You think having an exciteable dog or a scratching cat is bad for your carpets? Try having a Koratian roommate.

Don't get me wrong. Zodelo is great and I couldn't really ask for a better roomie. He's a young black, about eighteen or nineteen by human years, so he tells me, which means he's four actual years old; he works at the local grain mill, threshing wheat and slicing things up with those claws of his, and so his hours supplement mine to afford us this little house.

But, after a week of living together, the formerly thick and plush carpets in my bedroom were shredded and uneven from him just stopping in to visit me. One week! The living room carpet had to be replaced with hardwood flooring, and now even that is beginning to show signs of scratches through the layers of varnish. It's kind of rare for Korats to live in a house with a non-dirt or non-grass floor, so I guess human technology hasn't had to compensate that much for the damage they do, even though they walk with their longclaws off the ground.

Vacuuming's fun, too. The mutilated strands of carpet - the longest ones - get caught in the machine sometimes, and I have to turn it off and manually haul it to a different section of the floor. The tile in the kitchen seems to be the most resistent to wear, having only one or two nicks in the whole floor, but tile's cold and I don't want it throughout the whole house. I don't like having to wear sandals or socks -all- the time. Especially when, well, Korats don't wear clothes, and so I feel a bit more free to just go around in shorts and nothing else. At least, in the house, when it's warm... people around here are still kinda conservative, when it comes to women not wearing shirts. Well, human women, at least - the other species, it's different, they usually don't have really prominent breasts when they aren't nursing.

Bah, that's a tangent. I was talking about living with Zodie. He's great, he really is. My parents were all upset with me when I didn't wanna share a house with my older sister when I moved out - man, she is so much like them, I might as well not move at all! But then I showed them Zodie and they relented a little. See, Mom works in the nursery, and every once in a while, some Korat cubs are orphaned - normally their parents get killed, sad stuff, man - and she gets to help raise them until they're adopted by foster parents. And Dad, well hell, he's a woodsman by trade, and so he works with Korats on a daily basis. Some humans regard living with Korats like living with really good guard dogs, but my parents actually think that Zodie'll have a really positive effect on my character or something.

Sigh, he probably will. He's a lot more responsible than I am about doing things that gotta be done - like getting to work on time. In an effort not to follow in Mom and Dad's footsteps too precisely, I decided I'd be a breadwinner by being a tailor. I've always kinda liked fashion, and I'm good with a needle and a loom, so already I'm starting to make a name for myself by coming up with some original designs. Even better, I remember hearing stories of P.S.T. Earth (pre-space-travel, you know) and how people there made their money, so I'm only making so many of a certain design before I say it's discontinued. I mean, granted, the fact that I'm working six hours a day - man, a full-time job, even though Zodie works too! - means that I can afford the house and the utilities and stuff, but the extra cash from the custom stuff is a nice treat for me and Zodie.

He hates when I call him Zodie, and it cracks me up. It's the only way I can get under his skin. I mean, he's a black, you know? Suave and collected, even if he is really a dork sometimes. But even when he's being silly, I get the feeling he's doing it deliberately - like he's purposefully letting himself be a goof, but he still knows how he looks to people, you know? It's weird, I mean, we humans can be really self-conscious sometimes, and we fret about how we look or sound or seem to other humans, but Korats, man, they just know. Well, blacks know. I don't think the other ones care as much. I couldn't imagine living with a red. Maybe a tan... they can be sweethearts. But, nah, Zodie's awesome.

Aw, shit, time for me to get to work. I almost forgot and Zodie just poked his muzzle in to give me That Look that he's so good at. Blasted blue eyes! He sure strikes a pose when he wants to.

Right, enough rambling... signing off for now.

~Saryandra L.

[Jackpot stars Aerhai.]

I watched our ship rise into the butterscotch-colored sky, my shalkra gauzily protecting my eyes from the miniature sandstorm caused by the lift-off.

I'd wised up; every bit of my paws, except where my claws poked through the tips of my toes, was wrapped in heavy white cloth, guarding my pads from the scalding sand. Similarly, there was a thin white sheet looped around my neck and draped over my back, reflecting the harshest rays from the local star. And I'd gotten a spare mane-tie to hold the mass of longer fur out of my eyes.

Mech grunted, once our ship had dwindled to a shiny speck in the ugly sky. I dropped my gaze and turned towards the gate of the city.

"You'll need to sleep soon," I informed him. All I got was another noncommittal grunt in response, which surprised me. Him not arguing about physical needs was unusual; the two-day session spent in my lab must have really drained him.

We passed through the open gates, a wind from behind ruffling the stretch of cloth I'd tied to neck and haunches.

"First thing we need to do is find a map," I remarked to Mech, "and then see if there are any zirs left here."

Mech poked me in the haunch with a tailtip, then tossed his head to his left and upwards. I looked.

"...oh, hey, look, a zir."

The six-legged snake was wrapped around one of the thin rails that stretched high above the streets, connecting buildings. Airwalks, they'd been called? Something like that. But the zir wasn't moving, and either that meant it was dead, or feeling endangered.

Mech sniffed. "Smells alive," he rumbled impassively.

