LNH20: Earth-Twenty Roundup Thread And Getting The New Tag In There

[Andrew Perron]

So, here's a thread to centralize your ideas for the new universe in,
should you so choose!

One thing we wanna get right at the beginning: permissions. Who's allowed
to use which characters? Here's a stab at the simplest possible workable
system:

General Use: You can use these characters in your story without asking
their creator. You should still ask if you want to make some major change
that will affect how the character is used going forward.

Ask Before Using: Self-explanatory; you need to ask for permission before
using these.

Reserved: The creator doesn't want anyone else to use these characters, at
least for now. You can still ask, but don't be surprised if you get turned
down.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, effective, yes?

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:55:10 +0000:

>
> General Use: You can use these characters in your story without asking
> their creator. You should still ask if you want to make some major
> change that will affect how the character is used going forward.
>
> Ask Before Using: Self-explanatory; you need to ask for permission
> before using these.
>
> Reserved: The creator doesn't want anyone else to use these characters,
> at least for now. You can still ask, but don't be surprised if you get
> turned down.

And my proposed “future sanity rule”: if a character is not General Use
and has an important role in the setting (leader, president, Sorcerer
Supreme) that is getting in the way of other writers; AND the creator
isn't responding to requests - then other writers are explicitly allowed
to write that role out, even if that requires a minor cameo by the
“forbidden” character. We don't want to end up with “narrative dead ends”
in the universe because they require some character that nobody is
allowed or willing to write.

-- Lalo “future-proof” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 5 Nov 2011 16:06:18 +0000 (UTC), Lalo Martins wrote:

> And my proposed “future sanity rule”: if a character is not General Use
> and has an important role in the setting (leader, president, Sorcerer
> Supreme) that is getting in the way of other writers; AND the creator
> isn't responding to requests - then other writers are explicitly allowed
> to write that role out, even if that requires a minor cameo by the
> “forbidden” character. We don't want to end up with “narrative dead ends”
> in the universe because they require some character that nobody is
> allowed or willing to write.

I stamp this rule with my approval! Everyone agree?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Italian Cuisine Lad is the Saucetaster
Supreme.

[Andrew Perron]

So, Earth-20's version of Kid Enthusiastic.

Normally, Kid Enthusiastic doesn't have any powers. But this version does.
He's immortal.

And stuck at the age of ten.

He's been active, to one degree or another, for twenty years. Most members
just know he's older than he looks. Those closer to him know that he went
through a period of crisis at one point about it, but that he seems quite
stable now. There's a few people who know the full story, possibly
including Fearless Leader.

I'm thinking of doing a one-shot titled "Kid Enthusiastic Unlimited" that
reveals all of the backstory. For right now, he's a tech guy who basically
acts like the Classic LNH version of Kid E, but with a touch of wisdom.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, and I'm going to redesign the costume.

[Dave Van Domelen]

Here's a suggestion for some of the old PD or with-permission characters
who are a bit dated, due to being tied too tightly to Usenet in-jokes, comic
tropes not used much since the 90s, or anything else that doesn't age well.
Establish a 1990s team in the backstory and put these characters in as
members or as enemies of the members.
For instance, the Post-Time Shifter's power is less significant on blogs
and boards that have built-in threading and better time-stamping. He'd make
a good villain for the 90s team. And while signature files still exist, the
way Sig.Lad worked feels too tied to Usenet for my tastes, so I'd put him on
the 90s team.
We definitely want there to have been a history of heroics, although
lampooning of NuDC could have people being willfully ignorant of that history
for one reason or another. :) Settings where heroes just came about
recently may have benefits, but when you want to do parodies as your bread
and butter you need to be able to reference WWII heroes or 70s heroes or
whatnot.

I'm officially tossing the Society of Wireless Heroes into the pot as
one of the Golden Age historicals. General Use, but if you have no idea what
the Goon Show is you might want to ask before writing them. :)
For Silver Age, the Net.astic Nine can remain, but probably should not
be the premiere hero team. Someone else should come up with an Avengers or
JLA equivalent that can be namedropped (and Kid Enthusiastic the immortal
could have been a member).
We could have the 90s team be called the LNH as well, but it might be a
cleaner break if we give them a different name, perhaps one that includes
Usenet in the name somehow. Heroes Usenetted? Eh. Think about it. Perhaps
they started with a name that has alt. in it, but "graduated" to rec. status
later. There could also be a secret military supers team with ARPANet in
their name somehow, rivals to the "amateurs" in Sig.Lad's team.

Dave Van Domelen, contemplating a new WC named Professor Xavier Peter
Sessions...Professor Exposition.

[Martin Phipps]

On Nov 5, 6:55 am, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Reserved: The creator doesn't want anyone else to use these characters, at
> least for now.  You can still ask, but don't be surprised if you get turned
> down.

I just want to point out that it has always been possible on RACC for
people to reserve characters that were not their own either because
they got permission from the person who created them or because the
characters were considered free to use but a writer needed them for a
story they needed to write. It was also always understood that when a
character was being used in a storyline that wasn't finished that the
character was implicitly (but not explicitly) reserved. For example,
when Josh Geurink wrote but didn't finish the aLLiterative Lass series
it was understood that people couldn't use her, not until he told
people that aLLiterative Lass was already back but that he just hadn't
told the story of how she came back. It was very common in the early
days of the LNH (at least when people started writing series) for
people to reserve the so-called public domain characters. If the
characters were being reserved for a specific storyline then they went
back to being free to use when the storyline was over.

Martin

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 6 Nov 2011 00:11:45 +0000 (UTC), Martin Phipps wrote:

> I just want to point out that it has always been possible on RACC for
> people to reserve characters that were not their own either because
> they got permission from the person who created them or because the
> characters were considered free to use but a writer needed them for a
> story they needed to write.

Oh, yeah. And that should still be possible, though we may want to set
limits on that.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, floon.

[Andrew Perron]

Also, *because* he's immortal - but not indestructible - he can also be the
Earth-20 version of Cannon Fodder. ``

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, boomies

[Scott Eiler]

On 11/5/2011 10:46 AM, Andrew Perron wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Nov 2011 16:06:18 +0000 (UTC), Lalo Martins wrote:
>
>> And my proposed “future sanity rule”: if a character is not General Use
>> and has an important role in the setting (leader, president, Sorcerer
>> Supreme) that is getting in the way of other writers; AND the creator
>> isn't responding to requests - then other writers are explicitly allowed
>> to write that role out, even if that requires a minor cameo by the
>> “forbidden” character. We don't want to end up with “narrative dead ends”
>> in the universe because they require some character that nobody is
>> allowed or willing to write.
>
> I stamp this rule with my approval! Everyone agree?

Amen. Actually, I thought we were all donating our characters to the
public sandbox anyway. Perhaps there should be protocols about loaning
characters, but I think we should keep it loose.

> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Italian Cuisine Lad is the Saucetaster
> Supreme.

Diana Ross is the Supreme Supreme.

--
(signed) Scott Eiler 8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Turns out I'm an anally-fixated oedipal paranoid with
south-of-the-border schizophrenic delusions... But never mind, I've
found me the ideal job. I'm going to run for President!

- Major Honey, scripted by Grant Morrison, Doom Patrol #46, August 1991.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 6 Nov 2011 01:04:14 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:

> Amen. Actually, I thought we were all donating our characters to the
> public sandbox anyway. Perhaps there should be protocols about loaning
> characters, but I think we should keep it loose.

Eh, all the ones I've been talking about I'm tossing out to General Use,
but I'll probably hold a few back.

>> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Italian Cuisine Lad is the Saucetaster
>> Supreme.
>
> Diana Ross is the Supreme Supreme.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, the Supreme Pizza With Extra Cheese?

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 5 Nov 2011 22:52:03 +0000 (UTC), Dave Van Domelen wrote:

> Here's a suggestion for some of the old PD or with-permission characters
> who are a bit dated, due to being tied too tightly to Usenet in-jokes, comic
> tropes not used much since the 90s, or anything else that doesn't age well.
> Establish a 1990s team in the backstory and put these characters in as
> members or as enemies of the members.

Yes. I very much agree.

> For instance, the Post-Time Shifter's power is less significant on blogs
> and boards that have built-in threading and better time-stamping. He'd make
> a good villain for the 90s team. And while signature files still exist, the
> way Sig.Lad worked feels too tied to Usenet for my tastes, so I'd put him on
> the 90s team.

Hmmmm. Makes sense!

> I'm officially tossing the Society of Wireless Heroes into the pot as
> one of the Golden Age historicals. General Use, but if you have no idea what
> the Goon Show is you might want to ask before writing them. :)

Ooooooh. This can easily be tied into the "development of the net" thing
that Lalo has going.

> For Silver Age, the Net.astic Nine can remain, but probably should not
> be the premiere hero team. Someone else should come up with an Avengers or
> JLA equivalent that can be namedropped (and Kid Enthusiastic the immortal
> could have been a member).

I'd say that his parents would have been; he's only 30 at this point, after
all.

> We could have the 90s team be called the LNH as well, but it might be a
> cleaner break if we give them a different name, perhaps one that includes
> Usenet in the name somehow. Heroes Usenetted? Eh. Think about it. Perhaps
> they started with a name that has alt. in it, but "graduated" to rec. status
> later. There could also be a secret military supers team with ARPANet in
> their name somehow, rivals to the "amateurs" in Sig.Lad's team.

To go in a slightly different reference direction: The Rec.ers?

> Dave Van Domelen, contemplating a new WC named Professor Xavier Peter
> Sessions...Professor Exposition.

Niiiiiiice.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, yay for silly~

[EDMLite]

On Nov 5, 2:52 pm, dvan...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:
>      For Silver Age, the Net.astic Nine can remain, but probably should not
> be the premiere hero team.  Someone else should come up with an Avengers or
> JLA equivalent that can be namedropped (and Kid Enthusiastic the immortal
> could have been a member).

Alt.vengers Assemble!

>      We could have the 90s team be called the LNH as well, but it might be a
> cleaner break if we give them a different name, perhaps one that includes

> Usenet in the name somehow....

Well, if we REALLY want it to be a '90s team, I
suppose we'd have to call it "LNH Extreme!" (with
the exclamation point, of course).

--Rob Rogers
--Extreme!

[Andrew Perron]

Another new character!

You know what I've noticed, playing City of Heroes? There are several
traditional video game team roles that don't show up much in comic book
superhero teams, and none moreso than the healer/buffer. So, I decided to
make us a healer.

I wanted to subvert the "gentle healer" trope, so this character's an
*angry* healer. Her heals would be fire-based - or, rather, Flame-based.
She swears a lot - but it's all completely neutered swears; dickens,
fiddlesticks, crud, etc.

In homage to Sarcastic Lad's origin, I decided that once, she had been a
nun, before she was possessed by an ifrit, an elemental being of fire and
creation. Now she wears a long white robe with flame designs on the cuffs,
hem, and waist, and has burning eyes and hair.

After all this was done, only *then* did I realize the perfect name.

Kindle.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, a peek into my process.

[Lalo Martins]

I really like the concept. And the name.

In the interest of honesty though, angry healers do have a tradition in sci-fi: Dr. McCoy wasn't angry all the time, but often enough, and the lovable asshole in the RDM Battlestar Galactica is arguably one of the best characters of the show. The old LSH had that purple goblin alien, can't remember his name now.

And of course, the classic LNH doctor is Dr. Bad-Bedside-Manner, probably based on the LSH gremlin guy. No idea whether he's public domain.

Still think the concept is worth pursuing, though :-)

-- Lalo “angry but hardly a healer” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 7, 9:24 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> In the interest of honesty though, angry healers do have a tradition in sci-fi: Dr. McCoy wasn't angry all the time, but often enough, and the lovable asshole in the RDM Battlestar Galactica is arguably one of the best characters of the show. The old LSH had that purple goblin alien, can't remember his name now.

Oh, yeah, but a fantasyish healer and a sci-fi doctor are very
different roles. Indeed, we should have a doctor as well; perhaps he
could be the calm, logical Spock-ish type.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, with lasers.

[Andrew Perron]

So, I've been alchemizing the different ideas that have been going
around for the history of this setting and the foundation of the LNH.
Here's a vague collection of what I have so far.

In 1878, David E. Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a
telephone receiver when experimenting with his carbon microphone. On
the opposite side of the world, twenty seconds later, a bright flash
lit the sky. Over the following years, there were many reports all
over the world of costumed men - and occasionally, women - popping up
and performing extraordinary feats. We know that, eventually, a loose
organization was formed known as the Network of Remarkables. We also
know that this organization did not last to the 20th century.

The net.ahuman history that most people know starts in 1942. Three
days after the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was booted up, she appeared:
Lass Lady. Charismatic, heroic, and friendly, she was the flagbearer
for the generation of heroes that followed. Of course, this was not
universally considered a good thing; some sociologists have considered
that the tendency to think of them as "weirdos" and "net.kooks" may
not have gotten such a strong foothold if she hadn't been a woman in a
leadership position, and some contemporary sources accused her of
being a "female impersonator" (as the oh-so-tasteful lingo went back
then).

