S3 Ep2: Omens

[00:00:30] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Aubrey, and I play Isabelle, the entrepreneurial. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Hi, I'm legacy, and I play Rosanna, the faithful. [00:00:43] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Scott, and I play Arthur, the faithful hunter. [00:00:47] Speaker D: Hi, I'm termite, and I play Piper, the underground. [00:00:52] Speaker E: And I'm bloodied porcelain. I'll be your storyteller for the evening. Aristotle once said, humans, by nature, wish to know. What the philosopher fails to mention are the changes knowledge creates in us. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Sometimes there is a satisfaction in gaining knowledge or mastering a skill. [00:01:14] Speaker D: But sometimes, when that knowledge lives in dark places, price is more than just time or effort. [00:01:22] Speaker B: Sometimes the knowledge forces us to become a little more the thing we fear. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Sometimes knowledge is kept secret in an effort to protect ourselves and others. [00:01:33] Speaker E: But secrets erode trust. And if knowledge is power, so, too, does it have the potential to be dangerous to those who hold it. Tonight, our hunters are in search of truth. And perhaps still, after all this time, heedless of the risks in finding it. Tonight, let's continue our hunter story. Good evening, players. Hello. [00:01:59] Speaker B: Good evening. [00:02:01] Speaker E: Last episode, our premiere episode for the season, you all reconvened after being away for months. Most of the year, in fact. There were surprising changes in some of you. Life lessons were learned. Discoveries about histories and faiths were made. You had some discussions about unfinished business. Some of you have left over after your adventures with the speaker or Loki. And eventually, you escorted Piper into San Diego to meet with her partner, Melanie. The meeting did not go well. It was clear that Piper was not going to commit to the plan that was made in getting Melanie away from other things, into a place that the cell could protect her so that they could. So that you could all introduce her to the world as it really is. Instead, Piper divulged everything on the street and didn't push her to go with you, but rather clearly waffled as if it. She didn't know exactly what she wanted, which was her partner, who has known her for a while, picked up on immediately and called her out on it, and then walked away telling her that once she has made her decision to give her a call. But until then, don't bother following that. You all got together and sat down, talked out a few other things. Piper also revealed to the cell that she is, or that Isabelle is not the only one sporting a curse. And that her curse, well, it's a little bit more problematic for everybody overall in that it may very well turn her into the same kind of monster that Zephyr was before he died. To died to Loki, wanting to know more about the curse. And how to fix it. Rosanna called it an ally in the form of Ophelia, the mage that you met last season. Ophelia was less than pleased to find out that somebody had been dumb enough to read the book, and then was even less pleased to have someone mention a group called the Linnaea Society and tell her what it does. None of you are entirely sure what's going on and what exactly Ophelia is planning, but you all have the sneaking suspicion it's not going to go well for anybody, that she manages to get her hold her hands on from the Linnaeus society. Meanwhile, while some of you are worried about that, Arthur was more focused on the fact that Rosanna has kept in contact with a mage. Yeah, and you can all remind me if I'm wrong, but I think you returned back to Isabelle's home to get some sleep and that's where we left off. Yes. Or were you still at the diner? [00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we were still at the diner. Rosanna had left the diner. [00:05:52] Speaker D: Yeah, we were all getting. [00:05:54] Speaker E: Right, right, right. Arthur got visibly annoyed and Rosanna was just like, fuck you, I'm not dealing with this, and walked away. Got it, got it. All right, well, that's where we pick up. Rosanna has stalked out of the diner. Arthur looks visibly perturbed. Piper looks big, sad. What are you guys gonna do? [00:06:23] Speaker A: Um, well, it's fresh in her mind. Isabelle is gonna pull out of her phone and send a text message real quick. [00:06:35] Speaker E: Would you. No one else at the table is going to know what the text says. However, would you like to let our audience know who the text is going to and what exactly it says? [00:06:49] Speaker A: Yes, the text is going to be going to Vincent the tremere we met last season. And the text reads, the society is compromised. I will explain later. You should go to ground for a few weeks. If you need anything, you know where to find me. [00:07:12] Speaker E: Excellent. You do not get an immediate answer back. [00:07:19] Speaker A: I did not think I would, but wanted to do that before. Before the mage does whatever she's going to do. Please give him some heads up, as. [00:07:33] Speaker E: Much runtime as you can. Yeah, it's a pity it's not nighttime and he's not awake right now. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it is such a pity. But hopefully he'll see that first thing and get his ass moving. [00:07:48] Speaker E: Excellent. And Arthur and Piper, if I remember. [00:07:59] Speaker D: Correctly, Piper had stood up, kind of looked at Arthur, put a hand on his shoulder and just kind of nodded and then started walking. [00:08:05] Speaker E: Said, I get it, and then walked away. Yeah. [00:08:08] Speaker D: Didn't say anything. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Just give a nod. [00:08:14] Speaker D: Yeah. Just kind of the, like. [00:08:17] Speaker E: Okay. You may have described it as the. I get it. Nod. Yeah. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker C: Okay. Arthur is gonna stare at the table for a while by himself, just trying not to explode, but then eventually get up. Cause he's not gonna wait too long. Cause it'd be weird to him. Just be like, I'm gonna spend a half hour staring at a table while everyone's, like, waiting by the car or their individuals. Actually, it's just him and Isabel in the rV. Right? [00:08:44] Speaker E: Like, the others could just leave if. [00:08:45] Speaker C: They wanted to, but still, he's not. [00:08:48] Speaker E: That's true. [00:08:50] Speaker C: Force her to wait for him. That would be. That'd be mean. [00:08:56] Speaker A: Especially because Gozer's isn't there. [00:08:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, not good. Just made friends. Can't be making enemies immediately after. But, yeah, after sort of trying to calm himself down so that he doesn't just explode. He's gonna get up and then go back, join everyone else outside. [00:09:20] Speaker E: Okay. Isabelle, anything in particular. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Really? It's just. I'm gonna send the message, and then I'm gonna head out to the rV. Right now, Isabel is thinking about the puzzle. Delphi. What? Like, I don't have the information in front of. She doesn't have the information in front of her, but she's already running through it in her head, like, okay, if I'm looking for somebody who follows the pattern of a serial killer, this is what I would be looking for. You know, getting yourself into that mindset to look at this data. [00:10:09] Speaker E: Understood. Okay, Piper, should I assume that you are climbing into your car and headed back to Isabel's house on your own? [00:10:19] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:10:21] Speaker E: And Rosanna on your motorcycle. [00:10:23] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:10:25] Speaker E: Okay, well, in that case, you all reconvene at Isabelle's house. [00:10:31] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, I don't think Arthur would say anything on the way home. He's just trying not to get angry. I mean, he's already angry. So unless, like, isabel wants to talk to him, he's probably not gonna openly start talking. [00:10:47] Speaker E: Okay. [00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think isabella's gonna say anything. She's sort of seen Arthur in this, and I don't think there's anything that she thinks she can say that would make him feel better. [00:11:02] Speaker E: She's like, my voice won't be helpful here. I'm just gonna shut up. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Yeah, she's learned that part. [00:11:09] Speaker E: I get that. [00:11:11] Speaker C: Gozer and Arthur in the driver's area of the rv being like, hmm, goser probably being like, this fucking guy. But we're gonna get home safely, okay? [00:11:24] Speaker E: You all get to Isabel's house a couple hours later. It's late afternoon. You all pull up at around the same time, maybe within a few minutes of each other. I imagine Piper might have, you know, pulled off to get some coffee or something. Half a minute away from the emotionally fraught nonsense that she knows is coming. [00:11:58] Speaker D: Recompose herself. Be like, okay, gotta get back into character. [00:12:04] Speaker E: Rosanna is the first to arrive. The boys motorcycles are not there, so for the first few minutes, Rosanna, it's just you. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Mm hmm. She's gonna use this time to kind of compose herself. She's gonna take out a, her little, like, vape pen and just take a, take a couple of long, long drags of it, and she's gonna take out her little pendant. [00:12:57] Speaker E: Mm hmm. [00:13:07] Speaker B: Daja, give me strength. I'm gonna need it. Protect me from the next couple of days and allow me to be the beauty again. Keep me safe. Enchilada. Give the pendant a kiss and then let it just, like, drape over her neckline again. [00:13:49] Speaker C: When we arrive, Arthur's just gonna get out and light a cigarette because it's been several hours since his last one. [00:13:59] Speaker A: And Isabelle will see Piper and say, I think we should get started. I think we've got a lot of work ahead of us. [00:14:09] Speaker D: Yeah, we've got tech Delphi. Odds are they're after supernatural that'll be there. Otherwise, I can probably start comin through police databases. [00:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it's probably best. I mean, one of us takes one, one of us takes the other. [00:14:31] Speaker D: Yeah, that's probably the best way to handle this. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Sounds good. [00:14:36] Speaker D: Try to get through as much information as possible as quickly as possible. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a lot that we have to get through. [00:14:47] Speaker E: Hey. Well, with the two gloriously unbothered and unattached to the current fraught situation, characters heading inside to get started on their work, Rosanna and Arthur are left standing awkwardly in the driveway. [00:15:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:15:26] Speaker E: Okay. [00:15:29] Speaker B: We're not gonna do this whole harboring bad shit between us. Not, not, not this year. Come on, come to me. And she's going to, um, pop open the side compartment, take out a spare motorcycle helmet and just toss it over to him. [00:15:58] Speaker C: Wow. [00:15:59] Speaker E: Please put on the helmet. [00:16:03] Speaker C: Okay. [00:16:04] Speaker B: We're not doing it. We're not doing this this time around. [00:16:09] Speaker C: I see. So we're just gonna go to a cliff somewhere, and we're gonna talk it out. Got it? All right. [00:16:20] Speaker B: She's gonna hop on her, hop on her bike and pat the bitch seat for him to join. [00:16:29] Speaker C: Weather puts on the helmet just non ceremoniously and gets on the back. [00:16:41] Speaker E: He doesn't want to call up the bitch. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Cdexy. Uh, cold hat. I tend to go fast. And she revs up at the cycle and revs it up loud enough so where Isabel and Piper can hear it, and she'll. She'll take off. [00:17:02] Speaker E: Okay. [00:17:11] Speaker B: They'Re gonna go to, like, one of the. One of the. One, like, the chasm areas where, like, all the cliffs and the pretty scenery are. [00:17:25] Speaker E: Okay. It takes about 2025 minutes to get there. You're already pretty remote, so it's not too far. Yeah. And you pull off on the side of the road, and you have a beautiful view, and you're alone. And you could cut the tension in the air with a butter knife. [00:17:54] Speaker C: Not even a sharp one, just like a. [00:17:57] Speaker E: The point of a butter knife is. It's not sharp. [00:18:06] Speaker C: Well. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:17] Speaker C: Listen. I'm trying not to react the way that I would normal, normally react. Been dealing with all of these things and learning stuff about myself and how to be emotionally intelligent, how to care, how to be better. And that's why I didn't argue with you. But, Rosanna, you do understand the inherent problem with letting supernatural things into your life, right? [00:19:08] Speaker B: I understand. I do. Listen, it's not. Run into Ophelia wasn't my first choice. I was struggling for a long, long time trying to figure out everything. But anytime that I tried to. Anytime I thought that I got it, I got cut off. Do you remember any time that you tried to figure out anything about the speech, and you'd think that you got so close, and then it was like a dead end somewhere? Or any time that we would go out and. And hunt, and we thought that we got it. And the next thing you know, we got two werewolves on our ass, and. And you're thrown for a loop. [00:20:05] Speaker C: That's. [00:20:07] Speaker B: That's what it was like for me. For months. I didn't. I didn't just outright run to her. I really didn't. I did everything that I could while I was just kind of lying in bed. You know, I was. I was playing with. With the different types of magics that I had and. And doing all sorts of rituals. And it seemed like when I thought that I was getting somewhere, wren somehow managed to swoop in and changed the course. She's better at it than I am, and I was at a loss. And Ophelia just so happened to swoop in at the right time, and. And I was reminded that she had been a bigger help to us as a group, and was I just, I asked, and she. She took me to Boston, and quiet was there, and she showed me a couple of things. And, you know, our magic is completely different from one another. She wasn't even able to get a full on grasp of how mine works, but she was able to help me contain it and hone it in. And as a thank you, you know, I said, if you need help with something, whatever. The things that she asked me to help her with were, act normal at a party, go with her to gather some small supplies. I think the most wild place that she took me to was, like, some, like, mushroom land type thing. And we literally just collected supplies for her, for her aunt. And she made perfectly. She made sure that I was safe. And we've all made deals with things that we didn't want to. You included. You took on the speaker's role. Can't hear you. Can I hear? [00:22:55] Speaker C: Yes, I did. But it was because that was the path for saving as many people as possible. I didn't make a deal with the speaker to gain the speaker's power or understanding. Made the deal to save as many people as I could. [00:23:19] Speaker B: And you don't think that I can't do the same? I don't want to fight with you either. I don't. That's not that I care about you a lot. That hasn't changed in the months that we've been apart. But I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because I don't want to die at the hands of somebody who I'm supposed to care deeply about. And now I'm kind of stuck because she wants me dead, too. So I just don't know what I'm. What I'm supposed to do. I don't. Any decision that I make is not gonna be the right one. And I'm sorry. I just. I'm stuck. [00:24:36] Speaker C: Okay. I guess that I'm most angry about all of this because I worry about the outcome. Sure, it's just trips to mushroom land now, but where does it go? How far does it go? And I'm worried about you. About where this will take you and what it'll mean for you and how you can get power to overcome your sister. [00:25:13] Speaker A: But what. [00:25:14] Speaker C: What does that make you beholden to? How? Who do you owe that to? Who owns you? In the end, I think that's why I worry most about even your powers that you have. If you engage in them, what happens to you, Rosanna, in the end? Who do you become? What do you become? And that terrifies me more. Than anything else. [00:25:57] Speaker B: I'm glad to know that you still care. [00:26:00] Speaker C: Of course I care. Never stopped caring. [00:26:04] Speaker B: I know. It's just good to hear you say it. I fear the same for everybody. All of our power comes at a cost. But what is that cost? [00:26:26] Speaker C: It's been the question I've been asking myself for a while now, even my own. What does it mean to be able to do what I can do? You know, if it really does come from a divine source, what does that make me beholden to? What do I become? And is that something that should be in this world? I worry about all of us. And that's why I thought that Zephyr was the only one who wasn't. [00:27:02] Speaker B: I think Zephyr was a lost soul just like everybody else. Let's be honest. We're. We're all little pieces of shattered glass, and we're all just trying to recollect and rebuild and you look good, by the way. I like the less. [00:27:36] Speaker C: Anti mind control. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Oh, is that what we're calling it? [00:27:42] Speaker C: That's what you guys were calling it. [00:27:44] Speaker B: And, uh, I was just doing it. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Because I look cute in glasses, but that's true. That is true. I think I'd say that, yeah. You look cute, glasses. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. [00:27:58] Speaker B: I don't think so. But, uh, um. Welcome to where I used to run off to whenever I would get scared. Back when it was you, me, Victoria and Zephyr. [00:28:18] Speaker C: It's a nice view. Makes you. Gives you the chance to look at things right from a different perspective. Kind of think about what it all means as a big hole. [00:28:34] Speaker B: Ain't it? This used to be one of my absolute favorite spots. A lot has happened. I still miss them a lot. [00:28:58] Speaker C: Yeah, me too. [00:29:05] Speaker B: I missed you, too. [00:29:11] Speaker C: I tried reaching out so many times, but I didn't want to push it. [00:29:19] Speaker B: I wish that you had. And I know quiet's made me wear. That's why every now and again, you would just get those little pings from me. I know, I know. [00:29:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I would have pushed it maybe, if I was under my own accord, but, you know, it's learning better on how to handle relationships and then. Quiet. I'm gonna be real. As much as I pay the guy, he terrifies me when it comes to you, that's clearly a thing. He's willing to just tell me to take the job and shove it. [00:29:58] Speaker B: He's. He is too good for me. [00:30:06] Speaker E: He really is. [00:30:08] Speaker B: He's such a saint. And I haven't been fair to him. Um. [00:30:20] Speaker C: I mean, why do you think that? [00:30:29] Speaker B: I don't know if I should say it. [00:30:32] Speaker C: I mean, listen, as your friend, you can. You can talk to me about this kind of stuff. It's fine. Really. It's okay. [00:30:48] Speaker B: Okay. Um. Well, because deep down, him and I both know that the reason I was acting so weird the entire time that the three of us were on the road together is because there's still some of that attraction there. And not seeing you, let me put it in the back of my head for a little bit. But then I saw you and it was weird and he was uncomfortable, and I was uncomfortable. And, um, I just, you know, um. It'll be something that I'll get over eventually, I'm sure. [00:31:58] Speaker C: Yeah. You're young. It's a lot to go in life. [00:32:04] Speaker B: I'm not that young. You know. [00:32:08] Speaker C: You'Re a little bit over my age. Something to consider. I feel like an old man trying to rob the cradle. [00:32:26] Speaker B: My dad was 50 when he met my mom. They got married when she was one. Ty nine. Almost 30. [00:32:39] Speaker C: Few more years then. [00:32:43] Speaker B: But that doesn't matter. Um, my dad was also my dad. [00:32:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:56] Speaker B: But I'm happy that you're able to work on building that connection with the Katie Lynn. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah, we've been working on it. Working on it. And, yeah, we're doing. Doing pretty good. [00:33:21] Speaker B: I heard. Date night on Friday? [00:33:24] Speaker C: Yes, actually. Yeah. We've got to see if we can wrap this up. Not. Not trying to rush along. You know, Hunt, you can't really rush these things. [00:33:32] Speaker E: But. [00:33:35] Speaker C: I feel like if I don't get back home by Friday, I might find all of my things in the yard. When I do get back. She's become a little bit more assertive over the last couple of months. For sure. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Good for her. [00:33:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:52] Speaker B: Does she know that you're out here doing this? [00:33:56] Speaker C: Yep. I told her that we were coming out here to meet up and figure out where we were with what was left for us to handle. She packed me a lunch and gave me a kiss and told me to be safe. She also gave me a very strict command that if I didn't come back to her, she would dig me up, resurrect me, and then make me pay for it, so. [00:34:19] Speaker B: Well, I guess I'll try to get you him safe then. She's going to step in and wrap an arm around Arthur and just pull him in for a hug. [00:34:39] Speaker C: As he's hugging back, he's gonna say, listen, Rosanna, I'm not gonna stop you from learning what you need to learn to deal with all the things in front of you. But I'm going to stand there and be a guy to protection and whatever I can be to help you through it so that you don't go down a path that's not good for you. And I know that quiet will help me, and I'm sure that he and I will have some disagreements on what that means. But I'm here for you. [00:35:24] Speaker B: I'm here for you, too. I, uh. I found religion. [00:35:34] Speaker C: You don't say. [00:35:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Um. [00:35:39] Speaker C: I would say we could talk about that on the ride home, but I don't know that I would be able to hear you during most of that. This is a thing now, huh? [00:35:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Um, those coins. [00:35:50] Speaker C: Mm hmm. [00:35:51] Speaker B: Uh, they are coins of the dogda, who is an irish pantheon of protection. I've been brushing up on my irish lore in my irish mythology, and. I don't know, something about it just sat right with me, and it's been a. It's almost helped me strengthen my connection with my protective aura. Animate the strawberry creams. Taste just a little bit sweeter, a. [00:36:37] Speaker C: Little bit more shamrocky, a little bit. [00:36:40] Speaker B: Give you a little. Give you a little kick in the ass and a little bit of luck to go with it. [00:36:53] Speaker C: I would say something right now, but I think it would come off wrong. [00:36:56] Speaker B: Something just say it. [00:36:57] Speaker C: Something just. [00:36:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:00] Speaker C: Nope. I think I'm gonna leave that right where it is. [00:37:03] Speaker B: Okay. Well, before it gets dark and before the other two, we start thinking that we got attacked by pack werewolves or vampires or, I don't know, something. Something fairies. Whatever. [00:37:19] Speaker C: That's fair. [00:37:20] Speaker B: Why don't we stop? Why don't we head back and maybe grab ice cream on the way? [00:37:28] Speaker C: I like that. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Me too. And still hop on the front and pat the bitch seat. And. [00:37:42] Speaker C: It'S probably a good idea. I don't know that I could control this thing well enough to not put us into a side of a road. A ditch some more. [00:37:49] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:37:49] Speaker B: Please don't wreck my bike. I spent good money on this. [00:37:54] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:37:56] Speaker E: Or that you've spent enough time with bikers over the last year that you don't touch a bike that isn't yours and you're not invited to touch. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Not a thing. Learn that lesson. [00:38:08] Speaker E: All right. You two climb on the bike, and you ride off to get ice cream. Meanwhile, we're gonna shift perspective back to Isabel's house, where Isabella and Piper have set up pipers gear. Took a little while. There's a lot of stuff that needed to be plugged in. Piper travels with, like, four monitors plus her laptop. It's a whole. It's a whole thing. Isabelle doesn't have a dining room anymore. That's Piper's office now. [00:38:49] Speaker D: Yep. [00:38:53] Speaker E: All right, what are you two up to exactly? [00:39:02] Speaker A: I think that it's probably better for Isabel to go through the police reports and things like that, and for Piper to search Delphi, see if maybe we can find things that correlate. [00:39:18] Speaker E: Okay. [00:39:20] Speaker A: See if we can spot the same case popping up both places. [00:39:24] Speaker E: Okay. As a reminder, and I will give this to you for free, Delphi links all of the police files that they can find to the entries. Yeah, you may be able to find some additional stuff, but I don't know that there's going to be all that much. [00:39:41] Speaker A: True. I did forget the other part, so I can. Look, we can divide together. We can divide and conquer. [00:39:52] Speaker E: All right? No roles necessary. Piper, you have connected with Delphi before. It's been a hot minute. So you're a little concerned that you guys might have to solve a whole nother slew of puzzles to get in when you first pull it up? Because it's been almost a year, but you managed to log in after taking some extensive security steps. But nowhere near as bad as it was last time. You could tell it's mostly just about confirming that you are who you say you are and you're not. Just somebody who got lucky and is using an old login that hasn't been touched in a long time. Right? As soon as you get in, a little chat screen pops up and a message comes through from Delphi. You're not dead. [00:40:57] Speaker D: Not yet. [00:40:59] Speaker E: I thought perhaps natural causes, because your name did not show up in the database. [00:41:07] Speaker A: Sassy AI. [00:41:13] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:41:14] Speaker D: Hasn't gotten me yet, despite my best attempts. [00:41:19] Speaker A: You really need to eat better. [00:41:25] Speaker D: I'll talk about that later. [00:41:37] Speaker A: See? [00:41:38] Speaker D: She's gonna, like, type in the text box. [00:41:43] Speaker C: Has. [00:41:43] Speaker D: Have there been any more deaths similar to the ones caused by, or believed to be caused by? [00:41:55] Speaker E: And then give the weird names that Zephyr had? [00:42:00] Speaker C: Yes. [00:42:04] Speaker E: There is a moment where it makes it clear that Delphi is typing, and then the typing notification stops for a moment, and then another moment and another moment, and it takes a few minutes before the typing starts up again, and you finally get something in the chat screen. Maybe it is difficult to tell your friend. Well, I don't think, Duff. I wouldn't say your friend. Those entries indicated that pieces of the bodies were missing, but sometimes there are not bodies left over, and sometimes bodies are naturally eviscerated. It is hard to tell when something has been purposefully removed and when it is simply missing. [00:43:04] Speaker A: That's fair. Maybe we should focus on ones where it does seem clear that something is purposefully missing. [00:43:15] Speaker E: Shall I run a search for repeated kills by the same person? [00:43:26] Speaker D: Yes. [00:43:31] Speaker E: Hold, please. And again, it takes a hot minute, and you start to worry that Delphi is not finding anything. And then you realize that it's taking so long because Delphi found too much. Your screens become hyper populated with entry after entry after entry. You get requests for zip file downloads after a moment, because it's like Delphi realizes that they're going to overload your connection by trying to show you every single entry in the database itself. So they're sending you the most prudent files. All right. I took the liberty of cross referencing for bodies that seemed incomplete in the case of where. In the case of species where there would have been a body left over. [00:44:46] Speaker D: Yeah, certain things make them difficult. Yeah, I have a question. I don't think it's come up. I just want to double check. Piper and Isabel don't know Dietrich's last name, do we? [00:45:01] Speaker A: I'm not sure the rest of the cell know Dietrich's last name. [00:45:04] Speaker E: Uh, no, I don't believe any of you know Dietrich's last name. Okay. [00:45:12] Speaker A: I mean, it's not an incredibly common name. [00:45:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, it's. It's worth giving, you know, a look. Thankfully, we have at least a slightly smaller window than we could. Only about a year. [00:45:37] Speaker A: I mean, if anything happened, it probably happened right around the same time is the reason why they never showed up. So if we look around that specific time. [00:45:52] Speaker E: Would you like to search for nine, nine to ten months ago? [00:45:58] Speaker A: Yeah, right around that time. [00:46:00] Speaker E: Okay, you run your own search this time, since you're not looking for a large amount of data. So you don't necessarily need Delphi to at least make a first pass for you. You run your own search? Make me. Um. Let's do intelligence and investigation. And I will allow Isabel to give you two extra dice, because Isabel has academics and a research specialty. [00:46:47] Speaker D: All right. [00:46:50] Speaker E: Also, because this is all happening on the dark web, I will also, if you would, like, allow you to use your desperation dice. [00:47:01] Speaker D: For this. I think I will. [00:47:04] Speaker E: Okay. This is not only all happening on the dark web, you are also accessing files that you definitely should not have access to. [00:47:14] Speaker D: So I got eight successes with a crit. [00:47:18] Speaker E: Goddamn. All right, then. Way to go, girls. It takes several minutes of looking, and you do some hunting. And first you start with the nine months. Nine to ten months ago time frame. And you don't find anything in there with the name Dietrich tied to it. So you start for eight to nine, you shift eight to nine months ago, a little bit more recent, and you have to keep kind of filing it down and filing it down and filing it down, and eventually a name pops up with the last name Dietrich, first name Rory. And it shows that he died in Baton Rouge about two and a half weeks after you guys sent Loki back. Cause of death? Cause of death appears to be a little bit muddled. It says werewolf attack is part of it. But when you look through the internal files, it says that there are signs that there may have been magic at play as well. [00:48:50] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, we have an answer. [00:49:04] Speaker D: At least the start of one. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I can. We can take a look more into it later, but we've got something. [00:49:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, if they said that his brother is still in the house, if he's doing it under his name, then, yeah, so, yeah, that's at least worth looking into. [00:49:32] Speaker A: It is. And, I mean, it's closure on something. [00:49:43] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:49:43] Speaker D: Now we just have to wait for them to get back. [00:49:47] Speaker A: Where do they go? [00:49:50] Speaker D: I don't know. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Okay, well, it does sound like we have our work cut out for us with all of these files. You send me half, you take half, and then we'll just see what we can put together. I'm sure I have a whiteboard somewhere. [00:50:17] Speaker D: Yeah, I get the feeling we're gonna be here for a while. [00:50:19] Speaker A: I'm gonna go make coffee. [00:50:23] Speaker D: I think we're gonna need it. [00:50:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we're gonna need it. Well, pipe appears that Isabelle's gonna go make coffee for the two of them. [00:50:42] Speaker E: Excellent. Um, out of curiosity, Piper, did you, at any point, attempt to reach out to cricket? [00:50:57] Speaker D: Uh, she probably would have tried when, um, like, set a bad example for all of our viewers. Uh, probably, like, at a stoplight, had, like, started, like, thinking, okay, so I need to reach out to cricket. And then started kind of putting things together. She's not actually sending any messages. [00:51:24] Speaker E: But. [00:51:24] Speaker D: Definitely doing things that are less than legal. But, yeah, she would have reached out to cricket and basically been. Been like, hey, we're reaching out to Delphi again. I know you were really curious about them last time, but it's time sensitive. Respond quickly. [00:51:50] Speaker E: Okay. By the time you got back to Isabelle's house, you would have had an answer. And the answer was basically, would love to, but I have to move house again. You owe me so big. [00:52:15] Speaker D: She just responds. Understood. [00:52:21] Speaker E: You've kept in touch with cricket a bit over the months because you were working on stuff for the church. And you know for a fact that cricket has. Has garnered some unwelcome attention from the same people that you have garnered unwelcome attention from, because cricket's been helping you. Or at least you suspect that it's because cricket's been helping you. And cricket is hyper paranoid. And the second they know that they are being watched, they pick up and move. And they've probably lived in, like, six places in nine months. Um, they kind of look like the guy from the aliens meme. Every time you get them onto a video call, like, they're so stressed out and their hair is all crazy, and. But they never fail to answer. That's better than nothing. Um, all right, I'm gonna say that this is about the time that Rosanna and Arthur rumble back into the driveway and head inside to find the dining room is gone. It's an op center now. [00:53:44] Speaker C: Sounds about right. [00:53:46] Speaker B: Uh, well, uh, y'all have fun. [00:53:53] Speaker D: Fun is one way to put it. [00:53:55] Speaker A: Definitely one way to put it. We made progress, though. [00:53:59] Speaker B: Oh, I brought you back some ice cream. One for a ride? [00:54:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I had to carry it the whole time. I hope that it's still cold. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Okay. I mean, it'll at least be interesting. Sure. Yeah. [00:54:16] Speaker E: You realize that sitting on the table, well away from Piper's computer itself, is a mostly empty coffee pot. They've both clearly had a few cups while working. [00:54:40] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:54:41] Speaker E: And there is no smell of food. So they clearly came in and got straight to work and did not bother with dinner. [00:54:50] Speaker B: Y'all didn't eat? [00:54:54] Speaker A: I mean, we were kind of waiting for you to come back. Didn't think you'd be gone this long. [00:54:59] Speaker B: I'm sorry. Well, we had some stuff that we had to work out. [00:55:04] Speaker A: I mean, that's understandable. Um, I mean, I'll just order pizza. [00:55:09] Speaker B: Pizza's fine by me. [00:55:13] Speaker E: Arthur, you're pretty sure the last time you had pizza was with Loki? [00:55:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:55:19] Speaker E: One of the. One of the perks of being home is that your wife cooks all the time. [00:55:23] Speaker C: Yeah, it's actually why I've gained a little weight in the. In the interim. [00:55:31] Speaker A: Right. [00:55:31] Speaker C: Pizza? Um, yeah. [00:55:34] Speaker D: I mean, I could cook if you'd rather. [00:55:40] Speaker C: I wouldn't dare ask a lady to cook for me. Piper. I can try to cook for us. [00:55:51] Speaker A: If we need kitchen install, I can also cook. Yeah. Kitchen. [00:55:57] Speaker D: We've been over this. [00:55:59] Speaker B: We don't. Listen. [00:56:01] Speaker E: Arthur. Arthur. [00:56:02] Speaker B: And she's gonna put a hand on his shoulder. Listen, honey bunch, sugar pie. No. [00:56:11] Speaker D: My thing's not just you, though, Arthur. [00:56:15] Speaker C: I'm. Well, sure, yeah, that's fair, but. No, it's. [00:56:18] Speaker E: It's. [00:56:18] Speaker C: It's probably reasonable that no one has me cook anything. I mean, we saw what happened with coffee when I made it. Well, hated it. [00:56:26] Speaker B: It was really chewy. It was like a coffee granola bar, but worse. Much worse. [00:56:36] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:56:38] Speaker B: I mean, you're so. You try. And. That is what matters. And we appreciate you for it. [00:56:47] Speaker D: Piper's going to start cooking. [00:56:49] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Isabel, just feel like. Yeah, kitchen's here. Make whatever you feel like. [00:56:56] Speaker D: Also, BP. They can't see Scott or. [00:57:00] Speaker E: Oh, geez. Right. You guys are back. My bad. Sorry. [00:57:03] Speaker C: We're just voices. We're just voices. It's fine. [00:57:06] Speaker E: That's my bad. I thought I was being fancy hiding people and then forgot that I had hidden you. All right, so Piper and Rosanna go in to start cooking. Isabel, what are you doing? [00:57:24] Speaker A: I'm continuing to pour over these files. I have found a whiteboard and I'm writing down information. Like trying to connect cases to another and having their own little webs or building a murder board. [00:57:41] Speaker D: Yeah, full conspiracy board. [00:57:44] Speaker A: Yeah, let me. [00:57:45] Speaker C: Let me help you with that. Isabel, I've been. I mean, I've literally been doing this once now. So let me help you see what I can. I mean, very least I can put a picture up and pin it down and tie it right behind to it. It's fine. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. You know, it'll make it go faster. [00:58:03] Speaker E: All right, Isabelle, please give me. [00:58:08] Speaker C: Is Arthur help in any way? He does have intelligence and investigation. [00:58:12] Speaker E: Hold on, hold on. Jesus Christ. Let me figure out what she's rolling first. Yeah, let's go into nacademics. Your research specialty applies, and you can have an extra die from Arthur. [00:58:38] Speaker C: I mean, all I need to do is correlate. Oh, look at this date. This correlates with this date, and that's. Then he's helping. [00:58:44] Speaker A: Oh, come on. I'm gonna spend a willpower. Okay, because two successes on nine dice. [00:58:53] Speaker E: Yeah, that's not great. [00:58:54] Speaker A: Slightly better with three successes on nine dice. [00:59:00] Speaker E: Okay. [00:59:03] Speaker A: She exist at the bot. [00:59:07] Speaker E: Let's see. [00:59:09] Speaker D: It only has so many successes it can give out. [00:59:12] Speaker A: You took all of them. [00:59:13] Speaker E: I took. [00:59:14] Speaker D: I took all of them. [00:59:15] Speaker E: It has to recharge. [00:59:17] Speaker B: Sounds familiar. To another situation that we had. [00:59:21] Speaker E: Yep. Okay, let's see. You have begun to make some headway in trimming the fat off of the list that you were doing. [00:59:33] Speaker A: I do have a coldly logical for one of my maritals. [00:59:37] Speaker E: Oh, you do? [00:59:40] Speaker A: Minus one difficulty on all related roles for that. [00:59:44] Speaker E: Okay. It's unfortunately not going to help you too much. I just. [00:59:51] Speaker A: Anything helps. [00:59:55] Speaker E: Just like dog shit, you go through, um, and you begin to kind of trim the fat. You. You immediately start to get rid of cases that you either have no way of verifying. Could be the same person, um, or I shouldn't say, could be the same person. Could be done by someone with the curse. And you begin to kind of sort the them into categories by murderer. [01:00:33] Speaker D: So. [01:00:33] Speaker E: That you can get some numbers. You figure somebody who has been cursed probably gonna have higher than usual murder rate. Maybe not everybody's like Piper and gets wise and realizes that they need to not kill things and not be around things that are dying. You have made headway. You're nowhere near done. You were given so much information that this is going to be a. This is going to be one of those things where it's going to take time and multiple people, but you've made a start. And that's something. Um, essentially what we're going to do with this is that you guys, as a group, can get together and all kind of contribute stuff if you want, or you can have one person who's doing all the rolling and the rest of you just helping. But a certain number of successes have to be met before you're going to be able to dig down to a decent answer. So, Piper and Rosanna, what are you guys making for dinner? Since apparently we're not ordering pizza because we don't want to trigger Arthur's PTSD. [01:01:52] Speaker D: The P in PTSD stands for pizza. [01:01:54] Speaker B: Pizza. [01:01:55] Speaker E: Yeah, pizza. Traumatic stress disorder. [01:02:01] Speaker D: I was just thinking like a stir fry. [01:02:04] Speaker E: Yeah, that sounds good and easy, which is awesome. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Yes. [01:02:10] Speaker E: Is there a role to go with your cell cook thingy? [01:02:13] Speaker D: No, it just happens. [01:02:15] Speaker B: It just happens. [01:02:17] Speaker E: Excellent. Cool. What does it do again? I know it does something special. [01:02:22] Speaker D: If I remember correctly, it means everybody. [01:02:26] Speaker B: Gains a health point back if we. [01:02:28] Speaker D: Yeah, I think it helps with. [01:02:30] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:02:31] Speaker D: Health recovery. But let me. [01:02:37] Speaker B: I don't have it. I just like to be your whole. [01:02:39] Speaker E: Cell recovers one extra superficial health level at the beginning of a session that begins with you having had the opportunity to prepare a meal for them before the session begins. Cool. Well, that doesn't really apply because none of y'all are hurt. However, we'll keep that in mind in case one of y'all gets hurt later. [01:02:57] Speaker C: Them good nutrients. [01:03:01] Speaker E: Okay, Arthur, is there anything in particular you're doing, or are you just helping put stuff on the conspiracy board. [01:03:10] Speaker C: I mean, I'm helping put stuff on the conspiracy board, but if needed, Arthur can help move through some of the paperwork and try to see if he sees anything, whether it be a cult related or just investigation. I could do that. If that's something that's possible or should be possible. [01:03:27] Speaker E: There are two decisions that have to go into that. Number one is, does Isabel want you fucking with her system? And number two, are you willing to touch Piper's computer? [01:03:37] Speaker C: Ooh. [01:03:40] Speaker A: I think Isabelle would be glad for the help, because there is just so much that we have to go through. But like, that. That other question. That's an Arthur question. [01:03:51] Speaker C: That's probably not going to touch the computer, because knowing how much Arthur knows about tech, which is absolutely nothing, he'll probably turn the machine off accidentally. And, yeah, it's like when you hand, like, a tablet to your grandma and then, you know, like, oh, just find the app. [01:04:14] Speaker E: So we'll say that Piper pulled out, like, one of those little portable printers. And as Isabel gets things that seem important, she is printing them, and Arthur is pulling them out of the printer and putting them up with the conspiracy board. Because that's something. Something he can handle. [01:04:31] Speaker C: Yep. [01:04:34] Speaker E: He can't replace the ink, but he could take the paper out of the tray. [01:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, look, Isabel does a lot of medical work. You probably need a printer for that. [01:04:43] Speaker E: That's true. That said, eventually, Rosanna and Piper come out with plates full of stir fry for everybody. I'm going to assume that Piper also took the time to start another pot of coffee, because it's Piper. Let's be real. Piper's on what, her 4th? 5th cup for the afternoon. [01:05:08] Speaker D: For the afternoon? Yeah. [01:05:13] Speaker E: All right. Is anybody else doing anything, or are we digging back into research? [01:05:19] Speaker A: I think Isabella is hyper focused on this research, so that's what she is devoting her time to. You know, we'll check to see if, especially if it's rolled into night, if she's received anything from Vincent or anybody else. But other than that, it's go back into research. [01:05:40] Speaker E: Okay. You check your phone, and it shows that the message has been read, but there's still no answer. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Well, at least it's been read. That's. That's a start. [01:05:57] Speaker B: You know, smh. Vincent. [01:06:01] Speaker E: I love it. [01:06:03] Speaker A: Hopefully being left on red beans. He's scrambling to gather his shit. [01:06:08] Speaker E: One could hope. Um. All right, you guys eat. Arthur is officially on printer and white and conspiracy board duty, and occasionally just sorting physical files when they're handed to him. The rest of you starting with Rosanna. What do you want to contribute to the effort? Do you just want to. Do, you know, pick a big group of files and start working? Do you want to try something else? What do you want to do? [01:06:54] Speaker B: Um, I think I'm gonna. I think. I think I will start shifting through, like, paperwork and stuff, seeing if I can find anything, um, anything that they might have missed as kind of like a second. Like a second glance type thing. [01:07:19] Speaker E: Okay. You're going over the stuff that Isabelle's already pulled out to see if you can further narrow it down. [01:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:26] Speaker E: Okay. Um, make me an int and a cult role. [01:07:31] Speaker B: Okay. [01:07:32] Speaker E: Um, Piper, while that's happening, what are you doing? [01:07:36] Speaker D: Um, is there any chance that I could, um, like, set up a program to start sorting through the files by, you know, largely by killer and potentially by cause of death, like, specific parts. [01:07:58] Speaker E: Missing. [01:08:03] Speaker D: Just to kind of separate things? [01:08:07] Speaker E: Are you asking if you can, like, write a script that'll. Okay, um, let's see if you can write a script to search by keywords. [01:08:20] Speaker B: Um, I'm gonna willpower that role. [01:08:23] Speaker E: Okay, go for it. Um, so hyper. Let's go. Intune technology. No, surveillance systems. Does not apply. Well, I'm not. [01:08:38] Speaker D: I assumed it wasn't going to. [01:08:40] Speaker B: So. [01:08:43] Speaker E: Five. Very good. [01:08:48] Speaker A: I heard. Continue to take all of their successes. [01:08:53] Speaker E: Are you sure you don't want to reroll? Cause you got a lot of failures on that. [01:08:58] Speaker D: Actually, I do have a good bit of. [01:09:02] Speaker E: Six successes. Okay. Yes, please burn your willpower. Um. [01:09:11] Speaker D: After some reason, I upped my willpower. [01:09:15] Speaker E: You got tired of rolling poorly last season. Yes. Very cool. You managed to put what you're pretty sure is going to be a fairly effective script. It is not guaranteed to catch everything, but it should. Should be make things a little bit faster, should be able to steer, perhaps help steer Rosanna, since Rosanna is doing the refinement side of searching. So that should help. Should also help give Isabel a good number of files to start looking through from a medical examiner perspective. [01:10:00] Speaker B: Yes. [01:10:03] Speaker E: All right, Arthur, is there anything special you want to do? I will. Since you are mostly manning the board, I will allow you to give one person an extra die. [01:10:14] Speaker C: Ooh. [01:10:18] Speaker E: Piper. I'm going to say you can't give Piper an extra die, because Piper. Doing it stuff. [01:10:24] Speaker C: Yeah, it's kind of a good question, because either way, I could give an extra die too. Both Isabel and Rosanna, in that Arthur's abilities kind of help in either of those particular grades. I'll give it to Isabelle, though, because Arthur is still working, doing the job that Arthur was promised to do. But in the meantime, just as a note, Arthur continues to text on his phone. [01:10:49] Speaker E: Okay. [01:10:50] Speaker C: Happening. Yeah. Strange little move for Arthur. [01:10:54] Speaker E: Yeah. What's really funny is it's still that shitty old flip phone. So it's this painful t nine style of texting that makes termite's soul just curl up and die inside. [01:11:08] Speaker D: I hate t nine. [01:11:12] Speaker E: Piper is literally sitting there going, maybe the curse isn't so bad. I'd rather be cursed than have to use t nine. [01:11:22] Speaker C: And I have to hit a button twice to get a letter. [01:11:26] Speaker E: Yup. [01:11:27] Speaker B: God. [01:11:28] Speaker E: The worst is when you have to. Is when you have to hit it three times, but you. Or when you have to hit it twice, but you go too far and you have to start all over again. You have to wait for the cursor to stop before you can start over again. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, sorry. Old. Old people tech for you at home. Isabelle. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Yes. [01:11:51] Speaker E: Make me. Intelligence plus medicine, your specialty. And coldly logical both apply. [01:12:01] Speaker A: Cool. And then I get the bonus dice from Arthur. [01:12:12] Speaker E: Yes. And you get the bonus eye from Arthur. [01:12:26] Speaker A: Okay. That's much better. With seven successes. [01:12:30] Speaker E: That is very good. Okay. All right, so here's. Actually. I'm gonna get. I'm gonna have her. I'm gonna have Rosanna roll. Okay. And then I'll do kind of an overview of how this goes, of how the whole round goes. Rosanna, are you continuing what you were doing before? [01:12:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:52] Speaker E: All right, make your roll. [01:12:54] Speaker B: Yes, ma'am. There we go. Five, six, five. [01:13:05] Speaker E: God damn. Okay, here's how this happened. Here's what happens. Isabelle and Arthur are making incredibly slow progress just because of the nature of how they're working. Arthur can't be terribly helpful with anything that's on the computer. He knows better than to touch Piper's laptop. So it's mostly Isabel doing the heavy lifting. And Isabel has, as an me, has gotten accustomed to mostly working with, like, paper copies. Having everything on a screen does make it faster for her, but it is still. She's still a little out of her element at first. And there's just so much information. And she's got no good way to start narrowing it down except to do it the old fashioned way. After you guys have some dinner and everybody has a chance to kind of mentally reset, Piper sits down and kind of just goes real quiet for a little bit for, like, an hour. [01:14:07] Speaker D: There's a lot of swearing. [01:14:09] Speaker E: Okay. All right. She starts out real quiet until suddenly she's not. And then it's like she has turret and nobody really knows why, because there's no explanation for what's going on. Rosanna kind of glances over her shoulder, given her background, and kind of sees that she's writing something. But Piper moves so damn fast that even Rosanna's having a hard time. Keep up. Keeping up, Rosanna, you could tell that she is writing a script of some sort. You are not entirely sure what it does. [01:14:40] Speaker B: Right on, right on, right on. [01:14:42] Speaker E: However, as someone who has also written scripts before, you know better than to say anything when she's in the zone, at some point, Piper kind of has to stop, push out of her chair, and she walks away from the computer and sort of wanders the house for a minute and comes back about two minutes later. And does Isabel have, like, I don't know, a Mothman plushie, like, in one of the back bedrooms? [01:15:12] Speaker A: Yes. [01:15:13] Speaker E: Excellent. Piper comes back with a Mothman plushie, and she's talking to the Mothman plushie about whatever it is that she's doing on the screen. But it's like a full on conversation. She's not ranting. She's explaining the problem that she's hitting and what is going on. For those of you watching at home who do not know, this is an actual technique that programmers use, except that they usually do it with a duck. But I like the idea that Piper resorts to Isabel's Mothman plushie. And eventually, as she's having this full on conversation, she hands the plushie off to Isabel kind of unceremoniously, or