S1 Ep5: The Way I Do

[00:00:31] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Legacy and I'm playing Rosanna, the inquisitive. [00:00:37] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Scott, and I'm playing Arthur, the faithful hunter. [00:00:42] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Zoe Trooper and I'm playing Victoria, the underground hunter. [00:00:48] Speaker D: Hi, my name is Eli, and I'm playing Zephyr, the entrepreneur. [00:00:53] Speaker E: And I'm bloodied porcelain. I will be your storyteller tonight. Knowledge, like everything else in the world of darkness comes at a cost. An impossibly high cost which could result in insanity an impossibly long life as a blood addicted mortal, or even death. This is a world where vampires will kill indiscriminately to keep the secret of their existence. Where knowledge of ghosts and wraiths can lead to faith and mind shattering revelations about just what the afterlife is. In a world where Mages hell bent on gathering more knowledge and constantly dancing on the line of what may break reality under the strain of paradox and the risk of losing one's sanity when faced with the mind warping powers of the Fairfolk. In such a world, most will willingly turn a blind eye to these hidden truths in hope of maintaining their sense of reality and humanity's position as the alpha predator on the planet. But there are others. Mad men, some might say who eagerly unearth these secrets in an effort to buy the rest of humanity just a little bit more time free of the dangers of the others. Tonight, let's tell a story about the Mad Men. Good evening, players. It's been a couple of weeks since we last met. The last time we played was a fairly heavy night. There was a lot of reveals, a lot of potentially world shattering revelations about just what's going on around you. We found out that Rosanna was basically playing host to a ghost who opt aboard her soul for an opportunity to get away from the space where she had been tethered and forced to relive her death over and over and over again. We found out that the mysterious ring that Zephyr kept encountering on his hand was also tied to the ghostly woman and her desire to get her husband back. And we met a new ally. Informant. Maybe just someone begging for help who didn't know where else to turn. Max, who was once an agent for an organization called the Orpheus Group now dead, running from something he doesn't have a name for and begging the Hunters to help him fix the problem he feels he somehow had a hand in causing. And all the while, our group continues to move across the southern US. Zephyr carrying a new weight hidden away in his backpack not revealed to the rest of the party and no one entirely sure what it means. Night. We pick up after the group has continued their travels. You all are now somewhere in Texas. You pulled over at a rest stop for the night. Not really outside of any particular town. Kind of one of those places on one of those impossibly long, unending stretches of interstate that don't really seem to go anywhere but yet carry you everywhere. I'm going to assume that the first one up this time is Victoria, because Victoria specifically wanted to get up and make sure that everybody had a good breakfast, especially because Arthur and Rosanna were not feeling their best after the encounters of our last session. And Rosanna is dealing with a little bit more stress on her soul than she usually does, so it's not quite as eager to wake up as she normally is. [00:05:27] Speaker C: Yeah. As well, there are the growing pains of a new member to the family, which would be Gozer. I'm getting used to him. I'm not sure if anyone else has really gotten that used to him yet, but he needs to go outside in the morning. [00:05:40] Speaker E: I apologize. It has been a night of technical issues. I had a number of things on my computer update, and it seems that they kind of screwed with OBS's settings. My apologies. Okay, let's get back to what we were doing. Victoria, you're the first one up. Tell me about your morning, please. [00:06:09] Speaker C: So the first thing in the morning now is I get Gozer out of bed, and we go outside, and he does his business. Then I start the coffee, and I start breakfast. It's pretty standard. Other than that, I'm a little leery lately, though, because I don't like that our RV is haunted. I really, really hate it, but there's not a whole lot I can do right now. And we've all decided to take on this job. Unlikely call. I intel, of course, but yeah, a little peeve, but we're doing this. [00:06:49] Speaker E: What are you making for breakfast now that you've taken Gozer out for the morning? He's adjusting well to the idea know, as long as you're up in time to get him out, he's been pretty good. [00:07:06] Speaker C: Breakfast this morning is egg in a. [00:07:11] Speaker E: Um, is there anything you would like to do? Anything else you would like to do before people start waking up? [00:07:19] Speaker C: I'm not going to do it because of the potential implications of doing it, but I would love to just bring up my bells and start trying to hit that cord to get the ghosts out of our I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait. That's essentially my morning. At this being, I'm behaving myself mostly. [00:07:40] Speaker E: Excellent. Okay, well, on that note, I'm going to assume that Rosanna is the second one up, because she's usually the first one up. Rosanna, you wake up, and you feel pretty normal. You could still sense your new companion with you, but it feels like she is actively trying to take a backseat to not be too intrusive and to allow you to kind of handle things at the pace that you are able to without putting too much pressure on you. [00:08:23] Speaker A: I think that the first thing I'm going to do is kind of, like, flew out of bed and probably to a shock to Zoe. I'm very slow. Walking down the hallway. Knowing that she's decided to take more of a backseat does not really help the fact that I'm not the most thrilled to have her in me, but rather me than Zo. So I'm a bit slower this morning. [00:08:57] Speaker E: Rather you than Victoria, you mean? [00:09:00] Speaker A: Who's Zoe? [00:09:03] Speaker C: I don't know, sounds like a weird. [00:09:08] Speaker A: But yeah, rather rather me than Victoria. But as I'm kind of like making my way down the RV to get to breakfast, I'm browsing through my phone and I'm just trying to answer any emails that I might have gotten. And after emails are answered, I'm cracking right into doing research on how to summon a dead woman's husband, which. [00:09:44] Speaker E: So you are checking your emails. Excellent. So most of your emails are fairly bog standard. You really did just send off emails to a couple of people, like yesterday, so it's not terribly surprising that people nobody has heard from in several days haven't been answered yet. But there is an email that actually arrived two days ago that you didn't see because you didn't actually check your emails yesterday. Well, you sent off some chat messages but no actual emails. So with you opening your email for the first time in a couple of days, you see an email from your friend Rosie. A woman with dark hair and extremely pale skin describes many things. Her calling you sister, however, that speaks of a ghost or maybe an ancestral spirit at least. My friend T says that remember, the world is strange and even the most normal of things can turn OD very quickly. As for Zvna, I would like to remind you that water, food and shelter are the three largest things needed to survive. If they are working their proverbial buns off, it would do well for them to try to increase their caloric intake to reflect that. I know it's one more thing for them to keep track of, but a healthy mind needs a healthy body to dwell inside. They obviously mean much to you and so caring for their needs is smart. Coming together as respected friends with A is wonderful to hear. Bonds within the group make it that much harder to separate and destroy, especially with whatever it is that's causing your exodus. I would also implore you to look into seeing if there are weapons you could arm yourself with. Strangely enough, the fairy tales in many ways seem to be true. Be careful though, not all solutions work on all problems. Apparently. Like I said above, oddities exist. If you want, I can see what information I can dig up to make your journey safer. Any info you can provide on whatever is ousting you would be a good starting point. Sincerely, Peter. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Then I would quickly respond Peter, sorry for not responding as fast as I usually do yesterday. Was hectic very hectic. It seems that my predicament has gone slightly worse and I might actually call on you for that help. You see, I think that something might have attached itself to me, and I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. If you know anything about really spooky, scary things that most people don't tend to believe, I would appreciate any advice that you'd give. It's getting harder now. I've got people who are a little bit more tense around me. A lot of things happened last night that well, it's sending me back into how I was a few months ago. I can't tell the others because I don't need them getting worried about me, but I'm afraid. I'm very afraid nonetheless. I'm sorry that it took me so long again. I hope to hear from you soon. Tell me how Florida is. Thank you. Love, Rosie. [00:13:47] Speaker E: Excellent. Is there anything else you would like to do while Zephyr and Arthur are waking up? [00:13:56] Speaker A: I see Victoria. [00:13:59] Speaker E: You do? [00:14:00] Speaker A: Kind of making breakfast, and I give her, like, a half smile, but I don't know if she's super thrilled to see me right now, so I'm going to let her approach me. So I'll just take my cup of coffee and go and sit and just see how things pan out. [00:14:27] Speaker E: Excellent, Victoria. I don't think you even need to make an empathy check or an insight check to get a read on Rosanna feeling awkward and a little insecure and unsure how you feel about her right now. Would you like to pursue an RP moment, or shall I move on? [00:14:49] Speaker C: I have an idea. I'm going to grab my coffee cup and follow Rosanna to the table, sit down across from her, and start digging around in one of my pockets. This is a throwback to when we first kind of met, but I pull some candies out of the pocket. One of them happens to be the candy that she so adores, the strawberry creams and just kind of slides it over. You can tell things are being weird. It's not you. It's your passenger. [00:15:36] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:15:41] Speaker C: I just want to get this over with sooner rather than later. Get us back to normal without the Freeloaders in the RV. [00:15:51] Speaker A: I think that the Freeloaders don't really want to be here either. His son. [00:16:00] Speaker C: I think that's the only reason this agreement works, to be honest. How are you feeling otherwise? [00:16:12] Speaker A: Fine. I'm as fine as I can be. I'm just worried, you know? Like, first of all, it's that wedding ring. I mean, I know that maybe if I do a little bit more digging, and maybe if I can sneak that ring from Arthur, I might be able to figure something out, but I don't know exactly. I learned about paranormal stuff when I was in college, but summoning or getting a ghost, her ghost husband back, you don't quite learn that in the classroom. So it's just unsetling. [00:17:11] Speaker C: What happens if her husband's still alive? I mean, he'd be super old by now. But he's still in the realm of like he can still be around. [00:17:22] Speaker A: I saw it in a vision. [00:17:24] Speaker E: Okay. [00:17:25] Speaker C: All right. I'll have to trust you on that one. [00:17:28] Speaker A: Trust me. [00:17:29] Speaker C: Still getting used to everyone having visions and weird connections and stuff? [00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah. We're not quite normal, aren't we? [00:17:37] Speaker C: No, not really. This isn't stuff we touched on in the Linnaeus society, so it's out of my purview of information, I guess. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Hey, you know I'm still looking at for you, right? [00:17:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:59] Speaker A: We'll find them. It's just going to take a little bit of time. [00:18:06] Speaker C: Rosanna, go ahead. [00:18:08] Speaker A: No, you go. [00:18:10] Speaker C: I think I might be responsible for why you have the Passenger. You do? [00:18:18] Speaker A: Why do you think that? [00:18:21] Speaker C: Remember when we found the crash site and you were feeling around and I started using my bells to stop us from being affected by anything? And everything became so much clearer, like static through a radio just kind of cleared up and we began to all see her. At that point, I think I opened the shroud. They called it the Shroud, right? I think my bells opened the Shroud. [00:18:56] Speaker A: Well, if we open the portals to some weird ghost world, I guess that just means we're going to have to close it. [00:19:05] Speaker C: All the way back there. [00:19:06] Speaker A: No, I don't think something tells me that there might be ghosts in every town. Who knows? We'll figure it out, okay? But don't blame yourself. You were just trying to protect the people around you. And from what Max said, I mean, it sounds like that this whatever was already beginning to thin. [00:19:30] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, no, I got that impression. But the weird thing is, if we can let things out, someone might be able to go in. [00:19:43] Speaker E: You don't. [00:19:46] Speaker A: Think that anything would willingly go in, do you? [00:19:54] Speaker C: I'm curious. [00:19:55] Speaker E: Are you not? [00:19:56] Speaker A: You and I both. I'm always curious. Why do you think I let you drag me out of the house. [00:20:05] Speaker C: There. [00:20:07] Speaker A: If I wasn't curious? I'd still be locked up in our safe home doodling little hearts with little pictures or whatnot. And I'd have my books with me. And I'd be locking all of you out. But I'm out here on the run. Oh, my God, we're on the run, aren't we? No, we're not on the run. I mean, we're kind of on the run. [00:20:33] Speaker C: We've been on the run for a bit now. [00:20:35] Speaker A: We've been on the run for a bit. [00:20:38] Speaker C: I was thinking about something else. What if things are all messed up and the Shroud is breaking and there are ghosts everywhere? Maybe we could find Jillian. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Been thinking that, too. Did I ever tell you the story about the reason why I'm so obsessed with these candies, by the way? [00:21:06] Speaker C: The Jillian. I feel as though it was Jillian. [00:21:10] Speaker A: When? After our first hunt, after we all went out to that restaurant, jillian and I decided that we were going to have a movie night. We decided to just go browse around, like a drugstore or whatever, see if we could find, like, a really crappy $2 movie and some snacks. And we stumbled upon the candy section, and Jillian pointed out the bag, and it was just one bag of this hard candy. And she said, oh, look at that. It kind of reminds me of your hair. We grabbed a bag, we grabbed some other snacks, and we went home and, well, what was going to be like one or two candies turned into the both of us polishing off all 24 pieces together. And after every hunt, we just went to that store and bought a bag and sat in my room and split them. [00:22:12] Speaker C: I miss her. Yeah, me, too. Can I address the final elephant in the room? And I say this loud enough so that sleeping individuals nearby can hear. I say, what's with you and Arthur? And I really drag out Arthur. [00:22:35] Speaker E: I will leave it up to you, Arthur, if this is enough to wake you up. [00:22:41] Speaker B: I believe that Arthur is probably one of those guys who wakes up whenever somebody says their name. Just seems like the right kind of thing. [00:22:48] Speaker E: Excellent. [00:22:49] Speaker B: He wakes up, but he's not necessarily going to respond because he's listening. [00:22:55] Speaker A: I don't know what you mean. [00:22:58] Speaker C: Apparently, the two of you go out drinking. Zephyr says that you are on a I don't know. I hesitate to use date. I see you bouncing and I lean in close so that Arthur doesn't hear this. You really like him, don't you? What are you doing? [00:23:24] Speaker A: Are you out of your mind? First of all, we don't talk about things like that here. Second of all, what the get back in where you belong, or so help me God. [00:23:43] Speaker E: But he's so handsome. [00:23:45] Speaker A: Oh, you hated him just yesterday. [00:23:47] Speaker E: Well, I do hate him, but he is very handsome. [00:23:49] Speaker A: And she's saying this out loud. [00:23:54] Speaker E: Victoria's hearing both voices. Am I actually hearing yes, yes. Because she's speaking through Rosanna's mouth. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Then Arthur will indicate that he's awake and climbing out of his upper bunk. [00:24:17] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Anyway, so the strawberry creams, right? They remind me of Jillian, and that's why I've been trying to obsessively find them. [00:24:25] Speaker C: Since I have both of your attentions, now that I see you, Arthur, I see you're awake. [00:24:33] Speaker E: I'm going to be. [00:24:34] Speaker C: Really crass, really crude, which you know what? I'm unapologetically crude, but here we go. You ever hear the phrase don't shit where you eat? [00:24:46] Speaker B: Of course. [00:24:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's kind of like that. Like don't have sex with other hunters where you work. [00:24:53] Speaker B: Whoa, whoa, whoa. [00:24:55] Speaker E: Hold on. [00:24:58] Speaker A: We're not having sex. [00:25:02] Speaker B: That is a true statement. That is definitely a true statement. I need coffee and cigarettes, people. Start having this conversation. [00:25:11] Speaker C: I'll trust you guys. [00:25:14] Speaker A: First of all, where would we this RV is very tiny. [00:25:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not exactly privacy. But I'll leave you three ladies to have your lady chat. I'm going to take my coffee. Arthur pours his coffee and then just steps out of the RV to have a cigarette, but just grabs one of the books off the table, the one that he was looking at last night, one of the ones that Rosenna got from the store. And he steps out of the RV, but still close enough to be able to listen in on what they're saying. [00:25:55] Speaker E: Excellent. Zephyr, just FYI, you were awake from basically all of that, because they got pretty loud. I just assumed that you were the. [00:26:04] Speaker D: Type in bed not saying anything. [00:26:07] Speaker E: Yeah, I kind of assumed that you were the type that you didn't want to get involved in that level of awkward. You want to jump in, you can feel free. [00:26:22] Speaker C: Victoria excels at that level of awkward. So you're all. [00:26:28] Speaker D: Yeah. Like, after it gets quiet, after that whole interaction, I'll also just kind of slowly get out of bed and kind of creep to get the coffee and just kind of say, like, Good morning. Good morning or good don't. I don't know what time it is, and then just follow Arthur outside. [00:26:54] Speaker C: I say this with some degree of noise, and I go, hello. The only person I'm not annoyed with right now. [00:27:01] Speaker E: Not yet. [00:27:06] Speaker A: I think that it is very why are you asking me these questions? He's the one that took the wedding ring. [00:27:15] Speaker C: Don't worry, I'll pastor him later. But for now. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Listen, I behave myself. I just stick to my books and my tablets and my laptops and my phone and my ghosts and my weird issues that I got, apparently telling the future or whatever, seeing visions and ghosts and shit. I keep to myself. I do not have feelings for that man. [00:27:48] Speaker C: You're so convincing. I do want to borrow you today before we get back on the road. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:27:56] Speaker C: Zephyr has bonded with Gozer, and I would like you to bound with him next. [00:28:03] Speaker A: I'm very excited. [00:28:05] Speaker C: Okay, good. That's it? [00:28:08] Speaker E: Really? [00:28:09] Speaker A: Okay. Are you done bullying me now? [00:28:14] Speaker C: Am I ever really done bullying anyone? [00:28:17] Speaker A: For now, yeah. [00:28:19] Speaker C: I'll go back to cooking. [00:28:21] Speaker A: Okay. I'm going to go hide my shame now. [00:28:25] Speaker E: We're going to give Zephyr some screen time now. Zephyr, you're now awake. Have you gotten yourself coffee? Is that what happened? [00:28:37] Speaker D: Yes, I grabbed small cup of coffee and followed Arthur outside. [00:28:44] Speaker E: Excellent. What do you plan to do while you're outside? [00:28:48] Speaker D: I plan to tell Arthur about my phone call. [00:28:52] Speaker E: Oh, excellent. Let's get into that. That'll Go. Well, the screen is yours. God. [00:29:04] Speaker D: So, yeah. Good morning. And I just kind of lean up against the RV and just avoiding eye contact. Yeah. Good morning. I know it's super early. I don't know. I feel comfortable telling you this because I value your opinion because you seem to have your shit together. And also, I don't think it's right to keep this from you all, especially you, of all people, if you're about. [00:29:51] Speaker B: To tell me that you slept with Rosanna, I don't care. [00:29:57] Speaker D: Absolutely not. No offense. [00:30:00] Speaker B: Just based on the context of the previous conversation, I assume that that had something to do with it. [00:30:06] Speaker D: Yeah. I also don't care if you slept with her. That's also not my business. But I made a phone call to the compound. [00:30:21] Speaker B: Sorry, what? [00:30:23] Speaker D: Yeah, while everybody was gone. And after the encounter with the ghost, the first ghost, it was in a moment of weakness and I wasn't thinking straight. And the first thing I could think of is, maybe I should go back. Maybe it's better I'm not in the way. And I know it probably put us all in danger. So if you guys want to just kind of ditch me here, that's AOK. [00:31:08] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:31:13] Speaker B: Did you use encryptions or anything? Okay, so in all fairness, I called Katie Lynn, but I had Rosenda help me to make it untraceable. I understand what you're feeling, but did you do something like that? [00:31:41] Speaker D: Unfortunately, no. I know it was stupid. I don't know. I don't have anybody to talk to. I mean, like, I have y'all, but I don't. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, Arthur just sets his cup of coffee down and goes over and just about to touch Sephir, but then stops and says, listen, I know you don't I don't like that, but I was just going to. [00:32:18] Speaker D: You can, it's fine. [00:32:20] Speaker B: No, listen, I'm not going to be I'm angry a little bit inside, but because that could have endangered all of us. And you know that. You know that. You're smart. But I guess I'm a little upset to actually hear that you thought maybe you would go back, that you thought that maybe going back to the speaker, to them was better than how you were with us. And now I'm not mad anymore at that because I'm concerned for you, my friend. We've been through things together, right? We know what's going on out there. And I am concerned for you and for your safety because what do you think would happen if you went back? Do you think they would just let you back in and knowing that you know things now and that you've gone places, I think that would be unsafe for you and unwise for you to do that. But I also. [00:33:47] Speaker D: I get where you're coming from, but I'm not a good person. I've done things that, admittedly, I don't regret. When I was at the compound, I didn't feel good about the things that I did, but also I just kept going with it. So in a weird way, I know that if I were to go back, it would be my death. And I'm okay with that. I know you guys are probably like, no, it's fine. You're you're good, don't do it. But in my head, I think that's what I deserve. But. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Just thinking you don't deserve that. You don't. I'm going to not just say a bunch of things because I recognize that someone who has these thoughts and feelings won't just hear them. I can't just say things and you get better. That's not how this works. I know enough about people to know that that is not what you need. And I think that maybe you and I should talk more about these feelings, and maybe we can work through them. I'm not a trained counselor, and I don't think we'll ever be anywhere long enough, but I do think Zeph said if that's how you feel, like, we should talk it through, and maybe not with everyone, because that wouldn't necessarily be comfortable, I don't think. But you don't deserve to die. And nothing that you've done listen, it's weird for me to say this because I also feel that I've done wrong things and bad things and that I maybe need to die to atone for those things. So I understand your feeling. I think, more than either of us understand our own feelings on the matter. But, Zephyr, listen, you're my friend, and you're my hunter friend, and we kill things together because we're good people. I know you don't think it, but we are fighting a good fight. And if you don't, like, you fit with us, then I guess it's my job to make sure that you do, because you do. If anything, you probably fit better than some of us. Than me, maybe. Everyone hates me. They're always angry with me. Everyone thinks that I'm talking too much. I may be talking too much now, but no, you don't deserve to die or ascend or whatever other thing that they might do to you there. And you know what? If you're going to die, do it on your terms. Do it doing something better. Right? Like, that's how you be a better person. Do it doing something better. That's what I think. [00:37:18] Speaker D: And I don't say anything else and just bear hug you and just kind of, like, bury my face and you can't tell if I'm crying or not, but it's just straight silence. [00:37:29] Speaker E: Just. [00:37:33] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:37:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Listen, why don't we have coffee every morning, just the two of us? Get out of the RV, go sit somewhere, and have coffee till we can get through this, right? Because I think that maybe we both just need to talk about stuff. Maybe that's what's going on. [00:38:01] Speaker D: Yeah. I would really like that. Okay. Just give, like, a really big side. [00:38:12] Speaker B: Hold on, though. Who did you call, though? Who exactly did you call? [00:38:18] Speaker D: No one specifically. I just kind of dialed, like, their front desk, but before they, like, finished call center. Yeah, before they finished their whole introduction and all that. I hung up. [00:38:38] Speaker B: Hmm. Well, I think that means that the both of us have to keep an eye out to make sure that they aren't tracking us now. Not that we weren't already keeping an eye out right now. A little bit more. [00:38:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I haven't seen motorcycle in a while. That's true. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Well, thanks for telling me. Can't undo the past, right? Just have to keep going to do better. [00:39:15] Speaker D: Yeah. I miss Jillian. [00:39:27] Speaker B: She would probably hit you right now for your confession about how you feel. You know that, right? [00:39:31] Speaker D: It's yeah. [00:39:41] Speaker B: Oh, man. Let's just do better. Both of us together. [00:39:48] Speaker D: Moving forward. I will. I'll try. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Maybe give me a heads up before you make a phone call again. Maybe I can talk you down. [00:39:58] Speaker D: I think after that think I'm good. Think I am good. Yeah. [00:40:09] Speaker B: All right. And then turning back to his coffee, arthur actually clenches two fists because he's incredibly angry, but he's trying not to show it for Zephyr's benefit. [00:40:23] Speaker E: Oh, big feels, boys. Okay, is there anything either one of you would like to do before I hop back over to the ladies? [00:40:36] Speaker D: I don't know if we could do it right now, but I've been, like, aching to make a mazel tom for that damn werewolf. [00:40:48] Speaker E: Yes. Mazel dog muzzle tom. But I think Zephyr is smart enough to know that it's not always the best idea to make them super far ahead of time, because part of how they work is alcohol soaking into a rag, which you have to set on fire. And if anything were to happen that know, cause the rag to catch on fire ahead of time or the alcohol all evaporates or anything like that, it could go poorly. So something maybe Zephyr might want to start planning for is the next time you guys have a chance to stop in at a liquor store is just to pick up some bottles and maybe get his hands on some of those rags that mechanics use to just wipe grease off their hands and stuff like that. But I don't know that he would necessarily start building Molotovs until he knew that there was a target for them. [00:42:10] Speaker D: Yeah. It's more so also kind of out of paranoia. I know. [00:42:15] Speaker E: Understood. He wants some hyper vigilance and a chance to prepare. I understand. Okay. So, yeah, I would assume that he would mostly be thinking about when the next time is that he can get the things he would need to make them, because they're not difficult to make once you have the materials. It literally takes seconds to make a Molotov cocktail if you have everything you need. So I assume that that's one of those things where he'd be like, I'm going to put this on the shopping list of things that we need. It's going to be things like lighters and alcohol and rags, and hopefully no law enforcement ever finds your shopping list. Okay. So, yeah. Is there anything else you would like to do? Do you want to maybe look into the thing that you got a five finger discount for at the store, or is that something you want to save for later? [00:43:28] Speaker D: Yes, I know. Yes. [00:43:31] Speaker E: To which question? [00:43:32] Speaker D: Oh, looking through. The book. [00:43:36] Speaker E: Okay. Is that something you want to do now, or is that something you want to save? [00:43:40] Speaker D: I'll probably do it later because Arthur is right there. [00:43:43] Speaker E: Understood. It's just that, you know that you guys are making a concerted effort to stay on the road and to get as far east as you can. So you have precious few moments where you have the opportunity to kind of step away from everybody else and get some real alone time. So if it's one of those things that you want to save for later, you may be kind of pun, not intended, but playing with fire by trying to do it on the RV unless you're okay with everybody knowing that you have. [00:44:22] Speaker D: No. [00:44:25] Speaker E: Okay. So I'm going to give you a minute to think about what you want to do. And we're going to pivot over to the girls because they had a scene that they wanted to do anyway. And then just think about that during the interlude and let me know when they're finished what you want to do. [00:44:41] Speaker D: Okay. [00:44:43] Speaker E: Rosanna and Victoria people have started gathering their breakfasts and kind of gone off in their own direction. And you two have time. And Gozer is sniffing the air because of the food, but has been remarkably well behaved for a dog who has probably never been properly trained to have table manners. Like, he's sitting there, and he's sniffing, and he's definitely kind of begging, but he's not actively going for the food. It's kind of, I'm here, and I'm being a very good boy. Why am I not being rewarded for being a very good boy? [00:45:21] Speaker C: He won't get his food while we're eating, so it's not like I'm depriving him or anything like that. But after we're done eating, the food he probably eats is gone. In Milliseconds, I just kind of encourage Rosanna to interact. [00:45:39] Speaker A: All right, well, if he bites my arm off because of my new roommate. [00:45:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I am a little worried about that. He did kind of lose his mind when she was in me, but we'll see what happens. Good luck to your arms and your digits. [00:46:03] Speaker A: Well, just in case, prep a first aid kit, I guess, or I don't know. Some people think that the power of prayer or whatever will heal all, so I guess say a hail Mary for me or whatever. [00:46:15] Speaker C: I think you'll be fine. Try not to, I guess, approach him with panic. [00:46:29] Speaker A: I'll try. [00:46:33] Speaker E: Okay. Rosanna, make me a charisma animal ken check, and I would like you to add an additional die. I'm not going to tell you why yet, but you can take one extra die because of extenuating circumstances. [00:46:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:47:02] Speaker C: All right. [00:47:10] Speaker E: Dan, you are, admittedly, a little tentative and a little on the verge of panic the whole time. You don't have a lot of experience with animals, and Gozer is one of those dogs that by the sheer size and coloration and whatever he seems like one of those dogs that's constantly on the verge of taking somebody's face off. Even when he's not being aggressive, he's a lot like his owner. He kind of just looks like he's about ready to just rip somebody a new asshole. That's my boy. But he kind of sits there, and as you hold out your hand and you're offering him your knuckles, like the backs of your fingers, rather than you're not reaching for him like you want to grab him, you're just giving him something to smell. He kind of sniffs at the air for a moment, and then he leans in, and he sniffs closer to your hand. And then he sniffs kind of at your knuckles, and then he just unceremoniously shoves his nose into your fingers and the palm of your hand and starts licking at your fingertips, which were just holding that strawberry candy not long ago. But his tail is the thing that I think Victoria would notice before anybody else, because she's probably been very keenly watching his body language. He gets that happy puppy tail going where it's just like, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk over and over and over again. And he kind of, like, half dances in place as he wiggles himself closer to Rosanna's legs. [00:49:37] Speaker A: And Rosanna is instantly just, like, attached. She's, like, scratching behind his ears, and she kneels on the ground, so she's just able to get a little bit closer to his face. Oh, who's a good boy? Yeah, you are. [00:49:55] Speaker E: And you get licked directly in your face for your trouble. [00:50:01] Speaker A: Oh, you are the sweetest little thing. You remind me of my puppy when I was younger. [00:50:11] Speaker C: He gets praised for being a good boy. Definitely. I am overjoyed with this reaction that's, like, two of the cell members that Gozer really enjoys being with. It just leaves Arthur. Arthur, don't screw it up when it's your turn. [00:50:35] Speaker E: No comment. Let's see. Yeah. No, the praise only makes the tail move that much harder and that much faster. In fact, you're pretty sure that if you thankfully, because this is an RV and everything that kind of could be loose and get knocked around is stowed pretty securely because you guys don't need it flying all over the place. But if you had had anything that you hadn't stowed securely, it would be everywhere because the whole back end is going with the happy puppy. [00:51:17] Speaker A: No, Rosanna is just, like, fully into. She's this is probably the happiest that Victoria has seen her in quite some time. [00:51:28] Speaker C: The dog brings joy to it's. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Excellent. Do we have treats for do? [00:51:38] Speaker C: We do, actually. And I'll ruffle around in my pocket. This is the non human treat pocket. And I bring out the dog treats and kind of hand them over to Rosanna. Not too many. He just had breakfast. But he is being very good. [00:51:55] Speaker A: Slowly making my way up to being the favorite of the three submembers that aren't the owner. And, yeah, Rosanna's just going to spend the next few minutes giving the good boy all of the good boy pets and all of the scratches and trying to just bond with him. Just full of heart. [00:52:21] Speaker E: Excellent, excellent. Very cool. So he is thrilled and eager to receive all of the praise and all of the all the attention that he's getting. And when you pull out the treats, things get even more intense on the I love you, I love you, I love you scale. But after he polishes off a couple of treats, because like Victoria said, not too many, so he gets the two. And after he polishes those off, he seems quite content to just sort of tuck his head into Rosanna's lap and continue to receive as many pets as she is willing to give. Is there anything else you two would like to talk about or do? [00:53:17] Speaker C: I can't think of anything. We did kind of go over the important stuff, like, am I opening a rift for ghosts to pass through. [00:53:28] Speaker A: All of the important things that you talk about in breakfast ghost rift, calling upon dead husbands. Are you sleeping with your cell member? [00:53:43] Speaker E: I love everything about this group. Okay, cool. Well, if you guys don't have anything else that you want to discuss, we're going to go back to Zephyr. Zephyr, my darling, have you made a decision as to what you would like. [00:53:58] Speaker D: To we're we're at a rest stop. [00:54:03] Speaker E: Right you are. [00:54:06] Speaker D: Is there seating? [00:54:10] Speaker E: This is this is one of those interstate rest stops, so they're fairly big. There's little picnic areas. There's a little walking trail kind of around the place. There's a little dog walking area that's specifically for people to take their animals to relieve themselves, that kind of thing. There's plenty of places you could go. [00:54:33] Speaker D: Okay, yeah. So I'll just take a short trip down the walking trail just to a point where nobody can see me, just so it looks like I'm just taking out of sight and then sit under a tree or something and just flip through the book. [00:54:55] Speaker E: Perfect. [00:54:56] Speaker D: I did specifically want to look for if there was any information on. [00:55:04] Speaker E: Going. [00:55:05] Speaker D: Ghost that we weren't aware of or see if there are any creatures similar to the speaker. [00:55:14] Speaker E: Okay, well, first we're going to do a couple of other things before we get into you trying to extrapolate information, because that has its own unique thing that you're going to have to grapple with when we get there. So what I would like to have you do first is I would like to have you make a let's do an intelligence and awareness it to see what kind of details you can pick up on without actively looking for a lot of answers about specific things. It let me know how many. [00:56:09] Speaker D: Two. [00:56:11] Speaker E: Okay. So the first thing you realize is that this entire book is written by hand. Um, it's very old script. The covers don't have titles. They're just under a foot tall. Like, it's just under a foot tall, but it's about nine inches wide, so it's a fairly hefty book, and it's about three inches thick. The ink is all black. It but there is a metallic sunburst on on one of them or on the front of it. I mean, I'm sorry, you you realize that your particular sunburst is silver. Most of it, though, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like, it's all handwritten, but it seems like a lot of it is in gibberish. And you very quickly, as you start to look it over, you find that there are pages here and there that don't seem to be in gibberish that do make sense. And you realize that there's probably some sort of cipher at play, as if whoever created this didn't want it to be something easily understood by people who just randomly picked it up. The half title and the full pages title, the full page title, are the pages that are specifically not in this weird kind of cipher code. Um, that being said, something that you actually notice on when you get to the title page and you're looking at it is that on the interior cover, just beside the title page, there is a large, illustrated greenish blue moth drawn on the interior cover. If you would like to try and identify said moth, the genus of said moth, you can make me a role. It's probably going to be intelligence and either animal ken or science. Well, it wasn't a terribly high roll that you had to make because you've actually seen it before a few times. This is a lunar moth. It is the exact same type of moth that you have seen on occasion that Victoria has on like a hoodie. You've seen maybe like a little badge or button or something that she has kind of kept tucked away among her things. But there is a large, very beautifully illustrated lunar moth on the interior cover of this book. The name of the book is Darksome Anatomies, spelled weird. But it's not hard to put together what it is. Yeah. The rest of it, as I said, is in some sort of weird cipher or code, and you have the feeling you could probably start to piece it together and figure it out, but it's not going to be something you can just do automatically. It's going to take you some time and you're probably going to have to work at it a little bit. Okay. I will say that looking at a lot of the illustrations, because the illustrations are incredibly finely detailed to the point that some of them are are just kind of gruesome. Some of them are clearly of things that are not entirely human and are so incredibly detailed that there is this moment where your stomach kind of lurches because you've been part of Hunts and whatever, and you've seen some pretty gory stuff. This is still really detailed and gory. A lot of it looks like what do you call them, like post mortems, like where something was killed or was found dead or whatever. And whoever did this book basically performed an autopsy. And the illustrations are incredibly in depth depictions of what they found when they opened these creatures up. You see a creature who looks that looks vaguely like the big angry dog that you guys faced. It's a really quick, rough sketch, though, the actual autopsy sketch that goes with it. It looks like a normal person. You see one that looks like a person, but with more extreme and kind of sharp figure features and kind of oddly hued skin, that sort of thing. You don't see anything that reminds you of any of the ghosts that you guys have faced, but you do. I mean, you've now faced enough ghosts to know that they don't tend to leave anything behind when they go. So it may just be that whoever put this book together didn't have a chance to cut open a ghost. But yeah, you get the feeling that this is something you could definitely dig into to find more information. Unfortunately, without being able to read most of the words, you're not sure whether or not there's anything in here that you could use to get information on the speaker. That's going to take more time, that's going to take an actual focus on decrypting. Essentially. You do feel strangely drawn to the book. It's almost like you have the sense that this book, even if it doesn't hold every answer you could ever want, could teach you how to get every answer you could ever want. And maybe for somebody like Zephyr, that's comforting, satisfying in a way that kind of reassurance that there is a way to know these things that you don't know yet. [01:04:14] Speaker D: I'll close it and then walk back to the RV and join everybody else. [01:04:21] Speaker E: Is there anything you would like to do or anything you would want to talk to anybody about? Actually, hold on. Before we do that, I'm going to ask Arthur if there is anything he would like to do because he's gotten very little time to do anything solo. I apologize, Arthur. You got bounced from one conversation to the next and I didn't think about it. I was just like, oh, I never really stopped to ask if there was something he wanted to do. [01:04:47] Speaker B: No, Arthur will, after Zephyr kind of walks away, keep an eye on him because Zephyr did just kind of say that potentially Zephyr's trying to commit suicide. That's a thing. But no, he's actually just going to flip through one of the books, like, honestly drink his coffee, smoke a cigarette, and then try to rejoin to get some food. So, no, I don't have anything outside of flipping through a book. I don't have any actual things I want to learn from. It just that Arthur's increasing his general knowledge. [01:05:19] Speaker E: Okay, excellent. [01:05:21] Speaker B: Thanks for checking on me, though. [01:05:22] Speaker E: Yes. [01:05:23] Speaker C: All right, cool. [01:05:24] Speaker E: So you zephyr return to the group. You find that Arthur is sitting outside of the RV, smoking a cigarette, reading one of the many books that got purchased at Y'all's trip to the bookstore last session, and he seems pretty engrossed inside. You can hear Rosanna giving the occasional little giggle or laugh, and you can hear the thump, thump, thump, thump, thump of happy puppy, puppy tail. And Victoria is kind of hovering slightly back away from where Rosanna was the last time you saw her, and she's kind of giving what is occurring space, but you can see her, and she seems quite pleased with the current development, at least as far as Victoria tends to seem pleased. She's still Victoria. You've known her long enough to know that that's her happy face. At the very least. It's not her I'm going to kill something face. Is there anything anybody else would like to do before you all start packing up? [01:06:49] Speaker B: Maybe look around to see if there's any motorcycles? [01:06:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm not even going to make you roll. You've seen a couple over the past couple of days, but they were really sporadic and kind of in places you would expect to see them. Like when you rolled through that one town, you saw one, but it didn't follow you in any way. You know what I mean? It was kind of one of those things where you drove past a business where there happened to be a motorcycle outside. [01:07:19] Speaker B: Sure. [01:07:20] Speaker E: At the moment, there are none at the rest stop. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Okay, good to know. Good to know. [01:07:31] Speaker E: Anybody else? Okay, who is going to be driving? Rosanna wants to. Mm hmm. Okay. [01:07:48] Speaker B: Well, as per typical, if he's not driving, arthur's going to try to move to the passenger seat to help navigate, but a dog or something that's stopping him. [01:08:00] Speaker E: Victoria is not driving. So we're going to say that Gozer is not going to be in the passenger seat. Gozer is going to be hanging out with Victoria, but Rosanna climbs into the driver's seat, and you all get back on the road. Now, my calculations, based on where you guys were during the last session, is that you guys could end up somewhere in East Texas pretty easily in this session. Any further than that, and it would require kind of going into the point where I'm going to start pushing for driving roles to see how well you guys can cope with just the sheer length of the amount of time that you're on the road. So does anybody have any ideas of where they want to go first? Any ideas of what kind of stuff you want to look for? I'm leaving this kind of up to you. I didn't plan for a specific spot for anybody to stop, so it's up to you to decide where you want to hit up next. I will say that I Ten, which is what you're on, does intersect a lot of places. I am going to open up the map because that's helpful. So you guys have got on I Ten. It goes basically straight through Austin. You could stop in at Houston, Beaumont. You wouldn't necessarily have time to get to Baton Rouge or anything like that. That's all the way out in Louisiana. But you could pretty easily get to like Austin. San Antonio. Well, technically Austin is further up, but San Antonio is directly on I Ten. So is Houston. You could do Austin. It just means leaving I Ten and going and going on a smaller highway. It's really up to you guys what you guys want to do. [01:10:10] Speaker A: I just go wherever I'm told to go. [01:10:15] Speaker E: Well, I mean, that is kind of like the great part about the plan that you guys made to just follow I Ten east is the fact that it gives you a very specific heading and a very easy to follow line. It's basically stay on I Ten and you will get to where you want to go. But there are plenty of places to stop along the way. Arthur, as our resident most traveled cell member, do you have ideas of where you would want to stop? [01:10:53] Speaker B: I I mean, there's many places we could stop that would be a good place to stop, especially if we decide that we want to take a shower. [01:11:02] Speaker E: Plenty of places. [01:11:04] Speaker B: I'm not sure since we're trying to since the last discussion on where we were going, I think Arthur's just trying to push to get to Florida as fast as possible. So I guess we would consider what the farthest places we could get to in Texas, because I do agree that Texas is quite a big place. [01:11:22] Speaker E: It is very big. If you're going to stay specifically on I Ten, probably the places that you are at least the major places that you are most likely to be able to get to and find, like, a hotel where you can or a hotel or a motel where you can get some rooms and everybody get some showers and maybe get some real food in their bellies or whatever you're probably looking at. Houston or Beaumont are probably the two most likely places. Beaumont will require pushing a little bit harder because it's much closer to the Louisiana state line than Houston. San Antonio is also there. There is something to be said for constantly stopping in small towns, but there's also something to be said for stopping in larger cities, right? Like, small towns, you are in a place that's a little bit more obscure, there's a little bit less stuff that could track you there. But big cities, you're also a lot less likely to get noticed, whereas in small towns you are much more likely to stick out and stay in the collective consciousness of the town. [01:12:30] Speaker A: It might be worth it if we stick to Houston, then. We did a couple of small towns last time. Houston might provide us more places to stay than any other. [01:12:45] Speaker B: That's fair. [01:12:47] Speaker A: Dirt and hole in the know. [01:12:49] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot more going on there, and I think that if I remember correctly, there's quite a big truck stop in Houston to fill up this giant vehicle that we are carrying with us. So that might be smart. [01:13:05] Speaker E: Oh, absolutely. There's a ton of places like that in bigger cities, and just outside of bigger cities, they're kind of like the place to stop for truckers, so that's very easy to do. [01:13:20] Speaker B: Feel like there's, like, a giant Jubits out there, if I remember correctly. [01:13:25] Speaker E: So let's go with we're going to make a couple just it's probably going to take two people to get there if you want to get there without anybody getting unnecessarily tired from having to do all of the driving in one go. So let's have Rosanna and whoever wants to take the second leg of the drive both make drive checks. These are not terribly difficult. One success is enough. I just want to know know you're in a fit state, Rosanna. Oh, wait. Before we do that, I need Rosanna and Zephyr to make their daily roles. I apologize. Should have had you guys do this earlier. Well, goodness. All right. Well, Rosanna, you didn't have any nightmares. Could you just because you rolled a critical I would like you to roll me an oracle roll. I want to see if instead of getting a nightmare, you get something that could kind of clue you into other stuff that's happening. [01:14:58] Speaker A: Okay. That's a wits and awareness. [01:15:05] Speaker E: How you forget let me look. We have it pinned for a reason. [01:15:09] Speaker A: I think it's wits. [01:15:12] Speaker E: Yes, it is. Wits and awareness. [01:15:14] Speaker A: Okay. [01:15:22] Speaker E: And this is not going to be something that you can spend willpower on. It's just it's either going to work or it's not. [01:15:27] Speaker A: Right. No one success. [01:15:35] Speaker E: Well, you don't have any nightmares, but you also don't have any visions, which may be a good thing for you. You've got this hanger on. Maybe you were concerned that you were definitely going to have problems where you were going to be far more attuned to your visions and whatever than you normally are, but not so much. You got a great night of sleep. You woke up feeling pretty refreshed. It's still a little awkward feeling this person attached to you, but she is actively doing everything she can not to make this an unpleasant experience for you. [01:16:07] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure that as she's trying to drive to the entity in her head is probably poking fun at her mentally. [01:16:20] Speaker E: Maybe not poking fun, in fact, from what she's telling you, and she's making an effort not to take over your body and say it out loud, but you can hear her. She's excited. She was born in a time where, yeah, women were allowed to drive, and there was nothing saying that she couldn't drive and that she didn't drive, but she didn't get the opportunity very often. You know what I mean? It was one of those things where typically if she needed to go somewhere, she got driven there by either a male family member who actually owned a car because she didn't work or she had to call a cab or something like that. So she's kind of excited by the idea that women just drive just as often as men now and nobody thinks it's weird, and she wants to know if this is like your RV or if you're just driving to make it easier on the actual owner. She's very excited and giddy about this new development in the battle of the sexes, so to speak. [01:17:33] Speaker A: In her mind, she'll just start talking about the RV and everything and kind of how we came about it and how it's not anybody's RV in particular. [01:17:42] Speaker E: Like a group purchase. [01:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it was kind of like we all threw in a little bit of cash to get together, all while trying to also make sure that she's paying attention to whenever Arthur gives her a direction. [01:17:54] Speaker E: Right. Well, I mean, thankfully, again, you're on I ten, so there aren't a lot of directions to give. Although Arthur does occasionally point out, okay, we're going to have probably a turn off up here that should have a gas station that we can stop at or something like that. That's kind of the most intensive amount of direction that you get when you're driving on an interstate. For the most part, it's a pretty straightforward process, but, yeah. Your passenger seems quite pleased and excited by everything. The world is a new and brave place for Arthur. [01:18:40] Speaker B: Yes. [01:18:42] Speaker E: Oh, wait, who is taking the second leg? Is it going to be Arthur? Are you guys just swapping seats? [01:18:48] Speaker B: I mean, it could be Arthur. I could do that. [01:18:50] Speaker A: I'm down to play navigator afterwards. [01:18:54] Speaker E: Sure. I'm putting the opportunity out there that somebody else might want to drive. I'm not going to tell anybody that they have to. [01:19:02] Speaker B: Right? Like, if someone else wants to step in, sure. But Arthur can easily just slip over and start driving. [01:19:09] Speaker E: No. Okay, cool. Arthur, make me a drive want what. [01:19:14] Speaker A: Is the drive check that we need to oh. [01:19:19] Speaker E: Oh, I apologize. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Composure and drive resolve and composure or. [01:19:24] Speaker E: Resolve, depending on what your approach is going to be. I don't super care. It's mostly just making sure that you're good. [01:19:31] Speaker B: If it's a long haul, I think it's going to probably be resolve. Probably Arthur. [01:19:36] Speaker A: Same for Rosanna. [01:19:42] Speaker B: Three. But I think I rolled it wrong. [01:19:46] Speaker A: It's the same. [01:19:47] Speaker E: You're fine. [01:19:50] Speaker A: Four. [01:19:52] Speaker E: Excellent. [01:19:53] Speaker A: Okay. [01:19:54] Speaker E: Everything goes incredibly smoothly between these two, victoria and Zephyr. During the drive, you have plenty of time to get into whatever it is that you would like to get into. So I'm going to give you both the opportunity because you are not consumed with other tasks. [01:20:14] Speaker D: I'm actually going to show her some of the pages in the book, but not let her touch it. [01:20:25] Speaker E: Oh, okay. Well, then this sounds like a role play game. So I'm going to let Victoria and Zephyr start looking at the book. I am curious to see how our one intelligence hunter feels about the book written in code and with some really gory imagery. Also, are you going to show her the lunar moth on the inside cover? [01:20:55] Speaker D: Yeah, that's the main reason why I wanted to show her, just to see if it meant anything specifically or if it was just kind of like a drawing that was in there. [01:21:07] Speaker E: Okay, well, this sounds like an RP scene. You describe how you're going to approach this and how the conversation goes, and I will step in if I feel like I need to provide anything. [01:21:18] Speaker D: All right, so, yeah, I'll just kind of sit next to you but not super close, and just kind of open the book and be like, hey, I found this really weird book at that bookstore we stopped at. You're more familiar with kind of like the weird occult stuff right here and there. So then I flipped to the one page that has, like, the moth on it. [01:21:52] Speaker C: Holy shit. Where'd you find this? [01:21:54] Speaker D: At the bookstore. [01:21:58] Speaker C: You're going to have to fight me because I'm going to try and take this book from you as soon as I say them off. [01:22:04] Speaker D: No, I yank you back. Never mind. [01:22:13] Speaker C: You can't just drop a bomb in my lab. [01:22:16] Speaker E: Please don't touch it. [01:22:17] Speaker D: It's mine. Respectfully. [01:22:22] Speaker C: Okay, respectfully, I will not touch it. But this is Linnaeus society. You have. [01:22:32] Speaker A: Oh. [01:22:35] Speaker C: Remember how I was part of a secret society? Have I mentioned that to you? Probably, like passing, but this is like. [01:22:42] Speaker D: I've heard you mention it a few times, but I don't know exactly what it is. [01:22:47] Speaker C: This is them. [01:22:51] Speaker D: So does that mean it belonged to their library at some point or potentially. [01:22:59] Speaker C: Or it got lost. They kept that stuff under lock and key pretty hard, but then they just vanished. Maybe something bad did happen and now their books are just scattered. I don't know. Where did you find this? [01:23:18] Speaker D: It was at that small, kind of like mom and pop bookstore that we all went to. I was in the medical section and I saw it and it seemed weird enough to grab, so I just grabbed and there wasn't like a price or anything on it. [01:23:42] Speaker C: There wasn't price. [01:23:45] Speaker D: Assuming that it was just kind of weird magic stuff. [01:23:50] Speaker C: Okay, I might be paranoid, I might be wrong, but that feels like it was planted. [01:23:59] Speaker D: I mean, at this point I wouldn't be surprised, but it seemed like and then I opened it back up and kind of just kind of show you some of the pages, but. Not like the really gory ones, but I thought it would be useful in case we encounter anything super weird and we wouldn't know how to deal with it. I don't know. [01:24:27] Speaker C: So this code, is it English, or does it look like it's a different language? [01:24:33] Speaker E: I mean, it uses the same alphabet as English, but it's not any language that you've ever seen before. [01:24:45] Speaker C: Can you read it? [01:24:49] Speaker D: Some of the pages make sense, but it looks like it's in a code, so I figured I would show it to either you or Rosanna to see if you guys recognized it. [01:25:04] Speaker C: Do I recall them writing anything in? [01:25:09] Speaker E: Hmm. Make me a make me trying to think of what the appropriate role would be for, like, a memory check. Let's go with a composure and awareness role, because you are trying to keep your wits about you. You're trying to keep yourself settled and to think clearly and not to get too upset, as you want to do. [01:25:50] Speaker C: Okay. Can I willpower this, though? [01:25:54] Speaker E: You can. Absolutely. [01:25:55] Speaker C: All right, cool. Or successes. [01:26:01] Speaker E: Or successes. You do remember spying things now and then on some of the literature that other members had, usually higher ranking members. That was not written in any language that you had ever seen. You were aware at the time that a lot of things that got passed among the upper echelons were definitely ciphered, probably to protect whatever secrets the Linnaeus society had. You were not personally made aware of how to decipher anything because you were still very much kind of on the lowest rung of membership. You were barely a step above, like, somebody who came to the orientation, so but, yeah, okay. [01:27:05] Speaker C: I just kind of look at the page, and I look at Zephyr, and then I look back at the page. It's kind code. I remember them using it, but I was never told how to crack it. [01:27:19] Speaker E: I will say that it is very clear to you, Victoria, in the way that things are written, and this would also be clear to Zephyr, but maybe more so to you, because you got to see so much of their stuff being handwritten. It is very clear to you that this was written long time ago. This is old writing. The style of the script is very dated. The pages look pretty old. Even without touching them, you can tell that the paper is old. Not ancient, but old. [01:27:58] Speaker C: You're already pretty guarded, but be careful who you show that to. [01:28:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I figured it seemed a little too best way to put it weird to just kind of, like, run around being like, hey, look at what I found. Yeah, I'll make sure to keep it somewhere safe. [01:28:30] Speaker C: Yeah. And if it was planted, we have to kind of ask ourselves why. [01:28:40] Speaker E: It'S. [01:28:41] Speaker C: Not it wouldn't be planted for me, or maybe it would be, but I don't think so. It's something for you. Be careful. [01:28:52] Speaker D: It I will be. Then I kind of just tuck it back in my bag. [01:29:08] Speaker C: When I find them, I'm going to kick all their asses. [01:29:14] Speaker D: What happened to them, do you know? Exactly, or it's just kind of like they all kind of up and vanished. [01:29:24] Speaker C: Pun intended, because of all of our unwanted guests. But they ghosted me. [01:29:30] Speaker D: They pulled a Roanoke on you. [01:29:33] Speaker C: A whole ass secret society ghosted me. [01:29:40] Speaker D: I'm sorry. [01:29:44] Speaker C: You know what? I'm sorry, too. I went through a long time just being angry about it because why bring someone in and teach them a bunch of stuff and make them work really hard just to vanish? Right? Like, I don't know. I don't know. [01:30:05] Speaker D: They yeah, they lost. They lost someone. [01:30:09] Speaker A: Good. [01:30:13] Speaker C: Let's see. [01:30:19] Speaker E: It'S. [01:30:20] Speaker C: I want to say when you sat down beside me, I was just doodling, like, circles and stuff in my book. Like, there was head empty. No thoughts. [01:30:32] Speaker E: Is there anything else either of you would like to do? [01:30:38] Speaker D: No? [01:30:40] Speaker E: Okay. [01:30:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:43] Speaker E: At about the halfway mark, you guys stop, fill up on gas again, maybe grab a quick bite to eat from whatever roadside place you stopped at. It's a truck stop. Let's be real. There's probably some old crummy diner, and you guys grab some quick diner food and pile back into the RV. Victoria, while very willing to cook, it's not the safest idea to cook while driving. So you guys just opt to buy something fast and then get back on the road in the evening. You roll in to you guys said you were going for Houston, correct? [01:31:28] Speaker B: Yes. [01:31:29] Speaker E: You guys roll into a motel on the outskirts of Houston, close enough to where nobody's really going to look twice at an RV pulling in, but not so close that you think you're going to have to deal with security cameras on every corner. You've made it a point to kind of avoid going near banks so that there aren't ATMs that are going to pick up on where you are. You've avoided red light cameras as much as you can, and when you were forced to go through a place where there's definitely a red light camera, you have slowed down to make sure that you are not running any red lights so that you're not triggering the camera, that sort of thing. But you guys pull in, secure how many rooms? Just one? Or are you guys going to now that you know that some of you have more money than you realize you have, are you guys going for, like, separate rooms? What's happening? [01:32:33] Speaker A: I'd be willing to pitch in for two. [01:32:36] Speaker B: I think two seems like a good option. [01:32:39] Speaker E: Two double bedrooms sound good to everybody? Cool. It's not hard to secure the rooms. The guy who gives you the rooms does kind of give Rosanna an odd look when she pays in cash to avoid this being traced. It's mostly just people who look like you don't usually pay in cash. Rosanna, or they really pay in cash, and it's because they don't need the authorities knowing that they were here. And so he gives you one of. [01:33:17] Speaker A: The I'm just going to bet my eyelashes at him and slide him the money. [01:33:21] Speaker E: Yeah. He gives you the room keys, but you can tell what he thinks you're going to do with them. Right behind her, especially with Arthur standing right behind her. There is a man in a priest collar standing behind her, and she's paying for rooms in cash outside of city limits. That really only says one thing to someone who doesn't know any better. And you can imagine the look on his face when you guys go to walk back out to the RV and he sees two other people pile out of the RV, and one of them is female. Yeah. So there's definitely a moment of pause with this poor guy at the counter, but you can tell that he is definitely the type of person who knows better than to ask too many questions. [01:34:26] Speaker B: Arthur, in a moment of just kind of trying to be funny, he's going to have one of the room keys and go, so Roseanne and I are one, you know, and he's going to look right at Victoria when he says it and trying not to laugh. He's very much holding back to laugh. [01:34:45] Speaker E: Apparently all that earns from Rosanna is this or not from Rosanna. From Victoria is this hard side eye. [01:34:53] Speaker A: And Rosanna is trying to not be embarrassed. [01:35:00] Speaker C: Arthur, what do you think? [01:35:05] Speaker B: I think it's fine. We could separate guys and girls. That's fine. [01:35:12] Speaker A: Okay, well, what if I want to have a sleepover with Zephyr? [01:35:17] Speaker B: Hey, listen, if that's how you want to play it, that's fine with me. No jealousy. And I'm going to hand the key over to Zephyr, one of the rooms. [01:35:28] Speaker D: I like, try to hand it back. [01:35:30] Speaker B: What is going on between you and Zephyr then? What does that imply? [01:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah, are you two sleeping together? [01:35:37] Speaker C: You both are just pain in my ass. [01:35:43] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm going to go see if there's maybe, like, a general store or something around here. If anybody would like to come to the store. Victoria, go to the store with me. [01:35:59] Speaker C: I didn't think you meant anything else. [01:36:01] Speaker A: I don't know. After the conversation that you initiated this. [01:36:05] Speaker E: Morning, I show a little bit of. [01:36:08] Speaker C: Concern about intercell politics, relationships. [01:36:14] Speaker A: I'm going to excuse myself, and I'm going to go take off. [01:36:19] Speaker C: Kind of like point of Zephyr and Arthur. [01:36:24] Speaker E: Is anybody going with Roseanne? [01:36:26] Speaker B: I'll go if zeph, if you're not going. [01:36:33] Speaker D: No. Well, no, I'm not. [01:36:38] Speaker B: All right. We'll try not to get drunk, I say as we walk through the parking lot. [01:36:44] Speaker E: Excellent. The duo known as the sloppy drunks head for a store that's not far away. It's like a little local mini mart style store. It's basically a convenience store that is the answer to the local truck stops. It's for families who are on their way out of town but don't necessarily want to deal with. Going to, like, a full on truck stop. More standard sized gas pumps and things like that. But you guys roll in. What are you looking for, Rosanna? You're normal? [01:37:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking for a bag. I got lucky. Victoria had one. I want to see if I can find more. [01:37:37] Speaker E: All right. [01:37:42] Speaker A: Roll for strawberry cream. [01:37:45] Speaker E: Thing is, I roll for these between sessions, and I already know what the answer is. [01:37:52] Speaker A: I do, too. [01:37:53] Speaker E: It's okay. But I'm still going to look anyway. You roll me a let's go wits awareness and see if you could even find where they would be. [01:38:14] Speaker A: Successes. [01:38:16] Speaker E: So you find where it would normally be on the shelf. The OD thing about this place, though, is that you see one that is for orange creams and one that is for, like, lemon creams, but there is no spot for strawberry creams. It looks like this place doesn't even carry the particular thing that you are looking for. [01:38:48] Speaker A: What did I do in a past life? To literally every single stop we go to, every single town that we drive through. Did I just imagine them? Am I going crazy? Of course I'm going crazy. [01:39:06] Speaker B: No, I think you picked the least popular flavor or the most popular. That's why no one ever has them. [01:39:15] Speaker A: I only got this one last one that Victoria gave me. [01:39:23] Speaker B: I don't know. Treasure it, I guess. [01:39:26] Speaker A: I'm going to I should probably ask how you're feeling after after yesterday. [01:39:43] Speaker B: Well, it's really kind of complicated, but not happy. Very angry and just trying to keep my cool as each day passes. Trying to get you to Florida as fast as possible. But also and I'm not trying to start a fight, and I'm like looking through her a little, you know, trying to resolve whatever it is that we need to resolve for your passenger in a peaceful way. And he rolls his eyes a little bit. As peaceful as possible. [01:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah. You know that I really appreciate you helping me help me out with this. I know that it's not the best circumstance right now, and I couldn't let Victoria go through it. [01:40:59] Speaker B: No, I understand. Like, I understand trying to do whatever you need to do to save your friend, your cellmate, your partner. I don't like that you accepted a spirit, but I think that you're handling it much better than Victoria could. [01:41:29] Speaker A: And you really don't need to hold on to the ring. If you want no lack. Let's face it, if you want nothing to do with this, I completely understand. [01:41:43] Speaker B: I don't want anything to do with this. But this ring is how I protect you. This is my insurance policy. And so as long as you're in danger, I will keep this ring. [01:42:06] Speaker A: I really appreciate you, Arthur. Thank you for being a good person. She's going to lean in and hug him. [01:42:24] Speaker B: Arthur will hug back and, like, really mean it. [01:42:35] Speaker A: I want to make it up to you somehow. What's one thing that you've always wanted to try now that you're kind of back in normal normal society? [01:42:56] Speaker B: I don't know. I've lived so long. Not really. I mean, let's be real here. When there was something I wanted to do, despite the fact that it might have been worldly, sometimes I would still indulge. And so there's not really anything that I've always wanted to do that I haven't done before. Honestly. [01:43:27] Speaker A: Not even something small. [01:43:30] Speaker E: It. [01:43:36] Speaker B: No, not really. Yeah. [01:43:52] Speaker A: It also sorry me for the conversation that I know you overheard. I don't know what the hell is going on with Victoria to make her talk about that stuff. Well, it threw me off guard. [01:44:17] Speaker B: I do get where she's coming from, and Arthur will just start grabbing random snacks to step away from the hug and stuff. I get it. We went out, we drank, and then after that, it's pretty obvious that things are different between you and I, mostly because we know each other better. She could see that. And probably I may have gone a little overboard when I was trying to protect you yesterday. I admit that my emotions got the better of me. To somebody like Victoria or Zephyr, that might have looked like something else. [01:45:10] Speaker A: You're just trying to protect. [01:45:16] Speaker B: People I care about. Yeah. [01:45:24] Speaker A: She'S going to grab a couple of other snacks. And for what it's worth, even the ghost in my head thinks that you're a handsome man, so I mean. [01:45:42] Speaker B: It'S the shirt does it for a lot of ladies. I mean, I don't have to tell you what you look like. You see everyone react to it. So. [01:46:05] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:46:09] Speaker A: Like I told you before, like, I could give less than two hells how I look at I know. [01:46:19] Speaker B: It's one of the things that's interesting about you. You don't care. That what you look like. You're a whole different person on the inside than on the outside. And the inside is what matters and not the person inside the real you, not the thing that's inside of you inside. This is getting awkward, and I'm sure people are looking at us. [01:46:45] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sure it's fine. I mean, people are going to look at us anyway. Like I said, you're very pretty. [01:46:56] Speaker B: I don't think anyone's looking at me. [01:46:57] Speaker A: I think that people are looking at you. I mean, I am, aren't I? [01:47:08] Speaker B: I guess you are. Do you think we need a road atlas. [01:47:24] Speaker A: Maybe? [01:47:27] Speaker D: Um. [01:47:30] Speaker A: And I don't know where one would be. I'm sure we could find one. [01:47:37] Speaker B: I'm sure there's some why don't we look around for a minute and just see what we can find? [01:47:44] Speaker E: All right. As you two while away some minutes looking for whatever random things you can buy as an excuse to not have to continue the discussion that you were having zephyr and Victoria, arthur and Rosanna walked off awkwardly to go shopping. Victoria, you had the very pointed feeling that it's going to be incredibly awkward, and it's more than a little bit your fault that it's going to be an awkward shopping trip, but I don't imagine you care very much. What are you guys going to do? Do you guys want to have any discussions while they're gone, or are you just going to go to your separate rooms and chill? Oh, Victoria, are you cooking dinner? [01:48:38] Speaker C: Let's order in tonight. The only reason I say that is because I don't know, we're not on the road. It feels weird. We are actually at a motel for once in a place where we can order food. I'm going to order something, actually. [01:48:53] Speaker E: I'm going to wait for them to. [01:48:54] Speaker C: Get back before we order anything, because if I order the wrong thing, there's going to be hell to