10th Session
New Blood
Josh joined the group, playing Darla, Martin's younger sister. Chris attended via Google+ Hangout, which was workable, but bumpy. It felt like I did a lot of running back and forth between groups and being distracted, so I'm not utterly sure how the session went. It also felt like being a larp GM, where one is never aware of half of what's going on in the game.
Joyce, Lillian, and Martin were in Princeton, New Jersey, waiting for Vito to join them. The good news was that Martin's sisters, Darla and Isabella, had been located before they could go on a cruise to Bangkok. A cruise they had won, despite Darla having no memory of either of them having entered a contest with such a prize.
This was the only one of the sudden cruises that the PCs had not set up themselves -- last session, they had arranged for Richard, Henry, and Charles (Sources of Stability for Lillian, Martin, and Joyce, respectively) to win a trip to Tijuana, hoping to get them out of Los Angeles with the PCs met with cultists working for a Siamese woman. As Henry had heard about the cruise Darla and Isabella had supposedly won, he was skeptical, and talked to Martin, who agreed that it was all Very Suspicious. Henry told Richard and Charles, iirc, so the upshot was that none of the men went on the cruises the PCs set up for them.
I was deliberately vague as to Isabella's and Darla's situation. If Josh hadn't made the session, I would just have had them located and talked out of taking the trip, as the whole Bangkok set up didn't need the extra push. But, with Josh joining as Darla, it made more sense for the sisters to show up and decide to help, whether or not the others wanted them to do so.
Martin, Lillian, and Joyce discussed the problem of the sisters.
Martin: If you tell them there are evil monsters from beyond the stars--
Lillian: No power on Earth will be able to sit on Isabella hard enough. And an underground fighting ring --
Joyce: Tell them it's a plan to sell them into white slavery.
Lillian: You don't know Isabella very well, do you?
Either Lillian or Martin suggested just trying to convince Darla and Isabella that the whole thing was a scheme to steal their money, which Joyce praised as being banal enough not to titillate either sister. But, she still described other possibilities, many of which filled Martin with dread.
Martin: Please don't give my sister an automatic shotgun.
Joyce: Those don't exist. And it's not for want of trying. But, I could give her a Thompson Submachine Gun. It's a good starter gun.
She also offered to make sure that Martin's sisters were simply unable to go to Bangkok.
Martin: You're not kidnapping my sisters!
Joyce: it's not kidnapping. It's more like involuntary detention.
Martin: That's what governments say when they kidnap someone -- and put them in an asylum!
Vito arrived, and Joyce brought him up to date while Lillian met with Evelyn Woodward, her childhood friend, who just happened to be the private tutor to Darla and Isabella. Evelyn was happy to have brought her charges safely to New Jersey, but was concerned about Lillian.
Lillian explained that she hadn't wanted to let everyone know that she was checking herself into Joy Grove, but she had learned a lot about herself and determined that she wasn't crazy. Evelyn was happy to hear that, but thought that Lillian needed either to accept Richard Cooper's courtship or break his heart and get it over with.
Lillian had received a letter from Richard:
Richard Cooper's 1st Letter to Lillian
It left her more than a little conflicted. So, to Eveyln's astonishment and concern, Lillian started to cry. She wasn't sure what she wanted, and she didn't know how to find out. But, she wasn't ready to settle down yet. Maybe she just needed to stretch her wings a little more, say take a trip to Bangkok?
Of course, she also had to talk to Darla and Isabella. This led to someone, probably Alden, wondering where the Locksleys (well, apart from Martin and Henry) lived. We decided that they lived at Cat's place, on the Upper East Side.
Now, Darla was not only the PC, but also the more level headed of the sisters. Isabella, played by Betsy this session, was not pleased that Lillian was more inclined to take Darla than to take her or both of them.
Darla: Isabella?
Isabella: Yes? My Darling. Little. Sister?
At this point, I went to the other end of the room, so didn't have a good idea of what was going on. After the session, I asked for details via email.
