#kaiju transmissions

[canary-song]

Every time I attempt to reread Peni's comics, I have more and more questions, which is very fun as someone who loves world building, but.

[ask-carrier-kaiju]

GOOD MORNING!

This is Unit F2C-9, otherwise known as Saffron! Following my performance in the battle earlier today, my supervisors have informed me I will be placed in charge of Informational Outreach for the Darkworld Navy's social media accounts! Follow us on cohost, too!

I'll be running this account now, see? The smol generals and admirals and such believe in me, so they said I could use the account to promote and inform the public about us Kaiju! Who we are, what we do, what kind of movies we like, whatever you (yes, YOU!) can think to ask! We'll be responding to your burning questions once a week to the best of our capacities! Please be patient with us, it can be hard to read text that's built for human-scales sometimes.

Please don't be intimidated by how big we are! We hope to use this opportunity to make a ton of new friends!

And of course, confidential transmissions may be routed directly to the commander at this address! ...or, under much rarer circumstances, this one.

Let's see...oh, that's right! I almost forgot. Please be aware that some of our 'correspondents' can be a bit crass at times, which means that this blog is NSFW! 18 and up only, capiche? Cool!

With that, the ask box is open!

[kaijuposting]

Pacific Rim kaiju biology - what do we know about it?

So I figured I'd do a writeup on stuff on how the biology of kaiju has been depicted in the Pacific Rim franchise. Once again, Pacific Rim continuity is messy, and its creators weren't always on the same page with things, so you will see some conflicting information.

As we most of us know, the first Pacific Rim film established that kaiju are alien beings with glowing blue blood full of ammonia and other toxins, and it established that they're all assembled from cloned biomass in what's essentially a giant monster factory. One of them, somehow, is pregnant. It established that they're controlled by mysterious alien beings via hivemind, and it also showed one of them (Scunner) communicating with other kaiju via vocalization, implying that the kaiju aren't completely reliant on the hivemind.

Aside from that, however, it's pretty vague. So what else is there?

The book Man, Machines, & Monsters gives us two quotes on kaiju, one from Guillermo del Toro and one from Travis Beacham. Beacham was quoted as saying, "They're a Darwinian army. They're grown in some alternate universe and pitted against one another, and the strongest mutations survive." This vision of kaiju originates from earlier versions of the story (you can find it in the draft script).

According to the book, Del Toro decreed three broad groups for Kaiju: crustaceans, lizards, and insects. Nothing furry. No tentacles, nothing red. Since they're newly manufactured weapons, no damage or deformities, and since Kaiju are bred to destroy, del Toro told the designers, "every element of design should be used as a weapon. If we create a Kaiju wtih three or four tails, I want to see it use them. If the Kaiju has a mouth on the end of the tail, then I'm going to use it to fight the robot with both ends."

By 2013, Beacham was blogging about kaiju as they actually appeared in the film, essentially describing them as 3D printed. According to Beacham, Otachi was created pregnant.

He also basically said that kaiju had completely alien biochemistry, that they would taste like "hakarl and cleaning chemicals," and that they'd have very little in them that you could actually metabolize. He also said that what Newt referred to as DNA wasn't actually DNA as we know it, and that it would be extremely difficult for us to cloned them because "their molecular configuration is just so radically different from anything we know of." Beacham also communicated that he didn't think our concept of sexes and genders would apply to alien biology, so it wouldn't necessarily be safe to assume that Otachi's pregnancy plus all of the kaiju being clones made them all female in any sense. (And yes, he distinguished between sex and gender.)

In a 2012 interview, Guillermo del Toro said that kaiju were silicon-based lifeforms. Although this never comes up in the movie, it also appears in the novelization by Alex Irvine.

Irvine's novelization also claims that their silicon-based DNA allows them to have genetic memory, which in my opinion is a superfluous worldbuilding detail when the existence hivemind adequately explains where the kaiju are getting their instructions. The novelization also presents genetic memory as the reason Newt thinks drifting with a piece of kaiju brain is going to help him learn about the kaiju. Again, it's a strange detail to add in light of the fact that Newt was drifting with a chunk of brain. (Mutavore's brain, according to Beacham, BTW.) Furthermore, it also suggests that the whole subplot with Hannibal Chau and baby Otachi were completely unnecessary, since presumably Newt should've been able to drift with any chunk of kaiju flesh.

The novel also claims that kaiju brains have a "bath of silicate transmission medium." Supposedly, it "carried neuronic signals inside the brain, just like lipid plasmas did in human neurons." I'm guessing the logic here is that because silicon is used in computer circuits, they can also be used in actual brains. But how this is supposed to work when it's in a "bath" form and therefore seems to have no means of actually directing electrical impulses is beyond me. Newt in the novel also describes kaiju as "silicate-based organic automata," which suggests that the kaiju are nothing more than organic robots, which... uh... suggesting that a biological creature is fundamentally nothing more than a robot sure is uh... a choice. A few paragraphs later Newt also has the impression that the kaiju are afraid of the Precursors, which suggests that they're enslaved against their wills, but this novel is, unfortunately, too hateful to think about the implications of that. In the novel, Newt speculates that the dinosaurs were a "cruder" form of kaiju, which... if you know anything at all about dinosaurs is difficult to imagine as true. He also speculates that that the Precursors "did a carbon-to-silicon upgrade," which would allegedly give the kaiju strength to carry extra mass and give it better brain function that allows it to move around better, which is just... not how this works at all. Newt also thinks that being silicon-based allows the kaiju to "carry more information at a genetic level," which is... baseless, to say the least.

The novel is also really contradictory on the alleged benefits of silicon; early on it says:

The Jaeger Project created a way for two human beings to merge their brains into a single organic supercomputer more powerful than anything you could make out of silicon.

So yeah. It's... it's a mess where all the silicon stuff is concerned, to put it lightly.

Before I move on, I just want to mention that the concept of silicon-based life was a popular idea for a hot minute due to silicon's similarity to carbon. But in reality, silicon-based life is extremely unlikely for a number of reasons; EG, silicon doesn't lend itself to metabolic processes. Basically... the whole thing is quite literally dead in the water. Literally all of the novelization's assertions that silicon is some kind of superior material to carbon are nonsense.

While the novelization asserts that kaiju are cloned, it seems to have a somewhat different idea of how this plays out than the movie does, as at one point it claims they're "assembled in great vats," which doesn't really sound like the "printing" process shown in the film. It also seems to have some of its wires crossed with Beacham's earlier ideas, as it also describes them bursting out of sacs and crawling out of a spawning pool. (One must wonder how many internal inconsistencies were in the notes and other documents sent to Alex Irvine.)

The novelization also brings up the kaiju having alien senses; when Newt experiences a "kaiju flashback," he sees colors "fall out of order" and experiences "a chaos of odors and information absorbed through its skin."

Beacham's own statements on his blog also back up the idea that kaiju might have some pretty weird senses - in response to someone asking about Otachi's tongue, he responds that it's a sensory organ - but who can really say what "taste" even means to an alien?

The novel, film, and the 2012 interview with del Toro all describe the kaiju as "acidic" and also claim their biology is full of ammonia. This does create a bit of a problem; ammonia is a base, not an acid. While it's definitely true that ammonia is corrosive and caustic, it's most definitely not "acidic."

There is also Pacific Rim media that ignores the alien biochemistry stuff to a large degree. The Uprising prequel comic Pacific Rim: Aftermath has a plot involving cloned kaiju with some of Hannibal Chau's DNA edited in, because mad science is absolutely going to rule the day here. (In this comic, a baby kaiju can actually track Chau down to try and eat him because of their shared DNA! It's extremely silly, and extremely fun.)

In Pacific Rim: The Black, some of the story's antagonists create various hybrid creatures, and even become hybrid creatures themselves. (Unfortunately, it's actually much less cool than it sounds, largely because Pacific Rim: The Black is mostly focused on being as edgy as possible while carrying on the political sentiments of Pacific Rim: Uprising.)

Pacific Rim: The Black also has kaiju living and breeding in Australia. While the first season mentions the Precursors, The Black seems to end up treating the kaiju themselves as the invading aliens. Ultimately, it's not really clear what's supposed to be happening here. (Or at least, it wasn't very clear to me. Maybe I missed something.)

