The show you were about to listen to was originally a live stream actual play
on twitch dot tv slash Onmade Gaming. Rise Minions, and welcome to this
unmade gaming production. Join us on our adventures as we take a jump to
the left, a step to the right, and time warp beyond the veil
to find out exactly what happens when you take the path less traveled in this
original Tails and the Loop actual play Atari Twilight, Age of Always Everybody.
I'm going to go around and talk to my wonderful cast. Thank you very
much, Mike, Thank you Onmade Gaming community for once again allowing us to
travel back in time here on Atari Twilight. But before we do that,
I'm going to go around. I want to talk to my players. Players.
Please tell us who you are, who you will be playing, and
per the events of last episode, what discipline are you studying? In the
between? The Age of Always Everybody was kind of given a task by Randall
Flagg, a subject in which they needed to become experts. Please let me
know what that is. So let's start with G all the above. Please.
Hi, my name is g your friendly neighborhood ightning voker, and today
I'm playing Scarlett Blake. She is the resident jock of the group, and
last episode she decided to well. She wants to protect her friends, and
to do that she must learn the art of war, essentially from mister Blake.
Right, the art of war as understood by the Age of Always.
Fantastic, my friend. Let us spin down to Chris, Chris all of
the above. Hi, I'm Chris Sakrect. I am playing Ricky Lewis,
who is also a jock, but not quite as jock ish as Scarlet.
He decided to study the Eternity Road, the way to travel through the Age
of Always and for places out right. Given the task last session of just
understanding the road, different little traits and tactics given to you by Randall flagg
yours in particular, Ricky was holding your hand over but not touching the black
asphalt of Eternity Road until you could feel the heat coming off it, which
Ricky can't at this time. Very good. Let's spin over to Bacon,
Bacon, my friend all of the above. Hello, Well, I am
Bacon. I am playing Jesse j D. Davis. He is a bookworm.
Last time JD chose people have always, and I believe it was the
Ferryman and Bishop that I kind of got a little close to correct correct,
And so you were tasked with understanding two of the few denizens, permanent denizens
of the Age of Always in the between the Ferryman and the Bishop. As
you would look in on them, you would learn about them, and somehow
those very entities would feel an affinity mechanically towards Jda Excellent, my friend,
and last, but certainly not least, unless all of the above pleads hi,
yell, Melissa Meyer. I am playing Heather Jones, who is our
resident weirdo, and she is following her heart and learning magic fantastic and it's
told by Randall Flag. Magic here in the Age of Always is something that
isn't read from a book or the wave of a wand it is something that
must come from inside the person. And to do that you must remove the
soil or the taints of the world in which you've come from. A world
without magic will ain't the soul of somebody who could do magic. And to
cleanse oneself, much like in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, you must ride
the waterfall down, cleansing yourself as you go, until eventually whither as clean,
and she is able to cast magic as if she were born to it.
But we will see all of that as we get further into this session.
My friends, the time has come again. The Age of Always calls
us. Can you hear it? It sings a song from our youth,
one that we loved, but one that we have long long since forgotten.
Still it sings, calling us again to a world of adventure, calling us
to return to our friends, Ricky, Heather Scarlet, and JD. Van
Halen, their fateful yet fearful friend, the cowardly lion Big Purr, waits
to stand beside them, Randall Flagg, villain wizard, night teacher as he
turned over a new leaf, or perhaps an old one. They're all there,
right where we left them. And so the forgotten song is remembered,
word by word, line by line, the memory of the tune forms.
It's a time for us to fly back to the Age of Always. So
lift your eyes and your voices for today, today, with our friends,
we sing a forgotten song of youth. For today today is a fine day.
Welcome again, my friends, one and all, to atari Twilight,
The Age of Always. Episode two. Behind Stars and Underhills, my friends.
When we ended our last session, you were told that a week had
passed in the Age of Always, from the moment that you arrived at the
cabin, seven days seven nights have eclipsed and have passed. I have a
role that I would like to have made. But if there's anything that you
would like to do mechanically from then until now, anything that would be say,
a conversation between two PCs, or between a PC and an NPC,
anything that would require role playing. Well, wait, this is the acclamation
period for our characters, as these seven days have come by, and unless
you tell me otherwise, I assume that you have been studying per the mandates
of Randall Flagg, studying war, studying the ability to travel along Eternity Road,
studying the people of the Age of Always, and studying the magic that
seems to surround this place. It remains untouched by those that still carry the
taints of the real world. But here, as we go, I will
ask for my first role while the rest of you see if there's anything else
you would like to do. Bacon JD made mention of something during our last
session. He wanted to look around the cabin for something that might be personal
not necessarily seemingly out of place, but something that might hold a little bit
more weight for Randall flag, I'm going to allow you to make two roles.
If the first one fails, you may make the second. If they
both fail, you've uncovered nothing during this week. Let's go ahead, and
I'd like you to roll and Investigate role for me to start. All right,
here's the first one. Well, looks like we will need to have
no need for that second one, my friend, since you only needed one
success. If you would, and you will likely need to remind me of
this because Greg is getting old and has a lot on his mind, you
have a free success for Investigate going forward, so you can bank one of
those. And if I ask you to roll Investigate, you already have a
success that you can pool from for this session. As you are looking around,
and as you kind of all of you are kind of been told that
the cabin is your home. Mechanically speaking for the tails from the loop system.
This is your hideout, your headquarters, the place where if you suffer
a condition you can go and have it removed if you spend enough time here.
This is your sanctus sanctorum. This is your fortress of solitude. Enemies
don't appear here. This is safety and so Bacon. As JB looks around
over the course of this week, there's a lot of interesting things in the
cabin. It's nothing like a museum piece or nothing like it's on display.
But there are pictures of places that you know don't exist back in Garrett or
the world that you come from. You know, beautiful landscapes that hold just
a bit too much orange in the sky. None of those really stand out
though as having either a principal subject that would require further thought. But as
you're looking around, the focal point for the cabin is the fireplace, and
there are many things. On the mantle of the fireplace. There are old,
broken forty five records of Elvis Presley. The things that you know would
probably given Randall's occupation as a disc jockey back in Garrett under the pseudonym of
Jackie Emrock, something that he would probably have a kinship to, you know,
something about music. But there's one thing in particular, as you look
through this house, this home of Randall Flag, there is a mason jar
sealed. You can tell that there's wax around the inside of it. In
a way that someone would preserve jam or vegetables after the growing season. You
can see that the wax has sealed the metal ring around the top of the
mason jar. That the mason jar is completely empty. No preservatives, no
no or preserves, no vegetables except for one unspent bullet. JD, you
have noted this, and I will say, because of your role, the
only way the others would recognize it as something to note would be you telling
them. So I leave it up to you, Bacon. If JD says,
hey, what you know? Hell's up this? Everybody will know if
you elect to kind of keep it to yourself, this ping on your investigation,
This item of interest that seems to kind of been drawn into your focus
remains something that is just a little secret between you and oh, anybody that
you might talk to on a regular basis. Okay, I'll keep the secret
for now very well the rest of my friends as you are, and and
make it included if there's something else you would like to do. Is there
anything that you would have wanted to do during this time that would require a
role? You know, if there was a you name it and I will
let you know. Any kind of heavy RP or questions or things like that
will devote to a scene between characters and NPC. But if there's anything mechanical
we would like to get out of the way now, we absolutely can.
Let me know, why take a fine drink of this soda. Please please
not all at once? Okay, if we're good, then, my friends,
we will begin on this the eighth day of your time in the Age
of All Ways. Now, Greg, there's a couple of things that I
think Heather would like to do that aren't necessarily roles, but would have happened
in the last week. Okay, can we do let me put it to
you like this, is there something that you would there's this involve another character?
It involves it involves another character, but not necessarily rules it is not
a scene necessarily between two characters. Uh, and then well one of them
does and then the other one, know is just is just yourself. Okay,
let's do the one that's just Heather right now. And if there's anything
that we need to kind of push to this week, and the reason why
I'm not dismissing anything that people want to do, this is going to be
like a week of acclimation, no matter what really transpires during this week,
We're going to end up in the same spot because this is this is kind
of the natural length of time, that is, you know, to get
ready for the age of Always to begin, you know, studying these new
traits. And so a bit of time has passed without too much eventful happening.
