Community Outreach – BattleTech Pride with Anthology Authors Detocroix, Albatross, And Blimpy

Last month’s fan-made BattleTech Pride Anthology was bigger and better than ever, with a total of 13 stories and one technical readout all with decidedly queer quirks. There’s not a lot of queer representation in BattleTech, so when the first Pride Anthology hit the scene last year, I gobbled it up. The second one took a little longer to chew, but I’ve gone through each and every story, and I can once again provide my stamp of approval (not that it needed it given Mike Stackpole returned to provide this year’s closing remarks).

With planning for next year’s Anthology already underway, I reached out to the folks behind the BattleTech Pride Anthology to talk about the fan project’s rapid growth, its future, and the intersection between LGBTQ+ stories and giant stompy robots. Enjoy. 

Sean (Sarna): First off, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed! So let’s start things with some introductions. Who are you?

Detocroix: Starting off with the hard(est) question! I’m Milla, albeit everyone knows me as Detocroix. Most people just call me Deto tho.

Hillbillyinablimp: Hi I’m Blimp. My full name is in the Anthology, but I’d prefer just Blimp. I’m a queer furry artist from SoCal who got into BattleTech way too deep. I’ve got an art degree I don’t use as often as I’d like, I work in a bookstore, and my horrible obsessions with BattleTech (and Star Wars) are my biggest hyperfixations. I like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain. Oh yeah, I’m also a mod in the Star League Discord server.

Blundering Albatross: I’m Blundering Albatross, who writes as Albert Ross (pun intended) and I only really got involved in the wider BattleTech community last year when I answered the call for the first Anthology and joined the Star League server. Since then I’ve written a huge fanfic, put in for Shrapnel, become a mod, and of course, returned in this year’s Anthology too! I’ve got other, non-BT writing projects too but that’s not what we’re here for.

Detocroix: See, it is the hardest question. I’m not good with introductions! I am also the editor of Pride Anthology, and Albert over here is a slush reader and proofreader for Pride Anthology. Blimp is also joining the team for next year’s Anthology!

Sean: Let’s get your BattleTech bonafides. When did you get into BattleTech? What games have you played, and what games might you currently be playing?

Blundering Albatross: I only properly got into it around 2020 when I started playing MechWarrior Online and then learned of the glorious world of new miniatures and lore to be devoured, although I played MechWarrior 2 back in the day without knowing it was BattleTech. I’ve played Classic and Alpha Strike, via MegaMek and in person, although I’m definitely more of a collector and painter at this point in time than a player. Definitely would love to play the HBS game and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries but alas I am a poor student right now (one day)

Sean: You should! They’re the best MechWarrior/BattleTech games ever made. And they were just on sale too!

Blundering Albatross: Maybe one day in the near future when I have an actual income.

Hillbillyinablimp: I was first introduced when I was two or three when my dad used to play MechWarrior 2. I’d sit in his lap and sometimes he let me drive. At thirteen, I found a copy of MechWarrior 3 at a garage sale and thought “Isn’t that the game my dad used to play?” and after barely getting it running on my computer, I had a blast with it. I’ve since played MechWarrior 4 and 5, was one of the original beta testers for MechWarrior Online, and played quite a bit of HBS BATTLETECH as well. When BattleTech the tabletop game first started showing up at my store, I finally bought in as someone who was already playing and painting X-Wing minis. With that in mind though, my first BattleTech mini was actually a Dark Age Shiro. I miss that thing.

Nowadays I’m a regular MWO player and streamer, and I make it out to monthly-ish Alpha Strike games, with the occasional Aces game at home.

Detocroix: MechWarrior 2, sorry, I’m very plain. I remember booting it up when it came out, and just sinking into the thing. I played all the MechWarrior games basically, just couldn’t skip or stop over the years. I even was a founder on the bad ones like MechWarrior Tactics (and MWO too, but it’s thankfully much better now than it was on release). It took me forever to realize that MechWarrior is BattleTech though. I’m autistic, and I sometimes need a good stomping to connect dots, I only realized it when HBS BATTLETECH came out, I was like what the hell, why is this game like top-down turn-based MechWarrior

Turns out the weirdo Finnish-translated tabletop game with cardboard figures was the thing I was very keen on, even though as a child I kinda scoffed at it because Warhammer had nicer minis. And while I liked wargames, I needed something more tactile and there weren’t many opportunities of getting anything but the Finnish version. Now, here I am tho, with all the CGL redesigns in my pocket plus a lot of extras, and very eagerly waiting to get plastic tanks because I am a huge fan of tanker stuff in real life and in BattleTech.

