I've just started playing in a Monster of the Week campaign at the Milton Keynes RPG club. In addition to my Monstrous character we have a Mundane and an Expert. A fourth character should join us next week, but for now...
My name is Scarlet Mason, and I was brought into this world to wreak havoc and destruction. Sounds melodramatic but it's literally true. Other kids get acne and BO. I got claws and bat wings. Other kids have to deal with their parents bugging them about passing exams and getting a part time job. Mine kept complaining that I wasn't committing enough acts of random violence and cruelty. Eventually I'd had enough. I wanted to be more than the monster I was born to be.
I set out on my own at eighteen to try to live a normal life. I'd got the hang of hiding the wings and claws when they weren't in use, and so long as I stayed away from churches I was managing to stay under the radar. Or so I thought. Word gets around in occult circles, it turns out. Someone let slip that there was a hellspawn living in Brighton and suddenly I needed to be elsewhere very fast.
I've moved a couple more times since then when trouble started catching up with me again. Eventually I fetched up in some small corner of the Lake District called Wicker Valley. There was a job opening, and after a frantic week spent baking scones and watching YouTube videos on basket weaving, I got the job. I had a new friend in my coworker Michael, and for a short while I thought I might actually get a normal life.
Trouble still found me. And by trouble I mean my own kind, who aren't too happy about my lifestyle choices. My own brother Rusty showed up in the shop one day. I found him on the point of tearing Michael to shreds, and by the time I managed to send Rusty on his way, Michael was very much aware of my more unusual features. Thankfully I didn't have to explain why I'd let Rusty go. Even when you're an unholy abomination it's hard to turn on your own brother.
Michael started acting differently around me after that. At first I was worried I'd scared him, but I think it might be the opposite. I'm not sure that's healthy, given what I am, but it's still kind of sweet.
There was almost some trouble with a professional monster hunter as well. Both of us showed up to the same fight, and there was some initial confusion about who was fighting who. One thing lead to another and I found myself face to face with Adam with a knife at my throat. I don't know what it was he saw in my eyes that made him change his mind, but we're both glad he did. I managed to pick him up a bit of magical warding for his van as a thankyou.
Those incidents made me realise that I wasn't doing enough. I couldn't just hide from what I am. If I wanted to be more than the monster, I was going to have to work at it. Actually get out there and help people. It's scary, but I've got Michael and Adam to keep me on the straight and narrow. And Wicker Valley? It just keeps on delivering.
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