Writer's Showcase Soiree - A Haunted Masquerade

[Hana]

Coding by Sir Basil. Banner by Sen.

​

WELCOME TO THE WRITER'S SHOWCASE SOIREE

---

AN INVITATION ?

What's this? The strange abandoned mansion that you see ahead of you as you clutch that slip of paper you found is suddenly flooded with lights. Shivering at the chill in the wind, you wrap your coat tighter around you and trudge through the misty front yard, determined to see what's inside. The grass underneath you crackles underneath your feet, or was it the dead brown leaves that you were stepping on?

Standing in front of the huge oak doors, you raise your hand to use the heavy brass doorknockers… Only for the doors to suddenly creak open on its own. Holding your breath, you expect to see a monster…

Only for a man in a mask to smile at you, a young lady coming up to his side and extending a welcoming smile.

"Welcome. We've been expecting you." You watch as the lady reaches out with a gloved hand, and you grip it to find that her touch is as cold as ice.

And you smile.

For you have found a place where you belong as a creature of the night...

WHAT IS THE WRITER'S SHOWCASE SOIREE ?

Good day, everyone! I hope everyone is pumped and excited for this month's Halloween, just as I am for this sweet new event we have prepared for you - the Writer's Showcase Soiree. The Soiree is a creative and hopefully helpful two-part event for this month that involves us as an entire community - from us staffers to our beloved members, we hope to help you and each other improve your writing, have fun, and make friends. It would help you flex your writing and creative muscles in the prompts and exercises we have prepared for you, should you like to participate. You may be aware of MISC - a competitive writing contest that other staff members run every other month. Same as them, WSS is slated to run every other month in alternation.

What will you do in the Soiree? Participants will follow the given prompts and exercises, and submit it in an allocated thread in the Refining Writing forum. Entries will be both reviewed by a panel of staff members and given constructive criticism, as well as peer reviews from non-staff members and even discussion! Let's have fun, everyone, creating and writing together.

Because at the heart of it all, the aim of this is to improve and learn together.

Without further ado, I welcome everyone to the opening night of the Writer's Showcase Soiree.

This month's theme is:
A HAUNTED MASQUERADE

PART ONE: THE MASK OF A MONSTER

Exercise: Create a monster that could be your own unique or personal take on traditional myths and folklore, or an entirely new creature from your imagination.

Make sure to explore this creature's appearance, name (it is possible for it to be in a foreign language if they are known in different cultures), its history (including myths), abilities, habitat, life span and gender ratio. We encourage picture references! You can write it out however you like, in paragraph form or as a CS.

These questions can help you develop the appearance of your monster.

• How tall is your monster?
• How heavy is your monster?
• What does your monster's face look like? Include eyes, mouth, nose, teeth and ears.
• Describe your monster's arm and leg appearances.
• What does your monster's hand(s) and finger(s) look like?
• Describe the aspects of your monster's feet and toes. eg. Are they smelly?
• Does it have hair/fur?
• What color is it skin/fur?
• Is there a type of texture to your monster's skin? Is it rough like sandpaper, scaly, smooth?
• Does your monster have horns, wings, tails, or extra limbs?
• Why would someone be afraid of this monster's appearance?

Here's an example monster:
[spoili]
Standing at 40cm (1'04") and weighing 5.5kg (12.1lbs), the Iwakubunnit is a small bipedal rabbit that spends most of its time lazing about the Iwaku forums doing nothing. It looks quite ordinary, covered with a fluffy and sleek coat of fur that is incredibly soft to touch. The Iwakubunnit is so cute and adorable and fluffy that when it is sleeping and has its head tucked within the mass of rabbit fur, it looks like a cloud. Beady black eyes, a twitching grey-furred nose, pointed ears that flop to the side every time it tries to get a look at you and whiskers so long that they drag on the floor. The Iwakubunnit's hands and feet and uncannily similar to human beings, with the exception of them being padded and protected with a thick layer of fur. They are surprisingly clean, but mysteriously stink with the stench of metallic blood. If one were to look closely, the Iwakubunnit has a set of horn stubs, hidden away in between its ears.

The Iwakubunnit thrive on the website IwakuRoleplay, and spend their days roaming around the forums in search for something to amuse themselves with. Sometimes, they can be found poledancing in the FAQ area, or bouncing around the Donations page in hope of catching someone's attention. They prefer higher altitudes, so the majority of them are found in the upper area of the website. The Iwakubunnit like to feast on textboxes and the occasional shitposter, but that gives them severe diarrhoea. Their favourite food of all time are other people's plots.