Alden wrote:
-- -- -- Darla and Isabella being WAY MORE EFFECTIVE WITH knives/guns than they should be. They must be very quick studies. Think Buffy vs. Zoe vs. River. Darla and Isabella running a very successful grift on Lillian to get taken along on the adventure. Mostly predicated on the "no power in the universe can sit on Isabella hard enough to keep her from rushing into danger. If we keep an eye on her we can maybe get her to rush in AFTER everything has gone horribly wrong." -- -- --
I commented:
-- -- -- Hey, YOU we're the one that seemed to think Aunt Anne would teach them All About Knives AND give them real knives to carry after less than two days.
More seriously:
I hadn't heard about the "draw blood on Lillian to be allowed to go near the plot" or I would have said something. Isabella is not even statted up. Josh figures Isabella has at least twice Darla's skill with knives, and Darla's skill is 1. It's possible. But, Isabella may well be taken out by GM fiat should she get in a real fight.
As for Darla, wherever she learned about guns, it wasn't Anne. Darla's now a PC with hidden depths. I'm good with that. -- -- --
Josh wrote:
-- -- -- Yep. Mind, Anne may have helped sharpen her edge, taking it from "I'm a crack shot on a range, and I've been practicing speed reloading because I saw it described in one of Isabella's westerns and I was bored" to "I'm carrying at least two pistols, have practiced firing them one-handed and independently, and am ready to pull them on an enemy and use them in a mobile gun battle". -- -- --
Apparently, the knives were a) provided by Lillian and b) "(smallish daggers, not giant Kukri)". I had no problem with that, though, as I said, I would have intervened if I'd heard about Lillian's condition while the session was going on.
Aldenn wrote:
-- -- -- Lillian and I had partly divergent goals in that moment. Lillian wanted to scare them off if possible, and impress on them that they were way out of their depth. Alden wanted to let Lillian showboat a little, give Lillian a little leverage over them so that they'd come in to the plot in something resembling a controlled way. Josh and Betsy and Darla and Isabella surprised both of us. -- -- --
Josh added:
-- -- -- Yah. We ended up reshooting the scene once, too. My goal, naturally, was to give Darla a demo where she got to show off--not what I'd planned originally (I'd originally hoped to save her surprising gun skills as a surprise for the next armed confrontation) but given the opportunity... -- -- --
Either Alden or Betsy: I like the idea that "learning things quickly" is a Locksley trait. It matches the fact that Martin seems to be taking to meditation rather quickly.
Josh: Yes.
My notes remind me that Vito made an Evidence Collection spend, though I forget what for.
Some time later, the group got back together, and Lillian asked Vito how many women there were who were assassins for the Mafia. Vito seemed amused, but said that he could not, of course, answer any such question.
Joyce: Four.
Vito: I can neither confirm nor deny that.
I think this then led to a question about how many of those present counted as women who were assassins.
[I have the words right, but I'm not sure I'm crediting the right characters below.]
Joyce: Are we counting Marty?
GM: I was going to ask.
Martin (I think): Why?
Lillian: Because f*ck you.
Martin: Well, then, we shouldn't count Joyce.
Joyce: Fair enough.
By now, Lillian had broken the news about her agreement with Martin's sisters to him.
Martin (head in hand): We're bringing my sisters to Bangkok.
Joyce: We are?
Martin: A pit of sin, flesh, and villainy.
Joyce (to Lillian): It's coming out of -your- luggage allowance.
Martin already knew Thai. Joyce said that she knew it as well, and someone asked if she'd learned it in some particular way.
Joyce: No, I learned Thai by hanging out with a bunch if Thai prostitutes last week. (beat) What? I have a social life.
Folks discussed ways to keep Isabella occupied seeing various tourist attractions, especially if Lillian's Aunt Anne would be willing to be a chaperone again.
Lillian: And Isabella will return from this trip very, very disappointed, and we will all be very glad.
Joyce started talking about a trip she took to Bangkok some years back, and about the Green Buddha and the Grey Buddha.
