LAST EDITED ON Aug-21-26 AT 00:23 AM (EDT)
 
Mad Scientists, once they become such, have stages of progress in their lives. Harlan Ark is at the second stage: They Laughed at Him, and he wants to Show Them, Show Them All as much as anyone - but now he's in hiding on the distant world of Novo Solo, running out of money and equipment fast.

Things need to change.

Things are gonna change.

Just not necessarily for the better.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FvXqVH0gmGYo1186uqFsrXTs-2eZvHhW/view?usp=drive_link
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shared-drive PDF for viewing. First two chapters. Lot of little rough snags. Still not sure what year in the 2400s I can set this in.

I said I was gonna write something UF-y! It was gonna be in the universe! I've done my best to make it sectioned off enough it doesn't have to necessarily contradict canon, too! And there's enough fun ideas in there that I hope don't ruffle anyone's feathers.

Ideally more is to come, but I'm pitching this out to a wider universe of people who know and have worked on this world more than I have. Don't hesitate to point out if there's a point someplace that I'm missing. Playing in a sandbox that predates DOOM is a privilege and responsibility.

For what little it's worth, I'm working with the following stories here:
1. The world of Novo Solo and Marvin Beck are from the video game Brigador, and the whole Great Leader dictatorship is well within that game's lore. The vague events of the game might be referenced, unsure. Beck is a fun enough character to read that I want to try to use him more.

2. Shouko is from one of countless light novel-based franchises from the boom of the early 2010's, Unbreakable Machine Doll. Hot Geisha Mad Scientist type was too cool of an idea to pass up, even if Machine-Doll relies more on a magic system I can't enjoy because it uses terms Fate and the work of Kinoko Nasu use to far greater effect. I haven't really *consumed* that much machine-doll, but I'm stealing an idea from it because it's a fun idea.

3. Gundam, with Psychoframe and Anaheim Electronics and, uh, that girl.

4. Resident Evil, with Victor Gideon - a mad scientist played so straight in the game you can't help but enjoy him being thus - and the thing underneath the city.

Anyway, let me know if I can / should / ought to keep writing this, and I'll keep this fic inching forward. I'm having fun writing fic, for the first time in a long time!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-26 AT 07:30 PM (EDT)
 
When I hit the word "superorganism", I just had to break from reading and say that, even though you imported the critter in question from RE, the use of that particular term of art, combined with Gideon's mention of having "seen records of some that (...) thoroughly define an ecosystem", reminds me ineluctably of that classic Trevor Roberts creation, Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. (Link edited to actually work; as always, the Mgt. apologizes for any convenience this may cause.)

That was the only thing that interrupted me, though, and I look forward to continuing.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-26 AT 11:05 PM (EDT)
 
>reminds me ineluctably of that classic Trevor Roberts
>creation, Mystery Flesh Pit National Park.

I've *known* about that project for years, and flipped through it just now, read probably the most explicitly horror part of it in the 2007 incident report. Freaked me out. Gonna need to play Selaco for like an hour and change to sleep properly.

Reminded me why I stopped reading SCPs back in high school. Same Incident description style, too, same prose tricks. Not really what I'm going for - I don't think the critter in question would have had time to grow THAT big if it came on a colony ship, even 400 years out.

I'm liking the idea of going closer to that degree of, uh, tissue differentiation, but there's gotta be a good middle ground. At the most ludicrous extreme, my mind went to the Brethren Moons from Dead Space, and then what? Unicron fights meatworlds just as big and angry as him? I hope to swerve into more gross and weird imagery then swerve back to UF's ultimate adventure-centric vibes, and use Mad Science as the connective tissue between them.

Harlan Ark returns, and delves deep into parts unknown! A No Country For Old Men Reference is involved!

Only 1 part of any considerable size was added here but I cleaned up the first 2 parts a bit and I *think* this works a little better. Next time I send more here I swear I’ll have more, ideally to end of the fic’s part 5, and an actual planned layout to boot. Just wanted to get this out to see how it coheres in others’ eyes.

Does the tone work relative to most UF? Does the… prose work?

