Moe Lane's Blog, page 645
December 5, 2021
Patreon Microfiction: ‘One Chance.’
Heh. You get the feeling that the protagonist in “One Chance” has had this happen before, and is now thinking of doing a few Horrible Examples to discourage it from happening in the future. Can’t say that I blame him. Death cultists must be exceedingly tedious to be around.
Patreon!
December 4, 2021
‘Silent Night.’
#commissionearned
12/04/21 Snippet, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO LUNA CITY.
Suburbs!
Patreon!Of the six people on board, only Tobias and Josef had been outside more than once or twice since the horrible day when Earth went mad. They knew what to expect, and they were prepared to see incongruities. The other four were considerably less hardened, and at first they crowded the window-screens of the bus to get a real look at the aftermath of… The end of the world, I guess, Tobias thought as he watched them. We don’t have the best words to describe it.
The scenery for the first ten miles were the Lunar equivalent of suburbs: industrial shops, cargo depots, supplementary housing, and what had been a burgeoning collection of retailers catering to the people who worked outside the dome. All underground, of course, but LED units were cheap on the moon. A year ago, this entire stretch would have been aglow in the colored, blinking lights of a thousand signs and advertisements.
These days, the power was out, and the only light was from the bus’s headlights. They showed wrecked lunar buggies and buses, some smashed, others half melted, and one that had been cut clean in two. Debris too small to be worth salvaging was strewn everywhere, except for a cleared path on the road that Josef followed at a steady twenty-five miles an hour.
Book of the Week: Leviathan Wakes.
I say, old chaps: this Expanse series is quite the thing, what-what? Leviathan Wakes, and all that. It’s rather good, really.
#commissionearned
12/04/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
Banter!
Patreon!“Don’t rub it in, Tom,” Dory snarled as she looked through her desk and drawers. “Where the hell is everything? No knives, no saps, no morningstar…”
“Morningstar? Really?” I said as I patted down Fake Doc for incriminating papers and other things that weren’t there. “Why would you want one of those?”
“To intimidate muggers. Obviously.”
“You know how to use one?”
“No, Tom. That’s why it’s intimidating. And not here. Dammit, somebody’s trying to assassinate me.”
I was now going through Fake Doc’s bag, looking for whatever clues I could look at on the way. “If it makes you feel any better, Dory, they’re probably trying to get us both.”
“True,” Dory said, brightening a little. “At least it means that it’s nobody at court. I’d hate to think I had offended anybody that badly and not even noticed.”
12/04/21 Snippet, THE STARS ARE WRONG.
Interrogations!
Patreon!The trick of pretending you already know what is about to be confessed is old, and does not always work. But it did here. “Forgive my master, Guardians! He is proud, and has always loudly scorned weakness. So he cannot abide the thought of others thinking him weak.”
“Indeed,” rumbled my partner. “But it is still the duty of all to confess their weakness to the Guardians. How else may we cut it out before it festers?”
The apprentice lowered his head. “It was not weakness; not truly. The Kee that came to him were too many to fight, and they left peacefully, leaving nothing behind but dire warnings.”
“The Kee? Peaceful?” Jak snorted. “I’ve not heard that one before.”
I raised one hand. “Stop. Return to the start. And tell me what you saw.” I did not bother to tell him to tell the truth. It is hard to lie to a Guardian, and the common folk know it.
December 3, 2021
‘The Holly and the Ivy.’
The Holly and the Ivy, Medieval Baebes
#commissionearned
12/03/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
Handcuffs!
Patreon!Dory had a look like she knew this day would always happen, but she still didn’t believe it was today. “It’s nothing personal, Tom,” she said as the doc prepared the syringe. “And I promised you’ll be fixed up, soon. The Mountain will clear your head.”
By which she meant, the Mountain will burn out that Dominion bitch’s hooks in your soul, hopefully without hurting you. And it wasn’t a bad plan, either. If I actually had any hooks in my soul. Or if I wasn’t on a countdown that could be measured in hours, instead of days.
“I’m not taking it personal, Dory,” I told her. “Tell you what: don’t stick that needle in me, and I’ll go quietly.” What I really wanted to do was find out where the damn AFTSE/Syndicate sit-down was, and get there in time to stop it from turning into a shambles. I didn’t know if I could do it if I had to start from Mt. Jeannie — ‘clearing my head’ there would take about three seconds — but it was for damned sure I wasn’t gonna be able to if I spent the next day drooling on a mattress. You do what you can, right?
Blizzard warning for Hawaii*.
*The highest part of Hawaii Island, not the entire island chain. The ten-day forecast for Honolulu shows storms, with a high of about eighty degrees. But it’s still kind of neat, hey?
A blizzard warning has been issued for Hawaii, with at least 12 inches of snow forecast this weekend. https://t.co/NKgvsrAkL8
— ABC News (@ABC) December 4, 2021
12/03/21 Snippet, THE STARS ARE WRONG.
Detective work!
Patreon!“Out of town, you say?” I looked at him. “You buy from the Kee?”
“Those scum?” Osco spit. “I wouldn’t buy a spavined goat from them. Not that they’d sell to me, the filthy degenerates. No, I buy from good, honest folk, herders and stockmen my family’s bought from for centuries.” He winked. “Now, if, some stock that came from the Kee happened to fall into their clutches, it’s none of my concern, is it?”
From the corner of my eye I saw one of the apprentices stiffen. It was only for a moment, but to be a Guardian is to see. Aloud, I said, “Well, Butcher Osco, we thank you for your help. If you should remember anything further, come to us.” I looked directly in the apprentice’s eyes and said, “We will be waiting.”
Osco noticed nothing, but Jak did. He was wise enough to wait until we were clear of Osco’s yard before speaking. “You set a hook, back there?”
“More like gaffed the fish. And he will follow us out, if he is wise…