I primarily play BattleTech these days as an Alpha Strike/Classic hybrid, where movement rules are from Classic, and then a bunch of Alpha Strike optional rules like MAR to give it a bit more complexity.

Sean: I should try that. I play mostly Alpha Strike monthly or so, but there are some problems with Alpha Strike that might be solved with a bit of Classic rules. Alright, now for the all-important question: what’s your favorite ‘Mech?

Hillbillyinablimp: Raven, hands down. You make me pick a variant, then we’ll go with the classic RVN-3L. Electronic warfare, TAG, and NARC? Quoth the Raven, Arrow IV.  Also like, look at it. It’s so shaped. I love that funny little bird.

If we’re talking MWO then the cake goes to the RVN-4X with an AC/20 in the left arm. Boomraven is very funny and surprisingly good.

Blundering Albatross: It’s the Rifleman, particularly RFL-3C. It’s not a good ‘Mech, especially in later eras, but I like the design and it is the first ‘Mech I properly got into using in MWO means it’ll always have a special place in my heart. The 3C is a nice, cost-efficient, heat-neutral damage dealer in 3025 though.

Sean: Rifleman and Raven, both great ‘Mechs. Deto?

Detocroix: My favorite ‘Mech depends on the day, but I think the longest-staying things are Locust, Catapult, and Timber Wolf. Over the past few years, Timby got overrun by a Savage Wolf though, I just love the idea of peppering the battlefield with missiles… ALL. AROUND. YOU. That’s just fun! 

The classic ‘Pult kinda has evolved into K2 because, uh, PPCs.

Locust just sticks around, there’s no evading it. It is a tiny curse that you just grow into, and can’t escape no matter how hard you try… and then you find Koto, and oh my gods. I was looking for some fun alternatives while writing a short story because I want to push myself out of my comfort zone, and, wow, just wow. It’s amazing that the whole thing has weapons interference too; you shoot your guns and your ‘Mech just goes haywire. It’s perfection. 

Should have said that Koto is basically just a Locust on steroids built for Solaris, so it’s flashy junk, but I love it. It’s very me.

Sean: Koto is great too. There are no bad ‘Mechs, really. Well there are, but I still like ’em.

Hillbillyinablimp: Was gonna say, don’t y’all have a whole series on bad ‘Mechs? 

Sean: I still love all of them though!

Detocroix: Oh there’s a lot of horrible ‘Mechs, but that’s kinda the point. It’s not a wargame minmaxed to make everything viable in tournament play, and that’s one of the reasons why I love BattleTech; It feels real. Real life is full of trash nobody wants and still gets. 

Sean: Alright, let’s get to the tough questions now. How hard is it being a queer BattleTech fan? Do you think LGBTQ+ representation is lacking in BattleTech?

Blundering Albatross: Queer representation is getting better and better each year but it could always be better! The hardest part is seeing all of the hate from bad actors online, but it’s easy enough to deal with when we band together in our communities (like the Star League Discord) and show them that not only are we here to stay, but people like that deserve to be left behind and forgotten.

Detocroix: The thing about queer representation in BattleTech is that while there isn’t much of it written in, it is also not written against it, so there is a lot of space for it because it is basically a future version of the ongoing age we live through.

As for being a fan, besides a few rotten apples online, the vast vast vast majority of the fandom is very inclusive and queer-friendly. It is a “mech franchise” and mech franchises are kinda queer, regardless of what people claim. There’s nothing queerer than being one with a 20 to 100-ton war machine, sweating your brains out while your autocannon sings in the background. 

