Previously on the Atomless
Azan, he-
Oik, she-
Uh, my name is Theoriak
What's up? My name's Sky, welcome to the patchwork, my dudes!
More research regarding the crystal-
Bad stuff happens to good people all the time
Uh, we have a spaceport, Helium, it's a comedy club
Uh, you see four people wearing this heavy green armor
These people are Heth
And you notice there's a lot of things missing
And one of the things-
No!
Is the crystal
You see two figures
A large, middle-aged looking Velka
And they're talking to a 19 kid with this like, tousled hair, goggles on, light leather jacket
And these like, slightly bulky, like brown boots
Sky and Theoriak, you recognize this teenager
Whose large boots have collapsed in to make roller skates
And they are pounding towards you
As you pull out the gun, they jump and throw this like, tiny like, flashbang
This little skittermander throws the crystal up and they grab the crystal
Heavy footsteps that now you clock that you've been hearing since that grenade explosion went off
As you see four Heth guards running out, full armor, these like, large laser rifles
Everybody stop! Put your hands on your heads!
That is ten damage
His arm's knocked out
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!
Hands up! I'm sorry!
We were attacked and now we were shot by you!
And sees all of these different individuals like, standing up against the Heth
And Theoriak will do nothing
And just continue to hide
And puts their arm in and picks up the crystal
Seems like they were fighting over this
Let's get them aboard
Doesn't this guy look like Captain Melis?
And then, dish, dish!
As Sky and Eig are both hit, knocked out
We think about the sky
We think about the stars
We think about the planets and the dreams of the people that live on them
But what about the space between?
The cold, unmoving cruelty
That has no choice but to be cruel
Do you think it means to be cold?
Putting itself as the villain so the stars seem more beautiful?
Or do you think it screams to be wanted?
Arguing with the space filled to be noticed
Not to be flown over looking for the horizon but to be sat in
And understood as the darkness that lingers
Uninteresting, but there, the set dressing of the forgotten
If it wasn't there at all, do you think people would notice?
Notice that the darkness had upped and gone?
Do you think the colours of the sky would now seem too bright?
Too overwhelming?
Azzam
Streaks of light shoot through the atmosphere of Irim
Comets crash into the surface, spraying nearby houses in molten rock
Young Ifrit play and splash in the lava, laughing, playing games
This small village is quieter than most
A cert energy factory planned to open, but the resistance broke their plans
And they have yet to retaliate
So for now, you sit, watching the laughter
You feel a presence beside you
You turn to see a young Ifrit
Curled ram-horned skin bright almost blue with flame
You see M'lise
Has his seat taken?
Err no, it's not
They hand you a small pottery cup with a drink in it
Have one themselves and they sit next to you
It's nice, you did a good job
For now, things are going to change and are going to change soon
Let's just know it somehow
I'm a little nervous myself but
Oh don't worry
It's you and I
What's the worst that could happen?
We have done nothing but win recently
We got a good team
They're on the back foot
They've, cert have retreated from almost everywhere
They hear us coming and they leave
I don't want to talk about it
I mean, we'll need to talk about it but I
I appointed the children
Do you, I
How many do you want?
None? Four?
I mean if we could just go into a cave and mine until it was completely empty I would happily do that but I feel like
It's a bit much
Yeah
We still have to raise them
That's the bit I'm looking forward to
I'm forward to the awkward middle stages and going to the preschools and teaching and
That's what I wanted to be before this
You can bake bread, I can walk into class and teach the next generation
What happened to us?
We used to have actually easily reachable goals, you know?
Well, I don't know about your baking skills but I'm a good teacher, I can teach these kids
Well, yeah, yeah, I know, it's just my expectations of life have changed
I'm hoping for to walk on the sun
Hmm, I have heard a lot of people walking on the sun
I can't even make things up
Some part of me is scared that we're never going to have that, you know?
All I want is to settle down and start a proper life
I've wanted that since I was a kid and now I don't know how long I'm going to have to keep on going
I want to have all of this before I just crumble
I mean, look at me, I'm already getting way too old
You can see it on the knuckles
They chuckle and they put a hand on your leg
We live a really long time, even if we started our journey in two, three hundred years
We'll still have a couple to forge a sun or whatever it is you want to do
It's only if this planet stays whole, the further we get, the less lasting we get, you know?
Or at least that's what the rumours say
I haven't seen an Ifrit older than two centuries and, well, ten years since grandma died
You're right, I should stop talking about it
So, kids, at least enough to litter a whole new planet
Got it
Hmm
Wedding, gonna do one?
Oh, I know, it depends
I'm not sure what you're talking about
Hey, listen, it depends who wants to do that with me
That's a...
You keep your arms open, yeah?
Yeah, it's a big ask and I don't know if anyone can handle me, really
Well, we could always get a third if you'd like
If you're really unsure about me being enough
Oh, are you asking?
Is that supposed to be fun?
Is this a thing?
I didn't realise this was a thing, I thought we were just...
Oh my god, this is so embarrassing for you
Oh, fuck off
All I do is for you
I mean, no, all I do is for, you know, our planet, people
But no, who I am, that's for you
I want to be worthy of you, you know?
This takes a lot more effort than I think most people know, you know?
The shaving, all the time, you know, this thing grows back like weeds
Now I can tell
You'd probably hate me with a beard
I don't know, I think you'd look good no matter what you go with
A beard, get that, you know, older, sophisticated look, I think that could work
Oh, so you think I look good right now is what you're saying
I don't like you putting words in my mouth, but yeah
Well, would you prefer I put something else?
There are children so close to us
Oh my god, you're so inappropriate
I'm suggesting that I give you some more of this drink, asshole
Yeah, I'm down for another drink
Yeah, hold on, my turn
I get up, like after a beat, to go refill our little cups
You know something, if we don't get any of this, we don't get, you know, marriage of kids
Still would have been all worth it, you and me
Oh, unquestionably so
You remember way back when, when you were still figuring out what shape you wanted to be
And I was still binding my horns, when we talked about leaving together, starting off somewhere new
Hmm, I remember
It's pretty ironic that somehow we end up not only stuck where we've been forever, but fighting for it too
I don't think that's that strange
We're fighters, we love what we love
Oh no, you're a fighter, I'm just here to impress you
Oh, is that it? That makes sense
You can't let anyone know, it's my secret
I'm less fighting for the planet and more us, the people, you know
That's what I'm here for
We could still up sticks and move, that's what, you know, my grandfather did, your grandfather did
And the planet cools, we leave, I mean these people are trying to cool it before it's time, that's what I'm fighting back for
Okay, let's say all rumors are true, right? And our great grandparents and great great grandparents came from some other planet, somewhere far away
And we keep doing this over and over and over again
Right, what do we do if a planet's cold, no place to go to? What then?
Well we do your dream, forge a sun
My dream?
You said you wanted to walk on the sun and...
That was a joke, no people, no person can walk on a sun
Maybe forge a sun, yes, but like one of those, you know, wants to figure out what gender it wants to be
Oh, sun with an O, right
I didn't, to be fair, I was not talking about actually walking on a child, I was joking about walking on...
You do this, you willfully misunderstand
You're just so easy to fluster, I love it, it's like nine tenths of the entertainment on this planet
Oh, I'm easy to fluster
Yeah
Oh, I'm easy to fluster, well, in that case, I put one hand on their thigh and the other arm around their shoulders
How are you feeling right now, hm? And I get closer
You couldn't handle me
Oh, I couldn't, you know, it's been a decade or two but I still burn a bit harder than you, I think
Put that to the test if you want
Tell me when, and then I straight up kiss them
As you kiss them, we fade out
The light gets brighter, doesn't change its shade of red
The sun, Ike, isn't a feeling that you're used to
You can count on one hand how many times you've seen the natural light of day, but here, right now, it's in abundance
Fills the clean, hard room that you're sat in, papers are neatly stacked on a fake wooden table in this small office space
The door to this room opens just enough to not hit the table and a man steps through
He's clean shaven, pressed suit, red shirt, tie, slick brown hair, held in place by expensive product, a tint of electronic blue behind his eyes
Hello there, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting
My name is Mr. Highlock, but you can call me Quinn
I hear that I'm lucky enough to have you interview to work with me
I'm, I think I'm the lucky one, actually, thank you for giving me this opportunity
I'm very hardworking and very dedicated
I believe you, and honestly, I've read very little about, you know, your resume that you gave me, but you seem like a perfect fit
I just want to run through some things
This position has a lot of traveling involved, moving from the upper decks down to the lower decks
Are you happy with doing that?
Oh, quite, I move quite quickly, and I do already do so quite a lot, so that should be no problem at all
You have no family down there that would miss you, which is this position, I'm not sure if you're aware, but it comes with an apartment a few blocks away
And you don't have anyone who would be upset, anyone who you'd like to bring with you, or?
I, I don't need to bring anyone with me, and I, no, there's no one who would miss me
I find that quite doubtful, you seem so friendly, probably the friendliest little Yosuke I've ever met
Well, that's, I've been told before that I'm quite nice, but it's, I appreciate that, you seem very nice yourself
Well thank you, you'd be surprised how many people don't think that around here
No
I'm not one to put words in other people's mouths, so you can drop that
Okay, okay, another question, I have a team of people, we all came up in this company together, so we've formed an inner circle of sorts
So sometimes I'll have to move your responsibilities over to them, are you comfortable with working for a larger group of people, like a team?
I prefer to work with more people actually, I don't really want to be, I work alright alone, but I work well on a team
I would like to get to know more people, absolutely
Okay, this is all great, this all sounds wonderful, I'm going to be honest with you, all the questions that I'm asking are all kind of, you know, these are all the questions that the company wants me to ask
I have one question off the board, if that's okay, off the record as it were
Yes, Mr, your last name
Quinn, please, call me Quinn, it's okay, call me just Quinn
Quinn, of course
You said no one would miss you, why?
Oh, um, I've been trying to make it to the upper decks for quite a while, this is of course the closest I've gotten, it's just that the family that I have don't quite care for that decision, so
You have no friends?
I've had friends, I'm sorry, I, mostly I have people that I do favors for or that I work for and as I've learned, that doesn't mean that they're your friends
So, I don't really have friends that will notice when I'm not below anymore, so
Well, seems like you have one friend now, sticks out the hand, welcome aboard
Two little hands, two handshake, thank you Quinn, I promise you absolutely won't regret this, not in the slightest
They smile and lead you out the room and as they do, Skye
The luck-ridden rain pelts against you as you hobble through the lower deck streets
Your broken leg has carried you this far but patrols are still searching for you
Your blood-soaked hand is holding a piece of paper with a meeting place
The words scrap and a number is scribbled in hurried font
You follow the neon streets till you can see a hole in the mock sky
Large mechs throw debris from the clean upper decks down into a broken pile in the lower decks
You approach a large makeshift sign saying scrap scrapyard hanging above a gate
A piece of paper taped to the gate says if you need me, no you don't, if it's an emergency it can wait
And you are outside this gate
May I describe Skye, please and thank you
Absolutely you can, yeah
This young girl is so neutral it's striking
Dark black hair to her tense shoulders
A grey flexible tracksuit that might be mistaken for some kind of uniform
Emotionless eyes matched by a mouth stuck in a straight line
An aura void of personality or humanity
The skateboard on her back matches her color tone perfectly, grey and lifeless
And I'd like to, if it's unlocked, walk right into scrap scrapyard, please and thank you
You walk in, there are these idle hovering robots seemingly built by the scrap that surrounds them
Pushing these pathways which stretch and circle like a maze all around the yard
It doesn't take you very long to find a rusted old shack
A small brown rat half of their face covered with metal plating
A small antenna that blinks in tune with the machines around them
They have a blowtorch that they're using to attach a large piece of scrap metal to this hollowed half built
What looks like a ship as you approach they turn and pick up their goggles
Ayyyy no no no no no
I don't know what you're hearing but I'm not buying anything
Hive sent me
Are you scrap?
Yeah
I'm done with that life though, I'm not here, I paid my dues, I got out
I'm trying to do that too
Hive said you can get me a ride off of Saga
Can you build a ship?
Yeah
What do you need, I can get it
A like incredulous kind of fed up expression washes over them
If you can find me at least four working flight engines
It needs to house about four people that won't break up as soon as we enter the atmosphere then yeah sure I can take you
I'll get you five
What's your name?
Skyscraper
Scrapyard, it's nice to meet you
How soon can we leave?
As soon as you get me those five
She leaves
Theoriak, you hide behind boxes
Four Heth throw out a stasis bubble and have carried away your friends
They look at this large ship trinkets adorning a maiden head that the skittermanders flair and keelin ran into
It tried to leave but the gravitational field that Skye started seems to be too powerful for them to fully get into any form of flight space
So they have effectively been grounded
The doors are locked solid and the Heth's weapons don't seem strong enough to get in so they stand around idly waiting to figure out a way of how to get in
Is the Heth's attention solidly on that ship?
Yes, one of them took the rest of the party away and they boarded what you can assume was the Heth ship that was in the docking port of Helium
The other three, after some walking around and being a bit too alert, have now settled and are just kind of talking amongst themselves and staring at the ship completely away from you
What Theoriak would like to do is sneak away and get Scrap
You find it real easy to sneak away as the crates kind of follow the docking port to a point where you could just be walking around normally and no one would notice
The size of how small you are actually is so beneficial in this area where you can kind of just walk normally and pretend that you were just walking normally this whole time
As you cross past the entrance of Helium you see duct behind a door, a metal arm, a pistol that they're poorly trying to disguise almost shaking
You see Scrap looking out at the ship and watching the event that's just happened
Scrap doesn't seem to have noticed you yet though
Theoriak is going to walk towards Scrap very casually but with a slight expression of, hey, so I guess you have seen that too?
