Midnight Muse Challenge

My husband has to keep busy and I end up coming along for that ride.  Our writing group which was named after The Midnight Society from Are Afraid of the Dark? has a new art challenge for October, “Midnight Muse.”  You get like 5 art challenges a week and can do as many or few as you please from the list.  He designed the banners, collaging examples of other artist’s works that served as examples, and of course, he came up with all the challenges.  This is copypasta from discord.
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WEEK ONE… DISTORTIONS.
This week, here are your five challenges to interpret how you will.  You can do one a day, do multiple versions of the same challenge, choose only one for the whole week… it’s up to you!  Do a painting, take a picture, make a sculpture, create something out of yarn… whatever inspires you!  The challenges this week are…
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👽 COLOR OUT OF SPACE 👽
unnatural vibrant shade, make something a different color than it usually is, create something about a strange color
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🤏 TINY MONSTERS 🤏
show something tiny made large or large shrunken down, a miniature, or something filled with tiny details


🌟 GLOWUP 🌟
depict something glowing (especially something that doesn’t normally glow), use glowing materials, or the concept of radiation (literal or figurative)
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🫠 WARPED TOUR 🫠
show something distorted out of its usual proportions, create something that you stretch or warp physically, or a misshapen object
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💔 SHATTERED 💔
create something broken apart, a fractured view, break apart something and glue it together, or show the pieces of something that remain
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Oh You Thought I Forgot?

It’s Spooktober, which means I’m coming up with a month of horror story ideas and doing ai covers (with a few tweaks from photopea).  Have at thee…
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SPOOKTOBER DAY 1 – POSSESSION
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE:  PUNK/GOTHIC

TITLE:  BACKMASK

Premise:  Deathrock never had what it takes to get big in society.  People just don’t want to hear those lyrics, feel that darkness.  But deathrock did have what it takes to swing wide the gates of hell.  The most important people in the story are a scene of deathrock musicians, including band members, studio, and biz people.  They are scrappy indy types, only differing from punk rockers in morbid dispositions, higher suicide and opiate abuse rates.

But in a marathon weekend of recording, a new artist enters the studio, seemingly out of nowhere.  Avedje looks human, but is barely able to pretend.  The most canny and close to the problem recognize she’s a demon in the flesh, but don’t know whose fault it is that she was summoned, and don’t know what they should do about it – if anything.  She has a way of getting on everybody’s albums, usually as background vocals.

Suddenly deathrock acts on the label are blowing up, and the new fans are harming themselves and others, changing, disappearing, making the impossible happen.  Most importantly, they are making sure everybody knows that life is a joke and death reigns supreme.

Horror Element:  The movie adaptation of Suicide Circle is an influence here, as are the comics of Junji Ito.  I’d take the basic theme and just spin out a bunch of variations that serve as stories within the story, get the funhouse vibe.

Some Nonsense:  Avedje, a great king and duke, appears crowned with a diadem, naught seen of him but his head; and before him proceed two ministers carrying trumpets.  He teaches of logic and rhetoric, and gives the skill to understand all languages.  He gives very good familiars.  He gives full, true answers about things present, past, and future, concerning the arts, or things consecrated in secret, and of the Fall, and how the rebel angels sinned.  Not an hour will he remain truthful, unless cast into a corner.  Possesses thirty legions.


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SPOOKTOBER DAY 2 – ANALOG HORROR
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE:  PARTY

TITLE:  SNAKES AND LADDERS

Premise:  In medieval fantasy themed social game like Club Penguin for a more broish set, a group of young players gather in a private tower to RP.  Nobody wants to GM, but in the anarchy of that moment, three players are promoted to GMs.  Co-GMs?  This sets them on a path where more than one thing can be true simultaneously.  One is the only GM while the other is also the only GM and likewise the last.  Planning the games happens in the open, allowing the other players &/or GMs to all become privy to the entire plot.  Spoiler alert!

But maybe not.  They gain awareness of the past present and future simultaneously, but experience each as if it is a fresh and immediate moment.  The focal point of the adventure is a game within a game, of Snakes and Ladders.

