Morning, hon.
You slept in today.
It's almost 630.
Oh Chase, you're never gonna change.
The entire world is shut down with that Cordova virus.
And you're still acting like it's business as usual.
Well, isn't it?
Things still have to get done, ma'am.
Oh, I changed your oil, cleaned the dryer vent, got all the loose change out of the washing machine, swept the garage, sorted your gardening gloves by age, then color,
sharpened and oiled your shears, rotated your potted plants under the grow lamp, and refilled the bird feeder.
Did you feed the chickens?
Oh, I knew I forgot.
Uh, gotcha.
Of course I did, babe.
And refilled their feed,
And I'm sure you already went for a run this morning too, huh, Mr.
Need New Jews every month?
Seven miles, yes ma'am, and got breakfast going, obviously.
Aww, babe, you always take such good care of me!
it's nothing, hon.
It's easy when you take such good care of me.
Don't forget about cleaning up downstairs too, okay?
We gotta get all those boxes cleared out of the guest room.
I know.
You know how it is with my old race stuff though.
I can't plow through that like I do other tasks.
It takes time.
I know babe.
That's really meaningful stuff down there for ya.
It's important to you that it gets put away right.
Just keep your head down and keep going at it.
You get it done.
And I'm always here to help if you need it.
Love you too, my little chaseroni.
Kay Come, you making progress on cleaning out the guest room down there?
Kay Are you watching recordings of your biathlete races again?
uh, no ma'am.
Yes ma'am.
yes ma'am.
I'm
You know we've gotta get that room cleared out so your brother has a place to sleep when he visits next week.
No, no, no.
Yes!
uh What?
Yes, ma'am, I've just got one box left to sort.
Okay, I know that tone of voice.
Do you need me to come down and
babe, I've got it
Nationals 24, Nationals 24, Nationals 23, Olympics 22, Olympics 20.
22.
Kim.
How can I forget Cam?
For all side.
Kim!
I forgot...
I forgot Kim!
Sarah, I'm gonna sound crazy, do you recognize this?
Of course it's you and the team at Nationals in March of twenty twenty two.
Wha
Can you name everyone in this picture?
Ah, sure hon.
That's you and Coach Matthews on each end.
In the middle are your athletes, Stephanie Curry, Carlo Malone, and Kimmy uh George.
Whatever happened to her?
I
hit and run.
Shoes.
killed just a few months later in June.
run down in a crosswalk and I just forgot.
You forgot.
I don't think anyone on the team has mentioned her since.
Did we even go to her funeral?
Did she have a funeral?
Did I even send her family a card?
Hun, why don't you let me take care of the box with your biathlon scrapbooks and tapes, okay?
Take it easy for the evening and you can ask the team about Kimmy tomorrow.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't...
I don't want to bring this up with the team when I'm a mess like this.
I'll,
Compose my thoughts, uh sleep on it tonight, and bring it up in a more appropriate way tomorrow.
I love you, babe.
Can you tell me who is shaking Mull awake?
Was it Morrison?
I think so.
What is the yeah, what is the plan here?
I think the plan was go to the apartment and find the kid.
Sure, I meant in an immediate sense.
Like yeah.
Literally, are you guys getting in the van?
Who's sleeping?
Who's staying up?
Is somebody you mentioned trying to carve the ritual while driving, which seems like a choice, but certainly choices can be made.
Who's who's driving, who's sleeping, who's carving?
What's the deal?
If you guys wanted to carve, I don't need to be carved, right?
'Cause I already got everything.
So mole's happy to be dry.
The only man who can sleep soundly is in the wheel.
Yep.
Alright.
Miles knowing Magpie's potential ability to carve people up with first stage or aid or surgery would suggest that if we were gonna do this that magpie would help us in the back
of the van and there's plenty of space probably.
I'm happy to come on back.
It seems like a gross betrayal of a Hippocratic oath, but um yeah, I mean like we'll loosen the wrists up, let's get to it.
All right.
So who's going under the knife?
I think, Miles, you and I had kind of talked about one or the other of us doing it.
Do you have a strong preference?
Or rock, paper, scissors for it?
Yeah, I mean I've been thinking about this a lot and I guess after the dreams, it's kind of given me more data and context, so I don't mind doing it.
but I just question the effectiveness and how crazy Bull has been since he got this in his back.
So
Yeah, I guess my understanding was that he was already kind of crazy before, so that might be uh playing into this a little bit.
Sure.
Yeah.
Are you guys saying this in I think we're before we wake you up, we're having a conversation here.
Yeah.
What do you think, Magpie?
I think I'm glad I'm the one driving.
You're the one doing the cutting.
Yeah, but I'm not but I'm not on a chopping block.
I see.
You're driving my life.
into someone's skin.
Got it.
Uh are you gonna borrow uh Roger's um small V Gouge chisel?
Is that the tool of choice?
It's Roger's tool of choice.
I don't think it'd be mine.
I think I've got plenty of medical equipment.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've got a scalpel.
We needn't be gross with it.
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
Eh Morrison, what do you think?
Just do rock, paper, scissors?
You know, I kinda like the idea of letting fate decide.
Although you seem a little bit more shaken by the dreams than me, so...
Either way...
Yeah, yeah.
I mean I had to murder like Douglas and some of my friends, so I'm a little shaken by that.
Was Miles the one who was sedated?
