Speaker 1: Deathless is an improphysia film mischa Etzalo mid live production
and Schleislich music on Dear log Escape kind Rebo. This
story contains violence, disturbing imagery, adult themes, and the darkness
which may leave you.
Speaker 2: Doubting who you are. Proceed at your own risk. Shuts
of five shade.
Speaker 3: Five hued from.
Speaker 4: They say, stand up for the thing you can't stand.
Speaker 5: The lo.
Speaker 6: I have spent the past two hundred years darkness, and
now before me I see the stars pulled down from
the sky and put into a city. So I'm on
here on my knees in a cemetery by a river,
and what is apparently New Orleans in the year nineteen
hundred and ninety five. I gathered myself and turn around
to see my strange new companions leaving the cemetery, and
not wanting to be left behind, I catch up with them. German.
It's very ancient looking blonde man. This woman with her
glasses that he's leading us to her home. We walk
along in the street and speak mostly with the German.
He is very charming man very I find it strange
he has never left Berlin in his life. This truly
surprises me. The walk. The walk is not long, the
large one is very silent. The woman leading us seems
a bit distracted or focused on something else. But eventually
we get to a building unlike any I have seen.
I offer to open the door. Eventually she invites us
into her home, very small, perhaps from what I am
used to. Strange things on the wall sitting there, books
et the burri cage, and I curious. I look around.
Do I know these people? I'm going to what appears
to be the kitchen. I am very hungry, but I
also do not know this I am with. So I
find myself a way to defend myself with a knife.
I put in my jacket. I'll go back out. Perhaps
I am a little overcome and look for answers. But
before I get anything, there is a knock on the door.
This stalker and this other large one poenix are there.
All of these strange bags of blood we'll drink. But
it is not enough. It is not is The need
is growing, need is not leaving, and we need to
find more. So we set out into the night, myself,
Constantine Gunner, led by this stalker through the darkness of
No Orleans.
Speaker 7: So we begin shortly after stalker has just received the
bat signal, and he has left you with the parting
words of do not break the masquerade, And he looks
at all three of you and then disappears into shadow.
The floor is yours.
Speaker 8: Well, I didn't have any plans and breaking the masquerade tonight.
Speaker 6: You know who says that sort of thing a lot
in my experience, which granted was a long time ago.
Don't break the masquerade the camilla. Yeah, you're right, I think.
At this point, as I am talking like this to Constantine,
I turn around to say something to Gunner, and he
has just wandered off. It appears you and I are alone.
My friend has gone off to feed on his own.
This city is very busy for a place it is
so late into the night.
Speaker 8: You think so similar to this.
Speaker 6: Well, perhaps when I was there, there were not people
stumbling across the street singing and the music playing. It's
such a time in the evening.
Speaker 8: Well, if you had been there to my bar, you
would know it was just the same, beautiful in the
night stars in the form of people finding their way
down the street.
Speaker 6: This is familiar to you, then, by all means, And
I gesture like I bow a little bit and point
my hand forward, suggesting that Constantine go ahead and lead
the way.
Speaker 8: Oh shun. Now, if it is truly the way it
was in Berlin, there should be quite a few willing participants.
I now, who do you happen to be looking for?
What is your preferred taste?
Speaker 6: Well, I am as I look around here at this
time of night, I do not believe my performitation will
be available. Way I am feeling, I don't know if
I particularly care. I think I can care after I
have eaten. Are you a picky eater?
Speaker 8: Well, I don't think of it necessarily as picky, but
suppose by some other standards we liked. But I, like you,
am willing to find what is available.
Speaker 6: And let us see what's on the menu tonight.
Speaker 8: Hm. Shall we dine together and.
Speaker 6: Let us see what we can find.
Speaker 8: I begin looking as a I walk down the street.
I'm not particularly hiding myself, which could be a problem.
Speaker 4: Abah, I am, well.
Speaker 8: I have been hiding for so long it would be
really nice to take in the air, and I'm looking
for anyone lingering around.
Speaker 7: I think I also need a quick refresher on what
we decided Ishana was doing. I think we said he
was holding until.
Speaker 6: Now correct, until they started feeding until you guys kind
of got down quest situation for this. So we did
the role for Frenzy. I succeeded like a not frenzying. Right,
So you're now at five. So just so so even
though Ishna is doing stuff, yeah, is still okay.
Speaker 7: All Ishna is doing I shouldn't say, but is holding
back your hunger at the moment, because if you're a
level five hunger, you would be ravenously tearing a part
of mortal.
Speaker 9: But we haven't been, you know, like it's just weird
role play.
Speaker 6: So well I think too, because we had the bags
and then we were talking, but are we still five
or four and a half? Are we four? But we're
not five?
Speaker 9: But some of you are?
Speaker 8: Yeah five over here?
Speaker 6: Yeah, well yeah, because that was banked we were coming
out of the cave. I just want to be clear.
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, no, but that's what even that's what you're
at now as well though, right from even the one
blood she did arouse check No, I know, but I
think but after that, yeah, yeah, I think she's still
at five.
Speaker 9: I think Constantine's still at five.
Speaker 7: I don't know she'd say, I am at four okay.
Speaker 6: Because I think you assumed that the person who gave
the blood probably gave it with consent, right.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yes, that's right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but don't those blood bags only do half for
you guys four and a half?
Speaker 8: Oh yeah that was yeah.
Speaker 6: Are we blood potency two? Are we blood potency one?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Because that's the whatever, but we can be half that
I'm with if we want to do Yeah.
Speaker 8: Four and a half?
Speaker 7: Do you you both your blood potency goes down though?
Speaker 9: Correct?
Speaker 7: Or were we saying no because it was your original
sire potency?
Speaker 6: I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 6: And the last thing said was that, yeah, everyone went
that we went down for exam.