Horror Element:  Each player and game master responds differently to the expansion of their consciousness.  Some are broken by it, some are enlightened but terrified of the inevitable total party kill ending.  Some are experiencing something else altogether, that they cannot explain to the others.  If you die in the game you die in real life.

Some Nonsense:  Ara, duke and marquis, appears in the likeness of a dragon.  When before you in human form, he marvelously controls all manner of serpents.  If the conjurer is wise, they shall gather all the knowledge they seek, and cause fierce serpents to lower themselves, by consecrating this dragon in metal.  And no kind of serpent shall be bold in their presence, and the conjurer will stand well pleased – yet not forever.  They should fear lest the image be broken, and immediately let the strength return to the snakes.  Ara gives true responses of the past present and future, and has under him twenty-five legions.


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SPOOKTOBER DAY 3 – COSMIC HORROR
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE:  THE FORBIDDEN

TITLE:  HEAVY METAL THUNDER

Premise:  Druff was a mechanic and handyman in a desert town.  Some kind of drug perma-fried him too, so add wizard to the cv.  At first he just did odd jobs for the town, but via part-time work on motorcycles and hot rods, he got to know the rockers, and began to work on electric instruments and amps.  One night in the scrapyard behind the garage, he discovered the spark of life a new form of electricity.

Did it fall from space?  Was it a genuine act of science from a rare genius?  Whatever it is, it makes amps rock harder, makes hot rods hotter, and gets heavy metal fans high as balls – a forbidden pleasure.

Horror Element:  Basic Uzumaki method horror.  Pick a theme and run a series of escalating vignettes of scary ideas based on it.  Story one could be a lady getting a special guitar that causes supernatural problems for her, story five could be a coven of rock freaks getting so high they explode at a concert, story thirteen could be the mothership calling back all the volts and bolts, hollowing out the masses like the alien vampires in Lifeforce.

Some Nonsense:  Furfur, a great count, appears in the likeness of a crow, his tail like a flame.  He lies to all unless placed in a corner, but there will take an angelic form, and speak with a raucous voice.  He leads to weapons drawn between men and woman.  He renders people invisible and gives understanding of astronomy and all mechanical arts.  He gives understanding of lightning and thunder, and how they are made.  He knows the best answers in matters occult, and has under him twenty-five legions.


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SPOOKTOBER DAY 4 – RETRO SLASHER
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE:  BAROQUE

TITLE:  THE RED KNIGHT

Premise:  Everyone is fucking done with sectarian warfare.  This ville doesn’t feel the magnificence of holiness, a precursor to modern french apathy atheism, because the Wars of Religion have made a mockery of both brands of jeezyism.  Some people might have sympathies one way or another, and they’re all nominally catholic as they’re supposed to be, but the late baroque era is all about getting by and enjoying life.

Or is it?  People are getting murked nasty by some stealthy and preternaturally skilled man at arms.  At last a suspect is seen, and his red-lacquered full plate armor still makes him too buff to kill.  Did I say stealthy and plate armor?  It has strips of leather between every point of contact.

Horror Element:  Old timey Michael Myers.  A catholic knight transformed by the most recent religious war into an utter monster, he sees huguenots where there are none.  Like the slashers that kill people who fuck first, he is more likely to judge you protestant if he sees you engaged in sin.

Imagine the sensory experience of being around such a guy.  You’d smell him before you’d see him.  Dude is living off of raw meat, never giving away his location with a campfire.  Raw rat is easier to chew than raw cow.  His armor is not completely silent.  It makes him so heavy, his footsteps are like the hoofbeats of an ox.  He has his own gravity.  Maybe that’s why you slipped while running away.  Time to get fileted for jesus.

Some Nonsense:  Now, however, we must speak of Berich.  Berich is a king yet is called a great duke by all.  The followers of Solomon call him by this name: Berich.  The grammarians call him by the name Belfayt.  He appears in the likeness of a red knight, and his horse is red, and his raiment red, and he wears two crowns.  He gives fully true responses of the past, present, and future.  Constrain him by divine virtue, and by the art of a magic ring, for when at liberty, he lies.  He teaches in full how to change all kinds of metals to gold and silver.  He gives titles and confirms them with clear understanding.  He has a raucous voice, and has under him twenty-six legions.


