Intraspecific Competition
Added 2025-09-17 16:41:26 +0000 UTCEDIT: The jam is now live and public in its entirety at this link
This story represents a slight change of pace - it was written for the ongoing Fall 2025 Mechsploitation Writers Jam, in accordance with the theme Postbellum/After The Fight. That might require a little explanation: as I've mentioned before, 'mechsploitation' is the name of the subgenre and writing scene that has grown up around and spun off from my WARHOUND stories, and there is now a thriving community that has begun hosting events like these. The jam will be going public in a couple of weeks, but as my patrons, here's your preview. This story in particular doesn't take place within WARHOUND's setting, although it does reference a certain something I wrote on Bluesky some time ago. Not essential context, I hope, but a fun easter egg for those who might be familiar. The jam also offered a bonus challenge, which was to include as many as possible of the following phrases: 'Hope, and its cousin Death', 'Bright, painful chaos', 'Victorycucked', 'A life required living', 'Swan song', and 'Sanguinity'. I'm proud to say that I manage to squeeze all of them in, although you can all be the judges of how elegantly
Anyway, that's the context. As for this story itself, here's the pitch: ten years after being discharged, a married couple of veteran pilots are visited a former XO who has fallen on hard times. Beth takes pity on her - but in her presence, can the trio resist backsliding into their old, toxic dynamic?
And as a quick content note: this story is decidedly mean-spirited (aren't they all, these days?) in the vein of The Subordinate, but also with some fairly viscerally presented body horror elements. So if any of that is your squick, be forewarned and forearmed
Enjoy! And thank you to my beta readers, Magseidolia, Olivka, and Tara. All of them are talented writers in their own right, but Magseidolia recently started a Patreon page of her own, which I highly encourage all of you to check out! She's amazing, and if you like this story, plenty of hers will be right up your alley
Comments
Thank you!
Kallie
2025-09-29 03:02:41 +0000 UTCThis was pretty good!! The ending honestly frightened me a little more than the ones in WARHOUND and other works, but I liked it still. It just made my heart ache to see this supposedly ideal life get destroyed
Kitty Litter
2025-09-29 01:57:22 +0000 UTCI know exactly what you mean. I'm glad "Alana" makes for a good one!
Kallie
2025-09-17 18:04:45 +0000 UTCsuper normal about this one, though for different reasons than most of the reactions I've seen. horrible women, my beloved.
aria
2025-09-17 17:49:26 +0000 UTC
