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 Fantastic.
My friend and I'm going to ask a couple questions before i start,
just so everybody can inform me. I'm not sure if I have a Michigan
outstanding. I thought I did, but I'm not one hundred percent sure if
I have one carried over from last time. If I don't perfectly find if
I do, just someone throw it up in chat and let me know what
I would like to do. In a tradition that we have started here,
adopted from my friend Trooper, is I'm going to ask a question. But
I always found that asking a question and then immediately going to somebody for an
answer is no bueno because that person gets the short end of the stick and
never has a chance to really kind of think about the question, whereas everybody
else can kind of play off that initial answer. So what I'm going to
do is I'm going to ask the question, I'm going to do my intro,
and then I'm going to look for everyone for their answers. And if
you could, at the same time, when you give me your answer,
let us know about your character. Give us a physical description to kind of
bring us back around as to what they look like in this moment. Some
things have changed, some glasses have been taken off, some hats have changed
colors. And in addition to that, if you could tell me what playbook
your character is for this, the Free League tails from the loop system.
So if you could tell us both the physical description your playbook and the answer
to the following question, if your character could see, talk, interact with
one other person, who would it be. Now we've asked this question before,
but I want you to see. I want to see you if it's
changed or if you're doubling down on this one person that you could interact with.
Now, there are a few limitations, but it's very broad. This
person can be a friend, an enemy, a mentor, an anchor.
Hell could even be someone famous. If your character wanted to meet Sting doesn't
matter. The only stipulation is that the character must be living, or at
least your character believes they are living. Tell me the person, and then
tell us why your character would like to meet them. Why does your character
want to see or interact with this particular person. And now, my friends,
we're a little something different. The Age of Always is growing. It
lives, it breathes, and it has reached a crossroads. Neverland, Wonderland,
Narnia, os always, each a wondrous place, each beautiful, each
fantastical, But behind them all is a history of violence, blood and murder.
Safety can be found in companions, lost boys, tea lovers, fawns
and scarecrows, keystones. Each world has its heroes, its villains, it's
mentors, it's tricksters, it's war, it's peace. Heather, Ricky and
Scarlet find themselves surrounded by the Age of Always, with only their combined strength
a deterrent against the chaos. But they are not united. They have lost
JD, the fourth member of their band. He is somewhere in the Age
of Always, and if the wanted posters bearing his likeness are any indication he
is in grave danger. But perhaps even more dangerous than JD's loss is the
fracture sundering the rest of the band. Differing approaches have led to arguments.
Arguments have led to lines being drawn. Wars begin with lines being drawn,
and if you are not very careful, you will find yourselves on opposite sides,
staring at those you used to love. So what will it be,
travelers? What chapter will be added to the story of Always? I,
for one, cannot wait to hear Welcome again, one and all to Atari
Twilight The Age of Always, Episode six Cardinal Points. And So, my
friends, let's answer those questions about who you would like to talk to and
why? What you look like has it changed? And what playbook do you
have here? In Free Leagues Tales from the Loop System. Let's start with
Melissa Heather Jones. Is she's such a weirdo. Gosh, So I'm going
to answer the question first, and I hope that I don't know if this
is what you were intending, but I'm just going to answer it. Heather
would like to talk to Scarlett and Ricky? Why oh man, I'm just
getting a little touched up just thinking about it, because even though they're here,
they're very far away. I think that is a very accurate statement considering
the current atmosphere of the group. Yeah, so what does Heather look like?
Uh? When when we first met Heather, she was, you know,
a gangly youth growing into her body. You know, her her ligaments
and didn't quite connect. So she kind of was a little bit disconnected and
found it difficult to move with any measure of grace. She wore large,
oversized clothing dark usually. She had some strange idea that you can walk around
in black clothes and people wouldn't be able to see you, even though maybe
we see you a little bit more obvious, and and that and big big,
big eighty style glasses. You know. But last episode, the glasses
came off because she realized in the telescopic vision world of age of Always,
she didn't need them anymore. And you know, in I think in the
year that she slept in the tree, you know, she grew just like
everyone as everyone does, and you know, her her ligaments and were together.
She's she's been running around, so she's healthy, you know, got
a good setting, good muscle on her, good muscle tone, and she
grew into those clothes that she's now been wearing for over a year, so
you couldn't say she's baggy. She's wearing baggy clothes anymore. And the hoodie
that she used to be browed inside of more and more these days, she's
taken to just wearing it wrapped around her waist. Yeah, so that's Heather.
Despite the best efforts of a Peter Pan, everyone grows up. Chris,
same question. I am playing Ricky Lewis. I'll start off with who
he is, So Ricky, Ricky's playbook is He's class jock. Ricky is
a fairly tall, well built kid, a bit of a farm kid,
pretty dark tan, wearing a brown jacket and a very very white cowboy hat
sitting top his head. To answer your question of if a character could see
or talk to one of someone else, who would it be. I think
for Ricky now it would probably be his father, Reggie Lewis. His father
has always been his rock and a shining beacon to him on who you should
be and what you should what you should believe. Ricky's away from that in
a strange place, in a strange world, with surrounded now by strange people,
with only a few few of his friends left with him. Fantastic,
fantastic YEP, Reggie lewis leaning somewhere on something Scarlet Gee tell us about her.
Hi, Yeah, I'm playing Scarlet Blake and Scarle like Ricky. She
is also a jock for her class. She is a prodigy athlete. She's
tall for her age. She's she's fourteen, she's five eight, very lean,
very like toned, athletically toned. Uh she plays football, but usually
when you're good at one sport, you pick up other sports pretty well,
so she's she's all around a pretty gifted athlete and blonde hair, light brown
eyes, kind of like the color of honey and freckles. Currently, now
that we're in the uh in Oz, she is maybe not looking so great.
She had a little bit of a breakdown last episode away from the other
kids, so her hair is usually up in a pony tail. She's probably
looking a little bit more frazzled and for like a frumpie a little bit.
She's wearing just like black Adita's track pants runners and a white hoodie and then
under over that is just a navy blue vest with red and red red and
yellow stripes. And yeah, so she probably looks a little pale and read
it round the eyes, and her hair is probably coming out of her pointail
a little bit. And if she could talk to anyone new as this is
the second time we've answered this question, Yeah, her answer is definitely definitely
gonna change. There's two people who she would want to talk to. She
wants to talk to a memory restored van Halen. That's who I think I
would like to talk to, and I'm gonna sneak another person in there.
She also wants to talk to this grown up Ben that she saw in her
little little, uh not memory but vision she had I guess the other day,
the one that said told her to hold strong. I think the van
Halen one is pretty self explanatory, but I'll ask for both if you need
to, you know, fulfill that why why? Well, Van Helen has
like a lot of trauma that she is holding on to and kind of like
the at least for Scarlet, she's slowly coming undone, it seems like,
and where Ricky is like her touchstone, which is pretty much the only thing
holding her together right now. So she's having a very hard time. And
I feel like if she got her memory back, she would feel maybe not
feel better, but she could help make sense of it. So, and
I'm sure she also has a lot of things she could answer for us.
Yeah, I'm going to ask something that the others can hear but can't use.
I will ask this in your quest to have van Halen's memories restored?
Is that more for van Halen's benefit or the groups? I think it well,
because Scarlet doesn't know about the memory thing, so I don't know if
that's if I'm allowed to choose her in that regard. So sure, sure,
but I would say it would be for Scarlet and if they're good,
if they're going to be doing Van Hailey's memories, she would want Flag's memories
also to be restored. Okay, So that's great. I've heard from No,
I haven't Mike, same question, same descript UH is Casey Casey Mitchell
is his playbook is Wizard specifically of oz oz Comma. Wizard is on his
his his card. He is in his mid twenties. You would say he
has long, dark brown hair down to his shoulders. He still wears a
similar garb to the Casey Mitchell of of Garrett Prime fame. UH. He
wears a cutoff jean jacket. He has adopted a new flannel he wears open
underneath the jacket. He has a necklace or two, and he has a
little bit more of a team beat look. He has come into his own
as far as instead of a greasy trailer park kid. He seems to have
filled out in places that needed filling out. And he seems to have come
into his age in the last ten years since anyone saw him ten or so
years. If he could speak to one person, and Greg, I'm gonna
give you the answer, but I think I think for reasons I might have
to opt out on why. And I'll let everyone muse about that. Casey
Mitchell would like to speak to one person more than anyone else, and that
person is Christopher DeWitt. B plastic and face. Just give everyone's faces fantastic.
That's why. No, no, he Mike said he didn't need to.