pay. [01:48:59] Speaker E: Okay. All right, cool. Do you guys want to have an RP moment? Is there anything either one of you want to accomplish while they're away? It is taking longer than you really thought it would for them to just go grab snacks. [01:49:17] Speaker C: Holy shit. Maybe they are getting drunk again. [01:49:20] Speaker D: Oh, God. Should we leave the door on? Lock the doors unlocked for when they get back. [01:49:30] Speaker C: I mean, I'm all fine for them getting wasted. Heck, I'd hand them my stash. They can have fun here. But, like, yelling stuff about our line of work in the middle of the street probably not the smoothest of operating things. [01:49:51] Speaker D: Yeah. Thankfully, most people, if they hear random yelling, they'll kind of mind their business. [01:49:59] Speaker C: Ain't that the truth? [01:50:04] Speaker D: Yeah. I'm going to go to my room and probably take a very much needed shower. [01:50:13] Speaker C: All right, Zephyr, keep your secrets. [01:50:18] Speaker D: Maybe I will. [01:50:21] Speaker C: Shower sounds great, though. We've been on the road for a bit. [01:50:26] Speaker D: Yeah. Hopefully Gozer doesn't get lonely out. [01:50:30] Speaker C: Oh, he'll be fine. Hey, Gozer's been doing great with everyone so far. He hasn't really interacted with Arthur yet. [01:50:42] Speaker D: I don't think I've ever seen Arthur interact with an animal before, so I don't know how that's going to go. [01:50:49] Speaker C: I hope it goes well. [01:50:51] Speaker E: Yeah. Go have your shower. [01:50:52] Speaker C: I think I'll have mine here before Rosanna gets back. [01:50:56] Speaker E: Speaking of Gozer, because his name has been said multiple times, he winds his way out of the RV, kind of nudges the door open. You have noticed, Victoria, that he is weirdly smart, but he has figured out how to put his paw on the little door handle from the inside and push it open, provided that it's left unlocked. And he makes his way over and he kind of stops and blips your fingers with his tongue for a moment and then moves over and does the same thing to Zephyr. And he's doing that thing where he's kind of like, circling the two of you, and every time he does, he sort of, like, brushes his side against the side, like the backs of your legs. Like he's trying to herd the two of you into a place where he can keep an eye on both of you, which he seems to do quite a bit. When everybody is together and you guys start to drift apart, he seems to actively want to push the pack closer together and herd you. [01:52:06] Speaker C: I give him head scriptures for this. [01:52:10] Speaker E: Yeah. He will kind of plop next to you. He'll just sit down and receive his pets while you two talk. But if you guys are going to part ways and go get your showers, the rooms that you got rosanna did make a point to ask for rooms that were pet friendly. So Gozer is allowed to spend the evening with the ladies of the cell. So, Zephyr, when you are alone, is there anything that you play to do or are you genuinely just going to go take a shower? [01:52:53] Speaker D: Genuinely just going to go take a shower. [01:52:55] Speaker E: Okay. I got to give you the option. Victoria, anything you would like to do while you have a few moments alone? Just a girl and her dog bell practice probably in the room. [01:53:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:53:18] Speaker E: Okay. [01:53:19] Speaker C: It's a room where I'm by myself. [01:53:22] Speaker E: People might hear it in the hall. [01:53:24] Speaker C: But they're not going to be like, hey, what's going on? I'm also not in the RV because I'm worried about messing with the ghost. [01:53:31] Speaker E: Too much in the RV. Okay, first of all, explain to me what you are trying to do. Is this just general practice or are you looking for a specific effect? [01:53:49] Speaker C: Well, okay. Part of me is really concerned about me being able to open the shroud, and I want to see if I. [01:53:55] Speaker E: Can do it, but I also don't. [01:53:56] Speaker C: Want to see if I can do. [01:53:57] Speaker E: It because I don't want to open. [01:53:58] Speaker C: A rift and invite more ghosts across. [01:54:03] Speaker E: Okay, that didn't really answer my question. You answered both yes and no. No. [01:54:11] Speaker C: Maybe I'll start tuning and try to think of, like, back when we were at the car that first time, and I'm going to attempt to of emulate that or figure out what went wrong. [01:54:23] Speaker A: Okay. [01:54:26] Speaker E: Give me give me composure and awareness because you are attempting to kind of recreate things and figure out what you may have done wrong, what may have happened, but you are also nervous about the idea that you may have actually caused what happened. [01:54:52] Speaker C: I would like to willpower reroll again. [01:54:55] Speaker E: Go for it. [01:54:57] Speaker C: Four successes, hooray. [01:54:59] Speaker E: Four successes. Pretty good. Okay. You take your bells and you start to recreate them, and you are pretty sure you're like, 99% sure that you are getting the exact tone that you got before. Gozer's ears are going nuts. You could see them flicking this way and that. It's like he's trying to make sense of what's happening. He gets up and he paces where he looks unsettled. It may just be the noise. This is the first time you've done this in front of him. It's hard to tell. [01:55:41] Speaker C: If he's getting too distressed. I would like to put him in the RV, but if he's just kind of like, what is happening? Then I'll keep going. [01:55:47] Speaker E: It's very much what is happening. He doesn't seem super upset. He just seems like he doesn't understand what's going on. And this may be slightly overwhelming for him, but you also know that if you want to have him around and for him to be able to be with you while you're hunting, he's going to have to get used to it. [01:56:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Desensitize a little bit. [01:56:08] Speaker E: Exactly. I would like you to make me a roll, and I'm not going to tell you what the exact pool is. I'm just going to give you a number of dice, and I'm going to tell you that if you would like to, you can add your desperation dice. [01:56:29] Speaker C: Oh, we're at four desperation dice right now, aren't we? [01:56:32] Speaker E: We are. [01:56:34] Speaker C: You know what? Considering how I feel about the situation, I think it warrants it because this is desperate. [01:56:39] Speaker E: Okay. I would like you to roll me. So your normal pool without desperation dice would be we're going to say five. [01:56:52] Speaker C: I'll roll nine. [01:56:54] Speaker E: Yeah. Make sure that you put in which one? You actually select your desperation when you put it in there so that I could tell which ones are which. Let's go. Five successes. Interesting. Okay. All right. So as you are trying to figure out what happened, what might have gone wrong, you start to kind of shift the tone just slightly. Once you figure out where it was during the event, you sort of start to adjust and change the tone a little bit. And you're looking for an answer to what you did the last time. How can I improve this? How can I make it more effective? As you do so. [01:57:55] Speaker C: You. [01:58:00] Speaker E: Can feel the room around you go cold. And I don't mean it's like a degree drop. I mean, it feels like going from that kind of mid autumn, pleasant warmth of the south to dead of winter a little bit further north kind of cold. It's almost like you've stepped into a meat freezer. That's kind of what it feels like. It's like a full body chill. When you exhale, you can see your breath come out. Gozer is whining. But also you can tell that his heckles are up. [01:58:53] Speaker C: Right. [01:58:54] Speaker E: He's not directing that at you. He seems distressed, but not at anything in particular. It's like he also senses the difference in the room, and in fact, you can even see his breath. I would like you to make me an unspent willpower check, please. [01:59:21] Speaker C: Okay. How would I do that? Is that just three dice that I have remaining? [01:59:26] Speaker E: Yes. Okay. [01:59:38] Speaker C: Two successes. [01:59:40] Speaker E: Okay. I'm going to give you an option here because you rolled high enough that you have managed to maintain a semblance of control over your faculties. Do you want to continue to press, or do you want to pull back? [02:00:01] Speaker C: Part of me wants to see if I can actually create a door that one that I can see and understand. Part of me is like, there's no one else here, and if I just vanish into another realm or whatever, they wouldn't know. They'd just be like, oh, Victoria's gone. [02:00:21] Speaker E: Uh. [02:00:25] Speaker C: I'm gonna pump the brakes. I'm gonna stop this and try I'm not gonna just, like, cut it off. I'm going to try and reverse it if I can. [02:00:35] Speaker E: Okay, in that case, make me another we're going to do another five die pool, but you do not get your desperation dice to try and to try and claw it back. Oh, okay. [02:01:02] Speaker C: All right. [02:01:06] Speaker E: It is an act of willpower at this point. You are fighting to reverse whatever it is that you did. You can feel the space around you, almost feels like molasses. Something doesn't want you to stop, and you have to work at it. Like, you can feel your muscles are straining. You can feel just the resistance that the world around you seems to be putting on you. Like, it wants you to keep going. And you actively pull yourself back, actively back, back up the way that you were. And you slowly, over a couple of minutes, manage to get yourself back to where it was when you first started. The cold in the room dissipates. You still feel cold, but, like, the room itself is back to feeling normal, ambiently. And you have the feeling that if you give yourself some time and maybe get a hot cup of tea or something like that, the cold that you are feeling will go away. It feels more like a residual that was creepy than anything else. Gozer is less upset, but still obviously unsettled. Like, he is very much reflecting how you feel. And as the room starts to return to normal, he kind of makes his way over to you and weaves himself between your legs and then sits so that you are forced to kind of stand there slightly bow legged, because he very clearly is not okay with not being as close to you as possible. [02:03:06] Speaker C: I'm absolutely exhausted at this point. I'm just kind of like I call Yozer up on the bed, and I just flop down, like, face first and just kind of like, oh, shit. Okay. All right. [02:03:22] Speaker E: Okay. All right. Well, that was very interesting. Is there anything else you want to do, or are you just going to curl up on the bed and Gozer's going to lay with you and just lick at your face until Rosanna returns. [02:03:41] Speaker C: If I wasn't so exhausted, my initial reaction was going to be running into Elijah's room, kicking down the door, and. [02:03:46] Speaker E: Just be like, I can open up. [02:03:48] Speaker C: A portal to the ghost world, but I didn't or not elijah. I'm sorry. [02:03:52] Speaker E: Is that for. [02:03:56] Speaker A: Who'S Elijah? [02:03:57] Speaker E: Yeah. Who's. [02:03:58] Speaker C: Elijah. [02:03:59] Speaker E: Look, you don't get to make that joke. Rosanna, you did the same thing earlier. [02:04:05] Speaker A: Who's Zoe? [02:04:06] Speaker E: Yeah. So you collapse onto the bed. Gozer immediately jumps up with you. Like, the second you lift your arm, he is there, and he kind of curls himself up into the curl of your body. And it is about ten minutes later that Rosanna and Arthur finish in a particularly awkward and quiet walk across the parking lot back to the motel. You guys are outside. You have your own keys to the two rooms. What are you guys going to do? [02:04:57] Speaker B: I don't know. Just try to talk about random things other than this weird elephant that is still sitting out there in the middle of the room. [02:05:09] Speaker E: Rosanna, was there anything in particular you wanted to discuss? [02:05:15] Speaker A: Actually, it's only going to make it slightly more fun. So I've been thinking, and I think I have a way to fix our problem of our of our of our passenger. I've been thinking it real hard, so she can kind of be queued in on it and kind of give feedback. Her and I've been brainstorming. [02:05:54] Speaker B: Wait, can you actually just talk to her in your head? [02:05:59] Speaker A: Sometimes? She likes to be a little bit of a brat and try to speak for me, but yeah, I really try not to. [02:06:07] Speaker E: That was in your head. That was not out loud. [02:06:10] Speaker A: Okay, I know you don't, but you were having a time this morning, and that was out loud. [02:06:20] Speaker E: That was, I think, more you you sort of got totally thrown for a loop, and you slipped, and your control was gone, and I didn't mean to. I just sort of filled the space. I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose. [02:06:35] Speaker A: It's okay. I know. Listen, but I got to tell him the plan. I got to tell him the plan. You know how it is. [02:06:45] Speaker E: Okay, I'll be quiet. [02:06:46] Speaker C: I'm sorry. [02:06:46] Speaker A: Okay. Is this, like, a one way conversation? [02:06:51] Speaker E: 100%. All Arthur hears is Rosanna's side of the conversation, and she looks like she's talking to somebody. [02:06:59] Speaker B: I don't think that it's healthy to be talking to the ghost in your head. That seems like something that now I'm really questioning everything about mental health and mental health counseling. No, not for you. I mean, could it just be that people who in their head are really actually writers for ghosts that are trying to get back with their dead husbands? You see where I'm going with this? [02:07:33] Speaker A: I think I do. Yeah. I don't think that everybody is like me. There are specifics. [02:07:47] Speaker B: How would we know? [02:07:48] Speaker A: Really? [02:07:49] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:07:50] Speaker A: I mean, for all I know, you have a ghost in your head too. [02:07:56] Speaker B: Sometimes it does feel like that. [02:08:02] Speaker A: Okay. [02:08:03] Speaker B: Anyway, you were talking about some kind of plan with the ghost in your head. [02:08:07] Speaker A: So her last positive memory with her husband was. Her wedding night. So I think if we maybe find a chapel somewhere and it's going to sound a little bit crazy, but you're used to this by now. How do I word this? What if we held a wedding ceremony? [02:08:44] Speaker B: For what purpose? [02:08:46] Speaker A: So spirits are drawn to memory, whatever last little bits of them held together. Usually they like to cling to more positive ones, but unfortunately, some of them get stuck with more negative ones, like our unfortunate my unfortunate mental roommate here. [02:09:13] Speaker B: Right. The loop of being stuck in the same death scene over and over again. [02:09:18] Speaker A: Over and over again. Yeah, they had just gone out of their wedding night fresh. What if the way to bring them together is to recreate the knot that was most special to both of them? [02:09:42] Speaker B: Hmm. There's probably some kind of psychological and spiritual reason why that makes sense. For sure. It would allow her and him to both tied at the same point in time. Supposing that was some factor. Yeah, it makes sense. I follow what you're thinking. [02:10:13] Speaker A: I was thinking we're kind of in the perfect area to do it, too. I mean, what Texas has is a church on almost every street corner. I'm sure we can find a chapel. And then she's going to think to herself, not out loud, did you get married in a chapel? A church outside? Where did you get married? Do you remember? [02:10:43] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:10:47] Speaker A: Oh, you're quiet now. Okay. Got it. [02:10:49] Speaker E: Okay. [02:10:53] Speaker A: But maybe we give a shot. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of out of I'm I'm running out of options. And like the the books, I haven't even begun to scratch the surface on them yet, and it just seems like the most logically, sound option to bring them back to a time where they were both happy. And then you can be rid of the ring and I can be rid of my roommate. [02:11:43] Speaker B: If that would be what brings them the resolution. Yeah. There's a risk, though, because what if it works in that it brings him, but it doesn't resolve whatever it is that keeps them tied here? Or what if the shroud, as Max called it, what if it stays close to them and then they're in us? [02:12:13] Speaker A: I mean, to be fair, there's going to be risk with no matter what we try. [02:12:22] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. I can agree with that. [02:12:25] Speaker A: I mean, if we tried just unless you have any better ideas, but by all means. I only thought of it as we were kind of driving. [02:12:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the only ideas I have aren't necessarily the best ideas if we're trying to resolve their problems rather than I beat you down with a book or something right before it didn't quite work out. [02:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that actually really hurt. That thing's very effective. [02:13:04] Speaker B: It can be. It didn't seem to be for your roommate. [02:13:11] Speaker A: Trust me, that option. It's okay. [02:13:19] Speaker B: I'll try not to slap you again, but no guarantees. [02:13:26] Speaker E: For what it's worth, it really did hurt. That's why I couldn't hold onto at. [02:13:36] Speaker A: Least I asked for it the last time. [02:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't said anything, but yeah. No, I don't think I have any better options. I don't know if Victoria Zephyr have any other ideas, but that is an idea. We could put that on our big board of ideas. [02:14:06] Speaker A: What do you think? Time to go through with the wedding? She says in her head. [02:14:18] Speaker E: I think it's worth a shot. We haven't gotten to look too much at the books, but that the books did mention a lot of familiarity being part of it, so maybe yeah. [02:14:33] Speaker A: All right, then we'll go find a nice dress or something. I don't know how much in detail we have to go with this, but. [02:14:46] Speaker E: I'll make it as good as mine. [02:14:49] Speaker A: Listen, I'm going to try to make this as enjoyable for the both of us as we possibly can. [02:14:56] Speaker C: Oh, really? [02:14:58] Speaker A: Listen, with the life that I live, I'm probably never going to make it to my wedding day, so, you know. [02:15:04] Speaker E: No, I wouldn't be so sure of that. [02:15:10] Speaker A: Not the rate that I'm going, or. [02:15:14] Speaker E: Maybe more the rate that you're going than you realize. And you could feel your head turn towards Arthur just a little. Sorry. [02:15:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. But that was very much like she looked at him. She kind of jerks her head and to pull away from looking at him watch it. You all right? Yeah. So, yeah, arthur