Actual Play – Everyone wants a Georgia! (4/3/2015)

monsterheartsMC: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Jennifer B. Warner, Avi Warner, Erin Sara DiPeso, and Duane O’Brien
System: Monsterhearts

Some questions I wanted to answer that sprang up from our last game.

  • What does Thadius think of Georgia now that he’s seen her kill Jonas and attempt to devour him?
  • Will Thadius tell Orville they were cousins when Orville was alive?
  • What will Sora do with her disguises. How will she abuse them?
  • Jonas is dead –
    • Will Nixon Blame Thadius?
    • Will P.U.R.E. use the disaster to stop the St. Wallace celebration?
    • How will Hanna Larson (wife of Jonas) feel about Nixon and Orville?

In the Royal Fork

Two days before the St. Wallace festival the Royal Fork is packed! Buffet food is a favorite for travelers and frankly there aren’t many other options in town. Despite this Pete and Ina Sørensen (Georgia’s parents) found a table that would fit all the kids. A corner top bench where everyone by the two on the ends were trapped inside. Pretty much the way Pete and Ina wanted them. Ina was making phone calls, trying to get everyone’s parents to come pick them up, while Pete was serving everyone molten-hot push-button buffet hot chocolates with no whipped cream.

So many crazy things happened at the table, I couldn’t keep track of them all. Here’s my best recap:

  • Sora tried to get out but to do so Orville had to scoot out first (he was on the end) Sora was closest too.
  • Orville started to get out but then stopped and looked longing at Georgia. She alone in the group of teenagers wasn’t freaked out. In fact she seemed…happy? He wanted to know why. He gazed into the abyss and remembered ice scatting on the lake with his cousin, who knocked him down. The sharp sting of falling on the ice rattled him and when his cousin scatted up to him he told him “She feeds off the dead. Maybe you should try it. Now get up!” Orville stated at Georgia in wonder, and was broken out of the trance by…
  • Sora nudged Orville a bit, but he did it intending to brush naked arms with him (though cold outside they were both wearing t-shirts in the diner). He turned Orville on and asked if Orville would go with him to get whipped cream. [String spent to offer him XP to go]. Sure. Georgia wants whipped cream. He’ll go get it…sure.
  • Nixon got antsy. He’s always trying to figure out what he should be doing, and this was one of those easy situations where someone had already told him what to do. He worked at the Royal Fork already and the place was busy. Tables needed to be cleared so he just started busing them.
  • Pete, concerned Nixon was upset tried to reassure him he could just sit and drink hot chocolate but Nixon brushed him off. [Nixon shut him down but got a 7-9 result, they both walked away bruised]. As Nixon was about to take a coffee cup from a woman, Pete put a hand on his shoulder “you don’t have to do that Nixon”…”But it’s what I’m supposed to do.” They were both interrupted by the woman “Excuse me, is one of you going to take my cup?” [Nixon got the condition Difficult, and Pete got the condition Nosy]
  • Meanwhile, left alone at the booth, Georgia and Thadius started making out. Well it was mostly Georgia licking the blood of Thadius’ face, but you know that turns to sucking face pretty quick.
  • Also Meanwhile, Sora and Orville were in the walk in cooler doing whippets with the whipping cream canister. While Orville was taking a hit Sora took off his clothes, put on the clothes he had stolen from Georgia and hey, suddenly Georgia was doing whippets with Orville in the cooler. “Did you see where Sora went?”… “No, he must have left, want to make out?”
  • “GEORGIA ANABEL SØRENSEN! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” Intoned through out all of the Royal Fork as Ida caught her daughter making out with Thadius in the booth. “I need to come talk a walk with me young lady. Right. Now.” The shout startled Georgia (Sora) and Orville, and unsurprisingly, stopped Thadius and Georgia (Prime) in their tracks. Georgia (Prime) walked outside to talk with her mother.
  • Pete, who had been distracted by Nixon until now, walked over and sat in the boot with Thadius. Pete pushed back his comb over hair, straighten his glasses, and told Thadius. “Thadius, I am a God-fearing man, but so help me, if I ever see you touch my daughter again, I will end you!” Thadius was a bit started, but mostly just annoyed that yet another father figure was trying to tell him what to do, shoved Pete out of the booth. What Thad saw was that Pete slipped on the hot chocolate that had spilled on the floor earlier and hit his head on the table across the isle. What everyone in the diner saw was Thad push him out and slam Pete’s head onto the table across the idle. [Lashing out physically, 7-9 result, going Darkest Self. Georgia is his higher power!]. “I’ve been grounded for a millennium!”
  • Thadius ran away. [7-9]
  • Nixon ran away. [10+]
  • Gerogia (Sora) talked to her dad… who asked if she had a good conversation with her mother and then told her he really wanted to connect with her. She said she needed space right now but offered to pray with him first [Manipulate an NPC with a 7-9 result]. Pete’s eyes widened with surprise and then leaked with joy. It had been so long since his daughter had prayed with him.
  • Orville just walked away. Nobody was paying attention to him and he was crushed that Georgia (Sora) just ditched him.

Soren and Nixon on the Lake and in the Morgue

Nixon went to the lake. It was a peaceful place. He wondered at how well it supported him, how sure his stride was on it, while Bobby Neilsen had fallen through the ice just like that.

Later Orville found him and told him they needed to go help Jonas.

Orville: “He’s needs us. Being dead is hard.”

Nixon: “Being alive is really hard to.”

Orville: “Yeah, it probably is.”

Awww…. all the feels.

