Mayday Plays - Vegas By Night: Episode 27- Ultio Mea

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

The Silver dollar casino has been knocked over but can the kindred of NGen tie off any loose ends before it all for nothing? 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/prod... 💵 Patreon: / maydayrp 📰 Join our newsletter: eepurl.com/iIVUjo 🎙 Listen to us: 🟣 Apple Podcasts : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5vdTgXo... 🟠 Soundcloud: / mayday-roleplay 🌟 Other Socials 🌟 🐦 Twitter: / maydayroleplay 📸 Instagram: / maydayrp 🔴 Website: http://maydayroleplay.com/ 🎵 TikTok: / maydayroleplay 👾 Twitch: / maydayroleplay 🔵 Facebook: / maydayrp Thanks for your support!

Good morning, Kindred, and welcome back to Vegas by Night, Mayday Roleplays, Vampire the Masquerade Chronicle. Listen, it's been a great time coming back to all of you since our break, and things have only been ramping up since we returned. We had the very successful heist of the Silver Dollar Casino last session, and now it's for the inevitable loose ends that will escape in this session. Thank you all for being here. If you're not familiar with Season 1 of Vegas by night, don't fear. You can still check us out on all major platforms.

If you're looking for May Day outside of our streams, please take a look at our fully produced pre-recorded content such as Doomed to Repeat. It's where we really shine and we love for you to have an opportunity to listen through. If you haven't already, please consider giving us a like and a subscribe or even a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really does change a lot for us. It means that we're suggested to a lot more people across all of

those platforms, and that would just grow our channel substantially. So consider it for us, please. In addition, you can join our channel Patreon and get access to our community Discord. The Discord is really where we've been having a chance to build a great little family around the content we put out. We have patrons running games, we have May Day members running games, and Sergio is building this bizarre empire of a hex crawl that sprawls across a huge amount of distance that you could get in on. Essentially, today, if you come join us in the Discord, we'd love to have you. We'd also like to give a shout out as well to our handler level Patreon contributors. It's because of all of you that we keep doing this, that we're able to push the boundaries,

to improve upon things in every direction that we see fit. We're making some technological changes to our setups in the next few months, and a lot of that is special thanks to you directly. So, please Please thank you Advance Wars Sammy, Bimblewort, Brandon C., Cameron S., Jonathan M., Kirby's Double, Matthew J., Moira, OJPan, REV, Ren, Tony D., Vince K., and Kai H. Thank you all so much. Now, I'd like you to please be advised that there may be

violent themes, plenty of adult language, and the exploration of darker subjects, including car crashes, vehicular manslaughter, torture, and intimidation, and technological horror is how I'm going to codify it. Please take care of yourself and be aware. The last one's always the worst one. Yeah, well. Gotta save the worst for last. Humanity was cursed. Artemis, the first child of Ventrue, understood this in her creation of Sparta. She was one of the first Ventrue to draw the line in the sand and separate the beast from the man.

Manipulating the philosophy of a new human mind, the hopes and dreams of prey throwing darts at the meaning to oblivion, Artemis harnessed life courteous and his words to warp a people to her image. She used this new philosophy to design the perfect prey to sit beneath her shade, the Spartan, a horrifying war machine built in idle worship to their new goddess, Artemis. She ruled from the temple they made in her honor and she ingrained herself into the cogs of this new mortal machinery. The system by which these humans had first turned on their kindred superiors now became a weapon to be wielded from within. Artemis, in the

guise of their benevolent war-wreathed goddess, set her Spartans in the site of new civil war. The Brujas and their first revolutionaries in the center of Athens. It was here that blue-blooded hubris was made permanent in the empty hearts of all Ventrue. Her thirst for power and her jealousy to that lowly clan lounging in their agoras, sowed the seeds of our first Bruja war, and in that same breath opened her empire to fall. We will wear mortal life like a coat against the rain. Hood up, we will travel in the utility of their little lives. We will take the smallest of their problems and solve them in a breath, and in return,

they will erect statues in our name and allow our true form to light. Eventually, though, that institution, too, will rust, and the flecks of us left in the aftermath of our folly will be carried on the wind to new worlds, to new statues. We will hide among them. We will live forever. We will watch you die. We will kill our darlings. Welcome to Vegas by night. So I'm going to be back. That one was awful.

Okay, let's introduce our cast. My name is Caleb James Miller. I'm going to be your storyteller for this session. Hi, I'm Amanda. I play Jackie Santana. Hey, my name is Eli and I play Niles Ames. Hey, I'm Love and I play Mal. What's up? I'm Sergio. I play Burrows. Hey folks, I'm Vince. I'll be playing Ry-Gel. Oh my God. You did it. Guys, that was phenomenal. If

we took there being one less person. Yeah. If we can keep this energy when Zach comes back, like if we just do that again next time, oh my God. Also Zach is fine. They're just not here. Don't worry about it. Yeah, Zach is fine. Busy. It looks a little bit like a look like in memoriam.

Zach's okay. Yeah. That's the style. Rob was, Vince was like that a whileium. Zach's okay. Yeah. That's the style. Rob was, Vance was like that a while, so you know. Yeah, we would at least put R.I.P. if there was one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would have put this on it, in to her. You guys have my permission that if I do die,

you can keep me on the screen with a little R.I.P. under it that I'm totally okay with being remembered that way. That's not gonna happen. Everyone's gonna be fine. We're gonna play games together forever. We're all gonna live forever. We're all gonna live forever. Not immortals.

Immortals is bad. Immortality is scary. Anyway. Beautiful. Everyone shut up, let's play vampires. This week, where we all live forever, right? Exactly. This week, we have a recap from Rag-Gal.

We do. Standby. Oh, sorry. Okay, here we go. All right. So we hit the silver dollar casino. That's why we're here. In the shape that we're in with what we have. That's why I had to leave like I did, to make sure the Kodori could make it back out with their un-lives intact.

We didn't do this entirely of our own accord. Niles owed the Anarchs, and this was the only way they could get out from under their thumb. Burroughs has a personal vendetta against the Putanescas that's been spiraling out of control since he stuck a katana in Champagne's face. No, I wish I was kidding. But in the Kooteray's mind, this was a way to kill two birds with one stone, fulfill Nile's obligation to the Enarchs and curry some favor with them while framing the Putanescas and hopefully getting a blood hunt called on their entire rabid pack. Anyway, it didn't take long for things to spiral out of control once everyone was on the X. The Coterie set off a smoke grenade in the kitchen hoping it would be enough to

scare any kindred on site into evacuating. It wasn't, but the fire that got started up back there a little later certainly helped sell it. Guns and knives came out. Burroughs got stuck in an elevator with the guy running the show. A Ventrue named Adon who pulled a disappearing act after Burroughs hollowed out his skull. Niles went toe to toe with the pit boss, Sibyl backed them up, and Mal and Jackie tried to find a way into the casino's vault. It was chaos. There's something going on there, Mokur. It's a small casino compared to just about any other on or near the strip, but the security was like nothing I've seen before.

They had an on-call tactical response team in-house from an outfit called Rock Security. Once they showed up, things went from bad to worse. And these guys are good. I got tangled up with a few of them in the tunnels underneath the silver dollar trying to secure the coterie's exit route. That's a big reason why I look like this. They're well armed. They're well trained, well organized.

It didn't do them much good after a while, but they gave us a run for our money. No pun intended. Things got even weirder after Jackie finally helped everyone get into the vault. Aedon has a thing for ancient Rome and the Bible. Makes me think the silver dollar might be a reference to Judas or something. Lots of hard stone floors and archway statues. There were three people down there, flayed and crucified with their blood being drained into basins from these spigots in their sides. Jackie got the impression the blood might

have been sacred somehow, like it would be more powerful if it was used for blood magic. Then there were the numbers etched into a back wall. DCLXVI666, the number of the beast. There was music, too. Burroughs recognized it as back-and-all from Samson and Delilah. Somehow managed to make the whole scene even creepier than it already was. We rated the vault's contents as per the plan. We found almost $2 million in cash in an envelope with, watch your step on it, the W, S, and E capitalized. That's got to mean something, right?

We also found some keys, a briefcase, a suit, a cane tipped with a crown. That's got to be Ventrue iconography. And a VHS tape labeled Teresa's. We managed to get away using the tunnels underneath the silver dollar after Burroughs destroyed the security footage and Jackie and Mal left signs of blood magic behind. Burroughs left his Puttanesca tail to a guy named Marco, all in the hopes of pinning this on the Puttanescas in the Hakata. The pit boss stayed on us for a bit, somehow, but none of us were in any condition to try to take him down.

He turned back and I'm as certain as I can be that he didn't follow us here. Jackie helped pick up on Adon's trail using blood magic so she, Burrows, and Mal are trying to track him down. I'm not entirely sure where Sibyl went, but hopefully she'll be back soon. Anyway, thank you for letting us lay low here. We'll just spend the day and tomorrow we'll be on our way. We have to figure out what to do with this money, not to mention everything else we found. Most of us just need a chance to get back on our feet. Hopefully Burroughs, Jackie, and Mal are able to put an end to Aidan because between him and pit boss, they've probably seen and heard enough to compromise this whole pin it on the

Putin-Esca plan. Maybe once the dust has settled a bit, Jackie and I can come back here to talk about this book we got in Louisiana. But I'm worried after tonight that might be the least of our problems. Beautiful. Thank you. We take ourselves from down in that blooded pit that Roggell meets his maker in and we zoom that camera out and above from that sewer system to the streets of Las Vegas high on a crow's vision until we lock back in on baby blue whipping into the Fremont Street portion of that open corner outside of the Silver Dollar. Inside we have Burrows, Mal, and Jackie, hot on the trail. Jackie, you have an integral sense, this red string of fate,

the blood-scented loss of Aedon's life, as you can trigger through all of his movements in the last few days, including his most recent, which threads off away from Fremont in the direction of the Strip. You all have come together into this car. I release the scene into all of you in that driver's seat. It is not long before this target

will be away from all of you, and it is a matter of time and importance. What happens now? calm reserve has returned. Only signs of tension being his white knuckles holding on to the steering wheel and his foot firmly planted to the floor of the vehicle. And he turns to Jackie in the passenger seat. Says, that candle better be leading us to the promised land, sister. Where do I go?

What do I do? Where do I go? What do I do? You're, Jackie's gonna kind of, you'll see Jackie kind of like almost have like a weird glaze in her eyes. Cuz she's actually, she physically is seeing like this white trail. And as I would say in real time, she will be like, left, right, left. Other left, left other left right left you think that she will be doing that a lot left right it kind of almost in a glaze in a little because she's so focused on that

there is this trance that takes over jackie as the the drive begins go ahead jackie continue uh while you're doing this you're gonna notice i I'm taking Jackie, we're I'm taking other components out and she's putting things in little vials, little glass, you're gonna see her take out kind of like those little torch. You see a lot of people in drug using those for lighting up. And damn Jackie, I didn't know you like to get wet This is the I'm gonna stop look at you be like smirk and be like That's the least you don't know

and I'm going to What I'm like, I'm gonna hold this and extend it to you girls. You can see it. I'm like Have you ever heard of fire in the blood? Get to the point. I'm a little focused right now. Yeah, keep going. When we get within sight of this, make sure I have to see this guy. And I'm gonna show you this vial that has a little bit of blood of this silk. I need to see him and I can stop him. And then you're gonna see me robotically

put it in my hand with my torch, but I'm gonna still keep giving you directions. Burrows is gonna look back using the rear view mirror, look back at Mal who's sitting in the back seat and be like, all right, listen, here's my plan. I'm gonna give him the old cop style, smash him from the back. And if that doesn't work,

you think you can hop in there and do a little something of your magic? I can hop in there or I can pull him in here. Ooh. If I can see his shadow, I can get him. I like both those options. If he's on the strip and we're fucked, if he's on the strip, we can't touch him technically.

If you get him in the car, I can keep him incapacitated. All right, all right, let's aim for that then. So we both just have to see him. Is there a, baby blue lose a convertible, right? Yes. I'm gonna, oh God, I wish Zach was here for this reference. I'm gonna full Emmett Cullen style, stand up in the back seat, hold onto the back headrests

and look, keep an eye out for Adon. Beautiful. We need the first composure plus driving role of the Knight burrows as you are following those robotic instructions that almost seem to place themselves in between thoughts that Jackie are explaining to you. The left and the right of it all experiences on either side of her explaining of the fire and the blood as you whip and move Baby Blue in and out of the streets. Five successes. With five successes, you are very easily making your way through the city in the direction of the strip. Fremont is not far from the location you're moving towards

and it's not as though he's located on the strip yet. You're gaining. The problem is at the end of this stretch of success, your car whipping into new lanes and you're driving around and through aggressively throughout these lanes of Las Vegas traffic, you're starting to realize the closer you get to that strip the more and more it bogs down the traffic is building and

Las Vegas at this time of night is Perfect for getting stuck for for finding yourself in gridlock So what I'm asking here is the the three of you are starting to see that for Burroughs' perfect driving it's caught you up to the traffic but to intercept that white line that Jackie is perceiving that is she's tracking through you're going to have to cut this traffic somehow find some way around this in an effort to catch up. Jackie, with the speed that he's moving, can you tell if he's in a car or if he's on foot?

Jackie, you search yourself for an answer like that. You can absolutely roll me a wits plus, let's call this blood sorcery, wits plus your blood sorcery. Let's call this Blood Sorcery. Wits plus your Blood Sorcery. Let's go. Check our math. Check our math. A success, I believe, with a four. Okay, four successes. You feel confidently, just by the way that the wavering of that thread moves, it feels as though that it is fast but steady.

