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The Vampire With No Name S1 Epilogue Part 1 · Dubious Creatures Presents

• 0:32
  The. A highway wanders through the
• 1:21
  desert. A tumbleweed drifts past a dusty
• 1:24
  dive bar. A coyote shrieks out to no one
• 1:28
  in particular. Someone's bleeding out in a
• 1:31
  bathroom stall. The stars tonight are bright,
• 1:35
  but not nearly bright enough. This place does not exist, and
• 1:42
  yet here you are. Welcome to Saint Arroyo Kindred.
• 1:49
  We here at Dubious Creatures present to you, the vampire with
• 1:53
  no name. It was a rather gratifying
• 1:58
  sight. People out and about in their
• 2:01
  backyards, even though the dark playing, reading, looking out
• 2:09
  into the mountainous vistas. St.
• 2:13
  Arroyo after midnight. There's just something very
• 2:20
  quintessentially American about seeing the contentedness of your
• 2:26
  neighbors on full display. Well, maybe contentedness is the
• 2:33
  wrong word as his neighbors, but all the same, Astor, what is on
• 2:46
  the docket for movie night? Well, that that's a that's a
• 2:51
  great question. Actually, Astra's brain's been a
• 2:55
  little bit scrambled, so she doesn't have her normal bullet
• 3:01
  pointed list of everything that needs to be set up.
• 3:05
  It's more going off a vibe than anything.
• 3:12
  So but she did take some time to set up, like get a nice fire pit
• 3:19
  with some those really cool glass skulls that people put in
• 3:24
  them because she thought they were aesthetic and cool.
• 3:28
  Seems appropriate considering. I she would, she laid down a
• 3:34
  bunch of blankets and pillows and actually got the specific
• 3:39
  pillows that are made for adult pillow forts.
• 3:44
  This is not the first time that she's bought these either.
• 3:46
  This is in fact the second time she left her first set in LA.
• 3:51
  After leaving, she's really just trying to set up the space to
• 3:56
  make it soft and comfortable for everyone as like, because we all
• 4:03
  need to unwind and she has a projector set up against the
• 4:09
  back wall of her house because it's just a stark white wall.
• 4:12
  So it's perfect for movies. Outside of that, she's she's a
• 4:18
  little scrambled. You keep checking your phone,
• 4:22
  looking at that text you sent Rachel.
• 4:27
  You haven't gotten a reply, but she did leave you on red, which
• 4:33
  is. Fucking.
• 4:34
  Bitch, yes, it's not ideal. Be honest with me, asked her.
• 4:40
  Is there? Is there a Raleigh Asher film on
• 4:44
  the menu? So the the other night asked her
• 4:51
  actually text Raleigh and asked which of the movies she would
• 4:56
  like to see or like to go through with everyone.
• 5:01
  So whatever list Raleigh sent over would be the movies that
• 5:05
  she had picked out, plus some other ones just to change up the
• 5:08
  vibe or whatever. Any recommendations in
• 5:13
  particular Raleigh? I would probably try to stay
• 5:17
  away from the horror films that I made because I don't think any
• 5:20
  of us are in that particular mood.
• 5:23
  Might be in poor taste, yeah. My parents are just a.
• 5:25
  Little bit of poor taste and honestly, despite everything,
• 5:31
  I'm really proud of Red Asphalt. You know, it was supposed to be
• 5:37
  my big break. And I mean, who doesn't enjoy a
• 5:44
  cheesy, convoluted action film? Especially if you have the star
• 5:49
  there to kind of give you a running commentary about things
• 5:53
  that were having on set and all of the fun little behind the
• 5:56
  scenes secrets like gas punk. Samurai notwithstanding, Red
• 6:00
  Asphalt has some of my favorite stunts that I've ever done.
• 6:05
  Not to mention wasn't the most star-studded cast in the world,
• 6:09
  but Camden Lange, Tobias Grimm help.
• 6:13
  Even your old friend Travis Teague from Your Bills Above
• 6:17
  Days came in to play the archetypically British villain.
• 6:23
  Yeah, it was. It was a really great time,
• 6:27
  mostly. Mostly, and we see them all now,
• 6:34
  Sands Crow, sitting there in the backyard.
• 6:41
  We're all intents and purposes just a group of friends enjoying
• 6:49
  the somewhat staccato imagery of Raleigh performing death defying
• 6:59
  acrobatics in the midst bustling Hwy., explosions, screaming
• 7:06
  police sirens, tearing of metal, and the palpable sense of
• 7:12
  adrenaline as the wind whips through her iconic Crimson hair.
• 7:19
  It's about as normal as any of you have felt in a minute.
• 7:26
  Although if one were to be a family in the wall during the
• 7:31
  these proceedings, how is everyone looking and feeling
• 7:35
  tonight? Let's start with you, Rolly.
• 7:38
  Most of the scrapes and cuts and lacerations are gone.
• 7:45
  There's still, unfortunately, one very nasty claw mark on my
• 7:49
  back, but keeping that covered, I'm trying to enjoy things as
• 7:56
  much as I can. The first time that the literal
• 7:59
  Sword of Damocles is banging above our heads for a little
• 8:03
  bit. And depending on how these next
• 8:08
  couple of days go, this may be the last time I see some of
• 8:12
  these people. Because I survived.
• 8:17
  I did it. They're going to be OK.
• 8:21
  I can't stay here. It's the lie has been stretched
• 8:26
  too far. I have to, I have to go.
• 8:31
  But I want one good memory with everyone before I do.
• 8:36
  How's our Hostess? Astor is there but not there.
• 8:42
  If anyone looks over she they would see like she keeps playing
• 8:48
  with the brand on her neck. She hasn't looked at it yet.
• 8:53
  She's kind of afraid to. She feels it a lot every couple
• 9:00
  moments. She'll it's like a nervous habit
• 9:03
  now. No, I'm just this ugly raised
• 9:09
  rig of scar tissue behind your ear that you occasionally trace
• 9:14
  with one finger. You're really hoping it feels
• 9:18
  worse than it is. I don't want to look at it.
• 9:22
  I really don't want to look at it.
• 9:26
  Outside of that. She she'll snap back at at funny
• 9:30
  moments and and kind of laugh too loud and a little too long.
• 9:35
  Everyone would get the sense that she's trying too hard to be
• 9:39
  present and in the moment. Speaking of those present Ash,
• 9:47
  how are things? Things have been stable, which
• 9:53
  is really at least things aren't moving a mile a minute, which is
• 9:59
  all Ash can really ask for right now.
• 10:03
  They have been taking some time to sort of check in with
• 10:08
  everybody in their life. I think as we've determined it
• 10:13
  now, they have at least one roommate who they've probably
• 10:18
  driven to this party tonight. Ash was also recently engaged in
• 10:22
  a little bit of skull buggery. Due to hell.
• 10:27
  Mainly stealing a couple pills from their sister to get sent
• 10:33
  off to a lab. You still knowing what you know
• 10:37
  now, although really only has opened up the floodgates too so
• 10:43
  much else, hasn't it? Yeah, Ash is mostly like they're
• 10:50
  worried, but they're also they've also gotten to a point
• 10:55
  of all of these problems are tomorrow's or next week's
• 11:00
  problems. Tonight they are just like
• 11:04
  chilling and trying to forget about them.
• 11:07
  There is one rather persistent problem, isn't there?
• 11:12
  Yeah. Granted, seems like as far as
• 11:17
  you can tell, granted, it isn't as though you get called in for
• 11:21
  staff meetings with Mary. The conspiracy theories around
• 11:27
  Emily haven't died down, but I don't Somebody at some point
• 11:32
  seems to have fed the name Gabriel Valdez to the
• 11:35
  authorities. There's been a couple of news
• 11:39
  broadcasts about an ongoing manhunt.
• 11:43
  Bodies have stopped dropping, so that seems to be the main thing.
• 11:49
  Yeah. Less a lot worried about.
• 11:52
  Less general city panic, at least it's.