But please, Melissa, what would you like to have Heather? Do
I know that you've sent me some things we haven't sewed up, so the
things I sent you? Is not this a bit about how she would approach
her study of magic and the waterfall? Okay? Yeah, so I think
and and are you all right with that? We move forward? We want
to wait until later in the week. Okay. So I think that last
the first night or the first day, she ascended the cliff at about at
ten feet Is that right? I think, having considered it, Heather has
a she's maybe a bit too sensitive to have grit, but I think she
certainly has built over her lifetime a great deal of determination, and so having
not made much progress in that first day, I think that she'll approach the
cliff face a little bit differently this time, and with the goal of ascending
all the way to the top, so up to fifty feet? Okay,
can I make a DM's bargain with you here? I absolutely love to do
this. Would this be something that on day two Heather would attempt? Or
is this something at least the summit the fifth highest point, the fifty foot
ledge, to jump into the waterfall and ride it down. Is that something
that would happen on day three or four? When do you think Heather gets
the gumption to leave the ten foot ledge and go to the twenty to thirty
and then ultimately the fifty. I think that her mindset going into that second
day is to get there, but that does not necessarily mean that she accomplishes
that fact, she is terribly frightened of heights, and so I imagine she
would have found herself fro in, possibly halfway up, and maybe wouldn't even
have done more than one waterfall dive in that day, and perhaps by the
third day she might be able to reach the summit. Okay, okay,
So here's what I want you to do, if you would, I would
like you to roll a force for a move as you climb, but I
want you to do so with the temporary condition of scared and everybody if you
could go to your Spotify playlist. Since Heather is making a go for this,
making an attack run, please go down and queue up track number four.
Every little thing she does is magic by the police, zero successes.
You may push, you may use luck, you may use your pride.
Can you remind me? Uh? Luck does that refresh every session unless I
tell you otherwise. Yes, Yes, she will use luck, true thing
and we'll go with scared. Nope. Okay, here's my bargain. That
scared condition becomes well permanent for this session until you remove it, and I'll
let you make the top. If you go back down, we'll take scared
away. Uh, she'll do that, We'll take We'll take the scared condition.
Very good. So help me with this narrative, Melissa. As Heather
is climbing to the lyrics of Sting. As you climb finally ten to the
twenty foot ledge to the thirty foot ledge, the rocks around the waterfall begin
to there's more moisture up here, they begin to get a bit slicker.
This is augmenting the fear. As you have more of that, the kind
of that proximity to the actual droplets in the midst that are being blasted off
the top of the waterfall as it leaves one plane and drops to the lake
below. Is there anything in particular that she would be thinking during this climb?
Is there a motivation? Is there a fear you know of perhaps not
performing, or you know something that would keep her going forward. Whether it
is fear or motivation that ultimately does it, I'd like to know. I
think she has a deep motivation to achieve what Randal promised her that the waterfall
can achieve, that is to be washed away of all the stains on her
spirit, on her soul, and beyond that, the thing that she prizes
more than anything else in the world are her friends, and she believes that
this is the thing that she can do best as a gift for them perfect
And so with those motivations, you're able to take the top. And this
ledge isn't necessarily a ledge. This is the level that the river that rushes
and becomes the waterfall is on. So as you pull yourself up this final
climb, you are gifted with the highest vantage point you have had here in
the age of Always. This is the highest point that you can see from
the cabin. This is the highest point that you have seen anywhere in the
age of always. This is the peak now in the distance and your immediate
kind of viewing. You can see that there are higher hills and mountains out
there, but they are farther away. This seems to be a spire,
or at least an area that sticks out in this particular region. What are
you looking for? As you and you alone, much like how JD viewed
the bullet and the mason jar, you and you alone have this vantage point,
have this insight? What are you hoping to glean? I think?
As she's climbing over the top line all the way, all the way up,
she has barely been able to look down. And she has been,
you know, because the thing she has learned in life is that if she
can't see it, that fearful thing isn't actually there, right, So she
tries very hard not to see the things that are frightening in the world.
So she's avoided looking down the entire way, and the moments that have been
most fearful for her have been when she's had to glance down in order to
get a foothold or in order to you know, grip a rock more tightly.
So she pulls herself over the edge here. Her adrenaline is high,
she's barely able to think, and I think she just kind of scrambles as
far away from the edge as she possibly can, gasping for air. And
you say that this is the very top of the summit. There is some
room here for her to turn around. Well, she moves as far away
from the edge as she can, as soon as soon as she possibly can,
exactly. And it's only after a couple of like very rapid gasps for
air and calming herself down, that she that she turns to look at the
vista around her, and she looks. She you can barely even look down
at that point, but she's looking out and around, and she does take
that moment to mark any any points of interest in the landscape that she might
see. Roll me a D six one fantastic. So as you look around
up here, there's a couple of things that I'm going to give you for
free. You realize that the emergence of the river that becomes the waterfall falls
down into the lake below, fifty feet down into the lake below quickly goes
underground. You see that there is a kind of a bubble rise behind you.
Of about twelve to fifteen feet, and it's a kind of a stack
of rocks and beath that rushes the water out from underneath its edge. It's
not a cave per se. It just seems to be more of like a
fissure that just has the water kind of erupting from this, almost like a
broken mouth of the stacked rocks, and it rushes out and down over the
cliff. And as you look around you see more of the same again,
everything in the age of always, at least this particular region that you've been
in. When you look around, it's the weather aspects that are the most
disconcerting. At first. You see rain in one area, you see snow
in another, the vibrancy of new growth of spring, the deadening and barrenness
of the leaves falling and fall mixed with the foliage of autumn. All of
the seasons are represented in all of the trees and all of the forestry that
is around you. But it's one thing that stands out as you look around,
you notice two. And Heather would know this probably more than everybody else,
because she does wear glasses. Your vision seems to be Christine up here.
You don't see any drop off, like when you look out, it's
almost telescopic, and how far you can see. You keep that crispness of
near vision of fifty feet, You keep that fifty foot range of a description
and interpretation and relief. At one hundred, one hundred and fifty five hundred,
everything seems to just be in focus here in the age of Always.
And as you look around, you see the forest, you see these distant
peaks, You see these distant hills, the snow, the rain. But
the one thing that stands out is the winding eternity road that creeps through kind
of like a ribbon through the middle of this area. It has the forest
splits for it. The forest gives it a wide berth, and the black
of the road with its intermittent dotted yellow line down the middle, is the
anomaly in this realm of nature. And as you turn to look beyond that
kind of past where the broken mouth and the water rushing out is, you
see the shore and you see the ocean beyond it. You can't it's almost
hard to see how many miles away this is because your vision is so perfect
when you see it. But when you look over and you follow that rocky
pebbly beach. Up you see that there is a castle sitting along the shore,
and beneath that castle along the beach and the ocean where it's crashing against
the rocks. Beneath this cliff side castle is a giant red hole, and
the bowl is a flame. You can see the distortion in the air above
it, and it paces back and forth, and even at this distance you
can see where its fiery hoofs hit the sand glass of marks are left as
it pulls it away. The stand beneath it fused into a new mirrored surface,
and it paces for as long as you watch. I think when Heather
cat catches a glimpse of that, she would gasp inwardly. Having recognized it
from a book she read by Peter S. Beagle, she she'll note that,
She'll note that, she'll note the beach where it curves, where the
castle is, how it relates to the fissure from which the waterfall falls,
where the river flows, where the road is in conjunction with all of those
things, and also how all of those things relate to the cabin, and
where the cabin is. I'll give you this kind of broad based view of
what you're saying, in relation to the road, the cabin and the castle
with the bull beneath it, the castle and the cabin are on your side
of Eternity road. The Eternity road does not have to be crossed to get
to the castle. Good Having noted that, I think she is going to
She's going to approach the waterfall and she waits, I think until her her
heart slows a little bit, and then and then she's going to speak to
it, and she's going to say Flag told me about how the world stains
the soul, and I guess he's right. Sometimes it feels like the world
is nothing but heartache, and like the darkness of a of it all could
swallow me up, like it's creeping into my soul. You know what I
don't tell them all is I don't think that I'm a very good person.
When I think of all the things I could have done or said if only
i'd had the courage to When I think of all the things that I shouldn't
have thought or said or done, well, then I know that I'm not
worthy of your gift. But you've got to believe that I don't want to
be that way. I want more than anything to be one of the good
ones, you know, to be like Ricky. I bet he'd only have
to dip his toe in your water, you know, because he has well,
his heart is so pure. But I'm just so I'm so angry,
and I'm so afraid. No matter how hard I try, I can never
quite seem to find my way to that openness of heart and goodness of spirit.
