Prophecies
## Slow Hours — 2401 To step into The Bean Cycle was to be immediately assailed by sound. There was, as to be expected, the clink of glasses and muted howl of steam wands bringing milk up to temperature, but mixed in was the clatter and clicking...
Shared Moment
## Ioan Balan — 2326 There comes a point in every relationship, Ioan supposed, when the thing stops feeling new and starts feeling like routine. Ey even looked it up one point, shortly after ey and May Then My Name Die With Me and gone on a brief dive...
Reading
All readings are the same. They all begin the same way, with stepping off to some sim, known or unknown, where she would arrive a good hour early. There, she would wait or walk or drink her coffee or tea. Would it be a bookshop this time? Would it be a...
Motes Played — Chapter 1
She died at play, Gamboled away Her lease of spotted hours, Then sank as gaily as a Turk Upon a Couch of flowers. Her ghost strolled softly o'er the hill Yesterday, and Today, Her vestments as the silver...
Motes Played — Chapter 5
Motes stopped playing. She stopped playing because, some weeks later, she was out with some friends, some of the others who had decided to give up on grown-up life now that they were here, now that they were decades old or centuries, now that they...
Motes Played — Chapter 4
Motes played. She played on precipices. She played along the knife's edge. She played at the point of a sword, at the barrel of a gun. She played with death. She– No. Motes was played _with._ She was toyed with. She was dangled by the...
Motes Played — Chapter 3
Motes played. Today, she played prey. Today, she was a mouse to some fox, some owl, some cunning predator. She crept and crawled at first, prowling through the brush and between the trunks of trees. She stuck to where the pine needles made a thick...
Motes Played — Chapter 2
# Motes — 2362 Motes played. Tonight, she played hard. It was a Big Motes night. It was a human night. It was a grown up night. It was a night for hovering somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. It was a night for standing as tall as Beholden,...
Opportunity paralysis
## Rena Hatch — 2368 I thought it would be different. I thought it would be cleaner, maybe. Cleaner, or far more grimy, all exposed pipes and puddles of unexplained liquids pooling in dark corners while the brittle lighting of shitty fluorescents...
Forest of Ghosts
"You go first." Motes stared at Warmth In Fire with a wary look on her face. Too many dares start out this way, too many ill-fated adventures. Warmth grinned brightly. "You know, when you show that many teeth, you are not helping your...
Limerent Object (part 36-40)
# 36 Over the last few days, I have been sending Kay a few emails. I am ashamed to admit that this is an intentional aspect of some grander plan. One could say that it is to get her re-accustomed to getting emails from me, though this is a somewhat...
Limerent Object (parts 31-35)
# 31 All these little memories, all of them are coming back to me, and I'm not sure why. Nothing about this visit in particular ought to dredge them up, right? I mean, Kay and I have only talked passingly about faith, and sure, I didn't attend mass...