Moe Lane's Blog, page 21
June 30, 2025
The June Patreon stuff is up!
We’re doing things a little differently this month: I’ve extensively revised Chapter One of what will be an Alkali Jones Fermi Resolution novel and that’s standing in for the short story. The idea here is to do a serial of that, a chapter a month (hopefully), and make it available on Patreon for a one-time fee of five bucks. Note that it’s going to be in first-draft form, and that you’ll be able to read it if you subscribe to the Patreon at the dollar/month level.
Onto the stuff:
Short Story: Braving the Malstorm, Chapter 1 . We see Alkali again! He’s doing well. That will likely change soon. Roleplaying Game Material: The Cunning Land, Part 6-B: The Tricentennials (Part 2) . This might be it.
Patreon!
06/30/2025 Snippet, CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
Now we’re on the dream sequences!
…
“This is nice.”
Tobias whirled around at the sound, to see… more oblongs. One of them that was taller and light-colored shimmied a moment, and then words came out of it. “I wonder why it’s you.”
“It’s me what?” asked Tobias.
“I don’t know. What have you got?”
Tobias rubbed his face. There was something nagging about the oblong’s voice, like it didn’t fit the rest of this. He wondered if it could be helpful. “The door won’t open. How did you get in?”
The oblong shimmied again. “I didn’t. You did. How did you get in?”
“I don’t know. What have you got?” Tobias and the oblong laughed for half a minute about that. “Sorry. This isn’t loony.”
“Oh, everything’s loony on the moon,” the oblong replied. “That’s how you know.”
Tobias almost asked, “Know what?” The only reason he didn’t was because it had kind of hurt to laugh that hard. He went with, “Are you sure we’re on the moon?”
The oblong shimmied very, very hard, in the general direction of the shutters. “See for yourself. Don’t hold your breath.”
“Why not?” asked Tobias, as he flung the shutters open. And they did open!
…To reveal a lunar landscape behind the thin glass window. It was all horrible sharp shadows and pitiless glare, the kind you didn’t see if you could help it. The roiling Earth loomed above him, impossibly large in the lunar sky. And there was a whistle. The bad whistle, the one that came when a pinhole leak has formed and wants to get larger.
“Because it’s over faster when you keep your lungs empty,” the oblong explained calmly as the glass window shattered in a roar of escaping air —
Patreon!
Tweet of the Day, CALL OFF YOUR PLUMBING COMPANY SALE, JEFF Edition.
Bro. Bro. Call off the sale.
Call off the sale Jeff pic.twitter.com/EdwApgkoYL
— Darth Powell (@VladTheInflator) June 29, 2025
Via @eigenrobot.
The PROJECT HAIL MARY teaser trailer.
A lot of people I know are very excited for PROJECT HAIL MARY. I know, I know, I should read it. I have a lot of things to read.
#commissionearned
June 29, 2025
Live-action AKIRA not happening.
I dunno about disappointing: “According to a new report from THR, the Akira live-action movie at Warner Bros. Discovery is officially not happening. The movie studio has reportedly let go of the movie rights, reverting them back to Kodansha, the manga publisher that originally released Katsuhiro Otomo’s story in 1982.”
…Taika Waititi hardest hit, I guess. The guy’s passed the apex of his directorial arc, huh? I don’t say that with any meanness, mind you. I actually like his flicks. But I hope for his sake that he socked a lot of that sweet, sweet Disney money away.
Snippet the Last, BRAVING THE MALSTORM.
I… have a bit of a plan.
…
I hadn’t realized that the Danites (because who else could Ezekiel be from, except Deseret’s main intelligence agency?) had an elaborate hidden base in Old Vegas itself. I probably should have, though. It was an obvious place to put one, and Deseret loves secret facilities. Centuries of occupation by an evil magical empire tends to make you proactive about that sort of thing.
Anyway: one meal, shower, and change of clothes later (but not a skin change, which I was planning to bring up at some point), I was in a conference room with three other people. Ezekiel was still there, and I was utterly unsurprised to see my former client Professor Melissa Thackeray in attendance. No point to spreading around this particular knowledge, after all. The fourth was Colonel Tabetha Schaffer, who wore her Nauvoo Legion uniform like she really meant it. She also had a salvager tab on her lapel, in the properly distressed style. Either she really was a salvage engineer, or she knew enough to sing along anyway.
Right now she was noting details on a wall map. “Malstorm Base. Called by a slightly different name before the Discovery, of course. Bardic legend has it that it was where the Ancient Americans stored their icies, with great protections and wards against allowing such fell weapons to be lightly used. Or used at all.” Judging by the mordant relish with which she said all that, she was also actually looking forward to traipsing north to meddle with tainted Ancient super-weapons.
I would have shook my head, except that I had the same disease. There’s just something about mucking around with things that smart people leave alone. I raised my hand, politely. “Bardic legend?” I asked, trying to keep the skepticism out of my voice. Sometimes oral tradition is useful. Sometimes it gets you killed.
Patreon!
Patreon Microfiction: Camping Trip.
No, seriously, he is on vacation. He’s on a camping trip! It’s right there in title.
Patreon!
June 28, 2025
‘Black Mountain Side.’
Black Mountain Side, Led Zeppelin
#commissionearned
The ‘this is a comedy?’ BUGONIA trailer.
BUGONIA is an English-language remake of a South Korean comedy (you should be able to find details on it). No spoilers, but if this is based on that movie… yeah. ‘South Korean comedy’ apparently has a completely different meaning than what you’d expect.