There's a honor that and uh, we'll well, we'll go on from
there. I just want to add before you go on, I thought,
I just I remember this from the uh the the penultimate episode of Rollout,
when the Keystones and the Autobots separated and went their own ways. When Scarlet
said, oh, good luck in the loop watch out for booby traps,
and Mitch said to her, good luck with your wizardship my how the turns
of table uz Calm a wizard of Okay, everybody, we are going to
pick up in the heartbeats following are the end of our last episode. UH
to briefly recount what had happened. Everyone had just made it to the Emerald
City. This is an Emerald City, not of the nineteen thirty nine movie
There are. It's definitely dominated by green, but as we mentioned in prior
episodes, every single elements of architecture across cultural and country divides is included inside
the confines of Emerald City. Emerald City has no walls. It has no
great big door that you open to get into. There are guards here,
There are at least a police force present, but it's not like a military
state. Nor are the Assians or the citizens of Emerald City walking around in
green uniforms or some type of standard dress. Everybody inside seems to be very
familiar. The space itself seems very familiar. It's not something that you wouldn't
see in your hometown. It contains fantastical elements. But at its base and
its courts, very spartan and very normal. With that being said, you
all entered into the city. You were witnessed to three flying individuals above you,
at which point the distraction enabled Scarlet, who had been experiencing a lot
of emotional trauma, was able to sneak off and run off into the population
or the pedestrian dominated streets of the Emerald City, disappearing from the others.
When Heather and Ricky took chase, they were interrupted in their pursuit of Scarlet
by the arrival of a caged wagon. In the back of the cage,
surrounded by guards were none other than Randall Flag, their mentor, and Lion,
the Cowardly Lion, their friend. A scuffle ensued, at which time
the nearby area of the city, Scarlet had run into Casey Mitch Mitchell,
who was able giving the description that we just received an older version of the
person that she knew back in garat Prime, was able to help her with
the orientation of his incredibly named locator, able to get back in the same
direction as her searching friends, and arrived just in time to see what was
essentially an attack on this armed wagon with van Halen tearing open the cage and
with everybody else playing their parts, including Ricky, who absolutely and I don't
think that this can be understated, absolutely destroyed the mirror of Chief Rugen in
this world, a despicable individual who has a history back in their hometown,
this mirror of this gentleman was once again in charge of the police here in
Emerald City, and the one thing that he wasn't expecting was to get a
full on shoulder tackle just under the armpit into a wagon and knocked to the
ground by one Ricky Lewis, who then dominating the scene above him standing over
him. The rest proceeded to eradicate the guards, not kill them, but
ko everybody to the point where they were able to free their friends, or
at the very least Lion was able to spring out. And upon the arrival
of both Scarlett and Mitch, we had the arrival of the three individuals who
we saw flying earlier. These three strutted forward like they were on a catwalk
or charging across a battlefield. They were none other than their leader, Dorothy
Gale Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and Wendy Darling from Peter Pan As they
approached, they kind of cut through the crowd, going straight to Heather,
telling her that they were the Witches three. But there must always before.
But a moment before that proclamation or prophecy was made, Randall Flagg had met
eyes, touched hands with Heather and begged her to remember the face of her
father, For here in Emeralds City, it seems that only remembering the face
of your father or the face of your mother is what keeps you centered,
which keeps your compass pointing north, It gives you a heading, it gives
you guidance, and it keeps you you. My friends, these are the
moments following that very indication and proclamation of prophecy and statement. And as you
are all surrounding this police wagon, as the whistles in the city are still
going, though not originating from this area, as Chief Rugen referred to Mitch
as or everybody referred to Mitch as the Wizard, it seems that whoever is
in charge is in fact already on the scene. But here are my friends
in this moment. As Chief Rugen begins to pull himself up, what do
you all do? So he's starting to stand up, he is yes,
he grabs hold of the side of the wheel own the wagon and pulls himself
up, hoisting his kind of his He's he's got a gut on him.
But as Chief Rerugen has always been described, he's where his belly is a
barrel, so too is his chest, and so too are his shoulders.
He is the proverbial fire hydrant. Can we pause? Can we pause one
second? Because I want to go to the second before, because as as
we're going on, because I just need one second in time. In our
time, I need maybe two minutes, but in the s I need one
second in age of always time. So Heather is standing there between Randall Flagg
with the Witches three on the other side of her, and she is gazing
in awe and wonder at Dorothy, Wendy and Alice. She she immediately recognizes
them. She doesn't need to have any sorts of introductions. This is very
similar to the way she kind of instantly recognized Randall Flagg when they first when
she first encountered them on the road to Gray School. Because for her,
even though they that she read about them in books, for her, they
have always been real, real life, like Flag, the antagonist of her
favorite novel. He's always been like the epitome of a villain, but these
three were entirely the opposite. And it's better to say that for these girls,
they were as close to her heart as maybe best friends and family,
because for years when Heather had no one else and no other type of guidance,
these were the girls that taught her what to value in life and what
to strive for. Right, she would credit them for being the ones that
could help her charge through even though she was terrified or even be willing to
accept an adventure, even though life had been always a very frightening experience.
The lion's courage that she so much admires in Scarlet, and the tin man's
heart that she sees in Ricky, and the scarecrow's brains that she so much
appreciates and tries to emulate in JD. These were values that were like front
and center for her in each of those stories, even though we're represented in
different ways. Right, and so I guess you could say that these three
witches are everything that she has ever wanted to be. But then as she's
looking at them, she sees the broom that Dorothy has sheathed behind her back
and she recognizes it as very similar to the one that we see when we're
first introduced to a wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz, and it's that
one negative association that allows her to break free of this. And she remembers
the lion towering towering in the cabin and on the road here to Emerald City,
and then she remembers the lion's warning, also repeated by flag, just
seconds before, and she recognizes that when they were on the road, that
she made a terrible mistake because she was so upset, she allowed herself to
be I don't know, stupid. She should have she should have said something
right, She should have said, hey, actually this is a risk y'all,
don't I don't have any memories of my parents. I don't know my
father, and maybe maybe they would have made a different decision. And yet
now, because she was angry and she was impetuous, and she didn't reach
out to her friends, they have now entered the city, and maybe she's
put them all at risk. She doesn't know, you know. And so
with that, her brows furrow and she shifts with intent to the side,
very now clearly standing between the three witches and Randall. Flagg, and she
reflectively puts her left hand on her shoulder over where Flag has put his own
hand, and then she raises up her sword to the side, creating a
blockade between Queen the Lion and the witches. And she says, these two
are under my protection. And she says, now looking at Dorothy Gale and
asking her the same question that Dorothy was first asked by Gunda, So what
are you? Are you a good witch or are you a bad witch?
With that as that comes out, that question hangs in the air. But
I want to give Scarlett a chance to do anything if as Reugen is pulling
himself up just as that question comes out, are you a good witch or
a bad witch? Yeah, before he can even like lift himself high enough
to like stabilize, she turns to him, and it's maybe it's it's kind
of like object permanence. No one ever knows notices that her, that she's
wearing her twin gun rig unless she's holding the guns in her hand. And
this whole time, like Mitch never noticed it, or a Casey never noticed
it, no one ever noticed it. But as she turns to him,
she reaches down with both hands and as she reaches to her bare hips.
The guns are suddenly there, like they've materialized out of nowhere, and she
pulls both of them and points them down at him, and she says,
stay down. He does, and she will just hold that and she'll just
like glare at him, and that's all she does. So in this moment,
as the twin gun rig appears and Scarlet pulls forth her firearms, holding
them point blank range, basically at Chief Reugan, Reugan, not a stupid
fellow, sees the incredible disadvantage that he is in right now, not to
mention the incredible danger, and without the look of irritation an eye roll,
you know, the strengthening or the hardening of a jaw, he simply freezes
where he is. He doesn't raise his hands, he doesn't offer a passive
posture. He simply stops. Yeah. And then if he's still like in
the air, she'll go sit. He lowers himself down until his butt is
again on the cobblestones. Oka his eyes never leave you or the guns.
No one has to roll for this, Ricky, you're probably the closest to
hear this. But Alice Pleasance and Wendy Darling are a little bit back from
Dorothy Gale and Alice, who has shrunk back down to her normal size of
five foot something or other. Her long dress used to cover herself when she
grows training behind her like a wedding dress. She turns, regards Scarlet and
in no means a whisper, but more of an aside comment to Wendy.
She says, I look, Dee, she's a stinger. And Dorothy,
who hears are you a good witch or a bad witch? Smiles at you,
looks at Randall Flagg, looks at the lion, looks at your sword,
and says I'm neither. I'm your friend. And if they're under your
protection, they're under mind. Hey, how do we get out of here?
She would turn and look at Mitch. Mitch Casey stands there with a
shit eating grim uncharacteristic for someone who might be in charge and just watched his
chief of police get his ass kicked by children. But this is for anyone
who has met a version of Mitchell of Mitch. Rather, this is that
level of excitement he has when it's when he shouldn't be excited, when something
should be terrifying or deadly or awful, and he's like super amped up about
it. He has the same grin as he watches this unfold as a literal
child points guns at an adult who just get his ass kicked as there's a
sword man, like all kinds of shit. He just sits there and looks
around, and for a second he pauses on Ricky, waiting for something else
fantastical to happen, and when nothing does, he looks around and says,
you have leave of the city everywhere except there, and he points to the
three cooling towers. It's not safe. Van Halen climbs down from the wagon.
Now that Lyon has sprung from the hole that she created and is up
against, you know, back to back with Heather, van Halen would drop,
and if Heather would allow her to approach, I'm assuming she would.
Van Halen is going to kind of take the other shoulder of Heather, so
they're creating a wall. Van Halen, who has never been a fan of
Randall flag, stands in defense of him at this moment. What's Ricky doing.
