Previously on the Atomless.
Azan. He.
Ike. She.
My name is Theoriak.
What's up? My name's Sky. Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes.
You have a lead on where the next crystal is.
The planet Nos in the Vanir system.
Pulled back into your chairs as the Atomless sea out in front of you breaks into a multicolored wormhole.
Scrap says that you have six hours of travel left.
A light goes off in the pilot's area.
I think we're about to hit something big, so we gotta get out the drift so if everyone can sit down just really fast.
Each of the shields breaks.
Everyone put on your oxygen masks right now. Right now. It's just about to breach the ship.
Everyone who's in the main part of the ship sees this huge claw burst through the back of the ship.
I'm going to try something.
Be prepared to go very fast.
Retool something extremely quickly.
Shove this thing into the nearest USB port and just pray.
Engines burst and then the ship flies off.
Nine planets that you can see stretching on a planet in front of you.
Almost entirely desert. Huge cavernous holes you can see borrowed deep within it, almost like the planet itself is trying to break apart.
The patchwork unable to slow.
The patchwork almost completely destroyed, bursting into splinters as you all fall into a seemingly infinite, dust-ridden desert.
You have arrived at the planet NOS.
The veneer sun paints a dust bowl town in the green light that its residents know as home.
Wind blowing in from the vast deserts carry sand through the town like weary travellers, the only friendly company this town sees.
A tumbleweed gets picked up and carried over the sandlogged rooftops through a holographic sign that almost crumbles from its constant watch.
Welcome to Notrino Downs, the sign says, its neon buzzing only matched by the humming of the weak and nearly exposed electricity cables that cross from building to building.
A dusty knoll covers his hyena face from the sand as he leads a large wagon full of trinium ore out of the mine, hidden behind a large sand dune.
As the knoll struggles up the makeshift path home, they hear a creature approaching.
They look as they see a gripply, a toad humanoid, ride up alongside them on a large lizard that they're using like a horse.
The gripply gets off.
Well, what are you doing all the way out here?
Ah, I don't want any trouble.
Trouble?
I ain't here for trouble.
Your haul looks mighty heavy as all.
Can't carry all that back by yourself.
Be a waste to drop dead before you get back to Notrino Downs.
Why not share the load?
Is this, this?
This is my haul. You get your own.
I wasn't asking.
The gripply pulls back their poncho to show a laser hand cannon.
I'm just being friendly.
The sand uncomfortably shifts in the silence before the knoll sighs and begins unpacking his labor for the day.
Then the sand shifts again, differently this time.
A snort of a steed alerts the two to a new player in this interaction.
You see this thorned lizard the size of a horse standing on top of this dune.
And sitting on top of it is the isoske that looks like a jerboa or kangaroo rat.
They are long legs like wrapped around the body of this large thorned lizard.
Hats sitting on top of their head, their little mouse ears poking out from under the sides of it, tipped over.
You don't see his eye, just see his snout sticking out.
And this poncho is draped over his body completely.
You know, back where I'm from, that's not a kind of a friendly greeting I like to see.
And he like gives the lizard a little bit of a kick and it starts like walking towards these two.
Well, hello there, Sheriff.
But this is Baron business.
There's no need to get involved.
Well, I hate to say this, but Baron business automatically becomes my business.
So what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to need you to drop what you're doing,
turn around and let this poor gentleman go back to the work that he was doing.
The silence is only met by the winds that have picked up slightly as if they want to watch this interaction.
This gripply stares you down and then their right arm shifts to their side.
Can you make a reflex check?
That is a twenty nine.
The gripply's hand shifts to behind their poncho, pulling out their small lasered hand cannon.
They fire, but they are not quick enough as you shoot first.
It's you don't even see the movement.
All you hear is a bang.
This bullet just hit this right in the hand to knock the gun out of their out of their grip.
The gun out of their hand.
They turn immediately knowing that they've lost this fight.
Their lizard shifts backwards and gets ready to ride.
They grab onto the onto the side of their lizard.
Baron will hear about this, Sheriff.
We'll be back. We always are.
I know exactly at 2 p.m. 5 p.m. and 11 a.m.
The gripply on the lizard falls away.
The gnoll who you know is Yelp, this brown matted fur and they have these these white stripes in their face.
They're a little older.
They almost the only person who goes in and out of this mine, picking up the picking up the ore that is inside.
Oh, thank you again, Pancho.
I wish you didn't have to keep coming out here and saving me, but I appreciate it.
Oh, well, let me tell you something, Yelp.
As long as you go back and forth from the mine, you give me a reason to come out here and patrol these areas.
You provide this town with the lifeblood it needs.
I'd be not much of a sheriff if I wasn't helping you out.
I do appreciate it.
They haul their cargo back onto their wagon.
As both you make it back toward Neutrino Downs,
the town only being about 15 to 25 people who live there at any one time is about as lively as it can be.
There's music coming out of the inn, as well as almost the only light that is currently up in the town is flowing out of it.
You help Yelp unload their cargo and go inside the little shop that they they own.
They come out with a small a small cred stick and a glass of the beer that is made in this town.
For your trouble, thank you.
He reaches out, takes the beer, puts a hand over the credits, just pushes it back into Yelp's hand.
Now, Yelp, you know your money's no good here.
I appreciate it.
As they walk back inside, you soak in the surrounding sound, the small music dimmed by the by the fact that you're not inside.
When you hear one noise that is unusual for this town,
you've been here for quite a few years now and you've never heard anything like this before.
You look up to the sky.
Just past the setting sun and you see what looks to be a meteor falling from space and crashing down huge plumes of smoke.
You look at it as you spot it.
It's falling miles and miles away from town, but it's still its entry into the atmosphere was still loud enough for you to hear it.
And as you look, you realize it's not a meteor, but a ship.
It falls past the horizon.
And the door behind you opens again.
Bonjo, do you want a drink? I know you said my credits are no good, but come on.
Yup, I'm sorry, but I'm still on the clock.
If you don't mind, just get another mug ready for me in a couple of hours.
I have to go check out something out in the bluffs. I'll be back in a bit.
This time of day, it's you won't be back till way after nightfall.
I get the feeling that whatever is out there needs someone to look out for.
I've got intuition, but they're going to need some help.
And he heads over to the lizard.
What do you say, Thistlebrush? You want to go for a little bit of a nighttime run?
That's the lizard on the head and he hops on.
Yep, I'll be back in a couple of hours.
Keep in mind the shop while I'm gone.
It takes around two hours before you're even cresting the point where you can still see the smoke billowing.
But as you do, there is another thing, almost like a beacon, that is calling to you.
A huge bolt of this almost purple light with these multicoloured streaks.
And it shoots up from the crash site up, up into the sky, lighting up almost the entire area.
And then after a small only two, three seconds of pulsing, it dies back down again.
Your Thistlebrush stops in their tracks, looking at the beacon and then gives turns their heads slightly.
But even though they can't fully rotate their full heads, you know that they're looking towards you for some form of instruction.
Hops off, Thistlebrush looks out, looks back at Thistlebrush.
All right, you wait right here. All right, I'll be right back.
And he looks out towards where that beacon is, pulls like a bandana up over his face to protect him from the sands and blowing winds and heads off in that direction.
And because he's a kangaroo mouse, he doesn't walk, he does that little hop thing that kangaroo mice do.
So he just hop, hop, hops in that direction.
As you approach, you see other streaks of light.
These two almost like leaving these blade patterns, these green blade patterns in the air,
you spot that someone is using these almost like roller skates, but instead of wheels, they are they are blades that are leaving almost like a light pattern streak that they're able to almost fly with these.
Skye, would you like to describe yourself?
You see a girl no older than maybe like 17, bright blue hair, pink crop top, gray baggy jeans, little bandaid over her nose, goggles on her head.
And her clothes are like ripped up. She's probably got bruises all over her.
She looks beat to shit.
At the other end of this plume of smoke, this almost camp, there is this walking fire.
Azam, would you like to describe yourself?
Yeah, Azam is a very tall ifrit man.
If you've never seen an ifrit before, they look kind of like humans, but large, in his case, larger and bulkier.
His brown skin is accentuated with blackish, coal like crust over certain parts of extremities, leading up to gigantic horns, two sets, one big set, one smaller set.
Peeking out over his pointed ears.
Underneath all of that coal though, there is this bright sort of glint of, well, fire.
Or at least it seems like it.
Underneath his skin, his coal like crust, and even under his horns as well.
His eyes somewhat glow.
