LNH/LNH20: The Liminals #9: Motivationquest Epilogue: After the Ordeal

[Drew Nilium]

On 8/30/22 10:24 AM, Jeanne Morningstar wrote:
<snip>
> "I can't believe it," said 
> Always-Seems-Powerful-On-His-Own-But-Gets-His-Ass-Kicked-in-Crowd-Scenes Boy, 
> lying on the hospital bed "I got my ass kicked *again!*

Eeeeeeheeheehee :D

> "I mean, look at me," he said. "I *do* win fights when I'm on my own. I really 
> do. I beat Acton Lord once! Well, maybe it was Action Lord. Well, maybe it was a 
> Space Dvandom disguised as Action Lord. 

X3 X3 X3

> The point is. The point is! I *am* 
> powerful on my own, but the Writers never use me for that! They always just put 
> me in crowd scenes! Where I get my ass kicked! Why?"
> 
> "I'm sorry," said Dr. Bad-Bedside-Manner, "but your name is 
> Always-Seems-Powerful-On-His-Own-But-Gets-His-Ass-Kicked-in-Crowd-Scenes Boy. 
> There's not much I can do about that."

Damn. Harsh but true.

> The LNH medbay was packed full after the battle with Reagent Omicron. Its 
> medical staff were stretched thinner than Laffy Taffy, not the least because no 
> one had ever come up with a named member other than Organic Lass and Doctor 
> Bad-Bedside-Manner as far as the present author can remember.

I should get on this.

...it would be *hilarious* if we had a doctor kiwi.

> Standing over him, he saw Victoria.  "MPL? You're OK?"
> 
> "So it would seem. I assume we won?"
> 
> "Yeah. We barely survived, just like we always do.

Damn, dropping some truth bombs. <3

> "...completely helpless, to be honest. By the end, I felt utterly lost in that 
> enormous battle."
> 
> "Nah," said Victoria. "I can't say I understood everything that was going on in 
> that fight, but I know you helped. You directed the flow of Drama, I guess, and 
> that helped you recover. You put energy in the system for other people and then 
> that gave you some back. That's how it's supposed to work."

FUCK YEAH. :D That's right!! And also I made sure to call out MPL as part of 
that Big Final Attack. X3

> "Well, I hope I never have to keep track of that many characters again," he said.
> 
> "Mm, I dunno about that. Seems like there's always another event around the 
> corner. But I'm going to assume after writing that last issue, the Writers are 
> as tired as we are."

Yeah. @- at v Yeah.

> "Where's Alice?".
> 
> "Probably checking out another dimensional anomaly somewhere. There's been a 
> whole lot of weird metaphysical energy zapping around. Always takes the universe 
> a bit to settle down after a crossover, so I hear."

Makes sense.

> "Victoria!" Sakura tackled her like a cat.

D'awwww

> "Yep! Good as new. Doesn't seem like there's any long term bad effects from, uh, 
> that. I was told that the fact I gave myself a name actually helped, made me 
> more stable or something. And you thought it was too silly!" She stuck her 
> tongue out as Masterplan Lad.
> 
> "No, nothing is too silly for this universe. I'm learning to accept that.... 

:3 Yesssssssss

> They said they figured there were enough 
> Ghost Rider type characters in this universe, and they'd work better in that 
> one, especially since they sent its Legion off into space so it needed a few 
> more heroes back on Earth..."
> 
> "And there's a Drew there. More than one, even." Manga Girl giggled.

Heeheehee ^#^

> "Yeah. You know, the Omegaverse. The universe of the now defunct but influential 
> ~serious RACC imprint Omega."
> 
> "Alice... babe..." said Victoria, "The internet has changed a lot since 1997."

I love this joke so fucking much. X3 X3 X3

> "Yeah, what happened in that last big fight?" said Manga Girl. "I heard you were 
> kind of... directly manipulating the Dramatic energy of the Looniverse, without 
> the Plot Device?"
> 
> "Yes. It was... difficult. Exciting and terrifying. I'm experiencing my body, my 
> power, the nature of the story I'm in very differently now.

Hell yeah. That's what happens when you stop disassociating.

