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 […]
Category Archives: Text
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 […]
23
Feb
collateral damage
by sen no akumu (先の悪夢) “Good morning, Captain.” Carefully placing the cup of steaming hot chocolate beside his Captain’s sleepy form spread on the large desk, long limbs splayed out in every direction over it and nearly knocking the cup over, Fabian clears his throat and takes a respectful step back. “I’ve got your morning […]
23
Feb
Working from Home
by Domashita Romero (地下ロメロ) “Yeah. Yeah absolutely. No, haha, nothing really. Oh, same, same.” Benny kept up the conversational white noise that was necessary at the beginning of a video call, answering questions about how his weekend went while his screen filled up with more squares. He’d go on mute as soon as they were […]
29
Dec
Shades of Purple
by Togi Kayako (土宜草子) Golden evening light gave the quiet streets of Oakside a magical glow and damn near blinded Addie as she hunted desperately for a legible building number. She wasn’t even sure she was even on the right street yet. Even getting to Oakside had been a pain, with a missed exit sending […]
