Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] 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: We begin with Anastasia at the Ducheski Manor. Things are significantly quieter, less intense, the very least. No one is throwing things. I don't think one of the very first things Ivy told you was to stay out of the room, that Alex needed his beauty rest. But I imagine that fell to the wayside pretty quickly.
If nothing else, Ivy's not home all the time.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Yes, I've definitely been in and out of Alex's room. Currently, I am sitting on the edge of his bed and I'm playing Cat's Kittle and we've been having a lovely.
[00:01:14] Speaker D: Conversation about my recent dreams.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah, so last night and then it all ended with this avocado talking to me about, like, the map to the treasure is found within the basketball and I think I'm so close to figuring it out.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Alex remains still and battered beside you.
You've had a few opportunities to see what happens. You know, they've been bringing him back blood from various sources. Occasionally, Ivy feeds him directly from her wrist. Other times, Maya provides a bag, something for him to find sucker on, despite his torpid state.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been a vampire for a while, but this entire process is not familiar to me. I don't understand exactly what's going on, but I do know that nobody has been providing Alex with company. And so my part that I'd like to contribute is just to talk to him.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Important question for me, is Alex talking back sometimes?
[00:02:22] Speaker C: We had a very interesting conversation the other day about the Star Wars original trilogy, and it was pretty intense, but.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: He'S got some weird things.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: He's got some facts wrong about what he remembers. He was mentioning something about how Darth Vader's helmet was pink, but I definitely remember it as being green.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Maybe that's just wishful thinking on his part.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: Yeah, probably.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Downstairs, the door opens. Miss Lugasi returning from a trip to the corner store, we'll call it.
You've brought something for Alex this evening? What are we having for dinner?
[00:03:03] Speaker E: According to the bag, a excellent vintage O negative from this year, so I assume it's still good.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Sometimes you go out, you want a dry aged ribeye, a nice potato, some expensive vegetable in truffle oil.
Some days you just go grab some McDonald's and shove it unfeeling into your gullet.
Alex is tort, but he's not going to be able to complain if he does.
[00:03:32] Speaker E: I feel like I'll have something to say about it. This whole mercemaid thing is getting old very quickly.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Yeah, calamity made out of the room pretty quick. Once you got home, Ivy had some kind of Tremere business to handle if the wax seal was to be believed. And it seems like they both thrust this responsibility on you without giving you an opportunity to say typical.
[00:04:01] Speaker E: It's not the first time it's happened. It's just I wouldn't want them to feel entitled to my time and energy. Or take it for granted, rather.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: I don't know that they're taking it for granted, but circumstances being what they are, I can see how some things would slip through the cracks.
[00:04:19] Speaker E: Anything for the team.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Well, there are two ways to handle work you don't want to do. You can put it off until the very last minute, or you can get it out of the way immediately. In this case, I can't imagine Maya wanting to saunter about the mansion carrying bags of blood. Whatever business you have to attend to the remainder of the evening, it will probably be easier with empty hands.
[00:04:42] Speaker E: Absolutely.
Besides, once it's done, then I can get on to doing the other things I need to do with my day. Evening.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Upstairs, then?
[00:04:52] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: And that is where you find Anastasia. How's the cat's cradle going?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: Really fun. I offer it to Maya as she walks in.
[00:05:03] Speaker E: Anna, I'm literally holding a bag of blood. The last time we tried this, you jostled it out of my arms.
[00:05:10] Speaker D: We could try your foot.
[00:05:11] Speaker E: I do not have that kind of dexterity. Nor am I going to call upon the powers of oblivion to play cat's cradle with you.
[00:05:21] Speaker D: Okay. Next time.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Not for nothing, shadow tendril. Cat's cradle? That would be a hideous waste of the powers Kane has given you. But also, it could be said that.
[00:05:35] Speaker E: I have a casual relationship with whatever is beyond this.
It's not that casual.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yeah, you'd feel pretty silly accumulating an umbrell stain because you wanted to see if you could make a cat.
[00:05:51] Speaker E: Pretty much.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Well, nurse made. Maya walking on over to Alex's mostly healed body. There's no rhyme or reason to which wounds his corpse has decided to repair. First, we know that Calamity stripped him out of the combat gear, leaving him, I'm assuming respectfully, in his undergarments, but otherwise available to be witnessed CW naked. Excellent. Do you bother pulling the blanket back?
It's going to be messy.
[00:06:27] Speaker E: The blanket comes off. It's not my first rodeo. Unfortunately, it is a little easier to clean skin off than it is to continuously run. Washing machine.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I wasn't there for it, but I'm guessing Ivy was not happy the first time those linens came out.
[00:06:45] Speaker E: We're just going to dye them sort of a rusty brown and pretend this never happened.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Already halfway there, if the laundry basket.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Is to be believed.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Well, the next part's fairly easy. Wrote, I imagine, at this point, a sharp nail, a little bit of a claw, nick the bag somewhere. And then, like a squeeze pop or a capri sun, you have to roll from the bottom. You wouldn't want to leave any of it still in the bag.
[00:07:12] Speaker E: One of the great things about dying at the time I died is they do happen to have some excellent nails.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: All natural propping Alex's jaw open.
It's a bit like that maneuver they teach you. When someone's choking, you have to kind of reach in and hook the jaw down. It's not rigor mortise. It's just it's stiff.
There's something that feels very mortician table about the whole thing.
Visibly dead but not rotting. Behaving a bit like a normal body.
There's no mistaking him for what he is.
And then the undignified presentation of the meal.
I don't know if it was like this in college in the 80s, but I imagine Ivy, if nobody else would understand the difficulty of pouring a liquid into someone's mouth while they're laying down, all that's missing in this case would be Anastasia in the corner yelling, chug, chug, chug.
[00:08:18] Speaker E: I glance over to Anna just in case.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: I'm just watching with complete concentration, just fascination.
I'm watching the jaw unhinged and just being like that's a lot.
I can't even drink that much in one go.
[00:08:38] Speaker E: It's not the first time we've had to feed a pac member.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: No. And with the Orluck also likely not.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: The last, god forbid.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Aside from the cold, macabre horror of pouring the bag blood into Alex's mouth, you also get to experience the sound.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: It'S for lack of a better word.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: I think this is the most appropriate word.
Squelchy.
[00:09:09] Speaker C: I turn to Maya. Am I allowed know swab a taste of the blood you're giving him?
[00:09:16] Speaker E: I've been swiping Anna away every time she does this, but sometimes kids got to learn.
I'll give her the last drop of what's left in the bag. You can lick the bowl.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: I do.
And immediately all of my excitement just drains from my face, and I just start spitting out whatever moisture I can from my mouth.
[00:09:47] Speaker F: Just.
[00:09:50] Speaker D: This is so nasty. Are you trying to murder me again?
[00:09:55] Speaker E: No, I would do that with fire.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I'm imagining a face a bit like when you give a dog hot sauce and it just can't stop trying to lick the flavor away. And like the eyes blinking, head kind of tilting back and forth, fundamentally confused by the existence of this substance.
[00:10:17] Speaker C: Can kindred cry because tears would be streaming down my face.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: They definitely can. It's just more blood.
[00:10:24] Speaker D: Oh, okay.
[00:10:27] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Speaker E: And if you keep misbehaving, I'll make you smoke the whole pack, kid.
It's a shame you can't drink water to clear that out, can you?
What have we learned?
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Don't like Maya's cooking.
[00:10:45] Speaker E: You know what? I'll take it.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: As repulsive as that is, I don't want to lose sight of what it's like to watch a body mend itself.
Maya, you've probably met Azamis in your day. I don't know if they've ever let you watch, but if so, it would call to memory this process.
Anastasia, you've lived a very privileged, kindred life. Have never had to worry about this kind of thing. But Alex's body, it's roiling in a cronenberg kind of way. This isn't a cute little educational GIF of cell division.
This is finger like tendrils of skin reaching towards one another over an open wound, tangling themselves up, twisting, rising a bit like a loaf of bread, and fast forward on a baking show before flattening back out.
So you get the squishy sound of skin stretching back to where it belongs, but then also occasionally the snap of a bone being tensioned back into place as power beyond your understanding knits all the different little bits together as the marrow spills out and is then slurped up and regenerates.
You can see the sucking chest wound of a collapsed chest cavity inflating a bit like a balloon. And then all the ribs just crack, snap, pop back to form a rib cage.
