Episode 23 - Vampire 102

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the all night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queens court games. [00:00:38] Speaker B: When last we left the coterie, we were doing our best work at turning a handsome young vampire into a less handsome vampire. If there's one thing to do when it comes to disguising yourself, looking unremarkable is the key. As I understand it, we transformed young Alex Scott from a fit and handsome young man into an unnotable accountant with an Xbox, I think was one of the stories we use. Or also swedish professor of mathematics. Was that the other one? That sounds about right, which is excellent news for everybody. And I would imagine that Ivy and Spendrick, you feel a little bit of relief knowing that his appearance will not draw so much attention that the ods of someone spotting him and having also seen the be on the lookout for posters are going to calm things down. [00:01:39] Speaker C: There is the added complication of the fact that we were shopping with him in the first place, but it's chance we had to take. So here we are. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Every decision you make as a vampire is a risk, especially those that involve interacting with humans, regardless of the circumstance. But the alternative was a bit worse. [00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't really bother me. He just would have spent a lot more time in Schmendrick's shipping crate. [00:02:07] Speaker C: Good luck keeping a man that can rip car doors off of its hinges in a box for a long period of time. [00:02:15] Speaker A: I think all we need to do is just get him a hamster wheel, right? I'm sure it'll be fine. [00:02:20] Speaker C: A little blood, sippy cup. [00:02:24] Speaker A: I'm loving this idea, actually. Can we do this? Can we change directions now? [00:02:31] Speaker C: I think it's a little late for that. [00:02:34] Speaker B: And not for nothing. We know what his bane is, and I don't know that we want to create a set of circumstances that might provoke it. [00:02:45] Speaker A: Well, we have theories about what his bane is. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Theories that I believe we intend to test. Because now that we've covered the basic basis of making him semi unrecognizable to the average passerby, there are still a great many vampire questions that need answered. So far, we've covered bag blood, tastes like vomit, and how to use the touch screen. And I mean, off the top of my head, I can think of a few things that were missing. [00:03:16] Speaker A: One or two or ten. [00:03:18] Speaker C: Yeah, there's so much we need to cram into. So little time. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Kind of weird having eternal life, but also being on a really tight schedule. [00:03:30] Speaker C: It's a learn fast or die scenario, and if you don't have that mentorship. I want to say you're fumbling around on your own, and that is dangerous, especially for a new kindred. That was a panic embrace and isn't allowed by the prince. [00:03:50] Speaker B: You've been taking a few too many lessons from Alex as to how this whole pyramid thing works out. Well, Schmendric has given you your choice, Mr. Alex Scott. Would you like to learn quickly or would you like to die? Because we've got a few hours a night left can go either way. [00:04:09] Speaker D: Well, I already died once. I've been told let's learn quickly. I don't want to die again. [00:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know that the second one is better or worse than the first, but we do know for sure that you're out of lives at this point. It's game over screen at that point. Budy. [00:04:28] Speaker D: Yeah. I was never good at evil Souls games. I get frustrated and just walk away. So, yeah, we can do this so that I don't die. That would be terrific. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Well, then it does sound like you do have Mr. Scott's enthusiastic consent for the next lesson. Which means the question that I have for you, Miss Ivy, Ms. Schmendrick, is. What's next? Opening up my vampire textbook here, going to the new chapter. What is that title? [00:05:00] Speaker A: Vampire 102. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Obviously, not much for a syllabus writer, are we? Didn't make it to that part of the premier education plan. [00:05:12] Speaker D: Wow. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Everybody skips one lesson. It's fine. And if you're going to pick one that's not the worst to maybe zone out on, in academic parlance, the course title would be vampire 102. But it always needs a catchy name, right? Like Russia in the 19 hundreds. Or power and sexuality or the physics of Frisbee. So we have our course indicator, vamp 102. But what's it called? [00:05:46] Speaker C: Learning how to exist as a vampire. No, that's too broad. [00:05:51] Speaker A: Still your powers and you. [00:05:56] Speaker D: You read my mind. I was about to suggest your body and you, a vampire. Start. [00:06:01] Speaker B: I want to put on my 1950s narrator voice and say you're probably experiencing a lot of unfamiliar changes at this point in your life. But first, I'd like you to know they're entirely natural. Today, we'll discuss about some of the things you might be experiencing, the ways that you're changing, and how to deal with them. [00:06:22] Speaker C: Oh, dear. [00:06:24] Speaker A: Can you just tell the rest of the story in that voice? [00:06:30] Speaker B: No, and it's not because I can't do the voice anymore. It's because I don't know what the next line of the textbook would be. [00:06:36] Speaker A: That's fair. [00:06:38] Speaker B: But I will pose that question to you, which I intended to anyway. So, vampire 101, how to feed, how to the one rule, right? Don't break the masquerade. Then in vampire two, we're talking about your powers. So what are the kind of things that fall into that category? [00:06:58] Speaker A: Thomaturgy, obviously obfuscate another one. Potence. Solarity. [00:07:06] Speaker B: A, the broad category of disciplines. [00:07:11] Speaker A: The broad category of disciplines. [00:07:14] Speaker C: There's also that other pesky broad category of plans and what it means to be a part of those. [00:07:22] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:07:24] Speaker C: Figuring that out for Alex would probably be pretty tantamount. It would prepare us for worst case scenario, and it would prepare him for what's to come. [00:07:34] Speaker B: Absolutely right. At the very least, it would help narrow down some of the lessons that you have to pluck out of the disciplines. Chapter of the textbook. Yeah, but how does it go? So a is for awakening. That's what's going to happen every time the sun goes down. And b is for bite. Whether it's a bag or a people, you're going to have to get used to it. C is for the camarilla, because there are still incredibly large institutional powers controlling every night of your life, just like before you died. D is for disciplines, the things that make you special and allow you to break those pesky laws of reality. E is for the embrace. That's what happened to you a few nights ago. Do everyone a favor and try not to replicate that experience quite yet. And f is for. [00:08:31] Speaker C: Final death. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Ooh, I was going to go with frenzy, but both very important lessons to learn. This Alphabet book actually gives us a pretty good sense of where we need to go. G is for go. Where are we going? [00:08:49] Speaker A: Sitting behind the wheel of the car. Turn it on, look over my shoulder, and shift a little bit. Okay, well, we should get a little bit of practice in someplace where he can stretch his legs, run around a little bit. Any ideas? [00:09:11] Speaker C: That's a good idea. It would help us solve that little piece of the puzzle. And I turn to look at Alex. At this point, my imposter's guise has fallen away, and I'm back to my normal, bat faced self. [00:09:24] Speaker D: Oh, we could go to the industrial neighborhoods south of Chicago. There's this great. [00:09:31] Speaker C: No, uh, if we wanted to die, we would bring you. [00:09:37] Speaker D: Why? Why would we die? Is everything made of holy? It's like, look, I'm a vampire. If they shoot me, I'll just dodge the bullets. It's fine. [00:09:46] Speaker C: Oh, it's not a getting shot problem. No getting torn limb from limb. Problem? [00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, werewolves don't really use guns. [00:09:59] Speaker D: Werewolves are fucking real. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, they are. And they're not friends of ours at all. [00:10:11] Speaker C: If there's anything you should really fear, other than sunlight and fire, it would be a werewolf. [00:10:17] Speaker D: You got to be. Next thing you know, you're going to tell me magic is real and little fake creatures are real and all this other shit is real. Holy fucking twilight. What else could possibly be real? Ghosts? [00:10:35] Speaker A: Wraiths? [00:10:37] Speaker D: You're shitting me. Okay, what's next? Mummies? [00:10:41] Speaker C: Yeah, but no one's really thought about mummies in a long time. I want to say, like, 1995. [00:10:49] Speaker D: I don't even know what my life is anymore. I have to look out for werewolves of Chicago. [00:10:55] Speaker A: Well, the good news is that as long as you stick to the cities and don't hang out with Maya and never go to Midway, you'll be fine. You never have to worry about werewolves. Usually. Hopefully you shouldn't. You should be fine. [00:11:13] Speaker C: At this point, we're kind of just driving around aimlessly. Alex has a lot to digest, and I just sort of sit up, clap my hands together excitedly, and go. Rebecca's grain silo. That's where we could go practice. It's abandoned. She's not using it anymore because know left. It's perfect. He can go trash the place, figure out what he can do, and that'll help us figure out how we can raise him properly. [00:11:45] Speaker A: That's actually a really good idea. Yeah, I think that's probably a safe place to go. [00:11:50] Speaker B: Ivy, you are not the one who came up with the smartest idea in this conversation. Will you roll self control for me? [00:11:58] Speaker C: Wow. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Bitch. Wow. [00:12:02] Speaker B: Schmendrick makes an excellent suggestion. Isolated, already kind of beat up. No one's gonna notice if a few chunks of this and that go missing. And for the most part, the police tend to keep people scared away. It's a little close to anarch turf, but, hey, you can add that lesson to the list if it comes to it. Well, assuming Ivy is willing to follow Schmendrick's directions here, punch that into the gps, start heading in that direction. How are you explaining what's about to happen to young Mr. Scott? [00:12:34] Speaker A: So, Alex, you remember how last night I was showing off some of the things that I can do, how I couldn't control blood, mine, other people's, all that? [00:12:48] Speaker D: Yeah, it was really cool. [00:12:49] Speaker A: I know you probably can't do that. Just like you can't turn into a bat, right? [00:13:00] Speaker D: Yeah, I've been trying. The bat thing hasn't worked out yet. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Well, I've got a couple ideas about things that you might actually be able to do, and we're just going to see if you can. Like, when you try and turn into a bat, we're going to just take that energy and put it towards doing something else instead. [00:13:26] Speaker D: Awesome. Cool. I am very nervous but excited to find out my vamp powers. My vampires. Yeah. [00:13:37] Speaker C: Can we workshop a different name for that? I'm not loving. [00:13:43] Speaker A: Oh, okay. They're called disciplines. We could just call them disciplines. They don't need a new catchy title. Don't need to rebrand disciplines. [00:13:52] Speaker C: After Ivy's done saying that, I just kind of snap my fingers repeatedly like some sort of beat poet encouraging the person speaking. [00:14:00] Speaker D: I'm totally gonna call them vampires behind everyone's back. [00:14:05] Speaker B: Gotta change my textbook here. A is not for awakening. Now. It's for antagonizing. [00:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's definitely accurate to my experience with this coterie from the very beginning. [00:14:18] Speaker C: Basically, Alex, what we're going to take you out to do is just kind of like a test, I guess. Try to figure out what you're capable of. You've seen examples of it, I'm sure. Like, today I looked like someone else entirely. Someone that wasn't, like, a wardy vampire bat love child. That's part of obfuscation, we call it, and it has many tricks concerned with hiding who you are or just appearing invisible to the naked eye, that sort of thing. It's a lot to do with hiding. [00:14:56] Speaker A: But to be clear, and I kind of hold my hand up a little bit as I see Alex's eyes get a little big in the backseat. You probably can't do that. [00:15:08] Speaker D: Okay, so I can't change my appearance like Smentra can. [00:15:14] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [00:15:16] Speaker C: Another thing I personally am capable of is I have a pet rat, but it's a little more than a pet rat. Like, more of a mental link. I can kind of tell it what to do. It is smart enough to be subservient, if that makes any sense. [00:15:35] Speaker D: Cool. Yeah. So you're like the king of the sea, but with rats. [00:15:41] Speaker C: One rat in particular. [00:15:43] Speaker D: You are the king of one rat. Hey, you know what? That's more rats than I am the king of. So that's pretty cool. [00:15:50] Speaker C: That may be something in your wheelhouse. We've yet to really explore it, and it's a difficult one to explore, but we'll see there. [00:16:01] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [00:16:02] Speaker D: So you can change your face, and you are the king of one rat, and ivy does the very cool blood thing, and I think some mind control stuff, but I can't do those things, so what can I do? [00:16:19] Speaker A: That depends. And I know that answer on the surface level isn't super helpful because we don't know what kind of vampire you are. It's a little hard. This is why we're going to the grain silo, because we have to figure it out. [00:16:39] Speaker C: There's a little bit of trial and error involved. [00:16:42] Speaker A: What we need to do is figure out what kind of vampire you are, what flavor vampire you are, if you want to go that route. We call them clans. So my clan is Tramir. We're the witchy kind. Schmendrik's clan, the ugly kind. Nosferatu. Then there's also the snooty kind. Those are the Ventru. They think they're better than everybody. All of these different clans come with different abilities. Figuring out what powers you have will help us narrow down what clan you are. Does that make sense? We're kind of reverse engineering you right now. [00:17:22] Speaker C: I can't help but laugh when you know Nosferatu are the ugly kind. She's not wrong. But I'm also kind of now picturing me just being, like, ugly spice or something in the vampire Spice Girls. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Well, the drive isn't really long enough to get into the details on all the clans, at least not at the level with which Ivy would want to describe them. So, for better or for worse, depending on Alex's attention span, it's probably best just to get to the trying it out part. The drive nearly ends at a chain link fence blocking off an abandoned lot on which sits a decrepit old grain silo. It's adjacent the Chicago river, and in ye olden times, the 1930s, the barges would come in and offload their feed that would then be carted off to the feed lots in the back of the yards. It hasn't been used for any purpose anywhere near that for quite some time, unless you count the livestock keeping that Rebecca did. But as she has departed, so to have the flocks of birds that once occupied this place, and even from the chain link fence, even as you have to go and open the gate and look inside, you can tell this place is quieter than you've ever seen it. So Ivy, for the second time in as many nights, drives her car down a gravel driveway, the crunch under the tires slowly giving way to the gurgle of the river in the distance. You turn off the headlights. You open the car door, and you step out into what will soon be a vampire playground. [00:19:10] Speaker C: As we roll up. I kind of sigh and I say, it's nice that it's so quiet this time around. It was pretty cramped the last time I was here. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah, there was definitely the most activity this place has seen in, what, 50, 60 years then? [00:19:31] Speaker C: So dangerous, too. What the hell was I thinking? [00:19:34] Speaker A: I just kind of pause and there's a small, awkward silence because I don't know what to say. And I look at Schmendrick. [00:19:46] Speaker C: I guess that's what grasping at straws is like. [00:19:50] Speaker A: I give a little bit of a smile back. It's hard to be here, you know, just after everything. And I thought that. I don't know, it just feels empty now without the birds, without Rebecca. And to be clear, I don't miss the birds. I don't miss the feathers and the noise and the shit everywhere. And I don't miss that dirty old mattress that she had up in there, but just something about it. [00:20:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I get you. I admit I kind of suggested this place because it would be cathartic for me to put that particular memory of those people we rescued behind me. And I'm kind of hoping Alex can do some good work on it tonight. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Kind of therapy where you pay $100 to go into a room full of cheap vases and they let you smash them. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Yes, and I'm all here for it. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Except we're not here to smash things. We're here to see what Alex can do. [00:21:04] Speaker C: You know, I'm not exactly built for smashing, and I can live vicariously through someone else. Smashing. [00:21:12] Speaker B: No, that is a good point. I think Alex has more dots and strength than the two of you together. Not that that's a particularly high bar to crawl across. No. I don't know what kind of dating Ivier Schmendrick did in the past. If it was the kind that involved watching strong men do strong things, then this should be a good night. I wouldn't recommend just letting know go nuts unprompted. So where do we start? We know he's not a nosferatu. Obviously, he would look more like Schmendric. And we know he's not a tramir because they would never let something like this happen. The way that he reacts to the bag blood rules ventru off the list, but there are still enough options to wonder what's up. So, using our powers of deduction, ruling out the disciplines that are available to those clans, where do we start? What is the first task you will assign to Mr. Scott? [00:22:23] Speaker A: There have been a couple things that have stood out to me. The slightly combative incendiary attitude that he's had over the last couple days. The ease with which he ripped the door off of Josh's car. That screams bruha. But what kind of scientist would I be if I didn't fully test out this hypothesis and knowing full well that he's not nosferatu? I think I'm on a pretty good path, but I'd like to make sure that potence is actually in his wheelhouse. [00:22:54] Speaker B: And how best to provoke that response. Ivy, you were taught in the most exacting academic fashion how to access the powers of your blood, schmenjit. They kind of just left you in a room and let you figure it out. So we're going to reach a middle ground between those two things. But how do you explain to a new vampire how to turn their powers on? You know, what it feels like for you. But isn't that how it works for everybody? So you're sitting here, you're having this debate. You're thinking it through. Alex is being patient, but eventually you're going to have to give him an instruction. What do you say? [00:23:39] Speaker C: So, Alex, a lot of how I operate involves thought. I have to think something in order for it to happen. I have to will it to be not especially hard. There's always something inside of me that wants these things to happen. It craves the power of my abilities, but there's still that exploratory like, you have to figure out what it wants and what it is capable of. This thing that gives you your abilities. We call it the beast. The beast is always hungry, always wary, always nervous. But it knows it's powerful and relishes in the idea of giving you that strength. [00:24:35] Speaker B: You know what she's talking about? Hell, it's like hearing its name. Makes it perk up its ears inside your chest. I won't say there's something intuitive about it, because none of this makes sense, right? And they won't say there's something natural about it, because there's nothing natural about any of this. But maybe there's a sense of automatic is the word I keep coming back to, where all you'd have to do is push a little bit in the right direction and the rest would just flow out. [00:25:13] Speaker C: So, Alex, given what we kind of understand about you so far, I mean, it's only been a couple of nights, but something you could try is picking up something obscenely heavy. Don't try to over exert yourself, because the beast requires a price to be paid for its actions. Kind of point to a rock, a fallen beam, any kind of rubble sitting around the place. And I say, if you think you could have lifted that before, go for it. Give it a try. See how that feels. [00:25:49] Speaker D: Okay, I can do that. I don't know if I ever told anyone about this in my dating profile, but my bench press is about 250. I think I can handle this rock over here. I move over to the debris and find this very large stone. It's easily bigger than my torso and just as much around. Putting my arms around it, I can't help but feel like it's almost impossible. I can't even get my fingers to touch. And as I wrap my arms around it and feel the weight of this very dense, large, man sized stone pressed against my chest, I start to rock my hips back and put all my weight into my back foot and my glutes, and I start to think to myself, I don't think I can do this. This is a power man kind of feat of strength, and I am not that guy. [00:26:47] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, I don't know what your max was back when you were doing this kind of thing for fun, but you've obviously exceeded that. And this is the kind of thing that people make fun of for when you see someone at the gym obviously exceeding what they're capable of. But Schmendrick wasn't wrong. You're not lifting this alone. You have a little bit of an assist, not in the physical sense of another body. But let me ask you this. When you want to lift something, you center yourself a certain way. Of course, there's the muscles to it. You get your back straightened up. There's a ritual to preparing yourself for the lift, right? Yeah. [00:27:33] Speaker D: Usually it's a brief shake of the limbs, a slap of the body, maybe even a primal, like, roar to rouse my adrenaline or a slap in the face, something rather intense. [00:27:49] Speaker B: So that roar, right. They say that some of, like, the grunting and straining when you're exerting yourself is tricking your body into releasing the adrenaline that you need to get that little bit of extra ump. And you would be surprised how much that works in this moment. Not because you're summoning up some burst of superhuman hormones power, but also kind of. Yeah. And as you flex, there's not that sense of blood moving into your muscles. You don't work like that anymore, but there is the sense of something being activated. So will you make a rouse check for me? [00:28:32] Speaker D: Yeah, that was a success. [00:28:35] Speaker B: So you don't get any hungrier, but that vita from that woman who we're not talking about you. Feel that churning, worming its way through your dead flesh, activating this part of you. Now, mechanically speaking, three strength is enough to do a 115 kilogram deadlift. I don't know how much this particular rock weighs, but as you call upon that power of your blood, half as easy. You feel twice as strong. And it's not that your face is flush and it's not that you've squared yourself right because your muscles don't work like that. It feels alien and supernatural as you take this weight and then just heft it, just as easy as you would pick up a gallon of milk out of the fridge. [00:29:32] Speaker D: As I go from the crouch, holding this boulder to my chest and just feel the great ease and sort of the alien sensation of the weight. It's almost like my head is floating and my body is just responding and I'm looking at this massive stone. I did it. I've never been able to do anything like this before. [00:29:55] Speaker B: It's not even that. It's in front of your chest. You've got this thing, like, up on your shoulder. You could Santa Claus this on your back. If you put your mind to it, you could probably chuck it 50 or 60ft. [00:30:07] Speaker D: I take it in one hand. It's like holding a basketball. I lift it high above my head with this massive boulder. Never feeling so powerful before in my life. I feel like I'm a superhero. Ivy. Ivy. I'm super strong. I bet I could lift so many things. I can lift everything. Ivy. I feel amazing. [00:30:32] Speaker A: I just give two really energetic thumbs up and say, yeah, dude, look at you go. Before turning to look at Schmendrick and kind of give her a knowing glance. [00:30:42] Speaker C: Having not been present for the superhero conversation, I do have kind of an eyebrow raise up looking at Ivy like, what is happening right now? Then I look back at Alex and yeah, good, good. That's. We call that potence. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Alex, you don't give a fuck. You're looking for the next heaviest thing to pick up. What do you find? [00:31:07] Speaker D: I drop the boulder with a loud slam and I look around and I find that eye beam, that heavy girder eye beam. And I size it with my eyes and I scoop my hands under like a bicep curl and I just pick it up and start lifting it to my face, back down to my waist. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Oh, you know, it's way better than picking up an eye beam, throwing one. Oh, good guess. But I was saying bend it. [00:31:33] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, bending it like mighty man. Oh, yeah. I am doing this right now, I put one hand on one side of the eye beam and one on the other. I try to tense what my muscles are, I think, and I begin to squeeze in that shape. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Go ahead and make another rouse. [00:31:51] Speaker D: Check. For me, I have gained one hunger. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah, because this is a little different. That first bit of strength, that's the discipline feeling. That's how I'm going to explain that to you. But bending it, that requires a little something extra. If the first one was an intentional skill that you have something you can turn on and off like a light switch. The second, that little oomph after, that's just raw, extra vampiric power. And, yeah, you feel the beast stretch wide inside your chest, almost like you can feel its limbs tangling up with your own. And the next thing anybody else hears is that screeching of tortured steel as you start to make a very impressive sized horseshoe. [00:32:50] Speaker D: I'm laughing at this. I can't believe what my own body's doing. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Ibeam, you are my bitch. Ivy. I'm super strong. Smendrick, look at me. Look what I can do. Look what I can do. Schmendrick. This is so cool. [00:33:06] Speaker C: It's impressive. [00:33:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:09] Speaker D: I wonder, can I make an eye beam boomerang? An eye boomerang. I'm going to throw it. Everyone get on my way. I'm going to toss this. [00:33:20] Speaker A: Alex, Alex, hold on. Just wait just a second. I know you're excited and it's great that you're excited. Just got to be a little bit safer here, bud. [00:33:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:36] Speaker A: Remember that the first rule. [00:33:37] Speaker D: Right, right. First rule. Okay. I'm just going to try and bend it back down and pretend like nothing ever happened. [00:33:48] Speaker C: See, part of me was super excited and I wanted to see that ibeam get thrown. But Ivy's right. I cannot argue with her logic. Better not to just make a bunch of noise in this place and alert people to investigate. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Well, Alex, as you go to bend it back now you're starting to understand the difference between this power that's coursing through you and that little extra you have to call upon. Because once you'd completed that first bend, which, by the way, very impressive. A plus, my dude. But once that task was accomplished, that little extra faded. And if you want to bend it back, you know that you have to call on that power again. [00:34:35] Speaker D: I will definitely want call upon that power because I think I need to prove to myself what I can do. It's one thing to bend a bar, but I think to bend it back is. I feel it's a necessary reminder. It's necessary to cement what I just accomplished. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Or to steal what you just accomplished, given the materials we're working with. Make another rouse check for me. [00:35:04] Speaker D: Definitely a test of my metal. Ooh. Okay, so I have another hunger gain. [00:35:11] Speaker B: You can feel it. You can feel that demand. You don't have a ton of experience with hunger as a vampire yet. You're still pretty new to this. But you have the comparison between that ravenous sucking void of empty that filled you up when you rose off of the concrete at the docks. And you remember the fullness afterwards when you had all that that young woman had to give flowing through you. And at this point, you're about halfway between those things, and you're starting to get that sense of where your limits are, what the rising urge feels like. How the first time the beast gave its power, generally without coercion, you don't get the sense it was asking a lot from you, but now it's reminding you of that price, still spreading out its limbs inside you. But now the claws maybe sink in around your wrists to remind you what you are and what it needs. But hey, it's not all bad news. You fixed the eye beam. [00:36:25] Speaker A: As I watch Alex straighten out this eye beam, I turn to schmendric and I say, if he's bruha, he might be quick, too. [00:36:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Do well to test out his speed. How are we going to do that, though? [00:36:44] Speaker A: I mean, I'm not going to lie. This dude does not look like he enjoyed cardio on his best day. [00:36:50] Speaker C: As we're sitting here just kind of musing about it, I give Ivy this look and say, think fast. [00:36:58] Speaker A: The corners of my lips curl a little bit. And I say, oh, yeah, think fast. And I see that Alex is still holding the eye beam. So I call out, hey, Alex. And straighten my arm out and send a blood needle hurtling in his direction. [00:37:16] Speaker B: That's a rouse check from you. [00:37:20] Speaker A: No hunger. The beast knows this is all fun and games, right? [00:37:23] Speaker B: The beast doesn't play games. [00:37:26] Speaker A: Three successes. [00:37:28] Speaker B: Well, Alex, I'm gonna go off on a lemon save. Never been shot at before, so that's not going to be a useful comparison. But as you raise your eyes to look at Ivy, she's asked for your attention. You see her extend her arm and then a projectile, like an icicle, but not. It streaks across the open air, catching little glimpse of the moonlight as it sails in your direction. Any other person, human reaction speed, would not allow you to process this information. In time to react. But you're not any person, are you? No. [00:38:09] Speaker D: Right now, I'm Apex man. The knights Predator man. You know, I'm still workshopping the superhero name thing, but I think I like Apex. [00:38:21] Speaker B: All right, Apex. Well, let's go through the list of superhero powers. Someone shooting at you, what's going to trigger in your brain? What would a superhero do? [00:38:31] Speaker D: So either I have bullet immunity, or I could have precognition. And my brain will warn me of dangers and I'll jump out of the way. One of those two. [00:38:43] Speaker B: All right, make a rouse check. [00:38:46] Speaker D: That's a success. [00:38:48] Speaker B: So no hunger gain, but that precognition. You're a little bit on to something. The beast is many things, but it is very much pain averse in the idea of being speared by. Whatever. This is not appealing. But as you recognize it flying to the air, and you have that thought about superheroes dodging bullets, your body moves like liquid, with a grace wholly unfamiliar to you as you attempt to get out of the way. Dexterity and athletics is your role to defend. But as you have activated this power, you get to add your solarity rating to that. So you'll make that dexterity and athletics role with a plus two modifier. [00:39:40] Speaker D: Four successes. [00:39:42] Speaker B: Oh, Ivy, that has to be embarrassing. You caught him entirely by surprise. And like fucking Neo in the matrix, this guy, it's a big damn target, Ivy, and you still. And the blood needle goes sailing past Alex, shattering across the wall of the silo behind him. [00:40:05] Speaker A: It would be embarrassing, but I think I might have felt bad if it hit him. [00:40:11] Speaker D: Whoa. [00:40:12] Speaker A: What the fuck was that? [00:40:13] Speaker C: Ivy? [00:40:14] Speaker D: What the fuck was that, Alex? I dodged a bullet. That's so cool. [00:40:19] Speaker C: Completely dismissing Alex's reaction for the moment, I turned to Ivy and cocked my head a little bit before saying, bruha, bruja, definitely. [00:40:31] Speaker B: There's only really one way to be sure, isn't there? [00:40:35] Speaker A: I mean, aside from tasting his blood. [00:40:37] Speaker B: You mean I wouldn't. You could. An option. But there are plenty of vampires who have access to powers outside of those typical of their clan. You've narrowed it down a little bit. But the truest way to figure out. Aside from a ritual, which we're passing on in the interest of making an educational experience out of it, the only real way to know for sure would be to test his bane. Right? [00:41:03] Speaker C: But if he's Bruha, that is not something I want to test. [00:41:08] Speaker A: He's got a point, though. I look over at Schmendrick and gesture with my fingers and say, you might want to take a step back just in case. [00:41:19] Speaker C: Gods, this is such a bad idea. And I'll take a step back for sure. I'm going to go and hide behind the car. [00:41:27] Speaker A: As Schmendrick moved behind the car, I turn to Alex and I call over to him, you know, if I knew that you could have done this, I may have actually responded to your messages on Schminder. [00:41:38] Speaker B: No, Alex, that's not a very nice thing for anyone to say. There's no way you could hear that and know, be a little stung, right? But you've been feeling more angry generally. And that little provocation, it sets something off, because the beast isn't just a predator and it's just not averse to pain. It is also fiercely proud and territorial. It doesn't speak to you with actual words, but try to imagine for a moment this thing rising up on its hind legs and filling you, spreading out from your heart into your arms with the just raw, distilled essence of this fucking bitch. So will you roll willpower for me? [00:42:34] Speaker D: Willpower. Three successes. [00:42:38] Speaker B: That rage you've been feeling, that anger that is alien and unfamiliar. That's what makes the difference. It's the difference between hearing a slight at the gym or being honked at in traffic and being able to let it go. But you know how some days you've just fucking had it and this crosses a line that otherwise you'd be able to handle? That feeling inside of you, it's like a permanent, I don't need to handle this. And even though Alex might have been able to take an insult like that and laugh it off, that little voice in the back of your head says no. And all the willpower you can muster is not enough to stop you from throwing down whatever it is you were holding and you start stalking in her. [00:43:35] Speaker D: Direction, hearing this insult in the air as it passes from Ivy's lips. I've definitely heard worse in my life. And in fact, at first I almost kind of scoffed when I first hear it. And then it lands upon me and something deep inside begins to rise. Something dark begins to bubble, and I can feel my back straighten and my shoulders haunch. I can almost feel a growl hidden behind my teeth as I look at Ivy and slowly walk to her. I don't know what this is, but something deep is tensing. [00:44:12] Speaker B: You're not just mad, right? You're like 35 year old woman in her suv drove into Starbucks after her Zumba class, and they got your fucking order wrong. You specifically said two pumps, and there. [00:44:28] Speaker D: Is no way there's two pumps in this. No way. [00:44:30] Speaker B: Yeah, there's one. There's one. They fuck. And you're. So you're going to drive around and you got to wait for a parking spot. You take the handicapped one because this is important. And you walk in there and you let that poor high school student know exactly what's on your fucking mind. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Seeing the shift in Alex, the shoulders, the new posture, the elbows out at what is almost a 90 degree angle on either side of his body, that glare that he is giving me, it is terrifying. But the fact that he's making eye contact is good because I'm going to return the look and just say, alex, stop and sit on the ground right now, and I'm going to activate dominate. [00:45:18] Speaker B: All right, you can make that roll. [00:45:21] Speaker A: I get hungrier as I do this, but it's okay. I'll take that hit. [00:45:29] Speaker B: Desperate times. [00:45:32] Speaker A: Three successes. [00:45:33] Speaker B: It's up to our friend Alex to beat that. You're going to roll intelligence and resolve. But again, it is not just you that we were working with. There's a creature inside you. It's full of rage. It is controlling your body right now, and it's not going to listen to this witch. So you'll get a plus two bonus. [00:45:57] Speaker D: Eight successes. That's a crit, Ivy. [00:46:00] Speaker B: He's not stopping. He doesn't blink. He doesn't even register as far as you can tell. He might not have even heard you. And he's walking faster. [00:46:11] Speaker A: I put my hands up in front of me and kind of start backing away. Alex, Alex, stop. Sit. Stay. [00:46:23] Speaker D: With one hand, I bat your two away. With my second hand, I grab you by the neck and I lift you up and I begin to say, I am not your fucking dog. I am not your puppy. I am not your pet. You need to understand right now, I am the alpha wolf. You want to keep going, little girl? You want to keep playing with my mind, little witch? I am not yours to be broken. You are mine to break. And I throw her across the room. [00:46:56] Speaker B: All right, well, will you roll strength and athletics for me? And you're in frenzy, so there's no way you're not going to use every single ounce of power available to you. So why don't you also rouse, because you're going to add that bonus, too. [00:47:14] Speaker D: All right, that's a success. [00:47:18] Speaker B: Yeah, the beast is more than happy to play along. Put this bitch in your place, Alex. [00:47:23] Speaker D: It's only four successes. [00:47:25] Speaker B: Four successes. Schmendrick, you're still behind the car, right? [00:47:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm still behind the car at this point. [00:47:32] Speaker B: Then you have a great view as Ivy goes sailing above you. It's not a football spiral, not quite that graceful. But you see your witch friend hurled into the distance. And Ivy, for you, it's a little different. The view is dirt and then sky and then dirt and then sky and then fence and shrubbery. Very quickly, all at once, Alex has hurled you damn near out of the lot. And as he goes smashing through this brush, through this broken glass, through the detritus and the debris, and into the fence as it gives away and starts to stretch around you, you'll take two. Superficial damage. [00:48:21] Speaker C: I come running out from behind the car, and I go, Ivy. [00:48:24] Speaker A: Oh, shit. Oh, shit. [00:48:25] Speaker C: And I'm kind of trying to figure out where she landed through all the rubble. [00:48:30] Speaker B: No, she's easy to find. You just got to look for the hole in the fence. Just start where the fence is straight and follow it until it buckles. And that's where she is. [00:48:40] Speaker C: Well, once I find her, just like. Holy shit. Are you okay? [00:48:47] Speaker A: That's a bit of a loaded question, isn't it? On the bright side, I think we figured out for sure what he is. [00:48:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:00] Speaker D: My body posture is still the same. Haunched shoulders, head focused eyes, lasers, staring down ivy and Schmendrick. I can still feel the darkness inside of me just pulling my muscles back, preventing me from going full bore. As my rage continues. The voice just kind of speaks for me. My name is Alex. Or you can call me apex. But you need to know that I am the Alpha. I am in charge. And you will apologize for how you dare speak to me, say my name, and say you're sorry. [00:49:41] Speaker A: I weakly hold a hand up, and I say, okay, Alex. I'm sorry. Oh, God. Are we good? [00:49:55] Speaker D: As she says it, looking up at me, I stare down at her. I raise a hand into a fist, cocked and ready to go like a bullet. And I say, who's in charge? Say it again. Who is in? [00:50:11] Speaker A: You? You, Alex. You're in charge. Okay, calm down. [00:50:19] Speaker D: Okay? Yeah. Remember that. Remember what the hell just came over me? Ivy, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to throw you. I feel very. Almost lightheaded. I feel very conflicted right now. [00:50:38] Speaker B: You want to tell him, tremendrip? [00:50:40] Speaker C: That is that beast thing I told you about earlier. And when you lose control, not a pretty picture. Happens to all of us. But now you know what that feels like. And luckily, I don't think this turned out as badly as it could have. [00:50:57] Speaker D: So the beast that's inside of me. I'm going to be like that. Are you like that when your beast goes? [00:51:05] Speaker C: It depends entirely on the situation. The last time I had a moment like this, I ran and hid in the corner. Sometimes you're angry, sometimes you're very afraid. And sometimes you're just angry. Get it? [00:51:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I think so. I think I might be a little hungry, too. I definitely feel something in my stomach just gnawing away. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I grip at my side and start brushing off the gravel that ended up embedded in my skin. Yeah, that happens when you play with your powers. But that's the next part of our lesson, is teaching you how to find your own food. [00:51:57] Speaker D: Okay, good. Yeah, I think that might be a good next lesson. I think we're done here. And, Ivy, again, I am so sorry. [00:52:06] Speaker A: I just shake my head and interrupt and say, it's fine. I had to test my hypothesis. After all, I knew the risk. Right. I know it's not you. Exactly. And it's a teachable moment because now you know what it feels like, and it's not going to surprise you when it happens for. [00:52:33] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm gonna have to get used to being all of that. [00:52:42] Speaker C: Like I said, alex, it's something we all have to deal with. [00:52:45] Speaker B: If Meyer were here, she would say the rocks, the eyebeam fucking around this part finding out, and that is the sad truth of it. That henceforth, until the day you finally pass the dust, this will always be a threat. Running from the sun, standing up to someone who has wronged you, or tearing into the nearest meal. You have to be on guard for the rest of your unlife. Because the second you let your control slip, that alien is there. That thing that's you, but not is ready. Well, Ivy, that was a productive lesson, wouldn't you say? [00:53:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely learned. Oh, you mean for Alex? Yeah, no, it was productive for him, too. [00:53:44] Speaker B: You feel like you have a better sense of yourself as a vampire, Alex, for better or for worse? Yeah, I mean, hey, that's the undead life in a nutshell. The for betters and the for worse's. Yeah. [00:53:59] Speaker D: Equal know. It's good balance, right? Like all things should be. [00:54:04] Speaker B: Keeping it in balance is going to be one of the great challenges you will face in the nights to come, for many reasons. One of which you are encountering right now. This lesson that Ivy set up with the lifting and the throwing and the dodging and then the throwing, how long did that take? 510 minutes. And you went from fairly satiated in your gut. Not literally. Your gut doesn't work quite like that. But you went from having a pretty good handle on your appetite to feeling rather quite a bit peckish. It didn't take you any time at all to get there. That power felt good. Stronger than you've ever been, stronger than any man you've ever known. Fast enough to dodge whatever the fuck that thing she did. Ask her about that later. That was wild. All that power comes with a price. And you can feel that price bubbling, roiling, waiting. Now, Schmendrick told you there are only three reasons that people ever go into that frenzied state. Losing control like that when you're afraid, fire the sun. When you're angry, being threatened or demeaned, and when you're hungry. Ivy, of course, you've experienced all three of these at various parts of your life, which means you are more than qualified to recognize that antsy little something in your dumber brother's face. So I don't think it's out of line to assume that your next move is going to be to get this kid a bite to eat. [00:55:47] Speaker A: Well, if today is all about how to be a vampire, this is just another one of those lessons. [00:55:54] Speaker B: Fairly important one. I'm kind of surprised they waited till 102. I feel like that should have been in the first class, you know? [00:56:01] Speaker A: Hey, I didn't make the lesson plan. [00:56:04] Speaker B: No, because if you had, it wouldn't have been wrong, right? [00:56:08] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:56:10] Speaker B: But shortcomings of the textbook author aside, there's no time like the present. It would be professor le Roux under normal circumstances, but I don't think Alex is quite at that level. This is more kindergarten at that point. It's Miss Ivy, right? [00:56:28] Speaker A: Miss Ivy. Oh, God. [00:56:31] Speaker B: All right, Miss Ivy, how does the next lesson kick off? [00:56:36] Speaker A: Well, let's go deal with this hunger that you're probably experiencing. We definitely can't do it here because. And I turn, gesturing to the open space around us. There's nobody here, so we need to go find a food source for you. It's very, very important that you learn how to do this safely while still upholding rule number one. [00:57:07] Speaker C: As fun as that sounds, I'm already teetering pretty close to the edge myself. I'm worried about how I might react under these circumstances. And I'll be honest, I don't even know how much help I'd be anyways, considering how I like to sip the sauce. You don't actually need my help, right? [00:57:28] Speaker A: Right. No, we'll be fine. Do you need a ride? [00:57:36] Speaker C: No, I've got so much I need to do. Like, there's this thing I told you