Moe Lane's Blog, page 57
April 10, 2025
‘Brahms Lullaby.’
Brahms Lullaby, Jewel
#commissionearned
I’m doing a bunch of different self-care things at once…
…like going to bed earlier than 1 AM, not eating after 10 PM, and cutting down on my caffeine – and now I’m wondering why I’m tired, all of a sudden.
Good night!
This A BREED APART comedy-horror flick needs more.
The plot of A BREED APART: a bunch of social influencers goes to a remote island, get attacked by man-eating dogs.
Let me be clear, here: I do not want actual social influencers to be actually eaten by dogs. I do, however, feel that the movie missed a bet by not getting a lot of actual social influencers to appear in this film, only to be fake eaten by dogs within five minutes of their appearance. That’s it. No other changes. They wouldn’t be needed. The lines for the film would be out the door.
Movie producers: call me next time, okay? You’re just leaving money on the table.
04/10/2025 Snippet, CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
I had difficulty getting any of this done today, but I did do something.
…
It was the screaming that roused Tobias. The sound wasn’t human; it didn’t even sound alive. If light felt pain from being split in a prism, and if it had a mouth with which to scream, the keening might have sounded like that.
He thought, at least. The screaming had stopped the instant Tobias had jackknifed his way up to full consciousness. Was it a dream? he wondered as he swung his feet over the side of the bed… and that felt wrong.
How was it wrong? He wasn’t sure, just that it was. His head was full of fog and film right now.
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04/10/2025 Snippet, IN THE HALLS OF THE LILY KING.
Action! I decided not to have the fight in a bar, for once. I know, I know: tradition.
…
The assassin didn’t waste time; the clatter of the cheap tavern door being kicked in had the clunk! of the crossbow bolt as counterpoint. He didn’t bother with reloading, either. He just threw the crossbow at the bed before jumping on it himself, a long-bladed knife now in hand. The assassin lashed out with four deep-driven stabs and quick withdrawals, leaving the knife behind in the ripped-up shambles of the bed after one final blow. Quick, dirty, and the assassin was already leaving, focused on the window to the alleyway outside.
Waylon found himself impressed, as he jumped up from the chair he’d been dozing in, well away from the now-splintered door. Five seconds was a good time for this sort of thing. Too good, unfortunately, to let this guy ever get a second shot.
April 9, 2025
‘Clinch Mountain Breakdown.’
Clinch Mountain Breakdown, The Virginia Mountain Boys
#commissionearned
The MURDERBOT Apple TV+ trailer.
I laughed. I freely admit it. MURDERBOT will probably not live up to the trailer, but there are elements that suggest it’s not entirely awful…
New Miskatonic University Monograph: Liber Oblitus. (@hplhs)
Finally. I almost got the Miskatonic University Monograph: Liber Oblitus hardcover (which includes a facsimile of the book being monographed), but I don’t quite have the spare cash necessary to justify that as an impulse buy. Ach, well, such is life. At any rate: the HPL Historical Society never fails to impress.
Miskatonic University Monograph: Liber Oblitus https://t.co/pCuVlgv42N
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) April 9, 2025
The Consolidation Wars, Part 3. (Unfiltered)
The Myrmidon Plague needs its own entry.
…
Empire Transformed
China had been undergoing a renaissance in the 2070s. Its final dynasty had weathered extremely rocky demographic and economic half-collapses two decades in the middle of the century, and was the second country after the old United States to exploit the Tomb Worlds in the post-Contact era. In 2059 they hit paydirt: a research/salvage team found a medical device that could double as a safe exowomb. Better and better, it could be duplicated, if not understood. Full production of the repurposed alientech was put in place by 2061, ostensibly to redress China’s demographic imbalance and increase family sizes.
A good deal of this was actually done, but in 2076 the ruling regime revealed that the dynasty had also surreptitiously constructed enough exowombs to create an army. The soldiers were raised communally under circumstances that did not encourage proper socialization, were not especially well trained or equipped, and no older than fifteen years old — but there were a lot of them, and the ruling regime used them over the next decade to conquer from Kamchatka to Singapore. The smaller island nations were likewise invaded; larger ones like Japan and Australia retained more independence, but were forced to fully and permanently align their economies with China’s.
By 2099 Greater China was firmly in control of east Asia, and was engaging in a program of involuntary transportation that rivaled the USNA’s. There is some suggestion in the records that the regime attempted to direct most of its transportees away from Jefferson; if this is true, it was unsuccessful. The regime also increased the number of exowomb-bred soldiers, using them more and more as soldiers, police, and first responders. This policy eventually caused the collapse/transformation of the Great Power into the South East Defensive Association after the Myrmidon Plague of 2116, as central authority finally and seemingly-permanently dissolved into a welter of squabbling, sovereign successor states.
04/09/2025 Snippet, CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
Back at it!
The two looked inside for a horribly long moment before Tobias spoke. “Lillian, have I started seeing things that aren’t there?”
Lillian exhaled, in that way that made it obvious she had been holding her breath. “So… you’re also seeing a hollowed-out space, and a hole in the ground? A knotted rope, hanging from the ceiling, and descending down into the stygian dark?”
“…Yeah. Oh, the hole is lined with slimy bricks.”
“Good, Tobias. You noticed that, too.” Lillian prodded one of the bricks with her boot. It didn’t do anything except leave a streak on the stone. “I was worrying about shared delusions. So, no, you haven’t started seeing things that aren’t there.”
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