Hey buddy, I didn't mean to wake you.
You missed dinner.
I know, I know.
Baba had to work late.
Do you want a story before you go back to sleep?
Let me think.
Okay.
Once, a long time ago, there was an old fisherman who lived by a great dark sea.
Every day, the tide would rush in and wash away the footprints on the shore, erasing everything that had been there.
The fisherman was afraid.
He knew that one day, the sea would come for him too, and the world would forget that he had ever lived.
So instead of leaving footprints in the sand, he spent his nights carving stories.
Everything he had ever seen, everything he had loved, into small, smooth...
pieces of jade.
When he was very old, he gave the jade stone to his son, and his son kept it safe and then gave it to his daughter.
And the sea kept washing the shore clean, erasing the world over and over.
But the fisherman lived forever, because his memories were safe in the hands of the people he loved.
What does it mean, Papa?
means even if the world forgets, even if the waves wash the shore clean, as long as I have you, and you remember me, part of me will always be here.
We nimble.
I know you, I know you.
Alright, go back to sleep and I'll definitely be here when you wake up, okay buddy?
Alright.
You were calling Agent Madison, right?
Yeah, she picks up on the first ring.
Morrison, what have you got for me?
Hey, I sent you all those papers.
Did you look at that?
Yeah, I fucking did.
This op happened.
I went and dug through the archives.
I was able to pull up an execution date on Kilo Legacy, but there's no documentation indicating a resolution or anything to back it up.
I think the resolution- something that-
coming now.
We are at insert Rogers address here and There are probably police on their way.
Is there any way you could divert them?
For a day or two I do Yeah, I know that's a big ass There were shots fired All inside.
I don't think there were any witnesses It was basically just a neighborhood with the sound of gunshots like 20
It was a full auto situation, don't focus on the problem.
Yeah, I know, you know how things go.
Okay, yes, I will slow them down.
I'll tell you what, meet me at Lake Union Park tomorrow and we can go over what we've got.
No, yes, yes, please do that.
Christ.
uh Hey, can you do me a favor grab like a sharpie?
Okay, write it like on your arm.
All Lake Union tomorrow Okay uh
will see you.
Meet me there at 10 a.m.
Do you have any information about what is happening?
Yeah, it seems like there was a creature, some kind of worms that came through a portal, infested a kid.
We tried to destroy it, but we weren't able to.
It escaped uh into the bay.
And it seems to be moving around, causing people to forget things and also committing crimes.
Actually, here, let me give you some information about some of those crimes.
And I snapped two pictures, like the notes you sent us of all the addresses, and I sent that to her.
like, stuff like this.
Could be more.
This is all we know about currently.
We're gonna try to track this thing down and kill it with some kind of weird gas that Miles knows about.
But we need time.
I will, I'll get the police off your back.
um Is there anything else I can get for you?
I look around.
Anyone else need anything?
Yeah, I think this whole time, Mole has been on his phone.
I think he's half listening to these phone conversations, but I think he's been on his phone with the map out, just like scrutinizing the addresses.
So I don't think he's going to ask any more questions, I think he maybe wants to bring some stuff up.
I say Madison, one last thing, and I snap a picture of the forgetting ward.
Uh, and I send it to her.
like, Liam says that if we brand ourselves with this or like cut it into our bodies or whatever, we will be able to remember everything for a month.
Don't know if it's true, but you know, something to look into, maybe it'll help.
How reliable does this information seem to you?
mean, he seems to know what's going on and I don't know how apart from he says this works and he's got a lot of them on there.
You hear her take a deep breath.
Okay, alright.
Sweet.
Well, see you tomorrow morning.
See you tomorrow.
send somebody to kill us.
Yeah, we're all like on the list of like gonna be killed.
Okay, we have a teddy to call.
Alrighty, you dial up that number?
Yeah, bring bring.
Who is-
doing this phone call, and is it on speaker?
Yeah, Miles nominated me as the most melanin deficient.
I sound like it could be in the IRA, and I got an angle.
Yeah, I think that makes the most amount of sense.
I'm plus or minus on if Mole would want to try to take over this or not.
I'm torn in two separate ways.
In one way, he obviously thinks he is, you know, in the ultimate control here of everything.
In the other, I think he's somewhat removed from the situation itself in that megalomania and doing things.
So, Magpie, are you sure you don't need somebody?
a higher power backing you on this, I'm happy to give him a ring too.
Or we could double team it, you could be my kind of uh associate, my cleric if you think that would work.
I could lead.
Yeah, an acolyte.
He looks away, stares off.
Look, you seem excited about it.
I'm not about to get in your way.
Cool.
Let's go.
Cool.
think Moll then gives him a call.
Speaker?
Yeah, speaker for sure.
I think right before he calls, he's like, as acolyte, acolyte, acolyte, acolyte pointing at each of you, I want you to know that for this call, you have my permission to speak up
as much as you need.
Okay?
Ring ring.
Yeah, it picks up after a couple of rings.
Hello?
Teddy, my son, how are you?
Wow, this is...
Moll.
I'm a friend of sorts.
A friend to us all, really.
Um, you know, one of my acolytes.
And...
Cli- Huh, it seems that the phone, it's not dead, but he's not on it anymore.
I don't know what happened.
You know, Liam already has a connection with this guy.
Maybe we just let Liam call him?
Liam was already gonna give him the stuff.
I don't know if we need to make this more complicated.
That's a good idea I just had.
Liam, go ahead, give him a call.
Now, call who?
Hey, are the forgetful worms getting you bud?
Come on.
I give you a little slap on the cheek.
Are you, are you, you're getting, you're getting the phosgene?
You have to expose her.
Okay, okay.
I mean, I assume he gives it to us in a container and we like take it somewhere?
Alright.
sweet.
Okay.
And Teddy enters the number that he reads off the post-it note and he puts it on speaker because I'm gonna I'm about to do a fucking a little play for you guys I guess.
Yep, this is always the worst, is the GM-
I position myself next to mole so I can put my hand over his mouth if he starts to talk
You can't have it.
you drive a hard bargain.
So, Miles would bail you out, Liam.
Miles is like, hey, I'm a physicist and a chemical engineer.
Just start the conversation.
I can take it over.
Thank
Yeah, and he hits the button and the phone picks up.
Hello?
Hey Teddy, it's me.
Listen, I need phosgene.
Uh, okay.
Um, I've still got three cylinders prepped.
Um, is it going down?
Uh, yeah.
Listen, I'm gonna send four people to pick it up.
They are going to be...
What are you driving?
You still have a black band?
I thought the shitty stolen van was on San Juan Island
We've had two shitty vans.
Madison gave us the shitty van as well.
Okay.
Mini-van maybe?
yes.
uh They're gonna show up to the drop-off point in a um van.
It's grey, it's primered, it's stolen.
What's the cost?
Six thousand.
Okay, we'll have it ready.
Bye.
Click.
Can you get a 6,000 quickly?
6,000 is but a drop in the ocean.
Or one like myself.
Uh, you will have to make an accounting check in order to avoid reducing a bond.
I'm gonna roll that now.
I think he gets on his phone and just starts like, you know, trading shit back and forth basically.
Aught four on a 70.
Yeah, you can do this zero trouble.
You could, you can walk to an ATM right now and pull it.
Roger receives coordinates as a text message, not an encrypted message of any sort as an SMS text.
They appear to be to a outside of Yakima, Washington.
So it's like a street address.
Guess we're going to Yakama.
I'll pull Morrison aside and hey, uh do you think this brand thing would work on Mole if we let Liam do this?
Like, do you think that would help snap him out of whatever's going on here with him?
Do you think he's this way because of the memory stuff specifically?
Or do you think it's an organic response to all the stress he's been under?
Yeah, maybe it's a stress, but it's just something to think about.
have to watch it.
Yeah, I mean at the very least if one of us is going to try it to see if it helps us keep from losing our memories, you know, maybe he's a good first test subject.
Yeah, and I think we could sell it as like some sort of scripture nonsense that he would want on his body anyway.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
He doesn't...
He seems to have a tenuous grasp of biblical knowledge at best, so I think convincing him this is some kind of prophecy that the coming savior must fulfill, probably pretty easy.
on the same bitch about it.
Liam, you need to finish making that brand.
Do you remember that?
We need to babysit you, Liam.
Do need somebody to stay here?
Why don't you get started on that right now?
Is that okay?
Can you sh-
Um, yeah, sure.
Okay.
and I'm gonna write down this as you're doing it.
Is that okay?
Like you just show me your system really quick and I'm gonna write it all down for you.
Okay...
Well, I gotta go buy some wax.
What are you-
Okay, I write down, he needs to buy wax.
okay.
Oh, I see.
Okay, sure.
Uh, put- put- put- put at the very, very, very, very top of that list.
Refresh the sign.
I need to do that and I need to do it tonight or else I'm gonna forget again.
I'll walk over to the table where that bloody knife was, pick it up and hand it to him.
So you refresh the sign right now.
We're gonna take off.
Okay, are you writing the list?
Keep going.
Okay, I'm gonna buy some wax and I'm gonna use a hot plate and a needle tool to um shape the wax into a plate with an inverse of the sign.
I'm gonna make sure to leave a ring at the back where I can...
put it on, I don't know, a handle of some sort.
And I'm gonna make a sand casting out in the back.
I should have it ready for you in day or two.
Yeah, I write it all down and then I take a picture of what I wrote.
Hey, listen, listen, I can, I can, I can, I can put the sign on you.
Yeah, that's why I'm doing this just to make sure it happens.
oh I want the sign on me, definitely.
I'll clap him on the side of the shoulder.
No, I don't want it now.
Okay,
Mole is staring at everybody, trying to see what everyone else is doing.
Seeing that Miles said no, I think he's probably looking towards Morrison.
And he's just watching.
You know with you kind of being like the leader and sort of our you know the one uh Yeah, think it would only be right if you went first to show us the way
Ah, yes, that is why I'm here, is it not?
Sounds fire, let's do it.
Okay, uh, where do you want it?
We'll do it now.
Well, and he pulls up his shirt.
So he takes off his suit jacket, pulls up his shirt.
um On his back, he's got like really inappropriate like Yakuza art that he had drawn.
Yeah.
He's got like big old Japanese dragon.
Yeah.
just not like appropriate in any way to get perform He has that and he's like, I guess you could tap me up back here Maybe put it like maybe the dragon can have this tattoo itself
and it can kind of be like
Okay, yeah, I'll do that.
And here, uh you'll want to lay down for this.
And he hands you a belt.
Uh, is to bite down on.
Yeah, I've done this before.
And he puts the belt in his mouth.
Actually, he doesn't.
He's like, I've done this before.
I don't need this.
And then he kind of like puts it next to him.
Yeah, he looks skeptical, but he starts disinfecting the tools.
um that knife, it's not a knife.
It's a very fine V groove chisel.
We're gonna get.
He gets started on Mul's back.
Uh, what do you think Mul?
To not scream as somebody takes the time to carve a symbol out of your back.
Second would be power or constitution.
I'll let you pick.
Yeah, think that's probably so here is how I am thinking of this is that he is I'm gonna obviously go to Constitution because my power fucking sucks.
aah do think that he's thinking of this is like he at least walks in being like, oh, I'll be fine.
Like this is, you know, this is a deep, it's my belief that I'll be fine.
So and then I think maybe let's roll it and see because I do think that there is at least a part a port a part of mole that
isn't fully out there in the Megalomania enough that if he started like screaming really, he would grab the belt and try to put it in his mouth.
These are like your 40 lashes with the cat-o-nine tails.
Yeah.
yeah, it is.
This is my crucible I have to go through.
73 on a 50.
Okay, there are- Yeah, I don't think you can.
I think you uh wimp out and grab the belt, and that's that.
Yeah, you fold the belt.
He carves the first groove in your back.
It's maybe three inches long, and you go, nope.
And you fold the belt, and you put it in your jaws, and you scream around it for the rest of the- Give me a D.
Four.
I think we hear him say, the spirit is fire, but the flesh is mid, and then starts biting down on the belt.
wrong with you.
Do!
Okay, this is going to take two hours.
This is c-
Look at the drawing.
There are hundreds of lines.
This is two hours of removing flesh from your back.
I'm not gonna say you take any damage from this because it's carefully being done not to do that, but this is two hours of excruciating pain.
Do the rest of you need to make a sand check to watch this happen?
Yeah, I've heard of a stick and poke, but this is more like a scrape and carve, and it's not great.
there.
Mul can't see it, so he's doing okay.
Can I propose that Miles took the van and went to the store to get Liam all of his stuff to cast the-
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, you can rock up to like an uh art store, Blick or something, and buy some carving wax.
where I'm at.
So, I got 68 on my new 68 from the one that I got back.
So...
Thanks.
I got 63, one over my 60.
I'm sorry, you're gonna lose a point for violence.
Or unnatural, if what's freaking you out is carving sigils on the flesh and not just this is gross.
There's more of that, yeah, now that you mention it.
So yeah, give me a D4.
Okay.
You lose one willpower and one sand as this.
These two hours pass and you feel every stroke of pain across your back.
But you can also feel it when he finishes the simple because there is an electric current.
It's like snaps together inside you.
Like, it feels like it's running up your spine and your head feels clear.
It feels clearer than it has in a while.
Yeah, no, you're feeling pretty good.
When we talk about my head feeling clear, ah is this in a remembering thing?
Because there's a couple things going on with Mole.
There's lot going on in that Savior's head.
Is it like the confusion around everything we're doing?
Is it the megalomania where, which parts is he feeling more clarity with, I guess?
He is little by little piecing together his own memories, I think, um within the context of your own megalomania.
So you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna start putting back together the um mission that you chose to forget.
Okay, okay, okay.
I think that probably Mole is trying to hide all of that as much as possible from everyone.
And when it gets done, he stands up and he's like, I once was blind, but now I see.