Speaker 9: Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, we.
Speaker 6: Could figure that out later. But regardless, we can be
very very hungry. Yeah.
Speaker 8: The way and I'm seeing it is that I'm hungry
and I'm ravenous. But uh, I feel as though Ishn
is holding back my frenzy primarily at this point. Yeah,
I think.
Speaker 7: So. So it's a guarantee hunger level hunger level four
the vampires on the brink of frenzy. Hunger at this level,
manifests is a constant, gnawing need over writing almost every
other thought. This is four, not five, where you guys
were ye, So yeah, their self control is slipping and
they must exert a great deal of will power to
maintain their composure. Physical sensations become more intense and distracting.
The vampire may experience dry mouth, your veins feel tight,
and the thirst for blood becomes nearly unbearable. Social interactions
and their facade of humanity start to crack. They become
easily irritable, tense, and prone to snapping at the smallest anything.
Your beast is close to the surface, ready to lash
out at every time you roll. At hunger level four,
the chance of getting a messy, critical or b seal
failure increases significantly. That's why we were getting so many
of those. Oh yeah, this makes actions more dangerous and unpredictable,
emphasizing the vampire struggle against their inner beast, and of course,
storyteller might require the vampire to make frenzy checks if exposed,
if exposed to blood, or situations that could provoke their hunger,
which is about to happen right now, because you guys
are literally going to watch, you know, a buffet table
walk by partying and drunk. So yeah, just to clarify
the like, blood potency level four is very serious. I
don't think this is going to be I mean, I
don't know your characters, so ultimately you know your character's best.
But I don't imagine this is going to be a
typical feed. I don't imagine this is going to be
a casual let's go into a club and yeah, okay, cool.
As for what you see before we get to that part,
Stalker led you to kind of the main entertainment area.
I looked this up once upon a time when I
was prepping the show. It's not called main street, it's
called something else, but it essentially the main street where
a bunch of things happen.
Speaker 9: Neon lights will buzz. I don't think either.
Speaker 7: Of you have ever experienced neon lights before they flicker
and cash shades of red and blue and green paint
along the wet pavement as it has been raining. Bourbon Street,
that's what it's called. I just had to look at
my notes. Bourbon Street is thrumming with life now, a
serpent of revelry winding through the human New Orleans night. Laughter,
sharp and uncontrolled rises above this low hum of conversation,
a river of voices punctuated by the clink of glasses
in the occasional burst of shouting. Jazz spills out of
open doorways, mingling with the scent of fried food and
spilled liquor, clinging to your skin like a greasy film.
Speaker 8: I am looking for someone, someone beautiful and alone, desperately.
I think I've forgotten that Esteban was here now that
we're in the throng, and the smells are so different.
What should feel so similar to what I know, yet
they are not. And my you know, for me, it's
almost as if I had just woken up from a
small sleep. I remember, It's almost as if it was yesterday.
So I'm following my own routine without fully realizing the
desperation that is behind it. I'm looking for someone beautiful
and alone, and I intend on speaking with them and
hearing about their life, and I intend on getting to
know their spirit, and I want to fall into their eyes.
But I that desire is becoming twisted with my need
now and I'm starting to mistake. I'm starting to mistake
desire for need.
Speaker 9: Somewhere.
Speaker 7: Needs by A woman's laughter pierces the air. It's high
and brittle, and it cuts through the jazz music. The
sound physically sends a shiver down your spine, and for
a split second, everything slows down around you. The light splur,
the music distorts, and you hear it.
Speaker 10: It's a whisper. What does it say?
Speaker 2: We'll comment to this on a list.
Speaker 9: It's whispers to you in German?
Speaker 10: Yeah, okay, I would ask you what that means, but
I don't think think we want to know. So what
do you do?
Speaker 8: I follow the voice? Uh, it has promised me a
little bit of home and I'm feeling very far away
from it now, So I would like to follow the voice,
see if it can take me there.
Speaker 9: Okay, we're gonna have you roll.
Speaker 7: Uh what will this be?
Speaker 3: Resolve?
Speaker 9: Resolve and.
Speaker 7: Constitution. Let's try those two things if we can. Those
are rules we can make, right.
Speaker 8: I believe. So I think it's a composure. That's that's
what I mean?
Speaker 7: No, No, no, maybe, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, composure
that works. I thought there was like a physical constitution,
but no, there isn't. Okay, composure and resolve difficulty.
Speaker 9: Two? Three?
Speaker 8: All right, it's fire that right?
Speaker 4: Try yeah?
Speaker 8: Success, try three?
Speaker 7: Okay, So this whisper leads you.
Speaker 9: Where do you think?
Speaker 8: I think I need to know. I think I need
to know what this whisper wants from me, because I
can go anywhere, but it's a matter of where it
wants me to be. What does it know of me?
Who is it? What do they want? I know you
cannot tell me those things.
Speaker 9: I can't tell you those things.
Speaker 8: But the difference between to an alleyway or walking into
a bar, you know, I would follow where it wants
me to go.
Speaker 7: Okay, follow up question, Yes, yes it's me. Yes, yeah,
it's sort of not really, but it's where you would
want to go. I think there's probably a part of
you that thinks a bar is maybe not a good idea.
And the only reason I say that is because you
don't like to make a scene. No, yeah, so, but
it's entirely up to you where it takes you.
Speaker 8: I think I am walking down Bourbon Street and my
gait is not as smooth, my hands look like paper.
And yesterday I was beautiful, and yesterday I knew, I
knew what things were, and now I do not. I
hear a sound and there's a corner darkening to an alley.
I think The last time I fed in an alley
was seventeen seventy nine. But that girls can't be choosers.
So who waits for me?
Speaker 11: Here?