As you walk up Scrap locks eyes with you and is like, oh my god, I didn't see you there, I didn't know what happened to you
Hold it, cool
Okay?
Alright, yeah
So, what occurred? There was another ship that apparently pilfered the patchwork with a bunch of skittermander, some human teenage delinquent
And some canid figure, I'm not exactly sure
And they stole from us?
They stole lots of things, but one of the things that they had stolen was the crystal
Oh shit
We were very determined to make sure that that specifically came back into our hands
So there was a bit of a kerfuffle
And after some threats were made it turned into an actual combat, a battle
I heard that bit
Yes
There was an explosion of a small one, I assume it was a grenade, as soon as that happened those four sprinted out
It was a flashbang from Skye, yes
Jesus
Or a smoke bomb, I don't quite remember, it was all of her
Okay, where are they now?
They have been taken in by the Heth, Azam was shot, unconscious, I have an idea
Okay, Doc, you're the leader, what are we doing?
So far, on all of our excursions, I have tried to remain as anonymous as possible
I think now would be a time to use the power behind my name and my workplace to get them out
Here is the story we are going to give
You had given me, Dr. Theria, the opportunity to acquire the mollusks that we had found on Leviathan's Eye, which is true, yes?
Yeah
On that excursion was when we found the crystal, the crystal that seems to be an amalgamation of various things
Which I wanted to bring back to Idun for further research
In part due to your team's efforts and the acquisition of said crystal
I would have all of you brought to Wild Times and participate in this study as the people who had acquired it
And as sort of the hired crew for myself
So for the intended purposes of this ploy, the crystal is for Wild Times, for further research
Right, so a lot of truth telling
A lot of truth, and the incident that just occurred that you saw the tail end of was a miscommunication of your crew off contract, let's say
We need to get everyone back, and we need that crystal
There's no need for further violence, violence has gotten us nowhere, that is our objective, are we clear?
Okay, so, what are we just going to walk up to the ship?
Yes
And just hope that they let us out?
Well, let's consider first, do you have the signature for Skye?
We don't do a lot of signing of official documents
You don't have any forgeries on you?
I have forgeries, but none of them is in the name Skye, it's a lot of different names
Well, I could quickly draft up some makeshift contracts and present those as legal evidence, it would basically just be the same files that we use at Wild Times and just modulate it so that it would regard the specific mission
Sure, I mean we'd have to backdate them, right?
Sure, but that was fully, what, 13 days ago?
Yeah, about two weeks
Do you have a printer? It's fine, we can just show the file on...
The file attachment, I mean I have a fax machine, we can send it to the fax
You have a fax machine?
Yeah, it's how I get messages, I haven't properly put in like a solid computer drive in, so they all get printed through a fax machine
Wow, that's stellar
I've only heard of such things, it sounds monstrous to work
Yeah, it was pretty much entirely rust when I found it, but I thought it was neat, I like old shit
Okay, so to the patchwork
Yes, to the patchwork
If this goes completely wrong, the crew first, the crystal is a bargaining chip
The crew matters way more
Alright, very well, I see no objection
After you, Doctor
Theoretic strides forward as they assume the role of leader in this operation
Streaks of light shoot through the atmosphere of Erem, comets crash onto the surface spraying nearby houses in molten rock
Young Ifrit play and splash in the lava, laughing playing games
This small village is quieter than most
A cert energy factory planned to open, but the resistance broke their plans, they have yet to retaliate
So for now you sit, watching the laughter
You feel a presence beside you, you turn to see a young Ifrit, curled ram horns, skin bright almost blue with flame
You see Melis, is this seat taken?
They have two drinks in some pottery and they hand you one of them
No, not at all
Take a seat next to you, they look out, it's nice
Yeah
Listen, I know it's nerve wracking, but they have yet to retaliate
I don't want to
We've done nothing but win recently
I don't want to talk about that
How many do you want?
I confusedly pointed a little, basically like, they probably look more like molten lava than they do like human children, but I pointed a little bundles of joy
Yeah
Hey, you know me, if we could go into a tunnel and just get all of them out, and have a small, whole school's worth, that would be
That's the dream for me
I remember all this
Remember all what?
This I proposed today, didn't I?
Not unless you got someone else, which I'm open to, but you alone probably can't handle me
No, I'm sorry
That's a lot of children for just two of us, that's what I said, right?
They sit back, a little uneasy scoot, maybe a bit further away, yeah, I mean that's the dream, but we don't have to, it was a joke, I don't actually want
No, no, I was joking, not joking, what's going on?
Well why don't you tell me, you seem odd, we've won
Said we didn't, this was a brief, brief moment before everything got worse, before they came back in force, before they called a heff, this was an eye of a storm, this was before you were taken from me and I was taken from you
I stroke my bare chin, oddly, like I'm feeling it for the first time in years, something's happening, something's in my memory
Their face sinks in almost an annoyance
Yeah you know what, this isn't working, can we rerun Simulat-
Eigh, the sun isn't a feeling that you're used to, you can count on one hand how many times you've seen the natural light of day, but here it's in abundance
It feels the clean hard room you're sat in, papers are neatly stacked on a fake wooden table in this small office space, the door to this room opens just enough to not hit the table and a man steps through, clean shaven, pressed suit, red shirt and tie, slick brown hair held in place by expensive product, a tint of electronic blue behind his eyes
Hello there, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting, my name is Mr. Highlock, but you can call me Quinn, I hear that I'm lucky enough to have you interview to work with me
Hi, I'm, I think I'm the lucky one actually, thank you so much for this opportunity
Please, it's an absolute honor, I mean I read through your resume and I'm excited for this opportunity, now I have a few questions, now this work will have you travel around a lot, moving from the upper decks to the lower decks, this is something that you're happy to do?
I move from the lower decks to the upper decks, I'm going to move from the lower decks to the upper decks, I do that quite a lot actually, and I move really well I think you'll find, so that should be no problem
Good, good, something I noticed on your report that I thought was interesting that I just wanted to talk to you about
You...
Can talk to machines
I never told you that, no, I, I, I can, I can, I just know machines, I know how to work them, I can use them quite well in most circumstances
I have a team of people, we all came up in this company together so we've formed an inner circle of sorts, so sometimes I'll have to move your responsibilities over to them, are you comfortable with working for a larger group of people, like a team?
I'm sorry, did we do this before?
All of these interviews are the same and I imagine that someone, you've had a fair few interviews just like this
Right, sorry, I, I, I do want to work with more people, I, I miss being around people so I would greatly like that
Mr, what did you say your name was?
Hilock, but you can call me Quinn
Quinn?
Are we friends Quinn?
You certainly seem to think so
Why are you lying to me Quinn?
Why were you down there?
And who's...
I don't understand why you were there
Why don't you ask then
We're talking right now, why are we talking right now?
There seems to be a fuzz, almost TV static that fills the space, just, just, just briefly
And in this break you see the threads that you're used to seeing, one that clicks your attention is a small computer that Quinn has set up on their side of the desk
That doesn't seem to have any thread attached, but there is a thread in the centre of the room that feeds out and goes beyond the clouds and beyond the sky
You click into this sight of this one singular thread
All language gets a bit more garbled and it becomes slightly harder to hear
And then all of a sudden everything seems to go red
And you see this one glass plate in front of you
And then almost immediately everything bursts into light and you are sat back in the office
The sun, Ike, isn't a feeling that you're used to
You can count on one hand how many times you've seen the natural light of day, but here, right now, it's in abundance
Sky
Muck-ridden rain pelts against you as you hobble through the lower deck's streets
Your broken leg has carried you this far, but patrols still search for you
Your blood-soaked hand holds a piece of paper with a meeting place
The word scrap and a number is scribbled in hurried font
You follow the neon streets till you can see a hole in the mock sky
Large mechs throw debris from the clean upper decks down into a broken pile in the lower decks
You approach a large makeshift sign that says scrap scrapyard that hangs above gate
A piece of paper taped to the gate says if you need me, no you don't. If it's an emergency, you can wait
Uh...
Hello?
I'm going to timidly walk into the scrapyard, checking to see if anyone's there
These hovering machines, silently, idly, making pathways, making a maze through this scrapyard
You follow them down until you see a ramshackle shack and a brown Yoski rat
Half their face covered in metal, this one antenna that blinks in unison with all the machines around them
They have a blowtorch and they are torching a side of a, what looks to be, will be in the future, a ship
Hey, are you scrap?
No, no, I don't care what you're selling. I'm not buying it. Thank you very much
Hive sent me. They said you might be able to get me a ride off of Saga
Listen, I ain't doing any more jobs for Void. I've done what I did. I got out
This ship is not for Void members, okay?
I don't want to be a Void member. I want to leave. And I know that nobody really leaves, but I want to try
Why? Why are you leaving?
Because I think I messed up
Well, this ship, it needs six engines that can make it through the atmosphere
If you can get me those six engines, then yeah, I can figure out a way to get you on board
Yeah, I can go get those right now
And she goes to leave and then stops, turns around and says, actually, could I make a stop?
What? Now?
Just on the way
Scrap seems to turn and look over their shoulder and then turn back. Where? Where do you want to go?
This might sound a little immature, but have you ever read a comic book?
I've done a little reading and I like the ones with pictures and it seems like something I might like
So if I can just have ten minutes, I'd like to try it. Please
What's your name?
Skye
Scrap
Nice to meet you
Theriac
What do you want? What do you want, you monster?
We arrive at the Heth ship
It's large, almost perfectly circular with these offshoots of these other spheres connected by small walkway bridges
All of it rests, it's ramp fully open
Okay, so we go in, we just tell the truth, just like ever, we just say the truth
I need you to stop saying the word truth so much, that's so suspicious
It's really, I'm really not used to it
Oh my god, oh my god, I completely forgot
Are you having a panic attack? Are we alright? I'm also freaking out
Come back over here and we'll let this end back together
Okay, alright
I forgot about the other crew, the other crew doesn't know about this bit, this cover story
There's a second crew, the one that stole our things
Okay
So they have information that contradicts ours
So if they're getting interrogated, which I don't know, I didn't see them taken away
However, should they be called in as witnesses, we need to make sure that those tracks are also covered
Okay, sure, so, alright, so what are we doing with them? Are we...
I'm debating if we should, if I should delegate to you to discuss with that team
Or if we should do that together before going to get the crew
Just as a backup
Or if we should just go in and just see if we can get them out the gate, but that's very risky, should things fall apart
Also, I don't, I am assuming, do you have, I mean, do you have your weapon on you?
Yeah
Okay, one of those little skitter manders stole one of my scalpels, but that's not important
So you want to get the other people that stole from us on our side?
That may be difficult because I shot their leader with an injection
But they stole from us, so I feel like Pirate's Code, tit for tat
So are even, and also they did assist us with the Heth, so I feel like we're already on very solid ground as far as diplomatic relations
Yeah, okay, yeah, sure thing, I can go speak to them if you want
Well, there are, I don't, there are still Heth over there, so perhaps that's not the smartest idea
Okay, how many are there in total, the Heth?
There were a good amount, they were moving some of the cargo around that was near the dock
Are they still over there?
Yeah, they were when I just came back
Okay, the size of this ship, I don't see it like in any official capacity holding more than four live-in people
Their ship or our ship?
Their ship
Their ship's bigger than ours, but ours is in no way capacity, they probably have rooms
And if there's some over there, then we might be able to get away with
Why don't we go inside and see how many are inside before we try and evaluate our tactical risks
And they will ascend the ramp again
The inside lighting almost matches the colour scheme of the outside of this ship, it is very red
Like everything is lit by this kind of dim, almost warning red
As you walk up the ramp, you see this one large spherical glass chamber with a cluster of drift cores
All mashed together looking a bit like a collection of atoms
I don't know the official name for it
Oh, it's like the nucleus of an atom
Wow, that's what it looks like, thank you
This centre room after you walk up the ramp are three rooms going off of it
You also... give me a perception real quick
I'm also going to roll one for scrap
Ben
Oh, Nat 20, baby
Do I need to roll?
Yeah, yeah, you still need to roll, you're player, you're more important
Okay
Uh, well, we're starting strong at seven
You walk in casually and easily
Scrap as you walk up closer to one of these three rooms that go off
Scrap grabs your arm, hey, and then points up
And there is hidden a security camera that is moving back and forth
We're not doing anything suspicious yet, but we're also on the ship
If there's no one else here, we can probably wipe the record of us being on
Well, we don't know if this is being collected on board or if this is being satellite viewed
So let's be civil, Scrap, I know that's difficult
Hey
Sorry
Alright, yeah, let's be civil, go on
Alright
Do you want to call out what's the plan?
What?
Call out for help, are we going back?
Call out for someone to come grab us, or?
Oh, I'm just gonna go to the reception desk
The reception desk? This is a ship
What? Whatever the equivalent is!
Oh, okay, alright, I mean
I'm not used to spacefaring, I'm sorry
Where is the reception desk of the ship?
Alright, well, I imagine that we're in a reception hall, I can't imagine these three doors aren't locked
I know that that one is the pilot's desk, points to...
So the three rooms from this, there is one straight ahead of you
There's one to your left and one to your right
Scrap points to the one to the left, that one's definitely the pilot's desk
Because I spotted that outside
Sure
If the captain or whoever is still aboard, they'd probably be in there
But again, I don't think that any of these would just naturally be open
Especially with the ramp down, the ramp down implies that someone is on board, at least one
Alright, I suppose I'll just call out
Um, excuse me, pardon, is anyone on board?
I have some business to attend to
Waits a bit too long for... if someone was going to come, they probably would have arrived by now
Alright, well perhaps it is time to begin knocking?
Wanna try the pilot's door first?
Let's try the pilot's door because we know that that's...