> He was still afraid, wanting to step away from the precipice he was one. But one 
> day he had to get it over with, and it was better to do it now, in a 
> post-crossover "quiet issue" like this one where there weren't too many 
> unnecessary plot complications in the day.

Excellent point. X3

> 
> "After my... near-death experience and the Catalyzation Wave, I've had... 
> certain realizations about myself. I... am not a cis man."

yessssss :D :D :D

> I'd been familiar with the concept of dysphoria and believed 
> it didn't apply to me because, for one thing, it doesn't normally apply to 
> cosmic beings, and for another thing, I didn't feel that this idea of being 
> 'trapped in a wrong body' described me. My body wasn't wrong, it just... wasn't 
> me, exactly."

Yeah, that's a common one. X3 Not me, but in the same neighborhood.

> He looked up at the ceiling. "For a long time, I truly believed in the Knights 
> Temporal's teachings, not insincerely as many of its leaders did, but with all 
> my heart. I believed our cause was necessary, and I'd seen evidence for it. In 
> my time in the Knights's service, I saw so many horrors. Worlds wrecked by 
> narrative chaos and unmediated Drama. I saw realities where time and space were 
> torn apart. I saw Retcon Screamers rising up from the rips in realities 
> stretched to breaking by contradictory storylines. I saw the Incoherent Writer 
> Man rain down Magic Fruitcakes from the sky."
> 
> He took a deep breath. "But now, immersed in this world and the absolute 
> nonsense that makes it up, I have come to see that I was wrong. That the Knights 
> Temporal, through their rigid approach to reality, created their own monsters. 
> There's still so much I don't understand about this world and my place in it. 
> About who and what I am now. But... I'm learning to live with that, slowly.

*whew*. That's so familiar. @@v Good job. <3

> He looked back at his friends. "At any rate, for now, I'm going to say... I am 
> nonbinary. I suppose I can start using they/them pronouns to see how it feels."

:D Yaaaaaaaay

> "I still don't entirely know about my names--though I decided some time ago that 
> my middle name is Xauriel, though I still can't say I'm entirely sure even of 
> that. 'Masterplan Lad' doesn't fully feel right anymore, but I haven't found a 
> name that does. I'd like to have a first name that allows the underlying pun in 
> my name to work, but haven't fully decided yet--"
> 
> "Can we call you Dee for now?" said Manga Girl.
> 
> "If you must."

That's adorable :> <3 <3 <3

> The current Writers being what they are, I'm sure 
> they'll nullify the current wave of anti-trans bigotry in the Looniverse, as 
> they did the pandemic, but... I don't doubt it'll leave its mark on me in some 
> form, just as the pandemic did. You know, after September 11th, Self-Righteous 
> Preacher successfully convinced the RACCtre to undo the effects of the attacks 
> [See Limp-Asparagus Lad #55--Footnote Girl], but the Bush-era comic tropes that 
> came from them still affected the Looniverse through Beige Countdown–the 
> registration act and so forth. I worry we'll be going through something similar."

Yeah probably!!! @- at v

> "Maybe," said Victoria. "I don't know what to say other than... You get used to 
> it." She sighed.
> 
> "And we'll be fighting for you every step of the way. Don't forget that," said 
> Alice.

YEAH!!!

> "Awww," said Victoria. "And you're going to have to get more clothes than just 
> the one suit, y'know."

yesssss some cute ones :D

> No one could ever mistake me for a magical girl, I'm afraid."
> 
> "Well," said Victoria, looking back on their hair which had got long, floppy and 
> tousled while they were recovering, "right now you look pretty Cure."

X3 <3 <3 <3

> "Hey, sorry about this, but I gotta run off for a sec," said Sakura. Demigod 
> business."

Ah, so *that*'s her version of "bathroom time"

> As a divine being, Sakura Mangas could sense certain powerful and distinctive 
> magical presences.

Yessssss :D

> "OK, be honest. Did you come to visit MPL?"
> 
> "...no."
> 
> "You didn't want them to see you while they was conscious, did you?"
> 
> "...."

D'awwwwww

> "OK. One last question. Do you want to join our team?"

