THE LIMINALS
#11: "Every Time A Bell Rings..."
A tale of angels and demons by Jeanne Morningstar
A Leadership Cry.Sig Net.ropolis 2023 prelude (maybe?)

This issue is dedicated to Rachel Pollack (1945-2023)
"To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual
exploration."
–The Forest of Souls: A Walk Through the Tarot

====

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!

====

JULY 2020

"So," said Masterplan Lad, finishing the the last touches on their
lipstick. "How do I look?"

"Amazing," said Sharon. "If I didn't have a girlfriend, I'd be grabbing
ahold of you and pinning you to the wall and kissing you right now."

"Thank you," said Masterpan Lad. The curl of Alys's lip suggested she
might be interested in that idea as well. It was always hard for them to
tell.

Just then, to MPL's frustration and relief, the moment was interrupted
when Doug walked into the room, bearing the the night's movies–Sharon
Friedman and Alys Delano (as they knew their names were now) were DVD
watchers; they'd even been known to still watch videotapes.

Doug's abiding obsessions in life were mech anime and black and white
movies. If you got him in a room with Alice to talk about Macross, or
with Sharon about Old Hollywood, they'd never talk about anything else
for a week.

Doug was bisexual, and he had a boyfriend and a very likely potential
girlfriend in Sig.ago, where he'd grown up. His pride in his home city
was still pretty considerable (he'd told MPL shortly after they met that
he in all honesty preferred Dvandom Force to the LNH; he even admitted a
fondness for Teenfactor). He'd moved here for a film history research
fellowship; but had told MPL he preferred not to date people in
Net.ropolis as there was too much drama. He'd meant this in the
colloquial sense, not the narrative-metaphysical sense, but it was still
true: the constant flow of Drama around the city meant that it could be
difficult to hold down stable relationships.

Masterplan Lad knew a lot of queer people in long-distance
relationships. As in-person queer spaces grew harder to access due to
gentrification, and the internet became one of the most important
vectors for queerness, it had grown more and more common. Some people he
knew–such as Frat Boy and Fearless Leader–were even dating people in
other dimensions.

Doug's situation wasn't quite that extreme; he just had a boyfriend who
lived in another city. There were unique potentials and problems
associated with this for an inhabitant of Net.ropolis. The city didn't
have a fixed location. It jumped unpredictably between state lines as
the plot demanded; this caused an enormous legal headache, and was one
of the reasons the LNH had established an uneasy diplomatic relationship
with the Lethal Lawyer Corps. That meant that Net.ropolis could be near
any other city, and that made it that much easier for people in
long-distance relationships, though they could never predict when
Net.ropolis would be there. It was a little harder for Sig.agoans,
though–Sig.ago was Net.ropolis's conceptual opposite; one of the things
that defined Net.ropolis was that it was Not Sig.ago and vice versa. But–

"Hey," whispered Alys, gently tapping them on the shoulder, "are you
expositing to yourself again?"

"Er, yes," they said.

"Well it's time to listen to Doug exposit instead." She took their hand
and squeezed it gently. They looked for a moment of longing and
frustration and her beautifully painted pink nails.

Then they looked up at Doug instead, who was going on animatedly about
the movie they were watching today--one of those old Dolores De Wynter
romantic comedies, "Miss Net.ropolis"–and went on for a bit about her
various trysts with famous lesbians and experiments with gender.

When the movie was over, they left after Alys and Sharon hugged them
goodbye.

Their head was full of thoughts on the way back. They thought of whether
Sharon and Alys were really attracted to them and what they'd do about
it if they were. And naturally, they thought of Maria. They felt
something they'd been feeling for a while now–a deep frustration and an
absolute, desperate need, the absence of her hand on their skin.

Masterplan Lad felt someone tap them on the shoulder. They turned around
and saw a familiar figure in a familiar trenchcoat. "Hi," said Maria.

"What? How did you--"

"We're both magicians, babe. And I sealed a narrative connection between
us–remember?"

"I certainly do. It was in issue six, correct?"

"I guess. Keeping track of that stuff is your job."

"So ah, what have you been up to?"

"Oh, roaming about the Earth and walking up and down on it. You?"

"Well, I've been recovering after what we went through. At some point
I'll have to help sort out the post-cascade canon, but right now I'm
supposed to rest as much as possible. Ninja's orders. Oh and, ah, I
officially came out to my friends as nonbinary. I'm currently using
they/them pronouns."

"Ha! I figured. Good on you." They were walking down the street
together, to nowhere in particular or, at least, nowhere Masterplan Lad
was aware of. "So, do you have a name?"

"I've been calling myself Dee. For the moment, anyway."

"Dee, huh? So, like, John Dee?"

"Not particularly, no. I hadn't thought of that. That whole ceremonial
magick tradition–that's not really who I am. It's too rigid,
appropriative, and convoluted. And when something's too convoluted for
me..."

"So you're more of a chaos magician, then?"