• 11:55
  Still, the so many unanswered questions about him, about
• 12:02
  Olivia, about the Grims. Not to mention you kind of
• 12:07
  flinch every time you see police lights now.
• 12:09
  Well, more than usual. Yeah, they're they're just that
• 12:15
  roiling small, Murray. And then, of course, they were
• 12:23
  roommates. How you doing Jeremy?
• 12:29
  Well, considering I left about third to half of my total skin
• 12:36
  coverage in the sewers, yeah, that was a that was a thing.
• 12:41
  And then Massaf, and then Massaf took most of what was left off
• 12:47
  of me. Yeah, he definitely walked in
• 12:49
  with a limp. And he is actually probably
• 12:53
  laying in front of the group, like on his side so that he's
• 12:57
  not, like putting pressure on his back because that's where
• 12:59
  Masaf got him. And it's like basically doing
• 13:02
  the kind of like lounge with his, like, head on his arms.
• 13:07
  So he can kind of like watch the movie, like sideways.
• 13:10
  So he's not like blocking anybody's view, but he's like
• 13:12
  probably like low and in front of everyone's feet, ahead of
• 13:14
  everybody. I think he's just kind of a
• 13:19
  combination in shock and in like serenity, like everything seems
• 13:27
  to have worked out better than he was worried it would.
• 13:32
  Like when you're walking up the lawn like a long hill and you
• 13:34
  and you can sort of sort of seeing it even out and you know,
• 13:38
  like you're maybe through. The worst of it?
• 13:42
  Linda keeps texting you. I'll check my phone.
• 13:48
  It's not anything particularly urgent.
• 13:50
  She saw the video. Well, I mean, who hasn't at this
• 13:53
  point? And, well, she's worried,
• 14:02
  understandably, and you are too. But you know who hasn't come
• 14:08
  knocking just yet? And you don't know if that's a
• 14:12
  good thing or a bad thing. Gonna text her back and ask her
• 14:20
  if she wants to join me for dinner at Provence.
• 14:25
  Eventually get back oh. Fancy.
• 14:31
  I'm still mostly broke but I know the owner, know the the
• 14:35
  floor manager is when I'll text back.
• 14:38
  The perks of knowing a celebrity, I guess.
• 14:42
  Yeah, maybe there's work is busy, but I'll let you know when
• 14:49
  I'm free. I'll send her back a heart.
• 14:54
  This is strange, all right? No, not the heart.
• 15:02
  I mean just like you seem to be doing better.
• 15:08
  Been sober for two weeks and now the chills are done I'm feeling
• 15:12
  a lot better. I'm happy for you.
• 15:16
  Really. Thanks, Uncle I.
• 15:20
  It was kind of hell. I felt like I was dying.
• 15:24
  Yeah, but hey, it pauses for a while, then eventually see a
• 15:34
  little bubble pop up, then pop down, pop up again, then
• 15:39
  eventually your textbooks. I'll let you know when I'm free.
• 15:44
  Hopefully see you soon. He sends you a thumbs up put.
• 15:50
  The fun away. Raleigh At about what point does
• 15:55
  this film jump the shark, do you think?
• 15:58
  The classic third act, you know, it's we're we're suddenly
• 16:03
  dealing with, you know, nuclear threats and what I mean, I guess
• 16:10
  it's kind of for the Mission Impossible RIP off that this
• 16:14
  movie is, but it feels like it kind of comes out of nowhere.
• 16:19
  And I, and I'm pretty sure it was like a fourth draft, like
• 16:22
  very late edition. You're pretty sure the nuclear
• 16:27
  facilities don't have convenient catwalk gantries in which one
• 16:33
  could reasonably have a no holds barred fist fight in?
• 16:38
  But hey, I put my whole heart into that thing.
• 16:41
  Yeah, I thought you honestly, you were working out bruises
• 16:49
  after that for a while. The Camden, the serious martial
• 16:55
  artist, like Hong Kong cinema serious, like Taylor warned you
• 17:01
  in advance. This guy fights you.
• 17:02
  He fights you for real. And I thought he was.
• 17:05
  Joking, he was not nice guy and intense, but nice guy.
• 17:14
  You all watch as Raleigh performs some kind of mid air
• 17:22
  judo acrobatics, slamming an impossibly timed kick into the
• 17:29
  rather handsome skull of the main antagonist.
• 17:32
  So he goes spinning off the gantry, grabbing the edge just
• 17:38
  at the nick of time as below him, an eerie nuclear fire
• 17:46
  begins to build up, roaring with the open mouth of hell.
• 17:51
  What's the line, Raleigh? Because there's always a line in
• 17:55
  a scene like this. Code Red.
• 17:58
  You mouth it as you send your opponent screaming into the
• 18:08
  abyss as the music crescendos, trying to stifle the involuntary
• 18:17
  like chuckle every time you go back through that script.
• 18:22
  If not for the little bit of trauma behind the scenes, it
• 18:27
  might have been a perfect shoot. Anyone other than Raleigh can go
• 18:33
  ahead and give me a Wiz Plus Insight roll.
• 18:38
  Unsuccess. Three from Jeremy.
• 18:43
  Asteroids too. A little too distracted to
• 18:46
  notice anything. Jeremy, the music's changed.
• 18:51
  You're not talking about the soundtrack coming from the
• 18:55
  projector as you look over and where Raleigh was once, you
• 19:01
  know, kind of laughing along with the rest of you at the
• 19:05
  almost 90s esque 1 liners and impossible stunts, now she
• 19:12
  suddenly looks pensive, almost wistful.
• 19:17
  I think Jeremy like looks back towards her, tilts his head.
• 19:22
  Well, rather, he probably like tilts his head like at like he
• 19:25
  I'm hearing something And then he like basically because he's,
• 19:28
  you know, flopped forward on his stomach, like turns his head
• 19:30
  back around to face the group and he's looking at you,
• 19:32
  Raleigh. He, like, tilts his head.
• 19:36
  Don't say anything, just look at me.
• 19:39
  Not saying anything, he's just looking.
• 19:42
  Maybe you kind of a small smile. I would just want tonight to be
• 19:47
  good. That's all I want.
• 19:51
  Bittersweet song. Yeah, I kind of look away and
• 19:58
  maybe the hand that I sort of card over my face is.
• 20:04
  Brushing away a tear or two. Maybe it's just adjusting my
• 20:08
  hair, who knows. It wasn't for what happened
• 20:13
  after. You probably would have never
• 20:16
  come to San Arroyo in the first place.
• 20:19
  Yeah, this was supposed to be it.
• 20:25
  This was the big break. That is what I was told over and
• 20:32
  over and over and over and it wasn't.
• 20:40
  I don't even know if it was movie to great, not winning any
• 20:46
  awards or maybe anything other than stunts, but it was good.
• 20:52
  I'm proud of the work I did. They were just other factors at
• 20:57
  play there. Mentally, as all things do, the
• 21:05
  story comes to an end and the credits begin to roll.
• 21:12
  Well, what do you all think? Marvelous.
• 21:16
  Excellent. Just as good as when it when I
• 21:20
  saw it in theaters. You really kick that high.
• 21:25
  Actually, yeah, when I stretch properly.
• 21:28
  It's. So cool I I have never been a
• 21:32
  kick person. Yeah, those fists.
• 21:37
  Yeah, I tried doing like karate. I'm just like I'm.
• 21:40
  I'm too ground bound. Loosen our gravity and all.
• 21:44
  That yeah, I mean, I've got like a magazine, put it legs for
• 21:50
  days. Legs for days.
• 21:56
  They're not wrong. I should dig out that award.
• 22:01
  My tits got an award once. Rock on.
• 22:04
  Hell yeah. I'm not sure whether I'm
• 22:07
  disgusted or impressed. I think I was a bit of both at
• 22:10
  the same time. I mean, first of all, thank you
• 22:13
  for the compliment. Second of all, I'll why were you
• 22:15
  looking at me like that type of vibe?
