#NYbN season 2

[centaurianthropology]

Impressions of ‘A City that Never Sleeps’ (NY by Night Season 2 Episode 1)

Less of a full summary this time around, more just thoughts and a smidgeon of analysis. 

A new night in New York, and a new group of Kindred.  We move away from the rough streets and Anarch freedoms and confusions, and we move over into the glittering world of the Camarilla, where everything is a guilded cage, beautiful but restricting.  The fashion is immediately different as well.  All the characters are impeccably dressed, with one glaring exception, and they all move and talk as if they either own the world or are just waiting in line for their turn to do so.  

It’s smart to set such a different vibe, to create a sense of the divisions in the city, the sense of haves and have-nots, but also of freedom and restriction.  In the Camarilla far more than the Anarchs, appearances are deceiving, and despite all the characters but Brawn dressing the part of Camarilla political animals, only one of them really plays the part.

Khalida is our first big surprise of the game, and the first indication of exactly how closely tied this new coterie really is to our favorite Anarch disasters.  Specifically, it turns out that Fuego is not Rafferty’s only childe. Khalida is far better at playing the dutiful childe, sweet and respectful and always willing to do what she’s told.  She and Rafferty at least seems superficially close, but given Ventrue politics, it may only be skin deep.  After they’re away from Rafferty she certainly seems much more afraid of him than she let on in his presence, which may speak to a rougher relationship than they displayed in company.  It seems at least possible that Khalida is bonded to Rafferty in a similar way to Fuego, or is only just beginning to break that bond, and fears his power over her.

Kiem initially comes across as young and impressionable.  She says she’s new to town, just settled in, and her sire is apparently friends with Rafferty, hence why she’s been summoned to his jazz club. She talks about wanting a mission. She also talks about faith, and it seems that, while Coco apes religion more as a means of control, Kiem is a true believer.  Later in the episode in the gallery, she views the paintings as demonic.  She has to destroy them and destroy Lizzie for painting them.  It seems almost compulsive.  And despite her appearance and initial impression, she also seems to be built to brawl.  Her specialty is in grappling, and she’s both fast and very strong.  It’s not a traditional Toreador build, but it does put one in mind of Qadir, the Toreador sherrif of New York.  One wonders if they’re acquainted, or even if he’s her sire. She doesn’t talk a lot about her sire, and so far their relationship seems neutral.  She seems eager to settle in and find her place in the Camarilla, but she’s also interesting in that she seems like the first to really question if the restrictions placed on them by the Camarilla are worth the apparent benefits. Something tells me there is more conflict in her than I first thought.

She also apparently has a thing for earlobes?  I have no idea what that means.

Brawn is the definitely the most obvious odd one out for this coterie.  He plays the part of the dumb thug, again a departure from the ‘clever spy’ trope that Nosferatu often lean into.  However, the clan compulsion to know secrets still seems to be there, and when Rafferty mentions that he doesn’t know the Anarch numbers in the city but wants to, Brawn visibly perks up.  

He’s also perhaps the most overtly funny of the group.  His one-liners are fantastic, his comments to everyone were some of my favorite of the evening, and several of his lines made me laugh out loud (“I like art, and am called Brawn.”).  His sire is called Glass Jaw, a fearsome kindred that runs an underground fighting ring. And Brawn is clearly no slouch there either, giving Airbox a run for his money as they tangled at the gallery.

And Coco?  She seems the most obviously contradictory.  Her appearance says ‘perfect Camarilla kindred’, and during her bestial failure she openly tried to show up all the others by reciting the six traditions first.  She seems reluctant to engage with them or take much interest in them beyond their working relationship.  As Brawn and Kiem fought Lizzie and Airbox, she elected to leave to go after Argus and Angela, leaving her alone to tangle with an older, stronger vampire.  She clearly prefers hanging in the shadows, collecting information, and dealing with her problems with her powers, rather than socially engaging.  She also apparently doesn’t sound as she’s coming across in to the others in New York. While she speaks with the Coterie and with Argus, her accent is American, but she takes on something that sounds very different when speaking with her Beast.  I’m not sure which accent it is—I didn’t hear it for long enough to pin it down—but it suggests she traveled some distance to get to New York, and no wonder.  It’s one of the few cities where the Lasombra are accepted in the Camarilla, and she seems to want that badly.

Rafferty, meanwhile, seems to be playing the new Richter for this season.  Interestingly, he doesn’t sound at all like he does in Fuego’s head. He’s a bit colder, a lot more pragmatic and uninspiring than Fuego remembers him.  Khalida hears him far more clearly in her head, and seems to have a better understanding of him.  He’s preoccupied with the Anarchs, noting that, while they put on a  strong front, the Cam are worried about the numbers and strength of the Anarchs now that Torque is in charge.  This may or may not be impacted by Rey’s actions in the penultimate episode of last season, and whether or not Lavash brought Rey’s claims to Rafferty’s attention.  It definitely has something to do with the rumors that Annabelle has come to town looking to stir up a fight in a city that has, more or less, remained peaceful and stable for several decades.

