For this bonus addition to Season 3, we present two additional stories for your listening pleasure, neither long enough to warrant its own episode and together… still not long enough to be considered a true episode. Thus we present a bonus helping of comedy to go along with the main course we have presented over the past eight regular episodes.

You’re welcome.

The unifying theme for our pair of vignettes is the underworld.

Our first story features a private detective in touch with the seedier side of the city, the one concealed from the sight of more civilized society.

Our second story centers on an unlikely protagonist and the wraith that has emerged from the shadows only to meet its match in a man with a fucked-up knee and zero fucks left to give.

Plus, it’s Halloween, so why not end on a story about a shadow figure?

View the original stories on Vocal to read along (ordered by appearance):

• “Privateyeism”: https://vocal.media/fiction/privateeyeism
• “A Far Greater Horror”: https://vocal.media/horror/a-far-greater-horror

Check out Chapter 1 of A Bloody Business, a humorous rampage through history written by the same comedic genius and narrated by the same voice talent whose stylings you’ve heard in Season 3: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2I9qKhmGGhBBLfCQUcEcOg

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Eduardo Mallmann and licensed through Unsplash.

For the eighth and final episode of Season 3, we conclude young Jason’s first assignment as junior and senior Nightingale, now armed with a plan to flush out their target, do what they do best: wanton violence.

However, the golden-locked girl that confronts them turns out to be more of a mask for a golden-locked demon hiding beneath. Lusario and Jason will find themselves facing physical, magical, and psychological forces. Will all of Jason’s training hold up in this baptism of fire?

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/humor/my-first-day-part-3-the-finale

If you enjoyed this story, don’t forget to vote in our poll or leave a comment—if you listen on Spotify—and you might just see a future book from our author centering on Jason Nightingale. That’s right, we opened Season 3 with a concept for a novel, and we have just spent the past three episodes concluding the season in epic fashion with another future book concept. Why? Because we’re just that goddamn clever, that’s why.

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

And stick around next week for one final chaser to close out Season 3. Specifically, a pair of flash fictions united by theme: Dwellers of the Underworld. Nothing like a little dark humor to round out our comedy tour in this bonus episode.

Cover photo by Peter Robbins and licensed through Unsplash.

For the seventh episode of Season 3, we rejoin Jason Nightingale as he settles into guard duty. But our go-getter knows better than to sit idle. On the agenda: archery practice, discussions of unconventional foods, and self-esteem exercises for a certain bear cub feeling down on his romantic prospects.

Jason may even make his first-ever friend—and proceed to have a panic attack at the idea of having a friend. And it might turn out that this “not-friend” is holding back critical information that our young trainee needs to ferret out.

And don’t go anywhere, because next we conclude with the kickass finale of “My First Day” and Season 3. Follow the podcast so you won’t miss the final confrontation with the golden-locked antagonist, who turns out to be far from just another pretty face.

Instead, she might just be a pretty face with otherworldly allies and an arsenal of magic.

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/humor/my-first-day-part-2

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Stoic Rhino and licensed through Unsplash.

For the sixth episode of Season 3, we join a youth from humble origins who is eager to climb the ranks of an up-and-coming private security firm known as the Nightingale Agency.

Young Jason brings several advantages to the organization: no family, no friends, and no ties to otherwise distract him from his training. Just so long as the Nightingales continue to feed him, he’ll do whatever they ask.

Follow the Nightingale apprentice as he and his mentor have been called to the home of three bears under threat by a home invader backed by nefarious corporate interests. But even with his singular focus and food-based motivation, will he have the skills needed to complete his first official assignment?

So epic is this tale that we decided to split it up into three parts for our season finale. So tune in next week for Part 2!

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/humor/my-first-day-part-1

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Lene Magro and licensed through Unsplash.

For the fifth episode of Season 3, we have a triple header. That’s right, not just one, but three stories unified by theme and even recurring characters. That theme? Economic satire.

Proceed at your own risk. You’ve been warned.

For our first stop, a dastardly scheme unfolds against the innocent residents of Virginia and the supply-side economics they hold so dearly within their hearts. But can one well-intentioned retail worker spare his home state from destruction? Or will the automated help line stymy our villain’s nefarious plans all on its own?

For the second stop, we turn our attention to the sworn enemy of Communistress, the Defender of Cash, Profit, and the Laissez Faire Way. That’s right, Free Market Man is here to save the day!

For the third and final stop, Free Market Man returns to earn his anti-hero badge as the Defender of Soft Currency, Shareholder Value, and the Laissez Faire Way confronts an old foe, the dastardly shepherd of tariffs known as the Protectionist.

View the original stories on Vocal to read along (ordered by appearance):

• “The Revolution will be assisted by the next available representative”: https://vocal.media/fiction/the-revolution-will-be-assisted-by-the-next-available-representative
• “Free Market Man”: https://vocal.media/fiction/free-market-man
• “Free Market Man Returns”: https://vocal.media/humor/free-market-man-returns

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Vladimir Solomianyi and licensed through Unsplash.

For the fourth episode of Season 3, we visit the far-off future to join the CEO of SimCorp at an inflection point in his posh life built off deluding the rest of the globe.

SimCorp, a corporation that has grown wealthy and powerful on the mass production of virtual reality technology. The world sits squarely under its profit-driven thumb. If, as the company promises, “reality is as near or far as you wish,” then what happens when their figurehead walks out the door and faces the reality of the world he helped build?

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/futurism/fourth-wall

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Artem Sapegin and licensed through Unsplash.

For the third episode of Season 3, we join the Earth after the bombs of The Final War have ceased falling and the irradiated dust left over from the Very Bad Week has settled. The final vestiges of humanity have emerged and set to work on rebuilding that which represented the greatest epoch of humanity: the online writing platform Vocal.

Unfortunately, the other survivors across the globe have not returned to content creation, that most noble of pursuits. And the only active users, the AI bots, take on the aura of gods as the generations pass. Two in particular attract followings among the human observers. And it just so happens that they are diametrically opposed in their preachings. Until all comes to a head as two opposing religions resolve their differences in the way most do.

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/fiction/the-last-comment

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Tima Ilyasov and licensed through Unsplash.

For the second episode of Season 3, we ask the age-old question: If walls could talk, would they turn out to be opinionated know-it-alls eager to talk a haggard detective’s ear off about all they had picked up from watching Jeopardy! for decades on end?

That’s right, we’re taking the “If walls could talk” maxim to its logical endpoint as a wall provides a statement to the police about a grisly death it witnessed.

View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/fiction/stonewalling

And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen.

Cover photo by Greg Shield and licensed through Unsplash.