And I think I've known all along that I'm the one that's holding me
back. So I surrender, and I hope that you see me as I
am and who I was, But mostly I hope you see me for who
I want to be. And then I think she uh not an elegant dive
or or or even like a uh I don't know, powerful what do you
call those balms when you roll up in a ball? Cannon ball? Thank
you? She will instead just allow herself to fall. And I think that
when she enters that water this time, she'll have prepared for what she wants
to hold in her mind. And also she's going to try to hold on
to something to help suspend herself in the waterfall longer, okay, And what
will be on her mind, I think is, first she's gonna think back
to the dream that she had way back when she was aged four, at
the edge of innocence, when it was so easy to take delight in all
of the simplest things in life. And then she's gonna remember also those fleeting
moments when she forgot and she set aside all of her baggage, you know,
those moments of pure joy and safety. And you know, probably a
lot of these are when she was hanging out with the keystones in the attic.
And I think she's also going to remember all the endless moments when she
promised herself that she was going to be good enough, you know, finally,
finally, good enough. Because I'm a big softie, please remove your
scared condition and I would like you to roll something for me, Lyssa,
but that's something cannot be investigate. That is what you rolled last time.
I need you to pick something else to roll and do so. Now one
success, one success. As you fall down and you, as you describe
it, you just let yourself go. The clothing that you have on that
that had remained dry as you made your climb like that on the right hand
side of heather immediately becomes soaked. As you are enveloped in the falling water.
But as you fall down, and as Heather's arms kind of reach,
as you reach for anything to suspend yourself in this water for just another moment,
another beat, another blank, almost as if someone is accepting or taking
you to dance. You feel a hand wrap in your left what feels like
an arm kind of curl around. You're back in proper dance hold, and
you hear in your head the first couple notes of music, and you hear
and we danced like a wave only ocean romance. You were liars and love
and dance. You splash into the water and for a moment, as you
hit the water and go beneath the lake's surface, propelled by the falling water
behind you, you twirl a bit beneath and you can feel that, too,
is part of the dance. And it isn't until you reach the surface
to regain air that you feel that the dance has ended. For now.
As the sun is there, we will pull back from Heather and we spin
around the sky and we watch the sun crawl and dip and crawl and dip
and crawl and dip for several days until we zoom down again to the area
of the lake. But before we reach the dance floor of heather, we
spin into the woods to a lean to we whip through the leather curtain,
keeping back the steam and the smoke. Inside we see a bubbling cauldron,
much like a miniature version of something that a hag would sit around and promise
the demise of pesky villagers. That this small cauldron sits in bubbles and inside
of it an image like a television shows JD the people in which he is
focusing on here in the age of Always, my friend. As you look
around and as you begin to take these things in, I would like everybody
to go to your Spotify playlist and if you would throw on a little Phil
Collins in the air tonight, Bacon. It's towards the end of the day,
and as you would know, Randall told you to look upon these people
until sundown. Your job is to observe them. And over the course of
the week that you have been here observing this entity, this person known as
the Bishop, you've watched her as she conducts her worship, her church services
in the in which she lives. You would see the ferryman with his white
turban leading a group of three travelers along Eternity Road, and for the first
couple of days, that's what you observe. You saw them just doing their
jobs. Basically the bishop, you know, tending to her flock, the
ferryman being a ferryman and taking people through the areas. But it was about
the third day that you realized you started to be able to feel what they
felt. You were able to tell that the ferryman is bone weary. He
is exhausted beyond the comprehension of someone that hasn't reached the level in which he
is tired. But he never shows it. He is constantly helping people along
the road. He goes from one group to the next. But he has
been with this group of three a little bit longer than you know. For
the last two days that you've watched the same group. They seem to be
traveling, they seem to be on some grand quest. But again, the
ferryman feels this absolute lethargy. This you're not sure exactly how to put it
into words, because as anybody that is is, you know, fortunate enough
to be healthy, this type of exhaustion is seldom felt. It's on day
five you realize that he is sick, and that there is some illness that
is ravaging the Fairyman. Again, he does not show it. He always
has a smile, his teeth as white as the turban that he wears.
But there's something that is wasting away, but he dares not show it.
With the Bishop, as you watch, you begin to feel her loneliness.
You begin to feel her her absence, even though she is surrounded by these
worshipers and these practitioners, and these people that seem to be dressed the same
way that she is, that seem to be a part of this flock,
a part of the same mindset that she is, you realize that everyone that's
around her is transitory. They seem to be someone that is here because of
the world that is in phase with the age of Always. And when that
world goes away, everyone disappears, but the Bishop. When a new world
phases in, she gets her flock back. Those that have joined her in
the past presumably return to her when this brief union is in place, but
then quickly they are replaced as that world phases away, and you feel that
loneliness from her. And so as you learn of these two and you watch
them conduct their business, and you watch them kind of live. You are
beginning to do more than walk in their shoes. You are beginning to slowly
throw a shoulder and an arm into their soul. You can feel what it
is to be the ferryman, to be the bishop. I'd like you to
roll me investigate. As this is the end of the day, of the
eighth day of your time in the age of all ways, and you are
watching the bishop. I will allow you to use luck, pride, push
or nothing the left you m I'll go ahead and use my luck. Okay,
fantastic. So with that luck use and one success, the ring,
the one ring in your pocket, speaks up something's not right, and for
the first time you are taken away, your vision is taken away from the
focus of it being the bishop, to deeper into the cathedrals. The ring
almost almost like it's putting its arm around your shoulder and pointing to something that
you didn't notice. Look there, look right there, And the ring says,
see those two in the rear of the cathedral. They are not praying,
not like the others you know watching the bishop. One of them seems
to be doing something. We must get closer. Okay, let's get closer,
then only stealth at a plus three, but only if you use the
ring. Hm hmm, so three bonus dice correct, I am covered up
someone one success. Yeah, good so for the first time, almost like
you're in a play, but instead of the central characters of the play in
the middle of the stage, you kind of push past the bishop as you
move to the back of the cathedral. She's still at the front doing her
prayers, her evening prayers, getting into the same time of day that you
are. You know, here at sundown. And as you get closer to
these two hooded monks they appear to be. The first monk speaks in a
deeper voice, and believe her power can be pruned. Not here. Her
will is too strong in the cathedral. We must draw her out. The
second monk means over conspiratorially, a lighter voice emanating from beneath the hood.
We are running out of time. A phase will in soon, and with
it any chance at her first monk. We need a distraction, something,
as you see, to draw her from this place. Are there any travelers
along Eternity Road? The ferryman is taking three towards the castle by the sea.
There's no way the Bishop will move against them. Perhaps aggression is not
the way to approach this dilemma. Let's tell her that they require a perhaps
even orchestrate the need for a First monk nods, yes, the symbol of
squad to ambush the ferrymen and his charges. We need one of them,
grievously wounded, one that isn't the ferryman. With a hurt traveler, it
will be harder for him to use the road to find aid. It will
hinder his efforts and corner him into contacting the bishop. Second monk nods,
and when she leads, we will have And then all you see esteem As
you pull back from the cauldron, your daily ritual at its end, you
don't hear anything from the ring that you feel concern. Eventually it says,
I t U was that all about? You couldn't hear I couldn't hear the
one. I could only hear the second. Sounds like they're planning something.
Taking out the bishop by way of ferrymen seems to bother you. I have
been part of manipulations before, and I am not a fan of them.
It's time for heroism. Mm hmm. Do you think we could do something
you know where they are. That's good. Help them. You could probably
fix everything. Yes, it might be up to us GD Okay, how
do I find the ferryman? Though I don't know how to navigate the path,
he is on the road. You just need to know how to get
to him. We can intercept. Then we can save our friends. We
need not get injured, and we could. It could be the hero heroes.
That sounds good. Hmm. What's going to be a hero? Then
take you. I must ask you one question that will be I need to
have a partner, do not need a master? Is this something we could
be partners? M that's agreeable. And I must share with you something that
I would ask you do the same. Okay. I will tell you about
my father, you tell me about yours. You go first. I'm sure
you know who made me. Mm hmm. I was birthed to control others.