It signals to you that you think he's in a car. Burrows sees the traffic coming and just decides it's not good enough to hope to break through it. He's gonna turn suddenly into the first kind of alleyway or off road that he can, you know, side road. And he's looking for a way around. He's hoping that maybe the traffic is slowing Aidan down. Beautiful. Okay, so you're looking to use side streets, anything, going through

parking lots off the side of these big buildings off of the strip. Burrows does a lot of walking around town. He knows a lot of the side streets and byways. Perfect. Give me, let's call this a wits plus driving, as you are employing that clever attitude in the back of Burrows' mind. Can I use being standing up in the back of the car as a way to help him spot extra spaces? Sure. Go ahead and give another dot there, Burrows, as Mal is calling that out. Mal, what does that look like? As Burrows whips around into a side street and now all of a sudden

you guys are driving through a parking lot you're not supposed to in through a weaved break in a chain link fence? Tell me what that looks like. Mal is just like surveying all the spaces around them and usually like darker spaces are a little bit harder to be seen and usually are a little bit clearer because people don't want to get caught up in the shadows.

So I think I'm just like calling out where there's nothing more than when there's something in the way. Like, okay, go left, go left. And then, you know, yeah. Four successes. Beautiful, with four successes, we continue to have a great time catching up to this thread. In fact, Jackie, you are starting to see this thread is shortening between...

You're whipping around this additional parking structure as Burrows is coming back to the main road, and you're starting to realize that he must be a block on the other side of these larger buildings as you guys are just short of being main street of the strip, one street off of the strip. You're all entering prime territory for the prince's domain and the instruction that you are not to cause any trouble in these places. But you're damn close, you're a block away, turn a corner and find the right turn. And you could be in the same vision as wherever it is that Adon is driving.

Can I ask a question? Just because I'm personally not super familiar with Vegas itself. The strip just counts as the singular street that is where all the shit is. And if we're like, like you said, if we're like a block off of it, it doesn't count as a strip or like...

Mal, your awareness of Vegas coming from out further, you know, from your first time in Colorado, right, out to this location, you're a little less aed to the others, right? Give me an intelligence plus, let's call this academics to see if you can remember in the back of your mind as you come through Vegas. Or you could trade that for streetwise

if you think the Mal is more streetwise. They're both awful for me, so I'm just gonna roll my two hunger dice. And got two successes. Okay, with two successes, you would know that locals consider a lot of this area, this huge high traffic area, to be the strip. Where you are is not necessarily on the actual strip, Las Vegas, you know, Boulevard, but you are absolutely in the territory. Imagine more in the same way that people will speak of downtown LA. Lots of LA is downtown LA without actually being a part of downtown. Town. It's exactly.

So we're going to be, we're going to be tight, but as long as we move fast and we don't stop too long, I think it's going to be okay. Hey Jackie, open the glove compartment. Does he's around the corner by the way, he's around the corner. And open? Yeah, you open it and you see a wooden stake and I'm gonna say hand it to Mal.

Do that instantly. Gonna grab it, hand it back to Mal. Okay. Beautiful. I'll like stick it in the back of my pants like it's a gun. All right, hold on and And like a parent, instinctively, I reach behind, grab Mal's leg, and turn hard left.

There is a big wide bearing, because of course, you're driving those old rectangles of decades past. And Baby Blue does not exactly have the most beautiful turn radius in the world. But damn is it cinematic as Mal swings across the edge of the window, hand back, protecting Mom there with burrows, and you guys whip onto essentially the main strip, and you are found into this this basically gridlocked traffic but you guys are moving at a much larger speed coming into it this and you can see immediately

down the pike just a few car lengths away from you maybe six there is another car driving just as fast as you are and weaving in and out of these cars that are trapped in the middle of the Strip you can see that there are all of these drunk passerbys that are on the main strip They're that are getting clear out of the way as the car picks itself up onto the sidewalk to weave around back into the street and Push through a red light They're in a panic Just as much as you are in a pursuit. What's the movement? Burrows, you gotta be careful.

This car is really recognizable, and if we get caught chasing on the strip, we're fucked. I put the pedal to the metal and I keep going. Ugh! Burrows, as you hear that from Mal on the back of your ear, really recognizable. You're fucked driving like this in the middle of the strip.

That little fire in the center of you, the fire that you feel like you had before you were even what you are now, but now it's even stronger. It's bigger. It's a bonfire in you, Burrows. You're loving everything that Mal has given you. You're living off of the fact that you're driving

your powder blue convertible right down the strip and saying, fuck you, I'll kill who I want. The beast is alive and speaking inside you, writing your body like a fucking Harley. So running that high off of the lick of Niles's blood too. Yeah. Beautiful. Seeing, seeing this kind of maniacal energy that's coming

off of Burrows, I'm gonna go fuck, and I'm gonna drop shadow, shadow cast and just kind of like, not around the car as a whole, but around us, just enough to like swirl and kind of obscure who's in the car and maybe, maybe like even the sides of the car as a whole, but around us, just enough to like swirl and kind of obscure who's in the car and maybe even the sides of the car a little bit, not enough to kind of break the, excuse me, break the masquerade, but enough to just make us harder to see,

maybe people are chain smoking and like, it's just a little bit of a blur. Got it, so give me a rouse check as Shadowcast is brought through as you're trying to make this very dark charcoal hotbox in a convertible here. Hopefully they're just thinking you're smoking the weirdest kush they've ever seen in their lives. Yeah, that's the goal. I think Shadowcast does not require... Oh, it does require... I'm sorry. Shadow Cloak is the one that doesn't need a rostra, I'm sorry.

And that's a failure, so I get hungrier. Okay, so you are hungrier. I also want you to make a composure plus subterfuge roll. That is essentially to keep your power at a level that would be friendly enough to the masquerade that anyone looking on is not going to think, look at that powder blue convertible wrapped in shadow. Okay, two successes.

Two successes, we'll take it. Okay. You manage to keep it within that car, and lovely enough, the most visible person is you, out of the looming Batman fog that is embroiled in the center of your convertible. Do you wanna tell us a little bit what this looks like, how Mal makes this happen for us? Yeah, so the cloak kind of drips off of them like acres so that they're kind of, this is the worst comparison ever,

but it's the best one I have at the moment. You know those Barbie doll cakes where you have like a Barbie at the center and then they built a cake around it to look like a dress. That's kind of the vibe except for it's Mal and just like dripping shadow. And I think as much as they're trying to make it masquerade friendly, I think they're also trying to make it

close enough to like a Vegas spectacle that people will be like, Oh, cool. What the hell is that? But Mal can't be and also the fact that Mal can't be recorded, I think is they're using to their advantage to try and like, do some kind of weird amalgamation of like, this is a performance art piece. And also like no one else will be able to see it because art is artknowable and like you can't repeat art or whatever. I think Mal gets really in their like high school art kid headspace of like, I'm, this is art, we're like fucking around, but this is art and I'm gonna kill these people and it's still gonna be fucking art. These people on the side of the strip are pointing it out.

There are even cell phones that come out. But you think you're selling the performance well enough that maybe they'll believe the idea of an art piece driving 65, pushing 70 miles per hour down the strip, weaving around these cars. It's definitely a spectacle. We'll see whether it's a spectacle that brings the second-rowringquisition or not.

Inside of the car, Jackie, you can still see that thread, and it's getting closer and closer, so close now that that little violin string onto Adon's existence starts to thrum as if he had a heart. It would be beating, causing the vibrations along the string. You guys are a couple of cart lengths away.

You need to push the distance to get neck and neck. How are we doing it? Burrows, if you can get as get tighter in there. Mal, can you grab him? How close do you need to be to grab him? I got to see his shadow., he's gotta fall through it. All right, let me get up next to him and I'm just gonna try to maneuver around a couple cars

see if I can get up at least behind him or beside him. Beautiful. Burrows, what kind of driving is this if you had to categorize? How is it that you're pushing forward? Is it aggressive? Is it full of cleverness as you're pulling off the side again? Are you daredevil-ing?

You're looking for the fast and furious watermelon cart that's conveniently shaped like a ramp. What are we looking for here? Burrows, now that he knows that the allies are able to get Adon out of the car, he's really just using speed to get as close as he can. He was planning to ram the car, but now he's just trying to get close enough

for them to do their work. Beautiful. I think Composure's gone out the window. I think this is Dexterity Drive, baby. You are locking in. It's just like when you perform, you're one of purpose, one of mind, and you're pushing 70. Three successes.

Three successes. Would you like- I push myself, burning some willpower to do it. Understood. Okay, with that expulsion of willpower, you can see Mal again, looking down at him. There is this adrenaline rushing through that dead corpse. You know for a fact that all of you cannot really hold on to anything, but

somehow Burrows is holding on to that white-knuckle pheromone as his hands wrench around the wheel, and you all drive faster than fast. But it's successful. You wheel past again through another red light and you meet towards what is essentially getting close to the edge of the strip on towards New York, New York on towards the Camelot at the end. You're getting close to the where the rubber meets the road, but you are now within a few car lengths. I would say two to one, ramming speed, ramming location. You can see the corner of his car, which is this black Escalade,

perfect, pristine, clean, ready for transport. And the thread, Jackie, directly leads to the passenger seat, from what you can see, as it wavers and moves and tracks into that right-hand side of the car. He's on the passenger side. Wait, the passenger? Does that mean somebody's with him? That's right, okay.

We just need to, Mal, you just need to cast shadow, correct? Yeah, I just need to see a shadow to pull him through. Okay. Don't hit him, I think. If we want to get out of here, I don't think I'll hit him. But there's somebody there with him, they're gonna see. I know how to cast, I know how to get a shadow lease on him.

Just get side by side and we'll, that's it. All right, all right, I'm doing this. Okay, you pull right up in, essentially weaving this car in front. You come up so close to the bumper that it causes them to peel out and get out of that situation until the two of you meet on this road. The wheels rubbing up against each other as the two of you, both cars are parallel to each other on this road, peeling down the strip. What's the move here now that both cars are parallel to each other on this road, peeling down the strip.

What's the move here now that both cars are parallel? You need a, Jackie's gonna turn to, you need a shadow, pulls out her cell phone, turns the flashlight and flashes it right on Aiden, so a little shadow will appear on the back of the seat. Okay, so you're, as soon as I, if I can read this correctly... Yeah.

Got it. Jackie is reaching over Burrows, pushing through to the other side. Yes. Okay, and you're trying to get some sort of a shadow through the tinted windows of that passenger side. Any little bit, because I'm gonna go on that high bright setting and just mainly shine it on that face. Okay, give me... Let's call this wits plus athletics to get the perfect angle on this.

Two successes? Actually, I'm going to burn a willpower for that. Okay. Make sure you're not rerolling Hunger Die. Nope. Okay, that's a lot better. Three successes. Three successes. You get close, Jackie.

You get the light in there, and for half a second, the shadow on the other side is materialized and then it dies before there's anything to do with it. That light, the speed of the two cars at near 70 miles per hour is, you're both having to weave around and break every law you can on street level without breaking into each other. It's just not enough to keep anything for you to have long enough for, Mal.

As of right now, it is not creating a shadow on the other side, heavily tinted window on the side of a reinforced escalate. It's too much. Okay. I'm gonna, okay, I'm on, Burrows. Well, did it work? What happened?

I'm so sorry. It's not enough. I'm gonna kind of stand on you a little, like little like kind of lean over you more, and I'm gonna punch the fucking window, okay? Beautiful so this is what I need simultaneously Burrows you feel as this tiny woman Scrambles up on top of you as you're driving through you've been through this before in Vegas But under much different circumstances with a woman in your lap. I need, from Burrows, to make a Composure plus Drive roll. You're going to be a disadvantage for the person in your lap, so you'll remove one die from the pool. Jackie, you are going to make a Brawl plus Strength roll. Okay, that's better. I'm gonna hold onto the back of Jackie's pants,

just so she doesn't fall out of the car if something bad happens. Understood, are you prioritizing that or the shadow? The shadow, I'm prioritizing the shadow, because Jackie can take a fall, but ideally I would rather have neither happen. Got it, okay, we'll hear from Burrows first. Burrows has- Four reduced to three.

Four reduced to three, three success is enough to keep the car in motion. It is whipping and skidding across that reinforced side. Yeah, at this point, I don't even think I'm really trying that hard. I'm definitely like bumping into them a little bit. Baby Blue is going to need some body work after this as you've traded paint and you can see the flex of her on the side of this Escalade, but you're keeping steady steady even with the woman in your lap would not be the first time. Jackie, what do you have?

I got like crazy crits. I got six. Six? Let's go bitch! I got like everything critted! Oh my god! Jackie, describe to me what this looks like as you break that window? I'm, uh, Jack, uh, because I'm stomping over you, I feel, uh, uh, burrows, I kind of cluck out. I'm actually, I'm getting closer to my target. I'm actually getting bloodthirsty. I'm actually like, you're right there, you're right there, you motherfucker. Boom! And I just, like, it's the bloodthirstiness of everything, and I just, my prey is right there.

