Agi, this is Pierce Sunspire, sending through
the encrypted communications buoy. I know I advised
against any correspondence, but I feel it necessary
as the project is nearing completion. I do not
get - A lot of news here, as you might expect,
but I just want to make sure that we are on the
same page going into this next phase. If we are
forced to utilize this weapon, there is no telling
what the reaction will be. Sure, Clearwater gives
us a very clear right of escalation, but we need
to consider that we won't just be striking the
peacekeepers here. We would be striking the corporate
council, we'd be striking bystanders, and with
how things have been going in the city, it's
possible some of your very own people will be
caught up in that as well. I understand more
than most what is at stake here. I understand
that this is one of our only options, that we
are being beaten, and that we are desperate.
I urge you to consider the fallout from this
action more carefully. I know you have sacrificed
so much already. but we must consider that there
is still much to lose. I'll end this message
with a reminder that it is my primary intention
to not have to use the weapon at all. Despite
what Tyrell might be whispering in your ear,
I believe the path of peace is our greatest chance
of emerging from this conflict with our futures
intact. All the best, Pierce Sunspire. Okay.
Recap. Last time, you were all sent to Greywood
Sands, a clustrous town which has, until this
point, been friendly with the Peacekeepers. You
were told by the pilot who previously defended
this town, Jawbone, that after the Clearwater
incident, her frame had been sabotaged, and that
you would need to look over the town in her absence.
You were given a few objectives, one to improve
the town's infrastructure, another to make people
like the peacekeepers more, and the third one
to find out the identities of people in the town
who are allied with the guerrillas who have been
attacking. So far, you've made good progress
on most of these clocks, and where we last left
off, Hex, you had just been approached by the
factory foreman asking for your help to use your
frame to help bring his broken -down truck back
to the factory alongside its cargo of graywood
trees. What do you do? Hex is paranoid after
hearing about car bombs, so he's a little wary.
Uh, sure. I might, is it possible to phone a
friend here? Just so Hex is back up. Alright,
Joseph, are you free? Do you want me to come
with? I mean, the other people, maybe. Anyone
else want to come, Geist? I mean, I can go. I'll
go. I'll just be quiet. You were able to call
in your frame from the tree line? No, you guys
just go. Geist is sleeping in today. Okay. Uh,
sure. I'll come along. Maybe peer out the window
as you, like, do you come and knock on his door
to ask him to go with you? Because we're not
in the same hotel rooms. We're in the group chat.
Maybe he messes you and you just don't respond.
It's just kind of an open invitation, you know?
If anyone, you know. I don't like the idea of
Hex going off alone, so I'm going with him. You
guys still peer out the window like he'll, like,
pull down the blinds and think better of it.
We got our best guys on. I'm going to be on standby,
though. He's going to be basically listening
by the door for distant explosions. Yeah, Hex
gave the distribute to the team. Great. So Joseph
is coming along. Okay. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah,
I think we got it. We got to handle something
first, which is that once Joseph shows up, the
foreman kind of stiffens up a little bit. And
it's like, oh, is that coming with us? Yeah,
he's there in case I need help. You can ask.
Who was the guy we talked to when we had Joseph
fix up the equipment? Captain Grabber. Yeah.
Grabbers. We had him help grabbers the other
day. Don't call him him, call him it. Call him
it. Yeah, that's fine. Just not a... Yeah, whatever.
It's cool. Geist? At this point, Geist is like
listening at the door, because he's like, he's
really curious now. He saw that things turned
sour, and he just like... Opens the door a little
bit and he's like, Hey, Harold, where are you
taking the fucking bolt bucket? Just in case
I need another pair of hands. Alright, well,
don't fuck it up too badly. I need it to help
me scrape some shit off the bottom of my frame
later. You got it. Alright. He goes back in.
Feeling like he contributed to the air of hostility
towards robots. Wow. You've done your part. Yeah,
middle finger in the group chat from Joseph.
Yeah, you... Loyal, are you sleeping in? I suppose
so. Yeah, you go over. His truck is crapped out
in the middle of the road. Okay, and the truck
looks fine? There's some smoke rising out of
it. Okay, well, Hex... Brings his frame over
and picks it up. Could you explain your posture
when you're picking it up? Like reaching over.
Okay. Oh yeah, you pick it up. Okay. I guess
the foreman probably would have asked if you
could ride in the cockpit as you go back to the
factory. If I could? If he could ride in your
cockpit as you go back to the factory. No. Just
flat, cold notes. Make him ride in the cab of
your truck and then throw it. He can ride in
the truck, though. Just not in the frame. Okay.
Where's Joseph? Joseph? How are you tagging along,
Joseph? Are you in your frame or are you just...
Uh, maybe I... There's no room for him in the
cockpit, because I'm in the cockpit, too, you
know? I like that. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure
you have expanded cargo space anyways. Yeah,
you know what? Put me in the trunk, just for,
you know, to make it look like I'm a piece of
shit. Yeah, put him in the fucking trunk with,
like, the tools and shit. That's perfect. Yeah.
Alright. He's in the trunk. Alright, you bring
the truck back without incident. Um, I think,
like, when you put it down, um, like, Chiller,
like, says, hey, could you, uh, come down here
for a second? Alright. Hex goes, and he releases
Joseph from the trunk. Uh, okay. Is Joseph coming
with you to talk to Chiller? Yeah. Yeah, I'll
stick behind him. Like a dutiful robot. I was
hoping we could talk alone. What are you talking
about? He's not a person. Yeah, they can still
listen. Just as much as my frame can. Just, he
kind of looks over at Joseph. You should really
be careful with those. Noted. We keep him on
a tight leash. Yeah, just, uh... Yeah. Alright,
well, I'll see you around. Take it easy. Alright.
That's Joseph. Joseph's not going alone. Hex
isn't, but yeah. Joseph tells Hex, uh, happy
that went well. Me too. Seems a little scary
back there. I don't know if I'm a bit jumpy,
too jumpy these days, but... No, I would have
acted the same way. It was good you called me.
Cool. Great. You can do your things again now,
my friends, if you'd like to. I have a crazy
idea. What's your idea? That Joseph was working
on in the motel last night while you guys were
out at dinner. And I don't know if this works,
but I was trying to come up with a way where
Joseph would get goodwill with the town and help
with propaganda. So my idea is, you can tell
me if this doesn't work, but like... Could we
hold a seminar on how to kill emergent personalities
while Geist teaches and Joseph is like the skeleton?
And then Geist will be telling like, this is
where you attack if they come for you. But all
the information is incorrect. That's a really
good idea. Making fake blood spurt from his robot
parts. Yeah, he's just, like, moving, and then,
like, he'll say shit like, you know, blow up
their hands first, then they get off balance,
and then you could easily kill them, you know,
or some shit like that. Yeah, sure. Okay, cool.
