2026-03-20 17:32 - 22:54 PST
Gabriela returned home to find Sam quickly covering up, obviously hiding something. This thing turned out to be Roy, who Gabriela managed to detect and throw a knife at as he tried to slip out the window. She escorted him to the exit.
Along the way, Gabriela confronted him about being an Anarch, and though he denied it, she found out quick enough that he gets paid to do community watch, by Ally. She told him to stop involving Sam in anything dangerous, and he defensively claimed the Camarilla was the real danger. She ushered him out and returned to Sam.
Sam looks pissed when Gabriela enters. “Why did you do that? You could have hit him.”
“You’re not allowed to invite anyone over without telling me first.”
“If I meant to hit him, he’d still be torpid. Relax.”
Sam doesn’t relax. “You’ve been really unfair to me, you know.”
“Unfair? What-”
She takes a breath and exhales slowly.
“I’m not sure what you mean.” She speaks slowly and deliberately.
What followed was a rather tense argument, though it turned out better than ones in the past1. Gabriela didn’t like Sam or her friends hanging out at the Thinblood Community Center. Sam argued that many of them lived there, as they had nowhere else to go, and that it would be safe if the Camarilla didn’t want to burn it down.
“You’re acting like it’s their fault for staying somewhere that’s actually safe, and would keep being safe if your team didn’t want to burn it down.”
“They aren’t my team.”
Sam gets increasingly frustrated and impatient. “They clearly are! You don’t warn me not to go hang out with Camarilla people. You don’t warn me to avoid Camarilla places.”
“I haven’t warned you about them because you aren’t going to Camarilla places or speaking with Camarilla people. They’re far more dangerous than a bunch of idiot fledgelings with guns.”
In the end, Sam halfheartedly agreed to hang out someplace safer, and tell her where she’s going. Then, Gabriela apologized about Roy. Sam thought he was really nice, and sweet, but Gabriela didn’t seem to really buy it.
“He’s a nice guy! It’ll be fine. Don’t worry so much.” “Hey, actually, do you have a boyfriend?” Sam asks.
This sort of questioning continued, Gabriela barely managing to avoid the question and only giving a definitive no when Sam asked if she had a girlfriend instead.
Then, Francesca Pisanob called. There would be a Summit held at the Rossalini Estate the following week. Gabriela would invisibly accompany Francesca and keep an eye on the proceedings to ensure no further trouble befell them. She texted Marouth, and left.
They met by the river at a dead tree with a swing set.
Nothing in the car. Gabriela drives to the river, taking a while to find the spot Marouth described. Eventually, she sees her, sitting on a swing tied to a tree branch. Marouth does not have her horns or her claws. She is shorter, her limbs less gaunt and skeletal. She looks quite humanlike, with her short white hair washed, brushed and free of blood, her complexion pale but devoid of spines or growths.
They sat down together and Gabriela explained the situation with the Pisanobs. She suggested that if they could ensure Francesca would be interim Anziani, then they might be able to keep the Giovanni neutral.
“I have another idea. We work together to kill them all.”
Gabriela wasn’t a fan, and thought it was a bad idea, though she didn’t genuinely have a good answer for how to convince Francesca and Marta to remain neutral.
“I have a better plan but you don’t like it.”
“What’s the plan?”
“You don’t like that plan. It’s a good plan.”
“Try to work on the politics plan more.” “If that fails, we do the mass murder plan.”
“Marouth, I can’t help you massacre the Giovanni.”
“So then, work on the politics plan.” Marouth says all this completely straight-faced.
Gabriela sighs and looks ahead. “You’ve changed.”
“Of course I have. It’s been two centuries.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.” “You…” She decides against it. “Nevermind.”
“Finish your thought.” Marouth demands.
“You’re acting like her.”
Marouth doesn’t get angry. She admits. “You’re right. But I have to.”
“I disagree.”
“Why?”
“Because you could hide, then we could leave.” She’ll turn back to face her. “You don’t have to act like her.”
“I don’t have the option to hide.” She shakes her head.
“That’s not true. You don’t want to. There’s a difference.”
Marouth is silent at that. She tries to change the subject. “Do you think that Ancient2 is still in this city?”
Gabriela hoped it might be headed for Venice by now, and on the subject of internationality, Marouth asked if she’d ever been out of the country. She wanted to go home sometime, to Switzerland. She missed it almost every day, but she wasn’t sure how she’d ever get back.
“I do not know how I would get there. I thought of stowing myself away in a boat, but I do not know what I would eat. And I am afraid of those aeroplanes.”
Gabriela asked if she could find a way, would she go?
Marouth takes some time to think. “You are right that I do not want to hide or leave, not yet. I want revenge on the vampires who took my city. I want to see them fall, before I go.”
Gabriela didn’t see the point in it, if they were going to leave anyways. Sacramento was a cesspit of violent, power-hungry vampires. Someone would kill them eventually anyways. When the question was turned back on her, Gabriela said that she hated Sacramento, and the country it was in, that she’d leave if she could.
“But you can’t?”
“Not yet. There’s things I need to do. People I need to watch out for.”
Marouth is quiet for a moment. “When you are done with these things, we will leave.”
Then, they spoke about names. It felt weird to call her Marouth, but she said she may have had a new name.
“Emily.”
“Emily,” she repeats. “It sounds nice. I like it.”
Marouth shakes her head. “Hm. Doesn’t sound right. I will keep thinking.”
Two hundred years a vampire, and all she’d thought of was Emily. She decided for the time being to go by Annette, and when Gabriela asked, she agreed that she’d help tech her Vicissitude.
Annette takes Gabriela’s hand. “Listen, Gabriela.” “You are…good.”
“… What?”
“You are good and kind.”
“Thank you. I think you are too, Annette.”
They parted ways, returned home, and agreed over text to see each other the next night. Finally, she caught Roy’s dumbass slipping out the window again, yelled at him, and went to sleep.