• LNH: Classic LNH Adventures #237: Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade tha

    From Arthur Spitzer@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 20 21:20:49 2022
    You can sift through the racc list archive https://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/racc/
    or you can try google groups racc for this issue of JAMWCtwPNHaE.

    Scott Eiler gives us 'Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will
    Probably Never Have an Ending' chapter 5. Will it be a Quacktastophy
    now that Pschovant the Duck is involved with this cascade?

    And is Drew Nilium bringing back the corn fields of the Omaha Project with chapter 6? Or will it just one of the many characters that had to endure
    that crossover?



    And now...



    _
    | | Classic
    | | =
    | | ____ ____ _ ____ ___
    | |__ | [] | | [] | | | | [] | | _ \

    |____| \__] \__ | |_| \__/ |_|\_\
    ||
    |_| OF NET.HEROES

    ADVENTURES #237


    =====================
    Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade that will
    Probably Never Have an Ending Part Three
    =====================





    From: Scott Eiler seiler at eilertech.com
    Date: Sat Feb 15 20:13:22 PST 2014

    What Has Gone Before:

    "OK, that's enough of that," said a voice from the distance. A pale, dark-haired woman appeared on stage. She wasn't dressed like a net.hero,
    but in this room full of gaudily dressed superbeings she held herself up
    like she owned the place.

    "Who are you?" snarled Ultimate Ninja, drawing his sword.

    "Simmer down, Pajama Man, I'm here to help. My name's Lydia Devin.
    God's close enough."

    "Well, I guess it's been a while since we had a good crisis," said
    Fearless Leader. "What is it this time?"

    "Well," said Lydia, "So there's this cosmic dictator wannabe called
    LAN.os, who's gathering an army of space mooks to ravage the universe.
    You know the kind."

    Fearless Leader nodded. "Sounds like a typical one-note parody villain
    to me. We can take him easy."

    "Yeah, but that's not the problem. The problem is he's going after the
    Kubrik's Kube. That's spelled with a K. Don't ask me, I didn't make it.
    It's an artifact that's as old as your universe, maybe older. It's a
    sort of puzzle box thing. If you can solve the puzzle, it gives you enlightenment, whatever the hell that is. Basically, wherever it shows
    up, things go wrong. Even when they go right. I guess "enlightenment"'s
    just not for everyone."

    ( excerpted from JUST ANOTHER MULTI-WRITER CASCADE THAT WILL PROBABLY
    NEVER HAVE AN ENDING #1.NOW (#4) part B )

    ---

    Now: Psychovant the Duck makes his move!

    ---

    "Hooray! She's gone!"

    "I can still see you, Duck."

    "Gah!"

    "Oh, relax. Unless you're going to destroy the universe, I just don't
    care."

    "Well then! Have a nice day!"

    "Whatever."

    The ultimate-powered Goth chick from the other universe disappeared.
    The cyborg demon duck from a *third* universe cheered. "Yahoo! Open
    season on LNH Cascades!"

    ---

    The duck was Psychovant, known in his own manner across the universes.
    He stopped on a convenient asteroid, pulled out an impossibly large
    whiteboard from his satchel, pulled out a "Graduate" mortar cap, put it
    on, and started making notes and equations.

    "Now, this Kube will be near some parody villain. And the villain will
    be related to some Writer, whichever one is angstier and more likely to
    write now... Got it!"

    Psychovant pulled out a job application, put on a business suit,
    disappeared - and reappeared on the Looniverse Planet of Amateur
    Contract Law, inside an of
  • From Drew Nilium@21:1/5 to Arthur Spitzer on Fri Sep 2 01:26:19 2022
    On 3/20/22 5:20 PM, Arthur Spitzer wrote:
    <snip>
    Scott Eiler gives us 'Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will
    Probably Never Have an Ending' chapter 5. Will it be a Quacktastophy
    now that Pschovant the Duck is involved with this cascade?

    Always. :D

    And is Drew Nilium bringing back the corn fields of the Omaha Project with chapter 6? Or will it just one of the many characters that had to endure that crossover?

    Of course, a sentient ear of corn mutated by the energies beyond the fifth wall!
    This must be the Classic LNH version of Colonel Panic!

    The ultimate-powered Goth chick from the other universe disappeared.
    The cyborg demon duck from a *third* universe cheered. "Yahoo! Open
    season on LNH Cascades!"

    Absolutely |>

    The duck was Psychovant, known in his own manner across the universes.

    That's a very Victorian-adventure-novel way to put it. |>

    He stopped on a convenient asteroid, pulled out an impossibly large whiteboard from his satchel, pulled out a "Graduate" mortar cap, put it
    on, and started making notes and equations.

    Whereas that's more Looney Tunes. :3

    "We use *simple* rules here. We're proud of that on our planet. If you
    can put all the same color on each side, you win."

    "Just that?"

    "Just that."

    "Well... Yahoo!" Psychovant grabbed the Kube with one wing, and with
    the other flourished a paintbrush coated with white paint from his
    satchel. Swipe Swipe Swipe! Toss! Swipe Swipe Swipe! "... I win!"

