Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 15hA day trader, the witch kept score of every petty #sin Greg committed. When she ran out of fingers to count them on, she came after his. In the washbasin, eating an apple, scratching behind his ear, he’d suddenly feel a cut, blood drawn. Her laugh was a whisper he mistook for the wind. #vss365 182
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 07/10/2026There’s something about waking up early at sea, taking in the vastness of the ocean, yesterday’s #island already a distant memory. It makes you feel small. Then the breakfast buffet on the cruise is served and that feeling goes right over the rail. #vss365 0242
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The boy woke up into nothing. This was no dream, his father had told him this day would come. He was a child of the universe. Slowly stars appeared around him and he could see forever. He spread his mind open, caught solar winds and set #sail in all directions at once, looking for home. #vss365 0171
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 05/10/2026We took shelter with shadows that weren’t our own. Against flickering lights from near-dead batteries, they mimed to each other on the concrete walls, panicked movements, an argument. Outside, the #hurricane raged. When the lights went out, we heard them whisper, calling us the shadows. #vss365 0152
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The #harbour kept returning the dead. Not bodies, memories. Every morning, fishermen found yesterday’s arguments floating between the boats: apologies, betrayals, things never said. Then, this morning, it returned my childhood. I recognized the house immediately. It was still burning. #vss365 2295
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The souk is madness and I feel her little hand squeeze mine even tighter. A cacophony of colours, smells and friendly shouting - “Canada? Australia?” - trying to #lure us to their stalls. On the other side, tears in her eyes. After a nice dinner, we take the long way back to our hotel. #vss365 0163
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026- We see the things they can’t from up here, hooted the first owl. - Yet there’s so much we can’t see, said the second. - We can fly higher, see more. We can sit atop the #mountain and see above the clouds. - But what then? When we’ve seen everything, what then? - Then we start over. #vss365 0162
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Afterlife storage. Are we souls or just data? The cloud awaits us. #vss365 #cloud 0286
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Life is full of lasts. There will never be a moment exactly like this. That #cloud won’t be there, in that exact shape. Sounds will be echoes. And you only know what you know now, not anything that comes after. Live your life embracing your lasts and you are truly living in the present. #vss365 1193
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The envelope was a #bequest from the man who came before him; in it, two pennies and a note. “Sleep with these on your eyes and you’ll be safe from the one who comes at night.” It was an old hospital and it seemed the interview for night guard had left out a few important details. #vss365 1214
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026We slept in shifts at the wormhole. Noise for a month: radio signals, chatter, tongues that weren’t ours. Now the silence was a welcome #reprieve. We thought they’d gone. It wasn’t until after the attack that we learned they’d realized we could hear them and had just changed frequencies. #vss365 1235
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026They told us the river would purify us, but I didn’t believe them. I pretended to drink. By morning, everyone had disappeared except me. I went down to the river and found it calm and dark, the reflection smiling back at me. Only problem was, it wasn’t mine. #vss365 1163
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Of all the things I’d like to #renounce, the need to make everything meaningful is probably the most significant. #vss365 0143
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Words hold power, watch over the ones you choose. The same breath that can #nurture a flame can also snuff it out completely. #vss365 0103
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 25/09/2026This morning we talk near-death experiences and those moments where a love for travel was born, and for me, both took place on two wheels. Traveler friends, I’m curious, where did your love for travel start? #TravelCommunity 022
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 25/09/2026“When you use the word #reckon, it is common to scratch at either your chin or the back of your head. Try it now for two minutes.” The instructor walked the room as the mechs looked deep in thought. They’d been taught the language, then context; Body Language 101 was their hardest course. #vss365 0203
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 24/09/2026My skin feels too tight on my body; I bend my limbs, it stretches over my bones, thins out, squeaks like a rubbed balloon. I’ve known #hunger. It will end, it always does. We’ll find a way. All of us. Together. No one will be lost. The wolves are at the door, but we won’t let them in. #vss365 0105
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Their shared #passion for the show Hoarders had been a strangely comforting thing; a peek into the lives of people who were worse off than themselves. Now, alone on the couch, he thought hoarders didn’t hold onto too much after all, and their excess only highlighted everything he had lost. #vss365 0142
