Unfolding Human Complexities
This collection presents a series of unique, unfinished tales. Each piece offers a vivid glimpse into a larger narrative, much like an intimate diary entry or a scene paused mid-dialogue. We invite readers to approach these fragments with an open mind, ready to construct the absent beginning and potential conclusion.
This project is designed as an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. Its purpose is to explore how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and enhancing digital literacy in contemporary settings.
Today’s selection journeys through diverse genres, from the intricate depths of Psychological Drama and the high stakes of a Legal Thriller, to the sharp insights of Satire. Tony Eetak, Jamie F. Bell, and Eva Suluk are the authors contributing to this particular collection.
Engage with these stories and allow your imagination to complete the arcs, transforming these moments into personal, expansive narrative experiences.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Uncover thought-provoking short stories in Psychological Drama, Legal Thriller, Slice of Life, and Satire, often featuring elements of Romance or Cyberpunk Dystopia. Our project is dedicated to enhancing digital literacy by exploring AI-assisted narrative and the evolving landscape of publishing fueled by creative technology.
A Collapsed Street
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Romance | Genre: Psychological Drama
The world had become a jagged, broken thing. A sudden, violent tremor had torn through the city, twisting steel and pulverizing concrete into a choking dust. Emmond, pinned by an impossible weight, tasted grit and wet dust, the metallic tang of something burning on his tongue. The air, thick with the smell of wet asphalt, ruptured gas lines, and the sharp, clean scent of static electricity, vibrated with distant, terrified screams. Above him, a sliver of grey spring sky peered through a chaotic jigsaw of fractured buildings, threatening to collapse entirely. Time had ceased to be linear, stretching and snapping like a frayed rope, leaving only the visceral, insistent beat of his own heart.
The Data Scraps
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Cyberpunk Dystopia | Genre: Legal Thriller
The humid summer air hung heavy, thick with the scent of synthetic pine and the faint, underlying odour of burning plastic from the distant sprawl. A vibro-saw shrieked, tearing through another engineered trunk, each cut a monotonous rhythm in the controlled wilderness zone. Two figures, barely out of their teens, toiled under the oppressive midday sun, their breath coming in ragged gasps as they pushed through another day of corporate servitude.
The Lanzhou Feed
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life
On a blustery ridge in Northwestern Ontario, Ben and his team struggle to calibrate their VR equipment before the temperature drops further.
The Collapsed Bookstore
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Romance | Genre: Psychological Drama
The world had decided, quite abruptly, to reconfigure itself. One moment, I was contemplating a new biography on Churchill, the next, the very fabric of existence seemed to unravel into a cacophony of groans and splintering. Now, a fine, acrid dust hung in the air, tasting of old plaster and forgotten hopes, mingling with the faint, persistent scent of spring rain trying to seep through the newly formed gaps in the world. The only light was a fractured sort of pale grey, struggling through the newly formed apertures above, illuminating swirling motes that danced a macabre jig. My head throbbed, a dull, insistent rhythm against the frantic beat of my heart, and the pervasive gloom was occasionally punctuated by the creak of unseen stresses, a constant, unsettling reminder that our current predicament was far from stable.
The Unscheduled Encounter
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Romance | Genre: Satire
The air in the Harmonious Future Collective’s North Wing was thick with the scent of synthetic lemon and the faint, persistent hum of the ‘Wellness Optimisation Grid’. Outside, the summer night pressed in, a humid, heavy blanket over the meticulously manicured lawns. Inside, the corridors gleamed under an unnervingly consistent artificial light, designed, the brochures claimed, to promote ‘optimal mood regulation’. Maggie, however, found it merely oppressive, a constant reminder of the omnipresent surveillance. She was supposed to be in her ‘Personal Reflection Chamber’ by now, completing her ‘Daily Affective Recalibration’, but a strange flicker on her wrist-comm had drawn her here, to this quiet, rarely used stretch of hallway, where the ‘optimal mood regulation’ seemed to be malfunctioning, casting long, wavering shadows.
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 an experimental, creative research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners Storytelling clubs. Each chapter is a unique interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment, born from a collaboration between artists and applied AI researchers, designed to explore the boundaries of creative writing, automation, and storytelling. 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.
