Moe Lane's Blog, page 706
July 30, 2021
07/30/21 Update, July Patreon Pledge Drive. (There’s never been a better time!)
Tomorrow is the last day of the month and a Saturday, which means the trifecta:
A short story!The latest installment of the current RPG setting!Microfiction!Sign up today, and get it all tomorrow! Only a buck a day!
Patreon!
Snippet the last, THE DEFENSE OF WINDERMERE CASTLE.
“Finish that story,” I said. “How hard can it be?” I said. “You know how it’s supposed goes,” I said.
WHEEEEEEEE!
Patreon!The unpleasantries began immediately afterward. Three guards were sent out with torches to look for any ambushers lurking just out of sight (hers were considerably farther away), but Carlotta was too busy being shackled with a long chain to pay too much attention. They did it quickly, without explanation.
After that came a quick examination for cuts and wounds. Fortunately for her modesty, they used women for this. They hadn’t gotten far before one found the bloody, hastily hidden bandage around one arm. The reaction was swift; she was roughly shoved to the ground. By the time she stood up, the women had retreated, one carrying the other end of Carlotta’s chain. Two men with pikes readied them in her direction, in mute warning. And then her chain began to jerk her, slowly but inexorably, towards a cave mouth. Carlotta could almost feel the pikeheads aimed at her back as she followed the chain.
The most horrible thing about it all was how little there was in the way of explanation, exposition, or even gloating. She was now in the grips of some sort of impersonal mechanism, made all the more awful for its basic indifference. Carlotta had clearly been weighed and found wanting, which meant she was already dead to them. Why waste time on outrages to a corpse?
July 29, 2021
‘A Smuggler’s Song.’
Nice, but it skips too many verses.
Quote of the Day, What IS GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE A Sequel Of? edition.
This is an interesting thought.
…I say “proper sequel” loosely as Afterlife more closely resembles a big-screen version of the amazing The Real Ghostbusters animated series that ran from 1986-1991 than the 1984 classic starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and the late Harold Ramis.
That’s not a bad thing.
Read the whole thing, but the gist is: GHOSTBUSTERS is an adult comedy, THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS was a kid’s comedy, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE looks like it’s drawing from the latter, and everything’s fine because the THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS was made out of awesome. Which it was, although the animation is… well, the state of the art has improved. But the writing was spot-on:
So I’m cool with it. If it’s true, of course.
July Patreon Pledge Drive, Looking for Beta Readers edition.
I’ve gotten my next chapbook (DECISIONS) to a spot where I can unleash the beta readers upon it. Let me know if you’re interested — and feel free to sign up for my Patreon, where these stories typically originate. At least one every month! RPG material, too. Quite the bargain at $1 a month.
Patreon!Snippet the Last, DEEP IN THE HEART OF SEX FISH.
That’s the last one of the new chapbook in the can, as it were. And at last.
Patreon!So when I saw Wanda at the bar I was cheered up more than I expected, you know? It was someone different, who wasn’t part of the weird rut that my life had become. That would be nice…
…except that she almost pretended not to see me.
Believe me, I know what that looks like. And it hurt a little to see a friend do it, particularly one I wasn’t ever even the slightest bit interested in. But maybe she remembered that, too, because she grimaced and came over to where I was sitting.
The first words out of her mouth, though: “This a Trawlr Fishing Hole?” Like she wasn’t going to stay here, if it was.
But I shook my head. “Nah. At least I’ve never met anybody here for dinner. Why?”
She looked at me, pretty steady. “I’m off the app.”
The way Wanda put it sounded weird. Like it was significant, and I should know why.
YOU’VE GOT THE TOUCH.
Yup: “The classic 1986 animated film Transformers: The Movie is returning to theaters in celebration of its 35th anniversary!” Fathom event, September 26th and 28th. I watched the movie again a while back, and it was… very nostalgic. I am so very, very tempted…
Moe Lane
Do I dare watch the GI JOE movie again? I mean, the real one? I don’t know. I just don’t know.
07/29/21 Snippet, THE DEFENSE OF CASTLE WINDERMERE.
Almost there!
Patreon!Ironically, turning off the beacon-fire was the work of a moment, although Carlotta had Witherby send messages back to the castle first. She hoped that they would go through, but after speaking further with Salutary she decided the risks were too great to spend more than a day sending the new messages. Not to them, but to these strange Visitors. They were themselves on the verge of sickness.
“We have special appetites,” Salutary had explained to her. “Only some of your food proved suitable for us, and we are almost out of it. This pyrite of yours is a particularly dangerous contaminant; even if there was anything nearby for us to hunt, it would be risky for us to eat it.”
Jimmy peered at him. “Then why were you staying in the mine, if it’s so fatal to you?”
“It was one of only two possible shelters within reach of our ship,” explained Salutary, “and the other is full of the people who captured it. There may have been poor air and not enough food here, but at least here we could recover what strength we could.”
July 28, 2021
‘The Mighty Quinn.’
…I STILL don’t know what this song is about.
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