Mar 31, 2024 04:19:46
-WritingIsCool-'s personal SWC writing thread
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Weekly #4
Outline:
· Four friends go exploring the site where supposedly an old town used to be, but the land is completely barren
· Hal's foot get's stuck in a hole and as they free it they notice something weird with the hole
· They investigate and find the entire town underground, despite the fact it was definitely a town built for above ground, and it's oddly pristine, as if it's stayed the exact same for almost a hundred years.
· They explore and it seems completely deserted, save for one boy, who has lost his memories of what happened for the town to go underground, but he insists he lived there. It seems he's from the past, and so is the town, although none of them know how.
· They take the boy back to where they live, and explain what's happened in the past 90 or so years.
· A few weeks later, he still doesn't remember, so the group decides to investigate what could've happened to his town and all the people who were in it.
· They search the town, and find more and more little, but odd things.
· One of them checks a sewer cover, they find yet another town underneath, and when exploring this one, they find it completely empty, save for one person who can't remember what happened to their town.
Exposition:
(143 words)
“What am I supposed to be looking at right now?” Chrys asks, staring at the barren plain before them.
Jace isn't sure what to think. There was supposed to be a town right here! An abandoned one, sure, but it had barely been a hundred years since the 2020s, it wouldn't disappear that fast, would it?
“Let's check it out?” he suggests.
“It's just dirt,” Chrys argues.
But Trix and Hal are already walking ahead, and the two follow.
“Keep up!” Hal calls, looking over her shoulder and immediately falling, her leg seeming to disappear into the earth.
Chrys rushes to help pull her out, and Jace laughs before he too, jogs over to help his sister.
Once she's out of the hole her leg seems to have fallen through, Jace bends over and peers into it. “Guys,” he breathes. “Look at this.”
Ingredients:
Stirring the Stew:
(1029 words)
“Whoa, what is this place?” Trix gapes, as they all look around in astonishment. Jace takes out his flashlight and shines the beam around. It's a town, below ground. The weird thing seems to be that it doesn't look like it was built to be underground, it looks like a regular town has been moved into some sort of underground cavern.
He shines his flashlight up above them. It doesn't look like the ground above is being supported by anything, despite it being clearly very thin. the light from the hole they'd dug out just reaches the roof of a house they'd climbed down from moments before.
“How's that even possible?” Hal wonders aloud.
“As if we'd know,” Jace shoots back, but he's just as perplexed.
Chrys glares at him. She seems to have this funny notion that Hal is fragile and needs her protection. As if, that girl has chased Jace with so many sharp objects he's lost count.
“Should we explore it?” Trix asks, having got out their own flashlight and shining it through a window.
They all agree, and the four start looking around, sticking together. More than a few houses are unlocked, and they look through each of them, but no one seems to be there.
It really wouldn't unnerve Jace so much if it weren't for that everything seems in perfect condition. If it really is the town that was supposed to be above ground, should the metal not have rusted? Should there not be dust on every surface of every home? Should it not look like it'd been left 92 years ago, not a few days ago?
They continue in their exploration regardless, the others' unease just as evident as his own.
In one of the houses is a newspaper, dated June 14, 2020.
Trix suggests they go into one last one before they leave, and they try a couple more doors, until they find one that's unlocked. It's a big, bright yellow house, looking like it's halfway through being repainted. On the door is an odd, scribbly symbol. None of them are quite sure what they're looking for, but they enter anyway. It's nice, one of the nicer places they've seen. They split up to search each floor, Jace taking the third floor. When he comes back down the stairs, he sees Trix, frozen in the doorway of a second floor room.
“Trix?” he asks, a bit tentatively. “Are you alright?”
He comes up behind them, looking over their shoulder to see the beam of their flashlight at the base of a bed, the lump under the covers looking distinctly humanoid. Slowly, they move the beam further up so it shines in the face of a very real, very likely dead, human being.
Jace's hand goes reflexively to their shoulder, just as the person's eyes open and they stare back, a little blearily, and sit up slightly. “What?… Are you robbers?”
-
It'd taken Chase quite a lot of convincing to come with the group of teens, but now that they're nearing their supposed camp, he's starting to regret it. Sure, he doesn't have anywhere else to go, his family has vanished into thin air, and his town is underground somehow, but he's nervous to think what the inhabitants of the camp will think of him.
“What are you gonna tell them?” he asks, nervously.
“That we found you in some weird underground town, you're somehow from 2020 and you have amnesia,” the boy, Jace, says.
“I do not!” he protests.
