#forklift load

[doorplays]

My Top Ten Games That I Played in 2023

Hello! 2023 has come and gone. I’ve played a decent amount of games across the year. Now that it’s 2024, I want to look back at the games I played and how they affected me. A retrospective! Now that some time has passed between my playing of a game and now, how has that time aged my opinion? I want to know! And I have decided to do it in the form of a top ten list!

This top ten list is NOT the best games released in the year 2023, but rather, the games that I’ve enjoyed the most when I played them during the year of 2023. Most of these games were released during earlier years. What matters more to me really is discovering how these games have left their mark on me.

So thus! Let’s find out!

10: The Forgotten City (2021)

Read my review here!

I liked its premise. The many shall suffer for the sins of the one. You explore this forgotten city, find out more about its inhabitants, and discover that you’ll have to crack open mysteries upon mysteries. There’s a fair amount of philosophical discussion here, and the characters are well-written. My main qualm about the game back then was its horror elements, as I was and still am averse to jump scares. Surprisingly though, I realized while writing this review that I completely forgot about that aspect of the game! Funny, that. This is considering the fact that I had to get a friend to go on voice chat with me so that I have company playing this game…

While I liked the game, I found it difficult to remember specifics about it other than the feeling of philosophy and mystery. So I guess those were my lasting impressions of this game specifically!

9: PRODUCER 2021 (2022)

Read my review here!

The gameplay of this game is some standard Visual Novel stuff, but what left an impression on me is its commentary on the artistic process. It is a rather cynical game with a lot to say. I related at points even if I don’t really consider myself an artist. I like its discussions about compost, of all things. What I liked most about this game, I think, was its soundtrack. A lot of bops! The soundtrack is the one that left the most lasting impression on me, though it’s somewhat easy to do that with soundtracks as I can just save them on my Spotify playlists if they’re on there. A nice two hours of gaming, in my opinion!

8: Mask of the Rose (2023)

Read my review here!

It is rare that I get ensnared by romance stories. I backed this game on Kickstarter cos I am fond of Failbetter’s games. I played it because I enjoy their stories. I didn’t expect to fall in love with so many characters! Rachel, with her sense of self and her writing. Archie, with his good nature. Harjit, with his watchful eyes. Griz, with her determination. There are just so many people to romance and know more of.

I still think of Rachel from time to time. She’s hot and is a person who knows what she wants. I like that sense of certitude in a person.

It’s nice as well to revisit the Fallen London universe. A relatively modern world with an eldritch vibe… it feels unique to me even years later. Re-experiencing it with a dating sim is not how I expected to do it but it is nonetheless very welcome.

7: Forklift Load (2020)

Read my review here!

Do NOT play this game on mouse and keyboard. Play this with controller!!!

This game really made me feel like I am an utter newbie forced to pilot a forklift. It is a zany concept, but I actually had fun with it. It feels somewhat like a puzzle game, trying to figure out how to go from point A to point B while lifting whatever with your forklift.

What I didn’t expect was for the story to be as cerebral as it was. It goes into some philosophical stuff, and the vibes of the game was unexpectedly calming, even if the gameplay itself was frustrating. I… am uncomfortable with regards to this game’s ending, but overall this game was an interesting experience. The concept was fun enough, and seeing it applied in practice was fun enough for me.

6: Betrayal at Club Low (2022)

Read my review here!

This was SUCH a fun game. The bombastic music, the fun visuals, the wacky humor, it combines into a world that’s fun to explore. And the gameplay is very fun! Rolling the dice against various challenges makes for interesting decision making, as you also have to manipulate your own stats to stack the odds in your favor. And the pizza dice are a fun mechanic, while also being a funny concept in and of itself. This is just a very creative game from top to bottom, and it makes me wanna experience more games from the dev in the same vein. It just feels so nonstandard yet so fun, which is why it left such an impression on me.

5: Elsinore (2019)

Read my review here!

Turning Hamlet into a timeloop game was a very inspired choice in my opinion. And it works! Though I guess it worked more for me because this is my first time actually experiencing Hamlet. I enjoyed the characters, their stories, the varied endings, and the unique take on the age-old story.

This game added a lot of stories that didn’t exist in the original, and I think I appreciated that decision a lot. It’s like updating a story for modern audiences. Though I’d argue that this is a wildly different story once you play enough of it. Nonetheless, when I think Hamlet, I will think of this game, and that is pretty much as lasting of an impression as you can get.

