LNH: Dashing Tales #1

Andrew Perron pwerdna at gmail.com
Sat Aug 29 22:15:42 PDT 2015


On 8/29/2015 6:08 PM, Ben Rawluk wrote:
> DASHING TALES, episode the first,
> "Pitching to the Void,"
> by Ben Rawluk

!!!

AAAAA! RADICALMAZING!

> "I read him one of my poems--"
>
> "Jesus, Marco."
>
>"He asked! He wanted to be supportive." He sounds like he's trying not to
 > cry. "I forgot. I forgot for a whole minute. I thought -- I mean, maybe this
 > time. You know?" He looks up at her for the first time and watches as Emma
 > drops onto the edge of the roof alongside him. She squeezes his shoulder with
 > her dark-skinned hand. Downstairs, in the newsroom of the Net.ropolis
 > Netizen, Victor King is probably complaining loudly about reporters being
 > late for the morning editorial meeting. "I don't want to be a villain," Marco
 > says, fingers laced together in his lap.

Awwwwwww, poor woobie. I want to hug. ;.;

 > Eventually, Marco says, "Maybe I should go join up."  He's looking across at
 > the LNHQ, at the the huge statues in the Avenue of Net.Heroes.

Oooo, good worldbuilding.

>(And try not to think about how easily you can see all that no matter where
 > you go, about that particularly geographical oddity of Net.ropolis, because
 > you'll go mad otherwise.)

:D

 > "We're not really crusading reporters for a great Net.ropolitan newspaper.
 > Half the personals are cult recruitment ads from the Shimbleshanks."  She
 > blinks. "Okay, maybe we should both join."

Ooooo, good use of obscure setting details!

> Marco's face puckers into an ugly smile. "Bad-Poetry Boy."
>
> "And I could be -- The Headliner?"
>
> "You wish." He knocks his shoulder against hers. "Pulitzer Prize Princess."
>
> "Captain Truth."
>
> "Emma Dash: Girl Reporter."

Great gods this is adorable.

>Sooner or later everybody gets to sit through Bogus slobbering drunk
 > half-truths into the deepest hours of night. "Was he claiming to be Doctor
 > Deadbeat or the Jellomancer?" Sometimes when Bogus is talking about the
 > Occult beat, it's just a string of made-up words. "Because I'm pretty sure he
 > was Mister Failure."

Oh *snap*.

>"On the other hand," says Emma. "I had a dream the other night that
 > Net.ropolis got city-napped. Carmen Sandiego-style. Dumped on another planet,
 > with a bunch of other cities. Half of them were also Net.ropolis? And the LNH
 > had to fight all these other heroes and stuff. Like vampire versions of
 > themselves. The Society of Wireless Heroes."  She clears her throat. "That
 > would have been a great story. Page One. Victor King would have given me a
 > raise." She digs her teeth into her bottom lip. "Actually," she says. "I
 > could totally pitch that. Just say they went back in time and prevented it
 > from happening."

Oh that's good. <3 Good combination of reference and versimilitude and weirdness.

 > Bogus ignores him. Emma's hands ball into fists as she stands, and she has to
 > cross her arms to stop herself from getting too angry. Clement Bogus has
 > always been an asshole. He is not a well-rounded character. There's no point.

Metafiction~ *dances in the rain*

> "Emma--"
>
>It was your idea, she wants to say. Give Marco half the credit and maybe he
 > won't be an intern forever. The door closes behind Bogus and the three of
 > them are alone in the narrow stairwell, quiet enough that if you listen, you
 > can make out Conroy Brown's rantings. Emma Dash looks up at Bogus, at his
 > thrift-store suit and that ugly tie. Then she looks at Marco, who once caused
 > a ten-block-radius brown-out with a villanelle. "Welcome to the Secret Origin
 > of Bad-Poetry Boy, gentlemen."

Aaaaaaa. <3 <3 <3 Aaaa. Aaaa aa. <3

>Emma Dash: Girl Reporter, Bad-Poetry Boy, Clement Bogus, Victor King created
 > by Ben Rawluk, copyright 2015

Aaaaaaaaaaaa. <3

> AUTHOR'S NOTES
>
>It's been, what? 15 years or something? I've lurking on racc again. I don't
 > know, really, what called me back here.

It seems to have been happening a lot lately. My current theory is that the 
ending of Just Another Cascade was a Morrison-esque chaos magic ritual that 
actually spread inspiration through Earth's noosphere.

(Or it's because of the possibility of another Clinton in the White House. 
Whichevs.)

 > Been talking to Rogers some, helping him with some Easily-Discovered Man plot
 > points involving the Jones twins, though I don't know how I feel about the
 > Jones twins. Emma Dash and the associated cast members have been lurking
 > around in my head for a while, looking for a suitable outlet.

This was rad. I was afraid it was going to be slightly standoffish to the genre 
like so much social realism in superhero universes is, but no, there's some deep 
engagement with the meat of the Looniverse here. <3

 > It's nice to have some short, casual writing to play with in between working
 > on the novel and a poetry manuscript.

Ah yes. ~.~ The LNH is fantastic for that.

 > So, um, hi?

Welcome back!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, the joint is hopping!


More information about the racc mailing list