Scrap! Scrap! Scrap! I gotta tell you about this website I found, Hero Forge, where you
can customize your own miniatures!
I know, I told Ayg about it. Isn't it cool? How they have both sci-fi, post-apocalyptic,
and they have fantasy pieces.
And the creator is so fun, I could mess about in there making little guys forever.
Yeah, but if you like one, you can order it painted or unpainted.
Did you hear? You can now customize their faces!
Even the small details like the eyes and the nose! I only wish that you could pick the color of the standee!
You totally can, dude! It's so rad, you literally click and drag the color onto your figure
like you're virtually painting it!
Hey, you know what would be perfect? Is if we make the crew in and make them kiss!
Started a campaign with the crew?
What?
I thought we were on the same page there. That's my bad.
Wait, did you say something about getting the crew to kiss?
No, no, no, no, it's another one. Inazariaka just stressing me out. It doesn't matter.
Alright, don't worry about it, it's fine.
Okay, I'm gonna go.
Alright.
Good talk.
Bye!
Hey there, Adam and the Sea Travelers. It's Nordina Lee, the voice of our envoy, Azzam.
You know, when we set out to start the show, I built him drawing from my own family's history of coerced displacement
as well as drawing from other histories with similar themes.
Listening to Azzam's history of rebellion, of having his home planet be colonized,
it may be a bit harder than usual today, considering the recent surge of awareness in many real world struggles.
Just remember to listen responsibly, and if you need to take a break, hit that pause button.
And we'll be right here waiting for you to return when you feel ready to set sail again.
Stay safe out there.
You've never experienced cold quite like this, Azzam.
If you listen really carefully, you can almost hear the sizzling speed cooling of your own skin as you walk inside of the Surt Energy Mining Facility.
You've never been in one of these before, not really, not without blowing a hole in one of them first.
And you haven't blown a hole in this facility.
You're barely armed. You have such little guard that you feel a little naked.
The mercenaries that work for Surt Energy, they haven't fared well against the Ifriti people.
They've been on your planet on Irim for around five years, and the effect of the planet's cooling is being felt to a drastic degree.
But you were winning. You forced them to leave. You destroyed their machines, their systems.
They were all on the back foot.
Until recently. Surt Energy contacted the Galactic Armed Forces, the Ulf Hestnar, on terms of defense against you.
They arrived last month in a Bifrost ship, almost blocks out the sun.
You've been contacted by the leader of this unit, Captain Mongolia Cole, not yet a general.
She has asked you to meet to offer a truce.
You walk down the hall, guarded, flanked by either end by your own team.
But amongst this crowd, there are also Heth.
You arrive just before the doors to this meeting room.
I speak in my own language to my people.
Hive isn't here specifically so I could avoid using any of the languages I struggle with.
I instead stick to my own when I say, remember, we have a plan.
They've brought us here.
Which means that you have total run of a place, so long as you're careful enough.
Trust your gut.
I reach out and without looking at them, I squeeze the hand of a tall, masculine Ifriti like myself.
But with shorter curved horns. My partner in all this.
The blue flames rise a little bit as you grip hands.
They have a weapon to their side.
But Malice isn't grabbing it, but has it for protection purposes.
All right, Senator, it's all on you.
I've been a senator for a while. Ambassador.
I think.
All right. On your command.
When things go south, they will.
You know how fireworks. And with that, I walk through the door.
A woman sits on the other end of this large meeting table.
Elvin, she has this shaved head.
No armor on in a almost professional business attire.
But with these medals and badges on her left side.
As the doors open, you see that she's writing something on a holo pad and she looks up.
Hello.
You are Azarm Amir.
That is who you asked to speak to, is it not?
Yes, it is.
And you are. I'm sorry, I don't do well with trade titles. General. Captain.
Captain.
Captain. Magnolia Cole.
Captain Cole is fine. Please, sit.
Of course. And rather than sitting at the other end of the table, he walks up and sits quite close.
It's not like directly beside the other head where Magnolia is, but just one seat back.
Thank you for coming today.
I appreciate your readiness to talk.
I have brought you here because we would rather things not go too big.
We have already had a lot of bloodshed on this planet and I feel, we feel, it is enough.
We would like to offer a truce.
You will allow CERD Energy the space that they have already.
And in return, we will offer you a ship.
Not quite a Bifrost, but state of the art nonetheless.
Big enough for the Ifriti people to travel system to system and also free and open trade with the Galactic Union.
Forgive me for struggling with understanding your language. It's maybe my fourth.
But it seems to myself that your offer, as you put it, is displacing us.
That is your gift, correct? A ship so we can go somewhere else.
If I am not mistaken, your people, the Ifritis, are natural nomads.
After some time, you would leave this planet anyway on ships of your own.
We are merely offering to allow you to start this and have a wider net.
CERD Energy will have this, the majority of this planet, as a means to help protect and develop the rest of this system and beyond.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but CERD Energy is very important for the galaxy.
I am aware of many businesses' interests in CERD and dependence upon it, yes.
Which is the reason why you got sent here. Because last I checked, this is in a war between two civilizations, peoples.
This is a company coming to my planet, breaking every single promise they ever made.
Violating treaty after treaty, taking land after land, cooling this place to an unnatural degree, and now attempting to evict us.
Before this planet's life cycle is complete, I have seen CERD's former planets. I have seen those so-called developments. I have seen dust.
So make no mistake, if you wish to... compromise after bringing me here under gunned guard, fine.
But the compromise will not exclude us from our own home until such time as we decide to leave it.
You have admirability. You have a desire to help and protect. That is one that the Ulf Hefnar's values, that's part of our creed.
But you do not speak for all of the Afriti people. Many of them have agreed to work in CERD energy facilities and have expressed interest in open trade.
Out of fear and desperation, may I remind you that due to your cooling of this planet, my sincere apologies, due to CERD energy's cooling of this planet, many of our normal, traditional ways of life have been ruined and thus our economy is collapsing as we speak.
Which a ship, to be honest, will not solve.
But the open trade deals with the rest of the galaxy.
And what will we have left to trade without a planet to trade from? Our bodies?
What you speak of is a company planet, a prison planet.
Yes, I do not speak for all Ifrit people, as Ifrit is the plural. I speak for many, though, more than you.
And I see the fear and desperation, knowing our way of life is collapsing, knowing our way of life is ending, no matter what we decide here today.
I will not let my people lose what little they have.
I cannot.
A planet owned by a single company I understand you feel is untoward and undesirable. However, many have grown and prospered. Saga, there is the Nert Noir royalty.
Glonnie in Nidavella, Eli in Nidavella have the same. Saga, a planet with such a distinct class separation that those on the bottom are never heard from by those up above.
Or perhaps you speak of Nos, a planet so ruined that only dust remains on the surface.
Oh, I know. I have studied. I have prepared for your...
Certs, Enterprises.
You cannot convince me of your goodwill because I know you have none. You speak today for a corporation that only exists to gather wealth.
Wealth from my planet.
The wealth we need to enter the galaxy of our own free will, not beholden to you.
Let's be frank. You did not come here.
You did not come here to speak.
Armist deal. You came here to make it seem as if you had so you can go back and tell the rest of your...
Council...
That they might as well send more battalions to hurt us.
So...
I will leave you to your warfare.
But know that no matter if I win or if I lose...
You will lose in the end, Miss Magnolia Cole.
Do you know why?
Because this is your life now.
This is what you'll do. Planet after planet you will see nothing but death and destruction.
And all you'll be left with as your legacy is empty promises and lies.
And one day you will wish to be freed from it.
Thank you for...
Honestly, thank you for nothing.
Excuse me.
And with like an audible groan and cracks of his own body, Azzam gets up, nods sardonically, and begins to walk out of the room.
But before I do, as I turn around...
I'd like to do a little sleight of hand, if I may.
Because there is a beautiful pistol on Magnolia's hip.
And that 20. So I think altogether that's 29?
It's not on her. I'd say it's a little easier because it's like it's almost hanging on a...
Yeah, on the chair between us, right?
Yeah, like on a clip next to her rather than being on her person.
I lean over as I say thank you for nothing.
And as I get halfway to the door, I brandish the pistol.