Over the decades, the debate over net.ahumans came to resemble two
others; the issue of civil rights, and the issue of nuclear weapons.
Net.heroes and net.villains appeared many times over the years, the
responsibilities of the power tending to tip its bearers into one role
or the other, and the governments and the people have responded many
ways - celebrating them, enslaving them, supporting them, persecuting
them, becoming them.

By the early 1990s, American society had adapted to them, and after a
couple years with no leading net.hero team, The Alt.thority [Note:
This is a placeholder name] came together. They were one of the more
effective crimefighting teams of the era, and their modus operandi was
going out and confronting villains when they weren't ready.
Unfortunately, this backfired rather badly when Dr. Killfile *was*
ready for them, and drained their power into a device that set up a
Subject-Based Killfile across the entire US, blocking off most
net.ahuman powers in the affected area.

[Note: I figure Dr. Killfile is fair game, since Steven Librande only
came up with the name, and any actual *character* was a group effort
by various LNH writers, but if anyone disagrees, speak up!]

[Another note: What "most" means is up for debate.]

Years later, the killfile expired, and all of a sudden, new, untrained
net.ahumans were popping out of the woodwork. While society in
general made it the hip, cool thing to have powers, there were many
were perfectly comfortable with it not being in their backyard. Some,
meaning well, called for the government to set up some support for
them; some, not meaning so well, called for laws and controls.
Different states dealt with it in different ways; some enforced older
laws in new ways, while others explicitly opened up freedoms that had
previously only been assumed, and yet others rode out the storm,
waiting to see what would happen. In one area, Mrs. Schlubb's School
For Gifted Youngsters offered "training"; in another, the police began
officially sanctioning vigilante activity. And it was in this fire
that the LNH was born...

[Hm. This really wasn't silly enough. Ah, well, just a blueprint we
can build on...]

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, a member of the Alt.thority:
Cheesecake Lass.

[Arthur Spitzer]

On 11/7/11 3:56 PM, Andrew Perron wrote:

>
> [Note: I figure Dr. Killfile is fair game, since Steven Librande only
> came up with the name, and any actual *character* was a group effort
> by various LNH writers, but if anyone disagrees, speak up!]
>

You could use Captain Killfile to avoid any slippery slopes...

Arthur "If you want..." Spitzer

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:56:54 +0000:
> detailed draft of Looniverse20 history

where's the +1 button?

best,
Lalo Martins
--
Now go and make your dreams inevitable.
http://lalomartins.info/
GNU: never give up freedom http://www.gnu.org/

[Martin Phipps]

On Nov 7, 2:56 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> [Note: I figure Dr. Killfile is fair game,

Or Professor Killfile.

Martin

[James Mason]

Welp I came up with a guy. His superhero name is Catastrophe but
everyone calls him by memes because he's a cat person thing, and he is
a Legacy Hero and is a mix of Deconstructions and Reconstructions of
legacy heros. (Whichever is funnier at the time.) Tell me what you
think and I'll write a story about him.

[Adrian James McClure]

I was just looking through some of my old unfinished stories and
wondering what the group's been up to lately, and then I find this.
Wow.

My idea for rebooting Ultimate Mercenary is: I wouldn’t, not exactly.
In every superhero reboot there are elements that just don’t fit.
People who carry over into the new world even though their existence
without their original context makes no sense at all. These are the
Constants. Their existence is a serious threat to reality, but is also
somehow necessary for it to function. There are some who want to
destroy them, and others who want to make use of their potential to
warp and reshape the world.

The Ultimate Mercenary is one of these Constants. He has arrived from
the original Looniverse into the new one, but he's also always been
there since the killfile expired, even though he shouldn’t exist in a
world with no Ultimate Ninja. (I'm planning to write an issue of Just
Imagine Saxon Brenton vs. Andrew Perron in the Return of the RACCies!
that explains part of how this happens, and also wraps up many of the
loose ends from his own series, but I don't exactly have a great track
record for finishing things.) It’s a very mixed blessing for him. In
a world where many of the old Legion’s core heroes don’t exist, he can
become the major hero he’s always wanted to be. But how does Ultimate
Ninja’s biggest fan define himself in a world without an Ultimate
Ninja?

Also, I would be very tempted to call his series “Ultimate Ultimate
Mercenary.”

[Adrian James McClure]

Also, shouldn't this be called LNH 2.0, considering this is the LNH of
Web 2.0? Or is that 2.0bvious? (Sorry, I've been working on my thesis
all week. Please don't hurt me.)

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 9:55 am, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> I was just looking through some of my old unfinished stories and
> wondering what the group's been up to lately, and then I find this.
> Wow.

That old man was right!

> The Ultimate Mercenary is one of these Constants. He has arrived from
> the original Looniverse into the new one, but he's also always been
> there since the killfile expired, even though he shouldn’t exist in a
> world with no Ultimate Ninja.

Oooooooh. Very nice.

(Just to make sure you know: The original is, in fact, still there.)

(I'm planning to write an issue of Just
> Imagine Saxon Brenton vs. Andrew Perron in the Return of the RACCies!
> that explains part of how this happens, and also wraps up many of the
> loose ends from his own series, but I don't exactly have a great track
> record for finishing things.)

Oh my god *yes please*. So much of Just Imagine IV is based off the
stuff you put in Just Imagine II.

(And I'm coming back to it, I swear. I've been pondering just writing
an issue daily, but been busy, first with work and then with this
project...)

 It’s a very mixed blessing for him. In
> a world where many of the old Legion’s core heroes don’t exist, he can
> become the major hero he’s always wanted to be. But how does Ultimate
> Ninja’s biggest fan define himself in a world without an Ultimate
> Ninja?

Oooooh. Yes.

> Also, I would be very tempted to call his series “Ultimate Ultimate
> Mercenary.”

I approve. XD

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, ULTIMERCENARIUM

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 9:32 am, James Mason <mason.james.jamesma...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Sounds good to me! Is he a member of the LNH?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, is he friend... or ENEMY?

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 12:54 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> quoth Andrew Perron as of Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:56:54 +0000:
>
> > detailed draft of Looniverse20 history
>
> where's the +1 button?

Heh heh, thanks.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, coolfile!

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 3:14 am, Martin Phipps <martinphip...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Or Professor Killfile.

True. I figured Dr. K was important enough to the history of the LNH
to merit something, but if it bothers people, I'll use the good
Captain instead.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, and her gauntlets.

[James Mason]

On Nov 8, 3:41 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Sounds good to me!  Is he a member of the LNH?
>
> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, is he friend... or ENEMY?

Not yet. I think the first Issue should be about the LNH finding him.

[Scott Eiler]

Yeah, that could work. With Catastrophe's power, we could bring in
*any* old character.

[Adrian James McClure]

Incidentally, Andrew, I love what you did with the elements I
introduced into Just Imagine... Again, and the revamp of Manga Man
Gold. It occurs to me that the fact there's now a new Looniverse is a
solution to Manga Man Gold's problem of not being able to coexist with
the original/later Manga Man. Once this storyline's over, he could try
to establish himself on Earth-20. This could work because he's pretty
much a completely different character from the original at this point.
He'd have to change his name, but he's done so before. Being up
against a whole new Legion fits his role of agent provocateur/Devil's
advocate. He'd challenge the new Legion in the name of making them
into heroes the equal of the ones he'd fought before, maybe to prepare
them for some definite threat he saw when outside of time and space.

Also:

W.H.A.T.E.V.E.R.--The World Headquarters for Anarchy, Terrorism,
Elimination, Vengeance, Evil, and Revenge is a shadowy organization
that's kinda-sorta based on NOWHERE from the current Superboy and
Titans series. They're one of the forces after Ultimate Mercenary, but
probably have a significant role in the wider Looniverse as well, and
may be backing Waffle Queen in her attempt to recruit young
superhumans. Their leader is Ultravac--a supercomputer created from
the brain patterns of a gangster, a mad scientist, and a chess player,
who were respectively enemies of Doc Nostalgia, Lady Lass, and Golden
Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man (see below). It is powerful,
brilliant, and ruthless, but runs on extremely antiquated vacuum-tube
technology, and has a pathological distrust of any newer tech. He's
still not used to these new-fangled magnetic tapes. As a result,
WHATEVER has a retro-future aesthetic reminscient of Original Star
Trek, relying on highly advanced technology based on magnetic tape and
such. It can do far more than normal advanced technology but is also
highly prone to breaking. Ultravac's second in command is the Cat
Lady, who works from a secret headquarters disguised as a decaying
apartment. She's been a major net.villainess since her youth, when she
was a sexy cat burglar. She controls a horde of cyborg cats, who make
excellent spies and assassin. Think a cross between a "crazy cat lady"
and a Blofield-like sinister cat-stroking villain.

Doc Nostalgia (or maybe Mr. Nostalgic)--The third ever ever net.hero
after Lady Lass and Golden Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man (the
fact he wasn't the first is a slightly sore point for him), John
Jeffries is powered by nostalgia for his destroyed home planet of
Groupon. He aged gracefully and became one of the elder statesmen of
the net.heroes, but the anti-entropic energy released by the cessation
of the killfile turned him back into his brash younger self, much to
the consternation of his wife and family. He's good at inspiring
people and has an enormous amount of experience but is incredibly
strict, not very open to new ideas, and rather short-tempered and
impatient. He's capable of coming up with good ideas but his preferred
solution to most problems is punching them in the face, whether or not
this would actually work. His personal headquarters is the Fortress of
Loneliness in the Antarctic. After more than 50 years of superheroing
it's become a hideously cluttered mess because he's basically a super-
hoarder. He doesn't even remember what half the things in it even are.

His powers were formerly enormous, up to and including super-breath,
but when he was de-aged they were downgraded to low-level super-
strength, super-jumping, and semi-invulnerability. He has a longing to
meet other members of his kind but if he were ever reunited with the
remnants of Groupon he might completely lose his already diminished
powers. He's been jockeying for leadership position of the LNH with
Fearless Leader since its founding. Ultimate Mercenary also hates his
guts and vice versa, which is ironic because Doc Nostalgia is the
conceptual successor of Ultimate Ninja. UN is a strict, ruthless
leader-figure who was based on the "cool" stuff that was overrunning
comics in the 90s (ninjas), while DN is a strict, ruthless leader-
figure who is based on the "cool" stuff that's overrunning comics in
the 00s (nostalgia and revamps). Also both are devoted to fairly rigid
ideals and personae that can override their own best instincts.

[Adrian James McClure]

The Lycopersicons: Loosely based on the Earth-invading genetically
engineered tomatos from Ultimate Mercenary, they're a major galactic
empire in this version of the Looniverse. ("Lycopersicon is the genus
of the tomato plant."--Explain-The-Joke Lass) Once there was a mighty
more-or-less-human-ish galactic empire suffering from a famine after
their enemies introduced a genetically engineered crop blight. They
tried to save themselves by creating a blight-resistant strand of
genetically engineered tomatos. But the tomatos became sentient and
turned against their creators, taking over most of the known
galaxy.They can grow infiltration agents that resemble other species.
They may have been secretly guiding our own technological development,
since they grow well under high temperatures and carbon-heavy
atmospheres.

Explain-The-Joke Lass: A character I just made up a second ago. Her
superintelligence and near-photographic memory are highly useful to
the team, but she doesn't get along with the others very well because
of her lack of social interaction skills and tendency to overexplain
everything, especially jokes. She was going to be Explain-The-Joke
Lad, but we need more women.

[Adrian James McClure]

I've just reread all my Ultimate Mercenary issues, as well as the
original Flame Wars VI stuff. My head hurts. There sure was a lot of
convoluted bullshit in there. The thing is, I had a good grasp of
Ultimate Mercenary's role and character, but I was trying to do this
enormously complicated time-travel plot without really planning it out
in advance. I had completely forgotten at least a fourth of it. From
what I remember, my plans for where it was all supposed to go changed
with every issue. That said, I've thought of reasonable explanations
for almost all of it.

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 9:01 pm, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Incidentally, Andrew, I love what you did with the elements I
> introduced into Just Imagine... Again, and the revamp of Manga Man
> Gold.

Mwahahaha, excellent!

> It occurs to me that the fact there's now a new Looniverse is a
> solution to Manga Man Gold's problem of not being able to coexist with
> the original/later Manga Man. Once this storyline's over, he could try
> to establish himself on Earth-20. This could work because he's pretty
> much a completely different character from the original at this point.
> He'd have to change his name, but he's done so before. Being up
> against a whole new Legion fits his role of agent provocateur/Devil's
> advocate. He'd challenge the new Legion in the name of making them
> into heroes the equal of the ones he'd fought before, maybe to prepare
> them for some definite threat he saw when outside of time and space.

Hmmmmm. That... honestly works better than what I was planning!
(Which was, in minimal-spoilers form, to give him a new identity and
set him up as a new Noble Villain type for the mainstream Looniverse.)

...hmmmm...