she says. She says thank you to the plushie, hands it off to Isabel, kind of unceremoniously, sits down and starts typing in. And 15 minutes later, the screens in front of Rosanna and Isabel just go a little ballistic. There's files everywhere, and they're actively, like, physically, they're rearranging themselves on the screen. Some are getting deleted, some just sort of disappear. Some get sorted into a folder that says, look at me. Um, well, one folder says, look at me, Rosanna. And one folder says, look at me, Isabel, because Piper doesn't want you guys working on the same things at the same time. And then she just sort of sits back and sighs, pleased with herself as. As it seems like her computer comes to life in front of your eyes afterwards, uh, Isabelle, you start opening up fire and approaching each one from an me perspective. You are in your element in a way that you were not before. You know what you're looking for. You're able to kind of go, no, it can't be that. No, I don't know. About that one, I can't confirm that one. That sort of thing. You are paying attention very specifically to, like, what look like coroner reports, but are not exactly written like most coroner reports because a lot of these reports use, like, the names of supernatural beings. So whoever is writing these reports knows about all the stuff you guys know about and in some cases seems to know more because they're using names you've never heard of. However, the medicine and the science is all kind of the same. Yeah. Meanwhile, Rosanna is over here approaching from, in a similar manner, but from a completely different perspective. Rosanna is coming at this from the perspective of all of the training that she has been getting with Ophelia and that she's gotten since becoming a hunter. And even the days when she dove into conspiracy theories and started to actively hate the church. She's looking at signs of possible magic usage. She's looking at things that could be chalked up to this type of supernatural. Really hates that kind of supernatural, that sort of of thing. And she's looking at details that I think other people would probably not think to look at just because she's had very specifically magical training. So it's less kind of broad based knowledge, occult and more like, okay, what do I know about how different types of spellwork works? You guys more than hit the goal that I needed you to have for successes, but it still takes hours. It's like three in the morning and you guys hear the rumble of motorcycles outside. And that's when you guys look up and realize that you've been at this for a hot minute. Your eyes are burning. Some of you are super strung out on caffeine right now. Arthur, somewhere in there, you and Katie Lynn stopped texting because she was just like, I love you, but I'm going to bed. It's three in the morning here. [01:19:38] Speaker C: Yeah, she went to sleep hours ago. Yeah, because it'd be five in the morning now. Her time. [01:19:46] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. It was around two to three when she. When she finally called it quit. She was just like, I love you, but I can't stay up anymore. So as you guys sort of come out of this, like, fugue state that you managed to find yourself in while looking for these files, the front door opens, the boys all walk in and they kind of look at the four of you and patty goes, fuck, y'all look like hell. [01:20:34] Speaker C: Yeah, but we saved you coffee. [01:20:37] Speaker D: No, we didn't. [01:20:41] Speaker C: Oh, never mind. Thought we saved coffee. [01:20:46] Speaker E: Did you kill something? Why do y'all look like you've been ten rounds but you're sitting at the. Is that the dining room table? [01:20:56] Speaker A: It was. We, um, got a little, uh, focused on this case. I will gesture at the murder board that we have set up. [01:21:14] Speaker E: Tov will kind of look everything over and kind of like, nudge Patty. And as Patty looks towards him, you just hear in this very thick russian accent that I can't do, so I won't try hyper focus. And Patty goes, oh, that makes sense. Last time she did this, it was a three day vendor. Can't let that happen again. And Tov kind of shakes his head because that was an unhappy time in the house. And Tov kind of walks over to Isabel, lifts her up out of her chair and tosses her over his shoulder. Paddy goes, all right, you're all being sent to bed. Go to bed. Kick you out of the fucking house. And Tov and Patti kind of carry Isabelle back towards the master bedroom. [01:22:05] Speaker A: Oh, no. Whatever shall I do? [01:22:09] Speaker E: Quiet. Meanwhile, sort of looks at Rosanna and gives her a look that is simultaneously concerned and, like, questioning, like, are you good? And he nods. [01:22:32] Speaker B: She's just going to wrap an arm around him and pull him close and give a little giggle. You owe me dessert. [01:22:48] Speaker E: I believe you owe me dessert. You went out without me. [01:22:51] Speaker B: Oh, you've been hanging out with. [01:22:56] Speaker E: Sorry, sorry. That was a storyteller mistake. It's really hard to drop in and out of accents like that. [01:23:04] Speaker C: No, he's just mocking patty, that's all. [01:23:08] Speaker E: You owe me dessert. You started without me. Y'all making me, like, hyper aware of my own fight and speech now. [01:23:23] Speaker B: And she'll just give him a little kiss on the cheek. Well, I'm not sleeping anytime soon. I'm right, she'll just drag him out of the house. [01:23:40] Speaker D: Piper, who is still sitting at the dining room table, just looks them. Get the fuck outside before you start talking like that. [01:23:48] Speaker B: I don't think I will. And I think that's when quiet would drag her out of the house. [01:23:55] Speaker E: Quiet just sort of puts. Acts like he's about to put his hand on the small of her back and give her a little push, and then swats her really hard on the ass and sends her towards the door. [01:24:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I think she'll be asleep relatively quickly. I get the feeling he tends to cut her out. That was Arthur to Piper. [01:24:23] Speaker D: Oh, I know. [01:24:25] Speaker C: Okay. Um, anyway, how. How are you doing, Piper? [01:24:33] Speaker D: Um, I've been better. But, um, I think we're finally in the bottom of at least some. Something, which is good, right? [01:24:44] Speaker C: Right. But I mean, with. With what just happened. [01:24:50] Speaker D: Fun. [01:24:54] Speaker C: Okay, that's fine. You can. [01:24:57] Speaker D: Porcelain, would you. Would you like it? Would you like a subterfuge role for that? [01:25:00] Speaker E: Yep. [01:25:08] Speaker D: Not good at this. [01:25:10] Speaker E: Manipulation and subterfuge. Uh huh. Arthur, can I get, uh, wits and insight? I had to remember which system I was running. I was like, wait, is it empathy or insight in the system? I don't remember. [01:25:37] Speaker C: Boo boo, dibu. Uh, that would be three for me. [01:25:42] Speaker E: Yeah. She's fucking lying. [01:25:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah? [01:25:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, let me just say that, um. When I had to tell Katie Lynn what was going on, it, um. It was not easy. I worried what the consequences might be, and I ran through the scenario of her walking away in my head dozens of times. So while I didn't experience it, while I managed to keep Katie Lynn, um, just wanted to tell you that I understand the feeling that you might be having, the one that you're trying to hide. And I understand why you'd be hiding it. But I do understand at least somewhat of what you're feeling right now. [01:26:46] Speaker D: And is there just. There are more important things right now? [01:26:52] Speaker A: Have to. [01:26:58] Speaker D: Figure out what's going on, if I'll even be able to be a normal person once all this is said and done anyway, so. [01:27:06] Speaker C: Okay, that's fair. But listen, I know it's tempting to pour yourself into your work and forget about what's going on in your life. [01:27:18] Speaker E: I know. [01:27:19] Speaker C: Cause that's what I've been doing for the longest time. But it's okay to have feelings. It's okay to be mad and upset. And if you need to be alone to go through those moments, then I'll leave you alone. But if you'd rather not, then I can bring you more coffee, help you focus on whatever you need. Granted, it'll be granola coffee, but still. I know we haven't had a whole lot of these kinds of moments, and in a lot of the cases we made, but I'm still your cellmate. And I'm still here for you if you need to talk. [01:28:12] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Get another pot of coffee made up. I'll be honest, I don't mind the very groundsy coffee. [01:28:21] Speaker C: It's. [01:28:25] Speaker D: You should have seen me while I was on my own about all that. Kept me awake most of the time. [01:28:33] Speaker C: You know, I spent a couple of months on my own a while back, living above a bar, eating Mac and cheese from a microwave. I've been there. Let me get that coffee for you. [01:28:57] Speaker E: And it is chewy. [01:29:04] Speaker D: Piper is at the point that she really doesn't care. [01:29:07] Speaker E: I kind of figured Isabelle may care in the morning when her coffee maker is fucked, but that's tomorrow Arthur's problem, I guess. [01:29:19] Speaker A: I'm sure that Isabelle has a french press. [01:29:23] Speaker D: Did you prepare the french press? [01:29:26] Speaker A: I could prepare it in the morning. It's not that hard. [01:29:31] Speaker D: Yeah, it takes a while, though. [01:29:34] Speaker E: Not really. Okay. Yeah. [01:29:42] Speaker C: So Arthur's just going to stay with Piper as long as Piper needs someone to be with them and just kind of hang out and do stuff, try to see if she wants to talk about what happened. And if she doesn't, then Arthur's just gonna be there. Talk about random things. Maybe mention that Cadielynn fell asleep a long time ago. So as much as Piper needs, Arthur has not got his attention as anything else until he himself has to fall asleep. [01:30:16] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:30:17] Speaker D: Piper probably won't go into much detail, but she'll kind of explain what happened. [01:30:23] Speaker E: Okay. Is this up? We're gonna stay up until we can't stay up. No more situation, Piper. Or are you eventually gonna call it a night? [01:30:35] Speaker D: Piper is probably gonna stay up until she can't. [01:30:39] Speaker E: Is Arthur going to attempt to do the same thing? [01:30:44] Speaker C: Yeah, as much as Piper will let him. [01:30:48] Speaker E: I would like both of you, in that case, to roll me. Stamina. [01:30:56] Speaker D: All right. [01:31:01] Speaker C: Just. Stamina. Just. Just. [01:31:02] Speaker D: Do we get bonus dice from an unbelievable amount of caffeine? [01:31:09] Speaker E: You can both have one extra die. [01:31:12] Speaker C: All right. [01:31:14] Speaker E: I'm not giving you more than one. Because at some point, you just get really wired and strung out, and you're not really functional anymore, so. All right. [01:31:28] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:31:29] Speaker E: Arthur falls asleep at around 05:00 a.m. At some point during the evening, you guys shifted away from the table, like, out into the living room, just because it was a little bit more comfortable. And you had a bunch of files that you could physically look through that Isabel and Rosanna set aside to look at more in depth. I'm going to be honest with you. You guys don't actually manage a whole lot because you are so tired that, like, it's one of those situations where even if you don't have ADHD, it sort of kicks in, where you read a paragraph, and then by the time you get to the end of the paragraph, you forgot the beginning of the paragraph. [01:32:20] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:32:24] Speaker E: So you get. You get to the point where at about 530, Piper, you are looking at a file, and you're reading the same paragraph for the 10th time. And you hear a very soft snoring coming from, like, your left side and just behind you, because you're on the floor. And Arthur's sitting on the couch, and Arthur is in that position that people get into when they're sitting up, where his head is tilted back and his chin is almost parallel with the ceiling and his mouth is hanging open. It is not the most attractive of looks for anybody. [01:33:15] Speaker D: Piper just kind of gets up and taps him on the shoulder. Arthur? [01:33:24] Speaker C: Hmm? [01:33:25] Speaker D: Go to bed. [01:33:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Um. You sure you don't need me anymore? [01:33:38] Speaker D: I'll be fine. [01:33:39] Speaker C: Okay. Listen, make sure that I don't wake up last, okay? [01:33:49] Speaker D: I'll do my best. [01:33:55] Speaker E: Okay. [01:33:56] Speaker C: Arthur will stumble his way to wherever he's supposed to be sleeping, which might actually be on the couch. Didn't we establish that? [01:34:03] Speaker E: No. [01:34:04] Speaker D: There are two guest rooms. [01:34:05] Speaker E: Yeah, there are guest rooms. Arthur shuffles. Arthur shuffles down the hall, gets to the end of the hallway where he knows which door is the master bedroom because it's kind of all the way at the end, so it's the only one that's on that particular wall. But the two guest bedrooms are directly across from each other. And there's a moment where Arthur is not sure which one is his, and then just sort of gives a fucking shrug and just wanders into the. Into one and falls into the bed without even turning the lights on to see whose room it is. Yep, shoo's still on. The sunglasses only really come off, like, because he's in bed. And eventually they get knocked off, but he passes out. Piper, you are sitting on the couch and again, trying to read this file, trying to make sense of what's going on. You're at the point of tired, where the letters on the page are almost seem to be moving a little bit. And your hand twitches, and then it twitches again, and you're like, oh, fuck. I'm getting like the tired, caffeinated shakes, and you try to shake your hand and get back to reading. Push it aside, muscle through, and then your leg twitches, and then your hand moves again. And before you realize what's happening, you realize that from somewhere, you have pulled out a knife, and it is in this hand, and you can't make the hand stop moving. And it lifts up and you get the gleam of the light next to the couch, off of the edge of the blade. And you go and you think, shouldn't hurt that bad. And you watch as this blade comes down on your opposite arm and starts to cut into your own flesh. There is blood everywhere. And you open your mouth and nothing comes out. Rosanna, we're not gonna talk about what happened for the first little bit that you weren't in the house. I think that goes without saying. [01:37:22] Speaker B: Yeah, they help hands and watch movies. Don't. [01:37:26] Speaker E: Um. Later on in the evening, you are asleep. You can. You're asleep. But you are the kind of asleep where you're vaguely aware of what's around you. Does that make sense? You can feel quiet's arms around you. You can feel his chest against your back and the kind of steady rise and fall of his breathing. It's soothing. You feel grounded. And then you sort of just relax and let yourself. Let yourself go. Let yourself drift towards true unconsciousness. And you see, you find yourself standing in an almost infinite space. It's not dark, but there's no visible source of light. There is what looks like mist or fog or smoke swirling around you in all directions. And it is thick enough and comes up high enough that you are unable to really make out anything around you. You know that there are things out there, you don't know what they are. Some instinctive part of you thinks that maybe it's going to be different. Every time you look, looking at your feet, you are standing on what looks to be a glittering silver path. And when your feet move just a step, it wavers and fluctuates like it's liquid, but it's solid under you. You begin to follow it, feeling like there's nothing else that you can do. And as you move, there is a sense that if you. If you step off of the path, you may never find your way back to it. But you're also not entirely sure where it's taking you. You just know you can't go back. And you keep walking and you keep walking and you keep walking. And the further you go, the less you can remember. First, it's things like, what's the name of my favorite shade of lipstick? I know amount, but I can't remember what it's called. And then it's, um, what's my favorite color? And then it's what street do I live on? And then eventually you realize you don't know your own name anymore. No, wait. Yes, you do. But it's not a name that has words. It's like a sound. Like a sound if it were something you could see. And you keep walking, content in the knowledge that you know your name, you know who you are. And the thought occurs to you, I should tell. I should tell him about this place. Wait. What's his name again? He was just. He was just with me, wasn't he? And you look down where you would expect to see a male handle on your stomach, where you're sure that's where it should be. And you realize that you can see through your own hand like it's just a vague outline. And you look down at the rest of your body as it is slowly beginning to fade. As the mist is climbing, it has circled around your ankles and your feet and is beginning to climb up your legs and your body. And the more it wraps around you, the less of you there is. And you are just opening your mouth to scream what you are sure is supposed to be your name. And nothing comes out. Piper. Yes, there's blood everywhere. You are missing about a three by three inch square of skin on your forearm. But the knife isn't in your hand anymore, because now the skin is. And