• 22:19
  Yeah, no, I after I did Babylon, I think literally every single
• 22:25
  costume director I had for the next two years just wanted to
• 22:28
  put me in leather and lace, actually.
• 22:32
  Kind of makes sense. Having watched an unholy amount
• 22:35
  of bills about, I understand the sentiment.
• 22:40
  I'm pretty sure they sewed me into that costume on a daily
• 22:44
  basis. Remember my costume direct with
• 22:47
  the guy in charge of my wardrobe just kept putting me in really
• 22:50
  tight pants and I never really understood it until I got a
• 22:52
  little older. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:56
  I don't know. It's nice having a night where
• 23:00
  no one's trying to murder us. We're we don't have to track
• 23:06
  down a terrible lost soul who wants to murder people.
• 23:12
  As long as bittersweet, but it's not over.
• 23:16
  No, it's never going to be over, but we got to take the the
• 23:19
  breaks when we can. Thanks.
• 23:23
  Yeah, I want to do something a little fun.
• 23:27
  Sure, dumb game. Astor will be like, all right,
• 23:32
  hang out here for a SEC and she will run into her pottery studio
• 23:35
  and then come back with a big tray full of just like vases or
• 23:40
  like mugs that didn't come together properly.
• 23:44
  And she's just, she points to an area in the back where you will
• 23:48
  see shattered like shards of, of ceramics, just it glazed in
• 23:57
  various glazes of dry or, or fired and whatnot.
• 24:01
  Just like we, we should blow off some steam.
• 24:04
  I've been holding on to these for an occasion like this and
• 24:09
  she will pick one up and then just Chuck it at the fence as
• 24:14
  hard as she can and it'll just shatter.
• 24:17
  Immediate explosion of pottery shards just all over the back of
• 24:22
  the lawn. Very satisfying sound.
• 24:27
  I genuinely wonder how far I can throw one of these.
• 24:32
  Please don't break my fence. I'm going to go for distance.
• 24:38
  You gonna go for speed? I have a really great and stupid
• 24:43
  idea. OK, we.
• 24:46
  Can't. Throw.
• 24:47
  We can't throw me Ash. I don't I I absolutely could a.
• 24:54
  Little fastball special. Ash will like take like 10 steps
• 25:00
  back and say OK like serve, pitch, whatever and they are
• 25:09
  going to when it gets close enough just see if they could
• 25:12
  just like punch the pottery out of the air.
• 25:15
  This is a new version of skeet shooting.
• 25:18
  Give me dex plus brawl. OK, I am going to pop wheel for
• 25:24
  this because this is important to me too.
• 25:27
  Successless, unfortunately. So pick up one of these quite
• 25:33
  literally half baked projects. Test it, toss it a couple of
• 25:38
  times, then toss it up almost like you're about to like hit a
• 25:45
  baseball at the bat. Bring up your fists, go in, miss
• 25:54
  it entirely, overstep, your foot lands on a loose rock and your
• 26:01
  momentum sends you twisting in mid air and directly onto your
• 26:05
  ass. And then the little half
• 26:12
  finished mug bowls on top of your head.
• 26:17
  Laugh and walk over and like oh ash up and just start like
• 26:21
  brushing the pottery fragments off.
• 26:23
  Laughing his ass off the entire time.
• 26:25
  Ash is gonna be laughing too, and this is gonna be like, well,
• 26:28
  I don't even have the excuse of being drunk this time.
• 26:30
  I just beefed that. It's it's say like if you're
• 26:35
  looking at the fence and beyond, is there like another house
• 26:38
  behind you or is it just empty? Well, I believe we established
• 26:43
  before that a aster's abode directly behind it is just like
• 26:49
  low rolling hills, chaparral and hiking trails.
• 26:55
  Yeah, well, I'm going to point at a spot on the hill and say,
• 27:00
  but I can hit that. You know what?
• 27:06
  Dex plus athletics. Just random question, would
• 27:10
  fleetness help with this? I'd say yes.
• 27:13
  Then I'll rouse for fleetness 5 successes with a critical.
• 27:21
  Well, they wanted to see how high you could kick you.
• 27:26
  Think for a moment. Plant your feet, toss it upwards
• 27:33
  and in one fluid moan movement hook, kick it at just the right
• 27:40
  angle. So instead shattering on impact
• 27:44
  instead the momentum, your leg hooks it and shot puts it out
• 27:54
  into the middle distance and a few of you squint and at a
• 27:57
  certain point this. LAX.
• 28:00
  Speck against the night sky just completely flies out of your
• 28:08
  visual range like it crested the hill and disappeared.
• 28:12
  Oh. Yeah.
• 28:17
  Jeremy's gonna like, hold his first out for a fist bump.
• 28:20
  I'm. Gonna fist bump.
• 28:25
  A few more experiments are tried after all, and if you've really
• 28:31
  tested the capacity of your new abilities and well, really any
• 28:36
  other situation than a life or death one, a few more half
• 28:42
  finished bits of pottery or casualties to this
• 28:47
  experimentation. There is laughter and there is
• 28:53
  more than a few comical missteps.
• 28:57
  And there is quite a bit of broken clay and porcelain were
• 29:02
  all said and done. And there is peace until Aster.
• 29:19
  Yeah, your phone buzz in your pocket.
• 29:22
  Pulls out and looks at it. It's exactly who you think it
• 29:26
  is. What if your sister, your sister
• 29:32
  has texted back? I owe you an explanation, but
• 29:39
  not at the house. Then you can see immediately
• 29:44
  after that a Google pin. And do you recognize the
• 29:52
  address? Astor will text back being like
• 29:59
  does it have to be tonight? Does it have to be right now?
• 30:04
  Get back, if not now, when? Tomorrow on one night with my
• 30:13
  fucking friends. Please.
• 30:18
  Esther will leave, not say anything, just kind of like
• 30:23
  leave the group to go inside to, to compose yourself for a
• 30:27
  moment. I should text by.
• 30:29
  I should be like, all right, I'll be there as soon as I can.
• 30:33
  There's no reply. Or it's not.
• 30:39
  Meanwhile, the rest of them are still in full hijinks mode,
• 30:43
  though you are rapidly beginning to run out of reject pottery
• 30:49
  works. I got to go do something.
• 30:57
  I need to go talk to my sister. Everyone's welcome to hang out
• 31:05
  still. Everything all right?
• 31:10
  Need backup. Oh, God, maybe you don't know.
• 31:19
  It's it's best that I do this one alone.
• 31:22
  I appreciate. I appreciate it.
• 31:26
  It's understandable. If you do need a quick exit
• 31:33
  text, text us. Well.
• 31:39
  Could I just roll for premonition?
• 31:43
  Give me resolve the suspects. 5 successes and I get hungry here.
• 31:50
  You don't. No, exactly.
• 31:54
  When this happens, there's no sudden feeling of loss of time
• 31:59
  or loss of space. 1 moment you're laughing along with
• 32:05
  everybody else and the music's still there, but the music's
• 32:09
  always there. You've kind of gotten used to
• 32:13
  it, but then it's almost like everyone around you starts to
• 32:21
  begin guffawing in tune with that sour note, and it almost
• 32:29
  overtakes you for a second. And you look around and you're
• 32:37
  not in Astor's backyard anymore. You were.
• 32:43
  You see a pair of porcelain figures, sisters, although you
• 32:50
  don't know how you know that. Just do see one of them cracked
• 32:59
  and missing a few pieces in some cases.
• 33:05
  Glued and duct taped those pieces back on but still
• 33:09
  siblings together cracked. One moves on and moves forward
• 33:21
  and the music becomes somber as these two beings that were so
• 33:26
  close at one point inevitably begin to drift apart, but the
• 33:33
  one in the foreground has drifted so far that she doesn't
• 33:40
  notice the sister she left behind.