Okay, so, here's an idea; tell me if it's too "MY CREATIONS AND IDEAS
ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ONES HERE". Basically, what if they defeat the
Hungry Past by taking that cosmic beingness and making it *into* the
new Looniverse, in some way that involves MM Gold seemingly making a
heroic sacrifice? Pure creation would be a pretty cosmic way to close
it out.

> Also:
>
> W.H.A.T.E.V.E.R.--The World Headquarters for Anarchy, Terrorism,
> Elimination, Vengeance, Evil, and Revenge is a shadowy organization
> that's kinda-sorta based on NOWHERE from the current Superboy and
> Titans series. They're one of the forces after Ultimate Mercenary, but
> probably have a significant role in the wider Looniverse as well, and
> may be backing Waffle Queen in her attempt to recruit young
> superhumans.

Hmmmm, makes sense. Especially if they had a lobbyist arm that was
seemingly their worst enemies, but were really using the threat of
them to achieve their goals.

Their leader is Ultravac--a supercomputer created from
> the brain patterns of a gangster, a mad scientist, and a chess player,
> who were respectively enemies of Doc Nostalgia, Lady Lass, and Golden
> Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man (see below).

That is so perfectly Late-Golden-Early-Silver-Age. <3

It is powerful,
> brilliant, and ruthless, but runs on extremely antiquated vacuum-tube
> technology, and has a pathological distrust of any newer tech. He's
> still not used to these new-fangled magnetic tapes. As a result,
> WHATEVER has a retro-future aesthetic reminscient of Original Star
> Trek, relying on highly advanced technology based on magnetic tape and
> such.

Ooooh, yes. Stylish, and with an actual reason behind it (and a silly
one, at that~).

> It can do far more than normal advanced technology but is also
> highly prone to breaking. Ultravac's second in command is the Cat
> Lady, who works from a secret headquarters disguised as a decaying
> apartment. She's been a major net.villainess since her youth, when she
> was a sexy cat burglar. She controls a horde of cyborg cats, who make
> excellent spies and assassin. Think a cross between a "crazy cat lady"
> and a Blofield-like sinister cat-stroking villain.

That's great. XD

> Doc Nostalgia (or maybe Mr. Nostalgic)

Definitely like Doc Nostalgia better, both for the sound of it and for
the chance to riff on Doc Savage.

> --The third ever ever net.hero
> after Lady Lass and Golden Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man (the
> fact he wasn't the first is a slightly sore point for him),

Golden Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man was totally his name back
then, too.

> John
> Jeffries is powered by nostalgia for his destroyed home planet of
> Groupon. He aged gracefully and became one of the elder statesmen of
> the net.heroes, but the anti-entropic energy released by the cessation
> of the killfile turned him back into his brash younger self, much to
> the consternation of his wife and family.

Ahhhhh, very nice.

He's good at inspiring
> people and has an enormous amount of experience but is incredibly
> strict, not very open to new ideas, and rather short-tempered and
> impatient. He's capable of coming up with good ideas but his preferred
> solution to most problems is punching them in the face, whether or not
> this would actually work.

I wonder what he thinks about the new generation of net.ahumans.

His personal headquarters is the Fortress of
> Loneliness in the Antarctic. After more than 50 years of superheroing
> it's become a hideously cluttered mess because he's basically a super-
> hoarder. He doesn't even remember what half the things in it even are.

Hah, I've never thought of that subversion of "trophy room". <3 But,
based on the details of his personality so far, "Fortress of
Loneliness" doesn't really fit. "Fortress of Getting Away From It
All"?

> He's been jockeying for leadership position of the LNH with
> Fearless Leader since its founding. Ultimate Mercenary also hates his
> guts and vice versa, which is ironic because Doc Nostalgia is the
> conceptual successor of Ultimate Ninja. UN is a strict, ruthless
> leader-figure who was based on the "cool" stuff that was overrunning
> comics in the 90s (ninjas), while DN is a strict, ruthless leader-
> figure who is based on the "cool" stuff that's overrunning comics in
> the 00s (nostalgia and revamps). Also both are devoted to fairly rigid
> ideals and personae that can override their own best instincts.

Ahhhh, very nice.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, revamp ninja~

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 9:46 pm, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> But the tomatos became sentient and
> turned against their creators, taking over most of the known
> galaxy.They can grow infiltration agents that resemble other species.

Tomato in the Mirror?

> Explain-The-Joke Lass: A character I just made up a second ago. Her
> superintelligence and near-photographic memory are highly useful to
> the team, but she doesn't get along with the others very well because
> of her lack of social interaction skills and tendency to overexplain
> everything, especially jokes. She was going to be Explain-The-Joke
> Lad, but we need more women.

Very nice; a character who hits similar beats to Sister State-The-
Obvious, but without being a direct copy.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, message in a bottle~

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 8, 11:04 pm, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I look forward to it! I enjoyed the series no matter how convoluted
it got.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, we need more giant robots in
LNH-20...

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 9, 12:15 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hmmmmm.  That... honestly works better than what I was planning!
> (Which was, in minimal-spoilers form, to give him a new identity and
> set him up as a new Noble Villain type for the mainstream Looniverse.)
>
> ...hmmmm...
>
> Okay, so, here's an idea; tell me if it's too "MY CREATIONS AND IDEAS
> ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ONES HERE".  Basically, what if they defeat the
> Hungry Past by taking that cosmic beingness and making it *into* the
> new Looniverse, in some way that involves MM Gold seemingly making a
> heroic sacrifice?  Pure creation would be a pretty cosmic way to close
> it out.
>

I like that idea, though I'd kind of prefer to keep the Hungry Past
around becuase of the way it ties into other things. Can't say more
than that for now. But somebody could become the avatar or vessel of
the Hungry Past, roughly the equivalent of Nekron (maybe Bertrand
Weevil?), and Earth-20 could be created from them. (Incidentally, the
Hungry Past was Jamie Rosen's idea. I wonder where he's gone?) And
then there could be a new cascade which would be the first story of
the new Looniverse--somehow it seems appropriate to start it off that
way...

[Andrew Perron]

All right! We've had a lot of contributions so far, let's get them
sorted out a bit. The characters and teams that have been definitely
put in place so far:

LNHers:
Fearless Leader
Agent M
Manga Girl
Kid Enthusiastic
Kindle
Ultimate Mercenary
Doc Nostalgia
Explain-The-Joke Lass
Professor Penumbra
You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad
Master Blaster
The Router

Other heroes:
Catastrophe (LNHer-in-waiting)
Clueless Lad (Possible LNHer, by the time he actually gets to
Net.ropolis)
Menace characters (not listing out in case Lalo wants to keep quiet
who dies)

Villains:
Waffle Queen
Captain Killfile
Manga Man Gold (w/new name)
W.H.A.T.E.V.E.R., Ultravac, Cat Lady

Other beings:
Torrent
The Lycopersicons
Dvandom Stranger
Kiwis (Green? Purple?)

Historicals:
'90s LNH-y team, name undecided, with members mostly based around
early Usenet injokes; members include Sig.Lad, Cheesecake Lass
Society of Wireless Heroes
Some sort of '40s team
Net.tastic Nine
'60s premiere hero team; members include Kid E's parents
Network of Remarkables
Lass Lady
Golden Age Very-Scary-Disturbed-Creature Man

Questions:
* Which characters are members of the Five Years Earlier LNH - that
is, founding members?
* Which have joined by the time of the #1 issues?
* Which will join in their series?
* Which archetypes do we not have covered? What other comics concepts
do we want to parody?

And finally, here's one answer to those last two questions:

Mister Morrison: A being from the 16-dimensional infosphere of
Hexworld. Each cell of his body is a meme, and he talks in strange,
Dada-esque patterns, often rhyming, using anagrams, iambic pentameter,
etc. The metafictional nature of the Looniverse agrees with him, so
he takes vacations there, but he tends to cause chaos by his very
presence. He can only be gotten rid of by solving the puzzles that he
weaves through the things he says.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, doesn't think we should have a
modern age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature Man.

[Adrian James McClure]

> Questions:
> * Which characters are members of the Five Years Earlier LNH - that
> is, founding members?
> * Which have joined by the time of the #1 issues?
> * Which will join in their series?

I haven't plotted it out yet, as I'm too busy with Just Imagine...
#12, but I think by the time his series starts UM will be a (barely)
established net.hero, but not yet a Legionnaire.

[Tom Russell]

On Nov 9, 6:12 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
> All right!  We've had a lot of contributions so far, let's get them
> sorted out a bit.  The characters and teams that have been definitely
> put in place so far:
>
> LNHers:

Let's add Nudist Man to the list, as he's pretty much my Writer
Character now.

...What?

[Andrew Perron]

On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:15 +0000 (UTC), Tom Russell wrote:

> Let's add Nudist Man to the list, as he's pretty much my Writer
> Character now.
>
> ...What?

Awesome.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, woots and giggle.

[Andrew Perron]

On Wed, 9 Nov 2011 22:34:18 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> I like that idea, though I'd kind of prefer to keep the Hungry Past
> around becuase of the way it ties into other things.

Nnnnnnh, the whole plot of Just Imagine is around defusing the Hungry Past.
It'd be ludicrously anticlimactic to have it around in any similar state
afterwards.

> Can't say more
> than that for now. But somebody could become the avatar or vessel of
> the Hungry Past, roughly the equivalent of Nekron (maybe Bertrand
> Weevil?), and Earth-20 could be created from them.

Well, I'm thinking more "turning the destructiveness into a creative
force", you know? Triumphant!

> (Incidentally, the
> Hungry Past was Jamie Rosen's idea. I wonder where he's gone?)

I don't know! He would be awesome, though. Jaaaaaaaamieeeeee

> And
> then there could be a new cascade which would be the first story of
> the new Looniverse--somehow it seems appropriate to start it off that
> way...

How about a cascade that starts on January 1st, 2012, with the present-day
LNH?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, while we get Tales of the LNH issues
written beforehand.

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 9, 7:58 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Nov 2011 22:34:18 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:
> > I like that idea, though I'd kind of prefer to keep the Hungry Past
> > around becuase of the way it ties into other things.
>
> Nnnnnnh, the whole plot of Just Imagine is around defusing the Hungry Past.
> It'd be ludicrously anticlimactic to have it around in any similar state
> afterwards.

That's fair. I've actually already thought of a solution to this which
suggests its own storyline. And here I was thinking the old Looniverse
was supposed to be winding down...

>
> Well, I'm thinking more "turning the destructiveness into a creative
> force", you know?  Triumphant!
>
>

> How about a cascade that starts on January 1st, 2012, with the present-day
> LNH?
>

Sounds great! Then we can get some of it done before the world ends.

I should probably get away from the computer for a while now.

[Andrew Perron]

On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:39:10 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> On Nov 9, 7:58 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 9 Nov 2011 22:34:18 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:
>>> I like that idea, though I'd kind of prefer to keep the Hungry Past
>>> around becuase of the way it ties into other things.
>>
>> Nnnnnnh, the whole plot of Just Imagine is around defusing the Hungry Past.
>> It'd be ludicrously anticlimactic to have it around in any similar state
>> afterwards.
>
> That's fair. I've actually already thought of a solution to this which
> suggests its own storyline.

Ooooooh.

> And here I was thinking the old Looniverse
> was supposed to be winding down...

Not hardly. <3 Oh, man, the things I have planned for the next Digital
JUMP! arc... let's just say you won't look at April 20th to May 21st the
same way ever again.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, doooooooooom

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 9, 7:00 pm, Tom Russell <joltc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Let's add Nudist Man to the list, as he's pretty much my Writer
> Character now.
>
> ...What?

Well, that's not so surprising, as I recall you saying you wrote The
Green Knight with no pants. What's his personality like, though?

[Adrian James McClure]

That was supposed to be a smiley in there, I knew you were joking. I
really, really should not be up this late.

Also:

>Not hardly. <3 Oh, man, the things I have planned for the next Digital
>JUMP! arc... let's just say you won't look at April 20th to May 21st the
>same way ever again.

Andrew: does this have anything to do with certain other events you
were hinting at? :)

[Andrew Perron]

On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:32:03 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

>>Not hardly. <3 Oh, man, the things I have planned for the next Digital
>>JUMP! arc... let's just say you won't look at April 20th to May 21st the
>>same way ever again.
>
> Andrew: does this have anything to do with certain other events you
> were hinting at? :)

No, actually; they're entirely different awesome things. <3

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, sprinkles awesome everywhere.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:12:36 +0000:

> All right! We've had a lot of contributions so far, let's get them
> sorted out a bit. The characters and teams that have been definitely
> put in place so far:
>
> LNHers:
> Fearless Leader
> Agent M
> Manga Girl
> Kid Enthusiastic
> Kindle
> Ultimate Mercenary
> Doc Nostalgia
> Explain-The-Joke Lass
> Professor Penumbra
> You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad Master Blaster
> The Router

Pantra. And I'm open to Minority Miss being an LNHer if other writers
think she's a good fit, I just don't have any story ideas for her.