We got into some shit, didn't we?
And kind of looks around at all of you.
And you can see like a new found, know, before he had been like there just doing it, you know, like with you guys, like as in, you know, just following along.
And now all of sudden there's a little.
more of a spark in his eye.
Well, good to have you back.
We probably ought to get to this meeting with the uh, phosgene guy, right?
Yeah.
And, uh, yeah.
Roger sits down, sanitizes his chisel, and, uh, pulls up his pant leg, gets started on his thigh.
Sweet.
So you guys are driving?
What do you think?
Radio on or off?
Turn the radio up for that sweet sound.
Alright.
Who's Who's driving?
It's usually me and somebody else makes a move for it.
Nah, I feel like this is a time to keep the routine, you know, as routine as things can be.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's just gonna let you drive as you press his driver, obviously.
Great.
ah Yeah, the four of you pull up to what appears to be like an abandoned housing development.
There's blown out, not even blown out windows, like chipboard covered windows where there was, I don't know, some sort of fire.
There's no glass.
And there is a panel van pulled right up.
um
outside the sort of side entrance to this upper little driveway.
Looks like the spot.
Is there a signal?
I don't know.
Did anyone say anything about a signal?
How do we-
No, nobody did.
Think you just waved $6,000 in the air.
Speaking of which, I assume you guys stopped and grabbed $6,000.
What are you?
So that's what?
60 hundred dollar bills?
or one $6,000 bill, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What do you have your money in?
An envelope?
A brown paper bag?
What's the deal?
first thought was obviously a giant bag with money signs on it, I think it probably actually is just an envelope, whatever comes from the bank teller, or not even the bank
teller, the ATM.
ah If it's just what comes from the ATM, you have a pocket full of hundred dollar bills.
Let's do that.
That sounds great.
It's a pocketful of hundred dollar bills.
It's just like...
Yeah.
I like that.
Yeah, for sure.
um There's a guy sitting...
uh He's not even sitting in the van.
He's leaned up against it, smoking a cigarette.
uh Looks like he's maybe been here a while.
There are probably 15 cigarette butts down at his feet.
Um, who?
Obviously I'll be giving him the money.
Which of you wants to come out there with me?
If any.
Otherwise you could sit back and reflect.
Genuflect even.
Go for it.
Now that your mind's clear, just don't make it complicated.
Tell them we're here for Liam.
Hand them the money.
Check the canisters first.
I think I will volunteer to go as a silent second.
I think if you, when you say check the canisters, I do look at Miles.
ah I, obviously I know this, so this is just for everyone else, but how would we check to make sure that the gas is there?
Is there anything we can do?
Smell it.
Mole nods his head, sagely.
So I'll look for some heft and then Mole gets out.
Um, makes his way with the briefcase.
He's emptied out, we'll say his briefcase, cause it had like, you know, his computer and some other shit in it.
uh
It's on the floor at the van now.
on the spread out in the floor of the van.
for sure.
ah He takes the briefcase over.
ah
Bleeding through the back of my suit as well.
oh
yes.
Sure.
So this guy is in blue jeans, steel toe boots, a tap out shirt, and like a black ball cap with a racist symbol on it.
Sick.
Just putting that out there.
Yeah, that would be good information for someone else.
me, I just walk up to him.
Suit on.
Maybe blood dripping down from the back of my- because I think canonically I have a white shirt on as well.
Yeah, walk up and, brother, brother Teddy?
Is that right?
I have here the offerings.
They should be fine.
Do you have what we came for?
The harvest?
He opens up the back.
He's looking at you real funny.
But he opens up the back of the van and there are, yeah, three H-sized gas bottles.
They are five feet tall and a foot in diameter a piece, made of steel.
They look like...
Have you ever seen a welding gas cylinder?
Yeah, they look a lot like that.
Pretty big, hard to shake.
So he shows you that there's three bottles.
No obvious indication that...
These are in fact phosgene, no regulators.
These do appear to be like welding tank bottles.
They're steel and stamped as such.
And Teddy says, all right, all right, let me see the cash.
Well, I got it right here.
do.
You know what this is supposed to be, right?
What's in there?
Those containers and that's what's in there?
Can I humant him to see if I get any sense that he could be trying to pull one over on us?
Do you think?
52 on in S60.
He's got pretty closed body language, but it's pretty confident body language.
Not shifting from foot to foot.
Gotcha.
Not very twitchy at all.
He seems calm.
He doesn't seem like somebody uh who is worried about a confrontation.
Yup, okay.
I guess one way to take that would be that he's, you know, didn't react to me asking him, right?
He answered quickly, had kind of the body language that showed that he is common.
There's also probably people around us at some, that would be, if we were to start something, this wouldn't be, you know, he probably didn't come here by himself or...
16 on a seven, on a 20.
all right.
So you were, you're, maybe glancing around during this and yeah, there's a, there's a, catch a glint of sunlight off of something in the uh third story window of the building
across the street.
Okay.
Uh, yeah, it's all here.
Uh, everything, uh, like you asked.
So the suitcase is worth more than this though.
So I'm going to need it back.
Great.
All right.
Look.
And he goes over to the bottles and he rummages it around in a milk crate next to them, pulls out a like a battered brass regulator, screws it on hand tight.
It has a drip hose and a um pressure pitot tube.
And he sticks the end of that into an Erlenmeyer flask.
with a rubber stopper, a glass tube and something yellow at the bottom.
says, all right, look, he opens one of the tanks and the glass bottle is instantly filled with a yellowish glass, a yellowish gas.
He shuts the bottle valve.
The yellow liquid at the bottom begins to turn blue.
says, all right, Boz Jean, we got a deal.
Yeah, this looks great.
Right, Magpie?
This'll do perfect for us.
Ooh, do I?
I mean it sounds like you did.
Yeah, I think so.
Well he has been calling us by explicitly not our names recently.
Yeah, I think so.
Maybe even Brother Magpie.
Okay, you know what, I think your stance as an evangelical weirdo, uh, maybe, you know, isn't actually a huge minus on this front.
I was thinking that like the religion ship probably this dude if anybody is used to this kind of shit, you know
He's...
I forgot.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
Yeah, it may not be his shtick, right?
As like a neo-Nazi or something, but he's like, this is the groups he's walking around buying guns from.
For sure on the same side as the white.
As, you know, fundamentalists.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's like, yeah, this is for, you know, this is to bring around the second Jerusalem.
Sure, whatever, give me six grand.
he goes to shake your hand.
Cool, more puts out a handshake.
Yep, very firm handshake.
He's gonna roll humant.
32, do you have a degree?
of a degree.
Like a college degree.
That's what figuring out from his handshake.
Yeah.
for sure.
College.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah, he feels soft hands.
These are the hands of an eBay buyer, not the hands of a blue collar.
It didn't work because I should have picked something that you possibly could not figure out from Moll's soft hands.
But that was a joke, damn it.
Yeah, really great.
Cut that.
Oh god.