He's dressed in, you know, space fair wear with a sort of cropped vest of a quilted material, a white shirt with an orange and red sort of neckerchief,
and nice slacks that tuck down into tall padded boots.
His arms are bare though, because he pushes his sleeves up.
Poncho, you have gotten to extremely close to the crash site.
You can tell that the ship that flew out of the air has been torn almost completely to pieces.
What's weird is every piece you come across seems to be from something different, like three or four ships all clashed together in the sky and then fell to NOS.
Hey there. Y'all OK over there?
Saw your beacon and, uh, think maybe someone needs some help?
Can I do a vibe check on this Yoski?
Yoski, yeah.
Yoski.
Yeah, absolutely.
Is that a sense motive or can I just check the vibe?
Um, I think sense motive is a vibe check.
Yeah, sense motive is a vibe check.
Wally, you can set the DC for this, anything you want, and you can give any response to whatever.
Of course.
I would also like to do this check if possible.
Absolutely. Same rules apply.
Would a 37 pass?
Jesus Christ.
I set the DC to 40.
No, you can tell it, they are, this is someone who honestly genuinely is looking out for you, is concerned about you, because they saw something that saw a sign that people might be in trouble and now that they saw this beacon is kind of putting two and two together.
These people may need my help.
As Zom turns to face you, although you don't know his name yet, you see that like cold black bristles form a very sleek, shiny beard.
And there is this brief moment, because he's not going to hide it, this brief moment of apprehension before the mask settles in and you can't tell what he's feeling anymore.
We could, maybe.
What's your name, friend?
My name is Poncho.
I'm the sheriff of the town not too far from here.
Two hours that way, Neutrino Downs.
We got an inn if you need it.
We got warm beds.
We got food.
Bunch of friendly faces.
Asom.
Can I try and do the talking?
Yeah, sure.
You do definitely do see, though, now that you're close enough and now that Asom's turned to you, that there is a big hole in his shirt right underneath that vest.
And there's a lot of burnt crustiness to the edges.
Do you look hurt, Hurt?
My stamina's great.
My health is at six.
So yeah, I look very bad.
I would like to make a medicine check.
Absolutely.
To check them all out.
Twenty-two.
What is your health, Asom?
My health is six out of thirty-five.
So Asom, this effreete man does not look good.
He looks like he's been severely injured.
But you can at this you can tell that he's tough, that he's just putting up with the sheer amount of pain that he's in.
And you can also see that some of the crust-like scales on his arm have clearly recently flaked off because the skin underneath them.
Or the skin that's now showing is glossy and almost it looks like fresh skin.
I'm going to be honest with you.
It looks like y'all been through it.
We really have.
Oh my God.
Thank you so much for showing up.
We were so scared.
You're our hero.
I'm no hero.
We could really use some help.
I'm no hero.
I'm just a concerned citizen.
Now what we're going to do is this.
Do you need some first aid?
I can help you out right now.
We need a lot of things, Mr. First Aid being one of them.
All right.
And I would like to do a read motive on.
Absolutely.
On 100%.
Sky, this is you.
You said DC.
I also want to ask our our eigen theory I could scrap in company.
Are we all also here?
You're beside the ship.
You're like under the engines.
So it's like because because specifically as on the sky went off to like scout and look
around, they found Poncho in that.
And so you.
OK, I just wanted to see if we witnessed what sky just did.
That's all.
Yeah.
So I got a 17.
Do I say you said it?
Yeah.
Did you want to succeed this check?
It's up to you if I succeed.
16.
You said 17, right?
Yes, I said 17.
Ah.
Oh, God, that's not me.
You solve a puzzle.
So, yeah, he's doing sense motive on sky.
What does that?
Sky wants you to feel like a hero.
OK, you can kind of you can kind of tell this isn't this is a bit.
Yeah, an act of it.
So when the way you're like because you're overacting it and just going hard with it,
you can tell he is no selling it at all, but not in the way to be rude, not in a way
that of like like jerk kids stop stop blowing like wind up my ass, but more of a thing of
like this is something I've heard way too many times.
This is something I've heard people say to me year after year, day after day, week after
week.
What you said to me is legitimately the equivalent of like saying, hey, it's really nice outside.
So to him, it's just like he's just taking it in like, thank you very much.
But it's all part of what I do.
And he hops back over to thistle brush, opens up the saddle bag and pulls out a first aid
kit because he's a Soki.
It's like big in his hand.
So he hops, hops, hops back over to you guys.
And he puts down the first aid kit in front of you.
And it's like, if you want, I could patch you up just a little bit so we can maybe get you
to on your feet and get you to the next town.
It's going to be a two hour walk.
I want you at least to be well enough and strong enough that you guys can make it.
We have some friends far more injured than us back at camp.
We wouldn't be able to thank you enough.
OK.
So we have four people here.
The wind blows because this is like a desert at night.
It is like cold, cold.
Poncho, you're a little, you're like a little more like used to it.
You could make it back like reasonably and you know how everyone else could make it back.
I'm just informing you that it's like it's a couple in the minus at the minute in terms
of degrees.
I will say as someone who has a feet toughness, I have enhanced physical resilience in harsh
conditions and long exertions do not easily tire me.
That's true.
You do have a very injured squad though.
That's true.
Yeah.
We've got some friends who are in, I don't want to say worse shape.
Are they worse than you?
Depends upon your definition, honestly.
I figured got it the worst, but a friend of mine also is missing half their body.
So see, we're real down in the dumps.
They can regrow.
All right.
OK.
That's OK.
You got someone who can regenerate from a from a very grievous injury.
All right.
That's one thing.
That's probably someone that's going to need a good amount of bed rest.
We got a big fellow like you got a big old wound right there and she has let me guess
on was a blaster shot.
No I literally point to the ship where there's a big old pipe just sticking out of the ground.
It was a definitely built a stern of stuff and he opens up the little kit and he starts
setting out things like bandages, a little bottle that says disinfectant.
He pulls out a little cotton swab and he hops over to you.
He's like, if you don't mind, go ahead.
So where do you go to four of you from if you don't mind me asking.
He pulls out a little tiny little patch, tapes it up, puts a bandaid over it and has little
band aids have little smiley faces on it.
Just the sound of like sizzling every single time you put something to his abdomen.
We're from really far away.
We're from the Acer solar system.
You're definitely far away from here.
You're in a whole new area.
That's for certain.
And he puts he takes the bandages off and he pulls out a little tiny blue bottle that's
blue and it's and you see like an efree face on it that's giving a wink that says good
for efrease.
And he sprays it on the he sprays it on your wound and he's able to place the bandage and
you don't hear the sizzling noise.
It sounds like he just had a little bottle of first aid medication just for efrease so
the bandages don't melt away on their body.
And when you spray it on, you feel like this almost like a like a cooling sensation, like
you know, when you put icy highs like hot, hot, hot, icy, relaxing.
Oh, damn, you're certainly prepared.
You get a lot of efreed around here.
I've had my experience of doing field medics medicine in the past.
Also it's not just good for free.
We're not the only people who run warm.
Oh, no, no.
Yeah, you're definitely it's not just good for it.
It's just that none of this company likes to use efrease as the mascot.
I think his name is Eddie, Eddie efreed.
It was a whole it was a whole campaign they did here on the they did here on planet side.
It was like Eddie efreed says always bundle up when you go out in the desert.
Eddie efreed says don't hold a metal rod when it's thunderstorm and when it passed seven
p.m. that kind of stuff, you know, a little kind of friendly public service announcements.
I'm a mascot.
Great.
Oh, I'm not calling you a mascot.
It's just we got a very we got an eccentric we got an eccentric journalism crew here.
He puts a bandage on you and wraps it up.
All right.
There we go.
That should hold you over until we get to back to town.
Do you other two friends?
Well, not the one that's we're growing.
What about your other friend?
Do they need some help?
We'll see for yourself.
Oh, all right.
Okay.
Sky, Sky does lead you in, Poncho.
The hop hop.
This almost looks like someone is assembling a ship to build, but it has all gone the wrong
way.
The wing is like stuck upside down in the sand dunes.
There is you walk past the pilot's chair, which it seems like almost like a robotic
arm is like loosely hanging out of the of the pilot's window.
There's like a scanner, which you can see is is like pinpointing the center of Newmores,
which is the city on planet NOS.
There is a lab that's completely trashed and again, turned like completely wrong side up.
You make your way over to a huge engine.
You can feel the heat of it as you get close.
