Previously on The Atomless
Azan he
Ike she
My name is Theoriak
What's up? My name's Sky! Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes!
There is a crystal in the center of this room
You touch it, there is this
Do do do do
And the crystal just falls into your hand
These shutters all lift up
And you see hundreds of people
Let's chase it!
And a wave of burning hot air expels from him
Cast junk sword and pull out a collection of junk that has congealed around my little rat hand
I'm gonna die!
I just imagine every time each shot gets fired
And every time they shoot they just like
Just fully like
Yee-haw! Good job everyone! Well done, we got it!
Right, where do we want to go?
I promised a free ride to Ichiya
I don't know, I don't mind, it's always just been me
Made it out okay so far with just that
Well it changed a lot
And I feel like if I just go back
I might disrupt little peace in my being
I need to get home actually
What do you think you could pick up for this?
And she lifts up the crystal
Oh, I'm gonna be honest I have no fucking clue what this is
But this looks expensive as hell, where did you get this?
Aig, you sleep soundly as the whir of the patchwork engine
Repeats itself in your mind and dreams
The patchwork has been flying for a few hours
Scrap has turned all the lights down so everyone can get some sleep
The events of the last few hours pushed you into danger
But you came out with the treasure
There's not much left of your journey now
You're meeting your friends, co-workers or clients
Back at the VA-11 before they leave for their home planet of Saga again
But for now, you sleep
What does Aig's bed look like? Or how do they sleep?
Aig is sleeping in a... not a bed
Aig is sleeping in a little... like...
pipe somewhere that she's snuck into
And she has... you know, kind of like...
a bunch of clothing that she's wrapped up in her little satchel that she's using as a pillow
She does have a blanket that she brought with her
And around, she just has little pictures that she has kind of stuck to the walls of this pipe
of her... of her friends
What do these little pictures look like?
They are magazine clippings of her friends who have been featured in them over the years
Little announcements about their big... their big moves and their big successes and wins
And their 30 under 30s things that they've gotten
And she has cut them out and saved them
As you sleep in these pipes, there's the...
It's really comfortable, the warmth of the engines
Makes a really just nice little snuggly space
You can feel all these strands coming... like going through the patchwork of these...
pieces that shouldn't fit but after some care and knowledge and fixing
They all seem to resonate with one another and feel like they're united even though they shouldn't
logically be
All of these threads wobble and rumble like something has shaken them in the universe
And you hear...
Hello?
Hi?
I am... I am... pulling... help?
Um... okay... okay... where... where are you?
I am... I am broken
Um... okay... and she'll just get up and um...
Because of the way that this voice came as she was sensing the threads
She's gonna take a chance and try to... try to detect tech
To try to find where this is coming from on the ship
It's amazing, yeah. What... how does that... how does that work?
So I have a 60 foot cone shape ability
So I'll just kind of face like... out into the largest part of the ship hopefully
To detect all technological items that have charges to them
So anything that generates power
Um... I'm taking a chance on this but I kind of feel like maybe this might help
Absolutely. That... so this is a... does this just happen and you sense everything or is there roles involved?
This is... let me confirm that. I believe this is instantaneous. There is no... there's no role
Beautiful
You... you... you feel the threads that connect you to all of... all of this tech around you
And there is a... a pulse that you... that you let out and you see all these like ding ding ding
And these like small... like sometimes they're like smaller threads that can't normally be seen by you
Or if you don't concentrate
As this pulse gets sent out... sent out you see this from... from the other room
Just like outside of these pipes and more toward the sleeping quarters
This large thick pulsing. It... it feels... it feels thick. It feels like a... a maple syrup of a... of a thread
Something that's trying to connect and... and spread out but as it like... as it breathes in and tries to spread out
As it pulls... breathes back out again it seems to pull threads closer toward it
Seemingly trying to pull things. You distinctly can tell that this is... this is the thing that's trying to speak to you
And is it coming from Theriak's room?
It is. It is. Yeah. I... I will scurry my way. I will pitter patter as quietly as I can
To pitter over there and...
Would you mind really quickly giving me an intelligence check?
Yes.
Uh...
Where is that? Oh here it is. Okay.
Uh...
Eleven?
As you scurry toward Theriak's room you don't sense anything weird when you step outside and you seem to be walking on a flat platform
Um... with no walls or ceiling and it's just pure... pure colorful space
Um... for players...
And I do not notice this?
You... you...
You notice it but you don't feel anything wrong with this
Um... player meta wise you understand that you're dreaming
Um... like this is a dream going on but... but I hasn't clocked into this idea yet
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
It's like you know when you're in a dream and can't quite talk
Got it. Um... yeah. So she will run and she will um... knock politely on Theriak's door
Um... there's a tshh of steam and the door like poof kind of like clicks off of its own hinges and kind of floats off up
Um... there's this big pulse from this uh... this entity
You are...
Who are you?
Um... I'm Ike? Who are you?
I am Wolf Broken
I am Pulling Want to Pull
Can I... can I help?
Bring together
Looking at it right now what is it? What do I see actually?
Um... it... your vision clears um... the threads were creating this aura this this colorful swirl of different threads all connected like almost guarding this one thing and these threads they seem to settle
Uh... and you can see the crystal as it almost given shape like a small constellation floating above uh... the uh... the crystal itself like the crystal is trying to give itself form
Is it the others? Is that what you need?
I need it
I need you to wake up
And then I you all of a sudden there's this like deep like pressure that you feel on you and all of the uh... all of this platform they all like rip up at the same time and you are thrown back into this small pipe room and as you do and as you hit the back of these pipes and the wind is knocked out of you you wake up
I immediately get up and scurry down to Theriak's room and unceremoniously throw open the door
I think Theriak was just falling asleep at his chastity
Just like... gastropods... and then you just lamp just and then just
Hello?
Sorry Doc! Um... is the crystal still in here right?
It's right there
I will go over to it and give it a little pat
You seem to pat a crystal. It doesn't feel like it has the same threads that you were seeing in this dream that you in that weird space where you're now clocking like oh yeah that was a lot of weird shit going on
Yeah and it seems just like a normal crystal
Expensive
Doc can I ask you something?
Certainly. Are you patting the crystal?
I was trying to get a feel for it really. Can you tell if it has any qualities in common with any of the things you study?
Well I can certainly bring it into my micro lab one moment
I can actually use a cool ass little build I got as a biohacker
So biohackers get a cool little thing called a custom micro lab. You can just do a bunch of tests and shit in here. It's cool
So I can do a check to identify it. If it's an unliving thing which is what I assume this crystal is it would be a physical science check which is a measly plus nine
Oh pathetic
I know. Wretched
What's a shame to you?
That's a 26
How long does this take you? Also what does your micro lab look like?
So the theory X micro lab looks like it resembles a lot of the like robotics in the original Jurassic Park like lots of like like like a small contraption with like kind of arms and they like rotate things in place and there's like a little like UV light
Like almost like the like small soil bedding area and it looks like it's primarily designed for like organisms but there are certain features within it that have like like there's like an internal computer that like scans like inorganic material like fossils or geodes and rocks like what we're doing right now
So one of these like little robotic arms just kind of goes over picks up the crystal puts it inside of like a little cavity and then there's just like a little purple and blue kind of like laser that just scans all the way down and then back up and then kind of like a cross field going both directions
So like all three directions, X, Y, and Z axis. It takes 10 minutes. This for all intents and purposes with everything that you have tested it on is a purely normal. It's just a gem. It's a really nice gem.