I love this. I think, uh, Joseph's coming back
to your motel door to knock on it, guys. Knock,
knock, knock. Hey, he opens it up. How was your
little, uh, morning mission? Thankfully, nothing.
went well, but the way he treated me gave me
an idea, and I think I might be able to make
the town like us a little bit better. But I require
your help. Alright, what's the plan? Joseph pulls
out a script from his pocket that he was writing
last night. These are directions on how to kill
emergent personalities. I think if we teach the
town... how we can defeat people like me, with
me aiding in the demonstration, they might agree
with us a bit more. And don't worry, all of these
are false. And he pats the paper. All right,
yeah, I think I can do that. What, so we just,
like, you know, hold out a little demonstration
in the town square? I think that would be a good
idea. My only fear is we should try to not invite...
people like Captain Grabber around, I'm worried
that you would be wise to this. Well, we can
judge it up a little. I'll throw some common
sense in there. That's good. Nothing incriminating,
but there's some basics of close quarters combat
that would apply to you as well as anybody. I
know you can handle it. And Joseph nods. Alright,
this is fun. This is a fun idea. let's go hold
this class how to kill me what is this called
what are we going to roll for this i don't i
feel like consort is maybe the one that makes
the most sense you are lying though that is true
but Geist also said these would be half -lives.
He's like, oh, I'll throw in some stuff about
CQC in there. So it's technically right if someone
tries to get wise on us. Geist doesn't really
know the correct from the incorrect ways to kill
a robot specifically, but he does know how to
destroy machines and he does know how to fight.
And all of that information would be factual
because it's not out of the world. I can accept
consort. Yeah. I'm convinced. It's just like,
you know, spreading the word, you know, being
like, all right. Heard that people have some
misgivings about one of our tools. Figured I'd
try to put some fears to rest. Is it happening?
Is it happening right now? Are we live? Does
anybody come? Does anybody show up? Where exactly
are you doing this? I don't know, the big intersection
in town? Somewhere where there's people around.
Spread the word a little bit first. Sure. Maybe
like, hey, we're going to have a little class
on how to do this. Because we've heard talk around
town and we want to help. Sure, yeah. People
gather around for the freak show. Well, I'm not
here to tell you that your misgivings about autonomous
machines are misplaced. They can be quite dangerous,
but in the right hands, they can be quite effective.
And he draws his gun, like a gun. If used in
the wrong way, this can be a hazard to myself
and the people around me, but in the correct
hands, for the correct purpose, it is a useful
tool. Now, the thing I think that you are all
concerned about, maybe, you can correct me if
I'm wrong, this big scary robot. Goes insane.
Starts killing people. Fact of the matter is
they're not really that hard to destroy. They're
not that hard to damage. And they're not that
hard to get away from. They have a bunch of particular
weaknesses. Not relevant to a human attacker.
Now you see this here. He grabs... So his Geist...
I mean, Joseph's like right here beside me, right?
You're going to be my test. Geist is going to
be prodding you and being like... So you see
these hydraulics, they're the weak points. Some
of the joints, this model specifically doesn't
have them, but if they're unshielded, you can
actually force them to fault by bending them
in the wrong direction. And as soon as the motor
faults out, the appendage is basically useless.
And I'm going to dramatically collapse when he
touches me there. And release steam that it doesn't
even do anything. So yeah, Geist is going to
give, I won't go through the whole thing, but
just basically he's going to make it showy. He's
going to, you know, maybe like... flip him or
just do like some of the basic like close combat
training stuff that he would have received like
just like basic judo stuff but on a robot you
know flip him around a little bit throw him around
he's gonna talk he's never going to call him
him he's always going to call him it or the object
the machine and uh make it very apparent that
he doesn't be or he's going to try and basically
be as calloused as he can just be you know whipping
him around uh i don't give a shit about this
thing The information is not completely useless,
but the point of the demonstration isn't to show
people how to kill robots or to lie about it,
it's to show them all that he doesn't give a
shit. Sure, yeah. Let's see it. Do you want to
assist me, Joseph? Yeah, definitely do. What
do I have to do for that? Actually, let me look
at your sheet. I have two relations with him,
but I think he only has one relation with me.
I have two relations with Geist. Okay. That's
two stress to help, but you get two benefits,
Geist. Nice. So does that mean I get increased
effect as well, or what? It does. Oh, shit. Wait,
I take two stress? Yeah, because you're helping
me. Okay. If I take two, then I'm one off from
Harmon. Welcome to the club. Yeah, but for this,
since this idea is too much fun, I will do this.
Watch me fail. So I do that. Control the greats.
Six. Yeah, success. Wow. Very good. We hate our
emergent personalities, don't we? Badass. At
the end of the demonstration, Joseph's going
to give a hearty unit offline as he hits the
ground. As somebody gets this fucking thing out
of here. Yeah, people buy it. Absolutely. They're
like, whoa, I had no clue that you could bend
it the wrong way to make it break. That's so
awesome. Can I try? And, like, a line forms,
like, can I try? Unfortunately, this is military
hardware, and my ass is on the line if we bust
it up too bad. But, uh... Yeah, I think people
want to take pictures. Can I take a picture of
you killing the robot? Yeah, yeah, sure. He sends
a text to you. He says, just poke me in the back
and I'll put up bunny ears. Yeah, you do some
good photo ops with everyone. Yeah, we're learning
propaganda, guys. People have a better view of
you. They think of you less as, I don't know,
whatever they think of you as. Robot fuckers.
Who knows? Yeah. Who knows? Let me see if I can
get anything else here. Good propaganda bump.
Very good propaganda bump for that. A great effect.
Awesome. I think, like, someone comes up to you.
I don't know if this person has a name, but,
like, essentially says, I had no clue the Seoul
Union was so aligned. We thought you were...
Just kind of letting these things roam free.
Look, we're not... I'm not going to pretend that
the Soul Union is a homogenous group, all right?
You know, we got people with all kinds of views.
It's not like we screen people, but, you know,
take it from me. And this actually is absolutely
not a lie at all because of what he's gone through
with Wycliffe. They take these things real seriously
and they keep them on a tight chain. Him even
being here with us so far away from Central Command
is a bit of an outlier, but we've been deemed
qualified handlers. Awesome. People are more
enthusiastic about killing robots, but they like
you for it. Maybe that wasn't quite the right
thing to do, but in the short term, it was a
big success. We'll be out of here in a bit, all
right? We don't have a chance to kill the robot.
Okay. What do Loyal and Hex are you interested
in? Hmm. What's going on in town presently, and
also with the Peacekeepers? What are the activities?
Um... There is still, like, some fighting on
the east side. I mean, like, potshots. Uh...
People are... You know, going about their business,
it's not like a war zone here. It's mostly just
secluded on that east side. The peacekeepers
are just patrolling for the most part. Maybe
you see like a ship come in from orbit to pick
up some crafts from the factory at some point.
The civilians here are afraid of the guerrilla
soldiers and are not pro -guerrilla soldier for
the most part, right? You haven't really asked.
but from who we've seen talk so far, it seems
like they're not fans of the gorillas. They really
fell off after demon dates. Is there any other
stuff we can help out with? I'm looking at the
map and I'm like, maybe the docks? Yeah, you
can even make up shit. Like, can I help unload
a fish truck? Like, sure. Can I look for some
cargo usage for his frame for the day? Yeah,
sure. Let me think of something interesting that
you can do. It's actually really cool, because
Harold's frame specifically is like a workhorse,
right? It looks probably most like a utility
frame than out of all of ours. That is partially
true. It's also like the face of the Soul Union's
frame division, because it's just the default.
And if it's seen doing something helpful, like
picking up fish snacks, it could be good. It's
like a soldier handing out chocolate bars. Exactly.
Yeah, I think, like, let's say the ship came
in, and they're like, hey, can you... I'll do
Chiller. Chiller says, hey, do you mind helping
us out, load this ship up of our shit? Sure thing.
And Hex goes and does that. Um... Just like roll...