Speaker 9: Who waits for you? Indeed?
Speaker 7: I think you turn the corner expecting to see somebody
waiting for you, But you see a woman lighting a cigarette,
fumbling to light a cigarette from the rain, and she
seems startled by your presence.
Speaker 4: Oh oh, allow me.
Speaker 8: I step forward, and I pluck the lighter from her
hand and cover the cigarette with my other hand so
the rain doesn't get on it, and I like the
cigarette for her.
Speaker 7: I think she looks at you a little confused because
you look very sickly, I guess is the way immortal
would describe the way you look like a dying man
and clothes that are too big for you. But you,
I think you have an air and an elegance that
our society hasn't really seen in a very long time.
It's the refined manners that you learned back then, and
like all this type of stuff, And I think it
just takes her by surprise, and she's genuinely not sure
what to make of you, if you're a predator or
approaching her, because you want something, or you're just genuinely
offering her a hand, but she then will lean forward
and take the cigarette or you whold because I was
imagining that you were holding it out for her to
then take with her lips right or did you put
it right up to her lips?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 8: I think if if it was in her mouth right, yeah,
she was letting it like this, and I would have
just come in and taken and covered. Yeah, and just yea,
so it would still be in her mouth.
Speaker 7: Yeah, okay, so then yeah, and then I guess she'll
just she takes a big dragon.
Speaker 9: Thanks. I guess.
Speaker 8: You're welcome my pleasure.
Speaker 7: Are you part of the theater or something down here?
Speaker 8: Yes? I am. How could you tell I twirl?
Speaker 9: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 7: I ain't quite seen anything like that. I mean, it
was either that or cancer. So I'm really glad you
said theater.
Speaker 4: Me too.
Speaker 8: Why are you standing out here in the rain?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 7: Just my friends are in there having the time of
their lives, and I just needed a I just needed
a break from Carrie. You don't know her, but you
don't want to, so catch yourself, lucky. It's a very
loud laugh.
Speaker 9: Get on the handle. So much.
Speaker 8: But that was Carrie. Oh you heard it all the
way down the street.
Speaker 9: Oh wow, yeah, that's Carrie.
Speaker 8: So what brings you out tonight?
Speaker 9: Oh? Again? Just birthday? Not Carrie's? Thank god?
Speaker 8: Is it yours mine?
Speaker 11: No?
Speaker 8: When is your birthday?
Speaker 7: That's a fairy strange question. February eighteenth. Why are you
trying to ask how old I am? Are you hitting
on me right now? I'm older than eighteen, but I
feel I feel very flattered that you think I might
be underage.
Speaker 9: I shouldn't, but I do.
Speaker 8: Well, if you had to guess how old I am,
what would you say?
Speaker 7: Oh, this feels like a trap question. Oh well, assuming
it's just makeup and not cancer, I'd say maybe twenty four?
Speaker 8: Mmm? I do love flattery. Why are you will found
that to be quite the virtue I am?
Speaker 9: Okay? Was I at least close?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I lean in and I kind of whisper in her ear,
but not by much. I kind of look her up
and down, and I am not concealing that I'm doing.
Speaker 9: So okay, All right?
Speaker 7: Are you using any abilities here? Or you just be
in your charm and self?
Speaker 8: Give me a moment, okay, because here's what I'm thinking
I am not so delusional as to not know what
is going on with me right now. As much as
I do not like it, I'm hungry, and I don't
think I can afford having to go through this again.
Speaker 7: I think also, you leaning in to whisper in her
ear is the closest you've been to food in however long.
And not only can you smell her perfume and the
cigarette and what she was drinking, what she ate, you
probably can smell all of this all of a sudden,
And it's not just I've woken up from a couple
hundred years and I'm now smelling grass and rain and
all of these things. You're getting a taste a remembrance
of the life you used to live, as well as
all of that coming in here. And also you can
hear and see and smell her pulse quickening when you
lean in, so all of that is probably at the
forefront of your mind. Does that mean you are using
an ability here?
Speaker 8: Yes? I think I will be using an ability here
because I also, as much as I want to just
be charming, I also do not want to scare her,
and I believe that this can go easier if she
is not scared, okay, for both her and for me.
Speaker 7: Is this your presence, your awe ability?
Speaker 8: Or I will be using entransmit?
Speaker 7: Okay, so this is your level three, which I don't know,
and you can lawyer me on this, but yes, this
might be something. We'll use it this time, but then
you won't be able to use again until you kind of.
Speaker 9: Wake back up.
Speaker 7: Like I feel like the desperation is enough for you
to summon up the strength to use one of your
very powerful older abilities, but then you know you probably
will be half to kind of like earn that back. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah,
all right, So why don't you explain what entrance does
for us?
Speaker 9: Or in transmit.
Speaker 8: Entransmit, the vampire focuses their unnatural allure on a single person,
instilling them in them a wrapt fascination or infatuation akin
to falling head over heels in love or meeting one's
lifelong idol. The person affected does their best to remain
in the vampire's good graces, but stop short of causing
themselves or other one's loved one's physical harm. No, okay, yes,
now I have to I have to meet some things here. Yeah,
you need to gain the subject's attention, it affects. The
effects last for roughly one hour, and then I can
renew it. Definitely, just give me a moment because I
want to see really quickly what AWE can get me here,
just because I want to see if yeah, okay, no,
I'm still gonna do. I'm still gonna do and transmit
y okay, okay.
Speaker 7: So you need to roll, and then she needs to
roll as well, right to contest.
Speaker 8: Let me see, I need to roll. Yeah, when a
contest of charisma plus presence versus composure plus wits.
Speaker 7: So I'm gonna make you do instead of because this
isn't against another player, this is an NPC who doesn't
have a character sheet, and so I'm going to house
rule that for future rules like this, we'll just together
figure out the difficulty. I think it's going to be
a difficulty unless it's like a serious battle situation where
it's like an NBC where they would be fighting you.