4: Hypnospace Outlaw (2019)

Read my review here!

The 1990’s were 30 years ago!!! I still can’t believe it! And yet here I am, feeling nostalgic for the computer era of the late 90’s. The forums, the pop-ups, the wacky wallpapers, the music. This is such a good game with well-crafted vibes.

And the story!! It feels so real. I think nowadays we rarely think about the simple fact that there is an actual person behind an online persona, but this game can make you confront that reality really well. It’s nice seeing the little quirks people have with designing their own sites, making their own posts, and dealing with their version of the internet. It makes the story hit harder. I’ll think of this game fondly as the perfect time capsule of the past and as a reminder that even the little things matter.

3: The Case of the Golden Idol (2022)

Read my review here!

I’ve been looking for a game that scratched the same itch as Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) and this game fit the bill perfectly. I really enjoyed the way I had to discover all the evidence, and then having to piece them together to find out what actually happened. And the fact that solving the mystery was ALSO the way the story was told was something I enjoyed a lot. Storytelling AND gameplay neatly folded in together! I’m sure the formula could be improved upon further, but I’m very much excited for more games like this from the devs. I still have a couple of DLC’s from this game to play too!

2: IMMORTALITY (2022)

Read my review here!

This is such a gripping game. I played this with a bunch of other friends, and watching the movies, experiencing the twists and turns… The simple act of making us interface with the game via the match cut mechanic gives the game a certain mystery, as clicking objects to do the match cut with lead you to random clips. Simple gameplay, but leads to a great experience.

The story is very thrilling, and piecing it together was very fun. It’s like a puzzle game where you have to find each puzzle piece, only that you didn’t know what the overall puzzle picture was and discovering each puzzle piece led you to an existential crisis.

This game made me think about the creative process more deeply than the other games I mentioned here. It made me think of the ways each of us want to leave a mark on this world, to live beyond our own mortality. It made me think of the costs of such ways… This game will be on my mind for a while.

1: Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2021)

Read my review here!

When I started writing for this game in this article, I just… stopped. Not because I have nothing to say, but because I feel like the effect of this game on me feels… bigger than I thought. This is a game about art, about the artistic process, and also about… depression, burnout, and trauma. I did not expect that getting into the game the first time, but it was good timing for me in a way, as I was dealing with these things in varying measure. It was a therapeutic experience, playing this coloring book of the game while dealing with these topics.

What’s more, it was actually nice getting to color stuff and draw stuff with my brush! Just coloring the various areas in was soothing. And in game, there are actual art classes where you are shown various artpieces that you have to recreate. I enjoyed making my own spin of some art shown in the classes.

Playing this game was an unexpectedly deep experience for me. I feel like it helped me with my own journey to getting better. I initially chalked this up as my #2 game of 2023, but I had to make it my #1 after I realized how big of a mark it left on me. I am glad I played this game.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One thing I noticed with my games last year is a fair amount of them are detective games. I love mysteries, and would love this genre to be explored further like in Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol. Another thing I noticed is that a surprising amount of games involve the artistic process. I like seeing games as art, and would love to see this space explored further. All in all, I love a lot of the games that I managed to play last year, and am excited for what this year holds for me! Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to read my little review blog :)

[shadowspeaking]

Highlights from another very fun SSS stream. Watch for Jacob going absolutely sicko mode and the funny editing.

[saturnisfallingdown]

cringe culture is dead!! Make more Stanley Parable self inserts!!

[id: digital art depicting an original character for The Stanley Parable. The character is white and pale with short dark hair, wearing a black button down over a grey shirt, dark green pants, a bomber jacket with a genderqueer patch, and a name tag. They hold a clipboard in one hand and have the other in their pocket, and look to the side nervously. Light shines on them from a white square behind them that frames their face. Text to the right reads as follows: EMPLOYEE 099 - Had a job in the cargo room - One day while on shift, slipped and fell off the edge of the dock and landed at the bottom, somehow unscathed - spent enough time isolated + surrounded by no-collision objects to become part of the game - Now just resides in places with ambient music - Sighted in: •Loading Dock B, The Zen Room, The Memory Zone, etc etc - Might have had a narrator at some point, who knows lmao. End id]

[locomotive-idiot]

Just a fellow machine enjoyer.

