For best results, read the first post and then reply before reading anyone else. Then we can go back and discuss.
Here's how it opens:
Person A meets a complete stranger, Person B. The two seem to have a connection. Through the course of a few hours (or minutes, if you prefer), they get to know each other better. They are extremely compatible, and the share some intimate time together. Afterwards, B is sleeping, and A discovers a tattoo of their own (A's) face somewhere on B.
Decide for yourself the genders and level of intimacy here and then let me know where you think it goes from here. What's the Why behind it? Is it a thriller? Horror? Mystery, comedy, action-adventure?
Where does this story go?
Where does this story go?
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Where does this story go?
It can be any of those things!
Time traveler from the future?
I'll write a longer post later......
Time traveler from the future?
I'll write a longer post later......
Re: Where does this story go?
The genders aren't important, but if I'm writing the story, I'd have B be a woman, Briana, and A be a man, Adam. The entire story is told from the first person perspective of Adam. Both approximately 18 or 19. They meet and have an obsessive and romantic week together where they both appear to be swept off their feet by the other. Adam wants to move fast, but Briana wants to move a little slower, reassuring him that they have all the time in the world. During their intimate times, Briana has a bandage on her side, on the rib cage. She unconvincingly tells him that she slipped the week before with a knife in her hand and accidentally cut herself. But after their first night of intimacy, he wakes up the next morning and finds the bandage has slipped off. Under it is a tattoo of his face, but he looks off- a little older. Under the face is a tattoo of a date just over ten years in the future.
Adam freaks out. There's a huge argument. He's convinced she's stalking him. Conning him. She just wants a chance to explain. Just give her a chance. He sits down. She pulls a bottle of cheap, boxed wine out of her bag. Pours it into a glass and says, "Just listen to me. I know that your very first sip of alcohol was when you were twelve and you stole a bottle just like this from a 7-11. You wanted your younger brother to try it with you, but he was scared your dad would beat you both if he found out. So you drank it by yourself in the upstairs bathroom. It was terrible, and your dad found it in the bottom of the bathroom trashcan three days later covered in wadded up toilet paper. He beat the shit out of you. When he did it, he slapped your face so hard it blacked your eye and he made you tell your mom that you slipped on the edge of the pool. You never told her the truth. She died adoring a man you lived in fear of your whole life."
Adam is stunned. "How do you know all this?"
"Because you told me to tell you this story. You told me that this would convince you to believe me," Brianna says.
"But," Adam stammers, "I never told you..."
"Not yet," she interrupts. "But you will in 10 years."
She proceeds to explain to him that she's from 10 years in the future. She explains that in one year they'll be married. They'll never have children, by choice, but they will have the greatest romance that's existed in modern history. She explains that there is a cataclysmic event that destroys the world in ten years and she developed a technology to send herself back in time to ten years in the past. Only one of them could go, and they decided it should be her. She explains that she's done this so, instead of them both dying, they can still live together. "But what will happen in 10 years?" he asks. "I'll do it again," she responds. "How many times have you done this?" he asks. "This is the first," she responds.
The book then explores whether he believes: (1) that she's from the future; and (2) if she's done this to him before or perhaps many, many other times. He eventually becomes convinced that the first is true because her knowledge of big events is 100% accurate even if she doesn't know precise, granulated details of their day to day life. He tortures himself over the second point, is he just being manipulated? But it truly is a world-conquering love, so does it matter?
They do get married and their love affair is truly epic, even as Adam struggles with his conflict. But as the years go by he starts getting sinister signs that make him paranoid that she isn't being honest. He begins to suspect that maybe the first go around, they weren't even partners. Did she just pick him? Has this all been an obsession from the beginning and not the fated-doomed love affair it was painted to be? Maybe in the original timeline he was with someone else? But again, does it matter? Why can't he let go of these doubts?
As they approach the ten year mark, even stranger things begin to happen. The world becomes plainer. He begins noticing that it seems to be getting smaller. The "closing circle" phenomenon gets more and more pronounced as it slowly becomes evident that little outside their town exists. Then their house. Then their bedroom. While this is occurring, Briana begins acting more erratically. More inappropriately emotional and overreacting to the slightest things. Finally he confronts her with this and she has a breakdown. She reveals that she lied. There's no event destroying the world. It's her world that was destroyed. He died in a car accident. On the date under the tattoo. In the real world she paid for a program to download her consciousness and insert it into a world populated by her memories and details filled out by some kind of near-magical computing power somewhere. Through tears she explains that he's part of that. He's part of the simulation. At first he's skeptical, but she convinces him. Questions arise- but what happened to her physical body in the real world? Still there, she supposes- but doesn't know. So he's not real? She's not real?
