The show you're about to listen to was originally a live streamed actual play on
twitch dot tv slash on made Gaming. Arise, millions 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 work all around the
multiverse to find out exactly how to save the town of Garrett in this original
Tales from the Loop actual play atari Twilight rollout. I am extremely happy to
be back here, and before we do anything as is, there's been a
gap a bit of time for the players, but not so much the characters.
Let's keep it real brief. Let's go around. Let's talk to each
person. Give us your name and your character's name and what they are hick,
weirdo, whatever playbook or character class they are for Tales from the Loop.
Let's start with Bidders Bitters. I'm mister Bidders, hate everything. I
played Jerry Baker and he's just basically a meat obstacle. That's about sums it
up. Let's jump down to frags frags, same questions. I'm frags.
Some people call me Kendall, you call me that A quitman playing Robert and
he is a weirdo, good meta, same questions, awesome Henny guys a
metam answer. Also Shannon Locke on this lovely show, and she is a
troublemaker, which probably comes as no surprise if you watched any of the other
seasons. Right, Rhino, same belly of questions. So I'm Rhino.
I'm playing George Butts. I'm also a troublemaker former popular kid. But we
don't talk about the exactly. And last but certainly not least our host Mike,
what's up? I'm like, you guys know me, I'm playing Mitch.
Mitch was a hick and now I don't know. He's a conspiracy theorist.
I guess yeah, that's it. Well, very good, everybody,
and I am Greg grim Jack two one five though two I will be playing
the eighties in our campaign. In addition to that, my primary NPC,
Ben Mackenzie, is a member of the five that you see a raid around
you. But with that, I thought that we would jump right in to
this season three, the final season of Atari Twilight rollout now for those of
you just joining us on Twitch or YouTube, and as a refresh to all
myself included, here's a little bit about our game. Stari Twilight is a
story about the eighties played using Free League's Tales from the Loop system. Tales
from the Loop calls its setting the eighties that never was because of the fantastical
elements added to our history. However, here at Atari Twilight we call it
an eighties, one of a limitless number of possibilities. For instance, right
now, there could be an eighties that exists where the Ghostbusters are actually busting
ghosts in New York City. Another one where Turbo Kelly and Ozone are breakdancing
in Venice, Yet another where Ren is petitioning the city council to allow dance
inside the town limits, even in eighties where the Transformers are real. So
many different variations of the decade of decadence. But between all of those different
eighties, spread out like rose in a garden. Between all of those eighties,
some things never change. The music is the same, the movies,
books, and TV pop culture the same. Everything that you remember or heard
about happened, so it's different. In our story. Imagine that the great
minds of the past turned their considerable power to advancements of peace and not war,
instead of simply having the ability to destroy the planet with nuclear weapons,
which they still do. We also had the ability to make it better robotics
advanced methods of travel. As our story shows us, it might not be
a truly better world, but it certainly is a different one. As for
our sandbox, Garrett, Maryland is at the heart of it all. There,
five kids seek to save not just the eighties, but all of the
eighties that ever were, including ours. In their way, stands a cadre
of forces so fantastic that only the Greatest Decade could house them. Characters from
television, movies and novels walk the streets of Garrett, names like Optimus Prime,
the Heroic Transformer, and foul Cour the luck Dragon, mingle with the
mundane. In this small mountain town. Garrett is the nexus. It is
where the fate of everything will be decided, for it holds the Loop,
a great mysterious research facility, a miraculous particle accelerator that powers not only scientific
progress but the imagination. And this vast and terrible Loop will be the armageddon
of all existence. In this the last year of the Greatest Decade. Here,
in nineteen eighty nine, all will be decided, for good or ill
the end of the age, and this tale is upon us. Four years,
over one hundred and twenty five songs, ultimately forty episodes in the making.
Comes down to this. We return to an eighties here in Garrett,
in the Highlands of Maryland, the stakes everything, our heroes, children grown
far too old for their years. Your GM me I will be the eighties
in our story. But to know our tale, you must know the kids
that tell it. But where are our kids? Where are our heroes?
And with that, my friends, please go to our Spotify playlist where you
can find the soundtrack to this episode. The first song of the evening holding
On for a Hero, by one Bonnie Tyler. When last we saw our
intrepid band after the confrontation with the foes that separated them from their loved ones,
they had stepped through a neon wired portal, saw versions of themselves cheering
them on, and walked hand in hand into the brilliant light before them.
But that was then. Where are we now? The only way to go
forward is to go back back one last time to our shared story, our
eighties. Back one last time for the love and memories, Back one last
time to stand with our fantastic heroes George Butts, Jerry Baker, Shannon Locke,
Ben Mackenzie Robot, and Casey Mitch Mitchell. Welcome one and all to
the end of an Age. Welcome my friends to Atari Twilight. Rollout my
players before you, rows of starlights, a never ending field, twist and
flip in your vision, your stomach's lurch and roll as your perception is squeezed
and turned. For those of you that are fans of roller coasters, who
are poorly constructed carnival rides, you are on one right now through the rows,
you fall, one by one, you tumble past George Butts, once
a proud, cool kid, incapable of empathy and focused more on the betterment
of himself than others, now has like the Terminators, Skynet, becomes self
aware. He has learned his father is possessed of a malevolent force that claims
to be the evil Transformer Megatron, and he has learned that he himself is
a kid out of face. He and his mother were brought to this eighties
from one of the others to replace their versions that died here. He has
a child of two worlds, unsure whether he belongs in either George has grown
strong physically, but it will be the war waged within that will either save
him or damn us all Rhino. George is spinning in this place between Please
roll George's best skill. Tell us what that skill is. Add your iconic
item bonus, and let us know what that item is as well. Okay,
I'll be rolling contact heart if it has to be my best one.
Please already, so I'll do that. Oh so, zero successes. My
iconic item is a pack of red Apple cigarettes. So I just imagine whatever's
happening. I'm just sparkling one up as we tumble through the quantum here,
okay, And as you flip through the quantum real you fumble for your cigarettes,
as you reach and try to find your red apples, they elude you
as you twist and tumble through this eternal night. Jerry Baker a former bully
humored by the other kids for the protection he provided. Jerry has evolved a
home life sundered by an abusive father, a father that seems faded to follow
the evil that infests Garrett. Jerry is seen as an instrument by the enemy,
someone that will surely join them to better himself, but they have not
truly seen Jerry. They have not seen his hero's journey. The first of
the kids to explore the powers bestowed upon them, Jerry wields his electric might
for good. He is the reborn samurai, the fist holding a roll of
pennies. He is the lone rock that their enemies will smash themselves to pieces
against. Jerry is spinning in this place between Please roll Jerry's best skill,
tell us what it is. Add your iconic item, bonus, and let
us know what that is as well. Well, I've got to go with
force. Jerry always has been a force despite everything, and his iconic item
it says fake ID, it's technically real ID. It's just his older brother's
idea. And with one success, you tumble past our vision. She and
Unlocke brilliant, but beholden to the pressures of her peers. Shannon plays the
role of malcontent rebel punk in other worlds. In other eighties, she served
the will of evil. In other eighties, she commanded the forces of darkness.
But not here, not in this eighties. In this place, Shannon
grew confident and bold, smart and strong, mentored by a father that walked
the walk and talked the talk. None of the kids front the shadow is
definitely a Shannon, but of all of them, she is the least likely
to fall prey to its sirens song, imbued with the power outside of the
others, its source unknown. Shannon travels unseen among the enemy, but they
know she exists, for the enemy understands what they face in Shannon Locke,
and with that understanding, they know fear Meta. Shannon is spinning in this
the place between. Please roll her best skill, tell us what it is,
add your iconic item bonus, and let us know what that is.
Do I ad to do? I roll the iconic item. Sorry, you
can just add to add two to your role that you will put him.
Okay, I can't go over to my best is sneak. I can't add
two to it, So I'll just roll it with the icon true one success
and with item is a leather vest which she never takes off, which I
wouldn't have taken off, but I have everything kept away, so with you,
fiercely clad in a leather vest, Shannon tumbles past us in the space
between Ben Mackenzie, the beating heart of the group. He champions them all
would die for each of them, and considers his family found worth, every
drop of his blood and the very breath in his chest. He stands fearlessly
beside his more powerful friends. He charges into the fray without hesitation, but
with bravery comes a warning. A warning for both Ben and the group.
What happens to a body if the heart dies. Robot forgotten son of a
seemingly disinterested family, Rob lived a life of desperate isolation. His parents shells
without substance, ignored everything he ever said or did. Food and shelter were
provided, but love and affection were withheld from him his whole life. But
Rob would not allow himself to be lost to hopelessness or fall prey to the
evils that neglect fosters. Instead, he became a sympathetic friend, a compassionate
leader, a hero. In the mold of his idol Optimus Prime, Robot
has grown beyond the sparse nutrients of his upbringing. Now he stands exactly in
the place he needs to be at exactly the time he needs to be there.