Obviously forklifts are my favorite but trains are definitely among the top 5

forklifts are enjoyable i will admit

they fork, they lift

what more is there you need to have honestly

[meganjmachado]

Forklift Loading Container: Lifting Productivity and Quality

Essentially, a Forklift Loading Container is a type of industrial vehicle equipped with a power-operated platform at its front. These robust materials have revolutionised the material handling across various sectors, from godowns to construction sites.

[copperloy]

Copperloy By JH Industries

1981 E Aurora Rd Twinsburg Ohio 44087 United States (330) 963-4105 Sales@copperloy.com https://copperloy.com/

Copperloy has been a leading manufacturer of loading dock ramps, steel yard ramp, and edge of docks for more than 60 years, having developed America’s Ultimate Yard Ramp! Our forklift ramps and yard ramps are the best solution for expanding your loading dock capacity and streamlining your operation.

[copperloytwinsburg]

Copperloy

Copperloy has been a leading manufacturer of loading dock ramps, steel yard ramp, and edge of docks for more than 60 years, having developed America’s Ultimate Yard Ramp! Our forklift ramps and yard ramps are the best solution for expanding your loading dock capacity and streamlining your operation. Choose from a selection of new, used, or even rental yard ramps that are factory-certified for quality, performance, and safety. Some of our other top sellers include edge of dock levelers, dock boards, and specialty ramps such as van ramps and stage ramps. If you are looking for reliable, American-made loading dock equipment, visit our website to view our selection of yard ramps or contact us today to get a quote.

Address : 1981 East Aurora Road, Twinsburg, Ohio, 44087, USA

Phone : 330-963-4105

Business Email : Sales@copperloy.com

Website : https://copperloy.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/copperloy

https://twitter.com/copperloy

[sen5es-bottles]

Sen5es Packing and Shipping

We at Sen5es take great pride in the level of packing and secure wrapping on all of our products to make sure any glass doesn't get broken on its way to you.

We have a dedicated team of packers and pickers that are highly trained and always trying to being you the best service.

[doorplays]

Door Reviews: Forklift Load (2020)

So: simulator games. There are a bunch of them nowaday! I think PowerWash Simulator released just last year, and I hear good things about Lawn Mowing Simulator. Not to mention the plethora of Farming Simulators and Truck Simulators! It’s a genre unto itself, replicating the experience of driving specific things, doing specific things, that you would not easily get to do without significant preparation and/or expenses. With games, you just buy them, and poof, you are now able to get the experience!

A lot of them are presented as relaxing experiences. Both PowerWash Simulator and Lawn Mowing Simulator are similar in that you are to clean an area of dirt and/or grass. It seems simple, but strangely relaxing.

A similar game appeared on my radar recently, and it’s one I think I didn’t expect. And yet, the concept is just so funny to me, that I had to play it. Let’s review Forklift Load!

What’s it about? You are a forklift. You heard that right, you’re not driving a forklift, you are the forklift. And you help out other forklifts and cars with whatever they need, which usually consists of bringing them fuel with your small but strong forklift arms. A tag on Steam says it’s a Precision Platformer, and that is indeed a pretty apt description, since you have to be careful bringing the fuel as there will be a lot of obstacles on the way to your goal.

STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)

Gameplay involves you controlling this little senior citizen forklift. You move around and control the forklift tines up and down in order to pick up and put down any objects. Usually, these objects are supported by pallets so that you can easily pick them up. You can switch up the camera view so you can see whether or not the forklift tines can pick up the pallet properly and adjust them as needed. Controls are available in both mouse+keyboard and controller, but I do recommend you use controller for this game since it’s so much easier.

The environment of the main map is rather peaceful. It’s nice to drive around the map while the somber yet peaceful music washes over you. Pink flowers, trees, wide open fields… it’s very nice. When you get to the city proper, there are a fair amount of buildings, even. You get the impression people once lived here. What happened to them? One of the mysteries you have to uncover…

In place of people, there are vehicle NPC’s that give you missions. Each mission is a platforming puzzle, where you typically have to carry fuel to a stated goal. Despite the peaceful vibe of the game, make no mistake: a lot of the missions can be so frustrating. Have you ever played Getting Over It or QWOP? This game reminds me of them, where you have to have precise movement and some luck in order to progress. You have to move in a precise way in order to get to the goal, and you have to watch out for any subtle obstacles. Even small bumps in the road can prevent you from getting to your goal.