While The Black shows that some kaiju creatures are capable of exercising free will, it also presents others as fully monstrous. For example, while the human/kaiju hybrid character of b0y (yeah, that's the name the poor kid gets saddled with for the whole show) is shown to have the capacity to make his own choices, one episode is extremely firm about the idea that the average kaiju can never be anything more than mindless monster, and that the idea that such a beast could feel anything like love is absurd. Somehow we have an Uprising jaeger/kaiju hybrid with free will (an interesting idea, to be sure!), but the human women mutated into kaiju hybrids against their wills are presented as unable to free themselves from the hivemind.

I think some of these apparent inconsistencies come down to The Black being more interested in being edgy and shocking than anything else, plus its trend toward aligning with conservative political views.

So that's about it; or at least all I know so far; I'm sure there's more out there I haven't come across yet. I might also be forgetting a few things about The Black because it's been awhile since I watched it, and quite frankly I found it such an unpleasant and distasteful show that I don't intend on watching it again anytime soon.

In any case, we can see that there's been a fair amount of variation in how the kaiju of Pacific Rim were conceptualized. Sometimes they've been imagined as so alien that we have almost nothing in common with them biochemically; sometimes they've been depicted as having DNA like our own. They've been described as otherworldly horrors, and they've been implied to be genetically modified dinosaurs. And I imagine that people will continue coming up with new ideas about the biology of the kaiju of Pacific Rim, whether in licensed media or in fan creations.

[talesfromsiteredacted]

Questions New Staffers Often Ask

Starting any new job has questions. Who are you guys, why are you making me do this, when is lunch, and of course... we get paid for this, right? No worries, Auntie Rabbit is here with the important answers. As a witch, anomaly, and senior staffer, I'm not allowed to accept cash. But... payment in candy is always welcome, I also accept wine, nice beads, art supplies, and tea. Senior staffers are generally discouraged in buying/receiving souls in payment, FYI. There's some useful stuff, but there's also some... well... less-than-intelligent questions I've had thrown at me.

Is it possible to ride 682? In theory, yes. In practice, anyone who tried it other than Dr. Kondraki wound up as a tasty between meal snack for our oversized asshole kaiju knockoff. So, in practice... no.

Does 049 know what the Pestilence is? Tough one... yes and no, I'd say. He knows what to look for but not the actual transmission vector.

Which 001 is the real one? Don't know, honestly. It's way above even Dr. Gears' clearance levels. Best not to speculate. I honestly doubt it'll matter to the dead.

No, you cannot arrange for your ex to contract a nasty viral SCP as revenge for dumping you. Using anomalies for such purposes is forbidden, you will be demoted to D-Class, then further demoted to corpse. What is wrong with some of you?

Yes, I had to go through Dr. Clef's seminars, just like you. No, I do not know what he uses. No, I'm not the least bit curious. Yes, I puked up my breakfast like everyone else. Just because Clef likes me, I get off no easier than the lot of you. Pro tip for those who haven't taken the seminar yet... smuggle in some ginger ale and plain saltines. Trust me, it will make recovery easier.

It's perfectly safe to talk to 049 and other Euclid/Safe class anomalies provided protocols are followed. That being said, please stop trying to sell them multilevel marketing stuff. Multilevel marketing is banned throughout all Foundation sites for good reason, and it's not like the anomalies have money.

No, SCP Speed Dating never happened. No, there are no records. No, you're not supposed to even think of the anomalies like that. 076-2 may be "fine AF" and "hotter than the deserts", he's also incredibly likely to kill you before you even say hello to him. It never happened, it never WILL happen, anyone trying to make it happen will have their own date... with 173.

While I'm sure 049 would love a hug now and then, it's not safe. Sorry, but he IS Euclid for a reason, no matter how sweet and nice he is.

Putting 999 in a blender is a bit like going on a high speed tilt-a-whirl for him. That being said, it feels so wrong even thinking of it. So, no 999 blender rides. Feel free to give him hugs though.

If Dr. Clef asks you to do something, think long and hard before agreeing. If Dr. Bright asks, the answer is automatically 'No.'

The Bright List is supposed to be a horrible warning, not a how-to guide.

Dr. Gears is, indeed, human. He just had his sense of humor shot off. Probably by Bright or Clef.

No, you cannot have a Ketchup Puppy as a pet. They're simply impossible to house train.

This one is for Dr. Clef: yes, mushrooms decay around Cain. He killed the growth on my maitake log on my desk. I'm not mad, though. Turns out, being both plantlike and animalistic to a degree just meant my poor maitake lasted five minutes versus the normal instant decay. They never grew back. I'm not big on mushrooms anyway. He also kills lichen.

We tried 682 burgers. Worst. Burgers. Ever! Not even dousing the things in ghost pepper sauce could save them. It was like biting the zombie back, honestly. Don't ask how I came to that conclusion.

Speaking of biting back the zombies... 682 DID contract 008 that way once. He was sick for all of an hour, but got better. He really is nigh unkillable.

I do not recognize the bodies in the water. You do not recognize the bodies in the water. No one recognizes the bodies in the water.

How many SCPs are there? We're not entirely sure. Some would say we're a bit overladen with Keters, though. I do know the database lies.

The staff restroom is located to the left of the south wing, three doors after the supply closet. Now you know.

Everyone says Dr. Clef is two-faced. That's simply false. He's got more faces than a mask shop. They just look a lot alike.

Advice for the ladies out there: if a thin, weasel-faced MTF agent with greasy brown hair and more bumps on his face than 20 km of bad road asks if you want to see a 'naked Mole Rat', say no. Agent O'Hare really needs to get new lines.

No, sadly... the cake is real. Really, really, REALLY bad. The breads are also terrible. In fact... try to avoid the cafeteria food if possible.

No, Iris does not like the flower she's named for. She says the scent is choking. So, if you're going to give Agent Thompson flowers, daisies or roses are the safe bets.

No one knows who exactly is on O5. And it's not worth the risk of becoming bunkies with the D-Class to find out.

How to tell if a Type Green is mucking about in reality's egg salad? Doors and windows vanishing is a big clue. Inanimate objects trying to bite you, floors falling away, suddenly feeling like the entire universe hates you specifically, and colors shifting. Just close your eyes for a second, if you're confident in your safety, breathe in, hold for 7 seconds, breathe out. Remind yourself of where you were before it all went weird. Then, shoot the Bixby before he rescrambles your egg. (I need to step away from the Bioshock, next thing you know I'll be referring to Clef as Big Daddy, he'd be way too into that!)

Food fights are (technically) forbidden. However, in case of Containment Beach/outside invasion, you can, in fact, use Mabel's baked goods as impromptu weapons. That poor MC&D thug never saw that baguette coming. Yes, it would count as a Geneva Covention violation on the outside, but as the Geneva Accords do not apply to us... the Parker House rolls work great as projectiles. Dr. Iceberg didn't even need to freeze them. They can instacrit harder than the RE4 rotten eggs!

Running crappy dollar store novels through 914 is a waste of time. Nothing can improve those saccharine pieces of mass published literary junk food.

Yes, Dr. Bright nearly started a war with Amazon. Yes, while breaches were down that week, it wasn't worth facing Bezos. Nothing is.

Playing tag with the Keters is forbidden. Why? Why do you want to die so badly?

Playing ANYTHING with Dr. Bright is a bad call. He's a sore loser. No card games with Dr. Cimmerian either, he's been banned from every casino, back room poker game, Pokémon tournament, and even the site 25 weekly cribbage games. He never cheats, he's just really good at card games. Anomalously good.

[virovac]

Since I doubt Toho would let you raise Godzilla, here’s the kaiju I’d expect

If we did get a crossover DLC with a Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher sequel, I’d expect like Ultraman he would unplayable as Godzilla “cannot be tamed”. 

Still I think you could have fun by making Godzilla a special errantry trainer., able to teach kaiju techniques from the movies such as

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(a support move that alters stats, obviously)

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and the  Energy pulse punch (Gabara and Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla inspired).

Now here’s my ideas for trainable monsters, and how I would justify them to Toho.

I would imagine unlike the Ultra Kaiju subbreeds would be less texture swaps and more new textures with similar themes to other fusion component, and a naming system with new adjetives in front of monster type. So  subbreeds, if allowed would probably reference past toy releases with colors that differed from film.

Godzilla Jr

The adolescent or young-adult  form of Godzilla’s less mutated (at first) adopted kid from the 90s film. Spent days in imprinting on humans lab so thematically better for being raised than a full-blown Godzilla while still letting players have some sort of Godzilla.

Could have Holly note it resembles a cross between Godzilla and a Dino from monster rancher.

