Mayday Plays - Vegas By Night | Episode 28, "One Spot" | Vampire: The Masquerade

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

With the Silver Dollar complete, the New Generation sorts some business in the city. CAST Amanda as Jackie Santana (Banu Hakim) Eli as Niles (Caitiff) Lev as Mal (Lasombra) Zakiya as Sybil Geier (Gangrel) Sergio as John Burrows (Ravnos) Vince as Raguel (Salubri) Caleb Miller as The Storyteller -- 👕 MERCH: http://ko-fi.com/maydayrp & https://mayday-merch.printify.me/products 💵 Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/maydayrp 📰 Join our newsletter: eepurl.com/iIVUjo 🎙 Listen to us: 🟣 Apple Podcasts : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mayd…ys/id1537347277 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5vdTgXoqpSpMssSP9Vka3Z?si=97a6a19d71cf4be0 🟠 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mayday-roleplay 🌟 Other Socials 🌟 🐦 Twitter: http://twitter.com/maydayroleplay 📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/ 🔴 Website: http://maydayroleplay.com/ 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maydayroleplay 👾 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/maydayroleplay 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maydayrp Thanks for your support!

Hi, Glans. Hello, folks. I've just been subjected to a lot of mental damage, so you'll have to forgive me. Good morning, Kindred, and welcome back to Vegas by night. May Day role plays Vampire the Masquerade Chronicle. Look, I know that life might be hard. Maybe you just fed an ageless twink to a big pterodactyl. Maybe a nameless young woman your boss stole is put on a videotape.

Maybe the world's first wife guy is living in the pit of your soul. Maybe you have an addiction to touching every shiny object, regardless of their ability to blow your hands off. Maybe you have visions of dead nirvana so strong that you're constantly having to mind people you're not in a cult. Or maybe you just said goodbye to your first love, you're convertible. Whatever the trouble, you're here now, and I'm here to make it worse. If you're not familiar with us, you can watch season one of Vegas by night. on all of our major platforms. And if you want more than Vegas by night,

all of our backlog is available on YouTube, Twitch VOD, Spotify, and Apple podcast. While you're there, please consider writing us a five-star review. It's one of the most proven ways to help the channel grow. And you can consider joining our Patreon Discord. The Patreon Discord is active daily,

full of some of the most amazing listeners and all of us. And it's available to you at any level of support. With access to our Patreon Discord, you also gain access to our community of family-ran games featuring members of Mayday. We also want to inform you now to keep a lookout for a month from now, May 1st, May Day, when a little something special will be coming your way from the May Day family. So keep an eye out. We'd like to give a shout out as well to our handler-level Patreon contributors.

It's because of all of you that we are able to do this every weekend, that we are able to take time out of our lives, to make something great. And that is, it's not lost on us ever. It's why we're still here. We love being friends. We love creating this. We love being partners. But even more so, we love what you guys make possible for us.

So a big special thanks to Advance War Sammy. Bimblewart, Brandon C, Cameron S., Jonathan M., Kirby's double, Matthew J, Moira, O.G. Pan, R.A.V., Ren, Tony D. Vince K. And Kai H. Please be advised that there may be violent themes, plenty of adult language, and the exploration of darker subjects,

including depictions of human trafficking, abstract horror, religious trauma, and danger to loved ones. May Day role play employ safety tools at the table to prepare ourselves further above, but you may need different accommodations to best help yourself. Please take care of yourself and be aware.

Let's get some. started. Humanity was cursed, and this curse brought the clan of the rose to paint on crushed red petals in the first dawning of our city. Arichel, whose name still falls like the grand drape to the start of our play, drew attention like no other even as a mortal. She was beautiful, worldly, and talented, but her eyes rarely bothered with anything past her art, invited by her most superior into the tower that roosted in the center of Enoch, she was offered a chance to display

her worth and mural. The mural, beautiful and all-encompassing, blindingly honest as its creator, drew the ire in the empty heart of the first to bear the curse. It depicted the magnificent start of our empire,

the creation of Enoch, into its flourishing present like a rose to bloom. Then, the wilting of that dream, in a future yet to come, our world on fire and some distant future yet to pass. Driven to an unimaginable rage by the fear embroiled by that canvas, Arichel was embraced by the first and made to suffer the blindsided obsession of her art to pay penance in her blood. And now the artisans amble through life in search of purpose in their art, like any poor busker might.

The Toriadores suck dry the creativity of the world And hoard the same as dragons The wealth of the human soul Lost in their pursuit of meaning The rest of the world and its demands are unconcerning To their appetites Only creation can bring them back to humanity We will sap more than blood

Steel more than life We will climb into your bed and drink your dreams Free from the Merrow We will swallow everything that might make you worthy purely in effort to keep ourselves entertained even for precious few years. The worst is, we will promise the rest of the world, with no intent to keep our word longer than it takes to steal everything you are. We will take the parts of you that you loved.

We will hang them on shelves like trinkets. We will forget to whom that love belonged by the time the dust has collected. We will kill our darlings. Welcome to Vegas by night. Welcome back. Let's introduce our cast and see if we can do it as well as we did last week. My name is Caleb James Miller. I'm going to be your storyteller tonight.

Hi, I'm Amanda, and I'm playing Jackie Santana. My name is Eli. I'm playing Niles, Ames. I'm Lev, and I play Mal. I'm Sergio, and I'm playing Burroughs. I'm Zach. So close. No.

One week off. I'm so sorry. I love you all. That's awesome. I may be Vince and I may be playing Regal. Once again, I am secure and I play simple. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Okay. We'll get it next week. That's right for us. There's always next week or next time. It makes sense that all it takes is for one of us to leave and the whole dynamic changes come back and it's all the same again. Okay, we have a recap this week from Burroughs. Lord, forgive me. I've done a lot of bad things and not a lot of time.

Well, it's been a while since you and I had a heart to heart. I knocked over the silver dollar and a few hours later, Aiden and taken the second life of a young kindred named Aidan. but my biggest sin of all was having to toss my sweet baby blue. I bought the car first thing after I dragged myself out from that damn mausoleum double H rots in.

Blue isn't normally my color more like a red or a black or a white. It was such a pretty thing and well I just had to own it. Now it's probably rustin in some desert police lot. Still,

I won't deny the thrill of it all. That job, catching up with Adon, and even wrecking Baby Blue. It was a thing you see in the pictures, like those MGM ones I used to be in. You got to understand,

I've been losing for so long. I forgot what winning felt. And last night it reminded me that it feels damn good. Almost better than the loss. And remember, Lord, they started it all by making this personal.

Raggell explained that all that money would be too much heat on us and it'd be better suited planted on the Hakata. But to keep it out of sight while we figure out how to do that, we'd keep it at Niles' bubblegum mansion. And that is where we did Adon, by way of feeding his carcass to spoons or whatever it is now. Yeah, big wheels is turning, and they got a long way to roll, but they're rolling all the same. to John Burroughs. And my coterie, of course. Hell, I'm damn lucky that there's enough beef between Vegas and the six of us that knocking over a Camarillo casino ticks everyone's boxes.

I wanted to frame the Putanescas and, by extension, the Hakata. Niles owed the Ann Arcs of favor, and Symbol, wanted to stick it to Aidan's family. Rangel, like his sire, seems to have embraced a sort of jihad against Vegas. and I'm pretty sure Mal's just in it for the LOLs. Honestly, if all the Bono Joaquin are his ride or die as Jackie is, I think I'm going to give me some new judge friends. Yeah, it's all coming together now, like a fool's gold loaf sandwich. You know, sometimes with all this politicking,

it can feel like I'm the loneliest vampire in Vegas. I mean, hell, I got bit and then thrown into a hole for like 30 years. I don't know shit about kindred history or etiquette or what you're not supposed to do. I can barely keep up with it all. But tonight, Niles set me straight on all of it. But then they asked me permission to do one of those things that you ain't supposed to do. I said yes without fully understanding what I was committing to. But after they drank from me for the second time, I finally understood the gravity.

It was more than just some top offer. Niles was promising something To become more than just friends Now, they're not the first person to throw themselves at me But here, in this life, it means a lot more than just the adoration More like a loyal hound who can no longer say no For now, I'm a step back from the Lime Life for a minute Let the others steer the ship for a while

We gotta let the heat off, we gotta pay our respects to slow and everyone who helped us. Make sure there's no loose ends with those Putanescas. Make sure they get what's coming to them. Brick by brick, we're going to make this city ours. Oh, and Lord, I hope you're taking care of Lydia for me. She was a good old gal, and hell, she deserved a lot better than what I could offer her at the time. It'll be a great regret of mine that she can't see this glorious empire we're building.

I'm going to make sure that for the next one, I am better positioned to support them, the way they deserve. Yeah, I think this whole pretend-to-date women that look my age just ain't the right angle no more. If I'm going to keep climbing the ladder, I need a young, vivacious girl that can keep up with me and my new fast-paced lifestyle. You know, the best part of all this winning I've been doing lately is I barely hear that voice in my head so damn much. You know, the one that's constantly telling me to do bad things.

Who knew? If you just listen to it once in a while, it actually shuts up. God, I'm afraid of the monster we've made. Oh, no. Uh-oh. Beautiful. That was fantastic, John. I would like to ask at this point, have any of you made any changes to your sheets that you would like to declare in front of the group?

You can always save it for a dramatically appropriate context as well. In addition to that, it's just a... should be noted our hunger scores, at least where we left it. Let's check in with our group from last session, and then we'll check in with Zach and their time in between. So what are our hunger scores looking like, gang? Okay, we've got four for Regal, one for Burroughs, two for Jackie. You said it got down to one. One for Mal and one for Niles.

Okay, all right. We're kind of top-heavy, but we've got to. some low scores there. I'm proud of you guys. I did put a dot into subterfuge just because I've been doing so much lying lately. Nice. Yeah. That is very true. A lot of lying out of this group

recently. I will say something I've been forgetting to do is if I if my hunger is less than three there needs to be a penalty to my roles because I have the asceticism. Thank you for reminding me. I'm going to keep track of that. I'm going to write that down right now.

because I routinely forget that as well. Okay, Sybil, would you like to fill us in just routinely on where your hunger score is at in the remaining nights since you saw that VHS? Yes. So Sybil's been doing some digging, which has resulted in a boost in technology and survival. So now there's a dice pull for those. That's great. But let me go to my notes. I'm so sorry.

That's all good. So based on the research that she did between, between the things, do we're going to talk about it now? Just hunger score for now. And we can bring that up when we get to your scene the next night. Okay. She's got a healthy hunger of three. Healthy hunger of three.

And you're looking a little healthier, right? We took down some aggravated damage. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Okay. We zoom in from the night sky of Las Vegas as that camera appears away from what essentially, according to John Burroughs, is a newly founded master and hound relationship.

We zoom up from John and Niles outside of the police station and over the skyline of Las Vegas until we zoom ourselves down into the depths of this place below the meadows, where the roots sink deep into the tunnels that are both sewer system and old flood system to avoid taking the city down with it. We follow through many of these tunnels, of which the NGen has called home many times until we appear in front of the doors to Little Vegas, where three eyes meet one, and the terrifying giant that keeps the door, Brontes at the front of Little Vegas, opens that massive gate for Raquel and Jackie to make their entrance into the Nosferatu Haven that exists just under the strip. Your intentions here are your own.

I believe we came here to speak with Bugsy and to get some investigating done in the direction of some books we've come into contact with. And of course, as always with Jackie, there is some rituals to be done. I release this beautiful world to you. Little Vegas is, as it always is, a light with these incandescent old slot machines that line the bottom floor of this domed out exterior. The bar in the far left with old broken down signs from the many casinos that did not survive into modern nights.

And the many Nosferatu and surprised, amount of unhoused mortals that call this place home as well, who every time you find yourselves in this room, you wonder how it is that they keep so many under their thrall without worry for the beautiful masquerade that keeps over our little dance here. Ragel, Jackie, it's yours. I'm going to, I'm looking around the room and I see the bar that is just right off to the side. I'm going to kind of tap on.

Right. I'll be like, I'm a little peckish. Do you mind if I just got to get a little something in me really quick before we see Buxie? Yeah. Yeah, do your thing. Yeah, no. And if I get any hungrier, I'll just start bleeding from places.

And, you know, I don't want Bugs. I'm trying to keep a respectable appearance for it. That's fair. That's fair. I'm sorry. I got to ask, what happened to you? When I last saw you, when you were alive, you were on a different path. How did, how the hell did this happen?

Oh. Yeah. I was doing a piece on it. Barquis two, please. I would have point to the barquee. two oh negatives if you have them. As you arrive here at the bar, you're casting that question in the direction of Raquel, and Raquel is picking at himself, trying not to answer.

The bartender comes over, this scraggly, skinned out Nosferatu women, a woman who has this large hump on her back that almost looks like a second head is growing out the side of her right shoulder. but she does in fact fix you two blood bags out in front of you with taps to enter into your arteries, your vessels, and then leaves you to it. The neon glow underneath the bar illuminating the conversation and casting this strange, strong blue light under Raquel's face that causes long shadows across his brow. sorry chairs but yeah continue sorry no no no um yeah i was doing a piece on uh lvmpd uh the major

the major crime squad corruption there was allegations they were running drugs for uh the seniloa cartel and uh well look at you oh no it got me they got me dead oh no no i know but that's that's a great case from one that's like that's exactly what we were like you kind of wanted to do them like I'm proud of that of course it didn't you dead but still I appreciate that yeah yeah um it bugsy actually uh called me out to the uh middle of the desert the middle of the night saying he was going to reveal everything to me so he took the call and uh the guy in charge of that squad captain uh underwood ambushed me on the way put a bullet in me.