• 33:47
  Completely bold to pieces, just a perfectly woman shaped pile of
• 33:59
  damage. It takes you a moment to realize
• 34:04
  that the one in the foreground, seemingly oblivious to all of
• 34:10
  it, isn't Astor. And then the music crescendos
• 34:21
  once again, and you're back. Jeremy actually like stops and
• 34:33
  like covers his ears for for a second and like almost visibly
• 34:38
  hunches over before he like suddenly stops and like stands
• 34:43
  up bolt upright and he just like looking right at Astor.
• 34:47
  Astor's big green eyes blinked at you and like, yes.
• 34:53
  She's going to leave. Who?
• 35:00
  Your sister? Well, yeah, she's got a husband
• 35:04
  and children's and soccer. PTA.
• 35:07
  She can't. She can't no like you can't let
• 35:18
  her leave. I don't have much control over
• 35:24
  my sister, just like she certainly doesn't have control
• 35:28
  over me. No, that's.
• 35:35
  If she leaves, it's. I saw you just now and as as
• 35:45
  soon as she walks away, moves on like she doesn't even notice how
• 35:49
  far away from you she is, you literally fall apart 'cause
• 35:56
  you're held together with duct tape and glue and yeah, I.
• 36:04
  Have I have been held together by duct tape and glue since the
• 36:10
  divorce? She like on that she just turns
• 36:13
  around and just heads for the door.
• 36:17
  Antler Shit and Aster will head over to the shipping container.
• 36:31
  Storage facility isn't far you see as you pull into the area.
• 36:41
  Don't places like this normally have like some kind of night
• 36:46
  watchman? Jesus, does anyone in this
• 36:48
  fucking town do their job? No, but that's kind of the point
• 36:53
  of being here. So you just stroll on through
• 36:59
  rather drive on through the gates out of care in the world
• 37:05
  and immediately you can see parked outside an open storage
• 37:08
  unit. You think it's you think it's
• 37:15
  one of those blood mobiles, like one of those mobile clinics?
• 37:20
  I mean, it's kind of appropriate for her job.
• 37:23
  Yeah, I mean, you, you went to uni, you sold your plasma to get
• 37:28
  by. You're very familiar.
• 37:33
  Looks kind of weather beating though.
• 37:35
  Like it's been, well, like it's a bad need of a car wash, for
• 37:39
  starters. Like it's not necessarily a
• 37:43
  hospital issue. If it was at one point, it maybe
• 37:47
  isn't up to code anymore. There's a there's a logo of a
• 37:54
  pair of hands holding a blood drop on the side next to it.
• 38:02
  Sangria. You assume the company.
• 38:08
  You're not sure. Esther will write it down as
• 38:13
  like, yeah, I'm going to look that up later.
• 38:16
  That's weird. Either way you see it's a bit of
• 38:23
  a hop of activity as you see a couple of familiar faces.
• 38:29
  Let. Me guess it's Rachel and Hygea.
• 38:34
  You see Hygea and Rachel and Jesse.
• 38:41
  OK, that makes sense to a degree, yeah.
• 38:45
  Jesse appears to be unloading something out of the
• 38:53
  aforementioned bloodmobile into the open storage shed.
• 38:59
  Iggia and Rachel are both talking as you get out of the
• 39:07
  car. They both see you and IGA waves
• 39:12
  Rachel, well, she has the expression you normally have
• 39:17
  when you've done something wrong.
• 39:24
  Oh, oh, this is, this is perfect.
• 39:26
  So Astor will be leaning against the car and giving her the face
• 39:33
  that in fact Rachel used to give her when she was in trouble.
• 39:37
  Or at least her best interpretation of it.
• 39:39
  So it is just this scowled I want to speak to the manager
• 39:45
  face. Yeah, she approaches you
• 39:55
  tentatively. She looks tired.
• 40:02
  Bags under her eyes are very noticeable even in the relative
• 40:06
  like half light. So bucket you see she's more
• 40:17
  kind of a long sleeve jacket and she just rolls up one of her
• 40:20
  sleeves. He said this would make things
• 40:24
  make more sense. So just and just holds up her
• 40:28
  wrist. Just just do your thing.
• 40:39
  Oh, this is weird. Oh yeah, incredibly.
• 40:43
  But look, you can either do this or or I can explain a lot of
• 40:51
  things to you that aren't going to make sense in context.
• 40:53
  So just get over with please. And Aster will do her thing.
• 41:04
  You very tentatively take her wrist.
• 41:07
  You can see here's to tease your sister about how despite her
• 41:13
  literally working with blood for her job, she was never very fond
• 41:18
  of needles. See her almost whence
• 41:23
  anticipatorily as your fangs slide into her flesh.
• 41:29
  And suddenly, and that moment of connection, a voice rings out in
• 41:38
  your skull. A voice that is familiar.
• 41:44
  You only heard it once the night you died.
• 41:52
  That voice ain't real. I I that's what does said voice
• 41:57
  say. Hey, I know it's a lot but your
• 42:06
  sister didn't rat you out. What happened at the Red roof
• 42:13
  wasn't planned but I don't know about LM till much later and
• 42:23
  she, well, I owe her a lot. So I'm sure you got lots of
• 42:32
  questions. I wish I could be there tell you
• 42:38
  in person but not right now, not with everything going on.
• 42:45
  Just trust her OK? She's helped out more than you
• 42:52
  think. And then it ends just as
• 42:58
  suddenly. That's your will like the wound
• 43:05
  and. I never get used to that.
• 43:11
  What the fuck did you get me into?
• 43:14
  I didn't. Rachel, do you understand what
• 43:22
  my life has been like? Do you understand what they do
• 43:28
  to me? To us?
• 43:32
  I didn't I I didn't know, OK, I didn't he's you were you were
• 43:42
  gone and Tabula said he could fix you and I didn't know what
• 43:48
  that meant until I'm so fucking sorry.
• 43:53
  I I just, I thought he was going to rescue you.
• 43:58
  If not this. I'm rescue.
• 44:06
  I'm fucking rescue. So if it wasn't you, the only
• 44:11
  other person that I could think who would fucking rat me out is
• 44:14
  Zach. And I can't have that.
• 44:19
  And she will fall. She catches you, just holds you
• 44:26
  for a second. I, I didn't, I didn't know.
• 44:32
  I after everything and just, I found you there.
• 44:43
  I wasn't. I was only supposed to be in
• 44:48
  town for a little bit, and then Tabula tells me apparently you
• 44:57
  blew up a oil pipeline or something.
• 45:04
  I had to see you. I had to.
• 45:05
  I had to know you were OK And I, I didn't, I didn't know what to
• 45:10
  do. I mean, it's not like then I
• 45:12
  could tell you what I was actually doing here for them.
• 45:20
  I, I out of the two of us, I think I'm the one who who does
• 45:27
  the the problematic trouble things.
• 45:30
  Remember, Remember Rachel, I'm the family fuck up, not you,
• 45:35
  your middle goody 2 shoes. Hey you, you've got every right
• 45:42
  to be. Pissed.
• 45:44
  Yeah, I am. It's not just you that's been
• 45:50
  going through it lately, OK? Who else?
• 45:59
  I lied about the promotion. Jock.
• 46:06
  Fuck off I what was I supposed to say?
• 46:10
  I turns out the reason why there was a massive inventory of
• 46:21
  diffractionated blood missing was because fucking vampires
• 46:24
  were stealing it. Because Denver is overflowing
• 46:28
  with people like you and Tigia who have no idea what is
• 46:33
  happening to them and are getting literally haunted down
• 46:36
  in the streets. Oh, I know what it's like to be
• 46:39
  haunted. And I got dragged into it.
• 46:42
  And then that's Tabula came in, gave me the very abridged
• 46:47
  version. And fuck, I'd like to say I was
• 46:55
  doing out of the cudge of my heart.
• 46:57
  But the truth is he's got connections and I need the
• 46:59
  money. Cool, cool Rachel, fucking cool.
• 47:11
  What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?
• 47:17
  I am. I am trying to give you a
• 47:22
  fucking olive branch. You entitled.
• 47:24
  Little entitled. I'm sorry.
• 47:28
  I'm sorry I. Fuck.
