Stacy: Something’s missing.

Caelwyn: Missing from what?

Stacy places two stacks of reports on the desk.

One shows:

• prosperity
• productivity
• employment
• growth

Every line rises.

Every number improves.

---

The second stack shows:

• domestic disputes
• alcoholism
• depression
• missing persons

Those lines rise too.

---

Caelwyn: That’s a coincidence.

---

Stacy: I thought so too.

---

Outside the laboratory, the city celebrates the most prosperous summer in memory.

New cars.

New homes.

New stores.

New opportunities.

---

Caelwyn: People have more than ever.

---

Stacy looks through the window.

---

Stacy: Then why are they so unhappy?

---

Silence.

---

Later, she places another report in front of him.

---

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Declining.

---

VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS

Declining.

---

MUTUAL AID

Declining.

---

Caelwyn studies the numbers.

---

Caelwyn: Everyone has more.

---

Stacy nods.

---

Stacy: And nobody wants to share.

---

The city grows richer.

The people grow lonelier.

---

Outside, shoppers crowd around a department store window.

Watching.

Comparing.

Measuring.

---

Who has more.

Who earned more.

Who owns more.

---

More.

---

Always more.

---

The same word repeating endlessly.

---

Caelwyn: What changed?

---

Stacy points toward a flower bed below the laboratory window.

---

Flowers bloom in the summer sun.

So do the weeds.

---

Stacy: Growth doesn’t choose.

---

Caelwyn says nothing.

---

Stacy: The same sunlight feeds both.

---

A long silence follows.

---

The city wanted growth.

And it got it.

---

Not only in:

• wealth
• industry
• technology

---

But also in:

• envy
• greed
• fear
• resentment

---

Caelwyn: You think that’s the problem?

---

Stacy watches the weeds growing among the flowers.

---

Finally:

---

Stacy: I think something used to keep them under control.

---

Caelwyn: What?

---

Church bells ring across the city.

Summer wind carries the scent of flowers through the open window.

---

Stacy: Gratitude.

---

And somewhere beyond the shining summer,

something ancient smiles.

Because when gratitude dies,

hunger takes its place.

---

🜍 Month 6 · Pulp Cthulhu Noir
🜍 Week 3 — When Gratitude Dies
🜍 The harvest was plentiful. So were the weeds.

---

If you remember what this felt like —
you already know the hunger.

The bigger house.
The better job.
The feeling that what you have somehow stopped being enough.

Step back into it.
Or keep chasing more.

👉 https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

Want to go deeper?

Then look beyond the prosperity.

Past the department stores.
Past the smiling advertisements.
Past the promises of endless growth.

The dossiers are waiting.
The weeds are growing too.

👉 https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames