Question Following the Path of Cute

They have returned!!! May the power of cute compel you!

Woe unto those that don't take Wondercute seriously.

And now we know why the Handmaid of Balance returned.

New Wondercute seems more irritating than Original Wondercute, given how they bother Penny Dreadful and Lapin.

Is that Kerry Ellison??

I feel sorry for Penny Dreadful... She just wants to be left alone and New Wondercute doesn't respect that...

And they just kept chasing Lapin! I bet she felt like Tink after being chased by India...

And we have our Gen2 perverts! Interesting powers of Decoy! I guess he isn't restricted to people either... But his illusions might have to be static?

Ms. Ellison is Brittany, not Kerry. No relation...or is there?

Following the Path of Cute comments
Twitch has to be a part of Wondercute, she is too adorable not to. Dang, now that is the closest to a tech-based crystal ball I've ever read about. She is looking for invisible bunnies and is in Wondercute, ouch, my teeth hurt a little form all the sweetness. Sneaky spells, lots of uses for such things, Racoon just got more interesting. Hopefully Tyler is one of the voices of reason in the Bad Seeds, he seems to like the big brother role with Twitch. Wonder what the initiation into Wondercute is like, probably gotten crazier over the years.

Gigi official leader of Wondercute but only because no one else wanted to deal with all the paperwork, priceless. Petshop, Bewitched, Meow Mix, tempted to go over and pet her, bwahaha. Breakdance and Alcolyte, another junior high student. Black market pet shop I wasn't expecting. Miss Ellison, faculty advisor for Wondercute, and seems to like cute as much as the girls do. She was a magical girl named Miss Sparkles, oh boy.

Unique oath to swear, I wouldn't help but giggle as well. Temporary costumes from Miss Ellison, nice. Gigi Had a speech, wonder what she would have said. Boy, they seem as crazy, unpredictable, etc. as the original Wondercute so far.

Messing with Penny Dreadful, hope her manifestation aren't that powerful or she doesn't have any allies who want to retaliate. Oh boy, Twitch has hero worship for her dad so bad she can't see he is a villain. Unless the Cadre are the kind of "superheroes" who aren't really good guys, but present that face to the public. Oh crud, trying to get PD to go to the cute and nice side and they get a giant zombie dog instead.

Petshop uses non-lethal devises so far, a sleepy ray which has no effect on the manifestation. Gigi needs to think about who else will drop when doing a gravity drop attack like that, oh well, she is a junior high student. Time enough to learn. Nice Wizard of Oz references, glad Gigi vetoed Petshop's idea on flying monkeys. D'oh! Petshop is still stuck on the idea.

Bwahahahaha! Figures Petshop made the invisible bunnies and they escaped.

"I was gonna name mine Harvey."

Nice reference to the movie Harvey with the invisible Pooka in the form a giant rabbit. A Hello Kitty drawing done where it has to be seen using a special spectrum, one of the original Wondercute members left it perhaps. Considering it is invisible it seems it might have been left for Jade to follow. Wait, so this new Wondercute only started up last year after hearing about the original, dang. They are so much like the original it is scary.

Hello Kitty drawings leading them on a search, curiouser and curiouser. A Hello Kitty statue on top of a lamp post, yet spot someone. Decoy and Blindspot, the biggest perv at Whateley who takes sexy pics of girls they didn't pose for and his girlfriend. Great, a technopath who makes it so the security cameras and stuff don't see them. Esper who can tell when people are watching her as well, no wonder security can't catch them.

Ouch, Blindspot probably sees selling those pictures of other girls as a sort of revenge for being given the short straw, or something like that. Petshop doing that "What'cha doing?" routine, so like Isabella from Phineas and Ferb. Bwahahaha, trying to get him to take their pictures since they are "cute girls". Darn, tried to stop Decoy from leaving but he created copies of himself which ran off in various directions. Both of them scared off and now the girls go back on the Hello Kitty hunt.

Oh crud, Petshop has spotted Tia and gone Bunny crazy. Gigi goes to chase Petshop who is running after Tia, Tia cries to be left alone.

"But I just want to hug you," Petshop exclaimed as she chased after Lapin. "And pet you...and..."