Shoot the table and keep walking.
She truly doesn't move.
She stays still as the gunshot goes off.
The people who the Ulfhethna next to you like raise weapons.
Your small team takes them out, Melis firing and taking out a few of them.
And as you turn to sprint down the hall, the doors attempt to close behind you but are stuck on an Ulfhethna body as this firefight is going on.
You turn to see her sat in the same position unmoving as you all run watching you leave.
The screams showing temperature.
Daily events for CERT Energy. Some small advertisements.
They all shift and flick following you down the hall showing your face on a large propaganda poster.
You in this angry snarl.
And the words, beware the firebrand.
As we exit, I make a detour to where the energy facilities are kept.
And I overheat the flames before I finally leave.
Firebrand indeed.
As you watch the flames and the smolders and the small amounts of devastation that you and your team have left behind in the firefight, you got out with your team uninjured.
But as you watch this scene, the burning and the bodies,
we cut back to newmores.
The same flames burn in this cathedral.
The bodies strewn.
These bodies don't die.
The, beware the firebrand posters replaced with, love the light.
And not sat watching you down the hall, but a large crackle and movement of an elevator far, far off in the distance.
You see moving down some new arrivals who you know is now General Magnolia Cole.
You all are ferried and hurried away back into a, the carriage that Aphrodite had taken you around in all day.
You can still hear some moans of undying screams in the background as the door shuts, cutting out all of the noise of the outside.
The car drives away.
And arrives near, near the cathedral where you, where this firefight went down, is a large, very regal ornate mansion.
These two gargoyles flank either end as these gates open and with your small, like entourage of carriages arrive in.
Stops outside of this mansion.
Someone, not Samson. Samson was waiting at the, at the cathedral, finishing out the firefight.
Another wellness officer comes and opens up the door to the, to the carriage.
I am sorry for the, for the firefight, please.
Inside of this mansion is perfectly safe. This is the, the director's quarters, their house, they live here, they have set up rooms for you already.
You will be perfectly safe inside of the manor.
Is this place?
Sorry, places like this just fix my alarm bells all the time. It's a bit oppressive, right?
Such as me.
Out of another car door, you hear the exaggerated wails of a, of an actress as Venus steps out and says, oh my god!
I am so sorry that that was the first, the first show of our beautiful city to you all.
Thank you. I'm so, so glad that you are all safe.
Hello. Hi. We didn't formally introduce ourselves.
I'm so sorry. I'm, I'm all worked up.
But it's so nice. It's so nice to see. It's so nice to meet you all.
Good to go inside. I hope you, I hope you're all okay. Is everyone, is there any scratches on anyone? Is everyone good?
Just emotionally, I think.
Just imposing.
Oh, you sweet poor thing. Yes. No, it's very intense. It's, I, I, I do hope that you, that, that you are all okay.
When were you planning on telling us that?
I, well, I didn't, we didn't think that anything like this would happen.
Not, definitely not during a sermon. Those things are normally very sacred and people don't, don't do that.
This is, this is very new to us. Please don't, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm just so worked up at the minute.
I understand that you would be too. This is, it's a very distressing evening.
Don't worry. We have your rooms available and you have all, each an en suite.
And there is, we have some charcuteries that will be ready and some fun games. We'll have a nice night.
We are safe inside of here and we will get you all, all situated and fine. I'm, I'm so, so sorry again.
I cannot, I cannot imagine the stress.
I do love a bit of charcuterie and fun games.
Yes, it'll be, it should be fun. Okay, sorry. I'm just so, I'm all out of sorts.
Oh, we've, we've seen worse. Does this happen often? You know, if you've seen this.
Well, it's been a bit, a bit more lately, but normally it's, it's purely, and then there is a hearty cough.
And Venus turns, Aphrodite stands prim and proper behind her.
Venus, darling, we don't want to be bothering our guests.
I understand that this was a little more intense, but please, we will save the descriptions for later.
Oh, of course. Okay. Thank you. I need a shower after that.
She runs in.
I do apologize to all of you. That was not the best look of our, on our city.
Please come follow me in.
As everyone begins to get the car, she turns to Theriac, founder.
I am desperately sorry that this happened whilst you visited, especially on the first day.
Things like this are rare, but we understand that people in cities, they're just some troublemakers, some quite bad eggs.
I do not want it to disrupt your time here. I apologize.
I truly don't think my compatriot's question was answered earlier.
Of course.
We have had some,
some people with ill intent in the Undying Ridges who occasionally, yes, do
things which are ill advised, unbecoming of our city.
It doesn't happen a lot. It doesn't happen often.
And especially not during sermons.
I do apologize, founder, deeply.
Aphrodite answered my question, right?
Did she even look at me once when answering it? Was it directly?
No way. Not even a little.
I fucking hate this place. It sucks.
You're not the only one.
This is the bad place.
And Theriac, please know, there are some people who are arriving who are not here to help with this situation, but we are going to organize a meeting to try.
I know that you have some Ulfhethnar amongst your ranks for protection and we are calling in.
We haven't called in more, but they are coming and we will ask to help with our little problem here.
There are some Ulfhethnar who are on their way.
No, they were not called by us. They are coming for unrelated purposes, but much like the blessing of you coming, whilst we have some business that we would like to engage in, we are hoping the same for these visitors of ours.
Why?
Why are the Ulfhethnar coming?
That they have yet to disclose.
We haven't answered questions here today, including the question that my compatriot asked earlier.
When were you going to tell us?
Yeah.
Give me a date and a time.
Date and time.
During our meeting, later today, we were going to approach the topic.
We did not think that there would be any form of attack during your stay. Your stay was just as unannounced.
You turned up on our door. If you were to give us more heads up, then perhaps there would have been more decorum when it comes to this.
But because we wanted to house you and use this, per chance, luck of you arriving here, we wanted to push ahead and make sure all of this is above board.
In our meeting later, there will be questions answered, asked of us too, and I do hope that this does not mean that there will not be a positive relationship between Freyr Incorporated and Wild Times.
I'm terribly sorry, but I think there may be some complications with that.
I look at the Theriak and it's like Ozan looks scared.
I would like for Theriak and Ozan, probably, because Ozan did notice this in our last session, that all of this heated growing attention on us,
I has been quiet and is looking very aware of her wanted status, of the attention growing, of like the heated moment, and has no, in this situation, there's nowhere for her to duck or go behind or there's no curtain.
She's just standing there looking more perturbed.
I would ask that Theriak and us be given some time alone for a little bit in our room, one of the rooms, so we may debrief with each other and discuss our future plans.
Founder, is this something you would like?
I would quite enjoy that.
Very good. You have the left wing all to yourself, whilst the directors are here, we would like a meeting.
Meeting scheduled more toward the 8pm time, about four hours from now.
So, of course, go in. It's a very stressful time. I appreciate it. Thank you.
She walks off.
We should go, we don't know how many eyes are out here.
I'm wigging out dudes.
I am wigging.
Oh, is there any way for me to tell where Flair is? I assume our magic is similar.
Is there any way, am I able to like kind of sense what room they're in based on that?
Roll me a computers and I'm going to roll a computers on Flair and we're going to see if you two are connected enough to be able to.
Okay. Yeah, that's a 29.
You get a small ping, like a thread that you can see, a very familiar thread. It is shaky and doesn't quite hold, but you can see that it's like he is in the West Wing sleeping quarters.
The tactician, you want to roll me a tactician to see where people would be placed?
I like tactician.
That's another natural 20.
So it's a 30.
Aphrodite said you had the West Wing.
You would know that your party would already be there.
Theriac would have the like master bedroom. If there was a big like she also did say that you all had en suites, but Theriac would probably have a like the the fucking room.
It's like an apartment.
Yeah, what's an en suite?
It's got a bathroom attached.
Like in the hotel room?
Yeah, most hotel rooms have en suites. Hold on. I think Fleur would probably be somewhere, well, probably very exposed because I doubt Aphrodite would care for reverse safety.
Right about here.
And like I gently push open the door.
Going into the into this West Wing, it is this red carpeted, these vases with a small hovering bot that is trimming them, trimming down a lot of the pedals, the pedals seem all fine but they are they are they are cutting stems and anyone who knows any form of botany
knows they're doing a very weird job of what they're doing.
Making sure that they pack they like Hoover up all of the the petals and cut leaves these flowers in these very kitschy ornate like well designed vases.
Big large mural pictures on on the walls with landscapes and some depicting this like beautiful machinery painted on canvas and some art of what looks like an artist's interpretation of what Newmores is this like dark,
cold outside with this like beautiful sphere and inside of this sphere with this life and love and this colorful and it's nice and it's alive inside of that sphere is another smaller one bright white streaks of white paint fly off and almost like this this sun is illuminating all of Newmores
this paintings like that as I'm you push open the door.
And you see a room which is modest, it is nicely sized has a bed, a TV in it, a small like holodeck communicator that you can use to, you know, if you understand people's number you type in a number, sit on a chair and then the other person responds like this like you are sitting across from each other but it would be a hologram that is created in front of you.
Chandelier big thick heavy red curtains and Flair who's has the cupboard open and is like pulling out clothes, trying to seemingly trying to look for some something to change into since their clothes are ragged and still have a hole in it from when they were skewered in the leg from the crashing of the patchwork.
Head whips turns to you, breathe that big heavy sigh of relief.
Oh, hey.
So, I saw what happened on the TV.
Before we start, can I just do a little look around the room for any like bugs or security cameras.
Sure.
Give me a, I believe, I believe perception is a thing.
Can I assist.
Can assist you can assist do your own role if you want.
We can all kind of look a little bit if you would look, if you would like, everyone can make their own. Got it.
1731.
Nice. Very good.
Everyone gets the cleaning robot that's outside, probably has some form of tracking in it.
It has like a, it's remote controlled so it would have a chip telling people where it is, but also has like a sensor camera on it, which people can use to see where people have been.
There are a few of these as you were walking through the the main hallway these two large staircases going up connected to a second floor, and then you quickly went off into the West Wing.
You would have seen a few of these minor cleaning bots around.
A thing that a Zom would notice.
The TV, the hollow communicator, and probably a few other minor electrical items in the room, have the,
the ability to like search a person's history, they can, it's like, oh, sign up and you can get, you know, x y z and you sign up and it reads your email address and will sell it to other people, it will you have it, like, just by flicking through the TV, it kind of has an
imprint of what you like and what you're doing and your time and
the TV has this like very very slight swivel on it, where if you move to another end of the room, it will turn to make sure that you're always at the perfect angle, and that too counts as a camera.
I just pointed every camera ability to monitor you, camera, audio.
I just go through the list. The cleaning bot that is outside that is likely recording and listening in.
I think I would like to see if Ferple can like hang out by the door and just like give off static.
Sure. All right. Make me a computers. You specifically computers.
At the 19 base roll, which, so that is a third 31.
Although you can't see it, you see the all these different threads which I imagine I don't think we ever described but I've always imagined I threads being almost like, like that. Yeah, big thick pieces of yarn, big pieces of yarn that I see is floating around in the sky.
Yes. Good.
I imagine you can see all of the ones that connect to verbal. There's a point when they begin to disappear, as if they are causing the static of.
Yeah, they're causing static to robotic things to like blocking out this space to like lock down my on sweet can I roll like a computers or an engineering or something. So if there's any sort of monitoring crap in like, so we have a spot to talk going to what like so you leave and try to find your own room on walking in.
Actually, even just before you open that you see that your door is just like a little a jar before you go in, and you hear, like, very minor quiet sparks and some machinery being moved around.
And as you slowly open the door, you see wires of the TV at the back of be pulled out, and I like going down to a chair that is lent up against the wall and you see scrap who is already like fully like disabling all of like any form of watchable tech in the room.
And then sees you puts it down as like, are you okay, I saw what happened on the TV in my room dude. I've only just started I want to eventually go round and unplug everyone's room.
Are you okay, are you okay my room first.
Yeah, are you fine. No, that was a lot.
So, the people can't die.
So everyone gathers into skies room that is like shit off the wall.
Like a bit of a mess there is the smell of like a burning wire.
Verpal gets to the door and then does the same move again makes this static so nothing can look in scrap seems a little bit more frantic than you've seen them before.
Flair is seemingly quite calm, Kielan is pacing and Estrid is feet up on the table.
Yeah, so you, you're, you're, you are fine. Right. Define. Do you mean by fine. Like physically.
Yeah, physically fine. I'm there was a firefight right next to you. You're all okay.
They didn't do anything to you.
Okay, good question. Raise your hand if you're injured.
All right. We were able to see the first part of a sermon, but then as soon as someone got up and started screaming we saw a grenade being chucked, and then everything cut out, and only to be reported on the news afterward.
Okay. So we heard what happened. Well, you heard the first part of what happened.
We heard the first part and we also know that people can't die as well. That is something that we did get because the news, the news said that they were. Yeah.
Can I tell you all something.
Also, sometimes I can, I can, you know, um, hear people's thoughts, a little bit, just a little tiny message.
Wait, since when? Since robots and stuff.
Like computers. Sometimes it's like brain waves.
You can do that?
I can hear a little bit of a, um, and I can send a little message and hear one back and well, um, I just thought it was strange what those, you know, folks were yelling about and I didn't think, I didn't want to jump to conclusions that
they were doing something bad. So I tried to listen in and find out what was happening.
And I heard them screaming in my head for about 10 minutes or so until I lost the connection. And they were dead.
They should, in all intents and purposes, they would have been dead from what happened. But it's not just Newmores. It's not just the state of being here.
People took them to make them stay alive.
I think that the people who started that protest, I think they're still alive somewhere right now.
And I think that they probably have more information about what's going on here than we can ascertain from anything these people are going to tell us.
Our goal is what is in the center of this place. And I feel like if we do take it, it crumbles. So we need to decide what we want to do here. What, because if we want to break this city, it will take a lot of work.
Yeah, the whole city?
We could also just try and steal the crystal and leave.
Stealing the crystal and leaving already feels kind of impossible. You want to break the whole city with like, what, eight people?
No, not with eight people, I think.
Fury, you have this far off look in your eyes. I feel like I should be asking if you're okay.
I am frankly horrifying.
This...
There are many people who would fall back on the rash excuse of things being quote unquote unnatural for certain reasons.
This is despicably unnatural.
The screaming that you heard, I can only assume, is the fact that these people are in the midst of excruciating pain.
If this is the same sort of affliction that the Baron carries, then I fear us taking the crystal would kill everyone.
Why do you think they're so interested in you?
What offers places is a mockery of scientific endeavor, in a similar but different way to what Wild Times was.
I imagine that they see, thanks to Wild Times' history, this kind of exploitation being not too far off from what you stand for.
I am also just personally angry at Venus for...
basically implying that we have known each other for a long time, and that's just an extremely shitty thing to do, professionally or not.
Right, she implied that you are part of this somehow.
Exactly, now I'm culpable of this.
Forgive me, Fury, I think you could be.
I understand that, but...
I don't know, how old is Newmores?
Like, when was this city founded?
This place has been a city for at least 500 years, but if...
Wild Times' company was not always operated by Furyac and by Mr. Wild, right?
It was owned by... there was a board, which means that board may have made certain deals, we're not aware of it.
Yeah, but it was an upper-decker's resort before that.
It had nothing to do with animal conservation, as far as I'm aware.
Yeah, it had to do with animal exploitation.
Look around you, I think there's a lot of exploitation happening here.
Well, maybe...
Maybe it's not that they were involved together, maybe they...
...wanted to use Wild Times' technology...
...somehow here.
It did seem pretty bummed when Furyac implied that business was a no-go.
Hmm.
If you wish to stand with these people, who we do not know, and fight back against this place, I do have an idea, but it would take...
It would take us all stomaching some things with ravenhawks.
Fuck yeah.
I am, of course, into hearing the idea, but we don't know anything about this place or its people.
There's clearly some form of faction, group of people who are against it, and I don't think that this is a place for us.
The crystal is, of course, nice, and I understand that you all want it for whatever reason, but it will, from what we have discussed, kill an entire city.
