Moe Lane's Blog, page 104
February 19, 2025
02/19/2024 Snippet, JUDITH STORMCROW AND THE FLIM-FLAM MAN.
Gregor needs his tone tweaked. I’m still trying to figure out how he’s being changed by circumstances.
…
“I’d tell you the job was so simple it can’t go wrong, Mistress Stormcrow, but we both know that’d just alarm you.” Gregor was smooth, damn the man. What was interesting was that he wasn’t turning on the charm. It looked like she had a client who could take a hint.
“I’m still not honestly expecting there to be special problems,” the man went on. “Silvergrove is claimed by no particular realm or cult, the site has been abandoned since the fall of the Great Realm, and there’s no local history of monsters or specters. I’m looking for old texts, and historical relics in general, but nothing specific. If some of those relics turn out to be made of gold or shiny bits, I’m perfectly fine with letting your company get a decent taste, once I have the things I need. ‘Do not begrudge the worker his morsel,’ after all.”
That sounded like a quote of some kind, although Judith didn’t recognize it offhand. It admittedly sounded like a sensible attitude to have. “‘All fingers are sticky,’” she quoted back to him, which made him frown for a brief second. Judith didn’t know why. It was practically the same sentiment.
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02/19/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Sat down and did two solid hours of writing today.
…
“Not a transmitter, just some wires in the dust… crap. It’s connected to something bigger up front, and something behind us. This screams ‘booby-trap,’ sir.”
“And we’re the boobies.” Some kind of bird, wasn’t it? Never mind that now. “Can you disable it?”
“Yes. Connie!” One of the Squaddies perked her helmet up, despite the fact that he and Buckley were on a private channel. Tobias flicked a quick look at Reithner, but she didn’t seem to notice anything. “There’s a wall mine by you. Lock into it, and rip the wires when I say. Ready?”
Connie nodded, and so did Buckley. “Okay, three, two, one, now.”
Tobias avoided looking, which meant he did not see Connie’s fingers move before they were suddenly full of wires. Things like that happened, and that was fine. He didn’t look back when Connie loped back to the other bomb, casually running along the walls almost as quickly as she could the floors. Again, it was the Moon, there was less gravity, it was all fine.
Instead, he just switched to the public circuit. “Do not assume peaceful intent,” he told his forces, and tried not to notice the anticipatory stirring that went through their ranks.
Movie of the Week: War of the Worlds (Spielberg).
Not entirely sure why: that version of WAR OF THE WORLDS has been coming across my screen a few times over the last week or so. It’s actually not a bad film, although it grapples with the usual problem of How do you make an almost entirely reactive protagonist heroic? that WotW movies have. I also remember being amused at the time at how Spielberg did everything to favorably portray American soldiers except put actual halos around their head. Given the absolute crap that passed for war movies in the Oughts, this was no small act of defiance.
#commissionearned
The CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE Trailer.
CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE first drops April 20th. …Yes. Yes, of course it will. I would be disappointed in them if it released on any other date.
This is actually more a movie for people in their sixties and early seventies than it is for people in their mid-fifties. …Still. They’re looking well, aren’t they?
‘Two Types of Cosmic Horror Stories.’
As a Type Two kind of cosmic horror writer, I feel kind of seen.
February 18, 2025
‘Rose Tattoo.’
#commissionearned
More yet on Milken Forts (Back the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit!)
Please? Nine more backers and $245 dollars to go before the next rewards. ‘
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/flying-koala-publishers/fermi-resolution-worldbook-ttrpg
Milken Forts were an iconic element of the First and Second Ages of Magic, before ‘proper’ fortification techniques were rediscovered and implemented. Their greatest flaw was the need for a reliable water source, one that could be protected by the Fort itself. Everything from cisterns to ground-level wells and pumps to actual magic was used to keep the reservoirs filled, but it was a fundamental problem. Their greatest advantage was that a properly staffed Milken Fort provided excellent overwatch of the area, and of course act as the anachronistic castles that they were.
There was certainly the need for even the crudest and slapdash castles, back then. The Twenty-Third century in particular was an extremely chaotic time in the middle of the North American continent, as the Mages’ Alliance alternately struggled and schemed with both the Kingdom of Nebraska, and the Kingdom of the Lakes. The Ohio Marcher country in particular sprouted petty-kingdoms that formed around every defensive position, both natural and manmade.
This ironically preserved that area’s hardscrabble independence during the Dominion’s first conquests in the Twenty-Fourth Century. The Dominion chose instead to conquer first Nebraska outright and the Great Lakes by proxy; both of those states were centralized enough to discourage semi-independent baronies and free cities. The combination of the Dominion’s curious reluctance to start direct wars east of the Mississippi, coupled with the plethora of castles in the region, kept the Marcher lands independent long enough to be purchased by Greater Hershey, instead. The inhabitants of Ohio, after seeing what happened in what used to be Illinois and Indiana, quickly decided that they had met a much better fate.
I’m not really rooting for injuries in Uwe Boll vs. Warner Bros…
…it’s just that I think they kind of deserve each other: “Infamous director Uwe Boll is stirring up controversy again, this time refusing to change the title of his next movie, The Dark Knight, despite a warning from Warner Bros. Discovery.” It’s also going to star Armie Hammer, if you were looking for another reason to vaguely wish that all of these people would go off somewhere and iron everything out. Slowly. Over the course of several years.
Seriously, I don’t even want them getting hurt, not really. I’m not a monster. I just want them too busy to bother me.
02/18/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Had to change some stuff around.
Another call to Turkel, which didn’t go as well as the first one. “I am very sorry, Commander Marsh, but it is the position of the Coalition that you should not interfere with that site.”
“Well, it’s been interfered with now,” Marsh pointed out. He politely ignored how Turkel didn’t say what her position was. “Or did you dig a hole in the regolith, and bury the contraband yourself?”
“We did not, Commander. The containers should have been sufficient. After all, there was officially no longer anything at the site worth retrieving. Why draw attention to it?”
“Right. Hiding something in plain sight. Classic — look, Rushan, I understand the Coalition didn’t want any of that filth around, but obviously somebody disagreed with you. We just can’t ignore that it’s been grabbed.”
“Really, Tobias?” Turkel almost looked human for a moment. “Why can’t we? Why can’t we just shrug it off. Whoever took the contraband hasn’t done anything with it. Soon it won’t matter, anyway. We’ll either be dead, or off this hellworld. I repeat: the Chinese Coalition does not consider this issue to be worth expending more resources on, and we will politely decline to assist you in any direct investigation of it.”
Tobias sighed. “I understand. But what do you think we should do?”
Ruslan looked at him — and broke the connection. He sighed again. “Yeah. That’s what I thought you’d say.”
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Just started THE GORGE.
THE GORGE is on Apple TV+, and so far it’s not half bad. Boy meets Girl, separated from each other by circumstances, and a Hellmouth. I can only watch movies in stages these days when I’m at home (one more reason to see movies in theaters), but I expect that I’ll finish this one quickly.
