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The Vampire With No Name 1.18 - By The Skin of Your Teeth · Dubious Creatures Presents

0:47
The. A highway wanders through the
1:20
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 San Arroyo Kindred.
1:48
We here at Dubious Creatures present to you the vampire with
1:53
no name. We transition to the back alley
1:59
behind the Palmdale Hotel where not all that long ago, Raleigh,
2:07
you snuck out for a no less clandestine but admittedly very
2:14
different reason. Bad assault.
2:17
It's been a barely a week. And she's waiting for you, arms
2:26
folded, ugly smirk plastered across her face.
2:35
What? You really don't Remember Me, do
2:39
you? I'm sorry, I don't, I, I think
2:45
about it. There's something, but if it is
2:48
during the time where I think it was, I was on a lot of drugs.
2:53
And that's putting it mildly. Yeah.
2:59
Let me refresh your memory. It was 2016 ish, I was working
3:10
for some gossip rag that paid me just enough to afford the
3:17
bullshit rent in LA when I stumbled upon you of all people
3:27
throwing up behind a dumpster. And even though it was a perfect
3:32
opportunity for a few candid photos, I decided, you know
3:35
what? She looks how I feel, so I
3:41
decided to help you out more fool me, I guess.
3:52
And well, I'm not going to pretend it was my finest moment
3:56
either. I mean, we're two credibly guess
4:00
you could say strung out people in the right place the wrong
4:06
time. But it wasn't that you just hit
4:09
it and quit it, Raleigh. It was what happened after.
4:17
Did she elucidate for me yet again?
4:21
Memory's a bit patchy. You ever ask your dad hoe after
4:28
all the shit you got up to, you seemingly had a clean slate the
4:34
moment you stepped out of the gates of that overpriced rehab
4:40
facility? No, she's glad to work and you
4:47
know, look what good it's done me in the long run.
4:50
Well, I'm so glad for you, really.
4:56
He fucking destroyed my life, blackballed me, made me move all
5:03
the way back here, a place that I promised myself I'd never come
5:08
back to. And you don't remember a damn
5:12
thing. You're just happy to work.
5:18
OK, so this is, you know your what?
5:25
He doesn't know, does he? Know what?
5:30
That shears disease is bullshit. I would like for it to stay that
5:36
way for now for his safety. I'm sure you would.
5:45
I'm sure you would. So how much is his safety to
5:53
you? Oh.
5:55
So we've moved on to blackmail. Oh, we're just getting started,
6:00
sister. I don't know.
6:04
I already feel like you have a number in mind.
6:08
I don't. Want your money?
6:12
You don't really have two cents to rub together as it is at.
6:18
Least you've done your research. I've had a lot of time to
6:22
prepare. Granted, I didn't think you'd
6:26
have the absolute fucking audacity to come here of all
6:30
places. Oh, it wasn't audacity, I assure
6:34
you. Just name your fucking price.
6:42
You and your friends are quite literally draining the life out
6:49
of the few people who are still clinging by their fingernails
6:54
here. Uh huh.
7:01
And you're going to help me expose it.
7:04
All of it. Oh God.
7:10
And in case you're thinking of coming up with some witty
7:16
retort, the shit I've gathered on you goes so far beyond
7:22
ruining your relationship. That visit from the Sheriff's
7:28
Department, that was a taster. Just to show you that I mean
7:34
business. What, did you still snap some
7:39
photos? You're really not in a position
7:45
to be asking questions. You know what, I think I want to
7:52
flip the script a little bit. And how far away is she?
7:58
She's a bare distance away, maybe like 10 feet.
8:05
I mean, she's not. She's far enough away that one
8:09
would, in normal circumstances, assume bet she's safe.
8:19
She's not going to be safe, but. You know what they say about
8:22
assumptions. Yeah, I going to close that
8:28
distance very, very quickly. Would you perhaps like to rouse
8:35
for fleetness? That's the plan.
8:39
Go ahead and Rouse. Well, here we go, back up to
8:45
Hunger 3. Yeah, I'm going to close this
8:50
distance and I want to, not necessarily looking to hurt,
8:58
looking more to scare as I close the distance and push her
9:04
against the wall. Give me Dexterity plus
9:09
intimidation. 3 successes. Still more than enough for the
9:17
purposes of what you're achieving.
9:18
You. You take maybe 1/2 step and
9:21
suddenly you're in front of her and her eyes go wide as you just
9:25
fully grabbed her with lapels or jacket and pin her against the
9:31
wall. You can.
9:36
You practically hear her heartbeat.
9:38
You can see the sweat beating on your brow and you can feel your
9:44
fangs extending. Sorry you.
9:50
I guess you're really good at pushing some buttons here, and I
9:53
think maybe you realize just how out of your league you are.
9:57
You want to kind of. Fucking expose something that's
10:02
been, I don't know, going on for hundreds of years and think that
10:06
there won't be any consequences. I don't know, you think I'd
10:11
really be stupid enough to confront you by myself if I
10:15
didn't have a dead man switch? I don't plan on killing you.
10:21
I don't want to kill you because maybe in my heart of hearts I do
10:25
feel a little bit bad that apparently my dad ruined your
10:28
life. I didn't ask him to, but you
10:33
threatened the person I love the most.
10:38
So what are you going to do, huh?
10:40
Can't get Daddy to make it go away this time.
10:42
And if you kill me? Oh, you're not even going to
10:48
last a week. Well, we're going to start
10:53
somewhere and we're going to go from there.
10:55
I'm going to figure it out because, you know, I'm still
10:59
trying to understand all of this and you know, I'm real fucking
11:07
hungry, so I am going to drink you're.
11:15
In a biter. Yeah.
11:19
You're in full control. But that's just it.
11:27
You're in full control and you're doing it anyway.
11:36
Do you think of any reason why this wouldn't violate A
11:38
Chronicle tenant? I'm protecting what's mine,
11:44
Taylor. That's fair.
11:49
You bite down. You wonder what's more
11:53
horrifying, the fact that there's someone actively chewing
11:58
into their throat, or how good it feels.
12:03
You get an intense feeling of burning rage, of schottenfreude.
12:16
Liquid schottenfreude. She hates you.
12:23
She hates you so much that her blood tastes like vitriol.
12:31
You gain an intense choleric resonance.
12:37
I'll take two dots of hunger. You drop her.
12:44
She falls to her knees, clutching at where you licked
12:48
the wound clothes, and looks up at you.
12:51
Hatred, anger, fear, revulsion. And I'm going to look down at
12:57
her and I'm going to say it's not like I don't hate everyone
13:03
here. I hate the people who did this
13:06
to me, but you crossed a fucking line.
13:12
You brought someone who had nothing to do with this into it.
13:18
You're a fucking monster. Yeah, at least I'm aware of it.
13:25
If you come near Taylor again, I won't be as nice.
13:32
Going to need charisma manipulation plus intimidation.
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And I'm going to spend a willpower.
