A Confrontation Between Monsters

A Monsterhearts parable

[Content Warning: transphobia & my fears thereof]

There were only supposed to be four of us. Adal, the (supposedly) pure-hearted unicorn. Darnell, the lonely and isolated sasquatch. Gideon, the goofy and narcissistic werewolf. And my Wendy, the gentle vampire. But Robin came too. A mere human, cast among monsters. They clung to Wendy, still shaken by other traumas that day.

There was an accident, and Gideon was injured. Adal and Darnell freed him, but all the while Wendy found herself shaken by the bloodshed. She returned to Robin, waiting with everyone's school supplies back toward the abandoned train station. Voice shaking, she asked if Robin could help her. The thirst had been triggered, and Wendy needed to either get away or sate it some other way than attacking a friend.

Robin smiled, took her hand in theirs. They led her inside, gently, assuring her that everything would be okay. Wendy fed, just enough to burn out that cursed compulsion. It was the second time she'd fed on Robin that day, and while they felt weak, they consented all the same.

As soon as Wendy's lips left Robin's wrist, they formed words of apology. She felt horrid for needing this again, needing this now, needing this here. Robin simply wrapped their arms around her and held her tight. They hugged her and touched her hair and promised that everything was going to be okay.

But Gideon's senses were sharp. Healed by Adal, he set off to investigate this new smell of blood. And that's why Gideon burst into the room, knife in hand, as Wendy and Robin were sharing a moment.

He stood in the doorway, knife in hand, and stared them down. We rolled to see if he explicitly caught them in the act, but he didn't. He just smelled blood and saw this pale, weak student. He was looking for a victim and a monster to hunt. He was looking for a thrall in service to an evil creature. What he found were two partners in an embrace, weak and shaken.

He and Wendy exchanged some tense, pregnant words for a brief moment before she asked to speak with him outside the room, away from Robin. Their veiled words dropped their pretenses. Wendy was scared; not that she would be found out, but that she would be seen as a predator. That Gideon would hurt Robin in the crossfire.

They nearly came to blows, each threatening the other should they make a move. This scene has stuck with me for weeks now. It stuck with me because it was so tense, so fun. We snarled and sniped and threatened each other (completely in character, of course).

It also stuck with me because it's one of my greatest fears. I have heard plenty over the last few years about predation; about bathrooms and women's spaces. There are Gideons everywhere, it seems, just looking for a chance to use their knives.

There's no tidy ending to the story, no moral. I had to drop out of that game due to scheduling, and the thread of Wendy's plight hangs loose in my mind. I just have to move on, knowing how easily this situation arose.

Gideon was played by a cis man. He never saw the parallel.