I don't know what this would be. I guess you're
being amicable. You probably do consort. I can
see that. Alright, is this controlled? Controlled
standard. Oh my god, look at that. Success! Big
money. Actually, he's going to fill the propaganda
clock. Yeah! Play for the objective, everyone.
I'm going to now clear it. I'll make a note.
Got one full delicious propaganda cheese wheel.
Easy. Yeah, you do. You very much ingratiate
yourself to these people. You load a bunch of
furniture and other craft goods into the ship,
which you learn is just kind of like it is going.
off -planet, picks a bunch of stuff, brings it
into orbit, and that all goes back to be sold
on various other places. All this furniture is
very expensive. There's a market for handmade
clusterist stuff. A clusterist -made chair is
something people brag about at dinner parties.
They make such good chairs. They don't even use
screws. remember that Bluth has something or
has spoken about this before? Bluth probably
has spoken about it before. If you want a Bluth
moment, I bet he had a thing where he was talking
about how it's not even that cool. These are
the trappings of the upper middle class. You
get one chair and you brag about it to all your
friends while you eat a shitty dinner. The real
good shit is you need to be getting actual alien
stuff like i have a chair made from the leather
of a of an alien that no one's ever seen before
uh and he has like yeah that's that's his view
on it um but yes these these are nice chairs
maybe just maybe you get a little like wooden
carving from chiller that's thanks wow what's
the carving of what do you want it to be of I
want it to be one of the trees. Great. It's a
tree tree tree carving. It's a carving of Geist
doing a suplex on Joseph in like excruciating
detail and his head's exploding. It's like a
Dwarf Fortress carving. It depicts a cyborg suplexing
a robot. We've been propped. Ganded. The robot
is making a plaintive gesture. The robot is screaming.
The A lot of people seem to be happy with you
guys now. It did not take very long. You did
very well. But they are warming up to you. People
are kind of just, like, cool with coming to you
just to, like, ask about the Peacekeepers. I
think you definitely get some sign -ups for the
Garrison. People are just like, okay, these people
aren't so bad. Let's help defend. Yeah, I wanted
to say, at the Knights, Sunday would probably
be... taking his frame since it's so big and
inspiring looking and just kind of standing over
by the east and i'm assuming that the guerrilla
warfare people don't have anything that could
or wait they killed a friend recently didn't
they uh someone drove a car full of bombs into
a frame inside the city i see well If Sunleth
is feeling confident about being able to identify
a car full of bombs before it hits him, he would
just be standing at the east garrison, just holding
the shield of his frame in front of it, not doing
anything, just being there. Do you want to roll
something? Yeah, I also wanted to say he would
be kind of going a little fuzzy around the edges
with his psychic abilities, trying to... Figure
things out about the guerrilla soldiers. Yes,
what should I roll for this? If your main goal
is to try to seek out them, then I would say
roll scan. Oh, that is something I can do that
doesn't involve violence. I forgot. You can always
scan. I just need to go sit in my front. Use
my 360 sonar quirk to make the scan better. This
will be risky, though, since you are on the front
lines. Yeah, so we got Sonar on. He's in defense
mode, standing around the soldiers, trying to
protect them. And we are rolling, and nothing
bad is going to happen. Critical six! Oh my god!
Holy shit. Holy fuck. That's two sixes. Two sixes
on two dice. That's not... You don't get better
than that. One in 36 chance. Yeah, maybe three
ticks in the gorilla's discovered clock. That's
out of eight. You kind of put your psychic feelers
out in the forest. You feel like some kind of
dots of people who are like perched in trees
looking at you through like presumably sniper
scopes, not firing because you're a giant frame.
And then you kind of feel like from them almost
like a web. something reaching back towards deeper
in the forest maybe to like the north east i
would say um nothing concrete like you don't
have like a dot on your mini map telling you
where it is but you do have a cone that very
much helps if you wanted to find these people
good good to know all right you also get the
impression that they hate you very much of course
Get over yourselves. I'm sure he's used to that
by now. Okay. We have done... Who hasn't gone
yet? I count Geist and Joseph together as one
thing. His trick was today, right? Yeah. Loyal
hasn't done... Oh, and Loyal did something...
I stood there. Do you want to send your goons
to do anything? Do we have anyone specialized
in, like, tracking, spying, now that I have this
cone information? That was your sparrows. Infiltrator.
Yeah, I got him shot up. Yeah, they're at minus
1d now, which means they'll be rolling two dice
and taking all of us. Ah, no, they'll die. They
will die if I send them anywhere. So? You could
send, um... This is an idea. You could send Spud
to train the new recruits you got from propaganda.
Oh, that's true. I feel like we should utilize
Spud. What would happen if we just took all our
frames out to the northeast? Just didn't send
any. You would destroy the trees there. That
is true. Or they would destroy you. They're very
big trees. Hmm. Okay. What a cool city. I can
fly over top just to try and rattle them, but
unless I start blasting down into the woods,
it's kind of toothless. Well, Spud? Hey, man.
What's up? Oh, God. We got some new recruits.
Can you help us out? Really whip them into shape?
Yeah, man. Let me just finish this future blunt
real quick. My noise cancelling is taking it
out. Let me turn off crisp. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah,
that's really good. Okay, one sec. Is he drugs
on the job? That's not cool. Oh, trust me, dude.
I shoot way better when I'm high. Trust me. Just
listen to him. Watch this. He throws up the roach
of the blunt in the air and he takes that with
one shot from his pistol. Okay, that's kind of
cool. He's cool. I have to admit, that's actually
pretty fucking cool. Told you. Alright. I'll
go train these fuckers. These turncoat, clustrous
bastards. Can't even stay loyal to their own
side. They make me fucking sick, but I'll train
them because I follow orders. That's what I do.
I'm loyal. Spud, Spud, you better compartmentalize
that. You're psychic. Yeah, I know. About what?
All of that. No, that's all true. No, no. So
he actually trained them? Yeah. Of course. He's
loyal. That's his squad's trait you gave him,
is that they are loyal. What are they? They're
loyal, but principled. Oh. What are his principles?
Sounds familiar. Have a good time? never do anything
that makes you look uncool exactly uh yeah let's
roll me a d6 for his uh tier here we go this
is not not very dangerous here we go because
he fucked it up it's bad it was bad it was a
two oh no uh yeah spud i think maybe his He's
not very good at communicating to people who
aren't soldiers. I think he was thinking of them
more as soldiers combatants because he thinks
they're kind of already the enemy. So he assumes
that they're all like trained. And so he doesn't
do a great job. And maybe he gets a little frustrated
as frustrated as he can get. OK, I think that's
we can move to the next time segment. Nice. Number
three. Number three. So, stepping out of your
rooms in the morning, you immediately see that
on the side of the large apartment complex on
the other side of the street, there is a newly
painted mural depicting a blood -filled crater,
and in the center of that crater is a gigantic
flagpole bearing the flag of the Seoul Union.
Beneath the mural is the text saying, Remember
Clearwater Crater. A few garrison members are
kind of hanging out on the motel balcony looking
at it as you come out, and one of them kind of
says, Fucking hell. That's a terrible picture.
Composition's all off. Look at the way the crater's
framed. Yeah, it doesn't... Why is there blood
in there? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah,
I was watching that. I don't get it. Fucking
morons. God. I mean, that's bad. I'm going to
be reducing some clocks now. No. No, my cheese
wheel. Propaganda already ticked over, but imagine
that it is unticked a little bit. I didn't know
you could reduce clocks. Oh, I can do anything.