• 47:33
  You. Yeah, that I deserve that.
• 47:39
  She looks like she's on the verge of tears herself, although
• 47:44
  I imagine that doesn't really help matters.
• 47:47
  And does it. Nope, at this point Astor does
• 47:52
  not fucking care. Esther, you pissed off scary
• 47:57
  people. And then you and.
• 48:01
  Then you fled to a fucking company town.
• 48:04
  What did you think was going to happen?
• 48:07
  I thought your your ex works for Endron.
• 48:13
  Yes, my ex, who I thought up until just now was still kind of
• 48:19
  actually head over heels for me. Right, right.
• 48:22
  Yeah, of course. Because, you know, he's secretly
• 48:26
  so very damaged. You haven't interacted with that
• 48:32
  family enough to talk about damaged Rachel doesn't I need?
• 48:37
  You to back the fuck off? No, you were a fucking wreck.
• 48:42
  You're a fucking wreck. Yes, I'm aware I became so much
• 48:47
  of a wreck that I happily was led down the eco terrorist lane.
• 48:55
  I understand how much of a wreck I was.
• 48:59
  And why? I just why?
• 49:07
  Why couldn't you just said something?
• 49:12
  To who? To me?
• 49:15
  About what? To mom?
• 49:17
  To you? Always.
• 49:20
  We're not. Despite what you may think,
• 49:24
  there are people out there who worry about you.
• 49:33
  Where was that worry? Where was that worry three years
• 49:39
  ago when I fucking needed it? You know who picked me up?
• 49:44
  Do you know who fucking actually got me functioning again?
• 49:49
  Who helped me set up my God damn life?
• 49:52
  Not you, Not Mom. My best friend Raquel, who is
• 49:58
  now dead, put me back together. She was the only one that was
• 50:06
  there for me after everything. And then I find out the person
• 50:12
  who put me back together was the same person who encouraged me to
• 50:20
  get involved with LM in the fucking first place.
• 50:25
  I'm tired of being used, so if anybody fucking needs anything
• 50:36
  from me, you better tell me up front exactly what you need.
• 50:43
  She's quiet for very long moment you you shut me out and.
• 51:00
  Everyone out I. I shut literally everybody out.
• 51:05
  But you disappeared into the city once after it was bad.
• 51:16
  I don't know how you remember it, but you were just, you're
• 51:20
  just gone. And then and then I find out
• 51:22
  you're back here and I just. And of course I feel like a
• 51:27
  fucking hypocrite. And now you're back here and you
• 51:32
  might be stuck here and you think you don't.
• 51:38
  I know it's my fault, OK? I just, I thought maybe I could
• 51:43
  save you this time. I didn't know what that meant.
• 51:50
  For once I actually didn't mean saving, especially saving me to
• 51:57
  just be abandoned again. A + a fucking.
• 52:02
  Plus, I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 52:06
  Master, please. You can't believe me.
• 52:07
  I I didn't know. I do believe you actually being
• 52:14
  gullible runs in the family and Aster just kind of like devolves
• 52:24
  into ugly, cackling, laughing, kind of that unhinged laugh that
• 52:30
  Jeremy does every once in a great while that it's I'm here
• 52:41
  now and all I can do is move forward.
• 52:49
  That's, that's all I've got at this point.
• 52:52
  And I'm, I was hoping that I could at least do this tomorrow
• 52:56
  night because one of the people that I met through this lovely,
• 53:02
  lovely life that I have now is leaving.
• 53:09
  And I just wanted to hang out with my friends and make just at
• 53:20
  least a happy memory with them that doesn't involve us almost
• 53:28
  dying multiple times. So I'm going to go, yeah, I'm
• 53:39
  going to go with be my, be with my friends for as long as I have
• 53:44
  that. That's I'm, I'm trying to help.
• 53:51
  I want to help and I didn't. I didn't bring you all the way
• 53:54
  over to you just for the ambiance.
• 53:59
  Then what do you need? I don't.
• 54:03
  Look, one of your friends she's dealing with, she's going gold
• 54:10
  Turkey, for lack of better term, Right?
• 54:13
  Yes. Hydrea, you got.
• 54:16
  Yeah. Yeah, I got it.
• 54:17
  Just give me a second. You hear from inside the storage
• 54:20
  unit? They they deal with this more
• 54:25
  than you think. I don't pretend.
• 54:28
  I don't pretend to understand the physics of it, but it's like
• 54:34
  methadone for vampires I guess. I don't understand the science
• 54:40
  behind it either, but. Oh, it's not.
• 54:43
  Whatever it is, it is not fucking science.
• 54:46
  I. It's not science in the way you
• 54:48
  know, but it is science. She just poured a whole batch of
• 54:51
  type AB into a pressure cooker with molten lead and red food
• 54:56
  coloring. I don't understand any of this
• 54:58
  shit. I probably could break it down
• 55:02
  if I saw the formula. I'm quite adept at it actually.
• 55:10
  I just. I just want to be fucking
• 55:14
  useful. Rachel, my sweet, sweet sister,
• 55:23
  you don't know how to be useful in these situations.
• 55:31
  Danger has never been your thing.
• 55:35
  It's always been mine. Now it's her turn to look angry.
• 55:42
  Esther does not care. She looks like she's about to
• 55:49
  say something with quite a measure of vitriol when suddenly
• 55:55
  Hi Gia all quite literally inserts herself between the two
• 55:58
  of you. Hey.
• 56:00
  Hi. Hi.
• 56:04
  I get it, It's a lot, but could we maybe not have a screaming
• 56:10
  match in the middle of a storage facility that we're technically
• 56:13
  not supposed to be in? Yes.
• 56:16
  We can only bribe sleeping. Yeah, because we can only bribe
• 56:19
  the night watchman so much without resorting to other
• 56:24
  methods. She's got it.
• 56:28
  Looks like a travel thermos in her hands.
• 56:30
  Is. That for Crow.
• 56:33
  Yeah, Sarah. Sarah's keeping an eye on her.
• 56:41
  I. Expect that.
• 56:43
  Yeah, I haven't seen her in person, but I'm told it's it's
• 56:49
  not pretty. And this is, we call it frighte.
• 56:56
  It's not really the real thing, but it's close enough that it
• 57:00
  might make things slightly less terrible.
• 57:05
  Plus, I feel like I owe you one for, you know.
• 57:08
  He jerks a thumb over her shoulder to Jesse, who kind of
• 57:13
  gives you a wave as he loads other cooler units out of the
• 57:18
  bloodmobile. Astor kind of like does the two
• 57:23
  fingers from the eyebrow wave? If she needs more, I mean, it's
• 57:28
  not. It's not the worst thing in the
• 57:33
  world to brew in a pinch. I can give you the recipe, but
• 57:36
  just just be careful that Dark Passenger of Hers is going to be
• 57:50
  real disappointed when it realizes it is not, in fact the
• 57:53
  genuine article. Yeah, I figured.
• 58:00
  Yeah, so she looks very awkwardly between the two Nolan
• 58:06
  siblings. Astor will happily take the
• 58:10
  thermos, and I'm assuming Astor has an address for where Crow is
• 58:17
  being held. Yeah, well.
• 58:22
  You know, where she stays during the night And apparently
• 58:26
  Sarah's. At the trailer.
• 58:31
  You could really think of worse places to keep someone in Crow's
• 58:35
  condition right now. I.
• 58:37
  Mean that's fair that's all right all right, cool.
• 58:40
  The Aster will take it and kind of quell her anger a bit and
• 58:51
  look here, Rachel, just be like, I am sorry.
• 58:54
  I did cross the line. I have a lot to I, I've had a
• 59:01
  lot happen in a very short amount of time that I really
• 59:08
  need to process and deal with that you kind of can't help me
• 59:19
  with. We're just not to sound cliche,
• 59:25
  too different. Rachel kind of just grabs her
• 59:35
  arm, the opposite hand, and you see she's not wearing her ring.
• 59:45
  You too, huh? You're not the only one that has
• 59:50
  it tough. How are the kids taking it?