"Good to know we're on the same step," I grinned at him, then trotted forward until I was directly under the zir'ken. I sat.

The zir uncoiled and looked down at me through a small shalkra, wide-eyed. "Aaerhaai?!" it exclaimed in a hiss, slender snout zipping between me and Mech. Within about two seconds, it had dropped from the highest airwalk to lower ones, then landed rather lightly in front of me. I stood again.

"Morning, zir-friend," I greeted amiably. "I'm Am, Xenospeaker of a nearby ship. This is Mech." Some part of me wondered how many Aerhai had given those names.

"I am pleassed to ssee you both!" the little snake exclaimed, practically wriggling. "My name iss Rhee'ssto. I did not know Aaerhaa knew of thiss world!"

Mech's nod sufficed for a 'hi how do you do,' and I continued smiling without emphasizing my teeth. The zirs were prey back on their homeworld, and any accidental sign of meat-eating tendencies would put them very on edge. "We only just now found it. Good to see you, Rhee'sto. How are you faring here?"

The zir wasn't stupid. It lowered its sibilant voice. "If you jusst now found thiss world, you will want to know all I know about it. I fare well enough! Come with me." It twisted over itself and began scurrying down a smaller street. With a glance to Mech, we both followed.

Title-- Room to Fly (tentative title)
Rating and Warnings-- G, actually.
Species and Characters-- Species are Olashi, Masi, and Taroks. Characters are Fek Omisa, male Olashi general/veteran/elite; Shiy jin Akarwhu, acting leader of the Taroks and warrior-pilot; Soyoko, well-known Masi hero and advocate.
Summary and Notes-- This is one of the ideas I've had roaming my skull for a few years now. I thought I might be able to do it for WriMo this year, but nope. Either way, this is the beginning of a much longer story, and so the need-to-know-species-descrips don't come -right- at the beginning - but they'll be in there somewhere. Also, I didn't put as much informative garbage in this one as I may later, so the chars are a bit understated.

( Fek Omisa reclined in his customized chair... )

Title-- Jackpot
Rating and Warnings-- G; no real warnings.
Species and Characters-- Species is Aerha, a new one. Chars are Am (narrator), Med, Sci, Pilot, and Mech, plus a random Nila.
Summary and Notes-- I found a species. =3 And this is what happened when I tuned in.

( The ship rattled... )

Fek Omisa broke into a wide grin as the door to the meeting room buzzed - thank Ghrayu, an interruption! He and his two aides had been up to their elbows in paperwork for hours already, and he was dying for an excuse to stop staring at charts and lists. Fek stood swiftly and pressed his palm to the threshold. The door slid open, revealing a Korat tall enough to easily look the six-foot veteran in the eye.

Fek blinked as the Korat did, then the predator swept a deep bow that put natural Olashi grace to shame. The Simnohs inclined his head and torso shallowly in return, recognizing his new student after the momentary surprise wore off. Not many Korats in the fleet or academies, and this one was the only striped he'd ever seen around.

"Need something, fish?" he greeted gruffly, settling into the customary manner of a brusque and no-nonsense leader.

The blasted Korat dropped its jaw in a toothy grin, all unintentional insolence. "Just a message for you, Simnohs," it responded jovially, its command of Kalash as unaccented as his own. "Aelt dahns Januya jin Jekki and Kahni Jaemis are back from their previous mission and have docked here."

"Why the btsa didn't they report in?" Fek snapped, eartips flattening to his skull in annoyance. In a technological age of comunits and vidchats, a live messenger was not only unusual, but also superfluous.

The Korat tossed its head in a shrug. "I believe they tried, Simnohs, but when they ran into me in the halls, they hadn't heard from you."

Fek paused. He had turned his comunit off so that Tanra couldn't bug him about the pace of his work and how all of her other Simnohs had already turned theirs in. He snorted, folding his arms across his broad chest. "Likely excuse, from that pair. Well, I appreciate the message. Contact them and tell them I'll see them after they get some food and rest - later tonight."

Without missing a beat, the Korat bowed again. "Aye, Simnohs." It paused, then offered another cheeky grin. "I apologize for interrupting your work."

The Olashi glared. "Out with you, then, and stop interrupting!" He touched the threshold again to seal the doorway and turned back to the table. His aides were both smirking. "...not a word," he grumbled, taking his seat again and sighing at the checklist in front of him.

Well, it had been a brief interruption, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. And there was the promise of dealing with his two favorite delinquents later on.

Fek sighed again as he picked up his pen.

I have discovered, looking back on the past year of my creative writing, that I've not written a damn thing that hasn't been about Panthera or about World of Warcraft. There have been one or two exceptions, but barely a drop in the bucket.

I am disappointed in myself for lack of diversity and lack of quantity in my writing.

Time to rectify this.

( Dive in. )

Title-- Professional
Rating and Warnings-- PG-13 for concept; no violence and no sexual content. However, use of the concept and word "whore" happens.
Species and Characters-- Satyrnas, a brown Tarok female, and Meilta, a grey Nila male.
Summary and Notes-- I blame both Firefly and Kitty's Gameworld for this. Also, Satyrnas is FUN.

( Satyrnas had always been a personal fan of Terole... )