you're examining it, testing the way it feels under your hand. It was harder to get off cleanly than you thought it would have been. Part of you thought it might feel like, I don't know, peeling a banana, but it wasn't. It was difficult. You wonder if it's going to be like this with everything that you do, because obviously you're going to do it. You have to know how it works. You have to know how things tick and why. You have to know everything about them, because you have to write it down to put it in the book. Rosanna Ann, Piper, you both wake up. Rosanna, you have a body and you know who you are. Takes you a second where there's that moment just upon waking where you're not entirely sure what your name is. And then you go, no, wait, I'm good. It's just a nightmare. I'm fine. Piper, there's no blood. There are some scratches on your arm, like you may have been like, scratching at yourself in your sleep, but you're awake. There is light coming in through the window. The files are all over the floor around you. There is a cup of coffee spilled and soaking into the carpet. Well, soaking, quote unquote, is chewy coffee. So it's mostly just staining the carpet at this point. You are both awake. [01:46:35] Speaker B: I think that I'm gonna just throw in a robe. [01:46:39] Speaker E: Okay. [01:46:43] Speaker B: Is quiet still asleep? [01:46:46] Speaker E: He is. [01:46:47] Speaker B: She's not gonna bother him. She's just gonna just slowly creep out of bed, throw on a robe and make her way outside. He's gonna open up a drawer and fish out for a full, a full on cigarette this time and step outside and let it. And she's still in her pajamas and everything. Or, you know, what's shorts and like, a man's shirt and just recollect BP, I don't think. [01:47:33] Speaker E: Oh, geez, I'm so sorry. Sorry, guys. Rosanna, you woke up, snuck out of breath, snuck out of bed without waking up quiet, threw on a robe and went outside. What are you doing outside? [01:47:50] Speaker B: She's gonna take a few minutes to smoke a cigarette. And once she does, and she like, never smokes cigarettes, so she's a little stressed, but once she does, she's just gonna creep inside to see if she can sneak a cup of coffee and hope that everybody else is asleep. [01:48:19] Speaker E: Well, unfortunately for her, she goes to head inside to get a cup of coffee and she finds Piper. [01:48:31] Speaker D: Piper would have gotten up and started cleaning up the coffee and probably started cleaning the coffee pot, trying to, you know, at least mitigate whatever damage. Yeah, exactly. [01:48:46] Speaker E: Rosanna, you walk in the living room, smells like coffee, but not good coffee, like burnt coffee. [01:48:54] Speaker B: Who let Arthur make coffee this morning? [01:48:59] Speaker E: And Piper is white as a sheet in the kitchen, attempting to salvage the coffee maker. [01:49:11] Speaker B: Hey. [01:49:13] Speaker D: Hey. [01:49:16] Speaker B: You good? [01:49:19] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm fine. [01:49:22] Speaker E: Piper. Manipulation and subterfuge, please. Rosanna. Wits and insight. [01:49:35] Speaker B: Yes, ma'am. [01:49:49] Speaker E: Yeah, she's lying through her teeth. She looks like she's barely slept. There are bags under her eyes big enough that even the sunglasses can't hide them. She is shaky, she is pale. You have seen Piper after, like a coding bender. It's like that, but way worse. [01:50:13] Speaker B: You it. [01:50:17] Speaker D: Now Piper keeps cleaning the coffee pot. I need to try and salvage this. [01:50:25] Speaker B: No, I will take care of it. Sit. [01:50:32] Speaker D: She slowly f coffee pot down and goes to sit down. [01:50:38] Speaker B: Alright, here, I'm gonna get you a cold compress. We're gonna get the bags out of your eyes. You obviously did not sleep. And if you did sleep, you slept like shit. You can't lie to me, Papper. [01:50:53] Speaker D: Oh, no, I barely, I barely slept. [01:50:56] Speaker B: Mm hmm. I can tell what happened. And as she asks that she goes to clean up the coffee pot, and then once it's clean, she's gonna go and grab like a cucumber from the fridge and just slice it up a little bit to have her put like actual, like cucumber slices, like under her eyes to help with like, the puffiness. [01:51:19] Speaker E: Okay. [01:51:25] Speaker B: Talk to me. [01:51:26] Speaker D: Uh, Arthur and I stayed up and we talked about mostly what happened yesterday. Tried getting work done, but didn't get much done. Arthur made coffee because I'd let him, but. [01:51:55] Speaker B: Okay, so we're gonna pitch the money together and get isabelle a new coffee maker because this thing is damn near unsalvageable. [01:52:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I should be able to get her a new one. [01:52:11] Speaker B: Well, they're not super expensive. It doesn't matter, though. Are you sure you're. You know, you don't. You don't have to talk about it. But. Look, I am worried for you. [01:52:30] Speaker D: Piper does kind of, like. Like, as this conversation is going on, like, kind of subconsciously, like, looks down at her arm where the scratches are now. [01:52:41] Speaker B: Are they showing? [01:52:43] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:52:44] Speaker B: Okay. [01:52:50] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:52:58] Speaker B: Are you okay? And she's pointedly looking at the arm. [01:53:06] Speaker E: No. No. [01:53:09] Speaker D: We need to find this book. [01:53:15] Speaker B: I had a dream last night. No, a nightmare. I was in some sort of. Was it like. Like a forest? [01:53:40] Speaker E: No, it was just like nothing of fog. As far as you could see. And you don't know what was there, but you knew that what was there would change. Instinctively, you knew that it was never going to be the same thing twice. [01:53:59] Speaker B: It was like a world of mist. I didn't know anything that was going on, but I knew that I had to follow this path. And the more that I followed it, the less I remembered about self people around me. And it was consuming everything. I couldn't scream when it tried to take me. Come on. [01:54:49] Speaker E: What? [01:54:54] Speaker B: We need to find your book. And we need to get Isabelle's curse aligned. I'm hoping that. God, I'm just hoping that she's good and. And we need to. [01:55:19] Speaker D: One sip at a time. Let's focus on narrowing down the possible locations for this book first. Because I also had a nightmare. And those scratches on my arm were not scratches in that nightmare. [01:56:01] Speaker E: Isabelle? [01:56:04] Speaker A: Yes? [01:56:07] Speaker E: You wake up slowly. Tov is holding you. Patti does not seem to be here. That's not uncommon. You knew he had an early morning. Morning errand he was going to be running. You can hear voices coming from further back towards the front of the house, where the kitchen and the living room and all that stuff are. They don't sound happy. [01:56:49] Speaker A: What happened now? Slowly extract myself from the bed, trying not to wake him up, and just kind of blindly reach for the first things to put on. [01:57:16] Speaker E: I mean, knowing you, it's probably jeans or yoga pants that kind of tanked up. [01:57:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's probably that. Or, you know, may or may not be one of the guys shirts from last night. Who knows? [01:57:31] Speaker E: That's fair. Yeah, we'll say that it's one of Tov shirts. [01:57:38] Speaker A: Those first pants. And then slowly, you know, leave the bedroom and make my way downstairs. [01:57:49] Speaker B: Watch this. What if we're getting way in over our head? You know. [01:57:59] Speaker D: We'Ve been in over our head since we started this. [01:58:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that tracks. [01:58:07] Speaker B: Good morning. [01:58:09] Speaker A: I think it's afternoon, but yeah, whatever. [01:58:13] Speaker B: Morning starts when I wake up, so. [01:58:15] Speaker A: That's very fair. What's going on? [01:58:23] Speaker B: Oh, you know, the usual. [01:58:27] Speaker D: Trying to figure out what we're gonna do next. [01:58:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we have. Well, we've got a lot of information to sort through. I. I can also ask my contact. I can ask Alison if they've ever come across this book. I didn't know anything about it. Heard anything about it. [01:59:01] Speaker E: Isabelle? [01:59:03] Speaker A: Yes? [01:59:04] Speaker E: As you are having this conversation, please roll me. What's an insight? [01:59:08] Speaker A: What's an insight? Okay. [01:59:09] Speaker E: Uh huh. [01:59:20] Speaker A: It is two successes. [01:59:23] Speaker E: You're a couple of sentences into this and talking about reaching out to your contact, and you realize that Rosanna was going to say something, and Piper cut her off. And the deflection was painfully obvious. And the only reason you didn't catch it immediately is because you were exhausted. You just woke up and haven't had your coffee yet. [01:59:53] Speaker A: So I'll ask this again. Is everything all right? [02:00:04] Speaker D: They've been better. [02:00:08] Speaker A: That's still not an answer. Why does my coffee. Why does my living room smell like coffee? [02:00:15] Speaker E: That. [02:00:16] Speaker B: That's an Arthur thing. [02:00:18] Speaker D: No, that was mostly my fault. [02:00:21] Speaker B: Did you spill the sludge on the ground? [02:00:24] Speaker D: Not intentionally. That was when I had fallen asleep. [02:00:29] Speaker B: So we'll call it. We'll split it in half. Half Arthur, half paper. [02:00:34] Speaker D: I'll take that. [02:00:38] Speaker A: Okay, well, like, 60 40. [02:00:43] Speaker D: Could be worse. [02:00:47] Speaker B: Could be. [02:00:48] Speaker D: Could be a lot worse. [02:00:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I just don't think that. Listen, there's. Okay, all right, at the risk of me sounding crazy, which, you know, at this point, what's the difference between me talking to me sound crazy? It's fine. At the risk of me sounding crazy, something bad might be happening in the next couple of days, and I think my dream might have something to play into it, because sometimes they just do that. [02:01:35] Speaker A: And what was your dream? [02:01:37] Speaker B: Um, well, I was surrounded by mist, and I was forced to walk one path because if I walked another, I have an inkling of suspicion that I would have gotten lost. And the more that I walked this path, the less I remembered about myself, the more enveloped by the mist I got, until I couldn't even scream the name that I thought that I had because everything was just enveloped. So I'm going to try to take a moment to decipher what that could possibly mean. Look through some dream journals. See? [02:02:11] Speaker A: Liquor idea. [02:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:18] Speaker A: And so that was that. Why does Piper look like she saw a ghost? [02:02:29] Speaker D: I also had a dream. Thankfully, mine requires a whole lot less deciphering. Unfortunately, mine requires a whole lot less deciphering. Um, I cut the not insignificant part of my own skin off and was examining. [02:02:50] Speaker A: Lovely. Yeah, it's way too early in the morning. [02:02:57] Speaker D: Uh huh. Like I said, it could be worse than the carpet, I mean. So we need to find that book fat. [02:03:12] Speaker A: As I said, I will reach out to my contact if we feel like that's necessary, but I don't know. We can take a. We all have fresh eyes to take a look at all of this information, and maybe we find some. Something. [02:03:32] Speaker D: I think we put together what we have first. And at the very least, no mention of my dream is brought to Arthur. [02:03:42] Speaker E: Because. [02:03:46] Speaker D: I'm not sure how he would react to that, but I'm fairly certain it would not. [02:03:52] Speaker B: We can tell him about man, though, because I don't want to hide things from him. It's not fair to him. [02:04:09] Speaker D: I plan to make it clear that the curse is getting worse, but I'm not. [02:04:16] Speaker B: We don't need to talk about the dream, but we shouldn't keep him in the dark. [02:04:27] Speaker A: Isabelle nods. Oh, speaking of. [02:04:30] Speaker D: He's gonna be piss. [02:04:32] Speaker B: Why? [02:04:33] Speaker D: Oh, he told me to make sure he wasn't the last one awake, and unfortunately, I didn't have much of a chance. [02:04:39] Speaker B: I'll go wake him up. [02:04:42] Speaker A: Um, how's coffee looking? [02:04:47] Speaker B: We're gonna have to pick some up from lack of coffee shop. [02:04:51] Speaker A: Oh, fuck. [02:04:53] Speaker E: We owe you. [02:04:54] Speaker B: The cell collectively owes you a new coffee pot. [02:04:57] Speaker A: Thank you. [02:04:59] Speaker B: And she'll go and hunt down Arthur. [02:05:03] Speaker E: Arthur, you are snapped awake by the sound of a knock at your door. [02:05:15] Speaker D: I have a very important question. [02:05:17] Speaker E: Yeah? [02:05:18] Speaker D: Isn't Arthur's door. [02:05:20] Speaker E: Nope. I rolled, and he got the wrong room. He is surrounded by Piper. Shit. [02:05:28] Speaker D: He is awoken from a knock on the door on the opposite end of the hall. [02:05:33] Speaker E: Oh, no, that's fair. Yeah, no, that's right, Arthur. You snap awake to the sound of a knock at the door, going to assume that in your kind of sleepy stupor, you roll out of bed and stagger to the door to answer it. Oh, yeah, I just woke up drunk. Walk. [02:05:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. It's probably trip doubled by the fact that he's tripping over things that he wasn't expecting to be on the floor in the room. [02:06:01] Speaker E: Yep, there's all of these weird, like, cases, like hard plastic and metal cases everywhere. You're like, what the fuck, Isabella? Isabelle's got to get better at keeping house. And you pull the door open, and standing in the hallway with her back to you is obviously Rosanna, who turns at the sound of the door opening. And for a minute there, you wonder if you're still dreaming because Rosanna is standing there in a silky little robe. What did you think I forgot that that's what you put on when you first woke up. [02:06:41] Speaker B: Uh. You all right? [02:06:46] Speaker C: Um, yep. Arthur still wearing the same clothes that he was earlier. No pajamas, nothing. [02:07:01] Speaker B: Want to get dressed? [02:07:04] Speaker C: Uh, helix down himself. [02:07:06] Speaker E: He's already dressed. It's just real wrinkled. [02:07:11] Speaker C: Yep. I think I beat you there. And he looks at Roseanne with interest, not to make it obvious she'll, like. [02:07:21] Speaker B: Close the rope and, like, I am embarrassed. Okay. And, yeah, I mean, to be. [02:07:31] Speaker C: You really shouldn't be. I mean. But, I mean. Sorry. Yeah. [02:07:42] Speaker B: Coffee pot broke, so I was thinking of putting actual clothes on. Tightens it up. Put it on some actual clothes, and maybe get taken a drive to get some coffee. Um, sorry. Yeah, yeah, you should. You should go and you dress, get clothes on, actual fresh clothes. Um, now, will you both please roll me? [02:08:21] Speaker E: What's an awareness? [02:08:24] Speaker C: Okay. [02:08:27] Speaker B: The dog staring at us like, hmm. [02:08:32] Speaker C: Goes like, what is happening right now? [02:08:34] Speaker B: These two awkward fucks. [02:08:42] Speaker C: Three. [02:08:46] Speaker E: Rosanna seems to be very caught up in the fact that she is only really half dressed. But Arthur, as you are looking anywhere but at her, desperately trying to give her some semblance of modesty, you turn your head to the right and you realize that standing a few feet away from you down the hall, is Tov and Gozer. Tov is standing there in jeans and no shirt and has a flask in his hand because this is how he always starts his morning, because he's russian and he is petting Gozer and watching the two of you looking highly amused. [02:09:40] Speaker C: Morning. [02:09:44] Speaker B: Where the hell did you come from? [02:09:47] Speaker E: And he just sort of, like, thumbs back over his shoulder at the bedroom door that is wide open just behind him. You are not quiet. [02:09:59] Speaker C: No, no, he's out in the rV. [02:10:05] Speaker B: I hate you. [02:10:07] Speaker E: Holy man has jokes. [02:10:11] Speaker C: A few. [02:10:13] Speaker E: Would you step aside, holy man? I'd like to go to the kitchen. [02:10:20] Speaker C: Yes. Arthur has this, like, long, overly long thought process of does he go forward? Which would put him close to Rosanna or backwards into the. The room? [02:10:32] Speaker B: Make him triple as if he is. [02:10:33] Speaker E: Going to make the. He is. As if he has decided to make the decision for you. Tov walks forward and walks between you and Rosanna, kind of not pushing you, but sort of, you know, Moses parting the Red Sea. You don't have a choice but to step backwards. Unless you want to get knocked over by somebody who is significantly more strength than you do. [02:10:54] Speaker C: Nope. [02:10:59] Speaker E: He does not let his eyes linger on Rosanna and kind of makes it a point, as he is walking by, to brush up against her as little as possible. He's doing his best to be respectful of her space, but it is a hallway. There's only so much he can do. [02:11:18] Speaker B: Sorry, sorry. [02:11:21] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly how that goes. And he mutters something at you in Russian, which, given the tone you assume is an apology. [02:11:32] Speaker B: You're fine. You're fine. [02:11:34] Speaker E: Gozer licks your hand on the way by, as if to say good morning, ignores Arthur, which is better than being annoyed by his presence, which is how it usually goes. And the two of them mosey on down the hall, leaving you with your lingering awkwardness. [02:11:57] Speaker B: I'm gonna go get dressed now. And good morning. You're the last one awake. And she's gonna