• 59:58
  We're just separated for the time being.
• 1:00:03
  He doesn't. Sheriff doesn't know about any
• 1:00:06
  of this. He just thinks that I'm doing
• 1:00:10
  outreach stuff out of state, but it's been.
• 1:00:19
  Difficult. I understand how difficult it is
• 1:00:22
  actually. I mean maybe not with kids but I
• 1:00:27
  do get how hard it is. I can recommend you a really
• 1:00:32
  good therapist. If they ask me a lot about their
• 1:00:36
  Aunt Esther. I don't I, I'm kind of gestures
• 1:00:45
  up to them to the night sky and is I'm bound to this.
• 1:00:53
  Yeah, I didn't say I don't know. I'm just, I'm also really
• 1:01:00
  fucking tired. You should go home, should be
• 1:01:05
  with your family as promised. I I promise you Rachel, when you
• 1:01:11
  lose them, if you continue down this road and you will fucking
• 1:01:17
  lose them, it hurts worse than anything you could imagine.
• 1:01:24
  So go be with your family. Anister, give me a Charisma or
• 1:01:34
  manipulation plus Persuasion and you.
• 1:01:43
  And it's 3 successes. She looks like she's about to
• 1:01:49
  say something else, but again, what could she possibly say at
• 1:01:56
  this point? So she just turns around, walks
• 1:02:00
  back into the vehicle. JF watches her go.
• 1:02:08
  Before she pulls out Astra will be like I do love you.
• 1:02:13
  Love you too, you idiot. Yeah.
• 1:02:17
  Get out of here, golden child. She climbed back in through the
• 1:02:22
  vehicle with a sad smile. Adieu, adieu, both watches.
• 1:02:28
  The engine hums to life, begins to pull out the sort of concrete
• 1:02:35
  Causeway between these two rows of storage units.
• 1:02:42
  Gia just looks at you, looks back to the retreating tail
• 1:02:47
  lights of the van, looks back at you again.
• 1:02:53
  You know, one of these days I'd really love it if Tabula would
• 1:02:56
  just maybe give me a little heads up in advance.
• 1:03:02
  I am so sorry you had to bear witness to the family drama.
• 1:03:07
  I mean, walking directly into a soap opera isn't new, but he's
• 1:03:14
  like this, you know, nobody knows the whole plan.
• 1:03:17
  So that way when shit goes wrong, and it does quite often,
• 1:03:22
  nobody can spill the beans on everybody else.
• 1:03:27
  Makes sense from a as as someone who's been in organizations like
• 1:03:34
  this, it makes sense. Get it?
• 1:03:38
  I do. It's not.
• 1:03:39
  It's it's frustrating. I would very much love to talk
• 1:03:45
  to the person who created me. I don't even, I don't even know
• 1:03:52
  Tabula could have. I mean, normally we, we, we kind
• 1:03:57
  of can't maybe. There's more to Tabula than you
• 1:04:02
  know. Oh definitely.
• 1:04:04
  I don't even know if he's a he. That's how in the dark I am,
• 1:04:08
  yeah. It was kind of hard to tell, but
• 1:04:11
  it was also dying at the time, so.
• 1:04:14
  How's she got tapped to the side of her head?
• 1:04:21
  I'm I'm assuming she's referring to the brand.
• 1:04:25
  Yep, she was. She wasn't present for the
• 1:04:30
  actual branding, but she was down there.
• 1:04:33
  She. Was she was there?
• 1:04:36
  2 + 2 usually equals 4. Astor will pull her hair to the
• 1:04:44
  side and again, she still hasn't looked at it but seems like it's
• 1:04:53
  healed. She sucks her teeth a little and
• 1:04:57
  then see her lift up the side of her shirt.
• 1:05:03
  You see on her stomach, just above her right hip bone is a
• 1:05:11
  Crescent shaped brand. This is just what they do.
• 1:05:18
  Yep, like fucking lost cattle. Very cool.
• 1:05:26
  Fucking love that. Like, I get it, you're probably
• 1:05:34
  feeling some kind of way towards Tabula's whole operation right
• 1:05:37
  now. But the whole reason why this
• 1:05:39
  even exists is to, you know, make sure less and less people
• 1:05:47
  end up like, you know, us, if they're lucky.
• 1:05:55
  Yeah, we're dead. Fuck.
• 1:06:00
  Hey Gia, literally the only reason I'm alive is because of
• 1:06:03
  Zach. That's that's it.
• 1:06:08
  That's that is why Langford didn't kill me right then and
• 1:06:12
  there. I I told you before, a lot of
• 1:06:19
  jigsaw pieces. Hell, maybe even a corner piece.
• 1:06:23
  Not the whole puzzle, not by a long shot.
• 1:06:27
  You got the vape on you? I can really use it right now.
• 1:06:31
  You know what? He just takes it out of a back
• 1:06:34
  pocket. Just keep it.
• 1:06:39
  Well great, I need to go deliver stuff anyway.
• 1:06:45
  You see Jesse comes over, putting one arm around edge of
• 1:06:54
  his shoulders. Appreciate you.
• 1:06:59
  I'm actually glad to see that you're OK.
• 1:07:03
  Sorry, say you got pulled in our shit.
• 1:07:06
  You know, I say it is what it is, but what it was was not
• 1:07:14
  something I want to repeat anytime soon.
• 1:07:17
  I don't blame you. I just want to let you know that
• 1:07:26
  we're not all assholes and we remember who helps us out and
• 1:07:30
  abide. Appreciate that.
• 1:07:36
  Though we are closing up shop here, babe.
• 1:07:39
  Yeah, yeah, I just got a few more things I want to put
• 1:07:42
  together. And then, I mean, at this point,
• 1:07:45
  that smoke break is getting a little ludicrous.
• 1:07:48
  All right. Well, I'm I'm going to head out.
• 1:07:55
  Misery loves company, just saying.
• 1:07:59
  Misery does indeed love company. Open invitation even in spite of
• 1:08:05
  Tabula's whole shenanigans. Maybe, maybe later.
• 1:08:12
  Let me see how this week goes and I'll let you know.
• 1:08:17
  And on that Astor will get into the car, put the thermos in the
• 1:08:23
  cup holder if it fits, hopefully it fits and head over to Crow's.
• 1:08:32
  Before she starts driving though, she will text everyone
• 1:08:34
  at the house and be like, hey, I'm going to head over to Crow.
• 1:08:40
  Crow, can you please give me resolve plus intelligence test?
• 1:08:50
  To success, possibly beast your failure.
• 1:08:53
  Crow, let me ask you a serious question unites into your new
• 1:09:03
  rehabilitation program. How badly are you crashing out
• 1:09:08
  right now? So I have discovered a whole new
• 1:09:14
  definition of rock bottom. Every hour.
• 1:09:19
  Hysterics. It has been Anger.
• 1:09:23
  It has been just absolute maniacal lunacy.
• 1:09:30
  She is an emotional kaleidoscope.
• 1:09:33
  It is the best way to describe where she's at right now.
• 1:09:38
  And where is the kaleidoscope currently landing in this exact
• 1:09:45
  moment in time, keeping in mind you've just had a beastial
• 1:09:48
  failure? We're probably throwing shit all
• 1:09:54
  around the trailer, just wreaking havoc, so there's a lot
• 1:10:05
  of anger and frustration and nowhere to put it.
• 1:10:11
  Yeah, if the interior of your trailer didn't look like an
• 1:10:17
  absolute fucking mess before a carton of mostly spoiled milk
• 1:10:22
  flies across the room and very nearly hits Cass centre mass as
• 1:10:29
  it explodes into an ugly, curdled mess.
• 1:10:33
  The far wall. Shit, shit cheese.
• 1:10:38
  What do I do? Do I?
• 1:10:39
  Do we feed her again? Your other roommate, Sarah,
• 1:10:44
  approaches you in the same way that you'd approach a wild
• 1:10:47
  animal to crow. Crow.
