Counterparts
The way some of us are built just begs society to beat up on us--or at least, makes us feel like it could happen. If you've ever had to do any public speaking, you might have an idea what I mean: it's hard to be so visible without fear. Now. Imagine...
The Newbie's Perspective
I looked over my character sheet, feeling a little lost. Andrew had invited me to join a tabletop campaign he was starting. The big husky was so excited about showing off his new homebrew game, he'd insisted I come, even though I had no experience....
In View of Town
Every day I ride the bus home from work and think what a lucky tiger I am. It's not that I have the best of jobs or the fullest bank account or anything like that--my luck is squarely in the field of love. I mean, I know it wasn't _really_ luck....
Wallflowers
Pounding beats made the dark room tremble, and as usual Hop was standing against the walls, watching the party from the edges. The tiger was...a little odd, I thought, but not a bad guy. He'd taken to wearing a couple of buttons on his jacket: one...
What an Elephant Forgot
The worst kind of days are snowy days where you don't get to stay home jerking off. Today was one of those days. The class was Probability and Decision Making, and the odds were against cancelling the class being worth doing so. My students have a...
Another Brother
"It's not sneaking you in! It's like, I dunno, carrying a genie in a lamp. You can take stuff in without having to disclose everything!" A trip to the movies was usually like a huge day of indulgence for the three of us, me and my brother and my...
Working for the New King
I work in the new castle that they've been building on the edge of town. I'd thought, when I saw the posting, that it might be some cool sort of Ye Olde Renaissance Faire or something. But when I showed up to see what it was all about, it turned out it...
An End of Feeding
It was a regular disappointment to see, every morning, the scale that only read 700 pounds. I used to be a lot bigger--filling a bed with over half a ton of immobile ferret flab--till I started dying regularly and the doctor said I needed to ease up...
The Monster in the Maze
They'd started saying the corn maze was haunted. That was ridiculous, of course--not least because demons were _way_ more likely than ghosts, especially around Hallowe'en, and nobody was reporting the maze to be _possessed._ But there was _something_...
The Tanuki Who Helps
Not a lot of people will tell you they love their job and mean it. They may _like_ their job, sure, especially comparing it to rough times in the past. And the boss may be nice, the clientele 99% decent, and the hours okay, but it's still _work_ and...
Laying Pipe
Sometimes when you've been at a job for a long time, you feel you've pretty much seen every crazy situation it can throw at you. In my case, that meant every manner of perverse piping job and every imaginable clog thereof. And yet when I was contacted...
Skunktemberfest
The bus was not the fastest way to go downtown, but I wasn't hurried enough to shell out extra for a cab. While the seats were a little cramped for someone like me who's both taller and rounder than most people I encounter on a daily basis, _most_...