A lot of the time I found myself so frustrated at making mistakes. And yet, I can’t stop playing! It’s great when I finally manage to complete a mission successfully, finding out the right way to navigate a path making sure that the fuel doesn’t tip out of the pallet. The physics seem janky, but they still have logic to them, and there’s always a solution to everything, even if you have to try again a lot. I guess I find the platforming design good, despite the suboptimal physics! Though again, I very very much recommend you use a controller instead of mouse and keyboard, it’s definitely more of a headache when you use the latter.

Overall, I enjoyed the vibe of the game. It’s kind of ridiculous and yet serious? Like, once you get over the initial amusement of you being a sentient forklift, you get into the groove of the game real quick. Its peaceful vibe gets dashed a bit as soon as you realize that the puzzles can get infuriating, but it’s still nice to experience the environment and music.

SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)

Real quick: if you wanna know the trigger warnings I feel I need to give for this game, scroll over to the tags.

The game opens with a scientist listening to some music, working on an AI. After that, the game cuts to you, a sentient forklift, waken up by another sentient forklift. Kind of ridiculous, right? But it’s somewhat played straight nonetheless.

The main story is presented through a series of notes. You won’t get to find them until you finish the first few missions in a couple of starting zones, after which the game drops you into the main map and shows them to you once you finish a certain quest.

Each note presents a platforming challenge before you get to them. Once you get all of the notes, something in the distance unlocks, wherein you can experience the ending.

The story discusses the benefits of AI and its pitfalls, as is typical for stories that feature AI. But I find this one story strangely… innocent? In its execution and resolution. It felt just right in its length and simplicity. It didn’t really linger, and it delivered what it was trying to say well enough. Though I would have rather the dev put up trigger warnings for this, as the game does make you do something rather drastic that some people might not want to do.

I found the NPC vehicles rather cute and quirky. Seeing other forklifts, other cars, and even a bulldozer made me like the game more. It’s strange, it somehow straddles the line between amusing yet serious. I mean… it’s still a game where you play as a sentient forklift. But the game itself doesn’t play around with that fact enough I think. And strangely enough, I’m fine with that, and am happy with what I got.

VERDICT

Forklift Load is a forklift simulator that makes you think about AI and the desires of humanity. It also makes you really feel the struggle of becoming forklift certified as you try and fail to deliver fuel constantly. It is a strange mix of peaceful, quirky, fun, and contemplative. I like it!

Door Rates Forklift Load: 3.5/5!

[seorikkun]

idk what it is abt having a hardware store job that just makes me unbelievably delusional in my chris fantasies

[seat-safety-switch]

Have you seen how expensive food is getting? When I was at the grocery store last, I had to actually elbow other people out of the way when I was trying to shoplift. All these amateurs, doing it for their starving families, trying to sneak past the new security guard with an entire box of Lucky Charms tucked under their suspiciously un-seasonal winter coat. That's why he's there, now!

Because of this, I've thought really hard about starting a farm of my own. There's only two big obstacles: my property is entirely covered in shit-box cars, and I don't like hard (or even soft) work. So I had to figure out how to trick someone else into using their property to grow healthy, tasty vegetables for the rest of the community. That way, I could go back to cramming large quantities of mass-produced corporate corn-syrup-injected synthetic food into my bag and then not paying for it.

Here's something that's fun: the university has a lot of free land. And if you trick eager students into doing anything that looks good on their resumés, they will work an infinite amount of hours for no money. They're feeding their fellow citizen! A truly noble endeavour that not even mean old Dean Carbuncle could stand in the way of. Of course, I first needed to make it look like a legitimate enterprise. Have you ever shoplifted raised garden bed planters from a Home Depot? It's surprisingly easy if you wear a hard hat, orange apron, and bring your own forklift. Loaded a couple of those bad boys onto a flat-bed rental truck, signed it out myself ("J. Not-Fakington,") and headed for the campus quad and the co-eds eager to interrupt their high-falutin' studies with some dirt farming.

In a few weeks, the students were getting interviews with the news. One of them got an internship with the United Nations because she figured out how to hyper-grow corn cobs – they're like three meters long, you need at least two people just to lift them – and now the university is paying people to come and take them away. The grocery stores are again empty of all but the ultra-rich and my sticky, sticky fingers, and we've learned that although crime doesn't pay, a whole lot of crime sometimes benefits those around you.

