Nowhereverse Tales, issue 5

Wonder, an eldritch creature that looks like a blue slime person. Has tentacles for legs, three larger tentacles with mouths at his waist, a mouth on his stomach, four arms, and tentacles for hair. He has two purple eyes on his face and is covered with purple eyes otherwise. He is eating a bananna peel and holding a candy wrapper; one of his tentacle-mouths is eating a soda can.

C.S. Lewis once said, “We read to know we’re not alone.” (Actually, now that I think about it, it’s really the character C.S. Lewis in the play/movie Shadowlands.) That feels real to me, especially now.

I started writing because I found a Sonic fanfic where one character is the last of her kind, and another character becomes her kind so she can have a child, so he can love her as she deserves. I saw words on the screen describing a story I thought only existed in my head.

But more recently, it’s gone the other way. There are people in this world with lives I don’t understand, and in the past it’s caused me to be dismissive. But then I discovered stories of them. Stories that showed that even if the manner of their life and love looked different, it was still real, still just as worthy of my respect.

I hope, in the days and months ahead, we will continue to share these stories and treasure the connections they make.

—Ronyo

Read issue 5