Probably where a captain would be, okay
Alright
Or whatever the metallic equivalent is
Yeah, I getcha
As you knock, there's this... and the doors open
It's about half the size of the patchwork
There are four consoles and one lead chair with a console in front of them
A large glass screen that covers a full almost strip around this entire dome that the Heth seemed to sit in
There is no one there, but there is a ding ding
Oh, hello?
A little like... of a little intercom panel like pops out of the wall
Oh, oh
Welcome to the Heth number E2567F
How can I be of service to you today?
My readings suggest that you are not a member of the crew
That is correct. My name is Dr. Thiriak, I work with Wild Times
I have been informed that some of the people I have employed for Wild Times' confidential missions have been arrested
Is that true?
Unfortunately I cannot divulge information of people aboard
But if you find a superior officer, they can give you a clearance pass which will allow me to tell you more
Alright, would they be at the scene of the crime or whatever the equivalent is?
Unfortunately, you do not have the clearance level for me to tell you this
Alright, well
Alright, hey, can you come over here? Can you come over here?
He pulls you next to the drift core and then like...
Give me one moment please
I know what your big plan is to like go under the radar and I super respect that
That shit is bill of junk
I can absolutely hack it and get all the information just to make it seem like we can get the max clearance passes if you want
Why don't... alright
You already have the image of a brigand
Yeah, I'm not the cleanest rat around, I appreciate it, yeah
Why don't I go and find a superior officer?
If I come back, if I... how about this? If I come back and there is no superior officer with me, then we can try that
Sure, I'm gonna go to the patchwork, I'm gonna get my stuff
I will sit on a bench just outside of helium
If I see you walking up with nobody, I'm gonna set up post underneath the ship
And I'll call you on the phone and tell you what doors are open and who's coming and all that jazz
Alright, sounds agreeable
Wonderful
And we'll lock down this ramp again looking for a superior officer
Wonderful
Eig, the sunlight isn't a feeling you're used to
You can count on one hand how many times you've seen the natural light of day, but here it's in abundance
It fills the clean, hard room you're sat in
Papers neatly stacked on a fake wooden table in a small office space
Door to this room opens
A bit too excitedly hits the table and the stack of papers slide across
A clean shaven man in a press suit with a red shirt and tie steps in
Slick bra on hair, held in place by expensive product
Piercing green eyes smile at you as they shut the door behind them
Oops, sorry, I always forget how small these rooms are
Sorry, my name is Mr. Highlock
You can call me Quinn, of course, if you want to, that's fine
Sorry, I'm supposed to be here for an interview?
That's right, it's me, hi, my name's Eig
You're here to interview me and I'm very excited to come aboard
Matt, I really would like to try something, please
I'd love it if you did
I want Eig to try very hard to recite the memory of this conversation
But I would like Eig to try to speak through that thread
And I want her to try to break through and find Sky and Azam
Give me an intelligence check
Computers, give me a computer
Thank you, thank you
I apologize, give me a computer
Okay, that's a 25
The world begins to shift as you concentrate
Quinn's words fade into the background as you focus on the thread that stretches out into the sky
The world snaps, breaks, slightly
All colors morph into a broken red and blue like you're wearing an old pair of 3D glasses
And as this image of the world melts away, you feel yourself lying down inside a type of pod with a glass window in front of you
When you try to move your head, you feel two pipes connected to your temples and there's a slight buzz and hum of electricity that goes into either side
Past the glass window you see in front of you is a figure sat at a table, a large helmet that covers their whole head
Except you can see their jaw is slightly slacked and they seem to be mumbling something to themselves
They're also waving their arms in front of them, moving unseen documents and taking notes
This helmet is connected to the ceiling through pipes and wires that raise up and spread across the ceiling like veins in a body
And they cross the ceiling, fall down into your pod and then spread out into two pods which are to either side of you
You have full control of your body, you also have full control of yourself in this memory
So you can flick between the two, whichever one you want
This person who is sat at the table is seemingly completely invested in this, in whatever they seem to be doing
I want to see if I can break into the other simulations they're running
As up
A streak of light shoots through the atmosphere and as it does you are on this streak of light
A shoddy tapestry of a ship rumbles through the galaxy
You sleep in an awkward hammock that swings roughly back and forth
Sky, the muck-ridden rain pelts against you as you hobble awkwardly out of the engine
Sprinkler you've accidentally turned on and the sprinklers throw this disused stale water on you as you are aboard the patchwork
The sun isn't a feeling you're used to but through the skylight you look out and you see the sun and its light beckons down upon you
As you stand in the kitchen of the patchwork
All three of you seem to occupy this one same space
Azam
Azam does nothing but raise a finger towards his lips and mouths the words in galactic universal language, you know?
Do I know what they're trying... cause again, like I almost broke out of it before
Yes
I'm gonna give you information regardless of what you roll but would you mind rolling me just a culture just cause I like people rolling stuff
I'm in a rolly mood today, you know what I mean?
Of course, of course, no, 24?
The Heth put people through the way that they operate is that they offer huge huge sums of money to join up to their military force
When they do, they scrub people's memories entirely clean and train them as a they are for 100% the Heth
There is another process that when trying to gather information, they scrub through people's memories over and over again
Trying to pass and take any tiny little bits of information that they can
And you quite quickly gather that this is the event that at least you have just been going through
So all this you're doing?
I think so, I'm like not totally in control of it but I am in
Okay, try and repeat the same scenario but with us speaking differently
Feed that to them so we can speak freely
Okay, hold please, if I lose you though and you go back to whatever memory you were in
Don't say anything that you don't want them to know and I'll keep trying
I only have one memory they're testing me with and it's not one they're gonna get any good information out of
Good, Skye, are you alright?
Can I choose to stay in it?
Yes, yeah you can
To stay in the memory?
Oh I'm talking high game, sorry
Oh okay
We don't hear an answer
Oh so Skye's not there, just me and his arm on the ship
You would have noticed a flicker of Skye as she still lived through the appearance of being on the patchwork
But then seemed to get sucked away and out of this construct that you have built
Okay, give me a second, I'm gonna try that
Of course
I'm gonna try, I almost had Skye, I can't
Ike, don't worry about Skye right now, we'll get her right next, but you've got this
Okay, okay and I will try to do as Asam suggested and try to concentrate on projecting that we're both playing along with our scenarios
Okay
Perfectly
Give me your computers, gamer
Okay, okay, I'm just gonna say please, please, please
I'm gonna say that this is going to be a DC25 of a computers chick
Okay
With me like trying to support Skye, support Ike emotionally or the like, can I roll something to try and give her a bonus?
You can give them your Envoy Dice, which is a C6 I believe
Okay, good, we're off to a good start
Good
Okay, okay, okay, that is a 33
Fucking hell
Thank you Asam
You hear all these different voices, these echoes of you and Asam
I think I'm the lucky one
Actually
As there is this echo of a conversation going on
Okay, I think I did that part
Good, so of reason Skye isn't here is probably because she wants to be where she is
I don't know, could be that the evil people have trapped her inside the evil simulation
It's not always a bad memory
I don't know what you went through, but I went through
Well, it was a good memory or it used to be a good memory
It's not a good one anymore
If you went through something like Skye's gone through, you know, being on the street, having few available options to you
And you can be in a good memory for just a little bit longer
It's like choosing to sleep in in the morning, right?
Well, whether that's true or not, she's still in a precarious situation
Actually, well, technically speaking, you are
Because this is fake
Okay, so the next step then is what have you ever been in this before?
Do you know if I can break it?
Maybe
I've never known anyone to survive half questioning without falling apart
I think what we need to do is go to Skye's memory and try and coax her out of it
That was my thought is that maybe if we all try at the same time, it'll be easier
Yeah, yeah
We're probably also imprisoned on a ship
Not many people, we don't expend much on captured people
Firiak's probably on their way, he'll be fine
Let's just get to Skye's memory
Oh no, do you think that Dr. Firiak is on their way?
Firiak chose to hide when the rest of us were trapped, right?
Captured
Right
I know Firiak enough, they'll feel a bit of guilt and come running
Probably with Scrap, and who knows who else
Well, what if then they wind up in this?
Exactly, which is why we need to focus on them
Okay, alright, fine, alright, good
Okay, I'll keep an eye out in case I see Firiak memories
It'll be fine, I'm sure of it
Ike, do you need to talk about what you saw?
Certainly not right now
Understood, get us into Skye's memory, let's uh, and if we get there, or if you only get there, go easy on her, okay?
As opposed to my usual abrasive self?
No, you don't understand, she's been through things, I can't discuss it with you, because I don't know if she'd want me to tell you, but she's been through things
No, I will avert my eyes from all memory, I don't want to see any of your memories, I don't want you to see any of mine, so
Meanwhile, I'm gonna look at...
It showed up as a patchwork for a reason, so I'm gonna try and explore what you tinker
Can I like, see if there's anything odd about this particular version of the patchwork?
Yeah, sure, Ike
What does Ike's vision of the patchwork look like?
Ike's vision of the patchwork looks like, like instead of like bits of ugly metal kind of like, more like a quilt
Like literal stitches between the different parts of the ship
Big pieces of yarn holding it together
There are more nooks and crannies, and it's just a little sparklier
Patchwork, quilt
Can I tell this is Ike's handiwork?
Yeah
I think so
So the Asis sun is notably very red, all of the sunlight everywhere is red, but here it seems like a darker, deeper, more artificial
The sun looks artificial, like it looks like it's, it is a projection of the outside into this space
So from Azam's perspective, who doesn't see visual light so much as heat, how does the sun feel?
It feels real
When looking at it, you can see through the shimmer of construction
You can see through, you can see that it looks like a sun, but you can also see this large LED, like red light
Almost like you can push past this image into the room that you're being held in
Because it's not real, it's not a real sun, it's not real heat
Interesting, I walk towards the ramp of the patchwork and just try to push through it without actually putting down the ramp of the patchwork
If I can walk through this illusion, can I just walk to wherever the solid ground is underneath this?
Ooh, very into it
Can you roll me a fortitude?
Save, please
Can she get a little 14 to it?
You aren't able to move any significant portion of your body, but you do feel a twitch in your foot as you attempt to push through
It still feels very real, but there is a, like a different sensation when trying to push through the ramp
It seems like mentally it is still very there, but physically you can feel a shift
Not huge, not so significant that you can immediately bust out, but you do feel a shift
Can both of you make me intelligence checks, please?
Yeah, 16
Same
There's a rumble that both of you feel, and patchwork begins shaking and different threads of this blanketed quilt start slowly coming apart as it slowly starts to fade away
And there is these quite violent explosions like the ship is actually being destroyed, and you can feel both of you getting pulled away from the patchwork
You have a sentence that you can say to each other before you are fully pulled back into the construction
Can I just reach out a hand towards the eye and grasp it?
You've got this
I'm gonna try
Skye
The muck-ridden rain pelts against you as you hobble through the lower deck streets
Your broken leg has carried you this far, but patrols still search for you
Your blood-soaked hands hold a piece of paper for the meeting place
The word scrap and a number is scribbled in hurried font
You follow the neon streets till you find a hole in the muck-sky
Large mechs throw debris from the clean upper decks down to a broken pile in the lower decks
You approach a large makeshift sign saying scrap scrapyard
A piece of paper taped to the gate says if you need me, no you don't
If it's an emergency, you can wait
Hey dude! Yo, scrap! It's kind of an emergency!
Scrap hobbles around a corner
No, no, no. I'm not buying or selling anything today
No, I'm not selling anything dude! Hive sent me
Alright, come in, the gate's open
Sorry, I just got like weird deja vu
Ugh, gnarly
A deja vu?
Yeah, it's been a weird day, never mind, and then I walk inside
You see machines push scrap to make these paths to form a little maze
And you find a ramshackle shack
Scrap walks up to the shack
And next to it is a...
...fully crafted ship
There's these different engines all from different ships
Each part of it seems to be an orchestral song full of instruments that shouldn't work together
Scrap lowers the ramp
Yo, did you make this? This is so rad! Aw, she's a beaut, dude
Yeah, thanks
I'm building myself, I'm getting off this planet
Me too! I mean, if you can give me a ride
I'm happy to, if you want to go have some adventures throughout the galaxy
I want to run and never look back
Welcome aboard to the Patchwork
Sorry, what's your name?
I-I...
I don't want to say that right now
When you come aboard, I got something that I kind of want you to look at
It's a puzzle that I haven't quite figured out yet
I found this weird crystal
Do you know anything about it?
Ike's crystal
Who?
Never mind, yeah
If you know anything about it, that'll save us a lot of time
We could sell it for a lot of money and we could basically just live free
Flying through the galaxy with no one hurting us, that'd be fun
I think it was
Yeah, where's the crystal, dude?
It picks it up, small, palm-sized, these weird swirls and it throws it to you
I don't know why, but I kind of want to name it Spot
It seems to give like a...
Like a weird amount of power
When I found it, it was basically charged an entire drift lockdown all by itself
Do you know where we could find more of these?
Dude, I don't know, I think we found this one by accident
Wait
Um, you know what, you take this crystal back
Sorry, my brain's in a really weird place
It's been a really long and kind of earth-shattering day
Yeah, days are like that
Yeah, most days have been
But today in particular, I don't want to look at this crystal
I don't want to talk anymore, I don't want to say my name, just put me through the loop again
Tell me about the crystal
I don't think my friends would want me to do that
They can
If you tell me, we can rerun the loop
You can fly with them
No harm will come to you
Tell me about the crystal
Nah, just...
Just keep it going
Theriac!
You are!
Scrapper's gone and set up
They have given you a text saying that they arrived at the patchwork
They have grabbed a small makeshift laptop, big bulky, half the keys have been torn off of it
Has a cable that has what seems to be like a sucker at the end of it
They make their way down to a bench right next to Helium looking at the Heth ship
Your plan was to approach the other ship?
To get to the other crew, is that correct?
So the original plan was for Scrap to go to the other team
And then we modulated so that we would just go onto the ship together
And then now that Scrap went back to keep an eye out
Why did Scrap go back to the patchwork again?
To get a laptop so they could hack into the Heth ship just in case everything went wrong
In case things went to shit, okay
So I think Theriac at this point will put aside the other crew as a complicating factor
And just go directly to a superior officer
There are three people who are currently here
Two are in this green bulky heavy armor
And one of them is in this green but tinted with white
They have a lot of medallions down one side of their arm
And they have their helmet off, more importantly
They're talking amongst themselves, but you can assume that this person is a superior officer
Alright, Theriac will walk onto the scene
And call it... Excuse me, pardon
Are you the superior officer in charge of this scene?
Yeah, that's me, how can I help?
Was there a large lava-like figure, a human teenage delinquent, and a small quirky rat?
Yes, we just put them into stasis and arrested them, moving them on board the ship
My name is Dr. Theriac, I am their employer
Okay, did you employ them to attack us?
No, I came to discuss what had happened
I've only heard eyewitness reports of what occurred, I was inside of Helium
And I also was told that you had also brought into your handling a specific item of ours?
Right, so here's what happened
We had stopped off here to refuel, we heard noises of combat in this area
We came out, there were two parties, one which is still inside of this ship
You see the honey golden ship with all the medallions on it
And the other party, who we were able to apprehend and move back to our ship
This item in question seems to be what they were fighting over, and we took that
And that's in our custody until my superior tells me what to do with specifically this ship and your employees
Alright, well, that cargo is jurisdiction technically of Wild Times
We were to bring it onto a dune for further research
I also tried to... I went onto your heath ship and the system asked that I get a superior officer to discuss
Would you be willing to assist with that?
This is just a very confidential situation and we are trying to make sure that this is kept under lock and key
I mean, I could, but there's a lot of paperwork involved with me allowing people that were in open combat off
I assume you want your people to be freed and you want the cargo as you put it back
Yes, that is correct
I mean, we can talk about it on the ship if you'd like
I would be more than willing to, yes
Technically, they are under the... the people that were apprehended are crewmates of a captain who I technically employed
And he came with the rest of that crew. His name is Scrap. Would it be alright if he joined with us?
I don't know if I could do anything because, you know, there's a lot of...
I understand that there's a hierarchy, yes. I'm simply trying to find any way to expedite this process, if possible
Do you have paperwork of your involvement with this world times and their employees?
Oh, of my paperwork as well. Yes, we'll pull up their contract work
I'm actually the co-founder. This is a personal project for me
But I also have the paperwork for... it will swipe up for all of the people that were apprehended
They edged a walk with them. You get to... you get close to the Heth ship. It's not that far of a walk
It moves mostly in silence. There are a lot of money in co-founding a park
Um... yes. I mean, it's deviated largely from what I intended it to be
But there's lots of options for merchandising, for lodging, for guests who are staying more than one day
It's... it's... it's... it's good
You know, it's... it's... it's... this is definitely a difficult conversation for me because, you know
I understand. And I apologize if they inflicted harm onto any of you
But I know that some of my higher-ups would be happy with someone who's in a position like yours
Running a big park. They would enjoy having someone to call and contact when it comes to things like advertising
You said you did a lot of merchandise
For... for the... for Hethna?
We're always looking for new recruits
Sure. Yes. Yes. Um... I will also fully disclose. I am the co-founder and the head of the scientific division
There will also be a bit of a hierarchy on my end
So you said you had the captain of the ship? Where are they?
Yes. And as we're walking, I think the Iraq will like, beckon
Scrap closes a little laptop and then... and wanders over
Officer, this is Captain Scrap of the Patchwork
So... are we letting our friends and our employees out?
Yes. We are... we are in the midst of negotiations
When are you coming aboard the ship?
They move into a... they move into the... into the pilot's chamber and they sit in the captain's seat
Offering the other seats that do a full 360 swivel so you can turn... they offer them to you
So the main thing that I'm worried about is... is... it's not necessarily the crime this is the galaxy
Things get heated. We understand that more than anyone
The object in possession, that you were in possession of, that your team was in possession of
We are currently doing scans on it because we were unsure of what it is
Whether it was a weapon or some form of explosive device
We weren't sure what the... what it was
So I don't think that we could give that back to you
But your friends we can... employees... we can discuss definitely
Now I... though I have had limited resources to study the crystal itself
I have been able to determine that this is a very interesting and...
Well, you called it an object
That's not necessarily true
We believe this to be a living organism
Hence why we were bringing it back to Wildtimes for further research
Now I understand that this... this must be very difficult for you since we have possession of it
And you would like this
Yes, I also understand that you also have my employees in your... in your custody
So my hands are pretty tied when it comes to giving you back the things
Especially considering the circumstances in which we took them
So I can't think of any... reason
Do you have a reason?
Well...
Theoretic will pull up their contract
According to article 26 of subsection B
Anything that I find and that my crew finds therein
Or any excursion directly tied to Wildtimes
Is property of Wildtimes LLSE
So when I say my things
I mean that I found them
The property or organism itself
If we were to be technical
Does not belong to me
It belongs to Wildtimes
As such I will have to file a claim with my superiors at Wildtimes and discuss the complications of
This particular organism being kept within custody
And that might also cause a lot of headaches
See the same amount of headaches would occur for me
If I was to give this... this crystal
And this crew
Back to you and although
Yes, this crystal was your property to begin with
It is of high interest to my superiors
Is there any way
We can somehow sweeten the pot?
Is there something that perhaps that we could
Give to you or your team in order to
Make this a more equitable trade?
As a member of the Heth I don't have a lot of need for money and credits
That's quite beyond me, especially my position
We have a group of people
On this... in this docking port whose ship is
Closed and locked down and refuse to open their doors
Our gear isn't good enough to get it open without
Blowing a hole in half of the docking port
We are also moving
We are moving to part of the galaxy that
Requires us to apprehend
A certain group of people
So I can give you an offer
We can have this all done today
And you can find a way to get that ship door open
So we can go in and take the other people who you yourself
Have said there was an altercation and
You know, we can say that they started it
I can give you back your team or
I can give you our assignment
And you can fulfill that
This is incredibly generous, I would like to thank you
What is your name again? I apologize, I should have asked
Sidra
Officer Sidra, I think that is very fair
Our team has the capabilities to do what you request
We have quite a few people very skilled in technology that I myself lack
Part of why I hire this group
I would need to discuss with them the terms that
They are going to be bound to
As per our own internal Q&A
Well, you have yourself here who seems to be a spokesperson and the captain
I imagine the spokesperson and the captain can probably come to an agreement
It turns to Scrap
Can you roll me a sense motive for Scrap please, Syriac?
I'm very good at that, I would love to
For sense motive
So sense motive
Oh, that's just a little 22
You can tell from their jittery nature
That they, on their face you can read
That they would rather not do either plan
They're on the ship, there is someone with clearance
And Scrap has already stated that this is hackable
So the options are
Get the crew and item back
And the crystal back
And open the door
Get the crew and crystal back and do that mission that the HEF was supposed to go on
Wait and hack into the ship itself
That is one
Definitely
Scrap also
You notice whilst looking at them
The holster to their pistol is undone
And they are
And the person who you're speaking to is currently not wearing a helmet
Oh yeah
That is option 4
Oh that is an option, huh
It will be loud
And it might go quite wrong
That's a lot of risk
That's a big, that's high risk
High risk, but it could be quicker
Not working for anyone
And you could get away scot free
You could get away real fast
Yeah, but then I'm one
Now I'm part of this
That's the worst part of it, absolutely
Because now it's not smallpox
This is Dr. Theriac
Of Wild Times
Scrap has previously mentioned that he can scrub the data
You said, like Theriac did mention that it might be being led to a great, like it uploaded to a different feed
But Scrap has previously mentioned that they believe that they can probably hack into this and scrub the data
But again, that could lead to a spicy situation
Okay, so the options are
I'm just trying to get a read before I make any hasty decisions
Absolutely
The options are
Open the door and get everyone back
Do that mission and get everyone back
Wait until later and then hack them all out more discreetly
Or just shoot the officer now
Shoot the officer now and just run
And just run and gun it and book it back to Adun as fast as possible
You know, aside from this officer, there is one person aboard
However, you also know from yelling and knocking around in the ship earlier
That they are pretty much, like, unaware
You don't know why
I'm gonna meta allow you to know that knowledge
Oh, I know that they're fucking with the other
Yeah, they're like in the matrix
That's too big a risk to have another person on board
We'll turn to Scrap
Actually, we'll turn back to Officer Citra
This isn't time sensitive, is it?
Could we have some time to perhaps think this over?
Thirty minutes
That's plenty of time
Thank you
Scrap, you look jittery
Do you need fresh air?
Yeah, I'd love a walk
Very well
Um, we'll get up
Do do do do do do do
All the way back down the ramp
Again
I know you are not fond of them
To be frank, I'm not either
But shoot, the officer right then?
Could we hack in right now?
But if we hack in, then the officer is gonna be alerted by the doors opening
Because that's the main goal is to open all the doors
Sure, and he would be there to apprehend them as they ran
How opposed are you to just opening the door to the other ship?
I'm not keen on the other mission
Because that's fully going out of our way to do another person's job
Yeah, no, fuck that
To do one single task is much more manageable
And we also do have to get back to a do
I don't know these people
You were fighting with them, they stole stuff from us
If you wanna sell them out to the Heth
Were they a group of skittermanders though?
They were skittermanders, five or six
One of them did get shot
There was a canid
And there was a teenage boy who did very much seem to take a keen eye to Skye
I mean, they seem to be getting along perfectly well
You gave them personalities and like a voice and face and stuff
I should not have done that
They're just kind of like real, they're forming in my mind
Now that they're actual humanoid people
Yeah, like the idea of...
It's okay, the idea of selling them into possibly having their mind wiped
That doesn't feel...
If I have learned anything from all of my time at Wild Times
Sometimes you must do things that don't feel great to get what needs to get done done
So we're gonna sell the other crew out?
I believe so
I think that's our safest bet
It's not morally upright, none of the options really are
I think Ike is gonna be real disappointed in us
I don't think Skye's too keen
Her friend just getting...
Alright, I'm gonna pitch this again
And I know that you've already set the universe to it
That's very fair, I've suggested a plan that you are not very keen on
How about a plan that I'm not very keen on?
I can hack into the ship, I can open all the doors
The officer comes out, questions what is happening
You run in, grab the crew
We pray to everything
That we can get out before the rest of the Heth show up
We don't have to sell anyone else out, nobody human dies
And you can scrub the data?
I think I can
Ah, damn my humanizing ways, we're going to kill some Heth
Okay, alright
Alright
Alright, okay
So, should I go talk to the officer to distract him?
Or does that not matter?
I don't think that matters
I can deal with that if you want to go in
And try to get the crew out
Oh lord, oh, I sound like Ike
You a good superstar?
Okay, I'm not a star, I'm a lexolite
I am botanical matter
You're botanical matter, and you're strong, and you're quick, and you're so smart
If I got into whatever that's going on, I would have no fucking clue how to do it
I can hack stuff, yes, but I'm not-
Please stop blowing up my roots, it's a little much
I'm just trying to hype you up, I feel like this is a high-tent situation
Okay, I apologize
When my signal goes, run in, get the crew, okay?
Scrap takes out the laptop, shoves the sucker part of the cord from their laptop onto the ship
Types in a few things, and then- okay, right, you ready?
We'll grab the little injector, just in case
I'm gonna go aboard the ship, I'm gonna deal with the officer, alright?
And then that's your cue to go
Okay, clicks enter, there's like a small loading screen
Old, like, Macintosh green pixel bar going up
The ship's red light dims, and then raises
Again, it starts pulsing, and Scrap's like, whew
Scrap walks aboard, and the officer walks out of the office
Uh, what the hell's going on?
Oh, sorry, I just realized, I know who stole our stuff
It was a goblin
Uh, goblin?
Yeah, a goblin these nuts
And Scrap pulls out his pistol, and shoots the officer in the head
This is the best show on TV!
Goblin nuts!
Skye, how do you want this memory to start?
Same as it always does, buddy boy
The muck-ridden rain pelts against you as you hobble through the lower deck streets
Your broken leg has carried you this far, but patrols still search for you
Your blood-soaked hand holds a piece of paper with a meeting place
The words Scrap in a number is scribbled in hurried font
You follow the neon streets, till you can see a hole in the muck sky
Large mechs throw debris from the clean upper decks down into a broken pile in the lower decks
You approach a large makeshift sign saying, Scrap Scrapyard, that hangs above a gate
A piece of paper taped to the gate says, if you need me, no you don't
If it's an emergency, it can wait
What are you doing?
Scrap, Scrap, please let me in
The door opens on its own
What's up, dude? I'm here to, you know, escape the consequences of my actions
Just like a bad person would
Where's the ship? Need some engines? I'll do whatever it takes to run away from my problems
Nah, the ship's already built
It's already to fly if you are
Then let's go
Come hop aboard
Scrap walks up the ramp onto the ship
It looks just like it did the first time you went on it
It's not as used, but also not as pleasant at the same time
Not as lived in
Semblances of a place that could be home, but it's not quite loved enough yet
Ready to fly?
I think so
Is it a noise as the ramp raises behind you?
You can go anywhere you want
You can fly anywhere
No I can't
But, try and get as far as possible
I don't know what else to do
So you're just gonna run like you always have?
Doesn't seem to have worked out so far
No!
No it hasn't
Can't think of anything else to do in that big ol' brain of yours
No Scrap! I don't have a big brain! I'm an idiot!
I'm just a kid, dude!
I've done something that can't be taken back
So no, I don't know what else I can do because I don't think there is anything that I can
To just fly the ship
You know I'm not Scrap, right?
Yeah
And the ship doesn't go anywhere?
Yeah, this just... I don't know, feels awful, but better than being happy
I don't know, this feels right
It feels like what I deserve
I messed up
I messed up because grown-ups told me who I should be before I even knew who I was supposed to be
And they told me what I should do to make my life better and to make other people's lives better
And I messed up and I did something bad
And I just feel like the bad's gonna stick
So I just feel like this is what I deserve
Because it's great and all that I messed up my life before it even started
But they don't have a life anymore
Yeah, this does feel right
Okay, so if you don't want to play anymore, what's happening here?
Something with what I did
I don't think there's anyone listening anymore
I think it's just us
I think it's just you
You can't be me, I don't even know who I am
How are you supposed to know who I am?
And it's all great that I'm trying to figure myself out
You know, the person that I missed out on for 17 years
But every time I do that, every time I feel genuine joy
And like, I know myself better
And I just think about the voice of their mom in my head
Or their partner or their sister telling me that I don't deserve it
Because they lost that person
And I don't think I do
Am I in hell, am I dead, or am I not?
You're alive on a Heth ship, you think
They're trying to find information, replay the same moments
Apparently they think you're important enough
But I can keep playing
Yeah, keep it going
Oh, it's salad time!
Flicks up some switches and then the ship
And the world seems to like, pour through the skylight
And through the pilot's chair
The saga seems to melt and burn away
And the atomless sea stretches out
Flying through this color-filled world
Eig, is um
Give me a computers or intelligence check, please
Unnatural 20
Great
What? You got an unnatural 22?
Yeah
The patchwork flies through the sea
It lands on the Leviathan's Eye
It's loud, busy, there are kids running around
People are eating food, the rollercoaster is going
But everything is met with this echo-y din
It ends just as it begins, the echo is broken
Scrap walks over to a cart
Asks a sullen, sunken man for some candy floss
And picks out two sticks
Hands one over to you
You bite in and it is cold
It's dusty
It is flavorless
Eig, you see sky
In this constructed space
Like you constructed your own and the patchwork
And shipped Azam aboard
Azam, you see sky
And you see her eating candy floss with a shimmering broken scrap
These people who step and walk around, they don't walk correctly
Walking in a almost a low latency way
Too many steps for how slow they're walking
I would like to scurry over to sky
And as I do I put up little hand blinders
As I'm not looking
Sky, hi, it's me, it's really me, like actually me
I don't know if you saw me in any other capacity but if you did, this is the real one, hi
Azam walks up beside Eig and then sits down on the bench beside sky
So you already know this isn't real, right?
Yeah, this one's not real
So what do you want to do?
Are you real?
I'd like to think so, yeah
That's really Azam, yeah
I got us in through the computer they're using to do all this
And we're hoping that Dr. Theoriak and Scrap are maybe coming this way
Eig, Eig, this isn't one of the memories you can just drop, yeah
Alright
Yeah, no, I never went to theme parks
Seeing these two, you hear gunshots and there's like, of loud desperate wails
You see these people, all the residents of the park, their faces being slightly melted, slugs are covering them
You see yourself back on the Leviathan's eye
You are getting surrounded, you ran off to ride this broken rollercoaster
I'd like to cough, spit up blood and go, bummer
And even though you told them to leave
I'd like to get up, holding my side
You see them turn around and come back for you
To see that these people actually came for her
I gently put an arm sort of around Skye, kind of weight a bit, and then lightly pat her shoulder
Oh, Skye cries
I can't tell you what I want, because I kind of want you guys to like me, you know?
Well, problem is we already like you, so pick something we like
We genuinely really do
I really don't want you to be stuck here, I don't think anything good happens
I could tell you exactly what happens, yeah, I could, I know, but
Right now, let's focus on what you need
What are you getting out of this place that you need?
Because otherwise you wouldn't be here
The world of Leviathan's Eye is ripped away and you are pulled back down to Saga
There is a shoo-woo-woo of cars as they shoot past you
The one in front is you on a hoverboard
You drive to some lawmen that are hiding out in wait
You get them to chase you out, and you see Ike run down
I gotta fucking win the race
And you see Ike as she copies you
Channel some Skye, and is just gonna like stick her tongue out
And stick out her middle finger, and just give a nice big
As she wins the race
I wanna be better, but I don't know if I ever can be
Because I think I'm just, you know, an amalgamation of all my worst parts
Defined by this awful thing I did that I can't take back, so
Skye, I've...look at us. Ike's probably done awful things, I've done awful things
Many of them, you know some of them
We're not defined by our worst qualities, we're defined by what we try to do to overcome them
You can't change if you're stuck here
You can't grow if you're stuck here
You can't be who you wanna be
And I think the people I hurt don't care
I think if they heard, oh she's trapped in a gnarly time loop that the Heths created to torture her, they'd go
All of the world again is stripped away
But there is nothing that comes back
There is a single spotlight
Skye, younger
Tears in her eyes as she holds a gun out in front of her
It is smoking and there is blood on her face
But everything is dark except for that one image
I get down to eye level, or I don't really, how young
I can kneel down
Yeah, you kneel down
I go kind of pull Skye down and take off like the maroon cloak that she wears
And like take it to her face
To just wipe away some of the splatter and tears
Skye
I never met this girl
I met you and I like you
And I think that we can all be better
And maybe if we do it together, it won't be as scary
You were not responsible when you were a child
No one can be
You trusted the wrong people, yeah?
You did things you regret
But you were a child
No more capable of being blamed for your actions than any other child
No one is blameless here
I'm not saying you shouldn't feel some small amount of guilt
But you were not her anymore
And she wasn't herself either
You can make it up to the people you've hurt
By trusting the right people
And not letting yourself be pushed into that position again
That's all any of us can do
And I can I, as long as you trust us
We'll help you through it, promise
Okay, can you promise me one other thing though?
What is it?
Don't tell Dr. Therriak I cried, okay?
I have an image trying to maintain here
Oh no, you were replaying that moment where you did the...
Was it Flip, Ollie, Cirque du Soleil?
The thing on the... you know, Leviathan's Eye rollercoaster
Exactly, if Dr. Therriak needs to know any details about this
We'll just say that you spent your whole loop doing really cool backflips off of a rollercoaster
I appreciate that
Anytime
But for now, what if we get out of here
And go tell Dr. Therriak about all the cool backflips
Because I don't quite want to be here anymore
Yeah, I wasn't going to say it before, but frankly I don't trust Therriak to make good decisions right now
Hey Matt, can I say a descriptive thing?
I would love it if you did
I would just like to say that the spotlight grows as Skye grows older
And reveals the top of the skyscraper
Okay, but how do we get out of here?
Oh, right, I guess I should focus
Can you just...
I'm sort of in, but I need to sort of break it out
I kind of think that if both of you just focus on the memory that was looping and try to recognize that it's not real
It might help me while I try to push it all the way closed
Okay
Focus as hard as you can
You shut your eyes
And you try to focus on the memory that kept you trapped here
Each memory of all three of you, an unsure happiness
A day that was filled with some hope, some regret
A place where you were all vulnerable
Ike, can you give me a computer's check?
Okay
25
As Skye you walk through the muck-ridden rain
As Amu watch the streaks of light
Ike, you feel the real sun
There is a shimmer of static
Characters in this memory, you see their eyes grow blank
And their figures glitch like a breaking video game
And slowly this static grows and grows and grows and gets more powerful
And takes up all of your vision and as it does, the spots of white and black included in this static begin to fill out a picture
And you, the three of you, sit laying down in a pod
Two pipes connect, a small electric pulse brimming through your head, a glass case in front of you
As you all break out of this memory loop and you gain full autonomy of your body again
A person connected via a helmet to these three strings that are attached to each of your pods continues to mumble to themselves and work as they do not seem to have noticed that the three of you have become cognitive again
Theriac, you sprint in, the first door opens, a room in front of you, a door at the other end of this room, in the centre
A large console connected via electricity to the crystal that floats idly
A large holographic canister encases it, there are readings being printed constantly on a large computer that's on one end of the room
Oh, oh, Therac like stops and like fully stares at it for like two whole seconds, just like admiring how beautiful it is, like frozen in time and space and just the splendour of this beautiful little item that they've had, that seemed predestined to find them
But then fully...the others! And then we'll continue running towards the door
The doors open, you see ahead of you three pods, these three large wires connect to this one helmet that this person is wearing, writing silently unacknowledging your presence as behind them is a computer that seems to be playing these three scenes on loop
I see your hand in your jacket
This is a wonderful little model, and then shoots it
Are you shooting the person in the chair?
Wait, so there's the person in the chair
There's the person in the chair and there's a computer behind them seeming like gathering data of these scenes that are going on, and playing each of the scenes that we have throughout this session been watching being played constantly
I can't inject a computer Matthew
Unfortunately not, but you can insert a needle into this person who is sat seemingly reading these things.
Yeah, this guy's gonna be fucked up!
I would like to use a minor inhibitor for this person to have a minus one penalty to attack rolls from the future.
I have no other weapons, y'all. I'm so sorry. This is the wrong person to send.
I tell you what, yes, there is a combat- oopsie daisy- a combat-based ability in Starfinder,
which is when someone is unaware, you can make a roll to instantly kill them.
And in this sense, this heath sat in this chair doesn't know you're there, their whole mind is busy with things.
You can, if you'd like, make a roll to wipe them out immediately.
Another one for the docket! How's a nat 20 do?
Not even gonna roll, because it's the nat 20. What does Theriac load into this to just wipe this person out?
Fully believes that they grabbed the minor inhibitor.
Is Fully just like a tranquilizer for like- like the equivalent of like an elephant tranquilizer?
Oh my god!
And then it's just like, uh, like loads it in and aims like right at the jugular and like goes directly through and like actually lodges directly into like the spinal cord.
Hell yeah.
And then and it all just flows in.
It flows in and you see them like react, but their body is- could never be quick enough to attempt to react this.
They- they swing and as they swing their whole body goes limp.
This helmet is- pulls against these wires and they like slump out of- out of this helmet and they are dead on the floor.
The other three of you are all fully woken up at this point.
You are out of the loop. You are looking at the pod.
You are not restrained in any way. The restraints were the loop.
You see Theriac in front. You all wake up. You see this happen.
You see Theriac open this thing, shoot and then kill this heath.
With the way that they react, you assume that they are fully dead.
I- I just try to break the glass. I'm not very strong, but I do.
Oh my god!
All three of you are like punching the glass.
The zombie like, one at a time, please!
Goes to Skye's pod and is like, alright.
I can't hear you! There's glass!
Okay, you know what? I'm just gonna point my hands- can it be on the far edge of all these pods?
Yeah.
I'm just gonna point my hands towards my- like the wall of my own pod and the other two pods.
You know, roughly in a 15 foot cone.
Roughly, yeah. Just roundabouts in a 15 foot cone.
Absolutely.
Weirdly, they all fit roughly in a 15 foot cone.
Great, that's perfect. Can I have them roll decks?
In their pods? Jesus.
Yeah, I can sky- I can sky- roll-
What are you gonna do?
No, I'm gonna melt the damn glass.
You're gonna melt the-
I'm gonna melt the glass.
Well, you're not gonna sit there and deal with codes for two hours. I'm so sorry.
Us?
Let me have this.
You've got to shoot out the-
Sky, I- roll reflex saves right now.
I'm doing reflex saving, okay?
I'm right here!
Great!
So, as I'm- how do you do this? So you're touching the side, the hardened skin, like melts away and this shooting hot lava comes out, correct?
It's really hot air that comes out.
Really hot air.
Uh, because usually he doesn't want to bleed on things to make them burn up. That's where the lava comes from.
That's true.
So, his own pod literally just melts like glasswork, but the pods, the other two pods are like super heated and straight up explode.
Sky and Ike, you're like bashing on the glass theory act. You start freaking out. You don't know if something wrong has happened with the hacking.
You don't know if something wrong has happened with the fact that you just killed the like, the person who was plugged in, but this hot air shoots out.
There are licks of flames in the air and then both of your like, glass screens melt and crack and burst.
You're both now able to leave as Arm. You're also able now to leave with that.
Okay.
I just bend some more of that warm glass out of the way to make the aperture extra easy for me to just come out of.
You good?
You know, I was worried you'd start trying to negotiate with.
We need to get the crystal.
I'm going to put my fingers to my temple and I'm going to say cow bunga and I'd like for my board to come find me, please.
You feel like a twinge as your board like understands and you feel it move, but you know that it is currently in a, in a room on the ship, but can't quite get out yet.
I got a feeling my boards with the crystal.
We need to get the crystal right now. We have to go.
Let's go.
Okay.
Calm down.
Situation.
We hacked into the ship.
Scrap killed the one out front.
I just killed the one in the chair.
I'm the virtual reality.
I run it.
I start running.
I start running towards the crystal.
I'm going to go in a zone anxiety level somewhere between those two and moderate level.
A moderate level.
About seven.
A zone sitting at like a four and I think theory exiting at least a 23.
So I guess a different scaling chart for everyone else.
It's weirdly at a three at the minute, but it's three on the Ike chart, which is a normal person's 15.
Yeah, sky is less panicked and more like, ah, we are in a tight spot.
Aren't we?
This is pretty bad.
You all want you all go through.
I just want to say that I think the only thing I can describe before this scanning unit on the crystal, these two like charges of electricity are holding it in place large like holographic chamber that is connected to a computer interface that is uploading just like loads of data.
Can I pause the approved tests, download the data and open up the thing.
Can you please give me a computer's check to do all those things?
Why not? Does anyone else want to do what I'm doing or would they like to do something else?
I have pretty good computers, but I'm guessing Ike and sky have fucking killer computers.
Hell yeah.
Yeah, I just want to like talk.
Yeah, you talk to it.
Just be like, we're coming.
It's going to be okay.
Just like where every you're going to be safe.
22.
Ike you, you can feel and hear this kind of barrage of noise as it is trying to, it is trying to speak, but it seems that this scan is compiling so much data from it that it can't quite form any words.
Floppy disk type thing pops out.
I toss it to theory.
I can say catch.
And then I try and open up the case holding the crystal.
Yeah, no, you're able to do that with the fact that you pause and the computers check and everything.
You also have like a release button that you click and it and the holograph like you and the crystal like slope.
The electric electrical charge on either end stops and the crystal like slowly floats down to the like bottom of this of this little chamber.
Where are our things?
You're bored.
Sky you feel is in the room beyond this one.
Oh, it's in the room beyond this one.
Okay, I think we're done here then unless Doc.
Would you like to do some more panicking here?
I'm so sorry.
I'm everywhere.
Did you grab the crystal?
I was hoping one of you would do it.
No, I've got it.
I've got it.
Yeah, you're fine.
So let's move on.
Come on.
I like gently pat the back of theory.
I just pushing them.
Come on, you all make it to the to the big main room with the drift core.
This like amalgamation nucleus drift core in and the ramp being down.
Sky, you feel the room to your left, the one that hasn't been open.
So we have the pilots room, the chambers that you were just in.
And then the last room is where your board is is what you sense.
I'm booking it towards my board.
That's like my other arm.
It's an extension of myself.
As soon as it like it comes out, it kind of the board like flies up to you and like presses itself against your chest like it's trying to give you a little hug.
And all of you see all of your equipment inside.
However, if you would like, there are also a lot of other things in this room is going to take you a little longer.
But you are welcome to do a scourge.
I would like to do a scourge.
Can I can I can I roll with advantage because I have nothing to grab?
Oh, you know what?
I actually I like that.
Of course you can.
Everyone can roll me a if you're grabbing just as much shit as you can.
Roll me a Dex because you're just fucking picking stuff up.
Theory X allows roll with advantage because theory has nothing of their own to pick up.
If I if I want to look for something neat in particular, can I roll like an there's no investigation?
There's a perception. I'll allow you to roll the perception.
What is it in particular that you're looking for?
Some cool.
OK. Fuck eight.
OK. OK.
It was Dex for everything.
Perception. If if if grab everything.
If you want something in particular, yes, to see if it's there.
Theory X, you can again get you can get advantage on one of these.
I know. OK.
Oh, my God.
Well, I got a net 20 and it'll be for the perception to try and find wherever the fuck they're holding the data for the cameras.
Oh, shit. You're you're looking for like the actual like yes, the hard drive data hold of all the cameras.
Yeah, you find it like immediately.
It's behind like a bunch of stacked shelves that you you spot it behind behind them, beeping away.
The little hard drive rips it.
There's a as you tear the hard drive out.
You do see some cameras like go down as you as you do.
So I would like to put on my armor and clothing properly.
I don't own a gun. So there's my guts probably not even here because I don't own a gun.
That's true. I think what I'm going to look for is maybe some sort of armor upgrade.
OK. And there is one more thing I'd like to do before I leave.
Using my knowledge of how to rig a place, rig this ship to blow up.
Interesting. Like that very much. Fuck the heff.
Grand. All right. I'll give you some options. Right.
There are two modules and you're allowed to grab one of them.
There is a hover field that you would know allows you to hover an inch off the ground.
You don't leave tracks or trigger any mechanical traps.
It is very good for sneaking.
Or there's a thing called juggernaut boosters, which when performing something called a bull rush combat maneuver,
you gain plus two bonus to the check and your armor also grants you plus four to strength checks to break down doors.
It is used for breaking and entering places.
OK. So between the two, this is a very difficult choice you gave. So juggernaut is spelled with a J, right?
Yes. Juggernaut is spelled with a J. Brilliant. Get that.
And you know that you can blow this ship up.
You know this from general combat expertise.
The drift core is quite volatile by nature.
It's why it's carried around in those large glass canisters.
So it's protected from any form of, like, increased jolting.
However, it's on a ship and you could open a window and place something in, disrupt it in some way to make the drift core become volatile and explode,
probably engulfing the whole ship. Well, not even probably. It will engulf the whole ship.
OK. OK. I look for a grenade with a timer on it or some form of timed explosive charge.
Wonderful. Yes, you are able to find that. However, before we move on, Ike, what are we doing?
Are we are we grabbing all of our shit? Just are you grabbing stuff at random or are you looking for something in particular?
Ike is looking for something in particular. She's looking for something that looks not necessarily useful, but important.
OK. Like it might be important. Like a personal knickknack?
It looks like there's a... And I got a second.
Wonderful. You find what looks like an old child's toy.
It is this slime that you know is it's in this little egg container and you know that it is programmable.
Silly putty. It's basically silly putty.
It is a thing that children use. They can like they talk into it.
And then after you know those toys where it's like when you walk past, it triggers like a phrase.
It's one of those. But it's this little ball of slime. It's called message slime.
You tell it a message that can be up to five minutes in length.
You can place it anywhere you want. And when you walk past it, when somebody walks past it,
it will trigger the phrase to start being spoken. You can take that if you want.
As soon as a creature... I do.
Yes. OK. Wonderful. You gain message slime.
Skye. Thank you.
You are unable to find anything in particular that is good.
However, there is a duffel bag that you can see is filled with some stuff.
Is it a cute color?
Boring like military black.
I'll take it anyway.
Azam. You find a grenade with a timer on it.
I set the timer for a minute. I say, all right, everyone, out of here.
And I crack open the drift core nucleus, drop the thing in, and calmly but assuredly leave.
As soon as you open up and you have something touch the drift core that isn't a natural...
That isn't another part of the drift core. It immediately starts to react.
A little electric charge buzzes over to the timed grenade and everything starts getting loud and volatile.
In a controllable way, however you have set the timer for a minute for it to become uncontrollable,
everyone runs out, I'm assuming.
Yeah, I grab my bow staff, give it a couple test twirls, and then follow Azam.
Oh my God. Scrap. Scrap. With us.
As you run out, Scrap is outside the ship on their laptop typing a little thing.
Oh God, are we done? Are we going? And then unhooks the cord and you all run.
Where are you running to?
The patchwork, I assume.
The patchwork?
Yeah.
Everyone runs to the patchwork.
Heath sprint past you as things start getting uncontrollable and you all dive into a side alley of helium as you sprint toward.
You all get on the patchwork.
Scrap looks to Sky as they're flicking things to go into the log.
We need the gravity field that you've increased. It needs to be turned off.
I was gonna say on the way there! I would do that.
Before I even got out of the patchwork I would run straight into the things.
Wonderful. Roll me a computers. Or an engineering.
Okay.
Either one to turn it off.
Okay. 26!
That beats your previous one of setting it up. You turn it off. The gravity field quietens.
You see the honeyed yellow ship of the group of people with the skid amandas and with Flair and Keelan also immediately like and start to take off.
As soon as the gravity field leaves the ramp slowly closes and as it does you all look at the Heath ship as there is almost like a black hole was created.
As the whole ship immediately erupts. Explodes so loud into flames.
Part of the ship like goes flying down bashing its way through the docking field.
Some just fly off into space and the ship raises and the patchwork takes off.
And you're all in deep space. Out of helium refueled. Safe.
Yeehaw! There we go!
Oh my god. Immediately just...
So! You do?
Alright. I have to go back to work.
Dr. Arthiriac?
Yes?
I don't know if you understand or realize this but you very literally saved us from something really harrowing. So... thank you.
Thank you.
You look like you're grappling with something.
I am. Yeah I am. Um. Thank you. And... think nothing of it.
We're not the type to forget things. Question. What are you grappling with?
Uh... I just need some time to think and be alone I think. Just to take in what really just happened. Which is a lot. Just a lot. Um.
Can I have a sense motive to check on you?
Go ahead.
I will leave. And exit the room.
I'm gonna say... yeah maybe we should all have some time by ourselves. And I'm gonna go to where I keep my gas mask. Which is the cockpit of the ship. And as I'm grabbing it and putting it on and stuff I'm gonna say...
Hey Scrap!
Yeah?
I don't know if I ever properly thanked you for getting me off of the saga. So... thank you. Appreciate it.
Well... I mean you found the engines. I'll say this. We wouldn't be on this adventure if it weren't for you.
Cool. I'm gonna put my gas mask on. And I'm gonna go to my usual thinking spot which is the window that I hopped out of last time. And I'm gonna ride my board up to the top of the ship. And take a little hook out of my belt. Hook myself onto the top of the ship. Look out into deep space for a while.
Yeah. I am.
And then I go... we'll give it a nod at the react statement and go to her little tunnel area.
And as I'm rolled a 28 to some extent.
Oh fuck you! Oh fuck you!
Damn super... okay well... to be fair. To be fair. The initial roll was a 16 but then I have a plus 6 and then I add an expertise die which also has 6.
Yeah so... to be fair. To be fair, Nod and Ali just rolled really well.
So we're back to fucking me. Is that what this is?
You get the sense that Theorak did a lot right now? And also is extremely nervous. Not only about the entire operation that just happened but also what is to come.
You know for a second, honestly, I truly thought that you would... I don't know, try and negotiate. Bother us away for a crystal or bother someone else.
Your real... what's the Galactic word for it? Comrade. Your real comrade, Terriak.
Mmhmm.
And I help those who prove themselves in such a way. So whatever happens on the Dune, whether it's a zoo or not, you can count on my help. Good talk.
I pat Theorak on the shoulder and move to leave.
Theorak is going to just take a moment to just breathe and then we'll... where did I put the crystal?
I put it back in its usual place in Theorak's lab setup.
Go back to the lab. And let's... it's still in a pretty disheveled state. And we'll go and pick up some of the, you know, throwing around textbooks and schematics and just looking at them.
And looks at the crystal. What are you? I said she could talk to you. The Hearth believed you were some sort of power source. You seemed to be a computer, an organism, all four states of matter. And yet I don't know what you are or who you are.
I wish there were a way to communicate with you.
I hate not knowing.
And then looks back to the various bits around the lab and then back to the storage room where the rituals that they had done related to photo happened.
Before we go to hide.
Come with me. And then we'll pick up the crystal and go into the room and set it down.
Alright, if my thoughts correct, you may be related.
You might be some sort of relic from the Cultivator. Is that it? I think so.
You must be very important. That's why all these people want you.
Alright, but they don't know why they want you. But I do.
Very important.
And we'll do some mysticism to try and figure out what the fuck this thing is. Or if they can communicate with it.
Sure. Roll me a mysticism check.
It's a nine.
That was a natural two.
The cosmos says you suck and gives you no answers.
You're pleased to photo the Cultivator, the great beyond.
It rings out in your soul and you are met with silence.
Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I'm dreaming this.
That would be ridiculous. Just to find some lost item directly connected to the Cultivator.
That's not... You couldn't help me find Satyra. It's not possible.
Because I know where Satyra is.
Okay. Alright. I'm going to bring this to I...
...Z.
Right. No. Hold on.
Why would we want Ike to see this?
Ike already is too comfortable with it. That's out...
Are you thinking at all about the standard protocols in these things?
That's why we don't name the specimens in wild times.
You can't form a notion of attachments to these sorts of things.
This is a study. This is a...
But she's also the only one who can speak to it.
Oh. Alright. Alright.
Just this once. Just this once.
Then, we'll get some answers.
That seems perfect with water.
Alright.
And we'll pick up the crystal.
And... goes to Ike's place of stay.
For the last few long minutes, while that's been going on,
Ike has been crouched in her little nook with her phone out
and has been typing and deleting, typing and deleting
a message to Quinn, one of the many things that the computer simulation suggested
that she say, things like,
Are you my friend?
Or, Why did you lie to me?
And why were you in the lower decks?
The area, when you get there, Ike is having just a little bit of a sob
as she decides to send, whose playground? Question mark.
To Quinn.
She closes her phone and throws it against the tube and has a little cry.
Oh!
Sorry!
Yeah, of course! Come on in.
Doctor, hi!
Ike, you alright?
Oh, just a lot today!
That was really horrible!
I imagine that wasn't fun!
Oh!
Um, what can...
Are you alright? Do you need anything?
I'm... I'm... I'm perfectly fine.
I came to ask... You have communicated with the crystal before, yes?
Yes, I... Well, I can seem to talk to it a little, like, um,
when it got taken away and I could hear it, but it talked to me quite verbose at one point,
through... while I was sleeping, but I did speak with it... quite a lot.
Right, because I have been wanting to try and communicate with it for some time.
Oh! Well, I mean, will that help? Of course that would help,
with trying to determine what it is, right?
That would be very helpful, yes.
Okay, well, look, I... I want you to figure this thing out more than anything,
and, um, I also promised that I'd show you more of how I work anyway, right?
Yes, about computers.
Well, I would like to continue learning more about you as a person.
Right, about... that's what I meant. Um, and you have it with you?
Yes, um, and just sets down the giant crystal.
Okay, I will, like, hold onto the crystal, like, kind of in her lap.
Theriac, though, can I ask you something that's going to sound a little bit silly before I go and talk to...
what I really hope is a real thing that a person or...
what did you call them? Like a biome, right?
Um, I hope that I can talk to it, and I hope that it's real, what I was hearing,
but, um, before I do that, um, I would really like to know, are we friends?
Very interesting question, isn't it?
It is.
I'm not sure I've made such close acquaintance with people within this short amount of time before.
Not that necessarily love of camaraderie is determined by the rate at which it is accumulated,
but I believe so. Yes, we are friends. Um, why...?
I didn't have any, so I just wanted to check.
Theriac, um, breathes and kind of loses thought of the crystal for a second, seeing the eye on the verge of tears,
and we'll just go over and give her a hug.
While... while in that hug, um, that's when I go talk to the crystal.
To say, you're safe now. We got you back. Can you still hear me?
There's a silent ding of acknowledgement that you feel in your mind.
You're trying to say something. If there's a better way to reach you, can you show me it?
I am broken. Bring me together.
The other crystals?
There's a ding of acknowledgement.
So there are others like you, parts of you. I need to find them.
We need to find them and bring you all together, and then do you know where I can start?
It's... in me.
Inside. The... and I'll look up at Theriac. The inside, the biome, it's... it's out of order, it's... it's broken.
Uh, Theriac, can you give me an intelligence check? Please, smart little scientist.
That's a 18.
You recall the data that is inside, that you found inside of the crystal during one of your many, um, looks into it,
and there was some information that you would... you weren't able to extract without a larger lab.
Well, actually, I think Theriac's just been hugging Ike the whole time.
Yes!
It's like...
Um, pardon. Um. Uh, thank you.
So... this is going to require a much larger lab with more resources than we have here on the patchwork.
Well, we're headed towards one.
Yes. Um, I am... worried.
What about?
Ah, there are lots of complicating factors in this.
And for a second, Theriac wants to disclose about their sort of mania about the crystal and Sativum and Wild Times and the Cultivator, and then just wipes that away.
People at Wild Times are going to be asking questions about this and why it's at the establishment.
Oh.
And they're going to believe I found it for the park.
Right. But you... it wouldn't... you wouldn't leave it there.
I mean, we don't want to be bringing this with us everywhere we go across the galaxy in the middle of combat, do we?
I guess not. I... do you... do you trust it there? Do you trust that it would be safe there?
I'm not sure I trust much about anything around it.
I feel the same.
I wish there were answers. I want to answer this.
We'll... we'll figure something out once we get there. I mean, there has to be a way.
And...
We won't?
You know, I don't want to compromise your position at the park or anything, so we'll be smart and cautious about it.
Right. Right.
Very well.
Um... thank you for your help today.
I do wish you could hear it. It's...
Yes, I also wish I could hear it.
Maybe we'll figure out a way for that to happen, too.
You know, if it's communicating through your cerebral cortex, we could try and hook it to perhaps some... maybe the specific area of the brain where you receive language comprehension?
So then that way, when you process them... you know what? That's a discussion for another time.
Some other time?
And, uh, Theorak will grab Igg's hand with their two hands and say, thank you.
Anytime.
Alright. I'm going to go check on the other two, because you all had a day.
Okay.
We'll just kind of tap like Pat Igg's hand and then walk out of the room and say, I should probably grab the crystal.
Okay, sure.
Alright.
We'll grab the crystal.
Ghost will put it in the lab and then decides to hide it in storage instead.
And then we'll go to Skye.
I'll just hop up the stairs.
How do you get into the top of the patchwork?
Like, I am outside the... I am in space.
Skye is outside of in deep space, like outside the ship.
Sitting on the top of it like James and the giant peach.
The navigation just mentioned that we still have that, the helmet we used on the lower decks of Salga.
Yeah, I was just about to say, Theorak puts on the terrarium and, uh, like a little space suit.
And just goes out and has to like clear the glass.
Oh my god, dude! Do you have the... Are you good?
What? What? Alright.
Take my hand.
You're like dangling on the end of the ship.
Is that supposed to happen?
You're not.
Sorry if I'm underestimating you.
I just came out to see you, to say hello.
Alright.
Okay, well grab my hand. Come check out the view. It's pretty dope.
Here, I got an extra cord.
That's right, that could have just sloughed off into the void. That'd be hilarious.
And then we'll plug in and just look up.
It's pretty cool, eh?
Um, yeah, it is pretty cool, now that you mention it. Are you doing alright?
You said you're a religious person, right?
Yes, I am, in fact.
So did your deity like make all of this? So big.
In photo, the universe is sort of its own deity.
Sort of made itself from the nothing.
And expresses itself through the four states of matter.
Which, do you know what those are?
No.
Vapor?
Air, liquid, solid, gas?
Well, air and gas are the same.
And the last one is plasma, which is what stars are made of.
Really?
Very difficult to remember.
And ghosts, right?
And there are some that believe that there is perhaps some sort of fifth element of aether.
Nothing. The void, whatever it may be called.
But instead of...
Of course, the universe itself is sacred.
And all the sort of energies that it manifests.
But the primary figure in this is the cultivator.
They're this sort of arthropod-like person who carries a very specific gardening tool.
That's some kind of a hose, and a spade, and a hoe.
And just a very powerful tool, meant to shape the world.
They are not a deity, she's more of a prophet.
Went across the entire sort of world.
To spread the word of photoism and how everything is connected.
Everything reduces down to these four basic states of being.
And preaches that there are also different lifestyles connected to each one.
If you live a solid lifestyle, you're very stuck in your ways.
And you have a rigid set.
And if you live a liquid lifestyle, you're very flexible and bent.
If you live a vapor lifestyle, you know.
But the cultivator suggests that you live a full life.
To be one with the universe itself, you must combine all of these different traits to sort of ascend.
Ascend where?
Like... Well, there is maybe a place.
There's a location that's spoken of in some texts called Sativa.
Sort of this idyllic garden of life where all four states of matter exist.
Harmoniously, and lush, and green, and red with magma, and torrents of water, and gusts of gales.
Just this perfect world.
Anyway, I... If you'd believe it, actually something of a heretic from where I'm from.
Because of wild times?
Oh, no. They have no idea about wild times.
I just mean like the stuff that led to wild times. You know, like the science.
Yes, they believe in the idea that trying to measure these sorts of understandings of the world is heretical.
It should be intuitive. It should be thought of as poetry, not mathematics.
I don't... There's a place for poetry. It's not in my lap.
I kinda like that idea of life being like poetry and not math.
Like, I'm no good at math, but you know, four plus four equals eight.
And it's always gonna equal eight. No matter what you do, it's always gonna be eight.
I've read some poems that don't even rhyme. Some are two lines, and some are sixteen.
I don't know. They're messier. Doesn't always equal eight.
That sounds pretty dope.
What is pretty dope?
Life is messier than an equation. Four plus four doesn't always equal eight.
But yeah, I get it. It's not in your lap. No poetry in your lap. I get that in theory.
We're on the top of the pack. This is where you come to get deep.
Wish we had some sativa, if you know what I mean. Just kidding. I don't do drugs.
It's a lower decker thing. Never mind.
Thanks for saving us today. That was really cool of you. You're like a hero.
I'm so sorry. What?
We're gonna move on with this conversation.
I wanted to bring up something to you.
The other human we saw today, are you friends?
Not anymore.
Wow. That happened very quickly.
Well, this conversation advanced very quickly, didn't it, Cereac?
You know what, I'm not deft at these sorts of things. So, I apologize if this is a bit crass.
I'm fine. If you're asking me if I'm fine.
That's what I was getting to.
This is not the first time that I've met a person and instantly given them my number.
And then it's gone horribly wrong for me.
I'm so sorry. I do not remember this. Did you give that teenager your number?
Yeah, it was in case they got any information about where our shit was stolen to.
Turns out they stole our stuff. But he was really frazzled and it was kind of funny.
Dressed it up a little bit. I think he took it to heart a little too much, though.
And then he fought us and stole our stuff. So, yeah, I don't see a potential for a long-term relationship there.
Right. It kind of burned the bridge.
Kind of a bummer.
That's unfortunate.
Yeah, it's all in me.
But, um, I just wanted to check that you were alright.
I don't know what those little pods were, but I'm sure that they weren't fun.
I was just doing a sick ollie on repeat in mine.
Forever?
We might want to check on Aig and Azam, though, because they seem pretty...
Are you doing an ollie? First of all, who's ollie?
Oh, are you going to be on guard for every love interest in my backstory from here on out?
No, that's not what I meant. I just meant, do you know someone named Ollie?
Because I don't know an ollie.
No, Ollie, it's like when your skateboard goes, woo!
I also want to specify, you are in person.
I'm more so just, that was just a complete stranger.
It was my point of just giving them your number. I don't care if you have intercourse with them or not.
Whoa! Okay. Oh my god, Dr. Firiak, you do not need to give me the talk on top of the password.
Is that too personal?
Uh, a little, yeah, maybe not personal, super awkward.
I'm really sorry.
That's okay, I like your heart's in the right place.
I don't really have a heart, but thank you. Alright.
Okay.
Let's...
What?
Uh, do you want...
No, you don't?
Okay, well...
Uh, I should also clarify. I...
I'm not an animal, so, like, I...
My people don't reproduce the same way, so I'm...
I'm sorry. Anyway...
Good talk. Let's talk more about religion. That will be a sure topic for next time.
Yeah, good talk. Tell you what, Dr. Firiak, you can try to relate to me another day.
That sounds...
This was a very good first attempt. I do appreciate it.
I'm going to go check on Azam. I already checked with Ike. But thank you.
How's she doing?
A little... a little worn out.
Yeah. I'm sure she would like some company, right?
Are you going to be okay getting down from here by yourself?
Uh, yeah. I'll be alright.
And just fully, like, flips up. Because as they start walking...
I, like, do a little circle around them with my board, and then head through the window.
Kick it up into my hands. Magnetize it to my back.
Hello! We're back!
That was a nice little exercise.
Yeah. That's my favorite spot on the ship. That's my thinking spot.
That's a very good thinking spot. Wow.
Maybe I'll move my laboratory up there.
No. That's my spot.
I'm kidding. It would turn on a fire lamp.
Do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Hey. We're here to talk about feelings.
Uh, Azam looks like he's asleep. He's only got one boot on.
His left boot is just knocked onto the floor.
His right boot's still on. His arms are crossed over his chest as he lies down.
And in one of his hands, he's rolling something in his palm.
I'm gonna be snoopy. What's he rolling in his palm?
I guess I'll do a sleight of hand check. You do a perception check. We'll see what happens.
I got a 12.
22.
So, um, first off, the boot on the floor, the soul, the in-soul has been taken out of it.
And the thing rolling in his palm looks suspiciously like a ring.
This guy slowly closes the hand again.
Steps back.
Wow. That's a tragic backstory he's got there.
It's not that tragic.
Ah! Oh my god! Ah!
I didn't know you were awake!
Oh, he's alive.
Oh, I'm just closing my eyes for a bit.
I was engaged. That's all.
I take the ring in my palm. I put it back in the heel of the boot.
Put the in-soul on top of it and put my boot back on.
I'm assuming your fiancé was in the time loop?
You'd be assuming correctly, yeah.
What were they like?
They were...
He was...
I can't talk. Not yet. I'm sorry.
How come?
Because I spent 30 years of my life on Paws, which means I'm still very much in love.
And that hurts?
Every day.
Reac, you wanted to talk?
I just came in to check on you.
Oh, of course I'm fine. The day's worse. No big deal.
Well...
Uh...
The existence of a more extreme option doesn't mean that the situation you are currently in is not also extreme.
Reac, I say this very kindly.
Let it go.
This one thing.
Aye.
Only thing I'd ask you.
Fully?
It is...
up to you.
I'm surprised you're not asking how a relationship was cultivated, considering... never mind.
You just said to drop it, dude!
Excuse me.
No, all I'm saying is every single time I talk about my biology, this one gets more and more confused.
It's very funny.
Oh, don't even get me started on theory, Reac, and biology.
Oh my god. I just... I...
Everyone will think I'm some sort of sex sphinx at this point.
No one was thinking that theory, Reac! Why would you say that?
Because I've... I've whipped it with two of you out of four.
I'm... This is terrible. I should just jump off the ship. I should have never attacked the core.
Well, the free use of sexual relations is kind of a bonding mechanism, so...
Oh my god.
It's... You know, some of us are in relationships, some of us are not, so...
Because we still need very close... sort of relationships to help rear children, even if we don't biologically produce them.
Okay, I'm gonna go find Ike. Bye!
Alright. Good... Thank you, Skye. We had a good talk today.
Good talk!
I haven't even gotten started about puberty yet. That's a confusing mess.
That's... So your people also raise in, like, generations?
Yeah.
That's very interesting. I'm not sure I'd met another people like that.
Generations help us understand our... We make it easy to pass on history through oral methods.
We make it easy to pass on certain duties and jobs.
Also, it means you always grow up with people who truly understand you, but who have more wisdom than you.
So you never feel lost, unless you hide things, which of course we all do, but ideally it's not supposed to work like that.
Then you grow up, you start new generations of your own.
Pass on what your family's knew, and new interpretations are found.
Dear Freed, we're a living, grieving history.
We don't often write too much, probably because, as you can tell, if I don't really see color, seeing ink is... difficult.
Sure. Um...
Plus, like I said, we do really need... We really do need hands to get through puberty.
It's a bit of a... Well, it's a bit of a hot mess, quite literally.
So... Did you mention something about your people being... displaced or something like that?
Urim is not our first home planet, no. At least not according to some of the ancient legends, but it was generations back.
Things change over time. Maybe we used to call it something else.
And your people... currently... do not...
Have a planet at all.
Right.
The ancient legends is this. Before Urim, there was Uber. Before Uber... well, another planet, you know?
At each time, the planet, like we do as we age, would cool to the point we could no longer live on it.
At that time, the core of the planet would cool to us.
