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, a Dari twilight Age of Always,
back into the yesteryear that may have been. And before we get into
our story here with the Age of Always, I want to go around reintroduce
our players and ask them who they'll be playing. And the question for today
again this is I realized something that I'm stealing from Trooper over or on his
channel, but I will again ask my players a similar question because I've realized
that it gives so much juicy information. The question that I will ask this,
if your player could be gifted a conversation one person, someone that you've
met, could be in Garrett, could be in your past, could be
someone that you've heard about. I mean it could be a famous person.
If that was you know, the dominating your your your player's thoughts, or
your character's thoughts could be one of your fellow PCs and NPC right now,
if given thirty minutes to one on one and sit down, ask questions that
needed to be asked or discover secrets that need to be told. If you
could stand opposite one person in game and ask the questions that need asked,
who would it be? And I will give you to the count of ten
in my head as ever, buddy, the first person, of course,
will obviously be thrust into all of this, And of course it's all RNG
here as I look around on the zoom call and see who I'm gonna go
with first. But again, who you are, who you're playing, and
if that character could talk to somebody, have an honest conversation with someone,
who would it be. Let's start with Bacon, all right, So,
yeah, I'm Bacon. I'm playing Jesse JD. Davis. He is technically
a bookworm. The one person that he would like to talk to to gain
answers from would be we'll say, the Queen Queen very good, the Queen
nebulous to this point, someone that even JD with more of an idea about
the people and denizens of the age of always. No one has laid eyes
on the Queen, and so a conversation with this mysterious figure a very solid
choice. Let's jump up to G. That's like trying to look away.
I'm deep in thought. Okay, well then you're the one I'm gonna pick.
I am deep in thought. Hi, my name is G your friendly
neighborhood Lightning and Booker. And today I'm playing Scarlett Blake, who is the
who is one of the jocks of the group. Uh, she is the
athlete. If Scarlett could talk to one character, Oh, I have no
idea. There are there's so many characters to talk to. Close Scarlet's eyes.
Mm hmmm. The first one that popped into my into my head was
Optimist Prime because he was the first one who popped into her head. So
yes, exactly, very good. Okay, so the Queen and Optimist Prime.
We're off to a fabulous start. Let's take it off the rails.
Christ I'm joking, Chris, who do you have? Who are who you're
playing? And if that character could talk to somebody, who would it be?
My friend? I'm Chris, and I'm playing Ricky Lewis, who is
a jock but not quite as jockish as scarlet. Conversation I'd like him to
have was with whoever the false? That was one of my things too.
I love this that is spoken as a true I can do whatever I want.
I can have any conversations. Sure, I'm going for that metalre not
knowledge. I need to clean that missing cog. Okay, fantastic, fantastic
and finally, last, but certainly not least, our resident artist. My
friend Melissa, who you playing? And would Heather talk to if she could?
Uh, Melissa Meyer. I play Heather Jones, who is our weirdo.
I think a lot of folks might think she's our bookworm, but no,
no, JD has that role, our little weirdo. There are a
lot of mysteries in Heather's mind about her past, but I don't think she's
in a place where she's ready to pursue any of those things. She does.
She's too afraid of what she might learn, and so she could be
asking questions of van Halen, she could be asking questions of Randall Flagg,
she could be asking questions of Aslan right, but she is too afraid to
explore what might be hidden in her past. So instead there's some questions that
she has for Miss Maggie. Oh, Miss Maggie. Okay, fantastic the
Queen, Optimus Prime, the False and Miss Maggie. Welcome everybody to Atari
Twilight if you are joining us for the first time, a world in which
the eighties and the pop culture therein has come to life. In our prior
seasons we have seen such much fantastic pop culture characters as Optimus Prime wandering the
streets and interacting with the characters that you see in front of you, as
well as our other show, Atari Twilight. Again, anything is on the
table. This is the Eighties that may have been brought to life in every
conceivable way. So whereas things remain the same, the same knowledge of pop
culture, television, music, movies, the clothing, the era, the
ambiance of that particular era lives and remains the same, it also has a
greater significance. As I mentioned, it has come to life and these fantastic
players old PCs that are walking through it. Right now, we are in
the segment of the story where you have left the real world behind. You
have traveled to a fantasy world. This here called the between the Age of
Always, where at some point all of the other worlds will briefly touch and
then move away, will briefly touch and then move away. It is a
Narnia, if you will, filled with different people that you may recognize from
pop culture, from books, other characters simply going by Madonna esque names,
like the Queen or the Bishop. Again, these nebulous entities have yet to
be fully discovered and fully realized, as our characters themselves have only recently arrived,
and during their brief time eight days to be exact, they have begun
their tutelage under the watchful eye or sunglasses of Randall Flagg, who is teaching
them the ways of the Age of Always, teaching war to Scarlet, teaching
the ability to travel eternity road to Ricky, teaching magic to Heather, and
maybe important most importantly, teaching the people of the Age of Always, the
people of the Between to JD. Because it is only then, in that
understanding and that realization and that almost symbiotic soul merging, that true understanding of
this place can be had. Only when you're a part of it can you
change it. And so, my friends, 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've long long since forgotten. But still
it sings, calling us again to a world of adventure, calling us to
return to our friends. Ricky, Heather, Scarlet and JD. Their friends
are there too, van Halen, their fateful bandmate, the cowardly Lion or
Big Perr waits to stand beside them, and Randall Flagg, villain, wizard,
Night and teacher as he turned over a new leaf, or perhaps an
old one. They are 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 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 song of forgotten youth, For
today today is a fine day. Welcome once again, my friends, to
Atari Twilight, the Age of Always, Episode three. A winkle in time,
my friends, to place you all from our last bit of adventuring.
As you kind of gathered after a long day of training, meeting back at
the cabin of Randall Flag. It was only then that JD's absence was noted.
First Scarlet was a bit late. Randall went out to collect her,
met her along the way and then went to find JD. He was told
the rest of you all to kind of leave the light on, you know,
make sure that the cabin was mortified, that you all remained safe.
Randall didn't necessarily believe that there was danger about, but that there could be
distraction about in the form of one Donovan, a mysterious figure that he promised.
Randall promised to explain more to the group whenever they were gathered together again,
continually mentioning that it's not something He's not someone to be scareful or scared
or fearful of. There's just a kind of a base travel warning if you
would, concerning this particular individual. So as we left, we had and
again correct me if I'm wrong, Ricky, you were on the front porch.
Correct, Ricky was on the front porch. Scarlett was inside staring at
a uneaten bowl of chili, and our dreamer Heather was against the window in
a space usually occupied by the cowardly lion, awaiting her return. As the
lion pressed against her, Heather comfhy and warn in both cabin and in the
embrace of a great cat drifted in and out of consciousness a bit as the
exhaustion of the day kind of grabbed hold. But back with us she is
and JD just off into the woods looking at the cabin with one Donovan behind
you. The promise that was made at that point was Donovan would help you
get to the travelers on Eternity Road, the people that you have been watching
and learning about the Ferryman and his three wards, to get you to him.
The price of that little admission on the train that is Donovan ticket is
one bullet kept in a sealed Mason jar on the hearth of the fireplace inside
the cabin. And as we join this moment, we're going to start with
Ricky. Ricky, you're on the porch, and the porch of this cabin
is like any other log cabin, handmade. But there is a new handmade
element to this porch, something that Randall Flag or whoever the architect was of
this entire place. This is an addition. Somebody has added something to the
porch, and this person is Ricky. What is Ricky placed here? So
Ricky's placed a lot of two porch wings that already swings like kids play on,
but seats that awful relaxing effectively. Yeah, he's created these two porch
swings for himself and anyone who wants to sit outside and enjoy the crisp,
clear air of the between. Fantastic. And So, my friend, I'll
ask you this too, because you mentioned this before that in passing as you
walked in in our last episode, these porch swings were noted by you and
brought into being by you. In addition, you said that Ricky had been
spending time out there whittling. What was the last thing that he finished?
