XPost: alt.comics.lnh

== Introduction ==

Last year, we made a series of new explorations into the larger structure that links our Looniverse with many others, focused on the newly-discovered Deep Omnilooniverse. However, this was hampered both by problems of the usual net.hero variety and by the need to focus on biomedical work pertaining to the containment and cure of the sabertooth virus.

However, since the end of the sabertooth pandemic, there has been time to remotely explore the Omnilooniverse, and time to consult with inter-Looniversal travelers, such as Captain LNH, Defender of the Deep Omnilooniverse. There is much data to go through, and this update is scarcely more than a sampling of our
notes, but we hope it will nonetheless provide useful to both researchers and net.heroes.

== Looniversal Natures ==

In our previous guide, we explained that "normal" universes aligned well to the net.hero genre tended to be Alpha Looniverses, while "weird" universes tended to
migrate to the Deep Omnilooniverse. Obviously, these terms are imprecise, and as
we collected additional data, we were able to further quantify what the differences are.

While a layperson might assume that universes where the LNH are villains instead
of heroes would be the antithesis of the "normal" net.hero genre, the truth is more complex. Universes with directly inverted hero-villain morality, such as the Mirror Looniverse that Particle Man discovered and the Reverseworld that Decibel Dude and Vigilante Guy traveled to, tend to be Alpha Looniverses. (Looniverse-E, the reconstructed version of the Evilverse that Cannon Fodder destroyed, is also an Alpha Looniverse.) Presumably, this is because they still follow the straightforward hero-villain duality of the genre.

However, worlds whose moral status is more narratively complex and harder to map
to one-to-one good-as-evil are often part of the Deep Omnilooniverse. The world that FAQ Boy comes from, once ruled by the tyrannical Roster King, has been integrated into the Deep Omnilooniverse as Looniverse-Ronove; similarly, the world where Kid Enthusiastic leads the System Corrupters and the LNH is run by an amoral businessman seems to have become Looniverse-Yaldabaoth, tho that world
is currently going its own reconfiguration.

Bubble universes created off a Looniverse move alongside it unless forced off by
highly energetic narrative events. (Known bubble universes of Looniverse-A include the Freonverse and the Lost City.) Parasitic realities may opportunistically move between worlds, but do not tend to move between the Alpha
Looniverses and the Deep Omnilooniverse - again, unless forced to. (Parasitic realities attached to Looniverse-A include the Antimatter Universe of Thhhppp.)

The more travelers have historically moved between one Looniverse and another, the more likely these universes are to stay in the same Looniversal structure. There are exceptions, however; Looniverse-Orobas, the Oddball Looniverse, became
part of the Deep Omnilooniverse despite repeated and extended incursions of Oddball LNHers into Looniverse-A. This may be a side-effect of its initial creation as a quasi-real hallucination, or simply because it is very "weird".

== Beyond Duality ==

In studying the interaction of the Alpha Looniverses and the Deep Omnilooniverse, one possibility has turned into a near-certainty - these are not
the only two multi-Looniversal structures within the greater Omnilooniverse. There are no discovered or even suggested laws that would prevent more structures from forming, and there are a number of anomalies for which the existence of unobserved multiLooniverses is the best explanation. It is extremely likely that there are entire "types" of Looniverse that neither Looniverse-A nor any Looniversal traveler on record has ever intersected with. We can only speculate what they may be like...

== Appendix A: Known Looniverses ==

The current list of known Alpha Looniverses:

