8FOLD: Victory #2

[Drew Perron]

On 4/16/2019 1:13 AM, Jeanne Morningstar wrote:
> 8FOLD Comics Presents:
> VICTORY #2 [8F-191]
> "The Day After The World Changed!"

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD TITLE.

> CHAPTER 1: MORNING IN THE HOUSE OF GOOD...

THIS IS ALSO SUCH A GOOD TITLE. :D :D :D

> Elinor was gorgeous as always, even when she was still waking up in the morning. 
> She had this lovely, distinctive pastel goth style and had recently dyed her 
> hair purple. She was tall and fat; there was a lot of her and it was all good.

<3.<3 Beauteous

> Kate felt like a shriveled goblin next to her.

KATE YOU'RE ALSO PRETTY

> Elinor by contrast was more of a tea drinker. She could go on at considerable 
> length about different types of tea. She knew tea the way Kate knew level design 
> and four-colors.

Somehow this seems like a great thing for a partner. :D

> "Wow." She said. "I--I don't know. That'd be great, if we really had superheroes 
> again, but--" Oh right. She suddenly remembered. _That's me_.

OH MY GOD KATE I LOVE YOU

> Everyone knew four-colors were a central part of Kate's identity and who she 
> was.

Big mood.

> That was a big part of how she'd realized she was trans.

Also big mood

> She was glad now that she hadn't gone with Julie as her middle name like she'd 
> thought about. She would have died with embarrassment if she'd actually met 
> Julie-Ann Justice. Which theoretically might happen now. Oh boy.

:3 :3 :3

> "I understand," said Elinor. "So, uh. I totally get it if you can't come, or 
> want to leave soon, but... there's like a board game night tonight with a bunch 
> of my friends. I was telling one of them about you and they really want to meet 
> you." She smiled.

Awwwwwww! <3 <3 <3

> Kate's 
> own (blue, the same shade as her costume) was chipped and she was way overdue 
> for repainting them, another of those tasks she was so good at putting off. 

EXTREMELY relatable.

> "No, I understand. Good luck." She hugged her goodbye. Being hugged by Elinor 
> was such a nice feeling, and she wished it would go on forever.

eeeeeeeee

> Regret hit Kate the moment Elinor left the kitchen. Why hadn't she just told her 
> she was a superhero? Elinor was someone she knew she could trust with anything. 
> Then again, maybe she hadn't fully internalized it herself... Or maybe she'd 
> just read too many superhero comics and was falling back on bad secret identity 
> tropes because she didn't have a script for handling the situation herself.

SUPER relatable.

> She took a deep breath. "OK, so. My roommate, who I'm hopelessly in love with, 
> we talked about stuff but I couldn't tell her I was a hero now... Wait, why am I 
> telling you this?"
> 
> "I honestly don't know," said Cornelius.
> 
> "Anyway, how should I tell her about that?"

That's how the emotional venting goes

> "Why do I have to train? The original Mr. Victory didn't, did he? Everything 
> I've ever heard says he just jumped in and started doing his thing."
> 
> "So, you didn't have any difficulty with your new powers?"
> 
> "Uh, well... OK, maybe you have a point."
> 
> "And as I'm sure you'll find, there's quite a lot that even you don't know about 
> the original Mr. Victory.

I mean, training in a place where no time passes on the outside would certainly 
look like not needing to train.

> CHAPTER 2: MORNING IN THE HOUSE OF EVIL!

HOW EXTREMELY GOOD :D :D: D

> He had worked for the last 30 years as a lobbyist from an oil 
> company, during which he'd been both wildly successful and unnoticed by the 
> public.

Shudder.

> He sometimes smiled but never laughed. Once, at his daughter's eleventh 
> birthday party, he'd laughed. The room had fallen silent and the daughter had 
> fled in tears. He'd carefully restrained his laughter ever since.

That's such an amazing detail.

> The voice on the other end was one that, to anyone who heard it, would sound 
> oddly familiar but impossible to place. Paradoxically, the man who now called 
> himself Thomas Charleston knew from this exactly who it was.

ANOTHER AMAZING DETAIL.

> He had 
> known in his heart it was only a matter of time after all the cosmic ant-hills 
> that had been kicked up lately, but would never have expected it to happen so soon.

I love these low-key connections to the rest of the universe.

> He walked into his enormous library, pressed the location of the Bermuda 
> Triangle on the globe--the site of one of his bases in the old days--and spun it 
> quickly three times. One of the bookshelves creaked open, revealing the secret 
> staircase left untraversed for thirty years. He walked down amid the flickering 
> lights, brushing past the cobwebs and the dust. And there it was. His old 
> laboratory, now shadowed and dark.

oooooooooh.

> He opened his mouth and laughed. The laugh trembled through his body and he felt 
> himself vibrate with glee. Many and varied are the paths to becoming a villain, 
> but perhaps his fate was sealed since the first day he laughed. His laugh 
> sounded something like a rusted gate hinge, something like a horse, something 
> like a howling wind. Some called it the most horrible sound in the world. It was 
> perfectly suited to the role he had taken.
> 
> The seal had been broken. The wonders and horrors of the old world had now woken 
> up again. Which meant that it was time for Dr. Theophilus Chorazin to live again.

THAT'S SO FUCKING GOOD. THE AESTHETIC!!!

> In the future, I'll be posting this series every other week, alternating with 
> LNH: Retcon Year. Both will be in short, webcomic-y installments.

Goodgoodgood. <3

> Re Kate's name, I had actually forgotten that there was another major 8fold 
> character of that name, Kate Morgan AKA the third Dr. Metronome, later Shimmer. 
> As Drew pointed out, having names that recur in superhero universes isn't that 
> uncommon; the Marvel Universe has a bunch of Stevens and Peters. I wound up 
> making that a character point. Kate Aldrich wouldn't know about Kate Morgan, 
> though, because she doesn't have a public identity.

Now I'll have to make a Kate too. X3

> "Cosmic ant-hills" this refers to the ongoing Pulse War arc. I'm being 
> deliberately vague as to where this series is set with respect to that right 
> now, but it's definitely after the events of The Red Hart and The Last Story 
> (Mighty Medley #16).

Very good. <3 <3 <3

Drew "having just read Mancers made that feel Right" Perron