8FOLD/ACRA: Jolt City # 22, "October Surprise!" (Part 1 of 3)

[Scott Eiler]

On 7/20/2014 9:20 PM, Andrew Perron wrote:
> On 7/17/2014 10:10 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
>> Pocket Vito stands on his desk, resting his tiny cigar in a tiny ashtray.
>>     "Lissen up, you mugs!
>>     "I'm head of this city, see?
>>     "And anyone who thinks otherwise is in for an...
>>
>>            "...OCTOBER SURPRISE!"
>
> ...special guest star Octobriana?

 From what I've seen of Octobriana, that would seriously be not Jolt 
City style, but it would still be pretty cool.

... It took me a while to read this story.  I found, for one thing, that 
the text editor on my cell phone gets confused when it shows more than 
about 64 KB in one file.  So I'll just spew comments randomly.

*  "Day of Terror" seems more like "Day of Panic" to me.  I know 
"terror" and "panic" are nearly interchangeable words according to the 
dictionary, but Jolt City seems enough like The Real World (tm) that 
"terror" probably is used only for "terrorist attack".  Absent the 
"attack" part, even the panic would be a temporary thing.  The probable 
public reaction would be to put on tinfoil caps and carry on.

*  I'm familiar with the theory of alternate pasts; I've explored that a 
bit in my own stories.  The main justification for the theory is, time 
is symmetrical and all we can be surest about is the present.  So I have 
allowed time travel in both directions, though you do have to specify 
*which* past or *which* future.  But it's reasonable to ban it to the 
future.  The theory about The Past Trying To Kill Intruders is also 
interesting, though in my world The Past would mostly be a source of 
allergies (kind of like things other than The Midwest are for me).

*  It was a nice touch to have the Mob War end by Part 2 of 3 *and* not 
draw Our Heroes in.  Things aren't always about Our Heroes, but they are 
always about Jolt City.

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

When you *are* the leader... whatever goes wrong... whether you did it
or not... *you* are held responsible. - Barack Obama

I know. - Archie Andrews

- from Archie #617, March 2011, scripted by Alex Simmons.