Side-Write: How do you feel about the monsters?

Sorry about the delay on this one! I actually had it written a few days ago, but lost track of posting it with everything else going on. I keep trying to find a better way to explore what life is like in this world, and try to think about the "normal people" and what their lives are like. Problem being, a lot of it is going to be rather boring? And I'm still kinda feeling out how the big "differences" to this world would unfold into every other aspect of life. So I finally decided to change it up with sort of a "survey" of normal folk, to get just a glimpse at how one of the core conflicts in the world affects everyday, mundane life.

As always, this isn't really canon so much as an exploration of what may be going on! Hope you enjoy!

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Honestly? I'm sick of hearing about them. Everywhere you go, there are nutjobs either trying to lecture you about how evil the monsters are --like, what am I gonna do about it? Leave me alone!-- or else bragging about fucking them or something. Nobody I actually know has ever seen a monster to know the difference, I'm pretty sure it's just a few extremists that like to be really noisy, but it's enough to get everyone talking. It's always the joke-- "man, I haven't gotten laid in weeks. I'm this close to just going out and finding a monster." But I mean, no sane person would ever actually go and do that. Or you know, there's always some prissy britches that takes any excuse to talk about how the monsters are the root of sin. They just like feeling superior. Or maybe having something to hate. I dunno.

You know what I really think about the monsters? I think it's bullshit we can't just go out in the woods without feeling like we're in danger, one way or another. I don't know if that's the monsters' fault, or maybe cause we fuck 'em over or something, but in the end, we're trapped in here. No sane person can safely go out there. I don't know what the solution is, and I don't know how we got to this point, but someone needs to get this shit figured out. This is no way to live.

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Ugh, that's becoming the new "so what do you do for a living?" isn't it? I don't know. How could I? Like... I know they're scary. I don't think anyone's saying they're not scary. But are they "scary hot," or "scary your hot guts on the ground?" I'm not going to go find out! I just know it's so stupid it's funny. I've looked at some of those catalogs, the uh... bestiaries, I guess? from both sides. Sometimes you can spot the same exact monster in both, even though they sound almost totally different.

Like, werewolves. That was one of my favorites. One listed them as "cruel, ruthless, and cunning." "Tracks prey over miles," "easily breaks bones in its jaws," and something like, "born out of the sinful intermingling of man and monster." They literally say that people fucking monsters are making werewolves. Then you look at the other listing. "Passionate, powerful, and surprisingly well-groomed." "Well-endowed, careful of knots!" Haha! Pretty sure they said, "near-humanoid shape makes it easy to find comfortable positions." What was it... "Not big on snuggling, but if you let them knot, you can get some quiet time together after." Yeah. It's... hilarious. And like, they're describing creatures from totally different worlds.

So I mean... What are they actually like? Who the fuck knows? Maybe somewhere between, or maybe they're all crazy and making shit up. Or just not getting the whole picture? I dunno. How do I feel about them...? I guess... I like the drawings. From both sides, actually, haha. Never wanna actually meet one, though. I'll stick to getting off on the idea, thanks.

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Oh, um... I... try not to think about them, really.

Well... It's just really depressing, isn't it? Either it's true that they're like us, and they're just out there starving in the woods every day, struggling to find whatever food and connections they can in a world that doesn't care about them. And they can see a city's right there, full of people living better lives, and they're just... not allowed to have any of that, because they were born on the wrong "side." And that's just... awful.

But if that's not true, then the truth is that we really are surrounded by some kind of horrible, soulless monsters, and we're just... alone on this island in an ocean of madness and violence. If there really are other cities out there, would we even know if they fell? If the monsters came together and overran us, would any of them ever know? Or are we already the last city in the world, and someday, we'll be gone too? They say the gods saved us, but what if... what if they actually hated us, and they wanted us to die out slower, to make each one of us die over and over again before we were finally gone for good?

I don't know. I don't see a happy ending in all this. So I just... try not to think about them.

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I think it's sad. Depressing. Absolutely miserable!

We used to rule the world, you know? All the land, the sea and the sky was ours. We could go anywhere we wanted without fear! Then these fucking abominations show up, and we've never faced an existential threat before. They catch us off guard! Before we know what's happening, we're dying left and right! The gods barely put a stop to it in time, and we finally catch ourselves, build walls, and repopulate.

Now, here we are. We have technological superiority again. We have numbers again. We have the ability to kill them off for good, and they do not. And what do we do? We sit huddled behind our walls, sucking our thumbs! Worse, some of us go out there and suck their fucking cocks! Cowards in office, sluts in the streets, and billions of ancestors rolling in their graves so hard you'd think we'd have more earthquakes!

Do you have any idea how much perfectly good land is out there, going to waste? Those fucking THINGS are out there buttfucking and eating each other, and we're letting them scare us off taking back what's ours! Woodlands! Farmland! Stone to quarry! Minerals to mine! We could be recovering our heritage right now, we could be getting OUT of this fucking BOX of a town, and what are we doing? We're arguing about whether to-- what? Make friends with them? They're MONSTERS! They are literally the horrors that go bump in the night! They are wild predators that want to prey on us, and you have idiots saying with a straight face that it's wrong to put them down!

At this point, it's not even the monsters I'm pissed at. It's the people. If they took one second, a single second, to think about how much better we could make our lives if we actually used the tools and technology that is already invented, sitting out there, rusting away, they'd know we're wasting time every second we're not out there, sweeping them out of our way! I am ashamed of my own people, and I want to know, when will the insanity end?!

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I mean, they're... pretty fucking cool, aren't they? I grew up poring over those picture books with all the different monsters. To this day, I still save up and buy a new one now and then, just to see what else they've found out there, or just new illustrations of the ones I know. The last one I got had eighty-two different kinds in it, and you know what's really crazy? There's probably still hundreds more out there we've never seen. It really makes you feel like... there's more cool, crazy shit in this world than we'll ever know or see, you know?

It's almost enough to make me wanna go out there, see if I can find a new one. Or at least see one for myself. But I've got a lot of family I gotta take care of, and I don't think life on the road would be a very good match for me. So mostly I just dream about it. They're all so... beautiful, and scary, and it's so hard to believe they really exist, but I've talked to people that have really seen them. Some even have scars.

I dunno. I know lots of people have really strong opinions about what we should do about 'em, but I... I just really like to think they're out there, roaming in the night, howling under the same moon. Maybe that's stupid. But it's not like I'll ever meet one, and I have no idea what we should be doing about them. I just hope we don't... wipe them out or anything. I guess if we managed to put some in a zoo, that'd be really cool to go see, but it'd also feel pretty... bad. Like, it'd take all the magic out of it?

Sorry if that's not what you were looking for. I guess... I like 'em, and don't want to lose them all. I like knowing they're out there. Maybe that's just me being weird.