    X3 I love this a lot.

    Psychovant looked at the lawyer. "So *why* the %^&! were *you* chosen
    as Kube Kuardians, err, guardians?"

    "err, lowest bid."

    heeheehee

    Omaha Project Twenty-Years-Later Annual #1
    (AKA Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have An Ending #6)

    I knew I wanted to tie into a bunch of older unfinished cascades, and that lead to me going, "Hey, I know the guy who wrote Pliable Lad..."

    Foreshadowing Lad wandered the halls of the LNHQ, rubbing his forehead, looking down at the go-go-checkerboard tile floors and trying to
    remember. The Croissant Queen was going to attack their sandwiches? No,
    that wasn't it...

    Clearly this is the Oddball version of the Crossover Queen.

    "That hole-in-the-wall store?" Cameo Gazonga looked dubious.

    "Nah, man, I know this joint," said Jive Turkey. "Half oldschool
    arcade, half used book store."

    Lacuna gasped. "In the future, this store will become one of the
    Community Pillars that will support Neo.tropolis during the Beigewar!"

    A concept stolen shamelessly from Sailor Moon. <3 Also, I'd love to go to a place like this

    "The shades of outdated antivirus programs give warning," said
    Apostrophe, the cloud of UTF-8 characters swirling and buzzing around
    her head. "Melissa virus infection detected."

    I love how she talks. |>

    "That's her," they whispered, accessing records from the Legion's
    Rogues Gallery. "Individualized Vector clone #0057 - Merissa."

    I love coming up with details about how Vectors work.

    The Green Knight's plan-hatching processors whirred. "Apostrophe, do
    you think you can communicate with the short-lived Vector clones and--"

    Stolen from Saxon's ILC issue where Occultism Kid accidentally summons the shades of all the short-lived Sig.Lad gif.clones.

    WHAM! The door was kicked down, and a woman in combat gear stepped
    through. "Sorry, folks, but this is necessary. My name is Agent Susan Susannah, and this place is now under the control of the LNH-Readers- Who-Are-Sick-To-Death-With-These-Damn-Neverending-Events Liberation
    Front!"

    There she is. :D

    There was a falling hum, and Masterplan Lad fuzzed into existence in
    the coat room just off the LNHQ lobby, left over from its days as the Net.ropolis Grand Hotel.

    I also love bringing up that history. X>

    "It's not in the vault," said Irony Monger. "The Mega-Ultra-BIGGUN used
    to belong to an LNHer who has since disappeared from usability, leaving
    it undefended.

    This was, let's say, my way of playing off of some then-relatively-recent events
    in our community and the changes in the LNH that came out of them.

    Then he could see it - a form slipping through the crack, folding
    through the higher dimensions with an aggravating casualness. There was
    only one Hypertext Time-active being who had the style to do that and
    the lack of class to do it in a situation like this.

    In a burst of chromatic light, Chaos Theory unfolded themself into the cramped room. "Mmmmh! Now that's a bit more comfortable. Whew." They
    dusted off the shifting fractals on their shoulders.

    It's meeeeeeee! :D Or a me, anyway. I love Chaos Theory.

    "Adding yet another character to an already-overstuffed cascade,
    apparently. You think anyone on RACC has ever heard the expression
    'less is more'?"

    Well. X3;

    "Nope! There's only one thing that can close the rifts: Inspiration particles."

    "We're embarking on a Pratchett ripoff, then."

    "Just a bit.

    Steal from the best!

    "There's more. The more the rifts open, the more things will fall
    through them - things from the unfinished storylines. And the further
    they spread, the more possible futures you'll have to deal with."

    Yes, I had plans to throw in *even more* things than I eventually did. X3; This was a recurring problem with my early storylines - because of my ADHD, I was waaaaay more about bringing new ideas than I was about resolving old ones. Thankfully I've gotten better at satisfying these urges.

    "Oh, I'm going to read this story after it gets posted. That's how I
    know this is where I leave." Chaos Theory's body began fading away,
    washed out by the light from the rift.

    "What? No! Confound it! Chaos Theory, I-- I need you--"

    They really developed a good relationship.

    Masterplan Lad flopped on a chair and gave a deep sigh. Well, at least
    the situation couldn't get any worse.

    He immediately regretted thinking that.

    heeheeheeheehee. I love writing MPL. X>

    Outside, Penultimate Savior shifted in his seat. Favorite pudding
    flavor? Probably pistachio. Known allergies? Well, he did break out in
    hives when exposed to power ballads from the late '80s...

    heeheeheehee

    The rift stretched, distending along the eleventh dimension, a humanoid
    form passing through it and spilling out onto the floor. As the light
    faded, Penultimate Savior could see that the being was wearing a black spandex suit with gray accessories, with a bright red power symbol, and holding a spoon in his hand...

    "Killswitch?" PS whispered.

    This is one of those ideas that I've never followed up on, but it's a good one to have just lying around for the future.

    The world was shrouded in grey mist. He couldn't tell how long he'd
    been falling.

    How many worlds had he passed through so far? How many more before he
    came home?

