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description= creative writing on environmental justice;
Headings (most frequently used words):
reckoning, reclamation, botany, of, the, mouth, original, mandate, burn, barrel, astrology, flash, fiction, call, gets, weird, omen, recollection, posts, pagination, sowing, kottravai, on, leafing, how, you, wait,
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ion flash fiction novelette interviews poetry reviews search shop cart checkout categories fiction it was paradise sowing kottravai tehnuka we gathered her pieces from across the land she left them under a palmyra tree where she huddled overnight i would say slept but i think no one there truly slept unless perhaps the infants i imagine they dreamt of the earth cracking around them others were deep in drifts of white beach sand itself made up of fragmented bodies of long dead sea life one categories poetry reckoning x on leafing dyani sabin 2020 it is march i have slept through my alarm every day this week confusion until the silence of dawn reveals that commuters are no longer driving past my windowsill where a dahlia tuber freshly buried in dirt prepares for spring their bodies roused my body and so we met the day together no more categories poetry it was paradise how you wait ryan clark the wheel of probable harm falls forward over the inaction of a state over the houses as fangs along a cancerous jaw the rate of loss is not hesitant finger tapping uncertainty finalizing the weight of itself in a legislative session categories fiction reckoning x reclamation your shuttle will arrive in four minutes please proceed to caladan avenue benny tapped the air above the dismiss notification button on her hud she d been at the shuttle stop for twelve minutes already and wished she d taken the time to pee before she left her leg both where it was and where it wasn t felt weird she flipped through her notifications j l rifkin y our shuttle will arrive in four minutes please proceed to caladan avenue benny tapped the air above the dismiss notification button on her hud she d been at the shuttle stop for twelve minutes already and wished she d taken the time to pee before she left her leg both where it was and where it wasn t felt weird she flipped through her notifications reminder two overdue assignments in reentry journal you can do it to access writing coach press she dismissed it and loaded the block puzzle game the shuttle chimed an arpeggio when it stopped the lift extended automatically when it detected her id she held the handrest please hold handrest securely lifting and slipped into the first empty pod she was actually supposed to be practicing with stairs maybe the shuttle software didn t get the memo she tabbed back to the block game benny waited until everyone else was off to leave her pod she didn t want people watching while the lift beeped its excruciating way down outside a blue and white sign read puente hills reclamation facility treasure for tomorrow around the sign her hud displayed a wheel of floating menu buttons book a tour careers materials reclaimed for kids graeme was waiting at the gates a sturdy block of a woman with gray in her ponytail benny you made it welcome we ll do hr first and then i ll give you the tour sound good benny s new access badge looked just like graeme s kinda nice benny thought retro okay next stop locker room there s bathrooms there too if you need them we shower in we shower out inside you wear scrubs no outside clothes in the containment zone no scrubs outside the containment zone got it she waited for benny s nod before continuing anything metal you can keep on there ll be scrubs and booties when you come out everything fits weird oh and put your leg through on the tool cycle that s what i do with my hand graeme waved her right hand and benny finally noticed that it was printed plastic its phalanges and metacarpals articulated in black silver and hot pink her new leg was gray that was the default when you didn t enter color choices graeme kept smiling until benny closed the shower cubicle door behind her it was a narrow room with labeled panels on the wall too narrow she couldn t stretch her arms couldn t move her pulse sped up she couldn t move shit no come on she closed her eyes and did one of the stupid homeboundhero breathing exercises until the taste of metal cleared her mouth this better not make her late she opened her eyes again she was fine this was fine there were even handrails benny stripped efficiently to her leg and dog tags then unbuckled the leg balancing awkwardly she nestled it in the tools inbound bin a shallow slatted metal box that reminded her of the utensil baskets from kp duty and tapped it shut she d get used to it she d have to the promised scrubs were in a matching cramped chamber on the other side along with cushioned booties and flimsy compostable mycelial web underwear graeme was waiting in the hall doing something benny couldn t see on her hud whatever it was she was moving fast swinging her arms and pivoting her body benny waited to be noticed just a second graeme muttered there