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This is for a short story that I'm trying to perfect before sending out to various magazines.

The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future.

I need an explanation--it doesn't have to be airtight, just believable--for how they might determine it's from the future. Carbon dating won't work, obviously, and right now I'm planning for them to make the pull by comparing his dental records and also the degeneration of the bones from arthritis (suggesting a more advanced case than his own), but I'm wondering if there's a marker that might suggest something is from the future.

CO2 levels in the bones/soil around the bones? Some kind of radiation that increases in concentration over time?

Sounds like a cool story already, hope to read it when its complete.

I'll let you know if it gets picked up somewhere.

I just had it workshopped and my impression is that it's just one revision away from being ready.

The dental records(you should probably throw in a DNA test, too) + more advanced arthritis explanation seems to be the most believable.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
This is for a short story that I'm trying to perfect before sending out to various magazines.

The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future.

I need an explanation--it doesn't have to be airtight, just believable--for how they might determine it's from the future. Carbon dating won't work, obviously, and right now I'm planning for them to make the pull by comparing his dental records and also the degeneration of the bones from arthritis (suggesting a more advanced case than his own), but I'm wondering if there's a marker that might suggest something is from the future.

CO2 levels in the bones/soil around the bones? Some kind of radiation that increases in concentration over time?

Well there are environmental systems whose future behavior can be predicted based on their patterns.

So maybe some environmental factor on his body can be tested, and perhaps that can indicate if the anomalous environmental influence on the skeleton meets that environment's predicted future conditions?

Idk

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
The dental records(you should probably throw in a DNA test, too) + more advanced arthritis explanation seems to be the most believable.
There is already a DNA test involved, and I include a reference to them not always being able to distinguish between close relatives, which is why the cop asks the protag if he has a twin brother, or 'had' one.

Obviously if the skeleton is older, than there's still the possibility that it's just him in the past or there's some other freaky thing going on, and after he time-shifted he aged.

There is no temporal marker. Spatial markers would be one object's distance and position from another, then there're environmental markers, and much else. Yet there's nothing that tells you what point in time another object has been in. Space does expand as the universe ages, but the expansion of a couple measly years would be infinitesimal, and still untraceable. So whether or not an object has undergone a temporal shift, forward or backward for that matter, is untraceable. Unless you could take the neurons and somehow reforge some memories through futuristic neurological technology and sophistication.

I mean, given unlimited scientific sophistication and technology, one may be able to see if the subatomic particles within this skeleton operate infinitesimally outside our current laws of thermodynamics. Like space's volume, the laws of thermodynamics do change overtime as well. Can the changed behavior of this skeleton's subatomic structure be measured, and if so would the behavior still be different when the skeleton returns to this moment in time? Actually, no it wouldn't, they would return to doing only what the current laws would permit them to do.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
There is already a DNA test involved, and I include a reference to them not always being able to distinguish between close relatives, which is why the cop asks the protag if he has a twin brother, or 'had' one. There's no way to tell if it's from the future, and twins do have a identical DnA markers.

Is work this based on a true story?

Originally posted by Oneness
There's no way to tell if it's from the future, and twins do have a identical DnA markers.

Is work this based on a true story?
Well, I dug a hole once and I live in Florida where the story is set. That's the sum of truthiness in this story.

Originally posted by Oneness
Obviously if the skeleton is older, than there's still the possibility that it's just him in the past or there's some other freaky thing going on, and after he time-shifted he aged.

There is no temporal marker. Spatial markers would be one object's distance and position from another, then there're environmental markers, and much else. Yet there's nothing that tells you what point in time another object has been in. Space does expand as the universe ages, but the expansion of a couple measly years would be infinitesimal, and still untraceable. So whether or not an object has undergone a temporal shift, forward or backward for that matter, is untraceable. Unless you could take the neurons and somehow reforge some memories through futuristic neurological technology and sophistication.

I mean, given unlimited scientific sophistication and technology, one may be able to see if the subatomic particles within this skeleton operate infinitesimally outside our current laws of thermodynamics. Like space's volume, the laws of thermodynamics do change overtime as well. Can the changed behavior of this skeleton's subatomic structure be measured, and if so would the behavior still be different when the skeleton returns to this moment in time? Actually, no it wouldn't, they would return to doing only what the current laws would permit them to do.