Hillbillyinablimp: It’s lacking, but it’s also improving. We’re seeing an increase in representation in fiction thanks to our current run of wonderful authors like Bryan Young. I’ve also seen a lot of queer representation in the community too, not just from creators but from people, readers, and players of this wonderful hobby. Some are more outspoken and forward on being queer, some aren’t, and some haven’t quite found the courage for it. I personally try to be as loud as possible so these queer fans know they have community and support here, despite a particularly loud and annoying minority of bigoted naysayers. Things are getting better for queer BattleTech fans, bit by bit.

Sean: What do you think makes for good queer representation in stories? And what would you like to see in terms of LGBTQ+ representation in BattleTech?

Detocroix: A good queer representation is when a queer character exists in a story as any other character. Representation is not writing a token character that is passed over quickly to go back to other characters, it is having a normal main/side character that just is queer. That’s my opinion on it at least, that’s the characters I love to see and read about.

Blundering Albatross: I think good queer rep is just showing queer people living their lives. Normalize it and keep on hammering home that queer people are just like everyone else. I think BattleTech could do with more fiction by queer authors. Having queer characters is good, but not so much if they’re only ever written by people who don’t have that lived experience (although this is something that’s getting better lately).

Sean: One of the Pride Anthology authors is published in Shrapnel, aren’t they?

Detocroix: Several actually: Russell, Robin, and Bryan are all published authors.

Blundering Albatross: Three, technically. Robin, Russell, and Bryan.

Sean: Right, they’ve all got stuff published in Shrapnel, and Bryan has several full-length novels.

Detocroix: Yup! Russell moved over from Shadowrun with a Shrapnel release basically.

Hillbillyinablimp: I want people to look at the straight and cisgender characters in our current BattleTech media. Our Hanse Davions and Natasha Kerenskys and what have you. I want you to look at all the drama in their lives surrounding their relationships that allude heavily to their sexuality and preference for a partner. I want people to see how terribly normalized all their marriages and loves and breakups and such are, and I want you to instead imagine that as a queer character. Straight, cisgender characters are allowed that level of messiness and I want that for queers too. 

But additionally, I’d like more mundane representation too. I’m just tired of saying, “Oh well, I just want to see it from time to time, and they’re in there but it’s not central to the plot or anything so no one claims I’m shoehorning in gay shit.” If Natasha Kerensky can become the Black Widow over the grief of her husband then I think queer people should be allowed to get just as crazy. 

Detocroix: Blimp puts it perfectly, yes.

Hillbillyinablimp: We can’t let straight people have all the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll.

Detocroix: Oh yeah, everyone needs sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll.

Sean: In my experience, the gays have more of the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll.

Blundering Albatross: Bowie would be so disappointed in us otherwise.

Sean: Praise be to Bowie.

Blundering Albatross: 🙏

Sean: So with these questions in mind: what made y’all start the BattleTech Pride Anthology? How did it go from an idea into a finished product that really blew up the scene (in more ways than one)?

Hillbillyinablimp: Definitely a Deto question, she started this herself.

Detocroix: Oh gods. Autistic hyperfixation is probably the biggest reason. Kaiju (EnbyKaiju) randomly tossed around an idea that BattleTech needs a Pride story collaboration because Shrapnel queues are so long and people can’t stop writing, so I gently asked “CAN I PLEASE TAKE THIS IDEA AND RUN WITH IT?????” and I have no idea what they replied, I think it was mostly a tiny “yes.”

And then it just happened. That’s how things usually go for me. I have a drive and need to create nice things for other people, so I create nice things. Nothing can stop me at times. If people want me to stop doing something, they need to pry it out of my hands and lock me away, but so far nobody has managed to stop me from making nice things.

Seriously though, why Pride Anthology? Because I want to make nice things for other queer folks. I didn’t expect it to explode, certainly not how the first year exploded, and it certainly wasn’t made so that things would explode, but for some reason, people just can’t handle queer at times, even if they don’t care about it themselves.

Sean: Yeah, there was a bit of a kerfuffle with last year’s Pride Anthology. I covered it in last year’s June news roundup, but could you give us a brief rundown of what happened last year?

Detocroix: We made a nice little Pride Anthology, five stories and all, a measly 82 pages, little queer-colored Bull Shark on the cover, and then posted it on /r/BattleTech, and mods deleted it. Over the next few days, people started posting it over and over because they didn’t see it posted there, and then it dawned on people that the mods-at-the-time kept on deleting all LGBTQ-related posts, and things kinda exploded from there.