Alright, yeah.
um He helps you, he gives you a hand getting them off of his van and into yours.
They're um maybe 150, 200 pounds a piece.
There's three of them.
um You don't have any way of securing these in the back of your van.
uh He also takes the regulator off of it and stows it back in his milk crate.
We're just gonna have these giant tanks fuckin' rollin' around in the back of our truck, huh?
Anyone with above the base heavy machinery, uh, or you share medicine, first aid, those...
just any are they all the same effective or some of more suitable than others
And they're all the same effectiveness, you know that if you knock the handle off of one of these, you're donezo.
That seems pretty straightforward.
Uh, my past seems like...
No, I'm just saying if you have over that, you know this.
Got it.
This is information you are aware of is you really do not want these to tip over.
however you want to do that.
Not that we need to play like the logistics game here.
Yeah, but I think somebody's probably holding them back, don't you think?
mean, we're basically like thinking that this is, I it's obviously not a nuclear bomb, but it's like a fucking bomb in the back of your truck.
It's death in the backseat of your van.
Yeah, okay, I think we'll like lie down half of the seats, like the left side of the benches fold down and we stack them in like two on the bottom and one up top in the middle
and we have somebody kind of like lying over the top of them.
I'm gonna say that uh Teddy watches you guys, like, fox goose grain these uh gas cylinders and like, try a...
And he goes back to his truck and he comes back with a length of, um like, fairly flimsy chain.
If you just, if keep your back seats up, you can chain them to the back seat if you just wedge it like this.
And he gives you a hand.
ah
securing.
We look like idiots and this guy's giving us a shit ton of that is kind of a terrifying idea.
thanks.
We really appreciate it brother Teddy as part of the cause um We got to get out of here and then mole just gets into the car
I do think we are accurately portraying the competency of militia members.
Agreed with that.
This is probably what it really looks like, which I think is even more terrifying to me.
We check on Rogers or should we head back to Seattle?
I mean, if our plan is to...
I guess we've got two plans.
One was to try and use the brand on the thing, but the other was to try and spray gas into the hole.
To want to execute both plans at the same time.
When you look at these maps, it kind of looks like a spiral leading somewhere.
We have an approximated location, right, Mul?
Yeah.
So he pulls up his phone and those places, uh each address in order, they start out.
And so one is where Belltown is.
then it's, yeah.
And so then it spirals outward in a spiral pattern ah because they were in order, right?
The one through, uh,
uh when you put them in order and map it out and put it in the discord it kind of maps out to a spiral that ends up in Finny Ridge around Ballard I don't know
If you put a next dot on that spiral, it would literally be on top of my real house.
Really?
you want some gas at your house?
Because we could totally drop that off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I don't know if this is towards, you know, it looks like a spiral kind of coming outwards.
I'm not sure if the next thing would be where that spiral is going to happen.
Right.
Like that would be around Discovery Park, Magnolia.
um Otherwise, Belltown is really the center of where the thing is spiraling out of.
Do we have any anything?
that would point us towards either of those places.
Real quick, Magpie, your phone starts to ring.
Not your burner, your cell phone.
I fumbled for the wrong pocket for a second and bring it up.
Hello?
Hey, Sorin?
Uh, it's me, Linea.
listen, I just wanted to tell you, I didn't want you to, to, to, uh, to hear it, but there was a bomb threat, um, called in at work, and, and we've been evacuated, and, um, I think
everything is, everything, everything is fine, but I just wanted to, I just wanted to let you know, I'm a little, a little freaked out, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna be at, I'm gonna be
at home.
I'm gonna be a little late, but I'll- I'll- Am gonna see you tonight?
Yeah, I mean, I'm glad it sounds like you're out of the crossfire and you get yourself far, far away from all that.
And hard to say eh if I'm uh back tonight, I think I'm burning the midnight oil.
Okay, okay.
Well, I'll see you soon, okay?
Yeah, you be safe out there, hear?
Okay, love you.
And she hangs out.
Can you give me a sand check?
This is gonna be zero one for helplessness.
Oops, gonna be one for helplessness then.
I'm also gonna say it is starting to get late in the day.
It's getting a little dark.
You might want to find somewhere to stay.
Yeah, what do you guys think?
Should we stay around here?
I I'm worried about Roger.
I think we go back and crash his place if that's alright, because it sounds like this brand is potentially pretty important.
I'll look at mole.
Okay.
Yeah, looks seems that way.
um So we'll go back to Rogers.
Yeah, as far as schedule stuff, mean, the only thing we have down for tomorrow is meeting with Madison at Lake Union at 10.
So, yeah, any other?
most think about other stuff.
You know what, uh Jordan?
I misspoke.
I said it was a bomb threat that got called in.
It's a shooting threat that got called in.
Yeah, I mean, guess that sounds a little bit more in line with all these headlines.
uh And I'd be inclined to mention it to whomever seems to have been kind of, you know, putting pins in the corkboard and tracing it out.
Sure.
Yeah, I don't think it super changes how you react.
No, but it does feel like it's more in line...
...these previous incidents.
Yeah, if you tell us where it is, then I think Mo puts it on his little iPhone map that he's mapped out the spiral on.
Yeah, uh it does not fit on the spiral at all.
It's way out.
Not on any of the...
Not on the arm.
It's in...
What do you think, like...
Central district, maybe?
That's where your sister works?
Yeah.
Alright, okay, I mean, clearly still the same area.
Yes.
I mean, do we, is that something that we wanna?
We don't detour for anything right now.
Alright, I did.
Alright, then to Rogers is that what we want to do?
Let's go.
Okay.
Yeah.
you guys drive to Rogers and uh he lets you in.
um He's pushed a bunch of books and shit off a table where he's uh working on a wax carving and it looks like he's doing what he said he would.
It looks like it's slow going but you can sort of see the shape taking form of yeah it looks like an inverse of the thing that he carved into mole.
I assume you ask him if you can crash at his place.
100 % I think that when we walk in Moll is just like Roger we're gonna have to stay here.
We're gonna have to make this uh church Unfortunately, do you have extra betting?
yeah.
yeah, I do.
Uh, and he goes into the basement and brings up like four army cots.
So, what do we want to do tonight?
Uh, Mole, how you feeling with that- that carving on your back?
I gotta be honest, haven't felt this is the best I felt in a long time.
Clear ha-
What do you guys think?
I kind of look at magpie and miles like do we do it?
Fuck it.
I'll volunteer whatever cut me up, man
Here's the question, do you have time?
Yeah, that's a fair thought.
It's like two hours to get it done,
Sounds like it's 1 to 4.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's, what is it?
it's probably 9 PM now.
I'm going to say you guys have time to get a carving done if somebody wants it.
Otherwise, um, you can be researching other stuff.
There's a lot of like materials in this house that you now have access to.
You can be looking at the map some more to try and figure out what the next point is.
You could, there's, there's all sorts of stuff you
could be looking at if you wanted to.
Who wants to be doing what?
If we say the options are, like, look for more materials, investigate the map, get carved up.
uh I don't have anything that would help be helpful with the map, but I could start digging through Roger's stuff, I guess.
Yeah, I think that we'll put together the map, so he's probably...
He's probably...
I don't know how he's gonna really approach that, besides maybe now that he's got his laptop out, he's actually like trying to Google each of the coordinates and put together
more information, I would say.
Anybody have science mathematics?
No, I only have computer science.
Same, yeah.
I mean, would a navigate help?
I don't have a navigate, but I think Magpie might be a navigate He's a knife too.
More so than I.
Yeah, I have Navigate.
Wait, wait, and all, this doesn't have to be siloed stuff.
You guys are, except for the, if anyone is going to lay down for one to four hours, all of you can like work together and chat and cross talk and like compare results.
Uh, if you want to get carved up, that's going to take, uh, Liam out of his producing for a couple hours, and it's going to take you out of the research for a couple hours.
That was kind of my thought was if it's gonna slow him down like we really need to just get the brand done and that speeds everything up It's basically industrialization of the
process.
So Yeah, all right.
Let's uh, I don't know Yeah, I'll dig through materials, I guess
Um, yeah, you find, and then what about you, Magpie?
What are up to?
You want to help me out with the map stuff then?
If you guys are doing, if maybe Morris and Miles get off to do material stuff, can do that map thing.
I'll gladly back- I don't have navigate.
I have drive.
I'll get you there, it just might not be where you wanted to go.
You know, as I'm thinking about this more magpie, I'm a little bit better with navigating and maps, doing back country stuff.
And you're probably, if there's medical stuff in here, you probably know more about that.
So maybe we do a little swap.
for you think coach.
Yeah, okay.
Go team.
So, there are a few things available to you.
uh Magpie, you find buried in like a uh box of documents, uh something you haven't, I think, seen before.
It's uh a trifold pamphlet and it says, the Ascension of the Soul on the front.
uh
some descriptions of uh meditation and how to do it.
It's got a description of astral projection and then on the back is a long sort of litany that it says is the mantra for ascension and I can post that in the chat for you if you
need it.
not on account of he's already ascended but I'm still down here on the ground.
Yeah.
So this is...
Check, check, check.
This is what it says.
I don't know if that rings any bells.
Since I was doing materials with him, I would probably glance at it as well and being like...
Yeah, you recognize that.
That's the chant, and that was in the pamphlet.
That's what they did in San Juan to open up that portal thing.
Yeah, can I take a look at this literature and see if I can figure out where it was produced?
Uh, yeah, sure.
Uh, it, it's, it says printed by Free Associate Press.
You look that up, it's a, like, just a, of a small pay as you go publishing thing.
So Roger, not Roger.
Uh, it looks like Arav probably put this together and sent it to be printed.
I guess I will pull aside any things that I find of note, but I'm not entirely sure what to do with it.
In Miles' search, he's looking for like a hard location where we need to go next.
he's, you know, maybe that's in the navigate thing, but he's also seeing if Liam was on to where this kid that, I mean, he's not probably not a kid anymore, like ended up so we can
hunt him down.
Yeah, you find an IRS printout that lists Anthony Hayden's uh home address, just as good as any.
Yeah, in Seattle, I'm assuming.
It is in Seattle proper.
Okay, can I do a quick search on my encrypted laptop now that I brought my stuff in to see if I can see if he's been around, if he's been...
Yeah, So you can find his Facebook.
No trouble.
Last post was in 2020.
Okay, yep.
That also appears to be the last time anybody liked one of his photos, posted anything on his wall, anything like that.
Miles would also be trying to use his computer science to figure out if, and maybe even bureaucracy at this moment, to figure out like any trace he's left, right?
Beyond social media, like maybe using this IRS thing to cross reference something.
Yeah, it looks like he worked for Valerie's Coffee, but he stopped paying taxes in 2020.
You're not finding any sort of digital or bureaucratic footprint of Anthony Hayden after the year 2020.
Morrison and Mull.
What is your navigate together and what is your computer science together?
My, I have base navigate but my computer science is 50%.
My Navigator is 53.
53.
Do either of you have signals intelligence?
Sigint.
In fact, does anybody in this team have Sigint?
Not a bit.
Okay.
Give me a straight int check at a minus 40.
Morrison what's your intelligence?
Well I'm seventy- Pass.
Sixteen on a thirty-five.
Okay, alright.
The dates on these attacks follow some sort of pattern.
me.
Would you, with the pass, can tell you what that is, or if uh you, Sam, would enjoy this puzzle, you may work on it.
Can I work on it for a little bit while we do other stuff?
absolutely.
And then Morrison, with your navigate, uh if you take a look at the lengths, the distance, the arc lengths between each of those uh attacks, they seem to be increasing.
So the next attack is going to be moderately to quite a bit further out.
um
It looks like it might be putting it in the water even.
Yeah, it's increasing at a fixed interval.
Or not fixed interval, but like a specific rate.
Yeah, it does seem that way.
um
Ah, only I paid attention in differential equations.
Curses.
curses.
And then...let's see...is there anything Miles and Magpie are further specifically looking for?
Yeah, Miles would still be looking for anything that points at if Rodgers was on or Roger was on to this somehow, he would look through everything.
And if he pulls the IRS stuff, he would look for more accounting based things to see if he could like look through numbers and find something like that, like anything.
Like this guy has to like not Liam or Roger, but Anthony has to have spent cash.
He has to have done something.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And there you do find evidence that that was looked for.
Like, um it looks as though his credit cards got pulled.
It looks like Roger tried to go through.
He wasn't able to access bank accounts, but it looks like he tried to do that.
And yeah, nothing.
Maybe this maybe this kid is dead, but
You can't find any evidence of movement.
As we're looking through all this stuff, think Morrison probably is asking like, hey, what do you guys find in?
uh We figured out that it seems like these are like a specific interval in time.
The distance is increasing at a certain rate.
Are you guys finding anything?
Just kind of sharing knowledge amongst us as we are trying to figure this out.
Yeah, with respect to that, think I'm refreshing on the check the calendar, post it, and so I'm going to go look future and past to see if I can find any constellations with those
dates.
Future and past of what, on the calendar?
Yeah, it looks as though on the end of every month, Roger has written, in red pen, circled, RITUAL.
that he's regular.
If I find any of these dates and that these other incidents have occurred, is there anything annotated about are they present in his consciousness?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
On...
You find...
You find a big Sharpie X on April 11th, 2024, circled.
You find a big X on August 23rd, 2024, circled.
And you find a big X on October 28th.
These are the most...
the three most recent...
uh mass casualty incidents from the records.
Yeah, mean, mathematics is one thing and if we're looking at some sort of golden ratio or whatever, that's maybe a little bit beyond me.
But just perhaps getting a feel of like, well, those are those X's are closer and those X's, those X's are closer and those X's I'm looking at about where do I think the next X
would
Like a one-dimensional timeline, right?
Where I see a big space and then perhaps a slightly smaller space and a smaller space and a smaller space and I'm curious if I extrapolated that out where the next X would occur in
that timeline.
