Welcome to another edition of Backstage Pass, where I, Mad Alex, guide through the inner workings of the Calamity—meaning I tell you what I’m working and give you access to works in progress. Hence the nomenclature.
In this week’s edition, I drop you into an attraction set in a bizarre dystopia filled with gangs and strange creatures in Gesture of Goodwill, though what these creatures are, we are not made aware of entirely. I do hope you enjoy the terror and intrigue of what goes on in the little apartment of the small group of survivors.
In classic horror, I feature a second story from Arlton Eadie whose The Immortal Hand was featured here not long ago. The Immortal Hand was more curious than horror; this edition’s classic horror feature, The Avenging Shadow, is more horror than curious! I hope you enjoy the show.
As usual, we have vampires and zombies in A Vampire’s Vengeance and Bus Driver respectively, though there are less zombies and more contemplation if I am being honest and accurate. Still, Bus Driver moves forward, and you won’t wanna miss this installment, as the group is finally approaching Baker. What will they find there?
As a final thought, I want to point out that not a single word of this edition—nor any prior—whether expository or narrative (read: editorial content or stories) has been written with the use of AI. I now feel it entirely necessary to state this fact since AI has become prevalent in a number of ways across society, and I want to reassure you, my dearest guest, that what you consume here is all dreamed up by a human—me—and created by hand, the old fashioned way. Enjoy it as you like, though if you are inclined to attempt to feed my work to any AI model or platform, then I curse you with coffee that will always be either not hot enough, or not cold enough, nothing but red lights when you are in a hurry, and as miserable a death as can be called down upon you. If you don’t feed my work to AI, you can ignore all of that.
Let’s get into it →
Much of the work completed this week was in infrastructure. More and more of the Calamity Apparatus is being completed, and the research module on which I depend is getting a much-needed augmentation. This is no small amount of work, thus stories not featured backstage have taken a backseat, but I hope to resume writing and editing once the research module upgrade is completed.
Edgar’s doing his damnedest to manage the humans’ escape, but will it be enough?
A small group work together to survive in a bizarre dystopia, but their efforts are stunted by rival parties. Stunted, that is, until one rival party arrives with a gift. Is the gift worth the trouble they go through in receiving it?
A student of the occult makes a pact with a dark sorcerer and his demonic overlord. Then he attempts to outsmart the demonic overlord when it comes time for the student to pay his dues. What transpires next will astound you!
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A traveling merchant finds himself in quite the predicament when he manages to win a duel, leading him down a dark path. A tale from the Odds ‘n’ Endings Boutique.
Welcome to another installment of Bus Driver! When last we spent time with the bus driver and company, Jill had survived quite the ordeal and they were back on the road, pulling away from the surviving Wanderers who continued to approach. You can catch up with Part L here. How’s the bus driver handling things since the engagement with the two monsters? Let’s find out →
