Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 20 | Learning to Fly: Part 1

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

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Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Pike, and you're listening to Stardust Rhapsody. Last time on Stardust Rhapsody, the party found their way to the Off Books research lab of Chimera Bionetics, site Omicron. They navigated the seemingly abandoned lab discovering the horrors that went on there. Uncovering research around food manipulation, genetic cloning, and Esper telekinetic weaponization, eventually find what they've been seeking in the lab working on Rubado. Research notes direct them to the office of Dr. Jodo, the lead scientist and head of Site Omicron, who oversaw the project directly.

They find their way to confront him only to uncover he'd taken his own life and left a simple note. I have become death. I'm sorry. They uncover the Don and the Voice Roy have been driving the development of Rubedo and using Red Line. and all the scientists of the facility were sacrificed for its creation. Moving down to the basement, they find the final piece of the puzzle.

A demonic discordant from cacophony being hanged and bled dry produces the core component to redline manufacturing. It's blood. It awakens to the smell of pixels harmony. A brutal, deadly, impossible fight breaks out, ending in a perfect shot into the spine of the horror by Rex. racing out of the facility with the evidence on Ziggy's Grid Boy, they're met with the silent husks that were once the scientists. Rubato having ripped them from the harmony, they now shuffle forward as the undead. The note from the desk of Jodo reveals its true meaning.

The party blasts past them, gets to the Rhapsody, and races back, leaving the nightmares behind, or so they think. Leaking the information on the Don, they put him on the run. The final bounty remains to be hunted, and thanks to Rex, they know exactly where he is. The trail runs hot. Our session begins just a few days after the events on Silf. The Rhapsody cutting a technicolor swath through ether waves as it makes its way to the next part of its journey. A quick resupply trip keeps you in good inventory levels, ready to handle what comes next.

Pixel. You lay on your bed in your quarters in the Rhapsody, your bright pink headphones blurring poppy Zeta Max music as you bop your feet to the beat. Your fingers twitch and your jaw clenches as you continue to feel the effects of withdrawal from glimmer. You look up at the Zatamax poster hanging over your bed and expect to see his usually colorful outfit with shades of pink and yellow, his cyan shades and glowing microphone. But all you see is the cold.

Instead of the image of your favorite pop star striking a pose and hitting a high note, it is his clone in the cryopod, staring forward unblinkingly, outside the circular viewport. The flash of the dull crimson light of sight Omicron flashes in your room for a moment and you see a shadow that is so familiar from the dream you keep having. No, no, no, no, just the music. I gotta listen to the music. Well, I was my compact again.

It's gonna be a little bit left. That was some pretty sick shit, huh? What are you doing here? Hey, Pixie Dust. Hi, honey. How you doing? How you doing? I'm just... You turn, and from your position on the bed,

you look over at a beanbag chair that sits normally empty in your room, and there sits wheedle box. Um, how are you doing, honey? You feeling all right? Oh, me, I'm feeling great. Plenty of time on my hands. Oh, but you, you've been through some stuff, huh? Yeah, I'm a bounty hunter now.

Yeah, sure seems like it. All these adventures you've gone on, I mean, your lush room in the glitz room, no, no substitution for for creepy basements and terrible demons, huh? No. I, uh, I've done a lot of bad things and it's all coming to haunt me now, I think. Yeah, you've done a lot of bad things. A lot of bad things. Seen some terrible things too.

What do you mean? Heard them. Might not even remember you, so glitzed up on Glimmer. Ah, but there's a lot more rattling around up here. than you think. It's not all empty. Oh, no, no, no, no. But, I mean, as long as I got my compact,

as long as I got my glimmer, I don't have to think about that stuff. Yeah, you glimmer. I used to keep you in constant supply, but now you're running low, huh? Terrible fate. I'd hate to be you. And I'm me.

We just, we gotta get back to the mall. And I know. I know Rhett would, he would help me. He doesn't want to see me like this. I know he'd help me even if he doesn't agree. I know. I know. And I'm sorry.

I do miss you, honey. Oh, Pixie Dust. That means so much to me. You're sorry? Oh, that's a cold comfort where I am. But thanks. I mean, I guess that'll take me the rest of the way. And you think, Rhett?

Rett is going to help you? Are you kidding? Look at the company he keeps. I love. loved you, doll. I took care of you. Rent, what's he done? Did he even take you to the mall? I can't remember. But he promised. Everything's so hazy up here. But he did promise. He said he was going to take me and then we got close, but we spent money on ships and we didn't have money anymore. It'll happen eventually.

Yeah. It's gotta happen eventually. You've heard that before, huh? I trust him. I trust all of them. Does he trust you? With what you? With what you? you know? The Don? Redline? I don't know nothing about the dawn and redline. If I knew I would tell him. You know way more than you think, Pixie Dust. You think that you don't have it up there swimming around. All those times I was on the phone. You were doing lines off the desk. Red line, you were high. You were paying attention. But it's here. It's in the corners. You just have to look. You just have to. You were. You were paying attention.

but it's here, it's in the corners. You just have to look. You think that Rhett is going to trust you with what you've kept secret, what you've kept safe for me, for the Don? No, that's not true. Hide you, Pixie Dust, no, no, no. And we could have had it all.

I was working on a plan. The Don, you see, getting entangled his partnership with his friend the viceroy, well, he thought he was just another Cavalant official, thought he could just take him for a ride, get all hooked up, go the Connoebo way, go straight. No, but it was way too late when he found out, when he found out what the voice roy was.

Ah, no, man, did those tables flip on him quick? Isn't my music? Forget me. I'm the one that plays the song. Pixie Dust, I am the music. You can't forget me. I'm as much a part of you as your hands, as your hair. But if I just go to that place, if I just, if I just have my stuff, think about this anymore. Oh, you think so, huh? And what's so wrong with who you are now, huh? What else are you going to be? What else could you be? A fledgling star? You never made it. You never broke through. I was going to get you there, but then you ended it all. The plans I had.

I was gonna turn on the Don. See he was so under the thumb of the fucking vice-roy. He thought he had his way out, but oh, I was gonna flip this script on him. He's just another prisoner. He didn't have it. He couldn't see. He couldn't bring the scarlet eye. He couldn't bring it to greatness, but I could have. And you could have been there, my queen, my little songbird, you could have been tweeting away. Your heart's content, singing all the songs you want on the biggest, stages and the biggest palaces. And now drifting through space on a ship with people who don't want you with a place that doesn't take you or can't handle you fighting demons when you could

have been in the lap of luxury with me. I'm dead and none of this is real. I'm not even a ghost since it was you who killed me. I'm just a creation of your subconscious. This and I'll rip off my headphones and I'll toss them at you. You throw those pink glittery headpoints. Stop it! Stop! Get out of my head! And they crash through this image of wheedle locks as they hit the wall and burst,

colliding with nothing but the metal on the other side of your bedroom, a faint clang as they connect and snap in half, the song playing from them ending and dulling out in the background. The next sound you hear, a knock at the door. You got a minute. Now take your time. And I'll go over and I'll pick up the headphones and look around and look at the beanbag chair where for a second I see the imprint of where he would have been sitting. And then as I blink and wipe the tears away from my eyes, I see that there's no imprint there at all.

As I throw the headphones on my bed and don't even turn the music down as I walk over and open the door. Yeah, hey. What do you need? What's up? You feeling all right? Yeah, I'm fine. I was just listening to you got a tissue or something. Oh, yeah, hold on.

And in my overalls, I'll pull out. I can't guarantee you how clean this is. Oh, that's okay. It's going to get dirty anyway. It's been sleeping well. You want to come in? Yeah, no, if you have, if you have, Have a minute, man.

Yeah, just, you know, I was putting on makeup and I was using my glitter powder, so I can't promise you gonna come away on Sparkly. No, that's all right. I'm used to it at this point. I'll walk in to the room. You see the layout as her room normally. As you see that beanbag chair,

maybe even give the room a quick glance. I think very easily you'd be able to see the now, her headphones now snapped into tossed onto the bed, held together by just the wire that connects over through the top of the band. Do I, so I guess do I get a sense that like, did I hear like the headphones get thrown and like something break? Did I sort of get a sense of what just happened? I would, I would definitely say that as you were walking up to the door, you heard probably the sounds of what it looked, or it seemed as though she was speaking to someone else.

or you may have heard the low murmuring of Pixel's voice with the sudden crash of the headphones. Mind if I sit? No, please. The bed or the bed? There's the bed. Yeah, just the bed. All right.

Why don't you sit down too? Yeah, all right. I say, did I do something wrong? I'm in trouble. No. No, I'm here because I'm worried about you. No, I freaked out a little bit. You know, but Zanamax was a clone, and there was all kinds of stuff happening, and, and you know.

No, I know, but since the lab, I mean, you've been sticking to your room, and sounds like you're talking to somebody, and I'm just real fucking concerned. And look, I get it. What we saw in that lab, fucking demons from hell. Having something to do with you. I just... We're in a real fucking dangerous way right now. Are you firing me? No.

No, but I'm trying to help. All right? Well, if we get an opportunity to go by medium ball, I got a guy there. If I just had one I need. I don't think we need to do that. All right? All right.

What I'm about to say, if you can, I'll keep this between me and you, because Coe would fucking kill me. You understand? Yeah, all right. What is it? I'm trustworthy, I really am. It doesn't matter what anybody says.

I won't tell Co. I will reach into my pocket. You see there there's a pretty big, like, sized something in my pocket that I pull out, and I pull out this, like, almost like a, tin canister, steel canister that's sort of rectangular, but has sort of like beveled edges on the corners with a lid on it. It's a little rusted. It says the word rations on it, and you see under where, under it, there's a large kind of angular cog wheel.