At one point, there's a bicep the werewolf had done a marvelous job tearing at. So you get to see the muscle fibers come together and then almost as if the body's trying to balance itself, you see the left bicep shrink down as the right one fills up, and then that's too big, so it settles back in, wobbling a little bit like a jelly.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Is that what's been happening the entire time?
[00:12:46] Speaker E: It happens faster after we feed him, but yes.
Holy moly.
[00:12:52] Speaker D: That's so gross.
[00:12:56] Speaker E: Fascinating to see it on a full body scale.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: It's a bit like watching a body decompose, but in reverse. And also brought to you by Guillermo del Toro.
[00:13:08] Speaker E: Aren't you happy that I did my own recovery in private?
[00:13:12] Speaker B: I choose to believe that has nothing to do with Maya wanting to spare other people the indignity and everything with Maya wanting to spare herself the indignity of it being witnessed.
[00:13:23] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Your jaw looks good, though.
[00:13:28] Speaker E: Thank you. I just had it done.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Well, one bag of blood is enough to slake one hunger. That is a single rouse checks worth of healing for Alex. So I think it's safe to say that unless you're interested in making repeat trips to the definitely not legal blood bank, I'm assuming you withdrew from that. There are other bags that need to be fed.
[00:13:53] Speaker E: I reach into the Chicago hospital tote bag I have at my side for this very occasion and continue the process of feeding the baby. For what it's worth, I do offer Anna the dregs of the other bags, just in case.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: I am glaring at the blood bags and I face them with a lot of distrust.
[00:14:13] Speaker E: A lesson is learned. The damage is irreversible.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Sometimes you have to let the kid touch the stove.
[00:14:20] Speaker E: I just wanted to make sure the lesson stuck.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: I am very much convinced that Alex just has awful taste buds.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Well, you're right, but not for the reason you think you're right. Have you seen the way he dresses?
[00:14:35] Speaker C: True, I do have some morbid curiosity, and I'd like to do as little experiment if possible.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: There's only one person in the room who can stop you, and she's not paying super close attention at the moment.
[00:14:48] Speaker C: Okay, if I'm watching the muscles sort of just grow back together. I'm curious to see what would happen if I dangle a little piece of string. In its way, does it just accept.
[00:15:01] Speaker D: It as part of its body?
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Have you ever had stitches?
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Yes. When I was alive.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: You know that after a certain point, the wound has healed enough, you can go and get the stitches removed, but sometimes they leave one behind.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: I always just thought they dissolved some.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Do you have better health insurance than I do? Point is, sometimes an individual stitch or a piece of stitch won't dissolve correctly, or the wound will heal over it, and then over time, you can actually watch, in a time lapse, that piece being pushed out and rejected by the body. Itches something terrible if you're alive. So the string yeah, the wound will heal around it. At first, it has more important things to do than consider the presence of the string. And then, in a very accelerated manner, you can see it get tangled up, woolen fibers with muscle fibers, and then rejected from the corpse.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Well, I was cackling, and now I'm just more disappointed.
[00:16:09] Speaker E: For what it's worth, I do watch that happen with Anna. That is disgusting.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: You've seen worsen. The sabot.
[00:16:18] Speaker E: I know, but it's still cool to watch.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Alex, for your part, not able to watch it. But you can make a rouse check for me.
[00:16:29] Speaker G: That is one success.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Oh, well, I have good news, because that means the last of your wounds are healed.
Wakey, wakey.
Alex comes hurtling back to unlife, paralyzed for a split second by the sounds of helicopters and gunfire, before realizing that the four walls around him belong to the Ducheski Manor. Or maybe that thought hasn't occurred yet. Maybe walls are enough to separate him from the wilderness from which he was almost peeled from this earth. And then, once that initial shock fades away, when he realizes that there's a modicum of safety, that's when the hunger strikes.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Where's the blood?
Where is it? I can smell it. Where is it?
[00:17:27] Speaker B: It's a rhetorical question. He's not asking permission. He knows where it is. He can see the bag. He can see the bags on the floor where Anna has dropped them. He can see the bags that remain in the tote.
Alex, you're not going to let Maya get in your way.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Maya, for your own safety, stand aside right now.
[00:17:47] Speaker E: I appreciate he asked first. Like I said, it's not my first rodeo. Not my first Pac member I've had to bring back from the dead. I get away from the bags and grab Anna's arm to drag her along.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Sprinting backwards with some urgency. I imagine the violence of the gesture shocking to Anastasia's small form, but for good reason.
When a vampire arises from torpor, it is with just enough hunger to maintain a semblance of self control. But if blood is available, they will immediately fall upon it. And if blood isn't available, they will find the first thing they can feed on. In this case, putting the bags between themselves and Alex is what saves this resurrection from leading to another funeral.
Alex, you dive into the bag. There's nothing dignified or quiet or simple about this eating.
Your only objective is to get the bag open. It doesn't matter how. And if at the end of that, you end up dragging your tongue across the plastic on the interior, or scooping a finger full up from your chest where it's dribbled down from your jaws, fangs open, that'll do.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: I feel in my head this abyss void.
[00:19:09] Speaker G: It's just like pain, but scratching from.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: The inside out, not outside.
[00:19:14] Speaker G: And.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: My tongue just starts probing, and I start devouring.
[00:19:21] Speaker G: And I can feel it dripping.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Warm, sticky. That's good.
[00:19:25] Speaker G: One after the other, I muted. I can't stop. No, it's mine. It's mine. How many? Four, five, six? Doesn't matter. I can feel it.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Feeling me, making me back to myself.
[00:19:42] Speaker G: Back to myself.
I'm back to myself.
I'm back to myself. I'm back. I'm back to my I'm back to I'm back to myself. My underwear.
Um hi.
I'm not in a car.
What? How did I get how did I get here?
Where did I go just now I was in a car and I got big time shot, and now I'm here in my undies.
I have a lot of questions.
[00:20:24] Speaker C: I hiss, and I'm hiding behind Maya in. Not like a fear way, but in can't handle the disgust way.
And I just turn to Alex and.
[00:20:36] Speaker G: I just say, you're a oh, hi, Anastasia.
Sorry, I'm a freak.
And then I slowly realizing, further shame, slowly put my hands around my Calvin Klein's.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: The blanket's there if you need to.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Cover yourself more fully.
[00:21:00] Speaker G: I awkwardly, blindly grab out into the universe with a blanket, clutching it. I then wrap it around my midsection down.
[00:21:09] Speaker E: Alex, I'm old enough to be your great grandmother.
I do not think I care what you're wearing down below. You're supposed to be dead.
[00:21:20] Speaker G: Well, I mean, aren't we all just a little dead?
[00:21:23] Speaker E: No dead, or dead less alive?
There's no good way to describe what's going on right now. This shouldn't how are you awake?
You don't know why you're awake?
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Fuck no, I don't.
[00:21:42] Speaker G: All I know is, like I said, I was in the car, something hit my chest really hard. I'm imagining a bullet, and then everything immediately went dark.
And then I thought I heard over and over again calamity and Ivy. I don't know what, but they sounded disappointed, scared. I don't know. I think I did that. I don't know.
And then Darth Vader had a pink helmet. I don't know. I have so many weird half thoughts. And then suddenly I'm awake and I'm not in the car, and I'm here in my underwear again. Sorry, Anastasia.
So you tell me this is my, what, second week of doing this shit? I don't know what this is?
[00:22:37] Speaker E: No. That's what's confusing. It's your second week of doing this shit. That helps. This shouldn't have happened this fast.
[00:22:46] Speaker C: I point to the empty blood bags on the floor and I was like, you drink nasty shit.
[00:22:54] Speaker G: There's a taste in the back of my mouth.
I don't like it.
It's like when you eat a lot of eggs and beer and you get that kind of phosphorus gassy taste in the back of you. Oh, so glad I eat. Bad guys and predators. They taste way better than this.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: It's the anticolaguants you're tasting. Whole human blood is only good for about 48 days, but that's if you find a way to keep it from sticking to itself and clotting up.
[00:23:25] Speaker G: How is it both metallic and ugh?
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Life's chemical mysteries.
But Maya does raise a good point.
The length of time a vampire is committed to torpor is determined by their humanity.
For a baby vampire made a few mistakes, maybe ate the wrong person when they woke up. Not mentioning Alex's names.
You'd expect the curse to claim them for about two weeks, one week if they're a really good person.
It's only been a few days.
[00:24:03] Speaker E: No one's that good.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Apparently that's not true.
[00:24:08] Speaker E: Alex, I don't know how to ask this without getting into some really heavy shit right away, and I don't want to burn out this brain cell you've got.
Are you a man of faith?