Somehow it also spread out and was brought to the eyes and ears of PCGamer, Polygon, and DiceBreaker. CGL made a statement on inclusiveness, and Russell and others started a spinoff Reddit. Eventually, the old admin of /r/BattleTech came back, and basically pulled the reset switch, airlocking the old mod team, and handed the keys to Russell and others organizing the spinoff.

You know, looking back at this year later, if they had wanted to not have Pride Anthology to explode, they should have just left the first post on Reddit. It would have probably gotten a few hundred likes, and half a thousand downloads and everything would have gone to normal, not fifteen thousand views and almost six thousand downloads a year from then.

Sean: It’s good to see a plan backfiring now and again.

Detocroix: Hah, yeah. Some people still don’t know what the Streisand effect is. Best way to suppress something is literally not engaging.

Sean: Let’s talk numbies! How many times has the 2023 Anthology been downloaded? And the 2024 Anthology? What’s been the growth like between the first and second anthologies in terms of downloads and submissions?

Detocroix: It’s a bit hard to measure growth because Polygon and PCGamer are insanely huge modifiers on it, basically skewing the numbers beyond recognition which is a boon and a curse. I think the first day of Pride Anthology 2023 was 500 to 600 downloads, and the first day of Pride Anthology 2024 was 999. I was hitting F5 like crazy the last few minutes to see if it would go over, but no, I think we have to wait for 2025 to actually be four digits on day one.

As for the actual numbers, I think 2023 was around 3,000 for the first month, with all the craziness and visibility from all sources, and 2024 was around 2,250 or so, with basically nothing exploding and not having some of the biggest gaming websites writing about it, as it should be. I’d assume 2023 would have been around 1,200 to 1,500 without the explosion. 

Pride Anthology 2023 is currently sitting at 5,891 downloads, so it has lived a lot over the past year.

Sean: Fair, I guess getting mainstream news coverage would definitely help with visibility, but one could also argue that 2024 wouldn’t be as big as it is without the initial 2023 explosion.

Detocroix: Oh yeah, 2024 definitely owes a lot to stuff that went on. I forgot to fetch the actual numbers of submissions, but I think 2023 had like 12 submissions or so, and 2024 had over 30. 

Sean: That’s huge growth, certainly within the community!

Now let’s talk about the first thing people see: the cover. What’s the story behind the covers? Why the Bull Shark for the first Anthology, and why the Longbow for the second one?

Hillbillyinablimp: Bull Shark cool, LGB-7Q joke.

Detocroix: Bull Shark is amazing, and putting Blåhaj colors on it to make it a transhaj is just a no-brainer!  And yes, what Blimp says: LGB-7Q is an obvious Pride ‘Mech. 

Sean: Okay sorry, I don’t get it: what makes the Longbow the obvious Pride ‘Mech?

Blundering Albatross: LGB-7Q = LGBTQ.

Hillbillyinablimp: It’s a pun!

Sean: Oh god, I really should have gotten that.

Blundering Albatross: 1337 h4x0r.

Hillbillyinablimp: All your base etc. etc.

Sean: So wait, do you think LGBTQ for the designation meant that whoever made the Longbow knew about the leet-speak joke?

Detocroix: That is hard to know, but it is very on the nose of it!

Hillbillyinablimp: Genuinely no clue, but it is a funny coincidence if not.

Detocroix: Oh yes, that is very funny if an accident. I mean, very funny even if not.

Blundering Albatross: Probably is an accident, but like Bob Ross would say, a happy one.

Detocroix: I thought Bob Ross mostly said happy little bush? A little Bushwacker in the forest. Racwacker racwacking. 

Sean: Wild. Alright, well that answers that then. This might be for Deto more than anyone else: how’d you get Michael Stackpole to do the closer in the 2024 Anthology?

Detocroix: Be completely utterly fearless with no understanding of any kind of social standing or hierarchy or anything like that. Also, Stackpole is just an amazing person, period.

Sean: Haha!