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SPOOKTOBER DAY 5 – BODY HORROR
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE:  EROTIC THRILLER

TITLE:  INVERTED PASSIONS aka THE DEMENTED WORLD OF DOCTOR DICK

Premise:  A mad scientist driven by transphobia tries to come up with a way to medically detransition people against their will.  When he realizes the same tech could be used to help people medically transition better than ever, he tries to overdose on drugs.  Pill mixup, he became a genital elemental!

This sounds like a setup for tentacle porn.  Let’s dodge that.  Before he can tentacruel anybody, he explodes and rains monster jizz into the hospital water supply.  This hospital is full of sexy professionals having the usual hot naked affairs and adult hijinks.  Until…

Horror Element:  In a bit of unreality, nobody here rushes to the emergency room when their genitals turn inside out.  There’s secret shame, fevered scenes of self examination and dubious efforts to beat things back into shape, some people turning into monsters, some few discovering they like what happened to them and not wanting to see it reversed.  This could be taken as exploitation horror or anti-trans propaganda.  Or maybe it’s a didactic lesson showing cis people that genital dysphoria is no bueno.

Some Nonsense:  Lambes, great king and president, appears in the likeness of a woman.  He speaks sweetly, bestowing the love of men as well as women.  If the exorcist wishes to provoke all people to his love, let him fashion a grand image of himself.  Behold! when “love overcometh love” is inscribed upon its brow and the power takes hold, the exorcist’s image is consecrated, granting him such virtue that all people of whatever sex accede to his love.  And so none may cause him to fall for another, as all are marked with his sign.  And he has fifteen legions under him.

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anyway, busy as fuck.  driveby drivebys is all i can muster for the bloge.

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Fourteen

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  This last title was horribly difficult.  I’m not doing this method again.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY FOURTEEN:  LOVER’S CHOICE

That means we can choose between any of the candidates that didn’t win votes.  The big list this year: Artificial, Cursed, Demonic, Experimental, Fiery, Ghoulish, Gigantic, Inanimate, Insectoid, Legendary, Natural, or Seasonal.  As usual, I’m going to try to do them all.  Probably gonna half-ass ’em tho.

TITLE:  ME & MEGAN + UNHOLY BEA

CHARACTERS:  Me: First Person Narrator and Genderqueer Bay Area Hipster, Megan Lum: Their Intended, a College Girl, Unholy Bea: a Fiery Demond.

PREMISE:  I’ve been trying to get close to this girl, right?  She is super hard to get, and that’s cool, gotta respect boundaries, so she’s just a maybe who knows kinda person, and a friend.  But the maybe who knows?  Seems a little more than friend, but awful cagey about what it would take to change the circumstance.

I just about gave up, when I found out she’s into the occult.  That’s great.  Learned some chaos magic from my gender studies prof Spiv Spivey.  Ey hooked me up with a nameless tome, I invited Megan on a trip to Mount Shasta in wildflower season, and it was all good.

THE HOOK:  For certain definitions of good.  This tome (Inanimate) had a sort of experimental vibe to it (Experimental), letting you create your own demon (Artificial), instead of summoning the usual guys.  There were bunnies hopping around the field and I guess it was Easter (Seasonal), but easy to lose track if Jesus hates you.  I get the tome out and Megan is so into it, she kisses me on the spot.  I had to keep going.

Using the natural creatures of the meadow (Natural), we grew our demon from bunny and dragonfly (Insectoid) parts, burning in an unnatural flame (Fiery) until they became a ten foot tall (Gigantic) smoldering demon (Demonic) with exoskeletal paws like they were encrusted in charcoal.

Turns out the demon was a lady, which is cool, because I like ladies.  She was a bit much for me at first, but Megan was a freak for this stuff (Ghoulish), and took us by the hand.  We all got freaky right there in front of God and everyone.  We named her after Bea Arthur (Legendary) because she was a good ally for the community.

Demon vag is cursed tho (Cursed).  Best believe we went to hell after that.  Worth it.

