Crossover - Chapter 9

Featuring Subject 13, Prototype Alpha, and Pixie of Youth Brigade

Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, late night
Nasty entered the hotel room she shared with Eric.  He followed inside after her.  "Tash, are you sure you want to come back here?"

"Yeah.  I'm tired.  It's," Nasty checked the time on the room's alarm clock, "past midnight.  You can stay at the dance longer if you want."

"I'm fine.  It wouldn't be as fun there without you, you know?"

Nasty dropped on to the couch and kicked off her shoes.  She wriggled her toes, working out the kinks.  "It didn't go as bad as I thought."

Crossover Chapter 8 - Commentary

The invaders discover the convention.  Welcome to the commentary for the eighth chapter.  Please read the chapter before continuing.

The first night of the CHC finally comes to a close with a dance.  At least the three main characters are in the same room and talk to each other.  Security having red shirts was deliberate.  It'd be expected, really.  Also means that the security staff might feel a little under-appreciated.

Meredith hasn't heard of Nasty, though she is aware of both Eagle and Peregrine.  She knows that Peregrine unmasked but who Peregrine was has slipped her mind.  The animated Justice League Unlimited series had a similar take, when Lex Luthor swapped bodies with the Flash.  When Luthor unmasked himself to see who the Flash really was, he never recognized the face beneath.  Wally West wasn't a household name, unlike Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Oliver Queen (Green Arrow).*  Nasty, despite the big splash, isn't a household name.  Her neighbourhood and her school are well aware of her celebrity, but the further away from there, the less people know about her and her life, even if they do know Peregrine unmasked.

Keith's dancing was inspired by The Sims 2.  In the game, Sims that are outgoing but new to dancing tend to make bold moves that cause them to fall.  Keith is using a few moves from the game.  He may even have learned from the game; Keith much prefers a simulation of social interaction to the real thing.

Nasty's making a leap in her logic in assuming that Vicki's counterpart is helping her own.  To be fair, it's not a bad assumption.  For all she knows, mirror-Vicki could be the mastermind or could just be an innocent bystander.  Bringing in Pixie isn't a bad idea; two heroines are better than one, and Pixie can remove people from a fight without hurting anyone.  Vicki is taking full advantage of the situation; she's never heard Nasty ask for help before.  She wanted to hear it again.

The alternate universe Vicki went on about is from fanfiction.  Alternate universe (AU) fics take the characters from one work and transplant them.  Another example would be taking the characters from Jane Eyre and placing them into a modern day high school with Mr. Rochester becoming a sparkly vampire that never grows old**.  Vicki's example with Lost is a little dated, but works.  Today, she'd use Harry Potter or Big Bang Theory for her example.

Or maybe not.  Vicki explicitly references the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", where Kirk and a landing party are sent to a mirror universe because of a transporter accident.  The Spock of that universe sports a goatee, launching a meme that is still going.***  Eric would get the reference.  Nasty?  Not so much.  This is setting up their eventual break-up down the road.  Nasty and Eric are good friends and are a cute couple, but there's enough differences to cause problems.  Besides, they're still young.  There's no need for them to become lifelong partners.  Plus, added drama!

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 9.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, the History of Adaptations continues with the New Teens.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, wrapping up the History of Adaptations
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of /Lost in Translation/.

* Lex did have Wally's fingerprints at his fingertips.  With some effort, he could have discovered who Wally is, if he cared enough.
** I never said anything about the quality of AU fics.
*** Evil-Kirk didn't have a goatee, but Leonard Nimoy's portrayal and striking looks cemented the image.

NaNoPrep 2015 - Update

With just three weeks to go before NaNo November, I need to figure out what I'm doing.  Somehow.  I don't need to know what happens in the middle, but I need to have at least characters, a starting position, and a direction.  It's easier for me to hit the ground running* after letting the characters form in my head than it is to stare at a blank document waiting for an idea to strike.  I have had a few ideas already, summarized below.

Unruly:  Students at a school for girls who are trouble.
Streetwise Valkyries:  Street-level teams of heroes masquerading as one superhero.
The Clockwork Avenger:  Steampower power armour, with the action split between two eras.
Colony Base 183 (working title):  Set on a frontier base near borders with other star-faring nations.
Lakehead Shield (working title):  University students solve mysteries and fight crime in Thunder Bay.
A fifth idea came to mind, an science fiction espionage story, melding the two genres.
A sixth, essentially a Shadowrun webcomic, is also playing through my head, but isn't under consideration.