Ricky is not moving. He is standing there with his bow in his
hand. It's half drawn, it's not quite all the way an arrow notched,
and he's just standing still. His eyes are the only sort of thing
moving. He flicks between Scarlet as she moves up, the three witches as
they speak to each other, to Mitch as he talks, but the whole
time he just stands perfectly still, waiting for something to change. Your mention
of your knocked arrow reminds me that they're One of the guards is weeping as
they have the tip of a broadhead in their knee. It's again, this
is tails from the loops. So we're not going to get the you know,
maiming anybody or anything like that, but this is a while. It's
not a life threatening or debilitating or you know, a wound of permanence.
It's enough of a concern when you have a quivering arrow sticking out of your
knee. That warrants a few tears. And so this guard staring at his
knee is weeping. The rest of the guards and very the one that was
hit by the bat is down the breathing fine chaote. Everybody else seems to
be pulling themselves up, but they do so very hesitant, as they make
sure they're not going to catch a slug from a revolver for standing while Chief
Rugen is still on the ground. As soon as they do stand, if
allowed to do so, they would slowly shuffle until they were standing behind Reugen,
just to kind of like stay in everybody's site. You know. They're
not trying to sneak around or flank or do anything, you know, you
know, treacherous. They are literally moving into locksteps so you can see them.
And the situation is attempting to be diffused a bit, but it's still
tense. Yeah, and Scarlet's not gonna say anything. She just flicks her
eyes to Heather because she seems to seems to know these women and she's been
she just bargained for their freedom. So she's standing close to Heather and just
cuts her eyes over so we can just take him out of the cage and
walk away. She's looking at Casey, Well, I do have a few
questions for him, but I mean, it does seem to be a bit
of a miscommunication. Interesting that we were all at friends with arguably a terrorist,
but you seem like good kids. Okay, well, well then we
should be going. Then let's uh, let's let's let's head out of town
and then we won't have to trouble you anymore. Oh, you're no trouble
to me. Dorothy looks at you, and she goes around to the back
with a look. She's still looking at case, but she opens the like
had the barred gate on the back, even though there's already a whole sundered
in the cage. She kind of swings and slides open the portal in the
back of the cage, giving Randall an opening. She then kind of looks
over at the other two, Wendy and Alice, and they Wendy and Alice
both nod and Dorothy says, there's no reason for you to leave. You
can stay in our place and under our protection. If and she looks again
at Mitch again. There is a deference of respect here. It's not something
that she's just coming up with. It's something that she's kind of in the
moment of stream of consciousness kind of running by Mitch for approval as well.
They can stay with a subtle nod, okay, they can stay with us
all under our protection. You are not prisoners, and we will bring flag
with us. You can stay in and with that, Alice kind of perks
up a little bit and lets it go. You can see there was something
on her tongue, but she didn't say it. And Dorothy looks at Heather,
probably looks at the side of Scarlett, who I can only assume is
still you know, just absolutely zeroed in on Rerugen, and then looks over
at Ricky and I'm not making you all roll for this. This is heartfelt
and honest coming from Dorothy Gale. You will all be safe. I give
you my word. If Ricky needs to move his head, he would in
the situation, but he would look good. Lion. How is he reacting
to what Dorothy is saying. I'm gonna need you to make an investigation for
this and just a clear go to be a guaranteed file because of conditions,
love one die. Look at that, Oh you have little faith, Kristen
to me, look meant to be. Ricky said, fuck these conditions apparently,
look at that through upset, through scared, very minimal place to begin
with. You've got one and you made it, as everyone else said,
meant to be. You look over at Lion, Lion is it's very difficult
to kind of get like the constant for Lion is trembling and afraid, so
that you kind of got to push away what you normally see from Lion to
see if there's any differences in that approach. You know, uh, you
know, always afraid. Now what's beyond that? What are the ways to?
It's almost like grout from Guardians of the Galaxy. You know, at
some point you can read and understand what is actually happening with these And you're
getting there, Ricky. You've spent enough time around lyon that you're starting to
understand the nuance beyond fear. And so as you look, you realize that
the thing and I'm giving you even though this would have been a two successor,
I'm giving it because that was a hell of a role. You see
that Lion is very suspicious. You know, there's there's a narrowing of the
eyes despite the fear trembles that are going on. Lion is very intelligent.
He's highly intelligent as far as being able to read people because it's like a
defense mechanism for him with his his fight or flight. And you see him
narrow his eyes at Dorothy. But when she makes the statement you are under
my protection. You know nothing will happen to you. I promise you'll be
safe. You can see relief on the face of Lion and with the second
one that I wasn't going to give you, but I'm going to give you.
You see hope, and Scarlett has her gun still trained on Rugen,
but she is she's watching Dorothy because in my mind we were standing at the
back of the cart, so Dot would have to literally walk right by her
like her. Her hand might twitch a little bit as she's getting close,
and then she's watching her like because she doesn't trust her at all. And
to re clarify absolutely, and that's exactly how the setup was, and I
didn't recognize that. In my description, Dot would have walked behind Scarlet.
She would not have interrupted the tension or the gaze between Scarlet and Rugen,
so she wouldn't have gone in between. You know, there would have been
no shielding of Rugen at any point. She would have made sure she stayed
clear of that and circled around that moment. But the only change you'd see
from Ricky is that his bow from half it's about a court or now he
relaxes a little bit, seeing Lion at his starts. Only change she would
have and I'm you know what, Ricky, I'm giving this one to you
too, that that success is a hell of a thing for you. You're
getting a three for here what I was gonna make you roll for you're gonna
hear anyway, as Wendy, Alice had turned to Wendy and said, look,
she's a slinger. You hear Wendy turn to Alice in regards to Ricky,
and she says one word, Loxley, and they both turn and look
at you. And there is a more than a measure of respect from both
of these UK origined children. And just to clarify, she's offering us essentially
like safety, like asylum, but she wants us to come with them and
they will keep us safe. That seems what they've offered their abode, their
home, their whatever it happens to be again not to be. And you
guys have rolled for this, so it doesn't seem to be any deception or
anything like that. It seems they want you, you know, in a
place where they will be safe, where where presumably Lion and Randall will be
safe. It's not a prison, and it's also someplace that you know,
you get the feeling that their house is probably pretty secure. You don't know,
but that's just kind of the idea that you would get considering their power
that you've already seen them display. M h. And Scarlett will look at
Dot like you can back up now, I wait most away from the cart
the door thing. Yeah, she will. She comes back around and she
stands. She's like the point of a triangle with Alice and Wendy flanking her.
You don't get the idea that Dorothy's in charge. You get the idea
that Dorothy's more like the one that doesn't mind talking as much. Okay,
so when she when she moves away, Scarlet looks into the cart, Randall,
get out, Randall. He is still holding on to Heather's shoulder through
the cage that Heather, you have your hand over his right. He doesn't
seem to want to break that I will. And you can see his glasses
are off, his hats off. You can see that there are tears running
down his cheeks into his like the salt and pepper stubble that's on his chin.
He's been hurt. These guards had their way with him. You're not
sure. Lion seems to be favoring a paw, but you're not sure if
that's part of the fear or not. No other visible wounds on lion,
but it seems that Randall put up a hell of a fight and paid the
price for it. Heather glances over her shoulder and lets his hand go and
says, you should you should get out, you should come on out,
all right, all right, and he climbs out, but he's having a
howl of the time. It looks like his leg is either broken or severely
sprained. Can can you help him? As Heather says that, Ricky moves
and he'll take the boy back on his back, take the arrow back,
and he walks up and puts his arm underneath Randall's around his round his back,
sort of helps him out of the cot in. In a moment of
escalating tension. As this happens, Van he Ellen moves to cover Ricky and
she lifts her fists once again. It's they were at her sides for a
moment, but it's an act of aggression, even very subtly, that you
all register as you see her kind of tense up, ready for anybody that
might come at Ricky's back or you know, attempt to prevent Flag from exiting
the cart. She seems very resolute, if that makes sense. Her face
is very fixed, very just like when she charged the cart, when Heather
and Ricky saw this, she was driven, she was focused, she was
maybe more so than you've ever seen her. And she seems to still be
in that mental state. But you're able to get Randall out. Randall is
hurting. It looks as if his ankle or his shin somewhere in like beneath
the knee on his right leg is twisted. I'm not sure if he's twisting
it because it's in pain, or if it's broken and hanging in that direction,
but his boot looks very strange. She looks down at Reugen. What
did you guys do? He looks at your gun, and you can see
the story on his face, goes, I'm not going to answer her.
She's got a gun. Fuck it, I'm going to say what I want.
We arrested a criminal. And what about Lion? Why is he in
there? He was with a criminal? You guys can go now. Rugen
looks over at Mitch. Mitch again still has that shitty thing grim In fact,
when everyone likes anytime anyone turns back to him, they see that he's
slightly removed from the group and he has like his thumb in front of his
face and he's like covering, but he's looking directly at Randall flag and he's
trying to like section off his face. And as he hears the exchange between
Scarlett and Rugan, he mumbles the words you can DJ sorry, you can
go, and he like he like waves off Rugan and looks to Scarlett,
who still has the guns out, and says, in his defense, he
is a criminal wanted in basically everywhere, in everywhere, and he just sort
of motions vaguely to the entire age of all ways. He's he's pretty bad
guy. So we've been told basically any place you go there I canna enjoy
his company, h but you're you're fine here and under under your protection.
