Chapter 17, Page 21b: Emotional Avoidance

Countess Influencia has arrived — and Fairmount City’s heroes are already under her spell.

As her livestreamed crime spree unfolds, the heroes of Justice Ltd. are doing what any brave, noble defenders of justice would do in a moment of crisis: They’re staring at their phones, smashing the Like button, and assembling in her comments section.

Only Captain Heroic seems immune to her influence. Why? Because the last thing waiting on his phone is a text from Miss Match that reads: “We have to talk.”

And sometimes, emotional avoidance is the only thing standing between civilization and total collapse.

Dear Pentagram Forum

If you enjoyed the illustration that parodied those old “Dear Penthouse Forum” letters, the following exclusive post takes the joke all the way.

The short story tells the entire encounter from start to finish — the setup, the invitation, the escalation, and the kind of filthy left turn those letters always seemed to take when you realized you were no longer in the “saucy anecdote” section of the magazine.

This one is pure retro smut nostalgia: A horny little time capsule from the era when “I never thought this would happen to me…” was basically the Bat-Signal for bad decisions.

Transcript

Panel 1
A large monitor displays footage of Countess Influencia hovering over Fairmount City.
Several Justice Ltd heroes are gathered in the room, but instead of leaping into action, they’re all staring at their phones. Pink hearts stream upward from their screens.

Amazing Amazon: She’s… weirdly compelling.
Elastic Man: I only ‘liked’ ironically.
Wingman: I subscribed UN-ironically.
Captain Heroic: Why isn’t anyone… y’know…  assembling?

Panel 2
Amazing Amazon:
We are assembling.
Elastic Man: In her comments section.
Phenomenal Lass: Grab your phone and join us.

Panel 3
Captain Heroic remembers his last text from Miss Match:
“We have to talk”
Cap, in a narration box: I… uhhhh… turned that off for a while.

Panel 4
Captain Heroic, flying into action:
Who knew emotional avoidance could be a superpower?

WikiWatch 3

WikiWatch: Un-Un-Un-Deleted!

Thanks to the strong response from readers and right-minded Wiki-editors, the Evil Inc entry in Wikipedia has been restored — and much improved!

But the battle is not over!

First of all, anything that can be un-un-un-deleted can certainly be un-un-un-un-deleted the next day — especially at Wikipedia!

Secondly, I am told that another good way to keep the entry pertinent is to have the entry updated with as much information as possible. And, I’m told, it has much more weight if that is done my anyone but me.

So here’s a chance to sock it to the man. Take a little time and, if you know Wikipedia’s rules, update the Evil Inc entry in some way.

Meanwhile… Howard Talyer’s rant on my behalf made the news…



You can also see the video and read the full transcript here. Fast forward about half-way. It’s just after the report on GoDaddy’s Super Bowl ad and just before the report on social networks. Score one for Howard.