might be good to look into seeing if there are any, maybe priests that might be willing to help us here. I don't know. I mean, I could just find some, like. [02:16:06] Speaker B: Weirdly. I might actually know someone, but I don't know if he's anywhere nearby. I have a friend who I haven't really called on. I don't think he knows that I'm not in the church anymore. But I do have a friend who's also a pastor, and a traveling one at that. And if he's nearby, we could see, but I don't know if he's anywhere nearby. So we may end up just trying to find any random preacher, then, to do the job. [02:16:39] Speaker A: I think I would rather it be somebody that, you know, trust before we bring a stranger into this. [02:16:44] Speaker B: I absolutely agree. But if Jack isn't anywhere near, then if he's in Minnesota, it would take a while for him to get out here. [02:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, we should we should. [02:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I can at least give him a call. [02:17:04] Speaker A: You can use my phone if you need. [02:17:10] Speaker B: Probably a good idea. But first let's put all these bags down. I don't know if I can make a phone call and carry all this stuff. [02:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Why did we buy so many snacks again? [02:17:24] Speaker B: I'm going to be real. I think it was so that we didn't keep talking. [02:17:29] Speaker E: Very true. [02:17:34] Speaker B: I forgot about the walk back, though. [02:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:17:39] Speaker C: Me too. [02:17:40] Speaker B: So go to the RV with all. [02:17:42] Speaker E: Of the stuff you're going to go unload in the RV. That way Zephyr and Victoria don't have to immediately oh, don't have to immediately see just how much money you spent on random stuff. Trying to avoid trying to avoid having a conversation. Okay, so you unload. Do you go to your respective rooms? Are you going to try and bring everybody together? What's the plan? [02:18:14] Speaker B: Well, I mean, usually we eat dinner together. We haven't had dinner yet, and so probably well, I'm at least going to go find Zephyr and make sure Zephyr's okay and not crying in the shower. [02:18:27] Speaker A: I'm going to go find Victoria, make sure she's not ripping through portals and stuff. [02:18:35] Speaker E: Well, it's funny you guys should say that. Zephyr is actually fresh out of the shower. It's obvious that he just finished getting dressed and everything. He looks a good deal more relaxed than he did the last time you saw him. Zephyr, would you make me a wits and awareness check? I just want to see if maybe I want to see if what you heard coming from the girls room, if anything, when Victoria was doing the bells successes yeah, you didn't really hear anything. You've had the shower going. You think you may have heard, like, a chime, but then the shower was going and it was immediately drowned out, so you didn't really think anything of it. Plus, those bells are sensitive enough that they tend to make noise just from being unloaded and set down. So that's probably all you heard as far as you're concerned. Rosanna, you walk in and Victoria is laying on the bed and looks fucking just toasted. She looks like she ran a goddamn marathon while you were gone. She looks tired. Her face is kind of drawn and stressed, and her eyes are barely open. And she's got, like her cheek is kind of nestled against Gozer's fur, and he has tilted his head to lay slightly on top of hers in this weirdly, almost paternal, protective kind of manner where he is like she she has somehow become the puppy, and he is protecting her. And when you walk up, like, his head doesn't lift, but, like, he does that thing that dogs do where his eyes flick to you and his eyebrows. [02:20:43] Speaker C: Move. [02:20:48] Speaker E: And his ears kind of perk and tilt towards you, but he doesn't move. [02:20:57] Speaker A: To crawl into. I'm going to crawl into the bed with Victoria and Gozer. I'm just going to just drape my arm over Victoria because I see that she's just drained, and everybody needs a good black cuddle once in a while. [02:21:15] Speaker E: So are you big spoon, or do you have, like, Gozer, like, sandwiched between the two of you? [02:21:22] Speaker A: I'm big spooning. [02:21:23] Speaker E: Excellent. I love that Victoria is the hard ass of the group and is getting turned into the little spoon. I love it so much. [02:21:33] Speaker C: The filling you actually wake me up? Because I passed out hard and didn't realize it just hey, it's okay. [02:21:44] Speaker A: It's me. [02:21:47] Speaker C: They're ghosts. [02:21:50] Speaker A: No, well, other than. [02:22:00] Speaker C: It was me. I confirmed it. It was me. [02:22:06] Speaker A: Well, you look beat. [02:22:11] Speaker C: Yeah, and I opened it and then I closed it. I didn't close it back at HeLa Bend. [02:22:28] Speaker B: Okay. [02:22:32] Speaker A: I'm just going to reach into my pocket and pull out my phone and text Jade. Tell Gloria that she might need to find some help cleaning up a little problem and send her my love. [02:22:54] Speaker E: Put. [02:22:54] Speaker A: Back in my pocket. [02:22:56] Speaker E: Hey. [02:23:05] Speaker A: You know, Victoria. I mean, this is all of the love in my heart. You look exhausted. You aren't cooking tonight. How about we just order some takeout or something, get it delivered? [02:23:20] Speaker C: Okay, I was going to do that, but I wanted to wait for you and Arthur to get back so we could and I kind of set up at this point just so we could pick something everyone liked. [02:23:36] Speaker A: I'm going to just kind of, like, cup her cheek and just kind of, like, rest my forehead on her. We'll decide. We'll decide as a group. But I need you to take care of yourself for me, okay? [02:23:52] Speaker C: Something didn't want me to close it. [02:24:00] Speaker A: Ghosts are finicky. [02:24:02] Speaker E: Ozer is actively trying to crawl into Victoria's lap like he is a lap dog. He is not a lap dog. He's huge. He is the size of a full on wolf. But he is in Victoria's lap. He seems worried. [02:24:23] Speaker A: Please don't do it without us. We don't want you hurting yourself, and we don't know enough about what is going on. [02:24:34] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I wanted to see where I went wrong back in Helabend, and I'm not sure if it's a wrong thing. I don't know. Maybe this is what they were afraid of. Maybe this is why the Linnaeus society ditched me. I don't know. Everything's kind of getting weird. [02:25:08] Speaker A: We'll just have to look into it now, won't we? [02:25:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:25:13] Speaker A: Come on. Get up. Maybe get in the shower. You deserve a hot shower. [02:25:22] Speaker C: I forgot. Okay. I'll be out in a bit. And I give Gozer, like, neck screeches before standing up just to kind of make him relax a little bit. He's like, I'll be right back out, buddy. [02:25:33] Speaker E: He whines and licks your face, but stays with Rosanna when it's clear that you're not leaving, leaving. [02:25:45] Speaker A: And then Rosanna rubs her hands together and goes in for more head scratches. [02:25:49] Speaker E: For the baby and finds out what it's like to have a huge lap dog because he attempts to take up her lap, too. He can't talk. This is his only way of communicating. All right, Arthur and Zephyr, are you guys doing or talking about anything? Going to assume that Rosanna is going to take it upon herself to order food. [02:26:23] Speaker B: She talks to the ghost in her head. By the way, Rosanna thing I learned today on our walk makes sense. [02:26:34] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:26:37] Speaker B: I mean, it's crazy, but at least we know she's not actually crazy. [02:26:47] Speaker D: Yeah. And I'm like laying in my bed but facing towards the wall, so I'm not even looking at you because I'm just kind of like I can't even face you because I fucked up. Yeah, it's weird. But I'm sure we'll get it figured out. [02:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure we will. I bought random snacks, by the way. [02:27:21] Speaker D: And I turn instantly. [02:27:23] Speaker A: Snacks? Snacks. [02:27:26] Speaker E: What kind? [02:27:28] Speaker B: Toss a bag of I don't know, something onion cuts or whatever. Like fried onion things or whatever. To Zeph. [02:27:37] Speaker D: Thank you. [02:27:40] Speaker B: Yeah. We got to figure out dinner. I don't know. I don't know if Victoria was Victoria cooking. She wasn't in the so and it didn't smell like cooking. I assumed she was taking a we. [02:27:52] Speaker D: Both after you guys left, we talked for a bit and then both went to go take shower, so I assume that she probably went to sleep. That drive kind of long. I don't know. [02:28:05] Speaker B: True. Maybe we order a pizza or something. Let's find out. What? Rosanna? Oh, she also has a crazy idea. She wants to do a wedding to try to get the husband ghost guy to show up, and then hopefully that resolves the unfinished business that these two have. Or at least that the one. [02:28:33] Speaker D: Don't. I've actually never been to a wedding before, so even if it's fake, that would be interesting to see. [02:28:39] Speaker B: Well, come on. Hold on, Zeph. Hold on. Let me get this straight. In the years you were in the cult, you never attended any of the multi wife ceremonies at all? [02:28:49] Speaker D: No, it never interests me. So I was like, there's no point in me being here. [02:28:55] Speaker B: But everyone was invited, so you didn't go at all? You didn't even, in the slightest bit of curiosity, go check it out? [02:29:02] Speaker D: No, that's too many people. Then they'll all know I exist, so I'm good. [02:29:13] Speaker B: You really did try to keep yourself separated. [02:29:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I was comfortable, so I didn't mind. [02:29:23] Speaker B: It true. Yeah. Well, I've been to many wedding ceremonies, so it should be fine. They're mostly ceremonial, except for the people getting married and their relative, other spouses and extended family members. It's really not like for everyone else. It's just kind of like a cool, fun event to watch. And sure, there's emotions for the people that are emotionally invested, which in theory is everybody, but not everybody's part of the extended family, so should be fine. You'll be fine. No one will expect you to do or say anything. You won't have to give a best man speech or anything. Except that unfortunately, I don't really have any options if I need a best man. And Arthur will give an eye to Zephyr. [02:30:26] Speaker D: Best man sounds like a really strong word, but sure. [02:30:32] Speaker B: I'm just saying if we're supposed to reenact a wedding and if he had a best man, I guess I'm going to have to have one, so you better be ready to give some kind of crazy speech. [02:30:41] Speaker D: Do I have to get dressed up? [02:30:45] Speaker B: Probably. I'm going to guess we all have to get dressed up. [02:30:49] Speaker D: Okay, I'll do it, but only because we have to. [02:30:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Thanks. Even if you weren't, like, if I had other options, I'd really still choose you, man, to be right. There been through all kinds of stuff. Why not this? [02:31:12] Speaker D: That's true. Yeah. Since we're not at the compound, would it be similar to the ones that were there, or is this, like I don't know. [02:31:24] Speaker B: Oh, no, absolutely not. This would be like one of those regular ones that people that you probably saw on TV or whatever. This would definitely be more normal. Not like first husband and first wife kind of standing over the marriage of a third wife or whatever. Certainly would be no handing off of anyone to the next person, to the release the wife to the other, the new husband kind of business. Definitely wouldn't be any of that. The chain wouldn't be involved. The trail flower is probably not necessary. Well, though they do joke, actually, flowers would probably be a thing. The trail flowers probably still be a thing, but for different reasons. Right. The symbolism would be different. [02:32:06] Speaker D: Yeah. Do you sorry if this is, like, overstepping my bounds, but do you actually like Rosanna. [02:32:22] Speaker B: Just out of as a person? She's wonderful. She's actually really sweet and cares about everybody. [02:32:30] Speaker D: I mean, like, more, you know, more than friends. [02:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah. She's my hunting companion and know, stand the line and try to fight the darkness together in my life. [02:32:47] Speaker D: If you like Rosanna in a romantic. [02:32:53] Speaker B: So that is a strange question. No, I mean, my heart is with Katie Lynn, and that's where it know if I really, really think about it. I guess there's some similarities between them, for sure. They're both people that I care about. They're both women that I care about. They're both women that I care about who are under the influence of a supernatural thing, and I'm trying to save them. I would like to say that my feelings are under control, but I have to admit that my mind is not a steel trap. Like, there's probably bleed over, and it's not fair to her if there's bleed over, and it's not fair to Katie Lynn if there's bleed over, but I don't think so. But I do care about her and what happens to her, and I am trying to save her. So there is a lot of similarities there, for sure. So I don't know, man. It's a hard question to answer. [02:34:06] Speaker D: Yeah. Love is weird. It's strange and unfair. [02:34:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. The church, one of the teachers was like, the lack of attachment. Right. You can't be attached. If you're attached, it leads to resentment and jealousy. But I don't know. I think people need to be attached to people. I think that we need those things to be like a driving force for us. And yes, I do admit I'm attached to Rosanna, but I'm attached to you and I'm attached to Victoria. So I don't know what that means. Want to say that I'm not. But it also is like if the church taught that we shouldn't be attached and that teaching was done by entity that was not good, then we should be attached. It's like a weird opposite kind of thing. So I don't know. I don't know if I can answer that question. [02:35:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it's weird because being around that all the time, it was strange because I was pretty much always an onlooker. I never really I don't get it. [02:35:44] Speaker B: Motions? [02:35:48] Speaker D: Yes. And also I guess love. I love my family. But a person outside of that, it's weird. I don't get it. [02:36:04] Speaker B: See, that was where the Church of the Rising Sun made it complicated because your family wasn't just one person. Right? Yeah. [02:36:22] Speaker D: Anyways, let's go check on the dinner. [02:36:25] Speaker B: Yeah, let's find out what's going on with dinner. Certainly. Hey, do you think we need a road atlas? We might need to maybe think of that and stuff. [02:36:34] Speaker D: A road atlas? [02:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, just like a big map that shows everywhere in these estates. And then Arthur will just continue explaining what a road atlas is. Like, maybe ren McNally, a company that was started a long time ago and. [02:36:49] Speaker E: Arthur is constantly mansplaining to everybody simple things that they should probably already know about. Okay, so Rosanna, the boys knock on the door, hops out of your lap and paces to the door and sniffs at it and is like waiting. [02:37:16] Speaker A: All right, boy. All right, boy. Is there like a people I can check? [02:37:22] Speaker E: Yeah, there's a people. And you could see Zephyr and Arthur. [02:37:26] Speaker B: You can also probably hear Arthur explaining the company ran McNally and its start. [02:37:30] Speaker E: Up until oh, yeah, absolutely. [02:37:35] Speaker A: God damn it. Arthur. Are you explaining that fucking atlas to. [02:37:42] Speaker D: For? Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that's cool. [02:37:45] Speaker C: Goodness. [02:37:48] Speaker A: Victoria, are you decent? [02:37:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll be right out. [02:37:53] Speaker A: Okay. The boys are at the door. That's why I'm asking. So if you don't have clothes, let me know. [02:38:00] Speaker E: She just never stopped her before. [02:38:02] Speaker C: It hasn't. [02:38:07] Speaker A: And then she is going to open the door. May I help you? [02:38:18] Speaker B: We were just what was what we're going to do for dinner? [02:38:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I was just thinking like pizza or Chinese food or something. [02:38:31] Speaker B: I mean, I also need to borrow your phone, but other than that right. [02:38:37] Speaker A: By the way, are we explaining the idea that I had to the two of them? [02:38:43] Speaker B: Oh, I already explained to Zephyr thought that you were telling. [02:38:50] Speaker A: Had we had other things that we had to talk about. [02:38:54] Speaker B: Oh, well, yeah, Zephyr is aware. [02:38:58] Speaker A: Okay. Victoria, we might need to talk to you about something that kind of has something to do with what you and I were talking about earlier. [02:39:13] Speaker C: At this point, I'll just kind of shuffle out of the bathroom looking like a truck hit me. [02:39:19] Speaker E: Kind of. [02:39:19] Speaker C: It's just so very tired looking. [02:39:23] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:39:24] Speaker C: Let's talk about whatever we need to talk about. [02:39:27] Speaker D: We're all getting married. I'm kidding. [02:39:32] Speaker C: Kind of back back up into the. [02:39:33] Speaker E: Bathroom and close the door. [02:39:37] Speaker A: Oh, what? You don't want to get married to me? Victoria, I'm offended. [02:39:41] Speaker C: No, the phrase was we're all getting married and I'll step back out. At this point, it was a little much for me right now. [02:39:49] Speaker A: Well, okay, so technically technically, there is going to be a wedding. So I think I have a way to get my new friend out of my head and make her go peacefully with the one that she loves and cares about. So you know how ghosts tend to be tied to specific memories or what have you. The last happy memory that those who had together was their wedding. Right. So what if we recreated a wedding yeah, at a church where it's holy ground and see if we can call him, push her out and send them on their merry way. Put the ring in a dirt pile or something. [02:41:10] Speaker C: Sounds awkward. I'm not going to lie. Sounds really awkward. You guys. [02:41:19] Speaker A: Do you have any other ideas? [02:41:21] Speaker C: I don't. [02:41:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're going to recreate this wedding, right? And I'm just going to slide my arm around Victoria's shoulders and pull her in. You're going to have to, if you don't mind. I don't have many or any other friends other than a lot of y'all. You feel like