Water Flowing Underground
"After everything, it's still you." (Undertale, Genocide Run) "It was you, wasn't it?" The humanoid ant queen had stared Fran down severely from her earthen throne. "You killed the ants, didn't you?" The queen had brandished a bloodied ant skull in...
The Tortoise and the Hare
Rakim felt a cold bead of sweat dripping down his back. "Feel your 'sins crawling down your back,' buddy?" The bat looked up at her, mouth agape. "Huh?" The hare winked at him. "Relax, I'm just kidding around. Good luck, man!" she chirped. ...
Second Nature
"Oh, they came up with something new in prosthetics just last year, it turns out," his dragon head turned to the bat as they gamed, back to sitting side by side in his apartment facing his screen, just as they'd been before. "Oh, what?" he tilted his...
Flame War
Despite his best efforts, Rakim's fears around his Irshad's ongoing holy war against the flames continued to grow. "Do... Do you think you're going to be a firefighter for the rest of your life, mother?" Her countenance darkened a bit at this. "I know...
Idle Hands
Rakim had sort of told himself ahead of time that his date probably wasn't going to work out to guard against disappointment. He discovered that he didn't fully have a plan for if his date actually did work out, that he wasn't sure if he was even...
Sand in the Gears
It wasn't easy to meet people. First you wanted someone who'd get past all the things that most people couldn't get past about you. That was already a big one, especially for someone like Rakim. Then you needed someone who'd be willing and able to...
Concerning Flight
Like the other teenagers at his high school, Rakim took an interest in video games. While the lower middle class meant his range of access could be somewhat limited, it became something he'd spent spare money on as soon as he had it, at least, for a...
Bat Outta Hell
Rakim and his mother moved to the West when he was but a child. He only remembered bits and pieces from those days, the way one tends to half-remember things from early childhood, before one is even of age for kindergarten. Buildings, landscapes,...
Spaced Out
When Fran had been a kid, she'd often stare out the window aimlessly while her mom would drive. "Come in, Huston." Every new building and landscape would become a new playground in which to let her mind wander. "Houston, we lost you." She probably...
Spare Parts
"Waste not, want not." [FLICK!] "[-'told me to be careful so the people who take the recycling out of the bags don't cut their hands on them,' the actress on the talk show had said, 'and it just hit me right then - how many of us even think of the...
Set In Stone
* * * * * * "What does she do, exactly?" Fran's best friend's story had been about a serial killer. "She never even touches them," the jackal's best friend had started. "She just talks to them. She learns everything about their lives, their...
Autopilot
'If work is so good for you, why don't the rich do more of it?' "Who said that?" "Some famous wolf writer I think," Fran's best friend had replied. "The same one who wrote AWOO." "I think that's AROO in fact," the jackal's roommate had chimed...