• 1:10:49
  Look at me. Look at me.
• 1:10:52
  Come on, little sister. You're stronger than this.
• 1:10:54
  Just look at me. Turn and look at her with what
• 1:11:00
  could only be described as a death layer, like a predator
• 1:11:06
  backed into 1/4. Give me a strength plus brawl
• 1:11:12
  rule. When success, possible beastial
• 1:11:15
  failure. You leap at her.
• 1:11:18
  She has what you want and as far as you're concerned she is not
• 1:11:23
  sharing. Spear tackle into her and she
• 1:11:30
  falls onto the coffee table, which immediately shatters of
• 1:11:34
  the cheap plywood, your fangs snapping, feathers spraying in
• 1:11:40
  old directions. She is wrestling with you, You
• 1:11:46
  are making this very difficult, but she manages to get out from
• 1:11:53
  under you and penning you to the ground.
• 1:11:56
  You're Casku. Fuck.
• 1:11:58
  Should I, should I get the stake?
• 1:11:59
  No, no. Look at me, look at me.
• 1:12:05
  Could you please give me a stamina plus resolve check?
• 1:12:13
  Unsuccess. Something in her gaze reaches
• 1:12:20
  into that inner animal viewers and quashes it.
• 1:12:27
  And it's not a good feeling, being wrenched from one
• 1:12:30
  emotional extreme to another. And it isn't the first time
• 1:12:34
  she's had to do this, but it has proven the only way to really
• 1:12:41
  calm you down short of, well, the other thing you just.
• 1:12:51
  She had you almost like pinned to the ground.
• 1:12:53
  And as the fight immediately goes out of you, she goes from
• 1:12:59
  confrontational to comforting. The drop of the hat just holding
• 1:13:02
  you there, stroking your messy feather strewn dreads like you
• 1:13:09
  are equal to this little one it. Doesn't stop.
• 1:13:19
  I know, I know you're doing, you're doing so well, and I'm
• 1:13:25
  here and Cass is here and we're not going to let anything happen
• 1:13:30
  to you, OK? She nods to Cass.
• 1:13:36
  Oh, immediately doesn't get well, you've been using this
• 1:13:44
  essentially old serving bowl already.
• 1:13:51
  It's got a bit of a reddish crust forming at the bottom.
• 1:13:57
  OK, we're going to give you something now that should that
• 1:14:00
  should take the edge off. OK.
• 1:14:07
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK.
• 1:14:11
  OK, you are equal to this little sister.
• 1:14:14
  You are better than the beast. I think that's around the time
• 1:14:20
  that you pull up Astor as Cass, as he's getting, as he's walking
• 1:14:26
  over the bowl and then looks out the window.
• 1:14:30
  Astor will just kind of like wave it Cass.
• 1:14:35
  Shit, are we? Sarah says it.
• 1:14:41
  It's fine, bring her in. And you have not met Cass
• 1:14:46
  before. He's this kind of scrawny, like
• 1:14:54
  tall, but definitely not carrying the weight for his
• 1:14:56
  height. Got a couple of, you know,
• 1:15:00
  tattoos and random locales strewn across his pale skin.
• 1:15:07
  Similarly dreaded hair to a crow.
• 1:15:11
  Also looks nearly as strung out. But he kind of walks over to you
• 1:15:17
  like you're Aster, right? A.
• 1:15:25
  Master, it's nice to meet you. Yeah, no shit man, I really wish
• 1:15:30
  it was under better circumstances.
• 1:15:32
  She's she's in here and she's wigging out big time.
• 1:15:38
  Well, I got, I got some stuff for her that's I don't know if
• 1:15:43
  she's going to like it, but I got some stuff.
• 1:15:47
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sarah, Sarah, she's got the
• 1:15:50
  thing that Hygiene said would help inside room.
• 1:15:55
  Well, it's absolutely destroyed and you see Sarah White Bird not
• 1:16:02
  quite hugging, not quite pinning your friend to the floor is.
• 1:16:09
  This a bad day. There aren't any good days right
• 1:16:13
  now. It's.
• 1:16:16
  Unfortunate here and she'll hand over the thermos.
• 1:16:20
  Hopefully this helps. OK bro, bro, you with me?
• 1:16:29
  Yeah. OK, what's in this thermos?
• 1:16:35
  It's going to help. Who's here?
• 1:16:40
  She's going to like, sort of like try and lean her body back
• 1:16:45
  to see who's here and she's clearly very fucking out of it.
• 1:16:53
  Hey, Crow, it's it's me, Astor. Hi how you doing?
• 1:17:01
  Are we are we still doing movie night?
• 1:17:06
  We'll do another movie night just for you.
• 1:17:08
  I'm. Sorry I missed it.
• 1:17:12
  It's OK, and asked her. We'll pull out her phone and
• 1:17:17
  kind of show the set of really bad goofy pictures that she she
• 1:17:25
  took of everybody just making silly faces to, you know, show
• 1:17:30
  that we were all thinking about grow all.
• 1:17:34
  Right, I'm on small sips. She hands you the open thermos.
• 1:17:40
  I'm going to try my best to do small sips.
• 1:17:47
  You drink it and this media surge of like visceral
• 1:17:50
  disappointment is because every moment in time, something inside
• 1:17:53
  of you so very excited. It's like when you get fruit
• 1:17:59
  punch. But whatever it is, it's clearly
• 1:18:03
  some off brand no one's ever heard of.
• 1:18:07
  Whatever it is, it definitely ain't kool-aid.
• 1:18:10
  It's just close enough to what you're craving.
• 1:18:16
  It's only just and it stays down, but it doesn't make the
• 1:18:20
  gnawing in the pit your stomach go away.
• 1:18:24
  What the fuck is? This, it'll make this next part
• 1:18:30
  a little easier. And you see, she picks up the
• 1:18:36
  bowl. This part you are kind of
• 1:18:38
  familiar with casts you mind as she gets into sort of a sitting
• 1:18:45
  position behind you, wrapping one arm around you, the other
• 1:18:49
  holding out her wrist. Kass takes a kitchen knife,
• 1:18:57
  opens up the wrist, begins to drain a small amount of vitae
• 1:19:04
  into the bowl, But even a small amount is enough to send that
• 1:19:12
  scrabbling hungry thing behind your eyes screaming if you'd
• 1:19:19
  give me a willpower check. But thanks to the free day
• 1:19:24
  you've just suggested, you now have a two die bonus 4.
• 1:19:28
  Successes. That's enough.
• 1:19:31
  For the first time in a few nights, you managed to keep it
• 1:19:37
  together. You don't start like some of the
• 1:19:42
  other times, twitching and biting and clawing and howling.
• 1:19:51
  The smell of kindred vitae hits your nostrils.
• 1:19:55
  Agony of having to wait and to let it sit, you know.
• 1:20:00
  Some rational part of you knows, as Sarah has explained it to
• 1:20:04
  you, if you let it sit outside long enough.
• 1:20:08
  Outside the vein. It doesn't have the same
• 1:20:11
  addictive effect, but the rest of you just does not give a
• 1:20:16
  damn. You'd eat everyone here if given
• 1:20:20
  the opportunity. Whatever is in the thermos is
• 1:20:24
  taking the edge off as very slowly hands you the bowl and
• 1:20:30
  then just as quickly wraps both arms around you.
• 1:20:34
  I feel like this would be a lot easier with the straw.
• 1:20:39
  Hey, I'll, I'll run out. I'll, I'll run out to CVS the
• 1:20:42
  first thing, OK? Says Cass.
• 1:20:47
  I'll get you one of those funky, like, you know, like crazy
• 1:20:50
  straws. I still got those right.
• 1:20:53
  Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
• 1:20:58
  And I guess I'm going to try to drink this and see what happens.
• 1:21:03
  You need another willpower check.
• 1:21:05
  You still have that two die bonus.
• 1:21:08
  And it's 7 success is not critical.
• 1:21:11
  Neffer's running through Sarah's veins.
