Thanks again to Dandello for giving me leave to base a story on the same general concept as The Bakery.

The general idea of The Pub is that it is a meeting place for versions of Lois or Clark who exist in timelines where their counterpart is missing. This provides an opportunity to meet a potential soul mate.

This story is a time-only shift in a single timeline, but The Pub is really intended for cross-timeline matchmaking.

Feedback here please.

Sweet!

Love your stories! Looking forward to reading this one tomorrow. The concept sounds very interesting.

That was great! I really loved the concept. It did remind me of the Bakery but it was different too. Very creative idea!

Oooh...

Hmmm...

Sounds like the universe in V for Vendetta.

Sooo...Nightfall happened but some people survived?

Not good.

Whoopsie!

Even in this messed up universe, Clark is still Clark.



Oooh!

I really love the imagery here.

Excellent!



Not quite our Mad Dog Lane yet, huh?

Understatement of the century.

Let me guess. He's head of the Empire?



Ah, I was wondering about that.




What a fun little story! Very enjoyable!

Very creative. Reminds me of several pub/bar-as-nexus tales I've read (Spider Robinson comes to mind). I wonder how this Lois reacted to Clark's "special talents" when she finally found out about them? And how will they take down Lex?

You do know, I hope, that this means that you now must design and execute a series of stories along this line, and not just with the principals. You can combine two of the secondaries (Dan and Lucy, Cat and a younger Perry, an alternate single Jonathan and an alternate single Martha - or maybe this is how they first met!) if you want. Or you could come up with your own combinations.

Ooh! You could even bring a good Lex and a not-so-good Lois together and have him reform her! A challenge to pull off from both character standpoints, I know, but I'd bet you could do it!

I really enjoyed this tale, Bob. And I really want to read more! So when's the next episode from Many Worlds coming to a message board near us?

What an interesting read. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. I didn't catch the 'many worlds' meaning until Clark spelled it out for me (although I have seen enough previews of Smallville to recognize "the Blur" reference). At first, I thought "Many Worlds" meant that literally, and Clark was going to run into other members of the JL hiding out in the dark universe, or other peoples from other planets, or even people from New Krypton. You had me guessing all the way.

At first I thought that this Clark might be Clark and Lois' son in a world where Lois and Clark (or Lois and Superman) hooked up before Nightfall and where Superman was lost somehow unable to stop Nightfall. Then I thought the twist would be and Paul was LnC's son (maybe I've read too many Tank stories, expecting that kind of twist). But when you said that Clark was Clark Kent, I was like HUH? He was acting more like a teenager / 20 year old than someone twice that age. Then I was wondering if CK had lost his memory all those years ago and still didn't know that he had powers, but you soon clarified that he did. Then I got all confused because Clark said he wasn't from Metropolis like Paul was. I started wondering if Paul was the Paul from Lois' college days and by that point I was Thank you for taking me down your rabbit hole. I didn't know where I was going most of the time, but I liked where I ended up.

PS: Has it really been a year?! Nah! I guess it hasn't felt that long, because I keep reading your stories over on the Archives. I hope this means you've finally torn down that wall. Welcome back!

Enjoyed this a lot - it's an idea that's been used a good few times, of course, but that's because it works. Of course your Clark is going to face all sorts of problems, not having Jonathan and Martha behind him or any track record of education etc. in Lois's world. I'd be interested to see how they handle that.

A fantastic story! You might not write much, Bob, but what you do write is Kerth-quality.

One minor correction: The actress who played Lois Lane was Noel Neill, not Nicole.

In addition to reminding me of The Bakery, The Pub also reminded me of a cross between the Wood between the Worlds from C.S. Lewis' "The Magician's Nephew" and the bar we see in the final episode of "Quantum Leap." I like your take on the theme.

Well done!

Joy,
Lynn

Hmmm. In that Pub are the Time Travelers told to pay strictly with cash?

Just curious.

Seriously, dude, you have to finish this story. After all, LnC going after Luther in the 80'S? Talk about different!

Anyhow this is a great story and would love to see much more.

Great story Bob. I'm with the others in saying you need to continue the story and get these two to interact in Lois' timeline. Yes, it definitely reminded me of The Bakery.

Artemis

I enjoyed this very much. Thank you for sharing. I do agree with the others that there is scope for further stories in this premise if you're up for it.

Really wonderful and creative story! I loved it- though I do wish to know what becomes of them! Regardless, it was very clever! Good job!

What a fun concept! I always love the idea of alternative time lines and how they might converge. Great story

Joan

Thank you all so much. It is nice to get “back in the saddle” and writing again.

Laurach:
Thank you. When I was fleshing out the idea, I wanted to make it as different as the Bakery as I could within the idea of this being an inter-dimensional nexus. When I sent this to HappyGirl for first beta, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that one of her first comments was, “This feels like the Bakery.” It was always my intent to attribute the source of the idea, but I was surprised nonetheless.


Deadly Chakram:
So many comments!!!
The government is certainly along those lines. I visualize Clark’s world as being more physically broken that what we saw in V for Vendetta. BTW: I love that movie!