Which, if we are not already on every hit list imaginable, it will put us on every hit list imaginable.
Well, okay, that brings up a good point, because I am currently so disturbed by the idea of people who are wanting life to be over and are being forced to stay alive.
That is terrible, but I assume there are people here who are quite happy to be alive, and if taking the crystal would harm them all, I don't think that's a good idea either.
But I don't know.
I feel like what we need to do is perhaps learn more in totality, but I do have an idea, because I think Skye's right. Eight of us.
Skye's right?
Yeah, you're right.
A full frontal assault with eight, even eight plus who knows how many of those survivors are still wouldn't be enough.
Which means we may have to try a different approach.
What's your plan?
I don't have a plan, I just have an idea. I think we need to learn more about this place, and I do think that those three pretty people don't seem to like each other very much.
Alright, well, if we need someone to go explore the city, Flair, Estrid and I will go on a scouting mission tonight.
I think that's a grand idea. I also think that Venus has taken a special interest in you.
Of course, look at that.
She's pretty as a page.
It's not my fault, I'm a natural born entertainer.
But that's my point. If you could get in Venus' good graces, maybe say you're inspired by her, you could probably get her view on the situation and you could possibly poison the will, I believe the term is.
Why am I the one that has to get in her good graces when I'm already in her bad graces and frankly I did absolutely nothing wrong.
Venus is an artist. Artists have spats all the time. But they recognize her for artists.
For a moment I think we all forgot I'm just pretending to be an artist.
That makes you an actor, which is an artist.
I don't know, I think that you have potential.
You did a type 5.
Well I'm just funny.
And I've also heard you sing in the shower. You're pretty good.
No, that's scrap.
What?
I am very good in the shower.
You tell them.
I have a...
I'm established, I just do drum beats.
Yes.
And that's not the patchwork, a lot of people think that's the patchwork acting up.
That's why you may have noticed when you first got on the patchwork, we have a it's been zero days since Sky has last beatbox sign.
Who put that up?
Scrap.
Sky, I still think your best insight into Venus in the same way I think Thiriak is our best insight into Aphrodite.
I feel like we are the two kind of representatives for each of our respective groups, you know.
I was upset earlier, but I was very intentionally like trying to put them on edge by saying I would not do...
I may not do business with them, to have sort of an upper hand in the deal making in the future.
Aphrodite already snapped at Venus, and I'm pretty sure has no kind thoughts to spare about Adonis, maybe the easiest one to...
If we get all three heads turned against each other, we could...
We might see Viscity fall without our direct involvement.
Yes, Sky.
If the goal is to get them to all go against each other, why...
I don't think I should be going for Venus. I think I should be going for one of her best friends and make her super jealous, because she's already super jealous.
So how jealous is she going to be if like one of them like me better than her, which should be no problem.
Not a bad idea.
It's not. Who is... I did not get a long time with Adonis. Is he a security personnel bouncer?
I think military minded, strong fighting background, trained in a couple arts, Marshal. Bit of a hothead.
So definitely I. Definitely I. Yeah. Sorry!
Flair at the mention of Adonis kind of puts their hand up. They also kind of do like self help things.
On the elevator down, I was flicking through some and I watched some. It's just kind of like a better help you, you know, get through life and stuff. It didn't seem bad.
Can I dibs Adonis, Ben? Because I don't know shit about business, but I am a broken person.
By all means.
Yeah, it's that could work. It seemed a bit more geared toward masculine people like, you know, kind of get the girl.
If you want to do that, you got to clean your room and clean your room.
Clean your room? Me 13?
That's how you don't get the girl to leave.
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, but it's like that seems to kind of his gambit. I think he did some fighting before.
If Skye wants to take Adonis, I feel it might be a bit difficult, but I'm down for it.
And we also got Flair with us.
Young impressionable male.
Well, I wouldn't. I mean, all right.
This isn't nothing to do with Venus. If we want to do the end goal, I think that I should go and try and find out what the deal with the crystal is, how to get up.
I'm inclined to agree.
I can help her do that. Like, I mean, the pair of us going together, I feel like.
Okay, so I don't have to go alone. Thank you. Great.
Well, everyone else seems to have like a bit like I think finding out what the deal with the crystal is, if we can get up.
From the way you describe the light field around it, it's a bit more calculated. It's possible to. It's there. I know it's there.
There you go. It's just a case of how to get in.
You think I could talk to that one?
Maybe, but we'd have to get close and I don't want to risk it until.
It's a it seems to be like a pretty high up.
The other thing we should probably keep an eye out for is the evil Fafnir that are coming.
I assume they are coming for you.
What? If anything, wouldn't that be good for I.G. because the Void are criminals, the Void are the one looking for I.G.
So if they hear that this place is going to be swimming with all Hefnar, wouldn't it deter them from coming here?
The meaning that the Void doesn't work with Hefnar?
No, they definitely don't. No?
As far as I'm aware and I know a lot about the inner workings of the Void, they don't really touch.
I didn't know that. So I definitely thought they were here.
I think honestly, number one unwritten rule of the Void. Don't talk to all Hefnar.
Okay, okay. All right. Buying a little time.
If anyone is attracting their attention, it's probably me, but they wouldn't know I had. They wouldn't even know I came here.
No, they were here before we got scanned in.
How many Ifrit have we seen on this journey at all? We've seen you and that one old Hefnar.
Have they seen?
They haven't seen me yet, no.
Okay. Okay.
What of your partner?
Previous companion.
They haven't seen me yet.
I was in the light and they were not.
I want to be clear. Our plan is to have them turn against each other and then distract them with an interior conflict. Yes?
What happens post-conflict?
Provide or should I say, IG and Scrap provide the survivors with the ability to get in close.
It should be up to the people who. Yes, Skye.
So, theoretically, if we left this place, life would just pick up as normal. Eventually we would die. Right?
So wouldn't it make sense for everybody that didn't want that to just be able to leave?
Have we considered the possibility that we might be stuck here? Like, are they keeping people here?
But with the amount of skeletons that were outside of the city walls, people can get out. It's not unusual for people to get out.
It was all, but it's not planned. The elevator on the way up, it sped eight, nine, ten times faster than it should because it's used to not having people on it.
This place is not meant to be a place one returns from. I think we could do it. I think many have. I know many have.
The Baron did, but it isn't built for it. So, yes, there is something keeping people here. That much is certain.
I appreciate the get up and go. Us all wanting to have all of the directors turn against each other and then that to conclude in the collapse of this city.
But there are a small squad of heath coming down that elevator, which will be arriving in a few hours.
On top of that, there are two runaway heath and one of the heaths most sought after enemies. What are we doing with that?
This city is huge. No one seems to be attempting to escape. Everyone went into that sermon except for the five that rebelled against.
What if the city turns against us? These are humans who have been alive for over 500 years at this point.
I mean, that blood isn't hard to break. What if they decide to not do it and then we are all fucked in a different way?
With any luck, they won't suspect us of anything at all. This isn't one where we show our hands and as far as we all have in our, I propose we let them have something we think they want.
Azam, aren't you fine? Didn't you just get out of prison? Didn't you do your time? I thought at the most it would just be awkward if you walked into the same pub or something.
Magnolia, we're not fans. Last time we had a true conversation, she was locking me up and the time before that I was threatening her. But you're right.
So you are just scared that you're gonna fight each other when you see each other?
No. I'm scared she won't listen to reason. I'm saying that we give her something we think she wants and I would not dare suggest Flare or Keelan.
If I had her off, I can talk to her. Convince her to maybe not figure out what her intentions are and hopefully convince her not to throw us into a firefight.
And if I cannot convince her, I can convince the other one, I think. Maybe. I don't know.
That's assuming that she would receive you at all.
She's coming down the elevator. I know exactly where she'll be.
When we were being driven here, all we saw were beautiful smiling people. We saw people who seemed young and were happy in some regard.
Now we know that there is a part of the city that isn't that. But then also we saw people who had healed wrong. We saw people that, I mean, we didn't, but I know that it happened.
People who were blown up and still living. What happens to them? I think surely we need to go find that before we enact anything.