All that remains is to see destiny fulfilled frags. Rob is spinning in
this the place between Please roll, Rob's best skill tell us what it is
add your iconic item bonus and let us know what that is as well.
All right, So my best skill is going to be empathized. That's going
to be kind of the core of what rob is. The conic item that
I have here is going to be the crystal that was given to me from
Miss Maggie, that he holds on Deer, that his you know, helped
guide him, even unconsciously through the decisions that he's had to make. I
just add two to my please. Yeah, one success, and with one
success, Robot Crystal safely stowed. Tumbles by Casey Mitch. Mitchell was the
last of his kind, the group's resident conspiracy theorist. He tackles each problem
with a mad scientist's focus and a wizard's mania. Despite months of normal life
between their adventures, Mitch never left the field of battle, never stopped preparing.
The rest of his friends tried to slip back into the real world,
into normal life, but he never stopped thinking about the mysteries and the enemies
that plague them. He planned, he plodded, He waited until the evil
returned. As he knew it would, his time has come. In this
frenzied moment of madness. Now is his time. Now is the time of
the once in future Mitch, Mike, Mitch is spinning in this the place
between. Please roll Mitch's best skill, tell us what it is. Add
your iconic item, bonus, and let us know what that is. Perfect.
Mitch's best skill is tinker and his iconic item is the adjustable wrench that
he used to take Chief Rugan's bike to town. So let's give that a
role and see what happens to successes. Gregg fantastic and with two successes in
times too, I had I had my check window covered. Fantastic. Oh
what a great day. Okay, I'm sorry anyway, with two successes,
you all have the starfield spinning beside you, the rows of these points of
light blurring and whirling, but maintaining that that very linear path that each of
them seemed to travel. And with that you all hit the frigid water of
an unknown source. Six splashes, Roll me force each of you, just
let me know if you don't have a success. Looks like successes all around.
The only one to vomit is Ben Mackenzie, who, as you are
all beneath the level where the surface of this body of water. He vomits
beneath the waves like some type of trout that it's expelling particles of worm.
Whoever is closest, whoever was holding his hand, would see this blast come
out of the semi dark water as you all presumably head towards the surface,
as each of you pop it as cold as the air hits you. The
lake that you are on is not frozen over, despite it feeling like it
should be. But as you look up, you see a boat maybe ten
feet away from you, and the boy that you know is Chris sits on
a bench inside of it. Oh my god, there you are. Come
on quick, come on, and he reaches for one of you. What
do you do? My friends? In this the final season at Atari Twilight,
When you put it like that sounds so I don't like the way you
put that either. I have to ask what is what is he wearing?
Because the last time we saw Chris, I think he was in a Johnny
on a rooftop. With your success that you had, I will let you
know this that for our campaign. Oh let's just say, if you are
forced to dive, which you just were, you will be making rolls upon
your eggs that those rolls will give you bonuses and aids upon landing in your
new destination with everybody having a success and with so many successes too, with
your best ability inside you understand the following is you're kind of bobbing on the
surface of this frigid water. He appears sixteen or seventeen. He is wearing
a heavy jacket. It looks like a Pittsburgh Steelers parka. He has the
sleeve rolled up. You see that he is in a larger boat. Only
a boat or fishing boat of this size would be maybe a three to four
person number. This is a large boat with a flat nose to it.
Um. This is something that could easily house ten people. And he is
reaching for you all and again he's older than you've ever seen him. But
again, sixteen seventeen, Like the whole cast, I feel it's just suspicious
of Greg very much so. The first to go, Yeah, I was,
I was gonna say, I think the your water is as cold as
you're saying it is. That suspicions only is going to be very fleeting because
I'm gonna make trying to make my way out of the water towards I don't
even know if I'm gonna recognize who it is at this point. I'm just
trying to get out of the water, absolutely um and so you know,
no force rolls were required here. Chris is prepared and he pulls first Shannon
out and then he pulls Rob out of the water. But it's when he
gets to Jerry and Ben. Jerry, when you look into the face of
Chris, you are taken back two moments before when you looked down into that
cage, that that subterranean that pits cell and the old face of main Street
Jimmy looked up at you and said that he would meet you again and again
and again, and you realize that this is just a younger version of main
Street Jimmy, and his hand reaches out to you much like it reached up
to you from the cell. I'm so glad to see you. It's so
cold. You guys, Ben Barr get out of the water. He grabs
hold of Jerry and pulls him up into the boat, grabs hold of Ben,
pulls Ben up into the boat. You know, I'm presumably everyone's helping
everybody else get out at this point, unless you you know, you just
fall into the boat and don't help and um, I'm assuming George, Mitch,
you accept help to get into the boat. As George doesn't. It's
a robot. You're just gonna just kind of like pike up as soon as
you get to the edge. Yeah, I have I have the I got
my you know, five G chip upgrade. So I just jump in water.
So I just like a video game flippers Okay, yeah, So yeah,
whether or not you believe you can do that, that's not what it
looks like to everybody else. You just kind of pull yourself up as you
get into the water without any assistance. Um, Mitch. Mitch is obviously
last. Seeing that no one get murdered by random Chris and a lake,
he climbs the board. Yeah. And as I'm making sure that he's sending
all his friends first, I just aware that you're safe now listen. He
gets there's some reason why he's the only one I don't want to die in
the boat first, Okay, sure, sure, And so as you all
get in, Chris immediately goes to the back of the boat and drops kind
of the outboard motor into the water and begins to kind of work the pool.
And he turns around and points to several like garbage bags that are there,
and he just says, dry off, I brought something warm. I'll
get you someplace warmer, and he just wrong. He tries to start the
motor, but for a moment, with the noise he's making and the frenzy,
he appears to be in the six of you have a moment where he's
not paying attention and it's going to look around and see if there's anybody on
the boat, like just kind of glance over other than Chris. It's empty.
Is there anything else there? I guess his belongings there or is it
just these facts? Just these bags? And you can see that there are
like towels and blankets kind of half packed into some of these bags. It
doesn't take much to realize that when he indicated to get dry, he probably
meant using whatever was in these bags, Like you don't see anything that could
be like, I don't know villain sized so or any any persons sized No,
person's eye. No, that's my favorite size Snickers bars. Villain sized
mine too. Greg. Is there a lake in Garrett, Maryland? Mike,
They're sure? Is okay? There is? And again I'll give you
this because of the successes that were generated in the dive. It doesn't take
long for you all to realize, just because of proximity and the fact that
you all grew up here, that this is Queen Lake. It is just
outside of Garrett, maybe ten miles Niche foregoes any bag or drying and just
looks to Jimmy or looks to Chris and says, when are we he and
he turns around and says, Saturday, March fourth, nineteen eighty nine.
It's like six o'clock. That's five months. That's five months. And he
shouts back to everyone else who can also do math, congratulations as math as
you say, I'm helping Shannon hand out towels, especially to Ben. Yeah.
He rob would have been appreciative, but he's probably just laying there just
trying to get his head around what just happened. Jane puts a towel on
him. M yeah, if he wasn't going to do the math. But
five months yet, how do we find out where we are? What?
What do you mean? Where? How do we find out where we are?
Definitely one leake uts out of Garrett. No, no, no,
not where we are? Like where okay, so we were in our Garrett,
and then we know that there's other Garrets and other Chrises, and he
just motions to Chris, how do we know we start code naming these because
it's getting really confusing. I think they turned around and says, there's only
one me. I just get older and stuff. What I don't know what
any of that means. Garrett R was the one that your dad had a
book, Garrett Are and Garrett M. And then our Garrett and then wherever
we found my dad? Who's not my dad? What's the difference between our
Garrett and Garrett Are? Garrett Are is I don't know. There was a
bad guy who came from there who was mean, it's your Do you have
your dad's notebook? Yeah, okay, well that's in there. And then
Garrett M is where Megatron is from, and then he named it R and
M. I didn't name them. It's in his dad's book. I don't
remember that. Well, it was only it was only seven hours ago.
Well, a lot of happened in seven hours, including the fact that I
just love my dad in a cage in the middle of nowhere. I mean,
so you know there's that. Maybe it's if it's infinite universes. We're
gonna we're gonna need more than twenty six number designations. Well you also have
numbers that yeah, I'm just saying, we could also use whole words.
That's also true. And with that, the motor of the boat roars to
life, and everybody, if you would go to your Spotify playlist, please
que up a little soul to soul back to life please. Chris gets behind
or in front of the motor and begins speeding you towards the shore. He's
not taking you to the nearest shore. You can see that he's moving kind
of parallel to the shore, but angling a bit towards the right um.
And as he's making his move, it's so loud. He's yelling to you
just to stay warm and stay down, but he seems to be hell bent
to get where he's going, not just because you're cold, but because he
needs to be there. I is your benevolent GM And for the fact that
this is our first episode and nearly a year, I will let you know
this, everything that Chris tells you is super fucking important. With that being
said, you are traveling at a high rate of speed towards the nearby shore.