Since last I posted I’ve been going over the post-Y2K UF stuff aggressively, I’m on Movement four of Symphony by now and I’ve got Cybertron Reloaded read on top of that. Largely excellent stuff - I’m not quite sure I can follow the more fantasy / WW2 dieselpunk vibe the fics seem to go towards given how that’s not really my thing. Kind of astonished I haven’t seen anything suggested about the Bioshock games in here by that token. Anyway, there’s a lot of canon I hadn’t previously grasped but I do now. Hoping to keep on keepin’ on, in between actual life and keeping up with my other fic projects.

(I really wish I knew how to slot Haman Karn and company into UF’s world, where most Mobile Suits don’t seem to mean much in the wake of super robots or bigger Battletech-y mecha. I can justify other Gundam tech (PSYCHO GUNDAM PSYCHO GUNDAM PSYCHO GUNDAM) or other fuckoff-big Mobile Armor as new and cool, but who the hell would treat a Zaku seriously in UF’s world. All the same, Yoshiko Sakakibara’s iconic roles are always, well, Iconic.)

> who the hell would treat a Zaku seriously in UF’s world.

Corwin Ravenhair, for one.

I'm eating my words here *and* on Bob's forum, I read the Vs. Domon short like the day before yesterday. Even then, the idea seems to be that the OYW was a curbstomp with few interesting mecha produced to speak of? And Corwin's runs off of Getter Rays?

The deeper I go into UF, the more of that sort of thing seems to crop up, but then, like... swerve away? I know Mass Effect becomes a big deal, I think I'm at the part of the stories where the Covenant show up but I'm not sure, those are arguably less Super Robot franchises compared to anything with Getter Robo...

I think I might be in over my head regarding what happens / has happened / will happen / can happen. So I'll repeat my question: Have I gotten tone and prose and the *way* things happen or don't in UF roughly correct? Am I on a good track or off it so far? Should I pull back and attempt to make a more cohesive outline?

>The deeper I go into UF, the more of that sort of thing seems to crop
>up, but then, like... swerve away? I know Mass Effect becomes a big
>deal, I think I'm at the part of the stories where the Covenant show
>up but I'm not sure, those are arguably less Super Robot franchises
>compared to anything with Getter Robo...

You can thank/blame Gryph for that. It used to be fairly easy to determine what he was currently inspired by, from which fiction dominated the storylines.

(I rather liked the Teen Titans/CSI era, myself.)

>
>>The deeper I go into UF, the more of that sort of thing seems to crop
>>up, but then, like... swerve away? I know Mass Effect becomes a big
>>deal, I think I'm at the part of the stories where the Covenant show
>>up but I'm not sure, those are arguably less Super Robot franchises
>>compared to anything with Getter Robo...
>
>You can thank/blame Gryph for that. It used to be fairly easy to
>determine what he was currently inspired by, from which fiction
>dominated the storylines.
>
>(I rather liked the Teen Titans/CSI era, myself.)
Wait, used to be? Like, okay, the common shared interest in art deco / dieselpunk / ww2 mechanics seems to be a deep love, that goes from New Avalon to Big O to Arpeggio of Blue Steel all the way through Witches at War. (Oh, yeah, sakura wars too.) But isn’t that ‘here we go adding this to the mix’ phenomenon still a thing? Did it stop somewhere along the line? Isn’t that the nature of megacrossovers, especially one as able to accommodate as this one?

Well, Gryph isn't as active as he used to be, so the sample size is small. :)

>Well, Gryph isn't as active as he used to be, so the sample size is
>small. :)

Yeah, it's been a bit of a dry spell. I'm hoping to be able to change that before too much longer, but I never really know which way the wind is going to blow. :/

As for the other thing, I have to confess that is how my Creative Thing has always worked. I think I need one of those ballcaps that say UNDIAGNOSED BUT I'M PRETTY SURE.

--G.
you guys didn't have to call me out like this, though, jeez
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>you guys didn't have to call me out like this, though,
>jeez

Hey, if nothing else it makes you a great example of how someone can generate something enjoyable to read while being very solidly in "the writer is not driving," territory.

>Yeah, it's been a bit of a dry spell. I'm hoping to be able to change
>that before too much longer, but I never really know which way the
>wind is going to blow. :/

...is there anything anyone can do for that? You or others? Or is it all just... whimsy? Feeling bogged down by extant projects? Unsure how to integrate what you've come to like into what you've got going on???