It's so sad. Can we undiscover the gorillas?
No, you don't undiscover the gorillas. Delete
that information from Sunlit's mind somehow.
They went deeper in the woods. There is perhaps
some people acting to do things. We should go
investigate the insurgency team. We should try
and win back a little goodwill as well. We lost
our full cheese wheel. I think we need to get
a tick or two back. Two of us go look for the
troubled kid maybe and the other two go do a
good deed. I think the PR angle should be that
the people who caused the tragedy at The Crater
are war criminals, and the Soul Union is in the
process of apprehending them. Look at that. Geist
is a born spin doctor. Again, none of this is
technically a lie. He's just omitting the part
where it was us. When we find this guy, I tell
you. They're gonna really make him suffer. Yeah,
I think we gotta destroy the cell for sure. What
do you want to do? What do you want to do? I
feel like we should probably we don't want anybody
to go off alone now. We're definitely going to
want to split into pairs at least. But the question
is, who does Joseph go with? I probably shouldn't
go with the propaganda people. I might be able
to assist with searching for the cell. I feel
like that might be talky, though. We should probably
do, like, the one xenophobic party member with
each non -xenophobic party member. I will say,
as a Joseph fan, personally, you definitely could
look for the cell. I have visions in my mind
of you crawling on rooftops at night. That's
all I'm going to say. Yeah, I was going to say,
like, I am an infiltrator, exactly, so I could
go looking. I just have to be real careful not
to get caught. Do it at night. That's a good
idea. That's a really good idea. You're a little
spider. You're a little spider robot. Yeah, but
it is the next day. Yeah, yeah. This covers a
two -day period, so you can say, I'm doing this
at night, and that'll be your thing. Okay, sure.
I'm down with that. Should we do that now, then?
Yeah, why don't we do it? Why don't we fucking
do it? Let's prowl, bro. Let's fucking prowl.
You want to fucking prowl? You want to see me
fucking prowl, buddy? They call him the prowler.
Risky standard? Yeah, this is definitely a risky
situation. Okay. And this is definitely a prowl.
Partial. Thank God. Yeah. There is... So what
does this look like? I was thinking... Maybe...
I... So this is the day. This is the night after
we saw the mural, right? Mm hmm. I was wondering,
like, what if I inspect the mural like all night
long to see if anyone's like walking around that
area or like I could find like, OK, clearly,
like someone's been looking at this for a very
long time. I should follow that guy. Like I was
wondering if I inspect that area, I might be
able to find something. Sure. I think you you
kind of like prowl on it. It gets dark. It's
not like lit up by any lights. But I imagine
you have some sort of, like, fucking night vision,
whatever. I'm hand -weighted. But a guy does
come out and, like, gets a little, like, repelling
gear out and starts, like, touching it up. Oh,
no. Kill him. I can't kill him yet, but I will
take a picture of him and I'll send it in the
group chat and say, like, we got something going
on right now. Just forgetting to turn off the
flash on his phone camera. Let me just set up
the tripod here. Is this someone you try to follow?
Yeah, I'll try to follow. I mean, is he sticking
around? Is he leaving, I guess, now? He leaves.
Okay, yeah, I'll follow him from the rooftops.
You follow this guy to a house. I think. Well,
actually, it would be the apartment complex.
He lives in an apartment. The bottom floor. Unfortunately,
you can't really follow a guy inside an apartment
very well without some prior setup. So I think
I'll just do lesser effects in this case. Okay.
So you have two ticks out of six for cell discovered.
Nice. I'll get little pictures of where he walked
in and tell my compatriots in the morning what
went on. Nice. I was thinking a good way that
might give us some leads on the cell and also
might ingratiate us is if Loyal actually does
want to go to the Clusterist service, which I
think he did. Maybe see if they'll let you go
now that... I mean, I know it's kind of bad timing
with the big blood crater picture, but they still
do like us quite a bit. Of course. Maybe give
it a shot. Geist is not going. Geist will not
go. No? No. What's he afraid of? Joseph will
go. Okay, fine. Sure, I'll come. Geist is afraid
of what it will do to his mind. He's afraid of
what they'll see. That's why he should go. Oh.
If they're getting invited, if they get the invitation
and Guy's like, okay, don't let you go do this
on your own. Report back. Yeah, see what you
can find. Maybe see if you can't feel out the
infiltrators or whatever, you know. Good luck.
You're qualified to handle this, I think. Can
you do gather information roles? on player characters
that's a great question uh uh i don't i'm well
this is between you two so you guys can hash
it out what is it you want to what is it you
want to know because he's not very uh hiding
his emotions they've spent enough time together
for this to be not a psychic thing it almost
just gives him a like a curious look and it's
like what are you afraid of What do you mean,
what am I afraid of? You know what this fucking
shit does? Remember the 12 -year -old girl who
got her legs broken trying to kill us? That's
what this shit does. Geist doesn't know that
Loyal took that person in as a personal project,
right? That's all been kept completely secret
from the squad, I think. Oh, yes, he hasn't told
anyone about any of this. Yeah, so he just mentions
it flippantly. Yeah, he keeps that under wraps
and just wraps a little bit and is like... The
psychic abilities for those who are not as trained
in them or not as naturally gifted can seem frightening
to others, but it's something that I think everyone
should experience at least once in their life.
And if you are with me, I will help you. What
about all the peacekeepers who defected, huh?
What about Jupiter? That son of a bitch. I bet
you he went to one of these. Maybe that's when
they fucking flipped him. I don't know if that
will happen here. Yeah, you don't know, and that's
why I'm not fucking going. Do you remember when,
what was the guy's name who talked to us when
I did my song? Oh, the nice man. Twofold. Twofold.
The man, Twofold, he said something that stuck
out to me, and which was the truth. And you know
that I can tell the truth. But he said he works
here to do something different. To instill a
different kind of being in the people here. And
that's why I would be honored and I would encourage
you to attend this with me. I really don't think
it's a... Good idea. I don't got a lot good going
on upstairs. You know what I mean? I haven't
exactly lived a comfortable life, you know what
I mean? Most people don't have anything good
going on upstairs, Geist. He would say most people
don't have anything good going on upstairs, Garrett.
That's why these are important. None of us are
alone. I'll go. But, alright, if anything starts
seeming strange, you need to pull both of us
out immediately. You have my word. I will do
this for you. Unconditionally. Yeah, Geist is
gonna go. He got Shanghai'd. Yeah, got him. We're
killing this guy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think you
go to Twofold and he tells you that there will
be a... Actually, we should do this in character.
I should fucking do it in character. Okay. You
go to Twofold and he says, oh, hello, you two
again. How's it going? It's going well. And yourself?
Oh, great. I quite enjoyed your show about the
killing the robots. Yeah, some people might like
that one. It's a classic. Does your offer still
stand? Oh, of course, yes. You're all welcome
to come. When will it be happening? Tomorrow
night would be the next one. We will be there.
Excellent. I hope to see you all then. Is your...
His name was Harold. Is he coming? Do we want
Harold to come? I don't know. We'll find out.
Mr. Twofold, this will be a first experience
for many of my companions if they choose to come.
Do you have any advice for my friend here in
particular? Hmm. Well, don't fight the waif.
Hmm. Alright. That's good. That's good shit,
man. Jolly good. You do... I'm not going to make
you roll for the communion quite yet, so you
can still do productive things if you would like.
Sure. Geist is treating this like a serious operation.
