The Laughing Strangers - Dancing at the Crossroads

Laughing Strangers believe they are the living souls of Tales. The Laughing Strangers are questions that lead to more questions, trials of faith challenged and bright days in epiphany. To Laughing Strangers, all life is a story, and the spicier it is, the more it settles like warm sun across your belly when it’s done. This flair for the dramatic may bring the human and animal souls together within this diverse and contentious breed. Of all the breeds, Laughing Strangers are the ones most likely to drag a soul kicking and screaming down the road less traveled. Tricksters, thieves or creatures of your worst and best intentions, Laughing Strangers will always be more than you bargained for. If you choose to scuff through the gravel disturbing quiet roads, sparkling red eyes will glint away your expectations and peace of mind. Hare, Rat, Raccoon, Fox or Coyote all have twinkling agendas hidden here. Traditionally, Crossroad Riders (Laughing Strangers by any other name) have been associated with wisdom, courage and the price of desire. To keep counsel with them is to finally breathe the air of lessons well learned. When Laughing Strangers are in War-Beast form, any breath of softness mistakenly associated with Laughing Strangers is choked away. These are not the ferals who deal death mercifully and quickly with sheer brute strength. No compassion will be found in a quickly snapped spine. No, Strangers offer their wrath with different teeth. They will bring it in razor cuts of forever . . . switchblade knives of please-let-me-die.

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Character Creation Notes:

Most Laughing Strangers prefer Social traits, although all have higher than average Dexterity and Athletics. (If they did not, they would have been removed from the evolutionary ladder long ago.) Achunem is probably the only species that emphasizes Physical Attributes over Social ones. Unlike most other ferals, Laughing Strangers grow smaller and weaker when they assume their beast-forms. To counterbalance this cruel trick of Nature, Nature gives them several edges: a “bag of tricks” Aspects that only tricksters know, two extra dots to spend on Aspects during character creation and a wide array of Aspects associated with their species. These edges help Laughing Strangers survive alone in a large world that rarely finds their jokes amusing.

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Accords For Laughing Strangers

Den-Warder:

As warmth from a hearth, these vibrant Strangers protect their own, offer laughter during life’s thunderstorms, and completely mangle those who harm their heart-charges and friends. These ferals take the responsibilities found in loyalty deathly seriously. Charming right up until the moment they feel they no longer can be, Den-Warders of this breed know the true legacy of fealty.

Heart-Ripper:

Tearing and mauling while grinning all the while, this is the Heart-Ripper soul. They are the razorwire that shreds and binds. Such ferals treat pain as an art form, a lesson in screams. Impishly wicked, Laughing Strangers of this accord have an unlimited sack of retribution.

Root-Weaver:

In the fi ring of a story, the knot-tying of a tale, there must be craftsmanship and patient tending of the whole. To bring together that conglomeration of fate and faith and humor and fear, to strengthen the future with the muscles of the past, this is the never-ending task of the Stranger who clangs his bell against the Root-Weaver accord. He will always have it all in place . . . the actors, the plot, the climax and the lessons to be learned. He’ll add it to the volumes of tales he has directed before, and in those tales, he’ll create immortality.

Sun-Dancer:

The spinning penny on the sidewalk has more worries than the Laughing Stranger basking in the Sun-Dancer accord. Vertigo delirium paints itself sky-bright over all the lives she wriggles through. Nipping at heels till the blood stains her lips, she keeps those around her jumping — and aching for a moment of predictability.

Wind-Chaser:

If you hear the yipping howl, the growling sadness, the gasping yawn of silence, the Wind-Chaser’s call will pull at your soul. Darker than rain, these Crossroad Riders bring frightful destiny into those whom they weave into their tales. Lone moments in lonesome walks, Wind-Chasers are the lightning that clarifi es the shades of gray. Be wary of them. Their shadows are too long to see the knives of their teeth.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Comparatively small and legendarily fast, these ferals are the distant laughing hoots of the-one-that-got-away. Some are carnivores, some are omnivores and some are vegetarians: Laughing Strangers as a breed have many appetites. They’re social when it suits them, yet still none are easily approachable. Gauging worthiness from across the room, Laughing Strangers judge prey or predator with equal curiosity.

Ecology and Habitats

Crossroad Riders can be found anywhere the wind can take them, particularly where joviality and mischief can be easily had. No longer strictly nested in the brambles of rural environs or penned in by the banality of suburbia, these ferals scratch out their lessons all over the world. Hare has twitched its ears on every continent. Fox tracks are found padding softly through many cultures. Rat travels widely in mythology and even graces a ship or two. If mischief is sought, so are the Laughing Strangers found.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Know that in one way or another, Laughing Strangers are both prey and predator. Larger than some and smaller than others, Crossroad Riders are the middle way on the food chain. Man and his multitude of destructive toys and varying appetites usually wind up at the top, but when he relies on them too much and gets cocky, these beast-bloods remind him that he is not without an Achilles heel. Raccoon and rat are omnivores . . . if it is edible, they will try it. Fox is a carnivore, yet is also so famous a token of prey there’s a sport tied around that hunt. Hare is a vegetarian, yet for the changing breeds, he has no compunction against killing as long as it’s creative and makes his point. 

Biological Cycle

Each of the separate sub-breeds has some differing characteristics in their relationships with their animal and human kin. Those relationships are addressed more fully within the species entry itself. As a whole breed, however, one overriding similarity unites the Laughing Strangers: they are rarely viewed as either completely good or completely evil. Many different cultures revere these creatures . . . and just as many hate them. The Laughing Strangers are vermin. Theyare totems. They are devils. They are teachers. If there’s an opinion about these creatures, it’s always a strong one.

Behaviour

Despite the air of lone travelers most Laughing Strangers wish to exude, almost all crave companions and fellowship. Equally interested in animal and human company (to terrorize and to cherish), these werebeasts yearn to be in the midst of the experience. Fairly caring parents, they either raise their young themselves or watch carefully from a distance as hand-picked guardians begin the process that they, the Changers, wish to finish.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

These are the twitching tails of legends, the story-based professors lecturing with stinging claws and too-bright teeth. Proud to a fault of their own mythologies, it’s sometimes believed that when the tales are no longer told, the Laughing Strangers will become extinct. Some ferals claim that’s the real reason these Crossroad Riders test Man constantly: it’s impossible to live through an encounter with one and not talk about it. Maybe the challenges Laughing Strangers offer humanity simply come from enlightened self-interest. In the words of Lewis Carroll spoken through the unicorn, “If you believe in me, I will believe in you.”

Opinions of Others

Man: Have you ever noticed that they all taste like chicken?
Mages: You have to admire the kumquat-shaped balls of those crackpots. You would think they don’t realize that the Universe is keeping score.
Vampires: Two words: road kill.
Werewolves: Hard to respect a critter whose big claim to fame is getting down with his mangy transgendered self in Granny’s old fl annel pajamas. . . .