 

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Thirteen

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long; looks like I’m gonna go all the way with it.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY THIRTEEN:  SHAPESHIFTER

TITLE:  ROCK TO DEATH

CHARACTERS:  Skizzy Portentous: an Early ’90s Hair Metal Guitarist, Donny Colbert: the Drummer.

PREMISE:  Skizzy only cares about guitar and rocking out.  He doesn’t have time for groupies, doesn’t have time for love.  It’s all about pedals and amps and flying V-neck thirteen-string harmonic something somethings.  Donny loves Skizzy, but it must always be from behind the drum kit.  Probably there’s a rhythm guitarist, a bassist, and/or a singer in the mix too, but never mind them.

Wait, more band members is more chances to come up with funny names.  Bosley “Heroinhands” McGee, Ten Inch Tidwell, and Howlin’ Harry Knuckledusters.  They exist now.  Sorry.

THE HOOK:  Skizzy locks himself away in the tour bus, finally near completion of the world’s most perfect guitar.  The band has to perform with a roadie on lead guitar, just to keep the crowd from rioting.  After the show, they approach the tour bus.

It rips to pieces in a spray of metal guitar strings.  Skizzy has become half-man, half-guitar, and he will destroy the world with rock.  Donny chases Skizzy around the city begging him to stop the rampage, but finally gives up and plays the drums for him.  Harum-pum-pum-pum.

 

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Twelve

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long; looks like I’m gonna go all the way with it.  Although I did run out patience for getting accent marks into my name properly on this one.  I’m just gonna finish it out like this out of compulsion.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY TWELVE:  PARASITE

TITLE:  DAMNED MINNEAPOLIS

CHARACTERS:  Cleavon White: an Early ’90s Funk Musician, Komla Abasom: a Vampire.

PREMISE:  Parasite is the vampire category and I tend to not do straightforward vamp stories.  Early results in seeking a cover for this one yielded nothing but white people, and per Billy Martin’s most recent word on race in gay vampires, I banged on this one until they were black.  Now, to come up with a story that justifies the image, and is at all interesting.  Let’s see…

In the last days of Minneapolis funk, a drummer and keyboardist named Cleavon was part of the never-ending scene rotation, trying to form his own bands or dropping in on somebody else’s thing, and nothing was sticking.  The crossover with hip-hop was promising, but rappers could find success without the effort of a real instrumentalist behind them, and those projects also fell flat.

Mysterious businessman Komla said, “It’s all who you know,” Cleavon said, “I know,” and Komla said, “Get to know me.”  Soon he was able to get studio gigs for cool rappers, and reel in some dollars.  But music success wasn’t the only thing Komla had to teach.

THE HOOK:  This rap villain is here to make a killin’.  Komla liked repping rappers because their dangerous lifestyle added life insurance payouts to his revenue – and because nobody would question why the blood kept flowing.  But more sophisticated music moved what was left of his ancient soul, so he took Cleavon under his bat wing.  How far are you willing to go, funk man?

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Eleven

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long; looks like I’m gonna go all the way with it.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY ELEVEN:  INCORPOREAL

TITLE:  MAD MALWAR3 GIRLZ ROOOL

CHARACTERS:  Colleen Crash: a Trans Computer Hacker Type, ANи1KA and M0NiK4: Sisters who also Hack, or Virtual Illusions?

PREMISE:  In some unimaginable dystopian version of our world, the most obvious con man and fascist thug in human history has convinced half of america he’s harmless and the other half that he shits gold, thus acquiring enough power to rewrite anything that was worth a shit in the place.  Within this impossible world of banal evil that is just so soulcrushingly tedious nobody would ever want to write a story about it, god it’s so boring, the only life and liveliness must come from hacktivists and gay weirdos.

THE HOOK:  Colleen’s best friends in the CYb4Rsp8s are the sisters ANи1KA and M0NiK4, altho there is some risk of the friendship blowing up because both sisters wanna get with Colleen.  Or are they even real?  Maybe they’re a cheap sex fantasy that escaped from her mind.  Maybe they’re cointelprobots, sent by the NSA to lure her into federal prison.  Or maybe, they’re a new life form, on some Ghost in the Shell type shit, wanting to bone Colleen into a Brave New World.