This will be my tenth year participating.  I'm placing some requirements for this year.  First, the work must be novel length.  That lets out Unruly, unless I work on an end-of-year story, which I'm not ready to do yet.  Streetwise Valkyries also falls off the chart here; its nature leads to a serial instead of a full-length novel.  The SF/spy story isn't quite ready; there are details being sorted out.  That leaves Clockwork, Colony Base, and Lakehead.  With the latter having some work done, it's sort of out of consideration for now.

Both of the remaining two have core characters in mind and a rough direction.  Clockwork has the smaller cast so far, but will involve writing a story spanning two eras.  That's a feature, though.  Colony Base 183 needs some extra world building and some serial numbers filed off, but could be doable.  Both should work as a self-contained novel, though with room for more later if I felt like it.

The next step I need to do is work out the cast for both, then see how the various elements work out.  The ideal situation is where I get the characters to find a direction that can be exploited.  Failing that, a new idea comes to mind based on the attempts to get a plot going.

All in three weeks.  Easy.


* Running from behind, technically.  Can-Con runs October 30 to November 1 this year.  I may get a few words in somewhere, but no guarantees.  Won't be the first time a convention had me working from a deficit, though.

Crossover - Chapter 8

Featuring Subject 13, Prototype Alpha, and Pixie of Youth Brigade
 
Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, early evening
Nasty shut off the tap.  Water dripped from her bare hands into the ladies' room sink.  She looked up into the mirror, the featureless mask of Peregrine's helmet looking back at her.  Why couldn't Doll-girl have been invited?  I'd be better off as just another face in the crowd.  It's not like I need this costume anymore.

Micki's voice sounded in her ear.  "Peregrine, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."  Nasty grabbed a handful of paper towels to dry her hands.  "Tell me you've found the signal again."

Crossover Chapter 7 - Commentary

Nasty works out who crossed over and Vicki meets people who have heard of her.  Welcome to the commentary for the seventh chapter.  Please read the chapter before continuing.

The bits featuring the convention are purely for colour.  I tried to get the feel of a con in, even if the action leads elsewhere.  The goal was a feeling of immersion for the readers.  Whether this is working, that's something that the reader, er, you, can tell.  Mind, each con has its own feel to it.  Even two major cons covering the same subject will have separate personalities.  This is a feature; if every con seemed the same, no one would travel past the closest convention.

Part of the unwritten backstory is that Nasty and the Youth Brigade have run into each other in New York.  Nasty doesn't do the costumed hero bit, but steps in when she needs to, as seen in Chapter 1.  Vicki embraces the idea of the costumed hero, as does the rest of the Youth Brigade, and she is always on the lookout for new recruits.  Nasty fits several of Vicki's criteria - has a power, has worn a costume, and is under twenty years old.  Much to Vicki's dismay, Nasty isn't a joiner.  She prefers to work alone.

The first scene with Vicki had a part removed.  Originally, Vicki complained about still being on Eastern time.  Turns out, Cleveland is on Eastern time.  Fourteen hour drives do not get you out of a time zone.  She was in the air maybe two hours at most, though time spent at the airport may have been longer.

The discussion Nasty and Eric have about baseball is the split between the National League and the American League.  The American League has the designated hitter (DH) rule, where pitchers have someone else take their at-bat.  It's a very specialized position; the DH doesn't take the field.  Nasty is a Mets fan, and Mets pitchers do take their turn at-bat.  Most pitchers* are a guaranteed out at the plate, but they usually try a sacrifice hit to move runners on base along.  The scene sets up some longer-term plans, too.  Nasty and Eric will be a couple for a while, but will break up.  They're both young; they'll mature, grow, discover other people, drift apart, and all that other fun stuff.

Vicki and Meredith are just there for now.  They haven't been brought into the Foundation's operation, in part because the Foundation is unaware of them.  Nasty knows about Vicki, but Meredith is the outsider.  It's a drawback of crossovers.  Unless the characters have met previously and trust each other, someone gets left out, at least at first.  Meredith is aware of Peregrine's existence, barely, but she and Nasty haven't met.  Thus, Prototype Alpha gets left out for now.  Meredith's scenes are more character building and showing off more of the convention.

Nasty's dread of a dress and dancing comes from a lost issue of Subject 13.  While Nasty hates short skirts, as seen during her Rochester adventures, she isn't comfortable when the hem falls below or knees or longer.  In the lost issue, she and Eric go to a school dance that gets interrupted by Subject 7.  Subject 7 challenges Nasty, and the battle becomes a beat down, leaving Nasty's dress ruined, along with numerous injuries to both fighters.  Fortunately, Eric's experience at conventions helps.  Fancy dress at a con means cosplay, not a proper dress.  Nasty can get away with jeans and a t-shirt, provided both are clean.

