Lottie and Julius dream about the other person's personal traumas, lying naked in each other's arms in a basement in Staten Island. Frankie and Val head back home to Brooklyn, and to be on the safe side, Frankie stays over at Val's. In the evening, Val heads off to do some stuff, while Frankie got to see his apartment - and a change of clothes! - for the first time in what seems like forever.
Lottie doesn't lose Humanity for what was inflicted on Jeanine. Nor for jointly breakfasting on Tommy the Fool followed by jointly snapping his neck. How romantic!
Frankie goes to see Benny at their speakeasy, and places a number of calls to check on business. Everything is fine, but there is stuff happening in Red Hook. 25 people, running legit businesses and none of them connected to the mafia, have been arrested on shaky grounds, like "running mob fronts". Some premises were completely smashed, others roughed up a little, or basically left alone. It's puzzling. Seb is looking into it further.
Meanwhile, Lottie and Julius go to meet the old woman, Loretta, and her Childe, Adelaide. The Prince doesn't know about Adelaide, who was turned a year ago. Loretta tells the story of who Adelaide is (kind of a serial killer?) and where she found her (an asylum), how she got her out of there, and rescued her by Embracing her.
While Julius and Loretta have a discussion in private, Lottie and Adelaide get acquainted upstairs. Adelaide is well aware they have to leave before the Prince finds out about her. She wants them to go to Georgia. (Maslowe's from Atlanta. Coincidence?) She also talks about how there's something in the water near the Brooklyn Bridge, but she was afraid to look. She could see what seemed like a cold, bright star in that direction - bearing in mind this is supposed to be 6 km away. Loretta didn't see it. Lottie and Julius did see something in some of the very first sessions ...
Adelaide seems to have some kind of weird fortune-telling power. She asks if she can look at Lottie "properly", then says something cryptic about there being something in the blood, "something that feeds, something thin" before snapping out of it and asking if she's looked at her yet. What the actual fuck?! Maybe skipping town is the best option after all.
“Tommy, what’s WRONG with you?! You’re our breakfast! You’re not supposed to run away!”
“Don’t you hate when your breakfast is trying to run away when you’re having sex?”
“Statement brutality – it’s the new look for this spring.”
GM: “I know you’re Humanity 5, but—”
Player: “Not for long!”
GM: “It’s not like it’s guilt, it’s …”
Player: “She’s Catholic. It’s guilt.”
GM: “Well, the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen starts to stir.”
GM: “It’s like the scene in Lady and the Tramp, if the spaghetti was a wrist and there was a lot of screaming.”
“I can’t keep playing Humanity Roulette like this.”
“Hey Val, what do you wanna do tonight?”
“Same thing we do every night, Frankie! Try to take over the rest of Brooklyn!”
Julius: “The Brujah are honourable, not stupid. Well, some of them are.”
“I’m literally more evil than the people GM:ing me. I give them ideas. I should shut up.”
“I’m sure Sergio’s tiramisu is nicer than Lidl’s, but he’s a fictional character and lived a hundred years ago, soooo …”
Frankie: (to Benny) “An’ stop callin’ me Boss, it’s weird.”
“You know everything in the world.”
“The world is my Auspex.”
Player: “We’re doing some dodgy ass shit right now.”
GM: “Yeah, there’s no way this will ever backfire.”
“Did she drug her with cocoa?! – Sorry, niche reference.”
GM: “No, Adelaide is NOT sleeping with Loretta.”
Player 1: “I didn’t think she was.”
Player 2: “But just to MAKE SURE …”
To be continued!
