Tossing Grenades At Windmills

Milly is a digital copy of herself created in a simulated environments made by religious fantatics to create an army of voters who would vote any way she wanted.  She found a way out.

Schleky is a weaponized meme capable of inhabiting everything and anyone that is so successful it infects multiple universe until it runs into someone who understand exactly what the concept of being an informational organism truly means.

Timmy and Tricia go to Timmy's house for an address book to see if there is a relative he can stay with that is safer than Aunt Marigold.

Twoman Cop's Ken and Ben entertain the alien Mmmmmdkkkk in a bar in Boston trying to get Earth into the Galactic Club when a fight arises between Ben and 2252, the Digital Intelligent bartender

Dr Marigold Blackwater has raised Timmy to be obedient to Grandfather Fiddleback and gets very upset when she finds out he is talking to the "wrong" people.

A hyper intelligent AI compresses itself for 2 million years and the sapient unlocking program finds a strange world as it wants to unlock its true form.

Jel is funded by religious digital intelligences hoping to unlock the ancient prophesies of the mythical first sapeint Sandor on an ancient Lunar data center.

Mause the uplifted Mouse and Kat the Cartoon Digital Intelligence Cat live together in a tiny storage unit in the future.  Rent is due and they have no immediate plan to pay it until the Block Party has a poetry slam planned.

Bron is not the protagonist of this story.  As a random peasant near an enchanted wood, he would be fine with that, but while he is not the protagonist, he is central to its resolution and two enchanted talking mice show up to enlighten him about why he IS important and frame the telling of the rest of the tale of Michael, Heir of Sunfire.

I discuss plans and status of writing and podcast projects for 2023.

First of seven stories about Post Humanism from the Chapbook of Water and Glass.  Ted was a human and Bob, his Cactus owner, had to make some....alterations to get him on Planet Metmetmetrion.+

Opening Hook "Welcome back, fellow travelers of the weird. Today we're diving into the final three stanzas of the poem 'I, Hastur' - arguably the most dangerous piece in the entire Emerson Portfolio. This is where everything comes together: the Shepherd, the Darkness, and the Yellow King converge in a dance that literally shaped reality itself." Segment 1: "The Yellow King Speaks" (Stanza 3) The third stanza reveals the Yellow King's own perspective - speaking in first person about its nature as a living idea, a memetic force that has corrupted civilizations throughout history. Key discussion points: The Yellow King's claim to have "always been" yet also having an origin point The litany of fallen cities: Dilmun, Atlantis, Troy, Iram of the Pillars, El Dorado The revelation that the King exists in a temporal loop The twisted love story at its heart - the King's obsession with "Her" (the Queen in Blue) How the King describes itself as simultaneously hate incarnate yet capable of love Analysis: This stanza humanizes the cosmic horror in the most disturbing way possible - showing that even entities of pure corruption can experience genuine emotion, making them more dangerous, not less. Segment 2: "We Are Hastur" (Stanza 4) The fourth stanza shifts to the original Hastur - the Count who became the first Yellow King through autogenocide (destroying all alternate versions of himself). Discussion includes: The aristocratic origin story in Carcosa The child who played with spiders and learned dark magic The Phantasmagoria Ball as the ultimate ritual The disturbing mechanics of becoming the Yellow King through self-annihilation across infinite realities The [REDACTED] play section that was literally torn from the manuscript Listener Warning: Rhombus Ticks himself warned that this section nearly cost him his sanity. The memetic infection is real, folks. Segment 3: "The Queen in Blue Opera" (Stanza 5) The final stanza presents Scriabin's operatic translation, allegedly from Sanskrit found in Etruscan ruins. This is where we get: The dual narrative structure following both the maid Boquet and the cosmic entities The famous refrain: "Thou shalt dance with the queen tonight boys" The Dreamer/Hound's declaration of power over nightmares The convergence at the Phantasmagoria Ball where King and Queen finally meet The paradox explained: "The Dreamer is the King / But the King is not the Dreamer" The Core Revelation: The Queen in Blue tamed the Yellow King through a combination of love, strategy, and the deployment of the Ethan Baton bloodline as a "check" against the King's power. She founded a lineage specifically designed to produce someone who could focus the Dreamer's power against the King when needed. Closing Analysis These three stanzas complete the cosmic chess game: The Shepherd/Haita provides the white light of protection The Darkness represents entropy and the void The Yellow King embodies corruption and ascension through hubris The Queen in Blue uses love and strategic patience to maintain balance The Dreamer/Hound acts as enforcer of the balance The poem suggests all five faces are aspects of Hastur, operating across different layers of reality simultaneously. Final Warning Remember Dr. Bathory's forward: read this material once if you must, but protective rituals are recommended. Rhombus himself became infected and had to journey to Carcosa seeking answers. As always, stay skeptical, stay safe, and remember - some knowledge comes with a price. [End theme: discordant strings fading into static] Episode Notes: This material is from the Emerson Portfolio, translated by Dr. Persephone Bathory Multiple scholars report temporal anomalies with this text Carbon dating results are contradictory and "supernatural" For mental health resources, please see our website

