WritersandReaders

The Tiresias Club The Tiresias Club I first met Eleanor on a warm summer afternoon. Gregor had asked me to rendezvous with him at one of our popular inner-city haunts, the Café Perdu, just by the riverbank. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” he had said. And then refused to say anything more. So I turned up, and sought out Gregor at one of the sidewalk tables. He waved as I drew near, and my eyes turned to the woman he was with. She smiled politely in my direction, but there was a touch of something reserved about her. I smiled back as brightly as i could. I noticed her leg protruding from under the table

Skindancer When I first found out about Skindancer and the Horophenes— Wait, no. Let’s start at the beginning. With the village, and the armless girl. It was a picturesque village, in a wide valley containing a lazy, meandering river. It was the sight of the mountains that took my breath away, and made me stop my van at the side of the road. I was on a holiday to get away from overwork, and this was certainly the kind of place the doctor ordered. I got out and held up my camera to get a panorama shot. A dour-looking man was inspecting a field nearby. “How do you do,” I called out, trying to engage him in conversion

The Long And The Short Of It “I don’t regret losing my arms at all,” explained Cassie. “They were never of any use to me, and the pain was becoming unbearable.” She grasped the handle of the coffee cup in her toes, and brought it gracefully to her lips. “Before the operation, I did seriously think about ending it all. More than once.” “Where did it hurt?” I asked. “Right through my chest area. The ribs and arms were growing all twisted and malformed, and my internal organs had already suffered damage. I had no choice about letting them operate, really.” “It’s qu

The Rearranged Woman The face at the corner table in the café ... something about her caught my eye. While I was trying to figure out what, she noticed me staring. She glanced away, then back. And her look of recognition at me coincided with mine back at her. She left the table she was sharing with a companion and came over to mine. “Tom!” she called. “It’s been a while.” “Tara!” I called in reply. I got up and held out my hand to shake hers. And now I was staring even more. “It’s all right if you don’t want to shake ... hands,” she replied, noticing my hesitation. H

A lone green eye opened in the middle of the pitch black woods, startling young Joseph. The shy ten year old had always been one to hold his tongue but at this moment he felt an overwhelming urge to tell his friends what he felt. As he explained to them that he felt a strong dark presence just beyond the beams of light, given off by their flashlights, something disastrous occurred. A long bony arm swung out at them, catching Joseph's leg. The poor boy was dragged away by the very force he tried warning his friends of, never to be seen again.

Call Me Lefty You see the two of us together, always, inseparable. They joke about some people being so close, it’s like they’re “joined at the hip”. Well, we are literally joined, at more than the hip. Conjoined, from the base of our necks to the base of our spines, so closely and so perfectly, with one head, arm and leg, and (almost) exactly half a torso each, in such a way that we can never be separated, so seamlessly merged that we really do look like a girl with two heads. But what about...those private matters? When two individuals share one body, every minute and every second of every day, what does that mean

Naked Day Tuesday was Jacinta’s Naked Day. Clad only in her favourite leather slippers and clutching her purse, she took the bus into town. There was the occasional lingering admiring glance cast her way, as well as the way of several other instances of bare female flesh on board; she met those frankly, with an answering smile. But even in this day and age, there were also one or two more furtive, almost guilty looks; these baffled her, but she had given up worrying about them. The sign outside the door said BODY SCULPTING, REMODELLING AND COLOURING. She went up the stairs to the waiting room, and smiled an acknowledgement at the rece

The Mending Of Erica The last model in the lineup strutted her way down the catwalk, moving seemingly effortlessly in that long-practised way, arms and legs and hips and buttocks all perfectly orchestrated in a symphony of motion that ensured that all eyes stayed on her. The advance publicity had been most carefully managed: some in the audience were already aware that this one was different. But still you could hear the sharp indrawn breaths from those who were only just noticing what was—unusual—about this girl. As she got to the end and turned to make her way back, murmurs broke out here and there. But there was also sporadic

I am sick and tired of all these things on Second Life! 1. The only legal games are hunts, because ALL of the others either have to be random (which is against the LL TOS) or they have to have a set sequence (which is considered an aid to cheaters, and is also against the LL TOS)! And most of the hunts aren't even fair. People will either take the good stuff first, ensuring no one else can get it, or they will run in and take stuff that you're about to claim, and they will claim it instead. >:( 2. The lucky eggs, while cool when you win something, is against the LL TOS! Because like the games, either the winner is chosen randomly (against t