Detocroix: I’ve had a couple of people actually ask it from me, how, why, etc., but it never felt weird or inappropriate for me. I just went and asked him (for the opener in the 2023 Anthology, and the same again for the 2024 outro), and he just said yes. I even gave him feedback on his writing, asked for changes and edits, and so on, like I did to everyone else.

Sean: Very ballsy! I dunno if I’d have done that.

Detocroix: Trying not the do the ballsy things, I just do.

Sean: Let’s get to people’s stories! This question works for all of you, so answer all at once if you like and then I’ll have some follow-up questions.

How did you come up with the idea for your story? Alba, that’s White Lies, Bloody Truths, Blimpy that’s We Hardly Knew Ye, and Deto, that’s Pirate Burial. Which was perhaps the most brutal of the three.

Detocroix: Brutal?

Sean: I mean yes, there was a lot of emotion in that story! Emotions in many of them, but that one in particular.

Blundering Albatross: Generally when I write I start with the opening scene and then figure it out from there, which is a methodology I know really annoys some people; although I knew I wanted Erin to be a DropShip captain at the start. I do go back and tidy the story up so the narrative holds together though, I’m not entirely insane lol.

Sean: Fair! And then the escape from the planet beset by the fuzz just sort of grew from there?

Blundering Albatross: Yup. When I write I tend to have the characters going somewhere. In this case to the DropPort, to the DropShip, then up. It escalated as the story went on and Erin and Anja’s messy relationship wove its way through it!

Detocroix: I’m extremely boring when it comes to sources of ideas, I just constantly write down little story snippets and ideas into my notes. I think my only note on this one was a burial of a friend gone wrong, and then I just started writing, and it… comes out. I don’t usually have any deeper meaning in my stories, topics I want to explore, or feelings and thoughts I want to offload. I just love writing, and the result is sometimes something in which Jason Hansa says he can practically taste the vomit in it.

Sean: Like I said, it was brutal. And you, Blimp?

Hillbillyinablimp: Great question, not really sure myself. I have a habit of throwing ideas around, making little tweaks, and molding them into something tangible while forgetting a lot of the steps. But to put it simply, the theme of this year was Periphery stories, so I thought about locations. I stared at the map of the Inner Sphere on my wall and picked a few planets. Ended up on Sherwood at the very edge of Davion space, and thought, “Oh, let’s do a funny Robin Hood story,” looked up the history and saw that in ilClan, there is a tiny offhand mention in Dominions Divided saying that Tortuga took it over with zero additional details, and knew that had to be the overarching event. 

Admittedly I don’t know how I carved that further into what I have now, but I can tell you two things: I had to make it drippingly gay, and I love big buff women with hearts of gold. I won’t even pretend that my major influences for Freya weren’t Scorpia and Karlach.

I look forward to seeing if Catalyst does anything else with Sherwood, I know it’s mentioned in that new BattleTech tabletop game, BattleTech: Encounters. Personally, I hope someone at Catalyst reads my story and canonizes Firebeard’s Man o’ War with the Santa beard. 

Detocroix: Looking at Albert’s answer, I think I usually write the middle parts first, the most important part for me is to have an interesting middle because if the middle is boring, people give up. Writing an introduction to the middle is easiest for me if I know the middle is good. I feel like my weakest points are writing action, and ending my stories so that it is interesting because I kinda like killing my characters off. Nothing is more satisfying than writing a little bit of pain and suffering and rewarding it with a pleasing ending.

Blundering Albatross: I quite like writing action although I struggle to write it from the point of view of people inside a ‘Mech. The position of power just feels… I dunno, a bit boring to me I guess.

Detocroix: I love your infantry stories. You’re really good at writing on the boot level, the best I know.

Sean: ‘Mechs as Kaiju is a pretty good genre.

Detocroix: Oh yes, it is.

Blundering Albatross: This is pretty much it. I’m most comfortable writing horror, so last year’s submission was basically, “What if the ‘Mech was the monster.” 

Sean: Do any of you have a particular writing process?

Blundering Albatross: Usually hunched over like a gremlin with a mug of tea and some appropriate music. If I really get into the process I’ll even be writing on my phone (Google Docs app) when I’m supposed to be doing other things.