Nice reference to the Abominable Snow Rabbit with Bugs Bunny and the Abominable Snow Man. They are all nuts, poor Tia has another pain to deal with at school, though not a deadly one still an annoyance.

Gah! All the cuteness and sweetness in this story so far, then Michelle and Jessie talking about the invisible bunnies, my poor teeth are screaming from sweetness overload. Just kidding, but only a little. Strong taser disguised as a 'magic wand', soon stories will start going around about that. Now that is a limitation on her devises, last only a couple weeks before they break down. Getting Wondercute together can be a chore, especially with Petshop in their ranks, at least that is how it seems.

Hamsters of different colors, that smell a little like their names, cute. Kissing frogs with an aphrodisiac mucus, bet guys line up to buy those. Ecological disaster waiting to happen, I can see that, her creations are cute but no less potential for mayhem than Jobe's stuff. Poor Petshop, it's not her fault some idiot let them loose. Bitsy is definitely a unique creature. Registered as a familiar, so that is how she gets to keep Bitsy around. Good thing she made Bitsy, imagine what trouble she would get into without Bitsy around. Like more of her creations getting loose in Whateley.

Etched into the top of the Crystal Hall in color, now one in a small stone disk, talk about elaborate. Princess costumes originally until they found out about the original Wondercute's costumes, yikes. Boy, I hope Petshop meets some of the original Wondercute and hears tales of their adventures. Wonder what Samantha's codename is to get an expression like speak of the unicorn. Chased off Decoy again, and Twitch finally spots an invisible bunny but gets dragged off to meet Samantha, darn.

Other girl leaves while the girls talk with Samantha, codenamed Unique, avatar with unicorn spirit and the start of a unicorn horn on her forehead. Talk of Racoon in his raccoon form letting Twitch pet him almost breaks through Samantha, but shakes it off, rats.

Samantha thinks she needs to grow up and is worried about not being taken seriously if she is with Wondercute. Don't worry what others think of you and you can grow up without growing old or worrying something is too "childish" to enjoy. Lured her in with the promise of getting back at Decoy for being a perv and taking pictures of girls like that.

"But only this one time..."

Famous last words before being dragged back into Wondercute.

Chased Decoy for an hour until he went into Twain, even Samantha enjoyed herself. Poor butterflies, experiment gone wrong. They are definitely as crazy as the original Wondercute, with talk like that and giggling so much. Samantha saying she just wants to see the treasure, sure, we believe you. Samantha needs to learn the old lesson, it doesn't matter if you are powerful, as long as you are intelligent and creative with what you have, just look at Diamondback or Kayda with their magic.

Teasing Nia about putting the crazy kids in Poe since she is in there. Tunnels near and underneath Poe, one of the ceiling even for the Hello Kitty. Find the last Hello Kitty and start to think nothing is there for a moment. A secret door on the other wall, the original Wondercute hidden clubhouse! Dang, even the DVD collection is still there with all the animes, nice. All that set-up, plus even a devisor work station. All those things to do and they now have a secret clubhouse which no one else knows about, let the enemies of cute and Wondercute beware.

Penny Dreadful's real name is Clarissa Logan, oh, that is priceless and a good piece of blackmail material if someone finds out. Bwahahaha! They gave her "zombie" Brutus the "Wondercute" treatment. Then are going to give PD a makeover as well, so she runs in fear. Definitely have the spirit of the original Wondercute. She will never have a moments peace when Wondercute is around now, I pity her a little.

So that is how Decoy does it, holograms of others that he can even take pictures of, sicko. If the staff knew how he was doing this, he would be in serious trouble, possibly expelled for abuse of his powers and selling nude images of fellow students. Perfume will probably have to be restrained if she knew what he was doing.

Oh boy, Blindspot is bi and even points out the hot girls to Decoy. Knew it, she picks the models not only because she is attracted to them, but because she is jealous or wants to embarrass them. Pictures of Tia, bad move, he is going to get sued by Playboy magazine for using their model without their permission, plus underage porn. Wondercute blocked him from taking his pics of Tia, I love those girls and their zany antics.