13:42
I literally cannot get above 4 successes tonight.
13:45
All. Right, Let's see.
13:50
Under normal circumstances, this might be enough to dissuade a
13:58
rational person. But this hatred, it is
14:04
irrational. She's been holding on to this
14:09
for nine years, you know, because you tasted it.
14:16
And she just looks up with you with such intense rage, bone
14:25
deep sorrow, that you almost reflexively take a step back.
14:31
Fuck you, fuck you. I'm not going to stop.
14:35
You can't just make this go away.
14:39
You can't just walk away from it.
14:44
If you continue digging, they're the ones that are going to kill
14:47
you, not me. You.
14:50
Fuck you. And I shake my head that clearly
14:57
I am angry. I, I don't want to hurt her more
15:02
because honestly, the, the, what I've done so far is it's very
15:08
hard. She's not going to say like,
15:10
yes, this movie, this movie actress bit me and drank my
15:13
blood. No, but it doesn't change the
15:17
fact that she has the goods on you.
15:21
Yeah, it doesn't. And.
15:23
It doesn't change the fact that she's threatening Taylor, that
15:27
she's threatening your friends. It's sounds like this.
15:35
I wish. I wish I could call Nick.
15:39
Nick would fucking know. Nick's not here.
15:42
He's not, but you know who might be able to give me a hand and
15:53
has a phone? Hey Ash, I know you're real
15:56
busy, but I have a bit of an emergency.
15:59
Ash where? Are you right now?
16:02
I think after after that debacle, Ash is taking a late
16:08
night visit to Gil's gym. It is open 24 hours.
16:13
So Ash is basically working out to like figure out how to pull
16:20
punches again, because frankly, they sort of kind of need to
16:27
relearn how to do that so that they don't murder somebody if
16:31
it's like a random bar brawl. So I think they're, they're just
16:36
like they're working on a sandbag and fuck it, probably
16:40
working bare knuckle because that's the kind of night they're
16:43
having when I think they have their phone on like loudspeaker
16:51
when the the bills above, like the Stinger from Bill's above
16:57
plays on the right course. So they they they finish up
17:02
their set, check the like what is the text or what what does
17:07
the the message say exactly? Come to the Palmdale ASAP
17:13
emergency. OK, so yeah, they're going to
17:17
like they're I I think Ash has changed into like jogging pants
17:22
and like a tank top and they're just going to like toss on a
17:28
hoodie over this and beat it. I I don't know how far the gills
17:32
is from the Palmdale, but they will pull up and I.
17:38
Think just enough of narratively appropriate time for well, I've
17:45
got one question. 2 questions actually for two different
17:48
individuals. First off, Robbie, what are you
17:52
doing about Olivia in the interim?
17:57
She's, she's going to be real sleepy, right?
17:59
Because I did take two dots of her blood.
18:02
That's true, but she she's down, but she's not out, if you know
18:08
what I mean. Yeah, well, we're going to get
18:11
real creative and. You're a trained martial artist,
18:15
you know there are ways to incapacitate someone.
18:19
Yeah, yeah, I will. I will do one of those for.
18:21
Sure, go ahead and give me Gullet.
18:25
Stamina or strike was brawl. Guessing 2 isn't enough.
18:30
Suck it up. Well, she's missing 2 pints of
18:33
blood, so we'll see. Humans, generally speaking,
18:37
really can only lose about 14% of their blood volume before
18:44
they start experiencing some rather noticeable side effects.
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So 2 pints is a little over 14%. Yep.
18:54
You put that bitch in a chokehold.
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Yeah. You're not proud of this.
19:00
You really you're not proud of this?
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No, no I'm not. But a desperate time to call for
19:08
desperate measures. Second question is, Jeremy, what
19:11
have you been doing while all this has been going on?
19:15
Well, my original plan was for Jeremy to go eat, but I I kind
19:19
of ate here. So he probably wanders off to
19:24
see if she if he gets a certain text back.
19:29
Yeah, yeah, indeed. Linda did respond probably while
19:35
you were doing your impromptu piano recital.
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Just says. Just wanted to know if you
19:43
wanted to do that hang out sometime do.
19:47
You have something he'll he'll text back.
19:50
Do you have something in mind? I mean, I know, as corny as it
19:56
sounds, I know a pretty good karaoke bar.
19:59
He used to love that back home. Yeah, you know what?
20:05
Sure. Oh cool, you don't mind if it's
20:11
after hours do you? That's like literally the only
20:14
time I have off. Yeah, that's, that's that's
20:18
fine. Let me put it this way.
20:19
I was just serenading. I think there were exes who are
20:24
trying really hard to pretend they're not getting back
20:25
together in a hotel lobby. So I'm sure it my hours are shot
20:31
too. I know you're all over TikTok.
20:35
What? She sends you a link to a video.
20:38
I'm going. To open it up.
20:41
Apparently somebody was filming you without your consent.
20:44
Oh, delightful. OK, do I at least look good in
20:48
it? No, you look very good in it,
20:50
and you look, you look positively angelic the way
20:53
you're serenading this crowd. OK, processing that actually he
21:04
probably he literally takes their back.
21:05
I'm processing that I was just kind of doing something
21:09
impulsive. I guess I should.
21:12
You impulsive? Well, I never.
21:19
I guess I got a, he'll take a SEC.
21:21
I guess I got to prepare for a visit for my family at some
21:23
point. Yeah, bit of a pause, hear me,
21:33
because you're kind of looking maybe a little concernedly at
21:36
that video. Is that just you, or is the
21:41
piano music coming from somewhere other than your phone
21:45
all of a sudden? That's not good.
21:49
He'll look up and he'll like do a double tank and look around.
21:52
Yeah, you just kind of wandered outside for a minute, you know,
21:55
trying to get away from your adoring public.
21:57
You weren't really wandering in any direction in particular.
22:01
Why is Raleigh standing over a woman's body?
22:06
Is she looking at me? She looks like, but how does
22:10
Raleigh look in this moment? I mean, Ellie a little ruffled,
22:17
kind of trying to just don't just breathe anymore, take a
22:20
deep breath, get myself under control.
22:26
I'm not bloody, so there's that. Well.
22:29
That that like a now small, small mercies.
22:33
I, I, I think Jeremy's gonna like choke down his immediate
22:35
reaction, which is the step into the shadows and disappear.
22:39
It kind of stands there awfully for a second and then says do
22:43
you need help? Jesus Christ, Jeremy.
22:49
Yeah, I was. I spaced out and I was listening
22:52
to piano music and then I ended up here.
22:56
Yeah, I actually do need help. She's unconscious right now.
23:02
Isn't that the? Yep.
23:05
OK. She's blackmailing me.
23:09
Oh, OK, she's. Threatened my boyfriend's.
23:15
Oh. I mean, you didn't like snap her
23:19
neck, did you? No, she just put her in her
23:22
chokehold. She's unconscious, OK, Because
23:25
you know, she's hopefully smart enough to have set up some sort
23:28
of deadman system that, you know, 24 hours.