we go she dismissed whatever she was looking at with a gesture benny didn t recognize from the standard interface but of course graeme needed modified commands and now benny did too graeme s lined face folded back into her usual smile sorry about that minor bot cleaning kerfuffle in sector c nothing serious let s get you settled benny s cubicle was spacious with a round bubble window and room to work sitting or standing and yet more interactive panels on the wall drinks come out there conveyor bots bring your lunch order anything you like as long as it s synth protein and flavor powder i do love flavor powder benny tried after her tour that wasn t even really a joke graeme laughed anyway who doesn t and out there that s where the magic happens the window overlooked a terraced hillside furred with trees too sparse to hide infantry off to the right orderly lines of bots marched in and out like trails of foraging ants so we re starting you off over there on g44 crew of ten bots graeme gestured to an indistinguishable section of hillside three survey patrol two for e waste and complex composites and one each on metals silicates basic organics complex hydrocarbons including biohazards and inorganic hazmat heavy metals and radiation mostly the bots were all the same shape like pointed eggs but came in a range of sizes and colors muddy green white candy apple red cerulean the ones coming from the hill were smeared with grime the ones going out shone like new they re level four semi autonomous graeme wrinkled her nose well they boot level four but they ve got pretty good learning capability and we never wipe them if we don t have to don t be surprised if they exhibit level five or six capacities personality too really military autos didn t have personality too unpredictable oh yeah that s where you come in as their handler it s not just maintenance you re also providing guidance they have enough battery to go twelve to eighteen hours autonomous but they usually need us before that benny leaned her weight on the window ledge the new leg rubbed but the outside of her good ankle hurt when she stood too long what kind of guidance explosive methane wildlife load bearing furniture all kinds of stuff g44 is a fairly old zone mostly late twentieth and early twenty first but because it s peripheral it s still in the first phase of reclamation so you re gonna see some to use the technical term weird shit weird shit benny repeated graeme laughed don t worry your bots will be on short shifts until you re adjusted and for now we ll just have you run training modules we ll go visit decon and recharging later and speaking of bots needing guidance friggin org b17 wants to eat a skunk so i better skedaddle ping me if you need anything when graeme had gone benny dispensed a bulb of seltzer and activated the panel labeled chair her leg was still rubbing she d shoved blister pads in her pocket on her way out but her pocket was in her pants and her pants were in a locker it was fine she could sit it would be fine she pulled up the first module the reclamation bots had mostly the same anatomy as search and rescue bots retractable bucket drums grippers with claws and spines and rubberized pads fluid receptacles cargo compartments sensors of every imaginable kind she passed that test on the first try the next couple of modules took her through lunch teriyaki spirulina with udon and sesame fungonuts and the discovery that it was a good idea to activate the sunshade on the bubble window at around two graeme came back in the middle of the module on manual decontamination which was an annoying mix of easy acids neutralize bases and very difficult fifty seven strains of organofluorine degrading bacteria everything okay yeah yeah good i didn t finish the modules but that s fine you have two weeks to do them all come check out the decon line and then you can shower out and call it a day benny followed her boss trying not to limp too obviously as they walked graeme pointed out maintenance bays and r d labs and benny met too many people they ended up on a steel catwalk below bots were trundling in the gate she could see the grime on their shiny carapaces better from here brown organic smudges scraps of paper and fabric plastic chips most of them according to the training module were made of aluminum oxynitride with integrated color some had scratches like healed scars did you get to the auto decon benny nodded and recited what she remembered after they drop their payloads they come here for cleaning water with a surfactant neutralizations for anything the chemical nose ids another rinse then they re air dried the water all gets filtered and repurified between uses yeah pretty much there are manual decon stations too sooner or later you ll have to go scrape something off one of your bots and their charging bays are down below we should go see your team s section show you what i mean about personality graeme paused glanced down at benny s leg if that s rubbing my uncle makes really good ointment spruce and stuff i can bring you some i don t want to be a bother no bother it helped a lot with this old thing