It's a trophy of dominance. I was a tool. I only knew
love as a word. I am every bit of child, of flesh and
blood, and despite being made of metal, lie, I'm not as strong
as it. I do not wish to return to asks such as those that
I have had in my youth that is why I need a partner, someone
to walk the world's with zero. Yes, well we're not so different.
Although I don't have much to share about my dad, I didn't know him
much. So where you were created for a purpose, sometimes it feels like,
you know, I wasn't. I was left abandoned. Maybe that's where
some of my fear comes from. But I think it's time to be a
hero. I agree, you're abandoned no more. Ji, I chose you
first time for everything that has Penn not own it ventches. We will be
the ones that write the books. Now, I'd like that than a fellowship.
It is Shall we go? And with that believe the area and the
sun pivots back in the sky a little bit, give us a few hours
earlier as we spin through the air and we drop down into the Perennial,
a glade that consists of both spring, summer, autumn, and winter,
and also numerous targets in each of these four seasons. There, Scarlett walks
through these season and finding a target in each and at the end firing two
shots into the air. Ge tell me what is Scarlet doing as she performs
yet again? Probably if not, you know the thirtieth time today. You
know at some point this is You've done this quite a bit over the past
week. What is the process of Scarlet as she trains in the art of
war here in the age of Always? What time of day is it?
For it looks like it's afternoon. Okay, she's been she's been up since
this before the sun rolls over the other trees. And she's been starting her
day every day this week with a jog. Maybe not a jog. She's
been going full on, sprinting through the woods and wishing herself as hard as
she can. And then when she reaches the glade, she she's breathing heavily,
she's dripping with sweat. And then she runs through each season and firing
her shots. And throughout the first week, the first seven days, she
hasn't been able to hit anything. And by the eighth day, she after
her run, she's kicking rocks, as it were. And today, on
the eighth day, she is not running through the seasons. She is stomping
heavily through and then she's got like a a scowl on her face and she's
just like, don't and then she turns and then she just shoots missus walk
walk walk, turns, shoots, missus walk walk, walk, walk,
stomping her feet as hard and as loudly as she can, even though there's
no one around to hear her. Well, I was gonna tell everybody to
play Iya the Tiger with this doesn't seem like the eye of the Tiger moment
for Scarlet. So I'm gonna take my hands off the turntables and say,
let's just take a moment and not do that qright now? Is this is
a bit of a conundrum Scarlet. If I were gee, if I would,
could you roll for Scarlet? Roll anything but move just mm see how
today I'm gonna roll force one success one success. Okay, So despite being
upset about what's going on, and it might not even be you know,
each season has an just as you described it. But at the end,
do you fire the two shots into the air? Yeah, and what are
those two shots for? Oh? Is this a quiz? One for the
Queen and one for something else? All the gunslingers that came before, Yes,
all the gunslingers on the Queen. Yeah. And it's it's it's a
more like a frustration type of mood, like, yeah, she's just got
like that teenage angst and frustration going and then she misses. She just like
when she gets to the end, she's just like and she kind of almost
rolls her eyes and then up in the air, bang bang, and then
she'll turn around and go back to the beginning. As you bang bang and
turn around to go back to the beginning, I'd like everybody to go to
your Spotify playlist and go down the track number thirteen and queue up Thunderstruck for
Me by acc. As you turn eye roll fire two shots into the air,
one for the Queen, one for who fucking ever? Boom boom whatever.
Yeah right, you turn back around, and as you turn back to
your position where flag left the tin of bullets by the tree for you to
reload, the tree crashes down and you see a metallic leg step forward,
and you see the silhouette of Alta two oh nine. Turn. As the
two barrel guns flip down from the sides and lock into place, you see
that these revolving death begins to as it starts to spin up. Your gun
is empty, Yeah you do, my friend. I think in this moment
she knows the gun is empty. But that's just like the back the back
of her mind, and I think she she looks at it with like terror
in her eyes, and she drops the guns, both of them, and
she turns and runs. You drop the guns to the ground as they hit
the summertime grass and the perennial at the other end of the glade, and
as you turn to run, you hear the belch of death as those bullets
begin flying out, and you see the trees and the forest in front of
you being shredded on the right and the left as you were running for that
space in between, and you flash back, Garrett. As you run through
the fields, you flash back to the age of Always. As you break
through the tree line behind you, Ulta two oh nine begins to run much
faster than you remember it before. You could hear the whirring servos of its
upgraded kind of hip positioning. You can hear the hydraulics as they whisper much
like the belch of death from these guns. They just as it begins to
sprint towards you, one of its giant feet sets down on the guns,
mashing them into the ground, bending their barrels, and it pulls off its
foot as it's running towards you. My friend, I need you to make
me a move. Roll now right now, yeah, right the fuck now,
zero successes. You may push, you may use luck, you may
use pride. I suggest you use something you suggest, you highly recommend,
I recommend. Well, she's going to push, and what condition will you
take for the pushm she's going to take injured because as she's pushing, she
she plants on her foot and she turns into the trees on her right foot,
and she feels a twinge in her ankle, the same ankle that she
twisted before. Mm hmm. And she's going to keep moving and I'm gonna
re roll that bitch did that roll with my with my condition, it doesn't
matter one or three or two, so it doesn't matter. So as you
are, you know, Alta two of nine seems to be fast, but
again you are faster still as Scarlet moves through the trees, and Alta just
breaks through them, running like the hulk behind you, just splitting this timber
out of the way as its guns do its dirty work, as it's guns
act as machete to get through this foliage. And you're running as you feel
this thing even despite your speed getting closer. But you're able to move away,
but you keep flashing back to Garrett. You keep seeing Garrett same thing,
only this time there is no JD on a bike coming to grab you.
You see yourself alone in this forest forbody. Turn off the music loose.
You sit straight up in your bed in the cabin, sweat pouring off
of you. It's two in the morning, three in the morning. You're
not sure. There are no digital clocks in this place. Whatever you had
on the bedding, everything is soaked with perspiration. H what do you do?
And when she sits up, she's breathing heavily, and she's clutching the
bed, the sheets and the blankets and her fists, and she shaky lily
takes a breath and she wipes out her face and she's got tears coming out
of her eyes. And she looks out the window into the seat, into
the darkness, and she doesn't say anything. She doesn't say anything, but
she just thinks not again. And she's slowly gets out of bed, puts
her feet down. As soon as you put your feet down, you hear
kind of the tap of the pained glass that is you just looked out of
And when your eyes are drawn back up. You notice that the window is
actually open, that it has been pulled. It opens like a cupboard would
open, and you see completely white with what looks like a bullet hole in
his forehead and says, I died alone. We all die. Where were
you? To screams, And as you scream, you pull yourself up off
of the tree as you look around in the glade where you had taken a
rest during your lunch break in the eighth day of your time in the Age
of all Ways. As you come to, as your your own scream is
ringing in your ears, you hear Ben's voice say again, how are you?
I think, mm hmm. I think she sits there and she cries
quietly to herself. And she she's sitting next to the tree that has the
uh that ultitude of nine busted down. I think she she as she cries,
she turns and she punches the uh, the the can a full of
bullets over. Yeah, she just and she just pulls her knees up to
her and she puts her her arms down or her head down on her knees.
Before we leave, Scarlett, I want you to make actually you had
a three success. I'm going to give it. Do you practice the rest
of the day. No, just at some point around the time that you
would be heading back to the cabin. Whether you decide to do that,
it's entire entirely up to ug But at the time that you would have normally
left to go back to the cabin, you look up long enough either to
wipe away tears or just observe your surroundings, or just take a moment and
across the field in the area of summer, or in your dream you ran
to escape all to the two o nine. You see the silhouette of a
thin man. The only reason why you believe that is there seems to be
a beard. It's long, nearly waist length. When you blink, that
being is gone, and so are we. As we take flight again into
the skies of the age of all ways, we spin around towards the heat
of the day, still within the season of summer. Everybody summer right,
Please go to your Spotify playlist and queue up A Little Boys of Summer track
number three by Donald Henley Ricky. You're assuming you don't Bud's, assuming you've
been at it for a while and over the eternity road. It's been a
lot of the same for you. Everybody else has things that they do,
climbing waterfalls and shooting shit, sitting over cauldrons and watching stuff like TV free
diving and fucking ski shooting. But you you get to see criss cross applesauce
beside a fucking road. That's the short end of the stick, my friend.
