Scene Summary: What Makes a Man

What Makes a Man
Chronicle	New York Chronicle
Game Date	December 5, 2014
Real Date	November 29, 2015
Characters	Ian Kross Olivia Roth
Locations	Ventrue Correctional Facility
Previous Scene	Fathers and Sons (Ian)
Next Scene	We All Want to Go Home (Ian) What Makes a Man II (Olivia)
Content Warnings	Captivity, Suicide
Original Scene	What Makes a Man

What Makes a Man is a scene from the New York Chronicle featuring Ian Kross and Olivia Roth. It depicts Ian refusing therapy from his relatives.

Scene Summary

Ian and Olivia are sitting in his cell at the Ventrue Rehabilitation Facility. After a long silence, Ian asks where his sire Marcus Aurelius is, to which Olivia replies that he is away but that she can pass on a message. Ian gives her an obscene message for Marcus as well as a request to see him, but is interested when Olivia does not refuse to pass on both.

Ian asks Olivia if she knows anything about Maeve Glaistig. After consulting her notes, Olivia tells him that she does not know where Maeve is, and asks what their relationship was. Ian becomes angry and tells her that he refuses to answer questions, and that her attempt at providing him therapy is pointless. When she asks if he thinks that therapy wouldn't help him, he stands up and shouts at her about being locked up and not knowing what has happened to his girlfriend, suggesting that she wants him to pointlessly talk about his feelings or mother. Olivia makes a note that this is the first time Ian has described Maeve as his girlfriend, and asks if he wants to talk about his mother, an offer he declines.

Ian lies back on his bed and tells Olivia to warn Marcus that he will not wait here much longer. Olivia waits for several minutes of silence before walking to the cell door, where she pauses and tells Ian that he must decide which of two options he wants: to either undergo therapy with her and become a better man, or enter Wassail and be killed by his sire.

Olivia leaves and walks down the hallway into a stairwell, where she stops to make a phone call to Marcus, telling him that it is time for Ian to be told something.

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.

What Makes a Man Script Summary

Ian and Olivia are sitting in his cell at the Ventrue Correctional Facility.

IAN: Where's Marcus?

OLIVIA: He is away on business. Would you like me to pass on a message?

IAN: Yeah, tell him to go fuck himself. Then tell him that I want to see him.

Olivia nods and makes a note.

IAN: You're going to tell him to go fuck himself?

OLIVIA: No. I am going to tell Marcus that you told him to go fuck himself. May we begin?

IAN: Do you know anything?

OLIVIA: You will have to be more specific, Mr. Kr—"

IAN: About Ma— Maeve. Glaistig.

Olivia looks through her notes.

OLIVIA: Yes. I see. No, I do not know where she is, if that's what you're asking. What was your relationship to Ms. Glaistig?

IAN: Oh no. No, no. This isn't — this isn't a conversation. I'm asking the questions. So far, you're being bloody useless.

OLIVIA: How so?

IAN: This.

He points from himself to Olivia.

IAN: This right here. It's pointless.

OLIVIA: You believe that you would not benefit from therapy?

IAN: Therapy?

He stands up suddenly.

IAN: I'm locked in a room in my sire's basement. My girlfriend's been missing for three weeks. And what you want is, you want me to talk about my fucking feelings. My... my mother or something.

Olivia shrinks slightly as Ian shouts, then makes a note.

OLIVIA: Would you like to talk about your mother, Mr. Kross?

Ian sneers at Olivia and sits back down.

IAN: No. I don't want to talk about my mother.

He lies back on the bed and puts his hands over his face.

IAN: Tell Marcus I'm waiting. Tell him... I won't do it much longer.

There is a long silence. Olivia collects her things and walks to the cell door.

OLIVIA: Mr. Kross, your confinement may be troubling to you, but it will soon be over. Either you will leave here a better man and set out to find what you're looking for, or you will succumb to your beast and be put down like a rabid animal. The only person who can make that decision is you.

She leaves the cell and walks down the hall and into the stairwell, where she pauses to make a phone call.

OLIVIA: Marcus, you need to come home. It's time he was told.

Trivia

• While this is not the first time Ian and Olivia have had a therapy session, it is the first time that Ian has ever spoken during one.
  
  
• Ian stutters over Maeve's name due to almost saying her birth name Mary instead, which he knows she only shares with select people.
  
  
• Olivia deliberately avoids answering Ian's question about whether she knows anything about Maeve; although she doesn't know where Maeve is, she does know that she is dead, something that Marcus has been hiding from Ian.