Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Chapter One: Madness Prologue | Sagas of Sundry: Madness

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Recently unearthed from the archives, Sagas of Sundry: Madness is now available publicly for the very first time! Turn down the lights and turn up the volume because you're about to experience MADNESS, an original macabre tale hosted by Ivan Van Norman where cast members Marisha Ray, Liam O'Brien, Jeremy S. Walker, Erika Ishii, Xander Jeanneret, Alejandra Cejudo play a giant puzzle game to build the tension. You don't want to know what happens if the tower collapses! Every story starts with a seed, and every person carries a secret. We split the story into 5 INDIVIDUAL adventures before the MADNESS begins! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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be careful I wish Nikki love me more than anyone in the entire world who you wish for obsession is 96% fresh on rotten tomatoes I love you so so so so much it's blood-soaked nightmare fuel bro-carous sponge and put on her you have been warned obsession we did our under 17 90-minute without parent only theaters May 15th with special engagements in Dilby gardens faces of peace and tranquillity and yet there is always darkness to be found like a cockroach hiding in a rose. I am a bit of a gardener myself, a gardener of stories. I tend them, give them just enough light so that they bloom.

But before you get a garden, you need a seed, a beginning, a start to the story that will sprout and blossom. Consider this prologue, a seed. A seed that will grow into a twisted tree whose branches were scrape in the night against the windows of your mine from seed to scrape. These are the sagas of Sundry. I am Mr. Wren and there will be... Hello everybody and welcome to madness. I am so happy and so honored.

and so excited to have all of you join me for this little role-playing adventure. And I apologize profusely for everything that is going to happen. From now until the end of this story is in place. As you can see, we are still playing with the dreadful dread tower that will determine the fate of one or all of you as this story progresses. And as we said before, dread is based off of every time you want to do an action or do something that involves risk. You will make a pull from the tower,

and if you're successful, well, great, you are successful. If the tower should fall, that character will be removed from the game. Now, in Dread, everyone needs to make a pre-pull. But I thought instead of taking this opportunity to learn about your characters while you make a pull, that we take an individual session with every single one of you and play a regular tower and have a one-on-one game of dread.

Depending on how well you do during your prologue adventure, you will either make the pre-designated single pre-pull, but if it falls, you will make three pulls. So before we take you off, let me tell you a little bit about where we are. This is your building. You all live here and our story starts with you. The five tenants living in a historical building in the middle of an industrial complex inside of a major city. This building, it's old, it's very old, maybe 70 to 80 years old. Old enough that it's been classified as a historical landmark by the city. Now this building was once maybe a workshop.

Or a warehouse, maybe a hotel, maybe it was a granary. Nobody remembers. But whatever it was, it's now a set of loft apartments that take up about four stories of the crappiest part of town that any of you have ever imagined. So let's all discover who you are and what you're bringing to the tower. Hey, buddy.

Hey, how's it going? Bentley, your story begins here. in your apartment, you've just moved in. Right, this is a new place. You've recently come from a troubled background. Things have been difficult, and really, this is about all you own. Really, what's important is what you're able to make.

Your most recent work is sitting right there, standing in front of you. So how are you feeling right now? Like, how are you feeling about that? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a reflection of what I have to deal with. I'm a barista to, I mean, I'm an artist, I'm a painter, but we all have to have day jobs. So a lot of the times they don't even know that I'm taking the coffee grounds up from the shop.

And working with them. But I feel like I'm on the verge of something, you know? Like this is a new movement in art and I'm just waiting to get discovered. Well, I have to say that's looking really good. And more importantly, but at the same time, I feel like there's something missing. This is representing a new experience, like moving into this place. moving into this place and starting out on my own. And so I'm looking for inspiration.

I'm looking for the next thing on my path. And whatever that is, it'll be represented in here. How about we find some inspiration? Yeah, make a pull. Oh, okay. Let's pull for some inspiration. All right, all right, all right. Okay.

Now remember, if this falls during our little prologue story, you will have to make three pre-poles. Oh my goodness. During the beginning of our story. I really want to use two hands. I know you do, but that's inspiration doesn't come easy. Yeah. Inspiration doesn't come without sacrifice.