Okay, with a critical, I am going to roll in the coffin here to determine whether their car is disrupted enough to perhaps cause them to veer off the road. Jon, do you have any energy left to, you know, if people start coming around, you can... I can go all night, or what's left of it, at least. Alright. There is a big upheaval in the car as it skids into the center divider, where those decorative

trees are lined up along the strip there, but he manages just barely the driver on the other side of Adon through that cracked window to keep composure and to stay on the road. He comes back instead and veers in to the point where the two cars are pincered into each other while driving at those incredible speeds, and if it was not for the composure on Burrows' side, they might have flipped each other at these speeds. Jackie, you pierced through that window the tinted reinforced glass shatters over both people. And you can see that in the passenger side, Adon, with that daylight in his head still still is completely incapacitated in the side seat.

He does not seem to be, at this point, awake, cognizant, or alive. Burrows is noticing that, and he's also trying to get an eye on the driver as well. Who the hell's driving this thing? Yeah, who's the driver? I'm gonna see that he's incapacitated and look towards the driver, and I see.

The driver looks to be a member of Rock Security with one of those body armor vests on, but he is white-knuckle gripped to the car. If you'd like, one of you could make some sort of indication into the inside of this human being, but of course you are driving at huge high speeds. It could cause a disruption in what you're trying to do now if you're too worried over this driver. I don't care enough. Yeah, the only question of, I recognize he's human? Is he human or is that kindred? We're going to perceive that Jackie

is looking further into it. Give me a wits plus awareness. Okay, yeah. awareness. Two successes. With two successes, you believe that this individual is most likely immortal. You can tell by the sweat on his brow, the white knuckle in his hands, that he is a chauffeur, a ghoul, maybe a confidant of Adon, who is trying desperately to save the situation. But with the amount of time taken for Jackie to lean in

and get that perception out of it, as Burroughs is trying to keep composure, he panics, seeing Jackie staring him dead on, and he makes a desperate play as he whips the wheel of the car as hard as he can into baby blue, and he's going to make essentially a side ram into the car itself. So what we're going to do is,

Burrows, you can set an intention. He's going to set his intention. We'll roll against each other. Whoever has the better margin for success dictates what happens here. So what are you doing at the second that you recognize that this is happening, Burrows? Burrows thinks that Mal needs a light.

And Burrows... I was just a light and Burrows... I was just gonna say the strips bright and the strips bright and the windows broken. So I think I might have a light. There doesn't seem to be any indication from our storyteller that that's enough. I would say that you can see there is a lot more shadow in this car. Okay, my intention then is to break the car just enough to basically avoid getting hit by the car.

And then I'm going to turn on my flash on my brights just to ensure that there's some light in there. Perfect, okay. So we'll call this a dodge and we'll accept that the lights are thrown on in bright. So go ahead and give me a wits plus driving. Three successes. Okay. Um, the driver is extremely unlucky. You win by a margin of two. You manage to dodge out of the way. The brights are on. The shadow is heavy inside of the car. You can see it easily, Mal. You are bringing Adon back over to the other side. Yeah, the shadow turns into a mouth, almost, and closes over him. When it opens again, there is a man in Mal's arms that they drop to the ground and then sit back onto the seat. MATT. Beautiful. In the middle of Vegas, middle of the Strip, heavy night, a lot of people watching

this art exhibit. A shadowed hand moves out from a powdered blue convertible, becomes large enough to engulf a six foot two man, drags him out through a window and back into another car. Oh yes. Let's make a roll against the world. He technically gets a rolled resist as well, and I have to roll for it. He is incapacitated. He is going to automatically fail that roll. Cool, great. Just wanted to make sure we were playing by the rules.

Okay, an undisclosed result has just occurred. We will find out at a later date. Adon is ripped out of that shadow back into the car. The Escalade peels out and away the second that that ram does not work, and he pulls onto a side road, driving far away from the strip as that individual is packed into the back of your car. You're still going 70 in the middle of the strip, and you can hear in the distance police sirens begin towards the rear of you. I don't know if this is enough. That person's getting away. Go. Get off the road. Get off the strip.

We got to get off the strip. We got what we need. They saw us. No, they didn't. We have mask on and Mal took care of Elise that, but we need to get off the road. We can deal with that one or Elise follow him if that's the case.

Just get us off the strip. We need to get off the strip. I get us off the strip. Okay. Baroz, you are fighting your beast. It speaks back to you the entire time as you try desperately to listen to your friends. That bonfire you is speaking again.

You're just gonna let him go? You just gonna let him go? Is he at least, what's going on with him? Why isn't he awake and pestering us? I don't know, I don't care. Do you want me to stake him now or not? Yes. Go, okay.

I just, as soon as I'm sitting in the backseat and no longer a Barbie and a cake, I push the stake right through his heart. The stake enters into Adon's heart and there is little change to his incapacitation, but as it firmly sets, it is almost now bizarrely like a key in a lock. You feel as though it finds purchase in this empty cavity in the middle of his chest, but not in a way that feels human, not in

a way that feels as though it's purchased with flesh. Mal, you feel as though this key in a lock has found purchase in another world, in another reality, the one that makes more sense, or maybe less than this one. But you believe pretty affirmably that this has staked the individual. I think he's down, I've never done this before, but I think he's down. It felt weird, but I've never done this before, so I don't know. Breathe or don't breathe, but pretend to breathe.

Burrows looks back to the body once or twice and then just unsatisfied, turns back and continues after that van. He's got to get rid of this, He's got to get rid of this. He's got to get rid of this person. That beast in the back of you is so proud of you, Paros. It is speaking. That's my boy.

That's my fucking boy. The stallion rides. The stallion fucking rides. Keelba succeeded my rouse check for Umbras Clutch, by the way. Beautiful, thank you for telling you Let's get a driving plus Composure from you burrows as you are trying to catch up to this

Escalade and run it off the road That's five successes, okay as it begins to move into the local streets you keep at it. And what starts as a police chase, essentially, between the two of you, catches up to enough that you are now perfectly behind him, again, driving just behind your front to his bumper. Nobody fucks with the king, and I'm just gonna bump him. I'm gonna, what's that term I'm gonna I'm gonna what's that term when they hit somebody from behind the fish tail yeah yeah yeah I want to wreck them all right you're sending them to the pit guy give me a wits plus driving he's gonna roll the same thing back to you. We'll go for margin of success.

Burrows is pulling up. He bumps it once. It's not enough. He pushes, he digs in with his willpower. Five successes as I ramble. Let's go. With a margin of three, you hit the back of his car and the added weight of Baby Blue, which I've ascribed to plus three to,

you have a damage of six, essentially. You fishtail him, you pit maneuver perfectly. He finds himself slaloming in that car, struggling basically to keep himself on four wheels until it truly does get out from his hands and he drives directly into a street lamp off of the side of the road by a gas station. The imposing street lamp crushes the inside of the Escalade to the point that the front of that car becomes a V inclined into the driver's seat. If Adon was still there, he would be smashed like pancake into

the back seat as the passenger side no longer exists. But the unfortunate driver is tossed through the front window out of his seatbelt, and across into the street, where you watch Burrows personally, as he slides face first across the street, and burns into a pool of blood, and a mass of limbs, dead in the middle. There's no way he's getting back up from that. Flown feet from the car.

Blue street, just rides past it. The most, you know, Burlz watches it, looks back, just kind of composes himself and slowly lets go of the gas, drops to 70, 60, 50, 40, back to normal. Beautiful. And as if it never even happened, he just starts cruising the streets again. Lovely.

What I need from all of you, or at least, yes, let's get from all of you. I need a stealth plus, I'm sorry, dexterity plus subterfuge. This is assisted in the persona of your car here as it tries to avoid the pursuit of police. Police response was slow on this night, but it's not impossible for them to catch you. I only had one dot, one success. I got a critical five. Damn, you're killing it on credits today.

Dude, I don't know what's happening. I'd love these dice. Does Shadowcast do anything for us, potentially? Yes, I'll say that you all can roll an additional dot if you would like, so if you want to roll one more die. I'm at two now. Okay, so Burrows does not change. We have one additional success. That puts us at eight total successes. You are overmajority. The cops are searching, and they're searching violently. It's definitely going to end up in some publication, but it doesn't seem as though they

have any lock on where you are. They're going to find the crash before they ever find someone who caused it. You guys begin to drift off into the last dying hour before dawn. It's getting close to the margin that you guys can even survive, but you're alive. You made it out and you think you might be in the clear. We're going to take a 10 minute break here and then we'll come back and we'll deal a little under Vegas with the Mo'Kirk group. Very good stuff,

guys. Down in the bowels of the sewer system that runs under Las Vegas, connecting to the abandoned maintenance and flood tunnels that litter under the city. There is a group of individuals who have no idea of the awful, awful vehicular homicide that just took place. Instead, down there among Mo'Kerr's livelihood, down there among Mokur's livelihood. Two of you, missing one of you, are recovering from everything that has happened in this past night. But we left you at about three in the morning,

arriving at Mokur's at least two hours before dawn. Was there anything the two of you wanted to accomplish here in Mok'hur's trappings after you've informed him with your lovely recap that you two would like to accomplish before the next night? Or rather, maybe you could save it for the next night, Who knows? I don't think we're gonna make it to where we need to go tonight. Not gonna lie. Niles is just like up against the wall, holding a wound. Bleeding. Very common for Niles. Very, very common. Can you stay down here? Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine. And Riegel is as far away from Niles as he can be. So that way the smell of the salubri blood isn't

wafting in their face. Okay. You good? I comparatively speaking, I am okay. All things considered. I would be better if I wasn't bleeding, but it's fine. What about... I realize Rebell is just probably just all bloodied. What about you? Oh no, I'm fucked up. Not good. What happened? Oh no, I'm fucked up. Not good.

What happened? All I mean there were besides the firefight underneath the silver dollar that did most of it. Thankfully I was able to break off and walk them through some surprises I got from Grease. That took enough of them out that I was able to finish it up, but Sybil was in rough shape, and I offered her something to keep her going, and it got a little out of control. You did what? In retrospect it probably wasn't a great idea but she was in worse shape than I was and I needed to keep her on her feet until you get out

of there. Why do you do that? Do what? Why do you keep offering things you shouldn't be doing? That's a good question. Have you ever considered maybe you shouldn't? Yeah. Yeah. Moe Kerr made it clear that it's something that we're, I guess, prized for. But I think part of me thinking about it, part of me wants you all to know that at least

someone out there thinks that you're worth the risk. I don't think that's as comforting as you hope it to be. Probably not. We are in this together for better or worse. I mean, everything we do together like this, it just, it just throws us closer and closer together to the point where, where one of us starts, I mean, we don't end, you know, it's we're one organism now. And we're just going to get entrenched deeper and deeper and deeper the farther down this hole we go and we've got to be willing to sacrifice for each other

because if we're not we're not gonna make it through this I get sacrificed to an extent, but if you don't make it out the other side, what good was the sacrifice? Naively, maybe hoping it could demonstrate that we can be better than what we saw at the bottom of the silver dollar. I mean, you saw that shit, right? It did. That's what happens when we let this shit run unchecked. And what, Raquel, you're gonna try to put things back into check for something more ancient than you?

Doesn't your sire do some shit too? Seen him in the box? Yeah. Yeah, no, you're right. We're all guilty of of. We're all guilty of some shit. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to answer that. What I have understand about a lot of things is that, like animals, kindred have nature, and we are set to follow that nature. Those who try to go against their nature usually don't make it long. Is there a party that thinks it might be worth the risk?

To what, defy nature? So be better than what they say we have to be. I will would love to believe that to be possible. But I know firsthand that the longer it goes, the harder it gets. And you're going to make a choice at some point that's going to fall in line like the rest of them. It's a matter of time. Between you and me, I don't think I'm going to make it that far. Well then you're lucky.

That door has got to stay closed, Niles. And I don't think me coming out the other side of keeping that door closed is a possibility. Salot said it himself. I mean, what I think was Salot that I have to quell the beast on the other side of the door and I don't know how I'm going to do that. I don't know how we're going to do that. I just don't see a happy ending in this but if it means Keeping that door shut that

That's it The only way to call a beast is to be a beast. I'm hoping there's another way. Golconda, you know? I don't know what that means. It is. When you're alive, I mean, even now, I mean, you heard of Nirvana, right? Like the Buddhist thing. Paradise. right? Like the Buddhist thing. Paradise.

Not so much paradise, more a state of being. Ascension rising above one's base desires and being above that which traps us as human. Golconda's kind of the same, it's just for us. Niles, I can make myself less hungry just by thinking about it. Must be nice. But to me that means it works. If you embrace Gal-Konda? Yeah, if you try. Yeah. I'm not here to proselytize or try to convert anybody.

That's not what I'm here for. But, you know, faith is one thing, right? There's no evidence. There's no evidence. There's nothing observable. That's why it's faith. But if I can, if I've gotten to a point where I just think about it and I can literally will myself to be less hungry, is that not proof?

There's something there. I think it's just proof that you have a level of discipline that rivals others. Maybe right. Belief is just a vehicle for that. Yeah. I know nothing but hunger at the end of the day. And no amount of thinking about it changes the fact that I wake up every night hungry. There's nothing in this universe

that satisfies that. Such is our condition. None of us asked for this. I know you didn't. Yeah. Listen, um, I know we gotta take like a beat. Yeah. Before we move all this stuff, but... How's Mokur doing this evening? Is he in a... Happy moon?