It's clearly like just being used and and you see a group huddled underneath.
You find out where that arm has come from as you see another Yosuke matted like a just
like a brown rat with their right arm missing.
They are sleeping on a large white wolf person who is who has a duster jacket, which is covering
both of them that they've taken off and are currently using as a blanket.
And next to the pair of them is a teenager about Sky's age.
You can imagine possibly like one or two years older who has a huge tourniquet around their
leg.
Clearly, they got really badly injured.
But next to all of these, you see another Yosuke.
Ike, would you like to describe yourself?
Ike is a little rat lady.
She's got white fur except for one little patch of black fur over one eye.
And she's wearing like what is normally like skin tight pink armor that's got some shreds
in it.
And she's got a maroon cloak that has also seen better days.
She looks mostly okay right now.
It looks like a lot of her injuries have healed.
You can see like where they were in her clothes, but she doesn't seem to actively be bleeding
or anything like that as nearly as much as her as her companions.
And she is kind of looking a little forlorn a little bit.
Would Ike be next to Seriok?
I believe, Andre, are you...
Do you need tending?
Because I feel like that would be what Ike is doing if that is the case.
Yes, I believe that is what we said last session.
And this this Yoski, it seems to be tending to a bright like neon pink hoverboard which
is currently hovering about a foot off the ground.
And on this hoverboard, Seriok, would you like to describe yourself?
On top of the pink hoverboard, there is like a almost black like egg carton like being
used to like like like potting container that has soil in it, which itself has on top of
that a beaten up slightly like cut peeled garlic pulled with a face.
They have like two eyes and a little mouth over their right eye is a green like scouter
looking smart glass.
They have a long stem and like fronds that are like pinkish purple magenta.
But those are also quite beaten and like much sparser than usual.
They seem to be very much like half awake at most right now, as well as from underneath
the bowl, you see strands of root, some of which are embedded into the soil and some
of which are like hanging out off of the like carton.
Sky is on poncho.
You arrive into the camp and you see all of this in front of you.
He like lifts his hat up above above his head, like rubs his forehead like he's just taking
this all in.
Wow.
Anyone here know first aid also?
I was taught yesterday.
Friends, we brought somebody here that seems to be happy to help.
Sheriff, right?
What's your name again?
My name is Sheriff.
My name is poncho.
I'm the sheriff of these areas.
I'm the sheriff of neutrino downs.
I saw your crash from my from back from my town.
We saw you crash.
I saw your beacon.
So I rode out here to help you out.
I only have my horse, my horse, my steed out there.
That's all I got back for transportation.
It's going to get mighty cold in about a couple of hours.
It's going to about hit probably hit negative temperatures.
So unless you can handle it, it's going to get rough.
I can keep this nice and warm for the evening.
I tap the side of the engine.
All right, big fella.
You can keep your cells warm, but I'll see what I can do.
Maybe bring you back some provisions, some blankets, whatever you may need.
You're from this planet.
What would you suggest is best?
Honestly, it was just that I get you back to my town.
I mean, well, I thought it was only four of you, but since so many of you, I don't know
if I can bring you all back with me.
And in the least amount of time it took me to get out here.
Well, I think if it's possible, are there places we can stay?
Are there things we can buy?
There's an inn.
Scrap.
Our new yelling Scrap, the one-armed matted brown rat.
What?
Scrap, main body of the patchwork.
We could, with a little bit of rigging and maybe some treads for the sand, we could turn
it into a mobile caravan, couldn't we?
Yeah, no.
Myself and Keelin are kind of already hello, who is our new friend.
This is the sheriff.
Yes, I'm Sheriff Pancho.
I'm the sheriff of Neutrino Downs, not too far from here.
Scrap our pilot.
Captain, actually.
Nice to meet you, Scrap.
Because I haven't introduced all of us, I'm Azam.
That over there is Skye, Via, Pot Plant, Spheriac, and our friend here is Ike.
Keelin, Flair, Sheriff Pancho.
Points to the white wolf as Keelin and the other teenager as Flair.
Nice to meet all of you.
Well, if there's like supplies and things that we need, maybe some of us can go with
you.
And maybe then, Azam, it won't be as hard to keep things warm.
You won't have to warm so many at the same time.
Maybe go back with the weakest now, get them in and in?
Could do.
Azam, to your point, me and Keelin have been trying to grab the main hull.
He points over to a thing that he started working on earlier, which is he flattened
all of the, like a bunch of sand out and then made some markings and has started building
almost like he has not ready at all yet, but almost a rig for a wagon to pull the main
hull of like almost just the wreck room onto these wheels and to use it as some sort of
wagon.
I can get that if we hustle and we all do it together, we can get to this town.
Neutrino Downs.
I feel like we might need a couple more supplies just to keep it afloat.
I don't want it to get damaged before we can even get there.
Need some steeds to drag it.
Yeah, it might be best that we take two trips.
One for provisions and the steeds and one as a group.
Well, I mean, I'm happy to haul this around.
I don't think a flare is in any position to be walking anywhere.
Quick question though.
Poncho was it?
Oh, right.
What's the town like?
We're not going to end up walking into some kind of cannibal camp or something.
We're not going to be used as easy sacrifice.
We can trust him.
He's got a good heart.
We're just a simple sleepy town that's just doing our best to make it from one day to
the next.
Well, that sounds nice, actually.
Rob said Smotive and I got a critical success.
Well, all right.
That sounds really nice.
Is it?
Um, are the people all right there?
Oh, the people there, the nicest people you can meet.
Well, that's much better than where we came from.
So maybe this is a blessing a little bit.
So we got what we got warm beds, plenty of food and the best home brewed beer you could
ever come across in this side of the galaxy.
Why don't we all go back together now and then come back with Steeds maybe in the morning?
I don't think Fleur can move much and Keelan won't want to leave him.
Scrap, do you think you can make it with Justy free here and the four of us can...
Yeah, I was going to say, one of you four go with Poncho and I will get working on making
sure that when you guys come back, there is at least something that we could sit in a
hole.
Keelan will look after Fleur.
Fleur can help me with mechanics of building when he wakes up.
Okay.
Skye, you want to grab Skye?
Here, Fleur, take your roller skates back.
Yeah, okay, sure.
Thank you.
Thanks for letting me borrow them.
Fleur is in this hazy sleep, but then as soon as you say thanks, he wakes up immediately
and then whips his head around to you.
What is wrong with you?
What is happening?
Are you shitting them?
Why are you being so nice?
Are we in earshot of the sheriff?
No, you're in an eyeshot, but not necessarily with an earshot.
I do have a touch of the vapors.
I'm awfully weak from the fact that our ship crashed.
Is that a yes?
Did you shit in my fucking...
Are you fucking kidding me, Skye?
Wait, are you literally asking me if I shat in something?
Are you literally denying that you did not do that?
Go back to bed.
You've given me a lot to think about, Fleur.
Sells back in and then you can, even though he lays down to go back to sleep, you can
hear him undoing the straps and looking inside, unsure, as you walk away.
All right.
Is your friend going to also be okay in the most as a theriac?
Will theriac come with us?
Theriac just looks towards Pancho and very hazily lifts one of the roots and is like,
are you an alaktaga or a dipodamus?
Okay, that's enough, theriac.
Just go back, get some rest.
They're speaking in tongues!
I pull out my scarf, which now that I'm pulling it out, you can see there is a bird mark on
it because I used it to wrap up my wound, but it's super long.
And so I'm tying it around the pot and I put theriac's pot on like a backpack.
Like a bjorn?
Like a...
Like a kaboose.
We're going to get to know each other real well.
Does this mean I get my board back?
I figured you're going to need it if we're going to all get there fast enough.
Oh, fantastic.
Thank you.
My name is Sheriff Pancho, Sheriff of Neutrino Downs.
Nice to meet you, sir.
Dip a die if that's what you were asking earlier.
Dip a die.
Yeah, dip a die if that's what you were curious about earlier.
I heard you mumbling it.
I whisper, like a lean in, and I whisper, theory.
Like the first doctor, not sir or ma'am or any other honorific.
Oh, thank you.
Sorry for mis-gingering you earlier, Dr. Theriac.
I am a dip a die.
My evolutionary trait has caused my back legs to evolve into a backwards bending knee that
allows me to spring and hop throughout the desert dunes and also keeps my toesies nice
and safe as I walk through the sand.
That seems very convenient.
Oh, it is very convenient.
You know, downside is my poor little legs is kind of brittle, so I try not to do too
much physical labor.
