Today is Pride.
I am proud of Jackson, West Haven, Yog, and Advanced Witches & Warlocks. But for this prompt, Pride means something more specific.
With Jackson and Carbon Vale I draw heavily on Monsterhearts. Not so much the mechanics as the emotional core of it. Teenagers are a mess. So is desire. So is figuring out who you are. The horror and the magic lie in who you love and want, who makes you afraid, and who is watching you become something new.
Take Larina in Jackson: she is bisexual in this version and not particularly fazed by this. She has made out with Grant, Stephanie’s older brother, and with Candy. Faye is a lesbian, but there is more confusion and conflict about it; after all, it is 1985-6 in the Midwest. Candy and Denise are probably what we would call poly now, but that still does not quite explain them (and let's be honest, what DOES explain them??). But Denise does not like anyone touching her, and yet she and Candy are in love in ways that are both platonic and romantic. They do figure it out, after a couple of failed marriages, spectacularly bad divorces, and some ex-husbands they no longer talk to. They finally get married to each other when they are 50. But they belonged to each other long before that.
Vera Rook is what you could term "hetero-flexible," simply because Vera does as she wants and is happy to put someone on edge if the occasion calls for it. Roderick Morgan appears to have little interest in anyone. Andy and Rowan are soulmates, and the model Jackson Public High Couple. They are also an interracial couple, not a big deal today, but in 1985 small-town Midwest, this was still rare.
You find a supporting cast all over the spectrum around them, just like you would in real life. And they all are not confined to the student body.
Teacher Thomas Avery knows the perils of a rumor in a small-town high school in the mid-80s. He is cautious, and he listens for what is left unsaid. Elaine Bellweather is no front-line warrior; she teaches her music and keeps an open eye, allowing the students some space to breathe.
It is important.
You do not have to be swinging a sword or working a spell to be heroic in a horror game. There is heroism in making sure a kid has a room where he is safe for five minutes.
Queer characters in horror should not be reduced to subtext, a joke, or some kind of cautionary tale. Yes. That is exactly what often happened in horror movies in the 1980s but I can do better. They can be witches, scholars, jerks, saints, monsters, parents, teachers and everything in between. In short, people. And in a game of witches, those on the fringes of society are exactly where they ought to be: in the middle of the action.
Jackson NPC
We are at Day 30, Sunday, Emotion and Blessed.
Andrea Thompson is Andy and Rowan’s future daughter, blessed because Andy and Rowan never thought they would be able to have children after so many failed attempts. Why am I talking about her even though she isn't born until the 2000s? She makes an appearance in my games where she is also Jackson's Spirit Rider. In a town where everyone says they want Andy and Rowan to succeed but wishes they would fail behind their backs, Andrea was wonderful proof that they make it and do well.
Jackson Soundtrack
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