“Do you remember anything about before you fell asleep?” One of the girls asks.
“No,” he admits. “But there was something about a girl, I think.”
“Yeah, that's not much for a memory,” she says.
“Not like I've forgotten everything,” he grumbles.
“Are you sure you were born in 2006?” the other girl asks, arm around the first one's waist.
“Positive. Are you sure it's 2112?”
“Unfortunately for you, yes.”
-
About a week later, Chase, the others, and their friend Steve are all standing around the hole that leads to Chase's buried hometown.
“Are we sure about this?” Steve asks.
“How else are we to find answers? The old man still can't remember anything,” Chrysanthemum (Chrys, she insists, but Chase is being petty) says.
“I'm younger than you are,” he mumbles, as Jace lowers Trix down onto the roof.
“You were born 106 years ago, gramps,” she responds, grinning. They've grown close pretty quickly this past week.
Once they're all on the street below, they get to looking for clues. None of them are sure what they're looking for, just anything that can help them make sense of this anomaly.
They go about an hour without finding much of importance, until Hal gets the idea to lift a sewer cover. Sceptical, but desperate, they comply, getting one open with considerable difficulty.
Hal shines her flashlight down into the hole and gasps. They all look through it and lo and behold, there's a shingled roof down below.
“Another one?” Steve asks, and they all agree it just got even weirder.
Despite their better judgement, they hoist themselves down into the second town, looking around this one as well. Chase doesn't recognize this new one, and neither does anyone else, yet they decide to check it out, sweeping it in a similar manner to what they were doing above.
40 minutes go by, and they're still looking for clues. “Guys look!” Trix exclaims, pointing at a house ahead.
“What about it?” Jace asks.
“On the door, that symbol,” they say, pointing. “I saw it on the door to Chase's house, too.”
They hurry to the house. This might actually get them somewhere.
The door is unlocked, and they split into three groups, the girls, the ‘ace’s, and the other two.
Chase's and his partner take the bedrooms. The first two are empty, but the third has an occupied bed.
“Deja vu,” Jace breathes.
The girl in the bed stirs, then awakens, looking up at the two. She rubs her eyes. “Chase?” she asks.
Jace looks at him, and he looks back, heart beating far too fast. He's certain he's never seen this girl before.
Outline:
· Four friends go exploring the site where supposedly an old town used to be, but the land is completely barren
· Hal's foot get's stuck in a hole and as they free it they notice something weird with the hole
· They investigate and find the entire town underground, despite the fact it was definitely a town built for above ground, and it's oddly pristine, as if it's stayed the exact same for almost a hundred years.
· They explore and it seems completely deserted, save for one boy, who has lost his memories of what happened for the town to go underground, but he insists he lived there. It seems he's from the past, and so is the town, although none of them know how.
· They take the boy back to where they live, and explain what's happened in the past 90 or so years.
· A few weeks later, he still doesn't remember, so the group decides to investigate what could've happened to his town and all the people who were in it.
· They search the town, and find more and more little, but odd things.
· One of them checks a sewer cover, they find yet another town underneath, and when exploring this one, they find it completely empty, save for one person who can't remember what happened to their town.
Exposition:
(143 words)
“What am I supposed to be looking at right now?” Chrys asks, staring at the barren plain before them.
Jace isn't sure what to think. There was supposed to be a town right here! An abandoned one, sure, but it had barely been a hundred years since the 2020s, it wouldn't disappear that fast, would it?
“Let's check it out?” he suggests.
“It's just dirt,” Chrys argues.
But Trix and Hal are already walking ahead, and the two follow.
“Keep up!” Hal calls, looking over her shoulder and immediately falling, her leg seeming to disappear into the earth.
Chrys rushes to help pull her out, and Jace laughs before he too, jogs over to help his sister.
Once she's out of the hole her leg seems to have fallen through, Jace bends over and peers into it. “Guys,” he breathes. “Look at this.”
Ingredients:
- New character introduction
- New POV
- Foreshadowing
- Introduce a symbol (I took that literally)
- Cliffhanger
Stirring the Stew:
(1029 words)
“Whoa, what is this place?” Trix gapes, as they all look around in astonishment. Jace takes out his flashlight and shines the beam around. It's a town, below ground. The weird thing seems to be that it doesn't look like it was built to be underground, it looks like a regular town has been moved into some sort of underground cavern.
He shines his flashlight up above them. It doesn't look like the ground above is being supported by anything, despite it being clearly very thin. the light from the hole they'd dug out just reaches the roof of a house they'd climbed down from moments before.
