This Monsterhearts Actual Play Report Retrospective is Mostly Appropriate for Reading By Almost Everyone
Sweetwater Saga
Episode 2: You're all I have
Last time: Evelyn cursed Cathy to nosebleeds when she lies, Kay broke student Chad's ribs and was sent to (and molested by) the assistant principal, Anders was chased through the woods by fae horrors and in a panicky huff accidentally made out with his best friend Lars, Evelyn hexes Patrick to get him off Ansley who punches him in the mouth when he tries to take advantage, Anders sells drugs, Kay eggs Patrick into brawl by making out with Morgan and then takes some punches for her after Patrick hurts her, and Evelyn makes friends.
So we jump forward a bit, to the end of the week so we can get to the good stuff the audience actually wants to see: Kay going on a date. But before we get to that, other stuff is afoot. Woohoo, Friday Night in Sweetwater.
We get introduced to Tynan, the vampire and general all-around asshat. He's come to Sweetwater after getting chased out of Ireland by some bad, bad people. He's taken up living in an old family home in northern Sweetwater, up in the plantations, all alone. He's taken to prowling Raybury High for his food, and has enrolled -- in his time there he has already fed on Angie, slighted Victoria sexually, and has begun to pursue Morgan as his prime meal.
Elsewhere, with the school day ending, Kay is trying to get out of his date with Morgan because it turns out its the night of a full moon -- but no luck on that Manipulate check at all, so he's going to have to go see Doc Brown, his... "specialist" for his condition. He takes a moment at lunch to talk to his bro Steven and he's a font of advice: take her to the amusement park man. Ladies love amusement parks. Win Morgan a stuffed animal. Kay thinks this is kind of dumb.
Meanwhile, Anders has a heart to heart with Lars about what happened and they get through it cause they're true bros and they resolve to put it behind them. Course, their heart-warming moment is derailed when Tim shows up, looking like a wreck, and bullying Anders. Y'see, the other night at his party, he got mugged and his product was stolen and he's wanting Anders to come help him get it back since its all Anders' fault the goods were knicked, obviously. Anders says no, and Tim pulls a gun on him and is throwing a fucking tantrum -- Anders spends a String since Tim Promised to Leave Him Alone last Episode, and Tim screws up something simple at a critical moment. His gun backfires in his hand, shredding it with metal shards and he starts freaking out and raving on the ground. Anders dives into Lars' Winnebago and they deuce the hell out before any attention is aimed at them.
Evelyn heads out to work, and that's all bubblegum and fundrops with a little chit chat with Ansley while she reshelves. Her boss hassles her about getting back behind the counter, so its back to the barista's grindstone -- and through the window she spots her dad out to lunch with a woman... her crazy-ass psycho mom. She dials her dad just to be sure, and he lies about where he's at and who he's with. Evelyn gets out of the phone call and decides, nuts to this horseshit, and makes plans with Ansley to go out when she's off work. No way she's going home.
Out at Doc Brown's clinic, Kay talks to the Doc about going out tonight on his date. Brown is telling him that's completely out the question. No way, kid, its a full moon tonight and you know what it does to your condition. Well, Kay feels like he has to go, so he's going to. C'mon Doc, you've got a drug you can dope me with, you've done it before, and I'll be safe. Still not working out, so Kay soft hits a Manipulate and makes a deal to undergo the invasive surgery that Brown has been wanting to perform on Kay for a while now. Brown agrees, says they'll do it later, and drugs him to keep him from transforming during his date and sends him off.
At Anders' house, he and Lars are drinking wine straight from the bottle after the horseshit that Tim got up to pulling that gun on Anders. Lars is telling Anders that he needs to call the cops on Tim, but Anders is saying no. It reaches a head when Lars grabs the phone to make the call and Anders Turns Him On for a String, and Spends it to Manipulate with a soft hit: Okay, Anders, I won't call the police -- but you'd better do it soon or I'll call them myself, is Lars' ultimatum. The sexual tension is palpable, but Lars deuces out to leave Anders to his recuperating.
