Shocking, yes. And by shocking I mean No, not really. COVENANTS is certainly my Book of the Week; your mileage, as always, may vary.
Four tales of agreements! Follow along as MARIE VISITS THE CONTINENT, on a mission of delicacy, and monsters. Sally forth with Duchess Carlotta into a zombie-haunted world as she takes THE QUEST FROM CASTLE WINDERMERE. Go on a TOUR OF DUTY in the interstellar spaces between charnel worlds. And lastly, discover with our horrified narrator that, after long, long years… THE STARS ARE WRONG. Enjoy! (Four stories, fifty eight thousand words total, each with its own illustration.)
We followed the almost-path of gorvines all the way to the Dig site, to absolutely nobody’s surprise. Well, I know I wasn’t surprised, and I assume the Anticipant couldn’t be. If Oft had any sudden revelations, he didn’t talk about them.
He was the first one to notice the regular sets of discoloration on the walls, though. “More places for torches,” he grimly observed, and I didn’t blame him at all. The Scouts had been here for a reason, and it involved the Erebus Dig. I tried not to think about the implications of that, and I definitely didn’t try to think of the suggestion that the Scouts were making this trip in the dark. It would have been a beautiful morning anywhere else in the world, and I absolutely did not want to be here.
Navigating this place at midnight sounded like a great way to court a heart attack. From my last visit I remembered that there’s not much of the Dig aboveground. The topside part of the planetary defense center or storehouse or whatever the inhabitants used the place for before their Last Stand had been broken down to gravel, making the area look like a Jeffersonian parking lot. That was there, and still stubbornly free of any vegetation or even moss.
What was different was the primitive elevator centered over the Dig shaft, camouflage netting still draped it to hide it from the sky.
The first episode of TED LASSO has dropped, and it was a lot of fun. We know all the major conflicts that will feature this season, and the characters are all busily playing to their strengths. Best of all: I think that they really are going to wrap it up this season for the main story. The temptation must be very, very strong for them to just keep going, but it would also be a mistake. Some stuff, you do, and then you’re done with it.
Apparently she could use a bit of a financial boost. I like Kate’s Widdershins: it’s very possibly my actual favorite webcomic (definitely top five). I’m going to miss it when it ends, although I understand why she’s ending it.
Kate's an excellent webcomic artist who could use the patronage. Check her stuff out.https://t.co/qsatiOe4gM
This isn’t a strategy. This is a ‘flip off the avalanche as it overwhelms you’: “The influential social media app TikTok is flooding the nation’s capital with influencers next week as part of an 11th hour lobbying blitz to stave off the forced sale of the company.” Or maybe TikTok wants to be destroyed? Threatening our nation’s capital with a plague of influencers could very well be seen as a manifestation of the company’s hunger for self-destruction. We can’t ignore that possibility.
Don’t get me wrong: if TikTok desires oblivion so badly, then we should give it to them. Thoroughly, and with no false mercy. But I just marvel at the thought that somebody decided that next week’s exercise in applied mass annoyance was a good plan.
Four-story chapbook now available for preorder in Kindle! Covenants: Four Tales of Agreements! The paperback will be worked on next week, after I give the remaining typos a chance to think the coast is clear.
Follow along as MARIE VISITS THE CONTINENT, on a mission of delicacy, and monsters. Sally forth with Duchess Carlotta into a zombie-haunted world as she takes THE QUEST FROM CASTLE WINDERMERE. Go on a TOUR OF DUTY in the interstellar spaces between charnel worlds. And lastly, discover with our horrified narrator that, after long, long years… THE STARS ARE WRONG. Enjoy! (Four stories, fifty eight thousand words total, each with its own illustration.)
“Best guess is that it was a Last Stand.” I didn’t like walking on the gorvines, but standing still would have been worse. This particular species was attracted to human scents, and would shift to get closer to us if we didn’t keep moving. Nobody’s ever been attacked by one, but spill any blood around a gorvine, and it’ll go looking for it. “It was just like how it was on all the other Tomb Worlds. They reported lots of signs of fighting, tons of smashed-in doors and walls, and not a bone to be found anywhere.”
“A half-told tale is far too tall,” offered the Anticipant. Either she was trying really hard to speak normally, or I was trying really hard to understand her, because I got the gist.
“Yeah, all of the reports leave out how it feels to be down here.” I scowled at the encroaching wilderness. “I guess we can’t get away with calling the Dig a ‘infective apprehension area’ or ‘static neurosis zone,’ or whatever else the head-stirrers are saying instead ‘really damn creepy’ this week. It’s not an accident that the main bases are all on the other side of the planet.”