go. And she's gonna go. And that insult to injury. And she's gonna go and actually go put some clothes on. [02:12:27] Speaker C: In reality, Arthur didn't hear what she said. It was just a. [02:12:32] Speaker E: At that moment, Isabel, as Tov walks into the kitchen, you see him with his flask, which you. You see him with every morning. This is how he starts his morning. He does a shot or two. Hair of the dog so that he's not hungover from the night before. [02:12:53] Speaker A: Of course, which. [02:12:54] Speaker E: You've tried that trick. It doesn't work for you. You don't know what it. He's just built different. It's weird. [02:12:59] Speaker A: It's the Russian. [02:13:01] Speaker E: The Russian and the Irish both kind of have this way of going about their day and you have not figured out how it works yet, but he pauses and kisses your cheek. Your friends are very loud. [02:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they are. [02:13:23] Speaker E: You should really wear more clothes in the house. [02:13:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I won't disagree with you on that. [02:13:37] Speaker E: And then he pulls your phone out of his back pocket and tucks it into your hand. It was beep. [02:13:44] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. We'll give him a small hug as well before sort of clicking on the phone and seeing what's up. [02:14:02] Speaker E: Do you have a text message? [02:14:06] Speaker A: I will check the message. [02:14:10] Speaker E: I have a delivery for you. Can you meet tonight? [02:14:17] Speaker A: I will. Without thinking, send back. Yes. Normal place. [02:14:30] Speaker E: Yes. [02:14:34] Speaker A: And. Yeah. And just look back up at everybody and say, well, I have something that has come up and I need to get something done tonight, but I'll help until that. Until I have to get that done. [02:14:55] Speaker C: Um, Arthur coming into the room, having watched half followed Rosanna out of the house, but mostly watched her leave. We'll go. What? Oh, I'm sorry. What was that? Something tonight. [02:15:07] Speaker A: I have something I need to take care of tonight. I shouldn't be too long. But, you know. [02:15:18] Speaker C: That reminds me that there's something I should take care of. So maybe tonight is the night I take care. [02:15:23] Speaker A: That's probably a good idea. We can secure coffee and then look over our stuff before all of that. [02:15:51] Speaker B: You're muted. [02:15:52] Speaker D: Yes, Arthur, I realized. [02:15:56] Speaker C: Oh, nothing. I was. [02:16:01] Speaker E: I mean, you both, but. So. [02:16:02] Speaker C: Okay, hold on, though. But like, Piper, you might be able to go. You can appreciate, I mean, you have a girlfriend, so you understand that. Um. Nevermind, nevermind. You know what? Never mind. I'm just gonna, um. Just, uh. [02:16:21] Speaker B: Right though. What? [02:16:23] Speaker A: I mean, we can all agree that Rosanna is attractive. Yes? [02:16:27] Speaker C: Okay. [02:16:27] Speaker D: Yes. [02:16:28] Speaker C: Just making sure it wasn't just my eyes. [02:16:37] Speaker A: Coffee. Let's all get dressed in fresh clothes and then go get coffee. [02:16:45] Speaker E: Okay. For the sake of expediency, we're going to say that you all get showers and you change into fresh clothes. Piper, you are still very tired. You know for a fact that you are not safe to drive. So you will be in the rv with everybody else, I would assume. Rosanna, when you go into the rv, quiet is awake. And when he sees you in the robe, he sort of arches a brow. [02:17:25] Speaker B: I had a nightmare. [02:17:27] Speaker E: Why didn't you wake me up? [02:17:29] Speaker B: You would look too cute sleeping. [02:17:33] Speaker E: That hasn't been problem for you for the last nine months. [02:17:38] Speaker B: I think I just needed a moment. Unfortunately, our coffee pot in Isabel's house is broken, so that moment was cut short and papper and I had to have a talk. Okay, but. And this is when she kind of, like you, get dressed and might have stolen a cigarette from the drawer. [02:18:15] Speaker E: It's bad, huh? [02:18:17] Speaker B: That bad? Okay, if. [02:18:36] Speaker E: Come here. [02:18:39] Speaker B: And she'll nod and walk towards him. [02:18:45] Speaker E: And he sort of tugs you down into his lap, wraps his arms around you and just rests his chin on your shoulder. Are you okay? [02:19:02] Speaker B: I am now. [02:19:06] Speaker E: As much as my ego enjoys the platitudes, that's a real question, and I want a real answer. Are you okay? [02:19:26] Speaker B: I don't think so. Okay, um, thing. Things are getting real serious now, and I'm trying to sort my stuff and help my friends and find myself again. But I have you and I've got them. [02:20:15] Speaker E: Yes. [02:20:17] Speaker B: And so I know that things are bad and they might get worse. [02:20:23] Speaker E: Listen, I'm not gonna push you for details. You'll tell me when you're ready. But given the conversations we have had, before, I want to remind you of a few things. I have face down werewolves for you. And I have. I have helped you run from government agents. And there are other things I have had to do that I have not talked to you about because you didn't need the pressure on your shoulders. So before you go getting it into your head that any of this is too serious or too dangerous and you don't want to bring it on me, remember that I'm already in this. [02:21:24] Speaker B: That's. It's so not fair to you. [02:21:32] Speaker E: If I thought that you. It's not about what's fair, Rosanna. Life isn't fucking fair. I've told you about a small sliver of my life before I went to work for the speaker. Nothing about my life has ever been fair. But the first thing I've had in a while that has made me feel at peace, despite how crazy shit has been, is you. So I'm not going to push you. I'm not going to demand a lot of details. You'll tell me when you are ready. However, if you think for one fucking second that you can run away from me, understand that I do this shit for a living, and I will find you and I will make you have the conversation that you owe me before I walk away. [02:22:33] Speaker B: I don't want to run away from you. [02:22:36] Speaker E: Then don't. I'm not going anywhere. If I was going to, that would have happened a while ago. And he cups your face and it kisses your forehead. [02:23:02] Speaker B: She's gonna take his chin and move it closer to her lips, and she's just gonna kiss him. I was entrapped. I missed. I couldn't say my own name. I couldn't remember who you were. Who I was, who they were. Nothing. [02:23:29] Speaker E: Okay. You remember all that stuff right now? Yeah. And you have time to figure it out for its real problem right now. It's a puzzle. There are very few people I have ever met who are as good at puzzles as you are. [02:23:51] Speaker B: You know, fun fact is, I can solve a Rubik's cube in under five minutes. [02:23:57] Speaker E: I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. [02:24:03] Speaker B: That's my most impressive skill. That's what I brought to the beauty pageants. Not really, but I think it's my most impressive skill. [02:24:11] Speaker E: Go get a shower. Get yourself dressed. Work on the puzzle. One step at a time. Don't freak out. [02:24:23] Speaker B: And she'll slide off of his lap, start heading to the shower. She's gonna stop, go back to him, and she is going to pull him into the bathroom with her all right. [02:24:40] Speaker E: Then Rosanna gets a proper wake up even though there's no coffee. We're going to go ahead and fast forward time. Everybody is. Everybody else is still taking showers to get dressed anyway because it takes time to get all this stuff done. You all get the. Get yourself ready to go. By the time everybody kind of files out to go to the rv, quiet is stepping out. His hair is wet. He's dressed, though, and he is heading for his bike. He sort of pauses and there's just this brief moment where he looks over at Arthur and then just sort of gives him a little nod and continues onto the bike without a word. [02:25:38] Speaker D: Is there a coffee maker in the rv? [02:25:41] Speaker E: There is a little, like, travel coffee maker, but it's not. Not good enough to replace what Isabel had. [02:25:49] Speaker D: That does not matter right now. [02:25:54] Speaker A: Head to the nearest coffee shop. [02:25:57] Speaker E: Okay. Y'all load onto the rv. Piper starts coffee because she can't wait that long. Arthur has blessedly kept away from this coffee maker. [02:26:12] Speaker C: He's been warned by everyone about this. [02:26:14] Speaker B: Coffee maker anytime he even hovers near it. Roseanne Gibson, the walk. [02:26:20] Speaker C: And while it's been in his possession at any point, he has continued to maintain the rule of do not touch the coffee maker, Arthur, or you will lose a hand. [02:26:32] Speaker E: Okay, Rosanna? [02:26:38] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [02:26:40] Speaker E: Shall I assume that during the drive, you. During the drive, after, you know, quiet leaves and you are able to focus a little bit better, you are going to start trying to figure out the dream. Yeah. You're going to start working on the puzzle. Okay. I would like you to roll me wits and insight. [02:27:13] Speaker B: Okay. [02:27:33] Speaker E: Would you like to will power? [02:27:35] Speaker B: Yes. [02:27:36] Speaker E: Go for it. [02:27:39] Speaker B: There we go. [02:27:41] Speaker E: Much better. You haven't spent a ton of time with your passenger since everything that happened before. You have been a little worried about reaching out to and pulling her to you because you know that Rin is also connected and has been vindictive towards her when you have borrowed power from her. But the couple of times you have talked to her and had conversations with Ophelia as well, you have been made aware of a place that it seems like only certain beings can get to. Even particularly powerful mages struggle to go there. But it is a place that changelings can get to called dreaming. Your passenger never described the dreaming to you, and Ophelia's never been there, but she had some theories about it. And while what you saw doesn't really match up completely with her theories, it is not dissimilar with the things that she's come up with. You are reasonably sure that in your dream, you are in the dreaming. You don't super know what the importance of the silver path itself is, except that it felt somehow incredibly intimate and particular to you. Like, somehow you know that that path won't. Would never show up for anyone else. And you know that there are stories about people going into the dreaming and never coming out again. But you also know from having spoken to Ophelia that sometimes changelings seem to know what they are one day and they don't know what they are the. [02:30:16] Speaker A: Next. [02:30:19] Speaker E: And never know again. So while you're not entirely sure how it all fits together, those are some of the starting points that you come up with for what the dream could mean. If it means anything. [02:30:40] Speaker B: I'm gonna make a note of that in my. She's gonna take out a blue. [02:30:48] Speaker E: Leather. [02:30:49] Speaker B: Bound journal and grab, like, a fountain pen, and she's just gonna start making her own notes on everything she can remember from her dream. [02:31:03] Speaker E: Okay, you do that. No role required. [02:31:18] Speaker B: Y'All. Um, at some point, um, could we stop at, like, an occult shop? [02:31:30] Speaker C: What are you looking to get? [02:31:33] Speaker B: Um, let me see. Um, I'm gonna need some incense. Um, I'm gonna need a couple smudge sticks. I want to see what they've got for rune rocks, and let's. I want to see what they have for. I think I might have an idea what that dream was about. And if. If my. If my suspicions are true. [02:32:25] Speaker E: I've got. [02:32:25] Speaker B: To do a little bit of digging. Plus, occult shops are just really fun. We haven't been to one in a. [02:32:36] Speaker A: While, so I think there should be someone near the coffee shop. I've been in a few times just for some basic stuff. [02:32:47] Speaker D: This place is always headache. [02:32:52] Speaker A: I mean, you are the black hole of magic. [02:32:57] Speaker D: It's mostly the incense, but that discomfort doesn't go both ways. [02:33:05] Speaker A: Not that you're aware of. [02:33:08] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, maybe there's been your whole life. Maybe there's been some sort of weird physiological evidence to show that you've been this black hole. [02:33:19] Speaker A: We don't know unless we, like, test it. [02:33:22] Speaker C: Yeah, empirical studies and whatnot. [02:33:29] Speaker D: I don't think we need to do a peer reviewed study about my disconnect from magic. We're not calling it that. [02:33:44] Speaker A: Quite a good ring to it. [02:33:46] Speaker E: So I'm assuming we could breeze through the coffee shop and onto the new age shop. Yeah. Rosanna, is there anything special you want to get, or is it just the list of stuff that you came up with? [02:34:07] Speaker B: I want to take a look at all of the irish mythology stuff too. She almost instantly gravitates. And I'm sure that Arthur, considering what she told him yesterday, probably takes note of this. She instantly gravitates towards, like, the mythology section first. [02:34:29] Speaker E: Okay? There isn't a terribly large mythology section. There is a book section that is primarily. It's primarily, like, those new agey witch books, like how to be a kitchen witch and stuff like that, right? [02:34:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:34:56] Speaker E: Let's be real. You're in California. There are new age shops on every fucking corner, and they're all kind of the same. There are crystals from one side of the place to the other. Half of them, you realize, are mislabeled as somebody who actually uses them in practice. You know, that some of those are improperly labeled. But you do find, like, one fairly simple book just labeled celtic gods. And a flip through shows you it's not just irish. They've also got some Welsh in there as well. Yeah, yeah. [02:35:36] Speaker B: She'll. She'll pick up that book anyway, and then she'll get the other stuff that she needs. Wants to keep an eye out to see if there is. You know, the last time that she kept her eye out in a shop like this, uh, they. They found some really interesting stuff. Um, but I want to. I want to have her, um, while she's breathing through, like, the incense and stuff, um, have her keep an eye out for anything that could be added to her. They'll call it eclectic collection of bips and bobs and other fun witchy stuff, things that she might have never seen before. Because every new age shop for as bull crap as they are, sometimes they have something really cool. [02:36:44] Speaker E: Okay, roll me a single die, and call highs or lows before you do so. [02:36:49] Speaker B: Okay, I'm gonna call. Hi. Ah, this is the strawberry cream thing all over again. [02:37:09] Speaker E: Are those over there? Over there. Trying not to laugh. [02:37:17] Speaker B: You see her get slightly frustrated, and all she says is the goddamn strawberry cream thing fucking all over again. She's gonna reach into her bag, realize that she forgot her strawberry creams, like, in the rv. Go to, like, grab one, find that one's not in her purse. She could be like, fine, fine. Just grab my fucking incense. In my murder. [02:37:48] Speaker E: You get all of the other stuff you came here for? [02:37:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. She's having her own moment. Right? [02:37:58] Speaker E: After you check out, you go back to the rv. What are you guys gonna do now? [02:38:13] Speaker A: We take one final crack at the murder board, see if we can narrow it down. [02:38:22] Speaker D: Back to our conspiracy board. [02:38:23] Speaker A: Back to our conspiracy board. [02:38:27] Speaker D: See if we can at least kind of find a potential location to look. [02:38:32] Speaker A: Mm hmm. I think that's our most pressing thing right now, is just finding an allocation for this book. At least until we all have split off tonight. Right. [02:38:46] Speaker E: Okay. Um. So you're all headed back to the house? [02:38:55] Speaker A: I think so. That's the plan. [02:38:58] Speaker E: Okay. I'm just going to give this to you. Isabel, you are a researcher. You're an academic. You know that there are other ways to potentially find the book. The murder board is absolutely going to be helpful, but it wouldn't hurt to see if you can do some research into the providence of such a book. [02:39:20] Speaker A: True, true. [02:39:21] Speaker E: See if it has popped up in any, like, records online where people are asking about it. They're like, I had this book, and then it just sort of disappeared. Does anybody know where it is? That sort of thing. So that wouldn't hurt. [02:39:40] Speaker A: So definitely something that sounds more like a technology role, maybe? [02:39:48] Speaker E: No, it's just a research role. [02:39:51] Speaker A: Okay. I mean, like, if it's something. [02:39:53] Speaker E: I mean, you're looking online, but let's be real here. Who doesn't understand Google is Arthur. [02:39:59] Speaker A: That's very fair. I mean, even if it's something that. Cause we'll be traveling for a bit. Even if it's something that Isabel can just start poking at on her phone, she'll do it. I imagine we're waiting for a few minutes for Rosanna before the store. So it's like. It's an idea that she had. She's just gonna start googling it, going into forums and seeing if it pops up anywhere, you know, and making some notes. [02:40:33] Speaker E: Give me intelligence and academics, and your research applies. [02:40:41] Speaker A: And our willpower resets, like, every in game day. Right? [02:40:46] Speaker E: Yes. It is either your. It is either your resolve or