[marlynnofmany]

Squishy Cybernetics

“Hello!” I said. “Where would you like this?” I waved an arm at the large pallet of boxes, bags, and miscellaneous other packaging. It was on one of our biggest hoversleds, and accompanied by some of the biggest crewmates.

The Waterwill at the loading gate burbled thoughtfully, sounding like a water jug given sentience. She extended what passed for an arm of her own and pointed indoors. “You’d better bring it all the way in. Over here.” She glided inward, moving in that mysterious way I’d never figured out. Someone shaped like a column of jello had no business scooting forward that quickly, no matter how much their lower end rippled against the floor.

But I didn’t have time for galaxy-gazing; I had to help steer the hoversled. Regulations said we needed someone on all four sides for a load this big, just in case of antigrav mishaps. Didn’t want it slamming into something breakable at this client’s facility — or slamming into anything at all, really, but this place was some sort of high-tech manufacturing plant, and I didn’t want to think about what kind of damage a crash could do.

No mishaps today, though. The Frillian twins paced along on either side, all muscles and tight clothes (they’d left the flowy silks behind today; a solid choice). I couldn’t see Zhee in the back, but I heard the quiet click of his bug feet. My own feet were silent in proper Earth shoes as I tugged the steering handle and followed the Waterwill.

I thought we’d just take the thing to the far side of the big loading dock, unload it in an out-of-the-way spot to be unpacked later. But the Waterwill kept going. We passed hovercars and wheeled carts, storage cabinets and bins, along with a baffling arrangement of pipes along one wall. Windows showed glimpses of the busy manufacturing facility. I had no idea what they were making. Maybe I’d get a better look on the way back out.

Oh hey, a human, I thought in surprise as I passed a bigger window. With a Strongarm on his back? What in the world are they making together? I was already moving past, and could only speculate about intricate manufacturing projects that needed hands and tentacles at the same time.

I was still wondering why the Strongarm hadn’t just pulled up a chair next to the human when the Waterwill signalled me to stop. “Stopping,” I announced for Zhee’s benefit. We all came to a halt, and nobody crashed into anything. Hallelujah.

“Here, please,” the Waterwill said. She stretched her arm out into a long tendril to pick up a scrap of something blue that had fallen on the floor, and pointed at an empty space near several foam-topped tables. “I’m needed out front. Heeme, can you oversee?”

“Sure thing,” said a voice from nowhere, then a Strongarm climbed out from under one of the tables. “Found the last of the broken bits, by the way.” Two of his tentacles were curled around pieces of the same blue stuff the Waterwill had picked up. The blue stood out against the dark red of his skin, but not as much as the four mismatched tentacles on other side did. They were a transparent blue-green much like the Waterwill’s own tendrils. I tried not to stare, and failed.

“Thank you,” the Waterwill said. “I’ll be back in a bit.” She set her broken piece of whatever on the nearest table, then scooted through a door that was apparently soundproofed, because a cacophony of whirs and whooshes filled the air until it closed.

“Right,” I said. “Over here, then.” I steered the hoversled into position, then we all worked together to guide the detachable gravity platform onto the ground. That part always made me nervous, since it looked like the giant pallet that could crush me was floating through the air with just a touch of technological magic to make it go. I understand other models of industrial-sized hoversleds have more mechanical-looking gravity platforms, or regular forklift arms. Ours was the glowy magic kind, and it deposited the giant stack of objects with all the precision of the best fairytale enchantment.

“Perfect,” said the Strongarm. “We’ll unpack it from here. Thanks.”

“Our pleasure,” I said.

Zhee, finally able to see over the hoversled, got a good look at who I was talking to. “Oh, I’m sure you’re fast at unpacking,” he said, pointing with his pincher arm. “Does that model form into blades?”

“Sure does!” the Strongarm said, holding up a see-through tentacle that instantly flattened into a shape like a steak knife. “Good for packaging, stubborn latches, and all manner of other things.”

“And stabbing!” Blop put in, to be immediately shushed by his sister.

“No stabbing on the job,” she told him.

The Strongarm laughed. “Yeah, just respectable tool use. They don’t give these out to anyone who’s going to do violence with them.”

I asked, “Is that Waterwill tech? I haven’t seen one before.”

“Yup.” He turned the knife back into a tentacle, then into a variety of other shapes. “One of the perks of working here, for sure. They’re cagey about sharing tech. This is the best prosthesis I’ve ever encountered.”