Whao... that's all very nice and dandy, but I'm pretty certain the story takes place in the present so no crazy space-age tech.

Spoilers

Depending on how far into the future it is, degradation (wear and tear) occurs over time. For instance, this year you may have all of your teeth, and next year you may have lost one. If the skeleton was from 30 or more years into the future of a middle aged person, the skull could possibly show signs of senility... you know that kind of thing could be tapped on if you were going to write it up for plausibility. Or you could go an entirely different direction. There could have been items found near or on the corpse like a wedding ring that the person has never had because they weren't married yet.

Originally posted by Stoic
Depending on how far into the future it is, degradation (wear and tear) occurs over time. For instance, this year you may have all of your teeth, and next year you may have lost one. If the skeleton was from 30 or more years into the future of a middle aged person, the skull could possibly show signs of senility...

You're not looking far enough into it.

Just because one's skeletal doppelganger is aged more than its lively counterpart, doesn't mean it aged into the future and was shifted back in time after the fact. Could have aged in the past, as opposed to the future.

Still could have married someone in the past or in an alternate parallel universe where OV has an identical twin brother, idk.

The fact is when something like that happens, scientifically speaking, you'd have to have faith in such perplexing theories as it being your future self. Leaving it up to interpretation has always been a preferable plot device in my mind anyway. There's no modern way to demonstrably prove or disprove whether or not this doppelganger was in fact OV, or whether or not it was even from the future.

Originally posted by Stoic
Depending on how far into the future it is, degradation (wear and tear) occurs over time. For instance, this year you may have all of your teeth, and next year you may have lost one. If the skeleton was from 30 or more years into the future of a middle aged person, the skull could possibly show signs of senility... you know that kind of thing could be tapped on if you were going to write it up for plausibility. Or you could go an entirely different direction. There could have been items found near or on the corpse like a wedding ring that the person has never had because they weren't married yet.

This actually gives me an idea: the skeleton could have things on it that plausibly only that person could have had. For example a wedding ring that's one-of-a-kind or some sort of an implant that the original person also has.

There should be a way to test to see if something is the future.



Proton Decay




All the protons in the universe have half lives. If you have a precise enough measurement of how to see how much of the protons in matter has decayed, you should be able to place it, temporally.


I'm almost positive that that is Star Trek levels of tech: not something we can do, currently. It has far too precise of a measurement that I am positive our current tech cannot accomplish.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
This is for a short story that I'm trying to perfect before sending out to various magazines.

The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future.

I need an explanation--it doesn't have to be airtight, just believable--for how they might determine it's from the future. Carbon dating won't work, obviously, and right now I'm planning for them to make the pull by comparing his dental records and also the degeneration of the bones from arthritis (suggesting a more advanced case than his own), but I'm wondering if there's a marker that might suggest something is from the future.

CO2 levels in the bones/soil around the bones? Some kind of radiation that increases in concentration over time?

The best I can say is be creative lol. Since time travel isn't real at this stage in time(see what I did) you could always make something up. You're a smart guy...or at least seem like it lol. Maybe the act of time travel leaves some kind of residue in the DNA of a time traveler. If you could give some good explanation you could probably make it sound real.

Originally posted by dadudemon
There should be a way to test to see if something is the future.



Proton Decay




All the protons in the universe have half lives. If you have a precise enough measurement of how to see how much of the protons in matter has decayed, you should be able to place it, temporally.


I'm almost positive that that is Star Trek levels of tech: not something we can do, currently. It has far too precise of a measurement that I am positive our current tech cannot accomplish. Yes, good.

Originally posted by BlackZero30x
The best I can say is be creative lol. Since time travel isn't real at this stage in time(see what I did) you could always make something up. You're a smart guy...or at least seem like it lol. Maybe the act of time travel leaves some kind of residue in the DNA of a time traveler. If you could give some good explanation you could probably make it sound real. Also, all you have to do to travel forward in time is achieve relativistic velocities. Time only flows forward, not backward, so if time travel does leave this "pixy dust" on the skeleton, one can only assume its from the future.

