McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Vilify a Spider

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Farmerbob1:
Looks like others have already done the job here, but I'll say a little.

IMHO, a spider, personified, would have an unnatural quality of stillness and patience as well as the ability to act with amazing rapidity.

People who are extremely still make other people nervous.  A certain amount of animation is required for that human-looking thing to seem human to your brain.

A spider personified might not blink for very long stretches of time.  They might have no nervous ticks or tells to indicate to others what they are going to do.  It's conceivable that they might breathe very shallowly and slowly when not active, so you can't see signs of breathing.

And then, bam, with no warning whatsoever, they act.  Quickly enough that you almost miss it happening.  The smallest, most innocuous movement startling you and setting your heart to hammering because that thing that your mind subconsciously didn't want to classify as a person just moved.

They just took a potato chip from the bowl between you, but it startled you worse than if someone else had pulled a knife and threatened you with it.

Quantus:
Great stuff!

Grif, thats the direction I was heading with the spider idea: it would be drawing him in and tempting/trapping him, but it will be equal parts intellectual and physical trapping.  The way spirit creatures manifest a body gives it some leeway when it comes to specific form and abilities. Im open to but a bit hesitant to go full human-form flesh-mask style with it, having a monster form lurking under the surface and all that.  These Spirits, in general, manifest a physical form by taking over some matter that is fitting/relevant to their purview, so elementals just need their base elements, whereas more abstract ones might need something more specific.  For example, the greeks were personifications of human concepts and so liked to use humanoid statues of marble or gold; in general it's tiring to hold and animate a physical form so they dont do it forever, and their available power is directly proportional to how closely their form manages to match their "true" form.  Possessing a living creature works but gets complicated; it can last longer but may not allow a whole lot of power through; Saints are people with Angelic partners possessing them, for example.  Animal spirits are common enough, and usually take over some pinnacle example of the breed, to the point where some have raised specific bloodlines for that purpose (if Mouse existed he'd be something like that) so Im considering having a super-spider being kept somewhere for that purpose.  I was always fascinated by the fact that spiders have no predetermined max size, and simply grow as large as their food supply will support.  So in theory a spider could grow to enormous size if it was kept well fed enough.  It might not be able to move or support it's own weight eventually (the body mechanics dont scale perfectly), but it could get there.  Such a breed would likely be in Australia.  The biggest and scariest spiders all seem to be from there, it's where Id expect their King to chill.  Besides, the Outback is probably one of the more remote places that lots of Nature spirits spend their time, in the modern world.



As a related question, what are your thoughts on swarm-forms for such creatures?  I have both this spider-demon thing, and also a were-ant queen (a human in that case, not a spirit).  Ive long said swarm and cloud monsters dont really work well for villains on screen, but I dont know if i have the same issues in print. 

Farmerbob1:
I could see insects that typically swarm having swarm forms, sure.  Bees, for instance.  Perhaps some ants.  However non-flying insects wouldn't create humaniform shapes unless they are resting against something, I wouldn't think.  Bees could make a humaniform standing shape, but for ants to do the same would be difficult to imagine.  They might, however, be able to make a seated or prone humaniform shape with little difficulty.

Snowleopard:
What images we draw from our own imaginations is oft times far scarier than
what we see or read.  So, yes, as someone said, less is more in this case.
Also each person will have a different take on the instinctual creepyness of a spider
so leaving a lot of the reader's imagination will mean each person will envision
it in their own form of creepy.

Given multiple eyes - it might be interesting to have your Spider Spirit - open and close different
arrangements of his/her eyes depending on what he/she is speaking about or dealing with.
That would tend to throw somebody off kilter.  We're used to focusing on two eyes only
and not a bunch of them in what, to us, would probably seem to be a random pattern of opened and closed.

There's also scent to consider.  I'm not sure if spiders have a scent but if they do - it would add
another dimension to the encounter.  Some venoms are probably rather acid or alkaline and webbing
would in itself have a scent.  Perhaps the absence of scent would also work.  Most humans have a scent
so dealing with something that doesn't - a bit odd.

And there is body hair also.  Some of the tarantulas will shed or flick their hair at a predator or
an annoyance.  Perhaps having one hair the size of a hair brush bristle or a thin cord floating down out of the air
to light on the MC - it would be a way to convey size without coming out and saying it.

The more senses you involve the better.

Griffyn612:

--- Quote from: Quantus on April 09, 2015, 01:20:34 PM ---Great stuff!

Grif, thats the direction I was heading with the spider idea: it would be drawing him in and tempting/trapping him, but it will be equal parts intellectual and physical trapping.  The way spirit creatures manifest a body gives it some leeway when it comes to specific form and abilities. Im open to but a bit hesitant to go full human-form flesh-mask style with it, having a monster form lurking under the surface and all that.  These Spirits, in general, manifest a physical form by taking over some matter that is fitting/relevant to their purview, so elementals just need their base elements, whereas more abstract ones might need something more specific.  For example, the greeks were personifications of human concepts and so liked to use humanoid statues of marble or gold; in general it's tiring to hold and animate a physical form so they dont do it forever, and their available power is directly proportional to how closely their form manages to match their "true" form.  Possessing a living creature works but gets complicated; it can last longer but may not allow a whole lot of power through; Saints are people with Angelic partners possessing them, for example.  Animal spirits are common enough, and usually take over some pinnacle example of the breed, to the point where some have raised specific bloodlines for that purpose (if Mouse existed he'd be something like that) so Im considering having a super-spider being kept somewhere for that purpose.  I was always fascinated by the fact that spiders have no predetermined max size, and simply grow as large as their food supply will support.  So in theory a spider could grow to enormous size if it was kept well fed enough.  It might not be able to move or support it's own weight eventually (the body mechanics dont scale perfectly), but it could get there.  Such a breed would likely be in Australia.  The biggest and scariest spiders all seem to be from there, it's where Id expect their King to chill.  Besides, the Outback is probably one of the more remote places that lots of Nature spirits spend their time, in the modern world.



As a related question, what are your thoughts on swarm-forms for such creatures?  I have both this spider-demon thing, and also a were-ant queen (a human in that case, not a spirit).  Ive long said swarm and cloud monsters dont really work well for villains on screen, but I dont know if i have the same issues in print.

--- End quote ---
My only personal qualm with a giant spider is that it's been done so many times.  LotR, HP, Athena, Spiderman, etc.

A blending of human and spider could be creepy.  Something that looks human at a glance, but decidedly isn't upon further inspection.  Primary legs that bend the wrong way and have too many segments.  Off-toned skin with very hairy seems, again with too many segments.  A human-like face, but with recessed multifaceted eyes with no eyelids.  A soft voice from a mouth concealing small grasping legs. 

And as Farmerbob said, unnatural stillness punctuated by fast movement. 

Since it's just an assumed form, or wouldn't be it's "true form".  It could always resort to giant spider.  Not bursting forth from the other form, but simply flowing out.

I've also got it in my head that it or it's agents should be able to send a mass of real-sized but not real spiders through electronics, like translucent energy spiders pouring out of old phone handsets, or even cell phones.  Short lived constructs. 

Imagine the super small baby spider forms of a pregnant Wolf spider, only even smaller.  And as you hold your cell phone in your hand, you feel a thousand almost microscopic spiders surge out of the microphone hole and across your hand, working their way up your arm as you throw the phone down in alarm.

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