    Yessssss. Omaha Project Annual #1 was a story that really stuck in my head as a kid, and I was happy to homage it here.

    It was then that Bad-Timing Boy stepped through a nearby door, holding
    an iPhone in one hand and a Vanilla Coke in the other and wearing a
    "Clerks 20th Anniversary" T-shirt. "Man, I love living in the year
    2014! Do you guys want to watch the trailer for the big-budget
    Hollywood movie they made of Guardians of the Galaxy?" Then he did a double-take. "Pliable Lad? Didn't you retire years ago?"

    "..."

    Pliable Lad put his face in his hand. "Oh, boy."

    I love this joke so fucking much. X3

    Drew "watched a lot of Quantum Leap back in the day" Nilium

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeanne Morningstar@21:1/5 to Drew Nilium on Fri Sep 2 03:31:10 2022
    On 9/1/22 8:26 PM, Drew Nilium wrote:

    Of course, a sentient ear of corn mutated by the energies beyond the
    fifth wall! This must be the Classic LNH version of Colonel Panic!

    OW XD



    There was a falling hum, and Masterplan Lad fuzzed into existence in
    the coat room just off the LNHQ lobby, left over from its days as the
    Net.ropolis Grand Hotel.

    I also love bringing up that history. X>


    Same here! I–well, I should wait until the next Liminals issue is done...


    This was, let's say, my way of playing off of some
    then-relatively-recent events in our community and the changes in the
    LNH that came out of them.

    Very happy with how that turned out, in the end, and the motivation that provided me with. Because of the role I had in... all that, I felt like
    I had both the desire and the responsibility to heal some of the damage
    that had done to the Classic LNH's narrative structure and recapture the
    old chaotic soap-operatic mood in something entirely new, which still
    felt continuous with what came before. (See the Cat/Tara scene next installment, where I really start laying the groundwork for that.) As of
    HHS I finally pulled it off, and it only took, what, 8-10 years?
    It's meeeeeeee! :D Or a me, anyway. I love Chaos Theory.

    Same.

    "What? No! Confound it! Chaos Theory, I-- I need you--"

    They really developed a good relationship.

    I've consistently loved writing it.



    heeheeheeheehee. I love writing MPL. X>

    It's neat how MPL, as the kind of WC-ish character in the series, became
    the default character for people other than me to write for a bit...
    Saxon Brenton wrote a couple of issues where he showed up, IIRC, which
    feels fitting.


    Penultimate Savior could see that the being was
    wearing a black spandex suit with gray accessories, with a bright red
    power symbol, and holding a spoon in his hand...

    "Killswitch?" PS whispered.

    This is one of those ideas that I've never followed up on, but it's a
    good one to have just lying around for the future.

    So... is Killswitch at all connected to Sigrid!Acton Lord or did they
    choose the same symbol by coincidence? Maybe I'll address that after
    taking care of the 500 or so other dangling narrative plotlines I'm
    dealing with.


    Yessssss. Omaha Project Annual #1 was a story that really stuck in my
    head as a kid, and I was happy to homage it here.

    It's really fun, though to this day I still don't know what a couple of
    the alternate worlds are.


    --
    Jeanne "Comrade Bruce Wayne: Gossip Girl" Morningstar
    Chief Procrastinator, Commission of Ecumenical Translators

    It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!
    --Count Dracula, throwing a mirror out a window, _Dracula_ by Bram Stoker

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Drew Nilium@21:1/5 to Jeanne Morningstar on Fri Sep 2 04:23:26 2022
    On 9/1/22 11:31 PM, Jeanne Morningstar wrote:
    On 9/1/22 8:26 PM, Drew Nilium wrote:

    Of course, a sentient ear of corn mutated by the energies beyond the fifth >> wall! This must be the Classic LNH version of Colonel Panic!

    OW XD

    :D

    This was, let's say, my way of playing off of some then-relatively-recent
    events in our community and the changes in the LNH that came out of them.

    Very happy with how that turned out, in the end, and the motivation that provided me with. Because of the role I had in... all that, I felt like I had both the desire and the responsibility to heal some of the damage that had done
    to the Classic LNH's narrative structure and recapture the old chaotic soap-operatic mood in something entirely new, which still felt continuous with
    what came before. (See the Cat/Tara scene next installment, where I really start
    laying the groundwork for that.) As of HHS I finally pulled it off, and it only
    took, what, 8-10 years?

    I mean, it wasn't your fault, but you did a bang-up job putting in new to replace the old. :D

    heeheeheeheehee. I love writing MPL. X>

    It's neat how MPL, as the kind of WC-ish character in the series, became the default character for people other than me to write for a bit... Saxon Brenton
    wrote a couple of issues where he showed up, IIRC, which feels fitting.

    Yes indeed. |>

    "Killswitch?" PS whispered.

    This is one of those ideas that I've never followed up on, but it's a good one
    to have just lying around for the future.

    So... is Killswitch at all connected to Sigrid!Acton Lord or did they choose the
    same symbol by coincidence?

    Hmmmmm, who knows~ :D

    Drew "another potential hook, eh~" Nilium

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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