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#PennedPossibilities 648 — MC POV: Tell us about your home.

[Streak:] I live in an apartment building near the edge of the better part of town. It's remarkable for being in a neighborhood populated by day angels because it's not a village tree nor built into a hill, but a conventional building. I live there with my sisters and my mother, and I'm the middle child. My room is little better than a small pantry or a large closet, but I'm happy for it. My sisters hate me because I had to raise them and set rules (long story), so I'm thankful for a window I can fly in and out of, a black lacquer floor desk, where I keep my books, and a place to unroll a sleeping mat. Baskets and hampers hold my things. You would call the place a boarding house where you live. The apartment is only three bed rooms and a kitchen. The rain room (showers) are on the shared entry floor at the end of the hall, opposite the entry with the post boxes, next to the squats. Both utility rooms are unisex, so you'd better knock before entering.

[Thorn:] I'm a daemon, but live in what many consider a bad neighborhood populated by day angels. It's a village tree house my mother bought because she feels safer there than amongst people who look like us but refuse to accept us as their equals. Our entire nest is called an aerie, and it once belonged to a famous day angel who rebelled against the government a century and a half ago. It requires us to climb ladders to enter it and to levitate provisions to stock it.

My room is a chamber grown from a flattened lateral branch, in a crotch between an auxiliary trunk and uprights. The floor slopes upward and my bedstead is in a hammock across what amounts to a raised dias. I've a nightstand that is a cut-off stump. It's opposite from the casement windows installed at the lower end of the space. I'm thankful for the door like crank windows because they're convenient for when Streak comes to visit—when Mother isn't home, obviously! They provide light despite the tree's heavy canopy, and are enough that foliage forms an interior ceiling and I can culture moss and lichen as carpeting so I don't have to wear slippers to protect my feet from the bark. Smaller windows with rainbow-stained wedged rock glass also provide light to fill in shadowy corners during day light, and can be tilted to encourage convective circulation.

My desk is a form of wood ear mushroom, the top of which is polished to a glassy sheen. The shelves scattered up and down the walls for my hundreds of books are a combination of the same myco-archeculture and woven smaller branches.

I've hung posters by red ribbons, so as not to hurt the living tree, including a grand one Mother bought me of an exploded diagram of the structure of the crystal spheres. After our adventures with Rainy Days, I've also hung enlargements of pictures the woman gave us of her and Streak, though I know he finds them embarrassing. I can't help but admire my boyfriend's best attributes.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

Replied in thread

@Beti53
"Hi Leda."
"Hi Fionuala."
"Still stuck?"
"Yep. You?"
"Yep."
"Fi ... "
"No, I'm not introducing you to my brothers."
"I didn't even ask!"
"You asked the last fifteen times we've met."
"... That many?"
"Yep."
"Oh. Um. See you next year?"
"Sure. See you then Leda."

Continued thread

#PennedPossibilities 648 — MC POV: Tell us about your home.

Alexios: I'm not telling you about where I came from, you know, my home planet. Not happening. Let's take a different route. I live in a small cyberflat, cozy and comfortable. It's near the gang's warehouse, club, and smoke shop. I love nights spent at my desk area, or just reading in bed as it rains outside. Best kinda night, choomba. I don't mind admitting that the kitchenette doesn't get the attention it deserves, but hey, maybe one day. We all need a place of solace, and mine just so happens to be my home—even if I don't spend as much time there as I'd prefer. The warehouse is similar, to be fair, but all in a different sort of way. That's safety, which could be considered another kinda comfort, if we're breaking it down. We all need comfort, choom.

Replied in thread

@acarsdrama
(This inspired this little climate horror)

NO WEATHER DATA FOUND FOR REQUEST

PTMUC -- PLS CONFIRM NO WEATHER

CONFIRM NO WEATHER. BAR 0 TEMP -273

PTMUC -- BAR 0 QUERY

BAR 0 ON ALL APPROACHES. DIVERT.

#SFF#SF#Microfic
Replied in thread

@SFFMagazineCovers

Martin looked over his shoulder at the other craft behind him. They were easily several minutes behind. His theory had been correct. It was the power to mass ratio that mattered, not absolute power!

The amputation meant that he could build a smaller ship with the same engines, and get improved manoeuvrability for the same budget!

This time he was going to win!

#SFF#SF#tootfic

finished reading The Tainted Cup 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Robert Jackson Bennett.

A murder mystery fantasy novel - why is this a first for me?! Fairly standard whodunnit which escalates to political intrigue, made distinctive by very cool world-building: an empire built to defend against leviathans attacking from the sea, whose bodily fluids enable a raft of fantastical bio-enhancements. Interesting characters and the potential for more fleshing out give the series much promise.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #MurderMystery #CrimeFiction #Fantasy #SFF

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

ReviewDBBook - The Tainted CupIn Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in

Join us in Brooklyn NY a week from Sunday (Apr 27, 3pm) for a panel on Climate Fiction & hope. I'm looking forward to being with you all!

You know I'm gonna talk about #solarpunk ! And how stories change the world.

Free but you need tickets. eventbrite.com/e/we-demand-sto

#CliFi #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #hope #SFF #books #bookstodon #writers

host: Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers with books available from Greenlight Books

The Forest Queen looked on at the invaders to her territory with distain. She looked to her left at her sacred guardian, and her head dropped.

Beside her, her ancient companion, protector, and enforcer of her will Mr High and Mighty Guard Wolf clearly sensed something about the invaders. And she knew all too well what happened when he detected the possibility of someone having T R E A T S. He flopped out his tongue, and rolled on his back. What is this 'dignity' of which you speak?

#JustFinished Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

I understood that this book was likely going to be disturbing. About 20% of the way in, it got weird. Then it got weirder. Having finished the book, I understand why it was classed as SciFi, but for a big chunk of it, I was reading paranormal horror.

The story is set in Botswana, where the author is from. It is primarily a book about misogyny and feminism, with some

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#SciFi#SFF#books