Tyler and Esquire arguing, over the stupidity of Esquire's plots to get Tia to join the Bad Seeds no doubt. Tyler telling Esquire basically he has to deal with the mess he made of making Bianca an enemy on his own. Fixing her magic wand since it broke when she used it on Decoy, always fun to mess with the big pervs. Wondercute movie marathon, sounds like fun. They caught one of the invisible bunnies and named it Harvey, keeping it at the clubhouse as a pet, cute. Great mascot for the new Wondercute. Fun story and introduction to all of the new Wondercute, their connection to the original group, and even some enemies they have made. Can't wait to see more of their antics.

This story has a tone that is more along the lines of the three Little witches then the original wondercute. Its like a sugar high put down on paper. I thought we where about get another original cast cameo for a moment there: An Adult woman with blond hair ... I so wanted this to be Bugs ... but no

A fun and light story there which added quite a number of characters. And I'm definatly looking forward to see what kind of trouble Tek Witch can get herself into in the coming year.

Forgot to mention, if New Wondercute is irritating enough, a Counter Group will form... or atleast attempt to...

Now... if WC was the group that was split into two groups in that Spreadsheet... I'll have fun wondering what that could mean!

There is something that must be rectified, 'Cute doesn't invoke the adorable terror it should be, this must be rectified.

Morpheus wrote: Ms. Ellison is Brittany, not Kerry. No relation...or is there?

But Kerry has an older brother that is a Wizard.

An excellent introduction to an adorable terror. I do worry, though. Wondercute has always walked the fine line without stepping into bullying, but I worry that this new group will cross it if they aren't thoughtful. Melissa seems thoughtful,hopefully they will listen to her. And Ms. Ellison will hopefully reign then in if she has to.

Penny Dreadful reminds me of Nacht a bit. And Petshop is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Jobe.

These new perverts seem much more competent than Peeper was. How much you want to bet that he succeeds in making pictures of Lapin and someone gets in serious trouble over violating Lapin's exclusivity agreement?

It's always a delight to read your stories Morpheus. This time I have taken note on each scene, hopefully it should help to give a better feedback.

Regarding the Character :
- So, first of all. Twitch is cute. I mean, it's kinda obvious but she really is. She has a clover vibe that I really like. So regarding her power she tries to imitate magic using her devisor/Gadgeteer (I admit I don't remember which one it is or even if it has been mentionned), and it tends to break after a while (So devisor). Will she try to take some magic class ? Students in Gen1 like Diamondback and Ayla have done just that even thought they had no mutant ability related to magic. I think she could enjoy that.
- Tyler, I have written "he seems very nice" pretty much in every scene in which he appears. I wonder if he will allow other to pet him in his raccoon form.
- Glee, (because I talk about the fanfiction too)
- Penny was not mean or anything. And I think she has dealt the situation in the best way possible. (She has not really confronted them, she has summoned a distraction to help her get away). Will she be a recurent "adversary" ? If so, will security step up at one point ? We will see.
- The dynamic between Blindshot and Decoy is nice. I mean, Peeper and Greasy had an interesting dynamic but it was harmful (and we will see how it will evolve in Gen1). Here, I am a fool so even if what they are doing is not really ... at the very least moral, well, at least they have each other. And their relations is not based on look (even if it's possible that they have not been able to catch "someone better", but because the "I am a fool" part of my initial statement, I prefer to think they have a deeper relation than that)
- Tia, oh Tia. At least there is no wondercute member in melville, yet.
- Petshop, cute but dangerous. No wonder she is banned from the the town.

The cliques :
- Wondercute. So in Gen1 it was not an official clique, only a training team ? So they had no advisor, if I recall correctly ? Having an ex Wondercute as advisor would have been too obvious, and maybe we will explore Miss Ellison character latter (it was her first appearence if I am not mistaken ?). There is no boy this time around (well, not officially at least). If the bad seed think that being part of wondercute can have a bad influence on your reputation, then that says a lot about the group. I can understand Samantha, in the Junior/senior year it might be hard to stay in wondercute if you want to "grow up". They seem more ... agressive than before. I would not suprised if security had to intervene to remind them that even with "good intention" you can still cause a lot of problems for other.
- The Bad Seeds, It's nice to see that they have better relationship than in Gen1. A lot more direct protection it seems than previously, and Esquire seems to be the only one really being a problem (but not in a Jobe/jean-armand way).

