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of-fucking-course she's going to be suspicious of them! this is the town she loves, and she doesn't want to take down the old guard, just to replace them with a new batch of rich vampires. she cares so much for the people of purpee, and building community, and she's absolutely in the right for questioning the motives of these new people, who are buying up equity in a lot of the towns amenities. and asking hj to invest his money into the credit union-you guys understand that she doesn't get that money right? she's asking them to actually put down roots in purpee, and to show her they're here to stay, in exchange for her help and cooperation.

Emily as Bat Child, formerly Vesper Childers in a move of sincerity confesses "Look, I don't wanna throw a wrench in tomorrow, but it's also my birthday. "

I've been thinking of how LaVonte looks at HJ and how that look has changed the more HJ feels like himself. "stop shimmying" "don't make eye contact with me". HJ's body language towards LaVonte taunts and invites him to join him in releasing the inhibitions, to feel and move with that feeling, to be free in their mind and bodies. But I think LaVonte can't quite or doesn't quite want to get there, because that freedom is scary.

One of the facets of socioeconomic oppression is the policing of embodiment and feeling. There are consequences to that freedom.

Growing up as a Black child and being a Black man, being a Black vampire in and despite the institution of the Camarilla, LaVonte has likely experienced or witnessed the consequences of that freedom. The consequences of not following the rules. The consequences of not having your shit in a way amicable to the white supremacist, colonial, and capitalist cisheteropatriachy. Those cops listened to him because he was a Black business owner in 2025; unlikely they would have in 1960, 1970, or 1980. His life has literally been threatened multiple times by white Camarilla elders.

I started feeling that freedom recently and it truly is free. But it can also be scary. To look at how you have been conditioned, pressured, and forced to be as a Black person and choose to not comply, to resist, and be in your body, mind, and spirit, is a hard thing.

The easier thing is to aspire to acquire the power that has been wielded against you. And the way to do that is being orderly as order has been defined by those powers. To be a Black capitalist. So LaVonte did that, does that. He sucks while being sucked as it feels him in ways that obscure the emptiness he doesn't want to feel. As he said looking at his stark white room, it makes him feel whole.

In what we've seen of the vampires, Camarilla vampires namely, physical or verbal expressions of affection is scarce. Affection is not the same as sexual or sensual desire which we have seen often. When Koschei was calling Zaeth his perfect boy, Virkus basically told him to stay nonchalant. Koschei was perplexed by Zaeth's care for his coterie.

It is very clear to us, and now Maya, how deeply LaVonte loves HJ. And I think we can say HJ loves LaVonte too. At Rediron Towers, there wasn't an expression of any kind of affection they have for each other. It was a typical working relationship with the face of HJ basically being LaVonte's boss.

The longer they've been in Purpee, the more affectionate HJ has been towards LaVonte in the presence of the rest of the coterie and beyond. I think this change has much to do with HJ learning about himself since the SSRIs and them being there, removed from the peering eyes of the Camarilla. LaVonte hasn't expressed his affections until this past episode when he calls HJ his best friend. And I think that has much to do with him separating from the institution of the Camarilla.

There is the theory that LaVonte has internalized homophobia but I am more inclined to think that his hesitation to express his affections has to do with his relationship with HJ specifically rather than his relationship with men generally.

To be affectionate towards someone is to tell the world that's a person you are vulnerable to and vulnerable because of. If the Camarilla knew LaVonte loved HJ the way he does, he may not have been embraced. For a vampire, HJ, to love a mortal, LaVonte, that deeply is a threat to The Masquerade. I think the Camarilla would have sooner killed him than let HJ turn a mortal he fell in love with. So they had to keep a distance. LaVonte had to prove himself on his own merits with Worthy Industries. And as we can tell by how LaVonte has been treated, he continues to have to prove himself.

If his conversation with Maya is any indication, he is done with struggling towards that validation. So he calls him his best friend, and Maya doesn't need him to be named for them to know exactly who the fuck he's talking about.