Since we haven't heard from Saxon about using ARAK, I'll propose a new
character: Obsessive Archive Lad. Some inspiration from Kid Recap and
ARAK, but characterization focused primarily on archive.org, and also the
curator of the Trophy Hall. I guess he probably has powers, but I'm a bit
in too much of a hurry to figure out what they are (really should be in
the office already).

> Other heroes:
> Catastrophe (LNHer-in-waiting)
> Clueless Lad (Possible LNHer, by the time he actually gets to
> Net.ropolis)
> Menace characters (not listing out in case Lalo wants to keep quiet who
> dies)
>
> Villains:
> Waffle Queen
> Captain Killfile
> Manga Man Gold (w/new name)
> W.H.A.T.E.V.E.R., Ultravac, Cat Lady

I guess we need more. My own villains... well, Paraddox has been done,
he's not invited. The Psycho Prankster would probably fit well, though.

A time traveller would be nice. How about Mother Time (revamped to have
no relation to the non-existent Crapper)?

> Other beings:
> Torrent
> The Lycopersicons
> Dvandom Stranger
> Kiwis (Green? Purple?)

green.

> Questions:
> * Which characters are members of the Five Years Earlier LNH - that is,
> founding members?

Pantra is definitely a noob. I could imagine MM being a founder, even
though it requires a different origin story. And the good Professor.

Not mine, my vote is for:
- Fearless Leader
- Agent M: that depends on your plans for her story
- Doc Nostalgia
- The Router
- Kid E (if he's that old, I'd like to write some flashbacks of him and
Professor Penumbra having weird adventures in the late 90s, early 00s)
- Either You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad or Master Blaster

> * Which have joined by the time of the #1 issues?

Pantra and Obsessive Archive Lad.

> * Which will join in their series?

None of mine, as far as the plan goes.

> Mister Morrison: A being from the 16-dimensional infosphere of Hexworld.
> Each cell of his body is a meme, and he talks in strange, Dada-esque
> patterns, often rhyming, using anagrams, iambic pentameter, etc. The
> metafictional nature of the Looniverse agrees with him, so he takes
> vacations there, but he tends to cause chaos by his very presence. He
> can only be gotten rid of by solving the puzzles that he weaves through
> the things he says.

#win

-- Lalo “late late late” Martins

[Adrian James McClure]

Wait, who's Agent M?

[Andrew Perron]

On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:00:36 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> Wait, who's Agent M?

Oh, Agent Mephitidae, from over yonder:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.creative/msg/c1296e48d6263479

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, YONDER.

[Lalo Martins]

On Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:11:40 UTC+1, Andrew Perron wrote:
> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, YONDER.

And thusly was the name of the 90's group created. Yonder. Or maybe Y.O.N.D.E.R. Or maybe that's an even better name for the secret/government group in the 60s and 70s?

-- Lalo “Yonder Too” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

Definitely the '60s government group - then we can riff on the Man
From U.N.C.L.E. craze.

Though this makes me think that, for the '90s group, we should take a
page from 501 Blues and call them L.E.G.I.O.N. Except, wasn't that an
actual Legion of Super-Heroes spinoff? Or am I hallucinating again?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Netblood?

[Adrian James McClure]

Or the 90s team could be the The Saviors of the Net.

Fearless Leader: He should have an origin that keeps the tragic
dimension Dvandom gave him (which was used to great effect by Arthur
during Leadership Crisis), but isn't tied to alternate timelines since
we already have Ultimate Mercenary and Ex-Manga Man Gold for that. So
maybe: Felix Landers was once Flamebroiled Lad, the youngest member of
the Saviors of the Net. He grew up in the slums of Netropolis and
gained his powers when some robbers attempted to steal the Antikythera
Mechanism from the Netropolitan Museum of History. The Antikythera
Mechanism is a relic of an ancient civilization which developed an
internet even more powerful than ours, but their civilization was
destroyed by the psychic feedback from a massive flamewar. It gave him
the power to channel the anger of the entire internet. The Saviors of
the Net helped him control this power and find peace. But then they
were betrayed by one of their own, Captain Killfile. Felix was the
only one who escaped the killfile, but in the process he lost his
powers. Yet he still fought on to save the Earth, having been trained
in hand-to-hand combat by Chromium Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-
Man. He worked for Pla.net.ary Investigations during the Lost Years.
During this period he gained a lot of experience as a hero and became
a skilled fighter and strategist. When the Killfile fell he started
seeking out new net.heroes to found the LNH.

Fearless Leader lost his ability to feel emotions after losing his
original powers and gradually gained it back over a period of years.
He has faced an enormous amount of suffering and overcome it, but the
losses he's undergone still haunt him. The Fearless Leader of today is
kind and understanding but distant. He cares deeply for his teammates
but still has difficulty forming friendships after the loss of his old
team. Like the old version, he's basically the straight man to the
weirdness of the Looniverse. He's also the only senior member who can
put up with Ultimate Mercenary, because he reminds him a bit of his
younger self.

Oh, and the Flame-Broiled Force is still out there, seeking a new host.

[Dave Van Domelen]

In article <8761e9db-0f77-4f93...@d17g2000yql.googlegroups.com>,

Andrew Perron <pwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Though this makes me think that, for the '90s group, we should take a
>page from 501 Blues and call them L.E.G.I.O.N. Except, wasn't that an
>actual Legion of Super-Heroes spinoff? Or am I hallucinating again?

Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network, a spinoff
from the Invasion event. LEGION was still around prior to the latest reboot,
although their book was called REBELS for the two years and change that it
ran.

Licensed Extra-Governmental UberMenschen Elite - LEGUME

Dave Van Domelen, Department of Usenet Heroes - DUH

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 5:57 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> quoth Andrew Perron as of Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:12:36 +0000:

<snip>
> > LNHers:

<the snipster!>
> Pantra.

Do we want to tweak her name a bit? I've always been vaguely
uncomfortable about it being only one letter off from the name of a
character who was so similar and so thoroughly removed from general
use. (Of course, *her* name was only one letter off from one of the
actual copyrighted characters she was a parody of, but that might just
make it worse...)

> And I'm open to Minority Miss being an LNHer if other writers
> think she's a good fit, I just don't have any story ideas for her.

Hmmmm! To make her more usable, let's streamline her powers: She has
any power that exactly one other member of the LNH has.

(Indeed, you could tie this in to the origin of the LNH: The New LNH
Member Detector decided that they didn't have enough of certain
powers, so it somehow *changed* the powers of a new applicant.)

> Since we haven't heard from Saxon about using ARAK, I'll propose a new
> character: Obsessive Archive Lad. Some inspiration from Kid Recap and
> ARAK, but characterization focused primarily on archive.org, and also the
> curator of the Trophy Hall. I guess he probably has powers, but I'm a bit
> in too much of a hurry to figure out what they are (really should be in
> the office already).

Hmmmm. Methinks this is the kind of thing Saxon would be interested
in, and he's just busy and unable to tackle the ridiculous number of
posts (187 so far in November alone!). So I don't want to step on his
toes if he does want to bring ARAK in.

That said, a character like this would be useful. How about... ah!
My planned revamp of Library Lad could step in here. I'll make a post
on that...

> I guess we need more. My own villains... well, Paraddox has been done,
> he's not invited. The Psycho Prankster would probably fit well, though.

That works.

> A time traveller would be nice. How about Mother Time (revamped to have
> no relation to the non-existent Crapper)?

Hmmm, yes! Tamela Reddy, harried and hurried college student who's
been late for things her whole life, sells her soles to the Shoe Devil
in exchange for a time-controlling hourglass.

> > Kiwis (Green? Purple?)
>
> green.

Greeeeeeeeeeeeen~

> > Questions:
> > * Which characters are members of the Five Years Earlier LNH - that is,
> > founding members?
>
> Pantra is definitely a noob. I could imagine MM being a founder, even
> though it requires a different origin story. And the good Professor.

With the backstory idea I put above, I'd say MM would be one of the
first new members after the team came together. The Professor could
be a founder; depends on his backstory, I suppose.

> Not mine, my vote is for:
> - Fearless Leader
> - Agent M: that depends on your plans for her story

Hmmmm. Does FL have a military background in this, is the question...

> - Doc Nostalgia
> - The Router
> - Kid E (if he's that old, I'd like to write some flashbacks of him and
>   Professor Penumbra having weird adventures in the late 90s, early 00s)

That'd be pretty awesome. Urban fantasy flavor in a temporarily low-
powered setting!

> - Either You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad or Master Blaster

Good choices overall. That said, I definitely want to include some
younger characters, members of this new generation, who would've been
protesting, in the Waffle Queen's school, or otherwise affected.
You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad could go in that slot...

> > Mister Morrison: A being from the 16-dimensional infosphere of Hexworld.
>

> #win

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, thankyew verreh much.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:06:39 +0000:

> On Nov 10, 9:34 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:11:40 UTC+1, Andrew Perron  wrote:
>> > Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, YONDER.
>>
>> And thusly was the name of the 90's group created. Yonder. Or maybe
>> Y.O.N.D.E.R. Or maybe that's an even better name for the
>> secret/government group in the 60s and 70s?
>
> Definitely the '60s government group - then we can riff on the Man From
> U.N.C.L.E. craze.

Also S.H.I.E.L.D., UNIT, and a pile of similar tropes. I believe it all
started with Fleming's SPECTRE.

> Though this makes me think that, for the '90s group, we should take a
> page from 501 Blues and call them L.E.G.I.O.N. Except, wasn't that an
> actual Legion of Super-Heroes spinoff? Or am I hallucinating again?

It was. With Vril Dox II. There was also a L.E.G.I.O.N. comic recently.
Pretty good stuff in fact.

If you want a 90s vibe, Net.Force could do. But Saviors Of The Net could
also be the best.

-- Lalo “Gen.Net for the junior team” Martins

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:53:45 +0000:

> On Nov 10, 5:57 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> quoth Andrew Perron as of Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:12:36 +0000:
>
> <snip>
>> > LNHers:
>
> <the snipster!>
>> Pantra.
>
> Do we want to tweak her name a bit? I've always been vaguely
> uncomfortable about it being only one letter off from the name of a
> character who was so similar and so thoroughly removed from general use.
> (Of course, *her* name was only one letter off from one of the actual
> copyrighted characters she was a parody of, but that might just make it
> worse...)

Personally I don't mind that much. It falls into the case of too much
soundalike stuff to matter. Pantra ended up being a very, very different
character from Panta; we established the relation because we figured,
ironically, Pantra was kind of true to the reputation that Panta unfairly
acquired; she was from the start designed to be violent, promiscuous,
foul-mouthed, and with a very short attention span. As for the name, I'll
quote Pantha, Panthro, and, of course, the panther. In fact, we created
her before we knew Panta had ever existed, and when we did, we though it
would be funny to make that connection. In the 20verse, there's no
connection, the way she was originally conceived.

>> And I'm open to Minority Miss being an LNHer if other writers think
>> she's a good fit, I just don't have any story ideas for her.
>
> Hmmmm! To make her more usable, let's streamline her powers: She has
> any power that exactly one other member of the LNH has.
>
> (Indeed, you could tie this in to the origin of the LNH: The New LNH
> Member Detector decided that they didn't have enough of certain powers,
> so it somehow *changed* the powers of a new applicant.)

I don't know. “Exactly one” nerfs her a bit much (no flight?!?) and makes
her pretty much Substitute Lad. “At least one” makes her too powerful.

In fact I don't care that much about her powers, it's more her
personality and what she stands for (the mandatory token minority
character, just as many minorities as possible). And that's one reason I
don't want to write her: I think as it is she's more interesting as a +1
in group/task-force stories than as a main character.

What about we give her a simple, powerful, but extremely boring power
set: flight, strength, resistance, energy blasts. She's an Utility.

>> Since we haven't heard from Saxon about using ARAK, I'll propose a new
>> character: Obsessive Archive Lad. Some inspiration from Kid Recap and
>> ARAK, but characterization focused primarily on archive.org, and also
>> the curator of the Trophy Hall. I guess he probably has powers, but I'm
>> a bit in too much of a hurry to figure out what they are (really should
>> be in the office already).
>
> Hmmmm. Methinks this is the kind of thing Saxon would be interested in,
> and he's just busy and unable to tackle the ridiculous number of posts
> (187 so far in November alone!). So I don't want to step on his toes if
> he does want to bring ARAK in.
>
> That said, a character like this would be useful. How about... ah! My
> planned revamp of Library Lad could step in here. I'll make a post on
> that...

What I want is a character to narrate the flashbacks in the flashback
title. Kid Recap would be the Classic LNH choice, I guess.

We could also go the obvious route and call him Flashback. His power is
visually projecting memories. Very useful in court until the Supreme
Court ruled that violates the 4th Amendment or something, at which point
he retired to the LNHQ to curate the Trophy Hall. Probably still called
upon for the occasional interrogation.

