conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about Ace, Gaunt, Alan entitled Needful Things.. Start with the sentence 'Needful Things: A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Needful Things: A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens.\nThe proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door.\nThe prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise - such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah\'s Ark - but he expects each customer also to play a little prank on someone else in Castle Rock.\nGaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence.\nSheriff Alan Pangborn becomes wary of Gaunt as soon as the shop opens.\nHowever, his lover, Polly Chalmers, dismisses his suspicions and buys an ancient charm that relieves the arthritis pain in her hands.\nTensions rapidly grow after Nettie Cobb, Polly\'s housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other in a confrontation sparked by pranks played on them by others.\nMany other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives of the people involved (drugs, secret pedophilia, bad business dealings, religious disagreements, etc).\nGaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, providing him with high-quality cocaine and hinting at buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers.\nAce\'s first assignment is to retrieve crates of pistols, ammunition, and blasting caps from a garage in Boston; Gaunt soon begins to sell the pistols to his customers so they can protect their property.\nFor centuries, he has tricked unsuspecting people into buying worthless junk that appears to be whatever they treasure most.\nThey become so paranoid about keeping their items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers and trade away their souls.\nAce begins to suspect the supernatural background of his new employer, but Gaunt keeps him in line through intimidation and promises of revenge against Alan and the town.\nWith the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and the town\'s head selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (who has embezzled thousands of dollars from public funds) plant dynamite all over town, using the caps Ace brought back.\nAlan sets out to kill Ace, wrongly believing him to be responsible for a car accident that killed his wife and son, and Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it.\nAs the dynamite bombs explode, Keeton is wounded by one of Alan\'s deputies and is put out of his misery by Ace.\nTaking Polly hostage, Ace demands that Alan hand over a hoard of cash he allegedly stole from one of the sites Ace dug up.\nThe deputy kills Ace, leaving Alan to face off against Gaunt.\nUsing sleight of hand and magic novelties that suddenly come to life, Alan forces Gaunt back and grabs his valise, which contains the souls of his customers.\nGaunt flees the scene, his car turning into a horse-drawn wagon as he becomes a hunchbacked dwarf, and the survivors are left to ponder an uncertain future.\nThe novel ends as it begins, with a first-person narrative indicating that a new and mysterious shop called "Answered Prayers" is about to open in a small Iowa town - an implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about Gaunt, Pangborn, Keeton entitled Needful Things.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Needful Things (film): A mysterious proprietor named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), claiming to be from Akron, Ohio, opens a new antiques store called "Needful Things" in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.\nThe store sells various items of great personal worth to the residents (some of which, like a pendant that eases pain or a toy which predicts the outcome of horse races, are clearly supernatural).\nGaunt demands payment both in cash and in small "favors", usually pranks played by his customers on their neighbours.\nGaunt\'s first customer is a boy named Brian Rusk (Shane Meier) who buys a rare baseball card featuring Mickey Mantle in exchange for 95 cents and a prank on his neighbour Wilma Wadlowski Jerzyck (Valri Bromfield).\nGaunt makes an impression on the town\'s people, who he also has pull some pranks.\nOne of whom is a corrupt boat salesman and gambler named Danforth Keeton (J.\nWalsh) who embezzled $20,000 of the town peoples\' tax money to pay off his gambling debts.\nKeeton finds out from Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) that people are on to him and in turn he relays his fears to Gaunt and his hatred of those who refer to him as \'Buster\' Keeton.\nTo help Keeton with his problems, Gaunt sells him a toy race-horse that predicts the outcome of any horse-race from which he might re-coup the $20,000 and replace the money before the towns-folk find out officially.\nGaunt sells Frank Jewett (Campbell Lane) a 1st Edition of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.\nHe also learns of the rivalry between the Catholic priest, Father Meehan (W.