I skimmed the one Our Witches thread, saw something to the effect of 'wave of Hololive graduations has likely screwed up my writing process for 2025', so is that just... continuing? I have NO IDEA where the overall metaplot even is since I haven't gotten that far into Symphony, and I assume that branched out into the one Kancolle thing, and then the writing switched to a different track with Our Witches? I mean, if that project crashed out... eh, what do I know.

>As for the other thing, I have to confess that is how my Creative
>Thing has always worked. I think I need one of those ballcaps that
>say UNDIAGNOSED BUT I'M PRETTY SURE.
>you guys didn't have to call me out like this, though,
>jeez

...is that bad? I've got a Discord friend who wrote a bangin' Edgerunners fanfic and is trying to write some other stuff now, I mentioned trying to do this, and they gushed over that hooligan spirit, the feeling of 'anything can happen and probably has'. Morpheus Windu, Lain and MODOK rob a bank, etc. It is a a positive quality to many people's minds. There's focus even then, y'know?

Seriously, though, is the fic so far okay? You're the man I'm aiming to please here. I've got more put down for the next couple of chapters, but I'm gonna give it until I've got chapter 5 good and whipped to update this thing.

>Seriously, though, is the fic so far okay? You're the man I'm aiming
>to please here.

I'm formulating some thoughts, but to tide you over for the moment, I'll say I'm intrigued! I like the concept that mad science, like action science, is a recognized (if not always admired) scientific discipline, and that its practitioners know what they are. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Yeah, it's been a bit of a dry spell. I'm hoping to be able to change
>>that before too much longer, but I never really know which way the
>>wind is going to blow. :/
>
>...is there anything anyone can do for that? You or others? Or is it
>all just... whimsy? Feeling bogged down by extant projects? Unsure how
>to integrate what you've come to like into what you've got going on???

As I explained to a friend who asked why I haven't been putting as much fan or professional work out the last couple years:

"It's kinda hard to write stories about a cyberpunk dystopia when you live in one."

Life in the twin cities has been improving a lot since we kicked the Illinois Nazis in the balls a few times, but they're still here, and being trans in the US right now is A Lot (tm).

I have enjoyed what I've read of your story! I like where you went with the pyschoframe in particular, as a big CCA fan!

>As I explained to a friend who asked why I haven't been putting as
>much fan or professional work out the last couple years:
>
>"It's kinda hard to write stories about a cyberpunk dystopia when you
>live in one."
>
>Life in the twin cities has been improving a lot since we kicked the
>Illinois Nazis in the balls a few times, but they're still here, and
>being trans in the US right now is A Lot (tm).
>
>I have enjoyed what I've read of your story! I like where you went
>with the pyschoframe in particular, as a big CCA fan!
That's fair. I have a deep-running theory about the uselessness of writing cyberpunk dystopias right now, and how that doesn't invalidate cyberpunk itself, but this is the Funny Crossover Fanfic Adventure Forum. Either way it doesn't hurt to fuck around with other stuff to break creative block, right? Classmate of mine two nights back said that 'when you're stuck creatively, think about what you feel RIGHT NOW and that's what you can write'.

I dearly hope he's right: I have high hopes for 2 out of 3 of this semester's classes but the third is my Big Fucking Thesis Feature and it felt like people the screenplay they saw in my feature I wasn't sure I wanted to make. Certainly having one's protagonist compared to a Tarantino self-insert is a wound I'm still smarting over.

Ignore that. I'm happy you like the psychoframe gizmo work. It felt like the only direction to *go* to introduce new stuff to UF given the amount of magic floating around the universe these days, and I too love CCA even if Tomino doesn't. I mean, I think the 'suit' references in the fic is gonna be a sort of... Gundam Unicorn hardsuit, even if the Nu is technically a... purer? design than the Unicorn. The Unicorn is cool in its own overwrought look-at-this-full-armor way that I think works better.

Also, Yutaka Izubuchi should go down in history as one of the greatest mech designers of time, second to the all-father Kunio Okawara, JUST for Nu and Sazabi and Ingram. There's a sense of... nothing wasted. Just enough detail, just enough spirit, something pure and timeless in those designs. They're a bit like BGC hardsuits in that regard.

I don't quite know where to go with Lalah compared to everything else, though. She's a great potential character in need of having time to be her own character instead of a mystic plot device but I don't know how to give her room to do so, given the arc of the rest of the fic for now. You know: Fight other mad scientists, get to some safety, get a lair, get minions, etc.