Randall would move up, with Ricky's help, would move up behind Heather and
put his hand back on Heather's shoulder, but this time from the outside of
the cage. Ricky Scarlett, I don't I don't know what you think we
should do, but Van Helen, maybe maybe we should get everybody somewhere safe
so that we can I mean, they have some health problems, right like
we have to. I don't know what's wrong with his leg Ricky leans it's
because Randall's got his hand on Heather's shoulder. He leans a little bit closer
and just says, as quiet as he can, look to Lion. Seems
to know mhm, Heather. Heather looks down at Lion. I'm not going
to make your role because again, Ricky's getting a hell of a lot of
use out of that one success in Ricky telling you directing your attention to Lion
again, you have the same type of reaction, especially when told to kind
of look beyond the normal, and for a moment, Lion looks at you
through the trembling in the fear, looks over at Dorothy, looks back at
you and subtly nods, okay, Miss Gale. Can can we go now?
Alice and Wendy erupt into laughter when you say miss Gale. They are
Wendy it has to be held up by Alice who's Alice is holding her up.
As Wendy's hat comes off, she is laughing, Oh my god,
and Alice is going, it's so unbecoming. And he's laughing too. I
just stop, it's Miss gatl will get so upset with us. Come and
Wendy finally stops and puts her hat back on, tears streaming down her face
across the wave tattoo that dominates half of her her facial features, and Alice
looks at you, Heather looks at Scarlet, Scarlet looks at Ricky nods,
and you see her start to grow as her body stretches until she's twenty twenty
five feet tall, and she kneels down now, her dress above her knee,
almost a mini skirt in many respects, as she reaches down and offers
to pick Randall Flag up like a babe? Do you allow it? Did
anybody try to stop her? Or she picks him up? Scirl's not happy
about it, but what the fuck is she gonna do? Yeah, rit
Ley's kind of holds on for hap a second too long, so she feels
like a bit of resistance as he lets him go. All right, So
with that bit of resistance as she kind of looks at you for a second
and then hoists him up and literally is holding him like you would a baby,
you know, length wise across a like a loaf of bread. As
she looks down, and her voice, though not deep or seems so,
as her height and sound and resonance has kind of increased, and she looks
down at Randall and says, just rest love. As she holds him.
She begins to walk, cutting a swath through the crowd. Dorothy indicates,
just follow her. She'll take you right to where we live. It'll be
safe. I'll handle some things here. D and Wendy stands up and nods
and she follows him behind you all, do you guys follow Alice as she's
taking so your entire crew begins to move through the city before they move,
before they set off, because Mitch doesn't come with them, I presume he
kind of waves and says you, I'm sorry. I didn't get your name
any points to Ricky. Ricky looks to the others and then slowly starts walking
towards case. You're not in You're not in trouble. It's not a it's
not detention, okay, And he very like overly friendly, throws an arm
around you like you've known each other for years, and he says, hey,
you seem to be the most level headed among your group. You should
talk to your friends. You guys seem a little I don't know something about
you. Not exactly the same page. The other one was crying any kind
of like motions in the direction of Scarlet. You should it's better as one,
three are better than one. Yeah, that makes sense anyway. Good
luck. If you need anything, one of the witches can handle it.
If not, they can page me. And do you have a promise of
safety within the bounds of the city anyway? Good luck? Don't hurt anybody
outside the city. Oh I'm I'm in charge of the city. I can't
guarantee your sifety outside like a mayor. Yeah, one could say that a
wizard or ruler or whatever you want to call it, like a mayor.
Yes, but inside the city. Outside of the city, so many things
go bump in the night. But while you're here safety anyway. Ricky sort
of like hot tips, just grabs tip of his hat, says, appreciate
the safety, enjoy your stay, and he kind of pats you on the
back and just watches you guys leave. Garlett would have hung back like to
wait for Ricky, like they were one not going to walk away and leave
him, so like thirty feet aware or whatever, she would stop and look
back and just wait for him to rejoin them. As Ricky gets up next
to scull it he just glounces back at ba see and just slotting out of
the head. As you all, yeah, as you all start walking through,
led by Alice who is carrying Randall. Van Halen and the Lion are
with you as you walk through, Wendy's kind of bringing up the rear,
but whistling and chit chatting pleasant enough that she's very approachable. My friends,
we've had our open So now it's time to go over to our Spotify playlist
for this are the Cardinal points episode, our sixth episode of Age of Always.
Please go to track number one. Life in a Northern town and so
as we listen to the Dream Academy and walk the streets of Emerald City,
a sentence I never thought I would say five years ago, but now find
very comforting every time I get a chance to say something like that. We
will look instead towards what we are seeing here in the city. People are
clapping when the Witches three walk by. If anybody recognizes Randall flag from his
elevated position, it's kind of overwhelmed or overdone with the Witches three. Their
popularity seems to kind of have preminence or eclipse the notoriety of Randall flag if
there is any kind of contest between the two attention getters. You all go
through the city. I don't know. City's not necessarily big, So this
is about a five to ten minute walk. As you all go through,
and you round a corner and you see that this particular leg of the cobblestone
path is lined with great trees, something you would see in the the Washington
Street district of Garrett where all of the big homes are, where all of
the upper class lives. And it's beautiful with this lined tree walk, and
you see buildings of all different types of architecture, but all speaking of a
higher quality or a wealth here except for one. One is roughly the square
block of this residential area where two, three, or even four homes might
dominate a similar block, But this block has one structure on it and it
is very very square. You're not sure why it's very square, but it's
extremely square. It's almost a perfect square. And it's painted green. You
have no idea why it's painted green. It is just a brilliant kind of
non bush like green, Like if you were going to paint a bush.
This is not the green you would use to do it, nor would you
try to make a square look like a bush by painting a green, but
if you did, this is what you would get. You would get a
great, big square building that is a very non bush like green. If
you know, you know. Alice walks forward and one of the doors,
the only door that you can see. There are windows higher up, but
their only door that you can see is twenty five feet tall. Alice walks
forward and she kind of shifts much like a mother would who is in the
process of cooking, or a father who is also trying to grab another child.
They would one arm the babe. And you see as she reaches up
and opens the door, and you can see the first line of defence for
the Witch's threes home. You're pretty sure only Alice could open this door.
As she kind of opens and kind of drags along the ground, and it's
a struggle a bit for her, but not to the point where she there's
ever a question or a doubt as to whether or not she can get it
open. She opens it all the way and kind of gestures for everybody to
walk inside before they walk in. As they're like approaching me. Scarlett would
step up next to Heather and she would say quietly to her, did they
hurt you, the guards? That guy grabbed you? Yeah, I mean
yeah, and then the other guy almost the other guy was coming up.
Are you okay? I mean, I'm fine. I'm fine. It's nothing
big, like just a bruise. Maybe, I don't know. It was
kind of a jerk. I didn't do anything. I didn't attack or anything.
I just like was going up to the bars, you know, mm
hmm. Yeah. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I mean what
I didn't. I didn't mean to get us all into a fight, like
about not the other fight with the guards. Oh but I think that would
have happened anyway, but they're not. Rugan is their chief of police.
That's just trouble waiting to happen. I'm sorry he grabbed you, Okay,
how to fee? All right? And she nods. And after Rugen had
left, she would have reholstered the guns and then the rig would have just
vanished from sight. And uh yeah, she When Heather says that she'll be
all right, I think, uh, Scarlet just kind of puts her arm
around her if she lets her, just gives her like a little l squeeze.
Heather would other would just lean in slightly. But then but then she
would withdraw. Yeah, it's not gonna be. It won't be like a
lingering hug. It just be like a hug. And then she'll let her
go. As presumably you all walk in, I will give you a bare
minimum of what's going on inside the square. This is the home of the
Witches. Three. And as soon as you walk in, it is for
as odd as it is outside, is as majestic as it is inside.
This is a place of hardwoods and marble. It's not a rush or a
kind of a mishmash of different styles, even though it is. It's not
haphazardly done. It's almost a flow. As you see these these something that
you might see in the upper echelon of British society. You know, marbles
and intricately woven metals into artwork on the wall, coupled with hardwood floors and
walls that speak of a hunting lodge more than it would speak of you know,
a manse or something of that nature. But it all works, and
there seems to perpetually be the sound of wind and rushing water, even though
neither is really present here. You don't feel a breeze. You don't see
a source for this running water, but it seems to have this pleasant,
otherworldly quality that you can only identify with one word, which is peace.
