Conform

Summary

 

Gigas Flectus: A eusocial arthropod capable of communicating through high-pitched noises. The scorpion-like creatures were found inhabiting a complex cave system beneath Uluru and retrieved by a special research division of the Australian military. Though there’s no reason for the public to be concerned with their existence, the same can’t be said for the residents of Zephyr Ridge: A research town established in a remote location to enable controlled study of this new species.

 

Sable Eldridge is oblivious to all this: She’s just a regular teenager trying to navigate the complexities of high school. Well, regular might be a stretch: Sable is plagued by twisted, violent visions that disturb her, drawing her towards the macabre. She feels completely alien to the other kids in her school, seeing through the superficial façade and ignorant bravado of her schoolmates. Thankfully she has one close friend: Her father Eric Eldridge, head of tech at the research lab.

 

This small town atmosphere is disrupted when two new transfer students arrive: Astor and Corbin Forrest. The two brothers are odd to say the least: Astor is a precocious playboy with a mind for stirring up trouble, while Corbin is a dark, stoic kid whose brutal honesty is off-putting. Despite her better instincts, Sable finds herself drawn towards the brothers and plays along with their unsettling behaviour, upsetting the balance at the small Zephyr Ridge School. Things take a dark turn: Students and staff alike become paranoid, turning violent and forming factions against one another. And all of this coincides with the Gigas Flectus starting to act up… just what exactly is the connection between the two events?

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“That noise drives me crazy… it’s like scratching inside your head. How do you not hear that?” - Sable

 

Conform is a dark coming-of-age story with a fantastical bend in the vein of Stranger Things. We have two worlds: The school with its seemingly mundane teenage problems, and the lab with its sci-fi monster movie-esque happenings. Sable and Eric act as our view into the two worlds as they grow increasingly erratic, threatening to collide with one another. Together, they will solve the mysterious link between the disturbing events at school and at the lab by revealing the Gigas Flectus’ true nature… and the secret behind Astor and Corbin as well.