Mo Kerr found me. And that's how I ended up a salubri instead of a Nosphoratu. It was this close to being real ugly. Ugly. I'm going to look around like, I get what you mean. There's definitely some looks at the bar, as we're mentioning, just how ugly the patrons are. I mean, you've got a third eye, so we've got to be careful with that.

Tomato, potato. That's true. Yeah, you're right. Fair, fair. I'll be honest. I, of all people, I kind of, I had a wish that for you, but, um, I won't. It's actually, it was, it was a great pleasant surprise to see a familiar face, though. Same.

Yeah. How did you end up, uh, ironically. Um, I too was getting, I was tracking down something. Basically some, I was, I got too eager, kind, I was approaching some basic soldiers, basically doing things they shouldn't be doing. That's just say, gang mentality, almost got me, almost got me.

It almost, they were about to kill me, but when I tell you, it was a bloodbath that I was not expecting, we just got attacked all around. It's still, the best way I could describe it is a fog of bloody mist. That's how fast and lethal it was. And next thing I knew, I'm in a cave with the person who tried to kill me. And it was on my potential sire, potential my future. And I was given a choice for if I would like to see basically the justice of the crimes being carried out. And frankly, I took it. It's a hard deal to pass down. Turn down.

I was dead. There was no way I was going to live if it wasn't for. Osama. So how could I not save my life or unlife? What was this Iraq? Syria? Afghanistan. Kurdistan? It was Iraq.

Yeah. I won't lie. I do I won't like I do miss some of the food there. Ironically. Yeah. But it's it's a It's a weird place for me. It's both good and bad.

Yeah. Yeah. So basically Middle East and South America kind of interesting places for us to probably do a boy for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was something I wanted to ask you.

Blood, magic, sorcery. I don't know what the property. term is, but that's like your wheelhouse. Yeah. It's, it was, I, it was definitely, it was probably the weirdest introduction, but it was definitely effective. And honestly, reminds me of chemistry class. That's the best way I can kind of say it, but with actual results.

Yeah. I can see that. The thing about that I've come to be fascinated by blood is how we all know how important this O negative is. But do you know that I can take this life-giving property and then just make it into a weapon of our own? It is the most powerful thing. And it's kind of a beautiful study.

It's a hyperfixation of mine. If you haven't told, if you haven't guessed it. it. And I want to find out what else we can do with it. And I may have something for you. Oh, really? What are you got? Mokur and I picked up a book in Louisiana. And we need blood magic to make sense of it. And it's a potential path to Golkonda. Oh, I definitely would like.

Have the, um, do you know the basements in the club? Yes. I've, um, yeah, I've rented that out. That's actually going to be my lap right now. Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh, if you can, bring that book over and we'll actually, because let's actually, we can actually take a look and see if we can crack that sucker open.

Where'd you find it? It was given to us. Cheecha, Chica, what else? Gossip Girl, what's that? Explain. If I can interject very quickly. Please. Jackie,

yes. He's very paced when he tells you that. He's very clear with that intention. Could, Jackie, I'd like you to roll a insight plus wits and And Regal, I'd like you to roll a composure plus subterfuge. With the blood, can I take one blood, the red dye away? Because I had two hunger, but I was drinking. Can I just take one?

Yes, you're drinking right now. You can take one hunger away with the amount you drunk drank at the bar. Drunk drink. Sweet. Oh, that's a good pool. Oh, shit. Four, six, seven. Oh.

Two successes. Raquel, you feel the harsh stare of the judge across your way. Jackie was imposing before you'd ever truly knew her when you were just two mortals fighting it out in your careers. She's even worse now. There's something cold behind the eyes that makes you feel like a kid in trouble in school or like you're being tossed into the back of a police cruiser or even worse like you're about to go away for life and jacky is constantly on the edge of delivering that

judgment to everyone including you and so the words fall and they fall in an illusion of honesty jacky but you get the feeling that he gave it to us is not exactly the full truth here I get what you mean. But like I said, to my lab is open. And honestly, I would like to know a little bit more about Mo Kerr

because that is because honestly, I just got to, like I said, I'm trying to get to know the area a little bit better and I don't know that much about them. You remember the Kurds? Yeah.

he's the curd he's an insurgent i can't put it any more plainly fair enough i don't know where that puts him and me in context with what your job is but i mean i'm not going to lie to you about that that's you're going to see that soon enough you're not i'll tell you this you and mocker were not the reason why i was sent out here okay and that i can be 100% honest and up front with you if you really want to know let's just say the Camarilla has been sticking their nose in our territory

and they just wanted me to come out to establish a base here to also get our presence known. Bono Akeem is more isolated we're aware but we're making a branch out we're expanding. We're not taking over, we're not trying to do that

but I can let's just say our presence definitely needs to be felt elsewhere you're and you've been aware of yeah it's that's a topic for another time but if you ever do want to just like if you're also looking to expand into blood magic that that that's going to take another thing just yeah that that's a little bit more work but it's not something i'm a hundred percent against so like i said if you have any questions or anything like that my lab that's always open

This fucking third eye is more than I need right now, but that everything that comes with it. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of, I'm very grateful them I didn't come across Moor. That's a little vain and asshole, I'm not me. I'm sorry. That's fair. Sometimes I, uh,

sometimes I wish it was Bugsy that goddess hooks in me first. But I've, I like it, Bugsy. I do too. I hesitate to call myself a true believer at this point, but with what I've seen, I don't think I can afford to be anything other than that. I, you know what? I have, look, I want to talk more about some of those visions and dreams that and I know we just, but that's not tonight. We're here to see Bugsie.

And frankly, I'd rather get that off my plate. But I would like to, let's keep talking about that. I think we can compare notes and... What's the play, by the way? I know you probably want to ask about Fontaine Blue, the devs. Honestly, I... Bugsy right now, his... I just like to keep him up to date,

and I want to build a better... I actually think the Bono game and the Nassiratu can have an extremely tight bond in alliance, and I want to basically see if there's any extra fates, like any favors that can be done in exchange. for helping me out. I agree with that. Bugsie,

uh, you know, he's, he's an underboss, but he's a man of his word. See, I like, I can,

I can, that's why I love him. Why are you here for him? Oh, I'm going to see if they can hook us up with some, uh, information on Putin-Ska bank accounts.

That's right. That's right. I'm not, I'm going to down the rest of my, I owe negative and then just be like, all right. I got my nerves up. Are you good? I'm good to go.

Thank you. Take out some cash and put it down. Little extra money. Sorry for my friend's attitude earlier. And then just slide that over. It wouldn't be the first time I've been called ugly. And she slaps her hump. She takes the cash.

Oh. to him, to others, get a wink and nod. She gives you a look like maybe you're not her type somehow. It happens. And then waddles away. She's going to spin our blood next time. The two of you are making for the center of the room for those steel-graded stairs that extend up almost to this watchtower. not unlike the house that you all broke into in the silver dollar casino,

but instead of the beautiful Roman architecture that came along with Adon, it is the soiled, brown, rusted metal of these Little Vegas architecture pieces. You walk all the way up, and you can see just as you're reaching the door into Bugsie's office, His bodyguards have obviously moved out of the way for you. Many of them looking close to Brontes, almost as though they could be siblings, but none of them as nearly as imposing as the Cyclops that keeps the gate. But as you're closing in on that door that windowed, almost utility door, you see that Dharma, the Medusa, the Gorgon that works alongside as Bugsi's first child and underling.

moves past and through the door and looks behind her mask, that beautiful, almost pewter metal mask, surprised to see the two of you. She looks to the two of you and says, good evening. It has been a moment since I've seen the two of you last. excuse me, I have pressing importance to take care of. Yes. Let's not get in your way. Good to see you, Dharma. Good to see you as well. I hope to see you the two of you in Elysium soon enough to make some appearances in the effort of your endeavors.

She presses that with almost an error of body language that leans into you. that makes the two of you feel as though that is more suggestion than it is nicety. And then she begins to flit down the stairs, and at about half, she reaches into her gauzed, beautiful draperies over her body, and pulls from that soiled, almost puschialed skin on the side, a Nokia phone from the hem of her her skirt. It is an old brick, one of those you could kill a man with if you threw too hard.

And she immediately, fervently starts punching in a number and calling, fitting it to the side of her mask and the speaker to just under. She seems in a fervor as she descends down the stairs. I'm going to look.

I was going to say, weird as, Yeah, that's an understatement for that. I guess we got to go to Elysium unless we want her. Oh, God. Yeah, probably. Fucking out. All right.

That's it. Bugs. Bugsie, in his beautiful elephantitis ways, is seated behind that waterlogged, a wooden desk. that no doubt must have been from one of the old casinos, something that has survived the 60s, just as Bugsie has. He is in a new tux tonight. You wonder how it is that he dressed in it with his immense size, but it is as torn and as fettered as the last. But in a shocking Sinatra white with a matching black bow tie that has come loose around his bowl.

neck. And that watery third eye of his that is attached to the second globe does wander over in your direction as he claps his hands together and welcomes you into the room. Oh, hey, isn't it a couple of my favorites? The engine, the people who like do shit where they eat and then light that shit on fire. Welcome, welcome. What can Bugsy do for the two of you? Bugsie, I'm going to reach over, shake your hand again, be like, it's great to see you again. He just need to stop by. Jackie, there is an immense waddle like a turkeys gobble in his arms as he thunderously claps his hand into yours and shakes. And you can see the fabric of the tux is fighting against the mass gelatinous size of him.

I like the new tux. white work I was always told by my mother that I look good in white because I'm such an angel you know we had some company earlier and I wanted to make a show of it because it's not often somebody comes from up where they piss

down to where it lands yes everything good yeah things are good just some rumblings around the city about a you know it's a very pissed off ventrue so I think we

can, is there anything I can help you with? Anything that you need to? I don't know how any of that would have anything to do with you two. And he gives you a very pointed look between the two of you. If you need any, if you have any assistance, you've helped me and there's a reason why I'm here to, there's another reason why I'm here to see you. Listen, this is not the first time that a human spreadsheet has been angry at us. We'll get through this.

It just means a little talking, which is what everyone in the city loves the fucking most. Talk, talk, talk, talk. Well, I don't want to take up all your time with talking too much. So I'm trying to look up something, and I know that you might have info on that. I know a little about a lot. Maybe I can help you. The name, the name. Jackie's looking off to the thing.

Like, what is the name? Because he's having a frame first. Like, what is the name of the casino? Rangel will speak up. Thank you. Fontaine blue. God, damn. That's stupid name.

I'm looking for, I was given information about Raquel. Fontaine blue, correct? Fontaine blue. Thank God. I keep thinking fountain blue. It's not.

Fontaine blue. And I'm true. There's something there that is very, there's something there that the Bonne O'Keeem would like to get access to. It is, honestly, it's a dev kit. And this is in support of our Lemia inquiries with the Saints tears. Is it? It is. We identified that this, we spoke a PDF.

I'm sure PDF already let you know. We looked into this encrypted program that we couldn't get access to called Hound Dog. And it seems like the dev kit that may or may not be at the Fontaine Blue is really our only way to crack it. Which generates additional leads. He is obviously knit in the brow.

He's quiet. His whole demeanor sort of changes. And you can see that there's this big gulp, in his throat just at the thought of the name. And he takes his hands where he had been gesticulating before and what you imagine maybe a thousand years ago would have been an Italian-American. He puts his hands down onto the desk

and he folds them as if he's trying to keep them contained. He says, the Fontaine Blue. That's, I mean, if it's going to be anywhere, it might as well be there. and you're sure that what you're looking for is in that place? The source, the source is good. The intel is from a good source. Well, listen, you two are not adverse to digging up graves you shouldn't,

so maybe the Fontaine Blue would be perfect for your group. The Fontaine Blue has been through more than a lot of places in Vegas can say, And that's talking about a place where everything goes out of business every other day. It's been in the family for a very long time. But it's from grandpa, not from Papa. It's from the old administration when cost was running things. We haven't touched that place in one. long time and it's dangerous and it's mine or at least it is now it's uh it's a casket listen if you're

asking me for permission then you already know that it has something to do with me you have it and if you need to go in there you need to go in there but you need to have to have it and you need to have an understanding that the Fontaine Blue is a place where ghosts go to die, to wither. We stopped sending people there because they stopped coming back. Arthur Cost had a deal with one of my men, a PDF before PDF. And whatever it is that he did for Arthur Cost, he did it for him at the Fontaine Blue. They kept that hotel abandoned, lost to time.

and whatever operation that was happening in between was masqueraded behind that attempt to keep that business alive. But when Arthur Koss didn't want you to find something, it's because he didn't want to see it himself. So whatever happened, it's not good. If the dev gets there, it's because no one can get to it. So I would say exercise all the caution in the world, my friends. no if we have an opportunity to clear it make it more of a permissive operating environment for you and your people would that be something of use to you i've always wanted a fontaine blueback if that's the boom that's on collateral for your permission to enter then i think that's a fair trade whatever happened there i want to know about it and if you can return it to my hands with without somebody losing their fucking life over it. Then, of course, I think we have a deal.

I'll run it past the rest of the group, but I'm sure they're going to be on board because you've been good to us, and I'll do what I can to make it happen. Yeah, your, your, um, goth friend. Um, what's their name? Now,

now, that one, uh, hangs out in the church. I would take them. Okay. Yeah. Noted. Oh, God. There was one other thing I wanted to ask. Wow, you people are full of fucking asking me for things, huh?