Then correlated with Stoic's ideas, it becomes pretty conclusive.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future. Cool.

Maybe Future Version had an operation, like hip replacement with an advanced alloy, or perhaps his bones show signs of electrically accelerated healing. Perhaps there are nutrients in his bones which currently do not exist.

Establish the future he came from. What are the medical capabilities? (this can all be backstory). Once you have that, the answer to your question may well suggest itself.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Spoilers
The protag is Omega Vision, who dug out a skeleton of himself from the future at his home in Florida.

Originally posted by Mindship

Establish the future he came from. What are the medical capabilities? (this can all be backstory). Once you have that, the answer to your question may well suggest itself.
Nah, nothing like that. It's a short story that has more in common with magical realism than science fiction.

My current policy is to not speculate at all on the nature of the time travel or where/exactly when it was sent from, just to find some way of explaining how the forensics people might come to the conclusion that it's from the future.

The more you talk about time travel, the more fraught it becomes.

The hip replacement is a good idea though. Thanks. The prosthetic could be made from some kind of advanced carbon fiber that's ten years from being feasible.

I'd stick with Stoic's advice.

Sounds like an awesome story. Sadly can't think of anything.

Thanks for your participation, everyone.

I really appreciate the advice and the words of encouragement. If/when (I have a good feeling about this one though) it gets published, I'll put a link up and/or give the name/publication date of the magazine.

How about the remnants of an implant or operation he is due to get and is scheduled for but hasn't yet. No idea how those investigating it would know he's due to get it though although maybe you could have it so they tell him the skeleton is genetically identical to him although the skeleton has had an implant and the guy figures out himself that it's his body from the future. The police would tell him that while the implant is new to the market it appears to be x amount of years old and haves them totally baffled

Was going to say "future tech artificial heart" with not only the technology being 30, 40 or even 50 years ahead of what we have right now, but a manufacturing date on the heart itself "Made in China 2062" but Jaden already noted it.

Well, the thing has to be simple enough that it can be mentioned in passing without becoming a huge deal in its own right. This is a 15 page story and the actual discovery/revelation part is only the first 5 pages of that.

What about something not unique but very unlikely? For example, the character in question could've been a punk in his youth and deformed his skull in some unspecified but very particular way, he finds the deformed skull and that by itself it's freaky, since his skull shape itself is kind of a secret (maybe even technically doubtful before he actually tried, with no previous cases existing and such).

Adding the physical proximity to his house to that very uncommon trait would be enough to at least assume the skeleton is related with him.

How about a post-it note on the skeleton?

After my last comment more ideas of my personal brand of literature came to mind, you can do some crazy things with this kind of scenario, hopefully your version ends up being uncanny OV.

I could see the story easily as a classic Twilight Zone episode.

What if the skeleton has a particular injury that the protagonist has yet to have, but is affected with before the story ends?

Is there a way to test if something's from the future? No.

We would never be able to tell if something was from the future. The object might appear older then it should be, or of technology that doesn't exist yet, but how would we eliminate other possibilities and know it's from the future. We would have to wait until the future had become the past before we could know.

For example: The year is 1960, and a iPod falls out of the sky onto the ground. How would someone tell if this iPod was from the future, aliens, or some top secrete government agency. If you turn the iPod on you might find some dates and clues, but you couldn't get onto the internet, because there was none in 1960. So, the information you've taken from the iPod could be incredible fiction. You will not know until time passes and the iPod is invented, manufactured and falls into the past.

So the protagonist doesn't find out it's his skeleton, but the constant reader does after he lives the rest of his life and is buried there?

The future is not predetermind. Mabye that will help in your story.

Originally posted by Quincy
So the protagonist doesn't find out it's his skeleton, but the constant reader does after he lives the rest of his life and is buried there?

Well, what the reader knows and what can be done in science are two different things. Plus, why does a good story have to be scientifically correct?

Yep I'm not disagreeing with you. I mean like, maybe it's not that the protagonist and the police figure out it's him. But it's the readers do, when at the end of the story we see him die and get buried there or something.

Originally posted by Quincy
What if the skeleton has a particular injury that the protagonist has yet to have, but is affected with before the story ends?