Then maybe I'll quickly make a character sheet and then
we'll roll from that character sheet. But this woman is
enamored sort of curious by you. You have her attention.
You don't have to roll to get it. But let's
say that because of your time away and the fact
that your desperation in hunger is even allowing you to
be able to do a strong ability like this, that
it's a.
Speaker 9: Difficulty of either two or three.
Speaker 7: I don't know how you feel about that. I feel
like that's solid for me. Yes, okay, all right, I'll
let you choose.
Speaker 8: Okay. So I'm doing charisma plus presence m hm oh yeah,
it took me a second there. Sorry, were having to
roll with the This is my first time rolling a skill,
so oh yeah, attribute is charisma. Okay, and we will
do difficulty to sound okay with you?
Speaker 9: That's fine?
Speaker 7: Oh that is a b seal failure.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay. I think.
Speaker 4: What happens is, dude, black dude.
Speaker 7: I'm I'm fucking poised and ready to go whatever you
decide to do.
Speaker 8: I have your back, okay, Okay, okay, okay. I'm by
her ear and I'm trying to access this power. I
feel it under my skin. I feel it stretching veins
that are so tight that it hurts. It's almost almost
like every vein in my body is being stretched, and
it's painful, and I'm suddenly ah, it feels like my
heart is shattering, and before I know it, before I'm
fully aware, my hand reaches up and wraps around her shoulder,
and I say, do you want to know another secret?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 11: Uh?
Speaker 9: You know why?
Speaker 7: I should back inside, move my shoulder out from under
your touch, and begin to walk away.
Speaker 8: How far in the alleyway are we.
Speaker 5: Far enough?
Speaker 8: I reach out and I grab your shoulder and I
pull you back and push you up against the wall.
Speaker 7: Hey, I will begin to fight you. She begins to
fight you. She's going to call out for help in
under ten seconds if you don't do something.
Speaker 8: I My nails are quite long. I bring my hand
to her throat and I date my hand in to
rip through and tear through her voice box so she
can't make a sound. And as the blood sprays, I'm
gonna tilt my head under it, mouth open.
Speaker 7: Okay, and you're gonna feed, I assume from this woman
who is now you know, like you've just fucking ripped
her throat out, and her eyes are wide.
Speaker 9: She's scared.
Speaker 7: You can hear the ragged breathing as she's pushing to
make some sort of sound but cannot, but the air
is still moving. There are tears in her eyes.
Speaker 9: She's not looking at you.
Speaker 7: She's looking straight ahead and weakly clawing at you as
you begin to feed.
Speaker 8: As the blood stops spraying so violently, I bring my
mouth to the wounds, and I'm going to pick her up, like,
hold her tight against me, and I'm going to spin
her from the wall and walk carry her down the
alleyway while I feed from her throat my hands at
this point, and my touches are gentle, and I am miserable.
I may be feeding, but it's like.
Speaker 9: Can I argue you on that?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 9: I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't know if you would have the rational thought
to think those things yet. Okay, this is over, But
I think right now, this is a fucking drink of
water after being in the desert for a hundred years.
Speaker 8: Except it is like filthy river water. Yeah, I would
describe it. Yeah, it tastes. It tastes like, yeah, I
dunked my head in a river.
Speaker 7: Because it's against your feeding type, right, yes, okay, yes, so.
Speaker 8: Yes, it doesn't taste good. I taste her fear. I
haven't tasted fear in so long I never wanted to
taste it again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, do you.
Speaker 9: Think that you feed?
Speaker 10: Do you kill her.
Speaker 8: Yes, yeah, yes, there's no. First of all, I'm not here,
I'm I'm in frenzy. I'm so hungry. I was in frenzy.
I got a beastial failure. There's there's absolutely no way
that I can think logically enough to get through this.
So all I know at this point is I've wounded
this one enough that her life will be ruined if
I leave her alive. And her life is already ruined
because she's almost dead, and there's absolutely nothing that I
can do to make it right at this point, And
I don't even know if I'm getting that far. To
be honest, I think I'm just I think there's no
way she will survive this, so I might as well.
Speaker 7: So are you ready for the absolute awful, nice knife
twist of this situation?
Speaker 9: Because you killed this mortal.
Speaker 7: You may take your hunger down by two. If you'd
left her alive, you'd only get one. However, there are
consequences to this.
Speaker 8: Yes, so many, I'm already aware.
Speaker 7: So this means you do get a stain right?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 7: What does that mean to you? Do you think? What
does it manifest? Is anything physical? Does it feel like anything?
Speaker 9: Or is it just mental.
Speaker 8: I don't think it's physical. I think it feels like
this is so bizarre, But I think it feels like
finding out your favorite musician has died. Okay, It's like
something within me that I loved, something that I cherished,
a part of what made life worth living. A piece
of it is over. It is gone, and I know
it won't come back.
Speaker 7: Okay, Okay, I gotta be honest with you. Because of
your feeding type, I think this is actually two stains,
because normally it's one stain if you kill someone, and
then it's another stain if you go against your feeding type.
So I think for you this is two stains, and
those who are listening and are unaware of the mechanics
of this. Stains you can get from various ways, but
predominantly it's when the vampire is going against their own
code or against humanity in a way that is against
their previous nature before they were sired. They are typically temporary,
and then at the end of the session they roll
a remorse check to see if they feel guilty about it. However,
I don't think I'm going to leave it up to
rolling whether or not the character feels remorse, because that
seems silly. If they want to roll, they can, But
I also just want to see if during role play
they feel bad or not, and if they do, we'll
remove of them, and if not, we won't. Okay, so
for now we'll go ahead with two stains.
