Arc: Transform
Terrain: The Economy
Object: Clothing
Mood: Decadence
Declassified documents reveal that in 1957 Monsato was given permission by the US government to take part in underground nuclear tests to create cotton that was 10,000 times stronger than synthetic fiber, and more comfortable to wear than silk.
The tests went horribly wrong and a radiation leak in the year 2017 made fabrics made of cotton, flax, wool, ramie, silk, leather, down, or fur and many man-made materials became dangerous for use in clothing as spontaneous human combustion was a common side effect. People found the only safe material to make clothes was paper.
In the year 2027 paper is scarce commodity, newspaper companies, libraries, and magazine companies are a thing of the past. People stopped printing material, and only the elite can afford it to create custom clothe made of real papers. The rest of us have resorted to covering up with layers of flour, glue and paint.
I’m walking home from work, and it begins to rain, I start running to avoid my freshly painted garments from being destroyed by the weather. A sinkhole opens up, without looking where I step, I fall into it, 10 feet down. I look around and find an entrance to a tunnel inside the hole. Out of curiosity I follow the corridor a good 20 feet, inside I find a box containing at least 1000 Time magazines depicting an orangutan looking fellow as the worst man of the century. I see another box; it contains roughly 1500 newspapers from the Fake News Times. In my mind, I know I’ve hit the Jackpot. I can sell the ugly Times magazines for a lot of money, and keep the newspapers to create my own line of fancy clothes for forward thinking people.
Love this! Great twist on your prompts!