23:31
She'd just send out bad information about me and try and
23:36
ruin. My Life OK so therapy like walks
23:40
over and like squats down in his life looking at the lady well,
23:43
First things first, I assume she was recording you is does is it
23:48
still running? Did you check?
23:51
Probably I would have been like looking for like any kind of
23:54
recorder on her. Yeah, one if you can give me Wiz
23:58
plus investigation as race successes.
24:02
Race successes? Yep, you find the recorder
24:04
that's been running this entire time.
24:10
Is it like a analogue or is it like a electronic or?
24:14
It appears to be one of those electronic recorders.
24:18
OK. Not necessarily like a It's not
24:22
like a cassette recorder. It's like.
24:26
It's just those little, you know, handheld electronic
24:30
recorders. Exactly.
24:31
Not like one that's connected to the not, it's not Bluetooth
24:34
cable or anything like that, it's just it's purely an
24:37
electronic recorder. So he'll turn it off is the
24:42
first thing he does. And he says, all right, well,
24:45
OK. Where were you putting her?
24:49
I called Ash. Speaking of which, Ash, Raleigh
24:54
and Jeremy are standing over a woman's body.
24:58
Even in Saint Arroyo, that's suspect behavior.
25:02
OK. Please explain reporter
25:07
apparently blackmailing me knows I'm I'm do like Fang motions.
25:15
OK. Out of the alley first.
25:18
Where are we putting her? I mean.
25:20
Instincts save the sewers. Well, she's not dead.
25:25
Oh, OK, well. She's, she's alive because, you
25:30
know, if she's smart, she has some sort of backup that will
25:34
activate if she doesn't like, I don't know, do something within
25:36
24 hours. I don't know.
25:38
I played a reporter once on TV. That's how I thought I would
25:41
have done it. As I said, out of alley
25:47
conversation someplace else, that that that was.
25:49
What I was implying I I did promise Taylor I'd come back
25:53
with a a bottle of champagne and I've been gone for a bit.
25:58
Listen, we're I think that romantic evening is out of the
26:02
question after this point. Text, text him back, say hey the
26:08
reporter lady was still here. She started following me.
26:12
I have left to give her the slip.
26:14
I should be back soon. That's good.
26:17
OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
26:18
yeah. That's what I'm going to text
26:21
him. Just, you know.
26:23
So body, what do? Ash, you've got a car, right?
26:27
Yeah, How do we feel about kidnapping?
26:30
You know what, I'm pretty pretty OK with kidnapping right now,
26:33
seeing if she's threatened the the person I love.
26:36
OK, OK. We need a place that's not any
26:39
of our living spaces. Well, there is.
26:47
You know what it's not, it's not tied to, it's not tied to
26:50
Raleigh. So that's at least.
26:52
Great. It's not tied to, not tied to
26:53
me. It's not actually legally tied
26:55
to any of us. Great, let's.
26:58
Go yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna send Astor a text message
27:02
beforehand being like incoming with package.
27:06
Be ready. What I find amusing about that
27:10
is that Astor probably gets that text, You know, probably she's
27:13
like spinning some clay, trying to relax, and then suddenly
27:16
there's a knock at the door because it's around this time
27:18
that Crow gets dropped off. Oh God.
27:24
I just, I just wanted to work on this fucking project.
27:28
That's all I wanted to do. I did not want to deal with a
27:31
bunch of fucking people. And I just wanted to have a nice
27:33
night in with my boyfriend. We were all having our nights.
27:35
I. Feel that on the spiritual
27:37
level. I had a terrible night with my
27:39
family and that's great and. You're going to make it
27:44
everybody's problem. Esther will absolutely get the
27:48
door. She did take a moment when she
27:50
got into the house to text her sister.
27:55
You didn't get a reply. Yeah, I didn't think I was going
27:59
to, but it's there. She made the effort, and that
28:03
was a big thing for her. Come on in, Crow.
28:07
Stop. Like, sorry.
28:11
Covered in clay, dust and whatnot.
28:16
Crow has a very large gun tucked into her waistband, like a
28:21
comically large revolver. You got the gun.
28:27
Yep. Great cool.
28:30
Nope. No.
28:34
It's a long story and I you're you're working on some things,
28:43
so I don't want to drag you off that.
28:46
Honestly, it's fine. Come on back.
28:49
She'll feel the vibration of her phone in her pocket and pull the
28:54
phone out and be like, oh I guess everyone else is on their
28:59
way over with a package. I don't know what that means.
29:03
I. Mean I'm assuming it's not who
29:06
breeds. I'm assuming it's not good.
29:11
Indeed, eventually the rest of the group shows up and they have
29:20
a body with them. That's not dead, right?
29:26
No, she's just unconscious. Oh shit.
29:29
Lizzie breeds. Yeah, no, it's we're, we're
29:32
we're at kidnapping, not murder. Yeah, yeah, this is the
29:35
kidnapping scenario to reporter. Apparently she's been.
29:40
Following you. Yes it is apparently.
29:42
I don't know. Apparently my dad ruined her
29:45
life like 9 years ago and she's got it out for me.
29:49
Right me, a river. Yeah, you know, apparently,
29:54
because if my dad wanted me to continue to, like, work after,
29:58
you know, I had a very public meltdown.
30:00
Your parents also ruin people's lives.
30:03
Apparently this is the first I've heard about it, but you
30:06
know. You want it with a parent that
30:07
doesn't ruin lives. Yes, have you, I mean, have you
30:12
dug hard enough? Maybe it's just never mind.
30:14
That's. No, I don't want to I.
30:16
Legitimately, you've bet you're in laws, right?
30:19
Once I met them once at the wedding and that was enough for
30:23
me. Yeah.
30:24
So that that. Groans slightly.
30:27
She appears to be coming too well.
30:30
We should blindfold her. Blindfold.
30:33
Yes. Do you anyone cut a?
30:36
Asher just rips a bit of her her coveralls off and like
30:40
blindfolds her. There's chalk dust at like clay
30:43
dust on it and why not? She doesn't give.
30:44
Crap, we're professionals. We totally know what we're
30:47
doing. Ashley's going to go to the
30:49
kitchen for some zip ties. You're better off in the closet.
30:54
There's rope in there. That would be useful for
31:00
blindfolding permanently. No, no.
31:05
We don't want. To do that, we're not, we're not
31:07
permanently maiming her. OK, OK, cool.
31:10
Fair enough. There's.
31:13
Come on. Well, let's take her out to the
31:15
the greenhouse, because at least there's nothing out there.
31:19
Incriminating. Identifying.
31:21
Yeah, yeah, all of those things. Great, we've got even we've got
31:25
a black site. We're doing so great at this
31:27
y'all. Do not bring this to my house
31:30
ever again. Thanks.
31:31
Yeah, literally. We just, we had.
31:33
There was literally nowhere else I could take it.