being a bridesmaid? [02:42:00] Speaker C: You know what? This morning I asked the two of you, I was like, hey, are you doing stuff together now? We're getting married. [02:42:11] Speaker A: It's not like a real ceremony. I mean, it is strictly for the ghosts. [02:42:20] Speaker C: Don't we need to find him first? [02:42:22] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing, is the memory is going to draw him closer to her. At least that's what skimming through the books all night last night kind of helped me put together. We can kind of bring him forward with happy memories. And like, his ring is literally attached to Arthur's finger. It's an idea. Okay? And if at worst, what, we spend like an hour in the church? I don't think any of us are going to melt physically. [02:43:00] Speaker C: I'm not in the shape to argue it's the best plan we have so far. [02:43:10] Speaker B: True. I mean, it is a crazy plan, but if it works, then it works. [02:43:16] Speaker D: What if it doesn't? Well, then what do we do? [02:43:22] Speaker A: We go back to the drawing board? Let's face it, it's probably the least lethal plan we have. [02:43:38] Speaker B: But if it's going to work, I got to see if I can call my friend Jack. [02:43:43] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. [02:43:45] Speaker B: Or find someone else to officiate. [02:43:48] Speaker A: Yeah, like I said, I'd rather you have somebody that you trust before we bring a random priest into this and where we're going to have to awkwardly explain it's not a real marriage, and then she's going to hand Arthur her phone. [02:44:07] Speaker B: And Arthur's going to try to call John Jack Smith. [02:44:11] Speaker E: Before you do that, Rosanna, are you going to take the time to set up the phone so that it is masked where you are? [02:44:18] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am. [02:44:20] Speaker E: Okay. I am going to need a role for that. I am blanking on names of stats right now. [02:44:30] Speaker A: If I can argue for resolve and technology, I would prefer resolve and technology. [02:44:37] Speaker E: I will go with Resolve if you are okay with this taking a little bit longer. [02:44:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm fine with it. We ain't going anywhere anyway. [02:44:44] Speaker E: Okay, that's cool then roll me. Resolve and technology. Somebody going to order food while this is happening? [02:44:58] Speaker C: I guess Victoria can victoria's like, Well. [02:45:01] Speaker E: I'm not cooking, so I might as well be the one to call the fucking number. [02:45:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I am obnoxious in the background. Like what do you want? [02:45:10] Speaker A: Going to reroll some of those failures? [02:45:14] Speaker B: Stuffed crust pepperoni? Sounds good. [02:45:16] Speaker A: Four successes. [02:45:18] Speaker E: Four successes. All right. It takes a hot minute. The Hotel WiFi is giving you some shit. Eventually you hop off the hotel. WiFi. You were trying to piggyback on it in hopes that it would make your signal a little bit better. But it's only making it, you know, on your hotspot. You do what you need to do. You mask your number, bounce it off of several locations across the world, and then you hand it off to Arthur to dial the number. [02:45:50] Speaker A: Here you go. Here's the burner phone. [02:45:57] Speaker E: Arthur. You're calling Jack? [02:46:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:46:03] Speaker E: What's his last name? Remind me. Smythe. Got it. Okay, so you pick up the phone and you give it a call. At first, it goes to voicemail. Do you want to try again? [02:46:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll try one more time. And if he doesn't answer, then I'll leave a voicemail, just letting him know that I might be traveling or something and that things are different. But let's see if he answers. [02:46:33] Speaker E: So when you call the second time, after a couple of rings and you're almost 99% sure that it's going to go to voicemail because there have been so many rings, eventually it picks up. Hello? [02:46:50] Speaker B: Hey, Jack, it's Arthur. Arthur Dent. [02:46:57] Speaker E: Wow. Hey, man. Been a while. [02:47:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Lots happened, for sure. Hey, I'm in Texas. I'm in Houston right now. [02:47:13] Speaker E: We've had this discussion. I appreciate that it's your faith and all, but I'm not interested in conversion. [02:47:23] Speaker B: No, quite the opposite. All this time that you've been trying to get me to reconsider, my situation actually rubbed off. And I'm not in the church. [02:47:39] Speaker E: Oh, holy shit. And you need me to come to Texas. [02:47:48] Speaker B: If you're close, there's something I need help with, and I was hoping I really could only think of you as the person that could help me with it. [02:47:59] Speaker E: I mean, I'm not in Texas. I'm in Louisiana. I could go. [02:48:06] Speaker B: No, actually actually, that's all right. If you're in Louisiana, we could probably come to you. [02:48:17] Speaker E: Are you sure? Because if I leave early, which I was going to do anyway I could probably be there before you guys even wake up, depending on what part of where are you in Texas. That's a big state. I should have asked that. [02:48:33] Speaker B: Houston. [02:48:34] Speaker E: Well, shit. I could get there in the morning pretty easy. [02:48:43] Speaker B: If you're willing to travel to me, then great, because I could travel to you. Same thing, same way, right. We could basically either one of us could go to the other one. [02:48:52] Speaker E: I can come to you. That's fine. What are we doing? Is this just to get together for coffee? Are you having a crisis? And I need to be prepared to provide spiritual counsel. What's going on? [02:49:06] Speaker B: I need you to actually help me. I have some friends and they're kind of in a strange place and I need to have a wedding, but not a real one. Like a one that seems real for all intents and purposes, but not actually. And I can't officiate over that. [02:49:33] Speaker E: You said you left your church. [02:49:35] Speaker B: I did. I'm not actually getting married. And it may sound like one of those many other weddings that I had, but it's not that. There is a very complicated reason that I really can't explain over the phone and will probably take a goodly amount of time anyway, try and explain it to you in person. But I essentially just need you to if you're willing to help me out with this particular task. I know that you've done a few weddings. I've actually seen you officiate over a wedding before and I just kind of need you to do that. Yeah. Like, as real as possible, but also not really. [02:50:25] Speaker E: Arthur? [02:50:26] Speaker B: Yeah? [02:50:27] Speaker E: I'm going to need a role for you to convince this man that he wants to drive many hours effectively across state lines to come put on a fake wedding for you and your friends. He's not willing to just give me charisma and persuasion. [02:50:54] Speaker B: Charisma and persuasion? Not manipulation and persuasion. That's fine. Charisma and persuasion. [02:50:58] Speaker E: I mean, it can be manipulation and persuasion. But I felt like you were trying to be earnest with him. [02:51:04] Speaker B: I am trying to be earnest with. [02:51:06] Speaker E: Him rather than manipulative. [02:51:08] Speaker B: That is fair. And so that is what I roll, which is seven successes. [02:51:16] Speaker E: Holy cow. Okay, so there's this long pregnant pause after you kind of explain and dance around the specifics before you hear this very familiar to you long suffering sigh. And he goes, okay, I don't know what's going on, but I can tell that you are in some sort of, we'll say, spiritual distress and require the services of another man of the cloth. I will leave first thing and I will head that way. Give me the address. And you do, I assume? [02:52:15] Speaker B: Yes. [02:52:17] Speaker E: And he jots it down. And he goes, all right, I will see you in the morning. I have to go to bed if I'm going to be up early enough to make this drive and be there at a decent time so that I can leave tomorrow to get back on the road and not miss any of my appointments. [02:52:34] Speaker B: I appreciate it, honestly. [02:52:36] Speaker E: Yes. I will see you tomorrow. You owe me many cups of coffee. [02:52:46] Speaker B: There will be several waiting for you. [02:52:48] Speaker E: Good. Okay. See you tomorrow. And he hangs up without really any other pomp and circumstance. Victoria, with your heightened hearing, you heard not all of it, but enough to tell that maybe Arthur's friend is more used to his shenanigans than anyone would have guessed. You definitely heard the long suffering sigh. He was not shy about sharing the fact that they have, at the very least, probably had some sort of a rocky moment in their past, and he is worried that this is just going to be another one of those. [02:53:32] Speaker C: Interesting. [02:53:33] Speaker E: Okay, so for the sake of time, I'm going to say that you guys get your food. You have a decent meal. It's not good for you, but it tastes good. And sometimes the fact that it tastes good is really all you need because it's comfort food, which is a lot of what this feels like. And then you guys kind of all just crawl into bed, and you're done for the night. I am going to need Zephyr and Rosanna. Oh. Everybody gets Willpower back equal to their composure or resolve, because you're taking sleep. If you have any health damage, you recover one level of that, and I'm going to need Zephyr and Rosanna to make your daily roles. And I should have asked this during the break. Are you guys okay with going about 20 minutes over to make up for the fact that we started about 20 minutes late? [02:54:32] Speaker A: I'm fine with it. [02:54:35] Speaker E: Okay, cool. Holy cow. All right, Zephyr, you are you have a rough night. There's a lot of tossing and turning. You really, really want to get up and look at this book. And in fact, there are times, multiple times throughout the night where you get up, sneak out of bed, and into the bathroom and close the door behind you so that you can look at the book, kind of try and get a feel for the cipher. You don't spend a ton of time on it, but it's like you get up and you start trying to read it before you catch yourself, force yourself to close it, and then go back to bed, because, you know you've got a big day tomorrow. You have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know if this is going to work or not. You know, that somebody that you've never met is going to be coming in and getting involved in all this Huntery stuff. It's just a lot. You are going to be at a negative dice. You're basically going to lose dice off of some of your roles in the following few scenes for the day that we're on. I will tell you, based on the role, how many dice you're going to be down. It will vary. Sometimes it could be one. Sometimes it's going to be two or three. It just depends on how much you're being screwed with by the things that are screwing with you. Rosanna, you have a lovely night with no nightmares. Make me a wits awareness. Just see if you get anything extra because you rolled so high on your let's not have a nightmare roll. That's very good. Okay. You slip into a very peaceful sleep. Um, and in the middle of your sleep, you begin a dream. And in the dream, you are wearing this kind of ephemeral white wedding gown. It's one of those gowns that's so light and so airy that it almost feels like you're not wearing it. You know what I mean? It almost seems to float around your body. You are in a chapel, but the chapel looks run down and a little bit dilapidated, like there's paint peeling off the walls. The pews that are here, half of them don't have cushions. The ones that do have cushions, the cushions are really thread bare, or some of them are completely missing. There's one pew that's just broken. The place looks like it hasn't been used in at least a decade, if not longer. There's graffiti up on some of the walls, that kind of thing. But it is the middle of the day. There is light shining through what is left of the broken windows. And it's weirdly. Very pretty and peaceful, considering that you were effectively in what you begin to realize as an abandoned church. You see Arthur standing up at the at the altar? Yes, up at the altar. Sorry. You see Arthur standing up at the altar, and he is standing with Zephyr beside him. The first thing you notice about Zephyr is that Zephyr looks like he has some sort of heavy chain draped around his body. Arthur doesn't have one. It's OD. It's like Zephyr has got these ghostly but very heavy looking chains wrapped around his upper body. Victoria is up on the side where you would normally go, and she looks like Victoria. She's got this look on her face like she would rather be anywhere else, but she is ringing her bells, and it's almost created this I don't want to say spooky, but kind of spooky like backdrop music to the proceedings. And a man is standing at the altar with them all in a priest's collar, and he's holding a Bible, and he looks about Arthur's age, but with, like, thinning blonde hair, coke bottle glasses, and he looks kind of uncomfortable and a little confused, but he's standing there and looking very expectantly. And then you start to walk. And as you walk, you kind of turn your head just a little bit to look to the side, because you catch movement out of the corner of your eye and you see your little roommate is walking beside you, kind of ghostly, and she looks radiant and excited and also scared. Like, she's not sure that this is going to work, and she's definitely afraid that it won't. And then you wake up and it's morning and you're the first person up, and you can tell that your roommate feels excited and nervous and scared. And you imagine that this is almost what it feels like to be on your actual wedding day. Like she is reliving all of those nervous butterfly moments. She's not trying to disturb you. You can tell. It's just that because you are connected to her, you have a sense of how she's feeling. This time. It's more like you're looking in on her than she's looking in on you. [03:01:49] Speaker A: Well, good morning to you, too. [03:01:53] Speaker C: Sorry. [03:01:56] Speaker A: No. [03:02:01] Speaker E: Because I'm not alive, and I've just kind of been laying here and thinking about what's going to happen all night. [03:02:14] Speaker A: Listen, how about we go and get a cup of coffee and we'll go find a little store, like little thrift store or something. Whatever speaks to you, we'll wear it today. Okay. [03:02:36] Speaker E: Yeah, let's do that. That sounds great. Again, for the sake of time, we're not going to play out the trip to the thrift store, but when people wake up, I assume somebody can go with you or everybody can go with you, and you guys can find what you can. Arthur, it is as you guys are returning from this thrift store outing. Oh, before we do any of that, is there anything that anybody wants to do to prepare for what is coming? I don't want to get too far into the weeds, but if there is something specific that you want to do, now is the time to tell me. [03:03:18] Speaker B: Arthur is actually going to put on a white shirt, so he's going to have to go buy one, and that's something. [03:03:24] Speaker A: Okay. Arthur in a not black shirt. [03:03:38] Speaker E: Is anybody going to look up a church to use, maybe? [03:03:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we need to do that, too. [03:03:44] Speaker D: Yeah. [03:03:48] Speaker E: It doesn't take a whole lot of effort. I'm going to say that just for the sake of ease. Rosanna, you're the one who kind of finds that. You do a listing of churches in the area, and then you remember that vision that you had, and you expand your search or narrow your search to abandoned churches in the area, and you end up finding a website where they specialize in going and exploring abandoned buildings. And on that list is this old rundown, like, single room church kind of in the middle of this little wooded area just outside of Houston. It looks like the last time it was used was probably, like, at least the 90s, if not earlier. It's been abandoned for a while, but it is there, and it looks, from the pictures suspiciously like the one in your vision. And you can feel your roommate get a little excited, a little more excited. So you all head to the store. You catch them literally as they are, unlocking their front door. They're actually not technically supposed to open for another half hour, but when they see how eager you guys are, it becomes clear how much of a rush they're in. The manager lets you in early and locks the door behind you while you guys go in and find what you need. Your hanger on picks a she picks two dresses, one for you and one for Victoria. Victoria's is this. It's very pretty, but it's also very dated, a blue gown. It's not exactly the color that we had for our wedding, but I think she'll look pretty in it. Victoria this thing looks very dated. It's like something that belonged in, like, the 60s. Thankfully, it's at least pretty close to fitting you. And when you guys ask if they've got, like, what are they called, safety pins or whatever, you can kind of rosanna manages to kind of bring it in, cinch it in a little bit around your waist, which was kind of the bigger waist in your chest. Whoever wore this last was a few sizes bigger than you, just in general, was bigger than you. So she manages to kind of cinch it in around you. Arthur, you find a white shirt. There's a million of them. Zephyr, you, I'm going to assume, find a halfway decent button up, at least. And, Rosanna, you end up in a very kind of puffy, ephemeral white wedding. It's not even really a wedding dress. It looks like maybe an old prom dress. But it is white and it's perfectly white, and it's poofy and flowy and very lightweight around you, which is probably good, because as you guys leave the store already dressed in this motley arrangement of clothing that you purchased, you realize that the sun is going up and it is getting warmer because again, you're still in the Deep South. And it's only September, so it's still basically summer. So you're thrilled about the fact that it's not heavy like most wedding dresses are. As you guys reach the motel again, a car pulls in and a man that only Arthur recognized. Well, Arthur and Rosanna, I guess, now recognize who is kind of tall and lanky and has thinning blonde hair and Coke bottle thick glasses and is wearing a priest looks. He's dressed a lot like how Arthur tends to dress, and he's got his Bible in one hand, and he looks like he's not sure if he's here to perform a wedding, give a service, or maybe perform an intervention. When he sees how all of you are dressed, he looks a little worried. [03:08:46] Speaker B: Little of all three at the same time. [03:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [03:08:50] Speaker E: But when he spots Arthur, he kind of makes his way over and pushes his glasses up with a finger. What's