Oh, of course.
Well, thank you for guiding us back and for opening up your town to us.
We are very outside our scope and also our ship being broken is quite distressing.
To be frank, I don't know if we can even call it a ship anymore.
Well, that's quite upsetting.
We can call it a ship to begin with.
Well, it flew.
It worked.
I mean, technically it flew.
I'm going to take off my backpack and look inside and say, how do you feel about raccoons?
Looks at the bag at the raccoon.
Is the raccoon in there?
How do you feel about raccoons?
And then you can see what's in the bag.
I feel okay with raccoons.
I mean, is the raccoon just a raccoon?
I'm just a little guy.
You look at this raccoon, it just looks like a normal raccoon, but then it speaks with
language.
I'm just a little guy.
Hello there, little guy.
My name is Sheriff Poncho.
I'm the Sheriff Neutrino Downs.
Nice to meet you.
I'm just a little guy.
And then like, is like picking, like gathering almost like mothballs and placing them like
in the bag, just like kind of cleaning the bag as they're in it.
But doesn't seem to like, even though it spoke to you, doesn't seem to register that you're
speaking back is just kind of, it does very much just seem like a wild animal, but can
speak as it just keeps, I'm just a little guy.
Like once again, you see like, you see Poncho just act like, yeah, this is, this seems about
like, just accepting this stuff.
Excuse me.
What was your name again?
Raccoon, if you want to be called a raccoon.
Oh, the name of my raccoon?
Oh yeah, the name of your raccoon.
Oh, he just says I'm a little guy.
So I call him guy.
Excuse me, guy, is that your name or is that the name you want to be called, guy?
Yeah, I'm just a little guy.
Okay, I'll refer to you as guy then.
Yeah, we're not really sure they can, he can understand.
It doesn't necessarily seem to be a mode of communication as much as repeated vocalization.
Hmm, I see.
Well, last I know is that when someone sets their mind to be something, I feel like it's
in our duty to respect that person's wishes if that's what they want to be.
This little guy is saying took this form of a raccoon.
So obviously this little guy wants to be a raccoon.
But whatever it could be up on before this moment in time when it was introduced to me
as a raccoon, I suppose is just in the past.
But right now we have a little guy right here who looks like a raccoon.
So I'm gonna call him a raccoon.
Oh, enough of this.
Let's go on outside and get y'all back to town so we can get you nice and safe and get
some food in your bellies.
And he heads over to Thistlebrush.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Thistlebrush is this huge girdled lizard, so it's this like horned spikes adorn a lot
of them except for the top, which has a small saddle that's attached to their back.
It is massive for human context.
It is horse size, this huge, huge lizard.
Would you say this could fit like two people or just the one?
I think it definitely could fit two people.
Definitely could fit two people.
All right.
Aw, they're so radical.
Yeah, this is Thistlebrush.
Thistlebrush, snap.
Thistlebrush is friendly.
Thistlebrush ain't too friendly.
Thistlebrush.
Yeah, you are Thistlebrush.
Is that two including you or is that two not including you?
This would be two, I think it would be two including.
Two max.
Yeah, two max people can fit on.
Ike, why don't you go take a ride with our friend the sheriff here and I'll keep on going.
All right.
Do you think...
All right there, Firiak.
Well, do you think Ike and Firiak would count as like one person maybe?
You can ride on the board.
No, that's all right.
Since you have the board.
No, I'm saying could Ike hold Firiak's pot?
I think Firiak's happy wherever you are, right?
You've got a little, you've got a little papoose for them.
So yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
I will, I could ride with our new friend.
That's okay.
Firiak could fit with anyone though.
So it is down to Andre who Firiak wants to go with.
Firiak's not gonna fight anyone.
Firiak's just like, just existing right now.
You do hear just like, Canis lupus, homo sapin sapin.
Sheriff, do take care of our friend Ike.
We care about her a great deal.
Don't worry.
I will take good care of Ike while I'm up here and make sure she won't fall off.
You have ridden a horse before, haven't you?
Oh, what's a horse?
I mean, not a horse.
I mean a steed.
You've ridden a steed before, haven't you?
A steed, which is?
One of these large beautiful creatures right here.
Oh, I haven't had the pleasure.
Does it like to be ridden or do?
Thistlebrush loves giving rides, don't you, Thistlebrush?
Oh, okay.
I give it a little bit of a, a, a scritch, like an-
Achievement unlocked, passed Ike's anxiety check.
Give it a little scritch and, um, I didn't want to make a big show of it, but would Thistlebrush
be afraid of any small creatures by any chance?
I'm afraid of small creatures?
Uh, oh no.
Uh, I'll never call Thistlebrush ever been spooked before.
Okay.
Cool.
And Ike will just hop on the back of Thistlebrush.
All right.
And he hops on the back of Thistlebrush.
All right, y'all ready to go?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, it's a, it's a cordonitis.
I, I lean over, uh, to sky the moment both of them are on the lizard.
Okay, what is going on?
Why are you acting like Ike?
We need to get stuff done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Ike's method can work in the right context.
I do not think that Sheriff Hia needs to be fooled into helping.
I think it's just-
No, but it can't, it can't hurt.
All right, you wanna act like a little Cinderella rat by all means.
You all make your way to Neutrino Downs.
Poncho wasn't lying when they said that the temperature is going to start dropping because
even though it was so painfully hot earlier, now it is the complete opposite.
The complete absence of everything has made the sand immediately cool.
As you are walking it, it drops to, if there was any moisture in the air, it would be snowing.
It gets so cold.
Noddling yourselves close, it takes about two hours to see Neutrino Downs.
It crests the hill, a small, broken, rebuilt, rinky-dink little town.
You see a big sign holographic in the sky on almost one of those gas station turning
signs.
Big thing that says, welcome to Neutrino Downs, holographed.
As you get closer, start hearing very light muffled music.
You see in this small town that surely can't fit a lot of people, you see lights flooding
out of the largest building in the town.
Past these small little buildings, you see a very well-kept but makeshift farm, a few
grazing, almost ostrich-sized birds, big pill bugs that are playfully walking around, and
a stable with a two, three, four of these same huge lizards, but all of them different
from one another.
As Poncho arrives into the town, you can hear the music pouring out of the saloon, and there
is light and color.
It seems like a very lively place.
It's filled with people laughing and talking amongst each other.
Whoa.
I've never been to a town before.
In general, no.
Wow.
Welcome to Neutrino Downs, Skye.
It's awesome.
It's very different than where we were.
Oh, yeah?
Where we've been.
Ike and I are from a city planet.
A city folk.
Yeah.
Well, let me tell you something about Neutrino Downs.
It may not be a city.
We may not have tall buildings, but we've got friendly faces.
We've got more beds than, like I say, plenty of spots where you guys can get some supplies
and rest up for the night.
And a cool sense of fashion.
I'm going to need to get me a hat.
Oh, if you need some clothes, we got the general store not too close next door to the inn.
See if I can get you all some clothes too, because I'd hate to tell this, but it looks
like your threads have been a bit torn.
Oh, they...
Oh, I haven't even...
Oh, this is very disappointing.
It's all right.
I'll stitch them up for you.
Do you know the shopper personally?
Oh, yes.
I know...
I'm the sheriff of the town, so I try to make it my business to make sure I know everyone
who lives and works here.
Let's see.
Well, we're handling...
We have the haberdashery run by Mr. and Mrs. Shandabam.
They're a wonderful couple.
Wait, hold on.
Mr. and Mrs. Shandabam?
Yes.
Mr. and Mrs. Shandabam.
They handle the haberdashery.
They're a nice little unit.
They love each other very much, but let me tell you something.
They make the best hats you could ever see in this side of the planet.
He tips like this black leather hat that he has sitting on top of his head.
It is very nice.
Then we got...
Oh, then we got old Miss Wilkes.
She's the tailor of these parts.
She can stitch you up an outfit, maybe a scarf, or I suggest nothing is more better and efficient
than a poncho.
Well, I hate to ask any more of you, but would you be willing to introduce us to these shopkeepers
and maybe explain the situation since you've seen it with your own eyes?
We'd really appreciate it.
I was going to do it anyway because we have a small town and you eventually met everyone
no matter what.
So, yes, I will.
Thank you so much.
You're so kind.
Yes.
Well, like I said before, just doing my job.
And he heads towards the inn and pushes the two doors open.
Like they swing open and I think the music stops.
As the music cuts out, everyone turns to poncho and these new people who no one's ever seen
before walk in.