I imagine it was a deer. Oh he's got He's created bears and whatever
wildlife he's seen there, But I imagine the last one probably would have been
a relatively detailed deer. They're only a couple of inches tall, nothing too
big, gotcha, gotcha? So right now is now but a few days
ago, Ricky, you are sitting on the porch swing and there is a
half formed deer. Half of it's still a block of wood. The other
half, antlers are beginning to form and kind of a profile as legs and
muscles are being chiseled away and freed from the block of wood. Since your
fourth night in the age of all ways. You've just finished your swing,
testing it out when the door to the cabin opens and Van Halen walks out
and she sees what you're doing, and she looks at the spot beside you.
Can I sit? Yeah? He shuffles over, making some room for
a yeah, please, and he just sits there, carries on whittling as
he looks across to her. You okay, yeah, yeah, you seem
to be getting along here really well. He looks around at the the clear
air, the clear skies, the beautiful grass, the trees, and it
says, yeah, it's it's almost like home, but error and better.
Yeah, it's pretty sure. You know you but you can't stay, Ricky.
We have to leave. Why. I don't understand what are the stories
you've been told. I'm actually gonna have you roll me an empathy here or
an empathize empathy. No success. She looks at you, but you can
tell that she intends to answer your question. But for the briefest moment,
you get the idea that she expected you to know. She expected you to
know why she felt the way that she felt is feeling the way that she's
feeling. The Queen. We aren't supposed to be here. This is against
every rule. But I am I. I'm in service to the Queen.
We all are. Why. I don't understand why you say the Queen has
put these rules into place, But did she rule your world. It's not
rules for rules sake, it's rules to keep people safe. When I came
to your world, I wasn't the Queen's first choice. My my mother volunteered
to go to Garrett and aid the forces of good. But she was attacked
here before she could use Eternity Road, and we lost her. I'm sorry
that that's happened. But this place is dangerous. It's deceptive. It's like
the snake that has pretty colors. You know. It's we have to find
a way out. Do you understand, thanks sir, to find a way
out, we've got to find a way through, and right now we can't
get through. You know. We need to take the road, but I
don't know how we do that without breaking more rules. And she turns the
face. You almost slides like side saddle on the swing, and she leans
in and you realize she doesn't want anyone else to hear this. Between where
we are, it's if something happens here that's big enough. It can affect
the world that it's touching. If someone dies here, they can die in
the world that's touching them. Does that make sense. It's a mirror,
it's a reflex. It supersedes the will of the world that's touching it.
So if your Garrett were to touch here and your dad came here and died,
he would die in your world. It would be like he never existed.
It would be like you never existed. It would change things, it
would erase things. I I cannot remember the face of my mother. He
gives her a hug at that point, I'm sorry that you have to go
through that you will have to do. We can to stay safe while we're
here. I get that you want us to leave as soon as possible,
but to get through, we need to We need to complete our training.
I haven't been able to figure out Eternity Road, and I'm not sure the
others have managed to figure out what mister Flag has been trying to teach them.
She just squeezes you, and you realize that she's crying, and when
your words end, it goes on for several beats and she says to you
again, this is in you know Van Halen is usually a very not I
want to say, a loud person, but a very extroverted person. Is
she she's a front person, she's the lead singer's but in this moment,
in this case, she is walled off and you are inside those walls.
And she says to you, when I first came to your world, I
forgot who I was. I couldn't remember anything. I couldn't remember my name.
I still can't. I think I have more than one. Things went
so quickly. I began to remember. I remember the face of my father.
They knew that the music would lead me to him, and when I
saw it, I remembered that, and I started my job, my mission.
And then you all started to forget, and I had to use all
of my strength to keep Heather asleep. And I can't remember everything. I
I think I'm lost. Ricky, we'll find you, We'll find your way
home. You have to. He struggles for a second, rubs his head,
and he says, this is exactly the meddling that we're here to fix.
Someone's done this toe someone's done stuff to us, to our worlds.
I needs to stop. We'll find your way home. And she pulls back
out of the hug, and you can see that she has been crying.
It's almost it looks like in this light of evening, it looks almost like
silver coming down her cheeks. But she looks at you and she says,
I trust you and you alone, Ricky. You have the decisions inside of
you that I know are right. I will look to you when I am
in doubt, and what you do I will do. I will do my
best to do what's right. They're always right. And she just puts her
head on your shoulder. I think for the rest of that night they would
just sit. He would stop his whittling for that evening and they would just
sit there quietly on the porch. My friend, if at any point until
I tell you otherwise, if you have to make a role for van Halen,
please do so. And the title of this little boon is is this
love? My friends? Back to the night in question, JD. You
were in the forest. As you would look back, you can see Ricky
on the porch waiting for you. All Randall flag leave in the direction of
the waterfall. But you and this wiry man that you're with, Donovan,
have curled back around and are kind of looking at the cabin from the opposite
approach, and at that moment, a almost silent lights down behind you,
all in a bit of a clearing, and this massive vulture looking creature with
these three crooked talons, and this fleshy kind of chest moves forward. The
tips of its feathers seem to be needles or finely woven or braided metal,
a glint off of the little light from the moon and the stars above,
and Donovan walks over and you can hear this sub audible kind of you see
Donovan nod, and he turns back around again. He's naked from the waist
up, but his massive beard hangs all the way down to the belt of
his kind of destroyed pants. It's tucked in in various places, almost giving
him a a an apron. Not unlike Randall Flagg's Get the Cook, Kiss
the dj apron, this one is one of beard. And this man turns
back to you and says, the ferryman has created a camp along Eternity Road.
He will be there for at least a day. We halftime, you
have to get it. But we they seem to be waiting for you,
or noticing your absence. Yeah, they I think they do that. That
makes sense. I'll just try and sneak through the back door. I guess
we have time. Go in there as normal. Just tell them that you
distracted, you saw me. Then when their god is down, get the
bullet. Bring it out to me tomorrow night. We'll have plenty of time
to make it to the ferryman and the creature behind him. Don't worry about
the hobby jeez, crotchedy, but always has good information. Okay, huh,
how do I know you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do?
Well, you don't. I could be a liar. Are you a liar?
If I said no? Would you believe me? No? And I
will say it on the word. Do you believe that I'm going to get
what you asked for? You have better follow through? And I swear you
bring me the bullet and I will deliver you to the ferryman along Eternity Road.
Okay, I'll see you tomorrow by the waterfall. Sure, I'll give
it a second, and then I will kind of circle back and go to
the front where Ricky is waiting. As you circle around and leave Donovan's company.
As you leave his presence, the ring in your pocket speaks up and
we trust that one. I don't know. I don't know who to trust
right now. You can trust me, I don't know. But we still
need to get to that place, to the ferryman, so we need him.
I don't know what else to do. I agree he is a means
to an end, but we need to keep an eye on him. I
will do this. I will watch him he tries to harm us. I
will that, you know, okay, again that feeling of contentment, and
I'll stride towards the cabin. Heather from the window, we're gonna say that
you'd be the first one to kind of have an angled look and see JD
walking through the trees, seemingly none the worse for wear. The thing is,
as soon as Heather sees JD, she'll she'll shoot up and out the
door, and uh, maybe even before Jad realizes what's coming, envelops him
in a hug, and in that in that like split second before he even
realizes that there's there's a hug happening, she realizes that there's a hug happening,
and then she like jumps back and then she's like uncomfortable in her skin.
