Scene Summary: Session's End

Session's End
Chronicle	New York Chronicle
Game Date	December 16, 2014
Real Date	April 16-30, 2016
Characters	Ian Kross Olivia Roth
Locations	Ventrue Correctional Facility
Previous Scene	Everything Comes Down to This (Ian, Olivia)
Next Scene	What Makes a Man III (Ian, Olivia)
Content Warnings	Captivity, Death, Domestic Abuse, Mind Control, Misogyny, Violence
Original Scene	Session's End

Session's End is a scene from the New York Chronicle featuring Ian Kross and Olivia Roth. It depicts Olivia forcing Ian to agree to further therapy under threat of death and Ian admitting to having hurt his past lovers.

Scene Summary

Olivia arrives at Ian's cell, angry after having just been rejected in her attempt to help Evelyn and being manipulated by Marcus. She enters the cell without knocking and finds Ian sitting on his bed, staring at the wall. She tells him that they need to talk, recognizing as she does that she is impatient and emotional. Ian agrees to talk, having spent the past hours thinking about how Jean Claude Danut's letter has destroyed his happy memories of Maeve Glaistig, making her mementos now reminders of her death, and how he is dedicated to killing Jean Claude but knows he will never feel better even if he does.

Olivia asks Ian if he is remorseful for almost killing Evelyn Summerfield, to which he replies that he is and asks if she is all right. Olivia tells him that she is not and asks if he understands the gravity of the situation, which makes Ian angry; he asks her if she has ever frenzied or killed someone, and she admits that she has never frenzied but that she has killed. She demands that he answer her questions, threatening to end his therapy if he does not, to which he replies that she is threatening him with death and shouldn't pretend not to be. He tells her that she is no better than he is when it comes to dealing out death, but she disagrees, saying that only the act is easy, not the aftermath.

Ian becomes angrier, telling her that she knows nothing about killing and is young and foolish, and that if she's lucky she'll die before becoming as well-acquainted with it as he is. Unimpressed, she tells him that his belief that his violence and anger make him a tragic monster is a shield against the truth, that he is a coward who cannot take responsibility for his actions, and tells him that she will not be sorry to have him killed because he is not worth saving. Ian asks why she is here and points out that it's common knowledge that he is a bad person, asking if she thinks he is afraid to die; she replies that he's afraid to live and to deal with what he has done.

Furious, Ian uses Presence to try to overwhelm Olivia, who asks if he will become violent. He instead collapses to his bed, letting the Presence fade, and cries for several minutes, after which he admits to killing a woman. Olivia asks if it was his wife Rebecca Crosswell and he says that he did kill her, but meant Maeve. Olivia sympathetically encourages him to tell the story to her.

Ian narrates the last time he saw Becky, explaining that when he became a ghoul for Marcus Aurelius and started to show signs of alcoholism, they fought constantly and she eventually threatened to leave him, taking their unborn baby with her. He tells Olivia that he threw Becky against a wall and hit her, and privately remembers telling her that she was never going to leave him. He then explains that Becky went into early labor and that by the time he made it to the hospital she had died, having undergone a C-section to save the baby. He explains that he told himself that Marcus' influence forced him to do it, but implies that he now knows better.

Ian goes on to tell Olivia about his last night in Chicago, explaining that he got into a fight with Maeve in front of Elysium, also hitting her and then never seeing her again. He admits to feeling good about hurting her and breaks down again. Olivia thanks him for telling her and thinks about adding all this information to her notes. She tells him that it is the lines that people refuse to cross that define them, and that since he crossed this one, it will define him until he deals with it.

Olivia tells him that she wants to help him, to which he replies that he knows that Marcus wants her to in order to make him useful again. Olivia thinks that she genuinely does want to help him but that she cannot tell him so due to Marcus' surveillance watching them, and instead tells him that they all have their reasons, and that therapy will be hard for him but worth it. She then leaves the cell.

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.

Everything Comes Down to This Script Summary

Olivia passes the guards outside Ian's cell and enters. The door slams behind her. Ian is sitting on the bed, staring at the wall.

