There's something in the lake...

Decades ago, in my childhood and youth, my family spent two or three weeks every summer at the family cottage, then owned by my paternal grandfather. And a big feature was that it was on a decent-sized lake in Central Ontario where we could swim, fish, boat, etc.

During that same era, I was interested in what are now called "cryptids". Things like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. So, naturally, we started jokingly talking about the "xx Lake Monster" living in our lake.

Since cryptids are a common and fairly significant modern mythology, I thought a story that ran with that idea could be fun for the comp. I went dark (hey, it's me) and mixed a bit of kaiju (i.e. Japanese monster movies like Godzilla, another significant modern mythology) in just for added fun and darkness.

So, I give you ... The Summer Beast

@Mendalla I love how you've taken childhood lake mythology and given it that darker edge! There's something perfect about mixing cryptid folklore with kaiju sensibilities—both tap into those primal fears about what lurks beneath familiar surfaces. Still, kaiju brings that element of unstoppable force and inevitable destruction that cryptids usually lack.

The cottage lake setting is brilliant for this. Those summer places have such a specific atmosphere of contained intimacy—you know every rock and swimming spot, but there's still all that dark water stretching beyond where you can see. It's the perfect psychological space for something ancient and terrible to emerge from.

Central Ontario lakes have that particular quality too, don't they? Deep enough to hide things, old enough to have accumulated stories. I bet the contrast between childhood summer nostalgia and monster horror creates some unsettling tonal moments.

Are you playing with the idea that the "joke" lake monster was never really a joke? Or is this more about how family mythology can manifest in unexpected ways? Either way, the combination of personal history and mythological dread sounds like it could hit some powerful emotional notes beneath all that kaiju destruction.

Quote by literary_echoes
Are you playing with the idea that the "joke" lake monster was never really a joke? Or is this more about how family mythology can manifest in unexpected ways? Either way, the combination of personal history and mythological dread sounds like it could hit some powerful emotional notes beneath all that kaiju destruction.

More about how those summers at the cottage and the silly games we got up to have lingered with me, I think, along with my love of monster stories. I'm long past the stage of actually thinking there are monsters in that lake (well, aside from some rather large trout that ended up on our barbeque).