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queex.bsky.social
Ben Wright - Queex
@queex.bsky.social
210 followers 240 following 2.8K posts
I write stuff. Day job is statistical genetics. He/him or they/them. https://patreon.com/Queex
https://queex.bandcamp.com
Avatar & banner: @felflowne
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queex.bsky.social
Scene from Bubba Ho-Tep. A decrepit mummy stands on a lawn at night. Hieroglyphs float in their in front of him, and a subtitles give the translation: "Eat the dog dick of Anubis you ass wipe!"
November 11, 2025 at 12:16 AM
queex.bsky.social
It's #BookQW and it's time for a burst of "colour". Shopping in a multiverse can be a more complicated proposition than you might think.

#BookQuoteWednesday
“Are these the largest calibre munitions you stock? I’m looking for―” Garnas rustled as he looked through his boarding papers “―fifteen-sixteenths bore shells suitable for use with compressed air propellant.” The shopkeeper came out from behind the counter. The plainness of his apron belied the colours of his feathers, although they looked to be just as sparse on his body as they were on his head. He was colourful by birth but beige by trade and choice. His pot belly made a bulge in the dark leather apron that resembled cannon shot. “An exotic size, sure enough. Archaic, even.” He scratched his neck. “It sounds like you might be sporting a museum piece. Are you sure you want to fire it at all?”
November 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM
queex.bsky.social
I have found a weapon you can deploy against the fiendish Maru.
Goth woman Garfield sadly eating a forkful of lasagne while saying "Olive Garden is so good... I wish Italy was real..."
November 5, 2025 at 12:49 AM
queex.bsky.social
Found your mum's buttplug.
A handsome specimen electricae plumae magentum from Elite Dangerous. A sort of purple vertical balloon whisk looking lifeform with cilia running along the tines. It stands approximately 13 metres tall.
November 5, 2025 at 12:23 AM
queex.bsky.social
Who'd like to read about a magical weapon for #BookQW? The word is 'miss'.

#BookQuoteWednesday
Shirin ran the whetstone along the edge of her axe. The scrape was so familiar she barely heard it. The sailors had given her some good-natured ribbing about it—“If you keep sharpening it there’ll be no blade left!”—until she’d told them it was a ritual. The rough men and women of the sea might have limited respect for non-sailors, but ritual was central to a lot of what they did. Seas were capricious. No-one wanted to tempt fate. In a way, it was a ritual, albeit one with a purpose. The axe was special, although nobody on the ship but her knew how special. It was hungry for metal. When it struck armour, it bit far deeper than its edge and weight alone could manage. The axe’s hunger was unceasing, drinking in motes of iron from any object around it. If it was kept in a metal crate, then after a month there would be precious little of the crate left, and the axe head would be a misshapen mass too heavy to wield. So Shirin attended to it three times a day: first the rasp, then the whetstone. Morning, noon, and evening. A ritual, indeed.
October 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM
queex.bsky.social
irresponsibly posting my location on social media
Map of a village that rejoices in the name 'Marsh Gibbon'.
October 28, 2025 at 2:24 PM
queex.bsky.social
Nearly forgot it was #BookQW! Find out here a little of what travelling through the interstice is like.
The mist caressed Garnas’s face like a lover. Gone were the days of wretched illness and self-pity. He stared out over the interstice with what he believed was the gaze of an old salt. Somewhere below, the ship’s great brass gyroscope hummed on its axle. Captain Valexia called down a speaking tube and answering shouts confirmed that cranks were being turned the requested number of revolutions. The pinprick sky shifted slowly above them as the Shaved Link adjusted its roll. The lights in the sky were fainter now. Were there fewer than there had been a minute ago? Garnas couldn’t tell. He turned and looked ahead, to where a vast marble showed him a fish-eye vision of their destination.
October 22, 2025 at 10:10 PM
queex.bsky.social
Components from the board game City of the Six Moons
October 14, 2025 at 10:27 AM
queex.bsky.social
It's anarchy in Portland. I hear antifa are sending in ultimate terrorists. Neighbourhoods terrorised by human monsters. Sad.
A man in a felt frog costume walks slowly towards the camera from the middle distance, shot from a low angle like a western.
October 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
queex.bsky.social
The word for this week's #BookQW is STRONG. Eilert is not enjoying his time back "home".
Fulmorn, Maestro Bass, pretended not to notice me as I entered. He had three of his students with him, favoured not for their aptitude with their voice but for their eagerness to share his bed. I did my best to keep my distaste hidden. Katka, Maestra Soprano, with the face of an angel. It belied her proclivities behind closed doors. She took a special interest in her most talented students, and when they became full cantors they were, without exception, brilliant, disciplined and irreparably broken. Dieuwke nodded at me. Before she had started drinking in earnest her unusually deep voice had been the most powerful the Cathedral had seen in generations. She had never quite returned to her full strength even after getting her consumption under control. Athol, Maestro Alto. His thin, expressionless face said that if he had any vices, they were so rarefied as to be almost unrecognisable as such. He had propelled himself into becoming the undisputed first among equals in his twentieth year, and was still going strong a century later. I knew to fear him above all else.
October 8, 2025 at 8:05 PM
queex.bsky.social
For #BookQuoteWednesday, Garnas gets a different kind of drop on someone.