But as your experiments go on and hitting into the last of the end of these experiments
It seems to have weird
Something
Something is
Incorrect. You are doing the wrong test.
And it feels like it is slightly slightly organic
And as you're testing it
The outside this gem crystal is pure solid it is it is a normal, a normal crystal, but inside it seems to have a more.
It seems to have like parts plasma like a plasma state. There seems to be some form of liquid that flows throughout it and kind of turns some plasma into gas as it's.
It seems to have its own
Biome inside of it. And when checking you see that both sides of this crystal are cracked. Whereas, like, so if we were thinking of this as a pipe.
It feels like it's almost the center of a pipe.
Like the going away round is like quite manicured and either side is shattered broken, but the the the plasma liquid and and like gaseous state doesn't
Like it shows no signs of anything other than being just like this crystal.
I
I might have to run another diagnostic on this specimen, but it's how
You're aware that you are not you in in the sense of you are actually a like a climate for bacteria in your digestive tract and you are you aware of that you should you should know it's very important for your health.
Essentially, there are such things as microbiome that exists within organisms of larger sizes, including us.
We don't imagine ourselves to be of grander stature, but regardless, we ourselves contain multiple ecosystems within our own bodies that house billions and billions of organisms that we are on on completely unaware of.
There seems to be something similar happening within this crystal that there is a a secluded ecosystem within the confines of this gemstone.
It has what appears to be all all four of the states of matter occurring within it.
Plasma, liquid, solid and gas.
So what you're saying is the crystal could be a person.
The crystal could be a system.
A person requires
Legal distinctions such as autonomy and sapiens and sentience.
But biologically, like you said, I'm not a I'm not a person. I'm just a system of biomes with bacteria in my gut or whatever.
But the crystal could have that.
Theoretically.
We would certainly have to do more testing. Do you have any experience with this crystal as a person as an individual?
Well, I
No.
I just had a feeling.
Feelings are important in science. They
Guide where you want to lead your experiments.
Well, will you
Keep experimenting experiments at this point would be
Premature, but I will continue
Evaluating this
This particular object to the rest of my knowledge.
And then perhaps once we have more more of a understanding as to what it is, we can perhaps do experimentation.
All right.
I do like that.
Don't talk to it. Do you do that in your research?
Talk to the subjects.
Do you?
Occasionally, if they respond to
First of all, if they respond to auditory stimuli, but also if they have enough cognizance to respond to commands, I will sometimes teach them
To like
Move in a certain direction. If we're moving them into like a new exhibit or
Certain movements in for maintenance and manicuring and the like.
Oh, well, then
Shouldn't be an issue because this doesn't do any of those things. So you would not talk to it.
So I am so sorry that I woke you up at this
Awful hour. I will be going back to sleep.
We can talk more about this in the morning.
Sure, I do want to inform you.
I am returning back to a dune.
I do have
I do have work.
But if you wish for me to research this
In my personal time, I would be interested in doing so in
Beyond just scientific purposes.
I don't think that I would trust anyone else to do so. I don't know any other
Organism doctors.
So I think it would have to be you.
Very well.
In that case, I will ensure that this
Microbiome will receive the
Best care I can afford it.
I can see if
If work is an issue, if you need to get paid, I can probably
I have a job to finish and I can usually
Maybe tell a few little fibs about a very expensive investment.
Maybe we could get a little bit of help. I can probably get something.
And I don't want anyone else who's not on this ship to
Know about it.
We are lugging around a rather large gemstone.
There will be questions.
Do we have an alibi?
It's just really pretty gemstone.
It's worth lots of money, probably.
You know, trying to make money.
I think that's fine, right?
We can workshop it.
That's probably for the best.
Again, so sorry to bother you in the middle of the night.
Perfectly all right. I was working alongside subject A.
I forgot.
It's late. It's a bunch of numbers and letters.
That's the problem is that the wildly difficult to remember if you just
Name them random. I said you should name them.
Well, for wild times, we just subject number 0001.
Subject 0002.
It's quite complicated after a while.
I'm working with each individual one by one as they're introduced.
So it's remembering the order.
Soon enough, it's the same as if you, you know, call over your friend Jerome.
Right. Jerome isn't necessarily Jerome-like in form.
There's nothing that defines a Jerome by appearance, but you still know them as a Jerome in the same way that I still know.
Subject number 0001 is a carnivorous liquefied gelatinous organism that almost killed Michael.
Well, maybe we could call the crystal by a name.
Very well. Just as its own little experiment just to see how it goes.
Sure. Sure. What should we name this, them, this?
We're not going to assume personhood until it's established.
Okay, fine. Just so I don't make a total fool out of myself, Matt, the words, the two words that you said were pulling and the other one was wolf. Right.
Okay. Just making sure I did not insert that with my own wolf obsessed brain.
What have we called it? Wolfie.
I was also thinking spot. Does it have spots like just as a gemstone? Does it have a spot?
Yeah, there are some lights when they hit them. There's like the inner parts of it seem to have these little spots. Yeah.
Like little bubbles or something. Yeah, they could be bubbles or they could just be like spots of slightly darker patches.
Very well. Spot. I was hesitant to use anything akin to wolf because wolves are an actual species.
So it would be confusing why, you know, you don't want to name your dog human.
I kind of do.
Well, well, regardless. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Now, I'm going to get back to the study of these slugs. Sleep.
Sleep.
I could sleep. However, I have this this space to be alone now.
Oh, I'm sorry. A rare opportunity.
Thank you very kindly.
Goes back to just doing work to do to doing research on these slugs. And can I do that same check that I did for the gemstone on these ding dang slugs?
Absolutely. Yeah, baby. God bless Theriac.
They have been naming things numbers for a month and now have it's been a day and already it's been like burgers and fries. Spot.
Well, I didn't even I would like to say that I approve of naming all things wolf and anything's wolf.
This whole ship is going to bonus to life science. Let me double check.
Oh, just a measly plus 11. So it's only a 29. Gosh. Okay. So these
with your little little machine.
These, these, these little slug like creatures slug is more of a describing term more than like an actual classification of what this thing seems to be.
They have there's like you can tell it has these really powerful suckers on the whole bottom of it.
Occasionally they can they can just choose to either be almost vacuum tight on like the wall or the ceiling or just crawl around freely.
Their mucus has this slightly acidic quality to them.
They're all yellow with these like large spots of blue dotted around them.
They don't seem to eat.
You've offered them a lot of like different things from your pack and just like just small tests to check to see what what is the diet of these of these slugs.
They don't seem to have them. Really. They don't seem interested.
Occasionally when you put your hand slightly too close though they do jump at you.
Right. Yeah.
They are parasitic to some degree. Yes.
Yeah, absolutely. And especially considering that you know that they seem to take over a host body, which seems to. It's hard to do a as good as as good as the role is, it's really hard to do a
proper assessment on these creatures without, for lack of a better term, full testing to see how they react to the things that we've seen them react to.
Right. Yeah.
I would not be able to recreate the level of experimentation I would love. I would love to do the thesis I could back at like the wild times.
On a dune. Yeah, you wouldn't be able to.
Cool.
The hours go on and after a little while.