Hope what's to come engages you in the same way!

I dunno if you saw GQuuuuux, but they had some interesting twists in Lalah's story. Maybe something to consider. :)

I've seen it. Liked it but didn't love it - it is still using Lalah as a mystic plot device to set up a story about Char and this pocket universe. She speaks for herself in Cosmic Glow. Not in gqux, though.

At any rate, the smaller stuff - Resi and Psychoframe and Brigador - blends better together. I'll loop back to what she's doing - both this extradimensional version and the UF iteration of her - later, doubtlessly. Cite the A Baoa Qu paragraph Borges wrote, someplace.

...or does the UF universe work like that, can she even be from the UC universe if the Yigg wouldn't register it? I can't tell.

>As for the other thing, I have to confess that is how my Creative
>Thing has always worked. I think I need one of those ballcaps that
>say UNDIAGNOSED BUT I'M PRETTY SURE.
>

You and me both, Ben.

Part 4 is done, part 5 is going along okay, I’ve figured out what goes in what part, and also forlornly realizing that this has defaulted to my own house style of ‘murderous gritty action’ and less cute / fun than UF largely is. Probably because the background is Brigador right now which is murderous gritty action all the way.

Will plug along at this, I’d feel like kind of a dick if I just stopped doing it. As is IRL mfa work has kicked in and is forcing me to choose what fic projects are in fact worth time. Will post again at end of part 5, though I don’t think much NEW and WOW will show up in the fic itself by then.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-24-26 AT 02:35 PM (EDT)
 
More of the fic: Part 4&5 are up, new content around page 48.

I think I can top out around part 8 or 9 for this adventure. I know what happens where and I think I can abridge Part 6, maybe 8, or just merge 8&9. There is, astonishingly enough a plan. I am once again begging Almighty Gryph to give me some feedback here.

Because having worked through SotS, and having read moooost of OOTR before now having to take side detour thru Legacy of Korra (right? Before whatever happens in Part 5? And then that swings over to the arpeggio of blue steel / kancolle bit? And then god knows what happens after that?), I remain increasingly certain I've made some huge, strange mistake. Huge parts of the UF canon now seem to go by with minimal conflict, it's like reading Ah My Goddess or something with that tone, and meanwhile I'm throwing a hapless protagonist against everything short of Ethan Winters'ing his hands.

The woman at the end is a Brigador character, Zorin Blitz is probably a name worth changing, and the two sound too similar, alas, I'll figure something out later. Point is I'm in this position of, like... should I just call this sucker off? Focus more on fics more in my wheelhouse, since whatever it is I'm doing feels so alien from what eyrie's house style is? I feel like I'm writing a gritty 90s comic version of a setting that otherwise scorns that sort of thing. It's not a pleasant feeling, as fun as it is to write the strange texture of Solo Nobre.

Oh, by the way, does anyone know how to do typesetting? Over on the Bubblegum Crisis Discord a fellow who's machine-translated all the lost light novels AND audio dramas AND the final B-Club has been working on doing the old gag manga Go!Go!Sabers, but his typesetter vanished off the face of the earth. Might be nice to help the guy finish the project.

>Point is I'm in this position of, like...
>should I just call this sucker off? Focus more on fics more in my
>wheelhouse, since whatever it is I'm doing feels so alien from what
>eyrie's house style is? I feel like I'm writing a gritty 90s comic
>version of a setting that otherwise scorns that sort of thing.

Well...

... you're not wrong, but at the same time, I'm not convinced that's necessarily a reason to stop. It's a big universe, after all, and it's got grungier corners to it, even if they haven't gotten a lot of direct exposure since the '90s.

Anyway, I think your project has potential either way--if completed as a UF story or otherwise. It wouldn't take that much work to remove the references, most of which are pretty oblique--or hell, even leave them and make an "if you know you know" thing out of them--but I don't think you necessarily have to. There's room in the galaxy for a rougher patch or two. The Rim holds many secrets. :)

As I think I said last time, I like the self-awareness of the premise--the way the mad scientists know they're mad and sort of regard the whole concept ironically. I don't usually go in for things that could be labeled postmodern or deconstructive (look at what we did to Evangelion! :), but something about the way your cast looks at their world appeals to me.

