Campaign: Miranda Leigh Daily

Character: Miranda Leigh Daily
Game: Monsterhearts 2
Episodes: 2
Theme Song: Porcelain by Rachel Taylor
Keywords: Hopeless, needy, abandoned

Burnt out as I am and have been, I decided to still go to Monsterhearts with a new group in TAG. Miranda is a mortal, and easy for me to play because it's easy to play mortals. But I did discover some new things about her as I played her. While Miranda defines herself mostly by what she does for other people, she conflates this very easily to mean love. Even if she doesn't actually love someone.

Her infatuation with Flinch, the werewolf (she doesn't know he's a werewolf and neither does he), mostly comes from a need to keep him safe and to help him escape his shitty situation. To her, that need to help him, to do all she can to help him, must mean love. Just like when she was tutoring Tucker and getting him to pass his courses, she genuinely wanted him to do good, and so she thought that was love.

And then it wasn't. Because they had sex and he just became a douche after (he was actually a douche all along) and now she feels abandoned by him. So there's Flinch. She's known him forever, makes extra lunch so he can eat at school, tutors him, helps him through school, sticks up for him, even goes and Veronica Mars style gets his dirt bike back from this badass gangster dude, because she would do anything to see him succeed.

When they meet up, he tells her about he he's destined to be with Helene, the vampire (whom I don't know is a vampire) and Miranda just falls apart. She just wants someone to love her, to see her for some sort of value, and she thought that would be Flinch. But he doesn't see her. He sees Helene, who has told Miranda she only uses men. Unable to deal, she tells him that she loves him and she doesn't get why he doesn't like her.

He says he does. They make out. He takes off. Next day, he runs off with Helene again. My poor mortal. Meanwhile, she's been making friends with Katrina, who's a witch (also seems human and normal to me) and supposedly a lesbian. She's also been making friends with Helene, but the two of them operate on different levels. Helene is about using people. Miranda is about being used. And as a result, their communications are short, snippy, and a little angry.

It's interesting to see Miranda hang out with someone she doesn't like but is trying to. It's hard to like her, especially given Flinch thinks they're soul mates. So what to do? Obviously be better friends with Helene, who might be a vampire because, holy shit, this girl in class said Helene bit her. Also, there's a party the next day that Helene and Miranda are hosting together. So. That's gonna happen. On a full moon....

The things I learned about Miranda were obvious but I didn't notice them until the game got in. Miranda is worried about being abandoned. Where this stems from, I'm not sure, but I feel like maybe her mother took off one time, and came back a couple years later. No one really talks about it, because they were kids and no one remembers. Her brother doesn't remember. But Miranda was just old enough she does.

The family doesn't have enough money to send her to school. She's afraid she won't be able to go to university and get out of this one horse town, so she works like crazy at a local coffee shop to save money. At the same time, she would give that first year of college she's saved away if meant helping any of the other characters. It isn't that she necessarily likes helping people. She just feels seen and noticed when people ask her for help, and that makes her feel good. Or loved. Or something.

I also noticed that she feels like Flinch is acting a lot like Tucker and is now worried that she's a problem. But her resolve is to just be better to Flinch. Do more for him, earn his love, and then maybe he'll love her. It's gross and really problematic, but I think it's what she'd do. She sees the problem as herself, a matter of worth for herself, rather than Helene or Flinch being the problem.

I'm planning on pushing this, and dumping it all on Katrina. I want Miranda to go running to her crying when Helene and Flinch keep doing horrible things behind Miranda's back and I want Katrina to be the one who one day smacks Miranda and wakes her up to her own value. We'll see. I don't know if that'll ever happen, but man, I plan on making it dramatic.

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