>> [villainous snip]

>> > Questions:
>> > * Which characters are members of the Five Years Earlier LNH - that
>> > is, founding members?
>>
>> Pantra is definitely a noob. I could imagine MM being a founder, even
>> though it requires a different origin story. And the good Professor.
>
> With the backstory idea I put above, I'd say MM would be one of the
> first new members after the team came together. The Professor could be
> a founder; depends on his backstory, I suppose.

With the powers and metatextual intent I put above, she pretty much *has*
to be a founding member ;-) a minority-free LNH would be a Bad Thing
Indeed (says Mr. Victor Stone).

-- Lalo “politically concrete” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 11:17 am, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Or the 90s team could be the The Saviors of the Net.

...of course! Why didn't I think of that?

> So
> maybe: Felix Landers was once Flamebroiled Lad, the youngest member of
> the Saviors of the Net. He grew up in the slums of Netropolis and
> gained his powers when some robbers attempted to steal the Antikythera
> Mechanism from the Netropolitan Museum of History. The Antikythera
> Mechanism is a relic of an ancient civilization which developed an
> internet even more powerful than ours, but their civilization was
> destroyed by the psychic feedback from a massive flamewar.

...I love it. XD

> It gave him
> the power to channel the anger of the entire internet. The Saviors of
> the Net helped him control this power and find peace. But then they
> were betrayed by one of their own, Captain Killfile.

Niiiiiiice.

> Felix was the
> only one who escaped the killfile, but in the process he lost his
> powers. Yet he still fought on to save the Earth, having been trained
> in hand-to-hand combat by Chromium Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-
> Man. He worked for Pla.net.ary Investigations during the Lost Years.
> During this period he gained a lot of experience as a hero and became
> a skilled fighter and strategist.

Very good! I wonder what his name would be in this period, since he
wouldn't be any type of leader. Perhaps he trains in Tibet and gains
a moniker like the Flame of Light.

> When the Killfile fell he started
> seeking out new net.heroes to found the LNH.

Hmmmmm. Possibly, he's resistant to doing so at first until
circumstances come together.

> The Fearless Leader of today is
> kind and understanding but distant. He cares deeply for his teammates
> but still has difficulty forming friendships after the loss of his old
> team. Like the old version, he's basically the straight man to the
> weirdness of the Looniverse. He's also the only senior member who can
> put up with Ultimate Mercenary, because he reminds him a bit of his
> younger self.

Awesome.

> Oh, and the Flame-Broiled Force is still out there, seeking a new host.

Hmmmmmmmm... wonder if I should tie Kindle into that, or if that'd be
too everything-fits-together-y.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, don't want to use up all the plot
hooks.

[Scott Eiler]

L.E.G.I.O.N. was kind of an LSH predecessor, run by more-or-less Brainiac Two.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Perron <pwe...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 8:06
To: ra...@lists.eyrie.org
Subject: Re: LNH20: Earth-Twenty Roundup Thread And Getting The New Tag In There

On Nov 10, 9:34 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:11:40 UTC+1, Andrew Perron  wrote:
> > Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, YONDER.
>
> And thusly was the name of the 90's group created. Yonder. Or maybe Y.O.N.D.E.R. Or maybe that's an even better name for the secret/government group in the 60s and 70s?

Definitely the '60s government group - then we can riff on the Man
From U.N.C.L.E. craze.

Though this makes me think that, for the '90s group, we should take a
page from 501 Blues and call them L.E.G.I.O.N. Except, wasn't that an
actual Legion of Super-Heroes spinoff? Or am I hallucinating again?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Netblood?

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 2:34 pm, dvan...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:

>      Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network, a spinoff
> from the Invasion event.  LEGION was still around prior to the latest reboot,
> although their book was called REBELS for the two years and change that it
> ran.

Ahhhhh.

>      Licensed Extra-Governmental UberMenschen Elite - LEGUME
>
>      Dave Van Domelen, Department of Usenet Heroes - DUH

Ooooh, I like that last one as the official Dealing With The Hero-
Types Agency.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, DSHA-esque.

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 3:39 pm, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Definitely the '60s government group - then we can riff on the Man From
> > U.N.C.L.E. craze.
>
> Also S.H.I.E.L.D., UNIT, and a pile of similar tropes. I believe it all
> started with Fleming's SPECTRE.

Yes! Super-spies all over the place. Awesome.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, boom boom!

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 3:58 pm, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> In fact, we created
> her before we knew Panta had ever existed, and when we did, we though it
> would be funny to make that connection.

Hmmmm, fair enough!

> In fact I don't care that much about her powers, it's more her
> personality and what she stands for (the mandatory token minority
> character, just as many minorities as possible). And that's one reason I
> don't want to write her: I think as it is she's more interesting as a +1
> in group/task-force stories than as a main character.

Oh, I definitely agree.

> What about we give her a simple, powerful, but extremely boring power
> set: flight, strength, resistance, energy blasts. She's an Utility.

Hm. How about the opposite: A set of Aquaman-esque highly specialized
powers, each of which is useful only in a specific situation, but
together, making her a sort of Swiss army knife of heroing? Or
possibly powers that somehow reflect her ethnic heritages... (I just
want to get the "Minority" part in there somehow.)

> We could also go the obvious route and call him Flashback. His power is
> visually projecting memories. Very useful in court until the Supreme
> Court ruled that violates the 4th Amendment or something, at which point
> he retired to the LNHQ to curate the Trophy Hall. Probably still called
> upon for the occasional interrogation.

Hmmmm, that works. (There was a time-travelling villain called
Flashback back in the day, but since the names are the only
similarity, it's not even a thing.)

> With the powers and metatextual intent I put above, she pretty much *has*
> to be a founding member ;-) a minority-free LNH would be a Bad Thing
> Indeed (says Mr. Victor Stone).

Heh, good point. (By the way, did I mention Kindle is black? Because
she totally is. Also: A religious character who's not Self-Righteous
Preacher.)

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, and Kid E is multi-ethnic as ever.

[Scott Eiler]

Golly! Let *us* reflect that awesome!

--
(signed) Scott Eiler 8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Turns out I'm an anally-fixated oedipal paranoid with
south-of-the-border schizophrenic delusions... But never mind, I've
found me the ideal job. I'm going to run for President!

- Major Honey, scripted by Grant Morrison, Doom Patrol #46, August 1991.

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:39:10 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:

> Golly! Let *us* reflect that awesome!

Yes, yes, ALL shall reflect my awesome! Bwahahaha*koff**hurk**hack*

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, need a lozenge

[Scott Eiler]

On 11/9/2011 3:12 PM, Andrew Perron wrote:
> All right! We've had a lot of contributions so far, let's get them
> sorted out a bit.

Oh, let's have some more contributions. If I mention a new character in
an LNH thread, I'll donate it to all LNH-related media. So who wants to
write the first Dominatrix Woman story? 8{D>

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 10, 9:42 pm, Scott Eiler <sei...@eilertech.com> wrote:
> Oh, let's have some more contributions.  If I mention a new character in
> an LNH thread, I'll donate it to all LNH-related media.  So who wants to
> write the first Dominatrix Woman story?  8{D>

I actually had a character along those lines who appeared briefly in
the President Evil cascade--Baroness Wizard, Empress of the Space
Dominatrix Empire from 5000 AD. She was the archenemy of... who was
that character again? Oh yeah, Forgotten Gal, a Golden Age heroine
whose power was that no one could remember her. She was trapped in
limbo for decades by one Tiger Warlock (this was in 2006 so I didn't
intend him at the time to have anything to do with Charlie Sheen,
but...) before emerging to fight Zombie Ralph Nader or something. FG
had a kind of flirtatious, fun-loving, fight-happy kind of
personality. She and her archenemy were both kind of inspired by 40s
"Good Girl Art"-type comics, like Matt Baker's Phantom Lady. Forgotten
Gal was meant to be part of the Random Heroes, a group of heroes who
were all named by a random superhero generator, and Baroness Wizard
was the leader of their archenemies, the Random Villains. But the rest
were Mike Friedman creations and I don't know where he is, so I don't
think we can use the rest of them, and the other Random Villains were
too closely tied to their enemies. Still, I always thought Forgotten
Gal was one of my better creations from back in the day, and I made
her public domain so I was always a little disappointed no one ever
remembered... wait, who was I talking about again?

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 10, 4:21 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Very good!  I wonder what his name would be in this period, since he
> wouldn't be any type of leader.  Perhaps he trains in Tibet and gains
> a moniker like the Flame of Light.
>

I prefer to think he didn't really have a codename in this period,
since he wasn't really a superhero. There weren't any superheroes at
this time, but there were some neo-pulp hero and sci-fi hero types
lurking in the shadows, among them the operatives of Pla.net.ary.

> Hmmmmm.  Possibly, he's resistant to doing so at first until
> circumstances come together.

I think other members of Pla.net.ary who were pushing more to found
the Legion. I'll write in more depth about my ideas about the founder
of the organization tomorrow. I should probably get some actual sleep
tonight.

> Hmmmmmmmm... wonder if I should tie Kindle into that, or if that'd be
> too everything-fits-together-y.
>

Well, the Ifrit could have formed from the psychic energies created by
the destruction of the Antikytherans. Individual Ifrits aren't as
powerful as the full might of the Flame-Broiled Force. I just realized
how perfectly the idea of Ifrits as "an elemental being of fire and
creation" fits with something that's partially a parody of the Phoenix
Force. As for me, I like fitting everything together, maybe a bit too
much. :)

[Adrian James McClure]

Another thing: where are the former Saviors of the Net now? From what
Andrew wrote it didn't seem like Sig.Lad and the rest were dead, but
they're not around currently either. It occurs to me that Sig.Lad in
Dvandom Force was the successor of King Arthur, wielder of the Sword
of Sig, which was really Excalibur. So maybe he and the other Saviors
are still in suspended animation or some Avalon-like realm, or the
lost city of the Net.humans/Unhumans (who could also be descendants of
the Antikythera civilization?), awaiting their return in the Earth's
hour of greatest need?

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:37:58 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> I prefer to think he didn't really have a codename in this period,
> since he wasn't really a superhero. There weren't any superheroes at
> this time, but there were some neo-pulp hero and sci-fi hero types
> lurking in the shadows, among them the operatives of Pla.net.ary.

...I just got that. XD Okay, sounds good. (And note that the killfile
didn't affect anything outside the US.)

> I think other members of Pla.net.ary who were pushing more to found
> the Legion. I'll write in more depth about my ideas about the founder
> of the organization tomorrow. I should probably get some actual sleep
> tonight.

Ooooooh. Interesting.

> Well, the Ifrit could have formed from the psychic energies created by
> the destruction of the Antikytherans.

Ahhhhhh, very nice. That works for me. (And reminds me of the Djinn from
the Weather Warden series, although Ifrit are very, very different there.)

> Individual Ifrits aren't as
> powerful as the full might of the Flame-Broiled Force. I just realized
> how perfectly the idea of Ifrits as "an elemental being of fire and
> creation" fits with something that's partially a parody of the Phoenix
> Force.

Indeed. <3 So much serendipity!

> As for me, I like fitting everything together, maybe a bit too
> much. :)

Heeheehee. Well, we'll see...

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, not asleep yet.

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:26:31 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> FG
> had a kind of flirtatious, fun-loving, fight-happy kind of
> personality.

I am sold.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, much so.

[Adrian James McClure]

Right now I'm archive-binging Teenfactor, even though, as Tom Russell
has admitted many a time, the stuff he wrote as a teenager should be
prohibited under the Geneva Convention. I started out reading a lot of
Tom Russell's early stuff to research the backstory of UM, and I
decided to keep reading this to see how he developed from the author
of Manga Girl to the author of Net.Heroes On Parade. It's actually
kind of heartening to read the bad early work of someone who evolved
into an exceptional writer, it makes you more confident about where
you can go. (I should consider myself very lucky that most of my
teenage work was written elsewhere.)

Anyway: The idea I had for the founder of Pla.net.ary is a version of
Teenfactor's former leader, Jennifer Frost (an, er, homage of Emma
Frost), with elements of Elijah Snow and Catalyst Lass. I haven't
gotten to the good issues of Teenfactor yet so there are probably
important dimensions of her character I'm missing; I'm only vaguely
aware of the whole Voidmaster thing from what Tom wrote about it
later.

So: On January 1, 1912, a cabal of six low-level psychics known as the
Shadow Skimmers gathered together to carry out a ritual to shape the
destiny of the next century. They were all children of Voidmaster, a
powerful psychic and spiritualist who acted as a servant of Death.
Like the Olympians, they wanted to overthrow their father and become
the gods of a new age. One of them was a precognitive, and she drew up
a plot to summon a book of powerful magic from the future. A book that
embodied the creative potential of the new century. A book that had
the nation trembling in fear of the occult power it possessed.

That book was the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, and the
ritual made the Shadow Skimmers immortal and augmented each of htem in
one of the six stats--Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,
Wisdom and Charisma. Jennifer Frost--actually, "January Frost" would
probably work better on a number of levels. January Frost wound up
with superhuman Charisma, as well as peak human potential in each of
the other stats. This gives her the ability to sense and manipulate
peoples' emotions. The more willpower they have, or the more deep-
seated their emotions are, the harder they are to control; she also
has increased difficulty manipulating more than one person at once.

