"I can't believe it," said Always-Seems-Powerful-On-His-Own-But-Gets-His-Ass-Kicked-in-Crowd-Scenes Boy, lying on the hospital bed "I got my ass kicked *again!*
"I mean, look at me," he said. "I *do* win fights when I'm on my own. I really
do. I beat Acton Lord once! Well, maybe it was Action Lord. Well, maybe it was a
Space Dvandom disguised as Action Lord.
The point is. The point is! I *am*
powerful on my own, but the Writers never use me for that! They always just put
me in crowd scenes! Where I get my ass kicked! Why?"
"I'm sorry," said Dr. Bad-Bedside-Manner, "but your name is Always-Seems-Powerful-On-His-Own-But-Gets-His-Ass-Kicked-in-Crowd-Scenes Boy. There's not much I can do about that."
The LNH medbay was packed full after the battle with Reagent Omicron. Its medical staff were stretched thinner than Laffy Taffy, not the least because no
one had ever come up with a named member other than Organic Lass and Doctor Bad-Bedside-Manner as far as the present author can remember.
Standing over him, he saw Victoria. "MPL? You're OK?"
"So it would seem. I assume we won?"
"Yeah. We barely survived, just like we always do.
"...completely helpless, to be honest. By the end, I felt utterly lost in that
enormous battle."
"Nah," said Victoria. "I can't say I understood everything that was going on in
that fight, but I know you helped. You directed the flow of Drama, I guess, and
that helped you recover. You put energy in the system for other people and then
that gave you some back. That's how it's supposed to work."
"Well, I hope I never have to keep track of that many characters again," he said.
"Mm, I dunno about that. Seems like there's always another event around the corner. But I'm going to assume after writing that last issue, the Writers are
as tired as we are."
"Where's Alice?".
"Probably checking out another dimensional anomaly somewhere. There's been a whole lot of weird metaphysical energy zapping around. Always takes the universe
a bit to settle down after a crossover, so I hear."
"Victoria!" Sakura tackled her like a cat.
"Yep! Good as new. Doesn't seem like there's any long term bad effects from, uh,
that. I was told that the fact I gave myself a name actually helped, made me more stable or something. And you thought it was too silly!" She stuck her tongue out as Masterplan Lad.
"No, nothing is too silly for this universe. I'm learning to accept that....
They said they figured there were enough
Ghost Rider type characters in this universe, and they'd work better in that one, especially since they sent its Legion off into space so it needed a few more heroes back on Earth..."
"And there's a Drew there. More than one, even." Manga Girl giggled.
"Yeah. You know, the Omegaverse. The universe of the now defunct but influential
~serious RACC imprint Omega."
"Alice... babe..." said Victoria, "The internet has changed a lot since 1997."
"Yeah, what happened in that last big fight?" said Manga Girl. "I heard you were
kind of... directly manipulating the Dramatic energy of the Looniverse, without
the Plot Device?"
"Yes. It was... difficult. Exciting and terrifying. I'm experiencing my body, my
power, the nature of the story I'm in very differently now.
He was still afraid, wanting to step away from the precipice he was one. But one
day he had to get it over with, and it was better to do it now, in a post-crossover "quiet issue" like this one where there weren't too many unnecessary plot complications in the day.
"After my... near-death experience and the Catalyzation Wave, I've had... certain realizations about myself. I... am not a cis man."
I'd been familiar with the concept of dysphoria and believed
it didn't apply to me because, for one thing, it doesn't normally apply to cosmic beings, and for another thing, I didn't feel that this idea of being 'trapped in a wrong body' described me. My body wasn't wrong, it just... wasn't
me, exactly."
He looked up at the ceiling. "For a long time, I truly believed in the Knights
Temporal's teachings, not insincerely as many of its leaders did, but with all
my heart. I believed our cause was necessary, and I'd seen evidence for it. In
my time in the Knights's service, I saw so many horrors. Worlds wrecked by narrative chaos and unmediated Drama. I saw realities where time and space were
torn apart. I saw Retcon Screamers rising up from the rips in realities stretched to breaking by contradictory storylines. I saw the Incoherent Writer
Man rain down Magic Fruitcakes from the sky."
He took a deep breath. "But now, immersed in this world and the absolute nonsense that makes it up, I have come to see that I was wrong. That the Knights
Temporal, through their rigid approach to reality, created their own monsters.
There's still so much I don't understand about this world and my place in it. About who and what I am now. But... I'm learning to live with that, slowly.
He looked back at his friends. "At any rate, for now, I'm going to say... I am
nonbinary. I suppose I can start using they/them pronouns to see how it feels."
"I still don't entirely know about my names--though I decided some time ago that
my middle name is Xauriel, though I still can't say I'm entirely sure even of that. 'Masterplan Lad' doesn't fully feel right anymore, but I haven't found a
name that does. I'd like to have a first name that allows the underlying pun in
my name to work, but haven't fully decided yet--"
"Can we call you Dee for now?" said Manga Girl.