So. So much pressure already with this kind of gleaming burst of inspirational wonder that comes to do. You look in this house and you realize this place is magical. Yeah. All right, it was built in the 30s, all right? And it has so many things that are around it

that are so interesting. First of all, it's a four story building. It has a rooftop patio. It also has elements that are like, it's this old elevator that hasn't been ever in use, but it's so interesting and grungy. And, you know, there's just something that speaks to it. Like this piece, and for example,

it's just so kind of this hair choice of being able to make this interesting white fractal movement. It was so simple to kind of just take that simple movement and then just have it starburst across everything. That, I think, is what this needs. It just needs something a little more representative, geometrical. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because that kind of came from the head, but this comes from the soul. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. So why don't you take it? Why don't you start working with it a little bit? Yeah.

Okay. All right. Hold on. Why don't you grab it? Why don't you feel it a little bit? Like take that. Just be very careful around the town. Yeah.

You know? And how is this place like how are you feeling settling into some, this kind of unique area. Yeah, this is the struggling artist. This is what I need, this is my muse. The crappy walls, the like old buildings. You know, I see it in the movies,

like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Right, I like that you're also painting it on your bed. Yeah, like if you want to, feel free, like if you wanna put it on your lap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? And with this kind of new place that you've been,

and how are you feeling about, like coming into a new social group. I mean, I'm excited for the prospect because of the situation that I'm coming from, I didn't have a lot of friends because I wasn't allowed to. My ex-boyfriend was very controlling. It was all about his friends.

It was never about your friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he didn't support me in my art and he thought it was too gay, and that's not what he was about. And so I'm here to discover myself and make my own community. Yeah.

Well, I'm already liking what's going on here. Like this is the pulse. It's the pulse of it. Yeah. And I like the contrast of as soon as I saw that blue, of like, you know, boop. It's my heartbeat, yeah. And so I hear it ticking.

Yeah, no, there's something definitely in this room. Now you've been in here for a while, and this building is old and it, you know, the beams creaking grown a little bit. But this is a new sound for sure. It's funny, the person that lived here before me was a DJ. Oh, okay.

And she was sharing with me that she would record kind of the sounds that would happen with the building. And she would make music out of the sounds. That's interesting. Actually, do you still have that tape? Yeah, yeah, because she had left something. I think you remember it's still inside of the cassette player, if I remember correctly, right?

Why don't you play it? Yeah, go ahead. I think. Cool. Yeah, it's delightful. Yeah, it's not. But it wouldn't be delightful to everyone. No.

You know, it's inspirational and it's... But it does something for you, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's almost like something or someone compose this, and the DJ just took that information and made it into a medium that other people could hear. It's the same thing as what I do with a painting. You know, I'm taking minerals, I'm taking the earth

and the different shades and molding it into something else. But if that's the case, then you don't own this. This isn't yours. This is something that you stole. you stole it. I think you need to make a pull to kind of come to terms with this weird sense and feeling like you're stealing something from this house

and you are turning it into your own selfish devices. You're grieving because you're pulling something from this house that you don't deserve. And that's tough. That's tough because you're finally starting to have your own world. You're finally starting to have your own life. own life and for something like this house to tell you that you're being selfish and that you're being an egotistical prick by holding onto your own space and that ticking it just keeps inside of

your head it's like you can't get it out of there but you managed to at least push it out for the moment because that's fine you're not selfish no you're not this is yours i created it's your creator right and even if it's taken from parts of this world that's okay because every artist is allowed their right for expression. Yeah, okay. So there's a big thing happening tonight. You're hosting this party. Yeah.

Right? Yeah, yeah. And why did you do that? Because I'm here and I haven't had a chance to meet anybody in the building. I'm feeling a little secluded and that's not healthy for me right now. Okay, you need to get out. I need to get out.

I need to meet people. I need to. Because this is a recent breakup. This is something that you have to do. And it was a very sheltered relationship too. Like I said, I was, I was, cut off from the world and that was under his control. And now I'm taking control.

You wanna host a party. I wanna host a party. And like maybe sell a painting. Like let everybody know it's marketing, you know? And then I'll have friends in the building too. You know, the best way to make friends to have a party. It's gotta be somewhere here. There's something.

That's at least that's this. And it kind of sounds like, you know when a light bulb's about to go out? and it kind of ticks a little bit and it flicks. Yeah. It just feels like there's, like there's some bad electrical work going on or something. Right. And it feels like as you're looking around with it,

that maybe it's a little more to the right of you. That's kind of over here, over hereish somewhere. And some of my other paintings, or maybe in the walls? Yeah, no, that sounds close. In here? Yeah, somewhere here, but it's lower. Okay.