The first Iwakubunnit was born when the Admins offered the feather of an owl, the heart of a demon and the eye of a honey badger to the writing gods, in an attempt to summon a worthy guardian for the fledgling site that was IwakuRoleplay. The first Iwakubunnit ate up all of the shitposters, all the spambots and gave the admins their coveted and treasured Banhammers. However, after the banmins became efficient with their new weapon, the Iwakubunnit became bored, since there was not much for it to do. As a result, it went into retirement and gave birth to small Iwakubunnits that started overtaking the site. After spending so many years in the presence of writers, it seems to have turned these gentle creatures into moody and unpredictable monster.

Iwakubunnits are capable of transforming into insatiable monsters that devour all plots and stories in sight. They increase a thousandfold in size and gain immense strength capable of smashing entire threads to bits. Each Iwakubunnit has their own preference of genres, but none go unscathed after the rampage of an Iwakubunnit. They say that everytime Diana messes something up during an update, the Iwakubunnits mutate to become more and more powerful…[/spoili]

PART TWO: THE ENCOUNTER

Exercise: Write an original short story featuring a monster that was submitted in Part One. You may feature another participant's monster with respect to the author, playing the monster as a part of that race. Recommended setting is fractured fairy tale.

Bonus: Write the story from the monster's point of view.

Bonus x2: Incorporate this month's masquerade theme into the story.

PRIZES: THE HONOR ROLL

What? Honor roll and freebies? After the first Soiree event has finished running, a list of members on the Honor Roll will be published! The Honor Roll is a list of participants who have fulfilled the judges' set criteria and standards for the events, and in the following soirees people who have participated often and regularly will get a spot on the list!

For the Soiree's grand opening, the Honor Roll participants will get a chance to win redeemable freebie coupons, which are randomized awards that one can redeem anytime. There are 5 coupons that can be won each distributed to one person. What are the possible freebies that Honor Roll members can get?

Free Art Request from [Insert Staff Artist Name Here]
Free Div Box or BB Code Character Sheet or Formatting from [Insert Staff BB Code Wizard Here]
Free Character or Roleplay Banner from [Insert Staff Photomanipulation Wiz Here]
Free Character Playlist put together by [????]

People also have a chance to get the COOL THANG user banner under their names for one month. In following soirees, the more you regularly participate, the higher your chances of one day getting that fun user banner.

These coupons can also be gifted to friends, so if you have friends you'd like to help out or cheer up and you have a coupon you don't really get to use, why not make someone else's day?

GENERAL SUBMISSION RULES

Each part of the event is allotted two weeks' time to finish and submit entries. The time period for Part One begins from October 1 and ends at October 15, and for Part Two it begins October 16 and ends October 30. Any entries for the respective parts that is submitted past the deadline dates will no longer be accepted, so be mindful of these dates. We will be using the site's native time (GMT -6) to decide when the date rolls over.

To submit your entry, just post your finished work in the thread we will set up for submissions. A Contest Runner will copy and move it to the opening post so that it will be visible to those who want to post reviews. To make sure that the Soiree team will see it, please remember to tag these names: @Hana @Sen

These are the main contest runners for the Soiree, and they will put up your submissions as soon as they can once they are alerted of them.

• All entries must be submitted before the deadline dates set for each respective part of this event. Entries submitted past deadlines will no longer be reviewed; the staff reviewers all have limited time to read and review all entries. We can only help those who have submitted within those dates.
• Only one entry per part is allowed per person.
• Entries must fit within the given criteria for each challenge.
• Participants must write original entries for the challenges; they may not take concepts from original published works and use them in their submissions. Inspiration from published works is of course allowed; however the point of this activity is a creative exercise to help members create their own works.
• Plagiarism isn't allowed and if a participant is caught, they face the possibility of being banned from the Soiree.
• Submissions have a word limit of 5,000 words, but the recommended length is 3,000 words so as to not overwhelm the reviewers and the staff who will be reading over the entries. Other participants are also encouraged to read each other's entries; constructive critiques and comments are part of these exercises.