[00:24:24] Speaker G: Christmas and Easter, mostly.
[00:24:26] Speaker E: High holy day. Fine.
Not for nothing, you should not be awake this early. Even though Calamity and Ivy brought you back in a terrible state, you really shouldn't be walking. I've never seen anyone get up this fast.
[00:24:46] Speaker G: I start taking a bit of a mental inventory. Hearing that. Thinking about it.
So wait, what you're saying, Maya?
But I'm hearing what you're telling me.
I'm a super bruha supra. That's the dumbest thing I think I've said today, but it's true. Almost a super bra.
No, it just got worse.
That's so cool, though.
[00:25:14] Speaker E: No, it means that somehow you found a moral code you're happy to stick.
[00:25:21] Speaker F: To, to a level that you actually benefited from it.
[00:25:25] Speaker E: Do you understand what that means?
[00:25:28] Speaker G: Yes.
Oh, my God. Yes.
[00:25:35] Speaker E: Means you're a good fucking person.
[00:25:38] Speaker G: Yeah, it's weird. You go your whole life just trying to do your best to do right, and then some weird universal scale finally weighs in and tells you you did a good job doing good. It's kind of weirdly. Validating.
[00:25:54] Speaker H: Oh, my God, I am so disgusted.
[00:25:59] Speaker E: You go your whole life needing to promise yourself that karma is not real and we're controls of our own destiny. And I'm standing here with someone who tells the future and a person who has now just sort of proven that morality does actually come with benefits.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: I mean, vampires don't normally embrace people like Alex. Part of being an acceptable choice for the embrace is being a little morally flexible.
[00:26:30] Speaker E: I didn't even think it came with that.
Most of us don't get those options.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: No, your upbringing is a little bit different. Losambra tend to choose people who they know can make those kinds of decisions.
Alex, it appears, isn't even aware that those kinds of decisions are options.
[00:26:49] Speaker E: Oh, my God.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: You're sitting here in front of a half naked, bloody cinnamon roll of a human being.
[00:26:56] Speaker E: I'm sitting next to a bloody, half naked fucking saint. Oh, God.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: I peek out from behind Maya. I told you my lock combination. If you're a good person, you better not tell anyone.
[00:27:12] Speaker E: Apparently, he won't.
[00:27:14] Speaker C: Okay, I'm fine, then.
[00:27:16] Speaker G: That's an invasion of privacy. And I respect you for trusting me with that. I found myself laughing and extremely validated and excited and so joyous. And then, like a door slamming shut in the back of my head, this loud thud causes this creeping darkness to take hold of me as I realize something.
I already said it. I was in the car with two people. I got shot real bad.
And I wake up here without those two people, and a slow dread starts to come with that realization.
Hey, Maya, let's talk about being so good you can't die later. But I died on the mission.
What happened? Was it successful? Did they make it out okay? Is calamity okay? Is Ivy fine?
Did we get them all? What happened?
Is the werewolf dead?
What happened?
[00:28:28] Speaker E: Ivy and Calamity are fine. For whatever value of fine you want to give it, calamity is missing most of her torso. She will get it back, I assume, much like you did.
Ivy is I want to say she's okay, but I don't think Ivy is personally okay. But she's physically walking around all right.
[00:28:49] Speaker G: So she's ivy okay?
[00:28:52] Speaker E: From what I can tell, yes. The werewolves are gone. The si element was neutralized, and now we're working on the next steps. I don't know where Ivy is. She will be back soon, I hope, having had something good to say about what we do.
[00:29:13] Speaker G: Maya, small question, for Clarification's sake.
Is Calamity also sleeping, or are they awake?
[00:29:22] Speaker E: They are awake and walking around because they knew not to get shot a billion times.
[00:29:28] Speaker G: I thought she was recovering from, like, the waist up or something.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:29:34] Speaker E: You'll learn. You're only two weeks old, and apparently Pure is driven snow.
[00:29:40] Speaker G: That's what a good, healthy diet of Chicago Catholic guilt and superhero Americana gets you, I guess.
[00:29:48] Speaker E: A better variety than broadly Jewish guilt. More refined.
Why don't you put on some clothes and we can talk downstairs?
[00:29:58] Speaker G: Okay? Yeah.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: I'll get dressed.
[00:30:04] Speaker G: I clear my throat awkwardly a few times as my eyes kind of point to the door, if you could.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not getting anna, come on.
[00:30:16] Speaker E: For what it's worth, I am glad you're awake.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: I follow Maya out with one more suspicious glance at Alex, and then I hiss. And then I follow after Maya.
[00:30:29] Speaker G: As they leave, I hiss back very weakly, this little and then I turn around, and I drop the sheet as I look into my closet, and I just kind of smile. I can't help but feel some elation.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: To this under my breath.
[00:30:46] Speaker G: I just say, super bra.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Feels good to be alive. Finger quotes.
[00:30:53] Speaker G: Feels better this time, that's for sure.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Well, at least you know it's not required to murder someone after waking up.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:03] Speaker G: You know, the plus side is no horrible aftertaste in the back of the mouth. That six bag deep flavor is not good right now.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Now you understand a little bit why it's so hard to maintain humanity.
Now, I understand that Maya has a great amount of things to think about that Alex is no doubt overflowing with questions. Anastasia probably a little bit of both. A combination of curiosity and mysteries that need unwound, but can't imagine Maya's going to take that on alone.
And if nothing else, you'll want to wait for Ivy to figure out what's happened, divide up the explanatory responsibilities, but also not cover any grounds that will later require retreading.
With that said, then, let's fast forward a little bit.
I doubt Ivy and Calamity will be arriving at the Ducheski Manor simultaneously. We've pulled that trick once.
There's a juxtaposition that we experience where the mood inside the Duchesski Manor is a bit celebratory.
Confused, but celebratory.
And that does not likely match the expression on your face.
[00:32:19] Speaker H: No.
Given the conversation that was just had and the implications therein, I feel a little heavier than usual.
Goddamn court politics.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: It's bigger than the court now. It's bigger than politics.
You've got 600 years of continuing existential threat to kindred existence.
I mean, the 90s were good. Clinton Gutting, the intelligence community, they were all just kicking back, doing cold War stuff. It's a new millennium now.
Literally. Billions of dollars spent on creating an infrastructure designed to track and find people like you.
[00:33:06] Speaker H: And I can't even get the hell out of Dodge before the hammer comes down.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: No, the stakes are high for you personally. And that's before we consider how you feel about Alex. How you feel about it's. Like you might be okay with Maya dying, not excited. But if you had to pick?
[00:33:27] Speaker H: Oh, I will say Maya has a wit that I admire.
I'll say that much.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: It is one of her redeeming qualities.
I imagine, then, that there's a bit of trepidation as you walk up the steps to this porch that has become familiar to you over the last few days.
A hand reaching out for the door, wondering if Ivy is inside, wondering if hers are the first eyes you will meet. And you will have to call upon every last one of your duplicitous faculties to hide what Rosa has told you to hide.
[00:34:05] Speaker H: Did I ever tell you that my poker face is shit?
[00:34:08] Speaker B: No, not directly, but I can see your character sheet. So yeah.
[00:34:16] Speaker H: Son of a bitch.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: I wonder how quickly that tension will dissipate when you open the door.
There's apparently a team meeting.
You see Maya, you see Anastasia, you see Alex, and you don't see Ivy.
It seems for a moment, you'll have to replace one set of conflicted emotions with another.
[00:34:44] Speaker H: As previously stated, my poker face is shit. So there is a moment of unbridled shock on my face when I look up and see Alex Scott in the flesh, walking and talking and, well, not breathing, so to speak.
And then a little bit of that weight that I felt, it lifts off my shoulders a little, and I'm more relieved than I probably care to admit to myself.
I'll walk over with my usual sideways grin.
Hello, puppy dog.
[00:35:18] Speaker G: Hey, Cal. You're back, and I'm back, and we're all okay and in one piece. And you're in one piece. They told me you were, like, destroyed in half or something, and then you were walking around. I don't know.
I'm just glad to be here.
[00:35:33] Speaker H: Oh, there's a whole story. I don't know if you've ever seen what Shrapnel does to a torso, but.
[00:35:40] Speaker G: I have not gone down that YouTube rabbit hole yet.
Maybe later.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Yikes.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Doesn't need to wonder that hard, you're standing in front of him.
[00:35:50] Speaker H: I'll kind of lift the corner of my T shirt and show him one of the nice little it's like a divot a little bit like where some folks who are muscular have those, like, that line. It's that, but it's definitely, like, jagged and looks like a piece of metal that someone popped out with.
