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Oval's been AWESOME. I'm having loads of fun contributing AND reading. You guys rock!

We DO rock, don't we?

Seth & Helena finally reunited! And finally able to "touch"! Yay!

Yeah, I was playing with what to do with their inevitable reunion, and nothing was really clicking for me. Then, I thought: what would two people who were in love really wanna do after being apart for years? With Seth basically having Mano's powers, that was more of an obstacle than it would be for most! So I figured out a way Seth could get around that little disintegration issue, and voila--a sexy reunion!

Always nice to have something fun and life-affirming happening in the middle of so much darkness and devestation!

Bow chicka wah wah!

Loved the moment--it felt very 'right' and maturely romantic.

Y'alls talent for working together collaboratively is totally cool. I can do the fic thing, I can build a story off of other people's characters, I can create my own, but I've got no gift for that sort of communal storytelling. It's very impressive!

Sometimes it works well and sometimes it kind of only is okay. This has been one of the best--if not the best--multi-author collaberation I've ever done before. The major authors are killing it while being open to others ideas and making things work for them and then we have a layer of writers adding awesome contributions when the can to enhance the diverse voice and creative style to the whole thing.

It just fascinates me. I can totally run with a 'local' idea like Saucy Jones or Laser Ape, even, in some cases, finding that easier than using an established Legion character (who has a certain 'voice' I have to try and convey), but trying to weave a narrative together between distinctive authors seems crazy hard!

(That being said, I play in a few online play-by-post D&D-ish games, and, at the end of the day, that's pretty much an interactive 'tag-team' story, of a sort...)

We also use Facebook's closed messaging system to kibitz behind the scenes and throw story ideas at each other! It really helps a LOT!

It is a true collaborative effort amongst the group. With relatively narrow goals in mind for certain characters. That being said, there are times when things go completely different than expected and change the landscape if you will.

The whole Kalla / Timberwolf relationship and what that has led to came out of nowhere, I think it started with her taking him somewhere during the civil war storyline, and just grew from there...

For anyone who's been following "Lord of the Oval" and is curious about this Clark Marlowe guy and what his deal is, I can direct you to this short story for the lowdown on him and his interesting (I hope) backstory. He's not just a random character from outta nowhere!

I've really been awestruck at how the major authors have been running the narrative. I'd only originally intended to write a few vignettes here and there that would allow the Invisible Brainiac character to get into some sticky situations, but I've been inspired to let the character grow during the course of the story.

Discussing behind the scenes as a group has also helped - the others have been giving me a lot of ideas on my own character

And the most rewarding thing is being told by the others that you got their characters' "voices" right. Especially since our characters are basically extensions of ourselves!

And finally, the whole "shared universe" that we're creating is just awesome. Mind-blowingly awesome.

Cobie, Thank you for picking up my slack. Your "Founders" post worked very well and effectively tied up that segment.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to work on any of the other ideas we discussed for "Oval" and I don't see myself having time in the near future. Combine that with MAJOR Case of Writer's Block and serious doubts about my planned storylines fitting into the overall plot of "Oval" and well I just wasn't feeling good about my portion of the effort.

However, I trust your judgement and admire your writing ability so feel free to continue writing the Founder's Storyline in my absence.

I have been writing a little story in my spare time, and was wondering if there are any LMB characters I can use to create a team? The villain I am creating for the piece is very powerful and would be too much for my characters to handle by themselves. I understand the Dark Oval has left a lot up in the air, so three obscure characters are fine. I like teams to have a variety of powers and personalities so there are interesting subplots.

So I figured this is as good a place as any to put these...I sat down tonight and drew Light Lad and Diamond Damsel up, they are two of the new recruits in my fanfic. I was too lazy to really put heaps of effort into coloring them properly, but I just figured it might be nice to have images of them so people know what they're meant to look like when reading about them.
[img]http://pics.livejournal.com/postlo3w/pic/00002bkx/s640x480[/img]

Light Lad is a Winathian with Ayla's old anti-gravity powers. He's basically wearing a more or less exact copy of her old costume because why mess with a classic?