If Harold is not going, then he's going to be
like, look, these are the times. This is our
exit route. All right, you need to be on standby.
If you hear anything's amiss, he'll set up a
series of codes. This means come with your frame
and blow the top off the church. This means come
bring us a fast exit. Come and do a second drive
-by wellness check or something. He's treating
it like it's something serious and very dangerous,
because he believes it is. All of this down.
He's just doing it very dutifully, word by word.
You're so heard right now, Geist. Okay, so Hex,
you already helped out. Honestly, I should have
been keeping track. After the graffiti, has it
only Joseph gone so far? Yeah. What are the rest
of you want to do? I think... Let me look at...
Let me look at the clocks. I'm going to look
at my sheet and see what I've got. I don't want
to just consort again. So we're back to cheese
wheel propaganda right after... No, we're not.
Consider that... I'll just mark it like this.
You're like 7 out of 8. Okay. Then yeah, it might
be just another fill -the -cheese -wheel day
for Hex if they're going to a cult ritual and
Joseph is spying. I think the occult ritual doesn't
count for our thing, is what Common is saying.
Oh, okay. You're doing propaganda again, Hex?
Yeah. Alright, what are you doing this time?
We did fish time, we did trees, uh... I guess
maybe... He helps... Like, what might be fucked
up around the barracks and the motel that he
can help out with? Maybe like a fence that he's
putting up. Cleaning up some graffiti, maybe?
I mean, would that fill the clock if we cleaned
up the graffiti? Depends how you roll, really.
I can't imagine that regardless of his feelings,
the apartment... Or wait, the apartment's different
than the motel. Never mind. Whoever runs this
apartment probably isn't crazy about having a
huge bloody mural to an atrocity on the side.
That's a good point. What if we... Oh no, that's
the motel. Never mind, sorry. If we asked them,
what would they say? There isn't an owner to
the apartment. Okay. Then maybe better luck with
putting up a fence. All I'm saying... Hey, you
put up a fence at the motel, and you get a meat.
You get to meet him. You get to meet Guy. Guy
Drury. He emerges. It's our interaction. Creeps
out of the shadows. He emerges from a door. One
of those doors that doesn't have a knob. It just
has a lock on it. He creeps out of it. He approaches
you as you put up a fence. He's like, I'm putting
up a fence, are we? Yeah. I like to keep my patrons
in. Oh, me, I'm Guy. You can call me Mr. Dreary.
Dr. Dreary, doesn't that sound good? I'm the
owner of this little establishment. Cool. Well,
I hope you like this fence. Now listen, you strike
me as a businessman. Go on. It's just, you know,
this motel. I have a series of motels throughout
the region, actually. I see about... Listen,
we all know... which direction this conflict
is going. Let's be real here. And I think that
Terebrae is going to be the biggest tourist destination
of the decade. All I need from you is a small
investment of capital, and I can guarantee you
will be a rich, rich man. I appreciate the offer,
but I'm not exactly a money guy. Are you sure?
You're certain? Can you give them a little thumbs
up? Yep. I guess I misjudged you then. Your loss.
He kind of walks away. He walks away from you
in a very, very strange way. Wow, he's slinking.
He's slinking. And he disappears back into a
different locked door. The fuck? What was he
wearing? I imagine like a cartoony villain like
tuxedo. Here's the worst part. You don't remember.
Damn, he's forgettable. He was so forgettable,
but you can't forget his business proposition.
It lingers in your head. That's fucking wild.
What a fun little guy. Yeah, I guess roll to
put up a fence. What's that? Fence roll. Uh,
fucking, I don't know, consort. Roll your offense.
Whatever. I guess I get how it could be consort
because technically the objective isn't to put
up a fence. The objective is to be seen putting
up a fence and make people like you. Yeah, you're
right. Alright. I'm going to put you in a risky
position, but you get it done. Sweet. you notice
you're like putting out the fence and like there's
some people who are like oh that's so nice that
this fence is up um and then you kind of see
like some people just like too far away to do
anything about it just like pointing at you and
whispering and it's like making a mean face damn
that's a bad vibe can hex make out who those
might be or anything about them do you want to
make another roll in a risky position Answer
very carefully. No, I do not. Okay. I mean, you're
in a Romanian university position regardless.
But, you know, I would let you try to follow
these people. Hex is just going to take a chill
round. Cool. Do we want to go to the... Oh, you
guys are going to design Hex and... Yeah, I was
going to say, do we get actions? I have an idea
for one. I was going to roll engineer to try
and set up some subtle closed circuit cameras
around to try and grab snippets of people being
sketchy. You know what I mean? Right, I got one
dot in engineer. I'm going to finally engineer
something. I didn't fail! Oh my god! That's a
partial! Beautiful. Yeah, you... Where are you
trying to put him up? Is this Oliver? Yeah, just
like please anywhere that like So places that
it wouldn't be in places that wouldn't be too
conspicuous. So like maybe like the idea is to
get the hardware set up in such a way that he
can kind of just set it and forget it. So he
like prepares everything like in his hotel room
and then he can just like kind of drop a care.
But I think he's going to focus on places that
he's allowed to be doing stuff. So like the barracks
and anywhere the soldiers are. But like so like
he's setting up like a camera in the sniper tower,
but it's like facing back towards the city rather
than out into the woods. You know what I mean?
Stuff like that. And then maybe like some around
if he can get away with it. The point is he doesn't
want them to be discovered. Yeah. Or like destroyed
or whatever. Okay. I'm going to put you in a
risky position too. Cool. I love to be risky.
Loyal. Do you want to do anything? That's what
I'm thinking about. I don't know. Did I get any
ticks for doing that? Oh yes, you did. On my
bed. Two ticks. What else can an empath do in
a little town like this? Could I convince you
to make that one cell discovered ticket one infrastructure
ticket instead of two infrastructure? Oh, sure.
No, I think that's a better suggestion. For the
viewers. Cell discovered, three out of six. Infrastructure,
three out of six. Propaganda full. Gorillas discovered,
three out of eight. We're getting somewhere.
Actually, no, I'm not going to put you in a risky
position. I changed my mind. Instead, what happens
is while you're working on these CCTV cameras,
you're just doing some basic wiring, nothing
too crazy, and you get a little electric shock.
um just like you know your finger brushes against
the wire happens all the time um and you for
a second you are seeing out of the cameras on
the changeling um just like a second and i'm
gonna tick your fragmenting clock by one instead
okay uh no if i um i will trauma out if i take
even one piece of stress that's true isn't it
Yeah. We're so fucked. Everything's going well
so far. Remember, wait, you can slack off. Maybe
you can blow off steam. Hey, I can blow off some
steam. Can Sunlift do something to help Geist
have less stress? I feel like I already took
my action. It's too late. Yeah. I mean, you could.
I haven't taken mine. Well, no, he's spending
this time doing cameras. You can't really make
him de -stress while he does that. Get a massage.
You could de -stress if you want. Do I even have
any stress? I have some. Yeah. That's up to you.
If you don't have a lot, it is possible to overindulge.
That is a risk. I have four. Yeah, I want to
try to find the insurgency cell. Alright, what
does that look like? That's a good question because
I've been here a while. I've been putting out
psychic tendrils, feeling out different attitudes
of the town. Mostly just like Going about basic
activities, light load, just in his exopod, no
gear on it, no weapons on it. Just trying to,
like, pick up anything out of the ordinary and
gather information from this. Sure. I can take
that if you give me, like, a survey or whatever.
Let's survey. Surveying the brain. You are controlled.
Okay. Love to be controlled. Parcel. Good, good,
good. You can retry or you can take the partial.
Hmm. I would not. If you retry, you're missing
for a one and six. And you might just fail instead.
I think I'll just take partial. It's fine. Great.
You are kind of casting a wide net out. Yeah,
there's some people that you see, I think. You
get like this scent of fear, I guess I would
call it. and you get this guy who's been kind
of cornered by a couple of other citizens on
an alleyway somewhere, and they're trying to
pressure him into something, as you can tell,
and he's kind of whiffling about. Eventually
they leave, and he's just kind of taking a breath.
You can approach him if you'd like. Is he afraid
right now? Yeah. Trying to think about how to
approach someone afraid in an alleyway as a large
metal floating being. Not make them more afraid.
Pick the ass of the people cornering them. Just
do your exopod kung. I feel like actually fighting
in an exopod is you just drive into people and
then their bones break because it's like being
hit by a Prius. Where did these people go? They
left. They went towards the factory. Yeah, I
want to intercept them with an earshot of this
guy. Okay. What do you say? Like, are they trying
to, like, leave this area quickly? No. Not suspiciously?
They're wandering off. I guess, like, if you
block their path, they're like, what the fuck
do you want? That would be nonchalant. Be like,
I don't want anything. What are you two up to
today? We're just in our town. Mm -hmm. Hanging
out in a dark alley. Are we being detained? oh
my god it's this guy oh god yes something just
doesn't answer this and he's like so if i were
to round this corner i would not find a terrified
man there who would tell me that he was just
being antagonized by two individuals with your
description what what is this what what what
do you what do you think you're doing dolphin
huh do you think that you're you're helping out
doing doing a good deed here He floats closer
to them menacingly. He's very large, so this
would be a little menacing. Oh, by the way, your
consequence is that you're in a risky position.
You should go. And is Intimidate a roll here?
No. Intimidate is a roll, but I would take it
as a sway too. Make it a little easier for you.
Yeah, I want to do a sway. I have two dots in
that. Convince them to chip themselves and run
away. Exactly. Oh, another critical success!
What the fuck? He's on fire tonight. Yeah. Fuck.
I guess what they say is... That is so improbable.
I know. You guys are on fire tonight. Especially
you. Um, they kind of just, like, shrink back.
And they're just like, whatever. We'll see how
fucking big and strong you are in a couple days,
freak. And they walk away. Mm -hmm. Yeah, I would.
In a couple days. What does that mean? I'll take
note of that. Then I would go to look in the
alley and see if that guy's okay. Not, like,
approach him too much, but just kind of be within
view of him. Yeah, he says, oh, God, hello, officer.
Are you all right? Oh, I'm fine. Just some troublemakers
trying to drag me into their trouble, you know?
What kind of trouble were they trying to drag
you into? Maybe I could help. Are you sure? I
can always try. There's, I think, I think something
bad's going on, you know? I know. There's, um,
they were, they were telling me that I had to
get on board with something. Something's going
on in the factory. I don't know. Just tell me
what they said to you. You don't have to worry
about anything else. They said that I needed
to make a choice of whose side I was on. and
I needed to make it soon. And then they said
that I should be at the factory for a meeting
a couple of nights, or else something bad's going
to happen to me. I understand. Thank you for
telling me you should go home. Do you need anyone
to help you get there? No, I'm fine. My name's
Howler, by the way. Hello, Howler. My name is
Sunleth. You're nice for a dolphin. Thank you.
What the fuck is that supposed to mean, dude?
Slap him. How many dolphins does this guy know?
And that completes your self -discovered clock.
We got him! You can do more with that if you
check in with Howler again. I'll tell you more
later. I think we have to get to the fucking
ritual now, don't we? Yeah. Uh -oh. So, did you
guys talk to Hex about it? Does Hex want to go?
No. Hex doesn't want him to go because he wants
somebody who's ruthless on standby. Alright.
Let's get to it. So, the... The temple is in
the bottom floor of this giant apartment building.
There are these two double doors made out of
that gray wood material. It is a large room,
very simple. The ceiling isn't vaulted or anything.
It's the same height as an apartment ceiling
would be. It's like they cleared out everything
on this bottom floor for this room. The ground
is covered in these kneel pillows, which are
arranged in a kitten -centric circle. The room
itself is... uh pretty barren except for that
there are some tables at the edge that have like
waters and snacks on them and they seem to serve
kind of as like a rest area um most people are
kind of taking their place in the circle with
on these pillows they are socializing with each
other as everyone's filtering in some people
are kind of moving towards the edges and mingling
around the tables um you do get a couple of strange
looks no one like antagonizes you but there's
definitely some weirdness here. Twofold comes
up to both of you and says, oh, it is so good.
No, that's not his voice. It's like, it's so
good to see both of you here. Let me help you
figure this out. So basically, you're just going
to kind of take your place in the circle. You
can sit wherever you want. And then once everyone's
here, we're going to join hands. And then that's
when it's going to get started. How's guys feeling
about all this right now? Geist is profoundly
uncomfortable. He's, like, he's real tense. Yeah.
Something with, take note of this, and he's just
gonna, like, whatever the dolphin equivalent
of, like, a smile in the eyes. It gives a look
to Geist and gives him, like, not a physical
touch on the shoulder, like a pat on the shoulder,
but, like, a psychic one. There's, like, not,
like, actually intrusive into the mind, just,
like, surface level. Like, it's gonna be okay.
Just stay with me. Geist is worried, as I am
actually in real life, that with all the psychic
weirdness that's happened with the King Returneth
and with Retribution especially being able to
detect his presence in weird ways, he's worried
that this is going to make something bad happen
and he's having immediate regrets, but he's not
going to back out. But he doesn't ease up at
all when you pat him on the shoulder. What's
your load? Light. Okay. No visible weapons, presumably.
No, no, I didn't come in here with, like, a shotgun
strapped on my back. Just in case. They would
probably tell you to get rid of it. AK -47, how
much a pilot lay? Let's go. Twofold says, this
should work with your augments, and likewise
for you. Did you tell him your name's Sunleth
or Loyal? I think he's just been going by Sunleth.
He's not even staying loyal anymore. He's slowly
and slowly been going away from that. And Sunleth,
your suit or whatever that is, that should work
too. You don't have to worry about skin contact.
It doesn't work like that. Interesting. I see.
Okay, so just take a seat here. Garrett, you
just kneel and then Sunleth, I guess. Can you
get lower than that? yeah yeah i could just probably
would go and just set the exopod down maybe move
the pill out of the way because it will get crushed
and damaged from the weight of this thing but
he just kind of goes on the floor as close to
the floor as he can without damaging whatever
is underneath okay um yeah there's some people
on either side of you um you two are holding
hands and then there is like On each side of
you is another Clusterist who is, like, holding
your hand. I think one of them is, like, trying
to figure out how to hold your big Exopod hands.
It kind of just, like, settles with, like, grabbing
it like a baby would hold, like a finger. Oh,
that's cute. And, you know, people start to quiet
down, and you get this, I guess you could call
it, it's not a tingle, it's like there is a light
that is starting to bloom inside of your body.
That is the first sensation you are feeling.