I thought of the hard metal-and-plastic replacement limbs that were standard on Earth. They would be wildly out of place on this guy’s squishy octopus body. And no amount of interchangeable attachments would be able to beat this kind of easy shapeshifting. I said, “That looks really useful.”

“It is!”

The loud door opened to admit a wall of sound, along with the human-and-Strongarm pair. Which I realized with a start was actually just a human wearing more transparent tentacles on his back.

“Here’s the new set,” he said to the Strongarm, placing a clear box on the table that was full of a stack of more flat blue things. They appeared to be cut into very specific shapes. I might have been curious about what they were for if not for the much more interesting thing to be curious about.

“Hello,” I said. “Does everyone who works here get extra limbs?”

The tan human grinned. “If they want ‘em! And they pass the screening, of course. But you’ve got to leave them here each day if they’re the bonus kind, as opposed to replacements.”

The Strongarm wiggled his tentacles in a taunting manner. “I can open packages and slice food so easily at home.”

The human made a face and wiggled the tentacles on his back. “Yeah yeah, we’re all jealous. Someday I’ll convince the bosses that there’s an actual market for these, and I’ll be the first in line to buy my own.”

“They think there isn’t?” I asked in shock. “Those look so useful! I can’t list the number of times I’ve wished for more hands. Using teeth and feet only goes so far.”

Zhee made a disparaging hiss. “You have that many fingers, and still want more? Greedy.”

“I’m just saying that re-weaving a cargo net would go much faster if I could hold all of the fibers at once,” I told him, then turned to the Frillians. “Back me up. Two arms just isn’t enough sometimes, right?”

Blip and Blop looked at each other and shrugged. “I guess?” Blip said. “But that’s just when it’s time to get another person to help.”

Zhee clicked a pincher. “Exactly so. Or approach the problem differently.”

The human told me, “I’ve had this conversation more than once. Apparently not all species grow up imagining what it’s like to have bird wings or monkey tails or whatnot.”

“Surely other people want to fly,” I said. The expressions around me were dishearteningly blank. “Surely!”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” the human said. “See why I couldn’t convince the bosses?”

“But even on a practicality standpoint!” I exclaimed. “They have you using them here; why wouldn’t they think you’d want to use them at home?”

He shrugged, moving the tentacles in a graceful wave as he did. “Alien brains. I’ve given up trying to fully understand.”

The Strongarm spoke up. “If there are actually a large number of humans who would buy these, then it couldn’t hurt to put together a request from outside sources. The bosses don’t listen to random employees who are probably biased, but they might take an interest in actual buyers.”

I shook my head slowly. “Our courier ship isn’t going to be that kind of buyer, especially not at the scale they’d probably need.”

“What about big human ships?” Blip asked. “We could suggest it to the next one we meet.”

“Or human colonies,” Blop said. “Or large groups at space stations.”

Zhee said, “I heard Captain Sunlight talking about a delivery to Basal Station soon. There are plenty of humans there. You could suggest it to them, if you think this is really that widespread an interest.”

“It couldn’t hurt,” I said, thinking. There was indeed a significant human population on that space station, which might even include the crew I’d met from the droid jousting ship Hold My Beer. They were definitely the type to appreciate some extra arms. Both for working on finicky electronics and general slapfight shenanigans.

“Here, we should have something with the contact information,” said the Strongarm. “Jon, is there a notepad over there?”

“Yeah, got it.” The human leaned over a table and used his tentacles to lift a stack of books so he could pull out the small notepad at the bottom. That may have been showing off. “Here you go!” He handed it to me with his regular hand.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll see if I can find the right ears to whisper into.”

“Best of luck!” he said. “My partner has asked me no less than half a dozen times if I could sneak my set home to play around with, but I’m not gonna risk the job.”

I laughed, hoping I wasn’t blushing. “Oh man, I wasn’t even going to mention the bedroom applications.”

Of course Zhee had to ask, tilting his head with faceted eyes shining. “The what?”

“Remember how most humans find tentacles a little creepy?” I asked him, pocketing the notepad.

“I recall. It makes this insistence all the stranger.”

“Well, some humans aren’t creeped out at all. Kind of the opposite. They like them a lot. In a, uh, private fashion.”

Jon the human spelled it out for him. “Mating rituals.”

