|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 16, 2018 21:43:56 GMT
Chapter 1
Jasma was bored
This was, unfortunately a common occurrence. At five years old Jasma was in the phase in her life when she needed activity, and constant new experiences, and lots of personal attention. For most children, these needs would be filled by friends, and Jasma was a very friendly girl. Her parents had trained her very well in how important it was to be good, truthful and responsible, though she had a healthy love of mischief for a girl her age as well.
But, for the daughter of Superman, friends were a risk. She had to follow her daddy’s “secret identity rule,” no using superpowers, or mentioning that her daddy was Superman in front of anybody who was not a superhero, or family of superheroes (like her best friend Diana). The second was pretty easy, but the second was very hard. Jasma was remarkably mature for a girl her age, the result of her half-kryptonian heritage. But even though she could usually restrain her powers, it was no fun playing that way.
She liked to let herself go, use all her strength and speed. But she could only do that when Diana visited, and only in the Fortress. Even with Diana she had to be careful, since her friend was not indestructible.
Having visitors was also hard on her mommy and daddy. Nobody could talks about “superhero things” while Jasma’s school mates were in the house, and if a super-emergency broke out, it was harder for Clark and Kristen to find excuses to slip away.
Which was why, on Saturday, in November 1988, Jasma was sitting her back yard playing a lack-luster game of tug-a-war with her superpowered puppy Sassy.
Unfortunately, though she didn’t realize it, Jasma’s plight had drawn the attention of unfriendly eyes, and while her parents were out shopping and Gerta was preparing the roast chicken for dinner, she was about to be launched on an adventure like nothing she had seen before.
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 16, 2018 21:46:12 GMT
Could anybody explain to me a way that I can not loose all my formatting every time I past soemthing on here? it is very annoying to have to re-do all the italics, indents, paragraph spaces and so forth.
|
|
|
Post by dans on Nov 17, 2018 0:44:40 GMT
When you paste directly from word, all the formatting is stripped out. The only thing I know how to keep is whitespace between paragraphs - if you put two carriage returns between paragraphs in word instead of one, your paragraphs here will not run together.
I did a google search on 'convert word to bbcode' but didn't find anything that is instantly useful.
Dan
Edit: I found this place: www.ecardmax.com/hoteditor/ which _almost_ does the job. But it isn't just 'copy and paste and convert and copy and paste'. You paste your word doc into the bottom window, and click the Submit button, and the forum post shows up in the BBCode Output box. Except there are a LOT of lines of extra code at the bottom of that window. If you want to scan down until you find this line:
<!--[if gte mso 9]><o:DocumentProperties><o:Revision>1</o:Revision><o:Pages>
then copy everything above that line and paste it here, that will probably work. Don't know why whoever wrote this convertor couldn't have finished it.
So it depends on what you find easier - reformatting everything here after you paste it, or figuring out where the 'good' code ends and the 'bad' code starts in the convertor.
|
|
|
Post by DocQuantum on Nov 17, 2018 0:57:06 GMT
This probably isn’t very helpful, but I do my writing on a private WordPress site, then transfer it over here. First I have to change the HTML tags for italics and bold to the ones used in BBcode.
I’ve had success in keeping formatting when cutting from a Word doc and pasting in WordPress preview mode, which you can then copy the HTML and change to BBcode to paste here.
Or you could write directly here. Otherwise you may wish to mark any place you have italics and bold with the _ underscore character before copying and pasting, which will let you know where to quickly add in italics formatting by a search for the _ character.
|
|
|
Post by dans on Nov 17, 2018 1:10:06 GMT
Yeah, I saw that other option too, Doc - convert to html and then convert the html to bbcode. I was hoping to find a word processor that uses bbcode tags directly, but no luck. As you point out, an author _could_ compose in one of these boxes originally instead of a word processor.
I'm kind of surprised there isn't a wysiwyg text editor desktop that automatically inserst the bbcode tags and then saves files as text. maybe I'm still not looking in the right places.
|
|
|
Post by dans on Nov 17, 2018 2:04:45 GMT
Hey, try this! Go here: delete any text in the text window, then copy and paste out of word into the window. Click on the BBCode button. Copy the code. Come here and start a post. Click on the BBCode button. Paste the BBCode from the other site into the box. Click on the Preview button. Here's a sample. Bold and italics made it through the conversion. Indent, colors, different fonts and different text sizes were lost.
This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. The words in this sentence are in different font sizes.
Here is what this looked like in the original, so you can decide how successful the conversion was. If you are only interested in bold and italic, it looks like this will do the trick.
This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, <can't display wingdings>. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text.The words in this sentence are in different font sizes.
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 17, 2018 13:29:53 GMT
Hey, try this! Go here: delete any text in the text window, then copy and paste out of word into the window. Click on the BBCode button. Copy the code. Come here and start a post. Click on the BBCode button. Paste the BBCode from the other site into the box. Click on the Preview button. Here's a sample. Bold and italics made it through the conversion. Indent, colors, different fonts and different text sizes were lost.