And Loyal, you're an open -minded person, so
you're fine, but I think Geist, this would be
your last chance to get out. Oh, shit. I don't
know. I think he's going to stay in. What I want
to say for the entirety of this is that whatever
the equivalent ability that I can do in this
situation, I don't know how a Clusterist Psychic
Communion goes, but this only would be just...
projecting this kind of, like, safety barrier
over, like, him and Geist throughout it, but
just, like, mostly concentrated on Geist to just
do whatever he can to make this as less terrifying
as possible for his friend. Okay. Um... It begins.
So people go quiet, and this, like, this bright
feeling kind of blossoms in you. It makes you
feel, I guess, seen almost like there are like
a light being shown from like inside of you out.
Like there's no place where any part of you can
really hide is like the immediate sensation.
A loyal, as someone who's more experienced with
psychic phenomenon, this is kind of different
than you're used to. Instead of a broader feeling
of connection with the universe and all that
entails, this is very insular, secluded. It's
kind of like a nomadic sanctuary of spirit that
exists physically in this place where you are,
which is very different than the more free -floating
feeling of psychic, if that makes sense. It does.
Okay. you both get a lot of flashes of images
and memories. And meanwhile, you begin to start
seeing through the eyes of those around you and
getting all their feelings as well. Like some
people close their eyes for this. So you see
like inside of other people's eyelids, kind of
feel your face on their face. And you get, these
emotions too like you feel like a mother who
is holding hands with her child in this moment
you feel people who are like afraid of like you
feel fear of yourself like there's someone sitting
somewhere in here who's like afraid like why
are there two soldiers here like this is scary
I have a quick question is everybody around actually
feeling Geist's feelings his real feelings it
does feel that way I think then it would be a
good idea to point out that inside Geist's head
is constant, incredibly acute mental turmoil.
It's a really, really, just really bad place
to be. It's not good. We'll get there. You feel
a lot of emotions. You feel this someone in here
was killed by a Peacekeeper. um like like just
like straight up like like not in in a way at
least in this person's mind it was not like in
combat he was like killed just like like a wanton
act of cruelty and he is like actively imagining
how much he would like to kill you too um but
at the same time it feels like you yourself are
feeling that directed at yourself you're plotting
your own death essentially And I guess for you
guys, as someone who is in this awful state of
turmoil all the time, it is, I would only describe
it as blissful that you are being deluded. Like
all your shit and trauma is being spread out
amongst everyone here. And parts of them are
replacing a lot of those parts of yourself. Like
I said, you're experiencing the joys of motherhood.
Congratulations, guys. How much do you like your
lunch? You feel that feeling. Oh, my God, I love
that sandwich, even though you haven't been able
to eat a sandwich for years. And you are experiencing
all these other emotions, positive and negative,
all at once, both as yourself and as these other
people. Um, some of them are glad you were here.
Some of them are like disgusted by you. Some
are plotting your own death at this very moment.
As I said, like multiple of them are like, they're
thinking like, I cannot wait to kill these fuckers
and get them out of my town to not have to deal
with them. Um, and like some part of you is almost
like, I will get into the details of what they're
plotting for your death because you will forget
them after this. Um, but it's like you chime
in and it's like, Well, actually, that's not
a good way to do it. If you wanted to kill me,
you need to, like, don't make any announcements.
Just shoot me in the head. Like, I know you want
to say about your, like, dead father, but trust
me, it'll feel better if you do this. And, like,
you feel that person say back to you, like, oh,
that's actually a really good point. Thank you.
And, like, he knows it's you who's telling him
this, which is perhaps the strangest part. And,
like... You get this feeling of these people
who hate dolphins. They think that, like, they
are the perfect representation of the soul union's
interaction with the Clusterists. Like, this
alien thing, they say, oh, we understand, but
they really don't. And now you are in this most
sacred of ceremonies. And then, kind of gradually,
this kind of spreading out feeling begins to
pass and things become even less distinct. It's,
like, blended together. This, like, instant,
complete coexistence of all in attendance. Even
those who are, like, not holding hands. Like,
the ones who are, like, at the tables. Like,
you get, like, these vague impressions of them.
You feel someone, like, bite into a saltine vaguely.
And beyond the edge of this gathering, there
is nothing. Like, not nothing in, like, the grand
cosmic nothing, but just, like... There's nothing
out there that can get you. And you feel perhaps
one of the most strong feelings that everyone
is sharing is that how thankful they are is that
they are alone here. And that like it is by the
prophet's grace and her teachings that they know
how to be safe in this place. And this feeling
kind of stretches back really far, like back
to Earth, back to like other colonies. You get
this impression of. The people who came to Terebrea,
they didn't just, like, bring themselves. They
brought every communion they've ever had packed
into them, which kind of unfurls here. You kind
of get a very good idea of how this works, where
each person takes the entire communion into themselves,
and they can spread it that way, and it'll intermingle
with other people's experiences without being...
Exposed to grander psychic phenomena, whatever
that means. And then some weirder stuff starts
to happen. You are standing in front of 50 ,000
or so dead Clusterists, which you all know to
be from Clearwater Crater. They are all here,
and your role in that tragedy is revealed to
everyone in attendance, kind of diluted in this
water of the joined minds. And in front of them
is who you know to be Pogo Lear, the pilot of
duty, who's kind of, like, holding both of your
shoulders, just, like, speaking to you, exchanging
memories of you. And he learns of his own death
here. And you kind of feel that as you inhabit
him likewise. Like, learning of your own death.
Like, if someone told you, oh, yeah, you died.
A few days ago. Don't you remember? And he's
just like, oh shit. I had no clue. And he says
something to you. What does he say? To who? To
me? To both of you. What does he say? We have
to decide this together. This is trippy. What's
going on? What would the embodiment or the pilot
of the embodiment of... duty say to us two soldiers
who are also bound by our own duty just caught
up in this impossible unwinnable war thanks a
lot like what was he like as a person we don't
know anything about him but i think we maybe
we learn who he was yeah he is An extremely devoted
person. Always had a smile. Was rock solid knowing
that he had to do what he had to do. Never doubted
for a second his role in things. He was, I guess
in many ways, he was very much a determinist.
Like he, like when he learns about his own death,
he's like, that makes a lot of sense. I'm not
surprised. Maybe he would say to us something
about how he knows that we were just doing our
duty. I mean, Geist was. Yeah. That sounds right.
Great. Yeah, you... He says this to you, and
in turn, you feel like you are him saying this
to you, which resonates, I'm sure. And I think
at this point, Loyal and Geist... You both see
someone. Loyal, you see a kind of maze for a
moment, like turning away. And you lose track
of Geist. You can resist this if you'd like.
Yes. I'm like crying in real life right now,
by the way. Resolve, resist. Let's resist with
resolve. You take three stress. And I'll do yours
in a second, Geist. But you manage to hold on
to Geist for a second. And you see Maze, her
kind of face flickering in this shared experience.
You are seeing her through someone else's eyes.
She's younger. She's like looking up at you and
smiling. And she's pointing at something above
you. And looking up and turning around, you see
the virtue of attachment. And I think you realize
that you are inhabiting somehow this memory of
Shacer Midway, who is that pilot of that virtue.
It's through this lens, looking at the virtue
is like looking at a god, but a god who is your
sister and your greatest ally at the same time.
