I do wonder whether something like ‘Fermentir’ might really exist. I mean, simply lying doesn’t violate any of the laws of physics, right? And people do like to be sold the fantasy. Also, it seems a harmless way to separate wealthy people with bad judgement from their excess money, which is not really a wicked thing to do if everyone’s smiling afterward.
Or something like that.
Dragons can read spreadsheets, you know. They can calculate the best return-on-investment just as well as anybody else, modified of course for one’s own particular species-specific tendencies, and general mindset. And their ears perk up and their snouts start trailing smoke when they hear the magic phrase ‘government-sponsored resource acquisition.’
After that it’s just engineering.
‘Planet of Eggs’ was one where I thought of the title first, then tried to figure out what it meant. Those are fun to do. And sometimes the result is pretty stupid, too. That’s always a plus.
I mean, ‘Leisurely Apocalypse’ is just what it says in the tin. But that applies to both words, too. You might not be surprised to hear that people inside the universe aren’t exactly panicking. At least, not yet.
In “The Universe Is Always An Empty Place,” I imagine that they are. Nobody ever asks deathworlders if they like being that way. Probably because what would they do if we said ‘yes?’
The truth in “It’s Better This Way, Really” is brutal, and many people in that world resist it. But the Cold Equations of situational mathematics are clear. Things have to be the way that they are.
This dude from ‘Professional Pride’ isn’t really a good dude. He’s got a job to do, sure – but that job is to try to make you suffer for eternity, and he enjoys doing it. And yet: he knows he’s right, bless it; and so does everybody else. But nobody will do anything about it. Hell really is other people, huh?
‘Rust’ is kind of philosophical, and it originally had a story of some moral urgency attached to it. I think. I don’t actually remember, at this point.
