Transformatrix 4000 -- Comments and Suggestions

I'm going to take a sabbatical from the interactive story, so anyone who cares to pick up where my last chapter left off is welcome to do so.

I had a couple of weeks of "slack time" last month, but things are getting busy again, and my workshop partners have first claim on whatever time I can find for writing.

I'm afraid I was becoming a "story hog" anyway. In hindsight, maybe I should have posted the Regina chapters on the "Tales" thread.

But Regina was fun to write, and I appreciate the nice feedback I got from a few of you. Now it's someone else's turn!

Can anyone continue the story or no? I saw Argonaut had updated Transformatirx V.2 and was wondering if it was okay to contribute or are set people directing the story. Thanks.

Can anyone continue the story or no? I saw Argonaut had updated Transformatirx V.2 and was wondering if it was okay to contribute or are set people directing the story. Thanks.

Anyone can go for it!

It just gets confusing when characters start becoming "bi-polar", if you know what I mean. :wink:

I look forward to seeing what you got.

It's an interactive story. Anyone can add to it at any time. I posted the new chapter in the hope that it might get the story moving again.

I do have a pretty specific idea of where the story can go from this point. sgfan, send me a private message if you'd like details. But feel free to take the story in whatever direction you'd like. I've been hogging it long enough!

In the past few weeks, I've gotten messages from a couple of writers asking about my plans for the interactive story.

Once again -- I don't own the story. Anyone can jump in at any time.

However ... I do have ideas for wrapping up the Regina sub-plot and steering the story back toward Tiff. Another couple of chapters should accomplish that. Then the story will be wide open for other writers.

I haven't been very active on this forum lately: The Red Sox have been absorbing most of my "discretionary time." But I'll try to get a new chapter started before the World Series gets under way on Wednesday.

GO SOX!

Have to admit, I got completely lost on TFK mk 2. There suddenly seemed to be about one hundred characters, each with varying levels of powers... :oops:

Have been trying to write a new T4K story, centering around Kara and Jill, but all I've got so far is a quick housewarming party scene...

Since "Three Months Later," only two transformees have joined the cast -- Tiff and Gracie.

As for the "varying levels of power" -- Tiff and Regina have had their powers boosted by a modified version of the Transformatrix developed by Janet Klyburn. Denise's strength has been enhanced as a by-product of some testing she's undergone. I think that's it. I hope that if / when the current story-line gets wrapped up, we'll go back to the status quo ante -- no more uber-transformees and uber-uber-transformees. As Spulo points out, that makes it hard to keep the players straight.

A while ago, someone suggested that each transformee might have a unique ability (e.g., telekinesis, morphing) in addition to the standard super-powers. I still think that's a bad idea. Readers and would-be writers would need scorecards to keep the characters and their powers straight.

But a "Who's Who of the T4000 Universe" might be a useful thread. A while ago, I posted profiles of Lois, DeeAnn, Amber, Kara, and Jill. Maybe anyone who adds a transformee to the cast could post a description along the lines that Anon suggested.

A while ago, someone suggested that each transformee might have a unique ability (e.g., telekinesis, morphing) in addition to the standard super-powers. I still think that's a bad idea.

Yeah, what idiot came up with that one?

*checks*

Hmm. It's not a bad idea, in principle...

Speaking of "what idiot came up with that one?": my point in creating uber-uber adversaries wasn't the uber-uber, it was the adversaries: a "normal" transformatrix can't get away with anything really naughty with an entire group of heroines on duty (witness Paris Hilton, one-and-done). I also hoped that starting more story threads--which were intended to be concurrent and perhaps overlapping but still fundamentally separate--would make more room for new contributors to jump in. (As would having more villains, since the board includes a lot of villain fans who weren't getting much satisfaction from the heroine-focused story.) It wasn't a bad idea in principle ... but it didn't work. Oh well. Sorry about that.

(I also hadn't expected Tiff to be as dangerous as Ultragirl read her; I'd expected her to give the heroines a good pummeling, but not to seriously injure them (Laura's broken jaw was intended as the upper limit).)

