Some of the ways I think Fear Entities could manifest in Big Tesco because I have nothing better to do this morning and I grew up with a lot of specific fears surrounding Big Tesco:
The Vast — it’s Big Tesco, what more needs to be said? The Vast doesn’t need to do much to manifest. Infinite IKEA is nothing compared to Infinite Tesco.
The Spiral — It’s part of the Big Tesco experience as a British child to get lost in the endless shelves and rows, and I personally almost got lost in the storage rooms while on a school trip. It’s maddening and terrifying and the Distortion should start capitalising on it. There has to be some children in the apocalypse in a ‘lost in Big Tesco’ domain.
The Lonely — Similar principle of being lost, but I have vivid memories of being a child and getting lost and looking up and seeing crowds of people with blurred faces and I felt so horrifyingly alone until I was found again. That’s also a normal Big Tesco experience.
The Buried — Leaning into the fear of debt and expenses, Tesco, like most of the UK, is plagued by inflation and shrinkflation, and is no longer the store I once knew… The Buried manifests as Tesco Meal Deals being £4 now and the sinking feeling you get realising that. It also manifests as the aforementioned crowds of people closing in on every turn while you stare at the meal deal section, unable to move as they press in more and more. Anyway.
The Eye — Based on this one time I embarrassed myself in store and multiple employees stared at me, and looking back the experience was somewhat thrilling, but at the time it felt like I would live with that shame my entire life. There’s always time to be Watched and Judged while in Big Tesco!
The Stranger — This is based in my own psychosis where sometimes I will look at strangers and their face looks waxy to me, but I feel like a store of fake people trying to imitate Tesco while you slowly realise more and more that something is off is a great way for the Stranger to manifest!
That’s about all I have off the top of my head. I think like three of the fears I’m marked by came from Big Tesco. It’s just the way of things.
Posted my first tma fic over on ao3! Vampire jonelias featuring cringe fail fledgling Jon and slightly obsessed yet tender Elias - do heed the tags! (It’s archive locked because of scraping)
Love the fact that the institute’s motto is basically just Jonah’s whole entire game plan squished into three Latin first person present tense active verbs (okay yes I know opperior is deponent so it’s actually passive but whatever). Man could not have been more obvious with that one. Putting your 1800s primarily Latin and Greek focused education to good use, I see. Good job Jonah.