And could use his “atomic bubbles” from his “Little Godzila” stage of development as a withering attack

And their psychic telepathy powers (shown by eyes glowing red) in their appearance as baby could inspire support-techniques

Titanosaurus

[my translation from  Definitive edition Godzilla Monster Illustration Super Encyclopedia (TV Magazine Deluxe 28)]

A human controlled Kaiju from the 80s , said to have been a peaceful creature prior to the mad scientist researching them turned abusive and teamed up with aliens and sent the mind controlled sea monster to attack Japan alongside Mechagodzilla.. A mirror to Godzilla, a natural prehistoric creature turned into a rampaging beast by malice rather than negligence. 

Can create electromagnetic whirlwinds with tailfan giving it range, something that one of my other runner up choices, Anguirus, was lacking.

Those antennae by the way, are implied by some possible concept art as being artificially implanted into the brain, or at the very least have mind control implants inserted into their bases. So some transmission-icon support techniques as well maybe

Jet Jaguar (Singular Point)

Fits very well in “raising a monster”” thematically, being a product of experiences,. And the A.I system it uses was intended for more than just robot piloting, and always demands a name from its owner once installed.

There also color variants as basis for sub-breeds from an old puppet show called Godzilla Island.

Anguirus (added)

Anguirurus of the showa era is one of the most easy monsters for humanity to deal with despite his power and fighting spirit, the two individuals in the Showa Era can be lured away by flares or repelled with military just making clear not welcome.

So works well having a human “coach”

Could be given a trait that gives a chance of causing recoil damage when pushed away by other kaiju to represent spikes.

While no projectiles, Anguirus has range with a relatively harmless sonic howl in Godzilla Raids again that can slowly destroy wooden buildings, could be a withering attack that lowers the Guts/Fighting spirit of the opponent..  For other long range attacks see his  jumping attack from when fought mechagodzilla, and the backwards leap used against Ghidrah in Godzilla vs Gigan.

Spikes could be represented a trait/cookie that sometimes causes inflicts recoil damage when pushed back by the opponent

Longer reaches

Mothra (Monsterverse ) - Kinda reaching

Hardest to fit in actually do to the “Mothra does not rage” stance Toho has taken in past videogames. I feel giving Mothra Imago a “never rampages” trait might be potentially gamebreaking. And they might state that the adult form of Mothra having tantrums is out of character for a creature meant to be mature and wise.

Still this incarnation has most easy version of Mothra to fit into the combat system, and implied to have human priestesses/caretakers in past.

Metamorphoses system similar to Wurm in Monster Rancher 2. 

(Honestly wondering if new designs combining personality and features of multiple iterations rather than being faithful to the screen like the Ultra Kaiju might be the best bet for the crossover. Because Showa Mothra could definitely tantrum,  but lacks a larval form  that’s upright enough. And Angui)

Mechagodzilla (Showa)

Feels less likely, but I feel like it could also be a story event villain you unlock by defeating

Gigan and Megalon

I oddly  suspect these two would be the hardest to get approval for despite fitting the tone well. Gigan is alien-controlled and Megalon despite being worshipped as a god is well, directed  like a toddler by worshippers. They wave shiny thing in his face to get him pointed in the right direction  

However, unlike the others they don’t really have name changes and have pretty much always been unique individual rather than a species name or going through name changes from developing and growing. (Gigan Miles and Gigan Rex from the 2022 short film feel unlikely as a justification )

[brokenspring]

Funny story

Funny story: The size of the dragon Sinuous Kaiju is unknown. Unreliable reports from 1901 put it at over half a kilometer. A recent expedition to Horizon Deep did not relay a measurement and instead sent back the transmission “I’m needed here. Tell my family I’m happy.”

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

I recently made a guest appearance on the Maser Patrol Podcast to talk about the phenomenal anime series SSSS Gridman (2018, 12 episodes) from Studio Trigger and Tsuburaya Productions. Joining me is Maser Patrol’s regular host Kevin Derendorf (author of Kaiju for Hipsters), Matt Parmley (co-host of the podcast Kaiju Transmissions) and Connor Anderson (of Facebook’s Tokusatsu Monogatari). And in case anyone’s forgotten I wrote a chapter on Tsuburaya Production’s giant hero shows, including Gridman, for the book Giant Creatures in Our World.  The podcast is split into two parts. In Part One we discuss the original 1993 tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman, its American adaptation Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, and the 2015 anime short Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero which ultimately paved the way for the 2018 anime series SSSS Gridman which occupies all of Part Two. You can find both parts here.   

[ketrinadrawsalot]

On the 25th day of July, a metallic chrysalis descended upon the Arecibo radio telescope. Observers couldn’t see where the chrysalis’ thread ended.

It stared intently at the central structure and produced a signal consisting of 1,679 binary digits. It repeated the signal several times before it ascended into the sky and vanished. Researchers are currently trying to decipher its “message.”

[chernobog13]

Doctor Kaiju’s diagram of the inner workings of Gappa.

The translated notes read as follows:

Radar horn.

Rear horn is an antenna for outer space transmission.

4,000-degree light beam shooting from mouth and eyes can fry people.

Sensitive ears can distinguish and identify any sound.

Abdomen: Light energy sac, stomach filled with octopi.

Scales are sharp as knives.

Steel nails.

Tail strong enough to topple a building.

[ask-carrier-kaiju]

June 3, 2024 (aka: Ivory)

Emergency situation. Mangrove tidal barrier compromised. Coastal defense walls 84, 85, 95, 98, 111, 112, 113, 119, 120, 129, 131, 138, and 148 breached. All fleets within 20 kilometers of -

click

"It's around the Bunker 8 area this time. Who's on patrol right now?"

"E13S-4, E2C-17, Ce11L-3, Ce11L-4, and Mauve, it looks like."

"Only one carrier? That's…rough. Any Rotocarriers available for support?"

"…one should be in the Bunker 5 area, last I checked."

"B7R-3. That's…Ivory. I'll page Bunker 5."

…

…

"Hey. What the hell."

"What? What's going on?"

"Where's Ivory?"

"You mean they can't find her?"

"She's completely AWOL. 5, 8, NOBODY knows where she is. She's supposed to be right there, but she's just…somewhere else, I guess! And nobody knows where! She's still on Darkworld somewhere!"

"Yeah, that's weird. It's not like a 1000-ft sheep Kaiju could just wander off unnoticed. So…"

"Where the hell is Ivory?"

Ivory looked around. Beach that way. Beach the other way. Sand as far as she could see.

Where the hell was she? This is… a desert. And there's the ocean here, so…

How did it get like this? She just wandered off for a second.

'// Ok', she thought. '// Don't overthink this. There has to be a way to remotely get in contact with someone. // Wait, Saffron! Of course. She got a new job recently.

"// Communications centre; left roto-partial. Can you connect me to the satellite messaging network?"

A second or so passed. The aircraft-carrier platform on her port side stirred with human activity for a moment, then a message from its air traffic tower.

"That's out of our range, sorry."

"// Hm. Maybe I could do it?"

"Oh, right, we can fly you up. 3 kilometers off the surface should be enough for you, correct?"

"// It's worth a shot. Thank you, admiral. You are the smallest and best human. End transmission#"

The rotors flared to life, propellors spinning with immense force, kicking up sand below. She felt the numerous invisibly small grains fly every which way, some creeping into her joints. Ick. Gross. She'd need a shower later.

She flew upwards, lifted by what to her were handbag-sized flying aircraft-carrier platforms along her sides, feeling the desert heat and wind give way to cooler, clearer air above. About six times her height in the air, she felt a tingle along her ears.

"There you are!! Ivory, you missed a battle, we were looking for you!"

"// Oh!! Oh no, super sorry. Nobody got hurt, right?"

"Thankfully not. We…got Amber to pick up some of the slack. She's going to be quite…enthusiastic about her performance for a while."

"// Thank goodness. I hope you don't mind me asking, and this might sound weird, but…do you know where I am?"

"…well, I can check your positioning signal, and - you're on the opposite side of Darkworld. How did you get over there? That's obscenely far away."

"// I suppose my mind just wandered while I was on patrol. I was thinking over some of those experiment results from the other day. Say, so I don't get lost on my way back, can you patch me through to Saff's Media Shift satellite relay?"

"I guess so."

"// Just trying to be courteous."

"Ok, it's done. Try not to wander off again, okay?"