Is it coming from in here? Oh yeah, it's definitely coming from side of there all right oh no it's so big I'm sorry wall okay so there's some sort of device in here it's a little it's a little warm to the touch it was just on yeah what the hell is it's sort of like light bulb or lamp or yeah yeah when you touch it when you feel it fendley it feels very much like it's it's it's cold metal but it's also glass warm to the touch and it was mounted in there it definitely was a fixed into the walls somewhere.

But as you hold it, as you look at it, it's so old, Fenley. It's like a circuit or like something, it looks like it plugs into something. And you pulled it out of the wall. What is the one thing the landlord told you not to do to this building? I'm not supposed to mess up the walls. You're not supposed to touch the walls.

You're not supposed to hang anything on the walls. You're not supposed to be thing. You just cut into the wall, Friendly. But to be fair, someone else cut into this wall before me. How do you know that? Because this is here. This doesn't go in a wall. Who put that there?

Who's gonna believe you that some random tube was stuck into the wall? Is the landlord going to say, oh, yeah, there was a tube inside of the wall there? I can fix it. I can fix it then. Yeah. Fix it because your security deposit, you've got paint. Can you get it back in there? Yeah.

Can you touch it up to make it look like it never happened? Because at least it's not popping. But who would put something so archaic and odd as a fuse inside of the board? bolt there. Oh no. Is that really gonna work? Yeah. He doesn't know. Make a pull. Make a pull for that detestable amount of covering up. I put it back in. And family, as you touch that thing, as you looked into it. I'm a master of deception. This is into it. But more importantly, you feel your consciousness. Just out of your head, you watches your brain. It's suddenly goes somewhere, somewhere else.

somewhere with a purple sky, somewhere with a barren wasteland, something that is just filled with voidless nothing. And you sit and you hold that in your hand and it feels safe and it feels powerful. But suddenly there's an eye looking at you and it's staring at you with a single slit. And it was, child, child, thank you. Give it, you are my salvation.

I thank you. And it pops out of your head just as quickly as it's there and it's gone. You're sitting looking at this tube and you're staring at it. And it's quiet. Okay, all right. That's the alarm. It's time for the party.

You have to go. I mean, everyone's waiting for you now. I mean, what are you gonna take with you to this thing? I'm bringing paintings. Okay, so I get some paintings. You have to go. Everyone's upstairs right, right, right. So waiting.

Yeah, okay. Go. With tangled webs will be weak. Hi, I'm so sorry, I'm late. I apologize, it's just fixing a few things around. Thank you so much for coming. Why do you live here? Oh, you know, I was walking through this neighborhood,

and I just saw this building. And it kind of like, it just kind of jumped out at me. It just kind of has this vibe to it. And then, lo and behold, I saw the sign in the window. And the place has an interesting energy to it, doesn't it? It has a little bit of a, well, it's a special place. Why do you think it's so special?

I like interesting things. and I'd like to think I'm an interesting thing. You certainly present yourself in an interesting way. Do you have a criminal background? No. No? No, of course not. Okay.

You've never had any difficulties with the law? Nope. Okay. I mean, you know, aside from some rowdy teenage shit, but, you know, who hasn't, right? Right. Do you have a lot of contact with law enforcement in this area? Considering I just moved here, I don't know a damn person. When did you move here?

Two weeks ago. Why did you move here? You know, I just thought it changed the scenery. It would really do me good. Where I come from, people, you know, didn't take kindly to someone, maybe exploring new options. So you're coming to this.

discover who you are, like so many others to this great city. Oh no, the problem is I've always known who I am. Make a poll. You always know who you were? Make a goddamn pull. I want to see who this person is. Oh, I'm so sorry, I should probably be calling you by your name, and I didn't even get a chance to hear your name. What is your name?

Abigail. Abigail. Oh, pleasure to meet you, Abigail. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Just call me the landlord. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. The landlord. The landlord. And I should probably go back in a little bit

and describe who this man is. Now this man is of clear Middle Eastern descent. He seems to be in his 40s to mid 50s, and he has a commanding presence to him that seems to show authority, even though he is not a man who normally you would expect to have authority. I'll make a poll real quick.

Let me see if you can reach deeper into his psyche and understand the kind of man that this human is, since you are so good at reading people. Excellent. You can see he's nervous. A man like this shouldn't be nervous interviewing it. Now maybe it's your proposed image and charm and this appeal that you bring into it.

But you can actually see there's some fear, some real fear in his eyes. as he's talking to you, as if this interview is actually just as important to him as it is to you. Now, I need you to be honest with me, and I don't feel like you've been honest with me, Abigail. All right, laid on me. Jeez. What are you hiding? Look, I'm broke.