You've got no other friends in this fucking city. You've got to come down here and talk to the shit people? First of all, you are not a shit person. You are king of the shit people. I am king of the shit. I like that. We're going to get a big banner over Little Vegas. This is king of the shit.

I would very, very, very, much be interested in identifying any offshore Putin-esque bank accounts. Ooi, o'y, o'i. Now, where I, why on God's green earth would you be

interested in Putin-esque bank accounts? Because they pissed in our Cheerios and I want to piss back. Okay, all right, you're speaking my language. Listen, we, no sphrahta, we're not a nefarious type.

We're not spies. We're not information gatherers. We've never done that before in our entire lives. But we have a very complex information gathering structure that may or may not have to do with a lot of reconnaissance and information gathering. Listen, I don't have it on hand, but if someone were to ask very nicely and kiss me in the right places,

yeah, I might hand that over. It's $1.9 million and I can promise you a cut. It's just money, huh? Just money. I just wanted to look like they've got plenty of shit on their face. God, you best come correct if you're coming for a Putanaska. Listen, I'm not interested in money. I don't know if you know, but I don't live in a place where money really matters.

That's fair. I'm willing to give you this, but I got to have something on the table that I want. Can it be something I promise? you myself individually. Well, now that's interesting. Selling yourself is a whole other thing. It is the first profession. Oldest and best.

What are you offering? Or can Jackie not hear this? Do I need to send the reporter out of the room? No, no, she's good. Honestly, whatever you want. Whatever I want. Visions. I've been having a lot of those lately.

I could try to find something for you. know something for you. There is something you could do for me. It's a big ask, though. Believe it or not, Bugsie, I actually trust you a lot. And I have no doubt that it's something that I would be able to provide. Okay.

Okay. Listen, I'll wire you the information as soon as we have it. And then you and I can have a private discussion when you're a little less indisposed. If you're going for the Fontaine blue and you're dealing with the Poudinescas, God bless me. Whoa. Oh, it's not often I do one of those. I mean, his whole body quakes.

Listen, if you're going after the Poudanescus, who strangely just had a very interesting outburst in the center of Las Vegas directed at the Ventru who are angry. Huh. Listen, I can help, but you're going to have your head. you're plateful until after. So we can talk about what you owe me then. Let's do this.

Yeah, we'll look into the Fontaine Blue. I'll come back with news, either good or bad or indifferent, and then you and I can have a conversation after. Okay. Beautiful. There is a dead drop in Planet Hollywood. You're going to go into the second restroom on the right. It's a woman's restroom.

So, Raquel, get a nice wig or send Jackie. I'll get that. In the third stall, by midnight of the next night, I'll have something for you under the toilet, just where you like it, Raquel. Should have all the information you need for your crusade on the Putanescus. Thank you.

Very good. I mean, this sounds like business, folks. It does. And I'll extend a hand. He puts it. that big flabby i mean his whole body shakes the second that he moves it over and he shakes you from forearm really heavy shake he says you two just stay safe and uh come back from the fontaine blue alive like nobody else has you got it all righty you too jacky keep it up we need more good reporters in

this town you too only a matter of time before the two of you are working at the sun. Bada bang. See you, Bugsie. See ya. Go with God. Take our leave. I'm going to rag out. I'm going to

wait till we're a little bit, a little pull you away for a little bit and look back. How do you feel with that? I feel good. Maybe I'm naive as fuck. this is going to blow up my face or bite me in the ass one day. I was kind of hoping that Fontaine would have been a big enough boon, but

we'll keep that. We'll keep that. I'll help you try to get that done. I appreciate that. The way I see it, this was a man who never had to tell me that he was looking to turn me and that he was luring me out to that desert to fucking make it

happen. He'd never had to tell me that. He was under no obligation to do that. Yeah. I trust him for better or worse. And he has been good to us. Absolutely. All right. No, I just wanted to be sure that you were okay with that.

Are you going to tell the others or no? Oh, 100%. Okay. I don't know if you wanted me to be quiet about that. No, I am trying to be the better example for this codery and secrets don't make friends. That is, that's a statement I don't necessarily 100% agree with, but I'll leave that be. That's, that's fair. to build trust, you got to give trust.

That I do. At this point, there's something that throws both of your hackles up, especially yours, Raquel. You can feel a twinge, a drop of blood drop from your third eye. Jackie, you see it first as Raquel has more of a sight on Little Vegas than you do with the positioning of the two of you at the outside of this door. Raigel, could you make a wits plus Ospex role? And Jackie, could you make a wits plus awareness role?

I can indeed. That's a pretty good role. That's a pretty good role. That's a pretty good pool. Six successes, baby. Okay. Jackie, you're in conversation with Rangel. He's just said something that touches almost to the soul of who you are. The only disagreement is on whether you should be honest or secret.

And as you're realizing that the two of you are far more similar than you are apart, you're distracted. You're seeing the mortal in him. You're remembering, reading those stories and thinking that this man was doing what you were doing at a local level. That rivalry that was sparked on mutual obsession. But it's clouding your judgment. Regal, as always, you are clear. And as that thin trickle of Vite hits your forehead, you see the gates of Little Vegas opening and Brontes pulling the door free in an individual walking alone into Little Vegas.

He wears a waterlogged black suit underneath a black vest, bulletproof, you're assuming, embroidered with rock security. He has shoulder length black hair that is slicked back with a large, neatly kept black beard. You imagine that he is of some form of Middle Eastern descent, a beautiful angular man who immediately has this imposing presence in the room. And he is stepping into the center of Little Vegas as the doors shut behind him. And he is, with six successes, you can absolutely discern that he is scanning this place, almost with Terminator like determination. He is rigid and still, and he moves in strafing straight lines with no, no serpentine movement to him whatsoever.

He is all corners, this one. Is there a way? Regel's going to attempt to he's going to grab Jackie's hand and if they're not in a place where they're currently locked down and can maneuver are going to try to skirt around the outside around and away from this guy

and make it B-line for the gates. Got it. So to put this into perspective, you guys are up on this tower. There's this sort of circular staircase, spiral staircase that goes down to the middle. He is to the east through the main gate of Little Vague. I guess there are these sprawling points at every point of the compass, essentially, where you could extend out into the sewers.

You do not want to be even perceived by this man. The two of you are trying to exit out the nearest opposite exit. Yes. Okay. Could the two of you make an attempt at a stealth plus dexterity roll? I can do that. Or actually, let me clarify this before we roll. The stealth that you're purporting here, are you physically trying not to be seen?

Are you trying to be inconspicuous as you leave? Is this, I'm blunts? Okay, so we're blending in with the crowds of Little Vegas. In that case... Yeah, he might clock us, but I don't want to give him any reason to stay on us longer than necessary. Like, I want him to look past us. Okay. Let me get composure plus stealth then for the two of you. Rather than dexterity.

Can I... Oh, thank God. Three successes. Three successes. No. Two successes. Shoot. I'm going to go ahead and burn a willpower. Okay, that got me up to three. So three successes.

Got it. The two of you managed to blend in racing down the stairs and then finding the table games to the north of the complex here. and using the sort of frenetic movements of everyone playing craps and card games and everything along the side to hide behind these bodies and to weave in amongst the crowd. And you do see that he scans over that area and does not seem to spot in on the two of you or pursue when you're frenetically looking over your shoulder and trying to engage. it seems as though you have an easy exit through the northbound tunnel. Head and out. Okay. Big time.

The two of you, as you are heading out into that north tunnel, as you get through the gate and the bodyguard keeping watch there, you're left out into the tunnel system that extends out into the rest of Vegas. You're sort of on the opposite side of where you would like to be if you were going back to Mokur, so you would have to double back almost in a similar fashion that the kingsters had to do after their buddy cop movie went to shit. But you're in a good place for that. The only issue is that you're starting to hear the call of dawn.

That beast in you is starting to vignette at the edges of your eyes and you're starting to feel very tired. You're getting to the end of your rope when it comes to the time you have left on this day, on this earth. Is the intention to get back to moccurs? What's the intention here? By the get it looks to Jackie. You feel that, right?

Yeah. Is it closer to, is it closer to mocker or I know the club has an entrance from the sewers into the bottom lab? Way close to the mochers. We're way closer to mocker?

Yeah. Okay. Then we're going to head to mocker. Okay. in the interest of making sure that this goes quickly enough that we can get into our next night could I get a athletics plus dexterity from the two of you unless we are going the stealthy approach yeah athletics plus dexterity that works yep each one success we burn a willpower and got it Rule of three. Can I burn it? Oh, God.

Jesus. I want to burn another willpower. Yeah, it's two successes. It's about as good as I'm going to get it. It's only a pull of three. Yeah, because I got two successes, too. It is close to by the time that you arrive at it occurs to the point where you can feel that you're running on the last hour, 30 minutes of nightlife you have. and you can feel physically that your body becomes sluggish.

At times it feels as though you're dragging your ankles. You're picking them up physically and putting them down physically. It almost feels like manual breathing, a panic attack running through the royals of your blood. But eventually you do collapse into the sanctity of that pressure-locked Mokur's chamber on the side of the sewers that even that man, would not dare to walk in alone. And the two of you fall into a fast, protected sleep,

not knowing quite where Mokur is, but perhaps he's sleeping under you and the water below. With that, we are going to move into our next night, reuniting all of the Ngen and pursuing full concerns here. Before we do that, we're going to take a 10-minute break, and then we'll be back with more. Stick around. It's so cool.

Hello. Hello. And welcome back to Las Vegas by night. That's what you're on. Okay. We are moving to the next night. I'd like everyone to rouse. Or not rouse.

I'd like you to roll to see if you've become hungrier in your deep sleep. Do a rouse check for me. I succeed and do not be hungrier. Same. I succeeded, but I do need to roll three additional rouse checks to heal some aggravated damage. Yes, yes. So this also applies to Sibyl. If you'd like, this would be your next night of aggravated.

You both will roll three rouse checks to get one aggravated damage back. Okay. So I do get hungrier by one, assuming that the blood bag I had in Little Vegas dropped me by one. Yes. So the blood bag slaked you and Jackie by one. actually, you're not a bagger, are you, Vince? You're supposed to be drinking animals. We'll say, you know what?

The Nosferatu absolutely have some rats on tap. We'll say that you had a rat instead. We'll slake one hunger for the two of you because I didn't amend to that then. So yes, you're up by one, you said? Yep, so I would have dropped by one to three. I passed two rouse checks, failed one, so I'm back up to four. Got it. I failed two rouse checks and passed one.

Okay. So I think that means my hunger is five? Yeah. Let's discern whether you ate in the days you were past. So to determine whether you're about to have a frenzy or not, Sybil, give me, how would you have eaten? Do you think you probably just call the carrion house, right? Yeah. your, so let's roll manipulation plus your points in either the carrion house or an F,

and let's see if they were able to make that happen for you while you were resting up and investigating. Okay, great. Okay. Four successes. With four successes, we'll say you have eaten at least twice, so remove two hunger. We'll say you're at three. Cool, cool.

Okay, so that leaves us all at a point where no one's killing themselves. That's good. Always a plus. Let's start that next night. We wake up in the carrion house and in the locked room that Sybil calls their office that Sybil uses when it's most needed. It's the same place that Niles had to rest up not so long ago. when an unfortunate circumstance of this line of business meant that they were exploded. And now, unfortunately, Sibyl is suffering a similar fate.

But the good news is, Sibyl, is that you're a little closer to the truth. Last we saw you, we saw that you had witnessed the VHS tape that was found within the Silver Dollar Casino, deep in the bowels of Little Vegas, courtesy of PDF. And as such, in the days preceding, you have learned some new information, or at least pursued it. Do you want to fill us in, Sybil, on what you've been accomplishing while the others were chasing down Aidan and moving into the next night? Yeah, I think in the time, while the chase was being handled, F has since moved a standing desk into this. room. So Sybil has her little mobile business station and has been watching the VHS tape basically on loop and sort of sending F to inquire about who that girl is, why Lucius is even

tied up with Teresa in the first place, which makes sense, but she just can't quite connect the two pieces. So it's been obsession over that for hours and hours and hours. She still has like a good amount of burn on her face. And I think like on her left hand, the hand that wasn't behind Ragel while she was feeding, like the skin on her fingers has sort of melted together. So she has kind of a permanent talon arrangement on one of her hands. But she's typing away.

Okay. It has been a fervor of information for Sybil. You have always been attached to the need to know and the need to understand, and even more so, like all good corporate Americans, the need to act. And the loop that you have performed for yourself on your computer of that girl crying in the center of that cell, essentially, with the CCTV pointed towards her from that upper right corner, just a constant 15-second loop of her getting up out of her chair, moving to the other side, coming back and breaking down into tears, sobbing into her hands.

And you have been watching it over and over and over again to try and find a way that this connects to you, to your life, to everything that has happened to you since you died. And as such, the only information you have picked up so far, is what you've now paused in on, and that F is searching into as well. On the left forearm of the girl, as she brings her hands up to sob, her face covered in this mat of unkempt hair, long and brunette. Right along the top of the wrist there is a tattoo, very plain to see. At first, it was hard to zoom in on, hard to understand what it was to

because of the state of the VHS tape, the state of the material. But after you and F have managed to scan this through, make it a digital file on top of your computer, and then run it through multiple upscalers to try and get some version of resolution out of the film, you now have an understanding of what it is depicting. It is a beautiful red blood drop, almost in a woodcutting style, And it is easily recognized as a property of the circulatory system. The blood doll system ran out of Las Vegas, out of almost every major city in the Camarilla, to distribute valuable blood dolls to very important individuals.