Evelyn and Ansley head out to The Gutters, an arcade pizza bowling place that the kids go to to get their jollies on weekends. They're out, having a fun fun time, when Evelyn sees across the establishment her new-found friend Steven talking to... Tim of all people! He's seeming hassled and Tim is seeming off-kilter, and he's got one hand jammed into his jacket and he's acting a little crazy. Curious about what the hell is going on, she zones out into the Abyss and sees a panicking, mangled Tim freaking out when police start combing campus looking for the kid who pulled the gun on a student. Now he's been dialing up everybody he's peddled to before and is trying to work every angle of blackmail and favors to get himself out of town. Evelyn tells Ansley to go get them some snacks from the bar and she heads over to Steve and Tim. Some attitude and smarm pisses Tim off and gets Eve backed into a corner by the feverish and desperate drug dealer -- secluded away from witnesses, she chants in tongues and suddenly Tim's head is swimming in demonic visions and its the worst trip ever. He has a seizure and Eve starts screaming, she gets punched with the shrapnel hand as he spazzes but Tim gets tackled by Steven and Josh Anderson.
Josh, y'see, is this big ol' football player of a highschool hunk and he works the counter of the bowling alley. So, with Tim on the ground having a fit and bystanders ringing up police, Josh helps Evelyn into the bathroom to clean up the cut over her eye. Josh is the kind of guy who has a class ring and totally wears it all the time, and Evelyn knows him as "the guy who killed that dog once," since he was the subject of a really nasty rumor last year. But he seems okay enough and he's checking on her and wondering why she put herself in a dark corner with Tim and Evelyn plays dumb like a gem and Josh just thinks she damseled and he white knighted. But while they're talking -- and there's no chemistry as far as Eve is concerned -- Evelyn eyes his class ring and with a little sneakery she pockets it without Josh any wiser.
Elsewhere, the old classy style rotary phone rings in Tynan's manor. It's Victoria, sexually snubbed by Tynan weeks ago, and she wants Tynan to come out tonight and hang with the crowd. He's so dreamy and cool and should make friends and blah blah blah blah and Tynan isn't too super hip on the idea of going out with Victoria, since she wants on his dick so badly and his Sex Move means that's a bad juju of an idea. He decides the best bet is to stay with a group, so he tells her to find some other people for the hang out session and he'll be game.
Short interlude where Victoria calls up Anders to get him to go with her and some others to the movies. Anders is pretty okay buddies with Victoria so he goes along with it and he calls up Lars. Which is awkward cause Lars is all Seriously? You want to go out? After TIM? Did you call the cops yet?? Anders is all I will I will and I'm pretty sure spends a String to twist Lars into going along with him and Victoria. Anders call Victoria back and they're all to meet at the mall.
So: Sweetwater has an amusement park on its boardwalk, and that's where Kay and Morgan are going on their date that night. Kay doesn't have a car or anything so they just kind of meet there, and it's pretty legit. Kay has tried to neaten himself up -- jeans without holes and such, and he's tried to part his hair all classy-like. It makes him look kind of dumb, and he's tense and awkward cause its a big bright full silvery moon and Kay is dosed up to his eyeballs in drugs for his "condition." Morgan looks pretty, but isn't super showy or anything... it's just not how she rolls. So they get their date on and they find themselves at the top of the ferris wheel, because its Morgan favorite ride. Kay is kind of incredulous. I mean, come on, the ferris wheel is the least of a ride ever, right? Well, Morgan says she loves to ride it at night because of what happens to the water.
They ride on up and as their car stops at the top, Morgan is shivering and Kay gives her his jacket and they look out on the water. Its this big glassy still mirror of reflected colors, so its like this obsidian plate streaked in red yellow and orange vertical lines and a big thick silver figure eight hangs in it as the water mingles with black sky and all the lights from the docks, boats, and city shine into the water and Kay is all "okay, yeah, that is nice." But gruff and werewolfy.
At the Mall, Tynan shows up early and is waiting for everybody else... but he's hungry. So, he finds a guy all by himself in the foodcourt, and he looks kind of panicky or anxious. So, Tynan swoops in and is all hey what's up you okay bro? The guy, whose name is Zach, explains that he's trying to find a present for his boyfriend. They've been dating a couple months, but its serious. They're in love. So, Tynan -- the helpful vampire that he is -- tells him that he'll show him a cool shop that's just what he needs. This involves leading Zach down a shady hallway and Zach resists, but a successful manipulate gets him to follow. Then, Tynan latches on and drains him of some blood and rounds out the meal by skullbashing Zach into the concrete wall before walking away and joining Anders, Lars, Victoria, Angie, Cathy. Zach isn't dead though -- Tynan just wanted to inflict some of the ol' ultraviolence.
