Moe Lane's Blog, page 619
December 28, 2021
12/28/21 Snippet, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO LUNA CITY.
Plans!
Patreon!“All right, what are we actually doing, sir?” Buckley asked over the private circuit. Tobias and Lillian had found the internal airlock to the power section activated, with temperature warnings on the other side. Not that either of them intended to unseal anyway, but it was a handy excuse.
“Your orders are to get the crates into the cargo hold, Corporal. While you’re doing that, we’re getting the other two and bringing them back as well. If you can figure out how to decontaminate Hawthorne, run it by me. Otherwise, we’ll put all three in external quarantine on the trip back. If I have to, I’ll just lock their suits. That’ll hold them until we’re back at Heinlein.”
“Got it, sir. And if she gets violent, sir?”
“Restrain her if you can. But you are authorized to use deadly force to either defend yourself or achieve the mission objectives, Corporal Buckley. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir! Hope it won’t come to that, sir.”
“Same here, Corporal. Check in every fifteen minutes.”
12/28/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
So damned close to first draft. So close…
Patreon!How do you make a bunch of mages clear out of a room? And not just any mages, either: the six at the sitdown were the froth on the top of the cream of Cin City’s magical hierarchy. Every single one of them could take a Dominion Archmage in a fight, or at least hold ‘em off. They were powerful, they knew it, and they weren’t scared of nobody.
And that was only half of it. Howie Rowan had to have somebody on the inside, somehow. The Discerning Raven couldn’t do much to the meeting if it didn’t get delivered, and that meant getting close up and personal with it. There wouldn’t be a bunch of Rowan’s guys there — security was too good; I didn’t know how he even managed to get one — which was nice. I still had two problems, though: figuring out who had the Raven, and how to get everybody else away from it.
But damned if I didn’t know the magic word that would solve both of them: “ICEMOLD!” I yelled as I smashed through the doors. And I mean yelled. The kind of yell that causes everybody to stop.
Any other word, they might have argued about it a little. But icemold? That’s a real scary word, to a mage. When one of them gets hooked on the stuff, they go out in a blaze of fury real quick. And the more powerful the mage, the faster they burn up. And when they were this strong, ‘burning up’ ain’t a metaphor.
December 27, 2021
Tweet of the Day, *I* Had To Listen To This… edition
…so so should you.
The worst AND the best
— Matt’s Idea Shop (@MattsIdeaShop) December 27, 2021
pic.twitter.com/YQXv7qEyMZ
Via @iowahawk, because apparently tonight we all want to see the world burn.
12/27/21 Snippet, THE STARS ARE WRONG.
Underground!
Patreon!Rust. That is what I remember. Rust, and light.
The rust was almost comforting — when you have iron by the sea, you soon learn the scent of it rotting — but, oh, the lights! They hung from the walls, and while some had the comforting flicker of oil or tallow, more were unnaturally steady, and even more unnaturally hued. They were as likely to burn hot as cold, and I could not grasp the scheme by which they were laid out. Whenever I tried, the mysteries of that ancient place rushed in and staggered my steps.
For the passage beneath was ancient, once we descended far enough. It had the cruel lines and angles of the oldest ruins, ones no sane person would visit; and I shuddered to see such an unclean path beneath the city I Guarded. I had thought all traces of the time before Seacity had been ripped out, whole; how wrong I was! How foolish, to think that foulness could be banished forever!
The Vicar found my revulsion amusing, chuckling roughly. “Aye, you didn’t expect to be walking a city street like this when you woke up this morning, hey?” His Kee accent had come in with a vengeance, now that it was only him and I. “But don’t frighten yourself! See how smooth the path is! Why, not a rock or a root or even a patch of mud to make you trip! You’ll learn the joys of a road like this soon enough, so you will. And you’ll laugh at how silly you were to be afraid, too.”
12/27/21 Snippet, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO LUNA CITY.
Descent!
Patreon!Tobias privately thought that the job was only one-third done, but with any luck they’d be able to get through the other parts quickly. Either Jim-Bob or Yu-Wu had been busy: the lights were on down here, the temperature on this level was starting to creep up to be only freezing, and there was a clear line from the foyer to the storage rooms. They had even gotten the first crate out. This the right one, Asenath?
Look at the bar code, please… yes, Commander. The numbers match. These are the spare parts we need. Or at least one of them. There should be a total of thirty shipping crates.
Tobias shoved at the crate, noting that it moved under his push. Then he looked up. Dammit, we will need the elevators after all.
Because of the mass?
Because of the mass. Even with handcarts, manhandling one of these up five flights of stairs would absolutely suck. Then down again, and then up: it’d take hours, and we’d be wiped by the end. The suits’ life support would get strained, too… unless we risked unsealing them.
Sometimes, Asenath’s voice in his head could be loud. To quote you, Commander: Let it be. You ordered those suits sealed for a reason.
The ‘Did you like ARKHAM CITY?’ THE BATMAN trailer.
And I did like ARKHAM CITY, actually. Enough that, now that I’ve watched the new THE BATMAN trailer, I’m wondering whether I should load that sucker up again. Not that I have the free time.
#commissionearned
12/27/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
We are getting to the point where I just have to add seven or so bridging sections and then I can hand it off to the alpha reader. Let her tell me what still doesn’t work with TINSEL RAIN, at this point. I am rapidly approaching the Kill it with fire portion of the novel-writing process.
Patreon!I was done with the conversation after that, but Gannon wasn’t done with me. “So, Shamus,” he asked me, “What’s going on with you and the Ambassador?”
“As little as I can swing,” I replied. “How is this even a question?”
“Questions,” the captain told me, “are being asked. The new Ambassador has been riling people up. Important people, who don’t like being riled.”
“Really? What’s she been doing?” I was legitimately curious, because I hadn’t heard a damned thing on the street. Which was… odd, yeah. Dominion ambassadors love having a captive audience, emphasis on ‘captive.’
Either Gannon was a mind-reader, or just a step ahead of me. “Nothing. That’s what’s riling them up. No decrees, no insane plans, she doesn’t even send screaming apparitions to the Castle at night to make demands. Just pure, complete silence. Except she keeps summoning you.” Gannon looked at me. “That makes the higher-ups nervous.”
December 26, 2021
The DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS teaser trailer.
Now, just as a reminder about DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, and this is pretty important: Sam Raimi film. Just reminding you, that’s all.
#commissionearned