She, like you, Sybil, like so many, have fallen victim to the system that you, parasites create. And right now, that is the only lead in terms of her identity. The second piece that F has discovered through siphoning through so many of your files from when you first started working under Teresa and the involvement of you and her company is that you've discovered a paper trail yourself in what F has prepared for you. Involving Torea, and working directly with Lucius's, essentially his LLC, his company that controls a huge sum of shareholder pieces in almost every major casino on the strip, as well as in businesses that he has started himself.

And so Teresa had been working directly in communication with them as a client and you working under Teresa. But at surface level, where you told us yourself that you thought it made sense that they would be connected, you couldn't find the connection between them and what they were doing in their unlife. Lucius being a ventrue, her being a gangrel, you two coming from very separate stories, and Teresa's obvious disdain for him for as long as you've known him, It just didn't make sense. Until F has located a series of business interactions between them that have direct receipts in which it seemed as though Lucius was depositing large sums of money directly into Teresa's bank account.

This took pouring through Teresa's personal information, personal laptop in order to salvage some of the pieces of her leaving. When she left your life, it was in such a state that she left almost nothing behind. But one thing she never truly let go, just as you haven't, were the numbers. And these ones don't lie. For as long as 15 years, Teresa was receiving on the same day of every month, about $3.5 million. directly from an account associated with Lucius's company. Do I get, I think the next thing that Sybil does after getting that information is confirming that the account is dead,

that there's no more transactions based on the date that Teresa disappeared. Okay. Give me a wits plus technology or a wits plus finance, whichever is higher for you. Okay. They are the same now. That's three successes. With three successes looking into that bank account, you have F make some calls in direction to the account itself. He masquerades himself as attempting to send wire money through to that account number and confirming that it is correct.

And what it comes back to, that indeed the number is correct and that it can still be verifiable. interacted with. The bank account that you are looking into now, which is a personal line from Teresa that you weren't privy to as her underling, is still active.

It was not closed out when she died. I see. She's going to check for... It just looks like money is going into the account. Like, it doesn't look like, you know, no one's buying drinks at a certain 7-Eleven or something.

No. The receipts here look like she was keeping track of the money this direct payment. It's receipt after receipt after receipt of almost like statements from each month directing the money itself. They do stop at the time of her disappearance, but the account itself is still active. You're not sure whether she's still receiving this on each day, but you'll know essentially at the end of this month if you were to track it again, if you were to gain access to this account, if you were able to see it. in and see if on the same date, which looks to be the 27th, whether that money drops or not. Okay. Then the next thing she does is probably call F.

Okay. In a quick phone call over, he picks up on the other side of his line. He sounds scrambled as though he was fighting to get to the phone to answer you as quickly as possible. But he takes a deep breath and composes himself. He says, hey, boss. I need you to look at any of the girls that are still at the carry-on house and see if they recognize the face of the woman in the video. She has a similar tattoo as most of them would.

But if they've seen her or have ever seen her, we need to figure out exactly where she is. Understood. I'll make sure that it tracks through all of them. Is this covert? Do you want me to make sure nobody knows we're doing this? Girls are sworn to silence? Yes.

Okay. Always, yes. Good. I'll get started. Do you want me to work through to the Cirque? Should I send something to slow? No. This is just us?

Yes. Okay. Excuse me. I don't want to speak out of turn. Can I ask you a question? Yes. You know that I'd like to know the underside of things. I want to learn the same way you're learning, and obviously there's a lot here.

If you could show me the dotted line here, what's, what are we doing? What's going on? It's complicated. I'm trying to find the way that I'm your boss, someone was my boss, and I need to find out where they are. Okay. This video is the closest I've gotten in months. Is that? Her?

The girl in the video? Well, the woman. The, yes, the woman in the video is the one that we're looking for. Okay. Okay, so we find your boss. They join up with us and we're bigger for it. No, no. It's actually, I need to know where she is for personal reasons,

but no one else should know where she is. if the wrong people find out, then I could potentially go away in a permanent sort of way, which would then put you in a pretty bad spot. So we're protecting her to protect us? Yes, yes. And as soon as that's not necessary,

I don't really know what I'm going to do. I honestly haven't thought about it. My brain right off the dome says killer, but maybe there's something better to do. Oh, okay. Yeah. Corporate takeover. Fuck yeah. Yes. Yes, in a corporate way. In a very corporate way, not at all literal. I've been in a bit of a research hole for a few days. So I'm sorry. I'm being a little bit more real than I should. But yes. Yes, that's the plan.

Find her. Don't tell anyone. Find the other girl. Don't tell anyone. And then maybe like one of those mug warmers. for the desk. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want the logo on it or is this just your aesthetic? Just for me. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I'll get you a mug warmer and then I'll find where this missing woman is. I wanted just one more question. And if I'm overstepping, put me in line. This has to do with the other business, right? The circulatory system, the one you came from? Yeah. Yeah, I'm technically still working for, but yes.

You don't think that, like, your new boss has anything to do with your old boss going away, the old guy? I think he's more interested in being entertained, and I think this is all very entertaining for him. So I don't want to put that off the table just yet. he might be involved, but it might not directly be for malice. It might not even be with an intention other than to see what happens. Well, maybe he's the way we get to her then. Yeah. I just, I'm a little nervous about that relationship right now.

I just need to make sure that there isn't any fires to put out first, but I think that's a good idea. Good job. Thanks, boss. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm just trying to do my best. That's the requirement.

How are you? Life is good. I mean, we're bringing in some good numbers. Everyone has been coming back with a lot of great efficiency in terms of what we're trying to accomplish here. I feel really fulfilled. You know, I'm just trying to keep. the grind set. And

outside of work. Good. I feel don't take this the wrong way, but alive, I feel alive.

It feels like I was asleep for a really long time and then I just started to wake up. And now it's like I want every second of it. That's good. That's good. Is that how you feel?

Currently? No. She looks down at her hands. I'm still kind of waiting for a lot of my skin to come back. Full transparency. We'll get you there. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, boss, I've got some girls to interview. I'm going to line up some meetings, and I'll let you know how they go. Sounds good. Oh, you have a message as well from those, I don't know what to call them, friends. They're just checking in the loud one, the one who sings, just seeing if you could check in. So when you get a chance, maybe reach out.

I think they're worried about you. Fair enough. Okay. I'll see about it. Beautiful. We peel away. We pull back to the individuals that have left this night. John and Niles, where exactly did you guys bed down for the night? Some place I haven't been in a while.

Yeah. Niles, you got any ideas? I mean, the only place I have is Bubblegum Mansion and the other place. is, uh, technically have three places. Um, if we include, uh,

where I go to eat. Um, um, well, where do you got to eat? Uh, I have, uh,

I have a place, uh, um, well, it can't be as bad as bubblegum mansion. Let's go there. Sure. Uh,

the only way to get there would be, uh, we can't, I don't think we can walk there. I will say that you probably brought your bike, knowing that we were giving up the convertible. Yeah. Okay.

Then, yeah, let's, yeah, let's take, you'll have to ride on the back of my bike, if you don't mind that. It's been a while since I've been on a motorcycle. Let's do it. Okay. Cool. Then, yeah, I'm going to, I guess we're going to bunker down at the fountain.

Okay. All right. It's a longer drive out to the fountain, being that you are local just off the strip at the police station but driving through you guys bed down and that strange suburb of Somerset

at a what you see boroughs is a foreclosed house among many other little McMansions and Niles parks notably down the street from the location

and walks you up. Yeah, Burroughs probably looks around, confused as to how Niles is access to this place, but he's not going to ask too many questions. It's getting close to that hour that it's just time to bed down. Yeah, I'm going to take him towards the back of the house. Is there a bed or something I can lay in? Unless Niles has made some major changes to the basement there. No, you're going to have to rough it. like on the floor yeah

well at least come here and cuddle with me and keep you company okay I guess but before I open the door remember the things we're working on empathy what

you or me working on it you definitely you I come on I'm just going to walk him into the place that it's extremely cold

when you walk inside there it's a complicated process you watch as Niles essentially has to use a keypad to get to the other side there and as Niles describes it's extremely frigid inside of a freezer cold on the other side

and you can already feel your body building you know some edges of frost as the door shuts behind the two of you. And in the center of the room is that almost chained up corpse, this wired in and pierced woman that is wrapped in almost like butcher block tape, like translucent gauze, like she's a wrapped piece of meat behind it. And then there is this spigot and fountain in the center. front of it that is slowly drip feeding vitane to the center. She's beautiful. She's well

preserved. She has a stake in her heart. She does not look like she's waking up anytime soon. And this must be where Niles has lunch. If you wanted to know how I've been resolving the hunger issue, I've been helping Ellis and Ellis has been helping me. So, There you go. This is actually kind of ingenious, and I'll kind of walk closer, not coming off as horrified as maybe he has in the past. I mean, ingenious, yes, but at what cost is the thing I always think about. Yeah, I can imagine you're in pretty deep with Ellis.

Who is she, do you know? I haven't bothered to ask. Probably from the past. Yeah. So wait a minute. If you got her on tapped, why did you take from me to that? Because I don't know who this person is

unless I wake them up, but that would disrupt the supply chain. So I needed someone to teach. me more than the accessibility to blood. Oh, I see. It was about learning what I could do. I got you. Yeah.

Well, I always liked sleeping with the fan on, so I don't think the cold bother me so much. Yeah, if you're... If you're... If you had to absolutely find a new place, this is the only other place I have. It's good to know. I'm glad you showed it to me.

All right, well, let's do it, huh? Sure, sure, sure, sure. Sure. Find a corner. Do you two sleep in the two corners of which she can watch over, or are you sleeping behind her back? I'll look at her while we. Yeah, I don't think Burroughs does either. I think Burroughs insists, like he'll walk over to another room or something, try to find some carpet at least.

Yeah. The nature of sleep for Kindred is not such that you fight to sleep. It is something that happens instantly for you when it becomes close enough. because you don't sleep. You die for another day when they come back the next night. But there is an interesting quality to being ready for that as the vignette begins to close on your eyes. This room especially adds to that morose quality because it's akin to being at a sleepover when you were younger and someone left the faucet running just enough for drops of water to collect.

in the basin. And the last few things you hear before the two of you drift off into the next night is the drip, drip, drip, drip of this woman into the fountain. Up at the two of you fall asleep and enter into that next night, the same night that Sybil is investigating, the blood drop tattoo, and the two of you awake to the same sound, the drippings the next day. What is it that John and Niles are up to in this new night. Burles is going to get up, give himself a stretch, and turn to Niles,

and say, listen, I need a, not to just get a couple things done. How about we meet up at the club with the others in a little while? Sounds good for me. I have to take care of a couple things. All right, all right. Well,

if you ever, If you see any cars on sale that look like they might be up my alley, you let me know because I'm in the market. Sure. I can ask around. No, no, you don't have to ask around, so I'm not asking a favor of you. I'm just saying if you, you know, if you see something cool, just let me know. Oh, okay, yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. I'm like looking past you at the basin because I'm waiting for you to leave so that I can eat. Yeah, you know, this whole thing between you and me, we don't have to make this a whole weird thing where, like, you got to say, yes, sir,

and all that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Let's keep it cool. Sure. Yeah, yeah, I expected we were just going to pretend it didn't happen. But, yeah, it'll be fine. Nobody has to know. Yeah, yeah, no one has to know.

I look at the fountain, look back at Niles. All right, I'll see you later, and I'll just go out the front door. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. Yeah, as soon as I'm going to drink so I can keep at that one hunger that I am at. Okay. Okay. Beautiful.

Could you just give me a current willpower plus a third of your, or, yeah, a third of your humanity rounded down just to prevent yourself from draining the entire basin. It's a very easy way to diabolize another person. Could just keep drinking. Okay, uh, three successes. With three successes, you manage to keep yourself from going too far. You drain to one hunger and then barely wrench yourself free from the basin as that cold, freezing vitae enters into, your blood like an adrenaline shot. And you have to stop yourself from staring up at that woman, dreaming of adding another soul into that little party in your empty heart.

I put the basin down and start heading out. I think I'm going to text Hugh and just see where he might be tonight. I drive off. Hugh texts you back after you ask him where he's at and he drops you a message that says something akin to

up north in the desert being Ellis's bitch sent a sad face back to him and just let me know when you're back in town then

he sends you like six separate hard following that it says please stay alive parentheses or whatever we are and then the next line reads and stay off the strip tonight bad vibes I'll send I'll send a black heart back and I think yeah I think Niles is going to head out from here at least for the time being Do you have a direction in mine or should I jump to John here? Jump to, Jump to Burroughs.

Okay. Driving off. You're not going to like to hear what I have to say. I don't think Burroughs is going to do much more other than go hit up a couple of restaurants, bars. He's probably going to go to a buffet and then top it all off at like his favorite pizza place. and then he's going to probably go out drinking, maybe do a little gambling. He's just kind of like looking for some trouble.

Probably he's flirting really hard with every waitress that comes by, that kind of thing. Yeah. You end up before inevitably the group comes together at a really seedy bar north of Fremont, a local joint, not somewhere that most are going to end up at. But you remember it from old statement days when this place was your kingdom. And you needed a place to prove to somebody you knew the area.