31:35
I can't really take her back to my hotel room where my boyfriend
31:38
is currently. I get it.
31:41
Fucking how the fuck? Yeah, threatened.
31:46
My boyfriend threatened to. Apparently she's got a lot of
31:48
dirt on me. She's threatening me out.
31:51
And honestly, if that dirt is naked pictures, I think you're a
31:55
little too late. Bright.
31:58
He doesn't have naked pictures on the Internet.
32:03
Bro quietly raises her hand to that question.
32:08
Well, count yourself lucky. You know, I grew up during peek
32:11
Twitter, Yeah. I'm hot and I know I'm hot.
32:17
Me too. Gang Millennials.
32:20
I went to, I went to Berkeley and I went streaking a couple
32:24
times. But she's waking up.
32:28
Can I crack her on the head again or like someone?
32:31
Can I just take the pistol and just kind of like bunk?
32:36
You can give me it's not a high difficulty, the it's base
32:39
difficulty 1. But you're gonna kill her.
32:43
Let's let's, let's try to avoid like permanently injuring her.
32:49
It's based difficult. Well it's it would be either
32:52
strength or dex plus melee. Yeah, 2 successes.
32:57
Like I said, based difficulty one, it's a big it is a maybe an
33:01
idea of the actual make and model.
33:02
This gun. It is based off the Colt Walker
33:06
revolver, which is one of the largest commercial handguns ever
33:11
produced, and it weighs about 5 lbs.
33:15
So yeah, so you pistol whip her right back into Drowsy Town.
33:23
Obvious answer is yeah. So do you remember the strung
33:29
out guy with all? Of the fortunate.
33:32
Son, he's like pointing it at he's Jeremy's putting in ash.
33:37
He's like, you remember the strung out guy with the
33:39
fortunate son who was willing to, you know, yeah, gotta do
33:43
whatever he wants for myself. So yeah, we learned about
33:50
cooling so it cool like you remember, you know, Renfield
33:57
Dracula. Sort of.
33:58
OK. Yeah, yeah.
34:00
That's the basic concept. You you feed someone your blood,
34:03
you feed a human blood, the OR vitae specifically.
34:08
They are bonded to you and they have to follow orders.
34:14
I guess I the specifics evade me, but I'm listening.
34:21
Upside to that? It would make her, well, I mean,
34:26
it depends on who does it to her, but I think it'll make
34:30
obedience, hopefully a level of obedience also.
34:35
Secondly, if Raleigh does it, I, I, I think it'll be a lot of
34:39
very confused, angry and or not emotions all kind of jumbled up,
34:43
which will probably make this a little bit easier to resolve.
34:46
I don't know. I don't know, I'm just
34:48
spitballing. Here, apparently some of those
34:50
feelings are common. Oh, OK.
34:55
I imagine that all of this is happening while they're tying
34:59
her to her chair. Astor will take her phone.
35:03
Yeah. Might want to take the SIM card
35:06
out. Yeah.
35:09
I mean. But I want to go through it
35:11
first so I'm going to like use her finger to unlock her own
35:15
phone. Yeah, you unlock it because
35:19
unfortunately, advances in technology have made it
35:22
criminally easy to break into someone's phone.
35:26
Not a lot on here. You don't think it's a burner
35:29
per SE? There's just not a lot on here.
35:32
A couple of basic apps, check contacts list, yeah, just not a
35:38
lot going on all. Right, well, I'm going to fuck
35:43
with this while they do whatever.
35:46
Maybe it was like a hidden profile in there?
35:48
Yep. I was a spy movie.
35:50
Once Aster give me an intelligence or wits plus
35:55
technology. 01 Success. That's a beastial failure, yeah.
36:03
Womp womp. So you're like, oh, crap, the
36:06
SIM card, right? And you start fiddling with it,
36:09
and you're not really sure how to do this.
36:12
You've seen it. You've seen people do it in
36:14
movies, but they always make it look so easy.
36:16
And you're trying to fry it out, but your hands still have caked
36:21
on partially wet clay on them. And the phone, Something cracks.
36:27
You drop it, the screen splinters.
36:30
Crap. Oops, yeah, that's one way to
36:34
deal with the phone. It's now just a lump of plastic.
36:38
That was not my intention, but. Yeah.
36:45
So you don't want her, you know, be kind of like mimes across his
36:49
neck. I think if you don't, if you
36:52
don't want that, you weren't able to talk her out of it.
36:55
I think this is our only option. Oh, she's very, very, very
37:02
intent on trying to ruin my life.
37:06
Apparently the sex was so good she's decided to ruin my life.
37:10
Wait, seriously? Oh God.
37:16
I don't remember it. I was strung out at the time.
37:20
Talking about that. Mood.
37:23
So I'm not going to lie, I sort of am like, like, this is the
37:31
best solution, but also it's kind of fucked up.
37:35
Oh. Incredibly.
37:35
If it makes you feel any better, I could make her nuts I think.
37:41
I don't think psychologically torturing, no, no, that, that,
37:44
that's no, absolutely not. What?
37:50
I don't actually know how it works, I just apparently that's
37:53
the thing. Yeah, let's not.
37:56
OK. Yeah, yeah.
37:59
So yeah. Cool, Cool, cool, cool, cool.
38:03
I who does it? I feel OK not to.
38:09
It does feel like you would be the best option.
38:14
So that way it's like the IT would feel like making it harder
38:22
to act against you really. Yeah, yeah.
38:26
No, I understand. I mean, I don't think, I don't
38:33
think we would have any right to force you to do it.
38:35
But frankly that I mean. I.
38:42
If you don't want to do it, I will.
38:48
OK, I feel like I should because if this whole thing works as you
38:55
say, and her vendetta is against me, it'll make her less likely
39:01
to work against me, and if she binds to any of you, she could
39:04
still tactically work against me.
39:07
Yeah. Yeah.
39:10
I don't know. All that's left to do is to do
39:14
the deed. Yeah, apparently the things we
39:21
do for love. Ashley's going to hold Olivia's
39:25
like by the hair just so that way, like her mouth will remain
39:29
in the same place, you know? None of you feel particularly
39:35
good about this. Feel real bad about this.
39:40
And walk away. Fuck this, I'm out let.
39:44
You extend your fangs, bite down on your wrist, bring it close to
39:54
her. Give me a Rouse check.
39:59
Well, I'm going to get hungrier. It's fine.
40:01
I just ate. This should be a messier pro
40:05
aspect that it ends up being. And yet, when you do this, the
40:11
blood that is not blood enters with a sudden invasiveness, and
40:20
she stirs to life, and she, hesitantly at first, but then
40:28
with a sudden fervor you weren't expecting, keeps drinking.
40:36
OK, OK. First of all, Riley.
40:40
Uh huh. You're going to take a stain
40:43
from blood bonding, immortal. Yeah, yeah.
40:50
Do you want to let her continue drinking?
