Moe Lane's Blog, page 65
March 25, 2025
03/25/2025 Snippet, LE BETE.
Almost there (sort of)!
“So you will swear allegiance to me, then? Take off the cockade, and instead wear the rose?” King Adam snuffed laughter at Joseph’s involuntary start. “I am no fool, Monsieur, for all you… revolutionaries… called me Le Bete. Too many Frenchmen have been taught to hate the scent of the fleur-de-lis. Better to use the symbol of my House, until those memories fade.”
“I understand, your Majesty. As to your question… I could swear my allegiance to you, yes. But would you trust me? Should you trust me?” He waved a hand in Berthier’s direction. “The general is a forthright man, justly angry at being lied to and unused to having his honor stained by others. He has spent his days in the field, far from the stinks and corruptions of the capital. I… am more used to the game of factions, your Majesty. I have been dealt a shabby hand, to be sure. How could you be certain that someday someone else might deal me a better one?”
The queen spoke first, in the rather appalled silence that followed. “Citizen Fouché, are you trying to talk yourself into meeting the executioner’s dagger?”
Is that how they are executing rebels? Joseph thought. What a relief. “Your Majesty, I am only saying aloud the things that others would happily whisper later in your ears. It is well-known that I am linked to the Committee and the Convention. It is reasonable to think that my conversion might be from expedience, not conviction. I will not lie about it.” I dare not lie about it.
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March 24, 2025
‘Superman (It’s Not Easy).’
Superman (It’s Not Easy), Five for Fighting
#commissionearned
The THE DIAMOND HEIST Netflix trailer.
A documentary produced by Guy Ritchie about a real-life diamond heist? Dude, you had me at ‘Guy Ritchie.’ Lemme go get some popcorn and I’ll see you and THE DIAMOND HEIST on April 16th.
03/24/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Almost… there…
Tobias cursed as he got his first good look at the cultists. Most of them were hag-ridden. He had only a vague idea what that term meant, but apparently his subconscious thought it meant “a stinking bird-monster burrowing into your back with hooked iron claws.”
That was going to be damnably inconvenient. Tobias had been looking forward to simply shooting everyone in the head, but the expressions on the cultists’ faces were just full enough of helpless horror to make that plan impractical. Clearly his subconscious wanted him to take more care in symbolically resolving this issue.
My subconscious could just tell me things, Tobias thought, and wondered for a moment why he was half-expecting a response.
03/24/2025 Snippet, LA BETE.
Almost done with the ending, then I can write the climax, and then this is done.
“Yes, that’s what the Duke of Ajaccio told me, after the battle. He was remarkably apologetic about it, while at the same time not being sorry at all. I suppose that I should tell you that I likewise did not know that you had been elf-shot, and left in a corner to twitch. The Committee for Public Safety has gotten a bit indelicate of late, don’t you think?”
Joseph tried not to grimace. It would be easier if he did know for a fact he was wearing a truth-sniffer. “Of course they have, General Berthier. They are losing, not least because of the Duke. Without him leading this army, the Committee might have already, ah, had victory in the Vendee.” That felt safe enough to say, but… Do not ask me when I heard about the Queen’s death!
Thankfully, Berthier did not. Instead he stood up, and gave Joseph an appraising look. “Tell me: do you feel betrayed by the Committee, right now?”
“For them keeping secrets from me? No.” Berthier’s eyebrow raised, but Joseph pressed on. “But for using abominably the very people I recruited for the Revolution? Absolutely. I made promises to that tribe, General. For the Committee to break those promises behind my very back? Well, as you yourself said, it is a demonstration of who they trust.”
From Berthier’s smile, that was the right answer. “I took you for a man who knows when further resistance is futile, Citizen Fouché. Come, let us find you better clothes, and a pail of clean water. His Majesty does not expect perfection in a field audience, but he appreciates it when one at least makes an attempt.”
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March 23, 2025
Some little quotes for the Worldbook.
I know, I was saying I was slagged, but I need to do these for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook anyway. These aren’t all of them, and I need to work on the tone, but here’s some of the stuff I was working on tonight:
…
You’d think the Universal Dominion would have tried to make us worship them, you know? But no, that was the one perversion they never tried on us. Everything else, but not that.