I don't know anybody, and I've been living under a goddamn, overpass since I've gotten here. Which has been a week, you said? Two weeks. Two weeks. This place is affordable and this place is, but I need you to know, I need to know from you that you aren't going to do anything to screw up. I don't have anything to screw up right now, man. I am just, this place was affordable. I don't have any credit. I've got what I have have in my pocket right now, and I promise you, you won't hear a damn word for me. I'm not worried about your credit.

What I'm worried is that you pay rent on time, that you don't go snooping around, that you don't hang anything in the walls, and that you don't mess with the building. Okay, when you say, like, don't hang things on walls, do you mean like thumbtack? Nothing in the walls. I think I need to make that abundantly clear.

If you put a tack, if I put a wall, if I see anything in there, I will kick your ass to the curb so fast it will make your head spin. Make a pull. See if you can keep your composure amongst this guy who has went from being a kindly gentle, Middle Eastern man who was just trying to get to know you, but he's clearly not buying what you're selling. And why is that? Why is he getting like this? He clearly has a chip on his shoulder that needs to be explored. And I don't know, Abigail, you tell me what's.

That's this guy's problem. Look, mister, if you have asbestos in the walls or something like that, it's fine. I am not gonna blow your cover under the shit hole. All right, it's fine, you have a shitty place, I'm a shitty person, I just need a shitty place to sleep. All right, that's fine. But there's still one thing you're not telling me.

Let's put it this way. This building has a lot of secrets, and I don't need any more of them inside of it. And if there's one thing I should know, is that Abigail, why are you coming to me with another name? Yeah. I'm not going to tell anybody.

I won't throw you under the bus the same way that you don't mind, but that's only under the circumstances that we are clear. You've always dreamt about being another person too, right? No one likes who they're born as. Me changing my name has nothing to do other with than the fact that I fucking hate the name, Kathy. Make a pull.

Convince him, Abigail, that you are not a threat. Look, mister, do you ever hear someone else's voice when you hear your original name? It's just a memory that you don't want to remember anymore. I'm just trying to get away from bad memories. That's all Abigail means. I do. I do know what it means to have someone else's voice say your name and hate it.

But that's what I'm afraid of. Great! As you're watching him, Abigail, he starts to talk to you, but have you ever had a dream in which you felt like lasted forever? There's a moment right now in which you're watching this man and you can see his head move millimeters out of the time as he's trying to get out one single word, but it seems to take forever and it's agnizing watching him talk and seeing the look on his face as his eyes. This single eyebrow just seems to just It won't move. It can't move and part of you just wants to take his face and just

live it right out. Make a pull. Hold on to your sanity as you're seeing this man's face slowly turn and all you want to do is just slap it to get it back right to the place. It was a bad choice. This was a bad choice. Thank you so much for your time. It just really meant a lot to me. Welcome to the building. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah.

Thank you. Don't screw this up. I have the keys later this afternoon, but you can head up on to 403. Okay. Um. Trash is on Tuesdays. Thank you. She'll do.

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Yeah. After a very long day working. Yeah, you know. Very long. What do you do? Director operations, hotel pig. Okay, great. So you work with people all day?

Yeah. Yeah. Annoying people. Annoying people. Is that how you feel about them, customers is pretty much just are they just a means we don't call them customers we call them guests yes yeah i see yeah they annoy the shit out of me great well at least home is familiar right yeah so these are the familiar steps of the landing that leads you up to the first floor and you know

i have to say you've always really wondered about the first floor right the first set of apartments were actually on the second floor so really the first floor is just a bunch of mail rooms and then a stairway leading up pretty much yeah you know have you ever thought about that i mean you've been here for five years. And every once in a while, you may hear a gunshot. Because that is part of living and urban living. But you've also heard screams. And sometimes they're outside. But you swear that every once in a while, they've been inside of the building. And maybe those screams are coming to mind. So why don't you make a pull? Your first poll of the game. Oh. Is a, is, uh, is, is, uh, all right. Why do you? Why do you? Why do you? Why do you? Why do you?

smoke Jude I get anxiety I get it pretty bad ever since I was about 15 actually some crazy stuff happened in my life and anything you want to talk about is this house that make that better this this place make that feel better it makes me feel like it's what I deserve like it's what you deserve okay you deserve you deserve a run-down apartment building filled with 1930s decor, unkept-up electricians, running water that barely works often, and when it does, it's zero pressure at all, and the rickety old twin bed. That's what you deserve?

Make a pull. I mean, there's a lot to think about while you're here, Jude. I mean, the fact that you're now looking at this place, and at first it was beautiful and exciting and interesting. Now it's something that you deserve? That's a lot to carry on your shoulders for one man. One man who is perfectly in his right to handle and have a nice smoke when he's coming home after a long day.

Yeah. All right? Why don't you just head upstairs because this place is still your home. This is what you've done. You've made it your own place. And you've had some good memories here too. I've had a lot of good memories, actually.

See? That's what's important as well. So the old bones of the stairs creek as you make your way up to the first floor. Now the elevator's been out since what, five years, as long as you've been here. Yeah, I don't even remember ever working. Exactly.

And you've been putting in a lot of hours lately. You know, a lot of people have gone home sick. You know what they're going to be doing. You know what they're actually out. They're all doing the music festival right now. Yeah, they're all having a fucking blast. Right. And you're here.

You know, listen to these people bitching me about the dumbest shit every fucking day. And how's it make you feel? It's like, hey, I guess that's what I signed up for, you know? But you could be out. You could be out doing something. If you had not taken that responsibility, you could be out the one calling in sick right now, going out and having a good time.

So why did you take a job like this, where you actually had the responsibility of all of the responsibility? gets upon you. I get paid a lot then. Right. You get paid a lot? Yeah. That's important. I get paid a lot. Then why live here? I own another home. Okay. This is my primary residence for me. I see. But I have a... You have someone else. I have a mother. Got it. Who is maybe living in your house right now? I bought a house, you know, thinking that, hey, you know what? It's time for me to grow up. It's time for me to have a family do all these things that normal guys do right right right respectable wearing gentlemen hey I'm a suit I'm that guy right so she got six she can't

afford to pay for you know the place she was in so place gets foreclosed on I said I have this house why don't you take it not shit going for me you know I don't know I'm a fucking lady you know right but well I do but at the time right right Abigail Abigail Abigail Abigail Well She's pretty girl Yeah, she's a real pretty girl

You know we met one time, you know, I lived in the building I came in You know, she's down at the mailbox and I was like Okay I could see myself there, you know And you know she was she's dramatic, she's fun, she's Sexy, you know she's an actress so she's she's She's an actress, so she's got that, like, energy about her.

Right. You know? And I like that. Well, let's go home, man. This is a long time. We've been talking about this for too long. This is just, it's nice to come home after a long day and feel like there's a place that you can call your own, except for something just ran across the window, a shadow.

And you know what? It wasn't small. In fact, there is, right by you again. There's something out there. And it wasn't even really a full shape. Someone's in the building, but you didn't hear the door. But this door has a very distinct sound when it opens and has a buzzer for when the magnetic lock goes off.

And it goes, but that didn't happen. And there's something moving around in the main part of the common. This house has a lot of odd things, but you never really seen someone just wandering around the building before. And certainly not running, because that was someone who was running. That was a run. That was definitely a run. Why don't you check your keys?

Because you don't have your keys, man. The door, the key to your front door, it's not with you right now. What the fuck, dude? Yeah. You mean, obviously you open the door to get in here right now, but you don't have your keys. And someone's out there. What do you want to do? I mean, I need to find out who the fuck that was.

Okay, well, then- It's obviously got my keys. Do they? I'm supposed to get into my place. I don't know. I mean, they either have your keys or someone's just wandering around. Let's have you go down to the first floor. Now you run down to the first floor and you take the steps, the loud thumping of your foot,

do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do comes down as you're just double-checking, triple-checking, making sure that you really, really, really don't have your keys right now. And you go to the mailroom. It's right there. It's sitting just in the middle of the floor. I didn't put that there. No? No, of course not.

Who would just leave a single key floating right down there on the floor, standing up, and your mind? As your head just goes out and black comes across your entire vision, as you suddenly see a giant purple sky in front of you, and suddenly the whole feeling of the building is cold, and your body begins to shiver as sweat starts to pour down your head, and you see something it is staring right at you, but it's not, it's looking at you, but it's not, it's staring at you. Make a paltude!

There's something in your mind, and it's trying to find its way in. Get it out of your head. Get it out and you can hear it. Come to me. Come to me. Let it be open. Yeah. Jude, the brain just comes across you.

The visions of this mindless thing comes about you and you hold onto the key and you look up and you're holding it in your hand. There's nothing there, Jude. There's nothing there. There's nothing there. You're just holding your key. It's just fine.

There's nothing. There. It's not to go home. Go home, man. Go home. Go home. It's okay. As you walk, you look down to the left, a passageway you've never noticed before here on the first floor. You look down and there's an endless hallway. And as you look up, holding your house key and staring ahead of you, you see a black door. You've never seen this door before, Jude. It's onyx black. has the chains on it. Chains and locks. More locks than you've ever seen.

