kids

i had another idea.

two people have the ability to make out the future, in their own unique ways. they meet, fall in love, and are soon wed. after their marriage, they each begin receiving bits, facets, moments that tell them that the apocalypse is nigh. they give it 25, maybe 30 years. soon, they begin hearing similar things from the few other honest prognosticators they know.

they have a kid anyway. the kid is raised with the knowledge that the world will end, abruptly and with great fanfare, around his 28th birthday. he is home schooled early in life, taught not only of the imminent apocalypse but of how important it is not to let on that you know, or really even to bring it up at all. sort of the last remaining conversational taboo.

eventually he goes off into the wild. he grows up, moves out, lives like he's homeless. why bother? only a few years left now. he finds a lot of other people who, oblivious (or expectant without really knowing), act the same anyway.

and then the world ends.

it's important that the story begin with 'once upon a time'.