Monster story

[farla]

Pretty much finished the vampire/werewolf story planning.

I've actually figured out a way to justify why on earth ancient immortal teens would decide to spend their time going to high school to take the same classes over and over again. For one thing, they're not actually that old, but more importantly, the idea is to stave off degeneration. If they can keep acting like people as much as possible, and surround themselves with people, they can stay people.

Here's how it goes:

There are three new kids.

One is a beautiful mesmerizing friendly graceful guy with odd eyes by the name of Brewelph, who immediately admits his family has a tradition of naming kids things that haven't been in fashion for centuries. Said tradition somehow applied to both of his parents. He doesn't seem to feel cold, has a tendency to miss school on very sunny days, seems to heal fast, explains the injures as from "being out at night", is impossibly skilled during gym, and never eats at lunch. Oh, and his family moved in right before school started. Into a mansion. In the middle of the night. With his dad spending the whole time shouting at the movers not to drop any of the various large wooden furniture they were moving.

The other two are a pair of fraternal twins. One's a blond boy named Mike who's healthy but ordinary, and the other's a redhead named Crystal who's rather sickly. They have an older brother Will who they live with. He's not around much. They moved in several months earlier. They're odd in their own low-key way - their brother takes care of various big cats for zoos and wildlife rehabilitation programs, and they have an account at the local butcher to buy up blood and viscera for the animals. Crystal tends to miss school irregularly, and when she shows up she's often got a bandage or walking stiffly. Mike seems to encourage Crystal to make friends, but is also very controlling - Crystal seemed entranced by Brewelph's (very pretty) appearance, and Mike tells her to stop looking, and later punches one boy for trying to kiss her. He also seems to be trying to hide/downplay Crystal's injuries and doesn't want her going to the school nurse or a hospital no matter what happens. Crystal also has intermittent hearing problems and bad eyesight. They're both colorblind. They do eat at lunch - generally roast beef sandwiches. They also both wear a charm necklace.

Our viewpoint character, Eleanor, first becomes friends with Crystal and then Mike. Shortly after, Brewelph becomes interested in her.

The main problem I've run into is that high school stories are insanely boring things. I think I'm going to try to read Speak or something to see if I can get an idea on solving that, otherwise I'll blow my head off before I finish the first month of school.

I'm also not sure if I want to set up Mike and Crystal as werewolves or ordinary humans prior to the reveal.

Comments

[purplekitte.livejournal.com]

That's what always hit me when rereading my old vampire favorite from junior high. High school, ewww. College I can see. Keeping in touch with trends, technology, your humanity. You can even just take night classes and it can be fun and interesting. Can't imagine wanting to do high school more than once.

[farla.livejournal.com]

...Yes. Now that you mention it, it's so obvious, of course they'd go to college. Even if you're the wrong age, people usually don't think much of it, if you need to skip classes because of sun or whatever no one would blink an eye (or if you chose to wear odd clothing), the classes are much better in general and you have enough diversity to keep you occupied for years - more if you go on the grad school, PLUS, college students can be relied on to get drunk and be stupid on a regular basis, allowing for regular and easy feeding. And you can alternate going to college with doing a new job after graduating, and then come back to catch up on whatever new stuff is happening in society, because college courses update much faster than high school ones.

Also - what book was that? Because I've been trying to read some myself and it makes me want to claw my eyes out. The only thing that stops me from saying Twilight's prose is the most appalling thing ever is that I'm not sure it's worse than the plot.

[purplekitte.livejournal.com]

Shattered Mirror by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I liked it when it first came out years ago, but the plot has gotten much weaker upon recent reread.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've read some books by her. A pretty good job of making really sueish writing palatable. Shattered Mirror doesn't have the right structure, but I might be able to pick up a few ideas.