Showing results by author "Brian Simons" in All Categories

Coral joined the immersive virtual reality video game Travail Online because her waitressing job, like so many other jobs, was automated by a growing robot workforce. She starts as a Seamstress, hoping to craft useful clothing in-game to sell for real life cash. The game, however, has other ideas. She soon discovers a knack for peeling the skins off creatures she never thought she'd lay hands on and crafting grotesque wearables from them instead.

The individuals in this book all share a common bond - they were awakened. They awoke to a world that was unfamiliar to them and one that was often terrifying and bizarre. Suddenly, those trusted men and women in power became manipulators and power hungry dictators and not the democratic leaders we are led to believe. A unique collection of evidence and theory is set out in this film to reveal a new world order.

Staying alive in Travail is Coral's one shot at a livelihood, but the game's new content threatens to destroy the in-game economy worldwide. When a newly resurrected god starts mind-hacking players and affecting their real world behavior, Coral can't just stand by, even when getting involved may cause more harm than good.

They stick out. They change the conversation. They challenge the traditional narrative. They are outcasts - isolated, different, misunderstood. Being normal is nice. But being an outcast is a real part of the human experience. Have you have ever had the feeling of being alone in some way, of being on the outside looking in? If so, then the characters in these short stories will move you - sometimes by their depravity, sometimes by their sorrow...and sometimes by their joy.