Moe Lane's Blog, page 751
March 23, 2021
03/23/21 Snippet, PIGEON.
Casual bigotry!
Patreon!Bub fell in with us as we got up from the table. It wasn’t any kind of rule that he couldn’t join us: orcs are welcome at the bar, or the tables. If they can fit. Some can, some can’t, and Bub leaned to being on the ‘can’t’ side, on account of being so damned wide. It did mean he got to us pretty quick, though. The crowd flowed around him.
Gloria looked at Bub, sidelong. “You speak this language?” she asked me, in Town Elvish.
“Sure,” I replied, in the same tongue. Bub looked on, impassive.
“Good. Is it reliable?”
“What? Oh, him. He’s here, isn’t he?” He also didn’t like being called ‘it,’ but I’d let Gloria figure that out on her own.
March 22, 2021
Is your Android device acting up?
The latest update is making some phones go weird with Amazon and/or Google. That link has details about how to undo the update until there’s a fix. I don’t know how common it is: I only know about it because a buddy of mine had a problem with one of my Facebook links to the Amazon site and let me know I might of had a virus (I do not)…
So, I thought I’d try out Helen’s Page.
Helen’s Page is something that Instapundit’s doing: a digital marketplace for services and whatnot – including books. Worth a test of a month or two, see if it’ll drive digital sales of my books: you gotta have advertising in this business if you wanna get anywhere. The listing’s here.
Hey! There are two folks from the first Kickstarter who haven’t redeemed their pledges!
And one person who got their package returned to me. If you’re one of those three people, get in touch with me. I am going to be closing the Kickstarter down at some point in the future…
03/22/21 Snippet, PIGEON.
Introduction!
Patreon!She said her name was Gloria Abernathy, and with a name like that I didn’t need to hear the rest: she was from one of the local human mountain tribes. Must have been one of the civilized ones, since the wilder types don’t care much for their sons or daughters running off to become Deputies. And she perked right up when I told her I was looking for a werewolf.
Gloria was pretty damn sure of the target, too. “It’s the half-man,” she said confidently but quietly at the table we had retreated to. “I know it sounds crazy, but I’m sure it’s him. He’s been popping up places where there’s been animals taken. Three that I know of, all in the last month.”
“Three?” I said. “Crap, that’s bad. Town barons keep covering it up, I guess?”
“That’s what I figure,” Gloria replied. “Can’t blame ‘em too much, though. A werewolf comes through, grabs some of your chickens, then leaves: well, he’s gone, right? Must have just been passing through, so just thank the gods it wasn’t a kid and don’t stir up nothing further. But this half-man, he’s here to meet somebody. And I think he’ll kill him, after.”
Tweet of the Day, Now This Is Some Quality Sh… atnerposting edition.
Happy birthday, William Shatner!
A happy 90th birthday to actor William Shatner, perhaps best known to audiences as Alexei in The Brothers Karamazov (Richard Brooks, 1958). pic.twitter.com/wTb08xMfcl
— Andy Miller (@i_am_mill_i_am) March 22, 2021
Via @BrianFaughnan.
March 21, 2021
‘Baba Yetu.’
Baba Yetu, Peter Hollens featuring Malukah
03/21/21 Snippet, MARKET DAY AT THE PECZ.
Gore!
Patreon!There was still a skirmish going on inside the PECZ council house; Janet was somewhat relieved to see that her side was winning, but it had gotten bloody before the Big Bells had started tipping the balance against the cultists. And they definitely were cultists; the ones who weren’t dead were coughing up bloody splinters, which probably hurt just as badly as it looked.
Janet didn’t give a damn, except the usual mental reminder to get some bonfires going afterward. Better safe than sorry. And then she saw Elizabeth’s boyfriend Lee was of the same opinion, because he was using a ghoulsticker to make sure of the bloody-mouthed cultists. Janet stopped, reasonably out of range, and said, “How bad, Guardian Lee?”
One of the cultists seemed to treat that question like it was a signal to stop faking death and attack. Lee’s spear snaked out, punching a hole through the cultist’s guts; even then, the cultist kept trying to move up the shaft until the crosspiece stop her. Lee leaned the cultist back down to the ground, to the accompaniment of wet pops and cracks.
“Including this bunch, we’ve counted fifteen so far,” he said.
03/21/21 Snippet, PIGEON.
Narrowing!
Patreon!There were about six people standing at the bar, and three of them I knew already. I also knew the bartender, but even if Mrs. Annie did hire werewolves she still wouldn’t let her workers drink on duty. That left three possibles: human male vaquero, halfling male prospector, human female… huh. She was wearing a shiny-bright deputy’s star. Dressed as you’d expect a wandering freelance lawman to be, too: dust-caked red leather poncho and denim jeans, with empty holsters where six-shooters and an Ansteorra knife would normally abide. Palish skin, though, with only a hint of a tan.
She was in the process of seeing off the vaquero when I sidled up to the bar. Given the stage of drunkenness that guy was in, it mostly involved reminding the guy how he just said he was leaving. As he finally staggered off, I mentally ticked him off my list — and, after a moment, ticked her off it, too. Shape-shifters might not shrivel up and die if they see silver, but they don’t like it much. Lawmen wear the star for a reason.
