Let’s talk about the Transmigrated Artificial Masterintelligence (TAM).

I went through three iterations of the TAM’s intro scene until I hit on making them sound like a game show host. I imagine the TAM as a cartoon in VtM’s more grounded world, very Roger Rabbit-style. I wanted a mix of comedy and horror in the style of Sam Raimi here, where you never know what’s going to happen. And then I wanted to contrast that with TAM’s BEAST who was all terror, all the time. Cassandra, of course, logics her way to escape destruction, but is also inspired by the BEAST’s call for a Blood Temple, which will help with the whole “Kindred leaving bodies around” problem.

Trivia: I originally had a bit where TAM would talk about asking for Anne Rice’s Lestat to eat, in which it would be revealed that TAM can’t tell between real and fictional vampires because that distinction wasn’t made in its data set. I cut that because it was originally meant as a set up for [FUTURE SPOILERS] but I didn’t end up implementing [FUTURE SPOILERS] so I cut that, even though we had recorded it.

Well, now we get an official intro to the Anarchs. Yes, my VtM-loving cast has made me aware that the Anarchs precede anarchism as a political philosophy. I don’t care. I wanted to contrast anarchism with hierarchical methods of political organization. Also contrasting the more proletariat Anarchs with the “I am the bourgeoisie” Camarilla. And the final contrast was Lorea – what happens in an anarchist system when certain members have excessive financial independence with which they could easily spread their influence but choose not to.

I had no idea who I was going to cast Lorea with until I had cast Rachel as Cassandra. Rachel came over during one recording session and mentioned her partner Katherine Cross was interested in a role after hearing her practice the scripts. I met with Katherine in a cafe and brought over one of Lorea’s soliloquies from Episode 5 (if you’ve heard Episode 5, you know which one). She performed it great, and I cast her. I think she did a magnificent job and it’s a shame y’all had to wait to Episode 3 to properly hear her. I’m also proud that Katherine mentioned to me that if she was going to be in a VtM game, she would play a character a lot like Lorea.

I always intended Cassandra to span the Camarilla and the Anarchs, and this is the episode in which she starts to do so. At first, she’s being held prisoner because Lorea and the Anarchs need her as the trigger to their “nuclear solution” (the TAM), but once Lorea sees how invested Cassandra is in improving vampire’s lives, she remembers how Samael referred to Cassandra as a falcon that returns to one’s arm – only the arm in question is Lorea’s. And so Cassandra is officially set up to bounce between the factions – and of course to date Lorea because polyamory representation is important. Also, look, Cassandra is stuck in the Kindred world – what the fuck else is going to do besides fight to improve things?

And now we come to the Elephant in the Episode – now, I didn’t think of Aaralyn’s non-consensual ghouling of Cassandra as a r*pe scene originally but Amber and Rachel sure told me that it was. So, sorry y’all. I am fervently against writing r*pe for exploitative or titillating purposes. I literally can’t watch any media with r*pe in it. Now, Aaralyn’s ghouling was definitely non-con and played as horrific, but not sexually non-con. I really don’t have a good excuse for writing it except that I think the story needed it to raise the stakes for Vanishing Girl’s introduction and Cassandra’s reunion with Samael. And I think that the strength of the story justifies it. YMMV.

I thought it was a good idea for Cassandra to meet up with Rachel (character, not the actor) and Peter again, especially to hear Peter’s side of his relationship with Simon. And to have people she could express her despair with. Again Rachel (actor, not the character) did a fantastic job in this scene, and with her narration in which Cassandra is saved by someone knocking in the distance.

So I cried a lot when I wrote the reunion between Cassandra and Samael. Not much more to say there, really. At least it gave Samael the impetus to put Cassandra in charge of their club. Also from a production standpoint, I had to foley the fuck out of this scene to show the physicality of Cassandra being close to Samael. So many cloth movements.

Oh, I should probably mention the whole magic Gum Wall thing. I wanted to include as much Seattle Shit in this show that Paradox hadn’t added to their own Seattle VtM setting. So what’s more Seattle Shit than orcas and the Gum Wall? Besides it’s nice to add some creepy lore to some tourist trap thing like the Capitol Hill mystery soda machine, which I would have added to the show, had it not disappeared elsewhere. You’re lucky I didn’t animate the Seattle Lenin statue.

Okay, so Vanishing Girl makes her official appearance. I wanted to cast clans against type so I made Samael a Ventrue who doesn’t want to rule and Vanishing Girl a Toreador who doesn’t want to be seen. Also, yes, I am a huge XTC nerd and I named her after their Dukes of Stratosphear song. (Her actual name is Blaise as you’ll learn in the Anthology when I put it up.) So the Camarilla Ventrue have had it in their craw for a long time that Seattle is run by the Tremere. (What can I say? Money talks and tech makes money.) So with the eventual vote coming up (which, who knows it would actually change anything except make Aaralyn very angry), Vanishing Girl is sent to destabilize Aaralyn. And what’s Samael going to do, tell her no? That would make things very politically difficult and if there’s one thing Samael can’t stand is having things politically difficult for potentially hundreds of years.

And then Cassandra returns to Lorea, partially as a hostage and partially as a date. Look, relationships are complicated. I enjoy increasing their complication because, honestly, that’s what they’re like in the real world. “What have you done with the Lorea I know?” “I fucked her and you should try it sometime!”

(I think Samael and Lorea fucking would be a recipe for disaster. I should have written it.)

Finally, it’s Arturo’s time to shine. With a little precog, there’s no way that Vanishing Girl could get out without Arturo capturing her. When Sangria and I were working on Arturo’s voice, we went through a lot of iterations until we settled on “stoner.” Because that’s probably what Arturo does most of the time to take the edge off of his life.

Trivia – I originally had Brian come back to act as the moneypot to attract Johnathon. Fortunately, I thought better of it when it came time to write the episode.

And at last, Samael gets their wildest dreams realized by telling Aaralyn the fuck off. I loved writing their rant. At long last, Cassandra’s getting her dream of socialized blood feeding for Kindred, setting her up for some fantastic character development next episode!