YEAH!!! :D

> "I... why the hell would I do that? I'm a trenchcoater. Someone who walks in the 
> shadows, the hidden places in the world full of unimaginable wonder and terror. 
> I walk alone." It seemed like a well-rehearsed speech, which she said in a very 
> matter-of-fact way.
> 
> "Didn't there used to be a whole brigade of you guys?"

X3 <3
> "Do you really want me around?" said Maria. "Do you know what trenchcoaters are? 
> I'm one of the broken and the damned. I'm not good for the people around me."
> 
> "Hmmm," said Manga Girl. "I've noticed you kind of do the thing of... 
> aestheticizing your own flaws and issues as a person and making that the core of 
> your identity instead of trying to deal with them."
> 
> Maria's jaw dropped.
> 
> "Oh, whoa, I didn't mean to roast you that hard. I'm sorry."

*CACKLES* This is absolutely my favorite part of this issue. I love it.

> "The LNH has free therapy for all its members, y'know."
> 
> "No way in hell I'm ever joining the LNH, sorry. But... I'll see you again. 
> Maria out."
> 
> And she mounted her ostrich and raced off into the warm Net.ropolis evening.

:>

> Dee Xauriel McKenna (?)--Masterplan Lad, guardian of the narrative; Victoria 
> Arden--Forsaken Lass, survivor of Limbo; Alice Ashdown--Net.Access, champion of 
> crossovers; Sakura Mangas--Manga Girl, synthetic senshi of creativity; and Maria 
> Hart, troubled trenchcoater, along with her ostrich familiar Sunny!  They are 
> four young net.heroes, one trenchcoater and one ostrich who fight to understand 
> themselves and the worlds they inhabit, moving between the heroism of the LNH 
> and the uncanny strangeness of the Lunaverse--the Liminals!

HELL YEAH HELL YEAH!

> Masterplan Lad looked in the mirror, carefully applying the dark green lipstick 
> to their lips.
> 
> They'd been held up from delving into these feelings by one thing or another for 
> a very long time, by problems in the Looniverse and the forces of Real Life. 
> They were far, far behind where they wanted to be.
> 
> But it was a start.

:> That's always the way. Good luck!

> EARTH-20, THE MIDWEST
> 
> Jeanne Morningstar, former writer and now undead motorcycle-riding magical girl 
> champion of justice, stood beside their newly-created hellbike and looked down 
> the highway.

:D :D :D

> It had taken them a while to come up with a good name. For a while, they'd been 
> thinking about 'Chainsword Girl.' Bu now that they existed in the same reality 
> as Drew as Writer's Block Person, they wanted to evoke that kind of toku-y-ness 
> they shared.

^#^ <3

> And in the 70s there was a short-lived comics character Gary Friedrich came up 
> with called Hell-Rider, that was kind of a zero draft version of the Johnny 
> Blaze Ghost Rider. And so from now on they would be...
> 
> HELL WRITER!

YEAH! <3

> They examined their hellfire motorcycle. "So now I'm a pastiche of classic Kamen 
> RIder *and* 90s Ghost Rider. Coooool."

yessssssss. <3

> They sat on top of it. "Well, here goes. 
> CRY FOR THE MOON!" They drove off into the highway as a melancholy but funky 70s 
> toku theme played.
> 
> The sign on the side, familiar from past road trips, read HELL IS REAL.
> 
> "You're telling me, road sign," said Hell Writer.

So style. |>

> Then they remembered that in the Real World they had never touched a motorcycle 
> in their life.
> 
> The motorcycle crashed into the cornfield.

oh nooooooo X3;

> Hell Writer picked themself up and dusted themself off. They'd get the hang of 
> this eventually...

Ganbatte! :D

> And thus ends the first "season" of The Liminals. And it only took what, five 
> years? Well, better late than never.

Indeed! :>

> The Hell Writer bit was originally supposed to set up a new series... Maybe it 
> will, but I have a bunch of other series ideas I want to get into, and started 
> doing other stuff with Earth-20 with Post-Metal Doomcore. But I'm definitely 
> doing something with that someday.

Not too many plans, just lettin' it simmer. |>

Drew "that's the way you do it" Nilium