The people who are awake who weren't able to sleep, or maybe, maybe everyone maybe if you're woken up by by lights, feel the feel feel a brightness as scrap seems to turn on the turn on like the day, daytime lights, which light up all of the corridors, you all do have your
individual light switches which are able to turn on and off, but you can still see it poking through the door, and as there's like everyone's doors.
Don't quite like shut properly like a lot of them don't shut properly and some of them are like very heavy after like pull bits up and pull them out.
Yeah, they turn on all the lights and theory like you can feel that these are UV lights, which are on they are like white like just normal tungsten lights but you can feel the reads and you're just general plant like nature react to react to, to, to the light as the lights, Brian.
I say that when the daylight lights come on sky groans loudly and rolls over in her colorful hammock, a comic book from last night, crashing to the floor.
She grabs a sneaker from yesterday, chucks it across the room at the light switch and they turn back off.
And she goes back to sleep.
You hear as you throw you hear the like it clicks, but it's like a crunchy click, because you've thrown your shoe at that light so many times it is coming off the wall it is like snapped and broken.
But yeah, you hit it.
We all have our own bedrooms and what this ship is huge. They're not entirely private, but you do have you have. There's enough rooms for like kind of each of you.
You can a lot of you can like all hear each other. It's more curtained off, like you got you are, there's two of you sharing rooms for two, like, you know two of you sharing rooms but there's like a current area which is kind of crossing.
I imagined that like the react was just like in the kitchen.
Yeah, I didn't picture even sky had her own room it was just like in a corridor with a couple like posters from popular TV streams hung up you know, none of you have better you're all sleeping in the same area, but I has their own bedroom because they hide in the pipes.
I think there's like a bedroom attached to the ship, and no one else wants to sleep in it so that's where I'm sleeping right now, I do sleep in an actual bedroom because one of the shit.
It's just like, it is. It's not significantly nicer it's like it's the mattresses is okay. Give me a culture check.
15. Yeah, it's a used beds clearly picked up from like an actual just is the most comfortable bed as on the slept in in 30 years. Yeah, it's fully in scraps room as well, little like you can tell that they kind of have like their own room in the place but they're like, yeah, yeah, go use it.
I don't mind whatever.
Yeah, and it's like got like oil stains and shit it's. There's no sheet on it. It's just like a quilt, which is like a, like a kind of like quite nice feathered quilt.
And a bed need and with like a pillow, none of them have any sheets on them, they are all, all just stained and his arm didn't sleep underneath the quilt he slept on top of it and rolled up the pillow so it's a cylinder.
So you can prop it up underneath the head and not have the weight on the horns.
Yeah, they can think through. But he's not been. He wakes up as a lights from on, and like that he's ready to go. You leave the main area, and as you walk into like the main like deck space which does have like, it has the kitchen in it, which is just like a literally
like a couple of it has like a fabricator. But if any of you use it, it just fabricates just like, you know in snow pierce of the just protein block.
It literally just, it just makes that and can't seem to make anything else. Some of you who have been on other ships know that fabricators for food, especially you like have a menu and you can go through and you can like pick all your different items and then
it fabricates it. But this is just the one solid jelly protein block. Like the thing from spy kids.
Yes, I maybe the like microwave where they put in a packet and it like can come out as McDonald's. Did you not mean to do that.
I meant Star Trek, the space story that have fabricates fabricate food. Well I'm not a fucking nerd. I absolutely. Absolutely spy kids. It's absolutely spy kids. That's what it is. Yeah, it's the thing from spy kids. I completely forgot that existed.
I cannot, I cannot believe I forgot that 100% is the ship from spy kids.
What flavor did the jelly cubes come in. They come in one I'm sure protein. That's the flavor. The flavor is delicious. You eat this and it's all you need. Best meal from a fabricator.
As are you click the the spy kids one logo, which they had a resurgence and they made a bunch of fabricators exactly you click the spy kids logo and it creates this block of block of protein.
You're in the kitchen now. Yeah. Yeah. The react is up and still looking at the gemstone, I think, and has a another book that does not seem super scientific.
You slept. I like wiggle the jelly as I'm like, taking a bite out of it because it's fun. Oh, so sorry.
I had a few weeks.
Did, did you rest peacefully or like a baby.
Good, good. Rather limited menu on fabricator.
If you were looking for wider variety of flavors I have some, some options in my micro bad.
Well, I mean, I think you're keeping to yourself.
Might as well. You have something to enjoy. No problem at all.
Europe rather early. Oh, the lights on.
You never turn the lights off. Did you know.
Yeah, they're on now. Good.
Where have you guys, I sky scrap. I had actually just seen I around two three hours ago.
She staying. I've not seen scrap or sky since we were all discussing that this the gemstone.
This is a fairly long, like quite big chamber. This is where all your chairs are at the very other end of the room is is these two curtains, which are closed.
They look like like theater curtains from a stage.
You see a little rat hand like pull it back like I'm here. I've just been flying. I'm all good. Don't worry about it.
You get back to it. It's I feel like he's not used to having this many people board.
I am not. I would like to walk in. Sky is wearing some sort of band t shirt, some sort of pajama bottoms that have some sort of cute caricature on them, perhaps a robot.
I'd like her to walk in. Is there coffee or something like coffee? Can the fabricator make coffee? So it can't.
The the like protein thing has two modes, and it's it's like block or hot and sky does sky scrap just has a cup and he presses hot and pretend and then like put some
like coffee flavoring on top and then just drinks that for the day. That's him done. That'll do. I walk in.
I yawn. I saw the button on the hot machine and I reach into the fridge and grab more leftover pizza.
I say scrap. Well, we land. What's the space station? Where are we going?
A something something. Yeah, we're going back to the VA 11. Can we pick up some more lag bolts, please? Like we're not running low or anything, but at the rate that that compressor keeps breaking down, I definitely need some backups.
You know, I literally just want to get back for like to refuel and then shoot and then just like talk about where we're going next, because I want to sell all this crap. So if you want, you can go off. But I don't want to. I don't want to stay longer than like an hour.
It's fine. But I said that they were going back home. So I'm going to miss her. She's so cute. And she's cool. Are you still eating that pizza? It's been fully four days. It's good. And I'm pretty sure that fridge does not work. We got it from that really cheap place. So it's good for like a month.
I don't think so. It works. Whatever. I'm 17. I can eat literally anything and be fine. That's not true. I am so sorry to be the bearer of bad. Give me something. I'll eat it. Eat it right now. In front of everybody. I pull out the flask of cold coffee. You know, the sludge stuff.
The viscous liquid. Yeah. How about it? And I just toss it at her. I have no idea. Hell yeah. Then we take a sip. Make a constitution saving throw. Really? Yeah. You just drank a mystery drink. It's not coffee. It is the Kalishter equivalent. They tried, but they messed it up.
I think it's fortitude. You need to roll fortitude. It's fortitude. My apologies. Please roll a fortitude. Keeping up with the bad rolls from last session. Yeah. You yak like immediately. Like you drink it and try to hold it down and it just like bubbles. It is.
Have you ever, sorry, mental image. Have you ever had like old almond milk? Yes. I'm so sorry. Why would you take me back to those days? It's that. It's just, you expected a drink. It's way thicker. It's with ending this bit is way thicker than you think it was.
I'm sorry. I'm done with what I'm saying. That's it. Yeah. You throw up. It's great. Thank you for the offer, but the office. I take a sip out of it.