THE STAFF BEHIND THE SOIREE

Judges/Reviewers
@Hana
@Minerva
@IceQueen
@Sir Basil
@Izurich

Prompt/Challenge Creators
@Izurich
@Minerva
@WhisperingWillows
@Sen
@Kitti
@Jorick
@Hana

Awards and Gifts
@WhisperingWillows
@Sen

Event Runners
@Hana and @Sen

Let me share with you a story behind how we all came together for the Soiree. In the two years I have been on Iwaku, I've grown to adore the community and the variety of people with all kinds of talents in not just writing or roleplaying, but art, music, and so much more. But what drew me most other than it being an inspiring creative outlet for me was the people that made it up, and eventually along the road this year, I wondered to myself - how do we bring both writing and community together? We can collaborate together in groups or in partnerships, but what about something else other than roleplaying that can both be fun and helpful?

There was an idea, building inside my head about what I can also do as a part of the content staff. In my search for what I can do to help produce content and exercises to help members, I asked the members themselves about what they thought would be a good, fresh exercise.

I'd like to thank @LimeyPanda for bringing this up in a Discord server, as well as @Jorick for letting me base this event off of his old writing competitions that eventually grew into what is now MISC. If it weren't for you two, I'm not sure if the idea would have even been sparked as well as it had now.

And I'd like to thank @Sen for being there for me in the month that it took to put this together, drawing me out of my creative slumps and discouraged feelings that sometimes seemed to almost overwhelm me. She's been the angel that's been pushing me forward as always even if her methods are more a sort of tough love.

The entire team of volunteers for this group have also been wonderful in molding the ideas and suggestions we bounced back and forth into what are now are prompts for this month. Thank you so much.

Lastly, I'd like to thank you, the members, who are reading this. The members that are considering on what to write. And the community as a whole.

We welcome you all to the Soiree, and may we all enjoy the fruits of our creativity and innovation this month to present monsters that enthrall, monsters that repulse, monsters that can even be very much in the realm of possibility in the strange world that is ours. And in creating them we wear their masks to spin tales and stories to share.

- Hana

Please take note that the reviews and critiques of submissions must be posted in the reviews thread. Only submissions and discussion are to be posted here. ​

 

[PoetLore]

Is working on making something scary ...pray for me folks...

 

[Der Außenseiter]

I has a confuse. Are these entries anonymous as well or do we just post 'em?

 

[Hana]

I has a confuse. Are these entries anonymous as well or do we just post 'em?

As this is not a competitive event, and is less intensive than MISC, we have decided not to make the entries anonymous. You can just post your submissions tagging either or both me and @Sen so we can put it in the submissions post in here. :)

 

[Der Außenseiter]

Perfect! My monster is almost done!

 

[Der Außenseiter]

((If this is the wrong place to put this, please let me know!))

@Hana @Sen



Horror and Sand: The Zhavéléku

"Namári, my son, you must be careful where you tread. Walk not across the sandflats. Keep to the rocks, and approach the oasis with care. For you know not what lurks beneath your feet or in the sky." —Náloshu, chieftain of Clan Dreaming Moon

The Great Red Desert of Kháj Tmæon is an extreme environment. Temperatures in the area can rise as high as 60 C during the height of summer. Due to the brutal heat and harshness of this climate, the creatures that live there are themselves deadly and often monstrous. There is an apex predator that can scatter even the strongest of the other beasts.

It is called the zhavéléku.

The zhavéléku is an average of forty feet in length, and twice that in breadth; the creature's body resembles the shape of a 'flying wing' aircraft, though the zhavéléku has a long and whiplike tail with a long, flat, leaf-shaped tip. It is between nine and eighteen feet in thickness, weighing surprisingly little for its size, due to light, honeycombed bones providing most of its internal structure. Its hide is tough enough to defeat all but the most highly-enchanted weapons, and its ability to camouflage itself makes it exceedingly difficult to see. Horribly, its small, round head has a human-appearing face, the expression either one of agony or of rage. It possesses six tongues, each of which has a sucker at the end of it. These tongues are able to extend all the way out to the tip of each wing. Both the ventral and dorsal sides of this animal contain retractile barbs with serrated edges. When these impale a target, the serrations tend to hold it in place unless it tears itself free.