Oh absolutely.
Yes, yeah.
Okay, so you did in fact become trapped in a bloody loop where you showed up and you killed and they stood up and you killed again over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over until somebody injected you with No, smelling salts.
We did smelling salts instead of meth.
A missed opportunity.
Well, speaking of meth, it is two o'clock in the morning and you've got a long drive ahead of you.
You got a grand total of two hours of sleep mull, and I don't think that's really gonna, you know, refresh you.
What are you guys gonna do about this?
You're gonna start taking exhaustion penalties pretty soon.
Yeah.
Um I've I mean I've got a long litany of helpful things in my pack for such an occasion.
Most of them, you know, probably not illicit, but dealer's choice, I suppose.
You're the dealer.
I think Mole would have I don't think he would have stuff on him, unfortunately.
But I don't think it would be out of character for Mole to have some uppers.
Yeah, I but I don't think he's holding.
I don't think he would be moving with stuff, so.
But he would uh no problem if you wanted to dope me up a little bit to keep going in the name of the Lord.
Yeah, and I I pull out, you know, a a little uh glass bottle looks very official and all that and I go to task like, you know, uh mixing this is and that's in it.
But it's really just a five hour energy and I pass it on over to it.
Very good.
That would fucking burn.
Also it's a liquid.
Okay.
I assume you know what you're doing.
I it doesn't look like it, but I'll just hands off.
Hey, God made man and man made this and now I'm snorting it.
Who who is Yeah, okay.
Who's taking uh legal stimulants here?
Give me a yay or a nay.
Legal stimulants, yeah.
Miles will stay slightly sedated with the fact that he potentially will get his back carved up and then maybe partake after that, so
Okay.
Morrison, what are you doing?
Hmm am I getting any rest from these like 30 minute sleep sessions?
No no the opposite I would say.
Okay, alright, fair enough.
Yeah, sure, I'll take something.
Alright, I want the three of you to each roll me a D6 and tell me what you get.
Alright, so that was Morrison 3, Magpie 4, Mull 6.
Got it, thanks.
Secrets.
Yeah, snorting that The fire energy really did something.
Energy.
Alright, so Mul you're in the you're in the van at this point, I would say.
Yeah.
Um, you're in the driver's seat.
What's Maul's drive?
Wait, doesn't Mul usually get a driver?
Hmm.
Right.
What do we got here?
My drive is twenty.
Love it.
Yeah that's so good.
I think being s trapped in that dream spiral recontextualizes it it for me and I think that I will gladly go under the knife in the back of the van.
So
sounds good.
Then Morrison, you've got a three hour drive ahead of you.
How are you gonna stay awake?
um what are you up to?
What are you how are you gonna spend your time?
that'd probably put me to sleep.
Clean my rifle, just take it apart, clean it, put it together, take it apart, clean it, it together.
Sure.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Alright.
So yeah, we cut to the van.
Um I assume Mull is trying his best not to go over like really egregious speed bumps and is trying to avoid potholes where he can.
Yeah.
you guys make it out of Shillan and you get onto the highway before you really start your back of the van surgery project.
Um I am going to want a couple of
of checks for this back of the van back of the van surgery project.
Um you mean you mean to say it's not a sure thing?
Uh I do mean to say it's not a sure thing.
Who had that question?
I have a question for you.
Do we get a bonus?
Because when we stop to get gas, I pick up now that's what I call worship and kids bop worship songs.
And I will be blaring that the whole time.
Does that provide advantage perhaps?
or a disadvantage.
I don't know that that's beneficial, my man.
Okay.
That is a hostile action you're taking.
Yeah.
Reaching for the ox.
I think maybe from the back of the van, maybe the second time Morrison puts his rifle together after disassembling it, he just like shoots the radio.
I want Magpie to roll me a surgery check.
And I want Morrison, Mull, and Miles to take their headphones off when he tells me what he got.
I got 13.
That's pretty fucking good.
Alright.
Make a sanity check.
You'd like to fail this.
I did not.
I got a four.
Okay.
So here's the deal.
You are carving this symbol into Miles' back.
And as you trace the line, you fall into a rhythm.
And you're carving these with a scalpel, and it feels as though the scalpel is sliding into place.
It's it's gliding between layers as if it's following a path that it's supposed to.
And you you you sort of you you grasp this um this path that you're following, and and it just slips right out.
of your hand and if you want you can force this connection with the unnatural if you would like to complete this operation you can force the connection by and I'm scrolling as fast
as I can we've got post on our side you needn't worry you may should you choose pay one power permanently to activate this ritual um
Yeah, can I just clarify on the the direction of what I think that I'm doing?
That pass of a sanity check.
I'm feeling confident that I know what I'm pushing for.
You ha you you you begin to feel, yeah, the these you begin to feel yourself sliding into what this ritual means and what it is supposed to do.
You're constructing this this sort of uh like
nebulous space or a shield or you're you're you're you're really getting the vibe of it, but it starts to drain away from you.
But you can you can force it.
I I absolutely will.
Um Okay.
And I think maybe then there is a melding of tool and flesh and I feel as though I am drawing with my finger and I can feel the touch of Miles's back underneath me as it is
bowing and flexing.
And I am lost in sensation for a time.
Perfect.
I love it so much.
Alright.
Mark off a power on your sheet.