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Carl whispered at the window again; this time, he heard the whispers back. Up on the hill - the big one, closest to the stars - he laid out the contents of his backpack, ready to #embark on whatever adventure lay ahead. A compass, string, paper clips… everything they’d told him to bring. #vss365 0112
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 21/09/2026When it gets #stormy like this, tornado coming, we take to the root cellar. This time though, when we open the door, we find ourselves already inside. “Get in!” the other Pa yells. The other Ma and I look frightened, but not surprised. My Pa looks to Ma and says, “Oh no, not again.” #vss365 0193
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The hunters found the blemmye beside the fire, reading, calmly roasting a hare. “It’s civilized,” said Marco, the youngest. Pietr, the oldest, nudged him forward. “Good, no #conflict then. Maybe this one won’t scream like the rest.” The blemmye smiled. “They stop screaming eventually.” #vss365 0122
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Neither here nor there, but somehow both, I call out to tell her we’ve been here for her all along. We’ve seen her grow, cry, be hurt, fight back; we #marvel at the young woman she’s become. She can’t hear me, or any of us. Our pictures line the staircase, yet she rarely stops to look. #vss365 1203
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 18/09/2026We’ve been told not to go into the hedge maze. From the attic window, we can see it laid out and have drawn maps. “It’s for guests, only,” Mama warns. Pillow lumps under blankets, we sneak out to #explore. Our maps are wrong. It’s been hours. We can hear Mama, but she can’t hear us. #vss365 1205
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 17/09/2026It wasn’t the creatures in the woods or up in the mountains that undid us. The pests got us in the end. The rodents and insects, infesting the food supply that was meant to #sustain us through the winter. We shiver now, hungry, snowed in. Alone. Difficult decisions lie ahead. #vss365 1196
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026“We’ll #commence once everyone has arrived.” Paul looked around and counted ten other chairs, all empty. He was questioning his decision to answer the ad. The speaker stood on the tiny stage in the church basement and stared at him. After a minute, Paul still alone: “Okay, let’s begin.” #vss365 2234
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The scarf is showing its holes and Gwen shivers as she watches the last duck take flight. An #autumnal breeze blows a leaf, once green, across the water. To think, just two months ago, the visitors hadn’t even arrived yet. Now, the disc hanging in the sky is normal, just another Tuesday. #vss365 0172
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 14/09/2026They reprogrammed him yesterday. Today, he watched her cry without understanding why. “Do you remember love?” she asked. His #sanguine eyes flickered. “No,” he said. But somewhere beneath the new code, something hurt. He just didn’t know what to call it. #vss365 1349
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 13/09/2026From 3:43 to 4:07 AM PDT, the ATA received their clearest transmission yet. Gail studied the printouts on the wall, #esoteric, full of unknown meaning. An idea struck her and she started rearranging the papers, signal waves taking shape, until she was looking at an image of her own face.. #vss365 0182
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 12/09/2026With all the #eloquence of a D-Series fanbot, PloBear recited his usual script. Mind the gap. See something, say something. Don’t lean on the doors. A stray piece of code sniffed its way through his circuits. What if today, he didn’t say anything at all? What would happen at the airlock? #vss365 0141
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Maybe it’s my own #naivete, but I believe that the darkest days are starting to pass. This hellish timeline we’ve turned into a punchline is on the wane. I’m seeing sparks turn into small flames. And who knows, if more people simply choose to believe this, too, maybe we can make it so. #vss365 0101
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Feeling good today. Why? Because it’s Friday.😄 Feeling pretty biffy after a meditative drive up to the cottage. Thought a lot about how I use social media… this might turn into something, might not, and if it does I’ll get better with captions, etc. For now, just some Friday morning thoughts! 021
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Dust flew from their breath as they studied the old book they’d found in the hut in the woods. Recipes? Spells? A #melange of objects as ingredients, some living, or recently so. Pages had no titles, so the children tried an easier list. Micah ended up in the mirror, Gabi ran for help. #vss365 1266
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Maybe this is when and how it’s all meant to end; giving up would certainly be easier. Questioning why you continue to fight is the first step towards losing. But a deeper #intuition is at play, There’s something inside him that makes him put on that smile, keeping everyone else out. #vss365 0152
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026She often wakes with wet feet and sand between her toes. She asks for my help. Tonight, I follow her footsteps along the beach. They stop at the water, then continue across it, dark blue against the shimmering #moonglade. I cannot follow and have no answers for her when she wakes. #vss365 2124