(Some say that a GM's Handbook was summoned back in time too and
arrived elsewhere. No one knows what would have become of it.)

January Frost, like most of the Shadow Skimmers, has switched back and
forth between playing the roles of hero and villain at various points
in her life. Once she was one of the founders of WHATEVER, but she was
betrayed by her former student Waffle Queen and her half-brother
Pickman Locke (who has superhuman Dexterity, sort of based on the
original Shadow Skimmers member Lockpick.) She founded Pla.net.ary to
stop their plans to rule the world. Besides Felix Landers, their other
operatives included Agent M, Kid Enthusiastic and Guy In A Trenchcoat
Fighting Ninjas; they also frequently worked with Professor Penumbra.
On one of their expeditions they found the LNHQ buried beneath
Netropolis, built (or grown, if we're going by Arthur Spitzer's
origin) by powers unknown. (IE, probably the former Manga Man Gold.)
It emerged from the ground in an earthquake caused by a cessation of
the Killfile. Frost, knowing that WHATEVER would probably start
seeking out the new net.ahumans, wanted to form a group that would
find and train them before they did. The former Pla.net.ary operatives
and Professor Penumbra formed the nucleus of the LNH, except for Guy
In A Trenchcoat Fighting Ninjas, who struck out on his own. Doc
Nostalgia and Minority Miss were their first recruits. Other members
were subconsciously drawn to the LNHQ independently.

As a Legionnaire, January Frost took the name "Charisma Lass." This
was because of Doc Nostalgia, who is a stickler for everyone having
names that end in "Lad" or "Lass" and has tried unsuccessfully to get
this added to the LNH constitution every year. (It doesn't have to
apply to him because he was one of the first.) He's the Legionnaire
who is the most difficult for her to deal with, so she plays along
with this. One of the few people she more or less considers a friend
is Fearless Leader. She is the only teammate who really understands
the depths of his loss. She's very much in love with him, but can
never admit this to anyone, least of all herself. Especially because
she has a lot of things in her past that he would not be happy to find
out about.

(Also, when he was Flame-Broiled Lad, Fearless Leader had flaming hair
like Kindle does now. But losing his powers caused his hair to turn
prematurely white.)

[Lalo Martins]

This thing is getting... places. Me likey.

-- Lalo “beer o'clock” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 10, 10:51 pm, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Another thing: where are the former Saviors of the Net now? From what
> Andrew wrote it didn't seem like Sig.Lad and the rest were dead, but
> they're not around currently either.

Hmmmm. I assumed from your FL backstory that they were dead, but
"mysteriously disappeared" surely works too.

> It occurs to me that Sig.Lad in
> Dvandom Force was the successor of King Arthur, wielder of the Sword
> of Sig, which was really Excalibur. So maybe he and the other Saviors
> are still in suspended animation or some Avalon-like realm, or the
> lost city of the Net.humans/Unhumans (who could also be descendants of
> the Antikythera civilization?), awaiting their return in the Earth's
> hour of greatest need?

Oho, very nice. I'm imagining... the killfile was actually supposed
to be stronger (possibly exiling all net.ahumans from reality - shades
of ASH!), but Sig.Lad used the fact that he was mortally wounded to
open the gate to Avalon (Ava.LAN?), drawing everyone else in and
freezing the process halfway. Now the Saviors, including Captain
Killfile, are stuck in suspended animation - but if they're released,
the killfile will reappear, stronger than ever!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, I need to re-read Constellation.
Again.

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 11, 12:37 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Oho, very nice.  I'm imagining... the killfile was actually supposed
> to be stronger (possibly exiling all net.ahumans from reality - shades
> of ASH!), but Sig.Lad used the fact that he was mortally wounded to
> open the gate to Avalon (Ava.LAN?), drawing everyone else in and
> freezing the process halfway.  Now the Saviors, including Captain
> Killfile, are stuck in suspended animation - but if they're released,
> the killfile will reappear, stronger than ever!
>

Awesome! But I kind of wanted Captain Killfile around in the present,
though maybe with vastly diminished powers, so we could have him as
the archenemy of Fearless Leader. Or her? Is Captain Killfile male or
female in this 'verse, and who's his/her mother? Anyway since Captain
Killfile is loosely the equivalent of Mordred, he/she could be, not
the actual son of Sig.Lad but maybe his former sidekick or something,
and Felix was always kind of jealous of him. And even more angry at
him for having that role and then betraying it. Also, to explore their
relationship to their common enemy, Death.

Being the Death of a superhero universe is always a difficult
position. Given the way superheroes and villains come back from the
dead all the time, you start to feel completely insignificant. The
office of every Death of a superhero universe has a revolving door.
It's no wonder so many of them turn evil. (Gaiman's was an exception,
but then again she was a Vertigo character and mainly dealt with
normal people.)

The original Death of the Looniverse-20 was one of them. Together with
his Heralds, such as Voidmaster, he wreaked chaos throughout the
universe and fought many net.heroes and villains. In the 1990 he
fought an epic battle with the Saviors of the Net during which he was
slain. The current Death of the Loonvierse-20 was forced to take his
place.

This Death is a scrawny, pale blonde man in his early 20s in an
immaculately pressed suit that's one size too big for him. No one
wants the job of being Death of a superhero universe. Any self-
respecting anthropomorphic personification would rather get a job
flipping poisoned burgers to punish the gluttonous in Hell than take
that job. Everyone who has it gets shunned at Anthropomorphic
Personification conventions. (AKA Anthrocon, whenevery they hold one
in a worldline resembling ours they get a bunch of confused people in
fursuits.) But Death was expelled from Anthropomorphic Personification
U. when he caught the head of the College of Shinigami in a
compromising position with a Great Old One, so now he's stuck here.

Death is actually not that bad of a guy outside of his job. But he
hates all net.heroes and villains as a matter of principle. He's
basically a spiteful, petty bureaucrat stuck in a terrible job who
makes life miserable for everyone he comes into contact with in his
work. Whenever he can, he interferes in any attempt to come back from
the dead using the arcane (in more sense than one) regulations
concerning resurrection. Sometimes mystical or ghostly net.heroes such
as Professor Penumbra will act as psychopomps, helping them escape the
(sometimes literal) labyrinths of beureacracy that Death creates.
(This was influenced by one of blogger Mightygodking's ideas about Dr.
Strange.) If they do come back, Death will act in subtle ways to make
life difficult for them. Death especially hates Fearless Leader and
Captain Killfile for the role they played in killing his predecessor
and getting him into this mess. He has also been plotting for some
time to resurrect Voidmaster to attack Ava.LAN and kill the Saviors
sleeping there, even though he hates resurrections on principle. He's
also hopelessly in love with Mother Time and will sometimes break or
bend his beloved regulations to fight the Legion to gain her love,
kind of like a reverse Thanos.

Death has a highly dramatic suit of black armor with roller skates (a
la the Black Racer) which he is required to use when he interacts with
superheroes outside of his Office, but he hates it. Basically hate
hates all the tropes of the superhero genre in spite of being in an
importan tposition in a superhero universe, rather like Brian Michael
Bendis.

> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, I need to re-read Constellation.
> Again.

Rereading Constellation and Dvandom Force is always a good idea.
Better than rereading Manga Girl. (But again, everyone's got to start
somewhere.)

[Adrian James McClure]

As for Minority Miss:

I don't like the idea of her having powers related to her heritage, as
that seems to cross the line between parodying comics' use of
stereotypes and indulging it. But I do like her having swiss-army-
knife like powers. Or alternatively she could have electric powers,
like half the black heroes in the DCU. (There was once a Wikipedia
category for "African-American heroes in the DCAU with electrical
powers.") She could also be a cyborg of some sort. I unfortunatley
haven't read enough of her stories to comment on her personality,
though she seems more balanced and together than many of the new
LNHers. So she'd be the equivalent of Donna Troy. In the sense of
being together, not in the sense of dating a creepy older man or being
retconned into incomprehensibility.

The name "Minority Miss" can easily be seen as condescending/
steretotypical, much like "Black Lightning." But then again, she was
the first. Much like Black Lightning. Well, technically, she wasn't
the first non-white LNHer--that was Kid Enthusiastic, but he's a manga/
anime-inspired character and the racial dynamics of manga fandom are a
little bit different from mainstream-comics fandom. She's a little
ambivalent about her role in the new universe as a major LNHer. On the
one hand, she sees the need for increased diversity in the new LNH,
the days when almost all the internet was white are long gone. On the
other hand, she's not sure she deserves to be made into this much of a
major character. (She's one of the characters who is aware of the
nature of the reboot--which means that she may be able to relate more
to certain beings Andrew was hinting about on the Author's group.) Her
archenemy is extremely racist pulp author and arcanist H.P. Hatecraft.

Before joining the Legion, Minority Miss was a member of the short-
lived New a.Outsiders, which consisted of:
herself, equivalent of Black Lightning
Extremely Boring Man, brother of Ripping Dancer, who has the power to
bore through things in an extreme manner and is also extremely boring,
equivalent of Geo-Force (I've never much liked Geo-Force. I don't
think anyone does except Brad Meltzer.)
Cute-Anna, equivalent of Katana
... I don't know who the Metamorpho equivalent would be.
Flood, sort of a revamped/gender-flipped version of Constellation,
equivalent of Halo. (Or if Dvandom doesn't want that, she could be
called Diva, after another Beyonce song)
and Sexy-Disturbed-Sparkly-Vampire-Man, former sidekick of Chromium
Age Very-Disturbed-Scary-Creature-Man (equivalent of Batman AND
Looker). Actually the main reason I made this post is to mention him.

[Dave Van Domelen]

Alternative powerset for Minority Miss, going more with the online
community aspect than the comics parody aspect: she thrives when on the
losing side of a struggle. The smaller the minority she's in, the tougher
and more vocal she gets. If she's the lone defender of an opinion, she's
almost impossible to defeat, even if she can't win. She prevents consensus,
she's the patron of the hung jury, she just keeps posting long after the
horse has been beaten into a fine red mist.

Dave Van Domelen, and then there's her nemesis, Mr. Majority, whose
power is proportional to how many agree with him.

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:13:59 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> Awesome! But I kind of wanted Captain Killfile around in the present,
> though maybe with vastly diminished powers, so we could have him as
> the archenemy of Fearless Leader.

Perhaps Captain Killfile is released somehow - some kind of automatic timer
or something - and is searching for the way to get back in and finish the
job.

> Or her? Is Captain Killfile male or
> female in this 'verse, and who's his/her mother?

Definitely female. And I thought everyone knew that I was Captain
Killfile's mo-- *stampeded by weevils*

(It will be *so refreshing* to have male hero/female villain without an
ounce of sexual tension. I can't wait.)

> Anyway since Captain
> Killfile is loosely the equivalent of Mordred, he/she could be, not
> the actual son of Sig.Lad but maybe his former sidekick or something,
> and Felix was always kind of jealous of him. And even more angry at
> him for having that role and then betraying it.

Ooooh, yes. I like it.

> The
> office of every Death of a superhero universe has a revolving door.
> It's no wonder so many of them turn evil. (Gaiman's was an exception,
> but then again she was a Vertigo character and mainly dealt with
> normal people.)

And the Black Racer was way too cosmic for that sort of thing.

> The original Death of the Looniverse-20 was one of them. Together with
> his Heralds, such as Voidmaster, he wreaked chaos throughout the
> universe and fought many net.heroes and villains.

Innnnnnnnnteresting. Does he get a name beyond "Death"? (Perhaps a
reference to the cosmic beings Killfile and Are.Em. See Limp-Asparagus Lad
#15.)

> No one
> wants the job of being Death of a superhero universe. Any self-
> respecting anthropomorphic personification would rather get a job
> flipping poisoned burgers to punish the gluttonous in Hell than take
> that job. Everyone who has it gets shunned at Anthropomorphic
> Personification conventions. (AKA Anthrocon, whenevery they hold one
> in a worldline resembling ours they get a bunch of confused people in
> fursuits.) But Death was expelled from Anthropomorphic Personification
> U. when he caught the head of the College of Shinigami in a
> compromising position with a Great Old One, so now he's stuck here.

...this paragraph.

...I love this paragraph.

...have I mentioned that I'm glad to have you on-board?

(That said, I'm afraid we're scaring people off by constantly replying to
each other. Don't be afraid, folks! Toss your ideas into the ring!)

> Whenever he can, he interferes in any attempt to come back from
> the dead using the arcane (in more sense than one) regulations
> concerning resurrection. Sometimes mystical or ghostly net.heroes such
> as Professor Penumbra will act as psychopomps, helping them escape the
> (sometimes literal) labyrinths of beureacracy that Death creates.
> (This was influenced by one of blogger Mightygodking's ideas about Dr.
> Strange.)