Your maximum willpower and your maximum sanity are going to change.
your current power and your current sanity or your current willpower and your current sanity won't change unless that would lower them.
Uh yeah, not the current sanity, but everything else.
Yeah.
Okay.
There you go.
Alright.
Awesome.
Give me a D4 real quick.
Okay, two.
Two.
It's gonna take two hours.
We I'm that's within no, fuck that.
It's gonna take one hour.
You forced it, and I really liked your um like touching the and being the knife.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Yeah, we're we're in it now.
Um lose a d4 plus one sanity and three willpower.
You now know the voorish sign.
Let me make sure I annotate all of that.
Um the voorish sign and
I got a one plus one?
Yep, one plus one.
So two total.
Two willpower.
Uh no.
Three willpower, two sandy.
Three will um no chance that's helplessness, is it?
Unnatural summary.
Oh, that's very much unnatural.
Okay.
You are you one away from adapter?
how'd you know?
Another time.
Alright.
Another time.
Another place, another time.
you'll have your you'll have your chances, don't worry.
Alright.
So Miles.
Magpie.
Begins to cut.
Hey, where where are you where are you gonna put this?
Where's this go?
Back, thigh, hand, forehead?
What's the deal?
I think my thigh sitting next to him with his my leg over on his lap.
Are you taking off your pants?
You whitey tighties kinda boy or uh boxer briefs?
Yeah.
Boxers?
He has boxer briefs, definitely.
So Athletic Puma or I don't know.
Yeah.
So you're in the back of the van, pants off, getting carved up.
Magpie, I assume you give him some I don't know, probably like big ol' iberprofens, 'cause
I mean I offer it.
He seems um like a touchy fella.
Yeah.
I'll take some anti inflammatories, so
A at this point he's already had sedative, so I don't know about giving him real painkillers.
But uh yeah.
Magpie Magpie starts off pretty slow with the knife.
Pretty slow, pretty careful.
He's referring to the uh photograph he took with his cell phone of the symbol.
But maybe thirty minutes into the process, by the way, give me a con or a power check.
just see how you're handling this, whichever's better.
About ha half an hour into this process and he starts speeding up.
He's moving.
That knife is gliding through flesh with precision, to be clear, but you you watch his hands sort of move faster and faster and faster.
What'd you get?
I got a twenty six under seventy for both con and pow take.
Hell yeah.
Yeah.
Um you grit your teeth and uh yeah.
Miles has a old dock knife that his dad gave to him when he used to work in um Xinjin and he'll take the butt of that, its sheath, and put it in his mouth and bear through it.
So
Very good.
Okay.
Yeah.
As Magpie cuts the final symbol into Miles' thigh, you feel a sort of like a a snapping sensation.
Um as some sort of maybe circuit closes and there's a a little you you feel a resonant almost wave around you.
Um I would like one, a sand check, and two
Uh I'd like you to lose a willpower and a sanity.
A willpower and a sanity.
Okay.
Yes.
I rolled fourteen under fifty-six or fifty-seven and I lose one sand and one will willpower.
I am at my breaking point, but we can talk about that.
So yeah.
well that sure is interesting.
Uh let's talk about that right now.
What do you think brought you to your breaking point?
Was it the harm being done to you?
No.
Was it the uh hypergeometry?
What's the uh yeah?
Okay.
Yeah, the the hypergeometry, absolutely.
And sorry, go ahead.
There is a recommended uh what do you call Starts with a D disorder for that, which is addiction to hypergeometry.
Yeah.
So Miles is sitting there getting it carved into him and it's painful, but he bears through it.
But then when that snap happens, it feels like a bruise that you like to touch, right?
He feels I don't know, like a a sense of completion as it's done.
And he reflects on when he was trying to get Magpie to forget the flashback for a better word, or what Roger Douglas told us.
and the feeling of having control and then noticing like hit how he was intoning and also using hand sandables, controlling the environment around him by lifting dust off the
ground in a ring.
And that sense of power like it feels good.
Yeah, yeah.
Um, I think you're gonna wanna get a little more of that if you can.
Okay.
Alright.
Put addicted to hypergeometry on that sheet, and uh we'll see how that goes.
But the symbol is complete.
One hour into the three hour ride to Shillan.
Hey Mo, can you give me a drive check?
And you you did say I got a plus forty for the warship mut
no, no, I didn't.
Go.
That's weird.
That must have been somebody else because I totally heard Yeah, I don't know who said that.
Uh I actually rolled a three on a twenty.
Hell yeah my dude.
So how fast is how fast is Mull driving on the highway in this beat-up van?
okay.
Well, knowing that I succeeded very fast.
No, I I think Mole is in um you hear Mole.
Yeah, I think we hear Mole, um I wouldn't say like very, very fast, but he's definitely like in, you know, Jesus take the wheel mode with this.
so he's singing Amazing Grace, uh, along with the kids from Kids Bop, and he is just taken down the road.
Yeah.
With that successful drive check, you spot the patrol car up ahead.
Okay.
And you you slam you don't slam on the brakes because that'll make the nose of the van dip.
You ease onto those brakes and you go past that patrol car at an unsuspicious 65, 5 over the limit, but not too far over the limit.
But the patrol car peels out anyways.
It just sort of follows you for a little bit, little while.
I think there may be somebody tailing us.
oh Sirens come on.
Lights come on.
