CONTENT WARNINGS:  Horror Content.

After the last day of our Monster Hearts Challenge, my writing group got to do one more monster, choosing from the following categories that had not previously won any round of voting.  Which would you write about?  Which monster would you grant the gift of human romance?

ANIMALISTIC — EXAMPLES:  Cat people, Sneeple, Ninja Turtle, Easter Bunny

BODY HORROR — EXAMPLES:  Tetsuos of Iron Man and Akira type, Blob, Cronenbergian

CONSTRUCTED — EXAMPLES:  Frankenstein creatures, Golems, Homunculi, Pinocchio

CRYPTID — EXAMPLES:  Bigfoot, Mothman, Chupacabra, Jersey Devil

ELDRITCH — EXAMPLES:  Lovecraftian, Elder god, Tentacled

GIANT — EXAMPLES:  Kaiju, Ogre, Giant, Troll

HYBRID — EXAMPLES:  Sphynx, Chimera, Egyptian God, Naga

INCORPOREAL — EXAMPLES:  Invisible man, Incorporeal alien, Imaginary friend, Ghosts, Poltergeist, Patrick Swayzes

INSECTOID — EXAMPLES:  Brundlefly, Mimic, Wasp woman, Giant Spider

J-HORROR — EXAMPLES:  Grudge, Sadako, Split-mouth woman

LEGEND — EXAMPLES:  Slenderman, Candyman, Bloody Mary, ManDoorHandHookCarDoor

LIVING OBJECT — EXAMPLES:  Living mannequin, Christine, Chuckie, Magic Mirror

TINY — EXAMPLES:  Sprite, Miniature Humanoids, Gnome, Gremlin

VIRTUAL — EXAMPLES:  Rogue AI, Hologram, Vocaloid, Max Headroom

YOKAI — EXAMPLES:  Long neck woman, Tengu, Kappa

If you remember how I did last time, you know I tried to use all of them in one concept…

MONSTER HEARTS DAY 15: INCORPOREAL ELDRITCH > VIRTUAL > LEGEND > GIANT HYBRID INSECTOID CRYPTID VS. INCORPOREAL > LIVING OBJECT > TINY J-HORROR > BODY HORROR CONSTRUCT > ANIMALISTIC YOKAI

TITLE:  JUSTIFY MY LOVE

CHARACTERS:  Madonna Junior, a half native pan and trans gal, is an anthropology major an occult hobbyist in her university.  Rare among her current class, she loves spending time in Fulton Hall – the old anthro building that is on the verge of being condemned, home to the unclassified artifacts.  Some of the aversion people have is justified – many items within are evidence of terrible unpunished historic crimes.

Mokusei is an INCORPOREAL spirit trapped in the building by pillage of interned Japanese people, a mere ghost at the outset of the story.  Monacsemec is a primeval ELDRITCH god-like INCORPOREAL spirit bound under the foundation of the building by racist hermetic wizards in 1749, now an insidious if somewhat more mindless and diffuse presence than Mokusei.  In the course of events, both spirits go through transformations and romantic rivalry over M Jr.

PREMISE:  Mokusei is stirred by anger.  Her nature is to steal human corpses and collect them.  When M Jr takes a skull out of the building to run some tests, Mokusei gets mad at her, starts to remember what it’s like to feel, to act – grows in power.  When she sees M Jr return the skull, she feels confused – and in that moment, she falls in love.  She rattles the 17th century Japanese amulet she was originally bound to – a LIVING OBJECT – drawing M Jr’s attention.  Enchanted into a state of archaeological irresponsibility, she puts on the amulet, develops a kind of gollum thing for it.

Meanwhile, Monacsemec had sensed Madonna’s connection to the land – one of the expelled, nearly extinct tribe that he used to watch over coming home.  Like Mokusei, this stirs him to sensation, thought, and somehow a feeling of love.  The ancient creature was never meant to feel that way for a mortal, but the females of his kind are extinct or in another dimension, and his confused emotions awaken his powers.

Monacsemec takes possession of the server room, manifesting as a VIRTUAL presence in Fulton Hall’s outdated network.  While Madonna Jr is slowly copying files from different computer catalogues onto a modern drives, she starts getting messages of love from Monacsemec.  But already feeling love for the Japanese amulet, she thinks its the spirit from inside of that, and is flirty back – expressing mutual fondness in error.  The elder spirit thinks, “I have a chance with this gal,” and gains power from the puppy love.

