[UA] Lemur-licious (was Re: Cultures in animals)

[Chad Underkoffler]

> From: "Timothy Toner" <thanatos at interaccess.com>
> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 00:18:47 -0500
>
> > There's an incredibly short Burroughs book about Madagascar
> > (to relate to another thread) and all the weird lemurs. 
> > Then he gets off on rants about deadly diseases, 
> > homosexuality and pirates.
> 
> Among the lemurs? 8^p

Speaking of lemurs, homosexuality, pirates, and obsession, now
is a good time to plug Matt Ruff's SEWER, GAS, & ELECTRIC: THE
PUBLIC WORKS TRILOGY. It's like ATLAS SHRUGGED, turned inside
out, spanked soundly with "'REPENT HARLEQUIN!' SAID THE
TICKTOCKMAN," and made to beg for sweet candy.

It's a bit more science-fictiony than core UA, but has plenty of
cool weird bits to drop into a UA camapign.

> And whenever I think of Martinique, I think of poor ol' 
> Cyparis, who had the good fortune of being locked up in 
> the pokey the day the experts were wrong.  He spent the 
> rest of his life, touring the world with Barnum and Bailey, 
> telling one and all about his horrific experience.  But, 
> methinks, could there be more than that?  Seeing Unbreakable
> rekindled the interest I had in this... thing. It's a hybrid 
> of necromancer and godwalker, and it takes two forms--the 
> sole survivor who's infused with the will to live of the 
> hundreds who died around him, and the deathbringer, who 
> engineers the demise of hundreds in some mass extinction.  
> There are, of course, rules for both.  The 'accidental' 
> seldom uses his power consciously.  Instead, they reflexively
> lash out at key moments, making him seem like he had nine 
> lives (well, he actually has 300+, but who's counting?)  The
> deathbringer also gains powers, but his sins are almost 
> visibly etched across his brow.  Most demons in an area flock 
> to him to harrass him, and a good many of his great works are
> undone by their less than tender involvement.  This 
> interesting, unbalanced hybrid is possible because of a 
> loophole created by the Compte's existence.  The universe 
> is 'holding a spot' for the Compte, and in anticipation of 
> his eventual ascension, it leaves a space in the universe 
> large enough to accomodate, without too many specifics.  It 
> is the role of The Last Man Standing.  By channeling this 
> demi-archetype (hey, the universe is gettin' lazy... there
> was an archetype like that in the last few hundred universes, 
> so it figures, 'why wait for the last minute rush?'  There 
> are quite a few people who can claim this unique distinction, 
> with Cyparis being the most famous.  Of course, the most 
> potent of all would be someone who wrested the deathbringer's 
> prize seconds before he claimed it.  Such a man could
> possibly challenge the Comte himself.

Since you mentioned UNBREAKABLE, I thought of superheroes, and
thus CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, and thus Pariah. Who would be a
good model for the "sole survivor"/accidental godwalker.



=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"I was walking through the woods, thinking about Christ.
If He was a carpenter, I wondered what He charged for
bookshelves?" -- Woody Allen, LOVE & DEATH

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