[img]http://pics.livejournal.com/postlo3w/pic/00001wh8/s640x480[/img]

Diamond Damsel is Iris Jacobs from Karate Kid's old series, she is stuck in her Diamondeth form and is functionally immortal. By the time she survived through to the Legion's time she had developed enough heroism to want to be one of them.

I will probably get around to doing some others and some of the homemade villains every now and then as well

Diamond Damsel rocks! (Pun intended!)

I remember loving the goofy Karate Kid series, as a kid, and Iris Jacobs as Diamondeth (what a strange name!) was a neat character.

I wonder how it would change her visual to replace the pink with either green or yellow, or something... Girl has some serious thigh going on there. I like!

Light Lad's pose reminds me of those 'man ups' that were all over the interwebs a few months ago.

If Light Lad has the power to not just generate anti-gravity fields, but perhaps even to attach them to people and make them responsive to the subjects will (sort of how Flight Rings work), temporarily granting them a short duration levitation power, he'd be great at evacuation type scenes, placing anti-gravity fields around dozens of civilians and letting them levitate themselves to safety!

Thanks Set...I wanted to try and make DD actually look like a big chunky rock lady. I think it would work better with prismatic effects to show that she's made of diamond, but I'm still happy with it. I sort of gave her a twee girly costume on purpose for the juxtaposition, but seeing it actually in color now I don't know if blue and pink is really the best color combo for a diamond damsel. I had some trouble finding the right shade of blue that didn't blend in with her 'skin' tone too much but wasn't too dark either so other colors might be worth trying...

And Light Lad...I just kind of dig the idea of a guy being able to adopt a heroine's legacy and present himself like that by the 31st century without it being an issue with anyone.

Oh, I totally agree. Superman has Supergirl, Batman a plethora of Batgirls and Batwomen, Aquaman has a pair of Aquagirls, etc. but there aren't a whole lot of male 'legacies' of Wonder Woman or Black Canary out there, and the only time I've seen a male character take on a female characters former name, it was Hank Pym taking on the name 'the Wasp,' for which he was mocked by various other characters (and even accused of it being a sign of his mental instability re-surfacing!)...

Light Lad, like Wiccan (the Scarlet Witch's son), would definitely be defying tradition!

Ex, "The Long Klordny" is mind-blowingly awesome so far! Utterly fantastic! I can't wait for the next chapter. And the writing style would have Chandlier grinning ear to ear.

Raz, love the pics! I also like the idea of a male adopting a female hero's legacy--very cool!

Heh. Either that... or calling his lawyers to sue me for plagiarism, considering that the Prologue is basically a complete rip-off of "Double Indemnity".

Thanks though... this is a story I've had in mind for a long time - one that sort of just skirts around the super-hero fringes of the LMB-verse in favor of a hard boiled take. I've got what I think are some nice twists in store, so I hope you dig it.

Thanks muchly!

Even though its still early, I have to say the Long Klorny is shaping up to be my very favorite LMB onevision EVER! Just utterly brillaint so far!

My favorite line (of many): "Lotta had dealt me some pretty good cards so far - Queen of Hearts... pocket Diamonds... and the best pair I had ever seen."

It's noir + the LMB + a fantastic writing style! The humor is not only perfect for the LMB, but it works so well in the tradition you're writing in.

I'm really just blown away.

(LMB secret: Ex and I have been talking about some future storylines and I'm now more ecstatic than ever to do them! His genius knows no bounds!)

Thanks, brother! That really makes me so happy that you're digging it.

I was a little worried that I might have been going overboard with the intentionally cliched style - but once I started coming up with ridiculous similes, it kind of gets addicting.

It's sort of reached the end of the first act now - with the decompressed first night - and the next few chapters should be expanding the timeframe out a bit.

It cracks me up - now that the story is getting a bit longer - that "Ex" is supposedly recording all this as he bleeds out.

That must be one slow wound.