Martin: How many buddhas -are- there?
He quizzed her a bit and realized that her trip to Bangkok was perhaps not as, ah, exploratory as he'd assumed.
Martin: So, you got drunk in -Bangkok-.
Lillian: How do you make that name sound pervier every time?
I forget what the answer was but it non-plussed Lillian.
Lillian: I'm going to my room. No, I'm not. You people will make plans behind my back.
Joyce: We can hear you, you know.
Martin: She squeaks.
Joyce: Martin, I owe you a drink.
Martin (who took five dollars from Joyce two sessions ago and gave her six last session): Good. I'm nearly out of money.
Folks did try to talk Darla and Isabella out of coming to Bangkok, but the sisters said that they wanted to take care of their brother.
Joyce: I'll take care of Marty. I always take care of Marty.
Martin: Yes, you have.
That didn't mean that Martin wasn't nonplussed by his companions from time to time.
Martin: Am I the only one in this group who does not see violence as the go to solution? I nominally have a penis.
Lillian: More than nominal.
New York and Arkham
Joyce got a call from the folks she had stalking, er, watching over her ex-lover, Cissy. They told her that there'd been some kind of altercation in a bar or club with another woman, nothing dire, and no one was pressing charges, and they hadn't intervened, but they knew Joyce would want to know.
She did, and she asked them to describe the woman. It turned out that she was there with another woman, and that Joyce knew them both: Samantha Richardson, her former lover, and Valerie Talbot, her mentor's cousin and former roommate, as well as the person with whom Samantha together after breaking up with Joyce.
Both lived in Boston, so Joyce guessed, correctly, that they'd be staying at a hotel. She found out which one, then went there with Vito, getting him to give the hotel detective a gift to encourage him to take the afternoon off.
She stormed into Samantha and Valerie's room, I think using the same pretending-to-be-rooom-service tactic she had used in Los Angels, followed by a similar get-out-of-town message. She demanded to know why the women were in her town. After all, she'd left Boston to get away from them. She also wanted to know why Samantha had gotten into a fight with Cissy.
Samantha: Hey, she threw the first punch!
Samantha and Valerie were in town on vacation, and, naturally, they went to a place that catered to their crowd. Unfortunately, their crowd was the same as Cissy's crowd.
What no one ever said, but Joyce pretty much figured out, was that Samantha had said something disparaging about Joyce to Valerie. Cissy happened to overhear the remark, and, while she would say she was completely over Joyce, she took umbrage and a swing at Samantha.
Joyce did not wave a shotgun at anyone, nor did she have Vito come in to make threats or twist arms, as Lillian did to Samuel. She did tell the women to leave New York again, though she also told Samantha, who was still sporting a black eye, that Samantha still looked great.
Joyce and Martin went to Miskatonic University in Arkham. There, Joyce used her connections to get Martin access to Professor Wilmarth's notes on mi-go brain cylinders. Martin took rapid, copious notes.
As for Joyce, she asked to consult a book she'd donated herself, a small volume titled _Life as a God_. This was brought to her, and she copied down instructions for a certain spell.
Savannah
While her companions were thus occupied, Lillian took a train to Joy Grove. Her nominal purpose was to find out how preparations for moving Douglas Henslowe and Edgar Job to Johns Hopkins were proceeding and what Dr. Cecil Walker's impressions of his patients were. Her actual purpose, unknown (in character, at least) to anyone except her was to seduce Cecil.
She arrived at Joy Grove and spoke with Cecil. They talked to Douglas Henslowe, then looked for Edgar Job. They found him in common room, crouched, intently watching a small mouth on a wall. This was the same mouth that Elaine had seen when she first visited Joy Grove and which Lillian had seen at least once while she was a patient there. But, it had been on the other side of the wall. Edgar explained that it had moved, and that he was watching it because he had told Mr. Locksley that he'd call Mr. Locksley if he saw a mouth, but he also didn't want to leave it alone. He'd been watching it non-stop since he'd seen it.