Look, on the last resupply, I called in a favor from Graff, and he fucking owed me big time after the bullshit with Quibble and Glub. So it's the least he can fucking do. I think I've got you more than enough to last you through all of this. You already, you already have it? And I'll pop the lid off the tin canister, and you'll look in and you'll see it's pretty highly filled with,

I mean, it's not like all the way of filled, right? But probably at least halfway, with that classic holographic glitter-looking powder that you're so familiar with. Bent it. I know what you're dealing with, okay? And if I give you this, this is temporary. You understand?

As soon as we're through this, you're fucking kicking this habit. I can help you. All right, it's not going to be easy, okay? I suddenly know. I know. Look, I've been there. I don't have a memory of a day in which I didn't know what it felt like up until recently. Well, we're going to fix all of that, okay?

You're coming into your own. All right, this is a new beginning for you. Okay? And I just need you to promise. I need you to say, I promise, Rhett, that I will quit once we deal with the Don and we deal with the fucking demons. I know. And it's going to hurt even more. I promise you that.

But look, do you think I'm bad? No. Why would you be bad, Bixel? Because of the things that I've done, the person I am. Because of that. Do you think I'm bad? Do you think I'm not trustworthy? Am I not part of the family?

You think I'm bad? I know, of course not. You saved me. If you knew the things I've done, What you've done, Pixel, is nothing. I promise you, the people that I've killed, the boys, barely adults, handed fucking, repeating rifles and thrown into a war zone. And I pull one fucking lever and ten of them get crushed.

How do you get through a life sober with those kind of memories? It was work. to get through it. But I learned that I can't change the past. And I can't fucking control what I did. But all we call any of us can do is we can live for ourselves. It's it's the motto I live my life by and it's the reason I've fucking done all of this. And when I first met Pike and and we decided on our anthem, to live for ourselves and no one else ever again. That's what I'm trying to give you.

We can all do it together. I'll reach out and grab your hand and you'll feel that Pixel is not just shaking, but convulsing. Not only with the withdrawals that she's going through, but the emotions that she's feeling and the insecurity of the voices in her head and the voices that are speaking to her now.

I don't know what to do. I don't know who I am anymore without him. He took care of me. He made all of my decisions for me. My head allowed. They're telling me that I made mistakes and that I wasn't ready and that I'm nothing and I'm not ever going to be anything without him. And without that, I don't know how to quiet him.

to say something and I don't mean it and I know how you feel about him, but I mean it in in the good way You're a bit like him not with all the bad stuff, but with the confidence and with the strengths and with the leadership Well just tell me what to do I look. I appreciate that and I suppose he was an entrepreneur himself one way or another But look, the point is that you don't need him telling you what to do, and you don't need me fucking telling you what to do. I mean, as long as you're part of the crew, we're a team,

and we're going to do stuff together as a team, right? But think about what you've accomplished since you left. Think about what we've dealt with. The fucking evil we've stopped. I could have killed all of you. Freaked out back, I took you, I took your focus away from a problem at hand. I could have gotten you killed. This is going on inside of me right now.

I wasn't going to let that happen, all right? Look, Pike and I have been doing this a long time. He's got roughed up a little bit, but he's a tough fucker, right? Look at him. I've always been nothing but a burden. But with that, when that's in my veins, then I'm strong. When that gets taken away, but I can't do it on my own. I'll make you that promise.

But you've got to know. what you're in for. And if you don't think you can do it, you should just let me go now. Because I'm gonna need you. I'm gonna need all of you. I know what I'm in for, Pixel, all right?

I know. You ever wonder why we're going after Redline? Because it's bad stuff by bad guys. Yeah, but there's a lot of fucking bad stuff in this galaxy. There are a lot of bad guys we could hunt down, right? At the end of all of it, from a financial or fucking safety point of view, has any of this been worth it?

Pike went to prison for six fucking months because of me. What did you do? You don't have to tell me if I'm trying. You could just tell your Digi Diary that it gave you. Are you using it? I'm using it. Okay, good. And it helps.

Look, in the company, I used to work for a company. called the Grimnear Corporation. I think I heard of them. Yeah. Or I've at least seen a poster or something. You know, most folks call them Grimco. Yeah, that sounds familiar. This is my old rations, Ten, you know, just to keep stuff safe from moisture.

And, I mean, the things they put us through, there's a lot of pain. And they pushed us to the fucking limits of our biology. reason than some. They fucking tried to optimize our goddamn fucking genomes to make us the perfect fucking soldiers. That happened to you? It happened to all of us. And at the end of the day, that's not enough. And it hurts. And it's tiring. And so what does Grimco do? And load you up with fucking painkillers. And They fucking amp you up and get that adrenaline pumping and they send you down in that dropship

and you do it all fucking over again. So I got to the point where I couldn't live without it. I couldn't live with the pain. I needed it to go away so I could work. I had to fucking work. I was a company man, just like my father before me. I worked for the company, I live for the company, I'll fucking die for the company. I liked it.

I was good at it and I couldn't live without it. I couldn't live with the pain so I had to fucking keep giving what they were taking. Keep taking what they were giving me. And when I left, it was fucking terrible. I won't sugarcoat it. I won't sugarcoat it, but I've learned through time, through work and through pure fucking determination that I can bear it most days. and when I do need to deal with it

I don't need to use the hard stuff like I used to and so what I'm saying is take this and I'll hand it to you and know that you can get off of it all right and that it's not going to be easy and we're going to help you through it it's just unfortunately

and I think we can both agree now is not the time once we're through with the red line once we dealt with the dawn that's the promise I want to fucking end on of this if i can use my life to try to make the galaxy a little bit of a better place save some of the people that might have gotten fucking hooked on this shit from the pain and the years of torment that

i dealt with and if i can do it on my fucking terms that's what this is all about once the dawn is fucking done and the syndicate is over, then we can breathe. Then we'll have plenty of money. And we can relax. That's what you're going to need. You're going to need time just to fucking relax. We'll go somewhere nice. All right. If you can do it, I can do it, right? That's right. You're stronger than you know, Pixel. Then I'll make that promise. But you can't Tell Co. No. No, you can't tell Co.

I won't tell Co. Well, I mean, she's gonna know because, not that you gave it to me, but she's gonna know I got some. No, no, that's why keep the tin here and fill your compact, all right? I'm just saying. No, no, I'm just saying,

like, she's gonna know. Right, no, no. She's gonna know. She can't know that I'm supporting this, all right? No, I'll tell her the circumstance got it to me. Perfect. How's that guy doing, by the way? Oh, no, he's doing well.

He's got a bad of IBS. but aside from that he's fine. That's the circumstance. He's got a new girlfriend. Oh. Yeah. Good for him. Yeah.

Wow. He seems like he's doing. He's still working all those jobs. They've been together for a whole 24 hours, the longest I've ever heard he's been with someone before. Wow. Well, you know, good for the circumstance. It's going to be really hard.

Um, I don't know how to say this in, You're good with words. I'm good with words when I'm writing songs, but not so much when I'm emotional and talking. So I don't know how to say this, but I killed the person I love. I don't really know how to...

Without the stuff. I don't know how to... Been in love. Have you ever... I mean, I've asked you to before, and you kind of said you alluded, but... There's anything you can tell me to help with how to...

how to not feel that stuff anymore because I just feel, I don't know if it's a globulin thing, but I just got all of these emotions in me and when I'm alone and when I'm in for it, I can't shut them off and I can't sleep and I can't think and I mean, diary's not helping. Anything. If he got anything at all. And also, do you mind if I just compact this down a little bit

just to get it started? Why don't you take a quick, blow. All right. How about an extra for all the time we've been apart? You know, just I don't want to it's at one moment. Dangle the fish over the sea line, if you know what I mean.

Oh boy, hold on, hold on. I'm seeing stars. But Katie, is that you, is that you girl? Whoa! Take your time. No, I'm good. Feeling better? You're all good on the whole question

that you just asked me. Are you, we're good there? Oh no, I still want the, I'm feeling much better now. Wow, that's the thing. Up hits fast. Can you, do you mind? I mean, I've never been accused of being good with words, but I guess I'll fucking take it. I mean, like I said, you know, yeah, I was in love once.

I didn't, you know, I didn't kill her. So I, but, you know, but she's not around. So you must know what... I know death and like breakups and stuff are different, but it's lost all the same. How did you... How did you get to a point where it wasn't on your mind all the time? And where you didn't feel like you weren't you without him and that there was a future in which you didn't need them anymore.

And maybe you didn't feel those ways. Maybe I'm broken. And that's why I feel like this. Her name was Cass. That's a pretty name. Yeah. She had the deepest blue eyes I'd ever seen. She, uh, ran a bar,

a bar and grill restaurant, I don't fucking know. That's kind of perfect for you. The spaceport that, uh, how we lived on. You lived with her? Well, for a time. Grimco keeps spaceports and they're basically company towns floating in the ether. And that's where we all lived.

That's where I grew up. And, you know, we developed a thing, moved in together. And, you know, I just, things sort of fell apart. We sort of fell apart. Like I said, I was a company man. It's all I live for. The money, the promotions. And she kept asking me, when are you going to be done?

Can't you work here? Can't we do something else? Can't we move? Can't we find a world to settle on? We can get away from the company. And I just couldn't quit. I just I took contract after contract

and promotions and praise for my fucking superiors. It was like a drug itself. I'll stand up and put my arms around you and just hold on to you while you talk. And at a certain point, she had enough. So she left.

Showed up to the bar. It was closed. I let myself in. There's a note that said farewell. How was that? Did you... Did you ever speak to her again after that? Nope. I could probably hunt her down, especially given my current skill set in my profession. But if all she could think to say to me was for well, then I think that's all there is to say.