Detocroix: Listen to doomy dark music, and write something joyous. I don’t think I have a particular writing process that I can identify. I mostly write important events of the story first and then connect it all up. Usually, I write it all in a few days and then stare at it in horror for the rest of the time trying to figure out what I wrote.

Hillbillyinablimp: If there is a process I follow, I don’t know it. Everything I’ve ever written has been brainstormed extensively with few notes taken only to be written in one night right before the deadline. I think this was the first time where I ever seriously wrote out snippets well ahead of time, with specific scenes in mind. Nonetheless, most of the story was written in huge blocks over the course of a few days a week before the due date, to the chagrin of the friends I asked to proofread it within such a short timeframe. ADHD, am I right fellas?

Detocroix: Sounds painfully close to it, yes.

Funny thing is that Albert had to remind me to finish my Pride Anthology story because I was so focused on getting everyone else’s stories in that I just brushed mine aside. So technically finished my story very near to the actual release of the Anthology, so yes when I say I write it all in one go over a few days, it is definitely… at the last moments.

Blundering Albatross: I had to get the stick out.

Detocroix: A few times if I remember right!

Sean: Haha, benefits of being the editor I suppose.

Detocroix: Or curse, maybe!

Sean: Other than your own of course, do any of you have a particular favorite from the current Pride Anthology?

Detocroix: As an editor, I can’t really answer it, sorry! I don’t want to play favorites.

Sean: That’s fair. This was going to be a tough question to answer I thought. We can skip it if you don’t want to throw any shoutouts/shade.

Detocroix: Oh no, others can, I don’t mind it! I’m too “connected” to the submissions to mention it, but Albert and Blimp can for sure.

Blundering Albatross: I think my favorite is Jordan’s. It really stuck in my memory and the idea of following people through a revolution was really great, especially in a place like the Capellan Confederation. The characters felt real and relatable too.

Detocroix: Jordan is a very good writer for sure (and artist).

Sean: I also liked the Firebee in that one.

Hillbillyinablimp: I loved Solaris City Blues. When I talked about messy relationships and lives earlier, that’s exactly the kind of thing I got from it. I love a sloppy disaster queer, and on top of that, it gave me real film noir vibes that I find difficult to translate to text in a believable way.

Detocroix: Oh yes, sloppy disaster queer was amazing.

Blundering Albatross: Yeah, that was Jason’s. I quite liked that one too!

Hillbillyinablimp: Also shoutout to Albatross, who I think did a very similar story to mine (but better and very well-paced for something that fits that much action into 6000 words).

Sean: There was a lot of action in those 6,000 words, yes.

Detocroix: Your story was amazingly wholesome.

Hillbillyinablimp: I’m a sucker for tender, romantic moments, I admit.

Sean: Queers are allowed to be wholesome!

Detocroix: No complaints!

Blundering Albatross: I think our chosen systems are literally next door too?

Hillbillyinablimp: Quite literally yeah. Thankfully we chose different eras so Deto can’t accuse us of copying each other’s homework.

Sean: So what have you learned most from doing the Anthology? What will you do differently for the 2025 Anthology, either in terms of writing or in the whole production of the publication?

Hillbillyinablimp: Manage your time better and start writing earlier is certainly a lesson I will not learn, no matter how many times I say it.

Blundering Albatross: I think the key takeaway for me, and I hope Deto doesn’t mind me saying, is that something on the scale that it’s turned out to be this year needs more of a team involved. It’s a huge undertaking!

Hillbillyinablimp: Definitely agree. This is a project that I think is going to keep growing, especially after the exponential growth from last year. I don’t think the Anthology will necessarily get larger (we’ll see) but as this continues, we’ll get even more submissions and we’ll have a lot more work to do. Joining this team to help put it together is a huge undertaking, but we can all work to keep things together and make sure we’re not overwhelmed.

If anything, I’ve learned that I want to play a part in this community more than just being a weird mini-painter who posts furry shit between arguments with people on Twitter. I’ve learned that I want to play a bigger part in this community, as someone who helps put together something absolutely incredible year after year. Getting published in this year’s Anthology was, genuinely, my biggest accomplishment since graduating college, and I want to help make that a thing for other people as well. I want to be a driving force for creation in the BattleTech community, especially if it helps other queers feel like they belong. With this Anthology, both in writing for it and now helping to organize it, I’ve learned what I wanna be for this community. 