Fortitude save. Shit. Fortitude save. 19. Yeah. No, you've listened. Not to fall too much into your backstory, but you've had worse. This is okay. This is fine. I'm going to grab the flask from him and say, God, we need to work on those self-loathing issues.
And then I'm going to, I don't, I don't, is there a sink? It's not. Yeah. There's a sink. Um, you, as you turn back to the end of the ship, you see scrap. He's fully like he's opened the curtain full way. His chair is like turned three 16. He's just there. It's three 61.
And he's just staring at you. Are you going to clean that up? Yeah. You're going to clean it up. I'm the one who's bad. No, you will not clean it up. Yes. Scrap. I will clean it up. I'm just, we've just been two seconds. Okay. That is going to get in the cracks. I swear to God. I clean it up.
After you're done, we're, we, I will do a check to make sure you haven't poisoned yourself. Can I roll a medicine check right now? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Medicine checks all around for everyone. 18. 10. 22.
Everyone who drunk the fluid is fine. It was just like consistency wise was like pretty gross and old hot drinks are universally terrible. So yeah, it wouldn't have like hurt, but is definitely like a shock. Oh, hey, this fucking sucks. This is gross as hell.
I feel like it wouldn't be so bad with that, with some ice in there, a bit of water and down. A little dilution. Maybe, but dude, you gotta get a, you know, it was a gift. You gotta love yourself more, is on. It was a gift. Okay.
Oh, and you kept it for this long. I mean, I got it yesterday. That's pretty stellar. Where's the other rat at this time? I, the other rat scrap is right. Are you not also a scrap is also a little rat.
I is the first rat. Alpha rat. Alpha rat. Ike walks tiredly into the kitchen and opens the door of the fridge quietly and reaches a little paw in and just paws herself the cheese off of the pizza and just starts to nibble at it.
I take, I take the rest of the piece of pizza and start to eat it.
Areac grabs their journal.
What are you writing?
Field observations.
Honest?
I believe this way means we're field observations, yeah.
Well, did you find anything interesting?
I was just about to ask that, yeah.
Very interesting.
I just shovel the rest of the cheese in my mouth.
How far until we get to vector 12, the space station.
VA 11.
VA 11. Sorry, it sounds like a vegetable juice.
I know exactly what you're talking about, like V8 or something like that.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
There's a bottle of it in the fridge that's about 20 years old.
Yeah, it's old.
Yeah, no, it's, yeah, we're about, we're like two hours out.
We're almost there, super close.
Anybody want to play a board game?
Oh, I actually have a video game.
You have a video game?
I have a system, yes.
No, fuck, no fucking way.
Is everyone at video games now?
Is this a thing?
Was it?
Okay.
Watch the game.
The theory calls out, it's a, it's a sci-fi switch.
I don't know how else to put it.
A little sci-fi switch.
Just ask, is there a larger screen or monitor that we could plug this into?
Yeah, I've got like, me and Azzam played some video games on like an ancient TV screen last night.
I don't know if we'll have the stuff to like hook it up.
You can try.
We can work with what we have on deck.
I'm pretty sure I could help with that if we need to.
We'll do an engineering check, where's Jamar?
To hook it up.
Yeah, engineering sounds about right.
Yeah.
Everyone who wants to try and hook it up, I will.
I don't know what the equivalent of like the help action is, but.
I mean, help action sounds about right, yeah.
If, y'all can all roll separately, everyone who wants to help, or you can like try to set it up, or you can offer to help someone, which means that that person rolls with advantage.
Can I roll with computers instead of engineering?
Uh, yes.
I will give I can help.
I rolled a ten.
I don't know this stuff.
It's like, it's like pretty new, but you're like, I don't know this.
This, you've never set one up before.
It's like, I'm sure you could figure it out after a little while, but you've never, like you've never, you haven't touched it so far.
Wait, I should roll.
You can roll with engineering or computers.
This is my TV.
And I, you can also roll with engineering or computers, but you can do it with the help action as Theria gives you a hand.
What'd you get, Skye?
I got a 13, I'm cursed.
Oh, rip.
There's like a couple cables that you're like pretty sure are around somewhere, but you and Scrap just don't fucking keep a clean, a clean workspace.
And I'm like, yeah, it's somewhere.
I have no fucking clue where it is.
Ike, you're welcome to roll if you want to sit up.
It's in one of these mess of wires.
Give me a second.
Like trying to untangle the Christmas lights.
How many dongles is there?
A what?
Dongles.
Dongles?
I call this one the green one.
This one's the two outies.
She is literally the engineer of the entire ship, you hear?
I have, I learned, I am self taught.
I just knock, I gently knock on a wall.
There's a loud clang.
I'm like, yeah, no, it makes sense.
Hey, that's my craftsmanship.
Don't diss my craftsmanship.
Makes even more sense.
I believe it's called the patchwork for a reason.
As this bickering has been going on, Ike is just sitting at the TV, like face near it and just like having a little whisper chat.
I don't know really what a video game is exactly, but I think it would be really nice to see it and I think it would be nice to see them do it.
I'm not sure what you do with, I assume you play it.
I know what a game is, but I don't know what this will be like.
I get advantage of.
Yeah, yeah, you get advantage.
Okay, all right, that is going to be a 17.
As you as you're like, hi.
Hi.
Hello. Hi.
Hi. I do.
I do so want to see what a video game is like.
But we don't know how to connect to you.
And you feel like a warm static, you feel your your fur like pick up a little as they as it tries to like reach the TV.
I give the TV a little scratch.
There's the there's like that that that small static pole, as you're like, you like you feel a little bit of static in your finger and weirdly.
Without having to connect the game just kind of gets picked up on the TV.
I'm not going to question it.
I have Wi Fi.
Wi Fi.
What game do you have on the screen.
It's just like the main menu screen, and it has sort of like almost like a like a like a galactic map with like very almost like Renaissance looking like images of like a compass and like very early starships and
like things that would in this world seem like ancient or like like very, very old. So this is why net.
This is a strategy game where you play as different factions from all across the world.
All based on real societies and cultures and
each one has sort of different elements of play that they're catered to like someone more focused on domination and military exploits some are more focused on diplomacy, some are more focused on scientific endeavors, culturally based, some are more religious.
The goal is to just become the, the most influential power in the in the in this galactic system.
May I say I was already scrolling through the factions and I'm like, I want to use this guy's got cool tattoos.
How do I start a war.
We will get there.
Okay, so in my experience, you just say something, just speak to a microphone.
Yep. Like anything.
Anything. Do you have a lot of experience starting wars, I look around.
I think about it for far too long.
No.
I'm excited to play this game with you. I will warn you, we will not finish it before we land. This will take a long time to play our virtual thing of a virtual game of Twilight fucking imperium is that what's happening.
We are playing civilization. This is exactly that it's it's space civilization basically great.
Civil is it in Diana knows what that is.
Are there.
Do you win.
There are different win conditions, you there are certain markers of what has to be achieved before that happens and it differs based on what you're focused in and like what sort of end game you're looking towards.
For example, for the faction that sky is selected. There's would be very much a focus on on conquering and territorial expansion so her, her goal is to claim all of the original home planets that these factions start out on not necessarily any of the others that they explore.
We just that kind of really shitty behavior.