• 1:21:15
  It's potent enough that even the small amount satiates 2 levels
• 1:21:22
  of your hunger. Somewhat feel like a person
• 1:21:29
  again I guess try and pull myself up.
• 1:21:33
  Yeah, Sarah lets you out of the bear hug when she's good and
• 1:21:37
  sure that you're not going to try and, well, do what you just
• 1:21:44
  did, can I? Please go out.
• 1:21:50
  On one condition. Got to take that thermos with
• 1:21:54
  you. I know it.
• 1:21:57
  It's not the first time I've had to, well, get people off the
• 1:22:02
  sauce, and well, I don't pretend to understand what exactly the
• 1:22:07
  thin bloods do with it. It might just be the difference
• 1:22:13
  between whether or not you try to RIP one of your friend's
• 1:22:19
  throats out. Astor, can I go back with you?
• 1:22:33
  I I understand if you say nothing like that.
• 1:22:37
  I'm not exactly stable. None of us are stable.
• 1:22:45
  It's OK. You know what?
• 1:22:48
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:22:50
  As long as Sarah says that it's it's OK.
• 1:22:54
  I trust Ash to be able to hold you back if need be.
• 1:23:02
  I feel like probably for the first time in several nights,
• 1:23:09
  Crow perks up a little bit. Like, it's still very much like
• 1:23:17
  her body language is giving off that she's in a lot of pain, but
• 1:23:23
  it's all just the mental shit that she perks up kind of like a
• 1:23:33
  half smile. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:23:40
  Oh yeah. Let me get my bag.
• 1:23:43
  Sarah kind of just collapses back onto the couch, like
• 1:23:49
  kneading her brow. Are you OK, Sarah?
• 1:23:55
  Well, let's just say that she's not the only one who's been
• 1:24:01
  getting angry lately. I'll.
• 1:24:03
  I'll. Take her for her tonight.
• 1:24:08
  You go take care of yourself, caretaker.
• 1:24:10
  Burnout's still a thing. It's this.
• 1:24:18
  Sebastian has a lot to answer for.
• 1:24:22
  I do not like him. I don't.
• 1:24:26
  I don't know what game he's playing but I won't trust him.
• 1:24:33
  Glad he's locked up. All of this is just.
• 1:24:38
  I'm glad it's over, don't get me wrong, but none of this makes
• 1:24:44
  any sense. It does feel like I'm we're
• 1:24:49
  missing many pieces to puzzle. To mention there are only so
• 1:24:53
  many nights in a row I can play babysitter.
• 1:24:58
  Well, I can at least help tonight here if you need me
• 1:25:03
  again, just let me know. I'm sure you have a way of
• 1:25:08
  contacting me. Anyone.
• 1:25:12
  Oh, I've got friends everywhere, really good ones.
• 1:25:19
  Yeah, just. If if you ever need a night off
• 1:25:21
  I I can help. Well, if your friends keep
• 1:25:28
  providing her with free tea, then maybe she has a chance in
• 1:25:31
  hell of beating this we'll. Do our best.
• 1:25:36
  IGA is pretty reliable and in a pinch, given the formula, I can.
• 1:25:43
  Help. With it.
• 1:25:47
  I forgot what giving a shit feels like.
• 1:25:51
  It no offense to you, but it seems like a lot of the elders
• 1:26:01
  need to be reminded of their humanity.
• 1:26:07
  How old do you think I am, young lady?
• 1:26:11
  Older than me. Yes, but you're a no offense,
• 1:26:18
  but you're dusk born. You are a fetus.
• 1:26:24
  You are barely ambulatory. I know.
• 1:26:30
  Just a babe in the woods. Doing what I can.
• 1:26:35
  Smallest possible child, She says with a bit of a somewhat
• 1:26:42
  exhausted grin. Yep, all of those things are in
• 1:26:50
  fact very true. But sometimes adults need to be
• 1:26:56
  reminded of the puriness of children.
• 1:27:01
  And sometimes, sometimes adults fail to act their age.
• 1:27:09
  True story. Speaking of which, I'm overdue
• 1:27:17
  for a talk with Freddie and Mama Don.
• 1:27:22
  I ask you about Freddie. What's up with him?
• 1:27:28
  He's a turned goat with the massive chip on his shoulder,
• 1:27:33
  but he's also paid his dues to the movement.
• 1:27:39
  What's his beef with the Crawford family?
• 1:27:43
  I honestly couldn't tell you. I tried to spend as little time
• 1:27:48
  within the city limits as I can nowadays.
• 1:27:53
  You do hear anything? Is it overstepping to ask for
• 1:27:58
  you to tell me? I think you have bigger fish to
• 1:28:05
  fry right now. Me and Crow have been talking,
• 1:28:10
  she told me. Who turned you on to the Colt
• 1:28:14
  MM? Hmm.
• 1:28:18
  You should probably settle up with her.
• 1:28:24
  It's. I don't.
• 1:28:25
  Know it's on the list. Well, make it a priority you do
• 1:28:31
  not want. That particular clan may have
• 1:28:36
  not invented the art of the Grudge, but they sure as hell
• 1:28:39
  perfected it. Duly noted, and the Freddy
• 1:28:46
  information is more of a side project than anything.
• 1:28:50
  He's a prick, He. Seems like 1.
• 1:28:55
  He's a prick in our corner and right now, right now, we need
• 1:29:04
  that now. In the meantime, go be
• 1:29:11
  ambulatory fetuses, will you? Yeah, and she will look down the
• 1:29:20
  hall for Crow. Row you try your best to put
• 1:29:28
  yourself together. Promise the feathers aren't
• 1:29:32
  going anywhere anytime soon. They basically become a
• 1:29:34
  permanent feature at this point. Yeah, and it's probably more of
• 1:29:39
  them given the persistence of the struggles.
• 1:29:48
  And sometimes, sometimes your eyes just go full corvid black.
• 1:29:57
  It's as disconcerting as it sounds.
• 1:30:03
  As you head back out with your bag, Kiss meets you by the door.
• 1:30:08
  Just like room for plus one. You know what?
• 1:30:14
  Yeah, come on. I got food at the house that
• 1:30:16
  needs to get eaten. Oh, sweet.
• 1:30:18
  I could. I can absolutely murder.
• 1:30:23
  Yeah, I can absolutely murder. Like, I mean, I mean not
• 1:30:26
  literally murder, but you know. Yeah, if I'm on, let's go.
• 1:30:40
  Fair warning, there's some famous people at the house.
• 1:30:43
  Don't freak out. Yes, elbows U crow.
• 1:30:51
  What do you mean you've been holding that on me?
• 1:30:56
  Not intentionally. So we're talking like, like San
• 1:31:05
  Arroyo famous like. Like Raleigh Asher and Jeremy
• 1:31:10
  Reed. No, you're friends with Queen
• 1:31:15
  Babylon. Yeah, I guess.
• 1:31:21
  Oh my God. I mean, I get you've been going
• 1:31:24
  through it lately, but come on, Dick move.
• 1:31:31
  Keep your fangirling in your pants, please.
• 1:31:34
  I will do no such thing. I have got now that you're back
• 1:31:38
  and we can hang out again. I have got so much fangirling to
• 1:31:42
  whip out Raleigh, Buck and Asher.
• 1:31:46
  I mean shit, that show, man, that was like my entire identity
• 1:31:56
  back in high school. Yeah, I'm aware.
• 1:31:59
  I'm very, very aware. And the fangirling only
• 1:32:07
  continues on the ride back. He has 1000 questions for both
• 1:32:13
  of you. Astor will answer none of them.
• 1:32:20
  I feel like crows just sitting in the back seat with Cass just
• 1:32:25
  sort of watching as the desert passes by, just eventually like
• 1:32:33
  settles back into the seat, unintentionally settling back
• 1:32:41
  into Cass not even realizing it. What are you strung out at?
• 1:32:52
  An ungodly hour raving about that one scene?
• 1:32:57
  You know, the one in the season finale?
• 1:33:04
  Almost seems normal.