Prince Guenter Rasmussen has unveiled the renovated Uptown Theater and re-established it as not just a mortal sanctuary, but as an Elysium open to all in a triumph for the Ventrue – a jewel in the crown of the Camarilla which has been boycotted by the majority of Chicago’s Anarch Movement.
Which might make the rabble’s unlives difficult, since the Elysium in their West Side territory is under siege by Lupines who accuse their Constable of theft. The new Baron of the Anarchs, Henry Morris, claims that his Constable is innocent, but after a near-disastrous post-election summit with Prince Rasmussen, rumors have begun to circulate among the crème de la crème of Kindred society that the Anarch hierarchy is harboring not just Lupine-harassing thieves, but a forbidden bloodline. But what could be that forbidden?
It might be summer, but no one can forget waking up to out-of-season snow that gave the fashionistas among us couture-related palpitations before giving way to a non-stop – quite literally – two months of rain that led to a run on umbrellas. They could have worn fashionable raincoats, should such a thing exist, but a number of the local Kindred have taken to wearing primitive melee weapons about their persons, which don’t mesh well with
A red-haired man with a strange aura waltzed into the Uptown Theater with impunity about the same time as the rain, knocked down a row of said umbrellas like dominoes, then sidled up to Prince Rasmussen, the old Anarch Baron – oh excuse me, Advocate. The new one prefers the more archaic title. It quite implies vassalage, don’t you agree?
Regardless of title, former or present, the red-haired man with his aura certainly was smug during his little tête-à-têtes. Even the Keeper didn’t dare approach him.
Lately the news, mostly local talk shows, are full of doctors talking about of swamp gas seeping through the bedrock into the sewears and up. Breathing it means it gets into mortals’ bloodstreams. We all know what that means.
Sufferers have reported hallucinations, including blue-skinned giants, growling in the underground L lines or the Pedway, and sightings of prehistoric mammals at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Preposterous.
At least one Michelin-starred restaurant is serving a giant-sized “auroch burger” this summer and promising a picture on the wall for anyone who can finish in five minutes or less. Intervention has been required; at least two of the Anarchs have had their pictures on that wall.
The swamp gas even seems to have permeated the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Someone at the Yacht Club called the Coast Guard with a report of a Viking invasion.