[00:36:07] Speaker C: Tweezers.
[00:36:08] Speaker H: It's unsettling, but I'm kind of proud of it. I can't lie.
[00:36:15] Speaker G: My initial reaction is to poke it, but I catch myself halfway. My finger has the jaunting and then the retreat.
Respectfully, of course. Respectfully. And looking at that, I just stand up and I whistle.
Damn. It's like you got your Ryan Reynolds right there. But it's a wound also. Holy shit, you're badass. You took a whole grenade to the chest. What was that? Shrapnel.
[00:36:47] Speaker H: That's that's a big, whole other story that we should probably discuss at a later date.
[00:36:54] Speaker G: Yeah, we probably should have a discussion, too. I just came up from, like, whatever it was, and I think we're trying to figure out what to do next because I left on a big high note, if you will, and I'm very confused. But I'm alive, right?
[00:37:16] Speaker H: In a manner of speaking.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Calamity, not for nothing, you also expected Alex to be out for a little longer. Although I would expect, having spent more time with him. It's less of a shock to you?
[00:37:29] Speaker I: Yeah.
[00:37:33] Speaker H: It'S more a little strange. I haven't met that many fledglings in my time, but even so, I was expecting another week, week and a half.
This is new.
But as you said, given what I know of the pup, not entirely surprising.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Maya. Anastasia, you've been privy to this reintroduction, of course, if for no other reason than it interrupted the conversation you were already having.
[00:38:09] Speaker E: Calamity, how was your meeting?
[00:38:13] Speaker H: Informative.
[00:38:15] Speaker E: There's no bullshitting a bullshitter. I can see there's something behind Calamity's face.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Well, that's something we can let the dice resolve.
Maya, you would roll wits and insight, Calamity, to defend against that. What posture are you taking? Now, when you see Maya trying to read you, how do you push back?
[00:38:42] Speaker H: It's something that I've encountered before, and it is something that will always get my hackles up.
I'm not a fucking book bitch.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: So you square your shoulders off a bit and narrow your eyes, daring her to push.
[00:38:57] Speaker H: And as I look straight into my face, I just tell her it was informative.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: Then let's call that intimidation and composure.
[00:39:09] Speaker H: You know, it's been a rough couple of days, and I'm a little hungrier than I usually like to be when I start my night.
[00:39:19] Speaker B: So how many successes from that?
[00:39:22] Speaker H: There's one success.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: And, Miss Lugasi, the last time I.
[00:39:27] Speaker E: Checked, three is more than one.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: I didn't do too well on my gres, but I do believe that math is correct.
Unfortunately, Calamity, that means you are at the risk of a bestial failure. So I will let you decide which of these things occurs.
You can either assent to Maya reading you, she will know that something happened in that meeting disturbed you, that it is likely deeply personal in nature, attached to the coterie, not a generic being upset about Chicago politics, or, oh, I'm so mad I have to stay in the city.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: She would be able to tell that.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: It'S related to someone who lives in this house.
Alternatively, the beast hates being probed.
You could lash out in a way that people would say is stereotypical of gangrel who don't understand how to behave themselves in polite company, but it would be a violent escalation.
[00:40:21] Speaker H: The temptation is there. I won't lie to you.
This high top bitch thinks that she can just pry into me on a whim. And there's a moment where I feel my fangs pushed in my bottom lip, and I feel like that itch in the tips of my fingers as my nails come to claws. And then I square my jaw, bite my tongue. Because if there's one thing that I'm.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Very good at, it's that self control in place of poker face. That being said, then, maya. Yes. You've been in enough business meetings with people who have things to hide, who show up with a weak contract and are trying to bully you out of the room with a lawsuit. Or, you know they're lowballing you. Or, you know, they brought an ounce when they said they only had an 8th. Calamity is hiding something from you, and it's something that makes her afraid on a personal level.
[00:41:17] Speaker E: We don't have to talk about it now if you don't want to, but the safety of the coterie includes my own safety, and I'm disinclined to let that sort of information stew.
The safety of the coterie does rely on sharing information.
I wouldn't want anything to happen to any of us. I wouldn't want anything to happen to Alex because you were keeping secrets.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: It's going to take a good few minutes before that tension diffuses in the room.
If there's one thing most kindred learn, either because it is explained to them by their sire, or they learn a hard lesson with one of their elders.
Knowing when to walk away before things.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Get worse is a survival skill.
[00:42:09] Speaker E: As I said, you don't have to talk about it now if you don't want to. I'll check in later.
[00:42:16] Speaker H: I'm sure you will.
[00:42:19] Speaker B: We, after all, are all waiting for Ivy to return before digging into the conversation proper, despite how pleasant it feels to be among your peers.
Little conversations about Thomatergies. From what I understand, you're getting along fairly well when you realize it's time to stop having fun and go back to work.
[00:42:43] Speaker I: It's been a breath of fresh air.
There's really nothing like being able to talk shop, as it were, or just relate to another intellectual about the same sort of topics.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: You could add Maya, Calamity and Alex's brain together and they wouldn't have as much to talk.
[00:43:08] Speaker I: No, and I imagine that there would be lots of conversations about cat's cradle and other such inane ramblings.
This has been a delight.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Well, try not to let your disappointment be obvious when you return to your home.
[00:43:28] Speaker I: We all have our responsibilities, do we not?
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Keep saying that.
I understand you wear them on your shoulders as a badge of pride.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Or epilepsy of pride, I suppose, if.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: They'Re on your shoulders and not your chest.
But Alex and Calamity and Maya seem to be doing just fine, enjoying life without so much weighing upon them.
[00:43:52] Speaker I: Yes, well, it's only because one of us is managing those things.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: That's true.
You seem to keep inheriting responsibilities, even ones that I don't think clearly are your own.
I gave a pass to Alex, if for no other reason, the prince has commanded you, and you're a good girl.
But Maya and Calamity, that's something a little different.
Certainly all of Schmendrick's messes, the things that Josh has thrust into your lap. What's your excuse there?
[00:44:27] Speaker I: I suppose because I am attached to them tangentially.
They are part of this group and we all rise and sink together.
Calamity's here in the city for a time. She was here for the job, and I don't know how long she'll be here after it.
Maya, I think I'm stuck with Maya, unfortunately, until she's sent out of the city, if for no other reason than because she's attached to the now Lasombra primogen of the city. And I have to keep up the good impressions, so I have to keep the la sombra primigen happy, which means I have to keep working with Maya. So long as that's what the Primigen wants.
It's all about duty.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: She may be irritating, but allies are allies.
[00:45:25] Speaker I: Hard to find.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: Well, do as your mother told you. Stiff posture, square shoulders, smile on your face. There are guests.
[00:45:37] Speaker I: Yes, and when you have house guests, you have to tend to all of their needs right up until they leave.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Well, you see, Calamity having returned, that will no doubt be a cause for conversation later. Maya and Anastasia still in one piece.
Alex's wounds look exceptionally well tended to.
[00:45:59] Speaker I: There's a look of shock on my face, I think is the best word for it. And I just cock my head and say alex.
[00:46:14] Speaker G: Ivy. Ivy. You're alive.
You're safe. It's so good to see you. Last I remember, we were in the car, and then those guys shot me. Like, I got shot really bad. And then I woke up again. I'm so sorry. I was apparently in my underwear. Hey, we're not doing hugs, right?
[00:46:38] Speaker E: Ivy, that's your kid?
[00:46:41] Speaker I: No, because he should still be out, so that can't be him.
[00:46:48] Speaker E: You should be so proud to find out that you're raising a goddamn.
[00:46:57] Speaker I: To be it has to be blood magic, right? Like the Charles thing? Again.
[00:47:03] Speaker E: Do you think that I am capable of the kind of goddamn fucking blood magic?
[00:47:11] Speaker I: No, but it could be another it's really you.
You're really up and moving around right now.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:28] Speaker G: I'm sorry I let you guys down out there.
Next time I'll try to do better about I'll just do. Yeah, no, like, I I was out for, like.
[00:47:42] Speaker I: Not not enough days.
[00:47:45] Speaker D: Three days.
[00:47:45] Speaker E: Congratulations, Mary.
[00:47:48] Speaker G: Is something not complete? Did I miss a wound?
[00:47:52] Speaker I: I don't think anybody in this coterie has ever seen me look as confused as I do in this very, very brief moment before I realize that I'm giving off that look of confusion and try and wipe it off my face to get back to business. Because this is astonishing. I have never known a Kindred to enter and exit Torpor in 72 hours. That is not I mean, mostly unheard.