As an aside, I can't speak to most of your specific sources, because I'm not familiar with... well, any of them, as far as I can tell. So you're in the clear there! I can't nitpick if I don't know where any of the nits are. :)

TLDR: I'm intrigued by where you're headed with this, and if in the end it doesn't fit in UF (which I'm not convinced will happen), I think it's worth going on with either way.

Of course, I don't know what else you've got going on. Something else may come along that you like better, and that's OK! Happens to me... (awkward chuckle) ... all the time.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>... you're not wrong, but at the same time, I'm not convinced that's
>necessarily a reason to stop. It's a big universe, after all, and
>it's got grungier corners to it, even if they haven't gotten a lot of
>direct exposure since the '90s.

Since the 90s? I mean, okay, I think a big part of where I was at mentally when I wrote that was bumbling through OOTR with no prior knowledge of Korra or Avatar or what-have-you and feeling... lost in the fic? Yeah, lost. A vague sense of 'okay, OOTR never did get finished, Corwin does his Fleet of Fog thing but I doubt that resolves just about anything', and a more definite sense that I'm not half as much of a dieselpunk or super robot guy as you are.

But, like... Exile fics have been written on and off and I figured those count for grungier corners. Or is there something more specific you mean?

>Anyway, I think your project has potential either way--if completed as
>a UF story or otherwise. It wouldn't take that much work to remove
>the references, most of which are pretty oblique--or hell, even leave
>them and make an "if you know you know" thing out of them--but I don't
>think you necessarily have to. There's room in the galaxy for a
>rougher patch or two. The Rim holds many secrets. :)

Soft disagree. If I wanted to do megacrossovers elsewhere they'd all be earthbound cyberpunk stuff - having the pretext of UF and all its lore-adjacent stuff gave me framework to do anything off Earth.

>As I think I said last time, I like the self-awareness of the
>premise--the way the mad scientists know they're mad and sort
>of regard the whole concept ironically. I don't usually go in for
>things that could be labeled postmodern or deconstructive (look at
>what we did to Evangelion! :), but something about the way your cast
>looks at their world appeals to me.

I almost decided to insist that Eva's iterative more than deconstructive, but then I remembered that Eva HAS gone Straight Goofy Super Robot: the Evangelion ANIMA light novels were written by the main mecha designer and reach Mazinger levels of 'oh yeah that's the stuff'.

As for the mad scientist thing... I kicked around a bunch of ideas, realized Ark could stumble dangerously into being a straight Action Hero if I'm not careful, and while I want to give the man action hero gimmicks, there is a strong angle of 'is the mad scientist Punk, in their own way'. And it's not a concept I could have done without the openly anything-goes-but-also-it'll-all-hang-together-somehow world of UF.

I'll see how far I can take the idea. I've got a unified theory of villainous plots, roughly, Ark's path to Mad Science is infinitely less clear.

Anyway, good to hear all this - If I can get another part established it'll be after parts 6 and 7, they hang together roughly, same concept roughly. Man it's been nice writing something that feels like it has a fairly tight arc from resolution to 'oh holy shit'-ery. I'll do what I can to dial into the question of mad science and if I can maintain a forward plot wound together under... I dunno, finish Ark's old multiverse-reaching work.

...actually, wait. CAN one do so beyond pocket dimensions in UF? Or does the Yggdrasil construction prevent that? Like, you get nine realms, time shadows, and that's your lot?

>...actually, wait. CAN one do so beyond pocket dimensions in UF? Or
>does the Yggdrasil construction prevent that? Like, you get nine
>realms, time shadows, and that's your lot?

There are also inter-universal shenanigans on the "Dr. Who" level, with the "Professor Engima" story sections.

http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi?forum=DCForumID1&mark=2413&az=previous_topic&archive=

-VR
Insert Saying Here
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

>>even if they haven't gotten a lot of
>>direct exposure since the '90s.
>
>Since the 90s?
>
>But, like... Exile fics have been written on and off and I figured
>those count for grungier corners. Or is there something more specific
>you mean?

I did say "a lot", not "any". It's a relative thing. :)

>Soft disagree. If I wanted to do megacrossovers elsewhere they'd all
>be earthbound cyberpunk stuff - having the pretext of UF and all its
>lore-adjacent stuff gave me framework to do anything off Earth.

OK, I can see that.