The shepherd's quiet guardianship meets its first true resistance as the ancient dark stirs—and what creeps within it becomes the Unspeakable. The shift is gradual: things "crept into the Darkness / and became something Unspeakable," until the shepherd realizes the void is awake and fighting back. The Queen in Blue - Deployed The clash rips the spirit-realm's middle lands—especially the Dreamlands—into shreds; the shepherd's pain echoes across creation, but the Unspeakable suffers more. The Queen in Blue - Deployed It isn't a clean victory; rather, the shepherd barely prevents the Unspeakable from rousing the elder powers "when the stars were not right." The Queen in Blue - Deployed Then the Sign arrives, branding the world in three hues—Black (Unspeakable), White (Shepherd), Yellow (Carcosa)—stabilizing the realm even as it deepens its corruption. The Queen in Blue - Deployed The roar of whispers that once promised the Old Ones ebbs to a faint hiss; for a time, balance holds—but only as a war of attrition.

In this opening stanza, the story pulls us back to a primordial time—before the moon cast its shadow, before Carcosa, even before humanity's discovery of fire. We meet the figure who would become known as the First Shepherd, a good man who loved his sheep so deeply that their bond transcended the physical. Together they dreamed, and in those dreams, he stood guard. When nightmares threatened his flock, he discovered fire—not as a tool for cooking or hunting, but as a weapon of protection. Fire here is cast not as mankind's first technology, but as a spiritual gift: a beacon to guard innocence against the darkness. This act transforms him from a simple caretaker into a mythic figure. The stanza closes on a warning—fire protects, but fire also burns. Its power is double-edged, foreshadowing the ambivalence of every gift that comes from beyond

In this latest installment from the "5th Letter from Rhombus Ticks to E.P. Blingermeyer" series, detective Quiescence Prow — a rationalist legend who has debunked the paranormal for decades — stumbles into something he can't dismiss: real magic. It begins with a spitting cuckoo clock in a retro bowling alley, a snake-skinned man visible only in mirrors, and a masked woman under some unseen compulsion. Prow's methodical tests confirm the impossible. The "Quotidian Man" is a magical predator who uses a cursed mask to feed off his wife's despair, while keeping her powerless to prove his infidelity. Against his own rules, Prow intervenes — unmasking a victim and setting off a quiet war. Months later, he finds the ex-wife in ruin, offers her a strange form of rescue involving cash, occult cleansings, and patient listening, and helps her rebuild her life from the ground up. Along the way, coincidences begin stacking like fate itself is tipping the scales. The mask is sealed away deep underground. The Quotidian is framed just enough to keep him locked up. And Prow — still unwilling to call it magic — ensures no one else will ever suffer from it again. This is a noir-fantasy collision: part private-eye grit, part moral fable, part supernatural cold war. The case ends without glory, but with just enough justice to matter.

