8FOLD: Mighty Medley # 27, March 2016, by Messrs. Brenton, Perron, Russell, and Stokes

[Drew Perron]

On Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 9:30:13 PM UTC-4, Tom Russell wrote:
<snip>
> "The Basilisk Blinks"
>    by Drew Perron
> 
> Kid Enthusiastic has a conversation with the future, because he is a
> genius, of course.

Of course! <3 That's how they are~

>    Gulliver stood there silently for a good long while, his eyes near
> as wide as his gob, staring at Hank. He was still staring when Hank
> took Skin of Snake from him, and he stood beneath the doctor's shingle
> as Hank took the injun inside. A few minutes later, when Hank
> reappeared, Gulliver was still standing there, just the same.

Heeheehee. <3 <3 <3 A nice low-key gag.

>    When it became clear that the normally chatty Gulliver wasn't going
> to speak so much as a word, that he weren't going to ask the question
> that both he and Hank knew he wanted to ask, Hank decided to
> make-believe that the question had been asked, and so proceeded to
> answer it.

Very efficient of him!

> Doc called it an exponential factor of
> healing. I'd just say that I'm tough to put down. If I were the mushy
> sort of man, I'd say it was because Celine needed me, but I'm not the
> mushy sort. (She does need me, though.)"

D'awwwwww. ^.^ EXCELLENT. Very happy for survival of important cool character.

>    The Librarian nodded thoughtfully, and stepped over to the
> summoning wall - the name she had given a row of laser-etched
> summoning circles atop metal plates, with a storage rack mounted at
> the end to hold spares and unused specific circles. Only one circle
> bore a specification, of course, since she only had one true name to-
>    "Fn'ordh!" she blurted out, suddenly, and lightly smacked her
> forehead. "How could I have forgotten my first Legionnaire-to-be?
> Shame on me."

Yeah, Libby seems very much like the kind of person who gets really caught up in an interesting project and loses track of everything else.

> -Here, you are more than what you are, you are more than yourself.
> You are growing, expansively so; reaching out to take that which you
> desire; unbound by the Pantheon, bound only by your own sense of
> fairness and justice and honor.  Could there be a better term?-
>    "'Dictator' doesn't strike you as suitable?" the Librarian
> returned, frowning.
>    -I trust you will do what you know to be right,- came the gentle reply.

It's nice to see them talking this over, you know? Rather than just charging ahead heedlessly.

>    The Librarian nodded, tweaking the last few processors before
> straightening up. "Time and resources, yes. I'll have to head to town
> first, I think, and see what sort of payment I can get for servicing
> the water and power systems. Maybe I can even convince them to upgrade
> to something a little more capable at some point."

Actually, one thing I'd like is a more concrete sense of where she is.

> Who else but a powerful Nazi sorcerer would
> have been both still alive and powerful enough to provide exactly this
> sort of help? Goodness, he was practically their own Claus von
> Stauffenberg.

*looks up reference* *laughs*

> Sesquipedalian Explanation Lass had given
> Deidre a similar warning years ago, before she had died.

Wait, what.

>    Marcus nodded. "You see the problem. Fortunately I can think of a
> few ways of dealing with the problem."
>    And seated on the fourth side of the table, the Man With The Green
> Gloves spoke up and said, "I would certainly be interested in hearing
> them."

!!! o.o

> The captain and his six devils had a simple mission: capture the
> anomaly, or be destroyed in the attempt. They accomplished neither,
> and now must answer to Maledux. They dare not to look upon him, for
> HIS FACE IS THE FACE OF DEATH. Instead, they gaze upon the Voice of
> Maledux - for NONE MAY HEAR HIS TRUE VOICE.

Heeheeheehee <3

>    "The others were mine," says his master. "Completely devoted to my
> will. She resists and struggles. She wants both the safety of
> obedience, and the poison of free thought. This makes her dangerous,
> yes; she might yet give herself over to the light, and in marking her,
> I will have created a new enemy. But only free thought is capable of
> creativity, of cunning. And she'll need that to capture the anomaly,
> should her training prevail."

Interesting.

> When one chooses the light, another the dark; the
> dark, another the light. Our universe is built around Evil and Good
> kept in perfect and equal balance, always at war."

Man, that's *so* not true. I will fite you Maldeux >:/ Both physically and philosophically!!

(And man, that can be used to justify *anything*, can't it? When the existence of evil is good, and each causes each, then any random thing you do is just keeping the balance.)

> The anomaly is the only thing to be free of the
> struggle, to be neither a child of light or of dark, or to be torn
> toward one or the other. A being of incalculable power that, if
> studied and duplicated, can at last win my long war.
>    "And that, my Voice, is why we need the Monad."

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN...

Drew "so cool" Perron