In the morgue Orville failed to get the attendant, Mrs. Loretta Duff, to really care at all that his foster father was dead. Nobody but the police or medical staff were allowed in the morgue. Nixon stepped up to help out.  Loretta really didn’t want to look away from her phone (playing Bejeweled is addictive) but he got her attention when he noticed the way her voice got all fluttery when she mentioned calling the police. Clearly she had a crush on Officer Cory O’Brien and though it meant sticking around to bolster her confidence enough to talk to him, Nixon held out to give Orville a chance to slip into the morgue proper…

…Where he found a body on a table, covered by a white plastic tarp and two used blue latex gloves. Beside the body was a bench of tool prepared to an autopsy. In an adjoining office, Orville could here the sound of someone on a phone call. Wasting no time he pulled back the tarp, found the body of Jonas and cut off his forearm with a bone saw. Woah.

Georgia (Sora) and Pete at the Prayer Circle

I don’t really know what a Unitarian Universalist church looks like but I imagine it’s pretty inviting with a lot of religious-y looking things but nothing so iconographic that it espouses one denomination over the other. I imagine crosses but no crucifixes, votive candles, and a circular carpet with rings of different colors that folks can sit on and pray at, facing each other. I imagine you take off your shoes and you smile at other people there. So, that’s what it was.

Pete was positively giddy by the time the were there and lighting candles, but Georiga (Sora) was having second thoughts. “Dad, actually, I think I just need some time alone. Can I have the keys to the car?” Pete was crushed but what are you going to do. He just asked that Sora give him a hug and promise she would be safe [Manipulat an NPC with a 7-9 result]. Just as she was leaving he looked at his phone which had been ringing while they lit candles. He had missed a call from Georgia (Prime).

He looked up at Georgia (Sora) questioningly and she said “If the enchantment were broken, the edges would be very sharp. You momentarily notice a gap in my magic. Choose one:

  • tear my magic away – my identity is revealed and the clothes are in tatters but you get scratched up in the process [take 1 harm].
  • or, shake your head to clear it – it was nothing.”

Pete had already taken one harm from Thadius and though he doesn’t know it yet, he’s got a concussion. 1 more harm and he wasn’t going to make it. This was a tough choice.

“Ah, fucking Verizon, always showing missed calls way after they actually happened.”

I decided that Pete should live and the illusion remained.

Meanwhile Thadius and his Maker

Had something of a conversation. It went a little like this. Where is my love Goergia. [Gaze into the abyss 6- result]. “Here’s your view from the heavens where you can see time stand still. Here’s your beloved Georgia going to pray with her father. Here’s your angelic vision fading to black…lost to you now forever.”

Thadius ran, ran with all his might to find Georiga.

Meanwhile Georgia (Prime) and her mother Ida

Came back to the Royal Fork, having just discussed birth control in way more detail than Georgia wanted to ever know, and found the Royal Fork was empty. Well it was full, but it was empty of everyone they knew.

Ida left Georgia at the frosty freeze while she walked home to get the second car. They tried to call Pete but he didn’t pick up. She tried to call Sora as well but he didn’t either.

Along, Georgia dropped the frosty delight. It did not sate her. She set out for something that would.

How it ended

Thadius made it to the church just as Georgia (Sora) was about to get in her dad’s car. He stopped her and asked if she would take him with her. Then he gave her a kiss and found that unlike before where she seemed more like she was kissing all around him, this time Georgia’s kiss was genuine and all consuming. They did this while Pete watched from the church door and rubbed something out of his eye.

Georgia (Prime) made it to the morgue just behind Officer Cory O’Brien who was quite happy to come help out Mrs. Loretta Duff. She also snuck into the morgue just in time to see Orville with the arm and just as the medical examiner came back out of his office. Orville leapt into a body fridge and knocked over both the body of Jonas and the tools [Run away 7-9 result] leaving Gerogia (Prime) there to hold the bag, or in this case, the bloody bone saw.

Epilogue

Georgia (Prime) and Nixon in the police station. Officer O’Brien staring daggers at them.

Georgia (Sora) and Thadius having sex somewhere.

Orville dissipated [New advance taken] to slip out out of fridge (we googled it, they don’t open from the inside) and made off in the night.

What rocked

My players are so awesomely self-antagonizing. I hardly need to prompt them before they get themselves in all kinds of trouble.

I love that Thadius has gotten some (or actually, lots) of action. I guess we know his thoughts on Georgia Flesh Eater. She is his new god!

I love that Sora is causing trouble with Georgia’s clothes. Hearts are gonna be broken over that one.

I love that Nixon’s search is so earnest but the answers he gets are always just what other people want from him. Unaware they don’t know the answers either.

Orville sawing off an arm for happiness. What the fuck man. That is crazy.

We had a really good use of the X-card that made me super happy it was there and resolved a could-have-been uncomfortable situation easily.

I love that Ida and Pete are just regular, nice people.

We’re playing again. Yay!

What could have improved

I’m kind of shitty at playing angry parents. Which is odd because I’ve been an angry parent many times, but it’s not something I like. I don’t like losing my temper and I really don’t want to start yelling at another player like they are one of my kids (the transference on that is bad in both directions). Still, the kids were pretty terrible to their parents and I’d like the other to be a lot less so.

The game got a little gonzo. Gonzo isn’t bad but I want to make sure we’re grounded enough that consequence matter. Some of the questions for next session will be What Hannah and Pete do when they come for Georgia (Prime) and Nixon in the police station.

We need some more presence from P.U.R.E. I think Robert Neilsen (Bobby’s dad) is on it. He lost a son to the St. Wallace parade. He’s not going to let that happen again!

Quotable Quotes

Thadius “I’ve been grounded for a millennium.”

Georgia (Prime) “It was really awkward. Now I know all about dental dams.”

Orville: “He’s needs us. Being dead is hard.”
Nixon: “Being alive is really hard to.”
Orville: “Yeah, it probably is.”

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