about in front of PKJ's office. I'm still working on that project, so I'll need to go and take care of more of that. Make sure I've dotted those I's and crossed the t's, you know? [00:57:54] Speaker A: Okay. I'll keep you posted, I guess. [00:57:59] Speaker C: Of course. You know I always have my phone on me. Just send me a text when you're finished. Let me know how it goes. Keep me in the loop and all that. Uh, don't worry, Alex. I'm sure you'll do great. It's fairly rare that know kill one another when feeding, so I think you've got some pretty good ods there. [00:58:22] Speaker D: Yeah. Thank you, Spenk. Uh, and you. Have fun at your thing. Guess I'll see you again soon. [00:58:31] Speaker C: Will you and I just sort of start walking behind a nearby pillar? Once I've broken sight, I use my off escape powers. And when you expect someone to come walking out from behind it? No one does. I'm just gone. [00:58:46] Speaker D: That is so cool. That's never going to get old. [00:58:49] Speaker A: It does. [00:58:51] Speaker D: I mean, does she turn into you? [00:58:55] Speaker A: No, Schmendrick knows. She knows I call out into the darkness. She knows not to take my face because that would be very rude and very mean and would make me very unhappy. [00:59:14] Speaker D: Look, if we ever do a doppelganger thing, I'll have you shoot the go go magic bloodsickle and we'll be fine. [00:59:22] Speaker A: Just get in the car. [00:59:26] Speaker D: All right, I call shotgun. Unless. Wait, can I drive it now? Because, like, Schmendy did it. Can I do it? [00:59:32] Speaker A: You just hurled me 40ft through the air into a fence, and you want to drive my car? [00:59:42] Speaker D: No, you're right. Not the move. Sorry. That's not cool. I will happily take shotgun. I'm very sorry about that. [00:59:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's probably a good play right now. [00:59:54] Speaker B: It's a little jarring seeing him go from big dog to small dog a. [00:59:59] Speaker A: Little bit, but at the same time, it's not all that surprising. The beast does crazy things to us all, and when you've been around a few decades, you kind of seen it all. I'm usually not this close to a bruha, though, or spend this much time with them, so in that sense, yeah, it is. [01:00:22] Speaker B: I mean, not for nothing, this might be the closest you've been to a bruha, like, ever. [01:00:27] Speaker A: Isn't Anita a bruja? [01:00:30] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but you didn't spend a ton of time with her. And aside from that, like, mommy didn't let you have many friends in the chantry. [01:00:37] Speaker A: I know. And if they were in the chantry, they weren't Bruha. [01:00:41] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. Kids in their private schools, they don't learn diversity like that. But that's neither here nor there. It's a little unfortunate, actually, that his attitude has turned back to the adorable puppy dog that we are all so used to, because what we're about to talk about now is quite serious. Or at the very least, it's intimate feeding preferences being what they are. So given the personal nature of this choice, the degree to which a person's deep seated morals affect how they choose their prey, how do you broach that topic? Where do you even begin to explain? [01:01:23] Speaker A: I turn the car on and start heading back down the gravel drive. I make sure the radio's not too loud because I don't want to distract Alex right now. [01:01:32] Speaker B: And Lord knows that's easy to do. [01:01:35] Speaker C: Very. [01:01:36] Speaker A: But I'm heading south away from Chicago. And before you get any ideas, not that far south. [01:01:45] Speaker B: Be a very interesting feeding experiment. [01:01:47] Speaker A: To the least it would over the of the car. And without looking at Alex, I just start saying feeding is a very important skill to learn. We all have different ways that we like to find our food. Some people like to stalk women in clubs. Some people like to stalk those safely asleep in their homes. Other people like to stalk the local stray animals. So I'm going to just drive around a few neighborhoods, and when it feels right, and trust me when I say you'll know when it feels right, you're going to tell me to stop the car. [01:02:33] Speaker B: Okay. [01:02:34] Speaker D: Sounds good. Not going to lie. Really hoping it's not the in the club one. Because not only do I not do well in clubs, but also that is not my vibe. Not a fan of that brand. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Oh, no, I'm very aware of how much game you do not possess. [01:02:56] Speaker D: I. Yeah, I think we all remember the six one on my Schwinder profile. Yeah. [01:03:03] Speaker B: Hey, everyone's got a type. You're right for somebody. Don't let her talk you down like that. Remember what happened last time? [01:03:11] Speaker D: Yeah. You're not wrong. [01:03:14] Speaker B: Besides, you're not the Alex Scott who was trying to piece a life together out of not enough money and 30 approaching way too fast. You're the Alex Scott who's going to live forever, who doubled his max in one night. You're apex, man. Apex can go into a fucking club. He wants to. [01:03:33] Speaker D: Yeah, that's right. I'm Apex. I'm a goddamn superhero. Fuck that noise. Yeah, but I still don't really want to go to the club to hunt. [01:03:46] Speaker B: So long as you're making that choice for the right reasons and not because someone said something mean spirited about your height. Fibs. [01:03:56] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm not called to it. I'll keep an eye out. [01:04:00] Speaker A: And also, not for nothing, there aren't too very many clubs in this area anyway, because I kind of already assumed that it wouldn't really be your style. We're heading down towards McKinley park. It's anarch territory, but nobody should bother us. Generally, you don't want to go hunt in somebody else's area. Anarchs are kind of an exception to the rule. And I don't think it's a good idea to take you to the rack right now. [01:04:31] Speaker B: Okay. [01:04:32] Speaker D: All right. I trust you. Wherever you think is a good place for me, that's where we'll go. We'll figure it out from there. And you're right. I'm not really a club kid. I tried that out, and the vest only top and gel hair look did not suit me, so I'm not doing that again. [01:04:52] Speaker B: It certainly wouldn't work for you. In this neighborhood, McKinley park is defined by two things. Demographically, it is very working class, and it is slightly majority hispanic. So if the idea is to not attract attention as you seek out your meal vest only and gel would definitely be the wrong choice to make. [01:05:15] Speaker A: With that mental image in my head, I let out just a slight chuckle as I start making a very slow circuit around the neighborhoods in McKinley park. [01:05:25] Speaker D: As we pass through the night. I'm just keeping my eyes looking back and forth, back and forth, trying to look for an answer. Look for an answer that I don't know, to a question I barely understand. And then suddenly I see something. Something very brief. And it shoots through me like lightning. And I quickly reach out with my left hand and touch Ivy on the shoulder. Ivy, stop the car. Stop right now. [01:05:56] Speaker A: I pull over immediately. [01:05:58] Speaker B: What's got your attention, Alex? [01:06:00] Speaker D: I saw something. Somewhere down an alley. I saw. Man. I couldn't help but clock a weapon on him. I could almost smell something violent about him. And I just knew. I knew I need to get after him. [01:06:18] Speaker B: Well, I don't know, Alex. It's a neighborhood in Chicago at night. Plenty of people hanging out on corners. What about this man made it special. [01:06:28] Speaker D: I could tell from his body posture that he was trying to be scary, intimidating, domineering. Couldn't help but catch in the night the glint of a weapon coming from his belt, another tool of his intimidation. And overall, I could just smell, reeking off him, the vibe of wanton violence. This man is standing there as an enforcer to someone else's will. I can just feel every part of me tremble. The thought of feeding and humbling and destroying him. [01:07:04] Speaker B: I can see why you and Josh made fast friends. Well, Ivy has stopped the car, and you exit. And the second your feet hit the pavement, you are in that predatory stance. But like Abby said, everybody's different. You have plenty of ways to approach this man. You could sneak from shadow to shadow, or you could just walk straight up and make sure he has a bad night. What kind of predator are you? [01:07:31] Speaker D: I'm the kind to walk right up to him, look him dead in the eye, and let him make the wrong decision. [01:07:39] Speaker B: So you stalk across the street. He has you made from quite a distance. This is a job, after all. There are a dozen reasons why you don't look like the kind of person who should be in this neighborhood. Whatever this man is guarding, he knows you have nothing to do with it. He gives you that slight little up nod in the moment before it appears certain that you will approach that last moment, where you might sniff out the air and then turn right, knowing this isn't where you belong. But you press forward, and you're probably ten or 15 paces away from him when he finally raises his voice. Nothing for you around here, man. Wherever you're trying to go, I think you're lost. [01:08:23] Speaker D: No, I'm not lost. And the one thing for me that I'm looking for, it's about five eight, maybe 510, and looking right at me. What are you doing, big guy? [01:08:37] Speaker B: Gives you a