Tossing Grenades At Windmills

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 f

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 n

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, com

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 on

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

"Tossing Grenades at Windmills" - Episode 47: "The Emerson Portfolio" First Episode in Two Years After a mysterious two-year hiatus, Rhombus Ticks returns with his most dangerous episode yet. What started as genealogical research in his late grandfather's Louisiana estate has uncovered something that defies explanation - a century-old folio containing documents that shouldn't exist. In this extended episode, Rhombus shares the complete "Emerson Portfolio" - a collection of interconnected stories, poems, and accounts that chronicle encounters with the enigmatic Queen in Blue and her relationship to the infamous King in Yellow. From Ambrose Bierce's final journal entries in the Mexican desert to a WWII-era vigilante's encounter with cosmic horror, from ancient poetry carved in impossible languages to modern detective work in a world where magic bleeds through the cracks of reality. Content Warning: This episode contains complex narrative elements involving shifting perspectives, reality distortion, and themes t

The Kids Online Safety Act is a Bipartisan Bill meant to "Protect the Children" "For the Children" and to stick it to "Big Tech" (which I made a series about called The Sins of Silicon Valley) but this wont protect kids and will help nazis hurt LGBT kids and help nazis track teens seeking abortion.  Drunk Senator Warren and Drunk Senator Markey and 18 of their 'liberal' and 'progressive' collegues in the Senate don't care.  They must be primaries.

Preamble of a New Constitution; what a Preamble is and why we need one

We are at war.   What do we do after it?

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.

Mr Right and Mr Kind speak to the Librarian.

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.

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.

Mr. Right the mouse meets his brother Mr. Kind the other mouse to tell him something is wrong.  They get on two talking birds and fly away to find out more.

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.

Chapter 1 of the book in which a young Timmy learns that his name isn't Timmy; that he has strange latent abilities he can't use and doesnt understand and thanks to a disgusting and tramautic experience of his own deserved making due to naivity makes a friend and builds plenty of charachter.  LOTS of character.