And as you look down at this key in your hand, all you see is black. I'm going in. You walk up, you take the key, and you look at it, and you hold it, and one key isn't going to open this door, Jude. There's 12 locks on it. There's 12 locks on this thing, and they seem to be in an erratic combination, alpha-numeric combination, directional.

Every type of lock that you could possibly imagine is on this door. What the fuck, all right? That's your house key. That's out of you. Are you staying here? Are you going to go to that door? I mean, something's dragging me to it. I don't know why.

I just feel this, like, feel this energy drawing me to it, and I don't, I don't know. I don't know why. It's thick, it's thick, it's heavy, it's in with you for sure. Go to it, walk it, touch it, feel it. You purse and you look at the locks and you stare at them, you hold them, and there is, the metal is cold, the middle is cold, but the door is warm, shoot, the door is warm.

What is this? It feels alive. And as if someone dropped nitroglycerin onto it, the entire door goes cold, ice cold, and you can feel the wet sweat from your hands, slightly stick as icicles purse across the top of your hand. There's a spot in my apartment. It's cold like that.

If you look, think about it. Yeah, if you think about where you are in the position, your room is right above. Oh shit. Your room is right above this door. That's what that is. But just as easily as it's there, it's gone. You need to get ready, Jude.

I mean, come on, this is your night, your home. Go freshen up, get up to the party. Unfortunately, this black door will be with you now, and it will come when we get to the tower. See you later, Jude. Now, there's a reason that you are out here in the lobby tonight versus in your room,

which you would normally do when you're going to be doing a, well, a big infiltration like you're going to be doing tonight. Why is that? Things are getting weird in the room. Things are getting weird in the room? Things are getting weird in the room. They've been getting weird for the past. Two weeks.

Okay. And I just can't be in there right now. Like, it feels like the walls are breathing. Maybe you're hearing some voices that are unfamiliar to you. Yeah. You've been planning this for a while, this infiltration that you're gonna do tonight.

It's a big one tonight, probably the biggest one that I've done. Oh, really now. There's a former tenant, McMillan, Actually, and he has been stealing from his company for quite some time. Okay. It's not a good company necessarily, but he's not a good person either. All right. And what are you going to do to it tonight?

I mean, whose money is that really? Oh. Is it the people's money? Is it Selena's money? Yeah. All right. But more importantly, there's a rush to it as well too. This is for me.

It's for you. Yeah. I feel like when I'm dancing in the code, I'm really alive. And oh, what a delicate dancer you are. But it looks like there's a little bit of an issue here. The screen's flickering a bit, which is odd. It's an old computer, but at the same time, you knew that this connection was secure. So would you make a pull for me real quick? Let's make sure that your tools are in perfect order here.

There it is. It's hard. You definitely have to get whatever you can get. and there's something about making sure that you're buying the right kind of hardware that isn't traceable, it isn't manageable, and you do your best to cover your tracks. But it's fine. It's top of the line, and it's certainly not going to fail you now. I know my equipment and I know myself. Good. Well, then let's get into it. This is a time.

Oh, it looks like you've got some mail at the moment here, too. It actually seems to be an email. Oh, look, your boyfriend's emailing you. Yeah. That's nice. Isn't that great? What's he saying? He says.

And how are you going to reply to him? He tack in command prompts. And there's a way to open up a direct line of chat to each other. Right, because what's important is that you have a direct line of communication. Why is that? Is it to make sure that no one else is watching? Would you want somebody listening in on your private conversations with your soulmate? It's not about what I want, Selena.

It's about what you are okay with. And it sounds like you're not okay with people listening in on your private conversations. No. Which is a little ironic because you seem to know a lot about everyone else in this building. I think it's about time. You need to get into this thing before it gets too late. Let's get cracking. Now, this building creaks and it groans and it moves and it looks into it. But at the same time, this building has character.

And this character is something that has been a safe haven for your activities. It's very off the grid. The rent was incredibly frugal. And more importantly, you're not nervous at all that at any time someone could find you or the things that you do No, no one can find me. I'm extremely good at covering my tracks Help help help help help This words seem to be appearing on your screen over and over again help help it's actually from a second window That's the one that you use the secure line with your boyfriend help help

There's he's typing it over and over again and it seems to every single line open up a new one. Help, help. Selina, they have me. Selena, help, help, help, help, help, help. Make a pull. The voice will stop. They clean out, everything is fine.