squint. It's not immediately dangerous. There's a little bit of confusion to it, because Alex Scott, the kind of man who poses shirtless with fish on the Internet, has now challenged this enforcer, and he's honestly surprised. Is it some kind of joke? Is it a prank? Maybe you're mentally ill and lost. There's that moment where he's trying to decide if this is a horrible mistake that you're making and you know it, or if something else is going on. Because there's no way someone like you would say that to someone like him here. So he straightens his posture up. That's funny. But trust me, you don't want to go through with whatever you're thinking. That's not the kind of decision that men like you normally get to walk away from. He tilts his posture just a little bit and places his hand down by his waistband. And you can see him showing off the pistol that he's holding. [01:09:46] Speaker D: Oh yeah, nice piece there, Haas. Ka? You feeling like a real cowboy? Well, alright then. Hope you don't mind if I pony up first. And I can feel my hand moving faster than my mind as I slam five's knuckles into his chest with all my might. [01:10:06] Speaker B: There's a blink of a moment in between that last line, that last little mixed metaphor and your fist where he is ready to say like, what the fuck are you, Eve? And then it connects. So will you roll strength and brawl for me? [01:10:23] Speaker D: All right, that shows four successes. [01:10:27] Speaker B: Well, he musters forward dice in defense, but Ty is always coached the attacker in our game, so it's not a clean, overpowering moment. There is a bit of a struggle, so you wrestle against him, but he's just a man. He doesn't know who or more importantly, what you are. So you've got the upper hand, you got the leverage. You can push, pull, throw, whatever you need to do right now to make sure you hit your fangs in this guy. So tell me how you do it. [01:11:02] Speaker D: I look him dead in the eye, as with one hand he is forced to struggle with his whole body. I look to him and I say, listen, I am really going to need you to put up a bigger fight. Okay, buddy? Please make it worth my while. [01:11:20] Speaker B: Go ahead. [01:11:21] Speaker D: Go ahead. Grab that gun. See how good you are. Close quarters. [01:11:27] Speaker B: It's not clear. Is it terror? Is it confusion? Is he just following orders out of a blank? Evolutionary response? Seems weird to defend himself because you asked him to. But also, it's the right thing to do. And that hesitation probably makes the maneuver clumsier than you would have wanted. But nevertheless, he does reach for his weapon. Let us see what that role looks like. Terror does have the better of him in this moment. He gets one success as he raises the pistol up. Which means you, fast as you are, could interrupt this well before he manages to get a shot off. But if you're the kind of person to play with your food. Wait, let him get a shot off. [01:12:20] Speaker D: Yeah, I want to see him try. I want to see the look in his eyes when he knows he's failed. I'll take the pop off. If I can dodge a bloodsickle, I can probably dodge a bullet while making. [01:12:34] Speaker B: No maneuver to defend yourself. Even one success is enough. And he raises the pistol about chest level. Squeezes the trigger. Ivy halfway down the block. You hear the unmistakable sound of a single gunshot. But are there more, Alex? Because as the smoke leaves the barrel and he knows he hit you, you're what, 2ft away? It's impossible to miss. And I mean, maybe if you took the time to look close, he could see that fresh hole in your brand new shirt. But there's no blood, there's no stagger. There's just. What. What does he see? [01:13:13] Speaker D: He sees the smoke leaving the hole in my chest as I stare at him with a smile on my face. My body knows selling. The impact of his bullet clearly showing to him that his best is never going to be good enough in this moment. And me smiling, looking down his barrel to his eyes. And as I smile greater and wider, for the first time in my life, I can feel my teeth become rigid and strong. And I can feel my fangs unsheath. I look to him and I say, I am not a glutton for punishment. I'm not going to get a second one off, budy boy. So happy trails, pal. And as I knock the weapon out of his hand, I wrap a hand around the back of his head and I sink my fangs deep into his neck. Breaking him, feeding on him. [01:14:17] Speaker B: I didn't tell you this in vampire school, but not all blood is created equal. Some people swear they can taste a ph. D. I don't know if that's true. What I do know is that emotion has a lot to do with it. It's not a metaphor. When I say that you can taste his fear. There's something acrid on the back of that metallic flavor. You can taste that spike of adrenaline, the cortisol, all the human biomachinery. Trying to bring his body up to speed so he can protect himself like this. You can savor that flavor in every single drop. But the kiss is more than a way to feed the human body, the human psyche. No one really knows how it works. But the moment your fangs pierce his neck, you can feel the limp submission of his body as it falls forward into you. In another context, it might be erotic. In this case, it's more about dominance and power. But that can also be erotic in its own way. Especially with this amount pleasure wrapped into it. Because while it's not sexual, it is hot and intimate and fulfilling. It's pleasure you've never felt before. In that first moment back in the shipping container, you had a lot going on in your mind. And it was animalistic. This is the first time you've made the choice, made the selection and had the chance to really process it as it comes to you one mouthful at a time. So the only question I have at this point is, when do you stop? [01:16:09] Speaker D: Since I don't feel the presence of anyone else around. And this is the first time, I'm feeding with my cognitive processing, though. I'm not making a mess of my meal. I'm not going to stop until the meal is done. I'm not going to just bite once and leave. I think I'm going to take my prize. I can feel this meal rushing through my body. I can feel his body getting colder and weaker. The challenge is done. A gun can't kill me. He can't kill me. And I drain him dry. And then, oh, my God, I just killed a man. I just took a life. He's still in my arms. I have committed a crime. I have to hide the body. I have to hide the gun. I have to get out of here. I feel so good. I feel so fucking unstoppable. And I committed a fucking crime. I got to go. I got to leave right now. [01:17:14] Speaker B: I guess we can tick that box on. Lesson learned, too. Because that right there is the essence of what you will struggle with for the rest of forever. The only way to truly satisfy that hunger is to drink until there is no drink left. Anything less than that is an act of self denial. But there for a second, that feeling of needing to dominate him to the point where he doesn't move anymore to where his body goes cold, that is not a human emotion, Alex. That is the essence of vampirism. That is predatory. That is seeing this man as an animal, as something to be hunted, as something lesser than you. And if the man is lesser than you, that means you're something else entirely, right? [01:18:08] Speaker D: Yeah, but I can't let that become my entire mentality. Like, mighty man was a God and he saved people. He could have crushed them and let them die, but it's because he chose to believe in them that he did great things. If I'm going to use this gift, this curse, to be a hero, I have to remember that, yeah, I got to feed, but at the same time, I got to be responsible. I got to be the bigger man. I got to be the stronger man. I must be the dominating elemental force right now. I need to throw the body in the dumpster, hide the gun, and get back to Ivy. I gotta do that right now. [01:18:50] Speaker B: Those three things won't actually take that much time. Ivy, I presume you haven't gone anywhere. You're just waiting for your friend to. [01:19:01] Speaker D: Yeah. And this is an alleyway. There's gotta be some sort of municipal dumpster putting the body in there. Maybe even roughing it up a bit to make it look like he was lacerated by a knife or something. Throw the gun in there, too. Wipe my prints off. Should be done in a few seconds. [01:19:18] Speaker B: Are you attempting to hide this look on your face when you return to the car? [01:19:24] Speaker D: I have no ability to be aware of how my face is looking right now. I am in such a cocktail of feelings. I am ecstatic, euphoric. I am also dysphoric and confused and terrified. And I feel so fulfilled, and I feel so powerful. And I feel like I just got away with murder. Because I did. [01:19:47] Speaker B: In fairness, that remains to be seen. But, Ivy, doesn't take you long at all to peg what's happened. You'd be able to see it on his face. He bothered to get a little closer, but no. The second he steps into the streetlight and you can see that wet, but also sticky, glistening in his beard, dripping down that brand new shirt. There's no way. That was a nice, clean, in n out feed. [01:20:18] Speaker A: Fuck. As Alex walks towards the car, I roll down the window, pop the trunk, and when he gets with an earshot, I say, take it off. Put it in the trunk. I'm not letting you in the front seat when you're covered like that. [01:20:38] Speaker D: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Yeah. I'm just going to also wipe off my face a bit. I proceed to pull the shirt off over my head and use the inside to wipe the blood off my beard and face and hands. I ball it up and I throw it in the trunk. So I come back