falderalDec 13, 2022

I just read the loveliest short story about #raycats* and I had to share it - The Green Cats Of Desolation City, a post-apoc story comfortably between horror and softness.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/8887861

[CW for the link: implied death, #radiation]

The Green Cats of Desolation City - Serenade - Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion... - Sandia Labs [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Show threadfalderal
*a few links for anyone unfamiliar! the first has broader information; the image is from the second site.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/
http://www.theraycatsolution.com/#10000
Ten Thousand Years - 99% Invisible

In 1990, the federal government invited a group of  geologists, linguists, astrophysicists, architects, artists, and writers to the New Mexico desert, to visit the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. They would be there on assignment. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the nation’s only permanent underground repository for nuclear waste. Radioactive byproducts from nuclear weapons manufacturing and nuclear power plants. WIPP was

99% Invisible
Dec 13, 2022 at 2:05pmWeb
Show threadfalderalDec 13, 2022
yesterday I got talking to a friend about all this and ended up deciding that raycats should absolutely be a thing in space sci-fi. Some chief engineer who keeps a raycat around because their mother did, and her father before her, and no matter that they have reliable detecting equipment now, it's TRADITION.
Show threadfalderalDec 13, 2022
the raycat has to save the day eventually. I'm thinking a shuttle mission that goes all kinds of wrong and also serves as an opportunity for the cat and the chief engineer's second-in-command - nervous around cats, and irritated by its habit of sitting on his workstation - to bond a little.
Show threadfalderalDec 13, 2022
...I also came up with a raycats game idea because my brain is incapable of stopping sometimes. it's fun.