This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, Wingdings. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text. The words in this sentence are in different font sizes.
Here is what this looked like in the original, so you can decide how successful the conversion was. If you are only interested in bold and italic, it looks like this will do the trick.
This is indented text with bold, italics, and different fonts: Arial, Georgia, <can't display wingdings>. These words are supposed to be in color red text, blue text.The words in this sentence are in different font sizes.
This looks very helpful, thank you. Look for more of my Jasma story coming soon!
|
|
|
Post by DocQuantum on Nov 21, 2018 21:44:38 GMT
Terrific beginning! I can’t wait to see the adventures Jasma will have.
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 24, 2018 17:28:29 GMT
Mr. Mxyzptlk was bored. Fortunately for him his, his boredom had a ready cure. It had been three months since his humiliating defeat by Ambush Bug, and that meant he was at last able to pass through the dimension barrier between Zrfff and Earth. Ordinarily, the imp of mischief would have been only too excited to shake the metaphorical dust of his homeland from his shoes and visit those helpless and hilarious inhabitants of the 3rd Dimension which were so fun to play with. Ever since he was a child he had found it hard to entertain himself in his own dimension. On Zrff, everybody had the same awesome powers, and mischief was the national past time. In other words, there was just too much competition. But the days when the 3rd Dimension seemed like endless fun were fading into his youth. It seemed like every time he visited he ended up being tricked and sent back home. Usually this was by Superman, but last time he was tricked by Ambush Bug for gosh sake! And in less than 10 minutes! An entire wall in his house was now reserved for the Booby Prizes he had been awarded over the last 16 years, for being the most incompetent imp in the 5th Dimension, and he just wasn’t sure how much more ridicule he could take. So it was with some trepidation that he prepared to transition to Metropolis. Steady there, Mxyzptlk, he told himself. This is what you’ve been waiting for for months, right? A chance to torment those delightful little pest in the 3rd dimension, a chance to get revenge on Superman, to finally show those fools back home that you are NOT collecting Booby Prizes! He blinked into existence over the Kent house in Metropolis. His 5-d magic quickly determined that nobody was inside, except that old bitty Gertie. OK, so Superman was out fighting some menace-or-other. Perfect! He’d blink over, tip the battle against with a well-chosen prank or. . . Or He sighed, and sank down to the roof. “Who am I trying to fool?” he said to himself. They were right; they were all right back home. He just couldn’t do it again. Like a comedian who had been booed once too often, all those humiliating defeats by Superman had finally taken their toll. Mxyzptlk had lost his nerve. Suddenly, he heard something from behind the house “Stop Volcanus, stop! Please don’t destroy our nice new city.” Peaking over the edge of the roof, he saw a little blonde girl playing in the backyard. Jasma, he remembered. Her name is Jasma. She was Superman’s kid, must be around five or six now. Sassy had decided she was bored with tug-a-war, so Jasma had set up some stacks of plastic cups, and was making a plastic dinosaur trash them, pretending it was a monster destroying a city like in her daddy’s stories. As he watched the girl, a plan began to crystallize in the trickster’s mind. With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared and reappeared in a puff of smoke in from of Jasma. “Hey kid, long time no see! You’ve gotten so big in the last two years. I bet you don’t even remember your Uncle Mxyzptlk.”
|
|
|
Post by lee on Nov 24, 2018 17:39:16 GMT
I can't wait to see how this story goes. Great job.
|
|
|
Post by DocQuantum on Nov 24, 2018 18:27:15 GMT
Great insight into Mxy! It’s rare we even see references to earlier visits, let alone consequences from them, at least in the Pre-Crisis era. You’ve got a great hook for the story, too. “Uncle Mxy,” indeed...
Does this really take place in August? If it’s been three months since Underworld Unleashed (which is early July), then it should be at least October by now, right?
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 25, 2018 13:17:15 GMT
Sorry, I got the chronology for Underworld Unleashed wrong. I'll change the date to November.
|
|
|
Post by starskyhutch76 on Nov 26, 2018 0:55:03 GMT
This could be a lot of fun!