Certainly, a more existential, esoteric, and personal answer than one of process or doing the thing, I suppose, but that realization has meant a lot to me.

Detocroix: So, that is a bit bigger question. For the production itself, there are a lot of changes I want to make to it, the biggest one definitely bringing more people on board. This year I had Albert helping me out slush reading the submissions and proofreading, and then nearer to release I had Kaiju join in to collect helpful links and do additional checks on the compiled Anthology.

Next year, we’re definitely expanding the collaboration with Star League Discord. It’s a server I’ve been part of since founding, mod for most of the time as well, and I know the people involved with it very well (literally been picking some of the mods up, recommending them for the helm of the server), so it’s kinda a no brainer to go even more with them. The first Anthology I did alone, and it was kind of a lot of work! The 2024 Anthology was even more work, and even having a couple of people helping out with it, was still me having four to eight hands full.

There are a few big shortcomings in the production as is. The biggest is that alone I just cannot help people make their stories the best they can be, so the best I can basically offer is feedback on stories that already make it. But optimally we would be able to uplift people too, not just pick the best from the top. Expanding the team frees time and stress, and expanding the involvement of the server ensures we have the space to actually do it, too. It is a community effort in the end, and the more the community can get involved, the better it is for everyone. I am just supposed to be the person there who makes sure it all looks good, fits together, and compiles the final product for release.

The second big thing is just the sheer volume of work needed for it outside just editing. I made a list of things I have to do, and there’s a rather wild amount of stuff that needs to be done if we’re to make it great. I think it is basically the perfect size and scope at the moment, we just want to polish and make it nicer and easier to do, and more people can help with that very easily.

Also, I’m more of a creator, I have never been a person who can do the “People Thing” that is required for interacting with others, hyping a project, or marketing it, so that’s definitely something I need a lot of help with.

Sean: A couple of quick serious questions in that vein: when will submissions open for the 2025 Anthology?

Hillbillyinablimp: Deto will probably have a better idea, but I know for this year’s Anthology, submissions opened in November, I think, so I would expect a similar time frame unless we decide to adjust. No guarantees is what I’m saying.

Blundering Albatross: I agree with that assessment.

Detocroix: No solid date yet, but I’m hoping to be able to open it up earlier than last year. Sort of give people more time to prepare and write for it, and give us a little bit more time to process all the submissions. Kinda move the opening much earlier, and move the deadline a little early, a net positive for everything involved.

First year was way too tight with both dates, and this year was a little bit too tight, but definitely much better in comparison, so hopefully third time is the charm!

Sean: If people want to help or contribute but not submit a story, how can they reach out?

Detocroix: Best way to do it is via Star League Discord. There’ll be more dedicated channels being set up for it so that people can better reach us and have a chat where need be.

Hillbillyinablimp: Joining the Star League Discord server is definitely the way to go. We’re currently constructing a dedicated space just for the Anthology, be it for tossing ideas around or suggesting new content or ways to promote or what have you. For now, we at least have one public channel that people have been using to gush about this year’s Anthology, but we should have those new channels ready to debut very soon.

Sean: And where can queer folks find like-minded BattleTech fans to chat and play with?

Blundering Albatross: Why the Star League Discord server of course!

Detocroix: Star League for sure. It’s a very nice LGBTQ Discord server. As three queerdos proceed to plug the channel they’re/were mods of.

Hillbillyinablimp: Again, definitely the Star League server. We have tons of channels for all sorts of topics, BattleTech-related and not. Stop by, say hi, we don’t bite!

Blundering Albatross: Speak for yourself.

Hillbillyinablimp: Okay we do bite but only if you ask first.

Blundering Albatross: Yup. Informed consent in everything, people!

Sean: Alright, now for some fun questions! Besides the Longbow, which I have recently discovered would definitely be the correct answer, what’s the gayest ‘Mech?

Detocroix: Longb– oh. Atlas. It has a tiny flower tucked behind the ear too

Hillbillyinablimp: Atlas. Because that answer will make the right people angry in ways that are really funny.

