Special Chapter: The Scoop on Moonlight Falls

 

I’m sure that most of you know Moonlight Falls as the world that comes with the Supernatural EP. I haven’t spent much time playing in this world, or with the different supernaturals in general. However, all that changed when Lincoln decided to call Moonlight Falls his new home (or at least his home until he can find a way to break the spell that he is under).

I wanted to make an interesting history for Moonlight Falls, and hopefully this special chapter helps you understand the town, the people/various supernaturals that inhabit the town, and the rising conflict that Lincoln has inadvertently walked into the middle of (ooh foreshadowing).

In the end, my hope for you is to have a better understanding of the back-story of what was going on before Lincoln came to Moonlight Falls, and how that past affects his present.

 

Time for a History Lesson

Moonlight Falls was once the hotspot for all things supernatural. Any supernatural being could be themselves without fear of rejection, discrimination, and most importantly without the gawking eyes of humans. Humans have always known that these supernatural beings actually do exist, although most details about them were shrouded in mystery. Humans didn’t understand them, therefore all things supernatural were feared and avoided at all cost. But as time when on, and supernaturals became ingrained into pop culture, they became less scary and more of an obsession for humans.

For an example of what I mean we can take a look at vampires. The old legends and even old black & white movies show vampires like Dracula as scary, blood sucking monsters who will come at you at night and terrorize your village. Contrast that to how vampires are viewed in today’s culture. Remember the vampire craze that followed the ​Twilight series? Or notice how ​Hotel Transylvania portrays Dracula as the comedic goofball? All stories have vampires, but in today’s culture vampires are considered sexy or funny, and not at all scary. That, in a nutshell, is how Moonlight Falls went from a supernatural haven to a sort of zoo where humans swarmed into town to gaze at the beings that they didn’t fully understand.

With the integration of humans and supernaturals mixing, of course biology takes over. You have humans and supernaturals making offspring. When a human mates with a supernatural there is a 50/50 chance that the child will be supernatural or not. If the child does end up being a supernatural, they are not as powerful as their fully supernatural parent. It is like when you make a copy of a copy. It is never as clear as the original.

As you can imagine these human/supernatural offspring are not well received by either humans or the supernatural. A human child with a supernatural parent can usually get away with integrating into “regular” society (look at Brandon & Ivy). On the other hand, a supernatural child that is also partly human is looked down upon as less than. The supernatural community has a term for these not as powerful offspring: Immundus, which comes from the Latin word for “unclean”.

 

The Residents of Moonlight Falls

That brings us to the present day Moonlight Falls, and the start of the conflict. In order to fully understand the different sides of the battle we have to have a better understanding of some of the families that currently call Moonlight Falls home.

We will start with the Saavedra Family, a powerful, ancient, very well respected wizarding family. Think of them as the supernatural versions of the Kennedy’s or the English Royal Family. Grendel is the head of the Saavedra Family. He also happens to be the mayor, or more accurately he bestowed the title of Supreme Town Commander upon himself. This new title puts him and his family at the center of the conflict. His wife is Hecate and together they have a daughter, Thera, and a son, Alcander.

I feel like I should also mention that supernaturals age differently than humans, and at a much slower pace. Grendel might not look that much older than his son, but at the same time it is not wise to talk to him about the grey hairs that are starting to show up either.

 

As the “mayor” Grendel has decided to exterminate the humans from the town, which also includes the Immundus. But he knew that he couldn’t do this alone. Grendel needed the backing of another powerful family. His best option was to align himself with Osiris Petrov, the most powerful vampire in Moonlight Falls. By Osiris’s side is his wife Reina (she is just as scary/feared as Osiris, maybe even more so). Grendel & Osiris ordered their thugs, a gang lead by Alcander (who gave himself the title of Chief Enforcer), to drive out the humans and their Immundus offspring. Only a few Immundus currently remain in Moonlight Falls and, for the most part, are treated like second class citizens.

 

One such family is Mira Crumplebottom and her father Euclid. You might recognize the last name, since various Crumplebottoms have made appearances in all of the sims games since the very first one. In Moonlight Falls, even, there is a premade family of three Crumplebottom sisters. Right now all you need to know about those sisters is that they are Mira’s cousins, and the three of them are all fighting for Alcander’s attention.

Anyway, every family has a Black Sheep. The one person who has to go against the grain; the family embarrassment. Euclid isn’t the Black Sheep because he spends all of his time in his basement tinkering with his invention workbench. It’s not because he talks in frantic incomprehensible sentences. Euclid became the Black Sheep when he, a powerful warlock, married a human. Yes, that means that Mira is an Immundus.