still very wide eyed and confused. [01:21:04] Speaker B: What's confusing about it makes perfect sense. [01:21:08] Speaker D: It's everything. All the feelings that I'm getting. So many. And they're all amazing, and they're all terrifying, and they're all real. Very real. And I don't know how to process this. [01:21:23] Speaker B: Are you going to help with that, Ivy? Or are you in problem solving mode right now? [01:21:28] Speaker A: A little bit of column a, a little bit of column b. I'm gripping the steering wheel a little too tight, but I need to focus the feelings somewhere. And as I spin my hand around, you can hear the leather moving underneath my hands. Okay, maybe I wasn't clear before, Alex. It is possible to eat and leave people alive. And really, if I'm being quite honest, you should. More often than okay. [01:22:13] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. [01:22:15] Speaker D: I will do better with that. It's really the only second time I fed. And the first time was very. I don't want to think about that. I'm not going to. Noted. [01:22:30] Speaker A: What did you do with the body? [01:22:33] Speaker D: I made it look like he suffered knife wounds to the neck trauma, and then I threw him in the local Dumpster. And his weapon as well. If it gets investigated, it'll look like. I don't know, maybe some sort of gang activity went wrong. Shots fired. Missed in Chicago. Right. Shots fired every night. [01:22:54] Speaker A: You didn't forget to close the wound on his neck, right? [01:22:59] Speaker D: I can do. No, no, I just tore at it with my hands. Let's make it look like a knife wound or something. Or. I don't know. I probably found like, a rusty dagger to the same thing. [01:23:09] Speaker B: It's actually a little bit of a blur, isn't it? [01:23:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I see details, but my memory isn't quite sure if the details are imagined or real or what. [01:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah, unfortunately, that's kind of something that happens. Yeah. Next time you can just lick it and it closes and you're fine. It's like it never happened. [01:23:37] Speaker B: Really? [01:23:39] Speaker A: No. Alex, I'm lying to you for the first time ever, and I choose now to do it. [01:23:46] Speaker D: Look, all I know is all day I've been baby and puppy and all these things. Who's to say this isn't just another joke? We lick it, stick it, it gets better. Like a band aid. I don't know. [01:23:57] Speaker A: No, you're right. You're not a puppy. You're a rotweiler. Because you just tore a human apart. You're right, Alex. [01:24:07] Speaker D: I'm sorry. I'm confused. I'm angry. I'm lashing out at my mentor. [01:24:14] Speaker A: You're a bruja. I get it. [01:24:18] Speaker D: I don't even know what that means. What is that isn't bruja witch in Spanish? What does that even mean? [01:24:25] Speaker A: Look, they did not come to me about the name. Trust me, it's just as confusing for the rest of us. [01:24:31] Speaker D: Okay, so I'm a bruja. I don't know what that means. It means I am super strong, I'm super quick and can dodge things. I'm basically a rack no boy. And then I go find a guy in an alley, I pick a fight with him like I'm Clint fucking Eastwood, and then I turn him into a hamburger patty. I mean, that can't be. [01:24:57] Speaker A: Not it. I mean, this is going to sound a little after school special, but your afterlife is what you make of it. There's a set of confines that you fit in as a bruja. Yes, there are things that you can do. And unfortunately, things about you that you aren't in control over. And to be absolutely clear, killing people is one of the things that you are in control of. And I know this is rich coming from me because I'm this calm, cold, collected being, but we're not monsters. Every time you do something that treats mortals like they're different, every time you let that apex predator become literal, you are putting distance between yourself and humanity. And you know what? It's a pretty long road. You can slip up once, twice. Plenty of people do. I have. But at the end of that, there's a version of you that isn't you. You're just a beast. A howling, starving animal that does nothing but hunt and kill. And that's bad enough, but people like Josh, it's their job to hunt things like that and put them down. It's not about morality at this point. This is your life, your soul, if you believe in that kind of thing. [01:26:40] Speaker D: All right. Okay. Loud and clear. I read you and I'm going to rise to the occasion. If I'm going to be something that I enjoy and like being, then I'm going to have to do that carefully. Thank you. Thank you, Ivy. [01:26:58] Speaker B: I really mean that. [01:26:59] Speaker D: Thank you. I would probably just be a monster if it wasn't for you. And Smendrick and Josh would straight up come kill me, but. Yeah. [01:27:11] Speaker A: I don't know what possessed him not to kill you right away, but you need to be worthy of that. [01:27:20] Speaker D: All right, then I'm going to be. I guess this is the part where I make a big speech about how I will rise to the occasion and with great power. All that. So instead. It's been a long night. I'm just going to say, to being better tomorrow. [01:27:38] Speaker A: To tomorrow night. [01:27:40] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, that's right. I don't have to go to work. [01:27:44] Speaker A: No. No, you don't, buddy. [01:27:48] Speaker B: Ivy, I want to pause here for a moment and ask you a pretty important question. As Alex has reacted to his behavior and listened to you, do you believe his remorse? [01:28:03] Speaker A: I do. I think what we're dealing with now is somebody who's still learning. I had the benefit of being hand picked and hand raised and hand fed. Alex. I don't know what I'm doing here. Schmendrick doesn't know what she's doing here. We're trying to figure out the best way to teach somebody. We know nothing about how to do what we do, but he can't do what we do and isn't how we. Yes, I do believe him for now. [01:28:43] Speaker B: Well, in that case, we'll say that this incident only earns one stain. Does that sound fair? [01:28:50] Speaker A: It does, yeah. [01:28:53] Speaker B: Can't imagine there's going to be much room for discussion on the ride home, which means Alex has a lot of time to contemplate this. And we can use this time to see if Alex rises to the occasion. Will you rule humanity for me? [01:29:09] Speaker D: Of course. [01:29:11] Speaker B: Five successes, and it's critical. [01:29:14] Speaker D: Yeah, critical hit on that. [01:29:17] Speaker B: That is reflective of profound sincerity. That's a level of reflection that most kindred can't manage. So what is it about you, Alex? What makes you special? What do you draw upon in this moment to separate yourself from the beast? What promise do you make to yourself? What oath do you swear? Why do you come out of this a better person than you went in? [01:29:45] Speaker D: As cheesy as it is, growing up in America, you are raised with the Americana of heroes, those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty, and those on a written page that become symbols. And as I consider the culture I grew up in, the symbols that I always had and I took for granted in pop culture and history, I realized now the balance that I'd always taken for granted with my own morality upon that. Upon that mental image of the boys storming the beach, guns blazing, and those tight spandexes with symbols hand stitch on them. Face of that poor girl. The blue eyes and the freckles and the shipping container, that acrid, poisonous taste of that man's fear lingering in the back of my tongue. Put it all together for one greater symbol. I'm going to be apex, top of the food chain. I need to be someone worthy of that. I need to be the best at protecting others as I am at destroying them. I make an oath in my mind right now, right in this car seat, as I'm staring blankly into the night, to the girl I massacred, the man I destroyed, the heroes and symbols that I know are looking upon me, telling me to do better. I hereby swear I'm going to be the best, the apex of humanity with this curse. [01:31:28] Speaker B: It's an oath that many kindred have sworn over the centuries and the millennia. You're not going to be the first who's made that oath. But the good news is, if you manage to keep it, you won't be the first who's succeeded either. But you have to be careful when it comes to fictional heroes, Alex, because the thing about fiction is it isn't real. And it's entirely possible that you're attempting to become something that doesn't actually exist. [01:31:59] Speaker D: Always a first for something, right? Always got to be the one person who did it right and lead the way for. And, hey, worst case scenario, always got blood gal over here to shoot me with blood bullets if I get too far out of line. And holy shit, there's Josh. She'll just murk me. He'll just body me on the spot. So there's that, I guess. [01:32:21] Speaker B: Carrots and sticks. Yeah, well, you have a long afterlife ahead of you and plenty more opportunities to prove us right. Or prove us wrong. For what it's worth, I'm rooting for you. Whether or not you manage to live up to that expectation. Well, that's a story for another night. [01:32:42] Speaker A: You've been listening to the all night society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Klunport games. If you've enjoyed your stay, consider supporting us on Patreon for access to exclusive art, audio, and private fan only games. For more content, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Queens court games or on Twitter at Queens court rpg.