Zhee’s antennae did a complicated dance, then settled in something that looked like disgust. “I was about to ask why, but I’ve decided I don’t want to know.”

“Yeah, best not to,” I agreed. “Anyway! Very useful extra arms. Good for a wide variety of activities. Other humans will likely be interested.”

“Very likely,” Jon agreed.

I activated the hovercart with a nod, and we said our goodbyes. The employees wished me luck. They returned to work while we headed back toward our ship.

Zhee grumbled disparaging things about my species the whole way, but that was nothing new.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

PS: the story with the good ship Hold My Beer is here, if you're wondering about that. It's fun.

[bigmsaxon]

Hear me out. A cyborg girl centaur, but her lower half is just a forklift chassis.

You mean with the human torso in place of the mast, like this?

I guess I could see it design-wise but practically speaking it would completely obscure her vision once the load is raised a certain height, which would almost certainly not be OSHA compliant.

[mybeingthere]

Mose Tolliver (1918/20 - 2006, American artist) was born one of 12 children to sharecroppers Ike and Laney Tolliver in the Pike Road community, near Montgomery, Alabama. His exact year of birth is unknown, though it is known he was born on the Fourth of July as well as between the years 1920–25. He attended school only until the third grade due to a self-described lack of interest in education. In the 1930s, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama where he helped support his parents and their large family by doing odd jobs.

In the early 1940s he married his childhood friend, Willie Mae Thomas, and had 13 children, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. During the late 1960s, while working at McLendon's furniture factory, he had a severe injury where his legs were crushed when a half-ton load of marble shifted and fell from a forklift as he was sweeping in the furniture factory. After this incident, he turned to painting to combat boredom, pain and long hours of idle time. Although many say that his career started after the accident, Tolliver claims he painted beforehand. He would often turn his paintings upside-down and paint the picture of perhaps an animal and landscape positioned from various directions. Tolliver's titles are wildly divergent; e.g., "Smoke Charlies," "Scopper Bugs," or "Jick Jack Suzy Satisfying her own Self".

On October 30, 2006, Tolliver died from pneumonia in Montgomery, Alabama.

[natalievoncatte]

“Careful with that! We have to assume everything here is dangerous.”

Lena would have preferred to be anywhere else. The last thing she wanted to occupy her afternoon was dealing with yet another reminder of her brother’s sprawling insanity. Every one of these weapons caches -he probably would have melodramatically called them “hideouts” or “secret bases”- was like a tombstone marking the grave of the only truly sincere, loving relationship she’d ever had in her life.

He hadn’t always been the slavering maniac with an incoherent obsession with killing a superhero. He’d been a protector and a benefactor, a chess opponent and a confidant, the only person in her life who presented an uncomplicated human connection, without any ulterior motives or conditions.

Everyone else wanted something from her. Money. Power. A competitive advantage. Technological secrets. Or just sex. Lena resented that most of all, the gray old men who saw nothing of her achievements or her intellect and regarded her as just another piece of ass with blue enough blood that they had to ask permission rather than simply grope.

Watching her crew load up the equipment in this sweltering heat made her physically ill, and she was glad she’d skipped breakfast. Kara would be upset if she knew.

She’s had to text Kara and let her know that she’d be out of the office and would have to skip their lunch plans. Kara was…

Kara was becoming a complication, because Kara was doing the one thing Lena wished she wouldn’t: She was giving Lena hope. She’d barreled into Lena’s life with an earnest intensity that had been bewildering at first and intriguing afterwards, with her insistence that they be friends, and constant reminders that they were friends, even as her eyes wandered to Lena’s cleavage or she unconsciously bit her lip and stared that smoldering stare just to look away at the last second.

Lena shook her head, clearing her thoughts of yet another Straight Best Friend taking her down that well-worn path of sapphic suffering. She had bigger fish to fry right now.

It was too bad that her relationship with Supergirl had been so chilly lately. It might have been easier to simply tip off the hero and the government agency she worked with and let them handle the clean up.

Lena was deep in reverie when one of the crates, a bulky reinforced one, dropped a good two feet from a forklift and the wood splintered as the locks burst free.

“Idiot!” Lena shouted at the driver. “This equipment is sensitive and potentially dangerous, and…”

“STARTUP SEQUENCE INITIATED.”

A metallic voice ground out of the crate and it shifted as something vast and bulky moved around inside. Lena stumbled back, glad she’d opted for a sensible set of flats for this, and turned to run.