I don't know if I've ever seen Mo'Kur happy. Pleased, maybe? Content enough to have a conversation Yeah, I Would you say that's accurate Caleb? Yeah Mokur received your information. He Enjoyes being abreast of what you're doing

He saw the silver dollar as the first step in many to a tower falling. So he seems to be in pleasant spirits. Yeah, he liked, he appreciated our work. So he's in as good a mood as any. I wish that gave me comfort. I think I need to ask him something. Okay. I can hang back.

Could you at least walk me over there? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Come on. There is a help them up and go walk over to mo car. The long walk through the winding mazes of these access always essentially until you arrive at the hatch that you know the Muckur has made his environment. You do have to navigate Niles through the hallway into that hatch, which has been crisscrossed with this serrated barbed wire that makes up a lot of the verticality of the hallway, such that the two of you have to wade through into that beginning pool of blood

and stay low below and follow as Raquel finds the correct path, which, Niles, you'll notice that Raquel has almost memorized at this point. Yeah. Lead them up. Through to, there is a chamber door that then is unsealed essentially and pushed back and as you do new old blood begins to fill the hallway in equal parts as the pool begins in that center. And this big basin into the center of this service hatch has been filled with that irony smell of old, old blood. And you see within the waiting pools of it, there is movement, movement of rags along the surface, which then you realize is Mokur laying horizontal along the surface of the blood. Then his bald head picks itself up as though he was face down into the

pool. He pivots and swirls himself around to regard the two of you. He is eerily unspeaking for most of this, as he is almost animalistically staring at the two of you without words. Mokr Niles wanted a moment to speak with you. I'm gonna nervously shuffle to the front. shuffle to the front. I am going to keep my gaze low and just start off with a simple hello. before there is discussion, you will join me in the basin." And he picks up a hand that is dripping almost in curtains of blood along his side, and he extends out a palm to invite you into the center where the water gets deeper into this pool of blood. water gets deeper into this pool of blood.

I look at Regal just for reassurance. It's fine. Okay. I'm gonna step in there. And you begin to immerse yourself in, how far deep are you going? McCurr is clearly at the back of this room, which is essentially eight feet deep. And like an eight by eight cube, essentially.

I really would like to just only go hip deep unless I'm told otherwise to come closer. Okay, it seems as though he allows that as you immerse yourself in. It feels decidedly slimy, old, congealed, coagulated in places it shouldn't. And again, there are these crisscrossing lines of barbed wire and debris and sharpened metal across the entirety of this room, even past that eight by eight basin. But he regards you with almost a sort of morbid curiosity as he meets your eyes. He is unblinking. I've wanted to ask this the last time I came down here and saw you. But I look and I look back at Riegel.

Didn't know if it was a good question to ask in large company. A few months ago in our territory, we found a man who was strung up, branded with the number 13. I crossed paths with this man prior to finding him in that stasis, and I don't know what that means. I don't know too many people who are as knowledgeable. You seem to be the right person to ask. In this moment, death is a message to your greater persona. And numbers, they hold great divinity, power in their significance. This man who you have touched was sent because you had touched. You must discern for yourself the of this message. It lies predominantly in the numbers. But before those answers will reveal themselves to you, I invite you to gaze into the future. I invite you to find an answer for yourself.

Are you open to the process? You mean you're gonna show me? I'm going to help you see. Okay, if it helps because the only thing in the back of my mind is that someone tried to send a message specifically for me and I want to know why. Let us find out. You will go to the bottom of this pool. You will sit at the appearance. And then we will wait for clarity. He begins to drop himself low enough that his bald head disappears below the surface of the blood. Even though I know I can't breathe, I think Niles is going to still take a breath, mainly because of all of this stuff that we're waiting in. But they'll take, I guess, a deep breath and sink as well underneath all of this blood. Are your eyes open as you're going to the surface or are you just swimming down to the bottom eyes closed? Eyes closed.

Okay. It is mostly texture then as you are weighting yourself past some of the debris that makes up the inner of the slimy, congealed, lost blood. And it is a push and a pull as you are trying to weave yourself down to the bottom, and you realize that it's much deeper than you had first intended, or at least first thought, but eventually you reach the bottom, unsure of just how far you've swam down, but enough that you feel solid ground, concrete underneath, and you can feel your legs kicking the bottom of this concealed blood pool. Do you open your eyes here?

Are you trying to get an awareness of your surroundings past that? I think at first no, but I think if time lingers long enough, I would eventually feel the need to open up just because I don't know what my surroundings are, and I feel threatened. It takes those few moments before that survival instinct kicks in, and your eyes flood open and you are in a world of red. You see nothing but that dark black-red. And it is clouded and almost imperceptible down here, past the darkened shapes of these forms you find yourself swimming through. And you find yourself opposite another, who is sitting cross-legged on the concrete of the ground,

his hands placed firmly into his legs in this very solemn, almost monkish position, as he is almost uniquely mirrored to you parallel to your body. Is there anything you'd like to do? Am I in a position to be able to speak if we're under all the water? If not, Niles is just going to wait there and... I assume you could try. I don't think there would be effective communication just because of the gurgle of water, the difficulty of the vocal box. Then Niles is just gonna sit there and maybe look around wondering what is this gonna be.

Has Niles ever meditated before in their lives? I don't think so. Maybe once or twice kind of in contemplation, but not in the active practice of meditation. Okay. Can you tell me what the process is of Niles trying to get on that level of trying to find a meditative

space as they're sitting across from Mokur all the way down here. I think it's an attempt to emulate how Mokur is kind of in his own position. But like individuals who are on the beginning of the journey of spirituality, it's always just like the constant like peek over the looks to left and right, the trying to close your eyes and visualize. But I think after a while, it's just like an attempt to take a deep breath in and just like, and try to settle the shoulders and try to empty the cup and the mind. Beautiful. Okay, could you give me a composure? Plus if you have anything in the auspex, if you don't, okay, just roll Composure.

Two successes. Two successes? But only two dice that I have for that pool. Understood. Ra'Gel, how long do you wait at the threshold of this door? at the threshold of this door? Part of me wants to go down to the bottom to sit with Niles. Okay. The other isn't sure if it would be appropriate if this is like a journey for Niles and Niles alone.

But But what would would regal have insight into what mo Kers like practice would be in this point, like would it be just for the two of them? And would regals presence be disruptive? Right, girl, you have a history of meditating with mo car, you know him well enough, and you've been through this process, you remember it as a deeply personal experience. Yeah. So in that case, yeah, ragel is just going to kind of take up a

position there at the edge of the pool, and almost in a in a in a posture resembling mo Kers just sit cross legged there at the edge, and just wait, and I'll maybe even meditate himself. In that meditation. Every so often you check in to see if they're going to surface. You all came down here to speak with Mok'ur around the same time at three in the morning, 3.30. You are starting to feel your body fall into death before they have even come up. It is 4.45 before Niel surfaces again, as you are fighting the black in your eyes as your body is leaving again. But down there in the pit of this basin, Niles, eventually you drift off and you wake up in the back of a trailer home,

in a familiar bed that you share with someone close to you, and you are living in a moment you've had before, one that hurts tremendously, one that you thought you had forgotten. Standing over you is a familiar individual, an individual that has haunted you for everything that has been your second life. That individual stands over you and repeats to you, break your arm again. I would like for you to make a resistance

roll at this time. You're going to roll resolve plus intelligence. You need to roll six successes or better. You said resolve and intelligence? Yes, correct. I even if I wanted to I wouldn't succeed. I only have three dice in the pool. Oh, but all three succeeded. Your body wants to resist. Everything that you have is telling you to. But the words are like honeysuckle in your blood.

They're sweet, even though they hurt. Describe to me, show to me, what happens as Niles performs the command. I think it's with him standing over it, it's just a look of pleading in the hope that he's not being serious. But at this point, they know that he is and no amount of begging is going to change his mind. And not following through on it is far worse than the breaking of an arm. So I think Niles is going to, like, being in like a laid down position, get up to like their knees. They're going to like shakily grab their arm. And with enough applied force and pressure, still looking at him with pleading in the eyes,

they're going to break the arm. There's a snap, a break, the bone exposes out of the arm. You look into his eyes, you can see it out of the peripheral. The huge break from your body is Vitae splays forth over it. And the second that you catch the ivory on that bone and the glint of pleasure in his eyes, you are transported again. Instead, you can hear the rush and roar of water behind you and below you. And you are looking out at a magnificent view. You are standing atop what you can immediately perceive to be some sort of

dam in the middle of the night. It is a cloud-filled sky. It is cold against your body as the wind whips against you and you are noticing that your body is different. You are a very familiar form, your second form, one that you're more familiar with in the context of castles. You can hear that rush of water as it is overwhelmingly loud, kneeled before you and nearly hanging off the edge of that dam is a man with frayed patchy hair in a wild poof where it does not bald and around small glasses at the edge of his nose he is pitiful he is pleading and he is begging for his life you turn to your left and you left and you make eye contact with a woman that

sends tingles down your spine a A woman that you recognize well. The taller, beautiful, as you know her, Niles. Lada, standing with a mirrored person in her hands as well. Again, at the edge of the dam, the two of you parallel, looking over. There's more emotion than ever between you as it floods through your body, the steely gaze that you make in her direction, and in a flash the two of

you as if in sync grip the neck, excuse me, grip the necks of your hostages, snap, break, tear them free, and lift the bodies back over the dam into the water below. Just then, behind you there is a voice. He speaks and says, and so the rod touches the river. And you wake back up in that pool of blood, opposite Mokur, feeling the pressure of sleep becoming oh so close to your body. The visions have left you and you're back on this plane. I think it's an instinctual push from the bottom of the pool to a surface, something normal than what that was, and a panic that animals do when they feel cornered.

Ra'Gel at the top in the threshold, barely hanging on to wakefulness himself. But you are back and you are back where you left it. I think Niles is trying to get out of this pool and trying, yeah, trying to not be here. Ra'Gel immediately reaches out a hand to help pull you up and out. I'll take it but I immediately flinch you off after I get sturdy. Yep. Is- did Mokur surface as well? Mokur is still at the bottom of the pool, as far as you understand it.

I... Niles would like to retreat somewhere. Right, I'll let them go. I assume with this being so close to dawn, this ends the night for the two of you. Yes. Yep. Going back to the rest of our end gen, is there anything that anyone would like to accomplish before dawn following the vehicular homicide we perpetrated, or are we leaving this to rest to regroup for the next night? You got a safe place to call for the night?

I know a couple hotels. If we can make it back to the church, we can chuck him in the basement. All right, let's do the church then if you got any objection, Jackie. Personally, I think we should just leave him to bake so we don't have a body because I'm just letting you know. I'm here like I'm just this this I just want to say this. I'm very much against this. I know you two really want to but please understand from my

point of view this thing. Yes, I said thing. understand from my point of view this thing yes I said thing is witness occurring and evidence and frankly is an unnecessary risk so I don't necessarily want to keep him I just I think that we can't watch his we can't watch his demise we can't ensure that it's done fine we can't watch his, we can't watch his demise. We can't ensure that it's done. Fine. We can't ensure, look, if we, if we could stand out in the sun and watch him burn, yeah, for sure.

We can't. Wrap him to a fucking roof. Out in the middle of the, out in the middle of Vegas. We've already committed a fuck ton of. Fine, I, I, we don't, we gotta, we gotta, We can, we'll bring it to the group. What if we just bring it to the group? Fine, fine. I don't. We can we got to reach the point. What if we just bring to the group? Fine.

Fine. That is fair. Just just get us. Jackie, I'm on your side and I think that I also agree with Mal, though. We ran out of time, but we did good tonight. So let's just take one night, one single night, and then we'll figure it out tomorrow. It's not good, fine. We put him to sleep, that's better than nothing.

Burrows is gonna turn and head in the direction of the church. It is a quick drive, Vegas is smaller than you'd think, and finding the church in local native Vegas is pretty easy Mal has to move across some of the chain link fencing of the abandoned property to get you a spot to park baby blue But I put it in the back You got a cover or something There's some like there's a there's a dumpster we can roll in front of it.

Maybe cover it with some junk. It's better than nothing. We can pull some of the pews out too if we have time. Just make it look like trash is back there. Now that I'm calling baby blue trash, you know what I mean. I know what you mean. Fucking tired. I'm gonna grab Adon's body then.

I'm just gonna grab Adon's body.. I'm just gonna grab Adon's body. Probably like fireman position. Make sure that steak is and I'm just gonna go into the church. Where do you want me to put him, Mal? There's a basement. Like you go through the big... It's obvious there's a big fucking hole with stairs.

Oro's kind of almost ritualistically, you know, decommissioning a war vessel, takes a little screwdriver from the glove compartment and takes off the license plate from the front and the back, if that's the way it works in Vegas, and we'll walk inside the church with the plate. As we're walking in, Mal's going to lean over and go, we're going to have to change baby blue, I think. Yeah, I'm thinking maybe a new paint job will help.

Different rims. Yeah, maybe something other than some dice hanging on the. What do you think of cherries? Jerry's good, especially if I painted Candy Apple Red. Two fruits. There's a joke in there somewhere. Yeah, there's a fruity joke there somewhere. Hey, I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder. We fucking did it, man.

We fucking did it tonight. It was pretty fucking badass. Look, that was really like I know we fucked up and we did a lot of like weird bad shit. We fucking did it, man. We fucking did it tonight. It was pretty fucking badass. Look, that was really, like, I know we fucked up and we did a lot of, like, weird bad shit that's definitely gonna bite us in the ass, but holy fuck. There's always a little bit of fucking up, but we fucking got him.