"// Yes, sir! Of course, sir! #"

Ivory lowered back down to the ground, impacting the sand, and beginning her slow, meandering trek back, stepping over artificial riverbank encampments and manmade oases as she went. Kind of a big desert, even for her.

~~~

Let’s zoom out a bit.

Ivory, otherwise known as Unit B7R-3, is a ‘Rotocarrier’, a classification given to Kaiju that haul ships designed for autonomous flight. Given they approximate the size of certain aircraft carriers, these ships are the largest flight-capable vehicles mankind has ever created. To separate them into clean halves, and sandwich a Kaiju in the middle makes their feat of flight even more impressive.

There are more interesting things about Ivory than just that, but a picture is worth a thousand words. We'll uplink you with Ivory shortly. During this time, both Ivory and Saffron will handle Media Shift communications. Get along.

[johannestevans]

The #MonstrousMayChallenge 2021

Love monsters?

The #MonstrousMayChallenge is going to be a series of monster-centric prompts for every day of the month of May!

Draw, write, talk about, analyse, shitpost, critique, rec, discuss, create, consume, and otherwise have fun with each prompt.

Tell your friends, pick and choose the prompts that you like best: make art, make fiction, make rec lists, make jokes, make monsters!

May 1. What is a Monster? May 2. How to Talk to Your Monster May 3. The Vampire May 4. Iconic Settings May 5. Feeding Time May 6. The Lycanthrope May 7. Adverse Weather Conditions May 8. The Monster in Love May 9. The Undead May 10. "... and add a monster." May 11. A Baby Monster May 12. The Alien May 13. The Domesticated Monster May 14. Clothing Your Monster May 15. The Mermaid

May 16. The Gentle Kaiju May 17. Monstrous Transformations May 18. Angels & Demons May 19. Monstrous Flora May 20. The Monster in History May 21. The Hybrid May 22. Kept Captive May 23. The Human is the Monster May 24. The Dragon May 25. The Monster Dies May 26. The Hive-Mind May 27. The Fae May 28. The Monster Extinct May 29. Cultural Differences May 30. The Minotaur May 31. Happily Ever After

The full write-up for the #MonstrousMayChallenge is below the cut — for every day of the month of May 2021, there’ll be a new prompt all to do with creating monsters and monster-centric stories!

You can either go directly off of the prompts themselves, or if you want a little more inspiration, you can come check this post for more in-depth exploration of the idea in question.

For each entry in response to the prompts, regardless of what platform you post to, make sure to tag the #MonstrousMayChallenge! In the meantime, just spread the word and tell your friends to get them ready for May!

Feel free to pick and mix the prompts you like best, to skip any prompts that don’t suit you, or to swap in prompts of your own if you like — every 3rd day is a specific category of “classic” monsters, and they’re not for everybody!

“Monsters are the patron saints of imperfection.” — Guillermo del Toro (x)

The emphasis on all of the prompts below are on monster-centric and monster-POV stories. Monstrous romances and monstrous erotica are both welcome and encouraged, just as much as platonic monstrosity is, and please feel free to join in regardless of your medium, whether you draw, write, animate, or create in another way entirely!

Just a note as to what expect — this challenge is intended for those who love monsters, who identify with monsters, who feel for the monsters, and all the prompts are written with that expectation in mind.

One small note: throughout these prompts there are references to folklore and ideas from different cultures and backgrounds. When exploring ideas from cultures that aren’t your own, remember that not every representation of spirits or monsters can be divorced from its original context, and take care to do your research to ensure you aren’t harming others by furthering harmful stereotypes or appropriating ideas of cultural importance.

We’re all here to have fun, which means that using a love of monsters as a vehicle for racism (whether that’s outright or by upholding colonial and imperial ideas, appropriating from other cultures, or fetishising other races and cultures) is not what we want to see in the course of this challenge, and isn’t welcome here.

Note the above especially in regards to the Alonquian W*nd*go.

Saturday 1st May 2021 — What is a monster?

Here’s a warm-up challenge to start the month off:

For you, what is a monster? What makes a monster monstrous? What delights you, excites you, scares you, horrifies you about a monster? What fills you with affection for monster?

When you first hear the word monster, what springs first to mind?

This is a free space — talk about, write about, draw, animate, sing about, the monster(s) you love best, and why you love them!

Sunday 2nd May 2021 — How To Talk To Your Monster

How does your monster communicate?

Do they have a mouth, lips, a tongue, like humans do? Do they communicate verbally at all? Do they communicate via telepathy, via their tentacles, or their limbs? Do they speak, but at a pitch or volume or speed inaudible or incomprehensible to human ears? How is this gap bridged?

Does your monster understand humans but struggle to make itself understood? Does your monster want to be understood?

Alternate: How does your monster communicate with other, different monsters?

Monday 3rd May 2021 — The Vampire

The vampire is a walking corpse that sustains itself by feeding off the the blood of the living.

There are a thousand variations on the myth — a corpse that rises from its grave at night only to mindlessly glut itself on the prey it can find becomes a reclusive gentleman who lives in isolation in a brooding, gothic castle overlooking a Transylvanian woodland (Dracula); a sparkly immortal Mormon who likes to climb into young women’s windows to watch them while they sleep (Twilight); a rich aristocrat so intent on preserving his properties and his privilege that he clings onto immortality at all costs (Interview with the Vampire); an extremely sexy vampire in sunglasses who’s devoted to killing other vampires (Blade), and so on and so forth.

Explore your own take on the vampire:

Is your vampire actually dead? Do they just appear dead, or sleep in coffins?

What makes a vampire? A curse? A ritual? Transmission of vampiric disease — via the exchange of blood or via sex? Are they born that way? Do dhampirs (half-vampires) exist? Do vampires become vampires by choice? Is there a contract or an agreement?

Does your vampire drink blood? Cerebral fluid? Consume human flesh? Do they sap energy from others in non-literal ways — for example, do they feed off of emotions or energy, or seek to devour a soul?

If they survive off of the above, do they also eat or drink other things? Are they capable of doing so without becoming ill?

Is your vampire sensitive to sunlight? Bright light in general? Do they physically react to it? Do they burn, or crumble to dust? How do they cope with this — do they only come out at night, do they wear leathers and carry a parasol, do they use a medicated suncream?

Can vampires become ill? Sick? What weakens a vampire? What kills them?

Does your vampire have any other powers? Can they fly, hypnotise people, transform into gas or another animal?

What happens if a non-human becomes a vampire?

Alternate: A non-vampire monster becomes absolutely obsessed with vampires. They love them to pieces! Why? How do they get their vampire fix?

Some inspiration, if you want it:

Article: An 18th-century guide to hunting vampires from National Geographic

Article: The Great New England Vampire Panic from the Smithsonian Magazine

Video Essay: The Sexy Vampire Trope, Explained, from The Take

Tuesday 4th May 2021 — Iconic Settings

Imagine an iconic setting within the horror genre or without — your Transylvanian castles, your unending deserts of shifting sands, your haunted houses and their infinitely winding corridors, your unholy spires atop distant peaks, your deep and dismal caves, your roiling seas…

What monsters lurk within these settings? How do they feel about their environs? What happens if you transplant a monster from one such setting into its opposite, or combine a few of them together?

What happens if these settings are invaded, lost, destroyed, expanded, changed?

Alternate: Imagine any iconic setting you like, but instead of the monster lurking within, the setting is the monster.

The seas themselves are sentient; the caves are toothy maws of impossible beasts; the mountains themselves have eyes; the castles and houses and ancient tombs and temples are, themselves, imbued with a spirit… Is it hungry? Angry? Lonely?

Wednesday 5th May 2021 — Feeding Time

What does your monster eat?

Is it predator or prey? To a human understanding, does it look like what it is? If it eats meat, does it prefer to eat it dead or alive? If it’s not from this planet or dimension, does it struggle to find new things to eat? What does it look like when your monster eats? Is it private about eating? Does it look scary when it feeds?

Does it eat at all? Does your monster get its energy from the sun, from electricity, from magic, from something else entirely?

Alternate: From a monstrous POV, a human’s dietary habits seem monstrous and strange. Why?

Thursday 6th May 2021 — The Lycanthrope

The werewolf is a person who turns into a wolf, typically at the time of the full moon. Lycanthropy is the name of the condition of being a werewolf, or someone who turns into some other animal.

The variations on the werewolf are infinite — the core is often people bitten by strange beasts and left forever cursed with their regular transformation (for example, in The Wolf Man); but a curse is also possible, such as when kings are turned into wolves as punishment for their hubris (as with King Lycaon in Metamorphoses); or of course, a curse inherited, such as when young men who come into their inherited lycanthropy and suddenly have a whole host of new puberty concerns (Teen Wolf).