My friends. As soon as you enter into the square, as we were
going to ahead and call it, the square acts as your hideout, and
so here at the square, much like the cabin before and of course your
official hideout back in Garrett, this is where you can lose conditions. So
everybody, if you would like to at this time, which I'm assuming you
all, would, please take away your conditions as you walk into your hideout
for or some much needed downtime, some much needed rest and relaxation after a
very tense past couple days. And as you walk in, you will each
be shown to a room. Each of these rooms have beautiful high ceilings,
you know, four poster beds, and they contain new clothes. Now these
are not the clothes that were left by Randall, which Randall said, you
know, oh, I've got a sweatshirt, orh I've got this, which
if you haven't, I'm sure you all have. These are the clothes that
were left over from the children that came here before you. In addition to
that, the clothes that are in each of the rooms here in the square
seem to be brand new. There are gowns and adventurer attire and denim jackets
and anything that you could possibly think of, or anything that you've seen somebody
from the age of always wearing, or anybody in garrett or anybody ever.
There seems to be some element of dress here that you could pick. So
what Greg is trying to tell you is whatever you want to dress your character
in or not dress them in, keeping your own garbling is perfectly acceptable.
You may have it. So if there's something you wanted to add to your
wardrobe or something you wanted to augment, let me know you may do so
you don't even have to ask. So if your appearance changes and you want
to or you want to add something, go ahead and do it. But
before you all walk in, this is what you will see. And as
Scarlet and Heather go inside, Wendy goes inside, Alice takes Random inside,
the Lion goes inside, even Van Halen goes inside. I want one more
investigation role from Ricky, and I'm going to allow you to keep your modifiers
or your conditions off for this. Technically, you'd still have them. You
can keep them off. Thank you. I'll take that. That's the patient.
No successes successes, So I assume you don't want to push. You
can if you'd like. I know that you're just getting things back, So
it's totally up to you. I will allow you to do or do not
whatever you would like. Here, Lucke is still not back. You'll get
luck back whenever I tell you, it'll be very soon. You'll get your
inspiration back or your pride back as if you've spent it soon. But time
is going to pass. We're going to have a bit of a time jump.
Let's push it, Greig, let's do it. Still, no successes,
takes buyd no successes, just take exhausted as you get that back on
your system. And because I am a huge prick, I'm gonna go ahead
and do this. You go insign and Alice deposits randall in a room next
to all of you all. It's identical to the rooms that you're all in.
She then goes back and she pushes the great door into a closed but
as it's about there's still a foot or you know, three feet, two
feet, one feet. Alice thinks she hears something and then goes ahead and
closes it. And just as the great door closes, an elderly man in
his sixties, covered in sweat, having sprinted from a great distance, it
seems, you know, maybe blocks and Blocks, rushes up to the door,
puts his hands on the door and begins to knock. But the knock
does not carry inside. It's as if it's muted, as if there is
a do not disturb on this entire structure. And as Reggie Lewis bangs on
the door, boy boy, we cut inside. My friends, you rest,
and I'm going to be nice. Take that condition off. You get
a chance to rest here too. You get your pride back, get your
luck back, You get all of the things that you need back, all
of your mechanics, have all your consumables have been returned. And step back
into motion, as we are going to have a day pass now. During
this day you can do whatever you'd like, but I'm just going to tell
you that when the action picks back up, it'll be the next day.
So if there's anything that you want to do from now until then, during
your rest time, now is the time to do it. Inside the square.
You are safe there isn't anything that can harm you inside the square.
Much like Mitch said before, as the Wizard of Emerald City, he can
guarantee your safety inside the city limits. Again, authority does not extend into
the entirety of the age of Always, so all bets are off when you
cross that lease line of the city. Same thing goes doubly for the square.
This is your hideout. Mechanically, you are fine here, my friends.
Is there anything that you would like to do while you are in here?
Is there anyone else in the square with us? Or is it just
ow group? It's you all, It's Lyon, It's van Halen, It's
also Alice, and it's also Wendy Dot is not here you The last time
you saw Dorothy, she was with Mitch, and they seem to have.
If anybody looked back behind them as they were leaving, it seems those two
left together looking like they were heading towards the loop. Is a flag at
any medical attention. Yes, at one point somebody comes in you're not sure
you've never seen this person before, but not help everybody roll an investigation two
for scarlt Hey, Ricky there it is. You all recognize this person as
being a member of you see the face. The face seems similar to you.
You're pretty sure that you've seen them before in Garrett. They're an emt.
In fact, if any of you remember or had read the paper when
Ben's mom died, you would remember seeing this woman's picture as being one of
the first on the scene. But she comes in and sets Randall's leg.
It's put into a very odd looking age contraption. It's like a band with
two raw on either side, and as soon as it's attached Randall can stand.
It doesn't seem to limp. It seems to be She smiles, she's
pleasant knowing who Randall flag is. It doesn't seem to affect her professionalism.
She takes care of him and then she leaves. Do you I can't remember
the description of the square. You said there's no windows. There are windows,
but they are very high. They are like thirty feet up, so
you don't you don't have any first floor windows, second floor windows. You're
basically have like third floor windows. Is where it starts. The rest of
the square, all on its exterior walls facing outside are all blank, with
the exception of the large twenty five foot door, and then the windows beginning
about thirty up and there are like three rings of them. The whole structure
is probably about fifty or sixty feet tall. Are they in the same room
or are we looking at like we're in a room and it's forty feet high.
No. Yeah, the rooms themselves are both. There'd be grand rooms
with like ten twelve foot ceiling type things. They're each individual. Nobody has
been put in a room together. Lyon would have come into Heather's room,
you know, with the idea of staying, and of course van Halen,
with the way that you all have been sleeping in the past, sort of
doesn't state that she's going to be there, but would kind of linger around
until Heather either said yeay or nay for her to stay in the room too.
But beyond all of that, it's each of you have your separate rooms.
There's almost a middle area that's open like a courtyard that extends and you
can see sky, and the ring of the square is where all the residential
areas are. Yeah, she of course invites van Halen in to stay with
them. I have something that might happen later after they breasted and come back
together again if no one else has anything, and Yeah. To further clarify
too, Melissa, all of the rooms are on the third floor, so
you all have windows. You're not in caves or anything like that. You
know, obviously they are thought of entertaining when they put their guest quarters up,
so you all have these grand windows that kind of open out into the
city. There's balconies for each of the rooms that you were given, but
they're high, like if you were to jump off them onto the ground,
you're going to get hurt. And it's also a safety thing. It would
be very difficult for somebody to get into the square, if not impossible.
All right, So I imagine there's a point where they come together again,
and let's just say it's in one of their rooms. They're tired, I
think. I don't want to speak for g or Chris, and so I
imagine, especially given the weight, all the emotional weight that they've been under,
there is a lot of quiet. And as they are sitting there,
at some point, Heather reaches into her backpack and from that she pulls out
her favorite book, which is this faded and worn paperback copy of The Stand
right, and she carefully fans through the pages and then opens it to a
specific page, and she looks down in dismay at the remains of a four
leaf clover, and it seems like it had, you know, while it
had dried safely, while it was tucked between the pages, while she was
asleep in van Halen's tree. It hasn't been able to withstand the jostling around
in her backpack, right, It's just a dried clover. And so as
she looks down at it, all that remains is, you know, the
crumbles of leaves and a dried stem. And she brushes her fingers through that
pile of dust, and as she does that, she thinks back on that
afternoon that I guess was no more than a week ago, when she shared
it first with her friends, as this like this metaphor for their friendship and
how it was meant to be and was preordained by fate and magical, you
know, only to be told a few hours later by Randall Flagg that he
had been the one responsible for bringing them together. And as she does this,
her eyes glanced around the room at Ricky and Scarlet and van Halen,
and you know, as I said to before, they all feel so very
far away from her, even though here they are right. She recognizes in
that moment the mistake and danger of imviewing something that is so temporal, so
temporary in this world, with such significant meaning, because now there are new
implied metaphors. And you know, if she was reading a book right now,
what she would assume is that it maybe like it represented her naivety around
their relationship, or that even this was a method to foreshadow the end of
their friendship. But you know, as Greg would say, she puts a
pin in that. And she turns her thoughts to JD, who is no
longer present, and she remembers his words from the day before, when he
was clearly trying to warn her, warn them all really that he would be
leaving, and she remembers in particular that he told her that she was not
to worry. And it's with those reassuring words echoing in her mind that she
raises the book up to her lips and she blows the dust of the four
leaf clover away and out the window. Now she's been told she's a witch,
which seems interesting, but she doesn't really know how magic works, right,
and clearly magic it didn't work for her before when she tried to use
it, but she tries again, and she holds tight in that moment to
the memory of receiving the clover in the first place. You know, maybe
this was even the first time that she can remember having been given a gift
in friendship, and so she like grasps on to that like right recollection,
and she wills the fragments of the clover to be lifted up by an updraft
and carried into the atmosphere, maybe carried away to a friend who might meet
them. And then after go ahead, da, I'm sorry, And then
after a moment's pause, she repeats the words that JD had said when he
gave it to her, with a little bit of luck. I hope you're
right roll a D twelve two. You don't feel any magic at least not
like the the times at the waterfall where you were lifted and part of the
dance. But the particles that you blow out into there, you see them
dance, you see them swirl amongst They don't drop to the ground or you
know, but there's not a magical quality to it. It's more of a
momentarily beautiful moment of a nature scene. You see the wind catch it and
the small almost dust like fragments are dispersed almost immediately the stem drops, but
then it's caught by the wind before it leaves, like the balcony where you
present us. I'm not sure how that would make Heather feel. I certainly
don't want to suppose or take away any agency, but it's it's not fantastic,
It's what you would expect to have. Yuh. She nods, and
and then she turns around, uh, facing away from the window and towards
the room. And then and she says, she just speaks out into the
emptiness of the room in terms of its silence. I was wrong. She
waits a moment for a response from the others, like Scarlet would have been
sitting there not doing anything, maybe like picking at her nail or something like
on her cuticle, sitting cross legged on like on a lounge chair or something
like that, a plate of half eaten food sitting next to her. And
when she hears Heather, she looks over, what do you mean. You
know a week ago when I said that we were faded to be friends,
I knew now that that was a childish wish and I you know, I
know we all know that because flag and then she like looks over at Ricky
and she says, mister Flagg has already had he'd already told us, he
already told us that he had brought us together. I but you know,
I was thinking about that. And even though mister Flagg brought us together,
that didn't mean that he made us friends. And you know what I think.