But as you have your hand over the road trying to feel that heat
that has eluded you for this now the almost the end of the eighth day,
I'd like you to roll something for me and my friend. And if
you could do not roll force, I can give you a move, Greg.
Let's do that. No successes. You may use push, you may
luck, or you may pride it for an automatic success up to you,
or you may do nothing. I don't care. Let's use luck. Why
not three successes? Wow? That is a We've had some good uses of
luck so far this session. Uh, some solid Everybody watching who may not
be familiar with the tails from the loop system, this is a really good
way to use luck. Just make sure your roles are just like everybody else
is here today, because that's the easy thing to do it. Don't it
doesn't like this turns a switch or anything, but any feelings of maybe boredom
or stagnation or am I doing this? Even doing this right? There's a
measure of confidence that comes up within you, recky, whether it's born from
inside you or maybe even from the road or from the age of all ways
itself, you have the sense that you're on the right path, no pun
intended. You know, as you sit there and you just concentrate on your
hand as it sits over the heat or over the trying to catch trying to
feel that heat. That flag says, once you feel it, once you
feel the heat coming off the asphalt, that is your attunement. That is
your connection with Eternity Road. But as the way the flag makes it sound,
Eternity Road has at least got a touch of sentience to it that it
can determine or select people in which it allows to feel is heat. But
as you're sitting there, kind of I can only imagine, and I'm not
trying to, you know, presuppose what you're going to do here, but
staring at one's own hand and sitting there, you're either going to have two
different mindsets. You're going to go absolutely batshit crazy, because that's boring or
two you're just gonna kind of be somewhere else. But if there's something other
than those two that's going on with Ricky, let us know, like,
how does Ricky, How does Ricky keep his mind right as he's sitting there
for hours at a time, Maybe switching hands and Ricky's definitely switching hands because
your arms get tired, right, But he's used to boring repetitive tasks Ricky
sweting a phone. Sometimes you have to sweep for hours, but at least
then you're doing something and you're not just sitting very, very still. But
I think his mind would tend to wonder a little bit each rather than just
staring at his hand, he would look up and start looking at the world
around him, looking at the age of always looking at the trees down the
road, Is anything moving and then oh yeah, supposed to concentrate for a
bit until his mind wanders again to what's around him. So it's during one
of those moments of kind of outward inspection where you move away from the road
and kind of look at your surroundings that you notice that there is somebody on
the road and they're about ten feet away from you, walking towards you as
their feet their red boots kind of clack onto the asphalt, now gifting you
with the sound of their approach. You see that it's a girl sixteen seventeen.
Dark hair, at least you suspect it's dark. It might not all
be dark, because it's peeking out from underneath a cowboy hat, a tan
cowboy hat with that side kind of curled up a bit. It gives her
head a bit of a ca narrower look. As she's walking towards you,
and when she turns and looks, she's not wearing sunglasses or anything. You
see that she has a tattoo of a flower beside her a thigh. She
is wearing what looks like a blue and white checkered shirt that likely probably at
one point was a dress and had been converted into a blouse. She's got
camouflage pants and then red boots beneath those gathered kind of cuffs of the pants.
She has a backpack on canvas, and there seems to be a white,
pink and purple cat looking out of this canvas sack. She walks towards
you, and she stops. Are you learning to feel eternity Road? It
just gently nods. I can't hurt you. I can't get off the road,
so we're all fine. You can't get on here to hurt me because
you're still trying to learn how to use it. We're all pretty much safe.
He so I wanna take a break? Is that okay? Feel for
it. She crisscrossed apple sauces on the Eternity Road, blacktop, about four
or five feet kind of facing you. She's on the road and you on
the gravel beside it. She reaches down and grabs a canteen of water,
takes a drink, and pours it back over her shoulder to the cat,
and you hear her say, there, don't drink it all eureka, All
right, what are you doing here? Learning? Learning about it to your
right, learning about the age of always. She looks down the road where
she came from and up the road where she's going, and she said,
you know, not a lot of people do that. Well, not seen
a lot of people here, so that would make sense. Okay, So
if you don't mind me asking, I mean, it's kind of boring,
but are you doing this for a reason, or do you have a teacher
or your parents nearby? Or yet there's a reason. There's a reason for
everything, right, Sure, problems got to go, places got a fixings?
Right, are you going anywhere fixing anything? Hopefully? What's your name?
He squinted her, Ricky, Nice to meet you. You look across
his well, David, take your hand a thing? But no, right,
we can't ask you carry right? Don't touched? Right? Ah?
So is there anything I can do to help you? Or fellow traveler?
You're not You're at the beginning of the journey. I'm she looks up at
this guy. I'm getting closed. You got somewhere you going DC, buddy?
Is that d C or EC? Sorry? Emerald City? Ah?
Isn't Isn't that from a book? Is it? I don't read much?
But sure it's from a book. I think everything is from a book if
you look hard enough. I mean that that's pretty true. Have you traveled
the road long? A fair piece? Is there any I could tell you?
Do you need to get anywhere? I could? I can help you?
I mean, if you'll let me. I can't take you anywhere or
you know, well I can't. I can't go anywhere. I just needed
He'll learn. I'm gonna understand the road. Right right, here's your steps
one? Right? Uh. I don't really know his name because he keeps
giving multiple Last time you said it was Jackie. Do you know what Jackie?
No, I don't know a Jackie. Describe him? I mean,
I yay, big h losses. She cocks her head. You're talking about
Randall Flag. That's what everyone else seems to call him. But he doesn't
like using that name. Oh that's funny, he's that's he doesn't like that
name. Wonderful. You have a bang up teacher there, so I'm sure
everything will go swimmingly for you. What are you doing here, well,
professor Flag? I need to use the road for what purpose? He smiles
again? To get places where you're headed? Well, in all honesty,
I don't really know. But step one is to figure out how to get
places and then figure out what we got to do when we get there.
How we get there? It's complicated. You're certainly making it complicated, but
that's okay. I mean, this is conversation, and I've been bored as
hell, So all right, let's try different. Roll me a charm if
you want to. It's entirely you, Chris going. Then why not those
successes. She looks at you and gets up and kind of dust dust that
isn't on her off, and she's, well, the pleasure talking to you,
but a word of kind of assistance, maybe I mean, I'm not
a teacher, whatever, But stop trying to like feel the road's heat,
which is I assume what you're doing when I walked up. Try to not
feel it. And she kind of smacks a boot down onto the asphalt of
Eternity Road. Attorney Road is a bit of any gum in a maniac.
If you think or it thinks that you don't really care too much about it,
it'll pay attention to you, like putting gum in the hair of the
girl you like. You shouldn't put gum in someone's hair. I won't see
that. Attitude is not going to serve you well with the road. The
road needs a bit of an ego. He looks down at the road.
When she stood up, he stood up with that, and he looks down
at the running I can try, but I'm not sticking gum in someone's hair.
Well, the road, as far as I know, doesn't have any
hair to stick gum in. But if you sort of ignore it, it
might stop ignoring you. Mha, that one. I I'll give that a
gun I've got He looks up. I've got time. I can spend the
rest of the day doing that. Safe is better than doing what I've done
for the loss days. Good save, she says. She stands up and
again kind of straightens herself up. Well, it was nice to meet you.
If you ever find yourself in Emerald City. Dorothy Gale's the name,
you may find me at any moment, simply by letting somebody know that you're
looking for me. They always keep tracking me when I'm in the city,
so specifically in the city, specifically in the city. When I'm not in
the city, no one keeps tracking me. I don't let them. Smart.
It's another trick, hopefully to teach you that one. And Yeah,
as she gets up, she looks up and she sees it's almost sundown.
You've got a little bit more time left. But she just looks at you
and says, well, at some point you better head on home. And
there really is no place like it, and Wild starts, thank you,
Doug, thanks troubles. He tips her hat and walks off. But Eureka,
the cat with the pink and purple and white splotches all over it that
seem to shift as you watch, keeps a good eye on you until a
bend in the road takes Dorothy about two hundred yards away from everybody. If
you could get your Spotify playlist just for shits and giggles, because I like
the song uh number fourteen please over the rain though, all right, my
friends, at some point point, and again this is the eighth night.
I leave this entirely up to anybody that decides not to come back. The
cabin is expecting you as it is now sundown, and so as sundown happens,
please show up in whatever order and whatever time you would like to.
