In the basement of a little cottage in Staten Island, AltLottie and Julius have a frank discussion. Turns out Lottie is actually the third person Julius has sired, gasp. AltLottie tells him a few home truths about Lottie's and his relationship - he needs to shape up or ship out, basically - which has the desired effect, as he really does want the relationship on offer. AltLottie switches back to Lottie, and to save time Julius gives her a memory dump of everything that's happened, and the interrogation of Jeanine continues.
Jeanine hands over the key to her house (well, she won't be needing it ...) and reveals that, unsurprisingly, Maslowe was going to be her heir, but she didn't have a chance to formalise it yet. For a short while she had considered Frankie, but she kinda went off him because he's very stubborn when it comes to having ethics. Lottie gets her two write two back-dated letters, one that names Frankie her heir, one that signs over the ghouls to Julius. Just in case.
That knife of hers? It was used in some rituals. It also went missing, and she did not in fact carve that J into the guest bed at Val's ... She also gives background on the ghouls. Where they come from, how she tracked them down, and so on. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned, and she might've been better off taking up a different hobby.
Lottie and Julius blood bond right in front of their torture victim (with Tommy the Fool cowering in the corner), because bare cell with a drain in the floor is just so romantic, ya know? (They were in a similar room the first time it happened. Is this going to be a thing now?) They follow this up by going full Malkavian mindshredding on her, which, true to form, makes them super horny again.
In Manhattan on the way back to Charlotte's apartment, Theo divulges his rivals for the Brujah Primogency. Out of the other three, Frankie has only met one: Delilah, from Elysium! When asked if Charlotte can be trusted, Theo says "to a point". The two of them have a sort of off-and-on thing going on. It's currently on. Frankie admits that when it comes to himself, “it’s complicated”, because saying he has the hots for his cousin's ghoul seems like a thing best kept to himself at this stage.
Don Cerro, the Brujah Primogen, is waiting for them back at Charlotte's. He agrees the Brujah had to make a show of strength, but geez, Theo (and Frankie) couldn't have been a bit more subtle about it? Turns out a Setite doing garbage disposal in Harlem and the Bronx has had a lot of business in Little Italy recently. The Giovanni wanted rid of dead bodies (!) and agreed to a one-off slave trade with the Setites, who wanted some live bodies. Not that this means anything in particular at this stage?
Charlotte spoke with the Toreador to get more information about the Giovanni ghouls and found out her Primogen and some guy called Tamoszius are planning to nominate Frankie for Scourge (!), which is of course completely ridiculous considering he's a baby in vampire terms - it hasn't even been two weeks! He clearly won't say yes, and saying no would hurt future career prospects, except what fucking career prospects does a non-political 13th Gen have anyway, even before taking into account that he narrowly avoided being declared Caitiff after being publicly disowned by his Sire? So is that really such a loss? Theo finally suggests they beat the Toreador at their own game: have the Brujah put that Tamoszius guy forward for Scourge first. Having him turn it down would hurt his social standing wayyyyy more than it would Frankie, and the Toreador couldn’t counter-nominate Frankie without it looking like sour grapes.
“Will be there in a second, just shoving some food down my face … omnomnom argbrlarglbagrmffh <eating sounds>”
“We’ll try to find you a robot toy bint.”
GM: “This got weird.”
Player 1: “Welcome to our world!”
Player 2: “We haven’t even got started!”
“Sanity is but a distant memory. We’ll all be Malkavian by the time this is done.”
GM: “Complaints department is over there with the Nosferatu.”
Player: “There’s a complaints department? Excellent!”
Player: “How much is he editing [the memory dump]?”
GM: “He’s generally making AltLottie out to be nicer …?”
Julius: “You’re more special to me than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Did you just snigger?!”
“No, I was trying not to go ‘aaaaaw’!”
Player: “Is this a kink we need to discuss? Someone cowering in the corner, drain in the floor …”
GM: “I thought it was Lottie’s kink.”
GM: “That’s him being a bit self-aggrandising, but whatever.”
Jeanine: “You think I’m stupid enough to have written records?”
Lottie: “Yeah I think you’re stupid, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Jeanine: “It’s not trust, it’s leverage.”
Lottie: “An’ how’s THAT workin’ out for ya?”
Lottie: “You can open your eyes to [write the letters], or your handwritin’s gonna look like shit.”
Lottie: “Do you know how much self-restraint I’m showing right now to not take a knife and make that smile of yours any wider?”
Jeanine: “Charlotte knows?!”
Lottie: “What part of ‘you’re a stupid, fuckin’ whore’ did you not understand?”
“She’ll find it harder to resist once I start cutting bits off her.”
(Julius has six successes to Jeanine’s surprisingly good four)
“So he wins?”
“Malkavians always win.”
Julius: (long, menacing speech about what he plans on doing to Jeanine)
Lottie’s player: “Lottie’s never loved him more.”
Frankie’s player: “Neither have I!”
GM: “Tommy the fool is now the post-act cigarette for them.”
“The right place for her heart to be in is at the end of a stake!”
“Fuck Toreadors. Metaphorically, not literally, although APPARENTLY …”
Lottie: “Frankie’s not suited to this life, but I have hope. Misplaced hope, perhaps.”
“I’m not blood-bonded to you so I’m not obliged to laugh at your dad jokes.”
“We’re naturally devious.”
“It’s almost like you’ve played this game before!”
To be continued!
