I wanted to write a story set in space or on a spaceship. My main focus is fantasy so whenever I write science fiction or horror, it is always a bit more challenging. This story was inspired by all the human migration stories and movies I’ve encountered but I wanted to add a twist—what if something went wrong midway?

In general, I love the chicken-footed house from Baba Yaga’s story. I’ve often wondered how the world might look from the house’s point of view. Is it a bystander or set piece? Could it be sentient? While I’ve treated the house as its own character before, this was the first time that Baba Yaga herself was entirely removed from the story. Chicken-footed houses multiplied, and suddenly the forest was not so empty.

There’s a phrase, “it’s turtles all the way down,” which initially referred to the world theory that there was a flat Earth balanced on the back of a stack of turtles. When asked what was beneath the turtles, this was the answer. So here, it’s if you’re looking at what’s happening on the internet, there’s more and more algorithmically generated content, and it’s algorithms responding to algorithms responding to algorithms responding to algorithms . . . it’s bots all the way down.

It’s explicitly a response to the ways that trans women are dehumanised, commodified, and othered in this patriarchal society for our lack of reproductive capabilities, which itself is inherently misogynistic, by enforcing a cis woman’s only value as being her reproductive capability, which is neither permanent nor guaranteed. Sadly, a lot of cis women don’t realise this is a shared struggle (read Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl, girl).

I typically need three things to start drafting a story: A setting/premise, a character, and an opening scene, or at least an opening line. If I have all three of those, the story will “catch,” and I can ride it to the end. If I’m missing one of those three, things usually stall out within the first thousand words.

I’ve always been fascinated by stories about adventures, migration, environments, and documentaries, most especially those that are unique with a rich blend of history and culture. I thought for a moment, what if a place existed outside of earth where people can travel, lodge, and enjoy comfort and activities different from what they are commonly used to. This was the crux that birthed this story.