recovery horror: where the process of healing from something reveals previously unknown levels of damage
seeing a smudge on the wall and realizing it’s mildew. examining the mildew and realizing it’s black mold. peeling back the wallpaper and seeing it’s eaten the entire house. going into the basement for a flashlight and realizing it’s flooded. spending every last bit of money at your disposal on fixing all of these things, only to move the box covering the trap door that leads to the seven hundred mile obsidian tunnel that leads directly to the gates of hell.
where exactly every individual’s collapsing point is located. where they stop in that process of uncovering and why.
the conflicts that arise from knowing FULL WELL about the tunnel to the gates of hell, but you’re stuck with somebody who has only just found out about the mildew.
pretending to care about the mildew. speaking with them calmly and compassionately about how mildew is definitely a real problem that people ought to take seriously, and waiting for them to take a good hard look at what’s really crawling up the walls.