It is classic Old Vegas. It is a dive bar with nothing going on. There are these light-up slot machines and card games that are at the bar itself, so you can bet as you drink. And there are these old timers all around it. And there is this collection of people who have made this place their entire personality for as long as they've been alive. The beer is cheap and the food is greasy. And it's maybe the third meal you've packed into this night, Burroughs. But the most notable thing about this place is someone who, who feels entirely out of place in it.

In the back booth, back corner, there is this beautiful but painfully trashy young woman. She is in this large, what you assume is fake fur from your eye. You've bought so many real ones. It's pretty easy for you to tell when it's fake. And underneath, she is wearing next to nothing. this bikini strap top that goes over just barely hiding any of her cleavage. Might as well be pasties at this point. And then a line of these very ornamental tiger tattoos that ride the sides of her into her hips

and then basically a panty bottom, thong essentially. and these large pumped up heels, pink to match the bikini underneath. She is in the back of that booth, glitter on her skin enough that you know that if you were to touch her too long, you'd walk away with it. Makeup is smeared because she is crying into her hands with a half-drunk beer in front of her. you can already tell from this distance of 30 feet that she's probably intoxicated beyond all belief and there is a separate jacket left on the other side of the booth a man's jacket and she seems absolutely distraught in that back booth Burroughs looks at her down the way and kind of a wry smile rises on his face and he's going to

order a drink, probably a martini, and make his way down to her. And I think that I would like to kind of fade out from there. When we meet up with the rest of the team, we'll see how all that kind of shook out. Okay. Absolutely. So we'll sort of fade to black here. The last we'll see as you're bringing up that glass. As you get so much closer to her, the glitter climbs to her platinum blonde hair and you can see just peaking at the top maybe what interests you the most. She's been dyeing her hair for so long, but she hasn't died it recently. There are these dark roots that sit at the top, peaking at who she's really supposed to be. We dread.

Maybe we ended with, she just hears my voice. Hey, I'm Burroughs. What's your name? Chardonnay. And we'll pull away. We are going to peel back to Mao. Mow, where did you sleep for the night in the church? Yeah, after slaking some hunger, I slunk back to the church and climbed into the bed that once housed three of us.

Beautiful. You slept in that church. You've awoke as much as you can as the parasite that you are in the next day. you are in the church itself. Is there anything you'd like to accomplish before Burroughs calls for a group call at the club? Mal doesn't really know anything that's going on. Everyone just kind of went their separate ways,

and Mal doesn't have a way to stay kind of connected with everyone. So I think for a little bit, they work on their art project on the wall. And once they kind of run out of materials for that, they're going to go downstairs and start just kind of hauling stuff out of the basement so that it's a little bit of a blank slate for

whoever needs it maybe as like an extra bedroom kind of a situation. Got it. Okay, beautiful. So you're doing a lot of work on the church in the meantime, cleaning things up. Just to peel from you for a moment, Raquel and Jackie,

what's the movement after the two of you leave from Mo'Kerce. Kind of like that we woke up on top of each other because I feel like we both just dropped because of the sun. We just both, like, it was not graceful, in my opinion. Unintentional cuddle puddle in the middle of the room. Kind of, like, face down, like, we're just like both plop.

I look around, do, and I'm, this is, I'm looking around because this is the first time I've been in this area and I'm seeing this bloody area. And I'm like, so this is Mo Kerr's spot. Good morning to you too. Morning. It off me, though, please. Sorry.

I got to get to the, I'm going to head to the club. If you need to talk to your sire. Yeah. I was going to ask. I don't personally recall, but this may be. more for Zakiah, but would Ragel know where the carrion house is? Yes. Oh, I think you're muted. Okay.

Yeah, you wouldn't know where the carrion house is. Okay. I'm going to go over the carrion house. I'm going to check in on lockdown civil, see where they're at. Jackie's going to the club to her lab. Okay, so I'm going to put at this point that Jackie, Niles, and boroughs are convening at the club. Mal is at the church. Regel is going to the carrying house just to keep us all on track.

Regel, you arrive at the carrying house. You've been there once before. It was when Niles had that little explosion trouble. But you know that it's Sybil's place to work. Yeah, I'm going to, I don't know what this setup is like, if there's like a reception area or reception desk, I got to check in at. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, there's like a very small reception area.

where it implies people work and then a back room that is both Sibb's office and kind of their like makeshift apartment because they don't really leave. Yeah, Regal is going to go check in at reception. You're introduced to F, you know, the person you met once before who is the sort of end-all be-all for everything that happens at the Carrion House currently. And he does ask your intention for being there as he's typing away the computer behind. Yeah.

Ethan, I'm here just to check on Sybil. Okay. I'll ask if Ms. Guire is available to speak right now. Excuse me. And he kind of wheels away from the computer and he picks up the phone. And he calls into the next room and to Sybil's room and goes, I know with the way you look, you weren't looking for guests, but one of your friends is here. Which one?

Beanie? We like this one. This one's fine. Okay, okay. I'm going to send him through. And he hangs up and he wheels back. He says, she is available.

So you can just go straight through into the next room. Ethan, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ethan. And he puts out his hand. He goes straight back to typing on his computer. Have a good one. You too.

Sybil, what's the state that Raigel finds you in? She's got a pile of research and just like detritus everywhere but a pacing track around the office is on the phone, or at least wrapping up a phone call by the time Raquel is at the door. she looks fucked. The only thing that looks intentional and put together is probably the like very, very cute

pink bonnet on her head. Everything else is a mess. It's a mess. Digging the bonnet. Foo, yeah, snatches it off. Thank you. Thank you so much. How? Yes.

What? How are you? Well, better now that I know you're okay. Thank you. The, uh, the, uh, the, the, the bite, the bite's fine. You're, you're fine. I'm good. Good, good.

And everyone else is also fine? Yeah. Yeah, we made it out. Okay. Okay. And like minimal, we, we, it sounds like, it sounds like a success, unless you're the only one that survived. No, no, we all, okay. We all survived. Um, some shit, we, down on the script, but those loose ends ostensibly have been tied up. I'm sure you saw the news. I did. Yeah. I did. Okay. We're looking at potentially offloading the money into Putin-esque accounts to seal the deal.

That is, that's for the best. That's for the best. Okay. Bugsie's looking into it for us. He's going to get back to me tomorrow night. Was it tomorrow, Caleb, or this night? He implied that you might have something tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Okay. Yeah.

He may have something for us tomorrow night. And we're looking in, well, I have to run it past the rest of the group, but we may be looking into a place called the Fontaine Blue Hotel. There might be a dev kit there for us to potentially get access to that hound dog program from the transport yard. Okay. Bad news, though. It's people have a tendency to go there and not come back.

There it is. Okay. Watching in territory. That's a familiar song. Okay. I was a little worried because it was only like, we've succeeded and we've done good and everything's taken care of. But there we go.

That actually, yeah. But we killed two birds of one stone, though. That's our boon for Bugsy. So if we. Spoons, okay? Spoons is great. Spoons ate Adon. Spoons is doing good. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh, my God.

It was pretty cool. Spoons is big. Weird question. Sure. Adon in his entirety is gone? Yes. Okay. No ashes or anything.

Nothing. Nothing that's going to come back to us. That complicates stuff. too, but okay. No, that's a win. That's a win. I think we have his clothes. I think Burroughs took his clothes. Cool. Cool. There just has to be something. Yeah, that's going to end up in a Putin-esque SUV or stash house or something. Okay. If there could be just sort of a like a little piece or something. Oh, yeah. Souvenile. I'll get rid of it. It'll go away. I just, I like to have a little piece. We got something for you. And I wanted to give this back to you in case you didn't

want this floating around. And he'll pass over the newspaper article with Natalie's name. Thank you. I honestly, I figured, I've seen the way that you and Jackie just sort of like spark whenever information happens. And I figured it would be, it would be a loss to try to protect something like that. So, uh, I wouldn't have Doug because I respect you too much. But I appreciate this. Of course. Of course. I appreciate that. I'm kind of caught up with something right now, but it's, F is handling it a little bit. So I'm free to step away to handle this Fontaine blue stuff for a time. Okay. Okay. Okay. How much do you know about my sire? I know enough to know that things ended on bad terms and she may have met the final death, may not, not for debate.

She's not dead, at least unless something has rapidly changed in the past couple of days. She's not dead. I could assume, I assumed as much when you kind of vanished with the VHS with her name on it and just went off the grid. Yeah. Well, it was in part because of that, but also, I don't, business first. Yes, she's, I'm trying to find her before anyone else in the Camarilla does, because as soon as she's found, I'm pretty sure I'm dead too. Well, we're not going to make sure that doesn't happen. Full stop.

Right. Thank you. Give me your hand. Why? I'm going to do something. Not to you, with you. No, that sounds, I'm going to, I'm going to try something. Okay. and for her hand

we're going to take it and we're doing some sweet sweet ospects action okay right cool cool I thought so yep all right what are we doing here we're going to go with premonition which is resolved plus ospects I'll roll that now and that is

that is four successes work Okay. Yeah. Focusing on Teresa. On Teresa. Okay. Give me just one second.

Yeah, I know. Sorry, the premonition kind of throws you can throw the old storyteller for a loop sometimes. I just have to remember what I have to tell you. Dope. And you did your rouse check as well? I did.

Succeeded. Yeah. And no penalties because I'm at a hunger of four. You are greeted with a vision of shaking hands. The first hand shaking is of a peach-colored blazer at the wrist, and a flounced white dress shirt underneath. And the second hand is exposed, freckled, pale and white, shaking with that darker hand, and contains on their forearm the same Roman numerals that you saw in the bottom of the silver dollar. From that vision, it then expounds to a new

image. You are a bird, a large bird. flight, hooked talons, large wings, flying over the Red Rock Desert, and you are seeing through that bird's eye. It is hyper zoomed and on the desert below. You are tracking something and flying a bird's path to it over multiple valleys to what seems to be a building placed out of nowhere in the center of the Nevada desert, if that is where you are, with every light on, and it is maybe 10 stories high. It's like a office building out of place. That bird's eye view flies into the top floor, and the second that you crack through the windows, there is this moment that not only you come into consciousness, Raquel, but you too, Sybil.

For a moment, the eyes blackened over for what was just a brief second of you looking at Raquel as the blood begins to free from his third eye and he sees this vision. You were waiting for the answers until you yourself fell into this meditative black across your irises. and the two of you are now seated in a singular room, which feels almost like an interrogation room with the same interrogation room that John just found himself in across the place from the administrators of justice we call law enforcement. On the other side is the woman from the cell. you can tell because your eyes sort of zoom in on that blood drop on her left forearm. She is sitting across from you.

The hair on her head is so far onto her face that you can barely make out her features. Save for her lips that are dyed, a sickly sort of purple black. And you can see that veins are climbing across her face. and there is a level of white noise that surrounds her. It feels as though figures of noise are existing standing behind. And she looks at the two of you, making direct eye contact, and she says very openly, do you want to see what's in my jar?

and she reaches down and underneath the table that the three of you sit at. And she heaves up this massive clay pot that almost looks like a vase, a vessel. One you would see old statueed fountains used to pour water into the fountains basin. She picks it up, it's larger than her body. And the second that she lifts it from the ground, her forearms snap and become two. and elongate, almost like the way you've seen Nile's body change in the past. But she wrenches it up, and as she begins to lift, she begins crying, crying violently, these bloody tears that climb down her face and escape out from under her hair.

She looks at the two of you. She says, you won't like what's inside, but you'll need it. I'm so sorry. would you like to see what's in my jar? And she begins to pour it onto the table. And the second that the pouring begins, the second that the jar encants itself in the direction of both Raigel and Sybil, there is a light inside so shining that you feel yourself burning,

as if fire has reached you. And it burns you away so much that you feel that this must be close to final death, or at least the feeling of it. And then you are snapped back into reality looking at each other. Oh, okay. Sybil is back on the track, back on the lap around the office.

What? You son in a jar. A woman had a son in a jar? Why would we need that? Why would we need the sun? Okay. Do you have any idea what any of that means? No, but we know where to look.

I guess we do. I guess we do. Definitely some imagery that's recurring, like with all the others. Question for the storyteller. When you mentioned the figures of noise, like the white noise, similar to the figure that was in the diner and one of Ragel's earlier visions. Regel, you are searching past to all of these. You house so many of them. Since you came out of that casket in Colorado, you have seen so many visions.

of what could be the future, the past, the present, or nothing to come to past. Give me a wits plus your auspex level, and let's see if you can recall whether you believe that those two images are linked. That's a six. That's a six successes. Six successes. You feel firm in believing that those three figures are a form of the one figure that you were exposed to in the diner vision, the one that held.

the door open and invited someone in. You believe that this is an extrapolation. The key differences in your successes as you're racking your brain, you're trying to remember exactly what you just encountered with Sybil. Sybil is not privy to the level of cool that you have for being subjected to this, but this is your every day. Those three figures feel distinct from that last vision, but of the same components. Like three people wearing the same costume as the first, or coming from the same blood, the same family, the same place, the same.

You would consider them to be different members of the same creed. They're Lemia. I had a vision early back. I think I told you all this one, but it was Underwood with a figure that was white noise holding open a door. They're the same but different. I think, I think they're, and she, I think that was the Lamia we, we, we, we took out. Mm-hmm. I did not think that these would all be, uh, potentially connected.

I didn't either. Okay. And there's potentially more of these Lemia? Or this is all different interpretations of the one that we killed? No, I think it's, I think it's more. same tribe, same clan, same family. Clay pot, Saints' Tears, the baines around her mouth, that's...

