[ASH] Time Capsules #14 - "Here I Go Again"

[Dave Van Domelen]

    //||  //^^\\  ||   ||   .|.   COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED PRESENTS
   // ||  \\      ||   ||  --X---------------------------------------------
  //====TIME=CAPSULES====== '|`      ASH UNIVERSE: TIME CAPSULES #14
 //   ||      \\  ||   ||	            "Here I Go Again"
//    ||  \\__//  ||   ||            Copyright 2020 by Andrew Burton
					  and Dave Van Domelen
___________________________________________________________________________

     "Guh, I need something lighter to clear my brain out after the Dragonfly
journals," Kaoru muttered.  "I guess I could watch one of the files we think
is from Supracon '97."
     One of the recurring side effects of media fandom being infested with
academic nerds was that they tended to hold meetings that looked like
funhouse mirror distortions of academic conferences.  That sometimes extended
past the edges of entertainment fandom, as happened with superhero
conventions back in the Third Heroic Age.  Sure, there were serious Violation
Physics conferences, but those were vastly outnumbered by the fannish
conventions that celebrated supernormals and sometimes provided more insight
into their nature than the staid and serious conferences did.
     On the plus side, from a historian's perspective, there was a LOT more
documentation of the actual events than in the results-oriented conference
proceedings.  Someone was certainly interested in those conference
publications, but not Kaoru and his colleagues.  They wanted the view fro,
the ground level.  Pictures from the convention floor, all the costumes and
t-shirts and buttons and other artifacts of culture, squirreled away in
closets and storage bins.  Deeper-history archaeologists learned a lot from
garbage pits, and Kaoru sometimes thought of fandom artifacts as another sort
of midden.
     On the minus side, they tended to be less well organized than your
typical midden.  A lot more of the digital media survived than anyone
expected would, but the 1990s were still recovering from the very limited
technology of the 1980s, which is why Kaoru's "digtial midden" was full of
things with names like "SCON97LLDDMM.mov" which probably meant something to
the original owner, but was pretty obscure to anyone else.  There wasn't an
option for a summary, or if there was the maker didn't know how to use it.
So the name had to be both short enough to fit on a limited computer screen,
and descriptive enough to let the creator know what was in it.
     It was in his "I think I know what this is about" category, though,
because it was in a batch dug up in ruins near old Chicago.  That meant
"SCON97" probably referred to the last of the Supracons held in Chicago
(Supracon 98 was planned for August 1998, oops), and "LLDD" probably referred
to Lady Lawful and Doctor Developer, who had been guests at Supracon '96.
Kaoru couldn't recall any mention of them attending Supracon '97, so this
could have been a previously unknown appearance.  Or it could just be a panel
about them, but with them not present.  A lot of "convention archeology" was
disappointing like that.
     Bracing himself, Kaoru loaded up the file and waited for the conversion
algorithms to interpret the data and fill in the inevitable holes caused by
physical and information entropy.
     The image was unsteady, the sound muffled.  Typical of 1990s portable
recording technology in the hands of amateurs.
     On a stage under lecture-style lighting were two figures, very clearly
fans in costume rather than the heroes themselves.  Kaoru sighed.  Some sort
of costume contest, or maybe a skit?  Decent costumes, at least.
     Then the music started, doubly distorted by the cheap speakers playing
them at the convention and the cheap "camcorder" microphone.  The audience
reacted with a mixture of recognition and horror as the costumed fans started
to dance, and then "Doctor Developer" took a deep breath.
     Oh no....

	       *	      *		     *		    *

Doctor Developer:

I've been beaten by you, don't know how many times.
Foiling all of my plans, stopping really cool crimes.
Look at me now!  On the lam again.
I don't know how but I'm going to show them all.
Gonna show the whole darn world!

Just one plan and you will all rue the day!
One more trap so you won't get away!  Bwa-ah-ha!

Lady Lawful, here I go again.
Oh, my, how much I detest you!
Lady Lawful, does it show again?
Oh, boy, just how much I've missed you.

Yes, I've been brokenhearted.
Blue since my schemes were thwarted.
Oh, why?  Did I ever let you go?

Lady Lawful, now I really know!
No more!  I will never let you go!


Lady Lawful:

I've been strapped in, tied down to these things you build.
If you wanted me dead then surely I'd’ve been killed.
You make your speech, then you throw the switch.  I think you know
That you can't keep me here too long.  You know that I'm super strong!

One big push and your deathtrap is spoiled.
Once I'm out you know your whole plan is foiled!  O-o-o-oh!


Doctor Developer:

Lady Lawful, you've escaped again!


Lady Lawful:

Deedee, now should I arrest you?


Doctor Developer:

Lady Lawful, you’re my nemesis!


Lady Lawful:

Deedee, then why did I kiss you?

Now that your plans are thwarted,
Time something new was started.
Deedee, time to be a super-hero!

	       *	      *		     *		    *

     "Well, that was certainly...a distraction."

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Author's Notes:

     To the tune of "Mamma Mia!" by ABBA.  Just the regular one, not the Ska
cover.  (Yes, there is one.  And a "Skunk" cover.)

     The framing sequence takes place shortly after the one from Time
Capsules #10.  Supracon '96 was seen in High Concept Challenge #36.

     The "filk" song was something quickly thrown together on a lark, and
then it sat for a month or two with vague ideas of working it into a story or
extending it to a more complete musical.  Eventually, it was agreed it needed
to be put in the canon somehow, even if just a short Time Capsule like this
one.  Dave wrote the framing sequence, Andy wrote the filk.

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