21 Comments
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Stefan Baciu's avatar

I have to say, I love the name The Autoclave. I’ve been telling friends and family for a while now that Substack, when it comes to fiction, is less a marketplace and more an incubator. But Autoclave sounds way cooler.

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Magnetic S.'s avatar

Big dawgg

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

And with the Bowie Bolt to match, thank you, I have very much enjoyed Avarice.

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Zivah Avraham's avatar

I have no words, don’t have half the energy you have and am just scuttling around in the shadow of you all.

But I’m with you. Hear my tiny, ratty feet, prancing dancing in the dust.

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Stefan Baciu's avatar

Zivah, we need every pair of rats' feet to make a good horde.

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Zivah Avraham's avatar

I’m going to be the weird old aunty who goes to protests with her homemade placard and hand knit gloves 😁 given that’s what I’ve already been doing for most of my life.

I wasn’t quite old enough to join the women protesting the storage of cruise missile nuclear warheads at RAF Greenham Common in the early 1980s. I went full send on LGBTQ marches in the 1990s. And anti-Iraq War marches post 9/11. And anti-Lebanon War marches in 2006. And anti-Brexit marches in more recent times. I still miss my EU status like a hole in the heart.

Anyhoo - thank you. Now you know a little more about me and my protests.

Community is life.

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Zani D's avatar

You're not in the shadows. You're one of the originals. You showed up.

The only reason mutual aid works is because a community values themselves. A community doesn't value itself without all the little efforts like yours that see people who usually stay by the wayside stepping forward to say "I'm here too". Without that we're just another clique or echo chamber and I'm not interested in either. I want a community.

You're a litmus test for reserved folks to know it's safe with us. You're essential. ❤️‍🩹

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

"Without that we're just another clique or echo chamber and I'm not interested in either. I want a community." THIS IS GOSPEL

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Damn fuckin right. One of us. One of us. One of us.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

You and Zani need to stop making me cry from acts of kindness (no, keep doing that). I'm fucking dehydrated from it.

I'm at constant awe for the compassion I've seen in everyone you've listed, on top of the talent.

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Nick Winney's avatar

Basically...99% of what you boost into my feed is pure gold and I luv ya for it. i cant really do your role in the fiction community justice.

And you're a superb laugh on top of all the wit n skill.

(see what i did there)

Keep on rolling squire!

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Aye, it's a long row to hoe but I'm hoein' it.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

No lie, this is my favorite social media experience I’ve ever had, and I was a college freshman the year they invented Facebook and put it on campuses and all anyone was using it for was hooking up.

It is an honor to be working and writing and reading alongside Emil and Zani and Andrew and Lord Muppet and Papi B and Pablo and all you beautiful knuckleheads. I love the shit out of this group.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Hard goddamn same. Thank you, Tom, for approaching me.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

I'm just happy to be here.

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ARC's avatar

If I did beat you but it would take a lot of effort. It would depend on the prompt. There are many prompts you beat me at. The most important thing is our mutual support networks within the competition and the love and camaraderie you are helping build here with the rest of us.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Ten bucks says the prompt would finally have muppets in it and we'd both be left putting in extra work.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

On my life this is my secret plan.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Thing people forget about prize fights sometimes, at the end everyone gets paid.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Exactly. It's the spectacle. In the end, everyone wins.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

I just like playing kayfabe because .... professional wrestling. (And whether anyone will admit it or not, any MMA and Boxing as well.)

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