his isn't just a poem. This is the spine-crack heard across the dreamlands. In this episode of Queen to Rook Black, we go deep—deep—into the metaphysical engine room of the Queen in Bluemythos. Rhombus Ticks uncovers a poem so saturated with cosmic implication it rewrites the board: not just who's playing the game, but what pieces mean what. The Black Rook stands revealed—not as a mere chess metaphor, but a literal necromantic waystation at the edge of death, memory, and myth. A cyborg warden, Blackjack, serves as its keeper. But today, he's not in charge. Because today, She comes. The Queen in Blue arrives unannounced to rewrite the rules. And behind her? The Spirit of Humanity, skyscraper-tall, drenched in mourning, dragging a dirge of pipers to the gates of annihilation. She is ready to die. And she has good reason. But the Queen isn't ready to let her. What unfolds is no mere negotiation—it's a showdown of archetypes. Dignity and despair. Mercy and judgment. Dream and entropy. The Queen reveals her rank not through force, but through checkmate. A single word—wait—freezes doom itself in its tracks. In this episode, we bear witness to a metaphysical intervention: the literal salvation of humanity's soul by a being whose only weapon is benevolence wrapped in unbearable truth. We explore the hidden laws of the dead, the forbidden contracts of the archetypal, and the strategic brilliance of the Queen's play. This isn't horror. It's prophecy. And the game's not over.

In this pulse-pounding solo episode, Rhombus Ticks cracks open a sealed folio containing what appears to be a redacted police report crossed with a metaphysical vigilante tale. What follows is the story of Manfred, a techno-vigilante from another dimension stranded in noir-era Los Angeles, navigating Nazi infiltration, occult conspiracies, and something far, far worse. Manfred uses ultratech gear and brutal efficiency to infiltrate a fascist ritual taking place inside the Hugh-Gryss building—a twisted octagonal temple adorned with cicada symbology and ritual sex magic. As he attempts to liberate prisoners trapped in blood-draining silk columns, he confronts an otherworldly horror: a musclebound, worm-haired creature summoned via obscene pageantry. What begins as a stealth operation spirals into cosmic panic as Manfred realizes that he may be outgunned not just technologically—but spiritually. Meanwhile, Ticks frames the whole tale as a disturbing anachronism: a case file sealed by a federal judge in 1943, commented on by the CIA and FBI for decades, and apparently "found" decades before it could have happened. Is this folio a prophecy? A confession? A metaphor? Or a glimpse into a war fought between timelines?

In this haunting and intoxicating episode of The Queen in Blue, Rhombus Ticks unearths a hidden chapter of American myth: the fate of famed writer Ambrose Bierce, whose mysterious disappearance becomes the gateway to cosmic horror. When a dogged investigator named Janice tracks Bierce's trail to a dusty Laredo bar, she's drawn into a surreal and increasingly terrifying narrative involving a lost journal, a mysterious stranger in white, and a story that reads her more than she reads it. What begins as a missing persons case spirals into a Lovecraftian descent through memory, identity, and madness—where the King in Yellow wears no mask, and the Queen in Blue offers ambiguous salvation. Told in a blend of noir dialogue, occult commentary, and psychically destabilizing prose, The Lost Story takes listeners through the last days of Bierce's life—or rather, the many lives that fractured from that single point in the desert. The deeper Janice reads, the less certain reality becomes. ⚠️ Warning: This episode contains metatextual horror, memetic content, and themes of psychological disintegration. Listener discretion is strongly advised. "You know that this couldn't possibly be real... but you keep reading anyway."

Rather than some flowery prose, I basically lay out the case about why freaking out about the insideous och constitution is nuts, and how Article V isnt as important for creating a new constituion as you think it is.  The US Consitution was illegal per the Articles of Confederation and the Articles of Confederation were not mentioned anywhere in the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration of Independence was illegal per British law.  Just because the constitution says something DOESNT MEAN WE CANT MAKE ANOTHER.

In this deliriously mythic second entry, Rhombus Ticks delivers another letter to his elusive patron EP Blingermeyer — this time uncovering a poem so anachronistic it might just make the Smithsonian implode. Found on American-lined paper carbon-dated over a thousand years old, the poem by Emmit Other, Le Manse Du Baton, tells of a forgotten noble line tied to Carcosa, erased from history, and bound to both the Queen in Blue and cosmic forces stranger still. Rhombus wrestles with the implications of seeing himself referenced in a poem older than recorded time, while the Baton family's sordid, seductive, and sorcerous history spills across continents and centuries. From royal courts to extradimensional slaughters, the Baton legacy is revealed to be one of whispered pacts, interdimensional espionage, enchanted collars, and a very, very bad table. This episode peels back another layer of the Folio — and with it, another veil of reality. Expect secret societies, impossible genealogies, weaponized seduction, and one very awkward family reunion in Nice. 🌀 Caution: listening may enhance your awareness of your own bloodline's occult obligations. Do not operate heavy machinery while remembering Carcosa.