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Ten

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long; looks like I’m gonna go all the way with it.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY TEN:  DREAMER

TITLE:  M-74S

CHARACTERS:  Sra. Seagrave: a Bureaucrat of the Dream World, Sra. Grijalva: a Dreamer.

PREMISE:  Señora Grijalva is asleep.  She fell in love at first sight, as you do in dreams, with an elegant lady working the office of Dream Bureaucracy.  To have excuses to get back in line, get to her window, to see and talk to her again, she takes it upon herself to perform increasingly arcane bureaucratic tasks – getting licenses for her pet licenses, special ordering sub-certified copies of her passport application application, etc.  Heartless monster Señora Seagrave isn’t making it easy for her.

THE HOOK:  The last and worst form is M-74S, which needed so many stamps and signatures, Sra. Grijalva’s sleep is nearly at an end by the time she has it completed.  The form needs an extended private review by Sra. Seagrave, which is everything she’s been fighting for.

But as she wakes up, the world begins to disintegrate.  It feels like she’s dying, like she can’t make sense of anything.  Sra. Seagrave realizes the affection was mutual too late.  Or does she just seem like she does, because dreams forget their own rules as they draw to a close?

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Nine

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY NINE:  MUTATED

TITLE:  MY LOVER IS A CYBER SLIME

CHARACTERS:  Ethaniel Sangaré: a Solarpunk Power Engineer, Houssain Horowitz: a Slimy Machine Boy.

PREMISE:  Surprise threequel to Laser Boys and Rose Gold, wherein the cybermetropolis destroyed many times over has come to flourish.  From the wake of the Rose Gold System escaping the control of Brycine Cybernetics and destroying the city, it also helped build the city anew.  Rose people formed a utopia, where photosynthesis provides all the nourishment and power needed by the survivors.  They found themselves with less aggression, fewer health problems, and a mild demeanor that lent itself to founding a new world based on peace and brotherhood.

THE HOOK:  There is always a seed of destruction within life.  Ethaniel Sangaré was a good rose boy working in power engineering, along with his lover Houssain Horowitz.  But Houssain fell into the oily black machinery that lurks beneath the sunny pink surface of the facility, and the machinery – originally designed by Brycine to infiltrate and augment human bodies – mutated him into an oily shape-shifting machine boy.

He has the power to separate into smaller copies of himself and re-merge into one, and uses this to make weird love to Ethaniel.  All’s well that ends well.  Oh, and he destroyed the city again, with slime or something.

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MonsterHearts 2025 – Day Eight

Don’t Miss Posts.  This MonsterHearts, I’m also having one regular post a day, if you should prefer that kind of thing.  Just look at the posts before or after this one.

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’ve been trying to just use “edit” mode in MidJourney to iron out irregularities, even trying to make a legible title in the AI program.  While it’s cool you can now hammer the hands and text into shape, as opposed to just photoshopping what you need to fix, there are advantages to doing it the older way.  There’s a lot less control of where and how the text is placed, and what it looks like.  Surprised I’ve kept up the effort this long.

MONSTER HEARTS DAY EIGHT:  MINUSCULE

TITLE:  THE PERFECT ROSE

CHARACTERS:  Lidiya Volitsyev: a Little Old Gardening Lady, The Rose: a Horrible Human-Plant Hybrid.

PREMISE:  Surprise sequel to The Heterose are at It Again, wherein the spawn of Ricky Washington’s transgression against the natural order have gotten out into the wild.  But those seeds don’t turn into rose people unless grown just right, and there is a lot of variability to them.  Some are just a rose that looks kinda like an embryo in the wrong light, some are a disembodied hand surrounded by petals.  But the best gardener is rewarded with The Perfect Rose – that looks like a little lady.

THE HOOK:  Lidiya cares for the rose through the course of its life, and when it starts to go rosewild like its mother had with Ricky, there’s no hetero option on the scene.  This Rose learns to love the one she’s with, in age-appropriate ways during the course of her limited life cycle.  Good girl.

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