Got feedback on my #technoir short story "Lines of Demarcation" from the 1st Round judges at @nycmidnight's #ShortStoryChallenge2026. All three had praise for the world building of Cibus City.
But that's because I've been to that methane-drowned town before, in "The Stuff Legends are Made of."
It's starting to feel like home.
And Clayton Hart is starting to feel like a sister.
I think I've still got more of her stories in me. I can't wait to expand this one and find it a fitting publisher.
Every city has its dark underbelly.
But Cibus, at the bottom of Margot IV's methane sea, is the the planet's dark underworld. Nothing pure happens in those oil-streaked streets, and Clayton Hart knows it.
Still, a job's a job, even if all the players are liars.
Read "The Stuff Legends are Made Of" in Rare: A Dark Anthology of Unusual Secrets, available now.
📝 Plot: In dystopian Paris 2054, brilliant scientist Ilona is abducted and the mega‑corporation Avalon draws in hard‑nosed cop Karas to find her. As he delves deeper, he uncovers corporate secrets, genetic research intrigue and a labyrinth of shadowy motives where the promise of eternal life hides deadly truths.
#Renaissance #Animation #SciFi #Noir #DystopianParis #TechNoir #FuturisticThriller #CorpEspionage
🎬 Renaissance (2006)
Subtitles available:
🇳🇱 Dutch
🇬🇧 English
🇫🇷 French
🇩🇪 German
🇬🇷 Greek
🇵🇹 Portuguese
🇪🇸 Spanish
⬇️ Download https://app.box.com/s/1srfca86f4gykj097ajj56w6ckjqraxk
🎞 IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386741/
▶️ Watch the video here 👇
https://darkiworld2026.com/titles/38966/renaissance
#Renaissance #Animation #SciFi #Noir #DystopianParis #TechNoir #ChristianVolckman #FuturisticThriller
In about 30 years, it’ll be released—featuring an Indiana Jones fully reconstructed from 40 terabytes of archival footage.
The plot is peak recursion: an AI generates code for Harrison Ford's digital twin to battle a rogue algorithm in virtual pixelated jungles. Pure digital cyberpunk wrapped in a "cassette futurism" and Cold War aesthetic:
"Soviet scientists in a secret bunker under Magadan accidentally awakened an ancient Sumerian algorithm trapped within copper circuits. This proto-AI doesn't just want to conquer the world, it wants to rewrite history by purging everything chaotic and illogical... namely, the USSR."
In the end, Indiana defeats the virus by simply pulling the plug. A digital silence falls over the world, while the 2056 audience pays for their tickets in crypto-yuan, fully aware that the film itself was created by the very AI the hero was fighting on screen.
#futureofcinema #GenerativeAI #SciFi #Cyberpunk #CassetteFuturism #RetroFuturism #DigitalTwin #DeadInternetTheory #Recursion #Dystopia #TechNoir #ColdWarAesthetic
"TechNoir" sur LeGrog
This story, whose word count is limited to 2k by the contest, is ballooning out of control. At this point it's looking more like 4k.
Editing is going to be awful, but I'm embracing it now. I'm even going to keep a longer version for submitting to magazines. I'm going to have to cut a lot of this wonderfully noir prose to get to 2k.
#writing #writer #shortstorychallenge2026 #scifi #scifinoir #technoir #neonoir
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