Of course. I have ideas for “Dark World” stories where I match a dark Lois with a dark Clark, but I have never written any of those – at least not yet. If I were to revisit the Pub, the most likely pairing would be along those lines.

Thank you! I have a bad habbit of not being descriptive enough of the environments. I see them in my mind, but I forget that the reader can’t see that unless I describe it.

No. This is a Lois that has been through the same set of knocks growing up, but is still basically a wide-eyed kid. With Clark’s help, her new timeline may never see the Mad Dog Lane that we all know.






I should have had Kevin Bacon walk into the Pub.

Thank you so much.


Hi, Terry.
I’ve never read Spider Robinson. (I guess I have a homework assignment.)

I love all of your ideas for alternates. I am certainly open to these ideas, and several sound like they could be a lot of fun. The Lois/Lex idea sounds fascinating. Or a darkworld variant where a dark Lois pairs with and then corrupts a good Lex. Being basically a Lois/Clark purest, these would be a challenge, but I can see them. The only pairing that I will never write is Lois and Scardino. Daniel will NEVER get through the door of my Pub!

All I need is a delivery from that oh-so-wayward muse of mine.


VirginiaR
Thank you for sharing your thought process trying to figure out Clark’s universe. I had no idea that there would be so many potentials. There are several good stories in there.

Well, that was the idea. All because of a random cosmic ray that damaged his spaceship’s guidance system.

Yes. In fact, that is part of the many pages of back-story that didn’t fit into the storyline. Clancy’s goal is to make things better. However, moving people between timelines can easily make things worse. This was the trial run for the Pub. The idea was that for the first test, the change would be a time-only shift within a single timeline. He deliberately chose one that was already so badly damaged that the risk of making things worse was very low. Assuming this went well, the Pub would then open for cross-timeline matching.

Thank you. I hope that the wall is down. I am working on two other projects and will be back on them this week.


Marcus:
That is what would be fun about learning the rest of this story. We would have a new-Planet-employee Lois matched with a Clark with no history and no papers. As I said above, I have no idea what that story would be now, but if I get a muse delivery, I’ll write it in a second.

I’m glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for the feedback.


Lynn:
You’re too kind. Thank you. (I do still feel bad about missing the Kerth ceremony this year.)

I have read “The Magician’s nephew” and seen that episode of Quantum Leap, but to be honest the memories are vague. I remember just enough of each of them to understand your reference. I guess I have some homework.


Hi, Morgana.
Is that a reference to the Spider Robinson collection? I really need to read that book. In any case, I can see the inherent problems with allowing credit in an interdimensional, non-time-bound nexus.

You know, just in the course of answering feedback, I’ve gotten several ideas. I am more inclined to consider a sequel than I was just an hour ago when I started answering the feedback.


Artemis:
Thanks for the note. As I have said, the more I’ve read the feedback, the more I’m inclined to try to consider the sequel. I wish I could promise, but I am up from “I don’t think so” to “we’ll see” or possibly even “I need to get some notes down.”


MrsMosley:
Thank you for the feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

On a side note, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but your Fuel was one of the very first LnC fanfic stories I read when I first came here. (Insert break here while Bob jumps over to the archive and re-reads “Fuel”) I love it as much today, as when I first encountered it. You truly touched the magic with that story.


Mouserocks:
I’m so happy that it worked for you. As I’ve said above, I didn’t plan a follow-on but right now I’m less sure of that.


Joan:
During this past year I have discovered that I have lost my enthusiasm for simple episode-based stories. Whatever I do manage to produce in the next year or so will almost certainly be primarily alt-verse with – as I did here – only a loose tie-in to any existing episodes.


Finally, I want to thank you all again for the kind words and wonderful feedback. This really does help keep me motivated to stay in pursuit of my muse.

Bob

I like how you leave the ending purposefully vague. We, of course, want to believe that things are going to be much better in that timeline due to Clark going back with Lois... but you've neatly left us wondering, just a bit.

Now I'm going to think about that all night long.

What a lovely compliment! Thank you, Bob.

Hi, IoLantheAlias
Thank you. Of course, given who I am and what I write, the odds that things worked out are fairly high.


MrsMosley:
You are very welcome. While I was looking at your stories in the Archive, I went ahead and converted them all to epub. If you have an ereader that can handle epub, here they are. MrsMosley epub

Bob

Thanks for converting all of Mrs Mosley's stories! I quickly downloaded them all.

I popped into the boards this evening to see if there was anything new and I'm so glad this gem jumped out at me! (Bob, you know I'm a fan of your work, so I guess it isn't a surprise that I clicked as soon as I saw your name in the TOC folder. )

This was a really enjoyable read. The prologue was deliberately confusing and it intrigued me enough to keep me reading along. The different worlds and the idea of the Pub being outside time was also creative and kept my interest. I hadn't expected that L&C would be from the same universe, separated only by time -- I just assumed they were from alternate universes -- so I really like how you went the extra step of explaining that they were a trial run for the Pub staff. And, of course, your explanation in this thread that the Pub is basically a cross-universe matchmaking service amuses me to no end. Ha!