You know. She she doesn't know what to do with her hands,
and she looks down and she says, uh, where were you? What
I was? We were all worried. I was just you know, walking
around. I went and looked at you know, where you're hanging out in
the waterfall. It's pretty, but it's dark, I know, But look
at what we've been through the sun being down isn't the worst part. There's
a there's there's a man out here, JD. There's there's a there's a
man that you really need to avoid. Randall Flagg says that you know he
can't be trusted. Okay, I'll keep out for him, but you don't
have to worry about me. Yuh huh, of course I don't know.
I know, I know, I know. I like that you do.
Don't worry about it too hard, okay, Well all right, well then
then you come in before dark. Okay, I'll come in before dark.
All right. Hey, there's chili on sweet Ricky. You would bear witness
to this exchange, just so you know. You're on the porch, so
you're all three within a good proximity of one another. Kitty has remained in
the window. Van Halen is was up at the second story window and has
now moved to the front door. Scarlett, you would have heard van Halen
come down from the top and as she kind of crosses by where you would
be staring at your bowl full of chili, uneatened uneaten, she would say
he's here. JD's back, what oh, oh good, and she will
push the bowl away and er screeched back the chair and she will get up
with them, head out with her. So for this moment, Keystones,
you are all together on the porch or the front yard of the cabin.
Randall is nowhere to be seen. Van Halen is here, Big perr the
cowardly lion is just inside, still maintaining the rules set even though he is
not Randall Flag's not around. He the cat will not pass the threshold now,
I've Heather. If you say so, he will of course come running,
but he's sort of waiting by the door, his great frame kind of
hunched over a bit. But you altogether, for this moment, is there
anything you want to say to one another before you take the table? Or
should we progress and see where Randa is? Well? I think Scarlett would
just say h to JD's legs really worried about you, flagers. Yeah,
he's like, all god, his pannies in a twist, and he's out
looking for you. Just at that moment, you hear a shot ring out
in the distance, and then you heard and it's flag, And then another
shot rang out where are you? Oh my god? And she's gonna she's
gonna walk forward and she's gonna pull out her own gun and shoot a shot
into the air. And she was like, and she's gonna say, oh,
come back home. There's a beat, a beat, a beat.
Okay, is it just me or has he gotten so weird? Yeah,
because he's scared. Scared. Yeah, haven't you noticed that, Randall?
He only really cares about something when it affects him. You ever noticed that.
So if he needs us to do something and all of a sudden one
of us isn't there, Look how we acts he needs us, We don't
need him. He's been I guess, well, he can't get a power
back unless we all agree. So something happens to one of us and she
kind of gulps a little bit at that thought. I don't think anything's gonna
happen to us. I don't think so either. I don't think so either,
JD. But you know, I think we got I think we need
to remember that we need to keep the band together. We've all been kind
of playing solo lately. Well, I mean we've all had to do our
training. Yeah, rick you. Ricky glances at van Halen and just says,
look, nothing should happen to us, but it can still happen.
She nods. This place is the reasons that van Halen told us nothing trust
this places. They have rules that people shouldn't be probably for a reason.
Yeah, so we should all come in before it's dark. Oh why should
we We spend our whole time together as we've gotten together, listening to what
other people have said, Hey, go do this, go up to Castle
Gray school, do all these different things. When is it our turn to
do what we want to do? And in a place like this, God's
walk here, we walk here. That's got to mean something. We're not
God's who says when a god stands on you, you're dead. Right?
Maybe so, but we're in a position of that right, we have that
ability to do something different than everyone else. There's a reason we're here and
not somebody else from school. Jatie, we went to Castle Gray School to
help people. You know, Yeah, I know, I know that.
I guess what I'm trying to say is is that we've been reacting. Maybe
it's something that we just act and let other people react to us, all
right, But we can do that in a safe way, and we can
do it together. Yeah, absolutely, I think so. But I also
think that right now our mission is to save Garrett. It's to grow personally
now, to save Garrett later. But you know, I've been thinking about
it, and we tried to save Garrett, and I think to some extent
it has been saved, but not for me. I want to do something.
I don't know. I just think it there's something's going on that we
need to figure out that's bigger than just Garrett. Right, that's why we're
here. Well right, but if we continue Randall brought us for Randall,
we might be able to get something out of it. But I think what
I'm trying to say is is maybe I don't know, we just try to
figure out how we can dictate some things. I don't think that's such a
bad thing. What do you want to dictate? JD? I don't know.
I just don't always want to follow the rules that somebody else is giving
me. We've done that a lot like Flag right now. Well, Flag's
done incredible things, right, maybe at times horrible, but he's done great
things too. He has the ability to or at least he had the ability
to do something, and he chose to do something bad at times. We
don't have to choose that same thing. But we need to be able to
be as powerful as that, right, And that's why we're all doing our
own thing is to get there and together. When the band is together,
then we can do more. But we right now we have to. I
don't know grow persona. I don't know about you, but I haven't been
able to communicate with the road yet. You will, I don't get me
wrong. I finally believe that. But hasn't happened yet. How long have
we been here? Four days? It's eternity road, right, we got
time. Maybe it is not just time for practice, Maybe it's time for
exploring. If your guys' parents took you to a cabin in the woods,
are you staying in the cabin even during the day? Aren't you going further
and further out? We've only gone inches compared to what we can go doesn't
that isn't that exciting. I mean, take it from somebody who's constantly scared,
was constantly scared. Let's tell let's tell n that that's what we want
to do. Why do we need to tell Randall anything? Because he's he's
the adult, maybe in age. Yeah, he's wearing that stupid apron.
Yeah, Ricky's wearing the same apron. Yeah. She's like, during this
talk, I'm going to kind of like cycle through towards where if my back
would be facing the Mason jar with the bullet. Yeah, if you guys
want to process, if you guys want to go inside, you can absolutely
do that kind of just the conversation and say before I forget, I should.
And Heather pauses here because she doesn't necessarily want to admit that she fell
asleep while wull looking for Git, and she says, I just remembered I
had a dream. And she pauses again and realizes that that isn't technically a
lie, and she said, I, uh, I dreamed, Well,
I dreamed about one of your second string players, Scarlett Casey, Casey Mitchell.
You know the boy that was on the on the milk carton. Yeah,
the guy with the evil twin guy. Yeah, he was talking a
little bit about that too. He seems really kind of confused, you know,
you know how JD's always he he says all the smartest things and just
like the fewest words possible, like case, he's like the opposite of that.
He just anyway, he he he's the one who took the loop.
What. Yeah, he said, I don't know how he did it.
He was really he it was not clear, but he took the loop and
they're in a he hasn't now he's he's holding it hostage or something in like
a version of Garrett that's that's stuck. How would he take the whole loop?
He didn't. He didn't tell me I And I mean if he did,
it would have been hard to figure out, you know how he is.
But so I don't think I think he thinks that he he he's keeping
Garrett safe by keeping the loop, so we don't need to worry about that.
Uh. He said he did ask us to to keep Carrot safe.
And I think he's worried about his friends forgetting him, you know, or
for maybe maybe the way adults forget things. Sometimes he thinks he's keeping Garrett
safe by taking the loop away. Mm hmm yep, hm. But that's
Flags said that that's bad. But he took it away, didn't Heah,
didn't Flag say that the loop was the thing that made didn't he say that?
No? I fleg said that if we didn't leave, then we would
be stuck in Garrett without a loop. So we had to leave before while
we could, or we'd be stuck there. That would mean that we need
the loop. The loop would be good. H That am made our Garrett
special. You know. He didn't want to He didn't want to leave,
and I thought that was strange because the Garrett he's in doesn't look too good.
Hm. From the window. Uh. The lion says he's on his
way back. But who is? Who is kitty mister Flagg? Oh good,
let's go inside. Come on, she will turn and head back in.