composure or whatever is higher. [02:40:59] Speaker A: I'm going to spend a willpower. It's three successes, and it's Phil Cri. That's four successes. [02:41:09] Speaker B: Okay? [02:41:13] Speaker E: It takes a hot minute. Part of the issue is that from what Piper has told you, the name of the book is weird. You know what I mean? It's a weird fucking name. And so it takes a hot minute to sort of like, you are scouring, like, academic boards and board, you know, message boards about the occult. You're looking at entries from years ago, just trying to find something, anything that'll point you in the right direction. And eventually you find a post from. Excuse me, three months ago from a user who says, basically they describe what sounds vaguely like the book Piper had. Not exactly, but vaguely like it. And they describe having it, reading from it and then they sent it down to grab something to make some notes because the paper inside seemed weird. This is on one of the academic boards, by the way, and they were wondering if this was one of those incredibly rare books that are actually made with, like, flesh for paper and stuff. But when they turned back once they had their pencil to start making notes, the book was gone. [02:43:05] Speaker A: And then I guess they don't mention a second, you know, mysteriously appearing book. [02:43:11] Speaker E: No. And when you look at their post history, the post looking. They had been incredibly active on this forum, talking about old esoteric books and things like that, discussing research into books and providences and whatever. You kind of assume that they probably work in some sort of, like, probably a university somewhere, a place that, like, collects old rare books. But the post where they're asking about that book is the last post they put up. They went from posting almost daily to not posting at all. [02:43:52] Speaker A: I think at that point, Isabel will go, Piper, if I give you someone's online handle for this forum site, do you think you could get their IP address? That seems very simple. [02:44:08] Speaker D: I could probably get you a lot more than that. Yeah. [02:44:11] Speaker A: Great. Well, I found somebody who came into possession something that sounds very much like the book. About three months ago, they posted about it on this forum, and they haven't posted since. So it may be an incredibly recent time of somebody having the book. There's a good. There's a possibility that they may still be operating. [02:44:42] Speaker D: And I will see what I can find. [02:44:44] Speaker A: Send the link to the thing over. Like, unless this person has, like, I work at X University in their bio. [02:44:53] Speaker E: They do not, of course. [02:44:55] Speaker A: Can't be that easy. [02:44:57] Speaker C: IP address. Like a. Like an email address. [02:45:02] Speaker D: Uh, think of it like a computer phone address. [02:45:08] Speaker C: Oh, I didn't realize they had that, but all right, it's the easiest way to explain it. [02:45:17] Speaker E: Okay, you all arrive at the house. I'm assuming Piper and Isabella are going inside to follow up on this lead. [02:45:29] Speaker A: That's the plan. [02:45:30] Speaker E: Arthur, are you going to return to looking through the paper files that you guys were looking at the night before? [02:45:35] Speaker C: No, I think Arthur is kind of done with that particular set of things. And he's remembering that he posted check in on the sect in California, quickly being reminded to him based on just activity. [02:45:49] Speaker E: Okay. [02:45:50] Speaker C: Like the fact that quiet went to work today. And that's when Arthur was like, oh, right, there's a place that I need to be. [02:46:02] Speaker E: You assume quiet went to work? [02:46:04] Speaker C: Oh, I mean, yeah, he could have. He could have gone anywhere. [02:46:06] Speaker E: Yeah, quiet isn't really stationed here. So if he goes, it's because somebody asked him to, right? [02:46:11] Speaker C: For all I know, he's going off to somewhere to just unload armory to feel better. [02:46:20] Speaker B: Okay. [02:46:23] Speaker E: Did you guys get there? Rosanna climbs out with her shopping bag and a few other things. Are you gonna let folks know that you're leaving or you just gotta walk off? [02:46:36] Speaker B: No, she'll let them know. Um, so, uh, I assume that the three of you aren't going to want to join me in the woods. [02:46:44] Speaker A: Um, so, in the woods, werewolves tried to murder me. [02:46:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. See? A little harder to find now, so I think I should be safe. [02:46:58] Speaker C: Um, sure someone shouldn't come with you? [02:47:03] Speaker B: Um, I will be honest. I'm going to try to summon my passenger. So if somebody would like to join me, um, say, Graham? I know you don't like it, but I've got some questions I have to ask her, and she literally lives in my head. Run free. [02:47:28] Speaker C: I was gonna check in on the sect, but now I'm really conflicted. [02:47:33] Speaker B: We can do both. [02:47:34] Speaker E: We can. [02:47:35] Speaker D: I can at least keep an eye on her. [02:47:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, like it. We. I don't think it's going to take piper that long to get the information on this guy. And then depending on wherever he is, it's probably a tomorrow problem, because I have to. Some point soon. Go make my. Go make my run. [02:47:55] Speaker B: Um, if y'all want to join me, you can. I will say, part of my training with Ophelia makes me near impossible for the naked eye to spot me in the woods. [02:48:16] Speaker E: So it's more that you can't be tracked. If they're walking with you, they know where you are. It's not like you disappear the second you got into foliage. [02:48:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:48:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, you know, she just becomes the forest. [02:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I am. The hills have eyes. [02:48:36] Speaker D: Let's be honest, it's probably best if I don't come out there with you, given that. [02:48:42] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. [02:48:44] Speaker B: Black hole. [02:48:49] Speaker C: All right. [02:48:49] Speaker E: You could, however, send a drone. [02:48:51] Speaker D: Oh, that's fully what I'm planning. [02:48:53] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:48:56] Speaker C: I. [02:48:57] Speaker B: If you would like to join, you can. We could do both together. I've actually never been to Europe. Compound in California. [02:49:07] Speaker C: Well, I'm absolutely not going to go out into the woods by yourself. Not just because I don't think you can handle it, or that you wouldn't be able to keep things under control just because it's. I mean, it's still the woods, isn't it? [02:49:24] Speaker D: I mean, I can send the robot with the gun. [02:49:28] Speaker B: I'm sorry, the what? Would you we've been on. [02:49:35] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [02:49:36] Speaker D: Oh, you know the one that werewolf threw and was then very surprised that it then shot him. [02:49:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that because I'm pretty sure that was right after he. [02:49:50] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [02:49:54] Speaker B: Yep. Sorry. Was a little bit in on my own trauma to realize that the thing had a gun. What's happening? [02:50:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I will. I'll go with you just to make sure everything goes alright and. Yeah, help you carry things or whatever the case is. [02:50:13] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. Um, and I'll go with you to the. To the compound afterwards. [02:50:23] Speaker C: Okay. [02:50:24] Speaker B: You're gonna have to give me a tour, though. I've never been there before. [02:50:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I know the place pretty well. Uh, also some areas that I didn't have access to before. Cause speaker space. [02:50:40] Speaker B: Got it. [02:50:45] Speaker E: Okay. [02:50:46] Speaker B: One would say he kept it low key. [02:50:49] Speaker E: Oh, God. How dare you? [02:50:54] Speaker C: Too soon. [02:50:56] Speaker B: Too soon. Yeah. [02:51:03] Speaker E: Arthur's just mad he didn't pick up on the. The hint. Scott might still be a little bit salty. Okay. Isabelle and Piper staying inside to work on their stuff. Piper, are you still sending a drone even though Arthur is going with her? [02:51:26] Speaker D: Yes. [02:51:27] Speaker B: Okay, with the gun. [02:51:29] Speaker D: Not the one with the gun. [02:51:32] Speaker E: Are you sure? [02:51:39] Speaker D: We'll send the flying one. [02:51:42] Speaker E: Okay, fine. No big spider gun drone. You're no fun. [02:51:49] Speaker C: It'd be hard to explain if a random sheriff came by because Arthur's not good at hiding the woods and just be like, yeah, this robot dog with a firearm is mine, officer. Yep, that was through that situation. [02:52:03] Speaker E: Rosanna's just got to, like, lean forward a little bit and look pretty. He won't even see the robot dog with the gun. [02:52:13] Speaker C: What robot dog, kid? Nothing. [02:52:18] Speaker E: Sorry, officer. [02:52:19] Speaker D: I must be seeing things. [02:52:23] Speaker E: Okay, cool. Um, we are going to start with Isabella and Piper. Uh, Piper. [02:52:42] Speaker D: Yes. [02:52:44] Speaker E: Let's make me whitsun technology. I know that you have a bunch of, like, extra stuff around using tech to, like, hack and whatever. [02:53:08] Speaker D: Yeah, it's mostly for, like, finding information, which this would be. [02:53:11] Speaker E: Uh huh. [02:53:13] Speaker D: But the main thing it does is it lets me do it, and it basically lets me get access to stuff I wouldn't otherwise have access to. [02:53:21] Speaker E: Okay. You still have to roll though, right? [02:53:28] Speaker D: Yeah. Global access is an intelligence plus technology at difficulty four. [02:53:35] Speaker E: We'll do that one then. Not wets. [02:53:44] Speaker D: Seven. [02:53:46] Speaker E: Goddamn. Yeah, it works. So this is a message board used primarily by academics. This is not some high security corner of the dark web where the hackers that scare the NSA live. This is like walking into the corner store and the door is left unlocked for you. You are very easily able to figure out that this user, as a researcher at. Hold on, I'm looking at my notes. I'm sorry, I lost it. I just had it. But then I scrolled to look up something for Rosanna. I fucking forgot. I don't know where it is. Hold on. [02:54:48] Speaker A: You forgot. [02:55:00] Speaker E: You are looking for the University of Iowa. Seems to be where this researcher worked, or works. A little bit more digging, I assume, to see if you can find said researcher or at least get an idea of who it might have been. Unfortunately, the way that IP addresses work is you just know that it's. Most of the posts came from the university itself. You don't know exactly who or even what building it was. So you do dig into the university's stuff. I'm not going to make you roll again because you rolled so well. You find out that there are three researchers who work with rare and obscure books. One of them is currently marked as on sabbatical. And her name is. And I'm going to put this in pc notes for you guys. Her name is Bethan Miller. She is in her late twenties. This was her first, like, straight out of college job. You get the feeling she probably was like a ta and everything because she attended the college before she started working there. So it was probably just a natural pipeline that she ended up in the program. And Bethann started her sabbatical about three months ago. [02:57:21] Speaker A: Well, I mean. [02:57:24] Speaker D: Seems like that's what we've got to go on, at least right now. [02:57:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, can we see from the files that we have if there is any? Do we. The files in Delphi, do they list, like, location? [02:57:42] Speaker E: Yeah, they list date, location, name, cause of death. [02:57:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:57:47] Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna immediately go through and just start looking for any ones that might have been in, like, the Iowa area or Idaho area. [02:57:57] Speaker E: Okay, Iowa. [02:57:59] Speaker A: Iowa. [02:58:03] Speaker E: You find two deaths that popped up in the Iowa area. One was before the post, so probably not her. And you really don't have any way to verify it anyway because the body in the report was just so damaged. There was one, however, that was shortly after her post, about two to three days later. And the cause of death was silver bullets. This was a werewolf. [02:59:07] Speaker A: Interesting. [02:59:08] Speaker E: What little is in the reports for this one suggests that it was a young werewolf and it was missing a hand, just the whole last hand. And the thing that you specifically notice, Isabel, is that whoever took this hand off was not professionally trained. It looked like they took like a cleaver or something to it. [02:59:35] Speaker A: Oh, lovely. Well, this is something. Um, it matches up with the time. And, I mean, maybe if we look further, see if she's taken other victims. But I mean it. I mean, short of me, I have a horrible idea, which is what I call the sheriff's office. [03:00:24] Speaker D: Oh, why? [03:00:29] Speaker A: Cause I was a medical. I still technically am a medical examiner. [03:00:36] Speaker D: I mean, give me ten minutes. [03:00:42] Speaker A: I mean, in the end, it was more of, you know, see if, I guess, figure out, is Bethann dead? Or I guess she wouldn't be dead if they would not, definitely not list her as sabbatical. But. [03:00:57] Speaker E: It is worth noting that the report on the dead body did not come from any sheriff's office. [03:01:06] Speaker A: That's good. I guess it was more of just being, like, call to. I don't know where I was going with that. [03:01:15] Speaker E: See if she's turned up dead. Is that what you were thinking? [03:01:18] Speaker A: Mostly see if Bethann is turned up dead. [03:01:21] Speaker B: Okay. [03:01:23] Speaker E: What I will tell you is that there is every likelihood that that is something that Piper could find in the database, given time. Now that Piper has a specific name to look for and a starting point, she can start to narrow down her pattern and try and figure out which of the files that you guys got were Bethann and whether or not Bethann has died to any of the things that she was hunting. [03:01:55] Speaker A: That's. Yeah. [03:01:57] Speaker E: That being said, you have things you have to do because you have to get on the run. [03:02:01] Speaker A: Yes, I do. So I'm going to leave Piper to figure that out, and I'm going to go prepare. I imagine I have an office in the house. [03:02:14] Speaker E: You do? [03:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I have everything I need there. I'm probably going to have to draw some blood. [03:02:22] Speaker E: Okay. Give me inten medicine. Oh, and I was gonna say, because of the nature of what you're doing, you could have added your desperation dice to you. You can roll those if you would like. [03:02:50] Speaker A: I mean, I got five successes. [03:02:52] Speaker E: That's very fair. It was just an offer. You're an entrepreneurial, and you finally have the chance to use that. So. [03:03:00] Speaker A: My dice, like, hasn't been great tonight. [03:03:02] Speaker D: I would get, like, four ones on two desperation dice. [03:03:07] Speaker A: Somehow. [03:03:10] Speaker E: You get what you need. You get three vials, which is more than you usually manage. You have to kind of drink some orange juice and get a snack afterwards, but you're fine. And you have a cooler that you typically use to carry the stuff in. Load everything up, and you are good to go. You leave a note for your boys? [03:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll leave a note because I've been doing this. [03:03:39] Speaker E: Yeah, they're used to you, like, disappearing occasionally they just. You know, I'm asking if you're going to give them a heads up or if you're just going and not forward. [03:03:47] Speaker A: I will give them a heads up and say that, you know, running and running an errand. Be back sometime tonight. Okay. [03:03:56] Speaker E: You get the okay back. [03:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [03:04:00] Speaker E: All righty. We are going to leave Piper to continue her research and pivot out to Arthur and Rosanna. Rosanna, you lead Arthur out into the woods. [03:04:25] Speaker B: Yes. [03:04:27] Speaker E: Find yourself a clearing. It's not very big. It certainly hasn't been cleared out for this purpose, but it'll work. You're not exactly in a place that you travel regularly, so it's not like you've had time to prepare your ritual space. You're just going to have to deal with what's available to you. [03:04:47] Speaker B: If you can't make your own store bought, it's fine. [03:04:49] Speaker E: Yep. So I am going to assume that you still have the text for the incantation. [03:05:00] Speaker B: Yes, I do. My journal. Um. Yep. All right, so I begin to kind of set all my stuff up. Um, I'm beginning to set up all of my little, like, bits and bobbles and everything. All the sheet lights, a couple of incense, and allows the smoke to kind of fill that circle. I will go ahead and make my willpower roll for it. [03:05:47] Speaker E: Yep. [03:05:48] Speaker B: I believe I get a. Not a bonus, but I believe that the difficulty is lowered because I have the. The true name of who I'm trying to summon. [03:06:04] Speaker E: No, I think the true name comes from. Or it comes in when you roll charisma plus a cult. [03:06:11] Speaker B: Right, right. [03:06:12] Speaker E: You have to roll your willpower first, and then you get your charisma plus a