fangs_
FANGS_
A story that aims to convey the power of compassion and the importance of caring through an ensemble cast of creatures, monsters, and myths as they navigate a world that’s not ready to accept them for who they are from just out of view. These monsters have long since formed their own home, a realm separate of our own: Debajo De Cama, an enormous geode at the bottom of the ocean.
Following the events and conflict in Nature of the Beast, Fangs_ takes place in a world where magic was real, but only the lingering traces of where magic once resided remains. Those traces manifest most prominently in Monsters (Homo Mythicus), the creatures of folklore, deep woods, and dark caves.
The story recounts the love life and a passionate imp serving his fellow monsters at MAW. MAW is an organization tasked with getting monsters the help they need and, barring that, getting them where they need to go to get the help they need. The selfless imp in question, Aartiymah’z, Aart to his friends, specializes in especially demanding cases that would benefit from a great deal of help. Taking on the cases no one else wants or that no one else can, Aart found himself meeting Dharthannyohn. Dhart, a gargoyle that’s only animate at night, works the nightshift at MAW. Aart and Dhart hit it off immediately, grew close, and intimate soon after. Dhart, however, was in a long term relationship that Dhart admitted was Rocky at the height of the affair. Aart, chose to end things not wanting to force a hand. He was content to have had what they had, but insisted that, if they were to continue being close in that way, felt it should be out in the open. Aart, however, wasn’t necessarily pushing for exclusivity or monogamy, but to not be a secret. Dhart met that particular challenge by being honest with his partner. The resulting fallout prompted an examination of the relationship and Dhart ultimately chose to be exclusive with his first partner.
Monsters are the result of humanity’s intermarrying of magic and humans being a result of magic themselves. Before people, there were only animals naturally imbued with and able to wield magic that granted them intelligence and emotion that would be very familiar to anyone walking around in the present. This magic was the happenstance of light from the Sun. The great ape sages, preferring to philosophize, think, and dream created the lesser apes that were humans for menial tasks and physical labor.
Humans were sturdy enough, but not stronger or faster than the apes themselves. They were made greedy and selfish so their own aims served to keep them in their bondage to the great sage apes’ machinations. The humans created what would eventually compound to become civilization where they bartered the food and water they needed to survive and the meaningless ores the great apes paid them in. This way, humans were both free and not. They were only rewarded if they participated in a corrupt system where the only safeguards saved the apes from being exploited the same way they exploited humanity.
(Spiders were employed as watchers. Colonies of spiders would network their webs across human tribes and plucked the strands like acoustic strings to relay messages over great distances. This early police state under spider surveillance would inform arachnophobia throughout the ages.)
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Following the events of Nature of the Beast, the early humans are divided and have different relationships with the events of the resolution. A part of the society sees [THE BEAST] as a liberator, another portion of the population would see them as what would become the idea of satan, and those that stayed would be changed by magic to become the monsters that seed humanity’s legends. The resultings myths would coexist with humanity, but would draw their ire or worship depending on which sect of people they encountered in travel or trade. Both grew tiresome and [THE BEAST], after years of attempting a peace, summoned almost all magic from the myths to make a home in the depths of the ocean. In a legendary display of power, [THE BEAST] ushered most monsters to the bottom of the sea, penetrating the Earth’s crust, and forming a pocket there. The monsters made a home in the resulting geode. It’s had many names over the centuries, but during the events of Fangs_, it’s being referred to as “Debajo de Cama'' because, appropriately, monsters live under the bed.
The monsters in their geode noticed their magic weakening with their connection to the source severed by being so far underground opted to develop technology. They adapted their innate abilities into machines and devices that would outpace humanity’s achievements by a century.
The monster’s advanced society is scaffolded by an emphasis on mutual aid and community driven efforts, but isn’t immune to class systems. The geode is arranged in tiered layers not unlike Dante’s hell. Some even speculate that Dante’s hell was inspired by a visit to Debajo de Cama.
- Homomythicus
Creatures thought to be mythical. - Monster
A commonly accepted, but sometimes offensive, term for homomythicus. - Abnormal
A pejorative for homomythicus. Straight-up face-punch worthy. - Assimilation
The process by which a monster opts to enter human society by explaining their differed and varied appearance as medical conditions, injuries, etc. - Reassignment
The process by which a monster enters human society by modifying their appearance, sometimes with painful and extensive surgeries, to pass as human. - In Exchange for Fangs
A phrase common in among monsters. It explores the ideas that human were able to weaponize their intellect while, at the same time, it touches on what monsters have to give up, their fangs, claws, anything that makes them stick out in a world, in order to experience human society.
Earth - The world as we know it.
Debajo de Cama - A pocket dimension that occupies the same spacetime as Earth and is about the size of Alaska. It is a perfect cube. There’s a massive column in the center that acts as both the power source and a kind of “world pillar”, housing all the aspects that parallel modern human society. Outside of the pillar, life goes on according to the old ways, with monsters relying on and making exchanges with nature.
MAW - Monster Affairs and Welfare. A massive office building dedicating to helping monsters who want to enter human society do so. A combination of modifications, devices, prosthetics Somewhat of a “free clinic” alternative to ARSE’s massive building and cutting-edge facilities. With special cases, MAW will enable a monster to visit Earth for a limited time unaltered.
MAW forgoes the pure tech approach of their sibling rival company in favor of a cleaner run firm.
ARSE - Formerly, RSE. Assimilation and Reassignment Specialist Enterprises. A cutting edge firm with an emphasis on technology-based solutions to assimilation. Their methods are undoubtedly effective, albeit a little cruel and permanent. Their procedural approach and perceived coldness gives them poor marks in bedside manner, but they are undoubtedly a very good choice for assimilation processes.
ARSE has to effectively manage a great deal of waste because of their energy demands, products, and processes. A significant portion of those seeking to assimilate weigh the environmental impact of of assimilation with ARSE, as monsters are generally very conscientious of nature and the space they live in.