REPOST/SW10/HCC: Superhuman World 1996: The Curse of the Christmas Pirate!

[Drew Perron]

I really am going to catch up, but as it's still before midnight on the 25th, I 
may as well take this chance to say... Merry Christmas!

On 12/24/2015 11:01 PM, Scott Eiler wrote:
> Author's Note, 2015:  Ahem, since reposts are so popular this year, here's a
> Christmas one I just researched for a Wiki entry on...  well, I'd best follow
> through on that before I admit who it is.  The story itself is from 2013.  Merry
> Christmas!

Ah, I remember this! <3

> Jill got her powers when she was a girl.  Her
> family except for her died in an earthquake, on Christmas Eve. Jill feels
> responsible, because she got earthquake powers about that time.  When her foster
> relatives found that out *and* she'd developed super strength, they gave her to
> a samurai to raise.  He gave her the name Stonewater.

I don't remember if I've ever seen a story that got deeper into *that* thought 
process. XD

> Of course it was Chicago at Christmastime.  Of course it was snowing. So the
> planes were delayed.  That's one of the ancient horrors of Christmas.

Ah yes, that was the HCC

> There was this one little boy across the aisle from me.  He was holding his
> mom's hand with one hand, and a cheap sort of Raggedy Andy doll with the other.
> His mom looked even more tired than mine, which was weird for having just the
> one quiet boy.
>
> So I went and said Hi.  The kid just flinched away and held up his doll.  That's
> when I noticed how cheap it was.  Its smile had fallen off.
>
> His mom bent down to talk to me.  "Please excuse him.  His Raggyman doll is
> protecting him."
>
> And then...
<snip>
> "Well, *that's* a boring story."
>
> "But it's a true one!  It just gave me my very first impression that Christmas
> might suck for other people too.  If you ask me, *people* are the ancient horror
> of Christmas."

Awwwww. I think that's a good lesson.

> Stephen dissolved his mask.  Then he picked up the old, blank-faced but still
> ragged-haired rag doll...
>
> "Raggyman?"

Awwwwwwwwwwww.

> -  I'd wanted to invent a white-haired black-skinned pirate captain, to give the
> story a Caribbean Christmas touch.  But no such captain is known in pirate
> history.  So I picked the actual pirate Charles Vane. (ref:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vane)  I picked him because (1) he'd once
> taken over the island Ellipsis was living on, and (2) he was Blackbeard's boss's
> boss!

Heck yeah!

> I'd expected today's story would be hard to write, because it would be an
> Ellipsis Christmas story.  But it was fun once I got going, because it was
> mostly about his wife!

Naturally. <3

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, relaxin'