Got Rage?
Nope, no song lyrics today, you get to stare at Mayumi the character featured in Sunday’s Madness and Order. For those of you unaware that was the first and not the last strip about Werewolf: The Apocalypse my fave game put out by the White Wolf Game Studios. Apologies for the slightly more focused audience in that one. Not sure if it makes sense to non-Werewolf players.
Every picture has a story to go with it, instead of a rant I’m just gonna tell you about the story behind this one, or rather the story behind this character: Mayumi Hojo of Tokyo. Welp, she was born in Tokyo, Japan to two wealthy parents in the computer industry who had emigrated back to Japan from America. She was a bright child and excelled in all her studies and made her past time computers and technology. She was among the top of her class in almost all areas, including her physical education classes which she tried to make martial arts classes whenever she could. Smart, athletic, top of her class, most promising student, Mayumi basked in the glow of success. Until one day she learned an awful truth.
It seemed her parents were kinfolk to the Glass Walker tribe of the Garou. (Garou being the name that the werewolves call themselves.) It also seemed that they had known all along that Mayumi would grow up to be one of them. So when they thought the time was right they informed her. Mayumi gave them disbelieving looks and right off the bat marked them off as insane lunatics. They seemed to really believe what they were saying though and the guy they brought with them seemed to buy into as well. A tall darkly handsome elderly man with dark eyes that seemed to hold the secrets of the universe within them. This was either some extremely weird, twisted joke they were playing on her or they were all insane. Then the guy transformed from a darkly handsome elderly man into a very large grey and black furred half-man, half-wolf before her eyes. For the moment Mayumi had to suspend disbelief and believe them.
In no uncertain terms it was then explained that she was one of the Warriors of Gaia and it was her destiny to defend Her from the minions of the Wyrm a massively evil force of darkness, corruption and destruction that had once performed the vital task of Balance in the cosmos. Not only that but she was born beneath the Crescent Moon, which meant she was a Theurge and had to deal with the denizens of the Spirit World. Mayumi then flat out laughed at all three of them and started trying to figure out how they had pulled this trick off. Her poking and prodding of Mr. Masaki just annoyed him and he picked her up by the throat. Mayumi was at that point forced to believe him as he yelled at her extremely angry, extremely serious and still holding her three feet off the ground by the throat. Tossing her onto the couch he transformed back to human form and stalked out saying he would return in three days and she had better be prepared for her training.
"Talk about a world shattering event. Good grades, top of the class, all my teachers like me. My friends and family feel honored to know me. Then my so-called parents and some freak of nature tell me I’m a freak too? No! No! No! No! No! This cannot be happening to me. I want a normal life. I don't want to be some freaky shape-shifter running around trying to save the world from an evil centipede.
This is the modern age. We have Technology, this supernatural mythological stuff has no place here. Oh man, What ? They’re going to send me off to some Beast Court? BEAST COURT? Yeah that sounds civilized. Oh yeah, train and learn my place in the cycle. Please, I should be proud that Gaia has chosen me? Whoever the hell this Gaia is she can choose someone else. I am not doing this werewolf howling at the moon spiritual stuff. Why can't you understand I have a life to live, in the real world. All I have to say is that this is not what I envisioned in my future. Next thing your going to tell me is that vampires actually exist. Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.”
Thus Mayumi’s journey begins too the Court of the Laughing Fox near Mount Fuji. Leaving behind the safe modern world she has known all her life, she begins a journey into the unknown to take up a heritage she never believed in nor wanted. One wonders what will become of her now . . .
For those of you expecting more, sorry that’s all there is, for now. The events of the comic happened shortly after her encounter with Mr. Masaki and her parents. Proving their words true and filling her with dread as well as more anger that she’d just trashed her favorite computer . . .
--Prax