 

Vampires and witches are not the only supernatural beings to call Moonlight Falls their home. Fairies have looked to Moonlight Falls as a safe haven away from the greedy humans who want to use the fairy dust for their own personal desires. As for the Saavedra & Petrov Families versus the Immundus battle, most fairies fall in line with the powerful wizard & vampire families. However, we will meet one fairy, Flint Blumenfeld, that takes sides with the Immundus. He is best friends with Mira, and is quick to come to her defenses.

 

My Moonlight Falls is also the home of several supernatural beings that are not part of the Supernatural EP. One such sim was not created by me. She was “assembled” by her “father” Frank Enstein. After many trips to the cemetery, and more than a few failed science experiments, Renatta was “born”.

Since Frank was a human, he was driven out of town by Grendel’s goons. Renatta isn’t technically an Immundus, but she is not supernatural either. The goons were not sure what to do with her, so they just left her in the house (after they tore it apart of course). She was all alone, scared, and didn’t know what to do. As luck would have it her neighbor, Mira Crumplebottom, happened to check on the house and found the poor doll. Mira helped the frightened girl, and they have been the closest of friends ever since.

 

Last, but certainly not least, are the werewolves. There are more than a few packs that reside in Moonlight Falls and the surrounding forest, but the main pack in this story is lead by Ryker Silas. His #2 in the pack is a female, which is uncommon but not looked down upon. Her name is Camilla Maynard. There are several other members of the pack (but because I am lazy I have yet to name them).

As you may or may not know, Werewolves and vampires have had a long standing battle going on for centuries. I could do a whole other post on this feud, there is just so much history there. For right now I am just going to concentrate on what is going on in Moonlight Falls.

Werewolves have never had any problems with the human kind. Out of all of the supernaturals, they have always been the most welcoming of humans into the mix. So, when Osiris started pushing the humans and the Immundus out of Moonlight Falls, the werewolves tried to fight back. However, they were no match for the Vampire/Wizard Alliance, and the werewolves were quick to surrender without much of a fight.

 

So, that is pretty much it. You are all caught up on everything you need to know about Moonlight Falls and it’s rich and interesting history. I could go into a lot more detail, but I will wait for certain things to be revealed as Lincoln learns them. Plus this history lesson and character introduction has become much longer than I had intended.

I am excited to know what you think. This is the first time I have ever gone into this much detail about a world and the residences that I have created. Is there anything you are confused about? Did I leave any details out? Is there something, or someone that you would want to know more about? Any feedback would be helpful.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I have to give a very big THANK YOU to Louise of NotJustaBook. I reached out to her asking for her guidance and as an editor for this special. Louise graciously accepted, and was very helpful in her feedback. Again, Thank you.  🙂

And as always, have a great day or night depending on when you are reading this.

Chapter 3.10 A Beastly Turn of Events

 

Waves of panic flooded over me. What the hell just happened to me? What did Becca do to me? What am I going to do now? Where am I going to go? I can’t stay in the park all night. Yet, I certainly can’t go home either. What the hell am I supposed to do?

Without any better ideas of where to go, I headed to the only place I always knew was safe; my grandparent’s old house. No one had been in the house since Grandpa died, so I knew that I would be alone. Plus, it was far enough away from the main house to ensure that I wouldn’t be seen by anyone either. The door was locked, but I climbed in through the back window to make sure no one could see me.

The next thing I needed to do was talk to someone smarter than me who could help me figure out how to turn me back into my former awesome self. After several failed attempts (my stupid claws kept fucking up the letters on the phone) I finally was able to send Autumn a text to come to the house.

 

 

I was hiding in the shadows when Autumn entered the home.

“Don’t turn on the lights!” I roared and with my new gruff voice I sounded madder than I actually was. I could see Autumn was starting to get frightened. I had to keep her clam, but I also needed to prepare her for what she was about to see. “I didn’t mean to yell, but you have to promise me that you are not going to scream when you see me.”

“Lincoln, is that you?” Autumn didn’t recognize my new beastly voice. “Where are you? What is going on?”

I couldn’t put this off any longer. I sighed as I stepped into the light so Autumn could get a look at her twin brother.

 

 

 

To her credit Autumn was shocked when she saw me, but at least she didn’t scream. She stared at me with her mouth gaping open, too stunned to say a word. It took her a few minutes to understand that the monster that stood before her is her once awesome brother.

I told her the whole story making sure to not omit any of the horrific details. She was patient as she listened, saving her obvious questions until the end of my story.

“So, what happens now?” Autumn asked the million dollar question. To which I replied, “I was sort of hoping you might be able to help me with that.”

 

“I was thinking that you might be able to create some sort of potion using that chemistry set of yours.” I was hoping Autumn could find a way out of this. She is the genius of the family after all.

“I don’t know if that will work.” Autumn said skeptically, “this was caused by a powerful supernatural force. I think that only the same type of supernatural power can undo this.”

Great. So I’m stuck like this forever?! What did I ever do to deserve this?

Autumn’s genius brain was working overtime trying to come up with a plan. Meanwhile, I was starting to itch. God, please don’t tell me I have fleas!!

