Previously on the Atomless
Azan he
Ike she
My name is Thiriyak
What's up? My name's Sky! Welcome to the patchwork my dudes!
Everyone, welcome to WildTams
You can also see a large floating orb in the sky
Thiriyak, would you like to come with me?
I can gather the board and get them all sorted and we can go up to Raven's Roost
pointing to the large orb that floats in the sky
Comedate, it's probably better to show you what we're planning on doing
These animals are beautiful than we have here on a doom
But they're too big and you can't really take them home
And this small laser shoots out and then the animal shrinks
You are trying to merchandise the organisms? The specimens?
Sometimes foundations need to change for something to grow
Do you ever think that your foundations just don't fit anymore?
You see Lorik who is one of the board members
Thank god, I didn't know if you'd be here in time
I don't know what is happening to the park but things are weird
I don't think Kiskekk went on holiday at all
And then there is a shot that rings out as this purple energy is sucked out of Lorik's head
And they fall down and this huge bolt of energy shoots out and hits all five of you
And slowly begin to shrink
The biggest bug looks up to the prettiest flower for its pollen
The prettiest flower looks to the tallest tree for its roots and nutrients
The tallest tree looks to the grandest buildings in hopes of being allowed some sunlight
The grandest buildings look over the biggest countries to make them proud of their stature
The biggest countries look to other planets and hope that they're impressed
The planets look to the shining stars and hope to be noticed
The most shining stars look to the galaxy that they sit in and hope that they are making it proud
But what does the galaxy look to?
It looks up to an endless void
So would you believe that the galaxy finds its inspiration by looking down?
Past the stars and the planets and the countries, the buildings, through the trees and flowers
And past all the bugs to the smallest little crew
A crew who doesn't yet know how important they are to the galaxy and how big they seem in its eyes
The grass comes up to about twice your size ahead of you
Is a new brush of infinite jungle
The leaves cover every path in front of you
And behind you is the body of an now dead giant of Lorik, who is the board member
You have all gone through a molecular shrinking
Your bodies feel fine, parsum, minor, shrinking sickness
But you all stand in the middle of this now vast field
There's a little sunburnt rat with the four of you who is looking around frantically
Okay, did we just get fucking shrunk?
Oh my god, I think that we're shrunk
Can I, without saying anything, hop on my now mini skateboard?
It's like the ones that you... what are those called?
Where you just use your fingers?
Yeah, the tech decks?
Yeah, it's basically a tech deck now
I hop on my tech deck and I'd like to fly up to see if I can...
To see if I can scout and see where the laser came from
You hop on your tech deck and fly up above the grass
Looking out over this large vista
You see in front of you this large...
What once was like a itty bitty tiny little like testing ground
Has now completely changed and is this huge cavernous field
You see three main ways to the testing facility in front of you
The testing facility is where the shrink ray is housed behind a large glass protector
There is also a small hole which has been shot through as when everyone was being shrunk
Azam swung out and fired
To the left of you all is an anthill
Hundreds of little ants scurrying around are going inside of the holes of the anthill
Carrying different food sources and you know the things that ants do
Ahead of you in front is a slew of branded wild times merchandise and food and cups
Which I had originally as the garbage sword that they had
However upon shrinking the garbage sword collapsed and this is the remnants
There is occasionally this like shift in the cups as something seems to be moving through the grass
And passing the cups and to the right is a large pipe rusted corroding slightly
There is a large corroded gap in the pipeline pretty close to where you all are
And then another one almost to where the testing facility is
This seems to be like a disused like kind of like just experimental wastage
You see in the darkness of another small gap too small for even you at this size to fit in
But you see a light kind of move inside and you hear just tiny amounts of shuffling
Shuffling and scratching inside of this little little sewer
Behind you is the body of Lorik
This like purple smoke that is billowing from their head as they lie behind you
Ah geez okay I'm gonna fly back down and kick up my board and say
So we're dealing with a lot here but first of all Dr. Therriak were you uh close with the hole?
I will have time to grieve later
We should make some definitive actions soon I feel
I agree okay well let me tell you all the stuff that I just saw up there
Crazy right?
Does Therriak know about the specific ants here?
Like are there have there been reports of these ants in the park?
So to call them ants as we know them on earth IRL would be a bit of a it would necessarily be true
The the expansion of the names of species kind of grew as space exploration was
was becoming more prevalent crustaceans for example now encompass a whole bunch more
that it used to so the definition kind of shifted and changed and the same is true for
Mykinids? What the fuck is an ant?
Uh an ant is a hymenopteran
Hymenopteran sure that also includes sawflies wasps bees and ants
So the same is true for hymenopterns which also encompass these things
These they still work on a queen-based system where they all follow like what like a queen
but they're far more of a mindless
a mindless creature the queen after giving birth imprints so heavily onto the other ants
that they that technically every single ant in this colony is one creature it is just the queen
as the queen imprints on them and infects their minds and they work so heavily as a hive mind that
they aren't actually multiple hundreds of ants they are instead just one
All right so for the purposes of brevity perhaps we should not interact with these hymenopterans
they could be
Hybenotowhat?
I believe you're referring to the insects
Yes
The ants?
Yes the the ants
Hy-hyberplopidous
Ants is perfectly all right I'm I'm sorry I resort to science when I'm stressed
Ah Theriac we need to talk because you always are resorting to science
so I feel like we need to discuss your uh relationship with stress I feel like
Maybe later
Right now it's fine
I feel like there's more pressing issues than the terminology that the doctor's using
right now because we're very small and very lost
Yes so uh the the pipe uh you said there was like a light inside of the pipe is that correct?
Yeah and like some kind of scurrying yeah I'm still processing a lot of what just went down
Okay well well well well first of all the solution to our problem is very simple and that is to go
back to the machine and to simply uh reverse engage the machine and then target ourselves
so that we grow again
Okay
Correct
It seems like to me there's a couple options we can try and take the corroded pipe over there
to wherever the machine is we could try and investigate poor lorik
or we could try going underground follow the ants
Okay I understand that you're processing a lot I find it real weird that they shot this guy
and shrunk us is that not weird to anyone else?
It's exceptionally weird
Yeah it's very strange
I think
Well to be fair if I may I don't think all of us were targets of this thing
because I don't think all of us are very important here and I take a meaningful look at Theriac
I think this is maybe a conversation for later could we
We're not in any rush to be honest
I feel like we're very much in a rush
I also feel like I would like to be my normal size
Well I think I think you're all panicking a little bit
Of course I'm panicking I'm tiny I was already tiny
We all need to take a deep breath and calm down because nothing good ever came from panicking
Okay
Take a breath wonderful so let's split up what does everyone want to do?
Sky?
I just wanted to say maybe we should have this discussion because scrap is right we got shrunk
Scrap is right we got shrunk and maybe somebody was just super sadistic and would rather us get
eaten by ants than go out quietly you know?
Okay
But we might want to consider that by the time we get to the other room
because they're probably still there maybe
Right yeah
Well if I got lucky they could be dead
Hopefully
That's true that was a pretty ace shot I wasn't expecting that to happen
All right what I suspect is happening is that we were pulled in by Lorak to have a conversation
Clearly this conversation was not in fact private that we were being or that Lorak was
in some way being monitored and the fact that Lorak is now deceased and that we are still alive
but not present quote unquote to most people suggests to me that we have been set up to take a fall
Me specifically
All right
All right so we just need to be extra careful because if that person or people are still
alive then they still want to cause you harm so we just
They won't just settle for shrinking us if we actually act back or if we somehow
don't get eaten by ants or if we somehow don't you know drown in a used coffee cup
Maybe they did do intend to kill us but they just have something
They're not just not good at multiple firing maybe it was a one action
gun or something shot we just don't want a bunch of bodies
We just don't want a bunch of bodies yeah
Okay if I want to be real dumb today I could do a little scout mission
just peek in there see what's going on report back I don't know if you should go there by yourself
That's well what I don't know what they're expecting
Maybe they're not expecting a tiny teenager to go through the bullet hole and you're right maybe
they're dead I'd be careful I could just like you know a little peek I would yes I could go alongside
you I'm probably the least uh heavy of everyone else here I guess yeah I'm pretty sure I just
break your board okay but just what if you get there and then they're not dead and they're armed
and they want to kill Dr. Therriak I well then well then they must be the worst murder in the
universe because they made us as size of a needle in a haystack we're so small but we'll likely not
we'll escape suspicion as long as we're careful why don't we set up a word that would signify
that something has gone awry salad time salad time salad time
okay that would mean you'd need to keep your phone on because 17 my phone's always on you turn your
phone off oh wait I've been looking forward to this for a very long time turns the phone around
points at the like they're like what should we name the group chat have we got a group name
scrap we got a lot we're dealing with right now I don't know if it's acceptable just put in patchwork
crew we can brainstorm later okay the patchwork okay great patchwork crew so I'm gonna be honest
I'm gonna put all my cards on the table Therriak's guy if you're gonna go see that that bullet hole I
don't a I don't really want to be on the ground I just feel like something could jump at us
B I want to know what the I want to know what the fuck that smoke is because that's not a normal
smoke color yeah I was thinking the same thing it's fine by me I what do you want to do I
would rather that we stick together but if we're going to um split up then I'll um I'll go with
scrap I guess okay we're all good yeah I'm hoping to not take too long like we're not gonna
charge in lasers blazing right away I just want to see what's going on in there and then we'll
meet you guys back at the smoke all right yeah um sure thing you scout we're gonna check it out
Therriak I'm sorry but I guess our meeting point is the head of your now dead board member friend
okay that's I like this the smoke is perfectly acceptable we don't have to go into details
hands in hands in hands in this is a weird moment tiny adventures on three
one two three tiny adventures hop on Therriak
I'm all right
two little twig legs hang on
you hear a tiny car as uh the uh as skateboard shoots off past the grass you get to the you you
get there at the start of the climb as you all arrive scrap uh puts their hand to uh to their
side and pulls out a tiny little clockwork or kind of tosses it up in the air and these four
things pop out of it and then tiny little propellers fly fly next to them okay uh
uh who wants a boost who wants a lift oh um yeah I I uh boost would be a good idea
okey dokes scrap settles their uh their arms into a into into a little boost formation and this
small tiny robot lowers a like uh a hook uh grab onto the hook and then this with the help of
like scrap boosting you and this little thing picking you up and placing you on top of the ledge
you get onto this this first little ledge pretty easy scrap then turns to you as um
I could try to give you a boost uh I'm already climbing up on my own I like that thing is too
small as you all get past the first ridge um and sky and theriac you can see uh are so small and
and flying away you see them off in the distance uh scrap turns area uh weird time to bring this up
but high stress situations and all that um I never thanked the pair of you for helping sky out in uh
in that place she doesn't talk about a lot of shit um but I've gotten a kind of good sense on
reading her I know that something went down and I can only imagine the pair of you helped
to be quite honest it seems like both of you don't talk much well yeah but uh I ain't got much to
talk about so well um I don't think it was very fair um what happened to her not just
everything that happened to her but we were we were privy to that information without
you know her deciding she wanted to tell us and she actually um well I knew most of it not all of
it important bits I just I think that she deserves much better um so she's a kid she was a child she's
still honestly a child not I'm judging but I mean that's a hard life for someone that young
yeah um and you know that's what they do get them young it's easier to get them on your side then
anyway and how young were you uh I was a lot older than most um I wasn't taking it as a
kid I you know I didn't have a whole lot of options so I went in it was far more adult than
a lot of others yeah it's always type right they come with you they offer you a way out
or a better life and by the end of it you realize you just trapped yourself in something else right
um should we look around yeah all right oh yeah all right um
uh um let's grab this a little like um after the conversation breaks um you are able to
you were having this conversation as you were climbing up uh lorick and you get to
the summit I guess large plumes of this uh purple smoke pour from the giant's temple
all right who's first oh I don't know I don't know why I said who's first I don't know the
fuck we're doing uh what's the plan well can I um we're nearby where the bullet
went in yeah yeah yeah well you you are on the head of lorick now um
should we
try to see where the smoke is coming from
yeah all right
yeah all right uh as I'm you good for that plan
I want to know how how lorick died you know you can learn a lot from a bullet wound
depending upon the size fracture patterns I guess I want to know if lorick here was
shot close by by someone we trusted or from far away by someone they didn't
all right let's go investigate as you walk toward the smoke our camera is going to pull back
and move across only about five foot in in big size however speeding across this uh this
expanse is sky andetherian both of you can you give me perception checks please right now as you
speed towards this bullet hole that's a six well I believe that means I rolled a one as well I got
a six oh my god a double one a leaf flies in our face I'm gonna pray for you the the wind is just
like buffeting you so much and there is a lot of like new things to like look out for that you don't
quite um you don't quite focus on anything you are purely focused on this bullet hole
across the this little experimental zone until you get to just outside the um actual like operating
chamber this uh bullet hole which can fit both of you quite easily um sky I imagine you come to a
stop to just outside it um yeah I'd like to like if this was the hole I'd like to go like right
beside it so that we can like be up against the wall ready to peek in oh absolutely um this would
be like very yucky good yes are you peeking in yes okay can both of you roll me an additional
perception check please cool that's better that's seven that's a 20 sky you're not able to see
anything not through any fault of you uh not trying but uh the additional weight the weight
disparity of you all being very small and also with the additional weight of theory act being on
board just means that you're just keeping just a little more attention on making sure that your
board is upright and is um uh you know it works at all times theory looking inside past the bullet
hole from the angle that you're at you can't quite line it up yet however you can see pretty much all
the room there is no body no blood splatter as someone getting hit there's not even any
discarded blood on the floor there is a a there is a bullet at the other end of the room that um
like a bullet hole one with a bullet still in it through a quite thick binder of experiment notes
that sit uh amongst a shelf of experiment notes is a bullet lodged you do see the molecular
molecular the molecular changer the shrink right as it's colloquially known as well as a large
motherboard of different uh buttons and dials and things like that uh you also see propped up on the
desk a still turned on slightly electrified cage with what once was just a simple slug that you got
from the leviathan's eye and is now because you're so small fucking huge that is sitting
just moving around the cage the cage is still on and again electrified little bars but is there
sat at the desk where the motherboard and the shrink ray are
well that's very strange that there's what do you see well
well has on shot at someone is that correct well i don't know i heard a bang and then we were small
well if if he did i see no traces of uh uh blood ephemera or uh trails or anything of
the like it's just the room and uh uh the uh resizing machine and
that's that specimen is so large now oh um you think you just missed i that is very possible
um but that could be worrying i mean a lot of this is worrying do you want to
maybe check it out a little more do you want to report our findings boss i we should probably
tell them before we just just to let them know and then if they want more information we can go back
back scoot my skateboard into the room just a little going slightly further on inside there
if you also spot this as you're uh now like moving in and repositioning both of you do see that um
there is one turret in the room really just in the corner high up
it you don't know anything more than that there is a small red blinking light on it and it looks
to be hanging at a lower angle like it is deactivated wait wait to clarify from from that
it's a deactivated it it is deactivated how recently deactivated you are unsure
i want to i want to go into that machine and find out what makes it tick
that would be a good thing to do we should i feel like there was some sort of phrase about curiosity
and cats i can't remember how it ends but it'd be beneficial to us to find out things to associate
with one another i don't i think cancer this is not extremely relevant ah
it's it's your call dude if you want to go back but i feel pretty confidently i might be able to
figure out what the heck that is i would like to take out my phone and as i unlock it theory
accuracy i have not changed the background it is still what's his face going um and i'd like to go
to the group chat and i'd like to say i'd like to type out we are investigating a machine in here
see you soon
i hope to goodness this is shrinking machine otherwise it's uh i'm confused
well now they're just i thought it was supposed to be a scouting like a quick they'll be all right
in and out right and now they're investigating and look it's fury in sky baby how much trouble can
they get themselves into a some i i saw i heard it i heard it as soon as i said it
it's it's all right i like they'll be fine you know they're both very responsible
when it comes to taking care of their own lives
listen i know sky she's gotten out of way worse situations weirder not yet i mean how we're worse
definitely i also heard that one i don't know the universe always has weird shit up their sleeve
i'm sure something weird will happen to us at some point we're adventurers now or you know
space fairies whatever the fuck anyway you're all stood around um a hole which this smoke is
is bellowing out of it's like crystal is like shattered inward um and you can see faintly past
all the smoke um there is some form of organic matter uh and you can see some like metal at the
uh at the end at the impact point i would like to kind of kneel down on the surface near this this
little wound and um kind of place my hands to it and sort of tap on it um
um hi hello and um i want to cast a tech tech and see if there's anything that is technologically
uh operating here there is this small pulse like that you feel coming from you like a
boom and from this uh uh pulse it's like a uh it's a thread that you're used to feeling but
it's entirely spherical and it stretches out and then every time it hits something technological
there's a little like and then you feel a boom at the bottom oh at where this impact point is
whatever whatever was shot you get a a reflection back of tech um scrap can you get me down in there
down in the hole yes there's something there and i think it might be important um oh god uh i can
then fucking maybe i can try i can i can get you down i can get you down on betsy that's fine
gestures to the uh to the little bot um it's just not that reliable if you need to get brought back
up again okay well we'll figure that out after but i i i i'm going in i'm going inside all right uh
betsy this little robot uh flies up to you and then like lowers to your level are you just grabbing
onto by the tail i think just for fun by the tail hell yeah mission impossible style
this these these four little copters as they're as they're moving you down smoke is like billowing
into your face but then is like wished away but uh by by these um four little four little motors
and as you get to the impact point uh there is a it looks has the casing of a just normal bullet
but there is a motherboard at the um just embedded in it that is blinking uh red
red as you get closer and you can understand that this motherboard is the tech that you felt
so this motherboard that is built into the bullet so the bullet was built for this it wasn't a thing
that was added on after creation right well you're interesting um and okay
okay if you would like you can give me a an engineering uh check for just understanding
tech or what this is um i would like to forego that because i don't i don't think i understand
how any of this works but i uh instead um can i try to talk to it
god i forgot that you could do that i forgot that was the entire basis of your character yes of
course you can i'm sorry to disturb you i don't i don't really know um if you can hear me but
uh if you can i'm just well i'm a bit afraid um for myself and my friends right now and um you
through no fault of your own you are part of that so if you could just help me to understand what's
happening and maybe um if you're still a danger to us as you say this there's a few beats that you
wait the blinking light kind of matches your heart rate as it blinks and then it blinks a little quicker
and you hear from this thread uploading uploading uploading and then the light solidifies and then
and then another led turns on transferring transferring transferring through this
ability that you have you and this connection that you've just suddenly forged hearing this
just simple motherboard in the back of your mind you hear amidst all of this transferring and uploading
i am a consciousness chick oh knowledge of what that is escapes you i've never met one of you before
i'm sure it is an honor it is genuinely i'm ike
i am a consciousness can you stop the transferring
i'm worried that that's not good if i stop
this user will die okay so
you're the consciousness of this person i was put here
to make sure this user did not die are you
to make sure this user did not die are you the consciousness chip you'll
i assume be transferred along with everything else
i am currently transferring uploading to a new network
so well then that means that you just tried to kill my friend so um
that's just not acceptable um and uh
what are we doing huh
i yeah i don't know um but um i i'm sorry but
i'm gonna need this transfer to stop and i would like to um cast erase
erase whoa is that a thing you can do an erase okay
okay gamer hell yeah tell me what erased us
tell me what erased us let's go i can remove you want to fucking wipe it i'm gonna remove um up to
uh 1500 words of data files from a computer code so wait hold up you're going to this like
practically sentient computer chip and you're just going to erase parts of its identity
this is not just a computer chip this is the person who lured theoryac here
under false pretenses and shot himself so that he wouldn't die that's out of character and just
talking in ix voice because i'm very stressed out so um that means that this person that i'm
talking to and making nice with and trying to have a good calm conversation with just tried to kill
dr theoryac and all of us so
yes i think can i i would like to um because i can't hear this conversation between i and
no no azama's scrapper very much like looking at the edges of this whole because he's trying
to determine how what killed this person and how close were they when the shot was made
from someone who has shot a lot of people are not sure on the distance you are pretty sure
that it whatever it was was inside of the operating facility like the testing chamber for this tiny
shrink ray distance you're not sure on um but you are able to line up a like a secondary
bullet hole that is probably the one that fired through the glass and then shot lorick
was probably some form of turret or something is the has the drone dropped off iger is i still
like mission impossible in it ike is currently uh is still is still like floating because
i was to stand they would be an organic matter cutting back over to dylan you cast this erase
and you feel a threat something that no one else as far as you're aware can see or feel
or have any knowledge of you're watching this light
blink this uh transfer light as it were and as you cast this there's a boof of energy and it feels
like you've cancelled something halfway through downloading so some things have slipped through
something halfway through downloading so some things have slipped through but as you're as
you've cast this you hear warning transfer not complete this will end the user
how big is the chip itself is it
like grab it
uh it's for you very big for you right now it's like a double hander
and trying to like get it out of the thing would be pretty difficult okay
so are you stop are you stopping the spell as this warning has popped up
um no um you're gonna um okay as that warning pops up this will end the user the spell goes off
and the chip and just there's like a small you can feel a thread just end ike you've been
done for a lot you you're right no scrap pull her out um yeah you want to come up yes
all right okay i'll put yet and there is a there is like a heavy weighted pulling the moment ike's
in sight i like reach down and pull her up and out of the hole as well okay so this was shot by
something where it wasn't shot by a person no this person did all of this what do you mean they
they shot themselves they had a contingency plan that actually makes a lot of sense uh
they shot themselves though they died i point in the direction of the shot
but it came from too low you could automate something set it up so it shoots you at a direct time
right
oh well i mean it wasn't even i i don't even think it was a another person that shot it i i
it was just
uh i spoke to the consciousness chip um that whoa there was a consciousness chip in there
inside the bullet holy shit did i do you know what that is those are fucking expensive
it doesn't surprise me when you look at this place they are like they are like manufactured by very
very specific companies so to a person who came from a fairly backwater planet nobody really
cares about unless they're sucking energy out of it what what exactly does the consciousness ship do
it's a spy thing normally um it's a spy thing it's a spy thing it's a spy thing it's a spy thing
normally um it's a way to uh shoot someone has to hit them in the brain and then it will upload
their consciousness thoughts some very minor memories and upload it into a server that you
determined beforehand this is like people do it to um wait mine again spy network you get you you
assassinate someone upload their consciousness to something else and then you can like scrub
their information like it's a uh a computer file some people do you know upload themselves into
robots but they normally go a little you know easier ways than that you could do logically though
so either he killed himself and uploaded his own consciousness or someone wanted what was in his
brain and decided to take it by shooting that hi what's up what did i completely misinterpret
that whole thing oh no listen you may not have we don't even know yet
that you just murdered my co-worker no
um does okay does i look like i think distress i think if we go by what dylan's looking like
right now yes uh-huh like you need to listen to you need to listen to me if you stop the transfer
you stopped whoever shot him right whether it's himself or someone else from getting what they
want there was two options out of this one this man was a mastermind or two this man was about
to have his entire consciousness entrapped and manipulated right okay right whatever you did
was the right thing nobody would want a life like that unless of course he is an evil mastermind
which case okay good criffing riddles i just i thought
you thought right i mean what else were you gonna assume oh well
i don't know i never met
something like that before um like these are fucking that is a dangerous chip
as arm is completely right this this this this guy was either a genius and was going to do some
very very nefarious shit after telling us the boards were doing something shady and then making
us very small or someone was using that to do some very nefarious shit right okay
we'll only know once we take a look at what shot him once we can like it's roughly a point in a
i point in a direction but not well enough it's roughly over there once we get normal size i'll
take a look at it and you can take a look at it we can figure out exactly where this shot came from
and who did it okay and uh we don't need to tell feriac yes we do i do you want to i'm giving you
an out here i appreciate that but yes we have to tell the renegade i lay a heavy hand on ike's back
and just like rub it affectionately you're good okay yeah it's uh
it's it's it's a it's it's a heavy feeling but at least in this one case
i think i think you did good i think you yep scrub
message viewers
let him know that we're um
just ask him if there's any way to get us out of this fucking situation before we all go mad all
right and then as that message sends theory x guy you feel a boop on your on your phones you arrive
to this turret you get the it is huge skyscraper to you now this large metal structure that falls
off into the ceiling you are at the barrel of the gun you are still on the skateboard
you are pretty far away enough that you can actually maneuver around the
um you are pretty far away enough that you can actually maneuver around then hop off onto the
turret if you'd if you'd like yeah can i just go up to like the side of it and hover on my skateboard
while i do into it or absolutely you can okay theory act what's the message say
okay where you're in the group chat theory act it's have you figured out what the fuck's going on
yet question mark and then a little angry face like an angry little emoji working on it and then
the two the the semicolon dots and then a question mark uh
uh
theory act
everything okay question mark we have theories theory spelt wrong of what happened
but needs to meet me 80 back up does he have auto correct off
and come back to you say i never have auto correct on i don't know how the fuck to use this thing
uh uh well i suppose something happened and they want to meet back up again so
i suppose we should not take too terribly long i'm going as fast as i can doc i got my fingers to my
temple and it just looks like i'm blinking a lot looking into this turret is a lot different to
eyes i've seen these threads you are like very physical like you can um uh after putting your
goggles on and feeling this like connect um you can you are you can kind of like see the
system in front of you there's like little file logs and uh you see that it is deactivated
but it's not deactivated because someone has deactivated it it's deactivated because it's out
of ammunition you have recently fired and it was 15 minutes ago which is about the time you were
15 minutes ago which is about the time you were shrunken what was the ammunition would i know that
um it's it's just it's just a it's an official it's officialized name and you don't actually know
what it is uh you can see that yes it was fired 15 minutes ago however it was accessed from raven's
roost uh well at least we know it's not armed so we don't have to worry about us getting shot
if we re-enter the room
i guess we confirmed it came from raven's roost where all of the board members usually hang out
but we can neither confirm nor deny that at this time all right can you at all like record that
so that way if they try to wipe that information that we still have those records
well i don't know let me try i don't think i have a printer in my brain
you could upload the file like copy and paste the file to like your personal device
device however there will be a trace of the fact that you did that with your serial code on it of
your personal device you could scrub the record of that happening but if you fail the role if you
if you fail in that hack then you're going to be alerting the security system that something has
happened and i mean i say just add them to the list of people who are fucking after me you know
let's go copy the file uh and then uh for the scrub give me another computer's check
am i also scrubbing it
should i do more than that boss theory act
uh i don't i don't know i think we should just take whatever little scraps that we can
and just build our case later maybe with legal uh i'm sorry that this is all happening to you
you i appreciate that a lot uh
anyway is there anything that i can do other than shutting up that can help you here
uh well well we're here in the room why don't why doesn't why don't you okay stand why don't we just
enlarge ourselves now and then we get the other ones later and then we increase our size then
increase our size then you know i was thinking that but there's like an
anthill and stuff in there and a pipe it just seems like a missed opportunity for an adventure
you know a little adventure doubt today i can make you bigger yeah i would prefer to be larger
right now if you are if you all want to go i mean the if if i were not in such a stressful
situation i 100 would join you on that for scientific documentation and recording just
the the the the ground level microbiome that exists on wild times even with all of the construction
but i'm a little frazzled frankly so i would just like to be me sized and just try and figure out
what happened i appreciate okay let's and and i'm very very happy that you are fostering your
curiosity that's very important
fostering i was pretty much born with it it's very easy to lose that so keep doing that all the time
oh okay did you lose that is that what you're saying that sometimes it can be hard
you get lost a little bit do in all the corporate uh what's what's the word that people say uh
uh rat race don't tell scrap i said that seems a little loaded uh
the legalese uh uh jargon grolex all that the hullabaloo um
but yes i would just like to be me sized um you will probably need you'll probably need
instructions for how to operate the machine because i'm guessing you've never worked with this
i don't need instructions on how to operate the machine
i am self-taught ike's not the only one that can talk to machines i just speak a different language
ah
um i guess arm and scrap who are uh all stood over the hole and looking at the well scrap in
particular is looking out over the uh the vast and is looking into the uh chamber i'm sure they're
fine but taking a very long time for a scouting mission it's just a little weird well did they
return our message they did say that they were investigating something so could i text them uh
uh uh going to turn large size just myself sky will rejoin you and uh inform you of what we found
oh all right i mean that works wait so furia gets to be
i'm going to say back to their normal size and the rest of us are stuck
this guy probably needs to get us over there i mean i don't think i don't think that board can take
his arm his arm are you much of a skater i you know a normal let's say what species is human
a normal human my size i weigh about three times yeah so i don't think sky's going to be able to
take us ferry us all over one by one but theory act getting back to regular size means they might
be able to pick us up if they can figure out how it works oh right okay that's good
that's good are you okay i know that it's that you've had a bit of a time in the last like half an
hour i just you're getting that kind of distant stare i just you've never done this before have
you no um no um scrap has i'm assuming you're not unfamiliar with this kind of thing no um and neither
am i and uh no matter the reason whether you agree with it or not first time is always
you don't forget it
oh um in the void they you know use it as a as a mantle carries you forward it's remembering
in theory that regret but also reminder that you can do it so in future you can do it again
oh good i guess you'd be bullet hole oh brain that's worse i think it'd be the first person
called that body but i i just we're not we're not in the void we're not in the void and i thought
i thought that i was
protecting
you were i think you were and listen we don't even know we don't even know what the situation is
all right it might not even have it might not even have happened you know right we don't know
so we maybe some of them slipped through i mean who knows you look if there's one thing i've
learned is that you can't undo the past so what happens after this is we analyze do you do the
right thing or not and from there you determine if you're going to be able to do it again or if
the next time you're faced with a similar situation you don't you learn that's what people do
because the truth is you're not the first person to kill someone i didn't even think that that's
what i was doing um yeah um
um hey it's fine no need to worry about it now it's done is done
and soon we're going to have our friendly
large phiriac friend back and all will be right right and we'll investigate that whatever killed
it whatever killed him and and we'll figure out more okay so do you want to go to the mass
of burrito over there and just you know have a snack or yeah i would i would like to know what
our plan is team team skateboard seemed to be uh regrowing theriac they said that sky was coming
back to us do we want to wait here do we want to go and try to find some other way well we should
wait for sky i i think well we can tell sky if we plan moving you said something about a light
in the pipe over there was that uh sky said there was a yeah there was a light in the sewers
i'm getting cold-brained something worth checking out maybe if we're leaving
trying to go into the sewers we should tell the others so that's exactly what we're doing
well obviously yeah yeah
i mean we're not really going to get that give a chance to look at them again you know
it's not like we're going to be let's be clear this is never happening again we're not trying
we're not shrinking after this first and last terminal lives i hope so i know so we're all for
a fit ike what do you what do you want to do do you want to stay here do you want to go into the
sewers i'm i'm into the idea of just getting the fuck out getting getting out of here is
just sure i i just i'll go wherever you're going that's fine okay uh scrap balls out the phone and
says we are going toward the sewers and then sends it to the group chat sky theriac you get a message
all right they give each other the thumbs up all right to the shrink ray uh you will need to be
at the panel and i will be in it's in the uh uh in its radius of uh of of the beam
roger that i also think maybe i should if possible make myself the normal size that'd be the
responsible thing to do and would be less likely that our friends would wind up dead so
you you first and then we'll figure that out okay i will be able to operate it once i'm large size
so yes so the ray is facing out into the courtyard so if you were to be the target of it you there is
a there is a there is a slither where you could be and uh stand but as it hits you and you grow
you will push everything out because imagine it's like it's it's like an inch between the shrink ray
and the the glass that separates this room from the outside you can however move the shrink ray
to face an angle in different ways but it is a giant fucking is giant for you it's going to be
extremely heavy if i'm imagining this correctly would it be possible to put theriac
on my board and fly the board into right in front of the laser yes absolutely you can do that
all right you take good care of my skateboard theory act uh all right this i'm serious and
it's my pride and joy right there dude i have a name
no i've been too scared to personify it valid uh do you think it's like pissed off that i haven't
named it i don't i've never talked with the computer so i'm not really shared their level of
emotional ability or their opinions on being identified as individuals so
being identified as individuals so we're in uncharted territories all around i think um
one uncharted territory at a time maybe uh okay vehicle uh climb on top of the hoverboard
all right so you just do you need instructions
uh no i i think i've got it uh i'm i'm hip uh let's see sky i will say that you can control
this skateboard just with your mind without communicating um however if you'd like theory
act to try and control it on their own you can also allow them to do that let's see how they do
do if i lean forward it goes forward
wow you're like on all fours like the you don't know the balance like the classic skateboard
yes yeah first time skateboarding wow okay uh i'm going to wait how do i lift do i just
just yeah you like left front goes up a little bit all right there we go you're doing awesome
you are the equivalent of like 15 foot off the ground at this point as you're oh oh
all right how how high up do i need to be uh you need to go in front of the shrink ray so you need
to go behind this console and in front of this quite large barrel oh that's that's pretty tall
uh you can do it okay here we go uh what's that what's that thing you say sometimes oh cowabunga
oh well banga of course quite a bit uh flying around you like bump into the side of the the
the console and uh you leave like you like scrape the board a little bit and uh but then you do you
manage to like gather yourself and then and you were very shakily in front of the barrel of this
shrink ray are you in position i i think so i'm gonna stand up should i stand up uh i don't if
i don't that's up to you i think i might fall to my death i'm gonna just stay right here okay
i'm i'm gonna try and make the thing happen now that sounds great there is a
of the screen that grows in front of you which is perfectly normal
however as you go to access files you see a
kind of similar to a lion's face but slightly purple and translucent these tentacles slick
they look and they're staring from this like white void that is behind them at you as you attempt to
hack into the shrink ray well no i don't think you're supposed to be doing that
