Monsterhearts: Prairie Rock
Places:
The high school's in the small town of Prairie Rock (technically a Village), which is somewhere not too far from Madison, but it's still a bit of a drive, and there's really no significant public transportation. Prairie Rock is still bigger than the two villages nearby, however. The high school in Prairie Rock draws on all three, along with some students outside these boundaries.
Birch Grove may have had birches or groves once, but is now a rundown ex-industrial town. The abandoned factory is here.
The more upscale Lutetia, on a lakeshore, is mostly affluent and not very diverse, but there are certainly exceptions. Lutetia also contains a fancier private school,
The Meth Cabins were never used to cook methamphetamine. The worst that's happened there is smoking weed and breaking into the abandoned A-frames to have a place to sleep overnight. A travel company built the complex a few miles outside of the city to attract hunters and nature-lovers, but they never opened to the public; the company built the cabins and then folded without ever taking a reservation. On the one hand that means the cabins aren't actually hooked up to the power or sewer mains. On the other hand that means there's not actually anyone who cares when teenagers go out there and smoke weed. Mostly the police walk through there once or twice a week to roust out vagrants.
The old sign painted on the diner window says Sal's, but it's changed owners a bunch of times over the years and nobody remembers who Sal was at this point. The food is standard diner fare, but it's cheap and decent enough; Maya is actually a pretty great cook at home, when she can get hold of reasonable ingredients, but there's no demand for Indian food in the town.
Legend Lore, Prairie Rock's friendly local game store, the D&D crowd hang out.
Lutetia State Wildlife Area is large enough to border Prairie Rock as well as Lutetia itself. While it's got hiking trails, they're not exactly heavily trafficked, with this area not really being much of a destination (hint: not a lot of witnesses). There's a creepy abandoned cabin in the woods.
The curio shop in town has always been run by a Mrs. Tabitha
Mitcher's Hill, among highschoolers known as Mount Loser, is a good spot to drink and smoke away from prying eyes.
Relatives:
Maya, AJ's mother. Works in a diner, has raised AJ as a single parent for most of her life.
Supal, AJ's father. Factory worker. Vanished without a trace about ten years ago, allegedly running off with another woman. Maya never believed it, insisting the company was covering up his death in an industrial accident, but was never able to prove anything.
Paul and Gillian Reed: Sam's parents. Paul works at Prairie Rock's branch of Bank of America doing data processing, Gillian as manager of the town's Bed Bath & Beyond. They've been one of the few sources of genuine love and support Sam's had in his life, but lately, they've made clear their concern about the changes in his behavior--the lack of sleep, the reports of him getting in fights at school, the sneaking out at night. They haven't outright said they disapprove of him and Margot, but Sam is sure that's part of it.
Melody Bridges is very devoted to getting her parents' approval, very Type A, and thinks that Ash is abusing his position as the eldest with this whole "zi/zir/zie" thing. She loves pointing out when Ash fails at something or reporting his misdeeds to their parents or the authorities. At the same time she likes to use her position as "the pastor's daughter" to get out of trouble herself.
Ash's father, the town pastor, has a very black-and-white worldview. Something is good or bad, yes or no, right or wrong, and he knows which is which. He knows he knows, and how can you dispute otherwise because he's the voice of moral authority in the community.
Classmates:
Catherine, AJ's former best friend. They've known each other since they were kids. Popular, arty, dating Logan.
Logan, Catherine's boyfriend. School's star basketball (or insert appropriate sport here) player.
Shannen, Logan's twin sister and Catherine's new best friend.
Blake, one of Logan's basketball buddies.
Margot Everly, Sam's girlfriend. The only other werewolf in Prairie Rock as far as either of them know, she was the one who attacked him (it's complicated). Known as a troublemaker, spends more of her days at Mount Loser than in class. From what Sam understands, she has no idea who the werewolf that turned her was, and has never encountered another.
Peter Hale, Dennis Kaminski, and Ashley Griswold, Sam's D&D group. They've all known each other since elementary school, and shared Legend Lore as a rare refuge from being picked on. Until recently, they were pretty much the only friends Sam had. Now, he's determined not to let them go on suffering the same way he used to...though his new "hobby" has meant spending a lot less time with them than before.
