MonsterHearts is a 14 day event (named after a pervy RPG) wherein my writing group votes on a monster each day to include in a story concept.  As we march toward Valentine’s Day, the theme is supernatural romance.  This year I have been worse than usual in composing very slight ideas to justify whatever cover I was able to squeak out of Midjourney and Photopea.  In Midjourney I’m using versions 6.0 and 5.2 and Niji 6.  Some of these needed a lot more Photopea, some practically nothing.

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MONSTER HEARTS DAY ONE:  INSECTOID

TITLE:  I WAS A TEENAGE LOCUST

CHARACTERS:  Knute Burley: the Teenage Locust, Rita Lawson: the Babe, and Joel Simons: the Teenage Kestrel

PREMISE:  Joel and Knute are buddies and the most popular guys in school. Joel is low-key jelly of Knute’s slightly superior appeal.  When Knute gets mutated by a pesticide accident into a giant Locust, people are at first terrified, but people are won over by the mild-mannered and genial way he goes about his old life, despite deformity, and he becomes even more popular.  Rita was once torn between two lovers, but the mutation becomes the clincher.

THE HOOK:  The story is passionate because of the intensity of the love triangle.  What is it that’s so appealing about Knute as a locust?  Pity at his hideous state transforms to fascination.  Joel’s jealousy leads him to want what Knute has, and recreate the incident.  But he transforms instead into a giant kestrel, a kind of bug-eating falcon, and ruins homecoming.  The struggle is surreal.

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MONSTER HEARTS DAY TWO:  SHAPESHIFTER

TITLE:  I WAS A TEENAGE KESTREL

CHARACTERS:  Joel Simons: the Teenage Kestrel, Fernanda Wahl: the Love Interest, General Butch Ulster: the Antagonist

PREMISE:  Joel was electrocuted and presumed exploded at the end of I Was a Teenage Locust, but he’d actually flown far away, on wings of despair.  He plopped into a village where he resumed human form and tried to forget the past.  But he could only suppress his kestrelness in short bursts, leading him to monster out at inopportune times.  Fernanda, the spicy redhead all the boys were after, took an interest in his brooding charms and mysterious behavior, which itself transformed shapeshifter style into affection for his birdy alter ego.

THE HOOK:  The story is passionate because secret boy has secret power, and girl is o’erwhelmed by the majesty of nature gone wrong.  Also an army general decides flying people must be commies and tries to root him out and take him down.  Love under the gun.

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MONSTER HEARTS DAY THREE:  PARASITE

TITLE:  THE LEATHER JACKET

CHARACTERS:  Corinthia Brandesford: the Protagonist, Theobald Fenimore: the Love Interest, Buer: the Leather Jacket

PREMISE:  Corinthia met brooding Heathcliff type Theobald at the wee-kend party of the Umpwutherington Brandesfords’.  He never took off his leather jacket, which was a rather hideous affair, worse as time went on.  But he was a feet-sweeper-offer.  On the other hand, was he wearing the jacket or was the jacket wearing him?

THE HOOK:  A demonic jacket has taken over a man’s body.  He’s witty and wacky and totally into Corinthia.  But Theobald’s exploitation is a necessary aspect of this relationship, which was surely against god’s will.

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MONSTER HEARTS DAY FOUR:  SHADOW

TITLE:  ENDYMION’S SILHOUETTE

CHARACTERS:  Dashiell Stockton: the Creator, Shadow: the Created

PREMISE:  Dashiell was part of a circle of naughty gay men, who knew they were accursed by god for being true to themselves, and sought therefore to find what other condemnable things they could get up along the way down.  Black magic, in fact.  Usually he was just the sex appeal at the ceremony, but one weekend he was left behind while tripping on morphine, and found himself alone in the sorcerer’s chambers when the reverie broke.  He did a little unsupervised magic of his own, raising a shadow version of himself.  They talked for hours about secrets of the cosmos and sensuous delights.  This wasn’t just another version of himself, was it?  A demon?  A fallen angel?  They get it on.

THE HOOK:  Is it real or is it selfcest?  Forbidden love.

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MONSTER HEARTS DAY FIVE:  ARTIFICIAL OR NATURAL EXPERIMENTAL

TITLE:  SWEETNESS

CHARACTERS:  Dr. Delicious: the Man, Sugar: the Natural, and Aspartame: the Artificial

PREMISE:  Dr. Delicious lived in an anime world of colorful tiered cityscapes where people in the street were not animated, just drawn mid-motion while crowd patter played in the soundtrack.  He used cyber-alchemy to conjure the spirit of Sugar, a girl with auburn hair and amber eyes, a killer with kindness, an elemental of white crystal and overgrown grass blades when there were no humans around.  But his boss said no, she is not enough.  Bring forth the spirit of Aspartame, hollow and potent, brightly colored and utterly ephemeral.

THE HOOK:  Love triangle again.  Sugar and Aspartame vie for the affections of the alchemist, embodying their own bizarre qualities, but he is a bad dad(dy dom) and they may sometimes seek affection in each other’s arms.  Who will win?  (Whoever wins the poll.  Day Five’s poll hasn’t closed, but is close between Artificial and Natural monsters, Artificial up by one vote.)  Science won.  I thought doing a post for the two frontrunners in the poll would be a safe bet, then worst place came from behind for a dark horse victory.  Congrats, Experimental.

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