Oh, man. He must *hate* the auto-resurrecting Kid Enthusiastic. (Who, I
have decided, is conscious as a floating spirit while he waits to come
back. He probably helps with some of this pompery.)

> He's
> also hopelessly in love with Mother Time and will sometimes break or
> bend his beloved regulations to fight the Legion to gain her love,
> kind of like a reverse Thanos.

Oooooh, interesting.

> Death has a highly dramatic suit of black armor with roller skates (a
> la the Black Racer) which he is required to use when he interacts with
> superheroes outside of his Office, but he hates it.

*giggles* Does he carry a hockey-stick-scythe?

> Basically hate
> hates all the tropes of the superhero genre in spite of being in an
> importan tposition in a superhero universe, rather like Brian Michael
> Bendis.

*snerks*

Also, apropos of nothing: Atlantis on Earth-20 didn't sink. It lifted up
into the sky, and is still floating around up there.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, been watching Miyazaki.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Dave Van Domelen as of Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:49:32 +0000:

I like this. I'd say we go for the generic/swiss-army powers, but then
the intensity depends on how bad her side is doing (in debate, battle,
basically anything, as long as it's exactly what she needs her powers
for).

-- Lalo “what? there was a horse here once?” Martins

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 12, 2:31 am, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Innnnnnnnnteresting.  Does he get a name beyond "Death"? (Perhaps a
> reference to the cosmic beings Killfile and Are.Em.  See Limp-Asparagus Lad
> #15.)
>

Under most circumstances, every Death is simply known as "Death." It
gets a little confusing even to them. When he's interacting with
superheroes he's supposed to be known as the Ebon Skater, but he
refuses to use this name. Sometimes he walks in disguise among
humanity under the name "Mort Todd," but he's usually pretty easy to
spot because he doesn't blink. The previous Death had another name
too, but unfortunately I can't think of a good pun on "Nekron" right
now.

> (That said, I'm afraid we're scaring people off by constantly replying to
> each other.  Don't be afraid, folks!  Toss your ideas into the ring!)

Seconded! I will probably write less as I am supposed to be working on
the cascade issue (though given your plans and the fact that some of
what I meant to accomplish would work better as part of Flame Wars
Final, I am not sure how much of it works anymore--but I don't want to
lose that final cliffhanger). I also just started writing a first
draft for the first chapter of the first LNH20 cascade, "The Spoon of
Destiny Saga," even though this universe has not actually been created
yet. I'll post it to the author's group when I'm done.

> *giggles* Does he carry a hockey-stick-scythe?
>

Oh absolutely.

> Also, apropos of nothing: Atlantis on Earth-20 didn't sink.  It lifted up
> into the sky, and is still floating around up there.

That's got to cause a lot of trouble for air traffic controllers,
doesn't it?

Also:
Back when she was Sig.Lad's sidekick, Captain Killfile was known as
Kid Killfile.

Sock-Puppet Lad: He's a shapeshifter who has the power to turn into
people by putting on sock puppets of them, but he needs some of their
actual hair (or scales or something, if they don't have hair) to make
one. He takes on the powers of whoever he's impersonating, but he's
not as powerful. I don't know anything about him other than that he's
Middle Eastern.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Adrian James McClure as of Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:04:17 +0000:

> On Nov 12, 2:31 am, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The previous Death had another name too, but
> unfortunately I can't think of a good pun on "Nekron" right now.

Net.cron. IW :-)

(In case anyone here was never a Unix user: cron is the traditional Unix
component used to schedule tasks. Appropriate.)

(Oh, and the most popular implementation nowadays is called anacron. Why
is that relevant? It isn't, it's just awesome.)

-- Lalo “unscheduled” Martins

[Adrian James McClure]

"Net.cron" is perfect; it sounds exactly like something from the 90s
LNH. "Anacron" Is a pretty great name for a cosmic being in its own
right.

Another thing: There's been several instances so far where one of us
took a character created by someone else and remade them into
something considerably different such as Agent-M, Fearless Leader and
especially January Frost. How do we credit those characters? I think
it should be along the lines of "Agent Mephitidae created by Ted
'Arsenal' Brock and Andrew Perron."

[James Mason]

Hey just to let you know about Catastrophy's suit. The Original made
it in his basement and it's reeeeeeeeeeeeeally old and its made from
dung and animal hides from another dimension and it's magic. So it has
a bunch of seemingly-contradictory origins.

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:10:51 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> It's actually
> kind of heartening to read the bad early work of someone who evolved
> into an exceptional writer, it makes you more confident about where
> you can go.

I very much agree. To read Teenfactor and then read Jolt City should be
prescribed for people who are in despair about ever getting better.

> Anyway: The idea I had for the founder of Pla.net.ary is a version of
> Teenfactor's former leader, Jennifer Frost (an, er, homage of Emma
> Frost), with elements of Elijah Snow and Catalyst Lass.

Oooooh, I like it. (Note that I hardly remember anything of Teenfactor, so
I'll miss most of the references here.)

> So: On January 1, 1912, a cabal of six low-level psychics known as the
> Shadow Skimmers gathered together to carry out a ritual to shape the
> destiny of the next century. They were all children of Voidmaster, a
> powerful psychic and spiritualist who acted as a servant of Death.

Hmmmmm. All his children were in on this? Or was there a rebel?
(Comeliness Lass?)

> One of them was a precognitive, and she drew up
> a plot to summon a book of powerful magic from the future. A book that
> embodied the creative potential of the new century. A book that had
> the nation trembling in fear of the occult power it possessed.
>
> That book was the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, and the
> ritual made the Shadow Skimmers immortal and augmented each of htem in
> one of the six stats--Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,
> Wisdom and Charisma.

Hah, nice! XD

> Jennifer Frost--actually, "January Frost" would
> probably work better on a number of levels.

Indeed.

> (Some say that a GM's Handbook was summoned back in time too and
> arrived elsewhere. No one knows what would have become of it.)

*dun dunnnnn*

> Once she was one of the founders of WHATEVER, but she was
> betrayed by her former student Waffle Queen and her half-brother
> Pickman Locke (who has superhuman Dexterity, sort of based on the
> original Shadow Skimmers member Lockpick.)

The "former student" angle makes me think that she had a group of several
students at one point; possibly, all food-based.

> She founded Pla.net.ary to
> stop their plans to rule the world. Besides Felix Landers, their other
> operatives included Agent M, Kid Enthusiastic and Guy In A Trenchcoat
> Fighting Ninjas; they also frequently worked with Professor Penumbra.

Makes sense.

> On one of their expeditions they found the LNHQ buried beneath
> Netropolis, built (or grown, if we're going by Arthur Spitzer's
> origin) by powers unknown. (IE, probably the former Manga Man Gold.)
> It emerged from the ground in an earthquake caused by a cessation of
> the Killfile. Frost, knowing that WHATEVER would probably start
> seeking out the new net.ahumans, wanted to form a group that would
> find and train them before they did. The former Pla.net.ary operatives
> and Professor Penumbra formed the nucleus of the LNH, except for Guy
> In A Trenchcoat Fighting Ninjas, who struck out on his own. Doc
> Nostalgia and Minority Miss were their first recruits. Other members
> were subconsciously drawn to the LNHQ independently.

Hmmmmm. This origin honestly seems a bit too simplistic, too
just-one-cause. I like the combination of Pla.net.ary coming in to
investigate from one end, kids breaking out of the Waffle Queen's "school"
on the other, people protesting in the streets on yet another, and a
general weirdness level that's suddenly exploded out of anyone's control on
yet another. I want there to be room for characters that we haven't even
thought of yet. And I still totally want the LNH Setup Kid to be involved.

(I'm thinking that You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad discovers his
powers in a protest when he's treated roughly by a Dirty Harry parody with
a nighstick. I'm so into him being a founder, you have no idea.)

> As a Legionnaire, January Frost took the name "Charisma Lass." This
> was because of Doc Nostalgia, who is a stickler for everyone having
> names that end in "Lad" or "Lass" and has tried unsuccessfully to get
> this added to the LNH constitution every year. (It doesn't have to
> apply to him because he was one of the first.)

Bwahahahaha. Yes.

> He's the Legionnaire
> who is the most difficult for her to deal with, so she plays along
> with this. One of the few people she more or less considers a friend
> is Fearless Leader. She is the only teammate who really understands
> the depths of his loss. She's very much in love with him, but can
> never admit this to anyone, least of all herself. Especially because
> she has a lot of things in her past that he would not be happy to find
> out about.

All good character points! We definitely need someone with a hopeless
crush on her, too.

> (Also, when he was Flame-Broiled Lad, Fearless Leader had flaming hair
> like Kindle does now. But losing his powers caused his hair to turn
> prematurely white.)

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, ooooh, yes.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:50:10 +0000:

> On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:10:51 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:
>
>> Once she was one of the founders of WHATEVER, but she was betrayed by
>> her former student Waffle Queen and her half-brother Pickman Locke (who
>> has superhuman Dexterity, sort of based on the original Shadow Skimmers
>> member Lockpick.)
>
> The "former student" angle makes me think that she had a group of
> several students at one point; possibly, all food-based.

Or not. From the vibe I'm picking of January Frost, I think it would be a
scene more or less like this:

"You're here to achieve your maximum potential, become your true deepest
selves. So I want you all to be themed around your favorite thing in the
world. No matter what it is, no matter how silly."

"Er..."

"Yes, Mr. Robison?"

"What if it's really, really, really silly?"

"No, Mr. Robison. If you're here, is because you have the potential. So,
dismissing your greatest, truest source of joy like this, that's not
accepting who you are. Being 'silly' is all relative to how much you care
about other people's opinions. You need to be prouder."

"All right..." the boy went very red. "Then I'll be... Commander Plush
Slippers!"

"Excellent! Who else?"

"Hmm... Supreme Dominatrix."

"Excellent!"

"Captain Crossdresser."

The whole class looked at the athletic, handsome, womanizing young man.
The word "really?" could almost be heard, although nobody said it out
loud. He blushed very briefly, but raised his head high and repeated:

"Captain Crossdresser."

"Very well. You?"

"High Speed."

"Not good enough. What about Top Speed?"

"Of course! Thank you, Madam. Top Speed it is."

"Ah'ite, y'all, that's purt good-way. Ah thank ah'll be callin mahself
Texas Hold'em."

"Uh...", said the last shy student.

"Well?", urged January Frost.

"I think... Waffle Maid?"

"Maid? Absolutely not. You're better than most other people. Why, you're
fit to take my place one day and have your own students. You're fit to
be... a queen!"

"Hmm. Yes. It has a nice ring to it."

"What does?"

"The Waffle Queen. That's who I will be."

"Hmm. Yes! All hail the Waffle Queen!"

>> On one of their expeditions they found the LNHQ buried beneath
>> Netropolis, built (or grown, if we're going by Arthur Spitzer's origin)
>> by powers unknown. (IE, probably the former Manga Man Gold.) It emerged
>> from the ground in an earthquake caused by a cessation of the Killfile.
>> Frost, knowing that WHATEVER would probably start seeking out the new
>> net.ahumans, wanted to form a group that would find and train them
>> before they did. The former Pla.net.ary operatives and Professor
>> Penumbra formed the nucleus of the LNH, except for Guy In A Trenchcoat
>> Fighting Ninjas, who struck out on his own. Doc Nostalgia and Minority
>> Miss were their first recruits. Other members were subconsciously drawn
>> to the LNHQ independently.
>
> Hmmmmm. This origin honestly seems a bit too simplistic, too
> just-one-cause. I like the combination of Pla.net.ary coming in to
> investigate from one end, kids breaking out of the Waffle Queen's
> "school" on the other, people protesting in the streets on yet another,
> and a general weirdness level that's suddenly exploded out of anyone's
> control on yet another. I want there to be room for characters that we
> haven't even thought of yet. And I still totally want the LNH Setup Kid
> to be involved.
>
> (I'm thinking that You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad discovers his
> powers in a protest when he's treated roughly by a Dirty Harry parody
> with a nighstick. I'm so into him being a founder, you have no idea.)

I also think a more chaotic beginning would be a truer tribute to the
original LNH.

> LNH Setup Kid

one-shot character? :-P

-- Lalo “Reboot Setup Man” “would really like to call himself ‘something
Kid’ but that would be kind of ridiculous” Martins

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 12, 4:50 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Oooooh, I like it. (Note that I hardly remember anything of Teenfactor, so
> I'll miss most of the references here.)

Well, that's OK because it's very, very loosely based on it. Though I
do have a vague idea for a (new) new Teenfactor who are students of
the Waffle Queen, the Hellions to Lalo's team's New Mutants.

>
> > So: On January 1, 1912, a cabal of six low-level psychics known as the
> > Shadow Skimmers gathered together to carry out a ritual to shape the
> > destiny of the next century. They were all children of Voidmaster, a
> > powerful psychic and spiritualist who acted as a servant of Death.
>
> Hmmmmm.  All his children were in on this?  Or was there a rebel?
> (Comeliness Lass?)