“How's that even possible?” Hal wonders aloud.
“As if we'd know,” Jace shoots back, but he's just as perplexed.
Chrys glares at him. She seems to have this funny notion that Hal is fragile and needs her protection. As if, that girl has chased Jace with so many sharp objects he's lost count.
“Should we explore it?” Trix asks, having got out their own flashlight and shining it through a window.
They all agree, and the four start looking around, sticking together. More than a few houses are unlocked, and they look through each of them, but no one seems to be there.
It really wouldn't unnerve Jace so much if it weren't for that everything seems in perfect condition. If it really is the town that was supposed to be above ground, should the metal not have rusted? Should there not be dust on every surface of every home? Should it not look like it'd been left 92 years ago, not a few days ago?
They continue in their exploration regardless, the others' unease just as evident as his own.
In one of the houses is a newspaper, dated June 14, 2020.
Trix suggests they go into one last one before they leave, and they try a couple more doors, until they find one that's unlocked. It's a big, bright yellow house, looking like it's halfway through being repainted. On the door is an odd, scribbly symbol. None of them are quite sure what they're looking for, but they enter anyway. It's nice, one of the nicer places they've seen. They split up to search each floor, Jace taking the third floor. When he comes back down the stairs, he sees Trix, frozen in the doorway of a second floor room.
“Trix?” he asks, a bit tentatively. “Are you alright?”
He comes up behind them, looking over their shoulder to see the beam of their flashlight at the base of a bed, the lump under the covers looking distinctly humanoid. Slowly, they move the beam further up so it shines in the face of a very real, very likely dead, human being.
Jace's hand goes reflexively to their shoulder, just as the person's eyes open and they stare back, a little blearily, and sit up slightly. “What?… Are you robbers?”
-
It'd taken Chase quite a lot of convincing to come with the group of teens, but now that they're nearing their supposed camp, he's starting to regret it. Sure, he doesn't have anywhere else to go, his family has vanished into thin air, and his town is underground somehow, but he's nervous to think what the inhabitants of the camp will think of him.
“What are you gonna tell them?” he asks, nervously.
“That we found you in some weird underground town, you're somehow from 2020 and you have amnesia,” the boy, Jace, says.
“I do not!” he protests.
“Do you remember anything about before you fell asleep?” One of the girls asks.
“No,” he admits. “But there was something about a girl, I think.”
“Yeah, that's not much for a memory,” she says.
“Not like I've forgotten everything,” he grumbles.
“Are you sure you were born in 2006?” the other girl asks, arm around the first one's waist.
“Positive. Are you sure it's 2112?”
“Unfortunately for you, yes.”
-
About a week later, Chase, the others, and their friend Steve are all standing around the hole that leads to Chase's buried hometown.
“Are we sure about this?” Steve asks.
“How else are we to find answers? The old man still can't remember anything,” Chrysanthemum (Chrys, she insists, but Chase is being petty) says.
“I'm younger than you are,” he mumbles, as Jace lowers Trix down onto the roof.
“You were born 106 years ago, gramps,” she responds, grinning. They've grown close pretty quickly this past week.
Once they're all on the street below, they get to looking for clues. None of them are sure what they're looking for, just anything that can help them make sense of this anomaly.
They go about an hour without finding much of importance, until Hal gets the idea to lift a sewer cover. Sceptical, but desperate, they comply, getting one open with considerable difficulty.
Hal shines her flashlight down into the hole and gasps. They all look through it and lo and behold, there's a shingled roof down below.
“Another one?” Steve asks, and they all agree it just got even weirder.
Despite their better judgement, they hoist themselves down into the second town, looking around this one as well. Chase doesn't recognize this new one, and neither does anyone else, yet they decide to check it out, sweeping it in a similar manner to what they were doing above.
40 minutes go by, and they're still looking for clues. “Guys look!” Trix exclaims, pointing at a house ahead.
“What about it?” Jace asks.
“On the door, that symbol,” they say, pointing. “I saw it on the door to Chase's house, too.”
They hurry to the house. This might actually get them somewhere.
The door is unlocked, and they split into three groups, the girls, the ‘ace’s, and the other two.
Chase's and his partner take the bedrooms. The first two are empty, but the third has an occupied bed.
“Deja vu,” Jace breathes.
The girl in the bed stirs, then awakens, looking up at the two. She rubs her eyes. “Chase?” she asks.
Jace looks at him, and he looks back, heart beating far too fast. He's certain he's never seen this girl before.