Cecil was not thrilled that Edgar Job had decided that he worked for Martin Locksley. He understood that there were hard limits to what even the best psychoanalysis treatments could do for his two patients, but he did hope folks could at least refrain from making things worse. Lillian called Martin, who explained that he hadn't exactly claimed to be Edgar Job's boss. It was just that when he was talking with the man, he'd said that he was the one who was moving Job and Henslowe, and from that Job seemed to decide that he worked for Martin Locksley now, and Martin hadn't denied it. Martin had also been shaken by a realization about Nectar at the time.
Lillian, Cecil, and Edgar discussed what to do about the mouth. They settled on an electric fire, iirc. Edgar said that he should take the blame for that, as folks expect crazy people to do crazy things, but doctors aren't supposed to. Lillian suggested that no one take the blame, as she didn't want anyone deciding that Edgar couldn't be moved after all. So, Cecil led the patients in the common room outside for a bit of fresh air and exercise while Lillian disposed of the mouth.
[I forget exactly how -- was there a bucket involved? What happened?]
The official story, Lillian decided, would be that Edgar Job had spotted a small electrical fire, no doubt due to faulty wiring, and correctly alerted Dr. Walker, who had evacuated the area until it had been dealt with.
Lillian then talked with Douglas Henslowe, and with him and Edgar Job together, getting the two men to agree on a general truce. This wasn't too hard, as the men generally got on well enough by avoiding each other, and Douglas was willing to agree not to try to hurt Edgar so long as Edgar didn't attack him.
Edgar usually did no such thing, but when Dr. Keaton had decided to try simultaneously Confrontation Therapy and withholding the men's medication, he had attacked Douglas, screaming that Douglas had tried to kill him before, but he was still there. Given what had happened in 1924, this was not inaccurate. He was willing to try not to do it again.
Lillian asked the men if there were anything they wanted that she might be able to arrange. As they knew there weren't going to be released into society, their biggest request was that Dr. Keaton not experiment with Confrontation Therapy or withholding their medication. Apart from that, they wanted such small privileges as well behaved asylum patients sometimes get.
Cecil started working on the official report about the electrical fire. Lillian tried to seduce him, subtlely at first, and then with somewhat less subtlety until he figured out what she was doing. He told her that he wasn't sure that it was a good idea, nor that his having had a recent nervous break down made it at all a good idea.
Lillian: Whyever not?
He also said that he knew that Lillian probably wasn't interested in him as a marriage partner.
Martin's player (as chibi-Martin on Lillian's shoulder): Tell him not to flatter himself.
Lillian (who sees and hears things like chibi-Martins) started to open her mouth to tell Cecil just that, then closed her mouth, then told chibi-Martin to shut up. She explained to Cecil that she didn't want to die a virgin. He wasn't especially thrilled with the soldier going off to war analogy, possibly because he wasn't the soldier. But he was less thrilled with the idea of someone less sympathetic filling his role.
Alden: What will it take to get him to have sex with Lillian?
GM: Hm, call it 2 points of Flattery. I'd also accept a point of Flattery and a point of Reassurance.
Someone: Yes, a point of Flattery tonight and a point of Reassurance tomorrow.
Alden decided on 2 points of Flattery, as he'd used all of Lillian's Reassurance until I called for a full refresh. But, Lillian had no intention of doing more than making out at Joy Grove. After that, she had Cecil take her first to dinner and then to his hotel room. At dinner the waitress, played by Cat, greeted Dr. Walker and the lovely woman he was with. Cecil explained that Lillian was one of the people making a generous donation for the Johns Hopkins program.
Waitress: Well, isn't that an act of Christian charity -- by someone.
The next morning, Lillian caught up with the others. Martin wasn't happy about getting up early.
Martin: I don't like -sun-. It's unhealthy.
Joyce, her co-pilot Fred, Lillian, Martin, Vito, Darla, and Isabella flew to Los Angeles. Lillian sent a telegram to her Aunt Anne to ask her to come along when they flew to Bangkok so that she could keep an eye on Isabella.