40:58
No, no, no. I feel real gross about all of
41:02
this and I just want to, I wanted to.
41:06
I just want to do enough to to to do it and then stop.
41:11
But you don't know how much is enough is the problem.
41:18
Bye. Don't.
41:24
Maybe a little bit more. Give me another rose check.
41:31
Oh, I'll go back Hunker three. You were so nice to not have.
41:37
She still it, even for the rest of you.
41:42
It's obscene. And yet you can't look away.
41:48
It's like watching a car accident.
41:50
She's grow. He reminded almost of that time
41:55
when he drank from Aster. There's a similar desperation.
42:04
Is the Is that what you look like when you drink from
42:08
Sebastian? It always looked a lot sexier in
42:12
your head. Probably is sexier when I do it
42:17
because we're in love and this is not that so sure.
42:25
Really. You, you don't know what to do,
42:28
do you? Do you keep going?
42:30
Do you stop? How?
42:32
How do you know when it's taken hold?
42:38
I mean, I'm worried if I give too much more I'm going to be in
42:41
real dangerous territory. I'm going to pull.
42:46
Away. You do, and she gasps, suddenly,
42:51
breathing heavily, heavily, bits your vitae still smeared around
42:59
corners of her mouth. What did you do?
43:06
What did you do? I where?
43:15
Where am I? Where is it?
43:17
It's it's fine if you're fine my.
43:23
Boy, is it so dark. We blindfolded you.
43:32
But you were and, and then I was.
43:36
Uh huh. Going to make a rule against
43:42
your new bond strength. OK, I, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
43:54
It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's been a lot and I, I don't
43:57
know what to do. And just, you were there and it
44:00
was, it's and it was, it's just, I've just been so angry for so
44:04
long. And the words are spelling out
44:08
of her. And you can see tears begin to
44:11
leak out underneath the blindfold.
44:16
You take a few steps back. Yeah, I think if I could throw
44:26
up, I would in this moment because I feel, I feel so gross
44:34
and I I don't like it. I don't like this feeling.
44:37
I don't like it at all. Please, I'm sorry.
44:41
I'm sorry. I won't.
44:43
I won't tell anyone, I promise. I'm just.
44:45
I was really angry. It's it's OK.
44:53
Please, I just, I hate it here. I hate it here so much.
44:59
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
45:00
I didn't know what Gabe was going to do.
45:02
I didn't think he'd go that far. I'm sorry.
45:06
OK, OK, we'll we'll figure it out.
45:10
Those kids, all those fucking kids.
45:14
Yeah, yeah. I was just I.
45:16
Was just so foe laser focused on you I didn't think he'd I mean
45:21
you never think anybody's going to go that far until they until
45:25
they. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he went.
45:30
He went too far. She's lapsing into full on ugly
45:35
crying, just sagging against her restraints, complete 180 from
45:43
the stubborn vitriol that she was spouting not even a few
45:50
minutes ago. I, I, I, I can't, I can't do
45:55
this. I can't, I can't, I can't and
45:58
I'm going to just run back into the house.
46:02
The rest of you are left with, well, this.
46:10
Ash not doing what to do is going to like pat her shoulder
46:17
and be like, hey, hey, hey, it's all right, it's all right, it's
46:22
all good here, it's safe. We're not going to be all right.
46:29
They say real, like, not sure, you know, having done this once
46:34
tonight in an entirely different situation and really not knowing
46:37
what to do with this one. You're starting to understand
46:42
why Mike had such a severe reaction.
46:48
A moment ago she was trying to burn Raleigh down.
46:54
Now she's begging for her forgiveness.
46:59
And you if you had a gorge to rise, it probably would.
47:07
Hey, let's get her some water, she says.
47:11
Like like, yeah, not thinking of like trying to think of
47:16
something to to do this and. Ask her.
47:20
Like scuttles off and goes gets a glass of water and a bottle of
47:26
whiskey. Water, whiskey are.
47:31
You a skeener? I'm kind of presenting it to the
47:37
the everyone like you have a choice, make your choice.
47:43
Reach down and Jeremy's actually going to release her wrists and
47:47
presumably ankles because I'm assuming we like full tighter to
47:51
the chair. Yeah, it's exactly as fucked as
47:54
it sounds. So he's going to release the
47:57
bumps and I'm not going to take the blindfold off, but he is
48:03
going to kind of like very gently pat her on the shoulder
48:06
and reach out and guide her hand to the bottle of whiskey and
48:09
then quirk it for her. Hey, plus.
48:14
I will leave this in your capable hands.
48:16
I'm going to go check on Raleigh.
48:19
I think it's a fair assessment to say you're not doing well
48:24
Raleigh. No, no, I, I, I feel like I'm
48:32
drowning. It's like it was nine years ago
48:37
all over again. And I I I don't know what to do.
48:46
Sure will very calmly and gently you grab her hand and be like
48:51
you're one of the strongest people that I have met in my
48:55
life. I understand how this feels like
49:01
you are drowning. I, I who do I get it.
49:08
But this temporary moment does not define everything.
49:14
This will pass and you will get past this.
49:18
You have a better understanding of everything.
49:23
But it's OK to be upset now am IA monster for what I did kind
49:30
of like wipe away the the the tears of blood that are coming
49:33
down my cheeks and. Gently cups her cheek and wipes
49:39
away some tears. You're not a monster, you're a
49:42
survivor, and sometimes surviving makes us monsters.
49:47
Yeah, I, I don't know. I just, I didn't know what else
49:51
to do. And she confronted me there and
49:53
I got so fucking angry. I needed to do something.
49:58
It's better than killing your. Yeah, I I guess I I don't, I
50:06
don't know. I mean, what they said is true.
50:09
I don't know. Does she have, she have did I
50:14
just take away any of her choices?
50:18
I don't know what to do. I I can't answer that one.
50:23
I have no idea. This is a little beyond me.
50:26
However, I do understand that feelings are hard.
50:30
And no, I don't think you did anything wrong.
50:33
I think you were doing the best you can in a really shitty
50:38
situation. Yeah, I think she was
50:41
threatening to help me. And I mean, ha ha, ha.
50:46
I've been out for a while, but I think it's more of the, yeah,
50:52
the vampire thing, you know? And yeah, she said she didn't
50:59
take any photos of me when I was all strung out.
51:03
And. But I don't know.
51:06
I mean, those would not. My career's not great.
51:09
Those wouldn't help it because. Yeah.
51:13
No, you reassuringly. Like grabs shoulders like.
51:19
You did nothing wrong. Yeah, yeah, she was.
51:24
She was threatening Taylor. You have to protect him.
51:29
He's he is in so much danger right now because of me.
51:33
Being associated with and she mimics the the vampire kind of
51:41
bad, but what are you going to do about Taylor in all?
51:47
Seriousness, my, my plan is we, we get through this, we get
51:57
through this white situation and I proved my worst, I guess.