I'll be with you in a second. And Ricky starts to collect all
the lensens that he set up me do so, in fact, when you're
probably either you know, extinguishing them or just kind of collecting them and putting
them back in their proper spaces. Randall would come out of the woods,
not on the path. You hear him if he comes out and he's got
shit kind of like sticking out of his apron and stuff or his jacket.
At this point, he took his apron off and he lights up a cigarette
and he's like, yeah, I got lot, I got off the trail.
Ricky shakes his head. I know, don't tell anybody, all right,
yes, uh, good boy. And he walks over and opens the
door and comes in. And wherever your position, JD. He looks over
and kind of gives you the finger guns here we are. Everybody counted for
great chili. It's probably burned, but who cares. It's the middle.
Use the middle besides are stuck, I'm sure. Oh, And unbeknownst to
him, there is a huge, like not huge, but noticeable, like
pine sprig like sticking off of his shoulder. It's evident that he fell at
least once. So, uh, everyone have a good day. Yeah,
m mm hmm. I think Scarlet she's kind of she's actually kind of like
pacing back and forth a little bit, kind of like like wringing her hands,
and then she'll stop and she will go to the pot of chili and
she will start stirring it like vigorously scraping the sides. Good girl, Can
I get anybody anything going down the south? I'm going to get myself something
that you all cannot have. But I also have tea down there, anything
very good? No. I mean we could probably mix up some kind of
like sas Marilla stuff, but that takes a long time, a little too
little bang for your buck. But I mean, if you want, I
can find something fuzzy. Fine, All right, fine, And he goes
down and you can see him moving down through like the stone steps, and
then you hear the clink of bottles, which you all know to either be
of the beer or wine variety. No, it's not a tea cellar,
so to speak, but you know he hats the place to keep it cool.
So once sun tea is made, or however he is making it,
it is down there too cool. And you're alone for a few minutes,
and he'll eventually come back up. The sprig is gone off of his shoulder.
You can tell that he probably either knocked it off or realized it was
there either or you can't tell whether or not he is feeling embarrassed by that.
But he has a well looks like a very large mason glass full of
what appears to be wine. Another day in the age of always. Can
I help anyone with anything? Anybody that can make any breakthroughs? I know
Scarlett's kicking ass over in the perennial anybody else running anything? Ricky? You
feeling anything over on Eternity Road? Not yet? But I did have my
good conversation with Thoughts. It was nice. Asked a lot of questions.
She asked about me. What would you tell her, Ricky, you could
tell you joking. I didn't even say your name. She figured it out.
She figured it out. She said she missed me or anything or no,
I guess that that. No, no, no, don't you stop
something there? She says, not to trust me. Did she say to
run away from me? That's generally the consensus, isn't it, Ricky?
You are a very good non liar. You don't say the truth, but
I can't quite say it's a lie. That's a fine skill, thank you.
Fine, find a fine skill. Heather, how's it going with the
waterfall? Good? Feeling good? Said you're happy. Yeah, he's learning
magic, right. I don't know about learning magic, but I mean it
feels good. Well, that's the way it should feel. If it felt
bad, then we wouldn't be doing anymore. No magic yet though, Oh
we'll get there. Don't worry about it. JD. How's it looking in
the cauldron? I've been able to at least see two people. It looks
like somebody's leading people on the Eternity road. I think the ferryman. And
then I saw the bishop for a little bit. They were conducting some search,
some form of service of something. I don't know really, but that's
really all I got always in church that one. Just remember what I told
you, and if something bad happens, geez it, good good. Oh
hell, I'm gonna give myself an extra drink because I apparently am doing a
bang up job here at being a professor. So another round for everybody,
courtesy of doctor Randall Flagg. And he walks off to the porch to smoke
and drank. Ricky looks to Heather. He's a doctor. Oh probably he's
lived a long time. I think he has been like a wizard and like
a knight and all kinds of things. Ricky just squints looking at the door.
Who the hell's dot? Do you guys know? Who Who's dot?
I met her on the road. She was traveling on the road to ec
Emerald City. He had a cat. It was weird colors. Dorothy,
Dorothy going to and Heather looks over at kitty kit. He is trembling more
than usual or just normal, Yeah, a lot more than normal. This
is uh, you know, the normal like intermittent shakes that the cat would
have is become constant. Oh kitty, are you? Is everything? Okay?
Do you do? You know Dorothy? And I read a book once
about you and you knew her. He just slowly moves upstairs and you see
him curl into the corner of that because you can kind of see through the
banisters up there, you can see him kind of curl against the banisters above
where the fireplace is. Yes, word, I excuse me, I'm gonna
go. I'm gonna go help. And so Heather's gonna follow him up and
then not mention anything again about Emerald City or Dorothy. But just am,
he's just constantly shaking. Who's a brave lion? You are? Who is
what? Yeah? Right? Me? The best lion ever? I bet
you've defeated all kinds of mice. Well, I've certainly given him a strong
talking to as we pull away from there. Oh, go ahead, go
ahead, No, go ahead. I was just gonna say that if there's
nothing else that needs to be exchanged between everybody at this point, I will
progress us to nighttime. So we're gonna say it's roughly midnight. If you're
asleep, your character's asleep. If you're up, your characters up. But
it is now the witching hour, so to speak. Well, JD's eyes
are definitely open, staring at the uh the ceiling. I think he's just
trying to determine whether or not he's going to uh sneak himself to get the
bullet in the jar, or if he's going to slip the ring on to
do so. And he's waiting and listening to see if everyone is asleep.
Who's sleep Ricky of course, early to bed, early to rise. Yep,
he's gonna get up. Only what to do Scarlet Heather? Yeah,
I don't think Scarlet is asleep. I think she if she looks over her
and she sees that JD is awake, she's she's sitting on her bed,
and she she glances at the window and then looks at JD. And then
she'll pick up her pillow and walk over to JD. Hey, JD,
But yeah, do you want I'm sorry this is stupid, but do you
want to switch beds with me? Uh? What? Uh? Why?
The window kind of gets a little drafty, and I don't like being cold
when I sleep, okay, And she like shifts from foot to foot?
Is that okay? Yeah, give me a second. And yeah, he
just collectses things really quick. Thanks. As you said, sometimes he's like,
yeah, I'm gonna you gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be right
back, okay, And then she'll lie down and then stare at the ceiling
again. By the way, everybody, I have been negligent for the scene.
If you would, I would like you to go to our Spotify playlist
and go to the second track. This is Listen to Your Heart by Rocksad.
Heather. Are you awake or asleep? Heather? I don't know what
time she goes to sleep, but I it would probably be before midnight.
And Greg, I think before going to sleep you spoke about you asked us
who our characters would like to speak to, and I said that Heather would
like to speak with miss Maggie now that she's had this experience again of dreaming.
I think it's all the more real to her and she wants to try
to own this a little bit more, and she's going to as she drifts
off, she's going to try to keep the image of miss Maggie in her
mind. Okay, Ricky, Heather, you are not in this, but
I will take an investigation room from Scarlett and JD. One for me,
two for JD. Okay, again, I'm going to give you this one
that we had last time. You only needed one success for this Bacon,
so bank another investigative success. So if I make you roll investigation, you
have a free success that you can use at a later date, later date
or just today this session session. Okay, you hear distant gunfire? How
Scarlet? You know it? JD. This is almost like that second success
is kind of in play here because you hear the pop, but it's something
you're not necessarily too versed with as far as you know hearing, especially in
this place. Hearing gunfire for Scarlet, this is something that is heard constantly
all the time. It's audio wise. It's probably associated with the age of
always with Scarlet and that you know the sounds of gunfire and this place you
can hear it. Yeah, you know, and it's it's intermittent. You
hear like a pop pop, and then maybe thirty seconds later, and it's
very faint. You can like Ricky and Heather being asleep. It's not something
to rouse them. It's it's distant enough to you know, keep that from
being something that that that you know, gets you out of slumber. But
both of you hear this now again, neither of you know that the other
has heard it, JD. So I will I will leave that up to
you while as you hear it. But Scarlet, it's coming from the perennial,
you know, it the exact direction of which you go every day.
