I already announced this on twitter, but just to reiterate: after sitting on it for several years, I finally made the decision to scrap my all-ages webcomic “Goodnight“. The reason why I am no longer working on Goodnight is because I just don’t have the heart for it anymore, and also because I want to move on and focus on more mature projects. Everything will be kept up as an archive. Update as of 6/17/21: my server suffered a hardware failure and made the site unrecoverable, so Goodnight is only available to read on Tapas and Webtoon now.
After all these years here is the true plot: “a young girl discovers her mother is a literal monster, but another monster has kidnapped her father and she must come to terms with her strange family in order to save him!” Yep, that’s it. Not the best, is it.
If you don’t want to know more about this dead project then you can stop reading here, but if you want to know SPOILERS (can I really call them that if the project is dead?)… then here’s the whole plot and lore I never released anywhere.
** ️ SPOILERS AHEAD ️ **
The story starts off in a fictional country called “Pulauduoi”, combining the Malay word for tail and the Vietnamese word for island to create “Tail Island”. It’s in close proximity to Singapore. The story eventually transitions to monster world, which is called “Goodnight” by the monsters themselves.
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, and are generally ignorant of the human world. They can’t procreate with humans, but they can fall in love with them. When monsters are assigned children to scare, they “imprint” on them by scaring them in infancy. There are four zones of the cavernous Goodnight: the council zone (where monsters govern), the common zone (where monsters live), the outskirts (where monsters cultivate) and the dark zone. The Dark Zone is aptly named because very little light can be found there. This is where all of the exiled and feral monsters reside.
Stefan (the dad) is from a wealthy Scottish family that moved to Pulauduoi and he currently lives in his childhood home rent-free. He is also trans. He had Ayesha (the little girl) before encountering Ptezroka (monster mom). His fiancé left him shortly after Ayesha was born. While crying over her in the nursery, Ptezroka was waiting with her friend Skully for Stefan to leave Ayesha alone so that Skully could imprint on her. Impatient, Skully leaves for a short period of time. During that time, Ptezroka lingers and pities him. She accidentally makes herself known and eventually comes out of the closet to be in full view. Not being in the right state of mind, he lets Ptezroka come closer.
Ayesha awakens and cries when she sees Ptezroka. Stefan snaps out of it and pulls away. Ptezroka flees. Skully eventually learns about what happened and is furious that her best friend “stole” her scare, but ultimately acts like nothing is wrong, fading into the background. Stefan is struggling to take care of Ayesha on his own, and Ptezroka can’t help but continue to watch and pity him. She can’t bring herself to scare Ayesha and instead helps Stefan when he isn’t looking. He definitely notices and eventually catches Ptezroka in the act.
Strangely, they become friends. He even teaches her sign language so they can properly communicate. Then, eventually, they become something closer and fall in love. Unfortunately, Ayesha remains terrified of Ptezroka and so she remains in the shadows watching Ayesha grow up. Fast forward a couple of years and Ayesha is told about her dad’s history, but he also tells her that she has a mom that’s taken care of her all these years, except she is simply too shy to show her face. Ayesha awaits the day she can finally meet her mom.
Meanwhile in the Dark Zone, Skully meets a monster (a combination of Japanese folklore, except she represents herself as a human woman in a trench coat with an off-centered smile) and they talk.
She plans her revenge but doesn’t know that this monster has ulterior motives. On the day where Ptezroka is supposed to reveal herself to Ayesha, Stefan is kidnapped by Skully the Dark Zone and is imprisoned in the Dark Zone by the Japanese Folklore Monster where all kinds of deplorable monsters mock him. Ayesha returns home and discovers her dad was kidnapped but also discovers Ptezroka. She promptly freaks out until things are mildly settled and is then more than willing to go to Goodnight to save her dad.
She is in denial about her mom being Ptezroka at first, but as Ayesha travels through Goodnight she learns more about the monster world and her monster mom. Ptezroka fiercely protects her, they bond. Her views soften but a fight breaks out between them. Ayesha runs away and comes across JPFM who tells her she know where her father is. JPFM’s true motives are finally known: she wanted to lure Ayesha alone into the Dark Zone so that she can eat her. Skully didn’t want this however and helps Ptezroka save her and Stefan just in time. Happy endings ahoy and Ptezroka and Ayesha bond more. This is the entire plot of the story.