\nMorgan Sheppard) and Baptist minister, Reverend Willie Rose (Don Davis) when he sells each of them objects from his shop.\nThe first hint of Gaunt\'s true nature is when he has Brian throw muck from the Turkey Farm onto the newly laundered crisp white sheets hanging on the washing-lines at the house of Wilma Jerzyck.\nOn returning home, Wilma assumes the devastation was caused by her long-time enemy Nettie Cobb (Amanda Plummer).\nShe goes to loudly accuses her of this at Nettie\'s workplace, the Castle Rock diner.\nBrian Rusk meets Gaunt at the Lighthouse where he informs Brian he has not fully repaid his debt and expects payment in full right away.\nBrian returns to Wilma Jerzyck\'s house and throws apples at her house to smash all the windows.\nNettie Cobb has \'bought\' a small statue from Gaunt that is identical to one her violent ex-husband had smashed in a fit-of-rage.\nIn return she goes to Dan Keeton\'s house and places post-it notes, allegedly from Deputy Sheriff Norris Ridgewick all around the interior, accusing him of all his misdemeanors.\nIn the meantime, Gaunt has Hugh Priest kill Nettie\'s dog, in return for a 1950s jacket like he wore at college.\nThis sparks a violent fight between Nettie and Wilma, which gets them both killed.\nGaunt takes a personal measure towards Sheriff Pangborn by giving a necklace to his fiancée Polly Chalmers (Bonnie Bedelia) that cures her crippling arthritis.\nGaunt tells Polly for it to work she must never take it off.\nKeeton is found by Gaunt cowering in his shop with a gun.\nHe tells Gaunt that he is thinking of killing Norris Ridgewick to stop him telling everyone about his misdemeanors.\nGaunt talks him out of it and takes the gun off him.\nBrian witnesses the investigation at Wilma Jercyzk\'s house and hears the Sheriff musing over where all the apples came from.\nBrian is shocked that his actions might in some way have caused this tragedy and tries to talk to Sheriff Pangborn about what Gaunt had him do, but is too scared to do so.\nAt this point it becomes apparent that Gaunt is enjoying what is happening to the townsfolk and is not human, but a demon.\nSheriff Pangborn later approaches Brian when he\'s alone at the Lighthouse and asks what\'s got him so scared.\nBrian explains that Gaunt is a monster, before trying to shoot himself in the head.\nThe gun goes off but Pangborn manages to save him and Brian is hospitalized.\nMeanwhile, Pangborn begins to suspect that Gaunt may not be what he seems.\nReverend Rose slashes the tires on Hugh Priest\'s truck.\nHugh Priest sees what has happened to his truck when he is thrown out of the bar for being too drunk.\nSheriff Pangborn returns from meeting with Brian and is now very suspicious of Gaunt.\nHe tries to warn Polly and asks her to get rid of the necklace, but she is unwilling to remove it.\nAfter Pangborn has gone she tries prying the necklace open to see what is inside and gets an electric shock which throws the necklace across the room.\nPolly is immediately crippled by her arthritis and cannot reach to pick up the necklace.\nGaunt appears in her bedroom and replaces the necklace on Polly\'s neck.\nHe states the price for necklace will be $20 and a small prank.\nPolly is so grateful, she pays him immediately and is clearly mesmerized by Gaunt who then seduces her.\nAfter which he states that Pangborn is corrupt and has been embezzling money from the town with Keeton for years.\nHe convinces her to go to Pangborn\'s yacht to look for the money.\nShe does and sees lots of money strewn over Pangborn\'s desk.\nShe phones Pangborn from the yacht, accuses him of the crime, and in disgust calls off the engagement.\nKeeton becomes afraid that everyone including his wife Myrtle Keeton (Gillian Barber) is out to get him, and Gaunt convinces him that he is his only ally.\nGaunt also has Keeton attack deputy Norris Ridgewick at the police station.\nPangborn manages to subdue Keeton by handcuffing Keeton to his car.\nShortly after this, Keeton manages to escape Ridgewick by kicking him in the groin.\nHe then drives home where he accuses his wife of having an affair with Norris and kills her with a hammer.\nThe phone rings and it is Gaunt.\nHe tells Keeton to come to see him, as he has something for him that will make him feel better.\nHugh Priest goes into the bar with a shotgun and straight up to the owner, who also pulls out a shotgun from behind the bar and they shoot each other.\nGaunt\'s pranks spread throughout the town and its citizens.\nMistaken suspicion, paranoia and anger spread with it.\nGaunt starts selling his customers guns, encouraging them to kill whoever wronged them, playing on their greed and fear.\nGaunt has Keeton place explosives in the town\'s Catholic church, where Sheriff Pangborn is inside talking to Father Meehan relaying his new suspicions that Gaunt is the Devil incarnate, but Meehan refuses to believe him.\nThe church explodes, but Pangborn and Meehan manage to escape with their lives.\nFather Meehan believes that Reverend Willy Rose is behind the attack on the Church and leaves to fight him.