As the cook fire is going and Flag is preparing an evening meal, it
seems to be chilly, which is a new one for him, but it
smells good. Scarlett does not come back. Yeah, Ricky would return in
his normal way. Whenever he returns, he comes back with something water to
top up the supplies, firewood to again top up supplies. In the early
days of the week, he would have built like orchlings to sit outside to
give them somewhere that and said, and he brings along like a piece of
wood and he leaves it on the on the railing, next to which is
little figurines that he of animals that he's seen in the Age of Always,
just carbs sitting on the railing, and he would step inside into the cabin
if there's no one else there. He walks up to the kitchen to where
flag is. Flagg has an apron one that has like chili stains on it,
and it says, forget the cook, kiss the DJ. Ricky walks
up to the to the counters and sits neat like, not next to but
near him at brind of yours today, I don't have anything, so you
need to describe that one a little bit better. Dot red boots hat,
weird looking cat. Oh boy, would she say? This will be fucking
great? What'd she say? She gave me some of life? Was talking
to the road, said, well, and you should. I should get
you to teach me how to get people to forget where I am, well,
not know where I am, not know where you are. When you're
in the Age of Always, let's baby steps, She's throwing you in the
deep end. Let's I can do that. Let's just put a pin in
it. But I can do it. We just you know, we've got
to learn how to training. Wheels aren't off yet, Ricky, you'd like
her. She's a farm kid too, so of course you know, I
can see you all getting along famously. Just she's a bit of a troublemaker,
which is rich coming from me, I know. But whatever, pretty
pretty sure everyone here is what a trouble maker? I imagine that's why you're
here, right, are not supposed to be here, but you're here?
Well, I mean, I mean, who's troublemaker? And again you see
the chili starting to bubble like off the side as he ignores it for a
moment. What what's really a trouble maker? A troublemaker is somebody that breaks
someone else's rules. Well, yeah, they're not my rules, right,
but that someone's rules they're not mine. I didn't sign anything and said I
had to follow them. You didn't sign anything said you had to follow them.
And I didn't know about the rules. I didn't tell me about the
rules before we came, so we have to follow. We didn't sign up
to anything. We're not in service to the queen. Uh. But everyone
else should knew about the rules and still breaks them, right, He ruled
me and empathize an emphasize, I'm statscrack well success. It's not that dumpy
Whenever he says we're not in service to the queen, it's that that kind
of veiled. It's dropped. Since he doesn't have magic anymore, at least
not to the extent that he did before. You realize that there's something troubling
him about that statement. There was a hitch in his normal demeanor. Ricky,
Ricky after a Poles would look to me, why aren't you in service
to the queen? Hol me see that wooden spoon, grab that quick as
he looks down and there's you know, big pops of bubbles coming off the
chili. Shit's gonna burn on the sides. We need to get it off
the sides. And he throws an apron over your head. It is the
exact same. Just forget the cook, kiss the dj. He puts it
around, He ties it behind you, stir the sides. You how to
do it? Stir the side so it doesn't burn, all right, yes,
sir? And on that. Where's everybody else? He goes to the
door. Boy boy, it's like herding cats like the one I saw today,
and he just does the butt better? Neck fucking dog? He walks
outside, he looks around, is anybody else on the way? Heather's one
to follow instructions to the letter. And on the first day, Flag told
her to come back at sunset, and so as the sun sets, Heather
will return. Now, whether that is at the moment that Flag steps out
the door, or it was before or after, I could not say yeah,
it would be burned. On the same time. You'd probably be closing
on the porch whenever he would walk outside, and he would just basically say,
and again, you see the apron there she is. How to go
today? Good? I go? I think, well, that's good.
It's better than bad. How would I know you feel good? I feel
good? And it was good? Mhm? What's her dinner? Jilly?
Oh, so sounds good. It's ready, No good, it's getting there.
As long as Ricky doesn't burn aside, Oh he won't burn it.
It'll be dogious. Ah, he's a good kid. Won't make a cook
out of him yet. Mhm you no, I don't think so. I
think, uh, what did you just say? Sorry? You still don't
like me to most people don't? Should I? Oh? I mean if
I'm being selfish. I'd like it. Well, I think maybe that's something
to earn. I can live with that. Do you see anything when you're
out there, specifically like cold being kind of creepy guy. She's gonna pause
a moment and look at him, wondering if she should talk to him or
trust him with information, and then she'll say, well, the first night
I did, like a week ago, you saw. Yeah, not sense
though, yeah, a much. Just don't don't uh, don't be alone
with him? That makes sense? Yeah, I think you know. I
told you the other day. I'm tired of people just being vague, right,
tell me more. I wheel at dinner. It's everybody in there.
I think it's a high time. I just kind of put out a general
warning. All right, do you see anybody else coming? JD? Are
you on your way or not? I think JD is trying to be a
hero. Yeah, help. Your cat's still in there. And again at
the window, you just see the eyes of the lion peeking out. Told
not to leave unless with you just staring like fate. Nose kind of mushed
up against the glass, kind of glass that opens like a cupboard. Thinks
Heather's a Heather's gonna like slide around flag, but like keeping way too much
distance between them. So it's kind of awkward since flags like around the door
looks awkward and and and and in like an intentional slight and uh and then
just uh, she'll slip in and you know her uh. I think her
demeanor whenever she enters the house is the same type of behavior that you know
is familiar to her from her home in Garrett. That is, when she
enters any room, she do her best to fade right into the background,
maybe not so much as like a not like a wallflower, but more like
a wall shadow, you know. Except the difference between then and now is
that now she has this gigantic cat, all silver and gold and uh,
you know, catching the light of the fire. And so whenever she'll fade
into the background in a corner, there's the cat that flumps right in front
of her. Yeah, and that's exactly what happens. As soon as you
enter, Kitty does not leave your side, telling you all about the things
that that that he experienced throughout the day. You know, most of the
topics include I think the mouse is back, you know, but you're not
sure if it is or not. You're not sure if there is a mouse,
but Kitty believes there to be one, and it is a source of
a great consternation. So you know, you get to hear all about it.
Scarlett. Are you still in the perennial the glade. Yeah, she
probably stays till after nightfall. Then she would make it. Then she wouldn't
make her way back. Okay, you'd probably meet flag on the way,
like halfway between the glade and the cabin. Flag would be intercepting you.
Okay, everything all right, Yeah, just a lost totally lost track of
time. But I think I'm getting there. You know, it's getting a
lot closer. And she walks past him. Good, good, good,
that's good stuff. She keeps walking right, He falls in step behind her.
He doesn't kind of pull up to like shoulder to shoulder. He didn't
see anything out there, specifically lack of the skinny guy like tall skinny No,
why not good? Just ask if you see anybody like that. Don't
just there's not a big problem. But I'll tell you all about I Just
stay keep some space. It's you know, okay, you got you got
your guns, I mean, but that's not you don't need them. I'm
just saying it fly casual. She just keeps watching. All right, you've
seen JD. I know he's a cross, but no, I haven't seen
anyone. All right, go in there and get a drink. I'm amost
gonna I'm sure he's he's in that lean to. He can't see what time
of the day is. I'm gonna go get him, but uh, go
ahead, chilly tonight. Oh great, cool? Thanks. He starts walking
off. See, there's an easy that one gets along. I understand him,
unerstand Oh and I don't get here. And you just hear him kind
of muttering to himself, please that he is not, you know, having
to At least one of them's falling in line and doing the right shit.
And that's good for him, that's good. Randy thinks he's made some progress.
JD. Where are you? Yeah, that's a good question. I
don't know exactly where JD is other than I guess trying to, yeah,
trying to accomplish his goal with his new partner, trying to help the ferryman.
