I'm surprised about the continued existence of passenger pigeons in Clark's world. Here, they were notable for being extremely prolific and very stupid when it came to dodging human threats. In the late nineteenth century, it was considered "sport" to flush a flock of them past a stand of hunters, who would shoot pigeons out of the sky until they piled up around the hunters' feet and their shotguns got too hot to handle. Then they'd swap that gun for a fresh one and shoot some more.
Meanwhile, the flock of pigeons flying past them (which literally numbered in the millions) would not change direction or seem to be alarmed in any way. Their instinctive reaction to fly away from perceived danger worked as long as they weren't flying into a battery of hunters with shotguns, but they were unable to adapt to such tactics. And the population density threshold required for reproduction was far higher than anyone could believe at the time, so by the turn of the twentieth century when their numbers began dipping, they couldn't reproduce fast enough to keep up with the death rate.
It's a sad chapter of human history.
And the fact that Clark's world still has them means that more is different than just his existence. Maybe they still have those giant flightless birds in New Zealand, the ones which were hunted out of existence around the year 1000 A.D. And maybe they even still have dodoes.
I still don't know if Clark is willing to stay in this world or if Lois will want to go back with him, but I'm starting to lean to the latter. She could have her family back - sort of. I'm certain Lucy and Sam would embrace her, although I'm less sure about Ellen. But we still don't know what mechanism or phenomena (again, I'm now leaning towards the latter) dumped Clark and the plane in Lois's world. And, like another poster, I'm now wondering who else and/or what else has been transferred. And I'm also wondering if this switch was a one-way door, or if matter from Lois's world was exchanged into Clark's world.
And that's actually a scary thought. If a band of terrorists, for example, was flipped from Lois's world to Clark's world, they'd probably go nuts trying to figure out what happened, and when terrorists go nuts people tend to die. Clark's going to have to go public when he does get home, and that will mean the end of his relationship with Lana. And that just breaks my heart.
Great story, Shayne. I'm really enjoying this ride, even though it's a rough one. And I also believe that Clark's going to go public with his powers. He'll almost have to now, won't he? And, of course, the military will probably shoot at him again, and he'll have to demonstrate that he's not a threat. Of course, it's almost impossible to prove a negative ("Honest, Officer, I've never jaywalked before in my life!"), so he's in for a tough time.
So, he's flying back to Lois's place, right? And he's going to take out the bugs again, right? And she's going to believe him when he starts floating in her living room and heating up her coffee, right?
Doesn't matter. It'll be good. Post soon!