Uh, think that is exactly what I, I think you would have to like do this on paper for me to get what you're doing.
That's fine, I think I'm tearing the pieces of the...
the leaflets of the calendar out and trying to, you know...
Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's get you.
It looks like it is 134 days between April 11th and August 23rd.
Do you have these numbers for me, I think I do.
So I think from 5-11-21 to 9-22, did I do these right?
Hold on.
They're basically going in patterns of 1-34-66 and 2-77, the days between each date.
And correct me if I'm wrong here, I just found this pattern.
It looks like, like if you go from 9-22 to 11-27, that's 66 days, then 66 days, then 66 days, then 134 days, then 277, 277, then back to 134.
ah And so then the most recent is from August to 23rd to October 28th, which I think is another 66th.
I think from what I can tell it's going to be another 66 day one, right?
That would that be the pattern that I'm seeing here?
So what's the next date?
So we got till the second and we don't know where we're going.
So, or do we know where we're going yet?
Did you guys figure it out?
Can I, I mean, I don't know if I rolled navigate or not.
I think he kind of told me just looking at it, I could tell roughly where it'd be.
Can I do some like, orienteering map charting stuff to figure that out?
Yeah, uh what is your navigate?
50?
Yeah, you know, maybe Bainbridge Island.
Okay.
So we get some sleep tonight.
If Rogers is done with the brand in the morning, then we brand ourselves and then head to Bainbridge or do you want to meet Madeline?
Oh, right.
What time are we supposed to meet Madeline?
Madison.
Madison, sorry.
Madison.
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, Bainbridge seems like the next best thing and she can deal with a phone call.
Yeah, I guess I would say, I mean, we have a couple of days, right?
This doesn't happen until the 2nd.
Tomorrow would be the 31st.
Is that right?
Or 30th?
How many days are in December?
30 days out of September?
Yeah.
Yep, we do have a few days, sure, if you want to push it down to the wire, right?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how long this meeting with Madison is going to take.
ah You know, it's true.
We could call her on our way there and be like, hey, are you there?
What do you want to meet about?
We've got a lead.
Should we talk to you or go on the lead?
Places you have to be are Bainbridge Island, Anthony Hayden's apartment, meeting with Madison.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Those are your leads?
Okay.
I think so.
Yeah, I mean, we could, but we could call her on the way.
Where was Hayden's apartment again?
It's in the city.
Do we want to try to hit that up tomorrow on our way out to Bainbridge?
If we think he's been there, just, mean, somebody might be paying the rent, right?
I guess, because, you know, he's been off the radar for almost five years.
Yeah, so I know you You didn't find any evidence of his activity But did you find any evidence that anyone was even looking for him like he was part of this event?
So it's possible that people just forgot him and if this is contagious potentially everything he Interacts with you know he's basically a race from existence like as far as
consciousness is concerned
Fuck.
Okay.
So, yeah, I guess we go to the apartment first, then in the morning.
Right?
And we try to catch...
could probably do that before we meet with Madison.
Okay.
And is somebody getting this carved into them or we just, no, we're not, we're not doing that,
So we're doing...
Yep.
we're letting uh Liam work more on his brand.
Okay.
I'm gonna get some sleep then guys.
Alright, can I have everyone's current sanity value?
68
61.
58 29.
Love it.
So yeah, you all wind up hitting the lights right around midnight with your plans for the morning.
And yeah, uh, can I get Magpie, Morrison, and Mull to take off your headphones?
Yeah.
So the night passes pretty uneventfully.
You uh, wake up first.
It is bright out.
You're not in like a bedroom so there aren't any curtains.
So
no, the shades are drawn, so it is, in fact, dim when you wake up, but uh Roger is already up before you.
He's in the kitchen uh making breakfast.
um You gonna go over there, say hi?
Hey Roger, you almost done with the brand?
Yeah, I was gonna get a little more work done on it this morning.
um And when you look at Roger, um his face is all fucked up.
Like, it is continuously shifting and warping, like water dripping on a watercolor.
Does this remind me of the kid's face when in the boat?
No.
It's...
This is new.
This is new and different.
Roger, are you okay?
Yeah, I'm fine, why?
There's something wrong with your face.
I feel alright.
What's uh...
And this shifting is like...
It's starting to get to you.
It's...
It's starting to like give you a headache.
Yeah, I will hold my head and try not to look at him.
like, we're sorry.
Roger's.
Roger, give me a minute here.
Yeah, okay, do you need some like, ibuprofen?
Okay.
And yeah, your vision is starting to darken at the edges and your head is like splitting with pain, worse than you've ever felt before.
Roger's like, presence is...
He's becoming bright, like a burn spot in film.
And he is beginning to radiate out in your vision.
man, god, uh, and I'll just start crawling away from him, like on
Yeah, yeah.
Instead of that, your hand is going to reach down into your holster.
You're going to pull out your gun.
You're going to press it to Roger's temple.
You're going to squeeze the trigger.
There is noise and instant relief.
You wake up in bed.
You've sweat through your sheet on the cot.
You glance at your watch.
It's been 25 minutes since you shut your eyes.
um I will sit up, look around, look at, everybody sleeping probably and see if I see Rogers.
Uh, Roger is probably in his bedroom.
Yeah, can I get magpie?
It's me.
It's you.
Your night passes pretty uneventfully, honestly.
You, you sleep well.
You wake up in the morning.
It's kind of dim because of the way Roger's got the shades pulled.
But, yeah.
You wake up and, and he's already in the kitchen making breakfast.
Have a good uninterrupted night of sleep.
Yeah.
Still too good to be true.
Yeah, you go over there and see what he's making.
And as Roger turns to you to like say good morning, his face is all fucked up.
Like it's continuously shifting and warping, like water dripping on watercolors.
Like this is something new.
I think I reach my hand out and do my best to figure out if his flesh is really smeared or if it's my vision.
That's compromise.
His flesh feels the way it looks, spongy and distorted.
And he says, what's going on?
Are you...
What's up?
Yeah, I mean, like, I guess I've just wandered in and he's got like a skillet of bacon.
I'm like, it smells good.
And he turns over and I just kind of like audibly gasp.
He has a non-reaction and I'm just kind of, you know, melting a little bit.
Yeah, and the longer you look at him, the...
he's...
looking at him is making your head hurt.
Like, he's causing a headache.
Yeah, it's almost like, I don't know if you've had migraines, where you get a visual aura, and it's impossible to focus on the thing that's in the center of his face.
And the peripheries are helping, but it just doesn't come in.
Yes, your vision is blackening at the outsides and he is, his presence is starting to swell in your vision.
Sorry, am I still just, I'm just having a face to face with- Okay, I think I'm just gonna ask him like, what did you get up to last night?
Uh, I worked some more on the brand, um, I'm gonna work a little bit more on it this morning.
ah Yeah, yeah, it's coming along.
Yeah.
And this is agony.
His words are like dragging nails on a chalkboard.
