Bridgeport

I don't know the exact circumstances surrounding Marlene's contraction of lycanthropy, only that she was a single mother at the time. It was already stressful enough trying to support a daughter on a waitress' pay; now Marlene lived in constant fear of traumatizing her kid or accidentally ripping her to shreds (she has virtually no control over herself while in wolf form). After a few nerve-wracking months, the constant fear and paranoia brought about a nervous breakdown, and Marlene made the decision to turn her kid over to the girl's grandparents. Marlene told her mom that things were just too difficult and stressful etc. etc. without going into the wolfy details.

She went on to live for a couple more years very miserable and alone, only seeing her daughter a few times a month (Marlene's parents had gotten the idea into their heads that she was a flake and a bit psycho), constantly battling guilt and self-pity. Each month she'd take more and more extreme precautions prior to her turning, like locking herself in the basement, nailing the door shut, etc.

Then one night she stumbled across a quasi-monsterized, dazed Andy skulking around the harbor while she was on her cigarette break. Marlene was initially quite freaked out, but not to the point that someone who didn't have their own monstery problems would have been. She could see her own helplessness in Andy. She made an excuse to her boss about not feeling well, loaded Andy into her car and brought him to her house, where she coaxed him out of his demon state through trial and error and sheer maternal will.

In rehabbing Andy, Marlene had found a new sense of purpose--and taken the edge off the crushing loneliness she tended to feel these days. Now that she knew she wasn't the only one with this sort of problem, she decided to open her doors to any and all "supernaturally-afflicted" folks whose conditions had cost them jobs, family, relationships, homes, etc. It was a choice motivated in no small part by loneliness and, subconsciously, guilt for being so depressed about her own problem when there were clearly others out there who had it worse. Caring for people who have to face their "monsterism" 24/7 takes her mind off of her own problems.

She tends to treat her guests like surrogate children, regardless of age, and clings to a semblance of normalcy despite the increasingly torn-up state of her house and the fact that people who drink blood and speak in tongues are now regulars in her house. She is gracious to a fault, very empathetic and caring, but often flighty and a bit nervy. Marlene is still very new to this and is sort of making it up as she goes along; she hasn't seen the worst of what's out there and to say she is ill-prepared is a vast understatement.

Tegaki-E Additional Reference (2009)

It is very tiny indeed, with just two bedrooms, one bath and a cellar. I don't think it's so much like she has several monster boarders at any given time as there's more of a revolving door of them. She really had no idea what she was volunteering for when she decided to offer her place as a safe haven for the supernaturally afflicted, and it'd be hard to find a house less suited to the cause.

...Except for the fact that it's pretty far from the nearest residences. It's a pretty old house, and the closest neighbors are a parking complex (I think she's near an airport or something) and a condemned movie theater. It's also only a couple miles from the harbor, which Marlene can see between some of the surrounding buildings on clearer days.

While we do encourage that those monsters who discover Marlene's home take up an extended/permanent residence in Bridgeport, it is important to keep in mind that Marlene's place isn't a long-term boarding house or monster hotel. Marlene exists more as a place for people to take a deep breath, have a cup of coffee and maybe get a load off their chest before they step back out into the real world. While there is an abandoned theatre near Marlene's house that can/is used to board a few transients at a time, the idea is that once those folks who find Marlene's house get their bearings they begin working on slipping back into society, getting jobs, finding their own place to live and "putting down roots" as it were. [Sfé Monster, 2008]