up? These your friends that want the not wedding to happen? [03:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, this is them. We have a church, or we found a church. We should probably go to it. But while we go, I'll try to explain to you what's going on in the best ways that I can explain. [03:09:23] Speaker E: You notice when you say we have a church that he immediately looks suspicious and a little worried that you have left. And you could tell just from the look on his face, he is worried that you have left one cult, and you are now making your own. But he relaxes when you clear it up again. For the sake of brevity, we're going to say that you on the drive over. How much do you tell him about what this is for? [03:09:57] Speaker B: So I don't exactly explain to him that it's to release some trapped spirits in our world that are potentially writing one of our people. I'm simply going to say that it's for the peace of mind for an individual who is deeply emotionally troubled and trying to get past a particular traumatic experience. I'm going to make this out to him like we're trying to do some kind of deep like you are trying. [03:10:25] Speaker E: To convince him that you are helping Rosanna work through some deep seated trauma. [03:10:33] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [03:10:35] Speaker E: Okay. [03:10:37] Speaker B: Just in case. Also, if she talks to herself in the middle of anything going on, it will at least track in his mind that she might have this deep trauma she's getting over. Got to think smart. [03:10:49] Speaker E: Interesting. I would love to know how Rosanna reacts to finding out that she has been made out to be crazy. [03:10:59] Speaker A: She looks hurt. [03:11:05] Speaker E: The look at Arthur's face. [03:11:12] Speaker A: She's also understanding of, like, if we go and talk about ghosts and shit, it'll make all of us look crazy. But there's still a little tinge of just like, that hurts my feelings. [03:11:29] Speaker E: That hurts my feelings. Okay. By the way, that's totally get a clipped. You guys make your way to the church. You pull up outside. Your friend looks even more dubious when he sees the state the building is in. For the rest of you, you see what I explained in the dream. On the outside, it looks even worse because the outside has been completely exposed to the elements as opposed to the inside, which have had some measure of protection. But when you step inside, you do see the way the light filters in through the broken windows, and it is weirdly pretty. Like, it's not perfect wedding venue pretty, but it is kind of hauntingly beautiful to use a pun. [03:12:29] Speaker B: Good place for a ghost intervention, for sure. [03:12:32] Speaker E: For sure. Your friend Arthur makes his way up to the front looking incredibly awkward and out of place and like he has no idea what's going on. But he's going to do what you've asked him to do, because your friend is apparently in some sort of distress, and he is a good hearted man who has devoted his life to helping others sometimes, in spite of the crap that his friends get him into. You all take your places. Victoria, are you going to be using your belt. [03:13:22] Speaker C: Based on the opening of. [03:13:29] Speaker E: The thing? [03:13:30] Speaker C: I'm not going to try and risk that during a ghost wedding unless I think it's a good idea. [03:13:38] Speaker E: Okay. I mean, it's ultimately up to you guys. Rosanna, if you want to tell her to use the bells based on your vision, you can, or you can keep it to yourself and let her make the call. [03:13:55] Speaker A: I think that while the guys are kind of walking forward, she's going to pull Victoria back and begin to kind of explain the vision that she had in her dreams last night and why all of this kind of looks the way that it looks and why we're wearing what we are wearing. And she would say, you're playing the bells in my dream, but you don't have to if you don't want to. [03:14:25] Speaker C: I can, but I'm worried about the shroud. Well, I know how to open it, and I know how to close it, so that's at least something. Maybe I'll just avoid doing that. [03:14:41] Speaker A: Maybe, yeah. I'm not crazy, am I? [03:14:48] Speaker C: Think we're all a little crazy. I'm sure that doesn't help, but. [03:14:58] Speaker E: What. [03:14:59] Speaker C: We do over the last couple of months, it's insane. It's certifiably insane. [03:15:09] Speaker A: Sometimes I feel like we're mad men. [03:15:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [03:15:16] Speaker A: Well, let's have a shotgun wedding in an abandoned church. Deja vu. Wait. Yeah. All right. [03:15:33] Speaker B: Before the ceremony starts, arthur is going to try to talk to his friend and just we don't really have to do the role play, but essentially explain that if weird things happen in relation to this trauma that we're trying to deal with, if things are just strange, just don't worry about it. Keep going through the motions, and then I'll explain everything later. Whatever happens. Right. There might be some weird things, and we'll talk about it afterwards, but we just kind of need to get through it, essentially, and with the idea that this is a therapy kind of thing and this is just whatever happens, just finish the ceremony right. That kind of thing, and then I'll explain it to you. [03:16:14] Speaker E: He does not seem reassured, even a little bit. [03:16:19] Speaker B: In fact, I wouldn't think he was. [03:16:20] Speaker E: More iffy than ever, but seems accepting of things. You do, however, know your friend well enough to know that if he feels that it is in everybody's best interest that he stops, he's going to stop. [03:16:36] Speaker B: That's why I was trying to give him the nudge to just keep going. But we'll see what happens when he has his own choices to make. [03:16:45] Speaker E: So you all take your places. He goes to the front of the room. Arthur and Zephyr do the same. Well, Arthur does the same. Zephyr walks Victoria down the aisle as is normal. Victoria, are you going to be playing the bells, or are you going to wait till you're at the front? How are you going to do this? [03:17:10] Speaker C: Wait until I'm at the front for sure. [03:17:11] Speaker E: Okay, so you guys walk down the aisle. It's awkward. You and Zephyr have never vibed on the level of even remotely sure, but you go through the motions because it is what Rosanna seems to need to take care of her trauma. Gozer even has this little, like, you found a little bow tie that Gozer has around his neck. And so he walks in right before Rosanna does, and he walks in despite the fact that he really should go to Zephyr. He goes to Victoria and sits at her feet. He looks like the lost ring bearer who doesn't really understand what's going on, but was told to walk down the aisle and then go stand with somebody. So he does, and he looks very handsome in his little harness and his bow tie, which gets even more weird looks from the Reverend who is standing there weirded out. It's also endearing. And then you start to play your bells. And Verzana, that's kind of your cue to head down the aisle. Victoria, which tone are you playing? Are you playing the one that you were playing at the start? That was a mimic of what you did on the road. I meant at the start of last night's scene when you were practicing. [03:19:15] Speaker C: Not unless I think it needs to happen. Like, opening a rift here would be really bad. [03:19:22] Speaker E: So here's the thing. I think that you may have misunderstood what happened when you first started and you were mimicking what you did on the road. Everything was pretty normal. Like, Gozer was antsy because of the noise, but that was before the temperature drop. The temperature drop, and everything didn't happen until you started making changes to what you had done. [03:19:44] Speaker C: Okay, in that case, I will try to do this, but play it safe so that I don't start dropping the temperature. [03:19:53] Speaker E: Okay, so go ahead and make your roll. [03:19:56] Speaker A: Okay. [03:20:01] Speaker C: 1 second. As I remember. What exactly? I think it's occult and composure, but I'm not 100% sure. [03:20:09] Speaker E: I don't have your sheet open, so I can't tell you. Yeah. [03:20:26] Speaker C: Composure and composure in a cult. So she. [03:20:34] Speaker E: It. [03:20:46] Speaker C: Reroll failures. [03:20:48] Speaker E: Go for it. [03:20:49] Speaker C: And three successes. [03:20:50] Speaker E: Very good. Okay, three successes noted. You begin to play your bells, and as you begin to play your bells, Rosanna, you begin to walk down the aisle. At one point, you glance beside you just to see if your tag along is with you. She is not physically visible yet, but you can feel her. You can tell that she's with you even if you can't see her. And as you get to the end of the aisle there, arthur's friend begins to say the words that everybody is so familiar with. Dearly beloved, we have gathered here. Yada, yada, yada. Right. He begins to go through the motions. Arthur, you can tell he's feeling a little awkward, but he's doing what he's been asked to do. [03:21:57] Speaker B: I think we're all feeling a little. [03:21:59] Speaker E: Awkward, so it's totally fine as he is doing that. I would like the following people to make roles for me. Rosanna? I would like composure and specialty. Arthur? I would like willpower and resolve. [03:22:34] Speaker A: Well, willpower is resolve and composure. [03:22:37] Speaker E: Yes. No, I'm telling him to roll his unspent willpower plus his resolve together. [03:22:44] Speaker A: Do I get to add my specialty to my occult roll? [03:22:49] Speaker E: Yes, absolutely. I know it's a weird dipole, Arthur, but it's very much prudent for what's happening. [03:23:06] Speaker B: Holy cow. [03:23:08] Speaker E: All right, then. [03:23:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, I think, the biggest pool I will have that doesn't involve desperation dice. [03:23:15] Speaker E: That is six successes for those at home. Rosanna, what are we looking at? [03:23:23] Speaker A: Going to reroll some of those. [03:23:25] Speaker E: Okay. [03:23:28] Speaker A: There we go. [03:23:28] Speaker E: And six successes. Holy cow. All right. You both feel it before anybody else in the room does. Rosanna, you can almost you have your hand in Arthur's while the vows are being read and all this other like while all this stuff is happening, while he's going through the ceremony, and you can feel it almost immediately, there is a shift in how Arthur's hand feels. It's a little bit softer. The fingers feel a little bit longer and more slender. And suddenly you can only feel one ring on his finger instead of the multiple that he's been wearing since he took the ring from you. And when you look up at his face, you can see almost superimposed this kind of ghostly image of a handsome man with very like, very 50 style slick back, dark hair glasses with thick black rims as was very typical of the time. A tuck that is very much cut as if it's straight out of the when you look down at your hand, you can see basically the same effect but it is another woman's hand. And Victoria, you see Gozer react immediately. [03:25:28] Speaker C: Okay. [03:25:30] Speaker E: His ears go up, and his haunches kind of stiffen and his back. He's very much on edge. He's, like, standing, not sitting anymore. He's staring at where their hands are touching. And there is this very, very quiet, low growl in the back of his throat. He's not moving. He's not jumping or anything like that, but there is this low kind of warning sound right. [03:26:14] Speaker C: That just keeps me cautious, mostly. [03:26:17] Speaker E: Okay, cool. Rosanna and Arthur, how are you two going? Arthur, it takes a couple more seconds before you start to kind of vaguely see the outline of the woman of another woman kind of superimposed over. Rosanna you don't get nearly as many details. It's just she's vaguely, just barely visible to you, and you can feel that other presence that feels almost tied to you. How are you two going to react? [03:27:04] Speaker B: Well, I resist the urge to reach in my pocket and grab. [03:27:08] Speaker E: Yes. That is part of what that role was for, was to see how steady you could stay with this happening. [03:27:16] Speaker B: You are very steady, I think, because it seems like it's working. I'm just going to go with it and just look at Rosanna and give him the opportunity to look at his wife that he hasn't seen for a very long time, but also was yesterday. [03:27:34] Speaker E: But also was yesterday. [03:27:38] Speaker B: And that's all that I think Arthur's going to do because I'm hoping that this works and he just kind of leaves, but we'll see what happens. [03:27:45] Speaker E: Okay. Rosanna. [03:27:51] Speaker A: Do I feel how she's feeling right now? [03:27:59] Speaker E: It feels bittersweet. She feels happy to see him again, but also it's like it's setting in for her how long it's been and that she can tell that he is not necessarily the same person that she knew. She's not the same person that she was. So it's kind of one of those things where she is getting everything she wants, but it's not what she thought it would be. She's not rebelling. It's just sort of like it is setting in for her that things are different from what she expected. [03:28:48] Speaker A: While the ceremony is going on, Roseanne is just gonna just gonna think so she can hear it's. Okay. I know that it's been a long time and things changed, but give give it a chance. And I know that you love him. I know that you wanted this more than anything. [03:29:37] Speaker E: I'm trying. [03:29:40] Speaker A: It's going to be different. [03:29:43] Speaker E: I'm scared. [03:29:45] Speaker A: It's okay. I'm here. [03:29:50] Speaker E: What happens after? What happens after? Well. [03:30:01] Speaker A: Hopefully you two get to spend the rest of eternity with one another. [03:30:09] Speaker E: And. [03:30:13] Speaker A: Can be at peace. We won't know until it happens, though, will we? [03:30:25] Speaker E: Guess not. God, he's so handsome. That hasn't changed. [03:30:33] Speaker A: He's very handsome. [03:30:42] Speaker E: I would like Rosanna to make a charisma and persuasion check. Yeah, charisma and persuasion. [03:31:00] Speaker A: Okay. Can I reroll those failures? [03:31:14] Speaker E: You can reroll whatever you would like, dear. [03:31:19] Speaker A: Five successes. [03:31:20] Speaker E: Okay, hold that thought. Arthur, the presence that is tied to you feels happy and confused and bamboozled. He's like, what? I mean, this is cool. [03:31:48] Speaker B: If I could hear his thoughts in my head like she hears the thoughts of her. [03:31:53] Speaker E: Yes. Yes, you can. You could feel his emotions first. Rosanna's had more time to rosanna has had more time to get in tune with her tag along. At first it's just emotions. He feels thrilled to see her, but also confused and a little unsure of what's going on. [03:32:26] Speaker B: I'm going to start thinking, hoping that makes that's probably a little bit of muttering, probably a little bit of talking quietly, but Arthur's just going to say, listen, hey, yeah, this probably makes no sense. I can tell that you're confused, but you and your wife sort of kind of didn't make it through that car crash if you didn't know. She seemed to know, but I wasn't sure if you knew. But we're trying to help you both be together and have that moment that you were robbed of in that car crash. So here she is, your beautiful wife for you to be with forever. [03:33:31] Speaker A: Okay. [03:33:35] Speaker E: I don't man, I feel like I flipped my lid. I don't understand. Wait. What car crash? [03:33:50] Speaker B: When you were leaving Gila Bend after your wedding, there was an incident that occurred on the highway in which, unfortunately, neither of you survived. And you've been stuck in some kind of spirit limbo for a while, I guess. And we're trying to resolve that for you both so that you can both be with your person like you wanted to be forever. [03:34:29] Speaker E: Oh, it okay, man. She's a looker. Sorry. [03:34:46] Speaker B: She sure is, buddy. Like, she sure is. You absolutely picked a winner. [03:34:55] Speaker E: He seems to be kind of groping and stumbling for his words, trying to figure out what to say and parse what's happening. Zephyr, you're kind of the least involved in what's happening, so you're the first person who notices there is a shadow. Maybe it's not a shadow. Maybe it's a cloud because it's too big to just be a person outside. The first thing you notice is that there is no longer, like, sunlight coming in the front door. And then you notice that there is no sunlight coming in the two side windows closest to the door and then the next two windows and then the next two windows, and you are just about to kind of start trying to parse together. What? You know, when Gozer starts to go ballistic, starts to bark, starts to growl, starts to pace. The man who was reading taking everybody through the ceremony falters and hesitates. And you, as people are kind of looking around, trying to figure out what the hell is going on and what has changed. Zephyr, you realize that the cloud shadow thing, this large, dark mass, is drifting inside the windows and inside the front door, and you feel this immediate, intense pull to want to get closer to it, to want to examine it, to want to know more. [03:37:31] Speaker D: Everybody else also notices it, or yeah. [03:37:34] Speaker E: They notice once it starts to come inside and Gozer is going ballistic. But you had just those few seconds of warning because you were, like, the least intent on what was happening. Victoria was busy with her bells. Arthur and Rosanna were busy talking to their tag alongs. The pastor was reading the ceremony. You were kind of the only one who didn't have a job. You were just there to look pretty, essentially fill a role, and be there in case they needed you. And so you were the first person to see the cloud shadow thing. [03:38:18] Speaker D: Yeah. God. I take a few steps towards it, but not, like, rushing towards it, just kind of, like, slowly just to try to get. A better look, see if the closer it gets, if features start to form or anything, or just a cloud. [03:38:38] Speaker E: The rest of you have time to look over. Just as this cloud, which was kind of collected up near the rafters, begins to settle down in the aisle and take on a shape that is vaguely human. It looks like long, flowing black. [03:39:09] Speaker A: Almost. [03:39:09] Speaker E: Like a shroud, almost like a long, flowing black shroud over a vaguely humanoid shape. You can't make out any distinct features because it is covered head to toe in these shadows that look kind of like fabric and they kind of like pull and wisp off at the end, like there's little bits that kind of break away and fade into nothing. But they never seem to get any shorter. And it is advancing towards all of you and you all feel the temperature in the room drop. And as you take a collective breath, you notice that you you can see your breath. And that is where we are going to stop for tonight.