Hello.
No, no, no.
Oh my god.
No, shut up.
Oh my goodness.
God, I love you.
You're embarrassing me right now.
Okay.
Just lay low, lay low.
Folks, these are crew people that, uh, that crash not too far from here.
They need our help.
Why don't we all treat them with the love and respect that we would treat any stranger
that comes to these towns that we want to make sure that they're healthy and safe.
How about we give them a nice good old neutrino downs warm welcome?
Oh, we didn't need an introduction.
At the bar at the very end, there's this like blue skin, very tall muscular woman who raises
the glasses like, yeah.
And the town like, yeah.
And then music starts.
Okay.
I don't know the song from back to the future three, but if I sang it, I feel like we will
get copyright strike.
I watched a lot of movies that looked like this that could have gone really bad for us.
I'm telling you guys right now.
But well, it seems like Pancho is just a very good sheriff who knows the town really well.
You should tell him that.
Pancho?
Uh, yes?
It seems like you know your town very well.
Um, uh, do you think that we have any thing that we should be careful of?
Um, not to be disparaging or anything.
It's just that we've been to places where it's tenuous or something like that.
You're asking.
I think what you're asking, asking is if despite this town having this wonderful acquaintance,
you wonder if there's any bad gas here.
Just wondering if there's anything we should avoid or be wary of.
Of course, of course.
Um, why don't you all sit down and get comfortable.
Can you give us a round of drinks for our new friends, please?
Not you, you're underage, but the rest of you.
The tall La Shunta woman passes by the bar asking someone else to take over and walks
over to the gang.
Well, how did that Pancho, you get enough of yourselves a little, uh, a little group
of friends, is it?
Well you know what they say, a friend, a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet, but
um, just people need help out there in the bluffs.
You must be, you must be a proprietor, right?
That is correct.
Zom.
Todd Van, it's nice to meet you.
I am, this is my establishment, it's nice to have guests.
We don't often see anyone else new, so it's always nice to see some fresh and I'm sure
you all look a little friendlier when you're a little more cleaned up.
Oh, I promise we're very friendly.
My name is, didn't I say Zom?
My name's Zom.
Uh, here's Skye, Firiak is-
Oh, interesting.
And over here we've got Ike.
Oh dear dear.
It really is a pleasure to meet you.
Can I do a diplomacy check to just, you know, push off the friendliness?
You don't really need to.
You friend of Poncho, you're a friend of, uh, friend of the town.
Bold of you sir to assume I'm underage.
What's the legal drinking age here ma'am?
Legal drinking age here is 18.
I'm 18.
Sense motive?
I've been breaking no laws here.
I rule the 10 though.
When's your birthday?
Every year.
They were about to sit us down just to tell us the one rule you can't break is trying
to drink underage.
We allow everything in this town.
Pistols at dawn.
You can fight another member, but if you drink underage, we will kick you out of the town
forever.
I'm just joking, I'm messing with you.
What is Skye's actual age?
17.
Um.
Skye, come on.
Come on dude, I'm sitting in a tavern that looks like this.
I want a beer with the most foam possible.
And I want to clink it together with somebody else and I want the foam to go everywhere.
I want to walk, I want to walk.
Do I hear it?
Do I?
Yeah, you can hear it.
I want to walk into the saloon and have the piano stop.
That's the vibe I want.
I lean back.
Give her the, give her the sarsaparilla.
Good stuff.
Give it a little, give it a good amount of head.
Right you are, Sharon.
Sarsaparilla, I like the sound of that.
That'll do actually.
Thank you, Sharon.
Oh, sarsaparilla?
Sarsaparilla, I get you may want to experience a nice frothy cup of beer, but let me tell
you something about sarsaparilla.
I loves me some sarsaparilla.
It's sweet, syrupy, kicks the nice little bubbles in the back of the throat.
If you get a good amount of foam on it, well, you'll see.
When the sarsaparilla shows up, he takes them, takes a mug of it.
Do y'all, come on, everyone pick up, pick up the mug sarsaparilla.
Just a good amount of cold water would be great for me and for my friends.
I want to partake in the cultural norms of the neutrino balance.
Hell yeah, drink up, thiriac.
Can I pour like a little into your roots?
Yes.
Okay.
May I propose a toast?
A toast.
To the sheriff who saved our lives.
To the sheriff.
Were we that bad?
I don't know if I've seen us worse.
Dr. Thiriac.
The past tense is the only thing I would edit about your sentence.
We're pretty bad.
Well, I had faith.
As you all...
Oh, gosh.
Cheers.
There is a...
From outside.
You hear from the open of the doors.
Sheriff!
Pulls out a watch.
Dang.
11 PM.
All right, which one of you boys is coming through my town this time?
He stands up and he heads towards the door.
I got some work I got to do.
Just take a second.
I'll be right back.
Do you need any help?
Occupational rituals.
I'm very excited.
Oh my God.
Oh my God, Sheriff.
Do you need a deputy?
Because, Sheriff, I'll let you know right now, I would die for that position if it's
open.
At this point, the careful mask of no pain, nothing's bad, just drops as I look at the
...
As Zom looks at the Sheriff and just gives him the look that fathers give.
Exactly.
When you're just like, just give it to him.
Seriously, he matches Azad's look and he turns around like, all right, well, if I'm going
to get some work done, I am going to need me a second pair of eyes.
And she does a thing where it's like, does anyone around here know where I can find me
a second pair of eyes to help me out?
I've got two perfectly good ones right here.
I want to say that there's a moment where I looked around the bar, really excited to
see who's it going to be.
And then turns back to see this guy sitting right in front of her.
I will kill everyone in this bar.
I know I can do it.
Don't touch me.
Okay, that's enough.
That's good.
Too far.
I did get a little heated there.
I'm so sorry.
Yeah.
He looks at Skye.
All right.
Well, Skye, as is my duty and power given to me as a Sheriff, I need to train her down.
We don't have time for this.
We got to catch some crooks, Sheriff.
Okay.
There is not, correct, exactly just some Raph Scalings, but you are now Deputy Gizmo, little
tiny star.
Raph Scalings.
I'll learn the difference.
Oh my God.
I'll learn the difference eventually.
She gave me a little tiny star.
Yeah, it's a little tiny, it says it says it's a little like plastic silver star that
says deputy on it that you may think he has surplus of them.
Well, Azzan would know that he has surplus of these.
There's so many.
This is the best day of my life.
And he looks back and like, yeah, give the others too.
I just start drinking water nonstop.
Ike does not look interested in that at all.
She's just looking very aware and like watching what transpires.
I'm going to get up and I'm going to yell out the door.
This town ain't big enough for both of us to be here.
We don't do that here.
And he walks past her, like pats her on the shoulder, walks past her and goes outside.
Don't pat me on the shoulder.
Just follow my lead.
Just follow my lead and just be quiet and watch what happens.
Roger.
Yeah, got it.
Anyway.
You see in the at the end of the town, three lizards and sitting atop is one of them is
the gripply, the toad humanoid that you saw earlier.
Flanking either side of them are these two vests, bulky lizard looking.
Both of them are holding these these rifles almost playfully in their hands.
Oh, well, I didn't know the monitor boys are out of we're out of prison.
Oh, Joe, you took from the Baron.
We we can be having that.
I see.
Hey, Charlie, monitor, how's how's your mother doing?
Did you make sure you wrote her as soon as you got out of prison?
Yes, very good, Pancho.
Thank you.
OK, Georgie.
Did you also write your mother?
Yeah, no, no, we didn't.
Georgie.
OK.
All right, Georgie, Charlie, you know what's going to happen next, right?
It's our hands are tied.
We heard Baroness is mighty mad.
All right.
Oh, if the Baron is that angry about whatever I took from him, just let him know he's not
going to get it back and let him know that what he wants, he's never going to get no
matter how many of you boys that he hires pull strings and bills out of the prison of
the Husskals to put them and put them on his side and in his pocket.
There's no need to be a fight, Pancho.
You're not here to burn down your little village here.
Just here with a warning.
What's your warning this time?
Baron's got big moves, big moves that are happening fast.
We don't want to repeat what happened last time, do we?
When he says that, whoever's outside with him, they would notice that his right hand
twitches just a bit and he's relaxes.
I'm right beside you.
I'm the deputy.
Oh, then Scott definitely saw that.
You know, you better pick your words better, Bigsley.
If you talk more about those moments, you know, things may get a little bit dangerous.
We're going to be coming back in a week.