Don't know exactly how the best way to approach that is. But okay,
well you know what, because Heather and JD are very similar in their
approaches. They both like books, they both have that kind of that knowledge
in which to draw from as far as and you are already in very close
proximity. So when you would come out of the lean to if you were
to look around all the highest place to get a good lay of the land,
so to speak, would be Heather's waterfall. Well, do do you
want to climb up? You could even see Heather leaving as you see her
finish up her day. Yeah, yeah, I'll have that way. And
do you climb? I mean you've again, you two have been together and
going to the relatively the same place for a week, so you've seen Heather,
you know, jumping off and all that stuff. You know where the
ledges are, you know how to get up them? Yeah, I'll climb
up to see so I can get a better look. You get up there
and you look around and roll me and investigate. But you don't have to
because you already have a free one if you want to use. Hmm,
I will roll. I think good successes fantastic. As you look around,
and again the light's dying up here, but as you've kind of risen up
a little bit, there's not the same level of twilight gloom that you have
down at the forest floor. So as you look around, you see everything
that I described to Melissa before. The heather would have seen distant peaks,
the various seasons, the winding nature of Eternity Road, going kind of ribboning
through this whole area that you can see. And again you would also experience
that Christmas of vision. When you reach this altitude, you can see like
the eagle up here, and as you look around you see a couple of
things. One you see a singular traveler walking on Eternity Road, and even
from this distance, you can see the red boots that she's wearing. The
cat's kind of creeping out of her canvas bag. But farther up the road,
and again it could be a mile, it could be ten that you
can't really discern because of your vision. While lending detail also takes away,
sort of like a depth perception. It's like looking through a telescope. Everything
looks crisp, but you're not sure exactly how far away you are from everything.
You see the ferryman and you see the three travelers that he is escorting,
and they all seem to be sitting down on the road for what would
in all likelihood being like camping for the night. But they are remaining on
the road, and when you would get up there, the Ring would say
they're resting. Yeah, we do. Would be a good time to catch
up to him, that's for sure, But I don't know how to traverse
the road, and the Ring almost like he's pointing. If we were to
go down off of the far side of the lake and we keep this peak
and waterfall back and over our right shoulder, we should be able to DeLine
it to the road and head them off. Yes, we wouldn't need the
road. We could use the forest to get there, but I don't know
what dangers. Look inside the forest. Good thing, we can be hidden.
Good thing. And you can almost feel the Ring smile, I think
even for people like if there was a camera being pointed at Jesse's face,
the feeling of the Ring smile while actually comes out in his smile. Yeah,
so let's Yeah. The cinematography here is if there is a smile of
a Ring and a smile of jd they are superimposed over one another with the
same strength, and then he just starts heading that way. So you climb
down. Could I use my one investigation to bank and try to maybe spot
the details of one of the people or all of the people who are with
the ferryman as of right now. Yeah, you want to like kind of
like eyeball, one of the passengers or one of the Yeah, there is
an older woman, there is a younger man who was wearing like a conical
cap. And I tell you what, JD or bacon for JD. What
would JD's ideal mm hmm romantic paramour being if he was reading a book and
there was someone in there, what would he or she look like? What
would they? You know, what would that is a great question. Who
I think j D would be attracted to. Some like somebody who kind of
kept to themselves maybe a little bit, but spoke up when they had something
important to say. And then in terms of like a physical attributes or something
like that, I don't know. I think it's quite broad, but I
would say middle ish height, brunette, uh, glasses, uh, someone
who's a little bit geek here, Okay, that was just for Greg.
The other person looks nothing like that. They are they are very thin,
they look young. You're not sure exactly how old teenager esque long blonde hair.
From this distance, you can't really see eye color. That's something that's
just a bit beyond what you can see here. But any of those people,
any of those people you want to pay particular attention to, the older
lady, the younger girl, the guy with the conical hat. We'll go
with the younger girl, as she's probably closest to Jadie's age, right,
so you're able to mark down her specific characteristic. She's wearing white again.
Her hair is almost the same color as white, but there is a blonde
tint to it. Her skin is both very smooth but tanned, as if
she spent a lot of time in the sun. But the thing that you
notice the most, and the thing that is for anybody ever in the history
of ever that has set foot on blacktop barefoot. You know, it's a
terrible, terrible idea in the summertime, she is not wearing shoes cool and
I'll yeah, I'll start to head that way, Okay. So as you
get down and as you kind of negotiate to the far side of the lake,
which is a place that no one has been so far in your journeys,
you're able to You're able to get over there, but give me one
moment too. Okay, you're able to get over there and keeping again with
the ring told you shoulder over to the right. You're able to make your
way into this area, into the darkness of the forest. But as you
get in there, start to hear something. And this is where your investigative
nature and prowess in this session will serve you best. You hear a whisper.
He's not going to teach you how to use the world. He's no
good. Look around, try and spot somebody. But I think if I'm
intrigued, like in a forest, I'm gonna look up. And this is
where your free investigate comes from. About twenty feet away, in the branches
of an oak, you see a thin man, shirtless, wearing a pair
of brown pants, with a beard all the way down to his waist,
portions of it actually tucked into his waistband. He'll leave you here. Who
who are you? Right? He said? Friend? M h. I'll
take it like a step away from him, so you don't look like a
friend. What's a friend supposed to look like? Inviting? I guess I
like you see, I'm trying to save your life in the lives of those
other suckers that he brought here. That man's never done anything that hasn't been
for him. You're talking about flag just nods. H. I think we
know that. I think we're moving forward knowing that maybe you can help me.
Maybe, but that depends on if you can help me name it.
I want to find the ferryman, but take you to him, lead away.
I need you do something for me first. What's that something in that
cabin I need? I think I already know what you mean, but why
don't you say it? Just so I know? It's the bullet an a
mason jar over the fireplace. Okay, I'll take you to the ferryman.
You need the bullet first, yep. Now, I don't know if we
have time for that. I can get you there fast. Where you're going,
you won't make it by morning? Will I take you? You make
it by midnight? Things get real fun at midnight? Is our way for
me to tell you how? Yeah? Emphathiz his insight. So all right,
I'll go ahead and roll that if I can. You may absolutely hmmm,
pride luck push, don't have any more luck? I will. I'll
go ahead and push. What condition do you want to take it would have
been scared. Okay, there it is. I guess it is scared.
Yeah, so you'll take scared. But what you glean from this person in
front of you is they are actually being completely honest and you can feel the
desperation coming off of that. The other thing that I'm going to give you
here is you can tell that this person doesn't have any intention of harming you.
All right, well let's fuck okay, let's go right, all right,
And he runs off, and as he's kind of leading you back through
the forest, he almost lopes for a minute. You see like one of
his hands go down and it kind of carries him as he runs. So
he's like, you know, left foot, right foot, left hand,
right foot, left foot, left hand, you know, as he kind
of lopes as he's running, and you hear the ring actually say you can't
love that one. I knew one like him. Okay, with that,
we're going to cut back to the cabin. As you know, he hasn't
by the time flag actually comes back. He comes in and he says,
Jad must be out. I'm gonna go out looking for him. Ricky,
I need you to go out, and the three of you stay close to
the cabin. Got it. I also need you up with lights in case
he's gotten lost out in the in the woods. So Ricky, get the
lanterns, string them up on the pole that we use for the clothes.
Just get what we can to kind of give him some reference points back here.
I'm gonna go out. As he's saying this, you see him strap
on his gun that he got from Cyrs and Roebuck in nineteen twenty three.
He puts it around, y'all. But y'all promise me you stay here.
You got it. No, I'm gonna go with you. You've got Heather,
I understand, but you've got to stay here. Stay here with Big
Perr Van Halen, all of you. Just stay here around the cabin.
I'm like, you know, I don't need to worry about somebody else getting
lost and then I'm chasing lost sheep all night. But you said there was
someone dangerous out there. They're not dangerous. It's Donovan's just a it's kind
of kookie. He's just he's all bit. JD's out there with someone kookie,
but he ain't. JD's tough. He's going to be fine. I'm
just saying that Donovan can be a kookie person. So we just need to
we need to make sure that I'm going out to make sure that we cultn't
nip this in the button. And if it is him, if I shoe
him off and bring JD back, you have one hour. Well, shit,
okay, I can't even properly he fixes his pants, can't even properly
smoke, and then he walks off in the direction of the waterfall. An
hour goes by. Now I would assume that Ricky, you're probably on the
porch or that area. Scarlet, you can be wherever you would like,
Heather, where would you like to be. He's every kind of PenPoint where
you would be in the cabin for me head there is emulating big perr with
her eyeballs glued outside the window. Okay, Scarlet, go ahead, Ricky.
Ricky would have set up the lentns as told. He would probably have
even climbed onto the roof and hook put onto the chimney the highest point you
can find. But he would sit outside, right on the porch, looking
out to see if you can see anything. Yeah, as you're all waiting
and JD, as you are being brought back towards the cabin. Donovan apparently,
who identified by flag, takes you a round flag, so you never
run across him on your way back towards the cabin. But in about an
hour's time you are all in the same area as the cabin. JD in
the forest. Everybody else kind of wait for JD and Flag to get back.