So, uh, I mean, how did I deal with it? That's how I dealt with fucking everything. I threw myself into work. But then I made me realize what the fuck was it all for? What the fuck did the next promotion mean? What the fuck did any of it mean? Squeeze you a little bit tighter. Brett, how long ago was that?

A few decades ago now, probably. Does it still hurt? Does it still hurt? Sometimes, I guess you could call it hurt. But, you know, at this point more I just think back on those days and I just smile. I was a different man then. I look back on that man and I don't see red indigo. I much prefer the man I am now.

Well, I don't like the pixel that I was either. And I want to find, I want to find future pixels. So, I'll get out this stuff. And that's, I guess, maybe how I got over it is. I learned to live for myself. And when I reached out my hand and you took it, that was you making that choice. That wasn't me, that wasn't co, that wasn't Pock

and it certainly wasn't fucking Ziggy. No, it was definitely not Ziggy. Absolutely not Ziggy. No, I think he was on the toilet at the time. Or microwave and burritos. Burritos, who know who the fuck knows? You know he does that at the same time? He's got that border of a one he'll drag in there

because he plays that game on his little thing. He brings the whole microwave. Yeah, he drags it in there. Sometimes he'll have Hank push it in. You didn't know that? Anyway. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Don't tell him I told you.

I thought you knew. No, I don't know. I'm not gonna talk to Ziggy about it. I'm talking to Hank about it. He's not gonna eat in the bit this practice. Anyway, look. You'll be in there for 45 minutes. What I'm trying to say is,

you're on the Rhapsody. Yeah. And she's a ship. She's metal and tanks of ether. Couple engines. But what she really is is freedom. That's what she represents to me. It's why she's the most important fucking thing

in the world. And that, without it, What do I have? If I'm not my own fucking man, standing before you now. And you're doing the same thing. And I'm very proud of you. And you are going to get through this. And you're going to get all the help you need from all of us, even Ziv, even from Ziggy.

Yeah. So take the time you need. I should probably... I might stay by myself for a little while. Like, I got to talk to my diary and I got to fill up Cal. and I just need some time to think, but thank you for coming to talk to me. Thanks for the, thanks for the stuff. Well, don't mention it, and I'd appreciate if you keep all this between me and you.

Oh, yeah, I'm really trustworthy. I don't know why you keep saying you think I'm not trustworthy. No, no, I just figured I would ask it formally so that there was no miscommunication. Oh, yes, sure, no, of course. I'm not going to, I'm not going to tell Coe about how this, Canister came. Do you mind if I put stickers on it? Do you want this canister back? I like sort of look at it. Doesn't really go with the decor. You can have it, Picks.

Thank you, Rhett. So I won't tell Cole. And I gave you the diary for a reason. I could tell you had stuff inside you. You weren't sharing with anyone, not even Pike. So I appreciated a lot that you were vulnerable today and you let yourself share some things with me. And I don't take that lightly and I'm not going to break that trust. It's between you and me. If you ever need anything again, I'm always here. I trust you, Pixel. If you need anything at all, you let me know, all right? All right. How do I let you know when, uh, and I'll tap on the canister. It's getting a little low. I hope that much lasts, but if it doesn't, why don't we cross that bridge when we get to it? Okay, we could have a code word for it.

We could call it like, I don't know, grundle. All right, if you say the word grundle, then I'll know, but just make sure that it's not in the same time where it would make sense for you to say that word in any other kind of scenario. I could say, I'm just looking for a bundle of grundle. I think everyone's gonna know what you're talking about. You should put it that way, dude.

Damn it, all right, I'll find something else. Maybe just like cough, say, grundle under your breath and then cough again. I was, okay. Yeah, there could be a global thing. They don't have to know. Yeah, like it's a sort of a vocal tick. Yeah, it's a vocal warm. A vocal warmup, that's right. Fantastic. I'll do that then. Yep.

All right, well. All right, well, I'm going to put on my pajamas because I'm exhausted. Get some rest. You can sleep in all you need. And you know where to find me. I'll stand up. Hug? Sure. And I'll just rush over and jump on you.

Thank you so much, Rhett. I could have potentially gotten everybody killed, but I promise I'll be better. Look, pigs, don't worry about any of that. You're doing great. Anyways, bye. All right, see you later. And as you get to the door,

as you're like going to open the door. Oh, Rhett? Yeah. You're not going to abandon me, are you? Never. And then I'll flop down on the bed and I'll grab the two halves of my headphones and I'll put them up to my ears

and start humming along and kicking my feet. I will walk out. You have to hold them up to tears now, because they're broken, yeah. They're completely split apart. So they do not compress around your head. That pressure almost, that the headphones were,

were helping to do as they squeezed your head, and it began to ease some of that withdrawal, now completely alleviated with the hit of Glemur, provided to you by Rett. You settle in, comfortable, listening to music, once again, kind of finding a state of equilibrium. Ret, you head on to the next thing. You both potentially tuck

in for the evening and as everyone finds their way to bed night I mean it's been several days since the events on itself so anyone who's not done so you do obviously get a long rest hey we'll say that we'll see that you'll see that you find yourselves the next day in the common room all of you We were gathered together to sit down and eat lunch. It's the middle of the day. You found yourself, you've all woken up and had whatever mornings you would have chosen to have.

But now you're gathered together for the first time in, not for the first time in a bit, but for the first time today, we'll say you're gathered all in the common area, enjoying some food. Is the food ready yet? I'll be right out. Just give me a minute. Boop, boop.

You've been in there for 45 minutes. Hold on, I'll be right on. I'm on this floor. What are you doing this? Guys, get the fuck out of my way. I made you, you're still microwaving a fucking burrito. Hank, were you a part of this? It's an appetizer.

It's a cold burrito. What are you going to say? I'll step out. You call them that fucking free gaming? What do we haven't? Never change, Ziggy. Never change. What did I make?

Oh, I would say you made your best attempt at Volcano-style Chimkin. Ooh. It's Volcano Chimkin. I did my best. Thank you. Thanks. Is there a platter of mild or baby spice?

Baby Volcano? Well, I think Volcano is more just to spice it up. It's not that hot. Oh, okay. If it is, I'll make you something different. If you don't want it, I'll have yours. No, all right. Awesome. Do you want your Zigg?

Oh, okay. It's already gone. Well, it's no Stivo's Magma chicken, but it's pretty good. It's not bad. All right. Thanks, Red. I think Zickey could probably figure out how they make their chicken so good. Their chimkin so good. I could hack in, and then we could create a copycat recipe.

You can do that? I can do pretty much anything on the hypergrap. What can I fix you? Here, pull up the thing of like, look up how to make it. Look up how to make it. How to make, well, what are you looking at? Oh, no, right there. It says, okay.

Ew. Ew. Why are those pictures loading under that? Ew. Why is this lady talking about her holiday routines? What the, what the, why is there, why is she just, why is their paragraph? Isn't this a recipe blog? Ew.

What? Oh, no, no, no, it's just endless. He's just writing her whole life in this thing. This fucking journal? Hold on, let me just do a search. That is a nasty divorce. Oh my God. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

It's got to be here somewhere. It's got to be here somewhere. Hold on, hold, hold on. What do you search on that thing? I'm scrolling, I'm scrolling. The bull boy was that big? What the fuck? I thought that was the-

What does this have to do with Chimkin? Oh no, there's the chimpanzee right now. We put a link at the top that goes straight to the recipe. People still think scroll depth matters in analytics. We'll get it. Well, we'll get it. You can write it down. You're threatened.

Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. In the meantime, I microwaved Pixelsome Sorian chicken nuggets. Chimkin nuggets. Oh, gosh, my favorite. And they're shaped like various Sorian. Oh, look, it's the Ziggy one.

Because it's shaped like a, like a, like a sorry and doesn't make it the Ziggy one. It could be any Thorian. It could be any Sorian. However, it bears a struck and resemblance to exactly, yeah. It's got a little goggle. Kyle's, what?

They get people, some sauce falls on it and evokes this strange green and black odie that comes up around his, that comes up around his body. Yeah, when's my favorite one? Do we, I guess, should I go bring the rations to Rex's plushy prison

and the pirates? I already did it. Okay. Who gave him, like, who gave him access to social media, because he's been, he's just been posting some salacious things. Wait. What?

What? There's no one. Yeah. No, I was, I was looking through, I was looking through my, because my Digi Diary has a social function just in case I wanted to like, you know, post a video entry to my followers and stuff. And I don't have, you know, I'm not famous or anything, but I got a small group of people that care. And the circumstance cares. And I noticed I started following Rex a long time ago And he was posting some back

I could see the cell bars behind him But he wasn't wearing his shirt And you know he was saying that he was on vacation He didn't mention us didn't he No not at all I don't think he'd want to be seen on socials with us What a fucking dumb ass But I could tell he put a pair of socks in his pants in one of the photos Oh yeah, he did put a pair of socks in his pants

Where did he get socks? What is he using? Leave him something. Well, at least he turned off the geolocation. These photos, though, they're definitely from the ship. Should I go get it? Yeah, yeah. Go stop him.

Okay, I want to go take it. God, is he going to make me, like, strip search him? He might film it, so you should make sure he doesn't have any cameras set up anywhere. Do I have authorization to immediately implement? torture? No. Fuck! Fine!

Just make sure he doesn't enjoy it too much. Sorry, Cole. I only got two portions of fucking chicken. Chimkin fucking ship. You want one of the sickies? Before you go, I put extra sauce on it. That one looks like his big tidied eye girlfriend.

Oh yeah, look, it's my second favorite. I think that was just two mashed together. Why is it? So this can rise. I go smash her. Cells, cellular lights. Oh. I'm gonna, peep, beep, beep, beep.