Your moments of pressing, you tell them, you tell them, Selena, you tell them something when you want them. He's fine. Okay, he's fine. Go back to your computer and notice briefly for a moment that your hand is on the keyboard and it has been placed in the H-E-L-P tags. What are you feeling right now?

I'm scared, okay? You watch as it pops up the same secure. This connection comes up. I'm fine, sweetie. He's with me. And the connection ends. And you've seen him recently, right? I mean, you know he's okay.

Yeah. And there's no problems. No. But this happened. Why would he say help, Selena? Why would he do that to you? Why would he hurt you like that? Was he testing you? Maybe. I mean, he knows that I'm...

He knows that I'm running an infiltration tonight. And he's just. Was he maybe trying to troll you a little bit? Just to kind of see, keep you on your toes to see if you could go and trace him as quick as you can when you're going out to things tonight. That's probably what it is, right? Yeah.

That's fine. It's fine. It's okay. So, well, you said it yourself. You have an infiltration tonight. So get into it. Please, can you help me? Miss, they've taken my baby.

Someone's out here and they've taken my child. My baby is gone. Why aren't you doing anything? Who is it? Help me. Make a pull, Selina. Make a pull right now. Something's outside and you've never heard anything

like this before. It doesn't sound like something that normally comes inside of your head, but there is something. something pursing in through this and in fact out of nowhere this seems to be this pulsing this injulating this moving energy that makes you feel nauseous it's giving you a bit of a breath it's as if your body is moving at a thousand miles per hour and yet you stop suddenly and you can feel sweat dripping down your body as suddenly out of nowhere you start to just feel this

tense coming up and you're you're watching your prompt sit there and wait and you can watch of the time passing by, but all you can hear is. You're not real. You never... You look under the couch, or do you not? Tell me, Sleena, are you going to resist coming out from underneath the couch right now? Do you not want to look under there?

Do you not want to see what is under there? I can try to fight it all I want, but it's gonna come. I know it. I know it. If you're not going to fight it, then no. Slee, it's there, but do worry, no. Make a pull. Stop the voices.

Stop the voices. Selena, stop them from encroaching into your mind. The voices stop just as quickly as you tell them to bat out of your mind. And you feel safe. You feel comforted and everything is okay. Tell yourself, what is, what mantra do you use, Selena to get the voices out of your head?

The walls are real. He is real. Make it real, Selena. Place it on there. Look under the couch. It is real. It is real, Selena. As you pull from underneath the couch,

you realize that you've grabbed a fistful of sand. White bleached sand, something straight from the bone desert. And it's fluid, it's safe, it's free. And you look down and just as quickly as you thought the sand was there, you find that you've been holding nothing, Selena. You find that the sand, not a grain of it,

is in your gloves. in the wrinkles of your folds or even in your fingers. Tell you something. Of course. I've only ever told him that I know it's coming for me. I know that I'm gonna forget, or at least it's what happens in my family. Who are you going to forget, Selena?

Everything, me, him. Are you going to forget who you are? And in the last, two weeks. Before this I thought I was safe. I could always explain things away. But in the past two weeks, I think it might be happening and I'm scared. Svina, I'm not here to tell you whether it's going to be okay or not. But the tower will provide a sense of security, even if just for a moment, if you would only make a pull. That long, warm feeling of recognition that you hope for.

Maybe it's the reason you do code, because it abides by laws that cannot be broken. And there is a mnemonic element to it that ensures that you're constantly challenging your brain. And Selena, for the moment you do not forget, you know who you are, you know who your boyfriend is, you know the person you hope. you hope to become.

So, what do you want to do? I'm gonna finish the infiltration. Maybe I'll do it while there are some people. Well, let's take your laptop up and see if you can finish what you started, where there's a little more security around. Emmett Markham, you've had a long day. I mean, you've been living here for about a year.

And one of the things that's been interesting about being in this space is that it's it's had a certain weird emotional impact on you because you you chose to be here why did you choose to live here my work and writing has has gotten me sort of into a nightlife that I've never really been accustomed to and I feel like it kind of clouds my judgment with writing so I've in LA I've picked a place which it won't be distracting and won't you know, cloud who I am for what I do. Did you make a pull for me?

Okay. Your first pull. Wow. I have zero experience. This is just a lot to process. This is a lot of self-reflection that you're thinking about. Coming back to this reason that you came to this building in general. There are a lot of interesting voices in this city and in the building in particular.