The plot :
- The new generation chasing the clues left by the previous generation was a nice approach for the first Gen2 wondercute story. And It has maybe introduced several characters as future nemesis for the team.
- So Yes, Esquire was responsible for the rumors and the attack. I had hopes that he was only a red hearing and that she would only believe that he was the one behind all of this. In the end, he is that much dumb, and he won't get any support from the bad seeds, at least not from Tyler.

Thank you Morpheus.

Yes, as of 2007 Wondercute is "just" a training team-slash-clique. But the existence of a clubhouse, and their leaving behind clues for future spiritual kindred, suggests that at some point they at least wanted to become an official club. Whether they actually attempted to register as such, whether they obtained a charter from the school, whether they ever recruited new members... that remains to be seen.

What IS known is that at some point they ran out of members to keep Wondercute going.

Regarding Tia catching a break due to the lack of Wondercuties at Melville... not so. Breakdance is a Melvillain, according to "Glimpses of the Sun". And, by the way... what IS Breakdance's name? I could figure out everyone else's (well, except for Miss Ellison's first name -- which Morpheus provided above -- and Samantha's surname).

As soon as I read about the invisible bunnies, I was reminded of this bit of Nagrij's contribution to the G2 Announcement:

Just watch where you step, and mind the bunnies. Sometimes they are invisible.

So finally we've got resolution to that little mystery - and perhaps evidence that some of the threads within this tale were woven way back then...

As others have mentioned, the G2 WonderCute appear to be a hybrid between the G1 version and the TLW. Still, for all their antics and cuteness, if targeting Decoy and Blindspot becomes a regular activity, that will help them build up a certain level of tolerance among the rest of the students.

The long-abandoned WonderCute clubhouse indicates that at some point in the next three G1 years, WonderCute become an official clique - which of course begs the question of who'd be mad enough to become their faculty sponsor. Speculation probably belongs in another thread, but I'd hazard a guess at a member of staff we haven't yet met.

Finally, we've had a few glimpses of Penny Dreadful - and with her tiny PoV segment here, I wonder if we'll be treated to a tale with her either as the primary PoV or a substantial secondary PoV. I wouldn't be surprised if the G2 Canon have a significant amount of information on/about her, ready to be drip-fed to us over the coming months / years - either via tiny PoV segments such as this or more substantial PoV segments / entire stories...

I didn't think I'd see myself ever saying this, but thank Jade for Wondercute (at least regarding poor Tia).

While this story definitely demonstrated the group as a whole as rather annoying, meddling and easily-distracted, hopefully having a clubhouse with all of that neat stuff will cut down on potential trouble at least a little.

I'm thus far indifferent to all but Twitch and Petshop thus far, so let's talk about Petshop. SHE TERRIFIES ME. Jobe creates some of the nastiest biological agents in response to slights against them, but they're targeted and professional. Petshop has seemingly accidentally secured her hometown's future as the hedonism capital of the world, with those frogs. And let's not forget the invisible bunnies that have the potential to be a massive ecological disaster that would be difficult to track down and cull.

It was nice seeing more Raccoon, which pretty much reaffirms my impression that he's a pretty nice guy.

As for the perverts, it's a nice touch that Blindspot is the mastermind behind it all, while Decoy is perceived as being the driving force behind it all even without the knowledge that his power is what enables it all.

Sir Lee wrote: Yes, as of 2007 Wondercute is "just" a training team-slash-clique. But the existence of a clubhouse, and their leaving behind clues for future spiritual kindred, suggests that at some point they at least wanted to become an official club. Whether they actually attempted to register as such, whether they obtained a charter from the school, whether they ever recruited new members... that remains to be seen.

What IS known is that at some point they ran out of members to keep Wondercute going.

What I'm wondering now, is when they ran out of members... And how many members are needed to keep the club going... Bugs Superchick is the only non-Freshman member in 2006... So we can expect to last until 2010, when the majority of them graduate? But did it last longer than that?

mittfh wrote: The long-abandoned WonderCute clubhouse indicates that at some point in the next three G1 years, WonderCute become an official clique - which of course begs the question of who'd be mad enough to become their faculty sponsor. Speculation probably belongs in another thread, but I'd hazard a guess at a member of staff we haven't yet met.

what about the Imp, I could see her being the original faculty sponsor, for Wondercute, She is definatly up for a bit of chaos and mischif.