Evelyn rejoins Ansley at the table, along with Steven and there is tension. So Ansley, a smart cookie, excuses herself. With her gone, Steven tears into Evelyn for interfering and getting herself hurt -- to which Evelyn responds sardonically, wanting him to explain what the hell was going on. Some manipulating later, Steven groans and opens up about how he bought off Tim once -- just once -- and never again. But Tim was harassing him, demanding money and such, cause he wanted out of town. He basically threatened that if he got caught, he'd bring down everybody he'd ever dealt to. Steven got scared... he wants to get into MIT! Evelyn and Steven make peace cause all is well and then Ansley comes over and they hang for a bit before deucing out cause Ansley wants to check out the boardwalk.
On the boardwalk, Kay and Morgan are off the ferris wheel and on the edge of the pier checking out the water and talking. And then Patrick shows up, and he's still ticked off about the other night when Kay was a douchebag and he still wants Morgan, He's got with him some friends from the soccer team who think Patrick is the tits, and some of them are also sporting some rebar -- some of that like twisted up iron piping in construction? Some of that stuff, and they're dragging it in one hand like a golf club or a hockey stick and they're making threats at Kay.
Kay puts Morgan behind him and shit escalates. The fight wears on with some pretty nasty stuff -- Kay gets whipped pretty good with the piping but he shatters one of the gangers' legs with a good catch and twisty-twist. But the fight isn't in his favor, so he grabs Morgan and they Run. That roll is kind of blundery. If I recall, they fail and so they're caught in the crowds, still being chased by this hormonally-charged gang of agressive soccer players with weapons.
The crappy movie lets out and that flock of people make a night of it and so everyone winds up on the boardwalk, stuck in this ringed crowd of on-lookers too stunned by brazen violence to shout out or intervene or anything. Its a huge dose of Standerby Syndrome as families and friends watch these soccer brutes lay into Kay -- and then Anders, of all people, pushes through the crowd and hollers down one of them... sort of. He fails to make them back off and gets cold-cocked in the nose for it, and blood goes everywhere. But it gives Kay the chance to get up... and that's good... cause the drugs are wearing off and The Wolf is howling in his brain and he hauls off and knocks Patrick into the river and then he follows suit with a nasty tumble. They disappear and finally people are panicking and screaming and the police are being called while Lars checks on Anders and helps him up.
Ansley, Steven, and Evelyn have been watching all this too from the edge of the crowd -- and around this time Evelyn and Steven spy Morgan who has wandered off from the crowd with a dull look in her eyes. They follow after her, and find her behind a two-bit ring-toss stall simply standing up against the wall as the new kid Tynan gets up in her grill and is all over her. Tynan sees Steven and BOOM out comes the Hypnosis to make him back off, Miss, and Steven isn't even looking him in the eye cause he's too busy burying a whopping fist into Ty's mouth. Tynan staggers back and is all like Bwuh? Whuh? OW. Evelyn puts herself between Tynan and her friends and Tynan is trying to explain that Morgan is stunned by the violence, just STUNNED! and he is helping her recuperate back here behind the shack alone together.
Evelyn lets it rip, chanting in eldritch tongues, sparks fly, and Tynan's hair transforms from dark brown into pale blond and he deuces out from the crazy people yelling at him in the alley. A little bit of shaking and talking and Morgan comes to and she's in a panic because she's in a new place and Kay is gone and oh god Steven they had pipe and they wouldn't stop beating him oh god. They tend to her, some Manipulation gets her to calm down, and they walk her out past the suddenly present police line and after a brief time giving statements they're permitted to go. Steven drives Morgan home and then drops off Evelyn and everything seems okay, although Steven does kind of watch Evelyn leave a bit longer than normal, a little confused about what he saw tonight.
Back the pier, Anders sits in an ambulance and his nose is being examined and treated. All seems well, and Lars has told him everything will be okay. The crowd of EMTs part and the last thing Anders sees is Lars talking to a police officer, looking sad, hanging his head... the police officer looks at Anders, and then the ambulance doors shut and off to the hospital he is taken.
On the little island in the middle of the river, the one often used by Senior classes for their graduation night camp out, Patrick awakens under a tangle of roots and amidst the dirt. Over him looms Kay in his Darkest Self: a ripped, furry, ten-foot wolf-man of bone-stretching, sinew-bulging, slathering-maw'd proportions. Kay fucks around with Patrick a lot. Pitches him around, roars at him, lets him run then catches him and howls and stamps on him and laughs. Patrick cries and screams. He soils himself. Kay breaks his legs. Kay rips him to shreds and eats him alive.