Part 12: XII - By The Way

We will set this house in order.



[Persuade] If you both want to continue to exist, you're going to have to live with each other.

She's a control freak! People, things, emotions - if she can't control something, she gets rid of it.

And you're a wild animal! You'll rub up against anything that'll take you in for the night, then, when you're stuffed and bored, you bite the hand that fed you.

[Persuade] Both of you have been working against the other. Together, you'd be a power.

I don't think that's possible. How could I ever think to trust her again?

Trust me? Who could trust you after what happened with Father dearest?

Father loved me. I was a good girl. I always did what I was told. You always hated that he loved me. You disobeyed him. You brought men home when he wasn't there. You were an awful daughter to him.

Father, the man in the portrait?


It's not unthinkable that Therese had that painting commissioned. Or could it be that Jeanette actually was a real child?

[Persuade] That's all in the past. Forget about it.

Father came home drunk one day and mistook me for Therese, because I'd fallen asleep in her bed.

Don't listen to her! She's lying!



Remember this dialogue from the last part:


That's a lie! Father killed himself because of Jeanette. She made him miserable!

As I recall, he died with a smile on his face.

Wow.

No matter what happened, you two need each other to move on.



Most of these answers won't cut it. We'll choose the only one that works.

Think of how powerful you could both be if you worked together.

Therese doesn't like to share.

Jeanette's irresponsible. She's undependable. A venture like mine requires class and distinction, which is something a pig-tailed, face-painting harlot does not lend very well.

You do have a way with words, sister. You're right, I'm not in the same class, am I? I mean, murderers are so respectful these days.

Alright, now it's time for some dialectical give-and-take.

Therese, let Jeanette have more responsibility.

More responsibility? So that she can ruin every opportunity I give her?

Of course. You're the only one who can secure zoning permits and shake hands. I'd never be able to keep up!

Jeanette, stop sabotaging your sisters plans.

But I only do it for attention, and out of love.

The above line doesn't trigger properly with the unofficial patch installed, but I've added it in here.

You do it because you're vindictive and jealous.

And you deserve it!

If you'll call a truce and run this place equally, there's no need to kill each other.

If she would stop treating me like a child!

If she would start behaving like a rational adult!

You both must have gotten along at one time.



When I was a child, I didn't have many friends. I suppose Jeanette was the only one. We never did get to go out of the house much. Father wouldn't allow us.

He said we'd get hurt. So we stayed inside and we imagined our own worlds. And we spent so much time there, together, ruling over those places. Those were -

- happier times. Before we grew apart.

"Before we grew apart". Jeanette, which I think was the personality that was created because of Therese's reaction to being a victim of incest, may have originated as an imaginary friend, according to this line. An imaginary sister. I imagine they "grew apart", meaning became different personalities within the same body, when Jeanette was embraced. We'll discuss her embrace later on.

You don't really want to kill each other, do you?

No... I guess I don't. Jeanette: if I were to give - offer you equal control in Santa Monica, would you quit consorting with Tung?

I'll stop working against you with him... but since I've got him in my pocket already, there's no reason for me not to pay him a little visit once in a while, when he can be of use.

That's not a bad plan. There's just one more thing: I want to be in charge of Santa Monica - but only publicly. I want you to continue to convince others that our relations are strained. That way -

- we know who our enemies are. I agree.

Give me the gun, Therese.

Take it. I'd hate to look at it again and think of what almost transpired. I suppose now that Jeanette and I have settled our differences, I'll call off the feud with Tung.



We have also gained humanity. I think the plus patch actually decreased the amount of experience gained from this quest. In the original game, siding with either Therese or Jeanette (killing off the other in the process) gains you five experience points. Making peace with them both gains you six. Here, we get three.

Thanks. Goodbye.

Please give Santa Monica's regards to the prince.

And keep your tongue tied about what happened tonight or we'll have to -



Tourette. That's in bad taste, if you ask me.

Moving onto the subject of their embrace. When playing as a Malkavian, you occasionally have special encounters that make use of a Malkavian's "fabled insight". This is the dialogue when speaking to Jeanette for the first time:


From this, we learn that they are Malkavian. This is pure speculation (nothing else can be done), but I have a feeling that, when embraced, Jeanette, the imaginary sister, became Jeanette, the other personality haunting Therese's body. It's the Malkavian madness.

Back to Melissa. We're kicked out of the Aslyum, which we can revisit any time, but now we can visit Bertram Tung. Remember, we need to blow up that Sabbat warehouse with the astrolite we took from Dennis.





The abandoned gas station is straight down the street from the Asylum. It's been behind a lock up until now. We could have picked it with more dots in security, but Bertram wouldn't be there because the feud was still on.



Bertram Tung is a Nosferatu, that's why he looks so...



...scary.

You knew I was looking for you?

I've gotten good at knowing when I'm wanted.



The one and only. Don't bother with the introduction, fledgling; I know who you are.

You do?