Uh Miles, you are uh pantsless in the back seat.
Magpie, you are trenched in blood.
Morrison, you have a mostly disassembled rifle in the back.
Muld, you pull over.
I think that there is a moment where Mole is like, uh, do I pull over or do we just say fuck it boys?
And then he waits for a second.
And he is going to listen to what you guys say, I think.
We can't.
Or at least take into consideration is what I would say.
Yeah.
We can't outrun him.
So unless you have a better plan, we have to pull over.
Ah, my leg hurts.
It really does.
Do you put your pants back on over your fresh wound?
Yeah, I mean he wears black slacks so whatever, he'll put it on.
And red.
Yeah, I think we we see there's like a moment where Mole's gripping the wheel tight.
I think like you can see in his eye he's imagining a cop chase and how um he would, you know, totally make it through, uh through his divine mercy.
And then he's like, Okay.
All right.
And then pulls over.
I think these police officers need to hear your message, Mol.
Chance to proselytize.
So, pull it over and...
but don't, don't lay it on too thick.
perfect.
Medium.
Got it.
Yeah, so how are all of you feeling about being pulled over on your way back to Seattle in order to deal with this?
I'd rather we weren't.
But no suspicion is what I'm saying.
Absolutely suspicious.
Um Yeah.
You know, Miles will voice it'd be like, guys, we had I remember when you guys split off from us.
I remember you telling me that somebody came and said he was sent there to kill you.
How do we know this cop isn't gonna do that?
He's already got a gun.
Like it's weird.
We under the speed limit, right, Maul?
Uh yeah, something like that.
I mean five overs under, right?
Our van is stolen, I think, right?
Yeah.
Probably.
You never investigated this, but yeah, probably.
He would have run the he's gonna run the plates right now.
He wouldn't have run the plates as we drove by, so I'll pull my pistol out and keep it under my leg with my hand.
Same.
Magpie, what's what are you doing?
yeah, I think I am moving to uh sit back with Mole in a driver's seat.
So I am uh looking back towards the cop approaching as he walks up.
Okay, yeah.
Uh and you know, down in the crook of my my um like by my right thigh is the Yeah, awesome.
He pulls you over.
Oops, just one second.
So you said cops and so I thought maybe there were two.
No, just one car.
Yeah, I mean like two people in the car, one person in the car.
well do you see how many people are in a cop car at two AM?
No
I mean, yeah, they probably got their lights on, so probably can't see too well.
Give me alertness.
Okay.
Is that fair game for everybody?
Yeah, sure, whatever.
Hell yeah.
42 under 80
Yeah, you know, um, you're pretty sure there's just the one trooper.
Yeah, just just one.
So, they're parked behind the van for a little bit, you know, thirty seconds becomes a minute, a minute becomes two minutes.
After three minutes, uh someone gets out of the car.
They're wearing, you know, that that wide brimmed trooper hat.
They've got those that like weird blue khaki uniform, so
Washington State trooper and they're they're slow walking to your car.
They come up and they get up to the window and tap tap tap knock on the window.
It's a it's a younger looking man, um maybe maybe in his twenties, but he has like an awful like caterpillar mustache.
Mull, you gonna roll that window down?
Yeah.
Uh window down, um he gets now the blaring uh kids bop.
Oh god Christing.
Okay, see you don't turn off the radio for this.
Spectacular.
No, I think it's it's it's the gospel.
Why would I turn that down?
That's a wild idea, I think, to Maul, you know.
This is this is what gets men through hard times.
And we're all obviously in hard times.
good evening, sir.
Uh do you uh do you know why I pulled you over?
hello officer.
Brother, I don't.
Um I was driving the speed limit.
we're trying to make our way to Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ in Seattle.
Yeah, yeah.
No, you you've got a tail light out.
Yeah.
I didn't realize.
Yeah, no, it's it's d it's dangerous.
You gotta you gotta get that taken care of.
Okay, uh the good news is that we have an extra light at the church that I could put in the car.
So I appreciate this, thank you.
Yeah, you're well you know, where are you guys going this late at night?
At three AM?
yeah, you know service waits for nobody.
Huh.
Well, I'm not gonna give you a ticket this time, but you gotta get that fixed, okay?
Can do, we'll get right on it.
You know, the Lord helps those that help themselves.
All right, well, drive safe.
And he slow walks back to his patrol car.
Huge gasp of relief from the back.
Yeah.
Mole?
Mole just rolls the window back up and is like, let's go.
Back to it.
Yeah.
Morrison, do you wanna get the symbol as well?
ah Do we successfully drive away?
Does the cop follow us?
You do drive away and the cop drives behind you for a a couple of minutes before um pulling into one of those turnaways.
Ambush unsuspecting people uh driving sixty five miles an hour.
People going to church at three AM, yeah.
Soup for my family.
Um, yeah, sure.
I'll give it a shot.
Okay.
Magpie.
I God Christ.
Okay, take off your fucking headphones, Miles Morrison and Malt.
Yeah.
Or well, Magpie, are you gonna do this again?
yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
He's got practice now, plus twenty percent.
No.
uh that is a great point.
I'd like you to add a D four to your unnatural skill.
A D four plus one actually.
Oh, you rolled a three?
Hell yeah, my dude.
Okay, put that four on there.
Um Same as the first.
I'd like a surgery check.