"If you must."
The current Writers being what they are, I'm sure
they'll nullify the current wave of anti-trans bigotry in the Looniverse, as they did the pandemic, but... I don't doubt it'll leave its mark on me in some
form, just as the pandemic did. You know, after September 11th, Self-Righteous
Preacher successfully convinced the RACCtre to undo the effects of the attacks
[See Limp-Asparagus Lad #55--Footnote Girl], but the Bush-era comic tropes that
came from them still affected the Looniverse through Beige Countdown–the registration act and so forth. I worry we'll be going through something similar."
"Maybe," said Victoria. "I don't know what to say other than... You get used to
it." She sighed.
"And we'll be fighting for you every step of the way. Don't forget that," said
Alice.
"Awww," said Victoria. "And you're going to have to get more clothes than just
the one suit, y'know."
No one could ever mistake me for a magical girl, I'm afraid."
"Well," said Victoria, looking back on their hair which had got long, floppy and
tousled while they were recovering, "right now you look pretty Cure."
"Hey, sorry about this, but I gotta run off for a sec," said Sakura. Demigod business."
As a divine being, Sakura Mangas could sense certain powerful and distinctive magical presences.
"OK, be honest. Did you come to visit MPL?"
"...no."
"You didn't want them to see you while they was conscious, did you?"
"...."
"OK. One last question. Do you want to join our team?"
"I... why the hell would I do that? I'm a trenchcoater. Someone who walks in the
shadows, the hidden places in the world full of unimaginable wonder and terror.
I walk alone." It seemed like a well-rehearsed speech, which she said in a very
matter-of-fact way.
"Didn't there used to be a whole brigade of you guys?"
"Do you really want me around?" said Maria. "Do you know what trenchcoaters are?
I'm one of the broken and the damned. I'm not good for the people around me."
"Hmmm," said Manga Girl. "I've noticed you kind of do the thing of... aestheticizing your own flaws and issues as a person and making that the core of
your identity instead of trying to deal with them."
Maria's jaw dropped.
"Oh, whoa, I didn't mean to roast you that hard. I'm sorry."
"The LNH has free therapy for all its members, y'know."
"No way in hell I'm ever joining the LNH, sorry. But... I'll see you again. Maria out."
And she mounted her ostrich and raced off into the warm Net.ropolis evening.
Dee Xauriel McKenna (?)--Masterplan Lad, guardian of the narrative; Victoria Arden--Forsaken Lass, survivor of Limbo; Alice Ashdown--Net.Access, champion of
crossovers; Sakura Mangas--Manga Girl, synthetic senshi of creativity; and Maria
Hart, troubled trenchcoater, along with her ostrich familiar Sunny! They are
four young net.heroes, one trenchcoater and one ostrich who fight to understand
themselves and the worlds they inhabit, moving between the heroism of the LNH and the uncanny strangeness of the Lunaverse--the Liminals!
Masterplan Lad looked in the mirror, carefully applying the dark green lipstick
to their lips.
They'd been held up from delving into these feelings by one thing or another for
a very long time, by problems in the Looniverse and the forces of Real Life. They were far, far behind where they wanted to be.
But it was a start.
That's always the way. Good luck!
EARTH-20, THE MIDWEST
Jeanne Morningstar, former writer and now undead motorcycle-riding magical girl
champion of justice, stood beside their newly-created hellbike and looked down
the highway.
It had taken them a while to come up with a good name. For a while, they'd been
thinking about 'Chainsword Girl.' Bu now that they existed in the same reality
as Drew as Writer's Block Person, they wanted to evoke that kind of toku-y-ness
they shared.
And in the 70s there was a short-lived comics character Gary Friedrich came up
with called Hell-Rider, that was kind of a zero draft version of the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider. And so from now on they would be...
HELL WRITER!
They examined their hellfire motorcycle. "So now I'm a pastiche of classic Kamen
RIder *and* 90s Ghost Rider. Coooool."
They sat on top of it. "Well, here goes.
CRY FOR THE MOON!" They drove off into the highway as a melancholy but funky 70s
toku theme played.
The sign on the side, familiar from past road trips, read HELL IS REAL.
"You're telling me, road sign," said Hell Writer.
Then they remembered that in the Real World they had never touched a motorcycle
in their life.
The motorcycle crashed into the cornfield.
Hell Writer picked themself up and dusted themself off. They'd get the hang of
this eventually...
And thus ends the first "season" of The Liminals. And it only took what, five years? Well, better late than never.
The Hell Writer bit was originally supposed to set up a new series... Maybe it
will, but I have a bunch of other series ideas I want to get into, and started
doing other stuff with Earth-20 with Post-Metal Doomcore. But I'm definitely doing something with that someday.
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