What the fuck have you been doing? What? Just being in prison. Give it to me. Give what to you? Do you know what the fuck I'm talking about? No, I don't. I don't know the first thing about what you're talking about.

You're posting cropped stuff, thirst traps on the fucking hypergrid? What? Me? You're in prison? You're on vacation? You're on house arrest. Oh, I see what's happening here. My manager runs the accounts, okay?

I don't make those, you think I post myself? Who's your manager? What account was it? Was it the real Rex Maxim? I don't know, I don't, I'm not on that shit. Was it Maximum Rex? I don't fucking know. Was it Maximum Rex 69 backup?

Hold on. So was it Rex Maximum Rex 69 backup underscore? It was the ultimate Rexious Maximus Rex Maximus Rex Maximus XXX. Do you hear that? Yeah, that was me. Let's extend my hand. You can do this easy wear?

Oh. You weren't even gonna strip search me? No. Alright, here you go. Okay. How'd you know I had it? Give me your second one. Give me your second one.

Give me a second one. No, no. You're not gonna like what happens if you don't give me your second one. Are you sure? No, you're not. I should have a fucking promise, Rex. Give me your second one. Alright, turn around for a second.

Absolutely fucking not. Okay, fine. I turn around. Here. Drop it on the floor. But wait, you don't want to take it from me? I'm not touching, man. Where? Put it on the fuck.

You're excitable in the morning. Here. I like, I drag it over with my boot, and I say, okay, I'm gonna give that back. Yes, I smash one to get the long. and I stop on the other one, until it's just like sparks and bits of plastic and chips. But my fans. And now I wouldn't even be able to read all the comments.

I think that that'll be good for you, Rex. Well, like 80% of the time, they're really nice. That's more than you deserve. Why am I in prison again? I thought I could use that one room. You're in the room. You just, we don't let you out. Oh, I'd take back that comment.

I thought we were in the brig. No, you'd be with the pirates. Yeah. If you remember, you know, you saw how those pirates were looking at. So you're fucking lucky we'd let you stay in here. Redhead Percy on you. Never forget her kindness. I love what you've done with your hair this morning, by the way.

Red has a heart of gold. Okay. Yeah, okay. Did we ever get any more pillows? This room's just a little cold. What? What? What? Well, because I like to, you know, I like to cocoon myself. I build like a pillow for-

I hate to be the one to fucking inform you. You are still in prison even though you have a fucking bed. And you get three meals a day. So I can't be comfortable? No! I'm trapped in prison. You know, you know, you're by definition. You know, I actually know a fucking thing or two about prison.

I've done at least three fucking stints. And I know, being comfortable is not part of the fucking deal. And you took on my product. Yeah! Yeah, you look like shit. I'm sorry to tell you. Jesus. God's, oh, oh no, please, please don't, please don't, please don't, no. Your phone falls to the ground.

60, that maximum backup triple X. Okay. I'm gonna go. Do you think I could borrow some of Pikes? You're gonna have to ask him. I don't, I don't wanna be involved. It's no way that's natural. I don't wanna be in money.

You can ask him. Okay, goodbye. I handle it. Don't worry. You make your way back. I know what to do about these fucking jokers. I don't think we can turn in the... You mean shitmouthed shit jaws?

Oh, the captain is... Oh, there's another one in there outside of shit. Well, yeah, there's two of them. Captain's the important one. He's worth way more. Yeah, but shit mouth shit jaws is really cute. What? You've looked at him.

He's just got that sad. I might have been crying recently, Faye. It's hard to see in the heat of battle, but after having him in prison for some time, he's kind of cute. He's kind of got this adorable cuteness to him. It really does. Sometimes they go down and just look at him. What the fuck are you talking about? Shitmout shit jaws.

No, I know. He's a nasty pirate, and his name is Shitmout Chichaws the turn. I really know. Wait, is that canon? I can't remember. It's hard to keep trying. No one's really sure. Okay.

Are you, when you say cute, what do you mean? Like adorable, you know, like he's got, he's got those big wide eyes and kind of brim with unshed tears and he's got a quivering lowered lip on his, like, jaw's a jaw and he just, you know. He just, he's like, he's like, smaller than the other one in a very petite kind of way. But he thinks he's much bigger than he is, but he's really not.

Sometimes he growls at you, like he thinks that he can fight you, but, I mean, I would really fuck that guy up if he tried to take me again. It's quite cute. How much time are you spending with the pirates in the fucking big? I mean, someone's got to watch them. It's not that much time, like 10 hours a day. They're behind bars. No one has to watch them.

I haven't even been back there once to pick them up. Yeah. It's fine. You don't have, I mean, you can do what you want, but you certainly don't have to spend time with the pirates. Oh, well, I mean, but then who's going to write them songs about their journeys and stuff? Why do they get that? Do they say that they get that in prison?

Where is this idea that everyone gets fucking luxury by being a prisoner on the fucking Rhapsody? Book I was reading Ship of Love. I mean, a girl went down and she met a pirate that was stuck in the brig and they fell in love after sharing poetry together. Are you actively trying to have a shitty romance novel romance with a scum-funk pirate named shit-jaws? I don't want to fall in love with shitmouse shit-jaws. I mean, I didn't tell you, Biggs. I... Hold on, can I...

He's been coughing a lot. I think he might die to. Picks. I already checked him for a dramatic brain injury. I think he was okay. I don't know. His eyes were a little crossed. I put a bandage on him, and I think he's okay.

He was a little gray the last time I was down there. We're about to find out if tuberculosis exists in the center. You know, we go in and hang out with Rex all the time, and, well, we don't, but Pike goes in there sometimes. I haven't been back there once since we picked all of them up. Then who's going in and talking to Rex all the time? It's not me. I'm like playing with like a cube that I'm like slowly Rubik's cubing and just br-br-br-br-br-grub-d-d-d-d-d-d.

Oh, dang. Oh, dang. Oh, dang. Well, anyway, I just felt bad for them, so I go down there and I make sure that they're okay and I watch them. Well, you can do what you want, Bixel. I check on them three times a day when I feed them. That's all they need. Everything else is between you and your god.

Anyway, I'm just trying to say he's kind of cute. But not in like a sexual way. Look, we don't have to talk about shitmouthed to shit jaws or was it shit jaws, shit mouth, whatever the fuck his name was. Shitmouth, shit jaws. The turd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, we don't have to talk about him, but we have to figure out what to do with them, right? Yeah, because I think he's going to die soon.

Him and Captain Sawtooth. If we want the reward, we can't let them die. I agree. No, we shouldn't let him. And I won't let him die. Don't worry, he's not gonna die soon, okay? I'm concerned about it's just walking into a guild outpost and taking them in. I feel like if the syndicates after us, they're gonna be casing every fucking outpost and, you know, anywhere remotely travel-travelable from here.

Those counties are our public record. It would be an obvious giveaway that those two pirates showed up at that day. We'd be tracing instantly. Wait, so does that mean we can't turn him in and make any money? Not until we solve larger problems. We got to keep him in the brig until then, so I got to keep hanging out with them? No, you don't have to keep hanging out with them. We have to keep him in the brig, though.

Oh, man, that's ten hours of my day. Look, once the dawn is dealt with, then we'll turn them in, we'll get the reward, and we'll be flush with notes, and we can do whatever the fuck we want. It's just, I think we got to, unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say, we got to keep them on the ship. Until then.

Yeah, that's right. And we need a plan to deal with the Don immediately. Neon Odyssey is live on Kickstarter, and early backers get free dice. Neon Odyssey is a 1,400-plus-page space opera trilogy for D&D 5.5E, and all backers who pledge in the first seven, 72 hours for any physical item will receive a free set of synth sunset sharp edge resin dice.

Time is running out, so make sure you back Neon Odyssey today at neonrpg.com. That's neonrpg.com. And look, I think we should talk about what we experienced, all right? The demon. And I just want everybody to be fucking painfully aware of what we may be walking in. too. Yeah. That was some really fucked up shit. I don't know if we

have to talk about it. I mean, there's like something out of wicked home contamination. It was real, saying. It was real. I know, but it was really fucked up. I don't want to talk about it. We don't have to scoot around it.

It was scary. It was fucked up. That was pretty bad. They had a Zatimax cloned in a tube. Well, not really, like a glass thing. I know. And what I worry about is... What if we're all...

No, I don't think we're all clones, Pixel. I think it's just them. How would we know? Oh, because we're not A-less celebrities. Oh, yeah. Sorry, sorry, Pigs. Oh, man. Oh, God, it's fucking... No, I didn't mean like that, Pigs.

Oh, boy. I didn't... Well, not yet. Not yet. Okay. Look, we'll get there. You know, maybe one day cop Mera will feel the need to clone you too, but, you know. Hopefully, fucking not. I'm trying to help. Damn it. Look, regardless, we need to fucking deal with the dime.

All right. I know Rex has the idea with the vacation home, and I think that that's a good plan, right? But we're in fucking danger, okay? And we're lucky that those fuck-ups were the first ones to find us. Because now they tipped us off that, you know, that there's this fucking black market version of the guild that has hits out on us.

And so if they show up with more ships than they did last time and more fuck-up pirates. The Rhapsody and the fucking... I don't have more than ten. Look, no, what I'm worried about is that the Rhapsody and the Sparrow can only handle so much, okay? I think... I think we need to pick up your ships.

Ships? What? I thought it was going to be a long time. Well, I thought we had, like, a long time. Yeah, we had the mindset? Well, I put down the down payment from one of the, ass bounties and then the hope was that our share from the whole

Ophelia thing would cover the rest. Obviously that's gone and we didn't make any money from the whole laboratory incident. Or from the pirates downstairs. And we, I blew a lot of money at the slot machines. I also need a few thousand notes. No, you do not.