[00:48:22] Speaker B: Of, but not unheard of. And it shouldn't take that long for the confusion to recede and the truth to emerge.
You're a scientist. If there is one specific set of circumstances that could lead to Alex being awake, no other alternative explanations, seems to me that we know the answer.
[00:48:45] Speaker I: We do? Yes. It's still just a surprising result.
Not one that you're expecting.
We could test this, of course.
Throw him into Torpor and then see if he wakes up in three days and if it was actually a thing. Somehow I don't think that people are going to be up for that level of testing. But we'll just have to go with the information we have now.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: I suppose, if nothing else, you don't have to wait a few more weeks for that big old smiling mug to follow you around.
[00:49:18] Speaker I: I really liked being able to get out of the house.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: Well, on that note, I do believe the next topic of conversation involves leaving the house. This is the first time the Coterie has assembled to discuss their findings.
We have a fairly good idea of at least which subterranean level Jason Newberry is being kept on, if not his exact location. Your enthusiasm for Alex's return notwithstanding, that would seem to be the most important question facing the group. So let's fast forward to that.
We can assume all of the information that needs to be shared is caught up. Everyone's brought into the loop. Ivy would not miss an opportunity to explain in great detail how she arrived at the information she has uncovered. Maya would not miss an opportunity to make sure that Ivy does not outshine her to such a degree.
Alex, Anastasia, you have different kinds of narrow vested interests in these questions, but certainly enough to want to pay attention. And, Calamity, it's not like you have anything else you want to talk about. So let's begin there.
We've talked about the tunnels under the city, apparently several hundred feet underneath Chicago.
Jason newberry waits.
[00:50:38] Speaker I: So basically, we know that he's underground. And the unfortunate problem is that it does not make it any easier to figure out how we are going to get there. And as loath as I am to ingratiate myself to another kindred, I'm concerned that our only option might be to reach out to the nosferatu of the city.
[00:50:58] Speaker E: If it involves trudging through sewers, yes, that would be the case.
[00:51:04] Speaker I: I mean, sewers.
[00:51:08] Speaker G: This was a pretty high up there Malkavian, right? Used to be. Correct.
[00:51:13] Speaker E: Yes, the high up.
[00:51:16] Speaker I: The Primogen. The Malkavian primogen.
[00:51:20] Speaker G: Right. The Primogen. So would it stand to reason that the Primogen and the Malkavians would have guards protecting their sleeping body? Assuming that they're sleeping and nothing else? I mean, if it's anything like what I just went through, there's not a lot of fist fighting you can do when you get attacked by five.
So, like, do we know if there's anyone on the payroll or whatever?
[00:51:48] Speaker I: Well, this is the concern that we had when Anna showed up, because our thought is that if she's actually communicating with Newberry, and Newberry is in Toropor because he's been staked.
When you get staked, Alex, you remember you were paralyzed, but you were still cognizant of what was happening around you, right?
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Yeah, a little bit.
[00:52:20] Speaker I: So think about what you just woke up from. Right. We call that torper. Okay.
You didn't have any recollection. You weren't aware of what was going on. Right.
So being staked, very different.
We know that they staked Newberry ahead of putting him wherever they put him.
The problem is, every night we wake up, our body uses vita. We get hungrier.
Statistically, Newberry should be in torpor because there's no vita left in his body to power it.
But if he's still communicating with Anna, somebody might be feeding.
[00:53:11] Speaker G: So potentially someone is down there feeding him.
But that means that there would still be someone else there that could also pose a threat. Or maybe we could get hands on and get more information from actually, the.
[00:53:30] Speaker E: Puppy has a point.
Checking in on Newberry's payroll.
Anna, you have friends, right?
[00:53:42] Speaker C: Like, you?
[00:53:45] Speaker E: Anna, you have siblings, right?
[00:53:50] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:53:53] Speaker E: It is possible that if we can look into Newberry's holdings, there might be something that we can suss out. Maybe he has an assistant.
I can't imagine we can stage construction in a similar area.
[00:54:10] Speaker I: Actually, you kind of have a friend who's in construction. I'm curious about the logistics of that because it is kind of a government thing, and I don't know how much construction Horatio Ballard does for the government.
[00:54:28] Speaker E: Two problems, though. I have considered it as well. The first being digging around or staging construction around the site where we know or might know where Newberry is hidden is not going to be subtle.
Additionally, and not that I think you care not thrilled to continue adding points on Horatio's ledger. If I can avoid it, eventually, that's going to outweigh the benefit for him nevertheless.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: Good to have options.
[00:55:00] Speaker C: I have an idea.
Maybe if we play ukulele on the boat, it would magically lead us. Or maybe, like, the vibrations of the music notes would pinpoint the location.
[00:55:14] Speaker G: Is that a thing?
[00:55:16] Speaker E: Is that a metaphor?
[00:55:18] Speaker C: Well, the first drawing that I made.
[00:55:20] Speaker E: That Maya really liked that is upsettingly sensical. I don't like thinking that I've made any sense of something that came out of your mouth.
Dowsing right. Sounds stupid as hell.
We have a vague sense of how far the tunnels stretch under the lake. We make it an exact location if we throw Anna on a boat, let her sniff it.
[00:55:55] Speaker G: Get it? I get that I'm like a little puppy dog here. I'm a little baby, but come on. I think we're trying way too hard to make this way too complicated. We're trying to get in the sewers. They do ghost tours down there all the freaking time. I can easily just slip away from a ghost tour after getting access, and I'll just heman a grate off the wall. Like, this isn't rocket surgery here, people. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think we can just keep it simple.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: Sweetie, I need to know immediately.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: Ivy, the plan has been reduced from.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: 70 steps to three steps, and I know that your brain doesn't like that. So what face are you making right now?
[00:56:36] Speaker I: Every part of my face is scrunched up right now, actually. I'm very confused by this idea, especially because people have been throwing out a variety of feasible ideas, and it's all very complicated. So there's no way it could be as simple as just taking a ghost tour. My eyebrows are furrowed together, and there's that little wrinkle in between them, and my mouth is upturned on one side and there's that small wrinkle at the top of my nose. And I just say, what are you talking about?
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Very intellectual disgust. Chic.
[00:57:14] Speaker F: Every question I have following Alex's statement.
[00:57:19] Speaker E: Starts with are you?
[00:57:19] Speaker F: And ends with idiot.
[00:57:27] Speaker H: I mean, why make anything more complicated than it needs to be if we need to get down there? And the fastest way to do it is to throw somebody a couple of dollars and wander on down without anybody looking at us sideways.
[00:57:41] Speaker I: No, look it, we need to get down into the tunnels. We're not talking about the pedway, we're talking about the deep tunnels. They don't do ghost tours in the deep tunnels.
[00:57:53] Speaker F: That would be insane and a security violation.
[00:57:57] Speaker G: Do we all forget we have the Queen of Darkness with us in a dark sewer? How hard would it be to go down there, throw them $20 to get on the tour?
Miss Lagasse can do her I gesture like a wizard I saw in a superhero movie once, and we can just be out of sight, out of mind, and we don't have to jump through 19 hoops again. I can rip something off a wall, no problem.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: We'll go from there.
[00:58:27] Speaker F: Full offense. It's not an issue of whether I can sneak off. It's an issue of whether you can sneak off.
[00:58:34] Speaker H: I mean, the less we have to potentially poke around with the federal government, the better, honestly.
[00:58:41] Speaker A: In fairness, Ivy, there were vertical connections.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: Between different layers of the tunnels. You know that much? Not necessarily exactly where they are, but it's not unthinkable.
[00:58:53] Speaker I: Yeah, but I mean well, hold on. At this point, I'm going to grab all the maps and stuff because now I have to see can we get to where we need to go? Check the ghost tours, figure out where they pop in?
I don't know. Maybe.
There's a slim chance this has legs.
I need to put the puzzle pieces together. Just give me a second.
[00:59:30] Speaker B: Speaking of gestures like a wizard, as Ivy rearranges the papers and starts drawing, it looks ritualistic, almost fingers tracking this.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: Way and that way across the paperwork.
[00:59:44] Speaker I: I'm going to hang my head a little bit and then turn to look at Alex, then slowly turn my head to look at Maya.
[00:59:54] Speaker F: Ivy, I fucking swear.
[00:59:56] Speaker E: Please don't say it.
[00:59:57] Speaker I: Look, it would stop you from having to talk to Ballard and further indebt yourself.