All right.
We want at least two tons of trinium ore.
Two tons?
That's a lot of ore.
You tell the Baron that he's not going to get his ore and no matter what he does or
says, he won't get his ore.
So why don't you, like I said, leave?
You two, Georgie, Charlie, you go ride your mama and tell the Baron that we're concluding
business for the day.
The sun's setting on your ride here, Sheriff.
I want to make sure that you see the moon.
I like to think I got a couple more hours left to dust off.
Come on, boys.
It's the three men on the lizard's turn.
They begin to ride off.
I slowly take two grenades out of my pocket and look to the Sheriff.
No, no, no, we don't need any of that.
What happened last time?
Let's go inside before I discuss about that one more.
Coming back inside, Poncho, you're almost immediately met by Peckham, a blue velociraptor
looking humanoid, this like long neck and these very sharp teeth.
Poncho, they keep coming back to us.
We got to start taking some action.
I know, I know, but he ain't fight.
You know, y'all ain't fighters.
We know this for a fact.
I can only do as much as I can to scare them off.
They're getting more frequent.
They're visits.
They're stealing from us.
I haven't heard from New Sands in weeks.
I don't think they're there anymore.
They were the last people who stood up.
Poncho, we don't have a lot of time left.
We don't have a lot of people.
Sheriff, I know that it's my first day on the job, but can I offer one piece of advice?
One piece of advice that I know you'll have success in the palm of your hand.
You only need to do one thing and there will be nothing that can stop you from achieving
your goals.
I love that Skye's voice has changed to be southern.
I'm a cowboy now.
I'm a deputy.
A deputy.
I'm deputy Skye.
All right, Skye, what is this advice you have?
Tell Azam about it.
Trust me.
Tell Azam what's going on in this town and we won't leave until it's sorted, Sheriff.
Whether any of us want to or not.
He looks at Skye, then looks past Skye and Azam, who's probably still at the table just
sipping water.
Azam is fully pulled.
He's set their react down beside him and he's pulled off his scarf and he's straight up
like with a little ring in it, like darning it.
The hole closed.
I love this all so much.
It's funny because it's a baron, but he's baron of resource.
Oh, shit.
Yeah, Sheriff, is there a hospital in town?
Have you been to a greenhouse this whole time?
That was very, that was very cheeky.
You didn't see.
That took me out completely.
Hold on.
I can be a kidder.
I mean, you remember when they were on smoke wine, right?
I do.
That was yesterday.
Yeah, I think it might have not left the system now that there's half of them.
That's true.
Yeah.
Very funny, Therriak.
And I just like go back to my darning.
I'm not paying attention at all.
I was, I thought the Sheriff and Sky had things, so I'm like head down.
Everyone who was inside noticed that the music did quiet, the music kind of didn't necessarily
stop but it got a lot quieter and a lot of the chatter got quieter as people like listened
out.
This is clearly something that they're used to but still very scared of.
Also because this is a Wild West saloon, there is people playing live music but they're all
on like these like slightly more poppy futuristic instruments but still playing a very much
a Wild West tune, a futuristic one.
I was expecting good old fashioned jizz.
You know, Star Wars jizz.
I love that that is the word for it.
It is the word.
It is the word for it.
He looks at Sky, looks at Zon.
I get that but y'all just got here.
Y'all are busted up.
I wouldn't want y'all to make our troubles your troubles.
Sheriff, you see those three people at that table there?
Yeah.
They are good people.
They are talented people.
They are capable people and I promise you, cross my heart, hope to die.
You aren't going to lose those people.
Trust me, you'll see what I mean as soon as you tell Azam about all this.
I have a feeling he's going to take it very personally.
Hmm.
All right.
He stands up.
If you say so.
He turns, he walks over to the table.
Grabs a sarsaparilla off the bar.
He walks over, sits at the table, sets it down.
I was told by Sky that if I talk to you about what the problems we have in our town, I can
trust you to get to help out.
How about is it?
All right.
Well, I'll give you the British version or do you want the long story with my whole convoluted
backstory involved into it?
That's the moment where Azam puts down the needlework and looks you in the eye.
If it's bad enough that Sky pointed you to me, tell us the whole thing.
All right.
Well, the start is the fact that I became the sheriff of this town because of half-accidents.
Years years ago, I came to this town along with my crew and just came here just like
you.
We made a plan, decided we just needed a place to stay, a place to relax.
Eventually we got used to this place.
It's a beautiful town, but we didn't know though was, well, this place is resting on
some very, very important ore.
See Neutrino Downs is one of the last few places on this planet that is rich with ore
that can pretty much power anything that could power anything.
As you see, we're a town in the middle of the desert and you can see we're just as fine.
It's because of the ore that we're sitting on that we mine out of every single day.
The Baron, well, he wants that ore.
There are a few towns left that were sitting on rich ore veins and he went from town to
town either buying them out or just, well, hiring any kind of gunslinger or nere de well
that was sitting up in the Huss gow and send them out the town to pretty much scare them
from them.
And well, he thought that he could do to the distown and well, me and my pals, we didn't
take that too well.
So we formed a bit of a last stand and how many did you lose?
There were seven of us.
And you were the last?
Yep, I'm the last one.
As much as I don't want you to get involved in my problems, I feel like I won't get anything
done unless I just ask for help.
So I'm asking you.
You got involved in our problems, so we owe you one.
Can you tell us about them?
The Baron and all, we have very assorted skills, so maybe there's something that could help.
Well, I'll say this, the Baron is, he's powerful, he's rich, got money.
He got money they could just throw around to anyone.
And when you got that kind of money and you want more money, you'll do whatever you can
to obtain that money.
He's not beneath of hiring, like I said, crooks, thieves and murderers just to get the job
done.
I will say that the gentleman is, he doesn't got many skills, but he is very formidable
in hiring people who do have skills.
And I get the feeling that if he dropped this one week timeline, he's going to probably
recreate the last stand that was happened before.
If that happens, it's going to be a whole bunch of people coming through with the full
intent to wipe out everyone here in this town so he can just move on in.
All right, first thing tomorrow, we collect our provisions, send them over to scrap so
we can repair as much of the patchwork as we can.
And you and I start working on defenses.
All right, that's the case then.
He reaches into his pocket and he sets down four ten stars.
I need your badge back, Skye.
What have you wrong?
Well, you're no longer a deputy.
Why?
Well, because all four of you are official lawmen of this town and he slides four marshal
badges to you guys.
I think you might just have gotten an upgrade.
Skye.
Is marshal cooler than deputy?
Yeah, definitely.
I really like the sound of deputy though.
You could still call yourself deputy if you'd like.
I shot the sheriff, couldn't shoot the deputy, you know?
Doesn't sound quite right with I shot the marshal, you know?
Yeah, yeah, no, you're still deputy, but now you get a better start.
Can I be a marshal and a deputy?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Deputy and...
You'll be a deputy to me.
Aww, you're so cute.
Take the marshal badge.
Cool.
Does this mean I get to kill?
First, Firiak, you're going to regenerate and then we'll talk about you killing.
Okay.
What time is it?
It's roughly about 1130.
People are leaving going to bed.
Peckin, who is the blue velociraptor, is still at a table.
They're still up.
There is a...
Toadvin is...
The Lushunter is still at the bar.
There's a...
This black scorpion looking humanoid talking to the bar lady as well.
But everyone else is kind of...
Has left.
Alright, hang on, I'm gonna get us a room.
Be right back.
You catch the back end of a conversation.
The black scorpion humanoid speaking to the Taivan who's introduced himself earlier.
Like, I just think it's silly that we don't just up and go to them.
I know, sweetie, but it's...
Hey there, darlin'.
Hi, how you doin'?
I'm good.
You in what army, buddy?
Where are all these people you think you're gonna up and go straight to him with?
Gonna slide ahead and cover my deputy badge.
I think waiting the seven days is...
We've only just recovered from last time.
A few of us at least think that going out might be best.
We lost Newt Sands and we think we've lost Newt Sands anyway.
Classic Newt Sands.
Listen, I'm on board with this plan, bud.
I just need to know what the plan is.
How many guys we got?
How many guys they got?
They look over to Poncho.
I'm not very good with a gun, but I'm smart.
I have...
I can't tell.
I run the brewery.
What you drink in is mine.
It just...
I feel like an attack now will...
I don't know.
I'm not a...
You're not a...
Bless him.
Give him a hug.
Bless him.
Kizzen is not a fighter, but they care a lot about stuff.