And we, through it, would make a trek to a new home. Start over.
Because again, we don't write much down, although we know a lot of our own history.
It's those oral legends that keep our culture alive.
The strange thing is, for a brief time in our history, and it's only happened once before, we were on the same planet at the same time as another species.
But it's only happened once.
Do you know what species?
Well, you mentioned it yourself, right?
I look suspiciously human.
Oh!
But again, only a legend.
Truth is, I can choose, well, I could have when I was younger, to choose to look like almost anyone.
When we were young, we were hotter, we were more amorphous.
We don't choose bits and pieces of ourselves.
I do mean all bits and pieces, until we start cooling down as we hit puberty.
That's what I meant, hot mess.
So, over time, we shape ourselves into what we want to look like.
Decide more of ourselves, sometimes we pick up a new name.
It's quite beautiful.
No, it's really not. I understand, metaphorically, very pretty.
Everyone really chooses to be who they want to be.
But one, people still change internally, even as they get older.
I kind of settled on roughly this, and have had to live with it since.
But more importantly, we're literally beings of fire and lava.
Everywhere gets uncomfortable, very hot, and I do mean that more than usual.
So the whole world seems cold in comparison.
Everything gets super itchy.
Do you wish that you could reshape yourself?
No, no.
I mean, I've gained a couple more in the front, and I probably should have.
No, I like me. I like me.
And truth be told, this body represents who I was and who I wanted to be.
Even if who I want to be changes, it still means something, you know?
Beards a bit new though.
I'm a fan of it.
Oh, is that recent?
Yeah, yeah, once you choose to grow.
We all have some sort of...
This is kind of, I point to the crust on my arms, kind of facial hair of a body.
And this is...
Hold on.
And I pull out one long, wiry hair from my beard.
High and heavy metal deposits.
We extrude them throughout our lifetime.
Kind of holds the single hair, as it's still kind of red at the edge that was in your skin.
You could pick a lock for that.
I'm not joking, I've actually done it.
Just barely touches it.
This is...
Do you know who attacked your people?
Or displaced them, or your planet?
An energy company.
They came to our homeland.
We built a space station up above the planet for trade and such.
We already discovered how to go into galactic, but we weren't very interested in, you know, exploring too much of the cosmos.
We've been more our own people.
Sure.
They told us they wanted a small portion of our planet for research, for jobs, for welfare.
Promised us a lot in return.
I was against it.
A few of us were also, but...
No one could have predicted how much they'd take, and take, and take.
They kept saying, well, it's still livable.
In fact, it's more livable.
But it was livable for them, not for us.
So it's a planet coolant.
As our caps turned from lush gardens into snowy and ice-ridden tundras, we lost a bit of ourselves in the process.
And do you know the company?
CERT. CERT Energy.
CERT Energy?
Yeah, it's named after a god, I think.
Something along those lines.
Geothermal energy, for the most part. At least, that's what they took from us.
Geothermal?
Hey, Matt!
Hello.
The energy company works alongside Wildtimes.
Fuck!
That's not the only person who's concerned in this chat.
Oh. CERT.
I'm told it's quite a big company. Most people are familiar with it in some shape or form.
Firiak, you're right. You look nervous about something.
Oh, my skin's peeling off. That's terrible. I have to take care of myself.
We'll talk at dinner, perhaps.
I must away. I'm terribly sorry.
Must away?
Ike, thank god. Oh my god. Firiak and Azam are trying to talk about sex to me.
Oh my god, that's incredibly inappropriate.
I'm so sorry. Why?
I think they're trying to be weird and parental.
Yeah, they're not. Oh, that's not... Yeah, no. Okay.
Hi. I'm so sorry. Come on in here.
Nice place you got here.
Thanks.
I like it.
Oh, well, those are...
Actually, those are no one, I think.
But this is...
Dr. Firiak and I, we did quite a scary thing.
We went into school and they had to take our picture.
And I was actually quite proud. I tricked the little computer to blur out their pictures so that it wouldn't show up.
Anyway, I was just... I thought that it was pretty neat.
Yeah, it's a nice shot.
Thanks.
I'm glad you came.
That was not okay, what happened.
And I just... you have my word that we won't have to speak about it.
You don't want to, but...
Also, I don't want you to feel alone, so...
I'm here.
Cool, thanks.
I'm not used to having anybody be there, so...
There's pretty stellar.
Me either, to be completely honest.
This is very new to me, so I kind of want to get it right, no?
I don't think anybody can, you know?
I had a whole conversation with Firiak up top, life being messy and stuff.
These clippings aren't buds of yours? Do you hang them up for motivation?
My colleagues, I guess.
Friends, I thought.
But I'm not sure anymore.
They might not be the best people, but I don't know enough yet.
Maybe we have an upper-decker and lower-decker ratio of problems,
but I can relate to thinking people had your best intentions at mind,
and it turns out they didn't.
So, we got that.
Yeah.
That's not something you need to be concerned about.
I will figure it out, and I'm very happy that we're here and on the patchwork together.
Me too.
A few hours pass, and there is a ding of light in the cockpit.
Scrap sees it, flicks a few buttons, and then there is a loud shh-shh-shh-shh of a fax.
And they pull a piece of paper out and look at it.
Uh, hey, Skye, are you busy?
Uh, depends.
There's a...apparently you have a delivery coming.
He wants you to grab your hoverboard and just hop outside.
Okay, I grab my bowstaff, three grenades, put them in my pant pocket, and put my gas mask on.
And I go outside!
Shhhhhh!
The galaxy is the same colourful but empty that it normally is.
You're only a few hours out of the asteroid field that Helium was sat in.
You can still faintly see Saga.
You're coming across Raan, so you can see that a little larger.
You look up and there is a ripple in the sky, a wave, and then a ship immediately comes in, floats alongside,
around the same size as the patchwork.
It's golden, honeyed yellow.
The maidenhead is a bunch of different trinkets.
It's ramp open, and you see hanging off the ramp, wearing these skates and holding a duffel bag.
Goggles on, gas mask is Flair.
What's up, dillweed?
Hey, um, sorry, you gave me my number, you gave me your number, but I couldn't text you, because I took it.
So... hands the duffel bag.
I think that's all your stuff.
Payment for getting us out of there.
My comics in there?
Everything. I read the comics, though. They're good?
I have a number one of Trog-Trog-Barbarians, that's for sure in there, right?
Oh yeah, no, it's real good. Yeah, I read that like twice.
I use my bow staff to take the handle of the duffel bag.
They let it go and it flows, floats rather, through space and then lands over your bow staff.
We're not staying long.
Good.
I just figured I wanted to text you. The galaxy's a big place, but it's getting smaller.
Can I cut in?
Yeah.
Ugh, who's old? You again.
Do you see him like through the window?
Uh oh. Uh oh, Dad's here.
Yeah, through the window, getting pressed up against this.
I like open up a com to the outside.
You here to steal from us again?
Uh, that's not, um, I'm handling it. Yeah, you stole our stuff.
I make a motion towards my eyes and I point the fingers pointing at my eyes through the glass at Flair and shake my head disapprovingly.
I appreciate the fact that you got us out of that situation. We're not fans of H.E.R.S. ourselves.
I appreciate the part you did, getting us, uh, you shot at them. Thank you for that.
Your nose looks stupid. Stupid nose.
Wow. Wow. You are so perturbed right now. I apologize. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna let you cool off.
But, uh, text you later, Stardust.
Get out of here.
Uh, they wink and then, like, they walk backwards on their skates for a little bit, continuing to stare.
They turn and ride off into the ramp that starts lowering before they get in and they hop inside.
There's a rumble and a twist and then the ship off into the distance.
God, I hate him.
I knock on the window and just, like, raise my arms in a shrug and look directly at Skye.
I grab the top of the window and I kick myself back in.
Got our stuff back.
Yeah, I saw that. You were right. Did we really?
Yeah. I'm gonna double- I'm gonna make sure that my issue one, Trog Bar the Barbarian, is actually in there.
You, uh, look through and everything seems to be in there, as well as what looks like a new set of goggles.
What did it look like?
They have this green tint to them, leather strap, but on the top is a small dial that, when turned, seems to-
there is a small, like, electronic viewfinder that turns almost like a camera lens.
That's cool.
And seems to be able to zoom in-
I think you're being wooed, Skye.
Gross! No! Take this wooing away from me!
Hold on. Was this the same teenager who just dropped this off?
Yeah, the one who stole our stuff. Oh, how kind of him to give it back.
Well, he didn't have to. That was very kind of him.
Very economic.
That was very kind of him, actually.
Skye, do you like this boy?
No! I hate him! He stole our stuff! He's gross! I don't like him!
Oh, I- I'm not allowed to listen to this.
Do I need a sense motive check to determine that this is not truthful?
I will tell you, it's typical teenager stuff where she's like, I don't like him! Right? I don't like him! No!
I lean into Bittis' guy and kind of whisper conspiratorially,
if you want this to be believable, you can't be so anxious, you know, so up and at him to yell back.
What kind of believable? I don't like him! I raise my voice when I'm being very honest!
Skye, you and I both know that's not true.
Ah!
At this point, can I hear the commotion of Skye yelling and-
You see the Eureka just like walking out. Not allowed.
No, that seems-
The ship is- Patchwork's very small, so everyone can hear this.
Everything alright?
Yeah, Fleur, the ruffian from earlier, decided to return our things.
Oh! Oh, how nice! That's good!
That's not good!
No, it's not! No!
He's bad!
It's a good thing, but it's not enough, right?
But I'm right! I'm glad he did the bare minimum of returning the things that he stole.
Very glad to see that. That is a good sign, for sure.
What were we speaking about, you know, ruffians? The older one, you know, that one. What was he like?
I don't know. I had very few interactions with him, except when he was attacking us and taking our stuff! Are we forgetting this, people?
I mean-
No, I don't forget that at all. It's just that, you know-
Well, it wasn't the whole crew that was bringing it back. It was just him.
Well, I imagine that if the big, broad wolfman wanted to bring things back, he'd just send Fleur to do it. Seems reasonable.
I'm going to shut my trap now. Let's see what our inner stuff will back belongs to.
Ooh, look, I think this is one of your enamel pins.
Oh, thank you!
They're okay!
Thank you!
I'm sorry!
We really just-
Yeah, there's a group- there's like collectible Disney pins from all the different parts.
Oh, thank you! My enamel pin collection is back! Thank goodness! This is a fictional character!
We're so good, and we're so happy that we have all of the enamel pins!
Your enamel pins are in here too!
Oh, hell yeah!
What is this enamel pin business?
They're just-
Oh, I collect enamel pins!
They're just nice!
What's that?
Are they like, what are they called? The little patches you get from different locations, you say, like, I've been here, and you put it on your luggage.
Precisely! Yeah!
Except they're a little more solid, and they last a bit longer, and they're shiny, and...
Now that I think about it, it might just be a rat thing, because the two rats collect the pins!
Sure!
It might just be a little rat thing.
Yeah, we just like to have a little shiny memorabilia of the things that we like.
That's all.
Oh, it looks like a- looks like you made a mistake here. It seems to have given us a lot of cooking herbs contained in a glass.
Oh, that- I'm so sorry. That's fine.
And, okay, we've got time.
Do you all collect things?
This is not a collection. This is just materials. It's different.
Also, I'm not a collector. I'm not a nerd. I just need to find out what happens next, and therefore I accumulate more issues.
This is very surprisingly good condition for something you don't collect.
Can I check my phone?
Let's see if I got any texts from Wonder Boy.
As you open your phone, you- the wallpaper has been changed on your phone to a picture of him going,
Oh, sticking out his tongue and then, dick!
Blowing up a peace sign.
Absolute knob of a boy.
I love this.
What a hooligan!
But there's also a text which says, you're ever in the mood for an- to upgrade your hoverboard, I have an idea.
It's real neat.
Little okay sign.
Thank you. You returning our things was a good thing to do.
I don't think you're good, but it was a good thing to do.
And thank you again for the goggles, though I hate that you're putting me in a position where I have to say thank you twice.
Send.
And as you click send, we zoom out of the patchwork.
It's flying through the atomless sea toward a large sign that says, Wild Times Zoological Park.
And that is where we're going to end session today.
It's so good!
Thank you so much everyone.
Hello there beautiful wonderful souls.
Oh my gosh, what a bloody intense and long episode of the atomless.
Thank you so much for listing. I appreciate it so much.
I have a few quick thank yous for a shout out to the players.
Our music today was provided by Artlist under their fair use license.
We have new music people gamers and they bop so hard.
Pretty much all the music that you hear is from them.
And our soundscapes are from Michael Guelphie.
Again, under their fair use, you should absolutely go to Michael Guelphie's patron and Artlist's website because our show would not be what it is without them.
Thank you to our hosts for welcoming in.
If you want to listen to the full version of this episode, head on over to their YouTube where you can find all the edited episodes of the atomless and other beautiful shows that they have.
We love them so much.
We appreciate them housing us because we would not have a home otherwise.
Our players today were Mammal Brian playing Sky.
We had Superdillum playing Ike non-noddly.
Weble feels on socials playing his arm.
Andre Rivera Art who played our wonderful little garlic thewiak and me.
Matthew Ekberg, Captain Krayle on all things who did all the pew pews and who edits this right now.
Thank you all so much for listening gamers.
I appreciate it so much.
I have spent so long on this edit, which you can probably tell as I imagine that you're going to be like, yes, Matthew, it's very overproduced because I die.
Oh my God, I've been so sick.
My last week has been absolute bonkers.
Anyway, anyway, y'all don't want to hear.
Gang, thank you so much for listening.
I appreciate it so much.
And the next time we fly through the atomless sea, I hope you will be there to fly with us.
Thank you so much, gang.
I bet you.