Neon Lights and Battlefields
Atmosphere is often the driving force of a narrative. These unfinished tales immerse the reader in distinct environments, from the rain-slicked streets of Noir to the chaotic frontlines of Military Fiction. As incomplete fragments, they prioritize the setting and the immediate struggle, leaving the broader context a mystery to be solved by the audience.
This project operates at the intersection of human creativity and applied artificial intelligence research. We are exploring the capacity of digital tools to act as partners in the writing process, helping to build immersive worlds and high-tension scenarios. This work contributes to a broader understanding of digital literacy skills and the future of storytelling workflows.
The genres featured here are gritty and intense. We present a collection that includes Action-Adventure, Cyberpunk, Noir, Military Fiction, and Contemporary Fiction. These stories are brought to you by authors Jamie F. Bell and Eva Suluk.
We invite you to immerse yourself in these incomplete worlds. The mission objectives are unclear, and the shadows are deep. Read these excerpts and let your imagination dictate the survival of the characters. You are the final architect of their fate.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Investigating the adrenaline-fueled worlds of action-adventure, cyberpunk, and military fiction, our platform is dedicated to exploring the future of publishing. We apply creative technology to study how AI-assisted narrative can deepen the emotional resonance of noir, psychological drama, and domestic thriller categories. These short stories are designed not only to engage readers but also to enhance digital literacy, showcasing the powerful potential of merging contemporary fiction with advanced computational storytelling methods.
Currents and Conspiracies
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Romance | Genre: Action-Adventure
The air held the crisp bite of early spring, sharp with the scent of thawing earth and the damp, resinous tang of pine. Overcast skies pressed low, a uniform grey canvas that muted the nascent green of the alders lining the riverbank. Patches of stubborn ice, skeletal remains of winter, still clung to shaded eddies, groaning faintly as the current nudged them. The river, swollen with meltwater, churned a deep, agitated brown, carrying with it a faint, metallic taste that hinted at distant mineral veins and the deep, silent work of erosion.
The Gutter’s Glimmer
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Romance | Genre: Cyberpunk
The alley reeked of stale synth-ale and ozone, a familiar tang in the sprawling, rain-slicked underbelly of what used to be Thunder Bay. Megacorp banners, perpetually damp and flickering with glitches, cast a lurid purple sheen over the rusted-out shell of an old delivery drone. Wet maple leaves, crunched to a pulpy paste under Liv’s boots, plastered themselves against the grimy concrete. The air, sharp with the approaching cold of late autumn, bit at her exposed skin, even through the worn collar of her synth-leather jacket. Overhead, the constant thrum of aerocars provided a bleak, indifferent soundtrack to the city’s slow decay, but tonight, even that noise couldn’t quite drown out the frantic thumping in Liv’s chest.
Glass Frequency
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Psychological Drama | Genre: Noir
The wind coming off the water had teeth. Not the clean, sharp bite of a mountain cold, but a damp, grinding chill that worked its way through the wool of my coat and settled deep in my joints. It carried the smell of low tide and rust, a scent I knew better than my own name. The planks of the old amusement pier groaned under my weight, each step a complaint from tired, salt-bleached wood. Ahead, the skeletal remains of a Ferris wheel clawed at a sky the colour of a dead television screen.
The White Static of Winter
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Domestic Thriller | Genre: Military Fiction
The world was a study in whites and greys. Snow, impossibly deep, had swallowed the last of the autumn scrub, turning the edges of the base into a soft, undulating drift. A heavy, colourless sky pressed down, sealing in the cold, making every breath a visible plume. Distant, the barracks and support buildings of Fort Resolute hunkered down, dark rectangles against the white, their windows like unblinking eyes. The only sound was the wind, a low, persistent sigh through the spruce, and the almost imperceptible thrum that seemed to vibrate up through the soles of Frank’s boots.
A Looming White on Asphalt
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Domestic Thriller | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The first truly bitter breath of December clawed at the city, a cold that seeped through layers of wool and Gore-Tex. Streetlights, still struggling against the stubborn twilight, began to shimmer with haloes of moisture. Already, the festive decorations, strung like hopeful arteries across Portage Avenue, felt less like cheer and more like a desperate, flickering defiance against the encroaching white. A bus groaned to a halt, exhaling a plume of frosted air that briefly swallowed a cluster of bundled figures waiting on the pavement, their shoulders hunched, faces tucked into scarves, each lost in their own interior world as the city began its annual, reluctant transition.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection is part of an experimental, creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. Each chapter is an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment focused on two key areas: AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, where researchers explore using AI to generate story ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs to enhance creative development; and Talent Development and Training, where the project studies the necessary skills for creative professionals to manage AI and immersive technologies in production, helping to inform future training curricula. The project was made possible with funding and support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation research and innovation in Ontario.
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