I think that friendship isn't something that's held together by magic or fate or
I don't know, destiny. I think friendship is a choice that we like
make every day, that we make over time, that we make over and
over and over again. And we can choose to cultivate it, you know,
and see it grow, or we can neglect it and we can watch
it whether away, or you know, we can we can choose bad words
and actions and we can hurt it. And you can choose, you know,
you can choose to be an enemy, or you can choose to be
a distant acquaintance, or you can choose to be not knowing someone at all.
You know, you can just choose that. But I choose friendship.
So I'm sorry that I wasn't a very good friend. I'm really sorry.
And I know that I could have chosen my words differently, and I could
have just chosen to be quiet until I was calm, but I didn't choose
that, and so I'm really sorry that I was an asked. But Harli
gets up, you weren't an asked, But those are specific criteria, and
she will come over and give Heather a hug. She'll hunk her back spells
at the time, poss Bud says, but you said what you felt,
and that's what that's just being honest. Felt that at the time. That's
I know I did. I felt it at the wrong at the time.
But I get to say I'm sorry too that I called mister Flag a name.
Ricky, you were right about that, because just because somebody hurts me
doesn't mean that I should hurt them back. Even if I'm just stating the
facts, I don't have to say them in a mean way. And I
know that's what you meant. And and she holds out one arm to Ricky
to invite him in for a hug. He stands up from wherever he was
sitting. We'll serve, joins Doug. I'm sorry if I sorry I first
said anything that set you. You're right that he does need to pay for
what he's done, or deal with whatever he's done. You're right, and
to be fair, not to be mean or anything, but the fact that
he's lost his memory is really unhelpful to our mission. So in a way,
you're you weren't You're not wrong, Heather, Oh, I was just
mean. You know, I'm not really good at having friends, and I'm
not really good at all at knowing how to disagree with friends. So maybe
you can just help me with that in the future. Okay, and you
help you. Yeah, I guess we could. We could all figure it
out together. And she's also going to open her She's also going to open
her side of the hug for van Halen to Oh, van Halen would absolutely
rush in. And Lion, who is always president at Heather's side, I'm
just going to say, is already in the middle. Everyone's covered in Lion
for now, right. No, you're hugging, but there's like a head
of a Lion right here as you're all kind of and just just you know,
you don't get this in character, but metal wise, Lion has never
felt so safe in that in that moment where everybody is hugging around, Lions
stops trembling for the first time ever ever. Maybe so there's just there's just
a regular lion. And in that moment as we kind of pull back from
that scene, did anybody have anything else they wanted to say in that that
little lovely moment you just created being go ahead? No, I don't think
so, okay, Ricky. Ricky would say as I sort of break the
tige a little bit, that wizard may guy and did say we all needed
to talk, we're not all okay, and he looks kind of like half
at scarlet. He drops split. We need to get back together as one.
So if they're saying what everything that's saying is honest, that we're safe
here when we leave, we kind of need to be back to being one
like we were before, because I don't think we're safe when we leave.
Okay, So this is where you can help me, because didn't I tell
you guys that already? When are you gonna guys gonna start listening to me?
Ricky also looks down, Well, I told you this yesterday the day
before. Oh time, what now? You kind of put me on the
spot to make a decision, and we were standing here, so I made
the decision to come in or come here highway to the dangers and all that.
It seemed that's where the road was leading. We didn't know whe anywhere
else to go. You guys, you guys should know. I I should
have told you before. I don't. I don't remember my parents, so
I don't know what it means about everything that everybody's been telling us. But
maybe maybe you should be wary of me or I don't know, keep your
eye on me. Well, we're not going to let anything happen to you.
Well, just yeah, just don't let anything happen to you. Well,
let's just look up each other. Then, Yeah, that's what we
should do. Ricky paths lion on the top of his head, says,
you said to not everyone keeps telling us not to forget the faces of our
fathers. Why And he looks to van Halen as well, what happens if
you forget? She nods, you forget, forget them? Oh, forget
you think who you are, where you come from? She just nods.
That's why this place is dangerous. The age one slip. Oh, well,
that doesn't it doesn't seem so bad to forget your former life and get
to stay forever in a place like this that doesn't seem so terrible. I
thought maybe it turned into some kind of bad guy. She kind of looks
down. It could be different things for different people. I saw someone who
I thought was my dad at first, but it wasn't him. Kind of
looked like him. No, being Halen would just nod good. You're remembering?
Does it have to be the face of your father or is it just
someone that you love? She kind of looks up like she's almost a comical
elementary school child version of thinking, like she's trying to recall a fact.
I've always ever been told to remember the face of my mother or the face
of my father. I never knew my father until came to Garrett. And
then and you see another tear well up in her eye. Now I can't
remember the face of my mother. Maybe it's not good for you to be
here either. Are you gonna forget more? She kind of stands up,
and you see a determination in her eye. She kind of takes each of
you in with a gaze, you know, kind of a beat here,
a beat here, a beat here. She moves across and she makes a
proclamation that in this statement you actually feel something like there's an element of magic
at play when she says this, almost like a contract has been struck,
and she says, oh, never get the face of my father. It's
good in this moment with sorry again. Oh, scholar was just gonna say
before we came here in flags rambling, is he's trying to is he's trying
to remember remember what he said, come here, find someone who can help
us go back onto the past or back put us back on pass. And
then I just happened to bump into Mitch future Mitch oz Mitch. Didn't he
say he was the only She thinks he said he was the only only one?
So is this the Mitch you saw Heather in your dream? No,
he wasn't grown up. He was just like he was just Mitch. But
there was another Mitch. There's there's the evil Mitch. Is this the evil
Mitch? I don't know. I can't really really it's only been a couple
of weeks, but I can't really remember what he said. But he was
going to remember they were they were going to go to the loop and they
were going to try and stop the evil version of himself. And then what
did he say in your dream? He said? He said, I think
he said gosh, it's been He's a loop. Why took the loop?
He said he it would keep Garrett safe if he kept the loop, and
he had to stay there with it in order to keep it there. So
what if he in order to stop his evil self, he took the loop?
But then how is he here an Emerald city? How is the loop
here an Emerald city? Yeah, that's where he took the loop. She
looks at van Halen. Van Halen for a moment, doesn't realize that you're
looking at her for an answer, and she I don't know. I have
no more information than you will. Well, but she would look out the
window to see like the three stacks kind of dominating one side of the balcony,
like the panoramic view that certainly looks like the loop. Yeah, so
what if this wizard of awe is the one who can help us put it
back on our past somehow? Or maybe or maybe Dorothy, she's really cool.
Wendy or Alice almost on queue. You all hear laughter from downstairs.
You that is Alice and Wendy. You recognize they laugh a lot. They're
not like giggling lunatics or anything there, but they enjoy each other's company,
and they seem to have a very good personality. So you you often hear,
you know, a British accented laughter coming from different areas. I say,
right, that's just a cheeky They don't laugh death. Sorry, she's
gonna She reaches down and she gives lie in a good two handed scratch behind
the ears. Why do you think we can trust them? M hmm.
I don't know about the two here Alice and Wendy, But Dorothy seems like
she's back to being herself. She doesn't seem as different. She was different.
What was she like before that made you so scared? Mm hmm,
she was like you. While she was trying to find her way back home.
M she said her her rubies weren't working no more. She starts to
shiver. She abandoned us. Doerty was the only one that could use Eternity
Road, and she left without us. We eventually made it back to Emerald
City, but when we got here, she was different. She had the
new friends, even though we had just gotten there. She said she had
to leave Emerald City because she'd been there a long time and she had a
mission. She said she was going to the West which is scary to search
for someone she called the false tin Man. He went back home. He
starts to cry, don't worry, Lyon, we won't leave you, we
won't meet you. Lyonb oh, I know to heat her, but it
was a scarecrow. He wanted to stay in the city. He started a
school. Yeah, he looks down, but as sure. A while ago
the school caught fire and scarecrow went in to save a little kid. And
he did not ab out, He didn't come out. I'm so sorry.