Which is why Sky and Scrap are doing exactly that. All we're doing right now is getting into the ears of two of these three lieutenants. Lieutenants? Lieutenant? Which one do you use again?
It changes via what command it is.
I hate that.
I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. We have more information to find out. Thieryak, they want something from you and we don't understand what it is.
Sky and Flare and company? Kids?
We want to figure-
Thank you for that. I appreciate it.
Well, we want to find out more about this place. And we haven't seen most of the city.
And I don't know what this crystal is like or how it's different from the one that we've seen. And Azam, we don't know why the old Hefnar are here.
I feel like we have a lot of good ideas on what to do in the big picture, but we're missing some puzzle pieces first. So maybe we just need to figure out the answers to all those things and then the plan at large will make more sense.
No, I agree. Right now, just get-
Okay.
We need to become camaraderie with these people. That's all that's important. And once we have it, if we wish to use it, we can. Sky.
I was basically just going to say that proposition tonight, phase one of Operation Break the City. We're just going to gather information.
Yeah, Break the City is cool.
We got to hand it to Azam. But Theriac goes to- who's the one with the longer name? Aphrodite.
Aphrodite. Theriac goes to Aphrodite. I goes to- maybe I goes to Venus?
I think if we can get- I can scrap to Vizit.
Yeah.
Oh, I can scrap to our- on Crystal Duty.
On Crystal Duty. Yeah.
I can scrap on Crystal Duty. Teens. We're going to go to Adonis.
Hell yeah.
Who's left?
Oh, wait. No. I thought that we were going to go scout out the lower area of the city. I thought that was our job.
Alright, we'll do that. Azam, you want to talk to Adonis?
No. No, no. Adonis wouldn't like me very much. Kieran, why don't you take Estrid and scope the lower city while Flare and Sky focus on Adonis?
That would cover my bases and I-
Make that plan.
I take a look for what the Ulfhethna are doing.
No. Teens got to stick together.
I think that's reasonable.
No, I refuse. Teens are sticking together.
I am into that. I think- okay.
Azam, I believe showing our hand that we are here too early will be a mistake.
Possibly not being here when the Ulfhethna arrive. Not being here, I think, is the primary.
I have no intention of showing too many hands just yet. Rest assured, I know what I'm doing.
And believe it or not, I do know how to keep a secret. So, if my hand is shown, yours certainly will not be. Neither will Flare's.
After all, they have no idea who the hell I work with these days. Right?
So, Theriac has this meeting.
I imagine the three directors will be at that meeting during that time. Sky, Flare, U2, Goh...
And Estrid.
Alright. Team Team goes to-
Team Team!
Team Team, okay. So, Team Team goes to whichever the low part of town is and figure and try to find something.
Yeah, we'll probably check out some heavily crowded areas, get a scope of the culture here, you know, like clubs, bars.
No underage.
Is everyone over 18 in Team Team? Is it like late Team Team? Flare, we don't know how old you are. I don't know how old we are.
Estrid, I ain't telling you how old I am. So, alright. Sky, how old are you?
17.
Alright. Well, we can't be going to clubs in 17.
Just please be responsible, respectable, keep your wits about you, so do not take many things out without, I don't know, eliminate those wits.
Don't take any space drugs, I think is a good idea.
That you don't know.
Sky, we'll be able to tell the moment you walk through the door.
Will you?
Okay.
18 Team, do that. Theriac, you're going to have the meeting with the directors.
I, Scrap, find the crystal, which is crystal rats. Is your team name the crystal rats? I like the crystal rats.
Okay.
Alright, crystal rats. The crystal rats. Crystal rats will go find out about the crystal.
Azzam, would you like to team up on this? We can do the Ulf Hefnar thing together, if you want.
If not, I would like to go find out more about this group. So I'm just going to go to a bar and talk.
I think that's a great idea. Go to a bar, get more information, the more information we have the better. And I can take care of myself.
Alright. Sure.
Before we go, at this meeting with the directors, should I already be trying to be...
...kind of pointing them against each other? I have an idea as far as...
...stating that Aphrodite is not necessarily culpable for what happened, but that Adonis' lack of security and...
...Venus' hasty mentioning of my name are serious detriments to any sort of business propositions that may occur in the future.
Do you think that that is reasonable, or do you think it should just be between me and Aphrodite privately that I stay?
I would suggest between you and Aphrodite privately, because right now we don't want them to see that we're the cause of these rumours.
I understand.
Trust your instincts. Get a chance to suss each one of them out. See if they already talk against each other in the room and do nothing to stop it if it does occur.
Afterward, that's when you start twisting the knobs. It's a difficult task to do this. I've done it before.
It doesn't work all the time. So just keep your wits about you. Keep whoever you're trying to be in place, and remember who you actually are.
Enfiriak, the most important thing you can be in that meeting room is swayable. They want to use you. Let them think you are up for sale.
Okay. We have our jobs. Hands in the middle.
Oh, um, our newer friends aren't acquainted with this, but we say salad time. Um, when it's time for a plan.
Do we still do that?
Oh yeah, it'll be like, when we're all apart on our communicators, it'll be like a code red. Like shit's going south, we'll be like, it's salad time.
Okay, but salad time is also like a call to action. Like salad time, let's go. But outside of this, it's also.
Yeah.
But also like, oh shit.
It's very versatile. It's like, oh my God.
I thought salad time was like, you know, we eat salad now.
Sometimes it's that.
It's like, fuck, you can, you can use it excitedly as an insult. It's, it's got so many uses.
It's very vibes based. Like you've got to know what the situation is and the tone of the voice. Yeah. It's a lot.
Like fuck.
A lot of intonation.
Very much so. Hands in the middle. Salad time on three. One, two, three.
Salad time.
After your team break of salad time, there's a small amount of time where some people go off to their rooms.
The team generally chats, readying themselves for what is to be the next little while.
There is a knock at the door.
The voice either end.
You all recognize a Samson who was Aphrodite's right hand or assigned wellness officer, should we say. Found a Theriak.
It's, it's, it's time for you to meet with the directors.
Yes, I will be right out. Thank you.
You hear heavy footsteps walk away down the hall.
We'll open the door, but in the way of like, please don't look inside my room and just like squeeze it out.
And we'll head towards the meeting place.
Definitely trying to keep objectives in mind and specifically a Zombs bullet points for like what to keep in mind.
You walk out of your assigned West Wing and into the main corridor.
These two very beautiful staircases arch around a door that leads into this meeting room and these the staircases are up to an upper landing that goes off into the rest of the the manor.
There are these small cleaning robots, but also bots that walk around like waiters and butlers and are carrying food to the kitchen is what you can imagine, which you can smell food coming from it.
Your stomach gurgles a little, but not out of hunger, just out of that like, could I eat?
I don't know.
You see Samson who who is stood to the side of the door going into the into the meeting room.
He gives you a nod.
The others are waiting for you. Thank you.
What can I do with like a sense motive? Yeah, absolutely. You can.
I'm trying to sense. Does he seem stressed? Is he kind of caught up in a lot of the kind of politik of it all? You know, he doesn't seem like he's caught up in the politics, but he does seem like he has something else on his mind.
He had to stay behind to clear up and is has returned. There is no blood on him. He just looks like a little agitated, but in the way that a man who's just seen some form of combat would be a little agitated and then had to clean up after, presumably.
I'm going to regard him and then advance forward into the beautiful meeting room.
Grand. And you're right, it is beautiful. The room has a lush carpet, a long hand carved wooden table that can seat up to around 15 maybe 20 people on the walls are hanging plants and pictures and paintings, holographic newspaper screenshots of Freya, Inc.
And pictures of the directors with the founders of different companies of very mining cert energy hermitech. There's one picture that stands out. It's an older picture, and it's of them with the creators of Dumbler, which you know is a food company.
It's the first ever company to buy an entire planet. Almost every company throughout the entire galaxy was eventually absorbed into a Dumbler. But eventually it got so big that it had to dissolve the companies and ended up bursting.
Bury mining that was originally a subsidiary of it ended up getting the ability to buy a Dumbler itself. The directors in this picture look young. They look young now, but they are a different type of young.