It's your training ground. I think she will get up. And Jad said
he was going to the battle, so I imagine he's not on this in
the loft anymore. Yeah, we'll say that. Yeah, if if that's
where Bacon wants to be, JD. You could already have left the room
and this was heard at a different point, so you can remain. You
know, it's easy for you to stay away from Scarlet is when I'm trying
to get a yeah, get out here. You don't have to be in
the room. You can be okay, Yes, and she's gonna like cock
her head and listen, and she's gonna go perennial. And then she's gonna
grab her like her hoodie and she's still in her pajamas and she's gonna go
down down the steps. You have your guns with you? Yep, I'll
stop asking. You tell me when you don't have them with you? How's
that sure? When you get down there again, it's every thirty seconds you
hear that. And JD you're hearing this too. But Scarlet, as you
descend from the law, Randall Flagg is nowhere to be seen. He's usually
down here in a chair or on the porch. He is neither. Does
Scarlet see JD down there? That's up? No JD? No okay?
So she yeah, so she'll look around, doesn't see him, and she
was gonna go. She's gonna open the front door and go on to the
porch and like listen there. And if she still hears it and it confirms
her that it's in the perennial, she's gonna turn and run a jog in
that direction. If you had to guess what time it was, you would
say probably a little after midnight, twelve thirty ish, beautiful night. I
mean that's the de fact of default, state of the age of always is
just perfection, whether you're in whatever season you're in. If it's winter,
it's the perfect winter day. If it's spring, it's the perfect spring day.
You know almost if you want it to be windy, it's wendy.
You know that type of thing. It's just a it's very accommodating when it
comes to it's a climate. You run off towards the perennial, but we
cut back into the cabin, JD. Did you watch your leave? Yeah?
Absolutely. As the door shut behind her, the ring comes off,
and JD is back to standing in the living room. He grabs the mason
jar and heads back up to his bed. And as there is, as
there's no one to stop you or witness what you've done, no roles are
required, my friend, as you and the ring have acquired and if you
want to write it on your a bullet in a mason or yeah, a
bullet in a mason jar. Item require uh scarlet. You get down to
the perennial, do you want to put shoes on first? Like Cas?
Sure? Yeah, you pull on your your shoes as you run out again,
it gets louder as you get closer that she's gonna she's gonna she was
running before, and she's gonna she's gonna slow down and she's gonna hunk her
down. So she's more like stealthy. And as she as she approaches it,
as she's she knows this place pretty well. Now she's gonna like hunker
down and try and like sneak, sneak in and see what's going on instead
of just busting in then only a sneak. Look, we actually have a
scale that it's that exact definition those successes. You may push, you may
use luck, you may use your pride if you want an automatic success,
whatever you advit, No, Okay, As you get down there, and
in your mind, you're you're sneaking into the area, sneaking in the perennial,
and the Perennial is a huge glade here in the Age of all Ways,
in which all four seasons are comingled. You know, in this corner
it's spring, that corner, it's fall, this corner, winter, corner
summer, And across the perennial, across the glade, you see the figure
of Randall flag and you can tell that he's stumbling a bit, but you
see him kind of stumble and he lifts his gun into the air, and
you see him turn around and as he's walking back towards your direction, and
you see him swing open the chamber of his revolver and start to the cylinder
and start to you know, empty out the old casings. And you've done
this yourself countless times, you know, putting the spent bullets in your pocket,
reloading. And you see him kind of stumbling as he walks towards and
now I'm not even gonna make your roll this. You can see it.
You see that he is weeping, and Jared doesn't seem to be injured.
He walks forward and he doesn't see you at all. He's maybe twenty feet
from you, as you're still kind of in the tree line. He stops
where you usually stop to complete your ritual, and he fires two shots into
the air, and with the second one, he holds the gun up and
you can see the smoke kind of caught by the summer wind. In this
section, it spins around and goes up to whatever heaven exists above the age
of always, and you hear him say see me, see me, and
then he turns around stumbles back away. He turns around and stumbles back towards
you. He fires two shots in the air again, and after the second
he says it again, see me, I'm here, see me, turns
back around, and if you watch for as long as you watch, he
does this. H wow. Okay, she's gonna leave it for now.
She's a she feels like she really wants to go over and talk to him,
but not this time. She's just gonna watch him for now. Yeah.
Every so often you'll see that in the middle of the perennial, there
appears to be in the winter side of perennial, there seems to be a
bottle of something that Randall flag. You know, he found the portable cooler
that is the season of winter, and whatever he's drinking, he's keeping chilled
in that particular area of the perennial. But he'll stop and take a swig
until at one point you see him flip the bottle into the air and behind
his back. He takes two shots and you hear the glass shatter, and
then he as if he's not impressed by his own little act of gun work,
he continues on his way. Okay, Yeah, she's just she's just
gonna watch him and it never changes. You just hear after that second shot,
whenever he's close enough for you to hear, you hear the see me,
I'm here. And then the cycle repeats, are you gonna take off
before dawn? Are you staying there that long? Or are you So She'll
stays for like an hour at least minutes, and then yeah, then she'll
head back, and then she might sit up waiting for like another hour,
and then she might fall asleep on the couch. Okay, all of this
is done. Morning comes and whenever you are would normally wake up. I
know Scarlett gets up a little bit earlier to run. All of these things
are open to you. Randall will be out on the porch smoking, seemingly
no worse for wear. If you're not Scarlet, you'd have no idea what
happened, which like asks the question is this a nightly occurrence? Right?
Indeed? Yeah, I think she kind of jolts a weight, lying on
the couch with like a blanket over her. It's like what And then she's
gonna she's gonna sit up and like rub her face, and then she sees
him standing outside and on the porch, and she's gonna get up and get
ready for her jog. Okay, that's everybody else doing. Let us know
that Randall typically sleeps in the living room in a chair or on the couch.
You would, because I'm assuming like anybody, if you have to use
the restroom in the middle of the night, you would come downstairs by the
way outhouse. Everybody woo, so that's out back. You would have to
pass down through the main area. Of which case you either see Randall in
a chair by the fire or one ricky swing once it was constructed out on
the porch. One of those two locations. He does not sleep. He
does not have a bedroom, he doesn't have a bed. You're not sure
if he sleeps in the chair. You have no idea. But no one
has caught him sleeping yet. But the exception of like him acting like he's
napping or something like that in the sun. So I guess my question is
is for JD's knowledge. I think he assumed when he heard the gun shots
that it was flag because especially after he came downstairs and no one was there,
and then seeing Scarlett leave, that's his assumption. Is that a safe
assumption for him to have absolutely yeah, because I mean, it would be
an easy thing to make the jump. Who could be making those shots?