That's Saints' Tears shit, if I remember right. There's... A wild theory, untested, but the Cirque... The Cirque deals in blood in what vampires need to eat. And Saints Tears were at some point intentionally mis-marketed as something that vampires should eat. Nosferatu specifically, yeah. I really, there's a chance that maybe the CERC system is involved with distributing these Saints Tears. With something this big and considering how, with something this big, there's no way they don't know about it. And the Cameril are not fans of

Nosferatu, so scratch one back, scratch the other. It would be a good way to get rid of them. Some sort of mysterious tragedy. But why the fuck would a gangrel also want that? Nosferatu do have it worse, but gangrel don't have it great. This is out of left field, and I have nothing to back this up, but it all ties back to the door. It has to. Okay.

Because that first Lemieux was the one holding the door open for someone that didn't arrive yet. And I was told could not be allowed to arrive. Okay. So not just for a, you know, vacation Bible school mission to keep the door closed. It's a very real danger of more saints' tears. And I guess all of the Nosferatu in Vegas. Well, and then the end of the fucking world is we know it, because. Because we're going to have gang girl running rabid and with Sentinel at the front line.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know if that's something I don't want yet. But I know it's not in our best interest, or at least not in the coterie's best interest right now. But I'm curious. It's probably why Teresa's involved. She's got a vested interest in fucking with the camera alone. What better way to do that than let something out is going to let the gang girl. take some form power.

But you need to understand something. That's the end of everything. That's it. There's an unfortunate business perspective that if you go out when you're winning, then you can never lose again. You know? And like I said, I don't agree, but I see how we got here. I'm going to do something real reckless.

Okay. Regel's going to start taking his shirt off. And Sybil takes a step back. So just hold, just hold on. And on his back is the tattooed vision of Vegas with the keeper meteorite, rock, stone, in the middle of it, with the swarms of gangrel, of whites, of sentinel, of the bodies, of the fire, that purely apocalyptic vision.

in rough black and white. Like it's almost amateurish, but there's almost like a Renaissance style quality to it. I assume in my head canon, Mokur is the one who did the tattoos when Ragel recited it back to him. That's what's coming. That's what I saw.

Less, less cool than I was referring, for sure. So for some reason. There's a shit ton of other tattoos on them, But that's the one on the back. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So now it's more than just figuring out who this girl is, more than figuring out where Teresa is.

Lucius feels untouchable right now. Well, I don't know if you saw it, but I think it was before you joined me. But peach color blazer, white shirt, shaking hands with the mark of the beast. Mm-hmm. 666. Okay. Cool. Cool.

My boss is trying to end the world. Former boss. Former boss is trying to end the world. We'll give her a chance to explain herself when we finally catch up with her because we owe you that much. But she's not going to be able to walk away from this. That's completely fine. I was just explaining that to my assistant. Actually, to circle back to why I would like.

Some sort of souvenir from Adon. I don't really know where this came from. It could be corporate. It could be kindred. But there's a sort of instinct to not only defeat enemies, but to consume them. Yeah. So if there's a way that I can take my former boss out and also just, I don't care the way that Niles does it, it's not about getting anything in return. It's about eliminating all of the trace of her from existence and memory.

And I don't think we digest things. So it's just going to be here. That's what I want. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's yours. Then I think, I think, my third quarter just got really busy, I think.

Those profit margins are going to be way down, but. That's okay. gay. We're a nonprofit. There you go. Put the shirt back on. Yeah. Super awkward. Yeah.

Honestly, the news took it away. It was awkward, but it's fine. Thank you. Thank you. You don't have to thank me. Ever. Good work deserves a good reward. If there's anything I can do, always.

Stick around. Plan on it. I got to go see her resident goth girl person. Go go see her resident goth person. I'm so glad that they're alive. Honestly, it's been a few days, and I get so worried if I don't see them. So let's do that.

Let's do that. Okay. Are there two of you heading to the church then? Yeah. If your siblings take along, yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. You cross track around town until you find your technologically inept goth,

grandperson inside. Hey, we were going to roll over to the club, figured you'd want some company. Oh, yeah. I really didn't know what was going on with everyone because, obvious. Actually, this is nice because I did want to talk to both of you. Together is going to be awkward, but.

Oh, we can split. No, it doesn't matter. It's fine. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Listen, Sybil, you mind showing real quick? I got to go get a book from upstairs. That's totally fine.

Mell, you want to come with? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like keep your shirt on, maybe. What would you do? I'll show you. Do I want to see? Yeah, you do. Sybil, tell her how much of a show it was.

Tell them how much of a show was. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. I'm feeling good after. What happened? What did I miss? Oh, just you wait. Go get the book.

Okay. There's not any seats because I've moved everything to the side. But if you want to break some shit, you're welcome. to, just not like the windows or... That's too ambiguous for me to embrace. I'm just going to stand against the wall. Thank you. Sybil, you do see that there are a number of objects in this church

that have been like karate chopped down the middle, which seems as though Mal has been taking their own suggestions. Okay, okay. She might kick a chair over... Yeah. She's sure they're going. A lot of the, like, religious paraphernalia's come down, so any of that is fair game.

Okay, great. You good? Yeah, yeah, are you good? Are you good? You got fucked up. Oh, I got plenty fucked up, but yeah, I'm recovering. I want to just, I want to, Mal just like does a full, like, look over him, like, kind of like they're trying not to seem like they care very much, but very like up and down, not, not as subtle as I think I'm being. That's fair.

That's good. That's good. Look, we got to have a signal or something that, like, you're not coming back. Okay. Because I can't, I can't get messages and I clearly have abandonment issues. That didn't need to be set out loud, but usually I'm the one who goes away. So you got to tell me when you're going somewhere. I will.

And if I can't tell you verbally, I will, you know that stop sign right outside? Yeah. Right of the corner. Yeah. I'll leave a black chalk mark. on the back. Okay. Yeah.

And I'll, I'll do the same if I go somewhere. Okay. Well, that's good. We got that out of the way. Because I can't text you. No, you can't. No one can. Well, I mean, someone can, but that's not clear or specific.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I need your help besides the please don't go anywhere without telling me thing, which don't tell anyone I I won't Okay

Do you need anything first of all Before I ask you to do to help me Do you need are you what do what's up? Like what's up Where I missed you Ew no I didn't I missed you too Yes you did Fuck off, Sib.

I missed it too. I'm gonna get the book first from my little Heidi hole under the floorboards in Regal's room. This is going to, this is Golconda stuff. It wants a tome, so Jackie's now be translated. Could help with what Jackie's good people. You trust me, right? Yeah. Trust me when I tell you that Jackie is.

underneath all the bullshit and the swagger is a good one. And I tell her the same thing about you. That's just a lie then. No, it's not. But for the sake of brevity, Raigel is gonna break down everything he just saw in that last vision. And then to drive home why it's important,

Mal, please don't fucking freak out. I'm gonna take my shirt off for two seconds. Oh. Two seconds. Fine, fine. And show the sprawl on the back. Oh, fuck. Yeah, that looks gnarly.

Can I ask a question that's gonna... Oh, go ahead, please. No, I was just, can I ask a question that might piss you off? Yeah. What would be so bad about all of an ending? What are we saving? We're saving our capacity to do and be better. You have people out there you care about, right?

For now? But when they're gone, I don't... This speeds that up, and it makes sure that they die in the worst possible way we can imagine as chattel. And what? What about in 70 years? What about in 70 years when they're gone? I don't want that to happen to you. I don't want that to happen to Jackie.

I don't want that to happen to Burroughs. I don't want that to happen to Sybil. We have to learn... What's up with you? What do you mean? What's up with you? You're, you're, you've got like humanness left in you and you don't let it, and you don't let it get sucked out by all this bullshit.

Because I don't like the alternative. So we just have to fight for the rest of forever? Yeah. That's miserable. Is it? Yes. I don't know about you, but I can't, I can't leave this city that I was brought to without any say in it.

Someone put me in a box, and then they said, you can't go anywhere. This is where you live. You live under someone's thumb forever. And I know, I know I'm not going to get anywhere by acting like a little shit all the time.

And if I play their games, maybe I'll get some power. But I don't want to be like them. I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to take that mindset seriously. So if I'm a little shit, at least I know I'm not them. And,

And, and, and then I'm just stuck being a little shit. And it's this fucking cycle. What do I, how do you fucking live like this? Not live like this. The fact that we're even having this conversation is all the validation we should need to know that we are not like them. Because they don't have conversations like this. And we're going to change things. And we're going to keep that door shut.

Mo Kerr has been right about a lot. And one thing I can get behind is that the towers are going to fall. one way or another. How do you know the tower's falling isn't going to be worse than the door? Everything's a gamble. There is no sure thing anywhere at any time. Everything's a risk. This is which alternative are you more comfortable with living with?

Yeah. I know it's not an easy conversation to have, and I know it's not an easy thing to wrap your head around. But this hell on earth... I'm not even fully developed, dude. Yours? Yeah, this thing in here. Not even all the way fucking cooked. How old are you?

Who are you? How old do you think I was? 19? Yeah, yeah, that's it, actually. No shit. Yeah. I don't want to say 17 because I'd be insulting as fuck. 18 didn't feel right.

Didn't even hit two fucking decades. Well, if I could choose being 19 versus being a 32-year-old with bad knees, I'd probably take a 19-year-old. At least your brain works. sort of. Your brain works just fine. I don't know. End of things all sounds kind of good right now. I'm tired.

It's the easy button. I haven't pushed the easy button my whole life. Why can't I push it just as once? Because everything dies. I can only hope. You don't mean that. I do a little bit. Well,

I'm going to get you to wear that doesn't seem like so much of a good idea anymore. No, don't worry. I made a promise a long time ago. That's more important than pretty much anything else, so you don't have to worry about that. I'm real good at staying pissed off, so. That does not surprise me. Sorry. I, yeah, no. I mean, whatever.

I kind of like lean into his shoulder and just drop my head on, on his shoulder. I went on a date with bride, and it went really. really bad. You fucking did what now? I went on a date with bride, and it went really bad, and I wasn't even trying to go on a date with her. Now I can't go back to the one place that I like. Number one.

Why? Number two, how? Well, I gave her a lot of gifts because I... Mistake number one. Yeah, I realize that now. I was trying to get on her good side. Oh, you did? I did. And then she took it the wrong way because I wanted to talk to one of her

bouncers and she doesn't let me talk to one of her bouncers, which is part of the civil conversation later. And then she thought I wanted to take her on a date and I didn't know how to say no without fucking myself in that direction. So I said, sure, yes, I want to take you on a date. And then I realized I couldn't call a cab and I couldn't use a credit card and I couldn't take her to a bar. So instead, I drove her out into the middle of nowhere with one of her own cars and sat on a mausoleum roof and looked at the stars. And she hated it. She couldn't even drink the blood I brought. So it's bad. Help. Well, I mean. So it happens when you leave. It's the thought that counts, right? I mean. Not to bride. Okay. Um, so. Here's a great, great, great question.

why not just be honest. I'm so fucking scared of her. So am I. She has her fingers in so many fucking pies that I, like, she, she's on both sides of it. And maybe other sides that we don't know about. I don't, I don't, I don't know how. I don't know, I don't know what she does or who she does or how she does, but she's.

So take what you just said. apply that to you keeping this charade up. You don't think she's going to see right through that and see that you don't really want to be there? This is what I'm talking about with fully developed brain. Holy shit. Yeah, for sure. So be honest.

If anything, she'll respect that more. What if she kills me? I won't let that happen. Then she'll kill you. I don't want that. Well, be as sweet as you possibly can. honest as you possibly can. There is a very sweet person

underneath all of this. Yeah, and that person died off the side of a bridge two years ago. No, they didn't. They're supposed to. Maybe that's step one. I was realizing that person is still there somewhere.

And there's no reason to kill them dead. You're so fucking corny. Yep. But I'm right, though. I didn't make them I will go with you if you need to go talk to Bride but I'm sure Seville has got some ways to maybe work that out yeah

I was just gonna I was just gonna you'll see what I was gonna ask you might not you might tell me it's a bad idea and then I'll figure it out from there but let's go talk to Sybil I wasn't listening but I heard my name a few times should I just come to where you are Yes. Yeah, fine, come up.

Great. Don't look at anything on the wall. Complicated. Okay. You walk in and there is a huge, like, it just looks like someone has like licked different pieces of, it hasn't been like it's been licked, but like, it just looks like someone has like, you know, when you lick a piece of paper and you stick it to something and it kind of sticks?

It looks like that. And there, it's all kind of like different colors. It's really green at the bottom and a little bit of like, brown and red and then as it rises, there's like a big yellow bit in the center that kind of goes out to like orange and pink and purple and then like a black at the very edges. You can, it's fully visible

and not at all hidden. Okay. Okay. Nice. You didn't see it. Nope. Saw nothing. Okay.

Um, Sybil, I have two favors to ask of you, after both of which you can request, pretty much whatever. What am I going to do? Don't say that, but yes. The first is, can I have a job at the club? The club we all have? We all own together? Yes.

Yes. Great. Thank you for asking. I have like $800 total, and that's not a lot. That's fine, yeah. No one has inquired about the running of the club, so I've just been running the club, but we all have the club. Cool.

I want to help and also get paid for it, please, and thank you. Okay, great. Can you, like, be a bartender? Can you, like, bus? Bask? You want me to, like, play an instrument? Sorry, bust tables? Like, like... Oh, bus tables.