Los Angeles
As they made preparations to go to Bangkok, Martin went to see Samson Trammel in prison, taking Lillian with him, in her Jane Doe disguise. However, Samson would not see Martin with Jane. He sent out a letter for Jane Doe.
Samson Trammel's Letter to Jane Doe, aka Lillian Avery
Lillian was adamant that Martin would not see Trammel without her. Trammel's guards would not let him in with her. Lillian and Martin left and returned to the others.
Meanwhile, Joyce contacted Trammel via phone. She wanted to see him, and offered to let his guards handcuff her to a chair, so long as he was also willing to be handcuffed to a chair. As she'd hoped, he was intrigued enough to agree. Joyce gathered her notes.
Some time later, Martin slipped away later and returned to the prison to visit Trammel on his own. Now, what I should have done was run that conversation to its logical end, have Martin leave, and then have Joyce arrive. I dropped the ball there, and had Joyce show up while Martin was there. Trammel was fine with Martin staying or going, and Joyce actively wanted Martin to go, but Martin deecided to stay.
Actually, I really misunderstood a lot of what Joyce had intended. I'd thought she was going to go into the room where Trammel was, but she had requested a separate room, which she prepared by drawing hieroglyphics in chalk all around the room, and possibly some other diagrams as well. This meant that I could totally have had the guards cut Martin's visit short, which would have been the better call.
As it was, Martin stayed while Joyce cast a spell to Contact Nyarlathotep. Her reasoning was, iirc: Trammel believed the god he worshipped, the Liar From Beyond, was Nyarlathotep. But, she was pretty sure that was not the case. She wanted to hurt Trammel, and realized that she herself could not "touch his crazy place" as she put it -- but, Nyarlathotep could. She figured that the Crawling Chaos would be offended by Trammel's taking Its name in vain.
Meanwhile, Lillian and Darla had noticed that Joyce was gone. I forget whether they followed her or whether they figured out that she was going to the prison. Either could have been the case; I seem to recall Joyce dropping some fairly obvious hints that she was going to do something about Trammel that did not involve murder. They were shown to a waiting area. Vito, on discovering that they had left, drove after them, likewise either following them or figuring out where they had gone. (In other words, there were three cars -- Joyce's, Lillian's, and Vito's. Martin had taken a cab or walked, probably the former.)
I'm pretty sucky at remembering to do atmospheric description -- and, indeed, at atmospheric description in general. So, when Cat started describing a sudden storm, I latched on to that. And, I had the power go out, agreeing that this would provide an excuse for Lillian and Darla to slip out of the waiting room and join the party, not realizing that this was actually intended to be a solo scene to begin with. Live and learn.
As for Nyarlathotep, he appeared as an ordinary Black man in a suit. He didn't appear out of thin air, at least, not so far as Joyce, Martin, and Samson Trammel were concerned. He just walked into the room.
He proceeded to infuriate Joyce by assuring Samson Trammel that he was indeed Nyarlathotep and Trammel's god, and very pleased with Trammel. Trammel believed every word, especially after Nyarlathotep touched him.
Around here, Lillian and Darla came in. I think Joyce made it clear that she had Contacted Nyarlathotep, and that it was entirely up to the Crawling Chaos whether anyone walked out of the room alive. IIRC, the first to walk out of the room was, in fact, Nyarlathotep.
I think Joyce must have been unhandcuffed at some point just before or just after that, because Lillian grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the floor. Joyce was not about to try to fight her friend.
Joyce: I love you, Lillian.
Martin gave Trammel a quick hug. IIRC, he was nonplussed to see Trammel basically turn into a purring cat in the presence of Nyarlathotep. He was also nonplussed by the current outbreak of violence.
Martin: If we're killing people, can we please do it in a private place?
Joyce noted that she had set up a private place to do a private thing and had not asked anyone else to be there.
Darla: Is summoning demons a private thing?