If I ran the zoo, I would resolve the Tiff thread as follows. The posse Kara and Jill called in will get smacked around a bit but will eventually force Tiff to flee: stalemate. Then Laura will come up with idea of rejiggering the Lotos machine to get Tiff to calm down. She'll use some sort of lure to get Tiff to come near the machine, and the machine will calm Tiff down enough to get her to listen to reason, and she can move offstage to where I can use her if I want her but the rest of you don't have to deal with her . Would that work for everyone?

I actually hadn't intended Denise to be a mainstay character. I figured there would a "price" for that kind of power. In other words, we'd lose Denise from the story.

I think I suggested some transformees developing a unique power was just so we had some reason to be following them as opposed to others. So not only were the heroines trying to find out the who/what/why behind the T4000, the 7 or 8 main characters could also discover powers unique to them, and that would form a bond between them...

Something I'm curious about, how is Kara affected by her exposure to the TFX 4000? Should she be increased like all the other gals? Or get something unquie. An idea I thought might be intresting is she can only use Transformee level powers in one area at a time.

Aaaand ... cut!

All right, people -- that's a wrap!

I finally brought some closure to the Regina story-line. Now that Gracie and Regina (and a posse of other transformees) are on their way to duke it out with Tiff, writers can pick up on the story-line that yaracyrrah launched quite a few months ago.

That is, if they're interested.

Just curious -- is anyone following this story? (Besides Berkhart -- thanks for your feedback, Mr. B!) I'm thinking of posting a few short chapters, each focussing on a new or lesser-used transformee as she responds to the "call to arms." Would anyone like to see those, or should I devote my writing time to some other project?

Yes, I'm following it. Really great story, Argo. And another yes to seeing those little short chapters.

I read every one of them.

Nice work. Short and sweet. Write whatever you want you won't hear any complaints from me.

Re: today's chapter

Here's Summer Montabone -- my "muse" for Atalanta:

www.summersfitness.com/summerpics/DSCF0002.jpg

And here's Atalanta, as rendered by Dean Zachary:

www.superwomenmania.com/imagebank/bank/sginc/Atalanta.jpg

(And I do plan to continue Atalanta's adventures in the year ahead.)

P.S. Thanks for your support, Sarge and Jeepman. This one's for you.

Re: today's chapter

I don't have a "muse" for any of the students, but this cover seems appropriate:

www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=23416&zoom=4

Okay took a leap and decided to post in the story thread. Decided to follow through with some comments Jill made earlier.

I'm glad you did. Thanks for bringing the "interactive" back into our interactive story!

Just one nit-pick -- Amber's boyfriend is named Bobby, not Billy.

I was hoping to post another "stand-alone" chapter tonight, but it's turning out to be a bit longer than the last two, and I didn't finish it within my self-imposed half-hour limit. With a bit of luck, it'll be up tomorrow. It's set in a Hooters restaurant in Akron, Ohio ...

The Caitlin chapter was supposed to be a brief vignette like the two chapters before it, but the story grew on me -- in both senses. Here's what I've written so far; I'll try to wrap it up tomorrow.

Caitlin: www.hootersmagazine.com/hootersgirls/60_michele6.html

I'm glad you did. Thanks for bringing the "interactive" back into our interactive story!

Just one nit-pick -- Amber's boyfriend is named Bobby, not Billy.

Roger, my bad.

Yay, Elisha Cuthbert mentioned as a transformee! Cos I is writing a little thing of her going to the superheroine academy, and sharing a room with Jessica Alba... :twisted:

Yay, Elisha Cuthbert mentioned as a transformee! Cos I is writing a little thing of her going to the superheroine academy, and sharing a room with Jessica Alba... :twisted:

That was for you, Spulo.

FYI: Jessica Alba was first referenced as a transformee in a chapter I added to "Transformatrix 4000" back on 23 May 2005 ... along with Summer Montabone, "a high-school history teacher in Indiana" (later introduced as Jill Henderson), and "a waitress at a Hooters restaurant in Akron" -- who now makes her first appearance in our story.

BTW, Caitlin is straight, so hands off!