And you lift young Maze up onto your shoulders
and climb up to the frame and you deposit her
in the cockpit and kind of let her play with
the controls. and these dark thoughts start creeping
into your head, and you shake them off, as you
always do, and you assure yourself that the fighting
will be over before then, and that it won't come
to that. And the memory kind of swirls and morphs,
and you see your own early memories from when
you were first learning to pilot an Exopod when
you were a kid. What are those memories like,
Loyal? He would have been very young, and just
kind of put into, I don't know what, rudimentary
exopod they give to young yelling dolphins to
get them to learn about it but it's the process
of not just learning controls of how to psychically
and physically control the exopod but the you
have to condition yourself away from wanting
or thinking about any kind of physical touch
for as long as you're in this thing it's a thing
that just separates you from your own kind and
every other just being out there which is it
goes against every bit of evolution that dolphins
have as being just originally these hooved um
herd animals just naturally being with one another
being connected to one another and to just go
into this human designed human made Originally
devised to get them to interact with other things
outside of themselves and just the feeling of
this is important. You have to sacrifice something
so great inside of yourself for the desire to
understand what else is out there and just all
the complicated feelings that go with that. And
I think those feelings very much meld with what
you find out to be just like... All the memories
of the pilots in here, the Clusterist pilots
especially, when they got into these frames,
which in many ways they didn't want to be in
in the first place, choosing to give up part
of themselves so that they can operate in a way
that can resist what the Peacekeepers are doing.
And Geist, I think you might know who you see.
You see your dead ex -partner, girlfriend, wife?
I thought for sure you were going to say retribution.
I thought for sure it was going to be him. No,
they never got married. Okay. And she is here.
You kind of... It's hard to tell when this was.
Judging by... how she looks, it must have been
early on in the deployment. Like, pretty early
on. Yeah. And she is surprised to see you. What
is she like? I need to get a dial -in on her
personality. I feel like she's soft -spoken and
very... She's soft -spoken, but, like, you know,
she's kind and sweet and very much the opposite
of how he is now, like, diametrically. But yeah,
she probably jokes around a little bit. I don't
know. I didn't put much thought into it. I didn't
think this would happen. We're in a completely
liminal space now. So it's totally fine. And
she looks at you and says, Garrett, you look
unhealthy. I'm not doing so good. Yeah. Hey,
you want me for a walk? Yeah. Is this... Does
Garrett feel like he's reliving a memory or does
he have like all of his mental faculties about
him in terms of like his memories and everything?
This is not like reliving a memory. This is something
completely new. OK, yeah, he'll go along. It's
yeah, she kind of like takes you with her for
a second and just like walks, I guess. definitely
somewhere you've been maybe there's like when
you were deployed originally you were in the
river valley so maybe there's some like pretty
walk by the river yeah but they go on maybe a
lot and she's like so hasn't been good since
i uh i exited huh how are you here this isn't
is this real that's as real as anything else
No, it's been bad. It's been all bad. Well, let
me just tell you something. All of it, in the
end, what we've done, you know, what you've done,
I can see it, and... Oh, God. It's... I know
you think you have to do this for me. But you
don't. You... You could be happy again. I know
you could, but you just have to... You have to
choose to do something else. I'm not doing it
for you. Isn't that fucked up? I realize that...
Maybe a year after I woke up from my coma, I'm
not doing it for you. It was never for you. Not
really. Is it worth it? What is the thing you
tried to tell me before you died? What were you
trying to say? Garrett, I... I don't know. Because
the me that's here now, it's not the me that
died. It's the me that lived on here. Garrett.
And I just want you to know, I don't know if
this is a comfort at all, but I'm glad you're
here. Some part of you is going to stay here
with me forever now, as long as there are people
to carry this on. I don't know if any of this
is real, if any of it means anything, but this
is not the version of me that I wanted to be
spending an eternity with you. Things can change
in here too. You're not beyond fixing. I've...
I could deal with it. I'll learn to deal with
it. You know, the whole chin thing, we'll make
it work. He laughs. He gives an honest little
laugh. Alright. You better go find your friend.
You're gonna go meet someone. He tries to enjoy
the moment for as long as he can. before it fades
away around him or whatever. Yeah, it starts,
it gets, like, kind of indistinct. She, like,
holds your hand, and eventually it kind of starts
blurring, and you find yourself back with Loyal.
Because, as promised, Loyal did keep you centered
with him. Yay. And you run into Brea Manta, the
prophet herself. She is very vague. Like... Just
in her presence and in what she's giving off,
I don't know how you would expect it to be, but
there's no conditioning coming from her. There's
only impressions of probably either fear or understanding.
She shares with you, shares with everyone, that
there was a decision made by someone. You can't
tell if it's her. If she was told to do this
or if she decided to do it herself, a decision
to turn inward, to not reach out into the stars,
you feel her now kind of closing the distance
between both of you. And you come to an understanding
that there is no sacrifice too great, that humanity
cannot survive the predators in the dark. that
are so vast that we are already scrambling about
their innards, chasing temptations and promises
of a better future. We have lost the chance to
evade their gnashing teeth. Our only chance is
to cling to each other and shield ourselves from
digestion. And then you are both overcome with
a complete understanding of what must be done
to bring this about, to survive. But your mind
cannot sustain it. It slips from your grasp.
It slips from everyone's grasp. You feel it.
Everyone experiences this perfect clarity of,
like, we know what we have to do. We know what
is the way forward for everyone. But it just,
you can't slot it into place. It is a shape of
a thought that cannot fit in the mind. And then
at that, the communion begins to unravel in perfect
timing with everyone's revelation. And you're
pulled back through familiar mists to the world
that you might call real. It is a very gentle
experience. You kind of start folding back into
yourselves. You don't take maybe memories of
what you've experienced, but there is definitely
an intuition of this. Those around you in the
world, you feel like they're looking at you much
softer now. You can't tell what they remember
or what they saw. if it's like forgiveness or
clarification or if anything has really changed.
Um, and you, at this point, you can't even tell
if those questions are you looking at them or
them looking at you, but you are, you are back
as this starts wearing off. Um, both of you gain
a new trauma, clear all stress, uh, gain a new
move. Whoa. Ooh, a new trauma. Oh no. I'm excited.
I am. That's, That's three, baby. Hmm. I think...
I think someone's going soft. Not me, baby. I
don't think I can justify vicious, but I think...
You can also make one up if you want to. I think
I'm gonna take haunted. I think... Oh, wait.
Oh, sorry, go ahead. I... Sorry, since I wasn't
expecting guys to be part of this, I should add
something on this. Um... Geist, you are... I
need to... Fuck, there's something I need to
think about. But you are at least partially aware
that Loyal is keeping something from you. You
saw... I mean, you saw everything. It's just
a matter of how much you remember on the outside.
But you get the impression that some very...
Something fucked up is going on with Loyal, and
it directly regards you, and he is keeping it
from you, and I think that is the impression
you're left with. Okay, cool. I feel like in
the wake of this happening, I feel like Geist
is... very very sweaty and his breath is heaving
and as soon as he's back in his body he kind
of staggers up to his feet very unsteadily and
almost falls over and just fucking sprints out
of there he just gets the fuck out and he almost
falls over a whole bunch of times because he's
like really off kilter it was very disorienting
and he he fucking crashes out of there and into
the street loyal twofold comes up to you and
kind of helps you up even though you don't really
need it. Mm -hmm. Says, well... That was... I
was about to say different than I expected, but
I didn't expect anything. Just... Thank you.
You're welcome. For making this happen for us.
You're always welcome back. I... I need to go
help my friend. We can talk later. Take a water
bottle. Thank you. Takes a water bottle and just
goes to find Geist.