Um or I would also take a straight dex, whichever's better.
Yeah, I mean Dex is better.
Okay.
go on ahead.
yeah, twenty nine cruises straight through.
Yeah, it sure does.
Uh gimme that sand check again.
And again, you would like to fail this.
D dice don't really take the orders.
I don't know if this works.
As a twenty five.
No, would you like to force the connection again?
Yeah.
Okay.
Lose another power, lose the max San, lose the max willpower.
But again, you are getting the hang not of this ritual, but of forcing the connection.
You are seeing not really seeing, but you're feeling like behind the bridge of your nose.
behind your eyes you feel that tension and you can feel it building until you can you can hold it at a certain level and that lets you just sort of follow the follow the line,
follow the path it's been made for you.
Yeah.
I think maybe this point too there is in like the feeling that it is the the it's in Morrison and instead
Of uh describing it on him, I am simply trying to revealing it.
Yes, precisely.
Absolutely 100% the feeling you're getting.
Um, would you please lose three willpower and one sanity?
Can I just make sure I did all the housekeeping right from the first one there?
Yeah, if you tell me your starting uh power and the sin you were at and your max sin, I can help you out.
Well no, just I just wanted to make sure that I had uh taken off all the things that I needed to.
So I I checked my power down by one and rippled that through my max san and my max willpower.
What else needed to happen from that first?
From the first one, I believe you lost I I just mean from from what I was just now.
You lose a point of power, you lose three willpower, and you lose one sanity.
All right, we're at low power and we're two above our brake.
Okay.
Best stay above it.
How are you feeling, uh, being like an operator?
You're being given like a lot of responsibility here.
Yeah.
And I think it's even like uh I mean like feeling as though there is some like linchpin quality to this.
Yeah.
Right?
The the dutifulness of pushing into it is like I I don't properly know what it would mean to only half commit.
At this point, and so we are pushing uh further in in that way.
I think you are aware that this is maybe irrevocably changing you, right?
Yeah.
Whether that's damaging you or not, you are certainly being changed by this.
And that's true, but it does feel like you know, when you are in a sleep-deprived state and there is adrenaline in the mix, you feel very thin, but you also feel like, you know,
just pure energy, right?
Yeah.
And so it is this kind of like you know, whipcracking, pure raw driving.
And and it's you know, this isn't a smooth ride.
We are taking turns, we're going over bumps.
There is kind of just like like a a real feeling of like this is sorry, uh a real feeling of like this is my chance to make up
A mark on the world, right?
This is the the time that the world needs me.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, I love it.
That's great.
That's perfect.
So you don't feel like they're like taking you for granted.
This is this is you.
No, I I understand if they didn't hire me, they'd be properly fucked right now.
Yeah, completely.
Yeah, totally.
I love it.
Awesome.
Let's get everyone back in here.
can you give me a D four?
Must I?
It's one.
Spec fucking tacular.
Alright.
Agent Morrison, I'd like a luck check from you.
Very good.
Alright.
So Magpie.
where are you having him cut you off?
you know, I imagine that like everyone else, this is probably going to hurt.
And so instead of like biting on something, I think what I do is I just, uh, kneel in the back of the van, like where I was, uh, with my rifle and I just really focus on
disassembling and reassembling my rifle and just do it like, uh, maybe like left flank.
Like there's lots of meat there.
It's probably not, you know, the skin's thick.
Like right over those kidneys.
Well, I mean not on the kidney, but like the thick part of the back.
And the thick part of the back?
I don't know anything.
Back fat.
Yeah, mean the whole back's kind of thick.
He starts cutting you up.
uh give me a pow or a con, whichever's higher, just to see how you handle this.
Khan is 85 37.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean he's Again like physical endurance is kind of like the staple of his life.
So you
you you do not get through this by focusing.
Uh it turns out that it that's not like quite gonna do it for you, but you you can just gut it out.
since you you did this with Khan instead of Pow, you know?
Okay.
That's how I
I guess, when it starts to hurt a bit more, I'm like, hey, Mole, can we do another round of Amazing Grace?
And I just start singing with him?
I-
Yeah.
It only takes Magpie about 30 minutes to carve this ridiculously intricate pattern onto your left flank.
It is frankly shocking.
There are hundreds of lines in this design, but Magpie's knife is quick and sure.
And as he makes the last stroke and completes the circuit of the symbol, you also feel that.
sort of snapping sensation of a connection being made.
I'd like you to lose a willpower and a sanity for me.
Uh and I'd like you to tell me what you think about that.
Do I need to do a sand check or?
Just lose one.
I'd say probably, yeah.
That seems reasonable.
You had uh Miles do that.
Did I?
That's a nine.
ah So I think that as I'm doing this, or as he's doing this, and I'm singing Amazing Grace, and I'm putting my rifle back together, ah he finishes, and I feel that snap right
as I slide the last part into place, pull the slide back, and then close it.
And when it clicks, right as the last cut goes in, I'm just like, I never realized how beautiful this rifle is until now.
Like I've seen it before, but I am seeing it for the first time now.
Can I marry a rifle?
You're already married.
That's illegal.
There's no bigamy Um Yeah.
Probably I'd say a couple of seconds after that snapping sensation.
Morrison's phone rang.
Yeah, I just, uh...
Yeah, I think I instinctively, when I hear the ring reach for the pocket with the burner, and then I'm like, wait.