* Our Looniverse, also known as Looniverse-A
* Looniverse-A2, the world the New Misfits came from
* Looniverse-AD, the world Fearless Leader comes from
* Looniverse-B, the world of the League of Heroes (now rebooted without them)
* Looniverse-D, a world that resolves continuity conflicts
* Looniverse-E, a "baby" universe created from the former Evilverse
* Looniverse-M, also known as the Muxtyverse, homeworld of the All-New LNH
* Looniverse-RM, a reality created when Pliable Lad was erased from existence, leading to Doctor Armageddon killing most of the LNH and blowing up the planet * Looniverse-RM2, a similar but not directly connected reality where the divergence point was the absence of Malingerer Lad; home of Electra
* Looniverse-X, a world where a small LNH came together recently
* Looniverse-20, the world where the LNH came together in 2007 after the fall of
the Killfile
* Looniverse-69, the homeworld of Non-Judgmental Agnostic
* Looniverse-3000, the homeworld of the LNH3k
* Looniverse-012313, the homeworld of the Legion of Young.Heroes
* Amalgama, world of periodic-elemental magic and homeworld of the Crimson @venger
* Amalgama-X, alternate future of Amalgama and homeworld of the Shining Tungsten Magister
* Looniverse-Avocado, alt-future of Looniverse-A linked to Amalgama-X
* Aotearoa, an alternate version of Net.Zealand with purple kiwis and fantastic magics
* The Booniverse, also known as Earth-Boon, a world where various intelligent primates are the dominant culture, homeworld of Gorilla Grad
* Domi.net.ria, the world of the Gathering of Net.Legends
* Earth-308, the world of the Old School and the New Young Teens
* Earth-Repaint, a world where everyone is a visual variation of a net.hero from
Looniverse-A
* Earth-September, home of the Newbie Syndicate and a heroic Killfile
* The Gooniverse, also known as Earth-Goon, a world where the Society of Wireless Heroes became the only net.hero team in the world up to the modern era * The Mirror Looniverse, where an evil LNH rules the world with the might of the
Kirbian Police under the Ultimate Emperor
* Reverseworld, where an evil Ultimate Ninja took over the LNH and turned it into the Legion of Net.Villains, whose greatest hero is Captain Oblivion
* The Silver City, world of giant robots, including the heroic team known as the
Solar Sails
* Tellus Digita, the world of Chi-Gamma, the Second Empire, and powerful symbiotic spirits known as eudaimon
* The Tooniverse, a world of anthropomorphic animas, home to Atomic Rabbit
* Valhal, a land of light and strange physics home to Good-Timing Girl
* The XXX Looniverse, a world I'm not going to describe

The current list of known worlds in the Deep Omnilooniverse:

* Looniverse-Amdusias, a world where the Age of Heroes ended long ago, and the Age of Horror is here
* Looniverse-Astaroth, once known as alt.comics.lnh, the gateway between the Alpha Looniverses and the Deep Omnilooniverse
* Looniverse-Bael, the alt-future origin of the Legacy of Newfangled Hierophants
* Looniverse-Dantalion, a world where the Omaha Project succeeded, opening the Vor.text and splitting Net.ropolis into four cities
* Looniverse-Haagenti, also known as Looniverse-AA, a world of magic and knights, home to Lord Vincent of Stomper
* Looniverse-Ipos, also known as Earth-Irritation, chaotic homeworld of Lean-Apples Lad
* Looniverse-Ronove, also known as the Rosterverse, homeworld of FAQ Boy and former home of the Roster King's villainous LNH
* Looniverse-Mammon, world formerly home to the National Legion of Heroes, also referred to as the "Golden LNH-Men"
* Looniverse-Murmur, homeworld of the MicroMACs.
* Looniverse-Orobas, the Oddballverse, home to the Oddball Legion.
* Looniverse-Valax, a world where Dr. Killfile took over and the detonation of all nuclear weapons in their silos killed millions
* Looniverse-Yaldabaoth, also known as Planet T-Bone, where Kid Enthusiastic leads the System Corrupters and the LNH is run by an amoral businessman - sorry,
checking on it, the LNH is now run by the actual, literal devil
* Note: This timeline is currently undergoing narratively energetic events, and may end up in a different position in the not-too-distant future.

====

Author's Note: Okay, a big part of this was just making an excuse to update the wiki. X3

Looniverse-AD was named after "Alternate Darkness", the storyline that showed that world before it was destroyed by Flipseid. (Which was itself named after the Kinda Big Darkness Saga, Dave's original Flipseid story, which in turn was a
parody of the Great Darkness Saga, the well-known "Darkseid vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes" story from 1982.) It helps that it also helps establish it as a close alternate of Looniverse-A.

Mammon isn't a Goetic demon, but it fit the "golden" theme so well!

Drew "hope I didn't get any of the nerdy details wrong" Nilium

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: alt.comics.lnh

It occurs to me that the Looniverse, being based in Usenet, is an
ancient world with archaic rules, lacking in modern technology but with a
magic of its own.

The Looniverse is an isekai destination for modern webcomics
characters.

Dave Van Domelen, "The Internet is not a truck!"