I go for long walks, but I don't often have to leave the building to hear something unique. Mm-hmm. There are definitely whispers. It definitely feels like this place has a voice, which you might put it on the top for me there? Oh. Yes. Well, you feel like you can, you know, quell the pain a little bit. Like that's made headaches are not uncommon.

Yeah. And, you know, you've definitely gone through the process a little bit to be able to clear out the headache. So you said you told me that you do a lot of walks. Why do you walk around this building? I like talking to people and I like listening even more than talking. And I like the people that I meet on the street more than I like the ones that I meet at parties. It sounds like you are a fan of people. What kind of people are you a fan of?

I like regular people. Regular people. The starlet at a party who is coming out in order to make a conversation, to find out who the next most important person they need to talk to is. When you look at that person, what do you see? I see someone who's trying to be something else for someone else. Something else for someone else. That's really potent. And it's also interesting because, I mean, you came out here to L.A.

for someone, right? That's, that's true. You came out here in order to find and help someone who you put stock into. Were you, were you trying to be someone else other than who you were? Made a mistake, yeah. Being here is a mistake.

Is that what you're telling me? Probably coming in the first place was a mistake. Make a poll. You came here? You drove all the way out from your home state of New York just so that you could follow somebody else's dream. What are you trying to find? This is all very painful. That headache that you thought that you had quashed and had put away.

It's starting to come back, but it's even more painful than it was before. It's starting to pain. It's starting to dig at your head. As you managed to breathe and take it out and hold that space and be able to say, no, no. You had other reasons to be here other than just. her you said it you said it yourself there were other things here that were not a mistake what were those things I'm I'm writing again and I'm finding where I started again and how is it's good it's I mean I'm kind of alone are you alone

Emmett this is not something you were hoping to deal with today you want to get some writing done and out of nowhere maybe it's just how you're doing right now but it feels like someone just turned on a switch inside of your body and a wave of nausea. Just not crippling, but definitely bending over difficult clutch, not in your stomach just kind of comes into you. I don't know, maybe you should wash your face or do something like try to get a little bit of water

in there just because it's so much right now. And it's in there, it's kind of in your stomach, as if someone just someone just, took you and you just went 1,000 miles and you just popped out of a speed rail and you look up into the mirror and something in the mirror looking at you backwards is a dark purple sky leaving out and you see a giant tall tower looming out in the middle of nothing pink purple skyline comes about you as clouds wander and wave and you can feel vision start to distort and bend and move around you make a pull and make a pull there is something happening in here right now and it is not

safe and it is certainly not conducive it hurts it hurts and things are moving so incredibly fast this pull are you able to hold it is this is this still in your brain are you really seeing this tower right now or are you seeing something from beyond this world that is fine the tower did not fall a single blink fell go back to that mirror looking at that and tell yourself that what is there isn't real. You did this. You know that, right? You made this happen.

Was it satisfying? Were you happy? Did it feel good to kill me? But I trusted. You made me feel so unsafe. Like I had some other choice in my life. I'll never forget it. I was sitting on the concrete wall at the Denny's.

And I was enjoying a cigarette. And you stumbled by. Do you remember what we talked about? We were walking. And we chatted. And I made you my offer. And then you offered something else. Breakfast.

If it had been any other night, I would have just told you to fuck off. But I was so done and hungry. Okay, I could play therapist for a little while just for a free meal. We talked about everything else. We talked about music in theater. In theater, I came out here just to find my place among the stars like everyone else. Make a poll. That night was the first night in a lot of late night breakfasts.

You didn't talk about yourself too much, but that was okay. That was okay. Because for the first time, I felt like someone was listening to me. And then you abandoned me. You stopped coming around as much. I thought maybe you were bored of me but then you just stopped completely why

you're dead Sam I saw you you know what I did I had up a regular John he was hooking me up but I wasn't looking for sex I was looking for you I wanted breakfast

one night he got a bad batch we both OD'd as I was fading out of consciousness I thought to call you and then I realized I don't have your number. I gave you my number and you never called me. I'm watching you, Emmett, in this weightful nightmare where all dreams come true. Was that real? Was it something you hallucinated?

I don't know. But there is cold peace in the floor that you're on now. And maybe a party doesn't sound like such a bad idea right now. Hey, honey, it's mom. Did you know if we switch to Verizon, we can get four phones for $0, plus four lines for $25 a line? Call me back.

Me again. That's just $100 a month for four lines on unlimited welcome. Plus four phones, no trade in needed. Call me. It's mom. America's Best Network, Verizon. That's the one we're talking about. I'll send you text.

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