Vicki, not being involved in the main drama, decided to start some of her own.  Eric is oblivious to what's happening, but Vicki has set her sights on him.  She does have a sense of self-preservation, though.  Vicki is well aware of Nasty's violent past and thus won't push too hard.  If Eric happens to leave the door open to future liaisons, though, Vicki won't complain.

Alec and Pierce turned out to be mouthpieces for ideas.  This time, it's the nature of entertainment.  New York City was the home to both Marvel and DC Comics, though the latter has moved to the West Coast to join up with the rest of Warner.  New York is the home to several major publishers and newspapers, so having comic companies in the same city where the infrastructure is makes sense.  Time and technology marched on, though.  Movies and television grew since Action Comics #1, and Hollywood gained in prominence.  If comics were to come into existance today, Los Angeles could be the home for the publishers instead.  Or possibly Tokyo.

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 8.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, the History of Adaptations continues with the Aughts.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, the History of Adaptations covers the New Teens.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.

* There are exceptions.  Dan Schatzeder, a middle relief pitcher for the Montreal Expos, had a hot streak at the plate in 1984, hitting .314 and being brought in to pinch hit before taking the mound.

Crossover - Chapter 7

Featuring Subject 13, Prototype Alpha, and Pixie of Youth Brigade

Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, mid-afternoon
The Opening Ceremonies started well, in Vicki's opinion.  The convention executive, all five of them, introduced themselves and let the opening video play.  Vicki wasn't enamoured with the music chosen, but whoever put the video together knew how to put the lyrics together with the spliced images.  The house lights came back up and Stuart, the exec designated to perform the ceremonies, returned on stage.  The guests followed him out in front of the crowd, the only one in costume being Peregrine.  Seeing how the heroine stood, shifting from foot to foot, Vicki felt some sympathy.  This is so not her.  Why did she agree to come out?  No wonder she didn't give many interviews in Rochester.

The guests were introduced one by one, each being given a round of applause when they waved to the audience.  On Peregrine's intro, the crowd went wild.  The heroine took an involuntary step back from the sheer enthusiasm.  They're going to eat her alive tomorrow.  I hope someone is going to help her with her appearances.  She won't survive.

Crossover Chapter 6 - Commentary

Natasha makes herself at home, Nasty runs into a complication, Meredith runs into culture shock, and Vicki finds a potential love of her life.  Welcome to the commentary for the sixth chapter.  Please read the chapter before continuing.

Finally, the action revs up.  Natasha needs a base of operations.  An abandoned building, even if she has to evict squatters, suits her nicely.  She keeps her cool and just threatens.  Sure, there's a bit of violence, but Natasha kept it to a minimum.  She is in charge, as long as Omega agrees with her.  Tori isn't as patient, even with Natasha.  Their dynamic should be different from the one between Nasty and Vicki.

The meeting between Nasty and Vicki had some implications to it.  I went with Vicki's point of view here.  Part of it was that I've had enough scenes with Nasty and Eric discussing the mirror dimension that it'd be rehashing a plot point that's already been beaten on.  The other was to show how Nasty's reaction would look from the other person.  The implication here is that Nasty knows who Vicki is, already set up in previous chapters, and knows that she's superpowered.  Vicki doesn't know what Nasty does, so, in her eyes, the redhead is just being rude.  Eric is unaware of Vicki, so he can't say anything to her.

The scene with Alec and Pierce let me add some behind the scenes convention details at the expense of Nasty's sanity.  Alec and Pierce work in the comics industry and aren't based on anyone in the profession.  They're guests at the convention enjoying some down time before the chaos begins.  The panel will be coming up in a later chapter.  The scene shows the age of the story.  Today, going to conventions is far more mainstream than in 2008, with most major cities having at least one.

Meredith should've known better.  In Canada, the drinking age varies from province to province.  Ontario's is 19.  The US, however, is a blanket 21, regardless of state.  Some counties may be more strict and disallow alcohol sales completely.  The rest of her scene sets up the con, with people in costume.  Meredith isn't a good judge of age; Nasty and Eric are much younger than she thought.  Her not recognizing Peregrine goes to showing that while Nasty did make the news, the revelation wasn't as huge as it feels to her.

Tori's scene let me answer some questions I had about the nature of the mirror dimensions.  Tori and Vicki have the same bank account and the same PIN.  Vicki isn't going to be happy when she discovers what happened.  It is short-sighted, but Tori just came out that way while writing.  She acts without thinking.  It works both ways; if Vicki went over to the mirror dimension, she could use Tori's account.  Don't think about it too hard.

Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 7.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, comments on NBC's Hart to Hart remake.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, the History of Adaptations continues with the Aughts.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.