especially when i first got it graeme waved her polychrome hand i thought the va had real state of the art stuff now synth skin motor assist neural hookup benny shrugged i didn t want any of that my mech went down in a cyberattack said like that it sounded clean like the training exercises or the bots shining from decontamination not like the smell of her own sweat and blood cooking in the sun while her leg burned and jacko screamed in her ear graeme winced sorry to hear that eastern front southern graeme winced harder my nephew was on the southern benny nodded yeah so i requested an analog leg makes sense benny shrugged graeme turned her head sharply looking at an alert on her hud shit i gotta go handle this can you find your way back to the showers okay she waited just long enough for benny s nod back at her apartment a package waited in her delivery locker the return address was in salmon idaho she d only ever known one person from salmon idaho in the elevator she looked at the ceiling to keep the tears in she left the package on the table and sank onto the couch on her home network her hud bristled with notifications update reentry journal now you can do it to access writing coach seven missed calls from mom message from reminder art therapy in one hour and forty five minutes continue your five day physiotherapy streak always getting stronger always getting stronger trademark of she dismissed them all unstrapped her leg and played the block game until the login for art therapy appeared on her hud she tapped it and her efficiency apartment disappeared into the vr start new project read one pane load asset packs saved asset packs she didn t mind art therapy she d picked it off a list of options it reminded her of drawing with jacko but in a good way not too much the part where they talked about the art sucked but most of it was just putting together stuff from the asset packs some people in the group made fucked up shit with distorted bodies and darkness and holes oozing blood benny just made landscapes the biggest asset packs the photorealistic ones had scans of all kinds of trees and flowers and rocks she even recognized one of the mountains from a basic training vr sim it was the same one jacko had said looked like a pile of turds benny had missed half the targets from giggling benny never used that asset pack but mostly landscapes were okay she made up stupid little games like an accurate southeastern landscape or an extinct landscape or a landscape where everything s blue with fescue and forget me nots and spruce except then she had to make up some bullshit about the bluebird represents healing and amy the facilitator would nod her avatar head sympathetically and that asshole perry s avatar would smirk benny s avatar still had both legs today everything in the landscape was broken a tree half killed by lightning with black bark and green needles around bleach white wood a split rock this weird smeared sideways flower from one of the asset packs probably some kind of glitch in the scan because nothing that freaky could be real she hesitated over some bugs that reminded her of the bots at work a shiny round blue green beetle a slatey pillbug perhaps next week she d make a round stuff landscape she could draw the bots of course rather than just relying on what had been scanned into the asset packs but there was a lot in the asset packs and she hadn t picked up her pencils since she got back at the end of class she didn t have to talk because brett started crying about his dad s old mustang a car not a horse that was fine with benny she had nothing to say it was too late to make dinner so she ate some seaweed chips and jerky and a granola bar she didn t even need to shower she figured she showered twice a day at work she played the block game for a while and went to bed she could open that package tomorrow the next morning she overslept and nearly missed the shuttle at work there was a jar in her internal mailbox labeled uncle bernie s special salve which made her smile the rest of the week disappeared into training modules and shadowing other bot handlers she watched through her hud while tark told his gray silicate bot to run a radioactivity scan on some beads and while braith guided one of her black survey bots out of a partly collapsed bed frame benny passed quizzes and made stilted conversation with her coworkers uncle bernie s salve seemed to help the package sat on the counter it was a busy week the next week she started running her team for a couple of hours at a time first with graeme looking over her shoulder then with her on call each bot had its own panel on her hud plus the ones for the other bots in the area and overall status alerts thunderstorms gas alerts wildlife sightings seemed like there was always something going on it was almost like piloting the mech except with nothing locked around her body just information flowing through and occasional chatter on her headset almost like old times she made the round things landscape in art therapy with pillbugs and ladybugs and cacti and bea...
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