You've probably got about a minute or two before you reach wherever it is
Chris is taking you. Is there anything you want to do? Chris cannot
hear you over the roar of the engine. Does George feel anything? Does
he feel cold? Is he like affected by this anymore now that he's cognizant
of being a robot? Did you drive yourself off? Are you covered in
a towel? I'm like around? Probably not. I think he's thinking of
other people first. Finally, so he probably handed him all out before anyone
for himself. You don't seem to be uncomfortable cool? I do not tell
myself often. Do you pretend to be cold? Yeah? Not at all.
Then everyone would notice that you haven't towed off and are not attempting to
stay warm. Anybody else want to do anything? As you rock it towards
the shore, Ben would notice George and kind of nudge Jerry from where he
sits beside him and kind of give the old chin point and then look at
Jerry for some type of approval or always approval. Jerry will be, you
know, drying off as best he can. He might change into some dry
clothes, but he's bashful, um, so he just kind of sucks it
up. And Mitch, you brought us here. No, I mean the
portal brought us here, but it was you. I don't know how portals
work. I don't even know how this works. When you did the thing,
you touched the right and you pulled and the thing it opened. Yeah,
no, I remember that. Yeah, But so where are we?
I don't know. This is only the arguably fourth time I've done this.
None of them were intentional. Well, you know what, I know what
I'm doing. The fourth time I've done stuff. Really make lightning handsome?
Not here, it's not We're on the water. Maybe the smartest thing Jerry's
ever said the last I think it shuts Mitch up to he doesn't have to
respond to that. Okay, all right, I'll work on it. I
guess do you have your walkie? Yeah? It's better than nothing. And
he like has a towel on his shoulders but has not dried off because of
concern. And he's like taking it apart and like shaking the water out of
it and like blowing up and using the towel to dry up the walkie talkie
as best as possible. Yeah, that fucker's fried. Yeah, of course
it is Greg. That thing's been through so much water and portals. It's
Greg. Greg said it. Shannon was gonna be like just shaking her head
like an idiot. He's like, I see what you're doing. I'm gonna
let me stop you, right right. I mean to be fair, Whenever
you created the Mitchie Talkies, you never said anything about like weather proofing them.
No, they were like raw wires and like soldering and talkies just walkie
talkies with tape on the back. That's it. No, no, no,
you created you actually did Hyeahdius. Yeah, he's gonna he's still gonna
fuck with this. He's gonna try to fix this, like we it's our
only we We've lost so many of them. Uh, this is our only
means of communication, right, And there are elements of it to be saved,
of course, but you know a lot of the electronic elements of it.
Water doesn't work real well with those. And so you can see what
Kennedy salvage just kind of looks like your initial kind of just looking at it.
Um and I believe there's two Mitchie Talkie is still within the group mitches,
and but Jerry has hidden Jerry's okay, butson J Jerry's has never been
turned on, so uh right, So yeah, you have two of them,
but they're both water logged at present. Um As you're riding towards the
shore, you see that there is a what looks to be a small fishing
ship shack about twenty yards from the shore. It seems that that is the
destination that Chris is heading towards. There is a small plume of white smoke
coming out from the top of this this basically glorified shed, and he just
kind of points to it from his seat in the back. I think he's
got a fire in there, maybe smoke dis guessing. I don't know,
this is this weird for anybody else? How did you know we were going
to be in them? That's what I'm thinking. I mean, he also
says he's the same Chris, he just gets older. It means that he's
done this before, probably multiple times. I feel like this is one of
the least weird things we've had. Well, if there's one one of him
over and over again, then maybe he knows when he dies, and that's
pretty freaking weird. In the middle of all this, Rob is just gonna
yell at Chris, Hey, Greg, Chris, how many times have you
done this? He looks to Mitch. You can hear the question being yelled
kind of over the motor and the wind. But he looks to Mitch and
then he looks back at you. Rub seven times, Rob, But this
is my first time with a Mitch. And then Rob's gonna look back and
look at all of them and just go what happened the last time? Chris?
We're here, and he takes the boat directly onto shore. You can
hear the propeller hit rock as it. Then you guys, and he runs
up and kind of jumps, splashing down in about four or five inches of
water as he tries to help you all off the boat, pointing towards the
shed. We shr We don't have we don't have much time, said,
this is the first Mitch? Am I dead? Here? Where am I?
I mean you you're supposed to know that stuff. I don't. This
is my wood great, yeah, shit, Okay, maybe you do know
you just don't remember, or I don't know yet. I don't know how
time works. This is I don't okay, all right, okay, speaking
of time, everybody, any of you that had conditions or injuries like I
don't know, a broken finger or fingers that were blistered from electricity. Um,
it's all been healed. Do you feel sound and fit as a fiddle,
almost like your body had four months to recuperate. Hate that. Chris
runs and opens the door to the shack. Come on, we don't have
much time. What's the rush. It's always a rush man time for what.
We don't have much time. They told me we weren't going to have
much time. Who's who? So the questions, there's not much time.
We need to know answer before we do anything. I miss your straightforward miss
Jerry. I mean Chris, Um, Shannon, you would remember Chris.
Chris used to hang out with you and Dutch and me and Um. He
was kind of like the the ben of your group. But he was,
you know, a little bit picked on a little bit more than perhaps the
ben of this group. UM, so he does feel a little bit better
with you. And I told me, Shannon, I can't. I don't
know what the hell is going on. I just you all were supposed to
be I'm supposed to help. That's what I'm supposed to help. Chris,
Chris, this is not the weirdest thing that's happened to us today. M
he's gonna go inside. Yes, yes, we can go inside. Let's
just go inside. She was still alive here here at this Garrett. Yeah,
nobody this Garrett never had you guys ever ever, No, none of
you. That's why you were saying here, they want to look for you
here. Wait, who who? Who won't look for us here? Them?
He who walks between the rows? The false They won't look here.
That's why we were sent here. I accidentally triggered a thing and we fell
here. Hey, man, I'm just going by what they told me.
Okay, sorry, Chris, you know I don't mean to yell at you.
This is all new, man. This is only my seventh time doing
this, man. So a fourth three we went to nine to sixty nine
and then some terrible, horrible gremlin freature and then well, I guess it's
my third time now here. I guess if we count going back home,
we did go back home. I'll tell you what, man, roam,
when you mentioned horrible, when you mentioned the gremlin, future roam A,
I'll take a contact here or am or heart or charm I'm sorry, contact
or charm both my dump stats. So let's go with a contact zero successes.
I will let you know that you may push, but you will accept
the condition. If you do so, you may use your luctur reroll,
or you can use your pride for an immediate success. He knows people,
he knows, he doesn't know people, he knows things. I'll let you
all know. This is a great time to let everybody know too, that
your pride is something that will can be expended and not replenished for several episodes.
Your luck will be back each episode. I'll let you know when pride
is refilled. But okay, so yeah, you look, you see something
kind of passover his features, But what do you can glean from. Perhaps
it's because he's older, but perhaps you just don't know him well enough.
He moves you all inside. When you go inside this little shed along the
lake, Queen Lake, in a garret where none of you ever existed,
you see several things. You see that there are there's clothing, dry clothing,
and not necessarily your clothing, but clothing of similar styles to what you
would wear. Jeans, t shirts, sweatshirts, things of that nature.
Nothing that would speak of being out of place. In nineteen eighty eight or
eighty nine. You know, again, this isn't the outfit that rob Ward
to Stonehenge that was straight in the seventies. This actually has some blend ability
to it. In addition to that, you see a box full of radio
parts and batteries, and when you're holding the Mitchie talkie in your hand,
Mitch Chris kind of looks at the box and says, I did good,
right, yeah, yeah, yeah man. Sure. He immediately sides like
he dumps the box out. Yeah. I mean, it's basically like three
or four radios, two of which are working. All four have viable parts
to them, and a shitload of batteries of various sizes. You can tell
this was grabbed by somebody that has no idea what they're doing, but was
told that a radio might be needed. I think Mitch just goes to town.
He's just working on radios. Okay. So as soon as the door
closes, and as soon as you all have like a beat or two to
get warm, there's a potbellied stove that's roaring, producing an incredible amount of
heat in the small area you're able to dry off to, you know,
take off sweatshirts, get on Ben immediately, you know is just shivering his
small frame. He pulls off his sweatshirt and begins to put on another.
Chris steps to the middle of the room, and as if he has rehearsed
this, he begins to speak, and he is turning almost in a slow
three sixty carousel, to make sure that each of you can hear this as
he says it. If you all had stayed in garrett, at least one
of you would have fallen. Only one way to give you a chance was
to force you to a series of dives. It's not as simple as fixing
problems. It's more about learning from them. If you can help help,
but remember what you see, learn from the mistakes that were made by the
adults, and take advantage of knowledge not known in your garret. They will
be chasing you through the worlds this and he almost like he's presenting a car
at a roadshow. This is a boring garret, nothing to fix, but
also nothing to put you in danger. This garrett doesn't have any of you.