What would be more messed up is if he only sustainaed the injury because he was investigating how the skeleton came to be there in the 1st place.

Originally posted by jaden101
What would be more messed up is if he only sustainaed the injury because he was investigating how the skeleton came to be there in the 1st place.

Originally posted by Mindship
I could see the story easily as a classic Twilight Zone episode.
I love classic Twilight Zone. Better IMO than any print science fiction that I can think of this side of Martian Chronicles.

Well there is a twist ending that leads to the character realizing something about his personal life that causes him to grow as a person after first using the skeleton for fame and fortune, so yeah, it's very Rod Serling like.

Einstine might be correct about an astronaut that leaves earth and travels at the speed of light for a year and when he returns 100 years have passed here on earth. That's the best explanation I can give you for time travel.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
This is for a short story that I'm trying to perfect before sending out to various magazines.

The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future.

I need an explanation--it doesn't have to be airtight, just believable--for how they might determine it's from the future. Carbon dating won't work, obviously, and right now I'm planning for them to make the pull by comparing his dental records and also the degeneration of the bones from arthritis (suggesting a more advanced case than his own), but I'm wondering if there's a marker that might suggest something is from the future.

CO2 levels in the bones/soil around the bones? Some kind of radiation that increases in concentration over time?

Sounds interesting.

I don't know how factually true this is off-hand but I remember hearing/learning, at some point in my college days, that as men grow older, our brow ridge grows and protrudes out more over our eye sockets. You would have to research it but I think it's true to an extent. If any thing you could gather and present a number of markers to add more believability to the future skeleton. I could very well be wrong though. Hope this helps.

Also, if what I said is true I also recall that the brow ridge continues to grow well into middle age and later. It's similar to how everyone's ears grow bigger as we age.

If you look it up, maybe you could let me know if my info is correct Omega.

So, update: there's a magazine that wants the story, but they're not my first, second, or even fifth pick, and I've been getting replies on submitted work at such a rapid rate these last few days that it's conceivable that another, better magazine, might ask for it tomorrow, or even today, so I'm going to see about waiting a day or two before replying to them.

Congrats man, that's awesome.

dope!

Originally posted by Omega Vision
So, update: there's a magazine that wants the story...

Now that's pretty cool. Don't forget to tell us how it goes.

If OV ever makes it huge as a writer, I'm going to blackmail him out of millions using KMC quotes he's made. Millions!

Lol, that's my greatest fear, Rob.

It's basically why I can't ever run for public office.

Thanks, guys, I'll put up a link when it gets published, be it by this magazine or by another.

Way to spoil the story man.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
So, update: there's a magazine that wants the story, but they're not my first, second, or even fifth pick, and I've been getting replies on submitted work at such a rapid rate these last few days that it's conceivable that another, better magazine, might ask for it tomorrow, or even today, so I'm going to see about waiting a day or two before replying to them.

Pretty cool, man.

If something was from the future it would mean that a white hole had been harnessed. It might happen soon with all the technological advances.

Why even have the cops tell him it's from the future? Why not just have them tell him that as far as they can tell it's his own skeleton and they're perplexed by it. He can figure out through other means that it's from the future. Or you can lead the reader to come to that conclusion without straight up saying it.

Originally posted by BackFire
Why even have the cops tell him it's from the future? Why not just have them tell him that as far as they can tell it's his own skeleton and they're perplexed by it. He can figure out through other means that it's from the future. Or you can lead the reader to come to that conclusion without straight up saying it.
He's not the sort of person who'd come to this conclusion on his own. Also by having the cops conclude it's him from the future would obviate other possibilities like "murdered twin brother."

Have you considered murdered twin brother from the future?

Sounds like a cool premise, OV, and congrats on the prospect of getting it published.

I'm thinking journal found near the skeleton.

With specific future dates outlining specific events that absolutely unfailingly come true. Future events described by future self as history that can, shockingly, be seen unfolding AS history.

2nd idea is to find a "miracle" substance or device on the skeleton. Which conforms to nothing the present age can produce. Or contains some element that, when sent to a lab, cannot be identified with anything currently known from the periodic chart.

