Monsterhearts, Session 5

The Setting: Drawing, a large forested country town in New South Wales around an hour from the coast, at Saint Valentine’s Academy, a Catholic high-school.

Our Cast (this session):

• Brittany – an icy Queen with captivating eyes who leads a cultic clique who perform rituals they don’t understand at an old ritual site near the coast. (UPDATE: They pronouns) [Played by Kat]
• Kafka – a striking Ghoul with hollow eyes who was killed in a car-accident a month ago, bare days into the school year, but woke up afterwards confused and hungry. (He pronouns) [Played by Kaj]
• Sabrina – a brooding Witch with calculating eyes whose sanctuary from the stupidity of her classmates (an old and abandoned bathroom) is full of occult paraphernalia. (She pronouns) [Played by Jacqui]
• Mika – a distant Infernal with calculating eyes chosen to receive power and influence by an unknown patron who asks only the smallest things in return. (They pronouns) [Played by Liv]
• Floris – a dainty Fae with mesmerizing eyes who dreams of the King in the Greenwood from whom she stole her glamour and power. (They pronouns) [Played by Liska]
• Eva – a stiff Hollow with soulless eyes who was once a beast of the forest before gaining a new furless and two-legged form (She pronouns) [Played by Kettu]

What happened:

Flashback, the afternoon before: Waking up from their strange dream on the boat Brittany decided to check in on Jock, the injured member of their clique. Suspicious of the seemingly-occult cause of his condition they questioned him over the phone, getting a list of people who were annoyed at him that included Sabrina’s name.

Mika spent the night fitfully almost-sleeping, once again comforted by the Dark Power in its raven-like shape and infused with some of its power in order to replenish some of their lost energy and drive.

Kafka woke up in the woods  and headed towards his house, knowing he had to deal with Mika’s blood before he could show up at school. Reaching a road just as Sabrina was driving down it he managed to beg a lift and once back at his house took a shower while Sabrina snooped through his room. 

Noticing that Kafka had left his necklace of shells - made by Mika years ago, which he had never stopped wearing even after the friendship ended - when he put down his stuff before heading into the shower, Sabrina took it as a sympathetic token and Kafka failed to notice its absence around his neck.

At the school Brittany noticed Raven and Lauren having a whispered and slightly-charged conversation and, knowing about Raven’s connection to Sabrina, decided it was worth investigating. They directed their second-in-command Tiffany to move to a desk just behind the friends and eavesdrop and record the conversation on her phone. 

Kafka and Sabrina arrived in class, very late. Sabrina noticed the recording app open on Tiffany’s phone and made a notice of it, while Kafka had an awkward moment of eye-contact with Adam - looking fairly concerned given Kafka’s state the night before - before realising that Lauren was present and seemingly unharmed. The two took their seats, Kafka deciding not to make a scene and to talk to Lauren after class.

Naive and unaware of teenage hierarchy Eva attempted to befriend Brittany and got cruelly shut down and reminded of her lowly place in the high-school social ladder, though Brittany felt a strange guilt over treating her so harshly. Floris rebuked Brittany and they responded by calling Tiffany over to back them up and delivering a threat of social and mystical punishment, but the attempt at intimidation only roused the fey primal wildness within Floris and allowed her to frighten Brittany into a promise to leave Eva alone. 

The bell rang and class ended and Sabrina headed around the room towards Raven’s desk, stealing Tiffany’s phone (from where she’d left it) along the way. Sabrina reached Lauren and Raven and was about to talk to her emo tryst before being given an unspoken plea to give Raven some space and not complicate her already fraught negotiation of friendship with Lauren now that her feelings couldn’t be reciprocated even if she spoke up.

After Sabrina left the room, headed for her sanctuary and followed by Eva, Kafka struck up a conversation and attempted to feel out where she’d gone the night before. Her recollection was slightly patchy but Kafka was satisfied of her wellbeing and the two awkwardly put a label on their relationship (boyfriend/girlfriend) and planned a date in the library. 

Mika, having arrived at school a little earlier, was leaned up against the lockers outside the classroom waiting. They watched as various other students left and exchanged polite words with Lauren and then an uncomfortable moment of tension and unspoken grievances with Kafka. Lauren politely excused herself so they could talk in private, telling Kafka to meet her in the library once he was done. 

The intense tension between Kafka and Mika turned charged and erotic, Kafka pushing Mika up against the lockers they were leaning against and kissing them. Mika wrapped a hand around Kafka’s throat and marched them back into a janitor’s closet where the two gave in and slept together again. 

Sabrina took the phone to her sanctuary and listened to the recording - of Lauren realising that Raven had sex and trying to find out who as Raven attempted to shut down the conversation, unwilling to have that talk with someone she had reciprocated feelings towards - and began to put together what Brittany’s interest in it was. 

Eva chose between following Floris to the library to thank her for her help dealing with Brittany and catching up with Sabrina. Deciding on the latter, she came into Sabrina’s sanctuary and admitted how Brittany had bullied her and received a promise from Sabrina that she was working to shut them down.

In the afterglow in the janitor’s closet Kafka brushed off Mika’s attempts to communicate and trivialised the encounter they’d just had. Mika lashed out over the fact that Kafka wasn’t wearing the necklace anymore and told him to call Lauren next time he was ‘looking to have some fun’ before dressing and setting a fire in the corner of the room. 

The smoke alarm went off, prompting Kafka to hurriedly dress and get out of the room as the flames began to spread while Mika looked on dispassionately and without fear as the Dark Power expressed its approval.