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 27, 2018 1:28:30 GMT
Jasma’s eyes widened slightly when she recognized the little man. Although she was only five, and just half-kryptonian, her memory was already super, and she recalled the encounter she had with this mischievous imp when she was three years old. Mxyzptlk! He was one of her daddy’s BIG baddies. He told her lots of bedtime stories about the tricks Mr. Mxyzptlk tried to play on him. They always had a happy ending, where her daddy tricked the bad man into saying his name backwards and sent him home. But her daddy wasn’t here. Jasma decided to act like her friends from school, and pretend she couldn’t remember him from before. Daddy always said, “Never let the bad guys know how smart you are.” “Uncle Mix-el-plik?” She sounded out slowly. “I don’t know you. My Mommy and Daddy said I shouldn’t talk to strangers.” “Aww, isn’t that just like parents, taking all the fun out of life?” Mxyzptlk longed casually on a miniature cloud and sculpted from it cartoony figurines of Superman and Superwoman. At his command, the figures began walking around in circles, wagging their fingers and saying “No no no no no.” Despite herself, Jasma giggled. Taking this as a cue, Mxyzptlk pressed his advantage. “Look kid, I know boredom when I see it, and You. Are. Bored. This,” he gestured to the toppled cups, “this is no way for a kid to be spending her time on a great day like this, not when there’s so much fun out there in the world to be had.” “I need to stay here.” Jasma pointed out. “I’m not supposed to leave home when Mommy and Daddy are gone, unless Aunt Gertie is with me.” “But they’ll never know you’re gone.” Mxyzptlk assured her, while simultaneously trapping Gerta Gim-Ze in a timeloop with a thought. She would repeat the same three seconds again and again until somebody disrupted the loop by entering the kitchen. “We’ll only be gone a little while. Trust your Uncle Mxy, I always know where to have the best fun.” Jasma pretended to be interested, which wasn’t hard. She was a good girl, but like all little girls she often was willing to bend the rules for a little innocent fun. To sweeten the deal, the conniving trickster used his magic to summon up a delicate gold crown festooned with diamonds, fit for a little princess. “Did you forget about my magic? Think of all the superpowered fun we could have together! I bet you don’t get to play like that often.” Jasma stared in wonderment, only partly feigned. She was still thinking fast. He wants me to be naughty, she thought. She knew better than that. But her mommy and daddy night not be back soon, and Mr. Mxyzptlk might cause all kinds of trouble before her daddy could stop him. There was only one solution. She would trick Mr. Mxyzptlk herself. “OK Uncle Mxyzptlk. Let’s play!”
|
|
|
Post by johnreiter902 on Dec 22, 2018 14:53:02 GMT
Jasma and Mxyzptlk flew into the air and headed into downtown Metropolis. Jasma insisted on changing into her Supergirl outfit first, and the imp had used his magic to do it for her, (he didn’t want to risk her discovering the state he left Gerta in). Mxyzptlk was beside himself with excitement. This would be his perfect revenge on Superman. He would lead his daughter through a chain of comedic disasters, bringing her into more and more danger and tricking her into sowing chaos wherever they went. And the best part is, he though, there is absolutely no chance of Superman tricking me, since I’ll make sure we never meet up, at least until I’m ready. As they passed over Seigler Square, one of the busiest intersections in the city, Mxyzptlk was inspired for his “war up act.” “OK Jasma, here’s the first game!” He waved his hand and created a heap of giant rubber blocks in many different shapes, hovering in the air over the square. “Use these to make a maze, so those drivers can have fun on their way home from work. Catch!” He dissolved the magic keeping the blocks in the air. Jasma thought fast. I can’t just let them fall and hit people! But she knew better than to build things in the road. He parent told he it wasn’t nice to play in traffic “Suppose somebody hit you?” her mommy would say. “They would get their car broken.” Zipping down, she caught the blocks with an “umph.” “Mazes are dumb, Uncle Mxy. Too hard! But watch this.” Flying around at superpeed, Jasma assembled the blocks into a towing fairytale castle, with arches over the road to let the cars past. “Err, that sure nice Jasma.” And not what I had in mind. He’d need to find a better opportunity for trouble, and a better location. This was still too close to Superman’s stomping grounds. He didn’t want the big blue boob showing up too soon. Snapping his fingers, he teleported them both the deserts of California. “Let’s go digging for buried treasure Jasma. I’ll go first.” Waving his hands, the imp formed a tunnel in the earth and flew down it. Minutes later he emerged, carrying a pile of gold and jewels. “See Jasma, it’s easy.” Particularly, he thought, when I used by magic to lead me right to the treasure of Coronado. He showed her all the beautiful treasures. “See how pretty they sparkle? Won’t your mommy and daddy be pleased if you bring home treasure like this? I bet you can find twice as much.” “OK, watch me go!” With an excited whoop the tot of steel dived into the desert, drilling into the ground at superspeed with her fists. Mxyzptlk nearly did a backflip laughing. Got her now! he thought. He had put them right over the San Andreas Faultline. When that super-urchin hit the fault, it would trigger massive earthquakes all across California. He waited expectantly. . . and waited. . . and waited. Curious, he cocked his ear. No rumbling, no roaring. What happened? Suddenly, a huge geyser of oil erupted underneath him, soaking the imp from head to toe. “Gaah! Glub! Blaw!” he sputtered as Jasma burst out of the ground. “My daddy says this black stuff is worth a lot of money Uncle Mxy, but I don’t think it’s very pretty. Can I trade with you?” When Jasma had dived into the ground, she actually made sure to look first with her x-ray vision. She knew to always look first before you rushed into someplace. Right under her she saw a place where the two big pieces of earth were pushing on each other real hard. Nervous about what that might do if she ran into his, she had made a detour, and decided to play a joke on Mr. Mxyzptlk by bringing up the oil she found directly underneath him. “Why you little. . . ! I mean, err, good job Jasma.” Mxyzptlk magically vanished the oil away. “We can swap later. I know a place where we can have even better fun.” And really make some trouble, for you. He thought vindictively.
|
|