Sadly, my mind cannot conceive now of how this would not wind up being some sort of scifi "horror" story. No work I can think of that follows the above premises ends well for the protagonist.

With the level of technology we have now the answer to your question would be "absolutely not". On the other hand since this is a story about time traveling skeletons that isn't really a big issue.

Plus you could go the route of just handwaving this with a really bad joke. So the guy's skeleton from the future has shown up. How? Well, I guess he had a BONE to pick with his past self. Then you cue the laughter and the subject is never mentioned again.

Add some gold grills and u my friend got a pilot episode for a mini series...

Yes, we all like mini series....

The story has been published:

http://www.mountisland.com/old-bones.html

Originally posted by Omega Vision
This is for a short story that I'm trying to perfect before sending out to various magazines.

The story concerns a man who, while digging his own pool, finds a skeleton. He calls the police who take the skeleton away, only to return it to him a month or two later after determining it's his own skeleton from the future.

I need an explanation--it doesn't have to be airtight, just believable--for how they might determine it's from the future. Carbon dating won't work, obviously, and right now I'm planning for them to make the pull by comparing his dental records and also the degeneration of the bones from arthritis (suggesting a more advanced case than his own), but I'm wondering if there's a marker that might suggest something is from the future.

CO2 levels in the bones/soil around the bones? Some kind of radiation that increases in concentration over time?

Well, OK, how about the skeleton is from a 'time slip' from a parallel universe?' You could work around it, to incorporate it into an older version of yourself from that parallel universe. Perhaps your pool is a 'portal' into that PU?

It's just a thought...

Originally posted by Omega Vision
The story has been published:

http://www.mountisland.com/old-bones.html

Ha-ha, your name's Duckworth. Gonna read the story now.

Originally posted by Laurie
Well, OK, how about the skeleton is from a 'time slip' from a parallel universe?' You could work around it, to incorporate it into an older version of yourself from that parallel universe. Perhaps your pool is a 'portal' into that PU?

It's just a thought...
Well now...that just made me think of Hot Tub Time Machine.

Won't ppl naturally assume that the burried skeleton would be more of a clone/twin with identical dental records rather than "time travel corpse"? I mean, that's a bit of a big leap in reasoning for police to simply assume from there.

That said, maybe you can go with something like a "temporal storm that deposits random items from multiple eras that is being investigated by scientists that occured some time back" or somesuch unexplainable plot event plot device (as a foreshadowing) to make the concept of a time traveling corpse palatably acceptable as a possible conclusion to such a discovery?

I would go with a one of s kind heirloom watch that stops on a specific date/time (in the future) myself.... Or a smartphone that contains dated photos of events that hasn't happened yet. Or a new type of prosthesis that has not yet been invented on time of death.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
The story has been published:

http://www.mountisland.com/old-bones.html I just read it.

Your prose is lean, which makes reading the piece flow. Characterization and setting seemed real enough, given the short story format. I thought the Big Reveal of the skeleton being from the future was...a might casual(?), ie, it didn't have quite the impact I would've liked. But the ending was good: unexpected and thought-provoking as to what Murray was thinking and what he might do next.

Overall: good job, OV. I usually don't read nonprofessional works (shame on me, since I fall into that category) because the prose is (imo) typically cumbersome. Not yours.

Originally posted by Mindship
I just read it.

Your prose is lean, which makes reading the piece flow. Characterization and setting seemed real enough, given the short story format. I thought the Big Reveal of the skeleton being from the future was...a might casual(?), ie, it didn't have quite the impact I would've liked. But the ending was good: unexpected and thought-provoking as to what Murray was thinking and what he might do next.

Overall: good job, OV. I usually don't read nonprofessional works (shame on me, since I fall into that category) because the prose is (imo) typically cumbersome. Not yours.
What do you mean by "nonprofessional?" Do you mean "doesn't have a novel out?"

As for the impact of the discovery, magical realism demands a measure of understatement to keep it from becoming sensationalistic. It was a tricky scene, but I think I achieved what I was trying for, which was to move the plot forward without the skeleton overpowering the significance of the rest of the story. Really, Murray's relationship with his daughter is the story, and the skeleton is just the mechanism by which that story comes to fruition. My hope was that the reader would read that part, accept it within the logic of the story, and then move on.

