Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars

Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars by Togi Kayako (土宜草子) first appeared in issue Issue 100 in 2022.

Summary

Enji dreamed of seeing other worlds, right up until he landed in a Martian prison. Now he has a second chance when he’s shipped off to Tenebrev as part of a cultural exchange program.

Issik, the Tenebrevian heading the program, thinks he’s ready to be the perfect host to a human visitor, but nothing could have prepared him for Enji.

M/M | 27,175 words

Author's Notes

So first off, I started this bad boy a year and a half ago for the sci-fi double feature issue and I could not be happier to finally shove it out of the nest. The worldbuilding ate my brain. I have almost 2k words of notes, so if you'd like to know more about my funky little aliens, please ask me anything you want. I will put one tidbit here: If you're curious to get an idea of how Issik sees colors, look up tritanopia.

Title shamelessly stolen from an Oscar Wilde quote. The working title was "Pet Project," which felt off, so I snuck the phrase into the story instead. Thanks as ever to my husband for looking it over, and of course the tireless W2 for both a wealth of suggestions to improve the story and some much-needed encouragement to do so.