It's okay. He was Other very brave. Other wraps her hands, her
arms around Lion's neck. It's okay, Lion, I'm sorry you lost your
friend. Yeah, he just stays quiet. Sounds like maybe they can tell
us though about the false or at least dot Cam or Dorothy. And she
looks to Ricky. Is this the girl you met on the road the other
day? He looks exactly the same, right, she doesn't look any different,
exactly the same. Yeah, he's just nuds. She abandoned her friends
to go on her own mission. She doesn't say anything else of that.
Lion's you can hear Lyon. He's kind of like speaking into his own shoulder.
As his heads kind of turn and you hear his kind of muffled voice
say, she said it was too dangerous for all of us. See that,
Scarlet, she had a reason. Sometimes you don't always immediately understand the
reason that someone does something right. No, you're right, I don't understand
the reason why JD left. I just I just think that you're thinking about
it all wrong, Scarlet. I mean, like, I mean, not
that I would accuse you of being any less than perfect or anything, but
hypothetically, if you were not perfect, if you can imagine that perfect,
then don't you imagine that maybe that you would have your reasons. I'm just
thinking that maybe the situation with JD is complicated, you know, like life
is really complicated, and until we talk about him, we just we just
don't really know what he's been through. And at that Heather she has like
a kind of strange look on her face, not like she's done or something,
but that she's turning something over, and then she stops and she just
looks back at at the other two of you. Anyway, I just think
before we make any judgments, we should talk to him. You know,
I'd be safe. You know, maybe for now we go down and talk
to Wendy and Alice and see if they if they know what Dorothy might know.
As you all quit the scene, I assume then you can follow the
laughter the British accented life after towards Alice and Wendy. But unbeknownst to all
of you, inside the pages of the stand, starting on page one,
if you were to grab the dense book Warren as it is described by Melissa,
and you were to flip through the book, you would see that starting
on page one and a bit of crude animation, a stem has started to
grow, and by a page one hundred, one hundred and fifty there are
buds for three leaves. Wendy Analyst are downstairs if you need them. But
before you go down, Scarlet, mm hmm, yeah, good good,
I hope. So as you all are walking down, I'm assuming you all
said, let's find Wendy Analysis. You're on your way down to see Wendy
and Alice Scarlet. You're walking and you feel a breeze buffet your hair off
of your right shoulder, and you smell tobacco, sand wood, leather,
gunpowder, and you hear from behind you, Hey, she stops walking and
she will half glance over back over her shoulder as you turn your head.
Gone is the square and you are standing in the forest, and a man
you have never seen before is staring back at you. Where did you get
them guns? You kind of She doesn't take a step back, but she
she takes like a stance, like a ready stands. They were a gift
than them that gave it to you. Storm. Maybe I don't know anything
about that row and investigate ue success. You know where this is? Just
behind this figure is the lean to that JD would go into and stare into
the cauldron to see the people of the age of always. It's back at
your old camp. It is very close given to me. I earned them
their mine. Only a gun slinger can wield them. And you ain't no
gun slinger. Are you sure about that? As sure as I am of
the setting of the sun. I took your little oath. Or maybe you're
just saying I can't be a gun slinger because I'm a girl. You can't
be a gun slinger because the only way to take the oath is to take
it from a gun slinger. Do things for a moment, and then she's
she smiles. I know, roll a shit. No, don't roll shit,
but roll a What do I want you to roll? Here? Something?
I want you to roll something charm. I will take a charm,
I will take and empathize. I will take a lead. Yeah, I'll
take a lead too. I think I'll roll lead on this one. You
know it's the same as charm. I like the two successes. Fantastic.
He stares at you, even though you can't really see through the sunglasses,
and you know the kind of the gloom in this area of the forest.
You know, it was very dark in the area where the lean to is,
even though it's very brilliant and bright just a few hundred yards away at
the waterfall where Heather performed her duties. And you can hear the waterfall in
your back, or you can't see it, but you can hear it like
it's behind you. He looks up for the first time, though, at
the mention that you did take it, because there's something in your voice,
and you're not sure if he's using something to try to figure out if you're
telling the truth or not. But something pained wrong for this man, causing
his head to jerk up and his eyes to kind of actually connect with yours.
Who did you get him from? A friend of the story? You
know how they were made. I've heard some things. I've never read the
stories myself, but no one knows this story except me. She gestures,
like tell me. Arthur Ill was the founder of the feast. He started
the Slingers. He had commissioned several gunsmiths to make their finest weapons. Arthur
only had enough metal from the sword to make one set. And you see
him hold up a pair of guns that looked nearly identical to yours. These
guns puts it back. He invited these five men to come show him his
best wares and he'd pick one of them to make these. But just before
they could be chosen, and before Arthur had a time to contemplate, a
woman showed up. She said all them men had stolen her guns she had
made amne. All men denied it, said that they had made these guns
with their own hands. Arthur decided he'd have them all make them in front
of him. See who was telling truths and who was wielding mister X.
They all sat down, giving workshops and metal whatever they needed. The five
men made guns, but they were less than mediocre. Woman she used the
workshop, but she brought her own metal. It glowed blue. Kid name.
She made guns, brilliant guns. Arthur Solomon wept. He knew the
five men were liars, con artists. He expelled them from court, but
they were lucky to leave alive. He commissioned her, commissioned her to forge
the same guns using the metal from the sword. And he lifts his up
again. These guns, but the ones she made the test, the ones
at the blue metal whose were lost untilne Now, so I ask you again,
who gave you them guns? When he glances up at her and he
says those guns and then with the blue metal, she smiles like she just
grins knowingly. You standing for flag. We have a mission. That's not
what I asked. He's helping us. You're working with him for now.
Apparently he's been a lot of things in his life, bad and good.
Maybe bad more often than not. I ain't never heard of am doing good.
Well? He wants to do good now. Oh he can want one
hand and shit in the other. See which one gets filled first. I
guess we'll find out. Listen, I'm coming for it. You're either in
my way you ain't. My home is at stake. You know how many
homes across, how many words he's burned. I know he's done some horrible
things. No, you don't stuff that. I know that. I can't
imagine. If you did, there wouldn't be any hesitation. You'd kill him.
Maybe, if you're a gunslinger, you would. What's your name,
Scarlet, Matt's rollin'. Don't make me kill you, Scarlet, the gun
rig uh appears on her hips. You got him. Don't make me do
it, Scarlett. I will have done once, which you might find that.
I don't back down from a challenge, and I'm not easily knocked down
or defeated. I am going to help save my whole. And if Flag
is the one to help us, so be it. And he's got a
lot to own up for, but that's not for me to judge. When
it time comes, tell your friends stay out away, be between you and
me. Want anybody else kidding hurt? Not the son of a bitch.
She just nods until we meet again, Scarlett, be thinking about stepping aside.
I never back out of the pocket, and she'll turn and walk away,
and you are back in the square. If you look over your shoulder,
it's just the hallway. Yeah, she turns around and like strides away,
and when she's back into the courtyard, she'll pause, look around,
take a deep breath, and then continue on to join the others. And
the guns are now gone. So when you get down to the center,
we're gonna pick up. It's just like we're picking up a show in the
middle of its broadcast, as the rest of you are all kind of sitting
around Alice and Wendy. We're in the middle of conversation as Alice and Wendy
are not surrounding Ricky as much as they are like presenting to Ricky like they're
they're making a case. And Alice is talking, and she says, and
you see, that's why boys never seem to do quite as well in the
roles that we've been assigned. They get so distracted by being bravado and and
showing everybody how brave they are when they do idiotic things, and Wendy nods
and Wendy's like it's like they all have a an idiocy about them. They
don't. They don't think of anything beyond well Plight company. And Alice laughs
and says, so, you see, Ricky Richard, what is Ricky short
for please tell me. It's short for something, Derek, Derek, see
again, boys with Ricky Derek, Sir Derek, that's a night's name.
That's something that should be said. I'm calling you, Derek, Derek.
You see, this isn't an attack on you, per se. It's an
attack on the institution, all of us. Dorothy, Wendy, myself,
and as Scarlet walks in Scarlet and Heather, everyone here seems to be on
a more concise path. Boys seem to be Erratic's out on you, though,
And when she says that, she gets just a little bit bigger.
Ricky's not erratic, but he's a boy. And it looks over at Wendy
and Wenny's just nodding. They're They're awful, these boys. They they ruin
everything. You shouldn't dislike people just because they're boys. Oh well, and
Alice goes, I don't dislike anyone. I just know that there's a certain
set of expectations for you all, and then for Ricky. Now, if
Ricky grows above his station, that's fantastic. It'll be an anomaly. I
haven't seen anyone do that yet, the wizard included. But what do you
all need to know, Ricky will surprise you, and she'll lets and then
she'll sit down. They kind of look and smile at one another. Not
like a haha, we know a joke that you don't, but like I
bet you know, like a boy surprising us, sure, or whatever.