He also acts as a teacher, more pedantic and direct than Richter.  This is a nice way to emphasize that the Camarilla are less free, but generally better taught than the piecemeal education of the Anarchs.  They run through the six traditions, which Coco preempts, and once the ground rules are laid down, Rafferty charges them with investigating a gallery.  If they succeed he will give them a boon, and I imagine they might get domain somewhere.

The Gallery heist emphasizes several things.  First, it clearly demonstrates everyone’s skills and weaknesses.  Khalida is a great controller and manipulator, but not a fighter.  Coco prefers to stick to the shadows, but also goes off on her own and might get in over her head without noticing.  Brawn is incredibly tough, giving Airbox far more of a run for his money than Rey managed, but he’s also not at all bright.  And Kiem is also very tough, but has very little self-control and tends to fly off the handle.  I didn’t expect her to so closely parallel Rey, but there we are.  

It’s difficult not to draw comparisons between the two coteries and the two seasons.  The Camarilla has a drastically different vibe than the Anarchs.  The Anarchs are scrappy and poorly organized.  The coterie is necessary in large part because they are all so vulnerable, many don’t know their sires, and kindred like Isaac have to pass on what little information they have to those with even less.  There is a sense of desperation and living on the edge in the Bronx that is, at least on the surface, not there in Manhattan. Like at the beginning in his description of Manhattan and the jazz club, there is an emphasis on beauty and opulence on this side of the river.  Brawn stands out in Manhattan, while in the Bronx no one would bat an eye at how he dresses.  The others know better how to play the game, and lean into high fashion and a sense that they are better than everyone around them.  The ambition is more naked.  Everyone there seems to act either like they own the world, or that they’re in line to do so and very ready to shiv the person in front of them.

It’s an interesting contrast, but it also means that which setting you prefer will likely influence which season you prefer.  I’ve always enjoyed the scrappy underdogs, so I love the Anarchs in this setting.  The new actors this season are very good across the board, but the characters don’t grip me as immediately as Serif, Rey, Fuego, and Isaac did.  I think they could, after a time getting to know them, but I perhaps don’t have the immediate and visceral love of them that I did the other coterie.  

And the seasons are almost immediately crossing over, with appearances not only from mentioned characters like Rafferty, but also known quantities like Lizzie, Airbox, Argus, and Alicia.  This is a living city with factions crossing streams and bouncing back and forth far more than either would care to admit.  It’s possible we’re setting up the crossover for season 3 already, showing that the Camarilla and the Anarchs could be a united front with free movement, if they felt like it.  Or at least there is more in common there than different, and they could be pushed together with external impetus.

But bringing in so much from last season right away also creates a sort of tension in me.  While I may not be too attached to Airbox and Lizzie, I have seen them multiple times.  I want to see more Lizzie interactions.  I’ve seen Airbox put Rey through a window (and he does it again here, as it’s apparently his favorite move).  So I wasn’t as clearly rooting for the new coterie to beat them in the gallery fight.  I found myself wanting Airbox and Lizzie to escape, and our new coterie to start the season with a defeat rather than a victory.  Likewise, I definitely didn’t want Coco harming Argus and Alicia before Serif has a chance to deal with things herself.  

At the same time, I appreciate how dynamic the world is.  Serif may have to deal with a completely different situation than she expected if Coco hurts Argus or Alicia. I also found it interesting that it was Serif whose name was the first to really come up this season.  Not Isaac, with his ‘Sabbat’ connections, not Rey who wants to join the Camarilla, not Fuego with her identical ties to Rafferty as Khalida.  But Serif.  The one no one the Camarilla had never even heard of.  I like that choice, as it’s an unexpected first bridge.  I’m sure the others will be dragged in as well, but having her be first is fascinating.

We’re setting up season 3 to be a very different landscape than the one we left in the minivan at the end of season 1.  All the players are still on the board, still very active and still getting into trouble and danger.  Things won’t pause for Serif’s sire or her mother, nor will they pause for Lizzie, Airbox, and all the other secondary characters we met last season.  So it makes an exciting question as to what both coteries are hurtling toward.  

One another, of course, but how?  Will they be antagonistic, or will they work together?  We’re already seeing parallels, even at the surface glance we’ve gotten for this new coterie.  Kiem and Rey seem like they’d have a lot weirdly in common.  Brawn and Isaac both feel like the odd man out, while Isaac and Coco have the ex-Sabbat clans thing in common.  I can’t even imagine what Khalida and Fuego might be like together. Or Coco and Serif, both drawn to the shadows and to unseen powers.  There are a lot of potentially interesting dynamics being set up.