They look freshly 20 they bright eyed bushy tail there the whole world ahead of them and you can see it in their eyes that drive and passion. The people that are sat at the end of this handcrafted table in this room.
They look different.
They're young, yes, but they have the life ripped out of them.
The directors smile as you look toward them.
Founder, thank you so much for joining us. We've had quite a big day so it's very nice to. It's very nice for you to come here and we can get some business on the road. Please feel free to take a seat.
She gestures to any chair in the room. Thank you.
She reaches out her hand and place it on the table. This like hard light interface comes out, and she clicks a few buttons and you see a small, a small speaker almost in the middle of the table come up and then a red light start blinking almost like the.
This meeting is being recorded for minutes.
Just to do some introductions. My name is Aphrodite and she her. It's very nice for you all to to come where we are meeting with founder theory act of wild times.
And we have just some just a small impromptu business meeting. Yeah, a Donis, he.
Yeah, it's nice. It's good to be here. Hello, my name is Venus. It's it's it's so nice to be here she they for me. Yes, it's it's it's it's wonderful.
My name is theory act.
Dr theory act.
My pronouns are they them.
On you saying they them Venus does a little like, oh, and a little clap to herself.
Right. So, theory act, we again, I want to extend my most sincere apologies for what happened earlier, the cathedral, that it was a dreadful show of what our city is.
But in some way, it is a, a show of almost why we've asked you to to be here.
We know a little bit about your work at wild times and the events and the things that you do.
When it comes to the animals, and there's no point beating around the bush now, since you already know, and we're shown firsthand that the light above this thing that we have created, it has given us all the gift of undead, which is an absolutely
fantastic gift that that humanity in their short lifespan has.
And this, this is marvelous and truly a magical thing.
However, we have some unforeseen and quite upsetting realization after we
after we personally can't die, it is the fact that we are now living so long that there inevitably is people who we know who do pass on on other planets outside of the city and also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but when we pass outside of the, the light outside of the walls of this city,
time has shown to catch up to us.
So,
we are as beautiful and perfect as our city is.
Unfortunately, we are unable to experience the rest of the galaxy.
You have such a fine understanding of the, the, the organics and the motorrifics of how organic life thrives and grows. And what we would like to suggest is building a facility that is connected to New Moors, that we will be, be run in house or by yourself if you
are tired that we can have to serve as research into the light, and how we can have it be carried with us.
Cut to the chase.
We need a way to not only now we've conquered the ability to, to, to, you know, live forever.
We need a way to bring things back.
We don't know if it will be people or animals but a way to have after something dies, bringing them back into the light doesn't work in the same way. It doesn't make it, make them come back and we are looking for a way to do that.
I know we know that the things that you do you know is is is cool and all but that's that's our goal is to have things come back.
Okay.
So, a lot of this hinges on this light.
Yes.
Light is the source of the on death as you call it.
Well, yes, we.
When we started this project, you know we.
We didn't know that this is what it would become originally we thought that, you know, we were all in business but it wasn't something that was our passion that drove us, and we found a way that could.
We started a company called Saga, and it got like broken up, and we found their research, and we wanted to, you know, work with it to extend our lives a little.
What was the name of the company.
I don't know if you've mentioned, is the name of the company. They were looking into continued life extended changing biology of people, and it was so.
It was, it was, it was so unique, and unfortunately, they weren't a good company, it got taken down by some people who are fighting the plates, originally, so that company got broken up, and then it got bought by another company that turned to bury mining
that.
And then after that we found it. And we made it originally to extend life as a donis was saying.
And then it turned out that we can't die.
And now we need a way to move outside and and bring things back.
So, your plan is to create an extension of this facility.
By trying to emulate the
lights
influence in a way.
Do not like that word influence
metaphysical properties
influence indicates motive.
We cannot assume such things at this time.
And then we built, you know, the machine, the, the thing, the or that we use to power the machine.
It's not all really it's it's it's more of a catalyst the catalyst to the machine that helps you know all of us go and has been up for.
How long have we been 950 years at this point, the catalyst we've been using, using for that long, but that catalyst, when it was in the ground before we discovered it.
It created this offset of or that is only found on nos this thing called Turinium or we, we've sent people outside of New Moors to find it.
Because it has similar properties to the crystal it just doesn't last nearly as long.
So we were hoping that with some
checkings and experimentations, we have a facility that you can be attached to this that the facility of some summon if you want to, where we have people who
kind of desire this ability to come back to rebuild their own bodies.
I understand that my my skill set is desirable for the
for the plans that you have and the wishes that you go beyond simply
this location. I understand that for well.
If you are looking for me specifically.
I am I am still beholden to wild times that is my company that I run personally myself.
It will. I'm not saying it is impossible, but I am saying that it will take.
A great amount of
something to make
leaving wild times as its own separate entity to be run by another another person feasible.
You know, and and I'm certain Mr. Wilde will be able to handle himself perfectly fine, but that is a
business that is directly linked to me in my in my studies. Absolutely.
And we do we understand we really do. And we know that you've had such a dreadful few months when it when it comes to wild times, you know,
with your with your board members passing that is definitely not enough staff and people, you know, because we I believe we've reached out for this before.
But but I don't believe the board members went for it. But I do know that that, you know,
there are other people who reached out who the board members were a bit more willing to to speak to.
And I know that it's a hard time for you. And I know that, you know, it feels like the world's on your shoulders.
And if there's anything we can do to help, we do have a lot of knowledge with each one of us has has, you know,
so, so much time each we all work in mechanics. We have people in Somnum who who are brilliant masterminds at this.
And we would fund the expedition down here. We don't use credits, but we know the rest of the galaxy do.
So we do have a small windfall. If you would like, we can give you almost a blank check to try and figure this out.
Sure. I apologize. I'm still trying to recover from these events.
I theory act is trying to exude the fact that they are like they want to portray that they are possibly willing to.
But because of what happened today, specifically that like completely butchered any chance.
And that like only by resolving what happened today that things could move forward.
OK. And you're like giving this impression of like, oh, I can't. I'm too shaken.
Yes. Should I roll diplomacy or bluff? Let's go with bluff since it's not real. Exactly 15.
Beautiful. Adonis like nods haphazardly and I'm ready. Darling, look at you. I understand. And you know, we have time.
We have time. We do. We have time. You can can stay here for as long as you want.
I understand that your ship crashed, which is why you're here in the first place and and your your board dies, your ship crashes.
And now you're here and you're seeing these awful things. I can't imagine the stress.
Truly. You have our full, full support, founder, for whatever it is you need.
You don't need to make a decision now. Sleep on it, if you must.
We have things to attend to today. Regardless, we have we have another surprise meeting, as I was saying before.
I will say this. I know that what transpired today is shocking.
And again, your ship crashed, which is a dreadful accident.
And I'm sure the the board members dying, which was an awful thing.
Think of how good it would be to be able to bring them back.
The the the people who died today or who attacked us today, they attacked us because they're frustrated that they can't leave.
You lending us help with your facility. That will do so much good for our city, will help these people that feel trapped.
You can help these people that feel trapped. And and we are trying, but without you, it's it's so much more difficult.
I understand. I I do believe I will need to sleep on this.
Of course, I I do thank you for your time.
I understand that you all have plenty of time to spare.
I unfortunately do not. So I will try to make a decision soon.
But please keep that in mind.
No, absolutely. We appreciate it. If you are hungry at all, please feel free to use the kitchens.
We don't have a lot in the way of should I? I'm terribly sorry to ask this.
Should I feel hungry? I have not felt anything.
Part of forever is is not needing food and and and drink.
And that is part of the crystals light that that they've given us.
You won't whilst you're in the walls of the city feel hungry or feel thirsty at all.
But the light is able to maintain homeostasis and provide enough energy to all of the citizens within the city
without the need of external maintenance, such as sleep, food, et cetera.
It's everything. It's not even needed to be powered. We don't run electricity to it.
It just runs itself. I understand.
Well, I have been up quite early, so I'm going to nip off.
I feel like this is coming to a close, so we should all sleep on it.
I have a shoot tomorrow. Yes. So I'm going to go.
And yes, I think we did some good stuff. I'm going to be around town if you need me.
Feel free to call. I'll be there for anything that you that you need from me.
