Moe Lane's Blog, page 67

05/07/2025 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLESOME PRIEST.

I do a body doubling thing every Wednesday now with other people where we all sit down to get work done while on the same video call. It works amazingly well at getting two solid hours of writing in.

…

I could tell right from the knives that this fight was going to be one of the bad ones. Normally, the bad guys introduce themselves to a Shamus with what the Lore calls ‘blunt instruments.’ Fists if you want to send a message. Feet if you want to put some postage on it. A cosh, if whoever’s paying you wants to deliver the message themselves. It’s all part of the system, you see? It’s not easy, being the villain of honor in a Case. You’re gonna be going down for it, one way or the other. Smacking around the Shamus first at least makes you feel a little better. Like everything else from the Lore, the rules are there for a reason.

But when you skip ahead to where you’re trying the old slice-and-dice? Well, the rules change.

There were four of them, which would have been a lot for me, and I was worried that they’d be just as bad for the two of us… right before Mike picked up a trash can, swung in a circle, and smacked one of his guys all the way across the alleyway. The guy stayed there, too, with just enough groaning to remind us that he used to be a participant.

I decided that Mike could handle whatever idiota attacked him next, and kept my eyes on my own two.

05/07/2025 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH.

Getting some stuff in.

…

I gave it a five count, and then said, “Hey, Lucas. Please don’t beat him up.”

“You guessed I was there,” Lucas told me as he slid into the seat next to me. “And why would I beat Alan up?”

“General principles?” I guessed as I was dealt a new hand. “He’s probably even more pissed at you than he is with me.”

“If he’s not, he’s even dumber than I remember,” Lucas agreed as he looked at his own hand. “But I know Alan’s not, because he’s pretending not to recognize me. Which is… huh. That’s actually a sign of intelligence, so he might have a revenge scheme going. Maybe I should beat him up. Like you said, on general principles.”

“Hey, Lucas. Please don’t beat him up,” I repeated, in the same tone as before.

“I don’t know, Tom. You were very persuasive, just now.” Then Lucas grinned. “I’m just funning. I only kick anthills when I’m on the job. But why is the twerp here, anyway? This is what Cin Citiers think going into exile looks like?”

Patreon!

05/07/2025 Snippet, THE CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.

Getting on with it!

Tobias found it worryingly easy to get down the hole. The gravity did not increase beyond Lunar standard, which was a relief to Tobias — but less of one than he liked, since none of the others knew that this could even be a possibility. There were also handholds to help slow descent. Those would have been fine, except that they looked old. As in, a century old. The shaft wall around them all was smooth, almost slick, like water had been involved in the process.

It was a sign of how odd things were these days that such a wrongness was accepted by the party without surprise, or even comment. Inexplicably water-worn walls might have challenged everything mankind knew about the moon, but they weren’t trying to actively eat people’s faces, either. Tobias for one was ready to count his blessings accordingly.

Abbie went first, and Tobias took up the rear: Wilcox contented himself with second, getting increasingly fidgety as they descended. By the time the descent ended in a moderately-sized room with a hatch on the floor, he was practically vibrating. “How did Grabinski build all of this?” he asked… somebody. “He’s a mathematician, not an engineer.”

Patreon!

An interesting video on AI and voice actors.

From a voice actor, at that. Very interesting, particularly since she’s not freaking out about the whole thing. It’s a bit long, but I think worth watching.

‘Baba O’Riley.’

Baba O’Riley, The Who

#commissionearned

The MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL Honest Trailer.

Mentioned because they’re showing it in theaters tomorrow. And yesterday, but definitely tomorrow. I wanted to mention that before I hit the sack.

Everybody keeps telling me I need a vacation.

Maybe I should take one. I just feel like… I started late, or something. And I don’t have infinite time to catch up.

Moe Lane

PS: This isn’t depression; it’s just a bit of stress. I’ve actually been going to bed earlier and getting more exercise, too. Maybe I should also be doing more of those.

05/05/2025 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

Getting back to it.

“You don’t, ah, ‘like him’ for the theft?” Father Miguel asked me after we stepped outside. “He had opportunity.”

“Sure,” I replied. “He also knew what was in the will, unless he’s really bad at his job. It’d also be the wrong kind of stupid for him to loot a box he was in charge of.”

“Senor Lomax isn’t any kind of fool, no. But what would be the right kind of stupid for him?”

“Cleaning out petty cash to head down to Red Beach with a honey he met at the trolley stop,” I grinned at him. Then I winced. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

Father Miguel snorted. “Nice try, Shamus.” And, just like that, we were friends. “I’m a Catholic priest. We don’t shock easily, and I’ve been told about worse than fornication. So he’s a dead end?”

Patreon!

Tweet-Thread of the Day, “…Huh.” edition.

Huh.

The "A Minecraft Movie" movie is the most reactionary movie I've ever seen and the future zoomer world order is bright and wonderful

I would have called it "The humiliation of the coward Jack Black and the end of irony"

— garfieldbot (@robertlasagna1) May 6, 2025

I have ordered a proof copy of the Fermi Resolution Worldbook! (Buy the digital copy now!)

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it to work on the first try, given how many hoops I had to jump through just to get to this point. No matter: I’ve ordered a print proof, spent the money to get it expedited, and it should be here sometime next week. Then I can go through it, decide if it all coheres, and then maybe, just maybe, I can make it available for sale and there will be much rejoicing.

In the meantime: pick up a digital copy here.