Ametros wrote: It was nice seeing more Raccoon, which pretty much reaffirms my impression that he's a pretty nice guy.

Raccoon reminds me a bit of Bluejay to Esquire's Sebastiano, although Esquire seems more like Nephandus to me then Sebastiano, although only time will tell.


And yes, Petshop needs to be slapped down hard. I didn't even think about the ecological problems that invisible bunnies would cause, but she is a sufficiently powerful bio-devisor that she could cause harm in any number of ways, and she isn't nearly as thoughtful as Jobe is. Say what you would about his ethics, at least Jobe understood proper lab safety.

Malady wrote: What I'm wondering now, is when they ran out of members... And how many members are needed to keep the club going... Bugs is the only non-Freshman member in 2006... So we can expect to last until 2010, when the majority of them graduate? But did it last longer than that?

Actually, Bugs is a frosh too, AFAIK. Superchick is the only one listed in the Wiki as being a soph, but I think that may be an unfounded assumption based on her being put with She-Beast -- Whateley enrolls most new students as freshmen, even when they have already completed some high school grades. Witness Fey, Tennyo, Kayda...

Sir Lee wrote:

Malady wrote: What I'm wondering now, is when they ran out of members... And how many members are needed to keep the club going... Bugs is the only non-Freshman member in 2006... So we can expect to last until 2010, when the majority of them graduate? But did it last longer than that?

Actually, Bugs is a frosh too, AFAIK. Superchick is the only one listed in the Wiki as being a soph, but I think that may be an unfounded assumption based on her being put with She-Beast -- Whateley enrolls most new students as freshmen, even when they have already completed some high school grades. Witness Fey, Tennyo, Kayda...

Misty shows up on Feb 7, so she's a midyear transfer. Jadis says she's 16, but she may be making an assumption there. Like CeeCee she could just look older. Melville though seems to have different rules on where students room. Jobe and 'Phoebe move onto Jadis' floor, and they are Freshmen. With the problems that Jadis has had with roommates, a Freshman transfer isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Note that making Fey, Tennyo, and Kayda freshmen had a bit to do with the amount of power that they wield and that they need extra training with their powers. Star League Jr. all came in as Sophomores.

Actually, I don't think that there is any evidence that the school was aware that Fey was unusually powerful before she arrived and was examined. Tennyo is a special case, her "demotion" was in part to help confuse the trail for her pursuers. Kayda, well, she had met Lodgeman, so it's conceivable. But still, I think that there are mentions in canon that Whateley is really pushy about students getting the whole four years "Whateley Experience."

In the case of STAR League Jr, there's one factor that could be very important towards the school's decision to let them transfer as sophomores: they had already received substantial training in the use of their powers and other powers-related subjects -- from their parents. That is, they weren't the "raw novices" the usual Whateley enrolees are.

And as we've already seen, if a student's doing well academically, Whateley offers a range of college / undergraduate level courses, so they're continually academically stretched even if they've got the equivalent of GPA 4.0 by the time they start; while of course they also have "remedial" classes so those who were falling behind academically before they started have a chance to catch up (at least with their baseline peers!)

Added onto which, for students who previously excelled in a practical skill and went through body configuration changes (e.g. TG, GSD, MATD), it's possible it could take them some time to regain competency to the same level (that is, of course, assuming their body configuration changes don't make such a thing impossible, e.g. some of the more "interesting" forms of GSD).

Malady wrote: And we have our Gen2 perverts! Interesting powers of Decoy! I guess he isn't restricted to people either... But his illusions might have to be static?

Static in what way? The first time we see them, they are running away (in different directions).

joreymay wrote:

Malady wrote: And we have our Gen2 perverts! Interesting powers of Decoy! I guess he isn't restricted to people either... But his illusions might have to be static?

Static in what way? The first time we see them, they are running away (in different directions).

