Moe Lane's Blog, page 854
August 28, 2020
Oh, no. RIP, Chadwick Boseman.
Far too soon. I hadn’t even realized Chadwick Boseman was ill (colon cancer), let alone battling the disease during all those movies. My condolences and prayers for his family and loved ones.
(Via Instapundit)
Quote of the Day, Yeah, That’s Kind Of The Problem There, Elon edition.
Elon Musk, discussing his prototype neural implant device:
“I think it’s going to blow your minds,” Musk told viewers.
…Did you run that line by your PR people first?
My Mini-Review of PHINEAS AND FERB THE MOVIE: CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE.
AWESOME.
Slightly longer review: …IT. WAS. AWESOME.
08/28/2020 Snippet, TIPPED ON A STIFF.
Almost there!
Patreon!The good thing about slaver dens is that they don’t have too many big pointy things. Your average slaver likes clubs, because it ain’t as easy to kill somebody with one by accident. Neither did I. Shamuses can do it, but we don’t like to. Usually it’s for the law to decide if somebody’s gotta take the long dive into the dark.
Irene wasn’t as fussy about it, though. The first guy we found got that piece of iron right in the — look, she killed him quick, okay? I didn’t say anything, because I was too busy keeping him from yelling, but I didn’t say anything afterward, either. I didn’t ask her what it was like, being locked in here for a couple of days — and she didn’t give any details, either. Probably better that way.
Besides, the guy had a club, and a real dagger. And some keys, which was real nice to see. It was gonna be easier to get out of this warehouse with ‘em.
08/28/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD revision.
Agricultural programs! …Shaddap, it’s important.
Patreon!At least dinner that night was with Sally’s family: her husband Bolin seemed nice enough, and the children were delighted to have a sudden new uncle appear. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement to not discuss militia matters at the dinner table, too, which meant that conversation revolved around Bolin’s agricultural work. It was surprisingly interesting, actually.
But there wasn’t much in the way of magical agriculture, oddly enough. Bolin explained why. “Everything is brute force,” he said. “Want to zap something, or shove something else around? No problem. But if you say, try to make a tomato grow faster, it — it just doesn’t go so well.”
“Giant mutated tomato monsters?” Morgan asked, afraid the answer was going to be ‘yes.’
Bolin laughed. “Not that bad. More like exploding tomatoes, or the whole plant aging an entire year in a second, or the ground losing all the nutrients at once. We keep plugging at it, a little, but it’s going to take time, and we don’t have much to spare right now.”
“Don’t you know this already, Morg?” Sally said as she came back from tucking in the kids. “It’s not a secret. People worry about food all the time. Well, they don’t worry, but they keep an eye on our food supply.”
Morgan took another careful sip of the good booze; the stuff from Before, saved for family and suchlike. “Well, you know how it is, Sally. Nobody ever tells me anything.”
“You mean, you never ask about things you don’t care about.”
“What’s the difference?” said Morgan with a grin.
August 27, 2020
The STAR WARS SQUADRONS Single Player Preview.
So. STAR WARS SQUADRONS can be played in VR throughout. Also: I have never seen a pitch video with less of a need for words.
Save versus shiny… failed.
08/27/2020 Snippet, MORGAN BAROD revision.
:pointing: Cow.
Patreon!Morgan looked at Brown at that remark. “Ask you a question about Before, Sarge?” Some people didn’t like to answer those questions, but Brown just shrugged. “What did you do, back then?”
“Same thing I’m doing now, Ell-Tee,” replied Brown. “42nd Regional Support Group, National Guard. I was a sergeant there, too, before everything went to shit in ‘05, including the Guard.” He shook his head. “Guess I couldn’t take the hint.”
“I don’t know the old units, sorry,” admitted Morgan. “Were you local?”
“Before, I would have said yeah. We were out of New Brunswick. We weren’t what you’d call front-line troops at first, although we learned real fast when things got exciting. By ‘05 things weren’t going too bad in the unit. The rest of the world was screwed, but we were maintaining.” Brown took another swig of beer. “And then we had a giant fucking cow rampage through downtown.”
“Yeah, I saw the aftermath on my way home,” said Morgan. “I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t delirious, though. It looked… pretty messed up, Sarge.”
“Yeah, it was a little messed up for us, too. Took us forever to kill the bastard, and New Brunswick wasn’t worth anything afterward. That’s when they decided to make the Raritan the new southern border of New Jersey. Some of the Guard stuck around, some of us left. Me, I figured the coasties could use the help more, so here I am.” Brown finished his beer. “On the bright side: we had one hell of a barbecue after that fight, so it wasn’t all bad. As long as you ate around the napalm.”
08/27/2020 Snippet, TIPPED ON A STIFF.
Meetings!
Patreon!Typical Shamus luck: instead of a cage, I got a room with a door and a lock. With not a sprig of hay to break my fall as Local Boy and some other guy tossed me in. I almost broke my nose on the floor; well, it wouldn’t have been the first time.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d need to wait before I should come to, but I had that problem solved for me; there was somebody else in the room. After a minute had passed without anybody coming back, she moved forward to check my pulse. When she found the whatever-it-was on my wrist, she muttered something under her breath. It didn’t sound polite.
Then she moved away for a moment, then came back with what felt like a wet rag. When she started to wipe some of the crap off of my face I was really tempted to just let her do it for a while. Did I mention that it had been a long night?
But the job never ends. I sat up, startling her more than a little. As she retreated, I nodded politely. “Irene of Deseret, I presume?” I said.
“I may have been called that,” Irene said. There was enough light to see her; she was dressed in a fairly shapeless dress, had hair that been recently shorn, and had a bracelet that — I looked down — yup, it matched mine. She also looked seriously unhappy. The kind of unhappy that slops over onto other people.
“We’re getting out of here,” we both said, at pretty much the same moment.
ANAGNORISIS is now available for pre-order!
ANAGNORISIS is a four-story compilation from my Patreon; it’s about 32,000 words, and features art from my mom. Which is frankly a brag. It’s on pre-order until September 1st: get yours today!