But in the meantime, I do want to get to know this new coterie.  The Camarilla are far more about masks and politeness than the Anarchs, so we get less of an open and honest look at these kindred right away. Will they manage to be friends? Just coworkers?  Something else unexpected?  What lies beneath the polite masks (or the thug’s mask that Brawn wears)? I am looking forward to finding out, and seeing how the story continues to intertwine until this coterie and our Anarch coterie are thrown onto a collision course.

[bloodoftremere]

If there's something you don't understand - just for the future - maybe find someone like me to help you out.

[verflixture]

mmmkay, I’d assumed that season 2 of NYbN, like season 1, had some handwavey timeskips worked in that I hadn’t bothered to keep track of. Things got a little fuzzy since I wasn’t going back and rewatching old episodes between weekly airings, but I got a loose sense that events were unfolding over the course of a couple weeks, maybe even a month.

Apparently this is incorrect.

NIGHT 1 (episodes 1 & 2): The Camterie goes to The Frosted Glass and apprehends Lizzie. Rafferty says they will escort her home the next night.

NIGHT 2 (episode 3): Camterie visits The Cage. Brawn beats the shit out of Airbox.

NIGHT 4 (episode 4): Brawn only has 2 opportunities to heal aggravated damage from his fight in the pit before the events of episode 4, meaning at most the Camterie had one night of downtime. It's also possible that Brawn healed 1 aggravated damage on Night 2 after going home, which would actually make this Night 3, but to be generous I'll assume they got that one night off. At the end of episode 4, Simone's ghoul asks the Camterie to return to Club Crimson in 2 nights' time.

NIGHT 5 (episode 5): Individual Camterie meetings with sires, except for Kiếm, who meets Luc.

NIGHT 6 (episode 6): Camterie returns to Club Crimson as scheduled in episode 4.

NIGHT 7 (episodes 7 & 8): The Camterie break into Nigel's hideout at the docks in Brooklyn, have their conversation with the the Prince, return to The Sterling, and all hell breaks loose.

...So the Camterie made their pact to be loyal to one another over their sires after knowing each other for one (1) week 🥲

[fuckyeahlabynight]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Noura Ibrahim ✨🧿✨ (@nouralogical)

Photos from Noura Ibrahim, Michelle Nyngan Bradley, and Xander Jeanneret's NYbN watch party for the end of Season 2.

[lesbianralzarek]

Hello! Does the fandom you're getting into with 23 fics on ao3 happen to be New York by Night? If so, welcome! One of the writers of some of those 23 fics here :) (hope this isn't creepy lol, just excited at the prospect of someone new writing for this tiny-ass community)

I HAVE BEEN PINNED LIKE A FUCKING MOTH. ye its nybn :) the ship i was referring to is fuego and isaac (fuesaac?) because of what aabriyah said in the club auspex for episode 5 about how fuego has something of a one-sided rivalry with isaac, which is what lead her to such a drastic move in order to prove herself and make shit happen. shes a ventrue who was told she has a birthrite to rule and then some white dude tells her what to do anyway. theres a lot of tension there and i think thats a beautifully awful foundation for a ship. im only halfway through season 2 so im gonna catch up before i write anything just in case, but i also think that khalida and coco should hatefuck, and that that would probably not fix anything, but its worth a shot anyway. coco is my fav of the camarilla coterie (camterie?) so far so i defo wanna do something with her at some point

which fics did you write, btw?

[lordeasriel]

Some la by night thoughts:

going through la by night, and I've come to the conclusion that Jasper and Victor are both power players (I can't tell how much of it is scripted but some of it is not because it unbalances the rhythm of the episode) for different reasons, I guess. Alex Ward knows the system deeply, from what I've seen in nybn and labn, and he can't help but info dump, which is helped by Annabelle who is a new vamp, and B Dave Walters just wants to win all his transactions, which is fair for a Ventrue but I can't help but feel he overruled the others s lot of the time.

Annabelle is - and it pains me to say - annoying. Like, I started this seeing the comments in nybn, where people were fedup with her and I thought it was gratuitous, but this is mid season 2 and she just doesn't seem to grow. My picky issue with it is that she's been a vamp for a while but she keeps acting ignorant for stuff she should know the basics for. Problem with her is that she is a typical Brujah (and Victor is s typical Ventrue) and I've played in a game with these stereotypes and the truth is, they are what they are, but in a more professional campaign it is overwhelming because they never leave character.