Interesting. By the way, the one who got the power of Strength is a
former boxer named Basher Brick, he may be the LNH20 version of the
Chuggernaut.

>
> Hmmmmm.  This origin honestly seems a bit too simplistic, too
> just-one-cause.  I like the combination of Pla.net.ary coming in to
> investigate from one end, kids breaking out of the Waffle Queen's "school"
> on the other, people protesting in the streets on yet another, and a
> general weirdness level that's suddenly exploded out of anyone's control on
> yet another.  I want there to be room for characters that we haven't even
> thought of yet.  And I still totally want the LNH Setup Kid to be involved.
>
> (I'm thinking that You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad discovers his
> powers in a protest when he's treated roughly by a Dirty Harry parody with
> a nighstick.  I'm so into him being a founder, you have no idea.)

That does sound cool. I did suggest that with the idea that the LNHQ
was drawing people to it subconsciously, that it was somehow at least
partially responsible for all of these things. It may have sent out
the pulse that disabled the killfile as well. So the LNHQ created the
LNH, but who or what created the LNHQ?

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 12, 7:10 pm, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> "The Waffle Queen. That's who I will be."
>
> "Hmm. Yes! All hail the Waffle Queen!"
>

...I love this. I especially love the implied character arc for the
Waffle Queen.

> > LNH Setup Kid
>
> one-shot character? :-P

He was the LNH's answer to Ferro Lad or Thunderbird, the first one to
die in battle and the only hero who by the laws of the universe can
never come back from the dead.

[Andrew Perron]

Possibly including some seemingly-contradictory old enemies of the
original?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, catalogue~

[Adrian James McClure]

Also, once we actually get this thing up and running, we should start
getting the word out more about the LNH on the wider internet. Maybe
set up more of a presence on TVTropes.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:33:04 +0000 (UTC), Lalo Martins wrote:

> Net.cron. IW :-)
>
> (In case anyone here was never a Unix user: cron is the traditional Unix
> component used to schedule tasks. Appropriate.)

On Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:56:07 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> "Net.cron" is perfect; it sounds exactly like something from the 90s
> LNH. "Anacron" Is a pretty great name for a cosmic being in its own
> right.

I very much agree with these. <3 Anacron could be the cosmic being of
time-travel.

> Another thing: There's been several instances so far where one of us
> took a character created by someone else and remade them into
> something considerably different such as Agent-M, Fearless Leader and
> especially January Frost. How do we credit those characters? I think
> it should be along the lines of "Agent Mephitidae created by Ted
> 'Arsenal' Brock and Andrew Perron."

Sounds good to me! I credited Bluetooth like that over on the wiki.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, chronism!

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:04:17 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> Under most circumstances, every Death is simply known as "Death." It
> gets a little confusing even to them. When he's interacting with
> superheroes he's supposed to be known as the Ebon Skater, but he
> refuses to use this name.

And I can imagine Professor Penumbra constantly referring to him as that.

> Sometimes he walks in disguise among
> humanity under the name "Mort Todd," but he's usually pretty easy to
> spot because he doesn't blink.

Tod in the Shadows?

> I also just started writing a first
> draft for the first chapter of the first LNH20 cascade, "The Spoon of
> Destiny Saga," even though this universe has not actually been created
> yet. I'll post it to the author's group when I'm done.

Awesome. Cascades shouldn't be too planned-out, but making sure the first
issue is filled with plot hooks is a good idea.

>> *giggles* Does he carry a hockey-stick-scythe?
>
> Oh absolutely.

Awesome. I'd love a flashback issue with the '60s team where they have to
win a hockey game or the world will be destroyed.

>> Also, apropos of nothing: Atlantis on Earth-20 didn't sink.  It lifted up
>> into the sky, and is still floating around up there.
>
> That's got to cause a lot of trouble for air traffic controllers,
> doesn't it?

Nah. Originally, it manipulated weather patterns so that scheduled flight
paths never cross it. Of course, that didn't mean that a plane off-course
didn't occasionally stumble upon it.

Ever since it joined the United Nations, though, there's been treaties
about that sort of thing, and GPS signals.

> Also:
> Back when she was Sig.Lad's sidekick, Captain Killfile was known as
> Kid Killfile.

Ah, very good ref.

> Sock-Puppet Lad: He's a shapeshifter who has the power to turn into
> people by putting on sock puppets of them, but he needs some of their
> actual hair (or scales or something, if they don't have hair) to make
> one. He takes on the powers of whoever he's impersonating, but he's
> not as powerful. I don't know anything about him other than that he's
> Middle Eastern.

Hah! Yes, nice. But why Middle Eastern?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Nigerian?

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 12, 10:05 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Sometimes he walks in disguise among
> > humanity under the name "Mort Todd," but he's usually pretty easy to
> > spot because he doesn't blink.
>
> Tod in the Shadows?

Does that mean Obscurus Lupa is really Mother Time?

> Awesome.  Cascades shouldn't be too planned-out, but making sure the first
> issue is filled with plot hooks is a good idea.

Oh believe me, it is.

> Awesome.  I'd love a flashback issue with the '60s team where they have to
> win a hockey game or the world will be destroyed.

Well, I see Net.cron as being more of an eldritch abomination than the
current Death, IE, it rarely ever manifests and when it does we're
screwed. (Even though it might have been more human once, because--
nope. Not going to give that one away yet.) But the suit could have
formerly belonged to one of its Heralds.

>
> Hah!  Yes, nice.  But why Middle Eastern?
>
> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Nigerian?

Because there aren't a lot of Middle Eastern heroes in comics, and DC
actively bit down on an issue that had a Muslim Superman. It has
nothing to do with his specific gimmick/powers, which is kind of the
point. Also, I've been watching Community lately, and I was probably
thinking of Abed. Even though Sock-Puppet Lad is nothing like him in
personality. Probably he's more like Troy.

AJM (and if Schwa Khan exists in this universe, he bears a marked
resemblance to Señor Chang)

[Adrian James McClure]

I just wrote to Dane Martin, since I had a vague idea for Onion Lad,
and he's considering getting back onboard too.

[Scott Eiler]

On 11/11/2011 10:31 PM, Andrew Perron wrote:

> On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:13:59 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:
>
>> No one
>> wants the job of being Death of a superhero universe. Any self-
>> respecting anthropomorphic personification would rather get a job
>> flipping poisoned burgers to punish the gluttonous in Hell than take
>> that job. Everyone who has it gets shunned at Anthropomorphic
>> Personification conventions. (AKA Anthrocon, whenevery they hold one
>> in a worldline resembling ours they get a bunch of confused people in
>> fursuits.) But Death was expelled from Anthropomorphic Personification
>> U. when he caught the head of the College of Shinigami in a
>> compromising position with a Great Old One, so now he's stuck here.

> ...this paragraph.
>
> ...I love this paragraph.
>
> ...have I mentioned that I'm glad to have you on-board?
>

> (That said, I'm afraid we're scaring people off by constantly replying to
> each other. Don't be afraid, folks! Toss your ideas into the ring!)

Well, then, you'll be glad to know I've found internet in Alaska.

I don't really have much to add to the plan. But it sounds like one
more minion of Death will fit right in, should Don't Stay Dead Man show up.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:18:29 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> On Nov 12, 10:05 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>> Tod in the Shadows?
>
> Does that mean Obscurus Lupa is really Mother Time?

...yes. This is her new redesign. XD (Yay for getting the ref!)

>> Awesome.  Cascades shouldn't be too planned-out, but making sure the first
>> issue is filled with plot hooks is a good idea.
>
> Oh believe me, it is.

MWAHAHAHAHA

>> Awesome.  I'd love a flashback issue with the '60s team where they have to
>> win a hockey game or the world will be destroyed.
>
> Well, I see Net.cron as being more of an eldritch abomination than the
> current Death, IE, it rarely ever manifests and when it does we're
> screwed. (Even though it might have been more human once, because--
> nope. Not going to give that one away yet.) But the suit could have
> formerly belonged to one of its Heralds.

Hmmmmmm. Perhaps it slowly built up to that?

>> Hah!  Yes, nice.  But why Middle Eastern?
>>
>> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Nigerian?
>
> Because there aren't a lot of Middle Eastern heroes in comics, and DC
> actively bit down on an issue that had a Muslim Superman. It has
> nothing to do with his specific gimmick/powers, which is kind of the
> point.

Ah! That makes sense. <3 To clarify: I actually thought this was your idea
for a *villain*.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, in which case I'd probably want
something that was associated with the gimmick.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:10:41 +0000 (UTC), Lalo Martins wrote:

> "You're here to achieve your maximum potential, become your true deepest
> selves. So I want you all to be themed around your favorite thing in the
> world. No matter what it is, no matter how silly."
>
> "Er..."
>
> "Yes, Mr. Robison?"
>
> "What if it's really, really, really silly?"
>
> "No, Mr. Robison. If you're here, is because you have the potential. So,
> dismissing your greatest, truest source of joy like this, that's not
> accepting who you are. Being 'silly' is all relative to how much you care
> about other people's opinions. You need to be prouder."

...wow. Yes. So yes. So this. This is LNHiness incarnate *and* works in
a more "serious" context. Also, it's a philosophy I absolutely love.

> The whole class looked at the athletic, handsome, womanizing young man.
> The word "really?" could almost be heard, although nobody said it out
> loud. He blushed very briefly, but raised his head high and repeated:
>
> "Captain Crossdresser."

Awesome.

> "High Speed."
>
> "Not good enough. What about Top Speed?"
>
> "Of course! Thank you, Madam. Top Speed it is."

Yes. <3

> "I think... Waffle Maid?"
>
> "Maid? Absolutely not. You're better than most other people. Why, you're
> fit to take my place one day and have your own students. You're fit to
> be... a queen!"
>
> "Hmm. Yes. It has a nice ring to it."
>
> "What does?"
>
> "The Waffle Queen. That's who I will be."
>
> "Hmm. Yes! All hail the Waffle Queen!"

So.

Great.

> I also think a more chaotic beginning would be a truer tribute to the
> original LNH.

Indeed!

>> LNH Setup Kid
>
> one-shot character? :-P

Shhhhhh.

> -- Lalo “Reboot Setup Man” “would really like to call himself ‘something
> Kid’ but that would be kind of ridiculous” Martins

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, is already Kid Review.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:23:02 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> I just wrote to Dane Martin, since I had a vague idea for Onion Lad,
> and he's considering getting back onboard too.

I support this!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, supports poking all oldschool LNHers
people know.

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:02:22 +0000 (UTC), Adrian James McClure wrote:

> On Nov 12, 7:10 pm, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>>> LNH Setup Kid
>>
>> one-shot character? :-P
>
> He was the LNH's answer to Ferro Lad or Thunderbird, the first one to
> die in battle and the only hero who by the laws of the universe can
> never come back from the dead.

Heh heh heh. In that case, he'd be more like Bucky, wouldn't he?

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, bucking the trend.

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Andrew Perron as of Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:50:15 +0000:

>
> Heh heh heh. In that case, he'd be more like Bucky, wouldn't he?

You mean Bucky Winter Soldier, who's getting his own ongoing monhtly, and
until a couple of months ago was Captain America?

-- Lalo “Uncle Ben” Martins

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 14, 3:38 am, Lalo Martins <lalo.mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> quoth Andrew Perron as of Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:50:15 +0000:

> > Heh heh heh.  In that case, he'd be more like Bucky, wouldn't he?
>
> You mean Bucky Winter Soldier, who's getting his own ongoing monhtly, and
> until a couple of months ago was Captain America?

Indeed. You know, the one who shows the folly of saying *any*
character is un-resurrectable.

(Really, I just meant "the first one to die", but...)

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, skip about~

[Adrian James McClure]

Right now I am in the final round of my epic battle with Thesis
Master. It will be done on Thursday. If I survive, I hope to have the
LNH20 issue's first draft up on the author's group this weekend. The
other one... who knows. I'm considering just dropping that one and
letting Andrew go ahead.

[Andrew Perron]

On Nov 14, 5:32 pm, Adrian James McClure <lord_sold...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I'm considering making December into a month where I do one Just
Imagine issue every day until the climax - which would then slide
neatly into the cascade starting January 1st.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, would totally like to see Adrian's
notes if he decides not to do it.

[Adrian James McClure]

On Nov 14, 5:41 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm considering making December into a month where I do one Just
> Imagine issue every day until the climax - which would then slide
> neatly into the cascade starting January 1st.

Neat! But putting it off that long might be unnecessarily limiting--
there's a lot of momentum for this, Lalo even wrote a piece of writing
upthread. We don't want to lose that momentum. On the other hand,
posting beta versions of the early stories to the authors' group, like
I'm doing, could be a good solution. It could allow us to all get on
more or less the same page while also allowing room for the kind of
chaotic innovation that makes the LNH the LNH.

> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, would totally like to see Adrian's
> notes if he decides not to do it.

Sure. But there are certain scenes that, if you use them, I should
probably write myself. Can't say more than that now. (On the other
hand, there are a couple other parts you would probably do better than
me.)