A robot, a power-shifting merman, a redcap, a brilliant drone, and a strong-man who’s lost his strength face the biggest threat their city has seen..
On this page, you’ll find the podcast episode trailer and the full episode.
And of course, a link to the source, the short story.
[Video description: 49 seconds. Scanned watercolor painting. Foreground, bottom half, three figures seen from the back hover above a major city, looking down at the roofs of skyscrapers. The left figure wears a typical form-fitting superhero outfit and a cape that flows to the left. He’s humanoid, with green skin and pointed ears. At right is a robot, held up by two rockets boosters on the back. Between the two is a drone with four fin-like limbs. Flying ahead of them is another humanoid wearing a red cap. In the distance, rising from among the skyscrapers is a giant creature with an insectoid head. Watermark of the word “storyfeather” lays over the image. Title card over the image displays “Podcast Episode” and “Genre: Science Fiction” The words fade away, replaced by the story’s title at center. The title fades. Subtitles appear in time with music and narration at the bottom: “‘I thought he abandoned you because you were malfunctioning.’ ‘I was. I was exhibiting signs of having a conscience.’ ‘Attaboy,’ the redcap said. Overclock raised and lowered his mechanical eyebrows. ‘Having rejected mammals,’ he said, ‘even bipeds, he turned his attention to other species. Reptile, amphibian, cephalopod, shark. I’ll wager he rejected all of these, and turned to insects. In order to advance the natural development of the species to a state of higher intelligence, he likely attempted to make their brains bigger, and in the process, or perhaps as an accident, made them bigger as well.’” Text box appears over image displaying the words, “Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, and so on. Or listen on my Podcast page at storyfeather.com.” Website URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades as the text box appears.]
Heroes of Anodos – Storyfeather
EXCERPT:
Lachenhut flew out toward the creature first. Overclock and Keo hovered in the air, at the ready, but hanging back as our red-capped leader had requested.
I watched it all through that little drone’s cameras. Silly, I had called it, ever since Overclock overproudly announced he had built something for the team. And yet, Max Speed was there for his team, when I could not be. I was laid up at headquarters, my powers drained, while my team faced the biggest challenge they had ever faced together. Biggest, in every sense of the word. Trudging toward the city was a giant creature with the head of a fly and the body of…a person almost. All we could tell was that it was a living thing, not some kind of machine. And it had just appeared out of thin air in the eastern harbor and started making its way to shore.
Literary Influences:
I took the name Anodos from a fairy tale written by George MacDonald, Phantastes, in which the main character is a young man named…Anodos. I read the story long ago. I don’t recall understanding any of the subtext. I just remember it as a story of someone wandering through another realm.
CREDITS
Story: “Heroes of Anodos” Copyright © 2017 by Nila L. Patel
Episode Art: “Heroes of Anodos” Copyright © 2017 by Sanjay Patel
Narration and Editing: Nila L. Patel
Music:
“Trip-Hop Lounge Abstract Background” by Digital Emotions (Intro/Outro)
Music by Andrew Sitkov (MuzStation Game Music)*
“The Superiority”
“Abstract Experimental Track #2 (looped)”
“Unknown Terrain”
“Dark Side”
“Prepare for Battle”
“Casual Arcade Track #3 (looped)”
“A&C Percussion Loop #3 (Fast Version)”
“A&C Percussion Loop #3”
Music by Nicholas Jeudy (Dark Fantasy Studio)*
“Prisma”
“Ghost hacker”
“Paradigm”
“Lost in the maze”
*These tracks were part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market.
Music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov is licensed from GameDev Market
Sound effects from AudioJungle and GameDevMarket
Find more music by Digital_Emotions at audiojungle.net
Find more music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov at gamedevmarket.net
Find more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com
JUMP INTO THE PORTAL BELOW TO EXPLORE MORE STORIES
FROM SEASON 4 (AKA YEAR 4)
THIS SEASON’S THEME IS CREATURES
Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: ANODOS CITY, CHROMOLLAGE, FAERE FOLK, KEO, LACHENHUT, LORGNON, MAX SPEED, MISTER SARCOMERE, OVERCLOCK, REDCAP
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For more podcast episodes, visit the Storyfeather Podcast page.