8FOLD: Darkhorse # 7, "Your Pride In Danger"

[Tom Russell]

On Monday, July 4, 2016 at 10:51:19 PM UTC-4, Drew Perron wrote:
> On 6/19/2016 1:48 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
> <snip>
> >    "Insect respiration," says Melody between big honking gulps of air,
> > "no lungs. Spiracles. Puts a limit on their body size. Giant ants
> > should not even be a thing."
> >    "Yeah, well, tell that to the giant ants."
> 
> Heeheehee. I mean, if the oxygen content is different... (I mean, I think they'd 
> be able to tell *that* pretty quick, due to oxygen intoxication...

I think even with higher amounts of oxygen, the mechanics of insect respiration would still put a severe limit on their possible size. :-)

> > "The last few Earths, you have been incrementally
> > slower. You were also pretty sloppy on Murder Clown Earth and Tree
> > Person Earth, for example.
> 
> Oh my. XD

This was my way of saying "btw, a bunch of other stuff happened that we didn't see", or, alternatively, "there was a bunch of other stuff that might find its way into a filler Medley story or two".

> >    "Part of my super-speed is that I have an incredibly high
> > metabolism, which means I have to consume twenty thousand calories
> > daily."
> 
> Oh wow.

The whole "speedsters-have-to-eat-a-lot" thing is an idea that I stole from... was it William Messner-Loebs or Mark Waid? I wanna say Messner-Loebs, though I think Waid ran with it (heh).
 
> >    "What the hell?"
> >    "I'm rescuing you. I think," she says. "You're Gareth Roberts?"
> 
> Oh hey, I really liked the Shada novelization. I kinda feel like Closing Time 
> was a big step down from The Lodger, tho.

D'oh. Usually I google character names before I finalize them. Apparently I didn't in this case.


> >    "First, we need to get the two of you out of this alive," says
> > Rainshade. "Metronome, someone's put a neuro-mystical bomb in your
> > head. You better let me disarm it, or we won't get very far."
> >    "Oh, okay, yes, let's do that." Rainshade places her fingertips on
> > Metronome's forehead. In an instant, she's slumped to the ground. Then
> > she waves her umbrella at Gareth dismissively: the restraints
> > re-fasten themselves.
> >    "Oh, this is bullocks."
> 
> Dangit Rainshade. >:| Everybody has their own reasons FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE

So, uh, you called it on this one. :D

Not that anyone knew enough about Rainshade for this to really qualify as a "reveal", and when I fill in the rest of the September-December 2014 period with the first couple arcs of DAYLIGHTERS and MANCERS, the readers will already know what Rainshade's up to. Then the story becomes about whether or not she's going to get caught, or whether or not you want her to get caught-- seeing so-and-so doing x all along is more interesting of course than a "so-and-so was doing x all along" kind of reveal.