I have long felt that the smart thing to do with a geas like the one in “It Could Have Been You, Sure” was to ignore the blessed thing entirely. The stories are clear: the harder you try to thwart a death-geas, the more bloody-minded the universe gets in warping reality. Just don’t sweat it, man. Everybody’s gotta die of something, and you want the other person to be the overconfident one in a duel.
Tag: microfiction
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Pi to the Face.’
‘Pi to the Face’ is an amusing conceit, in my opinion. Also: fighting this guy is very embarrassing. Worth it if you had to skip breakfast, though.
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Root Access.’
Ah, “Root Access.” I imagine that being a civilized orcish mage could be a lot of fun. Especially if you use the entire orc thing to cheerfully yell at people who deserve it, to the secret glee of all your more circumspect colleagues. And faculty meetings would never go on and on.
Patreon Microfiction: “Like Being Welcomed Home.”
You can’t really write a book around “Like Being Welcomed Home.” Where’s the conflict? Yes, you can inject conflict into it, but then you can do that any time. Who’s gonna want to read a book where the Good Guys get the Quest Object in a speed run because everybody gets out of their way?
Exactly.
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Bring the Jubilee.’
I’d write more Civil War stuff like ‘Bring the Jubilee,’ except that it’s a field of overlapping rhetorical minefields. Although I don’t care about the opinions of the monomaniacal historical illiterates, mind you: I’ve been ignoring them for years. No, it’s the monomaniacal historical literates who would eat me alive. And I am not going to spend six months figuring out just what damned buttons George H Thomas or Nathan Bedford Forrest were wearing at the damned battle of Chickamauga. Life is just too damned short.
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Around Here Somewhere.’
‘Around Here Somewhere’ is, yes, a little gruesome in its sheer matter-of-fact nature. I can only assume, though, that this is how THEY would do it. And then this is how THEY would forget how they did it.
Patreon Microfiction (“Former Introvert”) up early.
Gonna be a weird weekend, so Former Introvert is going up now so that I don’t have to do it tomorrow. …That’s it. Nothing more, really.
Patreon Microfiction: “Only the Ghost of a Chance.”
That request in “Only the Ghost of a Chance” was probably pro forma, to be honest. Sometimes, somebody listens. Usually, they don’t.
‘Get Back Into the Garage.’
Ah, “Get Back Into the Garage.” Transgressive humor is where you find it, I find. I also almost want to develop this world further, but I have to assume that it’d only be appealing to an audience that’s marginal even by Internet standards.
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Persistence Hunting.’
I liked writing ‘Persistence Hunting.’ But then, I’ve always been fond of the American Lesson: If you can see it, you can hit it; and if you can hit it, you can kill it. I forget who said that first, though: Tom Clancy, maybe? It’s still a good rule of thumb.