And I...
Hello?
Hi, hi.
Um I hey, I've been having a dream.
I've been having a dream.
In my dream I'm I'm sitting in my car and I I call this number and every digit burns like neon.
And I call this number and this time you picked up.
You picked up.
Cause this is this is this is real.
This is real this time.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Anyways Yeah.
In my dream I I call this number from my car across the street.
I've already checked the address twice.
I'm across the street from from twenty one seven fourteen old Owen.
the numbers are s are s are so bright.
Again, it's dark.
I hear and Yep.
you can have popped it on the speaker from the start if you like.
Sure.
It's dark.
And even though it's dark, I know she's inside.
I know she's inside.
Sometimes in my dream I see her through the windows, but this time I think she's asleep.
And I always think she'll be asleep this late.
But sometimes she isn't.
I've got a
I've I've I've got a I've got a I've got a kitchen knife.
Isn't that I think that's pretty funny, if you ask me all these times and I still couldn't be more prepared than a kitchen knife.
Anyways, it's a knife I have to kill myself if I don't without if I don't kill her, so that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna go into the bathroom window.
It's always unlocked.
And I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna cut her throat and I'm gonna feel better and everything's gonna be okay again.
So so I just wanted to I wanted to call and say thank you.
You've saved my life.
I just need a minute to get ready, but then this is
All gonna be over and everything gonna be all right again.
So thank thank you.
Um in the dream I always tell the phone before I hang up, uh, more approach the others.
not sure what that means, but th thank thank you.
Click.
Can I have pulled out my other phone and dialed 911 at the same time?
for sure.
Uh I want a sand check on that real quick.
Yeah.
everyone can make that sand check for me if they like.
Thanks.
Microphone.
Double O six.
Okay.
I got a ninety nine.
Is that oops?
That's good.
No, you're good.
That's good.
No, I I think that's the best you can do.
Morrison, I'm gonna say you're gonna take one from helplessness, even though you passed.
Sure.
everyone else who passed is gonna take zero from helplessness because that wasn't your address that was read out out loud.
Magpie, you're gonna take four sandwiches.
Yeah, well.
This is helplessness.
Hey, look at that.
Yeah, the that is the third checkbox.
However, there's that other little thing that says Oh no.
oh
insane.
Yeah.
And we just kinda smashed through the floor there really.
Was that a breaking point?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think really does it for you about this call?
No, I don't think you did.
I think I do, or I feel like I will when we get the next call.
And I will know that it is somebody telling me exactly where my sister is.
And I Okay.
Do you have any ideas of what sort of disorders you want to grab off of this?
Well, howdy, that seems thing.
I've never done that a single time in my life, so I don't Okay.
So there's a list of them in the core rule book.
You can glance through there.
If what you're feeling is dread about your sister being next, if that's what this does to you, then I think it wouldn't be inappropriate to
Uh take some sort of anxiety thing or some sort of depression or something like that.
those might be a little too real, but I think though uh
La gyrophobia, fear of loud noises, aka the phone call, that's next.
I don't know about that.
That's for like gunshots and like uh fireworks, right?
I don't know.
If the next call is your sister being killed, that seems like a gunshot to me, right?
Alright, sure.
Or well it's gonna be PTSD is what it's gonna be, but uh you think about that.
You don't have pick right now.
Yeah, I I think an anxiety uh disorder sounds like uh a good place to start.
Okay.
If you would be so kind as to look up whether there's anything like that in the agent's handbook.
Yeah, it says I would appreciate it.
Absolutely.
hey, anxiety disorder.
Right.
You're a disease by work.
fatigue, restlessness, headaches and savage panic attacks, losing two plus sanity in any single roll triggers an acute episode in which all skill stat tests sand rolls are at
minus twenty percent.
Uh stunning.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
welcome to your new world, Agent Magpie.
It's a world of fear and helplessness.
Agent Morrison, you dialed nine one one.
Are you not going to call your wife?
uh I probably as soon as the I guess the other guy just hung up the phone.
Yeah
I'll grab the nine one one call from you and you can
That's I was gonna-
yeah.
It Morrison, if you want to have a last word in on the guy, you can.
There was a brief second there at the end.
Yeah.
Okay.
You you let him hang up.
Okay.
Uh you let them hang up.
Okay.
Yeah, so probably I, you know, I look at Miles, I say, that's my address.
That guy's probably going to kill my wife.
Tell 911.
And then I hand the phone off.
ah mean, I imagine again, you know, I do like search and rescue as in the military.
It's my wife, but this is also like, got to take care of shit.
I'm really stressed.
like, you know, you like.
If succeeded that sand roll, you are in crisis mode.
But this is a mode you've been in before.
So this is like not unprecedented.
It's horrendous, but you know what you need to do.
Yeah, and then yeah with the phone that the guy just hung up from I call my wife
Okay.
it rings uh and it rings and it rings and it rings and rolled luck for.
That's an 82.
do we have a security system?
I do seem like the type, but I didn't want to take too many liberties.
Sure.
is there a way that I can remote do anything with this security system?
You can watch.
uh Can I...
So it usually if it's that kind of advance of a security system you can like contact the people that monitor it.
ah Can I call them?
Yeah, absolutely.
The you you've got like an app on your phone that connects to your home system and there's a big red button at the bottom that says like help or whatever.
