{"title":"Samuel C. Lacoste","description":"\u003cp\u003eWithin MONSTER(S): A World of Pain, Sam writes grimdark cyberpunk stories. These stories explore pain in its many forms: what it does to people, what it reveals, and what it turns them into. True to the grimdark genre, these stories are brutal. Readers can expect purpose behind the challenges facing each character.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong data-start=\"296\" data-end=\"313\"\u003eContent note\/ genre trigger warning:\u003c\/strong\u003e Grimdark fiction often includes violent, traumatic, morally harsh, and emotionally intense material. \u003cem\u003eReader discretion is advised.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"those-eyes-digital","title":"Those Eyes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThose Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis part of the grimdark sci-fi Monster(S) universe by Sam Lacoste.  \u003cbr\u003eStories should be read in order. This is story #1.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClarence still wants to believe his father was something worth admiring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt fifteen, trapped in a home shaped by tension, silence, and emotional fallout, he turns to forbidden memory tech to escape into the past. Through a stolen splinter, he relives one of his father’s wartime experiences firsthand, chasing the version of the man that corporate myth and family distance have made easier to love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat he finds is not heroism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDragged into a jungle campaign defined by mutilation, terror, and moral collapse, Clarence witnesses the truth of corporate war through his father’s own eyes. Soldiers are broken long before they die. Violence becomes routine. Survival belongs to the people willing to live with what should never be survivable. At the center of it all stands Omega, a machine-like apex predator whose presence turns battlefield legend into something far worse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe deeper Clarence goes, the more the illusion of his father falls apart. What remains is not a war hero, but a damaged man carrying memories too horrific to be owned, sold, or passed down untouched.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThose Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a grimdark cyberpunk short story about inherited trauma, weaponized memory, and the moment admiration gives way to horror.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arkhelian","offers":[{"title":"epub","offer_id":51692190138500,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-EP-001-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"pdf","offer_id":51692190171268,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-PD-001-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0979\/6865\/2420\/files\/ThoseEyes-ebook.jpg?v=1777495116"},{"product_id":"those-stars-in-her-eyes-digital","title":"Those Stars in Her Eyes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThose Stars in Her Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis part of the Monster(S) universe by Sam Lacoste.\u003cbr\u003eStories should be read in order. This is story #2.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNyx was raised to admire heroes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom deep inside the Octopus corridors, she watches the final battle of a brutal war unfold across live holo-screens, waiting for her brothers and sisters to come home victorious. The Apexes are not just legends to her. They are her family. Engineered weapons to the world, but to Nyx, they are the only people who have ever made life inside the machine feel human.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVictory comes at a cost no one is willing to speak aloud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the survivors return shattered, grieving, and afraid, Nyx begins to understand that the war did not end on the battlefield. Whatever happened inside Absalom’s tower has changed everything. The Apexes are no longer being celebrated as saviors, but feared as threats, and Nyx is about to be left alone inside the system that created them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat follows is not the comfort of survival, but the quiet beginning of something far worse. Family is severed. Childhood is stripped away. And under the gaze of the man who calls himself her father, Nyx learns what it means to be seen not as a child, but as a project waiting to be broken.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThose Stars in Her Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a grimdark sci-fi tragedy about engineered innocence, familial control, and the first moment a child realizes love can be used as a weapon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arkhelian","offers":[{"title":"epub","offer_id":51692243976324,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-EP-002-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"pdf","offer_id":51692244009092,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-PD-002-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0979\/6865\/2420\/files\/ThoseStarsinHerEyes-ebook_a2e8094d-2df5-4dc1-8e99-332dec809b5c.jpg?v=1777495153"},{"product_id":"perfect-digital","title":"Perfect","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePerfect\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eis part of the Monster(S) universe by Sam Lacoste.\u003cbr\u003eStories should be read in order. This story #3.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNyx was not raised. She was engineered, isolated, and prepared for use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside the ruined research station known as the Octopus, every part of her life is controlled. Her body is monitored, her failures are studied, and her father, Maximilian, treats her less like a daughter than a delayed result. She is told she is being trained to survive. In truth, she is being broken down into something more obedient, more lethal, and less human.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen her training changes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe figure they send against her is an Apex relic from an older war, a silent thing in a cracked mask with a painted smile. Under his hands, Nyx’s lessons become ritualized violence. Every test strips something away. Every mission leaves another part of her behind. Pain stops functioning as warning. Identity begins to erode. What remains is not strength in any noble sense, but adaptation to sustained cruelty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Nyx is pushed deeper into the machinery of corporate war, she begins to understand what perfection really means inside a system like this: not mastery, not transcendence, but the successful removal of everything that makes refusal possible. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePerfect\u003c\/i\u003e is a grimdark sci-fi novella about engineered violence, paternal domination, and the transformation of a young girl into a weapon built to survive her own annihilation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arkhelian","offers":[{"title":"epub","offer_id":51692254920836,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-EP-003-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"pdf","offer_id":51692254953604,"sku":"SCL-MONSS-PD-003-EN","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0979\/6865\/2420\/files\/Perfect-ebook.jpg?v=1777495168"}],"url":"https:\/\/arkhelian.myshopify.com\/collections\/sam-lacoste.oembed","provider":"Arkhelian","version":"1.0","type":"link"}