Yeah, I can... Honestly, that's probably a better shot for me because I will not pay attention to what I'm pouring or how much I'm pouring. I knew there was follow-up questions about the pouring because you did not specify into a cup. And that is a red flag as a manager. So to answer your question, yes. Great. Thank you. The second one is a little bit more complicated and Ragout may tell me it's a really bad idea. Can I borrow Felix for a night?

Or even part of a night or really just like an hour. Why? So you know how I want to date with bride? Yes. You want to take Felix with you on a date with bride? No, I don't. I don't want to take Felix with me on a date with bride. I want to use Felix to get a message to someone who's in asylum

because I'm scared to go back because the bride date went so bad and I need to talk to her about it, but I'm so scared. Oh. Yeah. Well, yes. In short, yes. You were going to do whatever I wanted to ask me. to work at a place that you own

and to have my employee deliver a message, whatever I wanted? Yeah. I'm really, I'm not business-minded at all. I'll tell you what. I will do both of those things, and we will have a talk about negotiation. Great. I would love to learn.

I'm kind of coming to the realization. I've been really honest tonight, and you two are the only one here to see it, and I'm okay with that. But I've come to the realization that I don't, even if I was the age that I was supposed to be, I wouldn't have even graduated college yet. So I'm really lost.

I'm really fucking lost. You know what? You know what? That's okay. You need a mentor. Probably. You get that honor. You need a business mentor.

I think I've got a lot of people lined up that I could ask to mentor me. And I think all of them would get a lot of them would get a business mentor. get really mad at me really fast. That's, you know, I can't guarantee that that won't happen, but I won't fire you. Okay. Yeah. You two have to promise me something. Yeah.

Yeah. For this to work. Maybe for five minutes a day. We let these masks drop a little bit. And we be honest with each other. And we be who we really are. Does this count as my five minutes today? It does.

I've already had my five minutes then. You have. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I monopolize that. No, it's okay. It's fine. It's better. The lower amount of witnesses is better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So great. Peep show. Mout wits plus awareness.

Oh, fuck. All right. Hold on. Where's my sheet? Rout row Spaghetti-os. Oh, I'm not muted. Sorry. No, accurate. Regale just says that. Rout, row, spaghetti. It echoes throughout the church. Would you believe no successes on my sixth die pool? I'm going to use a willpower.

I think that's a good idea. Oh, no, I'm sorry. There was one success. It was hidden by the corner of my dice. So we're at one. All right. Four. Okay.

On the second floor, as you all are discussing in the threshold of the door that Regal is taking the book out of, you guys can see down through the little wooden steps. to the main floor, but Mal being the one facing towards the balcony, them on the other side, you have a better view of the first floor. And you see her. You haven't seen her in a long time, not since what happened in the basement, but she's there. This strange, oblivion flower in her hand, like she's been picking daisies in a place that you don't know exists. And she currently is skipping in these weird figure

ates in the center of the pews down on their first floor where the pews used to be at least as if she's going up and down the aisle there's a moment of instinct to just like vault the balcony and run over but instead of doing that Mao not taking their eyes off her

grabs Raquel by the shoulder and turns him and with the other hand points so that Sybil can see to what do you see down there right now? What do you see? I see a young woman's... I'm assuming I see it.

For the two of you, what you're seeing on the first floor, is almost like the wind has caught a plastic bag. It is the disturbance of dust on the floor. It's as though the push and pull of a cool breeze. has fought its way into the center of the church. It's like a dust devil or something. Yeah.

You don't see a kid or a daisy or anything like that. No, I don't see any of that. This shadowed child is dancing, almost Maypole dancing in that strange figure eight, and she's dancing her feet across. Rangel and Sybil, you guys are able to see that there are physical footprints being pressed into some of the dust of the first floor. It's almost as though you're seating new dance routines being made in figure. You had a question where I go?

Yep, going to peel off the beanie and you sense the unseen, see if that does anything. Okay. With sense the unseen, is that a rouse check for you? It is a wits plus auspex and that is three successes. Go ahead and give me that. Okay, with three successes, it takes the bleeding of your eyes. to make that form real. But even then where Mal is seeing a fully formed creature of black dripping darkness, similar to when you've seen Mal trap into shadow.

For you, it is this silvery outline of a form. It does not take shape to a little girl so much as it does the silhouette of something that sighs. But you do see it now. Silhouette. Yeah. What is that? Who is that? I don't know entirely the what.

The who seems like an intentional manipulation of me. For lack of a better. Yeah. probably my sister. Hello? Or the balcony? The hello echoes throughout the second floor down to the first, and it reverberates back at you.

I'm going to go down to her. I've held the instinct off long enough. I vaulted, I vault the balcony and jumped down to the floor. Like so many times before, the second that you become close to where she was, she is now ported away. But the skip continues. She's now sort of dancing in those rhythmic circles in a much tighter threshold

in the threshold of the front door to the church, as if she's playing tag with you. I'll kind of call over my shoulder. She's led me a couple places. She led me here, I think. I'm going to follow her. I can meet you at the... I'll meet you with the club.

You don't want... of us to go with you. Exactly. That's up to you. Whatever you want to do. Sybil, you good? Back in her up. Back in the month.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I'll give you a little distance, but... Yeah. Not close behind, but... Yeah.

With an eye shot. Um, you are pursuing now, I'm assuming? Okay. Yeah. As you connect with the door threshold, she again jumps. Um, and this time, She is now in the middle of the street outside of the abandoned church through the sort of parted gates, the group of you used to enter and exit. You can see her through what little of the privacy fence on the chain link allows, but it looks like she's hopscatching in the center of the street.

And as you're watching, you can see that this pickup truck going 55 and a 40 zone drives straight through her. and it's as though nothing happens. She hopscotch straight through, throwing this oblivion stone, this small rock of pure shadow further along the road. I'm going to try something. Okay. Mal seeing that she's been like passed through

and she like she doesn't seem to have a solid form, Mal drops into a puddle of shadow on the floor. I'm going to use tenibrous avatar to try and to try and get closer to her. Okay, you're essentially trying to jump into her shadow. That's unruffledged. I just want to become shadow like she is and see if that'll make a difference. See if you can catch up better. Yeah.

I fail only one of my rouse checks. Okay. With that being said, what does this look like as you become this tenebrous avatar? As she kind of like throws the hopscotch stone, I think mouse starts doing the pattern of hopscotch and as they jump, their body just becomes less and less corporeal and just kind of ports out into this black sheet of vaguely mal-shaped nothingness that kind of sweeps forward in the hopscotch pattern that the little girl is doing.

As you become this form, you realize it's maybe the first time that she's physically regarded you. She looks at you as you tangle into her game and there is this reverberated, strange, many-voiced laugh of a child in play that absolutely does sound like her, Mel, somewhere deep in the sound of it, past all of the layers of whatever the shadow is cloaking it. And she begins hopscatching away from you, but rather than porting, you can now see

her movements. She's almost gliding along the floor, chasing the same shadows that you do. What I need from you is I just need a dexterity plus whatever points you have in oblivion to keep up with her.

And I will say that Raquel and Sybil, it becomes a lot harder to track these two as Mal gives ghost to the Tenepris Avatar. But you guys are doing your best. Six successes. Six successes. You manage to keep up with her.

She keeps you in this game of hopscotch, of you jumping from the stone to stone to keep up and following through across three or four blocks before we come to a stop in an alleyway between an outlet mall and a separate bar. And this long alleyway that stretches the outlet mall, there is a drainage pipe, essentially a drain in the center where the water collects when it rains or floods.

And she seems to be standing on something that is directly adjacent to that drain. And she's laughing in your direction. And it grows in laughter. joy and playfulness. It's almost like when a kid has a secret but doesn't know how to keep it. And she's standing there on that form. Not too long after that, Sybil and Raigel are able to keep up.

But you're sort of at this standoff where you're at the beginning of the alleyway and she's standing on this paper. So she's standing on a piece of paper? Yeah. Um, Mal kind of crouches low. Like when you're, like when you're like when you're playing tag with a little kid and kind of juke's to one side and jukees to another and then starts running toward them. Like they're going to like catch them up and like tickle them or or something just to kind of see what's, see what their secret is. She tries to juke with you and juke again. And the second that you start to run after her, you do see that she's running in the opposite direction and laughing, even laughing.

a kid not trying to get caught. But the second you get close, she disappears entirely. And you find yourself a shadow in the center of the alley sort of hovering over where she was alone again. Mal feels the like loss of it almost like it's all over it. Like they're like they've been embraced all over again. And they know they can't go home all over again. It just kind of like sucks the air out of them. And they keep looking where she was.

and would probably stay there until the sun came up. There's a small orange flyer over where she was standing. It's smaller than a traditional size of paper, something you'd hand out on the corner. It's an advertisement in big letters that reads S-O-S, and under that in colon reads secular organization for sobriety. There is a depiction of a fold-out metal chair, and next to that, a rendition of coffee and donuts.

It says that it offers a place to seek sobriety every night at 11 p.m. And gives an address for a rec center, the south of Vegas. And the tagline at the bottom reads, open late, because it's never too late. will kind of drop out of this form and scoop up the flyer. After so much vulnerability, not really knowing how to approach the other two. So they just kind of lean back against the wall and hope someone else makes a decision, a decision for them, either to leave or to like come toward them. Because they're, I think, like, what is it, stun locked or something?

You good? Uh-huh. Okay. I already did my five minutes. We bumped that to ten. You said, I didn't agree to ten. And that's negotiation. There you go.

See, the mentorship begins. What did you got there? I'll hold it out and show them the secular organization for sobriety flyer. I never explained to you what was in the basement, I guess, because you were somewhere else. But there was a, there was a girl down there and she had this something in her like a, like a, it was, I don't, I wish I knew what it was. And I don't even know how to describe it because it was gross and creepy. And I kind of want to see it again because I don't know what it was, but it seems cool. But she was like a party girl.

And now it's been like a year since, or it had been like a year since she disappeared. Now she's back in her life. I'm wondering if this is about her, essentially, the girl that was in the basement of my church. Okay. So there, there's the honesty. There you go. Want to check it out? Uh, maybe another night.

Okay. Whenever you're ready. Yeah. We got stuff to do. You have tidings of ill omen to share with the others. Oh, yeah. They're waiting on us. And there's a book that Jackie needs.

I'm sure you don't want gokonda out in the world. What did you say? I said Golconda. I said it right. I didn't say Wakanda. I said Wakanda. No, I did it right this time. I thought about it.

I really thought about it. With trying to be the good person you think I am. With these thoughts of Wakanda and Mao finally addressing their need for sobriety, we will pull ourselves away from the sallyway. As all points converge on Club Canaan, the night after or two nights after, a night of extreme opening night success, we're going to take a quick break. And then we'll come back with some group play and deciding. where we're going next. We'll be back in about five, ten minutes. We flash forward to Club Canaan.

The trouble about your club now, as it seems, is that it's open. And what used to be a big empty space in the middle of nowhere with no furniture, where all of you could plan all of your beautiful strategies is now, come a local hotspot in Naked City. You arrive both positively and negatively to a pretty large crowd tonight, facilitating themselves at the bar, listening to music, seated at the tables, the booths. There's even some people trying to dance in the middle. And the DJ that Sybil is hired to appear multiple times a week is busy spinning.

So that means what is the interaction for all of us? What is it we're doing as we're entering into the bumping club Canaan? I feel like we could just make our way through to the basement if that's not. I don't think that's like a public space. So Sybil's waiting through the crowds here and trying to get to the steps down to the sub-level? Yeah. Beautiful. one. Mal is taking empty glasses off of tables as they go

to try and show that they're a self-starter go-getter. Very good. Malas starting their job already. And just ends up kind of like juggling a bunch of glasses with nowhere to put them. I love that. I think Niles is just shuffling through the crowd trying to find a way to get past all of that downstairs. If you, like,

I don't know if anyone's entered, but Jackie's already in her, when you enter the lab, she's going to have one of the bodies already kind of out, one of the bodies that is in the, uh, uh, ice box,

the thing with the more type thing. Um, and I'm going to actually start, like, you're going to see me tap a couple of vial, like an IV, but I'm going to get a couple of vial. of blood. You're going to see me actually

probably mid-working extracting blood. Copy that. Yeah, that's fun. I think Burroughs is one of the last to come down, but he's not alone. He's got this bleach blonde

bimbo with him, and they're just giggling and laughing the whole time they're going down the steps and Burroughs sees Jackie and immediately like, whoa, hey, all right, hold on one second. I'm going to show I'm going to shove that fucking body back in there so fast. Like a...

I cover the eyes of this woman. What are you doing? Stop. I just wanted to introduce you all my business associates. Everybody wants to me. Chardonnay. You're a freak. Chardonnay, this is everybody.

Chardonnay. Hey. We met tonight, but I think I'm in love. you know. Oh my God. Stop. Stop. Stop.

Oh, yeah. Stop it. Hi, everybody. You can call me Sharty. Sharty. Sharty. We'll put on that name, Charmé. But hey, listen, once you go dance upstairs while, I'll do some business with these guys.

Oh, dance up there, but you can't watch from down here. Don't worry. I always got my eye on you, and I'll actually, like, slip them like, $200. Yeah, once you get yourself a drink. Oh, my God. God, thank you. And she reaches in and gives you a big old lipstick kiss on the side of the face there. And then just hops her little ass up the stairs back up to the top floor.

Really? Just kind of turns to the others like, can you believe how lucky I am? Really? That is like. Niles, sharp ass look. That's cool. Bros. I just expected somewhat a little better.

