Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board Let's Talk About It

As usual, you're all tremendous.

It feels good to post about how I feel, without crafting some type of premeditated point of view. I guess I just know I need more LW, and I hope you all feel the same way, and if anyone else does, they are happy to say it too.

In a very melancholy way, I've been thinking about what LW will be in the future. With Facebook and other social media (all of it total shit by the way) taking the place of message boards for several years, and Lash being gone, not to mention Dev (and Vee, and others) it's hard to think of where we go from here. But I want this special place to continue. Not just as an amazing entity on it own but as a central place for me personal to hang my hat.

And maybe in that conclusion I can dismiss the melancholy part and just embrace what a happy thought that is.

Lardy, those words mean the world to me. I posted before I saw them. I knew,
of course, that if I could just post, you'd be right there to reply and help put it all in perspective (as you've done again and again all these years).

When you talk about your dad, I know it's always incredibly personal and sincere, and that's really helpful. I've just had a weird time dealing with death. Reasons your post helps.

Of course it also helps for the best reason: we are definitely long lost brothers (you're my older one), somehow displaced by space and time into another family! Clearly that's fact, if we only had the advanced 31st century equipment to prove it.

You being on LW has been such a relief to me. I feel like LW needs you more than ever. Love you bro .

Despite the ubiquity of Facebook and other sites, nothing can replace LW for me. We have created something special, here.

And though fewer new people may be joining, we have had some great recruits in the past few years like thoth and Kappa. I am sure we can keep LW going

sigh, I love being here. Even when I don't talk about my problems, just interacting with all of you helps me feel better.

Wonderfully said, Anthony.

My father passed away almost 14 years ago, my mother 23 years ago. It's a strange thing when your parents die. It's not just that your "safety net" is gone, but, in many ways, your world view is gone. Everything you've come to understand about the world is different. There's a profound sense of loneliness.

I have a great deal of difficulty talking about my feelings. I've been taught (intentionally or otherwise) that others are just not interested, and that, if I express what's in my heart, I am just wasting their valuable time. There is some truth in this: Wallowing in self-pity can be addictive. But knowing the difference between self-pity and when something really needs to be said ... ah, that's hard.

So, I pour my thoughts out into the Archives re-read thread because I get to re-live a time when those stories were new and meant so much to me. Maybe there will be insights--something new to learn about those stories and, in turn, about myself and my experiences.

I will always be grateful to LW for a chance to share those reflections . . . to know that these stories mattered not just to me but to others. It was not just a product of my imagination, after all.

And it is through those stories that I've come to know so many of you. If you put two people in a room and they have nothing to talk about, well, you've wasted a chance for connection. But we talk about fictional comic book characters who mean something dear to us. That's connection.

I don't think I've truly processed Lash and Dev's passing. I never got to meet either of them, unfortunately. But I also haven't truly processed my aunt's passing in January 2015. I got to know her quite well, yet the differences in how we saw the world and the conflicts in our relationship have left me feeling unfulfilled, unsatisfied. Perhaps Internet relationships are better. Perhaps coming together through fictional characters is as close to heaven as I'll find on earth.

Life just is what it is. It offers no apologies or explanations. It leaves it up to us to make the best of whatever deck of cards we've been handed or go mad. Perhaps the best we can do is just keep going forward, even if, for some of us, that means going back into the past--past stories, past relationships, to try to find new meaning in it all.

Thank you, everyone, for allowing me to be me here.

You know, that post I did above was originally going to be in a PM to Cobie when I started it. But after I got a paragraph or so in, I was thinking, "why?" Legion World is about a lot of things, but I think in the end, it's like an extended family. Sure, there are some things I might want to talk to you about in private, as family members are wont to do at times. But you expressed those heartfelt thoughts in public, so why shouldn't I?

It's what we're about here. Many of us are hurting about Dave and Michael and maybe about something else happening in their personal lives. If it helps someone suffering in silence to know others are dealing with pain as well, then that's a good thing.

Legion World is family. Members will understand. And neophytes and future joiners can look at posts like this and see what we're all about, that it's okay and will know that we're here for them.

Lardy, I'm glad you didn't PM that. I'm glad we're talking about it here. I'm not very big on private messages--I feel that the beauty of this group has always been this honest intimacy with each other. We could have a 20 message back and forth but as you say, everyone else is feeling this too. This is as much about all of us, as it is about any one of us.

HWW, your words are really appreciated. We've posted all these years about a lot of things--many of them entrenched in the past like old comics and movies--but many of us feel like we truly know you and how you think & feel. Those topics may set the table but the connection is in the here and now, and that is a wonderful thing. It is, quite frankly, the lynchpin of what stated this group.

We'll process of all together. The comics, the other topics, the personal changes in our lives, and of course, the loss of our beloved friends.

This could not have been said any better, and perfectly expresses how I feel.

I was taught that as well, HWW. It might be part of my culture. That is why I have a tendency to bottle things up until they explode... It took me a long time to learn how to express negative emotions in an appropriate way, and even then I still slip up from time to time.

That said, Legion World has been a great environment for learning to do that. We have no end of great people willing to offer a listening ear or calm but firm guidance.

Hey Cobes!

Not long after Lash died, I went to a con. There were plenty of things that reminded me of Lash -- a pic of Hellcat on an artist's banner, a stack of DC 100-Pagers, and so on. Were he still alive, I would have mentioned that stuff to him. But what I really wanted to tell Lash was about how at a panel I sat behind two girls (sisters, cousins, friends?), maybe 8 years old, who were cosplaying classic Princess Leia and Rey -- extra super cute, as Dean would say. And later, I saw (grownup) Luke Cage and Danny Rand poring over back issue bins side by side -- in yellow blouse and lime green spandex, you better believe it, sucker.

I don't draw any grand conclusions from this. What I've thought about is how just being around some other people having a good time doing their thing made me want to share with my friend. Ripple effects of good times. Now, knowing Cobie, he might be a little soused and read that as "put on lime green spandex and drink ripple to let the good times roll". To which I say: PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

To which I say:

1)

2) yeah I'm kinda soused. But you love me. And I love you more.

3) I wear lime green spandex almost everyday

But, yeah, that makes feel good. All of this IS fun. That's the best part. That's the part to remember most of all.

Tsk! you missed the undocumented mission to Taltar in the Archive Rereads thread! I suppose you were busy ordering more lime green spandex.

He's a walking green screen.

I saw this and immediately thought of Lash:

Sentients, I think we need to talk the effects of no Lash on Scotty Caan. Who is acting as young Mr. Caan's morality coach?

I guess he could get someone else to follow him around and say noOOOOOOoooooo Scotty Caan!! but not with esprit de Lash, that's for certain.

Scotty has been teaching himself to always think his actions through, using the mantra: What would Lash say?

Why Prithee! He'd say something inspiring, super witty of space, an inrrascably pithy!