So you were dropped in a random spot. If you dive to a
garret where you exist, you'll take the spot of your person there, not
their body. You'll still be you, but you'll take over their lives.
Things you see in the other garrets are almost always based in fact, despite
how they might look. All the garrets are different, some by a little,
some by a lot. They will track you using the crystals. You
need to drop one or two at each spot. He confuses them. But
don't put them in the lake. I told someone to put him in the
lake and that didn't work. Um. If you don't split them up,
they'll all get to you at the same time and you won't make it.
Um. You can can you trust? You can trust me? You can
trust me? Or Main Street Jimmy, you can you can trust Maggie most
of the time. You can trust that FBI agent Jean Tyler. But he's
not in Garrett. A whole lot. Um everyone else, everyone that you
know put him on that do not trust list. Here take this, and
he produces from his pocket a circular flat stone, and he han't reach he
lifts it out. Who takes it? Does anyone take it? He hands
it to Shannon. Take this, Um, it's from our Garrett, or
where we're from Garrett. If I am in wherever you go? And he
reaches into his pocket and pulls out an identical stone. I'll know it.
They'll they'll vibrate and there's a little bit of a magnetrine effect that basically they
fucking shake and lift off the ground about an inch. Um. If you're
in the city limits, i'll know, and you can find me, and
hopefully i'll fuck know what's going on by then I don't Okay, shit,
Um, And you see him reach into his pocket and he pulls out a
McDonald's napkin and he begins to read from the back of it. When a
dive is coming, you'll feel popping your ears, like when you go off
the mountain headed down state. Sometimes I get nosebleeds too, Mitch, you
can try to control this. You're the only one that can. I don't
know what the fuck that means. When you dive, don't tie yourselves together.
Whatever you do, don't tie yourselves together. And you see tears start
to roll down his face. One group did, and I only found pieces
of most of them. You can, you can try to hold yourselves together,
but don't tie yourselves together. It's at this point, without the need
for a role, that most of you realize that the person in front of
you is hopelessly lost for lack of a better word. Pick a place to
meet. When you get to a new Garrett, you'll need a place to
meet. Don't pick buildings. They can change and names can change. If
people can change. Pick a spot, pick a spot in town, and
then pick a secondary spot and pick a third spot. So you all know
where to meet because you'll get separated. Sleep outside as much as you can.
I don't know why, but it's all I know. I think I
kind of get it. Guys, me too, But maybe you should tell
these guys. Chris comes over to Mitch. Mitch, you said you've done
this before. You said you've you've done it before. None of the other
people that I talked you said they've ever done it before. Yeah, accidentally,
we all did it accidentally. They said that you could do it,
that you could control it. They said you could control it. I did
it on purpose once. Okay, okay, Well listen, um. They
told me that whenever I meet a Mitch that my next jump is going to
take me to the war. And I don't want to want to go.
Can you stop it? What war? They're gonna send me to? Vietnam?
Man? I don't I'd think say, I was supposed to go there.
It's nineteen eighty eight. I don't know, man, man did go?
I'm seventeen, man, and it's nineteen eighty nine. I should only
be fifteen. It's nineteen eighty nine. Yeah, Oh, I guess you
said that. Shit. Okay, that's the five months thing. Um,
I don't he could you try? I can try, he say, Man,
I don't want to go. Man, I mean I could end up
sending it to the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how it works.
I take it Jesus Chris. I mean, have you seen have you
seen Back to the Future? Um? Is that the one with a kid
from a family ties? Yeah, where he tries to not bang his mom.
Huh No, I didn't see it. No, okay, um shit,
um okay. In case I don't get you to the right place or
time or something, you should read books, like all of them, all
of the books about Vietnam and the war, and then we do as you
take the information you know, and then if you have to go to the
war, only go to the safe spots that we didn't have a lot of
casualties and like that stuff. And you can use what you know now to
help you. Then, Okay, that's good man. Oh do you think
they have that in the library. I would imagine so if this Garrett also
had a Vietnam War. Oh man, all right, yeah yeah, but
you're gonna still try, right and you see a line of blood come out
of Chris's left nostril. You're gonna try, right, man. Uh.
He like looks at the line of blood and immediately throws, um, sorry,
he throws rob a walkie and he throws one to Shannon, one of
the one of one of the three he was working on. Uh, yeah,
I can, I can try. Who is it? And he kind
of he just kind of like makes all my ears just pop. Um,
Mitch, you gotta try, man, you gotta stop it. He just
grabs Jimmy by whatever, like whatever his shirt is. Uh, and he's
gonna try whatever that means, right, And I believe it's roll of comprehend
for me. Mmmm mmm mm hmmm. Zero successes. Greg. You may
push, you may use your luck, or you may use your pride.
Um push gets a condition. You know what I'm gonna I'm gonna give a
luck this for this, this this situation here, every roll Nope, you
can feel that tremor, almost like whenever you were trying to pull mister Locke
out through the cage when the portal opened behind you. You didn't see it,
as you had said in the narrative, but you felt it as it
opened and kind of was generated. And you feel that again, but this
time as you're holding on to Chris to Jimmy, you see his eyes get
wider and he reaches up to say something and you don't hear anything coming from
his mouth, And then his jacket, his Steelers parka turns to water in
your hands as he falls backwards and splashes on the floor. You are alone
somewhere, man, I hope we don't all go what at a time?
Well, just in case we do, we need a specific spot to go
to because apparently we don't have a lot of time, which to me says
that like now, not a lot of time essentially. So uh m hmm,
walk north twenty miles around I'm just kidding. Don't walk twenty miles sounds
two miles one while I don't know, don't we from from um where we
all met the scavenger? The heat tell a tran two? That big hill,
Yeah, that one? So at at sun up. Okay, then
the second place, so spot one, tell a tran two or whatever that
is, and spot two the big hill, and then bought three and he
just kind of like looks around. It's about three. I don't know.
We can't go to like actual locations, he said, right like, yeah,
that's right within the hill. Yeah, I assume the terrain doesn't change.
Um, what if it does? Here here here here, this is
a backup of a backup. I guess. Yeah, it's pretty far inside
of town. But okay, yeah, yeah, okay, what time up?
Yeah? Always sign up? Okaywhere in the middle of the darkness.
I mean it's just predictable of all three times with the same I guess it
depends on what time we arrive at. If it's the middle of the day,
signed down, Yeah, but what if we arrive at different We can't
control that. It needs to be constant for each spot. So the spot,
you know, you don't have it be three different times. Once we
jump, uh, you have two days to get to the spot. If
we all make it more than good before then we just first objective is to
stop whatever we're doing and go and meet or try to at least, and
then if we don't all show up, then we know something's happened. I
don't know. I don't know how this is actually supposed to work. Is
none of us looking theory right now? Yeah? I guess the first time
we wing it. If we all arrive at different time, we just kind
of figured it out. Go to the spot he used to say, we
actually arrived in the same time together. What if we all go to different
ones, all the different garrets in it. The only person who knew anything
disappeared and was riding off from a napkin? Did you give a napkin behind?
No? And is holding it? Oh? Oh. It says that
we all go together, so we're like tied together. Then we're not.
No, not like physically we always travel together. It's I got all this
rope for some reason. I don't use rope. Everybody this rope. Okay,
okay, well that's really But he did say that we aren't in like
we're us, but we're not us, which means I'm thinking like we're in
the mind of whoever actually exists there. He opens the napkt into like a
four paneled square and looks around for a second. It says that we're still
us but we take the spot of if we there's an US there, yeah,
do we like get it put into that person's shoes? Literally, Ben
looks all over, flips it over, takes about twenty seconds, looks back
at Chian and I don't know. Okay, let's work that theory for just
a second. If that's the case, it means whatever that we other we
were doing, and whoever conversations we are part of, like, we just
take over. So that's not going to be suspicious whatsoever if we have to
deal with the bad version of US or anything. Right, I'm sorry,
I wasn't listening, George Saysn't that really helpful? George, I mean,
I get I guess we just got to figure it out. I mean,
unfortunately, you guys are gonna have to play pretend. I think I have
to. That's right, You don't have to do any of that. That's
nice. Yeah, except I'm dead everywhere. Maybe you just didn't exist.
Equally suspicious if a random stranger or dead person shows up in the middle of
town, well, let's hope that you're not dead in those towns. Yeah,
or I don't know, don't look like you Okay, super helpful.
I don't know. Don't think you anybody's seen you without the head man,
Oh, shave your head. No, we punched you a lot in your
face. Then you won't be recognizable. Why why such hostility? I just
suggested we have to figure it out. You're saying that we have to wing
it and we don't even know what kind of a bird. Look, we
randomly showed up in nineteen sixty nine and we winged it. We randomly showed
up in Gremlin Hell and we winged it. Now we're wherever the hell.