Yes, I do. No, you do not. Look at this cube. It's fifth dimensional. And I need it in order to decode the data packs that I got. There's stuff in there. Cool stuff. 2,000 notes, I think at least. Yeah, and Gridflix has run out and I can't catch them on my show. Okay, all right. Would you rather have a fifth dimensional cube

and gridflicts over a fucking personal spacecraft? Well, can I get Gridflicts in my personal space? Yeah, because I would like to choose both if possible. Can we do both? That's obvious. Yeah, that makes it much easier. Let's do both. Red, do something about this.

Let me please. You teach them the value of a fucking note then. Look, I'm gonna have to go to Sig and fucking beg him to, you know, take payment on credit, all right? We can skip on mine then. I will sacrifice. We don't know. I don't need this patient. No, no. Look, he's already made it. Everybody needs one. I don't even know how to fly one. That's okay. I'm going to teach him. Do you meet it?

Absolutely. We get to spend time together? Can we do it in 80's styles, like montage? We're all, we're doing cute stuff in learning and giggling? If that's how you want to do it, fine. And you look frustrated every time I jump on you and cling to you? That's just my face. But at the end, you give an approving nod. Yeah!

Brett's ship. You could ride mine. And in case he gets boarded, I'll smash any guys that try to board. I'm sure mine will be big enough to fit you. But if no one's boarded, then what are you going to be doing? You're going to be flying the Rhapsody? I'll be... Hank has that, Gubbers.

I'll be safely buckled in my seat. I'm not going to push it on you. Right? But I mean, in this galaxy, having a personal Starfighter. It's the coolest thing ever. Well, I guess it's pretty cool, but it's also, you need to be able to fucking defend yourself. You've been driving around on that motorcycle your whole life. I can tell. This isn't any different. Yeah, it's on the ground. It's great, you know, the air speeder, that's fine. It's in the atmosphere. I know that. I can handle that. Coe?

Yes, Picks. Think about all the muscles you don't currently work out that you would work out by flying a spaceship instead of your motorcycle. Once that you didn't even realize weren't getting the proper training, but would be because you're up in space. How the fuck do you fly a spaceship? Flight muscles. What the fuck?

Flight muscles. Is that true? Yeah. Think about what's gonna be popping and pulling once you, you know, you're twinging and twanging and bipping and booping or whatever happened. Isn't it right, Pike? I definitely am working out all those muscles.

They are hidden ones you don't even know about, I promise. I'm pretty sure I know about them. What are gonna get bigger? If we all need one, I will learn how to fly. I'll get in that stupid simulator. I'll do what I have to do. That's part of the mission. I recommend it.

I won't force it on you. If you don't want to fly, you don't have to fly. But I did as part of the order. I called in a rush fee as well. Seag and I go way back, but he's not the kind of guy that's going to, you know, cut me a deal the favor was that he cleared his

fucking schedule and he prioritized your three ships and I think with the rush fee they should be just about done and I don't think we can go anywhere near what was the name of the world? Celedonia. I don't think we can go anywhere fucking near

Celadonia until we can scramble five fighters mine included that's right we got a lot of really bad people hot on our asses and we're already behind on training so you give me the word and I'm ready to get started you don't have to worry about me I've done a ton of flight simulation I'm gonna be just fine you can focus on training the others and we're

gonna test you all out the same I I will pass it with flying colors my friend flying colors well I'll give a sig a call and let them know we're coming but would you mind just you know Getting up to balance on gridflicks really quick. You ever get that feeling when you check your bank account and your stomach sinks? That's how I'm feeling right now. No, never, not once. I never really had more than like 60 notes in my bank account ever.

I'm pretty numb to it at this point. I'm used to getting whatever I want. You have 30 days. Yes. I'm not paying $2,000 for your fucking... Cube, though. Why not? I need it.

I need it. How am I supposed to transfer this data into my data pad? I need four hours and 1,000 notes in order to transfer this cool-ass spell into my grid boy. Wait, it's 1,000 and not 2,000? The first one is 1,000, and the second one is 2,000, and the third one is 6. What? First it was 2.

Then it was 1. Now it's 9. I mean, it's just a few thousand, nine thousand credits. I mean, it's nothing, it's nothing, right? I mean, I don't know the value of money, so I can't possibly have any idea. I just felt a wearing. Yeah, it'll take us down to our last notes. Is it gonna help us against the Don, against the syndicate?

I, uh, yeah, and maybe I can earn some, you know, in between, depending on like, you know, when we have some downtime, I can, I can, I can work some jobs and make it back up. I just, you know. I'm wiring it to your account. Thank you. Ziggy, roll a computer check for me. I would be happy to. That's going to be a 12th.

You think that with the transfer from Rett, in the facility you were able to decode one of the zip files the first. That was the one that you physically handed. That's the one I physically handed you that I first tore up and half. It was fucking cool as fuck. With the transfer and with about four hours, you think that you have what it takes to decode the second. Okay. In the time that you've attempted to access all of these files, though, the third has eluded you in a very strange way.

Almost as if the code isn't working the same way you'd expect it to. Okay, I'm looking at it very frustratingly. I'm typing very quickly. I look like Hugh Jackman and Swordfish. He figures out how to create the 128-bick, whatever. What a scene. God, and Hallie Berry was there. Yes, you do feel like that.

Which is a new sensation for you. You find this particularly vexing. Computers don't normally withhold from you. But this one file seems to. I am vexed. Spexie. Uh-huh. Well, I was able to get the first two.

I haven't spent the rest, but I will get it. It's just, it's just, it's just, and this code's real slippery. I don't know what's going on. It seems to adapt. Can't your big titty, tarotact'll help you with this? She's not until I get the rest of my rig. I mean, look at her. Really?

Come. Ha! Something is seriously. I didn't realize she was standing right there. I was all right. I don't know. Something is seriously. You can fuck over your head, there.

I told her to get me a drink, but she's not even holding it. Why does she look like that, Zingie? One of her eyes is twitching. She chose that form for herself. I'll have you, no. There's no fucking life. She looked like that when I met her, I swear.

Look, I'm not going to be crying in a dumb episode. I'm not going to judge your terror to actor, friend. Thank you. But I'm just trying to offer suggestions of, you know, how you could maybe do it for cheaper. But that's fine. Look, we'll live. I feel like Sig knows I'm good for it. So do we just want to glaze over the whole demon thing? Are we all feeling good about that?

No one's worried about it. I don't think anyone's feeling good about it. No, I'm not. I don't know what good's going to come from reliving it, you know? I just don't know what to make of it. Are we going to run into more? Was that a one-off thing because of the laboratory? Or is it going to, we're piercing into some veil?

We're behind. There's all sorts of nightmare immonitions. Honest Agathos, it's a bad deal. I think the only thing I'm worried about is being sucked to hell. A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with Red. That thing that we saw, it wasn't the first time I've seen something like that. And I don't think it's going to be the last for any of us.

That's why I'm bringing it up. Look, I've never seen anything fucking like that. I've seen some fucked up shit in my life. Nothing quite like that. That was the worst. I had some experience with it. But is this something where we need to pray? I was punching the thing.

I was smashing it with my club. I didn't do fucking anything to it. I haven't gotten into a situation that I haven't been able to smash my way out of. That was it. That was the first time. I think the worst part about it is that it didn't even look like we fucking killed it. Just it got sucked back to wherever the fuck it came from. I don't know if these things can die. Can they die?

I don't know. You mean that it knows us? It knows our faces? And it's not dead? It might not be. And there's more. I guess. Where that came from? It's not like it was the one that fucking did it all. It's whoever the fuck this Viceroy is.

And, and, I mean, we couldn't even fucking see him on the security fucking footage. Yeah,

it was weird. He brought that thing. He brought that thing to the lab. All those poor doctors and scientists. I mean, they did horrible fucking shit

and they deserved it. But, well, they deserve to die. They were just doing their job. But even they, I don't think they needed to go like that. I agree. And if he did it once, he can probably do it again.

Probably is doing it again somewhere else already. I don't understand why you're special in this. Why it wants you? What it did to you. Do you feel any different? That green stuff that came out of you. Yeah, I felt short of breath and like it was taking the me and me. I don't know if that makes sense.

What does Rhett know about the harmony? What do any of us know about the harmony? I think most of you would know that the harmony is the unifying life force of the rhapsody, that when somebody dies, their essence, their life force returns to the harmony, that it may yet once again kind of live amongst the stars. And that what had happened, what Rubedo was doing, what it was like when you battled Big Thunder, when you encountered the demon in Site Omicron,

it felt as though it was drawing, it was drawing like harmonic essence from a person in an attempt to sever it from the harmony. I think Pike even made mention of the silent with the relationship to the harmony as well. Yes. I believe you did. Actually, I think in Omicron, I think you talked about it. Would Ziggy know anything more about it?

It's a question to one of you three. What? About the harmony. That's a good question. Probably, yeah. I think Zee would know, I think Zee would probably know the most out of all of us. That's Sorian boarding school.

Yeah. The education none of us had. I knew people in my neighborhood who were spiritual and they did their rituals and prayed and meditated and I never got mixed up in any of that shit. I never thought it would help me. I mean, some people, they go real hard

in that direction. I mean, people can devote their whole lives to the harmony and worshiping it and spreading its essence. I mean, I grew up around it all my whole life in some ways. Do you know what would have happened? I mean, was it trying to make you one of those silent?

