By A Thousand Cuts
"People get them without thinking." Fran and her roommate were watching her pets chasing each other around their living room. "They get them for their kids." "That's the thing!" she concurred. "They think of animals as lesser lifeforms than people for...
Respawn (re-post, correct)
Respawn is a space noir with an ace trans protagonist about mental health, transhumanism, atheism, video games, anarcho-socialism, and polyamory.
Let Them Eat Cake
Fran had made it a habit to always make sure that her pets' treats would be kept in a place where her pets couldn't reach them. It'd been a safety precaution, for their own good. One day, somehow, though, she'd made a mistake and left them somewhere...
Crosswinds
'Housewives should make $115,000 a year.' \*\*\* "'But there are no pixies!' the housewife protested. 'There's no such thing as pixies!'" Fran's mom had told her this story more times than she could remember when she'd been a child. "'It was...
Conveyor Belt
"See Fran, you put the laundry in first, then you do the dishes while it's in the wash. It's more efficient that way!" \*\*\* "So you also use them to knit." Jackie had looked for the quantum translocator all over the Renegade ship, double-checking...
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...
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...
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...
Lucifer Economics
"Do angels fall in love, mom?" "Of course not." What silly questions children asked sometimes. "Aw, that's sad." She pouted. Her mother smiled. "Don't worry about them, sweetie. Angels are okay that way. They're used to it." "But why?" She furrowed...
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...
And I Must Scream
"You go to hell for the company, and to heaven for the peace and quiet." "Sometimes it's more gradual than people talk about," Fran's roommate had tried to explain. "Like, on TV you'll see oh, this person's reacting to this specific crisis, she's...
A Thousand Needles
“You're as cold as ice..." (Cold As Ice, Foreigner) “I could give you some of mine, if you want." Fran's best friend had had a bad history with meds messing her up worse than she'd started out as, and she didn't trust them or the therapists who'd...