I know those Pudinetskas are gonna be spinning their heads tomorrow, trying to figure out what the hell happened. I can't wait to see the look on their faces. I mean, your driving was fucking... I've never seen anything like that. That was amazing. I was in the zone, baby. Yeah. That was... Yeah, I know we I know we fuck up a lot, but... Hey, listen, from now on, our fuck ups are just gonna are gonna lead to just more glory. I'm

telling you, good things are coming our way. That's never been true in my life, but I really hope you're right this time. He kind of looks around the church one more time, like, acoustics in here are really nice. Yeah, well, we'll get it up and running at some point. Mal, are you gonna cure? What?

Do you have a mattress or anything around here? A mattress? I just like gesture out to the pews. Take your pick. Fucking savage. Oh, I have a bed. Where? You don't get to know?

When are you gonna come snuggle with me? No, absolutely not, but I'll be under it. Oh, fine. I guess it's the best protected from the sun anyway. Come upstairs and I'll lead them up to the priest room that I sleep in. Yeah, go as follows and go ahead, finish your thought. No, I just, I throw like my art project

that I've been working on. I kind of throw a blanket over it so they can't see it. Burrows, you know, joins you guys upstairs and looks around in the room that he almost lost his, you know, second life in. Just like, let's make sure we move this desk against the door, just in case. Oh yeah. You were gonna, I'm gonna start taking, you'll notice I'm taking a vial of feathers and blood out.

I'm gonna be mixing and burning stuff and I will be drawing circle around this bed frame. It won't make much sense maybe to you because I'll be quietly putting that on right before it completes. I'm gonna be like, stand in the circle, close it, and we should be able to, it'll alert us if anything tries to come at us during the daytime. Cool.

Did you, you shut the basement door, right? Of course. Okay, I just want to make sure. I'll step in. Uh, if we lay long ways, we can all fit on the bed. If you want to, you can. I'm not inviting you to. I'm just saying if you want to, it's there. And then I, like, throw myself down sideways on the bed so that I'm where the pillows usually are. I'm like legs hanging off.

Burl lies down and uses you as a pillow. Throw your lap. Jackie has this, just generally would rather sleep. Is it like a big bed with a gap underneath? I don't think the gap's that high. It's pretty like like the bed frame is pretty low and Mal hasn't jacked it up or anything. So it's like, I don't know. Like Jackie's looking loans.

It's too low. So. I look between Mal and Burrows, and I'm just going to go ahead and cuddle right behind Burrows and I'll just gonna go ahead and cuddle right behind burrows and I'm just beautiful we will leave all of us to another night of rest remember that if you would like to heal any damage in the middle of the night that is absolutely up to you superficial goes away regardless. Excuse me. Aggravated health damage, if you'd like to restore one level, costs you three rouse checks.

Would anyone like to make some fun rouse checks to get some aggravated damage off their backs? All right. Go for it, Vince. Let me know the accoutrements, the results there. SAM and VINCENT Yeah, two successes and one failure. MATT Okay, so you will be one hungrier than you usually are when you wake up in the night. Anyone else? MARISHA I only took superficial damage, so I'm fine.

MATT Okay. SAM Yeah, ditto. Well then. I think it was only Sybil and Regal that took hella damage. Sybil is definitely doing their own healing wherever they are post VHS. That means that all of you wake up the next night ready to move. I know that there was ready to move. I know that there was... Mal, do you have something for me? I'm so sorry, I forgot how willpower goes away. Willpower at the start of a session, restore amount equal to composure or resolve. So if you guys would like to, you could roll for willpower restore as well. Okay. Definitely will.

Yes. And I don't believe any of you have aggravated willpower damage. I believe it's all superficial. Both of mine are good. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? You good? Good. Okay. Niles and Raigel, there was an expectation to take a lot of these things to Bubblegum

Mansion. Is that happening first, or is this grand group meeting at the church happening first? I would like to get us to Bubblegum Mansion, Regal and I, but I would also would like to send word that maybe Bubblegum Mansion is the most ideal place to meet for this grand meeting. And then try to get the three to come out to us somewhere outside Vegas city limits. So on the way to Bubblegum Mansion, a call is put into Burroughs, Jackie. I'll call Burroughs.

Okay, Burroughs, your phone rings almost first thing waking up the next night into 8 p.m. Burroughs kind of, you know, bleary-eyed looks at the phone, sees that it's Niles' number. Talking to the latest millionaire of Las Vegas, how can I help you? It's good to know that you made it out alive. Yeah, we made it out alive, all three of us, plus one, one Adon. Oh, you got him. Yeah, we got him staked down in the bottom of Mal's church. Well, Ragelle and I are moving to Bubblegum Mansion.

Wanna meet us there? Burlz kinda sits up and starts shaking the others if they haven't already started coming out of their stoop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can meet you there. Might take a minute just to get a different car, but we'll be there. That's fine. I need a minute anyways See you there in a bit. Yeah. Yeah, I'll see you there hang up. We got our marching orders kids That's actually a good idea maybe maybe I'll take some that I'll text back hey, yeah, how about you pick us up

I'll just put a K. No. Wait, Niles only has a fucking bike. We're all gonna fit on a bike plus a dead body. I can get an SUV. Gosh, I'm still sleeping on Burrows. So, is Niles going to a rent-a-car spot? Like, how's that working? Where are we getting this car?

Niles doesn't cash in their flashback from the heist at all. I was going to cash the flashback to set up a secondary vehicle to unload anything that we got from the silver dollar and take it there. So we do have like a white like van or something like that, like an unmarked van. No seats in the back, but you don't need seat belts. I don't think so. Yeah, I'll be pulling up with a little unmarked white van. I think Niles is covered in blood at the same time. About 40 minutes later, a horror film pulls up in a panel white van with Raquel in the passenger seat and they throw open the side for all of you. Oh, Jesus fuck. You need a shower?

Look at this gay ass looking motherfucker. What the fuck? Yeah, I went for a swim. Let's not talk about it. Yeah. In the back. We're going to get pulled over for that. Get your ass in the back, then. And find somebody else drive.

I don't want to drive anyways. Burrows. Oh, he. All right. Fine. You insist. Or a girl. I don't drive very well. I don't know. All this van needs is some free candy written on the side of it It's the best we could do in a short notice I don't have a car salesman guy

Back to the door I'm gonna I would say like a dawn is still like that kind of body. I'm just gonna Obviously take a quick scan. No one's going to run, and go Keev-ho, throw your dats. I stay with Jackie and shadow cast. To hide? I'm fine. To hide the body. I remember the fact that I have to declare my haven, and then they observed me. We weren't as careful last night, so Mal has woken up more careful. MATT. Beautiful. Yeah, that handsome corpse that Adon has left slams into the back of the panel van and his neck bobs around, and that body falls like a sack of potatoes. beautiful human being when he was alive, beautiful human being when he was unalive,

but now he is sort of reduced to this pitiful form before you. Burrows piles into the front seat and we drive out to Bubble Gum Mansion. It is a beautiful night in Las Vegas, and as we approach winter, it's starting to get bitingly cold out for all of you. The winds that pick up around this area and that desert cold sets in quick, especially driving this out from the city. But you're not driving top down anymore so at least there's the inside of this panel van. It's not long before you arrive at Bubblegum Mansion with little to no drama. Is that your place? Yeah, yeah, it's my place.

Don't get comfortable though. Burrows will park the car and step out and be like, God, I think it's growing. It's gotten bigger since I last saw it. I did a little bit of repairing though, so it's not as sticky. And Niles, do you wanna describe to everybody the state of affairs around Bubblegum Mansion

lately? Has anything changed? What's the vibes, the aesthetics? The biggest change was that the last time everybody was here at Bubblegum Mansion, there was a lot of those tendrils of the pink bubblegum. But Niles has kind of cleaned up the yard. So a lot of it has been kind of maneuvered in more ambush-y like ways. So a lot of it is now kind of under the paths that we're walking in, tried to kind of make it at least on the surface, not a masquerade violation as much as possible. You can definitely see some what looks to be some types of repairs done to the roof that's been kind of caved in. So as much as possible, it looks like a very old rundown mansion. And at least there is one solid path that we can kind of walk through that seems safe, almost inviting even for the, for one who does not know what kind of lurks around here. But Niles is like specifically walking

on the pathway to avoid where they know they have laid things underneath all of these stepstones and things until we get to the front door. And I will open up the front door and bring us into at least the foyer. You can see this just giant hole all the way to the top to the ceiling. And then you'll see all that bumble gun tendrils at the top of it, like a little web all the way up there. As we're walking, I think Burrows puts a hand on Raigel's shoulder and says, I heard you took out like 17 dudes down there in the, down in the tunnels while we were upstairs? Yeah, something like that. I didn't know you were a soldier. No, I just got lucky, man. I just got lucky. Grease helped me out. Had some, had some surprises waiting for him.

Grease helped us all out. Glad to see everybody still in mostly one piece. Yeah. Drop the body of Adon. Like, into like, on the floor. Well, everyone that matters. Except them. Good job. Snagging him.

Well, we might be in trouble the way we did it. So. Why do you say that? Let's get inside first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are your these little like bubble gum tendrils, is it like a spider that like if someone like plucks on them you can feel it?

Because I know for a while a lot of could like did you like did you take that like spider sense you know you'll never know boring this is what it's like talking to me yes yeah fuck That's not gonna change anything, but damn. Wouldn't expect it to. Burrows finds like an old, you know, Victorian chair or, or you know, some, some crappy piece of furniture that's here and dusts it off, puts it down, kind of sits down and makes kind of like a kingly, you know, kind of show of it relaxing. What's on the itinerary? Jackie's going to again towards Adon be like, listen, I've already in my head judged this thing.

So in my head, he's good as dead so but obviously there's other opinions and I'm not gonna kill him and have y'all jump me so that afraid of us Jackie it's more of the I don't want to create even more issues. We got to get Jackie has a point. You know, the longer we hang on to this guy, unless we get some bright idea, the worse things are going to be. We only got it. Oh, God. I was just going to say, I only wanted to hold on to him for the night

just so we could make sure he was dead. I don't fucking care about keeping him. I just didn't I wanted to make sure that he didn't slip away Because someone tracked us or some other fucking reason. I just want to make sure he's gone if he's gone No, we need to end him And if we end up in a way that nobody can find him all that does is so more Chaos in the Camarilla and the Ventrue, right? Because now they're looking for him. They're looking for a body. No body. He could have just moved to a different city.

It's going to keep them looking in different directions. Let me let me let me get his clothes at least. Don't do that. Well, why what? Well, okay, before I say that, what are you planning on doing with said clothes? I want to have his clothes and if I can find a good way to stuff them in the trunk of a puttanesca car, I feel like that's something. Okay. That's all I'm thinking.

No, that's a good idea. What, do you think I'm going to wear his? Like some weirdo? No, no. Uh, well for a second, maybe, um, what are we planning on doing with the money? Look, the two biggest pieces of evidence we have linking us to this are the money and the body. If we want to sell this, we make that money show

up in puttanesca hands. There is no way a single person in the city is going to believe that somebody willingly gave up $2 million. It's $2 million. And I have like 300. I know. I know it'd be so sick to not get a job. How, how hard do we want to sell that life? Especially if things didn't go as smoothly last night as I'm being led to believe by mal here. The more evidence we have to back us up, the better.

I'm gonna pull out my phone. Did anyone check the news on anything like that? Yeah. Yes, I did. All of the news sources. I have them directly to my Jesus Christ. You know what? It should actually take you should actually learn to know what's going on.

I literally can't. I literally can't use technology, Jackie. Oh God, that's right. All right. As I'm scrolling through the phone, I'm looking through Las Vegas today, local news, Las Vegas daily, the bugle, all of that. LVLN. You're going straight to the Las Vegas Daily, the bugle, all of that. LVLN.

You're going straight to the Las Vegas Sun, where once upon a time you could have seen Ra'Gel, but instead you're seeing a bunch of bit reporters instead. Give me an investigation plus wits, just to aggregate all of the local news in Las Vegas, see if you can cherry pick anything that might worry you. What was the first one? Wits and what? Wits plus awareness. Thank you.

I'm sorry, wits plus investigation, excuse me. Wits investigation. That should be a solid pull for you. Oh, no, we're going to burn a willpower. There went the crits. Okay, four. With four successes, you find that the aggregate news sources, the most popular story running right now, is that there was an increase of gang activity

on the strip last night when a gang hit apparently was perpetrated. A chase between two rival gangs is what they're selling this ass. Noted in those articles, though, are the appearance of a baby blue convertible, matching the make and model of baby blue, and the other is of a black-ass collider. I'm turning the phone around. I'll be like, I think you need to actually permanently retire Baby Blue. Fuck! It does not seem as though anyone got footage. There's some TikToks and social media presences from people getting the wild shadow art piece on the back of the gang

followers. There's another baby blue fucking whipping past one of the cameras, but outside of that, none of them seem to ID any of you very well. Not enough to get you killed, you don't think, with those four successes good job is is kind of looking out of broken window and then says well I mean so be it I lost my Lydia I can lose my baby blue just to guarantee this goes through to get back to the first question I'm willing to give up my share of the money if it means anything appreciate that I don't need money so same Means anything. Appreciate that. I don't need money. So same. Fine, whatever. As long as we're all not dead.

Again. Fine. We still have civil bankroll on us a little bit, so. We do have the club. You think civil give me a job at the club? Yeah, 100%. Okay. And it's for the best then. So how are we getting...