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: alt.comics.lnh

PRELUDE TO A PROLOGUE
By Jeanne Morningstar
With a little tip o'the hat to Scott Johnson

On 9/5/21 12:49 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

It occurs to me that the Looniverse, being based in Usenet, is an ancient world with archaic rules, lacking in modern technology but with a magic of its own.

The Looniverse is an isekai destination for modern webcomics characters.

Dave Van Domelen, "The Internet is not a truck!"

====

Rune Redquake, the Hero, drew his cursed sword Fightbattler. "Have at
you, goblin!" he shouted.

"Owww," said the evil goblin lord Xnaz the Horripilating as Rune
Redquake sliced him in two.

Once, Rune Redquake had been an ordinary man living an ordinary life in
a world with no cursed swords or goblin lords. He'd been unable to find
a job or a purpose for his life. He'd died after going on a cabbage soup
diet on the advice of Reddit and causing an enormous methane explosion.
But now he'd been reincarnated into a new life where he got to be a for
real Hero, and had not one but two incredibly hot women who were
desperate for him.

"The Goblin Lord is slain!" said the first of the two women, Velaria,
the Elven ranger-priestess of the Moon. Tall and elegantly muscular, she
held a bow that glowed with eldritch light. Her deep purple eyes looked
into the darkness of the Tower of Grimmevilbad. "Now we can defeat the
Lich Demon God King and drive evil from the land!"

"And get the treasure, don't forget that!" said his other companion.
Maitrakh, the weirdly hot fat girl with the lobster-red skin and the
metal bikini, was a succubus thief, kicked out of Hell because she was
better at setting people on fire than seducing them.

"I suppose," said Velaria. And she looked at Rune Redquake, her eyes
glittering with delight. "And then we can get married!"

"Hey, *I* was going to marry him!" said Maitrakh.

"Now, well," said Rune Redquake. He had indeed promised to marry both of
them independently. He really should have talked it out with them at
this point but didn't know what to say. It occurred to him there may
have been reasons beyond him not being a hero with a cursed sword he had trouble getting dates in his old life, but he could ignore that for now. "First, we must enter into the final chamber of this Tower and destroy
the ultimate evil!"

"OK, fine," said Maitrakh.

But when they opened the door, they did not find the room that held the
final boss. They found an echo of the room they just left, made up of
repeated tiles that flickered in and out of existence. "What? This game
world has a minus level?" said Rune Redquake.

"Uh," said a voice from the shadows. "Your world is about to be
destroyed. Sorry about that." Out stepped a woman in crimson robes
carrying a staff. She faintly resembled Pandora from the New 52,
assuming anyone remembers all of that now.

"Who the hell are you!" said Maitrakh, flames crackling around her hands.

"I'm the Panjandrum Stranger," she said. "The Stranger in charge of
isekai worlds."

"...Isekai?" said Velaria. "I've never heard that world before."

"I'll explain later. Anyway, uh, wait." She looked Rune Redquake in the
eye. "Did you really promise to marry both of them?"

Rune Redquake wiped the sweat off his brow. "...Ok, yes."

"WHAT?" they both said at once.

"You should be straight with them," said the Panjandrum Stranger,
thumping her staff on the ground. "Nothing's wrong with polyamory, but
you gotta be explicit about your desires and boundaries. Which one do
you want, or do you want to marry both of them, or what?"


"Um," said Rune Redquake. "Uh." Just then, he began to flicker and fade.
His body broke up into squares of light which gradually disappeared,
leaving nothing behind.

"What happened to him?" shouted Velaria. "Is he dead?"

"Nah," said the Panjandrum Stranger. "He's just been re-reincarnated
back to his old shitty life. You should be more worried about everything
else."

"What?" said Maitrakh.

"You see," said the Panjandrum Stranger, "this world isn't real. You're
in a webcomic. That friend of yours, he was a Protagonist--a random
loser reincarnated from some other world. The people in charge of this
part of the Internetverse--the Isekaisers--drag in Protagonists and
build rudimentary worlds around them, then use the emotional energy from
the story's audience to gradually make them real. Pretty common
quick-and-dirty method of world creation.

"It's my job to look after all those worlds. These worlds are mostly
similar enough there's just one Stranger looking after them all. I make
sure they hold together and take out any Protagonists who are abusing
their powers."

