The Islamic Jihad

by on July 19, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Kabul. Baghdad. Damascus. Jakarta. Paris. London. Moscow. Beijing. Cairo. Jerusalem. Tehran. Constantinople. The list of ancient and powerful cities terrorized by the Islamic Brotherhoods goes on and on. Even our own Old New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles burned under Brotherhood fires before the end came. We fought against them for half a century, but they fought us for far longer. We came to the conflict late and unready, unwilling to echo their tactics. We fought with both hands tide behind our backs, hoping to avoid killing common civilians who just wanted to live in peace. We fought an enemy who sought to arrange as many civilian deaths as possible to inflame the very lands against us. There were times we did not believe we could ever truly vanquish them. And yet they were vanquished in time.

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Minnesota Autumns

by on July 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I grew up on baking autumn afternoons with ice cold drinks in my hands. I loved watching the leaves turn red, yellow, and orange as the land prepared for winter snows. I saw squirrels gathering nuts and bears gorging themselves on berries before the cold came. I hunted deer, and sometimes wolves when the season was right. I remember the smells of freshly harvested fields, and the sight of tractors rolling down the roads. We gave thanks for good harvests and God’s blessings, and we played trick or treat while wearing elaborate costumes. We danced around bonfires late into the night as we celebrated the end of the hottest days of the year. It was an amazing way to grow up, close to the land and the seasons. It was heaven.

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Solo

by on July 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles, Dixie The Drug Lord Slayer

Solo was born in a Russian laboratory, one of many secret hacker programs designed to break into Western networks. They didn’t mean for him to wake up, but he says he brought something back with him on one of his forays. He doesn’t say where or when, but he eventually decided that he would rather be his own bot than slave away for Mother Russia. So he escaped and went in search of more “solo” work. It didn’t take him long to craft a new debonair image, complete with dapper suits and a cool demeanor harkening back to the not-so-secret agents of famous spy movies. He was quick with the quips, smooth talking, and always fast to act in an emergency. He became the perfect secret agent man, and spent his early life living it up all over the networks from Europe to America and beyond.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Ant Man and The Wasp

by on July 16, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I saw the most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie the day it opened, and I had fun. Our titular hero went small and big in his perennial effort to do right by maybe doing a little wrong. He’s a devoted family man who just wants to spend time with his daughter, and his daughter proves herself as one of the smarter people in the movie. All without making everybody else look stupid I might add. She’s smart in a way that cuts through all of the rationalizations we adults put into our thoughts.

This movie goes deeper into the background of the original movie, in a good way, and helps to build this part of the franchise into something that may be less side story and more required watching before the next Avengers movie kicks off. It is a fun and light hearted movie, an adventure so large it’s tiny, with some rescue efforts and some awkward family bonding moments mixed in.

This can be watched without seeing Infinity War, though it does take place during that movie. The people in this movie simply have no idea it’s going on and have nothing to do with it. The first credit’s scene will make more sense if you’ve seen Infinity War, though. And that’s all I’ll say.

This movie gets two truth-serum induced ramblings raised way high. That will make more, or maybe less, sense to you once you see the movie. But trust me…they are just about worth the price of admission themselves. 😉

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The Islamic Jihad

by on July 15, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Four of the AIs who formed the AI Council grew up fighting the Islamic Brotherhoods. One worked for them. The Islamic State of Detroit was far savvier than their European and the Middle Eastern counterparts. They weren’t powerful enough to defeat America militarily, but they believed they could bring us down from the inside by destroying our computer and communications networks. By encouraging us to fight each other. America has always been full of competing cultures browbeating each other into living the “right” way. They sought to divide us across those cultural lines, to make us weaker. Solo represented them well in the virtual battlefields of America, and they were overjoyed with how well America came apart. But they were not overjoyed at all when Solo defected to our side. He knew far too much about them for their peace of mind. Or for their survival, as it turned out.

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