I don't know. I don't know how you become a silent. I don't know how you do any of that stuff. I just know that, you know, that, you know, that pixel part of me, it just felt like it was being ripped out of me. And I was holding on to it for dear life, but if it had been,

if it were gone, I don't know what I would have been. I don't know if I'd still be pixel. I don't know if I'd be a silent. I don't know if I would just be a nothing. If I'd be dead or worse than dead. Well, I'm glad it didn't happen. Me too, but I don't even want to get close to it happening again. I think in the future, if we see any demons from hell,

you just stay as far away as you can from them, all right? I know that something came over you last time and you sort of walked towards it and maybe co, just make sure that you got your hands on her to make sure that doesn't happen again. I'll be ready this time, I promise, Picks. It's a weird thing I'm about to ask. What if you got a pixel backpack?

Pixel backpack? Yeah, because sometimes we're doing, I got little legs, I can't run its fast use. The amount of times you have to pick me up and carry me, but then you one arm short. What if you had some kind of, like, pixel harness you could toss me into, and then you could run with both hands, and I'm not hindering you, but I'm still on you. A pixel pack.

A pixel pack. Oh, I'm going to look so fucking lame. Okay, I'm sorry. I won't suggest it again. No, no, pigs, no. I want to have a backpack. A pixel pack. A pixel pack. I mean, if it'll keep you safe, I'll do it. Well, I was just thinking it would keep you.

I mean, as long as you're carrying me away from danger, I'm going to be safe. But I just think you're the safest if you're not giving up one whole arm to make sure I'm safe. But I mean, it's, I don't know if you've ever, like... Oh, no, I've noticed. Have you ever seen... Yeah. Have you ever seen someone kick someone's ass at a backpack? No, actually, I don't think I...

No, I've seen a lot of people... I mean, look, Zingy wears a backpack all the time. No, I've seen that. I'm sitting down in a chair. See, that's the thing, Co. I've never seen that before. I've only seen people wearing backpacks get the shit kicked out of them.

But you could be the opposite. You could be the first one that's ever beat someone with a backpack on. I mean, beat someone else who didn't have a backpack on where you was wearing a backpack with a pixel in it. If it'll keep you from getting ripped to pieces

or eaten by a fucking demon, I'll do it. Well, I don't even know who's gonna make it. It was just a suggestion. We'd have to put in like an order or something. Roll it. Roll a group. Oh. History, arcana or...

These are you die. Religion. History, arcana or religion. 25. Arcana. Is that all the same it is? Yeah, okay. 10.

I'll just plus one. 19. Two. 16. I got my Natty one out of the way. If it's Harmony related, then I think I would have a good amount of information of information because I'm a Sorian and because my family is my family but if it's the

silent I don't know how much I would have learned about the other sort of like side I think from from what you all have been through starting really with big thunder site Omicron the the experimentation on red line having suffered an attack that directly impacted you know that the way that the drug works is that it draws on your harmony itself it draws on your life essence And what you would reasonably and I would say easily be able to discern from the events at Omicron is that when a harmonic resonance is completely severed from the harmony itself, that is when you become the silent, which is what the scientists were at the end. after having the trial of the drugs, having the trial of RD7

run on them and dying under its effects. And all the townsfolk too. And all the townsfolk too. And the communeers and all the other stuff. But so yes, you would know that to have your harmony, to be severed from the harmony will result in you becoming the undead, in this case, the silent.

So that's what it's all about. And I think I have maybe the solution in this data pack there. One of these, maybe I can help protect Pixel. Not that it will help protect any of us, but if we find one again, I'll try to help you out. All right. Well, anyone have any concerns? I want to make sure everyone feels heard and then everyone feels ready. And I want everybody to understand the risks of what we're going up against.

This is risky and some might call it fucking stupid, what we're about to do. And we cross that threshold. In for a note, in for a court, you know? I do stupid things at least four or five times a day, so... I've been called risky and fucking stupid my entire life. What's a little bit of demon punching, huh? And we're protecting people. So we're all in?

Yeah. I'm in. What the fuck else are we gonna do? We have to fucking kill these assholes. I knew I liked you guys. It doesn't stop until we ripped the head off of the fucking snake. What bounty hunt is now? All right.

What I want to hear. Okay, y'all should get training. If you're serious about that, I actually have a couple little bears that I carry Hank around in the front, but I can maybe make some adjustments to Hank Bjorn. Little bears. And little bears, exactly right.

I can maybe adjust it a little bit so it's worn on the back and that it'll... I'll see how it looks when you finish it. If it'll make you feel better, I can bedazzle it with some lightning bolts and stuff to make it look real red, and maybe some spike so it looks super badass? I don't know.

Sparkly isn't really my thing. Bedazzling, that's like Rex's thing. Well, you could care of being a media side. Like a messenger pixel bag? Yeah, kind of. Is that better? No, no, it's not. Kind of like a pig boo-bo-bo.

That's definitely worse. Look, the safest option's gonna be the backpack. Yeah, I will get to it. You can handle training them? Yep. The three of you take your time. I'll meet you in the cargo hold. All right.

Do we have time to watch a little bit of grid flicks? I was hoping to get the next episode of As the Airlock Turns. No. No, there's no time for that. But we're shit for Gritflakes. Yeah, it's going to expire tomorrow. Good night. We got 30 days.

We got 30 days. We got 31 days. It's only 40 years of content. We can binge it four times. You find yourselves on the way to the flight simulator. The conversation had turned heavy, and you can't distance yourself from the fact that what you dealt with very recently

is so far out of the realm of anything else any of you have encountered, save Pike, and that did not end well. Even with that at your back, still together you turn towards each other and you have hope for what comes next. You make your way down that hexagonal pathway, the clank of your boots and land

as this hopefulness takes into the air as you break out into the cargo hold and you see Pike standing next to the flight simulator. Derek, if you will. All right, guys, training is canceled. It's still broke. I thought I fixed this. I thought I fixed this.

Just kidding. It is very much not broken. It is fully functional. I totally, yeah, it's fine. I fixed it. Oh, and I will also chart a course to the world that Sig Bronco is on. I gotcha.

Caledora. Yep. Caledora. Yes, Rhett, you do obviously not need flight training. You head back to the... Yeah, I would start a course and then I would get making their little bag. You make accommodations for what comes next. The three of you in the cargo hold, you behold that large gray flight simulator.

Almost has this giant wheel with this chair that sits in it. Large, not lavish, but comfortable arms that extend out and controls you grab on either side. the seat with a full 360 degree rotator functionality as you sit down to listen to Pikes begin. And it's like fully contained, right? Oh, fully contained, yes, absolutely. Once you're in, it's like you're in, I'm thinking of like, like an actual flight simulator.

Yeah, like an actual flight simulator. Like on either side it closes you in. You are, you are fully locked in when you're there. Like a giant hamster ball. Pixel will pull out her trapper keeper and she's got a pen that's got these little knobs on it that each one clicks down to a different color. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so she'll pull that out and get down on her stomach kicking her feet as she begins to take notes. Yep, I'll pull a controller out of my backpack and start to unwind using the anti-chriscross motion to make the controller cable

is plugged into the contact. Alright, it's your first day. We're gonna start off pretty straightforward. No surprises. We're gonna You're going to get this thing going, you're going to take her out of the flight bay, a couple of enemies, take care of them and bring them back home. No big deal. All right, I want all three of you to know that flying is easy. Flying under pressure is not. There's a lot of micro decisions, all right?

You're diverting power, you're firing weapons, you're making maneuvers. Yeah, I'm not concerned about it. Like I said, I've put hundreds, maybe thousands of hours into flight simulation games, flight combat simulation games. I mean, I've played Starfly. Starflare, Armada 3942, Solar Nebula Siege, Wing Mac Exodus 2, Stellar Vanguard's Toxics, DangerZumies, Nova Dominion Online, and Graviton Lancers 1 and 2.

I've got this. Well, that's great because you're up first. All right, let's go. Yeah, you first things. I'd open it up and help them get in and just point some things out as I'm continuing to explain things and just, you know, whether you're listening or not,

I'm just kind of helping you get your bearings. And then I would step out and basically say, okay, Show me what you got. I will quickly type a few key commands into the numpad to my side, and a holographic shape of silica's face will appear next to me. Welcome.

Thank you, Silica. All right. All right, I'm ready. I'm ready. I would basically just, whatever their controls there might be, to basically turn the thing on and get it going to kick off the simulation for Ziggy, I would enact that procedure and basically just,

start him off and whatever he needs? You do so. You launch it. Zinghi, in front of you, almost like space. The Rhapsody itself opens up in front. You find your ship cruising. All right. These are out. Nice, nice. Keep it going. Simulation beginning. Okay, get a feel for it. Nice and easy. Good, good. I do a barrel. I do a barrel. I mean, I mean, I do a barrel roll.

Zing started this part of the simulation is just, Just keep point in the right direction. Can you hold momentum? Ziki starts pulling extremely advanced maneuvers. Nice. All right, all right, good, good. You've logged thousands of hours in this. This feels like child's play to you as you go about. Pull up, pull up, pull up.

No, it's because Silica's broken, she's saying, pull off, pull off, pull off. Pull off. No, no, that's not it. Pull off. Pull off. Pull off. I continue to talk to Ziggy though and say,

you know, all right, Ziggy, come on, talk to me. How's it feel? You getting a feel for it? It feels good. All right, you're looking good out there. Stage two, stage two right away. Yep, be aware, here comes some enemies. Enemy craft, spawning.

