ASH/HCC: LL&DD Special "Surprise"

[Scott Eiler]

On 2/3/2012 3:45 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

>      "I really have to ask," Jennifer said, "Do you know who I am?"
>      Cameron gave her his trademark blank look.  "You're Ms. Blair," he said.
>      "You don't think I'm..." she trailed off, pointing to the scales of
> justice emblem on her chest, "You know...Lady Lawful?"
>      Cameron actually snickered.  "That's just a costume," he told her, much
> like someone would explain the sky was blue.
>      "Yeah, but..." Jennifer held up a finger. "Wait."
>      She snatched up a pair of scissors and a piece of blue construction paper
> from the table.  A fold and several snaps later, she held a paper mask over
> her face.  "Look familiar?" she asked.
>      Cameron's eyes went wide.  His mouth dropped open.  All night long she'd
> debated whether or not she should out herself.  She'd all but decided not
> to.  Making the mask was about as spontaneous as spontaneous got.  She just
> didn't feel right not telling him.
>      "You're Lady Lawful," he said.
>      Jennifer grinned awkwardly and replied, "Surprise."

My. *Great* surprise from the past.

I have a question about this challenge, though:  Do we need the 
*element* of surprise?   *Planned* surprise, that is?  I guess at this 
point, it's for voters to decide.  But as a voter, I'll be looking for 
planned surprise.

>
> =============================================================================
>
> Author's notes:
>
>       Thanks to Dvandom for telling me what this month's challenge was.
> Thanks to Scavenger for mentioning Perry and Dr. Doofensmirtz in chat.  I've
> wanted to use the "Doesn't recognize Agent P. without his hat" gag with my
> own favorite "frenemies" for a while now, but it wasn't until seeing the both
> things in the same day that I realized how to make it work.
>
>       For those who don't know, and I suspect that's not many around RACC,
> long before there was Twitter, Unix geeks has status updates by way of their
> .plan file.  Not me, sadly, I only know this because I like Unix geek
> history.  In the mid-90's, Deedee and the people he knew were as Unix geeky
> as they came.  [Editor's note: I have a .plan set on my eyrie.org account,
> although I haven't updated it in a few years.  And even back when it was a
> Thing, I didn't really change my .plan very often.  These days, so few sites
> even allow finger due to security issues that .plan files tend to go unread
> even by those who know of them.]
>
>       Finally, though I don't think it extends back to the 1990's, the Chicago
> MSI really does have an event known as "Science Superheroes Headquarters!"
> around Halloween (www.msichicago.org/whats-here/events/spooky-science/).
> While Jennifer Blair isn't usually on the MSI floor as part of her job,
> wearing a knock-off Lady Lawful costume and talking about super-heroes struck
> me as something she'd find perversely amusing on a night when she couldn't
> actually be Lady Lawful.


-- 
(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.