How are we getting re- How are we getting rid of Adon? Let him burn. Yeah, probably the simplest thing. Yeah, that... I'm so happy. Burn Yeah Yeah, I'm so happy so are you gonna stake him in the front of my lawn and just leave him there for the Sun I should write him out if we need to middle of desert you all have an understanding There's the alternative as well beheading causes of Empire to die almost immediately Now we can as well beheading causes of vampire to die almost immediately. I have something sharp. You got claws.

I have something better. I'm going to call spoons. Okay. Go ahead. I'm just gonna whistle and look up. Following that whistle, anyone looking vertically can see up through that massive circular hole and it becomes readily apparent why Niles has not made a mention of fixing that particular facet of the repairs. As the spider web ligament at the very top

begins to move almost like a spider in its web, you can see a massive vibration, a stepping in as pressure applies on it, and then some sort of a takeoff as wings take to air and a buffet of wind slices down that hole enough that although you feel momentarily pushed away, as through one of the openings in that web, this monstrosity pokes its head first

before the rest of its pterodactyl dragon-like body begins to fly itself down. It is razor-sharp, almost serrated beat down to the front, elongated in more ways than you have ever seen it. It doesn't even resemble spoons whatsoever. It is sort of a saw bird in full extension and its wings almost fill this entire foyer as its huge talons land sharply onto the floor behind Niles.

Actually, could they drop like right on the like upper level from where the staircases are. And just make just this sickening crunch on the wood of just how big it is as Niles, as it kind of like towers over and Niles is standing there with the back to spoons. Absolutely. Yeah, Burrows takes a step back.

Holy Lord, you've been busy now. What the fuck? That's, what the fuck? That's spoons. That's what the fuck? Is that spoons? That's spoons. Hi, baby boy. This is probably self-evident, but can spoons eat whatever is left?

I think he's hungry, so, yeah. Snack time. Dinner time, baby. I think then that's when Niles is gonna call Spoons down to the ground, so when Spoons jumps down, then another thud, and you can feel the ripple, the vibrations of Spoons. Before the bird gets to work, Burrows kind of takes a step forward and tells Niles just to hold for one second and he's

going to bend down next to the body of Adon and kind of pat him on the face and say, you were right kid. You had nothing to lose and I had everything to lose but you underestimated the guy that had everything to lose. See you in hell buddy and I'll get up and walk away. Don't forget to take his clothes. Yeah, I've removed the clothes. Stripping his clothes, slapping him along the face, meeting his eyes, burrows.

It strikes you something you hadn't realized in that elevator, something you hadn't realized really until now. This Adon must have been maybe 20, 21 when he was turned, a baby virtually, barely out of high school, that perfect delicate little face as you slap it. But you take those clothes away and you step free from the target zone. Niles is gonna look at Spoons and tell him, head first, you can have the rest, and just let Spoons devour Adon. Spoons rears back and cants its head for a moment as it regards the commands,

buffets back its wings as it postures in this predatory stance. It comes back and it roars out this awful screech as it opens its jaw wide and you can see these serrated, huge, monstrous teeth that are knife sharp, each one of them, and all too many of them for a bird's mouth. And in one feral chop, you can see as this V section of Adon's chest is removed and you can see into the chest cavity almost opened like a can of beans down the center there and the head is removed immediately and before anything can be done about it, Adon follows the path of final death. The stake is removed. He is killed for the last time, and his body begins to rapidly decompose and becomes that of a corpse that is maybe a year or two old, sitting right down

there in the remains. Spoons looks to Niles for the cue on whether they can have more or not, but that desiccated corpse that now begins to smell in this room is reaping of something that has been in the ground for maybe a few years. I just give Spoons the nod, the okay to finish what he started. There is this lurching, writhing movement as Spoons picks him up perfectly, rising him vertically into the air, and then spoons him back into his gullet

one inch by inch by inch until Adon slithers down fully into its throat. You can see the bulge along this bone encrusted long neck of spoons until the body is gone completely. Ben- Burrows has watched the head be removed. And then when that happens, he turns, leaves the mansion, like walks out into the courtyard area. And like, he's looking up in the sky and almost as if he's been holding his breath this whole time, just lets out like

an incredible sigh of relief. Probably kind of buckles over his hands on his knees. And then when he sits back up again, he's cool as a cucumber. And then when he sits back up again, he's cool as a cucumber. Niles will just pet spoons on the on the bill after he eats him. There's a strange coup as that bird, still the same crow you knew so many days ago. He has the same bizarre mannerisms for anyone who has known Niles that long. Still takes love the same way and kicks his head into each pet. What is this feral monster? Is it just a bird again? This is spoons, this is your spoons. Yep.

When did you diabolize the samisi? Hmm. I... Interesting. Yeah. Cool. Good to know you're always on your game Jackie, okay It's what I unfortunately do but I'm not one too. I'm not passing judgment on you today. So don't even worry. Oh good Not that I wanted your judgment. Don't worry. You're not

Let's bring it down a couple of those kids. Mm-hmm It's just interesting to know You come near me I will make sure that every drop of blood Fucking corrode to your mouth. Do you understand? I Just make a bite like that little like air chomp And this the second that that air chomp goes off spoons regards very slowly Devastatingly slowly in the direction of Jackie and just can't his head

We are in this too deep together to start threatening each other. I'm not. I'm just why I just said this. I know a boundary when I see it. I have no interest in eating you or anybody. Good. Good. Good.

I hear somebody say something about food and I'm walking back in. Honestly, we could definitely I'm getting a little peckish as I look at spoons to write a unintentionally back off. You good, Burrows? I'm good, how can I not be good? So far everything's coming to go in accordance with plan. I feel great, man. We should all feel good.

We accomplished something. Mal, you feel good? Sure, yeah. I feel weird that we made this decision without Sybil. I don't know where she went. She would let us know if she wanted us to know where she's at. She'll show up. Yeah.

Niles, go ahead and make me a intelligence plus awareness. Uh-oh. In fact, I remember Sybil telling me she wanted Adon dead. Okay, great. Well, then, cool. We'll just wait for her to come back. Two successes. A big part of your plan, or at least your half of the plan, was ensuring that when you guys got away, everything you took with you became yours. You're doing inventorying.

Everything's here, but the VHS. Well, simple did take something, I guess. What VHS is missing. VHS? Do we really need a VHS? Well aren't they using like uh projecting things right into people's eyes these days? I mean you know VHS. Maybe it's what's on the VHS that matters, not the thing itself. I mean do we need to be careful about that and make sure that it gets planted too? Because if it's gone from the vaults... Sybil took it. She probably went to the Nosferatu.

Well, I trust Sybil. No, no, no. I'm not worried about it. I'm not, no. So what do you think, Jackie? What do you think about the next step? No. Honestly, yeah, let's just get this done and over with

and resume a normal routine. Oh, didn't you know this is normal routine? Oh, God help me. Yeah, aren't you happy you joined us? I am half in. I am, uh, I am definitely a guest spot in your coterie and I am definitely an ally questioning that choice, but you're also a conspirator in this coterie now so yeah I could feel

that as I look at directly at spoons I got it I I'm looking at you in spoons and I'm like oh I believe I'm now completely in this oh yeah yeah there's one way out but hey well look. Hey, that's not good. Well, look, you know, Burlz is kind of spinning the keys of Baby Blue on his hand. I know what I need to take care of tonight. Who wants to volunteer to get that money somewhere it needs to be?

I can go places quiet. How does that work with objects? Like you can... I don't know actually. Can I do an experiment with my abilities? Sure. I want to try and... I'll take... What do we even have?

I'll just take one of the bags of like the junk that we had took. And I'll kind of drop. I start to like settle and like sort of try to flat Stanley myself down into a shadow. And then as I do a like surge of hunger kind of makes itself known and I take stock. I may not be in a position to safely do this

right this minute. What's your hunger at? And it's two rouse checks. You know what? I think. So go ahead and make me two rouse checks. Okay. All right. Yeah. I should say, I can run very, very fast to the point where I can't be picked up.

So I can't- Hey girl, is there anything you can't do? You keep saying all these things you can do. I can run. I can run. Yeah, that's a super. Look, my job is to literally sneak up on people, judge and execute them, all right? What do you think my job is? I have one success and one failure.

Okay, so you're one hungrier, but you do become that little lick of shadow. And I'm holding onto the bag in the hopes that it'll... Become small like you? Yeah. Mal is holding it. Mal becomes perfect black shadow in front of you. And just like they did outside of the Silver Dollar Casino,

they shrink into the floor, and this duffel bag sits over a pool of shadow, as this very tiny shadow now is trying desperately to hold on to the bag. Jack is gonna really laugh the first time. It was worth a shot. Tell me if this is a terrible idea I'm sure nobody will hesitate I never had a chance to meet the Akada to present myself to them and Boker is interested in blood magic blood sorcery I could just go and seek an audience I'm a

novelty it'll distract them enough a salubri showing up on their fucking Blood sorcery. I could just go and seek an audience. I'm a novelty. It'll distract them enough. A salubri showing up on their fucking doorstep. You should definitely probably not go alone. Probably with some backup. I think you should come with. Definitely going to go there. Yes.

But that will hopefully cause enough of a distraction or a ruckus for Mal to maybe get in, drop the money off by champagne's bronze bowl. I like that idea. I think there's something working there. All team play. As I come out of the shadow, I'm really fucking hungry, though,

so I need to eat before we do any of that. That's what I'm saying. We got time on our hands at this point. I mean, we need to do that. But if we need a night or two, that's no big deal. Honestly, maybe that would be the best just to give it a day to breathing room recuperates. Talk to Sybil about that tape well the tape

is irrelevant at this point I mean here's the thing Aidan was the favored son of the Ventrue Primarch right? Primogen they're not gonna waste any time hunting. All right. You know what I mean? Like, you know, they're immediately going to be out there looking for anybody that they think is responsible. That's fair. Asking questions. The sooner we offload this money, the probably easier we all can breathe. Well, let's get some dinner first and then handle this. Yes.

Oh, here's an idea. Dumb idea. It's what we're best at. Maybe we don't even have to drop off some money. I mean, physically would be good, but what if we just identified if Champagne's got offshore accounts or any accounts in general and we make it sizable deposit, dominate a bank clerk. That sounds even smarter. I love that. That's great to actually.

I know we can go with three, I'd freak around for a reason. He's not even going to show up on camera, which means Mal. I. Yep. It's got to be me and what, Burrows? I think that'd probably be for the best. All right. One thing at a time. Let me let me do a funeral pyre for baby blue and then we'll go do that. All right.

Burrows is going to start walking over to the car, the white van. Okay. Is the intention of drive back to Baby Blue? Yeah. Is anyone coming with? Can I come with you? Yeah. I mean, I think we're all going back to the city, at least.

Yeah. We drop the kids off. I'm going to particularly like rag out be like We'll make sure we got everything covered so you're safe and God at territory Now that's sure I'm sorry I'm time no I've been getting a little too hungry and I'm having a hard time concentrating.

That's okay. We'll see if we'll mull it over. Niles, we're good to leave the money here for the time being until we decide what to do with it. It'll be watched over. Okay. I don't want to get caught with it. Okay. Alright. I'm gonna say goodbye to Spoons. Watch him ascend back up to his little nest. Spoons does very lovingly run his beak along your face, and it's very clear that there's this abject feeling of loneliness, that he feels wonderful to see you again.

He's almost over excited. And as you're leaving to join the panel band, you do feel that fabulous sight as you're seeing through spoons for a moment as he watches you leave a weird out of body experience as you can see yourself opening and moving through the door and there is this supreme unending sadness at the thought of this and as the door closes he nestles himself up into a little ball in that nest of ligament little ball in that nest of ligament and all of you pile into the car. Driving back to Baby Blue, it's an easy drive

into Las Vegas. On the way over, Jackie, you do receive an email that you've been waiting on. that you've been waiting on. An email from Usoma. Usoma expresses his pride in you, Jackie, for pursuing the leads you're providing and for engaging in excellent information into what you're investigating. He encourages you to continue writing as you learn more and to keep him as informed as possible. He also informs you that he was indeed able to look into the location of a ShrekNet 2.0 dev kit and he believes that he might have sourced one through the coercion of one of his Nosferatu contacts in the States. He makes it explicitly clear to you that he nearly had to kill for this information.

There is a long description of the intense amounts of interrogation employed to get this information. interrogation employed to get this information. He describes a location in Las Vegas called the Fontainebleau. It is a abandoned hotel that has seen much financial ruin, shifting ownership, financial ruin, shifting ownership, and a series of mysterious backers and owners over the last 40 years. It never came out of development hell, and the building was never completed. But he believes that there may be a private data sanctuary somewhere in the hotel used by previous Nosferatu contacts within Las Vegas that would house a possible dev kit. He expresses supreme concern over your safety in pursuing it and warns you that the dev kit is highly valuable. It will not stay there forever. Okay.

You're gonna, you probably, everybody will notice, like Jackie actually kind of smiling in a way that's like, oh, very, almost in a kiddy way like I pleased somebody you're gonna notice like almost like you've never really seen this actually like yes they're gonna compose and they're they will update briefly on new information really quick, but because I'm only typing on my phone I can't use my computer. Give an update. I have an update on the dev kit and I will reiterate a lot of the information back to

everybody else about the deaf kid, especially with the Nosferatu. Now, if anyone is interested, if you want to, I definitely would like to talk to Bugsy and see if I could get a little leeway or anything like that. But has anyone know this area, this Blue Fontaine Hotel or has anyone been by it? I think I've driven by the Blue Fontaine once or twice. Yeah. Okay. If you're a Las Vegas native, you can roll for me.

