#zone gothic

[fabulous-joys]

sometimes, way out in the desert when no one else is around, you can hear a distant train whistle from the tracks that haven't run a train in decades. never follow it.

BIG fan of headcanons like these. i love zone gothic

[vinyls-and-valentines]

You come alone into the WKIL station, but when you leave a few days later you've got a new crew and you vaguely remember Show Pony giving you a kiss on the cheek for "good luck"

[dracpuncher]

Zone Gothic

-You’re going to a Mad Gear show tonight, it’s the same show that started this morning. Mad Gear has a show tomorrow morning, it’s the same show you’re at right now. You don’t know when you got here. Are you going to the Mad Gear show tonight?

-You saw a flash of black and white behind you. You didn’t have your gun, so you ducked for cover behind a vending machine at the rest stop. By the time the sky darkens, you forget why you even hid there in the first place. It’s been quiet the whole time. There is a burn mark and a stain of blood on the ground.

-You pass a neutral town on your way to Zone 5. It’s empty. There are no cars. There are no patrols. On your way back, it’s not there anymore.

-You find an android scrapped along route guano. You help him repair the wires in his arm and give him a ride to a friend’s place. Afterwards, you realize you never caught his name, and you didn’t recognize his model. You feel an especially warm feeling as you pass by the body of Destroya.

-There is a working television broadcasting a MouseKat cartoon behind Tommy Chow Mein’s. There’s nowhere it could be plugged in. There is no signal. There is no battery slot. This cartoon is the same one you saw as a kid. 

-Your blaster is out of juice. There’s a draculoid closing in on a ‘joy behind you. You shoot a ray at full power and hit the drac square on. They thank you. It’s still out of juice, but you don’t say anything. Don’t jinx it.

-You turn on your radio on to a station you’ve never heard before. Voices crackle through static, but nothing is clear until you hear your mothers name. You can’t find the station again.

[vinyls-and-valentines]

Because of the levels of light pollution within Battery City, the sky seems almost starless save for one lone dot shining amongst the inky black abyss. The star- or maybe it's a satellite?- got called The Eye of Destroya and it's said to be a way for Destroya to watch over the Zones and Slums of Battery City from wherever Destroya is.

Outside city walls and blinding white neons, the stars come out of hiding again, like millions of glass shards reflecting the bright lights of the souls of those lost in the desert below them. The Eye of Destroya still seems to shine the brightest, though, as a sort of distant lighthouse to help the zonedwellers find their way back home, wherever it may be.

There's as many tales about the stars as there's tumbleweeds in the desert, but none seem to trust shooting stars. Be they mischievious spirits or souls returning to walk the Earth again or even something more sinister, one thing is clear: If you see a shooting star when you're all alone in the night, run. Turn the other way and don't look behind you. Run like your life depends on it, because it does.

Destroya always watches over from the sky, it's true, but the Witch is the only one who roams the Zones at night, so you better pray she doesn't find your mask burried in the sand

[blackparaderunner]

Zone Gothic

There’s a place out in Zone 6 where if you drive just as the moon rises you’ll run into a man walking in just a pair of shorts. His flesh looks pristine save for a tattoo along his back. The more you look at it the more it shifts and changes. If you roll down your window to talk to him he won’t respond; just keep walking before stopping and just staring at your car once you pass him. Never ask him if he needs a ride.

Sometimes the sand under your feet will shift as if you’ve stepped into a hole yet if you look down you find you’re walking on pavement. You brush it off as nothing but start watching your feet a little more closely.

It’s last call in Lucky’s bar and you notice someone in a hood walks in. They never order but you know they’re waiting for someone. No one ever goes over to talk to them but there’s whispers that they work for the Phoenix Witch. If you go talk to them people start to forget you exist; never talk to the hooded figure.

At the edge of the badlands there’s a gas station that lays abandoned. Everyone knows you don’t spend the night there but they never explain why. The pumps always ding as you fill up your ride and there’s a bucket where you drop bottle caps in place of carbons. The pumps never run dry.

In Zone 4 there’s a mailbox with a small placard just asking for a single battery donation. No one decorated it and the blue paint has been all but buffeted away by the sandstorms. If you put a battery in you wake up the next morning with a flower in your hair. No one knows where they come from or how they get to you. There’s whispers that if you eat the flower it will save you from being ghosted. Those that have eaten the flowers are never heard from again.

If you run the obsidian road while singing The Black Parade there’s a chance you’ll see a glowing neon form in the distance. It never grows closer no matter how much you run towards or away from it. Never blink before it disappears because if you do you’ll find out just what, or who, it really is.

In Zone 5 there’s an old church covered in graffiti, but only on the outside, no one goes in and everyone knows not to try. Looking into the windows gives you an uneasy feeling. Murder Babies dare each other to spend a night inside for their initiation; those that do return with colored hair and ghosts behind their eyes. They never talk but if you pry you’ll find out just why they look the way they do.

In Zone 3 there’s an abandoned food truck with blacked out windows and a small window where you can get your food. There’s no menu but if you slip carbons through the crack in the passengers side window you’ll hear a clang and there will be something waiting for you at pickup. If you take too long in grabbing it you’ll find yourself covered in bites and scratches; no one ever knows where they come from.