Now we're still at the end of the world. Obviously winging it isn't working
well. No, but we we kind of kind of nailed it in sixties.
I don't understand what we're trying to get at here. We need to
get our three locations right, Yes, okay, so we have Teletran,
Queen Lake. What was the other one? The hill? The hill?
There's like several hills. That's like the one really giant hill and Garrett,
oh the hill. Okay, why didn't you say something? I said that
your mom? Do we want to do sun up or sundown? I think
just go there and wait. Well, there has to be a limit to
it, because then you just sit there in dally instead of finding another backup
location. Right, you have to do we wait when we're there twelve hours?
Do we wait a day? How long do we wait at that location?
Man? Just pick a time? Okay, fine, until two hours
past sundown, and then we go and try to figure out what the hell
is going on there? Okay, two hours past sundown. If it doesn't
work, then gets what will wing it? And we'll figure out what does
work. But we can't sit here and try to figure out what's working.
None of us are experts in this. So what do we do now?
Just wait for Mitch to design to do things that was accusatory. Let's let's
not turn on each other, right cal Lake that I gave up them?
Yeah yeah, yeah here and it's like dripping with water. Mitch is gonna
crack that one open two with the one that he got from Jerry and slide
them close ish to the popularly stove to attempt to drive them out as best
he can. After we have them that in addition to the part you have,
roll me a tinker for both of them. Sure, um, Greg,
remind me how does iconic item work? Can use it? Just what
willy nilly or is it once per obsessions? If you can, yeah,
argue for why you would it would work in the situation, I allow you
to spam it. Adjustable wrench, it's what he uses to fix everything.
Sounds good to me. Perfect four successes, Greg. I can't die with
shit. But with the pieces that were provided by Chris and your ability to
kind of dry out the pieces that weren't ruined by the water, you get
them both functioning within a half hour. Perfect. Okay, I have I
think this helps. We have five. It's ben stay with somebody, right,
so oh well, I'm gonna stay with Cherry. Great and hopefully that
works. But we have five functional walkie talkies. As long as you don't
get them wet again. We hope for the best, and we try to
communicate when we land. Well, okay, hold on the whole communicate when
we land. Thing is problematic. If say one of us gets put into
like the behind any lines situation, I think I think everywhere is behind every
line. I'm just gonna keep my walking off, okay, Okay, sure
to turn and turn it off before we jump, and don't turn it on
and can tell your two years safe. Yeah, through power that way.
So he also said something about now leaven crystals behind. We only got so
many, so I'm not probably this is a special crystal. Also, again
he grabs the crystal. You got a bag of them, buddy. It
says to leave one or two behind and it will split them up so you
don't face them all at once. I don't know any of that means,
but it seems like a really good idea to not face all of them at
once. How do we know where we need to be in when we're there?
Do we do? We have a good idea of that. No,
Yeah, that's why I don't know anything. Looks at the napkin, I
don't know. We need to go to McDonald's, Greg. This is a
reach. I don't remember. I know I took the giant map that my
not dad wrote on a bunch of menus and stuff. Do I have that?
I remember I put it in the battlewagon, but I remember if I
took it out and we went to Castle gray Scull, you did not take
it out when you went to Castle gray Call. You had put magnets up
on the inside of the battlewagon. So, yeah, who knew we attempt
You can attempt to remember something. Um, yeah, I didn't really comprehend
a lot of what's written on there, but yeah I will. I'll try
to remember. I got a McDonald's mapkin here I can write on something.
I mean, I know I got a success and could decipher a very small
portion of it. Would there be a could I help add? You can
help him and see how this will work frags is you can add a plus
one die to Mitch's role. If Mitch decides to push it and gets a
condition, that would affect you as well. So I'm routed out, baby,
let's do it. Okay, what am I rolling? Greg? Comprehend?
Please comprehend? Oh let me let me just roll an extra D six
I forgot to do that one D six four four rags, So one success.
You are muted, Greg, Okay. So as you're looking at it,
you can see that it's. Um, there was just so much that
was on that map. But when you kind of piece together those those kind
of kaleidoscopes of different sections that were kind of giving you information and that you're
whoever that was that was writing on it in your trailer was kind of cross
referencing things and putting information down. Um, you do realize that you read
something that was called the Gray Garrett and the only reason why you remember that
name Gray Garrett is because it said none of them exist there now, and
again them wasn't identified in what you're recalling. But again, Chris just said
that none of you all exist here. Okay, um, okay, I
uh, I think I think we just have to wait until it happens,
or I can try to force it. But if I force the dive,
I don't know where we go. Or we could try to find gray Skull
again, whatever this version of Gray Skull is, and hope they have a
portal if they even have a loop here. We gotta we gotta, we
gotta fix what they did. So we we know a couple of them,
right the R did you say R, R and M? So we gotta
go there? No, I know where we have to go. I just
don't know how to get there. I guess we go to town. Then
then that's not not like we can just ask which alphabet we're at right part
of right? Um? I guess we can recon right, we go in
town. Chris said none of us exist here, So just a bunch of
weird kids that just showed up, in town and it's a nighttime, so
maybe it's less suspicious if we're creeping around I don't know, or six in
the morning. Shit, it's like, am guys, it'll be super obvious
that we're creeping around town. Well, let's not creep let's just act like
we belong here. Ah, yeah, this is This is just a jump
off point, isn't it. Nothing's nothing here. That's kind of what I
was wondering. But how do we know where? We don't know. I
don't know what I'm gonna ask. We don't know. We just need a
way for it to happen. Right, You can't control it any much.
I can try. Okay, try, well, we have told hold hands,
you can't tying. He shows the napkin. It says you can try
to hold on, but you can't tie each other. Okay, look,
I don't know how this works. So I'm going to stand here and he
moves like the middle of the cabin and everyone just put a hand on me
and hope for the best. Guys. Okay, wait, where are we
going? I don't know where would you like to go? Shannon very heavily
puts her hand on your head, on top of your hand, I don't
know on your face, goes to a place where my dad is still okay,
that'd be cool. Okay, great, super vague answer. I'll do
my best. Uh. And he's going to concentrate on a place where Sean
Locke is okay uh, and would take his position beside Jerry. And as
this is going on, he looks at Jerry and just says, he mean
just trying to We'll try to hold on in case so we can be together.
Yeah, man, I won't leave you behind, all right, I
mean thanks, I will comprehend. Cool. Do I get any bonuses for
I don't know? Bullshit? Greg? Fuck no, all right, don't
compre one success um. The success gives you this information. You don't feel
a buzz at all when you try that. You don't feel like you're making
any progress whatsoever. This concentration, or at least this avenue and act is
not how you do it. Okay. Good news and bad news. Uh,
good news, we didn't atomize. Bad news, it's not working.
Wait what it's it's not It doesn't it you're saying we're not dead. It
is the good news. Yeah, the good news is we didn't explode.
The bad news is this doesn't work. Something has to happen. Okay,
So okay, let's think about the times that you did do it. We
were getting shot at by robots. Okay, I really wanted to see my
dad and I really wanted to go home. What do you really want to
do right now? Figure this out and also go home? How bad do
you want to go home home? I mean, I guess we have to
do other stuff first, so I don't know how. I don't know.
We we can start by trying to get something to eat? What just go
go go into town and to see see what's going on. Ten miles into
town. Did he even leave us a car here? You take the boat?
The boat's hot lake. No one's checked for a land vehicle. Georgia
Luck. He pulls open the curtain. Looking up, you see a trail
leading through the woods. You know that a lot of these lake cabins don't
have like roads that go directly up to the lake. They're just little trails.
You kind of have to walk to the cabin. From this position,
you can't see anything. Did you see a trail leading away from the lake
like others or like true? Not like a a like a road, but
like a foot trail, a footpath leading away. Okay, so it's not
like a dirt road or anything, so it's it's just footpath. So okay,
correct. Yeah, well we could stay here and play part cheesy.
None you guys seem to really want to do that, because none of you
guys turned to water. So maybe we go for a walk. So we
we find on the road. Yeah, I think we just walked towards town.
Yeah, okay, you walk, you leave the cabin behind, taking
I'm assuming everything that you can think of that would help you in your bit
of a quest. Here, you travel outside of the cabin for about ninety
seconds and you see a truck that is parked at the edge of the footpath.
Yes, see great, Sure how much room is there actually inside that's
the truck or are they sitting in the cab? Yeah? I was gonna
say there is enough to comfortably fit three people in the cab of the truck.
You could squeeze Ben in for four. Georgie just hopping the back.
He knows the truck completely weighs down and we can't move in same same with
Rob like he already he feels like he's like, you know whatever, I'm
just gonna I'm gonna jump in. It's not an issue. Mitch also jumps
in the back of the truck. Cool kids, go Jerry and battle right
up front. Then I also think this is the same configuration in nineteen sixty
nine. We're fighting. H Yeah, Ben calls shotgun. Um does Jerry
allow him to have shotgun? I mean, if he beat me to it,
he beat me to it. I gotta respect the rules. Okay,
son, Ben is like crushed up against the door, but shotgun he has.