Both sand and sky are home to the zhavéléku. It most often hunts by burying itself in sand, sensing the approach of prey through the vibration of its movement on the surface, or through slim filaments that edge its wings and come up to rest on the sand, all but invisible. It is nearly impossible to detect a zhavéléku on open sand—until it is too late. It is also able to fly, using thermal air currents rising from hot sands to keep it aloft. In this case, it blends in with the sky above it, able to bend light about itself to form a perfect camouflage. It also uses this light-bending ability to mask itself when moving across the surface of the ground, though it is easier to spot this way.

Particularly horrific is the creature's way of feeding. Whether it wraps upward from beneath the sand or drops down from above to cover its prey, the spines on its body impale the victim. It intentionally keeps its prey alive, preferring to use the suckers at the tips of its tongue to pull away small, round pieces of living tissue until the victim expires from shock and exsanguination. After the zhavéléku finishes its meal, it releases what remains. Such remains are identifiable because they are skeletonized save for the hands, feet and face, though one of the sucker-tongues will have devoured the brains by entering an eye socket, through the nose or through the mouth.

Reproduction is a dread of another form. Male zhavéléku'i are almost twice the size of the females due to sexual dimorphism. The male impregnates the female through traumatic insemination. His penis is four feet long and has three spiraling edges as sharp as the blade of any sword; in fact, the people native to Kháj Tmæon often use them as weapons when they manage to destroy a large male. The male will battle the female until he manages to wrap her within his wings, and then he will stab his penis into her abdomen and release a seed packet. After this, he leaves the wounded female to shift for herself. The female will hunt and gorge herself. She then will locate large prey and enfold it, but this time, the tongues have a much more sinister use. The female uses them to enter any body cavity she can access to release her fertilized eggs. She will keep the victim enfolded but not impaled until the eggs hatch. The victim is kept sustained by having one of the tongues placed in its esophagus to supply it with blood, fluids and nutrients... until the zhavéléku larvae begin to eat. It takes six agonizing weeks for them to be large enough to break through the surface of the skin or crawl from body openings.

 

[Izurich]

His penis is four feet long and has three spiraling edges as sharp as the blade of any sword; in fact, the people native to Kháj Tmæon often use them as weapons when they manage to destroy a large male.

Wow, what a dick.... Penis Swords!! Like, Literally!

 

[Der Außenseiter]

Wow, what a dick.... Penis Swords!! Like, Literally!

Yup! Inspired by the way bed bugs reproduce!

 

[Izurich]

Yup! Inspired by the way bed bugs reproduce!

Can we make Exphallicbur out of them?!

 

[Der Außenseiter]

Yup! Inspired by the way bed bugs reproduce!

You can make a weapon similar to this knife: Jagdkommando

 

[JacobCane]

The void given form.

Words are arguably the greatest achievement of man. Not just to communicate with one another, but to express life in ways no other species could. To create a poem that captures the very beauty of a sunrise. To create a song that so vividly depicts the pain of loss. To shout, scream and cry words that can motivate men to move mountains, send entire nations to war and even start cults or religions that inspire millions for generations to come. These are just a few powers that words wield. Yet despite all their worth, not a single word exists to describe the beast before us.

We have words to describe love, sadness, happiness, rocks, seas and everything we could ever imagine. Yet not a single word for this…being. Not to name it accurately anyways.
This grotesque collection of tentacles, is so beyond the realms of humanities nightmares, that no human could ever hope to name it.
It would be hard to pinpoint an exact height. Its form being little more than a collection of hundreds, if not thousands of boneless limbs.

All smooth and silky like bleached onyx and twice as black. The tentacles were not like that of the octopus. Nay the boneless limbs moulded like clay. One moment a soft whip, the next a razor sharp blade. It was as if they were living shadows, formless. Yet the danger they posed was oh so very real. Writhing and twitching with disgusting regularity. Each one varying in length and thickness. Yet all coiled around one another creating a malformed trunk that supported what could only be assumed, to be the top of the being. The trunk of tentacles originates from inside a skull. A battered cracked and leaking black skull abnormal in shape. A square head engulfed by a gaping jaw of dagger-like teeth. What use the skull serves is debatable. It would be impossible to guess whether the skull was a part of the beast or merely a convenient husk to house whatever monstrosity existed within. Tentacles leaked from the skulls mouth down to join their sickly siblings within the trunk. The only view of the inside of the skull was the gaping eye sockets.
To describe the sockets as black would be a gross misrepresentation, nay. These were not black, to be so devoid of colour. So devoid of life, or any form of soul. Such things could only be described as voids. Yes, voids indeed. If the saying is true, "look too long into the void and the void will look back". Then whatever lurked behind that skull was the void given form. What sight, hearing, smell or taste the beast had could not be determined. Instead, the skull would have to be the only recognition of a face. A face? The very idea seems humour. To give such a being any thought of normality is beyond sane.