Founder, thank you so much for this time. Yes, I believe we are done.
Adonis, you're preparing for the Ulfethna meeting. Yeah.
Thank you so much for your time. And she reaches out her hand and then clicks the recording button.
And then it it dies down. And like a small like floppy disk looking tape comes up
and she she she picks it up and hands it to a bot that's out.
Go save. Pardon me, Aphrodite. Yes.
When you have a moment, could I speak to you in private?
Absolutely, Venus. You have to nip off.
Adonis, go prepare the Ulfethna. They should be arriving very soon, actually.
You go meet them. Yep. And the both of them leave.
Absolutely. What is it that you need to talk about?
I specifically wanted to
discuss with you the events of earlier that I that
my entourage and I were not
anticipating to witness. And I wanted to say first and foremost that
I place no
culpability of what had occurred on you.
This was scheduled by you
very well timed. Not your
nothing of your actions resulted in what had occurred.
I am
slightly more upset with the other two.
Interesting. Can I ask why?
The first part of it was that
of Adonis being sort of
a large part of the
wellness of town and sort of
a point person for security and whatnot. That seems
to have a fairly large oversight on his. That makes me a bit
hesitant to be willing to stay
if that physical threat is present. Does that make sense?
Yes. No, I do understand, Founder. Truly, I do.
And Adonis for all of his very good trades, he is
boisterous and his oversight
does not make him the best when it comes to
the security check ins. But we do have a team. We have a team for this.
Samson is one of the more heads up there. Adonis has taken a bit of a step
down of recent because we are aware that some things have begun to slip through.
Still remains very much one of the founders of Freya, Inc.
But not in a security position anymore. But I appreciate you
bringing this up. Thank you very much. I will bringing up to him. And then I'll bring it up to
Samson to increase security when we
will leave. So he's been
demoted? Not demoted. Just took a step
in a different direction.
When we were growing up, he very much was
into security and protecting and fighting.
But shortly before we
built the Light and before we really founded
Newmores, he tried his hand at more
mercenary work. So he was very into
individual fighting and maybe not necessarily security detail. And now he
prefers to help people that were in the positions that he was in.
He has taken more of a hand to
self help talks and making sure the mental health of Newmores is what it can be
at the top rather than security. Which we thought would be a better angle.
Security is very good and it's very important, but the mental health of people who are living this long
is more imperative, we believe.
You should watch his tapes. They're very good.
They're like self help tapes? Yes, very much.
Yes, he likes
helping
the masculinity, which is something
which is a dying breed nowadays. He likes to make sure that it's
kept up and people respect and are loving themselves more.
Which he has been. Again, ever since we were little, he's always enjoyed
that side of him.
It's a shame.
What is? I am a man or a person,
a plant of science, but I am also a plant of
religion. You understand
passion when you see it. You see the fervor
when you're truly dedicated to something,
to someone. I cannot say, just
from what has occurred today,
that that seems passion.
Would you say that that's
a fair evaluation? Keeping passion
when you've been alive for as long as we have is
difficult. He keeps it
all the same, but I would be lying to you if I was to say that
I do not understand.
It's something that is difficult to maintain when you are
in a position that we are in.
I also wanted to mention Venus.
I, of course, have not interacted with her for too long,
but
the introduction of all of us,
you know,
them saying, you know, my good friend, Theriac, who I've known for so long.
As a business person, that seems interesting.
Truly, I do understand, and she has always been that way.
She loves knowing people and gets so excited when new people come to the city.
She loves her movies, she loves films and her songs,
but the thing that she loves above
others is knowing people. I do apologize. This is something
I will bring up to her.
Again, I appreciate you saying this and bringing this forward. It means that we will have
more of a talk about it, definitely.
I understand that she has a bravado, a presence,
a certain bombast.
As
a founder,
it seems in poor taste to be so establishing a relationship
when we had literally met just seconds before.
You understand. Yes, I don't need to...
I understand that you know
how these types of businesses are run.
I would like you to know that when it comes to
the people who are in charge of these businesses
and the people who run these things,
we have the father of the Ulhethna, we have Quinn
Heilock, the people who are important and matter. I am the connector.
I'm the person who people care about knowing.
They, both of them, have such...
I love them both dearly as
anyone loves their family, but they are here because
they are my brother and sister and not because
they're business people. When it comes to
the businesses and those things, I will be your point of contact
and I do apologize. They have their passion and their loves,
but people know Venus
and I will tell others that Venus spoke out of hand and out of turn
and I will speak to her. I appreciate it again. Thank you so much for bringing that forward.
I fully understand, not through experience,
but through context, the situation you've been placed in.
And I must say, although
all three of you are founders, you are the
foundiest.
And of all the people to crash land on my planet,
I'm glad that it was yourself to do so.
If there's anything I can help you with, Therac,
I would love to help you there. I understand that you don't want to be here forever,
so we can call a ship for you to get you onto
somewhere else. That is deeply appreciated.
I will need to reconvene with my entourage
as far as what the actual next steps beyond
just returning to the atom list, because
frankly, since landing, a lot of our goals have shifted slightly,
so I do think we will be staying for a period of time.
I don't mean to imply that we are going to
cropdust you or anything of the sort, but...
As long as you're here, we can keep conversations open, and you're open to stay
for as long as you need. Thank you, Aphrodite.
Thank you, Founder Theriac. Is that standard Founder Aphrodite?
Aphrodite is quite okay. I appreciate it.
A lot of the people in this city, they call me Director
or Founder, and all this Aphrodite, I
far prefer. I like that. Whatever your
preference is, of course. Thank you.
And we'll leave.
Across the
city, I guess.
I can scrap, walk
in the path of the light. The city sprawls out
in front of you. You are outside of the manor at this point. You weren't
stopped as you walked out, as you are esteemed guests, so it matters
not. You see the
burning sun, which you have attained. The crystal is inside.
Above the sun is the other half of the city. It curves
round to meet you. This inside of a dome, as it were.
Scrap. Hands over their eyes.
How the fuck are we getting up there?
Oh! That should be no problem. We can
do not do a lot of, you know,
climbing. Yeah, but that's
a thousand foot in the air. I don't think we can climb that far.
I mean, there's some sort of
wiring holding it in, right?
As you were getting driven past, there's no wiring holding it.
Oh, no, tell a lie. There are these
small, like, very
thick chains that are holding it in place in these, like, four corners of the
city, but they don't look, like,
climbable safe. However, when you were driving past the gardens on your
way in, you saw that there were these vines that
in this, like, more forested area, it looked wild,
but in this forested area, there are these ivy
vines that almost, like, cascade down from the
sun into the garden. I'm not going to say
it's easy, but, well, Scrap, how's your tail?
Tensile.
It's strong. Well, then you'll be fine.
I'll guide you. Trust me, I have traversed
the intricate pathways from the
lower decks to the upper decks so many times. This is actually something I'm not
terribly afraid of, and those vines,
they look sturdy. They're...
Plants are thicker than you think and stronger than you think.
Alright, we can give it a go. I don't know if we can climb the whole
thing without being caught, but I trust you.
We can do that if you want.
Well, let's on our way in if we see another route.
We'll stay savvy, but I think we can
stay fairly undetected.
We just have to keep our wits about us.
I'm going to very confidently lead in
to the gardens. So the gardens is the name for what
could be a small town-sized, almost
a small national park. It is
full of trees and seemingly wildlife that
lives here.
There's a small way in that almost blocks your vision of the sky up top through the
overhang of trees.
There are these walkable paths that you can walk.
Possible man-made river? Or maybe it's just a natural river that they have
in the park.
You can see it in this huge area that
now centers this whole
park. Walking in, you see a few other
denizens of this upper, very nice region. A few times you have to
see Venus walking past, but then you realize it's not her.
You get to
about a 30 to 40 foot rock face
where these vines have almost rested and then began to
overtake. You can see the pock marks of where these vines have
grown and been cut away, clearly in an effort to keep it
maintained so people don't try what you're about to try.
Okay, so this getting to the vines is going to be the tougher part, I think.
But we're both mysterious
and skillful, aren't we?
Done tougher things. I've gotten through worse scrapes.
