Masterplan Lad

Masterplan Lad is a trickster archetype net.hero and ex-cosmic being created by Jeanne Morningstar.
Alter Ego:	Dee Xauriel McKenna
Aliases:	None
Primary Writer:	Jeanne Morningstar
Status:	Member of the LNH (Classic Team), member of The Liminals
Usability:	Usable With Permission

History

A member of the order of posthuman protectors of time and space known as the Knights Temporal, the individual who calls himself Masterplan Lad has a largely unrevealed history as a member of that organization, though it's known that he encountered and fell into a relationship with the time-trickster known as Chaos Theory, and helped resolve the conundrum of the 2000 Ame.rec.an Presidential election.

He was sent on a mission to protect Ultimate Mercenary from the Knights Temporal's sworn enemies, The Centre, as well as from the Anti-Moderator, who had sent a Headhunter to kill him. This wasn't an easy task, due in part to UM's foolishness. Nevertheless, he shepherded UM through various alternate timelines. Then the story got too confusing for even the writer to follow, and UM and MPL fell into Limbo. They remained there for six years, during which MPL was conscious for the entire time, and regained some memories of his mortal self.

After Beige Midnight, the Crossover Queen accidentally freed them when capturing the Headhunter who had been pursuing them. She captured them and revealed that the Knights Temporal had been erased from history, asking Masterplan Lad to help her revamp the Looniverse. He rejected her and helped UM, Victoria Arden, Net.Access and Manga Girl II escape.

He and the others used the power of the Crossover Citadel to leap from storyline to storyline, battling Vector Time and trying to get to their proper place in the story. While jumping through time, Masterplan Lad joined the LNH during the Infinite Leadership Crisis and led the team briefly. Finally, they won the freedom to exit Ultimate Mercenary altogether...

...sending them into the Sixniverse, and Just Imagine Saxon Brenton and the Writers of RACC in: RACCies the Final! Symphony of Genesis. His adventures there haven't been told yet, but it's known that he lost his status as a Knight Temporal and became mortal.

Masterplan Lad arrived in Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have an Ending, having lost UM and his memories of the intervening time. Nevertheless, he leapt into action, just in time to hear the Saviors of the Net plotting to destroy the Looniearth to stop the rifts created by the Writers not finishing things. After some verbal and physical sparring, and with some help from Chaos Theory, MPL offered an alternative strategy – inspire the writers by throwing a chunk of pure Beige Midnight into the rifts. This worked; it also resulted in MPL tripping and falling into a rift himself...

...which dumped him out two years earlier, sans even more memories, in the midst of Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 2 #50. He reconnected with the LNH proper, helping in the fight against the Dorf invasion, and went on working with them until the point where he caught up with his previous timeline, where he managed to rejoin his team just after all of the excitement had ended.

Afterwards, he, Victoria, Net.Access and Manga Girl formed their own subgroup, The Liminals, and had adventures in metafiction and identity, including making a connection to alluring trenchcoater Maria Hart that nudged his sense of identity in a new direction.

During the sabertooth crisis, he worked alongside Chaos Theory to keep the complex continuity of the story together, helping to hold back emanations of anxiety from the Real World. But in one branch of continuity, his Plot Device was destroyed; and he was drawn inevitably thru the other branch, to the moment when he would catch up with it. He willingly made the choice to let it happen, in order to save Manga Girl; and in the end, the Real World Minus One version of his Writer sacrificed their authorial power to bring him back from the brink of death.

Personality

Initially, he was aloof, distant and intellectual. Over time – especially after his six-year ordeal in Limbo and the discovery that his order was dead – he gained more sympathy for his human charges. He's also built up a lot of anger towards his Writer.

Listens to a lot of really arcane progressive rock; the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis is his favorite band.

Powers and Abilities

Masterplan Lad wields a Plot Device (in the shape of an umbrella) which possesses various spatiotemporal and perceptual abilities, such as shifting between dimensions, tracking the source of energies, recovering memories lost to retcons, and cloaking himself and others from anyone's perceptions (including their own). He possesses cosmic senses that give him an awareness of the deeper structure of time, space, continuity and the universe.

As a posthuman Knight Temporal, Masterplan Lad had continuous consciousness of every moment of his life and did not require sleep, along with other abilities. He has lost these and become mortal.

Appearance

A handsome young man in distinguished, old-fashioned suit. He grew a beard during his six years in Limbo. Has a British accent.

Relationships

Has had an on-again off-again complicated Thing with Chaos Theory.

Appearances

• Ultimate Mercenary #1-7
• Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have An Ending #4, 6, 9, 11, 13
• Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 2 #50-54, 58.5.ENDING
• WikiLull #3, 7
• The Liminals #1, 3.5, 4-9, 11
• Cover Gallery #1004i, 61i
• Hungry, Hungry Sabertooths! #10, 14, #ERR_19834_ASKDAFJKADSLF, 6pi III, 24, 32, 50, EPILOGUE (Side B)
• Another LNH Title? Really? #11
• Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 3 #3
• Leadership Cry.sig: Net.ropolis 2023 #8