Ellie Brown

ENGL 283

Dr. Justin Blessinger

30 March 2025

Dan Harmon Style Story

1. The Character is in a Zone of Comfort

In a quaint, cobbled town, hidden away in the mountains, there lived
an old clockmaker named Elias. His shop, "Elias' Timepieces," was a
sanctuary for the town's residents. Clocks ticked steadily, and the air
smelled of wood polish and aged brass. Elias was content in his solitary
life, tinkering with timepieces and occasionally sharing a cup of tea
with a fellow artisan. He was comfortable, though perhaps a little
lonely.
2. But They Want Something
One cold winter evening, a mysterious visitor came into the shop. A
woman cloaked in dark velvet, her face half-hidden, asked Elias for a
very specific kind of clock—a timepiece that could alter the very fabric
of time. She offered a great sum of money; one so large it would set
Elias up for the rest of his life. Intrigued by the challenge and the
fortune, Elias agreed to craft the clock, though deep down, he knew
this was a request unlike any he had received before.
3. They Enter an Unfamiliar Situation
Elias worked tirelessly, using materials he'd never dared to use
enchanted metals, crystals that pulsed with strange light, and gears
that seemed to hum with a life of their own. The clock was coming
together, but something felt off. The deeper Elias delved into the
creation, the more uneasy he became. He noticed strange occurrences
in his shop—clocks running backward, time slipping, shadows flickering
as if the past and present were colliding.
4. They Adapt to It
Despite his growing unease, Elias persisted. As the clock neared
completion, he found himself able to see flashes of the future—a brief
glimpse of himself as a young man, a vision of the woman returning for
the clock, and even hints of a tragedy yet to come. His curiosity grew
stronger, and he became obsessed with the clock. He could now
control small moments in time—pausing it for a few seconds, skipping
hours, but each change made him feel more and more disconnected
from the world around him.
5. They Get What They Wanted
Finally, the clock was finished. The woman returned; her eyes
gleaming with anticipation. She handed Elias the promised fortune,
and without another word, she took the clock and disappeared into the
 night. Elias, now alone in his shop, felt an odd sense of power. He had
created a device that could bend time. The temptation to use it for
himself was overwhelming. He began to adjust the clock, moving
through moments, reliving his happiest memories, avoiding pain, and
even glimpsing his own future.
6. But They Pay a Price for It
However, the more Elias tampered with time, the more fractured
reality became. People around him started to forget who he was, his
shop began to decay, and moments of his past began to bleed into the
present. Time was no longer a friendship, it was a tangled mess,
slipping through his fingers. The more he tried to control it, the more it
unraveled. The clocks in his shop no longer ticked in harmony; they
screamed in chaos.
7. They Return to Their Familiar Situation
In a desperate bid to fix everything, Elias returned to the beginning—
the moment he had first crafted the timepiece. With trembling hands,
he disassembled the clock, piece by piece, returning each enchanted
material to its rightful place. The world began to settle, and the chaos
of time slowly started to quiet. Yet, as he finished, he realized that the
familiar comfort of his shop, the tick-tock of the clocks, could never be
the same. He had glimpsed too much, and the weight of his choices
lingered.
8. Having Changed
Elias returned to his simple life, though it was no longer the same. His
clocks now ticked with a gentle rhythm, but his mind was forever
altered. He had learned the true cost of meddling with time, and
though he still crafted clocks, he never again sought to manipulate
time itself. He had become a man who cherished the moments as they
came, no longer wishing to control them, but simply to live them.