52:05
And then we run away back to LA and maybe that's where I tell
52:10
him, I don't know. I'm still figuring that part.
52:13
Out a violation of the rules. Technically, but we've lived
52:20
together. It's.
52:22
Kind of hard to ignore that. We live together and look, he's
52:27
gonna, I cannot hide for that long that I, I don't eat food
52:31
anymore. And he keeps talking about
52:33
buying me so much in and out when we get back and I'm just
52:36
like, I'm not going to be able to eat any of that.
52:39
Stand back completely. And and you know, look, he's,
52:44
he's not dumb. He's quite genre savvy.
52:48
He isn't, he's very. And I'm, I'm fucking waiting for
52:54
the day where I have to reenact the goddamn twilight scene of
52:57
what are you? Because, you know, it's, it's, I
53:05
mean, Raleigh is Raleigh is kind of getting a little hysterical
53:10
and. She's.
53:12
She's going to. Find out, you know, one problem
53:17
at a time. I'm not really great at thinking
53:20
forward one problem at a time. Let's figure is.
53:23
This a future problem. This problem out.
53:27
And this, the court here has most definitely inferred that if
53:31
I tell him, they'll kill him so. Mm hmm.
53:35
Tracks I really like. Death.
53:39
Yeah. Yeah, they do.
53:42
I don't envy the situation that you're in, but I will be here
53:47
for you. Thank you no matter what.
53:51
I should go back there and I don't know.
53:55
We should I need something that she said she talked about the
54:00
Gabe. Yeah, the Gabe, the guy she was
54:03
with at the bar and the guy that tried to kill us all last night.
54:08
That's a problem. Yeah, he he was the one that
54:12
made the bombs. That's a serious problem,
54:16
Incredibly. I wonder if you can like tell
54:19
her to not tell him or kill him and sleep?
54:24
No, no, we're not murdering people.
54:25
No murder, no murder. I'm trying to, I didn't mean to
54:30
kill the people last night and oh God.
54:34
That was self-defense. Listen, I don't feel bad about
54:37
that one. Self-defense and self-defense.
54:42
God fuck yeah, going to need to eat again.
54:49
It's fine. I gave her a lot of my blood.
54:53
You did all right. We should go back out there and
54:56
beat this crap out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
55:03
You're a trooper though, don't ever forget that.
55:06
Thank you. She's calmed down a little bit.
55:12
She's no longer in hysterics herself, although, well, the
55:16
three of you that are still in the room with her.
55:20
I'll have feelings, I guess one could say.
55:26
Hey, Olivia. She looks up in your direction,
55:34
still blindfolded. I would like to say I'm sorry
55:40
for the events that happened years ago and I didn't mean for
55:43
them, and I'm sorry everything that's happened because of it.
55:50
But you did mention earlier about things that might happen
55:56
if something were to happen to you and information about me
56:00
that might get out. Is there any way you can stop?
56:05
That my my laptop it's there's a timer.
56:12
It's actually pretty easy to set up.
56:17
I, it, it, it, it's, it's back. It's back at my apartment.
56:24
OK, that's a, that's a start. If we, you know, take you back
56:31
to the apartment, would you, you know, just stop it?
56:39
I don't make another. I need to make another
56:41
resistance roll here. I I no, no, no.
56:50
What are you? What are you doing?
56:53
But what are you? What?
56:58
She now looks like she's having a full on panic attack.
57:02
Oh, shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,
57:04
fuck. Hey, hey, it's it's OK.
57:09
We just want to. We want to put all of this
57:10
behind us. Get rid of any blackmail that
57:14
might cause you or me to get killed.
57:18
We neither of us want to die. Give me give me charisma with
57:25
persuasion and you can add an extra 2 dice to this because of
57:30
the bond strength. 6 successes with the messy critical.
57:41
You don't like this thought that you have.
57:44
Your first thought is that you should feed her more.
57:49
You don't have to act on that impulse, but it's there, and you
57:53
don't like the suddenness of which it arrives.
57:58
I'm going to, for the time being, persisted and hope that
58:04
my words get to her. They do she It seems to snap her
58:10
out of whatever episode she was having.
58:13
She seems to calm down. She, she's looking directly in
58:17
your direction despite not being able to technically see you.
58:24
I don't, I don't like this. I don't like, I want this.
58:27
It's, it's shit. It's all been shit ever since I
58:30
got back here. Look, we'll, we'll figure it
58:33
out. You know, I have to head back to
58:35
LA and you know, I kind of short a personal assistant right now,
58:43
so we'll figure it out. I I get.
58:50
You get you a job, get you out of out of Santa Royale.
58:56
I just want to leave. I can make that happen.
59:02
OK, OK. You get rid of this and when I
59:06
leave, you come with me. You will be my personal
59:11
assistant. OK, OK.
59:15
You don't know if she's saying that to you or herself.
59:19
OK, I feel a little gross again, but you know, this is.
59:26
Just feed her some more, she'll she'll come around to you real
59:33
quick that. Way I'm going to once again try
59:38
to attempt to tamp down these thoughts because.
59:43
It's a little part trick. If I feed her more I I, I'm I
59:49
really have a chance of getting a lot of getting very, very
59:54
hungry and I don't like that willpower is re successes.
1:00:02
Your hands are bowled into fists to the point where the rest of
1:00:07
you are genuinely worried that she might start drawing blood
1:00:10
just from the sheer pressure of her nails into the flesh of her
1:00:14
palms. That little voice.
1:00:18
That little voice that sounds so much like him.
1:00:22
Oh, I'm. Going to resist even harder.
1:00:27
Just get out of my head, motherfucker.
1:00:29
And you do. Barely, but you do.
1:00:35
OK, Yeah, we'll take you back to your apartment, we'll get rid of
1:00:40
the information, and then we'll go from there.
1:00:42
Hopefully, you know everything will be fine and you can leave
1:00:46
with me. Leave me when I go back to LA.
1:00:50
How the fuck am I going to explain this to Taylor?
1:00:52
I'll figure it out. Crow, you feel like there was
1:00:58
something you were supposed to do before all of this happened.
1:01:07
Are we done with this situation because got some shit to spill?
1:01:22
We sideline this situation. We cannot leave her or have the
1:01:29
conversation around her because I don't really care either which
1:01:33
way at this point. That's I don't think we should
1:01:36
have this conversation around her.
1:01:38
We will have to actively tie her back up though.
1:01:41
Oh no, it's stay here. I.
1:01:48
Enjoy, enjoy the greenhouse, it's nice.
1:01:53
She doesn't move. Oh, I don't like I'm feeling.
1:02:00
Ash, ash like looks between Raleigh and Olivia for a moment
1:02:07
for like shrugging and just like, OK, OK, this is happening
1:02:12
and they're they're just going to walk out and go back to the
1:02:14
house. Fuck yeah.
1:02:18
Going to follow along. Me too.
1:02:21
Yeah, I'll follow. Last is like I'm, you know,
1:02:24
looking, making sure that she's staying and not about to bolt.