[Listen] News travels down the Kindred grapevine like wildfire. And that courtroom spat between LaCroix and Nines Rodriguez is a juicy little morsel, and you in the middle... how interesting.

Nosferatu have voices just as strange as their looks. Good voice acting.

That's great. So you know I survived.

Oh you did, did you? Well, I wasn't worried. So why'd you need to find me? What did you need?

I like the dialogue in Bloodlines because it can be clever in places, like this. Compare that to Redemption, where all the dialogue was terrible.

I need to get that warehouse for Mercurio.

Hmm? Oh, nevermind. That warehouse though -

This line, however, doesn't make sense to me. Bertram Tung, the nosferatu with eyes and ears everywhere, doesn't know who Mercurio is?

**It turns out that this line is actually from a conversation with a Malkavian PC. The unofficial patch is not mistake free.**

I've been watching the place. The Sabbat has a bunch of lowlife humans working day and night to move stuff through there. There's some major staging going on.

The dialogue file for Bertram has a pronunciation guide for the voice actor, ex. "The Sabbat [suh-BOT]". It's weird that they included these things in the game's actual file.

Now, we know who the Sabbat are, but let's hear what Bertram has to say about them.

The Sabbat?

The Sabbat - geez you are green. It's like this: we're all monsters, like it or not. I'm not gonna say the Sabbat are the evil vampires cuz... none of us are the good guys here. But the Sabbat, they glorify their monstrous nature. They refuse to hide it, and go out of their way to show it. They're also brainless and reckless; they have a life expectancy of a vampire fruit fly.

But should I only expect to encounter humans there?

Yeah. The Sabbat like everyone to know just who they're dealing with. So if you get in there and have to bust a few heads... don't feel bad. Think of it as "upholding the Masquerade".

So these humans actually know that they're working for vampires.

Can you get me in there without being detected?



Before we do, let's wrap up a few things.

Let me get a few things together, first.

Hmph. Alright, I guess. Come back when you're ready to go. But don't be too long, fledgling; this isn't really something we planned around your schedule.

Whatever. See ya.

Our first stop is back at Gallery Noir.



This could be bad.



What's going on here?

An exorcism gone wrong?

Ah, some lunatic broke into the gallery and slashed up the paintings. Everyone's a critic these days, huh?

I just hope they catch the girl, uh, person who did this. Bye now..

Now back to our apartment.



We haven't watched television for a while. There's no news about Copper and his attempt at assassinating the president, but there is news about something else:

Our top story tonight: a derelict ship found floating ten miles off the Los Angeles coast earlier this morning was towed into the port of Los Angeles a few hours ago. The ship was spotted around midnight by fishermen, who contacted the Coast Guard after their attempts to hail the ship proved futile. Coast Guard officials are releasing very little information right now, but have identified the vessel as the "Elizabeth Dane". No word as of yet as to the whereabouts of the crew, though the Coast Guard are asking any ships that had contact with the Elizabeth Dane to assist them in their search. We'll have more on this story as it breaks.

Also some news about our own affairs:

A robbery gone bad at The Surfside Diner left several dead after the attempts by the would-be robbers were thwarted by a diner patron turned vigilante. Witnesses saw the vigilante run from the diner after they were alerted by the sound of gunfire inside. Police have stated that vigilantism will not be tolerated and that the party responsible will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

There aren't any new emails to read. By the way, we have a radio in our house, which let's us listen to that radio show, 'The Deb of Night'. Now's a good time to let you all listen to the second iteration of the show:



While the first show didn't have anything out of the ordinary, this one has a caller who speaks about "the final nights"....


The only thing left before we head to the warehouse is to visit the blood bank, once again.



A few in the thread wanted to see this quest.

Say, where do you get your blood from now?

Now that you let that one go, I have to go out and find someone else to fill the chair. But it's kind of chilly out and now that my co-pilot's been devoured, I'm flying solo. I need a new body. Find another donor and I'll whip up a fresh batch.

Where should I look?



Vandal, ghouled by a Malkavian. No wonder he's a little out there. Speaking of Malkavian, there's an interesting encounter possible between a Malkavian PC and Vandal during the quest to free Lily.


Back to the Asylum.





There's someone else to talk to on the upper deck, someone else to trick...



If we seduce her, we won't be able to trick her into going to the blood bank. Probably because Melissa is just too attached to her. It will go to the blood bank! It might be the same reason that Vandal referred to Lily as "that one".

More so than you think.

Ugh, I thought coming to LA was gonna be more exciting than Arizona.... I didn't come all this way just for watered down booze.

Dude at the "blood bank"'ll fix you up. Just tell him you're there to "donate".



[Persuade] Oh. I'm sorry. I mistook you for someone who lived on the edge.



Hmm... Well, guess I'm going to the blood bank then. I had enough of this place anyway.

So are we.



Not right now. Goodbye.

A little disappointing of a quest, nothing more than a skillcheck. Now that we're finished with everything, we'll head back to Bertram.



But we won't go to the warehouse until the next update.