\nA riot sparks throughout the town, with Gaunt watching from the sidelines.\nSheriff Pangborn tries desperately to restore order.\nHe pulls a gun on Father Meehan who is trying to behead Reverend Rose and Gaunt encourages him to shoot them.\nPangborn fires into the air, much to Gaunt\'s disappointment.\nGetting everyone\'s attention, Pangborn convinces the townsfolk of Castle Rock to come to their senses, exposing Gaunt\'s true nature and his web of lies and manipulation.\nEveryone stops fighting and admits their pranks, but Keeton, despondant after everything, walks up to Pangborn and Ridgewick, pointing a gun at them with a bomb strapped to himself, threatening to blow everyone up.\nHe is talked down by Pangborn and turns him against Gaunt.\nKeeton walks up to Gaunt, who taunts him about his inadequacies and is heard to repeatedly refer to him as \'Buster\'.\nKeeton is infuriated by this and tackles Gaunt through the store window, setting off the bomb and destroying Needful Things.\nDefeated but completely unharmed, Gaunt emerges from the burning wreckage of his store saying that this wasn\'t his best work.\nGaunt walks up to Pangborn and Polly, telling them they make a cute couple, and he will encounter their grandson in 2053 - then departs, presumably to continue his vicious evil work elsewhere.\nHe leaves in the same sinister black car (revealed as similarly supernaturally indestructible in the extended cut), in which he arrived at the beginning of the film.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first paragraph for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Needful Things
  Come on over here, let me shake your hand! Tell you somethin: I recognized you by the way you walk even before I saw your face good. You couldn't have picked a better day to come back to Castle Rock. Ain't she a corker? Hunting season will be starting up soon, fools out in the woods bangin away at anything that moves and don't wear blaze orange, and then comes the snow and sleet, but all that's for later. Right now it's October, and in The Rock we let October stay just as long as she wants to.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: So there were two mobiles hanging from the dusty ceiling pipes, pictures of TV and rock stars on the walls, and a big Garfield poster on the door. The words in the balloon coming out of Garfield's mouth said, "If a cool cat like me can talk that trash, so can you!"
  Her files were woefully behind even though school had been in session for only five weeks. She had meant to spend the whole day updating them, but at quarter past one Sally gathered them all up, stuck them back into the file-drawer they had come from, slammed it shut, and locked it. She told herself she was quitting early because the day was too nice to spend cooped up in this basement room, even with the furnace mercifully silent for a change. This wasn't entirely the truth, however. She had very definite plans for this afternoon.
  She wanted to go home, she wanted to sit in her chair by the window with the sun flooding into her lap, and she wanted to meditate upon the fabulous splinter of wood she had bought in.
  She had become more and more sure that the splinter was an authentic miracle, one of the small, divine treasures God had scattered around the earth for His faithful to find. Holding it was like being refreshed by a dipper of well-water on a hot day. Holding it was like being fed when you were hungry. Holding it was...
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: They topped the View and picked up Route 119 on the other side, and Castle Rock was gone; the darkness had borne that away, too.
  Can you sit a spell with me? Right here on this bench by the War Memorial will be fine. The sun's warm and from here we can see just about all of downtown. You want to mind the splinters, that's all; this bench has been here since Hector was a pup. Now—look over there. No, a little to your right. The building where the windows have been soaped over. That used to be Sam Peebles's office. Real-estate man, and a damned good one. Then he married Naomi Higgins from down the road in Proverbia and off they went, just like young folks almost always do these days.
  That place of his stood empty for over a year—the economy's been rotten out here since all that Mideast business started—but now somebody's finally taken it over. Been lots of talk about it, too, I want to tell you. But you know how it is; in a place like Junction City, where things don't change much from one year to the next, the openin of a new store is big news. Won't be long, either, from the look of things; the last of the workmen packed up their tools and left last Friday. Now what I think is—
  Look at that! Checking that new store out pretty close, ain't she? Well, why not? She may be old, but she ain't dead, not by a long chalk. Besides, you know what they say; 'twas curiosity killed the cat, but it was satisfaction that brought him back.
  I might even have a look inside myself. I suppose most everyone in town will before everything's said and done.