May 2021 – Varlance Interactive

School is Hellish v1.0.0

With the kind permission of Outlands, I’ve created a mod of Outlands’ game ‘School is Hell’. You can play the original here at philome.la. This version includes new material from Outlands and contributions by myself, some changes to the mechanics and choices in the game, and various fixes and improvements.

You can grab the game here (642 kB):

https://mega.nz/file/voUwWBaB#m8BfGlEXXwNoXqcwoFfZl5KxRtAXF5NJ7fV1oVnLVlg

To play the game, simply run the .html file in a browser. You can also play the game on itch.io:

The game is an interactive fiction game which should take you about 2 hours on a first playthrough. There are three endings, based on your character’s karma score at the end of the game. You play as a student in a school that is invaded by demonic forces. Collect items and rescue characters to proceed through the school! Warning: the content can be quite dark, so pay attention to the content warnings in game.

April 2021: monthly review

This is the monthly review for April 2021 which outlines what was achieved in the previous month, announces any important news or changes, and provides some idea of what’s coming up. It’s a long update this month…

Digital Marketing with HypnoHype! Case Study: PiersMortonXXX

This story was originally posted at https://www.gayspiralstories.com/story/show/10001513 on 2021-03-24.

Piers, an out-of-work graduate, takes a job in digital marketing for a Covid conspiracy newspaper. He gets some invaluable digital marketing advice from HypnoHype and learns to love being a content creator.

“Piers… Morton, is it?”

I nod. “That’s right.”

“Like the presenter on Good Morning GB? Oh, don’t worry, I’m not some lefty snowflake. He’s the voice of the common man, that’s what I say. We need more people like him in this day and age, what with everyone losing their heads over this bloody plan-demic. Anyway, I understand you’re interested in the Digital Marketing role I posted recently?”

“Uh, yes, Mr. Kershaw.” At twenty-one and graduating from Manchester Uni with an English degree into the worst economic recession in generations, I’ve been struggling to find anyone who’ll offer me a job. I adjust my tie to give my fingers something to do. “I saw your ad on SyncedIn.”

“Call me Dane. We’re all on first name terms here.” He skims through my one-page CV, which is probably the best short fiction I’ve written in months. Just kidding. Dane doesn’t look like the kind of guy who would find that joke funny. I wait patiently, observing him on my laptop screen. Thirty-something, probably, clean-shaven, with pale blue eyes and light brown hair that’s cut very short at the back and sides, combed and parted on the left. What’s it called, an uppercut? No, undercut, that’s it. He’s wearing a grey suit jacket over a crisp white shirt and dark red tie. He’s the editor and publisher of ‘The Torch’, a small local newspaper I’ve not heard of before. I hope he doesn’t ask me any difficult questions, and wish I’d spent a bit longer doing my research for this job.

Finding Garrett

This story was originally posted at https://www.gayspiralstories.com/story/show/10001490 on 2021-03-21.

In 2092, a Finder, Zander Chen, takes on a difficult case. How do you Find someone who has no aura?

Zander sat up, his pulse racing, the sheets damp and clingy with sweat. Another nightmare. Shots fired in the dark, his fiancé Keill crumpling to the floor of their apartment, unmoving. Fighting for his life, for Keill’s, against the masked gunman from the Engawa cartel. Watching helplessly as Keill’s aura, vibrant and green and full of promise, like a forest floor after rain, faded to nothing, a part of himself dying with it…