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Paranormal Mundane Item

 Paranormal Mundane Item
type
FeatureClass
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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ParanormalMundaneItem
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Items with mystical properties are commonly assumed to look antiquated, bearing associations with ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages or some other time period no later than late 19th-early 20th century. Common examples are magical staffs, manuscripts, mirrors, potions, etc. This trope instead is about paranormal items that look like they were bought in a shop nearby. They are usually labeled with either an unfamiliar trademark or a familiar trademark with a strangely altered label. For example, it may be a chocolate bar which would transform you into a monster if you eat it or a video game cartridge that would teleport you into the game's realm as soon as you put it into your console.
Such items can often be found in Urban Fantasy. They may be used by a Blue-Collar Warlock, and are frequently sold in The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday. Often overlaps with May Contain Evil, in which case they may be a Cursed Item; also compare Supernatural Phone, Haunted Technology and What Do You Mean, It's Phlebotinum?.

Examples
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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2023-07-28T07:58:23Z
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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2023-07-28T07:58:23Z
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Dropped link to HandyRemoteControl: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Dropped link to IndustrializedEvil: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingComment
Dropped link to MyLittlePanzer: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Dropped link to PragmaticEvil: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 Paranormal Mundane Item
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Dropped link to RewritingReality: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingComment
Dropped link to ScavengerHunt: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingComment
Dropped link to ShoddyKnockoff: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingComment
Dropped link to TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingUnknown
PragmaticEvil
 Paranormal Mundane Item
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_313c07a4
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_313c07a4
comment
The red dress in In Fabric. It's seemingly demonically possessed and binds the souls of the people it has killed.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_313c07a4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_313c07a4
featureConfidence
1.0
 In Fabric
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_313c07a4
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3b34143f
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3b34143f
comment
The portkeys in Harry Potter are seemingly meaningless pieces of trash, like an old boot. Deliberately averted with horcruxes, however: Harry asks if they could be anything, citing the portkeys, and Dumbledore replies that they could be, but any wizard vain or evil enough to make one, like Voldemort, would never lower themselves to put a piece of their soul in something easily mistaken for garbage. Petty criminals are known to engage in "Muggle-baiting", or deliberately enchanting mundane items to screw with Muggles.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3b34143f
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-1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3b34143f
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1.0
 Harry Potter
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3b34143f
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3d7a9e29
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3d7a9e29
comment
The Objects in The Lost Room are perfectly ordinary-seeming items with bizarre and unintuitive powers, like a comb that can stop time, a canteen that causes everyone nearby except its holder to asphyxiate, and a pair of scissors that forcibly turns whatever they point at around any axis. They were originally entirely mundane items that were part of a man's luggage within the titular room when a mysterious Event transformed them, and they have since been disseminated around the world as people fought over them. The Objects are also indestructible, except when inside the Room itself.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3d7a9e29
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1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3d7a9e29
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Lost Room
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_3d7a9e29
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_42ffb88e
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_42ffb88e
comment
SCP Foundation: A decent number of artifacts contained by the Foundation bear some resemblance to some form of product intended to be sold to the public, to the detriment of anyone unfortunate enough to find one. In addition, there are a number of organizations of interest that specialize in the production and or sale of such artifacts.
Dr. Wondertainment is a person and or company dedicated to making anomalous toys, with less than stellar standards of product safety.
The Factory is a factory in an unknown location that mass produces anomalous appliances with guaranteed sinister motives.
Marshal, Carter, and Dark is a black market club that seeks out such items to sell to its clientele. They take great care that their products do not harm their owners (then no-one would want to buy it), but the same can't be said for what the artifacts may require in order to function.
SCP-261 is a vending machine that sells a number food items similar to the real-world trademarks, but with some really bizarre properties.
SCP-3108 is a Nerf Brand gun that nerfs objects shot with it, turning them into inferior versions. It appears to be the only one of its kind, though.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_42ffb88e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_42ffb88e
featureConfidence
1.0
 SCP Foundation (Website)
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_42ffb88e
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_4522fd1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_4522fd1
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Whateley Universe: Ms. Grimes's reliquary (storage device for magical energy) is a bowling ball bag.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_4522fd1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_4522fd1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Whateley Universe
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_4522fd1
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_53a10f26
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_53a10f26
comment
The Twilight Zone (2002): The guitar in "Harsh Mistress". It grants the musician great music abilities, but is extremely possessive over who uses it and will murder anyone the owner grows attached to.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_53a10f26
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_53a10f26
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Twilight Zone (2002)
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_53a10f26
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6187cd27
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6187cd27
comment
Grojband: In "Six Strings Of Evil", after Trina destroys Corey's guitar with a woodchipper, Corey decides to buy a new one, which just happens to be evil.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6187cd27
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6187cd27
featureConfidence
1.0
 Grojband
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6187cd27
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6cc073ad
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6cc073ad
comment
The Stories of John Cheever: The radio in "The Enormous Radio", which, after a repairman fiddles with it, starts pulling in not radio stations but the private conversations of every resident of the protagonist couple's apartment building.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6cc073ad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6cc073ad
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Stories of John Cheever
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_6cc073ad
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_70da6e51
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_70da6e51
comment
The Goosebumps series have lots of those:
Full Moon Fever has chocolate bars called "Best" (actually "Beast"; turns people into werewolves) and "Cure" (actually "Curse"; makes people shrink in size) that look like your everyday shop merchandise.
The Monster Blood from the eponymous book is a jar of weird green substance that looks like children's slime toys, but has very creepy magical properties.
Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter has the titular purple butter that makes you shrink, and a piece of cake that makes you grow in size.
In Shop Till You Drop ... Dead!, the protagonists are on a Scavenger Hunt to find a number of items in a night department store. Goods found in this store include among the rest a Heart-Attack Backpack that suffocates people until they have a heart attack, and a toy ape that comes to life at night.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_70da6e51
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1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_70da6e51
featureConfidence
1.0
 Goosebumps
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_70da6e51
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_78fc0025
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_78fc0025
comment
In Twin Peaks The Return, Freddy Sykes buys a gardening glove at a hardware store at the behest of The Fireman, a mystical being from Another Dimension. The glove becomes fused to his hand and gives him the power to deliver Megaton Punches with it.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_78fc0025
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_78fc0025
featureConfidence
1.0
 Twin Peaks
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_78fc0025
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_819b8c9e
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_819b8c9e
comment
Warehouse 13 involves many items that may have been run-of-the-mill when they were first made, but because they were owned by historically important people they ended up obtaining paranormal powers (or maybe the historically important people became such because they have paranormal powers; the series is glad to leave either option in the air).
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_819b8c9e
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1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_819b8c9e
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1.0
 Warehouse 13
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Paranormal Mundane Item / int_819b8c9e
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b2913b67
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b2913b67
comment
Friday The 13th: The Series revolves around the objects of a certain store that held paranormal properties (and some of them were quite modern-looking, like a radio), but all of them were a pretty vile Power at a Price (as an example: a crucifix that allowed even people who knew nothing of spiritism to perform exorcisms, but had to be fed human blood (and that meant stabbing people dead with it)), a scalpel that would insta-heal whoever it was used on in an operation (but required it to be charged up by killing someone), a wheelchair that gave the capacity for Astral Projection to whoever used it, and the like.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b2913b67
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b2913b67
featureConfidence
1.0
 Friday the 13th: The Series
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Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b2913b67
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b9bd064e
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b9bd064e
comment
In Click, Michael Newman, a workaholic family man, acquires a magical universal remote that enables him to control reality.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b9bd064e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b9bd064e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Click
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Paranormal Mundane Item / int_b9bd064e
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_bd310eaa
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_bd310eaa
comment
In El Goonish Shive, cans of shrink soda look like ordinary cans of soda, there are also bottles of sunscreen whose contents transform the person into the Female Variant #5 form which is elaborated upon on its label◊.
There is a shop in the mall that sells items like this including a toothbrush that transforms your teeth and jaws with every use, plus the aforementioned shrink soda and other presumably canned magical beverages like femme cola, and furry juice.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_bd310eaa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_bd310eaa
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1.0
 El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_bd310eaa
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_dbd793bc
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_dbd793bc
comment
The d20 Modern setting Urban Arcana has multiple examples of these kind of items within its gear section, from a chainsaw that gave its user a capacity to summon berserker rage in combat, a car bumper that gave the car it was attached to the capacity to ram with the strength of an even bigger car (so a Sports-Utility Vehicle would be hitting with the power of an eighteen-wheeler), a cell phone that had literal Super Cell Reception and could dial the phone nearest to anybody the user wanted to contact (if that person didn't had a phone of their own), and the like.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_dbd793bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_dbd793bc
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1.0
 d20 Modern (Tabletop Game)
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Paranormal Mundane Item / int_dbd793bc
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_e293455a
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_e293455a
comment
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had supernatural power invested twice into mundane comestibles, creating candy bars that made you act like a teenager and beer that turned you into a caveman.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_e293455a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_e293455a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Paranormal Mundane Item / int_e293455a
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_eb095079
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_eb095079
comment
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse centers around the mystical Toys of Power which are actually very ancient, but for some reason look like ordinary toys that may be found in a modern-day toy shop (like a toy telephone that allows its user to teleport and a wacky putty toy that gives him the ability of transformation).
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_eb095079
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_eb095079
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Video Game)
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_eb095079
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_f8acc9ea
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_f8acc9ea
comment
Control: With the FBC being essentially Remedy's version of the SCP Foundation, this is to be expected. Altered Items are objects with strange effects and properties, such as duplicating mannequins and letters that teleport around a room. Objects of Power are similar, but can be bound to someone in order to grant them a paranormal power. Examples include the Floppy Disc (grants telekinesis), the Safe (grants a powerful shield), and the Ashtray (creates a constantly shifting maze around itself which only the binder and those they grant permission can pass through). Background details mention that anything of cultural or personal significance can become an Altered Item or Object of Power; the Bureau uses only generic non-branded products for everything because anything with a recognizable brand is more likely to gain supernatural properties, especially in the Eldritch Location where they work. Also, it seems objects have to be at least a few decades old before they're considered significant enough in humanity's collective consciousness to be eligible for getting supernatural powers. The FBC has to make do with computers from the 80s, a pneumatic tube system for communication, and guns from World War I, because anything more modern than that tends to explode when it enters the Oldest House.
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_f8acc9ea
featureApplicability
1.0
 Paranormal Mundane Item / int_f8acc9ea
featureConfidence
1.0
 Control (Video Game)
hasFeature
Paranormal Mundane Item / int_f8acc9ea

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingCategory2
Speculative Fiction Tropes
 Paranormal Mundane Item
processingCategory2
Urban Fantasy Tropes
 Click / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Give Yourself Goosebumps / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Goosebumps / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Monster Blood / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 The House With a Clock in Its Walls / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 The Lost Room / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Twin Peaks / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Warehouse 13 / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Video Game) / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Dark Romance / Videogame / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item
 Grojband / int_e44c01e1
type
Paranormal Mundane Item