Even the beast's movements would send many a man screaming to the asylums to have their brains fried. In a hopes to rid them of the memory of such a sight. One moment the beast could slip through the smallest gaps or the stretch over the tallest buildings with ease and a type of elegance. Yet the next moment it could crush cars into metal balls or rip the faces of off mountains in an instant.
What? Why? Where? Who? When? How? Pointless questions with no answers that could justify such a beast. Such curiosity would only be sated with death. Maybe that was the true danger of this beast. With appearance so beyond our darkest fears, it leaves us devoid of our greatest gift.

The cheetah evolved to outrun its prey. The snake evolved to strangle its prey. Humans? We evolved to be smarter than prey and predator alike. We evolved curiosity, to tinker with the world around us. Yet this beast robs us of that curiosity and leaves behind nothing but soul crushing fear. Perhaps that is what the beast should be called. This embodiment of the void. This being of paralysing fear.
The formless.

What better name for that of which is beyond naming? That which is like liquid one moment, then rock the next. That whose very appearance in can cause one to wrench forth their supper or another to burst into tears from fright. The formless, its nature and reason without an ounce of possible understanding as it stalked the earth. Clearly on a mission for something. For what, however? I dare ask, the answer may just be our un-doing.

@Hana @Sen

 

[IntrusivePenDesperateSword]

For my entry, I'll stay true to my obsession.

Coming soon...

 

[Greenie]

Huh, I probably shouldn't be reading these entries when I'm about to go back to sleep... Whoopsies.

 

[Moose]

@Hana @Sen
Blood and Ink
This creature normally appears as a rope, covered in red-black ink, stationary unless on the hunt. The length of rope is 77-165 cm (30-65 inches), 5cm (2 inches) thick, and it weighs 2.5-5.5kg (5.5-12 pounds). It grows on fear and death, and once at its maximum length, it will split in two, reproducing aesexually. It is a very rare creature, and only a few are ever found in large cities, difficult to spot as they don't move when they are seen unless they are moving in for the kill.

As it feeds on fear as well as death, it never simply kills its victims and prefers to take out whole families at once. It has a minor psychic ability, able to find out locations of loved ones, and moving to strike in a single night.

It prefers victims in dark rooms, alone, at night, preferably distracted by something bright in front of their face. It sneaks up behind a victim, and if the victim has a cat, it will meow at them, if not, it simply uses its psychic connection to make the victim feel dread at the possibility that there is something behind them. Once their victim turns around and spots them, it strikes, wrapping around the victims neck and constricting slowly, allowing the victim to fight, and hope, and fear. Once the victim is dead, if the rope knows of any loved ones nearby, it will make it's first transformation, into a slender blade. It will skin the victim's face and take it to the second victim, where it will repeat the previous process, except, it will have molded to the face for when the victim turns around, red-black ink running from the orifices in the face for the new victim to see, moments before it strikes.

No one knows where it came from, but traces of it are evident in its victims, red-black stains on their necks, forever marking where the creature strangled them.

 

[Krieg]

Red Light Ravager
"Courtesan of Countenances"
​

"Roxanne,
You don't have to put on the red light,
Those days are over,
You don't have to sell your body to the night."
-The Police


De Wallen is perhaps Amsterdam's most infamous red-light district, a thriving hub of vice and sin supported by the government of Netherlands itself. Over the decades, scandals and corruption have been commonplace for the area, "businesses" raided for accusations of child pornography and the illegal distribution of narcotics and firearms. In fact, for all of the perceived lawlessness of the area, it comes to no surprise that undercover cops and the occasional police cruiser is often seen patrolling the grimy streets.

It all changed when the Red Light Ravager showed up.

Compelling all known reports and incidents of this entity, a rough description of the courtesan has been drafted. Standing at 156cm (5'1") and weighing in at roughly a hundred pounds, the pale courtesan is a brunette, her lush hair tightened into several fashionable buns. Her attire is unlike most clients, dawning a Renaissance-era dress with a scarlet-and-pale pattern of coloring. Interestingly, the dress comes with a red hood that has a small, black veil stitched along the upper edges, giving the wearer a disguised face. Also, rumors hold that the dress and fabrics is actually entwined with the skin of the prostitute, giving her an usually slim yet snug form, however such a claim remains a mysterious.