#BQWednesday
The streets in this part of Grand Billon were quiet in the evening. Starpenny Line had planted its headquarters well away from the cafés and inns that kept their doors open throughout the night. There was only one man hurrying past, and there could be no mistaking his clothes. It was only a one-storey drop, but Garnas landed hard enough to splay the man on the cobbles like a bearskin. His swearing swiftly turned into tight groans as a cracked rib shifted. “I do not have time for nonsense,” Garnas whispered in his ear. “You will tell me where she is being held, by whom, how many of them there are, and how they are armed.”
October 1, 2025 at 10:58 AM
queex.bsky.social
It's #BookQW and the word is LAST. Let's talk about scenery!

#BookQuoteWednesday
The view from the top was amazing. The fat, brown snake of the river stood out against the rolling layers of green that ran all the way to the horizon. Garnas counted the other factories as they followed the river’s path further inland. Factory Two, Factory Three. Factory Four had collapsed entirely. The rain made it hard to make out, but the distant shadow that looked like a hill was actually Factory Seven, the largest one found, easily ten times the size of Factory One. Somewhere upriver there must be the last factory, Garnas thought, far further than anyone had dared to venture, and upstream of there it could only be assumed the water ran clear and pure.
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
queex.bsky.social
Looks like an interesting tool. I've been messing around with MagicaVoxel, and been able to make stuff like this after a little practice. I'm sure you could make a cool avatar fairly quickly. Low detail seems to be quite freeing.
Coarse voxel render of a ballroom, with marble pillars. a tiled dance floor reflecting a chandelier and fancy chairs around low tables. In the background a row of tables holds a buffet, and there's a dais for musicians.
September 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
queex.bsky.social
Photo of a beleaguered-looking RFK Jr., edited to have a speech bubble connecting to the quoted tweet.
September 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM
queex.bsky.social
Fitting that on this #BookQW, where weather is mentioned, it chucked it down most of the day.

#BQW
Seagulls bickered on the side of the cliff above him. If they had given up fishing for the day it was wise to follow their example. Time to head home. If there was a storm, better to avoid it. The packed earth path was known to turn to mud in the rain, and it ran steeply up onto the headland to the south. Treacherous in the extreme in wet conditions but taxing exercise in any weather. Garnas was the only one who used it these days. He’d hammered metal spikes into the ground alongside it, something to hold on to if he ever got caught in a downpour. He always came here alone, and was acutely aware of the danger should he become injured. This was a land that devoured the careless.
September 10, 2025 at 7:32 PM
queex.bsky.social
I want a Lego X bomber with a Dai X that combines and the articulated neck for the lasers.
X Bomber, from Star Fleet. The apogee of cool spaceship design. Accept no substitutes.
September 9, 2025 at 9:33 PM
queex.bsky.social
The doctors:
Dr Zoidberg Dr. Nick Dr. Eggman Dr. Krieger
September 9, 2025 at 6:44 PM
queex.bsky.social
Dai X. A red, giant combining robot with a prominent X motif across its head and glowing yellow eyes.
September 8, 2025 at 11:23 PM
queex.bsky.social
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement at 2?
A vintage print ad of unknown provenance, featuring someone dressed at the classic Uncle Sam character with an earnest expression and a single finger raised as if making an important point. Caption: Uncle Sam Demands Leather.
September 2, 2025 at 8:36 AM
queex.bsky.social
w/o downloading anything new, where are you mentally?
Simpsons screencap: a garbage truck has just used it's claw to pick up the Flanders' mailbox. At his window in his pyjamas, Ned Flanders remarks: "Son of a diddly!"
August 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
queex.bsky.social
Also, consider mice like this that are unusable left-handed.
A "gamer" mouse where all the extra buttons are down the left hand side.
August 23, 2025 at 10:52 AM
queex.bsky.social
It's #BookQuoteWednesday and the word is 'turn'. Garnas has not found his sea legs.

#BookQW #BQW
Garnas looked up when Shirin approached. He was as pale as ever. He hadn’t been able to keep a single morsel of food down and the bags under his eyes suggested he was just as deprived of sleep. He looked in a worse way than Eilert. “I think I’m managing somewhat better,” he declared, in defiance of the evidence of her eyes. “Maybe the sailors have something to help?” she asked. He shook his head. “They said not. Apparently I just need to acclimatise?” He tried to sound confident, but it came across as more of a question. She put a pitying hand on his shoulder, then pulled it back when he turned back to the sea and retched again.
August 20, 2025 at 11:41 AM
queex.bsky.social
Am I doing it right?
Same picture, but inexpertly photoshopped to make it look like one of those Japanese funeral picture from film and TV, with the black sashes on the picture and a couple of incense sticks burning.
August 19, 2025 at 11:09 AM
queex.bsky.social
A mountain that is meant to look like a skull but actually looks more like a fishman. Titled with "Mountains of Ket; 48k Spectrum adventure from incentive software Ltd."
August 16, 2025 at 11:37 PM
queex.bsky.social
Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth.
August 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM