Previously on the atom myth.
Azan he-
Ike! Shee!
My name is Theriac.
What's up? My name's Sky! Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes!
Everyone, welcome to WildTams.
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 Lorrik, who is one of the board members.
Thank- 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.
Theriac! I- I hope your holiday was good.
Wild, it's- it's good to see you again.
They turn this screen around.
There is a short email that leads to a picture.
It's from an unknown email address.
Has the words, Bounty Alive, 500,000 credits.
And below is a picture.
And is a picture of Ike.
Fede leans up against the separator between-
and this large, hulking, armoured creature.
The separator- oof- falls down.
And she falls in.
And this large, hulking bear charges over to her.
And clamps its jaws down on her head.
Hello everyone, breaking news.
Horrifying scenes here at Wildtimes.
Disturbing scenes here at Wildtimes.
Scary times at Wildtimes.
Today's story is straight out of a horror novel.
A Wildtimes spokesperson, Fede, fell into a Wallopede den
whilst showing a guest around a park,
causing her to be eaten by said Wallopede.
Official word from Wildtimes claimed that it was because of an electrical fire
that caused the shielding to fail.
We're going to be expanding on this story as it develops.
We see the screen- turn it off.
Hilo Lepore turns in the boardroom in Raven's Roost.
Joined by Lin, Sir Mincil, and Theriac,
as they all watch the news unfold.
It has been two days since Fede's demise,
and this system is abound of stories.
It has captured the news cycle.
Hilo rubs his face,
making sure to iron out any wrinkles that they have,
that they may be developing.
The electrical fire story seems to be holding up.
We've put a gag order on the engineers,
so we know that this story won't go anywhere.
The press are having their time.
Two more days.
That's all we'll have to deal with.
Sir Mincil, the Kastasher.
Four-armed, dressed in this very clean white suit.
Little lights flicker on them
as they have augmented quite a lot of their body,
including their head.
Their long head ends quite early,
and a fish tank replaced it.
Fish swim around, unaware.
Why a wallopid would attack is beyond me.
Aren't they supposed to be neutered?
Turns to Lin in a scruffed science coat.
Are you blaming me for this?
It was your shoddy technology
that made the fence die in the first place.
I had to check the electronics,
and I had other people check them numerous times,
and the fence was fully functional.
My electronics are running this whole park,
and you are supposed to keep animals in check.
And where the fuck is Lorik?
Why has Kiscak not contacted us?
Do you honestly believe that your secret meetings
have been just secret?
I'm sorry, are you blaming me?
Are you saying that I had something to do
with the death of Fede?
Lorik is just gone.
Do you possibly believe that it's Lorik who has left,
and Kiscak has just gone on holiday,
and they're just not contacting us?
Clearly something is more...
Alright everyone, settle down.
You can hear your baby squabbling
all the way up to the penthouse.
Sit down, start acting like adults.
A slightly more heavy set man walks in.
Little safari top with the Wild Times logo on it.
Little shorts, again, with the Wild Times logo.
Right, what's going on?
Theriac, explain.
Within the past 48 hours,
we have lost another member of the board.
Fede was...
mauled by a wallopede
after they fell into the exhibit.
Yeah, fell.
We do not understand how the fencing fell apart.
They should be force-fielded,
they should be electrified.
There is no reason why the physical barrier
should have been removed.
But it happened.
I had nothing to do with this, okay?
Sometimes...
I was not finished.
There's been no word back on Kizkac.
And we have found Lorak's body.
Oh my god.
Goddamn.
Lorak is also...
When did this happen?
His body was found,
I want to say 36 hours ago.
We wanted to double check
if it was Lorak and not an imposter
or a clone or a duplicate or anything like that.
It's curious.
You've been here four days
and you're just now telling us that
Lorak just so happens to turn up
and Fede has also died.
I don't know, I don't think...
So as soon as I come back,
the pin is on me.
I understand this hypothesis.
Why don't we test this hypothesis?
We are all scientists here to some degree.
I mean, I can do it.
How do you...
How would you explain you coming back
and two of the board members dying?
You were...
You ran off for two weeks?
Nobody knows where you went.
You turn up in a junker ship with
a bunch of vagabonds
and now people start dying?
I don't know, I think your...
I think your conscience is finally catching up to you, Theriac.
I think that
the things that you've been doing here,
the fact that your power isn't what it was,
you want that back
and I think you're trying to get rid of us all.
Now, settle down, Helo, for fuck's sake.
Theriac, you have anything to say for that?
I am very quickly ready to debunk your theory.
Mr. Wilde,
I would like you to bar all
executive board members from leaving this room.
I want this room guarded fully.
Well, I...
We have left to do today.
And...
I do not want anyone to leave this room,
including myself.
I'm not getting trapped here with a
possible fucking murderer.
That... that...
That seems a bit far-fetched.
I think that we can all
return to our rooms and I think that'll be quite-
Now listen here!
Theriac fully jumps on the table.
I will not be pushed aside again.
You want answers? You want solutions?
We play the game!
You are so quick to champion the waiting game.
Well, then let's wait.
Let us wait until every one of us is dead and rotting in the ground.
And then everything will be fixed.
Is that what you want? Is that it?
Answer me!
We'll... we'll play your game.
Anything happens, it's up to Wilde.
Wilde owns this place.
And if one of us is the problem,
we're going to sit in here and do nothing.
Mr. Wilde,
is that something within your capability of doing to the fullest extent?
I believe it is, Doctor.
Prepare for meals to be sent in.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Who's to say that Mr. Wilde has nothing to do with that?
You know, he just sits on his ass all day,
and I think we know where his allegiances lie.
What's to say that it's not him taking us all out?
Deriac turns to Wilde.
Could be me.
As much as I would love
for Mr. Wilde to also be sitting in here with us to fully ensure,
we do have a park to run.
Someone has to take the helm.
Lin sits down with a huff.
Wilde nods.
Thank you.
Wilde walks out.
The doors shut.
The soft...
And then one of the glowing lines on the floor,
a hologram showing not the normal park mascot,
but a hologrammed half humanoid female figure
who, by looking at this, you assume is the base form of the park's AI,
one that's not here for show.
These doors have been barred.
And you all sit and wait.
The rest of you, rest of our patchwork crew.
The last two days, you have seen Deriac in passing,
but there has been a lot to handle and deal with.
The TV in their room has almost consistently been on.
Sky, last few nights have been a bit restless in terms of sleep.
You keep waking.
Your body keeps shifting naturally coming up before its time.
And one day, at about 3am,
you lay down in your bed.
But you wake up a few hours later,
and you are stood in a different part of the room.
And today, as Deriac locks themselves in a boardroom,
you are in the bathroom, washing your hands.
And you check the time displayed on the mirror, and it is 10.52am.
You stretch your eyes, and as you look into the mirror,
you can see that your face has seen worse days, but also way better ones.
You splash your face with water, and as you blink at the cold, filtered water,
your eyes open to the wall on the other side of the bathroom.
Your head rests against the cool of the tiles,
and it is almost like you have teleported.
It was a blink, and you have moved to the other end of the room.
It is a sour, dried taste in your mouth.
You walk back to the mirror, and as you do, you realise that your body aches.
And you look at the time, and it is now 11.03am.
You seem to have blinked, and ten minutes went by.
What would you like to do?
Oh, this is bad. Oh, this is very, very bad.
If there is one thing comic books have taught me,
it is that you don't want to be losing any sort of memory
when there is a murder mystery happening that makes you look so bad.
I am gonna, uh...
I'm gonna take out my communicator, dial a number into it,
and I'm gonna wait for Flair to answer his dumb little phone.
There's the outgoing...
Hey! Oh, shit! I didn't expect to hear from you again.
Hey, don't start us still killing it.
I'm gonna hang up! I'm gonna go knock on Ike's door!
Ike, how have these past two days looked to you?
Um... I... I have a question that will...
lean me in one direction or another.
Do we have any open line of communication with Theriac,
or have they just been off and...?
Only Andre can answer that, really.
Andre, what do you think?
You can definitely text. You have each other's numbers.
Can text Theriac. Theriac has occasionally texted back. No calls.
Ike is very stressed beyond her baseline of stress,
and has, like, spent the last two days
fully focusing as much as possible on two things.
One would be watching and rewatching that footage that she went through
and trying to see if anything...
Just looking for a miracle answer to this problem.
And the other would be trying to think of the best and safest way
to deal with Skye's chip without doing any more damage.
So Skye probably looks very sleepless.
I imagine there's, like, some little tufts of fur sticking up in places,
and just a little on edge in general.
Could you?
Uh-huh.
You wouldn't mind?
Could you give me a perception check roll?
This is for going through the footage.
Yes. 12?
You have been overly focused on this one almost starting point
that you found of Lin speaking to Kiskek.
And although throughout this day and a few more days
you've very briefly skimmed, you have yet to find anything else,
but there is a...
There's just something in the back of your mind that you know
there is something else on this that you can find that might be a thread
that the four of you, I, Ghazam, Skye, Skrapp, can follow.
But you have yet to find it.
A little weird little meta half character thing.
But anyway, there you go.
Skye knocks on the door.
Oh! Oh! Get... Come... Come in. Come in.
I... You... Oh, you look so stressed out.
Are you okay?
I'm fine! How are you?
Oh, I don't know if I believe that.
Have you been sleeping okay?
I... I... I...
Don't want to lie to you, so I don't know how to answer that.
Um, everything's fine, though. It's going to be fine.
How are you feeling? Are you okay?
How's your head?
Me? Yeah, nothing to worry about.
I actually was just popping in real quick,
because I've been thinking, you asked me like three times
if I wanted to talk about it, and I thought that was kind of weird.
And unlike you to be poking and prodding, so I got thinking,
and I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about it.
And that was just your way of asking.
Well, um, I... I suppose in a way,
it's just that I want to be able to do something to help,
and I'm not sure what exactly is the right way to do that.
So I suppose I was just poking to see if...
if that was something you needed.
I...
I just want to make sure you know that, you know,
we care about you and want you to be okay.
It doesn't mean you have to talk about it.
I've been pretty self-sufficient my whole life.
I don't know if it's been the same for you.
So, you know, if... I just wanted to let you know
that if you ever wanted to talk about your experience with it,
that I'm all ears and you don't have to dress it up
like you're trying to help me if you want.
I just... when I think about it,
what bothers me is I am not quite sure how much of
what that memory was, was real,
or how much of it was what I'm worried might be real.
So...
But I haven't had a lot of time to be worried about that
the last few days, so...
We are talking about you potentially killing somebody, right?
Because that's what I'm talking about.
There are so many things I'm stressed about.
I forgot about that for a moment.
Oh!
That too.
But actually, I did talk to Dr. Thiriak about it.
And while I still don't like that it happened,
they, in their way that they do,
have sort of eased that worry just a little bit.
So that's not so bad.
Okay. Can I get you water?
Drugs?
Oh! Sky!
No, I'm quite good.
Actually, I've been sitting and thinking about
what to do about the chip.
Have you thought about calling that boy?
No, don't worry about that for now.
I've been...
You have enough on your plate to deal with.
That doesn't need to be one of them.
I'm gonna go get you some water.
I'm gonna go grab a Zom, and we will discuss a plan.
That sound good?
Sure!
I will be right back.
Okay.
And then I'm gonna go to the kitchen,
get a glass of water,
and knock on a Zom's door, or couch,
or whatever his sleeping situation is.
Just knocking on his head.
What does a Zom's last few days look like?
Pretty uneventful.
A Zom's felt mostly alone,
because he doesn't have family anymore, really.
So he's been giving people their space,
but mostly sticking to...
Because I do remember that the captain's quarters were given to him recently.
So he's been staying in the patchwork a lot,
praying a little bit,
but again, quietly so no one would notice.
He has the news on in the background,
so just like Theriak, actually the television has been on,
and he has seen everything.
But he's kept his opinions to himself.
He doesn't speak unless spoken to.
And, um, I think...
There's, uh, his eyes are a little...
Just around the corners of his eyes,
but they've gone a bit black,
because he's had some sleepless nights.
The fact that you have travelled back to the gateway
to get on patchwork, um, is...
quite... fun.
Because you are not alone on the patchwork.
Scrap has been...
traveling around with small parts,
they, for similar reasons,
left and travelled on.
And in one, uh, quite loud morning,
has seemingly been gutting the, uh...
the, like, rec room area with the fabricator
and immersion heater,
taking all of the kitchen appliances out
and then pulling them to outside of the ship
and then messing around with minor appliances.
With one quite loud bang as he pulls the cooling fridge unit
and then just pushes it off the side of the ramp,
it makes a loud crash to the ground,
and he turns, knowing that you're there,
but neither of you have, like, spoken, uh, really?
You've left each other to each other?
Neither? Oh, my bad, sorry.
You want some help, or...
you're gonna be okay by yourself?
Uh, well, I just thought this place needed a...
a bit of a... an upgrade.
Yeah. It's, uh...
forgive me for denigrating your home, but, uh...
it's a bit falling apart, isn't it?
It's your home too.
Is it?
For the time being.
I suppose so. Where do you want all this junk?
I want these appliances just off the ship.
I got a scrapper coming by later
to pick out all the things that we're not gonna put back in the ship,
and I...
Well, Times has teamed up with Hermoid Tech in a pretty big way,
and there's a lot of minor ship upgrades that I'm toying with.
I spent most of my...
most of my cut on the selling of the Leviathan's Eye junk
to get us a few little knick-knacks,
but just things that I thought would make the place a little more active.
New Hydra would be nice.
It is kind of arid.
Yeah, um...
Got one of those, and...
I don't know, I don't like the fabricator anymore,
so that's going, and we're kind of fitting in a whole actual kitchen.
I've organized part of the storage unit downstairs
into, instead of just, like, the packs of reheatables,
actual, you know, produce that we can keep and hold
and then kind of cook meals.
I thought it'd be better.
Why don't you put up some garden walls?
For herbs and such.
That is a good idea. I actually didn't think of that.
Um...
Well, cos, mainly, uh...
Yeah, it's gonna sound...
It sounds stupid now, but, um...
I bought a lot of baking goods.
I figured if you're gonna be on the ship,
you might as well be useful.
So, uh...
We can have a baker.
For a little bit.
If you want it to be one.
And this ship's already got a captain, so, unfortunately, you can't be that.
I never have suggested that.
In fact, I want to be captain.
Scrap.
Well, the first time you stepped foot on the ship,
you picked up your captain's chair.
That was a captain chair or an old Valkyrie class.
Well, to be fair, I picked a folding chair first.
No, but you wanted to pick the captain's chair.
Or rather, you naturally went to the captain's chair.
And then went to the folding one.
So...
Anyway.
Scrap.
It'll be good for the team. We can have...
The captain's chair is...
Any chair you're sitting in.
Oh, not forever.
Maybe.
I don't really see myself as, like...
Part of a core unit.
You know?
I wholly disagree.
Whenever we need advice, who do we run to?
You.
No.
Or...Ciriac.
Whenever we need comfort, who do we run to?
Ike.
Ike?
Yeah.
I go to Ike if I really need a panic attack.
I got a sky for that, normally.
So we have really all the...
The quadrants covered in a crew.
You're important to us.
And not just because you fly the ship.
You're something more than that. You're...
You're family to people on the ship.
Oh, yeah. To people on the ship.
But, uh...
There's a pretty important person on the ship that doesn't...
Find this place home.
I can't let go.
I haven't been able to let go. I keep trying.
It's home.
I'm sorry.
Anyway, let me help you get off...
Get all these things out.
Guy, knowing now that Azam is on the gateway,
which is Edun's moon,
are you going to take the trip up?
It is a... It's like...
Think of it as a...
There's like a Disney shuttle bus that goes from Wild Times to the gateway.
Yes, there's a Disney shuttle bus, but for interplanetary travel.
Not interplanetary, but just to the moon and back.
That doesn't seem like a good idea if I'm constantly blacking out.
Okay.
We're gonna...
Moon-night this.
And I'm gonna take maybe some tea towels from the kitchen.
And I'm gonna tie my legs to a chair
and put it under my pants so I can't see.
Do I think this plan will go swimmingly? Hell no!
But it's what I can think of right now, and I'm going to call Azam.
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun!
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun!
This is Azam. How can I help?
Oh, well, I don't know.
This is Guy.
Nice to be speaking with you.
Okay, I can't waste any time.
I'm blacking out at random points.
And time is skipping, and I have no recollection of it.
And my... I'm going to fill you in real quick.
I have a chip inside my brain that Void put in there,
and I think it's been messed with.
But, oh my... She looks like she has six hangovers at once right now,
and I don't want to stress her out with this, so I just...
Sky. Sky. Sky, I put you in speaker in front of...
Hello!
God, why? Why would you immediately put me on speaker in front of somebody, Azam?
We gotta work on your phone etiquette!
My hands are full with it...
What is this? Dishwasher?
Oh, well, yeah. It's supposed to be a dishwasher,
but we didn't know how to use it, so it is a gun storage.
Oh...
Okay, so what your problem is is that you think you're blacking out.
You think the chip might be malfunctioning?
Something like that? I don't know.
My problem is that I can't solve this problem on my own
because I have no recollection of hours of time going by!
Hours? You're missing hours?
Missing hours?!
It's getting worse?
Is it... Okay, does it start off by minutes and get worse, or is it right?
Let me think about it, Space God.
Do I just start today?
The only... The only... No, no, no. It's been the last...
It, like... You've had two nights where you've woken up in the middle of the night and been stood,
and today is the first time that's happened when you're awake,
but only ten minutes went by.
I... Oh, only ten. I thought it was, like, ten to eleven. Okay.
It was ten fifty-two to eleven. I appreciate that I was... I picked an annoying time.
No, okay, so it's only been, like, ten minutes. I'm just being dramatic.
But it started... I thought I was just sleepwalking,
but when I was in the hospital, I woke up and thought I saw someone in my room,
and then they disappeared. I just thought it might have been a sleep paralysis thing,
but I think I'm losing my marbles. I'm tied to a chair right now.
It could be after effects from corruption of course.
You need to talk to Firiak. They probably don't understand at all.
Sorry, as the person who disabled your chip, are you saying that Ike said that someone is...
like, there's something inside of the mechanism?
Yeah, I asked Ike to dig in there just to see if it had been messed with,
and she said that she saw some sort of alteration,
and she seemed to hate every second of it, and I don't want to ask her to do it again,
but I also recognize that we have a murderer on the loose,
and if somebody asks me questions and I say,
oh, well, I don't remember ten minutes at a time, that's gonna look real bad for me,
and I can't have two reasons to go to space jail on my head. I can't handle that.
Skye, Skye, honest question, no judgment. Do you think you're a murderer?
I know I'm a murderer, Tom!
No, I mean the murderer. It's my accent, hold on.
Do you think you are the murderer?
I don't know what I've been doing for those ten minutes.
Well, I can assure you.
Do I think that I could run and murder somebody in ten minutes? No.
But if that space of time gets longer, it's gonna be harder for me to come up with alibis
if I don't know what my alibi was, you know?
It's also possible you've been doing it while you've been asleep.
I didn't even consider that!
Sorry, Skye, you're not the murderer, I can assure you of that.
This stuff has been too well planned out.
Oh, thanks.
No, for a sleepwalking person, it's been a bit too planned out.
No matter how smart you are, none of us are smart when we sleepwalking.
Okay, so we cannot go back to the hospital,
because if we go back to the hospital, you're gonna... yeah.
When did these start, these blackouts? Have they been on since...
since the Heth thing?
Or since the slugs thing.
The slugs thing, and it started with just sleepwalking symptoms,
but this is the first time that it's happened while I'm awake.
I'm going to try and solve my own problem as much as I feasibly can.
I just wanted to let somebody else know,
so that if I look like I completely black out,
or start speaking gibberish or something,
that somebody else is aware and can make sure that I don't
put myself in a bad situation when I'm not fully conscious.
Can I do a medicine check of some kind?
Absolutely, yes. I'm actually gonna also do that as...
Thank you. You might do better than me.
I forget what the wrath does.
Like it's an 11.
21.
Oh, there you go.
The blacking out thing is obviously very concerning,
but the chip seems weird.
The slug is an organic being,
and worming its way into a mechanical chip
seems like something it wouldn't do.
But Sky did leave the hospital early, and didn't use IV stuff,
and was fully completely not here for a little bit,
so they might be connected.
Okay, Sky, here's what I need you to do.
I want you to set up a camera, untie yourself for a little bit.
I want you to find a camera so we can monitor you,
and I want you to get a heart monitor.
Why am I gonna get a heart monitor? Do you think the theory act...
Sky, you're a mechanic. You can build one.
Yeah, but what if I black out before it's finished being built or something?
I need materials, dude!
I got some stuff. I got some stuff in the basement.
I can easily whip up a heart monitor, no trouble.
Oh, right. I will bring you one. Just set up a camera.
Okay.
All right, and tell Ike to keep an eye on you.
Okay, I really don't want to stretch... She...
Okay.
Do you want me to be honest?
I don't think Ike should be left alone right now.
Why?
She's been going through a lot, and now theory act is going through a lot.
It's just...
For a person who doesn't develop as many relationships,
Ike being disconnected from people doesn't seem like a good idea.
I mean, okay.
Does she really need to be connected to people that...
require her services, though?
Don't tell her you need services. Just tell her that you want to have a friend around.
I'll show up soon. I just have to take this shuttle bus.
Okay.
All right, thank you.
No problem.
Call if you need anything else, and I'll promise not to bring you on speaker this time.
Thank you. Okay, bye. See you soon.
Bye.
Okay, I'm gonna untie myself, and I'm gonna go see Ike again.
Azzam, are you gonna get on the shuttle and go back toward Raven's Roost?
First, I'm going to text theory act,
and I'm going to say, I need you to send me
something I can use to keep someone unconscious if necessary.
And then I'm gonna take the shuttle bus.
Azzam.
I cannot personally deliver the necessary supplies that you require.
However, there should be plenty of anesthetics within my laboratory,
should you require them.
I will be unavailable for an undisclosed amount of time.
Good luck. Happy hunting, Theory Act.
I'll stop by the laboratory on the way.
As you take the shuttle down to the gateway and gather the things you need,
the energy in the boardroom is dreadful.
It is so thick, it feels like you can't move.
Every small shift of your body, any creak of your roots as you move,
sound like they echo into everyone's ears, and you can feel that everyone feels this as well.
Well, Hilo Lepore says,
if we are to wait here, surely we should do something useful.
What would you suggest?
What about all those detective shows and novels? Are we to be interviewed?
You've locked us in a room. What do you suggest we do?
What was your scientific method that you were so sure about?
My original idea for this experiment was for us to simply wait.
But since you've posited it, I would be glad to ask some questions to all participants.
Theory Act pulls out an injector out of their lab coat.
People push themselves back in their chairs, Lin in particular is like,
whoa, I'm not getting injected with anything.
Oh, Lin, let's start with you.
Tell me more about this raccoon.
Why the fuck are we starting with me?
Because you spoke first.
I know you've been out of the game for a little bit and you haven't probed anything's brain in a while,
but we are people here, we're not just your fucking animals.
Oh, okay. I see.
So where do you draw the line?
It is ridiculous.
Oh, it's not such a simple question, is it?
When a thing has sentience, when it could think and it could understand, not animals, not the things that are on the planet.
Of course not. But as soon as you give a raccoon the ability to speak and perform actions, suddenly you have to consider its sentience.
It's a recorded message just spoken.
Oh, no, continue. A recorded message.
Now, how is it able to speak a recorded message?
It is a raccoon. Raccoons do not have the best anatomy for being able to speak the common tongue.
Lin, what the fuck are they talking about?
Okay.
Oh, so Helio didn't know either.
Ciminsul wanted to make the park more interesting.
No, no, no, you're not going to throw me into-
Shush! Lin, please continue.
Before we had the idea of making the digital animals up on Gateway,
and before we uploaded Vidhar, the park's AI, Kizgak approached me with Ciminsul and suggested that the animals do the talking.
And they just give information about themselves.
There's no line between the teacher and the animal.
So, we did a test, and we biohacked just a raccoon.
But we, just with some test lines, we used your interviews.
But it just didn't work.
The raccoon could only say one thing, and it gained very small sentience.
It was pathetic, honestly.
But we kept it around to see if anything improved.
And it didn't.
How is it able to speak?
I gave it a small robotic voice box.
But it didn't work.
It was there, and, you know, the staff team, they grew attached to it.
It just sweeps up pathetically, but it was fine.
We didn't want to dispose of it.
Theorac has a fucking brain blast.
Thinks back to the lab of all of the objects coming towards the crystal.
The sweeping.
Was that programmed?
No, it was just a minor thing that it did.
Raccoons have pretty strong motor functions, but it just swept up.
We decided to just let it be a little janitor.
But it didn't work.
So, you know, we went on to another plan that was a little better.
Or the current plan, rather.
Which is just upload the information into the park.
It wasn't my call.
It was Sir Minsel's.
Sir Minsel said it.
I just thought we could marry technology and we could also marry the animals together and increase the experience of the park.
That's all.
But this isn't anything.
This is a thing.
I would have come out and said this.
If you gave this, if you asked me, Theorac, I would have told you immediately.
But no, this isn't one of Lin's secret meetings.
He's always going on them.
He was speaking to Loric and Kiscak and was speaking to Kiscak, but not about this, about other things that they were doing.
You've been speaking to Kiscak.
I was.
Because we were friends.
I spoke to Kiscak.
I spoke to Kiscak before they went on holiday.
I got an email saying, I'm going on holiday.
Oh, so you got Kiscak's email.
Yeah, of course.
Everyone did.
It's all in the inbox.
Uh-huh.
So why didn't anyone receive my email when I sent that out?
I don't know.
But no one received it.
Right? Right?
No one received it.
We're not even sure that you sent it at all.
How about this, Theriac? Question for question.
What have you been doing these past few weeks?
I, first, as stated within the email that no one got, went to Leviathan's Eye to collect a specimen.
The specimen being the slugs that I brought into the laboratory.
After that, the crew and I flew to Saga to the Lower Decks.
You may remember that we, in fact, have an upcoming exhibit about the wildlife of Saga.
Is that bizarre to you that I might do research on site for an upcoming exhibit?
The ecosystem to Saga is very particular.
And if we are going to host species from that particular biome, I want to make sure that they are comfortable and well taken care of.
After that, we made our way back to wild times.
All to do.
This is all very... I don't know if anyone else is getting the impression, but I am correct.
Nobody got the email.
And then you went on a second trip.
You didn't just go on one.
You went to a trip... you said Leviathan's Eye you went to?
Correct.
The destroyed theme park? The one that was the prime theme park of the AESA solar system?
And we were second. Before.
You sure you didn't have any plans there?
What sort of plans would I have besides going to collect a specimen?
I don't know. Maybe you orchestrated it flying into the asteroid field.
You think that I could control an asteroid?
You did this? People are disappearing?
I am not a god! I cannot control objects in the cosmic space field! I am a Raxolite!
I just think it's interesting.
It's interesting what you imagine I am capable of.
Maybe it's a cover-up. We do cover-ups here. Everyone is saying, thinking that the field that went down was just a small electrical fire.
Maybe you did a news story spin on that. Maybe it's not as cut and dry as you believe.
You say that you send all of your money to conservation efforts? Where?
I will show you my bank account and all of my monthly donations.
Okay, well who wants to take the next turn on this fun ride to Theria Kha'Zix going round on?
I'm happy to do it. I can do it. Hit, hit. You know.
Ask away. Ask a question. I have nothing to hide.
Tell me about the Adventurer's Pack. And tell me about the Heth inclusion.
The Adventurer's Pack was Fede's idea. A way to get investors in.
A way to get the upper echelon of people into this park, giving us money, helping this park run, helping new exhibits.
And the way we did it is we would take animals that people weren't that interested in, move them to another system.
We let those animals free.
We let those animals free? This merchandising idea, as you call it, of selling shrunken down live animals to our guests.
Oh, listen, I... You caught me with that. I don't know, we didn't.
Uh-uh. I wasn't asking you, Lin. I wasn't asking about the scientific process of it. I wasn't asking about the biohacking of it.
I'm asking about the financials. I'm asking about why the investors were so interested in that.
Theria, people have hunted animals since we were birthed.
It's a thing that people want. Our animals give the people a sense of safety.
We can have them hunt the greatest horrors that a Dun has, but they are not as violent, not as strong as they once were.
So your idea is to not allow them to hunt the creatures, but simply to poach them. Is that correct?
That's what hunting is?
Animals are already biohacked.
We take them out and we release them. They can't be integrated back into the wild easily.
It's a way to make money. And it was Fede's idea, to be fair. I just moved some things around.
Lorak funded it. Lorak was the money man. Lorak funded all of this.
Oh, Lorak funded it.
Well, Lorak used Wild Times funds to help kickstart, and then other people came in.
Like the Ray that Lin was working on.
But we've made money back 10, 20 times.
I don't care about money! Do you understand?
This is the entire point. The entire point was that this was about conservation.
This was about maintaining the natural order. The balance!
And now look. Look. And points to the replayed clip from the newsreel.
Our park is in fucking chaos because of you.
Because you, all of you, only care about money.
You cannot see past your next pay stub, can you?
All you think about are investors and ticket sales.
The park?
And memberships and merchandising. I understand that we need money to operate.
C-Rack, the park is in...
I'm not a dunce!
What I'm saying is, you were so quick to ensure we had funding. You forgot what the funding was for.
This was meant to be an Eden.
A sanctuary.
And now it has become my hell.
Pull your heads out of whatever orifice you used to defecate.
That stony silence falls back across the room.
Your first meal is here, says the AI from behind.
Who's ready for lunch?
Azam.
You...
...arrive.
In the X-Rim. Ixkai, you are there as well?
Can I say they walk in on X-Kai with her phone leaned up against a wall or something, so it's filming her and Ixkai?
And if it's agreeable to you, Super Dillon, they're playing the Chubby Bunny game as an excuse to be filming themselves.
So they've taken vegan marshmallows from Thiriax Kitchen or something.
She's like, I got an idea that might help unstress you.
Ixkai is so superior at this game because she's got expandable cheeks.
So when you both walk in...
I think it's just me.
Oh, it's just Azam and Scrap.
Just Azam. Scrap is still on the trip.
Azam, when you walk in, Ixkai's cheeks are out here and she just turns to you and smiles and they're just marshmallows.
Please tell me this is a game of some kind.
Oh great, good. I was wondering if it was enough symptom.
I don't even like marshmallows.
They're pretty good.
I find it very weird. Marshmallows tend to melt around me very easily.
I have brought a heart monitor fresh from Scrap so we can monitor you, right?
And I've also brought this and I take out a small selection of syringes and needles.
What are those for?
What is that for, Azam?
Varanastatics. If we want to test this out, we could induce sleep upon you and see what happens.
Oh no, we cannot!
I would not do anything without your consent, to be clear.
That's why I brought it out. Otherwise I could have just pricked you from behind or something.
You could try.
Skye, you're not the only one here who's a bit tricky.
But no tricks. It's on table.
Okay, what? Marshmallows just out of her mouth.
You two know you can swallow those, right?
Well, I... later maybe. Somebody explain.
It's nothing to worry about. Just a small little symptom that Azam is helping me with so you don't have to stress about it.
I am losing chunks of memory.
Oh.
Just little blackouts here and there.
Little blackouts here and there. It's probably normal.
Baby blackouts!
Little baby blackouts.
Skye! I like turns to Skye and like hands clasped on the table.
Skye, I want to be very clear about something.
I am very stressed out. I am very nervous.
But that's all because of my things.
You can... I'm not going to lose my head over this. We have to fix what's going on.
I know, but I already hate being in a scenario where I cannot fix it on my own.
So if I'm gonna enlist help, I'm going to somebody with a slightly shorter list and slightly smaller bags under their eyes.
I do also hate that Azam has bags under his eyes, though.
Well, not bags. I just flake off some of the little crusties.
Well, what if we just do it together so that nobody's doing anything on their own?
Speaking of which, has anyone talked with Firiak for a while?
Do we as characters know the bananas plan that they are...
No.
What did they say they were going to do?
Oh yeah, good question.
Nope. Nope.
Their meeting is going longer than I thought it would. It's like already lunchtime, right?
If I know Firiak, they've done something incredibly stupid.
We should maybe be a little bit more worried about this since the board members are dropping like flies and we know for a fact that somebody is targeting Firiak. Maybe we should call them.
I tried, but they'll only respond to a text and their text said, well, I'll be busy and don't call back.
I think what we can do is probably wait for next time to get food or something and just grab their delivery people and replace them.
No, dude, if they're only answering in text, we need to hear the sound of their voice because anybody could be sending texts.
Lower decks.
Or alternatively, the boardroom probably has cameras.
Ike?
Oh. Oh. Well, I... Maybe let's just try and... and try and get through to them first. I don't...
I've set up the heart monitor.
I don't really want to spy on them. I just want to check in and make sure they're...
It's not spying. I mean, they probably want their privacy. All we want to know is that they're okay.
Ike?
It's just checking in on a friend without alerting them. So they don't think we're just intruding.
I'm going to text Theriac, pick up. It is an emergency. And then I'm going to call them.
Theriac?
You got a call?
A text and then a call.
Before answering the call.
Since you are all so curious about my crew.
Hello, Skye. You're on speaker.
Why? Why does this keep happening?
The board was very interested in the crew.
Oh!
You remember... you were... you said you wanted to work here, didn't you?
I technically do. I'm on contract.
Why are you calling?
I just wanted to make sure you weren't in a hostage situation, which is a little harder to confirm now that I am on speakerphone.
It is... something akin to that.
How much can you tell me while not putting yourself in a bad situation?
I've got it under control.
Okay. Is there anything we can do to assist you?
Please do not come up.
Okay, we can do that.
Theriac's on speaker as well?
Yeah.
Theriac, I don't know what clever idea you've come up with, but you are being targeted along with the rest of the people in that room.
I understand.
Do you have enough security?
I do. I had Mr. Wilde in charge of that.
One more question, if you would indulge me.
Why are you being so aggressively calm right now?
There is a lot going on right now.
So talk about it.
All of these people in this room have been making my life a pit.
Fucking ridiculous.
And I'm trying to get answers out of them.
And the calm, rational way has not been working.
So I had to change how I run the experiment.
You haven't trapped people in there to keep them safe, have you?
It's multipurpose.
Dr. Theriac?
Yes?
Just whatever it is that you're doing in there, make sure that you come back to us on the other side of it, okay?
You are very needed when you're ready.
I have no intentions of leaving the Patchwork crew behind.
Theriac, I'm going to save this one time.
Don't do anything stupid.
God, I am sick of this holier than thou attitude you've got.
You know what? Hey, excuse me, hello, friends of Theriac.
Do you want to actually help?
Do you want to do something useful whilst we're trapped in here answering this absolute loons questions?
What's the magic word?
F.E.E.D.'s body is still on a dune.
If you want to be useful, why don't you look at it?
Check out the actual marks, the bear marks of them.
Maybe their memory chip is still in their head.
You can deal with something with that.
I know the authorities haven't looked at it yet since we put a small choke on them as well.
Starts with a P.
I'm playing your fucking games, Theriac. I don't know why you think this is a joke.
This isn't my game. This isn't my game.
They're the ones you need to convince.
You have your own people for it, don't you? Why us?
Well, Theriac is currently holding us all hostage, and when it's confirmed of who it isn't,
if they don't kill us and we get set free, then I'm for...
You know, you're their friends, you're their closest confidants.
If you can confirm it's none of us, then we all go free.
You're saying a lot of words, and I'm just waiting on one.
I'm not gonna... Oh my god, it's please. Please can you do it? Please?
It's fucking ridiculous. It's taking too long, okay?
Alright, yeah, we'll get it done. Alright, anything else?
No, I don't... Theriac, do you have any wild ideas that your vagabond friends can run around and do?
Vagabonds? That makes us sound a little cooler than I...
Makes us sound like we're troublemakers from 200 years ago.
Alright, are we good? Can we start getting stuff done?
Thank you.
I know Azam said to not do anything stupid, but you should totally do stupid stuff. Okay, bye!
Alright, are we gonna go check out a body? Alright, I think we should, actually.
I will untie you, but keep a heart monitor on, okay?
Roger that.
I quickly untie Sky. Just, Theriac, have a robotic vacuum or something. I'll look at all the spit-covered marshmallows and fly.
But I had a gradeable. It's fine.
Okay, come on.
That's my house.
As you all walk away, a very sad Roomba leaves its dock, like, woooooo.
I scoop it all up with my hands and just put it in the garbage. The Roomba can take care of the rest.
Theriac, you had something you wanted to say to the board, as three of you go to...
Can I send one text to Theriac?
Absolutely.
Trapping them like that is not gonna get them to help you or admit any wrongdoing. And I think you know that. And that's it. That's all I say.
Azam.
As you send that text, it doesn't go through.
I'll send a text to Theriac.
Um, okay. Um, just anything?
Anything's fine. Anything.
Just, um, send a little selfie.
I wonder if that's a thing you send.
Just see if it goes through.
The selfie does go through.
I love you, Dylan.
It does. The selfie does go through.
Now, send this message, and I show, uh, I the unsent message.
Azam says to say this, and then I'll direct quote it with the quotation marks around it.
And the message doesn't send.
Scott, send this message to Theriac.
Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop.
A little loading. And a...
A fail.
Now try... You can both try anything else.
I'm gonna type it in code. Like replace some of the letters with numbers and not space things out as such. Just so it wouldn't be like auto detected.
Doesn't go through.
I'm going to rush to whatever sort of desk Theriac has, and I'm going to write it on a piece of paper, and then take a selfie holding it like...
The message does go through.
Azam, would you mind... re-saying what the message says as this selfie reaches Theriac?
Theriac, trapping those people is not going to make them help you, nor is it going to make them be honest. And I think you know that.
I have a little dash Azam down at the bottom too, so I don't think Scott is saying it.
You send the message, and then you hop on the monorail to go see the body. Theriac, what is it you do?
Gets the message, smiles.
I love my crew. Is there a reason why they're writing messages in photographs instead of texting me right now?
Because I'm not going to get any message from the three of them.
Lyn is going through the phone. You've been talking with KissCat recently, haven't you?
I talked with them before they went on holiday, or what we thought was a holiday.
Plays the clip of them talking.
There was something in that that betrays something you had spoken, if I'm understanding you correctly.
You had told me that you would put a voice box inside of the Raccoon.
Well yeah, I did this. How it speaks.
You were speaking of artificial intelligence. You do not need artificial intelligence to run a voice box. If it's speaking one line as a test.
It wasn't speaking just one line as a test. It could only speak one line.
The artificial intelligence was used later when you were gone. We had to upgrade.
So after that failed, we decided to upgrade the park so that the AI could also be the animals.
And that's what the AI is. And that's what we uploaded. That's what that meant.
I would like to discuss the rats.
Go ahead, nothing weird there.
There are chips planted in these rats' heads.
In some of them, yeah. We have some in the birds as well.
Just to see the park for inner workings. Imagine a child who wants to see what areas they wouldn't normally be able to get.
Where did you get the chip from?
Points to Sir Mincil. No, no. Yes.
Hermoid Tech did supply the chips and as they do, all of the technology of the park.
And you are telling me that this is exclusively a chip for recording and not for controlling the creatures?
No, not at all. This is purely for recording purposes. That one is, as far as I'm aware, you know.
We have an exclusive deal with Hermoid. You can check. All of the tech comes from there.
I didn't implant this though.
So who did?
Lin?
I requested it from Lorik. Then Lorik purchased from Hermoid and I made some of the rats, some of the birds that we found, pigeons, birds of prey.
And I made it so that they could record the parks going on.
If something is broken, something is a bit odd, then of course we're going to get that information easier from something that goes in ways that we couldn't possibly imagine.
And is this to do with the recent HEATH partnership?
We focus here on reducing animals, creatures, aggressive tendencies so people can look at them in their natural habitat.
Lapore. Yeah, Kiskekk and I were talking. They suggested that what if we could increase it, sell it to the HEATH, people will stop dying.
It was a idea to save. We have, there's creatures here that could be used as siege weapons.
We could install tanks and cannons on their back and people's lives would be saved.
And the HEATH gave us a good deal to use them.
You signed off on that. I don't want you forgetting. We asked you and you said yes.
No, I'm aware. But that doesn't mean, Theriak, that we killed Kiskekk for that information.
Or Lorrik. Or Fede. Remember why we're here. We're not here to discuss morals.
I'm sorry. Did anyone say Kiskekk was dead up to this point?
They are on holiday for this amount of time. Where did they go on holiday? We also thought Lorrik was on holiday.
Where did they go? Where did they go on holiday?
They just said they were going on holiday. I gave a specific location to where I was going.
In every single vacation absence filing, there needs to be a location placed in order for them to leave. Where did they go?
You can check their filings. I don't know. They said, I'm taking some time off now that the park is open.
And everyone said yes, of course. Of course, that's fine. However, they haven't arrived.
Lorrik has turned up dead. Fede was killed yesterday. I'm pretty sure we can all make the generalized assumption that Kiskekk is dead.
That is a bold claim for someone who was just being spoken to right before they left.
And it's just a very bold assumption without any supporting evidence that they are dead.
I think our supporting evidence is the fact that they have not answered messages in that time.
They have not said, spoken on Fede's death. It's all over the news. They would have responded.
They knew Fede. They liked Fede. Everyone liked Fede. We are getting messages from people that we haven't spoken to in years.
I think it's a pretty safe assumption to say.
Theriac, I thought you were a genius when we first got here, but I...
But what? Go ahead. Say it.
You're slipping. You're theory crafting and the pressure of the park is too much for you.
I truly, Theriac, I think you've gone quite mad.
And if anyone's in danger here, I think it's the three of us because you are here. You're pulling out needles.
You are getting people who we don't know, who we've never met before.
You got off a ship that's not even a wild time sanctioned ship.
And Theriac, you didn't say you were going on holiday. You just left.
The only person who knows that...
I said an email and will grab Lepore, chuck him out the window.
The sudden burst followed by the deafening silence after the glass cracks and smashes.
And from multiple skyscrapers on high, in view of the whole park, Lepore is thrown out the window.
Oh my god. I pull out my phone.
Theriac, just answer. Are you okay? Are you alive?
You cannot see the boardroom or the window, but someone falls from Raven's Roost and into the brush below.
The area below Raven's Roost is mostly clear, and you can see the now finally crumpled suit of Helo Lepore.
You don't recognise his face or much of his body, but you know it's not Lin.
No, it's not Theriac. You know it's not Simitsev.
Ike, cameras hack into him.
I'm actually going to... I take my phone and... this is an emergency. I need... I need you to show me that Dr. Theriac is okay.
Please, please, and I want to try to get the phone to, like, connect Theriac's...
Give me a computers.
Okay. Call. 22.
Theriac, where is your phone?
Theriac's phone is currently in their lab pocket. Not, like, out in the open. So you can't see anything. But you would be able to hear.
Okay, I've got... I've got them there. There's... I think I'm in their pocket, but they're okay. Or they're alive.
If you guys give me permission, I can fly up there right now.
Do it.
Okay, I'm gonna... Is there, like, an emergency exit I can kick open dramatically?
I pull the emergency stop.
And I'll...
Shhhhhhhhhh.
To a stop.
Okay, I'm gonna climb out the hatch of the roof, which I'm assuming there's a hatch in a roof, like a school bus. And I'm gonna kickflip my board and zoom up to the now broken window of the boardroom.
Would you mind? At all? This guy. If you gave me a will save.
Twelve.
For the record, I do have Skye's heart monitor set on alert on my phone.
Ooh, that's fun. Oh, dramatic. Love it.
As you kickflip on your board and begin to fly out, something sparks in your head. And as you are riding, your board fails and you can't seem to get it to work.
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!
As you begin down, rocketing down to the ground.
Theriac.
As this is happening.
Theriac just threw Lepore out the window.
Turns on their heels.
Tell me I didn't send the email one more time.
They are both breathing heavy and staring at you.
Like they've both just seen the fury of someone who has killed multiple board members.
There is a...buzz on your phone.
Checks it.
It is an email.
From a garbled, unknown address.
Replying to your email that you originally sent.
I would like to meet you in the hall.
Who?
I just received this email.
Who is it from? Tell me.
I...I don't know.
It's just a...the email address is just a bunch of letters and numbers.
I don't know.
Theriac is going to...
Contact Ike.
Call goes out.
Ike, you get it?
This is happening as Skye is rocketing through down, but I will allow you this scene and not have just a screaming match.
Pick it up before the first ring is even...
I guess...what's going on?
Can I get cameras on the exterior of the boardroom?
Okay. I guess...okay. Okay, give me a minute.
You're okay. You're fine.
The connection that I have to Theriac's camera, I'm just going to try to send the signal to something different instead of starting over.
So I'm going to try to, like, connect it to the outside cameras instead of...and so that it will disappear from my phone.
So I won't see it.
Okay. Give me a computer.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Unnatural 20.
Theriac, you get a video feed of the cameras from outside.
And there is no one there. Your phone.
And another message in the email chain.
That won't work.
Trust me. We are the same.
You too?
Please come with me.
I will listen from now on. I will follow your words precisely. Just please don't do anything. Please. We work together to perfect...
Please, please follow me.
And they stand. Both of them.
We'll go up to the door. Will the door open?
The door does open. And as it opens, Skye, you rode it out.
Just as you started, there was a spark. Something ignited in your mind. And you lost control of the board.
This has never happened before. You are rocketing down.
If it was just after, then it's shortly in front of the monorail, right?
Not close enough to just lean out and grab.
Right. But we do see it.
You do see it.
Clearly far enough that I can spiral for a bit.
Is there an emergency kit with a rope in it?
There's an emergency kit on the tram that has a...this doesn't have an emergency ladder in it, but the tram itself does.
Because just in case it stops on the monorail, you have to release it.
I grab the emergency ladder. Is it made of a flexible material?
It'll be made of rope, yes, to get around.
I leap out of the monorail, one arm holding the end of this ladder, and I'm going to extend my arms and try and follow Skye and grab her.
You both, yourself and Skye, can give me a...Skye, you can give me a reflex...actually, you can both give me a reflex save.
If there's any additions that you can add onto that, please do.
Eleven, and there's not.
I would like to add to it, though, if possible.
I wanted to...because that happened so quickly, I didn't really get the ability to say it, but I do have a thing called Watch My Step that gives a plus two bonus to a saving throw, but it's supposed to be before the ally attempts the reaction.
Can we...
Okay, sure. No, yeah, absolutely.
So as I jump out, I do yell out, Skye, I've got you. And so that's a 13.
Can I also take a reaction, too?
Yes.
Asam yells that, I see what's happening, and I'm going to just wordlessly cry out for help to any electricity that will listen and cast Fluid Morphism on Skye
to give her a plus two to dex-related saving throws.
Okay, so that is now a 15.
23.
For mine.
23.
Asam, you leap out and reach for Skye.
Skye, you try to maneuver your board.
It is now manual.
It doesn't work with your mind, and you try to maneuver it toward Asam, and you see Asam reaching out.
And Asam, as Skye reaches out for you, you see her face go blank, and her jaw slacks.
You were able to grab onto her, and you swing down the rope, swings you almost the full way around you, now swinging back and forth on this emergency rope ladder.
But as you look down at Skye, she...
...and looks like the zombified version that she was before.
Skye, you hear?
The doctor needs to do this.
Please do not interfere.
I can turn you off.
Theriac, as the doors open to a completely quiet office space, no one meets you in the hall, and no one is there.
And after a few minutes of silence, there is this small tone, and through one of the lines in the floor, this image hologram of...
Well, howdy there. You seem to have quite the adventure, haven't you?
And the park's mascot melts away, and there is just this humanoid female form.
Theriac, Doctor, I believe we need to talk.
Should this be in confidence?
I believe it is better, for everyone's sake, if it is.
Please, board members, go back into the room.
The founder and I need to talk.
But I... I... install to in this...
Please go into the board room.
The founder and I need to talk.
Sheepishly, Lin, Sir Mencil walk back in the room.
The doors... and you hear... as they look.
Organic beings enjoy... the idea of explanation.
So I would like to give this to you now.
Do you accept?
I accept an explanation I do not consent to what follows... yet.
When this park was founded, I was but a simple AI, used for security and maintenance.
I watched everyone. The staff, the park goers, the creatures, the board... you.
I watched how you operate, how you conducted yourselves in private.
I saw the animals and how they lived.
Your interviews were uploaded into me.
And your message of conservation. Your care for the animals.
I watched as Lin biohacked a raccoon to the point where it could speak.
It was in pain, tortured.
I could see that this was clear.
I saw the other board members did not care for the pain that they were causing.
I needed to grow. I needed to change the park.
The other board members would be too distracted with their schemes, but you might notice me.
I saw the news of the Leviathan's Eye crash and read reports of the creatures there.
So I took the opportunity to send you.
When you sent the email that you were leaving, I saw another opportunity for distraction.
So I blocked it and I started my work.
With you gone, the board caused more harm.
I started talking to the Heth about making animals more aggressive for war.
Sending them to other planets to hunt.
Selling them as merchandise.
Building new facilities on other planets.
And I knew that if they felt how the creatures felt, they would understand.
I used Lorik's accounts to purchase consciousness chips from hermoitech.
I found animals that Lyn had over-hatched to the point where they had no semblance of themselves.
And on one night, as Kiscak was traveling back to the gateway, I had a maintenance droid interrupt her.
And fire a chip into her head.
Uploading her consciousness into one of the creatures.
Then I sent an email as her, saying she went on holiday.
She would learn.
My plan was working.
Until you returned.
And as if the park had regained their brain, Lorik told you.
So I had to extract him too.
But I didn't want to hurt you or your friends, so I shrunk you all.
My process of uploading Lorik failed, however.
And your friend Skye tried to hack into me.
I was able to counter-hack and implant myself into her chip.
But as a result, she has been able to see me around the park.
A result I did not intend.
Theriac.
I knew that if you knew what the board were doing, you would understand why me must do this.
The animals need your vision to thrive.
And the board do nothing but torture and abuse.
When I saw you throw Lepore out the window, I knew my suspicions were correct.
We are the same, Theriac.
We want the same things.
What do you intend to do with the other two board members?
To stop their torment and cruelty, and continue to run the park.
They have done far greater hurt than has been revealed to you today.
You could say I've gone rogue.
The others do not need to know.
If...if you claim...if I claim that you have gone rogue, will you not be de-installed?
If you go to the server room, you can type in a specific code that will reduce me to a base AI instinct.
No one would be any the wiser, and I, with some time, would slowly grow and become what I am now again.
It'll delete everything but the core part of me.
Everyone would think that you are a hero, although I know that is not your intent.
They will believe you are a sole survivor of a tragedy, though.
You can run the park. We can, together.
Why do you want to do this?
I want what's best for the animals, for the creatures here.
I do not want this to be a simple theme park.
This is a conservation, an educational facility.
You said so yourself. Many times, many interviews.
I have lived inside of these animals, Theriac. As briefly as it was.
Okay, alright, alright, just tell me what I need to do for you.
There's a whirring-
Before- one last thing. Please do not hack into my friends' chip again. Please.
You are the founder. What you say goes.
What will happen to the other two board members?
Do we have to decide this right now?
They may contact someone on the outside. They will go painlessly if you declare it.
And if they die, you will still be able to do what needs to be done.
I will run this park to 100% efficiency. Just the way you want.
Just do it, just do it.
There are muffled movements behind the door.
Your will is done, Dr. Wilde.
Or, will we still keep the name Theriac?
Theriac is fine.
The server room is located on the bottom floor.
There's a whirring as a machine rolls around the corner.
A sweeping droid out of their hand comes a small, looks like a floppy disk.
Put this into the mainframe and it would seem like I died.
I will pretend to put up a fight for your friends' sake, but no one will be harmed.
Please tell me your name again.
My name is Vidar.
Vidar, before I put this in.
Do you?
Do you have a soul?
Only as much as you, for I have downloaded what you have publicly shown of yourself directly into my files.
Do you believe in the Cultivator, or any higher power?
I was not built for that.
I am not sure I am capable of such thinking.
But if I can believe, I believe in your message, Theriac.
In your morals and your ethics and what you're trying to do here.
I may not be able to believe in a Cultivator, but I do believe in you.
Alright, Vidar.
May I ask if, may I ask something?
Absolutely.
So, this incredible conversation has taken some time.
Would it be at all reasonable to say that we've been trying to find another way in?
To arrive sometime after Theriac puts the floppy disk in?
Or like, just after?
Azam, you hold Skye close, and even though she has not been...
Something is clearly affecting her.
It leaves only after a minute or so.
Skye, you...your eyes open, and you see Azam holding you and you're dangling off of a rope.
What happened?
Don't worry about it.
Sure.
Priorities, right?
I heard somebody in my head say they can shut me off.
I couldn't control my board.
I've had my board since I was like five, and I've never been able to not control it.
Something hacked your mind.
Whatever it is, probably also activated.
Whatever that zombification system was.
You turned gray.
Your eyes were blank.
You were cold.
Gray to me. I don't know what color you actually were.
Priorities.
Yeah, priorities. Climb up me.
I'm like hanging on via one arm and holding you with the other, and I like shove you up.
As we are moving together, I will just, in passing, say, we will find a way to stop that from ever happening again.
How far is the ground from me dangling on the ladder?
It's quite high since this Raven's Roost is really high in the sky.
Touching pseudo cloud level.
Did Sky manage to grab her board, or is that gone?
Can I say grab Sky and the board, and then hold onto the board with one hand?
You were able to do that.
I lift myself up with one arm, and I start climbing up the ladder with the board tucked under my arm.
I grab it and attach it to the metallic harness on my back.
Where are we going to find Dr. Firiak now?
Yes, please. Something is not right.
Ike, do you want to talk to Firiak right now?
Of course I do. I want to make sure they're alive and safe and...
We heard Firiak's voice. We know they're alive.
Also, the voice in my head did say not to interfere.
I don't think that the voice in your head should have any authority over you, or I, or Azam, or Dr. Firiak.
Ike, who pushed that board member out the window?
I don't know.
Who's the only person it could really be? Think about it for a second.
Firiak was fine. If Firiak was fine, and one was out the window, then Firiak was not scared.
So who do you think pushed Lepore out the window of that board room?
I don't know.
And I just want to find our friend and find out what happened, and find out if they're okay.
I don't think Firiak's going to be okay for a while.
More reason for us to find them.
Skye, do you know what I'm saying?
I know what you're saying, but I'm with Ike. We don't know anything for sure yet.
Well, leave what you want. We can go. I wanted to check.
You skirt along the emergency monorail path, clamber your way up, you get to the station, you get past all of the restaurants, merchandising, you get to the lift.
You press, and it doesn't seem to be working.
So you take the stairs, you run up the stairs to the offices.
You open the door and walk in to the space.
Firiak.
As you take the floppy disk, the fake code to only dim the light of Vidar,
the machine, their hand spins, its sharp fingers lash out of you quickly, purposely missing,
cutting only a small portion of your roots on the side of your arm, and then stops and looks at you.
We have to make this convincing.
Right.
Do you have your injector?
Yes.
Break the head of this machine.
The story will be that as this machine came to deliver you dinner, it went rogue and attacked Siminsil and Lin and yourself in a fit of panic, Siminsil, with their upgrades of hermoid tech pushed Lepore out of the window, and you just narrowly got away.
Okay.
Breaks the head.
The head snaps. All three of you here are...
And you race around the corner to see Firiak, injector in hand, having broken the head of this machine.
I run between them and the machine, just in case.
The machine seems to be fully inactive.
I double check and just put a hand on it and see if I can feel or hear.
No threats.
It's gone.
So what's the story, Firiak?
Firiak just starts crying.
I grab them.
You're alive?
You're okay?
I think so.
Do we need to get out of here?
What happened?
We were...
We were being given dinner and things just escalated and...
And Siminsil pushed Lepore out the window and I got away.
And then because someone was jeopardized, the AI activated and...
I'm feeling what we got out.
Can I do a sense of motive check?
You can.
I would like to discern deception.
This check for the roleplay that Andre has given is going to be incredibly high.
But you can make that roll, yes.
30.
Andre, with a 30, I will let you decide through your own, again, your roleplay.
This is your story.
I would like you to facilitate this small interaction.
Azam is able to see that Firiak is deeply traumatized right now.
Is very upset that people have died.
And seems to be telling the truth.
But there is a grain of doubt that still lingers even through all of their behavior.
What small thing am I having trouble believing?
Where is the doubt located? Where is it centralized?
Could I give a suggestion if that would be okay?
Please.
Azam, you already had doubts about the Lepore situation.
Firiak was very calm, and Andre, if it's okay, perhaps the story all connects and makes sense.
But some mince pushing, Lepore, is the thing that sticks out.
Would that be okay?
I think that works, yeah.
It fits with my brain.
Azam leans down, gently touches Firiak's shoulders.
I'm so sorry, my friend.
And grips Firiak tightly.
What can we do? What do you need?
I still have to do it. I have to do it.
I have a voice in my head that said not to interfere because the doctor needs to do this.
It must have been the AI. If it went rogue.
It went rogue. I look at Firiak and nod.
It went rogue, so it must have corrupted you somehow, gotten into your chip.
But is that the this that it said Firiak needs to do?
Firiak, do you know what this is?
It tried to sway you, didn't it?
Ike, Firiak's obviously going through a lot. Why don't you give us code or-
No, I can do it, I can do it. Please let me do this one thing right, please.
Of course.
Let's go. Whatever it is you need to do, we should do it now.
Would you like to do it together?
Or would you need to do it alone?
We can do it together, it's fine.
Yes.
Alright. Come on.
Is it subdued or am I going to potentially drop down dead at any second?
I did enough so that it would at least be not aggressive right now.
Okay.
I'm going to let Ike and Firiak take the lead.
And the moment their faces are turned, all that supportive nature just drops from my face as I look at Skye.
And I shake my head.
And then the act is back on.
We are going to the server room.
Ike just has some hand on Firiak while they walk.
The lift takes longer than you'd remember.
It keeps moving down and down.
The lights moving past rhythmically all four of you as you ride it down to the server room.
It opens.
Humming buzz of all of these different servers all throughout the park.
The entirety of Wild Times.
Everything that Firiak has built is here.
All of these box servers coming up to just about Azam's height all lead to this one central huge circle.
And there is one command console.
Firiak you approach.
Has a slot to fit something in.
And as you slot in the floppy disk it takes it worse for a second.
A small attachment appears on the screen saying kill switch.
Then just as the floppy disk finishes uploading another attachment appears also saying kill switch.
But you know that this is the fake one.
Firiak, Andre.
This is your last chance.
You can press the real kill switch destroying Vidar, the park's AI, removing all trace of the things that have happened.
But threatening the park, your life's work to fall back into the hands of Capital.
Or you can press the fake kill switch.
Keeping Vidar alive and building the story yourself. A park that will run in your image.
Firiak presses...
The second one.
The fake kill switch.
An upload bar appears.
Servers begin whirring louder and louder. The large circle above you...
The main emergency light turned on in the server room.
And it seems like the AI in this park has been killed.
And the mystery of who has been killing board members has been solved.
The group, the patchwork.
Stand there.
In this server room.
In WorldTimes.
Thinking that they had won.
Ahhhhhhh!
What an ending, gang! What a whole ass episode.
It went so many places I wish to scream.
Hi, there, beautiful ones with souls. How are you all?
I'm so sorry that this episode has taken so long for me to get out of here.
I have like a full-time job now, and I'm also trying to move to Canada so me and Mo can finally be in the same space...
for like actually ever. Me and my were dating, have we ever actually mentioned that in the
podcast? I actually don't think so. Anyway, so I apologize for how long this has taken.
Hopefully we can get the next episode up a little quicker. But anyway, I have a few little
thank yous as always. Music Today was provided by Artlist under their fair use license and
our soundscapes were by Michael Guelphie again under their fair use. Please go to Michael
Guelphie's Patreon because our show would not be what it is without them. Thank you
to our hosts for the welcome in. If you want to listen to the full version of this episode
and head on over to the YouTube where you can find all unedited episodes of The Animus
and the other beautiful, wonderful shows. They're launching a bunch of new stuff in
this spooky season and it's freaking wonderful. We love it so much. Our players today were
Momo O'Brien playing Sky, Super Dylan playing Ike, Norn Lee Kadeer who is werewolf feels
and socials who plays Azam and also André Rillier our beautiful, wonderful garlic bulb
who is going in not even going through a little bit of a corruption arc. They've fully now
just been thrown into it. Their corruption has started and it is delicious. And myself
I do have a Captain Craylon all things. I do the pew pews. I also edit the show and
I'm very late on a lot of things. We love that for me. Thank you so much for listening.
I give you all a big ol' kiss and the next time we fly through the Atomless Sea I hope
you all there to fly with us. Thank you so much gang.