Speaker 8: Can I ask clarifying how to how to record my stains?
It's in the humanity bar, right, how do I do that?
Speaker 6: I think if you click the gear, it switches if
it's stains. Oh yeah, I think you can just put
it a number.
Speaker 8: I guess, yes, okay, yep, I see it perfect, Thank you?
All right, Yeah, I I am. I'm still sort of
holding her while I feed, and my hand is on
the back of her head and my other arm is
just wrapped around her.
Speaker 7: And at some point you have missed the moment where
she went limp. But she's limp now, like a broken
toy or a doll or something. Her eyes are wide open,
staring at nothing, and her rasping has slowed.
Speaker 8: I begin to weep, as to so light a sto
pist so light.
Speaker 7: And so we leave this scene with the rain coming
down very gently. To any of us, we would think
it was a very s a light rain, but to
constantine here in this moment, it nothing feels heavier. Probably
nothing will wash this away, and the weight of what
he has done will stay with him, probably longer than
he was in that coffin. Let's switch and we're actually
gonna go to Cora's house. Excellent fucking job, Marks. That
was insane, Thank you dude, so good. Okay, inside, what
do we see. We've got the two of you, You've
got Fennik, and we've got Cora. Where are you, guys?
Speaker 5: I am. Does the couch or any seat have any
direct line of sight to the door or.
Speaker 11: Yes, there's a few little sections of furniture in the
main room, you know how. There's like, you know, a
couch and a seat, and then maybe halfway through the
room there's like another little seating area. There is at
least one that faces the front door.
Speaker 5: Okay, I'm sitting in the one that direct Actually no,
I take a chair from the kitchen and I drag
it to the front door, and I sit on it
with the back of the chair facing the door and
me facing the door directly.
Speaker 11: Straddling in this chair.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and my right leg is just like going bouncing
up and bouncing up and down. Rapidly, and the rest
of my body is just still, and my gaze doesn't
leave the door.
Speaker 11: I think, since he's done this and has been situated
himself purposefully, I've taken the opportunity to maybe clean up.
We probably have blood bags all around. I imagine they
wouldn't have known where the trash can is. They probably
just left bags on the counter. Zambi has the salad
bowl still covered in blood on the inside. Maybe some
drops have landed on the tile floor. So I'm just
tidying up around, keeping myself busy.
Speaker 8: I think.
Speaker 11: As I tidy though, I would glance through the entrance
into the kitchen, where I could probably see a portion
of the chair and maybe him, and ask, almost conversationally,
how is your hunger? How do you feel?
Speaker 5: I'm fine, And as I answer that, my leg stops
bouncing temporarily, and then it works its way back into
maybe a lighter bounced this time around, and almost dutifully
I answer, how is your hunger?
Speaker 11: Wow? Unlike you all, I wasn't trapped in a coffin
for two hundred years, so all I needed was a snack.
Speaker 5: Yeah, two hundred years. And at this point the tapping
has shifted from my foot to my finger on the
top of the back of the chair, and my eyes
are starting for our moving back and forth from the
door to core.
Speaker 11: I probably feel the attention, but I resolutely keep my
focus on what I'm doing. I place the salable in
the sink. I'm running hot water or some dish up
in it. Prints off the blood with my hands before
I bring out a sponge, just kind of mechanically going
through the motions. It's interesting, you know what the way
you were acting when you got here.
Speaker 5: My finger stops from fidgeting, and I turned my head completely. Yeah.
Speaker 11: He glanced over at him in the corner of my
lip curls up a little bit. Oh, it just seems
like you may have grabbed a snack on the way here.
Speaker 5: My composure relaxes a little bit. Yeah, and I turned
back to the door. I did as promised. You will
more or less find everything as I found it, maybe
an exception, and I kind of pull on the vest
and the clothes a little bit.
Speaker 11: They won't miss it.
Speaker 5: I didn't think he would. You know what, I am
a little hungry. You got anything else?
Speaker 11: To be honest, I think I've spared enough blood bags tonight.
I'm not sure I could manage sharing anymore. Uh, there
should be some night left if you want to set
out top yourself out good.
Speaker 5: I'm good right here. Word of advice for next time,
don't offer a snack if you're not willing to give one.
And then my leg resumes bouncing.
Speaker 11: I kind of smirk to myself, nod, continue cleaning the bowl.
I imagine the world is fairly different to when you
were put in the coffin.
Speaker 5: Uh huh. For one thing, I'm in a completely different city.
Speaker 11: Oh yeah, where did you come from?
Speaker 5: That's a big question, isn't it here and there? Last
place I remember is Chicago.
Speaker 11: It looks like I'm mostly faced away from him, but
I think even from a profile, it probably looks like
I'm taking that information and processing it. I get this
look where I look away from the bowl, kind of
stare at the wall, and then go back to what
I was doing. I've never been to Chicago. I've heard
a lot about it, though.
Speaker 5: Yeah it is nice the way up at night. I
get out of my chair, face Cora, do you mind
if I use your restroom?
Speaker 11: Not at all? I imagine you know where it is. By now.
A few of you have used it. If you need
any fresh towels, it should be some in the closet inside.
Speaker 5: Thanks, And I slowly bring the kitchen chair back to
the table, turn it around so it's pretty parallel to
all the other chairs that are set up just as
I found it, and I make my way to the bathroom,
where I begin to draw myself a bath because I
imagine I smell like corpses.
Speaker 9: The bathtub.
Speaker 7: Probably, assuming Kora didn't do this portion of the cleaning,
I'm assuming she was quickly tidying up after especially with
blood probably spilling in a couple places. I don't imagine
it's too much of a mess, because everyone was so
hungry that they probably picked it up themselves. But there's
probably a significant amount of dirt like leftover from the
tub from whtting's all right, yep, that's fine, just letting
you know, thank you. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 5: It's probably cleaner than me right now.
