The Closest Encounter
Julie was on the verge of having an interesting evening, she just knew it. The evening had started in an average enough way, going clubbing with some of her gal pals, but after an hour or so, Alise started feeling ill (something about some...
Better Expansion Through Science
One took what work one could find in this job market. It didn't need to be glamorous as long as it insured that one need not subsist on instant ramen. And so Lucien was currently extremely satisfied with his current job, which was... janitor for...
Nitemare Bathhouse: Juli
Airi had remembered thinking the previous morning that she was finally starting to get used to the bathhouse and its unusual residents. She thought she was falling into a routine, of sorts. She thought that she was on top of any challenges that were...
Nitemare Bathhouse: Yuki
Airi woke up in an unfamiliar bed. It took her a moment to remember that this bed was in her new apartment, one of the staff dormotories at the Nitemare Bathhouse. She pulled the blanket down enough to uncover her eyes and sized the room up. It...
Nitemare Bathhouse: Natsuki
If you think your world is the only world, you're wrong. There's as many worlds in reality as there are grains of sand on a beach. Some are remarkably similar to one another. There could be one just like ours, except that there's no shrimp. While...
Faerie Flight
It was late, and I was annoyed. Mostly, I was annoyed that I had nothing better to do on a Friday night than an essay, but so it goes. Nothing for it but to plow through it. With that in mind, I took a sip of the large coffee I had made for myself and...
Thrill of the Hunt
They had told her not to go out hunting, not in her current state. Shana laughed at then. They told her it could be any day now. She told them, was she not the best hunter in the village? And besides, she was bored. And in the end, that was that. And...
Deliver Me From Evil
From the outside, everything seemed normal. It was an apartment like any of the others in the low-rent building. On the inside, however, things were different. A lot of the furniture was pushed over to the walls, allowing for a wide, clear space...
Heavy Heavy Hippo
If there was one thought that kept Henry Kamau going in life, it was this: family above all else. It got him through a lot of tough times. It had gotten him, his mother, and his sister through their father's abrupt departure from their lives, and...
If I'd Known I'd Be Reborn As The Hero Of This Game, I Wouldn't Have Sunk 200 Hours Into Getting Every Girl Pregnant!!
People use the phrase "retreating into a fantasy world" like it's a bad thing. But let us consider the real actual non-fantasy world for a moment, shall we? When your super serious non fantasy life consisted of barely surviving high school, barely...
Bee Yourself
Waystation X7-352-Gacrux was not special. It was interchangeable with any number of other galactic waystations. It being an X7 waystation meant that it was the largest type of waystation, containing not just the usual assortment of refueling depots,...