#2020 gothic

[ips-n-caliban]

am i doing this “autofill poetry” thing right?

[id: a screenshot of tumblr’s suggested tags. the text reads:

we live in

we live in a police state

we live in hell

we live in a dystopia

we live in texas

end id.]

[screenselkie]

2020 Gothic

- You look outside. There is nobody there. You hear the news: a virus is killing people. You hear the news: a virus is killing people. You look outside. There are hundreds of people there.

- All the children begin to unconsciously move in a synchronised eldritch ballet. It's just a Tik Tok dance, they say. But what is a Tik Tok dance? Weary with the wisdom of the young, they say, 'You wouldn't understand'.

- Your supervisor lives in your devices now. They can see everything you do. They know as well as you do that you are not wearing any trousers.

[ice-mint]

Dear followers I leave you a frog I tried to draw from memory while I failed my online exam.

[occasionally--lost]

2020 gothic as things that’s happened to me lately.

•You wake up, look around. You wake up.

•The mushrooms you bought from the store earlier today are all moldy. The apple that’s been in your drawer for four weeks stays the same. You don’t eat it.

•You think your allergies are getting pretty bad. But you do not know.

•Every channel is playing the same house hunting show. They are never happy with the houses. One of the houses has three kitchens. No one finds this odd. You stop watching. You do not move.

•You eat five times a day. You never feel hungry or full.

•You get invited to a party. Aren’t there going to be a lot of people, you ask. They say yes. You do not go. You don’t hear from them again.

•You’ve worked out four times. You feel proud. You realise it’s been three months. You don’t feel.

•You haven’t showered for a week. It does not matter.

[drunk-poets-society]

Spring gothic

It’s morning. It’s been morning for a long time now.

There’s an insect here. There isn’t. There is. Did you kill it? There’s another one. Or is it the same one? You can’t be sure.

It’s warm suddenly. It’s jarring. You sweat. You’re still cold to the touch.

There’s ants. There’s a trail here. A trail there. You don’t remember leaving any food out. The trail disappears. You look again. Your sandwich is gone. Did you eat it? You don’t feel full.

The birds are chirping. They’re loud. Your head hurts. They fly. Where are they going? What were they trying to say? You hope it isn’t too late.

The animals are coming out of their burrows. A mongoose scurries across your lawn. You live on the fifth floor.

Everything is moving. The wind. The plants. The animals. You see them moving. You’re not sure if you were walking or did the world march past you. You’re still in your room. Something has changed.

You go online. There are posts. You get off the ‘net. What was that headline again?

Flowers are blooming. You just saw a rose bush burst into full bloom.

You go inside. You walk around your house. You go back out again. The bush is wilting. How long were you in there ? The clock doesn’t work.

You got a call from your grandma saying she made cookies. You head to her house. You somehow end up at the graveyard. You do not remember taking that turn.

The cookies and milk taste delicious. You thank your grandma and head home. You end up at the ruins of an abandoned building. It looks eerily similar to your apartment complex.

You go in and everything is normal. Something has changed. Your neighbour smiles at you. You smile back. You sense something was off. Their smile was a little too crooked.

You don’t have neighbours.

Your cat purrs when you enter. You pet the cat. You feel safe with them.

You sit on the recliner and the cat sits on your lap. You look into their eyes. They seem human. Too human.

You wait.

There are smells everywhere. Sweet. Spicy. Mild. Intense. Your eyes water. You can’t breathe.

There’s fresh fruit everywhere. You just had a watermelon. There’s another one right there. You did not buy it. Did you eat? You feel full. There is nothing to suggest you didn’t.

[chaotic-dumbass-witch]

• You’ve been sitting at your desk for hours. You were planning on getting some work done. You still sit at your desk. you open a folder where one of your assignments is. You close the app. You open another folder. It is empty, and its title reads “Document 4719”. You do not remember ever having opened so many documents.

• You scroll down to find 5 documents in total. You do not know how you got to the number 4719. You never will. No one will, and numbers are irrelevant in this reality.

• You ponder about reality. You come to the conclusion that reality may be an illusion. You are not sure which reality you are in anymore. Maybe in the wrong one. Maybe in the wrong one.

• You have done nothing in the past eight hours. Has it been days? You do not know anymore.

• You look at the clock. It is still the same day, the same hour. It hasn’t even been a minute since you sat down at your desk. You whisper to yourself about the impossibility of this. You whisper in another language, a language you cannot know, a language you have never learnt or even heard of.

• The next day, it gets dark seconds after you wake up. How did you get there? Where is there? You do not know. You do not know what day it is, or what time. It is late. A few more minutes pass, and you can see the sun rising on the horizon. This is not right. Time is not right.

• Time is but an illusion. You have lost track of it completely, and the understanding you thought you had for it has vanished. But what has been lost cannot be recovered, not now, not here. Not anymore.

• Time. Our greatest enemy, our greatest foe. Invincible. And yet you have forgotten it. Time does not matter to you anymore, the word has little meaning. There is time between the things that happen, and yet it exists nowhere. Time does not exist in you anymore.

• It is Friday. Or it might be. The day is irrelevant. You have an essay due on the 28th. You do not know the 28th day which month it is due on. You do not know which months it is, nor what day it is now. You need to care, but you cannot push yourself to understand the concept that has grown so strange, so irrelevant, so distant to your mind.

• You attempt to read the clock. You attempt to read the clock. You attempt to read the clock.

• The clock and your watch indicate different times. All you can hear is the ticking. Tick. Tock. It goes on, existing beyond the end of our universe. It exists everywhere. You cannot see it. You cannot understand.

• You leave the room. All the instruments in the house that are used to indicate time show a different one. Nothing is identical. There are hundreds of clocks all over the walls. The clocks cover every surface around you. You are unbothered. Time means nothing to you. You do not see time. You do not feel time. The clocks mean nothing.

• They all tick in unison. It is overwhelming. They all tick. They all tick, and they never stop. You take the batteries out of one of them. It continues to tick. It grows louder, and louder, and louder.

• You close your eyes. You close your eyes. You close your eyes. You close your eyes. How many eyes do you have? Your eyes are still open.

• You close your eyes for a final time. The sound of ticking fades. Absolute silence is around you. You open your eyes. All the clocks are gone. They had never existed.

• You open your eyes again. You still do not know how many eyes you have. You are sitting at your desk. You check the time. It is earlier than it used to be. Have you gone back in time? You may never know.

[gundamlfrith-remade]

[infamously-winking]

you are a student. days no longer exist. only appointments exist and even those are dubious at best. class starts when you get up. no need for movement. you turn your computer on. there are too many zoom launch tabs to count. you stopped closing them after the you lost track of time. you open a new launch tab. you hear clicks and clacks as you join with your computer audio. someone has not turned off their mic. This Meeting Is Being Recorded©️. you are a student. the professor asks if you can hear them. you cant. you click yes in the participants section