As the rest of you are in the back, Shannon, the keys
are in the ignition. Um. You notice that there is a takeout bag
with an old styrofoam big Matt container from McDonald's in the front. You all
are Donalds eat that. How bad is the road getting out of You're like,
is it obvious? Or am I driving through the forest? N No,
No, not at all. This is the road like leads up to
the footpath. It's regulation that you can't have cars actually get close enough to
the water to do anything other than kind of put a boat into the water.
And that's only at certain slips in certain places you can do that.
And so yeah, the road quickly becomes it's like gravel for maybe a couple
hundred yards, and then you're on blacktop. You're heading down like a rural
route. Within you know, just a few minutes. If your destination is
Garrett, I would like you all to go to your Spotify playlist put on
a little Philip Collins Another Day in Paradise, please. And as you are
driving along this rural route, you see which didn't just a bit. You
see the farms begin to kind of bleed into existence on either side of the
road. As you kind of leave the elevation of Queen Lake, you see
mailboxes with the name of Bradley and Lewis as they go by. Um.
And within moments you hit that last rise and you dip down into what looks
just like Garrett, Maryland. Where are we going now that we're here sort
of sor we're here, let's just see where the road takes us. But
it took us to hear it McDonald's. McDonald's rapper had robbed pretty hungry Jesus
Christ's towards the nearest food location. That's where I'm not projecting. Um.
Yeah, and strangely enough, on your way into town where none exists in
the Garrett that you're from beside the Strangely enough, again, the Feed and
Breed Livestock Store is a free standing McDonald's, the bastion of all fast food.
Do you have any money, rob Um, I don't think any of
us have any money. Smells of free We've been trying to get him McDonald's
and Garrett for years. What if we just stay here, then our Garrett
and everyone we know dies? I think, what if we're not there?
No, I think that's what I think. The bad guys are already there.
Oh and also Chris said the bad guys chase us, so that were
we supposed to leave any crystals? What if we're the reason our Garrett doesn't
have a McDonald's. Guys, Shoot, I don't think that McDonald's is.
He just turns to George and says, I think leaving it at the drop
zone would be a bad idea. If we keep coming into that lake and
Chris keeps finding us, leaving crystal there would probably be a bad idea.
You're right, Ben's looking back and forth between you all. Let's get back
to this McDonald's theory, Timm, Ben, But if we stay here,
Sarge dies and your mom again and Starge's wife again. Ben's face falls a
little bit and it's he gives you that almost like a low blow kind of
look, but he doesn't say anything. We have to get out of here.
We have to go somewhere. Castle for Spoils probably probably the best bet.
That's where it happened. Yeah, that the chat and chew. We'll
we're in the great, great Garrett, Great, let's go. I mean,
I guess we can't trust anyone, not really, you can trust you?
Say? Well, yeah, um, can we trust each other?
I mean I trust you, Shannon, at least as much as we have
been the whole time. Where did we land on the old vampire thing?
It's still an open discussion. It is not an open discussion just because you
guys don't get it design. It's an open still not convinced that's open.
That's the bet of this Truss and the like throws the door to the truck
open and walks that takes the keys with her. Now what, Okay,
I guess we're going to McDonald's, guys. I guess Ben opens up his
door and says kind of through the window to the back where I'm assuming you
guys were talking through to have this conversation. Um just says you guys are
such and then he kind of whispers dicks as he gets up. I think
we're a bad influence on him. He's gonna mites you me. Um,
okay, just said it was a situation inside of the McDonald's. Are there,
like wallet's readily visible for Shannon Jesus, So you're you're scope of the
joint to see if you can. Yeah, we don't have money? Sure,
Um, Greg, were you planning for petty theft? Because I wasn't
listen. I plan for everything with you all. I just never expected.
Um. I mean you hang around with me enough, you know you're gonna
know it's some point I'm going to suggest get in fast food. Okay,
ROMI a sneak if you're trying the iconic item as it applies to it or
now yeah? Yeah absolutely? Now, Um, is this you trying to
find them or are you just going to go straight ahead if you can?
Well, okay, I guess I was trying to see if they were since
they were any But if you want me to like do a role for that
first and then oh no, no, I'm gonna give you. Yeah,
I'm gonna give you the fact that there are plenty of This is like nineteen
eighties. I grew up Hillbilly Central. So you see like the big like
wallets that are like two wallet size sticking out of the back pockets. And
are there individuals who are alone versus like with other people? Absolutely, this
is a McDonald So you can find single diners or you can find anybody from
a group of two, three, four? Is there like a I don't
I don't really know how old school McDonalds still look like, but I feel
like I remember there being like a bar top area sort of like not the
lower seating but the upper They're sure can be so be easier to swipe somebody's
stuff if they're like a little bit more hand level there. So she's gonna
go for for they one of them. Man, want me a sneak?
Then okay, three successes. You have a wallet with fifty two dollars in
it. She cash also have a driver's license and a Sears card. Set
shopping spree. Uh. She kind of walks back out or like she motions
her head and like has people like kind of uses her hand to usher them
in. So it's not weird for her to go back out and come back
in, and she like kind of slowly takes the the cash out of the
wallet and looks down and looks at the licensed that's in the wallet. It's
the name. Nope, Tom Long. It's not anybody that you know from
Garrett. It's not a name that pops up. The address on there is
says it's from Baltimore, Maryland. You would assume this is a traveler of
some time in search of the seers. Okay, there's nothing else in the
wallet. I mean, there's a couple of pictures of kids you don't know,
and okay, she'll wait for the kids to get in into the Donalds
and quietly put like the wallet under her arm behind her jacket, so she's
like holding it to her body with her elbow, easy enough to do and
with three sneaks. I'm not going to make your roll to see if this
person sees you. You are definitely concealing your crime. Believed him of his
burdens, Okay, it's not a crime. Right, straightened him in the
middle of nowhere with no money, no sears, car to no driver's eyes.
That's okay. The stress of money is so you know, um,
are there, Greg, And there are a lot of people in here,
like at six am, but there are there besides Tom Long's. Yeah,
there's I mean, there's a bunch of people in here. This is you
know, it's the town's waking up and people are coming here, either traveling
from the interstate down the off for a little mc mickey d's or just grabbing
some this fine morning. Uh Mitch, Mitch like pulls on on butts,
dude. I have an idea. What if you what if you go in
right like you're you're a schoozy guy. What if you go in and you
just like schooz up to like an adult and then you can just point to
any other adult in here and be like, oh, yeah, that's my
dad or whatever. But be like, hey, I'm from out of town.
What's what's there to do around here? And that's how you get intel
or one of the cashiers might be a kid, it's I just ask him.
Okay, I'm doing ton six at six am. You gotta work before
going to school. I don't people like work the farm before they come in,
So, you know, I think it's a family thing. I think
there's a law, is it. There's a younger person in my life.
There's a younger person working as a cashier. Um, you would guess she's
probably nineteen, maybe twenty. Nice. Okay, I'll uh look, I
got this, and I'm look straightened on my jacket and make sure it's not
wrinkled like God forbid after jumping five times or whatever. And I'll go up
and I pull out my wallet to make sure I have enough money ucause I'm
from wealth, and I ordered myself a coffee to whatever, a egg McMuffin.
So those are quickly produced for you, as any large coffee which is
about this big is given to you. Cream sugar. Uh no, no,
that's fun. I like that you hold me sugar, that I was
good. That was sweet of you. Roll charm. Oh yes, three
successes I did all smooth, she says. So what's through to do in
town? Are you trying to get off work? No, no, I'm
I'm past. I'm we're vacationing and up by the lake. But uh she
leans forward. You can see that her name tags as Lisa. So Lisa,
when do you get off work? Um? Two, okay, Well,
when you get off work, what would you do? Um? Probably
go to the mall. I'm gonna pick up some She's flustered. Three successes
of charm is something that Lisa's not necessarily expecting. Here at six am on
the morning shift at Mickey D's, I do would do? Would you?
Would you? I mean you want to get like, come more coffee at
two? We should get like orange Julius or something. Okay, Oh yeah,
uh huh um. You want to meet at the mall at Center Court.
Yeah? Yeah. What's your favorite color? Green? I'll be wearing
green. Cool. I'll see it then as soon as you walk off.
Um. If you look back, she is talking to uh an older lady
that works there. Um, and you can tell that it's complimentary, not
like can you believe this kid? But uh, she probably hasn't guessed your
age yet. That's a pretty good thing. I'm fourteen, and the older
lady kind of looks at you like she knows your age, like she's she's
guessed it. She's dialed in, but she's kind of nods to Lisa.
You have successfully gathered an egg McMuffin a coffee and the affection of Lisa.