It's in the kitchen, okay. Is she doing anything in particular?
Is she watching? Is she She is sitting at the table and she has
put one scoop of chili into her bowl, and she is sitting at the
table spoon in her hand, but she's not eating, and she's just looking
down at the table rolling. Investigate. Am I still injured? No,
I'm sorry, you're not investigate one success. When you look up at some
point, you know, you're sitting there kind of you know, middle distance
staring and things like that. At some point, Scarlet, when you look
up, cross just over like the cottage kitchen sink one of those windows that
opens like a cupboard, and for a moment you see Ben's face and then
it's gone. I think she has a sharp intake of breath and she kind
of like like almost gets up and she just looks back down at her ball,
straight down at the ball, right, yeah, Heather, As you
are pressed up against the glass, and Kitty just can't get close enough to
you, you know, to the point where if you're looking out the glass,
Kitty's almost like behind you, like arms around your shoulders, like looking
over your shoulder, you know, pressed up against you. As this cat
is. He's absolutely watching the outside too, but for different reasons. Is
he looking for JD? Absolutely? Is he looking for danger? Fucking ayes.
And the definition of danger for Kitty is everything that isn't Heather. So
Heather's here, danger is everywhere else, And so that is what is basically
playing through all of this, but also a lot today you climb a cliff
face danced with a waterfall, and now you're being wrapped up by the warmest
lion probably ever. Let's let's be fair, big Perr is quite comfy,
and you begin to nod off, catch yourself. Look up, you see
everybody kind of here, Scarlet in the back, a little bit here,
Van haling up on the second floor looking out that window. Eyes go closed
and you reorient yourself. Your eyes go close and you open them up,
and you're in Garrett. You look all around, Kitty is gone, and
everybody, if you could please go to your Spotify playlist to the very last
song. As you look around, you see Garrett. But it is old,
it has no life. It is overgrown with dead root and weed.
It's broken. And you find yourself staring at the paperback exchange and its sign
is on the door that says closed but not forever. A gust of wind
comes down, catches the sign and it flips over and it says open your
imagination. Everything feels real rather, but Garrett feels dead. And there beside
the paperback exchange and it's black and white rendition its lifeless form. You see
a familiar figure as Mitch walks out the door. You two see each other.
The hell you've just been seven days since you took the loop, seven
days of being alone. You're that you're that girl. Yeah, you're you're
Yeah, we saw each other the other day. You're the boy on the
milk carton. Yeah, I'm Mitch. How you can't you can't be here?
Oh? Yes, I can. I can be here. Why can't
I be here? No? No, no, no one, no one
can be here. That's that's the whole thing. That's the whole reason I'm
here. But aren't you here? Yeah? I stole the loop. Oh
wait, I'm confused the loop it did, it did get stolen the But
we're here, we're in Garrett. No we're not. Look around. Yeah,
this isn't Yeah, it means okay, ship cool. So imagine okay,
okay. So imagine you're at home and you have a VCR, right,
and you're watching a movie and you pause that movie. But all the
movie that you saw before, and all the movie that you know comes after
it still exists, right, but you're paused in in that one second.
Yeah, that's where we are. Somebody did something. I think it might
have been me, but a different It gets complicated. I'm sorry, someone
did something. And this Garrett, this right here, this one second of
Garrett, exists by itself. I think it's nineteen eighty seven. I think
it's in the summertime. I don't know exactly when, but I want to
say it's right around the time that Predator came out. Maybe before maybe,
but either way, this is one second in time that shouldn't exist. And
as far as as far as I know, I'm the only one that can
get here. So when I say you can't be here. Oh, I
understand. I it's okay. I think you're in my dream. Okay,
cool. I'm really real though, and I'm here. So the people who
are in my dreams, they are real nuts. Uh. I started to
see through Heather. Oh, hey, you're gonna wake up. I think
Heather's going to reach out her hand. Uh. You see Mitch look very
confused because he doesn't do uh, human intimacy. Uh. He looks over
to you, and he like tries to give you, like a high five,
just hold my hand. I don't. I don't know how this works,
but maybe maybe I can help. No, I'm I'm supposed to be
here. I stole the loop, and I'm I've trapped myself here so that
I couldn't Okay, remember when everything went bad and Garrett it was me.
I was the bad guy, but I was older. Uh, And the
only way to stop it was to do this. I had to. I
stole thing. No, but are you a bad guy? I don't think
so, not anymore. I stopped I stopped my future self by just destroying
the It's a whole, it's a timeline thing. And no, I'm still
the good one. And he like shows a copper ring around his finger that
has no relevance to Heather. Great does how they feel like she's waking up?
No, if you're the good one, hold my hand and maybe I
can take you back. No, I no, Well okay, then I'm
I I I need to stay here for because when I was the bad one,
I went back and I have to do things different to not become that
person. Oh, I understand. And also if I touch you, I'm
afraid I'll trap you here. Oh, I don't think you can. But
I understand. I understand that you you want to be one of the good
ones. What can I do? How can I help you? How's Garrett?
I don't really know how long it's been. Time doesn't really move here,
so I just assume it's been a couple of days. Well, time
is weird for me. It's been a couple of days since we saw you
last. You see Heather's face loop is gone? Yeah, I stole it.
You're turning invisible? What can I do? How can I help?
Just tell me? I guess. Make sure Garrett stays okay. Make sure
that everyone remembers what happened the other people I met you with, Make sure
they don't forget when I when I get back to Garrett, I will,
but I'm not there now, but I will. Okay. I Well,
good luck on your vacation. I guess. Yeah, just find my friends
and make sure they're okay. Oh you didn't hear that last part. Hello,
she's gone. Fuck, I was weird. The paperback exchange door opens
and there is a dull tinkle from the well. I thought you were the
only one. You told me you were the only one. I thought I
was the only one. I think. I can't we have this discussion already.
I can't leave. You're crying. No, okay, really embarrassing.
Is that true? You said you took the loop. Yeah, it's sort
of. It's kind of a mess. But yeah, I stole it.
I guess. I guess. Stealing it, I guess is technically the term
YEF Garrett is a unicorn. You just took its horn. What does that
mean? It's not special anymore. That's just a horse. That's fine.
When it was special, people like you tried to invade it. There was
a reason. Well, I like to think that I've removed the reason for
people like you to invade and try to kill people. You remember the part
where you killed a bunch of people, right, I hope you should remember
that. That mean saying, no, you didn't take away what they were
looking for. You took away what was kept keeping Garrett safe. I don't
think that's true, because I was about to destroy everything. Mm hmm,
Lucie, will we we're kind of stuck here, Heather, your eyes open
up. Kitty is behind you. Are you okay? Oh yeah, yeah,
Kittie. I just just fell asleep. Yeah, I just fell asleep.
I uh. I had one of those dreams. You know, I
always have them. I always have them. There's mice or everywhere in my
dreams in there. No, no, I yeah, I have those dreams
too, mice. You know, they're scary. They're really be very scary.
Sometimes you just have like terrible nightmares. But no, I mean like
the dreams that like way back way back when you first met me and we
used to go and play and we would we would swim in the ocean.
You know. Oh I remember, like it was yesterday. Yeah, yeah,
like then, and you know, to get there, I had to
I had to go travel to see you, right, yeah, yeah,
it's like I traveled to see you. I ran I ran all the way
you ran. Well, I had to. I traveled in my dream,
I traveled and I saw someone? Were they nice someone? Or yeah it
wasn't a mouse at all? Good? Good? Oh yeah, good,
I've been sure thought please, I don't remember what it was. Well,
as we had this moment of dream talk with Lyon and Heather, and we
see Ricky assembling his watch, we see Scarlett staring into the uneaten bowl of
chili kad in the woods, with Donovan the ferryman being consumed by his illness,
and the Bishop the subject of what can only be seen as a death
threat or assassination attempt. Dorothy Gale wanders along the Eternity Road. Our story
grows, our friends are starting to see their paths when a new verse begins,
Enemies Awakened. Our forgotten song of youth is being remembered word by word,
line by line. But if I leave, it's time for me to
fly join us next time for Atari Twilight, The Age of Always, Episode
three a winkle in time and that My Friends is bad? May could just
do episode three right now. Atari Twilight is an Unmade Gaming production and a
proud member of the Unmade Gaming Podcast network. If you'd like to support our
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and we'll see you next time on Atari Twilight