>if I can maintain a
>forward plot wound together under... I dunno, finish Ark's old
>multiverse-reaching work.
>
>...actually, wait. CAN one do so beyond pocket dimensions in UF? Or
>does the Yggdrasil construction prevent that? Like, you get nine
>realms, time shadows, and that's your lot?

Nope, go nuts. We don't poke at it all that often, but we do have a complete-multiverse cosmology. The Ten Worlds are just the local slice thereof.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>
>...actually, wait. CAN one do so beyond pocket dimensions in UF? Or
>does the Yggdrasil construction prevent that? Like, you get nine
>realms, time shadows, and that's your lot?
>

Pre-Twilight, I can think of three contacts with parallel dimensions, even if I can't precisely remember one of them. I think Redneck had somebody arrive from another universe in one of his stories, there's the arrival of the Maximals and Predacons, and of course, Gryphon's unplanned time in the Star Trek universe.

Post-Twilight, I can think of three interactions with a parallel universe - the Marvel universe arrivals, the universe that Rose Tyler ended up in for a while, and the Strike Witches universe.

I can't think of any events in UF besides Twilight that might have altered the way multiverse-reaching technology would work.

(I may have missed something - my memory is good, but not perfect.)

I don't know if there's any particular rules about how UF handles parallel universes beyond "If it's cool, and a writer likes something that needs to be from a parallel universe, we'll make it work," but the evidence I have as a reader says it's entirely possible to have somebody travel to an alternate universe and return.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

If one wanted to be utterly pedantic (and let's be honest, we're geeks), UF is theoretically still linked to my old Otaku Rising stories, which canonically tied into Heinlein's World as Myth cosmology.

(Not to mention Phil Moyer's Serendipity stories, which not only had parallel worlds, but an actual nomenclature for them. I still have the notes he gave me about that around here somewhere.)

Not that there's any risk of that being an issue. I wrote one technical OR crossover with an unexpected universe, and Cor has been wrestling with OR3 for decades. I do have some notes for a project I've been calling Otaku Rebirth, but it's very much *not* a UF sort of story. Closer to something like There Is No Antimemetics Division.

>Not that there's any risk of that being an issue. I wrote one
>technical OR crossover with an unexpected universe, and Cor has been
>wrestling with OR3 for decades. I do have some notes for a project
>I've been calling Otaku Rebirth, but it's very much *not* a UF
>sort of story. Closer to something like There Is No Antimemetics
>Division.
…OR3 for *decades*? Holy… damn. What’s snagged him?
No Antimemetics Division through OR??? What? TBC I have the book, I read qntm’s original SCP bits years ago but not the new true novel (I know what fifthists are! Vaguely! Or what they were back in 2016!)

I need to know more about both of these. I *like* OR in all its 90s nerd glory from before my parents were even married (‘94. that time-passing flashbang was deliberate :D), I *like* the Puma Sisters and the UPS Truck from Hell and all that. I assumed any OR project would be more of that and I’d eat that up easy… what happened?

>…OR3 for *decades*? Holy… damn. What’s snagged him?

Got married, had a couple of kids. He's actually a grandfather now.

Plus, there were some issues between him and one of the other people who were Tuckerized in the story that led to a massive rewrite. It's not my place to say more.

>I need to know more about both of these. I *like* OR in all its 90s
>nerd glory from before my parents were even married (‘94. that
>time-passing flashbang was deliberate :D), I *like* the Puma Sisters
>and the UPS Truck from Hell and all that. I assumed any OR project
>would be more of that and I’d eat that up easy… what happened?

I spent 30 years working for corporations and gave myself workspace-related PTSD. :p Plus, you know, 30+ years of writing in all sorts of places from RACC to AO3. I'm not sure I _could_ write the way I did back then.

>>
>>...actually, wait. CAN one do so beyond pocket dimensions in UF? Or
>>does the Yggdrasil construction prevent that? Like, you get nine
>>realms, time shadows, and that's your lot?
>>
>
>Pre-Twilight, I can think of three contacts with parallel dimensions,
>even if I can't precisely remember one of them. I think Redneck had
>somebody arrive from another universe in one of his stories, there's
>the arrival of the Maximals and Predacons, and of course, Gryphon's
>unplanned time in the Star Trek universe.

Don't forget the grabbing of pseudo-RL Gryphon, Zoner and ReRob and them getting dropped into Hopelessly Lost in Core 4, and also how Edison Bell was from another universe.