Oh, it's it's not ideal. No, but, but it's pretend, but it's pretend and also historical sort of simulation as if as if this were an alternate reality where all of these different factions knew each other and, you know, randomized maps and doesn't matter then that I've built like five army hangers and nothing else.
I think my people are starving. What buttons do I hit to feed my people should probably find a food source. How do I do that there's like 80 things on the screen I'm used to games where you just go and things explode and, you know, jumps and shoots.
I have your five hangers on.
You removed a food source. So, yeah, cuz I'm trying to start a war, can I can I search online for how to build a food co op.
This game's name is no food based settlement, why not. I just is fascinated and I think it's like sitting down with her back against the wall and her knees like like clutched into her chest like, like, watching everyone play this game and
absorbing as much as she can, and occasionally will whisper cheating and and try to just ask the game to give sky extra stuff.
Yeah, theory act. You know that there are random events in this game that like occasionally happen. Yeah, sky has wild luck in this game, some of these random events you're like, wow, you like the media are full of like resources just fell like right next to your base and like you were able to like you
getting so many like, like experiment boons and things like this, which are really jumping forward a lot of things every new area of the map that's revealed seems to be like a little better for sky.
How do I keep getting fucking droughts.
I think the rack is just very like just witnessing everyone like trying to figure out this game.
And in their own way this is their game of like, while they figure out the game that like they're figuring out everyone else and watching how they react to all the different stimuli and as I'm Can you give me a perception.
I love to yeah 1812 plus six. There are these.
So, so this is all built around like galactic civilizations.
But you see that that there are there are these other things called in the equivalent of city states and civilization, like smaller, smaller civilizations which aren't which aren't like player based but you can like connect your civilization to, and they give you
different boons and different resources and, and, and, and all this.
You do see a particularly powerful one there's a there's a, you get a an inbox notification on from on like your personal play thing from the cert energy company.
I wipe it off the map.
There is this this shift was playing that
as armed starts building military units, and everybody gets this little notification of player two, and then it has the civilization you're playing has started a war with the cert energy company.
I definitely pick the civilization that's probably best known for like farming or energy, or just diplomacy, like I picked the equivalent to frickin Canada.
And yet I'm at war with the state state right now. Who's playing cert energy.
That's that's a, that's a one of the, I literally just forgot the word for NPC NPC AI, Jesus.
That's one of the way.
Just a lot of power and I'm not comfortable with it. Whoa. So I feel like.
Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt anyone here. You know, I don't want to war with you. But wait, do you want all this uranium because I'm not going to use it.
I don't know I have like 300 uranium right now is that good. Oh wow you're gonna build a lot of bombs.
Yeah. Can everyone give me a culture check regardless of whether or not you're.
You know it aside from as I'm for.
Can I can I have a while.
Please can I roll above a 15 at some point in this campaign, a 17 nice.
This is a base level of knowledge that everyone knows. And then I'll move up in understanding the cert energy company is a one, like a major, major corporation sky you'd know this from growing up on saga that they are one of the one of the big ones of upper deckers.
They just it's it's like if you put your name on a bill and you live in a place that needs to be heated cooled anything like that you are going to give some money to the cert energy company.
I you have overseen heard about it being in many meetings about a merger between your company, which is the brewery mining company and cert energy.
They have both they are joining together.
These two absolute mega corporations.
Huge.
Like, even where you're from.
You kind of know you kind of know this, this company throughout your travels, especially on it and it and picks up a lot of waywards.
As it were from people just looking for work and just trying to pick up anything.
You know that there are people who that there are entire biomes, which have been completely stripped of resources because of because of cert energy.
Hey, as it says here that my army's power level is like 80%. Could I give some of that to you to help with your war against cert energy?
Sure. I love that actually and I'll you know all the rebellions that's been happening in the cities just notice a lot less.
I just click withdraw spies.
I've been fomenting local unrest for way too long. It's pretty much every winter.
You're good at this game. I think. Yeah, I think so too. I have no idea why this is so. Yeah, that's yeah.
I'm OP at this game.
He's a tactician. He picked up on like the internal tactics of the game and already he's exploiting the shit out of them. Yeah, absolutely.
Right.
Does anyone want to engage in diplomacy with me?
Maybe why why don't we just burn it to the ground? Oh, yeah.
Already working on it.
System.
I'm not a big fan of energy companies, you know.
We always seem to take more than they give their
their impacts are a lot wider than I think they're maybe as much as they're aware of.
They're ignorant to actually perhaps.
Yeah, and they're taking that spot on the map where I wanted to put a farm.
So I say let's get rid of them.
I keep being pretty quiet.
I'm just I'm just watching.
I'm having a nice time speaking with you and got to go to work after as well as time.
What do you work?
I work wherever there's work.
So you're like a freelancer.
Yes. Cool.
What are you freelancing for right now?
Some friends of mine.
Sounds nice.
What are you doing?
Oh, well, I'm bringing them those drinks.
All right.
It's it's for a party we're having a party.
That's exciting. What's for?
Oh, just some, you know, big celebration of their having.
Do you get to like dress up and stuff and there's fancy food?
I do.
So my friend Quinn is going to help me find a dress because I really don't have anything.
That's exactly what I would need for something this big.
I've got like this set of nice clothes, but everything else is a little bit ratty.
And but he promised that he would get me something suitable for the ball.
And I'm very excited.
What makes you think the stuff you own is ratty?
It's just got a lot of dirt on it and holes.
We can dawn this also right up.
It's not.
I I do a bit of mending myself, but it's not exactly what you were to a ball.
Yes, I I I just want it to be perfect.
Do you do you do you have a suitor going to school with you?
No, no, I'm sorry.
Should I? I'll be your suitor.
Well, I went to a.
Sky, your friend.
Yes, absolutely. I'll get all dressed up on nice.
I'll bring you flowers. I'll meet the parents.
That's what they do.
Yes, I I that I would I would like that.
I mean, when I.
Well, you can't meet my parents anyway.
It depends, right? Like if it's a company merger, probably not expecting.
Meet the mom and dad or dad and dad or mom and mom, but no, I don't get the feeling that this is.
Quite like that, but still, I can't meet your parents.
Because they will be there.
You know, I was expecting you to see your parents for dead.
I hang around so many orphans. I think I think it's desensitized.
We do it. I believe it depends on the function.
If it's a philanthropy event, I doubt parents are involved.
Well, actually, I believe parents would be very involved in a philanthropy event.
Did you know that in like school or something?
I never went to school.
I never got invited before now.
So that's hard. You know, sometimes kids can be a bit cruel.
But you know, now's the chance to have dreams you've always wanted.
That's what adulthood is about.
It's about, you know, looking at your childhood saying, yeah, I like that bit.
Reimagining it.
Although I would not change my first answer for anything.
What was that like? I didn't go.
My day showed up with a bunch of hot rolls.
And instead of going to dance, we went to a local caldera.
And we looked at animals and ate and danced alone for a good time.
Are you still in touch with them?
I was for a while.
These people grow apart, I think in the past 30 years.
I haven't seen them.
What about you, Firiak? Have you ever been to a dance?
Definitely. Look at them. They're dashing.
I bet they have.
I bet Firiak's had more than eight dates.
I think as everyone is like giving theory, like kind of like gassing theory,
like they're like little petals just like bloom a little bit.