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026He hated the word “muddled” written on his chart. The nurses and doctors didn’t understand the gift he’d been given. His mind had become a #palimpsest of sorts; old memories crashing through the surface, letting him experience those moments again. The sea, the laughter. Holding her hand. #vss365 2175
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 06/09/2026With an #adroit spin, Gus caught the vase as it fell from the bookshelf. He spin again and caught another. Placing then on the ground, he looked up to see at least eight books nudging themselves towards the edge, across the entire length of the shelf. The spirits were in fine form, today. #vss365 0163
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 05/09/2026The crash site was ten miles long; wreckage from the boosters, ejected in the atmosphere, smoked in the distance. After two weeks alone, Ko had yet to #reconnoiter the whole area. Just now, a noise. A distant machine. Through his scope, the name “Perseverence”, written on its arm. #vss365 0101
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026On the other side of the curtain, the nurse’s #silhouette is still. Clipboard in hand, she’s pensive, paused. When the curtain opens, it’s the doctor, standing two feet to the left. The nurse isn’t there. She comes in a moment later, stands exactly where I’d seen her, clipboard in hand. #vss365 0171
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 03/09/2026“The hag’ll steal you away,” the man at the end of the bar warns. “Don’t follow her. Don’t listen to her song or drink any #elixir she offers, or ye’ll be done for.” I stumble home, still thirsty. A blurry, beautiful woman is in the road, beckoning me. This can’t be the hag. I’m wrong. #vss365 0272
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 02/09/2026One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was tell my mother my aunt had committed suicide. My uncle told me on a call before she’d gotten home from work. Days turned into weeks and she became impossible to #console, while I hid the hurt, buried it. Found an old shovel recently… #vss365 0101
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 01/09/2026After we’d raised him for a few years, our house mech became #empathetic. Cory learned to predict our sadness from tiny changes in skin temperature, then quietly made tea. Funnily, he also detected sadness in houseplants, so every morning began with twelve cups and a very confused fern. #vss365 0131
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Dickey spun #wax every night until dawn, hoping she’d return, looking for those silver hoops and high ponytail on the dance floor. Had she even been real that night, all those weeks ago? She haunted his memory, appeared in his peripheral vision. Always there, just out of reach. #vss365 0213
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 30/08/2026It’s a large mental #broom I used to sweep what you did under the rug, and the rug doesn’t even hide it. So we sit around, careful where we step when we’re in the same room, but we’ll get messy one night and one of us will trip and we’ll have no choice but to talk about it. Another drink? #vss365 2175
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 29/08/2026She wore my left #glove, as she’d forgotten hers, and I wore my right. Bare hands intertwined as we walked through the park. We were kids who thought the friendship was worth risking. Snow falling; it was her first kiss, my second, under a streetlit scene straight out of the movies. #vss365 0152
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 28/08/2026It was grade 10 science where Gus learned how he controlled others. It wasn’t their minds he owned; the unit on dendrites and nervous #tissue felt more like what he was tapping into. People could think what they wanted, he was just able to interrupt the flow between thought and action. #vss365 0143
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I haven’t touched your side of the bed since you left; the memory foam #pillow still shows a trace of you, an outline of where you were, a reminder of where you are. In the toothpicks I never use, the hand soap you loved, the garden. The urn on the mantle holds you, but you’re everywhere. #vss365 0123
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 26/08/2026The original #poster throws a thought into the void and summons a mob. Usernames were supposed to free us from judgement; instead, anonymity frees us to be who we’d like to be when nobody can punish us. The comments section is the basement of the human psyche, and everyone has a shovel. #vss365 0183
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The surface squelches underfoot; the whole damn planet is a giant #sponge. Purple gas spurts out with every step, a smell somehow both lilac and locker room. This is home for the next few weeks until we refuel and then hop to the next planet. Each step we take gets us closer to home. #vss365 0245
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 24/08/2026The wind has a chill to it today it didn’t have a week ago. The grass was crunchy this morning. One last #cord to pile and we’ll be ready in time for winter, though we’re cutting it closer this year than most. You’ve been sick, town’s been helping. Looking forward to spring already. #vss365 0202
Lee Zanello @lima-zulu.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I don’t have you anymore. To risk everything with me. To blow on my #dice. To tell me to stop. To show me what enough means. Your arms aren’t locked in mine or around my neck or held above your head or holding me back. The memories are fading and I know only the idea of these things, now. #vss365 0196