1:02:28
This is just turning my back cheese.
1:02:30
And in the kitchen, you can see into the greenhouse.
1:02:33
Yeah, that's true. Yeah, she's not moving.
1:02:38
So as we get into the kitchen, Crow's going to take the
1:02:43
handgun, set it down on the kitchen counter and.
1:02:49
That is, you've never described a gun as sexy before, but that
1:02:54
is a really sexy gun. It's clearly some kind of
1:02:58
showpiece. Like there's filigree all along
1:03:02
the barrel, it looks to be custom chambered and the the
1:03:09
handle you think is real ivory with this very elaborate unk
1:03:15
shaped symbol worked into it. It's a little bit battered
1:03:20
maybe, could probably use a good Polish, but still that is a that
1:03:26
is a gorgeous firearm not. Often I think of weapons as
1:03:31
pieces of art, but certainly fits the description.
1:03:36
So got my hands on this and the second set of I guess plans are
1:03:45
already put into motion. Plans.
1:03:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, well, Bubble thought, before
1:03:57
I get to that, I had another vision off of this thing.
1:03:59
OK. Yeah, So what do?
1:04:02
You see? Situations like from I'm
1:04:07
assuming Masaf's perspective it was him being given this Dunn
1:04:18
was him and Anselm and some other dude didn't mention his
1:04:29
name but is I don't know, does something about him look real
1:04:34
familiar? He kind of look like Ash.
1:04:39
Yeah, I think she's purposely leaving that information out for
1:04:44
the moment. Fair enough.
1:04:47
Just because I think she wants to do some investigating into
1:04:51
that first before she spills beans there.
1:04:54
So yeah, Masaf getting the gun as far as the whole plan is
1:05:01
concerned. Surprise, surprise.
1:05:05
And Bella turned on me, tried to kill my best friend and wanted
1:05:14
to use Sebastian as a bartering ship, like a sort of, I guess
1:05:23
trade situation. We we, well, we kind of shut
1:05:27
that down, but also planning on kind of faking set exchange so
1:05:35
that we can get access to this other relic artifacts.
1:05:42
Fucking Ark of the Covenant bullshit, whatever it is that
1:05:46
we're going after at this point that's supposed to be at I guess
1:05:50
the exchange is supposed to be happening at Saint Francis.
1:05:53
That's where Ambella set the meet up for well, I think her
1:05:57
intention was to do it tonight, but let's just say things did
1:06:03
not go the way she wanted them to, so it happened tomorrow.
1:06:08
No, no, no, no. I wish, but no.
1:06:12
I do too. Well, the good news is that we
1:06:16
are, we were already planning to go to Saint Francis tomorrow
1:06:19
morning or tomorrow evening. Injured morning.
1:06:25
Yeah, new morning. There's a church service.
1:06:31
Yeah, I have questions about that.
1:06:33
Questions can hold on because like I really need to stress
1:06:36
this, Sebastian is not going to be used as a actual bargaining
1:06:41
chip here like that's just a ploy.
1:06:45
So I really need everybody here present to make sure that
1:06:53
doesn't actually happen. Oh, OK, yeah.
1:07:02
Who's he prospectively being traded to?
1:07:09
And Bella just said something. She called her mom Mama,
1:07:16
something like that. I didn't hear an actual name.
1:07:21
Mama Don. Yeah, that sounds about right.
1:07:25
We have to meet her, right? Yeah.
1:07:30
Kind of encouraged to meet her anyway.
1:07:33
Yeah. Oh cool.
1:07:35
Apparently she wants my boyfriend, not.
1:07:38
He's a hot commodity. Yeah.
1:07:40
So that's not going to happen. Right, everybody correct.
1:07:46
Yeah, we'll figure something out.
1:07:49
What item was being traded for? She was wanting to trade
1:07:56
Sebastian for one of her coterie mates or something with the
1:08:00
sheriff. No deal.
1:08:02
That's a terrible deal. Yeah.
1:08:04
I very much agree. So what are we going to offer
1:08:07
instead? Doesn't sound like it's our
1:08:10
deal, so why do we have to worry about it?
1:08:14
Because we're not the ones who made whatever bargain and the
1:08:17
crazy drug lady made. That's her problem, not ours.
1:08:24
Because Sebastian feels that this would be beneficial to draw
1:08:32
attention in order to get our hands on the last thing that we
1:08:35
need to deal with Mesop. We already hired someone to take
1:08:39
care of that. What do you mean you?
1:08:42
Hired somebody else to do that. He kind of chuckles.
1:08:49
I guess we don't look like studs, do we?
1:08:52
Oh, come. On OH.
1:08:54
Yeah. I feel like there's some context
1:08:58
here that I'm completely. Missing is a sick sense of
1:09:01
humor. We've met a, a kindred real,
1:09:08
very resourceful dude who we have agreed to, we've agreed to,
1:09:14
Rob said mom. And in exchange, we will be
1:09:19
getting an item of yeah. I believe it's anonymous out of
1:09:25
snow puck. Yeah.
1:09:27
Yeah. Well good, then maybe this
1:09:31
situation will just help your friends acquire whatever the
1:09:37
fuck it is that they're trying to acquire.
1:09:39
Point is, at the end of the night tonight, Sebastian's not
1:09:43
going with Wama Dawn. He's not going with the sheriff.
1:09:46
He's coming back home with me. Are we all clear on this?
1:09:52
Yeah. Yeah, liar.
1:09:55
So who here is really good at lying?
1:09:58
Because it sounds like someone's trying to do this big sale
1:10:02
thing. That's not going to happen.
1:10:07
Yeah, I'm. Still acting.
1:10:09
Struggling with the liar? Context here of what the hell
1:10:14
are we asking for if on behalf of Impala?
1:10:19
Unless like, why would we even like entertain doing this?
1:10:21
Oh, no, no, no. Anbella's going to be there.
1:10:24
Don't worry. We have, we have something of
1:10:26
hers. She's very much eager to get
1:10:30
back. You.
1:10:33
Have. A gun?
1:10:35
No. No, no, no, no, no.
1:10:38
Her. Her boyfriend.
1:10:42
Oh. No, wait, you kidnapped the
1:10:50
boyfriend? Is it technically a kidnap?
1:10:53
Is it technically a kidnapping if he tried to kill my best
1:10:58
friend and instead I blew a hole in his shoulder?
1:11:01
I feel like self-defense. Kidnapping's got to be a thing,
1:11:04
right? OK, so we have.
1:11:07
I mean, I just want to, you know.
1:11:10
I mean, where is he? My place.
1:11:14
OK. And what's to stop her from, you
1:11:19
know, say, taking him back while you're here?
1:11:23
We have methods. Yay.
1:11:26
OK, keep your secrets. About to unpack there.
1:11:33
OK, so I'm I'm again not really understanding what exactly is
1:11:39
the plan that you and Sebastian hooked up?