The Red Light Ravager, upon first glance, seems to be nothing more than a flamboyant prostitute. However, as of [REDACTED], the entity's fullest potential is alarming. After alluring a patron and leading him to an appropriate location, the Red Light Ravager will reveal her face. To onlookers, the woman would bear no physical details whatsoever- a blank, white canvas, void of any physical details. Inflicted subjects, however, claim different, saying that they'll see the face of a female family member, such as their sister or their mother.

After seeing this, the subject will go into a state of uncontrollable shock. Initial reports at this state included a sense of nausea, vomiting, and flares of red lights shining in their eyes. If contact with the entity is prolonged after five seconds, the subject will begin to hallucinate sexual images of whatever family member depicted on the Red Light Ravager. These sickening thoughts will devolve themselves further and further, becoming more violent, cruel, and taboo. Eventually, the subject will drive themselves mad, beginning to claw off their face and perform self-castration.

After the [REDACTED] Incident, we have also discovered a defensive mechanism of the courtesan. In a combative situation, the courtesan will give off an immense red glow underneath her veil. Subjects within the entity's gaze will become instantly blinded for a brief moment, although prolonged exposure will lead to permanent blindness. This is fascinating, as no heat or sense of intensify is reported from the light itself, which implies some supernatural property.

All survivors from their encounter with the Red Light Ravager have been hospitalized to local mental care institutions. Most, if not all of them are in a state of complete emotional and psychological disarray, with many of them restrained in order to stop them from performing self-mutilation. Currently, there is no known "male alternative" for female patrons, as the courtesan seems uninterested in same-sex interaction, however all tourists and potential patrons have been alerted to be on the lookout for any "suspiciously-dressed" men.

As to the entity herself, many theories are revolving around her. Most, however, say that she is the infamous "Rose of the River", a young 16th century noble confused for a prostitute and succumbing to the cruelty of Amsterdam's early red-light districts. If this it is to believed to be true, than this "monster" is a physical spirit punishing the allurement of lust. Contact has been made with several disclosed organizations as to how to deal with this entity.

Until then, be alert, operatives.
​

 

[Krieg]

Ahh! I forgot the tags! ;~:

@Hana and @Sen

 

[Soulserenity20]

PART ONE: THE MASK OF A MONSTER SUBMISSIONS

They are that which walk in the shadows of fear...

It is said many have seen the ones that walk in fear; many accept it, many refuse to do the same, and many are yet blind to their presence. But in time, all come face to face with these unearthly beings that haunt the minds of man. Their origins are unknown, but it is said that for so long as fear has manifested in the hearts and minds of man, so too were those that walked within it. They are nameless by nature, and few cultures have taken them from this nature. They are faceless, though they appear in the form of a bipedal homonid, as if to be like us, but something so far from exactly that. They are featureless beings, taking on the appearance of a small child, near the age of 10 in height and figure. They wear no clothes nor adorn their heads with hair. Their complexion is a mix between blackness and a shadowy illusion, giving them the ability to never truly appear real, never of this world. Some mistake them for shadows, for this reason. Without a face, without defining features to make them human, no finger nails or rustling attire. They hardly even seem threatening. Just a meager shape in one's mind, on a dark street, in the misty, woods on a lonely night. Yet those who have come to know them, know they are so much more than a harmless shadow, cloaked in the realm of fear.

Those who walk in fear seem to hold but two desires: the first is existence, for fear in the minds of men make them as real as they wish to be; the second is consumption, for they thrive in fear because it is fear they consume. Yes, it is true as was said, that they bear no features, but this is only true for part of the time. When they wish to be known, when they commit to the hunt, closing in on their prey, their eyes appear, forged from the shadowy flesh. Black eyes, black as nothing in this world could ever be. Black and empty, yet cold. And beneath those eyes creeps forward a dark and wretched smile decorated with black, razor-like teeth that scream with a thirst for the sanity of man.

They feed off us, you see. We created them, or so some say, and they feast on our minds, and later on our flesh. This is why their form frightens us so. It is said to be a projection of us, instilling some form of comfort, yet their differences confuse our minds and frighten us to great lengths. We fear the unknown, it is said, and they are the unknown.