Another great story from you, Bob. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

Hi, Kathy.

The early versions of the prologue were much longer. As the overall story developed, I realized that the long introduction was hurting more that it helped. Each time I revisited that section, it got a little shorter. I'm glad that the final version worked.

When I first thought of the Pub, it was only going to be for cross-dimensional dating. Unfortunately, I could never find a version of one of those stories that worked. So in many ways, this was a trial run of the Pub for me too. Maybe next time I'll find an engaging story along those lines.

Thank you so much for the note.
Bob

Hi Bob!
So great to see a new story from you

/Intrigued/







Oh…Lois.

Yes. Some also use GHB. *SCNR*

Still would have sworn they also stand of Lois Lane. But a golden Lex makes more sense.

Michael

Hi, Michael

I knew that many would recognize The Bakery in the roots of this story. That's why I didn't feel I could write it unless I had explicit permission from Dandello.

Obviously there is more than that. Once that door was closed, it was gone from that universe. That was why Clark couldn't see through the wall. The instant that the door was closed, the other side ceased being "wired" to ANY universe. In effect, there was no other side.





Believe it or not, it REALLY was an accident. I figured Lex would be too smart and careful to fall for any kind of trap.

No promises, but I have some notes.

Bob

You're welcome!

/nods/ So, they set up the corridor as part of the ambience setting for Fallen Sky Clark?

Michael

So cool! Thank you!

Wow! Totally brilliant story! What can I say that others haven't already said?

However, I have one question? Since this is a time displaced pairing, what about earlier Clark?

It is 1988 in Lois' world. Nightfall arrives in 1994. Clark arrives in 2001. What happens when 2001 Clark arrives?

I suppose they could adopt him and raise him, but that would lead to a really strange Oedipus loop thingy.

Sorry, but my mind just will not let that go.

James

Hi, James.

I am SO sorry that I've taken so long to get back to you. I saw your note last week and should have responded immediately. However, I didn't and then life happened...

I'm glad you thought about what was going to happen when Clark arrived. I was surprised that more people didn't bring up that "problem." I did spend some time trying to visualize how that would turn out.

Re: Lois and Clark raising Clark as their son.
-> Lois as Clark's mom.... Oedipus indeed. However, this has to be the most likely path. One idea that came to mind as I pondered this problem one was something like this:
1. LnC raise young Clark as Clark Jr.
2. When he starts to reach adulthood - and notices that he is an identical twin to his "dad" - they tell him his origins.
3. Then Clark Sr. gets killed.
4. Now both Lois and Clark Jr. are having to deal with the combination of the loss of older Clark and the knowledge that young Clark is Clark.

You can get really crazy when you start messing with timelines.

Anyway, thank you for the feedback. I'm so happy that you enjoyed the story.

Bob

Wouldn't that cause some kind of time paradox if Clark is taken from an alternate future of his own universe and stuck into the past, thereby erasing the future from which he was removed?

I had assumed two different dimensions: Clark's: he arrives late and Lois had married Lex. Lois': there was no Clark (he never arrived).

I'm not touching that one because of the paradoxical Oedipus issue with a Kryptonian soulmate bond connecting him to his mother after his father died. I'm getting a splitting headache just reading the scenario.

Michael

Yes. That was the point of this exercise. Clark's original timeline was replaced with whatever comes out of Clark moving into the past.

One thing I thought of was that since "Clark" was already present in this timeline, then baby Clark's ship would be forced into another timeline.

Another thought was something along the lines of this...

=====
As Clark stepped into the past, a ripple tore through spacetime. Since, as everyone knows, temporal shockwaves moved backwards through time, it reached the planet Krypton 63 years before the birth of Kal El. As the shockwave passed through Krypton it caused a subtle but critical shift in the fluid dynamics near the planet's core. As a result of this shift, a swirling eddy of molten iron deep in the core had it’s pattern disrupted and dissipated. This eddy had been destined to grow into the core instability that would have destroyed the planet Krypton. Sixty three years later Kal El was born to a healthy and stable home world.
=====
That doesn't really solve the paradox problem, but at lease we don't have the Oedipus issue to deal with.

As I said, you can get really crazy when you start messing with timelines.

I'm not writing it. I just thought it was an interesting variant of that problem.

Bob

Just to follow up on this can of worms, my daughter the amateur psychologist tells me that Clark Jr. wouldn't be attracted to Lois because our minds automatically reject potential pairings with people that we grew up with. It usually applies to siblings (i.e. if Lois and Clark had been raised as siblings they wouldn't be attracted to each other), but I guess it would work with parents, too. And Clark Jr. is not Clark, Sr. any more than any pair of identical twins are the same person. Genetics is only part of what makes us who we are--Clark is Clark partly because he was raised by Martha and Jonathan, or, in this Clark's case, by an orphanage started by them. But that's a whole nother topic.