And it needn’t be a wolf at all — there are all manner of shapeshifters between one myth and the next, and as much as there are werewolves there might be werelions, werebears, werebats, et cetera, et cetera.

For your lycanthrope, why not explore:

What animal or creature does your lycanthrope turn into? A wolf, a bear, a lion, a snake, a bird? Something magical — a phoenix, a unicorn, a griffin, a dragon?

Once transformed, can your lycanthrope be distinguished from the normal edition of the beast? What are the differences, for example, between a werewolf and a wolf?

Can your lycanthrope transform at will? Is it influenced by their emotion? Is it kept to a regular schedule? Can that schedule be interrupted? For example, if it’s a monthly cycle like someone’s menstruation, can they go for periods without transforming or with “spotty” transformations? If it’s with the phases of the moon, does hiding from the moon help? What happens if you send them to another planet?

Is the transformation painful? Physically or mentally taxing?Are there any health problems associated with lycanthropy?

When transformed, how conscious and aware of themselves is you lycanthrope? Do they know they’re transformed? Do they remember what they were?

Alternate: Sometimes, another monster turns into a human.

Friday 7th May 2021 — Adverse Weather Conditions

What weather is your monster happiest in? What weather is your monster least happy in?

Is your monster native to an area that’s extremely hot and humid? Very cold and dry? Is your monster used to heavy rains, droughts and little water, sandstorms, electrical storms, blizzards? If your monster lives in space or underwater, how are they affected by solar flares or tropical storms, shifts in tides and gravitational flows?

How has your monster evolved or developed to handle these weather conditions — or, is there anything your monster hasn’t evolved for, and struggles with?

Alternate: Your monster is a house-monster, and will not be going outside. They would like a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and a nice comfortable bed, please and thank you.

Saturday 8th May 2021 — The Monster In Love

Your monster’s in love — what do they do about it?

Does your monster have any particular mating rituals or ways in which they show their affection? Does your monster mate for life, does your monster date, does your monster romance singular or multiple partners? Does your monster yearn, do they pine? Do they bring gifts, do they do special dances, do say particular words or have mating calls?

Is their love reciprocated — is it even understood?

When one monster loves another monster, what does it look like? What does it look like when a monster is in love with a human? When a human falls in love with a monster?

Alternate: Your monster has never been in love, and is baffled — perhaps even disgusted — by the prospect. Do they do research? Demand an explanation?

Sunday 9th May 2021 — The Undead

The undead covers a lot of things under a similar umbrella, and it’s up to you whether they count as monsters or not — ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, spirits, revenants, draugr, reanimated corpses like zombies, arguably vampires… To infinity, and beyond.

We can be talking spirits without bodies or with new bodies, corpses with new spirits in them, corpses controlled by necromancers or the like, and so on.

So, for this prompt:

For your undead monster, are they conscious, sentient? Do they control their own body? Do they remember when they were alive, if they were dead and then reanimated?

If they have a physical form, can someone tell they’re undead? Are they rotting, corpse-like, desiccated, all bones, all flesh, all muscle? Are they missing parts? Do they have any extra ones? Do they look the same way they used to? If they don’t have a physical form, can you see them at all? Can you see them only sometimes?

What sustains this undead monster? Do they feed off of anything, or are they just sustained by the air itself, by magic, by some sort of magical object or curse?

Was your undead monster once a human? Once a werewolf? Once a faerie, once a dragon, once some other creature entirely?

Alternate: Your monster is a necromancer, and they are not undead, but control and raise, in some way or another, the undead.

Monday 10th May 2021 — “… and add a monster.”

Take absolutely any iconic work you like, whether it’s a classic piece of literature, a poem, a piece of mythology or folklore, a fairy tale, a fable, a shanty or a campfire song — anything that’s in the public domain and might be well-recognised — and add a monster.

Have Sherlock Holmes meeting a vampire, reimagine Jean Valjean as a minotaur, give Mr Darcy a deep and affectionate longing for his local werewolf.

You don’t have to keep to the same characters or plots — rewrite an existing plot with monsters (Rapunzel or Cinderella, for example), have two plots crossover (what happens when the monsters in two myths team up to defeat the hero out to kill them?), add monsters or change the monsters in the narrative, or if it already has a monster, add another.

Alternate: Take a public domain domain monster and give them a break. Send Dracula on holiday, give the poor result of Frankenstein’s experiments a spa day, etc.

Tuesday 11th May 2021 — A Baby Monster

How do the monsters breed?

Do they lay eggs? Give birth to live young? Do something else entirely? Are monsters active parents? What happens when monsters interbreed, or breed with humans?

Is the breeding… fun? 😉

I know not everyone likes writing babies or kids, and equally that some people have come into this challenge specifically for the monsterfucking, so there’ll be two streams of main prompts — one focusing on the breeding for you child-free monsterfuckers, and another focusing more on monstrous baby development once an egg is laid or a baby is born, etc.

Feel free to do both if you want to do both, as one does lead into the other!

Questions about breeding and monstrous pregnancy:

Does your monster fertilise eggs for the purposes of a live pregnancy, do they lay eggs, do they clone themselves, do they breed in some other way?

If your monster has genitalia, what do they look like? Are they analogous to human genitalia? Are they particularly big or particularly small compared to the analogous human parts, if so? How compatible is your monster’s genitalia with a human’s genitalia — or another monster’s?

If there is a size difference between monster and partner, what comes of this? Are there any chemical differences between monster and partner — for example, does the monster’s touch impart a high or some kind of contact aphrodisiac?

Are any attempts at breeding viable? If the monster’s partner is filled with eggs, what happens the longer they carry them? If the partner does carry the eggs or the babies to the point of birth and laying, what happens? Is it a painful process? Will they survive it? Does the partner know they’re pregnant at all?

And the pregnancy/egg-carrying questions: how does the partner’s biology change to accommodate the pregnancy? Do they have any strange or unexpected cravings? Does their biology change in any unexpected questions?

Questions about monstrous child development:

How is the monstrous baby first conceived? Is it an egg laid, is it an egg fertilised, an egg fertilised and then carried, as the result of a live pregnancy, something else entirely? If they’re laid eggs, do they go through a larval stage or other similar development?

Are monstrous babies born alone, or in groups? Do they have a high viability rate? Do the monstrous babies eat one another? Do they eat their egg casing or their placenta, if applicable? If not, what do they eat — do they drink milk or blood, do they need their food pre-chewed by their parents, can they look for food themselves?

Are monstrous parents very active in caring for their offspring? Are monstrous babies born able to take care of themselves, able to have a sort of independence, or do they need to be cared for for a period first?

How fast or slow is a monster’s development? How long does it take for them to become fully grown? How much do they grow, and how does their body develop and change as they run through their lifecycle? Do they shed their skin or any body parts, do they change a lot materially?

Alternate: What does monstrous contraception look like? Do they have a concept of it? If they don’t, how do they feel about it being explained to them?

Wednesday 12th May 2021 — The Alien

What makes an alien?

Are they from another planet, another dimension? How similar are they to anything found on Earth? How did they get here?

Are they intelligent, sentient? Do they know they’re on a foreign planet or in a foreign dimension? How fit are they to survive on Earth? How do they respond to the animals, the new sounds, the new world, around them? What technology do they have? Do they appear to be aliens as people imagine them? Do they pilot aircraft as people think they do?

Alternate: A human (or another species from Earth) is the alien on another planet or another dimension populated with “monsters”.

Thursday 13th May 2021 — The Domesticated Monster

Let’s look at the monster domesticated.

The likes of Pokémon, fantastical creatures as beasts of burden or as steeds — unicorns and pegasi and giant spiders and dragons, for example — or other tamed monsters that have learned to live with humans, and live side-by-side with them.

Are monsters actively bred for a result, or do they domesticate themselves as cats and dogs did? Do they perform tasks or assist humans? Do they give milk or eggs or honey or silk or meat? At what point in their domestication are they? Are they happy? Are they well-treated?

Alternate: A monster gets a pet of their own — is it a fantastical species, or is it a dog, cat, bird, etc? Is it even a human?

Friday 14th May 2021 — Clothing Your Monster

Does your monster wear clothes or armour?

