I’m a big fan of I Don’t Know How But They Found Me and, as usual when I’m a fan of something, I’ve started coming up with ideas for a story inspired by the music. The original idea was for me to again treat it as a Call of Cthulhu scenario to play by myself, but the story line is complex enough that I think I’d rather write it as a regular novel.
Corrupted Hearts is what I consider a vibes project. I have no idea what the plot would be. I just know the world, the characters, the horrors, and the messages I want to send. It’s why I never really get a chance to work with the project, because I don’t have an actual plan. I just know the feelings I want there to be behind it.
First, lemme give you a quick break down of the world, then we can get into who Alice and Jessica are. This takes place during the summer of 1987 as a small town in Ohio is now at unrest due to a biological parasite that causes it’s victim to hallucinate until they die, then proceeds to take over as that victim.
The story itself is supposed to follow 4 main characters: Marion, Clair, Alice, and Ray. Each of these characters are based off of a different IDK How song. With Alice, she’s based off of Leave Me Alone.
Alice is the blonde. She’s quiet and morbid, but creative. Her favorite hobby is taking pictures of wildlife, especially of dead animals such as road kill. She’s isolated and bullied often in school due to her “strangeness” (she’s autistic) and her inability to smile. However, she had one close friend, Jessica Hare.
Jessica was also often bullied for being a tomboy. She’s tall and boxy, she’s sporty, she’s usually seen hanging around with the boys. Her getting along with Alice, who is very glittery and girly, is a surprise, but the two of them were fast friends. People would often joke that the two of them were “Alice and her rabbit”, based on the books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Unfortunately, Jessica ends up being the first victim of the parasite. I don’t have an official name for it yet, but the parasite itself is a black sticky substance, like puddy, but liquid, and it never breaks off. It can enter the human body by any orifice, but most commonly, it is the nose.
Jessica first showed signs of the parasite in school due to paranoia. She seemed to often be screaming at something that wasn’t there. She was eventually absent for a few days. When she came back, she…changed.
Jessica starts to fit in more, dressing girlier, chatting more, asking boys on dates. Everyone notices the change and think that Jessica has finally grown up to be a woman. Alice is the only one to realize that “Jessica” isn’t Jessica anymore.
I do want to make sure that Alice doesn’t purely act out of instinct. I do hate the idea that just because someone is slightly off, that means they are a monster, so I want her to eventually find concrete proof that Jessica is possessed! But I haven’t decided exactly how to implement that yet.
One thing I try to consider is the behavior of the parasite. It takes over and operates a dead human body (a la What Moves the Dead) but it isn’t actually human. Mainly, it has the curiosity of a human, but not the morality of one. They’re usually far more heartless, cruel, and violent.
For Alice and Jessica in particular, I think I want Alice to find out by witnessing Jessica murdering animals. Alice, being one who searches for dead animals often to take pictures of them, would know when to recognize when an injured or dead animal is near by based on tracks, sound, etc. While Jessica is murdering the animals, her orifices ooze the parasite, which is how it reproduces, and the ooze either covers the animal corpse, taking that over instead, or slowly slides itself away to find something else to infect.
After Alice finds this out, she decides to take matters into her own hands and stabs “Jessica”, until the body is no longer usable and the parasite inside her dies. Unfortunately, it has already reproduced and is on the way to infecting the rest of the town, but Alice doesn’t know that. Yet.
Alice, meanwhile, is taken in by the police and is kept in juvie for the rest of the winter until her trial. She was eventually found as “Not Guilty” due to a mix of reasons from being as reasonable as “Jessica had shown worrying behavior, so it may have been self defense” to being as stupid as “well, Alice is a little blonde white girl, she didn’t know what she was doing and we can’t ruin the rest of her life” 🙂
Once Alice is released, she’s shunned by everyone, because all is convinced that “Alice in Wonderland killed Jessica Rabbit”. She’s forced to spend the rest of the school year completely and utterly alone, all while dealing with the guilt of the fact that she did kind of murder her best friend.
That is, until she meets Marion and Claire
Besides Leave Me Alone, the movie Heathers is also a major inspiration for this storyline. I also borrowed from 80s anime style for Jessica hair and Hello Kitty for Alice’s aesthetic. For the future of Alice’s story, she’d of course be dealing with her guilt still, but also I think she would be learning to let go of some of her morbidity, as she can be a little too close to death sometimes.
I think! I never know for certain until I actually write it! Except I dunno how to write it! 😀
Until I do figure it out though, I think I’m gonna do random drawings like this and then give posts about my vague thoughts on what’s going on. Which is why I call it a “vibes project”. I may never get an actual story out, but the vibes at least can be out there!
Also, I have yet to draw this, but Alice and Jessica are both lesbians and I hope to also include lesbian undertones the whole time throughout the story. I even played around with the idea of Jessica’s parasite trying to reproduce to Alice through kissing?? Maybe??? Haven’t decided yet! We’ll see if I ever!
Thanks for reading these rambles! If you have any questions on the world or characters, please lemme know, and I’ll answer the best I can! The answer might shock both of us in fact w
Also, if you have your own character that you’d like me to draw, I do have commissions open! I’ve added options for sketch and full body as well! You can take a look on my Kofi here!