So you hit the help button and it just dials a a phone number and gets you through to the your security contractors.
Okay, sweet.
ah And I tell them, hey, my name is Chase Brown, this is my address.
uh Someone is breaking into my house right now.
I'm not there, but my wife is.
Can you trigger the alarm now, please?
Now, now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um and you see on your phone like the loo the the the um alarm goes off.
it's loud and are you watching the camera?
If I have to watch it on my phone, ah well, I want to try to call my wife again.
Okay, yeah, sure.
Okay, do I need to roll some-
she does pick up on the first ring.
uh
hey, uh, can I ask something before we play this?
Are we also the kind of family who would like have practiced for something like this?
Can I just be like, intruder, like get the gun?
I think that's up to you whether you feel that that's realistic or not.
Also I'm gonna have Sam play your wife.
Okay.
You know what?
I decided, cause I'm not sure.
Like I don't know that we would have like, you know, like with like your kids or when I was a kid, it's always like, if there's a fire in the house, this is what you do.
If this happens, this is what you do.
Yeah.
I don't know that I would have.
Yeah.
discuss at least in brief what happens if the alarm goes off.
You call nine one one and you hide.
Yeah, yeah, and so probably that's what I would do is I would just quickly be like I triggered the alarm Someone's breaking into the house with a knife at least one person
they're coming through the bathroom get the shotgun go hide in the usual place
Okay, where's the bullets?
They're with the shotgun.
We've talked about this.
you're right, you're right, you're right.
I'm so sorry.
I've made grievous error.
Is her name gr the hell is What's your wife's name, Morrison?
Her name is Sarah
Alright, so Sarah sounds like that.
I'm sorry.
This is...
yeah.
This is just like the Monsters Inc.
secretary lady from our own pod.
Yeah.
I'm I'm so scared.
I'm just so scared.
oh
It's alright baby, I gotcha.
okay.
Don't talk anymore, just go to the safe place.
You got the shotgun.
One of my friends is calling the police.
I've notified the security company.
I'm gonna switch back over so I can see the security cameras and I can tell you where they're at.
I'm only telling you that because I don't want them to know where you're at.
And I'm watching now on the security cam.
She starts doing stuff.
She's a little slow, I think, but then realizes that here's the you know, how scared you are in your voice.
Your voice I feel like never changes, and so for it to change at all is probably enough for her to be like, Oh shit, I gotta get stuff together.
Do we have like a a well, I guess I don't know.
I think probably the garage would be where I would go because you can hide in a car if you have to or you can get out through the through the second door.
Would we be the family to have like a real bunker?
under our
Yeah, what's our well I was just thinking what's our safe room look like, right?
Yeah.
Well, so, and that's
And so I mean the other thing is like I kind of just to decide like how prepared we were for this in terms of like over prepared or gamey or like Realistically repaired I just did
like a luck roll and I failed so I figure we're probably like normal level of well normal for an agent Morrison kind of person so no safe room like he's not gonna have a safe room,
but probably We've gone to the shooting range.
I've showed you how the shotgun works.
We've discussed this
And actually, if there's a home intruder, are you supposed to hide or are you supposed to leave?
I assume that it's probably similar to the, the, uh, like, intruder in, like, building stuff?
Sure, yeah, leave if you can, hide if you can't.
Yeah, okay, and then I'm back as a last resort.
Yeah
So what what do you want me to do, baby?
What do you want me to do?
Okay, well, go to the garage like we talked about.
Okay, okay, I got the gun.
I'm going to the garage.
Okay, can I see like where the guys at on the security camera?
so you're watching your wife on one camera and she's creeping through the hallways.
Um, she's got the shotgun.
She's in the main hallway, and as you watch, you see on the on the on the second second door on the right, you watch it slowly open.
hey babe, shoot that door on the right there.
Okay
And Hersh I'm gonna say, Yeah, sure, roll.
She's got base firearms and a minus twenty 'cause she's shooting in the dark.
Okay.
That's an eighty six.
Yeah.
the shot goes very wide and yeah, there's nothing for a second.
Alright babe, I'm pretty sure you're- Yeah, shoot again.
Do you wanna shoot again or do you wanna run?
Is there a- I guess, is there a way out of our house back the direction she came from?
Oh, okay.
I didn't realize that that's where she was.
I or the back door or the c
There is a way out is what you're saying.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know house so well me neither
But there should be a front door at least.
Which side of the house is she on relative to the front door?
I'm gonna need like schematics.
Yeah um
Yeah, here we go.
Now you're bringing hand on the door into the
I think I think I'd like Agent Morrison to tell us what his wife does just in case she doesn't make it.
Yeah, I guess I'm going to say like, just fire one more shot, like center mass down the hall and then turn around and run.
Give me that base firearms minus twenty.
Okay.
Golly, I have to roll some dice super quick.
Base firearms minus twenty is zero, by the way, but yeah.
What?
Have you ever seen Agent Ryan shoot before?
Yes.
I'm sorry, I didn't realize that.
I thought it was forty.
not the
matter.
what's your wife's name?
Sarah?
Sarah, the attacker has rolled a twenty-two on the unarmed attack to tackle you.
Would you like to fight back or dodge?
Or need
I think canonically Sarah's like six foot five, three hundred pounds, so
problem.