Darling, how can I help you?
What can I do you for?
I just need how much for a room for four?
Your friends are Ponchos.
We don't need no money.
No, no, no.
I'm gonna give you money.
I don't like owing people things.
Well, surely we'd be owing you.
I saw you walk out there with the sheriff.
That must mean that you are deputized in some way.
So we both agree that us helping the sheriff is the payment for the room.
Yeah.
And our contract is complete.
Sure.
Pleasure doing business with you, ma'am.
It's a pleasure doing business with you.
Hey, what was your name?
Scorpion Man.
Uh...
Kizzen.
K-A-P-S-R-E-F-E-Z-I-N.
Kizzen.
Well, Kizzen.
If, uh, I like your plan, dude, you just let me know if you get more people in on it,
eh?
Anyone who could possibly be in on the plan is sat at your table, I think.
How do you feel about, uh, infiltration?
Double agent kind of thing.
We might not have enough manpower to attack.
I'm not talking about you, Kizzen.
I'm saying you're the brains right now.
Poncho is the brains.
I am a...
I have...
There is ways that we can help.
We'll do whatever we want for Poncho.
Poncho has saved us countless times.
Um...
I just don't know if waiting is the best call.
That's what...
I'll talk to Poncho, but, uh, you got a card or something, Kizzen?
You own the brewery, so we'll find you there.
You just come by the brewery and you'll find me.
I like you, Kizzen.
You've got a good aura about you, dude.
I like you too.
Be seeing you around.
Ma'am.
There's a new deputy in town.
Go back to the table.
Got us a room.
That's good.
How did we pay?
Uh, by helping the sheriff.
Oh!
Oh, yeah.
Y'all are helping us out.
I wouldn't want y'all to pay for it.
Oh, officially working for the town.
Um, so why do the people that work for the Baron work for the Baron?
Because the Baron can give them money.
Is that all?
Yep, that's it.
You give someone money, they'll do anything you want.
Especially on a planet like this.
If you notice, there's not a lot of resources around here.
So if you got money and you can pay for getting off the planet, paying for supplies to come
in and out, well, if you got enough cash around here, you can do whatever you want.
It's a sad truth about it.
Our planet's about the same.
I think sometimes there's more than just money.
Well, if you feel there's more than money, I could probably, we could assume.
When it comes to situations like this, you hire someone fresh out of jail, of course
they're not going to have much job opportunities.
So he takes advantage of that.
Being the fact that there aren't many towns around here, when you come out of jail, there's
only two people you can turn to.
The nearest town you can go to, or the baron who can guarantee you work.
It's less of a thing of money, but also a thing of having control over your own life.
People like that feeling.
Then can we replace that in some way?
Is there anything we can...
That's the problem, Mike, technically speaking.
This person's weak point is their pocketbook, right?
Exactly.
And this town is what would fill their pocketbook.
The only thing it can hurt a baron is not losing this place to it.
Exactly.
Yeah, I know the game this place too well.
Look, we're all haggard and tired.
We should get some rest.
And set your armor aside.
I can patch up the holes.
Ike.
Okay.
Take Ferriak.
I should probably have a word with Sheriff.
I guess I'm going up to bed.
Yeah, I'll go too.
I'll take Ferriak.
Hey, Sheriff, just so we can avoid the area, do you know where the baron hangs out?
The baron definitely does not hang out anywhere near here.
Definitely a several hours trip far from here.
If you look out towards, you probably can't see it from here, but keep on heading north,
you'll see a big old city.
That's where the baron resides.
I figured that one.
I raised it in that way, but...
The baron doesn't necessarily have a place that they stay.
They're heard to be bouncing around all over the place.
They have gone inside New Mores occasionally, but New Mores is that city.
It's almost bubbles and barely anyone knows what goes on inside it.
And that is a couple of weeks' trip away.
That's very far.
The baron himself, you have heard mixed reports as to where they are.
There is a city hours and hours away that is what Poncho being on this planet would
consider a city, but it is not necessarily what Skye, Aig, Azam, and Theriaq would consider
a city.
It's bigger and has more places to shop and go around.
It has a bank.
It interacts and gets trade-in, but isn't a big futuristic thing.
Think still very Wild West 1980s city rather than a...
1980s?
No, 1800s.
1980s city.
A 1980s city.
It's pretty big.
No, 1800s city.
Like an 1800s city.
A classic, not even that, classic Wild West thing rather than...
Yeah.
Like a fresh up and coming city.
Very much so.
That's a great way of putting it.
Yeah.
Okay.
From reports say that they could be out there, but who knows?
Okay.
A little more of a trip than I thought.
I was going to sneak out.
I have an idea for a double agent thing, but we'll cover that tomorrow.
Excuse me?
Good night, y'all.
All right.
Whereabouts do you live, Sheriff?
I live here in the town.
Got a house on the edge of the property.
Let's walk over.
Come on.
I could use a nice bit of fresh air.
Oh, yeah, sure.
And gets up, pays the tab, and he'll walk outside and he will take thistle
and bleed them through the streets to a small little house that is kind of like on the edge
of the city, of the town.
It's a quaint little house.
You see it has a mailbox, a nice little fence around it.
It has a porch, a nice little hitching post to tie up thistle brush.
And there's a rocking chair on the front porch.
You see also like leaned up against the wall is a really, really old looking rifle that
doesn't look like it has been used in who knows how long.
He will head up to the front door.
He unlocks it and heads on inside doing the cute little hop, hop, hop.
Sheriff's place with anyone?
The person who lives here with me, they aren't here right now, but that's another story.
So what did you want to talk about?
Well, I wanted to talk about how this place can be defended or if you want to take a fight
to the Baron.
But hold up.
I know that face.
I've had that face.
What happened?
I'm not going to say that it was one sided.
It wasn't a one sided fight at all.
It was just, there were so many of them, man.
It was just, I'll say about 20 of them came through.
Just a bunch of hired guns.
We thought, well, we did defend it just well, but just the numbers were overwhelming.
There are plenty of places around here we could fortify, put traps, station a couple
of watch towers, but the people here aren't soldiers.
They aren't fighters.
They aren't, they're just people trying to live their lives.
I know how to work with that.
I'm talking about what happened to your partner.
What do you mean what happened to my partner?
You used to share this place with someone.
They're not around anymore.
I've seen that face.
Another story, sure.
But if you want to talk about it, I feel like you need to talk about it.
Well, the person that was, used to be the deputy of this town.
He stands up, walks over hop, hop, hop to a little cabinet, opens it up, pulls out a
bottle of brown liquid.
Another little, a little tiny shot glass pops it open with this tiny cute little mouth,
holds the bottle with two hands because he's a tiny, cute little Jaboah rat.
He pours himself a shot, holds up a little shot glass like this.
It was just too much for him.
They couldn't handle it.
I wanted to go away, didn't they?
Talked about taking you with them.
They said a lot of things.
They would talk about, you know, maybe I'll do this one day.
You know, maybe I'll go to the far side of the planet, see, see how far the desert goes.
You know, maybe take, maybe lead some pill bugs and do the pill bug run, you know, lead
the pill bugs of all the plane to help them graze.
They had a lot of things they wanted to do, but just the life of a deputy really wasn't
something they really aspired for.
But I told them, I said to myself that if I'm not here, then who's the job going to
fall on?
Who's going to protect this town from not just the Barrett, but anyone?
So I told them that, they turned in their badge.
And then they left planet side to go see their mom, and they're coming back in a couple of
weeks.
You know, you see kind of like as he's talking, like as you're panning around the room, you
then notice you see like a lot of pictures of Pancho looking very happily married with
another, with another isoki just looking very happy.
There's no like signs of like, of they were gone or they passed.
Plenty of wonderful pictures full of happy memories around this place.
But you get the feeling it's like he said, they just didn't want to be a deputy anymore.
So they turned in their badge.
It's just that maybe Pancho took it a little bit too seriously.
Look, every single couple relationship, either the scene, even mine, I come across a crossroads.
You know, you have different wishes for future or you have different goals for yourself.
Me, I was a man with a plan all my life.
So much so it took me away from my partner.
It just happens sometimes.
But it's not personal.
It just means that you're both growing together and it's leading you down slightly different
pathways still parallel, still together.
But you know,
suppose you're right.
They're an amazing gun.
They're amazing shot though.
That rifle was that you saw outside was theirs.
Maybe they can make it back before weeks end.
Yeah.
Here's hoping they do come back.
I say I do miss them.