Some confuse them for aliens, extra-terrestrials. Some have called them the boogie-man. Some believe them to be demons. But they are so much worse than these things for they are that which man cannot fathom, nor create of our own imaginations. Yet it is known now to us, that they have been among us for an eternity. And each encounter, over the span of our existence, has been the same. Always the same.

First, fear strikes. Perfectly natural for man, perfectly un-alarming. Though some would insist fear was never a natural part of our existence, at least not in the way the moving shadows in the night send chills down our spines or the depths in our closets leave us trembling in our youth. This fear, it is said, came from them so they might feed. When this fear strikes, they approach, merely to make themselves known. Most who are perceptive enough to notice them will notice them simply standing in the shadows in the woods along the path they take home late at night. They'll notice them in the corners of their nightmares, standing silently in observation of the events that unfold. The perceptive notice them first, but never are they spared for their feat.

When they've appeared, it's only a matter of time before they begin to obsess, targeting their prey, and increasing the fear in their lives, driving them beyond the realm of the sane. Those with weak minds are most susceptible. Schizophrenics suffer the worst of their attacks. Those who are stressed with feel their presence more than others, as their minds weaken and the fear settles in. The fear, is the sowing of the seeds of death. When the seeds come to fruition, the target is ripe for the hunt, and they who walk in fear close in.

When the target has been chosen, they'll make themselves more known. They'll appear in the corners of their prey's homes, along their route home from work, in every miserable nightmare. Soon, what was first a mere presence, becomes a tormenting, active terror in the life of the prey. They get brave when their hunt bores on into its ending stages, as if urged forth by their hunger, like a snake smelling its prey's blood. When the hunger grows, they start to get violent. Prodding and poking their prey with traumatic hauntings and suffering their prey their last touch of sanity.

Those who make the news, claiming to be possessed, haunted by demons, subject to the evils of the world, encountering aliens: it is they who are closest to death. When this time comes, the hunters are well infused into the lives of the prey and are preparing for the final strike. They shift forms, then; their black eyes swirling in their skulls, their razor teeth peeling across their face in a grin that cuts their head in two. The unexplained disappearances are never unexplained. Sometimes a gory mess remains, leading humanity to search to explanations like human combustion, but most often they leave not a single trace.

"She was abducted by aliens," they will say. But she was not taken by the greys, rather consumed by those who walk in the shadows of fear.
"He got lost in the suicide woods, never to return." But he was consumed by the fear of prey, hunted until his mind screamed and broke, and as he ran for his life from the hunter, he make the mistake of entering the woods where the fearful go to die.

These beings have been with us for as long as we have been us. They have put fear into our hearts, knowing the way to break a mind is through the mind itself. They have haunted and hunted, stalked and starved in wait. But when the time comes, they who walk in the shadows of fear, silence the fearful at last.

All of our nightmares, all of our horror stories, they exist. They are real. But we have been so wrong. It was never suicide, never paranoia, never hallucinations or possessions or abductions. It was never what we thought, only our fear, and those who walk within it.​

 

[PoetLore]

The females of this species are slender and curvaceous standing anywhere from 5 feet to 5 and a half feet tall and weighing usually less than 120 pounds with quite lovely faces and eerily golden eyes that seem to glow in the dark. Their skin is very pale, reminiscent of a bygone day when porcelain beauty was worshiped. A small usually small button nose is almost always underlined by full red lips though sometimes they are black. They most generally have very straight black hair that has an iridescence to it and can vary in length from shoulder to floor. They has 4 arms, 2 of which appear to attach like human arms and the second set are slightly below those at the sides of her rib cage. They seem normal but upon closer inspection it can be seen that there is an extra joint in each. They also has 2 sets of legs which are attached to her hips but are not generally visible because of their use of cloaking themselves with clothing to hide them. The legs also have an extra set of joints. They has a rather wide backside but it only accentuates her narrow waists and bosom which also vary in size. They have long delicate looking fingers that have black nails which 'appear' to be sharpened to points for effect. They are in fact claws. They also has fangs that are only visible when they smile a very wide smile, which never occurs until it's too late to save yourself.

