(Click the links to read Favorite Fictional Alien-Related Moment #4 and #5, and check out Matt’s list on the same topic on his blog).
On these lists, you'll find a lot of sources of inspiration for The Prospero Chronicles, some major, some minor, and some other alien moments simply too cool or classic to pass up.
Splinters will be available September 23rd (my 25th birthday!), and you can already pre-order it...
To those who don't know the play, Little Shop of Horrors is about sweet, smart but underconfident Seymour Krelbourn, and Audrey II, the megalomaniacal talking plant who talks him into feeding her (for lack of a more accurate personal pronoun) a healthy diet of human blood.
(You can read more of the sordid details of their relationship in my list of favorite hero/villain relationships.)
In this musical number, Seymour's life is just starting to come together. The florist shop he works in is starting to do decent business thanks to Audrey II's novelty value, and his boss/guardian is beginning to appreciate him.
Audrey II has been growing up rapidly by drinking Seymour's blood, and so has her appetite. It's time for phase two of her plan, which begins with speaking up and (once Seymour gets past the shock of his plant talking to him), striking a deal.
In return? Well, everything that's gone right in Seymour's life so far is thanks to Audrey II, and she promises it will only get better from here. She’s been paying attention to him since she arrived. She knows his many soft spots. Particularly that lack of confidence.
You can see the whole scene here:
So kill someone to feed a carnivorous alien plant.
This is a moment where the alien plot comes into the light, goes from vaguely ominous to outright menacing. Through a scene of the exact cheesy-funny-weird genuine creepiness the concept demands, we now know what Audrey II is really about. And like the best fictional alien plots, she’s going to use human weaknesses against us.
She gives Seymour the choice between trying to connect with the woman he loves (and named the killer plant for) on his own, or killing (at first deserving) people for this alien's benefit to give himself an edge.
It's a tipping point where our hero either tells evil to go to hell or sends his story on an inevitable spiral of destruction (in the original play).