After racking her brain, my awesome, super smart sister came through with a plan, “Let me do some research, find out what I can about magic spells, and witches, and about Becca. In the meantime I will tell Mom & Dad…”

I interrupted her to reiterate, “tell them, in fact tell everyone, that I moved to Bridgeport. I bought a cake, aged up, and moved to Bridgeport to be a Rock Star.”

 

Autumn was gone for most of the day doing her research. While she was gone I tried to find clothes that fit me better. Grandpa Ryan was not a big man, but he was athletically built. I managed to find a few pieces of clothing that helped cover up my fur. I don’t think I will ever get used to saying that; ​fur. Hopefully, with Autumn’s help I won’t be like this for very much longer.

While I waited for Autumn to return I tried to stay positive. I wouldn’t be stuck like this forever. My life isn’t totally over. Autumn will come up with a cure. Even if she has to drag Becca back here by her hair, Autumn will find a way to help me. Autumn will come through. She has to. I don’t have any other option.

I was starting to feel less hopeless, but when I saw the disappointed look on Autumn’s face when she returned, all hope I had managed to muster was gone in an instant.

“I went to Becca’s house,” Autumn recapped her day, “but there was no one there. The house looked like it had been ransacked and whoever was there had left in a hurry.”

 

Autumn’s news didn’t end there. She went on, “So, I went to school to hack into their records to see what I could find on Becca. It took a while since I didn’t even know her last name. I found out that her family moved here from a place called Moonlight Falls. And there is more. You are never going to guess who her older brother is; Aaron! Remember him? From elementary school?”

To be perfectly honest I never really got to know much about Becca and her personal life. I never asked her anything, because I never cared. It even took me a while to remember who Aaron was.

“That lead me to a dead end, since Aaron had to be sent to boarding school.” Autumn continued explaining what else she had discovered. “I did some more searching and found out that Becca’s dad worked at the old elixir shop in the swamp. Without any other options, I went to the shop to see what information I could find. At first the clerk seemed hesitant to talk to me. I finally managed to convince him that I was a friend of Becca’s and that she was going to help me with a spell, but I hadn’t heard from her in a few days. When I asked him about Moonlight Falls he said that, ‘it wasn’t a place for ​my kind’ by that I guess he means a human. Anyway, when he talked about Moonlight Falls he said that it used to be a haven for the supernatural, but since those ‘silly Twilight books’ more and more humans have been flocking to it. He ended with, ‘hopefully their new mayor can set things right’.”

 

So, that was my answer. Any hope I had at finding a cure would be found in Moonlight Falls, but I wondered, “how do I get there?”

Autumn answered my question before I could finish asking, “you know how there is a Dark Web? Well, did you also know that there is a Supernatural Web as well? I used the enchanted computer at the Elixir Shop to do some more research, and I was able to book you a train ticket to Moonlight Falls leaving tonight at midnight.”

Autumn handed me a small envelope and explained, “your ticket and directions on how to get to the supernatural train station are in there. I was also able to rent you a small house for your stay, however long that may be. I also took some money out of my university fund for you. It is not much, but it is all I have.”

Wow, Autumn had gone above and beyond anything I could have expected her to do. I can’t take Autumn’s college money, but she insisted, “I have enough scholarships that I don’t need the money. I want you to have it instead.”

Autumn came close for a hug goodbye, but I couldn’t let her touch me. I can’t be touched right now. Plus, I don’t want to risk what might happen if there was any physical contact; who knows what supernatural voodoo might rub off onto her. I wanted to cry, but my new beast eyes wouldn’t let me. Instead Autumn did the crying for both of us.

Tears fell from her cheeks as she said, “You may look like a beast on the outside, but deep down you are a good person Lincoln. I can’t think of anyone who loves his family more than you do. You may have done some things that were misguided, but I know that your heart was always in the right place. Whatever you are looking for in Moonlight Falls, I hope you find it.”

 

Before I left for the train station I took one final look at the house I grew up in. Wondering if I would ever see it again. I asked Autumn to tell Mom & Dad that I was sorry, but this was something that I just had to do. To tell Willow that it is her job to take care of Thor, and that I know she won’t let me down. To tell George that I wish him all the best in life, and tell Grandma Cindy that I love her more than anything.

On my way to the train station I stopped to say one final goodbye to Grandpa Ryan. Then I made my way to the train station to start my new life in Moonlight Falls.

 

Author’s Side Note:  I am sure that most of you already know this, but just in case, I had the honor to be interviewed by the super talented, and just all-around good person, Kymber.  You can read the interview HERE.  I cannot say enough nice things about Kymber and her story, which inspires me on so many levels.  If you are not currently following her blog, then you are missing out!

And again, thank you so much for asking me to do the interview.  I enjoyed it so very much.  🙂