Time to Orbit: Unknown

The hairdresser has no face of her own. You will see a face, when you go in. Everyone knows what hairdressers look like, after all. You will probably see a ‘her’, though it might be a ‘him’, if you live somewhere where men outnumber women in the profession; I use ‘her’ by the convention of … Continue reading The Cloak of Joy and Grief

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I waited for him to explain. He looked to Seiba, waiting for kem to explain. Seiba realised that Yamin was waiting for kem, started, and cleared kes throat. “Um. Well. So, the natural level of a desire for raising children, among humans, is thought to be somewhere between … Continue reading 94: Family Structure

The first thing that anyone wants to know about is the distant past, and to be honest, I don’t know anything about that. Memories fade over time, but more than that, memories fade over lives. How many times can you halve yourself before there’s not enough left to be called yourself any more? I think … Continue reading Asymptote

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next I quickly learned that while the apprentices often talked together after meetings, most of them weren’t friends outside of work. It seemed like Mana and Huspi were close, but everyone else had their own, separate lives. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad … Continue reading 93: Emigration

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next “There’s a problem with the Dragonseye,” Captain Violet announced. We were having another apprentice meeting, giving me a chance to talk to my peers again. I figured that this meeting probably wasn’t very important, because only one captain was present. (I assumed that they’d all come to the … Continue reading 92: Future Problems

Previous --- Next We didn’t rush back to the ship. Or at least, we didn’t openly run. We kept to a reasonable pace as we headed straight back to the ship with no detours. “We don’t have anything to do with the prince,” Spanner Ann said quietly, sounding puzzled. “No, but we can’t afford the … Continue reading Inner Life 6: Flight

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next The problem with Mission: Become Best Friends with Mana And Get Involved With The Red Apprentices (And maybe Try To Become Close To The Other Apprentices Too) was that I still didn’t really know anything about making friends. I’d become friends with Arai and Hitan when we were … Continue reading 91: Families

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next Yamin did have a private captain’s office. It was pretty nice. Like the big meeting room, it had a view of space. It was about the size of a normal view port, but instead of the benches and little garden in the middle, there was a small work … Continue reading 90: Shanan

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next The best cafeteria on the ship turned out to be very average. I figured that it was some kind of inside joke that I’d learn to understand later. It did have my favourite nutrient loaf, so I grabbed a piece of that and sat down at a little … Continue reading 89: Aevor

First -- Prev -- Archive -- Next The Education jaunt was a relief on one way – it made writing to Aunt Shorin easier. I didn’t have to try to come up with stuff that I could say that wouldn’t raise questions or confusion, or tell her something I wanted to keep to myself, like … Continue reading 88: Apprentices