Flags not here, flag carries a gun, scarlet runs out, you know,
it's it makes sense in that respect as far as there are no other
likely suspects or cool JD's probably the last to rise. That's probably typical too,
right. And in this uh, this fine morning, you would see
that there somehow has been a there's fresh fruit on the front. There,
there's there's toast that has been to hosted. Randall has again prepared a spread
for breakfast. It is not of the grand wakey, wakey eggs and baky
moment that you all had when you first got there. But again there's plenty
for you all to eat as he is expecting another beautiful day here in the
Age of Always. Time to clock in at your various points of herculean labors,
figure out how to do magic war, learn the road, and learn
the people of the Age of Always. Yeah, he just thinks, you
know, he's doing a bang up job, and you all are just aces
in his book. Are you all doing anything by yourselves? Or are you
making your way to your various training exercises. G you said, Scott's going
for run the right, Yeah, I think when she wakes up, well,
when she's ready and she comes outside, Ricky's standing there, ready,
mind if I join you today? Oh yeah, sure, kind I got
into it when I was at school and okay, she's stifled, and she's
like, okay, race you, and she she's off. He chuckles,
seeing Scarlet a sort of smile as she runs off and chases off the and
just joins her for a morning run. Flag would see the two of you
kind of sprint away, and he would turn to whoever's closed. It's likely
Heather, since JD's coming down last. He would turn to Heather and go,
I never understand that. Why do you run to run? Why don't
you conserve energy? I mean, I only run when something's chasing me,
And if it's chasing me for twenty six miles, I'm running for twenty seven.
That's it. You're asking, you're asking the wrong one of us,
or you're on my side? Right? Well, I wouldn't say that exactly,
not even on this. I think we share an opinion. I'll take
it. You need you want to toast or fruit opinion share I already had
enough, thank you. I think JD's laughing as he's eating whatever, just
laughing at this conversation. It's funny to watch Heather mess with Randall. But
he would hear that, and again he would turn to JD. What about
you? You run just to run? Are you? Uh? You know,
just just run? Yeah? I do, unfortunately, I mean,
I don't love it, but it's nice when you're good at it. I
guess. I guess I'll never know. I've been around a while, I
aint never caught the urge to just start running run, have but a hat
to all right? Really, listen, God created both feet and a Harley
Davidson. I don't know why you would pick the one over the other.
AnyWho. I think it cuts over to Scarlet and Ricky and their jogging,
and as they're jogging, she's she lacks no actually she didn't eat any She
didn't eat anything before she left. And yeah, she she glances at Ricky
and and it's not just me, right, you got Do you have a
strange feeling being here doing all this stuff? Yeah, but things was strange
before we left as well. Healen's still happy with us being here. Yeah,
I kind of get that she's very quiet, but like, yeah,
things were weird at home, but we were home, but this place is
I don't know, Okay, maybe it is just me, but I just
I just got a really bad feeling. I just think we we need to
figure out how to get back and fix whatever's wrong. You know you're not
alone, right, yeah, Well, roll in it together. So I
want to get a chance we sit down, as it great and figure it
out. But then, what's this this stuff about that JD's talking about.
He wants to do other things and like go exploring, and like, I
guess, I guess that's okay, And I'm kind of figuring out what's I'm
all for it, you know, like, hey, let's go do some
cool stuff. But and she actually like slows down and she comes to a
stop. I'm worried that if we take too long, something bad's gonna happen,
well at home or here at home, I guess, but weird stuff's
happening here too. We can believe what mister Flagg said to us, We
can go back to any time the moment we left. It would be like
we never left. Yeah, But the problem is what happens here. This
is we're on day nine now, Like, sure we can go back and
we can go back to New Year's Eve, but everyone else it's been nine
days for them, So are we gonna go back back home? It wouldn't
have been. It's still gonna be New Year's Eve. But time is still
passing right now, ony for us, at least, that's what he's told
us, I mean, or as I know, he's not lying to us,
but well, no, I'm I'm taking that as whatever whatever happens,
we're we're going to be undoing it and going like back in time essentially,
Like I don't seeing weird things, Ricky, and she kind of, she
kind of tried the way and like looks through the trees, weird things that
are here. She nods. I saw Ben twice, and he was the
little one. He's not little, I mean compared to Jerry with his lightning
hands. He was little. Did you seen him here? Yeah? Two
times yesterday, but I think I was dreaming, But the second time I
definitely wasn't dreaming. He shakes his head very gently. Maybe this place makes
you see things, Maybe it makes you think about the people and places you
want to find the most. We don't really know how this place works.
He said things were bad there back home. Ricky struggles for a moment van
Halen and I think mister Flag even said that this place touches worlds. It's
close. Maybe maybe it's been from another world. It's reaching out to you.
I don't know, but maybe. But how how have been of another
world know me? I mean, it seems like I don't know. I
Scott it. I'm not the smart one. Sorry, it's stupid. Come
on, let's go. If she starts to run, he just stands,
it's not stupid. She'll stop and look back. Thanks. I think you
need to speak someone who maybe understands what's going on more but and she kind
of thinks about it, someone who knows more about it. Okay, I'll
try that. Come on, he smiles, says, I don't want to
have to worry about you call it, and he starts to jog. I'll
be okay, and Jill. She runs up next Tom, but she doesn't
say anything for the rest of the job unless he speaks to her. I
think it'll be a quiet rest of the job because he's trying to process everything's
called it said my friends, it is time to train. Does everyone go
to their respective arenas classrooms. Excuse me, yep, fantastic. So as
you are progressing through here, I'm not going to we know what the training
montages at this point is. You know, Scarlet goes through the perennial and
fires or gun at targets two in the air, one for the Queen,
one for the gun slingers, before Heather jumping off the waterfall to be cleansed
to the taint of the real world that steals magic from you JD JD.
Do you go to the lean to uh okay, then you are you are
gifted with the television view of both the bishop and the ferrymen inside your cauldron.
And we will as all of these progress normally, as we all do,
we are going to stick with Ricky. As Ricky goes to his ever
present. I mean it's like you're like serving your We're in the black right
now, like you are, just you're at the wall. That's where you
go. And so as you go out to Eternity Road, you know,
in the past eight days you have sat beside the road, put your hands
intermittently, you know, switched hands over to feel that heat flag saying as
soon as the road accepts you you'll be able to feel the heat coming off
the asphalt, but as of yet, you have not felt an aary a
degree of change between the air temperature and what can only be the warmth that
you should feel coming off of Eternity Road. Eternity Road is there. It's
black asphalt, and then it's dashed yellow line down the middle, extending and
winding its way through an otherwise completely naturally dominated landscape. No dot on the
road, no other travelers can be seen one way or the other. You
can watch the curls go around. You see like an overpass that kind of
goes over some of a creek, you know, goes over a bridge.
But the same gift of scenery that you've had for eight days, Ricky,
what do you do today? Ricky gets to where he's been sitting and I
imagine there's like a dent in the grass where he's literally set in the same
spot every single day. He walks up, sort of kneels down rather than
sitting, and sort of ruffles the grass to try and bring it back to
where it was, and he says, I'm really sorry. The last week
is I've been I've been trying to follow what everyone has told me to do.
But I think I should introduce myself better. And he stops, and
he stands up and says, well, I'm Ricky Lewis, And he starts
to walk along the edge of the road and he says, if if we're
to become friends, I think you should know me, not who mister flag
or got told me I should be in order to become friends with you,
So I think you should know who I am. And Ricky just walks along
the edge of the road and he starts to tell stories about his life,
his life growing up on the farm. He starts to talk about all of
his friends, about Heather and Scarlet, and and he literally spends the whole
day with a huge smile on his face as he remembers all of the stories
about his life, his family, his friends, and he just walks up
and down the road a whole day, only anything you would like. And
I rolled a success, Craig, can you what? And I rolled a
success? Sure, successful, fantastic. Like when you say you roll a
success, how do you oh ahha, gotcha wound that two? Success is
for a fantastic fantastic Okay, So as you end your day again, this
is sundown. But you said you were walking along the road, and I
assume that you're not. You know, you're not walking in one direction the
entire day to get you know, miles and miles away from the cabin,
but sort of like a circuit back and forth, just you know, okay,
as you end your day, just as the sun kind of peeks down
below the forest or the tree line, not necessarily set, but set for
our circumstance here in your position. You aren't in what would be the season
of winter here along Eternity Road. And as you kind of reach the end
of your work day with the Eternity Road, as you turn to leave,
and your left hand kind of, you know, hangs at your side in
a natural walking stance. You feel heat on your fingertips, and then it's
gone. You do anything, I think. The smile widens on his face.