Yeah, I think there is like a constant flitting of eyes and an attempt to keep the tone steady, like underneath everything is just tremorant.
I am going to kind of like loudly guess if anyone else has stirred and really just try to raise my voice such that somebody else is aware.
But yeah, if you look back, Mul is sitting up in bed now.
And his features are blurred too.
He's got the exact same water color thing, and now it's on both sides of you.
It's pressing on you.
I close my eyes very tightly and hope that something looks different when I reopen them.
You do that and when you open your eyes again, you've got your gun out and you reach out and you press it to Roger's temple and you squeeze the trigger.
oh There's a flash and immediate relief.
The headache is gone and you wake up in bed.
You sweat through your cot.
It's been 25 minutes since you fell asleep.
I think I go looking for my gun to figure out where it is.
Um, under your cot, I assume.
Yeah, I find it intact and that's honestly a little bit disconcerting and I'm going to disassemble it before I attempt to turn back over and go back to...
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You check the magazine and there are the number of bullets that you expected.
Yeah.
I mean, that's good.
It's just like when I blink next time, will that still be the case?
Yep, exactly.
Alright, I'm gonna talk to another player.
Alright, it's Agent Morrison's turn.
Yeah, alright, so yeah, you have a good night's sleep.
um You wake up in the morning.
It's pretty dim out because of the way that Roger keeps his blinds.
But when you wake up, he's already in the kitchen uh cooking some breakfast.
do you go over there and like say hi or?
Yeah, probably I walk in and I see that there's breakfast.
Is anyone else eating?
No, no one else is up yet.
You're the first one to wake up.
Okay, yeah, I mean, if it looks like it's set out as though like we're meant to grab some, I grab some and I ask him like, hey, how's work going on the brand?
Yeah, he turns to you.
I got some work done on it last night, and I'm gonna keep working on it this morning.
And when he turns to you, um his face is all fucked up.
Like, it's continuously shifting and warping, like water distorting a watercolor, just dripping and pooling and spreading and contracting.
And as you look at him, you start to have just this splitting headache.
Hmm, yeah, I probably slowly, ah cautiously like back away and probably just like look down like so I can see his body but not his face.
Yeah, his presence is like film beginning to burn.
The edges of your vision are darkening and he is this intense bright spot, like magnesium white.
And it is agony to like really be near him.
Yeah, I'd probably start to back away faster and maybe take some of the, I don't know, like the fork and the knife or like cutting sausage or whatever with me.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, of that, you actually step forward towards him.
You reach down and draw your gun, put it under his chin, and you squeeze the trigger.
There's a bright light, noise, and immediate relief.
You wake up in your cot, soaked through with sweat.
It's been 25 minutes since you went to sleep.
Okay, uh, I guess I try to take a look around and see what else is going on before I do anything.
Magpie, Morrison, Miles.
It's half past midnight and the three of you wake just gasping in the living room.
You can still feel like the phantom pain in your head behind your eyes.
guys too.
Yeah, I saw Roger with a weird swirly water face and I tried to get away but for some reason I walked forward and just shot him right up under the chin.
Sounds...
exactly what my dream was.
I put my hands on his face and it weren't just the way he looked.
Felt watery.
Is that what you're saying?
Watery.
That's not the word I put to it.
It was mushy in a way that flesh ought not to be.
Do you guys think he's infected?
Do you think we have to take care of him tonight?
And was he the only one?
For me, yeah.
Did you see somebody else?
My human is crap, but...
Yeah, well, I'll divulge that before I realized that it was, in fact, dream.
I was trying to get somebody else to come and see what I was seeing.
uh, well, Mole was in a dream, but he had the same face.
Okay, so they're both branded.
Do we think the brand is backfiring or do we think it's actually protecting them?
Like, can we believe ourselves in this moment?
You know, there was uh when Mullen and I were going to uh that doctor's office, a guy came up to us and looked like he was gonna shoot the place up and he told us that something was
happening to him in his dreams that told him to do that.
It seems like something's messing with our dreams now.
We can either, you know, my inclination is that maybe because we're not marked, ah we're susceptible to this dream stuff too.
and maybe it's trying to make us kill them by making them weird to us in our dreams, but you know, I can't say that for sure.
Yeah, right hard to tell who's on the right track, know, is it them or us?
I think the perspective is a little...
um What if we...
What does your gut tell you?
Do you feel as though um the symbol could help or is it just liability?
I was never gonna get that thing carved into me or branded on me.
I think it might be hurting.
I think that Mole's been acting fucking insane.
Roger has always been fucking insane.
And us three are the only sane ones here.
That is a reasonable idea.
But what if the balance was just off?
Just a little?
mean, yeah, you don't need to get that brand, but I would like to know for sure.
What if I take it tonight and we see what tomorrow holds?
You mean, uh, do the brand right now?
The next time we lie down to sleep.
Yeah, I will say I had my doubts, but when I was thinking about it, mean, Roger doesn't seem to have forgotten.
And we know that he's been putting his brand on himself for long enough that it's scarred up and it's, you know, ah if he's really been putting it on himself for like months, maybe
years now, maybe that's why he remembers.
And if you're the only person who is sane in an insane world, the majority of people are going to think you're insane.
Okay, you know, I don't trust either of them, ah but you're the coach, so you're in charge.
uh Obviously, I'm not gonna execute my friend and a stranger, so I'll follow your lead on it, but I'll be waiting in the wings to restrain them if we need to, but I'm not getting
that thing on my body.
Magpie, you can do what you want.
I'll hold your hand through it, but it's not coming onto mine.
I don't want to, but I don't like this guessing game that we're playing and I think the risk of not knowing is a little too strong right now.
fair.
um If you get the brand and how do we know that we can trust that it didn't turn you into something?
eh Well, I guess what I was thinking is that we'd check in in the morning to see, you know, what the dream situation looked like.
Did you see me in your dreams?
Did I have a dream at all?
I'm not sure how many other ways there are to go about this.
It's alright, know, if we're doing something as a test, usually you want to have like a verifiable end condition, so just wondering before we do it.
Yeah, I mean, think you're the control group and it'd be nice if we had a bigger sample size, but I'm afraid we can't really afford to.
Yeah, alright.
Well, we've got a plan and it's getting late.
We can try sleeping again and see you in the morning.
Hopefully.
Miles is going to take 15 minutes and draw an approximation of all those hand symbols in the ritual up and down both of his arms and cover his sleeves.
Okay, alright.
Yeah, you can totally do that.
Sorry, I just dropped a die again.
And then he's gonna write, like, to make them forget above each
Sure, for sure, for sure, for sure.
I love it.
Are any of you, is everyone going back to sleep?
Yeah, I Morrison is.
Alright, uh, the three of you gasp awake again.
Well guys, do you have any sedatives, Magpie?
Yeah, I mean, I'll go rifling.
I'm sure I'm something a little bit.
Good for this reason.
52.
You've got sedatives, you've got amphetamines, up, down, sideways, you want it, you've got it.
Do think this won't bite us?
go ahead.