But it's all it seems to be in good fun. There's no maliciousness behind
it. It's just that, you know, you can see that there's a
like especially when Alice talks, there's definitely a little bitterness. Maybe you're thinking
that you're talking to people that have seen themselves portrayed and that the portrayal isn't
necessarily what happened. You know, you're looking at somebody who if they had
been boys, maybe the stories would have been a little bit more favorable to
the actual actions of the events. And they're retelling and it seems to be
a point of contention with both of them. What did you all need to
know? Oh well, we have two questions, really, I The first
and she looks at Scarlet. The first is have you ever heard of someone
called the false? They look at one another. Of course we have who
is that? It's a group, large group, Yes, Dorothy just came
back from the West where she saw them, and they are apparently camped like
some I don't know, destitute people out in the middle of nowhere, creating
their own rules. Again, not something that we frown on per se,
but something that is concerning when someone decides to create a kingdom. So it's
a kingdom of people, Well you consider a collection of tents a kingdom.
Yes, it's more of a commune. What is that place? What does
that beat? You looks over at Wendy that place she told us about the
the farm. Was there that? And Wendy thinks for a second and goes
Woodstock, Woodstock, and yes, yes, Woodstock. Apparently there was a
commune there and they played music, which sounds fun, but there was you
know, they created a kingdom there. Apparently they created a kingdom of hippies
at Woodstock and now they're in the West. Is that what you're saying?
No, No, it's like Woodstock. It's like okay, okay, I
don't think that. Maybe it's not a very good description. They're not playing
any music, are they? No? No? Yes, some maybe I
don't know. It was just one festival, was it, Yeah, And
everyone made a big deal all the way. M hm. Maggie certainly liked
it. Maggie went on and on about it, about how great it was.
It's at that moment that alarms go off. At the mention of Maggie,
mhat all all arms going off here the same you all hear bells go
off across the city. You hear these ringings, and you know, whistles
begin to go off, the same whistles that you heard whenever Rugen was calling
for help, but these are amplified tenfold across the city. Church bells and
you know, just bell towers. Everything keeps to it seems to be going
off. Everybody. Go to your Spotify playlist, go down to track thirteen,
Play me a Little Eye of the Tiger, if you will. The
entire city is in chaos. It's it's completely You see crowds of people screaming
on the street. If you look out into the off of balcony. Alice
and Wendy look at one another, and Alice immediately grows to twenty five feet
her size, and she goes and pushes open the door. And for a
second, as she's pushing open the door, she seems to stop because it's
harder to do so, and it's not until she looks down she sees that
a sixty one year old man is sitting with his back against the door and
has been pushed forward with its opening. He immediately stands up and looks inside,
and he says, please, my boy's in there, My boy,
And Alice looks way down and is distracted for just a moment as she looks
around the city. I need you all to roll an investigation check. Scarlett
would have jumped to her feet as soon as the alarms are going off,
one for Scarlet, one for Ricky, none for hazard Scarlet. As you
kind of make it to the door to see what's going on, you hear
from people as they rush past. You know, people that are You're used
to this, you know, you're used to your father rushing out of the
house because there's a fire, and Garrett or being around these moments of emergency,
these moments where the heroes are rushing towards danger, where where people are
organizing rescue attempts, where they're you know, so your mind is able to
kind of break through the extraneous stuff and find the facts inside the emergency,
and you hear different people as they rush by they're here. They use the
road and stalk past our defenses. Then you hear somebody run by. The
ferryman must be dead. They kill the ferryman. You're just like the bishop,
and they run by. And as you're standing there, you see a
platform out in the nearby square, and standing on the platform are Mitch,
Rugan and Dorothy, and as soon as the door opens, they all wave
towards the square for you all to get on this platform. The platform has
sloped almost like an inclined plane, so you're able to go up it easily,
and it can easily fit everybody that's inside the square, including a fully
grown Alice should she desire to get on top of it. And I will
allow Scarlet and Heather to do whatever they would like in this moment. But
you rolled a success, Ricky. And you see your dad tears explode from
his face. He is twenty years older than you remember him. Boy boy,
he screams, You've never heard your dad with this much emotion, right
too, rick Ricky would have been as Alice, and when he started to
react to the alarms showing that there's something definitely wrong, Ricky would have sort
of leant over, grabbed his bow and started to look towards the door before
seeing his father. He would stop mid turn towards the door and just try
and concentrate on his memory of his father, because that's what he's been told
he has to do, and tries to remember if there's any features of his
face that are the same or different. And he starts to sort of move
towards the door where his father is, but unsure, not a run,
but he knows he needs to get wherever he needs to be outside. But
it's hesitant until he reached the door where his father is standing, and he
stops. There is no role required for this, because this man is your
anchor. You know every line of his face, even though there are many
new ones. You know the little scar on his lip that he got when
the belt snapped on the thresher and swept back and ended up giving him eight
stitches across his lower lip. You remember the small imperfection of his ear where
it looks flat along the lobe. But most off, you remember his eyes,
the ones that always carried so much wisdom, so much warmth, so
much emotion. Then you remember the face that carried none of those things when
he sees you he sees the doubt, not necessarily the doubt, but the
uncertainty in your eyes. And he simply says, six months after you left
boy there, the storm came, picked up the house, brought us here.
It's me, are you you Ricky Nuds? And he he goes to
put out his hand to shake his father's hand, and then stops himself halfway
and then just gives him a hug. Your father thinner than you remember,
like I said, twenty years older. You can feel the bones in his
ribs, his back, but the power is still there. And he grabs
you. You know what a bail of hay feels like now? And he
weeps. Let's staffed hoping. Yeah, he sort of awful, pulls away
and we're here to save people. Yeah, I need I need to help.
Something going on. I need to help with your boy. To the
end. Where's mom back home? We've got the farm running here, we're
right along the road. Okay, Well, and he looks up and the
panic that he sees outside from the citizen's running around. I need your help
him. I won't getting your way. I'm not gonna leave you. Never
came outs on the road with the house just from the city. If he
came that way and you did, you passed it. We got ten times
a land. He smiles at that. I'll find it. Stay right here,
you do what you need to do for bye. I can't let you
leave by side again. They say so, and he steps outside. So
the rest of you are going to the platform or is there anything you need
to do or want to do. He would have waited for Ricky. Would
she have seen, mister Lewis, Yeah, okay, you all do same.
Heather would have waited for Ricky, but at a little bit of a
distance. Give that privacy. Yes, like she's not. I don't want
her to have heard what they were talking about. All right, ready,
Ricky, he know it's and he looks back to his father and says,
stay close, and he goes. Then mister Lewis will stay back kind of
by the entrance to the square, but he'll watch as you all kind of
rush up the incime plane to the platform and as you all get up there,
Mitch is there, Dorothy, Alice and Wendy, all of you,
van Halen, the Lion, everyone, all of your group is there,
with the exception of Randall Flag He is, you know, kind of honoring
the eye idea that he's stay in there, you know, where it's safe.
So he's at the door looking out, you know, with his kind
of braced leg as he's seeing everything, and he sees mister Lewis too,
and he smiles when he sees mister Lewis. And for you all that means
one thing. He remembers who he is. As you get onto the platform,
and Mike, if you're there, feel free to bring Mitch back in
if you'd like, if not. As soon as you all get on,
it starts to rise up and lift into the sky around or in Emerald City.
And as it lifts up, Alice continues standing there at twenty five feet
tall, and she looks down at Dorothy as she sees before the rest of
you what we're going to be looking at. And she looks down at Wendy
and Dorothy and says, finally, and as you reach the same level,
you see before you an army. The army seems to be wearing a black
uniform with a mirrored helmet, but many can be seen clearly in the crystal
clear air of the Age of Always, and they spread from the same direction
that you came in a slice of pie away from Emerald City. Think that
there are thousands there, and as you all look, I will give you
this for free. Among the black clad uniformed soldiers, you see George Butts
commanding the installation of a complex cattle polt system. Another George Butts marches at
the head of a squad of black uniform soldiers. Jerry Baker barks orders to
a collection of kids made up of other Jerry Bakers. George Buttz's and Ben
McKenzie's everywhere, the autobots and faces from Garrett's streak and swings setting up a
massive army. The aforementioned George and Jerry, Ben and Shannon Locke, Sarge
and Urico, Hannah Casper and mister Derry. So many familiar faces, all
on the other side of the line. But across the poppy battlefield on a
platform very similar to your own, the enemy general stares across at you and
meets your gaze. A leader born Jesse JD. Davis prepares his army for
war. But that's where our story ends. Uck. Each world has its
heroes, it's villains, it's mentors, it's tricksters, it's war, it's
peace. Differing approaches lead to arguments. Arguments lead to lines drawn. Wars
begin with lines drawn, and if you are not very careful, you will
find yourselves on opposite sides, staring at those you used to love. Join
us next time for the fiftieth episode of Atari Twilight. Atari Twilight, The
Age of Always, Episode seven, Give War a Chance, Mike, I
got one question for you, Yeah, buddy on the platform with the description
just being said and giving your description earlier, about the way that Mitch approaches
things. The way he smiles in the face of danger is Mitch grinning.
Yeah. You see, anyone who looks to Mitch at all sees him looking
out at the sea of people, and he glances down, and anyone close
enough to hear Mitch would hear a beepeep beepepepepepepe peep. And the same device
that he used to lead Scarlett back to her friends is blinking, and as
soon as he looks down and looks back up, he has that same grin
on his face. Atari 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 on Maid 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