I don't know why. I don't know why that disappoints. Really? Shardine is right. Shardy. Shardy. The speed? She owns speed, okay?

That's what she ought. Oh, my. Did you, is she part? Let's not judge, okay? Oh, God. Is she a permanent member here? I can tell you I'm deeply in love.

I can say that. She's maybe a few years older than Mal, judging from the vision. Does Shardy have a job? Because we don't make money if we buy people's drinks. Yeah, yeah. she says she does this thing online called only fans you heard of yeah yeah she makes she says she makes good money so she just i believe you i'm sure well anyways don't be surprised if you guys get some invites in the mail okay that's all i got to say you know

what i mean you're taking necromancing to a new level so i'm impressed and yes i said that counts his necromancy. Good Lord. Damn. You're lucky I don't know what that word means. Anyway, we got some business to talk about. Yeah. Yes.

Huh? I mean, clearly you're all so wowed over by her. I was more shocked that, you know, you brought someone down into our special place. All right. You're right. You know, with the bodies coming out. I would expect, like, How about this?

If we bring in Shardy or anyone else, give a little bit of a knock or a heads up. That's all me. I'll all admit it. I got to admit I just been having a little bit of a crazy night celebrating, you know. You're in love. Exactly.

Okay. Yeah, you're in love. Jackie, this is for you. Passes the book over. Take that. Real quick. Just on our extracurricular activities involving a certain casino. Talk to Bugsy.

Bugsy's going to get us some information by midnight tomorrow at a dead drop regarding bank accounts. And there is another thing that I will may need some assistance if anyone is willing. I have to do some reconnaissance at this abandoned a hotel called the Fontaine Blue. Also, at Bugsy's request, and I do know that if we help solve that and maybe get the, Nasseratu access to that hotel and building, it could be considered a major boom. So if that's something you're interested, I can go into more details, but... I mean, sounds easy enough, an abandoned hotel. How bad can that be? The fact that even Bugsie got scared and saying that they're ghost in there and stuff like that,

I'm just wrapping it up, but... Yeah, Bugsie, Bugsie was spooked. Long story short, Alfred? cost the previous Arthur. Arthur Cost. Sorry. Arthur Cost. Use that as a place to drop things even he was scared to look at and maybe set up some security measures.

I'm not entirely clear, but the long and short of it is that anybody that tended to show up there doesn't come back out. Bugsy has a vested interest in regating control over that location. Also, the dev kit we need to crack hound dog is in there.

So we get the dev kit, we crack Cowndog, we continue chasing those Lemia leads on the Saints' tiers while also getting in good with Bugsy with a major boom by clearing it out. And it falls within our watchman charter. Question about that, actually, is this, this information is just about the Putin-esque bank accounts, but could it be used to uncover other financial information that might not have anything to do? Then I am so for it. I mean, I was, yes, I'm for it. I mean, yeah, the intent was to use it to find a way to get the money in there. But, I mean, if we've got access to the numbers and we've got people who can help us get access to transactions,

we can probably see which way money is flowing into who. Great. Good. Earl steps over to a chair and kind of sits down. Well, I mean, if we're going to do that, we're going to need to be prepared. It sounds like we might need to hire an exorcist or something. Or your own those. Yeah.

What? Bugsy. Mal, you'll like this. Bugsy specifically recommended. we bring mail. Oh, hell yeah. I like Bugsy. I like scary shit. Let's go. I mean, not right now necessarily. No, no, no. That makes me very excited. Well, I mean, we did pull something off thanks to slow. Don't you think maybe we should stop by and say how to him? Yes, I agree with that. Definitely. We also kind of haven't shown face at the Elysium in a long time. Oh, yeah, Dharma

specifically asked that we make an appearance at some point. I would prefer it be after the burns heel. Just... Yes. Yeah. To save literal face. I was going to say there's still some things moving and shaking. I mean, it'd be nice to have an idea about how we put that money where it needs to be.

I have some rags on me, some bloody rags that need to find a home in somebody's trunk of somebody's car. Right. Well, we got a, wasn't there another, so how much long you need a, can we get you some extra blood to help you patch up a little faster? Oh, I've got my own supply. I just need maybe, maybe a night or two. I have other things to do, honestly. So if, if I need to, I don't have to go to Elysia. but as the only, you know, registered Camarilla that might be best. You talk better than most of us to them anyway. Yeah.

I mean, you and Burroughs, but Burroughs kind of puts his foot in his mouth sometimes. No offense, John. No, no offense taken. Niles, can you think of anything? Well, I mean, with the silver dollar done, I mean, we don't know with the fallouts in regards to the anarchs. if we're still looking to maintain our relationship with them, Ellis did ask me to look into something. That Red Rocks thing, huh?

Yeah. There's some stuff going out in the desert that he wanted us to connect with the gang girls out there. Look into it. That might be good. I had another vision involving that. and I will recount the vision of the office building with I won't give any context without Sybil's explicit you know agreement but I'm going to say the vision was about the building

the woman in the interrogation room the figures of vision of white noise I'll have the context for that the jar the whole shebang yeah I appreciate the discretion but yeah there's a chance Teresa's participation dissipating in the end of the world. The gangles we saw in the desert, all of it is probably same. So do you think she's like running the gang girls out in the desert? I don't think she's that direct. She's further management.

I think I need a little bit more clarification about this whole end of the world plot. Because I know I feel like I've been tied up a little bit and I'm going to need to be caught up on some key pieces right now. And especially, since I am asking for your help, I will, in exchange, help obviously, but vice versa, but I do need to be caught up on what the hell did you just mean by end of the world.

I mean, at this point, uh, Jackie has proved they're pretty much right or dash. So don't we feel like we can let them in? I agree. Yeah. Burroughs kind of rotates his chair knowing that the best kept secret in Vegas is about to be explained. It doesn't really feel like my secret to tell. I did realize I kind of poked at it first.

No, I feel I just, this is the first time that. Sybil's being modest. We were all there. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of Niles secret. Niles, are you good with it? I'm going to look at Niles.

I go stand behind Niles and kind of like, back them up, even though I'm smaller. I mean, at this point, it's just been blurbed here and there. So, um, fine, whatever. I mean, I've finally met spoons. And I've heard of your sirelotta. Is that correct? So at this point, you might as well just.

Yeah. Rose, you want to do the honors? I mean, you know, if I can remember the good details, but I mean, basically, uh, lot is not really. your sire are they Niles? Let's just let's just say that she is. All right.

For all intents and purposes, but... All right, yeah. Just ripping the Band-Aid off. Yes. In the bottom of Lake Mead, there's this Zemizi who is guarding some kind of door that we think if we open it up, it'll be the end of the world. Bargall knows it'll be the end of the world.

Yeah, and it's connected to the, like, miles of, of, like, ghosts or, like, whites and, and, like, feral gangrel in the desert. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's also that key that came with, with Regel and me from Denver. Yeah. Which is kind of keys. Yeah, which is not no cur. No.

Might be related to the Cirque system and might be funded by. Lucius Adon's boss, working with my old sire and boss, former boss. Who wants to bring about the end of the world? Sure, but Louda's guarding the door and has been for decades. Who else knows about her?

I don't really know anybody does. Not even when we told the sheriff, I don't think. I don't think Cisco knows now. People don't know the location of the door. Jack is going to grab some blood bag and just kind of drink it. Like, just like, like, he told us and like, okay.

We don't know exactly what's behind it, but we can guess. Sentinel. Sentinel. Yeah. Central. The camera really know about the door. They don't know where it is. They have the means to open it.

Because they have the two keys. I think it's too. Neither do the anarchs. Do they know? Neither do the. They don't know the location. But they know of the door, though. Yes.

The anarchs know. of the keys, not necessarily the door, but obviously after your interaction with Alice, they're a little more up on the game due to all of you. Yeah. They view it as a source of potential power. They don't understand and will not listen to what it actually is. Are both factions trying to open the door? Yes.

Fuck. Yeah, and as a judge, I think you can see the predicament we're in. We don't want that door open, but I don't know. It's also the most powerful bits of information we have. It also all ties back to Kane. Look, the point of the masquerade is to make sure that our world is separate from theirs. And as far as I'm concerned, that is the number one law. And bringing about the end of the world is definitely going to reveal,

which I think is something that we would probably all like to avoid. everything is tying back into this right we've got hound dog we've got hound dog from the store from the transport lot which ties into fontaine blue which ties into the lemia who are connected to this intimately we've got red rocks going after the gangrel tribe we're seeing what's going on out there and then this random ass office building that's in the middle of nowhere um that's all that's all tying in in some way shape or form If I can make a list of priorities, visiting slow feels pretty quick and important. I agree. I think finding a way to quickly dump Adon's clothing that I have somewhere would be quick and nice to get over with.

You know what? I'll take care of that. Hell yeah. We just need to get it somewhere where it's clearly in the hands of the Poudaniskas. I can make a call. Yeah. What do we think about me just calling the sheriff and like pretending it's not me and just say hey. Anonymous tip?

Yeah, anonymous tip, yeah. How about not your voice? I can mask my voice. Get shardy or whatever. Yeah. Or Felix. As much as I'm not chari, I mean, my last relationship ended up quite poorly because they got a little too close. So I don't know, I want to keep a bit of a distance.

I see. I'm smart. I'm smart. I'll, you know, take out from my back there, some of this bloody clothing. I imagine like a white suit or something and hand it over to you, Zach, or Sybil. The scarf is most notable among them, that scarf with the axe, bind it. It definitely was on, Aidan on the day of his death, so. indicator. Sybil, piece of advice.

Maybe burn it a little bit, make it look like somebody try to dispose of it. That I can do. I don't even have to be the one to deliver it. I can, I can ask some, well, honestly, at this point, it's going to be either rats or bees, but I can burn it first. Perfect. We got her not playing. Yeah. I don't want to throw a wrench into our plans, but I'm about to.

I'm about to because I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can go with you to Red Rocks because I'm not allowed to leave Las Vegas. I mean, how hard and fast is that rule? Well, Lake Mead was technically outside of Vegas. I was going to say. Yeah. Huh.

You already broke it. And this is a specific, this is a specific watchman request, if I'm not mistaken. It's in line with me. Yeah, but it's from the Anarchs. That's right. And I can't tell the cam if they want us to be in their little pocket, because that's the only way I survive. Yes, but if there is some kind of thing out in the middle of the desert that would affect the city. I would say, unless you're worried about them using blood magic to inquire about this specific thing, put it in the closet with the rest of the shit.

We're not telling the Camerrilla. Yeah, exactly. When did you stop, when did you start following the rules, ma'am? well they've been promoted yeah I have actually and I like jingle like jost all the glasses in my arms I'm the bus person here now so congratulations my name

thank you don't we all own this place yes we all have shifts that we're supposed to like actually do oh thank God Burroughs will lean over to Niles let them have this Oh, I suppose once we get all that done, maybe we'll look at a red rocks first and then follow up a Fontaine blue because we know we know we're walking into a Fontaine blue.

We know we need to be prepared for that. Red rocks are a little bit of an unknown. So maybe we tackle that first. That's been on the to-do list longer. Slow, deliver the scarf, red rocks, Fontaine blue. Yep. Sounds like we got a hell of a nut playing. Are you going to leave Shardy behind?

Are you bringing her along too? I'll call her an Uber and let her get home. Do we want to use Uber's anymore? No. What, are we using Lyft now? I think old school taxis, we call them up. I mean, they're still old fateful. What's wrong with an Uber?

It's that it's tied to you. What? What do you mean? If you get a cab in cash, it's fine. But your Uber account, it's your. it's your like you have to put in an email address. And oh, and we're not supposed to do that because the whole, we briefly discussed this or Niles and I did and it,

I think it might be compromised. Oh, we've had weird, we've had weird interaction like that who was that dude that we were in with when we were going to Silver Dollar? He was weird. Yeah, I don't know. John or whatever. Caleb's having a fit. Well, all right.

It just look, Uber's given just bad vibes. All right. We talked about the different things that could be participating in the end of the world, and Uber might be actively contributing to it. As we are having this conspiracy theory discussion on the fact that Uber's will contribute to the end of Las Vegas, John, you receive a text message. It's from an unknown number. It appears on your little notification badge.

and it reads, big things are happening. And then not an emoji smiley face, but one of those old timey colon space parentheses. And then right below that, a second message blurbs up and the notification goes off on your phone.

And it reads, we should meet and discuss the future of the meadows. dash slow. Speak of the devil, and I'll show everyone on my screen. Oh, there you have it. The last message reads, Come to the circulatory system. You need to be seen by many.

Shit. Oh. All right. This last one I understand a little bit less. Positive, negative, neutral? I wouldn't say it's good. Whenever the Camarillo says something outright, not in a flirty, dangerous way,

it's usually more dangerous. Direct communication is a red flag. Maybe we should wrap up and just head on down. Feels to me this might be alibi building. Yeah. Absolutely. The final message is another colon, space, parenthesis. a little smiley face.

And we will leave our session there for the night and come back in two weeks to find out what that smiley face means. When we speak with slow, we get the Red Rocks running. We blame some Poudineskas and we start the inevitable climb to the next fall. It's all turning out engine. And there we go. The engine keeps burning. Thank you all for being here. Thank you guys for sticking it out with us.

we have a blast with all of you as we always do. We'll be back in two weeks with the continuation of Vegas by night. Thank you, all. Thank you, Caleb. Good game. Thank you, everybody. Great game, guys. Bye.