You can fight back, you're gonna have to critically succeed higher than a twenty two on a melee or a critically succeed.
I forget.
Let's see.
Ten.
So not a
That is neither a critical nor is it.
So you watch on the cameras as this figure with the knife tackles your wife to the ground.
Knife in hand, the knife goes up and then it comes back down.
And I don't know that you can bear to watch it.
Yeah, probably not.
I probably turn off the camera and I...
This is gonna sound really cold.
Uh, put the logical...
I don't know.
This is maybe just me like being detached as a game person.
I'm not sure if this is me or my character, but I maybe just hang up the phone.
Because at the end of the day, it's like there's nothing I can do about this right now.
I've done everything I can.
Maybe I say like, I love you, Sarah, your gravelly voice.
And then I hang up the phone.
Because like, else can I do?
Okay.
Can I actually, can I try to call back the number of the guy who called me?
Yeah, for sure.
Uh first definitely needed.
Oh, okay.
I like that.
Before so as the knife comes up, you hit redial.
Okay, sure.
Are you are you trying to prov so are you trying to make one last roll before your wife dies?
Is that what you're trying to do?
I guess.
I mean, I'm, you know, it's that like, there's impending death and I'm like everything I can think of, you know, just running through the list of options.
Uh gimme a straight luck check.
Okay.
Yeah.
Uh the knife comes up, and you see them pause for a second as their their phone rings.
yeah.
Mull, give me another unarmed.
No no, that's not gonna do it.
Uh you did get her a chance, though.
And I think I think and we can cut this, but if you
really don't like the idea of watching your wife die on camera.
Uh we can uh walk this any amount back.
Crazy.
I feel like I'm
I think he was trying to help in a way that like the dutiful dispatcher that he is does to like silo oneself and move through that protocol to the best of your ability because you
know that every second counts.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean that's pretty much what I was doing and honestly I and again if I was personally in this situation I don't think I would want to watch that happen to my own
wife and just thinking on experiences I've had in the past where like stuff happened during residency where like bad things happened uh and People were like that sucks that
that happened like who did this and why and I'm like I don't want to know Because I can't do anything about it and it's just gonna make me angry so
I don't want to know.
Like it's just going to create baggage that I can never do anything about.
It's the inherent dissociation with we are doing, right?
I meant if this event is going to make Jimmy too sad, we can walk it back.
Great.
Then uh Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Great Yeah, then as the knife comes up, you turn your phone off.
Gimme a sand check.
That's a 53 on a 65.
Gotta be kidding me.
I know what that feels
Raw.
That does feel wrong, doesn't it?
fuck that, take a D4.
Oh Actually wait, hang on.
There's like there's maybe don't don't take that.
There's maybe a straight up penalty for losing a bond.
yeah.
Oh, good point.
Also like fuck it, like if you know, it could be a D four slash D eight or something like that, you know, 'cause like damn.
Yeah, uh like hearing about your wife dying is not as crazy as watching it happen on a security camera from a moving van.
Uh.
And like walking through all those steps and still being like,
The second the second thing with this I guess though is if you're not losing that much, it really is how much you are compartmentalizing things.
How much you've become a machine for the goal that you need to get forward, right?
I mean that's something you'll have to reckon with when you get done with all of this.
Right.
Maybe I will marry my god.
Yeah, maybe you will marry your guy.
Yeah.
It's your new disorder.
Average American, boom, got him.
Delete that.
That's too uh, you know That's too hot.
Too real.
What's your saying that?
64 I break it 60 so This is the like the goofiest I have just because I've been crossing out 70 69 68 60s They've all been won like the last like six.
It's all been won
Uh this is for um helplessness.
yeah.
Okay.
How many of those boxes do you have checked?
just the one.
I've had a couple of violents.
That's it.
Okay.
Well, I think that's that.
I think you're pretty uh pretty rattled, would be my guess.
It is
I go back in that guy's number.
I save it in my contacts on my phone as, I need to kill.
Sure.
Hell yeah.
So I called the cops too and I gave them the address and you know, I was talking with them the whole time and I'll say to Morrison, Maybe they'll get there in time.
Did anybody else watch this play out on Morrison's phone?
uh
I did not watch it 'cause I was driving.
I did though unfortunately fail my sand roll for the phone call just to make sure we get back to the
That's one for helplessness.
I think I was just watching Morrison's face throughout the ordeal.
Okay.
I think that might be a sand check.
What do you think?
How emotive are you?
You know, like you said, I think it would kind of be, I would just take the read that you actually gave and just be like, well, it looks like an EMT doing their job or like a
dispatcher doing their job, you know, and like, you know that there's more weight to it than that, but you're like, that's a professional doing what professionals do in these
situations.
He was strong for her and I think conjunction he was strong for
I like that, yeah.
Yeah.
It's like the that's the car solid, right?
Like the whole the van itself kind of sands mole because he's insane at this point.
But like that is the the van is a bunch of people who have cut off everything to go do have like an ultimate goal, I think.
I imagine we're miles to just be silent the rest of the time.
Probably.
Yeah, just kids about playing in the background.
Yeah.
I I mean unfortunately I just don't think Mole is like in a place.
Um
That's gonna be a crazy nine one one call, by the way.
Yeah.
Alright.
Yeah.
go back to taking my gun apart and cleaning it and putting it back together.
MSL drives on into the night.