"So... what's going to happen now, exactly?" said Velaria.

"Well, to put it bluntly, your world's about to go kablooey. There's
been a big hypercosmic collapse recently, and the MCU's been acting up
again so the narrative hyperflows are all janky. That means your world collapsed before it could be fully become real. But don't worry--"

"You say our world's dying and you say not to worry?!" said Maitrakh.

"I was gonna say," said the Panjandrum Stranger, "I'll just send you to
a new one. Just let me call the Stranger Society. See, the Strangers
used to only watch over Usenetverse worlds, but now we have jurisdiction
over other Internetverse worlds through the Reddit Accord--"

"I don't know what any of those words mean, individually or together,"
said Velaria.

"Hold on a moment," said the Panjandrum Stranger. She pulled a strange
glowing square thing (which the now-re-reincarnated Rune Redquake would
have recognized as a cell phone) from the folds of her robe. "Hello?"
she said into it. "Patch me through to alt.stranger.recovery." She
waited and tapped her feet. "Sorry, on hold." Then there was a noise
from the other side. "Hello there? I've got two survivors from a
collapsed isekai world I need sent somewhere else, and--ah." She
listened to a long explanation on the other end.

"OK," she said, turning to Maitrakh and Velaria, "unfortunately with the hyperflow being what it is right now, I can't send you to another world
like this one. I'll have to send you to an Usenetverse world. Lessee, I
guess I'll send you to Drew's world rather than Dave's since there's
less going on there right now. Hold on a sec." She held out the phone to
them and a tunnel of shifting light came out of them. A mighty wind
sucked them in and they fell, screaming, into infinity. And then--

They were somewhere else. A city by a lake, with shining towers higher
than the one they'd left behind. "What manner of world is this?" said
Velaria.

"As long as it has things I can blow up, I'm good," said Maitrakh. "So
what do we do now?" They'd spent most of their energy arguing over Rune Redquake and didn't know what to do now that he was gone. Maybe they
enjoyed arguing with each other more than they actually wanted him. They weren't going to think about the implications of that because there were
too many things to think about the implications of right now.

They saw a sort of ragged newspaper blowing in the wind. Maitrakh
snatched it up. The headline said:

LNH STILL MISSING

The subheadline said: PROBABLY THEY'RE IN SPACE OR SOMETHING.

Below that were smaller headlines that red: IOWA FARMER BREAKS RECORD
FOR WORLD'S BIGGEST WATERMELON and beside that, IT'S A SLOW NEWS DAY,
SORRY ABOUT THAT

"Hmm. What's an LNH?" said Velaria.

"I think it's one of those things Rune Redquake was going on about.
Those, uh, soup heroes."

"Superheroes."

"Like that Captain Armenia guy."

"Hmm," said Velaria. "So this world's greatest heroes are missing.
Perhaps... Perhaps we could become this world's greatest heroes ourselves."

"So you wanna be a superhero? Sounds cool, I guess. We should go find a
dungeon and raid it--"

"I don't think that's how being a hero works in this world," said
Velaria. "I'll have to investigate some more."

"Yeah," said Maitrakh. "Y'know, I wonder if there are any other people
who got yoinked in here from other worlds. If we find any, maybe we
could form a party--"

"A superhero team?" said Velaria. "Hmm. I suppose we could call
ourselves something like, the 'Unlikely Aliens...'"

"Nah," said Maitrakh. "We need something more badass. Like...

"THE SLAYERS OF THE NET!"

TO BE CONTINUED...?


====


NOTE:

Everything in this story is Free For Use. I really have no idea where
it's going. Anyone can feel free to jump on.

The Dvandom Stranger and the concept of Strangers were created by Dave
Van Domelen; the Ununnilium Stranger was created by Drew Nilium.

A number of the names in this story came from generators from seventhsanctum.com

The imaginary newsgroup alt.stranger.recovery is based on the real world alt.sysadmin.recovery, whose forbidding reputation led to the
anagrammatic nickname of "scary devil monastery."

The hypercosmic collapse is somewhat explained in the Jenny Everywhere
story I'm currently writing on tumblr, which will be posted here in
collected form
https://thejennyeverywhereproject.tumblr.com/tagged/thgje/chrono

I have never actually seen an isekai anime, but I do love the
isekai-parody-ish lesbian romance webcomic Mage and Demon Queen.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)