Speaker 7: Anyways, what's going on in there?
Speaker 5: Um, I'm watching the water. I'm fill up the tub,
and I take off my clothes and I get in.
The Water's not filled up yet when I get in,
but I don't really care. It'll fill up eventually I
can wait, I can. I feel the warmth of the
water and I don't like that, so I turn it.
I make it just cold enough to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Okay, And what is that for you? Do you have
a high tolerance for cold?
Speaker 5: I find comfort and discomfort. Okay, I think it. It
just reminds me of growing up. Don't get too comfortable
in one place that'll probably be gone soon anyways. Getting
settled never did anything for me anyways. And I don't
use any Imagine there's conditioner and shampoo and soap, and
I don't really use any of that. Just let the
water wash over me, and I sink into it, let
the cold immerse my senses.
Speaker 9: And what do you think about?
Speaker 5: I think about my bond, and I think about very
early in our I guess relationship. I remember the words
you are and Gangrel. Don't forget that, as if he's
holding it over me, as if somehow this is all favor.
And part of me feels like I should be angry,
But most of me, if I'm being honest, does feel grateful.
He removed me from a bad situation, He gave me love,
for the most part, respect, He never looked away from
me when he spoke.
Speaker 10: Is that different for you?
Speaker 5: Yes? I I don't know why, But for most of
my life, after childhood, after my mother, not a lot
of people could look at me. I always felt like.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 5: Begging, drowning for eye contact, anything slight shift of the
eyes that I don't remember it ever coming cold. But
not him. He was always.
Speaker 12: Warm, a fireplace on a winter's night, and he taught me.
Speaker 5: So much and showed me is his world. And I
think of his words, and I think of what I
now understand to be the years that separate me from
this moment, and that part of me that wanted to
feel angry and rip out his jaw grows a little bit,
and I don't understand that. That doesn't make sense. Why
does that happen? And as I come up for air,
I push that thought aside and I get myself dry.
Speaker 7: Let's switch to Cora.
Speaker 9: Fucking phenomenal.
Speaker 5: Greg.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this, we're changing the show format. It's going to
be a series of monologues, fucking in saying you guys are.
Speaker 9: Oh and fuck it. I'll be doing this in the
live show too. I'm sorry U. I need to fucking
recover from that, Okay, we're switching over to Cora.
Speaker 7: Cora, what are you doing in the living room? You
can hear the water h from the bath as he's
filling it, and depending on what you're doing, you're you know,
you have superhuman hearing. Essentially, all vampires have heightened senses,
so you can hear exactly what he's doing and where
he is.
Speaker 11: I think I'm doing that thing where even though I'm
in my space, because I'm not alone in my space,
I can't fully relax, so I find myself feeling either
distracted or like a stranger in my space. I'm like
wandering around trying to find things to do. After cleaning
up in the kitchen, you know, I'm going through the
living room picking things up, putting them down, kind of
mindlessly rearranging things, organizing things. And then I perch on
the sofa and look around. And it's like that that
stated distraction where any moment, the person who is a
guest can come out of the bathroom and you have
to be on and ready, so I can't really sink
into anything. My mind is flighty thinking about different things,
so I think I mostly just wait.
Speaker 9: And what exactly are you waiting for?
Speaker 7: Are you waiting for your guest to leave the bathroom,
or are you waiting for your other guests to say hello?
Speaker 11: Either one?
Speaker 7: Do you want him to say hello? Do you want
to talk to.
Speaker 9: Him right now.
Speaker 7: Or would you prefer he or are you pretending that
he doesn't exist at the moment not Fenic, Yes, your
other guests.
Speaker 11: At the moment. I think I'm pretending that he doesn't exist. Okay,
just kind of well, it's also it's also near the
end of the night, so my energy is at that
point where I'm probably getting ready to bed down in
the evening, so kind of like on standby mode as
a host.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 7: Then in that case, I will go ahead and say
if you don't you know, if this is how you're
feeling right now, no voice from your other guests comes forward,
so we will say that Fennick will eventually whenever you leave, Fennick,
we can pick up.
Speaker 9: There, all right.
Speaker 5: I am not not I'm fairly not large, but my
footsteps sound probably I'm heavy on my feet. They sound
larger than they maybe should be. As I exit the bathroom,
I do have my pants on, but I have my
t shirt and vest draped over my arm just still
kind of upper torso, still a little bit wet. And
I walk over to that same chair and I put
my hand on it, and I look at Cora for
I guess, permission not to be rude.
Speaker 11: At this point, I think I'm sitting in a chair
or something, So just gesture towards the couch. Take yourself
at home, unless, of course, you sit by the door.
Speaker 5: I think I would prefer to sit by the door,
if that's okay, I just nod.
Speaker 11: I imagine they are going to be some time. Though
there are more comfortable chairs in here.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't want to get any of them.
Speaker 11: What did you not find the fresh towels?
Speaker 5: Then I found them, and I did not use them.
Save it for our other guests, your other guests.
Speaker 11: I kind of lift up my hands in this like sure,
whatever gesture.
Speaker 5: I take the chair and I bring it to the
front door, but this time I kind of position it
in the way that I can have a conversation with Cora.
A little more relaxed now, but my eyes can still
quickly dart to the door if they need to be,
so my eyes scan the room for any conversation piece.
Speaker 7: I think your eyes fallen an empty bird cage, you.
Speaker 5: Have a pet. The words clumsily fumble out of my mouth,
and there's this glimpse of like of a regret, almost
like really.
Speaker 7: Follow up question, and you don't have to answer me. Okay,
what is that? Because you use the word pet or
because you used present tense, don't answer me, but I
am curious.