Thanks for reading.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
What do you mean by "nonprofessional?" Do you mean "doesn't have a novel out?" Professional meaning more/less established, "name" authors.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
As for the impact of the discovery, magical realism demands a measure of understatement to keep it from becoming sensationalistic. It was a tricky scene.I like understatement, and for the most part I agree: you succeeded in your venture. Working the sublime organically into a realistic setting is tricky. I guess I would've liked at least one person (a scientist?) to have had an intense, OMG! moment, but that's just my opinion.

Originally posted by Mindship
Professional meaning more/less established, "name" authors.

Ahh, I see. I think "nonprofessional" is a rather pejorative word because it speaks not to success or reputation but to quality, and implies a lack thereof. I don't think you should think of yourself as nonprofessional either, unless you don't take writing seriously and only approach it as a fun on-and-off hobby (which is what, to me, "nonprofessional" would suggest). Better to think in terms of Unpublished-->Published-->Well-Published-->Famous. I'd be in the second category.


They probably were, but unlike most of my stories, which focus on intellectual types (professors, philosophers, writers, scientists, politicians), this story is about a salt of the earth guy, and the focus reflects that. Also, there was a lot of impact culturally--he got on Fox News after all (whenever I can, I work Fox News into a short story, it's just too deeply ingrained in my home region to ignore).

What did you think of the comet?

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Better to think in terms of Unpublished-->Published-->Well-Published-->Famous.Maybe I've collected too many rejection slips.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
They probably were, but unlike most of my stories, which focus on intellectual types (professors, philosophers, writers, scientists, politicians), this story is about a salt of the earth guy, and the focus reflects that. Also, there was a lot of impact culturally--he got on Fox News after all (whenever I can, I work Fox News into a short story, it's just too deeply ingrained in my home region to ignore).

What did you think of the comet? I was wondering about that reference to Fox. I immediately pictured Martha MacCallum anchoring in a thigh-high blue dress.

The comet? Honestly? I didn't note it much. Mostly what held was interest was Murray and how he was handling everything, especially the daughter stuff. I believe that was your strongest thread running through the story.

Originally posted by Mindship
Maybe I've collected too many rejection slips.
I was wondering about that reference to Fox. I immediately pictured Martha MacCallum anchoring in a thigh-high blue dress.

The comet? Honestly? I didn't note it much. Mostly what held was interest was Murray and how he was handling everything, especially the daughter stuff. I believe that was your strongest thread running through the story.
Do you have a Submittable account? I'm at the point where my rejections are about at level with my active submissions (~80 for each), so I have to keep on submitting to keep a positive ratio of active/accepted to rejected.

If you didn't notice it much, that's probably a good thing--that means it wasn't distracting. I had an idea (I haven't completely abandoned it--it's just sort of on hiatus) for a story collection where all the stories were linked by there being a comet heading for earth and each story would be directly or indirectly tied to that exigency. So far I've only written two stories for it.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
If you didn't notice it much, that's probably a good thing--that means it wasn't distracting. I had an idea (I haven't completely abandoned it--it's just sort of on hiatus) for a story collection where all the stories were linked by there being a comet heading for earth and each story would be directly or indirectly tied to that exigency. So far I've only written two stories for it. Shared-universe stuff:

Originally posted by Mindship
Shared-universe stuff:
I've always loved shared universes, especially when the connection is very distant. I've always liked the idea of one novel's main character being in the same city as another novel's main character at the same time but neither being aware of the other's existence. It feels more like the real world that way.

It's my favorite part of Kevin Smith's films. That while a lot of these characters know each other (mostly the Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob), there are also some that are barely or not at all aware of one another but have mutual friends.

I approve of the shared universe idea as well.

As for the story: not exactly my cup of tea, but it was decently well-written. Good job, Mr. Duckworth.

Loved the bit about the goth kids, by the way.

There are goth kids like that in every small southern town. It's a fact of life.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
There are goth kids like that in every small southern town. It's a fact of life.

For real?

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
For real?
It's a reaction to living in a very homogenized environment.