Okay. Nevermind then. Decoy is Master Illusionist against those with unaided sight... Is it photonic? Or mental illusions? ... Could he do Blinding or Strobe or other visual effects?

...If he cloaked Twitch's Crystal Ball in Illusionary Darkness, then he can maintain his illusions and stuff...

Crystal Ball must be kept secret? If Blindspot knew about it, she could keep it shorted out? ... Or did NWC attack him while Blindspot was helping him? I think not...

Malady wrote:

joreymay wrote:

Malady wrote: And we have our Gen2 perverts! Interesting powers of Decoy! I guess he isn't restricted to people either... But his illusions might have to be static?

Static in what way? The first time we see them, they are running away (in different directions).

Okay. Nevermind then. Decoy is Master Illusionist against those with unaided sight... Is it photonic? Or mental illusions? ... Could he do Blinding or Strobe or other visual effects?

In story it was stated Decoy is an energizer, so his illusions are probably photonic and basically holograms. With that in mind, I don't think it would be too much of a stretch if he could develop the ability to create an illusion of a strobing light or something similar.

Plus the fact that if it were a mental illusion, it shouldn't work for the photos.

I find it interesting that in the 5+ year between Jade's crew and WonderCute 2.0 that the Hello Kitties weren't some how vandalized or obliterated. I think a conspiracy within the staff is afoot!

Ok no more Sherlock for me...

I'm sorry, this story was too cute. You're going tohave to dial it back a bit. Thank you.

Note to self: Next time, more sugar.

next time add some Jade to tell stories.

Note to self NEVER let Petshop read Sluggy Freelance!

Even if she just does Kiki!

Dpragan wrote: Note to self NEVER let Petshop read Sluggy Freelance!

Even if she just does Kiki!

Bun Bun, as an artificial life form, showed up in a series done by a baen author set in the far future.
Can't for the life of me remember the author.

Boy did he hate Pete for creating him with a burning desire to kill a mythical holiday spirit.

This future allows for full gender shifting, or even transformation into an intelligent animal, for recreation. There is one lady who had herself transformed into a Unicorn and this was before the new My Little Pony was a thing.^_^

that's all fine till the master computer shuts down access and everyone has to live with the current status quo in a world where all the high tech is suddenly no longer available.

Sounds like one of John Ringo's unfinished series. Can't remember the titles though.

The Council Wars

It was in his "Legacy of the Aldenata" series, one of the earlier books, the one with a lot of it set in a Bolo like tank, I believe the Tank was called 'Bun Bun'.

I think it was the first one. It wasn't a tank named after Bun Bun, it was an artificial life form. or LMD, of the cartoon character, with all his attributes, and bad attitude.

It was John Ringo. He also did a series called "Troy Rising" Set as a Prequel to the "Shlock Mercenary" web comic universe.

Some really incredible concepts. Like using solar mirrors to heat a Nickel Iron asteroid, and blowing it up like a balloon to make a sphere ten kilometers in diameter and with a shell of Nickel Iron a kilometer thick as a battlestation.

peter wrote: I think it was the first one. It wasn't a tank named after Bun Bun, it was an artificial life form. or LMD, of the cartoon character, with all his attributes, and bad attitude.

It was John Ringo. He also did a series called "Troy Rising" Set as a Prequel to the "Shlock Mercenary" web comic universe.

Some really incredible concepts. Like using solar mirrors to heat a Nickel Iron asteroid, and blowing it up like a balloon to make a sphere ten kilometers in diameter and with a shell of Nickel Iron a kilometer thick as a battlestation.

Was looking it up and found...
Wiki: "The Troy Rising series has been inspired by the webcomic Schlock Mercenary and its universe. It has been created with the approval of both authors, but is not considered canon for the webcomic series."

Also not a web comic.

Morpheus wrote: Ms. Ellison is Brittany, not Kerry. No relation...or is there?

Good question. Does anyone happen to know what Madison's middle name is?

OTOH, with Whateley, it is equally possible the younger brother followed Kerry's example, though if that's the case, why change his/her name when Corey is pretty much gender-neutral (well, in the US at any rate)?

Still, I'm guessing Morpheus is just teasing about that. Ellison is more than common enough of a surname that there's no reason to think there's any significant connection.