1:11:43
Basically what I have is that we are going to present the
1:11:49
situation of Anne Bella turning Sebastian over.
1:11:53
I believe either that or turning me over, I'm not sure exactly
1:11:56
which way is this and Bella is going to be turning someone over
1:12:01
and will be a utilized as a point of distraction in order to
1:12:07
get hands on this thing that Sebastian's looking for and the
1:12:13
stuff from massage that we need to get our hands on.
1:12:17
And then we all just walk away and throw middle figures to the
1:12:22
sheriff. This.
1:12:23
Plan has multiple points of failure, we all realize, right?
1:12:27
Yeah, counterpoint, why don't we just make a distraction and skip
1:12:32
the whole turning Sebastian in? Because why is the Minister Lady
1:12:38
involved in any of this at all? Because she's the one who set
1:12:43
the deal up. OK, So what?
1:12:47
Like how is Sebastian getting whatever the hell he's looking
1:12:50
for going to help us like that? Yeah.
1:12:54
No, I'm just trusting him. He hasn't given me a reason to
1:12:57
not trust him at this point. Hey, Jeremy.
1:13:04
Yeah. Can you just go ahead and give
1:13:06
me a intelligence resolve check? It does aha for successes and
1:13:15
not don't get hungrier. You have been suspicious of this
1:13:20
guy since the moment you met him, and now you come to a bit
1:13:28
of a realization after witnessing first hand what
1:13:34
vampire blood does to humans. What if it does the same thing
1:13:39
to other vampires? So I'm going to spend a rouse
1:13:46
check here as I definitely enjoy the fact that I took this fringe
1:13:52
power of double talk here. OK, so I do get a little
1:13:56
hungrier. But So what everybody else in
1:14:01
the room is going to hear is Sebastian did to her what
1:14:04
Raleigh just did to the mortal to Olivia.
1:14:07
And what Crowe is going to hear is, I guess that seems
1:14:12
reasonable. Yeah, you figured it out.
1:14:16
You were one you you had your suspicions.
1:14:20
But this, seeing it first hand, yeah, that kind of cinches it
1:14:25
for you. And everyone except Crow hears
1:14:30
him come to that conclusion. Everything's fucked.
1:14:39
I'm going to go check on our guest.
1:14:42
Me too. Am I getting any indication off
1:14:47
of body language? Can I can listen?
1:14:49
Can I insight check the body language of everybody who has
1:14:52
decided to thoroughly exit the room after that?
1:14:56
Seems reasonable to me. You can give me a wits plus
1:15:01
insight check against, well really anybody but Jeremy
1:15:08
because well, double talk. It's 4 successes.
1:15:12
Who? Specifically, are you trying to
1:15:15
figure out what the Hell's going on?
1:15:17
We're going to go with Astor because Astor did very clearly
1:15:20
state that she is terrible at lying.
1:15:23
She did also say. Fuck out loud.
1:15:26
Again, it did. So Astor, please go ahead and
1:15:31
give me a a composure. What's up in Refuge?
1:15:36
Your difficulty is for. That is 6 successes with a messy
1:15:41
critical. OK, so well, well, you crow
1:15:49
don't really Astor seems a little too put upon to be
1:15:53
suspicious, but you Astor I think with a messy critical
1:15:57
realize. Oh, you.
1:16:02
Granted, he didn't like the Sebastian guy to begin with.
1:16:06
Not my favorite, be honest. Now you realize you if what
1:16:12
Jeremy said is true, you can't trust Crow.
1:16:19
OK, so here's the deal. I have been working really,
1:16:26
really hard to swallow all of the like grow as a bad person.
1:16:32
Don't trust them, don't trust her.
1:16:34
You know all of those feelings. She's she's worked really,
1:16:39
really hard and even gave her some fucking.
1:16:41
Blood. To make to avoid this.
1:16:50
Yeah, but just. Fuck.
1:16:57
Yeah, The thing is, you, he was this close to Zach.
1:17:06
Yeah. You have a suspicion that if you
1:17:09
hadn't intervened, girl would have just stood there and let
1:17:13
her boyfriend tear him into little pieces.
1:17:20
And this plan of hers is, well, it's basically, yeah, it's very
1:17:26
clear who's calling the shots on it.
1:17:28
You would have all kind of incidentally been roped into
1:17:34
somebody else's scheme. Clearly you're getting just a
1:17:39
mite sick of it. IA mite is an understatement.
1:17:43
I am super sick of it. So given that it is a given that
1:17:48
it is a messy critical, how does that outwardly manifest with
1:17:54
Astor? Astor's entire body is tense,
1:17:59
and it's not just because, you know, there's someone sitting in
1:18:04
her greenhouse, there's all of this crap going on.
1:18:08
There's. She turns around and looks at
1:18:12
Crow. It's like, I have one question.
1:18:18
If we don't go through with this, is Sebastian going to call
1:18:21
in those boons? Because I'm going to be honest,
1:18:25
I don't want to do this. This plan is a bad plan.
1:18:29
I. Mean, I don't think he should
1:18:33
have to call in boons when I'm asking you guys for help, but
1:18:41
quite frankly, if I feel like he has to call in boons just for
1:18:44
you guys to help me, then yeah, he'll probably call in the
1:18:48
boons. That I don't want to help.
1:18:52
I'm tired of being caught by the shortened curlies.
1:18:56
Welcome to life under the Camry. Trash fucking life.
1:19:02
She walks out. Yeah, I'm heading into the
1:19:06
greenhouse, too. Ash is going to look to Jeremy
1:19:10
and say, yeah, it's this is really going to, it's going to
1:19:17
be sketchy and. Nothing about this is going to
1:19:21
work. But.
1:19:23
That's just what's going to happen and we're going to be
1:19:25
left holding the bag for it. Yeah.
1:19:28
So we're at least going to get our bins cleared out of this.
1:19:32
I didn't agree to shit. Ash is going to, Ash isn't going
1:19:36
to go upstairs to like I think decompress a little bit.
1:19:44
You don't know what everybody's so upset about, Crow.
1:19:48
Sebastian knows what he's doing. Yep, knows what he's doing,
1:19:53
clearly. They just don't trust the
1:19:56
process. But the comment of having to
1:19:59
call in the boons has her feeling like maybe she needs to
1:20:05
get the message out to him so he knows ahead of time that hey,
1:20:10
they're getting squirrely so might need to call in those
1:20:15
boons. You have Poe, so it's easy
1:20:18
enough to do, Jeremy. Yeah.
1:20:26
You know a thing or two about people being forced to do things
1:20:34
that they don't want to do. Maybe not in this literal of a
1:20:40
process. You need to.
1:20:44
You don't know how you need to help her.
1:20:49
Yeah. The question, the thing I'm
1:20:51
trying to figure out is how. I don't think she's going to
1:20:54
like what I think might work. Probably not.
1:20:59
But you, you saw it happen once, you are not going to let it
1:21:05
happen again. The.