Speaker 10: All right, go ahead, corral Sorry.
Speaker 11: I kind of crossed my lips together in a bit
of a frown for a moment and look over at
the empty cage too. I'm sure you can see for
yourself that the answer to that is no.
Speaker 5: Well, I could be one of those birds that just
comes back. Maybe.
Speaker 11: Oh, are you saying they have trained pigeons in Chicago.
Speaker 5: I've not heard. I've not seen them, but I've heard
of trained birds. I come back. I don't know messages
or not. Maybe it's like an old old way to
communicate over long distances, right.
Speaker 11: Right, carry your pigeons.
Speaker 5: Oh, pigeons or I don't know, was that a pigeon?
Is it? And cross my arms kind of retreat into
myself a little bit. Do you have a never mind?
And I chew on the bottom of my lip.
Speaker 11: I look at the cage again and get this kind
of morose expression, like I'm thinking about something that someone
bothers me, or at least that has some heavier thoughts
attached to.
Speaker 5: It, completely misreading the body language in the situation. I
look at Qra and I suggest, you know what, I'm
sure they'll come back when they're ready. And I readjust
the chair back to its original position before my bath,
and then this time I'm a little more slumped over
the back of the chair.
Speaker 9: I think that's a good spot to switch. Esteban, where
are you?
Speaker 6: Constantine has just walked off, and I am and now
surveying the area before me, and I'm looking for someone
who is walking by themselves, maybe a little bit away.
Is there anybody around?
Speaker 9: Let's let's have you roll. We're going to do.
Speaker 7: We're going to do the same thing that we did
for Constantine, which is your composure and your resolve.
Speaker 3: The difficulty.
Speaker 7: I think I said either two or three.
Speaker 6: It was three when Constantine did it, so okay, okay,
because she did three editor area.
Speaker 7: And it was two for the other thing. I think, ye, I.
Speaker 6: Have three out of three successes as well.
Speaker 7: Okay, perfect. Then yes, there in fact is somebody alone
who are they.
Speaker 6: There is a man. He has walked out. He has
walked out of a bar. You see when I stand up,
it as a hearing god. This is better. Yeah, a
man who's walked out of a bar. He was standing
in front of it smoking for a little bit. He
looks like he's in his late twenties early thirties, and
maybe there is a slight stagger to him. Is not
super drunk, but he hasband again little perhaps he has
his throng constitution. But he I would say he's dressed
probably similarly to what I am wearing right now, with
the big nineties, the acad some sort of T shirt underneath.
After he puts it out, he says goodbye to whoever
he was talking to and the bouncer, and he begins
to He takes another puff of the cigarette and begins
to walk down the sidewalk. When I see this, I think,
I go along a parallel block so I can try
to get ahead of him, and even if it takes
me across another street to make sure I'm a little head.
And then I get to the next block and I
quick move down so that when he comes to the corner,
providing I don't see anybody around. I will be there
before he gets there. As I'm walking, I take off,
I stop. I take off my jacket that I am wearing,
and as I do, I reach into the pocket and
grab the knife that I had taken from Cora's kitchen.
I wait to hear his footsteps approach, and as they
get louder and louder, I stab myself in the shoulder. Oh,
not too deep, but the knife is sticking out of
my shoulder.
Speaker 9: Okay, amazing. Not what I was expecting at all.
Speaker 6: And as he is coming around the corner, that is
when I hunch over and I go, please, please, please,
I have been I have been attacked. You have to
help me, please, and just reaching out and desperately trying
to please, and I grab onto his jacket.
Speaker 9: Oh Jesus, Jesus, are you okay? Holy shit, what happened
to you?
Speaker 5: See?
Speaker 6: Please?
Speaker 9: Oh my god.
Speaker 6: Then I look up with him, I look him right
in the eyes and say, come into the alleyway and
take care of my wound. And I use my dominate
power of mesmerise where he I will read it to you.
Speaker 9: Yes, please.
Speaker 6: The vampire can issue complex commands as a victim as
long as they have the subject gaze and relative quiet
in which to issue instructions. The instructions must be carried
out immediately to the victim's best ability, and must not
contain any conditional actions. Okay, as this would require the
victim to exercise cognition. Now, no role is required against
unprepared mortal victim.
Speaker 9: Holy shit, Okay.
Speaker 6: Commanding or resisting another victim, a victim or another vampire
requires a contest of many ba blah blah blah, or
anything that goes against the victim's nature also requires no
such contest. So if this guy is an unhelpful asshole,
he can contend against it. But he seemed pretty eager
to help.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think I think probably he was. I'm gonna
go call an ambulance at a payphone, but or inside
the bar or something like that. But when you grab
him and you stare into his eyes, what does it
look like when he looks into your eyes? Does anything
physically change when you use this ability? Is there any
visual cue for him or for the audience.
Speaker 6: I don't know if there is a visual clue, so
much as this act of it just it has to
be said, where I stop, and it is as it's
like a command. But officially I think he is My
eyes lock with him. They don't go black, but I
think he sees the black part of my eye completely
dialects all the way, not to the size of the eye,
but wipes out like brown.
Speaker 9: Seeing something they want and getting really.
Speaker 13: Excited about, like or there is like a little eclipse
right totally em clips of my eyeball. So when this happens,
I kind of stop bending over and all the theatrics,
and I turn around. I walk into the like halfway
that far enough and to where it is dark, and
I lay down on the ground as if I'm waiting
for him to content.
Speaker 7: Oh, okay, okay, and he will do that to the
best of his He will bend over on the you know,
I assume he will get on the ground on his
knees next to me.
Speaker 6: And you know, the knife is right here on the
side of my shoulder, like my left side, so I
would assume either way he is leaning down with his
head right next to mine as he is having a
look at the knife. Now, he probably doesn't know what
to do.
