New Fiction, Trail of Shadows!

Whee, Finally! Trail of Shadows is up. 

This one was slow going, it was a bit longer than normal, but I think it was mostly held back by

I again do have more planned that explores other characters, too! But, sometimes we just get inspired to visit certain ones so I do that rather than force other stuff, though I do have a few WIPs.

Hope you enjoy it! As a bit of a warning this one does as I mentioned have some nastier violence at the start, though it's not like Saw movie levels or anything, but just a heads up if you're a bit squeamish. It was more to sort of paint the situation and the mindset. Language-wise is standard Shadowrun cursing.

I will probably keep doing things more short story oriented. I had dabbled with the idea of doing a Shadowrun fan-novel, but at the end of the day, I feel that I work better like this. With a couple of very sparse exceptions, I tend to be a fan of 'shorter' stuff. Like, I prefer OVAs over long series for some reason. I dunno why for certain, but I always felt like I got more out of it just enjoying 2-3 things that told a story over like 5 seasons of stuff.

I'll probably connect a bunch of the stories, like, they're in the same timeline with similar characters/NPCs and the like, and have a few plot threads, but it won't be a technical novel.

On that note, I think everyone needs to watch Cyber City Oedo 808! It's a great 3-part OVA from the early-mid '90s that is cyberpunk, with a hint of 'mystical' through a bit of psychic stuff involved. There isn't a lot of cybernetics(one dude has cybereyes and there are cyborgs being made as weapons), but to be honest this is one of my favorite cyberpunk anime; meme-ified dub or not(and it does have some amusing stuff). I liked it more than most other cyberpunk anime(I'm more of a Cyber City/Bubblegum Crisis person than I am Alita or GitS, mostly because the former are less grim and humorless; the latter ones didn't gel with me). I like dystopian futures, but not completely shitty ones with like little light in the tunnel, even when there is bad stuff to be found. I like a balance, for all of the cruddy downtrodden people I like to see some over the top stuff go on with some more hope spots and some humor.

I'd watch the UK version, since it has a very killer and actually cult favorite soundtrack, which you can find here. It's pretty harsh on the language but the violence doesn't go overboard; it has a few graphic scenes but it actually pulled it off well compared to some of the '90s lolfests which just used it for the sake of it. The characters are cool, the action is tight, the cityscapes look awesome, and it's got just enough camp to keep it from being super grimdark.

The first episode is here, and you can find the 2nd here and the 3rd here. They did a great job, IMO, of giving a solid wrap-up to the 3 main characters, while still at the same time leaving something open if they wanted to revisit it some time in the future. For a final bit, you can find the soundtrack here; it's like synthrock and ambient electronic and really well done.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the story and I will be back with more in the future! Hopefully the close future.

If I'm not back blogging before the holidays, have a happy holidays all!