and then you hear a as you look to your side where the slug was held in an electric cage
the electricity leaves and this now humongous slug lurches forward
just outside of the cage and starts slithering toward you can you roll initiative as
we head on over to scrap ike and his home should i roll initiative you're welcome to yeah you wanna
i can't go fast nothing i just yeah dr ferriac i can't go fast happily roaming to a sewer totally
oblivious you are at the head of this sewer the smell is hitting you now it is this thick
coppery smell smelling of corroded metal and disused liquid discharge
you can hear sound bouncing inside of the pipe and a thick green like sludge is falling down from this
break in the pipe well can someone with physical sciences please check that sludge because i can't
i know i know what the fuck it is i can't do that
i mean i can take a look um at it and see if it's safe at least
normally this wouldn't be dangerous it is just random experimental uh like it's it's like it's
like charge a lot of guns in this universe they all work off of like a plasma charge that you fire
and then the discharge is just like thrown and normally it's completely fine doesn't matter
this small it'll probably do something but it's not going to be a big deal because it's not going to
find doesn't matter this small it'll probably do something however it might not affect you and
scrap considering that you've both grown up in the lower decks of saga but asam might be a little
more affected than the pair of you touching it directly is a bad idea for all three of you
but being in the space like smelling the toxins and the gases when you're in that enclosed of a
space as i might have to do a little bit of uh poison checking so all right look it's toxic for
sure um we shouldn't touch any of the sludge but asam if we go down in there it's it's going to be
like being in the lower decks of saga um but maybe like way more concentrated so um i don't know
we'll i'll be fine just let's go come on okay just at the very least don't touch it
would you suggest holding my breath out
um it wouldn't hurt well eventually it would so i but um yeah i'll be fine just come on
the three of you crawl inside of the sewer and you see the source of the scratching immediately
as it stops and turns you also see what sky was talking about
a light moves across the whole of this cabin it is a
densely copper smelling large pipe this thick green liquid is flowing down the center of it
pouring off through random breaks in the corroded metal
as this spotlight moves over to you you see a large rat
but the rat it's firm matted and slightly burnt the top part of its head is metallic coming down
into this one point that looks like a camera which is a little bit more
metallic coming down into this one point that looks like a camera which has been implanted
into this rat's head gives you a little like
as it looks at three of you
oh you can feel the tug of a thread from the middle part of its head and this lens the spotlight
hangs slightly angler fish like from the top part of its head seemingly lighting its way
it spots you and hasn't yet reacted in any way
I want to reach into my little pocket and take out a little square of cheese
and I'll have a snack because I've had a really hard day and then I will hold the rest of it out
you hold out the cheese as the three of you step further in Azzam the thickness of this air and the
space and this toxic air is directly in opposition to your
body you are going to gain the poisoned condition for now I you hold out this cheese and this rat
stops and then as you hold your position it slowly walks up to you and then sniffs seeing your physique
it seems to not be as hyper aggressive and then it's going to take the cheese from your hand
I'll give it a little scratch can we can we follow you
hmm okay I'm sorry I don't know how to speak with you but just kind of
walk alongside it maybe it'll start moving again
as you like pass it it like turns to you and scraps like a like to it but then also a little bit to you
it's all right it's a pal
I don't know if it's a pal or if that cheese just
maybe it's a little bit too much for you
it's made it not immediately try to rip us apart well I suppose
well it's not ripping us apart right now
maybe it was sent to uh like yeah you understand technology right
oh in a sense what is that camera go
as as you kind of reach your magical capacity into this rat um you
don't feel much as it seems to be quite overwhelming as soon as you get inside this
you can feel that there is this technology is kind of imprinted itself a little bit into like
is like oppressing the brain of this creature
however because of that you do hear a small help me and then
your energy overloads the small circuits and it lunges out to attack you can you roll initiative
and we are going to leave it there for today as our two little gangs are in two little quite little
spooky situations both origin combat quite far away from each other um but I'm sure it's nothing
our beautiful wonderful heroes cannot handle now I'm very aware that today was a little bit of a
shorter session but don't you gamers worry we're gonna be back with whatever the fuck is
gonna uh fix itself with uh the next uh the next little session hi there beautiful souls thank you
so much for listening to the atomless I have a few quick thank yous before I shout out everybody
involved with the show our music today was provided by marty eisenberg we also had music by art list
under their fair use license and our soundscapes were by michael gelfley again under their fair
use you should visit both of them on peter's channel and subscribe to our channel and we'll see you
again under their fair use you should visit both of them on patreon because the show would not be
what it is without them a big thank you to our hosts that welcome 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 unleaded
unedited atomless and all the other beautiful shows they have on there we seriously would not
be here without them our players today were momma o'brien playing sky super dylan playing ike
nord and ali who is where wolf feels on socials who plays a song andre Rivera art who played our
wonderful garlic thiriyak and matthew ekberg captain krail on all things who did all of the
gm'ing and voiced all the pew pews thank you so much for listening i give you a kiss and the
next time we fly through the atom of sea i hope you'll be there to fly with us
you