Keep your eyes about, keep your head on a swivel, all right? Four ships enter into the space all around you, boxing you in in a square format as your ship takes out into space and you set the field. I will quickly evaluate the tactical position and endeavor to circle around to sort of flank the ships as quickly as I can to try to take the nearest one out. You start pulling maneuvers that having watched Pike

in his own Starfight just a couple days ago, you're pulling maneuvers off that look almost as deft is what he was doing. You're moving exceptionally well through the space. You bring the first one into Target, lock. Well done. I'm almost like waiting to see how it goes, and I almost like go to say something,

but he's like one step ahead of me where he has this instinct. And you can tell, anybody's watching, would be able to tell that I have like, I'm happy with how this is going. Yeah, I'm getting my approving nod. Target, and this continues, Target, lock, you just start, you just start,

You start plowing the field with all the enemies, everything that comes up, every difficulty that's thrown in front of you, you handle with complete ease. If anything, I'm just too liberal with the special advanced missiles. If I have expensive stuff, I'm immediately spending all of them and just rockets are flying out, taking care of the first. You hit B and this small missile goes out.

I'm blowing through my resources instantly. You're spending extremely liberal. Extremely liberally in the simulation, but you have knocked it out of the park. You feel fantastic. Well done. I'll flip around. I'll do one of these maneuvers and then I will be showing up,

flying into the bay upside down, like a stunt almost, showing off and then flipping just at the very last second. The wings nearly crashing into the top and bottom of the actual bay and then finally coming to a, a very fast and then dangerous stuff before I land. Ah, got it. Nailed it. Easy. Simulation over. All right, come on out, Ziggy.

I turn off Silica. They came from behind. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine. And then I open the door, and I step down the stairs and make my way over the pipe. Nice job, kid. I'm impressed. Thank you. The only real piece of feedback that I have for you so far is

you fly like this is a game. I think that's probably a fair assessment. I mean, he's done like 400,000 hours just sitting in there playing that game. Yeah, the issue of that is that when you do this for real, there's no do-overs. This isn't, there's no extra lives. You understand that, right? I understand. That's a valid point.

I get what you're saying completely. I will take that into consideration, and I will try to be a little bit more safe. I think you have a lot of promise. I think that you have a lot of skills. Thank you. But I'm just worried about what's going to happen when you're in your first real fight. All right, heard, heard.

I got you. I will pay close attention. I will try not to lose myself in the adrenaline. There's no high score in real life, right? So, okay. Good first day. Thank you. Coe, you're up.

No, I think Picks, you're up, right? No, you go ahead. You show him up. I'm happy to go last. I'm very happy to go last. I mean, you gotta show him how it's really done, though. No, no, I don't do any of that. I'm happy to go last.

I'm happy to watch and observe. Come on, Coe, let me point some things out to you. No, I'm on. Well, Pixel, you wanna go? You like the volunteering for things. Yeah, but I got a lot of notes to take, and my tummy hurts. Uh, yeah.

I'm standing by the, uh, the, the hatches. Yeah, and I've opened it up. You got your arm up to it. Jastering Cohen. I'm scared. Why the fuck would I be scared? This is a fucking video game. That's what I'm doing.

If you fucking Zinke can do it, I can fucking do it. Yeah, I'll go second. No, I'll go second. Don't try to cut me. I'm fucking going in. Hey. What do I do? All right, watch your head.

Come on, come on, duck in there. Yeah, it's a little fucking cramp. Okay. You step in and this is definitely not designed for someone of your stature, almost immediately when sitting into the chair, this sensation of just discomfort, unease comes over you. as your arms, even at your sides,

just slightly off the edges of the arm panels. The control's just a little awkward to grab onto. Everything just a little bit not quite right. All right, now don't be nervous. The first thing I need you to do is just turn it on. Fuck. All right, all right. No, no, not that one.

No, no. Why? What do all these fucking buttons and leverage do? It's this one, here, and I point to where it. Okay. Got it? All right. Now, you're gonna wanna make sure

that you take the thrusters nice and easy. Don't give it too much juice, all right? So put your hand on the thruster. Space opens up in front of you. Simulation, starting. All right, co, put your hand on the thruster. Okay, you guys are still there, right? I'm not actually in space.

You're not, right? This is a video game? You're doing a great job. I'm really proud of you. You hear me crunch of potato chip. All right, come on, Coe. Hands on the thruster, let's go. No, no, the thrusters, the other ones.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, thanks. There you go. Nice and easy now, okay? Okay, I'm gonna take it slow. Good, good. And it'll be a little jerky probably, but you're making it, you're getting it to go. Okay, good. Now just ease or out of the hatch. Nice and easy. Don't, don't bump this. Don't bump this. Come on. Easy, easy. Easy, come on. Oh, okay. No, I got it. Don't fucking tell me what I don't have it. I have it. Just level her out. Nice and easy, okay? Your shit moves out into the dark of space. And something about this expanse that opens up in front of you with no end in sight, no end in sight.

to the right left. No ceiling above you, no ground to bathe you. Uh, feels, uh, feels endless. Take a moment, take a breather. Look, you're out. You did it. Enjoy it. Why does they make this so fucking realistic? Well, because the more real it is, the better you're gonna do when the time comes, all right? Trust me. Now just try to get a feel for the controls. Okay, just keep, like forward like this. Nice and easy. Don't overdo it. Okay.

It's not... It's what are these fucking pedals for? What do these do? Oh, fuck! Here they come. Head on a swivel. Enemy ships. Spawning. Okay, what do I do?

Now remember, lots of micro-decision. Start moving. Don't stop moving. When you're ready, when you get them in your sights, make sure you think about the weapons. Go. They're coming. Come on. Enemy ships. No, I got it. What is his fucking blinkers?

Dude, I press this one? No, don't touch that button. Use the thrusters. Lean into it. Feel it. You're part of the ship. I have fucking weapons. How do I smash these fucking guys?

Come on. Stay calm, Co. Don't freeze. Don't freeze. Do something. You got to maneuver. No, I know I got to fucking do something. All the fuck out.

All enemies. On your six, Co. Okay. How many others do I fucking. Dvert shields. Divert shields. All right. All right.

I'm shunning. No, no. I'm just going to start with hyperventilating. And I was like, no, I'm fucking out of here. I'm going to smash the window and basically try to basically break it. Smash my way.

I'm fucking done! I'm fucking done! The door crashes open as you break a section of the simulator. Glass shatters as of the... Oh, hey, come on now. You okay? Simulation.

Hey, take a deep breath. It's broken. It's broken. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't fucking do that. It's broken. It's not working. It didn't do what I told it to do. I'm going to go to the fucking... I'm going to go to the gym. I'm out of here. I'm going to go fucking work out.

Where do you think you're? No, I give up. No, I'm fucking done. I'm fucking done. And I just, I just start, I just, uh, leave it. My hand is bloody. There might be a couple of, like, of glass and like metal. I gotta go get her. Can't leave her like that? No, no. It's my fault. I, I pushed her too far. You can't just, I just can't leave her alone right now. Let me go talk to her. This is my fault. I, I was too hard on her. Are you sure? Yeah, this is my fault. All right. But you better give her a hug for me.

I will. In the meantime, can you show Pixel around? Show the ropes, I'll be back, all right? It's a little bit broken. We should be able to, I mean, at the very least, even if it doesn't move a lot, you can use a controller like this instead of having to use all of the... Yeah, sure. Maybe if you can, Ziggy...

Big Flicks. Figure out what might be wrong with it. Yeah, yeah, we got this. We got this. We're going to be practicing real hard. All right, I'll be back. And I will attempt to go find Coe. It's not long before you find yourself in the gym, where Coe is working the punching bag aggressively.

You've sparred with her before, you've worked out before. These are heavy hits landing forward. This is very tense. And I would have, like, there's the, you know, it's basically the fucking Cowan Beba, where it's normally like the super wide screen, the viewpoint of space. I will have, like, press the button

to completely blast doors. I'm in a nice, solid gray and beige. Completely artificial. Everything is beige. gray, not an aspect of space around you. I thought you're busy training. You mind if I join you? Did he show pics what you have to show her?

I'm going to go back there and take care of that. Right now, Ziggy's checking out the whole thing and starting her off on showing of the ropes. We can do that. What's going on? I just don't know why. I didn't even ask for a personal ship. I don't know why I have to fucking fly one.

I thought I'd fucking mention I only been on fucking Grebel transports my entire life and then been on the ground And that air speeder on the Paradise City was the first time I took anything in the sky And that was basically just a car in the air Look, I've it's not space No, no, they're not the same, but I've seen what you can do You're talented You're a good pilot I'm good on a bike Pike.

That's what I know. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. On the ground, on the street. Where it's sturdy, where it's stable, and you aren't surrounded by the fucking abyss on all sides of you, where there's nothing for millions of miles. Do you want to know why you need the personal ship?

You really want to know why? Why? Think about how strong you are. Think about how you've used your. about how you've used your strength to protect yourself and others. You gotta be able to do that out there. I already failed once before, Pike.

I couldn't do it. And I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to do it. It's a lot simpler when we're smashing skulls in Jannot Sector Prison. It's a lot simpler when I'm on the street and I have a red belt and an elevator shaft. Yeah. There's no ether.

There's no fucking space whales. There's no demons. There's a scared thug who's just trying to get his drug money. I can smash those guys all day every day. This isn't the bullies in the cafeteria bike. This is the cosmos. So what? You're scared of failure?

That's what you're worried about? I like knowing what I'm capable of and sticking with that. Stick with works. It's pragmatic. It works. I have my club. I have my bike. I have my fists.

My boots. My skull. I know that. And when something worse than those pirates come rolling up on us, you're going to watch as me, Ziggy and Picks, fly out there, and you don't? Pixel's going to need you. I just don't know if I can fucking do it.

I just lock up. I just... It was a fucking video game, and I locked up, Mike. Look, I was too hard on you, all right? We're going to figure this out. You just got to trust me. Come on. Haven't I earned that?

Especially back in the can? I trust you, Pike. You know, I trust you with my fucking life. We kept each other alive in there. I don't know if I even fucking be here, if it wasn't for you. Look, those six months, that sucked. But, uh... Yeah, I did.