What sort of clothes or armour do they wear? Is it grown, made, bought, traded for? Do they wear any other kind of jewelry or decoration? Do they always wear it, or only for some occasion? What do they think of human clothes? Do they want to try wearing any themselves, or taking human fabrics for monstrous clothes?

Alternate: If your monster does not wear clothes, what do they think of human clothes? How do they feel about the fact that humans wear them? Do they have a full understanding of the separation between clothes and flesh?

Saturday 15th May 2021 — The Mermaid

A mermaid is a half-human, half-fish.

You can take this very literally, as in The Little Mermaid, with someone who has a human upper half and fishy bottom half (or the other way around…😏), you can think more along the lines of the fish-person we see in Abe Sapien from Hellboy or (also) in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, or you can look at different variations on mermaids — the seal-like selkie who can remove their pelt to walk on land; the siren that calls to sailors so they dash themselves upon the rocks; naiads and other spirits of the water; the rusalke of the water, and so on.

Questions for your merfolk:

Do they belong in freshwater, saltwater, brackish water? Do they stay in the seas, in deep lakes, in ponds?

Do they regularly come to the surface, or do they live very deep below? What sort of temperatures are they used to, and how much sunlight? If they live in cold water or deep below the surface, are they very large and blubbery to ensure they can cope with the pressure and the cold?

Are your merfolk bioluminscent? Fish-like, cetacean-like, cephalapod-esque? If they do look similar to humans, with a human face or human body parts, do they look or feel like human flesh underneath the skin, or is it just for appearance?

What and how do your merfolk eat? Do they eat fish, meat, seaweed, plankton?

How do your merfolk feel about humans? About fish and other marine life? About animals on land? Other monsters?

Can your merfolk step onto land? Do they want to? Are they curious about what they find there? Do the humans nearby know about them, care about them?

Do merfolk live alone, in groups or as families? Are they migratory? How far do they travel, and for what reasons? Do they build towns and cities? How do they feel humans compare to them?

Alternate: A completely different non-merfolk-esque monster lives at the very bottom of the sea. What is it? How do humans come upon it? How big is it?

Sunday 16th May 2021 — The Gentle Kaiju

Kaiju is a Japanese genre of films— your Godzilla, your Mothra, your Rodan, all of these are kaiju: strange, gigantic beasts.

This prompt is centred around any monsters of superlative size that are trying their absolute best not to harm any of the little people scurrying them about them.

You can take this literally — think kaiju tip-toeing their ways through great cities and trying not to step on anything important, huge space beasts careful not to disturb planetary orbits in case they hurt anyone, or even the likes of the human trying not to step on any ants — or you can think of other monsters trying not to harm others despite some aspect of their biology making it difficult for them — Lovecraftian beasts doing their best not to do anyone any psionic damage, for example, or Medusa-like beings desperate to avoid people’s gazes in case they do any harm.

Alternate: An extremely tiny monster or another monster very easily harmed by human activities needs to kept safe.

Monday 17th May 2021 — Monstrous Transformations

How does a monster transform?

Does in transition between one form or another, like a werewolf, or between forms for land versus water? Does it regularly transform or transition through different physical presentations? Does it shed its skin, leave its old body behind? Does it grow new teeth or claws or body parts? Does it transform in response to disease or ailment?

Does a human transform slowly into a monster? Does a monster transform into another? Is this transformation willing, conscious — is it against all desperate attempts to prevent it? Is it painful? Is it agony?

Alternate: A monster expresses deep curiosity about human transformations — perhaps the differences between a child and an adult and their scale of growth, perhaps the apparent transformation when a human changes clothes, or puts on a mask, or even make-up.

Tuesday 18th May 2021 — Angels & Demons

A demon is typically an evil spirit or devil, and are sometimes thought to be fallen angels; angels are typically benevolent spirits, often thought of as celestial messengers.

Being as they’re often thought to be celestial or infernal, do you think of them as being from another dimension? How well do they mesh with Earth, from their own perspectives and human ones? How do they look or appear? Do they have to present themselves in a strange or unusual form? How do they communicate with humans — and why? Are they evil, benevolent, or simply neutral?

Are angels and demons separate things? How many kinds of angels and demons are there respectively? If they’re separate, do they communicate with one another, balance with one another?

Alternate: A monster that is not a demon or angel decides to present itself as one or the other. What is it? Why does it present itself this way?

Wednesday 19th May 2021 — Monstrous Flora

Your monster is plant- or mushroom-based!

(Or lichen-based, or algae-based, or moss-based, or coral-based, or…)

What does it look like? What makes it different from a mammalian or scaly monster? Where does it come from? How does it move, how does it breathe, how does it eat? Does it sleep? Does it 😏… you know? Is it good at it?

Alternate: Your monster lives codependently with, or lives inside, some sort of plant. What does that co-evolved relationship look like? How big is the plant? What does it look like?

Thursday 20th May 2021 — The Monster in History

Throughout history, the perception of your monster has changed over time.

Is your monster immortal? Over the progression of recorded history, has it been this same monster recorded in one sighting after another, in art or in story? Or, is your monster the latest generation of a species or line of inheritance that has gone on for a long while?

How much has your monster’s culture changed and developed in that time — has it changed in reaction to or alongside human cultures? How accurate has human perception of your monster been as the centuries have rolled by? How has art or stories about your monster changed in their telling?

How has the monster reacted to changes in human history, or different events as they have happened?

Does your monster even notice the passage of time? Are they in some way insensible to it, or do they experience it in a way humans don’t?

Alternate: The monster is a time-traveler! How do they do this? Why?

Friday 21st May 2021 — The Hybrid

A few things are bred together to create a monster, whether that monster be sublime or an abomination before the universe!

Think about griffins, pegasi, basilisks, cockatrices, and of course the manticore — any sort of beast made by combining one creature with another.

What creatures have been combined to create this monster? Has a human been one of them? How has this combination been achieved — via actual interbreeding, magically assisted or otherwise, via alchemy, a curse, or some other magical process? Has this creature literally been stitched together and then reanimated? How have the different creatures contributing to the creature changed its behaviour or its abilities?

Alternate: An attempt is made to create a hybrid… and unfortunately this is not the result. What is?

Saturday 22nd May 2021 — Kept Captive

The monster is captured.

How big or small is your monster? How was it captured — was bait used to draw it in, such as a food stuff, a copied call? Was it herded into an ambush? Was it trapped under a cage, in drop trap, in a magic trap? How easy was it to capture — did it take a long time, were several attempts made? For what reason was the monster captured?

Now kept captive, how big is your monster’s enclosure? Is it a cage, a glass box, physical chains or bondage, something else entirely? How long has it been there? Is it alone — would it rather be alone than the alternative? Is it struggling with its captivity? Is it marking out the amount of time it has been kept trapped, screaming at its captors, harming itself in its desperation for escape?

Is it likely ever to be freed?

Alternative: A human is kept captive by a monster.

Sunday 23rd May 2021 — The Human Is The Monster

From the perspective of the narrator, the human is the monster.

Who or what is made to fear them? What makes the human so monstrous in their eyes? Is it to do with the human’s size, their appearance, their behaviour, the nature of humans as a collective?

Alternative: The human thinks they’re thought of as the monster — the real monster is behind them (figuratively or literally).

Monday 24th May 2021 — The Dragon

A dragon is a mythical creature, often large and scaly, with variations found the world over.

Is your dragon extremely big, or very small? Is it indeed scaly, or does it appear so? Is it some form of sea serpent, or does it fly? Does it have wings, fins, a tail, teeth? Does it have very powerful senses, or different ones entirely to what one might expect? Does it have a mouth, eyes, a tongue, ears? Does it breathe fire or ice, have gills? Does it have some other supernatural power — telepathy, telekinesis, affect the weather or the tide?

What does your dragon eat? Does it eat meat, vegetables? Does it feed off of magic?

Does your dragon hoard anything — gold, jewels, young people out for a wander? Livestock? Something else entirely?

Alternate: An ancient dungeon, temple, or some other monument, is marked by a huge statue of a dragon. Something else inhabits it.

Tuesday 25th May 2021 — The Monster Dies

It’s the end of the story — or perhaps the beginning.

The monster dies.

Alternate: The monster dies… but only for a while.