"Well, I think the understanding of our storytelling universe naturally
tends to something like chaos magick–thinking of magic as a narrative
function. But even chaos magic strikes me as too programmatic much of
the time."

"Right! So you're a trenchcoater, then." Maria hooked her arm around
theirs. "Systems and received traditions are bullshit. They always
disappoint us. We understand this. That's the trenchcoater way."

"Hmm. I do see much that appeals to me in that, but... It's not a system
of rules, but it is a set outlook, and I'm not sure it's mine. I'm not
sure any of the ones I'm familiar with are."

"Ok, whatever. Just wanna let you know that trenchcoaters are the coolest."

"I'm sure. I will say, it's very stressful to not fully understand all
that. And not know what my name is."

"Yeah, but it's also kind of cool? A lot of magic revolves around names.
The Name Eater of the Seventh Abyss of Kelorak can't get you if you
don't have a name in the first place."

"Ah, there's another thing I didn't know I had to feel anxiety about,"
said Masterplan Lad. "Wouldn't it be difficult to perform certian
magical rituals if I didn't have a name?"

"Hmmmm. Point. Well, maybe you haven't got that down yet but there's
other things we can take care of... I gotta initiate you further. This
isn't a sex thing. Not *yet*." She winked conspicuously. "Do you have a
tarot deck?"

"Surprisingly, no. You'd think a superhero universe mystic wouldn't be
seen without one. I have done some research into it. I'm still thinking
about what forms of external magic might work for me now that my main
source of magical power is gone..."

"Well tarot is great. It's like, not useful for offensive magic but it's
good for figuring the world and yourself out. Being good at tarot is the
reason I'm not an even bigger disaster than I am. C'mere."

Grabbing ahold of their hand, she pulled them through the door of a
nearby shop–the Promethea Spiritual Supply Shop.

The scent of the air was heavy with cheap incense. At the deck was a
middle-aged white woman with a lot of rings wrapped in a sparkly green
shawl. There were all kinds of vaguely spiritual knicknacks, gewgaws and
trinkets on the walls and shelves, from rune stones to rings to
crystals. MPL grimaced to see a rack of dreamcatchers.

Maria led them to a display rack full of tarot decks, and they turned it
around. There was an Arthurian deck, a cat-themed deck, an Elvis-themed
deck. They took out and examined the JONG! Tarot, based on Arthur
Spitzer's acclaimed series, with images of iconic characters such as
Plum Master and Dumpster-TRON.

On 4/12/23 6:02 PM, Jeanne Morningstar wrote:
> THE LIMINALS
> #11: "Every Time A Bell Rings..."
> A tale of angels and demons by Jeanne Morningstar

oooooooh

> A Leadership Cry.Sig Net.ropolis 2023 prelude (maybe?)

Sure, why not!

> This issue is dedicated to Rachel Pollack (1945-2023)
> "To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual exploration."
> –The Forest of Souls: A Walk Through the Tarot

It's goshdarn true.

> 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!

YEAH THEY ARE \o/

> "So," said Masterplan Lad, finishing the the last touches on their lipstick.
> "How do I look?"
>
> "Amazing," said Sharon. "If I didn't have a girlfriend, I'd be grabbing ahold of
> you and pinning you to the wall and kissing you right now."

ghehehehe :3

> Just then, to MPL's frustration and relief, the moment was interrupted

X3 Extremely them.

> when Doug
> walked into the room, bearing the the night's movies–Sharon Friedman and Alys
> Delano (as they knew their names were now) were DVD watchers; they'd even been
> known to still watch videotapes.
>
> Doug's abiding obsessions in life were mech anime and black and white movies. If
> you got him in a room with Alice to talk about Macross, or with Sharon about Old
> Hollywood, they'd never talk about anything else for a week.

Oh, I love it, I love this detail-oriented characterization.

> Doug was bisexual, and he had a boyfriend and a very likely potential girlfriend
> in Sig.ago, where he'd grown up. His pride in his home city was still pretty
> considerable (he'd told MPL shortly after they met that he in all honesty
> preferred Dvandom Force to the LNH; he even admitted a fondness for Teenfactor).

Awwwwww :>

> He'd moved here for a film history research fellowship; but had told MPL he
> preferred not to date people in Net.ropolis as there was too much drama. He'd
> meant this in the colloquial sense, not the narrative-metaphysical sense, but it
> was still true: the constant flow of Drama around the city meant that it could
> be difficult to hold down stable relationships.

Mmmmm, legit, legit.

> Masterplan Lad knew a lot of queer people in long-distance relationships. As
> in-person queer spaces grew harder to access due to gentrification, and the
> internet became one of the most important vectors for queerness, it had grown
> more and more common. Some people he knew–such as Frat Boy and Fearless
> Leader–were even dating people in other dimensions.

Metaphor! \o/

> That meant that
> Net.ropolis could be near any other city, and that made it that much easier for
> people in long-distance relationships, though they could never predict when
> Net.ropolis would be there. It was a little harder for Sig.agoans,
> though–Sig.ago was Net.ropolis's conceptual opposite; one of the things that
> defined Net.ropolis was that it was Not Sig.ago and vice versa.