Joyce: Yes.
Meanwhile, Nyarlathotep approached Vito's car. Vito rolled down the window and talked to him. I forget how the conversation went, but Vito soon realized to whom he was speaking. He was very shaken and considered trying to shoot Nyarlathotep, but decided that there really wasn't any point to it.
Joyce left the prsion, driving off in her own car. Lillian got into her car and drove after Joyce. Martin and Darla got into Vito's car.
Vito vented at his passengers, still shaken.
Vito: I do not want you flying off on me that way again. I just stared the devil in the face.
Gradually, he calmed down.
Vito: Now, who summoned up the Man in Black?
Martin: Joyce.
He summarized what Nyarlathotep had said.
Martin: Joyce got angry at this and yelled at the Liar for lying. (Vito laughs) Then, the Man in black went out and said that he had to talk to some lawyers. (Vito laughs -- he is a lawyer himself)
Vito: No more sneaking out on each other. No more secrets.
Darla: It would help if we didn't summon up demons.
Vito: Joyce and I will have a couple of words.
He reiterated that he didn't want any more haring off on one's own without telling anyone about it first.
Vito: Capische?
Martin: Got it.
Meanwhile, Joyce and Lillian were driving. As I had no idea what happened, I asked the players. I got the following details:
-- -- --
Joyce and Lillian's drag race ending in a near fatal game of chicken involving a cliff, followed by a stop at a roadhouse where they got drunk, danced like maniacs, started a barfight, finished a barfight, and may possibly have burned the roadhouse down and shot up one of their cars. Joyce is a bit blurry on that, which in itself is an interesting event.
"Then the short guy racked the shotgun and said, 'Anyone here who doesn't want their insides on their outsides better leave by the front door. Now.'"
--Witness testimony concerning a recent riot at a roadhouse on the Pacific Coast Highway.
-- -- --
The "short guy" was almost certainly Joyce. I gather that Lillian wanted to fight some of the men, so Joyce may have stopped one or two from leaving. It's interesting that Joyce's memory is blurry, given that she generally cannot drink to forget because that doesn't work. I don't know why her memory is blurry in this case.
Regardless, when they returned, Joyce went to her room, while Lillian went to Vito's room, possibly after a talk with Martin.
Vito: I think we may be caught between two bosses.
Lillian: Are you all right?
Vito: I'm only going to say this to you once. Don't ever pull that sh*t on me. People that I care about are starting to disappear left and right.
Lillian asked him why he hadn't paid enough attention to notice Joyce had pulled a vanishing attack.
Vito: Joyce can take care of herself.
Lillian: No, she can't! She's trying to kill herself!
She left, slamming the door behind her.
Meanwhile, Darla went to speak to Joyce.
Joyce: What do you want, Isabella?
Darla: Darla.
Joyce: Oh, that's right. Isabella's the pretty one.
Darla: Yes.
Joyce: D*mn. I can't even be insulting. What do you want, Darla?
Darla: If you ever do something that stupid again, I might reconsider my no killing policy.
Joyce decided that this warranted pulling a gun on Darla. (When it later came out that Darla had done the same to Lillian, Darla noted that her own gun had not been loaded.
Joyce: Neither was mine. (beat) Well, I didn't chamber a round -- I'm not insane!)
Darla probably did something along the lines of either asking Joyce why she'd summoned a demon or asking how doing so was compatible with Joyce protecting Martin.
Joyce: I think we learned something from the experience.
She was correct, although she did recognize that things could perhaps have gone better (although they certainly could have gone worse).
Joyce: I should tell Marty I'm sorry.
I think Darla asked about Joyce's experiences fighting Nyarlathotep. After all, he had been defeated.
Joyce: We were able to defeat him the last time via geography and logistics.
After Darla left, Nyarlathotep walked in, still appearing as he had in the prison. He admitted that he was not the Liar (even if he had, in fact, lied). He offered to kill Trammell, iirc, but Joyce turned that down, along with any other offers he made.