You say that sometimes.
I believe it too. I think we can. We just need to keep our wits about us and make sure we don't accidentally
piss anyone off. If anyone asks, we're just enthusiastic climbers
and we're here on Case of Dr. Theriak.
We're just climbing. I like climbing.
That remains true, whether or not
we get caught. So, okay, we're going to go
as quick as we can. As soon as we get over the
wires and to the vines, we just go up as quietly and as quickly as
possible. And I want to just ask you something before we go over.
Scrap, you know Void
well, right? Has anyone ever
wanted dead by them?
And not gotten dead?
I don't know what you want me to say. You can tell me the honest truth.
I just want to know what my, you know,
chances are. I want to- Alright, they are two different things.
Alright, there's two ways that you get out of a Void contract.
The person who made the contract
calls the request
or you go through so many Void members
that it becomes unsustainable to keep throwing people at you.
That's how you get that contract off.
For you saying, is it feasible? Well, you are
going to be incredibly safe.
I will never let anyone
get close to you in that regard ever.
You are going to be fine. I'm going to promise you
as someone who has done this for a long time
close to 30 years I've been a member of Void.
Used to be Void. I think the Void has done genuinely a lot of good for me.
They have saved my life countless times. They have helped and they've put
food on my table and they've given me somewhere to live.
I am the captain of the Patchwork first before any affiliation.
And you are a member of the Patchwork. You are not going anywhere.
Alright?
I like looks around
and is like, go!
Go now! And shoves scrap over the little
railing and scurries to
the vine. There is still this rock face that you have to climb up
but even when you get on top of that there is this. You are still slightly covered
by trees so you won't be spotted by
other members at all.
I like just kind of positioning herself with this vine
and just tugging on it and testing how strong they are
and wrapping her tail around it
and figuring that out.
Scrap, you hired us for just one
job and now I know that we're a
crew but I've made terrible mistakes
and bringing
void attention to your ship and
to Skye and I mean
I know I technically won that
death race but
I've brought more attention on us and maybe more attention on
Tommy and
those back on Saga and I don't think I really fully understood
what we were doing and now
it's starting to become more clear and I don't think I've
done all the right things and I don't know why
you would fight
something so dark and terrible for
me.
I think I know first hand about making mistakes and having to deal with it.
There are cities worth of people
on Saga who aren't part of
void at all but would wish and command me dead.
I get it, I know
it's
being alive
living a sentient life, it's about making mistakes
but you will all the time over and over and over again. There's no chance that
you are going to live any form of life and not fuck up in some way
but
you will also be forgiven by others. You can
speak to people who don't know of the previous mistakes and as long as
you have done your best to make amends and try then that's all that
matters. I know that you've made mistakes, I've also made mistakes.
My mistakes are going to catch up to me, Thiriaq's mistakes are going to catch up to them,
Azam's mistakes are going to catch up to them, Skye's mistakes are going to catch up, Flare, Keelan,
Estrid, who I'm a little shaky on, or everyone's mistakes are going to catch up to them.
But we're a team, that's the point. We are here
together.
Do you ever wonder, I mean you've left,
I didn't know everything
about Saga and
why things, I don't, I still don't know
exactly why things are the way they
are there, but I'm, I feel like it's coming together.
And we left and
I don't know, when we helped
when we helped Neutrino Downs, there was a part of me
that felt like I wish we were helping Saga.
Do you ever feel that way?
Yeah, Saga is my home, Lower Dex is,
you know, they, the Upper Dex
continuously try to kill us, but they're just so strong that they just won't go down,
and yeah, I want to help, I absolutely do, and
I just don't,
one day, yeah, I know I will, I'll help
with whatever is needed, if I can.
And I mean, looks around at the, the like massive city
that is thousands of miles underground.
Take this as a test run. We're just eight people.
And we're trying here.
Maybe afterward we can go back to Tommy
and try again. Maybe that's,
maybe that's one way
out of the mess I've found myself in as well.
You said that
if you're too hard to kill,
they just stop trying. If we
get the Lower Dex
out of that situation,
we destroy that situation, that,
then maybe,
maybe they won't see me as
a target anymore either.
Just it could be a side effect.
I don't know if protecting the Lower Dex is going to matter much to the void.
There's a heavy presence there, but there are heavy presence because people are easy to manipulate there.
Helping them might make it worse.
That doesn't mean we can't try.
But if the Lower Dex are stronger and aren't
under that
god damn floor,
I don't know, maybe,
maybe the whole illusion
falls and they don't have the same
hold that they did. It's definitely worth a try.
And if they're going to kill me anyway, I might as well do something,
you know, good on the way. That's, that's, that's the story I live
by. Hey, if we're going to die anyway, we might as well go out doing
something. Well, get your tail up
and, and Ike wraps a tail around
the vine and starts to, like, do sort of like a little crawl where
like her tail is like winding up and she's crawling with her
hands as well.
Give me a check here. Can I argue acrobatics?
You can argue acrobatics. Yeah, sure. Give me an acrobatics.
Jesus. Alright. Alright. I got an 18, so I guess scrap also is able to
keep up in some way.
After about 40 foot of climbing straight up, it
does begin to get difficult because this is climbing straight up.
In, in Saga in the lower decks, you're climbing through vents. There's moments to rest.
If you go up the ladder, you can still like rest on the ladder a little bit. This is just like a
pure haul up. So it starts to get a little difficult when you get to about 40 foot
up. You have a while left, like yet. It's, it's,
it's looking like you've just started. If you want, you can give me another one.
I do want to give you another one. That was not good.
So my second acrobatics is only a 10.
I tell you what. Okay.
I'm going to mark that down as a failure to have this have some form of
you know, coherence. I'm going to, we're going to have a three failure, three success
ability check to this. We have one success and one
failure. The DC of this is going to go up every single time you are climbing it.
With the, the, the, the downside being
hot, like heavier, the closer you are to the, to the top.
So that's, that's one success, one failure. This is going to be a check of
20 for the second. Okay.
I have a question. Sure.
Is, as we get up, do I see anything nearby,
anything that has any sort of electric charge to it?
Not nearby you as you are very much climbing a natural,
like a, like natural vines you're climbing up. Yep.
But the sun that is shining this light is
an absolute like symphony
of noise. It is so like powerful when it comes to
electric charge. All right. It's getting trickier.
So just hang in there Scrap. How are you doing? Yep.
I'm fine. I'm, I'm, I'm keeping up. Okay.
Oh my goodness.
You are like 250 foot in the air at this point.
If, if this, these vines were to break, you would die.
Like you would crack on the ground and, and splat. Yep.
Understood. Yeah. It's very good. You're about 150 foot
away from the, the, the sun itself.
Just hauling yourself up. This is going to be a 25.
As I am getting closer up, how close in,
in feet roughly is the sun? A hundred and fifty.
A hundred and fifty. A hundred and fifty. Yep. I can. What is this?
This is telepathic message. I don't know if it will work, but
I think that Meg is going to try it.
As she's getting closer and just say, this is going to be so stupid.
So sorry. You're connecting. Are you trying to connect to the other crystal? Is that what you're trying to do?
Yeah. Okay. Hi.
Don't be alarmed. We're coming
to you because we're friends, I think,
with the other crystal that's like you.
Give me a computer's role.
28. As you reach out,
there is immediate interference. You feel a buzz and a crackle in your
mind as you know that you connect to this crystal.
You speak some words and in your backpack, as I imagine you have the original crystal with you.
Uh huh, of course. Yeah. It
rumbles and the original crystal that you had, who you nicknamed Spot,
floats slightly out of your bag and you hear in your mind
that I am pulling.
I am pulling. I am pulling at threads
here. I just don't think we can keep going to this same degree. I know.
But Wolf, we have to try. We are so
close and he will kill everything. I know.
Believe me. I know. I know.
Tell me about yourself.
I am Doctor Wolf and I am going to
darken the Atomless Sea. Let's get back to work.
Holy smokes, everybody.
That is the latest episode of the Atomless. Thank you so much for joining
us. I want to say a special thank you before we head out. Thank you to
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We'll see you next time in the Atomless Sea, folks.
Thank you.