I’ve been seeing “Regional Gothic” posts all over the internet lately and I think they’re really cool. Usually they comprise of lists of everyday occurrences turned just slightly bizzare or sinister. I’ve included a few at the bottom of this post as an example. I think it would be fun if we came up with some related to Ackerly Green or TMP. You don’t need to post a long list or even a story. A single sentence will work for this prompt. Im looking forward to what you come up with!
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•There is a bronze pin on your jacket. You don’t remember putting it there. It hums when you touch it. You are afraid to take it off.
•There’s a bookshop on the corner. It’s been closed ever since you can remember but the window display is different each time you walk past.
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- There is a door in the corner. Every day, at the same times, someone knocks on the other side of this door. It is a closet.
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You buy a pink glazed donut with sprinkles from a coffee shop. At first it seems like any other donut, yet this one hums with the power of time and the wisdom that time gathers like dust. You feel the gaze of the malevolent pink glazed donut, with sprinkles, bore into your mind. It wants you to eat it.
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- You see the past. You are supposed to see the past. The past disappears. The future speaks in your sleep. You are not supposed to hear the future. Your nightmare buddies fall silent.
(You have no idea how long I spent reading over our dream hacking)
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- You live in a town where they love gardening. Every house has at least three beds blooming with color, except yours. You have the greyest thumb in the town. Suddenly, you wake one morning to find flowers peppering your dusty lawn, and it appears they have houses on them.
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You’re on a hike alone in the forest. You pick up a fallen branch to use as a walking stick, but as you set the end on the ground, a crack appears in the wood. Emerald light shines out.
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- A Deep rumbling is heard in the distance. The sky is clear. Your heartbeat quickens. It’s coming. Run.
- A pyramid is built. Built over and over. A code is deciphered. decoded over and over. logic fails. over and over. a leap is required. the code is complete.
- A coin is found with a design that looks like a compass. the needle spins on the coin. you follow where it leads. you are never the same.
- you see the number 18 everywhere. 18 on jerseys, 18 panes of glass in a window, 18 dogs in the dog park. they are watching.
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-You have a favorite book from your childhood which you vividly recall reading and rereading. You do not know what happened to your copy of the book. You cannot find another copy. No one can find another copy. The book never existed.
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You are shown to an exam room for your appointment with your doctor. You try to leave the exam room to use the restroom, but when you open the door, you see a magnificent white marble hallway lined with doors. It’s not how you entered.
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You are looking at a map. Within four cities, various landmarks glow like stars. You think you see constellations, but they are not ones in your sky. These constellations memorialize a legend you have not heard. But you might have, as a different you. You squint your eyes and tilt your head. The constellations glow brighter.
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- You meet another person. they say its your first time meeting them, but you distinctly remember meeting them somewhere. your memories are scattered. a different you met this person. you remember many things. none of them happened that way. none of them happened at all.
- you see a white rabbit, and are immediately concerned. You do not know why. the rabbit grins. you run.
- you fall asleep and wake up in a forest made of glass. you think you hear your name in the distance. you aren’t seen again for months.
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You live in a world where your one true love can’t harm you. While fighting in a war, you meet a soldier in close-comabt, where there both of your knifes break on contact with the opposite person.
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You’ve been active on Basecamp for a few months, working with the Mountaineers to unlock the Book of Briars. You’re sitting at dinner with your family, and your father calls you by your screen name. There’s no photo of you in your profile. Your eyes meet.
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You’re a small time weather report who’s starting to get bored of your job. One day you see an unusual storm cloud moving around New York. You decide to name it something stupid on the local news. If only you’d known it was sentient.
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That’s terrifying
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- You sit around a campfire, and stare at the fire. you feel a tug at your chest, telling you to head west. You get up and head west. you never stop. even when you reach the campfire again.
- You’re walking around the city, and feel a slight thumping in your chest, a drumming in your head. you follow the feeling, the drumming getting louder, until you reach a run down building with a fire pit in the courtyard. the drumming abruptly stops. you leave, never hearing the drumming again.
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• You’re browsing through the internet when you happen upon a mysterious link. It recounts the history of a book lost to time. Curious, you scroll down the timeline and find a link at the bottom. It takes you to what appears to be one of those quizzes one finds too often on the internet. You progress through it, not expecting a great outcome, only to find yourself sorted into a guild that describes your personality and traits perfectly, all done through a screen, as if it had always known who you were and was waiting for your arrival.
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You thought it was a game, some kind of online marketing. Until the day you saw a storm on the axis of a horizon that wasn’t there before, and knew it was coming for you.
Its too late now.
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You get a message from someone you’ve never spoken to before. It contains a single word. The community is buzzing. You don’t understand.
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