Guide to our work
If you are trans, non-binary, autistic, amistic (ADHD), disabled, plural (of any type), and/or therian/otherkin/alterhuman and enjoy novels with science fiction style settings, you might really appreciate our stories! If you want to practice using neopronouns, we've also got you covered.
Below is a guide to what we've done so far:
Systems' Out! is our very first novel, and the one we're the most proud of. Its writing is very tight, and is ultimately the best, non-spoilery introduction to our world. It's about a couple of systems and their friends trying out a new accommodation for their various neurotypes and bringing about a kind of revolution in the process (or participating in it, in any case). This story is largely about fighting deadly dysphoria, and why one might even bother. But it's also about the responsibility parents have for their children.
Ni'a and Outsider are sequels to Systems' Out! and elaborate on the characters' lives, tell what happens after (or during) the revolution, and delves into the problems and ethical dilemmas inherent in the world we'd created. They are also about the journey of recovering from trauma, and how your community might help to do that (if your community were supportive).
Crew is officially the fifth book of the Sunspot Chronicles, and follows up on themes and questions that arise from the first three books. Specifically, it covers some of the prehistory of the Sunspot and the culture of the Crew, and some of what they do behind closed doors. But it also delves into personally dealing with amnesia, shifts in identity, dissociation, loss, and bigotry. The ending may be described as bitter sweet. It can be read out of order with the fourth book, which isn't written yet.
Blood in the Duff is the sixth book of the Sunspot Chronicles. It is part murder mystery and part polyamorous romance novel, or hopes to be. It can be read independently of the fourth book, but probably should be read after reading the other books, particularly Crew. It takes place 110 years after the events of Systems' Out! and references many social and technological developments that come after. It features the return of Ralf, Morde's tutor, though! And is covering aspects of daily life and Sunspot biology we hadn't covered in the other books, including toilets. You want to read about Sunspot toilets, right? Seriously, we're pretty proud of this one. We've put more physical planning into it than any of the other books.
The Adventures of Molly Rocketcoil is a politically driven pulp sci-fi serial written by two of the characters from Ni'a and Outsider. It's fictional within the context of the above canon, meant to address the issues that the people aboard the Sunspot are facing at the end of that series. It's also an exploration of the drive to reproduce, alien relations, and comparing radically different cultures and personal development. It involves warp drive and exploring the rest of the galaxy, but with the effects of relativity still intact.
Even further from the canon, but a great introduction for anyone who wants something familiar, Star Trek Mercury: Two-Way Mirror Mountain is our one and only fanfic! It has the least use of neopronouns, and is a totally non-canon speculation of what might happen if the Sunspot buzzed Earth and the Kelvin time-line Federation. It's a sequel to a role playing game we played, and is written in first person perspective from the three members of a system who are captain of the U.S.S. Mercury. It includes a model for how we think the Federation would (or should) accommodate plurality.
It's totally OK if you read Molly Rocketcoil or Star Trek Mercury first. They are also perfectly fine entrypoints into our stories. They'll reveal some plot twists from the earlier books, but they don't explain in detail how we got there or what happens after, so they don't really spoil the stories. Also, everything is written from various different perspectives of unreliable narrators that have then been (canonically) translated loosely by a somewhat irresponsible publishing company, so a certain amount of interpretation and speculation is left up to you.
In an alternate universe, where the Ktletaccete are actually spirits called simply Artists, and are native to Earth and not aliens, we now have @girldragongizzard, the story of Meghan Estragon Draconis. A 50 year old trans woman who, after a night of fitful dreams, awoke to find herself transformed into a dragon. Which came as no great surprise to her, because she's always known she was a dragon. Pure therian wish fulfillment with a touch of chaos. girldragongizzard is the official sequel to our old unfinished webcomic Harmless Free Radicals, but reading that comic is completely unnecessary.
In Teratovore, written and published by our headmate @monster-rinds, Synthia is a Precambrian spirit that feeds on the radiant emotions of lifeforms, and works at a grocery store in order to provoke amusement and other feelings in humans. She thinks, in her unfathomably long experience, that she has everything all figured out. That is, until Felicity, a teratovore (a monster eater), starts flirting with her. Sometimes, you can have your coming-of-age awakening late in life. Like 460-some million years late. And sometimes you don't exactly choose your found family. This one's a bit of an aro/ace sapphic noir, and an urban fantasy, unrelated to any of our previous work. There are also, of course, themes of plurality, consciousness, identity, and memory woven throughout.
Completely outside of all canon, but tangentially related, are our series of writing-prompted tumblr fics, Crime-Cat and the Deliverator. You will read almost nothing about the Sunspot or our system by reading these stories! But, you will encounter gay, non-binary villains full of queerness and super gayness. The Earth does undergo a bit of destruction. Just a bit. But that kind of happens sometimes when it's overrun by people with superpowers. And it is written in second person, because most of the prompts we used were presented in that way. If you enjoy imagining yourself to be a non-binary gay monster from outer space entering the world of supervillains, and having the cutest human partner you can imagine, this is absolutely the story for you. Also, "Kepekapean" is really just another word for Ktletaccete, but shsh.