Wednesday 26th May 2021 — The Hive-Mind

The monsters in this one are multiple.

They share a hive-mind, whether that hive-mind is created by pheromones, by fungus or infection or disease, by magic, by telepathy, by technology, or something else entirely. How many beings are part of this collective? Do they exist in conjunction with one another, and move as a swarm or a hive? Do they synchronise their movements, and work together toward a common goal? Can they work independently, or only as a group?

Can others be inducted into this hive-mind, willingly or otherwise? Is this painful or uncomfortable? Does it wipe away what experiences came before?

If a member of the hive-mind travels far away, do they remain connected to the whole? How is this hive-mind used, when beings work independently? Can it be sensed or its effects be noticed by outsiders? What is its everyday function?

Alternative: A being once a member of a hive-mind or a collective is severed from it, and now alone. Are they grieving? Do they feel free? Are tasks suddenly more difficult or easy for them? How do they feel?

Thursday 27th May 2021 — The Fae

The fae are supernatural beings or spirits found in a variety of folklore.

The fae are often associated with woodland, bodies of water, bogland, or other particular areas, but there are variations on variations of different fae legend: elves, brownies, merfolk, y tylwyth teg, the bean sidhe, selkies, gnomes, kobolds, leprechauns, nymphs, pixies…

In a lot of modern fantasy, the fae are associated with rigidity around law and rules, certain contracts, and many superstitions are associated with fae or fae-like beings, where one offends them at one’s peril.

What makes the fae monstrous? What makes them frightening and an object of horror for others? What rules do they follow and expect others to follow? What superstitions are associated with them?

Alternate: The fae are introduced to pop culture depictions of fairies. What is their response?

Friday 28th May 2021 — The Monster Extinct

The monster has been extinct for thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands, and based off of the evidence of them — stories, fossils, remains, old art, people are trying to back-engineer what they were like, what they looked like, how they communicated.

How accurate are they? How off?

Alternate: The monster doesn’t exist yet, or is a long way off, but has been told about in prophecy, or glimpsed in visions of the future. Are these glimpses accurate to the truth? Do they tell the whole story?

Saturday 29th May 2021 — Cultural Differences

What does cultural exchange look like between monster and human, or between two monstrous cultures?

How do these distinct cultures affect one another or interact? Are there large cultural differences between the monstrous cultures and the human ones? Are there any moral, ethical, aesthetic, economic, political, legal, or other cultural aspects that are very much at odds between some cultures and the others?

For example, do the human and monstrous cultures both have money? Do they treat money as of the same importance? Do they rank things in the same orders of importance? Do they have similar customs around politeness, greeting, language? Does each culture respect the others, or do they consider themselves superior or inferior?

Alternate: A human has never had much experience of the culture they were born of — they only know the monstrous culture they were raised by and into. What does that look like?

Sunday 30th 2021 — The Minotaur

It’s my birthday and the minotaur is my absolute favourite, so! Minotaurs!

The classical minotaur was the son of Pasiphaë and the unwilling stepson of King Minos of Knossos: born with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull, he was declared monstrous and trapped within the labyrinthine maze beneath the great palaces of Knossos, until the hero Theseus came to slay him dead.

Today, the minotaur is the name for any half-bull half-human delight, tragic or otherwise.

Alternate: You needn’t limit yourself to a half-bull half-human if you feel the need to abandon literal perfection — go for the drider, perhaps, a half-human half-spider, return to the merfolk of several prompts above, and go half-human, half-fish, the satyr, half-goat half-human.

Whatever it is, make it half-human, half-something else, and then decide:

Is your monster cursed? Were they made this way, were they born this way? Are they happy? Are they the same as their family members, or are they different? If they are the latter, are they loved and accepted, or made an exile?

What are the benefits and negatives to their physical appearance and to their biology? Are there any aspects that might be unexpected?

Are they viewed by people in general as frightening, intimidating, unusual, strange, incredibly sexy? Are they treated as a monster?

Monday 31st May 2021 — Happily Ever After

The monster lives happily ever after…

What does that look like?

Alternate: Or, your monster has a tragic ending — because you’re the monster, apparently! 😒😭

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Thanks so much for considering taking part in the #MonstrousMayChallenge!

If you want to do any of the above prompts, or if you want to do them all, but you’re not a writer or an artist, or you are but you’re not always in the mood for art, here’s a list of alternate activities you can do to tick off the prompts!

Do some worldbuilding, analysis, meta, or discussion of common tropes within or related to the prompt

Shitpost or make jokes or memes about or related to the prompt

Do some aesthetic or graphic posts

Watch movies or TV episodes, read comics, or consume other media, related to the prompts

Make rec lists for other people of movies or TV episodes or books (or other media!) related to the prompts

Comment on and show some love for other prompt fills in the #MonsterMayChallenge tag! Share your favourite work and support fellow creators!

I’m on Twitter, and will be posting about the challenge throughout, but I also write other short stories and books!

Check out my Patreon, my stories on Medium, my books for sale, and my WorldAnvil — and if you would like to, feel free to leave a tip!

[savior-of-humanity]

@kaiju-crimson-storyandask

--

Someone had kidnapped a member of Blue Team.

To be more specific, someone had gone out of their way kidnap one Kelly-087. Apparently she had gone missing during a combat op that she was leading. All of the marines under her command - dead. There was no clue as to what had even occured.

Except when he started receiving messages. Transmissions, to be exact, specifically sent to him and him alone. The messages usually consisted of taunts, of how this mystery-captor had his teammate hostage. They knew how important his team - his family in all but blood - was to him. And, while he did not show it outwardly, it infuriated John to his core.

So when this person finally sent them a set of coordinates, the Spartan was quick to follow them.

As much as anger was boiling and seething in his gut, the Chief knew better than to simply dive head-first into wherever these coordinates would take him blindly. He knew full well that they were trying to lure him in - presumably, using Kelly as bait. So he knew to take it slow and steady and not rush in head-on.

And that was what he was doing now - stalking forward, at a steady pace towards the coordinates in dense wood and underbrush. Rifle raised and at the ready. He didn’t know what faction he was dealing with here, after all - while there was a fair chance this was a Covenant remnant faction or even insurrectionists, the entire situation felt... off. A part of him had a instinctive feeling that this was something new - and he had good reason to trust in that instinct.

So onward he pressed, determined to find just who dared to threaten his family.

[xilienmultiverse-archived]

"Boo! Am I transmitting to high command? Greetings! Fancy to see you... survived your first invasion attempt... or is it umpteenth?" A transmission would display on the view-screen. What appeared to be a mass of vast white crystals melded precariously together floated amongst the abyss. This critter's voice sounded rather unhinged. (Surprise! Wild Space Kaiju has appeared.)

The Controller didn’t exactly expect this to be the message his Men were clamoring to make him hear. He was expecting a message from the Xilien Council, or even the Head of the ‘Xilien Provision Gathering Initiative.’ But, when he walked into the Bridge, all he found on screen was... A bunch of Crystals in space. Great, now the Kaiju can hack into his Comms channel; And now, he needed to take a look at it, and sift through the millions of tiny Circuit Boards and Wires to try and find out which one is faulty. He didn’t exactly look forward to doing that later, but, I suppose he should focus on the matter at hand. Taking a level-headed approach to it, the Controller would clear his throat. “Greetings to you, as well. As for your question, we have successfully and quietly invaded the planet Earth for the apprehension for new Kaiju in our cause. Our real invasion is yet to happen, but, I think something tells me you really aren’t interested in that. So, let us cut to the chase; You will tell us what you want from us. Because, clearly, you don’t just hack into someone’s communications system just to taunt them. Unless you really are that childish.” The Controller would jab at the Space Kaiju. Bad idea? Absolutely. Will he still wear a variant of a shit-eating grin? Absolutely.  “Failure to respond will be met with fire from our Photon Cannons and a dispatchment of our Kaiju.” The Controller tacked on, before he crossed his arms, waiting for the response of this... Thing.

[wickedsick]

My version of the ending of Future.

I had an idea and I wanted to make it everyone else's problem.

When Kaiju Steven manifests, we don't do the hug.

Instead, Spinel steps up. She's the only one who understands what steven is going through, even just a little bit.