He's had a happy day. His smile widens, and he just looks
across gently down to the road and thank you. It's been a good day.
Hopefully we can continue our conversations. Mura have a good day. And
he turns to walk off. He knows he's not allowed to stand on the
road, so he wouldn't do yes, because the warnings always are you stand
on the road, you have to have somebody that knows how to travel the
road, and that you almost stand on together with the traveler getting on first
and leaving last bunch of rules for the road. But the one rule that
kind of supersedes them all for this particular moment is you are very confident that
if there was an overture to be made, it was made by the road.
But that brief feeling, almost like you rubbed your fingers two or three
inches above a birthday candle, just that briefest of warmth, my friends,
unless you tell me otherwise, JD will put a pin in you. The
rest of you go back to the cabin after a day of training. Scarlet,
Yeah, before she starts her training, I don't know if this will
work it neither does she. But before she even starts her day, she
thinks about what Ricky said and talking to the person who would know more information.
So she's gonna go and she's gonna sit criss cross apple sauce and straighten
her back, close her eyes, and she's gonna think about then, and
she's going to sit there and then are you there? And she's gonna think
really hard about the face that she saw last night or two nights ago.
This is gonna take your entire day of training if you allow it. Is
that? Okay? So would you devote your Basically, what I'm saying here
is this is going to be a very quick kind of You're gonna think that
you're doing this for five minutes and it will be sundown. So you're going
to lose a day of training for this. Yeah, only anything that you
want. But unlike Ricky, would you choose to roll for me as a
consequence? Yeah? I think she's going to roll lead. Um m hmm,
I'm gonna roll lead. But then okay, let's roll lead and see
what happens. One success all day you sit there and again for you,
it's five minutes, maybe ten. Can I add my pride in there if
you would like to? Sure? Oh, Sue successes. She never backs
down from a challenge. Okay, everybody, if you could go to your
Spotify playlist, go to number one by skid Row, I remember you again,
five to ten minutes for you, m m. You think about them,
you remember the day that you met him running the relay races or the
relay race that you all had in the summer during prior to summers ago,
when you were training. You remember the good things here. You remember these
little moments, the saving him from the portal in the backyard of the Butts
house, the minutes that were spent that seem to be so much longer then
maybe they even actually were. And it's fun, it's cathartic. I would
imagine for Scarlett to see instead of that vision of Ben that she saw in
her dream, with the wound and the pallor of death about him, he's
alive and vibrant. But these are only memories. You can't interact with them
anymore than just the recollection of them. But towards the end, and if
this is a dream, this is the part where you're half awake and half
asleep, where the moments of the dream and the fantasy of the dream is
beginning to fade, and the texture and sensations of reality is beginning to strengthen
and solidify as your other senses take over for the subconscious. But in that
moment, you don't see Ben, not the Ben that you know, but
you know it's Ben. You see a man twenty four or twenty five hair
long, resting on his chest, thin with a a T shirt on,
a few tattoos peeking from beneath the white T shirt, riding a motorcycle,
and you can see that in the background as kind of like the motion blur
of the dream solidifies and stops. That it's Garrett, but it's a slightly
different Garrett than what you would know it as you don't see some of the
stores. The cars look strange, and you see Ben, this old Ben.
His spine straightens and he looks and pulls off his sunglasses. He looks
right at your point of reference, your dream e O V. And he
says, old strong scarlet. Then you wake up and she looks around and
she rubs her face and she and she just kind of nods to herself,
okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, I can do it.
I can do it. Okay, and she will just kind of take a
deep breath and it's like she she's like like shaking off like dust or cobwebs,
and she gets back up. Okay, I can do this. And
she looks up and sees that it's nightfall and her training time is over and
she's gonna she's gonna turn and head back, and she's gonna stop by the
tree, and she's gonna look at the cat that had the bullets in it
that she had knocked over, and she's gonna kneel down and she's gonna scoop
them back up and put them back in the jar. And then you can.
So you're heading back, Ricky's heading back, Heather, you're heading back
correct after a day of dancing with the waterfall JD. I'm going to let
you give you this one for free from your advantage point at the lean to
you can see in the distance hither heading back towards the cabin. I'm assuming
you've got the Mason jar with you. Yeah. On During my training though,
I think I would have spent if I can, I would spend as
much time looking at the Ferryman as possible so that I personally can confirm that
he is still where Donovan says he says he is. Yeah. Absolutely.
You can see that Donovan has told you the truth and that there is a
camp on Eternity Road. You can see that there has been a tent that
has been erected. It's a a pretty substantial structure. You're not sure exactly
whose packet came from. You're assuming the ferryman and the three travelers that are
with him seem to be tending to him. Whenever the you know you're watching
it, and whenever the kind of the tent flaps blow, you can see
that the younger girl, the blonde girl, is kneeling down beside the ferryman.
His turban is off, his shaved head is slick with sweat, but
he's still smiling, and you see her kind of tending to him appears to
be a wet rag. And every once in a while, when the ferryman's
eyes closed, you can see the three travelers exchange concerned looks. You can't
necessarily hear what they're saying, but you can see that they are all,
just by their expressions, very concerned about the ferryman. And again, because
of this, this empathy and this symbiotic relationship that you have with the ferrymen
now are kind of generated and cultivated, you can feel that he is very
ill, and that despite the confidence that his face seems to give, just
from your ability to read what's really going on beneath the surface, you're more
than confident that he is dying. Okay, and the Ring would chime in
whenever you needed support. The Ring has reached the same conclusions. He does
not look well. No, no, he looks he looks really bad.
If it was true what we heard in the cathedral, if those monks plan
to attack the ferryman to draw out the bishop, these three that are with
the ferrymen, their lives are at stake. We must hurry. Yeah,
we just need to give it some time because I don't want anyone else to
see. So we have to make it up to the waterfall after everyone else
has left. I agree. We can't risk the others. We can do
this. I don't want to see them out, neither do I are you
saying go now? I don't like that Donavan. Perhaps if we begin,
he will find us. I don't know the answer. Just feel the tension.
I don't. I don't think I would be successful if I go by
myself. I think we need Donovan in this instance. I am never the
one to do the traveling. I am always the one that is carried.
I will leave this to you. I trust what you have to say.
We wait, we wait, We'll need to wait a second, and JD
will wait until he can see that. Everyone starts to leave, and he'll
climb back up the waterfall in the same places that he watched Heather do it
before, and probably watch her do it today. And we'll say that in
a very kind of a cookie cutter version of what happened the prior night Heather.
Everybody returns to the cabin, this time scarlet at the appropriate time and
not the appropriate scarlet. Wasn't that late, but you know, at the
same time as everyone else and JD you're able to take to the top of
the waterfall, at which time the sun truly sets, not just beneath the
tree line, but the horizon accepts the sun. And Donovan appears. Do
you have it? Reach down and pull out the jar. His eyes go
wide. Done. The promise is a promise. I will take you to
them, and then you will give it to me. Agreed, agreed.
Take me to the ferryman. Please let us be quick. The hobby hast
told me that he is unwell. And then you can get sick here.
Oh many things can happen here. Your flag is trying to keep you safe.
What I call it is keeping you ignorant. Well, we can agree
on one thing then, and he starts to walk you show promise, my
boy, you'd do well here, I hope so I like it. Here
seems that the age likes you as well, and you all disappear into the
forest led by Donovan. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, everybody, why
don't we queue up a little track number four Cindy Lauper True Colors. Again,
Randall is cooking. He's in the midst of making some type of vegetable
soup. You he's on some type of you know, liquid dinner diet.