Mokusei recognizes the situation and gets mad at the rival.  She isn’t powerful enough yet to get out or to affect the machines, but she can alter the amulet.  One night while Madonna is exchanging sexy DMS with Monacsemec via DOS command line, she is shocked by movement on her chest.  The amulet has become a TINY monster, a J-HORROR boogum of fury.  Mokusei’s amulet has become a moving ceramic yuurei with howling face.

She tosses the monster to the floor, but sees that it is mad and the presence in the computer is confused – different personalities on different creatures!  Her love was a lie.  Who are these weirdos?  She flees, feels like the whole thing was a weird dream.  She stops doing the computer works and Monacsemec makes the walls ooze slime in sorrow, pushing the building farther into ruin.

One night in her dorm, the Tiny J-Horror crawls under her door and makes a gesture of obeisance, bowing pitifully and miming begged forgiveness.  She is shocked at first, but remembers her love, sees the little thing as harmless, and accepts Mokusei into her palms.

Mokusei sleeps with her that night, held to her bosom.  She slips out at some point and goes to her notebooks, diagrams a magic ritual to help them consummate their love.  When Madonna Jr wakes up, she sees it, figures out what it is, and considers going for it.  Mokusei is happy, tho M Jr is reticent.  It involves gory animal sacrifices.

Anthropology calls.  Her profs say the building is going to collapse and while they can gradually move out all the relics, it would be easier to get the info if she just resumed her downloading.  Reluctantly, she returns.  Monacsemec is so piteous and glad to have her back, she realizes he wasn’t deceiving her on purpose.  They had something special.  At least a little special.  And horny.  But she loves Mokusei too.  What should she do?

Monacsemec promises he won’t force himself on her or do mischief in the world if she just helps him manifest his physical form.  There’s a LEGEND ritual to do, some creepypasta type foolery with a bit of indigenous and a bit of ELDRITCH flava.  She decides yes – She will do both rituals, take Mokusei as a lover and free Monacsemec from the other side – into the friendzone.

Through Mokusei’s horrible ritual she CONSTRUCTS a BODY HORROR.  As it nears completion, she grows more alarmed and prays it will not be as vile looking once the tiny monster animates it.  During the day she does the urban legendy type ritual for Monacsemec, which seems a lot less spooky with its more low-key sacrifices.  During that time she wonders if Monacsemec would be a better lover, but Mokusei is still so sweet as that tiny monster.

Mokusei is able to animate the lump of meat as a horrific skinned cat thing with flames coming out the mouth and joints.  The monster tries to be affectionate but Madonna Jr flees in terror.  She thinks Mokusei is going to kill her so she hurriedly finishes Monacsemec’s ritual.  He comes out of a bathroom mirror full of elder stars, in the form of a GIANT HYBRID INSECTOID – a cicada-moth thing with a hundred slender black human-like arms pulsing beneath his thirty foot long body.

The two get into a horrible battle over M Jr and burn the building down.  They have a confrontation on the burning rooftop and Madonna Jr apologizes to them – they are both monsters, she was a fool to love them, but she doesn’t want them to destroy each other either.  They part ways on one condition – they will meet again in a year and she must choose between them.

As they both fly away into the night, they are looking much less nasty.  Mokusei’s fur grew in – she was a fiery humanoid cat and pretty good looking, Monacsemec is the same but there is a kind of lovely order in his freaky body as it shines in the moonlight and flames.  He helps her down from the building before he disappears and she feels safe in his arms.

Meanwhile, in her last act on campus Mokusei firebombs the trailer with the human remains inside and draws all the ashes into a spiral that follows her into the woods.  Mokusei was an ANIMALISTIC YOKAI bakeneko, specifically a kasha, and it seems Monacsemec might be a The Mothman CRYPTID.  How can a gal seduced by the world of monsterloving decide between two perfect lovers?

THE HOOK:  Who doesn’t wish they could be genuinely desired?  But then to be desired by rivals, each with their own great qualities and nightmarish drawbacks.  Classic romantic triangle goof. Not sure best ending.  Maybe Madonna tries to have it both ways, says I choose both.  What would the jealous monsters do?

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