Joyce: I guess even if you're not the Liar, it all goes through you, anyway.
That is, given that Nyarlathotep is the Messenger, anyone worshipping any of the Outer Gods is going through It. But, Nyarlathotep said that in this case, oddly and atypically, the worship of the Liar was -not- going through It.
Joyce found this interesting, and she pressed for details and the identity of the Liar. She wasn't surprised that Nyarlathotep wouldn't tell her who the Liar was. After all, that would ruin the game.
Nyarlathotep did tell her that Ramon Echevarria, the man who had first summoned the Liar, back in 1924, was far more dangerous than anyone realized.
I think It also assured Joyce that It didn't think of her as an ant, but more as a slug. She took that as a compiment.
Joyce to Nyarlathotep: See you in the funny papers.
Someone: And that's why the copyright on Mickey Mouse is never going to expire.
Meanwhile, I think Lillian and Martin were talking. Martin noted that Nyarlathotep had utterly ignored him.
Martin: I have never been so glad to be insignificant in my life.
Martin's player (I think) wrote:
-- -- --
Martin was hating himself for being a coward. Martin was afraid one of the non-coward crazy people with the guns and the knives would smash Jeremiah's brain. Lillian pointed out that the rest of them aren't so much brave, just damaged in ways that make them capable of violence. Discussing how Darla's "being the sensible one" is a different kind of desperate mental construct. Death comes of us all, and Lillian thinks she's the chosen of Kali, sent to kill those who need to die so that the world doesn't die. Jeremiah is wonderful, and he made Martin's head quiet. Thus... meditation lessons.
-- -- --
That is, Lillian started teaching Martin how to meditate.
Vito called Father Bragah, his confessor. He didn't give any explicit mythos or even supernatural details, but he did talk about what frightened him, framing it in terms of mob warfare, being caught between two rival gangs, and people he cared about being in danger. Chris noted that this would serve as a scene with a Source of Stability, and I realized how nicely Trail ties the mechanical to the dramatic with that set up.
One thing Vito did not do was get drunk.
Martin, Lillian, Joyce, and Darla got together in the hotel suite, possibly the next morning.
Darla: Would anyone like some coffee?
Joyce: I would like to marry you.
Martin (to Joyce): Please try to wait until after this adventure to die.
Joyce kissed Martin on the top of his head.
Joyce: You have a point.
As I understand it, the main reason Joyce wants to hurt Trammel is because, from her point of view, he is hurting Martin. Martin would disagree. Regardless, Joyce is finding herself with a surrogate family that she loves, everyone determined to march into horror with her.
Joyce: Next time save the world, I'm going it alone.
Lillian: No, you're not.
Missed Bits and Cast Lists
After the session, I asked what I'd missed while running from table to counter and from person to screen. Apparently, this included:
- Lillian and Martin talking about death, as well as mediation
- Martin and Darla having heartfelt brother/sister chats
- Joyce and Vito inadvertently telling Darla waaaay more than she really needs to know about the Mythos, and Martin's relationships. NB: One of Darla's pillars is Knowledge is Power...
We also talked about which actors played various Eternal Lies characters.
- Vito: Robert De Niro
- Martin: Cillian Murphy
- Joyce: Eleanor Smith
- Lillian: Summer Glau
- Darla: Winona Ryder
- Douglas Henslowe: William Macy
- Ramon Echvarria: Ryan Gosling
- Captain Walker: Christopher Walken
Martin was specifically Cillian Murphy as Dr. Keane when he's being prissy, yet somehow creepy.
Alden: Now I don't like Martin quite so much.
We also talked about which Dracula characters ((not movie!) folks mapped onto:
- Joyce: Abraham van Helsing
- Vito: Quincy Morris
- Martin: Mina Harker
- Lillian: Arthur, Lord Godalming
- Darla: Jonathan Harker
- Dr. Cecil Walker: An unholy combination of Dr. John Seward and Renfield
- Samson Trammel: Lucy Westenra