And again it's very similar for JD is not present. A few beats go
by. This doesn't cause nearly the same level of concern that was brought about
by you know, his absence the prior night. And it isn't until maybe
forty five minutes an hour has passed and JD's not here. I leave it
up to you all if you react differently, But it would be about that
that Randall Flagg would look up at I'll let's just say, Heather, did
you see a JD when you were leaving? His kid's getting longer and longer
coming back to the Ponderosa here, No, I didn't. I I just
came back. I guess he's exploring. I told him to come back.
I told him to come back before dark. That's what That's the rules.
Yeah, that's the rules. And he looks at you, and for the
first time, Randall actually looks serious and he looks at Heather. We are
on the same side. Wow, if you don't want to admit it.
Wait, no, you told me you like to break the rules, not
mine. Well that's an interesting take. I'm the only one that's right.
Scarlet's like stretching in the corner, like doing like kind of like yoga stuff.
And he goes to light a cigarette and Ricky, are you present as
well? I'm assuming you know, and all three of you van Halen,
cowardly lyon would all see the cigarette drop from as his eyes looked to the
fireplace. One of you all take a there's a jar on the fireplace.
If somebody break it, didn't what's wrong with you? What's wrong god?
And he runs to the door and you see him grab his gun belt and
throw it on. But he is sprinting towards the waterfall. Scarlet scarlets at
Ricky and then she follows. No bolts with them. Yeah, Randall doesn't
like to run yeah. Heather's following behind. A few beats later, and
Cindy, you're not quite what I need for this, So I need you
all to go to number three, Blaze of Glory by one Jonathan bon Joviny.
Won't put that one repeat. He gets there, looks up and looks
around, goes to the lean to and rips open the leather apron. It's
kind of hanging there that that keeps the this and the smoke kind of pours
out, and he looks in. He ain't here. Oh shit, what's
wrong? Wait? What's happening? What's happening? Is he in trouble?
You said we were going to be safe hereman? Oh shit? Where where
do we go? He starts moving into the forest. Scarlett turns to Heather.
Are you okay? You're good to come with us? Of course?
I am. What do you mean? Oh you don't okay? Can all
right? I'm sorry? Can you keep up? Because we're going okay?
Fine? Cool? And she's gonna she's gonna grab her hand and then she's
gonna run. And unless you told him otherwise, the lion is running beside,
you know, just with the heightened tension, and that was enough to
put his old ticker over the He is just not leaving Heather's side. It's
a defensive thing for them both. He can't exist with this level of anxiety
and he doesn want anything to happen to Heather does also with him. Yeah,
Van Halen is also with you, just constantly. And again, this
is not something that she's trying to hide. If at any point there is
a moment of decision right or left, her eyes go immediately to Ricky,
and whatever Ricky does, she does so as well. But she is not
saying, you know, this is a dangerous place. We shouldn't be here.
She's not adding commentary to any of this. She's just acting dating.
Ricky's trying to pull himself up alongside Flag to try to weave their way through
the forest next to him. Yeah, you can too. I mean he's
not moving at like a supernatural speed or anything like that. He's in fact,
he's like an older guy running who no longer has magic to augment his
run, but seems to not be like you would think that he'd be clutching
his chest at some point, he's not. He's able to continue his run.
He's in good shape, but he's not magically augmented anymore. So Yeah,
six on one JD. Donovan leads you straight as the arrow flies,
and ahead of you, Eternity Road winds back into existence and you can see
that there is an overpass like something you would see in Garrett going over Interstate
sixty eight. And on the other side of this overpass you see the camp
of the Ferryman. And Donovan takes you and says, here you are.
They're just right up there. I fulfilled my promise. Yeah, but I
need to get on the road. I can't follow you there. If you
get on, they are right there. They aren't moving, so you can
get them. He's a ferryman. He oops with travel in the Sainties in
is you're gonna be able to help me though? And I cannot tell you,
but he still lives. It's almost like he checks the wind. He
still lives. And he puts a bony calloused hand out my payment before I
give it to you. What do you want to do with it? I'm
doing nothing with it. Toss it to him, catches it and JD puts
one foot and then the other one Eternity Road and Eternity Road grabs JD.
You feel almost like the gravity of this planet is doubled. It gets down
through the souls of your sneakers as you stand there and kind of feel yourself
almost being drawn into the asphalt for a second, and you hear the Ring
kind of not grunting or experiencing that same pressure. And then it subsides,
and the Ring says, on it is our story now, and you feel
it, Yeah, I can feel it. Rules are meant to be broken,
but not our rules, because we're always right. Because we are always
right. And you hear that that agreement, that whisper, that that kinship
that the Ring has always wanted. Let us be hero in this tale.
I'll just start moving towards the Ferryman. You start walking down the middle of
Eternity Road, and for a moment, the last bit of light silhouettes JD
as he walks, the Ring in his pocket, as he becomes for a
moment anyway, the walking dude, as he takes to the middle of the
road, his rules the only ones that matter here in the age of Always
and JD. You approach this group of four with the ferryman, no small
man with a conical hat, the older woman and the beautiful blonde teenager and
they all see you coming and they look at you quizzically, and you stride
up and the girl smiles. But that's an another dale. We cut back
to Donovan because he looks down at the mason jar. Ye through the ban
Yeah, And he breaks the seal around the wax top of the mason jar
and he pours the bullet into his calloused, bony hand and as it rolls,
written along its length, it says, Flag, all of you are
running, and I need you all to roll me a force roll pretty success
is Ricky. As you already mentioned, Heather, you would have gone as
tea kettle if it hadn't been for the fact that Scarlett said she was running
with you hand in hand. And so when this powerful wave hits you all,
this this invisible line of force hits Ricky, you would stand still as
you would see Flag get knocked into you, and you're the only thing that
keeps him up as he hits you and kind of slides down your frame.
Scarlett, you grab a hold of Heather and are able to keep her up.
Kitty jumps to the ground and puts his paws over his head, and
you can even see the force buffeting his mane. Van Halen stands there and
takes it as it comes in, and she doesn't move against it, and
she starts to shake her head place and for the first time, Flag turns
and looks at van Halen and says, you were right. And then you
all smell it leather, tobacco, sweat, gunpowder. He looks at all
of you, hurry and begins to sprint towards Eternity Road. You all take
and break through the forest line, and you see Eternity Road. But in
the distance over and overpass silhouetted against the last of the light. Here in
the between, you see JD on the road, and Flag immediately throws his
arms back. If anyone tries to get on the road, he immediately stops
them, and van Halen helps, we can't follow him, We can't well,
what do you mean, what do you mean we can't follow him?
This wheel can't follow him. He's gone on the road. But well,
where's he going? I don't know. That was the whole point about training.
So we can get on this road, No can't. He looks at
Ricky. Ricky, you know you can't get on the road. What did
he do? What was that? What was that blast? What did he
what did he take? There is a another gust of wind and over the
overpass, Ricky, you're the only one that can see this happen. There
is a shimmer like heat coming off the road, even at night, and
JD's gone and flag turns to you all and again with that another burst of
wind. You smell the tobacco, the leather, the sweat, the gunpowder.
And he looks to the west and says that blast was a reckoning.
He's coming Roland. Yeah, my friends, that's where we end this session
of Age of Atari or Age of Atarior Twilight, Age of Always. Join
us next time for Age of Atari, Age Atari, Age of Always,
Atari Twilight uh episode four to live and die in ec Fuck, and also
join us for Atari Twilight Keystone to find out what happens to our good friend
Bacon. We do no one know? Yeah, yeah, I don.
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