Monsters

**Monsters** are one of the top antagonists of *Sweet Home*. They used to be humans who have given into their desires and have had their soul take over their body. It was supposed that Zero was the index of their awakening; however, One, his murderer, is the real reason for this awakening, also becoming the overarching antagonist of *Sweet Home*.

## Overview

Each monster has a unique set of traits and abilities related to the desires of the human it was made from. For example, the Slime Monster was based off a young child's desire to not be seen. Most monsters repeatedly utter phrases related to their desires, but they can respond to things around them, such as Steroid Monster remembering Hyun-su's weapon. Nearly all monsters are driven by cannibalistic tendencies and are very sensitive to sound. They will attack any non-infected human on sight. They usually do not attack other monsters except for specific circumstances (for example, Steroid attacking Blind because Blind hurt Steroid). Monsters will also stop eating humans if they see any visible signs of infection. However, they will continue to attack if the infected human is known to be hostile to monsters. Monsters also do not die as easily as humans do. They can recover from most injuries and organ damage from the neck down. While the skull can be fractured, if any part of it is destroyed completely, it will not regenerate. It is possible to kill a monster through severely mutilating and destroying its body, but a monster's innate durability and regenerative qualities make this very difficult to do. The easiest way to completely kill a monster is through incineration; however, some monsters are smart enough and have enough pain tolerance to find a way to put out the fire before it is fatal.

The monsters exert a signal-jamming presence. This makes wireless internet and telephones unusable. However, if someone has wired internet, they are still fine. While cell phones cannot be used for normal functions, they will start beeping as a monster gets close. The closer/greater the number of nearby monsters, the more frequent the beeps. This will enable humans to hide and avoid monsters. Sleeping monsters, however, are undetectable in this way. In other words, a visible monster without any phone beeping can be, assuming the phone has power and could have beeped, cautiously and safely avoided or killed without a fight so long as the human does not make a sound. The monsters also appear to have a very acidic, corrosive spit they can launch as a projectile, that can easily burn flesh. While only few monsters have been observed using it, it can be assumed that all monsters have this property as different types of monsters have used it, regardless of its desire.

Most monsters are horrific in appearance; many monsters are clearly humanoid, but others take on shapes that belie their origins. Monsters often have bulging black eyes with distressed red scleras, skin that ranges from grays to reds to purples, no hair, and do not wear clothing, though there are exceptions. Very few humans are able to become half-monsters for any period of time.

## Transformation

Early symptoms of monsterization include a sudden bloody nose accompanied by a fainting spell and auditory hallucinations. The hallucination is actually the entity responsible for turning people into monsters by manipulating them to reveal and give in to their greatest desire. The entity is very persistent and will try any means to get the human to give in. The time it takes for one to turn into a monster varies depending on the person’s Soul and their will to resist it. Some humans end up turning in the course of one day or even one night. Humans with a strong will and the self-awareness to know what the entity is trying to do are able to delay complete monsterization for weeks. People with split personalities are supposedly able to control the monster since it can only control one personality at a time. As the human nears complete monsterization, they will occasionally lose control of themselves to their monster side, but they can revert back. Occasionally, extreme emotional shock or very close friend may let the human regain control. A human with a strong will to resist monsterization may temporarily retain their consciousness while the rest of their body mutates, eventually succumbing to their grotesque mutation.

Humans who have turned into monsters are not completely gone. Their psyches are locked away in a dream world, away from conscious control of their bodies. The dream world is designed to cater to every desire the human has. The human stays there until all their desires are satisfied and they realize there is nothing left for them. According to Hyun-su's Inner Monster, this sense of futility is what triggers the monster to cocoon and the human to "evolve." After a period of time, the cocoon hatches. From the cocoon, the human will emerge; however, the human will not be wearing any clothes and its eyes appear dull and lifeless. These "evolved" beings claim to not feel any emotion or have any desire. They will not react to any sort of stimuli. These claims, however, are possibly false, as an evolved Hyun-su showed signs of sadness upon listening to a song. Monsters are equally as protective of the evolved humans as they are of the cocoons. The evolved human is also able to forcibly induce monsterization to people who aren't showing signs of monsterization, but it appears it only happens if the target is willing to accept becoming a monster.

## Evolution

> *To see more: Cocoon and Ubermensch*
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At some point, the trapped human consciousness will satisfy all their desires and will no longer derive any pleasure from them, nor can they come up with new ones. This causes the start of the "evolution." The monster will turn into a cocoon. At this point, the evolving monster is at its most vulnerable to destruction. Monsters have an instinct to protect the cocoons. As Ihyun Jo discovered, monsters will not harm the cocoon in any way, even if a half-monster attempts to force the monsterized self to do so. Monsters are able to sense the destruction of a cocoon from a fairly wide radius, and any monster who senses its destruction will rush to the location to eliminate any threat.

After an unknown period, the cocoon will hatch, revealing a human-like figure. This "evolved" human presumably takes on their appearance pre-monsterfication, albeit entirely naked. Monsters are able to sense they are an evolved human and will not attack them, and will instead be enraged if they are killed. Monsters will also protect them. These evolved humans are completely devoid of emotion. While they cannot feel anger or fear, they also cannot feel positive emotions such as happiness. They are not hostile to "unevolved" humans. Instead, they will try to encourage them to turn into a monster and become an evolved human as part of the "Revolution." The "evolved" human also has the ability to forcibly turn a willing individual into a monster even if the human is not "chosen" to join the revolution. Unlike monsters, the "evolved" human does not have any regenerative ability to speak of and they can be killed through typical human-killing means. These Evolved Humans are not entirely infallible. An evovled Hyun-su started showing signs of emotion after listening to the song "Sweet Home." This could indicate that if a human has a strong emotional connection with something before turning, being exposed to it again may cause them to regain their humanity.

## Variants

> *To see more: Variants*
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They are a rare species appearing in Shotgun Boy. In contrast of the known monster's in Sweet Home, they have a higher IQ, they can remember the data of their victims, their voices aren't broken, and there are other characteristics that contrast them from the Sweet Home monsters.

## Netflix adaption

Similar to the manwha (Korean comic), the monsterfication will have the same nosebleeds, fainting spells and hallucinations. They will have red scleras. grey or red skin, but no bulging eyes. Instead they will have black eyes and they will attack humans.