This is an AI-generated story and is a continuation of “Test Drive”.
I have kept edits to a minimum, making changes only when the AI would repeat phrases a bit too much.
(Only the Test Drive series will be written with AI assistance)

It was pretty quickly obvious to me when I arrived here that this world was way more Earth-like than I expected. The people look mostly like humans with one or two major exceptions, the trees and other animals look familiar, and once I was able to find a map of the world, even the place names and the land forms (pre-icecap-melting versions) were mostly a match for my memory.

“I wonder how much they were prepared to pay us”.

Lisa and I were having breakfast in the college restaurant.

“I’ve no idea”, I replied. “It’s probably good money; these guys don’t seem to have any regard to cost… you little Jezebel! You’re not thinking of going with it?”

“No, no, I was just wondering…”

“Well, you can find out if you want: Remember you have agreed to speak to His Most Excellent Excellency’s agent?”

Chapter Three

In the days that followed the High Priest’s dramatic defeat, the entire kingdom buzzed with excitement and intrigue over Bellatrice’s unexpected intervention. News spread like wildfire, igniting conversations in every corner of the realm. The revelation that the goddess herself had descended from the heavens to thwart the High Priest’s deadly assault on Akari sent shockwaves through the nation, and the implications of her divine act echoed throughout both the grand academy and the farthest reaches of the kingdom.

It was my twenty-eighth birthday, although I had to work, I was still looking forward to being with my wife tonight to celebrate it. It was a normal work day until the email late that afternoon.

Recently we have been getting a lot of them, the company trying to improve the working conditions of its employees. All of this because they were losing employees right and left, fifteen employees leaving just last month.

During Westridge Academy's championship football game, an unexpected moment forces Logan to confront a terrifying new facet of his transformation. As the line between his engineered persona and authentic self continues to blur, Logan faces his most profound identity crisis yet--one that quickly spirals beyond his private struggle.

It was a strange time to be a peacekeeper of any kind, because it was a shameful kind of peace to preserve. Multiculturalism had failed; polite society had ceased and democracy had mutated into the exercise of force through strength in numbers.

Delivering Love

A Transgender Coming of Age

Adventure - Romance - Book

Written by
Ariel Montine Strickland

Will Lucy be able to win over Patrick with kindness and in the process find both herself and unconditional romantic love?

Shanghai Nights
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

Easy As Failing On A Bike.
by Angharad
part: three hundred and seventy bloody five!

Time seemed to hang, as the phone rang again. Then it stopped as Stella picked it up. Tom and I looked at each other. She came back in. "Wrong bloody number," she banged her hand on the table in frustration.

When Logan's academic preferences begin shifting in unexpected directions, he discovers another layer of GIRLI's comprehensive transformation strategy that threatens to redirect his future entirely. Faced with crucial decisions about his collegiate path, Logan confronts the terrifying possibility that the boundaries between his original self and engineered identity may be dissolving faster than he can maintain them.

Chapter 2

Monday, on the way home, Willow asked Gina if she could ask her mother if she minded going out of the way on the late evenings to take Jacob home.

“Why are we taking Jacob home, may I ask?”

“Because, friend, he will be joining the Junior Orchestra as a classical guitar player. Hopefully, he will round out Summer Rose playing folk songs. He is a fine guitarist, but not one who wants to be a rock star. He’s been shy about letting everyone hear him.”

“How do you know all that?”

I had taken the advice of a co-worker and made an appointment at a new salon in town for a haircut. My old male barber had retired, looking for other barbers in the yellow pages proved to be an effort in futility.

Realistically, I don’t think old time barbers even exist anymore. I had almost decided to settle on one of the chains for their special, even at $ 12.88 the price seemed ridiculous when I used to get a haircut for seven dollars at my old barbers. I know, I sound like a born cheap stake.

I wished with all my heart that I had been able to help him more, when he was younger. When it might have made a difference. But the past, as I knew only too well, could not be repaired.

It could only be transcended.

Things were going well in Dublin, but I now needed to move to London. From there I could apply at the Embassy for a passport with greater leeway as to who could countersign the paperwork. We told Sameed that we would be quitting at the end of the week and he was most disconsolate. He persuaded us to do one more week and we were happy to oblige him. He also gave us a reference in Arabic in the event that we wanted to look for work in any of the Lebanese restaurants or Arabic-themed clubs there.

Murder
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Have you heard it said that a friend is somebody who will help you move house, but a best friend is somebody who will help you move a body? That is the kind of friend my brother Dan was to Byron Marker. And I was as close to Dan as a sister could be, which was how I got to be included in their plan.