
Could Lois still be a reporter? With Clark without a secret identity in that universe, that'd be extremely problematic. She could be his PR person but she would absolutely HATE that.
Herb realized that he had his work cut out for him. Determining a way to save Tempus’s existence to undo the horrible wrong that the man had done to this universe when he killed baby Kal-El... “Clark,” Herb started hesitantly. “You do realize, don’t you, that if we do find a way to fix this universe’s broken timeline, it will also be possible to rescue the baby Kal-El, the true Clark of this universe.”
I'm sure he knows.
Clark started in on a most unexpected tale of discovering the reincarnated Clark in the Brazilian rainforest, where he was not only a masked hero by the name of the Jaguar, but also a…
“A priest?” Herb said in total bafflement. “A Roman Catholic priest?”
You know, I had a second thought on this one. Maybe he mistook his soulmate as Mary (of Nazareth) in death and thus translated it to a religious/agape love. (and I think I've just gotten myself twisted in knots.)
“Extraordinary.” It was the first occurrence that Herb of ever heard of where Clark’s soul hadn’t sought out Lois’s in one of its incarnations.
He has no need to, quite honestly. He's content where he is and doesn't really need to go elsewhere.
Herb knew from his research on this universe that it was eerily similar to that of his own universe, almost as if this alternate universe had been formed by Tempus’s attempt on baby Kal-El’s life. If that were true, in May 1994, a mere three months in the future, this Lois Lane could be engaged to marry Lex Luthor. The Superman from his universe had ended up caught in a Kryptonite cage during the wedding in early June. Herb decided he should save Clark from having to deal with a similar fate, if such circumstances also were to happen here.
That'd be a pretty go time to make that sort of decision. If nothing else, you could be a clarion bell to Lois.
(if Clark's still in the cell)
Wells: *to Lois* My dear, Superman needs your help.
*cue VirginiaR Whistling*
I'll split this one into two. It looks like the break before Clark heads into the apartment's a good spot to cut out temporarily.