Don't tell Rhett this. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of it. I miss it every day. You know, Phileum, he always said when he did 20 years in a can, not a beat. That when I got out, he said, You know, it's only been six months, but there's a comfort to it, you know? There's the structure. Yeah.

It's what you're used to. It's what's the routine, and we were bigger and stronger and scarier. No one fucked with us towards the end. You got a weird way of making friends in there. We had a good thing. We all survived. Pinky's out. I think.

I hope he's alive. I haven't heard from him. There are a lot of people that said, hey, I'm going to stab pinky in the kidney before he leaves. Very plainly. Very plainly. I hope he's okay.

I hope Phileum's okay. All that time, not a peepage. I hope he gets some sort of fucking recompense. The simplicity of it all, the structure, all of that, you know, it's nice at surface level, I guess to a point, but we were lacking the most important thing.

Freedom. It doesn't matter how easy things were, even at the worst of times. It didn't matter that we had some food, and we weren't broken starving, like here on the Rhapsody. But at the end of the day, we were prisoners. No freedom. Yeah. But at the end of the day, out here and there,

Isn't it just a different kind of cell? A different kind of warden? You know, they started with thugs and then there's saggio. And then there's a bigger fish and a bigger fish. And it's even people that you know and you love and you trust when they give into it. But their freedom that they have. the choice that they make they choose to give up their friends their family their loved ones and destroy themselves they choose that with their freedom it's is that really the noble

fucking ideal is that why you do this with red i mean nobody ever said that the responsibility of freedom was easy either but that's the beauty of it you're free to choose to do whatever you I'm free to live my life alongside Redd doing what I need to do to survive. I just don't know if I'm strong enough, Pike. You saw that demon. I hit it again and again and again and again. And it did nothing. It did nothing.

And that jackass got a lucky shot. I'm not that fucking lucky. You want to talk about things that keep me up. about things that keep me up at night. Jeez. Go, you are the strongest person I've ever met. I mean that. And not just literally.

You wanted to tell you a little secret? Yeah. That thing, a demon, whatever it was, it scares me. I know. I haven't felt like that for a very, very long time. That's why it scares me. I hate being afraid, Pike. It's the worst fucking feeling.

I hate being powerless. That's even worse. And I feel like every single day that goes by, we're going to be more and more powerless. And we're going to be more and more afraid until we just can't get lucky enough. And when our luck runs out, then I will have let everyone do.

down, just like I let Mrs. Ume down. I wasn't strong enough or smart enough to keep her alive. I know that nothing I can really say is gonna make that better. But, you know, Red's always telling me you can't change what's happened in the past. You gotta move forward. I don't know. I don't know if I can, Pike. And you, you didn't tell me about Ophelia.

I thought she was in office siren this whole time. I didn't tell you about Aphelia because I never thought I'd see her again, okay? She thinks that I didn't show off for a job, which is true, but I tried to tell her we were being set up. We were being sent to be slaughtered. She didn't believe me. I begged her to come with me, and she wouldn't. And I didn't think I'd ever see her again. And now that you're looking forward, you're just gonna let it go?

Is that what's gonna happen? Is that what freedom is? I'm certainly trying. I already, I already even feel so in over my head, Pike. I feel like I was way more useful in that shithole of Macoro. I feel like that's where I belong. This, around these rich assholes and hotels and casinos, and resorts, vacation homes.

I barely had enough money for fucking pizza. Yeah. Well, then you're part of the right group. I had barely enough money to fix my fucking, my fucking shoes. My whole life. This isn't the kind of thing I ever thought I'd have to face. I never thought I would be out here in space. Do you mind if I open the shades?

Will that make you feel better? Will that fill you with freedom? Pike Starfall. I'll try to see if I can find the control panel to see if I can... Yeah, you would know exactly where it is. You would know how to... You've been here a million times.

The panels are closed, but you walk right over to the punch code button section, the telepad of sorts. you hit immediately for the, these like blast windows to I'll light a fresh cigarette. I mean look at it. Look at it all. Take it all in. It's as you look out you don't see the darkness, that endless expanse of the simulator but you see this this beautiful unfurling of lights and life and ether and the movements of the ether currents around you as the Rhapsody sails through space to your next destination.

You even see something you've seen once before. Fins look almost like paint drops as they hang off this creature. These blow holes extending out of the back of it, shooting out plumes of orange as a large ether whale swims past the ship and the way it moves outside the window as it as it shifts to and fro up and down and it and it kind of swirls in the air as it as it flips this complete 360 to something about the freedom of this creature that underlines the experience co i've heard the way you talk about your bike the ship is going to be all that more when you finally sit behind those controls and you know what you're doing, you can go anywhere you want. There may come a time where

the crew were not together anymore, but you'll still be able to go anywhere you want. You'll be able to see all of the amazing things that the galaxy has to offer. No one will be able to take that away from you. And look, I don't know where we're going. I don't know if we're going to see these demons again. At the end of the day, we may all just become silent. I try not to let it bog me down, you know? Whatever happens, happens. You know, I never did understand that stoat bullshit. I don't know how you don't get twisted up. I don't know how you can stay so cool. How you can't be filled with hate, seeing what's out there, knowing what's out there. The love of your life is out there, Pike.

She's out there pissing away all that money. Probably on some fucking beach, surrounded by muscular Claudeau, and fanning her with Palm Franz, serving her tropical fucking drinks. She really pulled a fast one on us, huh? And you just, here? Cool.

Never let him see you sweat. I don't know, bike. I look at space and it's beautiful. I told Brett this. It is, but I look out there and I know that my sister's still out there. You never mentioned you had a sister. Yeah, I lied. But you lied about Aphelia, so we're fucking even.

Wow, we're even now then. Okay. All right. I suppose you maybe owe me a story then. You can't fucking... tell anybody about this. Deal. I know I said and all the stories of me and my pop and all the good memories that I had with them, it wasn't just me, it was me and my little sister.

She was too small and she was too pretty for her own good. And as we grew up, I would protect her. I'd keep the creeps away from her and the mob came in. people fell to the promise of riches and station and a humble convenience store owner like my father. He couldn't offer everything that the Connoebo Crime Syndicate was offering, all of my friends, offering me, offering my little sister.

And the more creeps that I beat the shit out of, and the more I tailed her, I tailed her, and the more I fought off the recruiters for Connobeau, the more she ran from me right into their fucking clutches. She got hooked on half of the fucking drugs. She dated about every fucking goon in our fucking neighborhood, every thug. And the thing is, is that she always wanted to see space. She always wanted to join the Argonauts and fly around and be a hero in space and be a pilot. And I would tell her, no, this is our family, this is our people, these are our streets.

You can't leave. Safe are on the ground. Stable on the ground. And the more I said it, the more I tried to reason with her, the more she ran. And she wanted to be among the stars. And it was those Conabo, those Conabo, those Conabo fucking fucking vogue. Wild pieces of shit that promised her that. And I don't even remember what fucking boyfriend she had at the time or who the fuck remembers. But when she, when she left, she didn't leave in a car, she didn't leave on a bike, she didn't even an air speeder.

She left the atmosphere. She left our world. And I chased after her. And I tried to steal a starship and when I got behind those controls, controls, thought about going off into space. I froze. I was afraid. It wasn't our streets anymore. It wasn't just the local bullies and the thugs. It was an intergalactic crime syndicate. Most powerful one in the fucking galaxy. I let her slip through my fucking fingers. And now she's out there, Pike. I don't know if she's living or fucking dead. I don't know if she even fucking remembers

who I am. I haven't heard from her. But she made the decision to stay with those assholes. She made the choice, the freedom that she was fucking looking for, away from our neighborhood, away from all of the poverty, away from our humble fucking convenience store. She used her freedom to become the monster herself. And I don't know how I'd fly in this base after that. I'll like reach out and I'll just put my hand on your shoulder. And just to silently let you know that I hear you as I look at you. Don't tell anybody, Mike. I wouldn't dream of it.

I'm going to go back to forgetting that she ever existed tomorrow, okay? Listen, if you want to find her, I'm going to teach you out. And this is the worst part of it. And please don't hate me or think that I'm evil. I don't want to find her. And I hope that she's dead. Because if our father were alive to see, which she probably has become,

if she is still alive, I don't think I can make it bike. So I hope, for my sake fucking selfishly, and for her sake that she's fucking dead. So no, I don't want to find her. But you're a good friend, buddy. You know if you ever want to find Ophelia, I'll be right behind you.

And I guess I have to learn how to fly a fucking star ship. Hey, look, tomorrow's another day, all right? And look, don't tell the others I said this, but the simulator's bullshit. I fucking knew it. Yeah, don't worry about it. There's no way Ziggy can fucking make it look that easy and have that be not bullshit. I need some fucking... I need...

I need some beer, and I need to punch something. So I'm gonna be here a while, okay? Yeah, stay here. I'll, uh, I'll go grab a couple beers. Tell, uh, tell, uh, Picks that I'm sorry, that I fucked up her lesson. Don't worry about it, and, uh, your secret's safe with me. All right. Thanks, buddy.

You head your separate ways for now. Uh, co, you walk off to, to get a beer, to, unwind to decompress further Pike back to join the rest of your allies in the simulator room it's gonna take several more days to get to where you're going to get to Caledora you know that Brett has chartered a course and that there is a lot of training yet ahead of you getting there getting your ships is just really the beginning of what comes next When Pike returns to Find Pixel and Ziggy,

we were watching as the airlock turns and just eating snacks, and you could hear the voices on the screen. I wish I'd never pretended to be my twin and join this family. Go to hell, Stephessandro. Gabi Gabbagal de Viro, Digimira. I'll see you at the gates.