Speaker 9: He probably does not know what to do, but.
Speaker 6: He said he's going to watch the best of his ability.
Speaker 7: Yes, so I think he's going to try to stop
the bleeding. Yeah, I think he fumbles.
Speaker 6: The knife is still in there.
Speaker 7: I don't think he would remove it. He's watched TV
enough to know you don't remove the knife. Wounder, You're
bleed everywhere?
Speaker 6: Now it.
Speaker 9: Or actually, sorry, it's nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 6: But e are is on? Who knows? Yeah?
Speaker 9: But how accurate it was?
Speaker 3: You are?
Speaker 6: I don't know. No, I'm just making a nineties stoke.
Speaker 9: Sorry, sorry, sorry, my bad, but there is okay?
Speaker 6: Well, regardless, I would not wait very long. Yeah, I
have not fed. I have not fed properly in two centuries.
And when he gets on his knees next to me,
and his head is exactly where I had planned to be,
and his neck is right in front of me, and
whatever he is about to say, the words start to
leave his lips, and my arms will just come around
his head and grab him, and I will just sink
my teeth into his neck before he knows what is happening,
pulling his head down against my shoulder, possibly onto the
back end of the knife, very uncomfortable, and just hold
him there as hard as I can, hoping that the
feeling when I start to feed from him, will relax
him because it is despite the horror of what I
am about to do to him, this is feeling pretty good.
And the eyes soon as my teeth appears through his flesh,
blood starts to pour into my mouth. It is it
feels like a wave. It's just like flowing, like undulating,
like I have the more or I can't have enough,
and there is I am starving. But as the more
I drink, there is a rhythm to it just and
it's just you know, just breathing.
Speaker 9: Probably he calms and eases right into you. He falls
into your brace.
Speaker 7: Yeah, soft moan probably escapes his lips.
Speaker 6: And it is relief. But as soon as I start
to feel the hunger wane, I it. I have these
feelings I do not want and I have been but
it has happened again that I have been left some
where I do not know, and I have found myself
on the ground on my back feeding from somebody I
do not know. It is desperate in a way I
do not want to be, and it is all because
of somebody else, and all of that rhythm and the
the kind of easy flow that I had starts to disappear,
and it is anger, and it is frustration and it
is how could this realizing I am in the exact
same situation as I was, And then I just drink
every last drop of blood I can pull from his
body until he is not moving anymore.
Speaker 7: He's been limp for a while. But I think you know, intrinsically,
the moment he passes, you probably hold him still close,
even though you know better than to continue drinking past
this point.
Speaker 6: I am tempted to. But there I have come to
my senses enough.
Speaker 7: That do you think do you think maybe you drink
to the point of tasting the bitterness and realizing maybe
that's how you realize he's dead.
Speaker 6: I think I feel the blood. You know, there is less,
so I'm pulling harder to get and I'm trying to
get every last drap and then it kind of stops,
and then there is the slightest of that, and it
is a harsh reminder to not to stop.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Okay, I like that. Obviously, nothing bad mechanically will
happen to you. But I do think, like, if you're
so the way you described it, yeah, you would get it,
and then you'd be.
Speaker 6: Like, oh, it's like, this is your end. I didn't
even stab that is, you can have not faced this.
Now you have too much to.
Speaker 7: Do again, interesting word choice, Okay, but.
Speaker 6: It is I'm kind of It is odd to say
catching my breath, but it is. It is composing myself
standing up, A push him over, I stand up. I
pulled the knife out of my shoulder. I stab it
into his neck where I have bit him, and drag
it across the teeth wound, just so it is a
little what the fuck is this?
Speaker 7: And nothing happens visually or audibly for those listening, because
what he has effectively just done is he bit into
him and there may be some blood left near his neck,
assuming he hasn't lapped it up like a hungry dog,
and then he there's nothing left, there's no blood. Then
what happens when he stabs this body this spot in
the neck is just this sharp sound of ripping flesh
that has no moisture left. It's like a tearing sound.
There is no nothing, Yeah, there's no It's like a
carving a pumpkin, is probably what it sounds like.
Speaker 9: And then what do you do?
Speaker 11: Uh?
Speaker 5: I think?
Speaker 6: And then I simply well, I have the knife out
and I am bleeding. I probably even taste my own
blood a little bit like that. Then well, I have
to see if this works the same. But I probably
spit on my hand and tried to rub it on
my wound. I didn't make it too deep. It wasn't
like it was piercing too much. So it wasn't I
know that to hurt myself too bad, especially how weak
I am. Then I holding the knife, I get up,
I walk down to the end of the alleyway. I
put my jacket back on, covering up the blood that
I obviously had on me, and I put the knife
back in the pocket. And then I believe I just
turn around and walk and look for Constantine or whatever
we had left. Okay, so I am. I am unbothered
by what I have done to this person. This does
it does not face me. It doesn't face me at all.
That bothers me or other things that I am doing it.
But I will forget about this person probably by next week.
Speaker 9: I think that's where we end the session. What that
was so good? Holy shit? I waited.
Speaker 6: I waited.
Speaker 7: I was like that is I had more shit that
I was going to ask you and do. But that
line was too good.
Speaker 9: I had to end it there.
Speaker 5: Obviously.
Speaker 6: I was sitting like what fuck am I going to
do here? Yeah, and I was like, oh, I'm going
to stab somebody with a knife and the drink and
the knife, and then MERVS is like I ripped their throat.
I'm like, I'd better find something else.
Speaker 2: You have been listening to Death of This. If you
like the show, please consider rating and reviewing, and for
more stories in this world or other worlds, visit the
Table Story Library at tablestory dot tv. Dunka, I want
to see you next week.
Speaker 10: Leap Leg