I'm having a great time, I really enjoy the show, but damn, the power gaming is driving me crazy now that I've noticed it lol and Annabelle shouldn't have been a consensualist Brujah because she just had a very mighty high horse lol

[duriens]

incredibly sad that there's no alex ward in nybn season 2 but hey xander jeanneret is there so I still have a reason to live!!,,

[eclecticfiend]

have you watched season 2 of nybn yet?

i did, although only once so far. i think the political intrigue of a cam coterie is interesting, but its not really my cup of tea right now. it just didn't scratch the exact same itch that season 1 did.

i really like coco and brawn tho, and i'm very much looking forward to what happens next to both groups.

jason really has his work cut out for him next season! but he is brilliant, so i'm not worried :)

[auspex]

I WISH I LIKE LABYN MORE! I REALLY DO! IDK WHY I FIND ACTUAL PLAYS LIKE THAT ANNOYING SOMETIMES! I HAD TO PUSH MYSELF THROUGH NYBN SEASON 2 SOOO HARDDD I WAS GETTING SOO IRRATATED AKSDJFLSJ whats wrong w me

[due4amiracle]

Day 433

Listo:

Laundry/cleaning, Reading, Dailies, #TTRPGThings, Watching.

Laundry/cleaning - A few things picked up here and there! ✔

Reading things - - 1 Ebook for me, 2 Audiobooks for Sir! ...Yea. 156 for the year, 5 for the month! - Snared (Kaliya Sahni, #2) by K.N. Banet 27%! Continuing the good train~ - Bounty (Kaliya Sahni, #1) by K.N. Banet 100%! 3🌟 Is good is good~ UwU♡ ✔✔✔

Dailies - - Waifu Did mah dailies! Also, level 15/50 BP now~! AND! Tree lvl 30/50! Also! 25/41 max friendship namecards acquired! New MONTH! new weeklies! Chasm gem thingy is level 9/10! ♡ω♡✔ The event questline is finally fucking done holy shit that shit dragged on WAY too damn long fuck.

#TTRPGThings - Well it happened. And OH BOY was it fun! :D We had so much fun but omg i started my period the night before, as we were going to bed, and fuck. Exhaustion. And then the ST exhaustion hit, and i totally understood why Sir had trouble running sessions sometimes. Fuck dude. And now today i’ve got the hangover? Whew. But yea, it was a wonderful time, found a lot of issues with the Splat that i’m currently slowly ironing out. And... yea! Left them with a hell of a cliffhanger! Very fun. ✔

Watching things - - SAO Alicization. Episode 15&16! -   - Vancouver by Night: Season 1 - Episode 8/19! - New York by Night: Season 1 - Episode 2/??! 

Other things - Daily Diarrhea Diary - Ok night before last was Bad. Whew. Very bad. But i’m fine now. CPAP timer - Because of diarrhea and period starting, did not do CPAP that night, but last night? 5 hours, 6 disturbances per hour. Not great but hey, got some time in the mask! So that’s lovely. Didn’t really do much today, just, recouping after that session yesterday, whew. It’s rough man. And tomorrow is not only NYBN but a therapist appointment? Whew. Exhausting.

Food: A Liquid: A Pain: C Brain: C

Tomorrow: Laundry/cleaning, Reading, Dailies, #TTRPGThings, Watching.

Ever Onwards and Upwards!

[centaurianthropology]

And here they are!  Spoilers below the cut for those who don’t want to know the new cast (and can’t figure it out from thumbnails).

Noura Ibrahim - Khalida, Ventrue

Michelle Nguyen Bradley - Kiem, Toreador

Xander Jeanneret - Brawn, Nosferatu

Cynthia Marie - CoCo, Lasombra

So my prediction that we would get Lasombra and Ventrue in play is correct (and I have to imagine there will be friction there), but definitely getting another Nos was a surprise for me after LA by Night.  We are also getting Toreador, which isn’t surprising for the Cam, but I’m a little sad we still don’t have a PC Tremere.  Still, returning major cast members from LA by Night (Cynthia and Xander), one major guest from the last chronicle (Noura) and one brand-new player (I had guessed Michelle would be in it, given how active she was on their Twitter, so it’s nice to see she’s there!).  Interesting group, HIGHLY social choices except Nos, so I’m guessing we’re in for a slightly more traditional high-politics Cam game next season.  Or maybe not!  Interested to see how it all breaks down!

It will premiere on Sept 30, giving the team a month down before season 2 spins up.

[abrahamshipwreck]

Literally the ONLY RPG games Ive seen Ive only watched like 2 seasons of HarmonQuest because the episodes were short and funny and captioned. I have 0 interest in CritRole but I just saw a clip from the NYBN game and uhhhhhg WHY DO ALL THE EPISODES HAVE TO BE 3 HOURS LONG??

Also IDK why I want to learn DM skills as well as that guy because there are no games near me much less ones accomidating to my specific needs. I can dream though