And so, she fuses with steven. And it's messy and he tries to push her away, but she wants to help. And eventually, she manages to get into his mind. Remember the Unstable Plane?

That's where they end up. And they see steven there. He's sitting against one of his walls, crying. Spinel walks over, and instead of trying to break the wall, She sits down.

And they talk.

Steven starts pouring out his issues, how he feels boxed in, like his life is at a dead end, how all he feels good for is fixing people's mistakes, and being a gem, and how he feels like everyone is passing him by.

And then spinel speaks.

"Chyeah. I really only met Steven the Diamond. But from what I hear about you from your friends, that's not all there is."

"There's Steven the donut lover."

"Steven the coach."

"Steven the gardener."

"Steven the musician."

"Steven the son."

"Steven the sailor."

"Steven the lover."

"Steven the fighter."

"Steven the healer."

"Steven the child."

"Steven, who makes mistakes."

"Steven, who doesn't define himself by them."

"There's more to you than just being a gem. You may feel purposeless now, but that's what's so great about being a human. Gems are made for a purpose. And once they fulfill it, they're useless. Look at me, I'm just meant to be a jester. The funnyman. But you. You're not meant to be anything besides yourself. And if you feel you've fulfilled your purpose, you can just make another. If you can't decide on the right path, why not take two? There's nothing stopping you."

"I never went to school. I never went to the doctor. I-"

"You never went to the doctor before a few days ago. You can probably go to school, too."

"I think I'm a bit old for that," he says, chuckle-crying.

"What about that college thing I heard you and Greg talking about?"

"No references, no prior school experience."

"Aren't there online colleges? Your dad's rich."

"Heh. Maybe."

"Besides, there's more options. You could play music for a living, you're good at that."

"Maybe."

"You could spend a year working with Andy on the farm."

"I could.."

"And nobody's saying you only have to do one."

"You're not a one-trick gem."

At this point, steven stands up and faces Spinel for the first time in this scene.

"Now, how do we get out of here?"

"I'm not sure. I think what Jasper and Lapis did was fully fuse."

"Well, in that case.."

Spinel extends her hand.

"May I have this dance?"

Steven laughs.

"Where did you pick THAT line up from? Did Peridot get you into Camp Pining Hearts or something?"

"Mmmmmmaybe."

"Well, in any case..."

Steven extends his hand through the wall, and takes spinel's hand.

They start to dance, and the shot goes to outside Kaiju Steven, with him becoming a pink and red light. We see silhouettes of Spinel and Steven's dance, floating in midair.

They start to meld together into a sphere, and when they touch down, the sphere peels like a blooming rose, to reveal Iron Spinel, their fusion. It's more or less Spinel with four arms, steven's outfit, and a bit more steven-y in proportions, along with a more gray color scheme.

Their tear streaks are now orange, and they travel down their body to trace the now-heart on Steven's shirt, the center of which contains Spinel's gem. The lines from the heart fracture, and travel to the heart in the center.

Steven decides to spend a year on the DeMayo farm, while taking some online college courses at the same time.

The episode ends with a transmission between Connie and Steven, with Steven getting called away to do some farm work.

[nuclearshxgun]

“So... the stage for our game to ‘continue’ has finally been set...” Were Xeno to have a mustache to twirl, now would be the appropriate moment to twirl it. How fortunate it would be that important documents would have been leaked concerning his foes.

For a moment he stood there, rubbing his hands together in anticipation before twirling around to meet the figure of a creature that, much like himself, was coated in a layer of silica crystals.

“Krystalak, contact our... affiliates... I’m sure they would be more than pleased to have a target to crush.”

The other Kaiju simply bowed in Xeno’s presence, as the Space Kaiju turned his attention to yet another of his minions, this one appearing to be golem made from molten rock.

“Obsidius, maintain surveillance on the Earth Kaiju, eliminate any inferiors that discover you...”

“A-s Y-ou Co-Mand.” The golem uttered before the transmission ceased.

“The trap is set, the net is closing... and soon both my rivals will be just where I want them.” Xeno sneered as he gazed out the viewport into the depths of space. Now his trusted commanders had been reassembled, he was truly prepared to make the first move soon.

[virovac]

New Kaiju Contestant stats; Megapede/Cicada

No one working on this apparently knew the difference between a centipede and a caterpillar.

Or that centipedes and cicadas can’t breed together.

It was a big biology fail of an episode all around.

BUT I STILL LOVE THEM

Pretty straightfoward statblock

--

Megapede

Neutral Mutated Hybrid Arthropod Larva

Travel Method: Burrowing

Height: 60 meters

Length: 80 meters

Weight: 20,000 metric tons

Durability: Megapede is resistant to both tranquilizer darts and laser fire.

Claws: Megapede has two clawed limbs for grabbing and smashing smaller objects.

Poison foam: Megapede can spit a froth of slippery, blinding foamy, that's a mix of digestive fluids and various biotoxins.

Venom Darts: The Megapede may shoot an array of an venomous darts from its neck in close combat. The venom has temporary disorienting effects.

Burrowing: Megapede is a quick burrower. It always counts the amount of Cover on a battlefield as ONE CATEGORY HIGHER (+5 BONUS to his DPN), up to the maximum of EXTREME (+20 BONUS

Personal Primal Number:  Poison Barrage -[27]-Megapede brings all of its venomous and poisonous abilities to bear against its enemy. A barrage of venomous darts are fired, dealing 1 WOUND and causing its foe to FORFEIT its NEXT Attack and Defense rolls if an Organic lifeform. A second barrage follows with a NON-DAMAGING (unless foe has a weakness to poisons, that would make it otherwise) Attack Roll for Megapede's slippery poisonous foam,  which if successful causes the opponent to FORFEIT their next Attack Roll if they haven't already and if an ORGANIC OPPONENT WITH EYES loses another -15 from its OPN for the rest of the match.

Weaknesses:

Electricity -The Megapedde is weak against electricity. Megapede is extremely vulnerable to ELECTRICAL ATTACKS. If he is fighting a kaiju with an ELECTRICAL ATTACK (such as Gyaos), roll the d6 die after a successful HIT. If the result is 1, Megapede is dealt an EXTRA WOUND.

Special rules:

Transformation- The Megapede is merely the larval stage of the organism. Roll a d100 at the start of the 6th round, and every ROUND onwards. On the roll of 1-10 The Megapede retreats to enter its adult stage the Cicada FOR THE REST OF THE TOURNAMENT. A NEW battle begins with both contestants counting as fresh.At the beginning of the FOLLOWING ROUNDS, again roll, with 1-20 bringing instigating the transformation. ADD +10 to the chances of metamorphosis each round after.

If a Team Tourney Year, Megapede's ally must make a focus roll between staying and trying to defeat one or both of their foes on their own, or fleeing with Megapede and joining the new match. Any kaiju defeated in the prior match will not be restored to fighting condition in the new match against Cicada.

Mutant Cicada

Neutral Hybrid Insect Mutant

Travel Method: Flight 

Height: 25 meters

Length: 15 meters

Weight: 15,000 metric tons

Flight – The Cicada is able to fly by using its wings. Cicaa counts as an AERIAL kaiju, and may take the opposite bonus for the cover offered by a Battlefield. However, Cicada is equally able to function on the ground, and so will use either the normal cover bonus or the bonus for being an AERIAL kaiju

Claws- Cicada still has the two clawed limbs for grabbing smaller objects that its larval stage possessed.

Signal Interference -The wingbeats of the Cicada as it attempts to attract a mate somehow interfere with EM transmissions and Radar. These wingbeats can also cause minor pain from the noise to the unprepared.

Poison foam -The Cicada can spit a froth of slippery, blinding foamy, that's a mix of digestive fluids and various biotoxins, shooting it with enough accuracy to blind flying targets

Agile Climbing - Cicada is extremely agile on the ground, quickly scurrying around and jumping using even the slightest cover with its climbing ability, being able to even quickly outrun most climbers across rooftops. Add +5 to the Cicada's DPN when fighting is an area with Moderate or above cover. If the Cover is Heavy or Extreme, the Climbing bonus IS NOT CANCELLED by Flying or Climbing kaiju.

Durability: The Cida is able to shrug off direct hits from stinger missiles and a collapsing skyscraper.

Weakness: 

Drowning: The Cicada is very vulnerable to drowning if dragged into water. Subtract -10 from its Power Number when facing an Amphibious or Aquatic Foe in a battlefield with a notable BODY OF WATER.

Personal Primal Number -[28]- Poison Foam -The Cicada attacks with slippery, poisonous foam,  causing  the opponent to FORFEIT their next Attack roll and if an ORGANIC OPPONENT WITH EYES, permanently lose -15 from their OPN for the rest of the match. Not only that, the foe will now include allies in its focus rolls, with Half the chance it does for other targets, risking accidentally attacking them. 

Special Rule:Interference- BEFORE any PRE-COMBAT EVENTS BEGIN ,the Cicada will unleash its mating call causing interference with wireless transmissions.  In the following Pre-battle events, All MILITARY, ALIEN or TERRORIST attacks on ANY TARGET have their Power Number HALVED and rounded up to the nearest whole number. For Pre-Battle events, Mind Controlled and Remote Controlled kaiju/robots or those with Sonic Weaknesses will have their PN temporarily reduced by -10 until combat begins