I'm not saying we hop on a.
[01:00:08] Speaker G: Ghost tour, but oh, no, we should totally go on this ghost tour. It would be kind of cool, though.
[01:00:14] Speaker H: I'm a little curious. I'm not going to lie.
[01:00:16] Speaker F: I am not paying for a fucking ghost tour.
[01:00:20] Speaker I: Yes. Okay. What I'm saying is it should not be very difficult to find out how they get into the tunnels that they tour through and for us to avail ourselves of said entrances as well. And then and I'm going to hold up the maps and point to different access points.
There are a few different ways we can go, but it's not the quickest way.
But it's not the worst way.
[01:00:59] Speaker H: So, ghost tour?
[01:01:02] Speaker G: Oh, no, not just any ghost tour. This is the ghost tour.
[01:01:09] Speaker I: I glance at Alex.
You've been thinking about this for a long time, haven't you?
[01:01:17] Speaker G: Ever since I was living.
[01:01:21] Speaker H: Well, pup. Now I'm kind of curious.
What is this special ghost tour exactly?
[01:01:29] Speaker G: I can feel the excitement rising in my chest. And I know that it's probably not going to be helpful because I am just two tail wags away from an info dump. So I stop myself and I say it's really cool. And I don't know if this conversation is conducive to the deliberations at hand.
[01:01:53] Speaker H: All right, why don't you tell me about it later then?
[01:01:57] Speaker G: It's so cool because it's in the sewer, but it's where all the gangsters used to do their stuff. I'm telling you, it's oh, sorry. I did it again. Anyway. Please continue, Ivy.
[01:02:07] Speaker I: I am completely ignoring this conversation and packing up all of the maps. Now that we have a new plan, it's time to go through and make sure everybody has updated copies of the plan. I have a lot of work to do, and it does not involve talking about this ghost tour.
[01:02:27] Speaker B: Well, we went from overcomplicated to undercomplicated training.
[01:02:32] Speaker A: Complicated for enthusiasm in this case, thanks to our young Bruja.
But the night is still young. From Maya Lugasi. Are there last minute preparations that need doing?
Surely your responsibilities, if not to the coterie, then to yourself, do not end with licenses and EPA reports.
[01:02:58] Speaker F: They don't.
I just have one last loose end to tie up.
[01:03:06] Speaker A: Does that loose end have a name and address?
You're going to have to give me some more information to go off of here.
[01:03:14] Speaker F: She's upstairs.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: Oh, that one.
[01:03:20] Speaker F: She's a liability. I can't take her with me.
I don't want to risk having anyone interfere with us.
[01:03:29] Speaker A: Now, if this is about the whole me insinuating that Jason Newberry might take control of Anastasia like a pawn and then use her to kill all of.
[01:03:39] Speaker B: You, that was just hypothetical.
[01:03:40] Speaker A: I don't know if that's going to happen.
[01:03:43] Speaker F: Well, fortune favors the prepared, and I refuse to be caught unaware at this.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: Mean. That might be the most mylugassi thing to do.
I understand.
The more important question is going to be, will Anna understand?
[01:04:06] Speaker F: She's not going to have a choice.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: She hasn't struck me so far as the person who cares a great deal about having agency. But that was before we were on the cusp of discovering of pulling back the curtain on the single most important figure in her life. And on life.
But hey, why wait to find out? This isn't a question we have to roommate on. We can answer it right now as we head upstairs in the Ducheski manor to find Anastasia doing.
What are you doing?
[01:04:44] Speaker D: I'm playing with more string.
[01:04:47] Speaker F: Where do you keep getting it?
[01:04:50] Speaker C: I don't know.
[01:04:51] Speaker D: Sometimes I just pick at clothes, turn it into yarn. Stuff flying around. This place is huge. There's a lot of things.
[01:04:59] Speaker A: I like the idea that there was once a very expensive knit sweater somewhere in Ivy's closet. And now it is yards and yards and yards of spider webbing cat's cradle.
[01:05:12] Speaker F: There's a spider like quality to the room at this point, I'm sure.
[01:05:18] Speaker A: Are we still at the point where you knock before entering the room? Were we ever at that point?
[01:05:24] Speaker F: I will today.
[01:05:27] Speaker A: Then we begin with a knock on the door.
[01:05:31] Speaker F: Anna.
[01:05:32] Speaker D: Hello, best friend.
[01:05:36] Speaker F: Hi, Anna.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Small question for me. Scale of one to ten. How difficult it is it for Maya to make out Anastasia through the various spider webbing strands of yarn?
[01:05:51] Speaker F: I feel like I'm in Mission Impossible somehow.
For kids.
[01:05:58] Speaker A: Well, that question settled. Please continue.
[01:06:02] Speaker F: Anna, I need you to get your things.
[01:06:05] Speaker D: Okay.
[01:06:06] Speaker C: It's going to take a while, though.
[01:06:07] Speaker D: So I have a lot of things what are we doing? I'm like bundling piles of yarn in my arms as I'm talking to her.
[01:06:17] Speaker F: You know what I have learned? There are some questions we don't ask.
We need to go.
It's not safe for you here anymore. And I have arranged for something better.
[01:06:35] Speaker C: And you ivy.
[01:06:36] Speaker D: Sort of sucked.
[01:06:38] Speaker A: Sort of doing a lot of work in that sentence.
[01:06:42] Speaker F: Yes. And we have overstayed our welcome, I am sure.
[01:06:46] Speaker D: Did I still say thank you to her? Or goodbye?
[01:06:50] Speaker F: It's best we don't.
[01:06:53] Speaker D: Well, then, fine. Rude.
[01:06:56] Speaker F: It's not rude. She just won't appreciate it. And I think you've left her a lovely body of work. I indicate what I can only describe at this point as a labyrinth of its own string.
[01:07:08] Speaker A: I find the madness web metaphor a little on the nose, but no one said Goodart. Had to be subtle.
[01:07:17] Speaker F: I don't understand how it is also somehow load bearing.
[01:07:24] Speaker A: It's an interesting scene. Because Anastasia is collecting yarn. The question then being where to pack it. Because we've established Anastasia did not arrive in the coterie with luggage or belongings generally.
[01:07:37] Speaker C: It's true.
[01:07:38] Speaker D: I've been stuffing it in my sweatshirt.
[01:07:41] Speaker A: Visibly pregnant with crafting supplies.
[01:07:44] Speaker F: I'll be downstairs when you're ready.
I can help you gather your things if you need, but it looks like you've got it under control.
[01:07:53] Speaker D: Yes, I look like the Stay Puffed Marshmallow man with my yarn at the moment, and I am very pleased with the result. And so I waddle after Maya.
[01:08:06] Speaker F: Hey, Anna. I can't help but ask. Your dad hasn't spoken to you since, well, these last couple days, has he?
[01:08:17] Speaker G: No.
[01:08:19] Speaker D: But sometimes he likes his hymn time.
[01:08:24] Speaker F: Okay, well, maybe that gives you you time.
[01:08:32] Speaker D: I don't think I've ever experienced you time before. I wonder what that's like.
[01:08:37] Speaker A: Clarity not something that comes easily to the mind of Anastasia Khan. Anastasia, I have to ask. Do you find it suspicious the way that Maya is avoiding not only informing you of whatever plan she may or may not have, but informing anyone else in the house of that plan?
[01:08:55] Speaker D: To be completely honest, I am not suspecting anything. I am totally used to secrecy from my dad and then having it be a giant surprise at the end of the week or, like, at the end of the month or at the end of the year. And so I am fine with the secrets being kept because normally and in the past, it's worked out well for me.
[01:09:17] Speaker A: There is a layer of tragic helplessness in that that I wish we had more time to interrogate. But that has indicated the kind of energy that Maya can expect to encounter as you descend the staircase and head out to the porch. No doubt a car you have summoned waiting for you.
And it strikes an interesting picture because we have camera facing the front of the manor, a very dower building.
And then the juxtaposition of two faces. One giddy with excitement, looking all the more ridiculous based on the clothing. There's a surprise coming. Can't wait to find out what it is.
And then another face. Pardon if I'm presuming, Mayan, but you haven't given me the impression you're going, well out of your way to hide the mood.
[01:10:07] Speaker F: The nice thing about having a reputation for being a little bit brooding is that even if I am uncomfortable with the situation, it's not like you could tell we going to best friend town. Best friend town. Best friend town.
[01:10:25] Speaker E: Are you singing?
[01:10:32] Speaker F: No, it's fine.
We sort of are.