Ooooooh, yeah, excellent point - especially with Net.ropolis being connected to
the tradition of coastal cities in superhero media.

> "Hey," whispered Alys, gently tapping them on the shoulder, "are you expositing
> to yourself again?"
>
> "Er, yes," they said.
>
> "Well it's time to listen to Doug exposit instead."

Awwwwwww. :>

> Then they looked up at Doug instead, who was going on animatedly about the movie
> they were watching today--one of those old Dolores De Wynter romantic comedies,
> "Miss Net.ropolis"–and went on for a bit about her various trysts with famous
> lesbians and experiments with gender.

eeeeeeee cute :D Oh, I see the Ultra-Humanite reference there.

> And naturally, they thought of Maria. They felt something they'd been
> feeling for a while now–a deep frustration and an absolute, desperate need, the
> absence of her hand on their skin.

Awwwwww. :>

> Masterplan Lad felt someone tap them on the shoulder. They turned around and saw
> a familiar figure in a familiar trenchcoat. "Hi," said Maria.
>
> "What? How did you--"
>
> "We're both magicians, babe. And I sealed a narrative connection between
> us–remember?"

:3 <3 <3 <3

> "So ah, what have you been up to?"
>
> "Oh, roaming about the Earth and walking up and down on it.

What a fucking trenchcoater answer. X>

> "Well, I've been recovering after what we went through. At some point I'll have
> to help sort out the post-cascade canon, but right now I'm supposed to rest as
> much as possible. Ninja's orders.

Heeheehee. X>

> "I've been calling myself Dee. For the moment, anyway."
>
> "Dee, huh? So, like, John Dee?"
>
> "Not particularly, no. I hadn't thought of that. That whole ceremonial magick
> tradition–that's not really who I am. It's too rigid, appropriative, and
> convoluted. And when something's too convoluted for me..."

X3 Legit.

> "So you're more of a chaos magician, then?"
>
> "Well, I think the understanding of our storytelling universe naturally tends to
> something like chaos magick–thinking of magic as a narrative function. But even
> chaos magic strikes me as too programmatic much of the time."

Mmmmmm, big mood.

> "Right! So you're a trenchcoater, then." Maria hooked her arm around theirs.
> "Systems and received traditions are bullshit. They always disappoint us. We
> understand this. That's the trenchcoater way."
>
> "Hmm. I do see much that appeals to me in that, but... It's not a system of
> rules, but it is a set outlook, and I'm not sure it's mine. I'm not sure any of
> the ones I'm familiar with are."

I'm really vibing with all these feels. X>

> "I'm sure. I will say, it's very stressful to not fully understand all that. And
> not know what my name is."
>
> "Yeah, but it's also kind of cool? A lot of magic revolves around names. The
> Name Eater of the Seventh Abyss of Kelorak can't get you if you don't have a
> name in the first place."
>
> "Ah, there's another thing I didn't know I had to feel anxiety about," said
> Masterplan Lad.

X3 Also an extremely them thing to say.

> I gotta initiate you further. This isn't a sex
> thing. Not *yet*." She winked conspicuously.

:3

> "Well tarot is great. It's like, not useful for offensive magic but it's good
> for figuring the world and yourself out.

You know what would be good for both, a tarot deck made out of Magic: The
Gathering cards.

> Being good at tarot is the reason I'm
> not an even bigger disaster than I am. C'mere."

X3

> Grabbing ahold of their hand, she pulled them through the door of a nearby
> shop–the Promethea Spiritual Supply Shop.

Ah yes. n.n

> The scent of the air was heavy with cheap incense. At the deck was a middle-aged
> white woman with a lot of rings wrapped in a sparkly green shawl. There were all
> kinds of vaguely spiritual knicknacks, gewgaws and trinkets on the walls and
> shelves, from rune stones to rings to crystals. MPL grimaced to see a rack of
> dreamcatchers.

Well, that's familiar.

> They took
> out and examined the JONG! Tarot, based on Arthur Spitzer's acclaimed series,
> with images of iconic characters such as Plum Master and Dumpster-TRON.

Oh my god I want that so bad. X>

> It was the old familiar Rider-Waite-Smith Deck, the main one
> their Writer used, as that was the one Rachel Pollack had used as a baseline in
> her books. While tempted by the Dvandom Force tarot, they took the RWS out of
> the carousel.

Awwwww. :> (I want the Dvandom Force tarot too, of course.)

>
> "OK," said Maria. "Now the next step is..." She leaned in to whisper them,
> putting her hand on their shoulder. "We steal it."
>
> "What?"
>
> "Yeah, there's a custom that you can't buy your first tarot deck. It has to be
> given or stolen. I mean, it doesn't *have* to be that way, but it's cooler and
> therefore more dramatic and therefore gives your magic that little bit of edge."