OLIVIA: Good evening, Mr. Kross. We need to talk.

IAN: All right.

Olivia sits down at the desk and folds her hands in her lap.

OLIVIA: Do you feel remorse for what you did?

Ian stares at her.

IAN: Yes. Of course I do.

OLIVIA: Good. I am glad you are remorseful. It means you are not beyond help. But remorse is the bare minimum of what I require.

He leans forward, resting his arms on his knees.

IAN: Is she all right?

OLIVIA: Evelyn will live. Beyond that, I have no idea if she's all right, but I would think not. You nearly killed her, Mr. Kross. Do you understand... the enormity of that?

IAN: Yes. Do you? Have you ever frenzied before, Dr. Roth? Have you ever killed anyone before?

OLIVIA: No. And yes. But I am asking the questions now, Mr. Kross. Not you. I made my terms very clear. I don't tolerate violence, of any kind, and while I didn't think it was necessary to include violence against defenseless women in our agreement, I will assume that it was nevertheless understood.

She holds up a hand to stop him from interrupting.

OLIVIA: You will answer my questions, all of them, and once we are done, if I'm satisfied with what you have to say for yourself, then we can move on from this. Otherwise, I'm suiggesting to Marcus that we discontinue your therapy.

IAN: Are you threatening me? You are, aren't you? You're threatening to have me 'destroyed'. All tastesful euphemism aside, that is what ending our therapy means, isn't it?

He shakes his head.

IAN: You want to lecture me on the seriousness of taking a life and yet here you are. Admitting that, end of the day, it really is as easy as that.

He snaps his fingers. Olivia flinches.

IAN: I understand what it means to kill someone, and that's not jack shit. Maybe you'll live long enough to figure that out for yourself. Though if you're lucky, you won't.

OLIVIA: Is it? As easy as that? I don't think so. At the time, I can see where it would seem easy. Instinct takes over and there is a part in us, all of us, that is capable and ready. But what comes after, that's not easy, is it?

IAN: Spare me. Really. Just—

He shakes his head again, then looks at her.

IAN: You don't actually know anything. Certainly not about this.

He leans toward her.

IAN: I'm sure you were hot shit before Marcus found you. Women like you have all the answers, I find. Careful little lives where nothing's mussed and everything makes sense. But that means fuck-all now. You're not a spring chick, though, are you? Been around the block a few times, and stupid enough to think it matters. You killed someone? So what? Doesn't make you special. Sure as hell doens't mean you have any idea what you are fucking talking about!

Olivia flinches and Ian sneers.

IAN: You're still counting. Whatever bad men you've dealt with, whatever you've seen or done that lets you think you know what this is like, it doesn't have shit on me. You're not even in my league.

He looks away.

IAN: It's a whole new world now, doll. And as horrible as you think I am, it's nothing on what you're going to have to deal with. Every night. Until somebody comes along and puts you out of your misery.

OLIVIA: Are you done? Good. Now it's my turn.

She looks him over and re-crosses her legs, tilting her head to regard him.

OLIVIA: You are belligerent and condescending; and, yes, you can be very violent. You think that this makes you a monster. Secretly, you think it makes you tragic.

Ian tries to interrupt but she ignores him.

OLIVIA: But it makes you neither of those things. What it makes you, is a coward. Everything else is a smoke screen, a very impressive show with absolutely nothing behind it. It is a distraction, in the hopes that no one will ever get close enough to see you for what you really are. You are incapable of taking any responsibility for your own life. You play at remorse, and guilt, when they're just words to you, another diversion you can throw up whenever anyone tries to hold you accountable. You're just a weak man, terrified of looking in the mirror. And yes, I could leave here and have you killed and it wouldn't bother me at all. Not because you're dangerous, but because you have yet to show me anything at all worth saving.

There is a long silence.

IAN: Then why the fuck are you still here? You think I'm a piece of shit? Good on you, but I'll tell you it doesn't really take a degree to figure that one out. I don't want your pity, Roth. Do you think I'm afraid to die?

