Scene Summary: Empty Chairs

Empty Chairs
Chronicle	DC Chronicle
Game Date	September 10, 1989
Real Date	June 30, 2017
Characters	Damien Campbell Jacob Ingram Johnny Lam
Locations	Midnight Mug Rumble
Previous Scene	None
Next Scene	Pursuit of Happiness (Damien)
Content Warnings	Warfare
Original Scene	Empty Chairs

Empty Chairs is a scene from the DC Chronicle featuring Damien Campbell, with cameo appearances by Jacob Ingram and Johnny Lam. It depicts Damien reminiscing about the friends he left behind in Atlanta.

Scene Summary

Damien daydreams, remembering being in the bar Rumble with Jacob and Johnny years ago. They are sharing a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of wine that Damien brought, which they tease him about due to its foreign name. They mock him for being high-class and having an over-involved sire, but also take care to make sure that he has eaten and is ready for the night.

Damien asks what they are doing to night and Jacob informs him that they are hunting shovelheads, explaining that they are members of the Sabbat created in mass Embraces and prone to indiscriminate slaughter. Damien is excited to be part of the action, but Johnny tells him that they are supposed to capture at least one of them if possible so that Camarilla Tremere can experiment on them and find out more about their enemies. He cautions Damien to kill them anyway if his own life is in danger and then leaves the table to take a phone call.

The vision begins to swim and Jacob tells Damien that he cannot stay, causing him to cry out. He realizes that he is actually in Midnight Mug and is being told to leave for having loitered too long. He considers attacking the proprietor but instead gets up and angrily leaves.

Script Summary

The script summary for this scene pares it down to only dialogue and action directions, allowing for a quicker and easier read through what was actually said and done by the characters. Click on the "Expand" tag to the right to view the entire script summary for this scene.

Empty Chairs Script Summary

Damien, Jacob, and Johnny are sitting at a small table in a dark corner of Rumble in Atlanta. Jacob pulls Damien's hat down over one of his eyes.

JACOB: Wait what did you call this thing? A toke?

He ruffles Damien's hair.

JACOB: Smoking all you think about kiddo?

Damien bats his arm away.

DAMIEN: Toqué! It's French. I think. I got it when I lived up north, traded some kid for it.

He sighs.

JOHNNY: French, well la-di-da aren't you a regular court puppy. Violet must be putting the screws to ya then. You ate yet, kid?

He puts a cigarette in his mouth and offers the pack to the table. Damien takes one.

JOHNNY: We got lotta ground to cover tonight, rumors to check out, gotta have you a tip-top shape.

The group passes around a lighter. Damien mimics Johnny's motions to light his.

DAMIEN: I am good. What are we doing tonight exactly anyway?

JACOB: Hunting down a couple of shovel heads — poor SOBs that got turned without even knowing it, then start eating folk out in the open and it gives the brass the hives. No control — no training — just a trail of bodies. Johnny here heard tell that there is a pair of them hunting by Inman trainyard, just need to get confirmation from his guy before we head in.

DAMIEN: So we gotta take out these evil vampire dudes?

Johnny shakes his head.

JOHNNY: If we can nab him, the Warlocks wanna do a blood test or something — see what they can find out — but things going south? You kill those motherfuckers alright, kid? Better to ask for forgiveness and all that.

He puts out his cigarette and opens his phone.

JOHNNY: Just need to make a call — be right back.

JACOB: You can't stay here.

DAMIEN: What? No, wait!

Damien wakes up in a coffee shop. And old man behind the bar is shouting at him.

OLD MAN: I said you can't stay here — it's been hours. Can't you read? No loitering.

He gestures to a sign that reads NO LOITERING.

DAMIEN: Fine. Whatever.

He grunts, stands up, and leaves the bar.

Trivia

• The music playing in the background of Damien's memory of the bar is "Shadow" by the Chromatics.
  
  
• Toqué, also spelled Tokay and Tokaji, is a Hungarian white wine from Slovakia especially popular in the Hapsburg Empire and its later colonies, including French-settled areas of Canada.
  
  
• The Violet repeatedly referred to in this scene is Violet Delacroix, Damien's sire.
  
  
• Johnny's rapid accent which Damien has trouble identifying is a Mid-Atlantic American accent, suggesting that he has been alive at least since the 1940s when it was last in common usage.
  
  
• The Inman Railroad Yard, once called the Chicago Train Yard, is a real place in Atlanta and was often the site of Camarilla versus Sabbat skirmishes during the East Coast Offensive.