Wait, no, I'm gonna offer it to you and then again I'm gonna be the guinea pig and I'm gonna stay awake with nothing.
Y'all take what you want.
Yeah, I already kinda resigned myself to this just being a long night of short naps and splitting headaches.
This time, just double check.
ah Woke up, we were in the cots.
Well, didn't wake up.
Dream woke up with the cots.
Magpie, when I looked at you, I got the headache.
I think your face was normal.
Looked at Mull, he still had the weird face, but no headache from Mull.
It was you I was after this time,
I executed Morrison while he was sleeping.
So something trying to turn us against each other.
Can I sacrifice one full power to negate this somehow?
Well, do you Morrison, should we take sedatives?
What do you think?
Or is that gonna fuck us in the morning?
ah
you know, I mean, is it gonna fuck us more than only sleeping for 25 minutes at a stretch and waking up all the time?
Maybe, maybe not.
Um, I'm just not sure that it'll work.
Uh, so I was planning to just do without, but I, you know, if you want to, we'll wake you up in the morning.
like the stagger approach.
If Miles tries to get some proper rest, you try to do it the old-fashioned way and I'll keep watch and make sure there's not a bolt in this place.
Yeah, sounds good.
I'll hand my handgun over to you, Morrison.
We should probably put these in the car.
Yeah, maybe just, uh, unload them, put all the ammo in one room, guns in the other.
Sure, good idea.
something loud in the way so we all know if somebody goes digging.
Take the sedative.
Okay, sounds good.
um and Miles drops off back to sleep.
Um, Morrison and Magpie, you're staying up, smoking cigarettes and like, just staying awake or whatever.
I don't know if either of you smoke, but I feel like that's the vibe at two in the morning.
Everyone chain smokes on an occasion like this.
Yeah, I mean, Morrison, you're welcome to try and get another wink if you think you can.
I'll give it a shot.
You know, I mean, I had nightmares before, so...
Yeah, Just repeatedly waking up with nightmares.
It's an old hat.
It's none of its rea-
You wake up 25 minutes later drenched in sweat having killed another friend.
um Miles does not wake up.
um Magpie, if you're watching them, Miles has entered REM sleep a short while ago.
His eyes are moving rapidly and he appears to be in a great amount of distress.
Yeah, I think um when we were getting to the 25 minute mark or approaching there, watching Coach thrashing a bit, sweating profusely, maybe muttering a bit, um I think I would just
take the opportunity to measure Miles's pulse at the same time and try and get an idea of what, if anything, is happening in parallel, maybe.
Their heartbeats are racing.
Um, if it seems as though Miles is eh still subdued, then I suppose I will go uh comfort coach as he comes back to.
Hey!
uh Nope.
Round 3, much like rounds 1 and 2.
uh How's Miles doing?
Uh, better maybe, but it's, um, not inert.
We may have sealed him in there with something.
Yeah.
I hope he can get out.
Should we try to wake him up?
Or what did you give him something we can wake him up from?
I mean, I kind of just laid it out there.
I'm not sure what he took.
Yeah, okay.
Gotcha.
Just give them some amphetamines.
They'll cancel out.
Yeah, one goes down, one goes up.
I know what I'm doing.
Do you think we ought to rouse him?
I, you know, I don't know, he doesn't look great and I don't know what damage might be going on in there.
You know, if we wake him up and he's, uh, wants to, says, nah, I was fine, put me back under.
I assume that's a thing we could do.
Yeah, I don't know that you can sleep today if you had math for breakfast, but, uh, we tried.
You think you can wake him up with smelling salts.
Okay, I'll give it a try.
Yeah.
Miles, you are dragged from just a blood-soaked nightmare, killing over and over and over and over and over, with agony never subsiding.
Okay, okay, uh, don't take the sedatives.
It's better to just be awake, guys.
uh
It's gonna be a long night.
I mean, it's gonna be a feckin' long time until the second.
Yeah, you know the only other time line up
We need to move the timeline up.
We're not gonna do this until the second.
We're gonna end up killing somebody at this pace.
So we need to do this tomorrow.
Yeah, well, if you want to get on the move now, we could load the other two in the back and get to it.
And we'll wait for the morning.
We're not sleeping, so.
So they shouldn't either.
Yeah.
So we could conceivably go to his apartment tonight, get there at 3 a.m., 4 a.m.
2 a.m.
now how long is it?
So it'll be about um three hours.
We could conceivably get there then and Mole and Liam, Roger could sleep in the car.
Load them up, okay?
We wake everybody up.
Okay, who's doing the waking up?
Whoever's closest just kind of shakes him.
Somebody shakes you awake at 2 a.m.
oh
What's going on?
We're gonna go to Seattle now, man.
So we can't.
You can sleep in the car, but we're gonna take off.
We gotta get this show going because something's happening to us when we sleep and we don't have time to carve that symbol into all of our backs.
So, okay.
Uh, shit, can you explain it on the way out there?
And yeah, we'll give him the download like after we load up.
We'll all just tell him.
like about all of our dreams every 25 minutes and how we end up murdering somebody in our dreams and have a strong compulsion to do it.
We, I think as explaining that, like as you explained that to Mole, it all makes sense to him.
He's not having that.
Yeah, cause he's not having any of those dreams, right?
He's the one.
He's been dreaming about money and how, you know.
So he's like, of course, of course you guys are dealing with this and luckily that's why I'm here.
I'm here to take this, as I said before, not all crosses are wooden, right?
Some are wriggling worms in our brain.
So is somebody gonna go wake Liam up?
Yeah, Liam doesn't want to go.
Well, I-I-I'm more useful here.
I can't- I gotta make the- I gotta make the brand.
Kate, sure man.
You get some sleep, make the brand.
Do you have a car still?
Kate, you do not forget to drive out to Seattle with that brand as fast as possible.
I can't go there.
Why?
It's too close.
She'll find me.
Liam, she is going to find you regardless.
Her spiral of influence is broadening with every mass killing.
It's going to reach you.
So we need to stop it now, or you're going to die anyway.
Can't you just come back and get it?
We don't have time, we gotta stop it right now.
Okay, make the brand and come to Seattle.
Here is the phone number and I'll give him my personal and the burner phone number.
Do not forget these.
And I'll write him down on two pieces of paper and a sticky note saying call immediately.
Yeah, make brand, call immediately.
MKBRND
Yes.
Yeah.
So he understands it.
CLLMMDTLY
Exactly.
Okay, I grab him by the shoulders like we need the brand to help protect us.
So we're gonna do some stuff in Seattle.
We're gonna try to head this off before you even have to come.
But if you don't, like get there.
Like we need you there if we fail.
I'm gonna roll human for me.
Yeah, that's a 22 over 14 so critical fail.
Oops.
Yep.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
Alright guys, let's get on the road.
Liam's got her back.
So...
Chook, chook!
It's got her back!
Yeah, it seems like you really got through to him.
Let's go.
Okay
I'll take a picture of what he carved on the back as well and say, if it comes to this, I can try to carve this into you, Morrison.
Okay.
Yep.