27
Apr

Shousetsu Bang*Bang Issue no. 114 Cover

by serenity_winner   Love4

27
Apr

All Roads Lead to Rome

by Iron Eater and shukyou (主教) Joseph checked his map against his compass and scowled. The Ambiguity Zone—wherever it showed up, but especially here, when it was least convenient for him, personally—always fucked with more precise instruments, which meant looking at magnets and paper like a caveman, and the absence of so much as a […]

27
Apr

Hosing down the (other) public fuckhole at the mall

by Fil-in-the-blank Quantum Entanglement Inspiration: Hosing down the public fuckhole at the mall (issue no. 92 “cats and dogs”, 2021) Ziran wrinkles his nose behind his face mask, rubber-gloved fingers catching against each other as he pulls a few pieces of HoloHype™ DynaPop™ popcorn out of the fuckhole and drops them into his waste bucket […]

27
Apr

The Night Terrors and the Birthday Surprise

by Devin Ambrosia illustrated by melanofly and Lindsay Lion Lord At exactly 111 years old, Amani felt more in touch than ever with her twenty-something self. It could be dementia, but she felt lucid. The sharp executive function hadn’t come back (wouldn’t that be something?) but she could remember what it was like in small […]

27
Apr

Good World

by Domashita Romero (地下ロメロ) “Seriously?” is all I could say when I saw the notification on my phone. Four months. Four months of radio silence, and then he hits me with a ‘hey’ text? I put my phone down with disgust, and lasted about twenty seconds before picking it up again.  The last messages in […]

27
Apr

Biddable

by Greta Jia-Kang Cabrel While this is a standalone story, it includes or alludes to characters from “To Hone High and Low” [Issue 104] (Robin) and “Accidentals” [Issue 108] (Sheila, Dr. Bonnemann), as well as a certain vaseful of recorders. Lucienne hadn’t planned to attend the fundraising auction for the early music festival. She didn’t […]

27
Apr

Scenario ATU-480 [F173.1, K1363]

by Togi Kayako (土宜草子) Before each job, I sleep. δ-Caeli handles shaping the space to suit whatever scenario it’s concocted with θ-Leonis. I’m terrible at designing a space when it needs to stay locked to only three dimensions, and humans are rarely comfortable when there are more. Thankfully, once I’m in an appropriate form, navigating […]

24
Feb

The Day After the 655th Time Through the Time Loop

by shukyou (主教) illustrated by 2013 Manny woke and something was different. For the first time in a painfully long time, something was different. It was Tuesday. He knew this because it said so on the clock beside the bed, and also it wasn’t his clock. His clock had bright red numbers and no date. […]

23
Feb

A gloved hand against his heart

by Shrimp King “Harder, harder!” Pav panted, feeling his knees press into the soft mattress beneath him. He felt the quick slap of leather against the right side of his ass and hissed with delight. Moments later, the left side of his ass stung with pain instead, and before he knew it, he was melting […]

23
Feb

Wonder Women in Schenectady

by Greta Jia-Kang Cabrel Miao-Fei loved skin, and Eva was showing plenty of it at the Halloween party where they first met. Miao-Fei hadn’t packed a costume – she had come to town as an instructor and artist for a three-day percussion clinic – but a friendly local band director had invited her to the […]

23
Feb

Keep On

written and illustrated by Iron Eater Any city of sufficient size was going to have its share of industry bars, and for working stiffs like Rosie who drove box trucks all day, their industry bar was Izzy’s. Rosie was too young to have known it at the height of its shittiness, back when more of […]

23
Feb

The Aftermath of Overtime

by JJ A familiar band being gently wrapped around his neck from behind made Leo freeze. He hadn’t even heard the door open, though now he actually wasn’t sure if he’d shut it. Was this going to be part of some kind of punishment or reward? He couldn’t remember doing anything recently that’d have earned […]

23
Feb

The Mill Girls Case

by Scops “We can’t start the strike until we get our things back,” the girl says. Chandra refuses to think of her as a woman – since hitting thirty, everyone under the age of twenty-five looks like a child. Jasmine is almost literally a girl, in spite of her insistence that she’s of legal age. […]

23
Feb

Pyretic Victory

by Togi Kayako (土宜草子) Working for what the locals usually called a “supervillain” wasn’t a bad gig, mostly. As long as the boss stuck more to theft and property damage than out-and-out murder, Frank figured it was only slightly more dangerous than your average retail job. Job security was good. The boss always needed extra […]