A metallic claw crashed out of the crate, followed by an arm-mounted rotary cannon. The older model Lexosuit, one of the originals that Lex had planned to illegally smuggle out of the country in a fake theft scheme and sell to the Kasnians, stood up in its shaky, clanking way and took a few steps, shaking off planks and nylon straps the way a baby bird might shake off pieces of shell.

There was nowhere to go. The machine scanned the room, moving jerkily as it zeroed in on her.

Lex’s voice, a recording, boomed from its loudspeakers.

“Ah, dear sister, I see you’ve found another of my hidden fastnesses.”

You melodramatic-

“Oh well. I should thank you for setting off the security system. I won’t have to waste my precious time killing you myself. Au revoir, Lena!”

The suit spun its arm cannon and aimed at her. The barrels assembly made a half turn, the electric motor charging up as it cycled the first 32mm mass-reactive exploding shell into the chamber. Lex had once called it a masterpiece in the art of violating the Geneva Conventions. It was about to blow Lena inside out, and the subsequent shots reduce her to a the chunky consistency of a good bolognése.

But then there was a wind that was not a wind, and SHE was there.

Supergirl seized Lena with precision and grace, hands that could crush diamonds pressed just so over Lena’s ears to protect her from the roar of the guns. Lena wasn’t sure who screamed louder, her or Supergirl, as the revolving barrels ripped out their entire supply of ammunition in a few seconds, pummeling Supergirl’s back with explosions that could have shredded a tank, as the hero cradled Lena, sheltering her with her superhuman body.

When the hellstorm was over, the machine charged at them.

Supergirl did scream now, and fell upon the machine in a berserk rage. Lena had seen her in a fight before and knew she could be terrible to behold, but this was different. The empty suit was struck with such unending fury that she reduced it to shreds of metal and oil-spitting chunks of machinery in moments, spreading it halfway across the floor of warehouse.

When Supergirl rounded on her, Lena’s heart skipped. The hero’s chest was heaving, straining at the crest on her chest even as the bunching muscles on her arms and stomach pulled at the material, her perfect hair swirling around as she turned, that angelic face marred by a streak of oil and a sheen of sweat.

How dare she just look like that. It was incredibly unfair.

Before Lena knew it what was happening, Supergirl was lifting her into a heart-skipping bridal carry, pulling her much too close as she took off. On instinct, Lena pressed her eyes shut and buried her face in the Kryptonian’s neck, to hide from the heights.

Moments later they landed, and Supergirl threw Lena’s balcony door back and deposited her on her feet, leaving her stumbling back against her kitchen island in a daze. Supergirl stared at her, looming over Lena with the height difference increased by her stacked heels and Lena having lost her shoes at some point, so her stocking toes were left curling on the cold floor.

“That thing almost killed you,” Supergirl snapped. “If Is been a millisecond later you’d be dead.”

Her voice was tight with emotion, somewhere between anger, exasperation, and terror, and it felt like a fist closed in Lena’s chest.

“Are you sure you just weren’t there to make sure I wasn’t taking Lex’s old suit for a spin myself?” Lena spat, though her voice trembled. “You don’t seem to trust a thing I say lately. If I tell you the sky is blue you’ll go check.”

Supergirl’s face flushed and Lena braced for another booming, self righteous speech about trust or safety or the meaning of teamwork or some such heroic nonsense, but then her voice shattered into a million pieces and tears welled wet in her eyes.

“All I want is for you to be okay.”

A thousand thoughts danced in Lena’s mind. To ask her why, to defy her, to taunt her, to demand what exactly it was that made Lena so damned important that this woman was so intense about her safety one moment and so angry the next.

In the dance of all those thoughts, the more base instinct won out. Lena grabbed Supergirl by the neck of her suit, just below those delightful collarbones of hers, and used it as a handle to pull herself into a hard, aggressive kiss.

The world hung still for a moment, and Lena felt it all pivot around her. Something big was happening here. Something huge, something…

Something forgotten entirely as Supergirl’s tongue roughly claimed Lena’s mouth and her hands raked over Lena’s ass, dragging her skirt up.

Oh God, she thought, this is actually happening.

Lips pressed to her skin, the words burning hot into her flesh like an invocation.

“Is this okay?” Supergirl whispered.

“Yes,” Lena moaned, without hesitation.

To be continued…

[copperloytwinsburg]

Copperloy

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