Hyrax Attack! posted:

Read a short story a while ago about a kid who buys a used VCR from a second hand store from a shopkeeper who looks out of it.

The VCR works fine, but when testing it the kid records live TV and when rewatching realizes he can keep fast forwarding past the present time. At first he uses this to impress classmates with NBA predictions, but one night when fast forwarding he gets annoyed that the expected game in a few weeks was being preempted by news coverage, and as he continues fast forwarding the coverage gets worse before the recording is of dead air.

As he’s just a kid he has limited options and goes back to the store and the owner is like “you watched it too, huh?”

Camo Guitar posted:

-During an autopsy the doctor is surprised by the weight of the head on a body (this is linked to the ending which I won't ruin here)

Carthag Tuek posted:

What the hell

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Action Jacktion posted:

City of Ember?

Beef Hardcheese posted:

Watching the lovely preview for "The Tomorrow War" reminded me of this story I've been meaning to find and re-read forever.

A veteran returns home to some vaguely defined point in our past. He had been recruited to fight in a war at the end of time against a parallel timeline, in a universe-spanning war. His side won, which ensures their existence, and survivors get to go home still equipped with their weapons which are basically superpowers they were given. The rule is "go home and live your life but don't use your powers". It's alluded that there are a small handful of people who manage to use their powers but not gently caress things up too bad, like Jesus and the Greek pantheon. The main character finds another veteran who is misusing his powers/weapons, and main character has to kill him. The main character beats him up easily in 3D real world meatspace, but the real damage is in the other dimensions and planes of existence where the "grafted" power weapons exist. The moment he unveils his true form to the bad guy he says "Holy poo poo, Colonel Bone! I had no idea it was you!"* and shits his pants because he realizes he's completely outclassed. The fight is one-sided and over quickly, but because time travel is involved and their weapons/powers involve time travel, this means he erases the bad guy from having ever existed. Which means he never fought in the war at the end of time, and since his absence could Butterfly-effect it's way into making them lose the war, the main character has to go back and re-fight the war because of this guy. And the end implies that this happens a lot because people can't stop being jerks with their powers.

*Half the reason I remember this story is the fact that the main character was named "Colonel Bone" and I was like 12 when I read it.

Edit: Of course I find it immediately after I post this and resume searching http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/quietwar.htm

Numbuh 212 posted:

- The scariest one, that kept me up that night. Two siblings buy some kind of silly-putty type stuff, with a packet of directions. They read the directions backwards for some reason, and the goo expands to fill up their whole house. I remember the ending was their parents coming home from a date night and the main character tries to warn them, but can't (maybe the goo has turned out the lights?)

AnonymousNarcotics posted:

I took it out from the library once a long time ago, but never finished it. This must have been sometime between 2009 and 2017.