Moe Lane's Blog, page 688
September 8, 2021
Group Seed: Society for the Advancement of Linear Time (SALT).
Just because.
Society for the Advancement of Linear Time (SALT)
The Society for the Advancement of Linear Time is the anti-time travel organization of its particular game world, very possibly because SALT is an easy acronym to remember. The first iteration of SALT existed under a different, less memorable name (the Chronodynamic Interdisciplinary Working Group), and was a collection of engineers and scientists thrown together during one iteration of the typical temporal chaos that always shows up after the ‘discovery’ of time travel. They were looking for a way to protect the timeline from being casually overwritten: they found it, and even managed to get it up and running. Somehow.
This is actually extremely rare — time travellers are excellent at wiping out stabilization efforts before they can even technically start — but an infinity of timelines implies an infinity of low-probability outcomes. In this universe, SALT’s created a ‘bubble’ around their True Present that protects against artificial changes of the past (and, technically, the future). It’s not perfect, but it does prevent the largest, most disruptive alterations to history, and mitigates heavily most of the other ones. As long as the Bubble exists, so does the SALT timeline.
SALT is organized as a private regulatory agency with an extremely broad agenda. It claims veto power over any and all acts of time travel; both the United Nations and the European Union recognize that claim. The USA, PRC, UK, and Russian Federation do not, but SALT has privileged relationships with all major nation-states. The group is largely funded by ‘licenses’ offered to official government time travel programs, which then in turn enjoy near-exclusive access to potentially profitable sections of history.
These relationships are widely criticized, but rarely actively opposed. Most people find the status quo acceptable — and SALT ruthlessly protects it with a combination of legal action, corporate espionage, and (very occasionally) mercenary work. It is absolutely ready to come down with a heavy hand on rogue time-traveling operations, and is generally not interested in trying to recruit them, first. There are applications online, if people are that interested.
SALT personnel self-select for fanaticism about protecting the timeline, to the point where there’s considerable internal discussion over whether time travel should be permitted at all. The primary reason why the group does allow time travel is simple: money. Without government funding, SALT can’t maintain the reality stabilizers for very long. And the government funding will dry up if nation-states aren’t allowed to travel through time at all. As it is, SALT is remarkably ascetic and thrifty, for a group with its level of power and influence.
The situation is such that some of SALT’s regional offices and personnel have been known to supplement local budgets via inappropriate means. For example: the past is an excellent place to hide illegal drugs until the heat is off. And if they’re brought back (or just dug up), then what’s the harm to the timeline? Particularly if every dime of the payoff goes to keeping the lights on. Eggs, omelets, greater good, and all that.
Movie of the Week: The #SnyderCut JUSTICE LEAGUE.
Yup, they finally released the Snyder Cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE on DVD. Best Buy also apparently has a steelbook, but those are more or less wasted on me. Besides, they ran out. I’m fine with the Blu-Ray.
September 7, 2021
‘Why Don’t You Get A Job?’
They finally put up a high-quality version of this.
Doing a subscriber-only experiment on Patreon this month.
Putting up the first draft of my latest story as I write it. Good encouragement for me to not drag my heels in writing it, hopefully. Plus, it might get me more subscribers. So… we’ll see, hey?
Patreon!:sigh: VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE now coming out… wait, *early*?
When did that become allowed?
Sony’s highly-anticipated sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage is releasing two weeks earlier than its previous date, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will now debut on October 1 instead of October 15, opening against Warner Bros.’ Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark and United Artists’ The Addams Family 2.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy to see it make it to theaters sooner. I’m just… surprised, that’s all. The last two years has been one long litany of movie after movie being delayed or archived or sent off somewhere that isn’t its natural environment (a movie theater). I am so [expletive deleted] tired of it. Movie theaters are safe, dammit. But I can’t go to them if the studios freak out every time Twitter does.
So well done, Sony.
The LEGO STAR WARS TERRIFYING TALES Disney+ trailer.
Well, if you’re going to do a STAR WARS-themed Halloween show, then give it to the LEGO folks. Straight up. I mean, there’s no chance in Hell they’ll ever do straight-up horror in the Star Wars universe, and I kind of don’t want them to anyway. That means that ‘comic spooky’ is your only viable action plan, and at least this shop knows how to do that sort of thing. I figure my kids are going to watch LEGO STAR WARS TERRIFYING TALES pretty avidly, or at least the younger one will. It may not suck.
In the Mail: @HPLHS’s THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM (DART).
Awesome props, as always.
In the mail. pic.twitter.com/O4YyYegSD2
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) September 7, 2021
If you’re a gamer who wants to adapt HPL’s stuff for a campaign then the HPLHS’s stuff is dang near mandatory. And the radio plays are fun, too! Check ’em out.
09/07/21 Snippet, ETERNAL NIGHT OF THE MOON-BEASTS.
So… when the world of the Fermi Resolution ended, what did happen on the moon?
Patreon!
Heinlein Station
American Administrative Zone
Luna
2103 AD
Europe was still burning.
At least, Tobias assumed the roiling, red-black clouds swirling over most of the continent represented out-of-control fires. The alternatives literally did not bear thinking about, considering that the last three people to get a closer look through the telescopes had all gone irretrievably mad. He felt there were quite enough horrible suggestions of meaningful shapes in those clouds, even with the naked eye. He didn’t need to see more closely for himself.
In contrast, the fires over Africa and South America had by now burned off, with only patches here and there of strangeness. Tobias knew that Asia was like Europe, and Australia and Antarctica more like Africa. And North America was… dark. For the last four months, two weeks, and five days. Not that he was counting.
No need to, Commander Mather, came a whisper in the back of Tobias’ mind. I can count such things for you.
Tobias gave the faint grimace he used instead of smiling. “Sounds like a waste of taxpayer money, Asenath. Shouldn’t you be off tracking trans-lunar shipping, or something?”
Asenath — short for the Advanced Smart-Encoded Naval Autonomous Tracking Hub — emitted the faint susurrus of static that she now used instead of laughter. Find me some and I will look at it, Commander. Until then, my programming dictates that I must not be idle. Counting the days for you poor, doomed meatba— humans is as good as any other task.
“Ouch,” Tobias said as he pushed himself off of the lunar rock he had been using as a backrest. “Tell me what you really think of us, why don’t you?”
The AI’s response was immediate: I am terrified that you will all die and I will be helpless to stop it.
September 6, 2021
Happy Labor Day!
In honor of the holiday, I didn’t do any. Well, I did go grocery shopping, but that doesn’t really count. I gotta eat, right?
My Mini-review of SHANG-CHI.
Short version: It would be a shame to miss this on the big screen. It would be stupid to choose to miss this on the big screen.
Slightly longer version: some guy on the Internet was whining about how he’d rather pay thirty bucks to watch SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS ‘safe’ at home. This would be… contraindicated. Excellent martial arts action, engaging lead characters (I had suspicions on how annoying Awkwafina would be: turns out she’s funny as hell), entertaining cameos, and a nice, straightforward action-driven plot. This is what popcorn movies are supposed to be, folks: I had a real good time.
Moe Lane
PS: Remind me to gloat over the spoiler in two weeks.