I'll call this wits plus academics or wits plus politics, wits plus streetwise, whatever way you would like to perceive this is your knowledge towards that. So apply wits plus whatever knowledgeable category that might make sense for you. Five successes. Yeah, zero for me. You know this pretty well, Raegel. You actually investigated this back in your living days, at least primarily. A friend of yours was working predominantly on the case. He were assisting It didn't make a lot of sense when the Fontainebleau was put in It didn't make a lot of sense when it went through so many changes as it did and

Every year it was announced that it would be opening. It was pushed back another year And it didn't make sense that in ten years, five different people became sole shareholders of the property. It has been routinely used as a point of money laundering, of illicit activity, and you think it has been purposely made abandoned for a very long, long time. It strikes a bearing resemblance to the Echelon, the casino in construction by Lucius the Ventrue Primogen, but in regards to comparisons, the Echelon one day truly will be done. The Fontaine Blue you don't truly believe was ever designed to be completed. It's gone through development hell for decades. I'll relate that all. I'm gonna, uh, Raegel, would you like to, could you help would you like to help can

Will you help me investigate this property a little bit since you know this place a little bit better than I do Yeah, sure, thank you we got a catch-up on things too, so We just need to decide if we want to do this under Bugsy's nose or try to get him on board. All I know is that if this is as important to it's not for right now, we have other things, but I just wanted to ask if you if we could actually. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And with that driving back into Vegas, you arrive at the church. Baby Blue is parked in the back, panel van is parked out front.

What's the plan here, Game? Burrows takes a step out and then turns to everyone and says, you know what, you know what I'm thinking? I could burn Baby Blue, but I could also just drop it off in Pudineska territory with the keys in it and I can file a police report say it was stolen Police report is like legal it works in works in fucking court and stuff I'll go with you so that no one can get a video of it being dropped off later All right

Now is you coming with me still yeah, I do yeah, I would like to All right, well, let's let's give the old bitch one last ride Are we all piling in the baby blue or is it burrows mal Niles I Actually really need to start eating or I'm gonna start pulling some stigmata stuff so Jackie's gonna to be like, I will, I need to get some, uh, something to eat. I, and I have some back at the club. So if anything, I will be there. And right gal.

If it's okay with you all, I'm going to go down to Little Vegas. I'm going to have a talk with, not about the Fontaine. That's a problem for another time, but I want to see if they can get us some information on Putin, Esco Bank accounts. If you just give me a second, I can come with you. I just really need to now. Do your thing. So as Raagel gets out of the car, I'm gonna just kind of grab him by the arm

and pull him off to the side. You're gonna you're gonna come back, right? Oh, yeah. Tonight? Yes. Okay, we got some catching up to do too. Okay. I just, you just appear sometimes and you don't fucking tell us anything. So gotta keep an eye on you or whatever. I'm sorry. We'll talk later. While Mal's doing that, I'm also going to look at Burroughrows as we get to the car. So when we lose the shadow, I need to talk to you about something.

Ooh, some secret between just you and I? Yeah. All right, I like secrets. Yeah, sure. All right, Matt, let's hurry this shit up. Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. I do have like one quick question. Right, Gal? Yeah, so on the ride back, because obviously this came up, it's out the front of Raegel's

mind, the number 13 associated with this body. Can I make some kind of a cult check? Because I know numbers have significance in Judaism. I know there's, can I see if it rings any bells on either the occult or the religious side? Sure, give me occult plus intelligence. I can absolutely do that. Stand by. That's three successes. Three successes. You were a good church going boy when you were alive, and you're a good church-going boy when you're dead.

It does come back to you, both in Judaism and in Christianity, basically in the Christ myth. 13 is largely associated in significance to the Christian Bible, to Judas Iscariot. The 13th apostle was believed to be Judas, the betrayer. And the number 13 is usually attributed to portents of danger and portents of betrayal. Okay. With this now at the forefront of my mind, after like I see Niles and Burrows maybe create some distance indicating

that the conversation is over, I'm gonna go to Niles and say, do you have just like two seconds? Yeah, if Burrows doesn't peel off in baby blue. Burrows is probably running the engine already. Yeah, I'm like doing like old church pews off of it because we had like covered it in trash and stuff. Yeah.

I'll look at Oz and like, how much do you want to discuss the body in front of everybody. I'd rather know first before I share with the class. That's fine. I was giving it some thought. So 13, right? Like I wasn't there, but you said 13 was on the body. It was. It's got a lot of meaning and a lot of religions. Judas Iscariot, right?

The one who betrayed Christ, 13th Apostle. Betrayal. So someone's sending a warning of betrayal is what you're saying? Either that or marking him as a betrayer. It doesn't answer why they would leave them for us to find in our own territory. And why would an Uber driver just taking me somewhere be considered a betrayer when I said very little to them? So two things. Was it like a gift? You know, I don't really know how Kindred give gifts, to be honest. So if it was a gift, cool. He may have sold you out to the second Inquisition.

Interesting. But we haven't seen the second Inquisition here. We have in the tunnels underneath the transport yard. But why would the second inquisition care about whether or not I'm roaming around Vegas? You might have just been collateral damage. They're just looking at a kindred operations period. This guy sold you out. And that's even if we're going with the gift angle. I mean, again, if he's just a new bird driver, what's.

Yeah. So, yeah, we got two angles. All right. He's it was a gift to you. This guy betrayed you. This is what we do to traders. Here you go. We're looking out for you or. On the other side, it's hey, we know you're betraying us. This is your warning to stop

Well while I have a laundry list of people who are not very particular of me I Don't know anybody so flourish II I don't know. It seems like that's the only way we do things here in Vegas. You saw I was underneath that fucking casino. Yeah. symmetry keeps coming up Niles I mean 666 crucifixions, flayed bodies, Rome, Cain and Abel, Keeper. So something biblical at work, I guess. They love their imagery. Well, either way, I don't think I'll be taking Ubers anytime soon, so. That's probably fair.

Just something to think about. I'll add it to the list. If you need anything else, you'll let me know, right? Of course, we're in it together, right? Waiting in the blood. I feel like you're mad at me when you say that yeah I mean. I'm not mad I just it's it's it's fine it's unsettling as fuck. Yeah yeah it is. It's it's it's fine. It's unsettling as fuck. Yeah

Yeah, it is. It's fucked up. I thought I had my own problems. But yeah That's a whole different problem I shouldn't All right, should I have them waiting? Go talk more about it. Should I keep them waiting? Go talk more about it. Yeah, I'll stick with Jackie. Yes, have fun with that.

We'll give a look over at Jackie and then walk towards the car. I'm going to hug Mal when I walk past them. Oh, gross. What is this? But you feel their arms like really tight center on you for a second. Yeah. And then, ugh.

Yeah, disgusting, I know. Good luck, bye. Be safe, don't let, you know. I trust Yaggy. Really love magic. And that is the only reason I haven't tried to fight her physically. That's good.

We need to start trusting each other, get the message around. I trust you. Thank you. I trust Niles. I trust Burrows. I trust Sybil. We'll work on it. Wow. Yeah, yeah. See you later.

Yeah? Yeah. Okay. As Mal finishes saying that she trusts Burrows and they're about to walk up to the car, Burrows rolls forward a little bit, doing that thing where they've got to chase after the car for a minute. Come on, kid. I'm helping you here. Why are you fucking with me? I'm in a good mood, baby. Come on.

All right, all right, all right. I'll clamber in the front seat. One team packs into the last time we'll ever get into Baby Blue, and the other piles into the panel van to get a bite to eat and to see a man about a bank account. We're going to take a quick break, and then we'll be back to handle those two events before we close out for the evening. We'll see you guys in about 10 minutes. Burrows, you're driving, baby blue, perhaps for the last time. Where is it that you're taking Niles and Mal on this little drive of yours? I think Burrows is going to head in the direction

of where he believes, just out of town really, just out into the desert, not so far that it's out of the jurisdiction of the Las Vegas police, but he's looking for kind of like those on ramps and off ramps, just kind of like these mini bridges that often kind of pass through cities or towns. Right. And as he's driving, he's just kind of like, you know, looking at every aspect of it, kind of soaking the car in and he'll point out to Eli, you know, you got to push in the cigarette lighter twice to get it to actually ignite and he you look back at Mal and be like, you know,

I think I got a playboy in the in the back of the chair there in the in the compartment. I root around and pull it out of the seat pocket. This is from like. Two years ago. Yeah, well, I should keep up. Why'd you keep it this long? Because they got great articles in there. Oh, they do, do they?

And I start thumbing through. Please, please remind me what the good articles in here are as it like, as it folds out. A lot of good, a lot of good years in this car, this thing pretty much got me through being stuck with double H for all those years. So an end of an era. End of an era, yeah. Yeah, I seem to run into that all the time.

Sorry. Any last words you guys want for this car? Anything, any good memories you have of it? I mean, I remember the ride out to Colorado. That was the first time we ever rode into baby blue. We picked up now. Yeah, I go. And things were a little simpler. Remember, Allison get her getting her fucking hand blown off in here. Oh, shit. Yeah, I'm still finding pieces of them. pieces of them. That's a good one. Maybe it's for the best. Yeah, it's definitely for the best, especially if it means us getting out of here. Where'd you get it anyway? Uh, some, uh, some local guy that, uh, you know, had a bunch of them and gave

me a good price because I gave him a big smile and a wink. I can tell you for sure, Casey, my girl's gonna be real pissed off that I don't have it anymore, but I'll just get something new. New, new or new to you? New to me, yeah. The new cars look like shit. They all look like eggs and stuff. I'm not new to you. New to me, yeah. The new cars look like shit. They all look like eggs and stuff.

I'm not new to that. Blue again, different color. No, I'm thinking I go back to what I like to do, which is have a maybe black, red, maybe gold. Subtle, not ostentatious at all. Exactly. Totally your style. Burrows, you know, pulls up onto one of these ramps and before the big cement blockades come, he just looks at everyone and says, all right, jump out. I'm gonna turn real hard on the wheel, leap out the driver's side,

and just the car is aiming for the cliff to go off the side. Jesus fucking. This fucking asshole. Oh my God. Christ. Yeah, jump out of the car. Could everyone make Dexterity plus Athletics as you're told at a moment's notice to vacate the vehicle?

It's only fair. Really gotta take a dot in athletics at this point. Oh well, three successes though. Two successes. Missing critical. Okay, yeah. Mal, there is this weird compulsion that sets over you as you tuck your shoulder and roll as the three of you get out of the way of this car that then continues to speed off towards those barriers as it without the lack of wheels starts to veer to the right but as you're sitting in the asphalt of this turn on this this ramp up right you're filled with this sense of despair almost this emptiness that has come on through you in the past,

this reminder that everything returns to nothing, even baby blue. I like to think just because of the incline and really not going that fast, it very unceremoniously just kind of like clunks over the side and then like just comes to a very abrupt stop. And it's obvious that you know somebody's going to notice it and someone's going to call the cops and Burroughs you know kind of signals them to let's get the hell out of here. Yeah it rolls through sort of rectangular nose dives into the dirt there off the side and it'll be left for the others.

Are you guys walking back or recalling an Uber? I wouldn't like to not catch an Uber. All right. You got weird luck with those Ubers. It's a second Inquisition Network. You just like to talk to me a lot and I hate nothing more. Yeah, the one that we took the silver dollar had a lot to say. Real fucking curious. Yeah, I have a weird suspicion about it.

Well, we can look into those suspicions, but I gotta stop at the police station and file a report. I'm gonna peel off so I can find some fucking food. I'm gonna go... I guess if you guys wanna find me, I'll be at Caleb Canaan. Okay, I'll find you there. Okay. Take care of yourself.

Yeah, yeah, you too. Wait, didn't you want to go with... Nah, I probably shouldn't say this. Well, I was gonna say, didn't you want to go to Burrow so he doesn't show up on any police station cameras? No, I think him showing up on the police station cameras was fine. It was when we were going to the... To the car. Yeah. And if we were leaving the car in Plutonesca territory. Ignore me. I'm an idiot.

No, you're fine. Niles and Burrows are walking to a police station. Mal is peeling off to go get a bite at Club Canaan. Mal, you can say that you've satisfied blood down to one hunger, because obviously it's very easy for you to feed a club canine. You can imagine for yourself what that's like. For the two of you, you're walking to the Las Vegas Police Department? Yeah. Okay. It takes a while from where you are. You're sort of on the edge of town, but eventually without any assistance from Ubers, it takes considerably longer, but you arrive at the foot of a police station. It feels wrong to be here, given the nature of the both of you, not just being dead, but

also being assholes. The cops are not exactly your friends, and you can see many of them driving away in their cruisers. Some of them are on lunch outside feels like you're in enemy territory. Before we get to the police station on the walk there, I think there's a little bit of silence. But I think Niles is finally going to speak up and say, you trust me, right? Not when you say it like that. Sorry. I'm like buried in my phone trying to find the address for the police station.

I just, uh, do you trust me enough to say something to you? Even though it might be hypocritical for the thing I ask from you after? You know, back in the day I used to get real pissed when people close to me would give me their honest opinion, but I realize that's a mistake. So hit me with it. What you got to say? Hey, you know what? I'm going to cut you off and I'm going to say, I'm sorry for licking the blade of your blood, if that's what you're upset about.