Well, I don't think I got anything useful out of that, but that
was fun. So we are pick up somebody at the McDonald's counter in another
dimension. How did that help us? Man? Look, I don't know
about you, but I feel better, so right, so so good that
you feel better. That's great. Well some of else we can all be
rotten like you. Come on, and I just got cash for everybody to
get food. You just stole much. You can just be shouting about how
you got cash. You stole except for the guy I borrowed. Oh and
I just hear his card back. Okay, jeez, everybody wrote me an
investigate. Oh boy, guys, I think the make ribs coming back.
Good timing, Michael, that's very topical. Ironically, it also came back
in ninety nine. It was taken off the menu for a long time,
which is the only film mitches through two in the row with the McRib So
it's Robake. It is March right. That's the shamrock shake is in full
effect. Um, Rob, you're the first one to notice, quickly followed
by everybody else that had a success. Over at the corner window, I
have the big kind of large cilarium type window at the front of the McDonald's.
Sits mister dairy. He's by himself. How about that? No,
no, no, no, we can't trust anybody. No, I agree,
I have zero plans to engage in that. I thought you were excited
about that. No more like, oh, here's somebody that might kill us.
Might he might not. I'm not taking that chance. I didn't really
like him or dislike him, so I don't care. But if one of
you guys wants to talk to him, I'll watch him over here. I
actually actually a big fan. He helped us out like a huge amount against
the Decepticons. Well if you're such a fan boy, then go and talk
to him. Okay, sure. Uh he walks over Greg. What does
what does he look like? Does this look like you know, uh tweet
jacket it was a teacher, mister Darry Or does he look like business suit?
I still work at the loop, mister Dairy. Um, this looks
like teacher, mister Dairy, same age as you would remember him being.
Um. If you want to face claim, it's sort of like will Wheaton
love it? Uh yeah, he walks over um and uh he just like
puts a hand on the chair opposite him. This is hey, Uh you're
mister Dairy right? Oh yes, sam Son, you weren't a student of
mine, were you? No? No, no, I'm my My dad's
here. We're looking to move into the town. And I met some other
kids, uh the other day, and they were talking about this super rad
science teacher UH named mister Dairy, and they told me that he looks just
like just like you, and I just happened to be here and there you
are. Well that's that's well, that's fantastic. M Are you starting school
soon or yeah, if the paperwork goes through, I won't have to stay
back a here. I think that's what they said. Um. Oh,
but yes, science, I heard right. That's super cool, right,
Oh, um, that's that's yes, absolutely science. But I'm not sure
son, I've been offered a job at the Loop, um to go back
in work at the Loop, So I'm are the Loops the the facility here
in town. I don't know if you know that. But what's that?
What's that about? Um, it's do a lot of scientific research. It's
a it's a lot of things that can help everybody. And UM, I
don't know. I I teaching is very rewarding, especially little interactions like this,
but h sometimes you have to just plan for the future. You know,
is the loop that big building on and he gives them the description to
wherever Gray Skull is. Is that that building over there? I think it
might that might be one of the buildings, but the main complex is as
almost directly north. Oh okay, what do you do there? What?
What did what you said you worked over before? What did you do before?
Um? I worked with the particle acceleration I was. It's it's kind
of hush hush, but it's a cutting edge stuff that's super cool. That's
super cool. Do you think I could get a job there one day?
If you want to pick science, son, then that's what they need.
They need more scientists. And for a moment, do you see him look
at you? Well, what's your name, son? Jerry? Jerry?
Well, Jerry, what would you do? Would you what do you think
I should do? Huh? We just met. You don't have an agenda?
Should I be a teacher or should I work at the Loop? I
mean, why did you leave the loop to begin with? I just really
like I like talking with kids like you, dude, push them in the
direction that you know, explore things that are their strengths, and then help
them when they need it. I mean, you can't do that at the
loop. Science is really rad, right, But if you go to the
loop, you're just one scientist. But if you stay a teacher, you
can make the future of scientists. So I would do I would do that.
Well a charm fuck my dump step zero successes. Luck. You can
push with a condition, or you can use pride. No, I burned
my only luck. M My pride does not apply here. No, he
just takes he takes that on the chin. There's no Yeah, that's what
I would do. You see that you've had some type of effect on him,
at least you know in the moments. It's something that he's going to
ponder. But you see him kind of uh stand up and you just cool.
You want to introduce me to your parents. Maybe I could put in
a good word. You are they're looking for a house. My friend's a
realtor. No, no, I think they just they just stop it in
to grab food. They've been there in the bathroom right now. We we
they're looking out of place today. So they found one. UM. So
I appreciate it, Thank you, thank you. Actually, have you ever
heard UM? I saw like a pamphlet on the side of the road.
It was like crumpled up. Have you ever heard of the American Leaders of
Tomorrow Association? Is that? Is that a thing? I'm giving you a
free reroll of your charm right now. Nope, I have too, I
have two dice on that stack. Greg he stops for a second to talk
to people. He stops and looks at you and says, um, kind
of leans forward, not creepy or conspiratorially, but just kind of to be
heard over the din of McDonald's. Healings forward and says um, it's for
scientists in the loop or secret and he just winks cool. And Mitch disappears
to the bathroom to make it look like it was like a segue out of
the conversation, and then immediately comes like he'd be aligns right back to the
group of children. Mister Darry walks out. The rest of you would see
that. Okay, so that was mister Darry. He's a science teacher.
Is still super cool. Also, alta is a thing here here. I
don't know if that's good or bad. Also, gray skull is where gray
skull is also a solid lead. Yes, okay, so so far pretty
parallel. Yeah yeah not yeah, yeah, that's tour advantage though, so
that stuff, yes, it is in some ways, Thanks h Rob,
because you rolled the second success. When that earlier investigate, you're the one
that notices outside of that silarium where mister Darry was sitting kind of right by
the window, you see a boy on a bike. You at least you
think it's a boy. Their hood is pulled up, it's very deep,
and you see them staring directly at you. I can't make out a face
or anything. It's just kind of you can see like you can see like
a chin, but you can't make out any features that would define the person.
Rob's gonna he's gonna see that, and then just meet the gaze and
stare back at him and then just kind of put up a hand. Who
are roll me whatever you think you're trying to convey here. So if it's
just greeting, you can roll me charm um. If you're trying to be
intimidating, you can run me force. I'm trying to see if it's real,
okay, like, is it gonna react to the fact that I'm watching
him look at me like, hey, I can see ye, yeah,
I mean sure thing. Then romy and investigate as you kind of watch for
those types of reactions. UMO one success, it is definitely reacting to you.
As you kind of move your hands, you can see the hood track
the hand a little bit as like at first kind of wondering what you're doing.
And then when you are meeting presumably meeting the gaze, you see kind
of perk up a bit, and that's when you see a flash of red
where the eyes should be there. And he's gonna look at Jerry. Do
you see him? Do you see him? You see him? We should
probably not be here, Oh, Michigan, Michigan. Is he gonna like
if Rob starts backing up towards the door, like he's not gonna keep his
eyes off of him. Is the dude like going to make a move,
like he's gonna try to cut me off? Or like yeah, okay.
So you're looking through the front of this McDonald's, like the curved window in
the front, the big kind of the solar you know, silarium area um.
As you move towards the door, you see the bike begin to drift
slowly backwards towards the same side that you are heading towards, as far as
the door is concerned. So while he's not advancing towards the door, he's
moving parallel with you. I'm gonna moved back the other one. He moves
back the other one. Okay, all right, we got time. Uh
so Rob's we need to hit hit the door and we run. What he's
gonna point. He's gonna show Shannon he's gonna point at the dude he's as
he's telling her to watch. He's gonna move to the far side of the
restaurant like he's gonna He's showing people like, look, this is not cool,
this is not this is weird. Yep. Okay, so why is
going out the front a good eye here? We don't work here, can't
can't go through the bag, says who. Rob's not understanding that you can
just walk into the back of the restaurant. I'm gonna do it anyway.
Uh that lady, that was that the older woman? Is that the only
like supervisory looking person that's like in the in the storefront here? Yes,
that's Karen, Karen, she is the manager. Oh, in this reality,
Karen is the manager. This is Garrett. Kay um, every manager
scared. I got nothing. I think I think I'm having a moment,
right now ums, Yeah, Jerry. Ben looks up at you. What
are we gonna do? Man? And you see a trickle of blood come
out of his left nostril. It's happening. It's happening. What what what
is man, Mitch? He points at Ben. Bathroom now, bathroom?
What's going? And you see Ben look at his hand and he looks up
at you and tears immediately well in his eyes. Jerry when he looks at
you, bathroom now, and he like grabs Ben and whoever is near by
to pull them towards the men's room. Yeah, Jerry, Jerry doesn't hesitate.