[01:10:37] Speaker A: I don't imagine best friend town is the address you give to the driver.
[01:10:45] Speaker F: No, but Chinatown is.
[01:10:47] Speaker A: Is this information that you gave the driver in advance or information that you were revealing to Anna? Now?
[01:10:53] Speaker F: I'll tell them now. I don't want them to have a trail if I had to pre arrange this.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: Fair enough.
Well, now you have a destination. We know where Best friend town is. It's in Chinatown. Saves a lot of money on the sign when you can keep the town and just change the first few letters. Production department is very happy about that.
But the car goes into motion. Maya, is the enthusiasm grinding on the guilt, or does it assuage your concerns?
Anna's Fallacy seems perfectly happy to go along with whatever it is you have in mind. You're the one who knows what you have in mind.
[01:11:38] Speaker F: I get the feeling that right now anna would follow me off a cliff and then some if I asked.
And that's the problem.
[01:11:51] Speaker A: Why is it a problem?
That's a power you've felt more than happy to wield in the past.
I would say it's what makes La Sambra. La Sambra, to say nothing of the Sabat influences.
Your birthright was the power to lead people who don't ask questions.
[01:12:15] Speaker F: This is different.
[01:12:20] Speaker A: You're going to have to explain yourself.
[01:12:29] Speaker F: I don't know that I can.
But have you read of Mice and Men storyteller?
It's she doesn't know any better.
[01:12:46] Speaker A: A simultaneous cruelty and kindness.
Honestly, a little paternal.
Not a vibe that I've expected out of Miss Lugassi in the past.
[01:13:00] Speaker F: And hopefully not one that you will get in the well.
[01:13:06] Speaker A: All the same, the drive continues.
Anastasia alex told you what they're going to do.
You know, in a few nights, all your friends, they're going to creep up to the edge of Lake Michigan, find themselves a sewer great. Or something like, scurry down like little mischievous dwarves into the depths of the city and see what they can dig up.
[01:13:33] Speaker B: Spoiler alert.
[01:13:34] Speaker A: It's your sire.
[01:13:36] Speaker C: I know.
[01:13:37] Speaker D: It's a really nice surprise that they're doing for me that really shows how much they care about my happiness. And the fact that they're willing to do this, give me back the person I care about the most.
[01:13:51] Speaker C: I can't get over how nice these people are.
[01:13:53] Speaker D: I can't believe that I just met them, but Ivy is a little weird. But I'm so excited for what the future brings.
I think I finally found my family.
[01:14:09] Speaker A: I know in my heart of hearts what my imagination is telling me is that Anastasia is sitting next to Maya and then just bubbling up with that energy.
[01:14:22] Speaker B: A bit like the energy of a.
[01:14:24] Speaker A: Child who can tell by the dimensions of the package that they are going to receive the gift they asked for. There are only so many things that are super Nintendo shaped.
[01:14:33] Speaker D: Once my dad is back in my life, it's going to be like Christmas every day.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure your desire to keep things secret, Maya, appreciates that Anastasia is opting for quiet childlike enthusiasm. In on the joke. Kid doesn't need to talk about going to Chuck E. Cheese. I know where we're going. I don't need to make a big deal. But you know what? You worked really hard on the surprise, Maya, and I don't want to ruin your part of the excitement by telling you I know where we're going.
[01:15:02] Speaker F: I do my best to reassure Anna, but I don't know that I'm a terribly reassuring presence on the best of days.
[01:15:14] Speaker A: You weren't when you were alive, and it's only gotten worse since you died.
Your particular shred of Kane's curse makes you constitutionally incapable of being reassuring.
[01:15:28] Speaker F: I give her the weakest smile because it's the most genuine I can conjure right now.
[01:15:35] Speaker A: A moon that will have to suffice until you arrive at your destination.
Rent, like, everywhere in Chicago. Quite expensive, but a nice little studio in Chinatown, not out of reach.
[01:15:51] Speaker F: I'll open the door for Anna, the car is prepaid for and pre tipped and point her inside.
[01:16:05] Speaker A: Refurnished.
I don't know that Anastasia would be able to tell the difference between a place that has. Been assembled via corporation or one that you had done up for her.
If anything, I suppose it's the art that gives it away. They always have that very generic, bland, middle aged white woman decor calling to mind a very specific color palette and a very specific type of live, laugh, love, chic artwork.
[01:16:39] Speaker F: They may have overdone it on the beige.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: And curiously, a lack of streamers.
I have to say, Anastasia, so far as the headquarters for Operation Rescue my dad goes, it does not seem dressed for the occasion.
Simultaneously, a lack of balloons and streamers, but then also a lack of master plans on the wall.
[01:17:06] Speaker D: Maybe they're hidden, or, like, I have to look for it, or maybe they're just really bad at decorating.
I step into the apartment super excitedly, and the first thing I notice is, like, a big painting of a giant baby on the wall. And it's just staring at me. And I feel a little confused because I really think that my friends have my best interest in mind, but I didn't expect them to have such terrible taste.
And maybe they're having budget reasons or whatever. I get it. But I have to appreciate the gesture that they're taking me out all this way and putting in the effort.
You know what? I just got to be grateful for them to bring my dad back. Or maybe I get to go with them and see him in person and help bring him back myself.
Maybe this is just the place where we're laying down low and snake out.
I don't know. I'm just excited to be a part of life right now.
[01:18:16] Speaker A: It's a safe house because they know they can't take Jason Newberry back to his haven because the whole city is going to be looking for him there. But they bring him here, then it's genius.
[01:18:26] Speaker D: And then after, when I get to see him, we get to play dress up and hide and seek, and it's just going to be an even more amazing time. And what's best is my new friends get to join in on the game.
[01:18:42] Speaker A: I'm sure your dad's going to appreciate all the yarn.
[01:18:47] Speaker D: He's been pretty supportive, especially because they're load bearing.
[01:18:52] Speaker F: I start doing the usual, usual as if I do this all the time. Safe house tour.
Anna there's a bedroom back there.
Everything's pretty paid for, so it should be a good place to lay low for a while.
It's all prearranged, so it's very much like the place you were staying before.
[01:19:18] Speaker D: I don't know that I can get.
[01:19:19] Speaker F: The rest of your things. I'm sorry about that.
[01:19:26] Speaker D: Where's your room?
[01:19:29] Speaker F: What do you mean?
[01:19:31] Speaker D: Well, where are you going to stay?
[01:19:37] Speaker F: I am not staying here.
[01:19:43] Speaker D: There's more than one safe house?
You're so smart. Of course there's another safe house. Of course.
I'm so happy and I'm so excited. Just tell me what the next part of the plan is, then I'm good to go. Is this the part where, like, going to be staking out with the binocular and giving you notes about the activity on the street and telling you what people are buying with their money in Chinatown in the morning market?
[01:20:15] Speaker F: Anna, after this, we're done.
[01:20:17] Speaker E: This is it.
[01:20:18] Speaker F: This is the plan.
You can't be around for this next part.
[01:20:25] Speaker D: I can hold my own. I fought with you against the van. I can be helpful and help rescue my dad. That's my dad.
[01:20:35] Speaker G: No.
[01:20:40] Speaker F: Yeah, and that's the problem.
[01:20:45] Speaker D: You wouldn't even know where he was without me. Like, I did good work.
I should be able to be a part of the adventure to see. I should be the one who sees him first.
[01:20:57] Speaker F: Anna, you know that's not a good idea.
[01:21:03] Speaker D: What? Why wouldn't it? That's my dad. We're best friends. We've been through so much together. We had a sleepover.
I trusted you when you were first asking me about my dad and stuff and helping me try to figure out if I knew where he was. And you were saying it was in my best interest and that you wanted to look out for me and that he was a bad guy and wanted to manipulate me. No, it's you. You're the one who's been doing it all along. You're the one that's been pulling strings that aren't even proper. Nice strings. And you're the one who's me?
[01:21:52] Speaker A: How about that? Whether on purpose or accidentally, anastasia has seen through the illusion she's got you pegged, miss Lugassi. She knows.
[01:22:06] Speaker F: I've let it get too far.
I shouldn't even be having this conversation with you, Anna.
You should be dead. I should have killed you the minute we met you or the minute we found Newberry and we haven't.
This is grace we're giving you. I'm giving you because you're dangerous.
[01:22:30] Speaker D: It does not matter if you think.
[01:22:32] Speaker F: I am your best friend or not, because this is not about us being friends. We aren't friends.
You are a liability.
And I am doing more than I ever should have in trying to keep you safe from this. But Jason has a connection with you.