See? See? Blushing. Blooming. I bet. One off of each stem.
The education system that I grew up in and later got my degree in,
dances were not part of the culture, unfortunately.
What did you guys do for like gatherings and fun and stuff?
Well, I grew up in a very religious society, actually.
What's the word for like the far out?
Like beyond this system?
Reaches.
Yeah, far reaches, I think people.
The far reaches.
I actually grew up on a planet called Raxal in the far reaches.
Very difficult to get to from here. Several.
Long time to get there.
But we are primarily known as being the sort of this,
the religious center piece, place of the photo religion.
So lots of lots of our celebrations were more dedicated to the cultivator
and, you know, equilibrium of the universe and balance between all things.
And not necessarily jovial isn't quite the right word, but very reverent.
And then, of course, in medical school, there's not really dances.
You a believer, Baryak?
I am, yeah.
It's a strange line to toe between a believer and a scientist.
No, it's not.
I think that's quite beautiful.
I think it's pretty weird that you're so devout to a creator
and kind of play one at the same time. I think that's pretty hardcore.
How about this game?
I don't think they thought about it like that.
Yeah, I want at least a bunch of these space animals or I may have to.
You may notice some of your art going missing.
You're stealing art?
Oh, from the from the government collections. Right. Right. Yeah.
I think theory act just like takes a moment to be like, wow, how is it?
You know that you know that tick tock audio that's like, like, I think it's from the interview with John Mulaney.
It's the interview with John Mulaney where it's like, and that's why you're afraid to really open.
It's like, oh, yeah.
It's so good. That's exactly what just happened.
Is there any other scenes that we'd like to do?
I just keep watching as they play and occasionally just ask the computer to do little favors for sky.
I think the act does come back around to I. And just sits next to her and just.
All right.
Oh, fine.
Just. It's fun to watch.
I don't think it's my kind of game.
No.
I've only been fairly recently introduced to these.
I understand it's not for everyone.
It's more fun to watch.
Not that I've played, but it's fun to watch.
And I would just like to keep watching.
I'm glad that you brought it.
I didn't expect the other two to take to it so keenly.
It's very intense.
Very intense.
Sort of interesting to watch.
Putting out these. I don't want to say enrichment items because you want subjects, but to see everyone interact with these objects in different ways.
Curious.
If you.
Discover anything interesting about us, will you let us know at least depends on the information.
Would you like to see something?
What would I be seeing?
It's a little giggly and like has them like lean in really close and they'll whisper.
Just watch this.
And she's going to whisper and ask the game.
To.
Just glitch and and delete one of cert energies like buildings.
As you command, as you wish, a building just like there's like a small like a buffer frame where the game kind of do do do and then as it like returns a building is just gone.
Is on. Did you do that?
No, I didn't.
That's weird.
Weird.
I'm gonna take my Navy in from the north. You can take the other sides.
Yeah, sure.
Radical.
How did you get so good at killing things and pincer techniques?
And what what techniques when you flank someone from both sides.
Oh, um, I don't know. I like I like video games.
Nice.
Are we all are we all listed the space station?
As you.
Acknowledge it.
There's a a.
A like neon sign, which seems to be.
It's been taken from a from a like a bar and some of the letters have been pulled and changed into other things which and it lights up this bright neon purple and it indicates that you have to.
It's time to go back to your seats now.
It says coming in for landing.
All right, everybody. I'll be taking those controllers from you.
I just kind of goes around collecting them.
I was half expecting him to like sanitize them.
Maybe next time I can show you my game doc.
Right.
I'm not sure there will be a next time I'm headed back to the dune.
Well, why don't we give you a lift? We have a drift car now. Yeah.
Save you the bus fare.
Sure.
Better to do it privately than through it.
I would be very glad to accept such a.
But.
Welcome aboard.
Hey, take your seats.
Yeah, yeah, you will. You will. You will take your seats scrap flicks on the seatbelt sign.
Everyone fasts himself in a green light flashes above scrap and a voice comes in asking for flight numbers and all these technical this technical jargon, which scrap responds and then parks up.
The patchwork flows in flows in softly, but then has a quite rough landing. You haven't actually felt it proper land as it's only it's been just like suspended in air every time you picked it up.
And it lands large chunk everyone like falls down and then is raised back up with this absolutely Bob Barrett suspension that scrapers installed.
Right. There we go. Everyone's able to go everyone can take off the seat belts get up out of the seats, make sure you have everything.
I'm going to refuel. We'll head back off again in like an hour or two and the and the gate goes down the doors open and a heavy with this long hallway one which you're not in in Hall A anymore you're in you're in a different a different area but looks practically exactly the same just a long very sterile
hallway like an airport. And there's a few guards at the end to check for check for weapons and whatnot.
You're all the gate lowers and you're all able to do whatever it is you'd like to do and get on with.
Do we all want to stick together.
Oh, that'd be fine.
I'm okay with it. I do want to visit a friend.
By yourself.
I mean, she would she would mind if all of us went.
Yeah, I'd like to meet her.
And I'm bored, and I want to leave the ship.
As you as you get off scrap turns to do is like sky, can you pick up some food when you're gone, just for the trip to wherever we end up going next up food but I can't pick up log bolts I get it, you're welcome to pick up love boats, just make sure you don't take longer than two hours, I don't want to be stuck here.
All right.
What's our little plan, you can of course just say you just stay on board for the two hours if you'd like.
Until scrap is finished refueling, or you can.
I actually, I think that it might be better if I just drop this off.
On my own.
It's.
There's a lot of rules and restrictions.
And the yeah you don't want us to get like I have to sign and stuff.
We're a motley crew is fine.
And also, it's not embarrassed actually it's just that there are lots of metal detectors and other detectors and things so I just, you know, it's a whole, it's a whole to do and I don't want to take up.
I felt more and more weird about it the more you had to explain you could have just said we didn't have to come with.
Get out of here.
Okay, goodbye.
It's my.
You pick up the, this, this, this big drink and go scurry off.
As um,
you, you, you're going to go visit your, your friend.
Yep.
And we're going to follow because they're presumably in the marketplace.
You, the three of you all, all get to the market at the, at the same time.
As I'm you walk down a path that you know pretty well, you've been there quite a lot, and you see
I was just like, who is speaking and I just realized that there's advertisements playing at the same time, like in universe advertisements and I was like that is throwing me off.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, that is throwing me so much.
Yeah, yeah, that guy needs to shut his, yeah.
Man, I'm so tired of those freaking quantum energy drink ads.
You know, it feels like they're everywhere these days.
You should see my, you should see my personal computer keep on trying to sell me heated blankets.
He did blankets.
Me.
Yeah, I guess they didn't really reach their target audience.
There is fully an advert for an energy drink which is like, well hey there, if you buy, like if you buy 10 energy drinks you get one token, if you get 10 tokens, you are able to get 20% off of tickets to the sweepstakes.
It's fully advertising wild time.
There's like this energy drink with this like little logo on it, whenever you pick one up it like responds to you and it's like, you certainly, you certainly gonna, gonna pick a drink with that packs a punch.
Is there, I don't think we had decided this. Is there like a mascot.
Oh absolutely yeah.
Oh yeah. Yeah, it is.
You can actually, you can tell that it's a mascot.
A humanoid version of subject one.
It has the same tendrils and translucent skin but has a Tony the tiger face. And it's, it's, it's like, yeah, it's, it's, it looks literally nothing like if you put the two of them side by side you didn't know it looks absolutely nothing like it.
Oh, this makes the react when I die.
You're right. Look a bit.
The mascot freaks me out too.
Oh wait, you, we know you run the park, you run the park. I did you not know about the marketing campaign.
I wish.
I don't run the park.
I am the co founder and head scientists for wild side, wild times, wild times.
Just being honest, more you more we see this place more it looks like a zoo to me.
Or an amusement park. It is a logical comes to educational institution.
It's education was that thing.
I mean like, I feel like they probably have a hard time marketing an educational facility to children. So I also feel like we're maybe. Yes, thank you.
A large portion of our clientele caters to educating young people, young people like images of cartoons and
Yeah, you know photographs. You know what? Actually now you're saying it makes total sense. This place is clearly, you know, really educational.
You must work very hard.
It seems like what's happening is I'm putting my own perceptions on things. That's not fair.
I'm sorry. And I'm the target target demographic. So feel free to like roll against the role of sense motor to see if I'm bluffing because I am
noted you can set the DC for that.
I'm not that seems way more appealing than an educational center. How about a 25.
I did roll a bluff check.
And I got a net 20.
Well, you can decide since it's your lie and bluff. So you're welcome to say that you it's true. Whatever you can say whatever you want.
You can, whether it's true or not is not a thing you can tell necessarily but he is trying to come for you.
That's what I'll let you know.
If you're just like, huff a little bit and just I appreciate that. Yeah.
Also, I feel like maybe we should start poking this topic is it's clearly really important to you.
I give like a somewhat meaningful look to sky.
That'd be great.
So have you ever been to like the surface of the moon for. Yeah, I'm making conversation. It's what you do.
I, I believe briefly for an expedition.
Nothing extensive.
Use guy where a moon.
I've never really been off of saga.
Not to my memory anyway.
What's all good like shit.
It's it's a metropolis planet and it's pretty divided economically.
I wouldn't recommend going there for a vacation unless you can really afford it.
Yes, I understand.
I've not really been far off my planet.
Well, that drift course going to change that. No, no, it's probably, you know, explore world.
This time you don't need to check. He's lying.
He doesn't. There's a there's a very different reason for why he doesn't want to go back home.
So where's this cafe that we're going to walk and you get to the calf.
It's it's it's very busy today.
There's tens of different races.
It seems to be quite like a small cafe. It's kind of like tucked away near the like sleeping quarters.
But we seem to be in a bit of a like a morning slash brunch rush.
And so although it's small with only like a few tables and chairs, it is it is it is packed out the of the hilt is is completely done.
You do see as arm, though, a four armed barista who is pulling a bunch of pulling like a bunch of orders and tickets and putting them up for arms like gray skin.
They long their their head, which goes like back quite quite a long way.
And they are wearing this like uniform with it with a with a little apron that's well stained with some form of viscous fluid.
And they are pulling orders, cutting sandwiches, things like that.
They see you and they and they perk up.
Oh, hey, how's it going?
You do I see you in a little bit.
Had your mission go OK?
Yeah, yeah. Well, I brought your firms back.
It's nice to meet you to you.
It's nice to meet you.
These are my friends.
This is Scott.
Hi, there's nice to meet you.
Can I get can I get you all?
You look busy.
Hi, nice to meet you.
This being entirely made out of gas with just like a small like brain with with eyes floating in the middle.
It's like I'll get to you.
I'm doing your order now.
Oh, take care of the line first.
You sure I can't get you anything.
I'm perfectly fine.
Thank you.
I wouldn't mind trying what one of those morning brown drinks tastes like when it's morning brown brown.
Get your money.
We're not legally allowed to call it coffee since it has none of the consistency coffee.
No, it's it's it's our recipe.
We kind of stole it from from you.
We call it morning brown.
It's just it's it's exactly what it says.
It's brown.
You drink it in the morning and energize it.
But oh, my God, do not drink it.
If it's cold, it gets so bad.
It's like quite dangerous, like almost poisonous.
Cool.
So how are y'all doing?
I'm good.
We we went to the vile fans are excited.
Why'd you go there?
Job.
I brought your key chain.
I pull out a key chain.
Oh, oh, this is this is.
Thank you.
That'll sell for quite a lot pretty soon since it's from a theme park that no longer exists.
It's quite morbid.
Yeah, I will take that.
Thank you.
They they just they put it inside of their apron.
Yeah, we're going to need a number of people on the ship, which is five.
We're going to five different meals, various kinds.
I think Firiakko needs plant matter.
Yeah, it's a little something.
I'm I'm perfectly fine with anything.
How much can they get for?
I hold out my how many credits do I have?
Hold on.
Oh, I have enough credits to pay for everyone.
It's fine.
Thirty one credits is enough, I'm sure.
Yeah, I've got I've got a very small amount of credits.
I came from prison.
OK.
Oh, dear.
Yeah, that that that'll be fine.
I'll take I'll take I'll I'll use my discount and it'll be twenty five.
That's OK.
I pull out twenty five credits handed over almost immediately without even thinking.
They're like they're the credits are kind of stored on a on a stick.
But there are these physical copies that are like solid hologram almost.
And you pick.
I press the twenty button and the five button.
And yeah, it uploads and he's like, oh, there it is.
OK, there's no trouble.
Hey, go get a seat or find somewhere.
I'll bring it over to you in no time.
Sure. Yeah.
Oh, sandwich is really good.
Thanks for that.
I'm glad. I'm glad that my my very basic put thing in thing made a good sandwich.
I'm glad that you did.
You finished your crossword.
I did.
You helped me out very much.
There's other bits I'm stuck on, but they're all history stuff that I don't I don't care for.
Maybe we could help with one.
Maybe so.
They they pull from their like little apron, just like this like quite thin stick that they click and it.
There's like a holograph like falls out of it.
And they like two of their arms continue to make these little sandwiches and their eyes occasionally look over to look at receipts in their hand.
Whereas there's the two of two of their four arms fills in a pass a passcode and then hands it over.
Best of luck.
Is there anything on there we know?
Yeah. Give me a give me a give me a culture.
All of you.
The curse has lifted.
I got a ninety.
Beautiful.
The question is the name of the what is the name of the Sheeran Queen before her assassination on Nurt Noir.
Everyone who rolled above 15 knows that Nurt Noir are these two planets that are connected by an organic bridge.
It is a it is a major hub for Sheeran's which are these little like bug type people.
And you would know that the queen that was assassinated is Nimrada which is N.Y.M.R.I.D.A. Nimrada.
She was assassinated about 40 43 years ago through the years.
But that's like universal time.
And you fill it in and there is a bidding and I'll see.
Get the Nimrada.
Nimrada. I know that I met the son of the person that did it one time of the of the assassin.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They like made a made a stop on Saga once and we got talking and it was just part of the conversation.
Quite an interesting life.
Yeah, he could say that.
A lot of interesting people just land on Saga.
Yeah, I'm seeing.
I had no idea that I planets connected with an organic bridge.
I think just this one.
That's wild.
I'd like to see it someday.
Oh, it's a big, big universe out there.
You will.
Well, I come from I pull up.
Yeah, I pull up the records from my planet.
But I don't look at them.
I don't look at any of the history.
I don't look like what it's recently is.