"But what now? Why now? What's happening?" he asks.
"My brain is done. This is where my memories stopped. The system is failing." she answers. "All I can do is reset and start again."
They cry together. She apologizes for lying to him. She tells him that this really is the first time she's done it and she's so sorry. She won't reset if he doesn't want her too. Or if he wants her to do something different, she will. He doesn't know if he believes that this is the first time, but he decides it doesn't matter. He loves her. He wants to always love her. He tells her, "Go back again. Do it the exact same way. Or don't. Do it however you want. Just make sure that I can keep loving you like I have for the past 10 years." They cry, hug, and then everything simply stops.
Adam freaks out. There's a huge argument. He's convinced she's stalking him. Conning him. She just wants a chance to explain. Just give her a chance. He sits down. She pulls a bottle of cheap, boxed wine out of her bag. Pours it into a glass and says, "Just listen to me. I know that your very first sip of alcohol was when you were twelve and you stole a bottle just like this from a 7-11. You wanted your younger brother to try it with you, but he was scared your dad would beat you both if he found out. So you drank it by yourself in the upstairs bathroom. It was terrible, and your dad found it in the bottom of the bathroom trashcan three days later covered in wadded up toilet paper. He beat the shit out of you. When he did it, he slapped your face so hard it blacked your eye and he made you tell your mom that you slipped on the edge of the pool. You never told her the truth. She died adoring a man you lived in fear of your whole life."
Adam is stunned. "How do you know all this?"
"Because you told me to tell you this story. You told me that this would convince you to believe me," Brianna says.
"But," Adam stammers, "I never told you..."
"Not yet," she interrupts. "But you will in 10 years."
She proceeds to explain to him that she's from 10 years in the future. She explains that in one year they'll be married. They'll never have children, by choice, but they will have the greatest romance that's existed in modern history. She explains that there is a cataclysmic event that destroys the world in ten years and she developed a technology to send herself back in time to ten years in the past. Only one of them could go, and they decided it should be her. She explains that she's done this so, instead of them both dying, they can still live together. "But what will happen in 10 years?" he asks. "I'll do it again," she responds. "How many times have you done this?" he asks. "This is the first," she responds.
The book then explores whether he believes: (1) that she's from the future; and (2) if she's done this to him before or perhaps many, many other times. He eventually becomes convinced that the first is true because her knowledge of big events is 100% accurate even if she doesn't know precise, granulated details of their day to day life. He tortures himself over the second point, is he just being manipulated? But it truly is a world-conquering love, so does it matter?
They do get married and their love affair is truly epic, even as Adam struggles with his conflict. But as the years go by he starts getting sinister signs that make him paranoid that she isn't being honest. He begins to suspect that maybe the first go around, they weren't even partners. Did she just pick him? Has this all been an obsession from the beginning and not the fated-doomed love affair it was painted to be? Maybe in the original timeline he was with someone else? But again, does it matter? Why can't he let go of these doubts?
As they approach the ten year mark, even stranger things begin to happen. The world becomes plainer. He begins noticing that it seems to be getting smaller. The "closing circle" phenomenon gets more and more pronounced as it slowly becomes evident that little outside their town exists. Then their house. Then their bedroom. While this is occurring, Briana begins acting more erratically. More inappropriately emotional and overreacting to the slightest things. Finally he confronts her with this and she has a breakdown. She reveals that she lied. There's no event destroying the world. It's her world that was destroyed. He died in a car accident. On the date under the tattoo. In the real world she paid for a program to download her consciousness and insert it into a world populated by her memories and details filled out by some kind of near-magical computing power somewhere. Through tears she explains that he's part of that. He's part of the simulation. At first he's skeptical, but she convinces him. Questions arise- but what happened to her physical body in the real world? Still there, she supposes- but doesn't know. So he's not real? She's not real?
"But what now? Why now? What's happening?" he asks.
"My brain is done. This is where my memories stopped. The system is failing." she answers. "All I can do is reset and start again."
They cry together. She apologizes for lying to him. She tells him that this really is the first time she's done it and she's so sorry. She won't reset if he doesn't want her too. Or if he wants her to do something different, she will. He doesn't know if he believes that this is the first time, but he decides it doesn't matter. He loves her. He wants to always love her. He tells her, "Go back again. Do it the exact same way. Or don't. Do it however you want. Just make sure that I can keep loving you like I have for the past 10 years." They cry, hug, and then everything simply stops.
Re: Where does this story go?
So... Just me then?