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virtualmemespace2016-05-29 10:24 pm
loregasm) wrote in virtualmemespace2016-05-29 10:24 pm
the secret lives of everyday monsters meme
By day, a normal, law-abiding citizen; by night, something fearful. We all know the stories. Getting attached is dangerous, they say, when staying alive depends on keeping a secret, on being able to sever connections at the drop of a hat, pull up roots and put them down in a foreign place. But even the inhuman among us crave connections, it seems. Why else would we all know the stories?
Someone here has a secret. Who will stumble upon it? Will they help keep it?
HOW TO PLAY:
- Comment with character. State your preferences - preferred scenarios or monsters, shipping permissions, and any pertinent information or premise ideas.
- Comment to others. Play whatever first comes to mind, mix and match prompts to build a scenario, or RNG it.
- Monster prompts are thematic categories because there are so goddamn many kinds of spooky things people can turn into in folklore that trying to amass a proper list of individual monsters would be a nightmare.
- Most scenario prompts can be tweaked to accommodate friends/family/ships or strangers/first meetings, and one human/one monster or two fellow monsters. Vagueness is intentional - go wild with the prompts.
- Have fun and play nice!
PROMPTS:
MONSTER - What are you?
1. A beast. A werewolf, kitsune, or other beastly, wild thing in human skin. Some turn involuntarily; some were beast before they ever were human, venturing into society to pick out easy meals. Tend to have especially monstrous mannerisms, and perhaps some options out in the wilderness to fall back on if they're found out - but who would ever want such a lonely life?
2. A bloodsucker. Or soulsucker, or flesh-eater: a vampire or other human-shaped thing that preys on people. The most frightening thing about these monsters is how well they blend into society, despite feeding on the people around them.
3. Fair folk. A member of a species that always has existed on the fringes of human knowledge. They may be less outright threatening than proper monsters, but their strange powers and ancient conflicts with humans make people nervous enough to do stupid things...
4. Dead. You're supposed to be dead, but something happened. As it turns out, ghosts are a little sturdier than fiction makes them out to be...but coming back comes with plenty of strings attached.
5. User of forbidden magic. You're perfectly human, actually, in terms of blood. But you have a power that just isn't popular - it might be something sinister, like calling on demons, or it might be out of favor for political reasons. Either way, you have a choice now - embrace who you are, or try never to think of it again? (Comics-style "mutants" fit here.)
SCENARIO - What's happening?
1. Monster hunter. Where there are creatures lurking in the crevices of human society, there are humans who take up the duty of finding and exterminating them for the greater good. Tonight was a bad night for you, getting into an confrontation like this. And it'll only get worse...
2. Human hunter. "Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly. (And for the sake of dramatic tension, the fly said yes.)
3. Whoops. You didn't intend to blow your cover like this. But when the choice was between keeping your nature under wraps or letting - that - happen, it was clear what you had to do. Now all that's left is to deal with the fallout. Maybe, just maybe, they'll accept you...
4. Standing with you. Secret? What secret?...Well, it's still a secret from everyone else, but having an ally makes keeping a secret so much easier. You have someone to back up your lies, and someone to rely on when the stress mounts. Like now. Now is a good time to rely on someone. Because it's been a bad time for you, and they're not like the others you've been having such problems with.
5. Bad end. A monster getting attached to a human? How did you think this was going to end? Not well! The answer is not well! Now look what you've done, there's blood all over the nice rug! How are you going to patch this one up, huh?
6. Welcome to the club. Young or newly-inducted monsters are notoriously bad at keeping themselves out of sight. That's why they need someone looking out for them. For the transmissable cases of monsterhood, the person who turned them is preferable, but there are always irresponsible sires leaving spots that need stepping into.
7. Find the tells. Nobody will be giving themselves away today. Not intentionally. No, it'll take a careful eye to unearth their true nature. A careful eye, and a cold heart, to suspect that their habits aren't just innocent eccentricities, but signs of a frightful monster lurking. To confront, or remain quiet...?
8. Caught. There's a good reason for all this secrecy, and you're smack dab in the middle of it. Found out, caught, captured, behind bars, awaiting your fate on an examinatio table or at the end of an executioner's blade. Will the next person to come through that door be your salvation, or just the face of further torment?
9. For their own good. Monsters can't get attached to humans! So it's for the best that you cut ties, avoid them, leave the city, the state, the country, no matter how much it hurts. Humans are very persistent when it comes to hanging onto relationships, though, so you'll have to try harder than that.
captain marvelous | gokaiger | ota
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[It's been one day since the mysterious man in red brought Marvelous on board his ship. The lure of treasure was enticing, and Marvelous couldn't say no. He had no idea that downtime on a pirate ship would mean so much cleaning and maintenance, though. It takes a lot to keep a ship afloat, who would've thought?]
[Marvelous' curiosity about AkaRed has been burning ever since, so sometime during the day, when he assumes AkaRed is at the helm, he creeps into the corridor housing the ship's cabins, looking for the Captain's. All he'll do is pry the door open and look around inside. Maybe he won't even steal anything, if he can keep his sticky fingers to himself. You see, a normal person might just walk up to AkaRed and say, "Hey, tell me all about you!" but in many ways, Marvelous is not normal.]
[There are seven or eight cabins, and Marvelous can't figure which one is the Captain's. On a really old-fashioned pirate ship, the stateroom would be in the sterncastle, but Marvelous is so new and so green he has no idea about this. Furtively, he looks between the door handles. He reaches for a random doorknob.]
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[On an old-fashioned ship or even on some of the more recent star ships, the captain's cabin tended to be on a separate level from the others. But not this ship. Marvelous is right to search along the corridor of ship quarters...but he still picked the wrong door if he was specifically searching for the captain's living quarters.
What he did find, though, was a room full of training equipment. Wooden swords, staffs, wooden spears, and many other training weapons. There's several training dummies, both stationary and automatic. All of it is well-maintained, but certainly been used recently.
And yet...there's one dummy in the corner that seems rather...clawed up? But if the lad takes a closer look, he'll see that the marks are definitely not like anything that the metal parrot flying around would make. Odd, isn't it?]
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What are you hiding, huh...?
[None of the other dummies look this beat up, and Marvelous wonders if AkaRed has something personal against this one. He believes he's quite alone right now, so with one hand on the dummy, he turns it, trying to see if the markings are on the back of it, too.]
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But Marvelous may or may not hear the footsteps coming down the hallway, quiet as they are...]
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[Assuming AkaRed left the marks. Marvelous doesn't want to consider the alternative.]
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When he saw the new cabin boy in that room. Without permission. Looking over the one dummy that he had never intended for anyone else to see.]
--Marvelous! What are you doing here?
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[Kind of late for that, though.]
Er... I got lost?
[He turns around with what he hopes is a winning smile.]
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And what exactly were you looking for?
[It may sound like he's angry at the young lad, but he's also angry at himself for not locking this room after the lad came aboard. Or hiding that one dummy with the claw marks. But really, much of his anger came from his own, personal fears...but that's not something that he's going to explain to a person that he only recently recruited.]
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No, no, that will only scare away the lad and instill fear, in his mind. And that's the last kind of impression that he wants to give.]
Of course, I have one. But that doesn't explain why you're in here when you have chores to do.