OLIVIA: No. I don't think you're afraid to die. I think...

She leans forward in her chair and Ian looks away.

OLIVIA: I think you're afraid to live. The idea of actually leaving this place, of going out into the world again, it terrifies you. You know that as soon as you do, it'll be real. You'll have to deal with what's happened, whether you want to or not.

She leans back in her chair.

OLIVIA: Which is why you are a coward.

IAN: Enough!

He jumps to his feet.

IAN: That's enough! I am done with this, with — with you and Marcus and fucking all of it. Just... Just... STOP IT.

He uses the Presence Discipline to fill the room with his power. Olivia stands and looks up at him.

OLIVIA: Or what, Mr. Kross? You'll hit me?

Ian collapses on his bed and puts his head in his hands, his power fading away.

IAN: I killed her.

Olivia sits back down as well and waits for a long moment.

OLIVIA: Who, Mr. Kross? Your wife?

Ian begins to sob and curls in on himself, grasping at his hair. He cries for several minutes before looking up.

IAN: Yeah. Yeah, her too.

Olivia leans forward and touches his knee.

OLIVIA: Sometimes... Sometimes we have to let things go, if only because they've become to heavy to carry. Tell me what happened.

IAN: We fought a lot. Becky and me. It only got worse when I started working for Marcus. I was gone near every night and when I wasn’t… I was at the pub. She hated it. She hated— She wanted to go home. She told me, one afternoon before I left. The baby was coming soon and she, she wanted to leave. So I hit her. A-and I threw her against the wall. Then I left. Someone found me a few hours later, told me I needed to go home. I ran, but… She was already gone. And by the time I made it to hospital, she— She was dead. They said something broke, inside of her. The baby wasn't — wasn't turned around yet, not ready yet. They saved it, but... They had to cut it out of her. I told myself it was the blood. It wasn’t, it wasn’t who I was. It wasn't me. I swore—

He looks down at his hands.

IAN: My last night in Chicago… Mary and I got into it. Great screaming match in the middle of the Elysium lawn. Suppose we fought a lot, too. I hit her. Didn't even think about it. I just...

He laughs, then sobs.

IAN: I hit her, like it was nothing. And for a second, it... It felt good. That was the last time I saw her.

OLIVIA: I see.

She takes her hand away.

OLIVIA: Thank you. I realize that must have been very difficult for you. They say that we are what we do. But I’ve never believed that. I think… I think that, many times, we are what we refuse to do. We’re defined by the lines we draw, in a way. Which is why crossing those lines can be so destructive to who we think we are. Without them, it’s hard to know if anything we define ourselves by is valid. This will define you until you address it. Dying may seem easier, and even appropriate, but we both know it’s just another way to run. I think you’re tired of running, Ian. And I want to help you, so that you don’t have to anymore.

IAN: Course you do. Marcus wants me all patched up, doesn't he? Suppose I'm not much good to him, locked up down here.

OLIVIA: I suppose not. You're not good to anyone locked down here, including yourself.

She stands.

OLIVIA: Marcus has his reasons for what he does, and so do I. They are each our own. I want to help you, but you have to let me. It won't be easy, I won't lie to you. It will be worth it, though. If you let me.

She leaves the cell.

Trivia

• Having fought in both World Wars as well as multiple vampire conflicts, Ian has killed more people than he remembers.
  
  
• Although it was Jean Claude Danut who claims to have killed Maeve, Ian blames himself for her death, drawing a parallel between her death and his wife Rebecca Crosswell's.
  
  
• This marks the second time Ian has told anyone about his wife's death; the first was a conversation with his childe Xander Savage.
  
  
• Ian refers to "the blood" he blamed for his behavior; he was a ghoul bloodbound to his now-sire Marcus Aurelius at the time. Although this is clearly an excuse, Marcus' bloodline does carry the Short Fuse flaw, making them become angry and violent more easily.
  
  
• The baby Ian refers to being born via C-section is Elizabeth Crosswell, Alexander Kross's grandmother.