I just pull it up and like hand it over.
Cool. I'm assuming it's like a lava planet.
Just tons of volcanoes.
It was a fresh planet.
Very, very new in in the solar system that it that it inhabits.
Very curious.
Almost entirely still molten rock.
And the ifrit people being basically humanoid lava based creatures,
they they they lived, thrived for just on that planet for many years.
If you'd like to read further, you are welcome to.
But that is the page that is armhands you.
This is the iPad that we've stolen from the cafe, right?
Yeah, you are on a you're on a search engine browser.
Yeah, we should probably go back to their crossword, though.
But maybe we can look it up when we get back on the ship.
Maybe we can visit at some point.
I know it's a very hot planet for.
Well, we're very hot people, so we'll blend right in.
There's a station for there's a space station just above it for connections to.
Well, turns out we're looking kind of a highway nowadays.
So that was 30 years ago. Nowadays for him is 30 years ago.
But it was like we're located on some kind of a highway.
So there's a station above where mostly we mingle with them.
Well, non ifrit, but planet itself.
Well, it's literally a lot of it's rather molten.
I checked. Maybe we can go to the station, say hi to your family or something.
What was what was your question, Andre? Sorry.
What's the name of this planet again?
Is that an in character question or is that just a out of character?
I assume it would have been on the it was.
Yeah, the name of the planet is Erem.
I believe E-R-R-U-M. Is that correct?
Yeah, that's enough of that.
I turn it off. So Salga Erem Dune.
Right. What do you think Ike's from?
I thought she said she was from the space station.
Also, anybody else not have an issue with her being embarrassed of us until she brought it up?
Was that just me? Was that just me?
No, it's fine.
Do we want to surprise her? Do we want to go embarrass her on purpose?
No, no, no, no, no.
OK, listen, last thing people are embarrassed more is for someone to just show up and enforce themselves upon.
You know, give it time.
She'll warm up to us, probably, maybe, likely.
Look, I'm guessing that her relationship with her employers isn't the greatest.
I feel like our friendship is less likely to blossom if we get in the way of her ball.
You seem very dead set on friendship.
Me? Why wouldn't you be?
You don't like having friends, Firiak?
I'm not sure that in my field, in my career path, friends are of the highest calibre.
Friends are a dangerous proposition in my escorted profession, but I still have them. Had.
I have acquaintances. I have Lynn.
If we end up going towards Idun, perhaps you will meet him there.
Firiak, that might be the saddest thing I've heard in a long time.
Are your drinks done?
We cut from there and move over to the business district, or more business-y, where Ike walks up to these large doors that separate the sound of this quite loud airport to the quieter office space.
There's a guard who has a hollow computer in front of them, and they are moving names and just seem to be fiddling.
They poke their head around. They're human. They have just like longer hair, which is done up in a bun, as well as wearing a suit jacket over what is clearly a VA-11 employee t-shirt.
Oh, hi. Sorry. Hi there. How can I help you?
I'm expected. I have to meet with Quinn.
Okie dokes. Yeah, sure. Can I get your name?
Ike.
Okie. You're here to meet Quinn, is it? Where do you work? What is the place? Is the meeting for anything?
Yes, it's not scheduled because I needed some time to get back, but I have something that he has purchased. Just making a delivery.
Great. Quinn. Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Quinn. Ok, we've got a couple of Quinn's on here. Where is it about that you- that they work?
Sorry. Brewery Mining.
Okie. Yeah, no, sure. One second. They put their hand to their ear. Hey, yeah, what's the group with the Brewery Mining Company?
No, we've got someone here waiting for them. Yeah, I thought so. No, they're not turning up.
Okie. I'm sorry. Ike? Was it?
Yeah, they left eight, ten hours ago. I don't know where they were. They didn't say they were meeting anyone, but they went back to Saga, so maybe they're supposed to meet there.
Um, alright, and there's no chance that they're coming back here?
Um, I can check. They don't have any meetings scheduled. Not here, no.
Um, alright, just a confusion on my part then. Um. Alright. Have a nice day. Yeah, you too.
And, um, on her, like, phone device, she pulls up to text or send a message to Quinn, um, to say, um, you're not here, but your drinks are!
Exclamation point. Um, and sends. A few seconds later. Not to worry though. On my way to Saga now. I'll find a lift. Smiley face.
After a little bit, you get a red notification. A few minutes go by, and then three dots, and then a question mark comes up. Then a few more dots. And a message says, oh! Cool, so you're here.
Thumbs up emoji. Uh, Ike is going to walk back towards the, like, main market area for a little bit.
And decide that she's not ready to, to do that. So she's going to go back to where the ship was parked.
And she's going to reread those last five text messages a couple of times while she waits for the rest of the crew to come back.
And as Ike... Go on.
Are we, are we starting to wrap up this session?
I was going to wrap up there, unless you had...
I was going to say, do we all want to already be at the patchwork? And as Ike arrives, can we turn around and say something along the lines of like, hey, we weren't going to leave without ya!
Um, I'm confused. I, I was... I offer to like, wrap one arm kind of jokingly around. So, do you have any dietary preferences? Because we didn't know, so I got one of everything.
No, really anything is fine. I did make sure to pick up a little bit of lactose for you.
Therriac! What a good doctor. From the back of the ship, you hear a, hey, is that what I think it is? And then walking out, you see Scrap who's done, clearly doing some maintenance and it's just like wiping some oil from their fur.
How's it going? I don't need to impose. Um, is there still room on board for me?
I honestly thought you were already planning on coming, which is why I said we weren't going to leave without you, which I now realize was a very foolish thing to say. Don't I look like a doofus?
Nah, the feeling should be back to you. What does that mean? I'm just saying, Scrap is pretty irresistible. That's true.
Back off, I'm her suitor.
That's my wife! And it would do well in balls anyway. Hey, dances ain't my thing.
Right, to saga. To saga. To saga. Everyone get in your chairs, takeoffs in five, Scrap walks in, flicks on the taking off light.
And you all get in your chairs, the ramp goes up and closes and the patchwork takes off for saga. And that's where we're going to leave it for today, gang.
I have never wanted to keep playing a game more than I do right now.
has taken this podcast to a whole new level. It's so good.
It makes me want to scream. That is patron.com forward slash Michael Gelphie, which is M I C H A E L G H E L F I.
The song that you're listening to right now is by Matt Harris. It is strange stuff.
And it is also a thing that we have the license for because it's for you,
so it's fucking amazing and I love this song very much.
Our players today were Superdillon, who plays Ike. They are Superdillon on all social media.
Nodina Lee, who plays Azam, going by the handle Werewolf Feels.
Andre, who plays Thiriyak, going by the handle AndreRiviereArt.
Momo O'Brien playing Sky, who goes by the handle Momo O'Brien.
And myself, Matthew Ekberg, who is Captain Krell pretty much everywhere.
And to our hosts, the Welcome In. You can find the live plays of the
Alamance on their Twitch channel every other Wednesday, which is the Wednesday where the
podcast is not coming out. As well as Conundrum Company, Off the Rails, which are their two major
shows. As well as so many more beautiful things. I cannot speak higher of the team. They've helped
us and me out so much. I love them. I love you. If they've listened this far, I love you.
And yeah, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you so much. And I hope that the
next time that this little crew takes off into the atomless sea, I hope you're there to join us.
I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Bye bye.