Two Fic Tuesday for March 10th

Hi, hello and welcome!

This week I bring you a pair of stories that are both full of emotion, and end on notes of hope, even if they're very different flavors of the word. Both of these filled me with feelings in one way or another, and by the end I found myself sitting back and just letting those emotions roll over me.

Not a bad way to spend my reading time, if you ask me.

Recs

The Final Escape - Christine Amsden - Factor Four
This hurt my heart a little, but I loved it too. I was never a portal fantasy kid, even though my childhood was hm, kind of weird. I more fantasized about being adopted by horror movie folks, but I can remember that need for escape and how much it could help sometimes. This made me remember all that, and how much it could hurt to let that go. In the end though, this made me smile, finding the ending hopeful even if the potential for a bad sort of cycle is still there.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackened Husk of a Planet By Adeline Wong - Adeline Wong - Strange Horizons
I love the way this was told so much,. Watching the emotion unfold was just lovely, and getting a glimpse at the greater world, but also at this one moment is wonderful. I felt the ache in this, and the need to keep going, to make a difference. I remember being in high school and feeling so much like making a difference is possible, and how that gets hard to hold onto as you grow older. This can remind someone of that though, and I think that's important.

I wish all of you many good stories,

• Vale

PS: If you want to find me elsewhere, I'm on Bluesky at @howsweetthewords and I have a Ko-fi and Patreon where I post prompts, more personal/writing updates, microfiction, and miscellany. Tiers start at $1, but there is the occasional free post as well.