cult. Right, right. [03:06:16] Speaker B: Okay. All right. But while she's setting up shola, they'll look to Arthur and. All right, so it's gonna take a couple minutes. You know, feel free to make yourself comfortable. [03:06:38] Speaker C: Okay. Arthur is going to make himself comfortable by as much as I don't think is gonna be necessary. He's still going to try to empower his. His bracer with the expectation he's going to have to fight something, even though I know it's probably unnecessary, but it requires a roll. So I wanted to clarify with you. [03:07:01] Speaker E: That that's the thing. He's doing good. [03:07:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [03:07:03] Speaker D: The drone has been told to hover, like, six inches above Arthur's head. [03:07:10] Speaker E: Rosanna, Arthur has the weirdest little, uh, halo. It's buzzing. It's weird. All right, Arthur. Damn. Yeah. [03:07:23] Speaker C: Damn. Yeah. Okay, so that'll. That'll give me the six fucking successes at a critical. [03:07:30] Speaker E: What is up with you people today? [03:07:32] Speaker C: I don't know, but it means it adds a plus three instead of a plus one in case I need to do anything fighty with it. [03:07:40] Speaker B: And my willpower roll was six successes. [03:07:44] Speaker E: Amazing. Roll me. Charisma and a cult. [03:07:46] Speaker B: All right? Do I get the. Do I get bonus dice or is the difficulty lowered? [03:07:51] Speaker E: The difficulty is lower. [03:07:53] Speaker B: All right? [03:07:54] Speaker C: But otherwise, Arthur's gonna stand and watch and be ready in his normal paranoid state. [03:08:10] Speaker B: Seven successes, critical. [03:08:11] Speaker E: Jesus Christ. Okay, Arthur. [03:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [03:08:17] Speaker E: Here is what you see. Rosanna is casting a circle. She is walking and chanting and working with incense. You don't entirely understand any of it, really. It's a little weird, but Rosanna does weird shit all the time. And while you may not have gotten used to it, you're not surprised anymore, right? What does, however, surprise you, is that you've never seen this happen. You've never been here for this part. The last time she did this and you were around, it had already happened by the time you got there. You watch as the grass under your feet and her feet gets greener, grows higher. The trees all around you, which are still mostly dormant from winter, suddenly burst into life. They are. They have fresh green leaves. There are like new shoots that are. That are coming out. The whole place smells like apples and honey. And you swear you hear, like the kind of songbirds that you hear in the middle of spring on the east coast suddenly singing around you, even though there are no birds that you can see. And everything about this place feels intensely like magic. And after a moment, you see what starts as a little sapling grows and grows and grows rapidly in the middle of this clearing until it is a huge, beautiful willow tree. And there is a part in the willow branches that kind of hang down inside of which you can spot the small red haired woman that you have that you saw the last time. She is standing there, as always is. She looks well and hale and hearty. Rosanna, she looks better than she did the last time you saw her. But she is still wearing those golden chains. They are there. You do know that they tend to look more gold when she's here with you than when you saw her with Wren. [03:11:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [03:11:20] Speaker E: And she looks a little confused and a little like out of it at first as you kind of pull her into this world. She didn't really know that that was coming. She didn't have any warning. So she looks a little disoriented until she kind of gets her senses back and turns to stare at you. [03:11:51] Speaker B: I hope that this is more tear lacking than the last time. [03:12:00] Speaker E: I was starting to think I wasn't gonna hear from you. [03:12:05] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. I'm sorry. I just. And she actually, like, runs and, like, puts a hand on the fae. I'm so sorry. I didn't want her to hurt you anymore. And after the last time, with everything, I didn't want to hurt you. [03:12:35] Speaker E: It gives a little nod. I am. I appreciate that. Your hair is different. [03:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I went to Ireland. It's beautiful hair. Um, and life changing. [03:13:00] Speaker E: Yeah. You imagine. [03:13:02] Speaker B: Um, let me reintroduce you to my friend. Um, and she'll kind of push a little some like the, the branches from the willow too, so she can get a better look at Arthur. I know the last time you saw me with more people there. The other two are a little bit busy. But this is my friend Arthur. [03:13:31] Speaker E: I remember the holy man lit up like a beacon. He is. She looks a little uncertain and a little, almost a little afraid of Arthur. [03:13:51] Speaker C: Hello again. And I guess you have part of my name now. [03:14:00] Speaker E: I suppose. [03:14:03] Speaker B: I mean, she had your name the last time we saw you too. [03:14:10] Speaker C: I didn't give it. [03:14:13] Speaker B: Somebody else did. Um, but it doesn't matter. Um, she doesn't have your full name. [03:14:27] Speaker C: So anyway. Hello. [03:14:33] Speaker E: Hi. Um, sir, something you needed from me? [03:14:42] Speaker B: I just had a. I have a couple questions that I. That I need to ask you. I'm not gonna ask you to do magic or, um, or summon things or put weapons into my body again. [03:15:00] Speaker E: Well, to be fair, you didn't ask for that last one. [03:15:03] Speaker B: No, you're right. I didn't ask for that last one. Happy little accidents, you know? [03:15:10] Speaker E: It wasn't an accident. I had to get rid of it before she showed up, for it would have rather somebody with a good heart have it than her. [03:15:25] Speaker B: Thank you. [03:15:27] Speaker E: She'll nod. So, what are your questions? I don't think I have much time. [03:15:33] Speaker B: No, no, this will be quick. Um, what do you know about the dreaming? [03:15:42] Speaker E: She blinks a little bit. How do you know about the dreaming? [03:15:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I was about to ask, what is the dreaming? [03:15:50] Speaker E: That's where my people come from. Where your people came from originally. [03:15:56] Speaker C: Hmm. [03:15:58] Speaker B: I had a dream. And in that dream, the world was filled with mist. And I had to follow a path of almost glitter. And the further that I went down the path, the less I could remember until I could kind of barely remember my name. But when I went to say it, it didn't sound like it. And there was mist that was enveloping my body. And when I tried to scream. It. It silenced me. And after sitting on it for a while and giving it some thought, I just thought I'd ask. [03:17:25] Speaker E: All right. Um, well, the dream and looks a million different ways depending on where you are and who you are and what's going on. Mist doesn't sound like it would be far off from what you might find in it, especially if you don't really know what it is or what you're looking for and you have no way to shape it. What color was the. Would you call it glitter? [03:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [03:18:07] Speaker E: What color was it? [03:18:09] Speaker B: Like a silver gray. [03:18:13] Speaker E: Did it feel personal? Yeah, that sounds like the silver path. Um, it. The dream and has ways to get through it, called trods. Um, but you can get lost on them really easy, and sometimes they just end and begin in weird places. Silver path takes you from one end of the trod to the other end of the trod. Wherever it is that you're meant to go, it's not easy to find. It was created by the tuatha danann in the age of myth. Parts of it are guarded, parts of it are. They run through places in the dream and that are important. Some of the legends say that one day someone will find the silver path and make it back to our home. But nobody's done that for. She shakes her head. I don't even know how long. No one remembers where it is. We know that it exists. Exists, but we don't know where. Don't know how to find it again. The idea of you losing yourself on who you are, maybe getting a new name, I suppose that could happen. But you're human, so I don't know exactly what the dreaming would do to you. Humans aren't supposed to go there anymore. I mean, dreamers go there, but they go there for sleep, and then they come back. And you are a lot of things, but you're not quite a dreamer. I have some theories as to why, but I suspect too much trauma. That's not a judgment on you. It's just dreamers are rare, extremely rare these days. And the harder your life is, the less in touch with your dreams. You are the thing, the stuff that makes your dream, makes immortals dreams powerful for us. The more awful you see, the less like a dreamer you are. [03:20:46] Speaker B: Annie, you said that you could kind of shape it into what feels personal for you. [03:21:04] Speaker E: The dreaming's different for everybody. Some people can. Sometimes the dream, the dreaming changes to suit the people in it. Sometimes people can shape it themselves. But I've been locked away so long that I don't even know if those are gifts. My people still have. [03:21:30] Speaker B: Chill reach and take the hand of her companion. What exactly are you? [03:21:50] Speaker E: I mean, what they call a she. Weird, that nobility of the very kind. [03:22:09] Speaker B: Okay. [03:22:12] Speaker E: Or I was. I don't know what I am anymore. Like this. That's what I was before. Uh, before for these. And she holds up her arms to give the chains a little bit of. Of a rattle. [03:22:26] Speaker B: How tight are they? [03:22:30] Speaker E: Um, I mean, they're not super, super tight, but there's no getting them off. Yeah, it's like they're not gonna slip off of her hands, but they're not like the manacles are. The manacles aren't like crazy tight. They're not hurting her. [03:22:41] Speaker B: Okay. I'm still looking for way. [03:22:50] Speaker E: To at. [03:22:50] Speaker B: Least get you disconnected from my family. [03:22:54] Speaker E: But I don't know what happens to me if I'm not connected anymore. But I appreciate you looking. [03:23:03] Speaker B: Of course. I've, um. I've made some discoveries recently. So I'll do what I can and I'll look into everything it a noddled. [03:23:23] Speaker E: But I can't give you power without her knowing. But I can teach you something. [03:23:33] Speaker B: Yes. She doesn't have access to power that I learn on my own. If you can guard me. [03:23:56] Speaker E: I don't know exactly what power she does and does not have, but I'm happy to teach you. [03:24:01] Speaker B: Yes, please. [03:24:04] Speaker E: This won't always help. But it might. And for the sake of brevity, um. Arthur, you are not going to have a fucking clue what they are talking about during all of this. You can tell that this. She has no intention of harming Rosanna. Rosanna pulls out a notebook that is battered and beaten and that silver pen that she bought way back in season one and begins to write. And she's a very. In a very intent and attentive student. Rosanna, you are taught a new incantation. She explains that this is an incantation for luck. She warns you that it is powerful and dangerous to use. Um. However, um. I will give you the mechanics in a moment, as soon as I go and copy paste it again, because I had it copy pasted and then I lost it because I was, uh, doing other things and I had to copy and paste other things for other people. Thought I was going to need this a lot earlier. And she explicitly relates this incantation she says was taught to her by the Morrigan. You do not know if that is the same Morrigan that you worship or not. You do know that she has mentioned the tawaha dirana. So maybe. [03:26:05] Speaker B: Got it. Right? Yeah. Yeah. [03:26:12] Speaker E: For people at home who might be wondering, the description of the ritual is or of the incantation is. You were able to shift fate with this incantation, calling on the Morrigan to help you glimpse into someone's destiny. The ritual requirements are the caster defines one narrow circumstance, that is in battle with a sword, or when I argue with the tax collector, for example, while inscribing the names or symbols of powers that will intercede for the beneficiary. So in your case, the Morrigan, the ritual must be cast outdoors, away from the press of modernity common to cities and urbanized areas for the system. When you use this, the danger rating goes up by one as fate takes notice of you and you face the risk that it will snap back. As you pull on the threads, you roll your wits, plus a cult casting in a circle. The incantation benefits one person of the caster's choice for activities taking place within it, granting the beneficiary's player the ability to spend a willpower to negate the outcome of a botched desperation. Roll up to three times. This incantation can be used only once, with all uses of the prior casting used before it can be cast once more. Alternatively, the caster may choose to end the effect on a beneficiary to recast on a new one at the cost of an additional willpower point when performing the new incantation. So it only works on one person at a time. That's the big thing. If you ever want to swap it, you have to spend a willpower on top of raising the danger to recast. It will work on anybody, you or any of your cellmates. It's your choice. And anytime. Well, it may be harder on Piper. She does mention that with Piper's unique condition, she thinks it'll still work, but it would be significantly harder. Basically, you'd have to roll a lot more successes to use that for Piper. Okay. [03:28:42] Speaker B: And she'll finish the notes, close the book, and put it back in her bag. Thank you. [03:28:54] Speaker E: Of course. [03:28:57] Speaker B: Like I said, I'll. I'll do what I can. [03:29:00] Speaker E: Be careful it take about using it. It's not your sister you have to worry about with that. Fate doesn't like being toyed with. [03:29:11] Speaker B: Yes, ma'am. [03:29:13] Speaker E: Um, she reaches out and she brushes some of your hair behind your ear. [03:29:22] Speaker C: Hmm. [03:29:27] Speaker E: Leans up and presses a little kiss to your forehead. She has to stand on tiptoe to do it. Even as short as you are, she's shorter. He'll bend down and then she steps back towards her tree. I have to go or she'll notice I'm gone. Be safe. You too. Goodbye, holy man. [03:29:53] Speaker C: Goodbye. [03:29:57] Speaker E: Rosanna. You let go of the spell. [03:29:59] Speaker B: Yep. [03:30:02] Speaker E: And slowly but surely, almost as if happening in reverse, everything in the clearing goes back to normal. Arthur. It's like. It's like some of the wonder goes out of the world the second she's not there. [03:30:31] Speaker C: Hmm. Well, that is an interesting state for it to feel like there's less wonder in the world. [03:30:47] Speaker E: Almost like changelings are made of, like, dreams or something. It's weird. All right, we are coming up on the end of this session, so we're gonna real quick get to what Arthur wanted to do. It won't take long because there isn't a whole lot to find at the compound. Arthur. You get there. They are pleased and a little awkward to see you because you used to live here. [03:31:12] Speaker C: Mm hmm. [03:31:12] Speaker E: And you left one day, and then when anybody heard anything about you again, you were suddenly in charge. [03:31:22] Speaker C: I mean, I've been making roads at continuing the olive branch of communication with them, but. [03:31:27] Speaker E: Oh, for sure, it's just a little weird. [03:31:30] Speaker B: But mostly the leaders. [03:31:33] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, the regular people. Yeah. [03:31:38] Speaker E: That you aren't, like, shunned. Nobody treats you poorly. It's just awkward. You do know that Patty is here. He is one of the guards who are actively on duty today. So he waves at you as you guys go through the gate? Yes. [03:32:03] Speaker C: As we go through. I look at him and I just go like, no, saitay ipsum. [03:32:12] Speaker E: He just sort of shakes his head because, like, he didn't come here until Isabel wanted to go back to California. He's just like, I don't understand any of this shit. I'm just here to do my job. [03:32:22] Speaker C: I'm just. Just here to do my job, man. Why you messing with me? [03:32:28] Speaker E: You check in on a couple of your former wives to see how their. How their new marriages are going. Some of them, they all had the option to stay in Louisiana, but some of them had specifically met men here in California that were just really good matches for them. And so you naturally gave your blessing to let them move back. So you check in on them, you make sure that things are going well. One of them is already pregnant. She just got married three months ago. [03:33:01] Speaker C: Got right to it. [03:33:04] Speaker E: She has the glow of a very happy mother to me, but things overall are great. You are offered to stay in the yurt that the speaker used to live in when he was here. I'm going to assume you say no because you know what's happened there. Yeah. [03:33:27] Speaker C: No, no, thanks. [03:33:28] Speaker A: I'm good. [03:33:31] Speaker E: But, yeah, it's all gloriously, blessedly normal. As normal as cults can be normal to you. You feel more like you were at home than you have felt at Louisiana, for sure. And because I know Katie Lynn well enough to know that she would demand photos and regular updates, we are going to say that you spend your whole trip there snapping pictures and sending texts. So with your shitty little flip phone, and Rosanna at some point, pulls out her actually good phone to take better pictures for Katie Lynn. And that is where we are going to call it for the night.