Thank God you're hyper aware at the very least, bros. Hey, I'm becoming more empathetic. I feel like empathetic is the wrong word here. But let's move on. Yes. I've noticed since the Lamia a curiosity. And I just as an individual to an individual would like you to stop doing that. What's the harm in it? What's the harm in it?

Yeah, I get a hell of a rush. I mean, everybody seems to freak out every time I do it. I mean, look, let me give you some context here now as I've been in a hole with a crazy person for the majority of my kindred life. So I don't have a big perspective on this kind of stuff. Somebody tells me that you ate somebody. And every time I lick some blood, I feel great.

So I don't know what's bad about it. It's. It's just something you don't want to just have a part of your life all the time. I mean, yeah, sure, you get the little rush, but you've seen how hard it is for me to survive. There's a tipping point in which you can't come back from, and just a little spark of curiosity. You know, for that, it's not worth it. Burrows is like quiet, you know, it's just our footsteps as we walk. And he realizes something and he turns to you and says, you know, I, before my second life, I always prided myself in not doing drugs and not getting that addictive personality. But I see now how it happens, because sometimes you find a drug that is good enough to make you addicted to it.

And well, that vaaté is it. That's it. In my continuing attempt to broaden my horizons, I hear what you're saying. I mean, look, I look at your life and I do see that you got some troubles, and so I don't want that. And if you're telling me I shouldn't do it, well, then I won't.

Okay. Yeah, I just don't want you to be like me. And you have the choice to not and I would rather you choose not. Now that I understand how dangerous it is, I hear you loud and clear. The follow up to it is I need your help with something. And it does require me to eat from you. Like burrow stops in his tracks. What? Crazy. What are you talking about? That's why I said not to to the set. You forgot the second part. Oh yeah. Remember empathy. We do not judge, we listen. Yes, go ahead, continue.

From my understanding of it, I have inclination to be able to develop things from the people I eat. You say you're like a sponge. Something like that, I guess. My sire said that that is a way that I can be stronger than I am. And I've noticed after the many months that you and I have been, whatever this is, you have a particular skill I'm interested in.

Is it my roguish good looks? Unfortunately, not. You have a way of... Unfortunately not. You have a way of controlling people. With my roguish good looks, yeah, yeah. But beyond that, the kindred application of it to dominate others. I want that. Well, what does this entail? You gotta just bite me? You just want some of my Vatay?

I need you to show me how you do it. And then I need to have some of your blood from the tap. And I know the last time I fed on you was not a good thing. And there's a lot of consequences for me eating from you again. But I think it's necessary for me to have a little bit of control for the things I need to do. All right. Well, what does this exactly mean for me? I mean, I'm coming out of this unscathed. Do I get something in return? I mean, I, I can do a favor for you.

I don't know that comes down to you. I mean, you, you really don't necessarily benefit from it. Not to a greater extent, but... Now, did I ever tell you I had a child once? A kid? A little girl? No. I never spent much time around her before she became much of a person, but she was a good kid. I tried to be a good daddy, but well, I would be dishonest if I wasn't

looking you in the eyes and not admitting that you kind of remind me of her. I don't know why, maybe it's your dark hair or I don't know. Maybe I'm just projecting, but the point is, I'll do this for you. Yeah, sure, you can owe me something. I just hope that this means more than just a transactional relationship moving forward. It'd be nice to know what you're getting up to, what you're thinking about, what you care about. I want to know you more as a person, not just a member of my coterie. You play your cards close to your vest.

I have to. It's, um, I was told not to trust anybody because people will hurt you. And that's really the only reason why. Um. reason why. If I if I tasted your VAT, I wouldn't be able to learn anything from you, would I? I don't I don't know. I don't really know how it works. I just I just know the results on my end. We've we we've, I think we've reached like the police station by now. And I look at the sign, I'm like, I got an idea. Follow me inside and I'll lead Niles in. Try to find somebody at the

front desk. There's a woman behind the front desk in full uniform. She has a cup of coffee in one hand, a Manila folder in the other, and she's also over the folder typing on the keyboard in front of her, but she does look up as you approach. Hello officer, I'd like to report a stolen vehicle. Absolutely, we're just gonna have to get some paperwork from you. We'll have to process. Let me get you a form. Do you want to have to get some paperwork from you, we'll have to process. Let me get you a form.

Do you want to speak to an officer about this? How recently was the... Pretty recently, yes. I'd love to speak to somebody in particular. As they're looking down, whatever, I'll turn on blush of life, become a lot more human looking. Got it. She puts this form in front of you where you mark down the make and model and another series

of details about the car itself, the incident, the crime, etc. etc. I don't touch the paper, but I compel her to for me to fill it out and say, hey, honey, can you do me a favor and just take down the details? I'll look at Niles, make sure they're paying attention as I do this. I will be watching. There is this shuddering white cycle of her pupils as they cycle back and then violently shake almost in seizure across. And then she comes back to reality to that regular response. She says, why don't you two go take a seat? It's been a busy day. Let me fill this out

for you quick and then we'll get you in with an officer. Sounds good. And she points towards an open area and a sort of bench waiting area and she says, I'm going to make sure it goes real quick for you. I'll turn to Niles kind of ignoring the officer after that and say you you need more of an example than that. No I think I got it. All right I can compel the the detective we're gonna speak to. I mean if you want to show me another example I'll never say no but if you feel it's not appropriate. 15 minutes later she comes back with the clipboard

she's noticeably more nervous now. That was fast for you 15 minutes? Sorry there was a different conversation we had to have if you could just follow me please. Yeah I'm just busting your chops. Come on, girl, let's go. She seems to be a little more serious this time around. And two new officers have moved to the front doors of the police station. And it seems as though an escorting officer

is coming with you. The detective is in a separate room, and they'd like to speak to you about this incident immediately. She walks you through and the two of you into a separate room and they'd like to speak to you about this incident immediately. She walks you through and the two of you into a separate room. It is akin to an interrogation room, single steel desk in the center, two chairs on either side. Detective on one side, he pulls out another for Niles from the corner.

He is flipping over the clipboard and that escorted officer and the woman that came from the desk, essentially they open the door, escort the two of you in, until the two of you have entered the room, she does not leave. The escorted officer comes in, stands by the door and the detective on the other side. and the detective on the other side. I'll look to Niles. You know, Burrows is slow, but he's not dense. He's starting to realize there's something fishy going on. Yeah, I'm looking at all available exits. The detective across the way is looking directly at you, Burrows, and you can tell he is putting on a front.

He is cool and collected, and he gives you a big flashy smile, but you can tell under the veneer of it that these two men are aware of what they've caught. It's a fisherman giving away that they're trying not to pull too hard on the rod. The detective across the way says, "'So, you're the big driver we've been looking for. Baby blue powder convertible.

You don't forget a car like that, especially when it goes 70, 75 down the road. You claim this- You must be a mind reader. I was coming to report that vehicle being stolen. So you're in here to tell us that you're the owner of this car and last night it was stolen from you and then ended up on the news in the same night. Yeah exactly that. I was off taking care of some business and next thing I know the vehicle's gone

around I don't know 6 p.m that night night. Okay. Niles? Niles is here to corroborate with me right Niles? Yeah we were together and when Burrows went to leave the car was gone. So he looks to that escorted officer and then back down to the two of you so you didn't get any look at anyone who stole the car you weren't there when it was taken? Wait a minute wait a minute if I know correctly I'm not supposed to be interrogated here I hadn't done nothing wrong but what you guys got us in for? I'm just looking for the information on your stolen car sir I want to make sure I can get it back for you. I guess I'm trying to understand why I'm suddenly being told I'm guilty about

something. What happened with baby blue? There was another crime perpetrated last night matching the vehicle and make and model of your car and if you had nothing to do with it then maybe the person who stole your car did. That's a conversation you need to have. That must be it. That makes perfect sense. Somebody stole the car as a getaway.

That's wild. Right. So what time last night did your car go missing? You know, me and Niles, we were up in the club. We just had this big opening. You know, there was a little drinking going on, I'll honest with the officer so you know the hours kind of blend into one but I don't know I left the club midnight one in the morning and the car was gone just taking out of the parking lot must have I mean I didn't have my

keys on me so maybe somebody from in the club took him. I don't know. Go ahead and make a charisma plus subterfuge role for me. I'm gonna Burrows feels that little bit of sweat starting to form in his armpits and he kind of chills out burning a willpower two successes There is a shift in the room The detective who was trying to put on a front sitting back in his chair writes himself and sits forward sitting back in his chair, writes himself and sits forward. Do you have a lawyer, Mr. Burroughs?

Sure. I got a lawyer. Yeah, man. Might want to give him a call. Am I being detained or can I go? You're being detained. Burroughs looks him in the eye and says, are you sure about that? And I'm going to cast Cloud Memory on him. Beautiful. Is there a resistance to Cloud Memory? How does that work as a contested rule?

I'll find out right now for you. I don't think there's a contested on a mortal Okay. Yeah, I'm almost positive. It just happens with Let me double check This one zero to 100 real fucking quick Shit is an unprepared mortal and so it just happens so He is an unprepared mortal and so it just happens. So essentially you are removing the memory of having met you in this regard, right? Are you compelling at all or changing the discussion that's been had here?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I'm just kind of very quickly saying, dismissing what he's saying is like, listen, you're making a big mistake. You need to let me go and I'm allowed that you have no evidence against me. And I think if you want to find me, you know where to look. Okay, I plead the fifth. Got it. Give me a manipulation plus your points and dominate.

Niles again, you're seeing that power emanate from Burrows, and the detective seems, again, receptive to that power. Five messy critical. Oh my god, yeah. Your compulsion comes in, and you think you're a fucking god at this point, Burrows. Take that however you like for the rest of the scene. The detective falls a little bit into his head. His eyes roll back. The escort police officer behind all of you

appear in a second, but by the time the detective pops his head back up, it's calm. The detective looks between the two of you and back up to the escort, says, I think we're done here. Maybe we all got a little hasty here. I'm gonna look into your lost car. Is there a number I can reach you at?

Is this okay? And he taps on the clipboard where you've listed the phone number. Yeah, yeah, you can reach me there. Perfect. I think it's best if we just call it square until I have more information. Appreciate you all that you do. You guys are the real heroes. Get up and start walking out the room. Thank you. I'll put my hand over Niles's shoulder like supremely confidently and walk out the

police station. The escort opens the door for you, walks you back to the center room and the door out to the world is yours. Well, as we're taking the steps down outside and making a turn, kind of whispering to Niles, is that enough or what? I see the vision. Damn right you do. Ain't nobody fucking with us in this town.

And he's almost like lost in his own thought at that comment. So where do we do this? I guess anywhere. Almost like, you know, almost romantically, like I'll take Niles and pull them into like an alleyway, you know, kind of holding their shoulders, bringing them close, and then I'll just open up my wrist to them.

I look at it for a moment. There's hesitation always, but Niles is gonna take a drink, however much it is to be able to build, dominate for, to satisfy the requirements to earn, dominate. With this knowledge of new domination, it enters into your body through the Vitae taken from Burrows. Burrows, his blood tastes almost like he feels smoky and powerful, fiery, overbearing, but it's quick onto your tongue, and it's satisfying, and even more, it's intoxicating, not else. And you, too, Burrows, you feel something different in this. You've offered your wrist to many before, usually people you plan on feeding on later. This is euphoric in a way that feels controlling. You feel the same domination you did over the detective before. In fact, that power, that I'm the shit energy

that's pumping through you right now, there's this instinct in your mind immediately as Niles finishes the last lap of blood, that you should tell Niles what to do too. Maybe you should tell Niles what to do too. Maybe you should give... Burrows, you know, lets them finish and then as they're kind of pulling back, he grabs them, you know, kind of by the face, holding them like you should a romantic partner or something like that. And he just gets so close, you know, within the air of his breath, you know, touching their lips, and says,

baby, I hope you, I don't regret doing this, but... But it's done. Yeah, I won't let you down. I'll let him go, almost a little bit too rough. And just turn back to the night. We got a whole night ahead of us and Burrows is on to talking about, oh, you know what? I know a good Chinese restaurant around here. We should go check out.

Yeah, Niles will, like, I think, give a little space for a second, but then immediately follow and catch up with Burrows and just yeah. Niles, as he is mentioning the Chinese place and moving past you and sort of returning to the Burrows he always is, that blood is still seeping into your chest. That moment shared just an inch off of his, and you realize that in the back of your mind you're hearing something repeated over and over again as that blood riles through your arms, and you feel sick to your stomach, break your arm again. With this, you know that a bond has been formed between you and Burrows. like rubbing the arm they've broken multiple times before. And just like a nervous thought about it, but just listens to burrows just drone on about things, but knows that they need to keep quiet because that's what they've been always told to do. was told to do? The camera pans away, joining the skies of Las Vegas as the neon takes to the sky, the clouds overhead, promising soon rain will come to the meadows.

And as Niles walks just a few paces behind Burroughs. Something changed between them. Something new but familiar. We are going to end our session here and return in two weeks to find out if we can sell some money to a bank account. Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah. Man.

Holy shit. Hell of a session. Yeah, that was a daisy. Really good, guys. Thank you so much for being around. That was awesome. We got so much done here. I promise we'll start with Raquel and Jackie going to see Bugsy about procuring some numbers

and then we'll have the rest of Vegas to look after now that we've cleaned up some loose ends. Thank you all so much. It was awesome.