[01:22:50] Speaker D: That he is going to use to hurt us.
[01:22:51] Speaker F: He can somehow communicate with you and you will hurt people. You'll hurt me. And it's not a question of if. It is a question of when.
[01:23:06] Speaker D: My father brought me up to be a good person.
[01:23:11] Speaker F: Your father is a piece of shit.
[01:23:14] Speaker D: He's never been a piece of shit to me. He's only been kind and understanding and caring. If anything, you're the piece of shit.
You lied to me.
You pretended that we were friends to hurt me.
[01:23:33] Speaker F: I didn't pretend to be friends with you to hurt you.
I'm trying to do the friend thing now.
[01:23:46] Speaker D: What's the friend thing like? How is this in my best interest? You're going to go see my dad, and then what are you going to do with him?
[01:23:59] Speaker F: We're going to take care of him.
[01:24:02] Speaker D: You're lying to me.
[01:24:04] Speaker F: No, I'm actually not.
[01:24:09] Speaker D: Then why can't I see him?
[01:24:13] Speaker F: Because, Anna, you become a liability, and Jason will try to kill me through you. And I don't want to kill you.
I can. You know this.
And if Jason takes over your body, I will.
And that wouldn't be a best friend thing to do.
[01:24:39] Speaker A: Oh, well, there it is. Anastasia true colors flown, all the truth revealed.
There might be something accurate about the way that Maya has framed the situation. You know that Jason Newberry has a way of getting into your head.
And Maya, yes, she has lied about her intentions, but you've never known her to lie about the facts.
And there is something about the way her eyes flitter, that slight worry that the reign of immortality might come to an end. You can tell there's a part of her that is afraid.
Maybe of you or maybe of Newberry, but enough vulnerability to know at least that much is true.
[01:25:33] Speaker D: I've had a hundred hypotheticals run through my head where it's like, well, maybe she's being manipulated. Maybe somebody lied to her. Maybe Ivy is getting into her head and telling her all these things and turning her against me or someone else.
But I also, for the first time, feel this anger that I can't explain. Like, maybe that's what hate is.
[01:26:03] Speaker A: Regardless of whether or not you're able to label it, that does sound like a terribly large amount of emotion to be trapped in such a small body.
Where does it go?
[01:26:16] Speaker C: Out?
[01:26:22] Speaker A: A scream, primal.
A sound that humans don't make but vampires do.
A fury that only the beast can enable in you. Blood curdling wrenched from your throat by the pain of betrayal.
[01:26:49] Speaker D: I have never felt an emotion like this, ever.
I've seen it on other people. But to experience this for the first time, I can't contain this energy that's coursing through me. I'm getting tangled in all of my own string.
I want to hurt, but I don't want to hurt.
It's so overwhelming, and I can't even comprehend. Like, the walls are spinning and I don't understand what is happening to me.
[01:27:31] Speaker A: Maya, as unfortunate as it is, you probably do understand.
You know exactly what happens when vampires lose control of their emotions. You just have a different word for it.
So what do you do?
A creature trembling, on the verge of frenzy, emotionally incapable of what you have inflicted, and soon physically incapable of containing it. That sound is a it is terror, bringing back the worst of your sabat days. You've heard vampires make that noise because you've made them make that noise.
And you know what happens next.
[01:28:23] Speaker F: There's a part of me that reaches out and tries to stop her.
A literal shadow extending to make the sound stop, because that's what needs to stop, right?
The sound.
And I catch myself right before.
[01:29:01] Speaker E: I.
[01:29:01] Speaker F: Can do any real damage. Or before I can do more damage than I've already done.
[01:29:10] Speaker A: A modicum of restraint and a rare mercy.
Something you shouldn't tell the other Lasambra about.
Maybe you were right all along. The correct move after having made your report to Sierra and found the information that you required, would have been to snuff this little candle out, to end the line of Newberry's progeny. The entire city would be thankful.
And yet, even now, when there has never been more clear a reason for you to follow along that plan, the shadow dissipates. Like so much smoke.
[01:29:59] Speaker F: Storyteller.
I've had a lot of people taken from me.
I don't need to add one more to it.
[01:30:14] Speaker A: What do you do?
[01:30:17] Speaker F: I leave.
I can't do anything for her anymore than I already have.
[01:30:30] Speaker A: Are you worried about what's going to happen when you're gone?
Will she still be here when you've accomplished your newberry objectives? Will she be here in a few minutes? Can you trust Anastasia to stay put?
Or are you worried about that at all? Is that a problem for future Maya?
[01:30:55] Speaker F: Well, it'll take her a minute to find the keys.
[01:31:03] Speaker A: How very ironic that your adventure with Jason Newberry began at an asylum and now apparently ends with you locking a cell of your own.
Zion liberated Anastasia Khan confined It's hard to say how many minutes will pass between Maya's departure and Anastasia, when you begin to regain some semblance of your senses.
When the familiar leash of self control wraps itself again around the thing that animates you. Every evening as the sun sets, the screaming stops.
The faint, almost heartbeat. Not real. Your heart hasn't beaten in a long time, but the physiology still makes sense. You can feel what it should feel like in your brain, but even that, too, will pass.
And then it's the quiet.
Being alone, not only physically in this place, but also in your mind.
No Alex to chitter away with, no lurking threat of a lecture from Ivy LaRue, no best friend betrayal from Maya.
No across the room, curiosity from Cal.
Just once again, by yourself, at least until the silence is interrupted by the sound of an ungreased hinge. A door opening slowly, intentionally, cautiously from the front of the apartment.
And eventually, when your eyes deign to peer out from the bedroom you claimed as your own, you will see a woman standing in the center of we'll call it your living room.
She's tall, more than 510, by the looks of things.
Brown hair that hangs straight off of her shoulders, flowing down the front of her chest.
Bangs cut razor straight just above her eyebrows.
And she's sizing you up with the greenest eyes, taking the full measure of you even as she says nothing.
[01:33:34] Speaker D: I notice her, but don't really want to engage.
At this moment, I feel resentful and sulky, but I wouldn't want to admit it.
And I just mutter to myself.
Some safe house this is, if my ex best friend can't even make sure strangers walk in.
[01:34:02] Speaker A: She tilts her head.
You can see her chewing on that statement, digesting each word for its dictionary perfect meaning and allowing the result to percolate, like an equation being solved.
Oh, dearest me, no. I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, and I can tell that you're in no state for lectures of any kind, but if I may correct two small inaccuracies in the statements you've made so far.
First, I assure you, this house is much, much safer now that I'm inside of it.
And second we are not strangers.
[01:34:48] Speaker D: Do you know my dad?
[01:34:52] Speaker A: I did for a time.
It is with the most careful motion, the utmost of restraint, that she reaches forward with long, nailed fingers to pluck one of the loose strings off of your shoulder and let it drape towards the floor.
[01:35:09] Speaker D: Who are you?
[01:35:12] Speaker A: An old friend.
Someone who's been watching your case with the utmost of interest.
An old correspondent of your father many things. I suppose we'll have time to go through the details later. But for now, you can call me Erytho.
And she extends a hand.
When's the last time you ate?
[01:35:39] Speaker D: I swallow thinking about it.
Not in a very long time.
[01:35:46] Speaker A: Well, Anastasia, as a gesture of good faith, what do you say you and I go find a bite, and I'll answer all the questions you have?
[01:35:58] Speaker D: I'm still a little hesitant. But I know when I'm cornered. And I know that it doesn't even seem like I have much of a choice.
[01:36:08] Speaker A: Into the streets of Chinatown.
There are dangers for reasons that no one has ever bothered to explain to you, in part because the kins of Chicago don't entirely know why vampires tend to go missing in this part of town.
And there's no reason for Anasasia to know that her visitor is one of the most powerful tramir in the city, operating outside the chantry and at times, in opposition to the prince.
But it's a funny thing when a relationship ends, when you think you have a friend and find yourself alone. That is when, as people, we make our worst choices.
You lose a good boyfriend, so you find a bad one.
You lose your best friend, so a work buddy will have to do. Never mind the things that they've done to wrong you, the need for companionship overrides judgment when the hurt is deep enough.
That, for now, is where we will leave Anastasia, soon to be privy to the great many mysteries, both of her condition, of her father's condition, and of the vampiric lifestyle altogether.
But questions, though she has the answers, will have to wait.
Because that's a story for another night.
You've been listening to the All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to.
[01:37:35] Speaker B: You by Queens Court Games.
If you enjoyed your stay, be sure.
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