These females are a black widow spider/ human hybrid which would be evident once the victim is incapacitated and the red hourglass can be seen on her behind. She mates and kills, very slowly. Her venom liquefies muscle, bones and skin. She dismembers her victims slowly preferring warm food. It does make her sad when the man's life actually ends and she is forced to finish the meal and seek out another victim. She is able to spin webs through both the gland on her behind and she is able to climb walls and ceilings through glands on her hands and feet which enable her to stick to anything. She has exceptional speed, and uses her mesmerizing voice to seduce and enthrall her victims into her bed where they discover what she actually is. Too late they realize that they have just enjoyed their last pleasure. She spins the web about the man before she even finishes with the lovemaking is even done up to their chest. She likes them to be aware of what she's doing. This is when she shows her victim that she is a spider and spins a web from the floor to the ceiling and then attaches them to it. She will then slowly eat the man over a period of 2 to 3 days depending on their will to fight to live, but no one has ever survived.

The males are slightly smaller than their female counterparts. They tend to have mousy brown hair and those same glowing golden eyes. Their skin also tends to have less luminescence than the females tending to give them a tanned appearance.Their arms and legs have the same extra joint, They have the same glands on their hands and feet but cannot spin webs. Their sole existence is to procreate and die. They realize this but still will approach and through a rather intricate dance with death attempt to impregnate the female. Once this is done he will very quickly be killed and eaten. The males when not mating will use their charisma and their seductive voice to lure any prey away from safety. Unlike the females they do not devour slowly, they eat and are done since they cannot weave a web to hold their prey they use their claws and many legs to hold them while they eat. Also unlike the females they lack the venom that makes this processes easier. They instead chew their meat, but they do so quickly.

These Hybrids tends to lurk in the darkest corners of clubs and bars and generally waits to reveal herself until after most of the patron have partied enough to be very happy and gullible. Their voice is almost hypnotic to people under the influence of alcohol and They are very smart predators. The females will even chose women victims when they are hungry enough to take what they can get, though they tend to suffer more because they deprive her of the release she usually enjoys with her mates. The males are not choosy about gender since they are only seeking food and not pleasure.

@Sen @Hana

 

[Mu]

Monster Character Sheet

Name: Rache

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 115 lbs.

Description: A slender curvacious female with quite a lovely face and eerily golden eyes that seem to glow in the dark. Her skin is very pale, reminiscent of a bygone day when porcelain beauty was worshiped. A small button nose is underlined by full red lips. Straight black hair falls to her waist in a thick glimmering mass. She has 4 arms, 2 of which appear to attach like human arms and the second set are slightly below those at the sides of her ribcage. They seem normal but upon closer inspection it can be seen that there is an extra joint in each. She also has 2 sets of legs which are attached to her hips but are not generally visible because of the long back dress she always wears. The legs also have an extra set of joints. She has a rather wide backside but it only accentuates her narrow waist and ample bosom. She has long delicate looking fingers that have black nails which she 'appears' to sharpen to points for effect. They are in fact claws. She also has fangs that are only visible when she smiles a very wide smile, which she never does until it's too late to save yourself.

Little known facts: She is a a black widow spider/ human hybrid which would be evident once the victim is incapacitated and the red hourglass can be seen on her behind. She mates and kills, very slowly. Her venom liquifies muscle, bones and skin. She dismembers her victims slowly preferring warm food. It does make her sad when the man's life actually ends and she is forced to finish the meal and seek out another victim. She is able to spin webs through both the gland on her behind and she is able to climb walls and ceilings through glands on her hands and feet which enable her to stick to anything. She has exceptional speed, and uses her mesmerizing voice to seduce and enthrall her victims into her bed where they discover what she actually is. Too late they realize that they have just enjoyed their last pleasure. She spins the web about the man before she even finishes with the lovemaking is even done up to their chest. She likes them to be aware of what she's doing. This is when she shows her victim that she is a spider and spins a web from the floor to the ceiling and then attaches them to it. She will then slowly eat the man over a period of 2 to 3 days depending on their will to fight to live, but no one has ever survived.

Rache tends to lurk in the darkest corners of clubs and bars and generally waits to reveal herself until after most of the patron have partied enough to be very happy and gullible. Her voice is almost hypnotic to people under the influence of alcohol and she is a smart predator. even women have been known to fall victim when she was hungry enough to take what she could get, though they tend to suffer more because they deprive her of the release she usually enjoys with her mates.

@Sen @Hana

We can't accept this. Your monster sheet has to be a species, not a single member of a species. That way, your monster can apply for Part Two.

 

[PoetLore]

hmm..ok...I will change it..

 

[PoetLore]

is that ok now?