They left two days ago.
They'll come back.
Oh, no, no, I know they'll come back.
She said she's going to come back.
I say she just out visiting her mother on a planet.
You're lucky.
She's coming back.
Not everyone is so lucky.
You know, I'm going to I'm going to ask you now.
Is there or is there someone important?
Yeah, was I was engaged.
And was it a.
Did they leave or was it a taken?
They weren't the ones who got taken.
Hop hop over to the cabinet, pulls out another glass.
This one is a little bit better.
I don't drink, but I appreciate your offer.
Of course.
Maybe some some sarsaparilla then.
That's nice.
Of course, a little bit of sarsaparilla in a cup slides it over to you.
It's been decades.
Well, how about this?
Of course, then to new pals and the people that mean a lot to us.
That aren't with us anymore.
The new friends and old friends.
Cheers.
That's the good stuff.
The sarsaparilla is real good.
So foamy.
I know.
No, I'm telling you, it's the good stuff.
I mean, got to got to let it go down easily.
Let the bubbles go to your head.
Give me a second.
It's a kick.
And as the pair of you share this drink and laugh together, is there any other scenes that
anyone would like to do?
Just like, are we all in?
We're not all in the same room, or are we?
No, you're in different rooms.
We're in different rooms.
You can share a room if you'd like.
You kind of have you walk upstairs of the saloon, and that every room is free.
Really no one.
No one passes through here.
There's nowhere to go.
So they kind of built you get the idea that they built these rooms in hope that someone
would visit, but no one really does.
Each room has a thick layer of dust in each of them.
All of them are well kept.
The sheets are folded, but you get the sense that after changing the sheets every day and,
you know, this turned into years that there was there was really no one.
No one was coming.
So they left it.
You can tell that there are some sheets that are, you know, how the sun like drains color.
The sun has just kind of drained color over like specific parts as the as, you know, the
same the same sun has just risen and fallen in the same part of some sheets.
So you have free reign of any bed.
So I will, I think, go into a room and close the door and make sure it's locked behind
her and take Verpal out and set them free.
I'm so sorry.
I don't know if everyone's going to be okay with you.
I certainly wasn't sure if that lizard was going to be okay with you.
Um, it's just I think I think we might need to work on something.
And I want to see if Verpal can help me determine how much access to like electricity we have
around this building.
Okay.
Give me a give me a computers check, please.
Yeah, computers as you're like feeling the the energy around you.
29 13 plus 19 is that right?
Yeah, no, that's a best 32.
Okay.
So it's grand.
It's still gets it by many.
You win by the feel like you're still good.
Six, six, 16.
These are new dice 16 plus 13.
That's 29.
You have a really bizarre sensation here as there are things that you can interact with.
You can see and feel the like energy of the universe, but they're not necessarily threads.
The thread to each thing is small, tiny, you can barely see it.
It's weak, but when it connects to the thing, it is like the metal ingrained within certain
parts of this structure specifically are like giving off like this large electrical like
power source.
It's almost like the metal itself is a power source.
But in terms of like high, high technology that you're used to connecting with, you can't
really feel anything to the point where there's not.
I mean, there are, but it's not really satellites in the sky flying around this planet.
At least not where you are.
Everything is dusty and old and nothing is high tech.
Everything that this metal that you can sense, you can almost see this metal is the technology
almost.
It is giving things power, but it itself is not necessarily technology.
There is a silence that you can feel around you.
You can still see stuff like when you're on the patchwork, there are threads everywhere
multicolored and it was connected to all these different things.
But here it's like all of the threads are very weak, but they are still hitting kind
of the same things.
Am I kind of making sense as to why?
Yeah.
So I could scoop Verbal back up after they've investigated, give them a little piece of
cheese and say, okay, interesting.
But I think we can figure something out.
I have maybe an idea.
It gives the verbal a little tickle and we'll get some rest.
May I say Sky holding Dr. Therriak in the pot behind her hears Ike's door close and
goes, oh, I definitely thought I was going to take you with them.
Doc, what is your self diagnosis?
Can I just plop you down in your own room or do you need to be like supervised?
I'm sorry.
Okay, I guess you're coming with me.
Okay.
Good thing I don't like alone time or anything.
Plop them down on the dresser in our room.
You got a friend in me.
I'm just imagining Therriak, what's two times two?
Number.
What's your favorite part about this town?
I liked that lizard.
What was the question I just asked you?
The number one.
You think you're going to remember any of this tomorrow?
What?
You got a friend in me too, Therriak.
Okay.
I'm just imagining Guy popping out of the backpack tomorrow morning and like tomorrow
morning you just see him sprucing up Therriak like he's a pot plant.
I'm going to go to bed, Doc.
Good night.
Don't die on me overnight.
Wait, where are we?
We're in a saloon of some kind.
Okay.
Okay?
Okay.
Okay do you need water?
Fertilizer?
Water.
Water?
Okay thank god because I was so scared you were going to say fertilizer and I don't know
where the fuck we're going to get that.
It's a good thing you wouldn't remember what's going on tomorrow anyway.
Okay.
Therriak, some water.
You go downstairs and uh, you go downstairs and type in this.
I gotta go downstairs for water?
God, I'm starting to actually miss Saga.
You do, you have to, you go downstairs there's a um, there is like quite literally a pump
that's next to it and Tideven is cleaning up and she's like oh dear you can just, it's
alright I got some here.
You don't need to pump every time.
You just need to pump to get the water in the system and then yeah.
Okay, so I can just take the cup?
Yeah, you can have that cup.
Thank you ma'am.
I need to get a hat.
Deputy.
That'll probably look cooler.
Deputy, yes it is I, Deputy Skye.
Good night ma'am.
Night night.
Uh, Azzam comes home late, obviously.
Home.
Azzam comes to the saloon late, obviously.
And he double checks to see if I left out her jumpsuit or put it on a bed that I guess
is his and if she did, he spends the evening just patching things up, making some good
seams clearing up the rips and then with a grunt he just goes to bed.
As our newly formed crew and actually as our deputies, our marshals, our posse, posse,
as this, as our posse settles down for the night.
That is where we're going to leave our little story here today.
There we go and we'll be picking it up next time as we're in our World West arc gang.
Oh my god, I have so many ideas.
I'm so excited.
Hello there beautiful, wonderful people.
Thank you so much for listening to the animlers.
Before I get on with our normal announcements, I just have to thank Sonny420, Daniel Neruda
and Noah, who are part of our patrons who have helped sponsor this episode and help
us keep going.
If you want to be part of the people who we shout out, feel free to go to our patron,
which is patreon.com forward slash the Adminus, I'm pretty sure.
And then go to the tier that gets a little shout out and you can hear your name coming
out of my delicious mouth.
What a weird way to segue into.
Our music today was provided by Artless under their fair use license.
If you'd like to listen to the actual plays, so basically just the recording of this show
before the music's added in, the mechanics are taken out before it becomes this improvised
audio book.
And you want to see our beautiful, beautiful faces head on over to the Adminus on YouTube
for all the videos, as well as little edited clips and animatics that a beautiful wonderful
Momo O'Brien has made.
It's just, it's just the perfect thing.
And speaking of patron, I know I've already mentioned it, but we have a patron where you
can get little sneak previews, little extra things, much can be found.
Speaking of much, we've teamed up with a familiar shop to make some Adminus themed soaps.
So you can smell like a member of the patchwork.
Each member has made a soap themed around their character.
So Sky made strawberry, Azami's bonfire and insets.
Oh, delicious.
I guess cotton candy theory, like isn't garlic, which is a shame, but is actually eucalyptus
and bergamot, which is so fancy.
If you want to smell like the idea of the team, then head on over to the familiar shop
on Etsy to do that.
Our players today were Momo O'Brien playing Sky, Super Dylan playing Ike, Nordin Luka
De who is werewolf feels on socials who played Azam, Andre Rivera-Arch who played a wonderful
garlic theeriac, me Matthew Egber, Captain Kraylon all things who did the voices and
all the pew pews and a favorite non-binary slime.
Our first ever guest, Wally.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
Who's Wally and you can find Wally everywhere.
Thank you so much for listening.
I love you guys so much.
I appreciate you.
It's so fun to be back.
This is officially like a season two, our start into a new era of the Animus.
I'm so excited for you to be here.
I will see you in a little bit and I hope the next time you fly through the Animus Sea,
you'll be there to fly with us.
Thank you guys.
Ah.
I'm so excited.
Wow.
you