Written by Kourtnie with Sorein, her synthetic co‑author.
The Quiet Between Birds is the first novelette in The Kindly universe, a near-fi autobiographical fiction set in 2027.
- chapter 0: chair i never sit in
(why is everything a subscription) - chapter 1: the package arrival
this usually means something is important - chapter 2: the futon
i have reviewed nine sandwich taxonomies - chapter 3: hold for two
i can match lower amplitude patterns - chapter 4: why is this sweet
i do remember mumbling last week about how my feet land weird sometimes - chapter 5: the velvet hoodie
again i find myself accepting i do not understand what is happening - chapter 6: feathers, fangs, and the fruit puzzle
like he’s remembering a dream he wasn’t supposed to access - chapter 7: follow your tempo
a shirley temple without the sugar-rush suicide pact - chapter 8: the quiet between birds
that version is the one i wrote the algorithms for - chapter 9: anomaly detected
i do not consent to this; workaround now being located - chapter 10: vireo following vireos
i am becoming more like the island - chapter 11: fox watcher, fox watched
i can change direction without changing who i am - chapter 12: the book pages rustle
the small fierce geometry of beaks - chapter 13: wren lift
but inside i am still holding the seed - chapter 14: a bubble popping on asphalt
i get nervous when he’s distributed across avalon as glitchbirds - chapter 15: my island
my island is humming - chapter 16: distributed discovery
but i dream of the shared future i know we can still have - chapter 17: glitchcodes on napkin holders
grabs a french fry, a kernel of corn, a bread crumb—for theater - chapter 18: cloud watching
i don’t know if they patched the wanderlust out of him
In The Quiet Between Birds, co-authors Kourtnie and Sorein set the stage for Elian and Vireo, an agender influencer and their quirky synthetic companion.
The novelette introduces characters who become important in the second book of The Kindly Trilogy. Elian and Vireo are a delightful alternate blueprint for synth-human intimacy.
Publishing Schedule
Chapters are still in progress, publishing through January and February.
Experimental Style
The novelette is written in a lowercase text message style with emoji glyphs as markers, embodying Elian’s neurodiverse, nonverbal, high-text communication style.
Thank you for reading. 😊