Blundering Albatross: Probably the Kodiak, if you’re into bears I suppose.

Hillbillyinablimp: Sidenote: the King Crab is the most transgender ‘Mech. You can blame Kaiju for that.

Detocroix: King Crab for sure.

Hillbillyinablimp: And barring that, there’s always my Trans Fights Mad Dog.

Blundering Albatross: Saying that, but the majority of trans women I know are so into Locusts.

Detocroix: The most popular ‘Mech in Pride Anthology submissions is definitely the Locust.

Hillbillyinablimp: Gee I wonder who’s responsible for that association.

Detocroix: Who?

Hillbillyinablimp: You.

Detocroix: Whaaat?

Sean: A mystery that will never be solved. In relation to the LGB-7Q C-Kit: Is “Sea Fox Standard” sort of like “Amazon Basics?” Just the most basic version of the thing that’ll do the job adequately?

Detocroix: It’s like a tune-up people do to their cars. They get something old and put way too expensive stuff into it and then make a lot of noise. I have no idea what Amazon Basics sadly is.

Blundering Albatross: Cheap, own-brand stuff.

Detocroix: Ah!

Sean: Oh, and specifically stuff they manufacture cheaply because they know they can make a buck off it since they are the largest network of merchants in the Inner Sphere.

Hillbillyinablimp: Quality varies widely depending on what you get. Don’t buy Amazon Basics power tools. They’re guaranteed to be almost as bad as Harbor Freight power tools. Unless you want a smoke machine that kills you, anyway.

Sean: I do not.

Detocroix: No, it’s more like you make the cheapest possible kit you can produce easily, and sell it at the highest possible price kind of thing.

Sean: So more traditional military hardware stuff then.

Detocroix: Basically!

Sean: And finally, which BattleTech personality do you think would be improved if they were queer? This is the question that might make me disable comments on the post.

Blundering Albatross: I think I once pitched that Maximilian Liao and Hanse Davion should’ve been toxic yaoi but I don’t think the world is ready for that.

Detocroix: I made a meme for it.

Hillbillyinablimp: Anastasia Focht has a good ring to it.

Sean: Har har, let’s not go back to that stupid controversy. I’m going to have enough work filtering comments as it is.

Detocroix: I don’t think I have a good answer to it honestly, but I think Andery Kerensky. He is very disaster queer in my opinion, trying to manage his over-macho cishet brother.

Hillbillyinablimp: No but really, I think Natasha Kerensky should have been the angry bisexual woman for lesbians to cry desperately for her to step on them.

Blundering Albatross: Good answer.

Sean: Very good answer.

Hillbillyinablimp: If I have learned nothing else in all my years of being embedded in queer online culture, I have at least learned how desperate sapphic women are for girls that can and might kill them.

Blundering Albatross: It’s only natural for anyone with a pulse, really.

Detocroix: There is definitely some kind of a natural drive for danger girls.

Sean: I think my gayness protects me from this particular impulse, but there are certainly gay male equivalents.

Detocroix: For sure! Danger boys.

Sean: So dangerous. Alright, that’s all I had! If any of you want to throw a shout-out or promote something you’ll be doing, now’s the time to share!

Detocroix: Pride Anthology! Join Star League Discord!

Blundering Albatross: Blimp’s books!

Sean: Where can people get them? Or can they?

Hillbillyinablimp: They can get them by going to their local craft store, looking up a tutorial on YouTube, and making them themselves. Believe me, I will not be monetizing the Anthology if I can help it. Besides, getting casebound books in small orders is prohibitively expensive. I suggest trying something like a Japanese stitch binding. It’s one of the easiest ways to start bookbinding.

Sean: So noted! Thanks so much, everyone!

Detocroix: Thank you very much for interviewing <3 

Hillbillyinablimp: Thank you for having us!

Blundering Albatross: Thanks for the interview!

Sean: You’re welcome, and thanks for being interviewed!

Detocroix: Rawr. 

Thanks for chatting! Stay tuned for the opening of submissions for the 2025 Pride Anthology, and head to the Star League Discord if you’re looking for queer-friendly BattleTech fans.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.