He told Benny wasn't he wasn't gonna split up. And uh, I'm
just gonna stick with that Rob's Rob's gonna follow him and take two hard steps
towards and then stop. Then grab the the one of the little napping dispensers
can take it with them. Yeah, you're in a possession of a napkin
dispenser and uh, the wallet on my way cast in a rush just like
on purpose on the ground. Okay, guy needs this Sears card Backlet do
do you drop it to be seen or you kind of casually drop it like
someone will find it. You know, you're not trying to say, hey,
I'm not making it seen. It's more like a casual like buy a
chair, like somebody accidentally dropped it, it got kicked over there kind of
thing. Absolutely, So you're easily able to do that with your three sneaks
that you had. You don't have to reroll for that particular action in the
system. So yeah, you're able to place it wherever you'd like on the
floor without anybody seeing you drop it as all of you kind of escape to
the bathroom, Shannon Art, And this is between you and Fragsum who's last
to kind of who's who's like doing rear guard? Is that George? I
think? I think George would do you wait for her to actually do the
wall a thing? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I's got it.
I would not wait. Now, question, did you take all the
money out of it? Yeah? I have already. You left him a
Sears card too, and itself, yeah, absolutely, and the pictures of
his kids great, yeah, exactly, So in this case, what's that
right? Without the need for a roll, George, you would see the
hooded figure that m Rob indicated begins to come away from the front and you
see through the glass them coming towards the door on their bike and they're about
three four steps from the door when they jump off the bike and it kind
of just crashes to the side as you back up and close the bathroom door.
As soon as the bathroom door is closed, Um, Mitch reaches over
and grabs that caution quidado sign that's in every McDonald's bathroom and jams one of
the triangular parts under the doors. It's harder to open. Roll me a
tinker as you attempt to well, he does that. Who has the back
of crystals? This would be either to Drob I think it was yeah,
zero success on that taker ten ten dice and not a single one of them
was a six. You can push, you'll get a condition. But Shannon
tries to help and like uses her boot foot to like push the triangler and
her boot foot right to her valley foot. Okay, right, Um.
As soon as your boot kind of hits the door, it's almost like that
action of where one person is pushing the door as somebody else tries to enter,
and you feel that that shutter in the frame as it grew, as
if somebody is trying to come in. But you hit it just at the
right time to prevent that from happening. Both you and George are at the
door now, Shannon, okay, I'm assuming you're trying to hold it closed.
Yes, you may do so, for it shuts the bathroom now that
it's time. Mitch puts a hand on both Shannon's back and uh butts his
back and he like points to like for for uh Jerry um rob and and
to put a hand on him. I'll i'll like look for my shoulder and
yelled or not yell, but her stage whisper crystals crystals flush it. So
he said, don't put it in water? What's wrong? He said,
don't put in the lake. Don't put in the lake water. Probably the
lake sugar. Where do you where do you put this? If you're leaving
a crystal behind, where are you putting it? I probably? I probably,
I guess dumped it in the trash can, okay, And I'm thinking
I'm trying to think of the best place to put it in the bathroom.
Uh, I guess I fucking reads to drop ceiling. If that's an option.
Well, I mean there's a literally from the position that you all are
by the door, there is one of those big cans with the flip top
on it. You could drop one right in there. Yeah, that's what
I'll do that yep. As it goes down and at this moment, all
of your ears pop. I need you to go to your Spotify playlist,
my friends, and turn on free Fallen by Thomas Petty. Mat roll me
comprehend cool. Um, yeah nothing applies here? Um who boy? Two
successes now you know it's happening. And with the contact with all of your
friends as one, if anyone were watching, you all sink. Instead of
falling into the floor, you sink like sandcastles struck by a wave, and
you just dissolve into the linoleum and the door opens and the hooded figure looks
around and moves back into the McDonald's my friends, just like the beginning of
this episode, if you would so kindly roll me your best stat but don't
add your iconic item this time. Very good. You're all falling again,
twirling and twisting in that field of stars, those rows upon rows of dotted
lights match. You're looking at them for the first time, almost like a
dancer spotting a segment to keep your balance as you spin, You're kind of
reorienting yourself to just this one section of this vast and terrible field, and
you see a couple of these dots, and for a moment, kind of
like lining up a linear constellation, you remember a bit of this place.
Everyone go to your Spotify playlist, Sorry, Tom, and turn on Personal
Jesus by Depeche Mode. George and Shannon. You were the closest to the
door and kind of the X of this Mitch letter that was formed. You
feel yourselves ripped in opposite directions, Mitch. You feel them ripped away from
you as you all begin to spin independently. After a moment rob you are
standing in front of a vacant lot. After a moment of disorientation, you
realize that you recognize the homes to the right and left of the lot.
This is your neighborhood, but your home is missing. Among the twisted shrubs
and tree stumps, a bag of pings, fine Chinese cuisine sits waiting for
someone. Just at your feet. A bit of the grass springs from one
of the last patches of snow. It's still green, not because it's resilient.
It is green because it isn't a plant. It's glass, The wind
blows cold and the snow swirls. George, your dad will be right out,
sweetie. George. You are sitting in a small waiting room with only
four chairs. None of the other seats are occupied, save yours. For
a moment, you think you are in one of the reception buildings of the
Loop, But then you hear the low sound of music coming from the wall
mounted speakers. It's the musac version of careless whisper. The Loop doesn't play
music, not ever. Before you can get your bearings, the door opens
and your father, Eugene Butts, arrives his wheelchair being pushed by an orderly
at the Sunset Homes retirement facility. Hi, Georgie, he's having a good
day today, the orderly says, with a sad smile, drool collecting at
the corner of his mouth. Eugene Butt stares at the space beyond the floor
and whispers, I lost my marbles. Mitch. You find yourself face down
in a snow scattered feel Shannon is standing over you. Roamy move with a
failure, you get a condition one success. You stand up and move away,
just as a blade whistles by your throat when you turn, Shannon flips
the blade underhand in her grasp and says, last time, I get to
kill a mitch and then my dad will be safe. Shannon, your world
is darkness, roaming and investigate. You realize that you are under some type
of blanket, and after a few seconds of clawing and rolling your fingers,
snags the internal ring of your body bag. As you roll off the stainless
s gurney and crash to the floor. Around you, you see the bodies
of Knee and Dutch on similar steel tables, neither in a body bag.
A newspaper nearby says Wednesday, April fifth, nineteen eighty nine, and the
headline of the Times News reads three teens killed in a stolen car. The
translucent door displays the backwards title of Coroner's office in the garret PD. And
someone is coming and because of a Michigan you recognize the voice of Chief Rugan.
Jerry, you are still spinning through this field of stars. Then is
screaming out, reach out, Jerry, reach out as he's trying to hold
on to you. And with your four successes one more than what you needed,
you grab hold of Ben Jerry. You open your eyes and you find
yourself laying in a top bunk of a bunk bed, reaching down to Ben
as he sits on the bottom bunk, reaching up around you. Your room
in your dad's house sits a bit of a mess, but need enough posters
cover the walls. Gang of Four Metallica, other rockers mixed with alternative and
pop groups. Talking Heads, Prince Duran Duran, Fabulous Baker Boys, Wakey
Wakey Eggs, and Bakey Time for School. Ben's mom comes into the room
carrying a basket of laundry that she takes to the double dresser and starts to
put away. She looks the age she did before she died. Jerry,
your mom said she'd stop buy around ten on Saturday to take you shopping at
the mall for a certain someone's fifteenth birthday. She pantomimes towards Ben, and
then we are all having dinner Saturday night, no excuses. Now, I'm
sure there's some movie or baseball game it's playing, but we'll try to eat
early enough so you boys have some free time. Jerry, your dad walks
in, but it takes you a moment to recognize him. He's thinner,
smiling, and his nose is its normal off center, having never been broken
in nineteen sixty nine. His nose now looks exactly like a larger version of
Ben's. He wraps Ben's mom and a bear hug from behind, squeezes her
and lifts her off her feet. Quick, boys, get downstairs. I
don't know how much longer I can hold this monster. Melanie Baker laughs and
tries to whip her husband Carl with a towel from the basket, but her
arms are pinned, making it extremely difficult, but she is laughing the entire
time. You are rude, sir. Now, boys, don't be like
your father. Be gentleman. And that, my friends, is where we
will end our session of Atari Twilight. Join us next week for a Tory
Twilight rollout, Episode two, The Old Revolution. I'm you know, everything
was weird until you did the Carl Baker thing, and that was the creepiest
part of the show. You need, Melanie Baker, Yeah, I don't
creepier. Are very wonderfully awesome for Jerry, I was it though? For
Ball? I mean he came from a broken ome, right, we're really
brothers now. Autari Twilight is an unmade gaming production and a proud member of
the Unmade Gaming podcast network. If you'd like to support our endeavors and get
some behind the scenes looks at upcoming projects, please join us on Patreon at
patreon dot com slash onmade Gaming. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please take
a minute to give us a five star rating and review on iTunes. Thank
you for joining us on this blast from the past, and we'll see you
next time on Atari Twilight