They wouldn’t let it happen on its own, either. We heard once about an entire captured town that got burned to the ground for setting up a single shrine to the Supreme Archmage. Everybody who came out got burned, and everybody who stayed got burned, too. They even killed the mage in charge of the town, because he let them do it. The mages ruling over us back then said it was all because the Dominion likes to show that it doesn’t need faith.
Guess they’re wrong.
Liza Skullcrusher Lupator (orcish legionnaire, 2835 era)
It’s the Kentucky Free State. We’re not the only bits of the USA left, and maybe if there weren’t so much territory between us and the Second Republic, things might be different. Or maybe they wouldn’t be. There’s been too many omens and prophecies revealing that the States won’t Reunite until a President rules from the White House again. Those prophecies feel right, too.
Oh, well. One day we’ll see the One True Governor return, to lead us north, and ‘rekindle the blessings of liberty, for ourselves, and our posterity.’ That’s a prophecy, too. I don’t know if the Second Republic has that one.
Mildred Deckard (human adventurer, 25th Century)
The Old Americans got results. They did things. They commanded powers and energies beyond our abilities to duplicate, and used them to create commerce and industry on a scale hitherto unseen. The lands they controlled were productive, wealthy, and safe.
It is foolish to disrespect such accomplishments – or their philosophy. Whatever modern people might think of the Old Americans, clearly their sentimentality and scruples did not prevent them from properly finding and exploiting success.
Miss Serenity Mehrotra (Greater Hershey commercial agent)
Okay, look, if you’re going to Cin City, remember these five things:
There are no mages in New California . They’ll never let you forget it, either.That ‘Lore’ thing they have? It’s crazy, but not the ‘I’m gonna strap you to an altar and sacrifice you to it’ kind. Just smile and nod and they won’t care if you’re not into it.Ignore the iceberg out in the middle of the Gulf. It’s some kind of First Age magic thing and you know it’s smart to leave those alone.Their nobles hate killing their enemies. It gets in the way of gloating over them later. Or seducing them. Sometimes, both at once. Don’t ask me how I know! There are no mages in New California . Yeah, I made that point already, but to quote their own Lore back at them: “it was such a big point, it deserves to be said twice.”Lucas Coltrane (elvish Adventurer, 2650 era)
The Old Americans still cast a shadow over this entire continent. Bigger than us, stronger than us, richer than us, maybe not smarter than us but with all that technology, what’s the difference? Sure, they didn’t know magic. Magic even broke them, just like it did the rest of the world. But even then, maybe they would have gotten through it. I mean, if you ask the Second Republic or Kentucky, the USA did.
But the rest of us know better. The Old Americans died. No: the Old Americans were murdered, and the ones who finally managed to shove the knife in got away with it. Except that, nine hundred years of atrocities and outrages, their descendants finally have nowhere else to run. So I wonder who really got away with it, after all? If salvage archeology’s taught me anything, it’s this: what goes around, comes around.
Eventually.
Alkali Jones (Serpent-Man Adventurer, 3054 era)
The snakes never used to be this smart. That’s no complaint from me, mind. Smart snakes don’t bite anything except rats and mice, don’t lash out even when a baby gets grabby or a cat hisses, they don’t cause a good Desereter any trouble at all. They purely hate the invaders as much as we do, too.
They scout with us, stand guard — well, slither guard, I guess — and when it comes time for a fight? Well, it’s hard to keep your eyes on the ground and on the enemy at the same time. Especially when a rattler doesn’t feel like giving you a warning before he bites.
It did take time to get used to having them snuggle up with you, though. Poor things can’t help it, though. We’re warm, and they need the heat.
Tabetha Frei (human resistance fighter, 25th Century)
I lost the whole day today.
Sunday was kind of chore day today anyway, and then I zonked out for an hour, got overheated somehow from making dinner, and zonked out again. I feel fine now, but I ain’t thirty-five anymore, either. I should probably go to bed early, and spend tomorrow alternating doing some writing with some healthy exercise. I mean, it couldn’t hurt, right?
Patreon Microfiction: The Snake Is In On It, Too.
Both I and the narrator of ‘The Snake Is In On It, Too’ regret to tell you that they locked up Loki for a reason. They also set up his systematic torture for a reason. That they didn’t consider the long-term effects of those decisions is hardly unexpected, given that particular culture’s nigh-crippling fatalism…
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March 22, 2025
‘Beverly Hills.’
The smart kids in this video all settled down, got married, got kids, and stayed the Hell away from Beverly Hills.
Beverly Hills, Weezer
#commissionearned
